The idea of "public philosophy" — that is, philosophy as contributing to questions of moral and political urgency in the community in which it is located — is paradoxical for two reasons. The first is that normative philosophy has no well-established substantive conclusions about the right and the good. Thus, philosophers enter into moral and political debate purporting to offer some kind of expertise, but the expertise they offer can not consist in any credible claim to know what is good, right, valuable, or any other substantive normative proposition that might be decisive in practical affairs. But philosophers — at least those in the broadly Socratic traditions — do bring to debate a method or way of thinking about contested normative questions: they are good at parsing arguments, clarifying the concepts at play in a debate, teasing out the dialectical entailments of suppositions and claims, and so on: Socratic philosophers are, in short, purveyors of what I call "discursive hygiene." This brings us to the second paradox: although philosophers can contribute no substantive knowledge about the good and the right, they can contribute discursive hygiene. But discursive hygiene plays almost no role in public life, and an only erratic, and highly contingent, role in how people form beliefs about matters of moral and political urgency. I call attention to the role of two factors in moral judgment: non-rational emotional responses and "Tribalism," the tendency to favor members of one "tribe" at the expense of others. The prevalence of emotional responses, especially tribalist ones, undermines the efficacy of discursive hygiene in public life. I conclude that the role for public philosophy is quite circumscribed, though public philosophers should learn from their cousins, the lawyers, who appreciate the role that rhetoric, beyond discursive hygiene, plays in changing moral attitudes and affecting action. Along the way, I discuss Stevenson's emotivism, what we can learn from Peter Singer's schizophrenic role as a public philosopher (lauded for his defense of animal rights, pilloried for his defense of killing defective humans), evolutionary explanations of tribalism, the lessons of American Legal Realism for the possible relevance of discursive hygiene, and Marx and Nietzsche as "public" philosophers.


Recently established carbon governance systems are quite different in Brazil, China, and India. Such divergence is surprising as emerging economies are primarily involved in carbon governance through the clean development mechanism (CDM). One would expect similar institutional and policy outcomes in the major host countries in response to the CDM, as this market instrument is initiated primarily by Western companies and regulated hierarchically by the internationally governed CDM Executive Board. However, from a closer look at the developing features of the CDM markets in Brazil, China, or India and an analysis of dominant actors and their interactions, institutional responses, and the effectiveness of the CDM within each market, there is evidence of a high variance, combined with a strong ownership by the respective governments. Such a variety of carbon governance is interesting from a theoretical point of view as it shows that a good understanding of environmental governance patterns is still lacking in developing and emerging economies. It is also of political importance as the findings may help to diffuse some of the criticism leveled at the CDM.


In 2016, the island-nation of Taiwan launched its New Southbound Policy (NSBP) to improve its cooperation efforts to Southeast Asian countries. However, even prior to the "look-south" attitude, a private organisation in Southern Taiwan has already initiated their own partnership efforts to Southeast Asian counterparts a decade before. Named as the Edu-Connect Southeast Asia Association, the organisation aims to create an integrated region by starting with the Philippines through the employment of city learning tours to Kaohsiung City to promote academic and business linkages. This commentary offers an appraisal about its activities by attempting to locate them in the extant literature. While regionalization attempts through education is no longer a novel approach, the Edu-Connect faces a number of challenges and opportunities in its engagement with the Philippines higher educational sector particularly in the following issues, namely, the unique status of its institutional partners in the Philippines, the potential of universities to emerge as game-changers in international affairs, the tendency of polarizing views dictated by the dichotomy of classifying countries as developed and developing, power asymmetries between Southern Taiwan and Philippine universities, and certain issues on its social entrepreneurship operations.


Each year millions of wild and hatchery juvenile pink salmon enter the waters of Prince William Sound (PWS) in the northern Gulf of Alaska. By mid summer, they begin to migrate out of PWS, first into the Alaska Coastal Current (ACC), and then into Shelf waters, where they forage and grow prior to migrating offshore in the fall. Differences in feeding and growth conditions among PWS, ACC, and Shelf habitats are likely to affect growth during the first summer, and ultimately cohort survival. In July-September of 2001-2004, we collected juvenile pink salmon with a surface trawl in PWS, ACC and Shelf habitats, to determine their seasonal distribution, diet, and growth. In July of all years, catch per unit effort was relatively high in PWS and ACC habits, and low in the Shelf habitat. By August and September this pattern had reversed, with most fish being caught in the Shelf habitat. Fish from year classes that subsequently showed higher adult survivals (2002 and 2004) were larger, and they tended to migrate into Shelf habitats earlier than did those with lower adult survivals (2001 and 2003). Using thermal mark recovery of PWS hatchery cohorts, we compared the size of known-age fish in the different habitats. In three of four years, hatchery fish of the same age were significantly larger in Shelf habitats than they were in ACC or PWS habitats. In general, hatchery cohorts that had larger juveniles in late summer had higher adult survivals, but there was considerable variation in this trend both among hatcheries and among years


Oil companies seldom acquire the necessary data to help them understand subsurface heterogeneity when they design multi- stage completions for lateral wells. In particular, well logs are rarely run in the lateral section. In the absence of such subsurface information, operators generally adhere to 'geometric' completion designs or equally spaced stages in the lateral section. While this approach seems reasonable and follows industry norms, it may not be very effective for heterogeneous rock (Far et al., 2015; Ashton et al., 2013; Ganguly and Cipolla, 2012). The geometric completion design may result in a limited stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) and lower well production than could be achieved with an optimized design based on subsurface information. Geoscientists, completion engineers and reservoir engineers focus on different aspects of the complex problem of fracture spacing in a horizontal well. In the comprehensive study presented in this article, the authors have developed an integrated reservoir model combining reservoir characterization, petrophysical, geophysical, drilling and completion data. A fully coupled reservoir/geomechanical simulation model was built to capture the variation in rock properties in the lateral section, and to assess the impact of this variation on the simulation of injection and production processes. This single model was used to simulate both the injection and production times for the well.


A longevity record of 60 years spent in captivity by a Mueller's gibbon (Hylobates muelleri) is reported here. This appears to be the second-highest age so far reported for a non-human primate, but it is especially remarkable when adjusted for body size. It is well known that longevity in mammals correlates with body weight. Small apes should, therefore, be expected to exhibit lower longevity than the great apes because of their lower body weight. However, the longevity record for Hylobates reverses this expectation for great apes like orangutans (Pongo) and gorillas (Gorilla). This study further found a significant correlation between the captive population size of primate genera and their recorded longevity. A comparison of longevity and captive population size suggests that recorded longevity in the gibbon genera Hoolock, Nomascus and Symphalangus is lower than that of the genus Hylobates because Hylobates is kept in captivity in much higher numbers. As a result, data on Hylobates longevity are obtained from larger sample sizes than that of all other gibbons. This suggests that all gibbon genera may eventually be revealed to exhibit an elevated longevity in relation to their body weight when larger amounts of data become available. Longevity data for great apes, in contrast, are based on larger samples than those for most genera of the small apes, and an increase in sample size for great ape genera may less likely produce a substantial increase in the longevity record.


Many important Management Support Systems require seamless access to and integration of multiple heterogeneous database systems. This paper studies heterogeneous database systems from the source perspective. It aims at addressing issues such as the following: (1) Where is the data from? (2) Which intermediate data sources were used to arrive at that data? Specifically, it presents a polygen model for resolving the Data Source Tagging and Intermediate Source Tagging problems. In addition, it presents the necessary and sufficient condition for source tagging. Source knowledge is important for many reasons. It enables users to apply their own judgment to the credibility of the information. It enables users to rationalize and reconcile data inconsistencies. It enables system designers to develop access charge systems. It enables an application user to adjust data. It enables a system to interpret data semantics more accurately. In sum, it justifies having source tagging capabilities as a required functionality for future heterogeneous database systems.


In recent decades, historical concert programmes have emerged as a fascinating resource for cultural study. As yet, however, little detailed work has been done on the programme notes that these booklets contained. This thesis concentrates on the notes written for the Crystal Palace Saturday Concerts between 1865 and 1879. The series held an important
place in London concert life during this period, and featured a number of influential authors in the programmes, such as George Grove, August Manns, James William Davison, Edward Dannreuther, and Ebenezer Prout. Grove in particular made use of his notes as part of entries in the first edition of the Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Close critical readings of the Saturday Concert booklets illustrate the complex combination of context, content, and function that the programme notes represented. These readings are supported by short histories of the series, the programme note, and the various authors, along with a study of the audience through booklet construction and advertising. A database covering the repertoire performed and programme note provision during the case-study period is included on the attached CD.
Programme notes that outlined pre-existing or newly-invented plots make it clear that one of their functions was to give music a narrative. Even notes that did not contain stories per se were filled with material that served a very similar purpose. The most obvious examples were explanations of how the work was created, and it's place in history. However, all of the language used to describe a piece could signal wider meanings, which
then became part of the story being told. References to gender, families, education, morality, religion, politics, or race imbued the works with a wide variety of pre-existing 'texts' (in the broadest sense of the word), and formed social and cultural narratives for music.


We analyze sequential image labeling methods that sample the posterior label field in order to gather contextual information. We propose an effective method that extracts local Taylor coefficients from the posterior at different scales. Results show that our proposal outperforms state-of-the-art methods on MSRC-21, CAMVID, eTRIMS8 and KAIST2 data sets.


Tissue engineering offers a potential alternative therapy to overcome the limitations of organ transplantation, by employing biomaterials as scaffold for cell growth. For example, poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) is a synthetic biomaterial widely used in tissue engineering. However, the hydrophobicity of PLGA results in scaffolds that are poorly wettable, and which, therefore, possess poor mass transfer properties for the delivery of nutrients and the removal of waste. The present work aimed to develop more hydrophilic PLGA scaffolds, specifically hollow fibre membranes, within a bioreactor system, which enables co-culture of cells in order to direct stem cell differentiation. Large quantities of costly growth factors are required over long periods for stem cell differentiation. Therefore, this project also aimed to use a cell line as a "factory" for the inexpensive, in situ growth factor production. Hollow fibres were fabricated by wet spinning and a hydrophilic polymer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), was added to the PLGA solution at three different concentrations (1.25, 2.5, 5% w/w) in order to obtain a more hydrophilic membrane. Results indicated that 5% PVA-PLGA hollow fibres were the only membranes which allowed permeation of water, BSA and cell-secreted hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), thus indicating that they are the most suitable membranes for use in bioreactor devices. However, these membranes failed to improve cell-attachment. Cell secreted HGF was shown to be more stable in a dynamic culture environment than commercial HGF, thus suggesting its suitability for applications in bioreactor devices. However, using both commercial and cell-secreted HGF, mesenchymal stem cell differentiation was unsuccessful. In conclusion, this work has developed a hollow fibre membrane which is more permeable to water and proteins for a higher mass transfer of nutrients, and has realised a model system for the inexpensive production of growth factors for use in bioreactor devices and the differentiation of stem cells.


Significance Political conflict between American Democrats and Republicans and ethnoreligious conflict between Israelis and Palestinians seem intractable, despite the availability of reasonable compromise solutions in both cases. This research demonstrates a fundamental cognitive bias driving such conflict intractability: Adversaries attribute their ingroup's actions to ingroup love more than outgroup hate and attribute their outgroup's actions to outgroup hate more than ingroup love. This biased attributional pattern increases beliefs and intentions associated with conflict intractability, including unwillingness to negotiate and unwillingness to vote for compromise solutions. In addition, offering financial incentives for accuracy in evaluating one's outgroup mitigates this biased attributional pattern and its consequences. Understanding this bias and how to alleviate it can contribute to conflict resolution on a global scale. Five studies across cultures involving 661 American Democrats and Republicans, 995 Israelis, and 1,266 Palestinians provide previously unidentified evidence of a fundamental bias, what we term the "motive attribution asymmetry," driving seemingly intractable human conflict. These studies show that in political and ethnoreligious intergroup conflict, adversaries tend to attribute their own group's aggression to ingroup love more than outgroup hate and to attribute their outgroup's aggression to outgroup hate more than ingroup love. Study 1 demonstrates that American Democrats and Republicans attribute their own party's involvement in conflict to ingroup love more than outgroup hate but attribute the opposing party's involvement to outgroup hate more than ingroup love. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate this biased attributional pattern for Israelis and Palestinians evaluating their own group and the opposing group's involvement in the current regional conflict. Study 4 demonstrates in an Israeli population that this bias increases beliefs and intentions associated with conflict intractability toward Palestinians. Finally, study 5 demonstrates, in the context of American political conflict, that offering Democrats and Republicans financial incentives for accuracy in evaluating the opposing party can mitigate this bias and its consequences. Although people find it difficult to explain their adversaries' actions in terms of love and affiliation, we suggest that recognizing this attributional bias and how to reduce it can contribute to reducing human conflict on a global scale.


Stephen Jay Gould's writing remains the modern standard by which popular science writing is judged. Ever since the late 1970s up until till his death in 2002, his monthly essay in Natural History and his full-length books bridged the yawning gap between science and wider culture. In this fascinating new collection of essays from Natural History, Gould applied biographical perspectives to the illumination of key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the origins of palaeontology to modern eugenics and genetic engineering. The essays brilliantly illuminate and elucidate the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that have fuelled the enterprise of science and opened our eyes to a world of unexpected wonders.


Data from 204 participants from the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, who were diagnosed post-mortem using the histopathological criteria of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD), were used to assess the validity of the clinical criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) of the 'National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke/the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association' (NINCDS/ADRDA). Cases who had been diagnosed as NINCDS/ADRDA 'probable AD' in life were usually confirmed at autopsy, but half of the NINCDS/ADRDA 'negative' cases were not (low specificity). It was hypothesized that the overall clinical impression may have taken precedence over the use of the actual criteria. We therefore investigated the validity and reliability of the clinical criteria using a computerized 'dementia diagnosis system' for each of 6 sets of criteria [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), NINCDS/ADRDA and three sets of criteria specifically for vascular dementia (VaD): NINCDS-AIREN, State of California Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (ADDTC), and Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI)] to classify a subset (n = 96) of the cases confirmed post-mortem. The use of the computerized system significantly (p = 0.01) increased the specificity (81%, similar to sensitivity) of the NINCDS/ADRDA diagnoses, which were shown to have 'moderate' inter-rater reliability. The DSM-IV criteria had good validity for AD when compared with post-mortem confirmation and showed 'substantial' inter-rater reliability. The ADDTC and VCI criteria for VaD had good specificity (88%) and sensitivity (75%), but only for one rater. The DSM-IV and NINCDS-AIREN criteria for VaD showed poor validity and inter-rater reliability. We conclude that the forced use of decision trees through a computerized system enhances the accuracy of the clinical diagnoses of dementia.


A concept for a non-intrusive sloshing guidance system based on a phenomenological Rapid Sloshing Model is proposed to reduce the operational risk of sloshing damage to LNG carriers. A numerical sloshing model is implemented in a commercial Navier-Stokes Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code which uses a volume-of-fluid approach for the simulation of multi-fluid problems. The effect of spatial and temporal discretisation and turbulence is investigated using systematic variation. Dimensional analysis of the multiphase flow regime and examination of the relative velocity at the fluid interface show that an inhomogeneous multiphase model is appropriate for the simulation of a violent sloshing flow. This is confirmed by the good agreement with the experimental data of Hinatsu. The effect of fluid compressibility is investigated for sloshing impacts and a criterion based on wave propagation is developed to assess the importance of compressibility. When modelling sloshing with large air bubble entrainment, the choice of fluid compressibility model is shown to have a significant influence on pressure magnitude and frequency of oscillation required for structural assessment and a thermal energy model is required. The Rapid Sloshing Model (RSM) is based on the observation that the centre of mass of a sloshing fluid tends to follow a particular trajectory. Using a phenomenological modelling approach, the forces affecting the sloshing response are approximated with mathematical functions for restoring force, damping and sloshing impacts. Calculation times for the resulting equations are typically 0.1% of real time on a desktop PC. A case study of sloshing induced by periodic rotation and translation of two-dimensional longitudinal and transverse sections of membrane LNG tanks is carried out using RSM. RSM is set up using one CFD simulation not considered in the case study and the RSM solutions are then compared to the independent CFD solutions. The fluid momentum from RSM is usually within 5%-15% of the CFD solution for excitation at and near the first resonant period at a filling level near the critical depth. An irregular surge motion profile from an ITTC two-parameter spectrum is applied to the tank and the mean error from the RSM solution remains below 15% when using momentum and transverse force. When applied to sloshing with a 10% filling level excited by an irregular seaway a mean error of 9.6% is obtained. Compared to existing phenomenological modelling approaches the RSM methodology reduces the error by an order of magnitude in sloshing scenarios of practical interest. A non-intrusive sloshing guidance system based on the Rapid Sloshing Model which is suitable for installation on existing and newbuild LNG carriers can be implemented by applying motion data measured onboard to the RSM to provide operator guidance on the sloshing severity in partially filled LNG tanks. The RSM is set up for a particular LNG carrier with existing sloshing data from the design and class approval stages.


The energy required to form and remove vacancies on metal surfaces mediates the rate of mass transport during a wide range of processes. These energies are known to be sensitive to environmental conditions. Here, we use electronic structure density functional theory calculations to show that the surface vacancy formation energy of silver changes markedly in the presence of adsorbed and dissolved oxygen. We found that adsorbed atomic oxygen can reduce the surface vacancy formation energy of the Ag(111) surface by more than 30%, whereas surface vacancy formation becomes exothermic in the presence of pure subsurface oxygen. We went on to show that the total directionality of the topologically defined bond paths can be used to understand these changes. The resulting structure-property relationship was used to predict the behavior of silver in different atmospheres. We show that the surface vacancy formation energy decreases when electronegative elements are adsorbed on the surface, but that it can increase when electropositive elements are adsorbed.


Despite significant advances in the study of cancer and associated combination therapeutic treatments, cancer still remains one of the most common and complex often-terminal diseases. Acquisition of high–throughput experimental data from diverse cellular perspectives has thrown light on some of the regulatory mechanisms underlying the development of cancer. However, in general there is a lack of a general pattern and coherent model which can explain the development and evolution of the disease. To this end, evolutionary dynamics has been used, as a mathematical tool, in numerous studies to model various aspects of cancer over time periods. Our main focus in this thesis is on the use of stochastic and statistic methods to study cellular interactions within cancer tissues in order to understand the role of spatial structure, heterogeneity, and the microenvironment in cancer development. By constructing multi-cellular structures and using both analytic calculations and stochastic simulations, we have investigated the phenotypic hierarchy of stem cells within a heterogeneous system and in the presence of environmentally induced plasticity. Moreover, the effect of a random environment on the development of cancer has been explored in a general framework. As an important application of the multi-stage hierarchical model, the structure of the colonic/intestinal crypt has been taken into account to show the crucial role of these stem cells in the initiation and progression of colorectal/intestinal cancer. From an alternative viewpoint, we have envisaged the hierarchy of mutations as an evolutionary mechanism in the context of acute myeloid leukemia and carried out a statistical analysis of genetic data. Our findings in this thesis are general and most likely have many implications across a wide array of fields including different blood and solid cancers, bacterial growth, drug resistance and social networks. Moreover, the introduced methods and analyses should have important applications in diverse branches of evolution, ecology, and population genetics.


The evaluation of the climate of a large area with few reporting
stations requires a special approach. Northern Saskatchewan, examined in
this study, is an example of such an area. The objectives of this study,
therefore, are to determine how to evaluate the climatic environment of a
large area with few reporting stations and to apply the methods to an
analysis of the climate of northern Saskatchewan.
A completeness index, developed by the author, was used to measure
how satisfactory the climatological records were in terms of length and
number of gaps. A correlation analysis, the point distribution coefficient
and the spatial pattern of the completeness index were employed for
the evaluation of the network of observing stations.
Methods for temporal and spatial estimation were applied and the
results were tested. It was found that monthly data and normals could be
estimated satisfactorily but that daily data could not be as adequately
estimated. The results of the spatial estimation were found to be
acceptable, although estimated precipitation values were usually less
acceptable than estimated temperature values.
The improved data base was then used to evaluate the temperature
and precipitation climate of northern Saskatchewan. Several intriguing
features were disclosed. For example, it was found that stations in the
central portion of the study area have January extreme minima that are as
much as 6° C. higher than those of the stations of the southern margin of
the study area. The frequency of occurrence of mean monthly temperatures
proved useful in both temporal and spatial analyses. Cold and warm spells, that is, periods of consecutive days with temperatures below or above
certain levels, respectively, were also examined. A noticeable pattern
in the distribution of cold spells was found. The distribution shows an
abrupt increase in the average number of cold spells per winter north of
about 57° North.
Other aspects of the climate of northern Saskatchewan such as the
frost-free season, growing degree-days, heating degree-days, wind chill
and humidex were evaluated, where possible. It was found that wind chill
factors at locations in the study area are less than those at Regina, the
comparison station in southern Saskatchewan. The length of the frost-free
season was found to be just as long in parts of the northern margin as in
the southern margin of the study area. Climatic classifications and the
continentality of the study area were also examined.


Baseband digital communication in electro-magnetic measurement while drilling (EM-MWD) systems is often corrupted by non-white surface noise. The inability to reliably decode the transmitted signals in a noisy environment limits the depth at which EM-MWD systems can operate. Correlation receivers, which are optimal in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise, can be sub-optimal in the presence of various types of field noise at different drilling sites. This thesis investigates the application of artificial neural networks (ANN) as communication receivers in EM-MWD baseband digital communication systems. The performances of various ANN architectures and training algorithms are studied and compared with conventional correlation receivers via computer simulations. Standard symbol error rate (SER) test results show that the NN receiver is able to adapt to site-specific noise and thus outperforms the traditional correlation receiver.


This paper analyses the contribution to the creation of a culturally diverse Sydney landscape by ethnic communities following the arrival of over a million and half non-English speaking settlers since 1948. Through fragmented collective actions, around 450 communal places were established to satisfy collectively perceived needs: places of worship, social and sports clubs, schools, childcare and aged care. Immigrants organised to overcome problems of social deprivation and scarcity of public places. They created needed collective goods on their own, through mutuality and compensated for their own meagre material resources with engendered social capital, time and energy. The diversity and intensity of development reflects differences in the perception of the settlement needs, urgency and aims within diverse ethnic groups. Immigrants enhanced the quality of life and developed a liveable city. Collected data inform on the outcome, developed capacities, investment patterns, annual income and expenditure, usage, management and employment patterns, gender and youth participation, functions and generated activities.


In developing countries with weak institutions, there is implicitly a large reliance on elections to instill norms of accountability and reduce corruption. In this paper we show that electoral discipline may be ineffective in reducing corruption when political competition is too high or too low. We first build a simple game theoretic model to capture the effect of electoral competition on corruption. We show that in equilibrium, corruption has a U-shaped relationship with electoral competition. If the election is safe for the incumbent (low competition) or if it is extremely fragile (high competition) then corruption is higher, and for intermediate levels of competition, corruption is lower. We also predict that when there are different types of corruption, then incumbents increase corruption in the components that voters care less about regardless of competition. We test the model's predictions using data gathered on audit findings of leakages from a large public program in Indian villages belonging to the state of Andhra Pradesh during 2006-10 and on elections to the village council headship in 2006. Our results largely confirm the theoretical results that competition has a non-linear effect on corruption, and that the impact of electoral competition varies by whether theft is from the public or private component of the service delivery. Overall, our results suggest that over-reliance on elections to discipline politicians is misplaced.


This essay examines an understudied moment in George Lamming's career: his guest editorship of New World Quarterly's Barbados independence issue in 1966. With a reputation for writing difficult, dense fiction, Lamming has faced criticism from both fellow authors and literary scholars for the incompatibility of esoteric literature with working-class Caribbean readers. But in the Barbados independence issue of New World Quarterly, Lamming includes excerpts from two of his novels, In the Castle of My Skin and Of Age and Innocence. I examine these excerpts, as well as the special Barbados issue more generally, alongside Lamming's fiction to show how independence offered the writer an opportunity to refashion his project as a novelist. Given how the unit of the excerpt embraces accessibility and multiplicity, I argue that Lamming's editorship of New World Quarterly illuminates an important way in which he sought to adapt his work for local readers on the occasion of independence.


The volatility of food prices has always concerned national governments, especially those of open developing economies, as it undermines their perceived national food security. A common policy approach has been to partially insulate their domestic market from international food price fluctuations by varying restrictions on their imports or exports. Unfortunately, such domestic stabilization measures amplify international price fluctuations. This article explains conceptually, and illustrates empirically, how insulation measures do little to advance national food security and collectively imperil global food security. Many countries also intervene to alter the trend level of domestic farm product prices, again most commonly with the use of trade restrictions. The latter policies have the unintended consequence of thinning international food markets, adding to their volatility. The article concludes by pointing to alternative ways for governments to boost food security for vulnerable households; such alternatives have become far more feasible in recent times, thanks to the information and communication technology revolution.


Alexander Gordon's writing reveals nascent ideas about infectious disease, tensions in medical thinking in the time of the Enlightenment, but also a practice of medicinal therapy that resonates with that of the present day. His Treatise on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever contained observations and deductions which provided, for the first time, compelling evidence of the contagious mode of transmission of the infection by medical attendants. He wrote the manuscript of The Practice of Physick sometime between 1786, when he began his practice in Aberdeen and 1795, the year of his abrupt departure from the city. The near-complete manuscript remained in the possession of his family (and therefore unavailable to scholars) until 1913 when a descendant gifted it to the library of King's College at the University of Aberdeen where it appears to have remained largely undisturbed.


Multiple Input Double Output (MIDO) asymmetric space-time codes for 4 transmit antennas and 2 receive antennas can be employed in the downlink from base stations to portable devices. Previous MIDO code constructions with low Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoding complexity, full diversity and the non-vanishing determinant (NVD) property are mostly based on cyclic division algebras. In this paper, a new family of MIDO codes with the NVD property based on crossed-product algebras over ℚ is introduced. Fast decodability follows naturally from the structure of the codewords which consist of four generalized Alamouti blocks. The associated ML complexity order is the lowest known for full-rate MIDO codes (O(M10) instead of O(M16) with respect to the real constellation size M). Numerical simulations show that these codes have a performance from comparable up to 1dB gain compared to the best known MIDO code with the same complexity.


High-strength concrete plates are frequently used in various structural engineering systems and varieties of civil engineering applications. A research program was carried out at Memorial University of Newfoundland to investigate the behavior of high-strength concrete two-way plates subjected to impact loading. The research program included both experimental investigation and numerical investigation. -- The current research includes an experimental investigation on sixteen concrete plates with dimension of 950x950 mm and 100-mm thickness. The plates were supported by a special frame designed for this investigation. The support frame is made from concrete and steel with free opening of 700x700 mm. Normal-strength and high-strength concrete plates were tested under two end conditions, i.e. fixed and simply supported. All of the specimens were two-way reinforced plates with reinforcement ratio that varied from 1%-2.5% in tension face and 0.7%-0.8% in compression face . A rigid projectile was used to apply the impact load to the tested reinforced concrete specimens. The rigid projectile was a solid steel cylinder with 220-kg mass and 304.5 mm diameter contact area. The projectile was dropped from a variable height of up to 4 m. An accelerometer with ± 200-g capacity was attached to the cylinder steel to record the actual test acceleration. A data acquisition system based on a personal computer acquired the data at a sampling rate of 1000 Hz. The structural behavior with respect to displacement, concrete and steel strains, failure mode, and energy absorption were examined. The effect of dynamic loading, concrete strength, reinforcement ratio, and support patterns were the test parameters. -- A numerical investigation was conducted to evaluate the test results with respect to the North American code and some European design codes. A linear elastic fracture mechanics impact load expression was used to evaluate the effect of rate of loading on the dynamic behavior of high-strength concrete plates. Based on the experimental test results it has been found that the punching failures of the impact loading were about twice the static punching shear capacity. The critical velocities of perforation can be estimated accurately for all high-strength concrete specimens according to CEB dynamic code expression. The ratio of impact versus static fracture energy for high-strength concrete plate was found to be much higher than that for normal-strength concrete. Therefore, high-strength concrete plates are considered to be more efficient than normal-strength concrete plates under impact loading.


Multilevel governance entails transformations of statehood, leading to significant changes both in the public sphere of politics and the private sphere of economic activity and in their modes of interaction, the law included. The fragmentation of the public sphere and the decentering of the state have led to new types of regulation and the emergence of global regulatory networks, thereby intermingling the public and the private. The transition from government to governance blurs a clear hierarchy of norms and the distinctions between hard/soft and public/private law; it encourages a fragmentation of public functions. Renewed international legalization has been seen by some in formalist terms, as a way of providing some certainty and predictability; this view has been used to buttress the legitimacy of global governance Although there have been attempts to improve coordination between international regimes, they seem generally to spawn further regulatory networks; any formal constitutionalization of international regimes seems unlikely.


Brownian dynamics (BD) simulation method has been widely used for studying problems in dispersed systems, such as polymer solutions, colloidal suspensions and more recently, complex (dusty) plasmas. The main problem addressed with this simulation technique is that of time scale separation, which occurs when one form of motion in the system is much faster than the other. This can be a serious problem in Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation where very short time steps are needed to handle the fast motions and thus, requiring very long time runs for the proper evolution of slower modes making the simulation very expensive. More importantly, the fast motions may not be of much interest within themselves, as will be the case in a dusty plasma. The motion of neutral atoms or molecules comprising the plasma occurs at a very fast time scale with respect to the motion of dust particles, and is usually of very little interest, though a large number of such neutrals are present. In such cases, an approximate method is usually adopted, whereby the neutral particles are omitted from the simulation and their effect upon the dynamics of dust particles modeled by a combination of random forces and frictional terms. This leads to a recasting of the Newton's Equation of motion solved in MD, to a Langevin equation, solved in BD. Adopting this approach, we simulate a system of charged dust particles interacting via Yukawa potential in a 2-Dimensional layer, and extract relevant equilibrium statistical features such as the radial distribution function, static structure factor and the low frequency dust wave modes. We then propose the use of a Generalized Hydrodynamical (GH) approach to provide a semi-analytical model for the dust collective modes, which not only provides us with good predictions of the wave dispersion but also provides reasonable estimates for wave-number dependent wave damping, both of which will be compared against the results obtained from BD simulation. Finally, through our simulations, we also observe the equilibrium configuration of dust particles in the presence of cold ions streaming perpendicularly into the 2-Dimensional layer of dust particles. This provides us with novel results in the regime of sub-sonic ion flow speeds.


Negative autopsy is a post-mortem examination in which a comprehensive analysis does not provide a cause of death. These include situation of death, anatomical and histological analysis, toxicology and microbiological study. A low part of autopsies remain without a conclusive cause of death, but all these cases are usually seen in young population, apparently healthy who died suddenly and unexpectedly. In these situations a cardiac arrhythmia is suspected as cause of death and genetic testing is recommended despite not regularly performed. Sudden death is a natural and unexpected decease that occurs in apparently healthy people, or whose disease was not severe enough to expect a fatal outcome. It can be due to several pathologies, usually of cardiac cause and called sudden cardiac death. In infants and young people, both long QT syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia are main causes in negative autopsies. These genetic diseases lead to ventricular fibrillation, syncope and sudden cardiac death in a normal heart. Unfortunately, sudden cardiac death could be the first manifestation of the diseases, being early identification and prevention a crucial point in current medical practice. This chapter focuses on sudden death and negative autopsy in young population, mainly due to cardiac arrhythmias.


Abstract Abundant kiddcreekite grains were identified in the Zijinshan Cu-Au epithermal deposit in Fujian Province, China. The mineral occurs as polycrystalline grains, 5-300 μm in size, associated with colusite, enargite, stannoidite, mawsonite, vinciennite, hemusite, tennantite and wolframite in a predominantly covellite ore. Based on electron microprobe analysis, the empirical formula of the kiddcreekite is Cu6.2Sn0.97W0.95S7.83, without significant Se or Te contents. The crystal structure of kiddcreekite was solved using the direct-space method (EPCryst) from laboratory micro X-ray diffraction (μXRD) data and refined by the Rietveld method. The R values of the final Rietveld refinement were Rp = 9.06%, Rwp = 8.31%, RB = 3.16 and RF = 2.17%. Kiddcreekite has a cubic structure, space group F4̄3m and lattice parameter a = 10.8178(3) Å Z = 4, V = 1265.95(6) Å3). In the unit cell, W, Sn and Cu atoms occupy the 4a, 4c and 24f Wyckoff positions, respectively, and S atoms occupy two sets of 16e Wyckoff positions. The structure of kiddcreekite consists of stacked double MeS4 layers (giving a W-Sn-Cu tier and a Cu-vacancy tier) as in the sphalerite substructure. This study also demonstrates the possibility of using laboratory μXRD data coupled with the direct-space method to solve inorganic structures in cases where samples are too small for conventional powder and single-crystal diffraction.


Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) are the main type I interferon (IFN-I)producers and play a central role in innate and adaptive immunity. CD303 (BDCA-2) is a type-II c-type lectin specifically expressed by human PDC. CD303 signaling induces tyrosine phosphorylation and src-kinase dependent calcium influx as was shown previously. Crosslinking CD303 results in the inhibition of IFN-I production in stimulated PDC. In this study it is demonstrated that PDC express a signalosome similar to the BCR signalosome, consisting of Lyn, Syk, Btk, Slp65 (Blnk) and PLCγ2. CD303 associates with the signaling adapter FcR γ-chain. Triggering CD303 leads to tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk, Slp65, PLCγ2 and cytoskeletal proteins.
Analogous to BCR signaling, CD303 signaling is likely linked with its
internalization by clathrin-mediated-endocytosis. The inhibition of IFN-I production by stimulated PDC can be induced by phorbol ester treatment, thus mimicking CD303 signaling and suggesting an involvement of protein kinase C members. Furthermore, CD303 signaling leads to reduced levels of transcripts for IFN-I genes and IFN-I responsive genes, indicating that the inhibition of IFNI production by stimulated PDC is at least partially regulated at the transcriptional level. In contrast to BCR signaling, CD303 signaling appears to
extenuate the activation of the NF-kB pathway in PDC, implying the inhibition of IFN-I production is likely linked to early CD303 signaling events. These results support a possible therapeutic value of an anti-CD303 monoclonal antibody strategy, since the production of IFN-I by PDC is considered to be a major pathophysiological factor in systemic lupus erythematosus patients.


In recent years several strategies have been developed and adopted to reduce the levels of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions emitted to the atmosphere. The adoption of Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) technologies may contribute towards carbon sequestration as well as to the creation of high value products. This study presents a methodology to assess the potential of CO 2 utilization across Europe, and to identify the European regions with the greater potential to deploy nine selected carbon dioxide utilization technologies. The results show that Germany, UK and France at the first level followed by Spain, Italy and Poland are the countries where the larger quantities of available CO 2 could be found but also where the majority of the potential receiving processes are located, and therefore with the greatest potential for CO 2 utilization. The study has also revealed several specific regions where reuse schemes based on CO 2 could be developed both in Central Europe (Dusseldorf and Cologne – Germany, Antwerp Province and East Flanders –Belgium and Śląskie – Poland) and in Scandinavia (Etelä-Suomi and Helsinki-Uusimaa –Finland). Finally, among all the selected technologies, concrete curing and horticulture production are the technologies with the higher potential for CO 2 utilization in Europe.


Study objectives: To study the hospitalised incidence of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) from 1979 to 1998; and to determine whether the introduction of the measles vaccination programme was associated with an increase in the young. Design: Analysis of linked data on hospital admissions; a cohort analysis of the effect of the measles vaccination programme on the incidence of hospitalised CD and UC; and a comparison of these results with those from previous studies on the association between measles vaccine and CD or UC. Settings: Southern England. Subjects: People admitted to hospital with a main diagnosis of CD (1959 people) or UC (2018 people). Main results: Overall, the incidence of hospitalised CD showed no significant change over the 20 year period: the average change per year was 0.08% (95% confidence interval: −0.7% to 0.9%). The relative risk associated with the measles vaccination programme was not significant (0.91: 0.5 to 1.4). The estimate differed significantly from the relative risk of 3.0 obtained in the original study reporting an association, but agreed with the combined estimate from three subsequent studies (0.95: 0.6 to 1.5). The results for UC were similar. Conclusions: The incidence of hospitalised CD and UC remained stable over the 20 years, 1979 to 1998. Whatever caused the marked increases in CD and UC in the mid-20th century must itself have stabilised in this region. These results, together with those from other studies, provide strong evidence against measles vaccine causing CD or UC.


This paper analyzes a credit market that includes a costly, universal and imperfect screening technology with both type I and type II errors and borrower self-selection. Universal screening is necessary because there are fraudulent borrowers. These characteristics, which have been omitted from other models, make it more representative of actual mortgage and consumer lending conditions. Contrary to the results in previous models with random screening, the combination of universal screening and type I screening error produces a pooling equilibrium as a non-trivial outcome. This result suggests that generalized lenders can sometimes compete with specialized lenders serving a single borrower type in credit markets that rely on costly lender screening. At other times pooling lenders will not be competitive and this, by itself, could lead to periodic waves of failure. These theoretical results appear to have implications for stability in markets for consumer credit.


The introduction of a liberalised electricity market has brought a new challenge to generating companies as well as system regulators. Under this more competitive environment, generating companies are exposed to various risks that might compromise their investment return. Moreover, the various risks in the market affect each type of generation technology in a different way; hence influence the technology choice. Furthermore, it is not yet clear whether the investment cycles in a liberalised electricity market will take place in an orderly fashion or whether ?boom and bust? cycles may arise. As a consequence various market designs, investment incentives and policies have been implemented by system regulators to try to ensure the security of supply. Investment decisions under a market with incentive mechanism are even more complicated to model because the generating company needs to forecast the revenue that the new investment will make from both the energy market and the mechanism. This thesis develops some models that could be used by system regulators to study the performance of market designs and by generating companies to assess a new investment under a liberalised electricity market. Three main models have been developed to serve these purposes. A generation expansion model has been developed using Agent-based modelling approach. In this model each generating company makes investment decision taking into account their competitors? investment strategies and the interactions between them. Several incentive mechanisms are also modelled to study their impacts on the generating companies? investment decision and the dynamic of the investments. A more comprehensive investment framework for a generating company to evaluate an investment in a new power plant has also been developed. The framework consists of two stages: 1) it first models the expected future investments and retirements from all the companies in the market and 2) then calculates the market prices and revenues of the new investment against the future system expansion obtained in the first stage. Two investment models have been developed using this framework. The first model is a probabilistic valuation model to assess investment considering risks and uncertainties. The second model is developed to evaluate investment in an oligopoly electricity market taking into account various risk characteristics of different technologies. The investment framework for a generating company to evaluate an investment is also extended so that the generating company can evaluate investments in a market with an incentive mechanism.


Life cycle costing (LCC) is a methodology used first time by the Department of Defense of United State, it's an economic calculation of all costs propagated during the life span of any technical system. For Renewable Energy (RE) systems, LCC is a good methodology, which shows the cost-effectiveness of using RE as an alternative source compared to conventional power generations. A LCC model was introduced for PV generation system. Data collection was done through four different cost data sources. The results shows that the average module price is $0.56/Wp and the capital investment cost is $1.184/Wp. For a 20 years PV project life-time, the operation and maintenance cost forms 27% of the total LCC of the system.


Channel congestion is one of the major challenges for IEEE 802.11p-based vehicular networks. Unless controlled, congestion increases with vehicle density, leading to high packet loss and degraded safety application performance. We study two classes of congestion control algorithms, i.e., reactive state-based and linear adaptive. In this paper, the reactive state-based approach is represented by the decentralized congestion control framework defined in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. The linear adaptive approach is represented by the LInear MEssage Rate Integrated Control (LIMERIC) algorithm. Both approaches control safety message transmissions as a function of channel load [i.e., channel busy percentage (CBP)]. A reactive state-based approach uses CBP directly, defining an appropriate transmission behavior for each CBP value, e.g., via a table lookup. By contrast, a linear adaptive approach identifies the transmission behavior that drives CBP toward a target channel load. Little is known about the relative performance of these approaches and any existing comparison is limited by incomplete implementations or stability anomalies. To address this, this paper makes three main contributions. First, we study and compare the two aforementioned approaches in terms of channel stability and show that the reactive state-based approach can be subject to major oscillation. Second, we identify the root causes and introduce stable reactive algorithms. Finally, we compare the performance of the stable reactive approach with the linear adaptive approach and the legacy IEEE 802.11p. It is shown that the linear adaptive approach still achieves a higher message throughput for any given vehicle density for the defined performance metrics.


The Supreme Court has long held that the government cannot use affirmative action to remedy societal discrimination, and this restriction has severely limited the efficacy of governmental affirmative action programs. Indeed, it is not too much to suggest that most affirmative action programs that have been invalidated over the last decade would have been upheld if the government were permitted to remedy societal discrimination. This article develops an argument for how the court can - and in fact does - use its spending power to remedy societal discrimination. The argument is based largely on a series of cases involving government funding, where the Court has provided broad discretion for the government to use its financial resources to pursue various political policies that would otherwise not be permitted if federal funds were not involved. These cases should be applied in the affirmative action area, and if applied, would lead to upholding racially motivated affirmative action programs so long as those programs did not involve racial quotas. This article also discusses ways in which contract set-aside programs can be restructured to satisfy the constitutional test articulated in the funding cases, and how the funding cases might legitimate disparate impact claims under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


Diesel flame lift-off and stabilization in the presence of laser-ignition were numerically investigated with the method of Eulerian stochastic fields. The aim was to scrutinise the interaction between the lifted diesel flame and an ignition kernel upstream of the lifted flame. The numerical simulation was carried out in a constant-volume combustion vessel with n-heptane as fuel. The process was studied previously in an experiment employing Diesel #2 as the fuel in the same combustion vessel. In the experiment a lifted flame was first established at a position downstream of the nozzle. An ignition kernel was then initiated using a high-energy pulse laser at a position upstream of the natural lift-off position of the diesel flame. The laser-ignition kernel was modelled using a high-temperature (∼2000 K) hot spot. In both experiment and simulations the upstream front of the ignition kernel was shown to remain around the initial laser ignition site for a substantially long period of time, while the downstream front of the ignition kernel propagates rapidly towards the natural lift-off position downstream of the laser ignition site. The lift-off position oscillated before the final stabilization at the natural lift-off position. The structures and the propagation speed of the reaction fronts in the laser-ignition kernel and the main flame were analysed. Two different stabilization mechanisms, the auto-ignition mechanism and the flame propagation mechanism, were identified for the naturally lifted flame and the laser-induced reaction front, respectively. A mechanism was proposed to explain the oscillation of the lift-off position.


Objectives Serological tests for COVID-19 have been instrumental in studying the epidemiology of the disease. However, the performance of the currently available tests is plagued by the problem of variability. We have developed a high-throughput serological test capable of simultaneously detecting total immunoglobulins (Ig) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) against nucleocapsid protein (NP) and spike protein (SP) and report its performance in detecting COVID-19 in clinical samples. Methods We designed and prepared reagents for measuring NP-IgG, NP-Total Ig, SP-IgG, and SP-Total Ig (using N-terminally truncated NP (ΔN-NP) or receptor-binding domain (RBD) antigen) dedicated automated chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay analyzer AIA-CL1200. After determining the basal thresholds based on 17 sera obtained from confirmed COVID-19 patients and 600 negative sera, the clinical validity of the assay was evaluated using independent 202 positive samples and 1,000 negative samples from healthy donors. Results All of the four test parameters showed 100% specificity individually (1,000/1,000; 95%CI, 99.63–100). The sensitivity of the assay increased proportionally to the elapsed time from symptoms onset, and all the tests achieved 100% sensitivity (153/153; 95%CI, 97.63–100) after 13 days from symptoms onset. NP-Total Ig was the earliest to attain maximal sensitivity among the other antibodies tested. Conclusion Our newly developed serological testing exhibited 100% sensitivity and specificity after 13 days from symptoms onset. Hence, it could be used as a reliable method for accurate detection of COVID-19 patients and to evaluate seroprevalence and possibly for surrogate assessment of herd immunity.


Patterns have been identified in the careers literature that suggest there has been a change from traditional to contemporary careers over time (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). More recent research has seen definitions of career success being shaped to acknowledge the variety of career paths that now exist. Recent definitions therefore, often refer to the achievement of desirable work-related outcomes at any point in an individual's work experiences over time (Arthur, Khapova & Wilderom, 2005), as opposed to achievements that are associated with the end of an individual's career. However, it is argued that occupational context continues to play an important role in defining careers and subsequent career success.
Despite this, literature on gender and careers continues to advocate key differences in the success of males and females, regardless of occupational context. Predictors of male career success include objective indicators such as salary, promotions and hierarchical position; whereas subjective criteria, such as helping others and maintaining a work-life balance are thought to be more important to females (McDonald, Brown & Bradley, 2005; Ng et al, 2005). In contrast, many studies have focused on gender-segregated occupations and indicate that women experience discrimination and disadvantage in relation to success in male-dominated environments (Dann, 1995; Demaiter & Adams, 2009). However, despite a small body of research that documents mixed experiences of males in female-dominated occupations, career success of males in this context is yet to be explored.
This thesis therefore aimed to address the gap in the current knowledge by conducting an in-depth exploration of male definitions of career success in one professional and one non-professional female-dominated occupation. A qualitative methodology was adopted in response to calls from the career success literature to utilise this approach to uncover personal meanings of success.
First, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of male primary school teachers (n=15) and university administrators (n=19) to explore personal definitions of success, motivations for entry and experience of working in a female-
xi
dominated environment. Findings suggest that male definitions of success related to complex themes of personal, professional, social and life success, in contrast to objective and subjective categories in the existing literature. It was apparent that success was considered to be a fluid concept that could be achieved on a continuous basis in line with occupational and organisational influence.
The second phase of the case study evaluated career interventions available to males in primary schools and universities in relation to personal definitions of success. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an opportunity sample of representatives from male's employing organisations, including n=4 members of Senior Leadership Teams from primary schools and n=9 managers and personnel staff from universities. Themes that emerged suggested individual and organisational definitions of career success were conflicting at times. Specifically, career interventions did not always complement the achievement of success. Rather, males referred to the benefits of informal organisational mechanisms to support their achievement of success, such as communication, socialising and information sharing, which organisations did not appear to be aware of.
Overall, the case study provides a critique of the literature on generic predictors of male success by reconceptualising definitions to include themes of personal, professional, social and life success. Implications of the key findings are discussed and avenues for future research and applications to practice are considered.


OBJECTIVES
Poor adherence to medication treatment can have devastating consequences for patients with mental illness. The goal of this project was to develop recommendations for addressing adherence problems to improve patient outcomes.

METHODS
The editors identified important topics and questions concerning medication adherence problems in serious mental illness that are not fully addressed in the literature. A survey was developed containing 39 questions (521 options) asking about defining nonadherence, extent of adherence problems in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, risk factors for nonadherence, assessment methods, and interventions for specific types of adherence problems. The survey was completed by 41 (85%) of the 48 experts to whom it was sent. Results of the literature review and survey were used to develop recommendations for assessing and improving adherence in patients with serious mental illness.

RESULTS
ASSESSING ADHERENCE: The experts endorsed percentage of medication not taken as the preferred method of defining adherence, with 80% or more of medication taken endorsed as an appropriate cut-off for adherence in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Although self- and physician report are the most common methods used to assess adherence in clinical settings, they are often inaccurate and may underestimate nonadherence. The experts recommend that, if possible, clinicians also use more objective measures (e.g., pill counts, pharmacy records, and, when appropriate, serum levels such as are used for lithium). Use of a validated self-report scale may help improve accuracy.

SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
The majority of the experts believed the average patient with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in their practices takes only 51%-70% of prescribed medication. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH NONADHERENCE: The experts endorsed poor insight and lack of illness awareness, distress associated with specific side effects or a general fear of side effects, inadequate efficacy with persistent symptoms, and believing medications are no longer needed as the most important factors leading to adherence problems in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The experts considered weight gain a side effect that is very likely to lead to adherence problems in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; sedation was considered a more important contributor to adherence problems in bipolar disorder than schizophrenia. The experts rated persistent positive or negative symptoms in schizophrenia and persistent grandiosity and manic symptoms in bipolar disorder as the most important symptomatic contributors to adherence problems in these illnesses.

INTERVENTIONS
It is important to identify the specific factors that may be contributing to a patient's adherence problems in order to customize interventions to target those problems. Multiple problems may be involved, requiring a combination of interventions.

CONCLUSIONS
Adherence problems are complex and multidetermined. The experts recommended customized interventions focused on the underlying causes.


We evaluated the long-term (1995–2008) trends in foliar and sapwood metabolism, soil solution chemistry and tree mortality rates in response to chronic nitrogen (N) additions to pine and hardwood stands at the Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Common stress-related metabolites like polyamines (PAs), free amino acids (AAs) and inorganic elements were analyzed for control, low N (LN, 50 kg NH4NO3 ha−1 year−1) and high N (HN, 150 kg NH4NO3 ha−1 year−1) treatments. In the pine stands, partitioning of excess N into foliar PAs and AAs increased with both N treatments until 2002. By 2005, several of these effects on N metabolites disappeared for HN, and by 2008 they were mostly observed for LN plot. A significant decline in foliar Ca and P was observed mostly with HN for a few years until 2005. However, sapwood data actually showed an increase in Ca, Mg and Mn and no change in PAs in the HN plot for 2008, while AAs data revealed trends that were generally similar to foliage for 2008. Concomitant with these changes, mortality data revealed a large number of dead trees in HN pine plots by 2002; the mortality rate started to decline by 2005. Oak trees in the hardwood plot did not exhibit any major changes in PAs, AAs, nutrients and mortality rate with LN treatment, indicating that oak trees were able to tolerate the yearly doses of 50 kg NH4NO3 ha−1 year−1. However, HN trees suffered from physiological and nutritional stress along with increased mortality in 2008. In this case also, foliar data were supported by the sapwood data. Overall, both low and high N applications resulted in greater physiological stress to the pine trees than the oaks. In general, the time course of changes in metabolic data are in agreement with the published reports on changes in soil chemistry and microbial community structure, rates of soil carbon sequestration and production of woody biomass for this chronic N study. This correspondence of selected metabolites with other measures of forest functions suggests that the metabolite analyses are useful for long-term monitoring of the health of forest trees.


At present, there are more than twenty companies in the United States, taking in more than $250 million in annual revenues, that operate private jails and prisons. These companies incarcerate about 50,000 inmates, a relatively small portion of the estimated 1.5 million individuals in jails and prisons across the country. Still, such private facilities are growing at four times the rate of state facilities.[1] The administration of legal punishment has long been the province of the state. But the growth in private prisons indicates that, to some extent, governments are modifying their traditional roles in relation to legal offenders. We are, by now, familiar with proposals to privatize various government operations. It is also commonplace for government agencies to contract with private industries for the provision of certain goods and services. But there are differences between these sorts of real or proposed government-industry relations and those exemplified by the private prisons boom.1 It is quite possible to conceive of the state without presupposing that one of its essential functions is, for instance, to supply postal services to its citizens. However, the enforcement of law, an aspect of which includes the administration of punishment, has been for many political theorists a crucial part of the raison d'etre of the state. Punishment has been seen as a state function in order to limit if not eliminate the influence of private interests over the detection, trial, and sanctioning of lawbreakers -- in short, to ensure that all individuals are treated equally before the law. In theory we strive to create institutions and procedures that punish all and only those who have broken the criminal law. In reality, of course, we know that we often fan short of this ideal. If the criminal justice system is viewed as a continuum that starts with policing and ends with the return of lawbreakers to society, privatization is making inroads at both ends of this continuum. We have private security firms engaged in the detection of law-breaking, and private companies of various kinds involved in the sanctioning of lawbreakers. At first glance these appear to be alarming trends since they represent the intrusion of private interests into the criminal justice system, an intrusion that is officially recognized, indeed encouraged, by the state. Yet perhaps it is possible to see the criminal justice system as consisting of different functions, some of which must remain in the hands of public authorities and others of which can be safely assigned to private enterprises overseen by public authorities. That, at least, is what proponents of privatization maintain. In his book on the subject, Charles Logan argues that, compared to existing public prisons along a range of dimensions, private prisons fare no worse than public ones and may fare better.[3] Logan's discussion covers, among other things, the quality, cost, and security of private prisons. Many of his arguments are quite persuasive.[4] As he makes clear, private prisons are not completely private -- they operate only under the control and authority of the government. This is a crucial point to keep in mind throughout the discussion that follows. We might be skeptical about the effectiveness of such government oversight, but we must concede to the proponents of private prisons that it is presupposed in their arguments. I will also concede that private prisons might provide incarceration facilities that are at least as secure, efficient, well-run, and humane as existing public jails and prisons. As Logan admits, that may not be conceding much, but it is not along these dimensions that my concerns lie. What is striking about Logan's analysis is what it leaves out. He does not question the recent alarming increase in the use of incarceration in the United States, taking it as a given that local, state, and federal governments will require expanded prison facilities. …


I. INTRODUCTION According to the Chinese calendar, 1998 was the year of the Tiger.(1) However, the prospects of a successful 1998 remained in doubt for the "Tiger" economies of Southeast Asia(2) in light of the economic turmoil unleashed in 1997 that began with Thailand's devaluation of its currency.(3) To many investors and economists the trouble in Thailand came as a complete surprise. Due to strong economic growth during the late 1980s, Thailand became known as the Fifth Tiger, following the rapid growth of Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, the four other so-called Tigers.(4) This region has also been dubbed the `"East Asian Miracle'" by economists and investors, again due to the rapid economic growth they achieved.(5) Between 1985 and 1995, Thailand experienced an annual growth rate averaging 9.8%, while simultaneously experiencing low inflation, averaging around 4.4% per year.(6) But 1996 marked the beginning of an economic downturn, when exports began to stagnate and growth began to slow.(7) In July of 1997, Thailand was forced to devalue its national currency, the baht, which sent the country into an economic tailspin.(8) Thailand's currency devaluation had a domino effect on the other Southeast Asian nations, which had only months before seemed economically strong,(9) and eventually led to instability in U.S. markets.(10) Because of the amount of foreign capital invested in Thailand and the other Tiger countries, the economic health of the region in the Year of the Tiger had a dramatic impact on the rest of the world's major economies. This Comment will analyze the events leading up to the devaluation of the baht, as well as evaluate Thailand's hope for economic recovery in the future. Part II of this Comment will examine the history of Southeast Asia's growth into a free trade area through the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asian Free Trade Area (AFTA), and the relative success of each group. Part III will highlight the rise and fall of Thailand's substantial economy in the 1980s and 1990s, including the political factors that fueled Thailand's substantial growth, the linkage of the baht with the U.S. dollar, and the effect of the flood of foreign investment into the region. It will then analyze the circumstances surrounding the devaluation of the baht in July of 1997. Part III will also discuss the economic measures put in place by the Thai government since the fall of the baht to help regain economic stability, as well as the impact of the billion-dollar International Money Fund (IMF)(11) bailout put in place in mid-1997 to help Thailand recover from the strain of significant debt obligations.(12) Part IV of this Comment will discuss the effect of Thailand's instability on other Southeast Asian countries in 1997. Finally, Part V will evaluate Thailand's chances for recovery in the future, and will discuss the merits of the IMF's position as a world bailout organization. II. THE HISTORY OF FREE TRADE IN THAILAND--ASEAN AND AFTA ASEAN was formed in 1967.(13) The original agreement between Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia was one of the few regional arrangements that originated in the 1960s still in force today.(14) ASEAN was formed primarily to defend against communist inroads in to Southeast Asia.(15) From the outset, ASEAN's focus was more on political stability than economic growth.(16) Because of its loose organization, ASEAN accomplished little in the way of progress toward meaningful economic cooperation during its first eight years of existence.(17) Instead, its major achievements centered on security and political considerations.(18) ASEAN's first foray into attempting to create a free trade area came in 1977 with the emergence of Preferential Trading Agreements (PTAs).(19) PTAs allowed favorable treatment of ASEAN products within the region by granting tariff preferences for legitimate ASEAN-made products. …


From the Publisher:
A state-of-the-art guide for the implementation of distributed simulation technology.

The rapid expansion of the Internet and commodity parallel computers has made parallel and distributed simulation (PADS) a hot technology indeed. Applications abound not only in the analysis of complex systems such as transportation or the next-generation Internet, but also in computer-generated virtual worlds for military and professional training, interactive computer games, and the entertainment industry.

In this book, PADS expert Richard M. Fujimoto provides software developers with cutting-edge techniques for speeding up the execution of simulations across multiple processors and dealing with data distribution over wide area networks ,including the Internet. With an emphasis on parallel and distributed discrete event simulation technologies, Dr. Fujimoto compiles and consolidates research results in the field spanning the last twenty years, discussing the use of parallel and distributed computers in both the modeling and analysis of system behavior and the creation of distributed virtual environments.

While other books on PADS concentrate on applications, Parallel and Distributed Simulation Systems clearly shows how to implement the technology. It explains in detail the synchronization algorithms needed to properly realize the simulations, including an in-depth discussion of time warp and advanced optimistic techniques. Finally, the book is richly supplemented with references, tables and illustrations, and examples of contemporary systems such as the Department of Defense's High Level Architecture (HLA), which has become the standard architecture for defense programsin the United States.


Field Poetics explores five different places, each with a story to tell, each with a unique mode, form, and vocal register through which to tell it. The writing journeys through a sequence of Andrei Tarkovsky's 'film images', the multi-dimensional, interconnected space machine of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, maritime pockets on the edge of the city of Lisbon, a history of silence and surveillance in a derelict wing of the Cork City Gaol, and the transposition of a centuries-old landscape aesthetic through video, performance, and pop in fourteen locations across the Kansai region of Japan. Sometimes documentation, sometimes score, and sometimes the work of a poet and an architect engaging with these sites, Field Poetics spins, suspends, and extends a relation to place.


August 2019 saw dramatic increases in wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon, leading to arguments between Brazil and G7 leaders and widespread concern among conservationists. Popular media reports suggested that 'swathes of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil are on fire'. Here we investigate the spatial distribution of fires through August 2019, showing that fires were largely restricted to deforested regions and areas with low canopy cover, particularly in unprotected areas. In contrast, Brazil's protected areas had one third as many fires, and forest in protected areas with high canopy cover was almost entirely unaffected by fire. Protected areas reduce deforestation and carbon emissions, and have proved largely untouched by recent fires.


The distributions of 40Ar/39Ar‐derived ages of impact glass spherules in lunar regolith samples show an excess at <500 Ma relative to older ages. It has not been well understood whether this excess of young ages reflects an increase in the recent lunar impact flux or is due to a bias in the samples. We developed a model to simulate the production, transport, destruction, and sampling of lunar glass spherules. A modeled bias is seen when either (1) the simulated sampling depth is 10 cm, consistent with the typical depth from which Apollo soil samples were taken, or (2) when glass occurrence in the ejecta is limited to >10 crater radii from the crater, consistent with terrestrial microtektite observations. We suggest that the observed excess of young ages for lunar impact glasses is likely due to limitations of the regolith sampling strategy of the Apollo program, rather than reflecting a change in the lunar impact rate.


In situ high temperature single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments have been performed on a chemically quasi-ideal omphacite sample [(Ca0.49Na0.51)S1(Mg0.46Al0.48Fe 3+ 0.06)S1(Si1.97Al0.03)S2O6], up to 10008C. The lattice parameters were studied as a function of temperature, and their thermal expansion coefficients determined. The b and c cell edges show discontinuities as a function of temperature which are interpreted here in terms of intracrystalline cation diffusion processes. Structure refinements have been carried out using data collected at room temperature, at 8008C and at ambient conditions after cooling. The structural behaviour as a function of temperature of chemically quasiideal omphacites is compared with those of jadeite and diopside.


We analyze the influence of electron-phonon (e-ph) interaction in a model for electron transfer (ET) processes in DNA in terms of the envelope function approach for spinless electrons. We are specifically concerned with the effect of e-ph interaction on the coherence of the ET process and how to model the interaction of DNA with phonon reservoirs of biological relevance. We assume that the electron bearing orbitals are half filled and derive the physics of e-ph coupling in the vicinity in reciprocal space. We find that at half filling, the acoustical modes are decoupled to ET at first order, while optical modes are predominant. The latter are associated with inter-strand vibrational modes in consistency with previous studies involving polaron models of ET. Coupling to acoustic modes depends on electron doping of DNA, while optical modes are always coupled within our model. Our results yield e-ph coupling consistent with estimates in the literature, and we conclude that large polarons are the main result of such e-ph interactions. This scenario will have strong consequences on decoherence of ET under physiological conditions due to relative isolation from thermal equilibration of the ET mechanism.


DeMiguel, Garlappi, and Uppal (2009) conducted a highly influential study where they demonstrated that none of the optimized portfolios consistently outperformed the naive diversification. This result triggered a heated debate within the academic community on whether portfolio optimization adds value. Nowadays several studies claim to defend the value of portfolio optimization. The commonality in all these studies is that various portfolio optimization methods are implemented using the datasets generously provided by Kenneth French and the performance is measured by means of the Sharpe ratio. This paper aims to provide a cautionary note regarding the use of Kenneth French datasets in portfolio optimization without controlling whether the superior performance appears due to better mean-variance efficiency or due to exposures to established factor premiums. First, we demonstrate that the low-volatility effect is present in virtually all datasets in the Kenneth French online data library. Second, using a few simple portfolio optimization models that are said to outperform the naive diversification, we show that these portfolios are tilted towards assets with lowest volatilities and, after controlling for the low-volatility effect, there is absolutely no evidence of superior performance. The main conclusion that we reach in our paper is that a convincing demonstration of the value of portfolio optimization cannot be made without showing that the superior performance cannot be attributed to profiting from some known anomalies.


Eumelanin was isolated from a sample of black, Indonesian human hair using three different published procedures: two different acid/base extractions and an enzymatic extraction. The morphology and spectroscopic properties of the isolated pigments differ significantly. The acid/base procedures both yield an amorphous material, while enzymatic extraction yields ellipsoidal melanosomes. Amino acid analysis shows that there is protein associated with the isolated pigments, accounting for 52, 40 and 14% of the total mass for the two acid/base extractions and the enzymatic extraction, respectively. The amino acid compositions do not correlate with those of keratin or tyrosinase. Metal elemental analysis shows that the acid/base extraction removes a majority of many metal ions bound to the pigment. Chemical degradation analysis by KMnO4/H+ and H2O2/OH- indicates significant differences between the pigments isolated by acid/base and enzymatic extraction. After correction for the protein mass in the two pigments, the lower yields of both pyrrole-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid and pyrrole-2,3-dicarboxylic acid, eumelanin degradation products, indicate acid/base extraction modifies the chemical structure of the melanin, consistent with the result of Soluene solubilization assay. While the optical absorption spectra of the bulk pigments are similar, the spectra of the molecular weight less than 1000 mass fractions differ significantly. The data clearly indicate that pigment obtained from human hair by acid/base extraction contains significant protein, exhibits destruction of the melanosome, and possesses altered molecular structure. The acid/base extracted hair melanin is not representative of the natural material and is a poor model system for studying the physical and biological properties of melanins. The enzymatically extracted hair melanin, on the contrary, retains the morphology of intact melanosomes and is an excellent source of human melanin.


Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug, with the prevalence of
use approaching 80% of the world's population. In stark contrast to most stimulants,
caffeine is considered an innocuous agent with advantageous behavioral effects.
Nonetheless, the sustained use of caffeine can result in tolerance or sensitization to the
pharmacologic and behavioral effects of the drug effects shared with other stimulants
including amphetamine and cocaine. Moreover, unlike cocaine, caffeine abstinence
results in unique withdrawal symptoms that are easily identified. The observation of
withdrawal, dependence, and tolerance, notions usually associated with drug abuse,
suggest caffeine consumption may provide an intriguing model of substance abuse. To
this end, the aims of this work were to delineate environmental factors that establish
caffeine self-administration in rats. The self-administration of caffeine was established
and modified by a combination of behavioral and pharmacological factors including food
restriction, drug dose, and infusion rate. The results suggest caffeine-maintained behavior
is comparable to nicotine self-administration, but distinct from that of cocaine or heroin.
These findings highlight the role of non-pharmacological factors in substance abuse and
suggest that further investigations evaluating the reinforcing effects of caffeine can
enhance the understanding and treatment of drug abuse.


To keep malware out of mobile application markets, existing techniques analyze the security aspects of application behaviors and summarize patterns of these security aspects to determine what applications do. However, user expectations (reflected via user perception in combination with user judgment) are often not incorporated into such analysis to determine whether application behaviors are within user expectations. This poster presents our recent work on bridging the semantic gap between user perceptions of the application behaviors and the actual application behaviors.


This study examines the bidirectional, cross-linguistic associations between language and word-level reading skills and reading comprehension for 51 students in grades 4 to 6 who speak Spanish as first language (L1) and English as second language (L2). Within-language predictors of reading comprehension were consistent with the simple view of reading. We found unidirectional cross-linguistic associations between Spanish word reading and English reading comprehension. However, the results do not support a cross-linguistic association between English word reading and Spanish reading comprehension. Specifically, results indicate that although L1 and L2 language and reading constructs correlate, L2 skills do not strongly contribute to L1 reading comprehension. Findings are discussed in terms of possible factors that might influence potential cross-language relations among Spanish and English measures.


With an emphasis on peer-produced content and collaboration, Wikipedia exemplifies a departure from traditional management and organizational models. This iconic "project" has been variously characterized as a hive mind and an information revolution, attracting millions of new users even as it has been denigrated as anarchic and plagued by misinformation. Have Wikipedia's structure and inner workings promoted its astonishing growth and enduring public relevance? In Common Knowledge?, Dariusz Jemielniak draws on his academic expertise and years of active participation within the Wikipedia community to take readers inside the site, illuminating how it functions and deconstructing its distinctive organization. Against a backdrop of misconceptions about its governance, authenticity, and accessibility, Jemielniak delivers the first ethnography of Wikipedia, revealing that it is not entirely at the mercy of the public: instead, it balances open access and power with a unique bureaucracy that takes a page from traditional organizational forms. Along the way, Jemielniak incorporates fascinating cases that highlight the tug of war among the participants as they forge ahead in this pioneering environment.


Additive manufacturing (AM) refers to the production of a component, part, tool or even an assembly using a layer-upon-layer method of fabrication. Additive processes join together formed layers of liquid, powder or sheet materials to create three dimensional objects. It has been reported that AM may cut product development costs by up to 70% and time to market by up to 90%, however, the adoption of AM is still slow and underutilised due to the lack of knowledge of potential users and coupled with the advancement in technology developments and the introduction of new materials. Typically, more than one material is suitable for specific engineering applications and the final selection will bring some advantages as well as disadvantages. A material selection tool can be used to aid users in recommending suitable materials and technologies to manufacture any given product. The aim of this study is to conduct an analysis of material selection tools available for AM which seeks to address the following questions: (1) What kinds of AM material selection tools exist already?; (2) What are the methods/systems/tools/approaches currently applied?; (3) Is there any inadequacy in these existing tools? This study is constructed using literature from previous research, articles, patents, databases and theses. All the relevant information is organised in a table detailing the tool name, author, description of the tool, methods, systems and approaches used for the tool and any limitations observed from the tool. This table is used to compare and highlight any major input of these existing tools, which responds to the three questions that have been highlighted above. The outcome of this research intends to provide a tangible proposition for a robust AM material selector. The availability of this information will also be very helpful for designers, researchers, and other users performing material selection for AM. Such information presented within this paper leads into further detailed research by the authors investigating the wider utilisation of AM technologies and techniques by a wide industrial base, where the functionality of AM is critically modelled using a case-based approach.


Recent deterministic parallel programming models show promise for their ability to replay computations and reproduce bugs, but they currently require the programmer to adopt restrictive or unfamiliar parallel constructs. Deterministic OpenMP (DOMP) is a new deterministic parallel environment built on the familiar OpenMP framework. By leveraging OpenMP's block-structured synchronization annotations, which are largely compatible with the constraints of a deterministic model, DOMP eases the parallelization of legacy serial code and preserves substantial compatibility with OpenMP software. A few OpenMP constructs, however, such as atomic and critical, are semantically nondeterministic and unsupported in DOMP. In three well-known parallel benchmark suites, we find that most (81%) uses of these nondeterministic constructs express programming idioms that are compatible with determinism but not directly expressible in OpenMP. DOMP therefore adds new OpenMP constructs to express such idioms deterministically, supporting pipelines and generalized reductions.


In light of recent natural catastrophes and terrorist activities, it has become evident that new architectural approaches are needed for next generation public protection and disaster relief networks. These architectures should be adaptable to the conditions at the event site and resilient enough to operate under adverse conditions in an emergency. Furthermore, they should enable rapid gathering of crucial event data and its delivery to the responder units at the site as well as the command and control center that is off-site. In this article, we first examine the state of the art in areas related to communication in PPDR systems, and discuss the open research issues for each topic. Then we propose a novel architecture that meets the aforementioned requirements and relies on a novel device called an ICG. An ICG enables flexible use of the spectrum and facilitates data gathering from all lower-tier devices and relays this data to relevant units through the higher-tier public or commercial backhaul networks. Finally, we provide some results that justify the need for these devices in emergency scenarios.


Land-atmosphere interactions play a central role in the mesoscale evolution of hydrologic fields like rainfall and soil moisture. A water balance model, capturing the essence of such interaction and driven by mesoscale and synoptic processes, was found to self-organize into states showing global scaling features both in space and in time, which we also observed experimentally. Although driving synoptic mechanisms are crucial, a key role was found for the local dynamical rules through which the system self-organizes. The results suggest the possibility of a dynamic origin for the space-time scaling in precipitation from purely local dynamics and may have implications for modeling efforts which involve land-atmosphere interaction.


This conceptual paper investigates work/career and family life experiences for women working in the Middle eastern region, and specifically the Gulf countries (GCC). Through a review of the literature on gender, work experiences and work-life balance this article argues that most research is conducted in western contexts and has been criticised for not acknowledging ethnicity, nationality, cultural and religious differences when examining work and career experiences and also when looking at conflicts and opportunities in balancing work and family life tasks and responsibilities (for example, Kamenou, 2008; Rana et al., 2008). Moreover, when examining research on women's work experiences in the Arab World, there is a dearth of studies looking at women's career progression, leadership, the glass-ceiling and work-life balance in this region (with some notable exceptions, for example, Syed et al., 2005; Syed, 2010; Afiouni, 2014; Al Dajani, 2010; Hutchings et al., 2010; Moghadam, 2013; Metcalfe, 2010; Metcalfe et al. 2009). In response, this study seeks to provide a crucial insight into a very under-researched area relating to Middle Eastern women's participation in the labour market and their perceptions of the effects of work on their home life and vice versa. It pays particular attention to work identity, role expectations, ambitions and aspirations, career opportunities and barriers, employers' policies and practices, quality of life for the women themselves, but also other family members, including parents, spouses and children. The research also explores the emotional dimensions of work/career and juggling work-life commitments. The authors argue that a theoretical framework which acknowledges structure, culture and agency in investigating women's careers and work-life balance experiences is appropriate and can be applied well in the Middle-Eastern context. The structural dimension of the framework include organisational and family structures and the agency dimension encompass the strategies, emotions and personal determination on career experiences and opportunities. The interdependency of structure and agency is extended by incorporating culture, which is interpreted as both organizational and social group culture (Kamenou, 2008; Evetts, 2000; Bhopal,1997). This paper focuses on literature on Arab Muslim women in the Middle East but it is envisaged that the future empirical work will include women from other regions, nationalities and religions as well as men, in exploring career experiences and work-life balance perceptions.