The steadily increasing need for electrical power, rising costs of energy, market forces and industry deregulation, an aging infrastructure, tight constraints on new long distance transmission lines, global environmental concerns, and a public demand for greater electrical reliability and security are overwhelming our existing power system. One technology that offers solutions to many of these challenges and addresses smart grid objectives directly is: microgrids. A microgrid is a small (typically several MW or less in scale) power system incorporating distributed generators, load centers, potentially storage, and the ability to operate with or apart from the larger utility grid. Properly managed, assets connected within a microgrid can provide value to the utility power network, improve energy delivery to local customers, and facilitate a more stable electrical infrastructure, benefitting environmental emissions, energy utilization, and operational cost.
While microgrids can achieve significant improvements for customers and utilities alike, microgrid research is in its infancy and, to date, a comprehensive means of managing microgrid operations has not been realized. In this work, two primary efforts are undertaken. First, given the lack of a comprehensive software test bed for microgrids, a simulation environment capable of incorporating microgrid operational concepts, electrical modeling, asset dynamics, and control conditions is developed. Second, using the simulation environment, an enhanced decentralized multi-agent power management and control system is designed and evaluated for the purpose of supervising multi-objective microgrid operations under normal and emergency conditions. Results presented demonstrate effective multi-agent methods that yield improved microgrid performance, as well as facilitate coordinated system decision-making without reliance on a centralized controller. These advancements represent innovation towards the autonomous operation of microgrids, as well as provide important insight into new trade-off considerations associated with multi-objective design for power management.
Microgrids are infrastructure elements that bridge the gap between emerging energy technologies and the existing power system. Simply put, smart grid objectives including higher penetration of renewables, integration of storage, delivery efficiency improvements, more responsive system elements, stronger resiliency, and improved flexibility will be difficult to achieve without microgrids. The simulation environment developed and the power management methodology presented are important steps towards enabling microgrids and realizing their benefits.


We extend answer set semantics to deal with inconsistent programs (containing classical negation), by finding a "best" answer set. Within the context of inconsistent programs, it is natural to have a partial order on rules, representing a preference for satisfying certain rules, possibly at the cost of violating less important ones. We show that such a rule order induces a natural order on extended answer sets, the minimal elements of which we call preferred answer sets. We characterize the expressiveness of the resulting semantics and show that it can simulate negation as failure, disjunction and some other formalisms such as logic programs with ordered disjunction. The approach is shown to be useful in several application areas, e.g. repairing database, where minimal repairs correspond to preferred answer sets.


Abstract A series of critical-mass experiments using a 6-kg neptunium sphere was performed on the Planet vertical-assembly machine at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The purpose of the experiments was to obtain a better estimate of the critical mass of 237Np. The configurations that were studied included surrounding the neptunium sphere with highly enriched uranium (HEU) shells as well as reflecting it with iron and polyethylene. An additional experiment using a 4.5-kg α-phase plutonium sphere surrounded with HEU was performed to demonstrate how well the computer transport code and the existing cross-section data for uranium and plutonium could reproduce the experiment. For some of the configurations, the prompt-neutron decay constants at delayed critical were measured. These experiments provided an integral measurement of the cross sections for 237Np in the fast-energy and possibly in the intermediate-energy regions. The measured keff from these experiments was compared with the calculated keff from the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code using ENDF/B-V and ENDF/B-VI and cross-section data evaluated by the Nuclear Theory and Applications group (T-16) at LANL. In all the neptunium experiments, the calculated keff values based on ENDF/B-VI data were ~1% lower than the experimental keff. After adjusting the cross sections for neptunium and 235U to match the bare neptunium/HEU experiment as well as Godiva keff criticality and spectra indexes, the MCNP code yielded a value of 57 ± 4 kg for the bare critical mass of 237Np.


South African labour law is concerned with the attainment of fairness for both the employer and the employee. In weighing up the interests of the respective parties it is of paramount importance to ensure that a delicate balance is achieved so as to give credence to commercial reality as well as an individual's right to dignity. In other words the attainment of fairness in the employment relationship must give cognisance not only to surrounding socio-economic reality but also to human rights. The environment within which the world of work operates has at its core a free enterprise economy. Ultimately, an employer should generally not be penalised to the extent that it is crippled and unable to continue operating. It is argued in this article that in ascertaining what constitutes appropriate compensation for an unfair dismissal, the underlying reality that labour law operates in a free enterprise system must be and is given cognisance to by the legislation and the courts. At the same time in ascertaining what constitutes fair compensation for unfair dismissal due regard must be had not only to the labour rights contained in the Constitution but also to other rights protected in terms of the Constitution , most importantly, the rights to dignity and equality. The fact that the basis of the employment relationship is commercial and an employer is entitled and even encouraged to make profits is reflected in our law by the fact that there are caps on the amount of compensation for unfair dismissal in the interests of business efficiency and certainty. However, an analysis of relevant case law demonstrates that this can never be at the expense of a person's dignity. Hence the notion that the employment relationship is relational. This is reflected by the interpretation given to the legislation by the courts. Where there has been discrimination or an impairment of the employee's dignity, there are no such limits as to the amount of compensation a court can award. If there has been unfair discrimination, the courts may even award punitive and non-pecuniary damages.


During spring snowmelt 1979 and 1980 the runoff from the snowpack was recorded by lysimetry from a 9 m2 area. Wind speed, air temperature, air humidity, radiation, and precipitation data were also recorded. When the melting rate (= snowpack runoff-rainfall) and the net radiation were measured, the turbulent heat exchange between the snowpack and the atmosphere was computed as a residual from the energy balance equation of the snowpack. These computed values were used to find "optimal" empirical constants in aerodynamical equations expressing the turbulent fluxes as functions of the wind speed and the temperature/vapour pressure differences between the measurements 2 m above the ground (0.6-1.5 m above the snow surface) and the values at the surface. These empirical constants agree reasonably well with constants found by other investigators.

Averaged over the two melting seasons, sensible heat flux represents 65%, and net radiation represents 35% of the energy consumed in melting, while 13% was gained from condensation, and 13% was lost by evaporation. When the weather conditions varied during the melting season, the energy balance model yields better results than does the degree-day-model. Residual errors were 7.3 mm (42%) and 13.2 mm (76%), respectively. The maximum melting observed in 24 hours was 110 mm, and the snowmelt rate in overcast days was about 3 times the rate when the cloudiness was light, provided the same wind and temperature conditions and albedo ~ 70%.


The National Technological University (NTU), a consortium of more than twenty American engineering schools, broadcasts courses produced at member institutions to professional engineers at corporate sites across the country. It is a nonprofit institution.begun in fall 1984 with headquarters in Fort Collins, Colorado, which offers only course work leading to the Master of Science degree in various branches of technology, or applied science. Students must be sponsored by their corporate employers who pay their tuition.
This is the first systematic examination of the instructional process at an educational institution created in response to the demands of the governmental and corporate sectors' technological needs. This study includes an attempt to explore the effectiveness of that instructional process and the use of computers in distance education at NTU and implications for institutions of the future.
This study focuses on distance education, corporate education, national universities and nontraditional institutions and the extent to which NTO exemplifies each of these concepts. It covers the organizational structure and methods of operation of NTU, and offers opinions of students, faculty, and other personnel associated with the institution as reflected by surveys, interviews, and the media.


An ecological model of ethnic identity was examined among 639 adolescents of Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Salvadoran descent. Using structural equation modeling and, specifically, multiple group comparisons, findings indicated that familial ethnic socialization (FES) played a significant role in the process of ethnic identity formation for all adolescents, regardless of ethnic background. Specifically, adolescents' reports of FES were significantly and positively associated with their reports of exploration, commitment, and affirmation and belonging toward their ethnic background. These results are consistent with empirical work that has found familial socialization to be a central component of ethnic identity formation among children, and with theoretical work on adolescents, which has emphasized the important role of families in the process ethnic identity formation.


The concepts of the modified power law (MPL) and the continuation hypothesis (CH) are outlined and then empirical evidence is presented which suggests that the MPL, not the CH, is the appropriate method for predicting noise‐induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) in persons with sensorineural hearing impairment. The ISO1999 rule for combining presbyacusis and NIPTS is explained and empirical evidence is presented which indicates that the ISO1999 rule, not the MPL, is the appropriate method for combining NIPTS and presbyacusis. These findings are then used to predict the progression of hearing loss in a person whose thresholds are affected both by aging and by two separate periods of occupational noise exposure. The results are compared with those obtained using the CH instead of the MPL to predict the progression of NIPTS and with those obtained using the MPL instead of the ISO1999 rule to combine presbyacusis and NIPTS.


In several concept attainment systems, ranging from recommendation systems to information filtering, a sliding window of learning instances has been used in the learning process to allow the learner to follow concepts that change over time. However, no analytic study has been performed on the relation between the size of the sliding window and the performance of a learning system. In this work, we present such an analytic model that describes the effect of the sliding window size on the prediction performance of a learning system based on iterative feedback. Using a signal-to-noise approach to model the learning ability of the underlying machine learning algorithms, we can provide good estimates of the average performance of a modeling system independently of the supervised machine learning algorithm employed. We experimentally validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology with detailed experiments using synthetic and real datasets, and a variety of learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machines, Naive Bayes, Nearest Neighbor and Decision Trees. The results validate the analysis and indicate very good estimation performance in different settings.


This paper takes up a series of basic philosophical questions about the nature and existence of fictional characters. We begin with realist approaches that hinge on the thesis that at least some claims about fictional characters can be right or wrong because they refer to something that exists, such as abstract objects. Irrealist approaches deny such realist postulations and hold instead that fictional characters are a figment of the human imagination. A third family of approaches, based on work by Alexius Meinong, seeks an alternative to the realist/irrealist dilemma. Neo-Meinongian theories rely upon a distinction between being and existence, the key contention being that unlike human beings, fictional characters have only the former. Having surveyed relevant work by contemporary metaphysicians and philosophers of language, this paper discusses issues related to the distinction between characters and other aspects of the content of fictions, including the relation between personality theory and literary conceptions of character.


Automatic workflow generation is becoming an active research area for dealing with the dynamics of grid infrastructure, because it has a pervasive impact on system usability, flexibility and robustness. Artificial intelligence technology and explicit knowledge have been exploited in some research for workflow construction or composition. With the increasing use of knowledge, its quality has growing impact on system performance. In this report, we present the process pattern as a vehicle for knowledge representation to capture process expertise at the business level. A pattern-based planning approach is proposed for automated workflow generation. Our pattern-oriented approach decreases user-visible complexity and makes systems more scalable and flexible by utilizing explicit knowledge support. Then we propose a hybrid method of pattern knowledge optimization for pattern-based workflow generation planning; experts define the primary model, and subsequent classifier training adjusts and improves the pattern knowledge settings. Experiments with a prototype application demonstrated that this approach can substantially reduce modelling difficulties and effectively improve pattern knowledge quality.


Persistent Topology studies topological features of shapes
by analyzing the lower level sets of suitable functions,
called filtering functions, and encoding the arising information in a parameterized version of the Betti numbers, i.e. the ranks of persistent homology groups. Initially introduced by considering real-valued filtering functions, Persistent Topology has been subsequently generalized to a multidimensional setting, i.e. to the case of $\R^n$-valued filtering functions, leading to studying the ranks of multidimensional homology groups. In particular, a multidimensional matching distance has been defined, in order to compare these ranks. The definition of the multidimensional matching distance is based on foliating the domain of the ranks of multidimensional
homology groups by a collection of half-planes, and hence it formally depends on a subset of $\R^n\times\R^n$ inducing a parameterization of these half-planes. It happens that it is possible to choose this subset in an infinite number of different ways. In this paper we show that the multidimensional matching distance is actually invariant with respect to such a choice.


Aquatic ecosystems around the world have been massively altered through vegetation clearance and changed flow regimes accompanying agricultural development. Impacts may include disrupted dispersal for aquatic species. We investigated this in lentic (standing) waterbodies in agricultural and predominantly forested landscapes of the box-ironbark region of central Victoria, Australia. We hypothesised that higher representation in forested than agricultural landscapes (i.e. 'forest-bias') for a species may reflect an ability to disperse more easily through the former, resulting in lower genetic structure in forested than in agricultural landscapes. Conversely, 'cosmopolitan' species would show no difference in genetic structure between landscape types. Molecular genetic analyses of a forest-biased diving beetle, Necterosoma wollastoni, and a cosmopolitan waterboatman, Micronecta gracilis, revealed the following, for both species: (1) no evidence for long-term barriers to gene flow in the region, (2) lack of contemporary genetic differentiation over 30 000 km2 and (3) random distribution of related genotypes in space, implying that neither forest nor farmland inhibits their dispersal in a concerted fashion. Taken together, these results indicate very high gene flow and dispersal in the past and present for both these species. Massive landscape change may have little impact on movement patterns of lentic invertebrates that have evolved high dispersal capabilities.


Land revisions in Estland and Livland at the beginning of the Swedish reign

The article focuses on the ways land revisions were carried out in the provinces of Estland and Livland at the beginning of the Swedish reign and the purposes they served. Land revision data from the Swedish period has been used in numerous studies on Estonian and Latvian settlement and agrarian history. The current picture we have of the structure and changes of the population and settlements, enfeoff ments, imposts on peasantry, and agricultural conditions in various regions originates mainly from these sources. The materials on the revisions are kept in the Chamber Archives of the National Archives of Sweden, Historical Archives of the National Archives of Estonia, and the State Archives of Latvia. The revisions done within the territory of Estonia have been published which has notably expanded the scope of their use.
The article pays special attention to the process of carrying out the revisions, temporal framework, methods, people who performed the tasks, but also to the general goals of Swedish economic rule in the Baltic provinces. There were several setbacks in conquering the area for the Swedish crown. Every time a part of the land became a Swedish possession, a swift assessment of the landed property was carried out.
The Swedish crown organized several big revisions at the beginning of its rule in these provinces, namely in Estland from 1586–90 and in Estland and Livland from 1600–01, and additionally in Livland from 1624–27 and in 1638. Apart from these major revisions, there were several other limited revisions that were not completed or the results of which have only partially been preserved (from 1617–19 and in 1630).
Revisions took place on the king's command and according to specific instructions. Land revisions were primarily organized to plan, examine, and specify the state's revenues. The tasks of the revision commission were generally rather broad, and one of the most important obligations during the first revisions was to check the landowners' right of possession. It is especially evident during the revision in Estland from 1586–90. It was typical for Swedish revisions in Estland and Livland to be were carried out by commissions created for that purpose. On rare occasions, the revision was managed by the landlord visiting either Estland or Livland, as was the case with Duke Karl in 1601. The custom of delegating the organization of the revision to numerous sub-commissions was practiced in Livland in 1638.
Members of the commission were typically appointed from the ranks of the high nobility of Sweden, Estland, and Livland. Mixed commissions of Swedes and Germans were common, but the local German members were naturally special trustees to the Swedish government. In 1638, the commissions consisted again mostly of local German officials, primarily lawyers. The real executer of the work was, however, a lower-level official (a secretary or scribe) appointed by the commission. It is clear that the knowledge of those officials about local conditions varied greatly, but the use of previous economic documentation and helpers, and the questioning of taskmasters and peasants improved the level of outcome.
Intervals between revisions in Estland and Livland were very long, and every revision collected different information in comparison with the previous one. The state revenues from agriculture in the Baltics were often limited due to enfeoff ment, because only during the time of political turmoil and war and in their immediate aftermath were most of the farmsteads taxed by the state. The state representatives did not keep an account on the tax revenues of the enfeoffed territories. It sufficed when the officials checked from time to time whether the landed property did indeed belong to the nobles who claimed the relevant right.
The revisions in Estland and Livland can be viewed in parallel. The major revisions in Estland took place from 1586–90 and again in 1601, and in Livland from 1624–27 and in 1638. The interval between the revisions was 11–12 years, so that the first revision was carried out during a longer period, while the later one only in the course of a single year. The first revisions were organized in the shadow of war, and the latter ones already during the time when Swedish reign was solidifi ed. The earlier revisions surveyed the territory that had only just been conquered by Sweden and the opportunities for enfeoff ment were still great. The latter revisions reflect the situation when the enfeoff ment had been almost accomplished. It is remarkable that aft er 1638 there were no revisions in Estland or Livland before the big cadastre of 1688–1690. The reason was that nearly all landed property had been enfeoff ed and the system of manors had become stable.

KEYWORDS: Estonian history, province of Estland, province of Livland, history of Sweden, early modern period, agrarian history, payments, land revisions, manors, peasants.

ULLE TARKIAINEN (b. 1957) is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu.130

Correspondence: Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu, Ulikooli18, 50090 Tartu, Estonia. E-mail: email@example.com


Motivated by the recent successes of neural networks that have the ability to fit the data perfectly and generalize well, we study the noiseless model in the fundamental least-squares setup. We assume that an optimum predictor fits perfectly inputs and outputs $\langle \theta_* , \phi(X) \rangle = Y$, where $\phi(X)$ stands for a possibly infinite dimensional non-linear feature map. To solve this problem, we consider the estimator given by the last iterate of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) with constant step-size. In this context, our contribution is two fold: (i) from a (stochastic) optimization perspective, we exhibit an archetypal problem where we can show explicitly the convergence of SGD final iterate for a non-strongly convex problem with constant step-size whereas usual results use some form of average and (ii) from a statistical perspective, we give explicit non-asymptotic convergence rates in the over-parameterized setting and leverage a fine-grained parameterization of the problem to exhibit polynomial rates that can be faster than $O(1/T)$. The link with reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces is established.


The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor superfamily (PPARs) comprises a class of nuclear receptors with significant effects in regulating multiple cellular pathways. Much research and clinical interest has surrounded the PPAR-γ isoform because of its key role in the transcriptional regulation of metabolic pathways and the efficacy of thiazolidinediones, the most clinically used PPAR-γ agonist, in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this review, we discuss the pathogenic role of PPAR-γ in experimental models of kidney disease, clinical trials of thiazolidinediones in diabetic and non-diabetic kidney disease, recent safety concerns surrounding PPAR-γ agonists and reflect on their potential use in 'orphan' kidney diseases.


Objective. Despite their widespread use in exercise testing, few data are available on the effect of wearing respiratory gas collection (RGC) systems on exercise test performance. Industrial-type mask wear is thought to impair exercise performance through increased respiratory dead space, flow resistance and/or discomfort when compared with RGC facemasks, but whether performance decrements exist for RGC facemask wear versus non-wear is unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the difference in incremental exercise test performance with and without a RGC system. Incremental exercise test performance with and without a respiratory gas collection system  Design. Twenty moderately active males (age 21.0 ± 1.9 years; VO2peak 55.9 ± 3.0 ml∙kg-1∙min-1) performed two progressive treadmill tests to volitional exhaustion. In random order subjects ran with (MASK) or without (NO-MASK) a RGC facemask and flow sensor connected to a gas analyzer. Descriptive data (mean ± SD) were determined for all parameters. The Wilcoxon signed rank test for paired differences was used to assess mean differences between MASK and NO-MASK conditions. Results. Exercise time to exhaustion, peak treadmill speed, peak blood lactate concentration, peak heart rate and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were not different (p>0.05) between MASK and NO-MASK conditions. Conclusions. Incremental exercise test performance is not adversely affected by RGC and analysis equipment, at least in short duration progressive treadmill exercise. Respiratory gas analysis during exercise testing for diagnostic, performance assessment or training prescription purposes would appear to be unaffected by RGC systems.


Strong feelings of regional identity are an integral part of the psyche among the inhabitants of Alsace, a region of France bordering on Switzerland and Germany. Alsatians also have an intense loyalty to France whose citizens probably have a stronger feeling of national identity than those in most other European countries. La dualite Alsacienne can be explained only through an understanding of Alsace's turbulent history and of its geographical position as a frontier region or province situated at the core of Europe. The peripheral location of the province with respect to the rest of France has forged, through its history and geography, the development of a set of distinctive "particularisms" that distinguishes Alsace as a separate culture area. The physical milieu of Alsace has enabled the development of high quality viticulture which of all agricultural activities lends itself most to the development and preservation of distinct cultural landscapes. Alsace's quality viticulture has led to the development of mass tourism that is being used to project the strong feelings of Alsatian regional identity beyond the boundaries of the region. Finally, the preservation of regional identity in Alsace is considered in the context of changing circumstances involving significant transboundary cooperation in the new peaceful Europe of the Regions. Within this, Alsace is now located at the very core of Europe's golden triangle.


The Fedele F. and Iris M. Fauri Lecture is presented annually in recognition of former University of Michigan Vice President and School of Social Work Dean Fedele F. Fauri and his wife, Iris.

Dean Fauri's leadership in the field of child welfare spanned nearly 50 years, with much of the current social welfare legislation at both state and federal levels being a product of Dean Fauri's activities, first as director of the Michigan Department of Social Services, and then during his years in Washington, DC, where he held numerous leadership positions.

His accomplishments in child welfare and social work education brought national and international acclaim to Dean Fauri, the School of Social Work, and the University of Michigan. This lecture series is funded by gifts from alumni, faculty, and friends, and is intended to serve as a forum for discussing ideas and proposals to enhance the well-being of young people.


Regardless of the theoretical attraction of immune intervention in tuberculosis and although Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) provides a mainstay of global vaccination campaigns, current efforts in tuberculosis control are almost exclusively directed toward implementation of antimicrobial therapy. This chapter reviews the prospects for changing this situation by developing improved immune interventions. BCG provides some hard lessons for would-be developers of new tuberculosis vaccines. On the positive side, it vindicates the concept of vaccination as an approach to tuberculosis control. While precise numbers are hard to obtain, it seems reasonable to extrapolate that BCG has saved the lives of millions of potential victims of childhood tuberculosis. In experimental-animal models, BCG vaccination conforms to this paradigm. In naive animals, the population of M. tuberculosis increases for several weeks after infection before being brought under the control of the immune response. Mycobacteria provide a potent signal to the innate immune system, with cell wall components triggering scavenger and Toll-like receptors on the cell surface, activating NF-κB transduction pathways leading to secretion of IL-12 and proinflammatory cytokines. If the new vaccine was to be compared to BCG, consideration would also have to be given to the question of withdrawing BCG coverage from part of the trial group, perhaps increasing their risk of potentially fatal childhood tuberculosis. The natural immune response to M. tuberculosis may well have been shaped as much by the evolutionary needs of the microbe as by those of the host.


In declaring state laws that restrict same-sex marriage unconstitutional, Justice Kennedy invoked "dignity" nine times — to no one's surprise. References in Obergefell to "dignity" are in important respects the culmination of Justice Kennedy's elevation of the concept, dating back to the Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In Casey, "dignity" expressed respect for a woman's freedom to make choices about her pregnancy. Casey laid the foundation for Lawrence v. Texas, which paved the path for United States v. Windsor and later Obergefell. But, the "dignity" of Obergefell is not the "dignity" of Casey. This Essay demonstrates how Obergefell shifts dignity's focus from respect for the freedom to choose toward the respectability of choices and choice makers. As importantly, I show that Obergefell's reasoning inflicts its own dignitary harms. Put together, Obergefell disregards the idea that different forms of loving and commitment might be entitled to equal dignity and respect.


This study aims to examine the way routine organisational work processes are transformed through the introduction of a new information system in an emergency department. By conducting a 9-month longitudinal case study in one of the major Australian emergency and trauma centres, we investigate the process of organisational work routine transformation in detail. A structuralist investigation perspective based on Structuration theory and the concept of IT duality is adopted to enable a detailed examination of the dynamic interplay between work routine and IS throughout the transformation process. We propose a three-phased development model which facilitates better understanding of the consequences of IS implementation and management by highlighting different transformational focii at different stages of evolution. This three phase perspective is a unique and novel way of analysing the impact of the introduction of an information system in an organisational setting. These findings help introduce a sense of order and actionability into the usually abstract nature of structuralist investigations to produce a detailed picture of how the introduction of an information system can trigger changes in work routines, and in turn, changes in the IS.


This paper proposes an efficient Cuckoo-Inspired Meta-Heuristic Algorithm (CIMHA) for solving multi-objective short-term hydrothermal scheduling (ST-HTS) problem. The objective is to simultaneously minimize the total cost and emission of thermal units while all constraints such as power balance, water discharge, and generation limitations must be satisfied. The proposed CIMHA is a newly developed meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the intelligent reproduction strategy of the cuckoo bird. It is efficient for solving optimization problems with complicated objective and constraints because the method has few control parameters. The proposed method has been tested on different systems with various numbers of objective functions, and the obtained results have been compared to those from other methods available in the literature. The result comparisons have indicated that the proposed method is more efficient than many other methods for the test systems in terms of total cost, total emission, and computational time. Therefore, the proposed CIMHA can be a favorable method for solving the multi-objective ST-HTS problems.


The inter-area oscillations are common in power system and can occur due to the changes in the load or generation power especially in long transmission lines. This paper presents the design of a robust fixed-order loop shaping controller to damp out the inter-area oscillations and to enhance the stability of the power system. The proposed loop shaping method is based on the shaping of the open-loop transfer function in the Nyquist diagram through minimizing the quadratic error between the actual and the desired open loop transfer functions in the frequency domain. The proposed method is robust with respect to multi-model uncertainty. Despite other robust controller design methods, the proposed approach deals with the entire system i.e. there is no need to reduce the system and still leads to a lower order controller. The proposed method is applied on the two area four machine system under different load conditions and different wind generations. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in damping inter-area oscillations are validated using case studies.


Computational visual attention (VA) has been widely investigated during the last three decades but the conventional algorithms are not suitable for omnidirectional images which often contain a significant amount of radial distortion. Only recently a computational approach was proposed that processes images in the spherical (non-Euclidian) space and produces attention maps with a direction independent homogeneous response. This paper investigates how this spherical approach applies to real scenes and particularly to different omnidirectional visual sensors. Reported experiments refer to omnidirectional images obtained from a multi-camera omnidirectional sensor as well as a parabolic and a hyperbolic catadioptric image sensor.


This study will help academics, researchers, and professionals to better understand how the Portuguese population perceives financial risk. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyse and compare the perception and knowledge of financial risk by the Portuguese. The methodology used is quantitative, and the measurement instrument consists of three parts: financial risk perception, financial risk knowledge and sociodemographic characterization of the participants. The sample is composed of 830 Portuguese individuals, over 18 years old. The results demonstrate that financial risk perception is a one-dimensional measurement and that there are low levels of both perception and knowledge of financial risk. It can also be concluded that the Portuguese individuals have a higher level of financial risk perception, when compared to financial risk knowledge, and it is men who have higher levels of perception and knowledge of financial risk. Thus, this study contributes to the literature on financial risk by presenting empirical evidence and relevant conclusions, and it is therefore expected that it will help to improve the perception and knowledge of the financial risk of the Portuguese and, consequently, their financial decisions and financial well-being. Therefore, the study fills a gap, since there are no studies in Portugal that assess the perception and knowledge of financial risk of the Portuguese.


Abstract Six smectites of different tetrahedral and octahedral compositions (SAz-1, Chambers, Belle Fourche, two subsamples of nontronite 33B and SWy-1) were Cs-exchanged and submitted to 70 wetting-and-drying cycles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) of oriented and glycolated mounts of the resultant material showed non-expandable layer proportions ranging from 15 to 60%. They were also analysed by powder XRD at 200°C in vacuum. These patterns showed that 15–40% of the layers were not rotated relative to each other and the rest were randomly rotated (no rotations of the 60° and 120° types). All layers had a d-spacing of 11 Å, corresponding to collapsed layers with Cs in the cavities created by the hexagonal rings of the tetrahedral sheets. Analysis of the number of cavities available in relation to the layer rotation shows that the rotation angle must be close to 308 or its multiples 90, 150, 210, 270 and 330°. X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis detected the same proportion of cis- and trans-vacant sites in the smectites. The ideal b dimensions of the tetrahedral and octahedral sheets (the sheets are considered independently, without deformation) were calculated for the samples used in this work and for others from the literature, using the tetrahedral and octahedral compositions. These ideal b dimensions have a strong positive correlation. The cis/trans-vacant character of the smectites is related to the relative lateral dimensions of the ideal tetrahedral and octahedral sheets. A possible explanation of this fact is offered, in which the different configurations of hydroxyls and oxide ions in cis- and trans-vacant structures can affect octahedral-sheet dimension.


Background: Information technology has assisted in globalisation, which then assisted in making international trade easier. Consequently, businesses no longer compete with local competitors only but also with international ones, leading to intense competition in all business sectors. Businesses will hardly practice what they are not aware of and therefore needs to know about their competitive landscape. Competitive intelligence (CI) gathers information from both the internal and external business environments, and analyses these for use by decision makers. Whilst awareness of the importance of CI is wide, it is not practiced optimally, making the need for creating awareness of the benefits of CI important. Objectives: The objective of this research was to establish the influence of owners' and managers' working experience of CI practice and awareness in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) environment. Method: This research was quantitative in nature and a questionnaire was used to collect data from SMEs owners and managers in The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. Results: This research indicates that SMEs in the study are aware of CI through education and training. Moreover, the study reveals that the working experience of owners and managers has a great influence on awareness and practice of CI and one should implement training programmes in this domain to assist with building competitive advantage. Conclusion: Small and medium-sized enterprises owners or managers' years of working experience has a greater influence on awareness and practice of CI. Put differently, years of working experience is a great predictor of CI awareness and practice.


Abstract The mesopredator release hypothesis (MRH) predicts that a reduced abundance of top-order predators results in an increase in the abundance of smaller predators due to the cessation of intraguild predation and competition. In turn, small prey preferred by mesopredators are predicted to benefit from the suppressive effects of top-order predators on mesopredators. In support of the MRH a growing body of evidence shows that Australia's largest terrestrial predator, the dingo (Canis lupus dingo, body mass of 15–25 kg), might suppress the abundance of the smaller invasive red fox (Vulpes vulpes, body mass of 3.5–7.5 kg). Foxes are implicated in the declines of native rodents and marsupials in arid Australia; where foxes are rare, native prey species are more likely to persist. However, the mechanism by which dingoes suppress fox populations and benefit native mammal species is not well understood. We used scat analysis and prey selectivity indexes to examine the potential for dietary competition between dingoes and foxes at 3 arid sites. Dietary overlap between dingoes and foxes was high (≥85%) at all sites. Dingoes and foxes preferentially selected identical prey types in greater proportion to their relative abundance at all sites, but foxes tended to consume smaller prey than dingoes. Dingoes consumed more large- (>999 g) and medium-sized (100–999 g) mammals, and foxes consumed greater numbers of smaller (<100 g) mammals. At 2 sites rabbits were the most frequently occurring prey for both predators and were consumed in greater proportion than their abundance. The extensive dietary overlap and preferential selection by the predators for the same prey suggest that considerable potential exists for dietary competition between these predators. Fox remains found in dingo scats provided evidence of intraguild predation. Our results support the notions that dingoes could suppress fox populations through both dietary competition and direct killing and that this suppression of foxes could benefit small prey.


Ultrafiltration (UF) has received tremendous attention in concentration and purification of proteins in biotechnology, biomedicine and food production industries. Accordingly, in the present work innovated super-hydrophilic UF membranes were fabricated by the phase inversion technique, from a special casting solution formulation consisting of cellulose acetate in different solvents/additives, followed by complete deacetylation to form a regenerated cellulose membrane. Variables investigated included time of evaporation of as-cast membrane, temperature of coagulation water bath and post annealing of membrane. The membranes were used in ultrafiltrating yeast suspensions and examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared, contact angle, porosity and pore size. The membrane performance was found to be strongly affected by each variable, and the best membrane gave a consistently high flux (27 kg/mh) on prolonged operation, with almost zero salt rejection (%SR), when subjected to 5 bar operating pressure. The super-hydrophilic membrane morphologies indicated an asymmetric structure by SEM examination.


Background: Curcumin, the active component of the Curcuma longa plant, has been shown to potentiate the effect of the immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) thalidomide and Bortezomib against human myeloma cell lines and a nude mice model.  Its effect on the other IMid, lenalidomide, has not been evaluated. This study aims to investigate the mechanism of action of curcumin and its potential ability to positively interact with lenalidomide. Method: we designed an in-vitro study to investigate the cytotoxic and chemo-sensitising effects of curcumin alone and in combination with lenalidomide on the human myeloma H929 cell line. Results: Incubation of H929 cells with curcumin (30mM) or lenalidomide (2.5 mM) for 3 days resulted in 26.35% (±1.06) and 30.81%(±2.98) apoptotic cells respectively. When 30 mM curcumin was combined with 2.5 mM lenalidomide, 50.4% (±3.37) apoptotic cells were detected by flow cytometry and the increase was significant compared to either curcumin alone or lenalidomide alone (anova p = 0.0026). Furthermore, gene analysis studies show that curcumin enhances the cytotoxic effect of lenalidomide via suppression of the cereblon and multi-drug resistant genes. Conclusion: Curcumin exerts a cytotoxic effect additive to that of lenalidomide on H929 myeloma cells, and it also enhances the chemo-sensitizing effects of this agent.


Grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is an important grain crop grown in both highly productive and marginal areas in the central Great Plains because of the crop's ability to use the erratic precipitation observed in this region. More effective capture and storage of this limited rainfall is needed to improve the productivity and profitability of dryland agriculture. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of long-term tillage and N fertilization on soil physical and hydraulic properties after long-term continuous grain sorghum production. Variables included conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) and four rates of N fertilizer. Selected soil quality indicators included soil organic carbon (SOC), bulk density (BD), wet aggregate stability (WAS), and ponded infiltration. No-till accumulated more SOC in the surface 0 to 5 cm, and was less dense at all depths than CT. When tillage was compared across all N rates, NT contained 30% greater SOC than CT at the 0 to 5 cm. Mean weight diameter (MWD) was larger with increasing N fertilization and eliminating tillage. Ponded infiltration rates were greatest for the high N fertilization rate under NT, and lowest for the 0 kg N ha−1 rate under CT. In this long-term grain sorghum system, increasing N fertilization rate and NT both positively affected soil physical properties. These improvements in hydraulic properties will aid in more effectively capturing unpredictable precipitation, and further underscore the utility of NT management practices for the central Great Plains region.


Insurgencies are the new normal of warfare in this emerging century. Of course, resistance against an opposing armed force is nothing new, but globalization and the ever-present eye of international attention on these conflicts creates a completely new dynamic. Such was the case during the turbulent years prior to the establishment of Israel in British Palestine. To date, much of the research on this topic has lacked a comprehensive discussion of the international context of the British occupation of Palestine in addition to insurgent and counterinsurgent forces. As one of the first major insurgencies following the Second World War, Palestine serves as an excellent model for demonstrating the complexities of the insurgent-counterinsurgent relationship, and how this relationship changes once the international community starts observing. This analysis will use the "Tri-Partite Counter-Insurgency Model" developed by Andrew Mumford as a starting point for examining the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. The model contends that a comprehensive study of an insurgency should consider the interactions of three critical actors in an insurgency situation: the insurgents themselves, the counter-insurgent power, and concerned international interests. It is this interplay between these three forces in Palestine that is the focus of this article. This paper, while not attempting to "prove" the model, will use it as a point of departure for a comprehensive examination of the influences at work in the British withdrawal from Palestine. Throughout the last years of the Mandate, from around 1944 to 1947, the British faced considerable opposition to their management of Palestine from primarily Jewish insurgent groups. Chief among these was the Irgun Zvai Leumi. The Irgun and other insurgent groups such as the Haganah and the Stern Gang carried out a number of deadly attacks on British military targets throughout this time, which helped create an atmosphere of lawlessness and disgust with the British presence in the region. The British in turn devoted significant resources to ending the insurgency, but were ultimately unsuccessful in maintaining control of the situation as their tactics focused too broadly on the general population rather than individual insurgent groups. Finally, international pressures and waning public support in Britain further encouraged the British withdrawal. Ultimately, primary source research from Irgun and British administration documents show that these three factors all coalesced to facilitate the British withdrawal from the Palestinian Mandate. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA /* Style Definitions */
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This paper explores how processing trade, jointly with tariff reduction, can improve a firm's productivity. Tariff reductions generate productivity gain via competition, whereas processing export does so via spillovers. Using mostly disaggregated Chinese product-level trade data and firm-level production data from 2000--2006, after constructing firm-level tariffs based on product information and controlling for possible endogeneity, I found that a 10% tariff decrease generates a 12% increase in a firm's productivity gain. In addition, processing firms enjoy significant productivity gains via spillovers, with heterogeneity across firms divided according to ownership. These findings are robust to various econometric methods, disaggregated specifications, and measures.


"The Swedish toy industry has long produced vast quantities of colorful, quality wooden items that reflect Scandinavian design and craft traditions. This superbly illustrated book, including specially commissioned photography, looks at over 200 years of Swedish toys, from historic dollhouses to the latest designs for children. Featuring rattles, full-size rocking horses, dollhouses, and building blocks to skis, sleds, and tabletop games with intricate moving parts, Swedish Wooden Toys also addresses images of Swedish childhood, the role of the beloved red Dala horse in the creation of national identity, the vibrant tradition of educational toys, and the challenges of maintaining craft manufacturing in an era of global mass-production. "


The authors conducted 150 tests of the acute toxicity of resident fish and invertebrates to Cd, Pb, and Zn, separately and in mixtures, in waters from the South Fork Coeur d'Alene River watershed, Idaho, USA. Field‐collected shorthead sculpin (Cottus confusus), westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi), two mayflies (Baetis tricaudatus and Rhithrogena sp.), a stonefly (Sweltsa sp.), a caddisfly (Arctopsyche sp.), a snail (Gyraulus sp.), and hatchery rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), were tested with all three metals. With Pb, the mayflies (Drunella sp., Epeorus sp., and Leptophlebiidae), a Simuliidae black fly, a Chironomidae midge, a Tipula sp. crane fly, a Dytiscidae beetle, and another snail (Physa sp.), were also tested. Adult westslope cutthroat trout were captured to establish a broodstock to provide fry of known ages for testing. With Cd, the range of 96‐h median effect concentrations (EC50s) was 0.4 to >5,329 µg/L, and the relative resistances of taxa were westslope cutthroat trout ≈ rainbow trout ≈ sculpin << other taxa; with Pb, EC50s ranged from 47 to 3,323 µg/L, with westslope cutthroat trout < rainbow trout < other taxa; and with Zn, EC50s ranged from 21 to 3,704 µg/L, with rainbow trout < westslope cutthroat trout ≈ sculpin << other taxa. With swim‐up trout fry, a pattern of decreasing resistance with increasing fish size was observed. In metal mixtures, the toxicities of the three metals were less than additive on a concentration‐addition basis. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012;31:1334–1348. © 2012 SETAC


Millions of citizens around the world have already acquired their new electronic passport. The epassport is equipped with contactless chip which stores personal data of the passport holder, information about the passport and the issuing institution, as well as with a multiple biometrics enabling cryptographic functionality. Countries are required to build a Public Key Infrastructure, biometric and Radio Frequency Identification to support various cryptographic, as this is considered the basic tools to prove the authenticity and integrity of the Machine Readable Travel Documents. The large-scale worldwide PKI is construction, by means of bilateral trust relationships between Countries. Investigate the good practices, which are essential for the establishment of a global identification scheme based on e-passports. The paper explores the privacy and security implications of this impending worldwide experiment in biometrics authentication technology.


Methane (CH 4 ) is one of important greenhouse gases and a large part of the global total CH 4 emission exists in Asia. Over the western North Pacific, which locates at the downwind side of the Asia continent, enhanced CH 4 concentrations are frequently observed not only at surface stations but also by aircraft in the mid- to upper-troposphere. Especially, high CH 4 events observed by aircraft during summer are noteworthy because they are likely emitted through highly uncertain biogenic processes and such observational data could provide valuable constraints on biogenic CH 4 emission estimates in inverse modeling. However, its transport mechanism and the model uncertainty should be investigated for an effective use of those observational data. In this study, we have conducted forward and backward model analyses using the atmospheric transport model NICAM-TM and its adjoint mode in order to evaluate the transport model uncertainties and also to investigate the detailed transport pathway from the continent to the western North Pacific. The aircraft observational data we use are from the research project of Comprehensive Observation Network for Trace gases by Airliner (CONTRAIL) and from the operational observation program by Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The CONTRAIL project uses commercial airliners connecting Japan and Australia/Bangkok, and the JMA aircraft observation is conducted with the C-130 aircraft connecting the Japan main island and Minamitorishima.


This study describes broad-scale spatial variations in sardine growth across the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean waters using opportunistic samples collected in recent years. More detailed information on spatial, decadal and seasonal growth variations is provided for the Iberian-Biscay region using data collected in acoustic surveys since the mid-1980s. Growth curves are fitted to annual or monthly length-at-age data using a robust Von Bertalanffy model; parameters for recent samples are compared with literature information using an auximetric plot while differences between areas within the Iberian-Biscay region are tested by log-likelihood ratio tests. Sardine growth performance is generally lower in the Mediterranean and declines across the northeastern Atlantic from the English Channel to north Morocco but increases sharply off Mauritania. Lower growth of Mediterranean sardines is possibly associated to the overall oligotrophy of this Sea while differentiation from the Atlantic is likely sustained by reproductive isolation between populations from the two areas. Within the northeastern Atlantic, sizeand age related migrations may partly explain differences in maximum length/age and mean length-at-age between neighbouring areas but the broad-scale latitudinal decline in growth is consistent with adaptation to the north–south decline in seasonal temperature gradients and to the annual cycles of plankton production. Within the Atlantic Iberian waters, sardine grows and improves in condition during spring and summer when the allocation of energetic resources for gonad development cease, temperature is close to the annual maxima and plankton production is high. Variation in sardine length-at-age and growth within the Atlanto-Iberian stock area has implications for stock structure and needs to be taken into account in the calculation of weight and maturity-at-age for assessment purposes. No evidence of broad temporal changes in sardine growth within the Iberian-Biscay region is obtained.


Partially-observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) provide a powerful model for sequential decision-making problems with partially-observed state and are known to have (approximately) optimal dynamic programming solutions. Much work in recent years has focused on improving the efficiency of these dynamic programming algorithms by exploiting symmetries and factored or relational representations. In this work, we show that it is also possible to exploit the full expressive power of first-order quantification to achieve state, action, and observation abstraction in a dynamic programming solution to relationally specified POMDPs. Among the advantages of this approach are the ability to maintain compact value function representations, abstract over the space of potentially optimal actions, and automatically derive compact conditional policy trees that minimally partition relational observation spaces according to distinctions that have an impact on policy values. This is the first lifted relational POMDP solution that can optimally accommodate actions with a potentially infinite relational space of observation outcomes.


This study investigates a factor that observation suggests is an important causal factor in economic outcomes, namely governance. Because contemporary economic theory provides little explanation of the observed link between innovation, governance and growth, a new theory of microeconomic activity is proposed; one that brings together the efficient markets hypothesis of financial economics, and the role of property rights that is central to the new institutional economics of North and Williamson. In particular, a conceptual model is set out, suggesting that the existence of governance mechanisms, which enable credible commitments to be given regarding future economic performance, is a crucial enabling factor for economic growth; because, within a market economy with imperfect information, they provide the right incentives for the cooperation necessary for socially beneficial innovation. The central body of the thesis seeks to test this model by applying it to four separate but important historical epochs, using secondary historical sources. Ancient and medieval Europe provides the first two applications. Following this, detailed consideration is given to England around the eighteenth century, and then to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The development of commitment mechanisms, first in the form of legal contracting, and then in public accounting, is described, and, when this also enables the growth of financial markets, economic growth in the form envisaged by the theory can be observed. Furthermore, the thesis argues for the scientific value of this commitment-credit theory, because of the observability, and so testability, of the concepts at its core. This suggests that, from the point of view of managers and government policymakers, this is an improvement over many other economic theories, and the neoclassical theory in particular, which builds on introspectively derived axioms, and rushes to give policy recommendations, without first testing the validity of the theory.


Single-layer subwavelength periodic waveguide films with binary profiles are applied to design numerous passive guided-mode resonance elements. It is shown that the grating profile critically influences the spectral characteristics of such devices. In particular, the symmetry of the profile controls the resonance spectral density. Symmetric profiles generate a single resonance on either side of the second stopband whereas two resonances arise, one on each side of the band, for asymmetric structures. Moreover, the profile's Fourier harmonic content, along with the absolute value of the grating modulation strength, affects the resonance linewidths and their relative locations. Computed Brillouin diagrams are presented to illustrate many key properties of the resonant leaky-mode spectra in relation to modulation strength and profile symmetry at the second stopband. Associated mode plots elucidate the spatial distribution of the leaky-mode field amplitude at resonance and show that, for small modulation, the mode shape may be simple whereas at higher modulation, the shape appears as a complex mixture of modes. By computing device spectra as function of the modulation strength, the buildup of the final spectral properties is illustrated and the contributions of the various leaky modes clarified. The results presented include wavelength and angular spectra for several example devices including narrow linewidth bandpass filters with extended low sidebands for TE and TM polarization, wideband reflectors for TE and TM polarization, polarizer, polarization-independent element, and a wideband antireflector, all with only a single binary layer with one-dimensional periodicity. These results demonstrate new dimensions in optical device design and may provide complementary capability with the field of thin-film optics.


The widespread deployment of varying networking technologies, coupled with the exponential increase in end-user data demand has led to the proliferation of multi-interface enabled devices. To date, these interfaces are mainly utilized independently based on network availability, cost, and user choice. While researchers have focused on simultaneously leveraging these interfaces by aggregating their bandwidths, these solutions however, have faced a steep deployment barrier and only focused on maximizing throughput while overlooking the energy awareness which is critical for mobile devices. We therefore developed OPERETTA, shown in Figure1, an optimal deployable energy efficient bandwidth aggregation system for mobile users. Our system does not require modifications to applications, legacy servers, network infrastructure, or client kernel. If legacy servers choose to adopt our system, however, OPERETTA dynamically leverages this to achieve higher performance gains. OPERETTA is built as a middle-ware that is responsible for scheduling various connections and/or packets to different interfaces. This middleware estimates application and network interface characteristics and utilizes these estimates to take the most appropriate scheduling decisions. We formulate our scheduling problem as a mixed integer programming problem that has a special structure allowing it to be efficiently solved. This formulation allows users to achieve a desired throughput with minimal energy consumed. We evaluate OPERETTA via prototype implementation on the Windows OS, as well as via simulation, and compare the results to the optimal achievable throughput and energy consumption. Our results show that, with no changes to the current legacy servers, OPERETTA can achieve up to 150% enhancement in throughput as compared to the current operating systems, with no increase in energy consumption. In addition, with only 25% of the servers being OPERETTA-enabled, the system performance reaches the throughput upper-bound. We ultimately demonstrate that OPERETTA achieves the goals of being optimal, energy-efficient, as well as easily and incrementally deployable.


Masonry walls are one of the most widely used constructive elements in buildings. They offer a costeffective option and can satisfy many buildings requirements. However, their brittle composition leads them to generate high-speed debris under blast loads. Many casualties arise due to this kind of fragments. Strengthening of masonry walls is of much importance to increase safety inside the buildings. For this purpose, it is desirable to carry out field tests to assess the improvement of reinforcement measures, but the cost and complexity of these experiments can be very high. Therefore, numerical modelling is a good alternative to evaluate the behaviour of brick masonry walls under blast loads. Uncertainties in numerical modelling may be significant due to the composite nature of the reinforced masonry construction and the number of variables describing the constituent materials. In this work, a finite element simulation of a blast-loaded brick masonry wall validated with corresponding field tests is presented. A total of 24 brickwork masonry walls panels at full scale were tested in six different trials with explosives charges. In the configuration of each test, there was one unreinforced wall and three walls with different protective solutions. This paper focuses on the study of unreinforced walls. A 3D pure Lagrangian approach using LS-DYNA was developed with appropriate blast parameters derived from CONWEP, material models and suitable boundary conditions. Results of numerical modelling are compared in terms of wall displacement with the field data obtained in the trials. Study results show good agreement between the field test and the numerical modelling, demonstrating that the model is consistent and reliable.


Experimental Affinities in Music brings together diverse artistic, musicological, historical, and philosophical essays, enhancing a broad discourse on artistic experimentation, and exploring various experimental attitudes in music composed between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. The golden thread running through the different chapters is the quest for inherently experimental musical practices, a quest pursued from interrogating, descriptive, or challenging perspectives, and always in relation to concrete music examples. Experimental is taken as an adventurous compositional, interpretive, or performative attitude that can cut across different ages and styles. Affinities suggest connectors and connections, convergences, contiguities, and adjacencies that are found in and through a diversity of approaches and topics. The texts share a common genesis: the lectures of the International Orpheus Academies for Music and Theory convened by Luk Vaes (2011) and Paulo de Assis (2012, 2013). The affinities found in this volume include essays by Lydia Goehr, Felix Diergarten, Mark Lindley, Martin Kirnbauer, Edward Wickham, Lawrence Kramer, Hermann Danuser, and Thomas Christensen, as well as interviews with pianist Leon Fleisher, with pianist-composer Frederic Rzewski, and with composer Helmut Lachenmann. (publishing partner 'Orpheus Institute')


Modern data protection law is built on "fair information practice principles." At their inception in the 1970s and early 1980s, FIPPS were broad, aspirational, and included a blend of substantive (e.g., data quality, use limitation) and procedural (e.g., consent, access) principles. They reflected a wide consensus about the need for broad standards to facilitate both individual privacy and the promise of information flows in an increasingly technology-dependent, global society. As translated into national law in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere during the 1990s and 2000s, however, FIPPS have increasingly been reduced to narrow, legalistic principles (e.g., notice, choice, access, security, and enforcement). These principles reflect a procedural approach to maximizing individual control over data rather than individual or societal welfare. As theoretically appealing as this approach may be, it has proven unsuccessful in practice. Businesses and other data users are burdened with legal obligations while individuals endure an onslaught of notices and opportunities for often limited choice. Notices are frequently meaningless because individuals do not see them or choose to ignore them, they are written in either vague or overly technical language, or they present no meaningful opportunity for individual choice. Trying to enforce notices no one reads has led in the United States to the Federal Trade Commission's tortured legal logic that such notices create enforceable legal obligations, even if they were not read or relied upon as part of the deal. Moreover, choice is often an annoyance or even a disservice to individuals. In addition, many services cannot be offered subject to individual choice. Requiring choice may be contrary to other activities important to society, such as national security or law enforcement, or to other values, such as freedom of communication. Enforcement of notice, choice, and the other FIPPS is uneven at best. Situations likely to threaten greatest harm are often subject to the least oversight, while innocuous or technical violations of FIPPS may be prosecuted vigorously if they are the subject of a specific law or obligation and they can be used to generate popular or political pressure. In short, the control-based system of data protection, with its reliance on narrow, procedural FIPPS, is not working. The available evidence suggests that privacy is not better protected. The flurry of notices may give individuals some illusion of enhanced privacy, but the reality is far different. The result is the worst of all worlds: privacy protection is not enhanced, individuals and businesses pay the cost of bureaucratic laws, and we have become so enamored with notice and choice that we have failed to develop better alternatives. The situation only grows worse as more states and nations develop inconsistent data protection laws with which they attempt to regulate increasingly global information flows. This paper reflects a modest first step at articulating an approach to privacy laws that does not reject notice and choice, but does not seek to rely on it for all purposes. Drawing on other forms of consumer protection, in which standards of protection are not negotiable between providers and consumers, I propose that national governments stop subjecting vast flows of personal data to restraints based on individual preferences or otherwise imposing the considerable transaction costs of the current approach. Instead, the paper proposes that lawmakers reclaim the original broader concept of FIPPS by adhering to Consumer Privacy Protection Principles (CPPPS) that include substantive restrictions on data processing designed to prevent specific harms. The CPPPS framework is only a first step. It is neither complete nor perfect, but it is an effort to return to a more meaningful dialogue about the legal regulation of privacy and the value of information flows in the face of explosive growth in technological capabilities in an increasingly interconnected, global society.


In this paper, we propose a novel physical layer design for beam transmission that enhances the data security in a terrestrial free-space optical (FSO) communication system. The optical transmitter sends successive packets through different beam paths between the transmitter apertures and the receiver apertures using acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) with synthetic holographic gratings. Increasing the radius and intensity of the beam at the optical link raises the probability of eavesdropping; however, these parameters are sensitive to atmospheric turbulence. More precisely, as atmospheric turbulence increases, the radius of the beam increases while the intensity of the beam decreases. Thus, if the intensity of the beam is adjusted based on the strong turbulence in order to receive sufficient intensity at the receiver, then the intensity of the beam increases when atmospheric turbulence decreases, which causes the link security to be reduced. We formulate the beam settings at the transmitter where the AOD's parameters are varied, which cause the Gaussian beam changes to the secondary Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beam with different parameters. For such a situation, it is demonstrated, analytically supported by simulation results, that the radius of the beam at different beam paths can be controlled by changing the AOD's parameters in different atmospheric turbulence. In addition, the radius of the adjusted beam in the secured FSO transceiver is compared with that of the ideal Gaussian and the ideal GSM beams in various turbulence conditions.


This paper reports Part I1 of a two part effort that is intended to delineate the relationship between reliability and fault tolerant control in a ,tuantitative mannet. Reliability properties peculiar t;o fault-tolerant control systems are emphasized, such a.s the presence of analytic redundancy in high proportion, the dependence of failures on control perforumnce, and high risks associated with decisions in redundancy management due to multiple sources of uncertainties and sometimes large processing requirements. As a consequence, coverage of failures through redundancy managernent can be severely limited. The paper proposes to formulate the fault tolerant control problem as an optimization problem that maximizes coverage of failures through redundancy management. Coverage modeling is att.empted in a way that captures its dependence on the control performance and on the diagnostic resolution. Under the proposed redudnacy management policy, it is shown that an enhanced overall system reliability can be achieved with a control law of a superior robustness, with an estimator of a higher resolution, and with a control performance requirement of a lesser stringency.


: Forecasting errors fall in two clearly different categories: (a) the residual errors from fitting a model to the available data and (b) the post-sample forecasting errors. The emphasis of statistical theory and forecasting methodology has been on model fitting errors, even though the greatest concern in applied work should be with post-sample errors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically sampling distributions of post-sample forecasting errors. The characteristics of such distributions are studied and compared with characteristics of distributions of model fitting errors. The discrepancies between characteristics of model fitting and post-sample errors are quite large and somewhat variable.


Voice over IP (VoIP) services based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has gained much attention as compared to other protocols like H.323 or MGCP over the last decade. SIP is the most favorite signaling protocol for the current and future IP telephony services, and it's also becoming the real competitor for traditional telephony services. However, the open architecture of SIP results the provided services vulnerable to different types of security threats which are similar in nature to those currently existing on the Internet. For this reason, there is an obvious need to provide some kind of security mechanisms to SIP based VOIP implementations. In this research, we will discuss the security threats to SIP and will highlight the related open issues. Although there are many threats to SIP security but we will focus mainly on the session hijacking and DoS attacks. We will demonstrate these types of attacks by introducing a model/practical test environment. We will also analyze the effect and performance of some the proposed solutions that is the use of Network Address Translation (NAT), IPSec, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Firewalls (IDS/IPS) with the help of a test scenario.


This paper describes the challenge, development and pilot implementation of the Institutional Repository (IR) at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). It portrays the vision of the Central Library of NTUA, to provide open access to grey literature, in order to promote the scientific research. Our Digital Library (DL) is a DSpace installation, containing unique digitized collections and an evolving IR with ETDs. Our primary goal is to establish new routines to academic community for ETDs, e-submission and self-archiving. We already have the "law"; the relevant decision of the senate that gives us the right to collect-deposit the ETDs and to define the necessary specifications, standards and procedures for writing, e-submission, storage, deposit and access of ETDs. We adhere to the templates that each department has established for ETD writing, however, our prospect is to implement a flexible, integrated and unique template, based on ETD guide. Current progress constitutes the preparation and implementation of a web-based e-submission form for ETDs and its relevant online help (in Greek and English); the necessary modification and addition of Dublin Core (DC) metadata fields for ETDs DC registry; and the policies for, metadata storage and accessibility, copyright ownership and access of ETDs. We have two access points for ETDs, the library's OPAC and the DSpace system, for interoperability, metadata preservation, and integration reasons. Additionally, modifications have been made to the DSpace web interface for satisfying our user-centered needs. Finally, the appropriate metadata, copyright and access policy documentation is available on our website and is analyzed. Current steps include the formal promotion of ETDs and e-submission procedure, and the evaluation of the pilot testing period (approximately six months) of IR. Future plans: personalization, integration of DL collections and services, submission of modifications to the DSpace development community; participation in NDLTD Union Catalogue and movement.


A bipartite subspace $S$ is called strongly positive-partial-transpose-unextendible (PPT-unextendible) if for every positive integer $k$, there is no PPT operator supporting on the orthogonal complement of $S^{\otimes k}$. We show that a subspace is strongly PPT-unextendible if it contains a PPT-definite operator (a positive semidefinite operator whose partial transpose is positive definite). Based on these, we are able to propose a simple criterion for verifying whether a set of bipartite orthogonal quantum states is indistinguishable by PPT operations in the many copy scenario. Utilizing this criterion, we further point out that any entangled pure state and its orthogonal complement cannot be distinguished by PPT operations in the many copy scenario. On the other hand, we investigate that the minimum dimension of strongly PPT-unextendible subspaces in an $m\otimes n$ system is $m+n-1$, which involves a generalization of the result that non-positive-partial-transpose (NPT) subspaces can be as large as any entangled subspace [N. Johnston, Phys. Rev. A 87: 064302 (2013)].


ABSTRACT Precipitation time series with high temporal resolution are desired for hydrological modelling and flood studies. Yet the choice of an appropriate resolution is not straightforward because the use of too high a temporal resolution increases the data requirements, computational costs and, presumably, associated uncertainty, while performance improvement may be indiscernible. In this study, the effect of averaging hourly precipitation on model performance and associated uncertainty is investigated using two data sources: station network precipitation (SNP) and radar-based precipitation (RBP). From these datasets, time series of different temporal resolutions were generated, and runoff was simulated for 13 pre-alpine catchments with a bucket-type model. Our results revealed that different temporal resolutions were required for an acceptable model performance depending on the catchment size and data source. These were 1–12 h for small (16–59 km2), 3-21 h for medium (60–200 km2), and 24 h for large (200–939 km2) catchments.


Water is an important input in most economic sectors hence necessary for economic development. However, water scarcity is on the increase due to human population growth, expansion of cities and rise in demand for water in agriculture and other sectors. Water utilization is highest in agriculture compared to other sectors of the economy. The most significant problem in agriculture is the intense use and low efficiency of water. To reduce the inefficiency and intense use, water must be treated as an economic good and more efficient prices be introduced. This requires estimation of the economic value of water and assessment of factors affecting farmers Willingness to Pay (WTP) for irrigation water. The purpose of the study was to estimate the economic value of irrigation water in Ahero Irrigation Scheme. The specific objectives were: to estimate the economic value of irrigation water among smallholder rice farmers in Ahero Irrigation Scheme; to assess the factors influencing farmers" WTP for irrigation water in Ahero Irrigation Scheme; to determine whether irrigation water is a significant input in rice production in Ahero Irrigation Scheme. Both Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and Residual Value Method (RVM) were used to estimate the economic value of irrigation water while the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) was used to assess the factors influencing farmers" WTP for irrigation water. A production function was estimated to determine which factors influence rice output and whether water is a significant input in rice production. CVM was found to undervalue irrigation water, hence the economic value of irrigation water was estimated to be Ksh.7.54/m3, based on the RVM results. Participation in off-farm income generating activities, access to credit and satisfaction with the management of water supply positively influence farmers" WTP for irrigation water at 1%, 10% and 1% levels of significance respectively. Volume of irrigation water was significant at 10% xii level in determining rice yields in Ahero Irrigation Scheme, Nyando District, Kenya. Quantity of fertilizer and labour were also found to influence rice output positively at 10% level. Irrigation water at Ahero Irrigation Scheme should be charged at appropriate price relative to its economic value of Ksh.7.54/m3 to avoid its wasteful use. The findings of this study further reveal that irrigation water is a significant input in rice production and therefore its supply and management should be improved to ensure adequate amount of water during rice production periods. Smallholder farmers should also be encouraged to take credit and participate in Small and Medium Enterprises in order to improve off-farm income which consequently increases their WTP for irrigation water.


SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Lo stato dell'arte - 3. Enti ecclesiastici e Ets - 4. Enti ecclesiastici e liberta d'impresa - 5. Coerenza fra gli obblighi imposti dalla legge italiana e quelli previsti dal diritto canonico - 6. La scelta di adeguarsi alle norme italiane. I singoli adempimenti necessari. a) il regolamento - b) il patrimonio destinato - c) le scritture contabili. Canon property law issues. Some thoughts around the obligations arising from the new Italian Third Sector law ABSTRACT: The new Italian law in the field of the Third Sector provides for some burden on civilly recognized religious bodies, among which there are also Catholic ecclesiastical bodies. This paper deals with the canonical consequences of these obligations related to the general principles of Church law, as they are stated in the Code of Canon Law and the particular Italian canon law. The fulfillment of these government obligations is obviously not mandatory, however in many cases it may be timely, especially for institutions that already enjoy tax benefits that they could lose if they did not comply with the deadlines established by this new Italian law. Nevertheless, the central question is to verify whether certain obligations are lawful according to the Canon law. The essay raises the question of the provision of an "earmarked stock" and "internal rules" additional to their canonical Statutes, and especially the canonic assessment of commercial activities. If it is true that one has the right to do anything, but not everything is beneficial or constructive, catholic religious bodies should mind some questions before deciding to follow this law.


Abstract: The presence of large numbers of free-ranging feral cats (Felis catus) has raised concern in terms of both native species predation and potential disease transmission in Hawai'i. A disease of particular concern is toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, a zoonotic protozoan parasite. We tested soil samples and cat fecal samples from cat colonies from an urban university campus and a natural, coastal ecosystem for T. gondii oocysts using standard molecular procedures. Soil and fecal samples were collected from cat colony sites at the University of Hawai'i at Mnoa (UHM), and additional fecal samples were collected from cats trapped within Ka'ena Point Natural Area Reserve (KPNAR). Toxoplasma gondii DNA was detected in 5% (3 of 60) of fecal samples from UHM, but no T. gondii DNA was detected from soil samples. At KPNAR, 22.2% (2 of 9) of fecal samples were positive for T. gondii DNA. Presence of T. gondii at the university study sites suggests that cat colonies may be a potential health hazard for landscaping personnel, students, staff, and visitors. Likewise, presence of T. gondii at KPNAR, and potentially other coastal habitat(s) for ground-nesting seabirds or marine mammals, also suggests a disease risk and should be considered when managing those areas. Toxoplasmosis is a growing concern to both people and wildlife, and further work is needed to determine pathways of transmission both within and between terrestrial and marine ecosystems of Hawai'i.


After 8-y of elevated CO2, we previously detected greater amounts of total soil nitrogen, suggesting that rates of ecosystem N flux into or out of tallgrass prairie had been altered. Denitrification and associative N fixation rates are the two primary biological processes that are known to control N loss and accumulation in tallgrass prairie soil. Therefore, our objective was to assess the natural abundance of plant and soil 15 N isotopes as a cumulative index of potential change in efflux or influx of N into and out of the tallgrass prairie after 8-y of exposure to elevated CO2. Aboveground plant delta 15 N values of Andropogon gerardii were close to zero and more positive as a result of elevated CO2, but whole-soil values at the 5‐30 cm depth were significantly reduced (6.8 vs 7.3; P!0.05) under elevated CO2-chamber (EC) relative to ambient CO2- chamber (AC). Total, aboveground plant biomass, root-in-growth, extractable N, microbial biomass N, and soil pools collectively exhibited a range of delta 15 N values from K2.8 to 7.3. Measurements of surface soil 15 N indicate that a change in N inputs and outputs has occurred as a result of elevated atmospheric CO2. In addition to possible changes in denitrification and N2 fixation, other sources of N such as the re-translocation of N to the surface from deeper soil layers are needed to explain how soil N accrues in surface soils as a consequence of elevated CO2. Our results support the notion that C accrual may promote N accrual, possibly driven by high plant and microbial N demand amplified by soil N limitation. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Hydrogen-isotopic abundances of lipid biomarkers are emerging as important proxies in the study of ancient environments and ecosystems. A decade ago, pioneering studies made use of new analytical methods and demonstrated that the hydrogen-isotopic composition of individual lipids from aquatic and terrestrial organisms can be related to the composition of their growth (i.e., environmental) water. Subsequently, compound-specific deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratios of sedimentary biomarkers have been increasingly used as paleohydrological proxies over a range of geological timescales. Isotopic fractionation observed between hydrogen in environmental water and hydrogen in lipids, however, is sensitive to biochemical, physiological, and environmental influences on the composition of hydrogen available for biosynthesis in cells. Here we review the factors and processes that are known to influence the hydrogen-isotopic compositions of lipids-especially n-alkanes-from photosynthesizing organisms, and we provide a framework for interpreting their D/H ratios from ancient sediments and identify future research opportunities.


Fought between India and what was then East and West Pakistan, the war of 1971 led to the creation of Bangladesh, where it is remembered as the War of Liberation. For India, the war represents a triumphant settling of scores with Pakistan. If the war is acknowledged in Pakistan, it is cast as an act of betrayal by the Bengalis. None of these nationalist histories convey the human cost of the war. Pakistani and Indian soldiers and Bengali militiamen raped and tortured women on a mass scale. In Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh , survivors tell their stories, revealing the power of speaking that deemed unspeakable. They talk of victimization—of rape, loss of status and citizenship, and the "war babies" born after 1971. The women also speak as agents of change, as social workers, caregivers, and wartime fighters. In the conclusion, men who terrorized women during the war recollect their wartime brutality and their postwar efforts to achieve a sense of humanity. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh sheds new light on the relationship among nation, history, and gender in postcolonial South Asia.


This manuscript presents a VLSI architecture and its design rule, called embedded instruction code (EIC), to realize discrete wavelet transform (DWT) codec in a single chip. Since the essential computation of DWT is convolution, we build a set of multiplication instruction, MUL, and the addition instruction, ADD, to complete the work. We segment the computation paths of DWT according to the multiplication and addition, and apply the instruction codes to execute the operators. Besides, we offer a parallel arithmetic logic unit (PALU) organization that is composed of two multipliers and four adders (2M4A) in our design. Thus, the instruction codes programmed by EIC control the PALU to compute efficiently. Additionally, we establish a few necessary registers in PALU, and the number of registers depends on the wavelet filters' length and the decomposition level. Yet, the numbers of multipliers and adders do not increase as we execute the DWT or the inverse DWT (IDWT) in multilevel decomposition. Furthermore, we deduce the similarity between DWT and IDWT, so the functions can be integrated in the same architecture. Besides, we schedule the instructions; thus, the execution of the multilevel processes can be achieved without superfluous PALU in a single chip. Moreover, we solve the boundary problem of DWT by using the symmetric extension. Therefore, the perfect reconstruction (PR) condition for DWT requirement can be accomplished. Through EIC, we can systematically generate a flexible instruction codes while we adopt different filters. Our chip supports up to six levels of decomposition, and versatile image specifications, e.g., VGA, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and 1024×1024 image sizes. The processing speed is 7.78 Mpixel/s when the operation frequency, for normal case, is 100 MHz.


AIM: To determine the frequency and the causes of focal choroidal excavation (FCE) detected by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT), and to comment on its clinical importance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, 632 eyes of the patients with untreated wet age-related macular degeneration (w-AMD, n=368), central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR, n=214), Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease (VKHD, n=3), adult vitelliform macular dystrophy (AVMD, n=32), Best vitelliform macular dystrophy (BVMD, n=2) and other macular dystrophies and specific maculopathies (n=13) were retrospectively reviewed for the presence of the FCE. Additionally, 228 unaffected fellow eyes without obvious macular pathology of the cases with unilateral involvement were also evaluated as control cases in this study. The medical records of ten patients with FCEs detected by SDOCT were reviewed. The causes, frequency, associated diseases, types, size and shape, associated SDOCT pathologies, SDOCT findings of the FCEs in ten cases were evaluated and commented on. RESULTS: The FCE was detected in ten eyes of ten cases. Of the patients with FCE, 4 (40%) were women and 6 (60%) were men. The ages of patients were ranged between 63 to 76 years (median 66.1 years). Bilateral FCE was not detected.  The FCE was detected in one eye with w-AMD (1/368 patients), in two eyes with active CSCR (2/214), in one with AVMD (1/32 patients) and in 5 eyes of the control (idiopathic FCE; 5/228). CONCLUSIONS: FCE may be detected in various macular chorioretinal diseases. However, it should be considered that FCE might be idiopathic.


Abstract The effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) depends on the quality of interactions between the actors from the education and employment systems, which ensure the correspondence of skills supply and demand. This paper develops an instrument to measure education-employment linkage (EEL) by capturing EEL in each sub-process where these actors can and should interact. Surveying VET experts from 18 countries suggests that countries with dual VET have the highest EEL, while the included Asian countries score lowest in terms of EEL. The analysis further reveals that the three most important sub-processes are employer involvement in the definition of qualification standards; employer involvement in deciding the timing of curriculum updates; and the combination of workplace training with classroom education.


Though the management of diabetes is widely documented in scientific literature, little is published about how hypoglycemia is managed by family physicians. The objective of this study was to create a measurement for family physician clinical inertia in managing hypoglycemia, and to determine family physicians' characteristics associated with clinical inertia. The design was a secondary analysis of the data provided by 162 family physicians from the Canadian InHypo-DM Study. The outcome for this thesis was a score for physician clinical inertia. The methods applied were exploratory factor analysis, bivariate analysis and multiple linear regression. Results showed no statistically significant differences in clinical inertia score for any of the independent variables. This study provides evidence that clinical inertia in management of hypoglycemia is not associated with family physicians' characteristics. Further testing this score will provide more information on aspects of clinical inertia and its role in the management of hypoglycemia.


Graphene and carbon nanotube (CNT) structures have promise for many electronic device applications and both have been grown on SiC through the decomposition of the substrate. It is well known that both graphene and aligned CNTs are grown under similar conditions with overlapping temperature and pressure ranges, but a fundamental understanding of the two types of growths is actively being researched. Moreover, various technical challenges need to be overcome to achieve improvement in the electronic and structural quality of these carbon-based nanostructures on SiC. Specifically, an understanding and control of the SiC surface graphitization process and interface structure needs to be established. In this review, we focus on graphene growth on SiC (0 0 0 1) (Si-face) as a model system in comparison with aligned CNT growth on SiC. The experimental growth aspects for graphene growth, including vacuum and ambient growth environments, and growth temperature are summarized, then proposed decomposition and growth mechanisms are discussed. Both thermal and chemical decomposition processes are presented and special emphasis is given to the role of growth process variations between laboratories. The chemical reactions driving the graphitization process and ultimately the carbon nanostructure growth on SiC are discussed. It is suggested that the composition of the residual gases in the growth environment is a critical parameter and that gas composition at the growth temperature should be monitored.