Many automobile manufacturers are switching to
Electric Power Steering (EPS) systems for their better performance
and cost advantages over traditional Hydraulic Power Steering (HPS)
systems. EPS compared to HPS offer lower energy consumption, lower
total weight, and package flexibility at no cost penalty.
Furthermore, since EPS systems can provide assistance to drivers
independent of the vehicle driving conditions, new technologies can
be implemented to improve the steering feel and safety,
simultaneously.
 In this thesis, a neuromusculoskeletal driver
and a high-fidelity vehicle model are developed in MapleSim to
provide realistic simulations to study the driver-vehicle
interactions and EPS systems. The vehicle model consists of
MacPherson and multilink suspensions at front and rear equipped
with a column-type EPS system. The driver model is a fully
neuromusculoskeletal model of a driver arm holding the steering
wheel, controlled by the driver's central nervous system. A
hierarchical approach is used to capture the complexity of the
neuromuscular dynamics and the central nervous system in the
coordination of the driver's upper extremity activities. The
proposed motor control framework has three layers: the first layer,
or the path-planning layer, plans a desired vehicle trajectory and
the required steering angles to perform the desired trajectory, the
second layer (or the force distribution controller) actuates the
musculoskeletal arm, and the final layer is added to ensure the
precision control and disturbance rejection of the motor control
units. The overall goal of this thesis is to study
vehicle-driver interactions and to design a model-based EPS
controller that considers the driver's characteristics. To design
such an EPS controller, the high-fidelity driver-vehicle model is
simplified to reduce the computational burden associated with the
multibody and biomechanical systems. Then, four driver types are
introduced based on the physical characteristics of drivers such as
age and gender, and the corresponding parameters are incorporated
in the model. Last but not least, a new model-based EPS controller
is developed to provide appropriate assistance to each of the
predefined driver types. To do this, the characteristic curves are
tuned using a systematic optimization procedure to provide
appropriate assistance to drivers with different physical strength,
in order to have a similar road and steering feel. In this thesis,
it is recommended that muscle fatigue be used as a measure of
steering feel. Then, based on the tuned EPS characteristic curves,
an observer-based optimal disturbance rejection controller,
consisting of a linear quadratic regulator controller and a Kalman
filter observer augmented with a shaping filter, is developed to
deliver the assistance while attenuating external disturbances. The
results show that it is possible to develop a model-based EPS
controller that is optimized for a given driver
population.


Modelers of contaminant fate and transport in surface waters typically rely on literature values when selecting parameter values for mechanistic models. While the expert judgment with which these selections are made is valuable, the information contained in contaminant concentration measurements should not be ignored. In this full-scale Bayesian analysis of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in the upper Hudson River, these two sources of information are combined using Bayes' theorem. A simulation model for the fate and transport of the PCBs in the upper Hudson River forms the basis of the likelihood function while the prior density is developed from literature values. The method provides estimates for the anaerobic biodegradation half-life, aerobic biodegradation plus volatilization half-life, contaminated sediment depth, and resuspension velocity of 4,400 d, 3.2 d, 0.32 m, and 0.02 m/yr, respectively. These are significantly different than values obtained with more traditional methods, and are shown to produce better predictions than those methods when used in a cross-validation study.


As the financial crisis has tragically illustrated, the complexities of modern financial markets and investment securities can trigger systemic market failures. Addressing these complexities, this article maintains, is perhaps the greatest financial-market challenge of the future. The article first examines and explains the nature of these complexities. It then analyzes the regulatory and other steps that should be considered to reduce the potential for failure. Because complex financial markets resemble complex engineering systems, and failures in those markets have characteristics of failures in those systems, the article's analysis draws on chaos theory and other approaches used to analyze complex engineering systems.


Geography is an integrative subject that brings a variety of perspectives, both social and physical, to the study of people, places, and environments around the world.


Penetrating spine trauma presents a major challenge to clinical management. By using standard and cross-sectional imaging modalities, radiologists should be able to perform a trajectory analysis of the penetrating object and identify the path of injury as well as those structures that
 were injured along that path. Toward this end, we conducted a multi-institutional retrospective review of 23 patients who had penetrating spine trauma due to either a gunshot or stab wound and who, subsequently, underwent cross-sectional imaging with CT and/or MR imaging. Two patterns of imaging
 findings were associated with the penetrating spine trauma. Assault-related gunshot wounds accounted for most of penetrating spine trauma (83%) and were frequently associated with spinal cord injuries, and tended to be associated with other visceral and/or vascular injuries. Stabbing injuries,
 although less common (17%), were associated with focal spinal cord injuries and with fewer extraspinal injuries. These imaging finding patterns may assist in the evaluation of the imaging examinations, with implications for the extent of injury and prognosis for neurologic recovery, and, when
 necessary, can contribute to forensic analysis.Learning Objective: To identify the imaging findings and understand the value of trajectory analysis and its implications in projectile- and nonprojectile-penetrating spine trauma.


This book is based on the Modelling, Control and Optimization of Biomedical Systems (MOBILE) project, which was created to derive intelligent computer model-based systems for optimization of biomedical drug delivery systems in the cases of diabetes, anaesthesia, and blood cancer. These systems can ensure reliable and fast calculation of the optimal drug dosage without the need for an online computer—while taking into account the specifics and constraints of the patient model, flexibility to adapt to changing patient characteristics and incorporation of the physician's performance criteria, and maintaining the safety of the patients.

Modelling Optimization and Control of Biomedical Systems covers: mathematical modelling of drug delivery systems; model analysis, parameter estimation, and approximation; optimization and control; sensitivity analysis & model reduction; multi-parametric programming and model predictive control; estimation techniques; physiologically-based patient model; control design for volatile anaesthesia; multiparametric model based approach to intravenous anaesthesia; hybrid model predictive control strategies; Type I Diabetes Mellitus; in vitro and in silico block of the integrated platform for the study of leukaemia; chemotherapy treatment as a process systems application; and more.

Introduces readers to the Modelling, Control and Optimization of Biomedical Systems (MOBILE) project
Presents in detail the theoretical background, computational tools, and methods that are used in all the different biomedical systems
Teaches the theory for multi-parametric mixed-integer programming and explicit optimal control of volatile anaesthesia
Provides an overview of the framework for modelling, optimization, and control of biomedical systems
This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scientists working on the modelling, control, and optimization of biomedical systems and to those involved in cancer treatment, anaesthsia, and drug delivery systems.


This is the first book-length study of the crucial relationship between sport and the political and imaginative literature of Renaissance England. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, educators, medical practitioners, and military scientists were among the many contemporaries who praised sport as necessary and functional - physiologically beneficial to the individual practitioner, vital to the preparedness of the military, and necessary to the maintenance of traditional class hierarchy. Sport's significance in the period is perhaps best registered by its literal and metaphorical centrality in such popular works of literature as Shakespeare's histories, Walton's Compleat Angler, and Milton's Samson Agonistes, as well as its prominence in ecclesiastical and secular legislation and polemics. By reconstructing a cultural history of sport and investigating representations of it in contemporary prose, poetry, and drama, the book demonstrates sport's pivotal position in the interlocking spheres of Renaissance science, politics, and art. Gregory M. Colon Semenza is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Connecticut.


Title of Document: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES IN MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF FOODBORNE PATHOGENS: SHIGA TOXINPRODUCING Escherichia coli AND Salmonella SEROTYPES. Magaly Alejandra Toro Ibaceta, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Directed By: Professor Jianghong Meng, Department of Nutrition and Food Science Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica (S. enterica) are two major foodborne pathogens. They cause almost 1.5 million of cases of disease each year in the US. Due to their public health impact, development of new methods for their detection and identification are top priority. This research focused on identifying alternative molecular methods and markers for the identification of STEC and Salmonella. First, a suspension array was developed to simultaneously identify the seven most prevalent STEC (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145, and O157) in the US. The panel targeted genes wzx or wzy and Shigatoxin genes. Testing and optimization employed four to eleven isolates of each serotype in the panel. STEC fluorescence values were 30 to >270 times greater than those of negative controls, demonstrating the method's effectiveness for the molecular serotyping of STEC. STEC strains (n=194) of 43 serotypes were examined for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) arrays to study relatedness among serotypes. A subset of strains (n=81) was analyzed for cas and virulence genes to determine a possible relationship. CRISPR spacer content correlated well with serotypes, although some strains with different serogroup but the same H type shared identical arrays (O26:H11, O103:H11, and O111:H11). cas and virulence genes were not associated, but strains with greater probability of causing outbreaks and disease showed fewer spacers than those less likely to cause them (p<0.05). Therefore, CRISPR array content correlated well with STEC serotype, and CRISPR-cas systems were inversely related to strain virulence potential. Finally, the CRISPR arrays of 221 S. enterica of 53 serotypes were analyzed to define their relationship. CRISPR-cas systems of 50 S. enterica serotype Bareilly (S. Bareilly) were analyzed to resolve intra-serotype variations. CRISPR arrays correlated well with serotypes, although some serotypes displayed more than one type of array (e.g. S. Bareilly). Additionally, CRISPR-cas system elements reflected S. Bareilly phylogeny, but the array content was not linked to food vehicle or isolate's geographical origin. In conclusion, CRISPR array are useful for designing molecular serotyping assays, but a range of strains should be included to account for variation in S. enterica. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES IN MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF FOODBORNE PATHOGENS: SHIGA TOXIN-PRODUCING Escherichia coli AND Salmonella SEROTYPES.


von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a multimeric glycoprotein that critically supports platelet aggregation in hemostasis. Disordered VWF function causes both thrombotic and bleeding disorders, and genetic defects in VWF are responsible for von Willebrand's disease (VWD), the most common inherited bleeding disorder in humans. Very large VWF multimers exhibit the greatest thrombogenic activity, which is attenuated by ADAMTS13 cleavage in the A2 domain. A2 cleavage is regulated by mechanical force, and pathologically high shear forces are known to enhance proteolysis and cause bleeding in patients. Enhanced cleavage is also described in patients with VWD 2A mutations. In contrast, VWF A2 is stabilized against cleavage by a calcium binding site within A2. Single molecule studies have demonstrated that mechanical unfolding is required for A2 cleavage to expose the scissile bond. In this dissertation, we aim to better understand the mechanosensitivity of A2 cleavage by characterizing the force sensitivity of A2 unfolding and refolding. We first characterized the interaction between VWF A2 and calcium using bulk isothermal calorimetry and thermal denaturation assays. In parallel, we used single molecule optical tweezers to characterize A2 unfolding and refolding. Calcium was found to bind A2 with high affinity, stabilize A2 against thermal denaturation, and enhance domain refolding. In contrast, we found that VWD 2A mutations destabilize the A2 domain against thermal denaturation. R1597W, the most common VWD 2A mutation, lies within the calcium binding loop and exhibited diminished calcium stabilization against thermal denaturation. Using optical tweezers, we found that R1597W also diminished A2 refolding. R1597W refolding in the presence of calcium was similar to that of wild-type A2 in the absence of calcium, suggesting that loss of calcium stabilization contributes to the disease mechanism of R1597W. Other VWD 2A mutations lying outside the calcium binding loop also destabilized A2, but retained


A central assumption of modern evidence law is that its rules are rules of admissibility only. That is, they tell judges whether or not a given piece of evidence may be viewed by the fact-finder, but they do not purport to tell the finder of fact how to evaluate the evidence once admitted. One can imagine, however, a system of rules that help fact-finders weigh evidence by instructing them, for instance, that the law considers a class of evidence (say, hearsay) to be of "low weight." In fact, such rules - rules of weight - are an old idea with roots in Roman Law. But they have long been ignored by evidence scholars or, when considered, judged to be anachronistic and deeply inconsistent with a system of trial by jury. This Article argues that such hostility to rules of weight is unjustified and that their use should be taken seriously as a possible direction for evidence reform. Given that jury trials are now increasingly rare and that, when a jury is used, its discretion is already constrained in a number of ways, the orthodox view of rules of weight now itself seems outdated. Furthermore, there are reasons to think that such rules could be beneficial for forensic fact-finding. The past use of them by courts, their current role in administrative adjudication, and recent research in cognitive psychology all suggest ways in which rules of weight could make fact-finding fairer, more efficient, and, most important, more accurate. Such benefits make the Supreme Court's recent condemnation of the use of rules of weight in the administrative context that much more difficult to justify.


Whipple's disease is a rare multi-organ infectious disease caused by Tropheryma whipplei. It is fatal without treatment. We report on a 40-year old Afro-Jamaican man who presented with a six-month history of weight loss and diarrhoea. Investigations revealed iron deficiency anaemia and hypoalbuminaemia. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed white patchy lesions in the duodenum. The duodenal biopsy showed broadening and thickening of the villi by a dense infiltrate of foamy histiocytes within the lamina propria and focally extending into the attached submucosa. Periodic Acid-Schiff stains were positive. Electron microscopy was confirmatory and polymerase chain reaction testing conclusively identified the organisms as T whipplei. Antibiotic treatment resulted in resolution of symptoms. Although the diagnosis of Whipple's disease is difficult, increased awareness should lead to an increase in reported cases with the improvements in diagnostic capabilities.


ABSTRACT The presence of animal bones in human graves may often represent the ritual deposition of alimentary offerings for the dead. In fact, several ancient cultures believed in the perpetuation of earthly life activities and necessities in the afterlife. This essay presents the methodological aspects and the results of the archaeozoological analyses carried out on the 39 graves examined so far in the Etruscan-Celtic necropolis of Monterenzio Vecchio (Bologna, Northern Italy). The study of the animal bone remains points to a very high standardization of meat offering preparatory practices and their presentation inside the graves. The meat portions were always composed of a few adjoining ribs from a single young porker (Sus domesticus). The distribution of the bone remains and the lack of manifest stripping traces on the surface, in spite of evidence for meat cooking, exclude any possible interpretation of these findings as refuse from a hypothetical funerary banquet. The spatial and functional correlation between data from faunal and taphonomic analyses, the burial features and grave goods denote obvious symbolic connotations related to funerary rituals. The generalized presence in the Monterenzio Vecchio graves of highly standardized alimentary offerings, generally placed in funerary pottery, seems to demonstrate the existence of a well-defined "food of the dead".


This paper examines the relationship between performance assessed electronic store (e-store) service quality and e-store customer loyalty in an electronic retailing environment. The research was carried out using a web-based survey method involving 3 e-stores and 324 e-customers. The survey data was then used to test models of e-store service quality and e-store customer loyalty and to assess the relationship between them. Six determinants of performance based service quality for an e-store were tested for validity and reliability. These determinants were "ease of use". "empathy", "merchandise", "security", "product delivery", and "purchase option". Customer loyalty determinants that were identified were "word-of-mouth communication", "purchase intention" and "complaining behaviour." A strong positive association between e-store service quality and e-store customer loyalty was found.The paper integrates previous literature on service quality and customer loyalty and develops valid and reliable measures of performance based e-store customer service quality and e-store customer loyalty.


Previous research on analyzing time-varying image sequences has concentrated on finding the necessary (and sufficient) conditions for a unique 3-D solution. While such an approach provides useful theoretical insight, the resulting algorithms turn out to be too sensitive to be of pratical use. We claim that any robust algorithm must improve the 3-D solution adaptively over time. As the first step toward such a paradigm, in this paper we present an algorithm for 3-D motion computation, given time-varying optical flow fields. The surface of the object in the scene is assumed to be locally planar. It is also assumed that 3-D velocity vectors are piecewise constant over three consecutive frames (or 2 snapshots of flow field). Our formulation relates 3-D motion and object geometry with the optical flow vector as well as its spatial and temporal derivatives. The deformation parameters of the first kind, or equivalently, the first-order flow approximation (in space and time) is sufficient to recover rigid body motion and local surface structure from the local instantaneous flow field. We also demonstrate, through a sensitivity analysis carried out for synthetic and natural motions in space, that 3-D inference can be made reliably.


Bayesian matrix factorization (BMF) is a popular method for collaborative prediction, because of its robustness to overfitting as well as of being free from cross-validation for fine tuning of regularization parameters. In practice, however, due to its cubic time complexity with respect to the rank of factor matrices, existing variational inference algorithms for BMF are not well suited to web-scale datasets where billions of ratings provided by millions of users are available. The time complexity even increases when the side information, such as user binary implicit feedback or item content information, is incorporated into variational Bayesian matrix factorization (VBMF). For instance, a state of the arts in VBMF with side information, is to place Gaussian priors on user and item factor matrices, where mean of each prior is regressed on the corresponding side information. Since this approach introduces additional cubic time complexity with respect to the size of feature vectors, the use of rich side information in a form of highdimensional feature vector is prohibited. In this paper, we present a scalable inference for VBMF with side information, the complexity of which is linear in the rank K of factor matrices. Moreover, the algorithm can be easily parallelized on multi-core systems. Experiments on large-scale datasets demonstrate the useful behavior of our algorithm such as scalability, fast learning, and prediction accuracy. Appearing in Proceedings of the 17 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS) 2014, Reykjavik, Iceland. JMLR: W&CP volume 33. Copyright 2014 by the authors.


During the development of products with health claims the collaboration and interaction of several disciplines and independent partners is necessary such as the production, quality, marketing, legal functions of the company, the external providers of the knowledge on the constituent having the claimed physiological effect, the clinics carrying out the human intervention studies, statisticians, laboratories providing testing services, etc. This results in a higher dependency from each other and less flexibility compared to the development of a conventional product where mostly in‐company functions work together. Therefore systematic coordination of the multiple interactions, careful design of the product and its development process is particularly important.


This paper debunks claims that proposed health reforms represent a government takeover of health care. We show, among other findings, that pending legislation would: (1) retain the nation's largely private medical care system, in which more than 90 percent of doctors are in private practice and 84 percent of all hospital admissions are to private facilities; (2) avoid government interference in the practice of medicine, instead simply extending existing public responsibilities to fund coverage for low-income Americans and regulate insurance; and (3) cover only 12 million people through a public option, based on Congressional Budget Office projections.


The past few years have witnessed increasing interests in applying deep learning to video compression. However, the existing approaches compress a video frame with only a few number of reference frames, which limits their ability to fully exploit the temporal correlation among video frames. To overcome this shortcoming, this paper proposes a Recurrent Learned Video Compression (RLVC) approach with the Recurrent Auto-Encoder (RAE) and Recurrent Probability Model (RPM). Specifically, the RAE employs recurrent cells in both the encoder and decoder. As such, the temporal information in a large range of frames can be used for generating latent representations and reconstructing compressed outputs. Furthermore, the proposed RPM network recurrently estimates the Probability Mass Function (PMF) of the latent representation, conditioned on the distribution of previous latent representations. Due to the correlation among consecutive frames, the conditional cross entropy can be lower than the independent cross entropy, thus reducing the bit-rate. The experiments show that our approach achieves the state-of-the-art learned video compression performance in terms of both PSNR and MS-SSIM. Moreover, our approach outperforms the default Low-Delay P (LDP) setting of x265 on PSNR, and also has better performance on MS-SSIM than the SSIM-tuned x265 and the slowest setting of x265. The codes are available at https://github.com/RenYang-home/RLVC.git.


In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) initiated a long-term research program to improve understanding of tsunami hazard levels for nuclear facilities in the United States. For this effort, the US NRC organized a collaborative research program with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other key researchers for the purpose of assessing tsunami hazard on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. The initial phase of this work consisted principally of collection, interpretation, and analysis of available offshore data and information. Necessarily, the US NRC research program includes both seismicand landslide-based tsunamigenic sources in both the near and the far fields. The inclusion of tsunamigenic landslides, an important category of sources that impact tsunami hazard levels for the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts over the long time periods of interest to the US NRC is a key difference between this program and most other tsunami hazard assessment programs. Although only a few years old, this program is already producing results that both support current US NRC activities and look toward the long-term goal of probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment. This paper provides a summary of results from several areas of current research. An overview of the broader US NRC research program is provided in a companion paper in this conference.


Americans have long been obsessed with their images-their looks, public personas, and the impressions they make. This preoccupation has left its mark on the law. The twentieth century saw the creation of laws that protect your right to control your public image, to defend your image, and to feel good about your image and public presentation of self. These include the legal actions against invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. With these laws came the phenomenon of "personal image litigation"-individuals suing to vindicate their image rights. Laws of Image tells the story of how Americans came to use the law to protect and manage their images, feelings, and reputations. In this social, cultural, and legal history, Samantha Barbas ties the development of personal image law to the self-consciousness and image-consciousness that has become endemic in our media-saturated culture of celebrity and consumerism, where people see their identities as intertwined with their public images. The laws of image are the expression of a people who have become so publicity-conscious and self-focused that they believe they have a right to control their images-to manage and spin them like actors, politicians, and rock stars.


Gas chromatography with flame-ionization detection (FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with electron impact ionization (EI) and chemical ionization (PCI and NCI) were successfully used for separation and identification of commercially available longchain primary alkyl amines. The investigated compounds were used as corrosion inhibiting and antifouling agents in a water-steam circuit of energy systems in the power industry. Solidphase extraction (SPE) with octadecyl bonded silica (C18) sorbents followed by gas chromatography were used for quantification of the investigated Primene JM-T™ alkyl amines in boiler water, condensate and superheated steam samples from the power plant. Amine formulations from Kotamina group favor formation of protective layers on internal surfaces and keep them free from corrosion and scale. Alkyl amines contained in those formulations both render the environment alkaline and limit the corrosion impact of ionic and gaseous impurities by formation of protective layers. Moreover, alkyl amines limit scaling on heating surfaces of boilers and in turbine, ensuring failure-free operation. Application of alkyl amine formulation enhances heat exchange during boiling and condensation processes. Alkyl amines with branched structure are more thermally stable than linear alkyl amines, exhibit better adsorption and effectiveness of surface shielding. As a result, application of thermostable long-chain branched alkyl amines increases the efficiency of anti-corrosive protection. Moreover, the concentration of ammonia content in water and in steam was also considerably decreased.


This article examines the life and career of Pierre Pescatore, one of the most prominent, but also controversial, promoters of European Community law. Drawing on extensive archive material, as well as interviews with relatives, it aims at understanding how and why he left such a strong footprint on the development of Community, later EU, law, both as a judge at the European Court of Justice and as a law scholar. Going beyond a one-man story, the article situates him in the broader context of the 1970s bench of judges in order to understand the so-called "activism" which the ECJ revealed during this decade. Thus, looking through the lens of one of the leading figures of the Court, it provides new explanations as to why the ECJ's case law was so provocatively pro-integrationist during the 1970s.


Growing protests in non-democratic countries are often seen as signals of regime decline. China, however, has remained stable amid surging protests. Playing by the Informal Rules highlights the importance of informal norms in structuring state-protester interactions, mitigating conflict, and explaining regime resilience. Drawing on a nationwide dataset of protest and multi-sited ethnographic research, this book presents a bird's-eye view of Chinese contentious politics and illustrates the uneven application of informal norms across regions, social groups, and time. Through examinations of protests and their distinct implications for regime stability, Li offers a novel theoretical framework suitable for monitoring the trajectory of political contention in China and beyond. Overall, this study sheds new light on political mobilization and authoritarian resilience and provides fresh perspectives on power, rules, legitimacy, and resistance in modern societies.


The NS Series Variable Fiber Optical Attenuator (VOA) provides electrical control of optical power. This is achieved using a patent pending nonmechanical configuration and activated via a voltage electrical control signal. The solid-state optical crystal design eliminates mechanical movement and organic materials. The NS Series Variable Optical Attenuators are designed to meet the most demanding operation requirements of ultra-high reliability and fast response time with minimal mechanical footprint. Agiltron also offers customized electronic designs to meet special control requirements and applications. The switch is bidirectional. The NS Series VOA is available in either normally-transparent or normallyopaque configurations.


The advent of social tagging systems has enabled a new community-based view of the Web in which objects like images, videos, and Web pages are annotated by thousands of users. Understanding the emergent semantics inherent in the socially-generated collection of annotations has important research implications for information discovery and knowledge sharing. To this end, we propose a novel probabilistic generative model for discovering latent structure in large-scale social annotations. The generative model identifies latent community-based "categories" of interest that can be used to group semantically-related tags and to augment traditional content-based information search and discovery. We validate the proposed approach over large collections of Web objects annotated by the Flickr and Delicious communities. Additionally, we show how to integrate the annotation-based categorical model with traditional contentbased approaches for the effective focused discovery and exploration of Web objects.


Intuition is a hotly debated topic in interdisciplinary scholarship, at the core of the conflict between the need for rigor as opposed to open-mindedness within interdisciplinary studies. To thoroughly investigate this subject, an integration of multiple disciplinary perspec- tives is required. The mechanisms of intuition are revealed through the studies of cognitive psychology. Intuition has an important role in scientific discovery and in the epistemological traditions of Western philosophy, as well as a central function in Eastern concepts of wisdom. It also is prized for its practical application in a multitude of professions, from business to health care to the military. Intuition can be trained and thus has a place in higher education. For interdisciplinarity, intuition is a crucial faculty for understanding complexity, and therefore must be recognized and included in the development of integrative method and theories of interdisciplinarity.


This pilot study addressed the impact of a summer camp experience on at-risk middle school youth by exploring self-reported growth in skill development and resilience. Campers who attended a five-week summer day camp were compared to a control group who maintained typical activities throughout the summer. Results showed statistically significant differences in the campers' belief of a good future for themselves (U = 179.40, P = 0.05). Campers reported sustained or positive growth in domains of social skills and positive values from the baseline to a six-month follow up. Three significant themes emerged from individual in-depth interviews including: (a) engagement influences skill competence, (b) the camp environment expands positive choice and availability of positive occupations, and (c) males developed skills and resilience from informal physical activity while no equivalent existed for females. Middle school aged atrisk youth can benefit from occupation-based summer camp programs that promote active engagement in an enriched environment and sustain gains once they return to high-risk environments. This research contributes to a growing understanding of the potential contribution of occupational therapy in the design and delivery of effective summer camp experiences for at-risk youth.


Accurate and effective removal of tumor in one operation is an important goal of breast‐conserving surgery. However, it is not always achieved. Surgeons often utilize manual palpation to assess the surgical margin and/or the breast cavity. Manual palpation, however, is subjective and has relatively low resolution. Here, we investigate a tactile imaging technique, optical palpation, for the visualization of tumor. Optical palpation generates maps of the stress at the surface of tissue under static preload compression. Stress is evaluated by measuring the deformation of a contacting thin compliant layer with known mechanical properties using optical coherence tomography. In this study, optical palpation is performed on 34 freshly excised human breast specimens. Wide field‐of‐view (up to ~46 × 46 mm) stress images, optical palpograms, are presented from four representative specimens, demonstrating the capability of optical palpation to visualize tumor. Median stress reported for adipose tissue, 4 kPa, and benign dense tissue, 8 kPa, is significantly lower than for invasive tumor, 60 kPa. In addition, we demonstrate that optical palpation provides contrast consistent with a related optical technique, quantitative micro‐elastography. This study demonstrates that optical palpation holds promise for visualization of tumor in breast‐conserving surgery.


This paper addresses issues regarding perceptions of surveillance technologies in Europe. It analyses existing studies in order to explore how perceptions of surveillance affect and are affected by the negative effects of surveillance and how perceptions and effectiveness of surveillance technologies relate to each other. The paper identifies 12 negative effects of surveillance including, among others, privacy intrusion, the chilling effect and social exclusion, and classifies them into three groups. It further illustrates the different ways in which perceptions and effectiveness of surveillance interact with each other, distinguishing between perceived security and perceived effectiveness. Finally, the paper advances a methodology to take into account perception issues when designing new surveillance technologies. By doing so, it rejects manipulative measures aiming at improving perceptions only and suggests measures that address the background conditions affecting perceptions.


Abstract Blowflies use discrete, ephemeral substrates for larval development. After exhaustion of the food supply, larvae will disperse in search of sites to burrow and pupate or will seek other sources of food in a process known as post-feeding larval dispersal. In this study, the effect of temperature was investigated as it is one of the most important aspects of the environmental variables in this process. 800 larvae of the blowflies Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann 1819) and Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann 1830) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) were incubated in tubes covered with vermiculite at 15, 20, 25 and 30°C. For each pupa, the body weight, sex and depth of burrowing were determined. Statistical tests were used to examine the relationship of depth of burrowing and body weight to the temperature at which burrowing occurred. Depth of burrowing was affected differently by temperature for both of the species studied; L. cuprina larvae burrowed deeper at lower and higher temperatures while C. albiceps larvae burrowed less at extreme temperatures. Additionally, temperature had a significant effect on the body weight of L. cuprina larvae as body weight decreased as temperature increased, whereas for C. albiceps, pupal weight increased up to 25°C and then decreased abruptly at a higher temperatures. The maximum body weight was also differently affected in the two species; in L. cuprina, the maximal weight was at 15°C and for C. albiceps weight was maximal at 20°C.


European integration is endangered by rising fears of sovereign default. Against this background, assessing the economic impacts attached to the Single Market is crucial to measuring the overall benefits provided by the European Union to its citizens. Over the last thirty years, substantial progress has been achieved to better integrate the markets of the member states. New evidence on barriers to trade in services and on non-tariffs obstacle to trade in goods confirms however that this process is far from being complete. Our economic simulation using the MIRAGE model concludes that the elimination of all remaining obstacles to trade would benefit the European Union by an order of magnitude two to three times larger than those already reaped so far. The complete elimination of obstacles to trade across the Single Market is indeed a stylised and unrealistic assumption. However, the magnitude of the potential gains is such that the study confirms undoubtedly the potential of the Single Market as one avenue to boost EU growth in the years to come and to escape from a vicious circle of recession.


Abstract: Effective response to disasters requires assessing information prior to, during, and after potentially catastrophic events, as well as initiating activities that will lessen their impact upon society. The post-war transitions in Iraq have affected the institutional capacities of the state to respond in an efficient manner. Although the draft National Disaster Risk Reduction Law acknowledges the importance of information and knowledge management, it fails to provide a framework for establishing a dedicated information system. Due to the importance of an effective and efficient disaster management information system, this should be linked to local authorities, local early warning systems, and the media, to ensure effective use of disaster risk information for public awareness. The fact that disaster management data is often complex, large, and from different organisations, this requires a fast, scalable and accessible system to manage the complexity of the collected data. As cloud computing is considered a technology for providing synchronous, on-line information management with accessibility of data regardless of the storage resources' location, this paper highlights the advantages of using cloud computing in managing information and communication in disaster response management, with particular reference to terrorism in the context of Iraq. The paper contributes to the existing knowledge on disaster response management, a field of study that is still largely under explored in the context of the Middle East, and in the context of terrorism more specifically, by reviewing its literature, through a systematic review methodology. This paper will focus, therefore, on the use of cloud computing as a solution to information sharing and communication, during the immediate response to a terrorist attack, due to the advantages of cloud computing in this context, in terms of data availability, reliability, IT and cost reduction.


The electrochemical stability of ionic liquids based on the 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium [EMIM](+) cation and three different anions, dicyanoamide ([N(CN)(2)](-)), tricyanomethanide ([C(CN)(3)](-)) and tetracyanoborate ([B(CN)(4)](-)), has been investigated. Cyclic voltammetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the valence band, as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed. A clear dependence of the anodic stability on the anion can be observed by cyclic voltammetry which is confirmed by XPS valence band spectra. The experimental data are in good agreement with DFT calculations. The valence band spectra and the DFT calculations of the ionic liquids show energetic differences in the position of the highest occupied molecular orbital state and confirm the electrochemically measured stability following the sequence [EMIM][B(CN)(4)] > [EMIM][N(CN)(2)] > [EMIM][C(CN)(3)]. (C) 2012 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/2.001207jes] All rights reserved.


Commercial law constitutes the backbone of economic activity and as such it has been coined the 'engine for trade'. In this contribution, we develop an approach to the desirable regulation of commercial transactions in the sense of trade in goods and services. In doing so, we will address two main questions. Firstly, what are the normative criteria to decide upon the appropriate design of commercial contract law? Secondly, in light of these criteria, we seek to develop an answer to the questions of who should set the rules in commercial law, or, in other words, which regulatory actors, i.e. private or public actors, and where should these rules be set, or, in other words, at what regulatory level, i.e. local, national, regional or global.First, we sketch the current regulatory landscape in commercial law – including the historical context – and analyse it with a view to who regulates and at what level regulation exists. Subsequently, we posit that commercial contract law should primarily facilitate the exercise of party autonomy and enforce agreements voluntarily entered into by private actors. Admittedly, further regulation is needed when either the actions of private actors jeopardize the exercise of party autonomy, or the exercise of party autonomy could have negative effects on the market or on society. To illustrate our argument, we present three cases studies analysing the appropriate role of private and public actors at different regulatory levels from three different perspectives: (i) the law relating to bills of exchange from a historical perspective; (ii) the core of commercial exchange – the contract of sale; (iii) the regulation of commercial transactions to prevent a negative impact on fundamental societal interests.In our conclusion we highlight that the distribution of competences in European Private Law remains incomplete if the broader global regulatory perspective on private relations as well as the specific locally shaped practices of sectors and trades are not taken into consideration. Moreover, we emphasize the need to take into account as 'competences' not only national, European or global politics, but also the productive potential of the private sphere to develop effective self-regulation.


A mail survey of residents in suburban northern Westchester County, New York was conducted to determine the nature and extent of deer damage in the county, the importance of deer damage relative to other deer-human interactions, and residents' perceptions of costs and benefits associated with the deer herd. The estimated cost of damage to plantings was quite high, $6.4 million to $9.5 million (depending on the type of assumptions concerning nonrespondents). Most respondents used some form of deer damage control (estimated to cost $1.2 to $1.8 million/year), but few people reported their problems to officials. Although these costs were high, health and safety risks were of greater concern to county residents than damage to plantings. Deer have many positive values, but a rough economic cost/ benefit analysis showed that currently the perceived costs (risk of Lyme disease or vehicular accidents, cost of damage) outweigh the benefits. Educational-communications programs which address concerns such as deervehicle collisions or Lyme disease would be most beneficial in improving attitudes toward deer.


In the present study, we examined the reversal effects of L-arginine (L-ARG) treatment in vivo on blood pressure and on vascular responsiveness of chronic diabetic rats. Twelve weeks after streptozotocin (STZ) injection, the systolic blood pressures (SBP) of diabetic groups have been found to be significantly higher compared with that of control groups. L-ARG treatment for 4 weeks, begun 12 weeks after the onset of diabetes, induced a significant fall in SBP of diabetic rats. Maximal contractile response and sensitivity (pD(2)value) of the aortae to phenylephrine (PE) were significantly enhanced in diabetic rats compared with control subjects. Treatment of diabetic rats with L-ARG completely reversed the increases in responsiveness and sensitivity of aortae to PE. The relaxation response to acetylcholine (ACh), but not to sodium nitroprusside (SNP), in diabetic aorta has been found to be significantly decreased when compared with control subjects. The in vivo treatment with L-ARG reversed the decreased ACh responses to the control level. Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) level of diabetic rats was also significantly higher than control subjects. However, L-ARG treatment normalized the increase in MDA level of plasma of diabetic rats. All of the effects of L-ARG treatment were found to be specific for diabetic rats but not control subjects. These results show that L-ARG treatment in vivo has a reversal effect on impaired vascular responses and increased oxidative stress. The present findings also suggest that oxidative stress that occurred in diabetes might cause or contribute to the development of hypertension by affecting vascular reactivity. On the other hand, the lipid peroxidation-lowering effect of L-ARG may account for its beneficial effect on SBP and vascular responsiveness of diabetic rats.


In order to study planting date impacts and ending season drought stress  on grain yield and  gaining weight  rate  and wheat filling period characteristics in new advanced bread wheat genotypes ,this research  is done by using plan statistical  of spilt plot  in form of complete random blocks basic  plot with 3 replications in both common separated irrigation  and ending season drought  stress tests (stop irrigating in50% pollination phase )  in research institute field  for breeding and  providing seeds and seedling  in Karaj  in 387-1388. Planting date factor  is studied  in 2levels mehr 20th and aban10th  in main plots  and 4 genotypes resisting to bread wheat drought stress including c-85-D7;c-85-D8; c-85-D9; c-85D13 with  Alvand  check value in minor plots in both  tests. the results of variance analysis for measured characteristics in both common irrigation and drought stress tests show that impacts of planting dates ,Genotypes  and planting date interaction  multiplied by genotype on grain yield characteristics ,rate gaining weight and wheat filling period (in both tests) were meaningful at 1% level. According to results of  test average comparisons in both  common irrigation condition and drought stress , showed  that c-85-D9 in both conditions  having most wheat filling speed  and c-85-DB having most wheat filling period and meanwhile both genotypes  had rather good grain yield in both conditions . recent results have showed that different wheat genotypes  have interaction with environmental conditions so that each genotype using  its own special strategies for resisting to stress.


With technology advancements and the prices of electronic components reducing over the last fifteen years, many devices and systems that would have been proprietary only for large companies or industry giants are becoming an everyday household item. Various areas of technology have been benefiting from this but one of the biggest is the Internet of Things (IoT).With the prevalence of IoT, it has been integrated into houses, small businesses, farms, agriculture, building automation, etc. and the user population is now a resource to the industry as they complete personal projects. Within any project there are always limitations, this might be a limited time, limited funds, limited distance, or limitations of the devices being used. This study proposes to evaluate two low-powered networks, Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT)and Long-Range Wide-Area Network(LoRaWAN), in different environments with the goal of understanding where the signal propagation is better and what distances can be reached despite obstructions. Distances and signal propagations, when measured by the manufacturers are often evaluated in ideal conditions which is rarely the case when utilized in the field. This creates a gap in the deployment and the end-users are frequently faced with diminished performances. As IoT is predominantly employed in urban and rural areas this study will focus on those two settings by testing the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)at various distances. The evaluation testing of the two systems showed each system performing more consistently in rural areas but neither had 100% coverage at any locations.


Abstract A series of disturbing events — from the Tashkent bombing in February 1999 to the May 13, 2005 incidents in Andijon city in Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan — have drawn attention to the growing role of the religious extremist forces in Central Asia. The Islamic Movement of Turkestan (IMT), also known as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) until the middle of 2003, and the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) — the two leading extremist groups — have openly declared their objective of overthrowing the constitutional system and to create an Islamic state in Central Asia. While declining economic conditions, corruption, sense of injustice and non-accommodative polity have given more space to IMT and HT to operate, the ideological onslaught by often foreign-backed religious forces, an unremitting flow of foreign funds and the unresolved conflict in Afghanistan are the principal factors for the growth of extremism in the Ferghana Valley.


Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Motor impairments occur in most of the patients with stroke in the acute phase and contribute substantially to disability. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) biomarkers such as fractional anisotropy (FA) measured at an early phase after stroke have emerged as potential predictors of motor recovery. In this narrative review, we: (1) review key concepts of diffusion MRI (dMRI); (2) present an overview of state-of-art methodological aspects of data collection, analysis and reporting; and (3) critically review challenges of DTI in stroke as well as results of studies that investigated the correlation between DTI metrics within the corticospinal tract and motor outcomes at different stages after stroke. We reviewed studies published between January, 2008 and December, 2018, that reported correlations between DTI metrics collected within the first 24 h (hyperacute), 2–7 days (acute), and >7–90 days (early subacute) after stroke. Nineteen studies were included. Our review shows that there is no consensus about gold standards for DTI data collection or processing. We found great methodological differences across studies that evaluated DTI metrics within the corticospinal tract. Despite heterogeneity in stroke lesions and analysis approaches, the majority of studies reported significant correlations between DTI biomarkers and motor impairments. It remains to be determined whether DTI results could enhance the predictive value of motor disability models based on clinical and neurophysiological variables.


Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has the capability to provide organisations with increased levels of competitiveness in terms of more consistent quality, lower customer lead times and reduced costs. What is lesser known is that when deployed effectively, it can also provide organisations with additional environmental or "green" benefits. With organisations facing ever increasing demands for reducing CO2 levels from global environmental legislation, the motivation for the research was to gain knowledge and understanding of the current status of LSS and Environmental Management practices within the Global LSS community. In addition the researcher intended to gauge the demand for "Green" LSS tools and techniques and an associated framework. Consequently the fundamental aim of the research and resulting thesis has been to explore, develop, test and implement Environmental LSS methodologies that can be applied by organisations and also to develop a structured operational assessment framework that can increase sustainability of LSS whilst simultaneously garnering environmental improvements. The initial part of the research is based on the review of the literature on LSS, and its recent evolution into different versions of Environmental Lean and/or Six Sigma and how this relates to Environmental Management Systems and current/future environmental legislation in the UK and Globally. In addition, the development and deployment of a Global LSS survey received over 450 responses from a broad array of companies, organisational functions and hierarchical levels, which has confirmed the potential environmental benefits of LSS and its suitability for combination with environmental management practices. Using evidence and analysis from the Global LSS survey and the development, testing and industry case study of an Environmental 5S Sustainability Audit (E5S-SA), it has been possible to develop an Environmental Lean Six Sigma Sustainability Assessment (ELSSSA) Framework that can bedeployed and tailored to suit the requirements of a wide range of organisations from different specific geographic locations, industry sectors and company structure types. The research findings have clarified the unique differences that exist within manufacturing and service sectors, specific geographic locations and organisational structure types in relation to LSS and Environmental Management. In addition it has been discovered that the majority of the LSS community have experienced environmental benefits from their LSS projects with the reduction in energy consumption being the biggest benefit experienced. Through the development and testing of the ELSSSA tool in an industry scenario within the transport sector, it has been possible to deliver a solution that has provided practical results and structured feedback to an organisation quickly and effectively through the E5S-SA process. In terms of opportunities and lessons learnt from the research it would be advantageous to conduct further research via the Global LSS survey to extent down to a country specific level to provide more precise guidelines to geographic locations. This would broaden its appeal and usefulness within businesses interested in combining the use of LSS and Environmental Management. Finally it would be beneficial to conduct further development and testing of the ELSSSA tools to a wider range of business sectors to gamer more knowledge and feedback on the approaches created by the researcher.


We describe some of the complications involved in expressing the technique of induction when automatically generating textual versions of formal mathematical proofs produced by a theorem proving system, and describe our approach to this problem. The pervasiveness of induction within mathematical proofs makes its effective generation vital to readable proof texts. Our focus is on planning texts involving induction. Our efforts are driven by a corpus of human-produced proof texts, incorporating both regularities within this corpus and the formal structure of induction into coherent text plans.


In 1942 and 1943 the Government constructed a series of 16 blimp hangars at ten Naval Air Stations along the east coast, west coast and gulf coast. The hangars erected in pairs housed the blimps used for submarine patrol. Due to a critical lack of steel the hangar structural framework utilized trussed timber frames and the deck was constructed of sawn timber. The hangars are among the largest structures ever built of timber at 1,040 feet (317. 00 meters) long, 296'-6' (90. 37 meters) wide and 170'-4' (51. 91 meters) high. In 1975 Donald W. Neal undertook a project for the Navy to inspect and upgrade the hangars at Santa Ana, California. In 1977 a similar project was undertaken for the hangars at Lakehurst, New Jersey and in 1981 for the hangars at Moffett Field, California. The study uncovered many locations requiring routine maintenance and several locations requiring major structural repair. The most significant structural problem encountered was compressive buckling of the trussed frame chords. The worst cases involved buckling 13 inches out of alignment with the potential for imminent collapse. The structures were too high to shore or to brace using conventional means. This case study is confined to procedures used for realignment of the trussed frame chords and restoration of their structural integrity.


We consider the case of surfing within a single large Web site, which is important from the point of view of site design, web server proxy efficiency and search engine optimal ranking of pages. The site used as an example to illustrate a method for clustering user sessions that we propose is msnbc.com. We use a random sample from a publicly available server log data on the Web pages chosen by 989818 users in a twenty-five hour period, where the response measure for each user is an ordered sequence of choices among 17 categories (UCI KDD Archive). A common way to model the browsing behavior of users is to assume that the decision of users is a random walk with a probability distribution of first passage time to a threshold that is a two-parameter inverse-gaussian distribution. Another hypothesis examined in the literature is that users at each page conduct an independent Bernoulli trial to make a stopping decision, which implies a geometric distribution. Mixtures of first-order Markov processes or model-based clustering with and without a Bayesian flavor have o ered very useful exploratory data analysis. All these studies have shown evidence that web-surfing behavior may be non-Markov in nature and have illustrated how hard it is to capture dependencies in the data. The performance of the models over a wide range of Web Site formats is still inconclusive. This performance has been measured by the ability to predict page hits, by the resulting distribution of page hits, and by the contribution to e cient web caching schemes. Some models have been tested with server log data of AOL or similar Sites and others have been tested within a single Web site like msnbc.com. The levels of aggregation of pages and clustering of user behavior have also varied within studies. In this paper, we assume that for the case of browsing within a news portal like msnbc.com, where contents are continually changing, the server-log data is only meaningful when categories are aggregated, like they are for the msnbc.com data set, and the order of the browsing may not be relevant. We use a Bayesian hierarchical model of the page counts per user to obtain posterior distributions of page access frequency that allow us to cluster user sessions in a relatively small number of groups. The model has the ability to have enough parameters to fit the data well, while using a population distribution that can structure dependence in the parameters. The model can be generalized to different types of Web sites, di erent levels of aggregation of pages and different clustering schemes.


Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of mechanical patient lifts in reducing musculoskeletal symptoms, injuries, lost workday injuries, and workers' compensation costs in workers at a community hospital. Design: Pre-post intervention study. Setting: Three nursing units of a small community hospital. Patients or subjects: Nursing personnel. Interventions: Mechanical patient lifts were made available and nursing staff trained in their use between August 2000 and January 2001. Main outcome measures: Workers completed symptom surveys at baseline and six months after lift training. Pre-intervention and post-intervention rates of injuries and lost workday injuries using Occupational Safety and Health Administration logs of the three study units, from the period July 1999 through March 2003 were analyzed. Injuries potentially related to lifting patients were included in the analyses. Using workers' compensation data from the same time period, the compensation paid ($ per full time equivalent [FTE]) due to injuries during the pre-intervention and post-intervention period was calculated. Results: Sixty one staff members were surveyed pre-intervention; 36 (59%) completed follow up surveys. Statistically significant improvements in musculoskeletal comfort (p<0.05) were reported for all body parts, including shoulders, lower back, and knees. Injury rates decreased post-intervention, with a relative risk (RR) of 0.37 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.16 to 0.88); decreased injury rates persisted after adjustment for temporal trends in injury rates on non-intervention units of the study hospital (RR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.20 to 1.26). Adjusted lost day injury rates also decreased (RR = 0.35, 95% CI 0.10 to 1.16). Annual workers' compensation costs averaged $484 per FTE pre-intervention and $151 per FTE post-intervention. Conclusion: Reductions were observed in injury rates, lost workday injury rates, workers' compensation costs, and musculoskeletal symptoms after deployment of mechanical patient lifts. Strengths of this study include the community hospital setting and the inclusion of a variety of different outcomes. Limitations include the pre-post study design and the small sample size.


Given the unique model of group performance pay rewards for teachers in the State of Arizona and considering the significant latitude that existed for developing and implementing individual district plans, the intent of this study was to determine through mixed research methods, how teachers and principals in two Southern Arizona school districts view themselves, and how they view their professional efforts in relation to the advent of performance pay. The specific areas the researcher looked at were financial incentives, improvement of teaching, perceived district support, principal understanding and commitment, allocation of resources, principal skill, and teacher teamwork and learning. These areas are taken from previous research by Carolyn Kelley, Sharon Conley, and Steve Kimball (2000). The survey component for this study was modeled directly from their study and modified minimally. The researcher conducted a Cronbach's Alpha Reliability test to address reliability factors related to survey modification. Survey responses by teachers and principals were compared as well as responses by elementary and middle level teachers, and between the two participating districts. A detailed description of each district's performance pay plan for teachers is also included for comparative purposes. Additionally four principals and four teachers were interviewed for the qualitative portion of this study to lend a greater degree of richness and understanding to the quantitative findings. The purpose of the study was to compare and contrast survey and interview responses to gain some degree of insight into how performance pay is perceived by the study participants. The overall objective of the study was to generate research data in the area of performance pay for teachers and share the final results with the two districts involved in the study. The findings suggested a general agreement between principals and teachers in four of the seven areas related to performance pay. There was disagreement between principals and teachers in the areas of district support, principal understanding/ commitment, and teacher teamwork and learning. The recommendations implied from this study are that future research in this area is needed and a larger population sample is desirable.


A B S T R A C T This paper presents a survey on relationship between social capital and knowledge management for knowledge based organizations. This research is of descriptive-correlation one and the sample includes 100 faculty members of non-governmental institutes of Babol city. The instrument was questionnaire and the analysis performed using SPSS17 and Lisrel 8.8 software. Pearson correlation test, multiple regression analysis route analysis, and structural equations modeling were used as statistical tests. The research showed that social capital had direct and significant effect on knowledge management in 99% confidence interval. Among the dimensions of social capital, trust and social norms with knowledge application; trust with knowledge acquisition; trust and social norms with knowledge transfer; trust and networks association with knowledge creation; and trust, social norms and networks association with knowledge record had significant and positive effects in 95% confidence interval. Social capital was effective on knowledge management and knowledge based organizations could promote knowledge creation, acquisition, record, application and transfer process by improving social capitals.


Not only is Abe Shinzō on the way to becoming Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister in the country's history. With more than 1 million followers on Twitter and slightly less than 600 hundred thousand fans on Facebook, he is by far the most successful Japanese political leader on social media. Commentators have described Abe's turn to social networking services (SNS) as a "revenge" against "traditional" media against the background of a growing use of SNSs by other major Japanese political actors. At any rate, particularly through Facebook, combining text and pictures of himself on and off duty, Abe has successfully established his own mode to communicate with and "exhibit" himself to voters, citizens and the global community of netizens. This paper aims to address the following research question: on which themes and key concepts is this "presentation of the self" based? In other words, how is the Prime Minister communication staff constructing Abe's "social" image and to which audience is this aimed? Based on Goffman's theorization and later application of his work on the study of online social interactions, this paper illustrates the strive to ensure the consistency of Abe's use of the SNS with previously expressed concepts and ideas (e.g., in the 2006 book "A Beautiful Country"), with the aim of pleasing the "bubble" of like-minded individuals constituting Abe's (online) support base, and avoid issues that might possibly harm the Prime Minister's reputation. Abe's Facebook activity (a combination of text and pictures) during a critical time in his second tenure (2017), in which he faced cronyism allegations while coping with gaffes and scandals involving cabinet members, provided a case in point for multimedia content analysis.


Considering the increasing growth of cities, population and urban fabric density, it seems necessary that emergency facilities and services such as fire stations are positioned optimally so that they can fulfill the demands well. The aim of this study is the optimization of equipment use in the fire stations, minimization the time to arrive at the incident through management of referral call to 125 Sari fire station center so that the referral call to the nearest fire station do not remain unanswered as much as possible and there will be no need to refer to another station. In this research, the resources required at Sari's fire station were simulated using Enterprise Dynamic software. The input data of the simulation is based on the number and sequence of the time of people's phone calls. After collecting historical data from telephone calls using the function fitting method, the distribution function of available resources is calculated in Minitab software. In the following, the distribution functions of failure in the existing fire engines are calculated using the same method and the obtained information is simulated. The result indicates an improvement of 20% in relief time by adding one source in Sari fire station center.


Label space dimension reduction (LSDR) is an efficient and effective paradigm for multi-label classification with many classes. Existing approaches to LSDR, such as compressive sensing and principal label space transformation, exploit only the label part of the dataset, but not the feature part. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to LSDR that considers both the label and the feature parts. The approach, called conditional principal label space transformation, is based on minimizing an upper bound of the popular Hamming loss. The minimization step of the approach can be carried out efficiently by a simple use of singular value decomposition. In addition, the approach can be extended to a kernelized version that allows the use of sophisticated feature combinations to assist LSDR. The experimental results verify that the proposed approach is more effective than existing ones to LSDR across many real-world datasets.


The first Hollywood blockbuster, The Birth of a Nation, did more than establish cinematic conventions of camera techniques and movie distribution, for it also established a conventional storyline whereby white, patriarchal power is re-established through violence led by a white savior. This storyline can be traced throughout the history of major blockbusters such as Gone with the Wind of 1939, the cavalry trilogy by John Ford in the 1940s, The Omega Man from 1971, and The Outlaw Josie Wales from 1976. A quandary thus arises as to why The Birth of a Nation is held in such infamy and disdain when subsequent films that employ the same storyline are held in such high regard? I pose one explanation of this double standard in judgment as being caused by what I call "social distance by layering." The larger issue is this storyline normalizes white male gun violence against blacks, liberals, and feminists.


A tiny peninsula off of the Arabian Peninsula, Qatar is emerging as one of the fastest growing economies. Doha, the city capital of Qatar, enjoys a multi-cultural society with a population of a little more than one and half million, over 75 percent of which are expatriate professionals and laborers from other countries. Current pervasive development of Doha is characterized by a fast track urbanization process, marked by large scale workplaces, learning and residential environments, cultural facilities, and mixed use developments. Such an urbanization process is creating new urban nodes that are used by different groups for different purposes. While this unprecedented urban growth of the city continues to be a subject of discussion, little attention has been paid to other growth aspects, including the understanding of the resulting residents' spatial experience and their attitudes toward the new urbanized spaces. This paper aims at interrogating a number of assumptions that pertain to the dialectic relation between the urban center(s) and the peripheries of Doha as perceived and experienced by different groups. It offers a brief analytical, trans-disciplinary conceptualization of urban centers and peripheries and how they have been viewed in the literature by geographers, sociologists, and architects and urban designers (Boyer, 1996; Corniere, 1967; Law, 1988; Lynch and Appleyard, 1990; Prokop, 1967; Scranato, 2006; Silver 2006; Sim, 1982). An investigation of a number of key urban spaces is undertaken through the identification of key urban nodes that are believed to represent centers, peripheries, or emerging centers. Such spaces are identified based on parameters that include density, commercial activity, and public accessibility. The methodology adopted is multilayered and involves analytical description of these spaces in both typological and socio-cultural terms. Based on the notion that urban spaces can be perceived and experienced differently by different cultural groups (Foucault, 1967; Gosztonyi, 1976; Latour, 2005; Lefebvre, 1991; Smith 2005; Stroper, 2008), the methodology is expanded further to establish and implement two photographic based survey tools. In essence, the objective is to investigate the way in which the identified key urban spaces are perceived and experienced by different groups. Results of implementing the survey tools corroborate the assumption that urban spaces in the city center and on the peripheries are perceived and experienced differently by different community groups based on their cultural backgrounds and socio-economic classes. They mean different things to different communities and thus used and utilized differently. The juxtaposition of the results with the understanding of urban centers and peripheries delineates their dynamic nature, invigorating the assumption that urban spaces in the center are not necessarily standing as unique entities. Conclusions, however, indicate that urban spaces on the peripheries are emerging to compete with those in the center. Implications on how future urban spaces in the city are recognized and used are established.


Abstract Toroidal current has been studied in electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and ECH + neutral beam injection (NBI) plasmas on Heliotron J by controlling the bumpy field component. In the ECH plasma with high density, the toroidal current increases from 0.3 to 1.5 kA when B04/B00 is increased from 0.01 to 0.15, where B04 and B00 are the bumpy field and the uniform field components, respectively. The observed toroidal current is qualitatively in good agreement with neoclassical calculation results without radial electric field except for a low bumpy configuration case at low density. If the radial electric field is responsible for the deviation in the low bumpiness case, the central electric potential is estimated to be ~3 to 5 kV. The dependence of the net toroidal current on the bumpiness has also been observed in the ECH + NBI plasma. An estimation of the Ohkawa current has been attempted.


The Internet network in conjunction with a strong security policy can be an ideal online broadcast system for the industrial processes monitoring and control. Because the distributed controllers are connected through industrial serial connection, the network between controllers cannot be extended very much. The problem appears when the plant is away and cannot be accessed via a serial connection. For administrative and control purposes the serial network can be interconnected with an IP network. In this case the operator can be anywhere in the world and can interact via an interface with the process. This paper will describe flow process remote controlled using a mixture of two communication technologies: RS485 and TCP/IP. The junction between these technologies is transparent and the operator is able to monitor the process using an interface console.


We consider a single user MIMO-OFDM system where spatial multiplexing is applied and formulate rate allocation algorithms to adapt the used modulation alphabet on a per subcarrier basis. As a means to consider the system behavior including the channel code regarding bit or frame error rate (BER, FER) versus normalized average mutual information (NAMI) of an OFDM symbol for several M-QAM alphabets is investigated. To this end an approximation to the mutual information of MIMO systems with M-QAM signal alphabets is derived and compared to channel decomposition approaches to find a complexity/accuracy trade-off. Based on the mutual information results two algorithms using this channel knowledge are introduced. On the one hand, the error rates can be optimized assuming a fixed rate requirement and on the other hand the achieved transmission rate can be optimized under a BER/FER constraint. In both cases a NAMI threshold derived from the simulated system behavior for a specific channel code is used to adapt the allocated modulation alphabets via a greedy algorithm to achieve the target NAMI within an error margin.


Prophylactic Fictions traces a prehistory for what I term inoculation insecurity, by which I mean a constellation of political and cultural anxieties surrounding the legitimacy, safety, and efficacy of a developing medical procedure used to preserve the health of its subject in advance of infection. I read a collection of pamphlets, poetry, plays, essays, and novels that witness the evolution of this procedure from early eighteenthcentury variolation (inoculation by smallpox matter) to late eighteenth-century vaccination (inoculation by cowpox matter). The culture wars inaugurated by Edward Jenner's revolution of preventative medicine through vaccination grappled with the right of the government and the medical establishment to literally puncture the bodies of citizens on the grounds that England was "threatened," be it by French radicalism or by foreign bodies and objects crossing English borders. Bringing this rich archive to bear on readings of canonical novels like Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year and Bram Stoker's Dracula resituates them at the locus of intense debates about the persistently insecure relationship between the body (individual and social) and the state. Attention to the transitions in the co-constituent domains of medicine and literature during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reveals that inoculation's preventative function has never been purely a biological issue. At stake were not only the changes in medical technology and practice but also the professionalization and institutionalization of medicine itself. My project recalibrates the axes by which we tend to narrate the history of medicine: vaccine skepticism was not simply a refusal of medical innovation but a direct challenge to the state's cooptation and misuse of medicine in the name of "national security." Can and should the state be able to monitor, regulate, or even make compulsory health interventions based purely on the need to prevent imagined threats? Literary and cultural production in this period captures the conflicting ways in which health threats were imagined and secured. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group English First Advisor Michael Gamer Second Advisor Lance Wahlert


Summary Background: the worldwide trend in agro industries is to optimize food quality and obtain safe products for human consumption. It is important to produce milk with excellent physicochemical and microbiological quality to reduce public health risks. Objective: to evaluate the physicochemical and microbiological quality of milk and udder health in northwest Colombia, through the raw milk received at a leading dairy plant in Valledupar (Colombia). Methods: a non-probability sampling and a cross-sectional study were conducted. Raw milk samples from 186 beef and milk (dual purpose) farms were collected. Physicochemical parameters, mesophilic and somatic cell counts were determined. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SAS software. Results: physicochemical parameters were within the normal range in accordance with Colombian Decree No. 616 of 2006. The average mesophilic and somatic cell count was 305,279 colony forming units (CFU)/mL, and 523,207 somatic cells (SC)/mL, respectively. Sixty-eight percent of the farms had somatic cell counts greater than 200,000 SC/mL, which is the threshold for bovine mastitis. Conclusion: physicochemical quality of milk was good, but there were shortcomings in microbiological quality and udder health. Therefore, efforts are required to prevent this problems and to implement excellent management practices in the farms.


In this paper, we present the concept of a hierarchical predictive controller used for irrigation canals. The motivation behind this paper is the need in the field of irrigation to deliver water to farmers fast, but with minimal resources involved, as the communication links in the field are not dependable in practice. In response to such a control problem, we propose a hierarchical controller: the lower control layer is formed by decentralized proportional integral (PI) controllers and the higher control layer is constituted by a centralized predictive controller, the purpose of which is to control the inflow to the canal and, importantly, to coordinate the local controllers by modifying their setpoints. Having in mind the restrictions on the available communication infrastructure and the control equipment already present, the scheme is designed to be event driven, i.e., activated when there are either delivery requests or non-delivery-related events of any sort, requiring special care on top of the control provided by the PI controllers. We also study a time-driven formulation with an additional postprocessing step to avoid excessive negligible setpoint modifications. We compare the event-driven formulation and the time-driven formulation theoretically as well as by means of a simulation study for the West-M irrigation canal in Phoenix, Arizona, illustrating the findings of this paper. It is shown that the event-driven controller is able to provide a good balance between the control performance and the required update frequency of the control settings.


Experiment 1 was concerned with factors
related to negativism in autistic children, where
negativism was defined as the consistent avoidance of
a correct response in a multiple choice discrimination
task. A procedure employed in an earlier study of
this phenomenon (Cowan, Hodinott and Wright, 1965)
was modified to allow a more detailed examination of
patterning of the child's responses. A positive
relationship was found between use of spoken language
and successful performance of the task. However, no
child was negativistic. Of the 27 children tested,18
had a near perfect performance and 9 scored at chance
level. Experiment 2 was an exact replication of the
Cowan et al method but this still failed to produce
any negativism. Experiment 3 involved a more difficult
discrimination task: although this resulted in a higher
rate of errors, there was still no negativism. Possible
reasons for the failure to replicate are discussed.
Experiments 4 and 5 were designed to examine
the effects on the performance of autistic children of
varying the cognitive demands being made upon them. The
Board Form of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices
was administered to 30 children and then, if necessary,
either a range of easier 'matrices-type' problems, or
the more difficult Standard Progressive Matrices.
Distribution and type of errors suggested that for most of the children tested, success or failure on any item
was best predicted by the intrinsic difficulty of that
item rather than by the child's lack of cooperation.
However, it did appear that for some of the lower
functioning children, early experience of failure did
interfere with subsequent performance.
In Experiment 6, differences in the reactions
of autistic children to different styles of adult 'approach'
were explored. Ten children were exposed to four
different styles of approach in which the common context
was the child's involvement in the completion of a
model building task. The styles varied in the extent
to which they made interpersonal demands of the child
and in the amount of task directed structure that was
imposed. Measures based upon observation of the
adult's and the children's behaviour indicated that the
styles were reliably discriminable and that the children's
responses, both social and task-directed, were positively
and related to the interpersonal task oriented demands
that were made of them.
Results of these experiments are discussed
within the context of interpersonal responsiveness,
clinical assessment and differential diagnosis of
childhood autism.


The main strategic documents in Lithuania are based on Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach and aim to reduce social inequalities in health. However, there is still no consensus on an instrument of effective implementation or optimal and comprehensive HiAP implementation model. By using HiAP approach, governments, health and other sectors can choose from a wide range of tools, methods, policy instruments and strategies. Therefore, this article aims to identify, summarize and analyze the conducive dimensions for successful efforts of HiAP. The main idea of this article is to show that the generalization of major dimensions of HiAP can contribute to the formation of theoretical and practical HiAP model in Lithuania. HiAP dimensions in this context are understood as the main tools and methods of HiAP, which are significant for HiAP efforts and determine conducive HiAP implementation. This article aims to analyze the concept of HiAP, to show its historical development and examine the conducive dimensions for successful efforts of HiAP. Methods of scientific literature and case study analysis as well as analysis of the Lithuanian legislation and EU legislation and generalization are used in this article. The examination of HiAP concept from the historical and present perspective showed that this approach is derived from the changes in the health concept used in international academic and practical discourse. Moreover, HiAP approach is shaped by the transnational and national commitments, international health declarations, treaties and agreements. HiAP approach focuses on the contribution of public policies to the maintenance and improvement of public health. In order to implement this approach, possibilities must be provided for various public sectors to affect health; cooperation techniques and mechanisms must be developed to coordinate the actions of various institutions, and the inclusion of the stakeholders in decision-making and development processes of public health must be encouraged. The analysis of measures and methods of HiAP allows drawing the conclusion that the conducive dimensions for successful efforts of HiAP are as follows: windows of opportunities and the promotion of the priority of health; cross-sectorial and inter-institutional cooperation and the participation of all sectors; the new role of the health sector and health sector's leadership; shared benefits, determinants across sectors and overlapping indicators; the context and the external and internal factors.


Background While an association has been established between low income and poor diet using cross-sectional data, such analysis cannot account for confounding by unobserved characteristics correlated with income and diet, and changes in income and diet cannot be tracked over time. This paper, using longitudinal panel data, explores whether falls in objective and subjective family income predict deterioration in children's diets over time. Methods This paper uses panel data from the nationally representative birth cohort study Growing Up in Scotland. 3279 families have valid data on all dependent, independent and control variables for both time points. Dietary data were collected using maternal recall at sweeps 2 and 5 when the children were aged 22 and 58 months, respectively. Mothers reported on children's variety of consumption of vegetables, fruit and on the frequency of consumption of crisps, sweets and sugary drinks. The dietary variables were ordinal and were analysed using multivariate fixed effects ordinal logistic regression models. Results Controlling for time-varying confounders (children's food fussiness, maternal social class, maternal education, family composition, maternal employment) and for family and child time-invariant characteristics, moving from the highest to the lowest income band was linked to a smaller chance of increased fruit variety from 22 to 58 months (OR=0.42, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.82). Mothers who transitioned from 'living very comfortably' to 'finding it very difficult' to cope on current income had children who consumed fewer fruit varieties over time (OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.85), and who increased their frequency of consumption of crisps (OR=2.03, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.94) and sweets (OR=2.23, 95% CI 1.18 to 4.20). Conclusions The diets of young children in Scotland deteriorated between the ages of 2 and 5 years across the entire socioeconomic spectrum. Additionally, deterioration in subjective income predicted less healthy diets for children.


Abstract Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec ), a small molecule inhibitor of abl, kit, and platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) tyrosine kinases, has been reported to be effective in the treatment of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) and a rare eosinophilia-associated chronic myeloid disorder (eos-CMD) characterized by the t(5;12)(q33;p13) cytogenetic abnormality. In the current study, we sought to confirm the preliminary observations in HES as well as evaluate the therapeutic value of imatinib in eos-CMD that is not associated with t(5;12)(q33;p13). Five patients with HES (all male, median age=46 years) and 2 with eos-CMD (both male, age 45 and 58 years) were treated with imatinib at a starting dose of 100 to 400 mg/day. Cytogenetic studies showed no evidence of either the bcr-abl translocation or t(5;12)(q33;p13) in any patient. Screening of exons encoding the intracellular catalytic domains and extracellular ligand binding domains of PDGFR (exons 2-23) and c-kit (exons 1-21) in 6 patients demonstrated mostly previously known polymorphisms. At a median follow-up of 17 weeks (range 10-33 weeks), 2 HES and 1 eos-CMD patients have achieved complete clinical remission and 1 additional patient with HES has achieved a partial remission. In contrast to previous observations, all 4 responding patients had elevated serum interleukin-5 levels. Although the drug was well tolerated in most patients, a previously unrecognized treatment toxicity of acute left ventricular dysfunction occurred in a responding patient with HES within the first week of treatment. Myocardial biopsy revealed eosinophilic infiltration and degranulation and the cardiogenic shock was reversed with the prompt institution of corticosteroid therapy.


We introduce single-bid auctions as a new format for combinatorial auctions. In single-bid auctions, each bidder submits a single real-valued bid for the right to buy items at a fixed price. Contrary to other simple auction formats, such as simultaneous or sequential single-item auctions, bidders can implement no-regret learning strategies for single-bid auctions in polynomial time. Price of anarchy bounds for correlated equilibria concepts in single-bid auctions therefore have more bite than their counterparts for auctions and equilibria for which learning is not known to be computationally tractable (or worse, known to be computationally intractable [Cai and Papadimitriou 2014; Dobzinski et al. 2015] this end, we show that for any subadditive valuations the social welfare at equilibrium is an O(log m)-approximation to the optimal social welfare, where $m$ is the number of items. We also provide tighter approximation results for several subclasses. Our welfare guarantees hold for Nash equilibria and no-regret learning outcomes in both Bayesian and complete information settings via the smooth-mechanism framework. Of independent interest, our techniques show that in a combinatorial auction setting, efficiency guarantees of a mechanism via smoothness for a very restricted class of cardinality valuations extend, with a small degradation, to subadditive valuations, the largest complement-free class of valuations.


We present a strikingly simple proof that two rules are sufficient to automate gradient descent: 1) don't increase the stepsize too fast and 2) don't overstep the local curvature. No need for functional values, no line search, no information about the function except for the gradients. By following these rules, you get a method adaptive to the local geometry, with convergence guarantees depending only on smoothness in a neighborhood of a solution. Given that the problem is convex, our method will converge even if the global smoothness constant is infinity. As an illustration, it can minimize arbitrary continuously twice-differentiable convex function. We examine its performance on a range of convex and nonconvex problems, including matrix factorization and training of ResNet-18.


Realizing business value and identifying the benefits arising from implementations of enterprise systems remains a significant challenge for both research and practice. A review of existing work on enterprise systems benefits reveals that current frameworks pay limited attention to contextual and temporal variations, socio-technical and business change, and levels of benefit realization. This research study investigates the complex mix of expected and realized benefits specifically arising from ERP systems. The aim is to address the limitations of current frameworks and extend theoretical understandings to provide a richer picture of ERP benefits and their contextual variation. Drawing on data gathered from more than 60 case study organizations of differing size, maturity and industry sector the study adopts an iterative content analysis to empirically derive a comprehensive benefits framework. The extended classification and the methodology used to construct it are presented and discussed along with their implications for future research and practice.


ABSTRACT The allelic variants of immunity genes in historical breeds likely reflect local infection pressure and therefore represent a reservoir for breeding. Screening to determine the diversity of the Toll-like receptor gene TLR4 was conducted in two conserved cattle breeds: Czech Red and Czech Red Pied. High-throughput sequencing of pooled PCR amplicons using the PacBio platform revealed polymorphisms, which were subsequently confirmed via genotyping techniques. Eight SNPs found in coding and adjacent regions were grouped into 18 haplotypes, representing a significant portion of the known diversity in the global breed panel and presumably exceeding diversity in production populations. Notably, the ancient Czech Red breed appeared to possess greater haplotype diversity than the Czech Red Pied breed, a Simmental variant, although the haplotype frequencies might have been distorted by significant crossbreeding and bottlenecks in the history of Czech Red cattle. The differences in haplotype frequencies validated the phenotypic distinctness of the local breeds. Due to the availability of Czech Red Pied production herds, the effect of intensive breeding on TLR diversity can be evaluated in this model. The advantages of the Pacific Biosciences technology for the resequencing of long PCR fragments with subsequent direct phasing were independently validated.


Among the many recommendations within the new AUA guideline for the management of nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer, arguably one of the most important is the idea of repeating resection for patients with high-grade Ta or T1 disease within a few weeks of the initial resection before making a treatment recommendation.


Reconstruction of late Quaternary sea level history in areas of glacioisostatic uplift often relies on sediment archives from coastal isolation basins, natural coastal rock depressions previously isolated from or connected to the sea at different times. Proxy indicators for marine, brackish, or lacustrine conditions combined with precise dating can constrain the time when the sea crossed the sill threshold and isolated (or connected) the basin. The utility of isolation basins in investigations of sea level change is well known, but investigations have been mostly limited to microfossil proxies, the application of which can be limited by preservation and nonanalog problems. Here we investigate the potential of long‐chain alkenones, alkenoates, and bulk organic parameters (TOC, Corg/N) for reconstructing past sea level changes in isolation basins in NW Scotland. We analyze organic biomarkers and bulk parameters from both modern basins (at different stages of isolation from the sea) and fossil basins (with sea level histories reconstructed from established proxies). Logit regression analysis was employed to find which of the biomarker metrics or bulk organic measurements could reliably characterize the sediment samples in terms of a marine/brackish or isolated/lacustrine origin. The results suggested a good efficiency for the alkenone index %C37:4 at predicting the depositional origin of the sediments. This study suggests that alkenones could be used as a novel proxy for sea level change in fossil isolation basins especially when microfossil preservation is poor.