The European Union (EU) has set the objective to develop an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, in which on the one hand freedom of movement is promoted and on the other hand a high level of security is ensured. The EU is therefore adopting measures to enhance international cooperation in criminal matters among the police and judicial authorities of its Member States. The adopted instruments concerning evidentiary matters, such as the gathering, freezing and/or confiscation of information and materials in another EU Member State, seem to serve the main purpose of assisting the authorities in investigating and prosecuting (cross-border) crime. This raises the question to what extent the defence is also given the possibility to gather – or to have gathered – information and materials in another EU Member State with the aim of preparing and presenting its case at trial and, in particular, whether the current (EU) legal framework on cross-border evidence gathering meets the requirements of the principle of equality of arms. This thesis addresses this question by, first of all, discussing the concept of equality of arms, as enshrined in both Article 6 ECHR and Article 47 CFR. It explains to what extent this principle is applicable to cross-border or transnational criminal proceedings and whether it has an autonomous meaning within the EU. In addition, it discusses which requirements can be deduced from the principle in relation to the possibilities of the defence to gather evidence in another EU Member State to prepare and presents its case. Subsequently, the focus is on the development of the European legislation – from both the Council of Europe and the EU – regulating the procedure of cross-border evidence gathering over the last decades. The aim is to explain the position of the defence in this development and to what extent the European legislation gives opportunities to the defence to request the assistance of foreign authorities in obtaining specific information and materials in another EU Member State. In order to understand how the European legislation is applied in practice by the EU Member States, this thesis includes a comparative study of three national jurisdictions: the Netherlands, England and Wales, and Italy. These three jurisdictions each represent a different criminal justice system, either more inquisitorial or adversarial in nature. The comparative study describes how a chosen jurisdiction interprets the principle of equality of arms. Furthermore, it examines to what extent the national jurisdiction allows the defence to carry out independent investigations abroad and how it gives the defence the opportunity to trigger the mechanism of international cooperation and to participate in the requested investigation. Finally, this thesis also includes an analysis of the criminal justice system of the International Criminal Court. In this system evidence gathering depends most of the time on State cooperation and both the Prosecutor and the defence are allowed to conduct independent investigations and seek the assistance of States. It is therefore used as a source of inspiration for potential changes of the EU legislation on cross-border evidence gathering.


Convection as a short-term and long-term atmospheric processes that affect the climate and weather system, has been much studied. In this study, different types of parameterizing convection in precipitation field will be assessed in fourth version of the dynamic model of regional climate (RegCM4). The simulations are conducted for 2004 with 60*60 km grid spacing in mother domain, then the North East region of Iran was nested in mother domain with 20*20 km grid spacing. RegCM4 was run four times, keeping all the components of the model and the initial and boundary conditions the same, by each time coupling one the convection schemes (Kou, Grell Arakawa-Schubert, Grell FritchChappell, Emanuel) with the model, then the results were nested. After running the model, results were compared with Aphrodite precipitation data and the statistical criteria, including Root Mean Square Error, Bias, Correlation, Mean Absolut Error and Differences in annual and seasonal observed and simulated precipitation were calculated. According to statistical criteria, the best scheme for this area is Grell Arakawa-Schubert scheme.


The objective of this research is to advance the field of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis for induction motors. This involves processing the signals produced by induction motors, classifying the types and estimating the severity of induction motors faults.
A typical process of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis for induction motors consists of four steps: data acquisition, signal analysis, fault detection and post-processing. A description of various kinds of faults that can occur in induction motors is presented. The features reflecting faults are usually embedded in transient motor signals. The signal analysis is a very important step in the motor fault diagnosis process, which is to extract features which are related to specific fault modes. The signal analysis methods available in feature extraction for motor signals are discussed. The wavelet packet decomposition results consist of the time-frequency representation of a signal in the same time, which is inherently suited to the transient events in the motor fault signals. The wavelet packet transform-based analysis method is proposed to extract the features of motor signals.
Fault detection has to establish a relationship between the motor symptoms and the condition. Classifying motor condition and estimating the severity of faults from the motor signals have never been easy tasks and they are affected by many factors. AI techniques, such as expert system (ES), fuzzy logic system (FLS), artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM), have been applied in fault diagnosis of very complex system, where accurate mathematical models are difficult to be built. These techniques use association, reasoning and decision making processes as would the human brain in solving
diagnostic problems. ANN is a computation and information processing method that mimics the process found in biological neurons. But when ANN-based methods are used for fault diagnosis, local minimums caused by the traditional training algorithms often result in large approximation error that may destroy their reliability.
In this research, a novel method of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis for induction motor is proposed using hybrid intelligent techniques based on WPT. ANN is trained by improved genetic algorithm (IGA). WPT is used to decompose motor signals to extract the feature parameters. The extracted features with different frequency resolutions are used as the input of ANN for the fault diagnosis. Finally, the proposed method is tested in 1.5 kW and 3.7 kW induction motor rigs. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method improves the sensitivity and accuracy of the ANN-based methods of condition
monitoring and fault diagnosis for induction motors.


Background: The UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in western Europe. Although there is a large body of literature focusing on predictors of conception among this age group, almost all the work compares those young women who have become pregnant with their peers, regardless of whether or not their peers have experienced sexual intercourse. Objective: To compare 16-year-old young women who have become pregnant with their peers who also have experience of sexual intercourse, but who have not conceived. Design: Analysis of data from the baseline and follow-up surveys conducted as part of a trial of sex education. Setting and participants: Female school students aged 14–16 years from the East of Scotland. Main results: Young age of self and partner, and non-use of contraception, all at first intercourse, are most strongly associated with pregnancy. Conclusions: Those who engage in sexual intercourse at a relatively young age will often have had more opportunity to become pregnant than those whose sexual debut comes later. Similarly, the fact that those who use contraception at first intercourse have been less likely to conceive than those who do not could reflect the overall patterns of contraceptive use: young women who have used contraception at each occasion of intercourse will have had less chance to conceive than those who have not. Having a young partner at first intercourse suggests that, if this pattern continues, the couple may lack the resources needed to prevent a pregnancy due to the immaturity of both partners.


Auditory continuity is a powerful illusion which has implications for the efficient coding of sound. Although auditory continuity has been studied extensively as a monaural phenomenon, there have been few reports of the influence of binaural factors. Hartmann [1] and Kashino & Warren [2] report that when a tone alternates with a noise, the continuity threshold of the tone is lower when the tone and noise differ in their interaural timing. Here we aconfirm the binaural contribution to continuity continuity using Huggins pitch [3]. We alternate a Huggins-pitch noise (target) with a negative-phase Schroeder complex (inducer) and find that pulsation thresholds are lower when listeners judge continuity of the pitch percept within the Huggins noise, than when they judge continuity of the noise itself. We also demonstrate that binaural continuity is determined by the relative ITDs of the targe and inducer rather than by their perceived spatial positions and introduce a simple model to account for our findings, which assumes that the tone is heard as pulsating if there is a detectable dip in the output of either of three channels: two monaural [4] and one binaural channel.


There has been much research which relates reduction of habitat to reduction in
biodiversity anq often birds are chosen as the best indicators of these changes.
In Australia studies in this area have largely focused on the effects on birds in
changing rural or forested, rather than urban, landscapes. There has been little
research in this area in Tasmania, yet this State has perhaps the highest
proportion of original natural habitat remaining of any State in Australia. This
study compared the avifauna of adjacent urban and dry sclerophyll woodland
sites in the urban fringe of Hobart and found significant differences in bird
species diversity between these habitats.
For the purposes of this study, the woodland remnants, therefore, could be
considered islands and were tested for a species-area relationship according to
the principles of island biogeography. The varying size of woodland remnant,
from 1 to.3100hectares,simulating'habitat loss' was used to study its effects on
the species richness and population density of the woodland avifauna. Data
were gathered by the line transect method in these woodland remnants and the
results analysed by the DISTANCE software package which gives estimates of
population size and density. The results were plotted as a chart of approximate
population sizes of the more common 22 species of woodland bird. Depending
on what is considered to be the minimum viable population size the chart could
be used as an indication of the threshold remnant area of woodland required
for these species. In so doing it provides a mechanism by which predictions
may be made regarding reductions in populations and loss of entire species as
remnants are reduced further by urban expansion. If acceptable levels of
remaining biodiversity for dry sclerophyll woodland can be set, then the sort of
methodology adopted in this study could be used by natural area managers to
predict whether development proposals are likely to re_duce an area of habitat
below an ecologically sustainable level.


Construction Logistics has recently emerged as an important consideration for Industrialized House Building (IHB). Previous research has demonstrated that construction logistics improves IHB through: the clarification of interfaces along the supply chain; increased supply chain efficiency; more productive construction sites; the transfer of value-adding activities from site to the supply chain; and the integration of site and supply chain. IHB research has commonly focused on buildings as product, their technical design and production, as well as the process of these activities. IHB companies seek the integration of these two aspects. However, there is growing realization of the value of integrating the supply chain through a focus on logistics. This paper argues that in order to achieve a tripartite integration of product, process, and logistics, that first an overarching company-level logistics strategy is required. A strategic perspective enables a separation of high-level logistics decisions from those that are operational in nature, in the same way that product platforms have assisted IHB. This separation is critical in overcoming the peculiarities of construction. This authors identify design-thinking as a powerful tool to assist in the future implementation of logistics strategy in order to drive the creation of contextually specific logistics solutions. Two company case studies from Sweden reveal two distinct forms of logistics strategy. These case studies, through comparative analysis, show how logistics strategies for IHB might emerge as design-led 'logistics platforms' that utilize the principles of standardization, modularity, and re-usability in order to achieve the flexibility demanded by construction. This paper proposes that a focus on IHB logistics strategy as a platform be implemented to allow effective integration of construction's supply chain. The result of this approach is a re-usable, continually improving platform for construction logistics that can co-ordinate differing product and process approaches.


One way to define operators for detecting edges in digital images is to fit a surface (plane, quadric,...) to a neighborhood of each image point and take the magnitude of the gradient of the surface as an estimate of the rate of change of gray level in the image at that point. This approach is extended to define edge detectors applicable to multidimensional arrays of data-e.g., three-dimensional arrays obtained by reconstruction from projections-by locally fitting hypersurfaces to the data. The resulting operators, for hypersurfaces of degree 1 or 2, are closely analogous to those in the two-dimensional case. Examples comparing some of these three-dimensional operators with their twodimensional counterparts are given.


This dissertation interrogates the positionality of postconflict reconstruction efforts in Iraq within the broader discourse of the liberal peace and liberal reconstruction. It examines how U.S. policymakers planned and articulated the reconstruction of Iraq in relationship to historical examples, specifically the cases of West Germany and Japan. It questions how U.S. policymakers understood and utilized the examples of post-World War II reconstruction and the effect those examples had on the policymaking process. This dissertation traces the role historical memory plays in the formation and articulation of foreign policy by examining the use of historical analogies in planning the political, economic, and civil reconstruction of Iraq. It finds that the largest factor contributing to miscalculation in the invasion and occupation of Iraq was not conservative hawkishness, or liberal ineffectiveness, but rather a common mythology shared by many members of the U.S. foreign policy community, including the Bush administration, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the most prominent Washington think tanks. This common mythology asserts that U.S. and Allied postwar reconstruction efforts in West Germany and Japan were unequivocal successes that led directly to the liberal democracies and neoliberal economies found today in Germany and Japan. This conventional wisdom shapes which policies appeared viable to U.S. policymakers, and resulted in undeserved optimism during the postwar planning for Iraq. This dissertation concludes that the lessons of postconflict reconstruction in Iraq remain contested. Lacklustre results in Iraq have not caused U.S. policymakers to re-evaluate their understanding of the U.S. role in postconflict reconstruction. Rather, the case of Iraq is being absorbed into the existing conventional wisdom, with believers in postconflict reconstruction claiming Iraq was simply planned poorly, or was not met with the kind of resources and commitment that could have led to success.


This project aims to build a system that helps users achieve a delicate work-life balance and decrease stress. Evidence shows that most dual-earner families currently live in multitasking contexts. The increase of multitasking behaviors and experiences among working mothers has led to negative emotions, stress, and work-family conflict. Studies have confirmed that balancing work and family is challenging for parents. After the COVID-19 pandemic, work-life balance became more challenging to achieve. Due to gender inequality, research shows that telecommuting mothers report feelings of depression and anxiety much more than fathers. The study highlights work-life conflict experiences with working mothers through qualitative and quantitative approaches involving specific numbers of interviews and online surveys. Based on research, I developed the system Leto, an application and product design to help mothers in dual-earner families build a better inner and outer system. Further, the design combines functions of the mother community, reminders, customized schedules, and a stress reliever. The design outcome was prototyped and assessed through a heuristic evaluation.


Abstract This article analyses language interpretation in the context of maternity health care. By scrutinising how maternity health care staff reflects upon their experiences from the everyday institutional setting, the article shows that they are caught between a discourse on language interpretation as migrants' rights and a racialised discourse where language is intertwined with notions of 'otherness'. As such, language interpretation becomes subsumed into a range of different practices that seek to discipline migrant women to meet the demands from Swedish society. In the article, therefore, the everyday practice by the health care staff is looked upon as a form of citizenship-making, and the article emphasises how racialised discourses take different shapes in different institutional contexts. Thus, the article shows that the practice of language interpretation cannot, in this context, be fully understood without including the larger socio-political context.


1 Abstract — Recently, the Italian government has approved a new law for public contracts and has been laying the groundwork for restarting a planning phase. The government has adopted the indications given by the European Commission regarding the estimation of the external costs within the Cost-Benefit Analysis, and has been approved the 'Guidelines for assessment of Investment Projects'. In compliance with the new Italian law, the aim of this research was to perform a feasibility study applying quantitative methods regarding the revamping of an Italian tourist railway line. A Cost-Benefit Analysis was performed starting from the quantification of the passengers' demand potentially interested in using the revamped rail services. The benefits due to the external costs reduction were also estimated (quantified) in terms of variations (with respect to the not project scenario): climate change, air pollution, noises, congestion, and accidents. Estimations results have been proposed in terms of the Measure of Effectiveness underlying a positive Net Present Value equal to about 27 million of Euros, an Internal Rate of Return much greater the discount rate, a benefit/cost ratio equal to 2 and a PayBack Period of 15 years.


Emotion drives all cognitive processes, largely determining their qualitative feel, their structure, and in part even their content. Action-initiating centers deep in the emotional brain ground our understanding of the world by enabling us to imagine how we could act relative to it, based on endogenous motivations to engage certain levels of energy and complexity. Thus understanding personality, cognition, consciousness and action requires examining the workings of dynamical systems applied to emotional processes in living organisms. If an object's meaning depends on its action affordances, then understanding intentionality in emotion or cognition requires exploring why emotion is the bridge between action and representational processes such as thought or imagery; and this requires integrating phenomenology with neurophysiology. The resulting viewpoint, "enactivism," entails specific new predictions, and suggests that emotions are about the self-initiated actions of dynamical systems, not reactive "responses" to external events; consciousness is more about motivated anticipation than reaction to inputs. (Series A)


Hypertension, decreased glucose tolerance, adverse lipid profiles and low physical activity levels are associated with increased type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. High intensity interval training (HIIT), a low volume, reduced time, high intensity programme, may be a useful alternative to current government guidelines which specify a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week. We describe a personalised programme of high intensity exercise which provides significant improvements in CVD risk markers. Healthy volunteers undertook 6 weeks of HIIT. T2DM and CVD risk predictors including glucose tolerance, VO2max, blood pressure (BP), and lipids were measured before and after HIIT. HIIT training was associated with beneficial changes in a range of predictors of blood flow and cardiovascular risk. There was a heterogeneous response to HIIT, with some subjects responding with favourable changes and others being non-responders to HIIT. In responders, HIIT was associated with a statistically significant (p = 0.023) increase in VO2max, from 45.4 (38.4,52.5) to 56.9 (51.2,65.7) (median (interquartile range)(ml/min/kg)). In responders HIIT resulted in a decrease in systolic BP from 127 (126,129) to 116 (106,122) (mmHg) with p = 0.026 and a decrease is diastolic blood pressure from 72 (69,74) to 57 (56,66) with p = 0.026. There was also some evidence of a beneficial change in blood lipid and glucose concentrations with HIIT. In conclusion, personalised HIIT has potential as an intervention to improve blood flow and cardiovascular health.


Background: Multi-arm, multi-stage (MAMS) platform trials can accelerate the identification of disease-modifying treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD) but there is no current consensus on the optimal outcome measures (OM) for this approach. Objective: To provide an up-to-date inventory of OM for disease-modifying PD trials, and a framework for future selection of OM for such trials. Methods: As part of the Edmond J Safra Accelerating Clinical Trials in Parkinson Disease (EJS ACT-PD) initiative, an expert group with Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) representatives' input reviewed and evaluated available evidence on OM for potential use in trials to delay progression of PD. Each OM was ranked based on aspects such as validity, sensitivity to change, participant burden and practicality for a multi-site trial. Review of evidence and expert opinion led to the present inventory. Results: An extensive inventory of OM was created, divided into: general, motor and non-motor scales, diaries and fluctuation questionnaires, cognitive, disability and health-related quality of life, capability, quantitative motor, wearable and digital, combined, resource use, imaging and wet biomarkers, and milestone-based. A framework for evaluation of OM is presented to update the inventory in the future. PPIE input highlighted the need for OM which reflect their experience of disease progression and are applicable to diverse populations and disease stages. Conclusion: We present a range of OM, classified according to a transparent framework, to aid selection of OM for disease-modifying PD trials, whilst allowing for inclusion or re-classification of relevant OM as new evidence emerges.


Ensuring the correctness of middleware that ensures interoperability of various medical devices is one of the biggest challenges in the e-health domain. Traditionally, these Device Interoperability Middleware (DIM) are analyzed using software testing. However, given the inherent incompleteness of testing and the randomness of the user behaviours, the analysis results are not guaranteed to be accurate. Some of these inaccuracies in analysis results could even put human life at risk. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose to use a probabilistic model checker PRISM for analyzing DIM. The proposed approach allows us to rigorously verify reliability properties of the given DIM and thus allows the designers to make appropriate measures to design more reliable systems. For illustration, we formally analyze a middleware that uses the HL7 FHIR and ontology-based description of the devices and a communication protocol to bridge the gap in heterogeneity for dealing with different vendors and incompatible data formats.


In anticipation of a condensed standard description of the Nummulites species in general, this article proposes a more extensive use of the graphic presentation of essential diagnostic features of the equatorial section of the microspheric generation. The comprehensive graph in question consists of four curves: 1) the well-known winding curve (connecting the radii of the successive whorls), which roughly reflects the opening step of the spire; 2) the file of the numbers of chambers per whorl on the same scale of whorls; 3) the height of the chamber lumen; and 4) this same height plus the thickness of the spiral cord or lamina. The latter two curves, representing an analysis of the spiral step, confine an irregular ribbon which delineates the thickness of the spinal cord or lamina over the whole spire. The combination of four curves over the same abscissa unveils certain breaks and trends in the course of the spire (or the course of the specimen9s life) which hitherto remained unrecorded.


Studies have shown that radionuclides and toxic materials can attach to colloidal particles in groundwater or are themselves colloids. Since these contaminated particles can migrate several miles, toxic colloids present a potential environmental problem: they can rapidly transfer toxic materials through groundwater and pollute drinking water aquifers. Present in this paper is a colloid transport model for single fractures and the resulting simulations of colloid transport in both saturated and unsaturated fracture flow regimes. Results indicated that colloid diffusion rate in the direction normal to flow was an important parameter which was the rate controlling step in the process of colloids diffusing to the fracture wall and being captured. Colloid diffusion is an important parameter because the rate is approximately three orders of magnitude lower for colloids than for molecular species. An analysis of the average fluid velocities for saturated versus unsaturated cases showed that for the same fluid thickness, maximum and average velocities of unsaturated flow case were four times greater than that of the saturated case. In the unsaturated case where colloids migrate irreversibly to the air/water interface, migration rate will be six times the average rate of a saturated fracture. Therefore, unsaturated flow can potentially enhance colloid migration in comparison to the saturated case. A study of various rock/water boundary conditions was also performed and the results showed that irreversible capture was necessary to fully stop colloid propagation.


An analytical protocol for the accurate and precise determination of the europium isotope ratio in low level natural waters is presented for the first time by using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Parameters affecting the separation of Eu from the matrix by employing a single-step column separation with di(2-ethylhexyl) orthophosphoric acid (HDEHP) resin were investigated in detail. Matrix elements (e.g., alkali, alkali-earth and transition metals) were efficiently removed and Eu was quantitatively separated from other rare earth elements (REEs) by sequential elution using gradient HCl concentrations (from 0.25 to 0.75 mol L−1). Fractionation of Eu isotopes in the column was not observed, since quantitative europium recovery (101.2 ± 0.5% mean and 1 SD, n = 3) was obtained (data based on 150 mL SLRS-6 river water CRM test portions spiked with 1.0 ng mL−1 Eu standard solution). A combined standard-sample bracketing with internal normalization method was employed for the mass bias correction, wherein Gd was added to both the sample and standard as an internal standard. The developed method was validated by processing 0.02 ng mL−1 Eu spiked river water CRM SLRS-6 (wherein Eu was removed first by using the above-mentioned column separation method) using the proposed method, and satisfying results (δ151/153Eu value of 0.01 ± 0.02‰; 1 SD) relative to Eu standard solution were obtained. No significant differences were found in the δ151/153Eu values in river water SLRS-6, drinking water AQUA-1 and collected groundwater samples from Brazil, which ranged from −0.07 ± 0.02 to 0.12 ± 0.24 (mean ± 1 SD, n = 5).


BACKGROUND
In dry eye, as a disease of the ocular surface, the instillation of artificial tears should compensate for the deficit in wetting and protect the mucosa against drying.

MATERIAL/METHODS
The desiccation protection of different pharmacological substances was tested using the conjunctival epithelial cell line Chang 1-5c-4 (series 1) and the corneal cell line 2.040 pRSV-T (series 2). On confluent cell growth the cultures were wetted for 20 min with various preservative-free preparations of artificial tears The cell cultures were exposed to a constant air flow for 0, 15, 30 and 45 minutes. Cells were incubated with the vital dye Alamar Blue and subsequently absorption of the oxidised form of the dye was measured using an ELISA-Reader.

RESULTS
Cell survival rates in series 1 after 0, 15, 30, 45 min were (1.02;0.81;0.35;0.32) for Artelac EDO, (0.82;0.69; 0.63;0.54) for Vidisic EDO, (0.77;0.80;0.67;0.70) for Vidisic Fluid EDO, (0.76;0.70;0.36; 0.34) for Acuolens, (0.97;0.46;0.35;0.33) for Viscofresh, (0.88;0.85;0.37; 0.33) for Hyal Drops SDU, (0.71;0.44;0.34;0.33) for PBS and in series 2 (1.03;0.84;-0.21;-0.20) for Artelac EDO, (0.89;0.92;0.93;0.86) for Vidisic EDO, (0.96;0.88;0.85;0.85) for Vidisic Fluid EDO, (1.01;0.75;-0.02;-0.03) for Acuolens, (0.98;0.17;-0.22;-0.20) for Viscofresh, (0.97;0.83;0.03;-0.21) for Hyal Drops SDU and (0.96;0.26;-0.24;-0.21) for PBS. Vidisic Fluid EDO and Vidisic EDO showed a significantly better protective effect after a drying period of 30 and 45 min.

CONCLUSIONS
The protection capability of pharmacological substances against desiccation can be studied in a standardised cell culture system of human epithelial cell lines. Whether these in vitro results are conferrable to the efficacy of artificial tear drops in vivo has to be evaluated in clinical trials.


Biomarker development is a major research theme in cancer proteomics. Cancer is a genetically and clinically diverse disease, and biomarkers for risk stratification therapy are urgently required. A considerable number of biomarker candidates have been discovered by proteomics, and over the last decade proteomics modalities have been developed to identify promising candidates. Validation studies involving hundreds of samples in independent cohorts is the next challenge to prove the clinical utility of any discovered biomarker candidates. Here, we review our efforts directed toward tissue biomarker development using a proteomics approach. With the aim of developing a prognostic biomarker for gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), we examined the protein expression profiles of primary tumors from 17 GIST patients with different risks of recurrence and prognosis after surgery. Through a comparative study using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, we found that overexpression of pfetin was specific to GIST patients with a low risk of metastasis and a favorable prognosis after surgery. Using immunohistochemistry, we examined pfetin expression in 422 additional cases of GIST at four hospitals, and confirmed that GIST patients with pfetin-positive primary tumors had a significantly favorable prognosis in all four cohorts. Moreover, the other research group independently validated the prognostic significance of pfetin in 62 cases of GIST at two hospitals. Pfetin was found to be an independent prognostic factor with significant prognostic utility in all risk classification groups, which are based on tumor size and mitosis status. In addition to pfetin, we also identified DDX39 as a biomarker of unfavorable prognosis using a proteomics approach, and KCTD10 as a marker of favorable prognosis using a knowledge-based approach. Our experience demonstrates the utility of proteomics for biomarker discovery, and the possible clinical application of pfetin for risk stratification therapy in GIST.


Aim of the Study: This study aimed to evaluate the symptom profile, including somatic symptoms among elderly patients with first episode depression using the Geriatric depression scale (GDS-30) and Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) items version scale. Additional aims were to carry out the factor analysis of symptoms reported on GDS-30 and PHQ-15 among elderly. Methodology: Seventy-nine elderly patients (age ≥60 years) were evaluated on GDS-30 item Hindi version and Hindi version of the PHQ-15. Results: As per GDS-30, the most common symptom noted among elderly was "dropped many of your activities and interests" (91.1%), mind not as clear as it used (88.6%), feeling that life is empty (86.1%), bothered by thoughts you cannot get out of your head (86.1%) and hard to get started on new projects (86.1%), prefer to avoid social gatherings (86.1%). All patients reported at least one somatic complaint as per PHQ-15. The most common somatic symptoms were trouble sleeping (97.5%), feeling tired or having little energy (96.2%), feeling that the heart is racing (52.9%), constipation, loose bowels, or diarrhea (49.6%), shortness of breath (46.8%), nausea, gas or indigestion (45.6%), pain in the arms, legs, or joints (43.3%), and back pain (41.8%). The prevalence of somatic symptoms was not influenced to a large extent by the demographic variables, clinical variables and presence or absence of physical comorbidity. However, the severity of somatic symptoms correlated positively with GDS-30 score. Factor analysis of Hindi version of GDS-30 yielded a four-factor solution, which was similar to many studies across the world. The addition of items of PHQ-15 items of factor analysis still yielded a four-factor solution. Factor 1 of combined GDS-30 and PHQ-15 items included items only from GDS-30 and Factor 3 and 4 included items only from PHQ-15. There was some overlap of items on Factor 2. Conclusion: The present study suggests that GDS-30 does not tap all the symptoms of depression among elderly in the Indian context. Further, the present study shows that GDS-30 is not a one-dimensional scale. Accordingly, the symptom evaluation among elderly depressed patient should go beyond GDS-30.


When Richard G. Hatcher became the first black mayor of Gary, Indiana in 1967, the response of Gary's white businessmen was to move the entire downtown to the suburbs, thereby weakening the city core. Meanwhile, white business and institutional leaders in Atlanta, Detroit, and Newark worked with black mayors heading those majority-black cities to rebuild their downtowns and neigh--borhoods. Why not Gary?Robert A. Catlin, who served as Mayor Hatcher's planning advisor from 1982 to 1987, here analyzes the racial conflicts that tore Gary apart. He asserts that two types of majority-black cities exist. Type I -- including Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Newark -- have Fortune 500 corporate headquarters, major universities, and large medical centers -- institutions that are placebound -- and their leaders must work with black mayors. Type II cities like Gary lack these resources; thus, their white leaders feel less compelled to cooperate with black mayors. Unfortunately in Gary's case, black politicians and white executives fell victim to pettiness and mistrust, and, as a result, Gary and the entire northwest Indiana region suffered. "Racial Politics and Urban Planning" is required reading for citizens interested in urban affairs. Leaders in cities such as Albany and Macon, Georgia; Monroe, Louisiana; Mount Vernon, New York; and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, should also take note. Those cities have just become majority black and are in the Type II category. Will they learn from Gary, or are they doomed to repeat its mistakes?


This book is a study of heroic femininity as it appears in the epic Mahabharata, and focuses particularly on the roles of wife, daughter-in-law, and mother, on how these women speak and on the kinship groups and varying marital systems that surround them. It portrays those qualities that cohere about women in the poem, which are particular to them and which distinguish them as women, and describes how women heroes function as crucial speakers in the generation and maintenance of cultural value and worth. This includes men who have been transformed into women and women who have been reincarnated as men. The overall method accomplishes an ethnography of text, describing a special aspect of the bronze age preliterate and premonetary world as it is represented by the actions and metaphors of Mahabharata. References to contemporary Indian cinema and popular culture support the narrative of the book, bringing modern valence to the arguments.


Are we hardwired to believe in God? That is the strange and rather awkward question asked within this week's cover story in The New York Times Magazine. In "Darwin's God," reporter Robin Marantz Henig looks at how evolutionary scientists are trying to account for the fact that most humans believe in a supernatural being. Naturalism is a closed system of thought. Within the naturalistic framework, every aspect of human life has to be explained in purely naturalistic terms. Beyond that, the evolutionist (if consistent) must hold that every aspect of human life can ultimately be explained within a purely naturalistic scheme. Given the presuppositions of the dominant evolutionary theory, everything from sexual behaviors to musical tastes must have an evolutionary purpose — and so must belief in God. Henig explains that her focus is on how evolutionists explain belief in God, not the question of God's existence. She acknowledges the recent spate of books by militant atheists attacking belief in God, but insists that those who focus on such attacks miss something important: Lost in the hullabaloo over the neo-atheists is a quieter and potentially more illuminating debate. It is taking place not between science and religion but within science itself, specifically among the scientists studying the evolution of religion. These scholars tend to agree on one point: that religious belief is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved during early human history. What they disagree about is why a tendency to believe evolved, whether it was because belief itself was adaptive or because it was just an evolutionary byproduct, a mere consequence of some other adaptation in the evolution of the human brain. Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity? And if scientists are able to explain God, what then? Is explaining religion the same thing as explaining it away? Are the nonbelievers right, and is religion at its core an empty undertaking, a misdirection, a vestigial artifact of a primitive mind? Or are the believers right, and does the fact that we have the mental capacities for discerning God suggest that it was God who put them there? In short, are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen? In other words, is belief in God explained by how such belief might have assisted our ancestors in successful breeding and survival? The evolutionists agree on this much, but split over the question of how it happened. Some hold that belief in God was a byproduct of other human adaptations, while others hold that belief in God was an adaptive behavior all its own. The consensus among the evolutionary theorists seems to shape up like this: At one point, human beings developed a tendency to believe in the supernatural. This may have been tied to a fear of death, a need for social cohesion, or a need to explain events in terms of a supernatural agent. Whatever the origin, human children are now born with "a tendency to believe in omniscience, invisible minds, [and] immaterial souls." As Henig explains, "then they grow up in cultures that fill their minds, hard-wired for belief, with specifics." http://www.albertmohler.com/2007/03/07/are-humans-hardwired-for-belief-in-god-darwinism-attempts-a-naturalistic-explanation-of-belief-in-the-supernatural/ 1/2


Narrowing the achievement gap has become an increasing issue in Minnesota. The purpose of this research project was to explore the attitudes of school social workers and teachers to see if there were any significant differences in the perception of the professionals who work with children directly affected by the gap. Using quantitative data analysis, 51 respondents, including 13 licensed social workers and 38 licensed teachers, were surveyed electronically, via Qualtrics, a survey creation and distribution website. All of the questions were created based on findings in the research. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings indicated that race and experience did not affect attitudes toward the achievement gap. However, the research did find significance in social workers being unanimous in believing African American students were treated differently. While a greater number of teachers were surveyed, the findings did evoke implications for


Psychosocial risks and work-related stress are global problems and there is a limited research over such problems in developing countries. This study investigates these risks in Malaysian public health perspective by using biomarkers in relation to the workers' health and well-being. Biomarkers can be used to objectively measure the physiological response to psychosocial stressors. This study will be helpful to address the complex contemporary issues that emerge because of continuous change in the work environment. Non-proportional stratified random sampling technique was used for data collection and analysis would be done with the help of AMOS 21.0 in Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to achieve range of outcomes. © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.


In the debate over executive compensation, the assumption seems to be that the CEO of a publicly traded corporation is ultimately an employee of the corporation. According to the conventional view, the business belongs to the stockholders. Executive compensation is an expense like any other business expense that must be subtracted from income in reckoning stockholder return. The central problem has been that the CEO has too much power, and the board of directors has not acted as an effective monitor. Thus, the problem of executive compensation appears to be a thinly disguised problem of self-dealing. Professor Booth argues here partnership law offers an alternative model that may explain some of the more puzzling aspects of executive compensation. Simply stated, if one sees a publicly traded corporation as a partnership between management and stockholders, the fact that a substantial share of gains goes to management does not seem problematic. For example, it is well known that using stock options as the primary form of executive compensation serves the purpose of focusing a CEO on stock price rather than second best metrics such as earnings or assets. What is less well-recognized is that options also force managers to assume additional risk. As a result, CEOs naturally insist on the prospect of greater returns. In effect, CEOs have bargained for a substantial piece of the action. They have come to insist on returns more consistent with those of a partner rather than an employee. It should thus come as no surprise that success will be more richly rewarded. In addition, Professor Booth addresses several misconceptions about executive compensation that may be clarified somewhat by the partnership model. First, he shows that in the aggregate, executive compensation (including option-based compensation) has been remarkably stable over the last twenty years, suggesting that the perception of excess may be the result of redistribution and undue focus on those who have gained from the evolution to options. Second, he argues that unlike other forms of compensation, stock options are self-regulating and thus inherently less worrisome than other more fixed forms of compensation. Finally, he contends that the partnership model of the corporation sheds new light on the debate over how to account for stock options. If stock options are seen as a way for CEOs and other high-level managers to participate as equity partners in company returns, it makes little sense to treat the grant of stock options as an expense that reduces reported earnings.


Corruption is rarely an isolated phenomenon found only within a specific institution, sector or group of actors. It is usually of a systemic nature and fighting it requires a holistic and all-encompassing strategy. This is why Transparency International developed the concept of National Integrity System (NIS) assessments in 2001. To date, assessments have been completed in more than 100 countries around the world, including in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa. The purpose of a National Integrity System assessment is to assess systemic corruption risks faced by a country and produce a set of recommendations on how to mitigate those risks in the future. Those recommendations can then be used by actors in civil society, government and the private sector for promoting integrity and creating defences against corruption in the country. In order to be effective and sustained, the prevention of corruption must be considered a responsibility of leaders and communities in all areas of society; it is task that falls on many rather than any one individual.
In 2013, Transparency International Vanuatu commenced a National Integrity System assessment. This is the third National Integrity System assessment that has been done in Vanuatu, with previous assessments occurring in 2004 and 2006. The assessment focuses on an evaluation of the key public institutions and non-state actors in a country's governance system with regard to (1) their overall capacity, (2) their internal governance systems and procedures, and (3) their role in the overall integrity system. The assessment examines both the formal legal framework of each pillar and the actual institutional practice. The analysis highlights discrepancies between the formal provisions and reality on the ground, making it clear where there are gaps in the integrity system.
The assessment process in Vanuatu has been consultative and has involved key stakeholders. An advisory board was established and has met regularly. Interviews with key stakeholders, public meetings and the publication of discussion papers have all been used to widely engage people. In May key stakeholders met together to finalise the recommendations. All discussions have been constructive and well attended by most stakeholders, who appeared to place high importance on the dialogue.
It is Transparency International's hope that the Vanuatu assessment will generate a set of concrete recommendations for the island's key institutions and local actors to pursue in order to strengthen transparency, accountability and integrity. It should also provide a set of good governance benchmarks for the citizens of Vanuatu to hold their government and elected officials to account through public dialogue, policy engagement and voting.


A series of polymers based on 6-(2-thienyl)-4H-thieno[3,2-b]indole (TTI), a new electron-rich unit for organic photovoltaics, was synthesized. By replacing the six-membered benzene ring of the carbazole with an electron-rich five-membered thiophene ring, an enhanced ICT effect between the electron-rich group and the electron-deficient group is expected to result in improved π-electron delocalization, low band gap and increased light-harvesting ability of the OPVs. The TTI unit, with a fused rigid backbone, has an efficient structure for the ICT effect and for tuning of the HOMO and LUMO energy levels to generate a low band gap. As electron-deficient units, 4,7-bis(4-hexylthiophen-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (DTBT-h), 2-dimethyl-4,7-di(2-thienyl)-2H-benzimidazole (DTMBI) and 3,6-di(2-thienyl)-2,5 dihydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione (DPP) were introduced by using Stille polymerization. PTTIDTMBI and PTTIDPP have low band gaps and show absorption up to 849 and 948 nm, respectively. The highest PCE was achieved with the device fabricated from a PTTIDTBT-h : PC71BM (1 : 3 w/w) blend with 1,8-octanedithiol (ODT) as an additive. The device demonstrated a Voc value of 0.81 V, a Jsc value of 8.19 mA cm−2, and an FF of 0.51, giving a highest power conversion efficiency of 3.35%.


Specifications of digital hardware systems are typically written in a natural language. The objective of this research is automatic information extraction from specifications to aid model generation for system level design automation. This is done by automatic extraction of the noun phrases and the verbs from the natural language specification statements. First, the natural language sentences are parsed using a chart parser. Then, a noun phrase and verb extractor scans these charts to obtain the noun phrases with their frequencies of occurrence. The noun phrases are then classified by semantic types. Also the verbs are automatically assigned their respective roots and classified. Finally, each sentence is summarized as a sequence of "chunks": noun phrases, verbs and prepositions. Vectors are generated from these chunks and imported into MS Excel for plotting occurrence graphs of noun phrases and verbs with respect to the sentences in which they occur. Finally, inter-term dependencies between noun phrases, and between noun phrases and verbs were studied. The frequencies of occurrence, the classification of chunks, the occurrence graphs and the inter-term dependencies together give useful information about the subject, the hardware components and the behavior of a system described by a natural language specification


Neuroprosthetic approaches have tremendous potential for the treatment of injuries to the brain and spinal cord by inducing appropriate neural activity in otherwise disordered circuits. Substantial work has demonstrated that stimulation applied to both the central and peripheral nervous system leads to immediate and in some cases sustained benefits after injury. Here we focus on cervical intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS) as a promising method of activating the spinal cord distal to an injury site, either to directly produce movements or more intriguingly to improve subsequent volitional control of the paretic extremities. Incomplete injuries to the spinal cord are the most commonly observed in human patients, and these injuries spare neural tissue bypassing the lesion that could be influenced by neural devices to promote recovery of function. In fact, recent results have demonstrated that therapeutic ISMS leads to modest but sustained improvements in forelimb function after an incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). This therapeutic spinal stimulation may promote long-term recovery of function by providing the necessary electrical activity needed for neuron survival, axon growth, and synaptic stability.


Weak supervision has shown promising results in many natural language processing tasks, such as Named Entity Recognition (NER). Existing work mainly focuses on learning deep NER models only with weak supervision, i.e., without any human annotation, and shows that by merely using weakly labeled data, one can achieve good performance, though still underperforms fully supervised NER with manually/strongly labeled data. In this paper, we consider a more practical scenario, where we have both a small amount of strongly labeled data and a large amount of weakly labeled data. Unfortunately, we observe that weakly labeled data does not necessarily improve, or even deteriorate the model performance (due to the extensive noise in the weak labels) when we train deep NER models over a simple or weighted combination of the strongly labeled and weakly labeled data. To address this issue, we propose a new multi-stage computational framework – NEEDLE with three essential ingredients: (1) weak label completion, (2) noise-aware loss function, and (3) final fine-tuning over the strongly labeled data. Through experiments on E-commerce query NER and Biomedical NER, we demonstrate that NEEDLE can effectively suppress the noise of the weak labels and outperforms existing methods. In particular, we achieve new SOTA F1-scores on 3 Biomedical NER datasets: BC5CDR-chem 93.74, BC5CDR-disease 90.69, NCBI-disease 92.28.


The traditional construction planning and control system, as described in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge published by the Project Management Institute, has been criticized in terms of insufficiency of its underlying theories and ineffectiveness of its techniques. Based on this traditional approach, major problems including separation of execution from planning and after-the-fact variance detection are typically acknowledged. It is evident that the current practices are still suffering from low productivity and high production waste. To address these deficiencies, this paper proposes a vision for the next generation of construction planning and control as multi-constraints, visual, and lean-based system. An implementation of this vision has resulted in a prototype called "LEWIS – Lean Enterprise Web-based Information System for Construction". An elaboration on the system framework and an underpinning methodology to integrate information and constraint management with 4D planning and control system is the focus of this paper. It is anticipated that successful implementation of this system will enable generation of reliable plans and constraint-free assignments to the work face, which in turn, reduce production wastes and improve on-site productivity.


The core principle of secondary anti-Semitism is the refusal or rejection of remembrance of the unprecedented crime which Germans committed during the Second World War, namely the Shoah. This has a specific dimension in Germany which basically reflects the country's unique political culture. The cruelest version of secondary anti-Semitism is Holocaust denial. Three categories of soft-core denial are proposed: distortion, universalization and projection of guilt/relativization/trivialization. People who generate such a soft-core denial do not often refer to the Holocaust as a lie or fabrication by Jews or their sympathizers. It is much more subtle. Disguising history by talking about history is the unstated aim. Research on anti-Semitism must be vigilant in the coming years to develop new strategies to fight this new brand of Jew-hatred. Soft-core denial today is already at least as dangerous and widespread as Neonazi, Islamic or Iranian varieties: liberals, left-wingers, conservatives, clergy and scientists of all persuasions are using this form of post-Auschwitz anti-Semitism in good conscience. This article seeks to introduce secondary anti-Semitism, a relatively unknown and rather new concept for the analysis of anti-Semitism. It refers to the refusal or rejection of remembrance of the unprecedented crimes which Germans committed during the Second World War, which initially developed in Germany and other European countries. While the refusal to acknowledge the Holocaust as an unprecedented crime against Jews as Jews exists all round the world, in Germany it has a specific dimension which basically reflects the country's unique political culture. Outside Germany, political activists and journalists tend to be unfamiliar with this concept perhaps because it is difficult to clearly distinguish between primary and secondary antiSemitism. Secondary anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism after Auschwitz. Israeli psychoanalyst Zvi Rex described its essence: "Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."1 German scholar Peter Schonbach, who worked with Theodor W. Adorno in Frankfurt in the 1960s originally coined the term secondary anti-Semitism.2 While Schonbach concentrated primarily on the generational problem and the "afterlife of Fascist antiSemitism," or more precisely National Socialist anti-Semitism, today the problem is more extensive. Jew-hatred is particularly easy to detect in the generations after 1945 and also after 1968. However, under a cloak of responsibility and mainstream consensus they have generated a secondary form of anti-Semitism.3 The cruelest version of secondary anti-Semitism is Holocaust denial. After 1945, Nazis and their sympathizers immediately began to deny the Holocaust. The first known Holocaust denier was French fascist Maurice Bardeche, according to historian Deborah Lipstadt.4 Later, such books as Richard Harwood's Did Six Million Really Die? published by Erich Zundel in 1974, simply propagated the same lies as Bardeche. But what happened in mainstream societies, especially, but not exclusively, in Germany - in both Germanys - and postHolocaust Europe? French-Jewish survivors like the philosopher Vladimir Jankelevitch witnessed the silence surrounding crimes against the Jews, the deportations to the concentration camps, the expropriation of Jewish homes, and the transport of the Jews from railway stations "to the East," all of which was widely known, and the mass murder during the Holocaust. In an important early article in 19485 Jankelevitch describes a typical Sunday afternoon stroll down the Champs Elysees in 1943, an enjoyable event where ordinary French people window-shop for new clotbes, shoes, etc. Furthest from their minds are the Jews who had been deported the night before. The French silence persisted long after the Liberation in 1944. In Germany itself the situation was even worse. Not only was there no public debate about the crimes the Germans had perpetrated, but some former mass murderers received Persilscheine, de-nazification certificates of good conduct named after a popular laundry detergent. …


OBJECTIVE
Breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast exam (CBE), mammography and ultrasound imaging (UI) are screening methods used for early diagnosis of breast cancer (BC). The purpose of this study is to put forth the utilization frequency of these screening methods among women presenting to the gynecology outpatient clinics and the relation of these data with the socio-demographic characteristics of the women.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A survey was conducted among 429 women (age, 16-80 years) who were admitted to the gynecology outpatient clinics. The survey inquired about the rate and frequency of the performance of BSE, CBE, mammography and UI; personal and family history of breast cancer and social-demographic characteristics of the women.

RESULTS
The mean age was 40.08 (SD: 3.67). More than half of the women above 40 years of age (59.7 %) had never undergone mammography. 99.8 % of the women who had undergone mammography had also received ultrasound imaging. A significant relationship was identified between the BSE performance and having mammography. 57.4% of the women above 40 years of age (117) had UI, 53.9% (110) had CBE and 57.3% (117) performed BSE. There was a significant relationship between the age, education status and regular BSE; positive family history of BC and having CBE and mammography.

CONCLUSION
The results reveal that the rate of BSE performance, having mammography and CBE are at less-than-ideal levels. In this context, it is apparent that breast cancer screening methods are needed to be introduced and guidance about their application frequency should be provided for women in gynecology outpatient clinics.


Abstract This article investigates the determinants of parliamentary support for international fiscal aid. Departing from the literature on presidential systems, it analyses an exemplary case of a parliamentary system, Germany. Two theoretical accounts are distinguished. The first perceives MPs as policy-seekers and focuses on the positioning of government and opposition parties and individual MPs on an economic left‒right and a pro- versus anti-EU dimension. The second regards MPs as vote-seekers and presumes an electoral district connection. The statistical analysis of a new data-set containing information on 17 Bundestag roll-call votes from 2009 to 2015 finds support for the first account: voting in favour of fiscal aid measures is mainly driven by government membership and EU support. By contrast, neither economic ideologies, nor district or mandate characteristics influence support for fiscal aid. The article contributes to a growing literature on the domestic politics of international political economy.


Increased access to large datasets has driven progress in NLP. However, most computational studies of clinically-validated, patient-generated speech and language involve very few datapoints, as such data are difficult (and expensive) to collect. In this position paper, we argue that we must find ways to promote data sharing across research groups, in order to build datasets of a more appropriate size for NLP and machine learning analysis. We review the benefits and challenges of sharing clinical language data, and suggest several concrete actions by both clinical and NLP researchers to encourage multi-site and multi-disciplinary data sharing. We also propose the creation of a collaborative data sharing platform, to allow NLP researchers to take a more active responsibility for data transcription, annotation, and curation.


It is, I think, interesting to compare the views of E. F. Schumacher and J. M. Keynes on the ethical aspects of economics – both the economic systems of which they were a part and economics as a subject. Both agreed that economics (as commonly understood and taught) applied to only a limited sphere of life. They agreed about the role of profits, the market and the love of money. And they both believed that there was much more to life than getting and spending. For Keynes, economic activity was the means to bring society to a position where the good life could be enjoyed. Schumacher was even more ambitious: he thought economic activity should be made part of the good life.


This thesis explores how quality is measured when a combination of product and service are being provided and investigated how these processes are managed. Relatively little research exists on measuring quality of Product Service Bundles (PSB). This thesis attempts to address this gap by carrying out multiple, cross-sectional case study research on a variety of business-to-business (B-2-B) PSB providers situated within the UK. The thesis makes three principal contributions. First, some aspects of quality need to be considered 'core' when providing an integrated PS offering and this work identified four that were predominant: physical product, product performance, service experience and service outcome. The empirical work also confirmed that these aspects need to be integrated in some manner and measurement was a critical part of this process. Second, building on this question of integration, the analysis of the eight pilot cases and four main project cases illustrated that the development of a quality assurance system (QAS) to measure the quality aspects of the PSB is fundamental to its success. The empirical work identified the role of the QAS, predominately focused on the product elements. Although, the QAS had the capability to manage the service element of the integrated PS offering, the research findings identified this was underutilised. Third, the management of the quality of an integrated PS offering, via the QAS, etc., must recognise the complementary nature of contractual and relational governance and then actively develop mechanisms that address and intertwine both dimensions of inter-organisational exchange. While existing research has considered them separately, this research considered them jointly, as part of the PS offering. Finally, several potential avenues of further work have been identified but, in particular, a longitudinal study would help to determine how the life cycle of the PSB influences the management of PS quality.


We analyze the present day structure and assembly history of a high-resolution hydrodynamic simulation of the formation of a Milky-Way-(MW)-like disk galaxy, from the "Eris" simulation suite, dissecting it into cohorts of stars formed at different epochs of cosmic history. At z = 0, stars with tform < 2 Gyr mainly occupy the stellar spheroid, with the oldest (earliest forming) stars having more centrally concentrated profiles. The younger age cohorts populate disks of progressively longer radial scale lengths and shorter vertical scale heights. At a given radius, the vertical density profiles and velocity dispersions of stars vary smoothly as a function of age, and the superposition of old, vertically extended and young, vertically compact cohorts gives rise to a double-exponential profile like that observed in the MW. Turning to formation history, we find that the trends of spatial structure and kinematics with stellar age are largely imprinted at birth, or immediately thereafter. Stars that form during the active merger phase at z > 3 are quickly scattered into rounded, kinematically hot configurations. The oldest disk cohorts form in structures that are radially compact and relatively thick, while subsequent cohorts form in progressively larger, thinner, colder configurations from gas with increasing levels of rotational support. The disk thus forms "inside out" in a radial sense and "upside down" in a vertical sense. Secular heating and radial migration influence the final state of each age cohort, but the changes they produce are small compared to the trends established at formation. The predicted correlations of stellar age with spatial and kinematic structure are in good qualitative agreement with the correlations observed for mono-abundance stellar populations in the MW.


When public school students admit to violating of school rules to their principals, they may also be admitting to a violation of criminal law. Increasingly, principals share these confessions with local law enforcement and the students are charged in a criminal proceeding. Because principals, knowing the evidence will be turned over to law enforcement per school policies, are seeking evidence to use against their students, these students should be so warned before an interrogation with their principal. Though most prior case law involving student interrogations has been decided under agency law, the Supreme Court's decision in Ferguson v. City of Charleston suggests a new framework to analyze student interrogations by school officials. Ferguson dealt with a Fourth Amendment search, but suggested the same analysis would be applicable in Fifth Amendment cases. Because Fourth Amendment school cases often value the same factors as in the Ferguson analysis, Ferguson's test, which requires constitutional warnings when state actors seek out incriminating evidence, should also be applied in Fifth Amendment school cases.


In this paper, I critically examine a number of notions about interdisciplinary research approaches to the challenges posed by the world today. I juxtapose this critique with a discussion of interdisciplinary developments in Pacific studies, raising questions as to how deeper dialogues between academic disciplines and the worldviews of Pacific Islanders may be reached. While interdisciplinarity is widely seen as a politically correct agenda for contemporary research on processes of globalization and development, caution is needed against prevailing optimism about the potential for solving multidisciplinary problems through interdisciplinary innovation. Such optimism may overrate the potentials of broad (as opposed to deep) research approaches and may reflect disregard, if not arrogance, toward the complexity of the matters addressed. The drive in some European countries for research on "sustainable development" indicates close ties between interdisciplinary aspirations and the bureaucratic ambitions of research administrators. Under such circumstances interdisciplinarity becomes an object of institutional conflict and internal debate between institutions, as well as between bureaucrats and scientists, more than a question of creative epistemological contact between plural knowledges in and beyond academic disciplines in a search for increased knowledge more generally. The avoidance of such pitfalls in the further development of Pacific studies requires close attention to and appreciation of initiatives from within Oceania, coming from beyond the domains of conventional disciplines. In this paper, such paths toward interdisciplinarity are exemplified in a discussion of epistemological encounters between Oceanic and western knowledges, and with reference to the emerging currents of "Native Pacific Cultural Studies."


Differences in market structures may affect the manner in which fundamental information is incorporated into prices. High levels of quote and trade transparency plus substantial quoting obligations in European government securities markets ensure that prices are informationally efficient. The relationship between price changes, order flow, relative depth and spreads across European and Canadian short-term government bond markets is examined via a reduced-form vector autoregression model. In European markets, dealers are able to quickly absorb private information elsewhere in the market. Consequently, spreads and the relative depth on the bid and offer sides of the market are found to be only slightly informative. Similarly, order flow, which reflects inventory management practices in addition to private information, explains a smaller proportion of the variation in asset returns in European markets than in Canadian interdealer brokered markets where no quoting obligations exist.


Background: In 2005 Colombia adopted the national Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) target of 75% modern contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) by 2015. Important gains have been achieved with respect to living conditions, education and health indicators in recent decades but inequalities within the country remain to be addressed.
Methods: The aim was to analyse socioeconomic inequalities in women's 'current non-use of contraception' using the six Colombian Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). A multidimensional approach to socioeconomic position was implemented. Absolute and relative socioeconomic inequalities were analysed using the Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and Relative Index of Inequality (RII). The interplay between level of education and Public capital with respect to contraceptive non-use was examined. Individual and contextual effects were investigated using a multilevel approach.
Results: National prevalence in current non-use of contraception between 1986 and 2010 decreased from32.6% to 22.9%. Nationally, absolute inequalities narrowed but relative inequalities did not decline. Women with less than primary education had not met the CPR target in 2010 in urban (30.9%) and rural (41.4%) areas respectively. Absolute inequalities narrowed in urban areas but relative inequalities persisted in urban and rural areas. Gradients in contraceptive non-use with respect to household wealth were stronger among women in rural than in urban areas. The impact of level of education on contraceptive non-use was relatively weak among women in households and within communities with high Public capital compared to low Public capital. Municipality ethnic composition had an effect on women's contraceptive non-use over and above individual and community characteristics.
Conclusion: Colombia reached the national CPR target ahead of time. However, the persistent socioeconomic gradients in non-use of contraception by household wealth and education indicate the need to go beyond country averages and individual level determinants to monitor urban and rural socioeconomic inequalities and contextual effects on women's contraceptive behaviour.


Heartwater is a serious limiting factor for sheep and goat production in the major endemic area of sub-Saharan Africa and therefore most knowledge, research and control methods originate from this region. Whilst the usual or common clinical presentations can be used to make a presumptive diagnosis of heartwater with a good measure of confidence, this is not always the case, and animals suffering from heartwater may be misdiagnosed because their cases do not conform to the expected syndrome, signs and lesions. One aberrant form found occasionally in the Channel Island breeds of cattle and some goats is an afebrile heartwaterlike syndrome. The most constant and characteristic features of this heartwater-like syndrome comprise normal temperature, clinical signs associated with generalised oedema, and nervous signs, especially hypersensitivity. The presumption that the disease under investigation is the afebrile heartwater-like syndrome entails a tentative diagnosis based on history and clinical signs and the response to presumed appropriate treatment (metadiagnosis). The afebrile heartwater-like syndrome presents similarly to peracute heartwater but without the febrile reaction. Peracute cases of heartwater have a high mortality rate, enabling confirmation of the disease on post-mortem examination. Recognition of the afebrile heartwater-like syndrome is important to prevent deaths and identify the need for appropriate control measures.


The U.S. health care system has experienced great pressure since early March 2020 as it pivoted to providing necessary care for COVID-19 patients. But there are signs that non-COVID-19 care use declined during this time period. We examine near real time data from a nationwide electronic healthcare records system that covers over 35 million patients to provide new evidence of how non-COVID-19 acute care and preventive/primary care have been affected during the epidemic. Using event study and difference-in-difference models we find that state closure policies (stay-at-home or non-essential business closures) are associated with large declines in ambulatory visits, with effects differing by type of care. State closure policies reduced overall outpatient visits by about 15-16 percent within two weeks. Outpatient visits for health check-ups and well care experience very large declines during the epidemic, with substantial effects from state closure policies. In contrast, mental health outpatient visits declined less than other care, and appear less affected by state closure policies. We find substitution to telehealth modalities may have played an important role in mitigating the decline in mental health care utilization. Aggregate trends in outpatient visits show a 40% decline after the first week of March 2020, only a portion of which is attributed to state policy. A rebound starts around mid April that does not appear to be explained by state reopening policy. Despite this rebound, care visits still remain below the pre-epidemic levels in most cases.


An artist and a biologist have collaborated on the sonification of protein data to produce the audio compact disc Life Music. Here they describe the process by which this collaboration merges scientific knowledge and artistic expression to produce soundscapes from the basic building blocks of life. The soundscapes may be encountered as aesthetic experiences, as scientific inquiries or as both. The authors describe the rationale both for the artistic use of science and for the scientific use of art from the separate viewpoints of artist and scientist.


This study was carried out to evaluate the regression equations for predicting the dry matter intake and digestible dry matter intake of roughages and live weight gain from roughages in lambs. For this purpose, rumen degradability characteristics of some roughages according to the equation of p=a+b(1-e -ct ), rumen dry matter degradability in different periods of time, ADF-NDF contents and digestibility of dry matter were used as independent characteristics. Roughages consisted of straws of wheat, rice, barley, oat, chickpea, vetch and lentil and oat hay. The roughage intake and growth rate were predicted in separate 2 periods by using totally 24 merino male lambs. Four groups each consisting 6 lambs were designed for each roughages. Three merino male sheep were used for in vivo digestibility trial and three for rumen degradability trial. The average dry matter intake of roughages varied from 542.7 to 992.7 g/day, digestible dry matter intake from 235.9 to 557.7 g/day live weight gain from 16.7 to 197.0 g/day. Number of equations used to predict the dry matter and digestible dry matter intake were more than the equations for live weight gain. In addition the correlation coefficients for live weight gain were found lower than that of others. The highest correlation coefficients of between dry matter intake, digestible dry matter intake of roughages and live weight gain with the contents of a',b',c,L determined from the equation of p=a+b(1-e -ct ) were found to by 0.89, 0.92 and 0.82 respectively.


The Badger Springs site (AZ D:5:13; NA10924) is a late Paleoindian occupation located on the Kaibito Plateau in northeastern Arizona, just northwest of Black Mesa. The site was discovered and surface-collected in the 1970s. Quantitative analyses conducted as part of this research revealed that the Badger Springs projectile points are morphologically consistent with projectile points of the Angostura type. Previous archaeological investigations have failed to identify late Paleoindian campsites, especially Angostura occupations, on the southwestern Colorado Plateau. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we present a morphological analysis of projectile points from the Badger Springs site in northeastern Arizona using quantitative methods developed by Pitblado [Pitblado, Bonnie L. 2007 Angostura, Jimmy Allen, Foothills-Mountain: Clarifying Terminology for Late Paleoindian Southern Rocky Mountain Spear Points. In Frontiers in Colorado Paleoindian Archaeology, edited by R. H. Brunswig and B. L. Pitblado. University Press of Colorado, Boulder] to determine point type and, therefore, probable adaptive strategy. Second, we discuss the implications of the presence of a late Paleoindian Angostura occupation on the southwestern Colorado Plateau and the Badger Springs assemblage.


Cells continuously export, import, and recycle molecules over the plasma membrane. Internalization, i.e. cellular import of extracellular material, is a fundamental process, which provides cells with nutrients and enables the immune cells of higher organisms to remove debris, sample their surroundings for antigens and to fight microbes. Moreover, internalization regulates complex cellular signalling events involved in cellular division, motion, and communication with the surrounding extracellular matrix. However, the preserved routes of internalization are exploited by a large number of microbes and pathological factors such as bacterial toxins and viral proteins. The HIV-1 TAT protein was shown to enter cells and to target their nuclei, thus acting as a paracrine transcription factor, a finding that initiated the field of so called cell penetrating peptides (CPPs). Due to their ability to efficiently deliver macromolecular cargo over the plasma membrane, CPPs have proven to be useful tools in basic research. More importantly, the technology has been shown to enhance delivery of a number of macromolecular compounds in vivo, including anticancer drugs. The proteoglycan family of molecules has previously been shown to participate in the interaction with and internalization of a number of ligands, including polyamines, growth factors, morphogens, and microbes. This thesis deals with the role of proteoglycans in cellular internalization of charged biopolymers, i.e. the polyamine family of growth factors, HIV-Tat peptide, antimicrobial peptides, and nucleic acids. The presented findings bring proteoglycans into focus as a general internalization pathway for charged macromolecules, with implications for drug and gene delivery. (Less)


In response to an applied electric field, materials and even individual molecules can exhibit electromechanical response. Previous work has demonstrated the piezoelectric distortion of polar organic crystals, biomaterials, and even single molecular monolayers, increasing length in response to the change in potential energy of interaction between the polarization or dipole moment and the applied electric field. In this work, we demonstrate through density functional calculations that helical oligopeptides, depending on sequence can exhibit both positive and surprisingly also negative piezoresponse. While the overall molecular dipole moment may favor positive piezoresponse, individual hydrogen bonding interactions along the backbone have the opposite direction, enabling tailored sequences to yield either net expansion or contraction in response to an electric field. While negative piezoresponse has largely been considered in polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) and related systems, understanding the atomic and molecular basis for both electromechanical effects will yield interesting new applications.


Abstract Background Great strides have been made toward onchocerciasis elimination by mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin. Focusing on MDA-eligible areas, we investigated where the elimination goal can be achieved by 2025 by continuation of current practice (annual MDA with ivermectin) and where intensification or additional vector control is required. We did not consider areas hypoendemic for onchocerciasis with loiasis coendemicity where MDA is contraindicated. Methods We used 2 previously published mathematical models, ONCHOSIM and EPIONCHO, to simulate future trends in microfilarial prevalence for 80 different settings (defined by precontrol endemicity and past MDA frequency and coverage) under different future treatment scenarios (annual, biannual, or quarterly MDA with different treatment coverage through 2025, with or without vector control strategies), assessing for each strategy whether it eventually leads to elimination. Results Areas with 40%–50% precontrol microfilarial prevalence and ≥10 years of annual MDA may achieve elimination with a further 7 years of annual MDA, if not achieved already, according to both models. For most areas with 70%–80% precontrol prevalence, ONCHOSIM predicts that either annual or biannual MDA is sufficient to achieve elimination by 2025, whereas EPIONCHO predicts that elimination will not be achieved even with complementary vector control. Conclusions Whether elimination will be reached by 2025 depends on precontrol endemicity, control history, and strategies chosen from now until 2025. Biannual or quarterly MDA will accelerate progress toward elimination but cannot guarantee it by 2025 in high-endemicity areas. Long-term concomitant MDA and vector control for high-endemicity areas might be useful.


This thesis is concerned with a phase field model for brittle fracture.
The high potential of phase field modeling in computational fracture mechanics lies in the generality of the approach and the straightforward numerical implementation, combined with a good accuracy of the results in the sense of continuum fracture mechanics.
However, despite the convenient numerical application of phase field fracture models, a detailed understanding of the physical properties is crucial for a correct interpretation of the numerical results. Therefore, the driving mechanisms of crack propagation and nucleation in the proposed phase field fracture model are explored by a thorough numerical and analytical investigation in this work.


Dr. Monroe Fordham, Professor Emeritus, taught in the History Department at the State University of New York College at Buffalo (Buffalo State College) for 25 years. He pioneered the development of a process for forging partnerships between practitioners and community members in the search of local record and histories. "A Conversation with Monroe Fordham" addresses the fundamental historiographical problems stemming from the absence or lack of "hard data" needed for creating sound community history. He outlines the methods he and others developed to form dynamic partnerships with non-academicians and their quest to gather, preserve, and present authentic local histories. Fordham illustrates the importance of significant endeavors such as programs to conduct workshops in the community on preserving historical materials and sponsored essay contests to involve school children in their own histories. He summarizes the value of the program when he says, "What is going to get your history included is somebody deciding that it is important to gather those source materials from which people can do research and do writing." In this way, anecdotal historical accounts become part of the knowledge base. While the focus of Dr. Fordham's project is primarily African American history, the model of what can and should be done for community participation applies to preservation of the history of any group. It is an unpretentious model that provides for the collection and preservation of material in a manageable, minimalist approach that can be implemented at little expense and with little training. We are very happy that you are willing to talk with us about the project you developed over the years to collect documentation for the African American community in Buffalo. What we are particularly interested in exploring is your point of view about the project, how you got started, its basic objectives and anything that can contribute to a broader understanding of its purpose and the philosophy behind it, some of your successes and failures. (Words in italic identify interviewers Dr. Jean Richardson, Dr. Nuala McGann Drescherand Mr. Paul [DeWald.).sup.1] MF: I will talk first about how we got started. Back when I graduated from the University of [Buffal.(UB).sup.2] in 1973, I was looking around, for a research project that would engage me for a few years, in the short term. I decided to do local history because of the proximity of sources and how inexpensive it would be to do. I further decided to do local church history, the history of the African American church. I was going to focus on the twentieth century. And, I decided to do oral history as a beginning, not with the idea of building an archive, but with the idea of building some materials from which I could examine and explore the impact of the church in Buffalo. I decided to begin the interviews with a lady by the name of Mrs. Alberta Nelson. Mrs. Nelson was about ninety years old. She was a member of the church that I attended and was very active in it. Her mind was very fluid and she had been involved in the history of the A.M.E. Bethel Church of Buffalo for a long time. So I set up the interview with Mrs. Nelson and went over to meet her. When I did, I also met her husband, who was also about ninety years old, maybe a little older. During the interview with Mrs. Nelson, we discussed church activities and her involvement with the church. We worked for about an hour and I intended to go back and do additional interviews with her. But, when I got through interviewing Mrs. Nelson, her husband came up to me and said that I might want to interview him. I did not think much about it because he wasn't a churchman. He was not active in the church; he was not even a member as far as I knew. As I got ready to leave, he said 'do you want to set a date for interviewing me?' I said 'maybe we'll just talk to you now about what I might interview you about. …


Abstract
 A detailed account of the newly designated neotype specimen of Amphiroa crassa Lamouroux (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) is presented. Reasons necessitating its neotypification with a specimen remote from the reported type locality (Shark Bay, Western Australia) are outlined, and historical background information is provided. Brief comparisons with the recently typified type species of the genus, A. tribulus, and with four other Australian species (A. anceps, A. beauvoisii, A. gracilis, A. klochkovana) whose types have been studied in a modern context also are included. A. crassa differs from all of these species in that intergenicula produce a collar of untransformed, calcified peripheral region cells that surrounds and partly to largely encloses each geniculum.


In 2003 the local authorities in Amsterdam initiated a language policy in cooperation with the city's elementary schools. During eight years a large number of activities have been undertaken to help schools with their task to educate children from very different language backgrounds as well as they can and to find solutions for the problems they face. This article summarizes these activities in the light of changing views on language policy. Although it is still difficult to get an insight into the actual effects of all the efforts on the pupils, trends of changes are becoming clear. Now it is time to consolidate these trends and to move on to incorporate evidence-based programmes and new knowledge into the schools and to educate the teachers to perform their complex tasks as well as possible.


The study addressed the question whether gene expression patterns induced by different mixtures of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) administered in a higher dose range, corresponding to 450×, 200×, and 100× high-end human exposure levels, could be characterized in developing brain with respect to endocrine activity of mixture components, and which developmental processes were preferentially targeted. Three EDC mixtures, A-Mix (anti-androgenic mixture) with 8 antiandrogenic chemicals (di-n-butylphthalate, diethylhexylphthalate, vinclozolin, prochloraz, procymidone, linuron, epoxiconazole, and DDE), E-Mix (estrogenic mixture) with 4 estrogenic chemicals (bisphenol A, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, 2-ethylhexyl 4-methoxycinnamate, and butylparaben), a complex mixture, AEP-Mix, containing the components of A-Mix and E-Mix plus paracetamol, and paracetamol alone, were administered by oral gavage to rat dams from gestation day 7 until weaning. General developmental endpoints were not affected by EDC mixtures or paracetamol. Gene expression was analyzed on postnatal day 6, during sexual brain differentiation, by exon microarray in medial preoptic area in the high-dose group, and by real-time RT-PCR in medial preoptic area and ventromedial hypothalamus in all dose groups. Expression patterns were mixture, sex, and region specific. Effects of the analgesic drug paracetamol, which exhibits antiandrogenic activity in peripheral systems, differed from those of A-Mix. All mixtures had a strong, mixture-specific impact on genes encoding for components of excitatory glutamatergic synapses and genes controlling migration and pathfinding of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons, as well as genes linked with increased risk of autism spectrum disorders. Because development of glutamatergic synapses is regulated by sex steroids also in hippocampus, this may represent a general target of ECD mixtures.


ABSTRACT This paper reviews the position of old age in the societies of post-Roman Europe, from the fifth to the 10th centuries. Drawing on both primary and secondary literary and material sources of the period, I suggest that living beyond the age of 60 years was an uncommon experience throughout the early Middle Ages. Not only was achieving old age a minority experience, it seems to have been particularly concentrated among the senior clergy. This, together with the growing importance of the Christian Church as the institution that stabilised post-Roman society, the decline of urban living and its attendant culture of leisure and literacy, and the transformation of kinship into a symbolic 'family under God' contributed to a more favourable status for old age, or at least one that was particularly favourable for older men. This was based not so much upon the accumulation with age of wealth and privilege, but upon the moral worth of old age as a stage of life. The early Middle Ages, the so-called 'Dark Ages', was in this respect a relatively distinctive period in the history of old age. With all around instability and the future uncertain and often threatening, survival into old age was a rare but frequently revered attainment.


PURPOSE
To relate nurses' self-rated perceptions of violence (emotional abuse, threat, or actual violence) on medical-surgical units to the nursing working environment and to patient outcomes.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional collection of data by surveys and primary data collection for 1-week periods on 94 nursing wards in 21 hospitals in two states of Australia.

METHODS
Nursing Work Index-Revised (NWI-R); Environmental Complexity Scale (ECS) PRN-80 (a measure of patient acuity); and a nursing survey with three questions on workplace violence; combined with primary data collection for staffing, skill mix, and patient outcomes (falls, medication errors).

FINDINGS
About one third of nurses participating (N=2,487, 80.3% response rate) perceived emotional abuse during the last five shifts worked. Reports of threats (14%) or actual violence (20%) were lower, but there was great variation among nursing units with some unit rates as high as 65%. Reported violence was associated with increased ward instability (lack of leadership; difficult MD and RN relationships). Violence was associated with unit operations: unanticipated changes in patient mix; proportion of patients awaiting placement; the discrepancy between nursing resources required from acuity measurement and those supplied; more tasks delayed; and increases in medication errors. Higher skill mix (percentage of registered nurses) and percentage of nurses with a bachelor of science in nursing degrees were associated with fewer reported perceptions of violence at the ward level. Intent to leave the present position was associated with perceptions of emotional violence but not with threat or actual assault.

CONCLUSIONS
Violence is a fact of working life for nurses. Perceptions of violence were related to adverse patient outcomes through unstable or negative qualities of the working environment. Perceptions of violence affect job satisfaction.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
In order to manage effectively the delivery of nursing care in hospitals, it is essential to understand the complexity of the nursing work environment, including the relationship of violence to patient outcomes.


Coal in the finer particle size ranges (below 1 mm) has always suffered from poor cleaning efficiencies. This problem has been exacerbated in recent years with the increased amount of high ash fines due to continuous mining machines and the mining of dirtier coal seams. In the present work, it is proposed to improve overall plant efficiencies by processing coarser coal in column flotation than is now commonly treated by that method. Column flotation for coarse coal is supported by actual lab and plant test data that result in a full-scale column plant installation. The fundamentals of coarse particle detachment from bubbles are reviewed and a new simplified model is developed which better handles cubical and rectangular coal particles. Much of the lower efficiency of fine coal cleaning is due to poor size separation of the fine-sized raw coal which results in misplaced high ash fines reporting to the coarser size streams. By sending coarser material to column flotation, the finest size separation that takes place in a plant can be as coarse as 0.5 mm or greater. The proper use of wash water in a flotation column then becomes the best mechanism for desliming of the high ash clays. This work quantifies the benefits of removing the high ash fines from the plant product and increasing overall plant yield by increasing the amount of near-gravity coarse material. The resulting yield gain is greater than that obtained from only the increased fine coal recovery. Methods of column operation for improved coarse coal recovery are also evaluated. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


We address the problem of reconstructing 3D face models from large unstructured photo collections, e.g., obtained by Google image search or from personal photo collections in iPhoto. This problem is extremely challenging due to the high degree of variability in pose, illumination, facial expression, non-rigid changes in face shape and reflectance over time and occlusions. In light of this extreme variability, no single reconstruction can be consistent with all of the images. Instead, we define as the goal of reconstruction to recover a model that is locally consistent with the image set. I.e., each local region of the model is consistent with a large set of photos, resulting in a model that captures the dominant trends in the input data for different parts of the face. Our approach leverages multi-image shading, but unlike traditional photometric stereo approaches, allows for changes in viewpoint and shape. We optimize over pose, shape, and lighting in an iterative approach that seeks to minimize the rank of the transformed images. This approach produces high quality shape models for a wide range of celebrities from photos available on the Internet.