With the rapid advances in data transmission over various advanced underwater acoustic networks, it is important to develop the efficient protocol to obtain a high data-rate with QoS guarantee requirements for acoustic wireless communications. Because of the harsh underwater acoustic environments, such as time-varying network topology and channel conditions, limited bandwidth and constrained underwater signal propagation, we develop and implement the multi-hop adaptive RTT-driven transport layer flow and error control protocol (ARTFEC) for QoS guaranteed image transmission in underwater wireless networks. ARTFEC is based on the congestion window size control and the Q-learning optimal timeout selection with QoS provisioning. For the congestion window size control, we propose an RTT-based data flow control policy to adapt to the varying acoustic channel environments, aiming to guarantee the reliability and high data rate of data transmission. In addition, we develop a Q-learning based optimal timeout selection algorithm to improve the channel utilization efficiency, which can increase the end-to-end throughput while decreasing the packet loss rate. We implement ARTFEC using our lab testbed, which consists of the Aqua-Net protocol stack and the acoustic OFDM modems. The simulation results obtained show that our developed ARTFEC transport layer protocol outperforms the other existing reliable data transmission schemes, in terms of end-to-end throughput and packet loss rate.


Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) is frequently considered the most significant American female composer in this century. Joining Aaron Copland and Henry Cowell as a key member of the 1920s musical avant-garde, she went on to study with modernist theorist and future husband Charles Seeger, writing her masterpiece, String Quartet 1931, not long after. But her legacy extends far beyond the cutting edge of modern music. Collaborating with poet Carl Sandburg on folk song arrangements in the twenties, and with the famous folk-song collectors John and Alan Lomax in the 1930s, she emerged as a central figure in the American folk music revival, issuing several important books of adaptations (transcriptions and arrangements) and pioneering the use of American folk songs in children's music education. Radicalized by the Depression, she spent much of the ensuing two decades working aggressively for social change with her husband and stepson, the folksinger Pete Seeger. This engrossing new biography emphasizes the choices Crawford Seeger made in her roles as composer, activist, teacher, wife and mother. The first woman to win a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in music composition, Crawford Seeger nearly gave up writing music as the demands of family, politics, and the folk song movement intervened. It was only at the very end of her life, with cancer sapping her strength, that she returned to composing. Written with unique insight and compassion, this book offers the definitive treatment of a fascinating twentieth-century figure.


Adoption of the recommended breast-feeding and complementary feeding behaviors and access to the appropriate quality and quantity of foods are essential components of optimal nutrition for infants and young children between ages 6 and 24 mo. Iron, zinc and vitamin B-6 are deficient in complementary food diets in Bangladesh, Ghana, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. Low intakes of iron are consistent with a high prevalence of anemia seen in this age group. The adequacy of observed intakes for calcium, vitamin A, thiamin, folate and vitamin C depends on the age range in question and the set of requirements used in the assessment. The lipid content of many complementary food diets is low. In addition to providing essential fatty acids, lipids are needed for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and also enhance the texture, flavor and aroma of foods, which may lead to increased intake. The relative roles of palatability, micronutrient deficiency and morbidity-induced anorexia in the appetite of infants and young children are not known. However, even among children who were growth retarded and had a total energy deficit compared with requirements, up to 25% of food offered was not consumed. This indicates that dietary quality rather than quantity is the key aspect of complementary food diets that needs to be improved. Targeted fortification or the production of complementary foods fortified with micronutrients and of an adequate macroand micronutrient composition is one approach to help meet nutritional requirements during the vulnerable period of 6–24 mo. J. Nutr. 133: 2941S-2949S, 2003.


Abstract Effects of disease progression on healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and costs among multiple myeloma (MM) patients with ≥1 line of therapy (LOT) and without receipt of stem cell transplant were estimated using large US claims database. Disease progression was defined as advancement to the next LOT, bone metastasis, hypercalcemia, soft tissue plasmacytoma, skeletal related events, acute kidney failure, or death within 12 months of LOT initiation. Annual HRU and costs in the first four LOTs were compared for patients with versus without progression using inverse probability of treatment weighting to adjust for differences between groups in baseline characteristics. In all LOTs, mean annual hospitalizations and healthcare costs were greater for patients with versus without progression. Total incremental annual costs among patients with versus without progression in 1LOT to 4LOT were $25,920, $30,632, $47,320, and $19,769, respectively. For MM patients receiving drug therapy, the economic burden of disease progression is substantial.


This laboratory study investigated the efficiency and aggressiveness of metallic and carbonic inserts of a vertically oscillating ultrasonic device (Vector-system) at different power settings. The following parameters concerning periodontal treatment were assessed under standardized conditions: calculus and tooth substance removal, mean surface roughness and micro morphological appearance of the treated roots. Concerning the calculus removal potential, no significant differences were found between the types of insert used. The carbon fibre inserts, however, showed significantly more tooth substance loss than the metallic inserts. These findings were confirmed by micromorphological SEM analysis. In view of these results, the repeated use of these carbon fiber inserts during periodonatal sustaining therapy cannot be recommended.


Besides attracting a billion dollar economy, Bitcoin revolutionized the field of digital currencies and influenced many adjacent areas. This also induced significant scientific interest. In this survey, we unroll and structure the manyfold results and research directions. We start by introducing the Bitcoin protocol and its building blocks. From there we continue to explore the design space by discussing existing contributions and results. In the process, we deduce the fundamental structures and insights at the core of the Bitcoin protocol and its applications. As we show and discuss, many key ideas are likewise applicable in various other fields, so that their impact reaches far beyond Bitcoin itself.


Children and youth who are hospitalized for a short or long term become socially isolated from their family, school and classmates. As their isolation increases, so does their vulnerability as a result of disrupted schooling. Research studies suggest different ways of using technologies to overcome this isolation and support children during this critical time of their lives. With technology for children in hospitals becoming increasingly commonplace, evaluating how it is used and its impact on children's learning and well-being is necessary. In this paper, we systematically evaluated existing research on use of technologies for communication, support and educational purposes and its contribution to the well-being of hospitalized children. A rigorous selection process yielded 14 research articles meeting the following criteria: empirical studies, using technologies for network of support, targeting hospitalized children and adolescents and targeting learning or social and emotional well-being in the last decade. This review indicates that the use of technologies with children and youth in hospitals generally increased their potential for learning and improved connectivity with school. Our findings revealed that implementing digital pedagogies and creating online communities were helpful but underutilized features in the research.


We establish the inexistence of countable bases for the family of definable cardinals associated with countable Borel equivalence relations which are not measure reducible to E0, thereby ruling out natural generalizations of the Glimm-Effros dichotomy. We also push the primary known results concerning the abstract structure of the Borel cardinal hierarchy nearly to its base, using arguments substantially simpler than those previously employed. Our main tool is a strong notion of separability, which holds of orbit equivalence relations induced by group actions satisfying an appropriate measureless local rigidity property.


As exemplified in writings by Carl Dahlhaus and Georg Knepler, a debate about music historiography took place in East and West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. A comparison between two books, Dahlhaus9s Grundlagen der Musikgeschichte (Foundations of Music History) and Knepler9s Geschichte als Weg zum Musikverstaandnis (History as a Means of Understanding Music), both published in 1977, is instructive as a measure of the two poles of the Methodenstreit: the one centered around music as autonomous work, the other around music as a human activity. The central questions raised prove uncannily current. The two scholars, who knew each other and respected each other9s work, were both based in Berlin; but with Dahlhaus in the West and Knepler in the East, they represented the two different political systems that existed in the divided city between 1945 and 1989. In their work, and especially in these two books, Dahlhaus and Knepler defended their own positions and sought to point out weaknesses in the other side. While Dahlhaus9s work is well known in English-speaking musicology, Knepler9s is not. His contribution to music history and historiography was comparable to Dahlhaus9s in importance, however, and his ideas anticipate many tenets of the "new musicology."


ABSTRACT Objectives: Maintaining good cognitive function with aging may be aided by technology such as computers, tablets, and their applications. Little research so far has investigated whether internet use helps to maintain cognitive function over time. Design: Two population-based studies with a longitudinal design from 2001/2003 (T1) to 2007/2010 (T2). Setting: Sweden and the Netherlands. Participants: Older adults aged 66 years and above from the Swedish National Study on Ageing and Care (N = 2,564) and from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (N = 683). Measurements: Internet use was self-reported. Using the scores from the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) from T1 and T2, both a difference score and a significant change index was calculated. Linear and logistic regression analysis were performed with difference score and significant change index, respectively, as the dependent variable and internet use as the independent variable, and adjusted for sex, education, age, living situation, and functional limitations. Using a meta-analytic approach, summary coefficients were calculated across both studies. Results: Internet use at baseline was 26.4% in Sweden and 13.3% in the Netherlands. Significant cognitive decline over six years amounted to 9.2% in Sweden and 17.0% in the Netherlands. Considering the difference score, the summary linear regression coefficient for internet use was −0.32 (95% CI: −0.62, −0.02). Considering the significant change index, the summary odds ratio for internet use was 0.54 (95% CI: 0.37, 0.78). Conclusions: The results suggest that internet use might play a role in maintaining cognitive functioning. Further research into the specific activities that older adults are doing on the internet may shine light on this issue.


Two research areas are covered in this thesis: the formulation of a novel evolutionary combinatorial optimisation algorithm for energy storage system (ESS) scheduling, and web-based power systems analysis (WBPSA) using PHP programming. An increase in electricity demand usually calls for reinforcement of the network equipment to handle the new load and network operators sometimes postpone or avoid this reinforcement by using ESS to store electrical energy when network usage is low and release it to be used in the grid during periods of high demand. The ESS operation must be scheduled to be effective and there are several scheduling methods that depend on energy generation data, flexible time-of-use tariffs or closed loop set-points. This thesis proposes a method that uses only historic or forecasted demand data which is also a requirement for other methods. The methodology formulates an electricity demand profile and ESS as a combination of the one-dimensional bin packing problem and the subset sum problem and solves them heuristically with specific modifications and transformations to obtain viable schedules. The schedules may then be optimised further using genetic algorithm optimisation. Comparative analyses with other algorithms and case studies using real-world data are used for verification. The algorithm is shown to be effective and has some advantages when compared to other existing algorithms; hence it can be used in scenarios where other methods are not applicable. On the second topic the thesis explores web-based power systems analysis platforms and shows that most use a web server primarily as an interface for exchanging requests and results between a front-end web browser and specialised back-end computation software written in a general programming language. A web server runs programs written in scripting languages such as PHP, which is the most popular web server programming language. Recent versions of web scripting languages have the computational capabilities required for power systems analysis and can handle the task of modelling networks and analysing them. This provides an opportunity for a slimmer 2-tier framework in which the web server also acts as the computation layer. The requirements for general power systems modelling are discussed and a methodology for realising web-based simulation using PHP programming is developed. Some of the modelling functions are handled natively in PHP and some require the use of extensions. The results show that using PHP for simulations can result in simpler access to power systems analysis functions in websites and web applications. The memory consumed by the PHP library developed is seen to be low and the computation time for reasonably large networks is in the millisecond range.


A photoacoustic (PA) spectrometer with H-type first longitudinal resonant cells for ammonia detection is developed. A new PA cell structure is designed to accelerate the drift velocity of the sample gas near the cell surface, so that the short response time at the flow rate of 100 sccm (standard cubic centimeter per minute) is achieved. The response time of 5 min and detection limit of 0.86 ppbv is reached for ammonia concentration measurement with a Teflon polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) cell. Further improvement could be expected when using a brass cell with a high quality Teflon fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) coating.


This contribution investigates the hierarchical control of decentralized discrete event systems (DES) that are synchronized by shared events. A hierarchical control architecture providing hierarchical consistency is introduced. Moreover, it allows for composition of decentralized subsystems on the high-level of the hierarchy and hence reduces the computational complexity of supervisory control synthesis for language inclusion specifications. In this context, a crucial issue is the nonblocking operation of the overall system. Our main theorem identifies sufficient conditions for this desirable property.


The present article has as its aim to illustrate and discuss the impacts of individualization strategies on equity educational policies through the analysis of individualized teaching strategies applied within the framework of educational priority policies in Sweden. The methodology used in our research work includes: (a) the study of research literature about the individualization of teaching implemented in the Swedish comprehensive compulsory school; and (b) the study of research literature about educational priority policies aimed at children from socially and ethnically segregated areas. Comparative research of educational policies considers the individualization of teaching carried out in the Swedish comprehensive compulsory school as a relevant explanation for the successful application of equitable educational policies in that country. However, research studies published during the 2000s in Sweden show a more complex perspective regarding the effects of individualized teaching strategies. This contribution reviews European comparative research studies on individualization strategies followed in the context of equity policies. It raises questions about the lack of analyses referring to the impacts of individualization on schools located in socially and ethnically segregated areas. It argues that this ideology tends to reduce the issue of school failure to ethnic segregation and individualized teacher support. This article claims that individualization strategies based on differentiated curricula for students run the risk of increasing the discrimination of students for reasons of language or ethnic background. Even though the present study focuses on the Swedish experience, it can lead to a better understanding of the impacts caused by individualization strategies on equity in other European countries.


An underwater glider is a buoyancy-driven, fixed-wing underwater vehicle that redistributes internal mass to control attitude. We examine the dynamics of a glider restricted to the vertical plane and derive a feedback law that stabilizes steady glide paths. The control law is physically motivated and with the appropriate choice of output can be interpreted as providing input-output feedback linearization. With this choice of output, we extend the feedback linearization approach to design control laws to coordinate the gliding motion of multiple underwater gliders.


In an age of increased necessity for competitiveness of nations and at a time when the world economy is facing recession, this book explores the possible trajectory of ASEAN – arguably one of the most dynamic areas in the world – as a regional economic and political bloc. The expert contributors address the industrial competitiveness of ASEAN and analyse the role of MNEs against the background of the challenges of integration. They illustrate that regional integration will only be a success if ASEAN's linkages are broadened with global partners through negotiations of Free Trade Agreements. The book concludes that although much still remains to be done, and many promises are still to be unveiled, ASEAN's 'coming of age' is an historic milestone.


Zoning patterns in a plagioclase porphyroblast in a blastomylonite derived from Lewisian gneiss near Loch Eriboll, northwest Scotland, suggest that the crystal grew during deformation. Discontinuities in the concentrations of CaO, K 2 O, and FeO mark the boundaries of overgrowths and define a core-overgrowth structure. The simultaneous changes in concentration of CaO and K 2 O are used to construct a qualitative chemical potential diagram that reflects changes in a Ca ++/ a 2 H + and a K + / a H + in the coexisting fluid during growth. Increases in these activity ratios are believed to have caused supersaturation of the grain boundary fluids with respect to plagioclase. The repeated periods of growth indicate repeated overstepping of equilibrium, which could have been caused by ion exchange on surfaces newly exposed during deformation. These data fit a model that relates cyclic variations of strain rate in fault zones with cyclic periods of crystal growth, which in turn could have a major influence on fault rock rheology.


Crowdsourcing is often applied for the task of replacing the scarce or expensive labour of experts with that of untrained workers. In this paper, we argue, that this objective might not always be desirable, but that we should instead aim at leveraging the considerable work force of the crowd in order to support the highly trained expert. In this paper, we demonstrate this different paradigm on the example of detecting malignant breast cancer in medical images. We compare the effectiveness and efficiency of experts to that of crowd workers, finding significantly better performance at greater cost. In a second series of experiments, we show how the comparably cheap results produced by crowdsourcing workers can serve to make experts more efficient AND more effective at the same time.


In this paper we present a detailed examine of identification codes, their embeddedness
in everyday life, and how recent trends are qualitatively altering their nature and power.
Developing a Foucaultian analysis we argue that identification codes are key
components of governmentality and capitalism. They provide a means of representing,
collating, sorting, categorising, matching, profiling, regulating; of generating
information, knowledge and control through processes of abstraction, computation,
modelling and classification. Identification codes now provide a means of unique
addressing all the entities and processes that make up everyday life – people, material
objects, information, transactions and territories. Moreover, they provide a means of
linking these entities and processes together in complex ways to form dense rhizomic
assemblages of power/knowledge. At present, however, the information that
identification codes provide access to are, at best, olgopticon in nature; that is they
afford only partial and selective views. In the latter part of the paper we outline four
trends – wide scale trawling for data, increased granularity, forever storage, and
enhanced processing and analysis – that seek to convert these partial olgopticons into
more panoptic arrangements. In turn, we contend that these trends are part of a larger
meta-trend – the creation of a machine-readable world in which identification codes can
be systematically and automatically 'read' and acted on by software independent of
human control. This meta-trend is supported and driven by interlocking discourses such as safety, security, efficiency, anti-fraud, citizenship/empowerment, productivity,
reliability, flexibility, economic rationality, and competitive advantage to construct
powerful, supportive discursive regimes.


Nodal and Lefty dynamics in vivo provide biological evidence for Turing patterns. Turing proposed a reaction-diffusion model composed of a long-range inhibitor and a short-range activator, which drives production of itself and the inhibitor, to account for the formation of complex patterns in nature. Although Turing's model produces patterns similar to those found in biological systems, and although inhibitors and activators with differences in range are found in biology, it is unclear how the required differences in activator and inhibitor ranges are generated in vivo. Difference in ranges could be due either to differences in diffusivity or rate of clearance of the two signals. Müller et al. examined this question in the context of Nodal and Lefty signaling during zebrafish embryogenesis. The Nodal proteins Cyclops and Squint act as short-range activators, and Lefty1 and Lefty2 are long-range inhibitors. Nodal signals enhance their own production and production of Lefty1 and Lefty2. The authors measured distributions of fluorescent Nodal and Lefty proteins in blastula-stage embryos using microscopy. The results of pulse-labeling assays showed that the half-lives of Nodal and Lefty proteins were very similar, despite large differences in range. Fluorescence recovery assays enabled analysis of the mobility of the proteins on a faster time scale than the half-life of the proteins and showed that the diffusion coefficients of Lefty proteins were much larger than those of Nodal proteins, reflecting the differences in their ranges. Thus, for Nodal and Lefty, diffusivity plays a primary role in governing signal range and serves as the biophysical basis for pattern formation during this stage of embryogenesis. The measured biophysical properties of Nodal and Lefty proteins also provide experimental support for Turing's reaction-diffusion model of morphogenesis. P. Müller, K. W. Rogers, B. M. Jordan, J. S. Lee, D. Robson, S. Ramanathan, A. F. Schier, Differential diffusivity of Nodal and Lefty underlies a reaction-diffusion patterning system. Science 336, 721–724 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is being stressed across the America West from a variety of sources including drought, herbivory, fire suppression, development, and past management practices. Rich assemblages of plants and animals that utilize aspen forests, as well as economic values of tourism, grazing, hunting, and water conservation, make aspen ecosystems among the most valuable vegetation types in this region. The 43-ha Pando clone near Fish Lake, Utah, is an iconic example of an aspen community undergoing rapid decline due to overstory mortality and chronic recruitment failure. As part of a larger project to restore Pando, we fenced, treated, and monitored a portion of this famous grove with the intent of documenting regeneration responses and using such practices at larger scales. Twenty-seven randomly stratified monitoring plots were placed across this landscape in order to better understand herbivory and regeneration responses to distinct treatment categories: protected and unprotected, and passive (fenced only) and active (burning, shrub removal, selective overstory cutting) treatments. At each site, we measured basal area and mortality on mature trees, made counts of juvenile and intermediate suckers, documented browse levels and herbivore scat presence, and characterized environmental conditions in terms of aspen and common juniper cover, treatment type, elevation, slope, and aspect. Our results confirmed a positive regeneration response to browsing cessation after fencing, whereas non-fenced areas showed no improvement. Within the fence, there was a significantly better response of active treatment vs. passive and there was no significant difference between treatment types in terms of level of regeneration. Both active and passive management produced regeneration levels that were sufficient to replace dying canopy trees if managers continue to protect suckers until they exceed the reach of browsers. These results support a growing body of research suggesting managers need to invest in continuous protection from herbivory in stable aspen forests, as well as targeting additional post-treatment protection, to ensure adequate regeneration. We examine ramifications of these results for broader restoration purposes in the remainder of Pando, as well as other aspen communities regionally, with the ultimate goal of restoring ecological process toward greater ecosystem resilience.


Total E&P Qatar (TEPQ) have made a significant effort to test new approaches to improve its current production metering systems for multiphase flow conditions. New technologies are tested through pilot applications on field. One of which is the use of advanced data validation and reconciliation (DVR) in oil and gas production activities. The goal is to reconcile in real-time the measured data and estimate all new information from a plant, which are not continuously measured. In this case, the target is the three phase flow rates: oil, water and gas. The study intends to provide a summary of the achievements, benefits and lessons learned from the application of DVR pilot on multiphase flow metering in Total's field in Qatar. This field is operated by Total under a production sharing agreement with Qatar Petroleum. Theoretically, the DVR approach uses information redundancy to correct data and re-evaluate its accuracy. Direct measurements and model parameters are processed at the same time. The input data consists of pressure volume temperature measurements (fluid) and electrical power consumption (motor current, voltage & frequency). We have derived models to estimate the flow rates of the three phases on the basis of these input data. Simultaneously, thanks to the reconciliation process, the input data are corrected with respect to material and energy balances. The output results constitute a set of reconciled data and calculated information with high accuracy. The DVR pilot is currently in the process of finalization to become an operational tool. Online acquisition and processing is performed and daily reporting is shared among operational engineering teams. It was found that the major challenge was related to the modelling of production equipments. A significantly longer period of time was allocated to better understand their actual behaviour in real environments. In conclusion, this pilot study of new approaches has allowed us to enhance the reliability of our metering system and increase our efficiency for installation assessments. Moreover, these findings will allow researchers to conduct further studies with more operational challenges. Further conclusions will be presented in this paper.


The National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) proposed macrobroth reference method (M27P) for susceptibility testing of yeasts is technically difficult. We evaluated Etest, a simple agar-based MIC methodology, as a possible alternative. In studies of six yeast quality control strains, Etest yielded results identical to those obtained by the NCCLS reference method for both amphotericin B and fluconazole. In studies of 91 clinical Candida isolates, agreement +/- 2 dilutions between the two methods was 95% for fluconazole with phosphate-buffered RPMI 1640 agar and 96 to 97% for amphotericin B with either MOPS (morpholinepropanesulfonic acid)-buffered RPMI 1640 agar or antibiotic medium 3 agar. While the two methods had excellent general agreement, testing of a collection of amphotericin B-resistant isolates demonstrated that, unlike the NCCLS reference method, Etest readily identified the resistant isolates and could do so with a defined medium. Etest is equivalent to the NCCLS proposed method for susceptibility testing of yeasts and superior in its ability to detect amphotericin B resistance.


The need for high-speed/high-precision machine tools is swiftly increasing in response to the growth of production technology that necessitates high- recision parts and high productivity. The influence of thermally induced errors in machine tools can have a much greater influence on the dimensional tolerances of the final products produced as compared to geometric and cutting force errors. Therefore, to maintain high accuracy of machine tool, it requires an accurate method of thermal error control or compensation using a detailed model.
The thermal errors of machine tools are induced by the propagation of heat through the structure of the machine due to excitation of internal and external heat sources such as belt drives, motors and bearings. There has been significant research effort to model thermal errors of machine tools in recent decades. The utilised techniques have proved their capabilities with excellent thermal prediction and compensation results but they often involve significant effort for effective implementation with constraints for complexity, robustness, and cost.
One of the most significant drawbacks of modelling machine behaviour using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is the difficulty of accurately obtaining the characteristic of heat transfer, such as heat power of machine tool heat sources and the various boundary conditions.
The aims of this research to provide reliable techniques to obtain heat transfer coefficients of
machine tools in order to improve the accuracy of FEA simulations. FEA is used to simulate the thermal characteristics of spindle system of small Vertical Machining Centre (VMC) using SolidWorks Simulation software.
Most FEA models of machine tools employ the general prediction technique based on formulae, provided by OEMs, to identify many of the boundary conditions associated with simulating thermal error in machine tools. The formulae method was used to identify the heat transfer coefficients of a small VMC feed drive system. Employing these values allowed FEA to be used to simulate the thermal characteristics of the feed drive model. In addition, an alternative efficient methodology, based on energy balance calculations and thermal imaging, was used to obtain the heat transfer coefficients of the same feed drive system. Then the parameters obtained were applied to the FEA model of the system and validated against experimental results. The residual thermal error was reduced to just 20 % when the energy balance method was employed and compared with a residual of 30 %, when the formulae method was employed.
The existing energy balance method was also used to obtain the heat transfer coefficients of the headslide on a small VMC based on thermal imaging data. Then FEA model of the headslide of VMC was created and simulated. There was significant reduction in the thermal error but significant uncertainties in the method were identified suggesting that further improvements could be made.
An additional novel Two Dimensional (2D) optimisation technique based on thermal imaging data was created and used to calibrate the calculated heat transfer coefficients of the headslide of a small sized machine tool. In order to optimise the heat power of various heat sources, a 2D model of surface temperature of the headslide was created in Matlab software and compared against the experimental data both spatially across a plane and over time in order to take into account time varying heat loads. The effectiveness of the technique was proved using FEA models of the machine and comparison with test data from the machine tool. Significant improvement was achieved with correlation of 85 % between simulated thermal characteristics and the experimental data


In what I call a structural reform prosecution, prosecutors secure the cooperation of an organization in adopting internal reforms. No scholars have considered the problem of prosecutors seeking structural reform remedies, perhaps because until recently organizational prosecutions were themselves infrequent. In the past few years, however, federal prosecutors adopted a bold new prosecutorial strategy under which dozens of leading corporations entered into demanding settlements, including AIG, American Online, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Computer Associates, HealthSouth, KPMG, MCI, Merrill Lynch & Co, Monsanto, and Time Warner. To situate the DOJ's latest strategy, I frame alternatives to the pursuit of structural reform remedies as well as five alternative ways prosecutors can pursue structural reforms. To better understand what the DOJ accomplished by choosing to pursue structural reform and then doing so at the charging stage, I conducted an empirical study of the terms in all agreements the DOJ has negotiated to date. My study reveals imposition of deep governance reforms, consistent with the purposes of the Sentencing Guidelines, but also perceived prosecutorial abuses and some potential for overreaching. I conclude that given the breadth of prosecutorial discretion and the deferential, limited nature of judicial review, the guidance that the DOJ provides will chiefly define the future development of its emerging structural regime for deterring organizational crime.


The aim of this chapter is to describe the use of bioactive compounds with beneficial effects on human health beyond their basic nutritional value. Bioactive compounds like vitamin E, vitamin C, and fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) have an important nutritional contribution and are related to the prevention of certain diseases with global impact such as cancer. However, the addition of vitamins in a food product is not easy: E is destroyed by UV-light, and C is dramatically reduced during heat processes. The use of liposomes as matrices to hold bioactive compounds appears to be a promising solution. Liposomes were made of natural soybean lecithin, which has a great nutritional importance, and more so combined with stearic acid or calcium stearate (CaS). Thus, this stabilize liposomes and contribute to the stability of bioactive compounds and to preserve their activity. The stability of bioactive compounds/liposomes incorporated into aqueous food must be demonstrated in properties such as oxidative tendency, morphology, size, and membrane packaging after heat treatment processes. But to make a product applicable at the commercial level, its texture and mouthfeel arising from the ingestion of drinkable foods are all-important to consumer's choice and sensory acceptability must not undergo any modification.


The sense of coherence (SOC) concept has been criticized on conceptual and psychometric grounds. The aim of this study was to develop the concept using structural equation modelling. The short 13‐item version of the SOC questionnaire was used and data were collected from two different samples. Each sample consisted of about 2000 individuals, selected to be representative of the Swedish population. A model with a general factor and two subordinate specific factors yielded a satisfactory solution in both samples. The two factors were labelled Social Comprehension and Commitment and Unpleasant Emotions and Inner Tension respectively. It was concluded that the 13‐item SOC scale could to a certain degree be regarded as a measure of negative affectivity and that the suggested model makes the SOC concept more theoretically coherent. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Intellectual property distinguishes a protected work's aesthetic value from its functionality. In so doing, intellectual property law prevents fashion designers from asserting their rights over entire garments. Apparel industry leaders have repeatedly proposed legislation that would overcome this limitation, and the latest in a succession of draft bills is the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. In critiquing the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, this Article surveys fashion designers' existing federal intellectual property rights, particularly trade dress. In the most recent Supreme Court exposition of the elements of a trade dress action, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Bros., Inc., the Court clarifies some elements of the law, but leaves the threshold for establishing secondary meaning unresolved. After Samara, federal district courts have applied trade dress protection to fashion designers without compromising policy objectives against broad intellectual property rights. This Article concludes that trade dress, specifically the secondary meaning element of trade dress, is an underdeveloped area of law with potential to satisfy designers' need for stronger intellectual property rights where other legislative attempts have failed.


Many instructors acknowledge the importance of quantitative literacy in non-STEM fields and may themselves use advanced tools for data analysis, statistics and visualization. But how, if at all, does an instructor introduce quantitative methods into the classroom without overwhelming and disengaging students who may have been drawn to the field precisely because it has not traditionally required any skill or interest in science, technology, engineering or math? I present a model of iterative assignment design illustrated by the evolution of a phonetic exercise in which students are asked to measure vowels from their own speech and to plot their measurements on a graph in order to re-create the standard organization of vowel sounds found in linguistics textbooks. The different iterations involved varying degrees of technology (from low-tech pencil-and-paper to high-tech computing environment) and technological support and are evaluated with respect to NICHE best practices. The most recent iteration finds a compromise in a simple web app driven by the powerful R statistical computing environment.


Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) facilitate both data transfer and real-time applications over wireless medium. Owing to the shared nature of wireless frequencies, bandwidth limitation is a major challenge facing WMNs. If real-time multimedia applications, such as live video streaming, are shared among multiple clients using unicast communications, it could result in network resources starvation. Multicast transmission saves network resources by replicating live multimedia transmitted data from one source to multiple destinations using the same stream. The authors have developed a novel implementation of a multicast extension to ad hoc on-demand distance vector (MAODV) routing protocol in Linux kernel 2.6 user space, which is referred to as unidirectional link-aware MAODV (UDL-MAODV). Multicast video transmissions use user datagram protocol, which does not use implicit handshaking dialogues for guaranteeing reliability of data. Therefore the authors propose and have implemented modifications to the MAODV route discovery process to improve the reliability of multicast video transmissions. These modifications enable UDL-MAODV to ensure reliable route establishment for multimedia multicast communications over WMNs in the presence of UDLs. The authors describe in this study the software architecture of the UDL-MAODV implementation in the Linux kernel 2.6 user space, and also present multicast validation and results of performance tests using the SwanMesh WMN testbed. Furthermore, UDL-MAODV has been cross-compiled and tests are presented to compare the performance of the implementation using X86 and ARM architecture-based SwanMesh nodes. The test results show that the proposed algorithm is reliable and efficient.


Chance variability makes it impossible to assess reliably whether individual trusts are meeting annual targets for reduction in the risk of MRSA infection

One of the core standards set by the Department of Health is to achieve year on year reductions in rates of infection with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).1 This was clarified in November 2004 by the (then) health secretary John Reid, who said that he expected "MRSA bloodstream infection rates to be halved in our hospitals by 2008," that "NHS Acute Trusts will be tasked with achieving a year on year reduction,"2 and that such a target was "achievable, measurable, and not too burdensome." Several problems can arise, however, when measuring change in rates, particularly when the observed number of events is fairly low. These include the effects of chance variability, regression to the mean, and low power to detect genuine underlying changes. These problems are accentuated with an infectious disease, since cases tend to cluster and hence rates are "over-dispersed" relative to chance variation.3 So how should we interpret government targets on MRSA infections?

The government target of a 50% reduction in cases over three years essentially corresponds to a 20% annual reduction. But the term target is ambiguous: does it refer to an observed change in rates or a true underlying reduction in risk? At a national level this distinction may be unnecessary because of the large numbers involved, but for individual trusts the play of chance can mean that an observed rate reduction that meets the target may not accurately reflect a corresponding change in underlying risk and, conversely, that a true risk reduction may not be reflected in the observed rates, which might even increase. This lack of clarity can give rise to a range of possible criteria to determine …


The physiotherapy profession in Australia appears to have been caught unawares by the rapidly changing demography of health services and now seems to lack a clear identity and vision. Despite being a highly competitive profession to enter, attrition rates are high. This paper reflects on the history of physiotherapy in Australia and the dichotomy of paradigms it now faces, and suggests a possible option for the future, given that existing physiotherapy roles appear difficult to sustain in our current health care climate.


Objective: We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of two groups of patients with acute ischemic stroke who were treated with intravenous recombinant tissueplasminogen activator (IV rt-PA); those with isolated middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and those without any large vessel occlusion. Materials and Methods: Data of patients treated with IV rt-PA within 4.5 hours of symptom onset between March 2015 and January 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups; those with isolated MCA occlusion and those with no large vessel occlusion. Large vessel occlusion was detected with contrast-enhanced computed tomography angiography performed before IV rt-PA. Additionally, demographic and clinical data of the patients were analyzed. The clinical outcomes of the patients were determined using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at 3 months after treatment. Results: A total of 69 patients were included in the study. Isolated MCA occlusion was observed in 28 (40.6%) patients. The rate of very good outcome (mRS 0-1) was 46.4%, whereas the rate of poor outcome (mRS 3-6) was 42.9% in the group with isolated MCA occlusion. Moreover, in the other group, the rate of very good outcome and poor outcome were 65.9% and 26.8%, respectively. Conclusion: In acute ischemic stroke with isolated MCA occlusion, due to the favorable outcomes of the patients, IV rt-PA continues to be the best treatment option in cases where endovascular treatment options cannot be performed and it should be applied by physicians in appropriate cases without delay.


Based on a Boussinesq approximation of the governing momentum equations for an internal hydraulic jump in a two-layer counterflow, two important properties of an equal counterflow are demonstrated analytically. Corresponding to a given supercritical upstream state, there can be either two possible downstream conjugate states within the physically realizable range, or none at all. Further, the energy loss criterion across the jump is always satisfied. Consequently, the uniqueness of the downstream state cannot be determined by energy considerations, as done previously for the internal jump in a coflowing stratified flow. Physical arguments, coupled with some experimental observations indicate strongly that the conjugate state closer to the upstream state is the one that will be physically realized. The concept presented herein has been successfully applied to the study of stability and mixing of buoyant discharges in shallow water.


According to the number of targets, route planning can be a very complex task. Human navigators, however, usually solve route planning tasks fastly and efficiently. Here two experiments are presented that studied human route planning performance, route planning strategies employed, and cognitive processes involved. For this, 25 places were arranged on a regular grid in a large room. Each place was marked by a unique symbol. Subjects were repeatedly asked to solve traveling salesman problems (TSP), i.e. to find the shortest closed loop connecting a given start place with a number of target places. For this, subjects were given a so-called 'shopping list' depicting the symbols of the start place and the target places. While the TSP is computationally hard, sufficient solutions can be found by simple strategies such as the nearest neighbor strategy. In Experiment 1, it was tested whether humans deployed the nearest neighbor strategy (NNS) when solving the TSP. Results showed that subjects outperformed the NNS in cases in which the NNS did not predict the optimal solution, suggesting that the NNS is not sufficient to explain human route planning behavior. As a second possible strategy a region-based approach was tested in Experiment 2. When optimal routes required more region transitions than other, sub-optimal routes, subjects preferred these sub-optimal routes. This result suggests that subjects first planned a coarse route on the region level and then refined the route during navigation. Such a hierarchical planning stragey would allow to reduce computational effort during route planning.
In a control condition, the target places were directly marked in the environment rather than being depicted on the shopping list. As subjects did not have to identify and remember the positions of the target places based on the shopping list during route planning, this control condition tested for the influence of spatial working memory for route planning performance. Results showed a strong performance increase in the control condition, emphasizing the prominent role of spatial working memory for route planning.


While traditional database systems optimize for performance on one-shot query processing, emerging large-scale monitoring applications require continuous tracking of complex data-analysis queries over collections of physically distributed streams. Thus, effective solutions have to be simultaneously space/time efficient (at each remote monitor site), communication efficient (across the underlying communication network), and provide continuous, guaranteed-quality approximate query answers. In this paper, we propose novel algorithmic solutions for the problem of continuously tracking a broad class of complex aggregate queries in such a distributed-streams setting. Our tracking schemes maintain approximate query answers with provable error guarantees, while simultaneously optimizing the storage space and processing time at each remote site, and the communication cost across the network. In a nutshell, our algorithms rely on tracking general-purpose randomized sketch summaries of local streams at remote sites along with concise prediction models of local site behavior in order to produce highly communication- and space/time-efficient solutions. The end result is a powerful approximate query tracking framework that readily incorporates several complex analysis queries (including distributed join and multi-join aggregates, and approximate wavelet representations), thus giving the first known low-overhead tracking solution for such queries in the distributed-streams model. Experiments with real data validate our approach, revealing significant savings over naive solutions as well as our analytical worst-case guarantees.


Since the 1980s, the primary policy tool of the Federal Reserve has been the federal funds rate. Because expectations of the future path of the funds rate play a central role in the term structure of interest rates and thus the monetary transmission mechanism, it is important to know how accurate these expectations are in predicting the funds rate. In this post, we investigate this issue using a well-known survey of private sector forecasters. We find that forecasts tend to over-predict the funds rate in easing cycles and under-predict it in tightening cycles. In addition, while forecasts during tightening cycles have become more accurate over time, forecast accuracy during easing cycles has not improved.


The effect of taxes and benefits on the poor is usually measured using standard poverty and inequality indicators, stochastic dominance tests, and measures of progressivity and horizontal inequity. However, these measures can fail to capture an important aspect: that some of the poor are made poorer (or some of the non-poor made poor) by the tax-benefit system. We call this impoverishment and formally establish the relationships between impoverishment, stochastic dominance tests, horizontal inequity, and progressivity measures. The directional mobility literature provides a useful framework to measure impoverishment. We propose using a transition matrix and income loss matrix, and establish a mobility dominance criterion to compare alternate tax-benefit systems. We illustrate with data from Brazil.


Background/Aim: School-age is a critical period during which adequate nutrition is considered an important factor that affects learning capabilities. There is an emergence of the dual burden of malnutrition among children in urban setups like Nairobi and yet there is limited information on the effect of these on school performance. Research has shown that nutritional status affects children's development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between nutritional status on school performance among children in upper primary in selected public schools in Nairobi County, Kenya.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytical study. The study comprised of randomly selected 256 children from public schools within Nairobi County.
Results: The study confirmed that there is concurrent dual burden of malnutrition among adolescent school children in Nairobi County; (8.6% were overweight while 9% were undernourished). Children with higher Z-scores/ BMI were found to be more likely to be inactive during field games and they preferred sitting in the field during physical activities (P ≤ 0.05). Children within normal weight for their age showed higher chances of performing well in classroom activities such as completion of assignments (P ≤ 0.05). However, the study showed no correlation between nutritional status and attendance.
Conclusion: Children's nutritional status influences their school performance in extra-curriculum activities namely; filed games and school clubs as well as completion of homework assignments.


Using a comprehensive sample of reverse merger (RM) transactions, we examine the effects of China's IPO regulations on the prices and returns of its publicly listed stocks. During 2007-2015, unlisted Chinese firms paid an average of 3 to 4 Billion RMB for each listed shell, an amount exceeding 2/3 of the median market capitalization of a listed firm. This large shell premium varies over time and is sensitive to regulatory shocks. In the cross-section, a portfolio that longs (shorts) the highest (lowest) estimated shell probability (ESP) firms earns substantial abnormal returns. Adding an ESP-based factor to five common factors improves return attribution and eliminates the notoriously large Size premium. Consistent with theory, ESP also explains the sensitivity of prices to corporate earnings, and predicts the likelihood of firms to undertake major asset restructurings (MARs). We conclude China's IPO regulations impose a high cost on the functional efficiency of its financial system.


Mentally ill offenders possess a unique set of circumstances and needs. However, all too often, they cycle through the criminal justice system without appropriate care to address their mental health. Their recurring involvement in the criminal justice system is a pressing concern. This report provides a national landscape on the processing and treatment of mentally ill individuals in the criminal justice system. It also highlights challenges involved in the reintegration of mentally ill offenders into society, the diversity of policies and protocols in state statutes to address such challenges, and promising criminal justice interventions for mentally ill offenders.


The incidence of Diabetes Mellitus increases globally in epidemic proportions. Type 2 Diabetes is the most prevalent form of Diabetes, comprising 90% of the patients. In Type 2 Diabetes, two processes contribute to the development of the disease: insufficient insulin secretion from the pancreatic ?-cell and insulin resistance of the target organs. This leads to loss of control of blood glucose levels, which characterize Diabetes. Even while blood glucose levels can be controlled by a variety of life-style and pharmacological interventions, complications often arise. These complications include cardiovascular disease, retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy. In this thesis, different aspects of pathophysiological mechanisms in Type 2 Diabetes were studied. The aims were (i) to identify the voltage-gated calcium channel that is coupled to glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in the rat clonal ?-cell line INS-1 832/13; (ii) to investigate the mechanism of ?-cell adaptation in the C57BL/6J mouse model of insulin resistance; (iii) to determine whether spontaneous glucose tolerance was a feature in the RIP2-Cre mouse model which is often used for ?-cell specific knockout of genes; and (iv) to study the presence of insulin receptors and IGF-I receptors in human endothelial cells of different origin. It was established that CaV1.2 was the main voltage-gated calcium channel coupled to glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in INS-1 832/13 cells, confirming previous results obtained from mouse ?-cells. C57BL/6J mice on a high-fat diet become insulin resistant but do not develop Diabetes. The hypersecretion of insulin from the ?-cells of these animals is due to a shift in metabolic fuels from glucose to fatty acids and amino acids. The ?-cells of these mice have a high fat content that might interfere with the function of glucose transporters. Furthermore, an increase in mitochondrial mass was observed in the ?-cells of insulin-resistant C57BL/6J mice. All these alterations are part of the ?-cell adaptation, which enables the mice to secrete sufficient insulin in order to prevent the development of overt Diabetes. C57BL/6J mice were also used to backcross RIP2-Cre mice onto. Absence of the recently reported five-exon deletion in the nnt gene in the C57BL/6J mice used, contributed to normal glucose tolerance in both mice strains studied. The expression of Cre recombinase did not affect glucose tolerance and this mouse strain on this background can be used in ?-cell specific knockout studies. Human endothelial cells from coronary artery and umbilical vein expressed more IGF-I receptors than insulin receptors. Indications for the presence of insulin/IGF-I hybrid receptors were found in both endothelial cell types. These results reflect the importance of IGF-I in the development of vascular complications of Diabetes Mellitus. (Less)


We examined the effects of a teacher coaching program on discipline referrals using records from 7,794 U.S. classrooms in secondary schools. Some classroom teachers took part in a trial: They were randomized to receive intensive coaching in a focal classroom or to form a business-as-usual control group. The remaining teachers taught in the same schools as the teachers in the trial. Previous research suggested that the coaching program was associated with increasing equity in discipline referrals in focal, coached classrooms. The current study addressed whether effects found in the teachers' focal, coached classrooms generalized to diverse classrooms in their course load. Results suggested that the coaching program had no generalized effects on reducing referrals with African American students or racial referral gaps in classrooms with coached teachers, relative to the control teachers and the other teachers in the schools. We offer implications for coaching programs and directions for equity-oriented efforts to reduce racial discipline gaps.


The development of novel passive techniques for vibration attenuation and control of broadband energy propagation through structural systems have been a major challenge in various complex engineering applications. These passive attenuation and control methodologies are necessary for the efficient performance of advanced lightweight aerospace and mechanical systems operating under extreme working conditions.Acoustic Black Holes (ABH) have rapidly emerged as an effective approach to either dissipate or harvest mechanical energy in vibrating thin-walled structures. The characteristic dimension of an ABH, typically its diameter, is strictly connected to the occurrence of a cut-on frequency value below which the ABH is ineffective in absorbing the incoming wave. From a general perspective, lower the cut-on frequency, larger the ABH diameter needed to absorb the incoming wave. Design and manufacturing constraints of the host structure impose stringent limitations on the maximum ABH diameter and hence, limiting the lowest achievable cut-on frequency. The combination of these factors typically result in the poor energy extraction performance at low frequencies.This thesis proposes the concept and explores the performance of an intentional nonlocal design for periodic grids of ABHs embedded in thin plates (referred to as ABH metastructures). The nonlocal design is conceived with the twofold objective of lowering the cut-on frequency of the ABH grids and extending the operating frequency range so as to achieve broadband performance. Different nonlocal designs are presented and their dynamic performances are investigated using numerical models. As opposed to the traditional material nonlocality, this thesis introduces nonlocal effects using an intentionally tailored geometric approach. A secondary layer is connected to the load-bearing ABH metastructure base, whose dynamic properties are sought to be controlled.A semi-analytical model is also presented in order to characterize the role of nonlocality on the dispersion behavior and its effect on the broadband dynamic response. In linear elasticity, material nonlocality is mathematically represented by a spatially varying attenuation function. As the nonlocal model developed in this thesis follows geometric nonlocality approach, the required nonlocal attenuation factor is found to have a spatial as well as a temporal dependence. The analytical nonlocal constitutive relations in conjunction with the numerically obtained stress-strain parameters are used to identify the dynamic attenuation factor for the nonlocal ABH metastructure. The results provide substantial theoretical and numerical evidence of the potential of engineered nonlocal ABH design as an efficient ultra-low frequency passive attenuation technique for lightweight structures.


Objective: To investigate the impact of socioeconomic status-related parameters on competing (non-bladder cancer) mortality after radical cystectomy. Patients and Methods: A total of 1,268 consecutive patients who underwent radical cystectomy for urothelial or undifferentiated bladder cancer at our institution between 1993 and 2016 with a mean age of 69 years (median 70 years) were studied. The mean follow-up of the censored patients was 7.2 years (median 5.7 years). Proportional hazard models for competing risk were used to identify predictors of non-bladder cancer (competing) mortality. The following parameters were included into multivariate analyses: age, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification, Charlson score, gender, level of education, smoking status, marital status, local tumour stage, lymph node status, adjuvant and neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results: Besides age and both comorbidity classifications, the socioeconomic status-related parameters gender (female versus male, hazard ratio [HR] 0.58, 95% CI 0.40–0.84, p = 0.0042), level of education (university degree or master craftsman versus others, HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.56–0.1.03, p = 0.0801), smoking status (current smoking versus others, HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.10–1.96, p = 0.0085) and marital status (married versus others, HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.50–0.92, p = 0.0133) were independent predictors of competing mortality after radical cystectomy. If considered in combination (multiplication of HRs), the prognostic impact of socioeconomic parameters superseded that of the investigated comorbidity classifications. Conclusion: Socioeconomic status-related parameters may provide important information on the long-term competing mortality risk after radical cystectomy supplementary to chronological age and comorbidity.


Abstract. A new course of C++ programming for cartographers and surveyors has been developed. Pedagogical experiments were carried out in the period of 2009–2019 in Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography. The new course focuses on the use of cartographic tasks and geodetic exercises to illustrate various programming language constructions. Direct and inverse geodetic problem, position determination via a topographic map, work with a theodolite when performing angular measurements, leveling, etc. are considered in training modules. Programs are used as supporting data during the lectures, and as tasks for practical. This is the main purpose of the training. Currently, more than fifty training programs are used in the training process. All programs contain no more than 60 lines of code to ease the understanding of the program by students. The examples the typical training programs for students studying the C++ are discussed. The first program Theodolite is designed to study the concept of class, constructor, destructor, and object-oriented programming in general. The second program focuses to solve the inverse of the geodetic task.


Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming increasingly central to many people's lives, making it possible to be connected in any place at any time, be unceasingly and instantly informed, and benefit from greater economic and educational opportunities. With all the benefits afforded by these new-found capabilities, however, come potential drawbacks. A plethora of new PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, Bluetooth, the internet, Wi-Fi (the list goes on) expect us to know or be able to guess, what, where and when to connect, click, double-click, tap, flick, scroll, in order to realise these benefits, and to have the physical and cognitive capability to do all these things. One of the groups most affected by this increase in high-demand technology is older people. They do not understand and use technology in the same way that younger generations do, because they grew up in the simpler electro-mechanical era and embedded that particular model of the world in their minds. Any consequential difficulty in familiarising themselves with modern ICT and effectively applying it to their needs can also be exacerbated by age-related changes in vision, motor control and cognitive functioning. Such challenges lead to digital exclusion. Much has been written about this topic over the years, usually by academics from the area of inclusive product design. The issue is complex and it is fair to say that no one researcher has the whole picture. It is difficult to understand and adequately address the issue of digital exclusion among the older generation without looking across disciplines and at industry's and government's understanding, motivation and efforts toward resolving this important problem. To do otherwise is to risk misunderstanding the true impact that ICT has and could have on people's lives across all generations. In this European year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations and as the British government is moving forward with its Digital by Default initiative as part of a wider objective to make ICT accessible to as many people as possible by 2015, the Engineering Design Centre (EDC) at the University of Cambridge collaborated with BT to produce a book of thought pieces to address, and where appropriate redress, these important and long-standing issues. "Ageing, Adaption and Accessibility: Time for the Inclusive Revolution!" brings together opinions and insights from twenty one prominent thought leaders from government, industry and academia regarding the problems, opportunities and strategies for combating digital exclusion among senior citizens. The contributing experts were selected as individuals, rather than representatives of organisations, to provide the broadest possible range of perspectives. They are renowned in their respective fields and their opinions are formed not only from their own work, but also from the contributions of others in their area. Their views were elicited through conversations conducted by the editors of this book who then drafted the thought pieces to be edited and approved by the experts. We hope that this unique collection of thought pieces will give you a broader perspective on ageing, people's adaption to the ever changing world of technology and insights into better ways of designing digital devices and services for the older population.


The purpose of the study is, based on a narratological perspective, to analyze and interpret the novel written by Astrid Lindgren: Mio, min Mio. It is based on the legacy of the folktale tradition, which is also the basis for carnival concept according to Bachtin. The study is based on a narrative model of Gerard Genette. Mio, min Mio is told as a first person narrator and can be interpreted as Bo tells it to himself. It is a frame story in which the outer story is the reality, while the inner story is the structure of the folktale where Mio embarks on a predetermined mission to fight against evil. Carnival concept involves a timed up-and-down-turn that is sanctioned and controlled, this fits well with this story seen from this interpretation. In the fantasy world everything has an idealized counterpart and Bo is, via Mio, in this world for a limited time. Children in our society are powerless, but are allowed to be mighty in children's literature. The story gets a subversive effect as it shows that adult standards are not absolute. Even if Bo turns back to his foster parents, he goes through this inner battle processing his thoughts and feelings. The love Bo will experience in imagination gives him the power to manage his real situation.


The recent theoretical and empirical research in international macroeconomics has reestablished the hypothesis of purchasing power parity (PPP) as a long run relationship. This paper highlights some of the difficulties that economist's had over the past two decades in validating the PPP doctrines. The emphasis is on the exchange rates of the emerging markets of the East Asian economies. This paper argues that with careful application of the nonstationarity time series method, this simple exchange rate and its fundamental variables as techniques that properly capture the dynamic data generating processes of the macroeconomic variables (exchanges rates, current account interest rates, inflation, etc.) are developed. In this paper, the statistical results from the monetary model and its variants are examined to show whether these structural models can replicate the salient features of the exchange rate behavior in the emerging market economics. The focus is on what is predictable and why earlier attempts to model exchange rates failed to produce good forecasts. There is now a growing evidence to suggest that linear models are not always the optimal forecast for the exchange rates.


Applying a 200 ppm solution of CPPU to pollinated ovaries of watermelon (Citrullus lunatus Matsum) at anthesis increased fruit set from 26.9% (control) to 95%. Applying CPPU solutions to nonpollinated ovaries at anthesis induced parthenocarpy, yielding 65% and 89.5% fruit set, respectively with 20 and 200 ppm applications. However, 64% of the 20 ppm CPPU-treated parthenocarpic fruit stopped growth 10 days after treatment. Growth of CPPU-treated, pollinated, and nonpollinated fruit increased significantly compared with growth of control fruit during the first 10 days after treatment, but, except for the 20 ppm CPPU parthenocarpic fruit, growth subsequently slowed, resulting in fruit equal in size to the control by harvest. CPPU application did not affect soluble solids content of pollinated fruit, but reduced content of parthenocarpic fruit treated with 20 ppm. Fructose content was generally higher than glucose and sucrose at harvest. However, in pollinated fruit treated with 20 ppm CPPU, sucrose levels were higher than glucose and fructose. These results suggest that CPPU is practical for promoting fruit set and seedless fruit without adversely affecting fruit quality and development.


The response of peatlands to changes in the climatic water budget is crucial to predicting potential feedbacks on the global carbon (C) cycle. To gain insight on the patterns and mechanisms of response, we linked a model of peat accumulation to a model of peatland hydrology, then applied these models to empirical data spanning the past 5000 years for the large mire Store Mosse in southern Sweden. We estimated parameters for C sequestration and height growth by fitting the peat accumulation model to two age profiles. Then, we used independent reconstruction of climate wetness and model reconstruction of bog height to examine changes in peatland hydrology. Reconstructions of C sequestration showed two distinct patterns of behaviour: abrupt increases associated with major transitions in vegetation and dominant Sphagnum species (fuscum, rubellum–fuscum and magellanicum stages), and gradual decreases associated with increasing humification of newly formed peat. Carbon sequestration rate ranged from a minimum of 14 to a maximum of 72 g m−2 yr−1, with the most rapid changes occurring in the past 1000 years. Vegetation transitions were associated with periods of increasing climate wetness during which the hydrological requirement for increased seepage loss was met by rise of the water table closer to the peatland surface, with the indirect result of enhancing peat formation. Gradual decline in C sequestration within each vegetation stage resulted from enhanced litter decay losses from the near‐surface layer. In the first two vegetation stages, peatland development (i.e., increasing surface gradient) and decreasing climate wetness drove a gradual increase in thickness of the unsaturated, near‐surface layer, reducing seepage water loss and peat formation. In the most recent vegetation stage, the surface diverged into a mosaic of wet and dry microsites. Despite a steady increase in climate wetness, C sequestration declined rapidly. The complexity of response to climate change cautions against use of past rates to estimate current or to predict future rates of peatland C sequestration. Understanding interactions among hydrology, surface structure and peat formation are essential to predicting potential feedback on the global C cycle.


Abstract:The ethnic-communal factor has frequently been neglected in analyses of the prospects for democracy in the Middle East. Virtually every state in the region has major minority groups which have interests not identical with those of the governing group. Groups that believe their communities can win elections are going to be more favorable toward democracy than those certain they would lose. Any successful democracy has to work out a system of balancing these ethno-religious forces. But the complex structure of communities can also contribute to democracy if it offers a pluralist approach in which groups must make deals and compromises to meet their needs.


OBJECTIVE: To document the fact that differences in the treatment received by health services users in Mexico are mainly dependent on the type of provider, regardless of the users' socioeconomic status. METHODS: The data were obtained by means of a survey of 18 018 users who visited 73 health services in 13 states within Mexico. They were asked to grade the way the institution had performed in seven of the eight domains that define appropriate user treatment (autonomy, confidentiality, communication, respectful manner, condition of basic facilities, access to social assistance networks, and free user choice). The questionnaire included some vignettes to help determine user expectations. A composite ordinal probit model was applied; the perception of quality in connection with each of the appropriate treatment domains was the independent variable, whereas gender, educational level, age, type of provider, and user expectations were used as control variables. RESULTS: The type of provider was the main factor that determined users' perceptions regarding the treatment they received when visiting health services in Mexico. Institutions belonging to the social security system performed the worst, while the services provided under the program targeting the rural population (IMSS Oportunidades) received the highest scores. Overall, the domain that was most highly ranked was respectful manner, whereas the lowest score was given to the ability to choose the provider. Men felt they had been able to communicate better than women, while respectful manner, communication, and social support showed a significant negative association with educational level (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Differences were noted in the way different public health service providers in Mexico treat their users, regardless of the latter's socioeconomic status. Social security system providers showed the greatest deficiencies in this respect. Respectful manner was the domain that received the highest scores in the case of all providers. Organizational changes need to be made, since the shortcomings detected are not solely determined by factors related to health personnel, but also by certain aspects of the way the health system is structured in Mexico.


Multiprotocol label switching or MPLS technology is being increasingly deployed by several of the largest Internet service providers to solve problems such as traffic engineering and to offer IP services like virtual private networks (VPNs). In MPLS, the analysis of the packet (network layer) header is performed just once, and each packet is assigned a stack of labels, which is examined by subsequent routers when making forwarding decisions. Despite the fact that MPLS is becoming widespread on the Internet, we know essentially very little about the performance one can achieve with it, and about the intrinsic trade-offs in its use of resources. In this paper, we undertake a comprehensive study of the label size versus stack depth trade-off for MPLS routing protocols on lines and trees. We show that in addition to LSP tunneling, label stacks can also be used to dramatically reduce the number of labels required for setting up MPLS LSPs in a network. Based on this observation, we develop routing algorithms and prove lower bounds for two basic problems: (1) fixed label routing: given a fixed number of labels, we want to minimize the stack depth, and (2) fixed stack routing: given a bound on the stack depth, we want to minimize the number of labels used. Our simulation results validate our approach, demonstrating that our novel protocols enable MPLS routing on large trees with few labels and small stack sizes. Thus, our MPLS routing algorithms are applicable to a number of practical scenarios involving the provisioning of VPNs and multicast trees.


This book provides the reader with an insight into recent developments in the theory and application of operant conditioning with people. The main aim of the contributions to this book is to convey some of these developments and to suggest new directions for future work - both in the theoretical and applied aspects of operant analysis with humans. Specifically, the contributors cover the following ground: (i) a look at future trends in operant theory and applied behaviour analysis, (ii) a detailed discussion of the role of animal and laboratory- based operant performance, (iii) the role of operant analyses in understanding human psychological phenomena and (iv) direct quantitative analyses of human operant performance. This volume is not so much a comprehensive review and summary of recent developments in human behaviour analysis, but rather a critique and source of ideas, and new techniques, for all psychologists using applied behaviour analysis methods.


Longitudinal care of a community-based cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was evaluated retrospectively. Candidate determinants of disability included visual analog scales (VAS) for patient global assessment and pain, comorbidities, and medications. The outcome was the 'patient-acceptable symptom state' for disability as defined by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability index, using a cutoff of <1.04. Two-sample t tests and multivariable logistic regression were used to determine odds ratios (OR) for associations between predictor variables and disability. Out of a total of 99 patients, 28 (28%) patients had HAQ ≥1.04 at their last visit. The greatest odds of not attaining the patient-acceptable symptom state in a multivariable model was associated with corticosteroids (OR: 5.1; p=0.02), antidepressants (OR: 5.3; p=0.02), and female sex (OR: 6.5; p=0.05). In the era of biologic therapy, female sex, corticosteroids, and antidepressants remain profound determinants of disability highlighting the need to understand the underlying mechanisms.


Many basic economic theories with perfectly functioning markets do not predict the existence of the vast number of microenterprises readily observed across the world. We put forward a model that illuminates why financial and managerial capital constraints may impede experimentation, and thus limit learning about the profitability of alternative firm sizes. The model shows how lack of information about one's own type, but willingness to experiment to learn one's type, may lead to short-run negative expected returns to investments on average, with some outliers succeeding. To test the model we put forward first a motivating experiment from Ghana, and second a small meta-analysis of other experiments. In the Ghana experiment, we provide inputs to microenterprises, specifically financial capital (a cash grant) and managerial capital (consulting services), to catalyze adoption of investments and practices aimed towards enterprise growth. We find that entrepreneurs invest the cash, and take the advice, but both lead to lower profits on average. In the long run, they revert back to their prior scale of operations. The small meta analysis includes results from 18 other experiments in which either capital or managerial capital were relaxed, and find mixed support for this theory.


Intercreditor agreements frequently restrict the extent to which subordinated creditors can participate in the bankruptcy process by, for example, contesting liens of senior lenders, objecting to a cash collateral motion, or even exercising the right to vote on a plan of reorganization. Because intercreditor agreements can reorder the bargaining environment in bankruptcy, some judges have been unsure about their enforceability. Other judges have not hesitated to enforce the agreements, at least when they do not restrict the voting rights of subordinated creditors. This essay argues that intercreditor agreements are controversial because they pose a trade-off: they reduce bargaining costs (by limiting the participatory rights of subordinated creditors), but can give senior lenders outsized influence over the bankruptcy process, to the detriment of investors who were not party to the intercreditor agreement. The essay proposes several rules of thumb that might help judges navigate this trade-off.


While leading figures in the early history of economics conceived of it as inseparable from philosophy and other humanities, there has been movement, especially in recent decades, towards its becoming an essentially technical field with narrowly specialized areas of inquiry. Certainly, specialization has allowed for great progress in economic science. However, recent events surrounding the financial crisis support the arguments of some that economics needs to develop forums for interdisciplinary interaction and to aspire to broader vision.


Software metrics plays an important role in measuring attributes that are critical to the success of a software project. Measurement of these attributes helps to make the characteristics and relationships between the attributes clearer. This in turn supports informed decision making. The field of software engineering is affected by infrequent, incomplete and inconsistent measurements. Software testing is an integral part of software development, providing opportunities for measurement of process attributes. The measurement of software testing process attributes enables the management to have better insight in to the software testing process. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the metric support for software test planning and test design processes. The study comprises of an extensive literature study and follows a methodical approach. This approach consists of two steps. The first step comprises of analyzing key phases in software testing life cycle, inputs required for starting the software test planning and design processes and metrics indicating the end of software test planning and test design processes. After establishing a basic understanding of the related concepts, the second step identifies the attributes of software test planning and test design processes including metric support for each of the identified attributes. The results of the literature survey showed that there are a number of different measurable attributes for software test planning and test design processes. The study partitioned these attributes in multiple categories for software test planning and test design processes. For each of these attributes, different existing measurements are studied. A consolidation of these measurements is presented in this thesis which is intended to provide an opportunity for management to consider improvement in these processes.


The mechanical response of single-walled zigzag silicon-germanium nanotubes (SiGeNTs) under tensile and compressive loadings is modeled via atomistic simulation method. The inter-atomic forces are described using the Tersoff's empirical bond-order potential. Initially, the comparative simulations of the bond lengths are presented and quite accurate behavior of the model is demonstrated. Afterwards, the results of the total strain energy are used to establish an expression for evaluating Young's modulus of the nanotubes. Since different choices of wall thickness significantly affect the calculation of Young's modulus, the effective modulus of elasticity is introduced. This procedure provides an accurate means for predicting the elastic modulus of the nanotubes. Numerical simulations were also performed to investigate the buckling behavior of SiGeNTs. Dependence of the critical buckling load on diameter and length of the nanotubes is shown. Finally, the effect of temperature on the axial compressive load of SiGeNTs is also discussed.


The advent of quantum computing processors with possibility to scale beyond experimental capacities magnifies the importance of studying their applications. Combinatorial optimization problems can be one of the promising applications of these new devices. These problems are recurrent in industrial applications and they are in general difficult for classical computing hardware. In this work, we provide a survey of the approaches to solving different types of combinatorial optimization problems, in particular quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems on a gate model quantum computer. We focus mainly on four different approaches including digitizing the adiabatic quantum computing, global quantum optimization algorithms, the quantum algorithms that approximate the ground state of a general QUBO problem, and quantum sampling. We also discuss the quantum algorithms that are custom designed to solve certain types of QUBO problems.


A power system is characterized by the nonuniform nature of electric energy consumption. In the competitive electricity market, the electric energy cost is the spot one, which is determined for every fixed time interval and can significantly differ with the hours of maximum and minimum loads, on business and nonbusiness days, etc. The consumer is primarily interested in reducing the energy consumption during the peak load hours and shifting it onto the off load periods, which results in load leveling and allows for energy saving. To solve the problem of improving the energy consumption reliability and safety, maintaining the power system stable operation as well as optimizing the electric energy cost, the following solutions can be proposed:  limiting the energy consumption during the peak load periods and shifting it onto the off load periods;  making long-term bilateral contracts on energy and power purchasing;  locating the low capacity sources (distributed generation) near the consumers;  introducing energy saving technologies into goods and services production. The paper presents the analysis of the effect of energy consumption limitations on the consumer's profit in the short-term perspective. The loss function for consumers can be expressed mathematically in different ways. The criterion expressions for the energy consumption are defined provided the loss of profit is minimum. The consumer sector is shown to have to be of a greater regulating power in the electricity spot market operation.


Topsy is a psychoanalytic tale of the effects of a dog on its owner; the analyst is the great Marie Bonaparte. Only after being told that her dog had cancer did she realize the attachment she developed to Topsy. She describes the emotions she experienced during the time of Topsy's illness and subsequent healing. Written in France and Greece at the onset of World War II, the story of Topsy's cancer clearly is intended to convey the ills of Europe at that time. Bonaparte's relationship with her dog reveals her own fears about aging, dying, being alone, as well as the uncertainty of the political situation. As she tells her story, Bonaparte is reminded of the experience of her father, who also suffered from cancer. Topsy, while not written as a scientific study, provides insight into the psychoanalytical effects of relationships between humans and animals. It tells us much about one of psychotherapy's founding personages as well as the members of her professional circle in a critical period of European history. In the new introduction, Gary Genosko reflects on Sigmund Freud's own affection for, and use of, dogs in his analyses. He goes on to describe the relationship between Freud and Bonaparte and how dogs played a significant part in that companionship. Topsy will be of interest to psychologists, psychiatrists, and those who love, and have been loved by dogs.


Physical challenges, emotional arousal, increased physical activity, or changes in the environment can evoke stress, requiring altered activity of visceral organs, glands, and smooth muscles. These alterations are necessary for the organism to function appropriately under these abnormal conditions and to restore homeostasis. These changes in activity comprise the "fight-or-flight" response and must occur rapidly or the organism may not survive. The rapid responses are mediated primarily via the catecholamines, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, secreted from the adrenal medulla. The catecholamine neurohormones interact with adrenergic receptors present on cell membranes of all visceral organs and smooth muscles, leading to activation of signaling pathways and consequent alterations in organ function and smooth muscle tone. During the "fight-or-flight response," the rise in circulating epinephrine and norepinephrine from the adrenal medulla and norepinephrine secreted from sympathetic nerve terminals cause increased blood pressure and cardiac output, relaxation of bronchial, intestinal and many other smooth muscles, mydriasis, and metabolic changes that increase levels of blood glucose and free fatty acids. Circulating catecholamines can also alter memory via effects on afferent sensory nerves impacting central nervous system function. While these rapid responses may be necessary for survival, sustained elevation of circulating catecholamines for prolonged periods of time can also produce pathological conditions, such as cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, hypertension, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In this review, we discuss the present knowledge of the effects of circulating catecholamines on peripheral organs and tissues, as well as on memory in the brain.


Knowledge is the most meaningful resource today. The management of knowledge supports the competitive advantage of organisations. A survey conducted by Computer Science Corporation (CSC) found that senior IS executives perceive knowledge management to be among the most critical technologies that will drive business growth and innovation by the year 2000. It is widely claimed by a number of businesses and academic professionals that, in order for the organisation to have a lasting competitive advantage, it will have to be knowledge driven. Robert Hiebeler writes, "Those companies that develop best practices for managing knowledge capital will be the ones that ride this competitive wave". Drucker stated in his book, Post Capitalist Society, "The basic economic resource is no longer capital, nor natural resources. It is and will be knowledge". Ultimately, the knowledge that is most relevant is that required for the performance of critical organisation processes. One of the barriers to sharing knowledge, like data or information, across industries is finding a common language that promotes dialogue and exchange. Regardless of the industry or market, a common taxonomy allows one to commonly refer to the same type of work by the same name. This practice within knowledge management (KM) should accelerate the process of organisational learning. This article presents a model that can serve as a process framework of KM in the organisation. Each process discussed in this article includes work ("processes") that may be performed by organisations that deliberately manage knowledge. The present lack of effective management of knowledge could be because most organisations are still struggling to comprehend the KM concept. This KM process provides a foundation for an organisation to understand its knowledge resources and activities. Corporations around the world have identified the need for KM; however, they have not identified a taxonomy of processes or a vocabulary to communicate these processes. This paper addresses these two needs by providing a procedural method for creating a sustainable KM system.


Calcium ions enter muscle cells through voltage-gated channels (so-called L-type channels) and initiate muscle contraction. However, in an analysis of mice lacking a different channel (the αlH T-type calcium channel), Chen et al. now show that calcium entering cells through T-type calcium channels can have the opposite effect and cause relaxation of smooth muscle and dilation of coronary arteries. The T-type channels, which may act by influencing large-conductance calcium-sensitive potassium channels, provide a potential new target for treatment of cardiovascular disease. C.-C. Chen, K. G. Lamping, D. W. Nuno, R. Barresi, S. J. Prouty, J. L. Lavoie, L. L. Cribbs, S. K. England, C. D. Sigmund, R. M. Weiss, R. A. Williamson, J. A. Hill, K. P. Campbell, Abnormal coronary function in mice deficient in α1H T-type Ca2+ channels. Science 302, 1416-1418 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In this article, I will try to do three things. Firstly, pay attention to the notion of Black Atlantic as coined by Paul Gilroy, which in effect could signify a reversal of colonialism and slavery. Secondly, revisit the 1970s and the debate about the relevance of Black theology vis-a-vis African theology, using John Mbiti's article 'An African Views American Black Theology' as entry point. Here, I will discuss contributions also made by Desmond Tutu and James Cone. Thirdly, starting with the premise that both theologies are relevant and soul mates today, which would (probably) be confirmed by all the above mentioned at this point in time, an assessment of current voices will be made, that is, Tinyiko Maluleke and Vuyani Vellem on black and African ecclesiologies from a South African perspective, and Lawrence Burnley on the fate of the Black Church in the United States.


In the current workplace, organizational structure assumes priority in the level of employee engagement. Therefore, well planned structure results in workers efficiency and organizations effectiveness. This study assessed the impact of organizational structure on employee engagement in North Central of Nigeria. Adopting a survey design, the research made used of primary data, collected mainly through administering a set of questionnaire to 196 management staff, supervisors and non-management staff of the selected manufacturing firms from Plateau state. The findings revealed that: there is significant positive relationship between decentralisation system of control and employee productivity; standardisation system of control positively affects employees' efficiency. The study concluded that decentralisation system of control is crucial to employees' productivity and organisational development; also enhance rapid delivery of employee services, to both the organization and customers. Standardisation system of control ensures employee efficiency and generates quality products that give competitive edge over the competitors in the global market Incentives as key factor also contribute immensely to employee commitment in workplace. The work recommended that organisations should always employ decentralization system of control; management should adopt decentralization and see it as mechanism that fosters effective customer delivery services. In addition standardisation should be embrace, support and adopt by organizations.


No. And not only for the reason you think. In a world with multiple inefficiencies the single policy tool the central bank has control over will not undo all inefficiencies; this is well understood. We argue that the world is better characterized by multiple inefficiencies and multiple policy makers with various objectives. Asking the policy question only in terms of optimal monetary policy effectively turns the central bank into the residual claimant of all policy and gives the other policymakers a free hand in pursuing their own goals. This further worsens the tradeoffs faced by the central bank. The optimal monetary policy literature and the optimal simple rules often labeled flexible inflation targeting assign all of the cyclical policymaking duties to central banks. This distorts the policy discussion and narrows the policy choices to a suboptimal set. We highlight this issue and call for a broader thinking of optimal policies.