Increasingly, companies and individuals are using wireless technology for important communications they want to keep private, such as mobile e-commerce transactions, email, and corporate data transmissions. At the same time, as wireless platforms mature, grow in popularity, and store valuable information, hackers are stepping up their attacks on these new targets. This is a particular problem because wireless devices, including smart cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) with Internet access, were not originally designed with security as a top priority. Now, however, wireless security is becoming an important area of product research and development. As in the wired world, wireless security boils down to protecting information and preventing unauthorized system access. However, it is challenging to implement security in small-footprint devices with low processing power and small memory capacities and that use unreliable, low bandwidth wireless networks. Vendors and others have developed several security approaches for the various wireless technologies, although each of these early efforts has some shortcomings. Security researchers are thus busy developing new technologies and fixing holes in existing ones. The paper discusses wireless security technology and its shortcomings.


A 3-D reflection seismic trial survey was conducted at Collingwood Park, on the outskirts of Brisbane, Australia, where coal mining activity ceased in the 1980's and two subsidence events occurred in 1988 and 2008. The objective of the survey was to demonstrate the feasibility of using seismic methods to locate subsurface structures and features such as faults and old mining workings. In spite of the strong contamination of refractions and surface waves, the survey was able to confirm the location of the previously known Waterline fault, as well as identify another fault. It accurately delineated the subsidence zone based on differences in the amplitude of seismic reflections from the surveyed area, and mapped the surface subsidence boundary, which correlated well to existing data from observations in the field. In addition, the seismic data were used to map the failure boundary at the seam level in relation to the subsidence zone. It was found that the mapped area at the seam level was larger than the surface subsidence boundary, with an estimated angle of ,21u between the subsidence failure surface and the vertical depth axis, depending on location. Post 3-D seismic drilling also confirmed that pillar failure extended beyond the Waterline fault. However, the survey failed to image the mine workings because of insufficient seismic resolution. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of 3-D seismic surveying to map deeply buried mining-related geotechnical failure boundaries.


Might Apple's new iPad gain unprecedented traction in education, or is just another example of the over-hyping of new devices in a time of technological determinism (Postman, 2000)? This paper explores the potential affordances and limitations of the Apple iPad in the wider context of emergent mobile learning theory, and the social and economic drivers that fuel technology development. Against the background of effective teaching and learning, the functionality offered by the iPad, and its potential uses for learning, are discussed. A critical review of the way the iPad may support learning, that draws on learning theory, contemporary articles and e-learning literature, suggests that the device may offer an exciting platform for consuming and creating content in a collaborative, interactive way. However, of greater importance is that effective, evidence-driven, innovative practices, combined with a clear-sighted assessment of the advantages and limitations of any product, should take priority over the device itself.


'Today, over two billion people in developing countries live without any electricity. They lead lives of misery, walking miles every day for water and firewood, just to survive. What if there was an existing, viable technology, that when developed to its highest potential could increase everyone's standard of living, cut fossil fuel demand and the resultant pollution' said Peter Meisen, President, Global Energy Network Institute in 1997. Even though energy is available, technology was not matured enough to tap this energy in the nineties. Now, with the advancement of drilling technology, extracting heat from hot rocks has become a reality. Very soon when CO2 replaces the circulation fluid to extract heat from granites then both fossil fuel based and renewable energy sources will coexists balancing the CO2 emissions and providing energy, food and water security to the rich and the poor countries. Red Sea rift represents the youngest spreading ridges in the world with a vast amount of heat energy stored on either side. The Red Sea is surrounded by countries with a weak economy. Developing a geothermal energy based economy in countries like Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia will provide food and water security to these countries while for other countries, geothermal energy will help in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Although geothermal energy sources are available in all the countries since the opening of the Red Sea, millions of years ago, this was not brought to the light. Oil importing countries became highly dependent on the oil rich countries to sustain their economy and growth and thus remained poor. This book unfolds the huge energy source, hydrothermal and EGS, for the benefit of the poor countries to reduce poverty and lift the socio economic status of these countries. The book deals with i) future energy demand, ii) CO2 emissions associated with fossil fuel based power plants, iii) black carbon emissions associated biomass energy source and iv) strategies to reduce CO2 emissions by using geothermal energy as energy source mix in all the countries-oil exporting and oil importing countries- around the Red Sea. The amount of energy available from hot granites in all the countries is well documented. EGS being the future energy source for mankind, this book will form the basis for future research by young scientists and academicians. Availability of fresh water is a matter of concern for all countries. The only way to satisfy the thirst of a growing population, to meet drinking water demand and food security, is to depend on seawater. A large volume of CO2 is being emitted from desalination plants supported by fossil fuel based energy sources. This book describes the advantages of using geothermal energy sources for the desalination process to meet the growing water and food demand of the countries around the Red Sea. Oil rich countries, using its geothermal resources, can now reduce food imports and become self sufficient in food production. This book gives hope for millions of children living in the underdeveloped countries around the Red Sea to satisfy their hunger and live a decent life with a continuous source of electricity, water and food available. This book ends with a note on the economic benefits of geothermal energy vs other renewables. With the signing of the GGA (Global Geothermal Alliance) by several countries during the December 2015 CoP 21 summit in Paris, policy makers and administrators will work together in implementing the necessary infrastructure and support to develop this clean energy source. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK. All rights reserved.


This book offers a new philosophical history of modern painting in France from Delacroix to Cezanne, via Manet, Seurat and Gauguin. Basing itself on statements by the painters themselves, it reconstructs this history as a series of changes in the relationship between the eye and the brain. In particular, it charts what it calls the 'denaturalisation' and 'cerebralization' of the painter's eye, drawing upon a philosophical interpretation of Hyppolite Taine's psycho-physiological studies of hallucination. (The guiding proposition of Taine's writings is that every perception, every image, and every sensation are by their very nature hallucinatory.) It is argued that the 'Eye-Brain' of the modern painter is best conceived as the vector of a 'monism of sensation' that seeks to produce a 'true hallucination' of the world. As such, it produces an experimental practice that is irreducible to relations between subject and object, as conventionally conceived. It invents a new form of the cerebral, freeing the eye from its character as a fixed organ and from its representational function. This experimentation finds its philosophical correlate in Goethe's interrogation of colour, from which the book sets out. The history of modern painting in France is thereby presented as a continuous destruction of systems of representation and an ever-renewed deconstruction of the notion of the image.


Cyclone is a programming language that provides explicit support for dynamic specialization based on runtime code generation. To generate specialized code quickly, our Cyclone compiler uses a template based strategy in which pre-compiled code fragments are stitched together at runtime. To achieve good performance, the pre-compiled fragments must be optimized. This paper describes a principled approach to achieving such optimizations. In particular, we generalize standard flowgraph intermediate representations to support templates, define a formal mapping from (a subset of) Cyclone to this representation, and describe a data-flow analysis framework that supports standard optimizations.


Over the past decades in vitro production (IVP) of bovine embryos has been significantly improved. Nevertheless, embryos generated in vitro still differ from their in vivo produced counterparts. Embryos must adjust to multiple microenvironments at preimplantation stages. Consequently, maintaining or mimicking the in vivo situation in vitro will aid to improve the quality and developmental competence of the resulting embryo.


People experience healing and reconciliation in spaces outside of their congregations. This causes them to grapple with the question: Why they do not experience healing and reconciliation within their own local congregations? Another important question people raise is: What is pastoral about pastoral counselling? Both these questions indicate that congregational leaders and the congregations itself are struggling to create spaces within their ministry to assist people in need of healing and reconciliation. This contribution will therefore try to indicate whether pastoral care and counselling are experiencing an identity crisis in terms of its calling. I will further argue that it is essential for a pastoral theology to be rooted in theology. Link to this I will share some thoughts on the congregation as a space for healing and reconciliation.


Paleomagnetic data from the interglacial Nyborg Formation (653 ± 7 Ma), northern Norway, compare with data from the Egersund dikes (ca. 650 Ma), southwest Norway, and demonstrate that tillite formations associated with the Varanger Ice Age in Baltica accumulated at latitudes greater than 30° S. Vendian glaciations are associated with reorganization of the Rodinia supercontinent, but they are controlled by latitude. The breakup of Rodinia and opening of the proto-Pacific imposed clockwise rotation and southward movement of Laurentia-Baltica. On their combined approach toward the south pole, Baltica and northeast Laurentia were first glaciated during the Varanger Ice Age (ca. 650 Ma) and then by the Ice Brook glacial events (625–580 Ma) when Laurentia had reached intermediate southern latitudes. During the 625–580 Ma period Laurentia and Baltica drifted apart, resulting in the opening of the Iapetus ocean, but both continents remained in high southern latitudes during most of the Vendian.


Adult skeletal muscle has a remarkable capacity to initiate a rapid and extensive repair process after damage due to injury or degenerative disease. Although satellite cells are the primary skeletal muscle stem cells, there are many reports of non-satellite cell popula- tions with myogenic capacity resident within skeletal muscle. The activity of muscle-resi-dent stem cells during the regeneration process is tightly controlled through the dynamic interactions between intrinsic factors within the cells and extrinsic factors constituting the muscle stem cell niche. The extracellular matrix (ECM) in skeletal muscle plays an integral role in force transmission, structural maintenance, and regulation of stem cell niche. ECM interacts with stem cells either directly by binding cell surface receptors or indirectly through growth factor presentation, and maintains a balance between their quiescence, self-renewal, and differentiation. These interactions are reciprocal since the stem cells can remodel the niche and secrete or degrade ECM components. Natural ECM scaffolds, derived from decellularized tissues can influence stem cell activity both in vitro and in vivo and are widely being investigated for skeletal muscle repair. In this chapter, we discuss the regenerative potential of stem cell populations and ECM bioscaffolds in the treatment of skeletal muscle injury and disease.


Abstract. Among the cereal grains, rice is staple food for ½ of the world population. In Asian countries as population increases, the demand for rice also increases. For this future demand rice, biophysical variables are monitored for agricultural management and yield prediction using space borne satellite platform. While in satellite remote sensing there are numerous trouble in mapping and monitoring rice field, particularly in multi season paddy in rainy season, incorporating the changes in crop phenology, the impact of climate and farmland variability. To determine these issues Sentinel-1 was launched and provide opportunity to monitor rice crop, in 10 m spatial resolution, C-band, dual polarization image with 12 days revisit. A rice field in Kulithalai, Tamilnadu is utilized as examination. In this study Sentinel-1 data, which can recognize little vegetation difference at firmly found ground truth (GT) point. While observing the different growing stages of rice, the volume scattering segment proportion was increased though the surface scattering segment proportion for the most part diminished. During rice growing stages, surface scattering component ratio decreased, while volume scattering ratio will be increased. This study describes how multi temporal observation by SAR has extent capacity for estimating rice growing land and monitoring growing stages and also interpret σ0VV and σ0VH back scattering co-efficient. These are examined by knowing crop parameters like leaf area index, plant height, no. of panicle/m2 and no. of grains/m2.


Standard lossy image compression algorithms aim to preserve an image's appearance, while minimizing the number of bits needed to transmit it. However, the amount of information actually needed by a user for downstream tasks -- e.g., deciding which product to click on in a shopping website -- is likely much lower. To achieve this lower bitrate, we would ideally only transmit the visual features that drive user behavior, while discarding details irrelevant to the user's decisions. We approach this problem by training a compression model through human-in-the-loop learning as the user performs tasks with the compressed images. The key insight is to train the model to produce a compressed image that induces the user to take the same action that they would have taken had they seen the original image. To approximate the loss function for this model, we train a discriminator that tries to distinguish whether a user's action was taken in response to the compressed image or the original. We evaluate our method through experiments with human participants on four tasks: reading handwritten digits, verifying photos of faces, browsing an online shopping catalogue, and playing a car racing video game. The results show that our method learns to match the user's actions with and without compression at lower bitrates than baseline methods, and adapts the compression model to the user's behavior: it preserves the digit number and randomizes handwriting style in the digit reading task, preserves hats and eyeglasses while randomizing faces in the photo verification task, preserves the perceived price of an item while randomizing its color and background in the online shopping task, and preserves upcoming bends in the road in the car racing game.


Vegetative reproduction and dispersal by way of gemmae are known to occur in four types of fern gametophytes. Although they belong to basically tropical rain-forest genera, all four types have now been discovered growing natu rally in the vicinity of Highlands, North Carolina, as clones on shady, damp rocks. Their sporophytes were rare or absent. The gametophytes are now identified as Grammitis nimbata (Jenm.) Proctor, Grammitidaceae; Hymenophyllum tunbridg ense (L.) J.Sm., Hymenophyllaceae; Vittaria lineata (L.) J.Sm., Vittariaceae; and Trichomanes, probably representing several species, Hynmenophyllaceae. Identifi cation of the Grammitis was facilitated by the presence of some juvenile or dwarfed sporophytes; this constitutes the first report of this species, genus, and family for temperate North America. Growth and spread of fern gametophytes independently of, and distant from, the corresponding sporophytes is a novel phenomenon which should be investigated in other parts of the world.


We formulate a new second-order closure turbulence model by employing a recent closure for the pressure–temperature correlation at the equation level. As a result, we obtain new heat flux equations that avoid the long-standing issue of a finite critical Richardson number. The new, structurally simpler model improves on the Mellor–Yamada and Galperin et al. models; a key feature includes enhanced mixing under stable conditions facilitating agreement with observational, experimental, and high-resolution numerical datasets. The model predicts a planetary boundary layer height deeper than predicted by models with low critical Richardson numbers, as demonstrated in single-column model runs of the GISS ModelE general circulation model.


Drawing on the work of peace theorist Johan Galtung, I will suggest in this talk that real peace in the Middle East can be achieved only by addressing what Galtung has identified as six dimensions of violence: (1) physical vs. non-physical violence, (2) negative vs. positive aspects of violence, (3) who/what is the object of violence, (4) who/what is the subject of violence, (5) intended vs. unintended violence, and (6) manifest vs. latent violence. However, I will also argue that Galtung's dimensions are not adequate to produce positive peace. The thesis herein, then, is modest: a necessary condition for positive peace in the Middle East is the recognition and respect of personal and group identities.


After the official announcement on 15 May 2004 that South Africa would be the host of the 2010 Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) Soccer World Cup (SWC) there arose considerable criticism that the country was not a good choice with many doubting the country's capabilities to host such a big sporting event. The reasons they gave had no bearing on the country's existing infrastructure (e.g., roads, stadiums, public transport and other public services) since the ve to be made. In fact the main concern of these critics revolved around the levels of security in the country and that if one was not rich enough to afford private security services for one's own protection, the perception was that you would then be vulnerable to crime.
FIFA has its own security standards that have to be met by countries that host such complex sporting mega-events. At the time of the announcement South Africa made a pledge that all governmental departments would support and assist in all the hosting arrangements for the SWC in order to help ensure its success.
This paper sought to look at the pieces of information from website databases regarding security at high level events held in South Africa in the past. Different case studies were provided. A literature review was also conducted. Findings were presented and recommendations made to help stage future successful sporting events in South Africa.


The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate ways in which six teachers in the intermediate grades at one urban and one rural school enabled their African American male students to be successful in their literacy efforts. It was my assumption that successful teachers of African American males would also be teachers who integrated culturally relevant teaching practices into their literacy instruction; therefore, I also examined the ways in which these teachers designed instruction that was culturally relevant (Villegas & Lucas, 2002a, 2002b). The six teacher participants in this study were purposefully selected because they were identified as demonstrating the ability to aid their African American males to be successful in reading. Qualitative, case study methodology was selected because it allowed me to collect multiple forms of evidence about the beliefs and practices of these teachers in the context of their actual classrooms. Data collection for this study included one-on-one teacher interviews, six classroom observations during teachers' literacy instruction across two weeks, post observation interviews following each observation, and the teachers' completion of a diversity questionnaire. Data collection spanned nine months and included numerous follow-up interviews to clarify my interpretation of the data collected. Both within- and cross-case analyses were conducted to understand the literacy and culturally relevant practices that the six teachers in this study associated with the success of their African American males. Within case analysis revealed general teacher beliefs and specific literacy practices and classroom environment factors associated with the success of their African American males. Literacy practices that were found to be most successful for African American males included their participation in guided reading groups, read alouds, and writing activities because these practices were targeted to the specific needs and interests of the teachers' African American males. Whole class, teacher directed reading was seen by the teachers to be the least successful literacy practice for the African American males in their classrooms. The cross-case study analysis suggested that successful teachers of African American males demonstrated these four characteristics: compassion, consistency, connectedness, and collaboration. Additionally, teachers' efforts to become culturally relevant were found to hinge on teachers' willingness to explore their own sociocultural consciousness. Having sociocultural consciousness enabled three of the six teachers to view their diverse student population from a positive perspective. Teachers with less developed sense of sociocultural consciousness tended to view students from diverse populations from a deficit perspective. Based on what was learned from the teachers in this study, several recommendations for schools of education, school administrators, and teachers are provided. Suggestions for future research still needed to study culturally relevant literacy teaching practices that promote the success of African American male students are also provided.


Water is a precious resource gifted by nature for the human well being. But its contamination whether
chemical or faecal is a challenge for the water supply agencies in providing safe drinking water especially
to the rural community. It is a known fact that safe drinking water is essential for healthy living yet
millions of people on the earth are deprived of it. Deterioration of ground water quality in recent years
due to various human as well as geogenic activities is a threat to humanity especially in rural areas in
plains as it is the only available water source within their reach. The governments are struggling to
provide adequate safe water to all rural habitations. Depletion of water table in many areas resulting in
emergence of chemical impurities like Arsenic and Fluoride in water is making it unsafe whereas water
in high water table zone are bacteriologically unsafe. Bihar one of the largest states of Indian Republic
with high groundwater potential is facing a serious water quality problem .This paper is a case study and
attempts to identify the steps to improve the rural health through safe water supply.


Neutron scattering and neutron imaging are powerful techniques for studying the structure of objects without damage, which is an essential prerequisite for investigations in Cultural Heritage domain, particularly in Archaeology. The deep penetration of neutrons in most materials allows for the study of relatively large objects. The contrast between similar materials, like metals in alloys, or that due to the presence of hydrogen atoms gives information about the internal structure of objects that have been modified or repaired in the past. Imaging and tomography give a 3-dimensional view of the whole object, permitting discrimination between different parts of the object, voids, water content and large pores. Neutron scattering also provides information about elemental composition as well as about tiny pores and quantitative evaluations of the total area of internal surfaces or water content. The paper is an introduction to these techniques, which are easily accessible at neutron facilities.


This paper examines the dynamic relationship among security returns, equity mutual fund flows, and trading volume using the monthly Korean stock market data. We employ various empirical methods including VAR analyses, Granger causality tests and a variation of the present value model. We find that Korean stock market returns Granger-cause equity mutual fund flows into the market, but not vice versa. We do not find evidence that the mutual fund flows directly affect stock market prices in the presence of fundamentals of firms. Instead, we find that fund flows seem to be influenced by the performance of the stock market and that investors try to forecast fundamentals of firms and change their demand for stocks accordingly.We find that the Korean stock market volume plays a significant role in predicting both returns and flows. This causal relationship is consistent with the sequential information arrival model (SEQ). JEL classifications: G11; C22


The sustainability concept, as originally defined, comprises three meta-goals: growth, intra-generational (social) equity and environmental protection (that is, inter-generational equity). In this context, while the potential trade-offs growth vs. environment and growth vs. intra-generational equity have been frequently addressed, the possible tensions between intra-generational and inter-generational equity have received only limited attention. This is true also for studies on "sustainable transport", often concerned with the seemingly unstoppable rise of car ownership and use. This latter process is, on the one hand, a major determinant of environmental unsustainability; on the other hand, however, it entails a crucial intra-generational equity dimension, related to the differential in accessibility to services and opportunities between car users and non-car users. Accordingly, in this paper, I argue that the very nature of car dependence–defined as a dynamic and self-reinforcing macro-social process with systemic properties–urges scholars to focus on the trade-offs between intra- and inter-generational equity. Indeed, every increase in the level of car dependence widens the disadvantage gap between those who are part of the car system and those who are left out of it, but at the same time reduces the number of the latter. For this reason, its implications for intra-generational equity are very equivocal. On the other hand, most of the policies envisaged to fight car dependence are feared to have negative impacts on intra-generational equity, and thus often meet strong resistance. This is likely to bring to a "transport policy stalemate", where no serious attempt is made to reduce car use and all hopes are concentrated on a "technological fix" to eventually solve all problems. In this scenario, inter-generational equity is likely to be sacrificed in favour of other goals.


This programme of research investigated the development of a process driven approach to improving supply chain performance within the airline service sector. Work was undertaken within the Engineering division of an established UK scheduled airline, and specifically within the maintenance, repair and overhaul sector (MRO).
The underlying objective of this research was to establish the relevance of supply chain management as a source of competitive advantage to the airline service sector. A detailed review of the literature revealed that best practice originated predominately from the Japanese automotive sector, notably a manufacturing based industry. A review of the characteristic differences between these two industry sectors was undertaken to identify the opportunity for cross-sectoral transfer of knowledge. This was complemented by a thorough benchmarking analysis that identified the airline industry's position relative to best practice. This confirmed the relative immaturity of supply chain management within the airline service sector, which was representative of progress achieved by the automotive sector in the early 1980's.
The key aspects of best practice were then structured into a proposed process for improving supply chain performance. This process consisted of specific strategies with their corresponding tools and techniques for implementation. A number of case study implementations were then used to further validate, test and develop this generic process within a real airline operational environment. Significant improvements in both operational and financial performance were achieved through adopting this approach. A 40 % reduction in chemical sourcing costs was achieved, representing a £990,000 saving over three years for the case study company. A further 12.5 % reduction in landing gear overhaul costs was achieved (approximately £300,000), whilst at the same time improving the operational performance of this supply chain by 60 %.
This research concludes by recommending a generic process for improving supply chain performance. The benefits achieved through implementing this process further confirm the relevance of supply chain management to the airline service sector. Finally, this paper proposes a deterministic tool to assist practitioners in the selection of the most appropriate supply chain strategy for a given situation. Whilst this tool requires further validation, the possibilities for it's application extend far beyond those of the airline service sector. As a result this work has significantly contributed to knowledge in the field, representing considerable innovation.


Graphs exceeding the formal complexity of rooted trees are of growing relevance to much NLP research. Although formally well understood in graph theory, there is substantial variation in the types of linguistic graphs, as well as in the interpretation of various structural properties. To provide a common terminology and transparent statistics across different collections of graphs in NLP, we propose to establish a shared community resource with an open-source reference implementation for common statistics.


Requirements that environmental programs must meet in order to deliver value for money are identified, illustrated and discussed. It is argued that environmental managers and policy makers should carefully consider the extent to which potential policies and investments deliver environmental outcomes, not just outputs and activities. Processes for ranking potential environmental investments need to consider a sufficient set of information to properly evaluate benefits and costs. That information must be in a rigorous way. Many ranking systems in practical use do not meet these requirements. Environmental projects of different scales and intensities can vary greatly in the value for money that they offer, so different versions of a project should be evaluated and compared. The effectiveness of a program or project can be sensitive to the policy mechanism(s) used, so these too should be compared and evaluated for each potential project. Programs should be designed in a way that provides incentives for environmental managers to develop and pursue projects that provide high value for money, rather than creating barriers to that outcome. In some cases environmental economists could increase the value for money from investments in their research and analysis by avoiding the over-concentration of effort into a subset of the many types of information needed to make sound management and policy decisions. There are several reasons to expect that relatively less detailed or sophisticated information may provide greater value for money: diminishing marginal benefits from sophistication and detail, increasing marginal costs of sophistication and detail, and the limited capacities of potential users of this information. There is significant potential to improve the value for money generated by public investments in environmental projects and in environmental economics, although there are significant challenges in each case.


After the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad was the nineteenth century's most transformative event. Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with twin bands of iron, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. From self--made entrepreneurs such as the Union Pacific's Thomas Durant and era--defining figures such as President Lincoln to the thousands of laborers whose backbreaking work made the railroad possible, this extraordinary narrative summons an astonishing array of voices to give new dimension not only to this epic endeavor but also to the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of an unforgettable period in American history.


The Sahel or Sahil is in a sense the "coast" of the Sahara and its cities major "ports" in trade circuits linking long-standing regional exchange in the products of different ecozones to the markets of the Mediterranean through the trans-Saharan trade. Despite botanical diversity and the capacity to support high concentrations of humans and livestock, the productivity of this region depends upon a single unpredictable annual rainy season. Long- and short-term fluctuations in aridity have required populations specializing in hunting, farming, fishing, pastoralism, gold mining, and trade to be mobile and to depend upon one another for their survival. While that interdependence has often been peaceful and increasingly facilitated through the shared idiom of Islam, it has also taken more coercive forms, particularly with the introduction of horses, guns, and a dynamic market in slaves.
 Although as an ecozone the region stretches all the way to the Red Sea, the political Sahel today comprises Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad—all former French colonies. France's empire was superimposed upon the existing dynamics in the agropastoral meeting ground of the desert edge. Colonial requirements and transportation routes weakened the links between the ecozones so crucial to the success of states and markets in the region. Despite the abolition of slavery in 1905, France tacitly condoned the persistence of servile relations to secure requisitions of labor, food, and livestock. Abolition set off a very gradual shift from slavery to other kinds of labor patterns which nonetheless drew upon preexisting social hierarchies based upon religion, caste, race, and ethnicity. At the same time, gender and age gained in significance in struggles to secure labor and status. "Black Islam" (Islam noir), both invented and cultivated under French rule, was further reinforced by the bureaucratic logic of the French empire segregating "white" North Africa and "black" sub-Saharan Africa from one another.
 Periodic drought and famine in the region has prompted a perception of the Sahel as a vulnerable ecological zone undergoing desertification and requiring intervention from outside experts. Developmentalist discourse from the late colonial period on has facilitated the devolution of responsibilities and prerogatives that typically belong to the state to nongovernmental bodies. At the same time, competition over political authority in the fragmented postcolonial states of the Sahel has often reinscribed and amplified status and ethnic differences, pitting Saharan populations against the governments of desert edge states. External and internal radical Islamic movements entangled with black market opportunists muddy the clarity of the ideological and political stakes in ways that even currently (2018) further destabilize the region.


Complex and widespread activation in many brain areas is seen while performing, listening or mentally imaging music, activity that varies with training, previous exposure, personal preference, emotional involvement and many other factors. Playing a musical instrument demands extensive motor and cognitive abilities, and early musical learning results in plastic reorganization of the developing brain – one example being the increased cortical representation area for the left little finger in (right-handed) string-players, which correlates with age at the start of training. Even though the developing brain has the most pronounced changes, the adult healthy brain has a considerable plasticity. Conductors have superior spatial tuning compared with non-musicians and pianists. Attentive listening to music for as little as three hours can temporarily alter the auditory cortex. Interactions between genetic predisposition, environment and training play a role in music as in other areas. It has been proposed that musical training may improve other cognitive functions. There is some evidence that this may be the case but it is an area that needs further exploration.


Aims. Exoplanet host stars (EHS) are known to present superficial chemical abundances different from those of stars without any detected planet (NEHS). EHS are, on average, overmetallic compared to the Sun. The observations also show that, for cool stars, lithium is more depleted in EHS than in NEHS. The aim of this paper is to obtain constraints on possible models able to explain this difference, in the framework of overmetallic models compared to models with solar abundances. Methods. We have computed main sequence stellar models with various masses and metallicities. The results show different behaviour for the lithium destruction according to these parameters. We compare these results to the spectroscopic observations of lithium. Results. Our models show that the observed lithium differences between EHS and NEHS are not directly due to the overmetallicity of the EHS: some extra mixing is needed below the convective zones. We discuss possible explanations for the needed extra mixing, in particular an increase of the mixing efficiency associated with the development of shear instabilities below the convective zone, triggered by angular momentum transfer due to planetary migration.


High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is able to capture a wide range of luminance values, closer to what the human visual system can perceive. It is believed by many that HDR is a technology that will revolutionize TV and cinema industry similar to how color television did. However, the complexity of HDR requires reinvention of the whole chain from capture to display. In this paper, HDR images compressed with the upcoming JPEG XT HDR image coding standard are used to investigate the correlation between thirteen well known full-reference metrics and perceived quality of HDR content. The metrics are benchmarked using ground truth subjective scores collected during quality evaluations performed on a Dolby Pulsar HDR monitor. Results demonstrate that objective quality assessment of HDR image compression is challenging. Most of the tested metrics, with exceptions of HDR-VDP-2 and FSIM computed for luma component, poorly predict human perception of visual quality.


Falls in the elderly are common and often the first sign of frailty and other medical conditions. Fall-induced injuries are said to be the fifth leading cause of death in elderly people, and one of the most common causes of long-standing pain and disability in this population. Potential causes of falls are varied and include a history of previous falls, the use of psychoactive medicine, cognitive or functional impairment, environmental hazards, balance and gait problems, loss of muscle strength, and impaired vision. The success of interventions is optimised by early identification of those at risk, before a serious fall occurs. Treatment is directed at the underlying cause of the fall. The role of the pharmacist in fall prevention is health education, to identify those patients at risk of falling and to assist them to minimise their risk and to develop a fall care plan.


This study investigated the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in improving retirees' attitude towards political participation. Twenty four retirees (mean age = 55.50 years) within Ilorin Metropolis participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to one treatment and one control groups. A validated instrument termed "Retirees' Attitude towards Political Participation Questionnaire") was administered to the two groups before and after the experimental programme. ANCOVA was employed for the analysis of data. Results showed that the treatment package (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy) was effective in improving retirees' attitude towards political participation, their religious affiliations notwithstanding. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the counseling curriculum in Nigeria be expanded to accommodate this new problem area and that retirees should always seek counseling.

 Key words:  Retirees, attitude, political participation, Rational emotive behaviour therapy.


We analyze the observations of EUV loop evolution associated with the filament eruption located at the border of an active region (AR). The event SOL2013-03-16T14:00 was observed with a large difference in view point by the Solar Dynamics Observatory and Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The filament height is fitted with the sum of a linear and exponential function. These two phases point to different physical mechanisms such as tether-cutting reconnection and a magnetic instability. While no X-ray emission is reported, this event presents classical eruption features like separation of double ribbons and the growth of flare loops. We report the migration of the southern foot of the erupting filament flux rope due to the interchange reconnection with encountered magnetic loops of a neighboring AR. Parallel to the erupting filament, a stable filament remains in the core of the AR. The specificity of this eruption is that coronal loops, located above the nearly joining ends of the two filaments, first contract in phase, then expand and reach a new stable configuration close to the one present at the eruption onset. Both contraction and expansion phases last around 20 minutes. The main difference with previous cases is that the PIL bent about 180° around the end of the erupting filament because the magnetic configuration is at least tripolar. These observations are challenging for models that interpreted previous cases of loop contraction within a bipolar configuration. New simulations are required to broaden the complexity of the configurations studied.


NiFe-(Oxy)hydroxide is one of the most active electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline conditions. Herein we investigated the stability of NiFe-(oxy)hydroxide anodes at high current densities (100 mA cm−2) at different temperatures (25, 75 °C) and base concentrations (1, 5, 10 M KOH). While polarization led to minor structural and compositional changes under standard conditions (25 °C, 1 M KOH), the anodes were severely impacted at higher temperature (75 °C) and base concentrations (5, 10 M KOH). Overall leaching and preferential leaching of Fe (resulting in a lower Fe/Ni ratio) led to decreased OER performance and increased charge transfer resistance for the samples tested at industrially relevant conditions. A dramatic loss in the catalytic activity occurred for the sample polarized at 75 °C in 10 M KOH: besides extensive leaching, a transformation of Ni(OH)2 into NiO was noted in this case. For pure NiOxHy, incorporation of Fe impurities from the electrolyte during polarization at 75 °C in 5 M KOH led to an improvement in the catalytic activity and charge-transfer properties, approaching the performance of NiFeOxHy.


We address the problem of text-based activity retrieval in video. Given a sentence describing an activity, our task is to retrieve matching clips from an untrimmed video. To capture the inherent structures present in both text and video, we introduce a multilevel model that integrates vision and language features earlier and more tightly than prior work. First, we inject text features early on when generating clip proposals, to help eliminate unlikely clips and thus speed up processing and boost performance. Second, to learn a fine-grained similarity metric for retrieval, we use visual features to modulate the processing of query sentences at the word level in a recurrent neural network. A multi-task loss is also employed by adding query re-generation as an auxiliary task. Our approach significantly outperforms prior work on two challenging benchmarks: Charades-STA and ActivityNet Captions.


Despite high enrollment numbers, postsecondary completion rates have generally remained unchanged for the past 30 years and half of these students do not attain a degree within six years of initial enrollment. Although online learning has provided students with a convenient alternative to face-to-face instruction, there remain significant questions regarding online learning program quality, particularly when considering patterns of student retention and progression. By aggregating student and course data into one dataset, six postsecondary institutions worked together toward determining factors that contribute to retention, progression, and completion of online learners with specific purposes: (1) to reach consensus on a common set of variables among the six institutions that inform student retention, progression and completion; (2) to explore advantages and/or disadvantages of particular statistical and methodological approaches to assessing factors related to retention, progression and completion. In the relatively short timeframe of the study, 33 convenience variables informing retention, progression, and completion were identified and defined by the six participating institutions. This initiative, named the Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework (PAR) and the initial statistical analyses utilized are described in this paper.


South African (Afrikaans) novelist Ingrid Winterbach is known for her individual style, the originality of voice in her novels, as well as for an unusual and ironic perspective on reality. This article focuses on Winterbach's ability to integrate word choices and narrative technique so that passages in her fiction can be described as highly iconic. Winterbach exploits language from different domains, discourses, and semantic fields, as well as archaisms, resulting in incongruous phrasing, ambiguity, and irony. Word play and lists of words activate semantic values by relying on the materiality of words. In Winterbach's novels, words do not only create unexpected and defamiliarized meanings on account of illogical systems of creative thought, but they also bear witness to the previous ideologically suspect meanings in each word's history, thereby reactivating the kind of archaeology of thought and language described by Foucault.


From John Bradshaw, one of the world's leading experts on animal behaviour, and the author of the Sunday Times Bestseller, In Defence of Dogs, Cat Sense shows us the true, surprising nature of cats. Cats are the most popular pet in the world. They outnumber the dog, man's 'best friend', by three to one. Yet today, they face unprecedented challenges in their life with humans: from conservationists who cast them as a threat to wildlife; from other cats who they compete for territory with; and from good-intentioned owners and vets with misconceptions of what they require. Cats need not so much our sympathy, but our understanding. Cat Sense offers us for the first time a truly scientific, yet deeply affectionate, picture of one of humanity's closest and most enigmatic companions. "A mind-altering book ...delightful". (Lynne Truss, The Times). "Exceptionally thorough ...Bradshaw's concern and love for cats shines through ...You could buy a dozen books by the many cat whisperers, cat gurus and cat therapists that exist in our feline-obsessed modern world, but their accumulated wisdom would probably not help you understand your cats as well as Cat Sense". (Tom Cox, Observer). "An entertaining book, written in a relaxed style". (James McConnachie, Sunday Times). "Witty, surprising writing ...There is his delight in detail, a talent for dismantling myths, but most importantly an ability to build a coherent and entertaining theory from an apparent contradiction that all cat-lovers will recognise: we seek to understand cats even though it is our lack of understanding that makes us love them". (Herald John Bradshaw is a biologist who founded and directs the world-renowned Anthrozoology Institute, based at the University of Bristol). He has been studying the behaviour of domestic cats and their owners for over 25 years, and is the author of many scientific articles, research papers and reviews.


This essay identifies a flaw in the model currently employed to evaluate the economic consequences of common law liability rules in a joint care setting. The conventional model, it is shown, does not account for the externality of victim care, that is, the cost of victim care induced by injurer activity in a joint care setting. Recognition of this externality has important implications. In particular, the article demonstrates that neither negligence nor strict liability with a defense of contributory negligence will cause injurers to internalize the externality of victim care. Thus, neither liability rule will induce optimal injurer activity, even in those instances in which joint due care eliminates accident risk. Absent imposition of a Pigouvian tax, neither regime will induce efficient activity choices by the injuring party. Identification of the externality of victim care suggests the existence of a second externality, the externality of injurer care. Neither negligence nor strict liability with a defense of contributory negligence will cause victims to internalize this cost when making activity choices. Absent imposition of a Pigouvian tax, even a negligence regime will not induce optimal activity choices by the victim. The essay also offers some observations about the source of the oversight identified here as well as the implications of that oversight for the positive economic theory of tort law. The failure previously to identify the externality of victim care may reflect undue reliance on the farmer-railroad exemplar as a vehicle for examining the effects of various liability rules. Restrictive assumptions associated with this example, it is shown, inadvertently conceal the externality of victim care and produce conclusions that are not generalizable. Relaxation of these assumptions reveals this externality and allows construction of a model that can produce generalizable conclusions. Moreover, recognition of this externality may actually bolster the positive economic theory by, for instance, explaining the absence of a contributory negligence defense to torts premised on strict liability.


In this work, we report the synthesis, structural characterization and evaluation of in vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of novel spirobenzothiazolines (1a-e, 2a-e). 5-nonsubstituted spirobenzothiazolines (1a-e) demonstrated notable inhibitory capacity on lipid peroxidation (LPO), reducing power and scavinging effects on diphenylpicryl hydrazine (DPPH˙) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS˙+) radicals, that were similar to that of α-tocopherol. The most potent antioxidant was compound 1a (incorporating an ethyl group on the cyclohexane ring) with an anti-LPO activity 2-fold higher than that of α-tocopherol. Compound 1a exhibited anti-LPO and DPPH˙ scavenging activities at concentrations lower than those cytotoxic for mouse normal fibroblast (NIH/3T3) cells and was also found to be slightly more selective for cancer cells (human prostat adenocarcinoma cell/PC-3) than normal mammalian cells.


It is clear that Cloud computing is and will be a sea change for the Information Technology by changing the way in which both software and hardware are designed and purchased. In this work we address the use of this emerging computing paradigm into web hosting providers in order to avoid its resource management limitations. Thanks to the Cloud approach, resources can be provided in a dynamic way according with the needs of providers and end-users. In this paper, we present an elastic web hosting provider, namely Cloud Hosting Provider (CHP), that makes use of the outsourcing technique in order to take advantage of Cloud computing infrastructures for providing scalability and high availability capabilities to the web applications deployed on it. Furthermore, we pursue the main goal of maximizing the revenue earned by the provider through both the analysis of Service Level Agreements (SLA) and the employment of an economic model. The evaluation exposed demonstrates that the system proposed is able to properly react to the dynamic load received by the web applications and it also achieve the aforesaid revenue maximization of the provider by performing an SLA-aware resource (i.e. web servers) management.


Biculturalism is the nexus of cultural beliefs and values of two diametrically opposed worldviews; te ao Māori (the Māori world) and that of the Sacred Heart. The project explores the tension between Māori thought and the ideology of the Sacred Heart. It is envisaged that this exploration will provide meaningful and innovative ways to reconcile the differences so that the integrity of both te ao Māori and the ideology of the Sacred Heart are maintained and respected. The research question is framed as a hypothesis: The positive values of te ao Māori and the intrinsic humanism of the Sacred Heart contributes to developing a meaningful bicultural framework at Baradene College of the Sacred Heart.

It is anticipated that embedding biculturalism within Baradene College of the Sacred Heart will lead to better outcomes, academically, culturally and personally for Māori students. It is hoped that this research will also provide an opportunity for Baradene College of the Sacred Heart to realise more fully its commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi, current educational policies, legislation and indigenous human rights, as well as the Sacred Heart way of educating.


In 1995, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, the Queensland Department of Main Roads and Redland Shire Council initiated the Koala Speed Zone Trial in the Koala Coast, south-east Queensland. The aim of the trial was to assess the effect of differential speed signs on the number of koalas ( Phascolarctos cinereus) hit by vehicles in the Koala Coast from 1995 to 1999. On the basis of information collected by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service 1407 koalas were hit by vehicles in the Koala Coast during the five-year study ( mean 281 koalas per year, range 251 - 315). Monitoring of vehicle speeds by the Queensland Department of Main Roads suggested that there was no significant reduction in vehicle speed during the trial period from August to December. Consequently, there was no evidence to suggest that a reduction in the number of koalas hit by vehicles occurred during the trial. Approximately 70% of koalas were hit on arterial and sub-arterial roads and approximately 83% did not survive. The location of each koala hit was recorded and the signed speed limit of the road was noted. Most koalas that were hit by vehicles were young healthy males. Pooling of data on koala collisions and road speed limits suggested that the proportion of koalas that survived being hit by vehicles was slightly higher on roads with lower speed limits. However, vehicle speed was not the only factor that affected the number of koalas hit by vehicles. It is suggested that habitat destruction, koala density and traffic volume also contribute to road-associated koala mortality in the Koala Coast.


This article examines one of the most difficult family law issues in modern society. As divorce has become more common, and women have gained greater economic and social freedom, the issue of how to deal with a custodial parent who wants to relocate a considerable distance from the noncustodial parent (perhaps to be with a new spouse, to take a new job, to enter an educational program, or simply to change geographical location) the courts are confronted with a direct challenge to the historical policy of having both divorced parents with regular and frequent contact with the children. There has been some movement toward greater liberality in authorizing relocation of a custodial parent, although with some adjustment of the visitation time allowed to the other parent. However, the issue of relocation has been further compounded by the growth of the father's rights movement, which has successfully lobbied legislatures to enact joint custody laws which encourage both shared legal custody and shared physical custody. Shared physical custody is essentially incompatible with substantial distance location on the part of one parent, and suggested solutions such as virtual visitation by use of computer technology has found little support in the courts. The article examines these trends and finds that there is little national consensus on how to deal with an issue which promises to put the various competing family interests into competition.


Arginine has been shown to suppress the aggregation of proteins. Here the aquous solubility enhancement of highly insoluble protein "gluten" in presence of arginine was re-examined. Further in order to understand the thermodynamics and solute solvent interactions during the solubility enhancement of gluten in presence of arginine, the ternary system has been subjected to conductometric measurements. The conductance values have been used to evaluate the limiting molar conductance and association constants by means of Shedlovsky extrapolation technique. The thermodynamic parameters for the association process of arginine in presence of gluten in water have also been calculated. A concentration dependence solubility enhancement of gluten was observed. It was observed that, arginine enhances the solubility of gluten by 15.71 folds as compared to that in water.


Gold nanostructures, particularly gold nanocages or nanoshells (AuNCs or AuNSs), exhibit remarkable optical properties due to their excellent surface plasmon resonance, allowing their potential use in biomedical fields. Herein, we report the controlled synthesis of AuNCs and AuNSs simply using lanreotide acetate (Lan) as a biotemplate. Gold nanomaterials were obtained via co-incubation between a HAuCl4 solution and Lan peptide and controlling the reduction reaction process. AuNCs and AuNSs prepared in this method were about 120 nm and 150 nm in diameter, respectively, which have the desired passive targeting to tumor. Surprisingly, both AuNCs and AuNSs showed superior photothermal inhibitory effects for cancer cells with only 0.8 W cm−2 laser power in the in vivo and vitro experiments; moreover, the AuNCs showed better antitumor activity and photothermal conversion efficiency than the AuNSs. In this study, two kinds of gold nanostructures were fabricated using the same template molecule, and AuNCs showed higher photothermal conversion efficiency due to their anisotropic structure.


The concept of Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) has been extensively used in policy consideration as a relative index for comparing the climate impact of an emitted greenhouse gas (GHG), relative to carbon dioxide with equal mass emissions. Ozone depletion due to emission of chlorinated or brominated halocarbons leads to cooling of the climate system in the opposite direction to the direct warming contribution by halocarbons as GHGs. This cooling is a key indirect effect of the halocarbons on climatic radiative forcing, which is accounted for by indirect GWPs. With respect to climate, it is critical to understand net influences considering direct warming and indirect cooling effects especially for Halons due to the greater ozone-depleting efficiency of bromine over chlorine. Until now, the indirect GWPs have been calculated using a parameterized approach based on the concept of Equivalent Effective Stratospheric Chlorine (EESC) and the observed ozone depletion over the last few decades. As a step towards obtaining indirect GWPs through a more robust approach, we use atmospheric models to explicitly calculate the indirect GWPs of Halon-1211 and Halon-1301 for a 100-year time horizon. State-of-the-art global chemistry-transport models (CTMs) were used as the computational tools to derive more realistic ozone depletion changes caused by an added pulse emission of the two major Halons at the surface. The radiative forcings on climate from the ozone changes have been calculated for indirect GWPs using an atmospheric radiative transfer model (RTM). The simulated temporal variations of global average total column Halons after a pulse perturbation follow an exponential decay with an e-folding time which is consistent with the expected chemical lifetimes of the Halons. Our calculated indirect GWPs for the two Halons are much smaller than those from past studies but are within a single standard deviation of WMO (2007) values and the direct GWP values derived agree with the published values. Our model-based assessment of the Halon indirect GWPs thus confirms the significant importance of indirect effects on climate.


The Pomona Basalt, an extensive tholeiitic lava flow of the Columbia River Basalt, overlies an airfall vitric tuff in south-central Washington. In many places, this tuff was welded at the contact from the heat and pressure of the overlying basalt. Textures and minerals (mainly Na-sanidine and cristobalite) formed in the tuff during and after welding are identical to those of welded ash flow tuffs. Heat conduction from the lava could have accomplished the welding, as shown by calculations, although water vapors greatly aided in heat transfer. Welding was completed prior to deuteric crystallization of the Pomona Basalt. In other places, where the tuff was probably thicker, the Pomona flow burrowed into the tuff, fragmented it, and formed spectacular breccias (peperites). The peperites occur sporadically between outcrops of the un-brecciated Pomona in an area of about 5400 km 2 (2100 miles 2 ).


Using the TIMSS 1999 data, this study examined school expectations and initiatives for promoting parental involvement at middle school level in 30 nations. In most countries, schools were more likely to expect parental involvement at home (e.g., prepare child lunchbox) and less likely to get parents involved in school governance. No significant relationship was found between national level of school expectations for parental involvement and national level of student academic achievement or attendance rate. Contrary to our expectation, the relationship between the national level of school expectation for direct parental involvement and national level of educational inequality was positively significant. In addition, national level of school initiatives in parental involvement was also positively associated with educational inequality. Comparison of six nations (Unites States, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Netherlands) revealed that different school characteristics were associated with high levels of expectations and initiatives for parental involvement in different nations. Unlike other counties whose schools' expectation were influenced by a least one of those structural characteristics (school size, class size, et al.), U.S. schools' expectations for parental involvement were more likely to be affected by schools' cultural factors, such as teacher collaboration and school disciplinary issues. In the U.S., students attended school more often in those school that had higher levels of expectations for parental involvement. Students in the United States were more likely to achieve better if their schools had higher expectations for parents' direct involvement. However, in Czech and Taiwan, school expectations or initiatives were negatively related to student attendance rates or mathematics achievement. Implications for educational policies and practices in these nations and future research were discussed.


Submarine channels are conduits that transfer sediment from continental shelves to the deep sea. They can form important hydrocarbon reservoirs when filled with sand-prone deposits and are, consequently, one of the most important hydrocarbon prospects on continental margins around the world. In this thesis, a 3D seismic volume from offshore Espirito Santo (SE Brazil) was used to analyse submarine channel systems near the modern sea floor. The aim of the thesis was to investigate the key controlling factors on variations in the morphology and architecture of submarine channel systems, at the same time, providing an analogue for modern and ancient depositional systems on continental slopes around the world.
This work shows significant variations in morphology and architectures along the investigated submarine channel systems. The spatial variations in both channel and valley morphology documented here suggest an important role of local factors (e.g. mass-wasting events, tributaries, substrate lithology and salt tectonics) in the development of channel systems. It also records in great detail the nature of the interaction between mass-transport deposits and turbidity currents at the early stages of channel evolution. Basal scars created by mass-wasting events can capture turbidity currents and facilitate flow channelisation, which is a key process for submarine-channel initiation. In addition, the replacement of MTDs by channel-fill deposits has profound implications for reservoir volumes and net-to-gross ratios in channel systems. Spatial variations in channel sinuosity observed in this work are interpreted as reflecting substrate erodibility beneath the channel system. Submarine channels will show higher sinuosity when encountering resistant substrates, and lower sinuosity when the substrate is more erodible. Temporal changes in channel sinuosity resulted from enhanced sediment discharge from tributaries. This work stresses the role of lateral channel migration as an important mechanism responding to factors such as sediment supply and ultimately, controlling the evolution of submarine channel systems.


Research comparing public-private services outsourcing applying a longitudinal approach including the production/delivery processes (life after purchase) in services sourcing contexts is scarce. In addition, prior studies on service sourcing tend be under conceptualized.To address the above this licentiate thesis presents the results of a comparative and grounded theory inspired case study of two major Swedish FM services outsourcing projects, a public and a private case of operational partnering. Client-provider interaction processes on management level have been followed regularly over time utilizing participant observation as a core element combined with interviews and documentary studies. Observed variations in relational orientation over time, are problematized and discussed. A substantive theory – Business streamlining - of Facility Management outsourcing processes, including the seldom-researched life after purchase processes, is outlined and contextualized. It is argued that existing relational classifications, such as operational partnering, do not capture the life after purchase dynamics of the studied relationships. Business streamlining rests on four main categories, which have major influence on how Facility Management relationships evolve over time.


This book examines competition policy (competition law, merger control and sectoral regulation) in English and Dutch healthcare. In contrast to the United States, competition in English and Dutch healthcare develops from the principle of universal access to healthcare, which appears antithetical to competition. Unsurprisingly, competition reforms in both a health insurance system (the Netherlands) and a taxation-funded National Health Service (NHS) (England) have proved controversial. Such reforms are also proving difficult to implement, with both countries developing "healthcare-specific" modifications of general competition rules and differing relationships between the competition authorities and healthcare regulators in applying these. This book challenges both existing literature and the policy underpinning the reforms by adopting the position that healthcare is fundamentally different to other liberalized sectors and thus requires special treatment. Furthermore, it argues that different approaches are needed to accommodate the specific characteristics of national healthcare systems (such as the tension between the NHS and private healthcare in the UK) within the wider typology of insurance-based and taxation-funded systems across Europe. It also provides a first context-based comparative law study in this area. This analysis is timely in light of ongoing criticism of the reforms and current refocusing of competition within healthcare in both countries.


The primary purposes of this study are to consider the influence of YouTube marketing communication (YMC) on awareness and knowledge among Generation (Gen) Y cohort respondents in South Africa (SA) and Romania (RO) and to establish if country, demographic, and usage (independent) variables have an effect on this cognitive attitudinal association. Multistage sampling was employed, and a survey was conducted among 400 respondents in SA and 400 respondents in RO. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the hypothesized associations. The findings confirm that awareness had a favorable influence on knowledge for the total sample, SA and RO. The results also show that awareness displayed a significantly larger positive effect on knowledge among Romanian Gen Y in comparison with South African Gen Y. This study confirms that age (demographic variable) and access, usage length, log‐on frequency, log‐on duration, and advertisement viewership numbers (usage variables) have a significant effect on cognitive attitudinal responses due to YMC among Gen Y in SA and RO. Organizations should consider adapting YMC strategies to stimulate awareness, which will stimulate favorable knowledge attitudinal responses, as well as consider the aforementioned demographic and usage variables when targeting the infamously unpredictable Gen Y due to the positive cognitive attitudinal association in developing countries.


Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are increasingly recognized to influence solid tumor development, but why their effects are so context-dependent and even frequently divergent remains poorly understood. Using an autochthonous mouse model of uterine cancer and the administration of respiratory hyperoxia as a means to improve tumor oxygenation, we provide in vivo evidence that hypoxia is a potent determinant of tumor-associated PMN phenotypes and direct PMN-tumor cell interactions. Upon relief of tumor hypoxia, PMNs were recruited less intensely to the tumor-bearing uterus but the recruited cells much more effectively killed tumor cells, an activity our data moreover suggested was mediated via their production of NADPH oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species and MMP-9. Simultaneously, their ability to promote tumor cell proliferation, which appeared mediated via their production of neutrophil elastase, was rendered less effective. Relieving tumor hypoxia thus greatly improved net PMN-dependent tumor control, leading to a massive reduction in tumor burden. Remarkably, this outcome was T cell-independent. Together, these findings identify key hypoxia-regulated molecular mechanisms through which PMNs directly induce tumor cell death and proliferation in vivo and suggest that the contrasting properties of PMNs in different tumor settings may in part reflect the effects of hypoxia on direct PMN-tumor cell interactions.


In "Partly Laws Common to All Mankind," Jeremy Waldron advocates what could be called "the doctrine of jus gentium," according to which, roughly, courts sitting in one country must give some weight in their legal deliberations to some principles that have been accepted or adopted by the legal systems of many other countries. Waldron's arguments for this doctrine raise questions and worries about exactly what the content of the doctrine is, and what justification could be offered for it. Several different versions of the doctrine come into the picture as Waldron argues for jus gentium, and while some versions are plausible, some others are not. Unfortunately, the most plausible of the versions seems to be excluded by Waldron's commitment to a Dworkinian conception of the nature of law. This paper ends up recommending that Waldron drop his commitment to that conception of the nature of law in favor of the plausible version of the doctrine of jus gentium.This paper is a contribution to a symposium on Jeremy Waldron's work organized by the American Philosophical Association. A revised version will be published in a forthcoming issue of the APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Law, with Waldron's reply.


In this paper, we propose a line-field optical coherence tomography (OCT) with frequency-sweeping source, which uses imaging optics to form a line focus on the sample and obtains cross-sectional OCT images of biological tissues without any mechanical scanning. Therefore, real-time imaging becomes possible even when the sweeping rate of the source is not high. Moreover, a full 3-D volume image can be acquired by simply incorporating 1-D mechanical scanning. Our line-field OCT using frequency-sweeping source has a sensitivity of ~88 dB, an axial resolution of 8.3 mum, and an acquisition speed of 45 fps.


Vitrinite reflectance of the Upper Devonian–Carboniferous succession in the Kinsale Harbour–Old Head of Kinsale area ranges from 4.06–5.21% (m) and 6.21–7.82% (max) which is indicative of meta-anthracite coal rank. No correlation is apparent between vitrinite reflectance and stratigraphic position through c. 2 km of section, suggesting that near-maximum temperatures were maintained until after Variscan folding. Low reflectance values of 0.62% and 0.30–0.35% (m) at the local base of the Jurassic succession in the North Celtic Sea Basin (Well 48/30-1) and onshore at Cloyne respectively, indicate a major discontinuity in the maturation profile in the region. Comparison with high reflectance gradients from Upper Palaeozoic successions in the Halen and Turnhout boreholes in Belgium and the Münsterland No. 1 borehole in West Germany suggests that a thick (5–7 km) cover of pre-Permo-Tnassic rocks must once have been present in the Munster Basin to account for the high maturation levels observed. Whether the cover was emplaced by Silesian sedimentation or by late Palaeozoic thrusting is unclear.


The paper looks at firm-level factors that affect Philippine exports to Japan with the main objective of recommending provisions for the proposed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) that will enable existing and prospective Philippine exporters to fully exploit the potential of the Japanese market. To this end, the study identifies Philippine products with export prospects in Japan and conducts a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis of these production sectors. The inability of the Philippine agricultural, processed food and consumer manufactures to successfully tap into the growing import markets of Japan can be traced largely to low quality and price competitiveness arising from insufficient technical know-how, lack of economies of scale and credit facilities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that comprise roughly 90% of the exporters, certain distortionary government policies, and insufficient infrastructure and government support. Apart from these domestic factors, there is severe competition from China, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, and there remains the protection and regulation of the Japanese markets. The complete opening of Japan's agricultural and processed food sectors to the Philippines, import promotion programs particularly for Philippine made products, and SME-focused efficiency enhancement training programs and capital accumulation loan programs may, thus, be necessary if Japan is to assist the Philippines expand its exports. Further, the benefits that the Philippines can reap from the optimal position of its electronics and automotive parts exports in Japan may be enhanced if support industries develop in the Philippines which requires among other things Japanese assistance for human resources development programs.


When trying to obtain a better characterization of the Earth's subsurface, it is common to use borehole through-casing resistivity measurements. It is also common for the wells to be surrounded by a metal casing to protect the well and avoid possible collapses. The presence of this metal case highly complicates the numeric simulation of the problem due to the high conductivity of the casing compared to the conductivity of the rock formations. Here we present an application of some theoretical asymptotic methods in order to deal with complex borehole scenarios like cased wells. The main idea consist in replacing the part of the domain related to the casing by a transmission impedance boundary condition. The small thickness of the casing makes it ideal to apply this kind of mathematical technique. When eliminating the casing from the computational domain, the computational cost of the problems considerably decreases, while the effect of the casing does not disappear due to the impedance transmission conditions. The results show that when applying an order three impedance boundary condition for a simplified domain, it only generates a negligible approximation error, while it considerably reduces the computational cost.


The paper will discuss what economic recovery means and why economic recovery cannot be attained based on the features of these restructuring agreements. It also sees important to discuss the stance that the country must take with regard its foreign creditors. The government can only determine the Philippine position and not the overall outcome. It should not internalize the interest of foreign creditors. The strategy on the foreign debt primarily involves a political decision, not a technical one. The negotiating stance implemented by the Aquino government has been meant to bring about these three positive developments. New foreign lending would restart in a few months. Foreign investment would begin to flow into the country in sufficiently large amounts. The country's net exports would increase by leaps and bounds.


A range of superbase derived ionic liquids (SILs) was synthesised and characterised. Their ability to dissolve cellulose and the characteristics of the produced fibres were correlated to their specific structural and solvent properties. 17 ionic liquids (ILs) (including 9 novel) were analysed and six ILs were selected to produce fibres: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [C2C1im][OAc], 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate [C2C1im][DEP] and the SILs 1-ethyl-1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-enium diethylphosphate [DBUEt][DEP], 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-enium acetate [DBUH][OAc], 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-enium acetate [DBNH][OAc] and 1-ethyl-1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-enium diethylphsophate [DBNEt][DEP]. The mechanical properties of these fibres were investigated. The obtained fibres were then carbonised to explore possible application as carbon fibre precursors. The fibres obtained using a mixture of 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-enium based SILs with acetate and hexanoate anions (9 : 1), [DBNH][OAc][Hex], showed a promising combination of strength, stiffness and strain at failure values for applications in textiles and fibre reinforcement in renewable composites. Using Raman spectroscopy it is demonstrated that these fibres exhibit a relatively high degree of structural order, with fewer defects than the other materials. On the other hand, analogous fibres based on imidazolium cation with acetate and hexanoate anions (9 : 1), [C2C1im][OAc][Hex] showed a decline in the quality of the produced fibres compared to the fibres produced from [C2C1im][OAc], [C2C1im][DEP] or [DBNH][OAc][Hex].


In this unprecedentedly wide-ranging account of art, design, and architecture in the complex Central Europe of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during its momentous last decades, Elizabeth Clegg achieves a forceful integration of political and cultural developments. Comparing the situation in eight cities--among them Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Cracow, and Zagreb--the author highlights contrasts, rivalries, parallels, and interconnections across this colorful and important region. The book deals with all the chief ethnic/national categories of Austria-Hungary and embraces all the visual arts. Focusing on their public display, appraisal, and consumption, Clegg shows how the harmonious/antagonistic coexistence of institutions, publications, and events gave rise to the dynamic art life of a period that would end in a turning point for Central Europe. As vividly revealed, this was a time and place marked by a simultaneous fear and celebration of ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity that has enormous international resonance a century later.


OBJECTIVES The incidence of clinical hepatitis A has increased in young Korean adults since the mid-1990s. Although hepatitis A vaccinations have been administered in private clinics over the past 10 yr, no data exist on the vaccination rate and relating factors. METHODS In 2005, a population-based survey of 12-35-month-old children was carried out in Nonsan, Korea. An interview survey was completed for 71.3% of the children. All data came from a vaccination card or confirmation from a provider. RESULTS The hepatitis A vaccination rate was 42.3% for ≥1 dose and 24.7% for 2-dose. The results of the multivariate regression analysis for the hepatitis A vaccination showed that the second (OR=1.6) and third and successive children (OR=3.3) were less often immunized than the first child. Low economic status (OR=1.6), rural area (OR=1.5) and employed mother (OR=1.5) were also correlated with a lower vaccination rate. The hepatitis A vaccination rate was significantly lower in children who had no other vaccinations: measlesmumps-rubella (OR=2.8 for ≥1 dose and 7.3 for 2-dose), varicella (OR=20.2 and 22.0, respectively) and Haemophilus influenza type b (OR=14.3 and 13.3, respectively). CONCLUSION To prevent outbreaks of clinical hepatitis A by enough herd immunity, a vaccination should be included in the National Immunization Program and a vaccination policy developed and implemented that can overcome the barriers to immunization such as late birth order and a mother's employment.


An efficient and highly chemoselective iodination of alkynes using a sulfonium iodate(i) electrophilc reagent under metal-free conditions has been realized. The reactivity of sulfonium iodate(i) salt could be significantly diverse in the presence of water as the solvent, enabling the (E)-1,2-diiodoalkenes stereospecifically. This stereodivergent approach is amenable to a wide range of alkyne substrates and demonstrates a diverse functional group tolerance resulting in synthetically valuable 1-iodoalkyne and (E)-vicinal-diiodoalkenes in good to excellent yields (up to 99%) with 100% selectivity under ambient conditions.

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Generalization capability to unseen domains is crucial for machine learning models when deploying to real-world conditions. We investigate the challenging problem of domain generalization, i.e., training a model on multi-domain source data such that it can directly generalize to target domains with unknown statistics. We adopt a model-agnostic learning paradigm with gradient-based meta-train and meta-test procedures to expose the optimization to domain shift. Further, we introduce two complementary losses which explicitly regularize the semantic structure of the feature space. Globally, we align a derived soft confusion matrix to preserve general knowledge of inter-class relationships. Locally, we promote domain-independent class-specific cohesion and separation of sample features with a metric-learning component. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated with new state-of-the-art results on two common object recognition benchmarks. Our method also shows consistent improvement on a medical image segmentation task.


Background Left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LVLS) is a powerful predictor of outcome in patients with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis (LF-LG AS) and low LV ejection fraction (LVEF). However, the impact of right ventricular (RV) function on the outcome of these patients remains unknown. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the impact of RV function as evaluated by RV free wall longitudinal strain (RVLS) on mortality in patients with LF-LG AS and low LVEF. Methods 211 patients with LF-LG AS (mean gradient <40 mm Hg and indexed aortic valve area (AVA) ≤0.6 cm2/m2) and low LVEF (≤40%)) were prospectively recruited in the True or Pseudo-severe Aortic Stenosis study. AS severity was assessed using the projected AVA (AVAproj) at normal flow rate. Among the 211 patients, 128 had RVLS measurement available at rest and were included in this analysis. RVLS measurement at dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) was available in 58 of the 128 patients. Results Two-year survival was lower in patients with RVLS<|13|% (53%±9%) compared with those with RVLS>|13|% (69%±5%) (p=0.04). In multivariable Cox analysis stratified for the type of treatment (aortic valve replacement vs conservative) and adjusted for age, AS severity, previous myocardial infarction and LVLS, rest RVLS<|13|% (HR=2.70; 95% CI 1.19 to 6.11; p=0.018) was independently associated with all-cause mortality. RVLS had incremental prognostic value over baseline risk factors and LVLS (χ2=20.13 vs 13.56; p=0.01). Reduced stress RVLS was also associated with increased risk of mortality (stress RVLS<|14|%: HR=2.98; 95% CI 1.30 to 6.52; p=0.01). In multivariable Cox analysis, stress RVLS<|14|% remained independently associated with mortality (HR=2.94; 95% CI 1.23 to 7.02; p=0.015). After further adjustment for rest RVLS, stress RVLS<|14|% remained independently associated with mortality (HR=3.29; 95% CI 1.17 to 9.25; p=0.024), whereas rest RVLS was not (p>0.05). Conclusions In this series of patients with LF-LG AS and low LVEF, reduced RVLS was independently associated with increased risk of mortality. Furthermore, stress RVLS provided incremental prognostic value beyond that obtained from rest RVLS. Thus, RVLS measurement at rest and at DSE may be helpful to enhance risk stratification in this high-risk population. Trial registration number NCT01835028; Results.


This paper investigates the potential of frontiers to shape the economic geography of countries. I focus on the case of Spain to explore how historical frontier warfare affects the colonization of the territory and the distribution of the population across the space. Exploiting a spatial discontinuity in military insecurity during the Christian colonization of central Spain in the Middle Ages, my findings suggest that medieval frontier warfare heavily conditioned the settlement of the territory, resulting in a sparse occupation of the space, low settlement density and high population concentration. These initial features of the colonization process were already visible in the early 16th century and have persisted to this day, with potential negative consequences for economic development.


We study how continuous time Bertrand and Cournot competitions, in which firms producing similar goods compete with one another by setting prices or quantities respectively, can be analyzed as continuum dynamic mean field games.Interactions are of mean field type in the sense that the demand faced by a producer is affected by the others through their average price or quantity. Motivated by energy or consumer goods markets, we consider the setting of a dynamic game with uncertain market demand, and under the constraint of finite supplies (or exhaustible resources). The continuum game is characterized by a coupled system of partial differential equations: a backward HJB PDE for the value function, and a forward Kolmogorov PDE for the density of players. Asymptotic approximation enables us to deduce certain qualitative features of the game in the limit of small competition.The equilibrium of the game is further studied using numerical solutions, which become very tractable by considering the tail distribution function instead of the density itself. This also allows us to consider Dirac delta distributions to use the continuum game to mimic finite N-player nonzero-sum differential games, the advantage being having to deal with two coupled PDEs instead of N. We find that, in accordance with the two-player game, a large degree of competitive interaction causes firms to slow down production.Consumers benefit from market competition in the sense that high product substitutability drives average price down. The continuum system can therefore be used as an effective approximation to even small player dynamic games.


Programs expecting structured inputs often consist of both a syntactic analysis stage, in which raw input is parsed into an internal data structure, and a semantic analysis stage, which conducts checks on this data structure and executes the core logic of the program. Existing random testing tools tend to produce inputs that are rejected early in this pipeline. We propose Zest, a random testing methodology for effectively exploring the semantic analysis stages of such programs. Zest combines two key innovations to achieve this. First, we introduce validity fuzzing, which biases coverage-guided fuzzing (CGF) towards generating semantically valid inputs. Second, we introduce parametric generators, which convert input from a simple parameter domain, such as an un-typed sequence of bits, into a more structured domain, such as syntactically valid XML. These generators enable bit-level mutations of the parameters to map to structural mutations in syntactically valid test inputs. In our experiments with Zest on six popular JVM-based projects, we find 18 new bugs, of which 7 are not found by baseline CGF and generator-based techniques.


Background: Seabuckthorn (SBT) is one of the most important plants of higher altitude in India and China. SBT seed oil is rich in Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA) which is present in a peculiar ratio capable of combating inflammation. Objective: To compare the physicochemical characteristics, fatty acid profiling and Red Blood Cell (RBC) membrane stabilization activity between two species of SBT seed oil; Hippophae rhamnoides (HR) and Hippophae salicifolia (HS) collected from Ladakh and Sikkim, India, respectively. Materials and Methods: GC-MS analysis was performed and effect of SBT seed oil was evaluated against heat and hypotonicity induced haemolysis of RBC. Protein denaturation assay was also conducted to check its probable role in chronic inflammation. Results: GC-MS analysis confirmed the presence of PUFA viz. Alpha linolenic acid (ALA) and Linoleic acid (LA) in SBT seed oil. Both significantly (p<0.05) inhibited heat and hypotonicity induced membrane destabilization in a concentration dependant manner. Maximum percentage inhibition of protein denaturation was observed at 3.6 μg/ml after incubation period of 4 hours. Conclusion: HR and HS have been proved to inhibit membrane destabilization with almost equal efficacy. Their efficacy against heat induced protein denaturation indicates that they may be useful in prevention and/or treatment of chronic inflammation as well. These findings may be attributed to the presence of PUFA. This study has contributed in establishing some preliminary evidence about PUFAs being the mainstay of their anti-inflammatory efficacy. However, in vivo studies are required to further validate the results of this study.


The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, in collaboration with Oxford University, has developed a
European environmental classification for the assessment and monitoring of effects of climate change
on biodiversity at different spatial scales. The classification was constructed using various multivariate
techniques from the database for 5500 half by half degree cells for the wider European window,
developed by the University of East Anglia (UEA) for the TIGER programme.
A statistical rule set created from the classification allows any cell size down to 1 x 1 km to be
allocated to one of the 64 classes from its climate and altitude characteristics. Currently, this procedure
has been used at its original resolution of half by half degree cell size across Europe and at a 10 x 10
km cell size across Great Britain.
A number of climate change scenarios from different climate models provided by UEA have been
assessed using the allocation procedure. By using the outputs from these climate models , the
predicated movement of climate classes can be determined throughout Europe and at higher resolution
for Great Britain.
At the European scale, the greatest predicted changes in environmental diversity occur in Iberia and
around the Mediterranean fringe. These areas show substantial decreases in the diversity of the region
indicated by a fall in the number of classes present mainly due to the extension of two arid classes. The
other major changes are in Northeast Europe where large uniform classes were sensitive to the
scenarios but the implications are more difficult to determine.
Using the half x half degree resolution, major changes can be seen in Great Britain with areas north and
west of the Severn / Wash line becoming more oceanic where as those to the south and east becoming
more continental.
When the same scenarios are imposed in Great Britain using the 10 x 10 km resolution a new climate
class was identified as being present whose distribution is centred in eastern Denmark. This is because
the half by half degree cells smooth local variation. Two hyper-oceanic classes also extended to the
east with implications biodiversity.
The different scenarios show climate classes with continental affinities moving into Britain agreeing
with other results from the TIGER programme. This ability to draw on classes from outside the
immediate domain is an important feature of this classification when carrying out assessment at a local
scale.
Within Great Britain particular areas are seen to be sensitive to the predicted change when using the
higher resolution e.g. the Cairngorm plateau is affected by the extension of oceanic classes. Such
changes have important implications for vegetation, habitats and biodiversity. Isolated populations of
plants at the edge of their distribution are likely to be affected by such changes because there are no
refuges to retreat to.
Further implications of the scenarios will be considered in conjunction with the recent empirical
evidence of climate change. Further applications of the classification will also be discussed.


The focus of this study was the exploration of belly dance as a form of female self care. The specific facet of self care explored was female health and well being as impacted on by belly dance. There is a limited amount of existing scholarly studies that focus on the value of belly dance in self care. Therefore this study followed a qualitative format which promoted exploration of this under researched field. This study occurred in a context where women's lives are busier than ever before as a result of their involvement in both the home and the workplace. Thus there is a need for them to engage in self care activities that effectively restore and replenish body, mind and soul in order to enable them to continue to meet their multiple responsibilities in a functional manner. Facets of self care explored were psychical, mental and social health and well being as impacted on by belly dancing. To achieve this, data collection tools of focus groups and interviews, following a semi-structured format were used. The results showed that belly dance plays a significant and positive role, not only in female self care but in enjoyment as well. Some specific aspects of belly dance found to be useful to female self care was its liberating use of the female form, its non-discriminatory aspect that unites all women in enjoyment of the dance, the absence of men, the supportive presence of women, the music, the feminine aspects, a secure environment and the opportunity that belly dance presents for women to play a different role. Conclusions point to women viewing society as androcentric and providing little opportunity for feminine expression. A major conclusion is that women are nonverbally strong, relational beings who are predisposed to the language of dance and music. They are effectively revitalised by dance and music as presented by belly dance. This has implications for social work service delivery to women on multiple levels.