The success of tacit knowledge management lies in firms' capabilities to attract and retain employees possessing unique knowledge. The purpose of the paper is to investigate students' attitudes towards career in tourism in the context of tacit knowledge management. The study was conducted on the group of 345 undergraduates and graduates enrolled in tourism and hospitality studies in Poznan. Research revealed that majority of students plan short-term career in tourism, which entails tacit knowledge leakage outside the tourism industry. It was also found that students' attitudes towards tourism careers are significantly influenced by previous work experience and satisfaction with the studies.


Many African state-owned enterprises (SOEs), particularly those in infrastructure, have a long history of poor performance. From the outset, SOE financial and economic performance generally failed to meet the expectations of their creators and funders. By the late 1970s, the situation was alarming, and by early 1980s, critical. The poor financial performance of SOEs became so burdensome to government budgets that it attracted the attention of the international financial institutions, or IFIs. In response, in the 1980s, the World Bank approved SOE reforms that could be summed up in the term "commercialization". By the mid-1990s, however, the idea of making SOEs function efficiently and effectively under government management was largely abandoned by the IFIs and privatization and private participation in infrastructure, or PPI became the order of the day. Once more, however, the results were disappointing. PPI has not been as widely adopted as anticipated, nor has it generated the massive resources and changes hoped for, nor has it been widely accepted as beneficial by the African public. The findings of recent studies in Africa suggest that PPI should not be jettisoned, and that the more productive path is to recognize the limitations of the approach, and to work harder at creating the conditions needed to make it function effectively. This will entail, as many have recognized, an end to the view that public and private infrastructure provision is a dichotomy – a case of either-or, one or the other – and a better appreciation of the extent to which the performance of each is dependent on the competence of the other. In other words, for the private sector to perform well, public sector capacity must be enhanced. Moreover, proposed tactics of reform should fit more closely with the expectations and sentiments of the affected government, consumer base, and general population. This broader approach implies, probably, a reduction in the scope and, certainly, a reduction in the planned speed of operations. Improving infrastructure performance is a long-term matter.


Recent developments in the neuropsychology of criminal behavior have given rise to concerns that neuroimaging evidence (such as MRI and functional MRI [fMRI] images) could unduly influence jurors. Across four experiments, a nationally representative sample of 1,476 jury-eligible participants evaluated written summaries of criminal cases in which expert testimony was presented in support of a mental disorder as exculpatory. The evidence varied in the extent to which it presented neuroscientific explanations and neuroimages in support of the expert's conclusion. Despite suggestive findings from previous research, we found no evidence that neuroimagery affected jurors' judgments (verdicts, sentence recom-mendations, judgments of the defendant's culpability) over and above verbal neuroscience - based testimony. A meta-analysis of our four experiments confirmed these findings. In addition, we found that neuroscientific evidence was more effective than clinical psycho- logical evidence in persuading jurors that the defendant's disorder reduced his capacity to control his actions, although this effect did not translate into differences in verdicts.


ABSTRACT In most rail vehicle dynamics simulation packages, tangential solution of the wheel–rail contact is gained by means of Kalker's FASTSIM algorithm. While 5–25% error is expected for creep force estimation, the errors of shear stress distribution, needed for wheel–rail damage analysis, may rise above 30% due to the parabolic traction bound. Therefore, a novel algorithm named FaStrip is proposed as an alternative to FASTSIM. It is based on the strip theory which extends the two-dimensional rolling contact solution to three-dimensional contacts. To form FaStrip, the original strip theory is amended to obtain accurate estimations for any contact ellipse size and it is combined by a numerical algorithm to handle spin. The comparison between the two algorithms shows that using FaStrip improves the accuracy of the estimated shear stress distribution and the creep force estimation in all studied cases. In combined lateral creepage and spin cases, for instance, the error in force estimation reduces from 18% to less than 2%. The estimation of the slip velocities in the slip zone, needed for wear analysis, is also studied. Since FaStrip is as fast as FASTSIM, it can be an alternative for tangential solution of the wheel–rail contact in simulation packages.


This research deals with the investigation of the advanced driver assistance systems impact on urban traffic network conditions through the use of a traffic network simulation model. Information obtained through microscopic simulation was used as input to a network traffic simulation and assignment model (SATURN). SATURN was applied to the road network of the greater Athens area in an attempt to investigate the impact of two ADAS systems [variable speed limiter (VSL) and adaptive cruise control (ACC)] for different combinations of flow and market penetration levels. It was observed that the ADA systems' impact increases proportionally with the market penetration of these systems and that as traffic flow level increases, the average speed increase becomes smaller (when all other parameters remain unchanged). Furthermore, it appears that ACC offers better network efficiency results than VSL (up to twice as significant) and the benefits of a combined ACC and VSL system are only marginally better than the ACC system alone. The proposed methodology and the related findings can support system developers and policy makers in the process of further ADAS development and promotion.


During the last decades, reduced basis (RB) methods have been developed to a wide methodology for model reduction of problems that are governed by parametrized partial differential equations (PPDEs). In particular equations of elliptic and parabolic type for linear, low polynomial or monotonic nonlinearities have been treated successfully by RB methods using finite element schemes. Due to the characteristic offline-online decomposition, the reduced models often become suitable for a multi-query or real-time setting, where simulation results, such as field-variables or output estimates, can be approximated reliably and rapidly for varying parameters. In the current study, we address a certain class of time-dependent evolution schemes with explicit discretization operators that are arbitrarily parameter dependent. We extend the RB-methodology to these cases by applying the {\em empirical interpolation} method to localized discretization operators. The main technical ingredients are: (i) generation of a collateral reduced basis modelling the effects of the discretization operator under parameter variations in the offline-phase and (ii) an online simulation scheme based on a numerical subgrid and localized evaluations of the evolution operator. We formulate an a-posteriori error estimator for quantification of the resulting reduced simulation error. Numerical experiments on a parametrized convection problem, discretized with a finite volume scheme, demonstrate the applicability of the model reduction technique. We obtain a parametrized reduced model, which enables parameter variation with fast simulation response. We quantify the computational gain with respect to the non- reduced model and investigate the error convergence.


Introduction: Water is critical for most physiological functions and dehydration can be pathological. There is evidence that long‐term hydration impacts cardiac reactivity, however, there is little data on acute hydration status and micro‐vascular function. Aim: To investigate whether hydration status impacts capillary blood flow and endothelial function in healthy human volunteers. Methods: Hydration status was measured in 20 subjects (45.1±7.4y; 9 M; 11 F) using osmometry for urine osmolality and dipstick for urine specific gravity (USG). Micro‐vascular function was measured using controlled Laser Doppler Iontophoresis (Moor LDI), with acetylcholine (ACh) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP), delivered to dermal forearm vessels using graded currents (0µA x 5s; 40µA x 10s; 60 µA x 30s; 100 µA x 60s). Results: Mean urine osmolality was 271.5 mOsm/kg and mean USG 1006.9. No correlations were found (p>0.05) between urine osmolality and ACh or SNP at any current, using linear regression. Similarly, no correlation was found between USG and ACh. A small but significant relationship was found between USG and SNP at 40µA (p=0.048). Conclusion: Based on these results, it appears that acute hydration status may not be a strong predictor of micro‐circulatory response to SNP and ACh. However, as SNP at 40 µA is correlated with USG, larger studies are needed to investigate further and explore whether USG is a more sensitive hydration marker in a micro‐circulatory/endothelial context.


Paper number: 001 (Assigned by Journal editor) Fractal Organization Theory Janna Raye 8 Halsey Ave., Petaluma, CA 94952, firstname.lastname@example.com Fractal Organization Theory proposes that human institutions with natural hierarchy systems focus upon shared purpose and values for accomplishing their endeavors, allow universal participation in ideas and solutions, and devote leadership to inspiring, guiding, and mentoring members. In fractal organizations, relationship development is key to utilizing information effectively and competing externally as a group for resources in the marketplace. For centuries humans have used top-down hierarchy systems in social institutions. These hierarchies are shaped like triangles or pyramids, which are non-scalable limiting shapes according to Benoit Mandlebrot, the father of fractal geometry. The mathematics of fractal geometry illustrates repeating patterns in flora, fauna, geography, and galaxies. The constants in the equations of Nature's living systems are both scalable and self-similar, which ensures pattern integrity during adaptations to changing conditions. Top-down hierarchies are typically characterized by command-and-control systems of authority that create harmful stress and internal competition for advancement within the organization. The pervading perception is of limited room at the top, where positions of authority become scarce resources for which members compete. When competition energy is focused internally rather than externally, members withhold or hoard information and limit an organization's ability to be creative, adaptive, healthy, and evolutionary. In Nature, species cooperate internally in order to compete externally for resources, ensuring the survival of the group. Fractal patterns illustrate the expansion and flow of information within hierarchies of matter/energy, including human bodies. Social institutions are also living systems; in order to be healthy and regenerative, they require a constant to maintain their integrity. Alignment with shared purpose and core values is the constant in a fractal organization: as members align with this constant while expressing their individuality, their creativity curves toward best outcomes for the collective purpose. Start-up organizations and established institutions with collaborative intentions, such as the ISSS, often operate as fractal organizations. Members willingly share information in an open atmosphere with values such as honesty and respect for individual perspectives. Some members are more inclined to be leaders of people, while others prefer to manage things and processes (including customer and vendor relationships). An expansive attitude prevails and each member is encouraged to grow to his or her potential. Leadership is focused upon developing this potential by inspiring shared purpose and values, guiding members toward the collective goals, and mentoring members for advancement. In fractal organizations information flows from the edges, where front-line and functional members interact with the environment of customers, partners, vendors, and competitors, to the center of the organization where core leaders focus upon strategy and resource allocation. In a continuous feedback loop, information flows toward the center of the organization where core leaders formulate and refine perspectives about their organization's interaction with the environment and align constrained resources with the organization's shared purpose and values. Leaders throughout are intermediaries for information exchanges between the edges and the center and are enabled by technology systems. Leaders at all levels are focused upon relationships-on the teams they lead, with fellow leaders, and between functional teams and the external environment. The importance of unrestricted information flows requires devoting time and mental resources to enabling these flows between the edges and the center. The quality of communication is essential; negative harmonics and noise such as fear, misalignment of intentions, and diction errors can lead to speed loss and entropy, resulting in poor decision making and uncalculated risk taking. Every situation has all the information necessary for making good decisions and taking measured risks; members of fractal organizations spend more time in conversations so that all the information available in their varied perspectives is collectively shared and considered.


The accuracy of ground based estimates using the six-class dwarf mistletoe rating system was evaluated in an old-growth Douglas-fir/western hemlock forest by comparing ground ratings by five different observers to an examination of tree crowns from a construction crane at the Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility, Washington. A total of 139 dominant, codominant, and intermediate western hemlock were evaluated. No consistent pattern emerged to indicate where overall error was made. All but one observer was relatively accurate at identifying noninfected trees (73 to 95% noninfected trees accurately rated by four observers). However, the observers were less accurate at estimating the DMR class of the infected trees (11% to 3 7% of the infected trees accurately rated), including a number of trees incorrectly rated by two or more DMR classes. One observer rated 98% of the trees as having infections, while the crane survey estimated only 53% of the trees as having infections. Each observer divided the individual tree crowns into thirds and estimated infections based on summing lower, middle, and upper canopy levels. There was no pattern to the errors associated with estimates by canopy level. One observer significantly overestimated all canopy levels, one observer estimated all accurately, one observer significantly underestimated all canopy levels, one observer underestimated the mid and upper canopies, and one observer underestimated the lower and upper canopies. The principal reasons for inaccurate dwarf mistletoe ratings were assumed to be difficulty in accurately estimating crown thirds, misidentification of infections because of various stem deformities or accumulation of organic debris resembling infections, and the difficulty in observing infections high above the ground and through dense vegetation. Only one of the five observers accurately represented the spatial pattern of the infection center. The implications of this research vary depending on whether the results are to be used for timber management or for research and modeling applications. West. J. Appl. For. 15(1):8-14.


Processes of globalisation, economic restructuring and urban redevelopment have placed events at the centre of strategies for change in cities. Events offer the potential to achieve economic, social, cultural and environmental outcomes within broader urban development strategies.This volume:

 Analyses the process of cultural event development, management and marketing and links these processes to their wider cultural, social and economic context
 Provides a unique blend of practical and academic analysis, with a selection of major events and festivals in cities where ?eventfulness' has been an important element of development strategy
 Examines the reasons why different stakeholders should collaborate, as well as the reasons why cities succeed or fail to develop events and become eventful

Eventful Cities: cultural management and urban revitalisation evaluates theoretical perspectives and links theory and practice through case studies of cities and events across the world. Critical success factors are identified which can help to guide cities and regions to develop event strategies. This book is essential reading for any undergraduate or graduate student and all practitioners and policy-makers involved in event management, cultural management, arts administration, urban studies, cultural studies and tourism.


The purpose of this study was to produce a comprehensive anatomic atlas of CT anatomy of the dog for use by veterinary radiologists, clinicians, and surgeons. Whole-body CT images of two mature beagle dogs were made with the dogs supported in sternal recumbency and using a slice thickness of 13 mm. The head was scanned using high-resolution imaging with a slice thickness of 8 mm. At the end of the CT session, each dog was euthanized, and while carefully maintaining the same position, the body was placed in a walk-in freezer until completely frozen. The body was then sectioned at 13-mm (head at 8-mm) intervals, with the cuts matched as closely as possible to the CT slices. The forzen sections were cleaned, photographed, and radiographed using xeroradiography. Each CT image was studied and compared with its corresponding xeroradiograph and anatomic section to assist in the accurate identification of specific structures. Intact, sagittally sectioned, and disarticulated dog skulls were used as reference models. Clinically relevant anatomic structures were identified and labeled in the three corresponding photographs (CT image, xeroradiograph, and anatomic section). In this paper, the CT anatomy of the head and neck of the mesaticephalic dog is presented.


Context. Recent observations suggest that stellar magnetic activity may be influenced by the presence of a close-by giant planet. Specifically, chromospheric hot spots rotating in phase with the planet orbital motion have been observed during some seasons in a few stars harbouring hot Jupiters. The spot leads the subplanetary point by a typical amount of ∼60 ◦ −70 ◦ , with the extreme case of υ And where the angle is ∼170 ◦ . Aims. The interaction between the star and the planet is described considering the reconnection between the stellar coronal field and the magnetic field of the planet. Reconnection events produce energetic particles that, moving along magnetic field lines, impact onto the stellar chromosphere giving rise to a localized hot spot. Methods. A simple magnetohydrostatic model is introduced to describe the coronal magnetic field of the star connecting its surface to the orbiting planet. The field is assumed to be axisymmetric around the rotation axis of the star and its configuration is more general than a linear force-free field. Results. With a suitable choice of the free parameters, the model can explain the phase differences between the hot spots and the planets observed in HD 179949, υ And, HD 189733, and τ Bootis, as well as their visibility modulation on the orbital period and seasonal time scales. The possible presence of cool spots associated with the planets in τ Boo and HD 192263 cannot be explained by the present model. However, we speculate about the possibility that reconnection events in the corona may influence subphotospheric dynamo action in those stars producing localized photospheric (and chromospheric) activity migrating in phase with their planets.


This article represents a consideration of the proposal by Michael Peters that peer review should be democratically extended. It begins by tracing the struggle between the natural sciences (the Quadrivium) and the humanities (the Trivium) in the medieval university to the present day, concluding that the Quadrivium has established a decisive hegemony over our current conception of knowledge and its innovation, all attempts by contemporary neo-romantics to 'constructivise' knowledge or 'fictionalise' truth notwithstanding.
The particular version of this hegemony we currently inhabit, the 'strategic' regime of science, favours external drivers of knowledge innovation-utility, relevance, and so on.
The article next re-visits Polanyi's 'republic of science' ideal to show how and why internal regulation of the science system - expert peer review - best suits the knowledge-constitutive features of novelty and unpredictability, and how external-regulation by utility and relevance alone may well impede it. This is especially the case for the humanities. The article concludes that extending or 'democratising' peer review may inadvertently work to consolidate the hegemony of the 'strategic' regime of science, and hence contribute to the long term impedance and decline of science in-general, and the humanities in particular.


The present article discusses the need for a narrative approach within current identity theory and insists on the importance of an appropriate selection when it comes to a specific approach. It is argued that the most adequate theoretical relationship can be established to a poststructuralist and deconstructivist narratology. This understanding leads to a focus on narrativity and to the performative construction of identity. The question of belonging facilitates further elaboration on the various aspects of identity. Again, narrativity is proposed as a theoretical and methodological approach for analysis. Here situational self-positioning and positioning by others are seen as central in the negotiation of belonging. Particular emphasis is placed on small narratives and on positioning within the discursive situation.


In this paper, we present biconditional binary decision diagrams (BBDDs), a novel canonical representation form for Boolean functions. BBDDs are binary decision diagrams where the branching condition, and its associated logic expansion, is biconditional on two variables. Empowered by reduction and ordering rules, BBDDs are remarkably compact and unique for a Boolean function. The interest of such representation form in modern electronic design automation (EDA) is twofold. On the one hand, BBDDs improve the efficiency of traditional EDA tasks based on decision diagrams, especially for arithmetic intensive designs. On the other hand, BBDDs represent the natural and native design abstraction for emerging technologies where the circuit primitive is a comparator, rather than a simple switch. We provide, in this paper, a solid ground for BBDDs by studying their underlying theory and manipulation properties. Thanks to an efficient BBDD software package implementation, we validate (1) speed-up in traditional decision diagrams applications with up to 4.4 × gain with respect to other DDs, and (2) improved synthesis of circuits in emerging technologies, with about 32% shorter critical path than state-of-art synthesis techniques.


Objectives: The Bluetongue Virus is one of the most studied ruminant diseases, affecting particularly sheep and goats. This study aims to identify, for the first time, the specific risk factors influencing the disease development in Sardinia, using multilevel logistic regression model, in order to give a contribution to the sanitary programs and favour the early detection.
Methods: The data of the present retrospective study, collected from informatics systems of Istituto Zooprofilattico della Sardegna, are referred to all 15,780 Sardinian sheep farms observed for 3 years (2012-2014). The outcome of interest was dichotomous and defined the development of Bluetongue outbreak, after serological test or clinical signs. The effect of several region-specific prognostic factors on disease spread was investigated.
Results: The final model indicated that Bluetongue development was significantly associated with an increase in number of animals (P < 0.0001), number of cattle around farm (P  < 0.0001), water surface area (P =0.002), and amount of rainfall in the previous days (P < 0.0001). Furthermore, the altitude over 450 MASL (P < 0.0001), the vaccination prophylaxis (P < 0.0001) and the previous outbreak event (P < 0.0001) had a protective effect against the outcome.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that number of animals and the amount of rainfall were the most important risk factors that affected the Bluetongue development, while the vaccination prophylaxis was found to be an effective measure in decelerating the disease spread.


It has recently been shown that some non-human animals can cross-modally recognize members of their own taxon. What is unclear is just how plastic this recognition system can be. In this study, we investigate whether an animal, the domestic horse, is capable of spontaneous cross-modal recognition of individuals from a morphologically very different species. We also provide the first insights into how cross-modal identity information is processed by examining whether there are hemispheric biases in this important social skill. In our preferential looking paradigm, subjects were presented with two people and playbacks of their voices to determine whether they were able to match the voice with the person. When presented with familiar handlers subjects could match the specific familiar person with the correct familiar voice. Horses were significantly better at performing the matching task when the congruent person was standing on their right, indicating marked hemispheric specialization (left hemisphere bias) in this ability. These results are the first to demonstrate that cross-modal recognition in animals can extend to individuals from phylogenetically very distant species. They also indicate that processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals in a naturalistic setting.


Dietary assessment has long been known to be challenged by measurement error. A substantial amount of literature on methods for determining the effects of error on causal inference has accumulated over the past decades. These methods have unrealized potential for improving the validity of data collected for research studies and national nutritional surveillance, primarily through the NHANES. Recently, the validity of dietary data has been called into question. Arguments against using dietary data to assess diet-health relations or to inform the nutrition policy debate are subject to flaws that fall into 2 broad areas: 1) ignorance or misunderstanding of methodologic issues; and 2) faulty logic in drawing inferences. Nine specific issues are identified in these arguments, indicating insufficient grasp of the methods used for assessing diet and designing nutritional epidemiologic studies. These include a narrow operationalization of validity, failure to properly account for sources of error, and large, unsubstantiated jumps to policy implications. Recent attacks on the inadequacy of 24-h recall-derived data from the NHANES are uninformative regarding effects on estimating risk of health outcomes and on inferences to inform the diet-related health policy debate. Despite errors, for many purposes and in many contexts, these dietary data have proven to be useful in addressing important research and policy questions. Similarly, structured instruments, such as the food frequency questionnaire, which is the mainstay of epidemiologic literature, can provide useful data when errors are measured and considered in analyses.


Jointly learning representations of 3D shapes and text is crucial to support tasks such as cross-modal retrieval or shape captioning. A recent method employs 3D voxels to represent 3D shapes, but this limits the approach to low resolutions due to the computational cost caused by the cubic complexity of 3D voxels. Hence the method suffers from a lack of detailed geometry. To resolve this issue, we propose Y2Seq2Seq, a view-based model, to learn cross-modal representations by joint reconstruction and prediction of view and word sequences. Specifically, the network architecture of Y2Seq2Seq bridges the semantic meaning embedded in the two modalities by two coupled "Y" like sequence-tosequence (Seq2Seq) structures. In addition, our novel hierarchical constraints further increase the discriminability of the cross-modal representations by employing more detailed discriminative information. Experimental results on cross-modal retrieval and 3D shape captioning show that Y2Seq2Seq outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


the American electoral system. Several private commissions—one headed by former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter—have already reached their conclusions and proposed changes to the way we run our elections. Since the founding of this country, state and local governments have had primary responsibility for running congressional elections. Congress has the authority to override state and local regulations regarding congressional elections, although the Founders foresaw this power being used only in "extraordinary circumstances." The events of 2000 were not "extraordinary." Congress should preserve the primacy of the states in electoral administration. If Congress decides to spend federal tax money on elections, the funds should go to the states without any strings attached. Nationalizing elections through federal mandates would be a constitutional and policy mistake. Until now the election reform debate has ignored the need to preserve the integrity of elections. Voters have at least the obligation to register and to be informed enough to cast a ballot successfully. Seeing election reform as a collective problem to be solved solely by collective action is a profound error that may harm the Republic. The states should be free to make their own decisions about voting equipment and voter registration systems. Congress should reform the Motor Voter law by removing the obstacles that have ruined many voting lists. States should consider sharply limiting absentee and other voting outside the polling place. Provisional voting will prove costly both in direct outlays and in delaying election results. Election Day should not be a national holiday. Media projections of election results do little harm and should not be banned directly or indirectly by government. Voters need more education, a goal served by more competitive elections and an end to current restrictions on campaign finance. Election Reform, Federalism, and the Obligations of Voters


In this review, we provide an overview of the literature on sexual assault. First, we define sexual assault, noting its multiple dimensions and the consequences for operationalization—including reviewing strategies for such operationalization. Second, we outline different approaches to sexual assault, critically assessing those frameworks that rely upon a model of sociopathy; instead, we propose focusing on more sociological and ecological understandings that push beyond the single dimension of gender and the framework of gender and power. Third, we outline the range of data sources that have been used to generate insights into sexual assault. Fourth, we provide the core research findings of the field, which at times are contradictory, mapping them to our ecological model of individual, relational, organizational, and cultural levels. We then review the evidence around those interventions that have been successful in addressing sexual assault (and those that have been unsuccessful) before concluding with suggestions for further research directions.


In "Guarding Cultural Memory", Flora Gonzalez Mandri examines the vibrant and uniquely illuminating post-Revolutionary creative endeavors of Afro-Cuban women. Taking on the question of how African diaspora cultures practice remembrance, she reveals the ways in which these artists restage the confrontations between modernity and tradition. Gonzalez Mandri considers the work of the poet and cultural critic Nancy Morejon, the poet Excilia Saldana, the filmmaker Gloria Rolando, and the artists Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and Belkis Ayon. In their cultural representations these women conflate the artistic, the historical, and the personal to produce a transformative image of the black woman as a forger of Cuban culture. They achieve this in several ways: by redefining autobiography as a creative expression for the convergence of the domestic and the national; by countering the eroticized image of the mulatta in favor of a mythical conception of the female body as a site for the engraving of cultural and national conflicts and resolutions; and by valorizing certain aesthetic and religious traditions in relation to a postmodern artistic sensibility. Placing these artists in their historical context, Gonzalez Mandri shows how their accomplishments were consistently silenced in official Cuban history and culture and explores the strategies through which culturally censored memories survived - and continue to survive - in a Caribbean country purported to have integrated its Hispanic and African peoples and heritages into a Cuban identity. The picture that finally emerges is one not only of exceptional artistic achievement but also of successful redefinitions of concepts of race, gender, and nation in the face of almost insurmountable cultural odds.


We consider the problem of distributed computation of a target function over a two-user deterministic multiple-access channel. If the target and channel functions are matched (i.e., compute the same function), significant performance gains can be obtained by jointly designing the communication and computation tasks. However, in most situations there is mismatch between these two functions. In this work, we analyze the impact of this mismatch on the performance gains achievable with joint communication and computation designs over separation-based designs. We show that for most pairs of target and channel functions there is no such gain, and separation of communication and computation is optimal.


Until recently both scholarly and popular discussions of the catastrophic famine in the Soviet Union in 1931-1933 invariably have described it as an artificial or ''manmade" famine. Certain well-known scholars have dominated this discussion, expressing two main interpretations of the famine. A Ukrainian nationalist interpretation holds that the Soviet regime, and specifically losif Stalin, intentionally imposed the famine to suppress the nationalist aspirations of Ukraine and Ukrainians; revisionists argue that the leadership imposed the famine to suppress more widespread peasant resistance to collectivization. According to these views, a natural disaster that could have caused a famine did not take place in those years.


Examining Paraprofessionals' Use of Video Self-Modeling in Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Derrainnya Fuentes MA, Capella University, 2009 BS, University of Maryland at College Park, 1997 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Psychology Walden University April 2016 Abstract The number of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) cases has surged in the U.S. educational system since the mid-2000s. At the same, paraprofessionals who work with these students are not being given adequate training, especially in how to implement applied behavior analytic services. To address paraprofessional's inadequate training, new behavioral treatments have surfaced, including Video Self-Modeling (VSM). VSM is an effective intervention tool derived heavily from Bandura's social learning theory. VSM uses edited video clips in which paraprofessionals view him or herself correctly performing target skills. This study used a single-subject, modified multiple baseline design to evaluate whether VSM could improve the accuracy of procedural integrity when implementing DTI. A sample of 5 novice paraprofessionals was used; all participants worked directly with ASD students with 6 months to 2 years experience, supported an ASD student in an inclusive setting for at least 75% of the school day, and had no previous training in DTI. Three of the 5 participants exhibited immediate and significant gains in DTI implementation, and those gains were maintained during followup. One participant demonstrated moderate gain during the follow-up. To determine effective significance, visual analysis, combined with level of performance, nonoverlapping data points, and effect sizes were used. VSM treatment was rated as an acceptable treatment according to the social validity scale and the Intervention Rating Profile (IRP-15). This study contributes to positive social change by offering a viable treatment approach that can be used to train paraprofessionals who instruct students with ASD.The number of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) cases has surged in the U.S. educational system since the mid-2000s. At the same, paraprofessionals who work with these students are not being given adequate training, especially in how to implement applied behavior analytic services. To address paraprofessional's inadequate training, new behavioral treatments have surfaced, including Video Self-Modeling (VSM). VSM is an effective intervention tool derived heavily from Bandura's social learning theory. VSM uses edited video clips in which paraprofessionals view him or herself correctly performing target skills. This study used a single-subject, modified multiple baseline design to evaluate whether VSM could improve the accuracy of procedural integrity when implementing DTI. A sample of 5 novice paraprofessionals was used; all participants worked directly with ASD students with 6 months to 2 years experience, supported an ASD student in an inclusive setting for at least 75% of the school day, and had no previous training in DTI. Three of the 5 participants exhibited immediate and significant gains in DTI implementation, and those gains were maintained during followup. One participant demonstrated moderate gain during the follow-up. To determine effective significance, visual analysis, combined with level of performance, nonoverlapping data points, and effect sizes were used. VSM treatment was rated as an acceptable treatment according to the social validity scale and the Intervention Rating Profile (IRP-15). This study contributes to positive social change by offering a viable treatment approach that can be used to train paraprofessionals who instruct students with ASD. Examining Paraprofessionals' Use of Video Self-Modeling in Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Derrainnnya R. Fuentes MA, Capella University, 2009 BS, University of Maryland College Park, 1997 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School Psychology Walden University April 2016 Dedication I dedicate my dissertation project to my loving and wonderful husband, Ricardo, and my two beautiful daughters, Taina and Thalia, who stood by me these past 7 years with words of encouragement and a push for tenacity in my ears. I appreciate all they have done and being there for me throughout the entire dissertation journey. Special thanks to my committee chairperson, Dr. Little, for his inspiration, encouragement, countless hours of reflecting, reading, patience, willingness and hope throughout my dissertation journey. In addition I am indebted to have had an extremely beneficial coadvisory committee, Dr. Trimble and Dr. Ford, who have given their generous time and expertise.


Purpose: The article presents issues related to the development of electronic commerce market caused by changes in the supply chain in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study used world-bank reports from statista portal. Findings: The aim of the article is to present the impact of electronic commerce market in the supply chain. The functioning types of e-business and basic business models used in ecommerce are also presented. Payment methods used in internet sales in Poland are shown. An analysis of the online payment methods preferred by consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic was also performed. Practical Implications: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers must develop increasingly efficient, faster, and more convenient delivery methods. For example, in the last year the number of users selecting same-day delivery in online search options has increased significantly. Originality/value: The publication presents the results of research conducted on the basis statista international portal and central statistical office in Poland


Živa Ljubec Polyphibianism Evolving Transdisciplinarity into an Imaginary Organism of Living Knowledge Transdisciplinarity emerged from the urge to grasp the elusive knowledge in the most fertile zone in between and beyond disciplines that escapes even the most elaborate interdisciplinary operations. While interdisciplinary protocol enables experts to operate within foreign disciplines, in the extreme case as diverse as art and science (by inviting artists into scientific departments and vice versa), the production of knowledge remains confined to particular domains. To transcend these confinements and access the knowledge that evades institutionalisation Basarab Nicolescu's Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity sets up conditions for an open structure to be grown outside the current compartmentalisation into a living knowledge. This thesis imagines a possible evolution of transdisciplinarity into knowledge to be lived internally rather than learnt externally in order to overcome the anxiety in transcending the established culture of disciplinary research. By entering the transdisciplinary zone, the identity of experts-specialists dissolves, even the crudest separation into artists and scientists becomes obsolete. From the illusion of losing control over knowledge arises the fear of a return to archaic, mystic or even shamanic ways of knowing. Far from proposing a return to shamanism in its ancient forms this thesis imagines the way of polyphibianism – an imaginary solution to navigate efficiently the protoplasmic state of knowledge that would be indigenous to culture of disciplinary researchers. With every significant discovery the disciplinary researchers already intuitively trespass into the very zone that the Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity invites them to enter intentionally. From examination of documented introspective inquiries into their act of discovery the thesis infers the necessary sensibilities and adaptabilities of the individuals to cross the borders of their disciplines. Their seemingly lost identity is temporarily restored with the term polyphibian (analogous to amphibian) designating their ability to survive and explore multiple environments. With each change of circumstances in research a polyphibian adapts by swiftly reinventing its instinctive instruments, mutating its organs of knowing, indifferently to conventional habits of thought. Through their introspective writings this thesis investigates the polyphibic aptitude of Henri Poincaré, Henri Bergson and Marcel Duchamp to scout at the periphery of physics, metaphysics and 'pataphysics, to intuitively anticipate the role of chance, chaos and complexity in both arts and sciences. A threshold of complexity has to be surpassed in order to bring the current apparatus of knowledge to life. Bergson's insight on laughter and dreams suggests how intellect could transcend itself. The thesis proposes to consider laughter as faculty that could induce self-awareness in the intellectual apparatus while dreams are considered to facilitate self-organisation of intellect on higher orders of awareness. In Deleuzian manner of mutating Bergson's work into Bergsonism, polyphibianism is a mutation in transcribing the code of Creative Evolution where Bergson insisted on interdependency between the theory of knowledge and the theory of evolution. The scholarly dispute on Bergsonian and anti-Bergsonian tendencies present in Marcel Duchamp's work is revisited in the thesis by interpreting the higher dimensional Bride as a polyphibic organism of living knowledge with access to higher orders of awareness, able to guide the Bachelor's apparatus of mechanical production and preservation of knowledge out of its predicament. Informed by peculiar Duchampian experiments that challenged both the domain of art and science the research projects in this thesis consist of an intervention at CERN that tested the impenetrability of institutionalised art-science collaborations and installation of the Interval of Suspended Judgement with high mathematical precision at the threshold between physics and 'pataphysics. With these projects the problems of categorising researchers into artists and scientists are revealed. As Deleuze suggested, to effectively formulate the problem, to realize it in multiplicity of contexts, a new concept must be invented, a new organism must be conceived. This thesis gave birth to an imaginary organism of living knowledge in order to relieve the unnecessary anxieties and to fully engage in transdisciplinary research.


Zero-knowledge proofs have a vast applicability in the domain of cryptography, stemming from the fact that they can be used to force potentially malicious parties to abide by the rules of a protocol, without forcing them to reveal their secrets. Σ-protocols are a class of zero-knowledge proofs that can be implemented efficiently and that suffice for a great variety of practical applications. This paper presents a first machine-checked formalization of a comprehensive theory of Σ-protocols. The development includes basic definitions, relations between different security properties that appear in the literature, and general composability theorems. We show its usefulness by formalizing—and proving the security—of concrete instances of several well-known protocols. The formalization builds on CertiCrypt, a framework that provides support to reason about cryptographic systems in the Coq proof assistant, and that has been previously used to formalize security proofs of encryption and signature schemes.


Dynamics analyses are presented for the west Florida continental shelf response to upwelling favorable, alongshore or offshore winds using a three-dimensional, time-dependent, primitive equation model. These analyses complement the kinematics analyses of Li and Weisberg [1999]. Results are provided on four topics: (1) the response evolutions to quasi steady states, (2) the across-shelf distributions of the vertically integrated alongshore and across-shelf momentum balances, (3) the three-dimensional structures of the terms composing the momentum balance closures, and (4) the model sensitivity to vertical friction parameterization. The response evolution starts with a local wind-driven acceleration, and it transitions over the inner shelf into a primary balance between the pressure gradient, Coriolis, and vertical friction terms. Thus the inner shelf spin-up takes a classical Ekman-geostrophic route. The middle shelf takes longer because it also depends on coastal boundary effects, notably the partial closure of the domain in the south by the Florida Keys. The outer shelf never achieves a steady state because of topographic wave effects. Coastline and isobath geometries result in fully three-dimensional flow fields. Thus a two-dimensional model that ignores alongshore variations cannot account for the results obtained. The inner shelf is the transition region between Ekman and Ekman-geostrophic balances where the surface slope results from mass adjustments through overlapping surface and bottom Ekman layers. Across the inner shelf the vertically integrated momentum balance shows a gradual trade-off between the Coriolis, pressure gradient, and bottom friction terms, and with the inner shelf frictionally determined its scale is sensitive to vertical friction parameterization.


How Dada is to break its cultural accommodation and containment today necessitates thinking the historical instances through revised application of critical and theoretical models. The volume Dada Culture: Critical Texts on the Avant-Garde moves precisely by this motive, bringing together writings which insist upon the continuity of the early twentieth-century moment now at the start of the twenty-first. Engaging the complex and contradictory nature of Dada strategies, instanced in the linguistic gaming and performativity of the movement's initial formation, and subsequently isolating the specific from the general with essays focusing on Ball, Tzara, Serner, Hausmann, Dix, Heartfield, Schwitters, Baader, Cravan and the exemplary Duchamp, the political philosophy of the avant-garde is brought to bear upon our own contemporary struggle through critical theory to comprehend the cultural usefulness, relevance, validity and effective (or otherwise) oppositionality of Dada's infamous anti-stance.

The volume is presented in sections that progressively point towards the expanding complexity of the contemporary engagement with Dada, as what is often exhaustive historical data is forced to rethink, realign and reconfigure itself in response to the analytical rigour and exercise of later twentieth-century animal anarchic thought, the testing and cultural placement of thoughts upon the virtual, and the eventual implications for the once blissfully unproblematic idea of expression. From the opening, provocative proposition that historically Dada may have been the falsest of all false paths, the volume rounds to dispute such condemnation as demarcation continues not only of Dada's embeddedness in western culture, but more precisely of the location of Dada culture.

Ten critical essays – by Cornelius Partsch, John Wall, T. J. Demos, Anna Schaffner, Martin I. Gaughan, Curt Germundson, Stephen C. Foster, Dafydd Jones, Joel Freeman and David Cunningham – are supplemented by the critical bibliography prepared by Timothy Shipe, which documents the past decade of Dada scholarship, and in so doing provides a valuable resource for all those engaged in Dada studies today.


Written by prominent international experts from industry and academia, the Wiley Encyclopedia of Composites, Second Edition presents over 260 new and revised articles addressing the new technological advances in properties, processing, formulation, design, analysis, evaluation, manufacture, testing, and reliability of composites. The entire range of industrial applications of composites is covered. The Encyclopedia is an invaluable resource for researchers in both library and professional settings and provides information about composite materials and related processing technologies.


The aim was to evaluate the prevalence of hand and wrist pain, as well as the relationships between occupational overuse syndromes in the hands and wrists of chiropractors in South Africa as a result of their daily use of manual therapy techniques while at work. There are very few statistics available that disclose the nature and incidence of work related injuries. However those statistics that do exist suggest that hands on patient activities place physical therapists at greater risk of injury in comparison to other health care workers (Lunne et al., 2000). A study conducted by Bork et al.(1996) determined the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal injuries sustained by physical therapists. Hand pain (29.6%) and back pain (45%) where the leading cause of pain in physical therapists (Bork et al., 1996.) Chiropractic and physiotherapy are both health care professions that specialize in the treatment of disorders pertaining to the neuro-musculo-skeletal system (Hunter, 2004). Physical therapists use manual therapy techniques as part of their daily working activities, so it can be assumed that chiropractors too will have a high prevalence of hand and wrist pain as they utilize similar therapeutic techniques to physical therapists. Cromie et al.(2000) evaluated the prevalence, severity, risks, and responses of disorders in physical therapists. He identified 4 categories of major risk factors commonly associated with workers musculo-skeletal disorders in physical therapists 1. Risk factors related to specific activities. 2. Postural risk factors. 3. Risk factors with regard to work load issues 4. Risk factors in regard of work capacity and health of the participant (Cromie et al., 2000). Physical risk factors found to be associated with neck, shoulder, or hand and wrist disorders in cross sectional studies are heavy lifting, monotonous work, static work postures, vibrations and repetitive jobs, and a high work pace (Alfredsson et al., 1999). Other factors that have been associated with musculoskeletal pain are higher age and female gender (de Zwart et al., 2001; Wahlstedt et al., 2001; Feveile et al., 2002).


High-intensity, stand replacement fires have been recommended to regenerate stands of Table Mountain pine (finus pungens Lamb.) because its seeds require mineral soil to germinate and seedlings are intolerant of shade. Recent prescribed fires have resulted in poor regeneration, even though crown fires created seedbeds with abundant insolation and thin duff. This study examined regeneration success over a range of duff depth and shading in a greenhouse. Root lengths were compared over a range of duff depths. Table Mountain Pine seeds germinated and seedlings survived on seedbeds with abundant insolation and thin duff. However, stem density was significantly higher under moderate shade and on duff up to 4 in. thick. Seedling roots were able to penetrate duff depths up to 4 in. These findings suggest that prescribed fires of sufficient intensity to eliminate shade and expose mineral soil are unnecessary to regenerate Table Mountain pine.


In this study, physicochemical characteristics of Pakistani fresh and used monograde (SAE-40, SAE-50) and multigrade (SAE-20W/50) engine oils have been studied. The samples were analyzed for specific gravity at 60/60°F, kinematic viscosity at 100 and 40°C, kinematic viscosity index, pour point, flash point, total base number, copper strip corrosion and sulphur contents following the ASTM (American Society of Testing and Material) standard methods. Five samples of automotive lubricating oils of different API (American Petroleum Institute) grades as mentioned above were included in this investigation. Samples were taken from the sumps of five different engines, that is, three spark engines,  and two compression ratio diesel engines(one ordinary duty and other heavy duty engine oil) after covering several mileage of service (ranging from 800 to 2800 km). Results show the deterioration of the samples with increased reduction as the vehicle covers more distance with the same oil which needs to be replaced. Specific gravity increases with usage due to engine wear and induction of oxidation products. Viscosity of all samples decreases as the oil ages, which is due to lighter end contaminants. Pour point of monograde oil slightly decreases with usage but no change in pour point was found in more stable multigrade oil. Flash point and Total Base number decreases depending upon the usage of oil. Sulfur contents of used oil were recorded higher because of the presence of wear caused between the moving parts as the oil strength decreases with increased usage which then cannot prevent the friction among the moving parts of the engine.

 Key words:  Physico-chemical, characteristics, used engine oil, Pakistan.


: Endoporeutic method (endon: 'within'; poros: 'passage, pore') exemplifies the fundamental principle concerning the direction of the flow of interpretation in Peirce's diagrammatic logic of existential graphs (EGs). It boils down to the fact that in EGs, one starts with the outermost graph-instance or the cut and proceeds inwards according to the conventions of EGs. The interpretation is dialogic, which Peirce laid out in his semeiotics in terms of two players, the Interpreter and the Utterer, and in EGs in terms of the Grapheus and the Graphist. Endoporeutic method is thus closely related to semantic games. It is also an early sketch of model theory in logic, and marks an outlook on logic that puts the notion of compositionality under critical scrutiny.


The objective of this study is to define the field of higher education and clarify its identity. It examines three analytical dimensions which, it proposes, shape the field: knowledge, approach and community. It argues that contextual knowledge around the issue of higher education has defined the field but has not determined techniques that are specific to it. The core elements of these three dimensions— contextual knowledge, the diversity in approaches and the multi-disciplinary and loosely coupled community—suggest diversity in the field and in its identity rather than coherence and consolidation. The two dimensions of approach and community partially relate to the development of the field as a product of efforts to solve financial and management problems caused by the expansion of higher education after World War II in the US, and, in terms of experience, in Europe where expansion came much later, increasing public interest in higher education.


This paper traces the historical development of high-energy sources for emission spectroscopy from the earliest references available to us to the present. Sources included are all powered with electrical energy and include arc, spark, and plasma excitation and their many variations. No combustion flame excitation units are included, since these were dealt with in an earlier paper. The development of electrically powered sources closely followed nineteenth century progress in understanding electrical energy in general. It is evident that early-day spectroscopists were aware of progress in that field and applied that knowledge to their own problems.


Abstract:The world was unprepared for the challenges triggered by Ukraine's efforts to affirm its sovereignty and build a more transparent, democratic state. The only way Ukraine could achieve this goal was by pivoting to the West. In response, Moscow has not only attempted to undermine the Ukrainian state; it has made antagonism to Ukraine its basis for consolidating Russian society. While Western leaders have been looking for ways to enable Vladimir Putin to voluntarily "de-escalate" the crisis, the Putin regime has returned to a survival formula that involves insulating Russia from liberal influence and forcing the West to accept the Kremlin's approach to dealing with the world. It has staked its political survival on demonizing and destabilizing Ukraine. If the Ukrainian revolution grinds to a halt, its breakdown will be due not only to the Ukrainian elite's inability to think strategically, but also to the West's failure to support Ukraine's pro-European trajectory.


Empirical rock mass classification systems are widely used in the practice of mining engineering, especially in the early stages of engineering design of mining infrastructure. This stage involves preliminary assessment of ground support needs for drifts and shafts, stability analysis of pillars and stopes, stability analysis of slopes in open pit mines, and others. During this preliminary stage of the design, mining engineers are required to consider different mining methods and mine designs, as well as underground and open pit alternatives. Crucial to design is the proper characterization of the rock mass, during and after the field data collection phase, in terms of available rock mass classification systems, such as Laubscher (MRMR), Bieniawski (RMR), Barton (Q) and Hoek & Marinos (GSI) systems. Because the rock mass characterization is normally done in terms of one (or rarely more than one) of these systems, and because different mechanical assessment tools used in this and later stages of mining design typically are expressed in any of the systems, it is important to be able to properly correlate rock mass classification ratings in the different rock mass classification systems. This process of correlating the ratings is not straight forward and has not been extensively treated in the literature. The aim of this paper is to address the problem of correlating rock mass classification information, and to propose new relationships for correlation of ratings, in particular, equations that allow to correlate the Laubscher and the Bieniawski systems, and the Barton and the Hoek Marinos systems.


The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, instruction, and evaluation of the undergraduate pilot course, Introduction to Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems (SFBS), at Montana State University. Introduction to SFBS is an interdisciplinary, team-taught, experiential education course designed to introduce students to broad array of SFBS-related topics, expose students to career opportunities in these fields, and enable them to establish relationships with food, agriculture, and energy stakeholders. Students completed baseline and follow-up surveys in which they reported information about their backgrounds, values, and knowledge of SFBS-related topics. The surveys also tracked students' learning and allowed them to provide feedback on course methods. According to the follow-up survey, over the course of the semester students demonstrated development of course vocabulary and concepts. Students' experiences in the course prompted changes in their school- and career-related goals. Additionally, the team-teaching approach was highly valued. Students also indicated that teaching should be more solutions-focused. Evaluation of students' backgrounds and learning is an important tool for the future evolution of this course and the development of others like it. The survey tool was in its first iteration; it will require revision as the course evolves. Introduction to SFBS can serve as a model for curricula related to sustainable agriculture, food, and energy. Courses like this can prepare students to become informed, innovative, critical thinkers capable of excelling in a multitude of food, agriculture, and energy-related careers. This course will continue to be monitored and evaluated as the curriculum evolves.


Research in the area of knowledge management investigates how the right knowledge can be brought to the right people at the right time. In this position paper we present an approach to this problem that packages knowledge and experts possessing this knowledge as knowledge provisioning services. Optimal allocation of knowledge is then assured by introducing an electronic market for these services a knowledge market. We present a scenario, general requirements, first steps, and open issues for the application of electronic markets to the problem of knowledge allocation. We envision that artificial intelligence techniques can be instrumental role in resolving some of the open issues. The resolution of these issues will provide us with a self-organizing and selfoptimizing mechanism for knowledge management that is guided by the "invisible hand of the market".


Coal mine bumps involve the violent, rapid failure of coal and rock around a mine excavation. Deep coal mines with strong roof and floor rocks and high-stress conditions frequently experience face and rib bumps. The bump problem is becoming more severe as mining depth increases, prompting efforts to control high stress in advance of mining. This Bureau of Mines report presents a review of the most widely used methods to detect and destress high-stress zones along coal faces and an investigation of stress-related bump problems and destressing techniques at a cooperating mine. Geotechnical instrumentation and microseismic methods were used to better understand bump occurrences in underground coal mines. Laboratory tests of the drilling-yield method for high-stress detection were conducted to determine the correlation between the volume of cuttings obtained and the magnitude of the applied stress at various confining pressures. A three-dimensional, multiple-seam computer modeling program, MULSIM, was used to evaluate the effectiveness of stress-relief methods. Modeling results indicate that dangerously high-stress areas can be controlled by either proper planning or destressing. Proper mine planning guidelines and destressing methods such as volley firing, hydraulic fracturing, and auger drilling are discussed. J Mining engineer, Denver Research Center, Bureau of Mines, Denver, CO.


Model management aims at reducing the amount of programming needed for the development of metadata-intensive applications. We present a first complete prototype of a generic modelmanagement system, in which high-level operators are used to manipulate models and mappings between models. We define the key conceptual structures: models, morphisms, and selectors, and describe their use and implementation. We specify the semantics of the known model-management operators applied to these structures, suggest new ones, and develop new algorithms for implementing the individual operators. We examine the solutions for two model-management tasks that involve manipulations of relational schemas, XML schemas, and SQL views.


Conflict resolution of familiar opponents was compared to that of unfamiliar ones in Xiphophorus helleri males. Under the Familiar condition, the two males which met had settled a contest against each other in a previously staged encounter in another aquarium. Thus one opponent was the previously dominant pair member, the other its previously subordinate. Under the Unfamiliar condition, two males met which were not acquainted with each other but had independently undergone previous experience of victory or defeat. We tested the hypothesis that familiar pairs would conform to some behaviourial predictions of an «asymmetrical game with perfect information». As for unfamiliar pairs, being uninformed of asymmetries at a contest onset, they would have to acquire information on these during the course of interaction («asymmetrical game with assessment») or alternatively would have to persist for a certain time or cost («war of attrition»). All expectations derived from an «asymmetrical game with perfect information» applied to familiar pairs but not to unfamiliar ones. In familiar pairs, all prior roles were reinstated without any escalation. Though prior winners predominantly defeated prior losers under both conditions of cognizance, this difference was more extreme in familiar dyads than in unfamiliar ones. This suggests that the respective roles were less clearly identified in the latter. The costs of conflicts both in terms of aggressive behaviours used and in time were also higher in unfamiliar pairs than in familiar ones. Unacquainted individuals required a longer period to assess each other. In addition, they had to rely on more pugnacious behaviour to settle disputes in comparison to acquainted pairs. As expected also, familiar pairs being already cognizant of initial respective roles were more characterized in terms of the behavioural patterns typical of each of these roles. Differences between ultimate winners and losers were more clear in acquainted pairs, and appeared earlier during conflict. It was also possible earlier during contest to discriminate and to predict ultimate winners from losers of acquainted pairs using behavioural interactions. In most unacquainted pairs, ultimate winners could be forecasted using multivariate discriminant analyses, mainly by their offering «resistance» to future losers. A «war of attrition» did not fit to unacquainted pairs.


In recent years, in vivo measurement systems of arsenic in skin by K-shell x-ray fluorescence (XRF) have been developed, including one which was applied in a pilot study of human subjects. Improved tube-based approaches suggest the method can be further exploited for in vivo studies. Recently, it has been suggested that selenium deficiency is correlated with arsenic toxicity. A non-invasive measurement of both elements could therefore be of potential interest. The main aim of this current study was to evaluate and compare the performance of an upgraded portable XRF system and an advanced version of the benchtop XRF system for both selenium and arsenic. This evaluation was performed in terms of arsenic and selenium Kα detection limits for a 4W gold anode Olympus InnovX Delta portable analyzer (40 kVp) in polyester resin skin-mimicking phantoms. Unlike the polychromatic source earlier reported in the literature, the benchtop tube-based technique involves monochromatic excitation (25 W silver anode, manufactured by x-ray optics, XOS) and a higher throughput detector type. Use of a single exciting energy allows for a lower in vivo dose delivered and superior signal-noise ratio. For the portable XRF method, arsenic and selenium minimum detection limits (MDLs) of 0.59  ±  0.03 ppm and 0.75  ±  0.02 ppm respectively were found for 1 min measurement times. The MDLs for arsenic and selenium using the benchtop system were found to be 0.35  ±  0.01 ppm and 0.670  ±  0.004 ppm respectively for 30 min measurement times. In terms of a figure of merit (FOM), allowing for dose as well as MDL, the benchtop system was found to be superior for arsenic and the two systems were equivalent, within error, for selenium. We shall discuss the performance and possible improvements of each system, their ease of use and potential for field application.


This research has been devoted to the selection of the most favourable plant solutions for ventilation, heating and cooling, thermo-hygrometric control of a greenhouse, in the framework of the energy saving and the environmental protection. The identified plant solutions include shading of glazing surfaces, natural ventilation by means of controlled opening windows, forced convection of external air and forced convection of air treated by the HVAC system for both heating and cooling. The selected solution combines HVAC system to a Ground Coupled Heat Pump (GCHP), which is an innovative renewable technology applied to greenhouse buildings. The energy demand and thermal loads of the greenhouse to fulfil the requested internal design conditions have been evaluated through an hourly numerical simulation, using the Energy Plus (E-plus) software. The overall heat balance of the greenhouse also includes the latent heat exchange due to crop evapotranspiration, accounted through an original iterative calculation procedure that combines the E-plus dynamic simulations and the FAO Penman-Monteith method. The obtained hourly thermal loads have been used to size the borehole field for the geothermal heat pump by using a dedicated GCHP hourly simulation tool.


Solving the SLAM problem is one way to enable a robot to explore, map, and navigate in a previously unknown environment. We investigate smoothing approaches as a viable alternative to extended Kalman filter-based solutions to the problem. In particular, we look at approaches that factorize either the associated information matrix or the measurement matrix into square root form. Such techniques have several significant advantages over the EKF: they are faster yet exact, they can be used in either batch or incremental mode, are better equipped to deal with non-linear process and measurement models, and yield the entire robot trajectory, at lower cost. In addition, in an indirect but dramatic way, column ordering heuristics automatically exploit the locality inherent in the geographic nature of the SLAM problem. In this paper we present the theory underlying these methods, an interpretation of factorization in terms of the graphical model associated with the SLAM problem, and simulation results that underscore the potential of these methods for use in practice.


A survey was done in 1998 to determine whether Raspberry bushy dwarf virus (RBDV) was established in raspberry fruiting plantations in Scotland. Raspberry-producing holdings were selected according to geographical area and size. Samples (201), each comprising 60 shoots per stock, were obtained from 77 holdings and tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ELISA-positive shoots from each infected stock were grafted onto cultivar Glen Clova, which is resistant to the Scottish-type isolate of RBDV (RBDV-S), to establish whether the virus is a resistance-breaking (RB) isolate. RBDV was detected in 22% of the stocks sampled, with 2 to 80% incidence of infection. No RBDV was in any of the 40 plantations containing cultivars resistant to RBDV-S or in Glen Clova plants, which were grafted successfully with samples from 15 infected plantations, indicating that no RB isolates were detected. The percentage of infected plantations increased with time from the planting date. In order to investigate possible sources of infection, ELISA for RBDV was made in 1999 on samples of stocks of raspberry cultivars entered for the lowest certified grade (Standard Grade) in Scotland and, in 1994 to 1997, on certified stocks planted with material originating from outside Scotland. No RBDV was detected in any of the samples. RBDV was found only rarely in samples of wild raspberry in Angus and Perthshire.


The development of a global framework for regulating GHG emissions from shipping is one of the most intensively discussed environmental topics in last decade. In general, shipping is considered an environmental friendly mode of transportation due to its energy-efficiency results. In July 2011 came a first mandatory global GHG reduction measure for the shipping industry. However, market-based mechanisms were also considered, since it is expected that there will be substantial growth in world trade during the next decades. These measures claim to regulate GHG emissions from international shipping in a cost effective and non-discriminatory way while achieving environmental targets and enhancing the sector's ability to invest in technological improvements. However, stakeholders have serious disagreements about the mechanisms, which seem to bring discussions to a deadlock. The aim of this paper is to provide an inter-subjective view of the current status, based on cause and effect analysis on the conflict areas.


Goal utility dependencies arise when the utility of achieving a goal depends on the other goals that are achieved with it. This complicates the planning procedure because achieving a new goal can potentially alter the utilities of all the other goals currently achieved. In this paper, we present an encoding procedure that enables general-purpose Max-SAT solvers to be used to solve planning problems with goal utility dependencies. We compare this approach to one using integer programming via an empirical evaluation using benchmark problems from past international planning competitions. Our results indicate that this approach is competitive and sometimes more successful than an integer programming one -- solving two to three times more subproblems in some domains, while being outperformed by only a significantly smaller margin in others.


The balance between protein folding and misfolding is a crucial determinant of amyloid assembly. Transient intermediates that are sparsely populated during protein folding have been identified as key players in amyloid aggregation. However, due to their ephemeral nature, structural characterization of these species remains challenging. Here, using the power of nonuniformly sampled NMR methods we investigate the folding pathway of amyloidogenic and nonamyloidogenic variants of β2-microglobulin (β2m) in atomic detail. Despite folding via common intermediate states, we show that the decreased population of the aggregation-prone ITrans state and population of a less stable, more dynamic species ablate amyloid formation by increasing the energy barrier for amyloid assembly. The results show that subtle changes in conformational dynamics can have a dramatic effect in determining whether a protein is amyloidogenic, without perturbation of the mechanism of protein folding.


In this thesis scanning probe techniques are used to study the transport properties of epitaxial-grown graphene on SiC on a local scale. It moreover focusses on the role of one-dimensional growth defects such as steps and interfaces as well as substitutional atomic species introduced by low-energy ion implantation.
In the first result part of this thesis we use scanning tunneling potentiometry (STP) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) to investigate the transport properties of localized defects in graphene. We present an STP-study focusing on the local voltage drop at these graphene monolayer-bilayer junctions. Here, we use STP to show that the voltage drop at this particular defect is not located strictly at its topographic position, but extends spatially up to a few nanometers into the bilayer side. Additionally, different scattering centers of the junction can be disentangled. Thus, we can show that the exact location of the voltage drop with respect to the defect gives additional insight into the underlying scattering mechanism.
In macroscopic transport experiments the electrical resistance of a sample is usually measured as a function of an external parameter like the charge carrier concentration, a magnetic field or temperature, since a scattering mechanism often leaves a unique fingerprint as a function of such parameters. Measuring defect resistances locally as a function of temperature or magnetic field is another subject of this thesis. Using KPFM, we study the variation of the local sheet resistance of graphene on SiO2 under ambient conditions and as a function of temperature in a range of 20° C – 100° C. Additionally, we resolve the defect resistance of a folded wrinkle for which a temperature-independent model yields the best fit to the data. Thus, we suggest a scattering mechanism due to the interlayer tunneling between graphene layers, different from transport on the pristine graphene sheets. In addition, we introduce a new magnetic field STP setup. We study the local sheet resistance and defect resistance as a function of magnetic field up to 6 T. We are able to extract the charge carrier concentration locally evaluating the change in electric fields similar to the macroscopic Hall effect. We find the resistance of localized defects such as steps and monolayer-bilayer junctions along with their respective underlying scattering mechanisms to be independent on the magnetic field.
In the second part of this thesis we investigate the properties of substitutional doping atoms in graphene. Defects can be used for electronic band engineering, in particular via atomic doping. Foreign atoms have been used in the past already to change the charge carrier concentration in graphene. However, while the charge carrier concentration is in this way nicely tunable, the presence of additional scatterers reduces the electric conductivity. In a first study we introduce doping with single nitrogen atoms in graphene. In this structural analysis, we use STM topography measurements to investigate substitutional nitrogen implanted by low-energy ion implantation. We find that only 10% of the ions get implanted, most likely due to adsorbate layers present during the ion bombardment. Moreover, we find that they are not randomly distributed, but observe a short-range ordering triggered by the 6x6-corrugation emerging from the underlying substrate. In a second study we investigate the influence of single boron, nitrogen and carbon atoms in graphene by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) and additionally their influence on transport. We find by using STS that incorporation of nitrogen and boron atoms leads to effective doping of the graphene sheet and reduces or raises the position of the Fermi level. Additionally, the influence of foreign atoms and defects is investigated in macroscopic transport experiments. While for all samples the sheet resistance increases compared to pristine graphene, this effect is especially pronounced for samples with lattice defects (e.g. vacancies) and less for dopant atoms only. The positive magnetoresistance of pristine graphene changes to a strong negative one for ion-implanted samples by the effect of weak localization.


At the beginning of the second millennium, Asia's most venerable organisation, the Buddhist saṅgha, underwent a final and radical change. In the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, the monastic order, long the preserve of celibate renunciants, began to accommodate noncelibate practitioners of tantric yoga and their partners. Today it survives among the Newars as a hereditary institution, the last bastion of the formerly widespread Sanskritic Buddhist tradition. When and in what form does this tantric monasticism begin to appear?
The deepest transformations are generally accepted to have taken place between the late tenth and fourteenth centuries—the little-known Transitional Period, mythologised in Nepal's native histories and rarely studied by historians. Attention is directed here towards the rapid evolution of an ancient monastic ritual, the fast or poṣadha, which is still celebrated in Newar Buddhism as a tantric aṣṭamīvrata. The poṣadha ceremony is shown to have been reshaped to accommodate the tantric 'beginner practitioner' (ādikarmika), who should take the eight abstemious poṣadha vows as a first step towards the sensuous praxis of the Buddhist tantras, as recommended in Hevajratantra II.8.9 and in later manuals of initiation (abhiṣeka). In being repurposed as a prelude to carnal tantrism, the poṣadha celebration superseded the old Prātimokṣa recitation that was formerly at its core, adopting in its place theist-oriented vrata ritual, kāvya genre storytelling and a reworked cult of Amoghapāśa Avalokiteśvara. Throughout the period the views of major South Asian authorities on tantric–monastic religiosity — Vāgīśvarakīrti, Bhavabhaṭṭa, Ratnākaraśānti, Puṇḍarīka, Dīpaṃkaraśrījnāna, Advayavajra, Kuladatta, Manjukīrti, Abhayākaragupta, Tatakaragupta, Jagaddarpaṇa and Vibhūticandra, in particular — are found to be circulating in the bāhāḥ and bahī monasteries of Nepal. A key document of the transition is the previously unstudied Poṣadhavidhāna handbook, preserved in a unique witness at the Royal Asiatic Society, London, which is edited and studied for the first time in the present thesis.
Another fruitful source for the period is donor portraiture, which is mined here for new information on the lives of tantric monks. Several paintings portray their donors with both monastic and lay characteristics, and monks are often depicted in the company of worldly gurus, vajrācāryas and female partners. The iconography associated with these portraits — as explained in texts such as the sādhanas of the Saptākṣara form of Cakrasaṃvara — implicates them in erotic tantric practice. The growing trade in art on tantric subjects is also shown to coincide with the growth of tantric monasteries. From the late twelfth century onwards a habit of alternation between monastic and non-monastic behaviour is discerned in written dedications to so-called 'householder monks' as well as in contemporaneous tracts on how to go about in public as a tantric monk. These developments are identified as the forerunners of a largely uncodified form of Buddhism that persists in Nepal to the present day.


This paper discusses the tendency to neglect socio-affective dimensions when researching cultural artifacts. It regards such an omission as a missing link in ethnomathematics research activities and that ignoring such aspects of artifacts predisposes one to make the information obtained thereof abstract and meaningless to the learner. It acknowledges the need to incorporate into the classroom both the artistic motif and the messages coded therein. The paper ends by suggesting the seniority reputational research approach as an alternative research method to investigating mathematical concepts in cultural artefacts.


Data-driven computing and using data for strategic advantages are exemplified by communication systems, and the speech intelligibility in communication systems is generally interrupted by interfering noise. This interference comes from the environmental noise, so it can reduce them intelligibility by masking the interested signal. An important work in communication systems is to extract speech from noisy speech and inhibiting background noise. The primary purpose of speech noise reduction system is to extract pure speech from speech signal with noise. The focus of this paper is to build a new noise reduction system on the basis of the optimization of digital noise reduction algorithms. According to the program simulation results based on MATLAB, the digital noise reduction system has many improved performances in the low SNR and achieves more than 5dB-15dB on noise reduction. The combined algorithm was tested under different noise conditions, and data display that the optimize performance of algorithm achieve the best. The simulation results demonstrate that it can get nearly three times better than the other two algorithms. The output signal of combined algorithm are very close to the pure speech signal, the performance of restore the voice signal is better than the other two algorithms.


In early 2006, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called for more detailed research into the relevant international standards and national and international practices concerning the role of victims in criminal proceedings. In response to this call and the increased attention paid to victims at international criminal institutions, this study explores the role of victims in international criminal proceedings. As such, the aim of this study is threefold: (i) to describe, explain and clarify the procedural role afforded to victims in international criminal proceedings; (ii) to evaluate whether the current approaches to victim participation in international criminal proceedings are consistent with human rights standards; and (iii) to determine the proper scope and content of victim participation in international criminal proceedings. To structure the analysis, the framework focuses on two central concepts, namely the unique characteristics of international criminal proceedings and human rights standards. Broken up into two main parts, the first part of the study covers criminal law theories and the current role afforded to victims in domestic jurisdictions. It further examines the development of their procedural rights both domestically and internationally. The second part of the study then deals exclusively with international criminal justice institutions and the participatory rights afforded to victims therein. Using two case studies, one on the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the other on the International Criminal Court, the research highlights how these courts have approached the issue of victim participation. The study concludes with general recommendations. It is hoped that the findings of this study may contribute to a better understanding of competing rights within international criminal justice and that they provide those involved in the shaping of international criminal justice a means through which to view the participatory rights of victims.


As biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, an important current scientific challenge is to understand and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss. Here, we develop a theory that predicts the temporal variability of community biomass from the properties of individual component species in monoculture. Our theory shows that biodiversity stabilises ecosystems through three main mechanisms: (1) asynchrony in species' responses to environmental fluctuations, (2) reduced demographic stochasticity due to overyielding in species mixtures and (3) reduced observation error (including spatial and sampling variability). Parameterised with empirical data from four long-term grassland biodiversity experiments, our prediction explained 22-75% of the observed variability, and captured much of the effect of species richness. Richness stabilised communities mainly by increasing community biomass and reducing the strength of demographic stochasticity. Our approach calls for a re-evaluation of the mechanisms explaining the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem stability.


Individuals manipulating and diffusing knowledge are constituting various knowledge commu- nities. We show that the dynamics of these communities may be adequately described and ap- praised through a formal framework based on the joint use of a social and a semantic network. By empirically assessing network processes and, notably, the underpinnings of collaboration formation, we substantiate the hypothesis that a coevolution of both the social network and the distribution of concepts throughout the network makes it possible to explain the occurrence of several stylized facts relevant for these communities, foremost the emergence and dynamic sta- bility of epistemic communities and various types of self-reinforcing social and socio-semantic heterogeneities and homogeneities in the network. We focus on the case study of a well-defined scientific community working on a precise research topic, the zebrafish.


Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) has become a popular area of research and study in recent years. This can be highlighted by the number of peer reviewed articles that have appeared in academic literature. This coupled with the realisation by companies that SCRM strategies are required to mitigate the risks that they face, makes for challenging research questions in the field of risk management. The challenge that companies face today is not only to identify the types of risks that they face, but also to assess the indicators of risk that face them. This will allow them to mitigate that risk before any disruption to the supply chain occurs. The use of social network theory can aid in the identification of disruption risk. This thesis proposes the combination of social networks, behavioural risk indicators and information management, to uniquely identify disruption risk. The propositions that were developed from the literature review and exploratory case study in the aerospace OEM, in this thesis are:- By improving information flows, through the use of social networks, we can identify supply chain disruption risk. - The management of information to identify supply chain disruption risk can be explored using push and pull concepts. The propositions were further explored through four focus group sessions, two within the OEM and two within an academic setting. The literature review conducted by the researcher did not find any studies that have evaluated supply chain disruption risk management in terms of social network analysis or information management studies. The evaluation of SCRM using these methods is thought to be a unique way of understanding the issues in SCRM that practitioners face today in the aerospace industry.


Skin is the major organ of the human body which plays a vital role in maintaining health of human being. Certain diseases defined as infectious or communicable diseases are caused by pathogenic organisms. Some of the most common causative microorganisms related with infections include Staphylococcus aureus, Mycobacterium species, Lactobacillus species, Entrococcus species, Enterobacter aerogenes and Corynebacterium species. Most of the diseases spread by the bacteria which invade inside the body through skin. Bacterial infections on skin are the common ailment for generation of other disease in the body. Bacterial diseases are type of infectious diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria. These infections disturb the body immune system and causes inflammation, tissue damage and thus resulting in delayed wound healing process. The present study was undertaken to investigate the antibacterial effect of bitter leaf extract on pathogenic organisms isolated from wound. The antibacterial activities of bitter leaf extract (V, amygdalina) were determined against wound pathogens isolated from our study using Disc diffusion method for antibiotic sensitivity. The prevalence of the isolated wound pathogens were Corynebacterium species (80%), Staphylococcus aureus (50%), and Enterobacter aerogenes (30%). All the extracts showed marked antibacterial activity but to varied zones of inhibition.


Abstract: This paper presents a discrete software reliability growth model (SRGM) and introduces the concept of two types of imperfect debugging during software fault removal phenomenon with Logistic Fault removal rate. Most of the discrete SRGMs discussed in the literature seldom differentiate between the failure observation and fault removal processes. In real software development environment, the number of failures observed need not be same as the number of error removed. If the number of failures observed is more than the number of faults removed then we have the case of imperfect debugging. Due to the complexity of the software system and the incomplete understanding of the software requirements, specifications and structure, the testing team may not be able to remove the fault perfectly on the detection of the failure and the original fault may remain or get replaced by another fault. While the first phenomenon is known as imperfect fault debugging, the second is called fault generation. In case of imperfect fault debugging the fault content of the software is not changed, but just because of incomplete understanding of the software, the detected fault is not removed completely. But in case of error generation the fault content increases as the testing progresses and removal results in introduction of new faults while removing old ones. n. The model has been validated, evaluated and compared with other existing discrete NHPP models by applying it on actual failure / fault removal data sets cited from real software development projects. The results show that the proposed model provides improved goodness of fit and predictive validity for software failure / fault removal data.


The complexity of the relationships between the actors of a building project requires high efficiency in communication. Among other things, data sharing is crucial. The exchange of data is made possible by interfaces between expert programs, which rely on product models. The latter are neutral standards with formal definitions of building objects and their attributes. This paper deals with the state of the art and the research activities concerning product models in the steel construction domain and the advantages provided by this technology for the sector.


New technologies change the recording of our life stories. They challenge us to make a coherent picture from so many digital puzzle pieces. Online, we have been given a rich variety of what I call $2 and seemingly unlimited space to collect personal data. However, we have not given users the conceptual and practical tools to help people create cohesive, meaningful life narratives out of all these digital fragments. Bottom line: we are very good at capturing data, but we are not good, yet, at helping people make sense of all these digital narrative elements. This paper asks the audience to reimagine Gmail as a storyworld. The goal is to provide new insights that advance academic conversations about personal digital archives, which will become an essential element of Web 3.0. Using data from participant interviews, this paper makes the case that personal digital archives produce meaningful, conflicting emotions in people, and they provide insight into how technology shapes how we understand ourselves.


JEL classification: C23 G21 G28 Keywords: Bank failure Small banks Efficiency measures Hazard model a b s t r a c t Cooperative banks are small credit institutions, and they are more likely than commercial banks to default in periods of financial stability. Focusing on Italy (one of the largest cooperative banking markets), we analyze the contribution of efficiency to the estimation of the probability of default of cooperative banks. We estimate several measures of bank efficiency, and we run a discrete-time survival model to determine whether different managerial abilities play different roles in predicting bank failures. We show that higher efficiency levels (both in cost minimization and revenue and profit maximization) have a positive and statistically significant link with the probability of survival of cooperative banks. We also find that capital adequacy reduces the probability of default, supporting the view that higher capital buffers provide additional loss absorbency and reduce moral hazard problems.


Large-scale graph processing systems typically expose a small set of functions, such as the compute() function of Pregel, or the gather(), apply(), and scatter() functions of PowerGraph. For some computations, these APIs are too low-level, yielding long and complex programs, but with shared coding patterns. Similar issues with the MapReduce framework have led to widely-used languages such as Pig Latin and Hive, which introduce higher-level primitives. We take an analogous approach for graph processing: we propose HelP, a set of high-level primitives that capture commonly appearing operations in large-scale graph computations. Using our primitives we have implemented a large suite of algorithms, some of which we previously implemented with the APIs of existing systems. Our experience has been that implementing algorithms using our primitives is more intuitive and much faster than using the APIs of existing distributed systems. All of our primitives and algorithms are fully implemented as a library on top of the open-source GraphX system.