Automatically searching for optimal hyperparameter configurations is of crucial importance for applying deep learning algorithms in practice. Recently, Bayesian optimization has been proposed for optimizing hyperparameters of various machine learning algorithms. Those methods adopt probabilistic surrogate models like Gaussian processes to approximate and minimize the validation error function of hyperparameter values. However, probabilistic surrogates require accurate estimates of sufficient statistics (e.g., covariance) of the error distribution and thus need many function evaluations with a sizeable number of hyperparameters. This makes them inefficient for optimizing hyperparameters of deep learning algorithms, which are highly expensive to evaluate. In this work, we propose a new deterministic and efficient hyperparameter optimization method that employs radial basis functions as error surrogates. The proposed mixed integer algorithm, called HORD, searches the surrogate for the most promising hyperparameter values through dynamic coordinate search and requires many fewer function evaluations. HORD does well in low dimensions but it is exceptionally better in higher dimensions. Extensive evaluations on MNIST and CIFAR-10 for four deep neural networks demonstrate HORD significantly outperforms the well-established Bayesian optimization methods such as GP, SMAC, and TPE. For instance, on average, HORD is more than 6 times faster than GP-EI in obtaining the best configuration of 19 hyperparameters.


Although increasingly sophisticated design methodologies for developing new user interfaces exist, low-effort, high-payoff user interface reengineering represents a new direction-and opportunity. Yet reengineering a working system is complex and risky because of the potential disruption to users and managers, their justifiable fear of change, and the lack of guarantees that such changes will be for the better. Our largely positive experiences with the projects described here lead us to believe that user interface reengineering is a viable and important process. Low effort, high-payoff improvement recommendations can probably be made for most existing systems. Nevertheless, a narrowly focused user interface reengineering plan may be inappropriate when the major problems lie outside the scope of the user interface, such as inadequate functionalities, frequent crashes, and network problems. Attempts at improving less severe problems while ignoring deeper ones may be perceived as insensitive by the users. In such cases it is important to consider either making similar short-term improvements for other parts of the systems or postponing short-term user interface reengineering in favour of a more complete system reengineering. Similarly, the need for interface stability might outweigh the benefits of the short-term improvements if a complete reengineering is planned for the near future. But most likely these proposed diagnostic strategies and opportunities for improvement are only a prelude to the much larger task of business reengineering, which implies extensive user interface reengineering.


Background: In visual backward masking, a target is followed by a mask impeding target perception. Visual backward masking is a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia because patients with schizophrenia and also their unaffected relatives show significant performance deficits compared to controls. If backward masking is an endophenotype, unaffected students with elevated schizotypal traits should also show relative backward masking impairments. In the past, research on endophenotypes has mostly focused on higher cognitive functions. For this reason, we also assessed performance in the widely used Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Methods: We tested 40 healthy undergraduate students in the visual backward masking task and the WCST used in clinical studies before (Herzog et al., 2004; Chkonia et al., 2010). The visual backward masking paradigm is based on a two-step procedure. In the first step, we presented a visual target and determined the presentation time to reach 75% correct responses for each observer individually. With this step, we compensate for general, task-irrelevant effects. In the second step, this individual duration was used to assess the actual visual backward masking performance. Here, the target was followed by a masking stimulus (5 or 25 element grating) after a blank period (ISI). All participants filled in a self-report schizotypy measure, i.e. the O-life questionnaire assessing schizotypy along three dimensions, i.e. positive schizotypy (unusual experience), cognitive disorganization, and negative schizotypy (introvertive anhedonia). Results: We observed that both visual backward masking and the total number of errors in the WCST were impaired for students with high scores on the cognitive disorganization dimension. No significant differences were found for introvertive anhedonia scores or unusual experience scores. Discussion: The present findings indicate that both tasks are potential endophenotypes along the schizophrenia spectrum. However, previous studies indicate that the backward masking task is more reliable than higher cognitive tasks (e.g. WCST) (Herzog et al., 2004; Chkonia et al., 2010). Because our findings were specific to cognitive disorganization, we suggest that this dimension is the most illness-relevant schizotypy dimension. Our results show further evidence that visual backward masking is a potential endophenotype for schizophrenia.


Studies of major blackouts reveal that power system protection devices have contributed to a majority of system disturbances. This leads to efforts of improving protection philosophy. Analysis shows that conventional protection relies on coordination among stand alone relays to obtain a dependability-biased component-protection scheme. Whereas it is more desirable and also feasible nowadays for an integrated approach to both component and system protection, provided modern relays possessing the ability of sharing information and applying intelligence in decision-making. This dissertation proposes the adaptive protection concept for wide area systems. The scope of the research includes identifying and developing the desired architecture, intelligent algorithms and communication needs that facilitate the protection system to avoid and reduce the impact of system emergencies. The purpose of this research work is to conceptualize and nurture adaptive protection concept for wide area systems, and to conduct feasibility studies to make this concept practically viable. Several case studies are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive protection scheme. In addition, voltage stability, which is a classic wide area problem, can be alleviated with the proposed concept. Steady state and transient simulation studies provided encouraging results. The detailed decision-making algorithms are simulated in several examples for validation of the concept.


If one of your Info Marketing goals is to crush your closest competitors, you can practically do it by default if you eliminate the mistakes from your marketing activities and communications! When you avoid mistakes, you will WIN by not losing your time, money and confidence. Your passport to becoming a wildly successful Information Marketer boils down to doing the opposite of the "50 Mistakes" you read about in this course. Period. 50 Biggest Mistakes is packed full of logical practical, and actionable advice, that anyone in the industry can take to the bank. The best way to fix a mistake is to avoid it in the first place. Buying this book is a no-brainer for all information marketers. Luckily, Bret didnt take his own advice and made his #5 mistake. He did not charge anywhere near the value this book provides. Before he changes his mind, I would just buy it. When Bret Ridgway talks about Information Marketing, I listen. You should, too! Just after reading the first handful of mistakes Ive already made changes to an upcoming product launch Im doing that should put an extra five figures into my pocket.


Payment systems that allow people to pay using their mobile phones are promised to reduce transaction fees, increase convenience, and enhance payment security. New mobile payment systems also are likely to make it easier for businesses to identify consumers, to collect more information about consumers, and to share more information about consumers' purchases among more businesses. While many studies have reported security concerns as a barrier to adoption of mobile payment technologies, the privacy implications of these technologies have been under examined. To better understand Americans' attitudes towards privacy in new transaction systems, we commissioned a nationwide, telephonic (wireline and wireless) survey of 1,200 households, focusing upon the ways that mobile payment systems are likely to share information about consumers' purchases. We found that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the revelation of contact information (phone number, email address, and home address) to merchants when making purchases with mobile payment systems. Furthermore, an even higher level of opposition exists to systems that track consumers' movements through their mobile phones.We explain some advantages of mobile payment systems, some challenges to their adoption in the United States, and then turn to our main finding: Americans overwhelming reject mobile payment systems that track their movements or share identification information with retailers. We then suggest a possible remedy for such information sharing: adapting provisions of California's Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, which prohibits merchants from requesting personal information at the register when a consumer pays with a credit card, to mobile payments systems. Our survey results suggest that consumers would support limitations on information collection and transfer. Song-Beverly could be adopted to accommodate those who wish to share their transaction data.


Gabapentin Treatment for Alcohol Dependence To the Editor New treatments—both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic—for one of the most devastating substance abuse disorders, alcoholism, are direly needed. We were therefore delighted to read an article reporting on a trial of gabapentin as a treatment option for alcohol dependence.1 Unfortunately, this article does not clarify whether gabapentin increases the proportion of abstinent patients or those without heavy drinking. While the research protocol had stipulated a sample size of 150 patients randomized to 1 treatment and 1 placebo control group, the same number of patients was split among 3 groups: 2 active treatment and 1 placebo control group (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00391716). The authors calculated their sample size based on an acamprosate trial from a different setting.2 Consequently, it seems that the odds ratio for one of the co-primary end points, abstinence, compares the higher dosage group, gabapentin 1800 mg/d, with placebo and was not statistically different (odds ratio, 4.8; 95% CI, 0.9-35.0). This fact is obscured by the article's focus on a linear dose effect, with a P value below .05 from an extended Mantel-Haenszel χ2 test for linear association. In contrast, no P values were reported for the prespecified analysis. We believe that outcomes should not be selectively reported, and clinical trials should either adhere to their preregistered protocol or explain why they differed from it. Therefore, this present trial should be regarded as a dose-ranging study but not as a pivotal trial, which provides proof with traditional frequentist inference.


Multiway array decomposition methods have been shown to be promising statistical tools for identifying neural activity in the EEG spectrum. They blindly decompose the EEG spectrum into spatial-temporal-spectral patterns by taking into account inherent relationships among signals acquired at different frequencies and sensors. Our study evaluates the stability of spatial-temporal-spectral patterns derived by one particular method, parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). We focused on patterns' stability over time and in population and divided the complete data set containing data from 50 healthy subjects into several subsets. Our results suggest that the patterns are highly stable in time, as well as among different subgroups of subjects. Further, we show with simultaneously acquired fMRI data that power fluctuations of some patterns have stable correspondence to hemodynamic fluctuations in large-scale brain networks. We did not find such correspondence for power fluctuations in standard frequency bands, the common way of dealing with EEG data. Altogether, our results suggest that PARAFAC is a suitable method for research in the field of large-scale brain networks and their manifestation in EEG signal.


Abstract.
 A new genus and species of megalonychid sloth, Zacatzontli tecolotlanensis n. gen. n. sp., is described from the late Hemphillian of Jalisco, Mexico. Comparison and analysis of the type specimen, a mandible, with other megalonychid sloths shows a closer relationship to South American taxa than those from North America or the Caribbean. This suggests that during the early stages of the Great American Biotic Interchange there were two separate dispersal events of megalonychid sloths—an earlier one represented by Pliometanastes and the later one by Zacatzontli n. gen. While the morphology of the spout of Zacatzontli more closely resembles that of Megalonyx, based on the current record, Zacatzontli does does not enter North America until after the evolution of Megalonyx from Pliometanastes. The role of the northern neotropics in South America as a staging area for South American taxa that entered North America is discussed.


On the cover of the program brochure for the Public Forum "Louisiana Women in the Civil Rights Era: From Memory to Education" are photographs of two very different and important community activists in the New Orleans struggle for black freedom. On the right is Mrs. Oretha Castle Haley, the determined African American leader of the New Orleans chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and a veteran of many local directaction demonstrations in the city. Mrs. Haley continued her political efforts after the peak movement years by becoming involved in local politics, and in early childhood education. On the left side of the brochure is a photograph of Mrs. Rosa Freeman Keller, an heiress of the local Coca-Cola fortune and an Urban League stalwart in the 1950s, years when leadership in a bi-racial organization could be dangerous and personally traumatic. Mrs. Keller used her considerable influence, charm, and political capital to push for library desegregation in New Orleans in the 1950s, to campaign to kee p public schools open during the 1960-61 school crisis, and to promote African American voting rights and political participation. She also funded the lawsuit that resulted in the integration of Tulane University. I had the privilege of interviewing both women between 1978 and 1988 when I worked on a Ph.D. dissertation which later became a book on New Orleans' civil rights leadership. (1) Although I was able to interview Mrs. Haley only once, I was able to spend a number of hours with Mrs. Keller during several interviews between 1978 and 1988. At the time of my interviews, Mrs. Haley was a large, commanding presence, and the force of her personality permeated her interview narrative. Mrs. Keller, although thin and slow-moving due to several strokes, possessed a keen and analytical mind, great warmth, and a melodic, gracious voice that seemed to soften the gravity of her most difficult experiences. In 1989, I also interviewed Doris Jean Castle-Scott, Oretha Castle Haley's younger sister and a veteran of local demonstrations, the Freedom Rides of 1961, and other community actions. She had entered the local CORE chapter because she was "following my big sister." At the time of our interview, Castle-Scott was a slender, intense woman, who, in 1989, still very much mourned the recent deaths of her sister Oretha and her brother-in-law Richard Haley. She spoke of her sister's strength and vulnerability, and of her great hope that the lives of ordinary African Americans would be much improved by political change. These three very different women shared with me their memories of childhood and youth, their awareness and feelings about racial segregation and oppression, and their own experiences in trying to change the political and social system of New Orleans and the United States. They voiced their sense of pride in what they saw as real achievements, and their disappointment about changes that appeared only slowly and inadequately. While their stories were infused with the hopes that had guided their activism, all three voiced disappointment that the movement years seemed to have been replaced by the Age of Reagan and George Bush the First. In the years since I interviewed New Orleans civil rights leadership, I have had the privilege of talking with many other African American community leaders in four counties in the Mississippi Delta. (2) These experiences have made me aware of the complexities of personal moral development and social movement leadership among women who were also wives, mothers, schoolteachers, businesswomen, farmers, and Head Start workers in their most politically active years. The complexities of these women leaders' experiences and their perceptions of major social change are topics I would like to examine. At the Public Forum we were in the presence of women who experienced the injustices of the age of segregation in Louisiana. And we had the opportunity to hear their stories about how they worked to change the situation of African Americans in the state and nation. …


Abstract The crystal structure of the two dense hydrous magnesium silicates Phase D, MgSi2H2O6, and Phase H, MgSiH2O4, synthesized at 45 GPa and 1000 °C and coexisting in the same micrometer-sized grain, was investigated by single-crystal X‑ray diffraction to study the preferential partition of Al between the two structures. In agreement with the literature, Phase D was found to be trigonal, space group P3̅1m, with lattice parameters a = 4.752(2), c = 4.314(2) Å, V = 84.37(6) Å3 (R1 = 0.020), and Phase H was found to be orthorhombic, space group Pnnm, with lattice parameters a = 4.730(2), b = 4.324(2), c = 2.843(2) Å, V = 58.15(5) Å3 (R1 = 0.024). The estimated proportion (vol%) of the two phases from the refinement is 27(2)PhD - 73PhH. The analysis of the geometric details of the two structures shows that Phase D hosts almost all the Al available, whereas Phase H is nearly identical to pure MgSiH2O4. Overexposed electron-microprobe X‑ray maps of the same grain used for the X‑ray diffraction study together with WDS spots on the two phases confirmed the structural results. Thus, our results suggest that when Phase D and Phase H coexist, Al is strongly partitioned into Phase D at the expense of coexisting Phase H. At pressure above ~50 GPa, where Phase D is no longer stable, Phase H is able to incorporate the high aluminum contents present in hydrous peridotitic compositions in the deep lower mantle and be stabilized at the expense of Phase D and magnesium silicate perovskite.


In his bestselling book Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Bishop John Shelby Spong described the toxins that are poisoning the Church. Now he offers the antidote, calling Christians everywhere into a new and radical reformation for a new age. Spong looks beyond traditional boundaries to open new avenues and a new vocabulary into the Holy, proposing a Christianity premised upon justice, love, and the rise of a new humanity -- a vision of the power that might be.


Professional practices reflect the structuring of health services and are related to the underlying principles of the prevailing health care model. This study focused on preventive and educational practices by dentists in the Family Health Program in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil. A structured interview was held with 80 dentists, in addition to analysis of documents from the Outpatient Database of the Unified National Health System (SIA-SUS) and the Primary Care Database. Individual activities involving orientation for oral hygiene and topical application of fluoride were reported by 87.5% and 95% of dentists, respectively. At the collective level, all the dentists that worked in schools (91.2%) performed topical fluoride application, while 86.2% conducted educational activities. According to SIA-SUS records, preventive activities accounted for 41% of all procedures. Among these, topical application of fluoride gel per sitting and supervised brushing accounted for 24.4% and 31%, respectively. As for educational activities, 57.4% were held in the health care unit and 42.6% in the community. The findings indicate that the preventive practices focus on dental caries, particularly in schoolchildren, and that they need to be expanded to include other oral health problems.


In increasing educsional in Indonesia, the goverment has implemented many program, such as MENPAN decison No: 84 years 1993 about penetapan jabatan fungsional (The Appoitment of Fungsional podition) " to advancement in position must be any credit number that is gotten from
developing profession (Suhardjono, 2008). The policy is supported by SK. Mendikbud No.025/0/1995 about " Penetapan Teknis Ketentuan Pelaksanaan Jabatan Fungsional Guru dan
Angka Kreditnya" it can do activities there is most important to develope our education that is we must do research for sducation or it is called by " Classroom Action Research (CAR)" (Ditjen Dikti, 1999). Classroom Action Research it is research activity and it give for our student for one class (Arikunto, 2008).
Based on the decision, the goverment did some attemp support implement Research Action Classin circle of ticher, such us by giving exercise/seminar/work shop about RAC in each areamin provinsi through scientific forum, giving help fund to the teacher who was accepted his proposal by Dikti (Ditjen Dikti, 1999).By various of attemp that was done by goverment, it didn't bring the real change in increasing educasional, because of the fact was stillmany teachers
didn't implement CAR. CAR was not implemented by the teacher, it was caused by some factor that could be problem is faced by the teacher. Because of that this research was important to be done, by the title "Kajian Of Problem Classroom Action Research (CAR) By The Teachers at
SD, SMP and SMA in Batu (Studi Kasus 2008)".
This research had purpose to know what kind of problem that was faced by teacers at SD, SMP and SMA in implementing Classroom Action Research (CAR) in Batu . This research used deskriptiv research that used 17 school as sample, with the leflets, as follow: 7 SD, 5 SMP and 5 SMA in Batu. By using the research instrument like checklist which was distrubuted to 2 IPA teacher in each of School sample.
The result of this study show that the problem wasfaced by the techers in implementary the various of Classroom Action Research. With leaflets, as follow: at SD, the problem was faced by 78,57% of the teacher were less their knowledge about Classroom Action Research (CAR)., whereas the problem of 21,43% the teachers were not time. at SMP, the probem was faced by 60% the teachers were not time, whereas 20% were less the teachers knowledge about CAR and 20% were less support literature that teacher had. at SMA, the problem was faced by 70% the techer were less facilities, whereas 30% of the teacher's problem were less their knowledge about CAR.


This thesis generates insights into the re-conceptualisation and revaluation of industrial policy (IP) as a legitimate tool of economic policy in the context of developing countries. It draws upon what I call the New Industrial Policy (NIP) thinking, which is based on institutionalist and evolutionary economics concerned with both 'the innovation, learning and knowledge triad' and the spatialisation of IP The NIP thinking asserts the importance of learning and innovation, the 'power of economies of association' and 'the power of place' as key sources of competitive advantage. These three propositions are evaluated through empirical research which is based on the Argentinean experience in light of the failure of the last neoliberal programme implemented in the country (1991-2001). Specifically, the research focuses on a regional economy in which there exists both a cluster of SMEs and a group of institutions concerned with firm competitiveness. This thesis makes three main contributions to re-conceptualise the NIP thinking in the context of economies affected by economic decline. First, it identifies key factors that explain why the learning and innovation economy has less relative importance in these economies (if compared with firms in more developed economies), by arguing that the learning and innovation require a minimal threshold of resources and accumulated capabilities that the SMEs in development countries often do not have. Secondly, it explains why the powers of place and the economies of associations are only marginally exploited by firms due to the marked influence of restrictions at micro-, meso- and macro-economic levels. Finally, despite these restrictions, this research reveals that some emerging processes of change in individual firms and institutions have recently occurred which are in line with the assumptions forwarded by the NIP thinking. I conclude that in the interstices of the Argentine economic policy there is a case to consider the new IP ideas.


Charismatic megafauna species may act as both flagship and umbrella species. They influence local environments and biotas, determine related ecosystem processes and functions, and are associated with high levels of biodiversity. However, the intrinsic characteristics of megafauna species including long lifespan, large body size, sparseness and/or rarity, late maturity, and low fecundity, as well as high market value, make them very prone to extinction. Up to now, scientific interest and conservation efforts have mainly focused on terrestrial and marine megafauna, while freshwater species have received comparatively little attention, despite evidence suggesting that freshwaters are losing species faster than marine or terrestrial realms. The high susceptibility of freshwater megafauna to multiple threats, coupled with immense human pressure on freshwater ecosystems, places freshwater megafauna amongst the most threatened species globally. The main threats include overexploitation, dam construction, habitat degradation, pollution, and species invasion. These threats increase mortality, decrease productivity, and reduce fitness, causing the decline of populations and the extinction of freshwater megafauna species. Given the essential ecological and biological roles of freshwater megafauna, further research should focus on their distribution patterns, extinction risks, and population dynamics, thereby improving the knowledge base for conservation planning. Finally, freshwater megafauna‐based conservation strategies may raise public awareness for freshwater conservation and therefore benefit a broader range of freshwater species and functions. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1208. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1208


(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) INTRODUCING PEKING OPERA PEKING OPERA, A CHINESE CULTURAL TREASURE with a history of over 200 years, is a synthesis of singing, dancing, acting, and acrobatics, as well as instrumental music. A widely regarded expression of Chinese culture, Peking Opera includes many historic events and legends in its rich and large repertoire, and it features a great variety of dramatic gestures, artistic face painting, and elaborate costumes in its performances. It is a highly entertaining and fascinating art form, even to people who do not understand Chinese.1 During the ten-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), there were eight so-called "Revolutionary Operas" that dominated theaters and media throughout China; the rest of Peking Opera repertoire was dismissed as the legacy of feudalism. Those eight operas were promoted for ideological reasons to meet Chairman Mao's and his wife Madam Jiang's political views. As most Chinese in that generation could sing quite a few songs from the eight operas, the phenomenon was historically famous as "800 million people with eight operas" (the population of China at that time). In the late 1970s, as China began to open to the Western world, Chinese people were newly exposed to modern Western music. Likewise, Chinese culture started to attract Western society; foreigners visited China and wished to learn its legends from Peking Opera. Since then, that national treasure has made significant contributions to cultural exchange. Oscar-winning Chinese composer Tan Dun incorporated a great deal of Peking Opera style into his new opera, The First Emperor, which had a successful world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 2006; it featured Western opera legend Placido Domingo in ten performances singing the leading role of the Chinese Emperor. In recent years, Peking Opera has faced the same challenges troubling Western opera: reduced audiences and lack of newcomers. Instead of offering discount tickets and free lectures to young generations (as is the case with American opera houses), the Chinese Ministry of Education recently announced a pilot program of teaching Peking Opera in elementary and high schools. Fifteen carefully selected works from the Peking Opera repertoire have been added to the music curricula of 200 schools in ten provinces throughout China. This move immediately drew public attention, and the educational approach has spawned diverse opinion. A survey by Netease (news portal in China) shows that twenty-seven percent of the participants believe that such a course can foster a new generation of Peking Opera fans; seventeen percent think the course should not be compulsory, as students' opinions should be respected; if students are forced to learn, they will lose interest. Additionally, some question the high school teachers' abilities to cope with the challenges of teaching the selected repertoire, because Peking Opera is a sophisticated art form requiring years of professional training for one to attain proficiency. Introducing Peking Opera into school curricula and getting students interested in the course can be challenging, especially when one considers that most young Chinese have been drawn to rock and pop music in a fashion similar to the phenomenon of American Idol in the United States. Serious procedures have been established to meet this challenge. The fifteen selected opera repertoires have been carefully reviewed by a panel of educators and other experts to ensure that the selections represent the great art form of Peking Opera, and can be meticulously taught to students in modern Chinese languages. Meanwhile, some professional outreach programs are available to help teach the projects in schools. VOICE TRAINING AT EARLY AGES Peking Opera has a tradition of training performers at early ages, usually between eight and twelve years old. Students are carefully selected to enter the Opera Garden, a Peking Opera school for an eleven year training program, which includes voice training (chanting and singing), body training (dancing and fighting), and general history and culture studies. …


In this paper we introduce a simple approach for exploration in reinforcement learning (RL) that allows us to develop theoretically justified algorithms in the tabular case but that is also extendable to settings where function approximation is required. Our approach is based on the successor representation (SR), which was originally introduced as a representation defining state generalization by the similarity of successor states. Here we show that the norm of the SR, while it is being learned, can be used as a reward bonus to incentivize exploration. In order to better understand this transient behavior of the norm of the SR we introduce the substochastic successor representation (SSR) and we show that it implicitly counts the number of times each state (or feature) has been observed. We use this result to introduce an algorithm that performs as well as some theoretically sample-efficient approaches. Finally, we extend these ideas to a deep RL algorithm and show that it achieves state-of-the-art performance in Atari 2600 games when in a low sample-complexity regime.


Graph partitioning is an enabling technology for parallel processing as it allows for the effective decomposition of unstructured computations whose data dependencies correspond to a large sparse and irregular graph. Even though the problem of computing high-quality partitionings of graphs arising in scientific computations is to a large extent well-understood, this is far from being true for emerging HPC applications whose underlying computation involves graphs whose degree distribution follows a power-law curve. This paper presents new multilevel graph partitioning algorithms that are specifically designed for partitioning such graphs. It presents new clustering-based coarsening schemes that identify and collapse together groups of vertices that are highly connected. An experimental evaluation of these schemes on 10 different graphs show that the proposed algorithms consistently and significantly outperform existing state-of-the-art approaches.


The purpose of this study was to develop a descriptive benchmark of social work employment in Arizona and to provide useful information to administrators, job seekers, and prospective social work students. The results, based on telephone and Internet surveys to a random sample of 463 NASW Arizona members, indicate that salary was positively related to level of education and years of social work employment experience. Salary was also higher for men than for women and higher for social workers with administrative roles compared to other roles. Access to employee-related benefits appeared widespread. Implications are provided for administration and future research.


A central objective of current systems biology research is explaining the interactions amongst components in biopathways. A standard approach is to view a biopathway as a network of biochemical reactions, which is modelled as a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs).

Conventional inference methods typically rely on searching the space of parameter values, and at each candidate, numerically solving the ODEs and comparing the output with that observed. After choosing an appropriate noise model, the form of the likelihood is defined, and a measure of similarity between the data signals and the signals described by the current set of ODE parameters can be calculated. This process is repeated, as part of either an iterative optimisation scheme or sampling procedure in order to estimate the parameters. However, the computational costs involved with repeatedly numerically solving the ODEs are usually high.

Several authors have adopted approaches based on gradient matching, aiming to reduce this computational complexity. These approaches are based on the following two-step procedure. At the first step, interpolation is used to smooth the time series data, in order to avoid modelling noisy observations; in a second step, the kinetic parameters of the ODEs are either optimised or sampled, whilst minimising some metric measuring the difference between the slopes of the tangents to the interpolants, and the parameter-dependent time derivative from the ODEs. In this fashion, the ODEs never have to be numerically integrated, and the problem of inferring the typically unknown initial conditions of the system is removed, as it is not required for matching gradients. A downside to this two-step scheme is that the results of parameter inference are critically dependent on the quality of the initial interpolant. Alternatively, the ODEs can be allowed to regularise the interpolant and it has been demonstrated that it significantly improves the parameter inference accuracy and robustness with respect to noise.

This thesis extends and develops methods of gradient matching for parameter inference and model selection in ODE systems in a systems biology context.


Quality assessment and assurance constitute an important part of software engineering. The issues of software quality management are widely researched and approached from multiple perspectives and viewpoints. The introduction of a new paradigm in software development – namely Model Driven Development (MDD) and its variations (e.g., MDA [Model Driven Architecture], MDE [Model Driven Engineering], MBD [Model Based Development], MIC [Model Integrated Computing]) – raises new challenges in software quality management, and as such should be given a special attention. In particular, the issues of early quality assessment, based on models at a high abstraction level, and building (or customizing the existing) prediction models for software quality based on model metrics are of central importance for the software engineering community. The workshop is continuation of a series of workshops on consistency that have taken place during the subsequent annual UML conferences and recently MDA-FA. The idea behind this workshop is to extend the scope of interests and address a wide spectrum of problems related to MDD. It is also in line with the overall initiative of the shift from UML to MoDELS. The goal of this workshop is to gather researchers and practitioners interested in the emerging issues of quality in the context of MDD. The workshop is intended to provide a premier forum for discussions related to software quality and MDD. And the aims of the workshop are: - Presenting ongoing research related to quality in modeling in the context of MDD, - Defining and organizing issues related to quality in the MDD. The format of the workshop consists of two parts: presentation and discussion. The presentation part is aimed at reporting research results related to quality aspects in modeling. Seven papers were selected for the presentation out of 16 submissions; the selected papers are included in these proceedings. The discussion part is intended to be a forum for exchange of ideas related to understanding of quality and approaching it in a systematic way.


Large scale implementation of PV in urban areas asks for more shadow tolerant modules and more size flexibility. Power optimizers and micro inverters can be used to improve shadow tolerance of standard c-Si modules but the electrical interconnection and the size of cell groups in the standard module design is a limiting factor when it comes to further increase shadow tolerance. In this work another approach is used in which the cells in the module are smaller and series connected in building blocks. The resulting lower currents allow the use of small in laminate diodes and the building blocks give access to more size flexibility and improved shadow robustness. Yearly yield calculations will be shown and compared to a standard 3-sub-string module with either power optimizers or micro inverters. It is shown that for a typical Dutch house the TESSERA concept outperforms the other by up to 6%.


Automated data augmentation has shown superior performance in image recognition. Existing works search for dataset-level augmentation policies without considering individual sample variations, which are likely to be sub-optimal. On the other hand, learning different policies for different samples naively could greatly increase the computing cost. In this paper, we learn a sample-aware data augmentation policy efficiently by formulating it as a sample reweighting problem. Specifically, an augmentation policy network takes a transformation and the corresponding augmented image as inputs, and outputs a weight to adjust the augmented image loss computed by a task network. At training stage, the task network minimizes the weighted losses of augmented training images, while the policy network minimizes the loss of the task network on a validation set via meta-learning. We theoretically prove the convergence of the training procedure and further derive the exact convergence rate. Superior performance is achieved on widely-used benchmarks including CIFAR-10/100, Omniglot, and ImageNet.


Insurance companies issue guarantees that need to be valued according to the market expectations. By calibrating option pricing models to the available implied volatility surfaces, one deals with the so-called risk-neutral measure Q, which can be used to generate market consistent values for these guarantees. For asset liability management, insurers also need future values of these guarantees. Next to that, new regulations require insurance companies to value their positions on a one-year horizon. As the option prices at t = 1 are unknown, it is common practice to assume that the parameters of these option pricing models are constant, i.e., the calibrated parameters from time t = 0 are also used to value the guarantees at t = 1. However, it is well-known that the parameters are not constant and may depend on the state of the market which evolves under the real-world measure P. In this paper, we propose improved regression models that, given a set of market variables such as the VIX index and risk-free interest rates, estimate the calibrated parameters. When the market variables are included in a real-world simulation, one is able to assess the calibrated parameters (and consequently the implied volatility surface) in line with the simulated state of the market. By performing a regression, we are able to predict out-of-sample implied volatility surfaces accurately. Moreover, the impact on the Solvency Capital Requirement has been evaluated for different points in time. The impact depends on the initial state of the market and may vary between −46% and +52%.


Context/Objective: The purpose of this study was to characterize etiologies of spinal cord injury and disorders (SCI/D) in persons with and without cervical stenosis/spondylosis (CSS) and to describe clinical characteristics and underlying comorbidities in these populations. Design and Setting: We reviewed administrative data for 1954 Veterans who had onset of traumatic or non-traumatic tetraplegia during FY 1999–2007. This included 1037 with a diagnosis of CSS at or in the two years prior to SCI onset of SCI/D and 917 without a diagnosis of CSS. Outcome Measures: Demographics, etiologies of SCI/D and comorbidities by CSS status. Results: Veterans with SCI/D and CSS were older, more likely to have incomplete injuries and more likely to be Black than those with SCI/D and no CSS. Of patients with traumatic etiologies for SCI, 35.1% had a diagnosis of CSS at the time of or in the 2 years prior to SCI onset. Of those with tetraplegia due to falls, 40.0% had CSS, whereas for other known traumatic etiologies the percentages with CSS were lower: vehicular (25.0%); sports (16.1%); and acts of violence (10.2%). Total comorbidity scores measured by the Charlson co morbidity index and CMS Hierarchical Condition Category (CMS-HCC) were higher in those with CSS and SCI/D compared to those with SCI/D without CSS (P < 0.0001 respectively). Conclusions: CSS is commonly present in patients with new traumatic tetraplegia. Falls are a particularly important potentially modifiable risk for SCI in patients with CSS.


ABSTRACT In this article, the Department of Defense's shift to performance-based contracting for services--which are increasingly comprising a larger and larger portion of total federal procurement dollars--is examined. This shift away from fixed-price and labor hour contracts has been characterized as nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way federal contracting operates, forging new possibilities for partnerships between the public and private sectors for improving overall government service delivery. However, the transition is also fraught with problems stemming from a lack of both agreement and awareness of just what makes contracts performance-based. In this article, an examination is offered of the development and definition of performance-based contracting, along with an overview of some of the criticisms of the concept. Today's budget constraints on all levels of government will only heighten the focus on producing results and getting more "bang for the buck" from federal spending. Nowhere is this more true than in the Department of Defense, where contracted services play a strategic role in enabling the military to carryout its all important mission in a dangerous global theater. INTRODUCTION According to the General Accounting Office (GAO, 2002), in Fiscal Year 2001, the federal government procured services totaling $136 billion. By far, the Department of Defense (DOD) contracts for more services than any other federal agency. In FY2001, DOD spending on services contracting was approximately $59 billion, and for FY2003, the Pentagon's proposed budget calls for this amount to rise to $68.7 billion (Sherman, 2002). Within the Department of Defense, spending for services is accounting for an increasingly large share of the total procurement budget. Over the decade of the Nineties, the Defense Department's annual budget for procurement of goods-such as aircraft-actually decreased from $59.8 billion to $53.5 billion (Friel, 2000b). As can be seen in Figure 1, over 1/6th of total DOD spending has shifted from the procurement of materials to the acquisition of services in the last ten years. The size and scope of services contracting is growing rapidly in the military realm, as DOD contracting actions worth more than $100,000 increased by 28 percent in that same time span. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Much of the focus today is on information technology (IT) spending for hardware, software, and increasingly--services. As can be seen in Figure 1, federal spending for all categories of IT is expected to grow by over two-thirds over the next five years--to over $60 billion annually. While services constitute a significant portion of IT purchases, the government in fact buys a wide spectrum of services. The Department of Defense clearly outweighs all other federal agencies in services spending, both in terms of the number and dollar value of procurements. This can be seen in data reported by the Federal Procurement Data Center (2002) in just two representative areas of service spending: research and development (Table 1) and construction (Table 2). In her testimony before the U.S. Senate, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Angela Styles, recently observed that: "Significant portions of the military budget go not to 'war-fighting' but to infrastructure and overhead. The logistics that keep our armed forces housed, trained and mobile are essential to our success on the battlefield and maintaining and improving 'non-war-fighting' capabilities" (United States Senate, 2002, n.p.). As Balk and Calista (2001) point out, by contracting out more of their activities on the periphery, agencies are able to better concentrate on their core missions. Always--and especially in the post-September 11th environment of today, no federal agency's mission is more important than the Department of Defense. Yet, as Sherman (2002) observed in Defense News, DOD acquisition rules, aimed at governing primarily the procurement of goods, rather than services, have severely lagged behind this transition in the acquisition environment. …


In contemporary society, data representation is an important and essential part of many aspects of our daily lives. This thesis aims to contribute to our understanding on how people experience data and what role representational modality plays in the process of perception and interpretation. This research is grounded in phenomenology - I align my theoretical exploration to ideas and concepts from philosophical phenomenology, while also respecting the essence of a phenomenological approach in the choice and application of methods. Alongside offering a rich description of people's experience of data representation, the key contributions I claim transcend four areas: theory, methods, design, and empirical findings. From a theoretical perspective, besides describing a phenomenology of human-data relations, I define, for the first time, multisensory data representation and establish a design space for the study of this class of representation. In relation to methodologies, I describe and deploy two methods to investigate different aspects of data experience. I blend the Repertory Grid technique with a focus group session and show how this adaption can be used to elicit rich design relevant insight. I also introduce the Elicitation Interview technique as a method for gathering detailed and precise accounts of human experience. Furthermore, I describe for the first time, how this technique can be used to elicit accounts of experience with data. My contribution to design relates to the creation of a series of bespoke data-driven artefacts, as well as describing an approach to design that I call Design Probes, which allows researchers to focus their enquiry on specific design features. To answer the research questions I set out in this thesis, I report on a series of empirical studies that used the aforementioned methods. The findings of these studies show, for instance, how certain representational modalities cause us to have heightened awareness of our body, some are more difficult to interpret than others, some rely heavily on instinct and each of them solicit us to reference external events during the process of interpretation. I conclude that a phenomenology of human-data relations show how representational modality affects the way we experience data, it also shows how this experience unfolds and it offers insight into particular moments such as the formation of meaning.


Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to report on the feasibility of the manufacture of printed rechargeable power sources incorporating, in the first instance, electrode structures from the previous study, and moving on to improved electrode structures fabricated, via flexographic printing, using commercially available inks. It has been shown previously that offset lithography, a common printing technique, can be used to make electrodes for energy storage devices such as primary cells.

Design/methodology/approach

– A pair of the original Ag/C electrodes, printed via offset lithography, were sandwiched together with a PVA-KOH gel electrolyte and then sealed. The resultant structures were characterised using electrochemical techniques and the performance as supercapacitors assessed. Following these studies, electrode structures of the same dimensions, consisting of two layers, a silver-based current collector covered with a high surface area carbon layer, were printed flexographically, using inks, on a melinex substrate. The characterisation and assessment of these structures, as supercapacitors, was determined.

Findings

– It was found that the supercapacitors constructed using the offset lithographic electrodes exhibited a capacitance of 0.72 mF/cm2 and had an equivalent series resistance of 3.96 Ω. The structures fabricated via flexography exhibited a capacitance of 4 mF/cm2 and had an equivalent series resistance of 1.25 Ω The supercapacitor structures were subjected to bending and rolling tests to determine device performance under deformation and stress. It was found that supercapacitor performance was not significantly reduced by bending or rolling.

Originality/value

– This paper provides insight into the use of printed silver/carbon electrodes within supercapacitor structures and compares the performance of devices fabricated using inks for offset lithographic printing presses and those made using commercially available inks for flexographic printing. The potential viability of such structures for low-end and cheap energy storage devices is demonstrated.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Sedation of patients with past history of alcohol and drug abuse in Intensive Care Units (ICU) is a challenge due to the high incidence of sedative drugs tolerance and withdrawal syndromes. This report aimed at describing a case of a young patient admitted to the ICU who developed alcohol withdrawal syndrome and tolerance to sedatives, resolved only after clonidine administration.

CASE REPORT
Male patient, 18 years old, alcohol, tobacco, cocaine and marijuana abuser, victim of firearm accident, who was admitted to the ICU in the first post-enterectomy day, after gastric content aspiration during tracheal re-intubation. Clinical evolution was: vasoactive drugs up to the 4th day; bilateral bronchopneumonia with pleural effusion and need for artificial ventilation up to the 15th day. Initial sedation scheme was the association of midazolam and fentanyl. As from the 4th day, patient presented with several psychomotor agitation episodes, even after the association of lorazepam in the 6th day. In the 9th day, patient received the largest doses but remained agitated. Dexmedetomidine was associated, which has decreased other drug doses in 35% and has improved agitation. In the 12th day, midazolam and dexmedetomidine were replaced by propofol infusion with worsening of agitation. In the 13th day, clonidine was associated to the sedation scheme with total resolution of agitation. Propofol was withdrawn in the 14th day, fentanyl was maintained and midazolam infusion was restarted, with doses 75% and 65% lower as compared to peak doses of such drugs. Patient was extubated in the 15th day and was discharged from ICU.

CONCLUSIONS
Benzodiazepines should remain the drugs of choice for the treatment of acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome. However in this report, only adjuvant clonidine was able to adequately treat the patient.


The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensions and attributes of productive and agricultural landscape in the Persian gardens. The methodology of conducting this study is descriptive-analytical. The data is gathered through library research and interviews, as well as field studies in the six Persian Gardens (Akbariyeh, Rahim Abad, Amir Abad, Bahlgerd, Pahlavanpur, and Shahzadeh). The results, which show the need to provide recreational services for owners, guests and in some cases people, has led to the significant presence of fruitful greenery, even in the governmental gardens. There are various fruit trees in the gardens of Shahzadeh, Amirabad and Pahlavanpur which demonstrate the importance of targeted food products for human consumption as well as animals in the system of designing the traditional green spaces. Promotion the quality of the beauty of inner green scenery of the gardens is other characteristics of agricultural landscape, specifically in Birjand's gardens which the visual landscape system has been created by composition of fruitful and ornamental species. Additionally, attitudes into increasing the efficiency, profitability and self-sufficiency of landscape have been ordered the planting of multipurpose plant species in the Iranian garden design. There are varieties of vegetables and herbs in the garden of Shahzadeh, and fragrant flowers, saffron, plum, pomegranate and fig trees representing in Birjand's garden proving the medicinal properties of productive scenery in addition to their appropriateness to the climate and scarce resources. Throughout history the structural importance of the edible landscape in Persian garden is due to the knowledgeable use of green spaces and landscaping. The combination of ornamental horticulture and fruit farming results in a multi-functional garden. Therefore, the agricultural landscape can be introduced as an indicator to assess the quality of garden management, an efficient tool for assessing the status of agricultural knowledge, gardens health assessment, as well as evaluating the lifestyle and the natural- cultural continuity of a garden to its context which should be considered more by the researchers.


In the early stage of processor design, Dynamic Thermal Management (DTM) schemes should be evaluated to avoid excessively high temperature, while minimizing performance overhead as small as possible. In this paper, we show that conventional thermal simulations using fixed ambient temperature may lead to wrong conclusion in terms of performance and temperature; though ambient temperature converges to a steady state after hundreds of seconds, the steady state ambient temperature is significantly different depending on applications. To overcome the inaccuracy of conventional thermal simulations, we propose that architectural thermal simulation should exploit application-dependent ambient temperature. Our evaluation results show that the performance of the same DTM scheme is different, when application-dependent ambient temperature (compared to fixed temperature) is used. For accurate simulation, future architectural thermal researchers are expected to evaluate their proposed DTM schemes, reflecting application- dependent ambient temperature.


We use visual world eye-tracking to test if a speaker's eye gaze to a potential antecedent modulates the listener's interpretation of an ambiguous pronoun. Participants listened to stories that included an ambiguous pronoun, such as "The dolphin kisses the goldfish... He...." During the prepronominal context, an onscreen narrator gazed at one of the two characters. As expected, participants looked more at the subject character overall. However, this was modulated by the narrator's eye gaze and the amount of time the participant spent looking at the gaze cue. For trials in which participants attended to the narrator's eye gaze for > 500ms, participants were significantly more likely to interpret the pronoun as referring to the object if the narrator had previously looked at the object. Results suggest that eye gaze – a social cue – can temper even strong linguistic/cognitive biases in pronoun resolution, such as the subject/first-mention bias.


We focus on solving two-player zero-sum extensive-form games with perfect information and simultaneous moves. In these games, both players fully observe the current state of the game where they simultaneously make a move determining the next state of the game. We solve these games by a novel algorithm that relies on two components: (1) it iteratively solves the games that correspond to a single simultaneous move using a double-oracle method, and (2) it prunes the states of the game using bounds on the sub-game values obtained by the classical Alpha-Beta search on a serialized variant of the game. We experimentally evaluate our algorithm on the Goofspiel card game, a pursuit-evasion game, and randomly generated games. The results show that our novel algorithm typically provides significant running-time improvements and reduction in the number of evaluated nodes compared to the full search algorithm.


Abstract Context: Critical appraisal is an important skill for medical students. A proposed curriculum may be an effective teaching tool. Objective: To determine whether the teaching of critical appraisal can be successfully introduced into an osteopathic clinical clerkship in obstetrics and gynecology. Design: Osteopathic medical students (N=77) were assigned by lottery to one of eight rotation groups during their clinical clerkship in obstetrics and gynecology. Four of these rotation groups received instruction in critical appraisal (study group; received evidence-based medicine [EBM] curriculum; n=38); the other four rotation groups did not (control group; received non-EBM; n=39). The ability of the study EBM group to critically analyze the literature was compared with that of the control (non-EBM) group on the basis of results of a multiple-choice examination. Setting: The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–School of Osteopathic Medicine clinical clerkship in obstetrics and gynecology. Results: The median scores for critical analysis were 41 for the control group and 64 for the study group. This difference was statistically significant (P<.001). Conclusion: The teaching of critical appraisal can be successfully introduced into a clerkship in obstetrics and gynecology.


This thesis develops and expands upon known techniques of mathematical physics relevant to the analysis of the popular Markov model of phylogenetic trees required in biology to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of taxonomic units from biomolecular sequence data. The techniques of mathematical physics are plethora and have been developed for some time. The Markov model of phylogenetics and its analysis is a relatively new technique where most progress to date has been achieved by using discrete mathematics. This thesis takes a group theoretical approach to the problem by beginning with a remarkable mathematical parallel to the process of scattering in particle physics. This is shown to equate to branching events in the evolutionary history of molecular units. The major technical result of this thesis is the derivation of existence proofs and computational techniques for calculating polynomial group invariant functions on a multi-linear space where the group action is that relevant to a Markovian time evolution. The practical results of this thesis are an extended analysis of the use of invariant functions in distance based methods and the presentation of a new reconstruction technique for quartet trees which is consistent with the most general Markov model of sequence evolution.


The rotation curves of spiral galaxies obey strong scaling relations. These include the Tully-Fisher and baryonic Tully-Fisher relations, and the mass discrepancy--acceleration relation. These relations can be used to place constraints on the mass-to-light ratios of stars. Once the stellar mass is constrained, the distribution of dark matter follows. The shape of the dark matter distribution is consistent with the expectations of NFW halos exterior to 1 kpc, but the amplitude is wrong. This is presumably related to the long-standing problem of the normalization of the Tully-Fisher relation and may imply a downturn in the amplitude of the power spectrum at small scales. More fundamentally, the persistent success of MOND remains a troubling fact.


This thesis focuses on change and persistence of the structure of the international system. It attempts to address the question why hierarchic structures prevailed during the Ancient and Classical eras (3000 B.C. – 1500 A.D.). The thesis compares and contrasts the Roman Empire (the Pax Romana period 1 century B.C.-3 century A.D.) and the Chinese Empire (the T'ang Dynasty 618-907 A.D.) as hierarchic structures and the multi-state system of ancient Greece (8-4 century B.C.) and the multi-state system of ancient China (The Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Period 722-221 B.C.) as anarchic structures. The thesis suggests that the moral purpose of the state, the competitive security environment, the desire for benefits and geopolitical and strategic advantages played the major role in the immediate transformation from anarchy to hierarchy. The thesis asserts that the generation of common goods, the decline in transaction costs and the success in securing the commitment of the members and the legitimacy of the system enabled and encouraged the persistence of hierarchic structures. It also re-emphasizes that whereas the persistence of hierarchic systems depends on the existence of several factors, only one factor can promote the persistence of anarchic structures e.g. the moral purpose of the state.


Just as in all pre-industrial societies, the historic structures in Anatolia derive from two materials, timber and stone. In timber construction, two categories, namely heaped construction and skeletal construction, are clearly distinguishable. In research to date, it can be seen that these categories have been clearly defined and explained. Yet, structural definitions in masonry buildings are mostly limited to the term heaped construction. However, in traditional masonry structures, it is possible to see, whether clearly or under a layer, a construction that reminds one of skeletal construction. In this paper, historical masonry structures that have been often described as heaped construction, but which actually contain both heaped and skeletal system characteristics, will be discussed. This dual-system will be examined with examples from Ottoman mosques and masonry houses in Anatolia.


Abstract The current financial problems of some Euro-area Member States have been tackled by ad hoc financial institutions, formed outside of the EU as international institutions and aimed at granting financial assistance on the basis of strict conditionality measures, which seriously affect human rights (particularly social and economic rights). The paper focuses on the impact of the actions of the European Stability Mechanism and analyses whether this institution (or the European institutions and the Member States involved in it) should bear the responsibility for such violations.


This study proposes combined framework for proactive operation, i.e. bidirectional active and reactive power management, of the smart distribution network as well as harmonic compensation of non-linear loads using electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with bidirectional chargers. The problem is in the form of non-linear programming (NLP) where the objective function is to minimise the voltage deviation at the fundamental frequency and the total harmonic distortion. The harmonic load flow equations, EVs constraints, system operation and harmonic indexes limits are formulated as problem constraints. The proposed NLP problem is converted to an equivalent mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model using Taylor series and linearisation techniques for AC power flow formulation. Also, the Benders decomposition (BD) algorithm is used to solve the proposed MILP problem that is tested on different distribution test networks to demonstrate its efficiency and performance. The results show that the NLP model can be substituted with the high-speed linear programming model. Moreover, the computation speed is improved by using the BD method. Finally, the network and harmonic indexes improved and charging cost reduced using the proposed idea.


Protocells are envisaged as encapsulated networks of catalytic polymers, such as RNAs, which are thought to have existed on the prebiotic Earth as precursors to contemporary biological cells. Such protocells were not "alive" in the way this word would apply to a contemporary unicellular organism. Rather, protocells represent a necessary evolutionary step toward those first forms of cellular life. In this review, we explore how chemicals synthesized by minerals or delivered by meteorites could have contributed to the emergence of the first protocells and could have supported these protocell9s evolution towards primitive cellular life.


In this paper we consider optimization problems where the objective function is given in a form of the expectation. A basic difficulty of solving such stochastic optimization problems is that the involved multidimensional integrals (expectations) cannot be computed with high accuracy. The aim of this paper is to compare two computational approaches based on Monte Carlo sampling techniques, namely, the Stochastic Approximation (SA) and the Sample Average Approximation (SAA) methods. Both approaches, the SA and SAA methods, have a long history. Current opinion is that the SAA method can efficiently use a specific (say linear) structure of the considered problem, while the SA approach is a crude subgradient method which often performs poorly in practice. We intend to demonstrate that a properly modified SA approach can be competitive and even significantly outperform the SAA method for a certain class of convex stochastic problems. We extend the analysis to the case of convex-concave stochastic saddle point problems, and present (in our opinion highly encouraging) results of numerical experiments.


European counties continue to receive an increasing number of migrants and refugees from an also increasing number of both European and non-European countries. This results in a huge societal challenge which is societal inclusion of people speaking different languages and of diverse backgrounds. Key for their inclusion is job finding which comes with hurdles like the language, the difficulty in assessing and certifying their skills and many more. In this paper, we present the architecture of a novel platform that aspires to provide migrants with a) assistance in discovering and assessing their hard and soft skills by employing Artificial Intelligence technologies, b) recommendations of appropriate job sectors and positions based on their profile, c) recommendations about training that would allow them to find jobs in the country/region they are located and d) practical information regarding the integration process. Furthermore, the proposed platform aims at assisting host authorities, non-governmental organizations and companies in detecting the needs of the target populations (migrants and refugees) through data analytics and supports them in reaching them. Apart from the technical architecture, we provide the results from the initial testing of the platform in real-life pilots in two countries.


Many language scholars such as Kurk and Atay (2007) and Latif (2007) addressed that the most difficult task of EFL students is to write in English especially use of prepositions. Hence, the study aimed to investigate the misuse of prepositions and to identify interferences of first language (L1) features appearing in written productions of Thai EFL learners. Twenty participants were first-year Srinakharinwirot university majoring in Education (English). One hundred twenty written works were collected and established as a corpus of Thai EFL learners' written work. The concordance feature of the AntConc program was utilized to examine the errors of preposition use based on preposition errors classification by Burt, Dulay, and Krashen (1982). Moreover, some contrastive analysis techniques were applied to identify the interference of mother tongue toward participants' preposition use on their written works. The findings were cross-checked by two EFL instructors and shown that there were misuse (100 times, 70.92%), addition (21 times, 14.89%) and omission (20 times, 14.18%) of prepositions found in the corpus. The most problematic English prepositions found in the corpus were 'in', 'to', 'of', 'at', 'with', 'for', 'by', 'about', 'on' and 'from', respectively. Furthermore, there were two mother tongue features that were semantic-related and syntactic-related L1 interference which interfered the preposition use of Thai EFL learners. Thus, it is an English language teachers' responsibility to raise the awareness of the differences between mother tongue language and target language to Thai EFL learners during the writing lessons in order to overcome the problem of misuse of prepositions. Moreover, corpus program could be considered as one of the beneficial tools which assists Thai EFL students to reflect and learn from their written errors, as well as they could overcome their misuse of prepositions.
Keywords: L1 Transfer, Misuse of Prepositions, Corpus Study, Contrastive Analysis


While the rapid adoption of legislation has played an important role in advancing China's reform agenda, it has also produced a large number of legislative conflicts. This legislative disorder has posed challenges for China's economic and legal modernization efforts. China addresses legislative conflicts primarily through a system of filing and review of legislation at different levels of government. Despite the severity of China's legislative disorder, state organs with formal authority to annul or amend conflicting lower-level legislation rarely if ever exercise this authority. Citizens enjoy the right to raise proposals for the review of legislative conflicts, but central filing and review organs never respond to these proposals. On the other hand, the people's courts, which have no formal authority to review legislation, engage in a form of limited judicial review when they choose the legislation to apply in individual cases. To explain such phenomena, we must recognize that the core problem shaping the design and operation of the filing and review system is a multidimensional problem of capacity. Legislative institutions have accommodated limited judicial review of legislation and empowered citizens to raise review proposals primarily because they lack the capacity to carry out their basic functions. These mechanisms should be understood as components of an integrated, multilayered system for supervising legislation. Understanding China's system in this way reveals both likely limitations and opportunities in future reform efforts. Reforms are more likely to succeed if they acknowledge core capacity limitations, take account of existing patterns of institutional interaction, and effectively leverage the roles of courts and citizens to improve the capacity of the system as a whole. Specifically, reformers should explore ways to strengthen communication links between filing and review organs and people's courts, encourage citizens to raise concerns about legislative conflicts during the legislation drafting stage, and focus first on addressing conflicts involving lower-level legislation rather than on the sensitive and politicized issue of constitutional review.


The late A.L. Basham was one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient Indian culture and religion. Modeled on his monumental work The Wonder That Was India, this account of the origins and development of classical Hinduism represents a lifetime of reflection on the subject, and offers an intriguing introduction to one of the richest of all Asian traditions.Synthesizing Basham's great knowledge of the art, architecture, literature, and religion of South Asia, this concise history traces the spiritual life of India from the time of the Indus Culture (around 2700 B.C.E) through the crystallization of classical Hinduism in the first centuries of the common era. It chronicles as well the rise of other mystical and ascetic traditions, such as Buddhism and Jainism, and follows Hinduism's later incarnations in the West, making it an especially comprehensive introduction to the subject.Unlike Christianity or Islam, Hinduism was not inspired by single great prophet but rather evolved organically. The wide range of influences and sources--along with the great number of sacred texts in ancient languages--can make the Hindu system of faith and practice seem almost impenetrable to the uninitiated. With its vivid presentation of Hinduism's sources--from the warrior Aryans to the wandering ascetics--and its clearly written explanations and analyses of the major Hindu texts--among them the Rg-veda, the Brahmanas, Upanishads, and the Mahabharata and Ramayana--The Origins of Classical Hinduism clarifies much of Hinduism's enduring mystique. With an especially helpful bibliography, numerous illustrations of Hindu art never before published, and a lucid, accessible style, this book is must reading for anyone who has ever been intrigued by this fascinating religion.


Excerpt] "So I said to him, 'What part of Fridley are you from? I mean where in Anoka did you grow up?'" My eyes popped wide in shock. Those were the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities we had just driven through, where much of my extended family still lived, including the uncles, aunties, and cousins that I felt so grateful for that difficult day. Fridley is where Dave Jensen lived, Uncle Gene's son, whose excellent band played at our wedding dance. Uncle Donnie and Auntie Carol and my deceased godmother, Mary Jensen Larson, lived in Anoka. The guy behind me went on, "What trailer park in Spring hake Park are you from? What part of Columbia Heights" "Yeah," another guy joined him as our waitress came, "What rock in New Brightondid you crawl out from under?" New Brighton was my childhood mailing address. I skated at the roller rink in Spring Lake Park; I got my first job there in a bakery at fourteen. I sputtered through my order while these two guys behind me riffed on, besting each other's epithets, to a table of people laughing. Every one of their epithets were the places where my father and much of his family (and, later, my cousins and their families) had proudly bought homes and farms and settled down with skilled working class jobs. The shock and irony of hearing their blatant classism when I had just been out there left me speechless. Suddenly my head was spinning with rage. It made me crazy to juxtapose the tenderness and triumph of the day—and my own complicated cultural history—with this casual and complete contempt for the places my family called home.


Chronic cigarette smoking seems to markedly aggravate insulin resistance that could be due to the increase in counter-regulatory hormones such as GH, cortisol and catecholamine's that elevates blood glucose, Weight gain usually follows the cessation of smoking and increasingly, fear of weight gain discourages many smokers from attempting to quit Yet, weight gain after quitting smoking has proved so unresponsive  to preventive attempt  as to suggest that weight control  might even be incompatible with successful smoking cessation . Innovative treatments that can prevent or minimize weight gain are badly needed to encourage quitting smoking. However recently featured review and research on smoking and diabetes concluded the evidence that smoking is associated with the preparation for development of type 2 diabetes in men and women  Therefore, this review focuses in the possible features of smoking cessation on the glycemic control and risk of type 2 diabetes. key words: Hyperglycemia,Smokers, types 2 diabetes


Introduction: Eribulin mesylate (E7389) is an analog of halichondrin B with a unique mechanism of microtubule binding. The activity and toxicity of eribulin were assessed in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) previously treated with a taxane. Methods: An open-label phase II study included patients with NSCLC previously treated with platinum and taxane-based therapy, with up to two prior cytotoxic regimens, given for metastatic disease or as adjuvant therapy. Patients were stratified by taxane-sensitivity: taxane-sensitive (TS, progression >90 days after taxane) or taxane-resistant (TR, progression ⩽90 days after taxane). Patients received an intravenous infusion of eribulin at 1.4 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every 21 days. The primary end point was objective response rate and secondary end points included progression-free survival and overall survival. Results: Sixty-six patients were accrued. The objective response rate was 5% with a median duration of response of 7.8 months. In the TS arm, 3 of 45 patients (7%) achieved a partial response and another 11 of 45 (24%) achieved stable disease for at least 3 months, whereas in the TR arm, no patients achieved a partial response and 4 of 21 (19%) achieved stable disease for at least 3 months. Median progression-free survival was 2.9 months in the TS subgroup and 1.2 months in the TR subgroup. The median overall survival was 12.6 months in the TS subgroup and 8.9 months in the TR subgroup. Toxicities were primarily hematologic; only two patients developed grade 3 neuropathy. Conclusions: Eribulin mesylate is well tolerated and demonstrates activity in pretreated, TS NSCLC.


Over more than a century of research has established the fact that sleep benefits the retention of memory. In this review we aim to comprehensively cover the field of "sleep and memory" research by providing a historical perspective on concepts and a discussion of more recent key findings. Whereas initial theories posed a passive role for sleep enhancing memories by protecting them from interfering stimuli, current theories highlight an active role for sleep in which memories undergo a process of system consolidation during sleep. Whereas older research concentrated on the role of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, recent work has revealed the importance of slow-wave sleep (SWS) for memory consolidation and also enlightened some of the underlying electrophysiological, neurochemical, and genetic mechanisms, as well as developmental aspects in these processes. Specifically, newer findings characterize sleep as a brain state optimizing memory consolidation, in opposition to the waking brain being optimized for encoding of memories. Consolidation originates from reactivation of recently encoded neuronal memory representations, which occur during SWS and transform respective representations for integration into long-term memory. Ensuing REM sleep may stabilize transformed memories. While elaborated with respect to hippocampus-dependent memories, the concept of an active redistribution of memory representations from networks serving as temporary store into long-term stores might hold also for non-hippocampus-dependent memory, and even for nonneuronal, i.e., immunological memories, giving rise to the idea that the offline consolidation of memory during sleep represents a principle of long-term memory formation established in quite different physiological systems.


Introduction: Mental health problems among children and adolescents are frequent. Today, the world is facing a pandemic with a novel coronavirus, which is related to the higher rates of mental problems reported worldwide. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of the Covid-19 related experiences, educational experiences, and family functioning on mental health and wellbeing among children and adolescents in Chile during the Pandemic and lockdown health measures. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of the first wave of an ongoing longitudinal study among girls and boys of Pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade (4–18 years old) in Santiago, Chile. The sample consisted of 979 students from eight different schools. The method of data collection was online surveys administered to parents and adolescents. The dependent variables were mental health problems and wellbeing. Several independent variables were assessed (sociodemographic variables, Covid-19 related experiences, related educational experiences, and family functioning). A descriptive analysis and univariable and multivariable regression models were performed to study the association between variables. Results: Positive educational experiences, primarily academic self-concept, reduced the probability of mental health problems and increased wellbeing. Among covid-19 related variables, practicing meditation or praying reduced emotional problems, while having family or health problems increased emotional problems among adolescents. No clear association between Covid-19 related experiences variables among children was found. Conclusions: Our findings may help educational and public health authorities to plan future school preventive interventions to improve mental health and wellbeing in this population.


Polymer modification of mortar and concrete is a widely used technique in order to improve their durability properties. Hitherto, the main application fields of such materials are repair and restoration of buildings. However, due to the constant increment of service life requirements and the cost efficiency, polymer modified concrete (PCC) is also used for construction purposes. Therefore, there is a demand for studying the mechanical properties of PCC and entitative differences compared to conventional concrete (CC). It is significant to investigate whether all the assumed hypotheses and existing analytical formulations about CC are also valid for PCC. In the present study, analytical models available in the literature are evaluated. These models are used for estimating mechanical properties of concrete. The investigated property in this study is the modulus of elasticity, which is estimated with respect to the value of compressive strength. One existing database was extended and adapted for polymer-modified concrete mixtures along with their experimentally measured mechanical properties. Based on the indexed data a comparison between model predictions and experiments was conducted by calculation of forecast errors.


THE EFFECT OF TASK ON CUE USEFULNESS FOR VISUAL SCENE CLASSIFICATION Meltem Karaca M.S. in NEUROSCIENCE Advisor: Aaron Michael Clarke May 2017 Detecting objects in the environment is one of the most fundamental functions of the visual system. Humans are highly effective at this, and past studies have shown that we can process things like whether or not an animal is present in a scene within 150 msec. Different lines of research have also examined possible cues that may be useful for rapid object detection and scene classification, and have found things like color, luminance, shape and texture to be diagnostic. Studies examining the degree to which different cues are effective for detecting objects have found that shape and texture are the most important. However, it is unclear whether cue effectiveness depends on the task being employed. The discriminative information contained in different cues may vary depending on the task. This master's thesis examines the effects of task-relevant information on which cues are most useful for visual detection. In order to investigate the impact of task type on visual cue usefulness, participants were asked to do animal and water detection tasks. They were presented with natural scenes that contain animals or water. We found significant differences in cue usefulness depending on the task. Corresponding differences were also found for reaction times based on the different cues. The results indicated that effectiveness of visual cues depends on the nature of the task, and different cues might be more or less useful when individuals are instructed to do different kinds of tasks.


In recent years, due to the increased visibility of immigrants and the rise of Islamic terrorism, there has been a dramatic increase in studies that aim to gain a deeper understanding of Muslim populations in the West. In the European context, such empirical studies invariably focus on core nation-states whilst a dearth of research
pertains to peripheral countries, such as the Republic of Ireland. In addition, the Irish literature tends to be scant whilst European studies are overly reliant upon
communitarian and security paradigms.

To fill the above research gap, this study aims to demonstrate the complexity of recognition relations by examining how Sunni Muslim individuals living in Dublin
perceive how they are recognised within various spheres of everyday interaction i.e., within the spheres of love, legal respect and social esteem and how such perceptions of
recognition provide a deeper insight into identity formation and maintenance. To conduct such a study, Axel Honneth's social critical theory of recognition has been
utilised to frame a range of grassroot interviews and focused discussion groups. Such a grounded qualitative study, with emancipatory intent, challenges the communitarian assumption that minority groups simply seek to have their "particular" culture and associated beliefs endorsed by a majority and the security paradigm that narrowly views Muslims in Europe through the lens of political extremism.

In terms of research findings, this study highlights the fact that forms of disrespect and misrecognition permeate multiple social spheres to varying degrees with the vast
majority of criticisms directed towards the wider societal sphere of interaction. The participant narratives, particularly the use of small stories, verify that misrecognition negatively affects an individual's relation-to-self leading to a struggle to regain positive
forms of recognition, relation-to-self and perceived self-worth.

The study also gains a deep understanding of the complex intertwinement between recognition, power and integration processes. Individuals (and groups) strive to gain
recognition from others yet must negotiate the powers that reside within each sphere of interaction. Such powers legitimate and regulate social norms and "normalised" identity standards. This complex interlacing creates a variety of recognitive-power dilemmas that must be resolved by individuals-in-context. In terms of top-down power, the
empirical information illustrates how domineering social pathologies exist extensively in terms of public discrimination, patriarchy and exclusionary civic stratification whilst the nation-state's constitutive power shapes the 'good citizen' within the legal arena and
traditional authority figures shape the 'good Muslim' within the familial and community spheres.

A substantial additional finding is that individual and collective resistive power is identified in the process by which 2nd generation youth are resisting traditional
authorities and redirecting their legitimating recognition towards counter-authorities that facilitate greater social flexibility. Such agentic bottom-up power aids an identity
transformation in which Muslim youth are returning to a "purified" form of Islam and filtering-out "negative" ethno-cultural traditions in order to gain positive recognition
from multiple social spheres of interaction e.g., to strengthen their recognition to God, to enhance and create a common-ground to their Islamic family, friends and community and also to extract deeply-embedded civic principles, from an interpretation of the Islamic sources, in order to gain recognition as active Muslim citizens, who can positively participate within and contribute to Irish society.

Such an identity movement helps Sunni Muslim individuals avoid total assimilation and isolation by enabling the creation of a balanced integration strategy – referred to as
integration without dilution. This alternative form of integration helps Muslims interact and participate within the Irish-European context but with the added benefit of being able to maintain and strengthen an Islamic identity. It does so by placing more emphasis on an Islamic-civic identity rather than accentuating interconnections between a
religious identity and ethno-cultural and/or nationalistic affinities.

Generally the above findings illustrate how recognition, power and identity intersect within everyday life and also verify that humans are not static entities but remain
dynamic – fluid beings – in constant forms of transformation due to the interactive
context of everyday life. Such insights are pivotal in proving that although such an identity shift may be construed as "natural" – when viewed through a recognitive lens – it becomes apparent that such transformations are an identity construction, which aim to resolve recognitive-power dilemmas that occur within the immanent context of everyday life.


The complexity of Chinese character caused students facing learning difficulty in mastering the Chinese character writing skills. This study aimed to investigate the effect and students' perception on the implementation of animation in teaching and learning of Chinese character writing based on Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (AniCC Online Learning) via Frog VLE platform. Meanwhile, the relationship of implementation of AniCC Online Learning and pupil's writing performance was also studied to have further insights into the Chinese character teaching and learning situation. Pre-experimental one group pre-test and post-test design were adopted and thirty three Year 1 students were selected as the respondents in this research which involved four types of instruments. There was a significant different (p = 0.013) between the scores of pre-test and post-test for students' writing performance after performing paired samples t-test. The study also showed an increase in the means scores of students' writing skills and an increase in the percentage of students' writing skills ranking at rank 4 or above although no significant different (p = 0.180) was observed between the pre writing assessment and post writing assessment after Wilcoxon Test was performed. The students overall showed high acceptance towards integration of AniCC Online Learning with overall mean score 0.90 (maximum = 1). In sum, the design of AniCC Online Learning via Frog VLE platform is able to improve writing performance as well as to help students in their writing skills.


Background : In coastal cities, wastewater discharge into the sea is one of the options for sewage disposal that in case of non-compliance with health standards in wastewater disposal will be led to the spread of infection and disease. On the other hand, water resources preservation and using them efficiently are the principles of sustainable development of each country. This study was aimed to investigate the contamination of discharged runoff from the surface water disposal channels of Bushehr city in 2012 - 13. Materials and Methods: In this study, Sampling was conducted by composite sampling method from output of the five main surface water disposal channels leading to the Persian Gulf located in the coastal region of Bushehr city during two seasons including wet (winter) and dry (summer) in 2012- 13. Then, experimental tests of BOD 5 , total coliform and fecal coliform were done on any of the 96 samples according to the standard method. Results: Analysis of the data showed that the BOD 5 , total coliform and fecal coliform of effluent runoff of the channels were more than the national standard output of disposal wastewaters into the surface waters, and the highest and lowest amount of BOD5 which obtained were 160 mg/L and 28 mg/L, respectively. Conclusion: considering the fact that discharged runoff from surface water disposal channels link from shoreline to sea in close distance and they often are as natural swimming sites and even fishing sites of Bushehr city, and also according to high level of organic and bacterial load of these channels, it is urgently required to be considered by the authorities.


Mueller matrices for waves reflected and transmitted through chiral materials are derived in terms of elements of the like- and cross-linearly polarized reflection and transmission coefficients. The diagonal-like-polarized reflection and transmission coefficients are insensitive to the chiral properties of the material, while the off-diagonal cross-polarized terms are proportional to the chiral parameter to first order. Therefore only the eight quasi-off-diagonal elements of the Mueller matrix are proportional to the chiral parameters. Since the cross-polarized coefficients are in time quadrature with respect to the like-polarized coefficients, two pairs of these quasi-off-diagonal elements are most sensitive to chirality. The waveguide modes that propagate along a chiral slab are derived. Applications are considered for the optimum detection of chiral materials.


The Coordinated City's Mutation Machine: Capitalism, Sympathy, and Urbanization in Seattle's South Lake Union Neighborhood Gregory Keith Harris Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Mark Purcell Department of Urban Design and Planning This dissertation intervenes in a debate that was published in the journal City in 2011 over how Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual repertoire might profitably contribute to critical urban inquiry. However, rather than siding with the pro-Deleuze and Guattari contingent that can loosely be lumped together as "assemblage urbanists" on the one hand, or with the proponents of more traditional Marxian critical urban theory on the other, I argue that Deleuze and Guattari's underexplored political philosophy is not only capable of grounding critical urban inquiry, but is nuanced enough to address not only the productive role of political economy, but also extraeconomic concerns, such as ethics and aesthetics, both of which are significant forces in many cities, including the redevelopment of the South Lake Union (SLU) neighborhood (Seattle, Washington, USA). Also drawing on Deleuze's reading of David Hume, I argue that all institutionalized motivations, both economic and extraeconomic, are but different rationalizations of underlying human sympathies, and that given this common foundation, it is necessary to develop a critical urban theory that can also account for the typically neglected and often marginalized sphere of the extraeconomic. This argument is based on a close reading of Deleuze and Guattari's conceptualizations of the relationship between the state and capitalism across both volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia that I adapt for urban studies via a Foucauldian archaeology of SLU. In terms of content, the empirical investigation that spans sixty years of documents related to statewide growth management, regional planning, as well as urban comprehensive planning and a local developer with a compatible vision of how urban redevelopment should occur, leads me to posit that we are seeing a new form of coordinated urbanism, and that all these entities together can be understood as constituting what I call the Coordinated City's Mutation Machine.


Attributes associated with mystical experience among Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Pagans are explored in psychometric data presented in this thesis. Two such attributes in particular, the personality trait of psychoticism and attitudes held towards mysticism, are given focal attention. Psychoticism, a trait at one time supposedly linked with vulnerability to psychosis, has been much assessed in previous research into religiosity- personality correlates, and a more recent emerging literature has assessed this trait in relationship to religious experience. However, as this thesis clarifies, good grounds exist for challenging the view that this is a homogeneous trait. Assessments of traits relating to distinct facets of psychoticism, specifically the three traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience, provided solid grounds for taking apparently significant positive correlations between mystical experience and psychoticism as evidence that the former is associated with creativity rather than psychosis. In each religious group studied, a significant positive correlation was found between attitudes to mysticism and mystical experience. However, this thesis also presents grounds for distinguishing these concepts. The possibility that psychoticism relates in different ways to these constructs, and the implications this has for the question of whether mysticism arises through social learning or reflects an innate tendency invariant across creed, are considered.