Abstract Objective: To describe breastfeeding duration as well as barriers and facilitators experienced by activeduty women in the United States military. Design: A cross-sectional design guided the study. Setting: The setting was a social media site offering breastfeeding education and support for military mothers. Participants: The sample included 292 mothers who reported having a baby, initiating breastfeeding postpartum, and returning to work while serving active-duty in the United States within the last five years. Methods: An investigator-designed Qualtrics survey with multiple choice, Likert, and open-ended questions was used. Analysis procedures focused on descriptive statistics, chi-square, and logistic regression. Content analysis was used to identify common themes in qualitative data. Results: Participants reported breastfeeding at a rate in line with Healthy People 2020 goals. Enlisted as compared with officer mothers were less likely to meet their breastfeeding goals (32% vs 50%) and more likely to report job barriers as the primary reason for cessation (42% vs 26%). The most frequently reported job-related barriers were lack of time and proper accommodation. Facilitators included self-motivation, proper accommodations, schedule flexibility, workplace support and policy. Perception of the military as being a hindrance was the primary predictor of not meeting breastfeeding goals. The need for providing leadership with education on breastfeeding was a major theme. Conclusions: Addressing issues that might ease the difficulties in balancing career and family are vital for retention in the military which is now experiencing 30% greater loss of childbearing age women than men. Military policies related to maternity leave and lactation are a work-in-progress, but findings from this study show that perception of support from the military is a critical factor in meeting one's breastfeeding goal.


This paper attempts to establish empirically whether natives' job satisfaction is adversely affected by having minority co-worker(s). The paper uses nationally representative linked employer-employee data and eight different facets of job satisfaction. Measuring minority co-worker status at the workplace- and occupation-level and employing alternative econometric estimators; the paper finds that on average natives' experience a reduction in job satisfaction due to having minority co-worker(s). The effect found is larger if the co-worker-ship is at the occupation-level.


TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. HOW STATUTES INTERPRET THE CONSTITUTION A. The Idea of a Constitution B. The Purposes of a Constitution C. The Purposes of the U.S. Constitution 1. Strong National Government 2. Liberty 3. Equality II. POSITIVE RIGHTS AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION A. The Idea of Positive Rights B. Statutes as Declarations of Positive Rights III. THE PPACA AND POSITIVE RIGHTS A. The PPACA as a Declaration of Positive Rights B. Statutory Interpretations as a Response to Criticisms of Positive Rights CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION Why are so many people unwilling to accept the 2010 enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or the Act)? (1) The obvious fact that many people do not like the law is not, by itself, an adequate explanation. (2) Most proposed laws have opponents, often determined and vociferous ones. Once the law is passed, however, its opponents tend to shift from general opposition to more particularized efforts to live with the law, minimize its impact, or undermine its effectiveness. Continued opposition to the law itself is a much rarer phenomenon. Compare the response to the PPACA with the response to the other one-thousand page statutory behemoth that the Obama administration enacted in its first two years, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank). (3) Dodd-Frank was hardly an uncontroversial piece of legislation; indeed, it gored the ox of one of the most powerful interest groups in the United States. (4) Yet it vanished from the public agenda as soon as it was enacted. (5) One can be quite certain that there are literally thousands of lawyers working assiduously on ways to preserve the practices that the Dodd-Frank Act attempted to terminate or alter, and that there are thousands of other business, law, and public relations executives lobbying the regulatory agencies for favorable treatment under the new law. But the financial services industry seems content to rely on these typical responses rather than expend its literal and figurative capital on an effort to repeal Dodd-Frank. In contrast, the political opposition to the PPACA has been intense, not only when it was being debated, (6) but also after it was enacted into law. (7) At least twenty-six states have filed lawsuits to overturn portions of the Act, (8) and legislators in a similar number of states have proposed or incorporated amendments to their state codes that would preclude its operation. (9) Many Republican politicians made their opposition to the Act the primary focus of their campaigns in the 2010 elections, (10) and once elected, used their majority in the House of Representatives to pass an admittedly symbolic repeal bill. (11) Not content with this gesture, they have continued their animadversion against the Act, declaring that this opposition will be the focus of their 2012 campaigns as well. (12) Potential Republican nominees for President are attempting to outdo each other in their hostility to the PPACA, (13) and a major disadvantage afflicting Mitt Romney, who might otherwise be the clear front-runner, is that he is poorly positioned to oppose the PPACA because he spearheaded similar legislation as Governor of Massachusetts. (14) Perhaps most significantly, the PPACA seems to have been one of two factors that have led to the remarkably rapid development of a genuine social movement: (15) the now-notorious Tea Party. (16) The Tea Party's success, in turn, has fueled opposition to the Act. (17) Some of the Republicans who oppose the Act are undoubtedly sincere in their personal distaste for it and would oppose it in any case. But legislators who are insincere provide even more impressive evidence of the Act's unpopularity, because they are, in that case, appealing to an accurately perceived revulsion toward the Act among their constituents. …


This is a comprehensive guide to LGBTQ books and resources for teens at DC Public Library, including lists of award winning fiction, new fiction reads, graphic novels, nonfiction, downloadable Ebooks and even online resources! This page provides the library's contact information


The vast majority of attorneys in this country are required to complete 10 to 15 hours of continuing legal education ("CLE") every year, an experience well summarized by one attendee's observation that "[k]nowledge is good, but coerced seat time is wasteful [and] insulting." The primary rationale for mandatory CLE is to help ensure competent client representation, but the mandatory system fails to achieve that goal. Instead, mandatory CLE has become a self-perpetuating industry that earns hundreds of millions of tuition dollars for course purveyors but demonstrates little, if any, connection to better serving the public.
By contrast, almost no attorney is required to complete a single hour of pro bono service. Although the American Bar Association ("ABA") recognizes the "critical" need for free legal services for "persons of limited means," attorneys simply are encouraged to volunteer their time. This voluntary pro bono system has proven to be so woefully inadequate that Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently declared her support for a "forced labor" approach to attorneys' pro bono responsibilities.
Responding to this critical need, a current trend in the profession focuses on requiring pro bono service from law students and bar applicants — easy marks with little ability to protest. This effort, however, sidesteps the harder question of mandatory pro bono for licensed attorneys, including the law professors who may be an aspiring attorney's first professional role models.
More than a decade ago, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky argued in favor of mandatory pro bono service for law faculty, hoping to "at least induce debate and force examination of how to better engage law professors in using their talents to help those who need it." That debate has yet to materialize. Law professors have at least as much of an obligation as other attorneys to provide pro bono service, but their resistance to doing so has resulted in rates of participation that Professor Deborah Rhode has described as "shameful."
This Article argues that the time is ripe to upend the status quo — to eliminate mandatory CLE and to explore replacing mandatory CLE hours with required pro bono service hours.


Introduction : Nowadays, attention to opportunities andthreatsinthe field ofhealthcare and culminating in thehospitals facedwith uncertaintyandrisks wasessentialandmanage the risks involvedin thesecentersis very important. The aimof thisstudy is HSErisk assessmentmodelbasedsystemsinhospitalsmartyrBeheshtiUniversityof Medical Sciences, approaches thatcan becontrolled. Materials & methods: In thisstudy,weidentifythe principalrisksandsetstandards formeasuring andprovidingcomprehensive questionnaire. Theanalytical Network predictionbased onfuzzy logic(FANP)was used for priority of risk. Findings :Theriskprioritynumber isused inhospitals,Biological factorsaffectinghumanRPNequal to32.85 was the highest risk and Physical factorsaffectinghumanisequal to11.68 was the least HSE risk of hospital.Also the result showed that priority of the risk factors affecting the company's reputation was high. Discussion & Conclusions : The results showed thatHospital managementshould beincontrol ofchemical and biologicalagentstoadopta specificmanagement plans. Also, according tothe results, it is clear thatit is necessary toconsider themanagementof workplaceergonomicsprogramhas beenandcontrol measureswithinthescopedefined.


Developing societies failed to create their own technological base for progress. How did this affect the prospects for democracy? This volume examines the conflicting relations between technology and development as they unfold in a new and ever more challenging environment.


This study is designed to explore and examine the various aspects of West Bank couples attitudes, beliefs and childbearing behaviour with regard to family size formation. Within the general framework, the study aims to investigate the various aspects such as household characteristics, marriage issues, determinants of childbearing behaviour, desired family size, ideal family size, gender preference, couples communication with regard to decision making process, and the relation between desired and actual family size. Moreover, this study aims to investigate and examine the effect of socio-economic, cultural and demographic variables on couples preferences and attitudes. It is believed that in order to understand the couples attitudes, beliefs and behaviour, one should first understand the background which created such attitudes and beliefs. As a result, this study begins with a general overview of the West Bank population. Moreover, this study will shed light on the political situation which has a significant effect on demographic change in the region. In addition, it will examine the influence of Arab culture, being an Islamic one, on the role of women in the family and society) family structure and social system child-parental relationships) couples interpersonal relationships) couples relations within their family) preferred number and gender of children) extent of contraceptive use and family planning. The data for the research were gathered by interviewing a sample of 999 couples (husbands and wives) using a questionnaire method. The data were gathered from different environments so as to include urban and rural areas and refugee camps within the district of Nablus. As for the statistical techniques used for analysing the data, the Statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSSX) was employed. Various statistical measures such as means, correlations, chi-square tests, probabilities and multivariate discriminant analysis were performed in order to examine associations between the various variables. Some of the outcomes emerging from the analysis include:1) The political factor has played a major role in shaping the West Bank population from the beginning of this century.2) On average, West Bank families prefer an early age at marriage for females, while age at marriage for males has increased gradually as a direct result of eduction.3) Children's economic contribution to their families is very meagre. Thus, the costs and benefits of having children are not considered to be crucial factors in determining West Bank couples childbearing behaviour.4) On average, husbands have more traditional attitudes towards the number and gender of children than their wives. On the other hand, wives are more willing to use contraceptives.5) West Bank couples, especially husbands, have a strong male preference, especially for the first child.6) In general, the average ideal family size is less than the average desired family size and total fertility rate.7) With respect to desired family size, an `after the event' rationalism effect is evident, especially among couples who have completed their family size.8) A couples relationship and level of communication with each other have a significant effect on decision making with regard to family size preference and contraceptive use.9) The findings reveal significant differences in couples attitudes towards fertility preference. Variables such as place of residence, age, educational level and women's employment appeared to have the largest discriminant power in explaining couples attitudes to fertility preferences. Apart from these major findings, the study also includes suggestions and recommendations for future research.


A unique, unprecedented eyewitness account of the thirty most critical days of Tony Blair's political career as Prime Minister, from 10 March 2003 to the end of the second Gulf War, written by the former editor of The Times. For thirty extraordinary days, in March and April 2003, Tony Blair defied street protests, party revolts, allied anger and government resignations in order to send British troops to Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. What was it like inside Downing Street during that time? What was it like while the Prime Minister risked his job for such an unpopular cause? Why did he do it? Peter Stothard, who for a month was given unprecedented access to shadow almost every move the Prime Minister made, gives a unique view from the inside. From the 'den' of Ten Downing Street to the back corridors of the House of Commons, through councils of war in the Azores, recriminations in Brussels, personal diplomacy in Belfast and Camp David, this book takes us backstage. 30 Days throws an intimate - and frequently humorous - light on the domestic and political life of Number Ten at a time of crisis; it shows the Prime Minister's relationships not only with the President of the United States but with the writers, strategists, make-up artists and other members of the close-knit Number Ten team. It illuminates his frankest dealings with the world leaders who both backed and opposed him. Peter Stothard's fast-paced and compelling narrative is supported by Nick Danziger's remarkable photographs. The result is a groundbreaking record of history in the making, and a gripping day-to-day chronicle of four tense and tempestuous weeks.


Top Abstract Introduction Methods Results Discussion References Abstract—Recently, a method to measure free insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels has been developed. Free IGF-I levels may have greater physiological and clinical relevance than total (bound and free) IGF-I. The associations between the circulating IGF-I/IGF binding protein (IGFBP) system and cardiovascular disorders was studied. In a cross-sectional study of 218 healthy persons (103 men, 115 women) aged 55 to 80 years, fasting serum (total and free) IGF-I and IGFBP-1 levels, lipid profile, insulin, and glucose were measured. In addition, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and waist-hip ratio (WHR) were measured. Ultrasonography of both carotid arteries was performed to investigate the presence of atherosclerotic lesions. A history of angina pectoris, the presence of a possible or definite myocardial infarction on the ECG, and plaques in the carotid arteries were used as indicators of presence of cardiovascular signs and symptoms. Free IGF-I was inversely related to serum triglycerides (P=.04, adjusted for age and sex). Mean free IGF-I levels in subjects without signs or symptoms of cardiovascular diseases were significantly higher than in those with at least one cardiovascular symptom or sign (P=.002, adjusted for age and sex). Free IGF-I levels were also higher in subjects who had no atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid arteries (P=.02, adjusted for age and sex) and who had never smoked (P=.02, adjusted for age and sex). IGFBP-1 showed an inverse relation with insulin, BMI, and WHR and a positive relation with HDL cholesterol. The associations between IGFBP-1 levels and HDL cholesterol, WHR, and BMI remained significant after adjustment for fasting insulin levels. High fasting serum free IGF-I levels are associated with a decreased presence of atherosclerotic plaques and coronary artery disease and lower serum triglycerides, whereas high fasting IGFBP-1 levels are associated with a more favorable cardiovascular risk profile. The findings suggest that the IGF-I/IGFBP system is related to cardiovascular risk factors and atherosclerosis.


Using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relays in cooperative communication improves the data rate and reliability of the communication. The MIMO transmission, however, requires considerable resources for the detection in the relay. In particular, if a full detect-and-forward (FDF) strategy is employed, the relay needs to spend considerable resources to perform the full MIMO detection. We propose a novel cooperative partial detection (CPD) strategy to partition the detection task between the relay and the destination. CPD modifies the tree traversal of the tree-based sphere detectors in a way where there is no need to visit all the levels of the tree and only a subset of the levels; thus, a subset of the transmitted streams are visited. The destination, then, combines the source signal and the partial relay signal to perform the final detection step and recover the transmitted vector. We study and compare the performance and complexity of FDF and CPD and show that by using the CPD approach, the relay can avoid the considerable overhead of MIMO detection while helping the source-destination link to improve its performance. More specifically, in the case of a 4 × 4 system, the relay complexity can be reduced by up to 80% of the conventional relaying scheme.


A mathematical model of blast furnace operation, which is able to estimate the behaviors of the unburned char and the fine coke simultaneously, has been developed. The model based on the multi-fluid theory treats dynamic powders that are moving entrained by the gas stream as individual phases and static powders as solid components. The former takes conservation equations of momentum, thermal energy, chemical species and continuity. The latter takes only mass balance equations of chemical species, and shares fields of flow and temperature with the other solid components, such as lump coke, sinter, and so on. In the simulations, the unburned char is derived from the pulverized coal injected from the tuyere, and there is no difference in model treatment between the unburned char and the pulverized coal. The fine coke is generated uniformly in the raceway region from the coke particles, and the generation rate is determined by a kinetic treatment. The simulation of the blast furnace operation by this model revealed that the unburned char and the fine coke having different diameters and densities show different flow patterns especially in the cohesive zone and deadman. Consequently these two powders formed different areas of accumulation and reactions while large amount of powders were deposited in the deadman zone regardless of difference in flow patterns.


: Succession of microbial populations and carbon flow were studied experimentally in a 2-stage linked system where phytoplankton growth was separated from decay or consumption. Three phytoplankton loss processes were considered: bactenal lysis, protozoan grazing and mesozooplankton grazing. An axenic culture of the &atom Phaeodactylum tricornutum was transferred to 3 second-stage microcosms (150 1) kept in the dark. The first vessel (L: lysis batch) contained no herbivores and was top-limited by bacterivorous flagellates, the second (G: grazing batch) by ciliates and the third (Z: zooplankton batch) by copepods. In the L container there was no evidence of grazing on phytoplankton; the particle-associated protozoa were abundant (3.7 X lo3 cell 1-l). In the G vessel, cihates (up to 96 X 103 cell I-') controlled both the phytoplankton and nanoflagellate populations and ciliates ingested phytoplankton at rates from 1.7 to 16 phytoplankton cell ciliate-' h-' (average, 7.5 cell ciliate-' h-'). The average growth ylelds for bacterivorous flagellates and ciliates were 35 % and 45 %, respectively. In the Z treatment, the concentration of >l0 pm protozoa (able to ingest P. tricornutum) was apparently kept low due to copepod grazing pressure. Consequently, a considerable fraction of the phytoplankton was channelled through the detrital pathway instead of the classical herbivorous pathway. The general trend of the parameters descnbing microbial activity was Z > G > L. An influence of the complexity of the system on the turnover rate of organic matter was evldent with the ratio 'cumulative biomass/POC' in the different vessels showing a lower level of detntus when predators of were present.


Numerous accessibility features have been developed and included in consumer operating systems to provide people with a variety of disabilities additional ways to access computing devices. Unfortunately, many users, especially older adults who are more likely to experience ability changes, are not aware of these features or do not know which combination to use. In this paper, we first quantify this problem via a survey with 100 participants, demonstrating that very few people are aware of built-in accessibility features on their phones. These observations led us to investigate accessibility recommendation as a way to increase awareness and adoption. We developed four prototype recommenders that span different accessibility categories, which we used to collect insights from 20 older adults. Our work demonstrates the need to increase awareness of existing accessibility features on mobile devices, and shows that automated recommendation could help people find beneficial accessibility features.


Can we identify highly central individuals in a network without collecting network data, simply by asking community members? Can seeding information via such nominated individuals lead to significantly wider diffusion than via randomly chosen people, or even respected ones? In two separate large field experiments in India, we answer both questions in the affirmative. In particular, in 521 villages in Haryana, we provided information on monthly immunization camps to either randomly selected individuals (in some villages) or to individuals nominated by villagers as people who would be good at transmitting information (in other villages). We find that the number of children vaccinated every month is 22% higher in villages in which nominees received the information. We show that people's knowledge of who are highly central individuals and good seeds can be explained by a model in which community members simply track how often they hear gossip about others. Indeed, we find in a third data set that nominated seeds are central in a network sense, and are not just those with many friends or in powerful positions.


This Commentary finds that the US-China joint declaration on climate change, issued following the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Beijing on November 12th, is undoubtedly an important announcement by the two global economic giants responsible for emitting over 30% of the world's GHG emissions. As such, it needs to be seen as important and relevant – a very positive development towards a new global climate change agreement in Paris. It is a challenge to those that have announced their pledges and are seen as capable of doing more, as well as to those that have not yet announced their intentions.

It shows the importance and success of the UN climate change conference in Warsaw last year, when the decision was made that all Parties should announce their commitments by the first quarter of 2015. It also represents a total breakdown of the Kyoto Protocol-style separation in climate change negotiations between countries into Annex 1 and non-Annex 1, with China signalling that it is taking on the leadership role that comes with being a great economic power.

In broader terms, it shows that there is scope for cooperation between the two main economic actors, even in the face of competition in other spheres. It is also a challenge to the EU, which was a leader and needs to show that there is a benefit in maintaining its leadership.

Finally, agreements are deemed historic only by history. This one is important, and a potential game-changer, on the face of it. But it needs to live up to its promise. There is sufficient uncertainty for us to withhold final judgement and see if its promise materialises through implementation. But, as sober a judgement as we must make on such important matters, this announcement certainly gives us great hope that it is possible to do what needs to be done, and we must wholeheartedly welcome and applaud it.


An essential reference for journalists, activists, and students, this book presents scientifically accurate and accessible overviews of twenty-four of the most important issues in the nuclear realm, including: health effects, nuclear safety and engineering, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, nuclear medicine, food irradiation, transport of nuclear materials, spent fuel, nuclear weapons, and global warming. Each 'brief' is based on interviews with named scientists, engineers, or administrators in a nuclear specialty, and each has been reviewed by a team of independent experts. The objective is not to make a case for or against nuclear-related technologies, but rather to provide definitive background information. (The approach is based on that of "The Reporter's Environmental Handbook", published in 1988, which won a special award for journalism from the Sigma Delta Chi Society of professional journalists.) Other features of the book include: a glossary of hundreds of terms; an introduction to risk assessment; environmental and economic impacts, and public perceptions; an article by an experienced reporter with recommendations about how to cover nuclear issues; quick guides to the history of nuclear power in the United States, important federal legislation and regulations, nuclear position statements, and key organizations; and, references for print and electronic resources.


Business intelligence (BI) is a strategically important tool for organisations. Numerous studies have attempted to investigate the factors that contribute to BI success. However, an overview of the critical success factors (CSFs) is lacking, as is an understanding of the gaps in the extant research. After examining 444 articles, we integrated the findings of 29 studies. We used the framework of information system success to identify the CSFs and to analyse how researchers identify information system success. We identified 36 variables related to BI success in the extant literature. The distinct CSFs relate to project management skills, management support, user involvement, the external environment and management processes. In the articles in which BI success was operationalised, we found several distinct factors: system quality, information quality, use, service quality, user satisfaction and net benefits. We extended the framework of information system success to include three additional factors: strategy and vision, organisational form and competency development. We contribute to the extant research by extending the framework of information system success and identifying the gaps in the extant research. We contribute to practice through an enhanced understanding of the CSFs related to BI success.


Abstract This article proposes an analytical tool to assess the evolution of environmental governance mechanisms. The institutional path of certification systems is driven by three pre-existing variables that interact to determine the evolution of environmental governance: public regulations, industry competition and organisation, and legitimation mechanisms. Competition among certification systems results in the convergence of public and private environmental regulations, which tend to move towards the median demand for sustainability standards. This framework is later applied to the still incipient sector of biofuels, seeking to predict the certification schemes that have better chances to prevail. As an important normative implication, the efficacy of environmental governance depends on compliance costs for producers and, consequently, hinges on prevailing public regulations. These regulations must be designed not only by accounting for their direct effects but also by considering their indirect effects on the development of private certification systems.


In this paper we describe our experience with a prototype system capable of synthesizing "Supervisor Controller Programs" based largely on the theory of discrete event systems (DES) first proposed by Ramadge and Wonham. We augment the theory by also allowing continuous time trajectories modeling transitions between events. We illustrate our approach by an example, - the discrete control of a walking machine - which poses some challenges on the applicability of the theory and finally, discuss some possible solutions. Notes: Appeared in IEEE Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Automation Technology, Troy, NY, Oct. 1994


We analyzed the media freedom indexes of Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders to determine which areas they focus on and which they omit. We also assessed the degree to which these indexes are appropriate for measuring media freedom in democratic countries. We concluded that these instruments—with their focus on violence against journalists and government constraints on media—are more appropriate for assessments in nondemocratic countries than for understanding the subtle problems of democracies, often related to the media ownership structure, media's dependence on advertising, self-censorship, and the scant presence of citizen voices. The instruments examined reduce freedom of expression to its negative dimension, freedom from government interference, and ignore positive freedom that is the universal right to free speech.


CorMet is a corpus-based system for discovering metaphorical mappings between concepts. It does this by finding systematic variations in domain-specific selectional preferences, which are inferred from large, dynamically mined Internet corpora. Metaphors transfer structure from a source domain to a target domain, making some concepts in the target domain metaphorically equivalent to concepts in the source domain. The verbs that select for a concept in the source domain tend to select for its metaphorical equivalent in the target domain. This regularity, detectable with a shallow linguistic analysis, is used to find the metaphorical interconcept mappings, which can then be used to infer the existence of higher-level conventional metaphors. Most other computational metaphor systems use small, hand-coded semantic knowledge bases and work on a few examples. Although Cor Met's only knowledge base is Word Net (Fellbaum 1998) it can find the mappings constituting many conventional metaphors and in some cases recognize sentences instantiating those mappings. CorMet is tested on its ability to find a subset of the Master Metaphor List (Lakoff, Espenson, and Schwartz 1991).


Water quality index (WQI) is a single value numerical expression, which can evaluate the quality of given water body at particular position and time. Five different industrial wastewaters WQI are formulated by Delphi process (before and after treatment) and the results obtained for each samples are reported. It has been observed that the individual parameters vary quite widely whereas when it is converted to a single value indicator like WQI, their values varied quite narrowly. It is observed from the results that depending on the seasonal variation, WQI value is also changed. Thus, it becomes more convenient to opine on the quality of water with respect to its pollution level.


Democracy in the developing world is generally outliving expectations, but not outperforming them. Democratic collapse has happily been a far rarer event thus far in the twenty-first century than it was in the twentieth. Yet it does not exactly ring true to say that most developing country democracies are consolidating. This review essay ventures the claim that political scientists need to transcend their rightful concerns with how and why young democracies collapse or consolidate, and devote more attention to theorizing how and why they careen. It defines democratic careening as political instability sparked by intense conflict between partisan actors deploying competing visions of democratic accountability. Careening occurs when actors who argue that democracy requires substantial inclusivity of the entire populace (vertical accountability) clash with rivals who defend democracy for its constraints against excessive concentrations of unaccountable power, particularly in the political executive (horizontal accountability). These arguments are elaborated through reviews of leading theoretical works on democratic break-down as well as detailed case studies of Thailand and Taiwan.


Abstract Background: The measurement of haemoglobin (Hb) concentration provides a reliable, primary screening test for the presence and severity of anaemia. The HemoCue® is a point-of-care test for Hb measurement. The introduction of point-of-care testing in hospitals and general practice has improved patient care and accessibility. This study was performed to evaluate the utility of point-of-care Hb measurement with the HemoCue® device for the diagnosis of anaemia. Method: In this prospective study, we compared the analytical performance of the HemoCue® to the Coulter® LH 750 automated haematology analyser with regard to accuracy, precision and linearity in the measurement of Hb in adult and paediatric patient samples, referred for routine laboratory testing. Results: Samples from 100 patients were analysed with both instruments, and the results were compared using standard scatter and difference plots. The mean Hb value of the HemoCue® (11.3 g/dl; range 4.6–16.7) was comparable to the Coulter® LH 750 (11.3 g/dl; range 4.7–17.2). The Bland-Altman difference plot revealed good correlation. Bias between the two methods was small, and the imprecision was within acceptable limits. Hb measurement was linear in the range of 4.8–20 g/dl. Conclusion: In all age groups, the HemoCue® point-of-care device can be used to provide accurate and reliable Hb measurements with a smaller sample volume, improved turnaround time, and long-term cost saving.


This paper brings together work in stochastic modelling, using the process algebra PEPA, and work in automated planning. Stochastic modelling has been concerned with verification of system performance metrics for some time: given a model of a system, determining whether it will meet a service-level agreement (SLA). For example, whether a given sequence of transitions on a network will complete within 5 seconds 80% of the time. The problem of deciding how to reconfigure the system most cost-effectively when the SLA cannot be met has not been widely explored: it is currently solved manually. Inspired by this, we consider how planning can be used to automate the configuration of service-oriented systems. Configuring these stochastic systems presents new challenges to planning: building plans that meet SLAs, but also have low cost. To this end, we present a domain-independent planner for planning problems with action costs and stochastic durations, and show how this can be used to solve both traditional planning domains, and within the framework of configuring a larger process algebra model.


AN ANALYSIS OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH PASTORS IN THEIR DELIVERY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES IN SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON, DC By Dennis C. Parker, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Major Director: Dr. William C. Bosher, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Public Policy L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs President Bush's Executive Order 13279 (December 12, 2002) encouraged the government to work with faith-based organizations to provide human services (i.e., Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, employment, homelessness services, and health care) to serve America's low-income populations. Faith-Based Initiatives, and now President Obama's Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships Initiative have created the foundation for further partnerships between faith-based organizations and local, state, and federal governments. Limited information exists regarding the overall effectiveness of the programs in encouraging churches, specifically African American churches, to engage in services delivery. This study explores the perceptions of church leaders that influence faith-based organizations, specifically African American churches in the southeast region of Washington, DC, to provide human services. The District of Columbia has eight local wards: southeast Washington encompasses Wards 7 and 8, and has a high concentration of poverty and African Americans. The District of Columbia Department of Human Services (2010) reports that in the year 2009, 97% of Ward 7 residents were African American with 26% residing in poverty; 94% of Ward 8 residents were African American with 35% residing in poverty. The work of early sociologists, W. E. B. Dubois and Franklin Frazier is utilized to frame the theoretical background (Ethnic Identity Model) for this study. Additionally, this study relies on an African American church analysis by Lincoln and Mamiya (1990) to highlight the historical and current role of the African American church. The purpose of this study was to examine the churches of southeast Washington, DC and the level of human services provided between 2000 and 2010, during both the Bush and Obama Administrations, to understand the perceptions of the factors that influenced the level of human services during the same time frame. The study utilized a qualitative design with descriptive statistics to shed light on human service delivery of faith-based organizations in the African American community. A semistructured interview was performed on a convenience sample of 20 pastors/church leaders of churches in southeast Washington, DC. These 20 churches were identified through the District of Columbia's yellow pages and, additionally, other data sets including advocacy organizations and community groups. This study found that neither President's Bush's or Obama Faith Based Initiative significantly influenced the level of provision of human services by African American Churches located in Wards 7 and 8 of southeast Washington DC. Also this study found that the majority of African American churches in wards 7 & 8 in Washington DC are more flexible and able to determine the types of services they provide by the presenting community needs. The study results will inform policymakers about whether, and how, the churches' role in service delivery changed after the implementation of President Bush's Faith-Based Initiative. Presidents Bush and Obama view churches and community-based organizations as strong frontline resources to address desperate challenges related to poverty, but little is known about the effectiveness of their initiatives. The results of this analysis will assist churches, community organizations, and policy formulators in providing information that will help policymakers to make more informed decisions about the potential impact of churches for service delivery in the African American community. It will also provide information about barriers to participating as partners with the government.


At times of significant social change, whether revolutionary or evolutionary, committed moving image documentary practice comes more than ever into its own as perhaps the most literally and metaphorically 'telling' of forms by which to engage both the subjects and themes of its enquiry.

Its ability to prioritize those marginalized by mainstream, commodity film-making, and the means it can employ to enable an open narrative space for individuals, communities and ways of being, becoming and belonging through enduring dialogue with its participants is exemplary.

The subtly polemical way it can build its argument through enduring encounter – outside of the template requirements of television production, whether in process or product – means that it offers time, the duration of shared experience, as well as space (the arena of its theme as well as the actual material environments of its content) as active components in its palette of tools. This combination, when allied to its specific role of advocacy, makes engaged social documentary one of the most energized in contemporary moving image practice.

I am currently in development with two major feature-length documentary works, hybrids that challenge conventional genre boundaries and seek, rather, a heightened register of telling that is explicitly participatory and collaborative. Both projects are centred on locations in major world-cities, long-inhabited by their communities, territories whose identities are at stake within the unfolding and accelerating narrative of globalised gentrification or 'development', and zones whose buildings, functions and populations (human and otherwise) are being challenged by 'incursionist' forces – of speculative capital, architecture and commerce – in ways that challenge the current diversity of ways of being in these locations.

In this presentation I will present work-in-progress sequences from both projects detailed below and contextualise them within both my own practice and the wider social documentary forms described above, tracing parallels and divergences in current approaches nationally and internationally.


We introduce a software system that is capable of indexing point cloud data in real-time as it is being captured by a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor. Our system extends the popular MNO (modifiable nested octree) structure so that it can be built progressively without knowing the bounding box of the point cloud. Using a task-based parallel algorithm incoming points are continuously processed and distributed to the octree nodes using grid-based sampling. Different task priority functions enable prioritization of either high point throughput or low latency. We provide a reference implementation of this system and evaluate it using both a synthetic and a real-world test scenario. The synthetic test demonstrates good scalability up to 16 threads, with maximum point throughputs of up to 1.8 million points per second. These numbers are verified on a sensor system using a Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR sensor, where our system is able to index all data produced by the scanner in real-time.


Introduction: Previous studies have shown that cannabis use is common in adults with sickle cell disease (SCD), and that many patients report using cannabis to treat pain. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of adults with SCD and compared daily users of cannabis with others using validated patient-reported measures of pain and quality of life as well as opioid and health care utilization. Results: Daily cannabis users with SCD had worse pain episode severity scores than others (56.7 vs. 48.8, p=0.02) yet had 1.8 fewer annual admissions (p=0.01) and 1.2 fewer annual emergency room (ER) visits (p=0.01), and similar amounts of opioids dispensed to others after matching for age, gender, SCD genotype, hydroxyurea use, and pain impact scores. Conclusions: We show that people with SCD with more severe pain crisis are more likely to use daily cannabis, yet have lower rates of hospital admission and ER use as compared with others with similar disease severity and pain impact. Randomized controlled trials should be performed.


In cases of insolvency, the security-holder is preferred to other creditors with respect to the outcome of sale of the object of the security. The article considers whether the preferential treatment of secured claims is justified. The situation is more complex in the case of the floating charge, because the object of the floating charge differs from that of other charges. The author maintains that the floating charge is an easy, convenient, and flexible way to secure a claim while both protecting the creditor's interests and allowing the debtor to sell his property where necessary. On the other side, the floating charge covers almost all movable property of the debtor, which is sold in full to cover the claim. In such cases, unsecured creditors end up with nothing. Such a situation may amount to unequal treatment of unsecured creditors. For this reason, the author concludes that, relative to regular secured creditors, less preferential treatment of floating-charge holders may be justified. The author suggests creating a system for distributing a fair amount of money to the unsecured creditors on the account of the floating-charge holder's fund.


Symbioses involving sulfur‐oxidizing bacteria and invertebrate hosts require a source of reduced sulfur, a source of O2, and transport mechanisms that ensure them a supply of both. We investigated these mechanisms using the symbiosis between the sessile ciliate Zoothamnium niveum (Hemprich and Ehrenberg 1831) and bacteria living on its surface. The stalked colonies of Z. niveum grow on peat walls around the openings of centimeter‐scale conduits created when mangrove rootlets decompose. Using in situ, time‐series measurements with fast‐responding amperometric microelectrodes, we found that the conduits were charged with H2S by diffusion from the decaying rootlets during periods of low boundary‐layer flow speed. During these times, the feeding current of the zooids transported oxygenated seawater from outside the peat wall toward the ectobiotic bacteria. During periods of high flow speed, H2S‐rich seawater from the conduits was drawn along the colonies and over the bacteria. We conclude that this symbiosis exploits a combination of two transport mechanisms: (1) venting of H2S‐rich seawater due to pulsating boundary‐layer current over ciliate groups and (2) the continuous and rapid feeding current generated by the host's cilia. This discovery raises the possibility that other systems in which pockets of decay are exposed to pulsating flow could support similar symbioses.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether prophylactic CNS chemotherapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia is associated with declines in neuropsychological abilities.

METHODS
Growth curve analysis was used to examine neuropsychological outcome and treatment-related change in children (N = 30) who were treated at two childhood cancer centers. A comprehensive test battery was administered at baseline (8 months), 2, 3, and 4 years postdiagnosis (age at diagnosis M = 5.90 years, SD = 4.2C).

RESULTS
Results indicated modest declines in arithmetic, visual motor integration, and verbal fluency. Intrathecal and systemic treatment was related to poorer visual motor integration at 4 years postdiagnosis and a faster rate of decline in visual motor integration skills across the observation period than intrathecal treatment alone. Arithmetic proficiency at 4 years after diagnosis was related to maternal education, but the rate of decline was not. Verbal fluency was unrelated to demographic or treatment variables.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that neuropsychological outcome and declines are related to both demographic and treatment characteristics depending on the cognitive domain examined.


Packaging, packaging waste and agriculture are separate, distinct concepts for Romania in 2015; they seem to have nothing in common. By bringing these words together and thoroughly studying the areas which they represent, we noticed that they are the starting point in defining a new concept: "Agriculture Waste Packaging". This concept is in fact a new issue which Romania will have to face and can bring great harm to the country's natural heritage no later than in 2020.


Abstract. The influence of losses of organic vapors to chamber walls during secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation experiments has recently been established. Here, the influence of such losses on simulated ambient SOA concentrations and properties is assessed in the University of California at Davis / California Institute of Technology (UCD/CIT) regional air quality model using the statistical oxidation model (SOM) for SOA. The SOM was fit to laboratory chamber data both with and without accounting for vapor wall losses following the approach of Zhang et al. (2014). Two vapor wall-loss scenarios are considered when fitting of SOM to chamber data to determine best-fit SOM parameters, one with "low" and one with "high" vapor wall-loss rates to approximately account for the current range of uncertainty in this process. Simulations were run using these different parameterizations (scenarios) for both the southern California/South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) and the eastern United States (US). Accounting for vapor wall losses leads to substantial increases in the simulated SOA concentrations from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in both domains, by factors of  ∼  2–5 for the low and  ∼  5–10 for the high scenarios. The magnitude of the increase scales approximately inversely with the absolute SOA concentration of the no loss scenario. In SoCAB, the predicted SOA fraction of total organic aerosol (OA) increases from  ∼  0.2 (no) to  ∼  0.5 (low) and to  ∼  0.7 (high), with the high vapor wall-loss simulations providing best general agreement with observations. In the eastern US, the SOA fraction is large in all cases but increases further when vapor wall losses are accounted for. The total OA ∕ ΔCO ratio captures the influence of dilution on SOA concentrations. The simulated OA ∕ ΔCO in SoCAB (specifically, at Riverside, CA) is found to increase substantially during the day only for the high vapor wall-loss scenario, which is consistent with observations and indicative of photochemical production of SOA. Simulated O : C atomic ratios for both SOA and for total OA increase when vapor wall losses are accounted for, while simulated H : C atomic ratios decrease. The agreement between simulations and observations of both the absolute values and the diurnal profile of the O : C and H : C atomic ratios for total OA was greatly improved when vapor wall-losses were accounted for. These results overall demonstrate that vapor wall losses in chambers have the potential to exert a large influence on simulated ambient SOA concentrations, and further suggest that accounting for such effects in models can explain a number of different observations and model–measurement discrepancies.


Software evolves over time with the modification, addition and removal of new classes, methods, functions, dependencies. A consequence is that behavior may not be placed in the right packages and the software modularization is broken. A good organization of classes into identifiable and collaborating packages eases the understanding, maintenance, test and evolution of software systems. We argue that maintainers lack tool support for understanding the concrete organization and for structuring packages within their context. Our claim is that the maintenance of large software modularizations needs approaches that help (i) understanding the structure at package level and assessing its quality; (ii) identifying modularity problems; and (iii) take decisions and verify the impact of these decisions. In this thesis, we propose ECOO, an approach to help reengineers identify and understand structural problems in software architectures and to support the remodularization activity. It concerns the three following research fields: - Understanding package dependency problems. We propose visualizations to highlight cyclic dependencies problems at package level. - Proposing dependencies to be changed for remodularization. The approach proposes dependencies to break to make the system more modular. - Analyzing impact of change. The approach proposes a change impact analysis to try modifications before applying them on the real system. The approaches presented in this thesis have been qualitatively and quantitatively validated and results have been taken into account in the reengineering of analyzed systems. The results we obtained demonstrate the usefulness of our approach.


There are over 300,000 children being exploited, used as slaves and in combat situations as child soldiers. These children are kidnapped, brainwashed and forced to commit atrocities that are so heinous, most adults cannot fathom witnessing these things themselves. While both female and male child soldiers exist, their roles can be extremely different. Even though we are aware that the experiences and gender roles are different, there is minimal research on the female child solider experience. This research explores the different gender roles and involvements for both male and female child soldiers. It also explores the lack of research regarding female child soldiers and the possible reasons for this difference. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Social Work First Advisor Mr. David Manville Second Advisor Dr. Yvette Colon


This article presents the first large-scale empirical study of federal guidelines sentencing that matches offenders to the sentencing judge. We confirm the widely-held belief that political ideology matters in criminal sentencing - specifically, Republican-appointed judges give longer sentences than Democrat-appointees with regard to certain crimes. More interestingly, we find evidence consistent with positive political theory that such decision making is nested within the broader political-ideological relationship of the sentencing judge and the overseeing circuit court. We find, for example, that Democrat-appointed judges depart from the Sentencing Guidelines to give shorter sentences more often and to a greater degree when the reviewing court is politically aligned (circuit majority Democrat-appointed) than when not aligned (circuit majority Republican-appointed). We then discuss the Supreme Court's evolving sentencing jurisprudence and the likely impact of alternatives to the present system. We conclude that Guidelines improves sentencing consistency and preserves the benefit of appellate review. We also proposes two potential reforms: first, mandating open access to judge identifiers in sentencing data for researchers to study sources of judicial bias; and, second, mandating ideologically mixed appellate panels for review of criminal sentences to prevent the more extreme instances of ideological alignment that frequently occur between district and circuit court panels that lead to more extreme outcomes in sentencing.


BACKGROUND
Identifying and approaching eligible participants for recruitment to research studies usually relies on healthcare professionals. This process is sometimes hampered by deliberate or inadvertent gatekeeping that can introduce bias into patient selection.

OBJECTIVES
Our primary objective was to identify and assess the effect of strategies designed to help healthcare professionals to recruit participants to research studies.

SEARCH METHODS
We performed searches on 5 January 2015 in the following electronic databases: Cochrane Methodology Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, British Nursing Index, PsycINFO, ASSIA and Web of Science (SSCI, SCI-EXPANDED) from 1985 onwards. We checked the reference lists of all included studies and relevant review articles and did citation tracking through Web of Science for all included studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We selected all studies that evaluated a strategy to identify and recruit participants for research via healthcare professionals and provided pre-post comparison data on recruitment rates.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently screened search results for potential eligibility, read full papers, applied the selection criteria and extracted data. We calculated risk ratios for each study to indicate the effect of each strategy.

MAIN RESULTS
Eleven studies met our eligibility criteria and all were at medium or high risk of bias. Only five studies gave the total number of participants (totalling 7372 participants). Three studies used a randomised design, with the others using pre-post comparisons. Several different strategies were investigated. Four studies examined the impact of additional visits or information for the study site, with no increases in recruitment demonstrated. Increased recruitment rates were reported in two studies that used a dedicated clinical recruiter, and five studies that introduced an automated alert system for identifying eligible participants. The studies were embedded into trials evaluating care in oncology mainly but also in emergency departments, diabetes and lower back pain.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is no strong evidence for any single strategy to help healthcare professionals to recruit participants in research studies. Additional visits or information did not appear to increase recruitment by healthcare professionals. The most promising strategies appear to be those with a dedicated resource (e.g. a clinical recruiter or automated alert system) for identifying suitable participants that reduced the demand on healthcare professionals, but these were assessed in studies at high risk of bias.


Founded in 1994 when the Internet was still a "toy for techies," the case is set in 1998 when Internet IPOs were red-hot. Internet Securities provides hard-to-find financial, business, economic, and political information on emerging markets. Information from over 600 information suppliers in more than 25 emerging markets (e.g., China, Russia, Poland, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Turkey) is provided to over 650 institutional clients, including J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, KPMG, and ING Barings. After ruling out seeking another round of VC financing, the cash-strapped founder of this Internet information service provider must decide whether to IPO or accept an offer to be acquired by Euromoney, a global publishing and information content provider that is eager to launch an Internet information service. The case contains a term sheet that can be reviewed to support analysis and decision making.Learning Objective:The case enables students to: Understand the challenges of building a sustainable business from idea to opportunity to launch and growth; Analyze the company's business model; Compare Internet IPO data and comparable company acquisition transactions from 1994 through 1998; Determine valuation and deal terms; and Identify personal motivations of a founder at key transition periods in the process of launching and growing a new venture.


The National Institutes of Health Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) Program is a multiinstitutional effort to identify and sequence a cDNA clone containing a complete ORF for each human and mouse gene. ESTs were generated from libraries enriched for full-length cDNAs and analyzed to identify candidate full-ORF clones, which then were sequenced to high accuracy. The MGC has currently sequenced and verified the full ORF for a nonredundant set of >9,000 human and >6,000 mouse genes. Candidate full-ORF clones for an additional 7,800 human and 3,500 mouse genes also have been identified. All MGC sequences and clones are available without restriction through public databases and clone distribution networks (see http://mgc.nci.nih.gov).


I begin with a personal anecdote, my first courthouse experience. In the spring of 1968, as a young member of the Columbia faculty, I witnessed the student uprising that disrupted the campus for several weeks until the misguided administrative decision to call in the police-a decision that, inevitably, led to violence and bloodshed. Earlier that year I had been called to jury duty; like most academic colleagues receiving that call, I had postponed service until the end of the semester. Arriving at Manhattan criminal court in early June, I found the jury panels filled with members of the Columbia faculty. The corridors, on the other hand, seemed to be filled with our students, appearing to face charges of various counts of trespassing and resisting arrest. The experience was equally memorable for another reason: the racial imbalance of the entire occasion. Not only in the case of my voir dire, but more generally, all of the accused seemed to be black, which brings me to the relevance of my experience to a discussion on representing justiceand specifically to the paper Blind Justice by I. Bennett Capers. My first courthouse experience took place in what I believe is the central courtroom in Manhattan criminal court, where the judge sits under a mural depicting the figure of Justice. In this 1893 painting by Edward Emerson Simmons, she is pictured as a beautiful woman, blond and without the expected blindfold.' Kneeling before her are two beautiful children, a boy and a girl, also blond. Each presents an object on a pillow to Justice: he a sword, she a lily. However the iconography of this painting may symbolize justice tempered by mercy, its most powerful impression on me was made rather by the Caucasian blondness of its figures, by its promise of exclusively white justice in a court in which the defendants were predominantly black. As an art historian, I naturally was interested in the painting behind the judge. The absence of a blindfold struck me as anomalous. Many years


Social stories play a significant part in the teaching skills and behaviors to children with ASD who lack social skills. The purpose of this study is to analyze studies in which social stories were used for teaching social skills to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The present study includes a descriptive review and meta-analysis of single-subject studies that met the criteria. In all studies, social validity, maintenance, and generalization data were collected in 56.25%, 50%, and 31.25% of the respective studies. Although most studies showed that social stories were effective in teaching social skills to children with ASD in the descriptive study, in the meta-analytic study, the mean of Percantage of Non-overlapping Data (PND) scores for all studies was 63.43%, with a range of 0% to 100%. Results suggest that social stories should not yet be considered as evidence based practice for teaching social skills to individuals with ASD. However, social stories seem to be a promising practice that warrants future research. Results will be discussed extensively and future directions for research and practice will be addressed.


The strain, exhumation history, and field orientation of a well‐exposed shear zone and detachment fault in the Raft River Mountains of northwestern Utah, a Cordilleran metamorphic core complex, have been studied to determine the kinematics of ductile shearing and initial orientations of the shear zone and detachment fault. Mapping and strain and kinematic analysis indicate that the top‐to‐the‐east Raft River shear zone initially developed parallel to an unconformity separating Archean rocks from overlying Proterozoic quartzite and schist for at least 24 km in the shear direction. Experimental rock deformation data from lithologies similar to the Archean and Proterozoic rocks suggest the unconformity represented a significant rheological boundary at the deformation temperatures; the base of the shear zone was localized along the boundary between relatively weak quartzite above and stronger monzogranite below. An extensive thermochronological database is used to reconstruct the position of the basement unconformity in temperature‐lateral distance coordinates. The initial average dip of the shear zone and basement unconformity is estimated between 7° and 30°, assuming subhorizontal isotherms and geothermal gradients of 20°–40°C/km. The east dip of the unconformity at the onset of Miocene extension is interpreted to have resulted from late Eocene unroofing and flexure beneath a top‐to‐the‐WNW extensional shear zone in the western Raft River, Grouse Creek, and Albion Mountains. The observations from the Raft River shear zone suggest that the orientation of some midcrustal shear zones may not reflect the predicted orientation for ductile faults according to ductile failure criteria but, rather, the orientation of rheological boundaries along which deformation is localized. Furthermore, detachment faults that are superimposed on mylonite during progressive displacement and footwall unroofing may use an inherited mechanical anisotropy from the mylonite, and their orientations may not reflect the predicted orientation of shear fractures in isotropic rock. The common parallelism between detachment faults and mylonitic foliation may indicate a mechanical and kinematic preference for localization of throughgoing brittle faults parallel to preexisting mylonitic foliation. Because of this preference, studies restricted to detachment faults which lack footwall mylonite or restricted to structural levels between the breakaway and mylonitic front have more bearing on the question of the initial dip of normal‐sense shear fractures (faults) within the seismogenic crust.


This study reports particulate matter levels of various size fractions (PM10, PM2.5, and PM1) and identify their controlling factors, in various locations over Greece. It combines long-term data sets involving particle concentrations as measured in the island of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Greater Area of Athens. Measurements were carried out in various sites at urban (Central Athens and Heraklion, Crete), suburban (Lykovrissi, Athens) and natural background (Finokalia, Crete) locations, for a time period extending from 2004 to 2006. Size-segregated mass measurements of 3 sizes (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) are reported. The EU annual limit value of 40 μg m for PM10 was exceeded on a yearly basis at both of measurement sites in Athens, while frequent exceedances of the 24-h limit value of 50 μg m were recorded. Concentration levels of PM2.5 and PM1 were also found elevated, when regarded in perspective to either existing limit values (for PM2.5) or levels reported for other large metropolitan areas (for PM1). In addition even at the background station of Finokalia in Crete, average PM10 concentrations exceeded 30 μg m. Moreover, at the same station, average concentrations of PM2.5, notably exceed 15 μg m (a characteristic value, relative to the USEPA PM2.5 air quality standard). At all sites coarse particles have been found to comprise a noteworthy portion of total PM10 particles (with PM2.5/PM10 ratios ranging between 45-60%), while fine particle mass concentrations heavily relied on those of particles in the submicron range (PM1/PM2.5 ratios spanning between 55-75%). The short and long-term temporal variability of each fraction were examined and spatial associations were statistically analyzed, in an attempt to identify possible affinities in particle level profiles, effective over a larger regional scale. It has been observed that at several instances, severe particle episodes recorded in the region of Crete have largely affected the Greek mainland and have triggered a response to the monitoring network in Athens. Special focus has been given to events of dust transport from N. Africa, which is found to be more frequent during spring and fall, and during which the PM10 limit value of 50 μg m is violated and concentrations of even finer particle fractions are affected. Air mass back trajectories were studied, for episode days during dust transport events. Data of particle chemical composition were utilized, contributing to an initial identification and characterization of major natural and anthropogenic source types, which determine particle concentrations.


Using new data from the K2 mission, we show that WASP-47, a previously known hot Jupiter host, also hosts two additional transiting planets: a Neptune-sized outer planet and a super-Earth inner companion. We measure planetary properties from the K2 light curve and detect transit timing variations (TTVs), confirming the planetary nature of the outer planet. We performed a large number of numerical simulations to study the dynamical stability of the system and to find the theoretically expected TTVs. The theoretically predicted TTVs are in good agreement with those observed, and we use the TTVs to determine the masses of two planets, and place a limit on the third. The WASP-47 planetary system is important because companion planets can both be inferred by TTVs and are also detected directly through transit observations. The depth of the hot Jupiter's transits make ground-based TTV measurements possible, and the brightness of the host star makes it amenable for precise radial velocity measurements. The system serves as a Rosetta Stone for understanding TTVs as a planet detection technique.


Machine vision has become an important non-destructive visual inspection technology for automation in the past two decades. Using machine vision for production automation can reduce operating costs and increase product value and quality. For agricultural products, color is often a good indicator of product quality and maturity. This paper presents a novel image-dependent color quantization technique designed specifically for real-time color evaluation in production automation applications. In contrast with more complex color space conversion techniques, the proposed method makes it easy for a human operator to specify and adjust color-preference settings for different color groups representing distinct quality or maturity levels. The performance of this robust color quantization and image analysis technique in evaluating fruit maturity and detecting skin delamination defects is demonstrated using Medjool date samples collected from field testing.


The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) issued a mandate in 2009 that all teachers must demonstrate leadership. This mandate created a subsequent need for school systems across North Carolina to further develop their teachers as leaders. While NCDPI defined "teachers demonstrating leadership" through various elements of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards (NCPTS), a review of the literature indicated a diverse set of definitions of teacher leadership that exist, a variety of pathways by which teacher leadership development has been approached, and scholarly debate over how researchers might determine the nature of effective professional development. The extant literature pointed toward case study as a useful method for examining these issues. Moreover, elements of the extant literature framed a paradox whereby NCDPI's mandate that all teachers demonstrate leadership was to be fulfilled within a historically underprofessionalized field of practice. This case study examined the nature of one North Carolina school district's teacher leadership development program, how district leaders viewed their role in distributing leadership and developing their teachers as leaders, the nature of what and how teachers learned about teacher leadership through participation in the program, and what other school districts and practitioners might learn from the results of this case study. Methodologies for this case study included a qualitative survey of 16 out of the 26 teachers who participated in the program's fourth cohort, two rounds of interviews with seven of these teachers who acted as key informants before and after they had completed the program, interviews with the superintendent and three other district-level administrators who had taken part in developing and implementing the program, and various elements of programmatic document review. A major component of this document review entailed an analysis of themes that were present across all of the 79 participants' end-of-program written reflections that had been submitted to and archived by their superintendent over the first four years of the program's existence. These reflections were written in response to an identical set of questions and prompts. The results of this case study were examined through a bifocal conceptual framework that focused on distributed leadership to consider the views and experiences of those in the school system who developed the program and constructivist learning to consider the views and experiences of teachers who completed the program. Through this bifocal framework, seven examples were identified of how teachers' leadership capacities were developed through constructivist forms of learning. Moreover, results from this case study suggested that there were four ways in which the program aligned with scholarly views on the professionalization of teaching and two ways in which this program misaligned with such views. The conclusion of this case study also includes two possible areas for future research as well as a guiding set of questions that are intended to help school systems conceptualize a framework for their own teacher leadership development.


1. Introduction The World Health Organization defines child sexual abuse as the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or that violates the laws or social taboos of society. Child sexual abuse is evidenced by this activity between a child and an adult or another child who by age or development is in a relationship of responsibility, trust or power, the activity being intended to gratify or satisfy the needs of the other person. This may include but is not limited to the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful activity, the exploitative use of a child in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices, the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials (1). A similar definition has been stated in Article 18 of The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, 2007 which is yet to enter into force (2). The risks that minors face online include sexual solicitation, exposure to problematic and illegal content as well as harassment and bullying. These risks are not confined to their local area but occur from people all around the world. Parents and teachers do not have direct experience with the risks posed by new-media technologies. Addressing the risks online therefore carries different challenges and requires broader collaboration to find innovative solutions (3). The need for a multi-layered approach to internet governance in India is highlighted by a comparative study of the various measures available internationally to make communications over the information and communication technologies safe. A concerted effort is very essential from various actors in order to prevent online child sexual abuse. Those who can help report child sexual abuse have been identified as social-service workers, healthcare practitioners, education providers, law enforcement officers, photo developers, IT professionals, ISPs, credit card companies and banks (4). Other actors are telecom service providers, network service providers, web-hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online-market places, and cyber cafes. A multi-level sensitisation about the need to collect statistics as well as report suspected internet child abuse should be effected among these actors. In India, the government does not take a pro-active stand against child sexual abuse, in contrast to the USA where law enforcement officials lure potential sex offenders in decoy. In sting operations conducted in the USA, where paedophiles are lured over the internet to contact people below the age of consent over the Internet for sexual liaisons, many highly-educated and well-to-do Indians are turning up as potential molesters. This is particularly disturbing, as there are no statistics on this in India (5). Child-to-child solicitation and abuse through the medium of mobile telecommunications is becoming a serious problem in India. Other kinds of abuse occur through social networking sites like Orkut where pictures of girls have been posted on communities with lewd allusions and a listing of the victims' mobile numbers. With new-media technologies available at lower costs, child sex abuse images are being increasingly made and uploaded from India (6). In a recent case in Kerala State, three girls committed suicide after increasing blackmail that the film of classmates raping them which had been taken on a mobile camera would be publicly circulated. Generally, it is a fact that unwanted publicity and fear of victimisation by law enforcement machinery are reasons why the largely conventional Indian families fear reporting child sexual abuse. 2. A Comparative analysis regarding definition and criminalisation of Online Child Sexual Abuse The word 'online' means all forms of information and communication technologies like the internet, mobile phones etc. …


Abstract Spaced repetition has been widely implemented and examined in mobile-assisted word learning as an important learning strategy. However, the nature of spaced repetition by commercial word-learning apps and the factors leading to the favoured mobile-assisted spaced repetition have yet to be investigated in authentic contexts. In this study, we coded the spaced repetition patterns and methods of nine apps and interviewed 72 Chinese English learners about their perceptions of spaced repetition for word learning. The results showed three major repetition patterns at three knowledge levels (i.e. the word is unknown, familiar-but-unsure, and known to the learner). The three most common repetition methods were using text-plus-audio for multimedia learning, conducting retrieval practice through flashcards and multiple-choice questions, and integrating game elements such as Goals/Rules and Rewards/Points into learning. Concerning learner preferences, they preferred to have (a) six or seven learning sessions for 'unknown' words, three or four sessions for 'familiar-but-unsure' words, and two or three sessions for 'known' words over ten- to fourteen- day periods, (b) gradually longer intervals between learning sessions, (c) text-plus-audio-plus-image as multimedia, (d) two or three innovative formats of retrieval practice, and (e) integration of Goals/Rules, Rewards/Points, and Time Limits. The results indicate that teachers, researchers, and app designers ought to consider both learning effectiveness and learner perceptions when applying, designing, and developing spaced repetition patterns and methods for mobile-assisted word learning.


Bone drilling is a key part of major orthopaedic surgeries for fixing fractured bones and replacing damaged joints. One of the main problems in bone drilling is thermal necrosis of tissue, which can occur due to elevated temperatures in the drilling zone. Investigation of the temperatures arising in bone drilling is necessary to analyse the extent of bone necrosis. This paper presents a three-dimensional thermo-mechanical finite-element model of a bone-drilling process to study the effect of drilling parameters (cutting speed and feed rate) and cooling conditions (air and saline solution) on the temperature in drilled bone. The drilling speed was found to have a higher effect compared to that of the feed rate in inducing thermal necrosis in bone for the tested cooling environments. The level of necrosis penetration into bone was strongly affected by the drilling speed and the application of saline cooling (irrigation) in the drilling zone. A considerable extent of necrosis was predicted even at lower drilling speeds when no cooling was used. Drilling experiments were performed on real cortical bone to measure temperatures near the immediate vicinity of the drill. Calculated temperatures were compared with experimental values and were found to be in good agreement with them.


A case-control study was carried out in 3 highly endemic regions of Cote d'Ivoire to study risk factors for Buruli ulcer. A case was defined as a Buruli ulcer occurring less than one year before the date of survey, resident in one of the regions investigated and there was no history of Buruli ulcer illness. Controls were selected from the general population by a two stage cluster sampling method. A total of 116 cases and 116 controls were included. For the cases, the male/female sex ratio was 0.84, the median age was 19.5 years and 40.5% were children  15 years. Biological results were obtained for 86 (74%) cases using skin exudate samples. Positive rates were 22.0, 22.1 and 27.9% respectively for smear examination, culture and PCR IS2404, respectively. After adjusting for possible confounders, no history of BCG vaccination (ORa = 5.0, CI 1.7 - 14.3), presence of a case 15 years (ORa = 8.3, CI 2.8 -24.1), having a river/lake/dam near the housing (ORa = 4.4, CI 1.6 - 12.2) and the type of place for fishing (p = 0.001) were associated with illness. Young children and women having daily water related activities were most at risk. Swab samples were not sensitive enough for Buruli ulcer diagnosis. There is an urgent need for a rapid field test to diagnosis Buruli Ulcer as PCR IS2404 remains expensive for most of the endemic countries.


Funny, heartbreaking, and real--these twelve stories showcase a dynamic range of voices belonging to characters who can't stop confessing. They are obsessive storytellers, disturbed professors, depressed auctioneers, gambling clergy. A fourteen-year-old boy gets baptized and speaks in tongues to win the love of a girl who ushers him into adulthood; a troubled insomniac searches the woods behind his mother's house for the "awful pretty" singing that begins each midnight; a school-system employee plans a year-end party at the site of a child's drowning; a burned-out health-care administrator retires from New England to coastal Georgia and stumbles upon a life-changing moment inside Walmart. These big-hearted people--tethered to the places that shape them--survive their daily sorrows and absurdities with well-timed laughter; they slouch toward forgiveness, and they point their ears toward the Holy Ghost's last words.
"In its precise prose and spooky intelligence and sharp-eyed examination of the condemned kind we are, Last Words of the Holy Ghost is an original. Listen: if you can find a collection of stories more cohesive, more ambitious in reach, more generous in its passion, and fancier in its footwork, I will buy it for you and deliver it in person. In the meantime, put some Matt Cashion between your ears and then try to resist the temptation to dash into the street and shout 'hallelujah' at your neighbors."--Lee K. Abbott, author of All Things, All at Once: New and Selected Stories and judge


On February 26, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in In re Village at Camp Bowie held that the Bankruptcy Code cramdown requirement in 11 U.S.C. § 1129(a)(10) that at least one impaired class accept the reorganization plan did not distinguish between economic and discretionary impairment. Rejecting the Eighth Circuit's holding that § 1129(a)(10) included a motive inquiry, the Fifth Circuit instead held that no policy implications could be read into the plain language of the provision. This Comment argues that the Fifth Circuit correctly interpreted § 1129(a)(10) as allowing artificial impairment, but missed the opportunity to influence other courts by not adequately supporting its conclusion with an analysis of the Bankruptcy Code's structure or historical de-


Brown-rot fungi degrade almost exclusively wood cellulosic materials participating in the, carbon cycle and soil formation of many forest regions, these are especially important on boreal and cultivated coniferous forests. These fungi and forests may have a common co-evolutionary history. Studying wood-inhabiting fungi in cultivated pine forests in Southern Brazil, we have analyzed morphologically and molecularly specimens of Sarcoporia polyspora, which has shown to be a rare and aggressive decomposer previously unreported from South America. Nuclear ribosomal ITS region sequences from North and South American specimens were compared.


While there are common misconceptions regarding the definition of a public law library, it can be defined as a government mandated library which provides the public with access to legal resources. Largely, public law libraries are instituted by state or federal law.Public Law Librarianship: Objectives, Challenges, and Solutions aims to introduce firsthand knowledge on the funding, organizational structures, and governance related to the public law library. This book includes comprehensive research for current and future public law librarians to provide administrative guidance and professional sources essential for running a public law library.


The world has entered a new and dangerous era of climate change impacts, causing huge loss and damage and driving up inequality in the world's poorest countries and communities that have contributed least to the climate crisis. New research by Oxfam estimates that funding requirements for UN humanitarian appeals linked to extreme weather are eight times higher than they were 20 years ago, and over the past five years nearly half of appeal requirements have gone unmet. Funding for emergency humanitarian response is piecemeal and painfully inadequate, as is broader support to address loss and damage such as rebuilding homes and vital infrastructure. Scaled-up financial support from governments, corporations and individuals most responsible for causing the climate crisis, and most able to pay, is an immediate necessity. A new finance facility must be created to help ensure that finance to address loss and damage is accessible and sustained, is additional to adaptation, mitigation and ODA commitments, and is delivered in accordance with the principles of climate justice.


In this study, we focus on the factors that influence online innovation community members' continued participation in the context of open source software development OSSD communities. Prior research on continued participation in online communities has primarily focused on social interactions among members and benefits obtained from these interactions. However, members of these communities often play different roles, which have been examined extensively, albeit in a separate stream of research. This study attempts to bridge these two streams of research by investigating the joint influence of community response and members' roles on continued participation. We categorize OSSD community members into users and modifiers and empirically examine the differential effects of community response across these roles. By analyzing a longitudinal data set of activities in the discussion forums of more than 300 OSSD projects, we not only confirm the positive influence of community response on members' continued participation but also find that community response is more influential in driving the continuance behavior of users than that of modifiers. In addition, this research highlights the importance of modifiers, a key subgroup of OSSD participants that has been largely overlooked by prior research.


Amorphous core transformers are in developing stage; they are considered as energy efficient transformers. Cost of amorphous core transformer is about 20 to 30 per cent higher than that of a conventional transformer of same KVA rating. Among several parameters, cost of winding material is a parameter, on which cost of a transformer depends. In a transformer, the cost of winding material may be up to 28 per cent of overall cost of a transformer. Cost of a transformer may be reduced if aluminum winding is adopted in place of copper winding; aluminum is lighter in weight and cheaper in price, compared to copper winding. Here, a comparative study is presented for an amorphous core transformer with copper winding versus aluminum winding, in terms of cost efficiency and mechanical forces. It has been found that, if aluminum winding is adopted for 400KVA amorphous core transformer, the cost reduces, efficiency improves and mechanical forces also remain within limit.


For many practitioners, best practices are often developed through significant amounts of direct experience. However, they can also be developed through the examination and application of research findings. By critically assessing existing studies within library and information science, both aspiring and experienced professionals can acquire a deeper understanding of available methods, as well as design more effective studies. In what is surely the first of its kind for librarians, Barbara Wildemuth has created a book that mirrors the process of conducting a research study; at the same time, she exposes the reader to a wealth of competing and complementary techniques. Each chapter introduces a particular research method, points out its relative strengths and weaknesses, and provides a critique of two or more exemplary studies. An invaluable guide for librarians, educators and students alike. Section One considers those research questions most often asked in the field of information and library science, and explains how they can arise from practice and direct observation or from existing theories. Section Two covers a variety of research designs, as well as the sampling issues associated with those designs: case studies, naturalistic research, longitudinal studies, Delphi studies, and quasi-experimental and experimental designs. Section Three moves on to methods for collecting data: surveys, various types of interviews, historical and documentary studies, transaction log analysis, diaries, and participant observation. It concludes with a chapter discussing the ways in which any of these methods might be combined for use in a particular study.


The effects of small trailing-edge strips (Gurney flaps) on the steady and unsteady flow about a NACA0012 airfoil are computationally examined using a Navier-Stokes code, INS2D. Two Reynolds numbers, Re = 107,000 and 169,000, are used in the paper, the former corresponding to experiments previously reported in the literature and the latter corresponding to future proposed experiments. The computation of the unsteady flow includes an oscillating airfoil with several fixed Gurney flap sizes at higher angles of attack (beyond the stall angle of attack) and an oscillating Gurney flap with a fixed airfoil at higher angles of attack. For the former configuration, a correlation study between theory and a previous experiment has also been made. Reasonably good agreement with the experiment confirms the computational results that predict the effect of the Gurney flap is to enhance the maximum lift coefficient and stall angle of attack for both static and dynamic flows. The computations show that the effect of the Gurney flap is to move the separation position forward on the lower surface and back on the upper surface of the airfoil for near the trailing edge when the Gurney flap is oscillating. The oscillating Gurney flap increases the stall aerodynamic load.


On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court completed the third term of the John Roberts era. This article develops four themes concerning where the Supreme Court is right now and where it is likely to be going. First, so far, the Roberts Court has been characterized by its dwindling docket. Second, although it is called the Roberts Court out of tradition and deference to the Chief, in actuality it is the Anthony Kennedy Court. When it matters most, Kennedy is virtually always the deciding vote in 5-4 decisions. Third, this is the most conservative Court since the mid-1930s and is a Court that generally favors the government over claims of individual rights and business interests over those of employees and consumers. Fourth, the 2008 election is likely to determine whether the Court becomes more conservative or stays ideologically the same. It is unlikely that the Court will become more liberal during the next presidency or even the next five to ten years.


Corporate dividend policy should strike a balance between paying cash to shareholders when there are excess resources and retaining sufficient resources in the company to fund worthwhile projects. Using excess resources to pay dividends can help to avoid overinvestment by the company in inappropriate projects and/or other potential misuse of funds by managers for their own benefit. However, companies also need to avoid paying too much in dividends to ensure that adequate resources are available within the company to fund projects that could increase shareholder wealth (i.e., to avoid underinvestment). Cross-listing of company shares can improve governance and oversight, which may make the dividend policies of cross-listed companies more likely to avoid both over and underinvestment. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2003 to 2011, we find that cross-listed companies pay higher dividends than non-cross-listed companies when there are excess resources (measured by free cash flow), thereby reducing the potential for overinvestment/misuse of the resources by cross-listed companies. We also find that the dividends of cross-listed companies are lower than those of non-cross-listed companies when there are greater growth opportunities (measure by the market-to-book ratio), reflecting the reduced potential for underinvestment by cross-listed companies. We find more limited evidence that cross-listings may influence the relationship between dividend volatility and free cash flow and growth opportunities. Overall, our results suggest that companies cross-listing their shares have dividend policies that are more responsive than those of non-cross-listed companies to potential shareholder concerns about over and underinvestment.


Retributivist and consequentialist justifications for criminal punishment have contended for generations without either emerging the obvious victor. Indeed, although many commentators have recently announced a retributivist renaissance, it is perhaps more accurate to observe a growing scholarly attraction to "mixed" or "hybrid" theories. And yet most extant mixed theories strike many as unsatisfactory for either of two reasons. The best known mixed theories assign retributivist arguments a too-marginalized role relative to their consequentialist competitors. Others, that avoid this perceived failing, lack hard edges: They assert that desert and good consequences are jointly necessary to the justification of punishment but offer little shape or structure to their inter-relationship. This paper sketches a mixed theory that avoids these pitfalls. It gives retributivist and consequentialist accounts closer to co-top billing, while assigning each a distinct role in the argumentative logic. It accomplishes this task by attending with seriousness to the point of departure for virtually the entire scholarly literature on the justification for criminal punishment. Almost invariably, contributions to that literature start by observing that "punishment stands in need of justification". So-called theories of punishment are, accordingly, efforts to meet that need. Precisely because these theories are situated ab initio within an argumentative dialectic, one might expect their persuasiveness to depend, in part, on how fully and satisfactorily they understand the proposition to which they aim to respond. Surprisingly, however, the vast literature on punishment has given remarkably short shrift to the question of what is meant and entailed by a demand that punishment be justified. This paper seeks to rectify that oversight by analyzing both what it means to demand justification for a given practice and how such a demand can be satisfied. Once armed with a richer understanding of the logical structure of justificatory argumentation, we are better able to see how a mixed theory of punishment might plausibly emerge.


River flow and water temperature are fundamental controls of freshwater ecosystems. Hence, future warming could impact valued habitats and species, particularly those with cold water preferences (such as salmonids). Warming could also exacerbate existing environmental pressures or diminish the effectiveness of management interventions. Climate model projections provide compelling evidence of the need for adaptation despite uncertainty about the timing, nature, and distribution of impacts on water quality, vulnerable species, and habitats. Low‐regret adaptation options to manage temperature impacts include increasing riparian shade, enhancing thermal refugia, and removing thermal barriers or hotspots. Indirect controls include managing river flows through abstraction and discharge regulation, moderating flow control structures, and manipulating channel hydromorphology. However, fundamental gaps in understanding may limit the effectiveness of some of these measures, leading to undesired side effects, wasted resources, ineffectual outcomes, or limited uptake. These knowledge gaps include where to target measures, how to implement in different situations, how to maximize co‐benefits and integrate with other policy objectives, and how to support implementation across rural and agricultural landscapes. Despite many uncertainties, restoration of riparian shade and river flows has the potential to deliver multiple benefits even if this does not include retarding rates of warming. WIREs Water 2015, 2:55–64. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1062