The paper aims to explore the effect of different passive cooling measures using thermal modelling and predicting. Solar shading, green roofs and cool paints were incorporated as passive cooling measures to evaluate their combined effects on indoor environment, thermal comfort and its importance in energy conservation. A field experiment study was conducted in the sub-Saharan climate of Kiambu, Kenya where microclimate indicators were measured for validating and predicting the thermal behaviour. For this study, both mechanical and natural ventilation were restricted. Modelling and prediction were done in Design Builder and EnergyPlus software. The computer model was validated with data measured for 20 days on the field. A correlation value of 0.85 between the predicted values and the observed values was recorded. This result shows that this energy prediction process can provide reasonable predictions in cooling loads and the effect of passive cooling in reducing indoor temperature gains.


Floc filtration and adsorptive filtration are the two main physicochemical mechanisms of iron removal in filters. Under the commonly applied treatment conditions in iron removal plants, the floc filtration is commonly believed to be the dominant mechanism and the adsorptive filtration complimentary. Iron removal filters with iron oxide coated sand are expected to perform better in terms of filtrate quality, filter run time and costs, by switching the mode of operation from predominantly floc filtration to predominantly adsorptive filtration. A decision support system (DSS) is being developed to assess the applicability and to quantify the possible benefits associated with adsorptive iron removal for a given groundwater and a specific plant. This paper introduces the different independent and interconnected modules of the DSS and elaborates on one particular sub-module for the analysis of the extent of floc filtration and adsorptive filtration iron removal in a groundwater treatment plant under given conditions. This computer model would be helpful in optimising the plant performance under the existing mode of operation, formulating strategies for switching from floc filtration to adsorptive filtration, and designing new iron removal plants. Sensitivity analysis showed that pH, iron oxidation rate constant and pre-oxidation time (a function of depth of supernatant and filtration rate) are the main parameters determining the extent of floc filtration and adsorptive iron removal under given conditions. Predominantly adsorptive iron removal in filters can be achieved by reducing the depth of supernatant, increasing the rate of filtration and/or controlling the oxygen concentration in the feed water.


It is a 21st century challenge to develop a more sustainable chemical industry where fossil-based resources are, where possible, preferentially replaced by renewable alternatives. Bio-based polymers, in particular those derived from cellulose or other carbohydrates, are often considered benign alternatives for petrochemical plastics. The majority of bioplastic precursors are currently derived from fermentation or biotechnology. Chemocatalytic routes to both similar and new polymer building blocks are emerging in an effort to mitigate challenges related to carbohydrate fermentation, such as waste generation and costly product purification. This review critically surveys recent developments in applying heterogeneous catalysis for the production of bio-based polyester monomers from cellulose or cellulose-derived carbohydrates. Highlighted target molecules include various α-hydroxy acids or esters (e.g. lactic and glycolic acid, lactide and methyl vinyl glycolate), furandicarboxylic acid, ethylene glycol and isosorbide. The production of lactic acid from glycerol will exceptionally be included as well, as an oversupply of glycerol might contribute to non-negligible amounts of lactic acid in the future. Where possible, remaining challenges and future prospects are highlighted.


One of the most disappointing features of U.S. economic performance over the past 20 years has been the slowing of growth in productivity and, as a result, in real incomes. For many, the explanation can be found in the low U.S. saving rate. Since the mid 1980s, national saving has averaged just over 15 percent of GDP, compared to more than 20 percent during the 1970s. Thus, one plausible explanation for slow productivity growth, at least in recent years, could be that our low saving rate is constraining investment and thereby depriving the nation of both the tools and the technologies that would leverage human skills.> This article considers whether the decline in the U.S. saving rate necessarily means that investment spending is "too low." The authors show that private domestic investment has fallen less than one might infer from the decline in saving, and business use of credit markets in the 1990s has remained unusually low even as the cost of capital has fallen. They highlight the growing importance of investment in business equipment, especially computers, during the 1980s and 1990s, and they suggest that this shift in the composition of investment, coupled with the rapid decline in computer prices, may account for some of the inconsistencies in saving and investment patterns. In particular, investment spending may be limited by the ability of businesses to absorb the new information technology.


Many modern data-intensive computational problems either require, or benefit from distance or similarity data that adhere to a metric. The algorithms run faster or have better performance guarantees. Unfortunately, in real applications, the data are messy and values are noisy. The distances between the data points are far from satisfying a metric. Indeed, there are a number of different algorithms for finding the closest set of distances to the given ones that also satisfy a metric (sometimes with the extra condition of being Euclidean). These algorithms can have unintended consequences; they can change a large number of the original data points, and alter many other features of the data. The goal of sparse metric repair is to make as few changes as possible to the original data set or underlying distances so as to ensure the resulting distances satisfy the properties of a metric. In other words, we seek to minimize the sparsity (or the ℓ0 "norm") of the changes we make to the distances subject to the new distances satisfying a metric. We give three different combinatorial algorithms to repair a metric sparsely. In one setting the algorithm is guaranteed to return the sparsest solution and in the other settings, the algorithms repair the metric. Without prior information, the algorithms run in time proportional to the cube of the number of input data points and, with prior information we can reduce the running time considerably.


Approximate energy expressions are proposed for infinite zero-temperature neutron mat ter and symmetric nuclear matter by taking into account noncentral forces. They are explic itly expressed as functionals of spin-isospin-dependent radial distribution functions, tensor distribution functions and spin-orbit distribution functions, and can be used conveniently in the variational method. The two-body noncentral cluster terms are fully included in these expressions, while the degree of inclusion of the three-body cluster terms related to non central forces is less than that of the purely central three-body terms. The Euler-Lagrange equations are derived from these energy expressions and numerically solved for neutron mat ter and symmetric nuclear matter. The Hamada-Johnston and AV14 potentials are used as the two-body nuclear force. The results show that the noncentral forces cause the total en ergy of symmetric nuclear matter to be decreased too much with a saturation density which is too high. Discussion is given as to the reason for this disagreement with experiment, and the long tails of the noncentral distribution functions obtained in the numerical calculations are suspected to be the main reason. Then, an effective theory is proposed by introducing a density-dependent modification of the noncentral part of the energy expression to suppress the long tails of the noncentral distribution functions. With a suitable choice of the value of a parameter included in the modification, the saturation point (both the energy and the density) of symmetric nuclear matter can be reproduced with the Hamada-Johnston poten tial. Neutron stars are studied by use of this effective theory, and reasonable results are obtained.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the molecular mechanism for biased interleukin-17 (IL-17) production by DBA/1 CD4+ T cells upon T cell receptor (TCR) and transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) stimulation.

METHODS
Purified naive CD4+ T cells were stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 under Th1, Th2, Th17, and induced T regulatory (iTreg) cell conditions. Cytokine production was assayed by intracellular staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Expression of transcription factors was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, flow cytometry, and immunoblotting techniques.

RESULTS
Naive CD4+ T cells from DBA/1 mice produced more IL-17 under Th17 cell polarizing conditions as compared with those from C57BL/6 or BALB/c mice. Further investigation revealed no difference among the strains in terms of CD4+ T cell survival, upstream TCR signaling, or CD69 expression or in the phosphorylation of STAT-3 and expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 that positively or negatively regulate IL-17 cell production. However, DBA/1 CD4+ T cells expressed increased levels of retinoic acid-related orphan receptor γt (RORγt). Furthermore, under iTreg cell polarizing conditions, DBA/1 CD4+ T cells showed a strikingly reduced level of FoxP3 expression. When interferon-γ and IL-4 were blocked, FoxP3 expression increased but remained lower in DBA/1 CD4+ T cells following exposure to TGFβ as compared with C57BL/6 CD4+ T cells. Moreover, DBA/1 CD4+ T cells showed reduced phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3 under both Th17 and iTreg cell polarizing conditions.

CONCLUSION
These results indicate that naive CD4+ T cells from DBA/1 mice have a dichotomous response to TGFβ: enhanced RORγt, yet reduced FoxP3, up-regulation. This observation may help to elucidate the branch point of TGFβ signaling that leads to skewed Th17, but reduced iTreg, cell differentiation.


I. INTRODUCTIONIt is by no means an exaggeration to characterize the Supreme Court's 2005 Kelo v. City of New London decision as its most unpopular ruling in more than a century. Justice Scalia, one of four Kelo dissenters, went so far as to put Kelo in the company of Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade - decisions he claimed represented the Court's most severe lapses in judgment.1 In Kelo, the Supreme Court upheld a municipal redevelopment plan that resulted in the forced transfer of nine residents' homes to a private development corporation. The Court held that the increased tax revenue and other secondary benefits to the city constituted a "public use" under the Fifth Amendment, justifying the condemnation and forced transfer of the residents' homes.2 However, it noted that "nothing in our opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of takings power."3The subsequent response from state legislatures was unprecedented. In direct response to Kelo, forty-three states enacted legislation curbing the use of eminent domain for economic redevelopment.4 On November 8, 2011, Mississippi became the forty-fourth, passing a referendum by an overwhelming seventythree to twenty-seven percent majority that placed restrictions on the transfer of condemned property to private parties.5 On the federal level, politicians as ideologically diverse as Rep. Maxine Waters (DCA) on the left and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on the right sponsored bills aimed at enacting similar reforms on a national level.6While property-rights advocates generally find this barrage of legislation encouraging, there is some concern that many states' efforts are merely cosmetic. That is, although the statutes purport to limit the type of taking at issue in Kelo, they are riddled with exceptions that eviscerate any substantive protections against forced transfers to private developers. Other scholars argue that many states have gone too far, limiting municipalities' ability to deal with blight and urban sprawl.7 This Comment surveys enacted state legislation and proposed federal legislation to evaluate the validity of these claims. Ultimately, it finds the vast majority of these efforts wanting and proposes the creation of a federal cause of action modeled loosely on shareholder derivative suits. Unlike proposed federal legislation and many state statutes, this approach avoids burdening federal and local law enforcement, makes economic-development takings infeasible in most instances, and also allows states the flexibility they need to deal with actual blight.This Comment proceeds as follows. Part II demonstrates the need for a statutory approach to takings reform by showing that Kelo was simply a logical extension of the preceding 100 years of Supreme Court precedent. Part III discusses the leading arguments for and against the use of eminent domain for economic development, providing context for Part IV's survey of the many legislative responses to Kelo. Part V proposes creating a federal cause of action for property owners involved in improper takings and concludes.II. WHY A STATUTORY SOLUTION? A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SUPREME COURT'S TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCEDespite the unprecedented outrage to Kelo among politicians, commentators, and the general public,8 the majority's reasoning was largely consistent with more than 100 years of the Supreme Court's public-use jurisprudence. This Part traces the genesis of the ultimate result in Kelo back to the Court's first public- use holdings in the latter nineteenth century. Broadly, two lines of cases emerged, with some overlap. The first defined public use as "public power" - a seizure of private property constituted a public use so long as it furthered the government's exercise of a constitutional power. The second defined public use as any action that tended to produce a "public benefit" or carried out a "public purpose." Early on, the Court afforded state governments substantial deference in categorizing their legislative goals as "public purposes. …


Whether China continues its business-as-usual investment-driven, environment-polluting growth pattern or adopts an investment and innovation-driven, environmentally sustainable development holds important implications for both national and global environmental governance. Building on a Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans growth model that features endogenous technological change induced by R&D and knowledge stock accumulation, this paper presents an exposition, both analytically and numerically, of the mechanism underlining China's economic transition from an investment-driven, pollution-intensive to an investment and innovation-driven, environmentally sustainable growth path. We show that if R&D technological innovation is incorporated into China's growth mechanism, then at some tipping point in time when marginal welfare gain of R&D for knowledge accumulation becomes equalized with that of investment for physical asset deployment, China's economy will launch capital investment and R&D simultaneously and make a transition to a sustainable growth path along which consumption, capital investment, and R&D have a balanced share of 5: 4: 1, consumption, capital stock, and knowledge stock all grow at a rate of 4.9%, and environmental quality improves at a rate of 2.5%. In contrast, if R&D technological innovation is not harnessed as a new growth engine, then China's economy will follow its business-as-usual investment-driven growth path along which standalone accumulation of dirty physical capital stock will lead to a more than 200-fold increase in environmental pollution.


Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a relatively new interferometric technology that allows for high-resolution and non-destructive tomographic imaging. One of its primary current uses is for in vivo and ex vivo examination of medical samples. It is used for non-destructive examination of ocular disease, dermatological examination, blood vessel imaging, and many other applications. Some primary advantages of OCT imaging include rapid imaging of biological tissue with minimal sample preparation, 3D high-resolution imaging with depth penetrations of several millimeters, and the capability to obtain results in real time, allowing for fast and minimally invasive identification of many diseases. Current commercial OCT systems rely heavily on optical fiber-based designs. They depend on the robustness of the fiber to maintain system performance in variable environmental conditions but sacrifice the performance and flexibility of free-space optical designs. We discuss the design and implementation of a free-space OCT interferometer that can automatically maintain its alignment, allowing for the use of a free-space optical design outside of tightly controlled laboratory environments. In addition, we describe how similar enhancements can be made to other optical interferometric systems. By extending these techniques, we can provide similar improvements to many related fields, such as interferometric metrology and Fourier Transform Spectroscopy. Improvements in these technologies can help bring powerful interferometric tools to a wider audience.


Features software workshops for 3ds Max, Maya, CINEMA 4D, Lightwave, and Softimage XSI.Hot, hotter, hottest. See how today's leading modeling artists create 3D characters that sizzle and get the techniques you'll need to create your own virtual vixens.Steven Stahlberg, Liam Kemp, Marco Patrito, and Sze Jones from Blur Studio are just a few of the 3D artists who share their secrets for making the fantasy females you wish were real. You'll get their personal stories, insights into the profession, and new ways to conceive and construct your own 3D characters.Then, seven hands-on workshops demonstrate the complete work cycle of modeling 3D characters to bring your own fantasies to life-from making the first sketch and preparing the template to modeling and texturing characters and lighting and rendering. You can use the techniques with any of the major software tools including 3ds Max, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, Maya, or Cinema 4D. Since the workshops don't use any previously made objects, you'll get to start from scratch with your imagination as the only limit.Participants:Andrea BertacciniMax Edwin WahyudiSze JonesLiam KempArndt von KoenigsmarckK. C. LeeDaniel Moreno DiazMarco PatritoSteven StahlbergFrancois de Swardt * Tutorials suitable for 3ds Max, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, Maya, and CINEMA 4D* An artists' gallery of top-flight 3D artists* Interviews revealing artists' techniques and inspirations


In the recent international campaigns against child marriage, there is a puzzle of agency: while international human rights institutions celebrate when girls exercise their agency not to marry, they do not recognize their agency to marry. 'Child marriage', defined as "any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age", is considered always forced, assuming that children are not capable of consenting to marriages. In order to re-examine, reflect, and discuss this approach to agency, this dissertation offers empirical evidence of child marriage, based on findings from the author's fieldwork in Indonesia.  Why children marry and how this practice both informs, and is treated within, multiple competing normative frameworks in place? The dissertation starts from analysing child marriage discourse at the international level, moves to discuss the political contestation over child marriage at the national level (Indonesia), and then investigates child marriage as a social practice on the Indonesian island of Bali. This is a socio-legal study of international human rights, which contributes to the scholarly field of human rights and children's rights by using ideas from the other disciplines in social science.


In dealing with questions of federal preemption, appellate lawyers often find themselves addressing the presumption against preemption--the principle that a federal statute will not be held to have preempted state law unless that is the clear and manifest intent of Congress. But suppose the preemption question arises in the administrative context, when a federal agency adopts a role that expands its jurisdiction far enough to preempt state power over a field traditionally regulated by the states. Should the appellate specialist look to that presumption in deciding whether the agency's role fell within its statutory power? Or would the courts use other tools of statutory interpretation, including the Chevron doctrine, (1) in deciding whether the rule was permissible? The Supreme Court shed significant light on this question during the last term. In New York v. FERC, (2) it held that the presumption against preemption would not determine whether an agency had authority to adopt a regulation asserting greater jurisdiction, even if the rule's effect would be to displace the historic power of states to regulate in a particular area. This decision represented the latest of several refusals to extend the presumption to the administrative context, and effectively frees federal agencies from its constraints in interpreting their organic statutes. The presumption against preemption has a revered pedigree. For at least a century, courts analyzing whether state law has been displaced pursuant to the Supremacy Clause have "start[ed] with the assumption that the historic police powers of the States were not to be superseded by the Federal Act unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress." (3) Though many more courts quote this principle than actually apply it, (4) the cases citing it are legion. It has often been applied in cases of implied preemption, particularly in determining whether a field has been preempted by federal law. (5) It has also been applied-over some vigorous dissents--in cases of express preemption, as a principle limiting the construction of congressional directions about preemption. (6) Thus, the presumption appeared to be a weapon of some power when, in New York v. FERC, (7) New York and the other petitioning states invoked it to challenge a FERC rule asserting jurisdiction over a substantial segment of retail electrical transmission service. The petitioners pointed out that, after the passage of the Federal Power Act in 1935, (8) local utilities had provided transmission service to retail customers as part of their sales of electricity, and that states had therefore historically regulated all aspects of such retail sales. When, in the last decade, a growing number of states began to permit or require utilities to unbundle their transmission services, FERC had stepped in to claim jurisdiction over the unbundled transmission services associated with retail sales, inserting federal regulators into a field that had until then traditionally been the province of the states. The petitioning states claimed that FERC's 1996 rule (9) about unbundled retail transmission had gone too far--that FERC had exceeded its statutory authority under the Federal Power Act by invading this area. (10) To the surprise of many in the industry, the Supreme Court granted their petition, as well as a competing petition from Enron asking for even greater FERC jurisdiction. The petitioning States made the presumption against preemption one of the centerpieces of their brief. They presented what seemed to be a simple syllogism: They began with the general proposition that the presumption permits preemption only where it can be shown that it was the "clear and manifest purpose" (11) of Congress to displace state law. Then, they pointed out that retail transmission, as a service distinct from a sale, did not exist when the Federal Power Act was enacted. Thus, they concluded, no showing of a clear and manifest congressional purpose to preempt could be made in this case, and any assertion of federal jurisdiction over this type of service would be inconsistent with the presumption against preemption. …


Object oriented system was the programming paradigm which aimed at the concept of software reuse. This reuse concept which has obtained its significance there upon needed to be strengthened in software systems and design concepts. This paved the basic idea behind evolving of software design paradigms into component and service oriented systems respectively. An evolution based model had been formed based on a template designed to study and record how the metrics are categorised between the three systems. This paper projects the improvement done over the model in order to relate the metrics quantitatively. The maturity level of reuse metrics stated through the evolution based model is established by bringing out the strength of the relationship that is estimated through the study. General Terms Object Oriented System, Component based System and Service Oriented System.


Multi-class classification becomes challenging at test time when the number of classes is very large and testing against every possible class can become computationally infeasible. This problem can be alleviated by imposing (or learning) a structure over the set of classes. We propose an algorithm for learning a tree-structure of classifiers which, by optimizing the overall tree loss, provides superior accuracy to existing tree labeling methods. We also propose a method that learns to embed labels in a low dimensional space that is faster than non-embedding approaches and has superior accuracy to existing embedding approaches. Finally we combine the two ideas resulting in the label embedding tree that outperforms alternative methods including One-vs-Rest while being orders of magnitude faster.


In the years following World War II, medicine won major battles against smallpox, diphtheria, and polio. In the same period it also produced treatments to control the progress of Parkinson's, rheumatoid arthritis, and schizophrenia. It made realities of open-heart surgery, organ transplants, test-tube babies. Unquestionably, the medical accomplishments of the postwar years stand at the forefront of human endeavor, yet progress in recent decades has slowed nearly to a halt. In this winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, medical doctor and columnist James Le Fanu both surveys the glories of medicine in the postwar years and analyzes the factors that for the past twenty-five years have increasingly widened the gulf between achievement and advancement: the social theories of medicine, ethical issues, and political debates over health care that have hobbled the development of vaccines and discovery of new "miracle" cures. While fully demonstrating the extraordinary progress effected by medical research in the latter half of the twentieth century, Le Fanu also identifies the perils that confront medicine in the twenty-first. 16 pages of black-and-white photographs add to what the Los Angeles Times cited as "a sobering, contrarian challenge" to the "nostrum of medicine as a never-ending font of miracle cures'. " "[From] a respected science writer ...important information that ...has been overlooked or ignored by many physicians. " New Republic "Provocative and engrossing and informative. " Houston Chronicle "Marvelously written, meticulously researched ...one of the most thought-provoking and important works to appear in recent years. " Choice


Re-wetting minerotrophic fens has become an important strategy to mitigate climate change in Germany. However, recent studies report raised methane (CH4) effluxes during the first years after flooding. A minerotrophic fen in north-east Germany that was re-wetted 15 years ago was exposed to exceptionally heavy rainfall and freshwater flooding in August 2011. We measured CH4 effluxes from wetland vegetation stands dominated by Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud., Typha latifolia L. and Carex acutiformis Ehrh., using the closed-chamber method, fortnightly from March 2011 to March 2012 with extra sampling during the flooding. The respective annual effluxes of CH4 (mean ± 1 standard error) from the three vegetation types were 18.5 ± 1.3, 21.1 ± 1.2 and 47.5 ± 5.0 g m a, with the August effluxes contributing 40 %, 50 % and 10 % of the annual effluxes. Despite the freshwater flooding in August, annual CH4 effluxes from the 15-year re-wetted fen are similar to those reported from pristine fens. These results are promising because they indicate that, although CH4 effluxes are elevated after re-wetting, they may return to values typical for pristine fens after 15 years. Hence, re-wetting can achieve the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas effluxes from drained minerotrophic fens.


Traditional digital computing demands perfectly reliable memory and processing, so programs can build structures once then use them forever—but such deterministic execution is becoming ever more costly in large-scale systems. By contrast, living systems, viewed as computations, naturally tolerate fallible hardware by repairing and rebuilding structures even while in use—and suggest ways to compute using massive amounts of unreliable, merely best-effort hardware. However, we currently know little about programming without deterministic execution, in architectures where traditional models of computation—and deterministic ALife models such as the Game of Life—need not apply. This expanded article presents ulam, a language designed to balance concurrency and programmability upon best-effort hardware, using lifelike strategies to achieve robust and scalable computations. The article reviews challenges for traditional architecture, introduces the active-media computational model for which ulam is designed, and then presents the language itself, touching on its nomenclature and surface appearance as well as some broader aspects of robust software engineering. Several ulam examples are presented; then the article concludes with a brief consideration of the couplings between a computational model and its physical implementation.


Background: The burden of cancer embodies the lived experiences and perspectives of people who have dealt with the challenges and difficulties of cancer. The landscape of cancer care in the United States has transitioned to a predominantly outpatient care system, so cancer care has become increasingly burdensome on the patient and family. Aim: The thesis describes the cancer care burden experiences of Chinese, Filipino and Indian American cancer-diagnosed immigrants and their family carers as well as explores the factors associated with their cancer care burdens. Method: Interpretivist and constructivist qualitative approaches were used to gather and analyse data from 9 cancer-diagnosed individuals and 9 family carers. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed. A semi-structured interview format was used for data collection. Results: The analysis generated three main themes that reflect cancer care burden experiences of the sample population: psychosocial burdens, burdens related to healthcare, and competing priorities. Several factors related to social, economic, cultural, and institutional context were found to have a relationship with the cancer care burdens. Conclusion: The findings illustrate that Asian American immigrant families deal with complex and multifaceted cancer care burdens that are connected to the social, economic and cultural conditions that shape their lives. Insight from the thesis is a critical first step for understanding the pathways of cancer care burdens amongst immigrant families.


Erasure code based distributed storage systems are increasingly being used by storage providers for big data storage since they offer the same reliability as replication with significant decrease in the amount of storage required. But, when it comes to a storage system with data nodes spread across a very large geographical area, the code's recovery performance is affected by various factors, both network and computation related. In this paper, we expose an XOR based code supplemented with the ideas of parity duplication and rack awareness that could be adopted in such storage clusters to improve the recovery performance during node failures. We have implemented them on the erasure code module of the XORBAS version of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). For evaluating the performance of the proposed ideas, we employ a geo-diverse cluster on the NeCTAR research cloud. The experimental results show that the techniques aid in bringing down the data read for repair by a factor of 85% and repair duration by a factor of 57% during node failures, though resulting in an increased storage requirement of 21% as compared to the traditional Reed-Solomon codes used in HDFS. The sum of all these ideas could offer a better solution for a code based storage system spanning a wide geographical area that has storage constraints such that a triple replicated system is not affordable and at the same time has strict requirements on ensuring the minimal recovery time.


Extracted from text ... AFRICA WATCH
THE GACACA PROCESS
STEPHANIE WOLTERS
Eleven years after the Rwandan genocide in which up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, the Rwandan government has launched a national judicial process aimed at bringing the perpetrators of the genocide to justice. Although trials of genocide suspects have been under way since 1996, according to some estimates it would have taken the Rwandan judicial system up to 150 years to try the over 100, 000 people already detained on charges of genocide. Faced with this reality, the Rwandan government created the gacaca courts in 2001. ..


I describe and demonstrate a rapid and simple technique for calibrating spherical reference surfaces in Fizeau interferometry. A flat mirror at the focus of the test wavefront and a partial occlusion of the test beam enable a double-pass measurement of one half of the surface against the other, which gives an error map for half the aperture. Subsequent rotations of the beam stop and stitching together of several measurements yields the full-aperture calibration file. The method always produces point-symmetrical surface maps and is therefore not exact. However, most actual reference surfaces are approximately point symmetric and therefore the trade-off of accuracy for expediency is reasonable in practice.


The structure of a monolayer phase of TiO x on Pt(111) has been investigated by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), atomic resolved scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and density functional (DF) calculations. According to LEED, the rectangular unit cell (6.8 x 8.6 A 2 ) is incommensurate with respect to the Pt(111) substrate unit cell. The STM data show a clear zigzag-like motif and dimensions in perfect agreement with the LEED data. A structural model, which is in tune with the whole set of experimental data, has been obtained by a DF geometry optimization starting from a guessed structure proposed on the basis of chemical considerations and the comparison with literature data. The stoichiometry of the monolayer is Ti 6 O 8 and the Ti atoms are formally in the +2.7 oxidation state, in agreement with previously reported photoemission data. However, two different types of Ti atoms have been found, that is, Ti atoms coordinated by four oxygen atoms, which give rise to the brighter bumps in the zigzag-like STM motif, and Ti atoms coordinated by only three oxygen atoms, which appear darker in the STM images. Analogously, two different types of oxygen atoms can be distinguished, with those lying in the throughs of the STM images ("bridge" oxygens) being less coordinated and in a lower oxidation state. The energetics of the interaction of the oxide monolayer with the Pt substrate has been computationally evaluated. Even if the oxide/metal interaction is important in determining the high stability and the structure of the oxide film, it conveys that this interaction is only weakly directional, thus, justifying the incommensurate nature of the film.


Many computational models of the auditory system exist, most of which can predict a variety of psychoacoustical, physiological, or other experimental data. However, it is often challenging to apply existing third party models to own experimental paradigms, even if the model code is available. It will be demonstrated that model applicability is increased by providing a framework where the model acts as artificial observer performing exactly the same task as the subject (e.g., adaptive staircase procedure). A possible separation of the actual auditory processing of the model from the decision making stage will be discussed, which allows for testing the auditory processing of one model in a variety of experimental paradigms. The framework will consist of a citable data repository providing the required data for the models as well as toolboxes implementing both the auditory models and a variety of experimental paradigms. The model framework will be demonstrated with exemplary binaural models applied to the th...


Reverse faults frequently generate large and destructive earthquakes,
yet their seismic hazard remains diffi cult to assess with traditional
paleoseismic tools because their surface expressions are often
complex and subtle. This contribution assesses the utility of millennial-
scale denudation rates derived from in-situ cosmogenic 10Be for
revealing the spatial patterns and magnitudes of rock uplift produced
by slip along reverse faults. We present seventeen basin-averaged
denudation rates from rivers draining the Santa Cruz Mountains
along the San Andreas fault (California, USA) which closely reproduce
known uplift rate patterns associated with a restraining bend
along the fault. An additional component of vertical deformation
appears to be superposed on the uplift due to the restraining bend;
this may result from regional transpression, further irregularities in
the fault trace, or interactions with neighboring faults. Our results
indicate that 10Be-derived denudation rates can reveal patterns of
rock uplift adjacent to reverse faults over length-scales relevant for
characterizing their seismic hazard potential.


This is a publisher's version of an article published in The Journal of Laryngology & Otology © 1983 Cambridge University Press. www.cambridge.org/


Purpose

The authors examine the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and the selection of upward influence tactics. The purpose of this paper is to integrate research on perceptions of justice, LMX, and influence tactics in order to empirically test an integrative model.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaires were administered to n=407 employed Masters of Business Administration students at a private Southeastern University in the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to test the statistical significance of paths specified in the models.

Findings

Results indicate that perceptions of organizational justice have indirect effects on upward influence tactics reported. LMX had mediating effects on the relationship between interactional justice and the use of rational and coalition tactics.

Research limitations/implications

The data are cross-sectional and were collected using self-reports, which limits the conclusions that can be drawn. The findings however, suggest that perceptions of interactional justice are associated with LMX, whose effects in turn are associated with the use of influence tactics.

Practical implications

Coalition strategies were used more when subordinates experienced poor LMX. The research suggests that perhaps for individuals experiencing poor relationships with the supervisor, coalition strategies might present an alternative to "rational" influence tactics (which are used more in high-quality relationships).

Originality/value

The current study extends LMX research by examining differing subordinate influence strategies in high- and low-quality relationships. It also extends organizational justice research by examining the effects of the interpersonal implementation of fair procedures on the dynamics between leadership and upward influence.


Russian Research Reactors (RRs) have a history of more than 60 years, which began on 26 December 1946, when the first Russian RR – a 24 kW uranium-graphite F-1 reactor – was started in Moscow. This reactor is still in operation and is protected by the government as a monument to Russian scientific and engineering thought. The F-1 reactor ushered in the era of nuclear power in Russia (the USSR in those days) and gave rise to an important field in these activities, i.e., reactor engineering for research purposes. Russian RRs have had an eventful and far from easy path in their development. Like other major nuclear states, Russia took energetic efforts to provide its own RRs in the 1950s-1980s. It exported such reactors to other countries and survived the nuclear stagnation at the end of the 20th century through the beginning of the 21st century to keep its leading position in RR uses to the present day. Reforms in the Russian nuclear industry, the extensive experience in building RRs both at home and abroad, together with the proactive export policy of the newly established public corporation Rosatom form a groundwork for making Russia an important player in the international market of RRs. Today, Russia can offer a broad spectrum of services to foreign customers, ranging from the conduct of specific experiments in its domestic reactors to the building of scientific centres with RRs at their core. This paper discusses the current status of Russian RRs as well as the prospects for their development in the coming years. A special note is made of the trend towards a more active presence of Russia in the international RR market.


In the present financial crisis, the government has become extensively involved in managing companies, at times undertaking massive bailouts. The results of government involvement in business are at best mixed. Moreover, its involvement has generated significant criticism. But government involvement in managing companies is sometimes inevitable. It is therefore important to consider how it can be improved. One critical reason why government might perform poorly is conflicts of interest. Given the conflicts that arise at multiple levels of decisionmaking in both government and private companies, it should not be surprising that government management of companies is often problematic. In both government and business, law has had mixed success in changing the way individuals behave. Conflicts of interest and their concealment continue on a scale that most observers find troubling. The best counterweight to conflicts of interest is a strong commitment to personal and professional responsibility that empowers a business or government decisionmaker to overcome the motivation to advance interests other than those he is supposed to be advancing.It is important, too, to look for ways to mitigate the effects of conflicts of interest. Dispersing decisionmaking among different groups of people - for example, shareholders as well as directors in a corporation or different agencies in government - could be part of the solution. Furthermore, collective decisionmaking and oversight functions are aided by transparency. Finally, the greatest source of conflicts of interest in government is campaign contributions. Unless and until something is done about our system of campaign finance, conflicts of interest will be an ever-present threat.


We must anticipate that the day is approaching when details of nuclear weapons design and fabrication will become common knowledge. On that day we must be particularly certain that all special nuclear materials (SNM) are adequately accounted for and protected and that we have a clear understanding of the utility of nuclear materials to potential adversaries. To this end, this paper examines the attractiveness of materials mixtures containing SNM and alternate nuclear materials associated with the plutonium-uranium reduction extraction (Purex), uranium extraction (UREX), coextraction (COEX), thorium extraction (THOREX), and PYROX (an electrochemical refining method) reprocessing schemes. This paper provides a set of figures of merit for evaluating material attractiveness that covers a broad range of proliferant state and subnational group capabilities. The primary conclusion of this paper is that all fissile material must be rigorously safeguarded to detect diversion by a state and must be provided the highest levels of physical protection to prevent theft by subnational groups; no "silver bullet" fuel cycle has been found that will permit the relaxation of current international safeguards or national physical security protection levels. The work reported herein has been performed at the request of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and is based on the calculation of "attractiveness levels" that are expressed in terms consistent with, but normally reserved for, the nuclear materials in DOE nuclear facilities. The methodology and findings are presented. Additionally, how these attractiveness levels relate to proliferation resistance and physical security is discussed.


Ultracold molecules have experienced increasing attention in recent years. Compared to ultracold atoms, they possess several unique properties that make them perfect candidates for the implementation of new quantum-technological applications in several fields, from quantum simulation to quantum sensing and metrology. In particular, ultracold molecules of two-electron atoms (such as strontium or ytterbium) also inherit the peculiar properties of these atomic species, above all the possibility to access metastable electronic states via direct excitation on optical clock transitions with ultimate sensitivity and accuracy. In this paper we report on the production and coherent manipulation of molecular bound states of two fermionic $^{173}$Yb atoms in different electronic (orbital) states $^1$S$_0$ and $^3$P$_0$ in proximity of a scattering resonance involving atoms in different spin and electronic states, called orbital Feshbach resonance. We demonstrate that orbital molecules can be coherently photoassociated starting from a gas of ground-state atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattices by observing several photoassociation and photodissociation cycles. We also show the possibility to coherently control the molecular internal state by using Raman-assisted transfer to swap the nuclear spin of one of the atoms forming the molecule, thus demonstrating a powerful manipulation and detection tool of these molecular bound states. Finally, by exploiting this peculiar detection technique we provide first information on the lifetime of the molecular states in a many-body setting, paving the way towards future investigations of strongly interacting Fermi gases in a still unexplored regime.


The Ugandan government is committed to scaling-up proven HIV prevention strategies including safe male circumcision, and innovative strategies are needed to increase circumcision uptake. The aim of this study was to assess the acceptability and feasibility of implementing a soccer-based intervention ("Make The Cut") among schoolboys in a peri-urban district of Uganda. The intervention was led by trained, recently circumcised "coaches" who facilitated a 60-minute session delivered in schools, including an interactive penalty shoot-out game using metaphors for HIV prevention, sharing of the coaches' circumcision story, group discussion and ongoing engagement from the coach to facilitate linkage to male circumcision. The study took place in four secondary schools in Entebbe sub-district, Uganda. Acceptability of safe male circumcision was assessed through a cross-sectional quantitative survey. The feasibility of implementing the intervention was assessed by piloting the intervention in one school, modifying it, and implementing the modified version in a second school. Perceptions of the intervention were assessed with in-depth interviews with participants. Of the 210 boys in the cross-sectional survey, 59% reported being circumcised. Findings showed high levels of knowledge and generally favourable perceptions of circumcision. The initial implementation of Make The Cut resulted in 6/58 uncircumcised boys (10.3%) becoming circumcised. Changes made included increasing engagement with parents and improved liaison with schools regarding the timing of the intervention. Following this, uptake improved to 18/69 (26.1%) in the second school. In-depth interviews highlighted the important role of family and peer support and the coach in facilitating the decision to circumcise. This study showed that the modified Make The Cut intervention may be effective to increase uptake of safe male circumcision in this population. However, the intervention is time-intensive, and further work is needed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention conducted at scale.


Our experience in using the vendor-supplied hardware for delivering the laser beam into the microscope has been that the procedure can be a time-consuming and frustrating one. The reason for this is that the correct position of the incident beam on the microscope beam-splitter is extremely sensitive to the angle with which it enters the microscope housing. A properly aligned beam, when viewed on the microscope viewing screen with the use of a flat reflective sample, displays a sharp spot on the screen. When the focus is changed either up or down, the spot will display concentric behavior on either side of the focal point. Any subtle change to the optical path may affect the angle of entry into the microscope and, hence, its alignment, thereby making adjustments necessary. We have taken the frustration out of the alignment process by removing the vendor's turning mirror and replacing it with two mirrors on adjustable mounts, along with two apertures to define reproducibly the correct laser path. Figure 1 shows the complete optical system, which employs an argon-ion laser source, a Jobin-Yvon HG2S monochromator, and a Nachet NS400 microscope. While this is not the arrangement that would have been devised if unlimited space had been available, it has proved to be a very satisfactory one for this system.


The article considers the directed interaction of different-code semiotic systems – verbal and pictorial (iconic), where the pictorial semiotic system is primary and is the basis for the secondary verbal system – poetic texts. It is argued that the phenomenon of poetic 'translation' and verbal actualization of painting is created while preserving a common cultural and moral code for both systems.


Recent achievements in the field of gate-defined semiconductor quantum dots reinforce the concept of a spin-based quantum computer consisting of nodes of locally connected qubits which communicate with each other via superconducting circuit resonator photons. In this paper, we theoretically demonstrate a versatile set of quantum gates between adjacent spin qubits defined in semiconductor quantum dots situated within the same node of such a spin-based quantum computer. The electric dipole acquired by the spin of an electron that moves across a double quantum dot potential in a magnetic field gradient has enabled strong coupling to resonator photons and low-power spin control. Here we show that this flopping-mode spin qubit also provides the tunability to program multiple two-qubit gates. Since the capacitive coupling between these qubits brings about additional dephasing, we calculate the estimated infidelity of different two-qubit gates in the most immediate possible experimental realizations.


Objective: To develop a lifestyle risk scale (LRS) of health-related behaviors based on risk assessments of study participants. Method: By means of pairwise comparisons of assessed risks associated with tobacco, alcohol, obesity, fast-food, physical inactivity, and lack of sleep, each at four levels, 24 behaviors were ranked on a unidimensional risk scale. Results: Overall, use of tobacco was assigned the highest risk score (3.7), consumption of fast-food and lack of sleep the lowest (1.7, 1.6). Minor risk factors (lack of sleep and fast-food) were, at their highest levels, assigned similar risk values as major risk factors (tobacco, alcohol, obesity) at their lowest levels. Lifestyles of female participants were less hazardous than those of male participants, as measured with the LRS. In contrast, perception of behavioral health risks was more precise in men. Conclusions: The LRS provides a practical quantification to identify and compare groups with different risk behavior patterns as well as clusters of risky health behaviors in and across populations. It can also support the communication of behavioral health risks.


Introduction The evidence on the relationship between breast cancer and different types of antihypertensive drugs taken for at least 5 years is limited and inconsistent. Furthermore, the debate has recently been fueled again with new data reporting an increased risk of breast cancer among women with a long history of use of antihypertensive drugs compared with nonusers. Methods In this case-control study, we report the antihypertensive drugs–breast cancer relationship in 1,736 breast cancer cases and 1,895 healthy controls; results are reported stratifying by the women's characteristics (i.e., menopausal status or body mass index category) tumor characteristics and length of use of antihypertensive drugs. Results The relationship among breast cancer and use of calcium channel blockers (CCB) for 5 or more years had odds ratio (OR) = 1.77 (95% CI, 0.99 to 3.17). Stratifying by BMI, the OR increased significantly in the group with BMI ≥ 25 (OR 2.54, 95% CI, 1.24 to 5.22). CCBs were even more strongly associated with more aggressive tumors, (OR for invasive tumors = 1.96, 95% CI = 1.09 to 3.53; OR for non ductal cancers = 3.97, 95% CI = 1.73 to 9.05; OR for Erbb2+ cancer = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.20 to 7.32). On the other hand, premenopausal women were the only group in which angiotensin II receptor blockers may be associated with breast cancer (OR = 4.27, 95% CI = 1.32 to 13.84) but this could not be identified with any type or stage. Use of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors, beta blockers and diuretics were not associated with risk. Conclusions In this large population-based study we found that long term use of calcium channel blockers is associated with some subtypes of breast cancer (and with breast cancer in overweight women).


Should a vote still count if cast for the wrong reason? More specifically, when citizens decide a legislative question themselves, whether through initiative, referendum, or plebiscite, should judges require their votes to be backed by a certain level of responsibility, of "equal concern and respect"? (1) This is not to ask whether laws passed by popular vote require some level of rationality or decency. That is too easy; obviously, they must. (2) Rather, the question is whether the law should require each individual voter, in the cloister of the voting booth, to cast her vote rationally and responsibly. This Note argues no. Courts and commentators have struggled to determine when laws, whether enacted directly by citizens or through regular legislation, are invalid because of their intentions? This analysis, however, has ignored a key distinction between voter motivation and legislative design. Voter motivation is the particular reason a citizen (or legislator) chooses to vote for or against a particular measure. Legislative design, on the other hand, is what the measure, as divined by tools of statutory construction, is calculated to do. Inquiry into legislative design is necessary for proper adjudication. Inquiry into voter motivation, however, should be forbidden because it intrudes upon voters' "ethical independence," (4) as Professor Ronald Dworkin terms it. This Note proceeds in three parts. Part I discusses the cases and commentary confronting the question of inquiry into voter intent. The traditional approach has been to bar such inquiry. However, recent court decisions have eroded that rule. Part II posits a defense of the traditional position. Although the legal doctrine locates such defenses under the First Amendment's freedoms of speech and association and the right to privacy, such an approach is an unwieldy shield for voter freedom. Instead, such freedom is best founded in the principle of ethical independence, which animates--but extends far beyond--the First Amendment and the right to privacy. This principle of ethical independence requires the distinction noted above between motivation and design. Part III addresses two objections to Part II. First, it discusses the problem of the law's willingness in other areas to look into the mind. Second, it distinguishes Professor Cass Sunstein's notion of "naked preferences." I. CHALLENGES TO THE PROHIBITION ON INQUIRING INTO VOTER MOTIVATION Citizen-enacted legislation has a long and controversial history in the United States. (5) Critics have disparaged the practice both as a means for raw majorities to bulldoze minority opposition (6) and as a lawmaking process devoid of deliberation, information, and expertise. (7) Some argue further that the two defects go hand-in-hand. (8) Given the procedural shortcomings of direct democracy, courts have often stepped in to police its bounds. The settled law--The Supreme Court's first encounter with direct democracy occurred in 1912, (9) when it heard argument to determine whether Oregon's referendum procedure violated the Republican Guarantee Clause. (10) The Court held the matter nonjusticiable. (11) Since then, no case before the Supreme Court has challenged whether a mode of direct democracy, as a procedure itself, is constitutional. The Court has encountered numerous cases, however, questioning the constitutionality of laws enacted by popular vote. Resolving these cases has invariably required interpretation of the intent behind the laws in question. (12) Stated simply, the Court's view has been that "[t]he sovereignty of the people is itself subject to those constitutional limitations which have been duly adopted and remain unrepealed." (13) The "implementation of [a law] through popular referendum [cannot] immunize it." (14) In theory, then, the review of popularly enacted and legislatively enacted statutes is the same. In the equal protection context, courts purport to apply the same rational basis standard to all legislation, whether enacted by citizens or their representatives. …


Abstract With more children spending the greater part of their waking hours in preschool settings today than they did years ago, teachers play an even more critical role in providing daily literacy experiences that many children of earlier generations received at home. The article focuses on the critical role that preschool teachers play in supporting children's early literacy development and presents an instructional framework to help guide early literacy teaching. The framework is based on Vygotsky's learning theory, which emphasizes the nature and importance of social interactions in instruction, particularly between adult and child. We present activity‐embedded assessments that preschool teachers can use to observe and document children's emerging literacy concepts and skills, and describe key teaching actions that scaffold learning of new concepts. In closing, we offer five principles to guide preschool teachers in planning and implementing appropriate activities to promote young children's literacy development. Sample documentation forms are included in the appendices.


Active engagement in the subject material has been strongly linked to deeper learning. In traditional teaching environments, even though the student might be presented with new concepts, it is possible for the student to remain passive to such an extent that it is detrimental to learning. This research explores whether experiencing new concepts in an ITS necessarily equates to learning. Initial analysis of data mining student models in SQL-Tutor, a CBM tutor, shows a strong positive correlation between the number of constraints seen and the number of constraints learned. This global trend is mitigated at an individual level, possibly due to individual differences in learning style and behavior. The number of constraints not learned remains relatively constant for all students; however, the proportion of constraints not learned is inversely proportional to the constraints seen. The author suggests deeper analysis into the factors that might cause variability amongst individuals from this population trend.


Warming and predation risk are ubiquitous environmental factors that can modify life histories and population dynamics of aquatic ectotherms. While separate responses to each of these factors are well understood, their joint effects on individual life histories and population dynamics remain largely unexplored. Current theory predicts that the magnitude of prey behavioural, physiological, and life history responses to predation risk should diminish with warming due to the reduced metabolic scope. However, empirical support for this prediction remains equivocal, and experiments covering a substantial proportion of individual prey ontogeny until maturation are lacking. To fill these gaps, we ran a laboratory experiment to investigate how warming and non-consumptive predation risk influence life history responses in the larvae of the mayflyCloeon dipterum, an aquatic insect with highly plastic development. We reared larvae of varying initial sizes at three temperatures (21, 24, and 27 degrees C) in a risk-free environment and under predation risk signalled by chemical cues from dragonfly larvae (Aeshna cyanea), and followed their individual survival, growth, and development until emergence. SomeC. dipterumlarvae substantially prolonged their development and the proportion of theseslowindividuals declined rapidly with temperature and increased with predation risk. We attribute this response to cohort splitting, a common life history strategy of aquatic insects and other taxa in unpredictable environment. Growth, development, and maturation varied predictably with temperature in thefastlarvae that did not prolong their development. They grew and developed faster but matured at smaller sizes with increasing temperature. Predation risk tended to slow down individual growth and development in line with the reduced metabolic scope hypothesis, but the differences were relatively minor and observable only at 21 degrees C. Survival to subimago increased with predation risk, possibly due to indirect effects mediated by dissolved micronutrients, but did not vary significantly with temperature. Survival also tended to be higher in theslowindividuals. This partly compensated for a smaller final size relative to thefastindividuals and made both strategies comparable in overall fitness. Our results show that warming may erode individual-level variability in life history responses to predation risk. This implies that warming can synchronise population dynamics and consequently make such populations more vulnerable to unpredictable disturbances.


The permafrost carbon–climate feedback is one of the major mechanisms in controlling the climate–ecosystem interactions in northern high latitudes. Of this feedback, methane (CH4) emission from natural wetlands is critically important due to its high warming potential. The freeze–thaw transition has been confirmed to play an important role in annual CH4 budget, yet the magnitude of this effect is uncertain. An intensive field campaign was carried out in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China to estimate the CH4 emission in the spring freeze–thaw transition period. The observation concluded that a large CH4 source was caused by spring thaw; the maximum hourly emission rate was 48.6 g C m−2 h−1, more than three orders of the regularly observed CH4 emission rate in the growing season. In some sporadically observed 'hot spots', the spring thawing effect contributed to a large CH4 source of 31.3± 10.1 g C m −2, which is approximately 80% of the previously calculated annual CH4 emission in the same study area. If our results are typical for natural wetlands in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, we estimate a global CH4 source strength of 0.5–1.0 Tg C (1 Tg =1012 g) caused by spring thaw in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region in the year 2011. Combining with available satellite and flask data, a regional extrapolation reaches a temporal pattern of CH4 emission during 2003–2009 which is consistent with recently observed changes in atmospheric CH4 concentration in the high latitudes. This suggests that the CH4 emission upon spring thaw in the high latitudes might be enhanced by the projected climate warming. These findings indicate that the spring thawing effect is an important mechanism in the permafrost carbon–climate feedback and needs to be incorporated in Earth system models.


Caspase-mediated cleavage of the channel TRPM7 enhances its activity and promotes Fas-mediated cell death. The nonselective cation channel TRPM7 is unusual in that the C-terminal region contains a functional serine-threonine kinase domain. Knockout of TRPM7 is embryonic lethal in mice, and T cell–specific knockout results in a developmental block in most of the cells. However, a few of these TRPM7-deficient T cells escape the block. Desai et al. found that these TRPM7-deficient T cells were resistant to apoptosis triggered by T cell receptor restimulation, a process called activation-induced cell death, or by cross-linking of the cell death receptor Fas. Knockdown of TRPM7 in a T cell line also resulted in resistance to Fas-mediated cell death, suggesting that the difference in Fas-mediated apoptosis in the knockout T cells was not due to a developmental defect. Transfection of a kinase-inactivated mutant of TRPM7, but not of a channel-inactivated form, in a glioblastoma cell line (LN18) augmented Fas-mediated activation of caspase-3, a marker of apoptosis. Indeed, activation of Fas in LN18 cells resulted in the appearance of a C-terminal cleavage product of TRPM7, which contains the kinase domain, and in vitro cleavage assays revealed that TRPM7 was a substrate for caspase-8 and caspase-3. Mutation of the caspase consensus cleavage site Asp1510 abolished cleavage in vitro or in cells. LN18 cells transfected with various mutants of TRPM7 showed that the presence of the caspase-mediated cleavage site (and thus cleavage) and channel activity were necessary for TRPM7 to enhance Fas-mediated apoptosis. Electrophysiological analysis showed that the cleaved channel exhibited greater activity than the uncleaved channel. Experiments performed with the B cell line SKW6.4 suggested that TRPM7 contributed to the internalization of Fas, a process that has been proposed to contribute to apoptotic signaling: Knockdown of TRPM7 inhibited Fas internalization but did not prevent formation of the caspase-activation complex. Thus, release of the kinase domain of TRPM7 in response to caspase cleavage appears to enhance channel activity, which promotes the internalization of activated Fas and its apoptotic signaling. B. N. Desai, G. Krapivinsky, B. Navarro, L. Krapivinsky, B. C. Carter, S. Febvay, M. Delling, A. Penumaka, I. S. Ramsey, Y. Manasian, D. E. Clapham, Cleavage of TRPM7 releases the kinase domain from the ion channel and regulates its participation in Fas-induced apoptosis. Dev. Cell 22, 1149–1162 (2012). [Online Journal]


Background In 2015, high rates of microcephaly were reported in Northeast Brazil following the first South American Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak. Reported microcephaly rates in other Zika-affected areas were significantly lower, suggesting alternate causes or the involvement of arboviral cofactors in exacerbating microcephaly rates. Methods and findings We merged data from multiple national reporting databases in Brazil to estimate exposure to 9 known or hypothesized causes of microcephaly for every pregnancy nationwide since the beginning of the ZIKV outbreak; this generated between 3.6 and 5.4 million cases (depending on analysis) over the time period 1 January 2015–23 May 2017. The association between ZIKV and microcephaly was statistically tested against models with alternative causes or with effect modifiers. We found no evidence for alternative non-ZIKV causes of the 2015–2017 microcephaly outbreak, nor that concurrent exposure to arbovirus infection or vaccination modified risk. We estimate an absolute risk of microcephaly of 40.8 (95% CI 34.2–49.3) per 10,000 births and a relative risk of 16.8 (95% CI 3.2–369.1) given ZIKV infection in the first or second trimester of pregnancy; however, because ZIKV infection rates were highly variable, most pregnant women in Brazil during the ZIKV outbreak will have been subject to lower risk levels. Statistically significant associations of ZIKV with other birth defects were also detected, but at lower relative risks than that of microcephaly (relative risk < 1.5). Our analysis was limited by missing data prior to the establishment of nationwide ZIKV surveillance, and its findings may be affected by unmeasured confounding causes of microcephaly not available in routinely collected surveillance data. Conclusions This study strengthens the evidence that congenital ZIKV infection, particularly in the first 2 trimesters of pregnancy, is associated with microcephaly and less frequently with other birth defects. The finding of no alternative causes for geographic differences in microcephaly rate leads us to hypothesize that the Northeast region was disproportionately affected by this Zika outbreak, with 94% of an estimated 8.5 million total cases occurring in this region, suggesting a need for seroprevalence surveys to determine the underlying reason.


The role of design in the new product development (NPD) process is becoming increasingly complicated due to the complex digital landscape where multiple participants are globally involved in 'designing'. It requires an understanding of different design approaches to digital product development in international organizational cultures. However, in design studies there has been little discussion concerning the relationship between organizational cultures and new digital product development from an international perspective. This paper proposes two design paradigms in the design management of new digital product development: the 'design of management 'vs. the 'management of design' from cross-cultural perspectives -the East vs. the West. It provides insights by looking at large Eastern and Western global companies positioned in the digital industry, and by discussing the findings from interviews with experts in NPD projects. This paper provides the reader an understanding of how organizational approaches to digital product design differ between international NPD projects run by global large organizations in the East and the West.


There have been sporadic efforts to use electricity to power guns and launch projectiles at high velocity for more than a century. Each generation seems to have "reinvented" the idea and has built upon prior efforts, leading to successively greater progress. With the present interest in electric guns for military, and other, applications, it is instructive to review previous developments and examine their relevance to present research. Although there are isolated reports of early efforts in the 19th century, the major developments have been in the 20th century. They include efforts in Norway in 1901, French developments in World War I and research in Germany and Japan during World War II. The primary focus of this paper is to review the work of Andre Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee in France and Joachim Hansler in Germany, although the early Japanese and Russian interests are also mentioned. The various novel ideas suggested are highlighted, especially where they are relevant to ideas that are being studied or considered today.


DESIGNING DIRECT AND INDIRECT FACTOR Xa INHIBITORS A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University By Rami A. Al-Horani, PhD Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Director: Umesh R. Desai Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry Anticoagulants are the basis for treatment and prevention of thrombotic diseases. The currently available medicines are associated with a wide range of adverse reactions that mandates developing new anticoagulants. Several lines of evidence support the superiority of factor Xa (FXa) as a promising target to develop novel anticoagulants. This work focuses on the design of direct and indirect FXa inhibitors using an interdisciplinary approach. As indirect FXa inhibitors, a focused library of tetrasulfated N–arylacyl tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) non– saccharide allosteric antithrombin activators was designed, synthesized, and biochemically evaluated to establish their structure–activity relationship (SAR). An N–arylacyl THIQ analog having carboxylate at position–3, two sulfate groups at positions–5 and –8 of THIQ moiety, butanoyl linker, and two sulfate groups at positions–2 and –5 of the phenolic monocyclic moiety xvi was identified as the most promising nonsaccharide antithrombin activator with KD of 1322 ± 237 μM and acceleration potential of 80–fold. Its biochemical profile indicates a strong possibility that it activates antithrombin by the pre–equilibrium pathway rather than the induced– fit mechanism utilized by heparin analogs. A similar interdisciplinary approach was exploited to design direct FXa inhibitors that possess high selectivity and are potentially orally bioavailable. Structurally, the designed direct FXa inhibitors are neutral THIQ dicarboxamides. THIQ dicarboxamide is a privileged structure with a semi–rigid character, a structural feature that potentially offers high selectivity for targeting FXa over other coagulation and digestive proteases. It can also be thought of as an amino acid–like structure, which affords accessibility to a large number of compounds using well established peptide chemistry. Mechanistically, the designed inhibitors were expected to bind to FXa in the active site and function as orthosteric inhibitors. These direct FXa active site inhibitors are also likely to inhibit clot–bound enzyme. Nearly 60 THIQ dicarboxamides were synthesized and biochemically evaluated. Through detailed SAR analysis, the most potent analog was designed and found to exhibit an IC50 of 270 nM (Ki = 135 nM), an improvement of more than 207–fold over the first inhibitor synthesized in the study. The most potent inhibitor displayed at least 1887–fold selectivity for FXa over other coagulation enzymes and a selectivity index of at least 279–fold over the digestive serine proteases. This analog doubled plasma clotting times at 17–20 μM, which are comparable to those of agents being currently studied in clinical trials. Overall, allosteric and orthosteric approaches led to the design of indirect and direct small molecule inhibitors of FXa based on the THIQ scaffold. This work introduces two promising molecules, a tetrasulfated N–arylacyl THIQ analog as a heparin mimetic and a neutral THIQ dicarboxamide as a potent, selective, and potentially bioavailable peptidomimetic, for further advanced medicinal chemistry studies.


This thesis examines the understanding of the Middle Ages among the UK public and the impact that popular big-budget films which depict the period have on that understanding. Three films released between 2000 and 2009 are chosen for detailed study, their selection being determined by success at the UK box office as a measure of popularity: Lord of the Rings, Return of the King (Jackson, 2003), Kingdom of Heaven (Scott, 2005) and Beowulf (Zemeckis, 2007).

Ten focus group interviews were conducted with nineteen participants, all between eighteen and twenty-six years of age, none of whom had studied the Middle Ages at GCSE level (age 14-16) or higher. In these groups, participants discussed their knowledge of the Middle Ages, were shown a film, and then discussed what they had seen. Participants were asked open-ended interview questions to encourage them to respond in their own terms and define what was important to them. As a result, topics ranged widely. In preliminary discussions, participants discussed how they understood the period, their academic, experiential and pop-culture sources of knowledge, their definitions of the similar terms 'medieval' and 'Middle Ages' and also their ideas about medieval culture, religion, warfare and crusade. After the films, participants discussed what they had seen usually in the context of what they already knew, sometimes constructing false memories of what they had seen which fit with their previous knowledge. Often they used the language of historical veracity to criticise the film for other related reasons (like poor filmmaking or inappropriate accents). They found support for many of their historical misconceptions in the films, but, rather than accepting all they saw as historical truth, they engaged in a complex critical discourse with what they were shown.

The findings of this thesis have implications for medieval (and medievalism) studies, public history, and for the delivery of history in primary, secondary and higher education.


Standard models suggest that adverse labor demand shocks will lead to bigger employment losses if institutional factors like minimum wages and trade unions prevent downward wage adjustments. Some economists have argued that this insight explains the contrast between the United States, where real wages fell over the 1980s and aggregate employment expanded vigorously, and Europe, where real wages were (roughly) constant and employment was stagnant. We test this hypothesis by comparing changes in wages and employment rates over the 1980s for different age and education groups in the United States, Canada, and France. We argue that the same forces that led to falling real wages for less-skilled workers in the U.S. affected similar workers in Canada and France. Consistent with the view that labor market institutions are more rigid in France, and more flexible in the U.S., we find that relative wages of less-skilled workers fell the most in the U.S., fell somewhat less in Canada, and did not fall at all in France. Contrary to expectations, however, we find little evidence that wage inflexibilities generated divergent patterns of relative employment growth across the three countries.


Health care systems in the postwar period have been governed by political bargains between the state and the medical profession that have delinzated their respective powers and jurisdictions. Recent health care cost containment reforms in Britain and Germany are altering these bargains, and thereby challenge the prerogatives and autonomy of the medical profession in health policy formulation and in administration of the health care systems. But these challenges to doctors' power and autonomy vary between the two countries. Britain's 1989 "internal market" reforms attack the corporatist bargain with physicians by introducing market mechanisms into the National Health Service and, at the same time, strengthening central state control of the health care system. In Germany, on the other hand, the government's 1992 reforms only partially breached the corporatist bargain with doctors in order to strengthen rather than destroy this governance arrangement. The government has tried to curb what it views as excessive power of doctors while still allowing them a significant degree of corporatist self-governance. The reform efforts in both countries highlight some of the problems with different governance arrangements in health care systems and, more specifically, the difficulties associated with a market in health care.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine police shooting accuracy and the factors that influence whether officers hit, or miss, their intended target.

Design/methodology/approach
Descriptive statistics explore both incident-level and hit rate shooting accuracy in single officer/single suspect shooting incidents in the Dallas Police Department between 2003 and 2017. Multiple regression models analyze the predictive utility of officer, suspect and situational factors on the two accuracy outcomes.

Findings
Consistent with prior research, the results demonstrate that officers are often inaccurate in officer-involved shooting (OIS) incidents. Additionally, several factors emerged as significant predictors of shooting accuracy.

Practical implications
The results are discussed in terms of the practical implications for training and accountability.

Originality/value
It has been more than a decade since the last academic study investigated this important topic using actual OIS data. Acknowledging the general dearth of this literature, this study explores what factors contribute to shooting accuracy.


Cancers are a complex set of proliferative diseases that arise in most cases through multi-step pathways involving an accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes. These steps include inactivation of tumour suppressor genes and activation of oncogenes. However, in addition to genetic mutations in the tumour cells themselves, the local host environment can act as a critical modulator of cancer progression, having either tumour-suppressive or tumour-promoting effects depending on the stage and site of cancer development. Because stromal cells can have these opposing functions during cancer development and progression, a recurring theme throughout this review will be that of balance: maintaining the normal functions of these co-opted cells, yet selectively inhibiting their pro-tumourigenic functions. To achieve this equilibrium, we need to understand the molecular mechanisms by which normal cells become modified by cancer cells before we can hope to target these functions selectively. Here, we will discuss recent efforts to address these key challenges and offer perspectives on the translation of discoveries made in model systems to the clinic.


The central Irpinia area lies in a key sector of the southern Apennines, near the link between the Molise-Sannio segment and the Lucania-Campania segment of the belt. We present new stratigraphic and structural data and discuss correlation with regional geological features. The central Irpinia area comprises a widespread Quaternary cover, a few outcrops of Pliocene clastic deposits, and various Tertiary sedimentary successions, consisting of three stratigraphical-structural units. These are the Daunia Unit and two Lagonegro Units-the Frigento Unit (formerly samnitic units Auct. p.p.), composed of the Flysch Rosso Auct. Formation, and the Numidian Flysch, and the Fortore Unit, formed by the Argille Varicolori Auct. Formation and Frigento Formation p.p. The Numidian Flysch, not previously mapped in the area, outcrops along the "Vallone dei Bagni" talweg and our data allow correct evaluation of its local thickness. The Frigento Formation p.p. is formed by locally siliceous limestones, marls and clays, which sometimes look like the "galestri", dated in the literature with very different ages from Lower Cretaceous to Miocene. We postulate an Eocene-Oligocene age for these deposits, and correlate them with the Corleto Perticara Formation. The Daunia Unit, which is formed by the Faeto Flysch, the Toppo Capuana clayey Marls, and Messinian clastic deposits and evaporites, usually crops out along the eastern margin of the southern Apennines, near the front of the chain, as this unit is referred to a foreland domain or to the undeformed sector of the Miocene foredeep. However the Daunia Unit here lies in an axial portion of the belt; its deposits are stratigraphically connected to the Inner Apulian Platform, which forms a buried structural high. Our data confirm the presence of important duplex structures (Apulian thrust system), which tectonically double the flexured Inner Apulian Platform and uplifts it so that it almost outcrops in the central sector of the Irpinia area, where the top of the Apulian carbonate sequences has been recognized at a depth of about 500 m. The very complex geometrical and tectonic relationships among the outcropping units suggest a complex tectonic history of this sector of the Apennines belt. The overthrusting of a nappe, formed by the basinal deposits of the Lagonegro Units, towards the foreland domain, represented by the Daunia Unit, occurred after the Messinian evaporitic events and lasted till the early Pliocene. Later tectonic evolution was characterized by out-of-sequence thrusting, which has involved a deep portion of the belt and caused the doubling of the nappes pile, with the thrusting of the Daunia Unit over the Lagonegro Units.


A number of countries committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at eradicating extreme poverty, and improving the welfare of people by the year 2015. The book assesses whether universal primary education can be achieved by 2015. The study focuses on the largest low-income countries that are furthest from the goal, home to about seventy five percent of the children out of school globally. By analyzing education policies, and financing patterns in relatively high-performing countries, the study identifies a new policy, and financing framework for faster global progress in primary education. The authors use a simulation model to show how adoption of this framework, could accelerate progress in low-income countries, currently at risk of not reaching the education MDG. The study however, makes it clear that worldwide attainment of universal primary education by 2015, will necessitate an even stronger combination of political will, deep and sustained reform, faster dissemination of best practices, and intensified financial effort than has been marshaled to date.


Increasingly, complex real-world problems (including distributed sensing, air-traffic control, disaster response, network routing, space exploration and unmanned aerial vehicles) are being tackled by teams of software agents, rather than the more traditional centralised systems. Whilst this approach has many benefits in terms of creating robust solutions, it creates a new challenge — how to flexibly coordinate the actions of the agent teams to solve the problem efficiently. In more detail, coordination is here viewed as the problem of managing the interactions of these autonomous entities so that they do not disrupt each other, can take proactive actions to help each other, and take multiple actions at the same time when this is required to solve the problem. In this context, communication underpins most solutions to the coordination problem. That is, if the agents communicate their state and intentions to each other then they can coordinate their actions. Unfortunately, however, in many real-world problems, communication is a scarce resource. Specifically, communication has limited bandwidth, is not always available and may be expensive to utilise. In such circumstances, typical coordination mechanisms break down because the agents can no longer accurately model the state of the other agents. Given this, in this thesis, we consider how to coordinate when communication is a restricted resource. Specifically, we argue for a rational approach to communication. Since communication has a cost then, similarly, we should be able to calculate a value of sending any given communication. Once we have these costs and values, we can use standard decision theoretic models to choose whether to send a communication, and in fact, generate a plan which utilises communications and other actions efficiently. In this research we explore ways to value communications in several contexts. Within the framework of decentralised Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) we develop a simple information theoretic valuation function (based on Kullback–Leibler (KL) Divergence). This techniques allows agents to coordinate in large problems such as RoboCupRescue, where teams of ambulances must save as many civilians as possible after an earthquake. We found that, in this task, valuing communications before deciding whether to send them results in a level of performance which is higher than not communicating, and close to a model which utilises a free communication medium to communicate all the time. Furthermore, this model is robust to increasing communication restrictions, whereas simple communication policies are not. We then extend this framework to value communications based on a technique from the field of Machine Learning, namely Reward Shaping, which allows the decentralised POMDP to be transformed into individual agent POMDPs that can be solved more easily. This approach can use a heuristic transformation to allow the approach to work in large problems like RobocupRescue or the Multi–Agent Tiger problem, where it outperforms the current state of the art. Further to this, this approach can also use an exact reward shaping function in order to generate a bounded approximation of the intractable optimal decentralised solution in slightly smaller problems. Finally, we show how, if we restrict our attention to relatively static (i.e. the problem does not change without an agent doing something) problems than those which the reward shaping technique was designed for, we can generate an optimal solution to decentralised control based on communication valuations. In more detail, we extend the class of Bayesian coordination games to include explicit observation and communication actions. By so doing, the value of observation and exchange can be derived using the concept of opportunity costs. This is a natural way of measuring the relationship between communication and information gathering on an agent's utility, and removes the need to introduce arbitrary penalties for communicating (which is what most existing approaches do). Furthermore, this approach allows us to show that the optimal communication policy is a Nash equilibrium, and to exploit the fact that there exist many efficient algorithms for finding such equilibria in a local fashion. Specifically, we provide a complete analysis of this model for two–state problems, and illustrate how the analysis can be carried out for larger domains making use of explicit information gathering strategies. Finally, we develop a procedure for finding the optimal communication and search policy as a function of the partial observability of the state and payoffs of the underlying game (which we demonstrate in the canonical Multi–Agent Tiger problem). In performing all of this work, we demonstrate how communication can be managed locally by accurately placing a value on the cost and benefit of using a restricted communication resource. This allows agents to coordinate efficiently in many interesting problem domains, where existing approaches perform badly. We contribute to the field of rational communication by providing several algorithms for utilising costly communication under different domain conditions. Our reward shaping approaches are highly scalable in problems with large state spaces and come with sound theoretical guarantees on the optimality of the solution they find.


With the United Kingdom's (UK) announcement of its withdrawal from the European Union (EU), questions have arisen with respect to the applicability of the Comprehensive Trade and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada to UK-Canada trade and investment before the UK's withdrawal is complete. This article concludes that until such withdrawal, and pending appropriate approvals in both the EU and Canada, the CETA will apply provisionally to Canada and UK trade. While the exact boundaries of provisional application are not clear, the EU commission believes that other than a very limited set of mostly investment related provisions, provisional application would be extensive. Once the UK withdraws from the EU, the CETA will no longer apply to the UK. CETA is regarded as a high quality free trade agreement. This article concludes that as the UK has already agreed to the terms of the CETA, should both Canada and the UK wish, the path is available to them to have CETA function as template for a Canada-UK Free Trade Agreement. Although these negotiations may not formally commence while CETA provisionally applies to the UK and it is an EU Member State, Canada and the UK can conduct information discussions to map out areas for inclusion in a free trade agreement and the use, or not, of the CETA provisions as a basis for such agreement.


Politeness plays a vital role in maintaining class differences. In this highly original account, Sara Mills analyses the interrelationship between class and linguistic interaction, uncovering the linguistic ideologies behind politeness in British English. She sheds light on the way politeness and rudeness interrelate with the marking of class boundaries, and reveals how middle-class positions in society are marked by people's use of self-deprecation, indirectness and reserve. Systematically challenging received wisdom about cross-cultural and inter-cultural differences, she goes beyond the mere context of the interaction to investigate the social dimension of politeness. This approach enables readers to analyse other languages in the same way, and a range of case studies illustrate how ideologies of politeness are employed and judged


One of the fundamental elements of our government system is the broad concept of a right to fair treatment -that even those accused or guilty of violating the law have due to them the right to a fair process. However, we regard a citizen's right to life, liberty, and property to be so significant or substantive that there is no due process fair enough to cover infringement of certain freedoms. This has come to be known as substantive due process. Through an analysis of judicial theory and Supreme Court decisions, I compare the use of substantive due process on economic protections and relate the Court's decision-making methods to modern civil liberties jurisprudence and decide whether the Court is acting within its power to actively create constitutional rights. Although substantive due process is by and large no longer used in an economic standpoint today, the Supreme Court continues to utilize its guarantees to protect the invasion of people's privacy. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Political Science First Advisor Barry W. Pyle Subject Categories Law This open access senior honors thesis is available at DigitalCommons@EMU: http://commons.emich.edu/honors/279


In this paper we present a stable coordination strategy for vehicle formation missions that involve group translation, rotation, expansion and contraction. The underlying coordination framework uses artificial potentials and virtual leaders. Symmetry in the framework is exploited to partially decouple the mission control problem into a formation management subproblem and a maneuver management subproblem. The designed dynamics of the virtual leaders play a key role in both subproblems: the direction of motion of the virtual leaders is designed to satisfy the mission while the speed of the virtual leaders is designed to ensure stability and convergence properties of the formation. The latter is guaranteed by regulating the virtual leader speed according to a feedback measurement of an appropriate formation error function. The coordination strategy is illustrated in the context of adaptive gradient climbing missions.


The Hungarian government is dedicated to supporting a healthy and sporty life-style, thus in the past years the number of initiatives directed to publicizing and promoting sports has increased considerably. The new Law of Public Education has put the emphasis on physical education and on organizing other sport events in schools. This led to the introduction, in a phasing-out manner, of the every-day physical education (PE). We were interested to know the infrastructural background of PE including the number and size of sports halls available for the students, how many classes can they accommodate at the same time, and when were they constructed. To this end a survey was conducted through telephone, contacting 200 high schools in 19 counties of Hungary. Do the schools have their own swimming pools, or do they conduct after-hours sports events. Data were analyzed using the EvaSys program. The time of construction of the schools and their sports halls spans a wide range between the years 1530 and 2005. So do the number of students, between 150-1200. Nineteen of the schools have none, 67% has one, and 18.8% two sports halls. The size of these halls is also very variable, while in some schools it is only 25 m2, in others it can be as large as 2295m2. In most cases the halls can accommodate one or two classes in parallel. Afternoon classes are held in 87% of the schools, and include basketball, fencing, and soccer, among others. However, only eleven of the interviewed high schools have swimming pools. Research has called the attention to the fact that the exercise of Hungarian youth is too little. This puts the emphasis on the promotion of physical activity in schools. While there are large differences in the infrastructural background in the schools involved in the survey, they all strive to conduct after-hours sport events.