Unemployment is constructed as a problem by institutions and individuals, at a structural as well as individual level. In the "black discourse" of unemployment, power is produced by talking and naming, by symbolic images, by dichotomisation and hierarchisation of categories based on the fundamental dichotomy of nature/reason, but also by feelings, actions and bodies. The well-being of the unemployed is constantly threatened by this discourse, yet they nevertheless reproduce it when necessary. But there is resistance to all this. First, there is a resistance against politicians and former employees in particular and elites in general. Then there is a reflexive resistance, characterised by a critique and de-legitimation of the myths of unemployment and thereby the modern work ethic. This depreciation of values and a relativistic standpoint is seen here as a sign of a representational crisis. In the practising of a life free from work, I also see a kind of resistance. The women seem to need what I call an "existential space", sometimes fulfilled in unemployment. The men living happily without work seem to need an ideological legitimation of this, rejecting the materialistic lifestyle in the contemporary western world. Finally, I see a kind of "practised resistance" (often unintended) in alternative outcome, such as the mutual help in a "moral economy", small-scale cultivating, fishing and hunting and economic strategies. Since the discourse of unemployment is motivated by the relation between the modern institutions of wage labour and capitalism, the activities based on other relations, such as reciprocity and non-consumption in this case, can be defined as a kind of resistance. It is a resistance readable in the effect, not the intention, of it.


Background
Substance misuse remains a significant health threat in communities across Indiana. Despite the 2015 HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana's health systems continue to lack the capacity to reduce health harms associated with substance misuse. Unlike general patient populations, people who use drugs (PWUD) face various social and structural barriers that impede access to health care and result in poorer health outcomes. Such impediments are of more significant concern for pregnant women who use drugs (PWWUD) who experience greater stigma, complex health needs, and require more specialized care. The purpose of this study was to assess access to healthcare and related services among women of childbearing age with a history of substance misuse.
Methods
For this qualitative study, participants (n=20) completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Interview questions included perceptions of their overall health, healthcare experiences, and how to improve access to and retention in these services.
Results
The results reported reflect a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. Two key care barriers identified were: (1) experiences of stigma related to professionals' attitudes towards PWWUD and (2) fear of losing custody of their child as a result of physician mandated reporting to child welfare.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Addressing social and stigma related barriers experienced by PWWUD are key to increased linkage to and retention in care as well as improved health outcomes. Additionally, our findings call for mandated student and physician education on patients who use drugs as well as reform of mandated reporting laws to reduce barriers and increase care access among PWWUD.


Denmark has drawn much attention for its active labor market policies, but is almost unique in offering a voluntary public unemployment insurance program requiring a significant premium payment. A safety net program – a less generous, means-tested social assistance plan – completes the system. The voluntary system emerged as one of many European "Ghent systems," essentially government subsidized trade union plans, but has since lost many key features of such plans. We assess system performance using a 10% sample of the Danish population drawn from administrative data. Coverage rates for the voluntary programs are surprisingly high, approximately 80 percent of the workforce, but the program has predictable selection effects, including adverse selection across risk classes and a substantial charity hazard (low coverage among those with generous treatment under the safety net program). The latter appears to explain the difficulty of shifting to a compulsory system; redistribution effects would be concentrated among the previously uninsured in the lowest decile of the income distribution, a problem in the Danish welfare state.


Speaking about a new engine ionic means to speak about a new aircraft. The paper presents in a short time the actual engines ion chambers (called the ion thrusters) and other new ionic motors proposed by the authors. The engine (ionic propulsion unit of ions, that accelerates the positive ions through a potential difference) is approximately ten times more efficient than classic system based on combustion. We can further improve the efficiency of the 10-50 times in the case in which is used the pulses of positive ions accelerated in a cyclotron mounted on the ship; efficiency may increase with ease of a thousand times in the case in which the positive ions will be accelerate in a synchrotron high energy, synchrocyclotron or isochronous cyclotron (1-100 GeV). For this, the great classic synchrotron is reduced to a surface-ring (magnetic core). The future (ionic) engine will have a circular particle binding (energy high or very high speed). Thus we can increase the speed and autonomy of the vessel, using a smaller quantity of fuel. It can be used a radiation synchrotron (synchrotron high intensity), with X-ray or gamma radiation. In this case, will result in a beam engine with the wiring (not an ionic engine), which will use only the power (energy, which may be solar energy, nuclear energy, or a combination) and so we will eliminate the fuel. It is suggested to use a powerful LINAC at the outlet of the synchrotron (especially when one accelerates the electron beam) in order not to lose power by photons of the emission premature. With a new ionic engine practically builds a brand new aircraft that can move through the water and air with the same ease. This new aircraft will be able to expedite directly, without an engine with the additional combustion and without the gravity assistance.


Summary 1. The first chapter of the presentation will outline the scope of the project and lay the foundation of the global sports business industry. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of sports sponsorship as a central feature of the commerce of sport and a major income stream for event organisers, who have a vested interest in protecting their sponsors' investments. Additionally, the chapter will outline who owns sports rights and why ambush marketing is a threat to these rights owners. Chapter 3 addresses the theme of event bidding and will highlight that the demand for protective legislation has virtually become an automatic element in bidding to host major sports events, which themselves carry high commercial stakes. In Chapter 4, there will be an analysis of whether the implementation of special legislation to protect against ambushes of sporting events is necessary and justifiable. Furthermore, there will be an assessment of the legality of such legislation generally, with a view to discerning the enforceability of relevant provisions. 2. Chapter 5 follows with an examination of the legal landscape of two of the major upcoming sporting spectacles, namely, the 2010 FIFA (1) World Cup in South Africa and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. The discussion herein will concentrate on the legal framework being established to regulate ambush marketing in those countries in anticipation of the approaching events. Key issues raised in Chapter 4 will be applied to the South African and English experiences. Chapter 6 juxtaposes the wide-ranging opinions held in judicial and academic circles as they relate not only to what activities constitute ambush marketing, but also to the lawfulness of these so-called "guerilla" marketing practices. 3. Chapter 7 closes this presentation, wherein it will be submitted that the fight against ambush marketing has had limited success in spite of the growing emphasis on using proactive measures to safeguard commercial interests attached to major sporting events. It will also be contended that the use of statutory intervention as an anti-infringement weapon is both necessary and reasonably justifiable, but has often been accompanied by overzealous implementation, disproportionate restrictions and unclear legislative provisions. Specific recommendations will be made to address the concerns summarised in this closing chapter. Chapter One - Introduction A. Background: The Booming Business of Sport "... an estimated three billion people watched the spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games; and the TV rights to English FA Premier League for the three seasons, 2007-2010, have been sold by auction for a staggering GBP 1.7 billion." (2) 1.1 The global sporting industry has witnessed tremendous growth over the last two decades as it relates to spectator interest, participation and television viewership. However, it is probably in the realm of sports business that the most phenomenal growth has taken place. As confirmed by Blackshaw's observations above, sport as "big business" is an accepted reality, bringing with it tremendous incomeearning potential and at the same time vulnerability to attack from commercial predators. Sports governing bodies, especially at the international level, have depended on sponsorship, media rights, merchandising and ticket sales as their main sources of revenue. In mid-December 2009, Richard Carrion (3) indicated that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expected to amass over $2 billion for the United States (US) television rights for the 2014 and 2016 Winter and Summer Olympics. (4) England 2018 FIFA World Cup bid chief executive, Andy Anson, also recently confirmed that the [pounds sterling]15.5 million fundraising target set by the Bid Committee was close to realisation. (5) These types of figures are now commonplace in sports marketing circles and confirm the magnitude of sports business globally. …


This thesis is concerned with the lives of poor and orphaned children in the Bagamoyo District in Tanzania and the way in which global structures influence their realities. The children's experiences are at the forefront of this thesis. Empirical data has been gathered through meetings with street children, and children living in extreme poverty. I have aimed for a multisided ethnography. This multisided approach was conducted in order to show the interconnectedness between the various social and structural levels affecting the realities of the children. I have therefore also included local government representatives, CBO employees and employees of international NGOs present in Bagamoyo, and the various arenas in which they operate. In addition I visited UNICEF's offices in Dar-es-Salaam. The macro-structures involved are of a historic and economic character. The current reign of neoliberalism and the values embedded in the ideology are being globally distributed through policies, laws and regulations. The discourses and practices involved are based on certain types of knowledge or 'regimes of truth' which deem all other knowledge systems and realities 'wrong' or 'abnormal'. Global discourses and practices are currently shaped by neoliberal ideas and I argue that the development industry plays a central part in processes of global governmentality. This affects all levels of the development hierarchy, down to the Community-based organizations which are caught between issues of being responsible for direct assistance, seeing the suffering up close, and at the same time having their hands tied by and strict control and management routines, and severe under-funding. Global governmentality forms specific types of knowledge that has as one of its effects concealment of the lived realities of children. The framing of one set of truths as valid and universal, manifested through a system of professionalism, experts and economic logic hide the life of children as lived. Life of children disappears in the Western-based children's rights discourse, and only stereotypical stories are brought to the fore. This strips the children of agency and acknowledgement for who they are and what they do. The other form of concealment happens when the historic and economic links between wealth and poverty are kept out of the picture, and blame of failure is often put on the poor themselves.


Statistics for Action project partners developed resources to bridge the divide between environmental professionals and residents affected by environmental contamination. Miscommunication is frustrating and frequent. Four principles that guided one STEM educator are illustrated with examples from work with residents of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. These principles may be useful to others intending to increase understanding among community group members and environmental regulators or professionals. The principles are especially relevant when tensions due to racial differences, priorities for next steps, or power imbalances due to funding streams threaten to derail communication.


Noisiness is an important product experience that is not restricted to the auditory properties of products; bright colors and cluttered visual patterns can also be experienced as noisy. The aim of this study was to determine to what extent the overall product noisiness is attributed to the sounds that the products make and to what extent is it attributed to the visual appearance of the products. We manipulated the auditory and visual properties of alarm clocks and whistling kettles by combining noisy and quiet stimuli of the two sensory modalities according to a full factorial design. Participants in our experiment assessed the noisiness, pleasantness, and annoyance of the products. The results demonstrated that noisiness and annoyance of the products were generally dominated by the product sound, whereas contribution from visual patterns was insignificant. The noisiness of the sound had a negative influence on the overall pleasantness of the products. The results suggest that in order to create pleasurable product experience, designers need to pay more attention to the auditory properties of products.


In this paper, we solve a fundamental problem: how to use distributed random access to achieve the performance of centralized schedulers. We consider wireless networks with arbitrary topologies and spatial traffic distributions, where users can receive traffic from or send traffic to different users and different communication links may interfere with each other. The channels are assumed heterogeneous, and the random channel gains of different links may have different distributions. To resolve the network contention in a distributed way, each frame is divided into contention and transmission periods. The contention period is used to resolve conflicts, while the transmission period is used to send payload in collision-free scenarios. We design a multistage channel-aware Aloha scheme for the contention period to enable users with relatively better channel states to have higher probabilities of contention success while assuring fairness among all users. We show analytically that the proposed scheme completely resolves network contention and achieves throughput close to that of centralized schedulers. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is robust to any uncertainty in channel estimation. Simulation results demonstrate that it significantly improves network performance while maintaining fairness among different users. The proposed random access approach can be applied to different wireless networks, such as cellular, sensor, and mobile ad hoc networks, to improve quality of service.


This volume is a comprehensive but accessible guide to the major questions raised by the Hellenistic Jewish work, Joseph and Aseneth. Joseph and Aseneth is an excellent example of the controverted issues of text, dating and Sitz im Leben, when such decisions must be largely based on internal evidence. It provides an entre into the vexed question of genre, given the numerous literary links that have been suggested for it. Its mysterious but engaging plot, and its female protagonist, evoke ongoing sociological and feminist debate. It is thus strongly commended for careful study to students and scholars of Judaism, New Testament, sociology and narratology. Intended as a sound basis for such exploration, this guide also offers a fresh narrative reading in which the revelatory character of Joseph and Aseneth is brought to the forefront.


The concept of a reference frame has been a part of the physical formalism since the early days of physics. The reference frame was always understood as a physical system with respect to which states of other physical systems are described. With the adoption of quantum theory, our understanding of physical systems has fundamentally changed, yet we still rely on classical systems for the definition of reference frames. If we acknowledge the fact that all systems are quantum mechanical, including reference frames, then we have to be able to describe quantum systems relative to other quantum systems. In this thesis we develop a framework for integrating quantum reference frames into the formalism of quantum mechanics. We show how the description of states and measurements has to be refined in order to account for the quantum nature of the reference frame. Initially, we study the implications of the new description with a quantum reference frame associated with a generic compact group. Then, we apply the same approach to the study of relativistic quantum reference frames associated with the Poincaré group, which is not compact. Our findings for the generic compact group include an analysis of how well a quantum system defines a frame of reference for other systems. Also in the generic case we analyze the effects of a measurement on a quantum reference frame. In the relativistic case we first find how the massive representations of the Poincaré group decompose into irreducible representations. This is a key problem in the analysis of quantum reference frames. Finally, we analyze a relativistic quantum reference frame that is used for measuring the total momentum. We will show how the relativistic measurements of total momentum should be described with respect to a quantum reference frame. We will also show how these measurements affect the quantum reference frame.


Controversial and thought-provoking, Tom Flanagan's First Nations? Second Thoughts dissects the prevailing orthodoxy that determines public policy towards Canada's Aboriginal peoples. Flanagan argues that this orthodoxy enriches and empowers a small elite of activists, politicians, administrators, middlemen, and well-connected entrepreneurs, while bringing further misery to the very people it is supposed to help. Over the last thirty years Canadian policy on Aboriginal issues has come to be dominated by an ideology that sees Aboriginal peoples as "nations" entitled to specific rights. Indians and Inuit now enjoy a cornucopia of legal privileges, including rights to self-government beyond federal and provincial jurisdiction, immunity from taxation, court decisions reopening treaty issues settled long ago, the right to hunt and fish without legal limits, and free housing, education, and medical care as well as other economic benefits. Underpinning these privileges is what Flanagan describes as Aboriginal orthodoxy - a set of beliefs that hold that prior residence in North America is an entitlement to special treatment; that Aboriginal peoples are part of sovereign nations endowed with an inherent right to self-government; that Aboriginals must have collective rather than individual property rights; that all treaties must be renegotiated on a "nation-to-nation" basis; and that Native people should be encouraged to build prosperous "Aboriginal economies" through money, land, and natural resources transferred from other Canadians. In First Nations? Second Thoughts Flanagan combines conceptual analysis with historical and empirical information to show that the Aboriginal orthodoxy is both unworkable and ultimately destructive to the people it is supposed to help.


Most projected climate change mitigation strategies will require a significant expansion of CO2 Capture and Sequestration (CCS) in the next two decades. Four major categories of challenges are being actively researched: CO2 capture cost, geological sequestration safety, legal and regulatory barriers, and public acceptance. Herein we propose an additional major challenge category across all CCS operations: water management. For example a coal-fired power plant retrofitted for CCS requires twice as much cooling water as the original plant. This increased demand may be accommodated by brine extraction and treatment, which would concurrently function as large-scale pressure management and a potential source of freshwater. At present the interactions among freshwater extraction, CO2 injection, and brine management are being considered too narrowly -in the case of freshwater almost completely overlookedin the technical and regulatory CCS community. This paper presents an overview of each of these challenges and potential integration opportunities. Active management of CCS operations through an integrated approach -including brine production, treatment, use for cooling, and partial reinjectioncan address challenges simultaneously with several synergistic advantages. The paper also considers the related potential impacts of pore space competition (with future groundwater use, gas storage and shale gas) on CCS expansion. Freshwater and brine must become key decision making inputs throughout CCS operations, building on existing successful industrial-scale integrations. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved


This study evaluated healing, with emphasis on root resorption, following root surface treatment with 1% aqueous stannous fluoride (SnF2), saturated citric acid (CA), or saline control (C) in conjunction with periodontal flap surgery. Supraalveolar periodontal defects were surgically created and immediately treated in the mandibular premolars in 6 beagle dogs. The defect height approximated 5 to 6 mm from the reduced alveolar bone to the cemento-enamel junction. Root treatments were rotated between experimental teeth within jaw quadrants and duplicated in left and right quadrants in the dogs. Flaps were raised to cover most of the crowns of the teeth and sutured. The dogs were sacrificed 12 weeks after surgery and tissue blocks with teeth and adjacent structures were processed for histometric analysis. SnF2-treated teeth healed with significantly longer junctional epithelium, less connective tissue repair to the root surface, and less bone regeneration than CA and C-treated teeth. New cementum formation was limited in all treatment groups. Root resorption was observed in almost all teeth exhibiting connective tissue repair, however to a lesser amount and not as frequent in SnF2 treated teeth due to limited connective tissue repair. No differences were found in amount and frequency of root resorption in CA and C-treated teeth. An inhibitory effect on root resorption of SnF2 could not be disclosed in this experiment, however, it may be concluded that CA treatment of the root surface in conjunction with reconstructive periodontal flap surgery does not seem to enhance root resorption.


Background: Endovascular treatment (EVT) has been shown to significantly improve functional outcome in patients with acute large cerebral vessel occlusions. To date, no evidence-based recommendations on blood pressure management after successful EVT exist. Previous studies showed an association between high pre-EVT systolic blood pressure (SBP) and functional outcome, but do not answer the question on how to manage blood pressure after successful recanalization. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of blood pressure measurements as a predictor for early functional outcome in patients with successful EVT. Methods: Prospectively derived data from patients with acute large vessel occlusion within the anterior circulation and EVT was analyzed in this monocentric study. Mean systolic- and maximum SBP as well as SBP-peaks have been obtained for the first 24 h after successful EVT. Predictive value of SBP for discharge modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≤2 has been investigated using logistic regression models. Results: From 168 patients with successful EVT, 74 (44%) had a favorable outcome with an mRS ≤2. Mean- (127 vs. 131 mm Hg, p = 0.035) and maximum SBP (157 vs. 169 mm Hg, p < 0.001) as well as the number of SBP-peaks (0 vs. 1.5, p = 0.004) were lower in patients with favorable outcomes. Multivariable logistic regression showed high mean- and maximum SBP to predict unfavorable outcomes. Cutoff mean SBP was 141 mm Hg and maximum SBP 159 mm Hg. Conclusions: High SBP in the first 24 h after recanalization of acute anterior cerebral vessel occlusions is associated with unfavorable functional outcome. Interventional studies are needed to determine the role of SBP management as a modifiable parameter in the early phase after successful EVT.


Because helix-loop-helix (HLH) transcription factors appear to play an important role in mesodermal development, we have investigated the potential role of these factors in cardiac gene expression. HLH proteins interact with DNA at consensus "E-box" sites and may be tissue specific or more widely expressed. We have examined cardiac cells for expression and regulation of widely expressed factors Pan1/Pan2 and the inhibitor of differentiation (Id) by RNase protection analysis. The effect of MyoD, Id, and Pan1/Pan2 expression on skeletal and cardiac promoters in cardiac cells was examined by transient cotransfection studies. Our results indicate that neonatal ventricular cells are a functional HLH environment, because MyoD can activate a skeletal muscle-specific promoter in these cells. MyoD, however, has no effect on the expression of several genes that are expressed in cardiac cells. In addition, Id may be an early response gene for signal transduction in cardiac cells, because increases in Id mRNA occurred within 30 minutes of stimulation with serum or phenylephrine. Activities of three cardiac promoter elements in primary ventricular myocytes were not downregulated by Id. Surprisingly, expression of Pan1 and Pan2 exhibited a strong negative effect on cardiac expression of the myosin light chain-2 promoter.


Black internationalism describes the political culture and intellectual practice forged in response to slavery, colonialism, and white imperialism. It is a historical and ongoing collective struggle against racial oppression rooted in global consciousness. While the expression of black internationalism has certainly changed across time and place, black liberation through collaboration has been and remains its ultimate goal.
 Since the emergence of black internationalism as a result of the transatlantic slave trade and during the Age of Revolutions, black women such as the poet Phyllis Wheatley and evangelist Rebecca Protten have been at its forefront. Their writings and activism espoused an Afro-diasporic, global consciousness and promoted the cause of universal emancipation. During the 19th century, black women internationalists included abolitionists, missionaries, and clubwomen. They built on the work of their predecessors while laying the foundations for succeeding black women internationalists in the early 20th century. By World War I, a new generation of black women activists and intellectuals remained crucial parts of the International Council of Women, an organization founded by white suffragists from the United States, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, a global organization formally led by Jamaican pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. But they also formed an independent organization, the International Council of Women of the Darker Races (ICWDR).
 Within and outside of the ICWDR, black women from Africa and the African Diaspora faced and challenged discrimination on the basis of their sex and race. Their activism and intellectual work set a powerful precedent for a subsequent wave of black internationalism shaped by self-avowed black feminists.


In practical engineering, it is inevitable that a system is perturbed by noise signals. Unfortunately, H infin /H infin filtering may fail to detect some faults when the noise distribution matrix are the same as the fault distribution matrix. In this paper, it is shown that the dynamic feedback gain of a dynamic filter introduces additional zeros to the filter, and both the filter poles and the additional zeros can be assigned arbitrarily. In order to attenuate band-limited noises, the zero assignment technique is used, and an optimal dynamic fault detection filtering approach is proposed by locating the zeros to the noise frequencies and optimizing the poles. Compared to other dynamic filter design approaches, the zero assignment technique gives a better tradeoff between more design freedom and computation costs. As shown in the simulation, a better noise attenuation and fault detection performance have been obtained. The zero assignment in multivariable fault detection filter design would be the main contribution of this paper.


During the last decade, the theory of competence-based competition has drawn a considerable amount of attention from the academic and practitioners alike. The theory asserts that corporate and business strategies should be built upon the strengths of the core competencies of a firm. The aim of this research is to construct a structured and practical framework for core competence evaluation. The thesis begins with the introduction of the basic concept of core competencies through presenting three core competence-based approaches. Research methodology is described in detail. Two data collection methods are used for this study: case study and questionnaire survey. By reviewing the literature, six competence identification models are identified and analysed. The strengths and limitations of these models are discussed.

Having provided working definitions for firm tangible and intangible assets, a relationship between resource and capability is developed and examined. Using financial and non-financial performance measures, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique is employed to determine the key capabilities of firms. Subsequently using "C llecti enc s" and "uniqueness" attributes, a comprehensive method for evaluating competencies is provided. The attribute 'collectiveness' is introduced for determining the 'universal usefulness' of these candidates in the scope of a business. The attribute 'uniqueness' is employed for assessing the distinctiveness of the potential competence candidates in competition. Competencies are evaluated by subjectively assigning relevant scores to these characteristics. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated through to case studies

The author believes that being unique in competition is not sufficient for core competencies to keep their strategic values in dynamic competitive environment. A true core competence should be able to continuously create new business options for the firm Therefore, this thesis emphases that to be core competence, the candidates must be strategically flexible. By employing "strategic flexibility" as the main criterion, this study has presented a distinctive mechanism to differentiate core competencies from the competencies. The dynamic nature of the core competencies is evaluated using characteristics such as resource re-deployment and routine re-organisation. The generic nature of this framework is tested through conducting two case studies and a questionnaire survey

This thesis makes three main contributions to the existing body of knowledge. Firstly the thesis provides a systematic and practical core competence architecture which can be used for firms to accurately understand the concept of core competence. Secondly the thesis gives a detailed and structured core competence evaluation framework which can be used for firms to identify their business strengths and weaknesses systematically. Thirdly by conducting a questionnaire survey, the thesis presents a snapshot of the UK manufacturing and service industry core competencies, and bridges the gap between theory and practice The framework may be viewed as a practical, robust and generic tool to benchmark a service, manufacturing or public sector organisation. The outcome of this study would help companies in strategic decision-making with regards to diversification, focusing and investment in competence building activities.


Following the global economic crisis, many financial organisations around the World are seeking efficient frameworks for predicting and assessing financial risks. However, in the current economic situation, transparency became an important factor where there is a need to fully understand and analyse a given financial model. In this paper, we will present a Genetic Type-2 Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) for the modelling and prediction of financial applications. The proposed system is capable of generating summarized optimised type-2 FLSs based financial models which are easy to read and analyse by the lay user. The system is able to use the summarized model for prediction within financial applications. We have performed several evaluations in two distinctive financial domains one for the prediction of good/bad customers in a credit card approval application and the other domain was in the prediction of arbitrage opportunities in the stock markets. The proposed Genetic type-2 FLS has outperformed white box financial models like the Evolving Decision Rule (EDR) procedure (which is based on Genetic Programming (GP) and decision trees) and gave a comparable performance to black box models like neural networks while the proposed system provided a white box model which is easy to understand and analyse by the lay user.


Over the past third of a century, Western welfare states have made policy shifts toward decentralization and privatization, and expected the private non-profit sector to take a larger role in addressing social welfare needs. In the US, welfare policies that focus on employment for the parents of young children, the large number of parents in the workforce, and inadequate child care services in rural communities combine to make the case for innovative child care strategies particularly compelling. This article reports the findings of a project that explored the feasibility of using cooperative models of child care to address the needs of rural communities in California. The project examined relevant literature and identified existing federal and state programs involved with child care for low-income families, as well as relevant funding sources for cooperative development. Interviews were conducted with those involved in low-income housing, early childhood development, welfare-to-work programs, and economic development in rural communities. Interviews also helped identify rural affordable housing developments and rural communities for specific feasibility studies. The findings of the project demonstrate compelling reasons that cooperative models of child care, especially the parent model, can offer effective strategies for expanding needed child care in rural communities.


Objective: The study reported here reviews the national trends of available procedures for inhospital treatment of lung cancer. Method: In this study the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from the year 2003 to 2011 was used and which has information about patients hospitalized with a principal diagnosis and with the principal procedure among other critical hospitalization related variables. The relevant data was extracted from NIS using the principal diagnosis ICD 9 code for lung cancer. The lung cancer procedures were classified into three categories (based on ICD 9 procedural code) as "Surgical", "Non-surgical" and "Others". Results: Overall it was found that 15,774 lung cancer patients were admitted to the hospital during the years 2003 to 2011. The percentage of "Non- Surgical" procedures and "Others" categories remained consistently lower (1.2%), whereas Surgical procedure increased by (6% to 8%) over the same period of time. Demographic factors of Age, Race, Gender and hospitalization outcomes of Length of stay in the hospital, Total charges, as also Type of admission to the hospital and Insurance Types were used alongside the review of the national trends to determine any significant association in the selection of treatment options for lung cancer. Total charges increased for all procedures over the period 2003 to 2011 (P-value<0.0001) while Length of stay reduced only for open surgery (P-value<0.0001). Gender, admission type and risk of mortality were found to play important roles in the selection of the treatment.


The research addresses the economic problem of deforestation. A contributing factor to deforestation is coffee production. Coffee is an indigenous plant that is naturally occurring in the native tropical forests. However, conventional coffee is grown on cleared forest soil. In the native forest there is the potential for additional fruits (bananas, mangoes, avocados) and wood products while in the conventional coffee production system the only product is coffee. Conventional coffee production often causes deforestation and soil erosion while the organic coffee production system does not. In addition, the price risk associated with the coffee monoculture is high and has proven disastrous to the sustainability of coffee production in past years. Thus, determining the comparative cost and return between the two methods can provide important information for coffee producers. The purpose of the research is to determine the per acre profitability between conventional and organic coffee. This will be determined by researching the distribution of quantity on representative plots. This will help identify any size or scale economies. Determining the difference in profit per acre between organic and conventional coffee production included identifying and working with production stakeholders, engaging in fieldwork, site and case study selection, and determining measurable, non-market benefits and costs that pertain to environmental and community factors. This included, but is not limited to fertilization, water, pesticide use, and timber harvest.


With climate change, an increasingly important focus of scientific and policy discourse, the Russian government has aimed to position the country as one of the leaders of the global process for addressing climate change. This article reviews a breadth of literature to analyze the politico‐economic situation in Russia with regard to international climate change negotiations, related domestic policies, societal attitudes, and climatic change impacts on Russia's territory. The analysis demonstrates how Russia has a pivotal role in influencing the future direction of international climate change mitigation and adaptation. Not only is Russia predisposed geographically to the impacts of climate change, but also it is a major emitter of greenhouse gases and a global supplier of fossil fuels, and remains a major force in international politics. This unique confluence of circumstances leaves Russia with a challenging dilemma. It can choose to acquiesce to short‐term political and economic considerations, adopt weak mitigation measures, and face potentially significant impacts. Or it can apply its considerable attributes and powers to initiate an epoch of international action to secure a low‐carbon climate‐resilient future. Although the former will see Russia subsumed into the international malaise on climate change, the latter may both quench the nation's 'thirst for greatness' and fill the void of international leadership. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:373–396. doi: 10.1002/wcc.236


This study builds upon the review of in-vehicle time (IVT) values reported in Wardman (1997) and its principal objective is to conduct a review of British empirical evidence regarding the valuations of the following variables:

walking time
access time
search time
late time
departure time adjustments
congested travel time
public transport headway
public transport interchange

A number of other service quality variables have not been included in this review for various reasons. In some cases the range of effects discerned by a variable varies dramatically across studies, with mode specific constants providing a good example, whilst in others, such as with travel time variability or railway rolling stock, the precise nature of the variable being valued varies widely. For other variables, there is the problem that there is as yet insufficient empirical evidence or else there are problems of commercial confidentiality. Examples include the valuations of terminal facilities, advance purchase requirements and safety and cleanliness factors, but hopefully these problems will diminish over time and large scale quantitative reviews can be conducted in the future.

The valuations are obtained from disaggregate behavioural models developed since 1980 which have been estimated to Revealed Preference (RP) or Stated Preference (SP) data. The proposal specified a maximum level of disaggregation according to journey purpose and mode. This is because other segmentations, such as by income or household type, are not conducted on a consistent basis and analysis of their effects would have involved considerable additional resources. Nonetheless, future review studies might tackle such issues.

The aim of the research is to review how the valuations of the time and service quality attributes listed above and to examine how they vary according to key socio-economic and trip characteristics. Two approaches are adopted to examine the influence of these variables.


In this article, we explore how information, communications, and computational technology, or computer technology for short, influences the way that engineering is taught and learned. The goal of our analysis it to contribute towards a research, adoption, and policy agenda for propagating the effective use of computer technology in engineering education and for avoiding pitfalls associated with the connectivity that this technology enables. We seek to inform action and generate conversation amongst instructors, students, researchers, administrators, policy makers, and other key stakeholders in engineering education. We organize our discussion through six main issues as the focus for systemic change for the effective integration of technology in engineering education. These issues were identified through a Delphi study with a group of engineering education experts. Our analysis of the issues then draws on major policy reports of the use of technology in education and the extant research literature from engineering education and science education as well as technology studies and science studies. Discussion of each of these issues leads to a summary set of recommendations. Specifically, we address the role of technology in learning engineering, including both technologies developed specifically for learning engineering (learning innovations) and domain-specific computer technologies for engineering practice (computational tools). We next address technology-related issues around instructional design including learning outcomes, assessment, and instructional practice. We include discussion of professional development that better prepares faculty to effectively use technology in the classroom. Finally, we outline the broader ways technology interacts with the work of engineering students and faculty at the systems level for better and for worse.


. Recent observations on the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 000301c afterglow show that one sharp break appears in the global optical/IR light curves, and in particular the decay slope at late times is as steep as about − 3 : 0. This unusual feature is clearly inconsistent with the standard afterglow shock model. Here we propose a non-standard model for the afterglow of GRB 000301c, in which an initial ultra-relativistic shock in a dense medium (\dirty environment") rapidly evolved to the non-relativistic phase in 1 day after the burst. During such a phase, the shock was refreshed by a strongly magnetized millisecond pulsar through magnetic dipole radiation. This refreshment led to flattening of the light curves. After the energy injection, the afterglow decayed as / t − 3 : 0 if the electron distribution index of the shocked medium, p (cid:25) 3 : 4, derived from the optical spectrum. Therefore, our model can provide a plausible explanation for the peculiar optical/IR afterglow light curves of GRB 000301c.


Two test cases with idealized geometry and forcing functions were performed to validate a three dimensional hydrodynamic model for use in coastal waters. The tests involve the barotropic and baroclinic responses of a coastal ocean with a uniform alongshore shelf to the passage of a storm and the circulation induced by flow over a topographic feature. The model used in this study is the three dimensional estuarine, coastal and ocean model developed by Blumberg and Mellor which solves for three components of the current field, temperature and salinity. The model has an embedded second order turbulence closure submodel to provide vertical mixing coefficients and uses the free surface as a prognostic variable. At the open boundaries, a flow relaxation scheme (FRS) has been implemented to pass out internally generated disturbances with minimum reflection. The results from the first test case demonstrate that the model successfully reproduces the characteristics of the theoretically expected standing and propagating shelf wave response including the proper spatial structure and temporal variability. In the second test case, a stationary anticyclone was formed over the topographic feature and a cyclone was shed downstream in agreement with theory and previous studies.


With the growing complexity of energy efficient buildings, the methods of modeling and simulating such structures must account for monitoring several thousand design parameters across multiple diverse domains. As a result, modeling tools are now very specific to their respective domains and are growing more and more incongruous with each other. This calls for a way to integrate multiple modeling tools in the effort to create a single, large model capable of encapsulating data from multiple, different models. Thus, in this paper, different methods to perform an integration with Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and a simulation tool were identified, described and evaluated. Then, a new method was developed and discussed. Finally, the new method was demonstrated by developing a SysML executable model of a simple two-room house. Using the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) standard, the SysML model is integrated with a Modelica model, and a simulation is run in Simulink. Finally, a tradeoff analysis was performed for the purpose of design space exploration.


Major drawbacks to present-day cancer chemotherapy are its intrinsic lack of selectivity for tumour cells, resulting in severe damage to normal rapidly dividing cells, and the widespread emergence of drug resistance. Here experimental evidence is presented demonstrating that PB-100, a beta-carboline alkaloid, selectively inhibits in vitro multiplication of human BCNU-resistant glioblastoma cells (U251), but has no effect on normal astrocyte (CRL 1656) multiplication. PB-100 activity is dose-dependent. In the presence of ferritin or CaCl2, which are highly mitogenic for glioblastoma cells, higher doses of the alkaloid are required to inhibit multiplication completely. PB-100 is one of several compounds which were selected for their specific action on cancer DNA and cells, together with lack of activity on normal DNA and cells. Both the selectivity of PB-100 and its ability to overcome drug resistance stem from its effect on cancer DNA secondary structure. This activity is described and discussed, and therapeutic applications are mentioned.


About 38% of the EU budget is spent on agriculture and rural areas. The funds are used in developing and implementing projects with economic, environmental and social goals targeted mainly at agricultural holdings and small and medium-size enterprises. For the conditions in Bulgaria, the investment in social entrepreneurship may become a key factor in providing employment and development of entrepreneurial initiatives leading to sustainable rural development. Social entrepreneurship is a paradigm that can be seen as one of the solutions to reduce poverty, migration, depopulation and retention of the working population in rural areas. The research aims to reveal the role and benefits of social entrepreneurship for sustainable rural development through analysis of the factors and barriers to its application. It is important in rural areas to create suitable conditions for building social enterprises with a large scope covering all vulnerable groups of the territory. In this context, the logical connection between the factors of social entrepreneurship is discussed which takes into account the peculiarities of rural areas in Bulgaria in connection with its application. Some of the most important factors, challenges, and constraints that have been analyzed are economic, social and institutional. The results show that sustainable rural development can be achieved in solving socially significant problems with the means and approaches of social entrepreneurship and its promotion in rural areas.


The loss of transmitted packets over an erasure channel, such as the Internet, can generate delay of the received information due to retransmission, and this can have adverse effects in real-time applications. Error forward correction is a technique used to avoid this delay. Until now mainly block codes have been used for this purpose and convolutional codes have been much less studied. In this paper we study in detail the use of convolutional codes over this channel and we show that the complexity of decoding is polynomial. We see how maximum distance profile (MDP) convolutional codes can deal with situations which are not possible for a maximum distance separable (MDS) block code and we introduce a new concept: reverse-MDP convolutional codes. Reverse-MDP codes double the potential of MDP convolutional codes since they behave as MDP codes in a forward and a backward sense. Due to this fact, we propose this new kind of codes as very good candidates to improve the decoding process. In addition, we provide a particular construction for reverse-MDP convolutional codes.


What is empiricism and what could it be? Bas C. van Fraassen, one of the world's foremost contributors to philosophical logic and the philosophy of science, here undertakes a fresh consideration of these questions and offers a program for renewal of the empiricist tradition. The empiricist tradition is not and could not be defined by common doctrines, but embodies a certain stance in philosophy, van Fraassen says. This stance is displayed first of all in a searing, recurrent critique of metaphysics, and second in a focus on experience that requires a voluntarist view of belief and opinion. Van Fraassen focuses on the philosophical problems of scientific and conceptual revolutions and on the not unrelated ruptures between religious and secular ways of seeing or conceiving of ourselves. He explores what it is to be or not be secular and points the way toward a new relationship between secularism and science within philosophy.


The common law rule against perpetuities maintained alienation of property by voiding interests in property that did not vest within a life in being at the creation of the interest plus twenty-one years. The rule was applied strictly, often producing harsh results. The courts used a what-might-happen test to strike down nonvested interests that might not have vested in a timely manner. During the last half-century, many legislatures have softened the application of the rule against perpetuities by enacting wait-and-see provisions, which require courts to decide cases based on the facts as they actually developed, and reformation, which allowed some nonvested interests to be reformed to save them from invalidity. This paper describes the common law rule. Then it traces the modern developments, including promulgation of the widely adopted Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities, which includes an alternate 90 year fixed wait-and-see period to be applied in place of the common law's lives in being plus twenty-one years. The paper continues by exploring the policies which underlie the rule against perpetuities. Then, after finding that there is no significant movement to repeal the rule except for trusts, it is established that proposals for that federal law, including federal transfer taxes, cannot and should not be used to implement the policies served by the rule itself. There is a continuing need for state rules against perpetuities. The paper proposes that the rule be modified to make it more understandable and easier to apply. The proposed rule would replace lives in being plus twenty-one years with a fixed term of years. This would eliminate most of the difficulties encountered in application of the rule. Wait-and-see and reformation are part of the proposed rule. The proposed rule provides for determination of valid interests at the end of the fixed term of year Rule and contains a definition of "vested" to enable judges and attorneys to apply the rule in cases which will arise many years in the future.


This study presents an operational case of advancements in urban land cover classification and change detection by using very high resolution spatial and multispectral information from 4-band QuickBird (QB) and 8-band WorldView-2 (WV-2) image sequence. Our study accentuates quantitative, pixel based, image difference approach for operational change detection using very high resolution pansharpened QB and WV-2 images captured over San Francisco city, California, USA (37° 44" 30N', 122° 31" 30' W and 37° 41" 30° N ,122° 20" 30' W). In addition to standard QB image, we compiled three multiband images from eight pansharpened WV-2 bands: (1) multiband image from four traditional spectral bands, i.e., Blue, Green, Red and near-infrared 1 (NIR1) (henceforth referred as "QB equivalent WV-2"), (2) multiband image from four new spectral bands, i.e., Coastal, Yellow, Red Edge and NIR2 (henceforth referred as "new band WV-2"), and (3) multiband image consisting of four traditional and four new bands (henceforth referred as "standard WV-2"). All the four multiband images were classified using support vector machine (SVM) classifier into four most abundant land cover classes, viz, hard surface, vegetation, water and shadow. The assessment of classification accuracy was performed using random selection of 356 test points. Land cover classifications on "standard QB" image (kappa coeffiecient, κ = 0.93), "QB equivalent WV-2" image (κ = 0.97), and "new band WV-2" image (κ = 0.97) yielded overall accuracies of 96.31 %, 98.03 % and 98.31 %, respectively, while "standard WV-2" image (κ = 0.99) yielded an improved overall accuracy of 99.18 %. It is concluded that the addition of four new spectral bands to the existing four traditional bands improved the discrimination of land cover targets, due to increase in the spectral characteristics of WV-2 satellite. Consequently, to test the validity of improvement in classification process for implementation in operational change detection application, comparative assessment of transition of various landcover classes in three WV-2 images with respect to "standard QB" image was carried out using image difference method. As far as waterbody class is concerned, there was no significant transition observed in all the three WorldView-2 Images, whereas, hard surface class showed lowest transition in "standard WV-2" image and highest in case of "new band WV-2". The most significant transition was occurred in vegetation class in all of the three images, showing positive change (increase) in standard WV-2 image (0.31 Sq. Km) and negative change (decrease) in other two images (−0.12 Sq. Km for "QB equivalent WV-2" image and −31.15 Sq. Km in "new band WV-2" image) with considerable amount. Similar case was observed with the shadow class, but the difference is, transition from shadow to other classes was negative in all the three WV-2 images which can be attributed to the fact that, "standard QB" image had more shadow area (based on acquisition time and sun position) than WV-2, that means all the band combinations of WV-2 succeeded in extracting the features hidden below the shadow in "standard QB" image. These trends indicate that the overall bandwise transition in landcover classes in case of "standard WV-2" is more precise than other two images. We note that "QB equivalent WV-2" image had narrower band widths than those of "standard QB" image but the observed vegetation change is not prominent as in case of other two images, but at the same time, transition in hard surface and waterbody was discerned more efficiently than "new band WV-2" image. The addition of new bands in WV-2 enabled more effective vegetation analysis, so the vegetation transition results shown by "new band WV-2" image were at par with the "standard WV-2" image, showing the importance of these newly added bands in the WV-2 imagery, with comparatively lower transitions in other classes. In a nutshell, it can be claimed that incorporation of new bands along with even narrower Red, Green, Blue and Near Infrared-1 bands in WV-2 image holds remarkable importance which leads to enhancement in the potential of WV-2 imagery in change detection and other feature extraction studies.


Previously, researchers examined the effects of utilising monolingual dictionaries compared to bilingual and bilingualised dictionaries in an EFL learning environment as to their efficacy in improving culture-specific skills in translation. This study was set to investigate the comparative effects of using only monolingual dictionaries as opposed to using bilingualised dictionaries during vocabulary acquisition in a Translation course. Participants consisted of 60 Level II students of English. A test comprising 100 low-frequency words and 100 sentences manipulating each word as a translational writing task was administered at the end of the semester. Three experimental groups, one studying vocabulary with monolingual dictionaries, another with bilingual dictionaries, and a third with bilingualised dictionaries were used for checking the efficacy with which any/all of the three types of dictionaries can best help students acquire new lexicon. The study tested participants on their comprehension of and ability to use these words using sentences of their own on translational writing tasks. Results suggest that bilingualised dictionaries are more effective than monolingual and bilingual dictionaries and that bilingualised dictionaries are more effective than monolingual dictionaries, the last two dictionaries being the least effective. Suggestions for further work and implications for ELT pedagogy have been forwarded at the end.


We present a novel method of compression of deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) by weight sharing through a new representation of convolutional filters. The proposed method reduces the number of parameters of each convolutional layer by learning a 1D vector termed Filter Summary (FS). The convolutional filters are located in FS as overlapping 1D segments, and nearby filters in FS share weights in their overlapping regions in a natural way. The resultant neural network based on such weight sharing scheme, termed Filter Summary CNNs or FSNet, has a FS in each convolution layer instead of a set of independent filters in the conventional convolution layer. FSNet has the same architecture as that of the baseline CNN to be compressed, and each convolution layer of FSNet has the same number of filters from FS as that of the basline CNN in the forward process. With compelling computational acceleration ratio, the parameter space of FSNet is much smaller than that of the baseline CNN. In addition, FSNet is quantization friendly. FSNet with weight quantization leads to even higher compression ratio without noticeable performance loss. We further propose Differentiable FSNet where the way filters share weights is learned in a differentiable and end-to-end manner. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of FSNet in compression of CNNs for computer vision tasks including image classification and object detection, and the effectiveness of DFSNet is evidenced by the task of Neural Architecture Search.


Judgments of female body attractiveness can be based on both structural and dynamic information. Structural information is specified by sizes of crucial female body characteristics, such as waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), breasts and buttocks: the lower the WHR and the larger the breasts and buttocks, the higher the femininity level. Dynamic information is specified as either implicit dynamics, such as pose, or explicit dynamics, such as walk. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the effects of both structural and dynamic factors on the judgments of female body attractiveness. Stimuli were generated using the DAZ 3D program for computer animation. In two sessions twenty-five male participants rated the attractiveness of figures with five levels of femininity in a beautiful, a neutral and an ugly pose (session 1) or walk (session 2). Five female figures, poses and walks were specified in preliminary experiments. The main effect of femininity level was significant: post hoc tests indicated that the third (medium) and the forth femininity levels were most attractive, the fifth (highest) and the second femininity levels were less attractive and the first (lowest) femininity level was least attractive. The main effect of pose/walk was obtained as well: post hoc tests indicated that attractiveness increased in an expected way, i.e. ugly-neutral-beautiful pose/walk. However, interactions and post hoc tests indicated that the effects of pose/walk are largest for most attractive figures (medium and higher femininity levels) and then they decrease in both directions (towards highest and lowest femininity levels). In case of the least feminine figure factors pose/walk had no effects on attractiveness at all. These results suggest that beautiful and ugly poses/walks are effective (positively or negatively, respectively) for the attractive figures, whereas they don't change the judgments of the least attractive (least feminine) figure. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


ABSTRACT The transcription factor BCL11B/CTIP2 is a major regulatory protein implicated in various aspects of development, function and survival of T cells. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-mediated phosphorylation and SUMOylation modulate BCL11B transcriptional activity, switching it from a repressor in naive murine thymocytes to a transcriptional activator in activated thymocytes. Here, we show that BCL11B interacts via its conserved N-terminal MSRRKQ motif with endogenous MTA1 and MTA3 proteins to recruit various NuRD complexes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that protein kinase C (PKC)-mediated phosphorylation of BCL11B Ser2 does not significantly impact BCL11B SUMOylation but negatively regulates NuRD recruitment by dampening the interaction with MTA1 or MTA3 (MTA1/3) and RbAp46 proteins. We detected increased phosphorylation of BCL11B Ser2 upon in vivo activation of transformed and primary human CD4+ T cells. We show that following activation of CD4+ T cells, BCL11B still binds to IL-2 and Id2 promoters but activates their transcription by recruiting P300 instead of MTA1. Prolonged stimulation results in the direct transcriptional repression of BCL11B by KLF4. Our results unveil Ser2 phosphorylation as a new BCL11B posttranslational modification linking PKC signaling pathway to T-cell receptor (TCR) activation and define a simple model for the functional switch of BCL11B from a transcriptional repressor to an activator during TCR activation of human CD4+ T cells.


In developing countries, poor quality construction has led to spontaneous building collapse and, during earthquakes, to major disasters. While reliable building codes are widely used in design, builders in developing countries often fail to meet acceptable standards. Structural defects are frequently identified too late, often after catastrophic collapse. In Kenya, more than eighty people have been killed, an over 290 injured, by collapsed buildings, since 2006. However, Kenya is not an exception. Throughout the world, in particular in countries with developing economies and growing populations, thousands of dangerously weak buildings will be built, and millions of people will be exposed to unnecessarily higher risks for generations. This research aims at contributing towards finding solutions to this problem by: 1) demonstrating that, in Kenya, many buildings are approved for occupation based on false material strength data produced by ineffective quality-control methods; 2) engaging the help of experts in Kenyan construction to list and ranked probable causes and plausible solutions to the problem of unsafe construction practices in Kenya; 3) presenting a method and a simulation model to estimate the damages in Nairobi (or other cities in Africa) in case of and earthquake, which can be used by policy makers when evaluating alternative policy interventions; and 4) proposing a strategy that combines the enforcement of quality reporting for construction, the open publication of the reports, the diffusion of non-destructive testing in construction, a risk communication program, and internet forums to help educate and provide guidance to the public in good construction practices.


This paper developed a new control strategy of distributed battery storage in response to price signal as an effective way of demand side management, using dynamic programming algorism to calculate the hourly power use from grid. An office building in Shenzhen, China was studied, verifying the feasibility of the control strategy. The result turned out that the total electricity cost can be saved by 28.1% comparing with a system without distributed battery storage, and by 8.1% comparing with a system where the distributed battery storage operates in the strategy of constant grid power taking. Furthermore, the relationship of electricity cost with battery size and maximum charging/discharging power was studied. Based on the model, capacity and maximum charging/discharging power of battery fit well with a segmented linear model, in the range of practical application. The maximum charging/discharging power of battery storage system and minimum electricity fee could be fitted into a quadratic polynomial model. These findings could provide information and give reference for battery storage system design and operation.


While others have examined the implementation and/or the stringency of enforcement of antitrust laws in post-socialist economies, this paper is the first study that attempts to explain the determinants of antitrust enforcement activity across post-socialist countries using economic and political variables. Using a panel of ten European post-socialist countries over periods ranging from 4 to 11 years, we find a number of significant determinants of enforcement in these countries. For example, larger economies engage in more antitrust enforcement, and countries have tended to increase their enforcement efforts over time. Our results also suggest that countries characterized by more unionization and less corruption tend to engage in greater antitrust enforcement of all types. Countries more successful in privatizing have filed fewer cases, while more affluent or developed countries investigate fewer cases of all types, consistent with an income-shifting motivation for antitrust.


In European cities there are many reinforced concrete (RC) constructions belonging to the early 20th century and, in most cases, these pieces of work so rich in historical, architectural and cultural signifi- cance urgently require maintenance and restoration. Reinforced concrete works, from the origins until the release of the first technical standards, were built by applying patented systems (e.g. Monnier's, Hennebique's) that were often the result of indi-vidual intuitions more than scientific and technical knowledge. This is one of the reasons that many of the structures built in those years, and still surviving, could not be considered reliable with regard to the structural safety, as it is presently intended. In this scenario, the evaluation of RC beam shear capacity becomes crucial. In this article, analys-ing the tests carried out in Stuttgart in the early 20th century, a preliminary study on the shear capacity assessment of historical RC beams is presented. The aim is to verify the applicability to these kinds of beams of the relations given for new constructions in the present codes. Moreover a novel formulation for the transversal shear capacity for historical RC beams with U-shaped plates is proposed.


Little published research exists on non-fatal suicidal behaviour amongst persons of African descent this investigation sampled 82 patients of African descent who presented with non-fatal suicidal behaviour at psychological clinics in general hospitals in Pietermaritzburg (South Africa). Over half of the sample engaged in suicidal behaviour over the weekend. Significantly more adolescents than adults ingested medicinal substances, and significantly more adults than adolescents used violent methods in their non-fatal suicidal behaviour. Interpersonal conflict was cited as a short term precipitant to non-fatal suicidal behaviour in most of the cases. Financial stressors and employment difficulties were predominantly cited as recent stressors to non-fatal suicidal behaviour amongst adults. The findings demonstrate similar demographic and psychosocial correlates of non-fatal suicidal behaviour amongst Africans as other cultural groups in South Africa. The hypothesised effects of Apartheid and acculturation are discussed.


We present new results on the shock around the southwest radio lobe of Centaurus A using data from the Chandra Very Large Programme observations (740 ks total observing time). The X-ray spectrum of the emission around the outer southwestern edge of the lobe is well described by a single power-law model with Galactic absorption ‐ thermal models are strongly disfavoured, except in the region closest to the nucleus. We conclude that a significant fraction of the X-ray emission around the southwest part of the lobe is synchrotron, not thermal. We infer that in the region where the shock is strongest and the ambient gas density lowest, the inflation of the lobe is accelerating particles to X-ray sync hrotron emitting energies, similar to supernova remnants such as SN1006. This interpretation resolves a problem of our earlier, purely thermal, interpretation for this emission, namely t hat the density compression across the shock was required to be much larger than the theoretically expected factor of 4. We describe a self-consistent model for the lobe dynamics and shock properties using the shell of thermal emission to the north of the lobe to estimate the lobe pressure. Based on this model, we estimate that the lobe is expanding to the southwest with a velocity of �2600 km s 1 , roughly Mach 8 relative to the ambient medium. We discuss the spatial variation of spectral index across the shock region, concluding that our observations constrain γmax for the accelerated particles to be �10 8 at the strongest part of the shock, consistent with expectat ions from diffusive shock acceleration theory. Finally, we consider the implications of these results for the production of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and TeV emission from Centaurus A, concluding that the shock front region is unlikely to be a significant source of UHECRs, but that TeV emission from this region is expected at levels comparable to current limits at TeV energies, for plausible assumed magnetic field strength s.


Technology has dramatically altered virtually every aspect of our life in recent years. While technology has always driven change, it seems that these changes are occurring more rapidly and more extensively than ever before. Society and its laws will evolve; but it is not always an easy process. Privacy has changed dramatically in our data-driven world – and continues to change daily. It has always been difficult to define exactly what privacy is, and therefore, it is even more difficult to propose what it should become. As the meaning of privacy often varies from person to person, it is difficult to establish a one-size-fits-all concept. This paper explores some of the historical, legal and ethical development of privacy, discusses how some of the normative values of privacy may survive or change, and examines how outrage has been – and will continue to be – a driver of such change.


The signaling protocols used to establish point-to-point pseudowires include type-length-value (TLV) fields that identify pseudowire endpoints called attachment individual identifiers (AIIs). This document defines AII structures in the form of new AII TLV fields that support AII aggregation for improved scalability and Virtual Private Network (VPN) auto-discovery. It is envisioned that this would be useful in large inter-domain virtual private wire service networks where pseudowires are established between selected local and remote provider edge (PE) nodes based on customer need.


The lactic acid bacterium Oenococcus oeni is used as starter culture for the degradation of malic acid during winemaking. This microorganism could only be grown to high cell densities in complex media supplemented with tomato juice. For the characterization of so far unknown growth stimulating factors pressings or extracts from fruits or leaves were prepared and tested for their growth stimulating properties. Grape juice and peel extracts from mango exhibited the highest growth promoting properties when added to culture media of oenococci. Elementary analysis in combination with solid phase extraction revealed that the manganese concentration of the juices and extracts was one of the factors responsible for growth stimulation. It became obvious that two growth optima existed, one at 67 μM and the other 34 mM. Most likely the activity of enzymes which use manganese as cofactor are stimulated at micromolar concentrations, while at millimolar concentrations manganese can form oxidation protecting complexes. The manganese concentration in the applied growth media for oenococci is much lower than that found in this study for optimal growth. The addition of other minerals to the basic culture medium had no extra stimulating effect. A determination of the titre of cells grown in the presence of fruit juice fractions obtained after treatment with cation exchange resin as well as lemon mesocarp extracts with a low manganese content revealed that the growth stimulating properties of some extracts could not be explained by the presence of manganese alone. Organic compounds, most probably polyphenols, were responsible for the further growth stimulation as revealed by polyvinylpolypyrrolidone treatment of the fruit juices. This may be the explanation for the rapid growth start and the high cell titre of oenococci observed in culture media supplemented with polyphenolic compounds.


We describe the use of microsatellite
DNA markers, previously developed
for common carp, to investigate
a forensic case involving ornamental koi carp.
Two South African breeders offered koi
strains for sale, which a third breeder
claimed were taken illegally from his ponds.
Screening of four microsatellite markers
provided polymorphic results for koi, demonstrating
their applicability for forensic studies.
Amplification product sizes were comparable
to those published for common carp at three
of the four loci. We observed higher allelic
diversity among koi carp than had been
reported for a panel of inbred common carp.
Coefficients of population differentiation
showed no significant differences between
the populations involved. Consequently, our
analyses could not convincingly prove or
disprove foul play. The latter ambiguity was
most likely the result of sampling constraints
rather than the suitability of the markers.
Our results provide a foundation for future
application of microsatellite markers for
forensic investigation, marker-assisted breeding,
and population diversity analysis in koi.


OBJECTIVE To examine rates of severe hypoglycemia (SH) in a large population-based cohort of children with type 1 diabetes and relationships to HbA1c. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data from 1,683 children (mean [SD] age at diagnosis 10.5 [4.2]; range 1–18 years) from 2000 to 2009 were analyzed from the Western Australian Children's Diabetes Database. Rates of SH were related to HbA1c using negative binomial regression. RESULTS A total of 7,378 patient-years of data and 780 SH events were recorded. The rate of SH per 100 patient-years peaked at 17.3 in 2001 and then declined from 2004 to a nadir of 5.8 in 2006. HbA1c <7% was not associated with higher risk of SH (incidence rate ratio 1.2 [95% CI 0.9–1.6], P = 0.29) compared with HbA1c of 8–9%. CONCLUSIONS In a sample of youth with type 1 diabetes, there has been a decrease in rates of SH and a weaker relationship with glycemic control than previously observed.


ABSTRACT. Bottom trawling is important in Brazilian fisheries and is currently highly multi-specific due to the overexploitation of the original targets; unselective fishing method; very large permitted fishing area and the country's high marine biodiversity. Fishing licensing in Brazil was modified in 2012 and is now based in five criteria: target species; "expected by-catch"; "incidental catches"; fishing method and area of operation. Licenses of trawling fleets exhibit, therefore, dozens of species catchable under the first three criteria. In this paper, we analyze industrial double-rig trawling fleets targeting shrimps and demersal fishes, in order to verify in what extent the new system adhere to the current fishing reality, giving new information to improve the current management regime. A total of 4,194 trips from 191 vessels were studied between 2008 and 2010 in southern Brazil. In spite of depending economically on their targets, the fleets are formally authorized to catch a high percentage of species in common (41 to 71%), and the actual landings revealed an even greater overlapping among them (71 to 82%). Vessels licensed to catch demersal fishes obtained nearly 50% of their revenue from items not included in their licenses. It was concluded that the current system encourages excessive effort concentrations over fishing resources, as they can be legally caught by most vessels irrespective of their licenses. It is suggested that licensing should move from a species-based to a spatial-based approach, by defining smaller management areas according to the respective species assemblages. Landing composition would be, therefore, mostly a biological and technological consequence, making management more reasonable and workable under a multi-specific and mega-diverse scenario. Keywords: management, fishing licensing, demersal fisheries, fishing dynamics, Brazil.


Objective : To examine (a) the prevalence of sleep problems among 4-year-olds in the general population, (b) the prevalence of sleep problems among children with emotional and/or behavioural problems, and (c) whether specific sleep problems are associated with particular emotional/behavioural problems. Method: Using The Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA) , data about sleep and emotional/behavioural problems was obtained from 727 parents of 4-year-olds, recruited for a large-scale research project, Trondhei m Early Secure Study (TESS). Results: 31, 7 % of the 4-year-olds had one or more sleep problems, of which bedtime resistance and sleep terror were the most prevalent. Significantly more children with emotional/behavioural problems had sleep difficulties, compared to children without such problems. The results indicate that children with different types of psychiatric problems may have dissimilar sleep problems. Anxiety was associated with primary insomnia and nightmares; depression with sleep terror, bedtime resistance, difficulty initiating sleep and nightmares; behaviour problems with bedtime resistance, sleep terror and restless sleep; and ADHD was associated with sleep terror, restless sleep, primary insomnia and nightmares. Nightmares and sleep terror were prevalent across all the disorder groups. Conclusion: Sleep problems are prevalent among 4-year-olds, especially in children with symptoms of psychiatric disorders. Certain sleep problems seem to be more strongly associated with some psychological problems than others.


The term continuous move has emerged from the trucking industry during the last decade. A truck is productive (i.e., generates revenue) only when it moves loaded. From the truck operator=s perspective loading and unloading are necessary facilitating activities that rob truck time, whereas waiting and driving an empty truck are counter productive and should be minimized. Thus, the basic concept behind the term continuous move is that a truck should be kept moving with revenue generating loads. However, the term continuous moves has a variety of meanings depending on the type of operation with which it is associated. It usually refers to long-haul trucking operations where a truck is assigned several days of work and doesn=t necessarily return to its starting location. In order to keep their trucks moving loaded, truck operators give a variety of economic incentives to shippers (or to third party providers) who provide continuous moves for their trucks. This paper reviews continuous moves (CM) in the context of a variety of operational environments. It introduces a classification of continuous moves, discusses the economic incentives offered by truck operators for continuous moves, presents a mathematical model that is used to construct and select an efficient set of continuous moves while simultaneously considering other feasible alternatives for dispatching the orders, and discusses practical considerations for implementing continuous moves. For the sake of clarity the next section provides definitions of commonly used terms, and defines and classifies CM=s. It is followed by a brief literature review of dispatching CM=s. Then, the orders dispatching environment is presented with a unifying mathe-matical optimization model that is used to dispatch orders. A discussion of practical considerations in dispatching CM=s follows, and we close with a brief summary. CLASSIFICATION OF CONTINUOUS MOVES In order to facilitate clear classification of continuous moves (CM=s), definitions of some basic common terms are required: OriginB A single location (a stop). DestinationB A single location (a stop). OrderB A shipment from a single origin to a single destination with a size that does not exceed a truck=s capacity. If an order requires more than a truck= s capacity, it must be split into several orders. LoadB The cargo on a truck at any given moment. Truckload (TL) orderB An order that requires a full truck capacity or an order that is shipped separately on a truck (such an order may be a combined order consisting of several orders with a common origin and a common destination). Inbound TLB A load on a truck consisting of several orders that have more than one origin, but a single destination. The intermediate origins are usually referred to as pick up locations. Outbound TLB A load on a truck consisting of several orders that have a single origin and multiple destinations. The intermediate destinations are often referred to as stop-offs. Less-than-Truckload (LTL) orderBAn order that requires less than a full truck capacity. Multiple such orders may be on a truck simultaneously. Truck modeB A set of trucks that have the same operating rules and the same cost structure. Truck typeB A set of trucks of the same mode that have the same physical characteristics (e.g., capacity, compartments). The terms TL and LTL above correspond to a large extent to carriers= mode of operation and their freight rates. Generally, a continuous move (CM) is a sequence of shipments (orders) assigned to a truck. However, not every sequence of shipments is a continuous move. For the purpose at hand a CM is defined as a truck route spanning more than one day and consists of a sequence of legs during which the truck is loaded (fully or partially) more than once, unloaded (fully or partially) more than once, and these activities are interwoven (all the loading activities do not precede all the unloading activities). …


The blueschist occurrence at the Kopina Mt. is situated at the eastern margin of the Karkonosze–Izera Massif in the West Sudetes of the northern Bohemian Massif. Metabasic rocks with continental crust affinity occur as lenses within the prevailing metasediments. The metabasites consist mainly of garnet, blue amphibole, epidote, chlorite-I, titanite, hematite and quartz forming the high-pressure assemblage. Synkinematic garnet exhibits prograde zoning, a feature allowing for assessment of the prograde course of the pressure–temperature ( P–T ) path. Phase equilibrium modelling has been used to estimate prograde and peak metamorphic conditions. Based on the P–T pseudosections, calculated in the system Na 2 O–CaO–K 2 O–FeO–MgO–MnO–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 –H 2 O–TiO 2 –O 2 (NCKFMMnASHTO), the garnet + glaucophane + epidote + chlorite + white mica(?) + Fe oxide + quartz ± titanite assemblage was formed between 12–15 kbar and 480–520 °C. These results are based on garnet and Na-amphibole compositional isopleths. Garnet shows a prograde zoning expressed by the rapid rim-ward decrease of spessartine, moderate increase of almandine and as light increase of other components. It is inferred here that white mica must have decomposed to secondary albite–chlorite-II–K-feldspar. The obtained results point to the formation of the Kopina blueschists along a low-temperature P–T gradient of 8–10 °C/km, typical of rocks from a subduction–exhumation channel. We postulate that the Kopina blueschists were formed in a subduction system developed along the eastern termination of the Saxothuringian Ocean and operating beneath the Tepla–Barrandian upper plate. When combined with previous data on continental crust affinity for the protolith, our results demonstrate a derivation of the Kopina blueschists from subducted part of the Saxothuringian margin.


This paper aims to estimate the maximum probable annual losses to the risks of flooding. While examining the frequency of the event, it was observed that, at least one accident occurred periodically, which resulted in maximum losses. This is an empirical study and it is based on maximum losses due to floods per year, as obtained from the International Disaster Database and Munich Re. The analysis is based on 66 extreme flood events in the world between 1906 and 2015. The complementary risk method has been used in deriving a mixed probability distribution, which expresses the number of floods and the maximum losses realized, where zero-truncated Poisson distribution is used for frequency distribution and Last order Weibull distribution for losses. The maximum of flood losses was fitted with compound truncated Poisson-Weibull distribution. Probabilities have been calculated for extreme flood losses, which are less than specific descriptive measures, and expected values have been calculated for extreme flood losses, which exceed the specific descriptive measures. The results from the study indicate that the maximum probable losses are greater than the maximum actual losses. This paper contributes to the risk of extreme floods pricing; and it also helps the governments of the countries in calculating the financial reserves to cover the extreme flood losses.

 Key words: Risk management, extreme flood, complementary risk, truncated poisson distribution, last order weibull distribution, expected losses.


What is Vascular Surgery? George H. Meier, MD Who Should be Referred to a Vascular Surgeon? Spence M. Taylor, MD Your Complete Vascular Surgeon Bruce A. Perler, MD How Does Vascular Surgery Differ from other Interventional Specialists? Enrico Ascher, MD Referring Patients for Carotid Surgery Thomas S. Riles, MD Carotid Endarterectomy Thomas S. Riles, MD Options for Management of Carotid Restenosis Gregory J. Pearl, MD The Vascular Surgeon -The Complete Vascular Specialist R. Clement Darling, MD The History of Women in Vascular Surgery Lois Killiwich, MD Non-invasive Testing for Referring Patients Walter McCarthy, MD Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Jim McKinsey, MD Studies Prior to Patient Referral Bob Rutherford, MD Contraindications for CAS John F. Eidt, MD Fenestrated and Branched Endografts Timothy A. M. Chuter, MD Penetrating Ulcers of the Aorta W. Anthony Lee, MD Endovascular Techniques for Ruptured Aneurysms R. Clement Darling, MD How to Work with Referring Physicians Sean Roddy, MD Benefits of Membership in SVS Bruce A. Perler, MD The Continued Need for Open Surgery in Vascular Disease Philip S. K. Paty, MD Why I'm a Member of The Society for Vascular Surgery Leila Murebee, MD Radiation Exposure: Limiting the Risks Evan Lipsitz, MD RPVI and Vascular Surgery Steven A. Leers, MD VESAP Kim J. Hodgson, MD


Nanocomposites offer the possibility of realizing materials with bespoke properties that were un-realizable by the parent pristine materials. Since, nanoscale inclusions firstly engender small mechanical, electrical and optical defects; and secondly the differential property of the large volume of interfacial polymer from the bulk, bestow an opportunity for multi-functionality and attuning desired properties. The proposed research work deals with designing and controlling the interfacial structure-property-function relationships in the nanocomposites. This would give an insight for designing particle-polymer interface in forming hierarchical network of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix, and tackling the exigent issues of agglomeration and uniform dispersion. Upon achieving such to an acceptable limit, there are various possibilities of inducing self-assembling characteristics by engineering the phase interfaces, to design application driven specific properties based nanocomposite materials. This can herald way of delivering enduring structural materials, by the virtue of autonomous self-healing ability, sustaining not just once but multiple or repetitive occasions of damage. The autonomic self-healability triumphs even in the problematic cases where the damage, or its site is hard to identify or even inaccessible. Such engineered self-healing polymer nanocomposites are already finding extensive and promising applications in defence and space expeditions.


ABSTRACT Based on geomorphology, ages, and stratigraphy, the Marianna gap through Crowley's ridge, a 13 km breach through a large‐scale unconsolidated horst in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, as well as the transverse drainage that flows through the gap, began forming about 17 ka and were completely formed by 7–10 ka. Formation was driven by tectonic subsidence along part of the eastern margin of the Reelfoot rift, an aulacogen that has impacted development of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley region since the Precambrian. The breach occurred gradually, by subsidence‐driven fluvial erosion, and/or suddenly, by faulting. Our findings build on previous studies that suggest the eastern Reelfoot rift margin, as well as other nearby faults, have been recently active, evidenced by large‐scale sand blows emplaced in the Marianna gap area in the past 5–12 ky. We propose a mode of transverse drainage development that differs from previous modes in that it is driven by subsidence within a sedimentary basin, rather than uplift in an orogenic mountain belt. Our findings have implications for understanding both transverse drainage development in a sedimentary basin, and seismic potential of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and other aulacogens worldwide.


This chapter discusses the acquisition of relative clauses in Japanese, a language with prenominal modification. It shows that the acquisition process of Japanese relative clauses is very different from that of languages with postnominal relatives, such as English. In regard to structural aspects, the production of relative clauses by Japanese-speaking children is not affected by the grammatical role of the head nouns in relative clauses, suggesting that a Japanese relative clause can be formed by attaching a simple sentence to the head noun regardless of grammatical relations. In regard to semantic-functional aspects, the relative clauses produced by Japanese-speaking children predominantly have stative/attributive predicates, and they have a function of "naming-reference". I argue that Japanese relative clauses develop continuously from adjectival modification; possible explanations for this include the input that children are exposed to, which reflects typological characteristics of noun modification in Japanese.


The phenomena of computer games and the plethora of game cultures have already been drawing attention of researchers for many years, whereas the people behind computer games – the so called gameworkers – undeservingly remained in the shadows until quite recently. The lack of information about this workforce and its professional identity makes this research object especially interesting. The analysis relies on a pilot study about the issue of the professional identity of gameworkers, which aimed to dig deeper with the means of qualitative research. During that project nine German gameworkers were interviewed and an attempt to give an in-depth description of their professional identity was made. The study shows that the respondents have a very strong coherence with their profession and perceive themselves as a part of their profession and the team/studio they work with/at. The most salient reason for this is the deep interest the respondents have in computer games (for both making and playing games).


The laws governing the transfer of property at death — the laws of succession — give individuals broad freedom to control the administration and distribution of their property. To exercise this freedom, however, individuals must take affirmative steps during life, by executing a will, a revocable trust, or other ownership or transfer arrangements. Doing so can provide economic, social, and emotional benefits to both the decedent and his or her survivors, and represents a form of self determination. Yet many individuals fail to undertake any estate planning, leaving it to the state to determine how their property is distributed without regard for their individual preferences. This failure to engage in estate planning not only has consequences for individual decedents and those who are close to them, but also for the design of law and policy. Several doctrines within the laws of succession rely on empirical assumptions about estate planning behavior, including both the overall incidence of estate planning and its distribution throughout the population. Similarly, policy proposals aimed at minimizing disparities resulting from unequal estate planning utilization also require an understanding of patterns of estate planning behavior. Variation in estate planning utilization also raises concerns regarding access to civil justice, and challenges our empirical and theoretical understanding of this concept.

Not surprisingly, scholars have long recognized the utility of empirical investigations of estate planning behavior. Yet despite this, we lack contemporary evidence of the incidence of various forms of estate planning or variation in their usage by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. While several existing studies have investigated these questions, their findings are generally restricted to single jurisdictions and are further circumscribed by data and methodological limitations. This study offers a first step toward addressing this gap in the literature, drawing on unique data from a national survey (N=1,975) of estate planning utilization. The data confirm that while some adults in the United States do avail themselves of various forms of estate planning, nearly half (44%) report having no form of estate planning at all. Using multiple regression analysis, the Article moves beyond the bivariate descriptive results of earlier studies to investigate the interrelationship between estate-planning uptake and several demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Finally, the Article considers the overlapping usage of multiple forms of estate planning and the means by which estate planning instruments are prepared to offer more nuanced perspectives on the use of estate planning. The Article offers foundational empirical evidence with significant implications for law and policy and identifies several topics that merit additional empirical
investigation.