Urban research is fundamentally underpinned by heterogeneous, highly varied data. The availability and quantity of digital data sources is increasing rapidly. In order to facilitate decision-making and support processes related to urban policy and management, such data has to be readily analysed, synthesised and the results readily communicated to support evidence based decision-making. In this paper, we consider the current state of play of visualisation as it supports urban research. In doing so we firstly consider visualisation environments such as geographical information systems (GIS) and Cartography tools, digital globes, virtual simulation environments, building information models and gaming platforms. Secondly, we consider a number of visualisation techniques with a focusing on GIS and Cartography tools including space time cubes, heat maps, choropleth maps, flow maps and brushing. This review of visualisation environments and techniques is undertaken in the context of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network project ( www.aurin.org.au ). AURIN is tasked with developing a portal and associated e-Infrastructure, which provides seamless access to federated data, modelling and visualisation tools to support the urban researcher community in Australia. We conclude by outlining future research and development opportunities in developing the AURIN visualisation toolkit by reflecting on the value of visualisation as a data exploration and communication tool for researchers and decision-makers to assist with the study and management of the urban fabric.


Membrane proteins work in large complexes to perceive and transduce external signals and to trigger a cellular response leading to the adaptation of the cells to their environment. Biochemical assays have been extensively used to reveal the interaction between membrane proteins. However, such analyses do not reveal the unique and complex composition of the membrane proteins of the different plant cell types. Here, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the expression of Arabidopsis membrane proteins in the different cell types composing the root. Specifically, we analyzed the expression of genes encoding membrane proteins interacting in large complexes. We found that the transcriptional profiles of membrane protein-encoding genes differ between Arabidopsis root cell types. This result suggests that different cell types are characterized by specific sets of plasma membrane proteins, which are likely a reflection of their unique biological functions and interactions. To further explore the complexity of the Arabidopsis root cell membrane proteomes, we conducted a co-expression analysis of genes encoding interacting membrane proteins. This study confirmed previously reported interactions between membrane proteins, suggesting that the co-expression of genes at the single cell-type level can be used to support protein network predictions.


An inline time-division multiplexing fiber Fabry-Perot (TDM-FFP) sensor system based on low-reflectivity fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is ideally suited to many applications. The intrinsic multiple reflections crosstalk (MRC) phenomenon in the inline TDM-FFP sensor system is a serious problem that limits the multiplexing number of sensors, which hindrances its practical applications. In this paper, a detailed analysis of the MRC in the inline TDM-FFP sensor system using phase generated carrier (PGC) scheme is reported. The equations of the interference intensity in the inline TDM-FFP sensor system with two sensors are deduced. The characteristics of the MRC are theoretically analyzed according to the equations and experimentally demonstrated. Finally, the instability of the MRC induced by random phase relationships of the sensors is analyzed using statistical method. The experimental results show that the crosstalk from the first sensor to the second sensor is ranged from 36.48 to 67.64 dB and to the third sensor is ranged from 16.02 to 60.64 dB.


The production of exudates by plant roots and microbes in the rhizosphere, together with intense wetting and drying cycles due to evapotranspiration, stimulate changes in soil structure. We have attempted to separate these two processes using an experimental model with bacterial exopolysaccharides (dextran and xanthan) and root mucilage analogues (polygalacturonic acid, PGA), and up to 10 cycles of wetting and drying. To characterize the soil structure, tensile strength, water sorptivity and ethanol sorptivity of the amended soils were measured, and thin sections were made. Xanthan and PGA induced greater tensile strength of the amended soil, suggesting that they increased the bond energy between particles. Porosity increased with each cycle of wetting and drying, and this increase was less pronounced for the PGA 2 g l−1 than for the xanthan and dextran. This suggests that PGA stabilized the soil against the disruptive effect caused by the wetting and drying. The PGA was the only polysaccharide that influenced water sorptivity and repellency, resulting in slower wetting of the treated soil. Wetting and drying led to an increase of the sorptivity and a decrease of the repellency for all treatments with the exception of the PGA‐amended soils. The PGA may therefore stabilize the soil structure in the rhizosphere by increasing the strength of bonds between particles and decreasing the wetting rate.


A simple and low-cost method has been developed to obtain dyed fibres with high electrical conductivity, as well as anti-microbial properties in nature. Fibres are first heat- treated in a solution containing cupric nitrate, sodium sulfide, and sodium hydrogen sulfate. Afterwards the treated fibres are dyed with a cationic dye. Results show that the pretreatment of fibres with conductive layer leads to the improvement in dye uptake, antimicrobial performance of the fibres as well as their reduced electrical resistivity. Using the results obtained from the present study, an appropriate suitable formulation has been developed for application and optimization of dyeing of coated fibres. The coated fibres show excellent fastness properties in terms of electrical conductivity and antimicrobial changes. After dyeing by a cationic dye, the electrical conductivity and antimicrobial properties of the fibres do not decrease. Copper sulfide coating can therefore be claimed as a simple method to produce textiles with good antistatic and antimicrobial properties, while at the same time, having very good fastness properties and laundering durability along with the increased dye ability of the samples.


Cotton is economically and evolutionarily important crop for its fiber. In order to improve fiber quality and yield, and to exploit the natural genetic potential inherent in geno‐ types, understanding genome structure and function of cultivated cotton is important. In order to achieve this, a functional understanding of bioinformatics resources such as databases, software solutions, and analysis tools is required. But currently, there are very few unified reports on bioinformatics tools and even fewer repositories to access cotton genomic information. Also, resourceful developers and bioinformatics scientists actively addressing complex genomic challenges in cotton genomes are much in need. The primary goal of this chapter is to provide a review of such tools and resources for analyzing the structure and function of the cotton genome with preferential emphasis on this com‐ plex and economically important plant species. This discourse begins with a descrip‐ tion of concurrent advances in high‐throughput genome sequencing and bioinformatics analyses and focuses on four major sections covering bioinformatics tools and resour‐ ces for analysis of: (1) genomes; (2) transcriptomes; (3) small RNAs; and (4) epige‐ nomes. In each section, recent advances in cotton have been discussed. Cotton genome sequencing and annotation efforts are outlined within these sections. This review discusses the availability of genome information of both diploid and tetraploid species that have impelled cotton genome research into the post‐genomics era, opening new avenues for exploring regulatory mechanisms associated with fine‐tuning of gene expression of fiber‐ related genes. Finally, the potential impacts of these rapid advances, especially the challenges in handling and analyzing the large datasets are discussed.


Over the years, issues on safety culture and policies in maritime industry have received widespread research attention. Some maritime firms have even gone further to anchor their safety policies on learned corporate culture. However, whether these policies are fully embraced and complied with by seamen is a different kettle of fish altogether. This study therefore, examines safety culture, policies and practices in Nigerian maritime industry with a view to ascertaining: the extent of freight men' awareness and compliance to safety policies, identifying hindrances to conformity with safety policies and practices, and determining intervention options that management of Exxon-Mobil could use to foster safety compliance. The study adopts a survey approach, with structured questionnaire, and gathering primary data from seamen onboard. The findings reveal that workers are aware of the various safety policies and practices put in place by management, but adherence is impeded by several factors-inadequate staff strength, crew fatigue, and poor wages. Others include contract labour, inadequate safety training, complacency, and high risk tolerance. Surprisingly, improper handover and supervisory interference were not potent enough to hinder compliance with safety regulations at sea.


Abstract The phenomenological attitude is essential for practising phenomenology. Many refer to wonder and wonderment as basic attitudes and ways of being present with and listening to phenomena. In this article a critical view is placed on the typically psychologically-loaded language and tonality that is used by phenomenological researchers in the human sciences in order to describe the wonder and openness they try to be a part of when doing phenomenology. With reference to the difference between Heidegger's and Gadamer's views on Socratic dialectics the author points to an ontological dimension in the phenomenology of wonder that cannot be reached by taking only an emotional-bodily-oriented approach (the psychological approach) or an aesthetical-intuitiveoriented approach (the late Heidegger poeticised philosophizing). Instead this dimension must be reached through a Socratic questioning and Community of Wonder.


Recruitment competition continues to increase because of the high needs for life and the limited needs of work of an organization. There are many enthusiasts who need jobs from various fields of science ranging from work in accordance with their field to cultivate jobs outside their field. The recruitment aspect begins to get special attention, as it can hinder the rate of development of the organization.
The organizations needs skilled employer to bring significant leads. Theyhave to develop recruitment strategies and expand the reach of advertising. E-recruitment has several stages that are determined by the organization, using internet media such as WEB to get a decent workforce effectively and efficiently.
The application design or conceptual system starting from problem identification, system requirement analysis to design, depiction using a model of Unified Modeling Language as a communication bridge tosome aspects of system, simplify the system development as needed. The design of the application contains the actual process in the recruitment process.


An epizootic bacterial infection in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) had been occurred in Turkey during May-June 2001. The cumulative mortality was approximately 80 %. Infected trout had bilateral exophthalmia and congestion of blood-vessels in the pectoral and caudal fins. The body weights of trout were approximately 100 to 150 grams. Three bacterial isolates were obtained from diseased trout and biochemical, physiological and morphological characteristics were studied by conventional methods and Rapid ID 32 Strep System. All three isolates were found to have identical phenotypic characteristics and identified as Lactococcus garvieae.


University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Springfield campus business students have the opportunity to participate in Work Integrated Learning (WIL) type activities incorporated into designated program courses. Final year students may elect to complete a one semester capstone course BUS3000 Work Integrated Learning by securing a placement in their major discipline with a host organisation (sponsor) to complete a project.

In this course, students will have to utilise the skills that they have learnt in the classroom, extend them in the practical world and demonstrate their learning through varied assessment tasks involving reflection, verbal presentations and written reports. Students have ample opportunities to reflect on their learning journey, share their experience and make recommendations for future improvement where appropriate. The placement will culminate in a deliverable output to the host organisation in terms of a project in which students must utilise both the technical and generic skills that they have acquired in the process.

Through careful planning, implementation and execution of the assessment in this course, students will appreciate that to be successful in the working environment, they will need to be equipped with not only technical skills, but they would also need transferable generic skills like communications, analysis and problem-solving that can be applied to a variety of workplace situations. These skills will be assessed through a variety of means including a resume, a project proposal, reflective journals, a written report and a verbal presentation with input from the employer contributing to the assessment outcomes.

This model of assessment covers most aspects of employability skills and attributes expected of a university graduate. It seeks to close the expectations gap between industry and academia and graduates would be readily employable, adaptable and be positive contributors at the workplace.


Abstract The distribution of Trollius europaeus in the northern part of the Południowopodlaska Lowland was described and a phytosociological study made of the localities where it was present between 2010 and 2012. The condition of all sites where T. europaeus was historically present was also verified. These field studies reveal that the number of sites of occurrence and the abundance of T. europaeus populations have rapidly diminished over recent years. Only 15 populations of the species in the vicinity of 7 sites were confirmed. Trollius europaeus is usually considered a species characteristic of moist meadows of ordo Molinietalia and in the plant community type, Polygono bistortae-Trollietum. In the northern part of the Południowopodlaska Lowland, no meadow sites containing Trollius europaeus still remain according to our survey. All the confirmed stands are situated in deciduous forests of class Querco-Fagetea (Tilio-Carpinetum and Potentillo albae-Quercetum) and moist forest edge communities of ordo Glechometalia. The disappearance of all meadow populations is mainly considered a result of intensification of the agricultural use of these habitats. We suggest that the category of threat to Trollius europaeus is increased on the regional list from VU to EN, and consolidated with further monitoring and active protection of stands where it is present


The Model Forest is a concept developed to facilitate implementation of sustainable forest management (SFM). The key functions of a Model Forest are to develop innovations and test new ideas related to SFM, driven by the needs, interests and challenges of Model Forest stakeholders and local communities. Russia is an important global actor when it comes to the boreal forest biome and forestry, but also has several challenges related to development of adaptive governance and the introduction of SFM. The purpose of this study is to identify landscape stakeholders—their values, needs and interests— in order to develop and adapt the governance of forest landscapes in the Kovdozersky Model Forest. The location of the Kovdozersky Model Forest in the Barents region presents opportunities for learning between Nordic countries and Russia.


The subject of groundness analysis for (constraint) logic programs has been widely studied, and interesting domains have been proposed. \textit{Pos} has been recognized has the most suitable domain for capturing the kind of dependencies arising in groundness analysis. Its (by now standard) implementation is based on \emph{reduced ordered binary-decision diagrams} (ROBDDs), a well-known symbolic representation for Boolean functions. Even though several authors have reported positive experiences using ROBDDs for groundness analysis, in the literature there is no reference to the problem of the efficient detection of those variable which are deemed to be ground in the context of a ROBDD. This is not surprising, since most currently implemented analyzers need to derive this information only \emph{at the end} of the analysis and only for presentation purposes. Things are much different when this information is required \emph{during} the analysis. This need arises when dealing with languages which employ some sort of \emph{delay mechanism}, which are typically based on groundness conditions. In these cases, the \emph{na\"\i{}f} approaches are too inefficient, since the abstract interpreter must quickly (and often) decide whether a constraint is delayed or not. Fast access to ground variables is also necessary when aliasing analysis is performed using a domain not keeping track of ground dependencies. In this paper we introduce and study the problem, proposing two possible solutions. The second one, besides making possible the quick detection of ground variables, has also the effect of keeping the ROBDDs as small as possible, improving the efficiency of groundness analysis in itself.


Once the Cinderella sister in the South African law of obligations, a sudden flurry of monographs has seen the law of unjustified enrichment receive some serious, but welcome attention from a number of private law princes. The change started with the publication of Jean Sonnekus's Ongegronde Verryking in die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg (2007) and its translated English version in the same year. That was followed by Danie Visser's Unjustified Enrichment (2008), the third edition of Sieg Eiselen & Gerrit Pienaar Unjustified Enrichment - A Casebook (2008), and now by Jacques du Plessis's work The South African Law of Unjustified Enrichment (2012).


The Arctic Ocean is undergoing major changes in many of its fundamental physical constituents, from a shift from multi- to first-year ice, shorter ice-covered periods, increasing freshwater runoff and surface stratification, to warming and alteration in the distribution of water masses. These changes have important impacts on the chemical and biological processes that are at the root of marine food webs, influencing their structure, function and biodiversity. Here we summarise current knowledge on the biodiversity of Arctic marine ecosystems and provide an overview of fundamental factors that structure ecosystem biodiversity in the Arctic Ocean. We also discuss climate-associated effects on the biodiversity of Arctic marine ecosystems and discuss implications for the functioning of Arctic marine food webs. Based on the complexity and regional character of Arctic ecosystem reponses to environmental changes, recommendations are made for the establishment of long-term observatories across the Arctic, in support of sustainable management and conservation actions.


In National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services, the Supreme Court explained that, within the domain of unclear agency-administered statutes, a federal court is subordinate to an administering agency. When an administering agency speaks authoritatively, federal court practice reflects this. When an agency speaks only informally, however, federal court practice does not. Specifically, when construing an agency-administered statute absent an authoritative agency interpretation, a federal court errs, given its subordinate status, when it exercises independent judgment concerning what interpretation is best. Instead, that subordinate status requires a court to predict what authoritative interpretation the administering agency would adopt — just as a federal court would predict how a state's highest court would answer some unsettled question of state law. Adhering to this predictive approach requires in turn that a court assign significant — in most cases dispositive — evidentiary weight to agency interpretations contained within certain legally nonbinding instruments, in particular legal briefs. This is because the non-authoritative interpretations contained in such instruments will most often constitute the best available evidence concerning what an administering agency would say if it were to speak authoritatively. This conclusion is surprising given the central holding of United States v. Mead Corp. that interpretations contained in nonbinding instruments are not entitled to controlling deference under Chevron USA Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. What this article will suggest is that the central holding of Mead ought to be mostly moot since, even where controlling deference is not owed de jure, it is most often owed de facto.


Examines how formulaic language ("lexical chunks") is used in a variety of real-life situations.

Presents a framework for examining the existence and function of formulaic language and tests it extensively against language data within a wide variety of language samples. Formulaic language is a fast-growing area of applied linguistic research, and the author is a key figure in this field.


The "New Accountability" movement in American education purports to catalyze improvement in American education by setting clear state standards for academic performance, measuring performance against those standards, and disseminating information about results. This Article argues that the potential of state accountability programs lies not in their imposition of standards but in their imposition of a sanction - the disestablishment of school districts, which entails unseating the local superintendent and school board and replacing them with state officials or their designees - that is extremely painful for the targeted district but is also painful for states to impose. The first Part of the Article combines statutory and institutional analysis with elementary game-theoretic concepts to support that conclusion. A second Part deploys the same tools to conclude that neither state courts nor the federal Department of Education is likely to be able to use accountability policies with any success, notwithstanding their surface similarity to the state programs that are so promising.


Non-South African citizens who wish to adopt a South African child are required to make use of the adoption machinery provided for in international instruments, together with existing South African adoption law and procedures, as contained in the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 and provided for by the children's court. In this case an application was brought in terms of the Guardianship Act 192 of 1993 for the sole guardianship and sole custody of a South African child by non-South African citizens. Proceedings were instituted in the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court of South Africa, where the application was dismissed. The appellants then appealed.


The well-known conventional Kalman filter requires an accurate system model and exact stochastic information. But in a number of situations, the system model has an unknown bias, which may degrade the performance of the Kalman filter or may cause the filter to diverge. The effect of the unknown bias may be more pronounced on the extended Kalman filter (EKF), which is a nonlinear filter. The two-stage extended Kalman filter (TEKF) with respect to this problem has been receiving considerable attention for a long time. Recently, the optimal two-stage Kalman filter (TKF) for linear stochastic systems with a constant bias or a random bias has been proposed by several researchers. A TEKF can also be similarly derived as the optimal TKF. In the case of a random bias, the TEKF assumes that the information of a random bias is known. But the information of a random bias is unknown or partially known in general. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive two-stage extended Kalman filter (ATEKF) using an adaptive fading EKF. To verify the performance of the proposed ATEKF, the ATEKF is applied to the INS-GPS (inertial navigation system-Global Positioning System) loosely coupled system with an unknown fault bias. The proposed ATEKF tracked/estimated the unknown bias effectively although the information about the random bias was unknown.


Felting is hotter than ever, and scarves are fabulous first projects for crafters to try. The simple process yields infinitely varied results, with rich colors, forms, and visual appeal. Created by two internationally-known designers, these 20 spectacular boas, wraps, shawls, and stoles are beautiful, wearable art. Ranging from understated elegance to simply outrageous, they come with easy-to-follow instructions, helpful how-to photos, and templates, when needed. An introduction covers all the basics, and the projects build a repertoire of skills as readers progress through the book. The standouts include a scarf with lacy designs snipped onto the felt surface; a wrap inspired by the delicate hues in Monet's water lily paintings; and a pretty dip-dye novelty yarn party scarf.


The entry in force of FinSA and the FinSO has introduced several changes to the regulation of structured products in Switzerland. Some changes appear directly in the specific rules on structured products, but most of them derive from their inclusion in the FinSA's general framework. This article presents the new regulation of structured products as of 2020 and discusses a select handful of specific issues.


Video-language modeling has attracted much attention with the rapid growth of web videos. Most existing methods assume that the video frames and text description are semantically correlated, and focus on video-language modeling at video level. However, this hypothesis often fails for two reasons: (1) With the rich semantics of video contents, it is difficult to cover all frames with a single video-level description; (2) A raw video typically has noisy/meaningless information (e.g., scenery shot, transition or teaser). Although a number of recent works deploy attention mechanism to alleviate this problem, the irrelevant/noisy information still makes it very difficult to address. To overcome such challenge, we thus propose an efficient and effective model, termed Language-Guided Denoising Network (LGDN), for video-language modeling. Different from most existing methods that utilize all extracted video frames, LGDN dynamically filters out the misaligned or redundant frames under the language supervision and obtains only 2--4 salient frames per video for cross-modal token-level alignment. Extensive experiments on five public datasets show that our LGDN outperforms the state-of-the-arts by large margins. We also provide detailed ablation study to reveal the critical importance of solving the noise issue, in hope of inspiring future video-language work.


Liberal arts colleges represent a tiny portion of the higher education market--no more than 2 percent of enrollees. Yet they produce a stunningly large percentage of America's leaders in virtually every field of endeavor. The educational experience they offer--small classes led by professors devoted to teaching and mentoring, in a community dedicated to learning--has been a uniquely American higher education ideal. Liberal Arts at the Brink is a wake-up call for everyone who values liberal arts education. A former college president trained in law and economics, Ferrall shows how a spiraling demand for career-related education has pressured liberal arts colleges to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values. The relentless competition among them to attract the "best" students has driven down tuition revenues while driving up operating expenses to levels the colleges cannot cover. The weakest are being forced to sell out to vocational for-profit universities or close their doors. The handful of wealthy elite colleges risk becoming mere dispensers of employment and professional school credentials. The rest face the prospect of moving away from liberal arts and toward vocational education in order to survive. Writing in a personable, witty style, Ferrall tackles the host of threats and challenges liberal arts colleges now confront. Despite these daunting realities, he makes a spirited case for the unique benefits of the education they offer--to students and the nation. He urges liberal arts colleges to stop going it alone and instead band together to promote their mission and ensure their future.


We analyze the nature of steady solutions of a sheared ferrofluid between two parallel boundaries and subject to an applied magnetic field H perpendicular to the boundaries. Making no ap rioriassumption about the magnitude of spin, we find solutions numerically for the velocity and spin fields under the combined pressure gradient and boundary flow forcing. The numerical technique is valid for arbitrary spin viscosity, and by approaching asymptotically small values we explore the impact of the spin boundary conditions on the flow. When the imposed magnetic field is time independent, its effect on the flow is dissipative, but spatially varying fields still permit control of the velocity profile, including the breaking of its midplane symmetry. Time dependent or rotating perpendicular fields can drive the flow and allow more complete flow control, as illustrated in a simple numerical experiment that approximates plug flow.


Introduction Since 2011, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands has been providing medical abortion via telemedicine at several clinics in Alaska. The purpose of this study was to evaluate providers' experiences with telemedicine provision of medical abortion in Alaska using qualitative methods. In particular, we aimed to learn more about the impacts of telemedicine on patients, staff, and clinic operations and potential lessons for other service delivery settings. Methods Between October and November 2013, eight in-depth interviews were conducted with clinic providers and staff who were involved with the provision of medical abortion using telemedicine at Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands clinics in Alaska. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim, and data were analysed qualitatively with inductive coding using grounded theory methods. Results Providers reported that telemedicine provision of medical abortion facilitated a more patient-centred approach to care where women were able to be seen sooner, have greater choice in abortion procedure type, and could be seen closer to their home. Providers felt that it was easy to integrate the new technology into clinic operations, and that a telemedicine visit largely required the same overall processes and clinic flow as an in-person visit, with minor additions related to technological set-up for the doctor interface. Discussion These findings are consistent with previously published literature on medical abortion provided via telemedicine, and indicate high acceptability among providers and the appropriateness for telemedicine application to this healthcare service.


Analogical Reasoning (AR) is the ability to find a relationship between two objects that is not based on featural (attribute-based) similarities. As such, reasoning by analogy is thought to be crucial in learning and scientific discovery.

Analogies have played an important role in the conceptualisation of both IQ (Spearman, 1927) and cognitive development (Piaget, Montangero & Billeter, 1977). Yet very little is understood regarding the component processes which underlie analogical thought. Recently, there has been a resurgent interest in the field: one brought about by modern computational methodologies which purport to model the cognitive architecture of analogical thinking. A prominent feature has been the introduction of capacity based processing constraints claimed to arise in the reasoning processes from limited Working Memory Capacity (WMC) resources (Halford, 1992, 1993, 1998; Hummel & Holyoak, 1997; Morrison, Doumas, & Richland, 2011; Richland, Morrison & Holyoak, 2004, 2006, 2010).

Adopting a Working Memory (WM) perspective (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; Baddeley 2000) the aim of this research is to investigate whether individual differences in WM mediate AR, as well as critically assessing the current theories of AR in relation to this.

In chapter 1 the research behind AR-WM is reviewed with reference to modern interpretations of what analogy is and how it might be measured. In chapter 2 (Experiment 1), a flexible new scene-based measure of analogical ability, the Richland Picture Analogies (RPA; Richland, et al, 2004, 2006) is introduced, the data confirming effects of complexity and distraction hypothesized by Richland and her colleagues. Experiment 2 related performance on the RPA with quantitative measures of WM, concluding that IQ was related to relational responding in the RPA over and above that of WMC. Experiment 3 further explored the role of WM, observing an effect of processing/storage (WMC) but not storage (STS).

In chapter 3, the role of WMC was further examined. Experiment 4 using a reaction time (RT) paradigm demonstrated that featural responding was unlikely to be a prepotent response, and instead related to conflict resolution. Experiment 5 adopted a dual-task methodology and attempted to explore the involvement of WMC under load in conditions of complexity and distraction. Unfortunately, the low level of variance proved an insurmountable problem. Experiment 6 examined Executive Functions (EFs) as a potential explanation for both IQ and WMC effects in the RPA. Overall, it is concluded that WM does indeed mediate analogical performance within the RPA, but that effects of relational-complexity, as suggested by Halford (1992, 1993, 1998) are not as evident as might have been supposed.

Instead the data from Experiments 2-6 suggests that individual differences in processing efficiency as well as the ability to divide and control attention in novel circumstances may explain the variance in relation responding reported by Richland et al. (2004, 2006) and found in Experiment 1. It is hypothesized that one of the core aspects of AR is task relevance, the research concluding that other interpretations of how WM affects AR should be considered beyond the traditional theories.


Whereas the structuring and growth of the firm have long been central to conceptual development in strategy research, the literature has largely ignored how a fundamental practice such as recruitment can be of strategic importance for the sustenance of the firm's growth. The present study introduces recruitment as a strategic practice and elaborates on how this practice is crucial in creating and editing social and economic capital of the firm and how this interplays with its growth. It suggests three entrenchments – vertical, horizontal, and lateral – for striking a balance between the firm's explorative (diversification) and exploitative (specialization) activities for creating and modifying its competence base through strategic recruitment.


The artist-makers represented here come from every region of the United States, making this book a compilation of many native traditions as well as modern styles. Exciting background ideas are expressed in the details of these works, so their study and appreciation is quite fascinating. Over 50 living jewelry masters of Native American heritage are featured in this lavish new book. Their dynamic work includes many pieces that were awarded at recent juried shows. Tufa casting, stone cutting, engraving, metalsmithing, and other technical skills that are highly refined and personalized are evident, demonstrating the work of true Masters in this evolving field. See and be inspired by new designs in bead necklaces, silver bracelets, pendants, pins, earrings, belts, and rings, as well as sculpture that ranks as wearable art. Marvel at the new pieces by top masters living today.


Virtual prototyping has become an important part during the product development process. The common way to let a user interact with the virtual prototype is the use of a three dimensional virtual mannequin that is controlled by the user. These human figures are difficult to animate such that they move in a coordinated and human-like fashion. Motion capture is a very popular technology to bring natural motions into human figure animation. Many techniques have been proposed to reuse and to edit the motion captured data to produce human-like motions. However, it can be difficult to reuse the captured motions in new situations (e.g. retargeting to a new environment). For more realistic animations of virtual mannequins, we introduce several techniques. We propose a simple model for the coupling behavior of the human spine that is capable of exhibiting anatomically correct motions of the vertebrae in virtual mannequins. The adjustments of the joints due to the coupling is made with several simple (in)equality constraints that can be transparently integrated into a Prioritized Inverse Kinematics framework. A key benefit is to prevent the Prioritized Inverse Kinematics algorithm from providing infeasible postures. To better model the kinematic anisotropy of joint limits for virtual mannequin, we introduce the progressive clamping method that damps only the joints' variation component heading towards the limit. We present how our approach is exploited for the major classes of rotational joints. The Prioritized Inverse Kinematics algorithm is vulnerable to the full extension singularity of the limbs. In such contexts the convergence is reduced and/or less believable intermediate solutions are produced. We address this issue by developing a new type of analytic constraint that smoothly integrates within the Prioritized Inverse Kinematics framework. In this thesis, we also propose a hybrid control approach taking advantage of data-driven and goal-driven methods while overcoming their limitations. In particular, we take advantage of the latent space characterizing a given motion database. We are focusing on highly coordinated movements (e.g. reach) that remain very similar independently of the goal location that are the expression of a high level motion synergy. Thus, the captured motion can be expressed in a reduced latent space. We introduce a motion constraint, operating in the latent space to benefit from its much smaller dimension compared to the joint space. This allows its transparent integration into a Prioritized Inverse Kinematics framework to channel the postural control through a spatio-temporal pattern representative of the motion database while achieving a broader range of goals. Comparative results illustrate the interest of joint coupling, progressive clamping and the flexion-extension constraint. We illustrate our hybrid control approach with a database of large range forward-stepping reach motions. Finally, we present full-body interactions in a CAVE-like environment in which a reduced set of optical markers is used to track the full body.


Background A systematic review of single physical trauma and cancer was carried out, with a meta-analysis where deemed appropriate. Methods A comprehensive search of the literature including databases such as Medline and Embase identified 1529 potentially relevant papers for inclusion. A further 89 potentially relevant studies were identified from bibliographies. After review of titles and abstracts and then full papers, a total of 77 studies were included in the broader review of trauma and cancer, and 31 of these studies considered single physical trauma and cancer. The searches were carried out in June 2016. Results Although physical trauma as a cause of cancer has been an issue of clinical interest for decades, the epidemiological evidence was sparse. Only for traumatic brain injury and brain cancer was there considered a sufficient number of epidemiological studies for a meta-analysis. A random effects meta-relative risk for glioma from cohort studies was 0.96 (95% CI: 0.49 to 1.88) and 1.53 (95% CI: 1.02 to 2.27) for case-control studies. The equivalent results for meningioma were 1.22 (95% CI: 0.85 to 1.76) and 1.88 (95% CI: 0.84 to 1.49) respectively. Conclusions Further work is required to clarify whether physical trauma has a role in cancer development, perhaps by exploiting trauma registries.


In this study, an eco-friendly plasticizer, i.e. castor oil, was applied with the aim of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) plasticity enhancement. Chemical modification of castor oil was employed in order to improve the effectiveness of plasticization. Effects of the plasticizers on thermal property and mechanical property of PLA compressed sheet were investigated. First, the castor oil was chemically modified by esterification reaction with maleic anhydride. Chemical structure of the successfully modified oil was characterized by FTIR. Then, PLA was compounded with the plasticizers in various contents by using twin-screw extruder. PLA compounded sheet was compression-molded at 2500 psi, 185°C for  8 min. Thermal properties and mechanical properties of PLA compounded sheet were characterized by using differential scanning calorimeter and universal testing machine, respectively. Glass transition temperatures of PLA compounded sheets were decreased with addition of the castor oil either with or without modification. Young's modulus and tensile strength of PLA compounded with the modified castor oil were found to increase with the amount of the additives.


An estimated 14.2% (9.34 million people) of people living in the UK in 2019 were international migrants. Despite this, there are no large-scale national studies of their healthcare resource utilisation and little is known about how migrants access and use healthcare services. One ongoing study of migration health in the UK, the Million Migrants study, links electronic health records (EHRs) from hospital-based data, national death records and Public Health England migrant and refugee data. However, the Million Migrants study cannot provide a complete picture of migration health resource utilisation as it lacks data on migrants from Europe and utilisation of primary care for all international migrants. Our study seeks to address this limitation by using primary care EHR data linked to hospital-based EHRs and national death records.  Our study is split into a feasibility study and a main study. The feasibility study will assess the validity of a migration phenotype, a transparent reproducible algorithm using clinical terminology codes to determine migration status in Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), the largest UK primary care EHR. If the migration phenotype is found to be valid, the main study will involve using the phenotype in the linked dataset to describe primary care and hospital-based healthcare resource utilisation and mortality in migrants compared to non-migrants. All outcomes will be explored according to sub-conditions identified as research priorities through patient and public involvement, including preventable causes of inpatient admission, sexual and reproductive health conditions/interventions and mental health conditions. The results will generate evidence to inform policies that aim to improve migration health and universal health coverage.


Gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based colorimetric biosensing assays have recently attracted considerable attention in diagnostic applications due to their simplicity and versatility. This Minireview summarizes recent advances in this field and attempts to provide general guidance on how to design such assays. The key to the AuNP-based colorimetric sensing platform is the control of colloidal AuNP dispersion and aggregation stages by using biological processes (or analytes) of interest. The ability to balance interparticle attractive and repulsive forces, which determine whether AuNPs are stabilized or aggregated and, consequently, the color of the solution, is central in the design of such systems. AuNP aggregation in these assays can be induced by an "interparticle-crosslinking" mechanism in which the enthalpic benefits of interparticle bonding formation overcome interparticle repulsive forces. Alternatively, AuNP aggregation can be guided by the controlled loss of colloidal stability in a "noncrosslinking-aggregation" mechanism. In this case, as a consequence of changes in surface properties, the van der Waals attractive forces overcome interparticle repulsive forces. Using representative examples we illustrate the general strategies that are commonly used to control AuNP aggregation and dispersion in AuNP-based colorimetric assays. Understanding the factors that play important roles in such systems will not only provide guidance in designing AuNP-based colorimetric assays, but also facilitate research that exploits these principles in such areas as nanoassembly, biosciences and colloid and polymer sciences.


The ability to produce multi-milligram quantities of a recombinant 'target' protein in a proteolytically stable, soluble, and functional form is often necessary for subsequent biochemical, biophysical and structure-based analyses. Sub-constructs expressing only part of a large target protein can often be useful. Combinatorial Domain Hunting (CDH) is a methodology that allows the rapid production of sub- constructs via a random DNA fragmentation technique. One particular issue with CDH is that it can be used to identify globular regions or domains of a target protein, but does not take account of the functional properties of such domains; therefore some 'hits' are not useful, because they exclude these functional regions. Here, we have attempted to enhance the CDH methodology by including an additional screening step that could specifically identify those constructs expressing functional protein domains. However, whilst rigorous testing of this functionality screen proved it to be successful under selective conditions, it was not considered suitable for inclusion in the CDH method.

CDH was also used to identify highly expressed, proteolytically stable regions of a previously largely uncharacterized protein, and to investigate their functionality. Human Claspin is a large, highly charged, S=phase specific 'molecular scaffold' protein, with no identifiable sub-domains or enzymatic function(s). However, Claspin is known to make multiple different protein-protein interactions at replication forks during the intertwined processes of DNA replication and DNA replication-coupled repair. CDH successfully identified a number of N-terminal expression constructs that could be expressed and purified to a high degree of homogeneity. Structural and functional analyses of these protein fragments indicated that the N-terminus of human Claspin is intrinsically disordered, and elongated in nature. However, these regions may become ordered upon binding to their respective protein or macromolecular partner(s). Furthermore, several N-terminal fragments were found to be able to bind to both single- or double-stranded DNA when longer than 16 nucleotides/base-pairs in length. Additionally, the phospho-specific protein-protein interaction made by human Claspin, with the checkpoint kinase Chk1 was further investigated.


Social question-and-answer (Q&A) involves the location of answers to questions through communication with people. Social Q&A systems, such as mailing lists and Web forums are popular, but their asynchronous nature can lead to high answer latency. Synchronous Q&A systems facilitate real-time dialog, usually via instant messaging, but face challenges with interruption costs and the availability of knowledgeable answerers at question time. We ran a longitudinal study of a synchronous social Q&A system to investigate the effects of the rate with which potential answerers were contacted (trading off time-to-answer against interruption cost) and community size (varying total number of members). We found important differences in subjective and objective measures of system performance with these variations. Our findings help us understand the costs and benefits of varying contact rate and community size in synchronous social Q&A, and inform system design for social Q&A.


The unique Ns isolate of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) induces necrotic lesions on several Nicotiana spp. in contrast to other strains that cause systemic mosaic on these plants. By using biologically active RNA transcripts from cDNAs of Ns-CMV and a reference subgroup I strain Rs-CMV, we confined the genetic determinant solely responsible for necrosis induction to amino acid 461 of the la protein translated from genomic RNA1. An Arg to Cys change at this position (R461C) rendered Rs-CMV necrotic, whereas the reciprocal C461R mutation reverted the necrotic phenotype of Ns-CMV. Necrotic (Ns-CMV, R461C) and non-necrotic (Rs-CMV and C461R) viruses accumulated to similar levels in Nicotiana clevelandii protoplasts. Deletion of the residue at position 461 abolished replicase activity of the Ns-CMV 1a protein. The R461C mutation also was introduced into the 1a protein of Trk7-CMV, a subgroup II isolate. Symptoms induced by the Trk7/R461C mutant were identical to those caused by wild-type Trk7-CMV, even when the mutant Trk7 RNA1 was co-inoculated with RNA2 and 3 of the necrotic Ns strain.


Title of Document: Atomic
  Layer
  Deposition
  of
  Ru
  and
  RuO2: New
  Process
  Development,
  Fabrication
  of Heterostructured
  Nanoelectrodes,
  and Applications
  in
  Energy
  Storage Keith E. Gregorczyk, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Professor Gary W. Rubloff, Minta Martin Professor of Engineering, Department of Materials Science & Engineering and Institute for Systems Research The ability to fabricate heterostructured nanomaterials with each layer of the structure having some specific function, i.e. energy storage, charge collection, etc., has recently attracted great interest. Of the techniques capable of this type of process, atomic layer deposition (ALD) remains unique due to its monolayer thickness control, extreme conformality, and wide variety of available materials. This work aims at using ALD to fabricate fully integrated heterostructured nanomaterials. To that end, two ALD processes, using a new and novel precursor, bis(2,6,6trimethyl-cyclohexadienyl)ruthenium, were developed for Ru and RuO2 showing stable growth rates of 0.5 Å/cycle and 0.4 Å/cycle respectively. Both process are discussed and compared to similar processes reported in the literature. The Ru process is shown to have significantly lower nucleation while the RuO2 is the first fully characterized ALD process known. Using the fully developed RuO2 ALD process, thin film batteries were fabricated and tested in standard coin cell configurations. These cells showed high first cycle gravimetric capacities of ~1400 mAh/g, which significantly degraded after ~40 cycles. Rate performance was also studied and showed a decrease in 1 cycle capacity as a function of increased rate. These results represent the first reports of any RuO2 battery studied beyond 3 cycles. To understand the degradation mechanisms witnessed in the thin film studies in-situ TEM experiments were conducted. Single crystal RuO2 nanowires were grown using a vapor transport method. These nanowires were cycled inside a TEM using Li2O as an electrolyte and showed a ~95% volume expansion after lithiation, ~26% of which was irreversible. Furthermore, a chemical irreversibility was also witnessed, where the reaction products Ru and Li2O remain even after full delithiation. With these mechanisms in mind heterostructured nanowires were fabricated in an attempt to improve the cycling performance. Core/shell TiN/RuO2 and MWCNT/RuO2 structures were fabricating using the ALD process developed in this work. While the TiN/RuO2 structures did not show improved cycling performance due to connection issues, the MWCNT/RuO2 structure showed a stable areal capacity of ~600 μAh/cm after ~20 cycles and were easily cycled 100 times. ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION OF RU AND RUO2: NEW PROCESS DEVELOPMENT, FABRICATION OF HETEROSTRUCTURED NANOELECTRODES, AND APPLICATIONS IN ENERGY STORAGE


The crux of my thesis is the study of the relationship of script and image in the work of contemporary arts. I chose to focus on three selected artists, i.e. myself, Celeste van der Merwe, a local South African male artist named Willem Boshoff and an international female artist, Barbara Kruger. My intention was to write a readable self-study thesis that would be both informative and educational while simultaneously appealing to the heart of the reader. In order to realise this intention, I focussed on how the above-mentioned artists used script and image to address social issues prevalent in society today. I also made social statements through the medium of my art based on the familiar allegory, Little Red Riding Hood. My aim has been to address the breakdown of the family structure by focussing on the suffering of teenagers as a result of dysfunctional family structures and behaviours. I explored the powerful and provocative manner in which Barbara Kruger effectively wields the combination of script and image in her work. Boshoff on the other hand is a South African linguist who incorporates script in a variety of disciplines such as installations, visual poetry, concrete poetry, sculpture. In my own art I deconstructed and transformed materials and found that the process of breaking down and rebuilding reflected the breakdown and restoration in/of the lives of children. By consciously investigating my practice as a creative artist using script and image I have gained a better understanding of myself and I believe I am now able to improve my practise. Through this self-study research I have grown in self-discovery and self-actualization as an artist and have developed as a researcher. Finally, I concluded that the relationship between script and image is open-ended, not conclusive and differs in each work of art.


Contrapuntal improvisation was an integral part of jazz at its inception in New Orleans and has continued to provide communal spontaneity to the music ever since. In particular, Dixieland, Cool Jazz and Free Jazz have maintained multi-voice, contrapuntal improvisation, however the music's focus often shifts to an individual jazz soloist, removing opportunities for collective dialogue in the moment. In our current period, exploring, cultivating and evolving this improvisatory practice is of great value to the collaborative sound of jazz and its future. This research (recording and supporting exegesis) investigates melodic counterpoint between two jazz soloists, simultaneously improvising over a common form, harmony and tempo. It draws from an extensive body of literature on interaction in jazz, which commonly explores the rhythm section interacting with one soloist. Whilst detailed analyses of interaction between two simultaneous soloists exist, they are often limited. This artistic research in music (ARiM) aims to contribute to the field by identifying a systematic method of analysing and performing improvised counterpoint, in transcribed examples of selected musicians and myself. Applying this to performance encourages equal levels of influence from both soloists who must react to each other in the moment.

An initial 'outside-in' investigation into the improvised counterpoint of three selected 'Cool Jazz' musicians (Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan and Jim Hall) aims to identify improvisatory strategies that lend coherence to their counterpoint. This will assemble a series of strategies that can be separated into comping and soloing roles depending on the aims of the improviser. Having developed this through practice, a second 'inside-out' investigation will observe the same strategies in my own performance, demonstrating coherent counterpoint and influences of the selected musicians. Further reflection upon my performance will then explore transitions between roles, revealing interactive 'triggers' that influence role changes in the other musician.

Using the metaphor of jazz improvisation as conversation, this paper compiles a contrapuntal syntax of eleven strategies, developed from the selected musicians, and a framework of four common triggers for role transition found in my performance. These are articulated through transcription analyses and recordings. Although this is a case study of improvised counterpoint inherent to my performance and that of selected musicians, it aims to provide a model for analysing and developing cohesive counterpoint, between two equal soloists, in any improvising musician.


Most of the 374 pages of The God Delusion (1) are mercifully not about God but about religion, specifically the "Three Abrahamic Religions"--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. More specifically, the book is about Christianity and, most specifically, about American Christian fundamentalism. I found myself in agreement with most of what Richard Dawkins--not without humor and with passion--found wrong with the preposterous sayings and doings of believers and preachers of all sorts. Organized religions, one could conclude, are more concerned with power, domination and money than with God. I also agree with Dawkins that one should not identify children by the religious affiliation of their parents, and I certainly support his opinion that "[a] good case can indeed be made for the educational benefits of teaching comparative religion." (2) However, I disagree with Dawkins when he equates the follies of religious believers with religion as such, identifies the utterances of some preachers with the notion of God, reduces reality to matter, and postulates the omniscience of science. Dawkins must certainly be aware of the frequent abuse of science, the frauds committed by scientists, and the exaggerated claims made by some; he probably would not identify these with science as such. Dawkins's main "scientific" argument for rejecting a Creator is that evolution, as he understands it, works from the most simple and primitive to the more complex and advanced, whereas the assumption of a Creator God would place the most complex being at the beginning. "Evolution" is a very ambiguous term that has been interpreted by many theorists in many different ways. If Dawkins sees in the theory of evolution the basis for scientific atheism, Ernst Mayr, arguably the most respected contemporary theorist of biology, thinks that "Virtually all biologists are religious, in the deeper sense of this word, even though it may be a religion without revelation, as it was called by Julian Huxley." (3) In order to serve as the foundation of a coherent theory of nature, the theory of evolution, as Dawkins presents it, requires the introduction of a metaphysical notion such as chance and the assumption of a transcendent omniscient and omnipotent "selector" performing at every instant simultaneously billions of instances of natural selection. Dawkins expands the range of nonscientific elements by introducing luck as a major factor. Nobody has ever seen or touched chance or luck, and the fact that there exists a probability calculus that is, among other things, helpful in the insurance business does not make chance any more substantial. The probability calculus makes the emergence of the universe and the development of any organisms appear to be extremely improbable. We obviously need something in addition to chance and luck to end up with a real world. Dawkins has made it abundantly clear through many earlier publications that he is not only a confirmed atheist but also an out-and-out materialist for whom spirit/soul does not exist. Ali those who assume the existence of a Creator agree that she/he/it is Spirit. There are many theories that try to explain the relationship between Creator and creation, from a deistic distancing to a pantheistic amalgamation. Thus, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan held that the evolving universe is identical with its creator: [T]he God who is responsible for this world, who is the consciousness of the universe, is working through brute matter from which He has to liberate Himself and liberate us. He Himself is suffering in each and all of us. This suffering will be at an end when the spirit which is imprisoned in transitory matter is released, when the potential world-spirit or spirit of the whole becomes the actual consciousness of each part, when God becomes ... "all in all," when the solitary limited God becomes the pantheistic God. (4) Dawkins, apparently approvingly, quotes Carl Sagan: "[I]f by 'God' one means the set of physicals laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. …


The investments in educational capital are a medium and long-term weapon that nations can use to combat poverty and ensure sustainable development. Considering that the future belongs to those states that are aware of its huge potential, an analysis on the Romanian stock of educational capital is a necessity. Thus, the research findings will further facilitate the knowledge that decision makers could use to improve the policies and strategies in order to develop a competitive education in a digitized economy. The analysis will focus on the quantitative and qualitative dimension of human capital. The evolution of enrollment rates by education levels, school dropout rates and the results of international tests will be the pillars of the educational capital analysis between 2007-2017. The study will be based on data from the Eurostat database, Statistical Yearbooks and official data provided by public institutions and international organizations. In fact, the period under evaluation was chosen for reasons that are linked to the economic and political context. The first was to carry out an analysis of the impact on education of the first 10 years after Romania's accession to the European Union. The second reason was the identification of the existing or non-existing effects on the education system of two different periods of the economy evolution (the crisis and the post - economic crisis). The third reason was to highlight the educational system direction in a decade characterized by major changes in business and labor market along with the evolution of the digitized economy.


On paradigms and progression in theology An important book. Paradigms and progress in theology, appeared in 1988. It contains contributions by some well-known South African scholars on paradigms and progress in theology. This book also reflects some important trends in South African theology. To illustrate this point the "paradigms" and "progress" in the study of the New Testament have been investigated. One of the main problems of South African Biblical scholarship concerns the historical understanding of the Bible. It has been approached from many angles and many answers have been proffered. The article concludes with a few guidelines for further theological discussion.


The composite source model for generating synthetic strong ground motions is tested for its ability to predict the statistical characteristics of Northridge accelerograms recorded in or adjacent to the San Fernando valley. The general problem is prediction of strong motions at a site of engineering interest with sufficient realism to be useful for engineering applications. The strongest test of any proposed method is a blind prediction. For this study, a completely blind test was not possible. Our objective was to use only a preliminary description of fault geometry and magnitude and previously published velocity models and, without iteration to improve the quality of fit, to evaluate the differences between predicted and observed accelerograms.
 The parameters that we predict are peak acceleration, peak velocity, peak displacement, Fourier spectra at seven frequencies, and pseudorelative velocity response (5% damping) at seven periods. Our results are given for 14 stations. For the horizontal components, these parameters are all predicted with a maximum bias of under 50% and an average bias of observations exceeding predictions by 6%. For peak acceleration and some response spectral periods, the bias for this model is smaller than at least some regressions, when applied to this specific earthquake. On the vertical component, the maximum bias is a factor of 2, and the average gives predictions exceeding observations by 25%. Standard deviations of the common logarithm of the ratio of observed-to-predicted parameters are typically about 0.3, which is perhaps 50% greater than the standard deviations typical of regressions but comparable to standard deviations of observations from this earthquake compared to regressions. In the future, it is likely that, in some cases, traditional regressions will be replaced with synthetic calculations of some type, such as the method used here. Based on the results of this study, the amount of progress that has been made in obtaining that goal is very encouraging.


Artists have always relied on their sketchbooks. This was true for artists working within a fine art tradition and is just as true today in the age of Macs, digital cameras and computer-generated imagery. This new line of sketchbooks addresses the needs of contemporary practitioners: illustrators, designers, art directors, fashion designers, filmmakers and anyone within the creative industries. Helpful and user-friendly, these sketchbooks tread that fine line between giving users practical tools and information while not interfering with their creative freedom. They are also made entirely out of eco-friendly materials. This Idea Generation sketchbook includes 136 blank pages with idea prompts for creative thinking, plus 16 pages of exercises and useful information on how to get from a problem to a solution, the four stages of the creative process, mind mapping and free association, reframing your proposition and using random stimulus.


Faster developing cycles and economic developments created many emerging economies in the 20th century. For sustainable economic growth, however, the construction and constant preservation of a profound knowledge base and technological pool is crucial. Brazil, China, India and Russia, experienced constant high economic growth rates and begun to evolve to solid economies which are challenging the established players. This book consists of a profound empirical analysis of these emerging economies.


A novel approach is presented for computing optode placements that are adapted to specific geometries and tissue characteristics, e.g., in optical tomography and photodynamic cancer therapy. The method is based on optimal control techniques together with a sparsity-promoting penalty that favors pointwise solutions, yielding both locations and magnitudes of light sources. In contrast to current discrete approaches, the need for specifying an initial set of candidate configurations as well as the exponential increase in complexity with the number of optodes are avoided. This is demonstrated with computational examples from photodynamic therapy.


In developing countries international product development partnerships engage in health product innovation activities such as clinical trial research. This paper discusses how one such partnership"s (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) activities build meso level institutional knowledge-based capacity between, and within, the Kenyan national level partners. The paper will discuss the way knowledge is exchanged and how linkages are made between those involved in scientific research or innovation activities and those involved in healthcare activities within and beyond the partnership. This research provides evidence of where these two fields of activity (innovation and health) need each other in order for AIDS vaccine clinical research to take place. This paper outlines examples of this interconnectivity before discussing the questions this raises for the conceptualisation of the IAVI partnership, how this fits into a wider discussion regarding the definition of health innovation and how it is promoted within national and international policy spheres.


Bilateral exudative retinal detachment due to extra-adrenal pheochromocytomas in a pediatric age group has been rarely reported. We report a case of a 12-year-old female child with exudative retinal detachment and hypertensive retinopathy changes secondary to hypertensive emergency due to extra-adrenal pheochromocytoma. The patient presented with sudden painless diminution of vision in both eyes since 15 days. Fundus examination showed exudative retinal detachment with Grade 4 hypertensive retinochoroidopathy changes. Supine blood pressure of 190/140 mm of Hg was recorded. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) of the abdomen revealed a heterogeneously enhancing right para-aortic mass likely representing extra-adrenal pheochromocytoma. Hypertensive ocular damage represents target organ damage in humans with systemic arterial hypertension. Fundus examination is a rapid and low cost modality for detecting previously existing and new onset vascular damage. Prompt recognition and timely referral of such cases have prodigious implications for both ocular and general health of a person.


An electrocardiogram (ECG) may be requested as part of the investigation of a wide range of problems in paediatrics, often in patients who have no clinical evidence of cardiac disease. Frequently the request is made by practitioners with no particular expertise in cardiology. The basic principles of interpretation of the ECG in children are identical to those in adults, but the progressive changes in anatomy and physiology which take place between birth and adolescence result in some features which differ significantly from the normal adult pattern and vary according to the age of the child. Correct interpretation of the ECG is therefore potentially difficult and a detailed knowledge of these age dependent changes is critically important if errors are to be avoided.

Extensive tables or centile charts of normal values in relation to age of patient are available.1–3 There is the potential for computer support in the interpretation of the paediatric ECG,4,5 sparing the interpreter the need to consult these tables or memorise large quantities of age dependant variables. However, there is published evidence6 which shows that some abnormalities are missed both by computer interpretation and by paediatric emergency department doctors. Equally, daily practice suggests that computer generated reports not infrequently identify an abnormality where none exists.

Until recently the most comprehensive study of electrocardiographic variables in childhood was that of Davignon1 based on measurements made on 2141 white children in Quebec, Canada. Normal limits for 39 variables were presented as centile charts ranging from the 2nd to the 98th centile. These invaluable tables and charts are quoted in many major paediatric cardiology texts currently available, but some limitations must be recognised in the application of the data in practice today. Normal values for males and females were not separated. It may inappropriate to …


How serious is medical care inflation in the United States? For many years, price indexes for medical care have outstripped the overall rate of inflation. For example, between 1986 and 1996, the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 6.5 percent per year, roughly exceeding the annual increase in the overall CPI during this period by 75 percent. Many economists, however, believe that economic statistics on medical care do not accurately measure medical care price changes because it is especially difficult to construct accurate price indexes for medical markets. Some very recent research, reported in this volume, suggests that --contrary to the usual presumption of runaway medical inflation --prices for at least some medical care interventions are not rising rapidly and may even be falling. Understanding medical care inflation is important for policy issues such as medical care cost containment. Medical care price indexes also affect other economic statistics on medical care, including national accounts and the national health accounts. Understanding economic trends in the medical care sector is vitally dependent on accurate medical care price measures. This volume, the result of a conference cosponsored by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, brings together state-of-the-art methodological and empirical work on the measurement of medical outcomes and prices. It will be a useful tool for anyone concerned about medical inflation, medical outcomes, the quality of medical treatments, and public policy toward medical cost containment.


BACKGROUND
Epidemiological evidence on the relationship between fish consumption and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is limited, especially among Chinese.

OBJECTIVES
To explore the prospective association between fish consumption and COPD among a large population-based Chinese cohort.

METHODS
The China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) recruited over 0.5 million participants from ten geographically diverse regions across China from 2004 to 2008. Consumption frequency of fish at baseline was assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire. 169,188 men and 252,238 women who had no prior COPD and other major chronic diseases at baseline were included in our analyses. Cox proportional hazard models were employed to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for fish consumption categories in relation to incident COPD.

RESULTS
During a median follow-up of 11.1 years, 5542 incident COPD cases were documented. Fish consumption was inversely associated with COPD risk among women, with a 17% reduction in risk for participants who consumed fish ≥4 days/week compared with non-consumption (HR: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.70, 0.99; p for trend = 0.017), whereas we did not observe such a dose-response relationship among men (HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.76, 1.05; p for trend = 0.373). The joint analysis showed that COPD risk was 38% and 48% lower in men and women who consumed fish ≥4 days/week and had a healthy lifestyle (having ≥4 of the following healthy lifestyle factors: not smoking currently, never or rarely drinking alcohol, adequate physical activity, BMI 18.5-23.9 kg/m2, normal waist circumference, reasonable diet), compared with participants with fish consumption <4 days/week and unhealthy lifestyle (≤1 factors).

CONCLUSION
Higher fish consumption was associated with lower COPD risk among Chinese women but not men. Such association was independent of lifestyle factors. Eating adequate fish with an overall healthy lifestyle might help to lower the risk of COPD.


The Hydrogeological Landscape (HGL) framework divides geographic space into regions with similar landscape characteristics. HGL regions or units are used to facilitate appropriate management actions tailored to individual HGL units for specific applications such as dryland salinity and climate-change hazard assessment. HGL units are typically constructed by integrating data including geology, regolith, soils, rainfall, vegetation and landscape morphology, and manually defining boundaries in a GIS environment. In this study, we automatically construct spatially contiguous regions from standard HGL data using Self-Organising Maps (SOM), an unsupervised statistical learning algorithm. We compare the resulting SOM-HGL units with manually interpreted HGL units in terms of their spatial distributions and attribute characteristics. Our results show that multiple SOM-HGL units successfully emulate the spatial distributions of individual HGL units. SOM-HGL units are shown to define subregions of larger HGL units, indicating subtle variations in attribute characteristics and representing landscape complexities not mapped during manual interpretation. We also show that SOM-HGL units with similar attributes can be selected using Boolean logic. Selected SOM-HGL units form regions that closely conform to multiple HGL units not necessarily connected in geographic space. These SOM-HGL units can be used to establish generalised land management strategies for areas with common physical characteristics. The use of SOM for the construction of HGL units reduces the subjectivity with which these units are defined and will be especially useful over large and/or inaccessible regions, where conducting field-based validation is either logistically or economically impractical. The methodology presented here has the potential to contribute significantly to land-management decision-support systems based on the HGL framework.


Title of Document: INVESTIGATING METRICS PROPOSED TO PREVENT THE HARVEST OF LEAFY GREEN CROPS CONTAMINATED BY FLOODWATER. Mary Theresa Callahan Master of Science (M.S.), 2015 Directed By: Dr. Robert L. Buchanan Department of Nutrition and Food Science Center for Food Safety and Security Systems Pathogens can be transported by water through soil to contaminate distant crops. The California LGMA states that leafy green crops within 30ft of flooded soil should be destroyed due to potential contamination. Previously flooded areas should not be replanted for 60 days. This study investigated the transport of Salmonella enterica and Citrobacter freundii through soil in a model system with a positive slope (uphill). Field trials involving flooding one end of a spinach bed with a negative slope (downhill) with water containing Escherichia coli were also conducted. Soil type, soil moisture content, and slope affected bacterial movement. In field trials, E. coli was quickly transported to the 30ft boundary, and persisted significantly longer in the fall trial than the spring. These data suggest the LGMA metrics need to provide additional parameters to prevent the harvest of leafy green crops potentially contaminated by floodwater. INVESTIGATING METRICS PROPOSED TO PREVENT THE HARVEST OF LEAFY GREEN CROPS CONTAMINATED BY FLOODWATER


In static networks, game theory has long been used to model the routing decisions of network nodes. However, once we move to dynamic and resource constrained settings, such as ad hoc or sensor networks, traditional models are no longer sufficient. Instead, new models that capture the dynamic nature of the decisions and the resource constraints of the devices are needed. To date, several models that attempt to capture the dynamic nature of routing decisions have been proposed. However, the resource constraints of the devices and the uncertainty about the resources of other devices have been thus far ignored. To this end, we present a game theoretic model that formalizes the resources of the nodes and the beliefs the nodes have about the resources of other nodes. We also discuss the structure of strategies in the proposed model and make explicit the role the resources and beliefs of the nodes play in routing decisions. In addition to presenting a game theoretic model, we propose a method that allows the nodes to learn equilibrium strategies over time, and prove that the strategies suggested by the mechanism converge to a sequential equilibrium. Finally, we present simulations that give insights into the expected behavior of the devices under the proposed model.


Some of today's most significant writers and poets explore the relation between what we call the sacred and what we witness in the apparent world.This unprecedented anthology brings together a provocative mix of new and well known writers whose poetry and prose broaches the possibility of something "bigger" going on, something more significant at stake. Is some powerful agency at work in what we see or are we just wishing (or fearing) that there were? Who can say? Who would dare? What s most intriguing about the selections in this volume is that the authors do dare. What s most attractive about them is that they resist answering that dare with reductions. They prefer the swoon of multiple possibilities over the relative comfort of conclusions. Various as they are, the works collected in The Sacred Place share a common reverence for the word itself, and perhaps best of all they share a common understanding that no one of them comprehends fully what that means. They seem to desire instead a sense that the humble stuff surrounding us affords a likely enough habitation for the sacred, even now."


Abstract. Cycling in most African cities is done as either a mode of commuting or for recreational purposes. Apart from Smart cities encouraging a shift from cars to public transport by providing efficient last-mile connections, commuter cycling can take a significant share of end-to-end short distance trips. The ultimate realization of cycling merits by urban dwellers, (such as in Johannesburg, South Africa) is hindered by a lack of appropriate data to aid in understanding the dynamics of cycling behaviour. This paper seeks to be the first step in building a multi-model to govern the use of multi-modes of mobility in the city by initial focusing on promoting NMT usage as a mode of commuting in the city. Identification of these factors would go a long way in improving cycling uptake as well as inform policy strategies for non-motorized transportation in the city. Using an analytical approach, the authors conducted a survey along pre-known locations were cyclist choose to cycle. One route with newly developed cycling infrastructure and another without cycling infrastructure. A self-reported travel behaviour form, was used for the collection of spatial cognitive and attitudinal data on participants' travel environment, attitude, behaviour, norm, intention, and habit was utilized to gather data to understand cyclist cognitive reasoning for choosing one path over another. The data collected from the survey was then overlaid with Strava Metro cycling data showing locations were cyclist prefer to cycle in the city. Findings from the analysis suggest perceived safe routes and routes that maximize health benefits are preferred. Based on the findings it is recommended that planners need to use crowd sourced data before developing infrastructure for cycling the city.


This new edition of Soft Subversions expands, reorganizes, and develops the original 1996 publication, offering a carefully organized arrangement of essays, interviews, and short texts that present a fuller scope to Guattari's thinking from 1977 to 1985. This period encompasses what Guattari himself called the "Winter Years" of the early 1980s--the ascent of the Right, the spread of environmental catastrophe, the rise of a disillusioned youth with diminished prospects for career and future, and the establishment of a postmodernist ideology that offered solutions toward adaptation rather than change--a period with discernible echoes twenty years later. Following Semiotext(e)'s release last season of the new, expanded edition of Chaosophy: Texts and Interviews 1972--1977, this book makes Guattari's central ideas and concepts fully available in the format that had been best suited to Guattari's temperament: the guerrilla-styled intervention of the short essay and interactive dialogue. This edition includes such previously unpublished, substantive texts as "Institutional Intervention" and "About Schools," along with new translations of "War, Crisis, or Life" and "The Nuclear State," interviews and essays on a range of topics including adolescence and Italy, dream analysis and schizo-analysis, Marcel Proust and Jimmy Carter, as well as invaluable autobiographical documents such as "I Am an Idea-Thief" and "So What."


Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) describes a group of inherited bullous disorders
affecting the basement membrane zone of skin and mucous membranes. It is
characterised by fragility and blistering of the skin and mucosa following friction or
mechanical trauma. Ocular features are thought to result from a lack of adherence
and disruption of the corneal and/or conjunctival epithelium.
This thesis aimed to prospectively evaluate the ocular complications occurring in
children with EB via comprehensive ocular examination including assessment of
the anterior segment, posterior segment and ocular movements. Findings
demonstrated the majority of EB patients exhibit signs of meibomian gland
dysfunction (MGD) and decreased tear break up time (TBUT), abnormal tear films
on Tearscope® evaluation and ocular surface anomalies.
Two further cohorts were studied; a) Age-matched control patients with no anterior
segment pathology to provide normative data on MGD and TBUT and b) Children
diagnosed with MGD who did not suffer from EB to compare the ocular surface
phenotype in these, with that in children with EB and MGD.
Having identified MGD and an abnormal ocular surface in children with EB, and
shown effective management of MGD in otherwise healthy children, translational
research was performed to evaluate the effect of potential therapeutic options at a cellular level. Skills in tissue culture and flow cytometry were developed to work
with two untransfected conjunctival cell lines (Immortalized Cell Line (IOBA-NHC)
and the Wong-Kilbourne derivative of Chang cells) as an in vitro method to
investigate the effect of the current therapeutic agents for MGD on the conjunctival
epithelial inflammatory response.
In conclusion this thesis furthers our understanding of the ocular phenotype in EB
subtypes, the aetiology of ocular features and the appropriate management.
Findings may allow future therapeutic developments with greater specificity for
children with EB.


The origins of university earth science teaching specimens are diverse; while some objects are collected specifically for teaching purposes and therefore travel directly from the field into a teaching collection, for others, the journey is less straightforward. Indeed, a considerable amount of the material that is used for teaching in the earth sciences has in fact been recycled from other (mostly research-related) activities, purchased from wholesalers, or borrowed from museum collections, and was therefore not originally intended to function in this context. But how are such objects made to work as teaching specimens? What happens to their previous meanings? Do they function any differently from those objects that have been collected specifically for teaching purposes? In addressing these questions, this paper reveals that, far from being fixed, static, and stable—far from being "set in stone"—these objects are polysemic, flexible, and mobile.


We investigated changes in wildfire risk over the 1901−2002 (ad) period with an analysis of broad‐scale patterns of July monthly drought code (MDC) variability on 28 forested ecoregions of the North American and Eurasian continents. The MDC is an estimate of the net effect of changes in evapotranspiration and precipitation on cumulative moisture depletion in soils, and is well correlated with annual fire statistics across the circumboreal (explaining 25–61% of the variance in regional area burned). We used linear trend and regime shift analyses to investigate (multi‐) decadal changes in MDC and percentage area affected by drought, and kernel function for analysis of temporal changes in the occurrence rates of extreme drought years. Our analyses did not reveal widespread patterns of linear increases in dryness through time as a response to rising Northern Hemisphere land temperatures. Instead, we found heterogeneous patterns of drought severity changes that were inherent to the nonuniformly distributed impacts of climate change on dryness. Notably, significant trends toward increasing summer moisture in southeastern and southwestern boreal Canada were detected. The diminishing wildfire risk in these regions is coherent with widely reported decreases in area burned since about 1850, as reconstructed by dendrochronological dating of forest stands. Conversely, we found evidence for increasing percentage area affected by extreme droughts in Eurasia (+0.57% per decade; P<0.05) and occurrence rates of extreme drought years in Eurasian taiga (centered principally on the Okhotsk–Manchurian taiga, P=0.07). Although not statistically significant, temporal changes in occurrence rates are sufficiently important spatially to be paid further attention. The absence of a linear trend in MDC severity, in conjunction with the presence of an increase in the occurrence rate of extreme drought years, suggest that fire disturbance regimes in the Eurasian taiga could be shifting toward being increasingly pulse dependent.


Rhapsody for Piano and Small Orchestra is a one-movement composition in a concerto fashion for seventeen players, and is about nine minutes in duration. The overall form of this work is A B C D E D1 C1 B1 A1. This work contains various hidden compositional devices such as the golden section principle and a palindrome structure. These devices are applied not only to the structure of the work, but also to the pitch related and rhythm-related matters. Also, certain melodic and rhythmic cells are employed for each section in the developmental procedure of that section almost exclusively. Since this work is a concerto-like piece, there are two cadenza-like passages for the piano with an accompanying solo instrument, which plays the obbligato passage. The following essay addresses the form, pitch materials, harmony, rhythm and technical difficulties, orchestration, and variant elements between the corresponding sections used in this work.