Long-term memory encoding depends critically on effective processing of incoming information. The degree to which participants engage in effective encoding can be indexed in electroencephalographic (EEG) data by studying event-related potential (ERP) subsequent memory effects. The current study investigated ERP correlates of memory success operationalised with two different measures—memory selectivity and global memory—to assess whether previously observed ERP subsequent memory effects reflect focused encoding of task-relevant information (memory selectivity), general encoding success (global memory), or both. Building on previous work, the present study combined an attention switching paradigm—in which participants were presented with compound object-word stimuli and switched between attending to the object or the word across trials—with a later recognition memory test for those stimuli, while recording their EEG. Our results provided clear evidence that subsequent memory effects resulted from selective attentional focusing and effective top-down control (memory selectivity) in contrast to more general encoding success effects (global memory). Further analyses addressed the question of whether successful encoding depended on similar control mechanisms to those involved in attention switching. Interestingly, differences in the ERP correlates of attention switching and successful encoding, particularly during the poststimulus period, indicated that variability in encoding success occurred independently of prestimulus demands for top-down cognitive control. These results suggest that while effects of selective attention and selective encoding co-occur behaviourally their ERP correlates are at least partly dissociable.


Broad needs for digital models of real environments such as 3D terrain or cyber cities are increasing. Many applications related to modeling and simulation require virtual environments constructed from real-world geospatial information in order to guarantee relevance and accuracy in the simulation. The most fundamental data for building virtual environments, terrain elevation and orthogonal imagery, is typically acquired using optical sensors mounted on satellites or airplanes. Providing interoperable and reusable digital models in 3D is important for promoting practical applications of high-resolution airborne imagery.
 This paper presents research results regarding virtual-environment representations of geospatial information, especially for 3D shape and appearance of virtual terrain. It describes a framework for constructing real-time 3D models of large terrain based on highresolution satellite imagery. This approach is also suitable for underwater bathymetry. The Extensible 3D Graphics (X3D) Geospatial Component standard is applied to produce X3D Earth models with global scope. Efficient rendering, network retrieval and data caching/removal must all be optimized simultaneously, across servers, networks and clients, in order to accomplish these goals properly. Details of this standard-based approach for providing an infrastructure for real-time 3D simulation merging high-resolution geometry and imagery are also presented. This work facilitates open interchange and interoperability across diverse simulation systems and is independently usable by governments, industry, scientists and the general public.


Fog water represents an alternative, abundant and currently unexploited fresh water resource in the coastal Atacama Desert (~20°S). Here, the stratocumulus clouds meet the Coastal Cordillera, producing highly dynamic advective marine fog, a major feature of the local climate that provides water to a hyper-arid environment. One of the main issues that arises in harvesting fog water is our limited understanding of the spatial and inter-annual variability of fog clouds and their associated water content. Here we assess the role of regional-wide El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forcing on local inter-annual fog-water yields along the coast of Atacama. We contrast 17 years of continuous fog-water data, with local and regional atmospheric and oceanographic variables to determine the link between them and the inter-annual dynamics of fog in northern Chile. Sea surface temperature (SST) in ENSO zone 1 + 2 shows significant correlations with offshore and coastal Atacama SST, as well as with local low cloud cover and fog water yields, which go beyond the annual cycle beat, exposing a potential causal link and influence of ENSO on fog along the Atacama. On the inter-annual time scale, we found that when ENSO 3 + 4 zone SST, specifically during summer, overcome a > 1°C temperature threshold, they incite significantly higher summer fog water yields and explain 79% of the fog variability. Furthermore, satellite images displaying regional extent Sc cloud and fog presence during ENSO extremes reveal higher cloud abundance during El Nino at this latitude. However, 75% of the yearly fog water is collected during winter, and does not appear to be affected in a significant manner by Pacific oscillations. Thus, our results suggest that the utilization of fog as a fresh water resource may be sustainable in the future, regardless of ENSO-induced variability in the region.


While the concept of collaboration provides a natural defense against massive spam e-mails directed at large numbers of recipients, designing effective collaborative anti-spam systems raises several important research challenges. First and foremost, since e-mails may contain confidential information, any collaborative anti-spam approach has to guarantee strong privacy protection to the participating entities. Second, the continuously evolving nature of spam demands the collaborative techniques to be resilient to various kinds of camouflage attacks. Third, the collaboration has to be lightweight, efficient, and scalable. Toward addressing these challenges, this paper presents ALPACAS-a privacy-aware framework for collaborative spam filtering. In designing the ALPACAS framework, we make two unique contributions. The first is a feature-preserving message transformation technique that is highly resilient against the latest kinds of spam attacks. The second is a privacy-preserving protocol that provides enhanced privacy guarantees to the participating entities. Our experimental results conducted on a real e-mail data set shows that the proposed framework provides a 10 fold improvement in the false negative rate over the Bayesian-based Bogofilter when faced with one of the recent kinds of spam attacks. Further, the privacy breaches are extremely rare. This demonstrates the strong privacy protection provided by the ALPACAS system.


Malaria and filariasis bancrofti infections are found in every section of equatorial West Africa but the incidences vary greatly in different sections, including Liberia. During the last two and a half years, various survey teams of the U. S. Public Health Service Mission in Liberia have made sample studies in the three provinces and four of the five counties of Liberia for the purpose of determining the distribution of these two groups of diseases. Thick blood smears have been taken and studied from over 46,000 Liberians during that period. This paper reports the microfilaremia findings. The malaria findings will be reported in separate papers. The smears were stained by the Giemsa method. Table I gives the microfilaremia findings of these studies with emphasis on the superiority of smears taken at night over those taken during the day.
One may estimate that there are between 25,000 to 30,000 individuals showing microfilaremia in Liberia.


Macquarie Island (MI) is a remote oceanic island located half way between Tasmania
and Antarctica. It falls under the jurisdiction of Tasmania and is managed by the State
as a restricted nature reserve. MI has been recognised internationally as a world
heritage area and biosphere reserve, and at the national level it has been placed on the
Register of the National Estate. The management regime for MI is complex, reflecting
an elaborate regulatory framework typical of a protected area in Australia's federal
system. Central to this regime is the newly revised Macquarie Island Nature Reserve
and World Heritage Area Management Plan (MINR Plan) that came into effect in 2006.
MI has a multitude of stakeholders borne from the management regime, historical and
contemporary context of human use, and environmental movement. Stakeholders are
defined by their ability to influence, or be influenced by the management regime. Their
power, legitimacy and urgency in terms of management decisions and practices form the
basis for stakeholder relations and are central to this research.
MI is on the cusp of an uncertain future. There has been a recent shift in the relationship
between key stakeholders as their interests have changed to reflect new priorities and
fiscal realities. This research utilises the theoretical conceptual framework of
stakeholder analysis to determine the power to influence and capacity to lead of
stakeholders, and their knowledge and values. This is followed by an analysis of
stakeholder characteristics in relation to conservation and human use management
outlined in the MINR Plan, and four topical issues that may significantly influence
management practices and Ml's future.
The research aims to determine the effectiveness of the Plan in its implementation and
discuss its feasibility and relevancy, and consider the management implications of the
four topical issues. Finally, the opportunities, constraints and future prospects for MI are
considered from the perspective of stakeholders.
The research found that management decisions and practices implemented under the
Plan are undermined by the lack of effective consultation between stakeholders. An
inclusive forum does not exist and therefore less powerlul stakeholders do not have access to definitive stakeholders. The lack of consultation prevents information transfer
and weakens support for management decisions and practices. Furthermore, the
management authority is under resourced and unable to effectively consult with other
stake holders or fully implement the Plan. It also lacks the capacity lead and
consequently many of the issues emerging from the implementation process remain
unresolved.
The analysis and discussion highlights the failures inherent in Ml's management regime.
The informal domination by the Commonwealth gives it greater influence over
management decisions and practices. This position is strengthened further as the State
is reliant on the Commonwealth for logistical resources. This unusual situation has
resulted in a great deal of conflict, which underpins intergovernmental relations.
In addition, there is a great deal of mistrust between stakeholders due to the uncertainty
surrounding the availability of logistical resources. This uncertainty has prevented a
number of stakeholders from developing strategic long term plans. Moreover, decision
making within the management regime lacks transparency and stake holders have
become disillusioned with the current approach to management.
Stakeholders are in agreement that effective management can be achieved if an
independent approach that is inclusive of stakeholders and their interests is adopted.
Such an approach may resolve some of the uncertainty surrounding the intentions of the
Commonwealth, thus allowing others stake holders to plan strategically. It would also
improve consultation, augment authority and resources, and promote transparent
decision making. The focus could therefore shift from the many problems that surround
management decisions and practices to the perusal of a collective and assured future.


Sixteen microalgae isolates were screened for their potency as the sources of anti-acne agents. The methanol and hexane extract of the isolates were assayed for their antibacterial bioactivity against Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus aureus and theirantioxidant activities as free-radical-scavenging bioactivity by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) test. The results showed that the extract of Micractinium sp. Ehime was the most potential as the source of anti-acnes agent based on their combined activities: antibacterial against P. acnes (clear zone 28.6 mm) and antioxidant activity (IC50 361.23 μg/ml).


Abstract Cross-sectional studies provide evidence of larger cardiac dimensions and mass in endurance trained than in untrained females. Much less is known regarding adaptations in cardiac function following training in untrained subjects. We aimed to study left ventricular (LV) adaptation to indoor cycling in previously untrained females, in regard of LV dimensions, mass and function. 42 sedentary females were divided into 2 equally sized groups, either training indoor cycling at regular classes at a local gym for 12 weeks, in average 2.6 times per week, or maintaining their sedentary lifestyle. Echocardiography at rest and a maximal exercise test were performed before and after the intervention. Exercise capacity increased in average 16% in the exercise group (p<0.001), together with decreased heart rate at rest (p<0.05) and at 120 watts steady-state (p<0.001). There were no difference in systolic or diastolic function following the intervention and minimal increases in LV internal diameter in diastole (+1 mm, p<0.01). LV mass was unchanged with training (137±25 vs. 137±28 g, p=0.911). Our findings indicate that attending indoor cycling classes at a gym 2-to-3 times per week for 12 weeks is enough to improve exercise capacity, while a higher volume of training is required to elicit cardiac adaptations.


In this paper the consumer problem is considered as a decision problem. At first consumer behaviour is described by the usual standard model, well-known in economic theory. The main criticism of this model is that it presumes a consumer acting rationally in the sense that he can choose simultaneously from a multitude of commodities, whereas ordinary intuition tells us that even the choice from a small set of alternatives is very difficult. Things are becoming even more difficult if goods available at different times are considered as different options, and when randomness is introduced in terms of 'contingent claims'. We call this the assumption of 'irrational rationality'. Things become more natural if the ordinal utility concept is replaced by a cardinal concept. This is introduced as a normed measure W on the service space of commodities Ω. Then it becomes possible to fragment consumer behaviour into several consecutive stages. At the first stage the consumer decides on how much is consumed and how much is saved, at the second stage a broad distribution is made over a few subgroups of expenditures, while in later stages money is gradually 'differentiated' up to the point where it is actually spend and transformed into purchases. If the consumer acts in this way, he most probably will reach a suboptimal solution when compared to the 'master plan' where everything is planned in one stroke. However, it is the more realistic description, since it is rational for the consumer to consider one decision at a time. We call this feature 'rational irrationality'. Probability and time preference are introduced by introducing new coordinate spaces. The Cartesian product of the state space S, the commodity space Ω and the time space T, with their corresponding marginal measures P, W, T, becomes the natural space to describe consumer behaviour.


Together with Wayne Shirley, Louis Shores began the American Library History Round Table in 1947. With the addition of N. Orwin Rush and John David Marshall, they dominated its proceedings for the first two decades. When Shores and Shirley turned over the control of the Round Table to Shore's appointed successor, Michael H. Harris, and his democratically elected successors in 1972, the four founders left an organization that, though small, was popular and had focused the agenda of library history.


While growing numbers of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology are pursuing postsecondary education, there is a dearth of information concerning the social functioning of these students. ADHD symptomatology has been strongly linked with risk behaviors that contribute to chronic health problems, including substance use and risky sexual behavior, resulting in twice the health care costs for these students in the United States. Despite such critical findings, specific pathways between ADHD and substance use and sexual risk, have not been identified. A large body of literature has demonstrated that individuals with ADHD are at greater risk for developing externalizing behavior problems, which in turn appear to predict substance use and sexual risk behavior. Evidence also suggests that individuals with ADHD symptomatology often exhibit executive function (EF) deficits, and several studies have linked executive dysfunction to substance use problems and sexual risk behavior. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to: a) examine the relationship among ADHD symptomatology, externalizing symptomatology, EF deficits, substance use, and sexual risk behavior among N=411 college students; b) propose and test three nested, latent variable models (i.e., a mediation, full, and a direct effects model) and identify significant paths between the variables; and c) examine the three latent variable models and determine which model best represents the relationship between the variables. Overall, results revealed significant correlations among ADHD symptomatology, externalizing symptomatology, EF deficits, substance use, and sexual risk behavior. While the mediation and full models demonstrated specficiation errors that could not be resolved into meaningful solutions, significant pathways were identified within the direct latent variable model, including paths between ADHD symptomatology, externalizing symptomatology, EF deficits, substance use, and sexual risk behavior, respectively. Furthermore, the direct model proved to best represent the data, over and above the two other latent variable models. The present findings have implications for public health policy, particularly as it relates to the college population. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.


The problem of obtaining multi-component crystals as co-crystals (with neutral molecules) rather than as salts (with charged cations and anions) attracts much attention. This is not merely a scientific challenge, but is often important for issues related to intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry. Until now, examples have been documented where control over co-crystal–salt state has been achieved by modifying either the chemical components (co-formers) or temperature. Serendipitously we recently obtained, for the first time, a co-crystal and a salt of the same chemical composition – β-alanine and DL-tartaric acid – crystallizing stochastically at the same temperature from the same solution (E. A. Losev and E. V. Boldyreva, Acta Crystallogr., Sect. C: Struct. Chem., 2018, 74, 177–185, 10.1107/S2053229617017909). Here we report the possibility of obtaining reproducibly crystals of either of the two forms, the stable co-crystal (II) or a metastable salt (III), depending on the crystallization protocol. These observations are rationalized in terms of control over nucleation and the nuclei growth of the two phases, Ostwald's rule of stages and "disappearing polymorphs". We report the results of using slow evaporation, fast and slow anti-solvent crystallization, and co-grinding with a variable amount of added water, as well as of "slurry experiments". The thermodynamically stable co-crystal (II) can be obtained as a pure phase through liquid-assisted grinding, and upon crystallization from solution if seeds of it are already present in solution. The metastable molecular salt (III) is formed as a pure phase upon "dry" co-grinding without any water added specially (although in a humid atmosphere), upon fast anti-solvent crystallization, or during slow anti-solvent crystallization experiments before any seeds of the co-crystal (II) become available. After the co-crystal (II) has been formed once, even introducing a seed of the molecular salt (III) does not help to crystallize the salt from solution. The salt (III) is thus a typical "disappearing polymorph". For comparison, we describe the co-crystallization of DL-tartaric acid with other amino acids of the same homological series. This gives the same products under all of the tested crystallization conditions – salts for the larger γ- and α-aminobutyric acids (GABA (IV) and AABA (V), respectively), and a co-crystal for the smaller glycine (I). The findings shed light on the mechanism of the alternative precipitation of co-crystals or salts of zwitterionic compounds from their aqueous solutions.


The Quaternary Besos delta is located on the Mediterranean coast in NE Spain. The Besos Delta Complex includes 3 aquifers constituted by 3 sandy and gravelly bodies, separated by lutitic units. These aquifers supply water for domestic and industrial use in this area. Management of groundwater has been problematic in the Besos delta since the 1960s, and continues to pose major problems for subsurface engineering works in this highly urbanized region. This study seeks to demonstrate the advantages of detailed geological characterization and modeling for designing and constructing a hydrogeological model. Available information of the subsurface was compiled, integrated and homogenized in a geospatial database. The interpretation of these data enabled us to delimit geological units by means of a sequence stratigraphic subdivision. A three-dimensional facies belt-based model of the Besos delta was built on the basis of this geological characterization. This model was used to constrain the distribution of hydraulic parameters and thus to obtain a consistent hydrogeological model of the delta, which was calibrated by data of water management and production over the last hundred years. The resulting hydrogeological model yielded new insights into water front displacements in the aquifer during the time-span considered, improving predictions in an attempt to optimize aquifer management.


Lead your organization into the industrial revolution of analytics with The Analytics Revolution The topics of big data and analytics continue to be among the most discussed and pursued in the business world today. While a decade ago many people still questioned whether or not data and analytics would help improve their businesses, today virtually no one questions the value that analytics brings to the table. The Analytics Revolution focuses on how this evolution has come to pass and explores the next wave of evolution that is underway. Making analytics operational involves automating and embedding analytics directly into business processes and allowing the analytics to prescribe and make decisions. It is already occurring all around us whether we know it or not. The Analytics Revolution delves into the requirements for laying a solid technical and organizational foundation that is capable of supporting operational analytics at scale, and covers factors to consider if an organization is to succeed in making analytics operational. Along the way, you'll learn how changes in technology and the business environment have led to the necessity of both incorporating big data into analytic processes and making them operational. The book cuts straight through the considerable marketplace hype and focuses on what is really important. The book includes: An overview of what operational analytics are and what trends lead us to them Tips on structuring technology infrastructure and analytics organizations to succeed A discussion of how to change corporate culture to enable both faster discovery of important new analytics and quicker implementation cycles of what is discovered Guidance on how to justify, implement, and govern operational analytics The Analytics Revolution gives you everything you need to implement operational analytic processes with big data.


This paper describes an image metamorphosis technique to handle scattered feature constraints specified with points, polylines, and splines. Solutions to the following three problems are presented: feature specification, warp generation, and transition control. We demonstrate the use of snakes to reduce the burden of feature specification. Next, we propose the use of multilevel free-form deformations (MFFD) to compute C/sup 2/-continuous and one-to-one mapping functions among the specified features. The resulting technique, based on B-spline approximation, is simpler and faster than previous warp generation methods. Furthermore, it produces smooth image transformations without undesirable ripples and foldovers. Finally, we simplify the MFFD algorithm to derive transition functions to control geometry and color blending. Implementation details are furnished and comparisons among various metamorphosis techniques are presented.


The selective amorphization of SiGe in Si/SiGe nanostructures via a 1 MeV Si+ implant was investigated, resulting in single-crystal Si nanowires (NWs) and quantum dots (QDs) encapsulated in amorphous SiGe fins and pillars, respectively. The Si NWs and QDs are formed during high-temperature dry oxidation of single-crystal Si/SiGe heterostructure fins and pillars, during which Ge diffuses along the nanostructure sidewalls and encapsulates the Si layers. The fins and pillars were then subjected to a 3 × 1015 ions/cm2 1 MeV Si+ implant, resulting in the amorphization of SiGe, while leaving the encapsulated Si crystalline for larger, 65-nm wide NWs and QDs. Interestingly, the 26-nm diameter Si QDs amorphize, while the 28-nm wide NWs remain crystalline during the same high energy ion implant. This result suggests that the Si/SiGe pillars have a lower threshold for Si-induced amorphization compared to their Si/SiGe fin counterparts. However, Monte Carlo simulations of ion implantation into the Si/SiGe nanostructures reveal similar predicted levels of displacements per cm3. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the total stress magnitude in Si QDs encapsulated in crystalline SiGe is higher than the total stress magnitude in Si NWs, which may lead to greater crystalline instability in the QDs during ion implant. The potential lower amorphization threshold of QDs compared to NWs is of special importance to applications that require robust QD devices in a variety of radiation environments.


A theoretical model is developed to explain the plasma rotations induced by lower hybrid waves in Alcator C-Mod. In this model, torodial rotations are driven by the Lorentz force on the bulk-electron flow across flux surfaces, which is a response of the plasma to the resonant-electron flow across flux surfaces induced by the lower hybrid waves. The flow across flux surfaces of the resonant electrons and the bulk electrons are coupled through the radial electric field initiated by the resonant electrons, and the friction between ions and electrons transfers the toroidal momentum to ions from electrons. An improved quasilinear theory with gyrophase dependent distribution function is developed to calculate the perpendicular resonant-electron flow. Toroidal rotations are determined using a set of fluid equations for bulk electrons and ions, which are solved numerically by a finite-difference method. Numerical results agree well with the experimental observations in terms of flow profile and amplitude. The model explains the strong correlation between torodial flow and internal inductance observed experimentally, and predicts both counter-current and co-current flows, depending on the perpendicular wave vectors of the lower hybrid waves.


The paper in hand presents a mobile testbed –namely the Heavy Duty Planetary Rover (HDPR)– that was designed and constructed at the Automation and Robotics Laboratories (ARL) of the European Space Agency to fulfill the lab's internal needs in the context of long range rover exploration as well as in order to provide the means to perform in situ testing of novel algorithms. We designed a rover that: a) is able to reliably perform long range routes, and b) carries an abundant of sensors (both current rover technology and futuristic ones). The testbed includes all the additional hardware and software (i.e. ground control station, UAV, networking, mobile power) to allow the prompt deployment on the field. The reader can find in the paper the description of the system as well as a report on our experiences during our first experiments with the testbed.


In this thesis we discuss possible generalizations of totally unimodular and network matrices. Our purpose is to introduce new classes of matrices that preserve the advantageous properties of these well-known matrices. In particular, our focus is on the polyhedral consequences of totally unimodular matrices, namely we look for matrices that can ensure vertices that are scalable to an integral vector by an integer k. We argue that simply generalizing the determinantal structure of totally unimodular matrices does not suffice to achieve this goal and one has to extend the range of values the inverses of submatrices can contain. To this end, we define k-regular matrices. We show that k-regularity is a proper generalization of total unimodularity in polyhedral terms, as it guarantees the scalability of vertices. Moreover, we prove that the k-regularity of a matrix is necessary and sufficient for substituting mod-k cuts for rank-1 Chvatal-Gomory cuts. In the second part of the thesis we introduce binet matrices, an extension of network matrices to bidirected graphs. We provide an algorithm to calculate the columns of a binet matrix using the underlying graphical structure. Using this method, we prove some results about binet matrices and demonstrate that several interesting classes of matrices are binet. We show that binet matrices are 2-regular, therefore they provide half-integral vertices for a polyhedron with a binet constraint matrix and integral right hand side vector. We also prove that optimization on such a polyhedron can be carried out very efficiently, as there exists an extension of the network simplex method for binet matrices. Furthermore, the integer optimization with binet matrices is equivalent to solving a matching problem. We also describe the connection of k-regular and binet matrices to other parts of combinatorial optimization, notably to matroid theory and regular vectorspaces.


It is one of the most difficult and challenging targets to achieve blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes. Herein, we employ tetrafluorinated 2-phenylpyridine (F4ppy) as a cyclometalated ligand, in which the tetrafluorophenyl group contributes to the stabilization of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of its iridium(III) complex. Meanwhile, N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) and acidic pyrazolyl-pyridine (fppz) moieties as ancillary ligands are used to keep the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) of the phosphors relatively unchanged. Therefore, the energy gap between the HOMO and LUMO is enlarged and two sky blue emissive iridium(III) phosphors, named (F4ppy)2Ir(CF3-pei) (Ir-1) and (F4ppy)2Ir(fppz) (Ir-2), are achieved. Strong phosphorescent emission at a wavelength of around 460 nm with a photoluminescence quantum yield of around 60% is observed in solution for these two phosphors. Moreover, the organic light-emitting devices made from Ir-1 and Ir-2 exhibit high-efficiencies, affording peak current efficiencies (CEs) of 47.6 and 45.5 cd A−1 with external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 20.6% and 19.6%, respectively.


Danish Parliament adopted a law (L190) that abolishes the formation of entrepreneurial companies (ivaerksaetterselskab) IVS in Denmark. This decision has raised surprise and concern from business and academic communities, questioning the decision-making processes of the Danish government. The entrepreneurial company form was introduced in 2014 with the aim to strengthen the entrepreneurship in Denmark. Currently the Government claims that the aim has not been reached. Based on the analysis prepared by the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen) from September 2018 there are reasons to dissolve or transform all the existing IVS companies within the next two years and abrogate the IVS form from the Danish Companies Act completely. In this short essay, I briefly introduce the IVS company form and reflect on the Analysis prepared by the Danish Business Authority. I provide some thoughts on the substance of this Analysis and its key weaknesses when justifying their main outcomes, for which the IVS form is to be repealed – that these companies have, to a greater extent than expected, led to an increased risk of fraud and tax evasions. I conclude the article with few reflections on the minimum capital requirement, importance of legislative review and building entrepreneurship in Denmark. These conclusions are however universal and applicable across diverse jurisdictions.


The entry of primate immunodeficiency viruses into target cells depends on a sequential interaction of the gp120 envelope glycoprotein with the cellular receptors, CD4 and members of the chemokine receptor family. The gp120 third variable (V3) loop has been implicated in chemokine receptor binding, but the use of the CCR5 chemokine receptor by diverse primate immunodeficiency viruses suggests the involvement of an additional, conserved gp120 element. Through the use of gp120 mutants, a highly conserved gp120 structure was shown to be critical for CCR5 binding. This structure is located adjacent to the V3 loop and contains neutralization epitopes induced by CD4 binding. This conserved element may be a useful target for pharmacologic or prophylactic intervention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections.


Shape-reconfigurable photonic capsules are microfluidically designed to make wavelength- and intensity-tunable microlasers. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) have a photonic bandgap due to the periodic change of refractive index along their helical axes. The CLCs containing optical gain have served as band-edge lasing resonators. In particular, CLCs in a granular format provide omnidirectional lasing, which are promising as a point light source. However, there is no platform that simultaneously achieves high stability in air and wavelength tunability. We encapsulate CLCs with double shells to design a capsule-type laser resonator. The fluidic CLCs are fully enclosed by an aqueous inner shell that promotes the planar alignment of LC molecules along the interface. The outer shell made of silicone elastomer protects the CLC core and the inner shell from the surroundings. Therefore, the helical axes of the CLCs are radially oriented within the capsules, which provide a stable omnidirectional lasing in the air. At the same time, the fluidic CLCs enable the fine-tuning of lasing wavelength with temperature. The capsules retain their double-shell structure during the dynamic deformation. Therefore, the CLCs in the core maintain the planar alignment along the deformed interface, and a lasing direction can be varied from omnidirectional to bi- or multidirectional, depending on the shape of deformed capsules.


Objectives: The Present study was planned to evaluate the nootropic activity of ehanolic extract of Adhatoda vasica nees (EERAV) and aqueous extract of A. vasica (AQERAV) in experimentally induced amnesic models in mice and rats. Methods: AERAV and AQERAV were prepared successively with roots of A. vasica using soxhlet apparatus. LD50 studies for these two extracts were carried out in albino mice up to the dose level of 2000 mg/kg as per guidelines No. 425 of CPCSEA. EERAV and AQERAV were studied for their nootropic effect evaluated in five different experimental models like Active (Rats) and Passive avoidance, Diazepam, Scopolamine, Sodium nitrite induced amnesia and Sodium nitrite induced hypoxia models all in mice. The parameters studied in nootropic activity are Step Down Latency (SDL), Step Down Error (SDE), Time spent in Shock Zone (TSZ), Number of shocks, Transfer Latency (TL) and Time for cessation of respiration. Results: No mortality observed even at the highest dose tested (2000 mg/kg) and did not produce any significant effect on locomotor activity in mice. Experimental studies have shown that EERAV and AQERAV have exhibited a dose dependent nootropic activity. A Significant nootropic activity was recorded with both the extracts in Active and Passive avoidance, Scopolamine, Diazepam and Sodium nitrite induced amnesia models. AQERAV exhibited a significant nootropic effect with medium and high doses only in Active and Passive avoidance models, scopolamine and Diazepam induced amnesia models. Conclusion: The present study suggests that both extracts possessed a significant nootropic activity in mice and rats.


Most of the existing cloud radiation models treat liquid water drops of a variety of sizes as an ensemble of particles. The ensemble approach assumes that all drop sizes are well represented in an elementary volume, and its scattering and absorbing properties can be accurately specified through the use of the drop size probability density distribution function. The concentration of large drops, however, can be so low that a chance to capture them in the elementary volume is rare. Thus the drop ensemble assumption is not always true, though classical radiative transfer theory uses this assumption to simplify the radiative transfer process, as if scattering takes place from an ''average drop'' rather than from a particular drop. The theoretical analysis presented in this paper demonstrates that if a cumulative distribution function is used to describe drop size variability with jumps accounting for the probability of finding large drops in the elementary volume, one obtains an extra term, the Green's function, in the solution of the radiative transfer equation. The analysis of data on cloud drop size distribution acquired during the First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Research Experiment (FIRE) field campaign clearly shows jumps in the cumulative drop size distribution; the magnitudes of the jumps are related to the frequencies of large drop occurrence. This discontinuity is primarily responsible for the additional terms that must be added to the solution to properly account for the photon interaction with the large drops. The enhancement of cloud absorption due to accounting for the ''missing solution'' exhibits a jump-like response to continuous variation in the concentration of large drops and may exceed the enhancement predicted by the ensemble-based models. The results presented here indicate that the missing term might be plausible to explain the enhanced value of the ratio of the shortwave cloud forcing at the surface to the forcing at top of the atmosphere.


This paper presents the design, implementation, and experimental results of an architecture for autonomous demand-side load management (ADSM) system for Smart Buildings in view of influencing the energy demand in the Smart Grid. In such an architecture, the management system has a layered structure and appliances' operation is modeled as a finite state machine, which enables an efficient load control using scheduling techniques borrowed from real-time computing systems. In this study the Admission Control, which is the bottom layer of the presented architecture interacting in real-time with physical equipments, is addressed and the real-time power consumption management in a residential dwelling is implemented and tested in a real office building. The experimental results provide a proof of concept for the proposed architecture and demonstrate the applicability of the on-line scheduling approach for ADSM systems for smart buildings.


As more criminals use encryption to conceal incriminating evidence, forensic examiners require practical methods for recovering some or all of the encrypted data. This paper presents lessons learned from investigations involving encryption in various contexts. By presenting successful and unsuccessful case examples, this paper gives forensic examiners a clearer understanding of the feasibility and limitations of various approaches to dealing with encryption. Additionally, by demonstrating how encryption has been successfully dealt with in past investigations, this paper provides examiners with techniques that we can apply in our work and encourages us to aggressively confront encryption.


This work presents the concept of code and data propagation in a multi-agent system. First, the concepts of agent and multi-agent system are defined and examples are presented. Also arguments for using agent approach are given and potential benefits are listed. Afterwards the idea of code and data propagation is defined and explained. Then some examples of real solutions are given along with propagation algorithms, which depict the way of introducing the concept into real system solutions. Afterwards the code and data propagation in a multi-agent system is described, which is in many cases based on the object migration. Discussion about this concept ends with describing the types of agent migration and giving some examples of systems with agent migration. Then three multi-agent environments are described and one is chosen to be the basis of the implemented application. Second part of work starts with description of systems principal objective, which is the distributed calculating of prime numbers. At the beginning, agents of the system are presented, and then the main system processes are depicted in detail. All algorithms are shown in sequence diagrams, which point all asynchronisms in the system. Afterwards migration phase is described with all migration types and algorithms. The experiments are conducted in two environments: home and university. The main aim is to find optimal configurations for both environments. The conclusion from this work is that introducing code and data propagation to a multiagent system in a form of agent migration in a heterogeneous network could considerably decrease the execution time. Moreover based on the efficiency vector of computers participating in the experiment there is a possibility to set a task distribution, which is close to optimal, without searching for optimal configuration every time when running the experiment.


The Centre for Complementary Care, Muncaster (The Centre), provides healing by gentle touch: a non-invasive intervention that is complementary to conventional medicine and involves the gentle placing of hands on various parts of the body. An outcomes study at The Centre has recorded
clients' perceptions of their health status, both before and after treatment, using validated research tools. A subgroup of clients attending The Centre with largely long-term, intractable musculoskeletal disorders (including osteoarthritis and various joint/back injuries) reported
significant reductions in stress and pain, increased ability to cope and to carry out usual activities,
improved relaxation levels, reduced medication use and decreased disability after four healing sessions. Those participants with the most severe symptoms on entry showed the most substantial improvement. Some of the processes that might be responsible for the improvements in these subjects include the modification of stress and pain pathways by particular psychological and physiological aspects of healing. The psychological mediators include love, caring, willingness to treat and aspects of the therapeutic relationship. The physiological mediators include touch, warmth and relaxation. These interact indirectly with the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)
axis and related systems to ease those aspects of the ailment that are exacerbated by stress, thus greatly reducing symptoms and facilitating endogenous healing mechanisms. The intensity and significance of pain may be lowered by modification of both the interpretation of the sensory input, and the psychological component of the pain experience. This is likely to result in a change
in the perception of pain severity, the quality of the pain and the level of distress it produces. These findings suggest that healing may be a valuable adjuvant to other therapeutic interventions.


The intention of this thesis was to demonstrate that, with in-depth analysis, a carefully and deliberately constructed narrative could be revealed within the ceiling paintings of Skelmorlie Aisle, Largs, Scotland (c.1638). The ceiling adorned a burial aisle, which was erected by Sir Robert Montgomerie, seventh of Skelmorlie, in honour of his wife, Dame Margaret Douglas. The paintings, executed by Edinburgh apprentice James Stalker, are the only surviving example of the genre signed and dated by the artist. The ceiling was composed of forty-one individual compartments each one containing different combinations of emblems, designs, human figures, animals, birds and heraldic representations. Of the forty-one compartments, four of these contained landscape paintings, depicting the seasons, and their associated labours. Two unusual paintings were also executed each containing representations of a female figure on the land and by the sea. By a study of semiotics, this dissertation systematically re-constructed the narrative concealed within the paintings. This revealed the intrinsic meaning of the iconography. The thesis argued that simple observation revealed very little information relating to the understanding of the paintings and in-depth study was required to elucidate this.
 The narrative began with an exploration of seventeenth-century nobility with a particular focus on the patron, Sit Robert Montgomerie of Skelmorlie. It then considered the role of architecture and design in Early Modern Scotland with a discussion on domestic architecture and burial aisles. An exploration into the painted ceiling in seventeenth-century Scotland was also included as was a consideration of the role of the artist and patron. A focus on the sources available to artists in Scotland during the Early Modern period, followed with a particular investigation into those used within the ceiling iconography of Skelmorlie Aisle. Whether it was intended that the ceiling iconography was to be read in a specific order was also included. These initial stages provided a platform from which an in-depth analysis of the iconography within the paintings, could be undertaken. The methodology applied here was that composed by German born art historian Erwin Panofsky. Panofsky argued that identifying objects, shapes and forms did not convey why certain components were chosen or what they meant. The first step was to ascertain the genesis of the sources, as this provided a greater understanding of the narrative and why they were chosen by Montgomerie. The research revealed that, with the exception of generic designs of floral patterns and scrollwork, the iconography within the paintings was not chosen at random; each component was selected for a very specific reason. When all of the factors were considered and the iconography analysed in depth, the full narrative became exposed.


Abstract: SUMMARY: Qualitative basinal models presented previously (Allen 1975, 1976) are developed. Outwash plain models for Weald-Wessex depict the freshwater arenaceous formations as low-angle watery coalescent fans (`fan-deltas' auctt.), 'moving lakes', flood-basins, static lakes, interfan depressions, etc. Five major rivers dominate, spreading out from fault-scarps on the basin margins. There are also minor streams, extra-basinal and intra-basinal in origin. During wet periods vigorous floods mobilize large areas of fine sand, silt and clay; during dry spells there are still large expanses of water around, especially in the distal facies, acting as floral and fauna1 refuges. Pedogenic processes frequently extend to the distal silts and clays. Gravel is scarce, especially in the Weald sub-basin, even at the fan-apexes, and suspension load is abundant. The component fans are therefore atypical and the model has resemblances to sand- and mud-dominated proglacial outwash plains, with ingredients from arid and sheetflood plains. Lake-lagoon-bay-estuary models describe the argillaceous formations. Shallow-water environments transgress the alluvial plains and salinities rise locally, but plant colonization and exposure of most lithofacies remain common. Floods sweep the basin from the same directions as before, but less frequently. They account for most of the shoreline aggradation in the lakes and lagoons. Therefore beach deposits are hardly differentiated except where wave erosion in the larger bodies attacks the higher parts of the fans. To what extent the Weald-Wessex models are applicable to the Western Approaches and Celtic Sea basins is uncertain. In the provincial model for S England the basin is bordered by tectonically active source-massifs and featured internally by horst and step-fault swells. Marginal upfaulting and high relief on the massifs generate the outwash plains; down-faulting and low relief generate the lake-lagoon-bay environments. Outcrops on the massifs are predominantly of sedimentary rocks underlying deep soils or exposed in deeply cut river courses. 'Londinia' exposes mostly Old Red Sandstone, Lower Carboniferous and Upper Jurassic; Cornubia-New Red Sandstone and Upper Jurassic; Armorica-Precambrian, New Red Sandstone and Jurassic (with Middle Jurassic igneous rocks or pyroclastics); Hibernia-Lower and Upper Palaeozoic. Contemporary volcanicity and associated mineralization affect Cornubia and probably the W Channel basin. The climate is warm, with periodic heavy rains producing leached upland soils supporting forests frequently swept by fires. Soft and intensely weathered rocks on the massifs account for the scarcity of gravel in the Wealden outwash. Widespread removal of Portlandian and Kimmeridgian enhances the sand and mud contents respectively; and, broadly, in that order. Salinities in the S England basin are controlled by the effectiveness of coastal protection against advances by the Boreal sea into the Londinia-Cornubia gap. During arenaceous phases (low salinities) the alluvial plain is well protected, aided by high inputs of freshwater from the elevated massifs. During muddy lake-lagoon-bay phases (higher salinities) the coastal 'barrier' leaks, or sometimes breaks, aggravated by reduced freshwater input from the sunken massifs. Common tectonic control of coastal barriers and massif relief is indicated. The final phase (Hauterivian-Barremian clays) records more serious breaches than any before. Sandy shoals of mixed marine and alluvial compositions invade the muddy sub-basins, tidal influences appear, and salinities locally rise higher than at any time since the start of the Cretaceous. Tectonic subsidence on this occasion was possibly aided by rising sealevel. The regional model for the S British Isles area comprises a framework of active massifs loosely linked by coastal deposits similarly protecting the intervening basins against the Boreal and Tethys seas. Three out of nine possible palaeogeographies are illustrated. In the first, Cornubia, Armorica and Hibernia join at the present continental shelf edge to form a massif bordering Tethys and from which the drainage in all three basins runs NE to the Boreal sea. The second depicts the Celtic and Approaches basins as draining SW into Tethys; S England drains to the Boreal sea as before. In the third, the three basins are silted-up gulfs formerly connecting the Tethys and Boreal seas. Each model is initiated by early Cretaceous elevation of the Jurassic seafloor and degraded massifs. Highest in the W, it presages the revival of true ocean spreading in the N arm of Tethys. Collapse by rifting, listric faulting, etc. near the present continental margin then ends the Wealden regime. This is thought to have begun earlier than sometimes proposed, viz. during the Hauterivian, when subsidence of the western massifs cut off the supply of bedload to wide areas, and the N and S seas both made notable advances. Control of Wealden sedimentation is therefore ultimately plate-tectonic. But, `Having burned my fingers so consumedly with the Wealden, I am fearful for you...' (Darwin, writing to Lyell on 25 November, 1860).


In the present hydrocarbon economy, energy is primarily derived from fossil fuels,
like Coal, Oil and Gas. The petroleum oil obtained from mother earth is further,
refined into gasoline, diesel, and natural gas. However, the burning of these
hydrocarbon fuels causes the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
Hydrogen the lightest of all gases and the most abundant element in the universe, is
being considered for use as an energy carrier (for storing and transporting energy)
for future generations. Emphasis on mitigating global climate change and reducing
pollution, strengthens the case of hydrogen over other fuels. The environmentally
benign nature of hydrogen coupled with the finite supply of fossil fuels supports the
hydrogen economy.
A possible transition to the full hydrogen economy is envisaged which will take place
through several phases. The current work is concerned with the transitional phase
and involves an investigation into the possibility of using the existing natural gas
infrastructure for transporting hydrogen as a natural gas-hydrogen mixture. Likely
impacts on the natural gas infrastructure as a consequence of the introduction of
hydrogen are being studied as part of a European Union funded research project
called Naturalhy. The work that is the subject of this thesis forms part of the safety
work package of the Naturalhy project. In turn the part of the safety work package
with which the work of this thesis is concerned is the changes that handling a mixture
of natural gas and hydrogen rather than natural gas will have on the risk that will be
posed to the general public. In particular, it is concerned with the changes that might
result to such parameters as the ease with which mixtures of hydrogen and natural
gas might be ignited compared with natural gas and hence the change to the
frequency with which such events as explosions within domestic properties might
increase.
The work commenced with a review of the literature on the subjects of failure
probability and ignition probability associated with natural gas infrastructure. The
analysis and the outcome of this literature review suggested that the most sensitive
area affected by the addition of hydrogen is accidental gas releases into confined
enclosures such as domestic property. The presence of hydrogen is likely to
increase the probability of fire and/or explosion due to the characteristic properties of
hydrogen (wide flammability range, lower minimum ignition energy etc.).
The ignition characteristics for the gases (methane, hydrogen and methane-hydrogen
mixtures) was studied using an experimental rig based on the principle of capacitive
spark discharge. Consequently, the data obtained through experiments was used to
calculate the Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE) of a particular gas and the Lowest
Ignition Energy at various flammable gas concentrations for a particular gas. The
results and observations were further analysed to provide information on the ignition
probability associated with various ignition energy values for all the gases. The
results for MIE are compared with the available data in the literature for methane and
hydrogen gas.
Generalised correlations for predicting the ignition energy for pure gases and for two
component (methane-hydrogen) gas mixtures were developed. Methane gas release
incidents are compared with hydrogen to estimate increases in the probability of fire
and/or explosion incidents using a few deterministic release rates for the two gases.


Sport psychology professionals have increasingly utilized technology for providing performance enhancement and clinical services. Some uncertainty exists amongst professionals to the ethical nature of providing services using technology. The purpose of this study was to survey Certified Consultants of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) on the frequency and perceived ethicality of their technology use for providing performance enhancement and clinical services. A secondary purpose was to investigate differences in perceived ethicality between consultants with professional licensure compared to unlicensed professionals. Results suggest overall technology use for service delivery by consultants is low. Technologies used to provide clinical services displayed significantly lower ethical ratings compared to their use for performance enhancement purposes. Differences between licensed consultants and those who are unlicensed emerged for the ethical perceptions of providing performance enhancemen...


Tight junctions are more flexible than researchers realized, as Shen et al. show. The team discovered that proteins are constantly entering and leaving these connections between epithelial cells. The continual remodeling might allow organisms to adjust the permeability of cell layers.

Figure 1

Occludin (red) and Claudin-1 (green) overlap at the tight junctions (yellow).

In locations such as the skin and the lining of the intestines, epithelial cells snuggle up to each other to form tight junctions. More than 30 proteins cluster at tight junctions, including ZO-1, which settles on the inner surface of the cell membrane and links the junction to the cytoskeleton. Two other tight junction proteins, occludin and claudin-1, crisscross the membrane. The standard view of tight junctions was that they are static, with the proteins pretty much locked in place.

The researchers had previously observed a subtle flow of tagged occludin molecules in tight junctions, suggesting that proteins enter and leave the junctions or that the entire structure changes position.

To distinguish between these possibilities, Shen et al. used fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and a related technique, fluorescence loss in photobleaching, to track ZO-1, occludin, and claudin-1. ZO-1, they found, was a restless protein that continually cycled between tight junctions and the cytoplasm. Occludin was also a traveler, but it got around through a different mechanism. The protein moved within the junction, the team discovered. It could also enter and leave the junction while remaining within the membrane. Claudin-1, by contrast, was the homebody of the trio, largely staying put.

The work indicates that cells are constantly tinkering with the tight junctions, removing and adding proteins. The researchers speculate that the body alters the lineup of proteins in the junctions to control how much can pass through epithelial layers. For example, after a meal the intestine might loosen the junctions to allow absorption of more nutrients.

Shen, L., et al. 2008. J. Cell Biol. doi:.10.1083/jcb.200711165 [PubMed] [Cross Ref]


Electrodeposition on Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) steps has been proven to be an easy method for the preparation of metal (Pd, Cu, Ag etc) and metal oxide or sulfide (MoO2, MnO2, MoS2) nanowires in recent years. These wires can be transferred on to other insulating substrates like polymers (eg, PDMS) and epoxy or cyano acrylate glues, to be used as sensors, for example palladium for the detection of hydrogen. The main problem during their conductivity measurements is to make macroscopic contacts to these wires. Normally, silver paints are used to form contact between transferred wires, which however provides only poor control of size and reproducibility. In order to improve this, we attempt to connect the wires, by evaporating micro pads of 200-300 nm thick film of Al and 200- 400 nm thick Au through a nano stencil. The stencil used in these experiments is made of a 200 nm SiN membrane with apertures ranging from 250 nm to hundreds of micrometers. We studied several implementations of the micro-nano fabrication techniques such as follows: The structures were deposited on bare HOPG surface (before nanowire formation), HOPG surface after nano wire formation, and on glass wafer spin coated with PDMS. We also evaporated metal contacts over nanowires, which were transferred from HOPG to PDMS coated glass. Wires used in these experiments have average diameters of 50-60 nm. The distance between the sample and stencil plays a key role in the sharpness of the structures formed by shadow evaporation. The current limitation during the deposition of micro pads through stencil is the spreading of metal at the sides of the structures. This was most pronounced on graphite surface after nanowire formation and on PDMS surface with wires. This may be because after deposition of wires, the surface becomes rougher and is no more flat as bare HOPG or spin coated PDMS, so that this prevents close enough contact between substrate and stencil. The distance between sample and the stencil is kept as small as possible- in the micrometer range- to avoid spreading of the deposited structures. When stencil evaporation of 200 nm thick Au was done over wires transferred to PDMS, cracks in the gold film were observed on the polymer. This could be a result of the expansion and further contraction of PDMS during thermal evaporation and/or mechanical manipulation. In the presentation, we will show details of microelectrode formation on HOPG using the nanostencil and nanowire formation by electrochemical method.


Today, Enterprises act in an increasingly interconnected world and in different kinds of collaborative networks. They are part of business ecosystems in which they interact with their customers, partners and competitors. The processes of analyzing and planning the intertwinement of business and IT architecture within enterprises has been successfully supported by enterprise architecture management (EAM) approaches. In this paper, we analyze four cases from different industries (health care, logistics, retail, and education) and argue that the intra-organizational concepts of enterprise architectures (EA) and EAM need to be extended to grasp the challenges of the enterprises' interconnectedness. Beyond the known concepts of extended enterprise architecture and federated architectures, we define five stages of extended architectures. Additionally, we describe challenges and existing solutions, which are relevant for this extended perspective.


"We consider whether conspiring to make the government's job harder is, without more, a federal crime." United States v. Caldwell, 989 F.2d 1056, 1058 (9th Cir. 1993) (Kozinski, J.) This article addresses the question of "whether acting or conspiring with others to make the Internal Revenue Service's ("IRS") job harder is, without more, a federal crime." The issue is occasioned, as it was in Caldwell, by broad judicial statements and government claims as to the scope of the tax obstruction crimes. If read literally, these variously worded interpretations would criminalize otherwise legal actions involving no deceit but with an intent to make the government's job harder. Judge Kozinski, for the Ninth Circuit, answered no to the question in the context of a tax defraud conspiracy. As interpreted, the defraud conspiracy is one of a panoply of federal obstruction crimes. This Article focuses on the obstruction crimes that are likely to be encountered in a tax setting. Many of the lessons to be learned in the tax obstruction area are useful in other obstruction contexts as well as in the general area of so-called white collar crime. Taxpayers and tax practitioners often structure transactions and take return reporting positions with the intent to avoid an IRS audit, a practice sometimes called "audit avoidance." When doing so, most taxpayers and practitioners do not intentionally underreport or underpay tax liabilities, falsify the reporting on tax returns they sign or prepare or otherwise engage in conduct that is false or dishonest. These taxpayers and tax practitioners prefer to avoid waving the red flag in front of the IRS bull. They know that an IRS audit involves significant costs, disruption and angst, even if the IRS accepts the taxpayer's positions or, worse, if the IRS decides to fight and the taxpayer prevails after litigation. The government sometimes asserts that otherwise legal conduct with the intent to impair, impede or influence an audit – audit avoidance – may be a criminal obstructive act. Where individual or multiple actors are involved in tax setting, the government may use the Omnibus Clause of the tax obstruction statute. Where two or more actors are involved, the government may assert the "defraud conspiracy," which in a tax context is called a Klein conspiracy. The notion in each case is that otherwise legal acts with a motive to impair, impede, or influence an IRS audit are criminalized. As thus articulated, the notion fails to recognize that some activity covered within that broad statement is not criminal. Judge Kozinski forcefully held that the notion is too broad, rejecting the government's claim that "conspiring to make the government's job harder is, without more, a federal crime." The government continues to repackage the notion, hoping it will find traction in some court somewhere. In the meantime, by continuing to make the claim through indictments by grand juries it controls, the government has a powerful in terrorem tool to influence the behavior of taxpayer and tax practitioner communities. The question in this Article, as in Caldwell, is whether the government's claim of criminality for making the IRS's job more difficult, without more, is wrong. I conclude that it is. Judge Kozinski's question is the right question for the tax obstruction crimes, including the Klein conspiracy he addressed in Caldwell, and his answer is correct for the tax obstruction crimes.


ABSTRACT Agricultural and agro-industrial lignocellulosic residues represent an important renewable resource for the production of fuels and chemicals towards a bio-based economy. Olive pruning, vineyard pruning and almond shells are important residues from agricultural activities in Mediterranean-type ecosystems. In the current work, bioethanol production from the above three types of agro-residues was studied, focusing on the effect of different pretreatment methods on enzymatic saccharrification efficiency of cellulose and production of second-generation bioethanol. Dilute acid, hydrothermal and steam explosion pretreatments were compared in order to remove hemicellulose and facilitate the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of the hemicellulose-deficient biomass to glucose. Enzymatic hydrolysis was performed in a free-fall mixing reactor enabling high solids loading of 23% w/w. This allowed hydrolysis of up to 67% of available cellulose in almond shells and close to 50% in olive pruning samples, and facilitated high ethanol production in the subsequent fermentation step; the highest ethanol concentrations achieved were 47.8 g/L for almond shells after steam explosion and 42 g/L for hydrothermally pretreated olive pruning residue.


This paper demonstrates that the link between heterogeneity in longevity and lifetime income across countries is mostly high and often increasing; that it translates into an implicit tax/subsidy, with rates reaching 20 percent and higher in some countries; that such rates risk perverting redistributive objectives of pension schemes and distorting individual lifecycle labor supply and savings decisions; and that this in turn risks invalidating current reform approaches of a closer contribution-benefit link and life expectancy-indexed retirement age. All of this calls for mechanisms that neutralize or at least significantly reduce the effects of heterogeneity in longevity through changes in pension design. The paper suggests and explores a number of interventions in the accumulation, benefit determination, and disbursement stages. Among the explored approaches, a two-tier contribution structure seems promising, as a moderate social contribution rate that is already proportionally allocated to the average contribution base is able to broadly compensate for empirically established heterogeneity in the life expectancy/lifetime income relationship.


Holmes' tremor is an unusual combination of rest, postural and kinetic tremor of the extremities. Medical treatment of this condition still remains unsatisfactory. The case of a 20-year-old female patient is reported who developed right-sided Holmes' tremor 9 months after a left-sided, cavernoma induced midbrain/pontine haemorrhage at the age of 16 years. Beta-CIT single photon emission computed tomography revealed abolished dopamine transporter activity in the left basal ganglia and striatum, in accordance with missing ipsilateral tegmento-frontal connectivity (medial forebrain bundle), demonstrated by diffusion tensor MRI. Tractography showed reduced fibre connectivity of the superior and middle cerebellar peduncles on the lesioned side. Administration of pramipexole and L-DOPA led to a clinically significant reduction in tremor severity. In conclusion, our results support the notion that Holmes' tremor was a result of diminished striatal dopaminergic input in our patient.


SUMMARY Detailed palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic studies of a 15 m succession of MiddlelLate Pleistocene lacustrine sediments from ancient Lake Chewaucan, southern Oregon, western United States, indicate that the remanence-bearing grains are sufficiently uniform to be applicable to relative palaeointensity studies. We have used ARM, SIRM and x for normalization of the NRM. All three parameters give essentially identical results in their relative stratigraphic variations, which indicates that the normalizations efficiently remove the effects of variation in magnetic mineral concentration. Patterns in grain-size variation, as indicated by small-scale quasi-cyclic fluctuations in hysteresis parameters, may be due to environmental changes such as lake-level variation. However, these fluctuations are within the acceptable range of grain sizes for palaeointensity studies and cannot be correlated with any of the features of the normalized remanence record. We therefore conclude that the large-scale variations in the normalized remanence record are due to geomagnetic palaeointensity fluctuations. Parts of the normalized remanence record, where firm chronological constraints exist, may correlate with features of relative palaeointensity records from deep-sea sediments. Our results also confirm the observation that low geomagnetic field intensities dominate during geomagnetic excursions. Further studies of relative palaeointensity of the geomagnetic field may enable the development of an independent time-scale which would make possible the direct correlation of palaeoclimate records from deep-sea and continental environments.


Deploying a robot as part of a counter-weapons of mass destruction mission demands that the robotic software operates with high assurance. A unique feature of robotic software development is the need to perform predictably in a physical environment that may only be poorly characterized in advance. In this paper, we present an approach to building high assurance software for robot missions carried out in uncertain environments. The software development framework and the verification algorithm, VIPARS, are described in detail. Results are presented for missions including motion and sensing uncertainty, interaction with obstacles, and the use of sensors to guide behavior. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Georgia Institute of Technology.


In the expatriate management literature, studies have rarely moved beyond examining maladjustment as a primary reason for expatriate failure. This thesis proposes that an expatriate's idiosyncratic and subjective belief of the employer's failure to fulfill one or more of its perceived obligations, referred to as psychological contract breach (PCB), has significant bearing on expatriate failure. Although there is a plethora of studies on the attitudinal and behavioural aftermath of an employee's perception of PCB, there are a number of shortcomings in this body of research and limited knowledge of how expatriate employees, in particular, respond to a perception of PCB. As such, this thesis set out with the aim of exploring the underlying theoretical process through which perceived PCB affects expatriates' job performance and turnover intentions, which are the key constituents of expatriate failure examined in this study. The goal was to develop and empirically examine a model that clarifies the process of the effects of expatriate-perceived PCB. To achieve this goal, a mixed methods research was undertaken, with two studies carried out sequentially to investigate the proposed conceptual model and research hypotheses. The initial qualitative study explored the experiences of and varying reactions to PCB through semi-structured interviews with 18 expatriate employees based in Malaysia. The data revealed many of the hypothesised reactions captured in the conceptual model as well as new ones that had not been previously anticipated, such as the sensemaking cue of attribution of intentionality and the behavioural outcomes of professional performance and counterproductive work behaviour. Furthermore, the data provided interesting insights regarding expatriates' tendency to withdraw professional performance and engage in counterproductive work behaviour, rather than neglect task performance, in response to PCB. Different work motivations – intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and external regulation – emerged from the data as protective buffers of task performance against PCB. The subsequent quantitative study used the information from the qualitative inquiry to revise the conceptual model, which was then tested in a cross-sectional survey of 253 expatriates in Asia. While conventional understanding is that PCB is typically reciprocated negatively by employees, the current research showed that PCB and ensuing feelings of psychological contract violation were both positively and negatively related to expatriates' work engagement, task performance, professional performance, counterproductive work behaviour, and turnover intention. The direction of these relationships largely depended on expatriates' perceptions of PCB as uncommon versus the norm. Positive conative and behavioural consequences existed when PCB was strongly perceived as common, typical, or expected. Negative conative and behavioural outcomes ensued when PCB was believed to uncommon, unexpected, or surprising. These findings imply that PCB may not always result in detrimental expatriate behaviour, in contrast to what has been suggested in the extant PCB literature on employees working on home soil. Together, contextual factors in sensemaking, especially 'the perceived norm of breach', and motivational states play a critical role in shaping positive or negative expatriate behaviour, following PCB. The contributions to research and implications for practice are discussed against the backdrop of the study's limitations.


This paper outlines the pilot of a restricted provisional P1 driver licence which commenced in three remote areas of NSW in July 2013. The restricted P1 provisional licence aims to facilitate access to services for young people in the selected pilot areas. The pilot is limited to three communities west of the Newell Highway, in remote areas of NSW, because it has been identified that alternative transport options and young driver support services may be limited in these areas, and access to opportunities may be dependent upon driver licensing. The pilot will run for 24 months. Within the pilot, a restricted P1 provisional licence is available to learner drivers under 25 years of age that reside in pilot areas. The licence enables pilot participants to drive only for the purposes of work, education or medical appointments n restrictions which apply for the first six months of the provisional (P1) licence period. In NSW, learner drivers are required to complete 120 hours of supervised driving before applying for a provisional driver licence. The restricted P1 provisional licence is available to learner drivers who have completed 50 hours of supervised driving (including 10 hours of night time driving) and pass the driving test. Those applying for a restricted P1 provisional licence still need to complete 12 months on a learner licence. After successfully completing six months of driving with a restricted P1 provisional licence, participants will graduate to a provisional licence and no longer be restricted to driving only for the purposes of work, education or medical appointments.


Background Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia owing to defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The exact pathogenesis of β-cell failure in type 2 DM is still unclear. However, autophagy and oxidative stress have emerged presently as major contributing factors in the development of type 2 diabetes and β-cell failure. Aim The aim is to assess the levels of beclin-1 (autophagy regulator) and some oxidative stress markers in animal models of high-fat diet-streptozotocin-induced diabetes and to study the effect of 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PBA) on them. Materials and methods The study was conducted on 60 male albino rats that were divided randomly into three equal groups: group I (control group), group II (diabetic group), and group III (diabetic rats treated with 4-PBA). Pancreatic tissue levels of beclin-1 were measured by enzyme-linked immuosorbent assay, whereas pancreatic tissue levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and plasma levels of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs) and glucose were measured spectrophotometrically. Results The levels of beclin-1, AOPPs, and glucose were significantly increased in diabetic group compared with control group, whereas the levels of GSH were significantly decreased. Moreover, 4-PBA significantly decreased the levels of beclin-1, AOPPs, and glucose, whereas it increased GSH levels. Conclusion Autophagy and oxidative stress are involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 DM. Moreover, 4-PBA (a chemical chaperone) attenuated autophagy and exhibited antioxidative stress effects in rats with high-fat diet-streptozotocin-induced diabetes.


Smoking, alcohol abuse and use of illicit drugs are known to be leading causes of premature and preventable deaths worldwide. Heart disease, various cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, periodontal disease, asthma and other diseases have been frequently associated with smoking. Likewise alcohol abuse can lead to insomnia, memory problems, increased injury, liver disease, depression, hypertension, stroke and coronary heart disease. Illicit drug use can lead to twitching, sleep disturbance, over or under eating, depression, anxiety and paranoia and social withdrawal. Despite the substantive evidence for the impact that these substances have on the individual's health, their families, communities and health services there is limited evidence of the effect in people with intellectual disabilities. Within this chapter we examine health promotion with regards to smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use. There is growing concern about the number of people with intellectual disabilities having access to such substances and the impact that these have upon their health as more people are supported to live in the community. This chapter identifies the risk factors for using such substances and examines the health promotion strategies that can be used to prevent people with intellectual disabilities from smoking, abusing alcohol and using illicit drugs.


The triumph of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy at the 2015 election was supposed to mark the consolidation of a reformist trajectory for Myanmar society. What has followed has not proved so straightforward. This book takes stock of the mutations, continuities and fractures at the heart of today's political and economic transformations. We ask: What has changed under a democratically elected government? Where are the obstacles to reform? And is there scope to foster a more prosperous and inclusive Myanmar? With the peace process faltering, over 1 million people displaced by recent violence, and ongoing army dominance in key areas of decision-making, the chapters in this volume identify areas of possible reform within the constraints of Myanmar's hybrid civil–military governance arrangements. This latest volume in the Myanmar Update Series from the Australian National University continues a long tradition of intense, critical engagement with political, economic and social questions in one of Southeast Asia's most complicated countries. At a time of great uncertainty and anxiety, the 13 chapters of Myanmar Transformed? offer new and alternative ways to understand Myanmar and its people.


With the rapid increase in the complexity of chips and the popularity of portable devices, the performance demand is not any more the only important constraint in the embedded system. In stead, energy consumption has become one of the main design issues for contemporary embedded systems, especially for I/O interface due to the high capacitance of bus transition. In this paper, we propose a bus encoding scheme, which may reduce transitions by reconstructing active address streams with variable cached strides. The key idea is to obtain the variable strides for dierent sets of active addressing streams such that the decoder reconstructs these interlaced streams with these strides. Instead of sending the full address, the encoder may only send partial ad- dress or stride by using either one-hot or binary-inversion encoding. To exploit the locality and dynamically adjust the value of stride of active address streams, we partially compare the previous addresses of existing streams with the current address. Hence, the data transmitted on the bus can be minimally encoded. Experiments with several MediaBench benchmarks show that the scheme can achieve an average of 60% reduction in bus switching activity.


The chapter considers the global impacts of digital communication technologiesand how they can influence media pluralism and media freedom as wellas the ways in which legal systems aim to support and protect them. Electroniccommunication and technical developments have in fact contributed to enormouschanges in daily life. They have also promoted important economic,social and cultural transformations. The new digital environment has becomean essential space used for various purposes not strictly informational. In addition,digital communication technologies are regarded as necessary instrumentsfor having full enjoyment of a series of rights, including the right toaccess knowledge and information, the right to communicate, the right to cultureand the right to participate in society. This new situation also implies thatall people should have access to these technological innovations at affordableconditions, and that any restrictions should be strictly limited and proportionate.As online networks are considered a particularly well-designed space forpluralism and cultural diversity, their freedom and openness should be protectedand enhanced. In particular, the principle of an open and unrestrictedInternet – as it was originally conceived – should be considered an essentialprecondition for any regulatory measure taken with regard to it.


This paper analyzes awards as a means of motivation prevalent in the scientific community, but so far neglected in the economic literature on incentives, and discusses their relationship to monetary compensation. Awards are better suited than performance pay to reward scientific tasks, which are typically of a vague nature. They derive their value, for instance, from signaling research talent to outsiders. Awards should therefore be taken seriously as a means of motivating research that may complement, or even substitute for, monetary incentives. While we discuss awards in the context of academia, our conclusions apply to other principalagent settings as well. JEL Code: C93, J33, M52.


The paper is concerned with a methodology of optimal design of shells of minimum weight with strength, stability and strain constraints. Stress and strain state of the shell is determined by Galerkin method in the mixed finite element formulation within the geometrically nonlinear theory. The analysis of the effectiveness of different optimization algorithms to solve the set problem is given. The results of solving test problems are presented.


Low bone mineral density (BMD) is frequent in HIV infection regardless of the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Uncertainties remain, however, as to when in HIV infection BMD screening should be performed. We designed a prospective study to estimate the efficacy of universal BMD screening by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Since April 2009 through March 2011, HIV patients attending our Center were offered femoral/lumbar DXA to screen BMD. Low BMD for chronological age, that is significant osteopenia, was defined as a Z-score ≤ -2.0 at femur and lumbar spine. Nontraumatic bone fractures (NTBFs) were evaluated. The final sample included 163 patients. A Z-score ≤ -2.0 at any site was observed in 19.6% of cases: among these, 18.8% had no indication to DXA using current Italian HIV guidelines for BMD screening. A lower femoral Z-score was independently associated with lower BMI, AIDS diagnosis, HCV co-infection, antiretroviral treatment, and NTBFs; a lower lumbar Z-score with age, BMI, Nadir CD4 T-cell counts, and NTBFs. Prevalence of NTBFs was 27.0%, predictors being male gender, HCV co-infection, and lower femoral Z-scores. Our results suggest that measuring BMD by DXA in all HIV patients regardless of any further specification may help retrieving one-fifth of patients with early BMD disorders not identified using current criteria for selective screening of BMD.


Drawing on the insights of psychoanalysis and deconstruction, this article argues that the fixation of some scholars on the status, size, and identity of rhetorical studies is symptomatic of an apocalyptic perversion. An attention to the apocalyptic tone of recent discussions about "Big Rhetoric" in conference papers and journal articles bespeaks a characteristically phallogocentric ideology of discrimination between insiders and outsiders. An examination of the ubiquity and character of this tone, I suggest, forever precludes a united rhetorical studies for two reasons: (1) we enjoy our apocalyptic too much; and (2) apocalyptic is central to the identity of rhetorical studies because it is central to disciplinarity as such. Insofar as the urgency of the apocalyptic tone is sometimes a pragmatic and political necessity, an argument is made in favor of a more playful, polytonal apocalypticism that can help us better reckon with—and sometimes avoid—rhetoric that excludes.


Ascorbic acid (AA), with its reducing and chelating properties, is the most efficient enhancer of non-heme iron absorption when its stability in the food vehicle is ensured. The number of studies investigating the effect of AA on ferrous sulfate absorption far outweighs that of other iron fortificants. The promotion of iron absorption in the presence of AA is more pronounced in meals containing inhibitors of iron absorption. Meals containing low to medium levels of inhibitors require the addition of AA at a molar ratio of 2:1 (e.g., 20 mg AA: 3 mg iron). To promote absorption in the presence of high levels of inhibitors, AA needs to be added at a molar ratio in excess of 4:1, which may be impractical. The effectiveness of AA in promoting absorption from less soluble compounds, such as ferrous fumarate and elemental iron, requires further investigation. The instability of AA during food processing, storage, and cooking, and the possibility of unwanted sensory changes limits the number of suitable food vehicles for AA, whether used as vitamin fortificant or as an iron enhancer. Suitable vehicles include dry-blended foods, such as complementary, precooked cereal-based infant foods, powdered milk, and other dry beverage products made for reconstitution that are packaged, stored, and prepared in a way that maximizes retention of this vitamin. The consumption of natural sources of Vitamin C (fruits and vegetables) with iron-fortified dry blended foods is also recommended. Encapsulation can mitigate some of the AA losses during processing and storage, but these interventions will also add cost. In addition, the bioavailability of encapsulated iron in the presence/absence of AA will need careful assessment in human clinical trials. The long-term effect of high AA intake on iron status may be less than predicted from single meal studies. The hypothesis that an overall increase of dietary AA intake, or fortification of some foods commonly consumed with the main meal with AA alone, may be as effective as the fortification of the same food vehicle with AA and iron, merits further investigation. This must involve the consideration of practicalities of implementation. To date, programs based on iron and AA fortification of infant formulas and cow's milk provide the strongest evidence for the efficacy of AA fortification. Present results suggest that the effect of organic acids, as measured by in vitro and in vivo methods, is dependent on the source of iron, the type and concentration of organic acid, pH, processing methods, and the food matrix. The iron absorption-enhancing effect of AA is more potent than that of other organic acids due to its ability to reduce ferric to ferrous iron. Based on the limited data available, other organic acids may only be effective at ratios of acid to iron in excess of 100 molar. This would translate into the minimum presence/addition of 1 g citric acid to a meal containing 3 mg iron. Further characterization of the effectiveness of various organic acids in promoting iron absorption is required, in particular with respect to the optimal molar ratio of organic acid to iron, and associated feasibility for food application purposes. The suggested amount of any organic acid required to produce a nutritional benefit will result in unwanted organoleptic changes in most foods, thus limiting its application to a small number of food vehicles (e.g., condiments, beverages). However, fermented foods that already contain high levels of organic acid may be suitable iron fortification vehicles.


In this paper, we investigate the polarization effect of the amplitude phase shift keying (APSK) constellations. We find that the polarization effect of the APSK constellations is affected by the bit mapping and the bit loading. Traditionally, the Gray mapping is usually adopted in APSK constellations. Based on the given Gray mapping, we firstly propose the bit interleaved coded modulation polar-APSK (BICM-PA) scheme, which neglects the correlations between the bit levels by using the bit interleaver. In the BICM-PA scheme, a new metric called cumulative Bhattacharyya parameter is introduced to optimize the bit loading of the APSK constellations under the Gray mapping. Second, the multilevel coded modulation polar-APSK (MLCM-PA) is proposed to further improve the performance. A two-stage optimization approach is adopted to select the bit mapping and the bit loading in the MLCM-PA scheme. The semi-set partitioning mapping is introduced to achieve a better system performance in the MLCM-PA scheme. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of all the proposed metrics. In addition to this, BICM-PA and MLCM-PA both outperform the coded modulation Turbo-APSK scheme up to 1dB.


Written in an accessible style, Henry's work places Texas architecture in the wider context of American architectural history by tracing the development of building in the state from late Victorian styles, and the rise of neoclassicism, to the advent of the International Style.... His work provides a welter of new facts, both about the era's buildings and the architects who designed them, and he has catalogued and described most of the important landmarks of the period. -- Southwestern Historical Quarterly ., .a significant contribution to the study of Texas architecture.... -- Drury Blakeley Alexander, author of Texas Homes of the Nineteenth Century Texas architecture of the twentieth century encompasses a wide range of building styles, from an internationally inspired modernism to the Spanish Colonial Revival that recalls Texas' earliest European heritage. This book is the first comprehensive survey of Texas architecture of the first half of the twentieth century. More than just a catalog of buildings and styles, the book is a social history of Texas architecture. Jay C. Henry discusses and illustrates buildings from around the state, drawing a majority of his examples from the ten to twelve largest cities and from the work of major architects and firms, including C. H. Page and Brother, Trost and Trost, Lang and Witchell, Sanguinet and Staats, Atlee B. and Robert M. Ayres, David Williams, and O'Neil Ford. The majority of buildings he considers are public ones, but a separate chapter traces the evolution of private housing from late-Victorian styles through the regional and international modernism of the 1930s. Nearly 400 black-and-white photographs complement thetext. Written to be accessible to general readers interested in architecture, as well as to architectural professionals, this work shows how Texas both participated in and differed from prevailing American architectural traditions.


Abstract We developed an automated digital gamma-imaging system for nondestructive testing of welded structures in steel pipes. The imaging system consists of a 750-μm-thick CdTe (cadmium telluride) photoconductor coupled to a commercially available complementary metal-oxide semiconductor readout array having a 100 μm × 100 μm pixel size and a 5.4 mm × 151.0 mm active area, a collimated 75Se (selenium) gamma source having an activity of ~78.7 Ci and a physical dimension of 3.0 mm in diameter and 3.0 mm in height, and a beam limiter 1.0 mm in width and 2.6 mm in height to restrict field size. All the components were assembled with a track-typed trailer mounted around a steel pipe and moved by using a microstepping motor at a fixed speed of 5.0 mm/s. We obtained useful gamma images of some test specimens such as a duplex wire phantom and American Society for Testing and Materials batches from the imaging system and evaluated the image quality in terms of the modulation transfer function, the noise power spectrum, and the detective quantum efficiency.


With automated driving systems, drivers may still be expected to resume full control of the vehicle. While structured transitions where drivers are given warning are desirable, it is critical to benchmark how drivers perform when transition of control is unstructured and occurs without advanced warning. In this study, we observed how participants (N=27) in a driving simulator performed after they were subjected to an emergency loss of automation. We tested three transition time conditions, with an unstructured transition of vehicle control occurring 2 seconds, 5 seconds, or 8 seconds before the participants encountered a road hazard that required the drivers' intervention. Few drivers in the 2 second condition were able to safely negotiate the road hazard situation, while the majority of drivers in 5 or 8 second conditions were able to navigate the hazard safely. Similarly, drivers in 2 second condition rated the vehicle to be less likeable than drivers in 5 and 8 second conditions. From the study results, we are able to narrow in on a minimum amount of time in which drivers can take over the control of vehicle safely and comfortably from the automated system in the advent of an impending road hazard.


My dissertation, "Personal Finance: Economic Citizenship and Financial Form in the Contemporary Novel" theorises the novel's engagement with the post-1970s financialisation of the economy from the ground up. Contrary to the dominant perception of finance as a turn away from the solidity of industry and production in favour of a realm of hyperbolic abstraction, finance capital emerges in this project as a thickly material concern. My writing follows the money, tracking the way that finance is routed through social forms: urban planning, philanthrocapitalism, migrant access to citizenship in global cities, and the fleshy finance of corporate nanotechnology. These material forms do not replace the abstract form of finance capital; rather, the two must be theorised together. Nowhere is this articulated more eloquently than in the contemporary novel. As a form that has emerged to mediate the relationship between the individual and the social, investigating the broadest economic shifts with the sensitive instrument of character, the contemporary novel is both an essential archive and a highly ambivalent response to new financial realities. A second and related claim of "Personal Finance" concerns the complexity of theorising a mode of capital that is both deeply national and rapaciously global. Critical work on finance in the humanities slips swiftly from identifying the lived experience of finance in a US context to arguing that this financialised form of citizenship will play out identically across the globe. Countering this claim informs both the archive and the methodology of my project. My dissertation reads a set of contemporary US novels that trace the felt experiences of the global economy within North America alongside a set of contemporary novels from the wider Anglophone world. Building on recent theoretical work in literature and economics and urban studies, the emphasis of "Personal Finance" throughout is to unsettle hegemonic claims about the financial, the global, and the national through the material and affective archive of the contemporary novel. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Comparative Literature and Literary Theory First Advisor James F. English


Unlike previous empirical studies that focus on barriers to entry in international trade, we focus on barriers to exit as measured by passport costs for a cross-section of countries. We test four common theories on the determinants of such exit barriers and find that macroeconomic and brain-drain explanations do explain high barriers to exit. However, institutional and cultural hypotheses do not appear to be empirically robust explanations of such high barriers. Our findings hold when applying instrumental variables, changes in specification, and changes in cross-country periods.