An extramedullary plasmacytoma involving the gastrointestinal tract is extremely rare. We report an appendiceal extramedullary plasmacytoma in a 35-year-old man who presented to the emergency department because of upper abdominal pain. Computed tomography (CT) imaging revealed an incidental mass (3.7 × 1.9 × 1.6 cm) at the tip of the appendix. Microscopically, the appendix, periappendiceal soft tissue, and nearby lymph nodes were diffusely infiltrated by plasma cells that were kappa light chain restricted. Subsequent workup included an unremarkable bone marrow biopsy, as well as urine and serum electrophoresis. A diagnosis of kappa-restricted solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma was made. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported of an appendiceal extramedullary plasmacytoma in the medical literature.


Verification and validation of numerical models of natural systems is impossible. This is because natural systems are never closed and because model results are always nonunique. Models can be confirmed by the demonstration of agreement between observation and prediction, but confirmation is inherently partial. Complete confirmation is logically precluded by the fallacy of affirming the consequent and by incomplete access to natural phenomena. Models can only be evaluated in relative terms, and their predictive value is always open to question. The primary value of models is heuristic.


Ever since the cyber attacks against the computer networks of European governments and defence and foreign ministries have become public knowledge, security policy-makers have insisted that the EU Member States need to develop more adequate cyber-defence and cyber-retaliation capabilities. However, the EU continues to base its cyber-security strategy on the resilience of Information and Communication Technology Infrastructures and cyber diplomacy as part of its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) so as to position itself as a force for peace. Its Joint EU Diplomatic Response to Malicious Cyber Activities, adopted in October 2017, primarily stipulates non-military instruments that could contribute to "the mitigation of cybersecurity threats, conflict prevention and greater stability in international relations". Faced with increasing activities infrastructures, Europe would be welladvised to adhere to the step-by-step cyber-diplomacy plan, which is based on the principle of due diligence.


Nuclear physics deals more and more with experiments involving a large number of parameters. The analysis of such experiments requires well adapted statistical techniques. The multivariate analysis techniques consist in the representation of the experimental events as points in the multidimensional space of the physical variables. One aim will be to treat experimental information as a whole. This formalism permits the simultaneous studies of the structures of the event cloud and of the correlations between the variables. Principal Component Analysis is concerned with the determination of the so-called principal variables, linear combinations of the primary physical variables, which represent the maximum information. Correspondence Analysis visualises, on a 2D diagram, the correlations between the modalities of qualitative variables. The goal of the Discriminant Analysis is to discriminate different types of events, that is to affect them to a familly. The last part of the work is devoted to a global protocol, involving the PCA, for the comparison of experimental data with data generated by a simulation code.


The September 11th episode not only marked the end of the Cold War, but of the Balance of Powers Diplomacy, through which the nation-states defin e themselves as enemies, and solve their problems with war or war threat. Today the major countries do not have enemies among other nation-states. Slowly Globalization's Politics replace the previous system, as long as globalization gets regulated, and the rule of law emerges at international level. In the global world we have three types of countries: the rich, the ones of intermediary development, and the poor. Globalization is inherently unjust to the latter. Unable to compete in a world where competition prevails everywhere, such countries are either just outside the system, or, frustrated, recur to terrorism. Interests, however, do not point out only in the direction of inequalities. Through politics, i.e., through debate and argument, it will be possible to create a less unjust international law system. And also though it, the hope in an international government ceases to be a mere utopia.


Large ice streams that drain the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) are currently thinning, accelerating and retreating rapidly (e.g. Rignot et al. 2014). These ice streams are assumed to have reached the continental shelf edge during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; c. 23–19 cal ka BP), some 450 km north of the modern grounding line (e.g. Larter et al. 2014). Recent modelling results suggest that the expanded LGM ice sheet was characterized by fast-flowing regions across the entire ASE shelf (Golledge et al. 2013). However, the original geomorphological imprint of former fast ice-flow has usually only been preserved within deep palaeo-ice stream troughs, for example as mega-scale glacial lineations (MSGLs) (Clark 1993). In contrast, the morphological record in inter-ice stream settings is believed to have been subsequently obliterated by ploughing iceberg keels (e.g. Dowdeswell & Bamber 2007). As a result, evidence for palaeo-ice sheet dynamics in these regions, which make up a substantial portion of the former ice-sheet bed, remain largely understudied (Ottesen & Dowdeswell 2009). The undisturbed geomorphological record from a palaeo-inter-ice stream setting in the ASE, north of Burke Island, revealed an assemblage of subglacial landforms that is entirely different from those in the deep troughs (Klages et al. 2013). The geomorphological record therefore provides new insights into basal conditions of the former WAIS in the Amundsen Sea sector that is also relevant to other sectors and to ice-sheet beds outside Antarctica.

The seafloor in the inter-ice stream setting between the Pine Island (PIT) and the Abbot (AT) palaeo-ice stream troughs in the ASE (Fig. 1a) is characterized by a unique assemblage of glacial landforms that includes the following features (Klages et al. 2013, 2015).

 Fig. 1.
Multibeam-bathymetry and acoustic sub-bottom profiles of submarine glacial landforms in an inter-ice stream setting …


The events in granulosa cells that are initiated by the midcycle LH surge during luteinization of the primate follicle are poorly defined. This study was designed 1) to determine whether an ovulatory dose of hCG can induce progesterone receptors (PR) in macaque granulosa cells, and if so, 2) to begin titrating gonadotropin requirements for PR expression and progesterone production by luteinizing granulosa cells. Rhesus monkeys were treated with human FSH and LH for up to 9 days to stimulate the growth of multiple follicles. The next day, animals (n = 4-5/group) received: 1) no ovulatory stimulus; 2) 1000 IU hCG, im; 3) one injection of 100 micrograms GnRH, sc (GnRH-1); 4) three injections of GnRH (GnRH-3) at 3-h intervals (0800, 1100, and 1400 h); or 5) two injections of 50 micrograms GnRH agonist (GnRHa), sc, 8 h apart (0800 and 1700 h). Granulosa cells obtained by follicle aspiration 27 h after the hCG or initial GnRH/GnRHa injection or on days 8 or 10 from animals receiving no ovulatory stimulus were processed for indirect immunocytochemistry using a monoclonal antibody to human PR (JZB39). Specific staining for PR, determined by comparing cells incubated with PR antibody vs. a nonspecific antibody, was undetectable in granulosa cells from monkeys without an ovulatory stimulus. In contrast, the majority (64 +/- 5%) of cells from hCG-treated animals stained intensely for PR. In the GnRH/GnRHa groups, granulosa cells from only one animal (i.e. one GnRH-3 monkey) showed positive staining for PR. During 24-h culture in Ham's F-10 medium containing 10% monkey serum, basal progesterone production by cells from the hCG-treated group (2163 nmol/L.8 x 10(4) cells) was higher than that by cells from the no ovulatory stimulus/GnRH-1/GnRH-3/GnRHa groups (60, 111, 194, and 332 nmol/L, respectively). However, granulosa cells from the hCG-treated group were less responsive to hCG in vitro in terms of enhanced progesterone production (2 times control levels) than cells from the other four groups (up to 30 times control levels). This study provides direct evidence that an ovulatory dose of hCG induces PR expression in granulosa cells of luteinizing follicles during stimulated cycles in rhesus monkeys. However, repeated injections of GnRH/GnRHa that produced surge levels (greater than 100 ng/mL) of endogenous LH for up to 14 h failed to induce PR expression or progesterone production by granulosa cells. Thus, an extended LH surge more typical of that in the normal menstrual cycle (48-50 h) may be necessary for PR expression and luteinization of granulosa cells in primate follicles.


The social media revolution has produced a plethora of web services to which users can easily upload and share multimedia documents. Despite the popularity and convenience of such services, the sharing of such inherently personal data, including speech data, raises obvious security and privacy concerns. In particular, a user's speech data may be acquired and used with speech synthesis systems to produce high-quality speech utterances which reflect the same user's speaker identity. These utterances may then be used to attack speaker verification systems. One solution to mitigate these concerns involves the concealing of speaker identities before the sharing of speech data. For this purpose, we present a new approach to speaker anonymization. The idea is to extract linguistic and speaker identity features from an utterance and then to use these with neural acoustic and waveform models to synthesize anonymized speech. The original speaker identity, in the form of timbre, is suppressed and replaced with that of an anonymous pseudo identity. The approach exploits state-of-the-art x-vector speaker representations. These are used to derive anonymized pseudo speaker identities through the combination of multiple, random speaker x-vectors. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is effective in concealing speaker identities. It increases the equal error rate of a speaker verification system while maintaining high quality, anonymized speech.


In this study, composite membranes were fabricated via layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly of negatively charged silica aerogel (SiA) and 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (FTCS) on a polyvinylidene fluoride phase inversion membrane and interconnecting them with positively charged poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) via electrostatic interaction. The results showed that the PDDA-SiA-FTCS coated membrane had significantly enhanced the membrane structure and properties. New trifluoromethyl and tetrafluoroethylene bonds appeared at the surface of the coated membrane, which led to lower surface free energy of the composite membrane. Additionally, the LBL membrane showed increased surface roughness. The improved structure and property gave the LBL membrane an omniphobic property, as indicated by its good wetting resistance. The membrane performed a stable air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) flux of 11.22 L/m2 h with very high salt rejection using reverse osmosis brine from coal seam gas produced water as feed with the addition of up to 0.5 mM SDS solution. This performance was much better compared to those of the neat membrane. The present study suggests that the enhanced membrane properties with good omniphobicity via LBL assembly make the porous membranes suitable for long-term AGMD operation with stable permeation flux when treating challenging saline wastewater containing low surface tension organic contaminants.


Ancient palm leaf manuscripts in Thailand have been preserved by many organizations for the protection and retrieval of traditional knowledge. With advanced computer technology, digitized media is now commonly used to record these documents. One objective of such work is to develop an efficient image processing system that could be used to retrieve knowledge and information automatically from these manuscripts. Binarization is an important stage during preprocessing of the manuscripts for subsequent extraction of text and characters. The output is then used for further processes such as character recognition and knowledge extraction. However, there is no single binarization technique that is suitable for all documents. This study aims to improve the binarization process intelligently by applying machine learning techniques to classify the optimal selection of binarization techniques of palm leaf manuscripts. Experiments results are reported and this technique could be applied for automatic selection of binarization techniques in other image processing problems.


High Speed Rail (HSR) operating at maximum speeds of above 250km/h with electric passenger trains are now operational in at least 11 countries. As the feasibility of building an Australian East Coast HSR network between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane is once again being examined, governments at Federal, State and Local levels need to develop complementary transport infrastructure and services to ensure the long-term financial and operational success of HSR. The lengthy time frame currently envisaged for completing the first stage of an Australian East Coast HSR network by 2035 provides a 20-year window for improving and upgrading urban and regional rail systems to make them lHSR readyr. This paper explores an incremental approach to providing a HSR network that will allow progressive enhancements rather than the currently recommended lbig bangr approach and identify changes required to produce a healthy intercity rail network to complement a successful HSR network.


Vihiga, one of the poorest and densely populated districts in Kenya is perpetually food deficit (GOK, 2005). While food demand continued to rise, production fell behind both targeted production and district demand. To make matters worse food deficit situation worsened over the last decade. Rising population and competition for resources have curtailed efforts to improve household food production in the district. Unfavorable poverty indicators in the district only make matters worse. About 57.6 percent of the population and more than 50 percent of households live below absolute poverty line while 57 percent of the population and households live below food poverty line (GOK, 2005). Poor welfare indicators for Vihiga district underscore the importance and urgency for addressing its basic needs. Understanding determinants of food security in Vihiga district will improve targeting, the focus and success of policies for addressing food insecurity. The paper examines food security in a subsistence economy with an application of a Translog cost function to household survey data in Vihiga district to determine the supply side constraints. Cluster sampling was used with divisions forming the main clusters in the district. Using systematic random sampling, 50 households were selected from each cluster resulting in a sample of 300. Results show that scale of production, number of adults, household head, business income, employment; human resource development, capital, and land size significantly influence household food security. Food security programmes, in subsistence economies, aimed at revamping production should focus more on enhancing accessibility to production resources and improving the quality of labor through training. Key Words: Food security, Translog cost function, Vihiga, Kenya


ABSTRACT The PhcA virulence regulator in the vascular wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum responds to cell density via quorum sensing. To understand the timing of traits that enable R. solanacearum to establish itself inside host plants, we created a ΔphcA mutant that is genetically locked in a low-cell-density condition. Comparing levels of gene expression of wild-type R. solanacearum and the ΔphcA mutant during tomato colonization revealed that the PhcA transcriptome includes an impressive 620 genes (>2-fold differentially expressed; false-discovery rate [FDR], ≤0.005). Many core metabolic pathways and nutrient transporters were upregulated in the ΔphcA mutant, which grew faster than the wild-type strain in tomato xylem sap and on dozens of specific metabolites, including 36 found in xylem. This suggests that PhcA helps R. solanacearum to survive in nutrient-poor environmental habitats and to grow rapidly during early pathogenesis. However, after R. solanacearum reaches high cell densities in planta, PhcA mediates a trade-off from maximizing growth to producing costly virulence factors. R. solanacearum infects through roots, and low-cell-density-mode-mimicking ΔphcA cells attached to tomato roots better than the wild-type cells, consistent with their increased expression of several adhesins. Inside xylem vessels, ΔphcA cells formed aberrantly dense mats. Possibly as a result, the mutant could not spread up or down tomato stems as well as the wild type. This suggests that aggregating improves R. solanacearum survival in soil and facilitates infection and that it reduces pathogenic fitness later in disease. Thus, PhcA mediates a second strategic switch between initial pathogen attachment and subsequent dispersal inside the host. PhcA helps R. solanacearum optimally invest resources and correctly sequence multiple steps in the bacterial wilt disease cycle. IMPORTANCE Ralstonia solanacearum is a destructive soilborne crop pathogen that wilts plants by colonizing their water-transporting xylem vessels. It produces its costly virulence factors only after it has grown to a high population density inside a host. To identify traits that this pathogen needs in other life stages, we studied a mutant that mimics the low-cell-density condition. This mutant (the ΔphcA mutant) cannot sense its own population density. It grew faster than and used many nutrients not available to the wild-type bacterium, including metabolites present in tomato xylem sap. The mutant also attached much better to tomato roots, and yet it failed to spread once it was inside plants because it was trapped in dense mats. Thus, PhcA helps R. solanacearum succeed over the course of its complex life cycle by ensuring avid attachment to plant surfaces and rapid growth early in disease, followed by high virulence and effective dispersal later in disease. Ralstonia solanacearum is a destructive soilborne crop pathogen that wilts plants by colonizing their water-transporting xylem vessels. It produces its costly virulence factors only after it has grown to a high population density inside a host. To identify traits that this pathogen needs in other life stages, we studied a mutant that mimics the low-cell-density condition. This mutant (the ΔphcA mutant) cannot sense its own population density. It grew faster than and used many nutrients not available to the wild-type bacterium, including metabolites present in tomato xylem sap. The mutant also attached much better to tomato roots, and yet it failed to spread once it was inside plants because it was trapped in dense mats. Thus, PhcA helps R. solanacearum succeed over the course of its complex life cycle by ensuring avid attachment to plant surfaces and rapid growth early in disease, followed by high virulence and effective dispersal later in disease.


The database of satellite images covering the earth is growing extremely quickly and represents an important amount of data. The extension of this huge amount of data with images from very different sources and time of acquisition can provide a wide range of applications. The climate change monitoring could be more easily achieved or Natural disasters (deforestation, floods, dry rivers, earthquake) characterized by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), allowing a rapid intervention. This project aims to realize a robust registration of images from different modalities (view angle, resolution, sensors sensitivity) having temporal changes and possible novelties. A novelty would be a change not due to normal season changes, like with new buildings or natural disaster. An introduction to the application of novelty detection on multi-modal and multi-temporal images is discussed based on recent research on novelty detection. Video recordings from UAV are provided by RUAG. Different flight conditions have been realized to get a wide range of images, in terms of content, view angle, field of view or stabilization. The images, taken as reference, are from satellite (SPOT 5) and airborne (Google Map) sources. A registration algorithm based on the phase-correlation allowing to retrieve rotation, scaling and translation between two images is proposed. It handles the multi-modal characteristics of the images by correcting the perspective deformation, exploiting the redundancy of video sequence and adaptively choose between the image edges or the extraction of large structure from the image depending on the image frequency content. The results are encouraging for the possibility of novelty detection. The algorithm is sensitive to the initial conditions but accurate registration with stabilized and unstabilized flights is achieved using Google Maps. Less precise registration is achieved with SPOT images coming from their lower resolution.


In the course of our work on infectious diseases, we were led to prepare 6-bromo-2-chloro-4-methylquinoline as a starting material. Since surprisingly little has been reported in the literature, the two synthetic steps to this compound were investigated. The synthesis involves a condensation between b-keto esters and 4-bro- moaniline and the cyclization of the resulting anilides into 6-bromo- quinolin-2(1H)-one, otherwise known as the Knorr reaction. The 1 H NMR monitoring of the first step allowed us to optimize the condi- tions leading specifically to the anilide without the occurrence of the alternative crotonate. To illustrate the scope of our finding, few additional anilides featuring electron-attracting groups were pre- pared. The study of their cyclization revealed some unsuspected steric effect governing this second step. Aside from rectifying a few claims in this chemistry, this study led to a three-step preparation of 6-bromo-2-chloro-4-methylquinoline in 48% overall yield from 4- bromoaniline.


OBJECTIVE--The aim was to study the association between personal factors and physical and psychosocial work environment factors and disorders of the neck or upper limbs among women in the fish processing industry. METHODS--A cross sectional study was performed on 206 women in the fish processing industry and 208 control women. Several physical and psychosocial work environment factors were evaluated. Subjective complaints about the neck or upper limbs were assessed by questionnaire and by a clinical examination. RESULTS--The study showed a high prevalence (35%) of diagnoses in the neck or shoulders of the exposed women. All prevalence odds ratios (POR's) were substantially higher in young women. There was a pronounced dose-response relation between disorders of the neck or shoulders and duration of employment for women < 45 years old. When studying 322 former workers, the proportion who claimed musculoskeletal complaints as the reason for leaving was highest among the older women. Muscular tension, stress or worry, work strain, and the largest fraction of the work time spent with highly repetitive work tasks were clearly associated with disorders of the neck or shoulders. The measurements of the wrist movements also showed that the work was performed almost without any pauses and that the median flexion and extension velocity was high (41 degree/s). The results of observation showed good agreement with the measurements of wrist motion. CONCLUSION--Work in the fish processing industry is a risk factor for disorders of the neck and upper limbs. Due to the homogenity of the physical work load in the exposed group, we could not show any associations between the objective measurements and disorders. In cross sectional studies the risk may be underestimated due to a healthy worker effect.


ObjectivesAlthough auricular acupuncture (AA) is suggested to be effective in treatment of pain, it has not yet been used for intraoperative analgesia. Therefore, we studied whether the AA reduces intraoperative analgesic requirement during total hip arthroplasty (THA). MethodsOne hundred and twenty patients scheduled for THA were enrolled in this patient-anesthesiologist-blinded study. The patients were randomly assigned to receive needling of specific AA points or a sham procedure (needling of 3 nonacupoints on the ear helix) ipsilateral to the surgery site. Fixed indwelling AA needles were placed in the evening before THA and withdrawn on the day after surgery. The patients received general anesthesia with desflurane, which end-tidal concentration was kept within 3.5 volume % to 5.5 volume % to maintain the Bispectral Index within 40% to 55%. The anesthesiologists were asked to titrate fentanyl to keep the heart rate and blood pressure within 20% of baseline values. The primary outcome was fentanyl amount given during surgery. The secondary outcome measures were incidence of nausea and vomiting and time to first request of analgesics in the recovery room. The success of patients' and anesthesiologist blinding was also documented. ResultsThe data of fentanyl requirement of 116 patients were available for the final analysis. Patients from AA group required 15% less fentanyl during surgery than the controls (4.6±1.1 &mgr;g/kg vs. 5.2±1.3 &mgr;g/kg; mean±SD; P=0.008). Demographic data and secondary outcome measures were comparable in both groups. DiscussionRegarding the modest clinical effect, AA should be further investigated for its clinical usefulness for complementary analgesia during the surgery.


Antibiotic resistance analysis (ARA) was used to determine if enterococci of human origin were present in a stream (Spout Run) that passes through a rural nonsewered community (Millwood, VA). Millwood consists of 82 homes, all served by individual septic systems, and Spout Run drains a 5,800-ha karst topography watershed that contains large populations of livestock and wildlife. Periodic monitoring by state regulatory officials had resulted in Spout Run being placed on the Virginia impaired stream list and Millwood being categorized as an at-risk community. Stream samples were collected monthly and analyzed for fecal coliforms and enterococci (May 1999-May 2000); ARA was performed on enterococci stream isolates on a quarterly basis. All 117 stream samples were positive for fecal coliforms, and 32% exceeded the Virginia recreational water standard (1,000 fecal coliforms/100 mL). A library of 1,174 known source Enterococcus isolate antibiotic resistance profiles was constructed, and yielded correct classification rates of 94.6% for 203 human isolates, 93.7% for 734 livestock isolates, and 87.8% for 237 wildlife isolates. Antibiotic resistance analysis of 2,012 enterococcal isolates recovered from stream samples indicated isolates of human origin appeared throughout the stream as it passed through Millwood, with a yearly average of approximately 10% human, 40% wildlife, and 50% livestock. There were no human origin isolates in samples collected upstream from Millwood, and the percent human origin isolates declined downstream from Millwood. While a human signature was found in Spout Run, it was small compared with the proportion of isolates from livestock and wildlife.


Strikes (and, to a lesser extent, lockouts) are painful but necessary parts of private-sector American labor-management relations. Even if they weren't - even if sound public policy called for their eradication - we couldn't stop them. They are an inevitable byproduct of the conflicting interests and limited resources of organized workers and their employers. History shows that this is true even in times of warfare overseas or crisis at home: labor-management strife lessens at the beginning of a conflict and then bounces back. Now, however, we are confronted with warfare at home, a phenomenon that the United States has not had to deal with since the Civil War - before the rise of today's unprecedentedly large, complex, and interdependent economy and government. And history is repeating itself again. After a lull at the beginning of the war with terrorists, work stoppages have returned to their pre-war levels. The overall rate of strike activity is substantially lower than it was during previous wars (it has been slowly declining, along with overall union membership in the private sector, for decades). Today's war, however, is being fought in part on American soil, and against enemies who operate worldwide, but whose attacks tend to be small and local, seeking advantage from the unpredictability and brutality of the damage they inflict rather than from its scale. Thus, even small, localized, and occasional work stoppages - not just the large-scale strikes that arguably affected the military-industrial complex and thus the war efforts in the past - have the potential to increase risks to critical infrastructure and public safety during the war on terror. In other words, persistent strike activity at current levels poses risks of public harm, albeit risks that are difficult to anticipate with specificity in the absence of much experience or available data. This justifies taking some reasonable precautions, including the proposal made in this Article. By its very nature, a labor strike increases the vulnerability of that employer's operations to a terrorist attack. A strike is an act specifically designed to disrupt and weaken an employer's operations, for the (usually) perfectly lawful purpose of pressing for resolution of a dispute with management. A weakened organization or other entity is, of course, less capable of resisting and surviving exogenous shocks, whether they be commercial competition or terrorist attacks. In the United States, with its fully extended and endlessly interconnected critical infrastructure that touches everything from food processing to energy distribution to water quality, a strike in the wrong place at the wrong time that disrupts and weakens some part of that infrastructure could be decisive in the success or failure of a terrorist attack of the small, local sort described above, on such a weakened link in some infrastructural chain. Of course, none of this is to suggest that any union or its members (or any employer or its managers) would knowingly expose their fellow citizens or their property to a terrorist attack. To the contrary, experience to date suggests that union members are at least as patriotic and conscientious as Americans in general. In fact, the effectiveness of the proposal made in this Article is predicated in part on the assumption that neither workers nor their employers will knowingly contribute to the incidence or effectiveness of terrorist attacks. The concern addressed here is, rather, that innocent instigators or perpetuators of a work stoppage might unwittingly facilitate a successful terrorist attack or aggravate its effects. Thus, the problem is determining how to regulate labor-management strife in a way that recognizes the inevitability (and benefits) of work stoppages and at the same time take steps to protect domestic critical infrastructure and the American people from opportunistic terrorists. This is not as hard as it sounds. The answer lies in the 1974 amendments to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The essential feature of those amendments is a short, easily administered waiting period that has, over the past three decades, protected the health and safety of hospital patients and other health care recipients without unduly gumming up the traditional works of labor-management relations. If slightly modified and then extended from its current limited application in the health care industry to critical infrastructure more generally, the waiting period structure of the 1974 amendments should serve a broader range of critical enterprises quite well. Such a modest and balanced legislative fix for such an unpredictable and potentially important problem should be acceptable to both labor and management interests - especially when the alternative is to leave the public exposed to the risk of a devastating attack which, if were it to happen, would surely trigger a legislative-regulatory backlash against those who knew or should have known of the dangerous conditions they were creating - creating not by engaging in a work stoppage, but by failing to take a simple, low-cost precaution before doing so. Part I of this Article lays out the unique threat posed by strikes (and, to a lesser extent, by lockouts) in the age of terror. Using American experience during the world wars, Part II shows that there is no way to prevent strikes from happening, foreclosing any argument for a fruitless ban on strikes or for some sort of nostalgic and fictional Greatest-Generation-inspired, return to a patriotic war footing regulation of labor-management relations. Part III reviews the generally applicable labor laws currently in force and shows that both experience and precedent limit their prospects for effective regulation of labor-management conflict in the age of terror, with the notable exception of the 1974 health care amendments to the NLRA. Part IV describes a proposed extension of the 1974 amendments to cover critical infrastructure more generally and explains how and why it would serve labor, management, and the American people in the age of terror. It would do so not by directly reducing strikes, lockouts, or the use of replacements (the three forms of risky work-stoppage-related behavior at which the proposed notice rule is directed), but rather by increasing transparency in the use of those weapons of labor-management conflict and thus increasing the opportunities for the parties, the government, and the public to share information and take appropriate precautions to avoid increased risks of effective terrorist attacks. The adoption of the rule proposed here would alter slightly the armaments of both labor and management, but in all likelihood it would do so without affecting the overall balance of power between them in any meaningful way.


Metaphors, in particular those with spatial source domains, are a frequent feature of the oratory of the Greek Church Father John Chrysostom (c. 349–407). Given that he was an accomplished religious orator with an eye for imagistic language, this article explores how spatial metaphors contribute to Chrysostom's achieving his persuasive goals. Adopting the approach of cognitive metaphor theory, it examines the treatise To Theodore with a focus on the epistemic and paraenetic functions fulfilled by conceptual metaphors. What is peculiar to Chrysostom's metaphor use is that he involves his audience in metaphorical scenarios created by his visual rhetoric, in order to make his readers reappraise their attitudes and behaviour and, at once, elicit from them a specific response to the present situation.


Distributed ledger technology emerged in 2009 as the protocol behind bitcoin, a cryptocurrency with origins in the 'cypherpunk' community who sought to use cryptography to secede from government control of money. Bitcoin's pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto said Bitcoin would be "very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint" and many in the crypto-anarchist community saw, and still see, cryptocurrencies as a means to free citizens from the monetary depredations of governments. But from these revolutionary secessionist origins, it has become apparent that not only are there many possible use cases of distributed ledger technology for government, but that government action through both regulation, legislation, and public investment might be a key factor in the adoption and development of this technological innovation. Governments can use blockchain technology to exploit the service efficiencies they may bring. But also, and perhaps counter-intuitively given their revolutionary origins, blockchain applications are likely to need government cooperation to facilitate adoption and the development of the blockchain economic system.


DEBELLIS (2009) ARGUES THAT INTROSPECTIONIST music theory, as represented in my book The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures ( CBMS ; Temperley, 2001), makes an ungrounded assumption that the intuitions of the author are shared by other theorists and by experienced listeners generally. But this inductive leap is motivated by experimental and corpus evidence showing that, with regard to basic structures such as meter, listeners largely do hear things in the same way; and this assumption is confirmed in CBMS by corpus tests in which my analyses are compared to those of other listeners. DeBellis suggests that what I was doing in CBMS was not accessing unconscious representations, but rather bringing new representations into existence. But this implies either that experienced listeners in general do not represent meter at all, or that they arrive at metrical analyses by a pre-theoretic process that is not available to music theorists; neither of these options is plausible.


Abstract After nearly 30 years in power, the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt, considered by many to be the strongest in the Arab world, collapsed suddenly in February 2011 after a mere 18 days of street protests. In this article, we try to explain the puzzling collapse of the Mubarak regime using regime transition theory. We argue that the Mubarak regime's collapse came about as a result of four key developments, none of which were sufficient to cause the regime's collapse, but when coalesced together exposed the regime's lack of coercive and persuasive powers, thereby hastening its demise. We conclude that regime transition theory, developed to explain the third wave of democratisations in the 1970s and 1980s, is still relevant in explaining transitions from authoritarian rule.


This paper outlines the results of a pilot study using data at 12 min intervals from 20 miniature temperature dataloggers to establish vertical and longitudinal temperature patterns within a river bed. Data are presented from two adjacent riffles immediately below the Blithfield Reservoir on the River Blithe, Staffordshire, UK, for a five day period in July 1994. Hyporheic temperatures were warmer than those of groundwater, colder than those of surface water and decreased with depth into the river bed. At the heads of the riffles shallow sites (20 cm depth) mirrored surface temperature patterns but were on average 1.53°C cooler while deeper sites (40 cm depth) were 2.60°C cooler on average. Hyporheic temperatures lagged behind the surface water pattern and lag times increased with depth. Sites at the riffle tails generally displayed temperature patterns similar to those of the groundwater system: on average, temperatures were 4.32°C cooler than surface water temperatures and showed no significant variation. Hyporheic temperature patterns at the heads of the riffles suggested downwelling surface water, while the tails appeared to be influenced by upwelling groundwater. Both riffles displayed similar hyporheic temperature patterns but riffle 1 was on average 1.22°C warmer per site than riffle 2. Temperature differences between the riffles are attributed to bed form and substratum composition. These factors may have significant ecological implications including rates of organic matter decomposition, invertebrate life cycles and salmonid egg hatching times.


Invasion of alien species poses serious threats to many ecosystems. Despite the potential of Sargassum muticum to spread and invade new areas, no attention has been given to the study of variability of structural or morphological features across different spatial scales. We employed a hierarchical sampling design to examine patterns of spatial variability of fertility and morphological variables of S. muticum over different spatial scales (quadrats, sites, locations, rias) ranging from metres to tens of kilometres We repeated the sampling in March, April and July to test for the consistency of patterns through time. There was no variability between rias (tens of kilometres apart), but substantial differences occurred at the other scales examined. Fertility and percent cover varied between locations (1.5-3 km apart), whereas morphological variables varied between sites (tens of metres apart) and quadrats (metres apart). Furthermore, patterns of variation were not consistent over time. The study demonstrated the importance of a multi-scale sampling programme for monitoring seaweed invasion.


Writing in the mid 1990s, Ewen Green suggested that the Edwardian Conservative Party was locked in a crisis which, after 1910, was leading towards a disintegration of Unionism. Recent research has challenged this view, contending that at constituency level, Conservative activists and parties were recovering, rebuilding around issues such as Ireland, land reform and opposition to National Insurance. However, there are few studies of the causes and consequences of the crisis of Conservatism in urban constituencies or the extent to which the party may have been recovering by the outbreak of the Great War. This article considers these issues in the city of Norwich. It assesses the profile of activists; the fortunes of the Conservatives in the parliamentary election contests of the period, addressing the ways the party used a variety of candidates to attempt to attract popular support; and the particular issues of tariff reform and socialism, to determine the extent to which voters and activists were willing to accept protection as part of a broader defence against socialism. These national issues are contrasted with the performance of the party in municipal elections, considering the basis of the growing appeal they evidenced in council elections after 1906, along with the continuing emphasis on organisational weakness evidenced by party leaders. Overall, it suggests that, despite their municipal strength, the continued commitment of the local party to tariffs prevented them from challenging effectively for the constituency against a Liberal-Labour alliance with a shared belief in free trade.


A dual GTO current source power converter topology with sinusoidal inputs is proposed for high power applications. The sinusoidal input current is realized by using PWM techniques to eliminate 11th and 13th harmonics and a transformer to cancel 5th, 7th, 17th and 19th harmonics. Three switching patterns are proposed with a switching frequency of 360 Hz or 420 Hz. The combination of these switching patterns provides a full range control over the DC output current. Resonant modes of the proposed system are identified and the criterion for the line capacitor design is provided. Simulation and experimental results are given to verify the theoretical analysis.


Background The hamstring muscles are susceptible to strain injury during sprinting, and the biceps femoris long head (BFlh) is reportedly the most frequently injured muscle. Therefore, elucidation of the risk factors is of particular concern for injury prevention. Objective To clarify the potential risk factors for the incidence of muscle strain injury in each hamstring muscle by comparing the time of occurrence of peak musculotendon length and electromyography (EMG) activation during the late swing phase of sprinting. Design Descriptive laboratory study. Setting Male college track and field athletes. Participants 13 male sprinters (age 20.2±0.6 years). Intervention Full-body kinematics and EMG of the BFlh and semitendinosus (ST) were recorded during overground sprinting at maximum effort. The hamstring musculotendon lengths were computed by using a three-dimensional musculoskeletal model. Main outcome measurements The time at the peak musculotendon length, in terms of percentage of the running gait cycle, was calculated and compared with that of the peak EMG activity. Results The peak length of the BFlh and ST was observed during the late swing phase, at 86.7% [2.5%] and 81.1% [2.5%] gait cycle, respectively (mean [SD]). A significant difference was observed in the time of the peak musculotendon length (P<.001). Peak EMG activation time of the BFlh occurred significantly later (86.0% [7.9%] gait cycle, P<.01) than that of the ST (76.2% [7.8%] gait cycle). The peak musculotendon length was synchronous with the peak EMG activation in the BFlh, while a statistically significant difference was observed between these values in the ST (P<.05). Conclusions The results indicate that the BFlh is exposed to instantaneous high tensile force during the late swing phase of sprinting, suggesting a higher potential risk for strain injury among the hamstring muscles.


The paper analyses the use of a historic risk premium as a proxy for the current premium allowing current tax rates to differ from historic rates. If tax rates are assumed constant, adjustments to the CAPM for an imputation system make the CAPM and cash flows to be discounted consistent with respect to tax, but do not model any effect of tax on the cost of equity. If tax rates are allowed to vary, and a historic premium is used, the cost of equity is affected by the level of tax at which investors are assumed to set their required premium. This is illustrated by considering the impact on the cost of equity of the change in the UK imputation system in July 1997.


The paper argues for particular multi-dimensional measures of the constructs 'parental stress' and 'parental confidence' as appropriate criteria for evaluation of the impact of development programming for parents of 0 – 4 year old children. Limited research has been reported concerning the impact of education based parenting interventions in alleviating parental stress and building parental confidence, consistent with the limited amount of effective evaluation reported overall in the area of parenting programming. We discuss the conceptual basis and measurement of parental stress and parental confidence, and propose a simple integrative model of parenting development. It is suggested that the constructs can be operationalized in a manner which harmonizes many extant variables and measures, taking in dimensions of 'cognitive', 'affective' and 'conative' domains. We further propose a broad program of research incorporating aspects of best practice, aimed at evaluation of the impact of education based parenting development programs on levels of parental stress and confidence. The paper builds both on evidence from the literature, and on a preliminary series of focus group interviews conducted with parents


Advancement in the design of large high-speed ferries demands comprehensive knowledge of
ship motions and wave-induced loads to optimise their structural integrity. This investigation
focused on the fluid structure-interaction problem experimentally to obtain such information.
Motions and loads were investigated by using two different high-speed catamaran models and
a full scale ship. Firstly, a hydroelastic segmented model (HSM) of the INCAT 112 m class
wavepiercer catamaran with centrebow was designed. It was tested in a towing tank for a range
of head seas conditions to determine the motion responses, vertical bending moment (VBM) and
slam loads. A second catamaran model was designed and tested in oblique seas in a model test
basin (MTB) to examine the motions and asymmetric wave-induced loads. Thirdly, full scale
measurements were performed during the delivery voyage of the INCAT 112 m Hull 064 from
Hobart in Australia to Hakodate in Japan, to measure the motions and structural load responses.
The structural dynamic behaviour of the full scale vessel was replicated by the HSM model and
the slamming and subsequent whipping behaviour were successfully modelled. As wave energy
was consumed in the structural vibration of the model, the heave and pitch transfer function
peaks reduced significantly when compared to the rigid configuration. The HSM test results
also showed a strong non-linear motion response, with respect to wave height for this type of
vessel, mainly due to the influence of the centrebow. The peak values for the VBM and slam
loads were confirmed to be proportional to the square of the wave height for large waves. The
MTB test model, which was not fitted with a centrebow, provided linear pitch, heave and roll
motions for varying wave heights. The pitch connecting moment was found to be the dominant
of the asymmetric wave loads and was linear with respect to wave height. During the full scale
measurement programme, slamming phenomena were clearly recorded whilst crossing the Bass
Strait. A reconstruction of the event, from the measured data, indicated that a slam event with
subsequent whipping occurred with a bow down trim. Spectral analysis was used to detect the
response frequencies of the VBM and machinery, with the frequency of the longitudinal mode
increasing as the displacement reduced.
These experimental programmes, encompassing model and full scale measurements, have revealed
valuable insights into the motion and structural dynamic behaviour of large high-speed
catamarans. A comprehensive set of motion transfer functions, VBM and slam loads coefficients
have been obtained, thus providing designers with important slam and wave load knowledge to
aid the improved structural optimisation of these vessels.


Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technology is receiving attention as an approach to reducing US dependency on foreign oil and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. PHEVs require large batteries for energy storage, which affect vehicle cost, weight, and performance. We construct PHEV simulation models to account for the effects of additional batteries on fuel consumption, cost, and GHG emissions over a range of charging frequencies (distance traveled between charges). We find that when charged frequently, every 20 miles or less, using average US electricity, small-capacity PHEVs are less expensive and release fewer GHGs than hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) or conventional vehicles. For moderate charging intervals of 20–100 miles, PHEVs release fewer GHGs, but HEVs have lower lifetime costs. High fuel prices, low-cost batteries, or high carbon taxes combined with low-carbon electricity generation would make small-capacity PHEVs cost competitive for a wide range of drivers. In contrast, increased battery specific energy or carbon taxes without decarbonization of the electricity grid would have limited impact. Large-capacity PHEVs sized for 40 or more miles of electriconly travel do not offer the lowest lifetime cost in any scenario, although they could minimize GHG emissions for some drivers and provide potential to shift air pollutant emissions away from population centers. The tradeoffs identified in this analysis can provide a space for vehicle manufacturers, policymakers, and the public to identify optimal decisions for PHEV design, policy and use. Given the alignment of economic, environmental, and national security objectives, policies aimed at putting PHEVs on the road will likely be most effective if they focus on adoption of small-capacity PHEVs by urban drivers who can charge frequently. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


The Find-Life-on-Mars event of the 1997 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition featured robots trying to find and collect stationary and moving colored objects in an arena littered with real rocks. The 2- day event had 11 entries participating in both single- robot and multirobot categories, both with and without manipulators. During the event, many of the robots successfully demonstrated object recognition, obstacle avoidance, exploration, and the collection and depositing of objects.


Problem statement: There are many evidences which show that the relationship between Tehran City and the Alborz mountain ranges is not favorable. Evidences also indicate that the city of Tehran and its people cannot benefit well from blessings and capacities of the northern mountains. Studies on the relationship between Tehran City and Alborz also show that residents of Tehran have become indifferent to Alborz Mountains. The authors of the present study argue that in difference of inhabitants of Tehran to the surrounding mountains has not happened all at once. With the loss of the mountain's functions over time, this very important natural element has been diminished in the minds of people. Considering multidimensionality of the issue, one of the ways to examine this subject is examining it from the viewpoint of experts. Research objective and research method: This study sought to explain the reasons for this undesirable relationship through the lens of experts. In this study, thematic analysis method was used to analyze the results obtained from semi-structured interviews with an exploratory approach with experts. Conclusion: According to hierarchical classification of results, four main theme emerged:(a) the reduction of mental and semantic status of the mountain; (b) incorrect understanding of the mountain and its capacities; (c) objective and physical approach to the mountain; and (d) cultural issues; also the eleven sub-themes were (a) advent of religion; (b) advent of technology; (c) advent of modernity; (d) planning system; (e) partial and merely environmental view of the mountain; (f) economic approaches; (g) mountain accessibility; (h) changes in people's lifestyle; (i) changes in epistemological model of people; (j) people's common beliefs; and (k) reduction of people's belonging, which fall under the main themes.


JIPITEC 9 (2018) 1 - This work presents ten arguments against algorithmic decision-making. These re-volve around the concepts of ubiquitous discretionary interpretation, holistic intu-ition, algorithmic bias, the three black boxes, psychology of conformity, power of sanctions, civilising force of hypocrisy, pluralism, empathy, and technocracy. Nowadays algorithms can decide if one can get a loan, is allowed to cross a bor-der, or must go to prison. Artificial intelligence techniques (natural language pro-cessing and machine learning in the first place) enable private and public deci-sion-makers to analyse big data in order to build profiles, which are used to make decisions in an automated way. The lack of transparency of the algorithmic deci-sion-making process does not stem merely from the characteristics of the relevant techniques used, which can make it impossible to access the rationale of the deci-sion. It depends also on the abuse of and overlap between intellectual property rights (the "legal black box"). In the US, nearly half a million patented inventions concern algorithms; more than 67% of the algorithm-related patents were issued over the last ten years and the trend is increasing. To counter the increased mo-nopolisation of algorithms by means of intellectual property rights (with trade se-crets leading the way), this paper presents three legal routes that enable citizens to 'open' the algorithms. First, copyright and patent exceptions, as well as trade se-crets are discussed. Second, the EU General Data Protection Regulation is critical-ly assessed. In principle, data controllers are not allowed to use algorithms to take decisions that have legal effects on the data subject's life or similarly significantly affect them. However, when they are allowed to do so, the data subject still has the right to obtain human intervention, to express their point of view, as well as to contest the decision. Additionally, the data controller shall provide meaningful in-formation about the logic involved in the algorithmic decision. Third, this paper critically analyses the first known case of a court using the access right under the freedom of information regime to grant an injunction to release the source code of the computer program that implements an algorithm. Only an integrated ap-proach – which takes into account intellectual property, data protection, and free-dom of information – may provide the citizen affected by an algorithmic decision of an effective remedy as required by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights.


A large diversity of exoplanetary systems has been found, but it is still unclear what drives this diversity. Planets are formed in disks around young stars, but the sensitivity and resolution of pre-ALMA data have allowed only a handful of disks to be characterized. ALMA has opened up the possibility to survey hundreds of disks in both the gas and dust, and to also spatially resolve them. The most recent observations of protoplanetary disks in the (sub-)mm emission and in optical/near-infrared scattered light have revealed complex structures such as spirals, rings, gaps and vortices. Planets are often invoked as an explanation, but their number and location are degenerate, and the same system can be often explained by more than one scenario. In this thesis, the origin of these gas and dust structures both through dust observations and through chemical modelling of the gas emission is studied, and the link between the structures observed in the different tracers is investigated.These studies are critical to understand if substructures in disks are the signpost of ongoing planet formation and will ultimately also tell whether and how the variety of structures observed is linked to the diversity in the exoplanetary systems' properties.


Recent research about margin theory has proved that maximizing the minimum margin like support vector machines does not necessarily lead to better performance, and instead, it is crucial to optimize the margin distribution. In the meantime, margin theory has been used to explain the empirical success of deep network in recent studies. In this paper, we present mdNet (the Optimal Margin Distribution Network), a network which embeds a loss function in regard to the optimal margin distribution. We give a theoretical analysis of our method using the PAC-Bayesian framework, which confirms the significance of the margin distribution for classification within the framework of deep networks. In addition, empirical results show that the mdNet model always outperforms the baseline cross-entropy loss model consistently across different regularization situations. And our mdNet model also outperforms the cross-entropy loss (Xent), hinge loss and soft hinge loss model in generalization task through limited training data.


When warehouse clubs started making inroads into its market, Toys R Us responded with a policy designed to limit the clubs' access to certain toys. The FTC successfully challenged the policy, arguing that TRU had coordinated a horizontal agreement amongst the toy manufacturers to eliminate competition from this new class of competitors. TRU defended itself, invoking the free-rider rationale. This the Commission rejected as pretext. TRU's argument was better than the Commission gave it credit for, but it failed to press its best argument. That failure stems in part from the shortcomings of the standard free rider formulation, and in part from the defendant's need to tailor its arguments to ill-fitting doctrinal constraints. TRU attempted to convince the Commission that its actions were unilateral, within the Colgate exception. Perhaps they were, although the Commission found to the contrary. Regardless, the net result was suppression of an efficiency rationale that emphasized the benefits of cooperation by the toy manufacturers. In this paper, I will argue that TRU emphasized the wrong free rider problem. Properly framed, the behavior of TRU and the toy companies can be seen as consistent with the efficiency goals of antitrust policy. That a plausible efficiency argument can be constructed does not mean that the outcome itself was wrong. My narrow focus here is on showing that the standard formulation led to asking the wrong question. Part I provides a brief overview of the market and TRU's behavior. Part II summarizes the defense's rationale and the Commission's rejection of it. Part III provides an alternative explanation. Part IV concludes.


The immense advances in computer power achieved in the last decades have had a significant impact in Earth science, providing valuable research outputs that allow the simulation of complex natural processes and systems, and generating improved forecasts. The development and implementation of innovative geoscientific software is currently evolving towards a sustainable and efficient development by integrating models of different aspects of the Earth system. This will set the foundation for a future digital twin of the Earth. The codification and update of this software require great effort from research groups and therefore, it needs to be preserved for its reuse by future generations of geoscientists. Here, we report on Geo-Soft-CoRe, a Geoscientific Software & Code Repository, hosted at the archive DIGITAL.CSIC. This is an open source, multidisciplinary and multiscale collection of software and code developed to analyze different aspects of the Earth system, encompassing tools to: 1) analyze climate variability; 2) assess hazards, and 3) characterize the structure and dynamics of the solid Earth. Due to the broad range of applications of these software packages, this collection is useful not only for basic research in Earth science, but also for applied research and educational purposes, reducing the gap between the geosciences and the society. By providing each software and code with a permanent identifier (DOI), we ensure its self-sustainability and accomplish the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles. Therefore, we aim for a more transparent science, transferring knowledge in an easier way to the geoscience community, and encouraging an integrated use of computational infrastructure. Systematic Review Registration: https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/193580.


The recent introduction of chikungunya and Zika virus and their subsequent dispersion in the Americas have encouraged the use of novel technologies for adult Aedes surveillance to improve vector control. In Brazil, two platforms for surveillance of eggs and gravid Aedes aegypti have been developed. First, it consists of using data of sampling of eggs in ovitraps associated with GIS technologies to monitor Aedes spp. populations. Although effective, it is not realistic to use in a large-scale epidemic scenario as it requires a large amount of human resources for field and laboratory activities. Second, it consists of trapping female Ae. aegypti citywide at fine spatial and temporal scales for vector surveillance (MI- Aedes ) to detect high Aedes infestation areas using a GIS environment and the identification of arbovirus-infected trapped mosquitoes by RT-PCR (MI-Virus platforms). Such integration of continuous vector surveillance and targeting vector control in hotspot areas is cost-effective (less than US$ 1.00/person/year), and it has been shown to reduce mosquito population and prevent dengue transmission. The main advantage of the MI- Aedes platform over traditional mosquito surveillance is the integration of continuous vector monitoring coupled with an information technology platform for near real-time data collection, analysis, and decision-making. The technologies also provide data to model the role of climate on the vector population dynamics.


Only with satellites it is possible to cover the entire Earth densely with gravity field related measurements of uniform quality within a short period of time. However, due to the altitude of the satellite orbits, the signals of individual local masses are strongly damped. Based on the approach of Petrovskaya and Vershkov we determine the gravity gradient tensor directly from the spherical harmonic coefficients of the recent EIGEN-GL04C combined model of the GRACE satellite mission. Satellite gradiometry can be used as a complementary tool to gravity and geoid information in interpreting the general geophysical and geodynamical features of the Earth. Due to the high altitude of the satellite, the effects of the topography and the internal masses of the Earth are strongly damped. However, the gradiometer data, which are nothing else than the second order spatial derivatives of the gravity potential, efficiently counteract signal attenuation at the low and medium frequencies.In this article we review the procedure for estimating the gravity gradient components directly from spherical harmonics coefficients. Then we apply this method as a case study for the interpretation of possible geophysical or geodynamical patterns in Iran. We found strong correlations between the cross-components of the gravity gradient tensor and the components of the deflection of vertical, and we show that this result agrees with theory. Also, strong correlations of the gravity anomaly, geoid model and a digital elevation model were found with the diagonal elements of the gradient tensor.


An analytical approximation is derived which provides a transcendental relationship for the spherically symmetric inhomogeneous index distribution which perfectly focuses infinite objects. Using this expression, the index profiles (called generalized Luneburg lenses) were calculated for lenses having f numbers down to f/1. It is shown through a ray-tracing example that these profiles have sufficient accuracy to provide diffraction-limited performance in the optical wavelength region. It is also shown how these lenses may be utilized in a two-dimensional integrated optics waveguide. Utilizing the focusing property achieved by variations in planar waveguide thickness, circularly symmetric waveguide thickness profiles are derived which have the perfect focusing properties of the generalized Luneburg lenses.


A series of ZnO:Al (AZO) thin films was prepared on quartz at different substrate temperature using magnetron sputtering with high deposited rate of 67 nm/min. The structural, electrical and optical properties of these films were investigated as a function of substrate deposition temperature ranging from room temperature to 500 °C. The surface micrograph of AZO film deposited at room temperature was measured by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM). The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) test show that all the films have a (002) preferential orientation. The best electrical property was obtained at 500 °C, the resistivity was 9.044×10-4 ohm•cm, and the corresponding carrier concentration and mobility were 3.379×1020 /cm3 and 20.45 m2/Ns, respectively. What's more, all the films show a high optical transmittance.


I. INTRODUCTION Living on a meager disability pension and without means of transportation, forty-nine-year-old African American James Byrd, Jr. of Jasper, Texas thought he had caught a break when three white men offered him a ride home on June 6, 1998. ? The following morning, police found Byrd's torso in the middle of the road, his head and arm in a ditch a mile away, and a three-mile trail of blood staining the road.2 That racial animus was the motivation for Byrd's torture, dragging, and death was hardly in dispute. Two of the three perpetrators were members of white supremacist organizations and bore tattoos of swastikas and black men in nooses, and one perpetrator allegedly made a number of racial slurs both before and during the murder.3 As gruesome as this crime was, prosecutors were unable to seek enhanced sentences for the perpetrators due to inadequacies in existing state and federal hate crime law.4 Federal hate crime law applied only if victims were engaging in "federally protected activities" when attacked, and Texas laws enhancing sentences for hate crimes were not useful in this case.5 Later that year, Wyoming lawyers were precluded from seeking an enhanced sentence in the case of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was tortured and murdered because of his homosexuality, because Wyoming was one of the few states at the time with no hate crime laws.6 In the decade since these crimes occurred, there has been little decline in the number of hate crimes reported each year.7 In fact, while crimes against African Americans continue to account for almost a third of hate crimes nationwide, crimes against Muslims, Hispanics, and persons of various sexual orientations are on the rise.8 In November 2010, the FBI reported that 6,604 incidents of hate crimes involving 8,336 victims were committed in 2009. 9 An intensive threeyear study conducted by the Department of Justice suggests that the real number of hate crimes is between nineteen and thirty-one times higher than reported by FBI statistics.10 On October 28, 2009, "[a]fter more than a decade of opposition and delay," President Barack Obama signed into law the first bill expanding the parameters of federal hate crime law in over forty years.11 The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act ("HCPA") broadens federal hate crime law to incorporate "violence motivated by the . . . gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim."12 It also significantly expands federal jurisdiction over hate crimes by eliminating the requirement that victims engage in "federally protected activities" and increases federal funding for the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.13 Unsurprisingly, not everyone is pleased with what Obama and civil rights advocacy groups deem "long-awaited" legislation.14 In addition to arguments that the law violates the Commerce Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Double Jeopardy Clause, opponents of the HCPA argue that it stifles freedom of speech and association.15 Because it permits consideration of perpetrators' words, beliefs, and associations when determining their underlying biased motives, the bill has reinvigorated a decades-old argument over whether the values of the First Amendment are in irresolvable conflict with the anti-hate crime agenda. In fact, federal courts are already seeing constitutional challenges to the HCPA on the grounds that it deters, inhibits, and chills the exercise of First Amendment rights.16 This Note examines the ongoing debate over whether the First Amendment hopelessly conflicts with the HCPA. Part II chronicles hate crime legislation and jurisprudence from its roots in the Civil Rights era, through the relevant Supreme Court rulings of the late 1990s and early 2000s, to the three-year legislative battle over the bill, culminating with its passage in October 2009. Part III examines the arguments for and against the legislation and highlights the merits and defects of both sides of the debate. …


State of the art computer graphics software are introduced with respect to print, web and motion graphics. Introduction to typography, graphic layout/design fundamentals, web interface design and animation/ motion principles and other computer graphics software applications. Following a fine arts approach students generate their own creative content for print and/or electronic publication. Grade Option (Letter Grade or Pass/No Pass). Degree Credit.


A well established method for scale removal on hot rolled wire rod is pickling. To avoid pollution problems, the wire rod can be mechanically descaled. By this method, the removed scale can be recirculated to the blast furnace. In batch pickling considerable energy is necessary; e.g. for heating of the pickling baths, ventilation of acid fumes and application of lubricant carrier. Energy consumption of the alternative descaling methods has been assessed and compared to pickling A method was developed to evaluate the remaining scale on mechanically descaled wire rod. Stretching experiments were used to evaluate adhesion of scale to the wire rod surface of different steel grades. Most of the scale was removed on the carbon steel grades and Cr/V alloyed steel grades. More scale remained on silicon alloyed steel grades. Shot blasting with steel shots was studied as an alternative to pickling. This method removed the scale on all studied steel grades, even the silicon alloyed grades. The wire rod surface was much rougher compared to the pickled wire rod surface. The shot blast power consumption was measured and evaluated. The PC strand wire gave more wear of dies otherwise the shot blasted wire rod showed no difference in the wire drawing process compared to pickled wire rod. Downstream problems such as cleaning and adherence of copper were observed. Reverse bending and brushing with steel brushes and brushes with SiC abrasives were studied on wire rod of low carbon and silicon chromium alloyed steel grades. Scale remained in surface valleys after brushing of the low carbon steel grade. The silicon steel grades were not possible to descale by bending and brushing. Surface defects from brushing were observed on wire rods brushed by steel brushes, but not on wire rod brushed by SiC-nylon brushes. A study of shot blasting with recycled glass was done. Due to the lower density, the shot velocity must be higher than for steel shots. Recycled glass gives an irregular surface of the wire, including chip formation, which can improve the lubricant carrying ability of the wire rod surface, but also increase the risk for reduction of the fatigue strength of the wire. The differences of die wear using wire rods descaled by two treatments; pickling and reversed bending has been studied. The study gave a background of wear mechanism and described a method to estimate die wear in wire drawing. The conclusions of the experiments indicate that the method for wire rod preparation seems to be of minor importance for the wear of die. The wear rate of a die used in the sixth draft was one order of magnitude lower than the wear rate of the die in the first draft. Abrasive wear is present presumably from the WC grains, torn out in the adhesive wear, on both dies used on pickled wire rod and reverse bent and steel wool cleaned wire rod. In order to evaluate new methods to descale wire rod, the effect of thermal shock has been studied. An estimation of the stresses, developed in the oxide during cooling after hot rolling and a FEM-simulation during cooling from ambient temperature down to 77 K, has been made. Experiments using liquid nitrogen, flame and steam to descale wire rod have been performed with mild steel and silicon and chromium steel wire rod. The experiments have shown that thermal shock cannot descale the wire rod. Only a descaling effect from the flame has been found.


During the recent three decades, 1980~2010, the Japanese economy has experienced a period of rapid growth followed by two stagnant decades with serious financial distress and continuous deflation. In this process, Japan established a strong base for manufacturing industries in the world but could not handle the external shocks—the Plaza Accord, the rise of China, the Asian financial Crisis and the 2008 Financial Crisis—and adjust its economy to the dramatic changes in the energy/resources and financial markets. This paper sums up the representative views of Japanese economists on these problems and then presents the author's own opinions. A sharp and continuous decline of economic growth was caused not only by external events but also aggravated by the mismanagement of private and public agencies, particularly in the financial sector. The author relies on a number of outstanding works by Japanese and foreign economies like Mitsuo Saito (1927-2010), The Japanese Economy, WSPC, 2000.; 3 volumes edited by Fumio Hayashi, Positive Analysis and Design of Economic Institutions (J). Keiso Shobo, 2007, besides his own studies: Political Economy of Japanese and Asian Development, Springer-Verlag and Sobun-sha, 2003 and other essays. One important work is Tadao Kagono, The Spirit of Management (J), Japan Productivity Center Pub. Co., 2010 which pointed out that the Japanese government made a mistake in reforming the Corporation law, at the suggestion of the US government, to change the behavior patterns of Japanese entrepreneurs toward less risk-taking when more outward-looking behaviors are required in this uncertain world nowadays, and lost the precious traditional spirit of Japanese-style management. All other important references are given at the end of the paper with a statistical appendix.


The ability to form complex plans based on raw visual input is a litmus test for current capabilities of artificial intelligence, as it requires a seamless combination of visual processing and abstract algorithmic execution, two traditionally separate areas of computer science. A recent surge of interest in this field brought advances that yield good performance in tasks ranging from arcade games to continuous control; these methods however do not come without significant issues, such as limited generalization capabilities and difficulties when dealing with combinatorially hard planning instances. Our contribution is two-fold: (i) we present a method that learns to represent its environment as a latent graph and leverages state reidentification to reduce the complexity of finding a good policy from exponential to linear (ii) we introduce a set of lightweight environments with an underlying discrete combinatorial structure in which planning is challenging even for humans. Moreover, we show that our methods achieves strong empirical generalization to variations in the environment, even across highly disadvantaged regimes, such as"one-shot"planning, or in an offline RL paradigm which only provides low-quality trajectories.


Multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver, formally known as multiple-input
multiple-output (MIMO) systems have the potential to either increase the data rates
through spatial multiplexing or enhance the quality of services through exploitation
of diversity. In this thesis, the problem of downlink spatial multiplexing, where a
base station (BS) serves multiple users simultaneously in the same frequency band is
addressed. Spatial multiplexing techniques have the potential to make huge saving
in the bandwidth utilization. We propose spatial diversity techniques with and without
the assumption of perfect channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter.
We start with proposing improvement to signal-to-leakage ratio (SLR) maximization
based spatial multiplexing techniques for both fiat fading and frequency selective
channels. [Continues.]


A STATISTICAL ULTRA WIDEBAND INDOOR CHANNEL MODEL AND THE EFFECTS OF ANTENNA DIRECTIVITY ON MULTIPATH DELAY SPREAD AND PATH LOSS IN ULTRA WIDEBAND INDOOR CHANNELS by Jason Anthony Dabin Ultra-wideband (UWB) indoor frequency domain channel measurements have been performed in the 2 GHz to 6 GHz frequency band using three different transmitter/receiver (Tx/Rx) antenna combination pairs. The effects of antenna directivity on path loss and multipath propagation in the channel were analyzed extensively for various omni-directional and directional antenna combinations. A statistical model of the path loss in the channel is presented, where the parameters in the model (i.e., path loss exponent and shadow fading statistics) are dependent on the particular Tx/Rx antenna combination. Time domain statistics of the channel (i.e., mean delay spread and RMS delay spread) are analyzed thoroughly for each antenna combination. Results show that RMS delay spread increases over distance for all three antenna combinations, but at a greater rate when directional antennas are used in the channel. There is a significant reduction in RMS delay spread when directional antennas are used at the transmitter and receiver or solely at the receiver with respect to an omni-directional/omni-directional antenna pair. Results show that directional antennas can be used as an effective way of mitigating the effects of multipath propagation in UWB indoor channels. A distance dependent statistical impulse response model of the channel is also presented, which statistically reproduces the impulse response of the channel with high fidelity. A STATISTICAL ULTRA WIDEBAND INDOOR CHANNEL MODEL AND THE EFFECTS OF ANTENNA DIRECTIVITY ON MULTIPATH DELAY SPREAD AND PATH LOSS IN ULTRA WIDEBAND INDOOR CHANNELS by Jason Anthony Dabin A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering


In this article I analyze American Indian claims made during the siting process for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. By utilizing the concepts of distribution and recognition (Fraser 2003) to analyze American Indian claims for financial compensation, cultural artifact/resource protection, and environmental justice I reveal the existence and extent of both objective and intersubjective obstacles preventing greater public participation in environmental decision-making. Through a textual/discourse analysis of public documents associated with the Yucca Mountain Project, my analysis demonstrates how distributive and recognitional injustices impede democratic participation in environmental decision-making, which contributes to the continuation of environmental inequality formation processes and environmental racism. Identifying the obstacles preventing greater democratic participation in cases such as the Yucca Mountain Project creates a starting point for theorizing and researching the applicability of "participatory action research" methods to complex decisions regarding technology and the environment.


This thesis focuses on historical patterns in community structure, present effects of nutrification, and future consequences of ocean acidification and nutrification on photosymbiont-bearing benthic foraminifera from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. In the initial section of my thesis I investigated the natural range of variability in community structure of inshore benthic foraminiferal communities adjacent to the Burdekin River throughout the last millennium. Secondly, I examined the growth response of Marginopora vertebralis (a large photosymbiont-bearing foraminifera) to increase terrestrially derived nitrogen and phosphate under both field and laboratory conditions along a known water quality gradient within the Whitsunday Islands, GBR. Thirdly, I investigated the effects of both high nutrients and lowered pH (and their interaction) on M. vertebralis growth and productivity using projected scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In summary, inshore reef ecosystems, particularly those adjacent to major river runoff, are vulnerable to increased nutrification and sedimentation. The resultant spatial gradients in water quality provide an ideal natural experiment to assess the ecology and physiology of benthic foraminifera. In addition to declining water quality, the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is predicted to have major impact on marine calcifying organisms such as foraminifera. Awareness of the natural variability of past community structure enables the understanding of baselines to assess the ecological and physiological response to present day and future scenarios. As foraminifera are a well-established biological indicator of ecological status, the assessment of past benthic foraminiferal communities provides strong evidence for community persistence. The host and algae physiology argues that reduced nutrient runoff can have beneficial outcomes for the growth success of benthic photosymbiont-bearing M. vertebralis. Furthermore, the additive effect of nutrification and climate change may hinder future skeletal growth and photosynthetic productivity. In conclusion, high levels of similarity were observed in benthic foraminifera communities over a centennial to millennial timescale. The contrast in community structure between sites is evidently due to differences in water quality and supports the idea that photosymbiotic species hold an advantage in oligotrophic water compared to water with high terrestrial runoff. However, the advantage of harbouring photosymbionts appears to be compromised with close proximity to river run off and under future scenarios of ocean acidification. Therefore, shifts in functional abundance may occur when photosymbiosis becomes less advantageous as physiochemical conditions change.


The goal of this thesis is to identify and quantify the potentials of predictive maintenance concepts in civil aviation. Fault prediction-based decision support is expected to optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance. Thus, it also enables further reduction of an airline's operating costs over the aircraft life cycle. Prediction aims to transform unscheduled maintenance events, often causing operational irregularities, into projectable preventive activities. Thereby, aircraft availability as well as maintenance processes are expected to be optimised. Because of low technology readiness levels in the industry as well as rather global scale scientific publications on predictive maintenance, the presented work aims to analyse its implementation's potentials in a more detailed manner. Thus, a decision-supporting tool for the cost-benefit assessment of predictive maintenance opposed to the initial state is to be developed.

The starting point is literature research with respect to today's standards and characteristics in civil aviation aircraft maintenance. This includes the applied maintenance strategies and cost structures in particular. Thereafter, the state-of-the-art concerning fault prediction and relevant performance metrics is presented.

Subsequently, the proposed evaluation concept is introduced. Two functions are to be covered: Firstly, based on information on today's maintenance, cost reduction potentials as well as minimum requirements with respect to prediction can be derived. Secondly, prediction concepts can be assessed concerning their specific cost-benefit characteristics. Whereas the evaluation focus lies on the effected costs, corresponding time- and ratio-based target values are analysed as well. A unique feature of the method is the use of mostly deterministic data enabling the derivation of more accurate and valid results than probabilistic approaches.

Thereafter, the proposed model's software implementation is described. Based on theoretically defined business process and data models, a simulation model is built. The proposed model accounts for prediction-induced modifications within the aircraft maintenance as well as the interdependencies of the aircraft operations. By means of Monte-Carlo simulation, input data uncertainties are accounted for and processed for a statistical results assessment.

In a case study, results of the method's application are presented. Firstly, the calibration of estimated process efforts by means of available real-world maintenance information is conducted. This enables the model validation as well. Thereafter, the analysis results concerning an exemplary aircraft component that is maintained correctively are presented. This real-world data is then counterposed to target values derived from the simulation of prediction-based maintenance approaches.

It can be concluded that a predictive maintenance strategy's benefit depends on the amount or the ratio of the interdependent prediction errors, the prediction forecast as well as the costs of implementation. Among the prediction errors, it is necessary to distinguish between errors negatively affecting aircraft operations and errors having negative impact on aircraft maintenance activities. A longer forecast increases the ability to plan in advance, while also leading to higher prediction error rates. It is shown how the overall cost-benefit is affected by investment and operating costs of a predictive strategy's implementation. Only when the derived break-even thresholds are underrun, will the cost-benefit turn out positive as compared to the initial-state maintenance. The overall optimum incorporates a prediction model with the least costly parameter setting.


Background: Neurolinguists investigated the role of BA in language production in terms of what phonological or syntactic aspects are impaired. Aims: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role played by Broca's Area (BA) in articulating Arabic syllables, nouns, verbs, and sentences by studying Saudi patient with that developed Broca's aphasia as a result of suffering from a stroke. Methods: After collecting data, one of the researchers interviewed the case at hand 5 times for 20 months (a session per 4 months). In each visit, the case was asked to repeat 84 Arabic syllables, 20 nouns, 20 verbs, and 20 sentences. The purpose of these sessions is to investigate whether or not Arabic phonological and syntactic aspects are affected in comparison to other languages. A test on production and selection of lexical items and another test on picture naming and selection were administered to the case. The researchers then transcoded the case's speech by transliterating it using the transliteration system (Romanization) recommended by American Library Association- Library of Congress (ALA-LC). The last step was to analyze speech linguistically before it was statistically analyzed. Conclusions: Results of the present study show that both phonological and syntactic aspects of Arab Broca's aphasics are impaired. Also, Arab Broca's aphasics become unable to produce, name or select words and/ or pictures. Outlined findings have been discussed and analyzed with regard to the previous research and studies conducted on the same topic.


Why is productive environmental governance so hard, and what might be learned from how corporate governance mechanisms address related problems? The present article addresses these questions, both in principle and in application to global fisheries. It does so first by reviewing how efficient governance mechanisms also create distributional effects, and are thus susceptible to unproductive political gaming. It then argues that, because the propensity for such gaming increases with the diversity of distributional preferences, mechanisms that have productively governed fisheries at a local scale may be politically infeasible at a global scale. Finally, it concludes by arguing that (i) these small-scale mechanisms share common characteristics with monitoring as a form of governance in business associations, (ii) information requirements and distributional conflict for such mechanisms become untenable as business associations scale to the corporate form, and (iii) corporate governance may thus rely more heavily on a type of assurance contract that, given its relatively weak reliance on monitoring and potentially stronger resistance to distributional interests, might also find productive applications in global environmental governance.


OBJECTIVE
To determine how safe-patient-handling (SPH) equipment is used in rehabilitation and how it affects therapists, patients, and therapy practice.

METHOD
We used a qualitative, instrumental case study design. Thirty-five occupational and physical therapist practitioners from three facilities participated in the study.

RESULTS
Therapists reported a broad range of applications for equipment (e.g., functional mobility and neuromusculoskeletal function). They reported that SPH equipment increased treatment options for therapists and increased participation options for patients, although equipment limitations exist. Three themes emerged from the analysis: choice, potential, and safety.

CONCLUSION
SPH equipment has therapeutic applications in rehabilitation, especially for medically complex or bariatric patients. Therapists in this study engaged in a highly individualized, complex process of decision making when selecting and using SPH devices in rehabilitation. More research to refine and test therapeutic uses is necessary.


A significant feature of R&D activity in Australia is that the majority of resources are directed towards the early stages of R&D, rather than the later stages, which are more closely linked with commercialisation. Government agencies and universities perform around 60% of Australia's R&D and about 85% of this is concentrated in the research stage, rather than the development stage. As a result of this situation, basic research dominates research effort by a ratio of 2:1. A government initiative that has been put in place to address this issue is the Co-operative Research Centres (CRC) Program. The paper provides an overview of the program to date and discusses empirical evidence from CRCs. There is evidence presented to support the case for a further review of the program, especially where there are good commercialisation prospects for the R&D, but no significant evidence of spillovers occurring to other agents.


The purpose of this paper is to present a summary of a critical review of the literature on age, health, and work. The health of older workers is a concern to the extent that the productivity of older workers is considered to be a function of age-related health, the general conclusion being that age-related declines in health inevitably lead to decreased productivity. This paper investigates the implications of age-related physiological and psychological changes on the productivity of older workers, by focusing on a critical examination of the ways in which productivity has been conceptualized and operationalized. This paper concludes that the emerging concept of "work capacity" has the greatest potential for addressing the productivity issues of workforce aging. Implications for public and corporate policy and for further research are also examined.


The incidence of rape is a significant concern for college campuses (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000), and the acceptance of myths about rape abound on campuses and in society (Burt, 1980; Bohner, Danner, Siebler, & Samson, 2002; Carmody & Washington, 2001; Chiroro, Bohner, Viki, & Jarvis, 2004). A copious amount of research has examined factors that increase rape myth acceptance, or the belief in any false statement or thought that inaccurately portrays a rape situation (Foubert & Marriott, 1997; Foubert & Newberry, 2006; Foubert & Perry, 2007; Johnson, Kuck, & Schander, 1997). However, very limited research sought to identify decreases in myth acceptance. One study has examined the relationship between moral development and rape myth acceptance (Tatum & Foubert, 2009). Given the close connection between moral development and spiritual development (Fowler, 1980; Walker & Reimer, 2005), a connection between rape myth acceptance and spiritual development may exist. This study proposed and examined the link between spiritual development and rape myth acceptance. Scores were examined from 123 men at a small, Midwest, private, liberal arts institution, who completed the Spiritual Maturity Index (Ellison, 1984) and the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Payne, Lonsway, & Fitzgerald, 1999). A mean comparison indicated a moderate, negative correlation between spiritual development score and rape myth acceptance score, indicating that spiritual development and rape myth acceptance scores are inversely proportionate. This relationship informs professional practice in student development and encourages future research on the link between spiritual development and rape myth acceptance.


This initial situation analysis compares the features and potential impact of five postconflict interventions in Northern Uganda, including the Government of Uganda?s own Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda and projects funded by the World Bank, USAID, and DfID. Each program aims to promote peace and recovery through improved public services and infrastructure, economic development, and livelihood opportunities, but each relies on local governments in somewhat different ways and to different extents. This natural experiment will allows us to assess how effectively each program engages local governments and how effectively local governments deliver public services post conflict.


In article is examined the crowdsourcing technology and the technology based on its principles a crowd-recruiting as instruments of staff recruitment in the organization. The presented technologies are new effective tools large-scale by geographical coverage and number of participants of selection of the employees who are really interested in work with this organization. Crowd-technologies, which are based on "the phenomenon of the crowd" can not only greatly speed up the solution of important problems for the company, but also significantly reduce costs. Was designed the methodology of introduction of crowdsourcing technology at staff recruitment in the organization Because of introduction of this methodology is assumed optimization of costs of the personnel, thanks to improvement of staff recruitment by means of crowd-technologies (crowdsourcing, crowd-recruiting, crowd-staffing), namely: increase of qualitative structure of the personnel and reduction of staff turnover thanks to what will be seen labor productivity growth.