This practice-based research explores the nature of the feral, as manifested in an object-based installation practice of contemporary art that scavenges - physically, socially and metaphorically - in the gap between defined spaces. My conception of the feral draws out the political promise of this indeterminacy: the state of being partly wild and partly civilised. The page is also constructed materially, as a space where heterogeneous elements meet: different voices expressed through the writing and images of my practice.

In claiming the feral as a critical concept, I reject its more common, derogatory, usage. In particular, during the 2011 London riots, the former British Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke labelled the rioters a "feral underclass", seeking to fix them in this uncivilised, abject position. I unfix this separation, through a feral interpretation of my objects, as they interpenetrate domestic, institutional, and civilised public spheres. Mother's milk solidifies as plaster-filled condom bombs, at once phallic and breast-like, poised to ignite a pyre of social theory texts in a gallery project space, a former factory; haphazard conglomerations of plant matter and urban debris are strung together in bunting on an inner-city community hall.

The feral becomes here a rival concept to Julia Kristeva's formulation of abjection, as the seeping bodily organs evoked by my objects are not defined in terms of the individual, but reflected on through the formless mass of the social body, the displaced undercommons of Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, the wild of Jack Halberstam, the rioters of Joshua Clover.

The feral has an antagonistic quality, but it cannot fit the relational models of art put forward by Chantal Mouffe and Claire Bishop that seek to civilise this antagonism. Neither can the positivity of Rosi Braidotti's posthuman new materialism extract the hybridity of materials I use from the precariousness of the social conditions from which they are drawn. My practice, like the feral, resists these separations.


STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Bonded densely sintered aluminum oxide ceramic restorations such as Procera AllCeram laminates rely on a strong and long-term durable resin bond. Air particle abrasion and a phosphate-modified resin luting agent have the potential to provide such bonds to aluminum oxide ceramics, but their efficacy on the Procera AllCeram intaglio surface is unknown. The inherent microroughness of this surface may influence bond strengths, because micromechanical interlocking is a main contributor for adhesion of resins to ceramic materials.

PURPOSE
This study evaluated the bond strength of a phosphate-modified resin luting agent with and without silanization to an air particle-abraded Procera AllCeram intaglio surface compared with a conventional resin-bonding system before and after artificial aging.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Sixty square (10 x 10 x 2 mm) specimens of Procera AllCeram alumina ceramic with the Procera intaglio surface were air particle abraded with aluminum oxide. Composite cylinders (2.9 mm in diameter and 3.0 mm in width) were fabricated with Z-250 composite and bonded to the ceramic specimens with either Panavia 21 TC or Rely X ARC (control) and their corresponding bonding/silane coupling agents. In addition, Panavia was used without silanization as suggested in similar studies. Subgroups of 10 specimens were stored in distilled water for either 3 or 180 days before shear bond strength was tested with a universal testing machine (MPa) until fracture. The 180-day specimens were subjected to thermocycling at 2000 cycles every 30 days (12,000 cycles total). Data were analyzed with 1-way analysis of variance and Tukey's multiple comparison (alpha=.05). Failure modes were examined with a light microscope (original magnification x 25).

RESULTS
Differences between short-term and long-term groups were highly significant (P=.000). Bond strength with Rely X ARC and its silane coupling agent (22.75 +/- 4 MPa) decreased significantly (P=.000) after artificial aging (3.32 +/- 3.62 MPa). Panavia 21 after silanization revealed significantly different (P=.003) early (21.42 +/- 4.3 MPa) and late (16.09 +/- 2.37 MPa) bond strengths but achieved the highest bond strength after artificial aging. Bond strengths of Panavia without silanization both early (8.06 +/- 2.1 MPa) and late (6.91 +/- 2.49 MPa) were not significantly different. Failure modes were mainly adhesive at the ceramic surface for all groups.

CONCLUSION
Panavia 21 in combination with its corresponding bonding/silane coupling agent can achieve an acceptable resin bond to the air particle-abraded intaglio surface of Procera AllCeram restorations after artificial aging, which had mixed effects on the other investigated groups. The conventional resin luting agent revealed the most dramatic decrease in bond strength.


Mixed metal oxide (MMO) nanoparticles (also called heterometal oxide nanoparticles) can play an appreciable role in many areas of chemistry and physics. The unique electronic and magnetic properties obtained when combining two metals in an oxide matrix have been well studied. However, the most common use for MMOs has been in the area of catalysis, and here they have found use both as the catalyst and as catalyst supports. Specifically, MMO containing aluminum has found many opportunities in catalysis. – 7] Mixed metal oxides are also used in many applications in the electronic industry as passive or active components in devices. These exhibit high dielectric, and ferroor pyroelectric properties, e.g., BaTiO3, LiNbO3, KTaO3, Pb1 xLaxTiyZr2O3, etc. The most remarkable MMO materials are surely the thermal-conducting superconductors based on YBa2Cu3O7 x. The technological interest in MMOs such as silica–titania and silica–zirconia arises from their chemical resistance and their thermomechanical or optical properties. SiO2–TiO2 glasses and zircon, SrZrO4, are characterized by very low thermal expansion, which confer them a high thermal-shock resistance. SiO2–TiO2 and SiO2–ZrO2 glasses have high refractive indices and are wonderful catalysts or catalyst supports. Owing to their refractoriness, these MMOs are difficult to produce by conventional melting techniques; thus, sol– gel technique is used for their preparation. The homogeneity of binary oxide has great influence on structural evolution of the gels during the heat treatment. Magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl2O4) is expected to have applications as a structural material at high temperatures because it has a high melting point and superior thermal and chemical properties. It is also of technological interest as a refractory material at elevated temperatures. It is important to realize that improved properties are recorded for ceramic materials at nanoscale and these materials are expected to find the most important place in technology in the coming years. In this article, we have covered the most important and recent methods of preparation of nanocrystalline MMOs. Special emphasis has been given on sol–gel technique because of its popularity among researchers, resulting in homogeneous and pure MMO nanoparticles. Among physical methods, perhaps flame spray pyrolysis is gaining more importance in recent time. Structure, properties, and applications of MMO nanoparticles have also been discussed. This area of research is wide open and offers scope for development in synthetic and application fields.


Grasslands are dynamic and diverse. They thrive in almost any soil, from former agricultural fields to wetlands, pipeline routes, vacant lots, and brownfields. Despite prolific research and discussion in the academic, public, and private spheres, there is still much we don't know about how to restore an ecologically functioning grassland ecosystem that supports many plant, animal and microbe species, decreases soil erosion, increases water quality, resists invasive plant species, and is pleasing to the eye. In this special issue of Ecological Restoration, we have compiled a series of perspectives, reviews, research, and design articles to address the status, challenges, and success of grassland restoration in the United States. We start this issue with a series of perspectives from individuals in academic, private, and public organizations involved in grassland restoration. These authors cover topics spanning invasion resistance (Yurkonis), coupling habitat restoration with biofuel production (Burkhalter), native seed production (Kedzierski, Miller), and the importance of communication between scientists and practitioners to enhance restoration success (Dickens and Suding). This is followed by a series of restoration notes and articles that experimentally test the practice and theory of restoration ecology. Rayburn and Laca review the practice of stripseeding in grassland restoration. Goldblum and colleagues, and Nemec and colleagues, examine the impact of different seed mixes and density on target species composition and invasion resistance in restored grasslands. Norland and colleagues show that the seeding of functionally similar forbs is successful in resisting invasion of Canada thistle. Agricultural catchments can be successfully restored to diverse plant communities without increasing unwanted species in crops (Hirsh et al.). Espeland examines the importance of soil legacy and soil conditioning in restoring California plantain populations. Taylor and colleagues demonstrate that low-cost grazing, herbicide, and seeding treatments increase native perennial grasses over exotic grasses. Finally, we feature an extensive design project by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects that incorporates restoration and monitoring into the transformation of a former agricultural landscape. All of these pieces further the science and practice of restoration ecology to enhance the diversity and ecological function of our much damaged grasslands. Ecological Restoration hopes that by communicating these findings to you, this special issue will help bridge the gap between science and practice, advancing your efforts. Thank you for reading.


The United States' Supreme Court had never upheld a claim of estoppel against the government. A citizen relying on government's advice does that at her peril: if the government was wrong, if it misrepresented the statute or interpreted it wrongly, it can (by some interpretations, must) go back on its word and the citizen has no recourse. The Supreme Court provided many arguments for that position, but the core of them involves protection of what the Europeans refer to as "the principle of legality": the executive does not have the ability to waive requirements from primary legislation or deviate from statutes, even to protect reliance. Similar concerns enter the law in other systems – as demonstrated in this article for the U.K., France and Israel. However, this position comes with a price. There are costs to the (usually innocent) relying citizen, both in money and in autonomy. There are costs to the government, in loss of trust and potential loss of legitimacy. The United States' approach does not balance these costs; it completely privileges the principle of legality. The other systems discussed here do a better job balancing both interests and providing some protection to the relying citizen. They protect reliance in a number of situations. And they provide monetary damages in other cases, where forcing the government to adhere to its initial position would harm the public interest too much. This article suggests that not protecting reliance is unjustified, and draws on the comparative materials to demonstrate the interests at stake and offer a solution to the dilemma that allows the court to protect the principle of legality while also protecting the citizen's interest: by suggesting an administrative law solution, and by providing a monetary remedy in appropriate cases.


OBJECTIVE
Physical pain and negative affect have been described as risk factors for alcohol use following alcohol treatment. The current study was a secondary analysis of 2 clinical trials for alcohol use disorder (AUD) to examine the associations between pain, negative affect and AUD treatment outcomes.

METHOD
Participants included 1,383 individuals from the COMBINE Study (COMBINE Pharmacotherapies and Behavioral Interventions for Alcohol Dependence; COMBINE Study Research Group, 2003; 31% female, 23% ethnic minorities, average age = 44.4 [SD = 10.2]), a multisite combination pharmacotherapy and behavioral intervention study for AUD in the United States, and 742 individuals from the United Kingdom Alcohol Treatment Trial (UKATT Research Team, 2001; 25.9% female, 4.4% ethnic minorities, average age = 41.6 [SD = 10.1]) a multisite behavioral intervention study for AUD in the United Kingdom. The Form-90 was used to collect alcohol use data, the Short Form Health Survey and Quality of Life measures were used to assess pain, and negative affect was assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory (COMBINE) and the General Health Questionnaire (UKATT).

RESULTS
Pain scores were significantly associated with drinking outcomes in both datasets. Greater pain scores were associated with greater negative affect and increases in pain were associated with increases in negative affect. Negative affect significantly mediated the association between pain and drinking outcomes and this effect was moderated by social behavior network therapy (SBNT) in the UKATT study, with SBNT attenuating the association between pain and drinking.

CONCLUSION
Findings suggest pain and negative affect are associated among individuals in AUD treatment and that negative affect mediated pain may be a risk factor for alcohol relapse.


Thermochromic liquid crystals (TLCs or TLC) are complex organic substances which
selectively reflect visible light as function of temperature. Narrowband TLCs are
attractive for temperature measurements due to their higher precision in temperature
measurements associated with their narrow bandwidths, and calibrations of
narrowband TLCs are less affected by variations in illumination-viewing angles and
background illumination. In order to properly utilize narrowband TLCs and intensitymatching
methods for quantitative temperature measurements, it is important to
investigate film thickness effects on intensity-based calibrations of narrowband TLCs,
which have been previously ignored in previous research. Film thicknesses of 10, 20,
30, 40 and 50 μm were investigated on green intensity-based calibrations of R35C1W
narrowband TLC during heating and cooling. The results showed an increase in
magnitude of peak green intensity with increasing film thickness, with a percentage
increase of approximately 18% when film thickness increased from 10 μm to 50 μm.
The results also showed an inconsistent shift in peak green temperature, with a
maximum temperature shift of 0.40oC, suggesting that film thickness effects may be
insignificant for narrowband TLCs compared with wideband TLCs. A theoretical method for estimating the volume of coating formulation required to
achieve a desired film thickness was presented in this research, based on the film
coverage and dry solids content of the TLCs. Results were presented for seven
samples of sprayable narrowband TLCs with desired film thicknesses of 10, 20, 30,
40 and 50 μm based on a square shaped model surface area. The percentage
uncertainties in volume of coating formulation was obtained to be significant, within
57 – 67%, however, the results were attributed mainly to the lack in accuracy of the
electronic balance, which was ± 1 g. Simulation results showed that if the accuracy
was increased to ± 0.001 g, the percentage uncertainties decreased to less than 5% for
all samples. The method is easily implemented, and is likely to be beneficial to users
intending to employ sprayable TLCs for temperature measurements.
In this research, a graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to process images
and data in transient calibration of TLCs. The GUI functions to generate full
intensity-based calibration curves based on single colour intensity in the Red-Green-
Blue (RGB) colour space. The GUI greatly simplifies, streamlines and automates
image and data processing, which at present, is carried out by low-level programming
and keyboard-entered commands. The GUI is likely to be a useful tool for users
intending to utilize TLCs for temperature measurements.


Sequence-to-sequence models have achieved impressive results on various tasks. However, they are unsuitable for tasks that require incremental predictions to be made as more data arrives. This is because they generate an output sequence conditioned on an entire input sequence. In this paper, we present a new model that can make incremental predictions as more input arrives, without redoing the entire computation. Unlike sequence-to-sequence models, our method computes the next-step distribution conditioned on the partial input sequence observed and the partial sequence generated. It accomplishes this goal using an encoder recurrent neural network (RNN) that computes features at the same frame rate as the input, and a transducer RNN that operates over blocks of input steps. The transducer RNN extends the sequence produced so far using a local sequence-to-sequence model. During training, our method uses alignment information to generate supervised targets for each block. Approximate alignment is easily available for tasks such as speech recognition, action recognition in videos, etc. During inference (decoding), beam search is used to find the most likely output sequence for an input sequence. This decoding is performed online - at the end of each block, the best candidates from the previous block are extended through the local sequence-to-sequence model. On TIMIT, our online method achieves 19.8% phone error rate (PER). For comparison with published sequence-to-sequence methods, we used a bidirectional encoder and achieved 18.7% PER compared to 17.6% from the best reported sequence-to-sequence model. Importantly, unlike sequence-to-sequence our model is minimally impacted by the length of the input. On artificially created longer utterances, it achieves 20.9% with a unidirectional model, compared to 20% from the best bidirectional sequence-to-sequence models.


The challenge of meeting the growing cost of welfare is one of the most pressing issues facing governments of our time. Glennerster's authoritative Understanding the cost of welfare assesses what welfare costs and how it is funded sector-by-sector. The book is written in a clear, accessible style, ideally suited to both teaching and study, and the general reader. This substantially revised third edition includes: • Discussion of the many funding issues now facing welfare states, such as demographic change, tax resistance, slow growth and austerity programmes • The theory and practice of devolved tax and budgetary responsibilities between UK nations and in comparison with other countries • New chapters on pensions and post-16 education • More regular and extensive comparative analysis Divided into 3 sections, covering Principles, Service funding, and The Future, the book Includes questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading, making it an easy-to-use, essential resource for both undergraduate and post-graduate students of Social Policy, Sociology, Politics and Public Administration. - See more at: https://policypress.co.uk/understanding-the-cost-of-welfare#book-detail-tabs-stison-block-content-1-0-tab0


Flagships are the physical apogee of consumerism, places where brand experiences are most defined and interactions with consumers are highly refined. This book marks the first comprehensive study of the concept of the flagship, bringing together a range of scholarly insights from the field, covering issues such as consumerism, areas of consumption and experimental marketing theory and practise. The ways in which flagship projects communicate brand values, both externally and internally, form an important part of this book, and provide new perspectives on late twentieth century commercial and cultural policy and practice.

Kent and Brown offer a truly interdisciplinary approach to the concept, offering a variety of perspectives on the debates surrounding flagship function and its role as a place of consumption. Chapters focus on the development of prestigious stores, hotels and arts and cultural centres, as showcases for branded experiences and products and as demonstrations of commercial and public policy. Cases and examples include The Eden Project in the UK, automotive showrooms in Germany, hotels in Dubai and Las Vegas, and Vienna's cultural quarter. Theoretical discussion explores the tensions between costs and profitability, conspicuous consumption and the sustainability of iconic forms. The book enables readers to explore the flagship concept from different perspectives, and while a marketing approach predominates, it provides a disciplinary challenge which will open up new ways of understanding the concept.


This abstract describes an experiment conducted to assess the effectiveness of a virtual environment to act as a method of exposure in the treatment of public speaking anxiety among high school students. In one of the experimental conditions, the participants had to make a presentation to a virtual audience using a Samsung Gear VR headset, which displayed a prerecorded 360-degree video of a classroom full of students. In another experimental condition, the participants had to make a presentation, without the VR headset and an audience. In both conditions, participant's heartbeat rate (response variable) was measured. The results show that the heartbeat during the experimental condition with a VR headset was significantly higher with respect to the heartbeat rate measured to the condition without the headset. This study should be followed up with a treatment study, where a virtual reality device would track a user's vitals during prolonged use and report the user's progress.


Concanavalin A, provoked a 35-fold increase in the rate of proliferation of rat thymocytes. Insulin (10-6M), and insulin-like growth factor I (10-10M) approximately doubled the rate of DNA synthesis. Both of these structurally related molecules acted through the type I insulin-like growth factor receptor. The sequential addition of Concanavalin A and insulin, promoted a much greater proliferative response than to either of the two agonists alone. Insulin also increased the uptake of glucose and amino acids by the cells. Glucose uptake was enhanced at insulin concentrations of 10-6M and 10-10M. Amino acid uptake was more strongly affected at the higher concentration. Insulin-like growth factor I (10-11M) also enhanced amino acid uptake. The effects of insulin on metabolism were mediated by both insulin and type I insulin-like growth factor receptors. These effects were greatly enhanced after a pre-treatment with Concanavalin A. Concanavalin A provided a primary mitogenic signal to the cells. Amongst the responses was an increased expression of insulin and/or type I insulin-like growth factor receptors. The consequent enhanced cellular sensitivity to these agonists, enabled them to facilitate the passage of the cells through the cell cycle by: i) providing a secondary mitogenic signal, and ii) promoting the uptake of raw materials and energy substrates. The initiation of DNA synthesis and passage through the cell cycle was thus punctuated by the sequential expression of various cell surface receptors. This regulated cellular sensitivity, enabling them to react in a precisely orchestrated fashion to hormones and other molecules in their environment. The intracellular mechanism of insulin action remains an enigma. Although the presence of extracellular calcium was essential for insulin stimulation of amino acid uptake and DNA synthesis, the cation did not subserve a direct mediator function. Insulin promoted an increase in intracellular pH, which was mediated by the Na+/H+ antiport. Other mechanisms were probably also involved in mediating the full cellular response to insulin.


Experience with urban social assistance programmes is still limited. Many of the existing urban programmes are extensions or duplicates of rural programmes, but urban-sensitive social protection needs to reflect the distinct vulnerabilities of the urban poor. Furthermore, applying a child lens requires identifying and addressing the specific risks and multiple deprivations that are experienced by half of urban children in developing countries. As a result, designing social assistance for urban contexts faces challenges such as accurately targeting the poor (given the spatial geography of urban poverty) and setting appropriate payment levels (given the high and variable costs of urban living). Geographic targeting (e.g. informal settlements), proxy means testing (if urban-sensitive) and categorical targeting (e.g. street children) are popular mechanisms in urban areas, but community-based targeting is often inappropriate (because of urban social fragmentation) while self-targeting can be unethical (e.g. where wages below market rates are paid in public works projects) and might contradict rights-based approaches. These are relevant challenges to address when designing urban social protection programmes. We apply these reflections to Ghana. The country is a relevant case study because it is growing and urbanizing rapidly. But as the result of urbanization, urban poverty and deprivations are rising even though national poverty rates have halved. Anti-poverty policies and social protection interventions remain biased towards the rural poor. The 'urbanization of poverty' in Ghana has created problems such as overcrowded housing, limited access to sanitation, and outbreaks of communicable diseases. This paper provides guidance on the critical questions to ask to design in Ghana a successful urban social protection programme with a child lens.


A national household coverage survey of 3697 Ecuadorean children, carried out in July 1986, provided an opportunity for a cost-effectiveness analysis of (1) routine vaccination services based in fixed facilities and (2) mass immunization campaigns. A major purpose of the campaigns was to complement the routine services and to accelerate immunization activities. Based on the coverage survey, the Program for Reduction of Maternal and Childhood Illness (PREMI) and earlier campaigns increased the proportion of children under 5 years who were fully vaccinated from 43% to 64%. In one year, the PREMI campaign was responsible for fully vaccinating 11% of children under one year, 21% of 1-2-year-old children, and 13% of all children under 5 years. The campaign also helped ensure that vaccinations were completed when children were still very young and at greatest risk. The average cost per vaccination dose (in 1985 US$ prices) was approximately $0.29 for fixed facilities and $0.83 for the PREMI campaign. Total national costs were $675,000 and $1,665,000 for routine and campaign services respectively. The cost per fully vaccinated child (FVC) was $4.39 for routine vaccination services and $8.60 for the campaign. The cost per death averted was about $1900 for routine vaccination services, $4200 for the PREMI campaign, and $3200 for the combined programme. Because of Ecuador's lower mortality rates, the costs per death averted in Ecuador from both vaccination strategies are not as low as those from studies of vaccinations in Africa. The campaigns, though less cost-effective than routine services, significantly improved the vaccination coverage of younger children who had been missed by the routine services. The costs per FVC of both the campaign and the routine services compare favourably with such programmes in other countries.


At a time when the place and significance of myth in society has come under renewed scrutiny, Myth, Literature, and the Unconscious contributes to shaping the new interdisciplinary field of myth studies. The editors find in psychoanalysis a natural and necessary ally for investigations in myth and myth-informed literature and the arts. At the same time the collection re-values myths and myth-based cultural products as vital aids to the discipline and practice of psychoanalysis. The volume spans a vast geo-cultural range (including ancient Egypt, India, Japan, nineteenth-century France, and twentieth-century Germany) and investigates cultural products from the Mahabharata to J. W. Goethe?s opus and eighteenth-century Japanese fiction, and from William Blake?s visionary poetry to contemporary blockbuster television series. It encompasses mythic topics and figures such as Oedipus, Orpheus, the Scapegoat, and the Hero, while mobilising Freudian, Jungian, object relations, and Lacanian psychoanalytic approaches. Bringing together an international array of both leading and emerging researchers, Myth, Literature, and the Unconscious provides an exceptionally rich overview of the concerns and exciting possibilities of this new interdisciplinary field while simultaneously contributing to scholarship on the literary texts and psychoanalytic concepts it evokes.


This thesis describes a novel synthesis of polypeptides via N5carboxyanhydride (NCA) ring5 opening polymerization (ROP). For the first time, NCA ROP photo5initiation by using a photoamine generator was demonstrated. The active initiator cyclohexylamine was produced in# situ by the UV5induced breakdown of the photoamine generator. Two NCA monomers, benzyl5L5glutamate (BLG) and TFA5L5lysine (TLL) were chosen to demonstrate the process. Optimizing the photo system by exchanging of the chromophoric group of the photoamine generator and the associated exchange of the light source towards a blacklight lamp showed similar polypeptide products as in conventional polymerization. Moreover, synthesis of a silane5based photoamine generator, bearing the same chromophoric protection group allowed photo5initiated grafting of polypeptide from solid surfaces such as silica nanoparticles and silicon wafers. Polypeptide grafted silica nanoparticles showed a significant increase of their hydrodynamic diameter, detected by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and a significant weight loss, detected by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). Silicon wafer surfaces grafted by polypeptides showed a significantly higher hydrophobicity. Ellipsometry results, together with elemental analysis with X5ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Time5of5Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (Tof5SIMS) confirmed non5homogeneous polypeptide layers with a thickness of 3 nm. In addition, a novel drug delivery system was investigated by first synthesizing an amphiphilic block copolypeptide poly(benzyl5L5glutamate5b5L5arginine) (PBLG5b5PLR). This approach uses the PLR block as hydrophilic part, but also as Cell5Penetrating5Peptide for a potential selective drug delivery to diseased tissue. Two synthesis routes were investigated: (1) block copolymerization of BLG and the non5natural amino acid L5ornithine, which is modified after polymerization to the desired PLR block. The second synthesis route includes the ligation of the ROP5derived PBLG block with the Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS)5derived PLR block. Both polymer materials were used for self5assembly studies.


Economic theory that suggests that under-performing boards of directors should be fearful of an ouster vote by shareholders under-appreciates the complexity of shareholder voting decisions. Skill at enhancing firm value has less to do with whether directors win votes and stay at the helm of public companies than previous commentators have acknowledged. Instead, like an incumbent politician, managers of some of the largest US firms tend to stay in charge of the firm because they understand - and take advantage of - the political dynamics of corporate voting. Thus, this Article presents a competing theory of shareholder voting decisions that suggests that the process of arriving at a voting decision for shareholders in corporate elections is not dissimilar from how citizens vote in political elections. Next, the Article presents the evidence. Using a hand-collected dataset from recent elections for board seats, the Article compares the explanatory power of a standard economic variable (long-term stock price returns) and a political variable (money spent on campaigning) on election outcomes. Based on the data, directors' ability to enhance firm value (as measured by stock price returns) is not significantly related to whether they win re-election. Rather, the likelihood of being returned to office appears to be a function of typical election politics - how much was spent by challengers to put on a campaign. These findings have at least two considerable implications. First, the theory that shareholder voting may be politicized helps point the way to how the SEC ought to craft reforms - and, just as important, how not to craft them. Recent SEC reforms have the laudable goals of creating conduits for shareholders to participate in firm affairs, get shareholder-nominated candidates elected to the board, and discipline incumbent managers. However, the results of this study suggest that these reforms will not achieve the stated goals. Second, the evidence and theory about shareholder voting presented here has significant implications for understanding mergers and acquisitions, particularly hostile acquisitions.


In 2015, the Cabled Array became operational streaming real-time data to shore from a diverse array of 140 instruments. The network spans the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, with two cables extending from a Shore Station in Pacific City, Oregon. One branch extends ~480 km due west to Axial Seamount, the largest volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The second branch extends 208 km southward along the base of the Cascadia Subduction Zone (2900 m) and then turns east extending 147 km to 80 m water depth offshore Newport, Oregon. The system is designed for a 25-year lifetime. The Cabled Array includes six state-of-the-art instrumented, full water column moorings (up to 2900 m water depth) hosting instrumented wire crawlers, winched science pods, and platforms to study linkages among physical, biological and chemical processes spanning blue water to coastal systems along the Cascadia Margin. The coastal array is located at highly productive coastal sites strongly impacted by the California Current, upwelling, ocean acidification, and hypoxia events. The network also includes cutting edge seafloor sensors focused on understanding active volcanism, life in extreme environments, seismicity, and biogeochemical processes and fluxes in actively forming gas hydrate systems. Two-way 24/7/365 communication with direct connection to the Internet, with expansion up to 240 Gb/s and high power (8 kW), allow highly interactive, rapid responses with adaptive sampling to events such as formation of thin layers, large storms, internal waves, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. With an operational life of at least 25 years, the Cabled Array will provide decades of sustained, high quality coregistered, multidisciplinary data at rates up to 250 kilisamples/second and at spatial resolutions of centimeters to kilometers. The high bandwidth and power provides significant expansion capabilities for innovative sensing systems that include advancement of autonomous vehicles with companion docking stations that can change missions in response to changing conditions without human intervention, 3D imagers, and in situ DNA samplers. International installation of progressively advanced submarine cabled observatories will provide unprecedented monitoring of the oceans, and the entrainment of a global community of users - researchers, educators, policy makers and the public.


Swiftlet nests naturally have a high economic value, and hence attract many attentions. Traditional swiftlet nesting generally incorporates manual environmental control. The nesting house's guard might forget or fail to control the environment for many reasons. In this work, a microcontroller based system that will automatically control the temperature and humidity of the nesting house to a condition convenient for the swiftlets were developed. The controller is connected to a monitoring computer which can be 45 m away. The computer will report the status and alarm remotely by sending SMS to the guard and the owner of the nesting house in certain circumstances. A miniature model was made for this development. Functionality and performance of the system were studied on this model. The performance of the sensor as key part of the developed system was verified to commercial instruments. The characteristics of the system were analyzed to obtain the relationship between water that put into the nesting house with the temperature and humidity. A scaling rule is proposed for utilizing the experimental results for applications in realistic nesting houses.


Sirex nigricornis F. (Hymenoptera: Siricidae) is a native woodwasp in eastern North America that inhabits dead and dying pine trees during its univoltine development. Sirex noctilio is native to Eurasia and North Africa and was discovered in the northeastern United States in 2004 after a century of accidental introductions across the Southern Hemisphere. Since then, it has spread to seven states and southern Ontario. There is concern about its potential to negatively affect the multi-billion dollar pine timber industry of the southeastern United States. Effective monitoring tools are necessary to track the spread and establishment of S. noctilio. Deladenus siricidicola Bedding (Tylenchida: Neotylenchidae) is a parasitic nematode associated with S. noctilio in its native range and has been accidentally introduced along with the woodwasp. While these nematodes have been successfully used in biological control in much of the Southern Hemisphere, the strain introduced into North America appears to be non-sterilizing and is not providing natural control. Deladenus proximus Bedding is a native nematode that infects S. nigricornis and has added S. noctilio to its host range in the northeastern U.S., implicating it as a potential control agent for S. noctilio in North America, circumventing potential issues associated with classical biological control using generalists. My objectives were to 1) examine the effect of temperature on emergence patterns of S. nigricornis and S. noctilio, 2) use molecular techniques to identify the native nematode parasitizing southeastern S. nigricornis, and 3) examine the effects of nematode infection on southeastern S. nigricornis female body size and fecundity. Trapping data from Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Ontario were examined to determine the effect of temperature on emergence of adult female siricids. Over 1,200 native female woodwasps were collected, measured, and dissected in the fall of 2011-2015 from Arkansas and Mississippi. Nematode prevalence and virulence were higher in Arkansas than Mississippi. A 750 base pair region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene extracted from southeastern nematodes was sequenced. Nematode sequences from New York and Illinois were obtained from GenBank to examine genetic diversity across the eastern United States. Genetic distance among all nematode sequences collected was less than 0.5% indicating a single species, and continuous genetic flow, of nematodes across the eastern United States. Nematodes significantly negatively impacted woodwasp size and fecundity; infested females were smaller and produced fewer eggs than uninfested females. We believe these impacts demonstrated on S. nigricornis will translate to S. noctilio. Future directions should include inoculating S. noctilio-infested trees using virulent populations of Arkansas-collected D. proximus to test these predictions in the field.


The purpose of the TeciRes project was to conduct a technical review of the current landscape within cloud computing to establish the extent to which existing solutions meet encountered and envisioned requirements for using emerging cloud technologies, in particular those which enable computing and storage cloud facilities for research in Higher Education (HE) institutions, and to make recommendations on further development, guidance, and standardisation. The TeciRes project is one of three parallel projects funded by JISC, the other two complementary projects being a review of "using cloud computing" focusing on cloud use cases from users' perspectives, and a review of "environmental and organisational" implications of cloud computing" in Higher Education (HE) and further education sectors. This project combined expert consultancy and desk research approaches. The project started with stakeholder analysis, case studies from HE institutions and research departments, and a close collaboration with the "using cloud for research" group, while paying particular attention to technical requirements and issues. The project team attended research conferences and organised workshops to enrich its understanding of technical requirements, challenges, available solutions, and ongoing technical research activities. Continuous desk research was ongoing throughout the project for information consolidation, reviewing available and emerging standards, and technical prototyping. This technical review and two guidance notes (cloud computing for research, technical issues on cloud computing for research) are available on the project website . During the course of the TeciRes project, the number of Cloud-related workshops and conferences, along with white papers and publications, has greatly risen. In part this shows the interest, both commercial and academically, of this field. The outputs from the project are a reflection of an extensive literature research focused on the issues that practitioners in the field are facing. Where possible the report tries to show how they have overcome these problems. There are still many questions unanswered, in part because cloud computing for research is still only a concept to many or has only been tried on a small scale. Recommendations Recommendation 1: JISC SHOULD continue support for proofs of concept of using cloud for research. Cloud computing is in its infancy; hence a number of proof of concept application are need in order to give a baseline understanding/measure from which to assess the usefulness of cloud computing for research. Recommendation 2: JISC SHOULD stimulate cloud-based shared service delivery. Various JISC committees have invested considerable time and resources in developing shared services in a non-cloud context. Hence there are a number of existing shared services in the Grid and VRE space that can be migrated to the cloud for research, and there are new services to be developed, including the need to provide management software for virtual machine images. This will allow Universities to explore the appropriateness of various cloud types and also their 'green' credentials. More detailed recommendations related to environmental issues can be found in the final report of review of the environmental and organisational implications of cloud computing in Higher and Further Education. Recommendation 3: JISC COULD work with international standard bodies, for instance Open Cloud Computing Interface, a working group in OGF, or similar non-grid organisations. This will require funding and efforts, however, on standards adoption through reference implementations. Recommendation 4: JISC COULD fund various cloud service facilities, particularly storage and data cloud facilities, to explore data security and privacy as highlighted areas of concern from practitioners and stakeholders. Funding projects in this area will allow researchers to provide alternative methods of sharing research data inside UK research communities, with enhanced security and data privacy. Recommendation 5: JISC MAY fund large scale institutional and cross institutional clouds for research. This could be informed by the work of the NGS cloud pilot project currently underway, with a view to providing cloud services on the NGS structure.


Sustainability is one of the major challenges faced by the industrial sector as it is driven by both environmental and economic factors. Energy demands are increasing and, to date, most of the supply is generated via fossil-fuel combustion, such as coal, gas or oil. However, these processes release greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, that contribute to global warming and other environmental issues. Of the three fossil fuels, for a given amount of energy released, natural gas produces the least amount of CO2, making it the most vital energy source. The most practical way of transporting this natural gas over long distances is via liquefaction. However liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants consume substantial amounts of energy; thus, releasing significant amount of CO2. Therefore, enhancing the efficiencies of LNG plants is essential especially for large producer such as Qatar. As of today, Qatar is the largest producer of LNG in the world, with a capacity of near 78 Million tons per annual (MTA). Since the LNG industry in Qatar is a major contributor to the country's economy and development, there is a continuous need to improve and optimize existing LNG systems to extract more value out of them. Optimization of such complex system is; however, not a straight forward technique requiring different expertise ranging from engineering/process oriented insights to mathematical and thermodynamics techniques. Thus, it is deemed essential to identify plant sections that must be given priorities for optimization. This requires quantifying losses and efficiencies and one of the effective tools is exergy analysis. Identifying the areas of exergy losses within LNG plants emphasizes the areas where optimization is necessary. This project aims to foster the transition to cleaner LNG plants that operate more efficiently, in terms of energy consumption, towards an active contribution to the protection of the environment. The primary focus of the study is to identify exergy losses across a baseload LNG plant producing more than 3 MTA of LNG. In this research, a rigorous and detailed exergy analysis was performed on an entire actual LNG process that was simulated using ProMax® and Aspen Plus® simulation software. In order to carry out the thermodynamic analysis, exergy loss across each component of the entire plant was determined. Exergy analysis was not limited to process units, as it was extended to quantify exergy loss across the utility section. Results revealed that the main contributors to the exergy loss are the utility section, accounting for 49% of the total exergy loss. Within the LNG process, significant amounts of losses were found to occur in the liquefaction, sweetening and sulfur recovery units; corresponding for 37%, 30% and 21% of the total exergy loss, respectively. Components responsible for the highest exergy consumption were also highlighted, with the main consumers being the compressors and their drivers, stream generators, LNG flashing and storage, columns (absorbers, distillations) and heat exchangers. The contribution to the total exergy loss provided some insight on locations where improvements are needed to translate into more environmental and energy benefits. For example, most of the losses within the liquefaction section was attributed to compressors and the drivers responsible for the generation of the required shaft work; almost 19 MW exergy loss in the gas turbine corresponds to 1 MW exergy loss in the associated compressor. Thus, significant energy savings can be achieved via minimizing the compression energy. *Corresponding author. +974 44034148 Eamil address: firstname.lastname@example.com (E. Al-musleh) References [1] «2016 World LNG Report - International Gas Union,» Chevron, USA2016, Available: www.igu.org/download/file/fid/2123.


Thin film silicon solar cells are an attractive option for the production of sustainable energy but their low response at long wavelengths requires additional measures for absorption enhancement. The most successful concepts are based on light scattering interface textures whose understanding is greatly facilitated by considering a superposition of periodic textures that diffract the light into oblique angles, ideally beyond the critical angle of total internal reflection. Because the thickness of the active layers is on the same scale as the wavelength, interference of diffracted waves gives rise to resonance phenomena. We discuss the absorption enhancement in terms of a perturbation approach using the modal structure of a corresponding device with flat interfaces.


This article offers the argument that suffering (yisurin) in the Babylonian Talmud functions as a locus for the relationship between God and rabbinic Jews. Scholars of rabbinic martyrdom and asceticism have tended to claim that the Talmud's positive portrayal of suffering is a theodical apology for unexplained evil in the world. However, the article argues that the Talmud—in contrast to earlier rabbinic texts—presents suffering as spiritually relevant not primarily to justify preexisting suffering, but rather to develop a site at which to interpret information about an individual's spiritual status.
 The article draws on theories of sacrifice's structure and function, in conjunction with close analysis of rabbinic texts that relate suffering to sacrifice. The pericope at the core of the article's argument demonstrates a strikingly technical approach to the human experience of suffering, describing four examples of yisurin in which no real physical suffering occurs; in each instance the "victim" experiences extremely mild discomfort at most, and at the least barely registers an experience of inconvenience. Nonetheless, these experiences all qualify as "suffering," and are thus still understood to bear indisputable soteriological import. Physical suffering in the Talmud is thus open for interpretation, yielding information about the status of the sufferer's spiritual self.
 Human suffering is viewed as religiously desirable in both late rabbinic and early Christian literatures. By developing an understanding of its hermeneutical function for the rabbis, this article helps to elucidate the value of suffering for rabbinic literature as a subset of late antique religious discourse.


An earlier study of shooting performance in biathletes found a decrease in performance as the intensity increased. No studies have focused on the technique used by biathletes in standing shooting, which differs from the technique used by rifle shooters. Therefore, the present study investigated both shooting performance at different exercise intensities in biathletes, and the difference between isometric and dynamic precision at different intensities.To investigate shooting performance at different intensities, 15 biathletes performed three roller ski interval exercises (4x6 min) on a treadmill at 75-80%, 85-87% and 90-95% of their maximum heart rate (HRmax).The biathletes performed 3 precision tasks at rest before warm up, directly after warm up and after each repetition on the interval exercises. The following precision tasks were performed (in standing position): 5 shot series, holding still at a target (isometric), and following a line (dynamic). During the precision tasks, the subjects were standing on a force plate that measured center of pressure (COP) movements in the anterior-posterior direction and medial-lateral direction. Subjects used their own weapon in the precision tasks. A laser pen and an accelerometer were attached at the front of the barrel. The "front sight" was removed from the weapon, and subjects used only their rear sight and the laser dot for aiming.The results showed no significant effect of intensity on shooting performance during the 5 shot series (p= 0.179). The holding still task and following line task were both significant affected by intensity (holding still p= 0.017, following line p= 0.030), but the difference between the two tasks did not reach statistical significance (p= 0.070). Results from the force plate showed greater movement of COP in the anterior-posterior direction than in the medial-lateral direction. A significant effect of intensity was only found in the medial-lateral direction.In conclusion, the present study shows no significant effect of intensity on the shooting performance in the 5 shot series. The subjects were not used to having a laser pen for aiming, and this may have affected the results. There is a difference between isometric and dynamic precision, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Thus, the results cannot for certain justify the technique used by biathletes in standing position.


The question of which discount rate to choose when it comes to calculating costs and benefits regarding climate change has been discussed among economists since at least the beginning of the 1990's. However, the issue of which discount rate to choose is not just an academic question, it also has major implications for climate change policy. In this paper I will show that there exists large disagreements among economists on which discount rate society should choose when calculating the costs and benefits of climate change. Moreover, because of large uncertainties, non-marginal effects, and specific aspects of the social welfare function commonly used in welfare economics, I suggest that we shift focus away from the choice of discount rates altogether. We should instead focus on the risk of possible limitations of people's freedoms and opportunities to lead valuable lives. This shift in focus will affect the way we normally reason when it comes to the economics of climate change.


Perhaps you can imagine the encounter? A philosopher out for a walk amongst the hills and forests of Engadin. Then, a cyclic 'wheezing, groaning' sound; a London 1950s-style police box (necessarily unrecognised by the philosopher) materialises, cleaving time and space. Out bobs a strange man calling himself a doctor – human-like, but (as the philosopher will soon realise) very alien. The two figures spend an afternoon in conversation. What was or will be discussed is unknown. This paper proposes, in lieu of the above, a rather different kind of encounter between Nietzsche and the Doctor. It explores the resonances between the eponymous tv show and Thus Spoke Zarathustra . The programme rises to the challenges of, I will claim, the three central teachings of Nietzsche's book. These three teachings are the interweaving trefoil knot of the overhuman, will to power and eternal recurrence. These three teachings unground notions of chronological time, comprehensive space and comprehensive consciousness. Doctor Who will prove to be an affirmation of Zarathustra founded upon three interrelated narrative disciplines: the atemporal (time travel), the aspatial (many worlds) and the ahuman (alien states). Taking a taxonomic approach (teachings and disciplines which cut across one another), this paper focuses upon the fundamental serial form of both Zarathustra and Doctor Who . Douglas Burnham and Martin Jesinghuasen describe Zarathustra as having 'aphoristic discontinuity' (NTSZ:47). Doctor Who is similarly productive of such discontinuities: the Doctor is a multiplicity of being; and spatio-temporal events are endlessly problematized and ungrounded. This paper is part of a wider project attacking the a priori categorisation and hierarchization of popular and modernist art through limit cases; and a fragment toward a new book on Nietzsche, Deleuze and Doctor Who .


If you are interested in signal transduction underlying sensory perception, then you won't want to miss this week's Nature. Five reviews cover signaling in the Drosophila visual system by Hardie and Raghu, mechanosensory transduction (touch) by Gillespie and Walker, pain perception by Julius and Basbaum, olfaction by Firestein, and taste by Lindemann. In addition to the articles covering the cellular and molecular basis of sensory perception, Bayley and Cremer describe the application of sensory research to the development of biosensors. R. C. Hardie, P. Raghu, Visual transduction in Drosophila. Nature 413, 186-193 (2001). [Online Journal] P. G. Gillespie, R. G. Walker, Molecular basis of mechanosensory transduction. Nature 413, 194-202 (2001). [Online Journal] D. Julius, A. I Basbaum, Molecular mechanisms of nociception. Nature 413, 203-210 (2001). [Online Journal] S. Firestein, How the olfactory system makes sense of scents. Nature 413, 211-218 (2001). [Online Journal] B. Lindemann, Receptors and transduction in taste. Nature 413, 219-225 (2001). [Online Journal] H. Bayley, P. S. Cremer, Stochastic sensors inspired by biology. Nature 413, 226-230 (2001). [Online Journal]


Abstract Conspicuousness is an important feature of warning coloration. One hypothesis for its function is that it increases signal efficacy by facilitating avoidance learning. An alternative, based on the handicap hypothesis, suggests that the degree of conspicuousness holds information directly about the quality of the prey, and that predators associate and learn about the conspicuousness of the coloration, and not the actual colour pattern. We studied the relative importance of signal contrast and the colours of signals for predator attention during discrimination. We used young chicks, Gallus gallus domesticus , as predators and small blue or red paper cones on either matching or contrasting paper backgrounds as stimuli associated with palatable or unpalatable chick crumbs. In four treatment groups, birds could use either cone and/or background colour, cone colour only, background colour only or cone-to-background contrast as cues for discrimination. Only birds in the contrast treatment failed to learn their discrimination task. Birds that had a choice between cone and background colour as cues used the cone colour and they learned the task faster than did birds that had to use background colour as a cue. The results suggest that birds primarily attend to the colours of signals and disregard contrast in discrimination tasks; they thus fail to support a handicap function of conspicuous aposematic coloration. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


Factors are explored of decision making in regard to buying and/or upgrading information products. Mature information product markets are considered. Comparing two cases - professional and final consumer information products - the decision making process is considered on the choice of product variant. We distinguish three groups of users according to their ultimate decisions to either not to upgrade the existing system, or to upgrade it with the existing provider, or to switch to another provider. Consumer decision is based on multiple characteristics of information product quality, network effects, price and switching costs, whereas producers have to compete not only with their competitors, but also with the previous versions of the own products. Based on the considered cases, differences in consumer priorities are discussed in the markets of professional versus final consumer information products.


BACKGROUND
Enhancing student engagement is considered an important strategy for improving retention. Students' Time Perspective is an under-researched factor that may significantly influence student engagement.

AIMS
This study examines interrelationships between elements of student engagement and relationship with Time Perspective. We propose that there are significant relationships between psychological and behavioural elements of student engagement. We also posit that time orientation is an important factor in facilitating psychological and behavioural elements of student engagement.

SAMPLE
Participants (N=347) were first-year undergraduate students who had completed one semester of study and re-enrolled for a further semester of study at an Australian university.

METHODS
Participants were surveyed using instruments designed to measure Academic Application, Academic Orientation (McInnis, James, & Hartley, 2000), Time Perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999), the shortened version of the Study Process Questionnaire (Fox, McManus, & Winder, 2001) and hours spent preparing for class.

RESULTS
There were interrelationships between the elements of student engagement (e.g. Academic Application) with productive educational behaviours (e.g. deep approach to learning). Students' perceptions of time appeared as a key factor mediating levels of Academic Application and Academic Orientation. Orientation to the Future emerged as a significant predictor of these elements of engagement.

CONCLUSIONS
Future orientation emerged as an important factor mediating students' academic engagement in these students who completed one semester of study. Interventions focusing on the development of time perspective may be helpful in encouraging and supporting academic engagement and, ultimately, persistence in higher education.


The Arctic has a land area of approximately 14 million square kilometres, which falls under the sovereignty of eight states: Canada, the USA, Denmark (Greenland and Faroe Islands), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. It is also home to around 4 million people, with indigenous peoples accounting for around 10% of its population. Canada has more Arctic land mass than any other country, and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area after Greenland. With indigenous people accounting for over 50% of its population in its north, Canada is again surpassed only by Greenland in this respect. Canada is also the only Commonwealth country that is a member state of the Arctic Council, the principal multilateral forum in the region. Indigenous peoples had lived across the circumpolar north long before the advent of European explorers and settlers and the introduction of modern empires and nation states there. However, they were often excluded from border-making processes and consequently found themselves and their traditional spaces—whether homelands or spaces of historical, religious, social or economic significance—within different empires and/or nation states, or straddling imperial and/or national boundaries. Owing to the imposition of national borders in the region, the Inuit today live in four states (Greenland, Canada, Russia and the USA), as do the Saami (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia). Likewise, the Yup'ik and the Unangax (Aleut) live in Alaska and the Russian Far East, while the Athabaskans and Gwich'in are spread across Canada and the USA. As relations between the empires and/or nation states evolved, indigenous peoples divided by borders could find themselves operating within potentially conflicting political entities. The Bering Strait Region is a case in point. During the Cold War, the Ice Curtain greatly divided communities—such as those of the Iñupiat, Yup'ik and Unangax in the Diomede Islands and the Aleutian Islands—that straddled the Russia–US border. Likewise, after the Thirteen Colonies in British America declared independence as the United States of America and waged the American Revolutionary War, many indigenous peoples and their traditional homelands were split by the international boundary drawn between the USA and the British Empire. It would mark the beginning of a long process by which that boundary line would be negotiated, defined, extended, contested and adjusted repeatedly to become the US–Canada border as we know it today. Borders could also affect traditional cultural practices, such as the potlatches of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The boundary between the Alaska Panhandle and


We propose evolution rules of the multiagent network and determine statistical patterns in life cycle of agents - information messages. The main discussed statistical pattern is connected with the number of likes and reposts for a message. This distribution corresponds to Weibull distribution according to modeling results. We examine proposed model using the data from Twitter, an online social networking service.


The passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill led to sweeping changes to the central U.S. cash safety net program for families with children. Importantly, along with other changes, the reform imposed lifetime time limits for receipt of welfare de facto ending the entitlement nature of cash welfare for poor families with children in the United States. Despite dire predictions about poverty and deprivation, the previous research shows that caseloads declined and employment increased, with no detectible increase in poverty or worsening of child-well-being. We re-evaluate these results in light of the severe recession which began in December 2007. In particular, we examine how the cyclicality of the response of program caseloads and family well-being has been altered by the implementation of welfare reform. We find that use of food stamps and non-cash safety net program participation have become significantly more responsive across economic cycles after welfare reform, going up more after reform when unemployment increases. By contrast, there is no evidence that cash welfare for families with children is more responsive after reform, and some evidence that it might be less so. There is some evidence that poverty increases more with the unemployment rate after reform (and no evidence that poverty increases less with unemployment after reform). We find that reform has led to no significant effects on the cyclical responsiveness of food consumption, food insecurity, health insurance, household crowding, or health.


Native perennial grass and sown grass-legume pastures are an important agricultural and environmental resource. We investigated the impact of rising carbon dioxide concentration ((CO2)) and projected climate changes on these pasture ecosystems in southeastern Tasmania, Aus- tralia, using a biophysical simulation model, EcoMod. The model consists of interdependent modules that describe soil physicochemical and hydrological characteristics, and pasture growth and senes- cence, with fluxes described by empirical and mechanistic equations. Our simulations showed that in native pastures, projected climate change increased the biomass of C4 grasses, with limited impact upon C3 grasses, a trend reversed by rising (CO2). In sown pastures, projected climate change decreased the biomass of perennial rye grass Lolium perenne and total biomass markedly by 2070, whilst subterranean clover Trifolium subterraneum biomass increased. Subterranean clover biomass changed little with increased (CO2) alone, whereas perennial rye grass biomass increased. Responses across pastures reflected species' tolerances to environmental factors, with projected climate change generally having more of an impact on biomass than rising (CO2). Changes in both (CO2) and climate led to a reduction in protein content and digestibility. Soil inorganic nutrient concentrations decreased with increasing (CO2) and increased with projected climate change. Further simulations should investigate whether these patterns are robust for different sites and alternative environmen- tal futures. Our results reinforce the need to pursue adaptation strategies in response to environ- mental change in order to maintain productive pasture ecosystems.


This paper presents the results of a research that investigated the difference in performance between partnerships in secondary school assessment examinations and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary examinations (KCSE) among selected Secondary Schools in the Western region of Kenya. These exams have been very prevalent in Western Kenya Secondary Schools as a way of preparing form four students for KCSE. This high prevalence made it necessary for this research to be carried out to establish the nature of their relationship with KCSE performance. The study focused on six schools in the Western region of Kenya that were engaged in partnership assessments. The study was descriptive in nature and the intranational case study research design was used with a focus on secondary schools in western region. Purposive sampling was used to select the six secondary schools. Document Analysis was done on past records such as scores in partnership exams and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination Scores. The data collected was analyzed using a mixed method. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, means and T-test were used to establish whether there was any significant difference between partnership exams and K.C.S.E performance. The study found out that there was a significant difference in performance between partnership exams and KCSE in selected schools in western region. The study recommended partnership examinations as a way of preparing candidates for KCSE.


Thirty years ago, Congress ushered in a new and miraculous era in medicine, with the creation of the Hatch-Waxman system for approval of generic drugs. The progress, however, has not been without resistance. Our paper presents an overview of three generations of games pharmaceutical companies play to keep generics off the market and maintain monopoly pricing. In "Generation 1.0," branded companies simply paid generics to delay entering the market, reaping billions of dollars of benefit. "Generation 2.0" involves paying for delay through multiple side deals that camouflage the value of the payment. Generation 2.0 also includes what we call "boy scout clauses" — agreements to behave honorably that actually mask anticompetitive collusion. The newest generation, however, moves from collusion to obstruction. Generation 3.0 uses administrative processes, regulatory schemes, and drug modifications to prevent generics from getting to market. Some of these schemes have now made the news as debates rage over pharmaceutical pricing. Society, however, cannot necessarily blame companies for engaging in behavior that is strongly in their economic self-interest. One cannot expect mice to run in the appropriate direction if the cheese is located at the other end. Thus, our goal in this paper is two-fold: first, to shine light on the complex behaviors as they are unfolding and second, to explore the contours of how new approaches could be structured. To paraphrase one former FDA commissioner, we do not want the most creative activity at pharmaceutical companies to take place in the legal department. And after 30 years of experience with Hatch-Waxman, it is time for the next phase.


An increasing need for healthcare provision and assistive technologies (AT) calls for the development of machine learning techniques able to cope with the variability inherent to real-world deployments. In the particular case of activity recognition applications sensor networks may be prone to changes at different levels ranging from sensor data variability to network reconfiguration. Robust methods are required to deal with those changes providing graceful degradation upon failure or self-configuration and adaptation capabilities that ensure their proper operation for long periods of time. Currently there is a lack of common tools and datasets that allow for replicable and fair comparison of different recognition approaches. We introduce a large database of human daily activities recorded in a sensor-rich environment. The database provides large amount of instances of the recorded activities using a significant number of sensors. In addition, we reviewed some of the techniques that have been proposed to cope with changes in the system, including missing data, sensor location/orientation change, as well as the possibility to exploit data from unknown discovered sensors. These techniques have been tested in the aforementioned datasets showing its suitability to emulate different sensor network configurations and recognition goals.


BACKGROUND
Gene expression profiling is emerging as a tool for tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment response monitoring, but limited data specific to Indian children and incident tuberculosis infection (TBI) exist.

METHODS
16 pediatric Indian tuberculosis cases were age- and sex-matched to 32 tuberculosis-exposed controls (13 developed incident TBI without subsequent active tuberculosis). Longitudinal samples were collected for RNAseq. Differential expression analysis generated gene lists that identify tuberculosis diagnosis and tuberculosis treatment response. Data were compared with published gene lists. Population-specific risk score thresholds were calculated.

RESULTS
71 genes identified tuberculosis diagnosis and 25 treatment response. Within-group expression was partially explained by age, sex, and incident TBI. Transient changes in gene expression were identified after both infection and treatment. Application of 27 published gene lists to our data found variable performance for tuberculosis diagnosis (sensitivity 0.38-1.00, specificity 0.48-0.93) and treatment response (sensitivity 0.70-0.80, specificity 0.40-0.80). Our gene lists found similarly variable performance when applied to published datasets for diagnosis (sensitivity 0.56-0.85, specificity 0.50-0.85) and treatment response (sensitivity 0.49- 0.86, specificity 0.50-0.84).

CONCLUSIONS
Gene expression profiles among Indian children with confirmed tuberculosis were distinct from adult-derived gene lists, highlighting the importance of including distinct populations in differential gene expression models.


Although PIFu-based 3D human reconstruction methods are popular, the quality of recovered details is still unsatisfactory. In a sparse (e.g., 3 RGBD sensors) capture setting, the depth noise is typically amplified in the PIFu representation, resulting in flat facial surfaces and geometry-fallible bodies. In this paper, we propose a novel geometry-aware two-scale PIFu for 3D human reconstruction from sparse, noisy inputs. Our key idea is to exploit the complementary properties of depth denoising and 3D reconstruction, for learning a two-scale PIFu representation to reconstruct high-frequency facial details and consistent bodies separately. To this end, we first formulate depth denoising and 3D reconstruction as a multi-task learning problem. The depth denoising process enriches the local geometry information of the reconstruction features, while the reconstruction process enhances depth denoising with global topology information. We then propose to learn the two-scale PIFu representation using two MLPs based on the denoised depth and geometry-aware features. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in reconstructing facial details and bodies of different poses and its superiority over state-of-the-art methods.


Inhibiting Na,K-ATPase activity leads to a decrease in AMPA-type glutamate receptor abundance. Trafficking of AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs, ligand-gated ion channels permeable to Na+) at excitatory synapses provides a well-known mechanism for the activity-dependent modulation of synaptic efficacy; the possible contribution of activity-dependent regulation of total AMPAR abundance to synaptic function, however, is less clear. Noting that neuronal activity leads to Na+ influx through AMPARs and during action potentials, Zhang et al. explored the role of the Na,K-ATPase (NKA)—which extrudes excess Na+—in regulating AMPAR-mediated synaptic transmission. Immunofluorescence analysis of cultured rat cortical neurons indicated that NKA colocalized with AMPARs at synapses, a finding confirmed by identification of abundant NKA in rat brain synaptosomes, and a combination of coimmunoprecipitation and pull-down assays indicated that the α1 subunit of NKA interacted with the AMPAR GluR2 subunit. Inhibition of NKA activity with ouabain (or other manipulations) led to a specific decrease of AMPAR abundance, which was apparent within 30 minutes and became more pronounced with sustained inhibition. Pharmacological analysis indicated that the ouabain-mediated decrease in AMPAR abundance was independent of protein synthesis and was mediated by proteasomal degradation. After observing that ouabain elicited membrane depolarization and transient high-frequency firing, the authors used a combination of ion substitution and pharmacological analysis to show that ouabain-mediated AMPAR degradation depended on Na+ influx, particularly influx through AMPARs. Ouabain-mediated AMPAR degradation also required AMPAR internalization and was associated with a decrease in AMPAR-mediated synaptic transmission that persisted long after ouabain washout. The authors raise the intriguing possibilities that Na+ acts as a second messenger to elicit AMPAR degradation and that endogenous NKA inhibitors may play a physiological—or pathophysiological—role in regulating synaptic strength. D. Zhang, Q. Hou, M. Wang, A. Lin, L. Jarzylo, A. Navis, A. Raissi, F. Liu, H.-Y. Man, Na,K-ATPase activity regulates AMPA receptor turnover through proteasome-mediated proteolysis. J. Neurosci. 29, 4498–4511 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Karl Menger (1902-1985) was the mathematician son of the famous economist Carl Menger. He was professor of geometry at the University of Vienna from 1927 to 1938. During that period, which was crucial from an historical and philosophical point of view, he joined the Vienna Circle and founded his Mathematical Colloquium. The present volume of "Advances in Austrian Economics" offers the transcription of those unpublished parts of Menger's notes written between 1923-1938. It is hoped that these notes, together with the editor's contextual explanations, provide a subtext to Menger's biography during this influential period.


Based on case study research this paper discusses the adoption of Total Quality Management in seven Australian organisations. It reports on the reasons for adopting TQM, planning and implementation issues, benefits achieved and the limitations and difficulties associated with the introduction of TQM. The analysis concludes that the effect of TQM on an organisation's culture should not be underestimated as it is a radical change to the organisation's strategy which is geared to changing the culture in the long term. The analysis highlights that the principles found for successful introduction of effective cultural change are also applicable when implementing TQM programs in organisations. The paper proposes the implementation of a Cultural Audit as part of successful introduction of TQM into an organisation.


This paper is concerned with the light-weight design of a center-pillar assembly for the high-speed side impact of vehicle using advanced high strength steels(AHSS). Steel industries continuously promote the ULSAB-AVC project for applying AHSS to structural parts as an alternative way to improve the crashworthiness and the fuel efficiency because it has the superior strength compared to the conventional steel. In order to simulate deformation behavior of the center-pillar assembly, a simplified center-pillar model is developed and parts of that are subdivided employing tailor-welded blanks(TWB) in order to control the deformation shape of the center-pillar assembly. The thickness of each part which constitutes the simplified model is selected as a design parameter. Factorial design is carried out aiming at the application and configuration of AHSS to simplified side-impact analysis because it needs tremendous computing time to consider all combinations of parts. In optimization of the center-pillar, S-shaped deformation is targeted to guarantee the reduction of the injury level of a driver dummy in the crash test. The objective function is constructed so as to minimize the weight and lead to S-shape deformation mode. Optimization also includes the weight reduction comparing with the case using conventional steels. The result shows that the AHSS can be utilized effectively for minimization of the vehicle weight and induction of S-shaped deformation.


Abstract. The instrumental surface air temperature record has been used in several statistical studies to assess the relative role of natural and anthropogenic drivers of climate change. The results of those studies varied considerably, with anthropogenic temperature trends over the past 25–30 years suggested to range from 0.07 to 0.20 °C decade−1. In this short communication, we assess the origin of these differences and highlight the inverse relation between the temperature trend of the past 30 years and the weight given to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) as an explanatory factor in the multiple linear regression (MLR) tool that is usually employed. We highlight that robust MLR outcomes require a better understanding of the AMO in general and, more specifically, of its characterization. Our results indicate that both the high and the low end of the anthropogenic trend over the past 30 years found in previous studies are unlikely and that a transient climate response of 1.6 (1.0–3.3) °C best captures the historic instrumental temperature record.


Japan has been experiencing an odd constitutional challenge for over 60 years. In Article 9 of the Constitution, which Americans drafted after World War II, Japan renounces belligerent war. However, within the society, multiple meanings of Article 9 have developed. Each "story" of Article 9 seems as legitimate as the next because the Supreme Court has abdicated their responsibility to resolve this important constitutional issue by calling Article 9 a non-justiciable, political question. Therefore, the only entity that has been silent on what Article 9 means is the Supreme Court. As a result, there are many, many interpretations of what Article 9 stands for. On one extreme are Article 9 Society groups that claim that it stands for the proposition that Japan is a completely pacifist nation and may not possess any military for any purpose. On the other extreme, the Liberal Democratic Party that has ruled Japan for most of the post-WWII era feels Article 9 restrains the military somewhat but does not prevent it from becoming one of the largest militaries in the world by dollars spent.This situation of not having a Supreme Court ruling on this important societal issue transforms this into a moral, ethical, or spiritual debate, not a legal or constitutional one. This debate has come to play the role in Japan that abortion has played as a rhetorical and political issue in the United States. However, because there is no Supreme Court ruling, it is a debate over Roe v. Wade without the Roe v. Wade.


Modern data analysis platforms all too often rely on the fact that the application and underlying data flow are static. That is, such platforms generally do not implement the capabilities to update individual components of running pipelines without restarting the pipeline, and they rely on data sources to remain unchanged while they are being used. However, in reality these assumptions do not hold: data scientists come up with new methods to analyze data all the time, and data sources are almost by definition dynamic. Companies performing data science analyses either need to accept the fact that their pipeline goes down during an update, or they should run a duplicate setup of their often costly infrastructure that continues the pipeline operations. In this research we present the Evolutionary Changes in Data Analysis (ECiDA) platform, with which we show how evolution and data science can go hand in hand. ECiDA aims to bridge the gap that is present between engineers that build large scale computation platforms on the one hand, and data scientists that perform analyses on large quantities of data on the other, while making change a first-class citizen. ECiDA allows data scientists to build their data science pipelines on scalable infrastructures, and make changes to them while they remain up and running. Such changes can range from parameter changes in individual pipeline components to general changes in network topology. Changes may also be initiated by an ECiDA pipeline itself as part of a diagnostic response: for instance, it may dynamically replace a data source that has become unavailable with one that is available. To make sure the platform remains in a consistent state while performing these updates, ECiDA uses a set of automatic formal verification methods, such as constraint programming and AI planning, to transparently check the validity of updates and prevent undesired behavior.


Current software process modeling tools lack the capabilities of generating word processing documents that can represent model semantics in a computer process-able and human understandable way. This results into inefficient use of word processors for editing and reviewing a model's textual data. In an attempt to resolve this problem, this thesis presents an approach for representing software process models in word processing documents. The development of the approach is based on a set of issues that can hinder the generation of human understandable and computer process-able documents from software process models. The approach is validated through its implementation for a software process modeling tool. The implementation allows for the generation of word processing documents from software process models and their re-import into the process modeling tool.


Sleep is the natural state of bodily rest, common to all mammals and birds and also seen in many reptiles, amphibians and fish. For most species regular sleep is essential for survival, yet the specific purposes of sleep are still only partly clear and are the subject of intense research. This volume is comprised of the editors' selection of the most relevant articles on sleep from the "Encyclopedia of Neuroscience", resulting in the first comprehensive collection of introductory articles on the neuroscience of sleep. Articles explore sleep's impact on neural functioning, sleep disorders, the relation between sleep and other clinical disorders, a look at sleep from a developmental perspective, and more. Chapters offer impressive scope with topics addressing neural functioning, disorders, development, and more, carefully selected by one of the most preeminent sleep researchers. The book is richly illustrated in full color with over 100 figures. Contributors represent the most outstanding scholarship in the field, with each chapter providing fully vetted and reliable expert knowledge.


This dissertation addresses a basic difficulty in accommodating other-regarding preferences within existing models of decision making. Decision makers with such preferences may violate the property of stochastic dominance that is shared by both expected utility and almost any model of non-expected utility. At its core, stochastic dominance requires a decision maker's behavior to conform to a basic form of consequentialism, namely, that her ranking of outcomes should be independent of the stochastic process that generates these outcomes. On the other hand, decision makers with other-regarding preferences may show a concern for procedures; that is they may care not just about what the outcomes of others are but also about how these outcomes are generated and therefore their ranking of outcomes may be intrinsically dependent on the outcome-generating process. We provide theoretical foundations for a new representation of other-regarding preferences that accommodates concerns for procedure and possible violations of stochastic dominance. Our axioms provide a sharp characterization of how a decision maker's ranking of outcomes depends on the procedure by expressing `payoffs' as a weighted average of her concerns for outcomes, and her concerns for procedure. The weight used in evaluating this weighted average, which we call the procedural weight, is uniquely determined and quantifies the relative importance of procedural concerns. In the special case in which procedural concerns are absent our baseline decision model reduces to expected utility, and our most parsimonious representation is one parameter richer than that model. We use our decision model to provide an expressive theory of voting. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Economics First Advisor Andrew Postlewaite


Abstract This paper sets out to demonstrate that a phenomenological reflection on language highlights the possibilities of authenticity in communication, and as such provides a very necessary complement to the dominant linguistic perspectives: the syntactic and grammatical perspective, Saussurean linguistics, and systemic functional linguistics. While the syntactic and grammatical perspective, which predominates in the educational context, presents language as an institutionalized, authoritarian and self-contained system, Saussurean linguistics provides a view of language as a complex, self-contained, technical system, as such reflecting the nature of modern society. The third perspective, systemic functional linguistics, describes templates of specific genre, models which aid students to construct their own, while simultaneously discouraging individual selfexpression. In contrast, a reflective phenomenological perspective identifies and encourages authentic self-expression. The paper concludes by considering ways to reconcile the impetus in language teaching towards, on the one hand, the language of institutional authority, and, on the other, individual self-expression.


Many origin‐destination datasets have become available in the recent years, e.g. flows of people, animals, money, material, or network traffic between pairs of locations, but appropriate techniques for their exploration still have to be developed. Especially, supporting the analysis of datasets with a temporal dimension remains a significant challenge. Many techniques for the exploration of spatio‐temporal data have been developed, but they prove to be only of limited use when applied to temporal origin‐destination datasets. We present Flowstrates, a new interactive visualization approach in which the origins and the destinations of the flows are displayed in two separate maps, and the changes over time of the flow magnitudes are represented in a separate heatmap view in the middle. This allows the users to perform spatial visual queries, focusing on different regions of interest for the origins and destinations, and to analyze the changes over time provided with the means of flow ordering, filtering and aggregation in the heatmap. In this paper, we discuss the challenges associated with the visualization of temporal origin‐destination data, introduce our solution, and present several usage scenarios showing how the tool we have developed supports them.


In 2018, participants in the Socio-Economic Panel were asked for the third time whether and how much money they had donated in the past year to social, church, cultural, charitable and non-profit causes. This paper examines the results of this survey and compares them with the previous findings for the years 2009 and 2014. According to SOEP data, almost one in two private individuals in Germany continued to donate money in 2017. At the same time, the volume of donations has risen again and now amounts to an estimated 9.8 billion euros. The estimate based on SOEP is thus significantly higher than the results of other surveys on donation behavior in Germany. This paper examines the differences to the other studies. In addition, the donation behavior recorded in the three SOEP waves is analyzed from a socio-structural perspective. Descriptive results on socio-demographic differences in donation activity are largely confirmed by multivariate analyses. It is shown that the significantly lower donation rate in eastern Germany is partly explained by the lower average household incomes and a lower rate of religious affiliation.


This paper presents a new online multi-classifier boosting algorithm for learning object appearance models. In many cases the appearance model is multi-modal, which we capture by training and updating multiple strong classifiers. The proposed algorithm jointly learns the classifiers and a soft partitioning of the input space, defining an area of expertise for each classifier. We show how this formulation improves the specificity of the strong classifiers, allowing simultaneous location and pose estimation in a tracking task. The proposed online scheme iteratively adapts the classifiers during tracking. Experiments show that the algorithm successfully learns multi-modal appearance models during a short initial training phase, subsequently updating them for tracking an object under rapid appearance changes.


Research into improving the accessibility of computer games can enable us to better understand what makes a good gaming experience for all users. We discuss work carried out in developing AudioQuake (an adaption of Quake for blind gamers); specifically the techniques used for rendering information and the nature of this work in contrast to other accessible games (both research and commercial). Based on user feedback regarding the effectiveness of the methods employed in AudioQuake, techniques for not only imparting but allowing vision-impaired users to edit 3D structures are proposed. Taking into account the progress made so far, we make the case for future research work, which could benefit many different types of users and help increase accessibility in other areas such as education.


We investigated the symptom clusters and effects of symptom clusters on the quality of life of Korean breast cancer survivors. We recruited 241 breast cancer survivors and collected cross-sectional data on their symptoms. To determine inter-relationships among symptoms, a principal component analysis with varimax rotation was performed based on the patient's symptoms (fatigue, nausea/vomiting, pain, dyspnoea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, anxiety, depression, systemic therapy side effects, breast symptoms and arm symptoms). The first symptom cluster consisted of psychological (anxiety and depression) and general (appetite loss, fatigue, insomnia and dyspnoea) symptoms, whereas the second symptom cluster consisted of physical (arm symptom, breast symptom, pain and systemic therapy side effects) and gastrointestinal (nausea/vomiting and constipation) symptoms. Subgroup cluster analysis showed that breast cancer survivors with higher-scoring symptoms had significantly poorer quality of life in both psychological-general symptom cluster and physical-gastrointestinal symptom cluster subgroups, with subgroup-specific patterns. The symptom clusters differed depending on stage and functional status of breast cancer survivors. Breast cancer survivors may have a specific pattern of symptom clusters. Some symptom clusters may have a negative impact on the quality of life. Identifying symptom clusters of breast cancer survivors may have clinical implications by improving symptom management.


Laboratory experiences as a part of most U.S. high school science curricula have been taken for granted for decades, but they have rarely been carefully examined. What do they contribute to science learning? What can they contribute to science learning? What is the current status of labs in our nationi'1/2s high schools as a context for learning science? This book looks at a range of questions about how laboratory experiences fit into U.S. high schools: * What is effective laboratory teaching? * What does research tell us about learning in high school science labs? * How should student learning in laboratory experiences be assessed? * Do all student have access to laboratory experiences? * What changes need to be made to improve laboratory experiences for high school students? * How can school organization contribute to effective laboratory teaching? With increased attention to the U.S. education system and student outcomes, no part of the high school curriculum should escape scrutiny. This timely book investigates factors that influence a high school laboratory experience, looking closely at what currently takes place and what the goals of those experiences are and should be. Science educators, school administrators, policy makers, and parents will all benefit from a better understanding of the need for laboratory experiences to be an integral part of the science curriculumi'1/2and how that can be accomplished.


There is an increasing demand for assessing the value of
volunteering. This trend is connected with using of plenty of
methods, offering significantly various results. Even though
there are qualified estimates, there are all point estimates.
These estimates are not taking into account the deviation apart
from the chosen replacement wage. The article wants to
emphasize, that the deviation of these estimates compared to
real value, could be significant. That it is the reason why it
is coming with the concept of interval representation. The
interval range of the economic value of volunteering. It can
help us to understand that we do not know the exact value of
volunteering. The ones who are computing the point should be
aware of that. Choosing the replacement wages can influence the
value of volunteering significantly. The article is showing how
different methods can be used, compared and how interpret
theirs results.


The result have shown that majority of the farmers were of middle age group (36-50 years), educated up to metric, belonged to joint family with 4-6 members, performed only farming and had land holing up to 5 acres. Result pertaining to awareness indicated that awareness about the utilization of biogas plant waste, mushroom waste, wheat waste, mustard and horticultural waste was more than 70 percent. Awareness about utilization of paddy waste, sugarcane waste, cotton waste, floricultural wastes, poultry waste and livestock waste was between 50 to 60 percent. Thus, overall awareness about utilization of agricultural waste was very high. The result revealed that utilization of agricultural waste by the farmers was very less. None of the farmers exploited the wastes fully; waste utilization of wheat, paddy, sugarcane cotton and mustard crop, horticultural crops and floricultural crops was very low. Waste utilization of mushrooms, livestock and poultry was medium and biogas waste utilization was high. The result showed that there was a huge gap between the awareness and utilization of agricultural waste. The farmers must understand that there is nothing waste in agriculture, everything can be converted into something useful.