Volume computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) and dose length product (DLP) values are frequently used to represent radiation doses from a CT scan. The limitation of CTDIvol and DLP is that they are surrogates for patient dose, providing information about the scanner output for only a very specific standardized condition [1]. The dose received by a patient depends on both patient size and scanner output. Turner et al. showed that using CTDIvol as a normalization factor, organ dose estimates can be obtained for a specific patient size [2], and that the relationship to patient size was consistent across scanner models [3]. Their results showed a promising approach to estimating size-dependent, scanner-specific, and exam-specific organ doses based on patient size and the CTDIvol reported by the scanner. Hence, obtaining accurate information about patient size is crucial to estimating patient dose in CT.

Report 204 from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) described the use of a size metric that involved the physical dimensions of the patient (anteroposterior [AP], lateral, AP+lateral, or effective diameter), in combination with scanner output (CTDIvol), to determine size-specific dose estimates (SSDE) from CT scanning [4]. Patient dimension can be determined using physical or electronic tools. Physical devices, such as the calipers that were frequently used in radiography before the routine use of phototiming, may be used to measure patient thickness in the AP or lateral directions. Alternatively, electronic measurement tools can be used to measure physical dimensions from either the CT localizer radiograph or an axial CT image. The conversion factors used to calculate SSDE from CTDIvol reported in AAPM Report 204 were derived from experimental and Monte Carlo data and normalized to patient size in terms of water- or tissue-equivalent materials.

For the task of calculating SSDE, geometric size was used as a surrogate for a patient's x-ray attenuation. However, x-ray attenuation is the fundamental physical parameter affecting the absorption of x-rays and is thus more relevant than geometric patient size in determining the radiation dose absorbed by the patient. For example, regions of the thorax and abdomen could have the same external physical dimensions. However, because the lungs are less dense and of different composition than abdominal tissue, the thorax would attenuate fewer x-ray photons than would the abdomen. For the same scanner output (CTDIvol), the thorax region would experience a higher radiation fluence and, hence, have a higher absorbed dose than an abdominal region having the same geometric dimensions. While CT operators can measure a patient's AP or lateral width, they currently have no practical way to measure attenuation. Both a CT localizer radiograph and CT projection data are measurements of the integrated x-ray attenuation along a ray path, and a CT image is a cross-sectional map of the linear attenuation coefficients of the materials in the image, normalized to the linear attenuation of water. Therefore, the CT localizer radiograph, the CT projection data, and the CT image all contain information that can be used to estimate patient attenuation.

The charge of AAPM Task Group 220 was to develop a robust and scientifically sound metric for automatically estimating patient size in CT that would account for patient attenuation and allow routine determination of SSDE for all patients, with little or no user intervention. This task group had a specific goal of developing a practical, standardized approach to estimating patient size that could be implemented by CT scanner manufacturers and others using CT localizer radiographs, axial CT images, or other data derived from the scanning process (e.g., projection data). Advantages and limitations of different methods were considered during task group deliberations and are summarized in this report. This includes comparing the SSDE calculated using various geometric size metrics, such as AP or lateral dimensions and effective diameter, and attenuation metrics, such as water equivalent diameter. Finally, recommendations are presented on the adoption and implementation of a standardized approach to estimating patient size.

This report is organized as follows. First, the concept of water equivalent diameter (Dw) is presented, and the methodology of calculating it from either a CT image or a CT localizer radiograph image is described. Second, data are provided comparing the accuracy of Monte Carlo dose estimates made using geometrical-based versus attenuation-based metrics for a series of virtual abdomen and thorax phantoms and their respective virtual CT images, and for patient images. Third, data are provided comparing Dw calculations from CT image and CT localizer radiograph phantom measurements. Fourth, practical considerations involved in implementing either approach are discussed, and recommendations for users and for manufacturers are provided. Finally, a road map for commercial adoption is suggested such that both patient size and SSDE can be calculated in a robust and consistent fashion across CT scanner manufacturers, and the resultant values stored in either the DICOM image header or the DICOM-structured dose report.


Introduction One of the most serious problems in our society is the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect of our children. Children are helpless victims of abuse, and they desperately need the assistance of another adult to aid them. Teachers across the nation are morally and legally responsible to observe children for signs of child abuse and to report their suspicions of this abuse to their respective state Child Abuse Agencies. While teachers are alert for signs of all forms of child abuse, each day of the school year, there is information which suggests that there is a relationship between the issuance of report cards and a rise in the incidence of child abuse. Many parents give significant meaning to their children's grades on their report card. There are two situations, however, for children that increase the potential of being abused for poor grades on their report card: 1) when their parents are chronically abusive to them, because of the parent's emotional psychopathology, and 2) after a divorce, when a child is allowed to live with the non-custodial parent, with the contingency that the child will not bring home a bad report card. All forms of child abuse place the child at risk for their safety as well as their ability to focus their energy upon the task of learning. Teachers are in the best position to aid these vulnerable and threatened children. The teacher needs to be hyper-vigilant for signs of child abuse immediately after the issuance of report cards. Children who live with a non-custodial parent with the contingency of a good report card, the teacher needs to have a conference with the custodial parent in order to increase that parent's understanding of the child's learning problems, well in advance of the issuance of report cards. Incidence Of Child Abuse And Report Cards National statistics on child abuse do not address the relationship of child abuse to reports cards. Over a two-year period in Cobb County, Georgia, it was found that within three days after school grades were issued, the reports of child abuse doubled (Time, 1989, p. 25). Professional child abuse experts, social workers, and police officers in workshops and seminars on child abuse affirm that there is an increase in the number of children subjected to all forms of abuse after report cards arrive home. In Florida, a father was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for subjecting his eight year old daughter to rape for bringing home a bad report card. He threatened to rape her 400 times if she came home with a single bad report card (Sun Sentinel, 1991, p. 6). Abusive Parents Children's report card grades often hold special and significant meaning for their parents. Many parents view their children and their children's actions as psychological extensions of themselves. Parents who are abusive to their children have extremely low self-esteem. They interpret the child's poor report card grades as a reflection and exposure of their own personal inadequacies, failures, and shame. Thus, the poor report card grades serve as a "trigger" for the abusive parent's violence towards the child. The child could receive severe physical beatings as well as emotional abuse, such as being called "dumb" and "stupid" after bringing home a bad report card. The emotional and verbal abuse is most devastating to the child's psychological well-being. The abusive parent not only physically or sexually abuses the child, but also blames the child for provoking the abuse. These children internalize a message that they are "bad" and "stupid" and, therefore, they deserved the physical beating and/or sexual assault. Thus, the child's self-esteem is eroded during each abusive episode. Learning Problems And Child Abuse A child who lives with an abusive parent is in serious danger and lives in an environment permeated with fear. Abusive parents use threats and intimidation to control their children and/or their spouses. …


Established by two sisters, Guler and Turkan, the garden at the centre of Flames Among Stones is a haven, a fertile ground for entering in resonance with the earth and its knowledge. Responding to what climate dictates, and gently letting nature indicate which path to take, the gardeners follow seasonal rhythms and return to a circadian time. Through organic gestures, they work with soil, and not against it —potentiating its growth—, as if they were part of a living cell whose membrane would be the surrounding wall.

This latter marks a separation between such a feminine space and an authoritarian and ever-increasing patriarchal outside. Yet, not by any means does the garden remain isolated from the world. On the contrary, it acts as an interface, offering room for resistance and experimentation of alternative strategies to cope with tense times. Guler and Turkan remind us of the significance of community spirit, collective work, and resilience at a time when the connection to land has been lost by most city dwellers, who through their urbanity became uprooted. Gardening becomes the passageway to another wisdom to help us reground ourselves and respond to exclusive politics and ecological degradation. As an interface, the garden also reflects contemporary uncertainty. What will happen after the two sisters die? Who will take care of the yard? And what if the real estate pressure outweighed and made it impossible to maintain it? Would their matrilineal transmission chain be broken as the one of Şahmaran?

The folktale of Şahmaran, a deity with the head of a woman and the body of a snake who can navigate between worlds, is interlaced with the garden narrative. Caves, rocks and other crevices are the mineral counterpoints of the verdant leafage, and suggest the deity's universe. Şahmaran's ability to perceive this and other realms' secrets runs parallel to the women's collective knowledge. Yet, her matriarch's line is interrupted when, after being betrayed, her wisdom is passed on to her lover instead of her daughters. A warning against power loss and the disappearance of ancestral transmission chains? Or a poignant reminder to collaborate and contribute to communal knowledge production?

Clelia Coussonnet, 2019


The study of complex activities such as scientific production and software development often require modeling connections among heterogeneous entities including people, institutions and artifacts. Despite advances in algorithms and visualization techniques for understanding such social networks, the process of constructing network models and performing exploratory analysis remains difficult and time-consuming. In this paper we present Orion, a system for interactive modeling, transformation and visualization of network data. Orion's interface enables the rapid manipulation of large graphs — including the specification of complex linking relationships — using simple drag-and-drop operations with desired node types. Orion maps these user interactions to statements in a declarative workflow language that incorporates both relational operators (e.g., selection, aggregation and joins) and network analytics (e.g., centrality measures). We demonstrate how these features enable analysts to flexibly construct and compare networks in domains such as online health communities, electronic medical records, academic collaboration and distributed software development.


Despite the tremendous empirical success of deep learning models to solve various learning tasks, our theoretical understanding of their generalization ability is very limited. Classical generalization bounds based on tools such as the VC dimension or Rademacher complexity, are so far unsuitable for deep models and it is doubtful that these techniques can yield tight bounds even in the most idealistic settings (Nagarajan&Kolter, 2019). In this work, we instead revisit the concept of leave-one-out (LOO) error to measure the generalization ability of deep models in the so-called kernel regime. While popular in statistics, the LOO error has been largely overlooked in the context of deep learning. By building upon the recently established connection between neural networks and kernel learning, we leverage the closed-form expression for the leave-one-out error, giving us access to an efficient proxy for the test error. We show both theoretically and empirically that the leave-one-out error is capable of capturing various phenomena in generalization theory, such as double descent, random labels or transfer learning. Our work therefore demonstrates that the leave-one-out error provides a tractable way to estimate the generalization ability of deep neural networks in the kernel regime, opening the door to potential, new research directions in the field of generalization.


Significance Parents' preference for sons is a well-known phenomenon. This study examines whether the use of social media by parents is gender biased. Due to the large-scale use of social media, even a moderate bias might significantly contribute to gender inequality. We use data from a Russian social networking site on posts made by 635,665 users and find that parents mention sons more often than daughters and that posts featuring sons get more "likes." This gender imbalance may send a message that girls are less important than boys or that they deserve less attention. Particularly in a country with an above-average ranking on gender parity, this invisible bias might present an intractable obstacle to gender equality. Gender inequality starts early in life. Parents tend to prefer boys over girls, which is manifested in reproductive behavior, marital life, and parents' pastimes and investments in their children. While social media and sharing information about children (so-called "sharenting") have become an integral part of parenthood, whether and how gender preference shapes the online behavior of users are not well known. In this paper we use public posts made by 635,665 users from Saint Petersburg on a popular Russian social networking site, to investigate public mentions of daughters and sons on social media. We find that both men and women mention sons more often than daughters in their posts. We also find that posts featuring sons receive more "likes" on average. Our results indicate that girls are underrepresented in parents' digital narratives about their children, in a country with an above-average ranking on gender parity. This gender imbalance may send a message that girls are less important than boys or that they deserve less attention, thus reinforcing gender inequality from an early age.


The new generation of radio interferometers is characterized by high sensitivity, wide fields of view and large fractional bandwidth. To synthesize the deepest images enabled by the high dynamic range of these instruments requires us to take into account the direction-dependent Jones matrices, while estimating the spectral properties of the sky in the imaging and deconvolution algorithms.
In this paper we discuss and implement a wide-band wide-field spectral deconvolution framework (DDFacet) based on image plane faceting, that takes into account generic direction-dependent effects. Specifically, we present a wide-field co-planar faceting scheme, and discuss the various effects that need to be taken into account to solve for the deconvolution problem (image plane normalization, position-dependent PSF, etc). We discuss two wide-band spectral deconvolution algorithms based on hybrid matching pursuit and sub-space optimisation respectively. A few interesting technical features incorporated in our imager are discussed, including baseline dependent averaging, which has the effect of improving computing efficiency. The version of DDFacet presented here can account for any externally defined Jones matrices and/or beam patterns.


The impact of uncertainty on the flexural response of sandwich beams is studied in this paper. The study focuses on the unique features typical to soft-core sandwich beams, including local effects and stresses concentrations. Those are critical for the integrity and performance of the structural system and, to the best knowledge of the authors, were never considered from a stochastic viewpoint. Several structural features of the beam are considered, separately, as uncertain, and the stochastic characteristics of the distributions of the displacements and stresses are investigated. To capture the unique local effects, the Extended High-order Sandwich Panel Theory is adopted. Numerical solutions of the stochastic ODEs use the FE method. The parametric uncertainty and its spatial distribution are modeled by Random Fields. The stochastic analysis uses both the Karhunen-Loeve Polynomial-Chaos and the Perturbation-based Stochastic Finite Element methods. The two approaches are compared and are comprehensively validated against Monte-Carlo Simulations. The numerical results quantify the impact of uncertainty on the response, but show significant disagreements between the two stochastic approaches, and the Perturbation-based Stochastic Finite Element method is chosen as the more suitable one. The effects of the coefficient of variation of the uncertain input parameter and its correlation length are also studied. Highly amplified levels of uncertainty are revealed by the stochastic analysis near points of local stress concentration. These localized yet significant uncertainties, reported here for the first time, shed new light on the design, analysis, and safety of such sandwich beams.


A survey by the Association of American Law Schools found that the most popular approach to teaching professional responsibility is a required course, usually entitled 'professional responsibility' or 'legal ethics'. Beneficial to the introductory law or philosophy student, this book comprises a selection of articles by eminent philosophers and lawyers that explore confrontations in the daily practice of law, employing in-depth case studies. The text is divided into six sections, each dealing with an important issue: the Structure of the Profession; the Moral Critique of Professionalism; the Adversary System; Conflict of Interest; Client Confidences; and, the Provision of Legal Services. Provoking questions on moral and professional responsibility, the ideology and tyranny of advocacy, and the professional's right to case refusal are approached. The introduction to each section sets the stage for the paper to follow. Following each section is a summary and a list of suggested readings for further understanding. Readings have been selected to give a historical perspective showing a revolution in philosophy, conceptual analysis, and moral reasoning - due to the growing consensus about the need for some measure of reform in the legal profession. This study of ethics can help students and professionals draw a sharper distinction between ethical and technical judgments, and help them to become clearer about the meaning of moral discourse in the workplace. "Ethics and the Legal Profession" would make excellent reading in a law or philosophy course in professional responsibility.


This study investigated the use of two art therapy painting interventions with anxious older adults in long-term care or assisted living facilities in the Southeast. The control group used 'traditional painting' as defined by using a paintbrush and the intervention group used 'touch painting' as defined by using a foam core board with tissue paper. All participants in the study (n=44) were identified as having symptoms of anxiety as determined by their facility staff. Participants completed the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) as a pre-test and post-test assessment. Both groups attended four art therapy sessions with the following themes: (1) Free painting, (2) Safety, (3) Belonging, and (4) Esteem. The themes were based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Results showed both painting interventions reduced anxiety as evidenced by changes in GAI scores, with the touch painting reduction being slightly higher. There was a significant decrease in anxiety in both groups at pre and post study measurements, but no significant difference between the two painting interventions, indicating that both interventions were effective. The data from this study could be used to influence non-pharmacological methods of anxiety reduction in anxious older adults.


BACKGROUND Critical elements in intimate partner homicides (IPH) often go undocumented. Previous studies have highlighted precipitating causes, but few have examined the place of injury that led to the victim's death. We sought to describe IPH cases in Illinois and in particular to examine factors surrounding the location of injury that led to the victim's death. METHODS We analyzed data collected in the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System to assess victim demographics, perpetrator characteristics, the victim/perpetrator relationship, and circumstances surrounding the location of injury that led to the victim's death. RESULTS From 2005 to 2010, 275 cases were identified as IPH. Women comprised 60.4% of victims and men 39.6%. Among perpetrators, 78.5% were identified as male and 21.5% as female. Of the 31 corollary victims, 54.8% were less than 18 years and 58.1% were injured in front of a family member. Females were 1.6 times more likely to have the injury that led to their death occur at their residence, as compared to males (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1–2.9). Cases in which the perpetrator had documented history of abuse were 2.4 times more likely to have the fatal injury occur at the victim's residence compared to those that did not have previous history (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2–4.8). IPH cases in which the perpetrator was the current partner of the victim were twice as likely to have the injury leading to the victim's death occur at the victim's residence compared to those perpetrators who were not a current partner (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.2–3.5). CONCLUSIONS Considering the increased risk of IPH occurring at the place of residence for women at the hands of current intimate partners and by perpetrators with a previous history of abuse, prevention efforts may wish to prioritize in-home and relocation intervention strategies. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiologic, level IV.


Abstract. This work presents the Thermodynamic Diagnostic Tool (TheDiaTo), a novel diagnostic tool for investigating the thermodynamics of climate systems with a wide range of applications, from sensitivity studies to model tuning. It includes a number of modules for assessing the internal energy budget, the hydrological cycle, the Lorenz energy cycle and the material entropy production. The routine takes as inputs energy fluxes at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), which allows for the computation of energy budgets at the TOA, the surface and in the atmosphere as a residual. Meridional enthalpy transports are also computed from the divergence of the zonal mean energy budget from which the location and intensity of the maxima in each hemisphere are calculated. Rainfall, snowfall and latent heat fluxes are received as inputs for computation of the water mass and latent energy budgets. If a land–sea mask is provided, the required quantities are separately computed over continents and oceans. The diagnostic tool also computes the annual Lorenz energy cycle (LEC) and its storage and conversion terms by hemisphere and as a global mean. This is computed from three-dimensional daily fields of horizontal wind velocity and temperature in the troposphere. Two methods have been implemented for the computation of the material entropy production: one relying on the convergence of radiative heat fluxes in the atmosphere (indirect method) and the other combining the irreversible processes occurring in the climate system, particularly heat fluxes in the boundary layer, the hydrological cycle and the kinetic energy dissipation as retrieved from the residuals of the LEC (direct method). A version of these diagnostics has been developed as part of the Earth System Model eValuation Tool (ESMValTool) v2.0a1 in order to assess the performances of CMIP6 model simulations, and it will be available in the next release. The aim of this software is to provide a comprehensive picture of the thermodynamics of the climate system, as reproduced in the state-of-the-art coupled general circulation models. This can prove useful for better understanding anthropogenic and natural climate change, paleoclimatic climate variability, and climatic tipping points.


Richard Posner's Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy (2003) is the most comprehensive account to date of his pragmatic vision of the law and democracy. For the most part, Posner's theory of pragmatism has been attacked externally, mainly by theorists unsympathetic to pragmatism. In contrast, in this Review, we contest Posner's account of pragmatism from within the pragmatic tradition. We contend that Posner's views are problematic not because they are pragmatic, but because they are often not pragmatic enough. We put Posner's account of pragmatism to the pragmatic test by examining its implications. Posner views ideals as useless and philosophical theorizing as empty. Lacking any meaningful approach for scrutinizing social goals, however, pragmatism devolves into an efficiency exercise - finding the appropriate means to achieve our given ends. Posner's account has little to say about the selection of ends. Accordingly, his attack on abstract ideals becomes, in effect, an endorsement of such ideals, since it leaves unreconstructed the dominant moral ideals of present society. In contrast, we return to the thought of the classical pragmatists (primarily John Dewey) to offer an alternative vision of pragmatism. This account better integrates theory and practice and provides more meaningful guidance about the choice of ends. Although Posner adopts many of the ideas of the classical pragmatists, he diverges in crucial ways that lead to internal inconsistencies with his own pragmatic commitments and to end up employing unpragmatic forms of reasoning. Posner finds himself in this position because the pragmatic ideas upon which he founds his theory have far more potent and revolutionary implications than Posner is willing to entertain. After setting forth his account of pragmatism, Posner attacks theories of deliberative democracy as unpragmatic. According to Posner, the pragmatist recognizes that it is too unrealistic and idealistic to expect most Americans to engage in meaningful political dialogue. Instead, Posner advances a concept of democracy based on the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter: Democracy should consist of a set of elite managers whose goal is to find the most efficient means to achieve our inherited ends. We argue that Posner's account of democracy is not pragmatic at all - even on his own terms. Under Posner's account, since people are not encouraged to make any effort to form a community on the basis of shared ideals, the dominant normative ideals of society are left to drift haphazardly. Posner views the equilibrium that emerges from individuals who pursue their own private interests as sufficient to generate the larger social ethos. We contend that this conclusion is deeply flawed. Additionally, we demonstrate that certain central features of deliberative democracy, far from being unpragmatic, are, in fact, deeply connected to pragmatic inquiry.


The objective of this Infrastructure Strategy is to guide future Bank
support for the countries of the Region toward their adoption of a new vision of the sector. According to this vision, infrastructure is planned, built, and maintained in order to support the provision of adequate quality services that promote sustainable and inclusive growth. The document is divided in six sections: the first section presents the objectives; then, it presents an overview of the infrastructure as an engine of sustainable development; the third section deals with the requirements and trends of the infrastructure and services in Latin America and the Caribbean; then, it presents the strengths, challenges and opportunities of IDB's share of infrastructure financing in Latin America and the Caribbean; the fifth section deals with the strategic principles and priority areas for action and finally, the results framework is presented.


Urbanization is not the most common concept associated with the Arctic. Nonetheless, climate change, growing industrial activity, and increased levels of accessibility all suggest that the region is likely to become more urbanized. As these significant changes, environmentally, socially and economically provide both opportunities and threats to the Arctic, there is a critical need to plan for and anticipate these changes to ensure that existing and developing Arctic cities are resilient to the future, both physically and as a social structure. Although Arctic cities exist as hubs of activity within the region, often acting as economic, governance and social centers, urban planners have yet to focus comprehensively on the region. Furthermore, the use of urban planning as a facilitator of urban resilience is a growing concept that is relatively new to the Arctic. Planning can be used to respond to and manage changes to the built environment, increasing the capacity of cities to absorb shocks and changes to the urban fabric. Urban planning as a form of resilience could become a key concept within the urbanization of the Arctic. This paper will take an analytical approach, firstly undertaking a brief investigation into the history of urban planning within the Arctic. In addition, case studies where urban planning has attempted to provide resilience will be discussed and finally the potential for urban planning to contribute to a resilient future in the Arctic in the future will be highlighted.


The IEEE 802.11 wireless standard provides little support for secure access control. As a result, access control in IEEE 802.11 on a per packet basis requires a new and robust identity authentication protocol. The SOLA (Statistical One-Bit Lightweight Authentication) protocol is well suited in a wireless constrained environment because this protocol's communication overhead is extremely low: only one bit. Furthermore, SOLA fulfills the requirements of being secure, useful, cheap, and robust. The synchronization algorithm performs very well. SOLA also makes it easy to develop a framework to detect and respond to, for instance, denial-of-service attacks or an adversary who tries to guess the identity authentication bit for successive packets.


Ordinary least squares (OLS) is the default method for fitting linear models, but is not applicable for problems with dimensionality larger than the sample size. For these problems, we advocate the use of a generalized version of OLS motivated by ridge regression, and propose two novel three-step algorithms involving least squares fitting and hard thresholding. The algorithms are methodologically simple to understand intuitively, computationally easy to implement efficiently, and theoretically appealing for choosing models consistently. Numerical exercises comparing our methods with penalization-based approaches in simulations and data analyses illustrate the great potential of the proposed algorithms.


Designed for psychology students, this guide takes you through the Library's resources to improve your research. Find resources for your professor's preferred citation style and learn about the tools available to help make citing sources faster.


This is the definitive guide to maximizing limited resources to innovate and grow. Trying to accomplish too much with too few resources has become almost customary in business today. More often than not, though, all that we "accomplish" is delayed projects, mass confusion, and missed opportunities - not the achievement of business goals. The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook helps you tackle the critical challenges of resource management and capacity planning head on by providing a proven tool for making the leap from chaos to control: the Capacity Quadrant, a framework for addressing visibility, prioritization, optimization of existing resources, and integrated planning and governance. The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook demystifies the complexities of resource capacity and demand management and offers clear ways for maximizing your limited resources to drive business growth and sustainability. This groundbreaking guide includes: the latest benchmark data from a comprehensive study of resource management; case studies from organizations that have used the book's methods with great success; tools for overcoming common barriers and making decisions involving time capture, resource assignments, and competing priorities; recommendations on ownership of the organization's resource management and capacity planning functions; considerations for addressing the human side of resource management and capacity planning. The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook gives you the information, insight, and proven methods to take your company where it has never been before. Praise for The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook: "There are lots of leadership books, scores of human resources books, and plenty of project and portfolio management books. This is the first book dedicated to what is essentially the drivetrain of organizations - the effective use of its people toward its most important activities. This is Manas' best and most ambitious book yet." (Judith E. Glaser, CEO, Benchmark Communications, Inc.; Chairman of The Creating WE Institute; and author of the bestselling Conversational Intelligence). "Jerry's book and the Capacity Quadrant model he outlines give you a realistic view of your workforce and an approach to maximizing the 'people power' in your organization that's easy to understand and apply. It could very well help transform your company and make you a hero in the process!" (Dave Garrett, President and CEO, ProjectManagement.com). "Unlike lifeless products, people skills and capacity are difficult to measure and vary widely between 'good' days and 'bad' days. Manas steps nimbly through this minefield with solid evidence and practical advice - all laced together in an easy-to-read style." (R. Max Wideman FCSCE, FEIC, FICE, FPMI). "It didn't take me too long into reading when I realized how much we really needed this book. I wish we had it when we started implementing Resource Capacity Planning and Investment Planning. I will make sure all of my staff members have copies." (Gary Merrifield, PMP, Manager, IT Project Delivery and Quality Assurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana). "A great guide to the most important topic in management: how to maximize your limited people resources." (Hans Heuschkel, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst/Project Manager, Swiss insurance company).


In the global rankings of generalized trust, Poland occupies a lowly positon. Only 1/3 of Poles have a strong trust in strangers and roughly the same number believe that trust in business generally pays of. At the same tme, only half of them believe that a market economy based on private enterprise is the best economic system for the country. According to the literature review a major factor in the development of entrepreneurship is trust in other economic actors. The aim of the artcle is to present the relaton between trust and entrepreneurial actvites in Poland. In this paper the hypothesis was adopted that the level of trust in the public sphere, especially in business relatons in Poland, had an impact on the intensity of entrepreneurial actvites. The analysed period comprises the years from 2002 to 2016. The artcle presents changes in the potental for social trust, including trust in business. Indicators of confdence include the percentage of people that have trust in diferent actors in Poland. A further part of the paper is devoted to the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in Poland. Among the indicators of entrepreneurship are the number of newly registered and deregistered enttes, and enttes that are new or deregistered from the REGON register per 10 thousand of populaton. Moreover, the innovaton actvity of enterprises in Poland has been described. At the end, relatons between trust and entrepreneurial actvites in Poland were examined. The data was analysed statstcally with Pearson's correlaton coefcients. The analysis of confdence and entrepreneurship is based mainly on the data published by the Polish Central Statstcal Ofce and Public Opinion Research Centre.


This study aimed to determine the service rate (TS) in intensive dairy farms in Lima, Peru and to identify the factors affecting it. For this purpose, 144 experimental units (farm-month units) were used. Each unit consisted of 60 randomly selected cows who had more than 60 days in lactation during the study month and their conception date should be after the start date of the study month. Records of four dairy farms in the provinces of Huaura, Huaral, Lima and Canete in the period of August 2010 to July 2013 were assessed. The effect of days in milk (DEL), production level (NPX), parity (NP), the percentage of inseminated cows by using prostaglandins (%PG), percentage of inseminated cows under fixed-time artificial insemination (%TAI) and maximum temperature-humidity index (THI Max) on service rate were evaluated. Moreover, farm, year, season and milking frequency were evaluated. TS was 44.6%. The %TAI, %THI and NP were highly significant (p<0.05), with a regression coefficient of 0.240, -0655 and -5.858 respectively. Also, the interaction year x farm and farms were highly significant (p<0.001). It is concluded that TS in the four dairy farms in Lima is below the ideal target and therefore, there is a great potential for improvement.


Diasporas are dynamic and volatile in today's globalizing realities and imaginaries because the sense of place and location by which diasporic experiences are understood has become fluid, ambiguous, even contested, and no longer a fixed and static space. In the process of globalization fractured at the very site of identification of the postcolonial self, it becomes that liminal space in-between, constituting, at once, demand and desire. In the fictional texts analyzed in this special forum written either during or after direct colonial rule, an access is given to fleeting transnational images of the fugitive and ephemeral displacement, dispersal and migrancy of intellectuals and ordinary people that underscore cultural difference in their diasporic experience. However complex that access might be in view of the diverse and multi-layered methodological protocols of interpretive reading, we find diasporic subjects that are present but invisible in a foreign land, mobile but constrained, located but displaced, connected yet isolated, real but illusory. In other words, we see shadows of metaphorically liminal sites of possession and loss, participation and alienation, subjectivity and subjection.


Biological and natural processes have been a continuous source of inspiration for the sciences and engineering. For instance, the work of Wiener in cybernetics was influenced by feedback control processes observable in biological systems; McCulloch and Pitts description of the artificial neuron was instigated by biological observations of neural mechanisms; the idea of survival of the fittest inspired the field of evolutionary algorithms and similarly, artificial immune systems, ant colony optimisation, automated self-assembling programming, membrane computing, etc. also have their roots in natural phenomena. The second International Workshop on Nature Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NICSO), was held in Acireale, Italy, during November 8-10, 2007. The aim for NICSO 2007 was to provide a forum were the latest ideas and state of the art research related to cooperative strategies for problem solving arising from Nature could be discussed. The contributions collected in this book were stric tly peer reviewed by at least three members of the international programme committee, to whom we are indebted for their support and assistance. The topics covered by the contributions include several well established nature inspired techniques like Genetic Algorithms, Ant Colonies, Artificial Immune Systems, Evolutionary Robotics, Evolvable Systems, Membrane Computing, Quantum Computing, Software Self Assembly, Swarm Intelligence, etc.


Objective- Addition of the drugs to lidocaine to induce epidural analgesia in order to elongate and enhance the analgesia has been investigated previously. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of epidurally administered xylazine either in combination of lidocaine or alone in rabbits. Design- Experimental study Animals- Twelve healthy and adult male New Zealand white strain rabbits weighting 2.2±0.3 kg were used in this study. Procedures - Following the epidural catheterization of all rabbits under general anesthesia they were randomly assigned to three equal groups of A, B and C. The next day administration of 4 mg/kg of 2% lidocaine, 3 mg/kg of 2% xylazine and 2 mg/kg of 2% lidocaine-1.5 mg/kg of 2% xylazine mixture was performed in group A, B and C respectively through the epidural catheter. The motor activity, the onset time of blockade, the duration of blockade, heart rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature were recorded prior and during analgesia. Results- Values were not significantly different among the three groups (P>0.05) and no complication occurred during a week after induction of epidural analgesia. Either of the alone drugs or their combination is safe to be used into the epidural space in rabbits. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance- By considering the reduced dose of xylazine, the combination of xylazine and lidocaine seems superior to induce epidural analgesia in rabbits.


In big data era, data are usually stored in databases for easy access and utilization, which are now woven into every aspect of our lives. However, traditional relational databases cannot address users' demands for quick data access and calculating, since they cannot process data in a distributed way. To tackle this problem, non-relational databases such as MongoDB have emerged up and been applied in various Scenarios. Nevertheless, it should be noted that most MongoDB products fail to consider user's data privacy. In this paper, we propose a practical encrypted MongoDB (i.e., CryptMDB). Specifically, we utilize an additive homomorphic asymmetric cryptosystem to encrypt user's data and achieve strong privacy protection. Security analysis indicates that the CryptMDB can achieve confidentiality of user's data and prevent adversaries from illegally gaining access to the database. Furthermore, extensive experiments demonstrate that the CryptMDB achieves better efficiency than existing relational database in terms of data access and calculating.


Eurasian migratory duck species represent a natural resource shared between European countries. As is evident throughout human harvest history, lack of coordinated management and monitoring at appropriate levels often leads to 'the tragedy of the commons', where shared populations suffer overexploitation. Effective management can also be hampered by poor understanding of the factors that limit and regulate migratory populations throughout their flyways, and over time. Following decades of population increase, some European duck populations now show signs of levelling off or even decline, underlining the need for more active and effective management. In Europe, the existing mechanisms for delivering effective management of duck populations are limited, despite the need and enthusiasm for establishing adaptive management (AM) schemes for wildlife populations. Existing international legal agreements already oblige European countries to sustainably manage migratory waterbirds. Although the lack of coordinated demographic and hunting data remains a challenge to sustainable management planning, AM provides a robust decision-making framework even in the presence of uncertainty regarding demographic and other information. In this paper we investigate the research and monitoring needs in Europe to successfully apply AM to ducks, and search for possible model species, focusing on freshwater species (in contrast to sea duck species) in the East Atlantic flyway. Based on current knowledge, we suggest that common teal Anas crecca, Eurasian wigeon Mareca penelope and common goldeneye Bucephala clangula represent the best species for testing the application of an AM modelling approach to duck populations in Europe. Applying AM to huntable species with relatively good population data as models for broader implementation represents a cost effective way of starting to develop AM on a European flyway scale for ducks, and potentially other waterbirds in the future.


In this paper, we introduce a predator-prey with susceptible and infected prey model. The model includes the harvesting of infected prey. We assume that the predator avoids the infected prey. The susceptible prey becomes infected when they are in contact with infected prey and recover to be susceptible again. We find the equilibrium points and the conditions for their existence and stability. We also show the non-existence of periodic solutions. Numerical simulations explain the effect of the parameters on the behaviour of the three classes of populations. The simulations also give the region of the solution and guarantees that all solutions of the system lie within the region.


Forests and tree-based systems are an important component of rural landscapes, sustaining livelihoods and contributing to the food security and nutritional needs of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Historically, these systems developed under a wide variety of ecological conditions, and cultural and socio-economic contexts, as integrated approaches that combined management of forest and agricultural areas to provide primarily for the needs of producers and their local communities. Today they serve food and nutrition demands of growing global populations, both urban and rural. Population increase, globalisation, deforestation, land degradation, and ever-increasing demand and associated conflict for land (including forest) resources are placing pressure on these lands. Farmers have been encouraged to intensify food production on existing agricultural lands, by modifying some traditional practices (such as agroforestry) or abandoning others (such as shifting cultivation) that evolved over centuries to cope with biophysical constraints (e.g. limited soil fertility, climate variability) and changing socio-economic conditions. This chapter provides an overview of forests and tree-based systems and their role in enhancing food security and nutrition for rural communities and those served through the marketplace. The variability and viability of these management systems are considered within and across geographical regions and agro-ecological zones. Also discussed is the role of the social, cultural and economic contexts in which these systems exist, with a focus on three factors that affect the socioeconomic organisation of forests and tree-based systems, namely: land and tree tenure and governance, human capital (including knowledge and labour) and financial capital (including credit). How these biophysical and socio-economic conditions and their complex interactions influence food security and nutrition outcomes, particularly for vulnerable segments of the population (i.e., the poor, women and children), are of particular concern.


The quoted machine availability of a particle accelerator over some time range is usually handgenerated by a machine coordinator, who pores over archived operations parameters and logbook entries for the time period in question. When the machine is deemed unavailable for operations, 'blame' is typically assigned to one or more machine sub-systems. With a 'perfect' representation of all possible machine states and all possible fatal alarms it is possible to calculate machine availability and assign blame automatically and thereby remove any bias and uncertainty that might creep in when a human is involved. Any system which attempts to do this must nevertheless recognize the de-facto impossibility of achieving perfection and allow for 'corrections' by a machine coordinator. Such a system for automated availability statistics was recently presented [1] and we now report on results and improvements following a half year in operation at PETRA-3 and its accelerator chain.


Trait self-control, the ability to interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies and to refrain from acting on them, is one of the most important socio-emotional skills. There had been some evidence that it outperforms intelligence in predicting students' achievement measured as both school grades and standardized achievement tests. However, recent research has shown that the relationships between trait self-control and measures of achievement are more equivocal, emphasizing the importance of the respective outcome of the test to the individual. On the one hand, high-stakes school achievement measures such as GPA repeatedly showed strong relationships with trait self-control. On the other hand, findings on the relationships between trait self-control and performance in mostly low-stakes standardized achievement tests were more heterogeneous. The substantial positive relationship between intelligence and both achievement measures is uncontested. However, the incremental value of trait self-control beyond intelligence when investigating their relationships with achievement remains uncertain. To investigate the relationships of self-control with school achievement and two standardized achievement tests (school mathematics and physics) beyond fluid reasoning, we drew on a large heterogeneous sample of adults in vocational training (N = 3,146). Results show differential patterns of results for fluid reasoning and trait self-control and the achievement measures. Trait self-control and fluid reasoning showed similar relationships with school achievement, whereas only fluid reasoning was significantly associated with standardized achievement test scores. For both achievement measures, no significant interaction effects between trait self-control and fluid reasoning were found. The results highlight the utility of trait self-control for performance in high-stakes school assessment beyond fluid reasoning, but set limits to the overall value of trait self-control for achievement in standardized assessments—at least in low-stakes testing situations.


The biomedical community is producing increasingly high dimensional datasets, integrated from hundreds of patient samples, which current computational techniques struggle to explore. To uncover biological meaning from these complex datasets, we present an approach called Multiscale PHATE, which learns abstracted biological features from data that can be directly predictive of disease. Built on a continuous coarse graining process called diffusion condensation, Multiscale PHATE creates a tree of data granularities that can be cut at coarse levels for high level summarizations of data, as well as at fine levels for detailed representations on subsets. We apply Multiscale PHATE to study the immune response to COVID-19 in 54 million cells from 168 hospitalized patients. Through our analysis of patient samples, we identify CD16hi CD66blo neutrophil and IFNγ+GranzymeB+ Th17 cell responses enriched in patients who die. Further, we show that population groupings Multiscale PHATE discovers can be directly fed into a classifier to predict disease outcome. We also use Multiscale PHATE-derived features to construct two different manifolds of patients, one from abstracted flow cytometry features and another directly on patient clinical features, both associating immune subsets and clinical markers with outcome.


Understanding on the role that region plays in the innovation processes has increased in the last years; in the same way, the necessity to develop the firm absorptive capacity has been shown in an important way. If a firm doesn't develop its absorptive capacity cannot take advantage from the knowledge that is generated in a region and be innovative. But, is necessary understand that if a region promotes the development and exchange of knowledge, as well as use of innovators practices, the firms will increase their absorptive capacity and therefore their possibility to innovate. In this paper we show the importance that region has in the creation and development of absorptive capacity in Mexican software firms. To carry out the analysis, we suggest the concept of Sectoral Regional System of Innovation (SSRI), which allows us to stand out the importance of a region for the absorptive capacity development. In this paper two cases are analyzed: Baja California and the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (MAG). In each of them the determinant of the absorptive capacity are analyzed as well as the role of each SSRI in their creation and development.


Visual space is represented by cortical cells in an orderly manner. Only little variation in the cell behavior is found with changing depth below the cortical surface, that is, all cells in a column with axis perpendicular to the cortical plane have approximately the same properties (Hubel and Wiesel 1962, 1963, 1968). Therefore, the multiple features of the visual space (e.g., position in visual space, preferred orientation, and orientation tuning strength) are mapped on a two-dimensional space, the cortical plane. Such a dimension reduction leads to complex maps (Durbin and Mitchison 1990) that so far have evaded an intuitive understanding. Analyzing optical imaging data (Blasdel 1992a, b; Blasdel and Salama 1986; Grinvald et al. 1986) using a theoretical approach we will show that the most salient features of these maps can be understood from a few basic design principles: local correlation, modularity, isotropy, and homogeneity. These principles can be defined in a mathematically exact sense in the Fourier domain by a rather simple annulus-like spectral structure. Many of the models that have been developed to explain the mapping of the preferred orientations (Cooper et al. 1979; Legendy 1978; Linsker 1986a, b; Miller 1992; Nass and Cooper 1975; Obermayer et al. 1990, 1992; Soodak 1987; Swindale 1982, 1985, 1992; von der Malsburg 1973; von der Malsburg and Cowan 1982) are quite successful in generating maps that are close to experimental maps. We suggest that this success is due to these principles, which are common properties of the models and of biological maps.


The first of its kind, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, gathers together a diverse range of 55 poets with varying aesthetics and backgrounds. In addition to generous samples of poetry by each trans writer, the book also includes "poetics statements"-reflections by each poet that provide context for their work covering a range of issues from identification and embodiment to language and activism. Poets include Samuel Ace, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Micha Cardenas, kari edwards, Duriel Harris, Joy Ladin, Dawn Lundy Martin, Eileen Myles, Trish Salah, Max Wolf Valerio, John Wieners, Kit Yan, and more.


Our modern society strongly depends on critical infrastructures, such as the central power grid or information and communication technology. When these infrastructures fail during and after disasters, the affected population has no means of communication. At the same time, the increased population density of urban areas coupled with the peoples' expectation to have permanent access to communication systems and to be informed at all times and at any place, has made disaster-management increasingly challenging. Communication is crucial during disasters as it empowers the affected population to organize and help themselves. But even if parts of the communication infrastructure are still intact, the increased communication demand for disaster relief efforts and checking on loved ones typically overloads the available infrastructure. As such, infrastructure-independent and rapidly deployable communication systems are required. Delay-tolerant ad-hoc networks can be used to build communication networks, which propagate messages via the store-carry-forward paradigm directly between neighboring communication devices. Such DTN-MANETs can be formed by the smartphones of the affected population. However, such communication networks must overcome various scenario-specific
difficulties, such as limited network lifetime due to limited battery power of the devices, message propagation limitations caused by isolated network areas due to the limited range of device-to-device communication, and network resource restrictions. In this thesis, we first assess scenario-specific characteristics by conducting and evaluating a large-scale field test. Based on these results, our main contribution is the design and implementation of the decentralized disaster communication system D2CS.KOM, which extends the functionality of conventional DTN-MANETs. We enable D2CS.KOM to allocate available energy resources to the network participants in a fully decentralized way, extending the lifetime of communication devices and thus the overall network. We further propose and integrate a prioritization architecture to improve the propagation of disaster-relevant messages in the network and enable the system to adapt to continuously changing communication demands. Since the mobility of network participants determines the performance of data dissemination in DTN-MANETs, D2CS.KOM overcomes this limitation by utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to strategically support the dissemination of messages. We generalize disaster-specific characteristics into the Simonstrator.KOM simulation platform and conduct an extensive evaluation of our contributions. We show that our system extends the communication lifetime of individual nodes and consequently of the overall network while prioritizing disaster-relevant messages. Additionally, we demonstrate the significant support capabilities of UAVs in intermittent DTN-MANETs. In summary, we show that our contributions constitute a significant
step towards ensuring communication during and after disasters by improving upon decentralized, infrastructure-independent communication systems.


The emergence of Infrastructure as a Service framework brings new opportunities, which also accompanies with new challenges in auto scaling, resource allocation, and security. A fundamental challenge underpinning these problems is the continuous tracking and monitoring of resource usage in the system. In this paper, we present ATOM, an efficient and effective framework to automatically track, monitor, and orchestrate resource usage in an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) system that is widely used in cloud infrastructure. We use novel tracking method to  continuously track important system usage metrics with low overhead, and develop a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) based approach to continuously monitor and automatically find anomalies based on the approximated tracking results. We show how to dynamically set the tracking threshold based on the detection results, and further, how to adjust tracking algorithm to ensure its optimality under dynamic workloads. Lastly, when potential anomalies are identified, we use introspection tools to perform memory forensics on VMs guided by analyzed results from tracking and monitoring to identify malicious behavior inside a VM. We demonstrate the extensibility of ATOM through virtual machine (VM) clustering. The performance of our framework is evaluated in an open source IaaS system.


This article presents an analysis of recent trends and changes in temperature and precipitation for Al Jabal Al Akhdar, Sultanate of Oman; the first such analysis in this region. The objective is to assess the extent of observed climate change in this mountainous region over the last three decades using statistical tools, as well as providing a synthesis of future regional projections of climate change from global climate models (GCMs). A clear picture of climate change in the observed record is presented, with statistically significant increases in mean (+0.27°C/decade) and minimum (+0.79°C/decade) temperature coincident with a general decrease in precipitation (-9.42 mm/decade) from the 1979-2012 record. Climate change projections from various Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenario families across a range of different models and time slices indicate a general increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation over the present century. More climate change impact assessments are required to further assess the implications for environment and natural resources, especially water systems. This will better support policy- and decision-makers in evaluating and modifying existing policies in order to develop long-term strategic plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation.


Best-selling author and database expert with more than 25 years of experience modeling application and enterprise data, Dr. Michael Blaha provides tried and tested data model patterns, to help readers avoid common modeling mistakes and unnecessary frustration on their way to building effective data models. Unlike the typical methodology book, Patterns of Data Modeling provides advanced techniques for those who have mastered the basics. Recognizing that database representation sets the path for software, determines its flexibility, affects its quality, and influences whether it succeeds or fails, the text focuses on databases rather than programming. It is one of the first books to apply the popular patterns perspective to database systems and data models. It offers practical advice on the core aspects of applications and provides authoritative coverage of mathematical templates, antipatterns, archetypes, identity, canonical models, and relational database design.


With ever increasing environmental concern, a high emphasis has been
placed on recycling as a way in which everybody can contribute towards a
better environment, not just for themselves but for future generations too.
This emphasis has since seen Local Authorities (LA's) becoming
responsible for the awareness and participation of recycling within their
areas. It has been argued that the recycling efforts of households renders
insignificant when considering the small amount of waste they produce.
However, recently this opinion has changed somewhat when it emerged
that households can indeed make a considerable difference towards
cutting energy use and protecting the environment by increasing their
recycling efforts. In a bid to increase these efforts, studies have been
conducted to assess the barriers to participation of recycling schemes and
efforts therein. This investigation aims to examine whether or not there
has been a change in the attitudes and recycling efforts of the public since
the widespread implementation of kerbside recycling schemes. Further to
this the reasons for any changes in attitude and behaviour were gauged,
and in addition how the respondents' actions differed from before the
schemes were introduced. A total of 129 people responded to a
questionnaire designed to assess the aims of the investigation with a
65.5% response rate. From the results obtained, it was concluded that
there were two clear groups: recyclers and non recyclers. The principle
barriers to participation of recycling schemes included a lack of time and
awareness of such schemes. It was also established that the majority of
- 4 -
respondents felt their Local Authority (LA) should do more to encourage
recycling efforts. Overall the majority of the respondents indicated that
they did have an interest in recycling but it was not helped by their LA.
Implementation of kerbside recycling has effected a change in attitude
towards recycling but had a less of an impact on recycling efforts than was
first anticipated.


Many countries are implementing or at least considering policies to counter increasingly certain negative impacts from climate change. An increasing amount of research has been devoted to the analysis of the costs of climate change and its mitigation, as well as to the design of policies, such as the international Kyoto Protocol, post-Kyoto negotiations, regional initiatives, and unilateral actions. Although most studies on climate change policies in economics have considered efficiency aspects, there is a growing literature on equity and justice. Climate change policy has important dimensions of distributive justice, both within and across generations, but in this paper we survey only studies on the intragenerational aspect, i.e., within a generation. We cover several domains including the international, regional, national, sectoral and inter-personal, and examine aspects such as the distribution of burdens from climate change, climate change policy negotiations in general, implementation of climate agreements using tradable emission permits, and the uncertainty of alternatives to emission reductions.


This collection explores how technologies become forms of power, how people embed their authority in technological systems, and how the machines and the knowledge that make up technical systems strengthen or reshape social, political, and cultural power. The authors suggest ways in which a more nuanced investigation of technology's complex history can enrich our understanding of the changing meanings of modernity. They consider the relationship among the state, expertise, and authority; the construction of national identity; changes in the structure and distribution of labor; political ideology and industrial development; and political practices during the Cold War. The essays show how insight into the technological aspects of such broad processes can help synthesize material and cultural methods of inquiry and how reframing technology's past in broader historical terms can suggest new directions for science and technology studies.The essays were written in honor of Thomas Parke Hughes and Agatha Chipley Hughes, whose spirit of inquiry they seek to continue.Contributors Janet Abbate, Michael Thad Allen, W. Bernard Carlson, Gabrielle Hecht, Erik P. Rau, Eric Schatzberg, Amy Slaton, John Staudenmaier, Edmund N. Todd, Hans Weinberger.


Market price systems constitute a well-understood class of mechanisms that under certain conditions provide effective decentralization of decision making with minimal communication overhead. In a market-oriented programming approach to distributed problem solving, we derive the activities and resource allocations for a set of computational agents by computing the competitive equilibrium of an artificial economy. WALRAS provides basic constructs for defining computational market structures, and protocols for deriving their corresponding price equilibria. In a particular realization of this approach for a form of multicommodity flow problem, we see that careful construction of the decision process according to economic principles can lead to efficient distributed resource allocation, and that the behavior of the system can be meaningfully analyzed in economic terms.


Detecting and locating semen stains is crucial when creating a linkage between the offender and items of evidence. Currently, the two most common methods of semen stain detection used in crime scenes and items recovered from crime scenes are fluorescence and chemical examinations. An alternate light source (ALS), which causes semen to fluoresce under different wavelengths, is an established technique that utilizes converted light for the detection of latent stains. The other method relies on chemically identifying the presence of acid phosphatase activity in semen. Previous studies have concluded that semen optimally fluoresces at 450 nm wavelength with an orange barrier filter. In this paper, the fluorescence of seminal stains under different laboratory conditions is compared in order to investigate the significant factors that may affect semen detection. The variables investigated in this paper include six colors of plain cotton fabrics, three excitation spectra, three semen donors, five semen concentrations and six fabric textures. The intensity of the fluorescence was calculated using the image processing program ImageJ. ImageJ contains a color channel split function that allows photographs to split into 8-bit grayscale images containing the red, green and blue components of the original vi photographs. Each color channel was individually compared to each other and to the original RGB photographs to determine whether color channel splitting has an effect on the detectability of seminal stain fluorescence. This study suggests that the most significant factor that affects the detectability of a semen stain, aside from the concentration of the stain, is the color of the substrate. The texture of the substrate had no significant effect on the fluorescence and no significant variation in the semen stain fluorescence was observed from the three donors tested; however, future studies are necessary to confirm these findings. Forensic analysts should consider the background color when selecting the excitation light wavelength, and may need to utilize an alternate approach such as a chemical mapping examination, particularly for locating diluted semen stains on a dark background.


Structural conditions on polynomial systems are developed for which the Dixon-based resultant methods often compute exact resultants. For cases when this cannot be done, the degree of the extraneous factor in the projection operator computed using the Dixon-based methods is typically minimal. A method for constructing a resultant matrix based on a combination of Sylvester-dialytic and Dixon methods is proposed. A heuristic for variable ordering for this construction often leading to exact resultants is developed.


In iron-depleted women without anemia, oral iron supplements induce an increase in serum hepcidin (SHep) that persists for 24 hours, decreasing iron absorption from supplements given later on the same or next day. Consequently, iron absorption from supplements is highest if iron is given on alternate days. Whether this dosing schedule is also beneficial in women with iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) given high-dose iron supplements is uncertain. The primary objective of this study was to assess whether, in women with IDA, alternate-day administration of 100 and 200 mg iron increases iron absorption compared to consecutive-day iron administration. Secondary objectives were to correlate iron absorption with SHep and iron status parameters. We performed a cross-over iron absorption study in women with IDA (n=19; median hemoglobin 11.5 mg/dL; mean serum ferritin 10 mg/L) who received either 100 or 200 mg iron as ferrous sulfate given at 8 AM on days 2, 3 and 5 labeled with stable iron isotopes 57Fe, 58Fe and 54Fe; after a 16-day incorporation period, the other labeled dose was given at 8 AM on days 23, 24 and 26 (days 2, 3 and 5 of the second period). Iron absorption on days 2 and 3 (consecutive) and day 5 (alternate) was assessed by measuring erythrocyte isotope incorporation. For both doses, SHep was higher on day 3 than on day 2 (P<0.001) or day 5 (P<0.01) with no significant difference between days 2 and 5. Similarly, for both doses, fractional iron absorption (FIA) on days 2 and 5 was 40-50% higher than on day 3 (P<0.001), while absorption on day 2 did not differ significantly from day 5. There was no significant difference in the incidence of gastrointestinal side effects comparing the two iron doses (P=0.105). Alternate day dosing of oral iron supplements in anemic women may be preferable because it sharply increases FIA. If needed, to provide the same total amount of iron with alternate day dosing, twice the daily target dose should be given on alternate days, as total iron absorption from a single dose of 200 mg given on alternate days was approximately twice that from 100 mg given on consecutive days (P<0.001). In IDA, even if hepatic hepcidin expression is strongly suppressed by iron deficiency and erythropoietic drive, the intake of oral iron supplements leads to an acute hepcidin increase for 24 hours. The study was funded by ETH Zürich, Switzerland. This study has been registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT03623997.


A matrix theory is developed for the noncausal polyphase representation that underlies the theory of lifted filter banks and wavelet transforms. The theory presented here develops an extensive matrix algebra framework for analyzing and implementing linear phase two-channel filter banks via lifting cascade schemes. Whole-sample symmetric and half-sample symmetric linear phase filter banks are characterized completely in terms of the polyphase-with-advance representation, and new proofs are given of linear phase lifting factorization theorems for these two principal classes of linear phase filter banks. The theory benefits significantly from a number of group-theoretic structures arising in the polyphase-with-advance representation and in the lifting factorization of linear phase filter banks. These results form the foundations of the lifting methodology employed in Part 2 of the ISO/IEC JPEG 2000 still image coding standard.


Linear difference equations involving recurrences are fundamental equations that describe many important signal processes; in particular, infinite-duration impulse response (IIR) filters. Applying conventional dependence-preserving parallelization techniques such as software pipelining can only extract limited parallelism due to loop-carried dependences in the linear recurrences, and thus, cannot achieve scalable speedup given more resources. Furthermore, the previously published scheduling techniques did not address the tradeoffs between resource constraints and the processing speed of the resulting schedules, and thus, do not have the capability of exploring the design space of parallel schedules implementing IIR filters. In this paper, we present a novel approach, based on harmonic scheduling, that addresses the tradeoffs between resource constraints and the processing speed of the resulting schedules, which can be used to explore the design space of scalable parallel schedules implementing IIR filters with resource constraints. The salient features of our approach include a mathematical formulation of the relationship between the schedules, resource constraints and target performance, and capabilities for exploring design space in terms of those parameters. In particular, our approach can be used to successively approximate time-optimal schedules implementing IIR filters for a given target architecture. We illustrate our approach by giving an algorithm for deriving scalable schedules for IIR filters with a fixed number of identical multifunctional processors. As a further illustration, we derive rate-optimal schedules for IIR filters under more realistic constraints: using a fixed number of adders and multipliers and assuming that multiplication and addition take dissimilar execution times.


The third order nonlinear optical single crystal of Sulphamic Acid Lithium Chloride (SALC) was grown by slow evaporation method at room temperature. The grown single crystal was characterized by single crystal X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis; it confirms the crystal belongs to the orthorhombic system. The vibrational mode of SALC was identified by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectral analysis. UV-Vis-NIR absorption studies were performed to know the optical behaviour of the SALC single crystal. The response of the dielectrics studies with respect to the frequency range of 50 Hz to 5 MHz has been investigated and results are discussed. Further the Third order nonlinearities of the SALC crystal was studied by Z-scan techniques. The values of non-linear refractive index (n2), absorption coefficient (β), and third order non-linear susceptibility (χ3) were found.


GDP growth in the Eurozone during the last twenty years continuously decreased. In addition, the global financial crisis and subsequent events seem to have, on average, shifted the trajectory of the Eurozone's potential output downward. A key question is whether this trend is a permanent result of "secular stagnation" or if economic policies might improve the situation. In this paper, we intend to test the impact of several structural determinants of potential output growth using a dynamic panel data methodology for 11 main EMU members for the period 1996-2014. We also take into account the role of fiscal policy stance and debt dynamics to assess whether European fiscal rules, especially in the aftermath of the financial and sovereign debt crises, contributed to the slowdown of potential growth. Estimated results suggest that population, tertiary education, research and development expenditure, trade and financial openness, and institutional quality contributed significantly to potential output growth in the EMU during the period under examination. By estimating a quadratic relation between debt and potential growth, we find that negative effects dominate for values above 132%; however, the impact of public debt is statistically uncertain even for levels slightly below 100%. Once debt dynamics are taken into account, we find that excessive and prolonged consolidation, measured using the cyclically adjusted primary balance, might have, at best, no effect on potential growth when debt levels do not exceed the threshold level.


Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can lead to progressive, potentially irreversible declines in lung function in some patients. Asthmatic inflammation develops when the sequential interaction of inflammatory cells with resident cells generates a cascade of events that contribute to the chronic inflammation and clinical manifestations associated with the disease, including further inflammation, airway smooth muscle spasm (bronchospasm), airway mucus secretion, airway edema and narrowing, and bronchial epithelial damage. Because of the chronic, progressive nature of asthmatic inflammation and the early age of onset, the ability to evaluate inflammation in children would be useful. Several procedures that quantify inflammatory mediators (in peripheral blood, induced sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and bronchial biopsies) have shown potential usefulness in the evaluation of and the monitoring of disease severity in children (and, by extension, adults) with asthma. Further research needs to be devoted to the elucidation of when the inflammatory process starts and how it changes over time, to the determination of whether the inflammatory process is the same in all patients with wheezing, regardless of the stimulus, to the definition of the relationship between atopy and asthma, and to the establishment of the usefulness of testing for inflammatory markers to help identify individual asthmatic phenotypes, to evaluate disease severity, to measure therapeutic response, and/or to predict potential outcomes.


The Visual Culture of Modernism offers a wide-ranging exploration of intertextual relations that bring together artists, artistic forms and artistic periods in response to the question: what is the relevance of early twentieth-century American Modernism to our present historical moment? Scholars from Europe and America develop responses to this question based on the philosophical heritage of modernity and in the context of the range of Modernist cultural praxis. The essays collected here explore links between literary and cultural Modernism, the relationship between the concepts of modernity and Modernism, and the legacy of Modernism in the late twentieth century and the contemporary period. Cinema, cinematic paratexts, television, the visual arts of painting and photography, poetry, fiction, and drama are among the artistic forms discussed in terms of issues ranging from cinematic and stage reinterpretations of Modernist literary texts to the genre of televisual melodrama and the trope of racial passing. The essays argue that visuality remains an urgent concern, from the Modernist period to our present age of media revolution.


Using path analysis, the present investigation sought to clarify possible operational linkages among constructs from social learning and attribution theories within the context of a self-esteem system. Subjects were 300 undergraduate university students who completed a measure of self-esteem and indicated expectancies for success and minimal goal levels for an experimental task. After completing the task and receiving feedback about their performance, subjects completed causal attribution and self-esteem questionnaires. Results revealed gender differences in the degree and strength of the proposed relations, but not in the mean levels of the variables studied. Results suggested that the integration of social learning and attribution theories within a single conceptual model provides a better understanding of students' behaviors and self-esteem in achievement situations.


In the context of the ethical paradigm of spiritual education of young people, "inspired" by the moral philosophy of Russian culture, to substantiate a creative model in which tradition and innovation are combined, and the discursive field of which encompasses music, literature, and philosophy. Russian Russian traditional values are used to conceptualize the integral approach to the understanding and interpretation of the axiology of creativity, which is based on the dominance of Russian traditional values, and, first of all, substantiates the actual integration of "Russian leitmotives" into the modern multicultural environment.; secondly, the task is to increase the priorities in the Russian society and popularize the national spiritual and value imperatives that are important for the formation of a holistic cultural and historical worldview of the Russian youth, and to increase the level of their citizenship.


Using the food truck industry as the setting, we provide direct evidence for how information technology can complement consumption variety in cities by reducing spatial information frictions associated with locally produced goods. We document the following facts: (1) food trucks use technology to overcome a spatial information friction; (2) proliferation of technology is related to growth in food trucks; (3) food trucks use their mobility to respond to consumer taste-for-variety; and (4) growth in food trucks is positively correlated with growth in food expenditures away from home. Taken together, our results illustrate how information technology can provide a meaningful increase in variety for urban consumers.


Author(s): Hegdal, Paul L.; Gatz, Thomas A. | Abstract: Under an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contract, we evaluated the hazards associated with strychnine baiting for pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius) with the burrowbuilder. On the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, Minnesota, we treated 662 ha (1,638 acres) with 0.5 percent strychnine-treated bait. Treated fields were scattered throughout 10 sections. Control was effective--data from pocket gopher activity plots showed 87.5 + 5.9 percent reduction in activity. Populations of other small rodents (while quite low) significantly declined on the treated area, but significantly increased on the control area. To measure secondary effects we equipped 36 raptors and 36 mammalian predators with radio transmitters. We detected little, if any, effect on radio-equipped raptors and mammalian predators. Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) , American kestrels (Falco sparverius), great horned owls (Bubo virginianus), badgers (Taxidea taxus), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), red fox (Vulpes fulva) and a coyote (Canis latrans) were intensively radio-tracked during treatment; those that utilized treated fields all survived. Mammalian predator tracks and diggings were frequently observed on the burrow-builder tracks after treatment. Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were selected as a representative of seed-eating birds. We marked 100 territorial males on both the treated and control area and monitored them during the treatment. Even though some treated grain was available on the surface and marked birds were observed feeding in treated fields, we did not detect any detrimental effects. Nevertheless, we found one treatment-killed mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).


After North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, it is clear that the antitrust laws have an important role to play in reforming occupational licensing, but the exact framework remains an open question. Under a rule of reason analysis, health and safety rationales are off limits. But if state board cannot draw on these types of consumer protection arguments to defend their actions, as a practical matter, can a state board ever win an antitrust suit? Some have suggested applying a modified rule of reason to incorporate non-competition justifications. But these approaches threaten to summon the ghost of Lochner and raise problems of subjectivity and predictability that are sure to arise when courts and enforcers are called on to weigh losses in competition against purported gains across other dimensions. Rather than expanding the rule of reason to accommodate non-competition concerns, there is a better path that draws from PolyGram Holding, Inc. v. FTC. Given the vast empirical literature pointing to the harms from state regulation of professions, board actions that restrain competition should be treated as inherently suspect as a matter of law. As such, in an antitrust challenge, the burden of persuasion immediately should fall to the board to provide an efficiency rationale that is both cognizable and plausible. If the board cannot muster a story involving cognizable benefits to competition to justify the restraint, it should be condemned as per se illegal, and the authorizing law subject to preemption. If the board is able to offer a justification that sounds in competition, it still must provide a plausible reason why either the restraint offers procompetitive benefits or does not harm competition. If they cannot meet this burden, the restraint should be condemned summarily. If they do, courts will conduct a full-blown rule of reason in inquiry.


INTRODUCTION
Subarachnoid hemorrhage for aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations is most frequent during pregnancy and puerperium. We analyzed behavior and management of this patients and the effect on it of our Maternal Health Program.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
There were 437 pregnancy and 717 puerperal complicated patients between january 1996 to december 2005, 41 maternal deaths of all causes and 14 indirect maternal deaths. There were operated on 454 patients with intracranial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations in this period. Pregnant patients and fetus were evaluated to select mode of delivery. A specialized medical team managed precociously these patients. Vascular lesions were clipped by microsurgical methods. Anesthetic management considered pregnancy and fetal complexities. We did not use endovascular methods. Postoperative management was performed on intensive care unit.

RESULTS
There were eight pregnant and puerperal patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage due to aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. 2% of all patients were operated on by this cause. Six harboured intracranial aneurysms and two arteriovenous malformations. We performed seven surgical procedures, five for aneurysms and two for malformations. There was a delivery rate of 2.1 and seven normal newborn. Four patients achieved a complete neurological recovery, two a partial recovery and there were two deceased. This cause constituted 14% of all indirect maternal deaths.

CONCLUSION
A precocious clinical diagnosis, neuroimaging studies and interdisciplinary management that involve intensive therapy, obstetric attention and neurovascular surgical treatment determined an increment in the diagnosis of these lesions that require opportune microsurgical or endovascular treatment to prevent maternal death and fetal damage.


The Osteocalcin (OC) gene encodes a 10 Kda hone-specific protein which is expressed with the onset of mineralization during the differentiation of normal diploid osteoblasts. OC levels in the serum correlate with bone turnover. The tissue-specific expression of OC gene is regulated by a modular promoter composed of a complex series of regulatory elements. The transcriptional activity of the OC gene is controlled by several physiological and hormonal regulators that independently and synergistically or antagonistically modulate OC expression (e.g. vitamin D3 glucocorticoids. retinoic acid. TGF-I²).

Complexity of steroid responsiveness of OC gene during osteoblast development has been under observation. The understanding of molecular mechanisms mediating glucocorticoid responsiveness in osseous cells is limited. Glucocorticoids are physiological mediators of osteoblast proliferation and differentiation, as well as perturbants of bone formation and resorption in vivo. The main goal of the present study has been focused on functional characterization of glucocorticoid-mediated regulation of OC gene as a model system. Previous studies in the laboratory identified glucocorticoid-receptor binding sequences in the proximal part of rat OC gene promoter using partially purified receptor. Here, using a series of OC promoter deletion and mutation constructs, the functionality of the GR-binding sequences in the proximal promoter at nucleotide (nt) -16 to -1 downstream of TAT A element together with the glucocorticoid receptor element (GRE) half element in the OC box. at nt-86to-81 was assayed. This was done by assaying glucocorticoid responsiveness at 10-6 M Dexamethasone (DEX). and in combination with 10-8M 1.25(OH)2D3 (D3), with deleted and mutated OC promoter-reporter constructs (OCCAT) in osteoblast-like cells. the 17/2.8 rat osteosarcoma (ROS) cell line. Promoter deletion analysis revealed an additional GRE in the distal promoter at nt.-697to-683 that functions to suppress OC transcription. In transient transfection assays, in the absence of distal negative GRE (nGRE), the -531 OCCA T construct exhibited enhanced promoter activity in response to DEX (1.8 fold DEX/control), but further deletions (-348 and -108 OCCA T constructs) restored D EX suppression to OC promoter activity (0.6- and 0.8-fold DEX/control, respectively).Both distal and proximal GREs specifically bound glucocorticoid receptor present in ROS 17/2.8 and ROB cells as evidenced by competition with wild type and mutated oligonucleotides and antibody inhibition of binding. ROS 17/2.8 cell specific glucocorticoid-receptor complex was detected in nuclear matrix fractions binding to both proximal and distal GREs. Furthermore, both,GREs, independently, conferred DEX-responsive transcriptional repression to the heterologous thymidine kinase basal promoter. Mutations were introduced in the proximal GRE, half GRE in OC box and distal GRE either independently or in combination in context of the full OCCA T and in shorter OCCA T constructs. These mutants were functionally evaluated for ability to confer OC transcriptional activity in response to DEX and vitamin D3 In the absence of distal GRE, mutations in proximal GREs nearly ahn1gated DEX responsiveness of OC promoter activity in shorter OCCAT constructs. In context of full promoter. mutations introduced in the proximal and distal GREs and half GRE in OC box. abrogated DEX responsiveness of OC transcription and also significant abrogation of vitamin D3-mediated enhanced OC transcription was observed. The effect of DEX on OC promoter activity was much more pronounced when -1097 OCCAT construct was stably transfected into ROS 17/2.8 cells (3-4 fold repression compared to 0.7 fold repression in transient transfection assays),the same fold repression was observed for two shorter constructs. Furthermore, this effect required the -531 to -348 domain. which was not implicated in DEX-mediated repression in the transient transfection assays. These results suggest the higher order nuclear structure (e.g. nucleosomal organization, interactions with the nuclear matrix, which is better represented in the stable transfection assays), plays a role in glucocorticoid-mediated regulation of OC transcription. The results presented in this dissertation show that:

(i) In vivo responsiveness of osteocalcin gene to DEX involves the integrated activities of several functional promoter elements.

(ii) Glucocorticoid repression of vitamin D3-stimulated OC transcription occurs independently of distal or proximal GREs.

(iii) The difference observed for deleted OCCA T promoter constructs in response to DEX, in transient compare to stable transfections, functionally demonstrate the contribution of chromatin structure to transcriptional control.

(iv) Several distinct promoter segments were identified that exert either positive or negative effects on transcription in response to DEX. But also coma in regulatory determinants that influence basal and vitamin 03 enhanced OC transcription.


Abstract. Magnetic field measurements from the four Cluster spacecraft from the mid- and high-altitude cusp are presented. Cluster underwent two encounters with the mid-altitude cusp during its commissioning phase (24 August 2000). Evidence for field-aligned currents (FACs) was seen in the data from all three operating spacecraft from northern and southern cusps. The extent of the FACs was of the order of 1 R E in the X -direction, and at least 300 km in the Y -direction. However, fine-scale field structures with scales of the order of the spacecraft separation (300 km) were observed within the FACs. In the northern crossing, two of the spacecraft appeared to lie along the same magnetic field line, and observed very well matched signals. However, the third spacecraft showed evidence for structuring transverse to the field on scales of a few hundred km. A crossing of the high-altitude cusp from 13 February 2001 is presented. It is revealed to be a highly dynamic structure with the boundaries moving with velocities ranging from a few km/s to tens of km/s, and having structure on timescales ranging from less than one minute up to several minutes. The cusp proper is associated with the presence of a very disordered magnetic field, which is entirely different from the magnetosheath turbulence. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (current systems; magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers) – Space plasma physics (discontinuities)


Caenorhabditis elegans is a filter feeder: it draws bacteria suspended in liquid into its pharynx, traps the bacteria, and ejects the liquid. How pharyngeal pumping simultaneously transports and filters food particles has been poorly understood. Here, we use high-speed video microscopy to define the detailed workings of pharyngeal mechanics. The buccal cavity and metastomal flaps regulate the flow of dense bacterial suspensions and exclude excessively large particles from entering the pharynx. A complex sequence of contractions and relaxations transports food particles in two successive trap stages before passage into the terminal bulb and intestine. Filtering occurs at each trap as bacteria are concentrated in the central lumen while fluids are expelled radially through three apical channels. Experiments with microspheres show that the C. elegans pharynx, in combination with the buccal cavity, is tuned to specifically catch and transport particles of a size range corresponding to most soil bacteria.


Impactor, virtual impactor/aerosol concentrator, and aerodynamic lenses are used to separate the ultrafine particle (UP) fraction from other particle sizes for chemical analysis. Cascade impactors, such as the Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI), are most commonly used in field studies, with sampling onto substrates amenable to different chemical analyses. Impactors need sufficient sampling flow rates and homogeneous deposits on the impaction surfaces for multiple chemical analyses. Mass, elements, ions, and carbon fractions can be measured on these substrates by several analytical methods. Specific organic compounds measured by solvent extraction require substantial mass loadings that can only be obtained by compositing samples from several measurement periods unless aerosol concentrators or highvolume sampling devices are used. Thermal desorption-gas chromatographic/mass spectrometry has potential to obtain organic speciation with small sample sizes. Studies of UP composition began in the late 1990s, with 25 ambient studies surveyed here. These are mostly from urban areas. Organic material, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), usually constituted the most abundant portion of UP, with high elemental concentrations found near industrial sites. Much of the UP < 50 nm appears to be semi-volatile, consistent with it being composed by organic materials such as hopanes from engine oils or condensed secondary organic aerosol such as organic acids.