BACKGROUND
It is unclear whether stroke patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are prone to adverse outcomes following treatment with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, and whether the burden of AF affects these outcomes.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the contribution of AF (whether it be a first-detected episode of AF or chronic AF) to stroke outcomes in patients treated with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator.

DESIGN
Retrospective study.

SETTING
Academic hospital. Patients  Consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke who received intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator within 3 hours from symptom onset were included. Vascular risk factors, stroke characteristics, and outcome measures were compared between patients with and without AF.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and poor functional recovery (modified Rankin Scale score of >2).

RESULTS
Of the 214 patients who were studied (mean [SD] age, 74 [14] years, with 50% of patients being men), 21 had a first-detected episode of AF, and 55 had chronic AF. The incidence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was significantly higher in patients with chronic AF than in patients without AF (16% vs 5%), and the incidence of poor functional recovery was significantly higher in patients with chronic AF than in patients without AF (62% vs 44%). The increase in risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (but not in poor functional recovery) among patients with chronic AF remained significant after adjusting for age and baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (odds ratio, 2.95 [95% CI, 1.12-9.30]). Patients with chronic AF who developed a symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage had a longer duration of AF than those who did not (59 vs 23 months), and patients with chronic AF who had a poor functional recovery had a longer duration of AF than those who did not (36 vs 16 months) (P < .05). By contrast, there were no differences in outcomes between patients with a first-detected episode of AF and those without AF, and between patients with paroxysmal AF and those with persistent or permanent AF.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with chronic AF have worse stroke outcomes than do patients without AF, and the risk for worse outcomes was greater in patients with a longer duration of AF.


: The Transient Receptor Potential Subfamily V Member 1 (TRPV1) belongs to the diverse group of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of cation channels. It was first characterized in primary afferent fibers as a receptor for capsaicin. Peripheral TRPV1 has a very well-described role in nociception. However, TRPV1 is now recognized to have a broader distribution and function, with supraspinal TRPV1 known to modulate pain processing. Recently, studies employing histological, genetic and pharmacological approaches have provided evidence that supraspinal TRPV1 also modulates brain neurobiology and behaviours related to anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. Key brain regions involved in TRPV1-mediated modulation of pain and affect include the periaqueductal grey, hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex. Thus, TRPV1 in the brain is emerging as an important molecular substrate which is dually implicated in both pain and psychiatric disorders and represents a novel therapeutic target for these conditions and their co-morbidity.


This paper proposes an energy-efficient adaptive robust tracking control method for a class of fully actuated, thrust vectoring unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with parametric uncertainties including unknown moment of inertia, mass and center of mass, which would occur in aerial maneuvering and manipulation. We consider a novel vector thrust UAV with all propellers able to tilt about two perpendicular axes, so that the thrust force generated by each propeller is a fully controllable vector in 3D space, based on which an adaptive robust control is designed for accurate trajectory tracking in the presence of inertial parametric uncertainties and uncertain nonlinearities. Theoretically, the resulting controller achieves a guaranteed transient performance and final tracking accuracy in the presence of both parametric uncertainties and uncertain nonlinearities. In addition, in the presence of only parametric uncertainties, the controller achieves asymptotic output tracking. To resolve the redundancy in actuation, a thrust force optimization problem minimizing power consumption while achieving the desired body force wrench is formulated, and is shown to be convex with linear equality constraints. Simulation results are also presented to verify the proposed solution.


In this thesis we study some graph colouring problems which arise from mathematical models of frequency assignment in radiocommunications networks, in particular from models formulated by Hale and by Tesman in the 1980s.

The main body of the thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter 2 is the shortest, and is largely self-contained; it contains some early work on the frequency assignment problem, in which each edge of a graph is assigned a positive integer weight, and an assignment of integer colours to the vertices is sought in which the colours of adjacent vertices differ by at least the weight of the edge joining them.

The remaining three chapters focus on problems which combine frequency assignment with list colouring, in which each vertex has a list of integers from which its colour must be chosen. In Chapter 3 we study list colourings where the colours of adjacent vertices must differ by at least a fixed integer s, and in Chapter 4 we add the additional restriction that the lists must be sets of consecutive integers. In both cases we investigate the required size of the lists so that a colouring can always be found.

By considering the behaviour of these parameters as s tends to infinity, we formulate continuous analogues of the two problems, considering lists which are real intervals in Chapter 4, and arbitrary closed real sets in Chapter 5. This gives rise to two new graph invariants, the consecutive choosability ratio tau(G) and the choosability ratio sigma(G). We relate these to other known graph invariants, provide general bounds on their values, and determine specific values for various classes of graphs.


We advance marine sociology to analyze the human dimensions of ocean systems. Human societies are fundamentally linked to marine systems and are transforming oceanic conditions in dramatic ways, resulting in socio-ecological problems. Despite the great and important possibilities in this realm, these relationships are seldom studied within sociology. This article highlights the ecological foundations of human societies, emphasizing interactions with marine systems, and presents marine sociology as a valuable expansion of environmental sociological studies. This approach seeks to better integrate sociological and ecological sciences. We propose that social metabolic analysis serves as one useful theoretical framework for examining the socio-ecological interrelationships. The analysis focuses on the dynamics of ocean systems, social processes that are changing marine ecosystems, and the perennial interactions within and between these systems. We provide brief analyses of climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution, revealing how the modern socioeconomic order has created ecological rifts in marine ecosystems, and how these concerns reciprocally affect social life.


Introduction: Factor five Leiden is one of the most important hereditary risk factors for thrombotic events, especially in an early age and during pregnancy patients. Therefore, detection of the factor in the thrombotic events is one of the diagnostic priorities. We can detect this factor in the laboratory thorough two common tests such as Activated protein C resistance and molecular methods especially PCR-RFLP. In this study we evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the APCR test in comparison of PCR-RFLP the golden diagnostic test for Factor Five Leiden.
Materials and Methods: In this research, we have been studied fifty six patients with vascular thrombosis, who visited thrombosis clinical center in Imam Khomeini Hospital. After confirming the DVT diagnosis and pulmonary embolism, blood samples were collected in 3.2% sodium citrate tubes for APCR test, and in K2EDTA CBC tubes for molecular tests.
Results: Fifty six DVT patients, including 26 males (44.6%) and 30 females (55.4%), from 1 year up to 50 years old with mean age of 28.9 ± 10.76 were studied. According to PCR-RFLP test out of the 56 patients, 15 (26.7%) had heterozygous and 5 (8.9%) homozygous mutation for factor V Leiden. The very same 20 patients had positive APCR results (Rate of less than 2 and time less than 120 seconds were considered positive), in conclusion the results of the two tests were 100% compatible.
Discussion and Conclusion: In populations where other mutations resistant to active protein C such as factor V Cambridge, R2 polymorphism and factor V Liverpool have low prevalence, by removing the intervening factors such as Lupus Anticoagulant antibody, the APCR test could be considered equally sensitive and specific as PCR-RFLP test and can be used for factor V Leiden detection by spending less time and money.


This article seeks to define what would be the order of gender studies within the Brazilian academic setting today. Given three sets of distinct reflections, the article tries to explore gender initially understood as a "theme" and a "concept" to subvert it and postulate gender today as a new scientific field. These three sets of reflections refer to: 1) the place of the current art of gender and feminist studies in Brazilian academic reflections; 2) the consequent attempt to explain and delimit the theoretical conceptions in these studies, which includes the objective of going beyond a mere concept, tool or analytic construction, establishing a new field of study in social and human sciences and even a new epistemology in the sciences; and 3) the discussions of the implications and consequences that such an initiative would have on the sciences, in addition to bringing contributions to a feminist epistemology as well as postulating a science with a multicultural and emancipating character.


The purpose of this project was to study the effect of growth hormone on early bony consolidation in distraction osteogenesis of a dog model. Sixteen dogs were used for this study. The vertical osteotomy on the mandibular body was extended downward. An external distraction device was applied to the mandibular body and the mandibular distraction was started 5 days after the operation at a rate of 1 mm/d up to a 10-mm distraction. The experimental group was divided into a control group and growth hormone group. Dogs in the growth hormone group received a daily subcutaneous injection of 100 &mgr;g (1 IU) of recombinant human growth hormone per kilogram of body weight. The daily administration of growth hormone was performed from the day of the osteotomy through the whole distraction period to the sacrifice. Normal saline was injected in the control group. Eight dogs were allocated to each group. Two dogs in each group, a total of four dogs, were killed at 2 weeks after completion of distraction, four dogs were killed at 4 weeks, and the other eight dogs were killed at 6 weeks. The level of serum IGF-I in the growth hormone group was elevated and peaked between 8 days and 12 days after systemic administration of growth hormone. Bone mineral density was higher in the growth hormone group and lower in the control group for the whole period. Bone mechanical strength was 300% higher in the growth hormone group than in the control group. However, results were more suggestive than conclusive. On histological examination, the formation of a substantial amount of active woven bone was observed throughout the distracted zone at six weeks in the growth hormone group. In the control group, new bone was generated from the edge to the center of the distracted zone. In addition, most of the central area of the distracted zone was filled with fibrous tissue at six weeks. In conclusion, these findings suggest that growth hormone appears to be effective in early bony consolidation in distraction osteogenesis.


This chapter examines the strategic position of localization management in high-tech software and Web companies through the phases of requirements development, requirements management, product development and portfolio management. It begins by examining the three functional units that formulate the strategies and planning required to transform an idea into a successful localized product: International Product Management, Localization Project Management and Portfolio Management. Next, it discusses the product development process and participants. It then addresses the critical importance of requirements and stakeholder identification, and examines in detail the role of the Business Requirements Document (BRD), Market Requirements Document (MRD) and Product Requirements Document (PRD) in the product development process. Finally, the chapter situates localization management in the context of portfolio management and concludes by discussing implications for practitioners, students and educators.


Based on the author's fieldwork among the people of Zezuru, this study focuses on children as clients and as healers in training. In Reynolds' ethnographic investigation of possession and healing, she pays particular attention to the way healers are identified and authenticated in communities, and how they are socialized in the use of medicinal plants, dreams, and ritual healing practices. Reynolds examines spiritual interpretation and remediation of children's problems, including women's roles in these activities, and the Zezuru concepts of trauma, evil, illness, and death. Because this study was undertaken just after the War of Liberation in Zimbabwe, it also documents the devastating effects of the war.


The term "smart" has become widespread in consumer electronics in recent years, reflecting the consumers' need for devices that assist them in their daily activities. The term has a long history of usage in marketing science as one of the most appealing ways of promoting or advertising a product, brand, or service. However, even today, there is much controversy in the definition of this term and even more ambiguities for the right use in consumer electronic devices. Furthermore, it is not possible to carry out any quantitative or qualitative analysis of how smart a device is without having some adequate conception of what a smart or intelligent application means. This article attempts to explore the smart and intelligent capabilities of the current and next-generation consumer devices by investigating certain propositions and arguments along with the current trends and future directions in information technology (IT).


Background:
 Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are a potential adult mesenchymal stem cell source for restoring endothelial function in critical limb ischemia patients. Fibroblast growth factors (FGF) play a major role in angiogenesis and wound healing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of FGF and VEGF on human ASCs proliferation, migration and potential endothelial differentiation regards to their use as endothelial cell (EC) substitutes.

 Methods:
 ASCs were isolated from clinical lipoaspirates and cultured in M199 medium with FBS (10%), FGF2 (10ng/ml), VEGF (50ng/ml) or combinations of FGF2 and VEGF. Cell proliferation rates, viability, and migration were measured by growth curves, MTT and scratch assays. For cell attachment determinations, ASCs were seeded onto scaffold (small intestinal submucosa) for 5d. Endothelial differentiation capabilities of ASC were confirmed by expression of EC specific markers using qPCR, immunofluorescence staining and cord formation on Matrigel. PD173074, a selective inhibitor of FGF receptor, was used to confirm the importance of FGF signaling.

 Results:
 Increased proliferation rates were observed in ASCs treated with FGF2 when compared to ASCs cultured with VEGF and control groups (3.2 fold, p<0.05). In comparison with controls, FGF2 showed increased ASC migration (relative scratch width, p<0.01). FGF2-treated ASCs seeded onto the SIS scaffold for 5d exhibited increased attachment rates compared to ASCs cultured with VEGF (1.7 fold, p<0.01). After 10 days exposed to FGF, ASCs expressed EC-markers (CD31, vWF mRNA) and formed cords upon Matrigel. Cultured ASCs with FGF2 and VEGF increased eNOS mRNA and protein levels when compared to ASCs cultured with FGF2 or VEGF alone. Furthermore, blockade of FGF signaling with PD173074 blocked ASC EC differentiation potential.

 Conclusions:
 Our results indicate that: 1) FGF is an ASC promoter for proliferation, migration, attachment and endothelial differentiation; 2) FGF and VEGF have a co-stimulatory effect on ASC endotheliogenesis; and 3) FGF signaling mediates ASC EC differentiation. These results suggest that ASCs with enhanced FGF2 signaling may potentially be used for tissue engineering and cell-based therapies in critical limb ischemia patients.


Abstract. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is coupled with the Advanced Canopy–Atmosphere–Soil Algorithm (ACASA), a high-complexity land surface model. Although WRF is a state-of-the-art regional atmospheric model with high spatial and temporal resolutions, the land surface schemes available in WRF, such as the popular NOAH model, are simple and lack the capability of representing the canopy structure. In contrast, ACASA is a complex multilayer land surface model with interactive canopy physiology and high-order turbulence closure that allows for an accurate representation of heat, momentum, water, and carbon dioxide fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere. It allows for microenvironmental variables such as surface air temperature, wind speed, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration to vary vertically within and above the canopy. Surface meteorological conditions, including air temperature, dew point temperature, and relative humidity, simulated by WRF-ACASA and WRF-NOAH are compared and evaluated with observations from over 700 meteorological stations in California. Results show that the increase in complexity in the WRF-ACASA model not only maintains model accuracy but also properly accounts for the dominant biological and physical processes describing ecosystem–atmosphere interactions that are scientifically valuable. The different complexities of physical and physiological processes in the WRF-ACASA and WRF-NOAH models also highlight the impact of different land surface models on atmospheric and surface conditions.


An advertisement should be creative, simple, attractive, and communicative. It is made to communicate something to the society. The properties of an advertisement - such as the language, signs, and symbols - positively mean something. Readers must have some knowledge that helps them figure out what the advertisement designers intend to say. If readers do not comprehend the intended meaning of an advertisement, then, it means that the advertisement designers fail to deliver the important message they have in their minds. As comprehending the intended meaning of an advertisement is very important to the success of an advertisement, the writer was being interested in investigating the intended meaning of A-Mild advertisements since they were confusing. She was also to identify the frames possessed by the readers to comprehend the advertisement designers? intended meaning and to compare whether the readers? interpretation is the same as the designers? intended meaning. The writer used the theory of frames proposed by Minsky to help her find the knowledge that were used by the readers to comprehend A-Mild advertisements. This theory was also used by the writer to help her conclude whether the frames influence the readers to come to the A-Mild advertisement designers? intended meaning. A qualitative approach was used in conducting this research. The writer, in this research, analyzed five A-Mild advertisements ever published in billboards. After collecting and analyzing the data she gathered from a seminar "Bedah Habis Iklan A-Mild" in Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang at April 29, 2004 and from the questionnaires distributed to 20 Petra Christian University students, the writer found out that there were only two of five A-Mild advertisements whose intended meaning could be comprehended by the readers. Although the readers? meaning was not directly the same with the advertisement designers?, the writer concluded that the frames they used had brought them to comprehend what was in the advertisement designers? minds.


In this article, we outline some concepts relating to the use of stress testing in credit risk management. We begin by providing a simple taxonomy of stress scenarios and discussing the trade-offs that different approaches require for implementation. Our taxonomy is modeled after one that is common in the credit literature and involves con-cepts related to reduced-form and structural approaches to credit modeling. Recently, some have expressed the view that the use of distribution-based measures such as VaR and expected shortfall (ES) for credit risk management should be deemphasized in favor of stress-testing and scenario analysis. We consider this question in the main portion of this article. We discuss the benefits of stress testing and scenario analysis as well as describing some limitations of using scenario-based approaches as a sole mechanism for assessing portfolio risk. We provide a number of examples to illustrate these limitations. In particular, except in special cases, it is difficult to use stress scenarios alone, ex ante, for allocating capital across disparate portfolios. However, stress testing and scenario analysis are integral to prudent credit risk management and can complement measures such as VaR and ES, thereby better informing both risk assessment and business strategy development. While neither stress testing nor VaR type measures, in and of themselves, provide complete descriptions of credit portfolio risk, combining both approaches results in more robust risk analysis. This permits risk managers to integrate quantitative measures with managerial intuition and judgment to arrive at more comprehensive assessments of both portfolio risk and overall firm strategy.


For an implantable system for the recording of brain signals from neonatal mice the design specifications for the weight and the size of a implantable system are very tough. The animals are very small and light weight (1–3 cm, 2– 3 g) and the recording data rate is very high (3,5 Mbit/s). Thus, the system has to be extremely small. With state of the art technique it is not possible to set up a wireless implantable system that is suitable for a neonatal mouse. Thus a wired system is developed. For the wired system the connector is a size limiting factor. In wired transmission systems single ended and differential signalling are available. Differential signalling is more robust against noise disturbances, single ended transmission is beneficial with respect to a minimum number of wires and chip area. A detailed comparison of the suitability of both transmission types for wired implantable systems has been performed. A Serial Peripheral Interface connection with Reed Solomon Encoder connection has been implemented. Reed Solomon Error Correction is used to correct the errors occurring on the wired transmission line. Measurements of data rate and error rate for single ended and differential signalling have been performed for long cables (up to 1.8 m). It could be shown that single ended transmission is favourable for the desired application. For the detection and correction of errors occurring on high speed Serial Peripheral Interface Reed Solomon decoding on FPGA was used. This particular decoder design has capability of correcting up to 2 symbol errors on a packet of data composed of 9 symbols where each symbol is 4 bits long. Complete error correction takes about 65 clock cycles on a speed up to 100 MHz.


The goal of controlling a gene regulatory network (GRN) is to generate an intervention strategy, i.e., a control policy, such that by applying the policy the system will avoid undesirable states. In this work, we propose a method to control GRNs by using Batch Mode Reinforcement Learning (Batch RL). Our idea is based on the fact that time series gene expression data can actually be interpreted as a sequence of experience tuples collected from the environment. Existing studies on this control task try to infer a model using gene expression data and then calculate a control policy over the constructed model. However, we propose a method that can directly use the available gene expression data to obtain an approximated control policy for gene regulation that avoids the time consuming model building phase. Results show that we can obtain policies for gene regulation systems of several thousands of genes just in several seconds while existing solutions get stuck for even tens of genes. Interestingly, the reported results also show that our method produces policies that are almost as good as the ones generated by existing model dependent methods.


In Africa, the agricultural sector is the largest sector of the domestic economy, and livestock, are a crucial component of agriculture, accounting for ~45% of the Kenyan agricultural GDP and> 70% of African agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Accurate estimates of GHG emissions from livestock are required for inventory purposes and to assess the efficacy of mitigation measures, but most estimates rely on TIER I (default) IPCC protocols with major uncertainties coming from the IPCC methodology itself. Tier II estimates represent a significant improvement over the default methodology, however in less developed economies the required information is lacking or of uncertain reliability. In this study we developed an alternative methodology based on animal energy requirements derived from field measurements of live weight, live weight change, milk production and locomotion to estimate intake. Using on-farm data, we analysed feed samples to produce estimates of digestibility by season and region, then and used these data to estimate daily methane production by season, area and class of animal to produce new emission factors (EF) for annual enteric CH4 production. Mean Dry Matter Digestibility of the feed basket was in the range of 58–64%, depending on region and season (around 10% greater than TIER I estimates). EFs were substantially lower for adolescent and adult male (30.1, 35.9 versus 49 kg CH4) and for adolescent and adult female (23.0, 28.3 versus 41 kg), but not calves (15.7 versus 16 kg) than those given for "other" African cattle in IPCC (Tier I) estimates. It is stressed that this study is the first of its kind for Sub-Sharan Africa relying on animal measurements, but should not automatically be extrapolated outside of its geographic range. It does however, point out the need for further measurements, and highlights the value of using a robust methodology which does not rely on the (often invalid) assumption of ad libitum intake in systems where intake is known or likely to be restricted.


BEFORE LATE FEBRUARY OR EARLY MARCH 1998, most Canadians could probably not have located Kosovo (Kosova in Albanian) on a map with any confidence. (It is in the southwest corner of Serbia, also bordering Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro.) Since then, it has been prominent in the news because of the civil war that has developed between Serbian government forces and a Kosovo Albanian (Kosovar) insurgent group loosely identified as the Kosovo Liberation Army. The international community has become involved; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is poised for action; six Canadian aircraft are to take part in pressure by the international community to force the Serbian/Yugoslav authorities to end their repression and the insurgents to join them in negotiations.Although many people speak of another Bosnia, the two situations are quite different. The war in Bosnia was a by-product of Yugoslavia's collapse; conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo dates back at least to 1912.The insurgents in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 per cent of the population, seek independence, which would probably be followed by union with Albania - a traditional goal about which most Kosovars are now reticent but which many certainly espouse. The Yugoslav and Serbian governments wish to maintain the status quo of Serbian domination over Kosovo, but have offered some form of 'cultural' autonomy. They say that they are ready to negotiate; it is the Kosovars who walked away from the table.The international community has consistently stated its opposition to Kosovo independence on the grounds that it would be destabilizing for the region - particularly for neighbouring Macedonia with its own restive Albanian minority. Publicly, at any rate, even the Albanian government does not support independence for Kosovo, much less its union with Albania, although the issue of policy towards the Kosovo crisis has been contentious in Albanian domestic politics. What Albania professes to favour, and the international community is pushing for, is the broadest possible autonomy for Kosovo, either within Serbia or as a separate constituent republic of Yugoslavia. So far, this is acceptable to neither the Serbs nor the Kosovars.As usual in the Balkans, there is a lot of history tied up in the dispute. Kosovo is both the Serbian Camelot, and, for the last eighty-six years, a burr under Serbia's saddle. For the Albanians, it is part of their historic territory and the place where, in the late 19th century, aspirations for an independent Albanian state began to take shape.ANCIENT HISTORY(both Serbs and Albanians care about this)The Serbs believe that Kosovo was basically empty before the Slav migrations of the sixth and seventh centuries. The Albanians assert that they have always lived there - at least since Roman times, when it was populated by the Illyrians, from whom Albanians claim to be directly descended. Much academic ink, on both sides, has been spilt in defence of these positions.MEDIEVAL HISTORY(Serbs particularly care about this)Kosovo was the geographical and ecclesiastical centre of the mediaeval Serbian empire. It reached its height under Tsar Stefan Dusan (1331-55), who made Prizren (in Kosovo) one of his major capitals and was buried there. His realm included most of what is now Albania, and there were probably as many Albanians as Serbs in his victorious armies.What made Kosovo the central point of heroic Serbian mythology, however, was the glorious defeat of Tsar Lazar's army at Kosovo Polje (the Field of Blackbirds) on 28 June 1389 (St Vitus Day, or, in Serbian, Vidovdan) by the invading Ottoman Turks. The Serbs see their role as having valiantly, if unsuccessfully, defended Christendom against the infidel. In fact, there were Serbs on both sides of this battle, and Tsar Lazar's forces included Albanians and a contingent from Bosnia - at the time perhaps the strongest Slav state in the region. …


You can build a world-class SOA infrastructure entirely using popular, and mature, open-source applications. Unfortunately, the technical documentation for most open-source projects focuses on a specific product, the big SOA picture. You're left to your own devices to figure out how to cobble together a full solution from the various bits. In other words, unless you already know how Mule and Tuscany work with jBPM, you're stuck. Open Source SOA shows readers how to build an entire SOA application using open-source technologies. It shows readers how to apply key ideas like Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) design and Business Process Management (BPM) and learn the tools and techniques to implement them effectively. To pull everything together, the author describes real-life case studies from his own work to tie together all the principles and practices. These hard-to-find case studies are pure gold for the reader, as most developers keep these trade secrets to themselves.


Increased popularity of global software engineering (GSE) has resulted in quite a number of research and industrial studies. As the area matures, an increased focus on empirically supported results leads to a greater potential impact on future research and industrial practice. However, since GSE scenarios are diverse, what works in one context might not directly apply in another. Thus it is necessary to understand, how GSE-related empirical findings should be reported to be useful for practitioners and researchers. Furthermore, itdasias important to summarize progress and get the big picture of published research to identify gaps and commonalities. In this paper we analyze differentiating factors of GSE scenarios and offer a classification scheme for describing the context of a GSE study. In addition, we report initial results of a systematic review on GSE-related empirical literature using papers from ICGSE 2006 and 2007, at the same time illustrating and evaluating the proposed scheme.


In Jill Estes' argumentative essay "Pulling Back the Curtains," she describes a remarkable advertisement that combines all the attractive features of former and current tobacco ads but ends with a twist. Estes believes that it is important to remind young audiences that smoking has long-term effects that belie its mystique, and for her, this ad is an important part of that fight. Notice how she weaves analysis with description: "In an age where the glossy pages of magazines are plastered with cartoon depictions of Joe Camel grinning with a cigarette perched conspicuously between his lips . . . one can see how easily impressionable adolescents can fall into the entangling web of lies. . . ." Estes argues that this ad effectively fights the battle against smoking; additionally, she embeds other claims in her argument. What are they? To view the ad she is describing, go to www.tobaccofreeca.com.


The objective of this paper is to estimate 2D human pose as a spatial configuration of body parts in TV and movie video shots. Such video material is uncontrolled and extremely challenging. We propose an approach that progressively reduces the search space for body parts, to greatly improve the chances that pose estimation will succeed. This involves two contributions: (i) a generic detector using a weak model of pose to substantially reduce the full pose search space; and (ii) employing 'grabcut' initialized on detected regions proposed by the weak model, to further prune the search space. Moreover, we also propose (Hi) an integrated spatio- temporal model covering multiple frames to refine pose estimates from individual frames, with inference using belief propagation. The method is fully automatic and self-initializing, and explains the spatio-temporal volume covered by a person moving in a shot, by soft-labeling every pixel as belonging to a particular body part or to the background. We demonstrate upper-body pose estimation by an extensive evaluation over 70000 frames from four episodes of the TV series Buffy the vampire slayer, and present an application to full- body action recognition on the Weizmann dataset.


Political party finance law is the set of norms governing the income and expenses of political parties. While many countries have addressed political party finance constitutionally, such provisions are usually phrased in general terms, such as requirements of transparency, leaving the details to law and to the regulations promulgated by enforcement agencies. Legal reforms to political party finance systems are not a panacea; but when written and implemented well, the legal framework can help address significant challenges that face political party systems. Political party finance law can be divided into five basic design areas: the provision of public funds to parties and campaigns; limits on party income; limits on party spending; disclosure of party finances to the public; and enforcement of political party finance laws. These five key areas are intersected by cross-cutting themes, which must be considered throughout: whether party finance rules operate on an ongoing basis, on an electoral campaign basis, or both; whether party finance rules operate at the national, regional and local levels of party organization, or only at some of these; the role of actors who are not parties or candidates; the use of state resources by parties in power; and the importance of incentivizing compliance with party finance rules. This report applies comparative and academic research on political party finance law to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a focus on Egypt, Libya and Tunisia as post-authoritarian states that are currently engaged in comprehensive reform of their political institutions and are utilizing examples from other newer and more established democracies.


A family of super deep networks, referred to as residual networks or ResNet [14], achieved record-beating performance in various visual tasks such as image recognition, object detection, and semantic segmentation. The ability to train very deep networks naturally pushed the researchers to use enormous resources to achieve the best performance. Consequently, in many applications super deep residual networks were employed for just a marginal improvement in performance. In this paper, we propose ∊-ResNet that allows us to automatically discard redundant layers, which produces responses that are smaller than a threshold ∊, without any loss in performance. The ∊-ResNet architecture can be achieved using a few additional rectified linear units in the original ResNet. Our method does not use any additional variables nor numerous trials like other hyperparameter optimization techniques. The layer selection is achieved using a single training process and the evaluation is performed on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, SVHN, and ImageNet datasets. In some instances, we achieve about 80% reduction in the number of parameters.


This inquiry examines how family languages policies (FLP) are planned and developed in twenty bilingual families in Singapore with regard to their children's Chinese language and literacy development. The study focuses on how parents perceive Chinese and how their beliefs are transformed into active language practices. Data sources include de facto language practices in home domains, parents' language ideologies, and literacy activities and private tuition used as their language management. The findings reveal that all parents hold an unambiguous belief in the benefits of developing Chinese language, both in terms of cultural identity and in terms of providing overt socioeconomic opportunities. The study shows that FLPs are constantly interacting with and shaped by nonlinguistic forces – the national language policy and the educational system. When facing the sociopolitical and educational realities in Singapore, these parents are coerced to place Chinese and English into a dichotomous position resulting in lower expectations for their children's Chinese proficiency and less sufficient provision of Chinese literacy resources.


What a health care system should pay for depends, of course, on the health gain that results. Health technology assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis have become the core for many such decisions, by NICE in the UK and by similar bodies elsewhere. Other factors, however, also are taken into account by the governments and insurers who fund health care. These typically include - the impact of decisions on social equity[]; the quality of the patient experience; ramifications for the wider economy; and the quality of evidence required for decision making. The purpose of this OHE monograph is to inform and stimulate debate about the way different sorts of evidence and considerations are taken into account in decisions about new health care technologies. Awareness of the importance of incorporating a number of considerations into decisions about resource allocation in health care and many other fields has given rise to 'multiple criteria decision analysis' (MCDA). This is defined by the authors of this monograph as 'A set of methods and approaches to aid decision-making, where decisions are based on more than one criterion, which make explicit the impact on the decision of all the criteria applied and the relative importance attached to them'. The monograph is an invaluable primer on MCDA, explaining what MCDA is and how it can be used in health care. It includes examples of the use of this approach in the UK by local NHS organizations, in areas of the public sector other than health, and in health system decision-making in other countries. Both the advantages of using MCDA and its costs and risks are identified. The authors argue for greater use of MCDA as an aid to decision-making that is based on HTA, both in the NHS and in other countries. MCDA encourages a valuable discipline in requiring the explicit identification and weighting of the criteria that are used to make health care resource allocation decisions. This approach also increases transparency, making it easier to hold decision makers accountable for the choices they make on behalf of the public; this should lead to greater public confidence in the decisions that result, according to the authors. The report will be of value to anyone interested or involved in the policy and practice of health technology appraisal – and, more generally, to anyone involved in resource allocation in health care.


1. Abstract Usage of fiber reinforced composite material entered an new era when leading aircraft OEMs took an unprecedented step to design and manufacture essentially full composite airframe for commercial airliners. Composite structures offer unmatched design potential as the laminate material properties can be tailored almost continuously throughout the structure. However, this increased design freedom also brings new challenges for the design process and software. In recent years the authors have developed a comprehensive framework for composite optimization, leading the design from concept to ply-book details (1-2). The process consists of three optimization phases. Phase I focuses on generating ply layout concept through Free-Size optimization; Phase II further refines the number of plies for a given ply layup defined by Phase I; Then Phase III completes the final design details through Stacking sequence optimization satisfying all manufacturing and performance constraints. This software package has seen increasing adoption among aerospace OEMs, as demonstrated in the Bombardier application process described in this paper.


This paper reviews the effect of natural disasters on human mobility or migration. Although there is an increase of natural disasters and migration recently and more patterns to observe, the relationship remains complex. While some authors find that disasters increase migration, others show that they have only a marginal or no effect or are even negative. Human mobility appears to be an insurance mechanism against environmental shocks and there are different transmission channels which can explain the relationship between natural disasters and migration. Moreover, migrants' remittances help to decrease households' vulnerability to shocks but also dampen their adverse effects. The paper provides a discussion of policy implications and potential future research avenues.


ABSTRACT Successful viral replication is dependent on a conducive cellular environment; thus, viruses must be sensitive to the state of their host cells. We examined the idea that an interplay between viral and cellular regulatory factors determines the switch from Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) latency to lytic replication. The immediate-early gene product K-Rta is the first viral protein expressed and an essential factor in reactivation; accordingly, this viral protein is in a key position to serve as a viral sensor of cellular physiology. Our approach aimed to define a host transcription factor, i.e., host sensor, which modulates K-Rta activity on viral promoters. To this end, we developed a panel of reporter plasmids containing all 83 putative viral promoters for a comprehensive survey of the response to both K-Rta and cellular transcription factors. Interestingly, members of the NF-κB family were shown to be strong negative regulators of K-Rta transactivation for all but two viral promoters (Ori-RNA and K12). Recruitment of K-Rta to the ORF57 and K-bZIP promoters, but not the K12 promoter, was significantly impaired when NF-κB expression was induced. Many K-Rta-responsive promoters modulated by NF-κB contain the sequence of the RBP-Jκ binding site, a major coactivator which anchors K-Rta to target promoters via consensus motifs which overlap with that of NF-κB. Gel shift assays demonstrated that NF-κB inhibits the binding of RBP-Jκ and forms a complex with RBP-Jκ. Our results support a model in which a balance between K-Rta/RBP-Jκ and NF-κB activities determines KSHV reactivation. An important feature of this model is that the interplay between RBP-Jκ and NF-κB on viral promoters controls viral gene expression mediated by K-Rta.


Intracoronary optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) provides high resolution, three-dimensional views of coronary artery microstructure, but requires a non-occlusive saline/contrast purge to displace blood for clear artery views. Recent studies utilized manual pullback initiation/termination based on real-time image observation. Automated pullback initiation/termination by real-time OFDI signal analysis would enable more efficient data acquisition. We evaluate the use of simple imaging parameters to automatically and robustly differentiate between diagnostic-quality clear artery wall (CAW) versus blood-obstructed fields (BOF). Algorithms are tested using intracoronary OCT human data retrospectively and intracoronary OFDI swine and human data prospectively. In prospective analysis of OFDI swine data, the sensitivity and specificity of the ratio of second and first moments (contrast parameter) were 99.6% and 97.2%, respectively. In prospective analysis of OFDI clinical data, the contrast parameter yielded 96.0% sensitivity and 94.5% specificity. Accuracy improved further by analyzing sequential frames. These results indicate the algorithm may be utilized with intracoronary OFDI for initiating and terminating automated pullback and digital data recording.


Coexistent pulmonary tuberculosis and cancer of the lung were studied with comparison of two identical groups of 1769 persons each. The pulmonary tuberculosis series consisted of patients treated at Paivarinne Sanatorium between 1949 and 1953 and the control series of employees from two industrial plants in the city of Oulu. The names in each group were checked against those in the Finnish Cancer Register. Cancer of the lung was the most common neoplasia in both groups. Four cases of cancer of the lung, all males, were found in the pulmonary tuberculosis group, but in the control group there were six cases, again all males. However, the pulmonary tuberculosis morbidity in the control group between 1954 and 1967 was high, and two of the six cases from the control series had subsequently contracted pulmonary tuberculosis also.


— Stiffness of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) in flexible pavement is largely dependent of temperature, mode of testing and age of pavement. Accurate measurement of HMA stiffness is thus quite challenging. This study determines HMA stiffness based on Finite Element Model (FEM) and validates the results using field data. As a first step, stiffnesses of different layers of a pavement section on Interstate 40 (I-40) in New Mexico were determined by Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test. Pavement temperature was not measured at that time due to lack of temperature probe. Secondly, a FE model is developed in ABAQUS. Stiffness of the base, subbase and subgrade were taken from the FWD test output obtained from the first step. As HMA stiffness largely varies with temperature it was assigned trial and error approach. Thirdly, horizontal strain and vertical stress at the bottom of the HMA and temperature at different depths of the pavement were measured with installed sensors on the whole day on December 25 th , 2012. Fourthly, outputs of FEM were correlated with measured stress-strain responses. After a number of trials a relationship was developed between the trial stiffness of HMA and measured mid-depth HMA temperature. At last, the obtained relationship between stiffness and temperature is verified by further FWD test when pavement temperature was recorded. A promising agreement between them is observed. Therefore, conclusion can be drawn that linear elastic FEM can accurately predict the stiffness and the structural response of flexible pavement.


This paper presents an axiomatic framework for influence diagram computation, which allows reasoning with partially ordered values of utility. We show how an algorithm based on sequential variable elimination can be used to compute the set of maximal values of expected utility (up to an equivalence relation). Formalisms subsumed by the framework include decision making under uncertainty based on multi-objective utility, or on interval-valued utilities, as well as a more qualitative decision theory based on order-of-magnitude probabilities and utilities.


In this report a formalization of genetic linkage analysis is introduced. Linkage analysis is a computationally hard biomathematical method, which purpose is to locate genes on the human genome. It is rooted in the new area of bioinformatics and no formalization of the method has previously been established. Initially, the biological model is presented. On the basis of this biological model we establish a formalization that enables reasoning about algorithms used in linkage analysis. The formalization applies both for single and multi point linkage analysis. We illustrate the usage of the formalization in correctness proofs of central algorithms and optimisations for linkage analysis. A further use of the formalization is to reason about alternative methods for linkage analysis. We discuss the use of MTBDDs and PDGs in linkage analysis, since they have proven efficient for other computationally hard problems involving large state spaces. We conclude that none of the techniques discussed are directly applicable to linkage analysis, however further research is needed in order to investigated whether a modified version of one or more of these are applicable.


What explains differentiation in a nonprofit's organizational practices around partnering with businesses? I propose that attendance at events plays a role. To explore this, I identify a network of energy and environmental nonprofit organizations and the events that brought them together to influence appliance energy efficiency from 1994 to 2006. Using network analysis to identify cohesive subgroups, I find that over time, organizations become more likely to choose one type of event over another suggesting niche development occurred in the field. I also find that, controlling for previous efforts with businesses, funding, and mission, organizations that belonged to a cohesive subgroup of organizations brought together by an annual event promoting cooperative market approaches from 2001 to 2006 were five times more likely than those nonprofits in other subgroups to partner with business. This research has implications for understanding the creation of new events and its impact on organizational practices.


Drinking water disinfection techniques without the dosage of chemicals are regarded as more advantageous in terms of costs and practical use. Here we investigated the efficacy of electrochemical disinfection for inactivation of Bacillus subtilis spores – a model microorganism of highly resistant pathogens. The effect of electrochemical disinfection with Ti n O 2n−1 ceramic electrodes which generate active chlorine from chloride in situ , was compared to the traditional chlorination in which active chlorine was produced from addition of sodium hypochlorite. Research was performed on a batch scale with a synthetic buffered drinking water containing 35.5 mg/l of chloride ions. Spore viability was analysed with both cultivation and cell potential for dividing (direct viable count method). The results showed that at similar residual disinfectant concentrations x contact time (CT value), electrochemical disinfection was over three times more effective in neutralizing both cultivable B. subtilis spores and those with cell potential for dividing than traditional chlorination. As in chlorination, electrochemical disinfection was shown to be water-pH dependent and the lowest CT value of 112 mg/l min −1 (2-log removal) was obtained at pH 6. The lowest efficiency for both techniques was observed at pH 8. In conclusion, electrochemical disinfection is a viable in situ method even at low levels of chlorides in drinking water and appears to be more effective than simple chlorination with the addition of the active chlorine species when highly resistant microbial forms are analysed, however, to apply the technology on a large scale additional studies on potential formation of disinfection by-products must be performed.


The effect of climate on historical change represents an exciting frontier for reading and research. In this volume scholars contribute to an area of interdisciplinary study which has not been systematically explored by climatologists and historians working together.Originally published in 1981.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Much attention has been paid to the effects of climate change on species' range reductions and extinctions. There is however surprisingly little information on how climate change driven threat may impact the tree of life and result in loss of phylogenetic diversity (PD). Some plant families and mammalian orders reveal nonrandom extinction patterns, but many other plant families do not. Do these discrepancies reflect different speciation histories and does climate induced extinction result in the same discrepancies among different groups? Answers to these questions require representative taxon sampling. Here, we combine phylogenetic analyses, species distribution modeling, and climate change projections on two of the largest plant families in the Cape Floristic Region (Proteaceae and Restionaceae), as well as the second most diverse mammalian order in Southern Africa (Chiroptera), and an herbivorous insect genus (Platypleura) in the family Cicadidae to answer this question. We model current and future species distributions to assess species threat levels over the next 70 years, and then compare projected with random PD survival. Results for these animal and plant clades reveal congruence. PD losses are not significantly higher under predicted extinction than under random extinction simulations. So far the evidence suggests that focusing resources on climate threatened species alone may not result in disproportionate benefits for the preservation of evolutionary history.


An off-axis four-mirror-anastigmatic telescope is presented here which is composed of two aspheric surfaces and two spherical surfaces. The entrance pupil diameter is 290 mm and the stop is located at the primary mirror. The effective focal length is 900 mm. The strip field of view for the telescope is 15° × 0.2° and if the telescope is launched into an orbit about 400 km altitude, the observed range width will be more than 105 km within a scene without any other auxiliary scanning instrument. The spectral range can be as wide as from visual wave band to infrared wave band in the mirror system. This telescope can be used for environmental monitoring with different detectors whose pixel is adapted to the optical resolution. In this paper, the spectral range is chosen as 3.0 -5.0 μm, and center distance of the pixel is 30 μm. And the image quality is near the diffraction limit.


The need to attract and keep soldiers has never been greater, yet that necessity is threatened by the Supreme Court's burgeoning state sovereign immunity jurisprudence. Congress has sought to promote military service in the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act (USERRA), which protects soldiers from adverse employment actions based on their military status. Although USERRA is clearly intended to apply to state employers, the Court's dicta that Congress cannot abrogate state sovereign immunity under Article I of the Constitution appear to emasculate that aim. This article, however, argues that the Court's recent holdings show that USERRA's abrogation, enacted pursuant to Congress's war powers, is an exception to the general prohibition against abrogation under Article I. The validity of war powers abrogation is supported by the historical importance of a unified national defense - well recognized during the plan of the constitutional convention and by the Court itself - which reveals that the states did not expect to possess immunity where the federal government exercises its war powers. This issue is important, for, as this article details, few suitable alternatives exist for military personnel who are deprived of their USERRA rights by state employers. Indeed, unless war abrogation is upheld, or Congress acts to secure conditional waivers of state immunity, military employees in only a few states will have the level of protection deemed necessary by Congress.


The purpose of this column is to give some perspective and words of advice to new inventors. When you choose to be an innovator, you will have lots of fun intellectually, but the road can be pretty bumpy when it comes to the politics of receiving proper credit for your ideas, and when it comes to "selling" your ideas and seeing them through to implementation. This column documents some of the possible bumps in the road, including the three stages toward acceptance of a new idea: ridicule, opposition, and obviousness.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multicomponent disorder that leads to substantial disability, impaired quality of life, and increased mortality. Although the majority of COPD patients are first diagnosed and treated in primary care practices, there is comparatively little information on the management of COPD patients in primary care. A web-based pilot survey was conducted to evaluate the primary care physician's, or general practitioner's (GP's), knowledge, understanding, and management of COPD in twelve territories across the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, eastern Europe, and Latin America, using a 10-minute questionnaire comprising 20 questions and translated into the native language of each participating territory. The questionnaire was administered to a total of 600 GPs (50 from each territory) involved in the management of COPD patients and all data were collated and analyzed by an independent health care research consultant. This survey demonstrated that the GPs' understanding of COPD was variable across the territories, with large numbers of GPs having very limited knowledge of COPD and its management. A consistent finding across all territories was the underutilization of spirometry (median 26%; range 10%–48%) and reliance on X-rays (median 14%; range 5%–22%) for COPD diagnosis, whereas overuse of blood tests (unspecified) was particularly high in Russia and South Africa. Similarly, there was considerable underrecognition of the importance of exacerbation history as an important factor of COPD and its initial management in most territories (median 4%; range 0%–22%). Management of COPD was well below guideline-recommended levels in most of the regions investigated. The findings of this survey suggest there is a need for more ongoing education and information, specifically directed towards GPs outside of Europe and North America, and that global COPD guidelines appear to have limited reach and application in most of the areas studied.


This thesis has set out to describe the creation of a multimodal interface that is to be used in com-
bination with a robotized system for controlling a
exible endoscope. It falls within the TeleFLEX
project that is conducted as a cooperation between Demcon, located in Oldenzaal, the University
of Twente and several hospitals located in the Netherlands.
First, an introduction about the main topics is given. These topics include endoscopic proce-
dures, the TeleFLEX project, the human factors that are associated with endoscopic procedures
and the reason behind the steps taken in the process. Following the introduction, an analysis was
conducted which resulted in information about the working environment in which endoscopic pro-
cedures are conducted, the end users of the interface and the tasks that the end users perform now
and are going to perform in the future when using the interface. The future tasks will be executed
using a system to help the therapist perform
Based on the information gained in the analysis, requirements were created for the system. The
requirements consist of critical requirements (for example, the endoscopic output should always
be visible), situation dependent requirements (for example, the settings of the system should be
adjustable) and additional requirements (for example, the system should have setting profiles).
The information from the analysis and the requirements were then used in iteratively designing
the interface, with each iteration consisting of creating one or more designs and letting these designs
be evaluated. After three iterations, a prototype was created consisting of two screens with one
screen presenting the endoscopic output and the other additional functionalities.
After completing the iterations and having one prototype and two possible setups for that
prototype (seperate screens or a console setup), an experiment was conducted to test the prototype
on effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a high workload situation, comparing the two different
setups. In this first experiment, there appeared a small preference for the seperate screen setup,
with this setup scoring a bit better on all three factors. Several observations were made in regard
to the usage as well as the layout of the interface.
The results from the first experiment and the made observations were then used to finalize the
prototype into a system. Still using two monitors, the system has more color and better distinguishes
between important and less important information.
The final system was again tested in an high workload setting. The system in itself scored
acceptable on the three factors earlier mentioned. Compared to the first experiment, the results
remained mostly the same. Again some observations regarding the complete system were made.
After the second experiment, it was concluded that the information that is present in the system
is at this time sufficient. Considering the information gathered in the analysis and during the two
experiments, a choice was made to combine the two setups and give therapists the possibility of
deciding themselves which setup they prefer. The addition of audio is imperative in the system,
but should mostly be used for errors and warnings, as not to divert the attention of the therapist
unnecessarily.
As soon as the mechanical parts of the TeleFLEX project are introduced, the interface should
be tested in combination with the interface, as this will give a more thorough insight in which parts
of the interface can and should be improved to optimally facilitate the therapists in their jobs. The
experiments as used in this thesis could be used as prototypes for future testing.


In ways that slip beneath the doctrinal radar, public defenders often behave like social workers. They find drug treatment and jobs for their clients, and intervene with landlords and employers. Conversely — and ironically — many civil welfare service providers act increasingly like law enforcement officials. Teachers call the police on their students, while welfare case workers often refer their clients for prosecution. This role-switching — by criminal lawyers and civil servants alike — is a function of the tight connection between criminalization and poverty: poor people tend to get swept up in the criminal system and such encounters tend to make people poor. This nexus is particularly powerful in the world of minor offenses and urban policing in which crime, unemployment, racial segregation, and lack of social infrastructure swirl around in one large, nearly inextricable mass. As a result, criminal justice actors are heavily preoccupied with defendants' social welfare even as the welfare state routinely treats its clients as presumptive criminals. These hydraulic forces affect every official actor — from police officers to prosecutors to emergency room nurses and public school teachers. But public defenders play a special role. Their multi-faceted service commitments to both criminal and welfarist outcomes reveal deep features of the criminal system itself and its conflicted governance relationship to its most vulnerable constituents.


General Authority for Educational Buildings (GAEB) in Egypt is responsible for new construction and maintenance of the educational building [1]. According to the Sixth FiveYears Plan in Egypt, the program of educational structures includes new construction of about 2915 schools, with 39.8 thousand classes. Also, maintenance works for buildings about 1250 schools. These works needs a high budget but the available budget is less than the required budget. Therefore, GAEB should apply optimization techniqes to save cost and optimize the benefit from the avaliable budget with the same quality level or more. This paper aims to apply value engineering technique on educational building to maximuize the utiltization of the available constructuion and maintenace budget. In this paper value engineering technique, is applied on a model of primary school. The paper suggested that GAEB should construct a value engineering department included in its organization structure. Finally it draws overall conclusions about the application of value engineering (VE) in the GAEB in Egypt. Also, to get the optimum set of activities, alternatives for cost saving and maximize the utilization of the available funds for new construction and maintenance works. The value engineering technique application is based on data collected from GAEB.


Development industrial word in era globalitation make many company competitive mutually with each speciality. The rival can adapt with many product, process, place, roof distribution, etc. That very difficult for the same is employee to consist of employee with extensive skilful and high motivation. Very repent if qualities employee out from the company. Therefore employee commitment to organization very important. For building organizational commitment not only to give sufficient salary, but other needs like feel safety must fulfilled by company.
Fulfilled safety need can realized company with social guarantee. But, the very important point in here is what employee feel need of social guarantee fulfilled or not fulfilled to give from company. Purpose this examination for know relation of social guarantee with organizational commitment. Sample technique ini this examination to applied purpossive sampling because examiner knew that select sample have special characters to match with the purpose examination. Data bringing technique to applied is social guarantee scale and organizational commitment scale. Technique data analysis to applied is product moment karl pearson with program SPSS version 13, 00 Result this examination get value p = 0,000 and r = 0,737, that to indicate between fulfilled of social guarantee and organizational commitment have very significant relation. Its means, if need of social guarantee fulfilled to cause high level commitment, exactly if need of social guarantee not fulfilled to cause low level commitment. And then determination koeficient 0,543 or 54,3 %, it means fulfilled of social guarantee determinant organizational commitment 54,3 %.


The tax code is designed to raise government revenue. Domestic support obligations (DSOs) — namely, child support and spousal support — are designed to ameliorate the financial burdens that arise upon divorce. To determine the amount of domestic support obligations, statutes often refer to commonly used taxation concepts, such as "income."

Courts determining domestic support obligations have been confronted with the question of how to treat "phantom income" — that is, amounts that are includible as gross income under the federal tax code but that have not resulted in any actual current cash receipt. Individuals obligated to make domestic support payments have argued that phantom income should not be included when calculating or modifying such obligations because the individual's ability to pay has not materially changed. This Article analyzes the intersection of federal tax law and domestic support obligations concerning phantom income.

This Article considers several solutions — judicial and legislative — to address the phantom income issue in the domestic support context. Notably, this Article evaluates the current judicial decisional framework to examine the potential tax and DSO asymmetries. Finally, this Article advances a legislative proposal for a charging-order type remedy specific to domestic support obligations—one that would resolve the phantom income issue in many situations.


The global trend towards the expansion of student participation in higher education study has resulted in unprecedented challenges to the sector as it seeks to respond to greater diversity in the student body and increased demand for academic support and flexibility in entry pathways. Unsurprisingly, this trend has been accompanied by a proliferation of research examining how universities and higher education are responding to the challenge of meeting the needs of a diverse population of students. This qualitative study, using a dual sector further education and higher education academic partner institution of a dispersed Scottish university as a case-study, investigates the 'lived experiences' of learners as they transition into and through the first year of higher education. The data analysis revealed three dominant enablers to student transitions: 'higher education demystification', 'student-centred peer support' and 'pastoral care'. The study recognises that student transitions are entangled in circumstances of time and place, as well as the unique dynamics of individual agency and interaction with others. However, by linking the student experiences to wider arcs of understanding on educational transitions, this small-scale study aims to contribute to broader discussions on how to forge better progression pathways between further education and higher education.


In global gyrokinetic simulations it takes a long time for the turbulence to reach a quasisteady state, and quantitative predictions about the quasisteady state turbulence have been difficult to obtain computationally. In particular, global particle-in-cell gyrokinetic simulations have been inefficient for long simulations due to the accumulation of noise. It is demonstrated that a simple Krook operator can effectively control noise; it also introduces an unphysical dissipation, which damps the zonal flows and can significantly affect simulation results even when the relaxation time is very long. However, it is possible to project out the effects of the Krook operator on the zonal flows. This permits noise accumulation to be controlled while preserving the physics of interest; simulations are then run to determine the level of quasisteady state transport and the variation across the ensemble of turbulent dynamics. Convergence is demonstrated both in the number of computational particles and the unphysical relaxation time.


We investigate the sensitivity enhancement of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors through planar metallic film closely coupled to nanogratings. The effects of the thickness of metallic film and grating period on the refractive index sensitivity of the device are analyzed in detail. The refractive index sensitivity of nanograting-based SPR sensors is predicted to be about 540 nm per refractive index unit (RIU) using optimized structural parameters. Furthermore, the grating period can be used as a parameter to adjust the wavelength of resonance reflection. Our study on SPR sensors through planar metallic film closely coupled to nanogratings demonstrates the potential for significant improvement in refractive index sensitivity, since it shows much greater flexibility in terms of tuning the optical parameters of the device.


Surveying how Christology is formulated in the wake of Nostra Aetate , this paper concentrates on three models: (1) The man became words, words, words ; the quest for the historical Jesus has often emphasised the — allegedly unique — teachings of the Nazarene. Its main problem, however, is that the contemporaries of Jesus are no longer presented as his historical context but as his theological contrast. (2) The word became fleshwounds ; due to Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ one single Greek word (Mk 15:15; fragellosas , i.e., "after having flogged") has been at the centre of the Christological discussion during 2004. His version of the medieval passion plays highlights its particular problems. Having first described the flaws of these two models, the paper will seek to explore how — two score years after the declaration Nostra Aetate — the Johannine statement that the Word became flesh could be helpfully articulated today.


During the 1979 summer field season archaeological excavations were carried out at three prehistoric sites along Cape Cove Beach, on the northeast coast of the island of Newfoundland. Data gathered from these sites, coupled with existing evidence, have allowed inferences to be made concerning: 1) the nature of the terminal period of the Maritime Archaic Tradition; 2) the possibility of cross-cultural diffusion resulting from contacts between Dorset Eskimo and Indian occupations in Newfoundland, between approximately 500 B.C. and A.D. 500; and 3) the origin of the historic Beothuks. -- The Cape Cove-1 site contained evidence of two separate Maritime Archaic occupations. The earlier of these two components represents one of the earliest known examples of human presence on the island of Newfoundland. The most significant artifacts recovered from this context are a slender chipped stone, contracting stemmed lance/spearhead, and two blade-like flakes. -- The second occupation at Cape Cove-1 apparently followed a c. 925 year cultural hiatus. The most notable artifacts from this context include a unifacial scraper, ground stone adzes and celts, linear flakes, and several bifacially flaked projectile points. -- The Cape Cove-2 site contained one major prehistoric Beothuk component. Diagnostic prehistoric Beothuk artifacts from Cape Cove-2 included notched points, other triangular and lanceolate shaped bifaces, and scrapers. The discovery of a long rectangular sheet of birch bark in situ at Cape Cove-2 likely represents the earliest direct evidence for the use of birch bark canoes by Beothuks. Several artifact forms, which may have been used in canoe construction, were recovered from or near various hearth features at Cape Cove-2. These included a ground (and chipped) stone wedge, a concave knife/scraper and a bone awl or punch. -- The Cape Cove-3 site contained at least one feature which, according to our existing criteria, was identified as a Maritime Archaic tool manufacturing activity area. This feature contained such items as a bone scraper, an unidentified smooth oval stone, several large chipped stone lance/spearheads, and hundreds of biface thinning flakes. It is interesting to note that sites found elsewhere, with comparable artifacts, have been radiocarbon dated to periods well after the dates which were obtained from Cape Cove-2 and the Beothuk component at Cape Cove-3. -- The major occupation of Cape Cove-3 appears to have been established by members of what we presently refer to as prehistoric Beothuk culture, despite that fact that this apparent prehistoric Beothuk occupation may actually predate the so-called Maritime Archaic occupation the same site. Prehistoric Beothuk culture was indicated archaeologically by the presence of notched points, triangular bifaces, and scrapers. Also present in some of these hearth features were several miniature, expanding stemmed points, small blade cores/gravers, and tiny linear flakes. These latter items are tentatively classified as an early Beothuk 'micro-point' technology, although further research is required to firmly establish the cultural origin of these artifact forms. -- The Cape Cove evidence as a whole indicates and supports the in situ hypothesis over the population replacement concept in the explanation of the disappearance of the Maritime Archaic Tradition and the origin of Beothuk culture. Moreover, this proposed in situ cultural transition now appears to have taken place during a period of close coexistence and cross-cultural diffusion with Early and Middle period Dorset Eskimos. Eskimo to Indian trait diffusion is suggested to account, in large part, for those differences between Late Maritime Archaic and 'proto-Beothuk' cultures which are not simply the result of continuous cultural development.


"In 2003 'This is the Trekka' was presented as the second only ever New Zealand pavilion at the Biennale of Venice. With this in mind the pavilion became a contemporary reflection on an unusual cold war story. The project itself takes as its central motif, the Trekka - the only New Zealand mass-produced automobile - and teases out the eccentricities of the partnership that brought this vehicle into being.

Produced between 1966 and 1972 by NZ private enterprise and the state run Czech manufacturer Motokov this adventurous partnership becomes a precursor to the more globalised situations we see today. At the time however both these nations were still economically tied to their respective motherlands. Automobile manufacturing was, during the cold war, considered a nation building exercise: a national car equated to a working national economy. Local producers were therefore guided in the hope that this benchmark of industrialisation would further consolidate their nation's first world status." -- Artist's website.


Introduction Near Argostoli, on the southern coast of the island of Cephalonia, in Greece, a stream of salt water has for an unknown period of time left the almost tideless sea, and, flowing inland with a volume sufficient to furnish water power to two mills, finally disappeared in fissures representing enlarged joint cracks in the limestone. This remarkable reversal of the normal conditions of drainage and the disposal of the immense quantities of water sinking into the limestone have long been themes for speculation. I t remained for F. W. and W. O. Crosby,* however, to offer the first plausible explanation, which, in brief, is the differential action of the earth's interior heat on an unsymmetrical passage with a short "inlet" and a long "outlet" arm, the water in the latter, because of its greater exposure to the heat, being warmer and lighter than in the short arm, thus establishing . . .


Indonesia is readying itself for a return to a diplomatic assertiveness not seen since the early 1960s. Partly, this reflects the approach of 0050 resident Joko Widodo and his government, but it also reflects growing aspirations among the wider circles of Indonesia's elites for their country to act as, and be acknowledged as a 'big country' – negara besar. This constitutes a significant shift from the traditions of low-key diplomacy of the New Order and Reformasi eras. Several factors are pushing this shift. Indonesia's growing economic weight will, over time, provide more of the foundations of national power than it has had hitherto. The changing regional strategic and political order will make it harder for Indonesia to take its place in Asia for granted and to assume that its intentional interests can be protected primarily through ASEAN. And domestically the trend to rising nationalism will provide political incentives to greater assertiveness. On the other hand, Indonesia still has big hurdles to overcome before it can act as an effective major power in Asia. Its economic trajectory remains uncertain, its military is weak, its diplomatic capacities are underdeveloped, and it lacks a clearly articulated set of policy objectives to pursue. So, it remains to be seen whether Indonesia's aspirations to major power status will be realised.


Heralded as the first stage in the regeneration of Heathrow Airport leading up to the 2012 Olympics, the construction of Terminal 5 had bucked the trend. In the world where most mega-infrastructure projects fails, the T5 project was not only on schedule, it was on budget. At its official opening by the Queen two weeks before the first planes and passengers would use the new facility, it was being trumpeted as the 21st century gateway to Britain. Two weeks later Heathrow's owner BAA and British Airways, the occupant of T5, managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by scoring a spectacular own goal. What should have been an occasion for celebration turned into a national disaster. Multiple problems emerged on the opening day which resulted in the cancellation of numerous flights and more than twenty thousand bags requiring manual sorting before being returned to their owners. This paper reconsiders the opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5 which was considered by all and sundry to be an unmitigated disaster. It re-examines the problems that occurred on opening day using the reports that appeared in the media in the immediate aftermath and the evidence presented to the House of Commons Transport Committee. The opening disaster seems to fall into the category of as 'normal incident' (Perrow, 1984), but that both BAA and BA suffered from technological hubris (Hughes, 2004) which led them to create unrealistic expectations and ignore the human aspects of the complex system that they were creating.


FRET analysis reveals temporal and spatial patterns of Cdc42 activation in individual cells and the whole fly embryo. Spatial and temporal regulation of the activity of ubiquitously expressed proteins is critical to the proper function of signaling pathways. Kamiyama et al. have measured activity of the small, ubiquitously expressed guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) Cdc42 in intact Drosophila melanogaster embryos during development using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) analysis with a transgenically encoded probe for Cdc42 activity. Although some Cdc42 activity was observed in scattered cells earlier in embryogenesis, Cdc42 did not display any tissue-wide activation until about 15 hours into development (the time at which organogenesis begins), when it became active in the trachea, the central nervous system (CNS), and a group of cells along the dorsal midline. Both the spatial and temporal patterns of Cdc42 activity corresponded to the tissues and stages affected in cdc42 loss-of-function mutants. The authors also expressed the Cdc42 activity probe specifically in the segmentally reiterated anterior corner cell (aCC) motoneuron to examine Cdc42 activity at the cellular level. Cdc42 became active in this cell after axonal outgrowth was under way in the area of the axon from which dendrites would grow, and activity persisted in this area throughout dendrite elaboration. Removing Cdc42 activity from aCCs had no effect on cellular morphology before the time when Cdc42 activity was observed in wild-type aCCs. Expressing constitutively active Cdc42 in this motoneuron caused premature termination of axonal growth and defects in dendrogenesis, whereas overexpressing wild-type Cdc42 had no effect on morphology. The spatial and temporal pattern of Cdc42 activity thus corresponded with the phenotypes observed in loss-of-function mutants at both an organismal and cellular level. It is striking that this ubiquitously expressed protein is activated in a relatively small portion of the embryo and required for discrete, relatively short periods of time, at least in aCC cells. D. Kamiyama, A. Chiba, Endogenous activation patterns of Cdc42 GTPase within Drosophila embryos. Science 324, 1338–1340 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Objectives: To evaluate the association between psychological stress and skin symptoms among medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between January and June 2015. Electronic survey consists of Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and Self-Reported Skin Complaints Questionnaire were distributed to all 1435 undergraduate students at College of Medicine, King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results: Final analysis was performed on data from 529 (36.9%) students. Students were divided into three groups: least stressed students, n=135, PSQ index <0.39; highly stressed students, n=136, PSQ index >0.61; and moderately stressed students, n=258. Older age, female gender, during exam weeks, and fourth and fifth years of medical school (all p<0.01) were associated with the highest perceived stress levels. When compared to least stressed students, highly stressed students suffered from more oily, waxy patches or flakes on scalp (p≤0.0001), dry/sore rash (p≤0.0001), warts (p≤0.0001), pimples (p≤0.0001), itchy skin (p≤0.0001), hands itchy rash (p≤0.0001), hair loss (p≤0.0001), pull-out own hair (p=0.008), scaly skin (p=0.012), troublesome sweating (p=0.016), nails biting (p=0.028), and other rashes on face (p=0.028). Conclusion: Various common skin conditions could appear in context of psychological stress among medical students.


To safeguard the delivery of energy supply from the Coal Fired Power Stations, a stock back up tonnage of coal is required at a power station. This stock is generally referred to as a Stock Pile (SP) whether measured in tonnage (SPT) or in days (SPD). The Total Stock reflects the stock of coal (in tonnes) at hand, plus the replenishments (such as from stathes [e.g. bunker type] or direct-supply); therefore the Total Stock is equivalent to the SPT. Essentially, the SPD reflects the daily SPD variation on the stock, based on the daily usage and replenishment.


Photos can be used as supplements to written fieldnotes and as sources for mediating reflection during fieldwork and analysis. As part of a field diary, photos can support the recall of experiences and a reflective distance to the events. Photography, as visual representation, can also lead to reflection on learning and knowledge production in the process of learning how to conduct fieldwork. Pictures can open the way for abstractions and hidden knowledge, which might otherwise be difficult to formulate in words. However, writing and written field notes cannot be fully replaced by photos and visual images. Techno-anthropology students at Aalborg University, in their course titled "Portfolio in Anthropological Work," use photography and visual abstractions for different purposes during fieldwork. This article analyzes certain excerpts from students' portfolio works in order to show the role played by photos in their learning process. For students, photography is an everyday documentation form that can support their memory of field experience and serve as a vehicle for the analysis of data. The article discusses how photos and visual representations support fieldwork learning and analysis based on students' initiatives and experience in using photos and photographing for a wide aspect of purposes during participant-observation.


Purpose of the study Although cognitive impairment and delirium are highly prevalent in older patients who present to the emergency department, multiple studies have highlighted inadequate detection by doctors. This study investigated potential reasons underlying this. Study Design A 14-item self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all medical, surgical and emergency department physicians involved in the care of older patients in the emergency department of an urban university teaching hospital between January and March 2012. Results The questionnaire was completed by 76/97 (78%) of eligible respondents. Respondents reported screening an average of one in four older patients that they reviewed. Almost one-third (22/76, 29%) felt they lacked the relevant expertise to perform cognitive screening: those with training in geriatrics were less likely to cite lack of expertise as a factor. While the majority felt screening for cognition in the emergency department-setting was important (59/76, 78%), several limiting factors were identified: lack of a screening tool; lack of privacy; too much noise; and time constraints. There was no consensus on who should perform screening. Conclusions Doctors reviewing patients in the emergency department-setting reported several important factors limiting their ability to screen older patients for cognitive impairment. Respondents to this questionnaire did not feel the emergency department environment was conducive towards the assessment of cognition in older patients. Clarification of each discipline's responsibility in the detection, assessment and management of delirium and/or dementia, and the implementation of emergency department cognitive screening instruments more suited to this setting would likely improve detection and management.


Theories of gender and the nation posit that women are prescribed certain roles according to the needs of the state at a particular historical moment and that such roles are frequently articulated in media discourses. In China, the government has a long-standing tradition of using the state-run media to convey a national vision and mould its citizens. Hence, the mediated representation of Chinese women has ebbed and flowed according to radical shifts in government policy and ideology. In recent decades, massive economic and social changes have necessitated a quest for legitimacy on the part of the government through a vast reorganization of the country's ideological environment, including the official construction of gender. This paper discusses three discursive representations of women currently articulated in state-run Chinese newspapers –worker, housewife, and consumer – and examines how the government press emphasizes the equality of Chinese women while simultaneously positioning them as inferior to men.


OBJECTIVE
Hypertension may result from changes in dietary quality and nutrient intake. We therefore sought to determine the epidemiological association between tooth loss and hypertension in South African adults.

METHODS
This is a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of adults aged 25 - 70 years who participated in the South African Demographic and Health Survey during 1998 (N = 9 098). The primary data were collected using a validated questionnaire, which included information on past experience of tooth loss (partial or complete), use of dental services, tobacco use and other known risk factors for hypertension. Hypertension was defined as having a measured average blood pressure (BP) > or = 160/95 mmHg and/or taking antihypertensive medication.

RESULTS
The prevalences of hypertension, any tooth loss and complete edentulousness were 18.1%, 72.2% and 9.4% respectively. Tooth loss was more common among overweight/obese respondents than among those with a normal body mass index (76.7% v. 66.7%; p < 0.01). Compared with the fully dentate respondents, the completely edentulous respondents had mean systolic and diastolic BPs that were respectively 12 mmHg and 5 mmHg higher. After adjusting for known risk factors for hypertension in a multiple logistic regression model, being completely edentulous remained significantly associated with hypertension (odds ratio 1.35, 95% confidence interval 1.02 - 1.78). The estimated population-attributable fraction of hypertension resulting from complete edentulousness was 10%.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that complete edentulousness is a risk indicator for hypertension in South Africa and highlights the importance of primary care practitioner involvement in oral health promotion.


We describe the effect of a chemically characterized lipophilic extract obtained from Marthasterias glacialis L. against human breast cancer (MCF-7) and human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cell lines. Evaluation of DNA synthesis revealed that both cell lines were markedly affected in a concentration-dependent way, the SH-SY5Y cell line being more susceptible. Cell cycle arrest was observed, an effect induced by the sterol, ergosta-7,22-dien-3-ol, present in the extract. Morphological evaluation of treated cells showed the advent of lipid droplets and chromatin condensation compatible with apoptosis, which was confirmed by the evaluation of caspase-3 and -9 activities. Palmitic acid was the main compound responsible for this apoptotic effect by a ceramide-independent mechanism that involved endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress with upregulation of CCAAT/-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein (CHOP).


The integration of memory circuits in thin-film transistors (TFTs) is essential to extend the functionalities of large-area applications such as flat-panel displays, imagers etc. Intensive research is being conducted with the goal of producing high-performance memory devices for active-matrix backplane electronics. For example, a memory in a pixel circuit has the potential to reduce the refresh rate for display applications. This eventually leads to reduced power consumption which is vital for producing low-power displays. In addition, memory in pixel circuits can improve the fill factor of the display by its ability to hold the data without the need for a storage capacitor. Prior work has reported various TFT structures justifying the performance of the devices especially on their behavior under floating conditions. This work investigates the effect of continuous read cycles on the stability of low-temperature hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) memory TFTs prepared using the industrial standard back-channel etched (BCE) TFT process, as the topic yet to be explored systematically. An engineered charge-trapping interface between the gate dielectric and the channel layer is fabricated to realize non-volatile memory. The performance of the devices was initially measured by comparing the transfer characteristics of the memory TFTs with conventional a-Si:H TFTs. The stability of the memory devices was measured under different stress conditions by varying the gate voltage and stress time. An emphasis was placed on the stability of the memory devices under floating and persistent read cycles as followed in display applications. The drain current was measured over various intervals of time for ∼60 days to track the degradation of the devices. The reliability of the memory devices was also measured. From the analysis of the results, the charge-trapping memory TFTs demonstrated good iii stability, large memory window, and better endurance. The charge retention of the devices under floating conditions was extrapolated and it showed a lifetime of ∼10 years. However, the charge retention of the memory TFTs exhibited a 50% decrease in lifetime under realistic persistent read bias conditions (∼5 years). This is possibly due to the instability of a-Si:H devices. This lifetime is subjected to change under different read voltage. Hence, the lifetime under continuous read cycles is extremely important to provide boundaries for expected memory lifetimes under normal display operating conditions.


One of the most heated debates over Mexico's ratification of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court dealt with a violation of the non bis in idem principle. Whether one agrees with the jurisdiction of the ICC or not, what came to light with this disagreement is that the Mexican Constitution might be at odds with international human rights standards with regard to this Principle. Consequently, there is a need to make a comparative assessment between both bodies of law. While the obvious starting point is Article 23 of the Mexican Constitution, which states this principle, an extensive study cannot stop there but must include its judicial interpretation. Furthermore, only the precedents that seem to stretch the application of the principle will be considered, because it is through these borderline cases that we can establish the extent of the Principle (It should be noted that this approach is not common, since there is no system of precedents in Mexico; however, it is only through the judicial gloss that we can ascertain the extent of the Principle). Next I will examine (using the same method) International Human Rights Law, in particular the American Convention on Human Rights, because it is the only international instrument that includes a non bis in idem provision that applies to Mexico. Once the descriptive part of the paper is done, there will be enough material to make a full comparative analysis to determine whether Mexican regulation of non bis in idem fulfills international human rights standards and, in case this is answered in the negative, what is needed to comply.


In a peer-to-peer network each computer acts as both a server and a client—supplying and receiving files—with bandwidth and processing distributed among all members of the network. Such a decentralized network uses resources more efficiently than a traditional network and is less vulnerable to systemic failure. Peer to Peer networks are used by Bluetooth electronics and Internet based communication services, but development has largely been driven by online file sharing. The existence of high degree of malicious peers is a serious threat to the P2P network life time. This paper we propose an intelligent framework which deals with the issue of identifying free riders and other kind of peers who reduces the networks life time. Additionally, this paper also proposes a basic data warehouse structure for a peer to peer system and analyzes peer behavior using data mining functionalities. Results prove that the free riders and malicious peers get automatically eliminated from the system thereby increasing the networks life time.