Libman and Obydenkova reveal how legacies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) have survived in the politics, economic development, culture, and society of post-Communist regions in the 21st Century. The authors show how this impact is not driven by Communist ideology but by the clientelistic practices, opportunism and cynicism prevalent in the CPSU. Their study is built on a novel dataset of the CPSU membership rates in Russian regions in the 1950s-1980s, alongside case studies, interviews and an analysis of mass media previously only available in Russian and discussed here in English for the first time. It will appeal to students and scholars of Russian and Eastern European politics and history, and anyone who wants to better understand countries which live or have lived through Communism: from Eastern Europe to China and East Asian Communist states.


Abstract We re-evaluate the Neoproterozoic, Pacific-type accretionary complex on Anglesey and in the Lleyn peninsula (Wales, UK), by reconstructing its ocean plate stratigraphy (OPS). Three types of distinctive OPS were successively emplaced downwards in an accretionary wedge: the oldest at the top formed when an ocean opened and closed from a ridge to a trench, the central OPS was subjected to deep subduction and exhumed as blueschists, and the youngest at the bottom is an olistostrome-type deposit that formed by secondary gravitational collapse of previously accreted material. The three types formed by successive eastward subduction of young oceanic lithosphere at the leading edge of Avalonia. The downward growth of the accretionary complex through time was almost coeval with exhumation of the blueschist unit at 550–560 Ma in the structural centre of the complex on Anglesey. From balanced sections we have reconstructed the ocean plate stratigraphy on Llanddwyn Island from which we calculate that about 8 km of lateral shortening of ocean floor took place during imbrication and accretion; this is comparable with the history of plate subduction around the Pacific Ocean. We also calculate that the age of the subducted lithosphere was very young, probably less than 10 Ma.


In education, there is and has always been debate about how to teach. One of these debates centers around the role of the teacher: should their role be minimal, allowing students to find and classify knowledge independently, or should the teacher be in charge of what happens in the classroom, explaining students all they need to know? These forms of teaching are also called exploratory learning and direct instruction respectively. While the debate is not settled, more and more evidence is presented by researchers that explicit direct instruction is more effective than exploratory learning in teaching mathematics and science. These findings raise the question whether that might be true for programming education too. This is especially of interest since programming education is deeply rooted in the constructionist philosophy, leading many programmers to follow exploratory learning methods, often without being aware of it. This paper outlines this history of programming education and additional beliefs in programming that lead to the prevalence of exploratory forms of teaching. We subsequently explain the didactic principles of direct instruction, explore them in the context of programming, and hypothesize how it might look like for programming.


This thesis argues that an approach to ethical analysis which combines an enhanced appreciation of the context within which illness is experienced with an acknowledgement of the highly constructed and inter-subjective nature of moral reasoning has something of value to offer to impartialist ethicists. A detailed justification of this claim, supported by numerous examples of how this approach can be used in practice, both when using reason to address ethical problems or issues that arise in medicine or the life sciences and when exploring these concerns in educational settings, is provided. The following areas of modern medicine are used to examine these issues in greater detail: the new genetics, end of life issues, organ donation, reproductive medicine, and women's health. Examples are given of educational initiatives that use the arts and humanities to provide a human context for medicine and for the moral decisions that its practice involves. Through a detailed analyses of a number of contemporary ethical issues, this thesis endeavours to give substance to the claim that ethical examination of the challenges of modern medicine can be enhanced by an examination and awareness of the context within which doctors and patients interact and are asked to make morally relevant decisions. The examples given are by no means exhaustive. Instead they are chosen in an attempt to illustrate the need to ask searching questions about context, framing, and meaning, if the application of impartialist ethical principles is to lead to both sound and persuasive analyses. A practical approach is outlined which draws on these theoretical ideas and is grounded in clinical practice. It is argued that an enhanced appreciation of the context for ethical issues, by informing the ethicist's choice of framing, language and narrative construct, has the potential to alter the nature of the ethical debate. Moreover, it is argued that the methodologies of narratology can enable a cogent analysis of the immanence of power relations within health care, and that understanding these power relations is an essential step in determining what matters to those affected by illness, and to ensuring that their voice is heard. By the concluding chapter this thesis aims to show that if moral imperatives are to have meaning for those they affect, and to be incorporated into their behaviour and expectations, whether as doctor or patient, then the rich complexities of the language through which ethical debates are conducted, the conceptual realities of patients, families, professional carers and society, and the context within which we all make decisions, will need to be acknowledged by and incorporated into the stories ethicists tell.


We determined whether hepatic stimulator substance shares its mitogenic specificity for hepatocytes with nonparenchymal epithelial cells in the hepatocyte lineage. Cell lines designated HTC (derived from a rat hepatoma known to respond to hepatic stimulator substance) and FNRL, K‐16 and K‐22 (derived from rat liver nonparenchymal epithelial cells) were used. After exposure to hepatic stimulator substance, [3H]‐thymidine incorporation into DNA was significantly increased (p < 0.001) in HTC, FNRL and K‐16 cells, but not in K‐22 cells. Fluorescence‐activated cell sorting demonstrated that the mitogenic response to hepatic stimulator substance was associated with a greater proportion of cells entering the S phase. Epidermal growth factor, alone or in combination with hepatic stimulator substance, had no significant mitogenic effect on FNRL cells, but exposure of these cells to transforming growth factor‐β1 inhibited [3H]‐thymidine incorporation into DNA and reduced the proportion of cells in the S and G2/M phases. Simultaneous exposure of FNRL cells to hepatic stimulator substance and transforming growth factor‐β1 abrogated the inhibitory effect of transforming growth factor‐β1. Comparison of butyrate‐synchronized HTC cells with hepatic stimulator substance–treated HTC cells showed that S‐phase progression in these conditions was different, with no intervening cell cycle arrest after treatment with hepatic stimulator substance. Mitogenic stimulation of FNRL and K‐16 cells with the liver‐specific growth factor hepatic stimulator substance suggests that these cells are of hepatocyte lineage. These results strengthen the evidence for a possible link between hepatocytes and nonparenchymal liver epithelial cells during liver biogenesis and differentiation. (Hepatology 1992;15:485–491).


Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) is well-established for applications with biomedical implants and radio-frequency identification systems. Recently, also systems for the charging of the batteries of consumer electronic devices and of electric and hybrid electric vehicles have been developed. The efficiency η of the power transfer of IPT systems is given by the inductor quality factor Q and the magnetic coupling k of the transmission coils. In this paper, the influence of the transmission frequency on the inductor quality factor and the efficiency is analyzed taking also the admissible field emissions as limited by standards into account. Aspects of an optimization of the magnetic design with respect to a high magnetic coupling and a high quality factor are discussed for IPT at any power level. It is shown that the magnetic coupling mainly depends on the area enclosed by the coils and that their exact shape has only a minor influence. The results are verified with an experimental prototype.


Globally rainforests are under threat on numerous fronts, yet they have a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and providing other ecosystem services. Rainforests are also attractive tourist spaces and where they have been used as a tourism resource they have generated significant income for local communities. However, not all use of rainforests as a tourism resource has been sustainable. This book argues that sustainability must be the foundation on which tourism use of this complex but ultimately fragile ecosystem is built upon. It provides a multi-disciplinary perspective, incorporating rainforest science, management and tourism issues.


Abstract Three-dimensional (3D) videos are getting quite popular, and equipment for recording and processing them are becoming affordable. Creating 3D videos is expensive. Thus, protecting 3D videos against illegal copying is an important problem. We present a novel system for finding 3D video copies. Our system also identifies the location of the copied part in the reference video. The system can be used, for example, by video content owners, video hosting sites, and third-party companies to find illegally copied 3D videos. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first complete 3D video copy detection system in the literature. Detecting 3D video copies is a challenging problem. First, comparing numerous numbers of frames from potential copies against reference videos is computationally intensive. Second, many modifications occur on copied videos; some of them are intentional to avoid detection and others are side effects of the copying process. For example, a copied video can be scaled, rotated, cropped, transcoded to a lower bit rate, or embedded into another video. The contrast, brightness, and colors of a video can also be manipulated. Furthermore, 3D videos come in various encoding formats, including stereo, multiview, video plus depth, and multiview plus depth. Changing the format is possible during copying, which complicates the detection process. Finally, new views can be synthesized from existing ones. These views display the scene from different angles, and thus reveal different information than in original views. For example, an object occluded in one view could appear in another. We implemented the proposed system and evaluated its performance using many 3D videos. We created a large set of query videos with 284 videos to represent all practical scenarios. Our results show that the proposed system achieves high precision and recall values in all scenarios. Specifically, our system results in 100% precision and recall when copied videos are unmodified parts of original videos, and it produces more than 90% precision and recall when copied videos are subjected to various transformations. Even in extreme cases where each video is subjected to five different transformations, our system yields more than 75% precision and recall.


The IBM z15 system improves upon the prior-generation z14 design within the same chip footprint and technology node, while featuring the addition of two cores, 33%/100%/43% additional L2/L3/L4 cache, as well as additional core features and on-chip accelerators. The largest 5-drawer system configuration includes 20 central processor (CP) chips, five system controller (SC) chips, and 40 TB of memory. With ~200 cores across all CP chips operating with 99.99999% uptime at 5.2 GHz, z15 achieves a 25% increase in system capacity and a 14% single thread performance improvement over the z14 system. In this article, we describe the key design factors and system/characterization refinement that enabled these results, including the novel 2-Mb embedded dynamic random access memory (eDRAM) cell, a new voltage droop monitor, a more comprehensive power reduction infrastructure to reduce power-limited yield, results on reliability-limited versus power-limited yield, and a characterization effort for exploring even higher frequencies, with our first reported 6-GHz values achieved in the lab at customer temperatures and voltages.


India imports more from Africa than Africa does from India. A large share of Indian imports from Africa are oil and minerals. However, the India-Africa relations in food and agriculture are already important but have potentials for expansion. For complex reasons Africa had no transformation of its agriculture comparable to India's during its erstwhile Green Revolution in the 1960s and 70s. The African continent and the Indian Subcontinent still have a lot to learn from each other, especially as food systems and food value chains are modernizing and technologies in agriculture and food sectors are spreading. This paper looks at historical ties between India and Africa. It identifies trade and investment patterns in recent decades and describes the collaborations between India and several African countries in the field of agriculture. Finally, we point at potential areas for mutual cooperation in agriculture of the two regions in the future.


Information Technology is generally acknowledged to be an indispensable part of business today, so it might be thought that companies generally employed IT staff. A survey was carried out on a large sample of New South Wales companies to discover how many companies had any IT staff. It showed that only about 25% of the sample had such staff. About a quarter of companies turning over $5m $10m and half the companies turning over $10m $50m had IT managers. These figures suggest that the most NSW companies have no IT staff, which has implications for a wide range of governance issues.


Abstract Edingtonite and yugawaralite showing sectoral textures were studied by polarized optical microscopy and X-ray analysis. In edingtonite, the m {110} sector (2Vα = 22°) is optically triclinic and the c {001} sector (2Vα = 52°) is orthorhombic. In yugawaralite, the k {011} sector is optically monoclinic, whereas the v {120} sector is triclinic. Their crystal structures were determined. The results of refinement showed that the space groups of the k {011} (Rw = 4.5%) and v {120} (Rw = 5.1%) growth sectors are monoclinic Pc and triclinic P1, respectively. In the v {120} sector, several interatomic distances, bond angles and site occupancies are different with respect to a symmetrical plane of the structure, and therefore the monoclinic c glide is extinct. Thus, the X-ray symmetry correlates with the optical one. From the relationship between the surface and internal texture, the symmetry and sector can be explained by cation (Al/Si) ordering during non-equilibrium crystal growth.


Insects have a large ratio of surface area to volume because of their small size; thus, they face the potential for desiccation in the terrestrial environment. Nonetheless, they constitute over half of identified species and their success on land can be attributed, in part, to adaptations that limit water loss and allow for effective gains of water from food, fluids or atmospheric water vapour. Reduction of water loss from the gut involves sophisticated mechanisms of ion recycling and water recovery by epithelia of the Malpighian tubules and hindgut. Water loss across the body surface is greatly reduced by the evolution of very thin but highly impermeable lipid-rich layers in the epicuticle. Respiratory water loss can be reduced through effective spiracular control mechanisms and by mechanisms for convective rather than diffusive gas exchange. In addition to extracting water from food sources, some insects are capable of absorption of atmospheric water vapour through processes that have evolved independently in multiple groups.


The development of human civilisations has occurred at a time of stable climate. This climate stability is now threatened by human activity. The rising global climate risk occurs at a decisive moment for world development. World nations are currently discussing a global development agenda consequent to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which ends in 2015. It is increasingly possible to envisage a world where absolute poverty is largely eradicated within one generation and where ambitious goals on universal access and equal opportunities for dignified lives are adopted. These grand aspirations for a world population approaching or even exceeding nine billion in 2050 is threatened by substantial global environmental risks and by rising inequality. Research shows that development gains, in both rich and poor nations, can be undermined by social, economic and ecological problems caused by human‐induced global environmental change. Climate risks, and associated changes in marine and terrestrial ecosystems that regulate the resilience of the climate system, are at the forefront of these global risks. We, as citizens with a strong engagement in Earth system science and socio‐ecological dynamics, share the vision of a more equitable and prosperous future for the world, yet we also see threats to this future from shifts in climate and environmental processes. Without collaborative action now, our shared Earth system may not be able to sustainably support a large proportion of humanity in the decades ahead.


This proposal offers a unique solution for a unique challenge: using oil to pay for Venezuela's debt. Venezuela and PDVSA's creditors currently receive little in the way of coupon payments and have minimal means of recourse over limited assets located outside Venezuela's borders. We suggest using a creditor trust to consolidate creditors into a single entity that would purchase the oil from Venezuela with bonds tendered by the creditors to the trust. This transaction would give the creditors trust a priority claim over oil as title holders. It allows a restructuring process with relatively few changes to current bonds, thus reducing the possibility of litigation. In addition to the legal and structural benefits offered to both Venezuela and the creditors, this proposal offers something that no other proposal does — the potential for successful execution under current U.S. sanctions based on the issuance of a specific license from OFAC. Although there is no assurance as to whether such license would be obtained, it is arguable that this structure runs outside the scope of the Executive Order No. 13,808, and that there is precedent supporting the issuance of such a license authorizing commercial transactions.


Big Data hype has not missed investment management, the reality is that price data from U.S. financial markets are not really Big Data. Price data is Small Data. The fact that sellers and advisors in financial markets use Small Data to generate and test investment strategies creates two major problems. First, the economic mechanisms that generate prices (and therefore returns) may change through time, so that historical data from an earlier time may tell us little or nothing about future prices and returns. Second, even if data-generating-mechanisms are somewhat stable through time, inferences about the profitability of investment strategies may be sensitive to a handful of outliers in the data that get picked up again and again in different strategies mined from the same Small Data set. In this article, we present an answer to the financial Small Data problem: using machine-learning methods to generate "synthetic" financial data. The essential part of our approach to developing synthetic data is the use of machine learning methods to generate data that might have been generated by financial markets but was not. Synthetic price and return data have numerous uses, including testing new investment strategies and helping investors plan for retirement and other personal investment goals with more realistic future return scenarios. In this article, we focus on a particularly important use of synthetic data: meeting legal and regulatory requirements such as best interest and fiduciary requirements.


How do terrorists recruit? We know much about the profiles and pathways of recruits, but little about the strategies and tactics of recruiters. Such procedures matter because they help determine who joins. I highlight a key determinant of recruiter tactics, namely, the tension between personnel needs and infiltration risks. Drawing on signalling theory, I present an analytical framework that conceptualizes recruitment as a trust game between recruiter and recruit. I argue that the central logic shaping recruiter tactics is the search for cost-discriminating signs of trustworthiness. Due to the context-specificity of signal costs and the room for tactical innovation, optimal recruitment tactics vary in space and time, but the underlying logic is the same for most groups facing a high threat of infiltration. I apply the framework to an al-Qaeda recruitment campaign in early 2000s Saudi Arabia, where it helps explain tactical preferences (why recruiters favoured some recruitment arenas over others) and differential network activation (why recruiters preferred war veterans over radical candidates from other networks). The trust dilemma also accounts for unexpected recruiter choices, such as their reluctance to solicit on the Internet and in mosques, and their preference for recruits who knew poetry or wept during prayer. Thus the signalling framework does not challenge, but provides a useful micro-level complement to, existing theories of recruitment.


This paper uses three-generation retrospective data from the rural Philippines to examine the role of the extended family, proxied by alternative measures of grandparent coresidence, on investments in children. An extension of the wealth model of intergenerational transfers shows that extended family resources may affect transfers to children if parents are credit constrained. Family-level unobservables are important in determining the allocation of education and land between sons and daughters. Both parent and grandparent pre-marriage wealth affect children's completed schooling levels. Grandparent wealth, however, does not seem to affect the distribution of education between sons and daughters, although it affects the allocation of land. Grandparent influence on child schooling appears to work through proximity rather than through wealth. Sons are clearly favored in terms of land inheritance, while daughters get more education. Better educated fathers favor daughters in terms of education, while mothers with more land favor sons. These patterns are consistent with both equity and efficiency objectives, investment in children under resource constraints, and parents' risk-diversification strategies.


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Effects of the convection flow, atmospheric diffusivity and humidity on evolution and travel distances of exhaled aerosol clouds by an infected person are considered. The aim of this work is to evaluate the importance of aerosol transmission routes and the effectiveness of the 2-metre separation distance policy. A potential impact of use of face masks on the infection transmission rate, and an opportunity to reduce infection in hospitals, care homes and other public spaces by appropriate monitoring and filtering of air are also considered. The results obtained demonstrate that aerosol particles generated by coughing and sneezing can travel over 30 m. Modelling of the evolution of aerosol clouds generated by coughing and sneezing enables us to evaluate the deposition dose of aerosol particles in healthy individuals. For example, a person in a public place (e.g. supermarket or car park) can accumulate in the respiratory system up to 200 virus copies in 2 min time by breathing in virus laden aerosols. Wearing face mask considerably reduces the deposited load down to 2 virus copies per 2 min. The modelling also suggests that it should be possible to measure Covid-19 within aerosol particles in hospitals and public places, e.g. care homes and supermarkets.


INTRODUCTION.
Over the past decade, the theme of children and migration has received
increased attention. Academically, it has quickly developed into a vibrant,
inter-disciplinary terrain based on empirical work from across the
globe. It is, however, a scattered terrain, with bodies of work clustered
around distinct forms of children's involvement in migration often
treated in isolation from one another. This ranges from work on children
as 'left-behind' following the migration of one or both parents
(e.g. Amuedo-Dorantes and Pozo, 2010; Asian Meta Centre for Population
and Sustainable Development Analysis, 2003; Asis, 2006; Graham and
Jordan, 2011) to studies on children as migrants. This latter body of work is
typically sub-divided into work on children migrating independently from
their parents or care givers, so-called independent child migration, which focuses largely on the global South (e.g. Iversen, 2002; Yaqub, 2009b), and
work on children in family migration which focuses largely on the global
North (e.g. Bushin, 2009; Dobson and Stillwell, 2000).


The monitoring of global vegetation through SRS (satellite remote sensing) data is central part of sustainable urban development and regional planning which is handy to improve our knowledge regarding spatial and temporal patterns and traits of vegetation in any area. In recent years rapid urbanization has converted Sargodha into 5 th largest city of the Punjab which resulted in change and modification of urban morphology and invited the attention of researchers to investigate, analyze and evaluate the type, length and conditions of plant life. In this work an attempt was made to examine spatio temporal dynamics of vegetation cover in Sargodha by integration with multi temporal satellite images and GIS. The research shows the applicability of Landsat images for the evaluation of vegetation exchange between the years of 1992-2015. The findings of the study indicated that during the past 24 years, a dramatic change took place in reduction of greenness because of rapid increase in population distribution and density, urban development and other infrastructural development. The results highlighted the importance of NDVI for better effects concerning accuracy to evaluate the vegetation cover. Keywords: Urban expansion, Image processing, Vegetation cover, NDVI, Change Detection


Technology, risk tolerance and regulation may influence dealers to reduce their trading as principals (using their own balance sheets for sales and purchases of securities) in favour of agency trading (matching client trades). A move toward agency trading would represent a change in the structure of Canadian bond markets and, in theory, could worsen some aspects of market liquidity. To assess the prevalence of agency trading in Canada, we use data from the Market Trade Reporting System to construct the first estimate of agency-based trading in Canadian bond markets. We find that agency trading is relatively uncommon across major segments of Canadian fixed-income market and that large bank broker-dealers are less likely than their smaller counterparts to trade as an agent.


In this study. tests were conducted to investigate the use of ultrasonic methods to determine compaction characteristics of clayey soils. In particular, through transmission test method was used to determine P-wavc velocities in compacted clayey soils. Effects of soil type and compaction conditions on velocity were investigated. Tests were conducted on three soils that had low. medium, and high plasticity. Soils were prepared at water contents ranging from dry to wet of optimum using standard and modified compaction efforts. It was observed that velocity increased with increasing compactive effort and decreasing plasticity and clay content. Moreover. the variation of ultrasonic velocity with water content was similar to the variation of dry density with water content. Shapes of the water content versus velocity plots correlated well with the shapes of compaction plots. Access to two opposite surfaces of samples was required to perform through-transmission measurements. Additional tests were conducted to determine the feasibility of using surface-transmission with access required only to top surface of soils to measure velocity. Velocities that were similar to through-transmission velocities were obtained with surface measurements using correction factors. Through-transmission can be used in the laboratory; whereas surface-transmission can potentially be used in the field to determine ultrasonic velocity of compacted clayey soils. This method shows promise for determination of compaction properties of clayey soils in the field.


The effects of a border on economic interaction depend on the nature of that border with respect to the degree of openness, the degree of cultural, racial and linguistic differences, political relations between the respective regions and the degree of economic disparity. High walls and slow border crossings are detrimental to economic exchange. Economic and political tensions surrounding a border are directly related to the degree of economic disparity. At the same time, large differentials in relative factor costs (i.e. cheaper capital on one side and cheaper unskilled labor on the other) tend to encourage cross-border production sharing, as well as cross-border shopping and crossborder working. The extent and shape of border relationships vary widely and are strongly influenced by the degree of asymmetry in the neighboring economies, as well as the social and political organization of each. This paper presents a discussion of factors affecting the degree and nature of economic interactions between borders that are moving toward increased economic integration. It addresses the question of why in some cases with all political barriers removed, barriers to trade and cooperation persist, while in other cases large amounts of trade and cooperation exist despite substantial political barriers.


Identifying the various factors that influence complex signal evolution is a difficult task, yet it is fundamental to understanding the evolution of animal communication. Here we explore the evolution of complex courtship signaling by taking advantage of a system in which sexual selection on male courtship traits has driven the diversification of geographically isolated populations of the jumping spider Habronattus pugillis Griswold. Using 2 populations (Santa Rita [SR] and Atascosa [AT]) in which SR females show xenophilic mating preferences for foreign (AT) over local males (SR), we examine the mechanisms driving this preference. Both AT and SR males produce multimodal signals (visual p seismic), and while SR and AT signals share certain seismic components, AT seismic signals are more complex and contain novel components. We conducted mate choice trials where SR females were presented with AT or SR males that were either muted or nonmuted. SR females preferred to mate and mated more quickly with foreign AT males over local SR males only if AT males could produce seismic signals (nonmuted treatment). In addition, we found that SR females spent a higher proportion of time attentive to foreign AT males only if they could produce seismic signals. This evidence suggests that SR females have a bias for complex and/or novel forms of seismic signals. Copyright 2006.


Many issues are awaiting to be solved during Chinese urban redevelopment planning process. Among those issues, the lack of participation of stakeholders in urban redevelopment projects in historic district, other than all levels of government, real estate developers, and planning professionals, is one of the main issues that need special attention to be paid and will be addressed in this thesis. Via introducing the preservation planning and the concept of historic district, this article will first summarize five different urban redevelopment approaches in order to represent an overall picture of urban redevelopment projects in the last thirty years. Then, the problem of public participation will be introduced based on five approaches. Before the issue of public participation in Chinese urban redevelopment planning practice is carefully examined, the American experience of public participation in urban planning will be introduced, especially in preservation planning field, in order to clarify the importance of the public participation and the successful stories and lessons in the past. After that, based on the western theoretical base, the article will review five different approaches via analyzing the relationships of the stakeholders in five typical cases, thereby uncovering the reasons behind the lack of the participations in urban redevelopment projects in China and leading to the discussions of examining six opportunities and three threats of applying American public participation experience in Chinese context. Last but not least, a list of suggestions on how to improve public participation in Chinese urban redevelopment projects will be provided. They can be categorized as the policies, the strategies, and the tools, with an emphasis on the appliance of digital media. Keywords historic district, urban redevelopment, public participation, digital media, ngos Disciplines Historic Preservation and Conservation Comments Suggested Citation: Yi, Li (2012). Public Participation Issues in Preservation Planning: Practices of Chinese Historic District. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This working paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/193 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ISSUES IN PRESERVATION PLANNING: PRACTICES OF CHINESE HISTORIC DISTRICT LI YI A THESIS in Historic Preservation Presented to Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION 2012 ______________________________ Advisor Randall F. Mason Program Chair, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning


Tactical IP networks form a key component of the Global Information Grid, supporting users and platforms in the tactical operating regions. A secure, efficient, and robust tactical network is critical for assured mission operations. However, significant technical challenges must be addressed before such a capability can be accomplished. This manuscript focuses on solutions to some of the key technical issues associated with tactical network environments. The identified problems fall into three areas, i.e., mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), network security and survivability, and network efficiency.


A fully automated method for the preparation of surface water specimens for total inorganic iron analysis by atomic absorption spectroscopy and a method for the aspiration of prepared specimens are described. The automated specimen preparation technique is compared with a standard method used for total iron analysis and is applied to iron, manganese, zinc, and copper. Standard Technicon AutoAnalyzer components and standard atomic absorption spectrophotometers were used. The automated specimen preparation technique will handle 60 samples per hour and is totally flexible as to sampling rates, sample ratios, added chemicals, and time for particulate settling.


Although career proactivity has positive consequences for an individual's career success, studies mostly examine objective measures of success within single countries. This raises important questions about whether proactivity is equally beneficial for different aspects of subjective career success, and the extent to which these benefits extend across cultures. Drawing on Social Information Processing theory, we examined the relationship between proactive career behaviors and two aspects of subjective career success—financial success and work-life balance—and the moderating role of national culture. We tested our hypotheses using multilevel analyses on a large-scale sample of 11,892 employees from 22 countries covering nine of GLOBE's 10 cultural clusters. Although we found that proactive career behaviors were positively related to subjective financial success, this relationship was not significant for work-life balance. Furthermore, career proactivity was relatively more important for subjective financial success in cultures with high in-group collectivism, high power distance, and low uncertainty avoidance. For work-life balance, career proactivity was relatively more important in cultures characterized by high in-group collectivism and humane orientation. Our findings underline the need to treat subjective career success as a multidimensional construct and highlight the complex role of national culture in shaping the outcomes of career proactivity.


The Supreme Court's decision in last term's gun rights case, McDonald v. City of Chicago, punctured the conventional wisdom after District of Columbia v. Heller that "we are all originalists now." Surprisingly, many progressive academics were disappointed. For "progressive originalists," McDonald was a missed opportunity to overrule the Slaughter-House Cases and to revitalize the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In their view, such a ruling could have realigned progressive constitutional achievements with originalism and relieved progressives of the albatross of substantive due process, while also unlocking long-dormant constitutional text to serve as the source of new unenumerated rights in subsequent cases. This Article argues that progressives should be relieved by rather than disappointed with the outcome in McDonald. Practically speaking, the purported gains that would have accrued from a revitalized Privileges or Immunities Clause were largely illusory. The Clause was unlikely to be a fountain for new unenumerated rights. Moreover, progressive originalists' concerns about substantive due process tend to overestimate the role that academic debates play in the broader public conversation about the meaning of the Constitution. But most importantly, a doctrinal shift away from existing Due Process jurisprudence towards a new reliance on the Privileges or Immunities Clause could have resulted in an unintended rollback of civil rights. Although the Fourteenth Amendment is undoubtedly radically egalitarian in spirit, there can be little doubt that the range of substantive protections that it was originally understood to afford is more limited than what is protected under current Supreme Court precedent. Moreover, reliance on the Privileges or Immunities Clause could have dire consequences for noncitizens, who may fall outside of the Clause's scope. Although progressive originalists have made valuable contributions to constitutional discourse, McDonald illustrates that a conscious decision by progressives to adopt the language of originalism wholesale is unlikely to be a winning strategy in the long-term. More than any other area of constitutional law, the Court's Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence demonstrates the tremendous value of modes of interpretation other than originalism. Progressives should not shy away from a tradition of constitutional interpretation that has produced the finest moments in the Court's history.


From the runways of Paris to the casting controversies over BMiss Saigon, from a local demonstration at the Claremont Colleges in California to the gender-blending of BM. Butterfly, BAbout Face examines representations of Asia and their reverberations in both Asia and Asian American lives. Japanese high fashion and Asian American theater become points of entry into the politics of pleasure, the performance of racial identities, and the possibility of political intervention in commodity capitalism. Based on Kondo's fieldwork, this interdisciplinary work brings together essays, interviews with designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons and playwright David Henry Hwang, and "personal" vignettes in its exploration of counter-Orientalisms.


ABSTRACT From the farms to the packing plants, essential workers in critical food production industries keep food on our tables while risking their and their families' health and well-being to bring home a paycheck. They work in essential industries but are often invisible. The disparities illuminated by COVID-19 are not new. Instead, they are the result of years of inequities built into practices, policies, and systems that reinforce societal power structures. As a society, we are now at an antagonizing moment where we can change our collective trajectory to focus forward and promote equity and justice for workers in agriculture and food-related industries. To that end, we describe our experience and approach in addressing COVID-19 outbreaks in meat processing facilities, which included three pillars of action based on public health ethics and international human rights: (1) worksite prevention and control, (2) community-based prevention and control, and (3) treatment. Our approach can be translated to promote the health, safety, and well-being of the broader agricultural workforce.


Aim: This study aimed at exploring the type, degree, and duration of work-related burden on neonatal physicians and nurses working in tertiary level neonatal intensive care units, its impact on their private life, and at assessing which coping strategies were found helpful. Methods: Transversal descriptive study using an anonymous questionnaire. Results: Fifty-two neonatal physicians and 60 nurses took part in this survey (response rate 77%). Altogether, 78% stated that the difficult medical and ethical dilemmas represent a burden to them. 87% experienced this work burden as momentary, and 12% as long-lasting. In 40% of the respondents, their private life was affected. Exhaustion was the most frequently cited stress symptom (physicians 25%, nurses 15%). Close to 90% of the caregivers were offered a platform for team debriefings and discussions or pastoral assistance by their hospital, but most of the respondents found relief from stress through discussions with family members and friends (20%), and through their hobbies (15%), or both (43%). Conclusion: Working in a NICU environment represents a burden for the majority of neonatal health care providers. Exhaustion was the most frequent symptom. Social contacts with family and friends and hobbies are the coping strategies found most helpful. Staff meetings, debriefing platforms and pastoral assistance help


Recurring financial instabilities have led policymakers to rely on early-warning models to signal financial vulnerabilities. These models rely on ex-post optimization of signaling thresholds on crisis probabilities accounting for preferences between forecast errors, but come with the crucial drawback of unstable thresholds in recursive estimations. We propose two alternatives for threshold setting with similar or better out-of-sample performance: (i) including preferences in the estimation itself and (ii) setting thresholds ex-ante according to preferences only. Given probabilistic model output, it is intuitive that a decision rule is independent of the data or model specification, as thresholds on probabilities represent a willingness to issue a false alarm vis-à-vis missing a crisis. We provide real-world and simulation evidence that this simplification results in stable thresholds, while keeping or improving on out-of-sample performance. Our solution is not restricted to binary-choice models, but directly transferable to the signaling approach and all probabilistic early-warning models.


DEVELOPMENT OF BIOCOMPATIBLE POLYMER MONOLITHS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PROTEINS AND PEPTIDES Yun Li Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Doctor of Philosophy Biocompatibility is an important issue for the development of chromatographic stationary phases for the analysis of biomolecules (including proteins and peptides). A biocompatible stationary phase material is a material that resists nonspecific adsorption of biomolecules and does not interact with them in a way that would alter or destroy their structures or biochemical functions. The monolithic column format is a good alternative to typical spherical particle packed columns for capillary liquid chromatography of biomacromolecules. Several novel anion-exchange polymer monoliths for the analysis of proteins were synthesized for improved biocompatibility. Two novel polymeric monoliths were prepared in a single step by a simple photoinitiated copolymerization of 2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), or copolymerization of 2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium chloride (AETAC) and PEGDA, in the presence of selected porogens. The resulting monoliths contained functionalities of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) as a weak anion exchanger and quaternary amine as a strong anion exchanger, respectively. An alternative weak anion exchange monolith with DEAE functionalities was also synthesized by chemical modification after photoinitiated copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and PEGDA. The dynamic binding capacities of the three monoliths were comparable or superior to values that have been reported for various other monoliths. Chromatographic performances were also similar to those provided by a modified poly(GMA-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith. Separations of standard proteins were achieved under gradient elution conditions using these monolithic columns. This work represents a successful attempt to prepare functionalized monoliths via direct copolymerization of monomers with desired functionalities. Compared to earlier publications, laborious surface modifications were avoided and the PEGDA crosslinker improved the biocompatibility of the monolithic backbone. Protein separations by capillary size exclusion chromatography (SEC) require a monolith that is biocompatible, has sufficient pore volume, has the appropriate pore size distribution, and is rigid. Most polymer monoliths have not possessed a biomodal pore-size distribution, i.e., especially with one distribution in the macropore region and the other in the mesopore region. Furthermore, non-specific adsorption of proteins in these stationary phases has persisted as a major unresolved problem. To overcome these difficulties, a porous poly[polyethylene glycol methyl ether acrylate (PEGMEA)-co-PEGDA] monolith which can resist adsorption of both acidic and basic proteins when using an aqueous buffer without any organic solvent additives was developed. Based on this biocompatible monolith, surfactants were introduced as porogens with the hope of significantly increasing the mesopore volume within the polymer. Two types of surfactants were studied, including poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) or PPO-PEO-PPO and Brij. Pore size distributions were examined using a well-defined molecular weight range series of proteins and peptides by inverse size exclusion chromatography, which indicated relatively large volume percentages of mesopores and micropores. The two new monoliths demonstrated different SEC behaviors, low nonspecific adsorption of proteins, and high mechanical rigidity. High density lipoprotein (HDL) is a heterogeneous class of lipoprotein particles with subspecies that differ in apolipoprotein and lipid composition, size, density, and charge. In this work, I developed a new capillary SEC method for size separation of native HDL particles from plasma using a capillary packed with BioSep-SEC-4000 particles, Three major sizes of HDL particles were separated. Additionally, capillary SEC and capillary strong anion-exchange chromatography of non-delipidated HDL were accomplished using poly(PEGMEA-co-PEGDA) and poly(AETAC-co-PEGDA) monoliths. These new LC methods using packed and monolithic stationary phases provided rapid separation of HDLs and excellent reproducibility.


The rapid growth of corn-based dry grind ethanol plants over the past decade in the US has resulted in a great increase in production of the coproduct DDGS (distillers dried grains with solubles). Since some physical properties like low bulk density and poor flowability can impact the market potential of DDGS, pelleting of DDGS can be one of the easiest ways to improve this situation. Pellet quality is the focus of this project. The pelleting process was conducted with three initial DDGS moisture contents and two different dies; a total of six runs were completed to produce DDGS pellets. The physical qualities of pelleted DDGS were determined by measuring durability, bulk density, angle of repose, and color of the pellets. The results showed that the durability ranged from 42% to 89%, the highest pellet durability occurred when the moisture content was 20% db and the die diameter was 1/8 in. The bulk density increased when the DDGS moisture content decreased, and the highest bulk density was observed when the moisture content was 10% db and the die diameter was 1/8 in.


In Biological Learning and Control, Reza Shadmehr and Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi present a theoretical framework for understanding the regularity of the brain's perceptions, its reactions to sensory stimuli, and its control of movements. They offer an account of perception as the combination of prediction and observation: the brain builds internal models that describe what should happen and then combines this prediction with reports from the sensory system to form a belief. Considering the brain's control of movements, and variations despite biomechanical similarities among old and young, healthy and unhealthy, and humans and other animals, Shadmehr and Mussa-Ivaldi review evidence suggesting that motor commands reflect an economic decision made by our brain weighing reward and effort. This evidence also suggests that the brain prefers to receive a reward sooner than later, devaluing or discounting reward with the passage of time; then as the value of the expected reward changes in the brain with the passing of time (because of development, disease, or evolution), the shape of our movements will also change. The internal models formed by the brain provide the brain with an essential survival skill: the ability to predict based on past observations. The formal concepts presented by Shadmehr and Mussa-Ivaldi offer a way to describe how representations are formed, what structure they have, and how the theoretical concepts can be tested.


The present paper focuses on the acquisition of L2 constructions for the expression of motion from a typological (Cadierno, 2008; Talmy, 1985, 1991, 2000) and a psycholinguistic perspective with implications for pedagogy (Robinson, 2003a, 2007; Robinson & Gilabert, 2007a, 2007b). Specifically, we report the results of a cross-linguistic study which examined the extent to which the manipulation of pedagogic tasks in terms of cognitive complexity can facilitate the development of target-like lexicalization patterns and appropriate L2 ways of thinking-for-speaking for the expression of motion by adult L2 learners with typologically similar and typologically different L1s and L2s, i.e., Danish vs. Japanese L1 learners of English. The results of the study show that level of L2 proficiency, assessed using a cloze test, predicts more target-like reference to L2 motion across both L1 groups. Typological similarity between the L1 (Danish) and L2 (English) results in greater use of motion constructions incorporating mention of ground of motion compared to their use by Japanese L1 speakers. More cognitively complex tasks lead to production of more target-like lexicalization patterns, but also only for speakers of the typologically similar L1, Danish.


Abstract. During summer months at solar cycle minimum, F-region lacuna and slant-Es conditions (SEC) are common features of daytime ionograms recorded around local magnetic noon at Casey, Antarctica. Digisonde measurements of drift velocity height profiles show that the occurrence of lacuna prevents the determination of F-region drift velocities and also affects E-region drift velocity measurements. Unique E-region spectral features revealed as intervals of Bragg scatter superimposed on typical background E-region reflection were observed in Digisonde Doppler spectra during intense lacuna conditions. Daytime E-region Doppler spectra recorded at carrier frequencies from 1.5 to 2.7MHz, below the E-region critical frequency foE, have two side-peaks corresponding to Bragg scatter at approximately ±1-2Hz symmetrically located on each side of a central-peak corresponding to near-zenith total reflections. Angle-of-arrival information and ray-tracing simulations show that echo returns are coming from oblique directions most likely resulting from direct backscatter from just below the total reflection height for each sounding frequency. The Bragg backscatter events are shown to manifest during polar lacuna conditions, and to affect the determination of E-region background drift velocities, and as such must be considered when using standard Doppler-sorted interferometry (DSI) techniques to estimate ionospheric drift velocities. Given the Doppler and spatial separation of the echoes determined from high-resolution Doppler measurements, we are able to estimate the Bragg scatter phase velocity independently from the bulk E-region motion. The phase velocity coincides with the ExB direction derived from in situ fluxgate magnetometer records. When ionospheric refraction is considered, the phase velocity amplitudes deduced from DSI are comparable to the ion-acoustic speed expected in the E-region. We briefly consider the plausibility that these previously unreported polar cap E-region Bragg scatter Doppler spectral signatures, observed at Casey in December 1996 during SEC/lacuna conditions may be linked to ionosphere irregularities. These irregularities may possibly be generated by primary plasma waves triggered by current-driven instabilities, that is to say, a hybrid of the "modified two-stream" and "gradient drift" instability mechanisms.


This paper presents a new backlight dimming method that applies segmentation-based clipped error control to liquid crystal displays. Clipped error control is the most important algorithm for power saving during backlight dimming. The proposed segmentation-based clipped error control algorithm considers the exact local distribution of an image using image segmentation, which enhances the image quality compared with existing methods. In addition, a binary search algorithm is applied to the proposed method for reducing the computational complexity. The experimental results showed that the average peak signal-to-noise ratio with the proposed method was up to 11.734 dB higher than those of conventional methods whereas the power consumption increased only slightly.


Ryan McGinness is an internationally exhibited artist whose skate-punk aesthetic incorporates carefully rendered personal iconography, contemporary semiotics, and layered neo-baroque compositions. His works are in multiple mediums and his signature symbols and visual code have influenced an entire generation of graphic designers. Ryan McGinness Works. is a collection of the artist's most recent pieces, including installations, prints, sculpture, and paintings. Each body of work is illustrated and discussed in lavish detail, and the process behind each project is told through the use of sketches, diagrams, details, and photographs.


This paper investigates if the value of the Swedish krona (SEK) against the US dollar ($) and the Euro (€) can be explained by some standard theories and fundamentals, such as the purchasing power parity, the interest rate parity, the debt-ratio and the trade balance ratio, using monthly data since Feb. 1993. All of them fail to explain why the SEK is so "weak". The lower inflation rate in Sweden over the recent years has not strengthened the currency. Similarly, the theoretically stronger SEK implied by the lower interest rates in Sweden as the uncovered interest rate parity predicts, has not emerged yet. Finally, neither the persistent trade balance surpluses, nor the declining and very low debt ratio in Sweden have had any positive effects on the currency. It seems that the traders and investors ignore the fundamentals, speculate against the currency and keep it undervalued. Moreover, a number of simulated paths, predicted from various ARIMA-processes, based on the historic exchange rates, show that the worse exchange rates have already gone and by the end of 2020 the $ and the € will cost around 8 and 9.8 SEK respectively.


This paper provides a socio-psychological theory of efficiency wage growth. The model blends agency theory with the Forced Savings hypothesis by assuming that firms set an increasing wage profile to minimize shirking costs, and that workers' effort is positively related to the variation of wages. In its simple formulation the model derives some interesting results, such as: i) a positive relationship between the growth rate of efficiency wages and the discount rate; ii) for the case of constant returns of motivation, the growth rate of wages is unrelated with technology and workers' preferences. The model also allows the analysis of the optimal path of employment. The positive impact of increasing efficiency wage profile on job creation depends only on workers' returns of motivation and technology.


Now a day, customer satisfaction (CS) has been considered as one of the most important factors for organizational success. Implementation of customer satisfaction assessment systems is one of most indices in order to improving organizational performance. Customer satisfaction plays important roles in banking industry. Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) of bank personnel will change the customer satisfaction and directly affects bank performance. Because of these important interactions between OCB and CS in banking industry, this paper intentionally this investigated process by using PCA and PFA techniques. Results of this study indicated that CS has significant relationship with staff employee's relationships while personal features of employees and OCB has direct impacts on CS. Also detailed analysis revealed that responsibility factor of employee's social relationships and trustworthiness factor of personal employees are the most important factors of OCB in CS assessment.


The use of service robots is on the rise. Characterized by technology autonomy with a physical embodiment, service robots have a higher level of social presence than other service technologies. This research focuses on one specific phenomenon of such social encounters: attribution of responsibility. Study 1 explores potential antecedents driving the attribution of responsibility in encounters with service robots. We derive a research model, which is tested and expanded in three subsequent scenario-based experiments. In Study 2, we find that technology's autonomy decreases perceived behavioral control over the service robot, which in turn decreases perceived responsibility for positive outcomes but not for negative outcomes. Study 3 indicates that perceived ownership of the service robot accounts for the high responsibility for negative outcomes irrespective of perceived behavioral control. In Study 4, we show that the potential to interrupt the service robots' autonomy increases perceived behavioral control and perceived responsibility for positive outcomes. Our results propose theoretical implications for responsibility perceptions and practical implications for customer satisfaction with service robots.


Population genomic studies have shown that genetic draft and background selection can profoundly affect the genome-wide patterns of molecular variation. We performed forward simulations under realistic gene-structure and selection scenarios to investigate whether such linkage effects impinge on the ability of the McDonald–Kreitman (MK) test to infer the rate of positive selection (α) from polymorphism and divergence data. We find that in the presence of slightly deleterious mutations, MK estimates of α severely underestimate the true rate of adaptation even if all polymorphisms with population frequencies under 50% are excluded. Furthermore, already under intermediate rates of adaptation, genetic draft substantially distorts the site frequency spectra at neutral and functional sites from the expectations under mutation–selection–drift balance. MK-type approaches that first infer demography from synonymous sites and then use the inferred demography to correct the estimation of α obtain almost the correct α in our simulations. However, these approaches typically infer a severe past population expansion although there was no such expansion in the simulations, casting doubt on the accuracy of methods that infer demography from synonymous polymorphism data. We propose a simple asymptotic extension of the MK test that yields accurate estimates of α in our simulations and should provide a fruitful direction for future studies.


We have calculated the structure and magnetic properties of nano scale iron clusters on a Cu surface with and without adsorbed hydrogen. The goal was to see what effect hydrogen has on the magnetic properties. The calculations were carried out with plane wave based density functional theory (DFT) and with the tight-binding Anderson model. The adsorption sites for hydrogen atoms were found using the simulated annealing technique. We considered a number of configurations differing in the number of hydrogen atoms and in their positions. Two trends were found. Firstly, each successive hydrogen atom reduces the total magnetic moment of the cluster. Secondly, the strength of the effect depends on the position of adsorbed hydrogen atom, namely the number of nearest iron neighbors is important. To explain these effects we used Bader analysis in order to decompose the charge density of the system and examine the change in electronic density at the iron atoms. It was found that hydrogen atom affects only the nearest neighbors and attracts the same number of electrons irrespectively of the adsorption site. However, the more iron atoms the hydrogen atom is bound to, the weaker the decrease of the total magnetic moment of the cluster. We also calculated the density of states for d-electrons of individual iron atoms and observed changes near the Fermi level as hydrogen is added. The Anderson model contains only three parameters which were selected using information found from the analysis of the DFT calculations. The model then could reproduce the DFT results quite well.


Variable bit rate compression can achieve better quality and compression rates than fixed bit rate methods. None the less, GPU texturing uses lossy fixed bit rate methods like DXT to allow random access and on‐the‐fly decompression during rendering. Changes in games and GPUs since DXT was developed make its compression artifacts less acceptable, and texture bandwidth less of an issue, but texture size is a serious and growing problem. Games use a large total volume of texture data, but have a much smaller active set. We present a new paradigm that separates GPU decompression from rendering. Rendering is from uncompressed data, avoiding the need for random access decompression. We demonstrate this paradigm with a new variable bit rate lossy texture compression algorithm that is well suited to the GPU, including a new GPU‐friendly formulation of range decoding, and a new texture compression scheme averaging 12.4:1 lossy compression ratio on 471 real game textures with a quality level similar to traditional DXT compression. The total game texture set are stored in the GPU in compressed form, and decompressed for use in a fraction of a second per scene.


Within the European research project HOPE, a multi-disciplinary study was performed in nine European countries, by auditing 160 apartments and office buildings, of which half of them can be characterised as having low energy use. The investigating tools were a systematic inspection, interviews with the building management and questionnaire surveys of occupants. Using a multicriteria analysis method, a group of buildings perceived as healthy and comfortable and with low energy use as well as another group of high energy, perceived as less comfortable and healthy buildings were selected. Significant differences between these two groups of buildings have been identified. It can be concluded that high quality buildings that are perceived healthy, comfortable and have a good energy performance can be designed and built at will. These results, together with experience gained from former projects and literature lead us to present guidelines for creating such HQ buildings.


Is there water on Mars? Gifted adult graduate students, some of whom represented the learner exceptionalities of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Slow Information Processing Speed, were asked to explore this mystery by applying Edward de Bono's CoRT thinking skills of "Aims, Goals, and Objectives," "Select," and "Planning" to photographs of Mars landforms. Once they had determined the likelihood that the pictures depicted water on Mars, students were asked to develop threedimensional models with recycled materials. Analysis of the findings revealed that in utilizing the de Bono CoRT thinking skills, students were able to identify sixteen different categories. Student responses had three similar themes. The first theme was "whether the land mass had the characteristics of water," the second theme was "similarities to areas on Earth," and the third theme was "conducting research in books and journals." Following analysis of the question, "Is there water on Mars?" all students expressed their beliefs that the photos depicted water on Mars. Students in the class provided the following as their reasons for this conclusion: the photograph had "characteristics of water," the photograph had "similarities to land masses on Earth," and the photograph reinforced "research supporting the presence of water on Mars." Student confidence and engagement in the lesson increased with the use of both the de Bono CoRT thinking skills and hands-on learning.


From Egypt to India, and from Botswana to London, worker, youth and middle class rebellions have taken on the political and bureaucratic status quo and the privilege of small, wealthy and often corrupt elites at a time when the majority can no longer earn a decent wage. A remarkable feature of the protests from the Arab Spring onwards has been the salience of images, songs, videos, humour, satire and dramatic performances. This book explores the central role the aesthetic played in energising the mass mobilisations of young people, the disaffected, the middle classes, the apolitical silent majority, as well as enabling solidarities and alliances among democrats, workers, trade unions, civil rights activists and opposition parties. Comparing the North African and Middle Eastern uprisings with protest movements such as Occupy, the authors bring to bear an anthropological and sociological approach from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the debate by drawing on a wide array of disciplinary expertise. Case studies include protests about; regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Russia; corruption in India; the demise of the welfare state in Spain, Israel and Greece; the living wage in Botswana and Wisconsin, the financial crisis; and corporate greed and the Occupy movement in British and American cities.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) including, hypertension, coronary heart disease and heart failure are the leading cause of death worldwide. Hypertension, a chronic increase in blood pressure above 140/90 mmHg, is the single main contributor to deaths due to heart disease and stroke. In the heart, hypertension results in adaptive cardiac remodelling, including LV hypertrophy to normalize wall stress and maintain cardiac contractile function. However, chronic increases in BP results in the development of hypertensive heart disease (HHD). HHD describes the maladaptive changes during cardiac remodelling which result in reduced systolic and diastolic function and eventually heart failure. This includes ventricular dilation due to eccentric hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis which stiffens the ventricular wall and microvascular rarefaction resulting in a decrease in coronary blood flow albeit an increase in energy demand. Chronic activation of the renin-angiotensin-system (RAS) with its effector peptide angiotensin (Ang)II plays a key role in the development of hypertension and the maladaptive changes in HHD. Ang II acts via the angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R) to mediate most of its pathological actions during HHD, including stimulation of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, activation of cardiac fibroblasts and increased collagen deposition. The counter-regulatory axis of the RAS which is centred on the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/Mas axis has been demonstrated to counteract the pathological actions of Ang II in the heart and vasculature. Ang-(1-7) via the Mas receptor prevents Ang II-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis and improves cardiac contractile function in animal models of HHD. In contrast, less is known about Ang-(1-9) although evidence has demonstrated that Ang-(1-9) also antagonises Ang II and is anti-hypertrophic and anti-fibrotic in animal models of acute cardiac remodelling. However, so far it is not well documented whether Ang-(1-9) can reverse established cardiac dysfunction and remodelling and whether it is beneficial when administered chronically. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was to assess the effects of chronic Ang-(1-9) administration on cardiac structure and function in a model of Ang II-induced cardiac remodelling. Furthermore, this thesis aimed to investigate novel pathways contributing to the pathological remodelling in response to Ang II.
First, a mouse model of chronic Ang II infusion was established and characterised by comparing the structural and functional effects of the infusion of a low and high dose of Ang II after 6 weeks. Echocardiographic measurements demonstrated that low dose Ang II infusion resulted in a gradual decline in cardiac function while a high dose of Ang II induced acute cardiac contractile dysfunction. Both doses equally induced the development of cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis characterised by an increase in the deposition of collagen I and collagen III. Moreover, increases in gene expression of fibrotic and hypertrophic markers could be detected following high dose Ang II infusion over 6 weeks. Following this characterisation, the high dose infusion model was used to assess the effects of Ang-(1-9) on cardiac structural and functional remodelling in established disease.
Initially, it was evaluated whether Ang-(1-9) can reverse Ang II-induced cardiac disease by administering Ang-(1-9) for 2-4 weeks following an initial 2 week infusion of a high dose of Ang II to induce cardiac contractile dysfunction. The infusion of Ang-(1-9) for 2 weeks was associated with a significant improvement of LV fractional shortening compared to Ang II infusion. However, after 4 weeks fractional shortening declined to Ang II levels. Despite the transient improvement in cardiac contractile function, Ang-(1-9) did not modulate blood pressure, LV hypertrophy or cardiac fibrosis.
To further investigate the direct cardiac effects of Ang-(1-9), cardiac contractile performance in response to Ang-(1-9) was evaluated in the isolated Langendorff-perfused rat heart. Perfusion of Ang-(1-9) in the paced and spontaneously beating rat heart mediated a positive inotropic effect characterised by an increase in LV developed pressure, cardiac contractility and relaxation. This was in contrast to Ang II and Ang-(1-7). Furthermore, the positive inotropic effect to Ang-(1-9) was blocked by the AT1R antagonist losartan and the protein kinase A inhibitor H89.
Next, endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) as a novel pathway that may contribute to Ang II-induced cardiac remodelling was assessed in Ang II-infused mice in vivo and in human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) in vitro. Infusion of Ang II to mice for 2-6 weeks resulted in a significant decrease in myocardial capillary density and this was associated with the occurrence of dual labelling of endothelial cells for endothelial and mesenchymal markers. In vitro stimulation of HCAEC with TGFβ and Ang II revealed that Ang II exacerbated TGF-induced gene expression of mesenchymal markers. This was not correlated with any changes in SMAD2 or ERK1/2 phosphorylation with co-stimulation of TGFβ and Ang II. However, superoxide production was significantly increased in HCAEC stimulated with Ang II but not TGFβ.
Finally, the role of Ang II in microvesicle (MV)-mediated cardiomyocyte hypertrophy was investigated. MVs purified from neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts were found to contain detectable Ang II and this was increased by stimulation of fibroblasts with Ang II. Treatment of cardiomyocytes with MVs derived from Ang II-stimulated fibroblasts induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy which could be blocked by the AT1R antagonist losartan and an inhibitor of MV synthesis and release brefeldin A. Furthermore, Ang II was found to be present in MVs isolated from serum and plasma of Ang II-infused mice and SHRSP and WKY rats.
Overall, the findings of this thesis demonstrate for the first time that the actions of Ang-(1-9) in cardiac pathology are dependent on its time of administration and that Ang-(1-9) can reverse Ang II-induced cardiac contractile dysfunction by acting as a positive inotrope. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates evidence for an involvement of EndMT and MV signalling as novel pathways contributing to Ang II-induced cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy, respectively. These findings provide incentive to further investigate the therapeutic potential of Ang-(1-9) in the treatment of cardiac contractile dysfunction in heart disease, establish the importance of novel pathways in Ang II-mediated cardiac remodelling and evaluate the significance of the presence of Ang II in plasma-derived MVs.


The history of natural disasters in Taiwan has frequently been linked to the practice of historical preservation, archival science, oral history, and museum curatorship. All are collectively hallmarks of a broad range of activities that fall under the umbrella of public history. The problem for Taiwan, however, concerns the legitimacy. Taiwan does not have a single national narrative. It has been subjected to waves of colonialism since the seventeenth century and does not presently have a fully post-colonial narrative. The earthquakes discussed in this paper occurred in two different periods of colonisation.  In order to situate the history of earthquakes into a public history discourse, the field of earthquake-based research in Taiwan has to incorporate different audiences and integrate into a much broader understanding. By this, I mean that the present regimental academic disciplines in Taiwan need to be cross disciplinary, especially since public history is by its very nature collaborative. It illuminates a shared authority over a much wider area. It needs to. It is my argument that it is in digital humanities that Taiwanese academics work best in collaboration. Efforts have been made to digitise the personal experiences of those involved in typhoon reconstruction efforts. A natural synergy, therefore, for the understanding of earthquakes, as public history, is to emphasise access and broad participation in the creation of knowledge. Digital humanities enables this. Attention to this is particularly important in historical preservation of particular sites on an island that frequently develops and re-develops brownfield sites.


Job satisfaction is an important factor that is correlated positively to enhanced job performance, high motivation, and positive factors and is correlated negatively to burn out and job attrition. This study aimed at studying demographics of Jordanian speech language pathologists and audiologists and measure their level of job satisfaction. 34 respondents participated in the study. Results show that Jordanian speech language pathologists and audiologists' satisfaction was insignificantly below average (p=.843). Factors that significantly affected job satisfaction were: therapy outcomes (p=0.001), income (p=0.012), time management (p=0.028), work pressure (p=0.003), vacations (p=0.001), and job security (p=0.021). Demographics of Jordanian audiologists and speech language pathologists were also discussed in the study.


This paper examines the link between banking industry structure and economic activity at the regional level in the Philippines. We apply a principal component analysis on regional banking and economic data for the period 1993 to 2005. We ranked the sixteen regions in three different groups depending on their average economic development. Our results show globally a positive link between regional indicators of economic development and banking development with a specific influence of rural banking mainly in the intermediate-developed regions, which is reinforced after the 1997 financial crisis. For the less developed regions, the more rural in the Philippines, commercial, thrift or rural banks do not seem to provide any significant contribution to economic development.


Dieser Beitrag liegt nur in englischer Sprache vor. Over the last two decades, patterns of internal migration in Germany have been discussed under the headings of East-West movements and sub- and re-urbanisation. This paper argues that the intense scientific and public debate that ignited about the possible causes and consequences of internal migration should be based on a clear understanding of how internal migration flows impact on regional population change. Using the German Internal Migration (GIM) database, a unique new dataset that holds annual interregional migration counts drawn from the population register for 397 regions with temporally consistent boundaries, this paper aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of the spatial structure of inter-county migration in Germany and how it has changed over the period 1995-2010. To reduce the complexity of the county-level flow data and to facilitate the identification of patterns and trends, county-to-county flows were analysed using a spatial framework of 132 "analytical regions". The results show that the intensity of migration between East German regions has been higher than East-West migration throughout the period, suggesting that the former type of migration has a stronger impact on rural population decline than commonly believed in the literature. Following a strong suburbanisation pattern in the 1990s, over the last decade, migration between counties in eastern Germany has resulted in a growing concentration of population in the cities of Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden. Increasing net migration gains were recorded by many urban cores across Germany. The trend was driven by both continuing in-migration of young adults in search for education and employment, and by a cessation of the long-term trend of family out-migration to the cities' suburban and non-metropolitan hinterlands.


The reactivity of an electrocatalyst depends strongly on its surface structure. Pt-based electrocatalysts of nanocrystals (NCs) enclosed with high-index facets contain a large density of catalytically active sites formed from step and kink atoms on the facets and exhibit intrinsically superior activity. However, the Pt-based NCs of high-index facets do possess a high surface energy and are thermodynamically metastable, leading to a big challenge in their shape-controlled synthesis. To overcome the challenge, kinetic–thermodynamic control of crystal growth is indispensable and is currently realized mainly by electrochemical methods and surfactant-based wet chemical approaches. This Perspective reviews recent progresses in Pt-based electrocatalysts of monometallic and bimetallic NCs of high surface energy with different morphologies of convex or concave tetrahexahedron, trapezohedron, trisoctahedron, hexoctahedron, etc. Remarkable electrocatalytic performance of these NCs has been demonstrated. Despite the ...


Objective Late diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be due to diagnostic uncertainties. We aimed to determine the sequence and timing of the appearance of established early signs and symptoms in people who are subsequently diagnosed with AD. Methods We used systematic review methodology to investigate the existing literature. Articles were reviewed in May 2016, using the following databases: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, British Nursing Index, PubMed central and the Cochrane library, with no language restriction. Data from the included articles were extracted independently by two authors and quality assessment was undertaken with the quality assessment and diagnostic accuracy tool-2 (QUADAS tool-2 quality assessment tool). Results We found that depression and cognitive impairment were the first symptoms to appear in 98.5% and 99.1% of individuals in a study with late-onset AD (LOAD) and 9% and 80%, respectively, in early-onset AD (EOAD). Memory loss presented early and was experienced 12 years before the clinically defined AD dementia in the LOAD. However, the rapidly progressive late-onset AD presented predominantly with 35 non-established focal symptoms and signs including myoclonus (75%), disturbed gait (66%) and rigidity. These were misdiagnosed as symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) in all the cases. The participant with the lowest mini-mental state examination score of 25 remained stable for 2 years, which is consistent with the score of the healthy family members. Conclusions The findings of this review suggest that neurological and depressive behaviours are an early occurrence in EOAD with depressive and cognitive symptoms in the measure of semantic memory and conceptual formation in LOAD. Misdiagnosis of rapidly progressive AD as CJD and the familial memory score can be confounding factors while establishing a diagnosis. However, the study was limited by the fact that each one of the findings was based on a single study.


There are queries in Linked Data processing that cannot always be optimally answered through traditional data base management techniques. More often than not answering such queries relies on information that is incomplete, incorrect, or fuzzily specified; and on mere approximations of computationally advanced functionality for matching, aggregating, and ranking such information. As a means to deal with these limitations, we propose CrowdSPARQL, a novel approach to SPARQL query answering that brings together machine- and human-driven capabilities. We define extensions of the SPARQL query language and the Linked Data vocabulary VoID in order to capture those aspects of Linked Data query processing that per design are likely to benefit from the use of human-based computation. Based on this information, and on a set of statistics gathered during the use of our system, CrowdSPARQL is able to decide at run time which parts of a query are going to be evaluated using automatic query execution techniques, and which will be answered by the crowd via a microtask platform such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk. We evaluated CrowdSPARQL in a scenario handling a representative subset of tasks that are amenable to crowdsourcing - ontological classification, entity resolution and subjective rankings - on the DBpedia and MusicBrainz data sets, in order to learn how specific parameters of microtask design influence the success of crowdsourced query answering.


Vertical profiles of microbial and meiofaunal abundances, and of redox potential, pH, water content and shear strength have been measured in sediment subcores from seven box cores collected in the southern Central Pacific and the findings have been related to potential effects on pelagic fluxes and sedimentation. Microbial and meiofaunal abundance decreased exponentially with sediment depth. Micro-organisms were found throughout the depth of the core to 40 cm. Meiofauna were only present in the top 5 cm to 10 cm. Meiofaunal metazoans decreased more rapidly than foraminiferans. Redox potential was always positive, decreased below the surface and often rose again deeper in the sediment. pH showed no clear cut trend with depth. Shear strength increased with sediment depth and showed occasional anomalous fluctuations. Water content decreased progressively downwards with the widest scatter in the top 5–10 cm. The most important implications of these results for the water column above are likely to be biologically mediated organic mineralization and nutrient regeneration into the water column, and biodeposition of heavy metals and the binding of particulates at and above the sediment—water interface by extracellular polymeric material, which will in turn lead to differential patterns of sedimentation.


In this thesis we study how organisms adapt their metabolism to a changing environment. Metabolic adaptation occurs at different timescales. Organisms adapt their metabolism via metabolic regulation, which happens in the order of minutes to hours and via evolution, which takes many generations. Here we study the interplay between these timescales by studying the evolution of metabolic adaptation. In chapter 2, we develop an individual-oriented, spatial model of cells that evolve their lac operon promoter function. In this way we study what kind of promoter function evolves. The promoter function that evolves in the simulations is surprisingly similar to the experimentally observed promoter function. Furthermore we show that, in contrast to the current belief, the lac operon is not a bistable switch when induced by the natural inducer lactose. Only when induced by artificial inducers, the lac operon behaves bistably. We modified this model to incorporate the effect of stochasticity in gene expression. In this way we study the effect of stochasticity by comparing the results between the deterministic and stochastic model. We find that in our model cells avoid stochastic gene expression by evolving to larger repressed transcription rates and therefore we conclude that stochasticity in the lac operon is detrimental for the cells. In chapter 4 we study the mutational dynamics of massive gene loss. We find that the pattern of gene loss in S. cerevisiae cannot be explained by random single gene loss. If we however assume that large base pair deletions cause simultaneous deletion of neighboring genes, we can explain the pattern of gene loss in S. cerevisiae satisfactorily. This model predicts that genes that have smaller intergenic regions in a yeast species that did not underwent WGD are more likely to be both deleted in S. cerevisiae and this is exactly what we find in the data. In chapter 5 we study the effect of a WGD on the metabolic network of S. cerevisiae using metabolic modeling. We find that we can satisfactorily predict which genes are retained in duplicate after WGD. Furthermore, we predict that both transporter genes and genes functioning in glycolysis are more likely to be retained in duplicate after WGD, which we also found to be true in S. cerevisiae. Finally we show that a WGD can lead to a fitness increase in environments to which the cells are not yet perfectly adapted. Concluding, we have shown that combining detailed, quantitative modeling with an evolutionary, individual based approach is a promising way to study the evolution of biological systems. This approach has not only given us insight how, from an evolutionary point of view, such systems came about, but also how such systems work. Ignoring the evolutionary aspects of biological systems has, in the case of the lac operon, led to a wrong understanding of the dynamics of the system. Furthermore we have shown that even for such a large scale system as the metabolic network of S. cerevisiae, this approach leads to accurate predictions of the evolutionary outcome.


Based on a study of the Israeli kibbutz movement, Gender and Culture discusses the differences in male and female orientations to marriage, the family, and work. Spiro describes the counterrevolution in the kibbutz movement as it evolved over a quarter century period. The kibbutz Spiro first studied, Kiryat Yedidim, was thirty years old at the time, and he returned there twenty-five years later. Spiro initially found that the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, in their attempt to implement their vision of a society based on sexual equality, had created a revolution in the character of marriage, the structure of the family, patterns of child rearing, and the sexual division of labor. The counterrevolution he found twenty-five years later was no less fascinating: a return to certain important features of the prerevolutionary forms of these social institutions. This return to tradition has been the work primarily of the young women who, born and raised in the kibbutz, had been inculcated with the revolutionary ideology of the kibbutz pioneers. Studying the same community after a twenty-five-year interval enables readers to observe the children of the first study as adults in the follow-up study. This longitudinal dimension provides the most important basis for the interpretations offered in Gender and Culture. A new introduction discusses additional, even more radical changes that have occurred since the book's original publication in 1979, situating the kibbutz experience in the context of contemporary gender studies and feminist thought. The book will be of continuing importance for sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and women's studies scholars.


This paper contributes to an under-researched area within the field of military-civilian transition. It explores innovatively the experiences of (mainly) ex-service personnel as they journey to and through 'Access to Higher Education Diplomas' (AHED), the majority having come from the lower ranks of the Army, to which many enlist with little or no formal qualifications.
Drawing upon empirical research, commissioned in response to anecdotal evidence which suggests a decline in the number of AHED students with a military background, the paper argues that gaps in Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) on AHEDs contribute to what I have termed 'transition blind spots' in the trajectories of these Service Leavers (SL). By addressing the issues discussed in this paper, there is potential to mitigate impact from these 'transition blind spots' and facilitate the SL transition through the provision of fully-informed IAG on AHEDs. This paper concludes that this new concept might usefully be employed to identify and understand other challenges faced during military-civilian transition.


Following an intensive discussion, Germany introduced a nationwide minimum wage on 1 January 2015, which was set at an hourly wage of € 8.50. Undeniably, there is a significant amount of international and national literature that discusses the minimum wage, both generally and specifically, in Germany. Counterintuitively, only small, negative employment effects are identified for the German minimum wage, whereas some international studies (e.g. for the US) even found positive effects. However, only a few papers focus on different sorts of adjustment channels that firms are applying as a response to the higher labor costs. This thesis focuses on the analysis of firms' profitabilities and asks if profit margins significantly declined in highly affected industries, as a response to the nationwide minimum wage. Therefore, this paper uses a Difference-in-Difference approach that compares the ratio of pre-tax profits to revenue in industries which are more exposed than their less affected counterparts. To define the exposure of an industry to the minimum wage, the Structure of Earnings Survey of 2014 is used to calculate industry specific bite measures. Surprisingly, no significant decrease in firm's profitability can be found as a response to the German minimum wage introduction in 2015. This result is consistent over all model specifications that are used in the underlying thesis.
Keywords: Minimum wage; Germany; difference-in-difference; adjustment channels; profitability; firm-level performance.


This study explores the impact of technical inefficiency on agricultural supply functions in Ukraine. Two models using a system of output supply and input demand equations were evaluated in this research: one without inefficiency included in the model and another with inefficiency included. A likelihood ratio test found that the model with inefficiency included was the preferred model in this case. Incorporation of inefficiency into the model increased output supply elasticities and did not dramatically change input demand elasticities. The own-price elasticities for grains, sugar beets, sunflowers, and potatoes showed inelastic positive signs that were statistically significant. The own-price input demands were negative and also inelastic; however, only fertilizer and fuels were statistically significant.


Regional citrate anticoagulation is an alternative to heparin in patients with bleeding diatheses who require continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). The short-term metabolic consequences that occur with citrate anticoagulation are well described and usually manageable if established protocols are followed vigilantly. Because of its customary short-term nature, the long-term consequences of CRRT with citrate are less often considered and have not been reported. The authors present the case of a woman with multisystem organ failure and prolonged acute renal failure who required CRRT for 120 days. Throughout her hospital course, adequate regional anticoagulation was achieved by blocking the coagulation cascade via the chelation of calcium by citrate. Despite an appropriate drop in the postfilter ionized calcium level, by 8 weeks after the initiation of CRRT, the patient was able to normalize serum calcium levels without the customary calcium infusion. Bone resorption owing to prolonged immobilization leading to hypercalcemia is a known complication of critically ill patients. This problem is more pronounced in patients with high bone turnover rates owing to conditions such as secondary hyperparathyroidism. In this particular case, the chelation of calcium by citrate masked the ensuing immobilization hypercalcemia, resulting in marked bone loss and bilateral spontaneous femoral fractures in the context of normal calcium levels. In critically ill patients sustained with prolonged CRRT with citrate anticoagulation, bone resorption and "relative" immobilization hypercalcemia may manifest as normal serum calcium levels in the face of falling calcium infusion rate requirements.


The recent surge in studies analysing spatial dependence in political science has gone hand-in-hand with increased attention paid to the choice of estimation technique. In comparison, specification choice has been relatively neglected, even though it leads to equally, if not more, serious inference problems. In this article four specification issues are analysed. It is argued that to avoid biased estimates of the spatial effects, researchers need to consider carefully how to model temporal dynamics, common trends and common shocks, as well as how to account for spatial clustering and unobserved spatial heterogeneity. The remaining two specification issues relate to the weighting matrix employed for the creation of spatial effects: whether it should be row-standardised and what functional form to choose for this matrix. The importance of these specification issues is demonstrated by replicating Hays' model of spatial dependence in international capital tax rate competition. Seemingly small changes to model specification have major impacts on the spatial effect estimates. It is recommended that spatial analysts develop their theories of spatial dependencies further to provide more guidance on the specification of the estimation model. In the absence of sufficiently developed theories, the robustness of results to specification changes needs to be demonstrated.


Patterns in nature, either the cells forming the skins of living organisms or the sand forming the dunes, are in a constant change. Given that, pattern cannot only be seen as an absolute image of a whole formed by units, but it can also be seen as a process, which is controlled by stimuli affecting the outcome both visually and functionally in the architectural context. In this paper, the changes on the bodies of color and form changing living organisms are implemented to the building envelope as a dynamic process of adapting to the environment in terms of interaction. The bio-system is implemented to the envelope in terms of morphological, functional, and behavioral properties of particular living organisms. The proposed model is discussed in terms of adapting its environment by sensing and responding.