We show that the massive (or massless) neutrinos can be described as special states of Heisenberg nonlinear spinors. As a by-product of this decomposition a particularly attractive consequence appears: the possibility of relating the existence of only three species of mass-less neutrinos to such internal non-linear structure. At the same time it allows the possibility that neutrino oscillation can occur even for massless neutrinos.


Perceived exertion (RPE) has been used as a subjective indicator of exercise intensity for extremely light to supramaximal-level dynamic exercise. Little data exist on the relationship of RPE to physiological variables during sustained isometric exercise. Ten male subjects volunteered and participated in this investigation. Subjects were instructed to maintain a hand grip contraction of 50% of maximal effort until exhaustion. During this bout of exercise, electromyographic activity (EMG) and RPE values were recorded at 10 s intervals. The raw EMG signals were processed for frequency content (mean power frequency [MPF] and for signal amplitude (root mean squared [RMS]). RPE was recorded as a subjective value selected from a ten-point scale with ratio properties. Analysis of the data indicated that RPE was strongly correlated to both MPF: r2 = (-).922, and RMS: r2 = .729. These data imply that during sustained isometric exercise changes in perceived exertion are related closely to electromyographic activity of the contracting muscle.


This study aims to examine the determinants of poverty dynamics in Indonesia. This study applies the spell approach of poverty experience and the ordered logit model to identify the poverty status of households: poor, transient poor (-), transient poor (+) and non-poor. Observing the Susenas balanced panel dataset of 2005 and 2007 covering 8,726 households, we found that 28% of poor households classified as poor (remained poor in two periods) while 7% of non-poor households are vulnerable to being transient poor (-). Our estimations confirmed that the important factors of poverty dynamics in Indonesia are educational attainment, number of household members, physical assets, employment status, health shocks, access to electricity, and changes in the household size, in the working sector and in the microcredit program. We also found that households living in Java-Bali are more vulnerable to negative shocks while households living outside Java-Bali are relatively resilient to negative shocks.


The paper presents the results of studies of tribological properties of the contact of the tool steel composition Fe-18W-4Cr-1,2V with the magnesium alloy AZ91D strengthened by submicron powder filling out of SiC and severe plastic deformation (SPD), namely equalchannel angular pressing (ECAP). It is stated that introduction of SiC powder filling to the magnesium alloy the friction coefficient on the moving frictional contact increases, the wear rate reduces. These tribotecnical characteristics are influenced by the size and volume of the particles of powder filling, normal loading force and slip rate. SPD of the initial material results in reduction of the adhesion constituent of the friction coefficient.


Sour rot is characterized by increased volatile acidity (VA) in ripe grapes. VA is associated with spoilage organisms and wineries may reject grape crops based on their concentration of acetic acid. Our research associated Hanseniaspora uvarum, Gluconobacter oxydans, and to a lesser extent, Gluconobacter cerinus and Acetobacter malorum with sour rotted grapes in the Niagara Peninsula, designated viticultural area, Ontario, Canada, and the pathogenicity of these organisms was confirmed by laboratory assays. Only G. oxydans was shown to penetrate around the site of pedicel attachment to the grape. The yeasts required further wounding. Candida zemplinina was also associated with the sour rot microbial community. This species showed variable pathogenicity by strain and most strains were not highly pathogenic. C. zemplinina gained dominance in the microbial population of grapes only after sour rot symptoms were observed, indicating a succession which was studied in laboratory assays. There was a correlation between temperature, moisture, and berry ripeness and the development of sour rot when conditions were monitored in a Vitis vinifera cv. Riesling vineyard over four years, and this was confirmed in laboratory assays. Disease management options are limited since sour rot is caused by a complex of yeasts and bacteria, with symptoms developing just as grapes approach maturity. Post-veraison treatments for sour rot were investigated. Wineries routinely add potassium metabisulphite (KMS) to the surface of fruit in bins and to grape juice to kill spoilage organisms. Replicated field trials were conducted in V. vinifera cv. Riesling in 2010 and 2011 to determine the efficacy of KMS at different concentrations and pre-harvest timings as a fruiting-zone spray. Potassium bicarbonate (Milstop) was also evaluated for its efficacy against sour rot. Plots were rated for incidence and severity of sour rot and VA (g acetic acid/L juice). KMS treatments at concentrations above 5 kg/1000L and Milstop sprayed at the label concentration of 5.6 kg/1000L were able to reduce the severity of sour rot compared to untreated control plots which had a severity above 50% (2011). KMS was able to reduce VA to below the winery rejection threshold of 0.24 g acetic acid/L when sour rot severity reached 12% in untreated plots (2010). When tested in the laboratory in disk diffusion assays conducted on yeast peptone dextrose agar, KMS at a concentration of 10 g/L had the greatest efficacy against G. oxydans and H. uvarum. Grape incubation assays showed the potential of KMS acidified with tartaric acid to reduce sour rot symptoms. Acidification did not show as much potential in field trials, calling for further research.


Learning to program is difficult with many students struggling to master fundamental abstract concepts. This results in high dropout and failure rates on computer science and information technology degrees as programming tends to be one of the first modules taken. At Maynooth University (MU) the number of students taking introductory programming modules has increased by 300% in the last ten years. Coupled with this is a large increase in student diversity most notably in academic ability and motivation for pursing a first year course in computer science. This paper documents numerous interventions implemented at the department of Computer Science at MU in an attempt to improve engagement, performance and student learning experience. A brief overview of each intervention is provided. A longer synopsis of our most sustainable intervention to date is described. The paper concludes with recommendations for other institutions on how best to implement this intervention when faced with a similar problem.


Environmental ethicists typically consider Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative action to exclude moral consideration for nonhuman animals. Habermas's early work indeed limits relationships with nature to instrumental ones. Yet, interspersed throughout Habermas's writings are clear indications that nonhuman life deserves moral consideration, and that humans can enter into communicative relationships with nonhumans, however asymmetrical. Habermas's anthropocentric theoretical foundations can achieve a revised, reflective equilibrium congruent with his persistent intuitions that nonhumans also possess powers of communication (but not discourse) that would grant them moral consideration, perhaps allowing us to enter into non-linguistic interspecies communicative activity. Habermasians can incorporate non-instrumental relationships with nature into discourse ethics' set of applications without ignoring the special role of language in communication. Rather than holding that the differencia specifica between humans and nonhumans exists in communication, it makes more sense instead to displace this distinction between communicative action as a general category and the special case of discourse. Doing so permits intuitions of nonhuman moral considerability and communicative possibility without altering the discursive core of Habermas's theory.


Grasping highly deformable objects, like textiles,
is an emerging area of research that involves both percep-
tion and manipulation abilities. As new techniques appear,
it becomes essential to design strategies to compare them.
However, this is not an easy task, since the large state-space
of textile objects explodes when coupled with the variability
of grippers, robotic hands and robot arms performing the
manipulation task. This high variability makes it very difficult
to design experiments to evaluate the performance of a system
in a repeatable way and compare it to others. We propose
a framework to allow the comparison of different grasping
methods for textile objects.
Instead of measuring each component separately, we there-
fore propose a methodology to explicitly measure the vision-
manipulation correlation by taking into account the throughput
of the actions. Perceptions of deformable objects should be
grouped into different clusters, and the different grasping
actions available should be tested for each perception type to
obtain the action-perception success ratio. This characterization
potentially allows to compare very different systems in terms
of
specialized actions
,
perceptions
or
widely useful actions
, along
with the cost of performing each action. We will also show
that this categorization is useful in manipulation planning of
deformable objects.


All the conventional methods for residual statics analysis require normal moveout (NMO) correction applied on the seismic data. The statics estimates from these methods are affected by the inaccurate velocity information and the NMO time variant effects. These can be easily demonstrated by experiments with different NMO velocity fields and with different horizon pickings. We present a new method that is designed to estimate residual statics before NMO correction. This method is based on the concept that migration and its inverse operation (modeling) can provide reference correlating traces for the undesired time shift estimation. Equivalent offset migration (EOM) technique introduces a new way to perform pre-stack Kirchhoff time migration. An intermediate step of this migration is to construct a new pre-stack data volume called CSP gathers. This construction process is a partial migration process that does not involve any time direction energy distribution. This no-time-shift partial migration and its inverse operation make up a faster and better way to create static model data by "migration-modeling" technique. And, the partial migration and its inverse operation are both insensitive to preliminary velocity information. In addition, an asymptotic solution for the CSP gather construction, which is basically related to post-stack migration, is totally velocity independent. We present some results from synthetic and real seismic data. The statics estimated by our method are comparable to the results from conventional methods.


Deteriorating power quality is becoming increasingly common in developed countries. Poor power quality, also known as dirty electricity, refers to a combination of harmonics and transients generated primarily by electronic devices and by non-linear loads. We have assumed, until recently, that this form of energy is not biologically active. However, when Graham/Stetzer™ filters were installed in homes and schools, symptoms associated with electrical hypersensitivity (such as chronic fatigue, depression, headaches, body aches and pains, ringing in the ears, dizziness, impaired sleep, memory loss, and confusion) were reduced. Five case studies are presented that include one healthy individual; one person with electrical hypersensitivity; another with diabetes; and a person with multiple sclerosis. Results for 18 teachers and their classes at a school in Toronto are also presented. These individuals experienced major to moderate improvements in their health and wellbeing after Graham/Stetzer filters improved power quality in their home or work environment. The results suggest that poor power quality may be contributing to electrical hypersensitivity and that as much as 50% of the population may be hypersensitive; children may be more sensitive than adults and dirty electricity in schools may be interfering with education and possibly contributing to disruptive behavior associated with attention deficit disorder (ADD); dirty electricity may elevate plasma glucose levels among diabetics, and exacerbate symptoms for those with multiple sclerosis and tinnitus. Graham/Stetzer filters and meters enable individuals to monitor and improve power quality in buildings and they provide scientists with a tool for studying the effects of dirty electricity. For the first time we can progress from simply documenting electrical hypersensitivity to alleviating some of the symptoms. These results are dramatic and warrant further investigation. If they are representative of what is happening worldwide, then dirty electricity is adversely affecting the lives of millions of people.


Incentive compatibility (IC) is a desirable property for any auction mechanism, including those used in online advertising. However, in real world applications practical constraints and complex environments often result in mechanisms that lack incentive compatibility. Recently, several papers investigated the problem of deploying black-box statistical tests to determine if an auction mechanism is incentive compatible by using the notion of IC-Regret that measures the regret of a truthful bidder. Unfortunately, most of those methods are computationally intensive, since they require the execution of many counterfactual experiments. In this work, we show that similar results can be obtained using the notion of IC-Envy. The advantage of IC-Envy is its efficiency: it can be computed using only the auction's outcome. In particular, we focus on position auctions. For position auctions, we show that for a large class of pricing schemes (which includes e.g. VCG and GSP), IC-Envy ≥ IC-Regret (and IC-Envy = IC-Regret under mild supplementary conditions). Our theoretical results are completed showing that, in the position auction environment, IC-Envy can be used to bound the loss in social welfare due to the advertiser untruthful behavior. Finally, we show experimentally that IC-Envy can be used as a feature to predict IC-Regret in settings not covered by the theoretical results. In particular, using IC-Envy yields better results than training models using only price and value features.


Embedded systems normally involve a combination of hardware and software resources designed to perform dedicated tasks. Such systems have widely crept into industrial control, automotive, networking, and consumer products. These systems require efficient devices that occupy small area and consume low power. The device area can be minimized by reusing the same hardware for different applications. If possible, reconfiguring the hardware to adapt to the application needs is important for reducing execution time and/or power consumption. Partial reconfiguration facilitates minimum hardware changes to form a new configuration. We have designed a reconfigurable vector processor for embedded applications. Benchmark results on Xilinx FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) are presented involving partial reconfiguration for embedded applications that process vectors. Two approaches are studied toward performance evaluation. The first one estimates the required partial reconfiguration time based on the resources consumed by the corresponding vector kernels. The second approach uses the actual measurement of partial reconfiguration time on a platform that supports a particular type of partial reconfiguration. More than 20% performance improvement has been observed for benchmark kernels, without neglecting the reconfiguration overhead. A framework is proposed as well to efficiently manage the reconfiguration overhead for applications involving multiple kernels.


The next generation of mobile telecommunication, 5G, will be specified in the near future. One of the proposed changes relative to the previous generation, 4G,is the inclusion of a new system control plane (SCP). The purpose of the SCP is to improve system scalability, forward compatibility, peak performance and to enable a higher degree of support for advanced antenna techniques. This is done by logically separating data transmitted explicitly from and to the user, the dynamic transmissions, from the broadcasted transmissions that remain constant regardless of user activity, the static transmissions, and by then redesigning the static part to make it more lean. This is expected to have several positive effects such as considerably more free resources, resulting in energy savings and potentially increased usage of MIMO. Knowing what effect the SCP has upon aspects such as random access is of importance when designing the solution that will go into the standard.Simulations show that there is potential in the inclusion of the new SCP. While the simulated 5G candidate systems that include the SCP have an increased delay when running the random access procedure, some aspects of the procedure have been improved. The main differences relative to the simulated 4G system are the performance of the first message in the procedure, which increased, and the performance of the second message in the procedure, which decreased. The deficiencies found in the handling of the second message, however, can be alleviated by using a more proper algorithm and channel design than what was used in this study.


The unequivocal sign of creativity in science is the emergence of previously unrecognized links between facts, concepts, strategies and goals. Observations and speculations become real discoveries as they partake in a network of conceptual implications, thus becoming significant to knowledge. The anticipation of acquiring new beneficial knowledge has always motivated the work of scientists and spurred unconventional thinking, often leading to scientific discoveries that have affected our perception of reality, nature and life. The desire of new revolutionary, paradigm-breaking understanding pushes science toward topics relevant for our metaphysical or even religious perspective on reality: the boundaries of the cosmos, consciousness, the constituents of matter, the destiny of the universe and so on. In this article we offer a short description of the state of the art in the origin of life research and describe examples of creative thinking in this field. We will also discuss the far reaching implications of the direction underlying the most recent research efforts and visions. The occasion for this discussion is given by the recent finding involving the authors, of a new mechanism of molecular self-association: namely, the self-assembly of extremely short fragments of DNA or RNA into large scale ordered structures which could help explaining the prebiotic formation of polymers.


Motivated by applications in energy management, this paper presents the Multi-Armed Risk-Aware Bandit (MARAB) algorithm. With the goal of limiting the exploration of risky arms, MARAB takes as arm quality its conditional value at risk. When the user-supplied risk level goes to 0, the arm quality tends toward the essential infimum of the arm distribution density, and MARAB tends toward the MIN multi-armed bandit algorithm, aimed at the arm with maximal minimal value. As a first contribution, this paper presents a theoretical analysis of the MIN algorithm under mild assumptions, establishing its robustness comparatively to UCB. The analysis is supported by extensive experimental validation of MIN and MARAB compared to UCB and state-of-art risk-aware MAB algorithms on artificial and real-world problems.


In exploring the spiritual dimensions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and writings, this new book not only fills a crucial gap in Bonhoeffer studies but it also brings to the fore those aspects of his thought that can inform and inspire moral leadership today. "The Cost of Moral Leadership" probes the spirituality of this modern Christian martyr and shows how his spiritual life formed him into an exceptional moral leader in a period known for grievous immorality. Geffrey Kelly and F. Burton Nelson explore Bonhoeffer's spirituality in the context of his life story, his work for social justice, his Christocentric theology, his emphasis on discipleship, his preaching, and his prolific writing.


In this paper, we propose a new dual optical encryption method for binary data and secret key based on 2-step phase-shifting digital holography for a cryptographic system. Schematically, the proposed optical setup contains two Mach-Zehnder type interferometers. The inner interferometer is used for encrypting the secret key with the common key, while the outer interferometer is used for encrypting the binary data with the same secret key. 2-step phase-shifting digital holograms, which result in the encrypted data, are acquired by moving the PZT mirror with phase step of 0 or π/2 in the reference beam path of the Mach-Zehnder type interferometer. The digital hologram with the encrypted information is a Fourier transform hologram and is recorded on CCD with 256 gray level quantized intensities. Computer experiments show the results to be encryption and decryption carried out with the proposed method. The decryption of binary secret key image and data image is performed successfully.


There is a growing demand for composites to be utilised in the production of large-scale components within the aerospace industry. In particular the demand to increase production rates indicates that traditional manual methods are no longer sufficient, and automated solutions must be sought. This typically leads to automated forming processes where there are a limited number of effective options. The need for forming typically arises from the inability of layup methods to produce complex geometries of structural components. This paper reviews the current state of the art in automated forming processes, their limitations and variables that affect performance in the production of large scale components. In particular the paper will focus on the application of force and heat within secondary forming processes. It will then review the effects of these variables against the structure of the required composite component and identify viability of the technology. Through this, an understanding of the key criteria involved in the forming of composite aerospace components can be utilised to better inform improved manufacturing processes and capabilities.


A tripartite transcription factor complex mediates an interferon-independent antiviral response. An interferon-independent antiviral defense Virally infected cells produce type I interferons (IFNs), which stimulate the phosphorylation and activation of the STAT1 and STAT2 transcription factors. When combined with the transcriptional regulator IRF9, phosphorylated STAT1 and STAT2 form the ISGF3 complex, which drives the expression of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) that are important for antiviral immunity. Wang et al. report the formation of an alternative form of ISGF3, U-ISGF3, which drove the expression of ISGs and protected cells from viral infection in the absence of detection of detectable IFN or IFN signaling. In addition to IRF9, U-ISGF3 contained unphosphorylated STAT1 and STAT2. Together, these data suggest that U-ISGF3 drives constitutive expression of ISGs as part of an IFN-independent, antiviral immune response. Interferon (IFN)–stimulated genes (ISGs) are antiviral effectors that are induced by IFNs through the formation of a tripartite transcription factor ISGF3, which is composed of IRF9 and phosphorylated forms of STAT1 and STAT2. However, we found that IFN-independent ISG expression was detectable in immortalized cell lines, primary intestinal and liver organoids, and liver tissues. The constitutive expression of ISGs was mediated by the unphosphorylated ISGF3 (U-ISGF3) complex, consisting of IRF9 together with unphosphorylated STAT1 and STAT2. Under homeostatic conditions, STAT1, STAT2, and IRF9 were found in the nucleus. Analysis of a chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data set revealed that STAT1 specifically bound to the promoters of ISGs even in the absence of IFNs. Knockdown of STAT1, STAT2, or IRF9 by RNA interference led to the decreased expression of various ISGs in Huh7.5 human liver cells, which was confirmed in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) from STAT1−/−, STAT2−/−, or IRF9−/− mice. Furthermore, decreased ISG expression was accompanied by increased replication of hepatitis C virus and hepatitis E virus. Conversely, simultaneous overexpression of all ISGF3 components, but not any single factor, induced the expression of ISGs and inhibited viral replication; however, no phosphorylated STAT1 and STAT2 were detected. A phosphorylation-deficient STAT1 mutant was comparable to the wild-type protein in mediating the IFN-independent expression of ISGs and antiviral activity, suggesting that ISGF3 works in a phosphorylation-independent manner. These data suggest that the U-ISGF3 complex is both necessary and sufficient for constitutive ISG expression and antiviral immunity under homeostatic conditions.


Adolescence is a difficult time but it is particularly difficult for those who have experienced sexual abuse. In 'Creative Therapy: Adolescents Overcoming Child Sexual Abuse', authors Kate Ollier and Angela Hobday provide ways of working with teenagers to help them regain confidence and feel positive about their future and to make their therapeutic journey a stimulating yet emotionally stabilising time. As each person reacts differently, 'Creative Therapy' has a wide variety of activities and coping strategies that can be tailored to the individual. It offers over 100 activities, using a multi-modal approach designed to make therapy both effective and, as far as possible, fun. The activities cover many areas of need for survivors of sexual abuse, from learning to recognise and regulate emotion to self-identity and coping strategies on which the young person can build a bright future. A practical therapy book, it is certain to appeal to all therapists working in the area of abuse. Even the most experienced professional is likely to be inspired by the range of lively ideas dealing with a very difficult subject.


Domestic service activities as basic dwelling necessities are inevitably required and performed as essential part of living spaces in any house types. The spatial arrangement of domestic service activities might be problematic in dwellings with limited spatial size, as found in housings for low income occupants. This paper examines various spatial strategies for domestic service activities in urban kampung houses, through the development of a dwelling typology based on the spatial organization of domestic service space. It attempts to analyze urban kampung houses beyond the common differentiation of dwelling space in which domestic service spaces tend to be associated with the back of the house region. It also acknowledges the context of urban kampung housing with certain neighborhood social structure and collective uses of spaces. The findings suggest various spatial strategies in allocating domestic service activities within the available space, including the use of the front region of the house, the outdoor extension of house space, as well as collective uses of space for certain domestic service activities. Redefining the typology of houses based on the spatial arrangement of domestic service activities could provide an insight into specific characteristics of urban kampung living with specific spatiality for domestic service.


Vacuolar ATPases (V-ATPases) are present in specialized proton secretory cells in which they pump protons across the membranes of various intracellular organelles and across the plasma membrane. The proton transport mechanism is electrogenic and establishes an acidic pH and a positive transmembrane potential in these intracellular and extracellular compartments. V-ATPases have been found to be practically identical in terms of the composition of their subunits in all eukaryotic cells. They have two distinct structures: a peripheral catalytic sector (V1) and a hydrophobic membrane sector (V0) responsible for driving protons. V-ATPase activity is regulated by three different mechanisms, which control pump density, association/dissociation of the V1 and V0 domains, and secretory activity. The C subunit is a 40-kDa protein located in the V1 domain of V-ATPase. The protein is encoded by the ATP6V1C gene and is located at position 22 of the long arm of chromosome 8 (8q22.3). The C subunit has very important functions in terms of controlling the regulation of the reversible dissociation of V-ATPases.


In electronic business environment, it is critical for an enterprise to assess information systems security (ISS) risks. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach for ISS risk assessment. Given there is a great deal of uncertainty in the ISS risk assessment, in the hybrid approach, we combine the evidence theory with fuzzy sets to deal with the uncertain evidence found in the ISS risk assessment. The proposed approach provides a new way to define the basic belief assignment in fuzzy measure. Moreover, the approach also provides a method of testing the evidential consistency, which can reduce the uncertainty derived from the conflicts of evidence. Finally, the approach is further demonstrated and validated via a case study, in which the effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated by comparing it with other methods.


In this paper, we analyze a performance model for the TCP Congestion Avoidance algorithm. The model predicts the bandwidth of a sustained TCP connection subjected to light to moderate packet losses, such as loss caused by network congestion. It assumes that TCP avoids retransmission timeouts and always has sufficient receiver window and sender data. The model predicts the Congestion Avoidance performance of nearly all TCP implementations under restricted conditions and of TCP with Selective Acknowledgements over a much wider range of Internet conditions.We verify the model through both simulation and live Internet measurements. The simulations test several TCP implementations under a range of loss conditions and in environments with both drop-tail and RED queuing. The model is also compared to live Internet measurements using the TReno diagnostic and real TCP implementations.We also present several applications of the model to problems of bandwidth allocation in the Internet. We use the model to analyze networks with multiple congested gateways; this analysis shows strong agreement with prior work in this area. Finally, we present several important implications about the behavior of the Internet in the presence of high load from diverse user communities.


Compilation and synthesis of neotectonic data from the Great Basin region (western U.S.), based on 173 published studies for 171 faults across the region, offer an unprecedented view into the spatiotemporal evolution of strain release in continental domains, at time scales of 1 k.y. to 1 m.y.

The results indicate a mean vertical surface displacement for normal faulting earthquakes of 2 m (approximately two-thirds of events in the 1–3 m range). The distribution of earthquake recurrence intervals is more scattered, with a mode of 1–3 k.y., a mean of 11 k.y., and 15% of recurrence intervals >20 k.y. While strike-slip faults nearest the plate boundary show relatively steady slip rates through time, northern Great Basin normal faults have had marked temporal slip-rate variations in the Quaternary. Since 15 ka, strain release has been concentrated near the margins (fault slip rates to 1–2 mm/yr), with the central region being nearly inactive. However, over the past 150 k.y., finite deformation is more evenly distributed as faults show more uniform slip rates (0.2–0.3 mm/yr) consistent with their long-term rates. The paleo-earthquake distribution since ca. 60 ka shows two kinematic patterns: local clusters (episodes of events repeated on a single fault) and regionally distributed faulting (episodes of events distributed across several parallel faults, each with a single event). We thus propose a model for northern Great Basin normal faults where they alternate between (1) transient fast periods (1–2 mm/yr) lasting ∼50 k.y., characterized by local clusters; and (2) transient slow periods (0.05–0.1 mm/yr) lasting 200–400 k.y., characterized by regional distributed faulting.


Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) have shown promise in augmenting people's control of their surroundings, especially for those suffering from paralysis due to neurological disorders. This paper describes an experiment using the rodent model to explore information available in neural signals recorded from chronically implanted intracortical microelectrode arrays. In offline experiments, a number of neural feature extraction methods were utilized to obtain neural activity vectors (NAVs) describing the activity of the underlying neural population while rats performed a discrimination task. The methods evaluated included standard techniques such as binned spike rates and local field potential spectra as well as more novel approaches including matched-filter energy, raw signal spectra, and an autocorrelation energy measure (AEM) approach. Support vector machines (SVMs) were trained offline to classify left from right going movements by utilizing features contained in the NAVs obtained by the different methods. Each method was evaluated for accuracy and robustness. Results show that most algorithms worked well for decoding neural signals both during and prior to movement, with spectral methods providing the best stability


In New York City, a partnership between Teach For America (TFA), the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), the Relay Graduate School of Education (Relay), and three charter school networks produced a parallel education structure within the public school system. Driving the partnership and the parallel education structure are the free market ideologies that emerged in the late 1970s that helped to open education to outside organizations. This paper captures two intertwined phenomena; the formation of the parallel education structure and the various partnerships that helped built it. This has resulted in two unique pathways within the public school system. One pathway focuses upon local area conventional public schools that are administered by the NYCDOE. The other pathway represents failing local area public schools that are run by charter school networks. This paper looks beyond TFA's current influence within the classroom and explores how market forces led to its role with other educational organizations.


We determine the lateral variations in seismic velocity of the lithospheric mantle beneath the Gulf of Aden and its margins by inversion of Pn (upper mantle high-frequency compressional P wave) traveltimes. Data for this study were collected by several temporary seismic networks and from the global catalogue. A least-squares tomographic algorithm is used to solve for velocity variations in the mantle lithosphere. In order to separate shallow and deeper structures, we use separate inversions for shorter and longer ray path data. High Pn velocities (8.2–8.4 km/s) are observed in the uppermost mantle beneath Yemen that may be related to the presence of magmatic underplating of the volcanic margins of Aden and the Red Sea. Zones of low velocity (7.7 km/s) are present in the shallow upper mantle beneath Sana'a, Aden, Afar, and along the Gulf of Aden that are likely related to melt transport through the lithosphere feeding active volcanism. Deeper within the upper mantle, beneath the Oman margin, a low-velocity zone (7.8 km/s) suggests a deep zone of melt accumulation. Our results provide evidence that the asthenosphere undergoes channelized flow from the Afar hotspot toward the east along the Aden and Sheba Ridges.


JACKSON, D. W. T., ANFUSO, G. AND LYNCH, K., 2007. Swash bar dynamics on a high-energy mesotidal beach. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 738 – 745. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 Swash bar dynamics can be an important constituent of beach dynamics, playing a significant role in post storm recovery of displaced beach systems. However, their low amplitude and dynamic nature make them difficult to monitor and thus challenging in terms of unravelling their evolutionary patterns. This study makes use of sensitive measurement techniques to measure fine scale (vertical) changes of an advancing swash bar over several tidal cycles. The coincidence of moving from neaps to springs in this period, alongside a relatively steady set of wave conditions, highlighted the high importance of tidal stage level in controlling swash bar dynamics. A high resolution shallow water wave model (SWAN) was also run with the empirical measurements of wave and beach response to produce wave force (on seabed) predictions over the swash and trough zones of the beach. The latter showed a close correlation between model results and bed response.


Quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) exchanges between agricultural field and the atmosphere is essential for understanding the contribution of various production systems to the total emissions, develop mitigation options and policies, raise awareness and encourage adoption. But, GHG quantification from smallholder agricultural landscape is challenging primarily because of the heterogeneity of production systems. Various methods have been developed over years to quantify GHG fluxes between agricultural ecosystem and atmosphere. In this paper, we reviewed and analysed the common methods with regard to their scale and precision of quantification, cost effectiveness, prospects and limitations focusing mainly on smallholder production systems. As most of the quantification methods depend on ground data and due to data deficit for smallholder systems, field measurement must be an essential part of GHG emission inventories under such systems. Chamber-based method is a principal approach for field level quantification under smallholder production system mainly because of its cost effectiveness, portability and adoptability under diverse field conditions. However, direct measurement of GHG for all mosaics of smallholder production landscape is impractical and therefore use of models becomes imperative. Here, selection of suitable models and their rigorous parameterization, calibration and validation under various production environments are necessary in order to obtain meaningful emission estimation. After proper validation, linking dynamic ecosystem models to geographic information system (GIS) helps estimating GHG emission within reasonable time and cost. Integration of different approaches such as chamber-based measurement to generate field data, simulation modelling by using empirical as well as process-based models coupled with use of satellite imagery may provide a robust estimate of GHGs emission than use of a single approach.


Most of the Structural Actions are designed as an incentive to increase public investment in less-developed areas. However, we suspect that the efficiency of the policy is related to the level of fiscal autonomy of the subsidized government. In this paper we construct a paned data model in order to estimate the role of fiscal federalism on the effectiveness of the EU Structural Actions in enhancing public investment. We use data from the seventeen Spanish regions for the period 1993-2007. The estimation is run upon three alternative strategies: firstly we break the sample according to the level of fiscal autonomy of the units; secondly, we insert an interaction term capturing the join effect of both variables, fiscal decentralization and EU Structural Actions; finally, we estimate a simultaneous equation model in which public investment and the EU transfers are decided simultaneously. Results unambiguously support the hypothesis that the effectiveness of the Structural Funds decreases with larger decentralization. Our results suggest also that this could be due to the fact that regions find it more difficult to be eligible for additional EUSF as they gain fiscal autonomy. The general conclusions include the recommendation that the future design of the European Cohesion policy should take into account the heterogeneity of Fiscal Federalism across the Member States in order to the get the most out of it.


Internet and mobile users have been using financial institutions' alternative channels for their financial transactions with an increasing rate. In order to avoid frauds, the financial institutions make use of second factor authentication tokens such as one-time passwords sent to mobile phones as text. Another trend of such transaction verification is utilizing fully cryptographic protocols, in which the transactions are signed by the users. In the implementation of such an approach, in order to provide end-to-end security between the financial institution and its client, each client must have a public-private key pair. In some cases, especially for small-scale institutions, such a transaction verification system is fully outsourced as a Cloud service including clients' public keys. However, even in this outsourced model, the institutions need to access their clients' public keys for end-to-end security. In such a case, in order to provide privacy of the clients against the outsourced database, we need a privacy-preserving public key repository. In this thesis, we developed such a privacy-preserving public key repository based on Path ORAM mechanism. We have developed adaptation layers for Path ORAM so that the queries are performed via regular SQL queries and the data is stored in a regular relational database, rather than Path ORAM's non-standard data structure. In this way, the non-standard features are hidden from both the financial institutions and the Cloud provider. We analyzed the performance of our system under different database sizes, network connection models and query types. We conclude that such a Path ORAM based system is feasible to be used in a practical system since even with a regular computer used as a server, the computational overhead is at marginal level.


Active vision is a dynamic process involving the flexible coordination of different gaze strategies to achieve behavioral goals. Although many complex behaviors rely on an ability to efficiently switch between gaze-control strategies, few studies to date have examined mechanisms of task level oculomotor control in detail. Here, we report five experiments in which subjects alternated between conflicting stimulus-saccade mappings within a block of trials. The first experiment showed that there is no performance cost associated with switching between pro and anti saccades. However, follow-up experiments demonstrate that whenever subjects alternate between arbitrary stimulus-saccade mappings, latency costs are apparent on the first trial after a task change. More detailed analysis of switch costs showed that latencies were particularly elevated for saccades directed toward the same location that had been the target for a saccade on the preceeding trial. This saccade "inhibition of return" effect was most marked when unexpected error feedbacks cued task switches, suggesting that saccade selection processes are modulated by reward. We conclude that there are two systems for saccade control that differ in their characteristics following a task switch. The "reflexive" control system can be enabled/disabled in advance of saccade execution without incurring any performance cost. Switch costs are only observed when two or more arbitrary stimulus-saccade mappings have to be coordinated by a "symbolic" control system.


Venezuela is a textbook example of a resource-dependent country—between 1950 and 2008, oil generated over a trillion dollars of income for the state. Nevertheless, Venezuela currently combines an economy that is stagnant, despite high oil prices, with an increasingly authoritarian government. The authors argue that large oil rents that accrue to the state, together with a lack of formal and transparent mechanisms to facilitate citizen oversight, are a large part of the problem. They consider the nature of the fiscal contract between the Venezuelan government and its people. This has been characterized by increasing discretion of the executive; only a small share of the rents is now subject to political oversight within the framework of the budgetary system. The authors consider the case for direct distribution of rents, distinguishing it from a populist approach to transfers as effected through Venezuela's misiones. They also report on focus group discussions of the direct- distribution approach and the political viability of direct transfers.


Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening protozoal infection chiefly impinging the rural and poor population in the tropical and sub-tropical countries. The deadly affliction is rapidly expanding after its association with AIDS, swiftly defying its status of a neglected disease. Despite successful formulation of vaccine against canine leishmaniasis, no licensed vaccine is yet available for human VL, chemotherapy is in appalling state, and the development of new candidate drugs has been painfully slow. In face of lack of proper incentives, immunostimulatory plant preparations owing antileishmanial efficacy bear potential to rejuvenate awful antileishmanial chemotherapy. We have earlier reported profound leishmanicidal activity of Piper nigrum hexane (PNH) seeds and P. nigrum ethanolic (PNE) fractions derived from P. nigrum seeds against Leishmania donovani promastigotes and amastigotes. In the present study, we illustrate that the remarkable anti-promastigote activity exhibited by PNH and PNE is mediated via apoptosis as evidenced by phosphatidylserine externalization, DNA fragmentation, arrest in sub G0/G1 phase, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and generation of reactive oxygen species. Further, P. nigrum bioactive fractions rendered significant protection to L. donovani infected BALB/c mice in comparison to piperine, a known compound present in Piper species. The substantial therapeutic potential of PNH and PNE was accompanied by elicitation of cell-mediated immune response. The bioactive fractions elevated the secretion of Th1 (INF-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2) cytokines and declined IL-4 and IL-10. PNH and PNE enhanced the production of IgG2a, upregulated the expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD80 and CD86, augmented splenic CD4+ and CD8+ T cell population, induced strong lymphoproliferative and DTH responses and partially stimulated NO production. PNH and PNE were devoid of any hepatic or renal toxicity. These encouraging findings merit further exploration of P. nigrum bioactive fractions as a source of potent and non-toxic antileishmanials.


IETF 6LowPan working group defines IPv6 over low-power personal area
network (IEEE 802.15.4). IEEE 802.15.4 link layer does not have
multicast support, although it supports broadcast. Due to the nature
of LowPan network or sensor networks, broadcast messages should be
minimized. This document suggests some optimizations to IPv6 Neighbor
Discovery related multicast messages in order to reduce signaling in
the low-cost low-powered network.


Summary The article examines in what sense various donors understand and interpret the term 'partnership' and whether relations between local NGOs and their donors actually fulfill the meaning of this term in Cambodia. The article contrasts supporting schemes to NGOs by Japanese government aid, by Oxfam Great Britain and Cooperation Internationale pour 1e Developpement et la Solidarite (CIDSE). The question posed is: which scheme and conditions appear to promote partnership better, especially in terms of accountability to the ultimate target beneficiaries? The post‐genocidal civil war in Cambodia seriously damaged any notion of community. Consequently, evidence indicates that donors that assist the capacity‐building of Cambodian NGOs and those particularly concerned with community organising are more likely to establish a relationship and assistance that is more accountable to the beneficiaries. They do so by basing 'partnership' on an organisational rather than project‐focused relationship with Cambodian NGOs and communities. On the other hand, it appears that donors that do not support the capacity‐building of Cambodian NGOs, but only support project implementation, lack interest in ensuring accountability of their projects to the poor. Such an approach to partnership is more prone to making both international and local NGOs accountable to donors as project implementors, rather than to their partners and their beneficiaries.


Soil analyses have been carried out in permafrost environment in Victoria Land, Continental Antarctica, in 9 sites, located along a latitudinal and geographical transect, covering 5 degrees (77° - 72°S). The samples have been collected in correspondence of long term monitoring sites within the network of the sensitive system permafrost-vegetation established for the assessment of climate change effects (Cannone and Guglielmin, 2003). Within each site the samples have been collected in different ecological and environmental conditions concerning active layer thickness, vegetation type and coverage, substrata, occurrence of glacial and periglacial features. In each site the vertical profile of the ground have been described and the samples have been collected within the active layer representing all the layers with visible differences regarding texture, structure and color.Organic C and N show specific patterns allowing to discriminate: a) vegetated vs unvegetated sites; b) among the unvegetated sites, ground with and without disturbance processes, mainly represented by frost heave and salt concrections. The barren grounds with frost heave and/or salt efflorescences show highest values of organic C and N. The highest value of organic C is associated to a buried gley horizon, and is compatible with the low rate of organic matter mineralization associated to the anaerobic environment producing this kind of layers. The vertical distribution of the measured parameters show regular patterns, with lower values at the surface, the maximum value at intermediate depth, and a decrease in the deeper parts of the profile. These depths are consistent with the values of active layer thickness characterizing the different sites.In the vegetated sites, organic C and N show different patterns related to the vegetation type and to their ecological requirements in terms of nutrient regime. The higher values are associated in particular with moss communities and with ground colonized by nitrophytic epilithic lichens. On inundated grounds the content of both organic C and N show an increase respect to sites located in the close nearby and with a similar vegetation occurring. This fact indicates the lower speed of mineralization processes of the organic substances and a tendency to peat production and accumulation. The vertical distribution of both organic C and N show two different patterns: a) the same pattern characterising the unvegetated sites, with the maximum values occurring at intermediate depth; b) a different accumulation rate, with the highest values associated to the more surficial layers and a progressive decrease with depth. The former one is typical of vegetation composed by lichens, indipendently from their growth form. The latter pattern is typical of moss communities developing directly on the ground and indicates that the greatest part of the organic substances is strictly associated to these living organisms. These patterns, as well as those associated to disturbance processes in the unvegetated sites, are highly susceptible of significant variations in response to climate change effects. Therefore, it is essential to include their analysis within the monitoring activities planned for the network of the sensitive system permafrost-vegetation as indicators of functional processes occurring in the physical environment and in the associated ecosystems. Furthermore, it is planed to study CO2 fluxes and the involved microbial community along the transect for understanding the carbon dynamic under changing environmental conditions.


This paper concerns the problem of determining an optimal control on the dividend and investment policy of a firm under debt constraints. We allow the company to make investment by increasing its outstanding indebtedness, which would impact its capital structure and risk profile, thus resulting in higher interest rate debts. Moreover, a high level of debt is also a challenging constraint to any firm, as it is the threshold below which the firm value should never go to avoid bankruptcy. It is equally possible for the firm to divest parts of its business in order to decrease its financial debt owed to creditors. In addition, the firm may favor investment by postponing or reducing any dividend distribution to shareholders. We formulate this problem as a combined singular and multiswitching control problem and use a viscosity solution approach to get qualitative descriptions of the solution. We further enrich our studies with a complete resolution of the problem in the two-regime case and provide some numeric...


'Florigraze' rhizoma peanut (Arachis glabrata Benth.) is a perennial, rhizomatous forage legume that is grown in Florida and the southern Gulf Coast. Little is known about total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) or N concentrations in plant parts of rhizoma peanut. Two field studies were conducted near Gainsville, FL on Arredondo loamy sands (loamy, siliceous, hyperthermic Grossarenic Paleudults) to determine (i) which plant component(s) serves as primary TNC and N storage organ(s), (ii) pattern of TNC and N accumulation in undisturbed plants, and (iii) effects of defoliation upon TNC and N. An establishment-year study was conducted in 1980 and 1981 using spaced plants, and a defoliation-frequency study (undefoliated vs. defoliated every 2, 6, or 8 wk) was conducted in 1981 on plants that were undisturbed in 1980. Entire plants (hills) were dug every 3 to 8 wk throughout the year and separated into shoots and primary and secondary rhizomes. Shoot TNC concentration showed no pattern of accumulation. Concentrations of TNC and N were similar in primary and secondary rhizomes. In new plantings, rhizome TNC declined in early-season to 100 g kg⁻¹, was low and variable (100–200 g kg⁻¹) from May through September, and increased to 400 g kg⁻¹ by November. Rhizome N declined from 30 g kg⁻¹ in spring to 20 g kg⁻¹ during the establishment year with a slight increase in autumn. All defoliation treatments reduced TNC and N concentrations of rhizomes compared to nondefoliated peanuts. Florigraze accumulates a high concentration of TNC (400–700 g kg⁻¹) in its rhizomes in autumn. Our data suggest that defoliation should be avoided for establishing plants and plants that will be used as a source of rhizomes for propagation. Contribution from Agron. Dep., IFAS, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville. Florida Agric. Exp. Stn. Journal Series no. R00929.


Motion parallax is one of the most important 3D clues for human vision perception. The majority of the monitors today display contents regardless of the user's viewpoint. In this demo, we track head/eye position of the viewer based on a web camera, and use that information to render view-dependent contents, adding motion parallax to essentially any display device. In the demo we will allow ICASSP participants to try out the system, and perceive the sensation of depth provided by the technology, which is much cheaper and complementary to stereoscopic displays.


Th e aim of this study was to investigate the composition and quality of Serbian honeydew honey. For this purpose, the physicochemical characteristics of 14 honeydew samples were analyzed. Th e physicochemical characteristics of all honeydew honeys from Serbia analyzed in this research can be considered to be within the parameters prescribed for honeydew in general. Th e sum value of glucose and fructose, the content of sucrose, water, hydroxymethylfurfural, acidity, and diastase activity were in line with European and national regulations for honey, for all investigated honeydew samples. Out of a total of 14 tested honey samples, 1 sample did not comply with the national regulations for honey regarding electrical conductivity. According to our results, in most of investigated samples the fructose/glucose (F/G) ratio was greater than 1.11 and glucose/water (G/W) ratio was close to 2. Th is means that they can be categorized as medium-crystallizing honeys. Th e results obtained in this study indicate excellent quality, absence of undesirable fermentation, acceptable freshness and proper manipulation of Serbian honeydews.


7000 series Aluminum alloys are widely used in the automotive industries for structural lightweight components due to their exceptional high strength to weight ratio. However, this class of aluminum alloy is difficult to join by conventional fusion welding techniques so Friction stir welding (FSW) widely is used for welding this alloys. The process has been demonstrated to be effective and is currently industrially utilized for materials difficult to be welded or "un weldable", especially aluminum and magnesium alloys. In this paper in order to predict the average grain size occurring in FSW of AA7050 plates due to the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) phenomena due to the welding process, a microstructure evolution model have been implemented in 3D fully coupled thermo-mechanical FEM in which the tool – work piece interaction in FSW of butt joint was investigated.


As the number of schools implementing systemic, schoolwide positive behavior support (PBS) processes expands (nationally, at least 5,000 schools are participating), increasing attention is being paid to the efficacy of implementation. This article describes a case study of the experiences of Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project, which used a systematic process to understand barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation of schoolwide positive behavior support by schools implementing at high and low levels of fidelity, and the degree to which the project could impact barriers and facilitators. Results indicate that schools implementing with low fidelity tend to identify practical, operational barriers, whereas schools implementing with high fidelity struggle with systems issues. Both high-implementing and low-implementing schools identified the same facilitators to implementation; however, they differed in their views of which facilitators the project could impact. Implications for state PBS project activities are discussed, along with suggestions for future data collection and providing a model of data-based decision making at a macro level.


Countries around the world are adopting market-oriented school choice reforms. Evidence shows that they affect both student and teacher sorting across school sectors. Previous studies have analyzed student and teacher sorting in isolation from each other. This is the first paper to unify parental school choice and teacher sorting in an equilibrium framework. Using data from the large-scale Chilean voucher plan, this paper extends the existing literature in three ways. First, it evaluates how much of the treatment effect of Chilean voucher schools is due to teacher quality. Second, it examines the welfare implications of school specialization in different types of students. Third, it evaluates the impact of school choice expansion with endogenous public and private school teacher quality. There are three main results. First, better teacher quality accounts for 19 percent of the private school effectiveness in Chile. Second, assortative matching of students to teachers by ability can be welfare improving for low-ability students if the schools that have less able teachers are also those that specialize in the weakest students. Third, under the Chilean plan, highly skilled teachers are attracted into private schools from outside of teaching, with only limited cream skimming of teachers from public schools.


We propose MDP-GapE, a new trajectory-based Monte-Carlo Tree Search algorithm for planning in a Markov Decision Process in which transitions have a finite support. We prove an upper bound on the number of calls to the generative models needed for MDP-GapE to identify a near-optimal action with high probability. This problem-dependent sample complexity result is expressed in terms of the sub-optimality gaps of the state-action pairs that are visited during exploration. Our experiments reveal that MDP-GapE is also effective in practice, in contrast with other algorithms with sample complexity guarantees in the fixed-confidence setting, that are mostly theoretical.


Scholars describe the one-drop rule - the idea that any African ancestry makes a person black - as the American regime of race. While accounts of when the rule emerged vary widely, ranging from the 1660s to the 1920s, most legal scholars have assumed that once established, the rule created a bright line that people were bound to follow. This Article reconstructs the one-drop rule's meaning and purpose from 1600 to 1860, setting it within the context of racial migration, the continual process by which people of African descent assimilated into white communities.While ideologies of blood-borne racial difference predate Jamestown, the rhetoric of purity was always undermined by the realities of mixture. Cases such as Hudgins v. Wright and State v. Cantey simultaneously strengthened and undermined the color line, expressing confidence in the permanence of racial difference while allowing people of color to become white. Instead of simply widening the racial divide, restrictions on the liberty and livelihoods of African Americans pushed many into whiteness. As more people became vulnerable to reclassification, courts acted to preserve social stability in Southern communities, shielding them from the insecurity that an insistence on racial purity would engender.The one-drop rule's transformation from ideological current to legal bright line and presumed social reality is a story not of slavery, but of freedom. In the 1840s and 1850s, the prospect of emancipation hastened the rule's spread as whites attempted to preserve property relations in slavery's absence. In Northern border states such as Ohio, the rule emerged by 1860 as a legal argument and a social attitude. The rule's ostensible opponents - abolitionists - propagated it, deploying it as a rhetorical weapon to symbolize slavery's cruelty and to argue that Northern whites could be enslaved. But the rule's ascent did not make it any more enforceable than it had ever been.


We show the financial press is more likely to cover firms with deteriorating performance. Our main tests illustrate the nature of the media's story selection process (i.e., what events to cover) and the usefulness of this selection process for forecasting firms' future earnings news and returns. We first show the media is approximately 11-to-19 percent more likely to cover a firm's earnings announcements if they convey poor performance. Similarly, in forecasting tests, greater media coverage predicts subsequently announced declines in firms' profitability and negative analyst-based earnings surprises. A simple long-short strategy betting against firms with high media coverage yields an average return of roughly 40 basis points per month, suggesting media coverage helps forecast future returns because the story selection process is titled toward novel negative events. Together, our findings highlight the usefulness of the media's coverage decisions in estimating expected returns, as well as a potential inference problem when researchers use media coverage to measure the extent of information dissemination and/or whether an information event occurred.


The Pacific has long been a space of conquest, exploration, fantasy, and resistance. Pacific Islanders had established civilisations and cultures of travel well before European explorers arrived, initiating centuries of upheaval and transformation. The twentieth century, with its various wars fought in and over the Pacific, is only the most recent era to witness military strife and economic competition. While "Asia Pacific" and "Pacific Rim" were late twentieth-century terms that dealt with the importance of the Pacific to the economic, political, and cultural arrangements that span Asia and the Americas, a new term has arisen--the transpacific. In the twenty-first century, U.S. efforts to dominate the ocean are symbolized not only in the "Pacific pivot" of American policy but also the development of a Transpacific Partnership. This partnership brings together a dozen countries--not including China--in a trade pact whose aim is to cement U.S. influence. That pact signals how the transpacific, up to now an academic term, has reached mass consciousness. Recognising the increasing importance of the transpacific as a word and concept, this anthology proposes a framework for transpacific studies that examines the flows of culture, capital, ideas, and labour across the Pacific. These flows involve Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands. The introduction to the anthology by its editors, Janet Hoskins and Viet Thanh Nguyen, consider the advantages and limitations of models found in Asian studies, American studies, and Asian American studies for dealing with these flows. The editors argue that transpacific studies can draw from all three in order to provide a critical model for considering the geopolitical struggle over the Pacific, with its attendant possibilities for inequality and exploitation. Transpacific studies also sheds light on the cultural and political movements, artistic works, and ideas that have arisen to contest state, corporate, and military ambitions. In sum, the transpacific as a concept illuminates how flows across the Pacific can be harnessed for purposes of both domination and resistance. The anthology's contributors include geographers (Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Weiqiang Lin), sociologists (Yen Le Espiritu, Hung Cam Thai), literary critics (John Carlos Rowe, J. Francisco Benitez, Yunte Huang, Viet Thanh Nguyen), and anthropologists (Xiang Biao, Heonik Kwon, Nancy Lutkehaus, Janet Hoskins), as well as a historian (Laurie J. Sears), and a film scholar (Akira Lippit). Together these contributors demonstrate how a transpacific model can be deployed across multiple disciplines and from varied locations, with scholars working from the United States, Singapore, Japan and England. Topics include the Cold War, the Chinese state, U.S. imperialism, diasporic and refugee cultures and economies, national cinemas, transpacific art, and the view of the transpacific from Asia. These varied topics are a result of the anthology's purpose in bringing scholars into conversation and illuminating how location influences the perception of the transpacific. But regardless of the individual view, what the essays gathered here collectively demonstrate is the energy, excitement, and insight that can be generated from within a transpacific framework.


Work on transversal competences in university degrees is a teaching line entirely established since the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Nevertheless, undergraduate students present shortcomings in the development of some of these competences, especially on collaborative work, time management, oral and writing expression, and on the use of information resources. This paper presents a virtual tool and associated guidelines to enhance the information management during the development of collaborative works, and to facilitate the information availability among the students. Moreover, this tool and the guideline improve the individual monitoring and evaluation of the contributions of the students to the work. The proposal presented in this work belongs to a teaching innovation project carried out in the Earth Sciences Faculty of the Universitat de Barcelona, and implemented in the subjects General Geology (first-year in the Engineering Geology degree, 6 ECTS) and Geochemistry (third-year course in the Geology degree, 9 ECTS)


This paper presents realization of positioning based on DTMB (Digital Television Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting) and GPS (Global Positioning System) in urban or indoor environment by means of a Software Defined Radio (SDR). DTMB signal's unique feature in super-frame is analyzed and a new correlation method without generating local PN sequence is proposed. Double delta correlator and Kalman filter are used in multipath mitigation, solution smoothing and position prediction. Real scenario tests have been performed to verify the validation of the hybrid positioning system combining DTMB and GPS, showing fast and reliable performance under GPS limited conditions.


Low meeting quality is often attributed to poorly planned and poorly led meetings. In recent years, an increasing number of scientific studies have examined the effects of principal meeting design characteristics on employees' perceptions of meeting satisfaction and effectiveness. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the literature and research on premeeting factors and design characteristics that have been identified as important: temporal characteristics related to how meeting time is used (e.g., starting and ending on time, pre-meeting talk), procedural characteristics that direct attendees' attention and efforts toward task-oriented activities (e.g., using a written agenda, setting clear goals), physical characteristics that relate to meeting settings and environments (e.g., appropriate venue quality, provision of refreshments), and characteristics of attendees. Our review shows how meeting leaders have the ability to design meetings more effectively and facilitate them in a manner that results in better outcomes. Based on the results of this review, we also discuss practical implications and directions for future research.


Address transformation schemes, such as skewing and linear transformations, have been proposed to achieve conflict-free access for streams with constant stride. However, this is achieved only for some strides. In this paper, we extend these schemes to achieve this conflict-free access for a larger number of strides. The basic idea is to perform an out-of-order access to a stream of fixed length. This stream is then stored in a local memory and used in subsequent instructions. This mode of operation is suitable for vector processors and for processors with decoupled access. The scheme and mode of operation proposed produce the largest possible number of conflict-free strides. Memory systems with any ratio between the number of memory modules and memory latency are considered. The hardware for address calculations and access control is described and shown to be of similar complexity as that required for access in order. >


In the nearly 60 years since Watson and Crick proposed the double helical structure of DNA, the molecule of heredity, waves of discoveries have made genetics the most thrilling field in the sciences. The study of genes and genomics today explores all aspects of the life with relevance in the lab, in the doctor's office, in the courtroom and even in social relationships. In this helpful guidebook, one of the most respected and accomplished human geneticists of our time communicates the importance of genes and genomics studies in all aspects of life. With the use of core concepts and the integration of extensive references, this book provides students and professionals alike with the most in-depth view of the current state of the science and its relevance across disciplines. * Bridges the gap between basic human genetic understanding and one of the most promising avenues for advances in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human disease. * Includes the latest information on diagnostic testing, population screening, predicting disease susceptibility, pharmacogenomics and more * Explores ethical, legal, regulatory and economic aspects of genomics in medicine. * Integrates historical (classical) genetics approach with the latest discoveries in structural and functional genomics


When the suppression of the falun gong started in July 1999, one of the targets of the government's propaganda was the biography of Li Hongzhi, its founder and leader. This article examines two versions of a biography of Li Hongzhi published by the falun gong in 1993 and 1994 that are no longer available. This biography presents Li as possessing superhuman abilities and god-like insight. In my analysis, I place this biography in the context of a centuries-old tradition of religious biography in China showing that, in textual terms, it represents a contemporary example of that venerable genre. As with its precursors, this biography seeks to establish a genealogy of the figure whose life is recorded and to buttress the orthodoxy of his doctrine.


The present study aims to investigate the effects of 8 weeks of bed rest, with or without resistance exercise intervention, on the volumes of muscle tissue and the intramuscular, intermuscular, and subcutaneous adipose tissues of the thigh. Twenty men were included, who were randomly assigned in three groups: resistance exercises group (RE group), resistance exercises with whole‐body vibration group (VRE group), and nonexercise control group (CTR group). The RE and VRE groups performed resistance exercises during 8 weeks of bed rest (3 days per week). Additionally, consecutive axial magnetic resonance images were obtained before and after the bed rest. Using these images, the volumes of the muscle tissue and the intramuscular adipose tissue, intermuscular adipose tissue, and subcutaneous adipose tissue of the thigh were evaluated. No significant time‐by‐group interaction was observed the volumes of the muscle tissue and the intramuscular adipose tissue, intermuscular adipose tissue, and subcutaneous adipose tissue between the RE and VRE groups. Furthermore, the RE and VRE groups were pooled as the resistance exercise intervention group (TR group), wherein their thigh muscle tissue volume was observed to be maintained after the bed rest. However, that of the CTR group significantly decreased. Regarding the thigh intramuscular adipose tissue and intermuscular adipose tissue volumes, no significant difference was observed among the CTR and TR groups. Although subcutaneous adipose tissue volume in the CTR group significantly increased after the bed rest, no changes were observed in that of the TR group. Therefore, the results of the present study suggested that within the 8 weeks of bed rest, adipose tissue adaptation differs depending on the location


EU's 2007 enlargement by Bulgaria and Romania is evaluated by applying a simple macroeconomic integration model able to encompass as many of the theoretically predicted integration effects possible. The direct integration effects of Bulgaria and Romania spill-over to EU15, including Austria and the 10 new member states of the 2004 EU enlargement. The pattern of the integration effects is qualitatively similar to those of EU?s 2004 enlargement by 10 new member states. Bulgaria and Romania gain much more from EU accession than the incumbents in the proportion of 20:1. In the medium-run up to 2020, Bulgaria and Romania can expect a sizable overall integration gain, amounting to additional ½ percentage point real GDP growth per annum. Within the incumbent EU member states Austria will gain somewhat more (+0.05%) than the average of EU15 (+0.02%) and the 10 new EU member states (+0.01%), which joined the EU in 2004.


"This paper examines the impact of prime-age adult mortality on the transition from school to the labor market of adolescents and on decisions by female adults to participate in the labor force in South Africa. The analysis focuses on that period—1998–2004—when South Africa experienced excess mortality due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We find, first, that deaths of prime-age adults significantly increase both male and female adolescents' labor force participation because they stop their schooling in order to help support their families. Female school enrollment may also decrease because girls are required to stay at home to take care of the sick. Therefore, the total negative impact on schooling is larger among female adolescents than among male adolescents. Second, we find that female adults tend to join the labor force following the death of prime-age adult males. This change could cause a decrease in the time they spend on housework and child rearing. Combined, these findings imply that excess mortality of prime-age adults disrupts human capital formation." Authors' Abstract


On 4 November 2002, China and ASEAN signed a Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (ASEAN, 2002). Incidents related to occupation of islands, 'illegal' fishing and oil exploration had been major irritants in the relationship between China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam during the 1990s. The declaration on a code of conduct reflects the complexity of the South China Sea dispute: it is a multilateral agreement between one major power and an association of ten states. However, China remains adamant that it will resolve the South China Sea dispute only through bilateral negotiations. For this policy to produce results, bilateral talks with Vietnam will be essential. On 25 December 2000, China and Vietnam signed bilateral agreements on maritime delimitation and fishery cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin, and experts from the two countries also discussed the larger disputes in the South China Sea. However, two years later, the bilateral agreements had still not entered into force and negotiations over supplementary protocols had stalled. This article describes the Sino-Vietnamese rapprochement in the 1990s, analyses the South China Sea 'irritant', presents the Gulf of Tonkin agreements and discusses the prospects for a Sino-Vietnamese initiative to resolve the South China Sea dispute.


In this paper we propose the Mercado architecture as a vehicle to use economic incentives and the sophisticated capabilities of modern mobile networks and devices to change the mobile networking service abstraction to better utilize networking resources. Our proposed architecture generalizes to enable rich interaction and information exchange between mobile devices and the network. However, as a first step we focus our efforts on the scenario where a mobile device with non-real time network workload, would interact with the network to explore the financial incentives available if it were to delay using the network. Combining the network response with knowledge of the application semantics allows the application to perform its own economic vs utility tradeoff.


ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THREE UNIVERSITIES Technology has the potential to maximize personal productivity, access to information, and collaboration among students, faculty, and staff at postsecondary institutions. It is unlikely that schools intentionally exclude specific groups from the opportunities technology provides. Nevertheless, when campuses use IT that is not designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, some of these individuals encounter barriers to education and employment. In contrast, when colleges and universities design and employ websites, application software, and other IT that are accessible to all students and employees, they lead the way toward leveling the playing field and supporting full engagement in academic and career activities. It has been estimated that more than 6% of all college and university students in the United States report having a disability (Henderson, 2001). Their level of enrollment is increasing as more inclusive pre-college programs, AT, and legislative mandates offer greater opportunities for people with disabilities to prepare for and succeed in college studies (Henderson, 2001; National Council on Disability, 2000). In light of this trend, as well as increased use of IT by all members of the campus community, IT access for students with disabilities is particularly important. In short, to ensure these students have equal educational opportunities, colleges and universities need to (1) make assistive technology available to students, faculty, and staff with disabilities and (2) develop, procure, and use accessible IT. The authors of this article summarize key issues of these two factors, discuss related efforts made by three universities, and share lessons learned that could be applied at other universities. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND ACCESSIBLE IT The availability of a wide range of assistive technology (AT) makes it possible for an individual with almost any type of disability to operate a computer and telecommunication equipment (Closing the Gap, 2007). Alternative keyboards, text-to-speech software, screen magnification, word-prediction software, grammar and spelling checkers, and other AT all play roles in giving people with disabilities access to IT that enhances their academic and career opportunities. However, AT solves only a portion of the IT access problem. Other issues concern the design of mainstream IT. For example, individuals who are blind often use text-to-speech systems that read aloud what appears on computer screens. However, these speech output systems only provide access to content presented in text format. Therefore, webmasters need to provide alternative ways to access content presented in non-text form (e.g., images, frames), so they do not erect information barriers to people who are blind. Accessible design of IT is the electronic equivalent to curb cuts. Although curb cuts were created to assist people using wheelchairs, they also aid people pushing baby strollers and delivery carts--many users benefit from accessible design. For IT, accessible design means that the full spectrum of user abilities is considered at the design stage, and, as a result, products are accessible to all individuals, including those using a range of mainstream computing devices and AT. For example, captions on video clips benefit a student for whom English is a second language, a faculty member who is deaf, a person who wants to search for specific content in the clip, and a student working late at night while other members of the household are sleeping. Similarly, a student who cannot access graphics because of a slow Internet connection benefits from text alternatives to graphic images that are also used by individuals who are blind. In addition, providing content in multiple formats addresses the needs of students with various learning disabilities and styles. …


1. The blood pressure effect of SKF 64139, a phenylethanolamine N -methyltransferase (PNMT) inhibitor acting both in the central and peripheral nervous system, was studied in conscious normotensive and glucocorticoid-hypertensive rats maintained for 2 weeks on a salt-deficient diet. On the day of the experiment, mean blood pressure was 119.2 ± 1.1 mmHg (mean ± sem) in the normotensive and 143.2 ± 1.9 mmHg ( P < 0.001) in the hypertensive rats. In all animals, the blood pressure was followed for 4 h after oral gavage by either SKF 64139 (50 mg/kg) or its vehicle (5% glucose solution).

2. In the vehicle-treated rats, no change in blood pressure occurred. However, after SKF 64139 administration, a 17.9 ± 3.8 mmHg ( P < 0.001) blood pressure fall was observed in the hypertensive rats whereas normotensive animals did not decrease their pressure.

3. Plasma catecholamines were determined in all these rats at the end of the observation period. No significant difference in plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline levels was observed between normotensive and hypertensive as well as vehicle- and SKF 64139-treated rats, though both catecholamines tended to be higher after administration of the PNMT inhibitor.

4. In two additional groups of glucocorticoid-hypertensive rats, the blood pressure effects of an infusion of saralasin, a competitive antagonist of angiotensin II, or of a bolus injection of a vasopressin analogue antagonizing the pressor action of vasopressin, were investigated over a 20 min period.

The vasopressin antagonist had no blood pressure effect whereas saralasin decreased mean blood pressure from 144 ±1.9 to 136 ± 3.2 mmHg ( P < 0.005).

5. These data suggest that the sympathetic nervous system is the main vasoconstrictor system involved in the maintenance of established glucocorticoid hypertension. Since SKF 64139 is also known to inhibit to some degree α-adrenoceptors, monoamine oxidase and neuronal uptake processes, it remains unclear, however, whether the blood pressure-lowering effect of this PNMT inhibitor can be attributed to central blockade of adrenaline synthesis.


This paper studies the impact of the introduction of joint custody in Italy (Law 54/2006) on judiciary outcomes. As to the formal (legal) assignment of joint custody, the reform envisaged very little judge discretion. With reference to the substance of the custody (the amount of time each parent spends with the child and the money involved in post-dissolution arrangements), the law established new principles while leaving plenty of implementation power to the judges. Our results – based on court data that covers the universe of separations from 2000 to 2010 – document that the law was only cosmetically applied by the judges. Compared to the prereform regime, the share of sole legal custody assignments to the mother drastically decreased. However, court implementation washed out the new principles: the provisions of the law related to the financial postseparation arrangements remained unapplied. This suggests that the main innovative aspect of the law – the possibility for a child to spend an adequate amount of time with both parents – was also left unchanged with respect to the previous regime of sole maternal custody. As joint effect of the introduction of the law and the little degree to which the new principles have been translated into actual verdicts, there was a surge in litigiousness among separating spouses and judicial inefficiency. Moreover, the incentives for a female partner to apply for a separation raised. The paper discusses a possible rationale for the findings and some related policy remedies. As for the former, the evidence we present can be explained by the adoption of genderbiased judiciary practices. As for the latter, our results suggest that a restatement of the law, to define a narrowed grid of prescriptions that constrain judge discretion, could be an effective corrective action. JEL Classification Numbers: K36, J12, J16


Beginning with a critical inquiry into the reasons why the field of the political is traditionally elaborated in the archic nexus between government and state sovereignty, this study examines the possibilities of elaborating an alternative theory of the political in the intersections between Michel Foucault's theory of resistance and anarchist political theory. Taking Foucault's fifth thesis on power from The History of Sexuality as an alternative paradigm from which to reread the history of the political, the aim of this study is to demonstrate that the hallmark of Foucault's work emerges in the ways in which his analytic of power strategically shifts the site of politics away from its traditional locus in the exercise of government to the question of resistance. Under what I will elaborate in terms of the primacy of resistance, I argue that Foucault's studies of power and governmentality reveal an anarchist hypothesis of the political in the critical caesura between the political as archē and the political as agōn. Affirming a mutual alliance between anarchist theory and Foucault against the orthodox foundations of political philosophy not only exposes the conceptual principles that continue to sustain Western political practices, but also opens up the space to pursue the implications of a form of politics inseparable from the elaboration of permanent ethics of revolt, a distinct way of being in the world through resistance—that is, a specific art of not being governed. When the concepts of power and government are understood to emerge on condition of resistance, the political conceived as archē reveals its own contingency, and the question of politics is redirected from a constituent theory of an oikonomia to a destituent theory of resistance, a critical ethos of becoming ungovernable, not as a revolutionary overthrow of power, but as an art of not being governed. Rather than reducing Foucault to anarchism, however, it is my contention that the intersection between them emerges in the critical attempts to locate a form of politics which, in refusing to reconstitute itself as power, could never assume the form of an archē.


This paper presents an experimental study of aeroacoustical sound sources generated by the turbulent flow around the side mirror of a Volvo V70. Measurements were carried out at the Volvo Cars aerodynamical wind tunnel (PVT) and at the aeroacoustical wind tunnel of Stuttgart University (FKFS). Several different measurement techniques were applied in both tunnels and the results were compared to each other. The configurations considered here were: side mirror with a cord and without the cord. The results discussed in this paper include intensity probe measurements in the flow around the side mirror, sound source localization with beamforming technique using a three-dimensional spherical array as well as standard measurements inside the car with an artificial head. This experimental study focused on understanding the differences between testing at the PVT and FKFS. It aimed to answer the question about how to overcome the difficulties in measuring small wind noise contributions in the aerodynamical wind tunnel with poor aeroacoustical treatment.


In a letter to Constantine Curran, in July 1904, James Joyce wrote: "I am writing a series of epicleti – ten – for a paper ... I call the series Dubliners." The term epicleti has been interpreted as a misspelled form of "epiclesis", the process of transubstantiation as defined by the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. This went hand in hand with Joyce's interpretation of the role of an artist as "a priest of eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everliving life". Wolfhard Steppe convincingly argued that epicleti was a misreading of Joyce's handwriting and that in fact the word written is epiclets, but the notion of epiclesis still remains a valuable way of interpreting the works of James Joyce, and McDermott, in a study of Joyce and Raymond Carver, has argued that epicleti itself can be considered a genre of short story. Taking this perspective, the main focus of the paper is to define the very structure of epicleti by systematically examining each of the genre's key features, including the notion of transubstantiation and epiphany, as well as setting and characters traits. To have a variation of samples, we will use a frequently pointed out similarity between Dubliners (1914) and Winesburg, Ohio (1919) written by Sherwood Anderson. A number of scholars, including Zlotnick and Curry, examined this relation, focusing mainly on the comparison of the works and/or disbanding the possibility of imitation, respectively. Studies such as these offer a useful framework, but do not go in depth with the notion of an epicleti, and what it means for a story to be regarded as one. Using the comparison we aim to isolate the main elements of the structure, examining at the same time the place of a single structure within the frame of the whole collection, defining a genre of short story writing which can be usefully called epicleti.


Recital presented at the College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Music (BM) degree


The purpose of this protocol proposal is to suggest a new non-invasive combined therapeutic approach for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease with no approved treatment or cure. A nutraceutical approach involving dietary supplementation of antioxidants can reduce its risk. Also, photobiomodulation (PBM, or LLLT) has shown promising results with the advantage of non-invasiveness. We present a clinical case study which combines a nutraceutical approach with photobiomodulation. Nine PBM cycles were administered to the patient over one month, and lutein, resveratrol and Vaccinium myrtillus supplements for three months. After one month and after six months, the OCT showed reduced drusen. The patient obtained subjectively improved vision, less eye strain, more color contrast, higher definition and a better far and near uncorrected visual acuity. Amsler grid test was regular. Contrast sensitivity improved from 1.8 to 2.0. Outcomes remained stable at the 6-month follow-up. This case demonstrated a successful non-invasive treatment with improved quality of vision in dry AMD. A larger population followed over a long-term period is warranted. Irradiation, along with the support of nutraceuticals, could therefore offer a new non-invasive, adverse-effect-free means of stimulating retinal stem cells to regenerate. AbbreviAtions AMD (age-related macular degeneration); OCT (optical coherence tomography); RE (right eye); LE (left eye); UCVA (uncorrected visual acuity); BCVA (bestcorrected visual acuity); PBM (photobiomodulation); LEDs (light-emitting diodes).


The following long paper will report on a user-centered case study of e-book usage at the University of Sussex and the wider implications for IL practitioners. It will be based upon last year's article by Groves (2014) and build upon the 'work in progress' poster presented at LILAC 2014.

To deliver effective skills teaching and support, an accurate understanding of user behaviour is vital. If user behaviour is not understood, appropriate content cannot be included in the sessions being delivered or the support being offered. Instead of the traditional ways of describing usage based on access counts (Nicholas et al. 2010), the data collected from this study allowed the concept of 'usage' to be re-framed qualitatively, putting the emphasis on the user instead of the e-book. This has led to new insights and improved support by identifying the issues that students are facing and enabling staff to address them. Central to this is the creation of the 'empowered user', moving beyond the quantitative 'power user' (Ahmad and Brogan, 2012) who views e-books for a certain amount of time.

The paper argues that the 'empowered user' is a student who is able to:
•Find and access the e-books that they need (through their online reading list or by using a resource discovery tool).
•Search within an e-book using inbuilt functionality (which actually means that 'successful' use of an e-book could take little time at all).
•Evaluate the information (making notes within the e-book if appropriate).
•Make use of the information for seminars or coursework.

Building on this, the paper will argue that it is up to us to help create these empowered users by equipping them with appropriate e-books skills; skills that align with a broader IL framework. The research takes a unique approach, assessing e-book usage through the analysis of student citations and student interviews. Reporting of this methodology will appeal to LILAC delegates who attend regularly and wish to hear about a new way of measuring e-book usage that focuses on the user. This is something that all librarians would benefit from discovering at their own institutions and learning about this new methodology will allow them to do so.

Attendees can expect to hear about the key findings of the research including the extent to which students are using e-books in their work; how students are finding e-books and the impact of this on teaching IL skills; and the spectrum of usage uncovered through student interviews. Drawing from this, an IL based e-book strategy will be presented for consideration which focuses on equipping users with the skills to find, evaluate and use e-books effectively.

Consequently the session will show attendees how they can move beyond download counts in an effort to help their students use e-books more effectively; by equipping them with the appropriate IL skills through library teaching and support.

References:
Ahmad, P. and Brogan, M. 2012. Scholarly Use of E-Books in a Virtual Academic Environment: A Case Study. Australian Academic & Research Libraries 43(3), pp.189-213

Groves, A. 2014. What's the use?: analysing students citations to provide new insights into e-book usage. Insights 27(2), pp.198-204.

Nicholas, D. et al. 2010. E-textbook use, information seeking behaviour and its impact: Case study business and management. Journal of Information Science 36(2), pp.263-280.