This thesis contributes to the understanding of how people with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) negotiate self-care and management of diabetes and eye health. The study aims to deliver an Enhanced Diabetic Optometric Practice (EDOP) which involves a graphic portrayal of diabetic retinopathy, as it manifests itself in the eye and in the patient's own eyes, whereby retinal images will be discussed within a normal optometric practice environment. This PhD research study used the qualitative method of thematic and Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) to investigate if an EDOP is able to heighten the participant's concern of sight loss and thus lead to better diabetic control, and improved self-motivation and management. The research progressed in three stages; Study (1) A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research investigating the barriers to self-care for people with T2D, Study (2) A qualitative analysis of diabetes self-help literature and eye health, and Study (3) Evaluation of an Enhanced Diabetic Optometric Practice (EDOP). A review of the literature evaluates research in the field of optometry and ophthalmology with regard to the use of retinal images for educating people with T2D about their diabetes and the ocular complications. The findings of the three studies revealed, valuable insight into the barriers and constraints to self-care that people with T2D routinely face, enabling greater understanding of how to facilitate effective diabetes self-management Study (1). Study (2) discerned that self-help texts cannot facilitate the empowerment of people with diabetes who aspire to selfregulation, as they are constrained by the dominant compliant discourse of the expert-patient relationship. Finally, in Study (3) EDOP, optometrists can provide an enhanced optometric service, educating and motivating people with T2D to better self-care practices. This thesis concludes that the optometrist, by way of the EDOP and the pertinent threat of sight loss can assist people with T2D to gain the confidence to apply the skills to effective self-management and so prevent blindness.


Ultramafic areas are critical for nickel (Ni) phytomining due to the high concentration of this element in their soils and the number of hyperaccumulators they harbor. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential of the Morais massif, an ultramafic area in Portugal, for phytomining using the hyperaccumulator species Alyssum serpyllifolium subsp. lusitanicum. Soil samples and A. serpyllifolium specimens were collected in four locations of the Morais massif. After determination of Ni concentrations in the samples, the results show that soil pseudo-total Ni concentrations in sites number 1 and 2 are significantly higher than in the soil samples collected in the other two locations, with 1918 and 2092 mg kg−1, respectively. Nickel accumulation is significantly greater in the aerial parts of plants collected at sites 1, 2, and 4, presenting Ni harvestable amount means of 88.36, 93.80, and 95.56 mg per plant, respectively. These results suggest that the sites with highest potential for phytomining are sites 1, 2, and 4. A nickel agromining system in these locations could represent an additional source of income to local farmers, since ultramafic soils have low productivity for agriculture and crop production.


The Yellow-legged Gull Larus cachinnans is monogamous with bi-parental incubation. In this study, the effects of high levels of plasma testosterone in male Yellow-legged Gulls during the incubation period were analysed. Free-living male gulls were implanted with testosterone (T-males), and their sexual behaviour within the pair was observed and compared with that of control pairs. Egg temperatures, length of incubation and hatching success were also analysed. T-males and their mates displayed more sexual behaviour than the controls. T-males engaged in mounting behaviour with their mates, whereas control males did not. Proportionally less time was spent incubating (in relation to time present in the colony) by T-males than control males. However, the mates of T-males did not spend more time incubating than control females to compensate for male neglect, although they did spend more time on the territory. Egg temperature in T-male nests was significantly lower than in control nests, but no significant difference in the length of incubation or hatching success between the two groups was found. In birds, the effects of high testosterone levels on male behaviour during incubation have only been analysed in a polyandrous species whose females usually do not contribute to incubation. The present results thus suggest that those males of a monogamous species with bi-parental incubation that sustain high testosterone levels after laying, thus reducing their contributions to incubation, will be confronted with a lack of compensation from their mates during incubation. Finally, this lack of female compensation seems to be mediated by behavioural interactions with the male rather than by her absence from the colony.


Abstract By the end of the 20th century most industrialized nations had undergone the so-called fertility transition, characterized by a reduction in fertility to below replacement level and a delay in age at initiation of child-bearing. An emerging concern is the severe economic and social consequences of this demographic decline. We present an overview of fertility changes in Italy in the second half of the 20th century and a mathematical model that may provide projections for the future of the demographic situation. Starting in 1950 the increment of the number of children born in Italy is initially positive; however, beginning in 1965 the trend suddenly becomes negative, and this negative trend further increased in 1975. A slight improvement is observed in 1980, followed by a stable situation beginning in 1987. Relevant socioeconomic and cultural events in Italy coincide with these variations in the fertility trend. Malnutrition, which had been endemic for centuries in some areas of central and southern Italy, disappeared rather abruptly in early 1960. The improvement in the economic situation was also associated with a decrease in illiteracy and with many sociocultural changes, with the emergence of new demands that decreased propensity for childbearing. The additional deceleration observed in 1975 corresponds to the diffusion of contraceptive procedures. The progression of sociocultural changes has led to a progressive liberation of women from the biological burden of childbearing. Two phenomena seem relevant in this context: women's emerging interest in entering the workforce and the possibility to disconnect sex from childbearing. The social function of feminism has overwhelmed the primary function of survival and diffusion of the species, giving rise to relevant and worrying demographic effects. However, the modern woman has an unconscious memory of her primary biological role, depending on both her genetic structure and cultural heritage, that should bring about a change in the present strong tendency to demographic decline. The basic notion of memory functions is widely recognized in sciences, for example, in the evolutionary theory of Darwin. Here, we introduce into the equations governing population growth a memory mechanism and a perturbation, and we estimate the reactions of the system to perturbations caused by environmental changes and subsequent delayed effects, such as those that appear in the birth rate beginning in 1965 and 1975. The mathematical modeling of the effects of perturbations of the fertility rate in the Italian population, with the introduction of a mathematical memory formalism, suggests that the effect is strongly reduced, with a relaxation time of about 10 years when the fertility rate approaches a stable value.


The treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has changed dramatically over the past few years. An improved understanding of the biology of RCC has resulted in the development of novel targeted therapeutic agents that have altered the natural history of this disease. In particular, the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signal transduction pathway have been exploited. Sunitinib malate (Sutent), sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar), bevacizumab (Avastin)/interferon alfa, and temsirolimus (Torisel) have improved clinical outcomes in randomized trials by inhibiting these tumorigenic pathways. Combinations and sequences of these agents are being evaluated. Other novel multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (pazopanib and axitinib) and mTOR inhibitors (everolimus) are in clinical development. Recently reported and ongoing clinical trials will help further define the role of these agents as therapy for metastatic RCC.


Keywords: alternatives to incarceration; costs of incarceration; corrections and higher education spending; incarceration in Hawaii; critical criminology Hawaii, like many states, is facing a severe budget crisis, and that has meant that public higher education is in crisis. Locally and nationally, that has many thinking about the future of public education as currently funded. Specifically, how do we sustain what is arguably one of the greatest-and undervalued-aspects of American culture. For me, thinking about public higher education in Hawaii is personal. I received both my MA and my PhD here at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and I've also worked my entire professional career in various campuses in the system (including a community college). In the seventies, I was a graduate student in a building right up the road from here (Saunders Hall), and I think I got a world class education there. And candidly, I did not have a lot of money; most of the time I was in graduate school, I received a "rent subsidy" which was income qualified. So you might say I was receiving welfare, so the affordability of Manoa (as we call it) was also important to me. About the same time I was studying at UHM, there was another young woman, Ann, getting her PhD. here as well. Ann had already received her BA from Manoa in 1967, and she would enroll again in the early seventies as a young single mother with a son and her daughter. She would eventually complete her MA and her PhD. from Manoa. She would also have two brilliant children who survived and thrived [to take a thought from her dissertation] in the vibrant intellectual community around the campus. What does this history have to do with the crisis that confronts us? Everybody asks "where are we going to get the money to fund higher education?" Well, I have an answer. Let's go back to my early career as a young criminologist. In 1970, I knew we imprisoned about 300 people in Hawaii, because I was doing research at the State's one and only prison which held that number. As Table 1 shows, by 1980 this number had essentially tripled (926). Like the rest of the country, Hawaii had embarked on what scholars now call "mass incarceration" so that eventually even that base number would seem small (see Table 1). By 2008, Hawaii would imprison over 6,000 people, with a third of them on the mainland, far away from their families. I know these numbers look low (especially compared to California's numbers). Although Hawaii has an incarceration rate "28% lower than the national average of incarcerated adults per 100,000" (National Institute of Corrections 2011), the growth is something I have watched with astonishment. And because Hawaii is a small state, like many other states, we have also opened our "first" women's prison (which is currently over-crowded) during this period. Figure 1, shows the growth in women's incarceration since 1977. Overall, the number of people we imprison in Hawaii has increased by 20% just since the turn of the century. This increase occurred despite the fact that Hawai'i has seen its crime rate decline to the lowest level in decades (Fuatagavi and Perrone 2010). Recall that more than 60% of those we incarcerate in the US are ethnic minorities, and in Hawaii that means Hawaiians (39%), Filipino (12%), Samoans (5%), and other people of color (Hawaii Department of Public Safety 2010:43). Native Hawaiians, in particular, are over-represented in our jails and prisons. Looking specifically at those we house on the mainland, a review of Hawaii's classification system revealed that 60% of our Hawaii inmates doing time in mainland private, for profit prisons, are actually minimum or community custody. That means they could be housed in minimum security or community custody beds here in Hawaii instead of thousands of miles away from their homes and families. Figure 3 shows Hawaii's Correction's Budget and the amounts spent on prison beds outside Hawaii: Speaking of money, since the turn of the century, the corrections budget in Hawaii has increased by 87. …


This paper analyzes budgetary institutions, the tax system and public debt management in Jamaica. It explores the nature of budget institutions and design, beyond formal administrative or budgetary procedures, to address the question of whether the demanding fiscal path Jamaica is following can be put to risk by flaws in the institutional framework governing fiscal policies. The paper also analyzes the requirements for achieving revenues through a tax system that does not distort resource allocation and is complementary to the growth strategy. Finally, it addresses debt sustainability questions under different assumptions and look at debt management within a comprehensive fiscal policy assessment and at the path of public expenditures, primary surpluses and potential debt expansion.


Identification and removal of software defects is tedious and time consuming for software development. Improperly planned projects could have defects and the time spent to spot and fix them requires more than the code development time. A reverse engineering sub-area is identification of modules necessitating re-engineering, focusing on faulty modules prediction based on existing information sources like documentation and source code. Predicting defective module is essential in maintenance and reuse by simplifying system working with information and reusable parts localization. In software defect prediction, predictive models estimation is based on code attributes to assess software modules containing errors likelihood. In this paper, the classification accuracy of Boosting techniques for software defect prediction based on the KC1 dataset is investigated.


The Principle that freedom is necessary for moral responsibility (hereafter referred to as "the freedom principle") has received a variety of explications, but few philosophers have doubted that in some plausible sense it is true. However, two philosophers have recently challenged it using very different but equally ingenious arguments. J.F.M. Hunter has provided the more obviously direct attack in arguing that considerations of freedom as such are in no way relevant to assessments of moral responsibility. Harry Frankfurt has directed his fire at the version of the freedom principle which says that a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise. Both Frankfurt and Hunter point out the significance of their arguments for the determinism/moral responsibility debate: if there is no freedom requirement for moral responsibility, then even if determinism threatens freedom, it does not follow that determinism threatens moral responsibility.


Organizational Commitment has been defined as the extent that an individual accepts, internalizes, and views his or her role based on organizational values and goals. The three components –affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment– form the basis of a new conceptualization of organizational commitment. Job stress has become one of the most serious health issues in the modern world, as it occurs in any job and is even more present than decades ago. The purpose of this research was to study the relationship between job stress and organizational commitment in Mazandaran Tax Organization's employees. Statistical population of this research included all employees (full time) of Tax Organization of Mazandaran (N=243) and statistical sample was equal to (n=149). The results indicated a positive significant relationship between job stress and organizational commitment, affective commitment and normative commitment, but there was not a significant relationship between job stress and continuance commitment.


To the extent public utility-style regulation has been debated within the Internet policy arena over the past decade, the focus has been almost entirely on the physical layer of the Internet. The question has been whether Internet service providers should be considered "essential facilities" or "natural monopolies" and regulated as public utilities. The debate over "net neutrality" regulation has been animated by such concerns.While that debate still rages, the rhetoric of public utilities and essential facilities is increasingly creeping into policy discussions about other layers of the Internet, such as the search layer. More recently, there have been rumblings within academic and public policy circles regarding whether social media platforms, especially social networking sites, might also possess public utility characteristics. Presumably, such a classification would entail greater regulation of those sites' structures and business practices.Proponents of treating social media platforms as public utilities offer a variety of justifications for regulation. Amorphous "fairness" concerns animate many of these calls, but privacy and reputational concerns are also frequently mentioned as rationales for regulation. Proponents of regulation also sometimes invoke "social utility" or "social commons" arguments in defense of increased government oversight, even though these notions lack clear definition.Social media platforms do not resemble traditional public utilities, however, and there are good reasons why policymakers should avoid a rush to regulate them as such. Treating these nascent digital services as regulated utilities would harm consumer welfare because public utility regulation has traditionally been the archenemy of innovation and competition. Furthermore, treating today's leading social media providers as digital essential facilities threatens to convert "natural monopoly" or "essential facility" claims into self-fulfilling prophecies. Related proposals to mandate "API neutrality" or enforce a "Separations Principle" on integrated information platforms would be particularly problematic. Such regulation also threatens innovation and investment. Marketplace experimentation in search of sustainable business models should not be made illegal.Remedies less onerous than regulation are available. Transparency and data-portability policies would solve many of the problems that concern critics, and numerous private empowerment solutions exist for those users concerned about their privacy on social media sites.Finally, because social media are fundamentally tied up with the production and dissemination of speech and expression, First Amendment values are at stake, warranting heightened constitutional scrutiny of proposals for regulation. Social media providers should possess the editorial discretion to determine how their platforms are configured and what can appear on them.


Chemically pure lansfordite (MgCO₃·5H₂O) and nesquehonite (MgCO₃·3H₂O) were synthesized from CO₂-saturated Mg(HCO₃)₂ solutions by degasation with air for varying periods of time depending upon equilibration temperature. Crystalline and chemical properties of the synthesized minerals were determined and the results were compared with the properties reported for geologic specimen minerals. Crystalline data determined for synthesized lansfordite are: monoclinic; a = 1.249 nm, b = 0.762 nm, c = 0.743 nm, β = 1.785 ± 0.002 rad, a/b/c = 1.638:1:0.976, Z = 4. Nesquehonite is monoclinic (pseudo-orthorhombic); a = 1.199 nm, b = 0.769 nm, c = 0.537 nm, β = 1.573 ± 0.012 rad, a/b/c = 1.557:1:0.697, Z = 4. Lansfordite is unstable when exposed to the atmosphere at temperatures > 10°C. Large lansfordite crystals (>150 µm) were observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to undergo dehydration above 10°C. X-ray diffraction data and SEM observations indicate that upon dehydration large lansfordite crystals convert to nesquehonite but remain pseudomorphic after lansfordite. Small lansfordite crystals (<20 µm) appeared to dissolve upon an increase in temperature above 10°C when viewed with SEM. Crystal forms of nesquehonite, lansfordite, and dehydration states of lansfordite are shown in SEM microphotographs.


This work is an analysis of integrated urban waste management in the province of Bologna. It consists of five chapters and one enclosure.
Primarily, it focuses on the legislative framework at european, national and local level. Then the study analyses the situation of urban waste system adopted in the reference territory from 2003 to 2007 to show its evolution process.
Chapter 3 is based on considerations about the percentage of effective recover of materials derived from separate collection that has been reached in the province of Bologna in 2006. The following chapter describes the urban waste management at national level using dates of 2005 and 2006 by APAT (National Agency for environmental protection). Then, it has been made a comparison with Emilia-Romagna and district of Bologna.
Chapter 5 focuses on the description of innovative strategies introduced in the district of Bologna to increase separate collection level and optimize waste management. In particular, it analyses two sperimental projects: one based on door to door collection and the other founded on an integrated collection system which provides the application of two collection models (door to door collection in industrial areas and collection by containers in urban ones).
Finally, in the enclosure, it is also descrided best practices of waste management sector about collection models, treatment plants and innovative strategies available at that moment in Europe.


This study derives asset pricing model with liquidity variables to examine the relationship between expected returns and other explanatory variables in the case of Thailand and Singapore. It also compares the results from the stock exchange of Thailand with those from the stock exchange of Singapore. By introducing liquidity variables in business cycle model, the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium is derived to come up with a new asset pricing model in order to account for expected returns and equity premium. The modeled economy shows the substitution between consumption today and consumption in the future. In fact, consumption at different times has different prices. The discrete time optimization model is employed to write Bellman's equation, Lagrange equation, and solve for Euler equation and Envelope condition before end up with general equilibrium. Therefore, the new asset pricing model is computed by using Log-linear approximation. In addition, simulation method and Generalized Method of Moments are employed to test such model. The next findings show that this model has an ability to capture the data of Thailand and Singapore. Indeed, the growth rate of aggregate consumption is positively related to the expected returns in case of banking group index of Thai stock market and Straits Times Index. Still, the growth rate of market index is positively related to the expected returns in the case of Singapore. Furthermore, such theoretical and empirical results demonstrate that transaction cost has a positive effect on the expected stock returns in both cases. In contrast, the coefficient of relative risk aversion has a negative effect on the expected stock returns.


The use of multivitamin-mineral supplements has become increasingly common, but whether the use of such supplements improves micronutrient status remains still unclear. The objective of this report is to investigate how a long-term vitamin-mineral supplementation following the US Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) affected the plasma levels of selected nutrients in a subset (No. = 407) of participants in the Italian-American Clinical Trial of Nutritional Supplements and Age-related Cataract (CTNS). The CTNS was a double-blind, single centre, controlled clinical trial of 1020 participants aged 55-75 years randomized to a daily tablet of Centrum(R) or placebo. A representative sample of 40% of the 1020 subjects, whom plasma level of selected vitamins was determined at the baseline, was retested throughout the treatment period that averaged 9.0 +/- 2.4 years. Participants assigned to Centrum(R) showed a significant increase (p < 0.005) in mean/median plasma levels of vitamin E, beta-carotene, folate, and vitamin B12, and an improved riboflavin status when compared with participants assigned to placebo. Differences concerning vitamin C were statistically less relevant and those concerning vitamin A were at a borderline level. In the treated group the effect of supplementation on plasma levels of vitamins A, E, and C, and on the glutathione reductase activation coefficient was significantly higher in participants with lower nutritional status at baseline.


Coastal zooplankton have been investigated since 1984 at a Long Term Ecological Research station MC (LTER-MC) in the inner Gulf of Naples (Tyrrhenian Sea, Western Mediterranean). The sampling site, located between the littoral and the open sea systems, has very active hydrography that affects plankton communities. The present work was aimed at establishing whether, in such a dynamic and variable environment, species associations and homogeneous periods could be identified as characteristic and stable features of the mesozooplankton over the period 1984–2006. Hierarchical clustering was applied to assess species associations based on a matrix of similarities between species (R-mode), and homogeneous periods based on a matrix of similarities between observations (Q-mode). The Indicator Value index [IndVal, Dufrene and Legendre (1997) Species assemblages and indicator species: the need for a flexible asymmetrical approach. Ecol. Monogr., 67, 345–366] was calculated to identify species characterizing each period. Five taxonomic groups with well-defined composition and abundance were identified as robust associations that likely reflect different modes of community functioning. The temporal course of these associations was largely shaped by strong seasonal forcing comprising both physical and biological (e.g. trophic) signals. These associations persisted over the long term, thus indicating some stable characters in the Naples zooplankton time-series, providing evidence of resilience in communities in highly variable coastal conditions.


Solve for Good is a platform for social good organizations to pose their problems that need data intensive help, and for volunteers to help solve those problems. Once the projects are submitted by the organization, they go through a scoping process (done by scoping volunteers and guided by our Data Science Scoping Process). Once a project scope is finalized, it becomes available for data science volunteers to start working on. The finished work is reviewed by a QA team consisting of volunteers and staff of the organization that submitted the project.
 Solve for Good comes out of our experience working with government agencies, non-profits, universities, volunteers, professionals, students, and the private sector over the last several years. We repeatedly get contacted by governments, non-profits, and other social good organizations asking for help with data projects. We also have smart, passionate individuals who contact us offering their help, often in a volunteer capacity, on weekends, evenings, or for a few days or weeks. Solve for Good is our attempt at linking these two. We are just starting out, and looking for help in doing this better, and getting feedback from you. Join us at http://www.solveforgood.org as a volunteer to help solve problems, as an organization to submit problems, as partners to help us expand the platform and provide resources to run it, and as corporations or foundations to loan volunteers and donate resources used in solving these problems.


The red (Ailurus fulgens) and giant (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) pandas are mammalian carnivores convergently adapted to a bamboo feeding diet. However, whereas Ailurus forages almost entirely on younger leaves, fruits and tender trunks, Ailuropoda relies more on trunks and stems. Such difference in foraging mode is considered a strategy for resource partitioning where they are sympatric. Here, we use finite-element analysis to test for mechanical differences and similarities in skull performance between Ailurus and Ailuropoda related to diet. Feeding simulations suggest that the two panda species have similar ranges of mechanical efficiency and strain energy profiles across the dentition, reflecting their durophagous diet. However, the stress distributions and peaks in the skulls of Ailurus and Ailuropoda are remarkably different for biting at all tooth locations. Although the skull of Ailuropoda is capable of resisting higher stresses than the skull of Ailurus, the latter is able to distribute stresses more evenly throughout the skull. These differences in skull biomechanics reflect their distinct bamboo feeding preferences. Ailurus uses repetitive chewing in an extended mastication to feed on soft leaves, and Ailuropoda exhibits shorter and more discrete periods of chomp-and-swallow feeding to break down hard bamboo trunks.


Alcoholism is a serious condition that affects millions of people and costs billions of dollars each year in treatment, damages, and lost income. In addition, it carries a tremendous emotional burden. Alcoholism is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, which have yet to be fully identified. Fortunately, alcoholism research, as well as research into other diseases with a genetic component, has greatly benefited from recent rapid developments in high-throughput genomic technologies and the development of relevant model organisms. This has been highly productive for progress in the field, but effective methods for identifying relevant data and for performing cross-dataset analyses have not been developed at the same pace. To help fulfill this need, I have developed the INIA (Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism) Texas Gene Expression Database (IT-GED), which is freely available at http://inia.icmb.utexas.edu. IT-GED is a web-based database which contains a compilation of the significantly expressed genes from each of several microarray datasets investigating the role of gene expression in the brain's regulation of alcohol consumption. The studies were performed both in model organisms (mouse and rat) and post-mortem humans. The data is presented via a user-friendly interface which provides advanced searching abilities for identifying genes of interest and tools for analysis of the data. These tools provide the ability to compare user data to every dataset in IT-GED in order to assess the significance of a group of genes across multiple datasets and the ability to generate visual networks of those genes in order to identify the ones that are likely the most functionally significant in the response to high alcohol consumption. IT-GED thus provides a means by which alcohol researchers can combine multiple sources of data to generate novel hypotheses concerning the genetic causes of alcoholism. The goal of ITGED is to provide support for comparing and integrating results across gene expression studies of alcohol consumption and for generating novel hypotheses based on individual genes and gene-gene interactions by simplifying data access, providing various tools for analysis, and presenting users with an easy-to-use interface.


BACKGROUND
Enhancement of immune function has been claimed as a benefit of some natural health products, although few have been subjected to randomized clinical trials. We evaluated the effect of an oral dietary supplement derived from the edible microalga Chlorella pyrenoidosa on immune response after influenza vaccination.

METHODS
We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled community-based clinical trial in a convenience sample of 124 healthy adults at least 50 years of age randomly assigned to receive the study product (200 or 400 mg of a Chlorella-derived dietary supplement) or placebo. Participants took the study product or placebo once daily for 28 days. On day 21, we administered a single dose of a licensed trivalent, inactivated influenza vaccine. We obtained serum specimens to measure hemagglutination inhibition titres before and 7 and 21 days after vaccination. The primary immunological outcomes were the proportion of participants with a 4-fold or greater increase in antibodies and geometric mean antibody titres after vaccination; the proportion of participants reporting adverse events during therapy was the safety outcome.

RESULTS
A total of 117 (94%) participants completed all aspects of the study. There were no differences in the proportions of recipients of 200 or 400 mg of the Chlorella-derived dietary supplement or placebo who achieved at least a 4-fold increase in antibodies (proportions for the 3 virus strains ranged from 17.9% to 28.2% for the 200-mg group, from 11.1% to 22.2% for the 400-mg group and from 19.0% to 21.4% for the placebo group; p > 0.05 for all comparisons). Reports of adverse events were similar for recipients of the supplement and placebo, except with regard to fatigue, which was reported more frequently by recipients of 200 mg of the supplement (18/41 or 44%) than by those who received 400 mg of the supplement (8/40 or 20%; p = 0.032) or placebo (8/42 or 19%; p = 0.019). Recipients of 400 mg of the supplement who were 55 years of age or younger had significantly higher geometric mean antibody titres against influenza A/New Caledonia 21 days after vaccination (p = 0.047) and against B/Yamanashi 7 days after vaccination (p = 0.034); the trends were nonsignificant for titres against A/Panama. We also observed similar increases for the proportions of subjects with a 2-fold or greater or a 4-fold or greater increase in antibodies.

INTERPRETATION
The Chlorella-derived dietary supplement did not have any effect in increasing the antibody response to influenza vaccine in the overall study population, although there was an increase in antibody response among participants aged 50-55 years. Adverse events were similar among those receiving the supplement and the placebo. Further studies are warranted to explore the range of clinical effects resulting from ingestion of this dietary supplement.


Contribution describes research and development of economic, comfortable, intelligent and smart premises for households, offices, workplaces and others residential or business premises. This article describes realization of intelligent household's scale model, which uses the newest technology for smart and comfortable living. Today's smart products are using local control, which are controlled by remote controllers or applications in smart phones and tablets. So people who bought these things have more and more controllers. Mostly, these products do not communicate between each other, so user controls every product separately. Therefore, we used mainly remote control using cloud systems and cloud computing in this research and development. We use the Internet of Things (IoT) solution to connect products in the house to the Internet, so we designed products (things) in house connectable to internet only with home WiFi router, which have every average household. Key-Words: IoT, Cloud, household, control, tablet, smart phone, web-page, Smart Living, Smart House


The constructivist narrative approach to career development has matured considerably in recent decades, and is now a legitimate alternative to traditional schools of thought and practice (McIlveen & Patton, 2007). Australian scholars and practitioners have certainly made a significant contribution to the advancement of narrative theory and practice (e.g., McMahon, 2006, 2007). Notwithstanding the vigour within the field, there remains scope to improve the applied research basis of narrative career assessment and counselling (McIlveen & Patton), particularly in relation to how narrative procedures have been developed and tested in the field: to demonstrate not only that they are useful and effective, but how they work in terms of process and users' experiences. This paper summarises a research project which investigated the development and testing of a new constructivist, narrative career assessment and counselling procedure: My Career Chapter—A Dialogical Autobiography (McIlveen, 2006).


In response to Trina Grillo's article, "The Mediation Alternative: Process Dangers for Women," this article evaluates the assertions made by Professor Grillo concerning mandatory mediation. While respectfully noting Professor Grillo's contributions to the field of alternate dispute resolution, this article outlines three serious concerns with Professor Grillo's arguments: (1) nany of Professor Grillo's statements and stories do not represent what actually happens at a typical mediation session, instead magnifying the worst possible abuses of the process; (2) to the extent that mandatory mediation presents some real problems, society may be better served by attempting to correct those problems than by abandoning mandatory mediation in areas where it has proved to be helpful; and (3) Professor Grillo's article suggests that mediation may be dangerous for women, and this article posits that mandatory mediation is generally helpful to both women and men. Professor Grillo suggests that mandatory mediation of child custody disputes is inappropriate both as a process and because of the substantive results it might produce. Her position is that mediation can lead to bad results for women, and that even being in mediation can be emotionally dangerous for women. This article argues, however, that mediation is generally helpful, and that mediation usually results in better outcomes and less emotional harm to the participants than does litigation. This article presents a brief description of mediation and mandatory mediation, as generally practiced. It summarizes what some scientifically conducted studies of mandatory mediation reveal about the process and the participants' reactions. Finally, it analyzes Professor Grillo's criticisms as applied to this process.


The promise of human rights in South Africa may depend significantly on the course chosen by a professional and relatively independent South African judiciary. But what about the promise of human rights in other developing states which lack a judiciary with similar potential? Cause lawyers, increasingly visible in many of these new states, are presumed carriers of liberal legalism and democracy and celebrated for their courageous defence of human rights even in the absence of an independent court system. This comment argues that celebration of cause lawyers may reflect presumptions about their causes that are questionable even in the Global North, but decidedly premature in the Global South. In actuality cause lawyers represent both liberal causes and causes that are decidedly illiberal. Yet their work may still contribute to the defence of human rights. The value of cause lawyers lies not in their embrace of liberal legalism, as it is understood in the Global North, but rather in the variety of causes that they strive to make viable. Where space for a broad range of causes has been opened, the cause of human rights may also remain viable. But this is not a secure expectation, for cause lawyers, and the fate of their causes, derive meaning, support, and opportunities to move forward from social conditions not under their control. A necessary conclusion is that the contributions of cause lawyers to the progress of human rights and the rule of law must be evaluated with care.


Sign languages have often been the subject of imaging studies investigating the underlying neural correlates of sign language processing. To the contrary, much less research has been conducted on the time-course of sign language processing. There are only a small number of event-related potential (ERP) studies that investigate semantic or morpho-syntactic anomalies in signed sentences. Due to specific properties of the manual-visual modality, sign languages differ from spoken languages in two respects: On the one hand, they are produced in a three-dimensional signing space, on the other hand, sign languages can use several (manual and nonmanual) articulators simul¬taneously. Thus, sign languages have modality-specific characteristics that have an impact on the way they are processed. This thesis presents three ERP studies on different linguistic aspects processed in German Sign Language (DGS) sentences. Chapter 1 investigates the hypothesis of a forward model perspec¬tive on prediction. In a semantic expectation mismatch design, deaf native signers saw videos with DGS sentences that ended in semantically expected or unexpected signs. Since sign languages entail relatively long transition phases between one sign and the next, we tested whether a prediction error of the upcoming sign is already detectable prior to the actual sign onset. Unexpected signs engendered an N400 previous to the critical sign onset that was thus elicited by properties of the transition phase. Chapter 2 presents a priming study on cross-modal cross-language co-activation. Deaf bimodal bilingual participants saw DGS sentences that contained prime-target pairs in one of two priming conditions. In overt phonological priming, prime and target signs were phonologically minimal pairs, while in covert orthographic priming, German translations of prime and target were orthographic minimal pairs, but there was no overlap between the signs. Target signs with overt phonological or with covert orthographic overlap engendered a reduced negativity in the electrophysiological signal. Thus, deaf bimodal bilinguals co-activate their second language (written) German unconsciously during processing sentences in their native sign language. Chapter 3 presents two ERP studies investigating the morpho-syntactic aspects of agreement in DGS. One study tested DGS sentences with incorrect, i.e. unspecified, agreement verbs, the other study tested DGS sentences with plain verbs that incorrectly inflected for 3rd person agreement. Agreement verbs that ended in an unspecified location engen¬dered two independent ERP effects: a positive deflection on posterior electrodes (220-570 ms relative to trigger nonmanual cues) and an anterior effect on left frontal electrodes (300-600 ms relative to the sign onset). In contrast, incorrect plain verbs resulted in a broadly distributed positive deflection (420-730 ms relative to the mismatch onset). These results contradict previous findings of agreement violation in sign languages and are discussed to reflect a violation of well-formedness or processes of context-updating. The stimulus materials of all four studies were consistently presented in continuously signed sentences presented in non-manipulated videos. This methodological innovation enabled a distinctive perspective on the time-course of sign language processing.


The phenomenon of cloud computing has been driven largely these days. Personal Cloud, as the cloud computing for personal usage, has come to the forefront. Compare with traditional operating system, personal cloud shifts individual computing "from being device-centric to information-centric", which create a bridge between operating system-based computing and the more service-oriented approach to IT. Also, the mobile thin-client has brought mobility to cloud computing. In this paper, we provide a reference base for the development of methodologies tailored for personal cloud computing. Besides, we also provide a security architecture for personal cloud based on the security requirement analysis.


This paper presents an exemplification and discussion of the contemporaneity of Erving Goffman's work and of its applicability to the analysis of identity and presentation of self in the blogging and Second Life (SL) contexts. An analysis of online identity and interaction practices in 10 different cases of bloggers and SL inhabitants and of their online spaces is presented in terms of: expressions given; embellishment as a minor form of persona adoption; dividing the self; conforming and 'fitting in'; and masking, anonymity and pseudonimity. The key finding of the research is that, contrary to engaging with the process of whole persona adoption, participants were keen to re-create their offline self online, but engaged in editing facets of self. This emphasizes the key premise in Goffman's work that, when in 'front stage', people deliberately chose to project a given identity. It is concluded that Goffman's original framework is of great usefulness as an explanatory framework for understanding identity through interaction and the presentation of self in the online world. Equally, the online environment, with its enhanced potential for editing the self, can offer opportunities to contribute to the further development of the Goffman framework.


The focus in this study isle on the unique challenges presented by terrorism prosecutions especially those relating to the disclosure of otherwise secret intelligence.. The first part of this paper will provide an historical outline of thinking about the distinction between security intelligence and evidence. The second part of this paper will outline some of the competing goals that should inform the relationship between security intelligence and evidence. The third part of this paper will examine issues related to the use of information collected by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) as evidence while intelligence is generally collected under less demanding standards than evidence. The fourth part of this paper will examine disclosure requirements as they may be applied to intelligence. The fifth part of this paper will examine possible legislative restrictions on disclosure and through the expansion or creation of evidentiary privileges that shield information from disclosure. The sixth part of this paper will examine existing means to secure nondisclosure orders to protect the secrecy of intelligence in particular prosecutions. The seventh part of this paper will examine the procedures used in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia to resolve claims of national security confidentiality, with a view to understanding how the approaches used in those countries differ from those used in Canada and whether they provide a sounder basis for maintaining a workable and reliable relationship between security intelligence and evidence. The conclusion of this paper will assess strategies for making the relationship between intelligence and evidence workable. The strategies include both front-end strategies that will affect the collection of intelligence and back-end strategies relating to partial non-disclosure of intelligence that is not used as evidence. All of these issues are united by the need to establish a reliable, workable and fair relationship between intelligence and evidence. They raise fundamental questions about the viability of criminal prosecutions as a response to the threats of, and to acts of, international terrorism such as that which resulted in the bombing of Air India Flight 182.


We explore potential methods for assessing whether licensing terms for intellectual property declared essential within a standard setting organization can be considered fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND). We first consider extending Georgia-Pacific to a standard setting context. We then evaluate numeric proportionality, which is modelled after certain patent pool arrangements and which has been proposed in a pending FRAND antitrust suit. We then turn to two economic models with potential. The first—the efficient component-pricing rule (ECPR)—is based on the economic concept of market competition. The second—the Shapley value method—is based on cooperative game theory models and social concepts for a fair division of rents. Interestingly, these two distinct methods suggest a similar benchmark for evaluating FRAND licenses, but ones which might appeal differently to the courts and competition authorities in the US as compared to Europe. We find that under any approach, patents covering "essential" technologies with a greater contribution to the value of the standard and without close substitutes before the standard gets adopted should receive higher royalty payments after the adoption of the standard.


On December 24, 1699, a small gathering of men and women met "for public Worship in [their] pleasant newbuilt house," a simple wooden structure in Brattle Close, a section of Boston near the town dock. The newly appointed Reverend Benjamin Colman preached from Chronicles 2, chapter vi, verse 18, "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built." This first public meeting of the Brattle Street Church occurred amidst a heated theological debate among New England Congregational clergymen, which began a year earlier when the foundation of the church had first been conceived. Brattle Street's foundation was in reaction to theological, political, and cultural transformations that affected the whole of New England in the latter half of the seventeenth century, all of which converged in the 1690s. While the foundation of Brattle Street Church did not make any radical departures from contemporary theological consensus, its foundation did represent the first concrete fragmentation of a theretofore unified New England Congregational community. In this sense, the foundation of the Brattle Street Church is representative of a radical development in the evolution of colonial Congregationalism.


If the French faced the 200th anniversary of the Napoleonic Empire with some trepidation about how to commemorate the infamous Corsican, the British celebrated the Battle of Trafalgar as an enduring national victory. A grand exhibit in the National Maritime Museum in London, "Nelson and Napoleon," observed this event in 2005. In contemporary Germany, however, the commemoration of 1806 has occurred mainly among small circles of specialists and remained largely absent from popular historical consciousness. In recent times, besides the exhibition on the Holy Roman Empire in the German Historical Museum in Berlin, only small local exhibits and substantial articles in magazines like Die Zeit and Der Spiegel recall 1806. Past momentous occasions such as 1848, 1914–1919, 1933–1945, and 1949 clearly overshadow in contemporary historical memory the tumultuous decades that surrounded the Napoleonic Wars. This tendency to overlook and underestimate the significance of the early nineteenth century also remains evident among scholars who work on later periods of German history. In the shadow of World Wars and the Holocaust, the period of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars between 1792 and 1815 seems distant to the contemporary audience. But why do historians also tend to disregard the importance of this era of warfare and domestic, social, and economic transformation—a period so rich in complexity—and its enduring consequences for nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe?


Amyloid-β precursor protein (APP), a widely expressed cell-surface protein, is cleaved in the transmembrane region by γ-secretase. γ-Cleavage of APP produces the extracellular amyloid β-peptide of Alzheimer's disease and releases an intracellular tail fragment of unknown physiological function. We now demonstrate that the cytoplasmic tail of APP forms a multimeric complex with the nuclear adaptor protein Fe65 and the histone acetyltransferase Tip60. This complex potently stimulates transcription via heterologous Gal4- or LexA-DNA binding domains, suggesting that release of the cytoplasmic tail of APP by γ-cleavage may function in gene expression.


In 2013, the "biofabrication window" was introduced to reflect the processing challenge for the fields of biofabrication and bioprinting. At that time, the lack of printable materials that could serve as cell‐laden bioinks, as well as the limitations of printing and assembly methods, presented a major constraint. However, recent developments have now resulted in the availability of a plethora of bioinks, new printing approaches, and the technological advancement of established techniques. Nevertheless, it remains largely unknown which materials and technical parameters are essential for the fabrication of intrinsically hierarchical cell–material constructs that truly mimic biologically functional tissue. In order to achieve this, it is urged that the field now shift its focus from materials and technologies toward the biological development of the resulting constructs. Therefore, herein, the recent material and technological advances since the introduction of the biofabrication window are briefly summarized, i.e., approaches how to generate shape, to then focus the discussion on how to acquire the biological function within this context. In particular, a vision of how biological function can evolve from the possibility to determine shape is outlined.


ACCTuner: OpenACC Auto-Tuner for Accelerated Scientific Applications Fatemah Ramzy AlZAyer We optimize parameters in OpenACC clauses for a stencil evaluation kernel executed on Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) using a variety of machine learning and optimization search algorithms, individually and in hybrid combinations, and compare execution time performance to the best possible obtained from brute force search. Several auto-tuning techniques – historic learning, random walk, simulated annealing, Nelder-Mead, and genetic algorithms – are evaluated over a large two-dimensional parameter space not satisfactorily addressed to date by OpenACC compilers, consisting of gang size and vector length. A hybrid of historic learning and Nelder-Mead delivers the best balance of high performance and low tuning e↵ort. GPUs are employed over an increasing range of applications due to the performance available from their large number of cores, as well as their energy e ciency. However, writing code that takes advantage of their massive fine-grained parallelism requires deep knowledge of the hardware, and is generally a complex task involving program transformation and the selection of many parameters. To improve programmer productivity, the directive-based programming model OpenACC was announced as an industry standard in 2011. Various compilers have been developed to support this model, the most notable being those by Cray, CAPS, and PGI. While the archi5 tecture and number of cores have evolved rapidly, the compilers have failed to keep up at configuring the parallel program to run most e ciently on the hardware. Following successful approaches to obtain high performance in kernels for cachebased processors using auto-tuning, we approach this compiler-hardware gap in GPUs by employing auto-tuning for the key parameters "gang" and "vector" in OpenACC clauses. We demonstrate results for a stencil evaluation kernel typical of seismic imaging over a variety of realistically sized three-dimensional grid configurations, with di↵erent truncation error orders in the spatial dimensions. Apart from random walk and historic learning based on nearest neighbor in grid size, most of our heuristics, including the one that proves best, appear to be applied in this context for the first time. This work is a stepping-stone towards an OpenACC auto-tuning framework for more general high-performance numerical kernels optimized for GPU computations.


The principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality declares that all laws shall be applied equally to all persons irrespective of their nationality. In this article the author draws the attention to the far-reaching interpretations of this principle in the context of direct taxation. Almost all bilateral treaties on avoidance of international double taxation contain the provisions on non-discrimination. The principle of non-discrimination is also declared in the Treaty Establishing the European Community. Between EC law and the tax treaty law there are a lot of similarities but also a lot of differences in this regard. On the one hand, both the tax treaty law and the EC law prohibit the discrimination of the tax payers on the basis of the their nationality. But on the other hand, the tax treaty law in all cases "tolerates" the application of different taxation rules with respect to the resident and non-resident, whereas such differentiation in some cases may constitute an illegal discrimination or illegal restriction under the EC law. The idea of the article is to have a closer look on the respective provisions of the double tax treaties and the EC law, to explain the similarities and differences of these laws and to analyse their impact on domestic tax law. One of the main problems arising from the different understanding of the principle of non-discrimination in the tax treaty law and in the EC law is that the EC law "destroys" the traditional and long-standing concepts of international and national direct taxation. The direct tax systems of almost all countries are based on the differentiation between resident and non-resident, therefore the application of different tax regime with respect to these two categories of taxpayers has always been understandable. However, the EC law shakes this very founding principle of direct taxation and establishes the "revolutionary" rule: the application of different tax rules to resident and non-resident is illegal, unless there exist certain conditions which justify such differentiation of the tax payers. In this article the author is trying to find out which are those crucial conditions that make such differentiation possible and legal under the EC tax law. The existing conflict between the tax treaty law and the EC law could lead to very far-reaching results. The EC law is a primary law that has a priority over the national tax law and even the tax treaty law. Thus, not only the national tax laws, but also the double tax treaties concluded by the EC Member States shall be in accordance with the principle of non-discrimination, as it is understood in the EC law. The recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has showed some signals, which suggest the lawmakers to review and to re-evaluate the entire system of national and international direct taxation. In certain cases the EC Member States have even been forced not to apply its double tax treaty concluded with other countries so that the residents and non-residents of that EC Member State would have equal opportunities to employ the benefits offered by that double tax treaty. Such an aggressive intrusion of the ECJ into the area of national and international double taxation by some of the commentators has been called as "very shocking and very dangerous"; and the ECJ, because of its "dangerous" rulings, by other commentators was even compared to a "bull in a china shop". Therefore the author in his article is trying to explain to readers where this "bull" is coming from and how dangerous it could be to the Lithuanian direct tax system.


For an autonomous system to be helpful to humans and to pose no unwarranted risks, it needs to align its values with those of the humans in its environment in such a way that its actions contribute to the maximization of value for the humans. We propose a formal definition of the value alignment problem as cooperative inverse reinforcement learning (CIRL). A CIRL problem is a cooperative, partial-information game with two agents, human and robot; both are rewarded according to the human's reward function, but the robot does not initially know what this is. In contrast to classical IRL, where the human is assumed to act optimally in isolation, optimal CIRL solutions produce behaviors such as active teaching, active learning, and communicative actions that are more effective in achieving value alignment. We show that computing optimal joint policies in CIRL games can be reduced to solving a POMDP, prove that optimality in isolation is suboptimal in CIRL, and derive an approximate CIRL algorithm.


Versatile configurable defected ground structures(CDGSs) for enhancing the performance of low profile antennas are introduced. It is shown that CDGS can significantly reduce mutual coupling (MC) between multiple antennas and suppress cross-polarization (XP) and enhance circular polarization (CP) excitation in single port low profile antennas for example. The key idea of CDGS is to construct defected ground structures (DGSs) from a grid of slots, which can be either opened or shorted with hardwires, so that they can be configured and optimized to enhance desired antenna performance characteristics. Theimportance and versatility of the CDGS approach is that itovercomes the issue of having to design bespoke DGS for each individual antenna design. Three design examples are provided to demonstrate the versatility of CDGSs for MC reduction, XP suppression and CP excitation. Experimental results demonstrate that MC can be reduced by up to 43 dB, XP can be suppressed by 15 dB and CP can be excited with 78 MHz (2.2%) 3-dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth. The compactness and ease of fabrication also make the CDGS well suited to compact low profile internet of things (IoT) and wireless communication applications.


Passive sonar based mixture velocity measurement was evaluated on a DEME trailing suction hopper dredger. A conventional electro-magnetic flow meter served as the velocity reference. Evaluation was carried out over a period of several months and included various operating conditions; i.e. trailing, turning and dumping of both sand and silt type mixtures. Velocity of the mixture ranged from 2 m/s to 10 m/s at densities varying from 1 t/m 3 to 1.8 t/m 3 . Results show very good agreement between passive sonar based measured velocities and the reference. Passive sonar based technology allows a velocity meter to be clamped around existing pipework without any modification. Existing liner material, paint or rust does not influence the measurement. Unlike clamp-on ultrasonic meters, either Doppler or transit-time based, sonar based metering is a passive technology which works equally well in pure fluids as in mixtures. The sonar based meter on this trailing suction hopper dredger was installed by a crew of two in less than six hours during a bunkering stop. Flow metering technology based on passive sonar has been available for years in slurry plant and pipeline management in a variety of industries. Applications such as a velocity meter on cutter suction dredgers have shown that the technology is a viable, robust and low-cost alternative to conventional electro-magnetic flow meter technology. Without any wetted parts and with no moving parts the passive listening employed in a clamp-around embodiment has proven to withstand harsh, ambient and operating, conditions for periods in excess of 10 years without any maintenance or recalibration. Over and above mixture velocity measurement, passive sonar based technology can also be used to derive the Gas Void Fraction (GVF) from a measurement of the speed of sound in the mixture. The speed of sound is measured using exactly the same hardware and can operate independently and in parallel to the velocity measurement providing two separate outputs. GVF in the discharge line of the main dredge pump may show high values of gas, over 5%. GVF could be used to control dredging operations to maintain low gas levels to decrease solids carry over, reduce pump wear and help increase efficient dredging operations.


There have been numerous researchers who, over the years, have explored the relationship between the golden ratio and how it relates to the human perception of beauty.
Although the golden proportion is one of the aesthetic characteristics contained in many masterpieces of art and design, it is still largely thought of as little more than an aesthetic guideline, that is, if indeed it is even being considered at all.
This thesis asserts that golden proportion and practical geometric knowledge can be used as an extremely effective means of codifying the creative process, inspiring and
influencing creative design decisions. This thesis is concerned with examining the application of practical geometric knowledge as an integral part of the design process. It also documents the development of the author's geometric refinement tools and discusses
the results of their performance in testing by scrutinizing the opinions of design students
and professional designers who both had their designs modified by the author's refinement tools. The relationship between geometric knowledge embedded in design classics and bestselling items was also examined.
This thesis describes a mixed methods approach with multiple analyses, from which qualitative and quantitative data (about the implementation of applying geometric knowledge) was gathered via two geometry workshops, interviews with the professional designers, as well as an analysis of visual materials consisting of two hundred selected design examples. Based upon the process of employing geometric knowledge and its experiments, the thesis presents a descriptive analysis of the data to test theoretical propositions and draw conclusions about the value of applying practical geometry as design knowledge and as a practical tool for a design in the modern context.
The significance of this thesis is that it elucidates upon the use of the golden ratio, and
practical geometry as a practical design refinement tool, with the ability to transform the perception of practical geometry from being merely an aesthetic guideline which appears in masterpieces from the past, to a directly applicable practical design technique.
The main contribution this thesis makes to the field of design practice is that it attempts to further understand the results achieved by codifying designing styles and design decisions, a process which can be described as objective rational knowledge in practice.
This thesis frames individual design participants' perspectives of the golden ratio and the relationship between modern designs and the masterpieces of history. Thereby, hopefully providing a historical perspective and a modern context for the golden ratio. Further to that, it is the author's hope that this work will provide inspiration to today's designers, motivating them to begin implementing practical geometry into their designs and in the future generations of design education to come.


September 12, 1993, marked a full decade of the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) Chinese-Japanese-Korean (CJK) enhancements. When the Research Libraries Group, Inc., (RLG) introduced the CJK enhancements to R U N ten years ago, catalogers of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean language materials for the first time could create cataloging records with CJK scripts that could be copied by other libraries and viewed by researchers across the country. Since the Library of Congress (LC), Columbia, Princeton, and Stanford created those first CJK records, the number of CJK records in the RLIN database has grown to 1,201,421 (as of June 30, 1993), representing the holdings of thirty-seven RLIN libraries as well as OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) CJK libraries.


The paper presents the first ever demographic scenarios for the regions of Russia. Scenarios are developed for 49 oblasts (regions), 6 krays (territories), 21 republic, 1 autonomous oblast and 2 national cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. Five scenarios are considered: two optimistic scenarios, two medium scenarios and one pessimistic scenario. The scenarios are combinations of three mortality scenarios, two fertility scenarios and three migration scenarios. The main results are presented graphically for the 79 areas. Detailed results and a discussion of the differences between the scenarios are presented for 11 economic-geographic regions. The main findings of the scenario analysis are:

1. The population decline, which started in 1992, continues in all scenarios. The annual number of deaths exceeds the number of births by almost one million and the difference is fast increasing. The positive migration balanced, which reached half a million in 1995, compensates a large part of the excess deaths over births but it cannot prevent the population from declining. The expected population decline between 1995 and 2025 ranges from 2 million in an optimistic scenario (OLB) to 32 million in a pessimistic scenario (PHA), i.e. a decline by more than 20 percent in 30 years.

2. Aging of the population reaches unprecedented levels. Low fertility is the major reason for the decline. In 2025, Russia is expected to have 20 to 25 per cent less children than today, depending on the scenario. The decline in the population of working ages is expected to be between 14 and 25 percent. The pattern of aging changes over time. Up to 2010, the increase in mean age is caused by the decline of children (as a result of low fertility) and an increase in population of working age (15-59). Beyond 2010, the 60+ population rises sharply and the mean age increases accordingly. In 2025, the number of 60+ persons will be 28 million in the optimistic scenario (OLB), 61 percent of which will be females, and 22 million in the pessimistic scenario (PHA), with the proportion of females at 56 percent (number of 60+ in 1995: 22.5 million). The proportion females in the 60+ population declines in all scenarios because of the normalization of the age structure. The low number of males 60+ (and particularly 70+) today is to be attributed to the losses during the Second World War.

3. The spatial redistribution of the population out of Siberia to the European part of Russia, in particular the southern regions (North Caucasus and the Volga region). If current migration trends continue (stable migration scenarios - PHA) the share of the population living in the Far East economic-geographic region declines from 5.2 percent in 1995 to 3.5 percent in 2025. The North, North West and East Siberia economic-geographic regions see their share decline too, but less pronounced as the Far East.


Among the preliminary questions (author, literary genre, theme, division), special attention is paid to the «literary genre». This is determined by beginning with the conclusion (v. 5c), and not on the basis of the initial question (v. 1). This approach allows one to see a «sapiential catechesis», concerning the pressing problem of retribution. The «catchesis» emerges as comprising an initial question (v. 1), eleven responses (w. 2-5b), structured according to the scheme aba' b\ and a conclusion (v. 5c). The eleven conditions are divided into tuo groups: the first group (3 conditions) concerns the integral observance of the code of the covenant (v. 2); the second group (8 conditions) considers relationships with one's neighbour (w. 3-5b). The eight conditons of the second group deal with human relationships (human, economic, juridical), and point out that in love of neighbour lies the postulate for living in communion with God and not meeting a premature death (a destiny reserved for the wicked). The conclusion (v. 5c) affirms that he who acts in conformity with the code of the covenant (he who does these things) will not waver forever, that is, will not meet a premature death. He will live forever in communion with God and with the people of the covenant. Psalm 15 is of topical interest because it points out that the basic premises for living in communion with God forever are to be found in the «law of goodness* (Tob 4,15; Mt 7,12). Sung in the context of the Christian liturgy, Psalm 15 is enriched with a new content: he who is faithful to the code of the covenant, a covenant which God has established with the humanity of Christ, will have eternal life and will inherit the kingdom of God (Mt 19,17).


A library and office for a private charitable foundation in Kensington, London. The Foundation aims to document and preserve Islamic written heritage. It pursues this aim principally though its work in surveying, imaging, cataloguing, editing and publishing Islamic manuscripts. Islamic manuscripts extant in the world are estimated to number three million, covering subjects as diverse as the Quran, Prophetic traditions (Hadith), jurisprudence (fiqh), logic, history and philosophy, as well as mathematics, the various sciences, poetry and literature, and art and craft. This large and important resource is, tragically, in great danger of being damaged or lost for ever. Political conflict, social upheaval and the merely natural causes – whenever and wherever there is a lack of resources essential for its its maintenance and preservation, this heritage is in danger. The Foundation is committed to mobilising every available expertise to preserve this heritage and to restore these manuscripts and their content to cultural mainstream. The Foundation houses a library which supports and enhance the Foundation's research activities. The Library was founded in July 1990, and houses a carefully selected collection in various Islamic languages, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and Swahili, as well as in Western languages. Priority is given to a comprehensive collection of printed catalogues of Islamic manuscripts and to important primary and secondary sources in the field of Islamic studies. Although the Library does not principally collect manuscripts, (it holds microfilms and CD-ROMs of several thousands of manuscripts) there are a number of significant examples within the collection. The project displays these valued texts on a series of structural glass display surfaces.


Core only of CdSe and core-shell quamtum dots (QDs) of CdS/ZnS, CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/ZnSe were functionalized with photosensitive monolayer to make them solution processable and photopatternable. Exchange of ligands was successfully followed using IR spectroscopic techniques. Core-shell type QDs were found to have better photoluminescence properties. Upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation these material were found to undergo polymerization forming interconnected arrays of QDs. These materials were found suitable for spin casting on organic and inorganic substrates. A highly efficient flourene-based two-photon sensitizer was mixed with QD dispersion of a urethane acrylate resin. Two-photon nanostereolithography using a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser was applied on this resin mixture to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) microstructure. 3D microstructures fabricated were found with uniform dispersion of RGB QDs when observed through confocal microscope.


There has been much discussion in recent years regarding appropriate settings for release bindings in Alpine skiing. The authors take into account the fact that current recommended release criteria are based on midshaft tibia bone strength. The hypothesis of this work is to look at a link between binding release values and all lower limb injuries. Additionally, there is a proposal regarding the possibility of reducing injuries to the ligaments in the knee through modification of binding release value standards. Knee injuries including rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament remain a major risk for skiers and for women in particular. In July, 2000, the French standards group, AFNOR, recommended a modification to the ISO 11088 standard for release settings specifically designed to reduce binding release values particularly for women and for individuals with body weight less than 55 kg. The objective of this study is to measure the influence of binding release values on lower leg injuries, in particular for women. A case-control study at Flaine ski resort in 2006 was conducted to determine whether there is proof of causation between ski binding release values and lower leg injuries sustained on the ski slopes. Release torque values were measured for injured (n=129) and control (n=339) groups. The measurements were made for Alpine skiers by using standard measurement devices. Comparisons between recommended release settings based on AFNOR FD S 52-748 compared to actual release levels as a function of fall mechanism speed, type of release, type of ski, and self-reported experience level were analyzed statistically. There is a statistical link between AFNOR standard ski binding release values and injuries of lower limbs. We believe it is important to introduce a gender parameter in ISO binding release value tables to reduce the release values for women. KEYWORDS: alpine skiing, ACL, MCL, midshaft tibia fractures, ski bindings, ISO, AFNOR Language: en


Despite a 20-year trend toward integrated marketing communications, advertisers seldom coordinate television and search advertising campaigns. We find that television advertising for financial services brands increases both the number of related Google searches and searchers' tendency to use branded keywords in place of generic keywords. The elasticity of a brand's total searches with respect to its TV advertising is 0.17, an effect that peaks in the morning. These results suggest that practitioners should account for cross-media effects when planning, executing, and evaluating both television and search advertising campaigns.

This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta, marketing.


Syllable-final consonant deletion has been widely documented in Eastern Andalusian Spanish, although the effects of consonant deletion on preceding vowels are still unknown. Studies analyzing syllable-final consonants in Eastern Andalusian Spanish have focused on /-s/, disregarding other consonants which are also deleted in this position. The present paper aims to extend this traditional focus by analyzing how /-s/, /-r/ and /-θ/ deletion affects preceding /i/. After analyzing 383 samples of /i/ word-finally and before underlying word-final /s/, /r/ and /θ/ in Western Almería (Eastern Andalusia), it is confirmed that the deletion of these three consonants changes the quality of preceding /i/. Furthermore, the results of a perception test confirm that speakers of Eastern Andalusian Spanish can identify whether or not /i/ is followed by an underlying /-s/, /-r/ or /-θ/ and they can also identify two types of /i/ in isolation: word-final /i/ and /i/ preceding underlying /-r/; this identification occurs at a rate which is statistically significant. It is hypothesized that, apart from vowel height and frontness, a suprasegmental feature could be the perceptual cue used to identify an underlying consonant after a vowel in this variety of Spanish.


With the death of Professor Sir Michael Howard, The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) lost not only its president emeritus but the last of its founders and intellectual parents. The foremost military historian of his generation, Sir Michael embodied and epitomised a historical sensibility that informed all his writing. He will forever remain an icon not only for historians, but for all those who acknowledge the indispensability of history and the historical sensibility for any true understanding of present events. In tribute to Sir Michael and in celebration of his life and work, this Adelphi book collects a selection of his remarks and writings for IISS publications over six decades, as well as previously unprinted material. Through this collection, these works will reach a new generation of readers and be made more accessible to those fortunate enough to have read them already. They illustrate Sir Michael's role in the Institute's creation and his abiding presence in its evolving intellectual life, and serve as a historical document, tracing the development of strategic thought and preoccupations from the 1950s to the recent past. In addition to their historical value, Sir Michael's conclusions retain their immediacy and power. This book is therefore of direct relevance to anyone interested in contemporary events: whether the professional analyst, the student of international relations or the general reader. 'This wonderful collection, containing pieces written by Sir Michael Howard over 60 years, will be enjoyed by his, and the Institute's, many friends and admirers. Here will be found many reminders, written with Michael's customary lucidity, of the big issues of the post-war period as they were seen at the time. In addition to a fascinating interview conducted not long before his death about the origins of the Institute, there are obituaries of many of the key and now too often forgotten figures of those early years.' — Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London 'Sir Michael's exploration of policy judgement by fusing politics, strategy, history, ethics, and technology in the nuclear age is increasingly relevant in this complex age of artificial intelligence. His interdisciplinary approach continues to be a guide as we work to synthesize and solve the challenges presented by rapid technological advancements. The pieces contained here show both the continued relevance of his work, and his commitment to studying military history properly, in "depth", in "width", and in "context".' — Dr Yoichi Funabashi, Chairman of Asia Pacific Initiative


Reverse electrodialysis in closed loop configurations is a promising membrane technology in the energy conversion and storage fields. One of the main advantages of closed-loop reverse electrodialysis is the possibility of using a wide range of operating concentrations, flow rates and different salts for generating the salinity gradient. In this work, an original exergy analysis of the reverse electrodialysis process was carried out in order to investigate reverse electrodialysis performance in terms of energetic and exergetic efficiency parameters in a wide range of operating conditions. A mono-dimensional model of the reverse electrodialysis process was developed, in which all sources of irreversibility are considered, such as non-ideal membranes permselectivity, ohmic losses and uncontrolled mixing phenomena (salt and water diffusive flux across membranes). For each of them, the influence on the exergy efficiency is quantified and compared. Results also indicate how exergetic and energetic performance are largely dependent on solutions concentration: when high salinity gradient differences are used within the unit, membrane water permeability heavily affects process performance, thus reducing exergy efficiency, though a larger power output can be normally achieved. The more performing flow arrangement for the stack has been found to be the counter-current, though significant differences are observed only for long channels. Finally, performance is improved when short residence time within the stack is attained for the low-concentration solution.


The hyperthermophilic euryarchaeon Pyrococcus abyssi and the related species Pyrococcus furiosus and Pyrococcus horikoshii, whose genomes have been completely sequenced, are presently used as model organisms in different laboratories to study archaeal DNA replication and gene expression and to develop genetic tools for hyperthermophiles. We have performed an extensive re‐annotation of the genome of P. abyssi to obtain an integrated view of its phylogeny, molecular biology and physiology. Many new functions are predicted for both informational and operational proteins. Moreover, several candidate genes have been identified that might encode missing links in key metabolic pathways, some of which have unique biochemical features. The great majority of Pyrococcus proteins are typical archaeal proteins and their phylogenetic pattern agrees with its position near the root of the archaeal tree. However, proteins probably from bacterial origin, including some from mesophilic bacteria, are also present in the P. abyssi genome.


The recognition of customary law by the South African Republic Several authors have claimed that blacks in the South African Republic were governed according to Roman Dutch law, that customary law was not recognised before 1877, and that this legal system was only recognised for the first time after the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. Although the official policy of the Republic was that blacks should be governed according to the laws of the country also applying to whites, in actual fact customary law was applied in the Zoutpansberg district since the 1860's and in some respects throughout the Republic since 1876. That this was the case is apparent from a letter of President M W Pretorius to the Superintendent of Native Tribes in Zoutpansberg in 1865. The recommendations of a commission of 1871 appointed to investigate memorials pertaining to black servants and laws applying to blacks also confirm this. Furthermore, Law No 3 of 1876 seems to recognise indigenous law by implication by not prohibiting ""the buying of wives"" and poligamy, but by simply stating that these practices would not be recognised by the laws of the country. In this law, moreover, the Native commissioners were instructed to take cognisance of the customs of the blacks when acting as justices of the peace. Although there was therefore no law which accorded statutory recognition to customary law there can be little doubt that such law was indeed recognised in certain respects by the Republic by 1876.


Of Brassicaceous plants, kale (Brassica oleraceae L. var. acephala DC) contains polyphenols, flavonoids, isoflavones and glucosinolates and so has antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties. Antioxidants inhibit negative effects of free radicals and may, therefore, protect tissues against oxidative damage. Oxidation of lipoproteins is a key event in the development of atherosclerosis. In the current study, the levels of total phenolic and flavonoid contents and total antioxidant capacity of methanolic and aqueous extracts of kale leaves were determined. In addition, the susceptibility of isolated lipoproteins — very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) to the Cu-induced oxidation with various concentrations of metanolic and aqueous extracts was evaluated as t-lag values. Although aqueous extract had higher total antioxidant capacity, methanolic extract had higher total phenolic and flavonoid content (P<0.05). On the other hand, both extracts inhibited lipid peroxidation in both isolated VLDL and LDL. Inhibitory effect of extracts or increasing t-lag values, mainly in methanolic extract was found to be related to increasing the concentration of extracts. It was concluded that because of high antioxidant capacity and phenolic content, kale showed a protective effect on the oxidation of lipoproteins. Therefore, it may be speculated that kale consumption may play an important protective role in the cardiovascular and other related diseases resulting from imbalance of oxidant and antioxidant status.


Objectives: Traditionally, patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection have not received treatment until their infection reaches the moderate to severe stage. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the clinical effectiveness of pegylated (PEG) and non-pegylated interferon (IFN) alfa and ribavirin (RBV) for the treatment of adults with histologically mild HCV. Methods: We performed a sensitive search of fourteen electronic bibliographic databases for literature that met criteria defined in a research protocol. Two reviewers independently selected studies, extracted data and assessed methodological quality. Results: Ten randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Treatment with PEG + RBV combination therapy resulted in significantly higher sustained virological response (SVR) rates than treatment with IFN + RBV combination therapy. Treatment for 48 weeks with PEG + RBV was significantly more effective than the same treatment for 24 weeks. Significantly higher SVR rates were seen with IFN + RBV compared with either IFN monotherapy or no treatment. In the meta-analysis (four IFN trials), the relative risk of not experiencing an SVR was 0.59 (95 percent CI, 0.51 – 0.69) and was statistically significant (p < .00001). SVRs were higher for patients with genotype non-1 compared with genotype 1 for both PEG + RBV and IFN + RBV treatments. Conclusions: Patients with histologically mild HCV can be successfully treated with both PEG and IFN combination therapy, and response rates are broadly comparable with those achieved in patients with advanced disease. Treating patients in the early milder stages of HCV is, therefore, a clinically effective option.


'Site Construction' is Jenny Dunseath's large-scale solo exhibition.
Across the space, self-supporting sections of steel piping reach above and over the gallery's I-beams. Cylindrical columns of jilted orientation litter the space; some stack high above us and some lay vacantly, adorned with brightly coloured nylon jackets. Four monitors, sat on the gallery's mezzanine, continually loop frantic displays of revolving cement mixers and digital animations.
Dunseath has presented us with a scenario comprised of seemingly impaired approximations of apparatus. Sharply rendered but dumb, these suggestions of semi-industrial equipment, lead us toward a negotiation of the relationship between architecture and sculpture. Utilitarian materials operate ambiguously as their original behavioural traits are reduced to mere aesthetic.
Unlike her earlier works, in which Dunseath knowingly exposes evidence of the production process,Site Construction employs an aesthetic that deliberately detaches the artist. Through the employment of raw, unadulterated material, these new works pose as pre-production stock, provoking notions of construction and development whilst allowing for the implied potential of the
materials to permeate. This in turn evokes a sense of potential activity that lingers, leading an audience into a state of expectancy.
The effect of the elevated monitors is that of a foreman - their presence is felt, looming authoritatively above the rest of the work and, more importantly, the audience. They display working machinery and abstract geometric collages, all revolving with entrancing effect. The animations, garish and constant, mimic broadcasting logos and continue as if in endless introduction. Through
directly referencing notions of production, both anticipated and active, these films provide the show with a carefully placed conceptual heading.


Context. Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phases mark the end of the evolution for low- and intermediate-mass stars. Our understanding of the mechanisms through which they eject the envelope and our assessment of their contribution to the mass return to the interstellar medium and to the chemical evolution of Galaxies are hampered by poor knowledge of their luminosities and mass loss rates, both for C-rich and for O-rich sources. Aims. We plan to establish criteria permitting a more quantitative determination of luminosities (and subsequently of mass loss rates) for the various types of AGB stars on the basis of infrared fluxes. In this paper, in particular, we concentrate on O-rich and s-elementrich MS, S stars and include a small sample of SC stars. Methods. We reanalyze the absolute bolometric magnitudes and colors of MS, S, SC stars on the basis of a sample of intrinsic (single) and extrinsic (binary) long period variables. We derive bolometric corrections as a function of near- and mid-infrared colors, adopting as references a group of stars for which the spectral energy distribution could be reconstructed in detail over a large wavelength range. We determine the absolute HR diagrams, and compare luminosities and colors of S-type giants with those, previously derived, of C-rich AGB stars. Luminosity estimates are also verified on the basis of existing period-luminosity relations valid for O-rich Miras. Results. S star bolometric luminosities are almost indistinguishable from those of C-rich AGB stars. On the contrary, their circumstellar envelopes are thinner and less opaque. Despite this last property the IR wavelengths remain dominant, with the bluest stars having their maximum emission in the H or K(short) bands. Near-to-mid infrared color differences are in any case smaller than for C stars. Based on period-luminosity relations for O-rich Miras and on Magnitude-color relations for the same variables we show how approximate distances (hence intrinsic parameters) for sources of so far unknown parallax can be inferred. We argue that most of the sources have a rather small mass (<2 M� ); dredge-up might then be not effective enough to let the C/O ratio exceed unity.


Experiments on patients, processes or plants all have random error, making statistical methods essential for their efficient design and analysis. This book presents the theory and methods of optimum experimental design, making them available through the use of SAS programs. Little previous statistical knowledge is assumed. The first part of the book stresses the importance of models in the analysis of data and introduces least squares fitting and simple optimum experimental designs. The second part presents a more detailed discussion of the general theory and of a wide variety of experiments. The book stresses the use of SAS to provide hands-on solutions for the construction of designs in both standard and non-standard situations. The mathematical theory of the designs is developed in parallel with their construction in SAS, so providing motivation for the development of the subject. Many chapters cover self-contained topics drawn from science, engineering and pharmaceutical investigations, such as response surface designs, blocking of experiments, designs for mixture experiments and for nonlinear and generalized linear models. Understanding is aided by the provision of "SAS tasks" after most chapters as well as by more traditional exercises and a fully supported website. The authors are leading experts in key fields and this book is ideal for statisticians and scientists in academia, research and the process and pharmaceutical industries.


We describe anytime search procedures that (1) find disjoint subsets of recorded variables for which the members of each subset are d-separated by a single common unrecorded cause, if such exists; (2) return information about the causal relations among the latent factors so identified. We prove the procedure is point-wise consistent assuming (a) the causal relations can be represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG) satisfying the Markov Assumption and the Faithfulness Assumption; (b) unrecorded variables are not caused by recorded variables; and (c) dependencies are linear. We compare the procedure with standard approaches over a variety of simulated structures and sample sizes, and illustrate its practical value with brief studies of social science data sets. Finally, we consider generalizations for non-linear systems.


There is strong evidence of excessive levels multivariate comorbidity for the major childhood internalizing and externalizing syndromes and / or disorders. The overall aim of this thesis is to propose a general factor to capture the common variance for the major internalising and externalising childhood syndromes and disorders. In this context, the thesis reports three empirical studies to evaluate the plausibility of a common factor, and potential risk factors that may be associated with it.
Study 1, examined if childhood psychopathology could be characterised by a bifactor model, which would provide support for a common factor. The bifactor structure was tested on data from a clinical sample of 974 parents and their children referred to the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Data was gained from the Syndrome and DSM-Oriented scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children-Parent Version. The model was also tested on the data from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) Reference Group; an epidemiological sample used to validate the CBCL.
The bifactor model showed excellent fit and substantive support for the hypothesised common factor.
Study 2 extended Study 1 and investigated whether the major childhood syndromes/disorders conform to a circumplex structure, which would provide support for the presence of a common factor underlying these syndromes/disorders. The circumplex was tested using the same data and same measures as Study 1, and results demonstrated that child psychopathology conforms to a circumplex structure, with more than fifty percent of all variance accounted for by the common factor. This provided strong support for the presence of the hypothesised common factor.
Study 3 aimed to investigate the nature of this hypothesised common factor, and investigate which constructs are associated with it. The association of three constructs – negative affective temperament, parental psychopathology and familial functioning – on the general factor specified by the bifactor model was investigated. The results demonstrated that negative affect and parental psychopathology, both individually and in interaction, appear to be key risk factors associated with the common factor.
Overall, results suggest that, in contrast to current conceptualisations of childhood psychopathology as discrete and distinguishable entities, there is a common liability to all psychopathology in childhood. Such a common liability helps explain the high level comorbidity of childhood disorders and syndromes, because the liability suggests that all manifestations of psychological illness may, at least in part, have some common geneses. The results here suggest that negative affect and parental psychopathology are key risk factors in understanding this common liability factor.