AbstractThis report deals with the use of hyperspectral remote sensing methods in rocky intertidal areas. These methods were evaluated in a pilot study analyzing hyperspectral imagery from the rocky intertidal of Helgoland. The paper discusses the potential of hyperspectral image analysis for monitoring elements of coastal diversity apparent in this area and discusses thepotential and limitations of the method. This is especially relevant for application-oriented monitoring of protected areas and for coastal zone management. The discussed issues also contribute to monitoring works within European programs such as the Water Framework Directive or the Natura 2000 network. The results show that a classification based on aspectral library allows a mapping of the dominant intertidal macrophyte vegetation and general intertidal structures. Limitations remain for separation of mixed vegetation types which cannot be identified without ancillary data sources. One major potential for future use of these methods is their efficiency for high-resolution geospatial data acquisition. The integration of remote sensing techniques in GIS-based automated monitoring systems willhelp to combine different levels of resolution as well as different data sources needed to detect significant changes in structural and compositional coastal biodiversity. The success of this approach also depends on the selection of the best suitable imaging sensor and an appropriate analysis approach which fits the specific needs in the areas of investigation.


Writing and reminiscence, friendship and otherness in Uwe Timm's Der Freund und der Fremde (2005)
Uwe Timm's novel Der Freund und der Fremde is fundamentally a story on friendship but also a narration of reminiscence. The text also focuses on the issue of writing which is the essence of the friendship between the narrator and his friend Benno Ohnesorg. Unfortunately the sudden death of this friend puts an end to their life projects. At the same time the novel gives a characterization of cultural otherness through the narrator who lives in Paris where he experiences another way of life and perception. This paper suggests that one way to approach Der Freund und der Fremde is to read it as a book of reminiscence and friendship. Besides, it can be seen as a reflexion on the art of writing.


The Workers' Compensation system, designed over a century ago, was intended to provide medical benefits that were to be delivered to injured workers in an efficient and effective manner. Over the decades, the benefit program has evolved into a complex and costly system that is difficult to navigate and provides uncertain outcomes. Pharmaceutical benefits have become a serious concern and have added complexity and costs to the program.Prescription drugs have become an increasingly important issue in workers' compensation law. Their use in workers' compensation claims has resulted in both a major direct financial cost to the system, and has had substantial impact on the efficiency of the administrative process. The use of prescription drugs in workers' compensation will require further discussion in order to maintain the system as the efficient, remedial social legislative system the crafters envisioned over a century ago.


The importance of history has been powerfully reaffirmed in recent years by the appearance of major new authors, pathbreaking works, and fresh interpretations of historical events, trends, and methods. Responding to these developments, Roger Chartier engages several of the most influential writers of cultural history whose works have spread far beyond academic audiences to become part of contemporary cultural argument. Challenging the assertion that history is no more than a "fiction-making operation" Chartier examines the relationships between history and fiction and proposes new foundations for establishing history as a specific kind of knowledge. Michel de Certeau's description of Michel Foucault's writings as "on the edge of the cliff," provides Chartier with an image he finds appropriate not only for Foucault but for many other recent historians-including de Certeau. Exploring the relationships between discursive practices and nondiscursive practices, Chartier examines the "heterology" of de Certeau pursues the "chimera of origin" and the causes of the French Revolution in Foucault's work; and raises four pertinent questions for the metahistory of Hayden White. He follows the work of Louis Marin into the distinctions between interpreting a painting and interpreting a text. And a trio of essays treats the historical sociology of Norbert Elias and his work on power and civility. Throughout, Chartier keeps his focus on historians who have stressed the relations between the products of discourse and social practices.


Increasing computing power has been helping researchers understand many complex scientific problems. Scientific computing helps to model and visualize complex processes such as molecular modelling, medical imaging, astrophysics and space exploration by processing large set of data streams collected through sensors or cameras. This produces a massive amount of data which consume a large amount of processing and storage resources. Monitoring the data streams and filtering unwanted information will enable efficient use of the available resources. This thesis proposes a data-centric system that can monitor high-speed data streams in real-time. The proposed system provides a flexible environment where users can plug-in application-specific data monitoring algorithms. The Long Wavelength Array telescope (LWA) is an astronomical apparatus that works with high speed data streams, and the proposed data-centric platform is developed to evaluate FPGAs to implement data monitoring algorithms in LWA. The throughput of the data-centric system has been modelled and it is observed that the developed data-centric system can deliver a maximum throughput of 164 MB/s.


Governments often require that products carry warnings to inform people about risks. The warnings approach, as opposed to the command and control approach to risk regulation, functions as a decentralized regulatory mechanism that empowers individuals to make decisions that take into account their own circumstances and preferences. Thus, individuals will be aware of the risks and the value of taking precautions, and they may avoid a product that others consume if they find the risk unacceptable. Ideally, warnings would allow individuals to assess both their personal level of risk and the benefits they will receive from another unit of consumption. Then those receiving positive expected benefits will consume more; those receiving negative net benefits will curtail their consumption. Only Pangloss would be happy with the current warning system. It fails miserably at distinguishing between large and small risks; that is to say between wolves and rabbits. Such a system is of little value, since people quickly learn to ignore a warning, given that rabbits, which pose little danger, are many times more plentiful than wolves. When a wolf is truly present, people all too often ignore the warning, having been conditioned to believe that such warnings rarely connote a serious threat. We illustrate the clumsy-discrimination issue with examples related to cigarette labeling, mercury in seafood, trans fat in food, and California's Proposition 65. We argue that the decision to require a warning and the wording of the warning should be designed in a manner that will lead consumers to roughly assess their accurate risk level, or to at least distinguish between serious and mild risks. Empowering individuals to make appropriate risk decisions is a worthwhile goal. The present system fails to provide them with the requisite information.


The initial abundance of radioactive heat producing isotopes in the interior of a terrestrial planet are important drivers of its thermal evolution and the related tectonics and possible evolution to an Earth-like habitat. The moderately volatile element K can be outgassed from a magma ocean into H$_2$-dominated primordial atmospheres of protoplanets with assumed masses between 0.55-1.0$ M_{\rm Earth}$ at the time when the gas disk evaporated. We estimate this outgassing and let these planets grow through impacts of depleted and non-depleted material that resembles the same $^{40}$K abundance of average carbonaceous chondrites until the growing protoplanets reach 1.0 $M_{\rm Earth}$. We examine different atmospheric compositions and, as a function of pressure and temperature, calculate the proportion of K by Gibbs Free Energy minimisation using the GGChem code. We find that for H$_2$-envelopes and for magma ocean surface temperatures that are $\ge$ 2500 K, no K condensates are thermally stable, so that outgassed $^{40}$K can populate the atmosphere to a great extent. However, due to magma ocean turn-over time and the limited diffusion of $^{40}$K into the upper atmosphere, from the entire $^{40}$K in the magma ocean only a fraction may be available for escaping into space. The escape rates of the primordial atmospheres and the dragged $^{40}$K are further simulated for different stellar EUV-activities with a multispecies hydrodynamic upper atmosphere evolution model. Our results lead to different abundances of heat producing elements within the fully grown planets which may give rise to different thermal and tectonic histories of terrestrial planets and their habitability conditions.


Background The cholangiopathies or cholestatic liver diseases comprise a large group of conditions in which injury is primarily focussed on the biliary system. They include both congenital diseases such as biliary atresia and cystic fibrosis, and acquired diseases including primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), and secondary damage to the biliary tree from obstruction, cholangitis or ischaemia. These conditions cause a specific pattern of chronic liver injury centred around damaged bile ducts which drives the development of peribiliary fibrosis and eventually biliary cirrhosis and liver failure. For most, there is no established treatment and they remain one of the most important indications for liver transplantation. As a result, there is a major need to develop new therapies which can prevent the development of chronic biliary injury and fibrosis in these diseases. Our group made a major contribution in being the first to establish that angiotensin II (Ang II), the key effector peptide of the classic arm of the renin angiotensin system (RAS), plays a central role in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis and portal hypertension (1, 2). Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), a key enzyme of this classic RAS, converts angiotensin I (Ang I) to the potent vasoconstrictor and profibrotic cytokine Ang II, which acts via the Ang II type 1 receptor (AT1R). Moreover, we were the first group to discover that there is an alternate ACE2 dependent arm of the RAS, which is activated in both experimental and human chronic liver disease (3). Thus, ACE2, a homologue of ACE, degrades Ang II and generates angiotensin-(1–7) (Ang-(1–7)), which in contrast to Ang II, has vasodilatory, antifibrotic, antigrowth and antiproliferative actions (4–6). These effects of Ang-(1–7) are mediated by the Mas receptor (MasR) (7). Therefore, this ACE2/Ang-(1–7)/MasR arm is thought to intrinsically regulate the RAS system by reducing Ang II levels and producing Ang (1–7), thus counterbalancing the potentially harmful effects of Ang II (Fig. 1). We have recently shown that by modulating the activity of the alternate arm of the RAS we could markedly reduce liver injury and fibrosis in short-term animal models of hepatic fibrosis (8). Aims Therefore, in the present study, we investigated long-term effects of ACE2 gene therapy in chronic biliary disease using multiple drug resistant gene 2 knockout (Mdr2-KO) mice, which develop progressive biliary fibrosis over 6 months. Methods A recombinant AAV2-LSP1 vector, constructed using the pAM backbone, was used for producing rAAV2-LSP1-ACE2 vector. The sequence of mouse ACE2, with optimized Kozak sequence, was inserted as an EcoRI/EcoRV fragment under the transcriptional control of the human antitrypsin promoter downstream of hepatic control region of the human ApoE. Control vector (rAAV-LSP1-HSA) was constructed containing human serum albumin (HSA) gene in place of the mouse ACE2 gene. Both vectors were pseudo-serotyped with the liver-specific AAV8 capsid using p5E18-VD2/8 plasmid. To investigate the efficacy of therapy early in disease progression a single injection of either ACE2 or control HSA vector was administered intra-peritoneally to 3-months-old Mdr2-KO mice with established biliary fibrosis and sacrificed them 3 months and 6 months post-treatment. Similarly, to investigate the efficacy of therapy in advanced biliary fibrosis and cirrhosis, a single injection of either ACE2 or control HSA vector was administered intra-peritoneally to 7-months-old Mdr2-KO mice with established cirrhosis and sacrificed them 2 months post-treatment. After sacrifice, blood was collected to determine liver function test and liver tissues were collected for fibrosis, liver histology, gene and protein expression analysis, and angiotensin peptide measurements. To elucidate the possible therapeutic mechanisms, Ang-(1–7), the major antifibrotic peptide produced by ACE2-induced cleavage of Ang II, was infused into 3-month-old Mdr2-KO mice for 1 month using osmotic minipump and the same end points were measured. Results ACE2 gene therapy increased ACE2 gene expression by more than 60-fold and ACE2 protein activity by more than 2-fold in Mdr2-KO mice compared with HSA-treated control mice. As expected, increased ACE2 expression led to a major decrease in hepatic levels of the potent profibrotic peptide Ang II with a concomitant increase in Ang-(1–7) levels. Liver injury was associated with increased release of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP1), which recruit inflammatory molecules exacerbating injury, leading to fibrosis. We found that ACE2 gene therapy significantly (p


This paper discusses metacognition, defined as thinking about one's own thinking, and its relationship to student's academic performance. A number of previous studies have shown that metacognition and intelligence were associated, and therefore suggested that students who have metacognition tend to be successful learners. This paper also reports on a study investigating the relationship between students' academic achievement and metacognitive awareness, which has been done a private secondary school in Kuching. An established instrument by Shraw and Anderson's Metacognitive Awareness Inventory is used for the purpose of this study. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between student's academic performance and each of the five components of metacognition regulation namely planning, information management strategies, comprehension monitoring, debugging strategies and evaluation. It also examined metacognition awareness in students across gender and different academic years. Overall, the findings revealed a significant positive relationship between student's academic performance and metacognitive awareness, a significant difference in metacognition awareness between Form 2 and Form 5 students, and no significant difference in metacognition awareness between male and female across all academic years. Some suggestions to develop metacognition in students are discussed, and possible directions for research on metacognition in learning process are proposed.


As the population ages, more elderly patients require radiotherapy-based treatment for their pelvic malignancies, including muscle-invasive bladder cancer, as they are unfit for major surgery. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find radiosensitizing agents minimally toxic to normal tissues, including bowel and bladder, for such patients. We developed methods to determine normal tissue toxicity severity in intestine and bladder in vivo, using novel radiotherapy techniques on a small animal radiation research platform (SARRP). The effects of panobinostat on in vivo tumor growth delay were evaluated using subcutaneous xenografts in athymic nude mice. Panobinostat concentration levels in xenografts, plasma, and normal tissues were measured in CD1-nude mice. CD1-nude mice were treated with drug/irradiation combinations to assess acute normal tissue effects in small intestine using the intestinal crypt assay, and later effects in small and large intestine at 11 weeks by stool assessment and at 12 weeks by histologic examination. In vitro effects of panobinostat were assessed by qPCR and of panobinostat, TMP195, and mocetinostat by clonogenic assay, and Western blot analysis. Panobinostat resulted in growth delay in RT112 bladder cancer xenografts but did not significantly increase acute (3.75 days) or 12 weeks' normal tissue radiation toxicity. Radiosensitization by panobinostat was effective in hypoxic bladder cancer cells and associated with class I HDAC inhibition, and protein downregulation of HDAC2 and MRE11. Pan-HDAC inhibition is a promising strategy for radiosensitization, but more selective agents may be more useful radiosensitizers clinically, resulting in fewer systemic side effects. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(2); 381–92. ©2017 AACR. See all articles in this MCT Focus section, "Developmental Therapeutics in Radiation Oncology."


Black men are an integral part of the American pornographic industry, but their participation requires confronting and navigating a variety of simplified categorizations and assumptions that favor their sexuality over their humanity. Utilizing interviews with twelve prominent heterosexual black male figures (also known as "talent") currently active in the industry, this article seeks to offer insight into the realities that the men face while participating in an industry viewed as taboo by mainstream society. Among the issues explored are their reasons for joining the industry, interracialism and racism, and moral and ethical dilemmas. Also employed are Lewis Gordon's concept of "epistemic closure," or the cessation of inquiry, and Frantz Fanon's concept of the "phobogenic object," or "stimulus to anxiety."


Driven by recent advancements in machine learning, mobile edge computing (MEC) and the Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) has become an emerging technology. Traditional machine learning approaches require the training data to be collected and processed in centralized servers. With the advent of new decentralized machine learning approaches and mobile edge computing, the IoT on-device data training has now become possible. To realize AI at the edge of the network, IoT devices can offload training tasks to MEC servers. However, those distributed frameworks of edge intelligence also introduce some new challenges, such as user privacy and data security. To handle these problems, blockchain has been considered as a promising solution. As a distributed smart ledger, blockchain is renowned for high scalability, privacy-preserving, and decentralization. This technology is also featured with automated script execution and immutable data records in a trusted manner. In recent years, as quantum computers become more and more promising, blockchain is also facing potential threats from quantum algorithms. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art in these cutting-edge technologies by summarizing the available literature in the research field of blockchain-based MEC, machine learning, secure data sharing, and basic introduction of post-quantum blockchain. We also discuss the real-world use cases and outline the challenges of blockchain-empowered intelligence.


In this paper, a Bayesian hierarchical model is used to anaylze the female breast cancer mortality rates for the State of Missouri from 1969 through 2001. The logit transformations of the mortality rates are assumed to be linear over the time with additive spatial and age effects as intercepts and slopes. Objective priors of the hierarchical model are explored. The Bayesian estimates are quite robustness in terms change of the hyperparamaters. The spatial correlations are appeared in both intercepts and slopes.


The mission of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports (ISYS) is to provide leadership, scholarship, and outreach that "transforms" the face of youth sports in ways that maximize the beneficial physical, psychological, and social effects of participation for children and youth while minimizing detrimental effects. Since its inception in 1978, ISYS has partnered with numerous organizations to promote healthy youth sports participation. In this article, the general steps ISYS takes to form and facilitate partnerships are addressed. Four long-term partnerships are also described. The services provided to these organizations are described and the advantages and challenges of working with partners, in general, are delineated. How these partnerships are used to facilitate the teaching, outreach-engagement, and scholarship components of the Michigan State University land grant mission are also described. The case of ISYS shows that conducting community outreach and engagement projects greatly enhance the sch...


Nutrient losses in furrow irrigation runoff potentially increase when soils are amended with manure. We evaluated the effect of tillage, water soluble polyacrylamide (WSPAM) and irrigation management on runoff water quality during the first furrow irrigation on a calcareous silt loam soil, which had received 45 Mg/ha (dry wt.) dairy manure applied in the fall. In Exp. 1 the amended soil was rototilled and irrigated that fall; furrow inflows were either treated with 10 mg/L WSPAM injected into furrow inflows only during furrow advance (Fall-WSPAM), or were untreated (Fall-Control). In Exp. 2 the first irrigation on the amended soil was delayed until the following spring and treatments included rototilled WSPAM (Spring-WSPAM) and untreated rototilled (Spring-Control), or moldboard-plowed soils (Spring-Moldboard). Exp. 3 also delayed irrigation until spring and compared conventional vs. buried lateral furrow irrigation systems. We measured sediment, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), NO3-N, NH4-N, dissolved reactive P (DRP), and total P (TP) concentrations in irrigation furrow runoff. Runoff mass losses from Fall-Control furrows were relatively large: sediment, 4505 kg/ha; DOC, 10.7 kg/ha; NO3-N, 28.1 g/ha; NH4-N, 68.1 g/ha; DRP, 132 g/ha; and TP, 3381 g/ha. Delaying the first irrigation until spring or treating the fall irrigation with WSPAM reduced runoff component losses 80 to 100% relative to Fall-Controls. The Spring moldboard plow reduced runoff DRP mass losses 58% compared to spring rototill (Spring-Control). The buried lateral furrow system decreased runoff losses for sediment 89%, DOC 90%, and TP 82% relative to conventional irrigation. Results from this research demonstrate that several types of management approaches may be successfully employed to substantially reduce offsite nutrient transport during the first irrigation on manured, furrow-irrigated fields.


The article suggests that, contrary to widespread opinions and standard encyclopedic definitions, philosophy is a domain not only of thoughts and ideas but also of feelings. Philosophy as (etymologically) love for wisdom includes emotions in both of its components. Among the many various feelings that we experience, there is a discrete group that, thanks to their involvement with universals, may be regarded as philosophical. Wonder, grief, compassion, tenderness, hope, despair, and delight are philosophical if they are experienced on behalf of humankind and addressed to the world as a whole. The vocation of philosophy is to expand the realm of feelings through the generalizing capacity of the reason, so that love, joy, and pain can be experienced in a noble way, on a maximally global scale, not reducible to private or practical situations. Emotions of philosophical cast affect the world more powerfully than metaphysical ideas and logical propositions. Revolutions are driven less by ideas than by philosophical wrath, exasperation with the existing order of things, and the feeling that the world is unjust.It is in this context that Epstein's essay defines the genre of lyric philosophy as a direct self-expression of the thinking subject in the process of attaining self-cognition—as represented, for instance, in the work of Augustine, Montaigne, Kierkegaard, Emerson, and Nietzsche. Philosophical subjecthood as a means of self-expression for the transcendental subject (in the Kantian sense) should be distinguished from the purely personal subjectivity inherent to empirical individuals, in the same way and to the same extent as philosophical feelings should be distinguished from mundane ones experienced in everyday situations. Since the subject focused on itself is essential to lyricism, we may even speak of the generic, inescapable lyricism of philosophy per se.


There are trade-offs between short-term and long-term effects of spending decisions. This is certainly the case when considering the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility measures. The purpose of our research is to explore the relationships among corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial success measures in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industry. More specifically, we examine the relationships between employee relations, an aspect of social responsibility, and accounting measures of efficiency and profitability. In addition, we investigate the relationship of these CSR aspects with Tobin's Q, a measure of market success. Our findings suggest that positive relationships exist between employee relations and accounting and market measures of success. However, we find no evidence that a negative relationship exists between poor employee relations and our success measures.


Research has shown that management practices are adapted and 'made to fit' the specific context into which they are adopted. Less attention has been paid to how organizations anticipate and purposefully influence the adaptation process. How do organizations manage the tension between allowing local adaptation of a management practice and retaining control over the practice? By studying the adaptation of a specialized quality management practice – ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence) – in a multinational corporation in the aerospace industry, we examine how the organization manages the adaptation process at the corporate and subsidiary levels. We identified three strategies through which an organization balances the tension between standardization and variation – preserving the 'core' practice while allowing local adaptation at the subsidiary level: creating and certifying progressive achievement levels; setting discretionary and mandatory adaptation parameters; and differentially adapting to context-specific and systemic misfits. While previous studies have shown how and why practices vary as they diffuse, we show how practices may diffuse because they are engineered to vary for allowing a better fit with diverse contextual specificities.


There is a common idea, that title variables like article title length would influence article citations. The aim of the present study was to investigating possible relationship between size of article title and number of article citations by minimizing scientometric variable biases. A dataset containing ~100,000 virological literatures was obtained from Web of Science InCite TM database from 1997 to 2016. Variables, Title size (TWC), Year (YoP), Source (JS), and Publisher were selected. In addition number of times article is cited 'Time Cited' (TC) was retrieved from Web of Science InCite TM . Linear regression analysis was performed between variables and TC using R for a possible prediction model for TC. Result has shown a robust standard error corrected linear regression with only 30.6% power of predictability. Furthermore, it was found that TC, YoP, and JS have meaningful potential in the linear model. Moreover, TC is negatively correlated with YoP, JS, and positively with TWC. As a result, size of article title, years passed since publication and the journal in which article accepted are good but not sufficient predictor of article citations. In addition, article is a multi-characteristic subject and other predictors can be supposed. However, we think that finding an efficient statistical linear predication model for TC, by increase of articles citation, is overwhelming.


Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II are major gateway courses into nursing and other health related sciences careers. Being a New York City community college, the students at Queensborough Community College are highly diverse not only in their ethnic and cultural background, but also in the levels of preparedness. When they take Human Anatomy-Physiology I as the first pre-requisite class, many are either freshman or returning students after a hiatus. Many students lack formal training in Science or Biology and are overwhelmed by the depth and immensity of the material presented in above courses. Though the enrollment for these classes is heavy; above factors lead to high attrition rates. However one common feature of this new generation of students is their access and familiarity to the internet, digital technology and other techno gadgets such as smart phones, tablets, etc. Though it is hard for us to accept, it is a fact that today's generation of students (generation Y) is more techno savvy and these gadgets engage (or distract) them more than books. This indicated a clear need for developing alternatives to traditional teaching methods to engage students of an urban community college setting. We decided to investigate if a web-based supplemental tutorial would help engage these students and thus help them build their course knowledge base to improve their academic performance.


Stimulation of cell growth by growth hormone (GH) involves the phosphorylation and activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins STAT5A and STAT5B. These proteins translocate to the nucleus and activate the transcription of target genes, including that encoding insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), the main mediator of the effects of GH. Under fasting conditions, GH signaling is inhibited by an unknown mechanism. Production of the hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is stimulated during fasting, which led Inagaki et al. to investigate its role in inhibiting GH signaling. The authors generated FGF21-transgenic mice, which had constitutively higher serum concentrations of FGF21 than did wild-type mice. The FGF21-transgenic mice were smaller and lighter than wild-type mice even though they did not eat any less. The serum concentration of IGF-1 and the abundance of IGF-1 mRNA in the liver were lower in FGF21-transgenic mice than in wild-type mice. This was also true for acid-labile subunit (ALS), which binds to and stabilizes IGF-1 in the circulation. In contrast, the abundance of mRNA of IGF-1 binding protein (IGFBP-1), an inhibitor of IGF-1 signaling, was higher in the liver of FGF21-transgenic mice compared to that in wild-type mice. The abundance of phosphorylated, but not total, STAT5A and STAT5B was lower in FGF21-transgenic mice than in wild-type mice. In addition, the mRNA of suppressor of cytokine signaling 2 (SOCS2), an inhibitor of GH receptor signaling, was more abundant in the FGF21-transgenic animals. Finally, administration of recombinant FGF21 to wild-type mice reduced the abundance of phosphorylated STAT5 in the liver and the serum concentration of IGF-1, suggesting an important role for FGF21 in inhibiting GH signaling during fasting. T. Inagaki, V. Y. Lin, R. Goetz, M. Mohammadi, D. J. Mangelsdorf, S. A. Kliewer, Inhibition of growth hormone signaling by the fasting-induced hormone FGF21. Cell Metab. 8, 77-83 (2008). [PubMed]


How a cost shock is passed through into fi nal consumer prices may relate to nominal price stickiness and rigidities, the existence of non adjustable cost components, strategic mark-up adjustments, or other contract terms along the supply distribution chain. This paper presents a simple framework to assess the potential role of non linear pricing contracts and vertical restraints such as resale price maintenance or wholesale price discrimination in the supply chain in explaining the degree of pass-through from upstream cost shocks in the ground co ff ee category to downstream retail prices. We do so in the German co ff ee market where both upstream and downstream fi rms make pricing decisions allowing for non linear pricing and vertical restraints. Using counterfactual simulations of an upstream co ff ee cost shock, we fi nd that the existence of resale price maintenance between manufacturers and retailers increases pass through rate by more than 10 points relative to the case when this assumption is not allowed with non linear pricing or when double marginalization along the distribution chain is present. The intuition for our fi ndings is that resale price maintenance restrictions make it less possible for retailers to perform strategic mark-up adjustments when faced with a cost shock. We also fi nd that the larger the simulated cost shocks or the less concentrated upstream sector, and also when faced with less elastic demands, the larger the role of vertical restraints in preventing retailers to perform strategic mark-up adjustments, and thus the higher the pass-through increases. abstract from vertical strategic behavior of fi pricing


A nonlinear robust control is developed for active mass damper system subject to external perturbation. This nonlinear controller is composed by the sum of a linear term plus a chattering component. The linear term is designed using linear matrix inequality (LMI) theory. Then, the chattering term is added to improve controller performance. Lyapunov theory is used to validate our control design. According with experiments, where a flexible two levels building with active mass damper and external perturbation is employed, they show that this chattering term improves controller performance. However, when a fault occurs, this chattering term is complaining.


Sciatica is a common musculoskeletal condition associated with considerable pain in the acute stages, but which carries a good long term prognosis. Epidural corticosteroid injections have been used for almost 50 years in this condition, however the evidence from randomised controlled trials is far from conclusive. Although epidural corticosteroid injections may offer some short term pain relief, they offer no medium or long term benefits, either in terms pain, return to work or need for surgery. Their exact role in the place in the management of sciatica in uncertain. But they should certainly not be used until the patient has received a suitable course of simple measures such as analgesia and physiotherapy.


We present a study of using fuzzy-based parameters for solving public bus routing problem where demand is uncertain. The fuzzy-based parameters are designed to provide data required by the route selection procedure. The uncertain data are represented as linguistic values which are fully dependent on the users preference. This paper focuses on the selection of the Defuzzification method to discover the most appropriate method for obtaining crisp values which represent uncertain data. We also present a step by step evaluation showing that the fuzzy-based parameters are capable to represent uncertain data replacing the use of exact data which common route selection algorithms usually use.


Cryptographic primitives, such as hash functions and block ciphers, are integral components in several practical cryptographic schemes. In order to prove security of these schemes, a variety of security assumptions are made on the underlying hash function or block cipher, such as collision-resistance, pseudorandomness etc. In fact, such assumptions are often made without much regard for the actual constructions of these primitives. In this thesis, we address this problem and suggest new, and possibly better, design criteria for hash functions and block ciphers.
We start by analyzing the design criteria underlying hash functions. The usual design principle here involves a two-step procedure: First, come up with a heuristically-designed and "hopefully strong'' fixed-length input construction (i.e. the compression function), then use a standard domain extension technique, usually the cascade construction (see figure 3.2), to get a construction that works for variable-length inputs. We investigate this design principle from two perspectives: (a) To instantiate the Random Oracle. We suggest modifications to existing constructions that make the resulting construction secure as a random oracle, with appropriate assumptions on the underlying compression function. (b) In general, we look for "black-box'' fixes to existing hash functions to get secure constructions for each of the common security notions required of hash functions. We also give suggestions for appropriate modes for using existing hash functions along these lines.
We next move on to discuss the Feistel network, which is used in the design of several popular block ciphers such as DES, Triple-DES, Blowfish etc. Currently, the celebrated result of Luby-Rackoff [47] (and further extensions) is regarded as the theoretical basis for using this construction in block cipher design, where it was shown that a four-round Feistel network is a (strong) pseudorandom permutation (PRP) if the round functions are independent pseudorandom functions (PRFs). We study the Feistel network from two different perspectives: (a) Is there a weaker security notion for round functions, than pseudorandomness, that suffices to prove security of the Feistel network? (b) Can the Feistel network satisfy a much stronger security notion, i.e. security as an ideal cipher, under appropriate assumptions on the round functions?
We give a positive answer to the first question and a partial positive answer to the second question. In the process, we undertake a combinatorial study of the Feistel network, that might be useful in other scenarios as well. We provide several practical applications of our results for the Feistel network.


Commercially pure titanium(CP-Ti) TA2 sampleswere thermally oxidized at various temperatures and duration. The wear behaviors and the surface hardness of the samples before and after thermal oxidationwere investigated. The worn surface morphology was observed by means of SEM examinations. The results showed that thermal oxidation could significantly increase the surface hardness and enhance the wear resistance of TA2. It was found that 700°C and 240 min were the optimum parameter of thermal oxidation.


Growth in the outsourcing of IT services has led many organizations to enter into negotiated contractual agreements with both internal and external service providers known as information technology service level agreements (IT SLAs). To further empirical research into IT SLAs, we present a methodological approach based on the theory of conceptual spaces that allows the content of these negotiated agreements to be analyzed and compared geometrically using vector representation. The outcome of such an analysis is a set of distance measures by which defensible statements regarding the similarity of IT SLAs can be made. We also discuss how the comparisons provide insights for IT SLA negotiation researchers that go beyond alternate empirical and analytic methods. The implications of these comparisons are discussed with a specific focus on research methods that can foster cumulative empirical investigation of IT SLA negotiation support system requirements.


In this period of standards-based educational reform, much attention has been focused on the educational achievement of high school graduates. In the rush to achievement testing, schools may have lost sight of the 25 percent to 30 percent high school dropout rate over the past quarter century (Barton, 2002). Barton noted that many students, both graduates and dropouts, are deficient in career-planning skills as they enter the labor market or transition to postsecondary education. In the survey of high school counselors' career development competencies, Barker and Satcher (2000) found that counselors tended to overlook the need to implement career development programs, resulting in inadequate workplace training skills. They also noted that work-bound students received minimal counselor attention. In light of these findings, schools must provide career planning services to all students, including those who will be immediately entering the job market, with or without diploma. Dahir (2001) presented the rationale, developmental process, content, and implications for the National Standards for School Counseling Programs (Campbell & Dahir, 1997). She noted that the National Standards are designed to guide the development of the program content for student growth and achievement in the academic, career, and personal-social domains. There are three standards concerning career development: * Standard A: Students will acquire the skills to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions. * Standard B: Students will employ strategies to achieve future career goals with success and satisfaction. * Standard C: Students will understand the relationship between personal qualities, education, training, and the world of work. (Dahir, 2001, p. 324) The fact that career development is given such emphasis in the National Standards is welcome to professionals who feel that at times career issues have been overshadowed by an emphasis on personal counseling. This is not to deny the importance of the latter, but school counselors should not forget that over the past 30 years the most common complaint about school counseling services has been a failure to supply assistance in the career decision-making process (Herr & Cramer, 1988; Hurley & Thorp, 2002; Prediger, Roth, & Noeth, 1973; Prediger & Sawyer, 1985). Harrington and O'Shea (1976) sought to address the issue of dissatisfaction with career counseling services by developing a system for Career Decision Making (CDM) which had as one of its goals the enhancement of students' career development. This article seeks to demonstrate how the Career Decision-Making System-Revised (CDM-R; Harrington & O'Shea, 2000a) has the capacity to serve as a system based on solid research to assist students in developing a significant number of the career competencies of the National Standards for School Counseling Programs. The relationship between the CDM-R and the National Standards will be affirmed. CAREER DECISION-MAKING SYSTEM-REVISED The CDM-R is a system, first published in 1976, that combines an assessment of interests, work values, subject matter preferences, and self-estimates of abilities with biennial updates of career information. It has had a number of revisions, the most recent in 2000, to keep the instrument as current as possible with a rapidly changing world of work. The paper-and-pencil CDM-R has two levels, one, with a fourth-grade reading level, designed to assess the vocational interests of the young, typically those in middle school and the more challenged readers of all ages. The other level, with a seventh-grade reading level, is more appropriate for more developed persons of all ages. Administration time varies from about 30 to 45 minutes. In addition, the CDM-R has software so that students can complete the inventory on a computer and receive an interpretive report about occupations matching their interests, values, and abilities. …


The prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) was determined in a cross-sectional survey in a village in Upper Egypt. Exposure and demographic characteristics were obtained through a questionnaire. Antibody to hepatitis C virus was assessed using a second generation enzyme immunoassay, and the presence of HCV RNA was tested using a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Collection of blood samples was targeted at those > or = 5 years old, and obtained from 62.8%. This report describes the community, the HCV infection characteristics of the subjects, and evaluates some factors associated with presence of anti-HCV. Of the 6,031 participants, 522 (8.7%) were anti-HCV positive. Prevalence was higher among males than females (11.3% versus 6.5%; P < 0.001). It was greater among those > 30 years of age than among those < or = 30 years of age (20.0% versus 3.6%; P < 0.001). Those who were less educated, farmed, provided health care, and were currently married had a significantly higher anti-HCV prevalence than those who were not; however, these associations were not significant after adjusting for age. Although active infections with Schistosoma haematobium were not associated with anti-HCV, a history of past infection was (age-adjusted risk ratio [RR] = 2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.8, 2.4); 134 persons who had a history of receiving parenteral anti-schistosomal therapy had a higher age-adjusted RR (3.0; 95% CI = 2.5, 3.7) for anti-HCV than those who did not. Hepatitis C virus RNA was detected in 62.8% of the anti-HCV positive subjects, without significant variation by age, gender, education, or marital status. The prevalence of anti-HCV in Upper Egypt is high, albeit lower than in Lower Egypt, with continuing but limited transmission indicated by the lower prevalence in residents < or = 30 years old.


NATURE, FEMINISM, AND FLOURISHING: HUMAN NATURE AND THE FEMINIST ETHICS OF FLOURISHING Celeste D. Harvey Marquette University, 2016 This dissertation examines the viability of a feminist ethic of flourishing. The possibility of a eudaimonist, or flourishing-based, ethic adapted for the needs of feminist ethics and politics has recently been raised by a number of feminist moral philosophers. However, in these discussions, the degree to which an ethic of flourishing requires a substantive conception of human nature has not been adequately addressed. Flourishingbased ethical theories appear to require a substantive account of the kind of thing whose flourishing is to be promoted, while contemporary academic feminism is characterized by a strong suspicion toward claims about human nature. Chapter one situates this problem in the current literature and reframes feminist anti-essentialist objections to nature claims. Chapter two analyzes three historically influential exemplars of the ethics of flourishing: Aristotle, Hume, and Marx. Employing the analytic categories developed in chapter two, chapters three through five assess the work of Rosalind Hursthouse, Martha Nussbaum, and Lisa Tessman for their adequacy to serve as the basis of a feminist ethic of flourishing. I argue that each has something of value to offer and yet each is problematic when it comes to how they appeal (or fail to appeal) to human nature. The central argument of this dissertation is that, properly understood, a theory of human nature can be a critical resource for a feminist ethic of flourishing. As such, feminist moral philosophers who would condemn oppression, gender-based subordination, and other injustices by appealing to an ideal of flourishing that is being denied or cut off, would benefit from greater attention to the assumptions about human nature that such theories of flourishing entail. On the view defended here, a normative conception of human nature is a necessary methodological element of a flourishing-based ethical theory that illuminates the reasons one has in support of a particular vision of flourishing. While I leave open the question of how such a conception of human nature could be objectively justified, this dissertation argues that a theory of human nature can serve as a normative resource for feminist moral criticism within a flourishing-based ethical framework.


Aims: The dental clinical setting is a significant learning environment for dental undergraduates which may induce anxiety, which adversely affects the clinical performance. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the clinical anxiety-provoking situations among dental students in Chennai. Subjects and Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 375 clinical dental students in Chennai. The questionnaire used in the study consisted of 37 clinical anxiety-provoking situations. The situations were assessed using a 4-point Likert scale. The questionnaire was distributed and the students completed the questionnaire under the supervision of research assistance, who collected the completed questionnaires immediately for evaluation. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed by computerized SPSS (version 21). Results: Of the 375 respondents, 21% were male and 78.8% were female. About 98.7% of the population reported anxiety with the majority of study population experiencing moderate anxiety. Examination failure (88%), meeting clinical requirement (82.5%), fracturing a tooth while extraction (94%), extracting a wrong tooth (92%), and getting infected by the patients (92.7%) were considered as more common clinical anxiety-provoking situations. Conclusion: The challenges and stress at different stages of dental education may elicit and increase the level of anxiety which can be prevented by creating a friendly learning environment for better learning with less anxiety and fear


Osteogenic differentiation of hMSC into osteoblasts is a prerequisite for subsequent bone formation. Numerous studies have explored osteogenic differentiation under standard tissue culture conditions, which usually employ 21% of oxygen. However, bone precursor cells such as hMSC reside in stem cell niches of low oxygen atmospheres. Furthermore, they are subjected to low oxygen concentrations when cultured on three dimensional scaffolds in vitro for bone tissue engineering purposes, and even more so after transplantation when vascularisation has yet to be established. Similarly, hMSC are exposed to low oxygen in the fracture microenvironment following bony injury. Recent studies revealed that hypoxic preconditioning improves cellular engraftment and survival in low oxygen atmospheres.

In the present study we therefore investigated the osteogenic differentiation potential of hMSC under 2% O2 (hypoxia) in comparison to a standard tissue culture oxygen atmosphere of 21% (normoxia). The success of differentiation was validated through Alizarin red staining and RT-PCR analysis of osteoblast markers ALP and OPN. We assessed osteogenic differentiation of hMSC following hypoxic preconditioning to address whether this pretreatment is beneficial for subsequent differentiation under low oxygen tension. To validate our findings we carefully characterised the extent of hypoxia exerted on cells with respect to cell survival (WST assay) and proliferation (growth curve). Furthermore we also tried to elucidate the role of HIF-1 alpha with respect to osteogenic differentiation under hypoxia via silencing RNA and DFO, a pharmacological agent. Finally we tested whether an immortalized hMSC-line (SCP-1) would serve as a model system for hMSC.

We found that hMSC proliferate better if cultured under 2% of oxygen. We confirmed that osteogenic differentiation of hMSC is indeed inhibited under hypoxia. We showed for the first time that hypoxic preconditioning of hMSC prior to osteogenic induction restores osteogenic differentiation of hMSC under hypoxia. HIF-1 alpha seemed not to play a significant role in osteogenic differentiation under hypoxia, as transiently knocking down of HIF-1 alpha in preconditioned samples did not show any differences in their osteogenic differentiation. Moreover stabilising Hif-1 alpha in hypoxic samples did not yield any osteogenic differentiation either substantiating the notion that HIF-1 alpha does not have a direct role in the osteogenic differentiation of hMSC under hypoxia.

Together our data suggest that hypoxia favours stemness over differentiation by upregulating embryonic stem cell markers like OCT-4 and NANOG. Hypoxic preconditioning may help to restore the otherwise reduced osteogenic potential of hMSC, either within a hypoxic fracture environment or at the site of implantation of tissue engineered bone constructs. We therefore believe that hypoxic preconditioning is a helpful tool for successful regenerative cell-based therapies in bone tissue engineering. SCP-1 cells might be used as a model system for hMSC as they are easy to handle, can be cultured to a desired cell number within a very short period of time, are relatively inexpensive and above all do not go into senescence as seen with hMSC after approximately 20 passages. Apart from their distinct advantages SCP-1 cells still maintain the specific CD markers characteristic for hMSC and are able to differentiate into adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic lineages. However for in vivo experiments in animals a constant monitoring of neoplastic transformation is mandatory


We considered the possibility to fabricate multifunctional nanocomposite mem- branes as a platform for plasmonic metamaterials, simultaneously incorporating pores, built-in functional groups and active nanoparticles. To this purpose we combined lamination and in- clusion of nanoflllers into the membrane host. For the basic material we chose macroporous crosslinked copolymers based on glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The epoxy group present in GMA molecule is readily transformed into various functional groups that further serve as a-n- ity enhancers, ensuring the usability of the membranes as pre-concentrators of selected agents in plasmonic sensors. To form GMA-based membranes we used a recently proposed method combining the traditional immersion precipitation with photopolymerization and crosslinking of functional monomers. Further functionalization is obtained by in-situ formation of noble metal nanoparticles directly within the GMA host. In this way membranes with simultaneous plas- monic, adsorbent and catalytic functionality are obtained. We considered the use of the our structures for plasmonic chemical sensors where separator, pre-concentrator and binding agent are integrated with the plasmonic crystal, as well as for plasmonic enhancement of photocatalytic reactions in microreactors. Our approach gives a highly tailorable element compatible with mi- croelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies and readily transferable across platforms.


Background: Burn dressings and systemic antibiotics are used to combat invasive burn wound infections. With emergence of antibiotic resistance and a emergence of a large variety of dressings, it becomes important to work out a strategy to use systemic antibiotics and burn dressings effectively. Materials and Methods: A systematic database search to include PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, COCHRANE, SCOPUS was performed from January 2000 to January 2021 and reviewed to define invasive burn infection, and the topical antimicrobial therapy for clinical use. For the section on antimicrobials, MESH terms used were 'Antimicrobial Prophylaxis' AND 'burn Infection' and randomised controlled trial studies were alone selected. For the section on Burn dressings, another search was carried out with search words 'Dressings' AND 'Burn Infections'. Since the Search revealed several systematic reviews, the analysis was restricted to only those studies. Results: Systemic antibiotic prophylaxis does not seem to offer advantage in preventing burn wound infection, septic episodes or mortality. Although there is some benefit in decreasing mortality in patients of inhalation burn injury who would require mechanical ventilation. It can be given pre-operatively before skin grafting as there is improved graft survival in patients getting prophylaxis. Honey and hydrogel were found to promote wound healing while honey and skin substitutes prevented infection better than conventional dressings including silver sulphadiazine. For wound cover, though the permanent method of choice is still autologous skin grafts, with the advent of cell culture technologies, cultured autografts may hold a promising future. Conclusion: Systemic antibiotic prophylaxis can be given to patients of inhalational burn injury and as a pre-operative prophylaxis but not for preventing invasive burn wound infections. The ideals strategy for preventing invasive burn infection is isolation of the patient, wound cover (surgical/artificial) and frequent wound tissue sampling.


Re-crystallized Zircaloy-4 guide tubes were irradiated in commercial pressurized water reactors (PWRs) at three different temperatures to fluences near 1×1022 n/cm2 E>1 MeV (15 displacements per atom), resulting in moderate corrosion and three different hydrogen contents (approximately 135, 240, and 700 parts per million). Sections of the guide tubes were re-irradiated in the Halden reactor to assess the irradiation creep and growth behaviors. Three conditions were applied: Bellows-loaded axial compression creep; zero stress growth; and zero stress, zero flux (control specimens). The guide tube sections were re-irradiated under simulated PWR conditions by utilizing a pressurized light water loop operating with normal PWR water chemistry at approximately 320°C. Axial length changes were measured in-reactor by linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs), and post-irradiation hot cell measurements were done to confirm the LVDT elongation measurements. After minor corrections were made to account for reactor testing variables, it was shown that the LVDT measurements were accurate, thus creep and growth or free growth rates were established for each guide tube section. Hot cell examinations were also performed to establish the state of corrosion of each specimen, including hydrogen content, both before and after the re-irradiation in the Halden reactor. The results showed that stress free irradiation growth was different for each specimen and correlated qualitatively with the hydrogen content and commercial irradiation temperatures of the guide tubes. The higher hydrogen content, or higher commercial irradiation temperature, gave rise to higher subsequent growth rates. After subtracting the growth strain from the measured creep and growth strain values, the magnitude of creep and creep rates were essentially the same for all specimens: No effect of commercial reactor irradiation temperature or hydrogen content was observed. The results give important new data on irradiation creep and growth and on the correlation between hydrogen content and irradiation temperature on growth rates.


ABSTRACTUrban ambient aerosols have been of much concern in recent decades due to their effects upon both atmospheric processes and human health. This study aimed to apportion the sources of submicron particles measured at an urban background area in London and to identify which sources are most responsible for particles deposited in the human lung. Particle number size distributions (PNSD) measured by a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (TSI, USA), covering the size range of 16.5–604 nm at the London North Kensington background sampling site during 2012 were used in a Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model to apportion to six dominant sources of particles. These included local traffic emissions (26.6% by number), aged traffic emissions (29.9%), urban accumulation mode (28.3%), nucleation (6.5%), inorganic secondary aerosol (1.7%) and mixed secondary aerosol (6.9%). Based on the ICRP model, the total deposition efficiencies of submicron particles for the aforementioned sources in the human respiratory tract were 0.57, 0.41, 0.24, 0.62, 0.24 and 0.24, respectively. In terms of source apportionment of particles deposited in the lung, traffic emissions represent the main source of particles deposited by number in both the regional and total lung, accounting for 59 to 71% of total deposited particles, followed by regional accumulation mode (17%) and nucleation (10%) particles. Secondary aerosols only account for 5.1% of total deposited particles by number, but they represent the main source of particles deposited in the lung expressed as surface area (44.6%) and volume (72.3%) of total deposition. The urban accumulation mode contributes 27.3% and 17.3% of total deposited particles by surface area and volume, while traffic emissions contribute 26.6% and 9.7%, respectively. Nucleation contributes only 1.6% and 0.7% of total deposited particles by surface area and volume.


The TIMSS 2015 Encyclopedia: Education Policy and Curriculum in Mathematics and Science is a comprehensive compendium of how mathematics and science are taught around the world. Each TIMSS 2015 country and benchmarking participant prepared a chapter summarizing key aspects of mathematics and science education, and completed the TIMSS 2015 Curriculum Questionnaire. The chapters describe the structure of each education system, the mathematics and science curricula in the primary and lower secondary grades, and overall policies related to mathematics and science instruction. Taken together, the data from the curriculum questionnaire and the information in the chapters present a concise yet rich portrait of mathematics and science education globally, and make the TIMSS 2015 Encyclopedia an indispensable resource for policy and research in comparative education.


The progression of proteinuric kidney diseases is associated with podocyte loss but the mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear. Podocytes re-enter the cell cycle to repair double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) breaks. However, the unsuccessful repair can result in podocytes crossing the G1/S checkpoint and undergoing abortive cytokinesis. In this study, we identified Pfn1 as indispensable in maintaining glomerular integrity - its tissue-specific loss in mouse podocytes results in severe proteinuria and kidney failure. Our results suggest that this phenotype is due to podocyte mitotic catastrophe (MC), characterized histologically and ultrastructurally by abundant multinucleated cells, irregular nuclei, and mitotic spindles. Podocyte cell cycle re-entry was identified using FUCCI2aR mice and observed altered expression of cell-cycle associated proteins such as p21, p53, Cyclin B1, and Cyclin D1. Podocyte-specific translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) and RNAseq revealed the downregulation of Ribosomal RNA-processing protein 8 (Rrp8). Over-expression of Rrp8 in Pfn1 KO podocytes partially rescued the phenotype in vitro. Clinical and ultrastructural tomographic analysis of patients with diverse proteinuric kidney diseases further validated the presence of MC podocytes and reduction in podocyte PFN1 expression within kidney tissues. These results suggest that profilin1 is essential in regulating the podocyte cell cycle and its disruption leads to MC and subsequent podocyte loss.


It is time to rethink the domination of environmental law by a canon of major federal environmental statutes enacted in the 1970s. Environmental law is in a malaise. Despite widespread agreement that existing laws are inadequate to address current environmental problems, Congress has not passed a major environmental statute in more than twenty years. If it is to succeed, the environmental law of this new century may need to evolve into something that looks quite different than the extant environmental law canon. The next generation of environmental laws must be viable for creation and implementation even in an antagonistic political climate; amenable to integration with other, non-environmental law; and able to make inroads against the monumental peril of global climate change. Environmental laws embedded in larger non-environmental programs and dispersed throughout government offer an alternative model to the environmental law canon — an alternative model that seems well suited to help environmental law address these daunting challenges.


In Stara planina Mts., Bulgaria the Buhovo-Seslavtzi pluton is built up of potassic monzonites and quartzsyenites, which contain calcic pyroxenes and amphiboles, plagioclase and potassium feldspar. The plutonic rocks are accompanied by dykes of different composition: lamprophyres, syenite-aplites, syenite-porphyries, bostonite-porphyries and peralkaline syenite and granite porphyries. In the dykes of bostonite porphyries and peralkaline syenite and granite porphyries calcic pyroxenes and amphiboles are replaced by alkaline mafic phases: aegirine-augites, sodic-calcic and sodic amphiboles. Aegirine-augites are Ti-rich up to 5.95 wt. % TiO 2 and Zr-rich up to 0.83 wt. % ZrO 2 . Ti and Zr present antipathetic relationships in aegirine-augite, as their repartition depends on the agpaicity. Ti enters pyroxene structure under strongly agpaitic conditions, whereas Zr enters aegirine-augite in mildly agpaitic conditions. Composition of sodic-calcic and sodic amphiboles evolves through ferrowinchite, ferrorichterite, richterite toward magnesio-arfvedsonite. Evolution ends with crystallization of potassic magnesio-arfvedsonite, which contains up to 4.67 wt. % K 2 O, as K totally fills [A] site. Pyroxenes and amphiboles show persistent magnesian character during the evolution toward sodic-calcic and sodic varieties. This trend is not common for silica-oversaturated rocks, and indicates high fO 2 conditions and crystallization between NNO and HM buffers. The high activities of alkalis and silica are considered as the most important factors leading to the formation of these peculiar aegirine-augite and potassic magnesio-arfvedsonite.


This paper presents the results achieved while pursuing the verification and validation of a train system behavior at the first steps of development in an industrial context. At this stage, and at least from the industrial point of view, the train can be considered as a System of Systems (SoS). A method is proposed, supported by preliminary results through the definition and verification of constrained states and preconditions to use cases, as well as a structure for the behavior.


Among the most unusual and unexpected hurricanes in United States history is the only hurricane to make landfall in the month of May. This recently rediscovered storm that struck northwest Florida on 28 May 1863 created a natural disaster in the area that became lost to history because it was embedded in a much larger and important manmade event—in this case, the U.S. Civil War. The authors document the arrival of this storm both historically and meteorologically and anachronistically name it "Hurricane Amanda" in honor of the Union ship driven ashore by the hurricane. The hurricane revealed deficiencies and strengths in combat readiness by both sides. Meteorologically, the storm nearly achieved major hurricane status at landfall and its absence from modern databases of tropical cyclone activity is a useful reminder to users of important gaps in our knowledge of tropical cyclones even in the best-sampled storm basins.


Management consultants have long been recognized as carriers of management knowledge and disseminators of management fashions. While it is well understood how they promote the acceptance of their concepts, surprisingly little has been said about their strategies to promote the acceptability of their services. In this paper, we elaborate a typology of strategies by which management consultancies can create and sustain such "institutional capital" (Oliver, 1997) that helps them extract competitive resources from their institutional context. Drawing on examples from the German consulting industry, we show how localized competitive actions can enhance individual firm"s positions, but also the collective institutional capital of the consulting industry as a whole, legitimizing consulting services in broader sectors of society and facilitating access to requisite resources. Our accounts counter prevailing imagery of institutional entrepreneurship as individualistic, "heroic" action and demonstrate how distributed, embedded actors can collectively shape the institutional context from within to enhance their institutional capital.


The distribution of wave steepness (H/T ) for fully developed sea is obtained from Bretschneider's joint distribution of wave height and wave period. This steepness distribution is used with standard wave runup curves to develop a frequency curve of wave run-up. Use of this run-up distribution curve will permit more accurate estimation of the variability in wave run-up for design cases, and particularly the percent of time in which run-ups will exceed that predicted for the significant wave. The distribution may also be used with normal overtopping procedures to determine more accurate estimates of overtopping quantities. Wave run-up may be defined as the vertical height above mean water level to which water from a breaking wave will rise on a structure face. Accurate design data on the height of wave run-up is needed for determination of design crest elevations of protective structures subject to wave action such as seawalls, beach fills, surge barriers, and dams. Such structures are normally designed to prevent wave overtopping with consequent flooding on the landward side and, if of an earth type, possible failure by rearface erosion. Because of the importance of wave run-up elevations in determining structure heights and freeboards, a great deal of work has been done in the past six years in an attempt to relate wave run-up to incident wave characteristics, and slope or structure characteristics. Compilations based largely on laboratory experimental work have been made and have fe-?* suited in curves similar to those shown in Figure 1 which is reprinted from the U. S. Beach Erosion Board Technical Report No. 4. Such curves most frequently have related the dimensionless ratio of relative run-up (R/H ) to incident wave steepness in deep water (H /T ), as a function of structure type or slope. (H is the equivalent deep water wave height.) The curves shown in Figure 1 are of this type, and pertain to structures having a depth of water greater than three wave heights at the toe of the structure; this depth limitation in effect means that the wave breaks directly on the structure. The curves shown in Figure 1 are a portion of a set of five separate figures, covering different structure depths (d/H ). All are published in Beach Erosion Board Technical Report Number 4. These curves were derived primarily from small scale laboratory tests. Further laboratory tests with much larger waves (heights two to five feet) have shown that a scale effect exists for some conditions.


This manual includes a series of "topic-focused modular applications" designed particularly for counselors and group facilitators working in substance abuse treatment programs. The collection of applications contains focused, easily accessible, and brief adaptive strategies for working with clients to establish meaningful and useful treatment goals.

Modular applications in this manual include:
• Introduction -- Mapping, Collaboration, and Thoughtful Plans introduces the basics of node-link mapping, the use of structured maps for treatment planning, and the importance of developing the counselor-client relationship through collaboration. A thoughtful treatment plan with realistic and measurable goals helps focus the therapeutic relationship on a more hopeful tomorrow. This chapter is designed as a primer for treatment staff interested in simple, yet effective strategies to strengthen motivation and engagement in treatment through more effective treatment planning.

• Session 1 -- Getting Started: First Maps sets the collaborative tone for subsequent sessions and introduces the client to working with guide maps. The counselor takes the lead in introducing the guide map templates and inviting the client to add information to the "nodes." These early guide map discussions center on the client's experiences, both in the past and present. Clients are then invited to briefly discuss present issues of concern and how they have been coping to date. The session ends with an invitation for the client to consider what they hope to have different/better in their lives as a result of treatment.

• Session 2 -- Mapping Goals and Strategies helps clients identify salient goals to work on as part of treatment and to narrow those goals down to clear, specific, and practical plans. Clients first review their homework guide map about specific issues they want to address. A subsequent map is used to invite a conversation about specific steps to take first, followed by a map focusing on the personal strengths the client brings to deal with identified problems. Next, a "planning rocket" guide map is used to summarize the session and provide the client with a reminder of tasks for the coming weeks.

• Session 3 -- Mapping Progress and Future Plans uses further goal planning guide maps to help client summarize and assess steps taken toward goals and plan for future actions toward reaching goals. This session includes maps to either (1) process successes to date toward taking a step or action, (2) engage in further decision-making about proposed actions toward goals, or (3) analyze reported problems or setbacks in addressing an issue or taking a step. Clients work on a map that summarizes their work on issues to date and complete a final map outlining the next goal they consider to be important. The guide maps in this session (and those from previous sessions) can be used again with clients in subsequent counseling sessions or as the need arises during the client's treatment journey.

• Mapping Bibliography -- Bibliography and brief abstracts of mapping research studies.


Directed self-assembly can produce ordered or organized superstructures from pre-existing building blocks through pre-programmed interactions. Encoding desired information into building blocks with specific directionality and strength, however, poses a significant challenge for the development of self-assembled superstructures. Here, we demonstrate that controlling the shape and patchiness of particles trapped at the air-water interface can represent a powerful approach for forming ordered macroscopic complex structures through capillary interactions. We designed hexagram particles using a micromolding method that allowed for precise control over the shape and, more importantly, the chemical patchiness of the particles. The assembly behaviors of these hexagram particles at the air-water interface were strongly affected by chemical patchiness. In particular, two-dimensional millimeter-scale ordered structures could be formed by varying the patchiness of the hexagram particles, and we attribute this effect to the delicate balance between the attractive and repulsive interactions among the patchy hexagram particles. Our results provide important clues for encoding information into patchy particles to achieve macroscopic assemblies via a simple molding technique and potentially pave a new pathway for the programmable assembly of particles at the air-water interface.


Innovation and entrepreneurship are dynamic and holistic processes that are not restricted to the initial activity of a new undertaking. Many studies link and draw parallels between, not only corporate entrepreneurship and innovation but also innovation and the ability to enhance an organisation's competitive positioning and to provide outstanding value to its customers. However, a lack of research has been identified regarding the synergy between innovation and entrepreneurship, noting that the synergy between the two concepts helps organisations to prosper. Likewise, continuous service innovation has been described by many authors as the most valuable means for companies to achieve long-term success and organic growth. It is also suggested that for service firms to achieve even greater success, a customer-orientation perspective should be adopted. Although many studies concerning the service sectors and in particular service innovation have been carried out, they have rarely been conducted in the context of healthcare, and in particular, that of mental healthcare. Also, few studies have focused on the interaction and involvement of patients in the development of new health services. The study contributes to the related literature by providing conceptually developed and exploratory-based research, examining the Greek mental healthcare sector. The study contributes in two significant ways: It develops (1) a useful conceptual framework, which introduces a new perspective to the literature of both innovation and entrepreneurship, and (2) the new business model, which presents the means by which patients contribute to opportunities identification, illustrating their participation in the development process. More specifically, this study investigates the influence of user involvement on new health service development and presents the means by which the outcome can enhance a hospital's entrepreneurial activity. On one hand, this study advances previous service innovation theory by associating with the entrepreneurship theory, while on the other, extends previous knowledge regarding the benefits of customer participation in new health service development.


Learning management systems (LMS) are web–based platforms used for enhancing and supporting classroom teaching or delivering online instruction. Much of the earlier research has focused on their technological features and implementations into instruction. However, investigating what and how teachers and students think about and experience with LMS based on their actual usage is needed to realize educational potential of these systems. This study aimed to investigate pre–service teachers' lived experiences about taking courses through Moodle LMS. The research was designed as a qualitative study. Data were collected through semi–structured interviews and analyzed through content analysis technique via Nvivo 7.0 software. The sample included 25 college students majoring in Computer and Instructional Technology Education at a state university in Turkey. Majority of the participants indicated that Moodle was user–friendly, beneficial and enhancer for interaction with both instructor and course content. Participants identified "assignments", "resources", and "forum" as the most effective instructional modules. On the other hand, some argued that Moodle could not provide face–to–face interaction like in the classrooms and thus it was not suitable for certain math and non–math courses requiring such interaction. They also found registration to course website as the biggest technical challenge.


Increased post-translational modification of proteins by SUMO-2/3 is a cytoprotective response against cell stress induced by ischaemia and reperfusion. However, it is still unclear what other cell stressors trigger protein SUMOylation, what mechanisms enhance and maintain the enhanced SUMOylation, and if it is a general protective mediator against other cytotoxic stresses. Here, we show increased levels of SUMOylation and decreased levels of the SUMO deconjugating enzyme SENP3 in PC12 cells treated with the toxic heavy metal cadmium. In addition, SENP3 knockdown reduced cadmium-induced caspase 3 cleavage and cell death in PC12 cells, while SENP3 overexpression enhanced cell death. These results suggest that SENP3 is an important regulator of the cellular response to cadmium stress in PC12 cells. Our findings are consistent with previous reports of decreased SENP3 and increased SUMOylation in ischaemia, and imply that the regulation of SENP3 levels and subsequent changes in SUMOylation could be a cytoprotective mechanism against caspase 3-mediated cell death.


Underground development for nuclear waste storage will possibly require tunnels to be excavated in a variety of rock conditions and configurations. Recent innovations in Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) design have allowed for an evolved style of TBM which has distinct advantages over the standard machines. Present day conventional hard rock TBM's were developed primarily for the long, relatively straight tunnels of the civil construction industry, thereby making them for the most part, unsuitable for the sharp curves, turnouts, declines, inclines and ramps required in many underground environments. The five foot to 36 foot (1.52 to 11 m) diameter machines are capable of boring tunnels with curve radiuses as small as 40 to 90 feet (12.2 to 27.5 m) depending on size. These short turning radiuses can be accomplished while gripping the tunnel walls horizontally in the traditional manner or vertically as required when intersecting existing tunnels, or making turnouts from the tunnel that the machine has just bored. The machine's length is approximately half of a traditional machine's length while still employing a full measure of thrust, horsepower and rock cutting ability. The machine's short length, combined with a patented machine structure allows it to steer while boring without causing harmful eccentric loads on the cutterhead and main bearing assembly. The machine configuration is versatile and can be easily modified to operate in a wide variety of conditions. With the addition of an anti-slip device the machine can bore inclines up to 45 degrees. By adding spacers the distance between the grippers can be increased to accommodate stepping through steel ribs or to gain more room for roof bolting activities. The rear gripper can be oriented to any angle from horizontal to vertical to accommodate turnouts or to avoid clamping on weak seams of rock.


This dissertation tracks the mobilization of Yucatec Maya culture and identity across YucatAin, Mexico and San Francisco, California. Moving within a circulating discourse pertaining to a crisis of culture loss, I pause at three distinct sites to explore how "culture" is deployed for recognition in national and transnational spaces. I focus on Tuch Mukuy, a 17-member community theater troupe in Oxkutzcab, YucatAin; U Najil Xook, a onemember NGO dedicated to Mayan language preservation; and Alianza del Pueblo Maya, an NGO formed by the members of the Yucatec Maya migrant community in San Francisco to represent their interests and provide for their needs. I explore the efforts of Tuch Mukuy, U Najil Xook, and Alianza del Pueblo Maya to position themselves to be seen as Maya or indigenous by state and non-state actors across shifting fields of power and authority in Mexico and the United States. I examine the ways in which the space of the nation forecloses certain mobilizations of culture and cultural identity, while the space of the transnational open up possibilities for alternative visions and mobilizations of culture and identity. Within YucatAin, the space of the national, Tuch Mukuy and U Najil Xook are trapped into particular configurations of culture that will always be past-oriented. In Mexico, claims for rights and recognition are made to the nation-state based upon a history of marginalization and state-sponsored cultural assimilationist programs. Maya culture becomes framed, necessarily, through terms of revitalization and preservation, and packaged in the tangible and intangible forms of that which can be saved--such as, language, dress, and traditional practices, and knowledge entailed therein. This past-orientation renders claims to Mayaness as always under the impossible scrutiny of authenticity. In San Francisco, the space of the transnational, Alianza del Pueblo Maya becomes untethered from the future anterior temporality characteristic of recognition claims within the Mexican nation-state. In a city saturated with civil society organizations dedicated the rights of a range of politicized identities situated in race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, culture, and nation, Alianza must rely on a combination of strategies and alliances to become culturally recognized, but also politically and economically addressed. Coalition, not culture, becomes the space through which claims of recognition are made. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Anthropology First Advisor Deborah A. Thomas This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1229


OBJECTIVES
This study estimated the risk of occupational exposure for lung cancer in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, the largest urbanized and industrialized area in Brazil.

METHODS
In this hospital-based case-referent study of 398 cases and 860 referents, the cases were matched to referents according to age, gender, and hospital and personally interviewed for information on lifetime job history, smoking habits, passive smoking exposure, cancer in relatives, socioeconomic status, and migratory history. The analysis concerned industrial titles and occupational categories. With the use of a job-exposure matrix, exposure to asbestos, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, dust, nickel and chromium was assessed.

RESULTS
For the men in the 56 industrial and 122 occupational categories examined, an excess risk of lung cancer was found in the machinery industry [odds ratio (OR) 1.62, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.02-2.55). In pottery manufacturing the risk (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.00-4.87) was increased for workers exposed > or = 10 years (OR 6.43, 95% CI 1.12-37.01). Textile workers employed for > or = 10 years with a latency of > or = 40 years had an elevated risk (OR 21.93, 95% CI 1.96-245.0). In the analysis using the job-exposure matrix no risk was detected for the specific lung cancer carcinogens examined. For the women, no significantly elevated risk was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study revealed risks of lung cancer for men in the machinery industry and for pottery and textile workers with long-term exposure.


Abstract. Identifying effective measures to reduce nutrient loads of headwaters in lowland catchments requires a thorough understanding of flow routes of water and nutrients. In this paper we assess the value of nested-scale discharge and groundwater level measurements for the estimation of flow route volumes and for predictions of catchment discharge. In order to relate field-site measurements to the catchment-scale an upscaling approach is introduced that assumes that scale differences in flow route fluxes originate from differences in the relationship between groundwater storage and the spatial structure of the groundwater table. This relationship is characterized by the Groundwater Depth Distribution (GDD) curve that relates spatial variation in groundwater depths to the average groundwater depth. The GDD-curve was measured for a single field site (0.009 km2) and simple process descriptions were applied to relate groundwater levels to flow route discharges. This parsimonious model could accurately describe observed storage, tube drain discharge, overland flow and groundwater flow simultaneously with Nash-Sutcliff coefficients exceeding 0.8. A probabilistic Monte Carlo approach was applied to upscale field-site measurements to catchment scales by inferring scale-specific GDD-curves from the hydrographs of two nested catchments (0.4 and 6.5 km2). The estimated contribution of tube drain effluent (a dominant source for nitrates) decreased with increasing scale from 76–79% at the field-site to 34–61% and 25–50% for both catchment scales. These results were validated by demonstrating that a model conditioned on nested-scale measurements improves simulations of nitrate loads and predictions of extreme discharges during validation periods compared to a model that was conditioned on catchment discharge only.


In order to understand the processes governing the production of marine aerosols, repeatable, controlled methods for their generation are required. A new system, the miniature Marine Aerosol Reference Tank (miniMART), has been designed after the success of the original MART system, to approximate a small oceanic spilling breaker by producing an evolving bubble plume and surface foam patch. The smaller tank utilizes an intermittently plunging jet of water produced by a rotating water wheel, into an approximately 6 L reservoir to simulate bubble plume and foam formation and generate aerosols. This system produces bubble plumes characteristic of small whitecaps without the large external pump inherent in the original MART design. Without the pump it is possible to easily culture delicate planktonic and microbial communities in the bulk water during experiments while continuously producing aerosols for study. However, due to the reduced volume and smaller plunging jet, the absolute numbers of particles generated are approximately an order of magnitude less than in the original MART design.


Augustine of Hippo was the first Christian thinker to seriously address the relationship between the sacred and secular realms within the Christian dispensation. The secular space was important for him and served a function independently of the sacred. In contrast to later historical developments where the secular was subsumed into a total medieval sacred society, Augustine saw value in secularity and freely used the learning and culture of the Greco-Roman world to expound Christian revelation. Indeed, a total Christian society prior to the eschaton would have been unimaginable to Augustine and would have been something he would have viewed with deep suspicion had he been able to do so. Since the Enlightenment the secular world has often, and more especially in contemporary times, been dismissive and even hostile to religion especially Christianity.
In a survey of contemporary approaches to the secular, three scholars' views will be presented: Charles Taylor, Jurgen Habermas and Joseph Ratzinger. In his survey of the rise of the secular age, Charles Taylor shows how in reaction to 'secular uniformity' (what he calls the ''omnicompetent code'') and attempts to eliminate various forms, he advocates instead a pluralistic, open society. Next, Habermas is shown to support what he terms 'communicative discourse' where the secularist and those of religious faith may learn to sympathise with a view contrary to their own. Augustine's view of the saeculum is shown in this paper to be still relevant to establishing a contemporary dialogue between the Church and secular society. Joseph Ratzinger sees philosophy as a dialogue partner for both secular and religious views and a means toward a universal process of 'purification' as he terms it. Philosophy can purify both the scientific and religious world views.
Augustine's contribution to a pluralistic, religiously neutral civil society is assessed. Augustine accepted in a very real sense the social, political and cultural pluralism of his world. The church must co-exist with the saeculum but Augustine's overall eschatological approach provides a corrective to any tendency towards a ''sacralization'' as it were of society and its institutions. There is always a critical scrutiny from 'beyond' as it were. No social order could ever be sacral and so beyond critical scrutiny. In the saeculum fallible humanity can seek only provisional solutions. Thus Augustine's acceptance of the secular based upon an assessment from 'beyond' implies the basis for a pluralistic, religiously neutral civil society. This is his great achievement. Augustine brings to the secular society a sensitivity for transcendence and yet a potential for liberation from present social and political idols. What could be more useful today or at any time?


Oxfam's mission is a just world without poverty, which seems an impossible task in countries where violence is an everyday feature. Oxfam Novib works predominantly in countries affected by inequality, violent conflicts and lack of mechanisms to address different and opposed interests. It is for this reason that Oxfam Novib and its partners recognise the need to work on conflict transformation and make a concerted effort to structurally and positively transform the conditions leading to destructive violence. Oxfam Novib's network, its advocacy potential, and its ability to link the various levels, i.e. local partnerships for development and conflict work, give Oxfam Novib a promising and unique comparative advantage in the field of conflict transformation. In this policy paper, some of the general thinking of conflict transformation in both academia and the development field is reviewed; the term conflict transformation and what it entails for Oxfam Novib's work is defined; and, finally, concrete examples of how this more theoretical understanding of conflict transformation is translated into practice are provided.


Until recently, reading instruction for early grades has focused on fiction. However, the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards both emphasize the reading of nonfiction texts to gain specific skill sets for analyzing information. Research has shown that gifted students and children with culturally/linguistically diverse backgrounds may find nonfiction texts more engaging to their interests than fiction. Nonfiction can activate prior learning and encourage students to learn to categorize and synthesize information, especially when combined with scientific inquiry. In this article, the authors explore the new standards-based emphasis on reading nonfiction, the skills built by students' reading nonfiction with a focus on gifted students from culturally/linguistically different and economically disadvantaged families, and we share one approach to including nonfiction in elementary classrooms through the U-STARS~PLUS Science & Nonfiction Connections, a program for recognizing and supporting underrepresented gifted populations.


Communication barriers often result in exclusion of children and youth with disabilities from activities and social settings that are essential to their psychosocial development. In particular, difficulties in describing their experiences of activities and social settings hinder our understanding of the factors that promote inclusion and participation of this group of individuals. To address this specific communication challenge, we examined the feasibility of developing a language-free measure of experience in youth with severe physical disabilities. To do this, we used the activity of the peripheral nervous system to detect patterns of psychological arousal associated with activities requiring different patterns of cognitive/affective and interpersonal involvement (activity engagement). We demonstrated that these signals can differentiate among patterns of arousal associated with these activities with high accuracy (two levels: 81%, three levels: 74%). These results demonstrate the potential for development of a real-time, motor- and language-free measure for describing the experiences of children and youth with disabilities.


A new design methodology that produces hardware solutions for performing real-time image processing is presented here. This design methodology provides significant advantages over traditional hardware design approaches by translating real-time image processing tasks into the gate-level resources of programmable logic-based hardware architectures. The use of programmable logic allows high-performance solutions to be realized with very efficient utilization of available logic and interconnection resources. These implementations provide comparable performance at a lower cost than other available programmable logic-based hardware architectures.
This new design methodology is based on two components: a programmable logic-based destination hardware architecture and a suite of development system software. The destination hardware architecture is a Custom Computing Machine (CCM) that contains multiple Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips. FPGA chips provide gate-level programmability for the hardware architecture. Sophisticated software development tools, called the TRAVERSE development system software, are created to overcome the significant amount of time and expertise required to manually utilize this gate-level programmability. The new hardware architecture and development system software combine to establish a unique design methodology.
There are several distinct contributions provided by this dissertation. The new flexible MORRPH hardware architecture provides a more efficient solution for creating real-time image processing computing machines than current commercial hardware architectures. The TRAVERSE development system software is the first integrated development system specifically for creating real-time image processing designs with multiple FPGA-based CCMs. New standards and design conventions are defined specifically for creating solutions to low-level image processing tasks, using the MORRPH architecture for verification. The circuit partitioning and global routing programs of the TRAVERSE development system software enable automated translation of image processing designs into the resources of multiple FPGA chips in the hardware architecture. In a broad sense, the individual contributions of this dissertation combine to create a new design methodology that will change the way hardware solutions are created for real-time image processing in the future.


Abstract This paper surveys the current state of global empirical research on price setting behaviour at the firm level to evaluate the adequacy of pricing models used in the macro literature. To that end, it analyses the implications of 25 theoretical models (sticky information, menu costs, time dependent, costs of adjustment and customer anger models) in terms of their ability to match the key micro stylised facts. It is found that the explanatory power differs considerably across models and that many popular models are at odds with the main micro features, suggesting the need to further refine modelling strategies.


Two theories offer competing explanations of sex differences in aggressive behavior: sexual-selection theory and social-role theory. While each theory has specific strengths and limitations depending on the victim's sex, research hardly differentiates between intrasex and intersex aggression. In the present study, 11,307 students (mean age = 14.96 years; 50% girls, 50% boys) from 597 school classes provided social-network data (aggression and friendship networks) as well as physical (body mass index) and psychosocial (gender and masculinity norms) information. Aggression networks were used to disentangle intra- and intersex aggression, whereas their class-aggregated sex differences were analyzed using contextual predictors derived from sexual-selection and social-role theories. As expected, results revealed that sexual-selection theory predicted male-biased sex differences in intrasex aggression, whereas social-role theory predicted male-biased sex differences in intersex aggression. Findings suggest the value of explaining sex differences separately for intra- and intersex aggression with a dual-theory framework covering both evolutionary and normative components.