We study conditions under which vortices in a highly oblate harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can be stabilized due to pinning by a blue-detuned Gaussian laser beam, with particular emphasis on the potentially destabilizing effects of laser beam positioning within the BEC. Our approach involves theoretical and numerical exploration of dynamically and energetically stable pinning of vortices with winding number up to $S=6$, in correspondence with experimental observations. Stable pinning is quantified theoretically via Bogoliubov-de Gennes excitation spectrum computations and confirmed via direct numerical simulations for a range of conditions similar to those of experimental observations. The theoretical and numerical results indicate that the pinned winding number, or equivalently the winding number of the superfluid current about the laser beam, decays as a laser beam of fixed intensity moves away from the BEC center. Our theoretical analysis helps explain previous experimental observations and helps define limits of stable vortex pinning for future experiments involving vortex manipulation by laser beams.


Background: In three geographic areas in Georgia, rural, micropolitan, and urban, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) implemented the evidence-based Children's Aid Society Carrera Program at community organizations with Boys and Girls Clubs (BGCs) as the comparison group. This study attempted to replicate the findings of reduced teen pregnancy and birth found for the New York Carrera Program. Methods: For this longitudinal study with a quasi-experimental design, the sample included 400 youth who were in 6th or 7th grade. A total of 220 were enrolled in the intervention group and 180 in the comparison group. The study was performed in the fall of 2012, 2013, and 2014. The following data sources were utilized: paper-and-pencil surveys, daily attendance, component attendance, observation forms, focus groups, and interviews. There was one analytic sample (N = 204) for the primary research questions. Data were pooled separately across the intervention and the comparison sites. A hierarchical logistic regression model was used to test for program impact. Covariates included selected demographic variables, site geography (urban vs. rural), and previous sexual history. For answering the two primary research questions the 0.025 significance level was used to adjust for multiple comparisons. Results: After one year of the intervention, the Carrera group was significantly lower in "ever had sex" than the BGC group. At years two and three, however, there were no appreciable differences between these two groups, a result possibly due to implementation issues, particularly attendance. Conclusions: When implemented with fidelity, Carrera can have a positive effect, even in rural communities. Programs should seek to achieve the required intervention dosage and address the reasons why teen pregnancy is often higher in these communities.


This paper reviews the NTIRE 2020 challenge on real world super-resolution. It focuses on the participating methods and final results. The challenge addresses the real world setting, where paired true high and low-resolution images are unavailable. For training, only one set of source input images is therefore provided along with a set of unpaired high-quality target images. In Track 1: Image Processing artifacts, the aim is to super-resolve images with synthetically generated image processing artifacts. This allows for quantitative benchmarking of the approaches w.r.t. a ground-truth image. In Track 2: Smartphone Images, real low-quality smart phone images have to be super-resolved. In both tracks, the ultimate goal is to achieve the best perceptual quality, evaluated using a human study. This is the second challenge on the subject, following AIM 2019, targeting to advance the state-of-the-art in super-resolution. To measure the performance we use the benchmark protocol from AIM 2019. In total 22 teams competed in the final testing phase, demonstrating new and innovative solutions to the problem.


The paper reviews ethical principles, including certain theological principles that have been drawn from the field of economic research on the Old Testament. It critically examines the type of lessons that can be learned from adherence to such principles for the teaching of business ethics, and how such principles can subsequently inform and be incorporated into management practises. In terms of ethical assessments, on the one hand the paper connects to the Judeo-Christian tradition, and to institutional and constitutional economics on the other. The paper reviews several stories from the Old Testament and extracts ethical principles on good management practice, in particular from the stories of Joseph and Solomon. These stories appear to be especially rich in terms of ethical principles for business activity. Also, certain deficits of Old Testament based economics as compared with a contemporary economic approach to business ethics have been highlighted.


In clinical practice, dentists sometimes encounter phenomena that cannot be explained by common medical concepts; for example, patients' bodily symptoms immediately improved after adjusting a denture that was not even inside their mouth, by extracting an infected tooth, and by bringing medicine close to the body. Although it seems difficult to completely elucidate the mechanism through modern medicine, it can be explained using quantum mechanics if it is assumed that symptoms appear because of the pathological waves emitted by the afflicted area of the body. The quantum, the smallest unit of matter composition, exhibits wave-particle duality. The fact that symptoms can be improved simply by bringing dentures or medicines closer to the body indicates that the waves emitted by dentures or medicine interfere with the pathological waves. Thus, the pathological waves are deformed and lead to a change in symptoms. In this way, quantum theory can explain phenomena that are difficult to elucidate in conventional medicine, which are encountered in daily clinical practice. Using biological reactions, unsolved problems in quantum mechanics, such as measurement problems, can be solved.


This richly illustrated and beautifully produced scholarly catalogue of the superlative collection of Renaissance and Baroque bronze figurative statuettes from the Hill collection accompanies an exhibition of the collection at the Frick Collection, New York, opening late January 2014. Spanning from 1470 to 1740, the bronzes presented are of exceptional quality and exemplify the development of bronze statuettes from 1470 in Renaissance Italy to their dissemination across the artistic centres of Europe. The Hill Collection is distinguished by rare, autograph masterpieces by Italian sculptors such as Andrea Riccio and Giambologna, and has the most important collection of Baroque Bronzes by Giuseppe Piamontini in the world. Its holding of works by the Giambologna school is the strongest found in any single collection, with the sole exception of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. These evoke the splendour of the late Renaissance courts, while the richness of the international BAroque is represented by religious themes by Alessandro Algardi, northern bronzes by Adriaen de Vries and Hubert Gerhard, and a remarkable assemblage of French 16th- and early 17th-century bronzes in the classical mode by Barthelemny Prieur and from the circle of Ponce Jacquiot. The Hill Collection reveals the range of artistry, invention and technical refinement characteristic of sculptures created when the tradition of the European statuette was at its height. The catalogue includes detailed biographies of each of the artists represented, and is introduced with essays by the distinguished authors. Patricia Wengraf is one of the world's leading dealers in bronzes, scuplture and works of art, and in her particular speciality, bronzes of the 15th-18th centuries, her knowledge and connoisseurship are of world repute. Denise Allen is Curator of Renaissance Paintings and Sculpture at the Frick Collection. Claudia Kryza-Gersch, formerly at the Kunstkammer, Vienna, is an independent scholar renowned for her studies of North Italian bronzes of the 16th and 17th centuries. Dimitrios Zikos, in Florence, an independent scholar renowned for his knowledge of the Florentine archives from c. 1550 to 1740, has curate many exhibitions at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Rupert Harris is the leading conservator of metalwork and sculpture in the UK.


This model is a replication of that described by Peterson (2002) and illustrates the 'spread' feedback loop type described in Millington (2013). In spread feedback, spatial patterns influence spread processes which influence later spatial patterns and hence later spread processes. In ecology, this concept of processes being shaped by their history is known as the 'memory' of the process (Peterson 2002). For wildland fire, memory – and therefore feedbacks between spread and spatial pattern – has been conceptualized as being contained in vegetation flammability as a function of time since last the fire. In this model version red patches indicate areas burned in a given time step, green patches the length of time since the last fire at that location (lighter, fire more recently).


Distorted Visions for Wind Ensemble by Karl Eric Blench Distorted Visions is a two-movement piece that marks my return to writing for large wind ensemble. Much of my recent work has been stimulated by issues concerning the human mind. Topics ranging from mental disorders to the ability of the mind to project imagery provided impulse for my work. Distorted Visions continues along that vein, focusing on recollection and how the mind may remember something differently than actually occurred. It may be compared to looking at an image, and then looking at that same image through the bottom ofa drinking glass. The image is recognizably there, but it is greatly distorted. Each movement ofthis work thus focuses on the distortion of a different musical idea. The first movement, Broken Memory, features a solo bassoon that attempts to recall a distant melodic memory. It first emerges from a haze of material in the marimbas and low brass, and begins to materialize, only to be interrupted by another memory. The movement then begins to solidify as these two ideas overlap. The principal melody of the bassoon desperately tries to develop and sing, but is constantly interrupted by a stronger, more violent idea. The music continues until the interruptions overtake the melody completely, forcing the memory to fade back into another haze at the end. The second movement, Malfunctioning Process, is concerned with the process of building an ostinato, one that disintegrates and takes off in different directions. I think of this movement as an "ostinato machine" that keeps breaking down. The movement begins with an initial process that builds the musical material into a recognizable form, a melody. The music is then overwhelmed by the first malfunction, heard in the low brass. The process begins anew, distortedly attempting the creation of another melody but leading only to another breakdown. The final process takes place in the woodwinds, leading to a return of the opening material, this time slowed down. As the ''machine'' continues to slow, the entire ensemble comes together on a unison B-flat, leading to the final moment at which the machine, violently yet inexorably, shuts off.


The nervous system is an elaborate network of intricate circuits linking, monitoring and
controlling all functions in the body. This circuitry, established early in development, is
defined by a process known as axon guidance. The precision and accuracy of this
circuitry is ultimately a correlate of the navigational capabilities of specialised structures
at the distal tips of extending axons, the growth cones.
Growth cones are equipped with an array of fine antennal projections, or filipodia,
sensitive to a variety of attractive or repulsive signals. These guidance cues are
detected and interpreted by intracellular signal transduction mechanisms that mediate
cytoskeletal rearrangements within the growth cone, ultimately providing directional
control of growth cone trajectories. Guidance cues may be diffusible molecules from
distant target tissues or components of contacting cells, however, the complete
repertoire of molecules that transduce these extracellular signals to the cytosolic
cytoskeletal machinery are yet to be fully understood.
Neurons have evolved a variety of important intracellular signal transduction pathways,
many of which rely on calcium as a key second messenger molecule. Many crucial pre- and
post-synaptic functions in neurons are mediated by changes in intracellular calcium
concentration ([Ca2+]i,) including filipodial protrusion and neurite elongation. Indeed,
spatial [Ca2+]i gradients within the growth cone are crucial for the appropriate recognition
and motile responses to the key guidance molecules netrin-1 and brain derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Cytosolic calcium is highly regulated with the key calcium
buffering organelle being the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The mechanisms regulating
the transduction of extracellular guidance signals to changes in ER mediated calcium release, however, are still to be determined. This thesis describes work focusing on the
elucidation of a molecular correlate of such a mechanism.
Homer proteins are best known as facilitators of receptor clustering and signalling at the
post synaptic density. Long form Homer (H1b/c) forms dimers via C-terminal coiled-coil
domains, cross-linking multiple signalling partners through N-terminal, enabled-VASP
homology (EVH1) domains. This molecular motif enables Homer proteins to couple cell-surface
receptors such as metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR) and transient
receptor potential cation channels (TRPC) to intracellular calcium stores via inositol
triphosphate (IP3 R) and ryanodine (RyR) receptors. Homer is necessary for axon
pathfinding in the amphibian visual system in vivo, in a mechanism that to date, has
remained elusive. The unique binding characteristics of this synaptic molecule, the
subcellular location and physiological relevance of its binding partners makes Homer a
good candidate molecule to facilitate the coupling of extracellular guidance cues to
changes in [Ca++]i.
This study addresses the following questions: What is the biochemical nature of Homer
function in axon guidance? Does Homer facilitate the transduction of extracellular
guidance cues to the cellular machinery required to adjust motility and guidance? Is
Homer required for calcium signalling in the growth cone?
The study describes the development and characterisation of a growth cone turning
assay using a relevant developmental system, i.e. primary cultures of embryonic rat
dorsal root ganglion sensory neurons (DRG). Combining this assay with a targeted
morpholino knockdown approach, the study shows that a crucial level of H1b/c is
necessary for calcium dependant motile responses to netrin-1 and BDNF, with Homer morphant DRG showing a reversal of motile responses from attraction to repulsion
(control morphants +15.8 and +18.7 degrees for netrin and BDNF respectively while for
Homer morphants -19.7 and -18.6 degrees for netrin and BDNF). Furthermore,
pharmacological experiments suggest that Homer functions through the activational
state of a CaMKII/calcineurin molecular switch. Such a molecular switch has recently
been found to be crucial in other axon guidance model systems and is sensitive to the
depth of growth cone calcium gradients, lending support to a role for Homer in the "setpoint
hypothesis" of growth cone motility.
On the basis of these experiments, it was hypothesised that perturbation of growth cone
calcium dynamics would be a feature of Homer knockdown. Indeed, single wavelength
calcium imaging experiments showed that Homer morphant DRGs exhibited altered
calcium responses to BDNF microgradients and a higher frequency of TRPC-mediated
calcium transients, or spike events (control morphants 0.3 events/min and Homer
morphants 1.5 events/min). These results describe a crucial role for Homer in growth
cone calcium homeostasis.
The relevance and importance of Homer in sensory systems is further demonstrated
through an examination of the ontogeny of a putative Homer1b/c homologue in the
developing zebrafish embryo. Significantly, Homer protein is prominent in the
developing sensory architecture of the zebrafish larva at important developmental,
behavioural and synaptogenic timepoints, supporting previous experimental data
showing a crucial role for Homer in the developing amphibian visual system.
In summary, the work demonstrates that Homer acts as a facilitator of calcium signalling
and thus motile events in the growth cone. These findings, therefore, may ultimately have implications for the design and implementation of pharmacological interventions in
neurological diseases and clinical conditions such as spinal cord injury.


Observed gravity data after latitude, elevation (free air), Bouguer and terrain corrections determine "the sum of all effects from the grass roots down" (Nettleton, 1971). In order to eliminate gravity effects corresponding to unwanted disturbances in the subsurface, various approaches can be used. One such approach that has proven the test of time is gravity interpretation by stripping (e.g., Woollard, 1938; Bible, 1961; Hammer, 1963). The removal of an effect of a known density contrast (i.e., constrained by independent geophysical and geological data) allows determination of gravity corresponding to other targets of interest. It is well known that the advantage of the gravity-stripping procedure is that it is more accurate than any mathematical (convolution) method for separation of the gravity field (including filtering procedures), as the latter contain not only information on the amplification of available gravity components, but also false anomalies. Moreover, all transformed (filtered) gravity sig...


Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA) are particulary suitable to solve real life problems, but they have some limitations when dealing with problems with many objectives, typically more than three. Recently, some many-objective techniques were proposed to avoid the deterioration of the search ability of Pareto dominance based MOEA for many-objective problems. This work applies the control of dominance area in two different Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms and investigates the influence of this technique in a cooperative-based framework. Besides, an empirical study is performed to identify if the many-objective technique increases the quality of the PSO algorithms for many-objective problems. The experimental results are compared applying some quality indicators and statistical test.


Abstract:
Concerns about the 'regulatory burden' associated with the UK's membership of the EU are not just the preserve of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, UKIP, or others in the political class. They are shared by some influential sections of the business community worried about matters like banking and financial services regulation and environmental impact assessment laws. Another area of concern, but with a much longer provenance, is employment and social policy. This has informed successive governments' domestic deregulation programmes as well as calls to rein in perceived EU 'over-regulation': the Conservatives' 'lifting the burden', New Labour's 'flexible labour market', and now the Coalition's on-going Fundamental Employment Law Review and promise to tackle EU law as part of the wider 'Red Tape Challenge'.
My paper considers this, factoring in the views of groups like the CBI, British Chambers of Commerce, Institute of Directors, and bodies like Business for New Europe. It also looks at Cut EU Red Tape, a recent report produced by a government-appointed business taskforce.

Whilst acknowledging the force in some aspects of the report's conclusions and recommendations, much of what is proposed is contentious. It would certainly be highly problematic if implemented. The idea that the EU 'over-regulates' is, in any case, contested in many specific aspects. It is also evident to most reasonable observers that the UK has long enjoyed considerable leeway in its implementation of EU requirements. Furthermore, membership of the EU has not prevented us having one of the most 'lightly regulated' labour markets in the world - an analysis with which the OECD has readily concurred.

Despite deregulatory and neo-liberal trends across much of Europe - driven by the post-2007 crisis, deflationary pressures, and faltering growth and recovery - a degree of regulation in the workings of the labour market, free movement, and Social Europe is necessary. An obvious paradox, I suggest, is that much of the EU's regulation is required if only to restrict excessive regulation and market distortions at the Member State level. Indeed, UK business leaders themselves recently called for this when asking the EU to fully implement the Services Directive. Plainly, without such top-down regulation across the European Economic Area, in areas like services and free movement of capital and labour, it will be difficult to establish a functioning labour market. Nor, without it, will a viable single market be possible. It is only the EU that is capable of providing the necessary trans-European legal framework.

Apart from such considerations, the UK, like the rest of Europe the UK, faces serious challenges: low productivity and growth, and continuing deflationary pressures impacting on growth, productivity, and employment conditions, as evidenced by the exponential leap in the number of workers on low pay since 2007. A minimum, floor of social protection, operating within an EU regulatory framework, is not just an essential element of 'Social Europe' it is an indivisible part of the wider European project.

The paper concludes with the suggestion that whilst the business community may well hope for (even expect) less unnecessary EU labour market interventions, and less 'Social Europe', any concerns they are likely to still have at the end of talks between the Prime Minister and other EU leaders are likely to be outweighed by a very much bigger concern - the negative outcomes that a UK exit would produce. This was a sentiment clearly expressed by the business organisations polled in last year's CBI/YouGov poll.


This is a book on stochastic dynamic macroeconomics from a Keynesian perpective. It shows that including Keynesian features in intertemporal models considerably contributes to resolve major puzzles arising in the context of the Dynamic General Equilibrium (DGE) model. It also demonstrates that including microeconomic intertemporal behavior of economic agents in macroeconomics is not inconsistent with Keynesian economics. Whereas the first two parts of the book are technically and empirically oriented by elaborating on solution and estimation methods to bring dynamic macroeconomic theory closer to the time series data, the part three of the book uses those tools and addresses major issues in contemporary dynamic macroeconomics. In pursuing those issues the book stresses--as in the New Keynesian literature--nominal and real rigidities. Yet, beyond the latter type of literature--and in contrast to the DGE model --the here presented modeling approach admits open ended dynamics and multiple equilibria, more realistic asset market features, nonclearing labor market, and explores the role of both demand and technology shocks on employment. Central for those results is a new methodological idea pertaining to adaptive optimization where agents can reoptimize once they have perceived and learned about market constraints. Overall, the book is self-contained by including the appropriate solution and estimation methods which brings the theory closer to the time series data. It contains a modern treatment of dynamic macroeconomics for first and second year graduate students.


We have grown GaN on porous SiC substrates and studied the effect of substrate porosity on the overgrown film quality in terms of defect structure and density and film strain. The growth was performed by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The GaN films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and wafer curvature measurements by surface profilometry. TEM images show that the GaN film grown on porous substrates contains open tubes and a relatively low dislocation density in regions between tubes. We discuss various growth mechanisms that can lead to these defect features in the GaN film. However, we do not find any overall improvement in the x-ray rocking curve full width at half maximum of the GaN films grown on porous substrates compared to those on nonporous substrates. It was found that the GaN films grown on porous SiC were significantly more strain relaxed compared to those grown on nonporous substrate. We attribute this strain relaxation in part to the obs...


With the rapid growth of the Internet and other Internet protocol-related applications, wireless systems have shifted toward supporting a wider variety of data services. This has placed an enormous strain on the already tight capacity of wireless systems. Many improvements have been made at the link layer in second- and third-generation wireless systems. However, further improvements in packet data admission, scheduling, and policing are necessary to maximize capacity and user satisfaction. Of the three, efficient scheduling has the greatest impact on increased system capacity. In addition, proper scheduling can greatly improve user satisfaction. We introduce an adaptive cross-layer packet scheduler, which outperforms popular packet schedulers with respect to both packet delay and user throughput.


As financial institutions move their operations, including core functions, to the cloud, financial regulators have begun to issue regulations and informal guidance addressing the use of cloud services in the financial sector. These are typically based on the regulator's existing framework for outsourcing by a financial institution to third-party technology providers, under which the risks associated with outsourcing and the supervision of third-party providers are primarily the responsibility of the financial institution. This report provides background on the use of cloud computing in the financial sector, reviews existing regulatory and supervisory frameworks for cloud use by financial institutions, and recommends improvements to those frameworks that could reduce obstacles to more widespread cloud adoption by financial institutions.


This study examines how placing endorser ads in the context of entertainment content that also features the endorser affects responses to the endorser and to the ads. An experiment ( N = 161) found that viewing an endorser ad in the context of entertainment content featuring that endorser does not affect responses to the ad; however, frequent viewing of such content results in more favorable perceptions of the character portrayed by the endorser, which in turn leads to more favorable responses to endorser and ad alike. Character perceptions thus are an important influence on endorser perceptions and ad effectiveness. Implications of the findings for advertising research are discussed.


This paper reports the creation of a tandem liquid crystal cell arrangement capable of simulating the performance of a spherical lens. Electrical modulation of the index of refraction creates focusing behavior. The modulation is induced by a set of electrodes whose individual voltages are arranged to provide a cylindrical exit wave front for a uniform plane-wave input. Two such cells with orthogonal electrodes arranged in cascade create spherical lens performance. Experimental evidence using a lens with a relatively small number of electrodes is presented. Applications for such structures, once improved, would include real-time focus adjustment for optical disk readers and hand-held photographic equipment as well as aberration compensation for long path-length optical systems.


Higher local temperature gradients near isolated mountains (inselbergs) result in continuous cloud cover at below normal elevations, creating the right conditions for the development of montane forests in New Caledonia at altitudes below 1600 m. These forests are especially important for biodiversity and to improve our understanding of the phytogeography and phylogeny of groups such as conifers or genera such us Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) and Cunonia (Cunoniaceae). They provide vital refuge areas for endangered fauna and play a significant role in water regulation. These forests are relatively well protected, with few threats from logging though slightly more from mining activities. The main threat seems to be the global warming phenomenon, which could cause the disappearance of the very specific ecological conditions that are vital to their survival.


Using a rich dataset that merges student-level school records with birth records, and a student fixed effect design, we explore how the massive scale-up of a Florida private school choice program affected public school students' outcomes. Expansion of the program produced modestly larger benefits for students attending public schools that had a larger initial degree of private school options, measured prior to the introduction of the voucher program. These benefits include higher standardized test scores and lower absenteeism and suspension rates. Effects are particularly pronounced for lower-income students, but results are positive for more affluent students as well.


This Note focuses on the per diem method used by plaintiffs' attorneys to inflate noneconomic damage awards for their clients in the majority of jurisdictions that accept the technique. Under the per diem theory, a plaintiff argues that his noneconomic loss for a particular time period (often an hour or a day) can be quantified at a (usually small) monetary value. This amount is then multiplied by the number of hours or days that the plaintiff has been injured and will be injured in the future. For example, at trial, a plaintiff's attorney may suggest to a jury that the plaintiff's injury will cause a great deal of pain and suffering, but ask for a mere twenty-five dollars a day in noneconomic damages. If the plaintiff has a remaining life expectancy of thirty-five years, this seemingly insignificant amount quickly climbs to well over $300,000. My piece provides a theoretical justification for why a plaintiff's use of the per diem method to compute future pain and suffering damages cannot be justified under any reasonable theory. The debate over the per diem technique has not changed significantly over the past forty years. During this same time period, nothing less than a revolution has occurred in the understanding of pain and pain management therapy in medical and psychological fields. However, these advances have not been incorporated into the debate over the per diem method. This Note analyzes and introduces the cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) model of pain to the legal literature with the hope of supplying a theoretical foundation for why the per diem argument should be impermissible in the many jurisdictions that permit such a method. The basic flaw of the per diem technique is that it improperly assumes a constant dollar unit for future pain and suffering without discounting for either future advances in pain management therapy or an individual's future and likely ability to psychologically and physically cope with chronic pain.


Whilst a great deal of academic research and many methods used by consultants and practitioners in knowledge management have focused on developing successful strategies, few have reviewed strategic-fit. This project aims to fill this gap. A survey of over 150 organisations discovers distinct variations in the knowledge orientation of organisations with different strategic approaches. These findings support the notion that in order to achieve a more effective KM strategy it is important to match this closely to the strategic needs of the organisation. One size does not fit all. The study identifies a number of success factors for each of four strategic types of organisation and describes how these are correlated with overall performance. The focus is on adaptability to changes in the external environment and more generally on business agility.


This thesis examines recent developments in Thailand's democratization process against the backdrop of economic and political globalization. It assesses the structural constraints and opportunities created by these forces, and the agential possibilities for managing them in a way that is consistent with democratization. The structural environment of economic globalization has had highly contradictory effects on Thai democratization, in some instances helping and in others hindering. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's agential response to economic globalization does, however, have the potential to improve the climate for democratization. By offering alternative strategies for the management of this environment, and by prioritizing economic growth and redistribution , he has increased the options available to voters , and may be helping to avoid the economic problems that can undermine confidence in electoral democracy. The structural environment of political globalization has likewise had mixed effects. Thailand has historically proved adept at adapting to changing global norms, and this openness has probably impacted positively on its democratization process. At the same time, however, it is an orientation that may have exacerbated Thailand's tendency to promote elite democracy, and stifled the search for indigenous democratic forms. Thaksin's agential responses to the political aspects of globalization do not appear to be favourable to deepening democratization. His impatience with what he perceives as the intrusion of the global community, his adherence to outmoded versions of sovereignty, and his failure to promote a global/local balance in the political realm combine to form policies that are unlikely to help Thailand take best advantage of international democratic networks. This thesis argues the need to emphasize local solutions if Thailand's democratization process is to be protected in the context of a partially globalized world. Thaksin , albeit inadequately, has pointed the way toward these in the economic realm, but the pursuit of equivalent political solutions seems to be hampered by the power behind the projection of current global democratic norms, and by the difficulty of mediating between "top-down" and "bottom-up" democracy agendas in Thailand. Agential choice can make a difference here. But for this to happen, it is not only Thai agents who need a more inclusive and visionary democratic agenda. Changes in perspective are also needed by the most powerful agents in the global community the world's most globalized, most wealthy, and most influential states.


Abstract. Radar reflectivities associated with Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) are compared with measurements of ice mass density in the mesopause region. The 54.5 MHz radar Moveable Atmospheric Radar for Antarctica (MARA), located at the Wasa/Aboa station in Antarctica (73° S, 13° W) provided PMSE measurements in December 2007 and January 2008. Ice mass density was measured by the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE). The radar operated continuously during this period but only measurements close to local midnight are used for comparison, to coincide with the local time of the measurements of ice mass density. The radar location is at high geographic latitude but low geomagnetic latitude (61°) and the measurements were made during a period of very low solar activity. As a result, background electron densities can be modelled based on solar illumination alone. We find a close correlation between the time and height variations of radar reflectivity and ice mass density, at all PMSE heights, from 80 km up to 95 km. A quantitative expression relating radar reflectivities to ice mass density is found, including an empirical dependence on background electron density. Using this relation, we can use PMSE reflectivities as a proxy for ice mass density, and estimate the daily variation of ice mass density from the daily variation of PMSE reflectivities. According to this proxy, ice mass density is maximum around 05:00–07:00 LT, with lower values around local noon, in the afternoon and in the evening. This is consistent with the small number of previously published measurements and model predictions of the daily variation of noctilucent (mesospheric) clouds and in contrast to the daily variation of PMSE, which has a broad daytime maximum, extending from 05:00 LT to 15:00 LT, and an evening-midnight minimum.


BACKGROUND
Green tea has been shown to have beneficial effects against a variety of diseases such as cancer, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases. Through cellular, animal, and human experiments, green tea and its major component, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) have been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory effects. Our previous findings have indicated that green tea and EGCG suppress the gene and/or protein expression of inflammatory cytokines and inflammation-related enzymes.

METHODS
Using bibliographic databases, particularly PubMed (provided by the http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, United States), we examined the potential usefulness of green tea/EGCG for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases in human clinical and epidemiological studies. We also reviewed results from cellular and animal experiments and proposed action mechanisms.

RESULTS
Most of the results from the human studies indicated the beneficial effects of green tea and tea catechins against inflammatory diseases. The cellular and animal studies also provided evidence for the favorable effects of green tea/EGCG. These results are compatible with our previous findings and can be largely explained by a mechanism wherein green tea/EGCG acts as an antioxidant to scavenge reactive oxygen species, leading to attenuation of nuclear factor-κB activity.

CONCLUSION
Since green tea and EGCG have multiple targets and act in a pleiotropic manner, we may consider their usage to improve the quality of life in patients with inflammatory disease. Green tea and EGCG have beneficial health effects and no severe adverse effects; however, care should be taken to avoid overdosage, which may induce deleterious effects including hepatic injury.


Previous research from the Sussex Ingestive Behaviour Group suggests that satiety
beliefs generated by product information and satiety-relevant sensory characteristics
(thick consistency and creamy flavours) can enhance the satiety response to covertly
added energy in beverages. However these characteristics in low-energy beverages can
generate rebound hunger effects. This thesis explored whether this enhanced-satiety
concept can be translated to real consumers. Study 1 examined the extent of energy
reduction that could be tolerated without rebound hunger effects. The original enhanced
satiety concept was not replicated, although there was tentative evidence that energy
compensation was more accurate for small energy additions. Study 2 explored whether
enhanced satiety would prevail following repeated exposures in consumers' own homes.
Enhanced satiety was found before and after exposure. Additionally focus groups
suggested that diet-concerned consumers may be particularly interested in such
products. Therefore in Study 3 this population, represented in the literature by those
reporting high dietary restraint, was studied suggesting that those high in restraint and
disinhibition compensated more accurately for energy in unenhanced beverages. A final
complication for consumers is that believed healthy foods are often overconsumed. Two
final studies demonstrated that health labels generated beliefs about the sensory
experience and expected satiation and satiety of beverages. Tasting overrode the effects
of these beliefs, although expectation-experience congruency led to assimilation of
healthy beliefs, and indulgent-based fullness. Portion size selection was unaffected.
Together the findings from these studies suggest that the enhanced satiety concept may
have some utility in the real world, although it remains unclear as to how little caloric
content can be tolerated whilst still enhancing satiety, and whether diet concerned
consumers would benefit. Finally whilst health information may have a role in appetite
expectations the interaction with sensory experience is important for generating overall
product evaluations, and sensory experience is likely to override label information in
dictating portion size selection.


In fault location techniques, it is customary to sample voltage and/or current and use these samples to determine the fault location. A lot of work has been reported that uses the synchronized voltage and current samples from one or both terminals of a transmission line and use the resulting phasors for fault location. The inherent error in this approach is the error introduced by the current transformer (CT). This paper illustrates a new method of calculating fault current phasors from the pre- and post-fault voltage phasors using the source impedance at a line terminal. Two transmission lines are simulated with Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) and results are reported to support this method. A method to accurately determine the source impedance is also described. The EMTP results are very promising. This method could result in increasing the accuracy of the existing fault location methods considerably.


welfare reform, it is valuable to look back over nearly six years of experience with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to see exactly what welfare reform can and cannot accomplish. Welfare reform has not been the disaster predicted by its critics, but neither has it been the extraordinary success hailed by its supporters. Welfare reform has led to a substantial reduction in welfare rolls, largely by speeding the exit of those individuals who were most likely to have left eventually even in the absence of reform. Although the decline in welfare rolls has slowed and even reversed in some states as a result of the slowing economy, reform itself, and in particular sanctions, has played an important roll in reducing the number of people receiving cash welfare benefits. On the other hand, welfare reform has been far less successful in meeting most of its other goals. Neither time limits nor work requirements have been vigorously enforced. Welfare reform has failed to significantly reduce out-of-wedlock births to young women. And, most important, it has not enabled former recipients to become independent and self-sufficient. In the end, our experience with PRWORA shows the limits of welfare reform. The longterm answer to poverty and dependency does not lie with any government program, no matter how well intentioned. Congress needs to go beyond proposals that simply tinker with welfare and begin to phase out government assistance in favor of private charity. At the same time Congress should aggressively pursue policies that promote economic growth and job creation. When it comes to welfare, we should end it, not mend it. Welfare Reform Less Than Meets the Eye


In this chapter, we propose two novel peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction schemes for the asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) scheme used in the visible light communications (VLC) system. In the first scheme, we implement the Toeplitz matrix based Gaussian blur method to reduce the high PAPR of ACO-OFDM at the transmitter and use the orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm to recover the original ACO-OFDM frame at the receiver. Simulation results show that for the 256-subcarrier ACO-OFDM system a ~6 dB improvement in PAPR is achieved compared with the original ACO-OFDM in terms of the complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF), while maintaining a com- petitive bit-error rate performance compared with the ideal ACO-OFDM lower bound. In the second scheme, we propose an improved hybrid optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM) and pulse-width modulation (PWM) scheme to reduce the PAPR for ACO-OFDM. The bipolar O-OFDM signal without negative clipping is converted into a PWM format where the leading and trailing edges carry the frame synchronization and modulated information, respectively. The simulation and experi- mental results demonstrate that the proposed OFDM-PWM scheme offers a significant PAPR reduction compared to the ACO-OFDM with an improved bit error rate.


The stratigraphic record contained in several foredeep basins is incompatible with the formation of these basins by flexure of a homogeneously strong foreland lithosphere. For example, the stratigraphy of the Early Proterozoic Kilohigok foredeep basin of northern Canada indicates that the inner part of the basin deepened in time without migration of the flexural bulge toward the foreland, and that the flexural bulge remained fixed in time relative to the downgoing plate. One mechanism that may be responsible for the localization of the flexural bulge in the Kilohigok and similar basins is that of lateral strength variations in the flexing lithosphere. Our results show that lateral strength variations within the foreland lithosphere can produce temporal variations in basin geometry and also serve to localize the position of the flexural bulge relative to the foreland for extended periods of time. This produces basin episodicity on a time scale of millions to tens of millions of years. Perfectly elastic models require a large strength contrast (about 50% in elastic plate thickness), but a brittle-elastic-ductile lithosphere rheology reduces the magnitude of the strength contrast required for episodicity to about 10%-15% of the initial effective elastic plate thickness. We suggest that basin episodicity may induce comparable episodicity in the coeval thrust belt, because theoretical studies of thrust mechanics suggest that the deformation in thrust belts is highly sensitive to the dip of the basal thrust angle. Through mechanisms such as this, the laterally heterogeneous continental lithosphere may provide a natural filter that transforms the presumably continuous and smoothly varying processes of the mantle into the spatially irregular and temporally episodic deformation observed in the crust at time scales of tens of millions of years.


Fashion Beads and Wire into Stunning Jewelry Jewelry artists look no further, Bead & Wire Art Jewelry is THE resource you need to bring together two of your favorite mediums-bead and wire. From simple stringing to extensive wirework, author J. Marsha Michler's detailed, step-by-step instructions will show you how to create over 50 stunning pieces of jewelry. Learn techniques including stringing, stitching, jigwork and loomwork, and even learn to make your own findings. From easy to advanced, you will find a project to suit your skill level and tastes. This inspirational book features:50+ easy, intermediate and advanced jewelry projects A variety of rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces Variations to inspire your creativity


Fluorosis may be identified in skeletal materials from ancient civilizations by macroscopic signs in teeth and bone and hard tissue fluoride levels. In the present study, human teeth, femoral, and rib specimens from the Van Fortress excavation, in Turkey, were examined for the presence of fluorosis. In addition, an animal study in rats was conducted as a model of human fluorosis, by examining the effects of fluoride administration, in various doses and for different durations, on weight loss, locomotor activity, fluoride accumulation, and deformation in bone and teeth. Fifty-six adult male Wistar albino rats, weighing 150–200 g, were divided into 7 different groups of 8 rats. Four acute groups were treated with 0 (control), 5, 15, and 50 mg/L of fluoride in drinking water for 7 days and three chronic groups were treated with 5, 15, and 50 mg/L of fluoride for 90 days. The results of the analysis of the human samples from the Van Fortress excavation showed that none of the dental, femoral, or rib samples had a fluoride content that was significantly greater than that of the surrounding soil. The results of the rat study showed that no significant differences between the groups were found in body weight on days 1, 30, 60, and 90. The rotarod locomotor test showed a significant (p<0.05) doseand time-dependent reduction in locomotor activity as a result of the fluoride administration in the 50 mg/L chronic fluoride group compared to the control, 5 mg/L acute fluoride, 15 mg/L acute fluoride, and 5 mg/L chronic fluoride groups. Significant fluoride accumulation was found in the femoral neck (cortical tissue), the femoral head (trabecular tissue), and in rib bone. Light microscopy showed a severe thinning of the epiphyseal growth plate and bone trabeculae in the femoral bone tissue. We concluded that femoral bone (cortical and trabecular parts) and ribs are good sites for assessing the effects of fluoride exposure in animal models of human fluorosis.


Aim: To examine whether new immigrants had inferior quality-of-life, well-being and general functioning compared with Swedish age- and sex-matched controls. Methods: A prospective case–control study was designed including immigrants from non-European countries, 18–65 years of age, with recent Permanent Permits to Stay (PPS) in Sweden, and age- and sex-matched Swedish-born (SB) persons from the general population in Västmanland County, Sweden. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the brief version of the World Health Organization Quality-of-Life (WHOQOL-BREF) Scale and the General Activity Functioning Assessment Scale (GAF) from DSM-IV were posted (SB), or applied in personal interviews (PPS) with interpreters. Differences between the PPS and SB groups were measured using McNemar's test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test conducted separately for observations at baseline, 6- and 12-month follow-up. Results: There were 93 pairs (mean age 36 years). Persons from Somalia (67%) and Iraq (27%) dominated the PPS group. The differences between the groups were statistically significant for all time points for the Psychological health and Social relationship domains of WHOQOL-BREF, and for the baseline and 6-month follow-up time points of GHQ-12 where the PPS-group had a higher degree of well-being, health and quality-of-life than the SB. This tendency applied for both sexes in the immigrant group. Conclusions: These new immigrants did not have inferior physical or psychological health, quality-of-life, well-being or social functioning compared with their age- and sex-matched Swedish born pairs during a 1-year follow-up. Thus, there is reason to advocate immigrants' fast integration into society.


This paper describes and interprets the floodplain stratigraphy of two low-energy rivers in the East Midlands, U.K. and goes on to present an appropriate model of floodplain evolution that may be applicable to other lowland rivers in temperate mid-latitudes. Work has been undertaken at the reach level to try and characterize the entire system. In general only laterally extensive exposures have been used, and detailed stratigraphic and microstratigraphic recording has been used to facilitate process interpretations. All the sites have been radiocarbon dated. The dataset consists of three sites in the Soar valley and five sites in the larger Nene valley. The most common sedimentary architecture is a basal gravel with occasional shallow channels, covered by a mixed loam (sand-silt-clay) of variable thickness with landsurfaces and evidence of bioturbation. This loam is frequently interrupted by palaeochannels, and finally all these sediments are buried by a massive silt-clay unit. Most of the palaeochannels were abandoned in the early Flandrian, or between ca. 3500 years BP and 2000 years BP. The superficial silty clay is diachronous largely because of the irregular topography of the floodplain onto which it was deposited; dates from non-palaeochannel sections range from ca. 3500 BP to ca. 2100 years BP. The floodplain stratigraphy has been profoundly influenced by soil development and sub-aerial processes, especially tree-throw, which has produced distinctive sedimentary structures. The loam unit is interpreted as a soil which developed inbetween both silting palaeochannels and active channels. The landsurfaces are both earlier and contemporaneous with the later phase of channel abandonment. There is some evidence, ca. 5000-4000 BP, of a rise in floodplain watertables. An evolutionary model is proposed which can account for the stratigraphic evidence reported here. It is based upon the development of an anastomosing (stable multiple-channel) system from an initial braided-river topography and its eventual conversion to a predominantly single-channel system due to floodplain and channel siltation. The reduction of channels is compensated for by a change in channel types and capacities while the floodplain aggrades; this is the stable-bed aggrading-banks (SBAB) model, which necessitates no changes in discharges. It is suggested that the sub-meandering or straight to sinuous nature of many lowland U.K. channels may be due to their evolution from an anastomosing pattern where the least meandering channels survived typically with a box-S shape planform and at the edges of the floodplain. The sites also show that the Lateglacial fluvial history of the two catchments seems to have been very different, with incision and subsequent aggradation occurring during the Younger Dryas in the Nene but not in the Soar. Given the proximity and similarity of the two catchments this suggests that relatively minor local factors may have been able to push some catchments across fluvial thresholds. In contrast the Flandrian history of the two rivers has been broadly similar, although there is evidence of greater lateral instability and floodplain reworking in the Soar which may be due to hydrogeological factors or a different landuse history. This work strongly suggests that new process-based interpretations of floodplain stratigraphy, and new models of floodplain evolution may be required before alluvial history can be easily related to the changing Lateglacial and Flandrian climate of lowland U.K.


This paper presents a new three-dimensional (3-D) wavelet-based scalable lossless coding scheme for compression of volumetric medical images. Aiming to improve the productivity of radiologists and the cost-effectiveness of the system, we strive to achieve high decoder throughput, random access to coded data volume, progressive transmission, and high compression ratio in a balanced design approach. These desirable functionalities are realized by a modified 3-D dyadic wavelet transform tailored to volumetric medical images and an optimized Rice code of very low complexity.


It is important to understand the entire spectrum of somatic variants to gain more insight into mutations that occur in different cancers for development of better diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tools. This thesis outlines our work in understanding somatic variant calling, improving the identification of somatic variants from whole genome and whole exome platforms and identification of biomarkers for lung cancer. Integrating somatic variants from whole genome and whole exome platforms poses a challenge as variants identified in the exonic regions of the whole genome platform may not be identified on the whole exome platform and vice-versa. Taking a simple union or intersection of the somatic variants from both platforms would lead to inclusion of many false positives (through union) and exclusion of many true variants (through intersection). We develop the first framework to improve the identification of somatic variants on whole genome and exome platforms using a machine learning approach by combining the results from two popular somatic variant callers. Testing on simulated and real data sets shows that our framework identifies variants more accurately than using only one somatic variant caller or using variants from only one platform.
 Short tandem repeats (STRs) are repetitive units of 2-6 nucleotides. STRs make up approximately 1% of the human genome and have been traditionally used as genetic markers in population studies. We conduct a series of in silico analyses using the exome data of 32 individuals with lung cancer to identify 103 STRs that could potentially serve as cancer diagnostic markers and 624 STRs that could potentially serve as cancer predisposition markers. Overall these studies improve the accuracy in identification of somatic variants and highlight the association of STRs to lung cancer.


The interaction forces between bovine serum albumin (BSA) layers adsorbed on silica surfaces have been measured using an atomic force microscope (AFM) in conjunction with the colloid probe technique. Measurements of force−distance curves were made at different pH values and electrolyte concentrations (NaCl and CaCl2). The interaction at long range is dominated by electrical double-layer forces, while at short surface separations an additional repulsion due to the compression of the adsorbed protein layers appears. However, prior to this steric interaction, when the pH is above the isoelectric point of the protein and at high salt concentration, a non-DLVO repulsive interaction is observed. This behavior is explained if the presence of hydration forces in the system is assumed. Theoretical predictions including a hydration term in the DLVO theory fit the experimental results satisfactorily. The results presented in this article provide a direct confirmation that the AFM colloid probe technique can provide ...


In a way, the history of Translation Studies, at least for the last decades, has been that of a continuous broadening of the field of study. If the 1990s witnessed the "cultural turn" famously heralded by Mary Snell-Hornby, more recently scholars have turned towards the role that translation plays in cultural dominance and cultural resistance, in what has been referred to as the power turn. At the same time, a converging movement could be observed from outside the field of Translation Studies: Some thinkers, in their quest for new intellectual paradigms to tackle the challenges faced by emancipatory projects, have veered towards translation as a way to overcome particularism and nationalism, while at the same time avoiding the risks of a monocultural universalism that is seen to lead inevitably to imperialism. Translation, by necessarily reaching out to the Other and creating hybridity, offers a unique chance to "square the circle" and find "equivalence in difference." In this paper, we discuss the ideas about translation of four such thinkers, coming from very different backgrounds and traditions: Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Étienne Balibar, Judith Butler and Boaventura de Sousa Santos.


The latest EU funding framework, 'Horizon 2020', has moved consideration of ethical and societal implications of technology development to the fore. Yet, there is little guidance on how to do such research in practice, let alone how to innovate in ethically and socially sound ways. This paper addresses these issues in the context of a large scale EU funded project developing system of system innovations in IT supported emergency response. Building on collaborative design and a range of other approaches, the paper argues that just like 'usability', ethics cannot be invented or decided by experts, but has to be the product of engagement with the technology by directly or indirectly implicated publics. Facilitating such publics is a central element of what we call 'ELSI Co-Design'. The paper outlines the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of this approach.


Aim To investigate biotic and abiotic correlates of reef-fish species richness across multiple spatial scales. Location Tropical reefs around the globe, including 485 sites in 109 sub-provinces spread across 14 biogeographic provinces. Time period Present. Major taxa studied 2,523 species of reef fish. Methods We compiled a database encompassing 13,050 visual transects. We used hierarchical linear Bayesian models to investigate whether fish body size, reef area, isolation, temperature, and anthropogenic impacts correlate with reef-fish species richness at each spatial scale (i.e., sites, sub-provinces, provinces). Richness was estimated using coverage-based rarefaction. We also tested whether species packing (i.e., transect-level species richness/m(2)) is correlated with province-level richness. Results Body size had the strongest effect on species richness across all three spatial scales. Reef area and temperature were both positively correlated with richness at all spatial scales. At the site scale only, richness decreased with reef isolation. Species richness was not correlated with proxies of human impacts. Species packing was correlated with species richness at the province level following a sub-linear power function. Province-level differences in species richness were also mirrored by patterns of body size distribution at the site scale. Species-rich provinces exhibited heterogeneous assemblages of small-bodied species with small range sizes, whereas species-poor provinces encompassed homogeneous assemblages composed by larger species with greater dispersal capacity. Main conclusions Our findings suggest that body size distribution, reef area and temperature are major predictors of species richness and accumulation across scales, consistent with recent theories linking home range to species-area relationships as well as metabolic effects on speciation rates. Based on our results, we hypothesize that in less diverse areas, species are larger and likely more dispersive, leading to larger range sizes and less turnover between sites. Our results indicate that changes in province-level (i.e., regional) richness should leave a tractable fingerprint in local assemblages, and that detailed studies on local-scale assemblage composition may be informative of responses occurring at larger scales.


This report documents the implementation of a Boolean constraint solver and its integration with a Prolog engine. The solver comprises built-in predicates for checking consistency and entailment of a new constraint w.r.t. accumulated constraints and for generating particular solutions to a set of constraints, and extensions to the Prolog top-level for displaying answer constraints. Boolean unification was chosen as the strategy for the consistency check. Boolean unification fits well with the Prolog execution model, and allows the accumulated constraints to be associated in a natural way with the variables being eliminated. The answer constraints are computed by existentially quantifying in the accumulated set of constraints all variables not occurring in the user query. The simplified set of constraints constitutes the answer constraints. Boolean formulas are internally represented as DAGs. Details are provided on this representation and the support for it provides by Prolog Engine. We have investigated various optimizations of the Boolean unification algorithm, and a preliminary performance evaluation is included.


The financial crisis led to a raft of new or updated EU conduct rules to ensure the orderly functioning of markets and market operators. The core measure is known as MiFID II, which is a radical update of the 2004 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. MiFID II is now in the implementation phase and may bring further structural change to Europe's securities markets. Other measures have also been issued or updated, such as the rules against market manipulation and on short selling, and the formation and use of benchmarks. This ECMI Policy Brief reviews these new measures and discusses their effects.


In order to use the best suited snow models to investigate snow conditions at ungauged sites and for a changed climate, we have tested four snow models for 17 catchments in Norway. The Crocus and seNorge models are gridded whereas the Distance Distribution Dynamics (DDD) model with its two versions, DDD_CX and DDD_EB, is catchment based. Crocus and DDD_EB use energy balance for estimating snowmelt and SeNorge and DDD_CX use temperature-index methods. SeNorge has calibrated the temperature-index against observed snowmelt, whereas DDD_CX has calibrated the temperature-index against runoff. The models use gridded temperature and precipitation at 1 h resolution for the period 2013–2016. Crocus needs additional forcing from a numerical weather prediction model, whereas DDD_EB calculates the energy-balance elements by using proxy models forced by temperature and precipitation. The threshold temperature for solid and liquid precipitation is common for all the models and equal to 0.5 °C. No corrections of precipitation or temperature are allowed. The snow simulations are validated against observed snow water equivalent (SWE) and against satellite derived snow covered area (SCA). SeNorge and DDD_EB perform best with respect to both SWE and SCA suggesting model structures suited for describing snow conditions at ungauged sites and for a changed climate.


This essay appears in a volume dedicated to the memory of Arthur Helton, a leading scholar and activist on refugee issues, who was killed in the bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. It sets forth some of the principal analysis from a lengthy report chartered by the U.S. State Department that critically examined this country's refugee resettlement program, which has encountered serious difficulties since September 11, 2001. A revised and updated version of the full report was published in book form in May 2005 by the Migration Policy Institute (The United States Refugee Admissions Program: Reforms for a New Era of Refugee Resettlement). The essay here discusses the overall context for refugee resettlement in the twenty-first century, noting why the program will have to operate differently from earlier eras, which were dominated by large, long-term resettlement flows from a limited number of locations, notably Vietnam and the former Soviet Union. Future resettlement will be marked by smaller resettlement initiatives drawn from a wide array of locations, reaching populations that will usually have to be processed in unstable or dangerous settings. The key offices in the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security will need to change their operations in response, to become more nimble at identifying appropriate initiatives and deploying officers to process the cases. This essay discusses the following key elements in the framework context for resettlement programs: pull factors, migration choices by refugees and potential refugees, host country reactions, and other political considerations, such as the impact of resettlement on other durable solutions; fraud, corruption and distortion; program complexity and sheer luck; and legal difficulties that apply when resettlement is tightly constrained by the definition set forth in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.


The properties of the Fabry-Perot interferometer with an absorbing medium in the cavity have been investigated. When very large reflective finesse etalons are used, the interferometer behaves as a long-path absorption cell with a gain, defined as the ratio of the measured absorption over the sample absorption for the same path as the etalon spacer, equal to C1/2. (C is the etalon contrast.) Practical considerations make the plane Fabry-Perot unsuitable for this use because of the rather large area and surface finesse requirements. The spherical Fabry-Perot, on the other hand, is not constrained in the area requirement and thus appears to be the choice etalon for a long-path absorption cell. The results also show that interference filters, because of their high reflective finesse, have absorption effects which degrade their ultimate performance.


The Indiana paper coal contains plant microfossils identifiable as Bicoloria Horst and Torispora Balme. The sporangium Bicoloria consists of an outer layer of Torispora and an interior mass of membraneous spores. The sporangia, when found in clusters, are attached to each other at their pointed ends and are therefore thought to have been pendant. The name Bicoloria is restricted to intact sporangia, and the name Torispora is retained for isolated, dispersed spores. The range of Torispora securis is extended downward to include the upper Pottsville strata of Indiana (Westphalian B).


"The Third Volume in the Studies in Interpretation Series" This new volume focuses on scholarship over a refined spectrum of issues that confront interpreters internationally. Editors Melanie Metzger and Earl Fleetwood call upon researchers from the United States, Ireland, Australia, and the Philippines to share their findings in six chapters. In the first chapter, Roberto R. Santiago and Lisa A. Frey Barrick reveal how interpreters deal with translating source language idioms into American Sign Language (ASL). In Chapter 2, Lorraine Neeson and Susan Foley-Cave review the particular demands for decision-making that face interpreters on several levels in a class on semantics and pragmatics. Liza B. Martinez explains in Chapter 3 the complicated, multilingual process of code switching by Filipino interpreters when voice-interpreting Filipino Sign Language. Chapter 4 offers a deconstruction by Daniel Roush of the stereotype that Deaf ASL-users are direct or blunt, based on his analysis of two speech/social activities of requests and refusals. Jemina Napier investigates interpreting from the perspective of deaf consumers in Australia in Chapter 5 to explore their agenda for quality interpreting services. In the final chapter, Amy Frasu evaluates methods for incorporating visual aids into interpretations from spoken English to American Sign Language and the potential cognitive dissonance for deaf persons that could result.


With the increasing diffusion in our life of digital audio and visual contents, the investigation on multimedia objects is acquiring more and more interest within the framework of digital investigations, that consider all the aspects including digital data and digital devices. Starting from the international standards and recommendations on the correct procedures to deal with digital evidences and investigations appropriately, and exploiting the Multimedia Forensics technologies, we propose in this paper a possible methodology for correctly investigating audio-visual contents. Going through the steps of the proposed methodology in an illustrative case study, we show the capability of Multimedia Forensics as a tool for understanding the history of multimedia contents presented to the court as potential digital evidence.


Hans-georg Gadamer was born in 1900 in Marburg, and died in 2002 in Heidelberg. He studied at the University of Marburg under the neo-Kantian Paul Natorp, defending his dissertation on Plato in 1922. He moved to the University of Freiburg, where he met Martin Heidegger, whom he followed back to Marburg when Heidegger gained his professorship, joining a circle of Heidegger's students, including Leo Strauss, Karl Lowith, Jacob Klein, and Hannah Arendt. Gadamer habilitated in 1929 and began lecturing as a privatdotzen, an unsalaried instructor, but he was unable to secure a professorship until 1939. During this time, Gadamer's academic career progressed slowly, if at all. Privatdotzen survived on occasional fellowships and ad hoc compensation from students. While direct opposition to the regime was impossible, he sheltered his friend Jacob Klein in his house for almost two years, from 1933 to 1934, and he supported Erich Frank until his departure from Marburg for the United States in 1939. Unlike Heidegger, who famously joined the Nazi party, Gadamer never joined the party, even though doing so would have provided a critical benefit to a struggling career. At the same time, Gadamer did what was necessary to maintain his position. In 1933 he signed, along with twenty-three other faculty members at the University of Marburg, as demanded in a public forum, the Loyalty Oath of German Professors to Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist State. In 1935, still without joining the party, he volunteered for a "kind of rehabilitation camp," which may have been instrumental in his eventual professorship.


Abstract. Secondary aerosol produced from marine biogenic sources in algal-rich coastal locations will initially be composed of iodine oxide species, most likely I2O5, or its hydrated form HIO3, formed as a result of iodine gas-phase chemistry. At present, there is no quantitative hygroscopic data for these compounds and very little data available for iodate solutions (HIO3 and I2O5 share a common aqueous phase). With increased interest in the role of such aerosol in the marine atmosphere, we have conducted studies of (i) the deliquescence behaviour of crystalline HIO3 and I2O5 at 273–303 K, (ii) the efflorescence behaviour of aqueous iodate solution droplets, and (iii) properties (water activity, density, and viscosity) of subsaturated and saturated iodate solutions. The deliquescence of I2O5 crystals at 293 K was observed to occur at a relative humidity (DRH) of 80.8±1.0%, whereas for HIO3, a DRH of 85.0±1.0% was measured. These values are consistent with measured water activity values for saturated I2O5 and HIO3 solutions at 293 K of 0.80±0.01 and 0.84±0.01 respectively. At all temperatures, DRH values for HIO3 crystals were observed to be higher than for those of I2O5. The temperature-dependent DRH data, along with solubility and water activity data were used to evaluate the enthalpy of solution (ΔHsol) for HIO3 and I2O5. A ΔHsol value of 8.3±0.7 kJ mol−1 was determined for HIO3 which is consistent with a literature value of 8.8 kJ mol−1. For I2O5, we report for the first time its solubility at various temperatures and ΔHsol = 12.4±0.6 kJ mol−1. The measured water activity values confirm that aqueous iodate solutions are strongly non-ideal, consistent with previous reports of complex ion formation and molecular aggregation.


Carrier-induced degradation (CID) of multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells has been receiving significant attention; however, despite this increasing interest, the defect (or defects) responsible for this degradation has not been determined yet. Previous studies have shown that the surface passivation layer and the firing temperature have a significant impact on the rate and extent of this degradation. In this paper, we further study this impact through an investigation of the CID behavior of the mc-Si wafers passivated with six different silicon nitride layers, each fired at four different peak temperatures. At low firing temperatures, no significant difference in the CID was identified between the samples with different passivation layers; however, a large range of degradation extents was observed at higher firing temperatures. Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, a correlation was found between the degradation extent and the amount of hydrogen released from the dielectric during firing. We verified that no degradation of the surface passivation quality occurred, indicating that the degradation is primarily associated with a bulk defect.


This evaluation examines the IDB's Country Program with Honduras for the 2007-2010 period. This period was marked by a political crisis that halted operations with the country from June 2009 to March 2010. Honduras set out to achieve 120 development objectives in its work with the IDB during the period under evaluation. Despite its importance, in practice, these goals exceeded the country's delivery capacity as well as IDB's monitoring capacity. Although both Honduras and the IDB had identified 'reducing poverty and indigence' as the overarching development challenge, institutional shortcomings made it impossible to translate that shared objective into priorities and specific resource allocations. This was detrimental to the program's relevance. Efficiency was low as chronic shortcomings in management capacity translated into lengthy delivery times and high implementation costs. Limitations in the monitoring and evaluation system can be improved, since the effectiveness of the program could not be measured, as no causal relationship can be established between the country?s progress and IDB's action. The recommendations aim at optimizing what is already a solid country-IDB relationship. To this end, the IDB should pursue opportunities to continue strengthening three key functions in its dealings with the country: (i) programming; (ii) execution; and (iii) monitoring and evaluation.


Abstract:This article ventures a new approach to capture the subtlety of the shi/ci distinctions by reading and comparing the representation of space in shi and ci, an approach that avoids traditional Chinese impressionism, on the one hand, and superficial Western formalism, on the other. The author focuses on two basic loci of "private" space as represented in shi and ci, the boudoir and garden—one sexualized, forbidden, and private, and the other natural, culturally sanctioned, and constructed, but also private in certain ways regarding ownership. These two major categories alone, though not sufficient to cover the entire spectrum of the ci space, could provide a meaningful framework to show how the generic qualities of ci are most sharply and immediately distinguished as effects of a lyrical construction of certain "private" space.


Foucault's work has given rise to increased methodological sensitivity of the political dangers associated with traditional qualitative approaches in the social sciences. There is a growing awareness that the widespread use of the research interview is not indicative of a deepening insight into the workings of culture, but is part of a broader social technology for its reproduction. In an effort to re-imagine interview methodology, scholars have read Foucault to suggest the need for greater attention to the active co-construction of research conclusions arising from interview based research. This has led in turn to the view that post modern approaches produce localized, temporally specific knowledge that fails to shed light on deeper, more enduring social structures. This paper questions these interpretations of Foucault's work, arguing that they fail to accurately represent his genealogical method or to consider its implications for research ethics. Foucault rejects a view of knowledge as emerging from the active social constructions of agents or of institutionalised 'interests'. Rather, Foucault sees knowledge as an outcome, often accidental, of interrelated historical practices and discourses that produce the subjects and objects of social science discourse itself. The implications of Foucault's work for thinking about research ethics is not a return to authenticity or to analyses of social structure, but a rejection of the centralised, regulatory claims of an organised scientific discourse. The paper comprises a review of social science responses to post structural insights, coverage of the critical epistemological differences between Foucault's method and other key social theory paradigms, and a discussion of the critical ethical issues these differences raise for the social sciences.


The insurance industry in Malaysia contributes only a small
percentage to the Gross National Product (GNP). Hence in the past not
much attention was paid to this industry. The recession years of the mid eighties
have, however, forced the authorities to look at the industry
rather closely. In fact, the government has made further intervention into
the industry by placing it under the supervision of Bank Negara Malaysia
(BNM). Since the takeover, the BNM has been active in revising the
present insurance Act and has been issuing a number of guidelines to
assist insurance companies to operate in an efficient manner. From the
statistics reported in, the Annual Report of the Director General of
Insurance (DGI), there has been some improvements in both sectors. For
example, the forfeiture and surrender rates for the life sector has
decreased due to improvement in the insurers' services. In the general
sector on the other hand, the commission and management expense rates for the high premium bracket insurers (> RM 45 million) were able to be
reduced even though for the low premium bracket insurers « RM 20
million) it was still high.
The thesis analysed the operation of the insurance industry by
examining their cost of operation. This is done by estimating the
industry's cost function as well as estimating the minimum efficient scale
(MES). The estimation of the cost function made use of the statistical cost
function approach. In the analysis of the life sector, the lapse ratio, new
policies and the dummy variable for ownership (foreign or local) have
been shown to affect the average cost. The life sector also experienced
economies of scale but the number of companies which were able to reach
that MES level was still small compared to insurers which experienced
economies of scale but failed to have the minimum scale of cost.
Estimation results for the general insurance industry showed that the
industry did experience the economies of scale. However, the level of the
minimum efficient scale was not able to be determined. Results showed
that in general foreign companies were doing better than the locals. The
overall results for both sectors implied that the size of the local companies
beside the internal problems faced by the sector e.g. high costs for the
general, was a constraint for achieving the efficient scale of production.
The B NM should continue supervising and regulating the industry so that
the companies in the industry can perform to expectations.


We study the 1956 consent decree against the Bell System to investigate whether patents held by a dominant firm are harmful for innovation and if so, whether compulsory licensing can provide an effective remedy. The consent decree settled an antitrust lawsuit that charged Bell with having foreclosed the market for telecommunications equipment. The terms of the decree allowed Bell to remain a vertically integrated monopolist in the telecommunications industry, but as a remedy, Bell had to license all its existing patents royalty-free. Thus, the path-breaking technologies developed by the Bell Laboratories became freely available to all US companies. We show that in the first five years compulsory licensing increased follow-on innovation building on Bell patents by 17%. This effect is driven mainly by young and small companies. Yet, innovation increased only outside the telecommunications equipment industry. The lack of a positive innovation effect in the telecommunications industry suggests that market foreclosure impedes innovation and that compulsory licensing without structural remedies is ineffective in ending it. The increase of follow-on innovation by small and young companies is in line with the hypothesis that patents held by a dominant firm act as a barrier to entry for start-ups. We show that the removal of this barrier increased long-run U.S. innovation, corroborating historical accounts.


Computers perform tasks daily that aid people in the completion of their duties; computers help drive cars, cook food, entertain, and support our decision making processes. Often a silent partner, the computer is involved in tasks that a health professional provides. Modern ECG machines, infusion pumps, blood analyzers, ventilators, and imaging machines contain computers that aid in the use of these devices. Though not traditionally considered decision support systems, these diagnostic systems support the decision making process in health care. Shortliffe EH et al define the kinds of decision support systems by the roles they play in the decision making process. The authors state that any computer system that deals with clinical data or medical knowledge is intended to provide decision support. This article will discuss fact and fiction regarding decision support systems beginning with information systems that support the decision making process to more sophisticated knowledge based systems that provide interpretation and analysis of data.


A novel diarylethene with a triazole-linked rhodamine B unit has been synthesized by click chemistry. When triggered by light, proton, and metal ions, the diarylethene can be used as a fluorescence switch, leading to a multiaddressable system. The diarylethene shows sequence-dependent responses through efficient interaction of the specific triazole-linked rhodamine B unit with proton and metal ions. Furthermore, the diarylethene can serve as a naked-eye chemosensor for highly selective recognition of different metal ions in different solvent systems. The diarylethene was highly selective toward Al3+ with remarkable fluorescence change from dark to yellow in acetonitrile, while it selectively recognized Cu2+ with significant fluorescence change from dark to bright yellow in the mixture of acetonitrile and water (v/v = 4/6). Finally, a logic circuit was constructed with the unimolecular platform by using the combinational stimuli of light and chemical species as inputs and the fluorescence intensity at 595 ...


India sought an 'adequacy assessment' from the EU in 2009/10 (no outcome has been announced), to ease compliance burdens in relation to outsourcing. By late 2010 it had no significant data protection laws in force. The Information Technology Act 2000 covered little of significance to data privacy, and amendments to it in 2008 which could create remedies for disclosure of 'sensitive' information depended on Rules yet to be made. A year later, the situation is quite different. India has implemented an extensive data privacy regime (limited to the private sector) through Rules made under s43A of the IT Act (as amended in 2008), which deals with negligence in providing and 'maintaining reasonable security practices' (April 2011). The essence of India's data protection scheme seems to be that the Rules made under s43A comprise part of the obligations on companies to both have in place and to implement a comprehensive information security programme. Whether the whole s43A scheme is ultra vires, or even unconstitutional, may eventually be tested by the Courts, but for now it is the law. The Rules then set out a conventional set of data protection principles, provide data export limitations, and even attempt to control what use foreign recipients make of data from India when they use it in their own countries, an innovation sure to annoy those opposed to effective data protection. Enforcement of complaints is through a special system of investigation by Adjudicating Officers, with a right of appeal to the Cyber Appellate Tribunal (CAT). The whole system is as yet untested, but has the appearance of a serious data privacy regime, except for the absence of a DPA. In August 2011 the relevant Ministry seemed to panic about what it had done with these Rules, and issued a 'Press Note' which purported to 'clarify' them to the effect that they did not apply to companies in India and overseas involved in outsourcing relationships. The interpretations in the 'Press Note' attempt to defy the meaning of the words in the Rules and the legislation, and should be regarded with scepticism.A draft Privacy Bill, 2011 (India Legislative Department, 2011) also became public, but has not been introduced into Parliament. If enacted, it will create a three person Data Protection Authority of India (DPAI). The Bill will also create a statutory right of privacy (another first for the Asia-Pacific), open-ended in its definition but including rights of confidentiality, freedom from surveillance, and protection of personal data (possibly including the specific rights under the s43A Rules system). The Bill also sets out a detailed data privacy code, somewhat different from that under the s43A Rules. The DPAI will have very extensive functions, including keeping a register of data controllers (a step out of keeping with all other Asia-Pacific laws), and strong powers to investigate the actions of any data controller and issue directions to them. Individuals will be able to lodge complaints against data controllers with the CAT, which would be empowered to make any orders it thinks fit including compensation. A bizarre aspect of the Bill, for a country seeking an EU adequacy finding, is that it limits its protection to Indian citizens. The Bill is very complex, including detailed controls on surveillance as well, but only a draft as yet, and will undoubtedly be modified very considerably before it progresses. India is therefore one of the few countries to have enacted data privacy laws for its private sector, but not for its public sector. That may not prove to be tenable in the longer run.


Two significant features of the origin and development of kinetosomes in the ciliate, Oxytricha fallax , are indicated by electron micrography of serial sections. (1) Some kinetosomes arise in varied orientations to adjacent kinetosomes instead of in the single orientation regularly found in other material; and some kinetosomes arise in positions that are not adjacent to any kinetosome. Hence, even in ciliates, some kinetosomes arise without using existing kinetosomes or their micromilieu as nucleation sites. (2) Growth of kinetosomal microtubules appears to occur at their proximal as well as distal ends. This is indicated by proximal cross-sections with only one or two microtubules of a triplet, while more distal sections of the same incompletely grown kinetosome show the complete triplet pattern.


As forecasters, we all make our careers from connecting a series of dots with a line and then project it into the future. We do all of this under the assumption that, if all else remains the same, historical trends are predictive of what is to come. In other words, if nothing changes in the environment, why should the current trends change? Using the latest and greatest statistical packages, whether Excel based or full enterprise solutions, we draw the straight lines, calculate the statistical variances and probabilities, and go through complicated processes to incorporate seasonality and other variables. We do this day in and day out, and are quite comfortable in our abilities. However, when it comes to new product forecasting, our confidence is shaken. We do not have those series of dots to connect, no past history of seasonality and other variances on which to base our projections. This is what intimidates us. We have to realize that all these make preparing a forecast a little bit more difficult, if not impossible. We need to use a whole new series of our competencies. The ideal new product is a new invention that has never before been seen and that satisfies a need never before fulfilled. As one might expect, this ideal is a rarity. Of course, what we tend to see much more often are new products as line extensions, product improvements, and new uses of an existing product aimed at a new target authence. Whichever format the new product takes, the assumption for this discussion is that the product is a single SKU; it is new to the company / industry, and it meets some form of unfulfilled need. GATHER PERTINENT INFORMATION As with any new task, the first step in forecasting a new product requires preparation. This is a key step. Missing this will result in disaster almost every time. Preparation means mobilizing all our resources by bringing together those guardians of information, our subject matter experts. We do this because we have to find out everything we need to know about our new product. Our product development gurus can tell us all the bells and whistles they built into the product. The market research folks can tell us how this product compares to what is currently out there and/or will be out there at the time of launch or shortly thereafter. They should be able to tell us who our customers are, the size of the customer base (epidemiology), what they think of bells and whistles built in by product development, what is the likelihood that they will buy, and what is the current size of the market we are launching in. Our marketing department (the smoke and mirrors team) can tell us their promotional plans, the unique selling proposition that will differentiate our product from the rest, who they are targeting, and how all this compares to what the competition is doing. The logistics people can give you a wealth of information on batch sizes, manufacturing lead times, and distribution channels; the sales team needs to provide us with their sales plans. This includes initial sell in objectives, samples, and other promotional materials they are planning to give away, discounts and deal campaigns they have planned, etc. (By the way this is usually different from plans the marketing folks make. Believe it or not, sales and marketing teams, the company's experts in communication, are usually not very good at communicating with each other). And last but not least, you also need to know when the product has been planned for a launch. This panel of experts will be very helpful in determining the maximum potential, that is, the peak sales for the new product. (This is where the Consensus method or the Delphi method will be very helpful.) These experts will offer a different perspective and with different biases, so be prepared for a wide range of opinions. However, by assembling different points of view on peak sales potential you will be able to define the upper and lower limits, and make a value judgment on what is realistic. …


The normal shock wave / boundary layer interaction (normal SBLI) is important to the operation and performance of a supersonic inlet, and the normal SBLI is particularly prominent in external compression inlets. To improve our understanding of such interactions, it is helpful to make use of fundamental flows which capture the main elements of inlets, without resorting to the level of complexity and system integration associated with full-geometry inlets. In this paper, several fundamental fiow-fleld configurations have been considered as possible test cases to represent the normal SBLI aspects found in typical external compression inlets, and it was found that the spillage-diffuser more closely retains the basic flow features of an external compression inlet than the other configurations. In particular, this flow-fleld allows the normal shock Mach number as well as the amount and rate of subsonic diffusion to be all held approximately constant mid independent of the application of flow control. In addition, a survey of several external compression inlets was conducted to quantify the flow and geometric parameters of the spillage-diffuser relevant to actual inlets. The results indicated that such a flow may be especially relevant if the terminal Mach number is about 1.3 to 1.4, the confinement parameter is around 10%, the width around twice or three times the height, and with the area expansion just downstream of the shock on the conservative side of the stall limit for incompressible diffusers. © 2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new stereotactic method for preoperative coil-marking of musculoskeletal tumors with use of interventional magnetic resonance imaging.

METHODS
Nine patients with a soft-tissue or bone-marrow tumor were referred to our department for preoperative marking of the extent of the lesion. In one patient, two lesions were marked. Guidance for the punctures and the delivery of the coils was provided by an open low-field magnetic resonance imaging system with horizontal access. After imaging of the extent of the lesion, magnetic resonance imaging-compatible titanium coils were placed with use of nearly real-time or step-by-step magnetic resonance imaging control. The coils were placed up to seventy-two hours before the surgery. The inclusion of the tumor borders within the area of the excision was examined with cross-sectional histological analysis of surgical specimens.

RESULTS
The tumor-marking intervention was successfully performed with the guidance of magnetic resonance imaging only in all patients. Preoperatively, nineteen coils were used to mark the ten lesions in the nine patients. All of the coils were easily located with intraoperative fluoroscopy. No coil migrated between the time of the percutaneous marking and the surgery. Histological examination of the resection borders revealed no residual tumor cells. No complications were observed, and, after a mean of twenty-three months of follow-up, no tumor had recurred.

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative coil-marking guided by magnetic resonance imaging for exact delineation of a musculoskeletal tumor is technically feasible and can readily demonstrate the full extent of the tumor. Use of magnetic resonance fluoroscopy reduces the time needed for the intervention. We recommend the coil-marking technique.


Increasing availability of on-line and off-line multilingual resources along with the developments in the related automatic tools that can process this information, such as GIZA++ (Och & Ney 2003), has made it possible to build new multilingual resources that can be used for NLP/IR tasks.

Lexicon generation is one such task, which if done by hand is quite expensive with human and capital costs involved. Generation of multilingual lexicons can now be automated, as is done in this research work. Wikipedia, an on-line multilingual resource was gainfully employed to automatically build multilingual lexicons using simple search strategies.

Europarl parallel corpus (Koehn 2002) was used to create multilingual sets of synonyms, that were later used to carry out the task of Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) on the original corpus from which they were derived. The theoretical analysis of the methodology validated our approach.

The multilingual sets of synonyms were then used to learn unsupervised models of word morphology in the individual languages. The set of experiments we carried out, along with another unsupervised technique, were evaluated against the gold standard. Our results compared very favorably with the other approach. The combination of the two approaches gave even better results.