In modern linguistics and psycholinguistics speech disfluencies in real fluent speech are a well-known phenomenon. But it's not still clear which components of brain systems are involved into its comprehension in a listener's brain. In this paper we provide a pilot neuroimaging study of the possible neural correlates of speech disfluencies perception, using a combination of the corpus and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) methods. Special technical procedure of selecting stimulus material from Russian multichannel corpus RUPEX allowed to create fragments in terms of requirements for the fMRI BOLD temporal resolution. They contain isolated speech disfluencies and their clusters. Also, we used the referential task for participants fMRI scanning. As a result, it was demonstrated that annotated multichannel corpora like RUPEX can be an important resource for experimental research in interdisciplinary fields. Thus, different aspects of communication can be explored through the prism of brain activation.


Background and Objectives: In many reports, Kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) are emerging as cancer prognostic factors or tumor-specific markers, although their exact roles are not known very well. KLK5, a member of KLKs, has already been demonstrated for its significant prognostic value in colorectal, ovarian and breast cancers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between the expression level of KLK5 and the prognosis of patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC).
Materials and Methods: In this study, the expression of KLK5 in a total of 46 HCC patients (HCC tissues vs. adjacent non-cancerous liver tissues) was analysed using Immunohistochemistry (IHC). Then the prognosis value of KLK5 in HCC was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses.
Results: KLK5 was obviously down-regulated in the HCC tissues compared to adjacent non-cancerous liver tissues (p<0.0001), and its expression level is significantly associated with tumor differentiation (p=0.038). Survival and recurrence analysis confirmed that the down-regulation of KLK5 was unfavourable for prognosis of HCC. The univariate analysis confirmed that expression level of KLK5 was able to predict OS (Overall Survival) time in HCC (HR: 0.513, 95 % CI: 0.267-0.987, P=0.046), and the multiple Cox regression analysis showed that KLK5 could be a novel independent marker for OS prediction in HCC patients (HR: 0.362, 95% CI: 0.147-0.889, P=0.027).
Conclusion: The results suggest that KLK5 could serve as a novel prognostic marker in evaluating the prognosis of HCC and guiding the treatment plan.


Digital participatory platforms like Wikipedia are often celebrated as projects that allow anyone to contribute. Any user can sign up and start contributing immediately. Similarly, projects that engage volunteers in the production of scientific knowledge create easy points of entry to make contributions. These low barriers to entry are a hallmark feature in digital participatory labor, limiting the number of hoops a new volunteer has to jump through before they can feel like they are making a difference. Such low barriers to participation at the periphery, or edges of participatory platforms, have presented a problem for organizational scholars as they wonder how such projects can achieve consistent results when opportunities to train and socialize newcomers are constrained by a need for low barriers. As a result, scholarship has focused on answering the question of newcomer learning and socialization by examining how newcomers make sense of their new digital workspaces rather than focus on how institutional constraints are imposed. In this research, I draw on a growing body of scholarship that pushes against the perception of openness and low barriers on digital participatory platforms to unpack the constraints on participation that newcomers confront and, in particular, to show how such constraints resemble characteristics of institutionalized newcomer onboarding tactics. To approach this question, I conducted 18 months of participant observation and conducted 36 interviews with experts, newcomers, and project leaders from the crowdsourced citizen science platform Planet Hunters and the peer produced encyclopedia, Wikipedia. I analyzed my data using a grounded theory research design that is sensitized using the theoretical technology of Estrid Sørensen's Forms of Presence as a way to pay attention to the sociomaterial configurations of newcomer practice, attending to the actors (both human and nonhuman) that play a part in the constraints and affordances of newcomer participation. By drawing on Sørensen's Forms of Presence, the analytical focus on the newcomer experience shifts from looking at either top-down institutional tactics of organizations or bottom-up individual tactics of newcomers to thinking about the characteristics of relationships newcomers have with other members and platform features and the effects of these relationships as they relate to different opportunities for learning and participation. Focusing on the different ways that learning and participation are made available affords the exploration of how the authority of existing practices in particular settings are imposed on learners despite the presence of low barriers to participation. By paying attention to the sociomaterial configuration of newcomer participation, my findings unpack the tactics that newcomers encounter at the periphery, or edges of participatory platforms, as well as how they find their work being included or excluded from the platform. I use the findings to develop a taxonomy of encounters that describes how newcomers can participate in a self-guided experience as the existing literature describes, but also experience moments of guided and targeted encounters. What this taxonomy of encounters suggests is that the periphery of participatory platforms can be at once an open space for exploration and experimentation but also a well-managed space where, despite low barriers to initial participation, a newcomer must negotiate what I describe as the guardrails of participation that define the constraints and affordances that shape their experience. Encounters with Authority: Tactics and negotiations at the periphery of participatory platforms


We analyze linear panel regression models with interactive fixed effects and predetermined regressors, for example lagged-dependent variables. The first-order asymptotic theory of the least squares (LS) estimator of the regression coefficients is worked out in the limit where both the cross-sectional dimension and the number of time periods become large. We find two sources of asymptotic bias of the LS estimator: bias due to correlation or heteroscedasticity of the idiosyncratic error term, and bias due to predetermined (as opposed to strictly exogenous) regressors. We provide a bias-corrected LS estimator. We also present bias-corrected versions of the three classical test statistics (Wald, LR, and LM test) and show their asymptotic distribution is a χ2-distribution. Monte Carlo simulations show the bias correction of the LS estimator and of the test statistics also work well for finite sample sizes.


La Manga del Mar Menor is an ancient dune line located in the Murcia Region (Spain). This area had an accelerated urbanization process starting in the 1960s which has had several powerful impacts on the coast, the landscape and the marine ecosystem. Among these impacts, the so-called process of "mediterraneanisation" of the inland lake is particularly interesting. The Mar Menor is a salty lagoon of more than 170 km 2 and uniform drafts about 5 meters deep. This lagoon is a former bay of the Mediterranean Sea closed in a natural way by the sandbar of La Manga with a length of about 20 km. In 1950, this sandbar was a desert land. In around 1960 there was a tourism project to host up to 60,000 people. At present, it receives up to 250,000 people in the summer, mostly of Spanish origin. The urbanization process changed the system water flows between the inside and the seawater through channels called "golas". The changes affected the coastal dynamics, the longitudinal profile of the coast and the lagoon ecosystem. Three processes in particular have caused major environmental impacts: land filling of water areas for the construction of infrastructure and building, connecting islands with routes and expanding channels and building ports for use by recreational vessels. Fifty years after the initial process, this paper analyzes the current coastal pathologies and how the urbanization process has caused them.


President Macron's idea of holding 'democratic conventions' across Europe provides a genuine opportunity to help improve the public's trust and engagement in European decision-making. But at the same time there is a risk that unrealistic expectations will be raised, and a poorly-implemented strategy could do more harm than good.

In this paper, we lay out a detailed and ambitious framework to ensure that the idea delivers on its potential, while minding the pitfalls. It involves a bottom-up strategy, operating at local, national and European levels, designed to discuss specific policy proposals and shape a reform agenda. The paper includes a visual depiction of the strategy's timeline (Annex 1), a set of possible questions for the agenda (Annex 2), and guidelines for reporting the results of each convention (Annex 3).

If the strategy is followed, with the outcome of discussions feeding into the 2019 European Parliament election campaign, there is a real chance that the idea will bring European citizens closer to their political leaders, and closer to each other.


This thesis investigates heating and thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission from magnetic loops in active regions of the solar atmosphere using numerical simulations. The simulations also allow investigation of Type III radio emission. In our model we vary a number of physical parameters such as magnetic field configuration and density models, investigating the effect they have on emission and loop heating as a result of the propagation of a beam of fast electrons moving through the ambient coronal plasma.

Chapter 1 presents an overview of the Sun and the magnetic processes at work in the solar atmosphere. It also contains a summary of observations and current work corresponding to the phenomena discussed in later chapters, as well as current theories of particle acceleration and transport in an active region loop.

Chapter 2 describes the theory behind, and implementation of, the numerical simulations used, and initial tests of the accuracy of the simulations by comparing results with analytical results for simplified models. The simulations are built on a core which models the evolution of the electron distribution function through stochastic processes. We derive the Fokker-Plank equation from which we obtain the expressions describing the progress along a magnetic field of an electron undergoing Coulomb collisions with particles of a background plasma. We describe the field and density models used, and consider the effects of gradient and curvature drifts on particles.

In Chapter 3 we present results showing the non-thermal X-ray emission from magnetic loops with various density models and field configurations. We show results from a straightforward field model with no curvature as described in MacKinnon & Brown (1990), and then results from a more complex (and more realistic) X-point field model as described in Priest & Forbes (2000). These results illustrate the significant effects the field model and density of the background coronal plasma have on the loop emission, both in intensity and position (i.e. at which part of the loop the emission originates from). We also investigate the correlation between loop footpoint size and X-ray intensity, theoretically verifying work done by Schmahl et al. (2006) in which they present observations showing that X-ray intensity increases with footpoint size.

In Chapter 4 we present results showing the evolution of the loop temperature profile over time. As the fast electrons collide with the particles of the ambient background plasma they lose energy, which is transferred to the plasma, increasing it's temperature. We include in these calculations the effects of radiative and conductive cooling of the loop, but we do not consider chromospheric evaporation (whereby heated plasma from the photosphere rises into the loop at the footpoints as a result of bombardment by the beam of fast electrons) or other bulk plasma effects. This would require a combination of stochastic and hydrodynamic simulations, which we do not cover in this work. Again, we show the effects of changing density and field models on the temperature profile.

In Chapter 5 we investigate the thermal X-ray emission from the particles of the background plasma in the heated loop. We then combine the thermal and non-thermal emission to produce X-ray spectra from photon energies 6 - 100 keV, similar to those observed by satellites such as the Reuven-Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), thus verifying that our simulations successfully model some of the processes present in active regions. We also consider the limitations of our simulations and models and discuss what parameters and changes would produce results close to observational data.

Chapter 6 is separate from the preceding chapters and is a brief study of the production of Reverse-Drift Type III radio bursts in a loop, specifically the position in the loop at which the condition for their development originates, given various plasma densities and particle injection profiles. In a beam of injected electrons, the faster (higher energy) electrons propagate along the loop more quickly than the slower particles, causing an instability to develop in the beam distribution. This instability leads to the growth of Langmuir waves, which in turn result in emission at radio wavelengths. We show the development of the condition leading to this emission from a loop as a function of time and position, with various field and density models and particle injection profiles.

Chapter 7 summarises the main body of work in this thesis and discusses possible further development of these methods in investigating the physical processes and parameters at work in active region magnetic loops.


Calibration models are generated and evaluated for the measurement of five different components in synthetic mixtures prepared in aqueous solutions. Mixtures of glucose, glutamine, ammonia, lactate, and glutamate were prepared to simulate concentration levels expected during routine bioreactor fermentation processes. Near-IR spectra were collected from these solutions over the spectral range from 5000 to 4000 cm−1. This spectral information was used to build individual multivariate calibration models for each analyte. Models were constructed on the basis of partial least-squares regression of raw and Fourier filtered absorbance spectra. Each analyte could be detected selectively with mean percent errors of prediction ranging from 4 to 8%.


This thesis explores the possibility of reducing transportation emissions by reducing the growth of demand for travel in the United States light-duty vehicle fleet. Many government agencies seek to reduce the environmental and social ills associated with excess travel demand (e.g. congestion, reduced safety during travel, local pollution and noise, energy consumption, and climate change). These agencies have many tools at their disposal to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita including encouraging compact mixed-use development, providing alternatives to single occupancy vehicle travel such as transit and biking and walking infrastructure, and restricting/regulating driving alone for instance by providing less parking. But the fastest way to reduce travel demand is through higher pricing that accounts for the externalities that drivers impose upon each other and society more broadly. The degree to which higher pricing can reduce travel demand is a function of two interrelated factors: 1) how high of a price increase is politically feasible to implement, and 2) the degree to which the driving public responds to the higher cost of driving. Both these factors vary over time. Given that carbon pricing and/or higher gas taxes are likely to take years to gain broader political acceptability, thefuture price elasticities of travel demand are just as relevant as today's elasticities. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the variability of price elasticity, the factors that explain this variation, and how these factors might change in the future. Using a diverse set of methods including literature review, semi-structured interviews, and odometer data, I find evidence that the magnitude of price elasticity is lower for vehicles of higher fuel economy, for vehicles further from the urban center, and for vehicles in lower income zipcodes. This is the first analysis I am aware of that evaluates the variation of the price elasticity of travel demand within a metro area, an approach that is important to the understanding the political feasibility of pricing and as a lens to the future effectiveness of pricing. It suggests that gas price increases will affect certain households in very different ways, with the most inelastic households simply paying more to maintain their lifestyle and the most elastic households pushed to make significant changes to their daily travel patterns and opportunities. These two types of impact may lead to different types of resistance to the policy. As for the future, the findings regarding fuel economy and distance to the urban center are particularly relevant, as we foresee society continues to become more metropolitan and the vehicle fleet is increasingly comprised of high fuel economy vehicles. Finally, the magnitude of price response suggested by both my interviews and my odometer data analysis suggests that price is still a significant determining factor in distance driven; therefore, policy that increases the cost of driving remains an important emissions reduction strategy. Thesis Supervisor: John B. Heywood, Sun Jae Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical Engineering Thesis Supervisor: Jinhua Zhao, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning


Soil organic N is largely composed of inherently biologically labile proteinaceous N and its persistence in soil is mainly explained by stabilization through binding to minerals and other soil organic matter (SOM) components at varying strengths. In order to separate kinetically different soil N fractions we hypothesize that an approach which isolates soil N fractions on the basis of bonding strength is required, rather than employing chemical agents or physical methods. We developed a sequential subcritical water extraction (SCWE) procedure at 100, 150 and 200 °C to isolate SOM fractions. We assessed these SCWE N fractions as predictors for aerobic and anaerobic N mineralization measured from 25 paddy soil cores in incubations. SCWE organic carbon (SCWE OC) and N (SCWE N) increased exponentially with the increase of temperature and N was extracted preferentially over OC. The efficiency of SCWE and the selectivity towards N were both lower in soils with increasingly reactive clay mineralogy. Stepwise linear regression found no relations between the SCWE fractions and the anaerobic N mineralization rate but instead with pH and a model parameter describing the temperature dependency of SCWE extraction. Both were linked to texture, mineralogy and content of pedogenic oxides, which suggests an indirect relation between anaerobic NH 4 + release and these edaphic soil factors. N mineralization appeared to be largely decoupled from SOM quantity and quality. From the present study on young paddy soils low in pedogenic oxides and with high fixed NH 4 + content we cannot infer the performance of SCWE to isolate bio-available N in more developed upland soils. There may be potential to separate kinetically different SOM pools from upland soils because 1° for aerobic N mineralization at 100–150 °C SCWE N was the best predictor; and 2° SCWE selectively extracted N over C and this preference depended on the mineralogical composition. Hence N fractions differing in bonding strength with minerals or SOM might be isolated at different temperatures, and specifically this association has frequently been found a prominent stabilization mechanism of N in temperate region cropland soils.


Global wetlands are, at estimate ranging 115–237 Tg CH4/yr, the largest single atmospheric source of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4). We present a dataset on CH4 flux rates totaling 12 measurement years at sites from Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and Siberia. We find that temperature and microbial substrate availability (expressed as the organic acid concentration in peat water) combined explain almost 100% of the variations in mean annual CH4 emissions. The temperature sensitivity of the CH4 emissions shown suggests a feedback mechanism on climate change that could validate incorporation in further developments of global circulation models.


Objective: At this moment, a wake-up test needs to be done when
amplitudes of TES-MEP monitoring decrease irreversible during scoliosis
surgery, what mostly turns out to be a false-positive. To make TES-MEP
measurements more reliable, we need to know what causes variability in
TES-MEP amplitudes and how to diminish this variability. There is an in-
dication that MAP is related to these variability's. The aim of this study
was to improve IONM during scoliosis surgery by examining change in
blood pressure in relation to cerebral oxygenation, measured with NIRS,
as a possible cause of change in cortical excitability and therefore, vari-
ability in TES-MEP amplitudes.
Methods: Seven healthy subjects participated in a pilot study. MAP
and NIRS were measured during this. Four interventions were executed to
vary MAP of each subject: 1) valsalva manoeuvre, 2) handgrip exercise, 3)
hip anteversion and 4) tilttable test. EtCO2 is also measured to monitor
its influence on cerebral oxygenation. Data of MAP, oxygenation and
EtCO2 were analysed by Microsoft Excel, Matlab 2014a and IBM SPSS
Statistics 21.
Results: The results of the handgrip exercise show a signi�cant cor-
relation between MAP and oxygenation (rs = 0.893, P<0.01). There
was no signi�cant di�er in MAP and oxygenation. Hip anteversion shows
no signi�cant correlation between MAP and oxygenation (rs = -0.107,
P<0.05). There was also no signi�cant di�er in MAP and oxygenation.
The tilttable test and valsalva manoeuvre were excluded.
Conclusion: Blood pressure is related to cerebral oxygenation, but
further research needs to be done to correlate oxygenation to the variabil-
ity in TES-MEP.
Keywords: IONM, TES, MEP, NIRS, cerebral oxygenation, MAP,
scoliosis surgery


National infrastructure is as much a priority in countries with a large stock of ageing infrastructural assets as it is for rapidly industrialising economies. Increasing attention is being paid to the risk and opportunities that the growing interdependence between infrastructural systems brings. However, there is no current methodology to enable long-term planning and future performance assessment of interdependent infrastructural systems. This paper makes the case for a long-term, cross-sectoral approach to analysing and planning the performance of national infrastructure systems. Such an approach is required to develop credible long-term visions for infrastructure provision and to analyse system performance across a range of possible futures. A preliminary version of a system-of-systems analysis for the UK is presented as an example. The implementation of a comprehensive, model-based approach is currently well under way.


For trust in software, developers spend much effort debugging to ensure that software behaviors as expected. Spectrum-based fault localization techniques (SFL) make use of runtime coverage of program elements, like statements, branches and du-pairs, and then check codes in the order of the rank of suspiciousness. So, correct elements with higher suspiciousness than faulty elements cause the loss of precision. In this paper, we focus on a situation where suspiciousness calculated according to coverage and outcome, i.e. Successful or failing, is higher than it should be. It is found that when a branch structure is repeatedly executed, which is normal in real-life programs, and all of its branches are covered within a run, a branch related to faults could lead other branches to be doubted. To reduce effects between branches, we do the following things: First, we utilize branches to monitor program behaviors, second, we take test cases with high similarities as triggered by the same fault, third, for branches mentioned, we propose an algorithm to infer which branch is more likely to be faulty in the failure, finally, experiments based on Siemens benchmark set and flex show that our approach is useful to heighten the ranking of faulty elements by reducing suspiciousness of correct branches.


The BLACK WOMEN'S POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (BWPAC) was organized in the fall of 1983 at the urging of Barbara Boyd, manager of Una H. R. Keenon's unsuccessful campaign for CUYAHOGA COUNTY JUVENILE COURT judge. The nonpartisan political organization strove to educate black women in the workings of the political system, to increase the number of black women in elected office, to politically engage the black female voter, and to provide financial and other support to political candidates deemed sensitive to the needs and aspirations of black women. In an effort to give black women more input into political decision making, the group helped qualified women obtain better paying jobs and receive local, state, and national appointments. The founding mothers of the BWPAC included, among others, Judge Una H.R. Keenon, State Representative Barbara Boyd, Judge Sarah Harper, Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, Dr. Denise McCray, Katherine Adams, Phyllis Burton-Scott, Lynn Spencer, and Shirley Hawk. Membership in the BWPAC was selective, requiring prospective applicants to secure the sponsorship of a current member for admission into the organization. Prospective members were evaluated on their commitment to and involvement in health and welfare political action and education, and their concern for African American women.Registered with the Federal Elections Committee (FEC), the BWPAC was believed to be the first black women's PAC in the country. Their endorsements in the 1985 municipal elections included Gary Kucinich for mayor of Cleveland. In 1988 the group staged a protest at City Hall in an attempt to heal the dispute between council president George Forbes and Councilman Jeffrey Johnson. At its 7th Anniversary Banquet, March 1990, the BWPAC honored distinguished black women in Cleveland, including Lurtissia Brown, Hulda Mathews-Wills, Anita Polk, Helen Sumons, and Cheryle Wills. The BWPAC sponsored a political skills workshop for high school girls and college women in conjunction with the Cuyahoga Women's Political Caucus to educate them about and engage them in the political process. The group also worked to heighten political awareness by reaching out to the community at such public gatherings, as the African American Family Picnic and the 11th Congressional District Caucus Labor Day Picnic. As of 2006, Barbara Boyd served as the president of the BWPAC.


Larry Ribstein's pioneering analysis of alternative business forms during the late twentieth century highlighted the contractarian freedom that these forms provided. The rise of the LLC model was of particular interest to Ribstein, who assessed how this model brought greater freedom to those who held duties and obligations within the corporate structure. This Article takes up Ribstein's mantle by assessing the development the alternative "social enterprise" business forms manifested in benefit corporations (BC) and flexible purpose corporations (FPC). Both forms allow an incorporated entity to articulate and pursue a social benefit alongside the maximization of shareholder returns. Despite its utility, the uptake of the social enterprise corporation, as assessed through a case study of California, appears underwhelming. Yet, by using the arc of the LLC uptake path as a comparative historical benchmark, the authors argue that there is hope that these new social enterprise corporations will see an increasing rate of uptake in the future.


Virtual Yale Campus Tours [1] learn something new about Yale & the campus through these amazing admission tours Virtual Tour of Yale's Green Spaces [2] Yale University Art Gallery [3] Virtual Gallery Tour Peabody Museum at Home [4] Virtual Gallery Tour Yale Center for British Art [5] Yale Podcast Network [6] Yale School of Music Live Concerts & Archives [7] Yale University's Youtube Channel [8] Yale's Facebook [9] & Instagram [10] Pages Download Yale Virtual Backgrounds [11] Open Yale Courses [12]


In this thesis, we consider computational methods of finding exit probabilities for a class of multivariate stochastic processes. While there is an abundance of results for one-dimensional processes, for multivariate processes one has to rely on approximations or simulation methods. We adopt a Large Deviations approach in order to estimate barrier crossing probabilities of a multivariate Brownian Bridge. We use this approach in conjunction with numerical techniques to propose an efficient method of obtaining barrier crossing probabilities of a multivariate Brownian motion. Using numerical examples, we demonstrate that our method works better than other existing methods. We present applications of the proposed method in addressing problems in finance such as estimating default probabilities of several credit risky entities and pricing credit default swaps. We also extend our computational method to efficiently estimate a barrier crossing probability of a sum of Geometric Brownian motions. This allows us to perform a portfolio selection by maximizing a path-dependent utility function.


Objective facts – while perhaps always elusive – are now an endangered species. A mix of digital speed, social media, fractured news, and party polarization has led to what some call a "post truth" society: a culture where what is true matters less than what we want to be true. At the same moment in time when "alternative facts" reign supreme, we have also anchored our constitutional law in general observations about the way the world works. Do violent video games harm child brain development? Is voter fraud common? Is a "partial birth abortion" ever medically necessary? Judicial pronouncements on questions like these are common, and – perhaps more importantly – they are being briefed by sophisticated litigants who know how to grow the factual dimensions of their case in order to achieve the constitutional change that they want.
The combination of these two forces – fact-heavy constitutional law in an environment where facts are easy to manipulate – is cause for serious concern. This article explores what is new and worrisome about fact-finding today, and it identifies constitutional disputes loaded with convenient but false claims. To remedy the problem, we must empower courts to proactively guard against alternative facts. This means courts should push back on blanket calls for deference to the legislative record. Instead I suggest re-focusing the standards of review in constitutional law to encourage fact-checking. It turns out some factual claims can be debunked with relative ease and I encourage deference when lower courts rise above the fray and do just that.


Mean-Variance Optimization (MVO) as introduced by Markowitz (1952) is often presented as an elegant but impractical theory. MVO is "an unstable and error-maximizing" procedure (Michaud 1989), and "is nearly always beaten by simple 1/N portfolios" (DeMiguel, 2007). And to quote Ang (2014): "Mean-variance weights perform horribly… The optimal mean-variance portfolio is a complex function of estimated means, volatilities, and correlations of asset returns. There are many parameters to estimate. Optimized mean-variance portfolios can blow up when there are tiny errors in any of these inputs...". In our opinion, MVO is a great concept, but previous studies were doomed to fail because they allowed for short-sales, and applied poorly specified estimation horizons. For example, Ang used a 60 month formation period for estimation of means and variances, while Asness (2012) clearly demonstrated that prices mean-revert at this time scale, where the best assets in the past often become the worst assets in the future. In this paper we apply short lookback periods (maximum of 12 months) to estimate MVO parameters in order to best harvest the momentum factor. In addition, we will introduce common-sense constraints, such as long-only portfolio weights, to stabilize the optimization. We also introduce a public implementation of Markowitz's Critical Line Algorithm (CLA) programmed in R to handle the case when the number of assets is much larger than the number of lookback periods.We call our momentum-based, long-only MVO model Classical Asset Allocation (CAA) and compare its performance against the simple 1/N equal weighted portfolio using various global multi-asset universes over a century of data (Jan 1915-Dec 2014). At the risk of spoiling the ending, we demonstrate that CAA always beats the simple 1/N model by a wide margin.


We fabricate a quantum-dot (QD) superlumenescent diode (SLD) integrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The integrated device exhibits coordinative working between the SLD and SOA when the two sections are pumped with a series of different currents. However, the SLD source affects the device behavior not via the amount of energy supplied by itself, but via an existing double-pass gain throughout the whole structure. With the help of a QD device model, this behavior is numerically analyzed which explains the origin of competition between different QD states in the emission spectra as well as the strong power-control capability of the SLD source.


Motivation: As sequencing technologies improve their capacity to detect distinct transcripts of the same gene and to address complex experimental designs such as longitudinal studies, there is a need to develop statistical methods for the analysis of isoform expression changes in time series data. Results: Iso-maSigPro is a new functionality of the R package maSigPro for transcriptomics time series data analysis. Iso-maSigPro identifies genes with a differential isoform usage across time. The package also includes new clustering and visualization functions that allow grouping of genes with similar expression patterns at the isoform level, as well as those genes with a shift in major expressed isoform. Availability and implementation: The package is freely available under the LGPL license from the Bioconductor web site. Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Introduction. Part I: Entering the World of Caregiving. Chapter 1: Eldercare Basics. Chapter 2: The Elderly Are Like Vintage Computers. Chapter 3: Old Age Is a Family Affair: Deciding Who, What, Where, and When. Chapter 4: Where to Turn When Your Elder Needs a New Home. Part II: Mastering Everyday Challenges. Chapter 5: Sleeping Well Means Doing Well. Chapter 6: Helping Finicky Eaters. Chapter 7: Helping Elderly People Be All That They Can Be. Chapter 8: Sharing the Caring. Chapter 9: Growing Closer and Dearer: Improving Relationships. Part III: Keeping Elderly Folks Safe and Sound. Chapter 10: Living Well with Chronic Medical Conditions. Chapter 11: Just Say Yes to Health Giving Drugs. Chapter 12: Protective Doohickeys and Thingamajigs. Chapter 13: Dealing with Leaky Plumbing and Other Incontinence Problems. Chapter 14: Getting Out and About. Part IV: The Blues, the Good Old Days, and Other Senior Moments. Chapter 15: When the Clouds Roll In: Dealing with Depression. Chapter 16: Managing Anxiety. Chapter 17: All About Alzheimer's Disease. Chapter 18: Managing the Distressing Behavior and Emotions of Confused Elderly. Part V: Making the Final Years Golden. Chapter 19: When The Apple of Your Eye Needs a Peer. Chapter 20: Keeping Your Elder at the Helm. Chapter 21: Keeping the Bill Collector from the Door. Chapter 22: Helping Spiritual and Religious Elderly Keep the Faith . Chapter 23: Ensuring a Good Death. Part VI: The Part of Tens. Chapter 24: Ten Tests to Help You Assess a Nursing Home. Chapter 25: Ten Ways (More or Less) That Elders Hide Their Feelings. Index.


Abstract The importance of culture on economic outcomes has been an element of ongoing research mainly in the disciplines outside of mainstream economics such as sociology and anthropology. From an economic perspective, there is a strong feeling among the corporate community that culture can be influential in business dealings. International trade is one area of business where cultural diversity can matter. This paper investigates the effect of trading partner cultural diversity on trade within the gravity model framework. The gravity model incorporates four measures to capture cultural diversity: religion, ethnicity, language and legal origin. Using data on New Zealand's trade with Asia and employing the panel corrected standard errors estimation procedure, the empirical findings reveal that Asian diversity in religion and languages is positively correlated with New Zealand–Asia trade. The results reveal that the expected effects of standard gravity variables, and we conclude that the cultural diversity of trading partners positively influences international trade.


How can we predict the trajectory of a baseball from bat to outfield? How do the dimples in a golf ball influence its flight from tee to pin? What forces determine the path of a soccer ball steered over a defensive wall by an elite player? An understanding of the physical processes involved in throwing, hitting, firing and releasing sporting projectiles is essential for a full understanding of the science that underpins sport. This is the first book to comprehensively examine those processes and to explain the factors governing the trajectories of sporting projectiles once they are set in motion. From a serve in tennis to the flight of a 'human projectile' over a high jump bar, this book explains the universal physical and mathematical principles governing movement in sport, and then shows how those principles are applied in specific sporting contexts. Divided into two sections, addressing theory and application respectively, the book explores key concepts such as: friction, spin, drag, impact and bounce computer and mathematical modelling variable sensitivity the design of sports equipment materials science. Richly illustrated throughout, and containing a wealth of research data as well as worked equations and examples, this book is essential reading for all serious students of sports biomechanics, sports engineering, sports technology, sports equipment design and sports performance analysis.


This paper provides an assessment of the biological attributes of fish species in south-eastern Australia and rates their potential risk from the impacts of drought. We used scientific literature and expert opinion to conduct a semiquantitative assessment of attributes considered to influence species resistance and resilience to drought for 15 freshwater fish species found in south-eastern Australia. We also present a conceptual framework to guide management of fish populations during drought. The framework focuses on (1) quantifying spatial variation in the severity of drought impacts on particular habitats (rivers, wetlands etc.), (2) assembling information on drought sensitivities of regionally important species, (3) identifying high risk areas (based on species sensitivity and drought severity), (4) determining and implementing appropriate management actions (pre-emptive, responsive), (5) monitoring outcomes and (6) disseminating information on outcomes. In many regions, historic population declines will serve to exacerbate the impacts of drought, and thus are a major threat to successful recovery from drought. Although we discuss both long-term, pre-emptive planning and short-term, responsive management actions, we contend that a long-term view is required to successfully address the threats posed by drought. Furthermore, although droughts clearly represent a severe disturbance to fish populations, ultimately it is anthropogenic factors that exacerbate drought and constrain recovery pathways (at global, regional and local scales), rather than drought per se. These factors must be addressed if we are to ensure the long-term viability of fish populations in inland aquatic ecosystems.


Surface plasmon polaritons on thin metal films are a well studied phenomena when excited using prism coupled geometries such as the Kretschmann attenuated total reflection configuration. Here we describe a novel interference pattern in the conically scattered light emanating from such a configuration when illuminated by a focused beam. We observe conditions indicating only self-interference of scattered surface plasmon polaritions without any contributions from specular reflection. The spatial evolution of this field is described in the context of Fourier optics and has applications in highly sensitive surface plasmon based biosensing.


Background and aims: The purpose of this study was to identify the information derivation techniques of medical and allied health sciences' postgraduate students. Methods: The study was a cross sectional descriptive survey. The data was collected from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences' student using a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and T-test through SPSS 16. Results: Total of 300 questionnaire were collected that 178(59.3%) of them were female students and 122 (40.7%) male. Out of 300, number of 160 (53.3%) were studding in M.Sc. level and 140 (46.7%) were doctoral students. Findings of study showed that the most significant motivation of students for searching information was continuing education in the higher levels, finding answer for the course assignments and projects. Academic publishing were the other considerable reasons for information search and retrieval. Searching information via general search engines like Google with (70.7%) and book with (50.3%) were the most used formal information resources by students. The most considerable limitation for accessing information was numerated as low speed Internet/networks, and internet disconnection (59.7%), subscription discontinuing with some of databases (47%). Conclusion: The study did not find differences between male and female students information seeking skills. The students' attitudes towards using databases and search tools were different among M.Sc. and Doctoral students. There were no statistically significant differences between the students' educational level and their aim for information searching as well as the educational level and the limitations they face in searching information. The biggest complaint of students was the speed of internet connection in all level, and access to core databases. Therefore it is suggested to promote the internet connection speed and access at least in university campus.


This paper is based on an interdisciplinary study – mixing sociology, anthropology, urban planning and architecture - of 40 years of urban struggles in a small neighborhood of Geneva called Les Grottes. In the 70's, Les Grottes was the place of birth of Geneva's squatter's movement which was initiated in opposition to a modernist rehabilitation project implying its almost complete destruction. Over the years the neighborhood has been the place of many local conflicts around the use of public spaces and/or buildings along many institutional innovations. The urban movements it fostered (squatters and neighborhood's associations) have contributed to the spatial and institutional transformation not only of the neighborhood but of the entire city. They were part of the larger shift toward the ideology of the "sustainable urban development" and its ambiguous articulation with the "new spirit of capitalism". We focus our analysis on the shift from an anti-capitalist contestation framed in a social class discourse (urban movements of the 70's and 80's) to a participatory and contractual handling of local conflicts (participation around a « contrat de quartier » initiated in 2010). This shift can be seen as a form of depolitization process in two ways. First, the « contrat de quartier » implies a strict spatial delimitation along a managerial approach of the « urban problems » publicly addressed. This narrow frame reduces the possibility of expanding the critic to larger entities and processes (as implied for example in the more radical anti-capitalist critics inspired by Marxism) (Boltanski, On critique, 2011). Secondly, the participatory management and renovation of the neighborhood implies a systematic recourse to the various technical and juridical normative frames. This lead to a certain form of « governement through the norms » (Thevenot) wich reduces specific forms of enacted critic of capitalism expressed through alternative spatial settings and « auto-organization » of everyday life. Nevetheless, autonoums actors and associations still play the game at the margin, participating at the same time to the institutionalized frame while developing projects and critics which open new alternatives.


We have developed a prototype full waveform hyperspectral LiDAR and investigated its potential for remote sensing applications. Traditionally hyperspectral remote sensing is based on passive measurement of sunlit targets. These methods are sensitive to errors in illumination conditions and lack the range information. Our prototype can measure both the range and the spectral information from a single laser pulse. At this stage, the instrument is optimized for short range terrestrial applications. An active hyperspectral LiDAR opens up new possibilities for LiDAR data analysis. The lack of spectral information in traditional monochrome LiDARs rules out many of the classification techniques available for processing of hyperspectral data. Similarly, passive hyperspectral data does not allow extensive use of the classifications based on 3D shape parameters. With both hyperspectral and range data available in a single dataset, the best of the techniques can be applied to form more reliable classification results. The data also allows the mapping of spectral indices in 3D. As an example a Norway spruce is measured and spatial distribution of several spectral indices is illustrated.


The October 2007 preliminary injunction issued against the Department of Homeland Security's "Safe-Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter" provides a good case study of the role judicial review can play in agency rulemaking. In AFL-CIO v. Chertoff the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of DHS's rule based on three objections: the rule was ultra vires; DHS gave no reasoned analysis for the rule change; and DHS was obligated to conduct a regulatory flexibility analysis pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The court erroneously rejected arguments that the rule contravened its underlying statute, the Immigration Reform and Control Act. The court's order put no pressure on DHS to revise the rule's crucial substance. As a result, a "bad" procedural law will soon be in effect. Had the court come to the opposite conclusion regarding whether the rule contravened its statute, DHS would probably have revised the rule to accomplish its goals while causing far less injury to immigrants, workers, and small businesses. This case thus illustrates how more critical judicial review is important to the formulation of good administrative agency rules.


Delay- and Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are based on an overlay protocol and on the store-carry-forward paradigm. In practice, each DTN node can store information for a long time before forwarding it. DTNs are particularly suited to cope with the challenges imposed by the space environment. This paper is focused on routing in space DTNs, and in particular on contact graph routing (CGR) and its most representative enhancements, available in the literature, which are briefly surveyed in this work. Moreover, the applicability and the obtained performance of the DTN protocol stack and of the CGR have been evaluated by presenting results from real experimental experiences such as the Deep Impact Network experiment (employing the EPOXI space cruise), the JAXA jointly performed space link demonstrations with NASA (where the JAXA's GEO relay satellite called Data Relay Test Satellite has been used), the Space Data Routers European Project, and the pilot operation of a DTN implementation on the International Space Station (ISS).


This paper reviews studies of relationships between riverine fish and woody debris at micro- and meso-habitat scales, and discusses the potential functions of instream structure for lowland river fish. Experimental research, mainly in North America, has identified three main functions of woody debris as microhabitat for fish in upland streams: overhead cover that decreases predation risk both vertically and horizontally; horizontal visual isolation that reduces contact between fish; and velocity refuge which minimizes energetic costs. As with habitat features in other aquatic environments, increasing spatial complexity of woody debris may modify predator–prey interactions and provide greater surface areas for the growth of prey items. Woody debris may also provide spatial reference points for riverine fish to assist them in orienting within their surroundings. Lowland rivers differ from upland streams in terms of a number of physical variables, including turbidity, depth and water turbulence. Relationships between fish and woody debris in lowland rivers are likely to rely on mechanisms different to those in upland streams. Recent initiatives involving the reintroduction of woody debris into previously cleared lowland rivers to replace lost fish habitat are a positive development for lowland river restoration. However, if woody debris reintroduction is to maximally benefit lowland river fisheries, there is a requirement for better understanding of the ecological functions of woody debris in lowland rivers.


One of the major activities in Natural Language Processing is determining a word's part of speech (POS) tag. In this research we focus on improving the accuracy of Persian part of speech tagging by applying post processing heuristic rules. To evaluate the effects of those rules we use Bijankhan tagged corpus and for tagging, Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) approach is selected because of its simplicity and the ease of implementation. Furthermore, we have studied the effect of size of training on the accuracy of the MLE method. The experimental results show that the heuristic rules improve the accuracy especially for the unknown words 1 .


Abstract. This paper describes the results of an inverse modeling study for the determination of the source term of the radionuclides 134Cs, 137Cs and 131I released after the Chernobyl accident. The accident occurred on 26 April 1986 in the Former Soviet Union and released about 1019 Bq of radioactive materials that were transported as far away as the USA and Japan. Thereafter, several attempts to assess the magnitude of the emissions were made that were based on the knowledge of the core inventory and the levels of the spent fuel. More recently, when modeling tools were further developed, inverse modeling techniques were applied to the Chernobyl case for source term quantification. However, because radioactivity is a sensitive topic for the public and attracts a lot of attention, high-quality measurements, which are essential for inverse modeling, were not made available except for a few sparse activity concentration measurements far from the source and far from the main direction of the radioactive fallout. For the first time, we apply Bayesian inversion of the Chernobyl source term using not only activity concentrations but also deposition measurements from the most recent public data set. These observations refer to a data rescue attempt that started more than 10 years ago, with a final goal to provide available measurements to anyone interested. In regards to our inverse modeling results, emissions of 134Cs were estimated to be 80 PBq or 30–50 % higher than what was previously published. From the released amount of 134Cs, about 70 PBq were deposited all over Europe. Similar to 134Cs, emissions of 137Cs were estimated as 86 PBq, on the same order as previously reported results. Finally, 131I emissions of 1365 PBq were found, which are about 10 % less than the prior total releases. The inversion pushes the injection heights of the three radionuclides to higher altitudes (up to about 3 km) than previously assumed (≈ 2.2 km) in order to better match both concentration and deposition observations over Europe. The results of the present inversion were confirmed using an independent Eulerian model, for which deposition patterns were also improved when using the estimated posterior releases. Although the independent model tends to underestimate deposition in countries that are not in the main direction of the plume, it reproduces country levels of deposition very efficiently. The results were also tested for robustness against different setups of the inversion through sensitivity runs. The source term data from this study are publicly available.


The purpose of this study was to determine the techniques to be used in a typewriting class that would develop competencies in word processsing. The study was done to identify techniques and drills that relate to typing to improve competencies in word processing. To gather the data and information needed to complete the study, questionnaires were developed and completed by students in Intermediate Typing, Advanced Typing and Word Processing classes at Ronan High School. Fifty-one students responded to the questionnaire. The data collected were presented in tabular form so the responses could be compared and interpreted. The conclusions were: 1) a majority of the respondents surveyed rated all the techniques as above average of importance; 2) a significant number indicated more stress should be placed on speed and accuracy; 3> when doing production skill development, over two-thirds indicated more emphasis is needed on practice material that is similar to the job and to correct errors; 4) sixty percent indicated that proofreading was important for success in terms of the overall ability to make a good typist; 5) the ability to spell, punctuate, and capitalize was rated very important by 77 percent of the respondents; 6) competence in listening and following directions emerges as being of primary importance by almost three-fourth of the respondents. The writer made the following recommendations in regard to the study: 1) business teachers need to continue to emphasize correct technique at the typewriter, especially the home row, eyes on your copy, and the position of the body including the fingers; 2) teachers at all levels of learning need to place more emphasis on speed and accuracy; 3) business teachers need to place more emphasis on proofreading in the typewriting class to include reading the material for content, grammar, numbers, and statistics; 4) business teachers need a through mastery of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and the use of rules for writing numbers, dividing words, so they can incorporate them into a typewriting class; 5) it is recommended that this study be replicated with business teachers, and secretaries to determine their preceptions on this topic.


In this work crystal growth and nucleation of b-FeF3×3H2O and crystallization of chromium (III), iron (III) and nickel (II) fluoride hydrates from mixed acid (1-3 mol/kg HNO3 and 1-6 mol/kg free HF) have been investigated. The solubility of b-FeF3×3H2O has been determined in solutions of different hydrofluoric acid (1-7mol/ kg) and nitric acid (0-7mol/ kg) concentrations at 30, 40 and 50°C. The total iron concentration at equilibrium ranges from about 1 to 35 g/kg solution. In the range of investigated conditions the solubility in terms of total iron content increases with increasing temperature and decreases with increasing concentration of hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid. The results are analysed by examining the chemical speciation in the solutions. The crystal growth kinetics of b-FeF3×3H2O crystals have been studied by performing seeded isothermal desupersaturation experiments in solutions of 1.5-3.0 mol/ kg nitric acid and 1.4- 5.6 mol/ kg free hydrofluoric acid at 30, 40 and 50°C. The results show that the crystal growth is surface integration controlled. When the driving force is based on a proper speciation no clear correlation of the growth rate with hydrofluoric acid or nitric acid concentration is found. The rate is about the same in industrial pickle liquor as in pure acid solutions. The growth rate at a supersaturation ratio (c(FeF3)free/cs(FeF3)free) of 2 was found to be 5.2×10-12m/s at 30°C, 7.9×10-12m/s at 40°C and 20×10-12m/s at 50°C. Thus, the crystal growth rate at 50°C is about four times higher than at 30°C. The temperature dependence of the rate constant corresponds to an activation energy of 55kJ/ mol. Crystallization from solutions supersaturated with both Cr(III) and Fe(III) has been investigated and it has been observed that Fe(III) and Cr(III) crystallizes in the form of Cr(Fe)F3×3H2O which is isostructural with CrF3×3H2O. Iron(III) and nickel(II) crystallizes into an unidentified fluoride hydrate crystal. The crystal growth rate of CrF3×3H2O at 50°C is about the same as the growth rate of b-FeF3×3H2O crystals.


This project aims to assist the community of El Cercado in the Dominican Republic in turning their plastic waste into useful products. The design team developed a first iteration shredder, injector, and aluminum mold which future design teams could further iterate in order to make products out of waste plastic. Different products were researched to ensure that they can be sold or used in the community. The goal of producing these items is to stimulate economic activity in the community by creating economic opportunity. The design shall also be sustainable in three ways. It shall reuse plastic waste while also ensuring that the energy used is sustainable. Additionally, it shall be designed to have long term impact in the community. The first iteration machines were modified versions of schematics published by a non-profit organization called Precious Plastic. The design team borrowed a shredder from LA Precious Plastic for experimental testing, which successfully shreds the plastic waste into small pieces. For the team's shredder, all of the metal, all of the acrylic, the motor, and the reducer were bought, and manufacturing was completed on the teeth, spacers, shaft, and partial casing for the team's shredder. For testing on the first-iteration injector, plastic chips were melted and injected into a mold. For the shredder, future teams should first find the optimal motor, and then design the parts in the following order: teeth, spacers, comb, motor, reducer, bearing, base, housing, hopper. Better heating and increased pressure are two clear paths that would lead to a more effective injector and ultimately expand the amount of plastic that can reach the mold.


Using finite part integration, we were able obtain a solution to the Stieltjes summation problem. The prescription consisted of reconstructing a function from a finite string of moments. This reconstruction is then used in the expansion of the Stieltjes integral by finite part integration to obtain meaningful values of otherwise divergent Stieltjes series. The prescription is then applied to the eigenvalue problem of the quartic anharmonic oscillator which showed remarkable accuracy for obtaining the ground-state energy eigenvalues from the Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation series.


A convenient way to apply Fama–French factor models in empirical research is to use factor returns downloaded from databases like Kenneth French's data library. These factors are usually provided in US dollars—for both US and non-US stock markets. But when evaluating non-US data samples from a non-US-dollar investor's perspective (e.g., European funds from a EUR perspective), the authors maintain that the downloaded factors need to be converted into the respective non-US-dollar currency. They show how to convert the currencies of downloaded factors and illustrate the statistical and practical relevance of the currency conversion based on passive index returns of the MSCI Europe IMI and the returns of actively managed European equity funds from a EUR perspective. Their findings show that neglecting currency conversion results in skewed estimated alphas and factor loadings. The currency conversion of downloaded factors is thus relevant in drawing reliable conclusions when applying time-series or cross-sectional factor models from a non-US dollar perspective. TOPICS: Currency, factor-based models, performance measurement Key Findings ▪ Factor returns downloaded from databases like Kenneth French's data library are often applied in common factor models. Depending on the investor's perspective, these factors may require currency conversion to generate reliable alpha and beta estimates. ▪ The adequate currency conversion formulas are straightforward and can be applied to long and long–short factors. ▪ Currency conversion of factors is not a technical exercise. Empirical analysis of a broad sample of equity funds shows that ignoring currency conversion can produce misleading conclusions on performance and investment styles.


Covering fundamental principles through to practical applications, this self-contained guide describes indispensable mathematical tools for the analysis and design of advanced wireless transmission and reception techniques in MIMO and OFDM systems. The analysis-oriented approach develops a thorough understanding of core concepts and discussion of various example schemes shows how to apply these concepts in practice. The book focuses on techniques for advanced diversity combining, channel adaptive transmission and multiuser scheduling, the foundations of future wireless systems for the delivery of highly spectrum-efficient wireless multimedia services. Bringing together conventional and novel results from a wide variety of sources, it will teach you to accurately quantify trade-offs between performance and complexity for different design options so that you can determine the most suitable design choice based on your specific practical implementation constraints.


This paper proposes a model for short-term content adaptation whose aim is to satisfy the contingent needs of users by adjusting the information a web-application provides on the basis of a short-term user profile. The mathematical model results in the design of an adaptive filter that profiles users by observing their queries to the application and that adjusts the answers of the application according to the inferred user needs. Also, the mathematical model ensures the correctness of the filter, that is, the filter is guaranteed to exhibit a coherent short-term adaptive behaviour.


Gender segregation in the field of study is still a pervasive phenomenon in many countries. In this paper, we highlight the crucial role of parents and peers in adolescents' decision making on their educational choices, leading to a mismatch of talents. We design a lab-in-the-field experiment that exposes 2,500 middle school students in Italy to different information treatments before they choose between a female-typed task (literature) and a male-typed task (math). We find that students choose a more gender-stereotypical subject (girls choose more literature and boys choose more math) when they are induced to think about the recommendation of same-gender parents. The effect is driven by girls who expect literature as a recommendation from their mothers and boys who expect math as a recommendation from their fathers. The field choice of male and female students is not affected when they expect their peers to observe their decision. However, we show that girls shy away from math to avoid interactions in male-dominated contexts.


Volunteer managers face a typical marketing problem: how to identify the right consumers (in this case, volunteers), attract them, and keep them loyal. In multicultural societies this challenge is amplified because of the different groups originating from countries that can vary significantly in terms of the extent of volunteering and reasons for being involved. The consequence of this heterogeneity is limited success of generic marketing campaigns. Using the theory of planned behavior, we investigate differences between Australian residents from different cultural backgrounds in their volunteering behavior. Groups differed in attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control, suggesting the need for customized marketing strategies. Theoretically, results provide evidence that volunteers in multicultural societies cannot be viewed as one homogeneous mass. Practically, results offer insight into the factors influencing the behavior of each cultural group, and can inform customized campaigns to tap into the large base of volunteers from different backgrounds.


Unfortunately, in this case, very little evidence was placed before us by government of the precise purpose and effect of the provisions' per O' Regan J (dissenting) in S v Lawrence; S v Negal; S v Solberg 1997 (4) SA 1176 (CC): 1997 (10) BCLR 1348 (CC) at para 130. Yet, there are facts of common knowledge to which we cannot blind ourselves' per Sachs J (concurring) in Lawrence (above) at para 175. The final Constitution has been in effect for more than a year. References to this Constitution dominate current law reports. However, memories of the interim Constitution remain fresh.


We present an active learning architecture that allows a robot to actively learn which data collection strategy is most efficient for acquiring motor skills to achieve multiple outcomes, and generalise over its experience to achieve new outcomes. The robot explores its environment both via interactive learning and goal-babbling. It learns at the same time when, who and what to actively imitate from several available teachers, and learns when not to use social guidance but use active goal-oriented self-exploration. This is formalised in the framework of life-long strategic learning.The proposed architecture, called Socially Guided Intrinsic Motivation with Active Choice of Teacher and Strategy (SGIM-ACTS), relies on hierarchical active decisions of what and how to learn driven by empirical evaluation of learning progress for each learning strategy. We illustrate with an experiment where a simulated robot learns to control its arm for realising two kinds of different outcomes. It has to choose actively and hierarchically at each learning episode: 1) what to learn: which outcome is most interesting to select as a goal to focus on for goal-directed exploration; 2) how to learn: which data collection strategy to use among self-exploration, mimicry and emulation; 3) once he has decided when and what to imitate by choosing mimicry or emulation, then he has to choose who to imitate, from a set of different teachers. We show that SGIM-ACTS learns significantly more effciently than using single learning strategies, and coherently selects the best strategy with respect to the chosen outcome, taking advantage of the available teachers (with different levels of skills).


The quest to educate non-standardized English-speaking students has been a primary driving force behind developments in many fields represented by Compass journals, including sociology, geography, linguistics, psychology, history, literature, and education. Academics engaged in these multiple perspectives must join together, both to communicate knowledge about language variation to educators and to learn from educators' experiences with teaching non-standardized English-speaking students. Following the conference theme of breaking down barriers, we draw on research gathered from multidisciplinary approaches to educational analysis by developing a linguistic awareness model that is designed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge about language variation between educators and researchers. Our model currently addresses three U.S.-based English language varieties: School English, Southern English, and African-American English. Drawing on these models, we highlight best teaching practices that can help non-standardized English-speaking students break down communication barriers to educational success in the pre-collegiate classroom. We draw on previous endeavors by academics to communicate information about language variation to wider audiences, noting two important challenges: the need to couple language variation awareness with readily accessible, specific examples of language variation and the need to provide information about how to work with language variation within the increasingly diverse classroom. We contend that only with this specific knowledge can educators use linguistic information to help students from non-standardized English-speaking backgrounds achieve in schools. Otherwise, educators may not appreciate the relevance and immediate necessity of the information. In our linguistic awareness model, we suggest realistic, cost effective ways to approach educators, including certification and re-certification courses, in-service workshops, websites, and wikis. A wiki of materials to accompany this paper may be found at http://charityhudleymallinsoncompass.wmwikis.net/. We also suggest future directions for linguistically aware educators to become resources for information on language variation and linguistic tolerance in their own schools and communities.

This paper was originally presented as part of the 2009 Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference. You can read this paper along with commentaries and discussion at: http://compassconference.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/conference-paper-communicating-about-communication-multidisciplinary-approaches-to-educating-educators-about-language-variation/


Dream analysis appears to deepen and accelerate the psychotherapeutic process, but it is not widely employed in modern practice. This may be due, in part, to the belief that the value of a dream lies in the analysis of its visual content, and that reflective awareness, volition, and personal responsibility––qualities valued highly by non-psychodynamic therapies––are presumed to be lacking in most dreams.  While modern research has largely overturned this view, it may still impede the adoption of dream analysis by modern psychotherapists. Add to that a psychotherapist's lack of training and concomitant discomfort with his or her own dreams and it is no surprise that dream work utilization remains low. Drawing on an array of theoretical, clinical, and empirical sources, this paper presents a view of normal dreaming as an interactive process between the dreamer and the dream imagery, and views the dream outcome as a co-determined or co-created experience. By shifting the focus in dream analysis away from content to interactive process, a counselor view the dream in such a way as to support the goals of contemporary therapy. By adopting this paradigm, he or she can assist clients in discerning  the dream ego's responses to the dream content, and evaluate how these responses influence the overall experience and, by implication, parallel waking relationships. Such an approach is congruent with the client-centered, competency-based aims of many schools of modern therapy, and thus may result in a more widespread adoption of dream analysis by psychotherapists. The author presents a case example of employing an approach to dream analysis consistent that is congruent with the goals of many of the schools of modern psychotherapy.


Palestinian children and young people living both within and outside of refugee camps in the Middle East are the focus of this book. For more than half a century these children and their caregivers have lived a temporary existence in the dramatic and politically volatile landscape that is the Middle East. These children have been captive to various sorts of stereotyping, both academic and popular. They have been objectified, much as their parents and grandparents, as passive victims without the benefit of international protection. And they have become the beneficiaries of numerous humanitarian aid packages which presume the primacy of the Western model of child development as well as the psycho-social approach to intervention. Giving voice to individual children, in the context of their households and their community, this book aims to move beyond the stereotypes and Western-based models to explore the impact that forced migration and prolonged conflict have had, and continue to have, on the lives of these refugee children.


This thesis presents molecular line and radio continuum observations of the giant molecular cloud (GMC) complex known as G305. The energy input from high-mass stars in the form of powerful winds and ionising radiation is one of the primary feedback mechanisms in GMCs. This feedback is thought to play a dual role both dispersing and destroying the natal environment but also sweeping up and compressing molecular gas and potentially triggering new episodes of star formation. Despite their importance to the evolution of GMCs and galaxies as a whole, the physical processes behind the formation and evolution of high-mass stars remains poorly understood. We therefore set out to obtain wide-field observations of the ionised and molecular environment to study the impact of high-mass stars on the evolution of G305. Observations conducted with the Mopra telescope of the molecular gas traced by NH3 in the (1,1), (2,2) and (3,3) transition and CO (12CO, 13CO and C18O J = 1–0) reveals the reservoir for future star formation in G305 and allows the physical properties and kinematics of the region to be studied. We identify 15 large molecular clouds and 57 smaller molecular clumps towards G305. The physical properties of the molecular gas are consistent with G305 being amongst the most massive a vigorous star forming regions in the Galaxy. We find a total molecular gas mass of ∼ 2.5–6.5 × 105 M indicating that there is a large reservoir for future star formation. By considering virial equilibrium within the molecular clumps we discover that only 14% of the molecular clumps in G305 are gravitationally unstable, however these clumps contain > 30% of the molecular mass in G305 suggesting there is scope for considerable future star formation. To study the ionised environment towards G305 we have obtained some of the largest and most detailed wide-area mosaics with the Australia Telescope Compact Array to date. These radio continuum observations were performed simultaneously at 5.5 and 8.8 GHz and by applying two imaging techniques we are able to resolve HII regions from the ultra-compact to classical evolutionary phase. This has allowed high-mass star formation within G305 to be traced over the extent and lifetime of the complex. We discover that more than half of the observable total ionising flux in G305 is associated with embedded high-mass star formation around the periphery of a central cavity that has been driven into the molecular gas by a cluster of optically visible massive stars. By considering the contribution of embedded and visible massive stars to the observed radio continuum we suggest that more than 45 massive stars exist within G305. Combination of these two studies and recent and ongoing star formation provides the most in depth view of G305 to date and allows the star formation history and impact of high-mass stars to be investigated. We find compelling morphological evidence that suggests triggering is responsible for at least some of the observed high-mass star formation and construct a star formation history for the region.


The Leknes Group is an amphibolite-facies metasedimentary assemblage thrust onto the Palaeoproterozoic basement of the Lofoten islands west of the Caledonian chain in northern Norway. Its genesis has been enigmatic, and both Sveconorwegian and Silurian ages of metamorphism have been proposed. U–Pb dating now shows that the main metamorphic and structural overprints occurred in the Mid-Ordovician, between the 469 ± 3 Ma age of a metatonalite and the 461 ± 1 Ma age of a titanite crystal co-planar with the main fabric. According to the prevalent structural interpretation this age also dates thrusting of the Leknes Group onto the Lofoten basement. Zircon and rutile in mica schists record this as well as a younger event of zircon growth at 412 ± 2 Ma, the latter coinciding with early stages of extension and enhanced fluid activity; in southern Lofoten this is also associated with the intrusion of 410 ± 3 Ma pegmatites. The Leknes Group shows an affinity with some terranes of peri-Baltican affinity in the Upper Allochthon of the Caledonides. It probably developed in a marginal basin close to Sveconorwegian basement, as shown by detrital zircon ages and published Nd isotopic data, before being thrust onto the Lofoten basement, which appears to be itself a late Caledonian allochthonous terrane.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is radically changing the way people live and interact with society: ranging from wearables to smart cities, the number of IoT devices has grown exponentially. The Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol is one of the most widely used IoT communication protocols. However, our investigation over publicly available MQTT endpoints confirms an alarming trend, i.e. many do not provide adequate security measures and often rely on the insecure default configuration. To improve the security awareness on the use of MQTT the paper presents MQTT Security Assistant (MQTTSA), a tool that automatically detects misconfigurations in MQTT-based IoT deployments. To assist IoT system developers, MQTTSA produces a report outlining detected vulnerabilities, together with (high level) hints and code snippets to implement adequate mitigations. The effectiveness of the tool is assessed by a thorough experimental evaluation.


In this paper a logical model of a distributed operating system has been presented. This model of a distributed operating system contains a set of processes managing resources, connections between these processes, and mappings of events controlling this distributed operating system into processes managing resources. The fundamental types of resources introduced by the architecture of local computer networks, i.e., messages and data structures describing the location of resources in the network, have been defined. Operations on these resources and connections between the processes managing them and processes managing other resources of the distributed operating system have been presented. Addressing processes have been discussed. The model has been constructed in such a way that a synthesis of different simulation tools (models) to study distributed operating systems can be carried out. In particular, this model makes it possible to construct simulation tools to study the effectiveness of distributed operating systems with processes managing resources defined in different ways.That means that the model has been developed in such a way to be both a concept and a tool like the model developed by A. K. Jones. The later was treated by us as a background model.


To analyze and promote resource efficiency in urban areas, it is important to characterize urban metabolism and particularly, material flows. Material flow analysis (MFA) offers a means to capture the dynamism of cities and their activities. Urban‐scale MFAs have been conducted in many cities, usually employing variants of the Eurostat methodology. However, current methodologies generally reduce the study area into a "black box," masking details of the complex processes within the city's metabolism. Therefore, besides the aggregated stocks and flows of materials, the movement of materials—often embedded in goods or commodities—should also be highlighted. Understanding the movement and dispersion of goods and commodities can allow for more detailed analysis of material flows. We highlight the potential benefits of using high‐resolution urban commodity flows in the context of understanding material resource use and opportunities for conservation. Through the use of geographic information systems and visualizations, we analyze two spatially explicit datasets: (1) commodity flow data in the United States, and (2) Global Positioning System‐based commercial vehicle (truck) driver activity data in Singapore. In the age of "big data," we bring advancements in freight data collection to the field of urban metabolism, uncovering the secondary sourcing of materials that would otherwise have been masked in typical MFA studies. This brings us closer to a consumption‐based, finer‐resolution approach to MFA, which more effectively captures human activities and its impact on urban environments.


Abstract. A new comprehensive cloud–precipitation–meteorological observatory has been established at Princess Elisabeth base, located in the escarpment zone of Dronning Maud Land (DML), East Antarctica. The observatory consists of a set of ground-based remote-sensing instruments (ceilometer, infrared pyrometer and vertically profiling precipitation radar) combined with automatic weather station measurements of near-surface meteorology, radiative fluxes, and snow height. In this paper, the observatory is presented and the potential for studying the evolution of clouds and precipitating systems is illustrated by case studies. It is shown that the synergetic use of the set of instruments allows for distinguishing ice, liquid-containing clouds and precipitating clouds, including some information on their vertical extent. In addition, wind-driven blowing snow events can be distinguished from deeper precipitating systems. Cloud properties largely affect the surface radiative fluxes, with liquid-containing clouds dominating the radiative impact. A statistical analysis of all measurements (in total 14 months mainly during summer–beginning of winter) indicates that these liquid-containing clouds occur during as much as 20% of the cloudy periods. The cloud occurrence shows a strong bimodal distribution with clear-sky conditions 51% of the time and complete overcast conditions 35% of the time. Snowfall occurred during 17% of the cloudy periods with a predominance of light precipitation and only rare events with snowfall >1 mm h−1 water equivalent (w.e.). Three of such intense snowfall events occurred during 2011 contributing to anomalously large annual surface mass balance (SMB). Large accumulation events (>10 mm w.e. day−1) during the radar-measurement period of 26 months were always associated with snowfall, but at the same time other snowfall events did not always lead to accumulation. The multiyear deployment of a precipitation radar in Antarctica allows for assessing the contribution of the snowfall to the local SMB and comparing it to the other SMB components. During 2012, snowfall rate was 110 ± 20 mm w.e. yr−1, from which surface and drifting snow sublimation removed together 23%. Given the measured yearly SMB of 52 ± 3 mm w.e., the residual term of 33 ± 21 mm w.e. yr−1 was attributed to the wind-driven snow erosion. In general, this promising set of robust instrumentation allows for improved insight into cloud and precipitation processes in Antarctica and can be easily deployed at other Antarctic stations.


How the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender, and the implications for development. Information, says Janaki Srinivasan, has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. In this study, she examines the history of the idea of "information" and its political implications for poverty alleviation. She presents three cases in India—the circulation of price information in a fish market in Kerala, government information in information kiosks operated by a nonprofit in Puducherry, and a political campaign demanding a right to information in Rajasthan—to explore three uses of information to support goals of social change. Countering claims that information is naturally and universally empowering, Srinivasan shows how the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender.
 Srinivasan draws on archival and ethnographic research to challenge the idea of information as objective and factual. Using the concept of an "information order," she examines how the meaning and value of information reflect the social relations in which it is embedded. She asks why casting information as a tool of development and solution to poverty appeals to actors across the political spectrum. She also shows how the power to label some things information and others not is at least as significant as the capacity to subsequently produce, access, and leverage information. The more faith we place in what information can do, she cautions, the less attention we pay to its political lives and to the role of specific social structures, individual agency, and material form in the defining, production, and use of that information.


Dependency Injection is an in-depth guide to the current best practices for using the Dependency Injection pattern-the key concept in Spring and the rapidly-growing Google Guice. It explores Dependency Injection, sometimes called Inversion of Control, in fine detail with numerous practical examples. Developers will learn to apply important techniques, focusing on their strengths and limitations, with a particular emphasis on pitfalls, corner-cases, and best practices. This book is written for developers and architects who want to understand Dependency Injection and successfully leverage popular DI technologies such as Spring, Google Guice, PicoContainer, and many others. The book explores many small examples of anchor concepts and unfolds a larger example to show the big picture. Written primarily from a Java point-of-view, this book is appropriate for any developer with a working knowledge of object-oriented programming in Java, Ruby, or C#.


This presentation describes the approach taken, on the BA(Hons) Textile Design course at the University of Huddersfield, to enhance the student first year learning experience by re-designing the curriculum to encourage students to make connections between all modules in the year.

It had become apparent to the course team and the Learning Development Team Leader, through periodic reviews, that there were issues impacting on the first year student learning experience. Firstly, it was noticeable that the students viewed each individual module too much as a discrete study element rather than an holistic programme. This fragmented view of learning can be a generic danger of a modular course system (Hardy, 2002). Secondly, the delivery of academic support for the programme through a stand alone Study Skills module was causing concern in that the 'bolt-on' experience did not readily encourage the students to apply the knowledge and learning skills in this module to other modules in the programme, engendering perceptions of student deficit rather than the enhancement of learning.

Non-embedded skills teaching tends to be perceived negatively by many students Wall (2006, p.xii)

It was concluded that the effectiveness of the first year programme and the student learning experience would be greatly enhanced if the Study Skills module, previously delivered over one term, was replaced by a year long Integrated Learning Portfolio (ILP) module acting as a spine into which all the other modules linked. This module would address issues of academic skills, students understanding of their own learning and the holistic nature of the first year programme. It was also decided that it would be necessary to integrate to the activities in this new module to 'live' assignments in other modules in the first year programme. The module would be assessed by a reflective portfolio, including the use of blogs within a VLE, in which students articulate and evidence their learning development and are encouraged to recognise connections beyond a modular structure.

The reflective and critical thinking underpinning the ILP encourages students to consider how their learning experience will influence future learning and Personal Development Planning; a model that strongly reflects Kolb's view of experiential learning:-

…experiential learning theories which emphasize that effective learning takes place when learners experience a problem and take action, reflect on the action, form concepts on the basis of their reflection and apply these concepts in new situations. Wingate (2006, p.458)

These changes have been implemented for the academic year 2008-09 and this presentation will outline the integrative nature of the restructuring of the curriculum, the progressive nature of assessment through formative learning journals (blogs) and the summative Integrated Learning Portfolio. A comparison of the 'student voice' heard in blogs and group sessions at the beginning and end of the year will evaluate the students' learning experience. Staff views on developments will be presented.


This article summarises the results of the Bank's Openness and Growth Project. The empirical findings suggest that openness is closely associated with growth in productivity both across countries and across sectors within the United Kingdom. Between 1970 and 1992, some 15% of the initial gap in productivity between the United Kingdom and the United States was closed. Of this, roughly half was attributable to the rise in international openness.


Despite ample research on corporate financing decisions, there is a growing interest in deepening our understanding of how firms structure their financing needs. In this dissertation, we build upon previous work on capital structure by examining the impact of firm-specific and macroeconomic risks on the capital structure of UK manufacturing firms. In particular, the dissertation consists of three separate, yet related essays. Each essay intends to serve a specific objective. The essays, in the order in which they appear, are entitled as follows:

Essay I: The Response of Firms' Leverage to Risks: Evidence from UK Public versus Non-Public Firms

Essay II: Capital Structure Adjustments: Do Macroeconomic and Business Risks Matter?

Essay III: Macroeconomic Dynamics, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Firms' Security Issuance Decisions: An Empirical Investigation of UK Manufacturing Firms

In the first essay, we empirically investigate whether the sensitivity of leverage to firm-specific (idiosyncratic) and macroeconomic risk differs across publicly listed and privately owned firms.
We also study the implications of cash reserves-risk interactions for firms' leverage decisions.
Using data from the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database, the analysis is carried out for a large panel of UK manufacturing firms over the period 1999-2008.
The results provide significant evidence that UK manufacturing firms use less short-term debt in their capital structure during periods of high risk. This finding holds for both types of risk. The results on the differential effects of risk across public and non-public firms indicate that while the leverage of non-public firms is more sensitive to firm-specific risk in comparison to their public counterparts, the effects of macroeconomic risk on leverage are similar for both types of firms. The results of the indirect effects of risk show that firms with high levels of cash holdings are more (less) likely to reduce their leverage in periods when firm-specific (macroeconomic) is risk. On the whole, the results that we document in this essay provide strong evidence of the heterogenous sensitivities of leverage to risk across both types of firms and across different levels of firms' cash holdings.

Essay II examines how risk affects firms' leverage adjustment decisions. Specifically, in this essay, we study the impact of risk about firms' own business activity and macroeconomic conditions on the speed with which firms adjust their capital structure toward their specific leverage targets. In doing this, we use an annual panel data obtained from the WorldScope file via DataStream for a fairly large sample of quoted UK manufacturing, covering the period 1981-2009. The results suggest that the adjustment is asymmetric and it depends on the magnitude of risk, the type of risk, and whether firms' actual leverage is above or below the target. Further, we find that firms with financial surpluses and above-target leverage adjust their leverage faster when firm-specific risk is low and when macroeconomic risk is high. In contrast, firms with financial deficits and below-target leverage are more likely to align their leverage toward their target in periods when both types of risk are low. Taken as a whole, our results suggest that firms adjust their leverage toward the target very asymmetrically across different levels and types of risk. This finding holds true even when we take into account several firm characteristics known to affect firms' adjustment speeds.

The third essay analyzes how risk about firms' own business activity and macroeconomic conditions influences the security issuance decisions of listed UK manufacturing firms appeared on the WorldScope database during the period from 1981-2009. Estimating dynamic panel models using the system GMM estimator, we show that the issuance of new debt is significantly negatively related to idiosyncratic risk while both the issuance of new equity and the use of internally generated funds (retained earnings) are positively related to the risk. In contrast, we find that all these three sources of financing are significantly negatively associated with macroeconomic risk. Nevertheless, our results suggest that the aggregate dynamics of firms' target leverage are significantly negatively linked with these two types of risk. The results, from the debt-equity choice regression, indicate that the effect of both firm-specific and macroeconomic risk is significant and negative, implying that firms are likely to have low debt-equity ratio in periods when either type of risk is high.


In an accessible style that will appeal to the professional, student and laymen, the authors explain the methods for creating and simulating clothes for virtual humans. Using numerous detailed illustrations, colourful images, and step-by-step analysis they map out the terrain of this exciting and cutting-edge discipline. Starting with the beginnings in the mid 1980s and the basic foundations from the field of mechanics, the reader is gradually introduced to the subject. The text draws on a number of related fields such as computer graphics, algorithmics, computational geometry, simulation, modeling, animation, visualization, and virtual reality. The MIRACloth system, developed by the authors, is used as a case study for the results and techniques discussed. The book comes with a CD-ROM featuring dynamic demonstrations of 3D clothes and fashion shows. This is an indispensable text for anybody who wants an intelligent and readable book on virtual clothing.


A method is developed to measure 137CS in seawater. It entails the use of silica gel impregnated with hexacyanoferrates as an ion-exchanger to concentrate 137CS from large volumes of seawater, followed by gamma-ray spectrometry with a high efficiency HPGe detector. Both laboratory experiments and field operation resulted in satisfactory recovery of 137Cs. Compared with the traditional pre-concentration method using AMP as the scavenger, this method is more rapid, more cost-effective, and can be more easily performed aboard ships.


Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008.; Includes bibliographical
 references. The intracellular environment contains a variety of solutes that cumulatively
 occupy a significant volume of the cell (20-30%). The high volume occupancy generates a system
 which is macromolecularly crowded. This crowding, also known as the excluded volume effect,
 can lead to an increase in the chemical activity of solutes and influence thermodynamic and
 kinetic values as compared to a dilute system. Synthetic, inert cosolutes were used to provide
 a simplified mimic of the intracellular environment, in which the DNA structures were studied.
 Various macrosolutes, cosolutes of molecular weight greater than 1000, and an osmolyte, a
 cosolute of molecular weight less than 1000, were used to created crowded conditions. In the
 presence of macrosolute, differential stabilization of a complementary DNA duplex over
 duplexes containing a single mismatched base pair was observed. Hence, crowding effectively
 increased the specificity of the hybridization reaction. In contrast, a study of single bulge
 base duplexes demonstrated the differential stabilization of a bulge duplex over all other
 duplexes when in the presence of a macrosolute. Crowding studies on unimolecular systems
 demonstrated marginal stabilization of stem-loop structures as compared to duplexes. However,
 in systems with molecularities ranging from one to four, as the molecularity of a system
 increased, the crowding effects also increased. For all systems studied, crowding enhanced the
 rate constant of hybridization. As the activation energies of the systems studied increased,
 the crowding effects also increased. This work contributes to our understanding of the effects
 that the complex intracellular environment has on biochemical interactions and processes.
 These results are also of potential use to bioanalytical techniques which employ nucleic acid
 hybridization. Additionally, these results could be used to design molecular systems, which
 can switch structure based on the volume occupancy of the surrounding medium.