From an asset management perspective there is an ongoing challenge to make strategic investment decisions which are based on maintaining asset serviceability, effluent quality requirements and providing for growth. Additionally, individual performance of treatment stages and changes in sewage flows and loads have to be considered to achieve an optimised outcome.

Typically, large scale capital projects are required to address the many challenges that face a WWTP. However, significant cost savings can be made if smaller optimisation projects are pursued to maximise the capacity of existing infrastructure and therefore defer high cost capital upgrades. To achieve this end, SA Water started a formal process to review the capacity of each process element of the Bolivar WWTP and found several opportunities to optimise current process performance. Based on these outcomes a future strategy document was developed that enables the next major plant upgrade to be deferred by 8–10 years. This paper summarises SA Water's approach to develop such a documentation to allow a strategic asset management, optimise its capital expenditure and achieve significant cost savings. It also highlights some of the projects that were identified during this process to improve the current treatment plant performance.


Global Software Development (GSD) is an emerging paradigm in which development teams are geographically distributed throughout different countries whilst working on the same projects. Lower costs, greater access to a skilled workforce, the leveraging of time-zone effectiveness and a closer proximity to the market are some of the proven advantages that have contributed to this recent expansion. However, GSD also entails certain drawbacks caused mainly by distance and socio-cultural differences. Traditional face-to-face meetings are no longer common, thus making communication, coordination and collaboration more complex. Moreover, interactions frequently involve members who use non-native languages and whose customs and behavior may be misinterpreted. Companies consequently require their workforce to have a balanced set of socio-technical skills more than ever before. Students and practitioners therefore need to acquire not only new technical skills, but also the ability to collaborate and interact effectively in a variety of geographic, cultural and linguistic settings. This kind of training is not currently common and companies often complain about their new recruits? lack of preparation in GSD related skills. However, companies do not always have the resources to provide these kinds of training programs, as the teaching of this kind of skills requires appropriate tools, methods and course materials. Moreover, training these skills is not easy at universities since it necessitates providing trainees with real experiences that it may be difficult to reproduce. Some universities organize joint courses through collaboration with distant universities so that students can benefit from a wide set of knowledge and experiences, but the coordination problems of these approaches make them hard to apply. One way in which to avoid the problems outlined above, i.e., a lack of resources, coordination complexities, and poor levels of realism, is by using simulation, which has been used in various areas of Software Engineering training such as project management. However, although simulation has the potential to enable independent and controlled training, no significant proposals exist in the field of GSD training. The research question that guides this work is therefore: ?How can we model a GSD educational framework that replicates real-world settings?? This thesis presents a framework (VENTURE) for interactive GSD training which is based on simulation. The framework simulates real world interactions that occur in GSD which are appropriate for use in both industrial and academic settings. In order to simulate GSD settings, trainees take on a specific role and interact with Virtual Agents, characterized by a specific culture. A special kind of Virtual Agent, called a Virtual Guide, directs the trainees and provides feedback when they interact in an inappropriate manner. These training scenarios take place by means of a chat simulator for synchronous communication training and through an email simulator for asynchronous communication training. The feedback provided by the Virtual Guide is automatically used to assess the trainees? performance in real time following a defined assessment method. The courses are provided via an e-learning environment that allows students to access the training sessions at any time. Moreover, a scenario designer has been implemented to support the design of new simulated interactions. New simulations will build on predefined GSD problems, including cultural and linguistic rules that represent typical interaction challenges in real settings. In order to design GSD scenarios, realistic low-level GSD problems that arise during the day-to-day work are required. However, accessing these problems or scenarios is difficult, mainly because companies are not always willing to share their knowledge and experience. In order to tackle this challenge, the framework additionally considers a Web based knowledgebase of GSD patterns and scenarios. The GSD community can, through this open social network, share their experiences, problems and scenarios in an organized manner. Simulations may therefore be designed by applying the data collected in this collaborative knowledgebase. The VENTURE framework was created by following a mixed methodology that combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. An initial systematic literature review on GSD served to focus the topic on the field of GSD education, after which a second systematic literature review was conducted in the field of GSD education. Having studied the problems of the existing educational methods, a prototype of the framework was built and evaluated by experts, leading to a first version of the framework. The principal components of VENTURE (the chat simulator and the scenario designer) were then evaluated by a group of experts. These experts in GSD and e-learning examined the design and executed a brief training simulation in order to analyze the tool?s potential to provide GSD training, along with the tool?s usability. The results of the survey, which were analyzed by means of a thematic analysis procedure, were mainly positive. Both evaluations served to confirm that VENTURE has the potential to fill the gap in GSD virtual team training. Moreover, indications on where improvements could be made served to develop a new version of the framework. A Field Study of the new version of the framework was conducted in order to evaluate whether learning was achieved after participation on a real GSD course based on two training simulations. This evaluation involved potential users of the framework (students, trainers, researchers) interacting with VENTURE and completing two training scenarios. A rigorous evaluation of the user experience was conducted using qualitative and quantitative data collection. Several questionnaires (including pre and post questionnaires) were administered at different stages of the process and the interactions were also tracked for reasons of analysis in order to uncover any significant differences after the simulation process took place. The results revealed that participants, after going through the evaluation process, acquired new knowledge and capabilities that would allow them to perform better in GSD settings. The participants also agreed that they were satisfied with both the learning outcomes and the user experience. This thesis provides two main contributions: the first of these is a training framework designed to take advantage of Virtual Agents in order to design accurate simulations of GSD interactions. Part of this training framework is also to automatically assess the student?s progress. An invention disclosure has been produced, and commercialization activities are currently being addressed with regard to this contribution. The second contribution is the introduction of a new pattern model with which to acquire real world GSD problems that can be used with pedagogical purposes. Future work will consider the population of the GSD pattern based knowledgebase, along with improvements that could allow a more intelligent interaction of the Virtual Agents and facilitate the design of the simulations.


Our objective is to examine empirically the behavior of foreign banks regarding real loan growth during a financial crisis for a set of countries in which these banks dominate the banking sectors due primarily to having taken over large existing former state-owned banks. The eight countries are among the most developed in Emerging Europe, their banking sectors having been modernized by the beginning of the time period.We consider a data period that includes an initial credit boom (2004 – 2007) followed by the global financial crisis (2008 & 2009) and the onset of the Eurozone crisis (2010). Our main innovations with respect to the existing literature on banking during the financial crisis are to include explicit consideration of exchange rate dynamics and to separate foreign banks into two categories, namely, subsidiaries of the Big 6 European MNBs and all other foreign-controlled banks. Our results show that bank lending was impacted adversely by the crisis but that the two types of foreign banks behaved differently. The Big 6 banks remained committed to the region in that their lending behavior was not different from that of domestic banks corroborating the notion that these countries are a "second home market" for these banks. Contrariwise, the other foreign banks were primarily responsible for fueling the credit boom prior to the crisis but then "cut and ran" by decreasing their lending appreciably during the crisis. Our results also indicate different bank behavior in countries with flexible exchange rate regimes from those in the Eurozone. Hence, we conclude that both innovations matter in empirical work on bank behavior during a crisis in the region and may, by extension, be relevant to other small countries in which banking sectors are dominated by foreign financial institutions.


Objective:To evaluate a standardized hospital order set for the management of septic shock in the emergency department. Design:Before–after study design with prospective consecutive data collection. Setting:Emergency department of a 1,200-bed academic medical center. Patients:A total of 120 patients with septic shock. Interventions:Implementation of a standardized hospital order set for the management of septic shock. Measurements and Main Results:A total of 120 consecutive patients with septic shock were identified. Sixty patients (50.0%) were managed before the implementation of the standardized order set, constituting the before group, and 60 (50.0%) were evaluated after the implementation of the standardized order set, making up the after group. Demographic variables and severity of illness measured by the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II were similar for both groups. Patients in the after group received statistically more intravenous fluids while in the emergency department (2825 ± 1624 mL vs. 3789 ± 1730 mL, p = .002), were more likely to receive intravenous fluids of >20 mL/kg body weight before vasopressor administration (58.3% vs. 88.3%, p < .001), and were more likely to be treated with an appropriate initial antimicrobial regimen (71.7% vs. 86.7%, p = .043) compared with patients in the before group. Patients in the after group were less likely to require vasopressor administration at the time of transfer to the intensive care unit (100.0% vs. 71.7%, p < .001), had a shorter hospital length of stay (12.1 ± 9.2 days vs. 8.9 ± 7.2 days, p = .038), and a lower risk for 28-day mortality (48.3% vs. 30.0%, p = .040). Conclusions:Our study found that the implementation of a standardized order set for the management of septic shock in the emergency department was associated with statistically more rigorous fluid resuscitation of patients, greater administration of appropriate initial antibiotic treatment, and a lower 28-day mortality. These data suggest that the use of standardized order sets for the management of septic shock should be routinely employed.


Over the last decade, there has been growing attention to the issue of neighbourhood governance and community participation in China. The focus has been on the extent to which community involvement in rule-making and decision-making processes could be promoted. The issue of community participation in urban redevelopment, however, has received little attention. Urban redevelopment in contemporary Chinese cities is taking place on an unprecedented scale, dissolving long-standing local communities and demolishing poverty-stricken neighbourhoods. Examining the case of Beijing, this paper questions current redevelopment planning and residents' appeal procedures. It considers the extent to which local communities in dilapidated neighbourhoods have difficulty making an impact on decisions affecting their neighbourhoods' redevelopment. The paper considers the extent to which local residents could express discontent and put forward 'rightful claims'. The paper concludes that community participation in neighbourhood redevelopment remains at the bottom of the ladder of participation, and that the vested interests of local authorities and developers in urban redevelopment projects restrict poor residents' active participation in decision-making processes.


Various authors have advised a wait and see approach in evaluating the relative precision of alternative techniques, such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), in estimating industry-average and firm-specific inefficiency. Chirikos and Sear (2000), for example, contend that "policy-makers may be well advised to wait until additional research clarifies reasons why DEA and stochastic frontier models yield divergent results" (p. 1389). The main objective of this paper is to highlight the likely trade-offs between competing methods based on direct empirical comparisons using simulated data and to demonstrate the wealth of evidence bearing on a range of real-world applications. Whilst this systematic review indicates that a good deal of evidence is already available, evidence of a different sort may be required to identify a `correct' approach in addressing specific policy problems. In particular, the now routine practice of cross checking should be taken one step further to include realistic simulation studies along-side real-world DEA vs SFA comparisons.


This study attempts to formulate and test an original idea in adaptation theory, one that exploits the
productive aspects of the two main tendencies in adaptation studies, fidelity and intertextuality. The
question that is addressed here is how the prioritization of a novel's poetics as the focal point for the
transposition of the literary text can inform the study and practice of literature to film adaptation. It
will be argued in this thesis that an abstract description of the literary and filmic work can be used
as a blueprint for the transposition between the two media. In the context of this study, adaptation is
defined as a mode of engagement with the source text, while the adapter is defined as the agency
responsible for the transposition. Poetics, in the context of this study, is a system of aims and
methods, that represent the work of art as a system of creative decisions. Michail Bakhtin's concept
of dialogism, as well as his view of the author, have informed the theoretical structure of this thesis
to a significant degree.
The proposition has been tested in the context of adaptation criticism, through an examination of
Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The
application of the rationale of this thesis on the specific case has revealed a complex system of
interaction between two works that are superficially very different. In the context of adaptation
practice, a form of practice based research has been employed in the discussion of the filmic
possibilities of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. The system that derives from the
conceptual framework of this thesis has created a discussion of alternatives, through a joint
consideration of source poetics and medium demands.
The conclusion of this research is that the focus on the poetics of a work can potentially provide
fertile ground for the examination of adaptation as product, and for the practice of adaptation as a
re-contextualisation of literary works in the filmic medium.


Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been practiced for three decades and is extensively adopted by large scale commercial farmers in the Americas and Australia and to a much lower extent by small-scale farmers around the world. In 2008 there were about 106 million hectares of permanent crops grown using CA systems in 2008. Conservation agriculture typically involves: (1) minimal soil disturbance; (2) covering soils with crop residues; and (3) rotating crops or intercropping with legumes (FAO, 2002; Thierfelder and Wall, 2010). Interventions such as mechanical tillage are reduced to an absolute minimum, and the use of agrochemicals and nutrients of mineral or organic origin are applied at optimal levels. The interactions between minimal soil disturbance, managing crop residues on fields, applying optimal nutrient levels, and controlling weed populations are often considered more consequential than the individual effects of these management activities. Instead of maximizing crop yield, the managerial objectives implied by CA is to optimize long-term soil fertility improvements through residue management and cover crop rotations, with higher maize yields and potentially lower input cost side-benefits. Agronomic research has documented that CA systems are more likely to generate higher maize yields than non-CA systems. However, even increases in expected biological yields may not be enough to encourage risk-averse small-holder farmers to adopt CA technologies. This research summarizes field trial information from Mozambique and Lesotho to understand the interplay between (1) optimal seeding and fertilizer input rates, and (2) and input and commodity prices to estimate the risk premium associated with conservation agriculture technology. Findings suggest that farm size (as measured by household wealth) plays a significant role in determining the amount producers would be willing to pay to eliminate risk associated with adoption of an alternative technology like conservation agriculture.


Laboratory experiments with compacted kaolinite-bentonite mixtures indicate that degradation of hydraulically transported clay lumps in a dredge pipeline can be predicted and controlled to some extent. The size reduction of these lumps depends not only on the length of the pipeline but also on the density of the clay being dredged, the plasticity index (PI) of the clay, and the velocity of the dragging slurry in the pipe. A series of graphs shows percent reduction in clay lumps as a function of PI and velocity at three levels of relative compacted density. If the relationships obtained in this study are shown to be valid in the field, this information will be useful in selecting dredging equipment, designing dredged material containment area, and estimating costs. Relatively undisturbed specimens of the in situ clay and simple laboratory tests would provide the necessary information.


This is one of a group of papers read at the London Medical Group conference of "Pain: a necessity?",' which was held in Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, London in February 1978. Dr Twycross argues that complete assessment implies the ability not only to make a diagnosis but also to initiate appropriate treatment. Describing the site, severity and quality of the pain is only the first step. A doctor needs to: 1) Be aware of the range of diagnostic possibilities 2) Appreciate the influences of non-physical factors such as mood and morale 3) Be aware of the range of treatemnt options 4) Establish realistic objectives with the patient 5) Reassess at appropriate intervals to review treatment, monitor side-effects, and develop and maintain a good working relationship with the patient.


To even try to keep pace with the rapid evolution of game development, you need a strong foundation in core programming techniques-not a hefty volume on one narrow topic or one that devotes itself to API-specific implementations. Finally, there's a guide that delivers! As a professor at the Spanish university that offered that country's first master's degree in video game creation, author Daniel Sanchez-Crespo recognizes that there's a core programming curriculum every game designer should be well versed in-and he's outlined it in these pages! By focusing on time-tested coding techniques-and providing code samples that use C++, and the OpenGL and DirectX APIs-Daniel has produced a guide whose shelf life will extend long beyond the latest industry trend. Code design, data structures, design patterns, AI, scripting engines, 3D pipelines, texture mapping, and more: They're all covered here-in clear, coherent fashion and with a focus on the essentials that will have you referring back to this volume for years to come.


This paper is an examination of the Supreme Court of Canada's interpretation of federalism since constitutional repatriation in 1982. It argues that the lure of centralist efficiency is overpowering a fundamentally important part of our federal order: regionalism. The author contends that changes made by the Court to certain fundamental concepts of Canadian constitutional law now provide Parliament with greater latitude than before in the exercise of its legislative powers. According to the author, these changes are disturbing because they are structured so as to preclude consideration of the legitimate concerns of regional polities. Furthermore, he argues that the Court has reinforced the central government's power to regulate the economy, including intraprovincial matters affecting trade, by resorting to highly functional tests that emphasize economic efficiency over other criteria. This, he claims, makes it more difficult to invoke legitimate regional interests that would lead to duplication, overlapping and even, in the eyes of some, inefficiency.The author then focuses on the Court's treatment of environmental protection in an attempt to show the tension between the Court's desire to use a functional approach and the need to recognize regional interests. Finally, through an examination of recent case law, he attempts to demonstrate that the Court's dominant perspective remains functional despite its endorsement of a more community-oriented understanding of federalism in Secession Reference. If the Court chooses to proceed in this manner, it will alienate regional polities and may encourage them to choose more radical means of asserting their differences. Further, the author argues that strict adherence to the functional effectiveness approach will undermine the very values that federalism is meant to promote.


This thesis investigates the various states of alienation that exist in the early plays of the British dramatist Tom Stoppard. By first defining alienation (and discussing the areas of contention which surround the concept), it proceeds to argue that whilst Stoppard has been greatly revered as a comic writer his works are equally consequential for their sensitivity and insight. They depict a prolificacy of characters who fail to assimilate with their society, can no longer relate to those around them and, as is often the case, reach for, but never manage to grasp a sense of their own identity. The diversity of emotional states that arise from such a condition will be discussed at length. In considering the plight of these characters, it will be necessary to also consider the nature of the societies in which they are embedded, and to ask where the true source of alienation arises. The societies portrayed by Stoppard are far-ranging: East and West, repressive and liberal, indeed, even meta-theatrical, yet they are unified by a common failure; the inability to engender a sense of real connection amongst their members. The impression we get with many of these early plays is that Stoppard's alienated protagonists are not facing an unusual predicament, rather they are indicative of man in a modern, atomised society-that they are, ironically, "in good company".


Collecting seems to be a topic, which has become more and more interesting during the last years. It is not only the passion that seizes people of all parts of our society, it is more than some sort of eccentricity, it goes back to our roots, when we were hunters and gatherers to gain our living. Nowadays hunters and gatherers can be found in antique shops, but they are also to be found in museums and libraries. Collecting in museums has started with 'Cabinets of curiosities' ('Kunst- und Wunderkammern'), which housed "wonders" ranging from rare shells and coins to narwhal horns, coral carvings and perhaps mummified mermaids. Libraries always collected not only the scientific books of their times, they always strove for the bigger, wider, the universal library. The first one to meet this high standard was the antique library of Alexandria, where all the knowledge of the time was collected in about 400,000 papyrus scrolls, nowadays we have the universal library in the internet. Far from being universal, the small library of Leoben has a rather nice collection of travel books, which have been sources for our geologists and mining engineers during all the years of our existence. The books have been collected since the beginning of our University in 1840, and nowadays we still complete the collection with reprints from historic travel books. The collection has books like Bruckmann's Magnalia Dei from 1727, where the author describes all 1600 mines in the world, which were known at that time, or Emanuel Swedenborg's Regnum subterraneum from 1734, where he describes the copper mines in Europe. Most of the literature in our collection comes from the 19th century, one of the most interesting books is Joseph Russegger's Travels through Europe, Asia and Africa in the years 1835-1841. Russegger was the first to draw a geological map of Egypt and the Sudan, he was the first European, to see the springs of the Nile. Another author to be mentioned is Belsazar Hacquet de la Motte, a physician, who travelled all over Europe. He is best known by his work Travels through Slovenia, in which he describes amongst others the Idrija mercury mine in 1779. In our collection there are also travel books, which are not related to mining or geology, we have for instance Sven Hedin's Transhimalaya and Hans Meyer's report on his travel to the Kilimanjaro in the year 1890. All the books on travelling bring to us the adventure of being away, they "bring the world back into our hearts", as the geologist Russegger notes at the end of his books.


In this thesis, observations of the Earth's magnetotail from ESA's four Cluster and
the two Sino-European Double Star spacecraft are presented. The observations are
of intervals where data from the combination of Cluster and Double Star provide
insights into the dynamics of the magnetotail that are not possible using data from
one mission alone.
In the �first study, observations of three magnetic flux ropes are presented, two
of which were detected near-simultaneously at Cluster and Double Star TC-1, while
the third was detected by Cluster, along with a TCR a few minutes later. The observations represent the �first observations of multiple
flux ropes existing in the magnetotail simultaneously, providing evidence that flux rope orientation is influenced
by neutral sheet tilt and provide further evidence that TCRs in the lobes are caused by the passage of
flux ropes in the plasma sheet.
In the second study, a detailed analysis of a plasma bubble is presented, including
the �first direct observations of the return flows around the flanks of the plasma bubble
that are expected from theory and simulation. Furthermore a partially stagnant depleted wake behind the plasma bubble, not predicted by theory or simulation was
discovered and the cross-tail extent of the bubble was measured to be 3RE. The fi�rst observations of near-Earth bubble features are also reported.
Finally, in the third study, the substorm onset process itself is investigated using
a wide array of space- and ground-based instrumentation. A pseudobreakup and later substorm onset are distinguished using both geomagnetic and auroral data
and the establishment of the substorm current wedge is observed in-situ using the
TC-2 and GOES12 spacecraft. A link between higher latitude geomagnetic activity
and the fast flows and plasma sheet expansion related to the reconnection of lobe fi�eld lines is also posited.


Effective separation of water and oil is an essential part of petroleum production. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) can be used to profile the separation of hydrocarbon oil–water mixtures. In such two-component systems, metal electrodes will become oil-coated due to their affinity to oil. This coating layer will impact water content measurements. By combining the TDR signals from two probes in a novel configuration, the thickness of the oil layer on the electrodes can be estimated and its effect on the TDR measurements corrected for. The probes consist of two rods of different diameter and spacing to a common ground/guard electrode. The measurement principle is demonstrated using a light fuel oil and a thicker organic oil. The results indicate that oil and water levels can be monitored during separation if the metal electrode oil-coating effect is accounted for.


To mark its 40th anniversary, UNEP sponsored this history of the Nairobi-based organization. Written by award-winning conservationist Stanley P Johnson, the book charts the evolution of UNEP from its inception at the landmark Stockholm conference of 1972 to its position today at the heart of the global environment movement. The book is not an official history but explains in depth UNEPs role in protecting the environment with its sponsoring and negotiating of a host of international agreements and other actions.


Judicial deference to the decisions and actions of statutory and prerogative authorities is a key principle of Canadian judicial review law. In its current incarnation, it frequently requires reviewing courts to exercise restraint. In those instances, the reviewing court should scrutinize the decision or action under attack not from the perspective of whether the statutory or prerogative authority made a correct decision but rather by inquiring whether the decision or action was unreasonable or patently unreasonable.
In determining whether it is an occasion for one of the two deferential standards of review, the court evaluates the situation based on a list of so-called 'pragmatic and functional factors' that the Supreme Court of Canada has established and refined over an almost twenty year period. Initially, these pragmatic and functional factors were developed in a series of judgments involving applications for judicial review for error of law of privative-clause protected decisions by adjudicative tribunals. Over time, the reach of this analysis expanded dramatically. It rapidly reached review for questions of fact as well as mixed fact and law. The Court then came to accept that it should also be used even in situations where the route to the reviewing court was not by way of common law or general statutory judicial review but statutory appeal. Later, the Court specified that it was an approach that the courts must deploy for review for abuse of discretion irrespective of whether the respondent was an adjudicative tribunal or a Minister of the Crown. At that point, McLachlin CJ was able to accept in Dr Q v College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia that the pragmatic and functional approach 'provided an overarching or unifying theory for review of the substantive decisions of all manner of statutory and prerogative decision-makers'. Indeed, on occasion, the Court has been prepared to be deferential to statutory authority determination of constitutional questions including the application of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.


The efficiency of the current centralized air-traffic management is limited. A next-generation air transportation system should allow airplanes (manned and unmanned) to change their flight paths during the flight without approval from a centralized en route control. Such a scheme requires decentralized peer-to-peer conflict detection and collision-avoidance processes. In this paper, two cooperative (negotiation-based) conflict-resolution algorithms are presented: iterative peer-to-peer and multiparty algorithms. They are based on high-level flight-plan variations using evasion maneuvers. The algorithms work with a different level of coordination autonomy, respect realistic assumptions of imprecise flight execution (integrating required navigation performance), and work in real time, where the planning and plan-execution phases interleave. Both algorithms provide a resolution in a 4-D domain (3-D space and time). The proposed algorithms are evaluated experimentally, and their quality is studied in comparison with a state-of-the-art agent-based method-the satisficing game theory algorithm.


In ecology and population dynamics, gene-flow refers to the transfer of a trait (e.g. genetic material) from one population to another. This phenomenon is of great relevance in studying the spread of diseases or the evolution of social features, such as languages. From the mathematical point of view, gene-flow is modelled using bistable reaction-diffusion equations. The unknown is the proportion p of the population that possesses a certain trait, within an overall population N . In such models, gene-flow is taken into account by assuming that the population density N depends either on p (if the trait corresponds to fitter individuals) or on the location x (if some zones in the domain can carry more individuals). Recent applications stemming from mosquito-borne disease control problems or from the study of bilingualism have called for the investigation of the controllability properties of these models. At the mathematical level, this corresponds to boundary control problems and, since we are working with proportions, the control u has to satisfy the constraints 0 6 u 6 1. In this article, we provide a thorough analysis of the influence of the gene-flow effect on boundary controllability properties. We prove that, when the population density N only depends on the trait proportion p, the geometry of the domain is the only criterion that has to be considered. We then tackle the case of population densities N varying in x. We first prove that, when N varies slowly in x and when the domain is narrow enough, controllability always holds. This result is proved using a robust domain perturbation method. We then consider the case of sharp fluctuations in N : we first give examples that prove that controllability may fail. Conversely, we give examples of heterogeneities N such that controllability will always be guaranteed: in other words the controllability properties of the equation are very strongly influenced by the variations of N . All negative controllability results are proved by showing the existence of non-trivial stationary states, which act as barriers. The existence of such solutions and the methods of proof are of independent interest. Our article is completed by several numerical experiments that confirm our analysis.


We present a combined multimethod experimental and theoretical study of the geometric and electronic properties of Co-tetraphenyl-porphyrin Co-TPP molecules adsorbed on a Ag111 surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy STM topographs reveal that Co-TPP forms highly regular arrays with a square unit cell. Hereby, the Co-TPP molecules do not occupy a unique adsorption site on the Ag111 atomic lattice. The central Co atom of the Co-TPP is found to reside predominantly above fcc and hcp hollow sites of the substrate, as determined from the photoelectron diffraction patterns. A strong adsorption-induced deformation of Co-TPP involving a saddle-shaped macrocycle is evidenced by high-resolution STM images and quantified by near-edge x-ray absorption fine-structure measurements. By scanning tunneling spectroscopy we resolved discrete molecular electronic states and mapped the pertaining spatial charge-density distribution. Specifically, we discuss the interaction of orbitals originating from the Co-metal center with the porphyrin macrocycle and show that the varying adsorption sites induce a modulation in the Co-TPP lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. These findings are corroborated by density-functional-theory calculations.


Biomedical implantable devices have drawn more and more attention in recent years. Extensive studies in neuroscience prove that neural stimulation techniques may cure or at least improve some diseases caused by neural abnormal discharge or disability. Two of the major challenges of implantable devices are combining a high-voltage driver and low-voltage digital control in a single chip, and accommodating large voltages in smaller feature size technology. This paper presents a new stimulator circuit structure to address these problems, using a novel folded voltage design to reduce the voltage supply from 20V to 10V, and a new floating voltage technique to solve the reliability issue. The proposed design has been fabricated and tested with TSMC 0.18µm 1P6M CMOS technology. 8000µA output current was delivered.


Abstract There are recommendations to guide parents to help their infants make the transition from milk to weaning foods, but they differ in their focus in developed or developing countries and on the physiological and behavioural reasons that underlie the introduction of weaning foods. According to recommendations, ideally, term infants should begin weaning at six months, while breastfeeding should continue for two years. The recommendations on nutrients in complementary foods are based on the nutrient gap between the composition and volume of breast milk after approximately six months of exclusive breastfeeding and the physiology of infant nutritional requirements.


R. R. Hamon and B. B. Ingoldsby. (Eds.). (2003). Mate Selection Across Cultures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 296 p. Paperback ISBN: 0-7619-2592-9, $34.95. Hamon's and Ingoldsby's Mate Selection Across Cultures is an engaging and informative collection of chapters offering broad depictions of the processes of mate selection throughout the world. The book is divided into six geographic regions: North America, the Caribbean and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Each section includes one or more chapters highlighting unique mate selection processes that occur within the specified region, and each of the 14 chapters begins with at least one "real-life" story that exemplifies the processes discussed in the chapter. The first section addresses mate selection processes in North America-or more specifically in the United States. Considering the diversity of the U.S. culture, Ingoldsby (who authors this chapter) does a nice job of tying together cultural similarities and highlighting processes that are unique to a few cultural subgroups (e.g., African Americans, Mormons) in the United States. The section of this chapter that I found particularly interesting and useful was the historical look at the evolution of U.S. mate selection. Ingoldsby begins with courtship during colonization, telling the story of how couples in early America formed marriage unions. This discussion includes the introduction of terms such as dowries, bundling, and callers. He goes on to highlight specifically how national and global influences changed the mate selection process over the past 200 plus years (e.g., the introduction of the automobile, the increase in college attendance among youth, and changing attitudes toward premarital sex). The second section covers the experiences of young people in the Caribbean and South America, with specific discussions regarding the Bahamas, Ecuador, and Trinidad and Tobago. All three chapters are well written and offer unique insights into the cultures in these countries that often are overlooked in similar collections. Although these countries have similar cultural orientations dating back to Spanish and French colonization, each country and its varying subcultures expresses this influence in distinctive ways. The aspects of these chapters that I found most interesting were explanations of the countries' origins and historical foundations that have influenced mate selection. The third section addresses mate selection experiences in Africa by highlighting the countries of Ghana and Kenya. These chapters work in concert to depict the diverse cultural influences on the people of Africa. Specifically, Takyi paints a picture of mate selection in Ghana on Africa's western coast as heavily influenced by the local community. Selection of an appropriate partner is the responsibility of the entire community rather than that of individuals or their families alone. At the same time, Wilson and colleagues describe two distinct "pathways to marriage in Kenya." This cultural subgroup comparison sits in stark contrast to Tayki's chapter, with its more macrolevel focus. Of particular interest in this section is Wilson and colleagues' explanation of woman-to-woman marriages in Kenya, or marriages primarily formed for financial and social reasons rather than for love or attraction. …


Exhibits are an often under-appreciated part of Test Week and the International Test Conference. The main benefit of the exhibits is the information you can pick up. Exhibitors collect the needs and desires of test professionals like you, decide what's most important, and funnel them into products. Listening to demonstrations on the ITC exhibits floor might tell you about a need you didn't even know you had. Perhaps you will find the solution for a problem you have had for a while and thought you'd just have to live with. This year, let's visit the exhibit hall often and prove to the exhibitors how much they are truly appreciated.


This comprehensive handbook designed for the general public explains the structure of the United Nations, how the Organization works, the main issues it addresses and its importance for people everywhere. In addition to setting out the various roles played by principle UN organs and related organizations, Basic Facts about the United Nations documents the Organization's contributions to international peace and security, economic and social development, human rights, humanitarian action, international law and decolonization. Appendices contain current data on UN membership and peacekeeping operations, as well as contact information for UN information centres, services and offices. This latest edition, published in 2017, has been revised to take account of significant developments in the world and the Organization itself since 2014.


The aim of this paper is to estimate the relative cost-effectiveness of treatment regimens for managing patients with sciatica. A deterministic model structure was constructed, based on information from the findings from a systematic review of clinical and cost-effectiveness, published sources of unit costs and expert opinion. The assumption was patients presenting with sciatica would be managed through one of three pathways (primary care, stepped approach, immediate referral to surgery).. Results were expressed as incremental cost per patient with symptoms successfully resolved. Analysis also included incremental cost per utility gained over a 12 month period. One-way sensitivity analyses were used to address uncertainty. The model demonstrated that none of the strategies resulted in 100% success. For initial treatments, the most successful regime in the first pathway was non-opioids, with a probability of success of 0.613. In the second pathway, the most successful strategy was non-opioids, followed by biological agents, followed by epidural/nerve block and disc surgery, with a probability of success of 0.996. Pathway 3 (immediate surgery) was not cost-effective. Sensitivity analyses identified that the use of the highest cost estimates results in a similar overall picture. While the estimates of cost per QALY are higher, the economic model demonstrated that stepped approaches based on initial treatment with non-opioids are likely to represent the most cost-effective regimens for the treatment of sciatica. However, development of alternative economic modelling approaches is required.


Expression of bovine 17 alpha-hydroxylase cytochrome P450 (P450c17) in insect Sf9 cells using baculovirus is the fourth heterologous expression system developed for studying this enzyme. The enzyme in Sf9 cell membranes has all the expected activities and closely resembles that from the other systems: COS1 cells, yeast, and Escherichia coli. One curious feature of baculovirus expression of this hemoprotein is that the immunodetectable P450c17 is present in an insoluble pellet when produced in the absence of added hemin and in a 10,000 g supernatant when expressed in the presence of added hemin. When comparing the level of expression of bovine P450c17 in these different expression systems, E. coli produces the largest quantity per liter culture, while baculovirus produces the most molecules of P450c17 per cell.


Abstract. Responses of wetland productivity to changes in water table depth (WTD) are controlled by complex interactions among several soil and plant processes, and hence are site-specific rather than general in nature. Hydrological controls on wetland productivity were studied by representing these interactions in connected hummock and hollow sites in the ecosystem model ecosys, and by testing CO2 and energy fluxes from the model with those measured by eddy covariance (EC) during years with contrasting WTD in a shrub fen at Lost Creek, WI. Modelled interactions among coupled processes for O2 transfer, O2 uptake, C oxidation, N mineralization, N uptake and C fixation by diverse microbial, root and mycorrhizal populations enabled the model to simulate complex responses of CO2 exchange to changes in WTD that depended on the WTD at which change was occurring. At the site scale, greater WTD caused the model to simulate greater CO2 influxes and effluxes over hummocks vs. hollows, as has been found at field sites. At the landscape scale, greater WTD caused the model to simulate greater diurnal CO2 influxes and effluxes under cooler weather when water tables were shallow, but also smaller diurnal CO2 influxes and effluxes under warmer weather when water tables were deeper, as was also apparent in the EC flux measurements. At an annual time scale, these diurnal responses to WTD in the model caused lower net primary productivity (NPP) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh), but higher net ecosystem productivity (NEP = NPP − Rh), to be simulated in a cooler year with a shallower water table than in a warmer year with a deeper one. This difference in NEP was consistent with those estimated from gap-filled EC fluxes in years with different water tables at Lost Creek and at similar boreal fens elsewhere. In sensitivity tests of the model, annual NEP declined with increasing WTD in a year with a shallow water table, but rose in a year with a deeper one. The model thus provided an integrated set of hypotheses for explaining site-specific and sometimes contrasting responses of wetland productivity to changes in WTD as found in different field experiments.


A total of 976 pigs (PIC 327 × L42, initially 48.6 ± 3.4 lb body weight [BW]) were used in a 160-d growth study to determine the influence of space allowance and marketing strategy on growth performance of pigs raised to heavy market weights. Pens were blocked by location within the barn and allotted to 1 of 6 dietary treatments with 8 pens per treatment. The first four treatments reduced space allowance per pig via initial pen stocking density and had only one final marketing event. These four treatments were: 14 pigs/pen (12.7 ft2/pig), 17 pigs/pen (10.4 ft2/pig), 20 pigs/pen (8.8 ft2/pig), 23 pigs/pen (7.7 ft2/pig). The fifth treatment began with 25 pigs/pen (7.1 ft2/pig) and the heaviest 3 pigs/pen were removed on d 93, then on d 122 they were topped again to a common inventory of 20 pigs/pen, and on d 147 topped to a common pen inventory of 17 pigs/pen. The sixth treatment began with 23 pigs/pen (7.7 ft2/pig) and was topped to a common inventory of 20 pigs/pen on d 108 and finally topped again to a common inventory of 17 pigs/pen on d 147. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and final BW decreased (linear, P < 0.001) during the overall experimental period (d 0 to 160) as space allowance decreased. When comparing treatments with multiple marketing events to those with similar initial stocking density (23 pigs per pen), there was no evidence for differences (P > 0.05) for overall ADG or ADFI; however, overall feed efficiency was improved (P < 0.05) for pigs initially stocked at 7.1 ft2/pig and marketed four times compared to both treatments that initially allowed 7.7 ft2/pig, regardless of marketing structure. Additionally, overall F/G was improved for pigs that began at 7.7 ft2/pig and had 3 marketing events compared to the treatment that also began at 7.7 ft2/pig but had only a single marketing event. Once the marketing events began on d 93, ADG and F/G were improved (P < 0.05) for the remaining pigs in the pen for the rest of the trial (d 93 to 160) for both multiple marketing treatments, compared to the 7.7 ft2/pig allowance where all pigs were marketed together at the end of the trial. These findings are consistent with others that evaluate more traditional market weights where growth performance is reduced prior to pigs reaching their k-value, and align with recent models that predict the rate of change in growth performance as pigs are allowed more spacing during the finishing period. Similarly, it appears that pigs respond to removal of the heaviest pigs in the pen before market with the remaining pigs in the pen demonstrating compensatory gain after being provided with increased space. These results indicate that decreasing space allowance for heavy weight pigs reduced growth, intake, and final BW, although use of pig removals prior to final marketing may allow producers to maximize number of pigs marketed while balancing reduced growth performance generally accompanied with increased stocking density. Additionally, growth continued to increase until approximately 340 lb, indicating a potential opportunity for swine producers to capture lean growth at much heavier weights than previously predicted.


Abstract Problems and their solutions of the Fifth International Students' Olympiad in cryptography NSUCRYPTO'2018 are presented. We consider problems related to attacks on ciphers and hash functions, Boolean functions, quantum circuits, Enigma, etc. We discuss several open problems on orthogonal arrays, Sylvester matrices, and disjunct matrices. The problem of existing an invertible Sylvester matrix whose inverse is again a Sylvester matrix was completely solved during the Olympiad.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen whose defense mechanisms include biofilm production through carbohydrate metabolism. The activity of the enzymes in the hex regulon are required for catabolism of glucose and these activities are coordinately regulated. Previous work has shown that these enzymes are induced when grown on carbohydrates and catabolite repressed when grown on TCA cycle intermediates. The HexR protein is a negative transcriptional repressor and the Crc protein participates in regulation of these genes and has been shown to be necessary for biofilm formation. The main objective of this study was to analyze control of these genes in different growth mediums and determine if Crc is a transcriptional protein or a post-transcriptional controller of the regulon. The transcriptional start sites for zwf and glk were mapped by primer extension assays. Comparisons of glk between wild type and a hexR mutant revealed the possibility of transcription without HexR control. Analysis of zwf mRNA showed that Crc affects mRNA stability and is acting at a post-transcriptional level.


The "Network Neutrality Bot" (Neubot) is a software application that measures, in a distributed way, Internet access quality of service with a specific emphasis on detection of potential network neutrality violations (such as peer-to-peer traffic discrimination). It is based on a lightweight, open-source computer program that can be downloaded and installed by ordinary Internet users. The program performs background tests: the results are sent to a centralized server (or collection of servers), which publishes them, thus rebalancing, at least in part, the current deep information asymmetry between Internet Service Providers and users. The collected data will allow constant monitoring of the state of the Internet, enabling a deeper understanding of such crucial infrastructure, as well as a more reliable basis for discussing network neutrality policies.


In principle, a priori knowledge of organism-scale spectral signatures for key ecological end-members is a basic requirement for identifying coral reef benthic communities using hyper- spectral remotely-sensed imagery. Spectral signatures of end-members are now relatively well known for predominant reef taxa (coral, algae) and for the background of the living communities (e.g. sediments). What remains unclear is whether the criteria for spectral discrimination between end- members at the millimeter or centimeter scale remain valid when attempting to process images at several meters resolution. In other words, is it possible to scale-up spectral criteria of identification from species/organisms to communities? We address this issue with in situ and 'compact airborne spectrometer imager' (CASI) hyperspectral measurements of the tropical marine flora of 2 South Pacific Ocean coral reefs. Targets were the dominant algal species and communities encountered in the shallow (0 to 3 m) barrier and fringing reefs of Moorea Island and the outer margin of the rim of Rangiroa Atoll (French Polynesia). Stepwise wavelength selection and linear discriminant analysis highlighted the key non-redundant wavelengths necessary to achieve good separation between the predefined ecological groups. Comparison of the wavelengths identified from in situ and airborne measurements allowed definition of a subset of common wavelengths that were robust to changes in spatial scale and still provided excellent discrimination and classification accuracy between the eco- logical groups. These results suggest that continuous spectral signatures acquired in situ at the centi- meter scale can be used to select key discrete wavelengths for remote-sensing observations of com- munities at the meter scale despite the spatial heterogeneity in benthic cover and the resulting spectral mixing.


It has been over thirty years since the founding crises that birthed legal ethics as both a field of study and a discrete field of law. In that time thinking about the ethical dimension of legal practice has taken several turns: from justifications of zealous advocacy, to questions of process and connections to specifically legal values, to more recently consideration of legal conduct as part of a wider field of virtue. Parallel to this dynamism of thought, there has also been significant changes in how legal professions, especially within those that possess a common law heritage, have been regulated and the values and conceptions of legitimate conduct that has informed this regulation.
This volume represents an opportunity for a comprehensive review of legal ethics as an international movement. Contributors include many of the key participants to the legal ethics field from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, including David Luban and Deborah Rhode, as well as many of the recognised emerging thinkers.
The theme of the book is taking stock of the last thirty years of legal ethics practice and scholarship and also a forum for new ideas and new thinking regarding the conduct of lawyers and the moral and social responsibility of the legal profession. The contributions also consider the topic of dynamism. Over the last decade significant developments in both the expectations of professional conduct and the regulation of the profession has been experienced in all jurisdictions, which has seen traditional, and once sacred, conceptions of lawyering challenged and re-evaluated. The contributors also look at the theme of affirmation. Within an increasingly complex environment of change and dynamism, this volume reaffirms that there is value within the field of legal ethics. That is the project of reflecting on the unique ethical and conduct requirements of lawyering can not be submerged into a broader field of applied philosophy, management or regulatory studies. While this volume does not deny the opportunities that exist for interdisciplinary engagement with philosophy, social science or politics, it affirms legal ethics as a legitimate and highly relevant field of inquiry.


Calix[4]pyrrole derivatives with bulky substituents at their meso-positions were synthesized via mixed condensation of pyrrole with cyclohexanone and acetophenone derivatives. Anion binding studies, carried out by isothermal titration calorimetry in 1,2-dichloroethane with Cl$^{-}$ and CH$_{3}$CO$_{2}^{-}$ anions in the form of their tetrabutylammonium salts, revealed that these new calix[4]pyrrole derivatives can bind the aforementioned anions as effectively as the unsubstituted ''parent'' system, octamethylcalix[4]pyrrole (1). Structural characterizations of new calix[4]pyrroles were carried out by using $^{1}$H and $^{13}$C NMR spectroscopy corroborated with mass spectrometry.


Steiner tree is a classical NP-hard problem that has been extensively studied both theoretically and empirically. In theory, the fastest approach for inputs with a small number of terminals uses the dynamic programming, but in practice, stateof-the-art solvers are based on the branch-and-cut method. In this paper, we present a novel separator-based pruning technique for speeding up a theoretically fast DP algorithm. Our empirical evaluation shows that our pruned DP algorithm is quite effective against real-world instances admitting small separators, scales to more than a hundred terminals, and is competitive with a branch-and-cut solver.


The Navy has the need to power underwater sensor packages. Powering these systems with batteries requires constant upkeep that involve diving teams. This is a hazardous and expensive process so they want to explore alternate methods of powering these sensor packages. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a potential energy source that could power devices placed underwater. MFCs are able to harvest energy from naturally occurring bacteria in open water environments. However, MFCs produce very little voltage and current. Traditional methods of power conversion are not able to allow an MFC to operate as a power source because of these limitations. This paper describes two power management systems have been designed for use with a microbial fuel cell (MFC). These systems create a power source suitable for powering electronic devices requiring higher voltage and power than what the MFC is able to supply on its own. Though the two systems use different methods they share a similar operating concept. The systems oscillate between two modes: (1) a period when energy from the MFC is accumulated in a supercapacitor and (2) when energy accumulated in the supercapacitor(s) is used to power external electronic devices. The power management system controls the operation of the integrated system, making decision about switching the modes of operation. The power supplies are entirely autonomous and the load and power management system require no external power besides the MFC. These power management systems were designed, built, and tested in the laboratory. In our application the power management systems increased the input potential from MFCs, which were as low as 300mV, to 3.3V and the input power from microwatts to milliwatts.


Abstract German banks have experienced a merger wave since the early 1990s. However, the success of bank mergers remains a continuous matter of debate.This paper suggests a taxonomy to evaluate post-merger performance on the basis of cost and profit efficiency (CE and PE). I identify successful mergers as those that fulfill simultaneously two criteria. First, merged institutes must exhibit efficiency levels above the average of non-merging banks. Second, banks must exhibit efficiency changes between merger and evaluation year above efficiency changes of nonmerging banks. I assess the post-merger performance up to 11 years after the mergers and relate it to the transfer of skills, the adequacy to merge distressed banks and the role of geographical distance. Roughly every second merger is a success in terms of either CE or PE. The margin of success in terms of CE is narrow, as efficiency differentials between merging and non-merging banks are around 1 and 2 percentage points. PE performance is slightly larger. More importantly, mergers boost in particular the change in PE, thus indicating persistent improvements of merging banks to improve the ability to generate profits.


The project consists in applying the Markov Random Fields (MRF) theory in order to make inference in spatial graphical models. We are interested in solving the problem of the use of information in certain categorization problems where facial image information is revealed by a certain number of trials and the observer facing an image tries to classify the sampled information. MRFs have the purpose to render information sampling less exhaustive: they allow to identify significantly informative image regions which are used
for further sampling and to exclude from sampling those image regions which contribute at least to solving our categorization problem.
Denoting the observed lattice of data values y and
the underlying latent/hidden field x, the problem ofinterest can be formulated in the following way: conditioned on y, we aim to make inference about all unknown parameters, that is, we aim to evaluate the posterior distribution pi(x|y) which is proportional to the product of the likelihood L(y|x) and the prior distribution pi(x).
Generating samples from the posterior by running the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), we compute the posterior expectation/posterior probability map of lattice x given the observed data y. Calculated posterior probability map
values comprise the information on importance of certain sampling regions. Based on this information, we can adopt the sampling strategy sequentially, thereby minimizing the number of sampling trials. The project contains certain simulated experiments to compare the exhaustive and the adaptive sampling approaches. Thereby, images with incorporated spatial dependence are used. We
conclude that the adaptive sampling algorithm which uses MRFs performs better than the exhaustive sampling algorithm.
This results in a lower number of trials and a smaller
classification error.


In November 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle, the first electronic reader with wireless functionality. The case describes the launch of the Kindle and provides information on representative players in the industry (or broader ecosystem) who are likely to be affected, and react: including Penguin (the leading educational publisher), Barnes & Noble (the largest bricks & mortar retailer), Apple and Sony (as manufacturers of competing devices), Google (as a major provider of free e-content) and Adobe (as a competitor in creating an e-book standard).Learning Objective: (i) The case presents a powerful setting to examine how new media affects traditional media firms, and is of direct interest to the publishing industry. (ii) The case can be used to examine how a new technology can potentially reshape industry structure, and how existing players should react. A particularly interesting aspect is how players' reactions may be shaped the actions of others in the ecosystem - in this case, how a publisher's response depends on the moves of bricks-and-mortar retailers, device manufacturers, competing providers of e-content, or competitors for e-book standards. Useful concepts are the pricing of complements, and open versus closed standards.


We document the discovery of the first population of greater double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris afer complex) from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. We assessed phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic rank based on mtDNA sequence data, nine microsatellite loci and morphology. This new taxon, locally distributed in the Rubeho and Udzungwa Highlands, has close affinities (< 1% uncorrected sequence divergence) with C. whytei (split here from C. ludovicensis) of the Nyika Plateau in Malawi, but differs in having longer tarsi and in subtle plumage details. Although the birds from Nyika and Udzungwa-Rubeho are reciprocally monophyletic for mitochondrial DNA, coalescent analyses of the microsatellite data and the total molecular dataset could not reject the possibility of continued gene flow between the two populations. Thus, although we favour the phylogenetic species concept, we adopt a cautious approach and formally describe the Rubeho and Udzungwa greater double-collared sunbird population as a subspecies of Cinnyris whytei. This new sunbird taxon has been recorded only above 1700 m in scrub on the forest/grassland ecotone in a very restricted area in the Rubeho and Udzungwa Highlands of Tanzania. The effects of human settlement and agriculture threaten this taxon.


Software-defined networking and OpenFlow in particular enable independent development of network devices and software that controls them. Such separation of concerns eases the introduction of new network functionality, however, it leads to distributed responsibility for bugs. Despite the common interface, separate development entails the need to test an integrated network before deployment. In this work-in-progress paper, we identify the challenges of creating an environment that simplifies and systematically conducts such tests. We discuss optimizations required for efficient and reliable OpenFlow switch black-box testing and present a possible approach to address other challenges. In our preliminary prototype, we combine systematic state-space exploration techniques with real switches execution to explore an integrated network behavior. Our initial results show that such methods help detect previously unrevealed inconsistencies in the network.


This article has been withdrawn by IOP Publishing following the request by the authors to augment their affiliation by an institution. Upon reviewing the matter, IOP Publishing found that the institution (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) is subject to sanctions by the UK government. To ensure compliance with sanctions regulations, this article has been withdrawn from IOPscience. Withdrawal published: 15 August 2023


Quantum gravity in an AdS spacetime is described by an SU(N) Yang-Mills theory on a sphere, a bounded many-body system. We argue that in the high temperature phase the theory is intrinsically non-perturbative in the large N limit. At any nonzero value of the 't Hooft coupling λ, an exponentially large (in N 2 ) number of free theory states of wide energy range (or order N) mix under the interaction. As a result the planar perturbation theory breaks down. We argue that an arrow of time emerges and the dual string configuration should be interpreted as a stringy black hole.


A water-soluble benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) derivative that self-assembles into one-dimensional, helical, supramolecular polymers is functionalised at the periphery with one L-proline moiety. In water, the BTA-derivative forms micrometre long supramolecular polymers, which are stabilised by hydrophobic interactions and directional hydrogen bonds. Furthermore, we co-assemble a catalytically inactive, but structurally similar, BTA with the L-proline functionalised BTA to create co-polymers. This allows us to assess how the density of the L-proline units along the supramolecular polymer affects its activity and selectivity. Both the supramolecular polymers and co-polymers show high activity and selectivity as catalysts for the aldol reaction in water when using p-nitrobenzaldehyde and cyclohexanone as the substrates for the aldol reaction. After optimisation of the reaction conditions, a consistent conversion of 92 ± 7%, deanti of 92 ± 3%, and eeanti of 97 ± 1% are obtained with a concentration of L-proline as low as 1 mol%.


When an emergency occurs, one of the important challenges is how to form an effective and timely response. An emergency disposal plan is usually organized as a series of emergency response processes manipulated by one emergency command center and several subordinate emergency organizations. Moreover, these subordinate organizations are usually geographically dispersed and need to collaborate with each other. In this case, designing and verifying such cross-organizational collaborative emergency response processes are complicated and time-consuming. To address this problem, we propose a hierarchical modeling and correctness verification approach. A general framework for hierarchical modeling and correctness verification of such processes is first introduced. Then, a top-level model and two kinds of bottom-level models (complex and simple bottom-level ones) are proposed to model such processes and collaboration patterns from different abstraction levels. Next, Petri net refinement operation is adopted to refine the top-level model by using its corresponding bottom-level models to obtain the refined model. Finally, the correctness of the refined model is verified based on reachability graph. A typical running case of cross-organization collaborative fire emergency response processes is given to validate our proposed method.


Composites materials are intended to be used more extensively as an alternative of aluminum structure in aircraft and aerospace applications. This is due to their attractive properties as high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness-to-weight ratio. Besides that it clarifies the growing interest for composites materials due to advantages of lightweight, high strength, high stiffness, superior fatigue life, tremendous corrosion resistance and low cost manufacturing. In this study, a finite element analysis (FEA) of fiberglass unidirectional E-type was analyzed in the framework of ABAQUS finite element commercial software. The analysis was done to quantify the mechanical properties and response of unidirectional E-glass in term of tensile, compression and thermal responses. From the analysis, the maximum and minimum values of stress and strain for E-glass 21xK43 Gevetex and Silenka E-glass 1200tex were obtained and stress-strain curve is presented. The ultimate load of failure, elastic behavior, tensile strength and other properties for each laminated plates under tensile and thermal-stress are determined from stress-strain curves. The simulation will run twice for each material where the first simulation based on orientation angles of 45° for ply-1, -45° for ply-2 and 90° for ply-3 while the second simulation, the orientation angles is 0° for all plies. The simulation is successfully conducted and verified by experimental data.


The abundance and complexity of information now being delivered visually demands that we become visually literate, as well as verbally literate. We need to understand better a process we have taken for granted. In an age increasingly dominated by images – a media culture, it becomes imperative to develop an understanding of how our visual processing system works; how visual cognition is shaped by social, political, and cultural conditioning; and how visual messages are created to elicit specific responses. One of the chief goals of visual literacy education is to encourage critical analysis of visual communication by developing tools that help us understand and manage this complex activity. "Seeing" needs to become an actively conscious, not a passive activity for us. This thesis illustrates the importance of critical visual literacy, provides an historical overview of the visual literacy movement, and suggests a foundational approach to teaching the basics of visual literacy.


In 1996, socio-economic rights were included in the Constitution of South Africa as fundamental human rights. The state is thus compelled to give attention to the protection of people's socioeconomic rights. The question is: Is it the duty of the state alone, or does the church also have a calling with regard to socio-economic rights? In this study, the calling of the church with regard to the protection of socio-economic rights in South Africa is researched. Firstly, socio-economic rights as ethical principle are evaluated in the light of the Scripture. The conclusion is that socio-economic rights are important human rights that can be grounded as fundamental human rights. Thereafter, the history of the origin of socio-economic rights is researched and evaluated. In the history of socio-economic rights, it is grounded in the natural dignity of a human being. However, the Bible teaches that God gave people dignity. The history of socio-economic rights in South Africa is also researched and evaluated. South Africa has a long history of colonialism, segregation and apartheid, and the church has not always been an effective advocate for socio-economic rights. To understand the calling of the church with regard to socio-economic rights, the calling of the church in society is researched. Views of different church and theological traditions are researched and evaluated. The reformed view focuses on the kingdom of God, and the calling of the church with regard to socio-economic rights is described as worship, fellowship, testimony and service. In conclusion, concrete guidelines of how to be an advocate for socio-economic rights are given to the church. SLEUTELTERME: Kerk Menseregte Roeping Sosio-ekonomiese regte Suid-Afrika


Unnatural Selections: Eugenics in American Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance By Daylanne K. English (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004) ($49.95 cloth) In Unnatural Selections, Daylanne K. English, a professor of African-American literature, argues that eugenics, the science of breeding better humans, was a pervasive component of early twentieth-century American culture. It permeated the social sciences, medicine, and politics. Eugenics affected public policy, popular culture, and American literature. The early twentieth century has variously been termed the "Progressive Era" by historians, "modernism" by American literary scholars, and the "Harlem Renaissance" by AfricanAmerican historians and literary scholars. In this interdisciplinary, cross-racial cultural study, English asserts that the content of the various writings in this period in American history was shaped by new national struggles such as immigration, migration, and intraracial breeding. English examines the similarities and differences of eugenic ideology and its challengers as seen in literary, medical, and sociological texts. Furthermore, through the works of vastly disparate writers such as W.E.B. DuBois, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, "New Negro" female playwrights such as Angelica Weld Grimke, and white female eugenics field workers, English argues that modern American literature mirrored the social, political, and scientific climate of the day. She justifies her selection of DuBois, Eliot, and Stein as being representative of the American modernist movement, the Progressive Era, and the Harlem Renaissance according to contemporary literary scholars. Along the lines of Gail Bederman's Manliness and Civilization? English emphasizes the "shared intellectual contexts of white and black modern writers" (p. 22), while recognizing that these writers' own personal conditions (race, gender, and social class) influenced their thinking and writing. In the introduction, English traces eugenic thinking and its Utopian roots back to England's nineteenth-century social philosopher Herbert Spencer and social scientist Sir Francis Galten. She explains how this ideology spread to America and made its way into all facets of American life. Then, in the first three chapters, specific writers and their texts are analyzed. In Chapter 1, the writings of the influential African-American leader W.E.B. DuBois are examined. Editor of the NAACP's magazine entitled Crisis, DuBois championed African-American uplift and fought for civil rights long before the term was coined. At the same time, English argues, DuBois was a proponent of eugenic thinking, as evidenced by his racial uplift discourse. In a 1922 edition of Crisis, for example, DuBois states: "...In time efficiency and brains and beauty are going to be well-bred in the American Negro race" (p. 48). This was not racist, according to English. However, it was elitist: DuBois envisioned a "better social and political future" (p. 64) for people of color that could be achieved through aesthetics and selective reproduction. In Chapter 2, English examines the modernist author T.S. Eliot's writings and poetry. To her surprise, she discovers Eliot, a social and political conservative with strong religious prescriptions for cultural improvement, to be a less than passionate eugenics supporter. In Chapter 3, the writings of the avantgarde feminist writer Gertrude Stein are explored. Stein registered a feminist protest against conventional literary and medical techniques, but she also perpetuated quite conventional racist portraits of African Americans. English examines Stein s writings in the context of not only eugenics but also of the battle between obstetrics and midwifery that was being waged at the time. English contends there is an undercurrent of anxiety regarding the fecundity of the immigrant woman in America in Stein's writings. …


The purpose of this study is to identify which product designs for parts and directions are most effective, and then propose how perceptional information could best be designed to facilitate user-product interaction. Three categories of perceptional information for product operational tasks were proposed in this study. Task analysis and usability evaluations were carried out to analyze what information users required while they practiced the operational tasks. Finally, a primary model was proposed that revealed and defined specific types of entities and different perceptual information— Behavioural Information (BI), Assemblage Information (AI), and Conventional Information (CI)— to be significant elements for the model. Information for specific applications that is available for various types of vacuum cleaner parts is described below: 1) for specific operational tasks, these applications for operability, functionality and operational directions are required for the user-part category, and BI and CI provide effective support for the applications; 2) the application for assembly-ability is required for the part-part category, and AI and CI provide effective support for this application; and 3) the applications for operability, functionality, operational directions, and assembly-ability are required for the user-part-part category. BI and CI provide effective support for the applications for operability, functionality, whereas operational directions, and AI and CI provide effective support for the application for assembly-ability.


Prototypes are considered to be efficient tools in engineering design as they help to reveal flaws in ideas and concepts, highlighting problems to be solved. Limited research has been conducted in detail about prototyping activities that have contributed to the increase of designers ideas in the design process. This study explores the use of prototypes to generate more ideas compared to the designers that were not involve with prototypes in design process. It also investigates how prototypes enhance designers idea by involving 45 participants in three separate groups in early ideation and concept development process. The aim of this paper is to explore the ability of prototyping to produce creative and innovative ideas in the conceptual phase of design process. Results indicated that the group of participants who were involved with prototypes in their design process produced more amount of ideas compared to the group who did not use it. It also shows prototypes helps designers to generate more creative and innovative ideas .


Regions economically differ from each other – they compete in different products and geographical spaces, exhibit different strengths and weaknesses, and provide different possibilities for growth and development. What fosters growth in one region may hamper it in another. This highly original book presents an accessible methodology for identifying competitors and their particular circumstances in Europe, discusses regional competitiveness from a conceptual perspective and explores both past and future regional development policies in Europe.


In a previous paper it was shown that X-ray evidence led to the conclusion that a series of intermediate structures is formed during the dissociation of the alloy Cu4FeNi3. Attempts to determine these structures failed because they led to X-ray intensities that did not agree with those observed, although their positions were adequately accounted for. In the present paper it is shown that the intensities are modified in a systematic way by extinction, and that, after introducing a correction for extinction, the theory advanced can account for all the data. In the type of structure postulated there is a periodic variation of the lattice parameter. Concentration differences are set up in the alloy at regular intervals, while the coherence of the single-phase lattice remains. The wave-length of the periodicity is of the order of 10-6 cm. On prolonged annealing at constant temperature the diffraction pattern changes gradually. It is possible to follow the wave-length and the amplitude of the periodic variation as a function of time and temperature over a considerable interval. It has been found that the amplitude is independent of time at a given temperature and that the wave-length increases linearly with the logarithm of time. The values of wave-length and amplitude as a function of time and temperature are reproducible within the limit of error, so that the measurements have a quantitative value. After longer times of annealing the diffraction pattern of t-he periodic state gradually changes into another pattern, which can be explained either by a periodic structure with a range of longer periods or by tetragonal lamellae. The bearing of the present observations on the -kinetics of phase change is discussed.


In this investigation, adsorbed heptyl xanthate on a Ge(111) surface was studied, as well as the free heptyl xanthate molecule, by means of first-principle density functional theory calculations. The modeled results were compared with the in situ total internal reflection vibrational spectroscopy spectra of heptyl xanthate adsorbed on a germanium internal reflection element and the transmission infrared spectrum of a heptyl xanthate ion in aqueous solution. The assignments of the vibrational frequencies were done for the adsorbed xanthate. The region between 1150 and 1000 cm-1 seems suitable for discussing differences between an adsorbed xanthate and its corresponding ion. The modeled spectra for both the adsorbed xanthate and the xanthate ion are in good agreement with the experimentally retrieved spectra. This investigation shows the strength of using DFT calculations in the interpretation of absorption bands from molecules adsorbed at surfaces in situ.


Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) of lipids within tissues has significant potential for both biomolecular discovery and histopathological applications. Conventional MSI technologies are, however, challenged by the prevalence of phospholipid regioisomers that differ only in the location(s) of carbon–carbon double bonds and/or the relative position of fatty acyl attachment to the glycerol backbone (i.e., sn position). The inability to resolve isomeric lipids within imaging experiments masks underlying complexity, resulting in a critical loss of metabolic information. Herein, ozone-induced dissociation (OzID) is implemented on a mobility-enabled quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometer capable of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). Exploiting the ion mobility region in the Q-TOF, high number densities of ozone were accessed, leading to ∼1000-fold enhancement in the abundance of OzID product ions compared to earlier MALDI-OzID implementations. Translation of this uplift into imaging resulted in a 50-fold improvement in acquisition rate, facilitating large-area mapping with resolution of phospholipid isomers. Mapping isomer distributions across rat brain sections revealed distinct distributions of lipid isomer populations with region-specific associations of isomers differing in double bond and sn positions. Moreover, product ions arising from sequential ozone- and collision-induced dissociation enabled double bond assignments in unsaturated fatty acyl chains esterified at the noncanonical sn-1 position.


In the short time following its release, Bjorn Lomborg's book, 'The Skeptical Environmentalist', has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy and polarized reaction. The work has attracted downright fawning reviews in The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post while simultaneously garnering absolute scorn from such ordinarily staid publications as Science, Nature, and Scientific American. To this author's knowledge, however, no academic journal yet has published a sustained analysis of the work and its implications for environmental science, law, and policy. This review essay attempts to fill that niche by undertaking a thorough assessment of Lomborg's argument, his evidence, and his significance to the environment-development discussion. Part I provides a critical review of Lomborg's claim that available scientific research undermines the 'Litany' of fears and concerns espoused by advocates of environmental protection. Part II examines Lomborg's argument that environmental policy, risk regulation, and other subjects of social decision making are best addressed through an exclusive and narrowly defined use of cost-benefit analysis. Some thoughts on less technocratic forms of cost-benefit analysis conclude the essay.


Abstract The author analyses delegation in homogenous duopoly under the assumption that firmmanagers compete in supply functions. He reverses earlier findings in that owners give managers incentives to act in an accommodating way. That is, optimal delegation reduces per-firm output and increases profits to above-Cournot profits. Moreover, in supply function equilibrium, the mode of competition is endogenous. This means that the author avoids results that are sensitive with respect to assuming either Cournot or Bertrand competition.


Set in 1884, this is the first installment in what has become a beloved bestselling series. At thirty-two, strong-willed Amelia Peabody, a self-proclaimed spinster, decides to use her ample inheritance to indulge her passion, Egyptology. On her way to Egypt, Amelia encounters a young woman named Evelyn Barton-Forbes. The two become fast friends and travel on together, encountering mysteries, missing mummies, and Radcliffe Emerson, a dashing and opinionated archaeologist who doesn't need a...


This paper examines the context of boys' performance in design and technology, a subject which has evolved from a traditionally male-dominated subject to one where girls are achieving higher levels of examination success than boys at all levels. By examining the extent of girls' superiority over boys in design and technology, and the changing role of boys and males in society, the many reasons for the notional underachievement of boys can be explored. From the literary review and school-based study that took place, assessment arises as the essential mechanism in defining underachievement. This paper concludes with the proposal that before labelling any group as underachievers, the system that defines underachievement must be fully investigated.


The role of solar geomagnetic factors on the upper atmosphere is though well studied, their effects at the lower atmosphere are yet to be understood. The paper is an attempt to examine association if any between ionospheric variabilities and lower atmospheric parameters at different solar geomagnetic ambiances. For this purpose total electron content (TEC) data collected at Gauhati University (26°10' N, 91°45' E) from GPS observation and temperature and wind data received from Radiosonde and satellite data are utilized. The study carried out for Low, Medium and High solar activity conditions. The result shows strong association of positive and negative ionospheric effects on tropopause temperature during strong geomagnetic storm situation in high solar ambiances. The possible causes especially related to appleton anomaly crest zone are highlighted.


Calmodulin (CAM) is recognized as a major intermediary in intracellular calcium signaling, but as yet little is known of its role in developmental and behavioral processes. We have generated and studied mutations to the endogenous Cam gene of Drosophila melanogaster that change single amino acids within the protein coding region. One of these mutations produces a striking pupal lethal phenotype involving failure of head eversion. Various mutant combinations produce specific patterns of ectopic wing vein formation or melanotic scabs on the cuticle. Anaphase chromosome bridging is also seen as a maternal effect during the early embryonic nuclear divisions. In addition, specific behavioral defects such as poor climbing and flightlessness are detected among these mutants. Comparisons with other Drosophila mutant phenotypes suggests potential CAM targets that may mediate these developmental and behavioral effects, and analysis of the CAM crystal structure suggests the structural consequences of the individual mutations.


In Japan, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is widely used as a measure of inflation or the cost of living. The CPI is constructed by using a fixed-weight Laspeyres formula. This formula is used mainly because of its ease of calculation and comprehension, thus limiting the total cost of constructing the statistics. However, such simplicity makes it difficult for the CPI to reflect dynamic changes in economic activity such as changes in consumers' behavior between goods in response to relative price fluctuation, the introduction of new goods, and the disappearance of old goods. As a result, measurement errors are introduced into the CPI. In this paper, I summarize the problems pertaining to measurement errors inherent in the Japanese CPI, and provide some quantitative assessment. Based on currently available information, I place the point estimate for overall bias in the CPI at about 0.90 percentage point per year. Although this is the best estimate taking into account all information currently available, it is true that the estimate was based on various, rather bold assumptions. In addition, it should be noted that accuracy of the estimate is not necessarily high due to the lack of existing studies in this field in Japan.


Vectors represent an important role in the transmission of Salmonella in pigs by introducing these microorganisms on farms, constituting source of contamination or receptors in the existing infections on farms. In order to emphasize the role of vectors in the transmission of Salmonella in pigs, in the present study was started by collecting and analyzing samples of faeces from pigs, and vectors (rats / mice, birds, insects) nearby. Out of 100 collected faecal samples from pigs, a total of 40% (40/100) of samples were positive Salmonella spp. Analyzing the 50 samples of stool collected from mice and rats, it was found a total of 30% (15/50) positive samples, from birds of the 50 samples collected 26% (13/50) samples were positive, and of the 30 insects analyzed, 20% (6/30) samples were positive for Salmonella spp. The most common serovars isolated by means of API 20 E, such as pigs and vectors were S. Typhimurim, and S. Choleraesuis, S. Derby was isolated only in pigs. Based on these results we can say that the vectors constitute an important role in the spread of Salmonella in pig farms, but the role of rodents seems to be more relevant to other vectors in the study (birds, insects). Therefore to reduce the risk of contamination of pigs with Salmonella spp. are necessary for the application of control measures on farms.


For the past two decades, a growing amount of research has shown that the use of analogies in science teaching and learning promotes meaningful understanding of complex scientific concepts (Gentner, 1983; Glynn, 1989; Harrison & Treagust, 1993; Wong, 1993). This article presents a study in which multiple analogies were used as scaffolding to link students' prior understanding of daily life events to knowledge of the scientific domain. The study was designed to investigate how multiple analogies influence student learning of a complex scientific concept: the electric circuit. We used several analogies in a set of learning materials to present the concepts of parallel and series circuits. Thirty-two fourth graders participated in this study and were randomly assigned to four groups. The four groups were named nonanalogy (control), single analogy, similar analogies, and complementary analogies, according to the materials they used in this study. The results demonstrated that using analogies not only promoted profound understanding of complex scientific concepts (such as electricity), but it also helped students overcome their misconceptions of these concepts. In particular, we found that the reason the students had difficulty understanding the concept of electricity was because of their ontological presupposition of the concept. Implications for teaching and learning are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 429–464, 2005


Measuring population health is vital for creating effective health interventions and policies, informing resource allocation, guiding health impact assessment, and identifying the determinants of health across diverse settings. The aim of this brief is to review the methodological issues related to measuring health within and across countries and outline recommendations for improving health measurement. Population health can be measured using macro-level and micro-level indicators. While macro- or population-level data provides a broad picture or summary of health, (e.g. life expectancy, infant mortality and health-adjusted life expectancy), micro- or individual-level data comprise a variety of objective and self-assessed indicators on specific aspects or dimensions of health. Population summary measures although useful for estimating the overall population health and the global burden of disease, may provide minimal indication of the underlying factors that may be influencing health attainment in a country. While efforts have been made to combine mortality and morbidity, e.g. in healthy- and disability-adjusted life expectancy, these methods have been criticized on the grounds of methodological limitations. Avoidable mortality – or causes of death that should be avoided in the presence of timely and effective health care – represents an alternative measure of population health that can be better attributed to the health system, broader public health policies and also changes in lifestyles. On the micro-level, objective health measures such as blood pressure and body mass index are important both clinically and from a health system perspective, but they are often more expensive to collect and may be subject to measurement error. Conversely, self-assessed measures such as general health (usually ranging from excellent to poor) and limitations in daily activities although commonly available, are sensitive to variations in socio-economic conditions, individual expectations as well as wording and meaning of assessment questions. Developing an index of health on the basis of several indicators, or including vignettes in surveys are two possible methods of reducing systematic bias associated with general measures of self-assessed health. Significant advances have been made at EU-level to systematically measure health status. However improved longitudinal data is needed to make robust causal determinations about health. In addition, while extensive information is collected at national level, better international coordination of survey design and implementation would help facilitate and improve cross-country comparisons. These efforts will help to provide decision-makers with more accurate and meaningful information necessary to develop policies and programmes that most effectively address health needs and inequalities within limited resources.