The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way we interact with everyday objects. "Smart" devices will reduce energy use, keep our homes safe, and improve our health. However, as recent attacks have shown, these devices also create tremendous security vulnerabilities in our computing networks. Securing all of these devices is a daunting task. In this paper, we argue that IoT device communications should be default-off and desired network communications must be explicitly enabled. Unlike traditional networked applications or devices like a web browser or PC, IoT applications and devices serve narrowly defined purposes and do not require access to all services in the network. Our proposal, Bark, a policy language and runtime for specifying and enforcing minimal access permissions in IoT networks, exploits this fact. Bark phrases access control policies in terms of natural questions (who, what, where, when, and how) and transforms them into transparently enforceable rules for IoT application protocols. Bark can express detailed rules such as "Let the lights see the luminosity of the bedroom sensor at any time" and "Let a device at my front door, if I approve it, unlock my smart lock for 30 seconds" in a way that is presentable and explainable to users. We implement Bark for Wi-Fi/IP and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) networks and evaluate its efficacy on several example applications and attacks.


Abstract The history of epilepsy is probably as long as human race. It is estimated that 6-7% of population suffer at least one seizure at some time in their life, between 0.5-1% of Population suffer from active epilepsy. Drug treatment even when successful is only suppressive, since none of the drugs ls curative. Surgical approach, hence is more logical as it would eliminate the cause of the seizures. In pediatric age group, the need or early surgery is even greater as frequent seizure activity interferes with neuronal migration, leading to mental retardation. For several years only small number of patients were offered surgery, however, advances in neuroimaging studies and development of new surgical techniques have enabled Us to deal with the lesion in the eloquent areas, without any major problem.


Fossil fungal spores, endemic Paratethyan dinoflagellate cysts, organic-walled algal cysts, spores and pollen are very common in the onshore and offshore Neogene sediments of the Black Sea, Turkey. Amongst these assemblages, the fungal spore form-genus Mediaverrunites Nandi and Sinha 2007, emend. nov., described from Neogene strata from tropical to temperate paleoclimates, commonly occurs in Upper Miocene sediments. The presence of stratigraphically important dinoflagellate cyst and pollen taxa confirms the stratigraphic importance of this genus in the Upper Miocene of the Black Sea. Two new fungal spore species, Mediaverrunites batii sp. nov. and Mediaverrunites pontidiensis sp. nov., are described from Upper Miocene sediments of the Black Sea.


Coronavirus-like particles were found by electron microscopy in stools from infants with necrotizing enterocolitis. Stool samples from these infants as well as control specimens were passaged in cultures of human fetal intestinal organs. Two samples yielded virus-like particles and these have now been passaged 14 times (HEC 14). Gradient-purified HEC 14 strains had typical coronavirus morphology on electron microscopy and contained five major proteins with molecular sizes ranging from 190 to 23 kilodaltons. Infants with necrotizing enterocolitis developed specific antibody to the viral antigens between the acute and convalescent stages of the disease, as shown by examining serum specimens by single radial hemolysis, immunoenzymatic assay, and Western immunoblotting. No cross-reactivity was shown with other coronavirus strains tested, or with the newly isolated viruses of the Breda-Berne group, responsible for calf or horse diarrhea.


To consume a balanced diet may prevent many illnesses. After the Second World War the "Green Revolution" was conducted to increase efficiency in agriculture. After its harmful effects on environment were understood genetically modified foods (GMO) were served to combat hunger in the world. Today insufficiency in food product is not the main problem; imbalanced food distribution is the problem. In addition, GMO's might be harmful for health and environment. Moreover economical dependency to industrialized countries will carry on. If the community tends to use up all the sources and the population increases steadily hunger will not be the only scarcity that the human population would face. There will also be shortage in energy and clean water resources. In conclusion combating just with hunger using high technology will only postpone the problems for a short period of time.


PURPOSE
This study was designed to examine whether retinal function can be rescued by allogeneic normal retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) grafts in Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) with retinal degeneration and, if so, whether this rescued function can be measured and followed by recording the corneal electroretinogram (ERG).

METHODS
RPE donors were RCS-Long Evans crossbred F1 rats with phenotypically normal retinas. Half an RPE sheet was implanted in the subretinal space of RCS rats at postnatal day 20. The fundi of the recipients' eyes were examined, and the corneal ERGs were recorded. The eyes were also examined histologically.

RESULTS
The RPE grafts were identified by fundus examination in all 21 recipients. No clinical or histologic evidence of inflammation was detected in the media or the retina of the host eye. Eighteen of 21 (86%) recipients showed rescued corneal ERG function. In nine recipients, the PIII response in the grafted eye was significantly greater than in the nongrafted eye. In the other nine recipients, the ERG in the grafted eye showed a b-wave and an a-wave, whereas no b-wave was detected in the nongrafted eye. Recipients of the sham operation (n = 13) revealed no ERG function rescue. To determine long-term corneal ERG function in RPE recipients, 8 of 18 animals in which ERG function was rescued were randomly selected for continued observation. These recipients sustained rescued ERG function for 16 to 17 weeks, at which time the experiment ended.

CONCLUSION
Results indicate that retinal function of degenerative RCS rats, as measured by corneal ERG, can be rescued by implantation of allogeneic normal RPE into the subretinal space of the eye. Furthermore, this rescued function can be followed up over a relatively long period of time, thus providing a useful model for studying the functional changes of RPE allografts resulting from either immunologic or neurobiologic influences.


Biomass and carbon in Terminalia amazonia plantations in the South of Costa Rica. The study was carried out in a spacing trial with an experimental design consisting of randomized complete blocks, with three treatments and three replicates. Treatments were 2 m x 2 m (2500 trees/ha), 2.5 m x 2.5 m (1.600 trees/ha) and 3 m x 3 m (1111 trees/ha). The trial is located in Mogos, Osa Peninsula, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Results at 10 years of age indicate significant differences between treatments. These differences suggest that the stand density of 1600 trees/ha is the best option to maximize diameter growth and total height, as well as a greater yield of Terminalia amazonia. Results of wood density found in this study are similar to those reported in the literature (0.70 g/cm3). The biomass expansion factor (BEF) for this plantation is similar to that reported for natural forests. The factor to calculate the BEF for an individual tree is 1.3, and 1.2 per hectare. The allometric models adjusted for predicting biomass on the different tree components in relation to dbh had a satisfactory adjustment. The determination coefficients explained an average of 93% of data variability. The carbon fraction determined for the tree components of T. amazonia, as well as the different spacings, did not show a significant variation. The average values for stem, branches and foliage were 0.48, 0.43, and 0.42, respectively. The aboveground biomass per tree component under the 3 m x 3 m spacing differed from the other two treatments. Dry biomass production was greater at 1600 trees/ha density. The carbon stored by different tree components at the age of 10 years suggests that T. amazonia stores carbon in a more efficient manner under the 2.5 m x 2.5 m spacing (1600 trees/ha), with a rate of 4.9 Mg/ha/year.


Speed measurements are crucial for controlling traffic and in supporting automation of industrial processes. The speed of moving objects is typically measured from a stationary position using time-of-flight or the Doppler effect. Existing approaches require either relatively bulky physical devices or complex signal processing. The authors propose a new method for measuring the speed of (metal) objects moving on a fixed track. The authors' method is applicable, e.g. to cars on a road, trains on rails, or goods sliding on a conveyor belt. The method relies on the constructive and destructive interference patterns created by the reflections from the moving target. Speed is determined by measuring the signal strength of received messages as perceived by standard wireless devices. The method requires only minimal signal processing and only two commodity wireless transceivers, which are independent of the moving target. The advantages of their system compared to other technologies are reduced size, reduced cost, and in some scenarios robustness.


We report the statistics of whistler mode waves observed in relation to dipolarization fronts (DFs) in Earth's magnetotail using data from the four Cluster spacecraft spanning a period of 9 years, 2001–2009. We show that whistler mode waves are common in a vicinity of DFs: between 30 and 60% of all DFs are associated with whistlers. Whistlers are about 7 times more likely to be observed near a DF than at any random location in the magnetotail. Therefore, whistlers are a characteristic signature of DFs. We find that whistlers are most often detected in the flux pileup region (FPR) following the DF, close to the center of the current sheet (Bx ∼ 0) and in association with anisotropic electron distributions (T⟂>T∥). This suggests that we typically observe emissions in the source region where they are generated by the anisotropic electrons produced by the betatron process inside the FPR.


Noonan syndrome‐like disorder with loose anagen hair (NS/LAH) is one of the RASopathies, a group of clinically related developmental disorders caused by germline mutations in genes that encode components acting in the RAS/MAPK pathway. Among RASopathies, NS/LAH (OMIM 607721) is an extremely rare, multiple anomaly syndrome characterized by dysmorphic facial features similar to those observed in Noonan syndrome along with some distinctive ectodermal findings including easily pluckable, sparse, thin, and slow‐growing hair. ADA2 deficiency (DADA2, OMIM 615688) is a monogenic autoinflammatory disorder caused by homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in ADA2, with clinical features including recurrent fever, livedo racemosa, hepatosplenomegaly, and strokes as well as immune dysregulation. This is the first report of NS/LAH and ADA2 deficiency in the same individual. We report on a patient presenting with facial features, recurrent infections and ectodermal findings in whom both the clinical and molecular diagnoses of NS/LAH and ADA2 deficiency were established, respectively.


Background and Purpose Maternal glucocorticoid treatment for threatened premature delivery dramatically improves neonatal survival and short-term morbidity; however, its effects on neurodevelopmental outcome are variable. We investigated the effect of maternal glucocorticoid exposure after acute asphyxia on injury in the preterm brain. Methods Chronically instrumented singleton fetal sheep at 0.7 of gestation received asphyxia induced by complete umbilical cord occlusion for 25 minutes. 15 minutes after release of occlusion, ewes received a 3 ml i.m. injection of either dexamethasone (12 mg, n = 10) or saline (n = 10). Sheep were killed after 7 days recovery; survival of neurons in the hippocampus and basal ganglia, and oligodendrocytes in periventricular white matter were assessed using an unbiased stereological approach. Results Maternal dexamethasone after asphyxia was associated with more severe loss of neurons in the hippocampus (CA3 regions, 290±76 vs 484±98 neurons/mm2, mean±SEM, P<0.05) and basal ganglia (putamen, 538±112 vs 814±34 neurons/mm2, P<0.05) compared to asphyxia-saline, and with greater loss of both total (913±77 vs 1201±75/mm2, P<0.05) and immature/mature myelinating oligodendrocytes in periventricular white matter (66±8 vs 114±12/mm2, P<0.05, vs sham controls 165±10/mm2, P<0.001). This was associated with transient hyperglycemia (peak 3.5±0.2 vs. 1.4±0.2 mmol/L at 6 h, P<0.05) and reduced suppression of EEG power in the first 24 h after occlusion (maximum −1.5±1.2 dB vs. −5.0±1.4 dB in saline controls, P<0.01), but later onset and fewer overt seizures. Conclusions In preterm fetal sheep, exposure to maternal dexamethasone during recovery from asphyxia exacerbated brain damage.


The aim of this research project was to put more physics into theories of two-phase flow. The significance of including interfacial area as a separate variable in two-phase flow and transport models was investigated. In order to investigate experimentally the significance of the inclusion of interfacial area as a separate variable in two-phase flow studies, an artificial porous medium was designed and constructed. First, an extensive and comprehensive review of micro-models materials and manufacturing processes, visualization setups used, and their applications in two-phase flow studies was performed. Based on this review, the manufacturing material for our micro-model studies was chosen. In addition to this, the lack of an optical setup that can visualize flow in elongated micro-models was discussed. In order to calculate quantities like pressure drops, flow rates, relative permeabilities per phase, so as to better design the experimental setup, a pore network model was made. A flow network based on Delaunay triangulation was used to simulate drainage and imbibition under quasi-static conditions. Calculations for capillary pressure, wetting phase saturation, and interfacial area were used to construct the relevant surfaces, for various configurations of the flow network. Intrinsic permeability of the flow network, as well as relative permeability for both phases, were calculated for drainage. Typical flow rates were also calculated, so as to be later compared to experimental values. A micro-model made of silicon and sealed with a glass plate was then manufactured, and it was used to study oil recovery in natural rocks. A novel, all-glass micro-model was used to compare the experimental results to those obtained by the numerical model, under quasi-static conditions, during drainage. A novel optical setup which would allow the dynamic observation of pore scale flow processes in an elongated micro-model was designed and materialized for this purpose. Next, a PDMS micro-model was manufactured by using soft-lithography, to be used in quasi-static and dynamic two-phase flow experiments. A novel process was employed to make PDMS uniformly and stably hydrophobic, so as to resolve the well-known wettability issues of PDMS. Quasi-static and dynamic experimental data for capillary pressure, wetting phase saturation, and specific interfacial area, during drainage, imbibition, and their scanning curves, were extracted from the acquired images. These data were used to test the validity of the new capillarity equation for two-phase flow, by comparing the surfaces plotted for Pc-S-Awn, and verifying that interfacial area should be used as a separate variable in two-phase flow models. Finally, some experimental observations, like snap-off, local imbibition during drainage and vice versa, co-operational filling, and capillary end-effects, which are assumed in numerical models but not seen in experiments were captured for further studies.


Spotting anomalies in large multi-dimensional databases is a crucial task with many applications in finance, health care, security, etc. We introduce COMPREX, a new approach for identifying anomalies using pattern-based compression. Informally, our method finds a collection of dictionaries that describe the norm of a database succinctly, and subsequently flags those points dissimilar to the norm---with high compression cost---as anomalies. Our approach exhibits four key features: 1) it is parameter-free; it builds dictionaries directly from data, and requires no user-specified parameters such as distance functions or density and similarity thresholds, 2) it is general; we show it works for a broad range of complex databases, including graph, image and relational databases that may contain both categorical and numerical features, 3) it is scalable; its running time grows linearly with respect to both database size as well as number of dimensions, and 4) it is effective; experiments on a broad range of datasets show large improvements in both compression, as well as precision in anomaly detection, outperforming its state-of-the-art competitors.


Recently, transformer-based networks have shown impressive results in semantic segmentation. Yet for real-time semantic segmentation, pure CNN-based approaches still dominate in this field, due to the time-consuming computation mechanism of transformer. We propose RTFormer, an efficient dual-resolution transformer for real-time semantic segmenation, which achieves better trade-off between performance and efficiency than CNN-based models. To achieve high inference efficiency on GPU-like devices, our RTFormer leverages GPU-Friendly Attention with linear complexity and discards the multi-head mechanism. Besides, we find that cross-resolution attention is more efficient to gather global context information for high-resolution branch by spreading the high level knowledge learned from low-resolution branch. Extensive experiments on mainstream benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed RTFormer, it achieves state-of-the-art on Cityscapes, CamVid and COCOStuff, and shows promising results on ADE20K. Code is available at PaddleSeg: https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleSeg.


Ozone is used in many applications in the industry as an oxidising agent for example for bleaching and sterilisation. The decomposition of ozone in aqueous solutions is complex, and is affected by many properties such as, pH, temperature and substances present in the water. Additives can either accelerate the decomposition rate of ozone or have a stabilising effect of the ozone decay. By controlling the decomposition of ozone it is possible to increase the oxidative capacity of ozone. In this work the chemistry of acidic aqueous ozone is studied and ways to stabilise the decomposition of ozone in such solutions. The main work emphasizes the possibility to use surfactants in order to develop a new type of cleaning systems for the sterilisation of medical equipment.


Contents: Foreword, John Braithwaite Preface, Howard Zehr Part I Reconsidering Restorative Justice: Prolegomena: Restorative justice philosophy through a value-based methodology, Theo Gavrielides and Vasso Artinopoulou Aristotle on restorative justice: where the restorative justice and human rights movements meet (I * I'I'I1/2I'I- I"IxI I'I'), Vasso Artinopoulou and Theo Gavrielides The teachings of restorative justice, Gerry Johnstone Problematizing restorative justice: a Foucaldian perspective, Giuseppe Maglione Gatekeeping in restorative justice and related research, Anne Hayden. Part II Case Studies in Contemporary Society: The nexus between rights and restorative justice: using a case example of an organization 'C' - the right - or moral and spiritual claim - to recognition, Robert E. Mackay Global justice, restorative justice and universal peace in the reality of international politics and state power, Christodoulos K. Yiallourides and Mersilia Anastasiadou Institutionalizing restorative justice: paradoxes of power, restoration, and rights, Mara Schiff Relationality in justice and repair: implications for restorative justice, Susan Sharpe Rights and restoration in Canada: reflections on practice, law and theory, Brenda Morrison Conflict resolution theory, practice and challenges that lie ahead, Maria Hadjipavlou. Part III Back to Basics for Restorative Justice: Returning conflict and justice to aboriginal peoples: restorative justice reconsidered, Judah Oudshoorn Realizing the potential of restorative justice, Evelyn Zellerer The African concept of Ubuntu and restorative justice, Marelize Schoeman Restorative pain: a new vision of punishment Theo Gavrielides Epilogue: reconstructing restorative justice philosophy, Theo Gavrielides and Vasso Artinopoulou Index.


This paper presents a systemic intervention in which a group of researchers and engineering students used critical systems thinking ideas to promote reflexivity on a basic concept that underlies engineering practice: efficiency. In particular we explored a situation in which students had to deal simultaneously with issues of efficiency and justice. Engineering students are frequently trained to design efficient systems or to improve the efficiency of already existing systems. Although engineering and economic efficiency are not the same, young engineering students tend to equate and value both of them. However, within many contexts efficiency is not the only relevant criteria for judging among different alternative solutions to engineering problems. Justice and other ethical considerations are also frequently relevant. Not all efficient technical solutions are also the most fair, and vice versa. In this paper we describe a research inquiry in which a group of engineering students were invited to choose among diverse solutions involving issues of justice and efficiency. Based on the work of a group of scholars such as John Rawls, John Nash, Robert Aumann, and Howard Raiffa, the students explored different conceptions of justice as well as their relationships with efficiency. During this process that involved both individual and collective work, we found evidence that the students became engaged in uncovering and questioning their ways of thinking and behaving, as well as their moral frameworks. Initially we found a tendency among engineering students to be unwilling to deviate from the solutions that involve Pareto efficiency, to give priority to efficiency over justice, to understand justice only within the context of efficiency, as well as to experience difficulties in developing rational arguments to reach rationally justifiable conclusions on issues of justice and efficiency. The research revealed that senior undergraduate and master engineering students frequently experience a substantial difficulty in arguing coherently in debates about practical rationality, something that is in stark contrast with their good ability to deal with technical issues and mathematical calculations. At the beginning of the experiment disputed questions related to justice and efficiency were frequently treated not as a matter of rational enquiry and justification, but as a problem of personal opinions and unarticulated presuppositions that were relegated to the realm of irrational acts of belief. The use of boundary critique and several critical systems thinking tools contributed to change the way engineering students made and justify their choices among competing conceptions of justice, and to develop a new notion on how to reach a balance between efficiency and justice. The discussion helped students to reflect on wider issues that involved their role in issues of social justice in their society. The changes that students experienced were not the result of the researchers' intentions to convince the students of making some particular choices, but of a dialogical rather than a monological approach to ethical issues and practical rationality. This dialogical approach involved the exploration of different alternative boundary judgements that promote reflexivity on what and whose views are included in or excluded from analysis. Students were able to understand that different ethical choices result from choosing diverse boundary judgements.


The geographic distribution of streams on earth can be associated with terrestrial vegetation, slope, and latitude, among other factors. Classifying flowing water habitats by associated vegetative cover is useful because factors such as downstream transport of organic carbon (C), sediments, nutrients, and other dissolved or suspended materials are influenced heavily by the vegetative characteristics of the watershed. Global datasets with 1-degree spatial resolution were analyzed to characterize both volume of runoff and number of mapped rivers associated with each of 14 classes of vegetation, and how runoff is influenced by latitude and slope. The vegetation classes (land cover) were ranked in decreasing order with respect to runoff. About 30% of the global runoff originates from broadleaf evergreen forest, followed by wooded C4 grassland (14.8%), cultivated land (8.9%), coniferous forest and woodland (8.3%), ice (7.8%), wooded C3 grassland (6.0%), mixed coniferous and broadleaf deciduous forest (5.4%), C3 grassland (5.3%), tundra (4.5%), high latitude deciduous forest and woodland (3.9%), broadleaf deciduous forest and woodland (2.3%), C4 grassland (1.7%), shrubs and bare ground (1.4%), and desert and bare ground (0.5%). Numbers of mapped rivers followed a similar pattern, except that broadleaf evergreen forests did not dominate, and tundra habitats were much more important. Counts of intermittent rivers were generally highest in the areas with the lowest runoff. River counts are likely to be less reliable than runoff estimates because they rely upon the subjective judgment of cartographers. Equatorial and northern temperate regions accounted for the greatest proportion of total runoff. A weak positive relationship occurred between slope and runoff. This analysis may assist investigators in determining how well their results can be extrapolated beyond regional scales.


The science of dreams and their interpretation may seem like a recent trend, justifying current research interests. Yet, for centuries, dream science, once called oneirology, has captivated dreamers in quest of meanings and motivated scientists in search of explanations. Due to the recent expansion of dream research this narrative review discusses and explores relationships between dreaming and health promoting behaviors. Perspectives from current evidence are classified according to the fundamentals of the Freudian dream theory. Selected investigations are reviewed according to specific elements of the psychoanalytic theory, suggesting new approaches including a possible explanation of the paradox of the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and new terms proposed, pre-REM and post-REM, to replace non-REM (NREM) sleep. This review draws parallels between selected studies and the possible health promotion benefits within a psychoanalytic perspective, proposing possible lines of research to improve physical and mental health and wellbeing within the context of dreaming. The potential of dreaming to elicit healthy behaviors may be possible if the dynamics of the psyche's structure are consciously understood. Further examinations of dream science could lead to unexplored areas of public health, neuropsychoanalysis, and health promotion with an integrative and cross-disciplinary approach.


Abstract This paper presents the individual parameters of the selected railway corridors in the selected country. Particularly, it describes the specific features of selected corridors in this country, summarizes their capacity, as well as proposes the methodology in order to specify the capacity of given railway section. The outcome is represented by the calculation of the appropriate railway section capacity implemented on the particular railway corridor in the selected EU country.


An analytic model is developed to describe the influence of coherent vibrational motion on optical third harmonic generation. The vibrational coherence is prepared and probed by a pair of collinear optical pulses, focused at the interface of a crystal that has vibrational modes that are accessible to impulsive Raman scattering. Under these conditions, the probe pulse generates a third harmonic signal that is perturbed by the vibrational coherence through three mechanisms uncovered by this model: (1) coherent second hyper-Raman scattering, (2) cascaded amplitude modulation, and (3) perturbation of Fresnel transmission and reflection at the interface. Upon scanning the optical pulse delay and translating the crystal through the focal plane, these three contributions exhibit key differences, which may be observed experimentally.


Talk about time travel is puzzling even if it isn't obviously contradictory. Philosophers however are divided about whether time travel involves empirical paradox or some deeper metaphysical incoherence. It is suggested that time travel requires a Parmenidean four-dimensionalist metaphysical conception of the world in time. The possibility of time travel is addressed (mainly) from within a Parmenidean metaphysical framework, which is accepted by David Lewis in his defence of the coherence of time travel. It is argued that time travel raises formidable difficulties which are not satisfactorily resolved by Lewis's ingenious defence of time travel. Objections to time travel considered include: (1) travel to other times is impossible because there is nowhere (or "nowhen") to go to; (2) the problem that upon setting out on a journey to the past a time machine will collide with itself; (3) time travel generates a mysterious temporal dualism between experiential time and physical time; (4) travel to the past permits reverse causation, raising the possibility of causal loops and attendant problems arising, for example, from the prospect of empirical contradiction and the possibility of someone being one of their ancestors.


In this paper, we present an overview on the design, integration, installation and operation of a structural health monitoring (SHM) system used to monitor the behavior of Artemis Racing AC72 composite sailing catamaran during tests as well as in live America's Cup sailing competition. The SHM system consisted of strain and temperature optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors that were either embedded into or surface-bonded onto distinct composite parts. A total of 150 sensors were used, many as custom-made FBG arrays. A dynamic FBG interrogator running scans at 1kHz, combined with a 16 channel Mux were used to measure and data log the data. The composite catamaran's behavior was monitored at key structural points in real-time during tests, sailing sessions and actual competition races. The accuracy and reliability of this fiber optic SHM system has been proven throughout the entire project. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/219


This research examines whether and to what degree does ownership structure affect the capital structure, using a universal sample of Vietnamese listed firms from 2009 to 2015. We consider the ownership structure in two dimensions: ownership concentration and ownership types. Our paper is among the few to deploy Herfindahl index of all major shareholders, institutional shareholders, and even foreign shareholders as proxies for ownership concentration. The results depict a positive and significant impact of ownership concentration on the overall capital structure of the companies. Further tests indicate that the effect of ownership structure is stronger for short-term debt and bank debt and weaker or even not significant for long-term debt. Despite the fact that the ownership of state, institutional investors, and foreign investors do not significantly affect the capital structure ratio, we find a non-linear relationship between managerial ownership and the structure of overall debt and bank debt.


In the context of virtualized-reality-based telemicromanipulation, this paper presents a visual calibration technique for an optical microscope coupled to a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The accuracy and flexibility of the proposed automatic virtual calibration method, based on parallel single-plane properties, are outlined. In contrast to standard approaches, a 3-D virtual calibration pattern is constructed using the micromanipulator tip with subpixel-order localization in the image frame. The proposed procedure leads to a linear system whose solution provides directly both the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the geometrical model. Computer simulations and real data have been used to test the proposed technique, and promising results have been obtained. Based on the proposed calibration techniques, a 3-D virtual microenvironment of the workspace is reconstructed through the real-time imaging of two perpendicular optical microscopes. Our method provides a flexible, easy-to-use technical alternative to the classical techniques used in micromanipulation systems.


To reach the video bandwidth requirements on the supply paths, power amplifiers with dynamic bias schemes are constrained to reduce the values of the low-frequency (LF) decoupling capacitors on their bias lines. This can entail a decrease of the LF stability margins, among other negative effects. In this work, a methodology is proposed to experimentally monitor and control the dominant poles that govern the LF dynamics of both gate and drain bias lines from dc to high compression power. A specific topology for the bias observation accesses allows a consistent characterization in large-signal regimes. An automatic procedure to trace root contours versus four control parameters is also developed. The complete approach can be used to optimize the design of the bias lines in terms of video bandwidth, relative stability margins, and bias voltage transfer function characteristics. Moreover, the design can account for the effect of the large-signal RF drive on these LF performances. The methodology is exemplified and validated in a demonstrator prototype specifically built for that purpose.


Machine learning is predicated on the concept of generalization: a model achieving low error on a sufficiently large training set should also perform well on novel samples from the same distribution. We show that both data whitening and second order optimization can harm or entirely prevent generalization. In general, model training harnesses information contained in the sample-sample second moment matrix of a dataset. For a general class of models, namely models with a fully connected first layer, we prove that the information contained in this matrix is the only information which can be used to generalize. Models trained using whitened data, or with certain second order optimization schemes, have less access to this information, resulting in reduced or nonexistent generalization ability. We experimentally verify these predictions for several architectures, and further demonstrate that generalization continues to be harmed even when theoretical requirements are relaxed. However, we also show experimentally that regularized second order optimization can provide a practical tradeoff, where training is accelerated but less information is lost, and generalization can in some circumstances even improve.


Based on the results of assessments of the dependences of the level of psychoemotional load of a primary care physician (PHC) (district physician) on medical and social problems related to the conditions of his activity, measures have been developed for stress resistance and health saving of a district physician (VTU). The Orenburg region with a population of almost 2 million people was the pilot territory (base) for the study. The region has 12 cities and 35 rural districts, the share of the rural population is 40.1%. Research materials und methods: sociological, direct observation, statistical: 1014 questionnaires of survey of district physicians (93% of the total number of VTU) were subjected to statistical processing. The study included 4 stages. At the first stage, sociological surveys of district physicians working in medical organizations located in urban and rural settlements were carried out (568 and 446 VTU, respectively). At the second stage of the study, the level of psychoemotional burnout was assessed using the modified method of V. V. Boyko (2010) "Diagnostics of the level of emotional burnout". At the third stage of the study, we calculated the statistically significant correlation of the symptom of professional burnout (SPEV) with factors related to medical and social problems of the professional activity of the local GP. At the fourth stage of the study, a set of measures has been developed and is being implemented to increase emotional stability in the professional activity of the local GP. Relevance. WHO classifies occupational stress as a disease of the twentieth century, which can manifest itself in any profession and can reach the size of a "global epidemic". The accumulation of negative emotions in the profession of a doctor can lead to psycho-emotional exhaustion and the formation of the syndrome of "emotional burnout". A necessary quality of a primary care physician is emotional stability. This is the ability to overcome a state of excessive emotional arousal. Of particular importance is the development of professional burnout and the assessment of professional stability for district physicians who make first contact with the patient. Results. Measures have been developed to increase the effectiveness of emotional (professional) stability in the activities of VTU. Conclusion: Emotional stability in the doctor's work allows you to maintain and further increase the effectiveness of professional activities. The obtained research results were used for the development of the "program for the modernization of health care in the Orenburg region". They were used in the development of the Software product of the Ministry of health of the Orenburg region.


Glagov's positive remodelling in the early stages of coronary atherosclerosis often results in plaque rupture and acute events. Because positive remodelling is generally diffused along the epicardial coronary arterial tree, it is difficult to diagnose non-invasively. Hence, the objective of the study is to assess the use of scaling power law for the diagnosis of positive remodelling of coronary arteries based on computed tomography (CT) images. Epicardial coronary arterial trees were reconstructed from CT scans of six Ossabaw pigs fed on a high-fat, high-cholesterol, atherogenic diet for eight months as well as the same number of body-weight-matched farm pigs fed on a lean chow (101.9±16.1 versus 91.5±13.1 kg). The high-fat diet Ossabaw pig model showed diffuse positive remodelling of epicardial coronary arteries. Good fit of measured coronary data to the length–volume scaling power law ( where Lc and Vc are crown length and volume) were found for both the high-fat and control groups (R2 = 0.95±0.04 and 0.99±0.01, respectively). The coefficient, KLV, decreased significantly in the high-fat diet group when compared with the control (14.6±2.6 versus 40.9±5.6). The flow–length scaling power law, however, was nearly unaffected by the positive remodelling. The length–volume and flow–length scaling power laws were preserved in epicardial coronary arterial trees after positive remodelling. KLV < 18 in the length–volume scaling relation is a good index of positive remodelling of coronary arteries. These findings provide a clinical rationale for simple, accurate and non-invasive diagnosis of positive remodelling of coronary arteries, using conventional CT scans.


On its 50th anniversary, the Wilderness Act owes much to the effect of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), both in terms of the number of acres in the national wilderness system and in the management of designated wilderness areas. Courts have closely scrutinized federal land management agency actions that threaten wilderness qualities — and this article maintains that the usual vehicle has been NEPA. Enacted a little over a half-decade after the Wilderness Act, NEPA was instrumental in the doubling of wilderness acres in the 1980s, as Congress added wilderness areas and released other areas to multiple uses in response to a NEPA injunction imposed on U.S. Forest Service management. NEPA has also had a considerable effect on wilderness area management, curbing timber cutting and recreational activities and, in combination with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, requiring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to pursue the least damaging environmental alternative to re-routing a road bisecting wilderness study areas. NEPA's influence on potential wilderness remains large a half-century after the passage of the Wilderness Act, as NEPA has ratified the Forest Service's roadless rule, which will protect potential wilderness areas from most developments, making them eligible for future wilderness designation. And NEPA has required BLM to identify and publicly disclose lands with wilderness characteristics when revising its land plans. Thus, NEPA has fulfilled its mission of improving environmental decisionmaking by encouraging the designation of new wilderness areas, insisting on careful management of existing wilderness, and approving both the protection of large roadless areas in national forests and the identification of roadless areas in BLM land plans. Without NEPA, there would be considerably less to celebrate on the Wilderness Act's 50th anniversary.


ABSTRACT RIIa is known as the dimerization and docking (D/D) domain of the cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase. However, numerous molecules, including radial spoke protein 2 (RSP2) in Chlamydomonas flagella, also contain an RIIa or a similar DPY-30 domain. To elucidate new roles of D/D domain-containing proteins, we investigated a panel of RSP2 mutants. An RSP2 mutant had paralyzed flagella defective in RSP2 and multiple subunits near the spokehead. New transgenic strains lacking only the DPY-30 domain in RSP2 were also paralyzed. In contrast, motility was restored in strains that lacked only RSP2's calmodulin-binding C-terminal region. These cells swam normally in dim light but could not maintain typical swimming trajectories under bright illumination. In both deletion transgenic strains, the subunits near the spokehead were restored, but their firm attachment to the spokestalk required the DPY-30 domain. We postulate that the DPY-30–helix dimer is a conserved two-prong linker, required for normal motility, organizing duplicated subunits in the radial spoke stalk and formation of a symmetrical spokehead. Further, the dispensable calmodulin-binding region appears to fine-tune the spokehead for regulation of "steering" motility in the green algae. Thus, in general, D/D domains may function to localize molecular modules for both the assembly and modulation of macromolecular complexes.


The regulation of myelin sheath thickness is extremely important for neural function because it regulates nerve conduction velocity. Myelin thickness is proportional to axon size--small axons have little myelin, whereas large-caliber axons have a thick myelin sheath. Schwann cells deliver the correct number of myelin wraps, but how do Schwann cells "sense" the diameter of the engulfed axon? Michailov et al. (see the cover and the Perspective by ffrench-Constant et al.) now suggest that Schwann cells respond to an axonal growth factor, neuregulin-1, and integrate this cell surface signal to create a biochemical measure of axon caliber. Altering the extent of neuregulin-1 signaling alters myelin thickness, and reduced neuregulin-1 gene dosage in mice "misleads" the Schwann cell as to the true caliber of the axonal segment, which results in reduced myelination and slowing of nerve conduction velocity. G. V. Michailov, M. W. Sereda, B. G. Brinkmann, T. M. Fischer, B. Haug, C. Birchmeier, L. Role, C. Lai, M. H. Schwab, K.-A. Nave, Axonal neuregulin-1 regulates myelin sheath thickness. Science 304, 700-703 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text] C. ffrench-Constant, H. Colognato, R. J. M. Franklin, The mysteries of myelin unwrapped. Science 304, 688-689 (2004). [Summary] [Full Text]


This exploratory work was guided by the question of whether health education messages about food and exercise might inadvertently influence children's beliefs about weight controllability, body satisfaction, weight self-assessments, desire to alter weight, and body build stereotypes. Participants were 80 children (38 boys, 42 girls) aged 7 to 13 years enrolled in a week-long "FunLIFE" summer camp offered at a large university. FunLIFE was created in response to the childhood obesity crisis and focuses upon Learning to Improve Fitness and Eating (thus, the acronym "LIFE"). Pre- and posttest questionnaires were administered at four camp sessions. Findings indicated that participation in FunLIFE camp did not influence children's weight controllability beliefs, level of body satisfaction, their self-assessments of their weight, or their desire to alter or maintain their weight. Exposure to the FunLIFE curriculum did, however, positively impact children's stereotypes about both overweight and thin children. Findings and implications are discussed.


Research report submitted to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, University of Namibia, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of science in Natural Resources.


Exposure to radiation is increasingly becoming a worldwide health issue. Because of this the need for effective radioprotectors is critical. This need is not met by amifostine the current "gold standard" in radioprotectors due to its limited availability and potentially severe side effects. The fermented soy product miso has been credited with a host of beneficial effects among which are radioprotection and as a common food miso is readily available known to be safe and is easily administered. As such it is the hypothesis of this dissertation that miso may be an effective radioprotector. Unfortunately few rigorous studies of miso's reputed actions have been undertaken. It is the objective of this investigation therefore to better identify and characterize the radioprotective and antioncogenic properties of miso and its most abundant active ingredient genistein. To accomplish this experiments were designed using tumorigenic (PC3 cells) and non-tumorigenic (RWPE-1 cells) experimental prostate models to characterize the effects of miso and genistein both alone and following a series of low dose radiation exposures. Results demonstrated that neither miso nor genistein appeared to display radioprotective abilities in the radiation dose range used in this investigation. However both compounds induced a strong growth inhibitory effect that appeared to synergize with radiation to significantly reduce cell survival in a manner that preferentially enhanced tumor cell kill over non-tumor cell kill suggesting potential antioncogenic potential for these compounds.


In the summer of 2007, the authors undertook a study designed to illuminate the reasons why many first-year legal writing students find the first few weeks of the class so difficult and so frustrating. Their own students' struggles during early legal writing classes were of deep concern to the authors, primarily because these early classes were devoted to teaching fundamental skills, including legal reasoning and analysis. To isolate the reasons for these struggles, the authors administered a series of three surveys to first-year law students at two diverse law schools, seeking to learn how the students' attitudes toward and experiences in legal writing changed over the course of their 1L year. Based on the students' responses to the surveys, the authors identified four major reasons for many beginning legal writing students' difficulties and frustrations: (1) They lack a professional context in which to place the skills they are learning; (2) They are inexperienced in, and often resist, the difficult analytical thinking that is fundamental to good legal writing; (3) They lose confidence when they realize that the skills they used to achieve mastery in one discourse community do not guarantee success in the discourse community of legal writing; and (4) They are unable to correctly assess how their prior strengths and weaknesses as writers will impact their task as legal writers. The first sections of this article introduce the goals of the study in more detail; generally describe the survey populations; outline the methodology of the study; and provide demographic results from the surveys. The bulk of the article is devoted to describing in detail how the students' responses support the authors' findings about the four major reasons for early students' struggles and frustrations. In the final section of the article, the authors posit that by candidly acknowledging to our students the validity of the reasons they struggle, and by making modest adjustments to our early teaching practices to address these reasons, legal writing professors can positively impact our students' attitudes toward the task of learning legal writing and ultimately maximize their chances for success.


This paper addresses the problem of realistically simulating the motion of tree‐branches subjected to turbulence. Since the resulting motion is random in nature, we model it as a stochastic process. We synthesize this process directly by filtering a white noise in the Fourier domain. The filter is constructed by performing a modal analysis of the tree. We use a sophisticated numerical technique which is able to compute the first few significant modes of large trees. The main advantage of our technique over previous methods is that we are able to compute complicated motions without the necessity of integrating dynamical equations over time. Consequently, a user can view and manipulate tree‐motions in real‐time. Our technique can be further extended to other flexible structures such as two‐dimensional plates.


Recent reform efforts of advanced welfare states have attempted to reverse trends in early retirement and increase the statutory retirement age. This paradigm shift often occurred against the protest of unions, fi rms and their employees. As a consequence of expanding welfare states and as response to economic challenges since the 1970s early exit from work has become a widespread practice. Early retirement has been part of Continental Europe's welfare without work problem, while the Scandinavian welfare states, the Anglophone liberal economies and the Japanese welfare society were able to maintain higher levels of employment for older workers. Since the 1990s, an international consensus to reverse early exit from work emerged among international organisations and national policy experts. Based on a comparative historical analysis of selected OECD countries, this study analyses the cross-national variations in the institutionalisation of early exit regimes and its recent reversal using macro-indictors on early exit trends and stylised information on institutional arrangements. Comparing the interaction of social policy and economic institutions, it reviews the cross-national differences in welfare state "pull" and economic "push" factors that have contributed to early exit from work and discusses the likely impact of welfare retrenchment and assesses the importance of "retention" factors such as activation policies for decreasing early exit from work.


The gravitational field outside of astrophysical black holes is completely described by their mass and spin frequency, as expressed by the no-hair theorems. These theorems assume vacuum spacetimes, and thus they apply only to black holes and not to stars. Despite this, we analytically find that the gravitational potential of arbitrarily rapid, rigidly rotating stars can still be described completely by only their mass, spin angular momentum, and quadrupole moment. Although these results are obtained in the nonrelativistic limit (to leading order in a weak-field expansion of general relativity, GR), they are also consistent with fully relativistic numerical calculations of rotating neutron stars. This description of the gravitational potential outside the source in terms of just three quantities is approximately universal (independent of equation of state). Such universality may be used to break degeneracies in pulsar and future gravitational wave observations to extract more physics and test GR in the strong-field regime.


This qualitative study explored the thought processes of administrators as they reviewed and judged second-year teacher artifacts (a portfolio) relative to the Iowa teaching standards and criteria (ITS/criteria). In addition, data was collected pertaining to the tools principals used as they conducted portfolio evaluation and the amount of bearing the portfolio had on a licensure decision. Data for the study was gathered via a think-aloud process in combination with guided interview questions. Nine principals participated in the study; three each from elementary, middle, and high school. The nine principals were also representative of rural, suburban, and urban geographic/demographic regions. The think-alouds and ensuing interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed. The resulting verbal reports (comments) were analyzed and categorized using the constant comparative method. The comment counts were used to report the accumulated data and make comparisons between academic level and between geographic/demographic regions. The verbal reporting data revealed that the thought processes of the principals were similar. Each review consisted of three distinct phases. Within in each phase, the principals attended to processing activities, judgment activities, and coaching activities. In addition, the principals identified two critical pieces of teacher evaluation as teacher reflection and principal' s observation of teacher. Findings also made clear the impact of the Iowa Evaluator Training Program (IEATP) on the consistency of evaluation. Principals across academic level and geographic/demographic region used a similar four-step rhythm as they judged artifacts. In addition, a distinct consistency existed in the kinds of artifacts the principals identified as valid evidence of the ITS/criteria. Further, the leadership style of the principals was indicative of the formative nature of the portfolio. Six distinct tools that principals used while they evaluated were identified and described in the study. In addition, it was evident that, while value was placed on the portfolio, the principals put more emphasis on observation. Principals indicated that the portfolio review would account for roughly 30% of a licensure decision. The findings from this study were relevant to consistency in evaluation across academic level and geographic/demographic region. The information may help inform continuing efforts relative to teacher evaluation across the state. THE THOUGHT PROCESSES OF ADMINISTRATORS AS THEY REVIEW AND MAKE EVALUATIVE JUDGMENT OF A SECOND-YEAR TEACHER PORFOLIO: A QUALITATIVE STUDY A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education Dr.Mary "ng,Co-Chair ~ Dr. Rebecca Burkhardt, Committee Member Dr. Victoria Robinson, Committee Member


A new report from JRF outlines the findings from the My Home Life project. My Home Life is a collaborative initiative between Age UK, City University, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Dementia UK promoting quality of life in care homes.

This study found:

- positive relationships in care homes enable staff to listen to older people, gain insights into individual needs and facilitate greater voice, choice and control;
- relationship-centred care is at the heart of many examples of best practice;
- care home managers play a pivotal role in promoting relationships between older people, staff and relatives;
- care home providers and statutory agencies should consider how their attitudes, practices and policies can create pressure and unnecessary paperwork which ultimately reduce the capacity of care homes to respond to the needs of older people; and
- negative stereotypes of care homes have an impact on the confidence of staff and managers.


Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a relatively new mode of therapy for the management of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Balloon angioplasty, a type of PCI, was first performed in the late 1970s, but suffered the main complications of early restenosis because of an inflammatory reaction in the media, causing neointimal proliferation that required further intervention. In 1986, the French cardiologist, Puel, implanted the first coronary stent in a human in France. However, it was only in 1994 that the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of coronary stents in human subjects. It has been shown that PCI is no more effective in preventing a major cardiac event or death, than optimal medical therapy, in patients with stable CAD. However, PCI has shown benefits over medical therapy in patients with unstable coronary disease.


The absence of fairy shrimp (Anostraca) from permanent ponds and lakes is hypothesized to be the result of vertebrate predation. However, hatching cues for anostracan diapausing eggs include factors associated with the filling of temporary pond basins, and desiccation often increases the fraction of eggs that hatch. Thus, it is possible that in some species, eggs dispersed to permanent habitats never hatch, and vertebrate predation is not the proximate factor limiting distributions. We experimentally transplanted live egg‐bearing females of the fairy shrimp Branchinecta coloradensis into permanent and temporary ponds in small chambers and allowed the chambers to overwinter in situ. There was no discernible effect of pond drying on hatching success (mean success = 50.9%). We also determined whether metamorphic salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum) could disperse viable fairy shrimp eggs by feeding on B. coloradensis in one pond and defecating in another. Hatching success for a salamander "ingested" treatment was estimated as 0.9%. Results of a third experimental treatment suggested that the eggs being carried by females were not fully mature, so that ingestion resistance might vary throughout the reproductive period of B. coloradensis. By combining these results with data on salamander movement and diet, we estimated salamander‐mediated dispersal rates for fairy shrimp eggs. Metamorphic A. tigrinum nebulosum sp. are likely to be dispersing thousands of B. coloradensis eggs among ponds annually. Because our results demonstrate that dispersal between ponds can occur in large numbers, they support the prevailing hypothesis that vertebrate predators limited to permanent ponds are the proximate mechanism preventing the invasion of fairy shrimp.


Global Chinese Literature: Critical Essays, edited by Jing Tsu and David Der-wei Wang. Leiden: Brill, 2010. ? + 231 pp. euro97.00/US$ 137.00 (hard- cover).Since the publication of Shu-mei Shih's Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Artic- ulations across the Pacific (2007), the term Sinophone has been employed to con- test nation-centered approaches to Chinese cultural studies and to call attention to Sinitic-language expressions from diverse parts of the world. Bringing together scholars of Chinese and comparative literature and Asian American studies, this book offers a rich and thought-provoking engagement with this concept, raising the fundamental question of what "global Chinese literature" means and what is at stake in naming it Sinophone. While disagreeing on whether the Sinophone should encompass mainland Chinese literature, the authors share the aim of countering understandings of Chinese diasporas that assume an enduring attachment to the nation. They call attention to the minor sounds and marginal voices that have been suppressed by the dominance of Mandarin, and emphasize locally specific and time-sensitive interactions at places of transit or arrival. In their introduction, Jing Tsu and David Wang write that the Sinophone "seek[s] to dismantle the hegemonic focus of a 'national' Chinese literature and perhaps of a national literature at all" (p. 6). Two main meanings of the term emerge from the essays: the first refers to minority articulations outside or on the margins of China, while the second designates a mode of reading focused on the material aspects of language- scripts and sounds- and on the uneven processes of translation between the global and local in any Chinese cultural expression. Even though these meanings come together in some of the contributions, the editors do not strive for one single definition, but rather value the dialogue that emerges from their dissonance.The first four essays discuss what the Sinophone is, while the following six showcase what it can do. A "Commentary" by Eric Hayot concludes the book. For Kim Chew Ng, the Sinophone indicates Chinese-language literatures in contexts in which Chinese is a minority language, such as in Southeast Asia. Excluded from national literature and characterized by a strong sense of place, the Sinophone bears affinities with Deleuze and Guattari s notion of a "minor literature". Shu-mei Shih's programmatic intervention encompasses not only Sinitic-language communities outside China but also those on its margins. From an Asian Americanist perspective, Sau-Ling Wong's sweeping contribution critiques China's desire to be acknowledged as a centripetal force and proposes "locatedness" as a way to call attention to migrants' imbrications in their place of arrival. These and other understandings of the Sinophone are then discussed in Tee Kim Tongs essay, which offers a helpful genealogy of the term.The remaining contributions focus on specific processes of textual, aural and visual mediation. Jing Tsu's essay does not aim to rescale the literary beyond the nation, but rather seeks to disaggregate the national language by reconsidering its script, which she sees as an unstable "medium of change, strife, and assimilation" (p. 97). Retracing attempts to capture regional accents at the turn of the 20th century, she recovers a late Qing phonetization movement that was then overwritten by the dichotomy of classical Chinese and vernacular. …


Nearly 40% of all Americans have no connection with organized religion. Yet many of these people, even though they might never step inside a house of worship, live profoundly spiritual lives. But what is the nature and value of unchurched spirituality in America? Is it a recent phenomenon, a New Age fad that will soon fade, or a long-standing and essential aspect of the American experience? In Spiritual But Not Religious, Robert Fuller offers fascinating answers to these questions. He shows that alternative spiritual practices have a long and rich history in America, dating back to the colonial period, when church membership rarely exceeded 17% and interest in astrology, numerology, magic, and witchcraft ran high. Fuller traces such unchurched traditions into the mid-nineteenth century, when Americans responded enthusiastically to new philosophies such as Swedenborgianism, Transcendentalism, and mesmerism, right up to the current interest in meditation, channeling, divination, and a host of other unconventional spiritual practices. Throughout, Fuller argues that far from the flighty and narcissistic dilettantes they are often made out to be, unchurched spiritual seekers embrace a mature and dynamic set of basic beliefs. They focus on inner sources of spirituality and on this world rather than the afterlife; they believe in the accessibility of God and in the mind's untapped powers; they see a fundamental unity between science and religion and an equality between genders and races; and they are more willing to test their beliefs and change them when they prove untenable. Timely, sweeping in its scope, and informed by a clear historical understanding, Spiritual But Not Religious offers fresh perspective on the growing numbers of Americans who find their spirituality outside the church.


A dynamic scale similarity model is proposed. The subgrid model is tested for model problems related to time dependent non‐linear convection–diffusion–reaction systems with fractal solutions. The error of an approximate solution with subgrid model on a scale h is typically smaller than that of a solution without subgrid model on the scale h/2. We also consider the problem of a posteriori error estimation for fractal solutions, splitting the total computational error into a numerical error, related to the discretization of the continuous equations, and a modelling error, taking into account the quality of the subgrid model. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Using quarterly macro data and annual state panel data, we examine various explanations of the low rate of price inflation, strong real wage growth, and low rate of unemployment in the U.S. economy during the late 1990s. Many of these explanations imply shifts in the coefficients of price and wage Phillips curves. We find, however, that once one accounts for the univariate trends in the unemployment rate and in the rate of productivity growth, these coefficients are stable. This suggests that many explanations, such as persistent beneficial supply shocks, changes in firms' pricing power, changes in price expectations arising from shifts in Fed policy, and changes in wage setting behavior miss the mark. Rather, we suggest that explanations of movements of wages, prices and unemployment over the 1990s, and indeed over the past forty years, must focus on understanding the univariate trends in the unemployment rate and in productivity growth and, perhaps, the relation between the two. Douglas Staiger Department of Economics Dartmouth College Rockefeller Hall, Room 322 Hanover, NH 03755-3514 James H. Stock Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 Mark W. Watson Department of Economics Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544


Geryon quinquedens is present along the West African continental slope at depths from 300 to 1000 m, on silt-clay sediments. Geryon is a cold and rather poorly oxygenated water loving species. It is easily caught by traps as it is a scavenger and predatory crustacea. In a given area its distribution does not appear to be homogeneous: for example, densities of red crabs are higher in the eastern and western region of Cote d'Ivoire than in the central zone. Similar observations can be made off Congo, Angola and United States. It can be assumed that there is a relation between the abundance of Geryon and the productivity level of the area. Geographical variations of sex ratio are suspected to be correlated with the density distribution. Males and females have not the same bathymetric distribution: females are only common in the shallower waters (300-500 m) whereas males are present in the whole biotope. Seasonal migrations occur down and up the slope in both the sexes and are certainly related to the reproductive biology. Knowledge of the reproductive biology is also necessary to understand fishing-trap catch rate: egg maturation extends over several months and ovigerous females are exceptionally caught by traps; males also are less available during the same period (March to August) when migrations are less important; in this period, mean size increases and probably this happens at the end of a moult. From September to February the catch-rates increase. Growth is slow compared with other littoral Guinean Crustacea (Peneides). Females become sexually mature at a size of 80 mm (carapace width): modification in the allometric relations of abdomen and carapace are then conspicuous.


Asymmetric induction in photochemical reactions has been explored using the photochemistry of tropolones as a model. Three approaches have been examined: chiral inductor, chiral auxiliary and [chiral inductor + chiral auxiliary]. All three methods gave excellent asymmetric induction in zeolite and very little or zero induction in solution. Results presented on tropolones clearly illustrate the remarkable influence that a confined space studded with cations can have on asymmetric induction. Tropolone derivatives, upon irradiation undergo 4pi-electron electrocyclization to yield a bicyclic product and a rearranged product. Enantiomeric excess up to 68% has been achieved in the cyclized product. In systems where a chiral inductor has been covalently linked, diastereomeric excess as high as 88% has been achieved within a zeolite while the same system in solution gave 10%.


Migration is a feature of social and economic life across many countries, but the profile of migrant populations varies considerably. In part this is because of the variety of sources of migration. In much of Europe, for example, citizens enjoy extensive rights to free movement. In Australia, Canada and New Zealand, managed labour migration plays an important role. Other sources include family and humanitarian migration. Whatever its source, migration has important impacts on our societies, and these can be controversial. The economic impact of migration is no exception


We consider a single-period dual-sourcing problem in which a buyer purchases its products from two different suppliers and sells them to a market with uncertain demand. One supplier is cheaper but less responsive, whereas the other supplier is more responsive but more expensive. The buyer determines the order quantity from the low-cost supplier and the capacity level from the responsive supplier in such a way that maximises its profit. We apply extreme value theory to analyse the impact of tail heaviness of demand distribution on optimal dual-sourcing strategy. We numerically find that tail heaviness moderates the effect of increasing demand uncertainty on optimal order levels. We also show that dual sourcing allows companies to increase their fill rates cost effectively under heavy-tailed demand if the capacity reservation cost of the responsive supplier is relatively low.


Avoiding the guard ring at heat conductivity measurements in plates: For measuring the heat conductivity of solid materials in form of plates the real heater has to be surrounded by a guard ring to obtain a parallel flow of heat and a constant gradient of temperature in the material. The guard ring has to be heated up to the same temperature as the heater by gradually altering the electric current until equality of temperature is attained. This is rather tedious and takes much time. If the guard ring is omitted the isothermes chanqe to curved surfaces, and the heat conductivity of the material can no more be determined in the simple way from the difference of temperature and the heat flow per unit area entering the material.
By theoretical investigation it is shown, that also without a guard ring exact measurements of heat conductivity are possible if the curvature of the isothermes is determined by additional measurements of differences of temperature on the surface of the plate in contact with the heater. For this purpose a set of four thermocouples in serie is proposed to get a sufficient exactness of the small temperature difference occured.


The booms and busts of the late 1990s and 2000s have taken 401(k) plan participants on a rollercoaster ride. Using data from administrative tax records and household surveys, this paper examines how participants responded to these periods of economic expansions and contractions by documenting changes in 401(k) participation, contributions, and investment allocation from 1990 through 2010. Controlling for earnings, job changes, and other household factors, we show that 401(k) participation and contributions decline during recessions. The Great Recession could lower the 401(k) assets of the typical 30-year-old by as much as 9 percent at age 62.


Centaurea stoebe is one of the most common and problematic invasive plants in the western United States and Canada. To fully comprehend C. stoebe's impact on native organisms and enhance methods for its control, we must come to a better understanding of how it integrates into the ecological networks of its introduced range. My research objectives addressed this need by assessing (1) how pollinator communities vary with C. stoebe density, (2) the impact of C. stoebe invasion on pollinator visitation to and reproduction of the native plant Heterotheca villosa, and (3) the extent to which C. stoebe biological control agents are attacked by native parasitoids. Objective 1 was completed during summer 2012 at nine C. stoebe infested sites in western Montana. Each site was visited once per week from June to August to document plant-pollinator interactions. Differences in pollinator abundance, richness, and community composition were found across varying C. stoebe densities, but differences depended on the time of season. Prior to C. stoebe blooming, plots without C. stoebe were visited by a higher abundance and richness of pollinators than plots with high C. stoebe density. The opposite pattern was observed during peak C. stoebe bloom. Objective 2 was completed during summer 2013 at a site near Bozeman, Montana. Potted C. stoebe plants were placed at densities of 1, 2, or 4 plants next to naturally occurring H. villosa plants to assess effects on pollinator visitation to and reproductive output of H. villosa. Centaurea stoebe, at the densities used, had no effect on the visitation to or reproduction of H. villosa. For objective 3, throughout 2012 and 2013, 19 and 45 sites were visited to make C. stoebe root and seedhead collections, respectively. Collections were then monitored for biological control agent and parasitoid emergence in the laboratory. Nine parasitoid species (four of which were not previously known to be associated with C. stoebe) emerged along with ten biological control agent species. Host-parasitoid associations were verified for three of the nine parasitoid species: Urophora affinis – Pronotalia carlinarum, Larinus spp. – Scambus brevicornis, and Agapeta zoegana – Bracon sp.


This is one of a series of reports now being produced as the first output of our study of the potential for a high-speed passenger train service in California. Each report deals with a specific high-speed train technology; it attempts an evaluation, standardized as far as available data permit, of its technical and economic viability. Specifically, each report assesses the particular high-speed technology against a number of criteria: 1. Technical Performance: configuration of roadbed in terms of gradients, curvature, and construction cost; power sources; capacity and speed; capacity to integrate with existing transportation facilities. 2. Economic performance: traffic levels; revenues; financial appraisal and overall cost-benefit analysis; level of public subsidy required, if any. 3. Resource consumption and environmental performance: type and amount of energy required; impact on non-renewable resources; environmental impact, including emissions, noise, visual intrusion and effect on local communities. The present series includes five studies. Two companion studies, on British Rail's InterCity 125 and 225 services and on Tilting Trains (the Italian Pendolino and the Swedish X-2000 service), will follow shortly. Thereafter, a systematic comparative analysis will be published. The CalSpeed study will continue with preliminary route alignments, also to be produced shortly, followed by market assessments, to be completed in Fall 1992. These will bring to a close the present phase of work, which will be the subject of an overall report also to be completed in Fall 1992. We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the California State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) through the University of California Transportation Center. Of course, any errors of fact or interpretation should be assigned to us and not our sponsors.


This research has been a means to look into Pakistani society and to explore how social capital is being generated through schools. The main inspiration for this work was French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu's research on language and the creation of social capital. Bourdieu (1992) has used the term habitus to describe certain dispositions which incline individuals to act in certain ways - ways that are explicitly articulated in language. He has also used it as a tool to identify the social 'space of individuals in which a piece of language occurs and embraces the whole activity of the speaker or participant in a setting' (1971).

This research aimed to find out how social capital is structured and how is it being affected through education in Pakistani society; to explore how parental perception of social capital coincides with the conceptualization of social capital; and to investigate how the language of education in schools is seen as influencing the formation of social capital.

The correlation between social capital, education and the language of schooling was investigated through a detailed library research. The theoretical analysis was then transferred to a questionnaire which was administered on parents of secondary school children to find out their perceptions about the medium of education they chose for their children.

The research was carried out in Karachi. The questionnaire was administered to parents of children in the final two years of secondary education, aged 14-16 years. Twelve students were selected at random from each single-sex and 24 (12 girls and 12 boys) from each co-ed school. Half the students were asked to have the questionnaire filled in at home by their mother and half by their father. There was a 100% response rate though of course the use of pupils as intermediaries is open to challenge. The questionnaire was translated into Urdu for the convenience of parents.

The scale helped to validate the three main dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) and to identify which dimension was being affected through schooling more.

The following conclusions were drawn from the data collected:

1. Social capital created in schools affects about 10% of the habitus of individuals.

2. Secondary schools in Pakistan are perceived by parents as a means to build structural and relational social capital more than cognitive social capital.

3. Though Urdu is the national language, there are no Urdu medium schools in the metropolitan city of Karachi in the high-cost profit category.

4. Language of instruction has a stronger effect on social capital than the gender of schooling. The medium of education significantly influences the social capital of individuals in Pakistan


This paper analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region against the backdrop of two themes: climate action and human rights. In the climate context, the renewable energy sector will certainly suffer in the immediate aftermath of Covid 19. At the same time, globally, renewables have shown more resilience than fossil fuels during this crisis, which may lead to increased investments in the long-term. Nevertheless, pre-Covid commitments and estimated future gains (if any) in renewables were not enough for combating climate change. The trajectory of regional climate action was slow and inadequate to begin with, and it is likely to suffer even further, owing to economic slowdown and relief measures that will pull resources away from climate action. In the human rights context, the Covid 19 crisis has led to increased authoritarianism and has added a new layer to existing human rights and humanitarian issues. As political stability is a prerequisite for the growth and execution of environmental law, public discontent against governments will only delay and detract the environmental agenda. Overall, these two legs of analysis show how the pandemic has led to a retraction of environmental law. Coming out of the crisis, there are many lessons to be learnt. Interdisciplinary approaches that draw a human-ecological-health nexus may offer solutions in the Middle East as in the world. The Berlin Principles 2019 are a positive step in this direction which could pave the way for more ecosystemic and holistic environmental legal development.


Urban footprint refers to the proportion of paved surface (built up, roads, etc.) with the reduction of other land use types in a region. Rapid increase in the urban areas is the major driver in landscape dynamics with the significant erosion in the quality and quantity of the natural ecosystems. The urban expansion process hence needs to be monitored, quantified and understood for effective planning and the sustainable management of natural resources. Cities and towns have been experiencing considerable growth in urban area, population size, social aspects, negative environmental and geographical in?uence, and complexity. Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, has experienced a spurt in infrastructural and industrial activities with globalization and opening up of Indian markets. Unplanned urbanization has resulted in dispersed growth inperi-urban pockets due to socio-economic aspects with the burgeoning population of the city. Consequent to this, there has been an uneven growth pattern apart from the increase in slums in and around the city. This has necessitated the understanding of the urbanization pattern and process focusing especially on the expanding geographical area, its geometry and the spatial pattern of its development. This communication discusses the urban footprint dynamics of Mumbai using multi-temporal remote sensing data with spatial metrics. Land use analysis indicated a decrease of vegetation by 20% with an increase in urban extent by 155% during the last three decades. Landscape metrics aided in assessing the spatial structure and composition of the urban footprints through the zonal analysis by dividing the region into four zones with concentric circles of 1 km incrementing radius from the city centre. The study reveals a significant variation in the composition of the urban patch dynamics with increasing complexity and aggregation of urban area at the centre and sprawl at the outskirts. Shannon's entropy further confirms of sprawl with time. Further zoning with the circular gradients aided in understanding the transition process of land use categories into urban patch.


Marine biofouling, the colonization of submerged surfaces by unwanted organisms, has an important economic and environmental impact. This PhD thesis focuses on the smaller organisms involved in the biofouling process such as bacteria, diatoms and protozoa also called microfoulers.
As bacteria are usually among the first organisms to settle on submerged surfaces, the characterization of their adhesion to these surfaces is essential for the development of strategies for antifouling, and in particular fouling release coatings. To this end, the adhesion of the bacterium Cobetia marina on various model systems for anti fouling coatings was investigated using a microfluidic shear stress assay which applies shear stresses covering a range of nearly six orders of magnitude from 0.01 to 5,500 dyn/cm2. For this assay, the experimental parameters such as medium, incubation time and increase of the applied volumetric flow were optimized.

In this work various surface properties relevant for bioadhesion were investigated, namely wettability, chemistry, hydration, transition from monolayers to polymeric coatings, and the controlled release properties of metal organic frameworks as a smart release coating. The surfaces used for this study were self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with different chemical end groups and hydration levels, polysaccharide coatings with and without capping of their carboxylic groups, poly[oligo(ethylene glycol)methacrylate] (POEGMA) brushes and copper based metal organic frameworks (Cu SURMOF 2). The results showed that in general the hydration of the surface is more important for the resistance against bioadhesion than the wettability. It was demonstrated that the critical shear stress needed for removal of bacteria from a SAM system based on ethylene glycols (EGs) decreased with an increasing number of EG units which is directly related to an increment of hydration. Furthermore, good fouling release properties of polysaccharide coatings were demonstrated, especially if the free carboxyl groups of alginic acid (AA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) were capped with a hydrophobic amine. Cu SURMOFs 2 were investigated as an example of smart release coatings. When bacteria interacted with these surfaces they induced a loss of crystallinity and a harmful effect on themselves. These findings, together with the observed stability of the coatings in artificial seawater (ASW) and the integrity of the coating in areas without bacteria demonstrated a stimulus response of these surfaces upon presence of bacteria.
In order to compare the performance in the field of the surfaces investigated in the laboratory assays, a set of well characterized samples were immersed into the ocean at the Sebastian test site of the Florida Institute of Technology. The aim of these field tests was to compare the results of the laboratory experiments, which solely investigated a single species under controlled conditions, with field experiments which employed a mixed species marine environment under natural conditions. The results showed that air and water temperature seemed to be an important factor for the abundance of species and composition of the fouling community. Furthermore, the level of hydration of the surfaces was found to be more important for their colonization than their wettability. Some trends that have also been observed in previous laboratory assays such as the good performance of the polysaccharide coatings and the EG SAMs, compared to other SAMs, could be confirmed in the field. Hence, the inert properties of hydrophilic hydrogels could be demonstrated in both laboratory assays and in the natural marine environment.


Brain dynein is a microtubule-activated ATPase considered to be a candidate to function as a molecular motor to transport membranous organelles retrogradely in the axon. To determine whether brain dynein really binds to retrogradely transported organelles in vivo and how it is transported to the nerve terminals, we studied the localization of brain dynein in axons after the ligation of peripheral nerves by light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry using affinity-purified anti-brain dynein antibodies. Different classes of organelles preferentially accumulated at the regions proximal and distal to the ligated part. Interestingly, brain dynein accumulated both at the regions proximal and distal to the ligation sites and localized not only on retrogradely transported membranous organelles but also on anterogradely transported ones. This is the first evidence to show that brain dynein associates with retrogradely transported organelles in vivo and that brain dynein is transported to the nerve terminal by fast flow. This also suggests that there may be some mechanism that activates brain dynein only for retrograde transport.


In this paper we have developed a VEC model to capture long term equilibrium trends as well as short term dynamics of the residential prices of the Spanish market. A parsimonious model has been selected, based on economic fundamental variables, explaining supply and demand interplay in the period 1995-2012 with quarterly observations. GDP per-capita, mortgage rate, Gross capital formation in dwellings and building starts have proxied demand, supply and opportunity costs. Insights on the impact of these variables on residential prices have been brought to light as well as the speed of adjustment once the price deviates from the long term equilibrium. Our model suggests that the Spanish residential prices adjust relatively fast, with around 22% of the deviation of the long term trend corrected each quarter. Furthermore, house prices are mainly driven by income (GDP per-capita) while impacts on prices are less important if come from variations in mortgage rates or stock changes.The time span used has conveniently allowed us to analyze the market in the recent residential price bubble context. As expected, during this period market rationale drifted from economic fundamentals and shock conditions sprang. Therefore, in our model we successfully identify structural break conditions since early 2008, instance when the residential prices busted in Spain. For this study a comprehensive database of real estate variables has been constructed for the Spanish market. 52 variables (six of them correspond to different definitions of housing prices) have been collected offering a pool of 46 candidate regressors to explain residential prices. In this context we have tried methods of automatic modelling selection using Genetic Algorithms (GA). Preliminary results point to similar results to the structural modelling. Different specifications obtained tend to render the same variables set, including purchasing capacity, opportunity costs measures and housing stock. With some definitions of prices, demographic and credit conditions are added to our structural specification.


We are motivated by an application to extract a representative subset of machine learning training data and by the poor empirical performance we observe of the popular minimum norm algorithm. In fact, for our application, minimum norm can have a running time of about O(n7) (O(n5) oracle calls). We therefore propose a fast approximate method to minimize arbitrary submodular functions. For a large sub-class of submodular functions, the algorithm is exact. Other submodular functions are iteratively approximated by tight submodular upper bounds, and then repeatedly optimized. We show theoretical properties, and empirical results suggest significant speedups over minimum norm while retaining higher accuracies.


Investigating potential gray matter differences in adolescents presenting higher levels of schizotypy personality traits could bring further insights into the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Research has yet to examine the morphological correlates of schizotypy features during adolescence prospectively, and no information is available on the developmental trajectories from adolescence to adulthood. We employed mixed model regression analysis to investigate developmental trajectories of cortical thickness (CT) in relation to schizotypy dimensions in a cohort of 109 adolescents from the general population for whom MRI-scans were acquired over a 5-year period, culminating in a total of 271 scans. Structural data were processed with FreeSurfer software, statistical analyses were conducted using mixed regression models following a ROI-based approach, and schizotypy was assessed with the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Accelerated thinning was observed in the posterior cingulate cortex in relation to high levels of positive schizotypy, whereas high levels of disorganized schizotypy were associated with a similar trajectory pattern in the anterior cingulate cortex. The developmental course of CT in the prefrontal, occipital, and cingulate cortices differed between adolescents expressing higher vs lower levels of negative schizotypy. Participants reporting high scores on all schizotypy dimensions were associated with differential trajectories of CT in posterior cingulate cortex and occipital cortex. Consistently with prospective developmental studies of clinical risk conversion, the negative schizotypy dimension appears to constitute the most informative dimension for psychosis-related psychopathology, as its cerebral correlates in adolescents most closely overlap with results found in clinical high risk for psychosis studies.


If businesses and other organizations are to meet the many and complex challenges of sustainable development, then they all, both public and private, need to embed sustainability considerations into their decision-making and reporting. However, the translation of this aspiration into effective action is often inhibited by the lack of systems and procedures that take sustainability into account. Accounting for Sustainability: Practical Insights will help organizations to address these issues. The book sets out a number of tools and approaches that have been developed and applied by leading organizations to: - embed sustainability into decision-making, extending beyond an organization's boundaries to take into account suppliers, customers and other stakeholders; - measure and link sustainability and financial performance; - integrate sustainability into 'mainstream' reporting, both to management and external stakeholders. In-depth cases studies from Aviva, BT, the Environment Agency, EDF Energy, HSBC, Novo Nordisk, Sainsbury's and West Sussex County Council show in detail how accounting for sustainability works in practice in a wide range of organizational contexts. Published with The Prince's Charities: Accounting for Sustainability. © A. G. Carrick Limited, 2010. All rights reserved.


Abstract. In recent years, 3D model for indoor spaces have become highly demanded in the development of technology. Many approaches to 3D visualisation and modelling especially for indoor environment was developed such as laser scanner, photogrammetry, computer vision, image and many more. However, most of the technique relies on the experience of the operator to get the best result. Besides that, the equipment is quite expensive and time-consuming in terms of processing. This paper focuses on the data acquisition and visualisation of a 3D model for an indoor space by using a depth sensor. In this study, EyesMap3D Pro by Ecapture is used to collect 3D data of the indoor spaces. The EyesMap3D Pro depth sensor is able to generate 3D point clouds in high speed and high mobility due to the portability and light weight of the device. However, more attention must be paid on data acquisition, data processing, visualizing, and evaluation of the depth sensor data. Hence, this paper will discuss the data processing from extracting features from 3D point clouds to 3D indoor models. Afterwards, the evaluation on the 3D models is made to ensure the suitability in indoor model and indoor mapping application. In this study, the 3D model was exported to 3D GIS-ready format for displaying and storing more information of the indoor spaces.


Secondary osteoporosis is an important co-morbidity related to inflammatory rheumatic diseases that is attributed to several factors including inflammatory cytokines, inactivity and glucocorticoid treatment. Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) has been utilized in osteoporosis research due to its detectability of bone density as well as bone quality. The current narrative review is to address the potential utilities of QUS in secondary osteoporosis of inflammatory rheumatic diseases, focusing on the clinical aspects of QUS in these diseases, based on the conformity of QUS with dual emission X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), the relationship with disease characteristics, and its capability of fracture prediction. Although limited data demonstrate that QUS had moderate to strong correlation with DXA, and might be useful as a potential imaging tool to screen for osteoporosis, further research is still required for QUS to be utilized effectively for the best outcome in these patients with rheumatic diseases.


The process of transforming a sample to a pair of input and output vectors is sometimes referred to as ``vectorization''. Those samples and their respective vectorizations are used within various learning algorithms to create a model that makes predictions about unknown output vectors given known input vectors. This thesis aims to compare, generalize, and improve existing vectorizations within the fields of bioinformatics and transportation.

We extend the natural vector description of genomes to handle viruses and various issues unique to viral genomes. We provide an alternative definition of the the natural vector that is able to handle ambiguous nucleotides. We provide a bound on the distance induced by the natural vector between a genome and a mutation of that genome due to a single-nucleotide polymorphism.

We then present a new family of alignment-free vectorizations. This new alignment-free vectorization uses the frequency of genomic words, as is done in the composition vector, and incorporates descriptive statistics of those k-mers' positional information, as inspired by the natural vector. We provide a comparison of 5 popular characterizations of genome similarity using k-nearest neighbor classification, and evaluate these on two collections of viruses.

The prediction of bus arrival times is important for users of public transportation. We first generalize existing vectorizations and representations. We then propose a method of recovering the schedule and show that the use of this schedule uniformly improves all existing methods using 3 weeks of Chicago Transit Authority bus data.

Lastly, we analyze data usage from reporting real-time GPS traces. The problem of tracking a GPS device relies upon predicting vehicle location in general, as opposed to predicting vehicle location on fixed routes as above. Comparison of 12 different tracking methods are done on two data sets. We show that at low-error tolerances the methods are equivalent, but at higher-error tolerances the proposed method is greatly more efficient.