Since several years, millions of recursive DNS resolvers are-deliberately or not-open to the public. This, however, is counter-intuitive, since the operation of such openly accessible DNS resolvers is necessary in rare cases only. Furthermore, open resolvers enable both amplification DDoS and cache snooping attacks, and can be abused by attackers in multiple other ways. We thus find open recursive DNS resolvers to remain one critical phenomenon on the Internet. In this paper, we illuminate this phenomenon by analyzing it from two different angles. On the one hand, we study the landscape of DNS resolvers based on empirical data we collected for over a year. We analyze the changes over time and classify the resolvers according to device type and software version. On the other hand, we take the viewpoint of a client and measure the response authenticity of these resolvers. Besides legitimate redirections (e.g., to captive portals or router login pages), we find millions of resolvers to deliberately manipulate DNS resolutions (i.e., return bogus IP address information). To understand this threat in more detail, we systematically analyze non-legitimate DNS responses and reveal open DNS resolvers that manipulate DNS resolutions to censor communication channels, inject advertisements, serve malicious files, perform phishing, or redirect to other kinds of suspicious or malicious activities.


Understanding water use by agroforestry trees in dry-land ecosystems is essential for improving water management. Agroforestry trees are valued and promoted for many of their ecologic and economic benefits but are often criticized as competing for valuable water resources. In order to understand the seasonal patterns of source water used by agroforestry trees, samples from rain, ground, and surface water were collected weekly in the subcatchment of the Singou watershed that is part of the Volta Basin. Soil and vegetation samples were collected from and under a Sclerocarya birrea agroforstry trees located in this catchment in sealed vials, extracted, and analyzed with a Picarro L2130-i CRDS to obtain both O18 and DH fractions. Meteorological measurements were taken with a network of wireless, autonomous stations that communicate through the GSM network (Sensorscope) and two complete eddy-covariance energy balance stations, in addition to intense monitoring of sub-canopy solar radiation, throughfall, stemflow, and soil moisture. Examination of the time series of O18 concentrations confirm that values in soil and xylem water are coupled, both becoming enriched during the dry season and depleted during the rainy season. Xylem water O18 levels drops to groundwater O18 levels in early March when trees access groundwater for leafing out, however soil water does not reach this level until soil moisture increases in mid-June. The relationship between the DH and O18 concentrations of water extracted from soil and tree samples do not fall along the global meteoric water line. In order to explore whether this was a seasonally driven, we grouped samples into an "evaporated" group or a "meteoric" group based on the smaller residual to the respective lines. Although more soil samples were found along the m-line during the rainy season than tree samples or dry season soil samples, there was no significant difference in days since rain for any group This suggests that xylem water is always under stress from evapotranspiration and soil water underwent evaporation soon after a rain event. Visual observation of tree confirms conclusion that trees access deep ground water in March and April, before rain begins and before soil is connected to groundwater. Results from the research are being integrated into a local outreach project to improve use of agroforestry.


Introduction
 Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) develops within 24 hours of exposure to ionizing radiation. Leukocyte growth factors have been used to reduce mortality and mitigate the hematopoietic symptoms of ARS. Three subcutaneously applied radiomitigators G-CSF, Peg-G-CSF and GM-CSF have been approved by the FDA as medical countermeasures but few others are under development. Imidazolyl ethanamide pentandioic acid (IEPA, Myelo001) is a novel small molecule for the treatment of ARS. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that IEPA applied orally or intraperitoneally was effective in reducing hematopoietic symptoms caused by radiation and chemotherapy.
 Objective
 To investigate the effects of IEPA as a radioprotector (prophylactic) and radiomitigator (therapeutic) for ARS and hematopoietic syndrome of ARS (H-ARS).
 Methods
 Multiple oral or intraperitoneal administrations of IEPA (25 or 50 mg/kg doses) and radiation levels of 5.8 Gy (estimated LD25/30) and 6.0 Gy (estimated LD50/30) on mortality, body weight and bone marrow cellularity were assessed in a mouse model. 205 C57BL/6 mice were subdivided into 1 unirradiated group, 6 groups exposed to 5.8 Gy, and 2 groups exposed to 6.0 Gy. Prophylactic treatment (25 or 50 mg/kg) was started 3 days before total-body irradiation, while therapeutic treatment (50 mg/kg) was begun 24 h post exposure. The 6 LD25/30 groups consisted of a vehicle control group (VL; 2), twice daily intraperitoneally administered IEPA (ML; 3), orally twice a day (ML; 4) or once a day (ML; 5), G-CSF positive control subcutaneously administered once a day (GL; 6) or in combination with IEPA (M/GL; 7). The 2 LD50/30 groups consisted of a vehicle control group (VH; 8) and a group administered IEPA orally once a day (MH; 9). The experiments assessed mortality using Kaplan-Meier estimator, body weight and bone marrow cellularity over the course of 30 days with prescheduled sacrifices of subgroups on days 7, 14 and 30.
 Results
 No significant benefit of prophylactic and therapeutic treatment on survival in the lower (5.8 Gy) irradiation group was detected. Groups ML; 3 and ML; 4 had a dose reduction factor (DFR) < 1 vs VL; 2 whereas ML; 5, GL; 6 and M/GL; 7 had a DRFs > 1. In the high radiation group (6.0 Gy), the Kaplan-Meier estimator revealed an increase in survival (85 %) after therapy compared to controls (56 %). The dose reduction factor in group MH; 9 compared to the controls (VH; 8) was 1.5. The highest protective effect on body weight was observed in the therapeutic regimen (MH; 9) used for 6.0 Gy exposure, which showed a positive effect on days 15, 21 and 30. Therapeutic IEPA treatment mitigated the impact of radiation on bone marrow cellularity. A pronounced effect on peripheral hematology was neither observed in the prophylactic, therapeutic IEPA nor the positive control G-CSF treated groups.
 Conclusions
 Different routes of administration and doses of IEPA in the prophylactic groups did not alter ARS symptoms. However, therapeutic treatment in the LD25/30 setting with IEPA and G-CSF, and the LD50/30 setting with IEPA at a dose of 50 mg/kg showed a reduction in mortality and weight loss compared to the controls. Additionally, IEPA treatment mitigated the impact of radiation on bone marrow cellularity. Analysis of peripheral blood did not reveal significant differences across the treatment groups probably due to no optimal time point analysis. Limitations included the small size of the prophylactically treated groups exposed to a low radiation dose.

 Pleimes: Bayer: Consultancy, Equity Ownership; Myelo Therapeutics: Employment, Equity Ownership. Bunker:Myelo Therapeutics: Other: Contract Research via SNBL USA on behalf and in account of Myelo Therapeutics GmbH; SNBL USA: Employment. Meyer:Myelo Therapeutics GmbH: Consultancy. Czajkowski:Myelo Therapeutics GmbH: Employment.


The CamClay model has been extensively used in numerous research programmes for constitutive modelling in Soil Mechanics during the past quarter of a century. Several derivations of this model are now available and routinely used for numerical simulations in the geomechanical engineering field. However, to the authors' knowledge the thermodynamical basis of this model in its original form has never been established, at least in a modern thermodynamics framework. The thermodynamics principle proposed by Ziegler is very expedient for this purpose as the non-associated flow rule may be considered. This approach is applied to the CamClay model with the Roscoe dilatancy rule. A dissipation function and free energy are specified in terms of kinematic variables (i.e. state and internal variables), and the material response is derived entirely from these functions.


ABSTRACT Deformed monuments can be used to help constrain the timing of an earthquake, its epicenter, and the extent of its damage. In the present work, we studied the ancient temples in the Chamba and Bharmour area from the seventh century onward in the Ravi River catchment of the Chamba district of western Himachal Pradesh, India, which lies in the Kashmir seismic gap of the northwest Himalaya. Many architectural features of the temples show earthquake‐induced deformation signatures that include tilting of the pillars and temple structures, fractures, and opening in the brick masonry. The Bharmour temples located 45 km north of Kangra show shear‐type deformation in the east–west direction. The Chamba temples, which lie 52 km northwest of Kangra and outside the rupture zone of 1905 Kangra earthquake, display shear or rigid body rotation in the north–south direction. The deformation features observed in the temples suggest that the Bharmour area lies within the 1905 Kangra earthquake meizoseismal zone, and that the 1555 Kashmir earthquake rupture zone extended southeast toward Chamba.


Background Bacterial communication is involved in regulation of cellular mechanisms such as metabolic processes, microbe-host interactions or biofilm formation. In the nitrogen-fixing model endophyte of grasses Azoarcus sp. strain BH72, known cell-cell signaling systems have not been identified; however, the pilA gene encoding the structural protein of type IV pili that are essential for plant colonization appears to be regulated in a population density-dependent manner. Methodology/Principal Findings Our data suggest that pilAB expression is affected by population density, independent of autoinducers typical for Gram-negative bacteria, likely depending on unknown secreted molecule(s) that can be produced by different bacterial species. We used transcriptomic and proteomic approaches to identify target genes and proteins differentially regulated in conditioned supernatants in comparison to standard growth conditions. Around 8% of the 3992 protein-coding genes of Azoarcus sp. and 18% of the detected proteins were differentially regulated. Regulatory proteins and transcription factors among the regulated proteins indicated a complex hierarchy. Differentially regulated genes and proteins were involved in processes such as type IV pili formation and regulation, metal and nutrient transport, energy metabolism, and unknown functions mediated by hypothetical proteins. Four of the newly discovered target genes were further analyzed and in general they showed regulation patterns similar to pilAB. The expression of one of them was shown to be induced in plant roots. Conclusion/Significance This study is the first global approach to initiate characterization of cell density-dependent gene regulation mediated by soluble molecule(s) in the model endophyte Azoarcus sp. strain BH72. Our data suggest that the putative signaling molecule(s) are also produced by other Proteobacteria and might thus be used for interspecies communication. This study provides the foundation for the development of robust reporter systems for Azoarcus sp. to analyze mechanisms and molecules involved in the population-dependent gene expression in this endophyte in future.


Since the early 1990s, Uganda has implemented a number of reforms in the agricultural sector. However, in the past 10 years, the performance of the sector has lagged behind other sectors particularly services and industry. There are concerns among researchers and policy analysts that institutional constraints in agriculture play a central role in the lacklustre agricultural performance registered during the 2000s. This study examines the institutional constraints affecting agricultural production in Uganda. We recommend reforming the land tenure system as well as the architecture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries as means of dealing with the major constraints.


Americas chief exports are war and entertainment; combined, they are the war films viewed all over the world. The film industry is a partner of the government; American film shapes the ways in which both Americans and others view war. The authors herein explore differing film perspectives across five decades. The essays, written especially for this volume, explore topics such as frontier justice, Cold War fervor, government-sponsored terrorism, the back-to-Nam films, films as a venue for propaganda, and war's far-reaching effects on personal values, family relationships, and general civility. The movies used in these analyses vary from conventional battle epics like Bridge on the River Kwai and The Green Berets to motion pictures with a war motif either as part of the story (The Way We Were) or as a historical setting (The Graduate). Some of the films are satirical (Dr. Strangelove); some are propagandistic (The Alamo, Big Jim McLain). Other films include Black Hawk Down, True Lies, The Deer Hunter, Patriot Games and Let There Be Light.


In 2012, David Morgan gave a talk titled 'Neighbours, neighbouring and acquaintanceship: some further thoughts' at the University of Turku, Finland. In this article we engage in dialogue with Morgan's talk, as well as his 2009 book Acquaintances, in particular the observations he made about the simultaneous closeness and distance that characterises neighbouring relationships. We suggest that using the metaphors of elasticity and stickiness instead allows us to explore neighbouring relationships as more than inhabiting a space between intimates and strangers (Morgan, 2009), but as textured and messy everyday relationalities. We consider also how the 'stickiness' of this relationship as well as the significance of its 'elasticity' are likely to have been heightened during COVID-19 lockdowns, which have altered the usual configurations of intimate and stranger relationships. In doing so, our aim is to contribute further to Morgan's theorising of the nature of neighbouring as a specific form of acquaintanceship.


Abstract. The eddy covariance technique is the most direct of the methods that have been used to measure the flux of sea-spray aerosol between the ocean and atmosphere, but has been applied in only a handful of studies. However, unless the aerosol is dried before the eddy covariance measurements are made, the hygroscopic nature of sea-spray may combine with a relative humidity flux to result in a bias in the calculated aerosol flux. "Bulk" methods have been presented to account for this bias, however, they rely on assumptions of the shape of the aerosol spectra which may not be valid for near-surface measurements of sea-spray. Here we describe a method of correcting aerosol spectra for relative humidity induced size variations at the high frequency (10 Hz) measurement timescale, where counting statistics are poor and the spectral shape cannot be well represented by a simple power law. Such a correction allows the effects of hygroscopicity and relative humidity flux on the aerosol flux to be explicitly evaluated and compared to the bulk corrections, both in their original form and once reformulated to better represent the measured mean aerosol spectra. In general, the bulk corrections – particularly when reformulated for the measured mean aerosol spectra – perform relatively well, producing flux corrections of the right sign and approximate magnitude. However, there are times when the bulk methods either significantly over- or underestimate the required flux correction. We conclude that, where possible, relative humidity corrections should be made at the measurement frequency.


Section 7 of the Charter of Rights was not intended by the framers to be a provision that authorized extensive judicial review of legislation. The protection of property was deliberately not included in its text in order to reduce its scope — and the potential for judicial review. And the phrase "the principles of fundamental justice" was intended to cover only procedural due process. Contrary to expectations in 1982, over the succeeding 30 years the Supreme Court of Canada has given an expansive interpretation to section 7 and used it to strike down a variety of laws, including the criminalization of abortion, criminal offences that lack the element of mens rea , "overbroad" laws, "disproportionate" laws and "arbitrary" laws. The last three categories permit the Court to review any law that has an effect on life, liberty or security of the person to determine whether the law is in fact fulfilling its objective, or undermining the objective by doing more harm than good. Under these categories, the Court has struck down restrictions on the liberty of convicted sex offenders, restrictions on the liberty of those mentally unfit to stand trial, the prohibition of private health care insurance, and the attempted closing of a safe injection site for drug addicts. At the time of writing, lower courts have struck down the Criminal Code provisions respecting prostitution and physician-assisted suicide, issues that will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court. The 30-year history of section 7 has been remarkable, attracting criticism from those who deplore the shift of policy-making in a democracy from elected legislative bodies to unelected judges. And, of course, there is support for the decisions from those who believe that, even in a democracy, dysfunctional laws should be subjected to an independent, evidence-based review of their impact, especially on individuals who are unpopular or who have little political power. It is hard to predict whether this activist phase, in which the Supreme Court has so greatly expanded judicial review under section 7, will continue into the next 30 years. If so, then the "career" of section 7 will become even more "brilliant".


In this paper we propose a novel method for SSVEP classification that combines the benefits of the inherently multi-channel CCA, the state-of-the-art method for detecting SSVEPs, with the robust SVMs, one of the most popular machine learning algorithms. The employment of SVMs, except for the benefit of robustness, provides us also with a confidence score allowing to dynamically trade-off the trial length with the accuracy of the classifier, and vice versa. By balancing this trade-off we are able to offer personalized self-paced BCIs that maximize the ITR of the system. Furthermore, we propose to perturb the template frequencies of CCA so as to accommodate with real world BCI applications requirements, where the environmental conditions may not be ideal compared to existing methods that rely on the assumption of soundproof and distraction-free environments.


—We document 21 observations of interspecific stealing of nesting material involving Cerulean Warblers (Dendroica cerulea), Red-eyed Vireos (Vireo olivaceus), Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (Polioptila caerulea), Northern Parulas (Parula americana), Black-throated Green Warblers (D. virens), American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla), and Orchard Orioles (Icterus spurius) that occurred during studies of Cerulean Warbler breeding biology. These incidents involved a variety of combinations of nest owner and nest material thief suggesting that each of these species is both a perpetrator and recipient of this behavior in our study areas. Kleptoparasitic incidents occurred at all stages of the nesting cycle from nest-building through post-fledging. Two possible motivations for this behavior are related to saving time in finding nest materials and collecting this material for nest construction. Received 21 November 2005. Accepted 3 Septem-


Last year I cared for Jamesi, an infant who had been born extremely prematurely. James was very sick in the first week or two of life, but had recovered and convalesced over the ensuing months. He was due to be discharged from hospital in the near future. One morning, when the medical team came to his bedside to review him, we found that he unexpectedly looked extremely unwell and was having difficulty breathing. Only half an hour previously he had seemed fine. James was whisked to the intensive care unit. He was intubated, resuscitated aggressively and received broad-spectrum antibiotics. Later that morning X-rays revealed what we had feared, evidence of widespread necrotising enterocolitis (NEC).

NEC is the great nemesis of neonatologists. It is a cruel, devastating disease that, in its most severe form, can strike without warning, taking well, growing infants and transforming them overnight into a mottled, bloated, moribund state. About 1/3 of newborn infants who require surgery for NEC die.1 When James subsequently had surgery, his entire bowel was found to be blackened and gangrenous in appearance; within a frighteningly short period of time, this severe infection had led to necrosis of his whole intestine.

In the past, this would have unquestionably been the end of the road for James. With no functioning intestine, his parents would have been counselled that sadly nothing more could be done to save him, that it was time to focus on his comfort and to provide palliative care. Life support would be withdrawn and James would likely die soon afterwards. Although this is dreadful news for medical staff to convey, and a dreadful situation for parents to face, it is, at least, mercifully unambiguous. However, recent surgical advances have raised the possibility of therapy for infants like James.2 …


Where Did the Revolution Go? considers the apparent disappearance of the large social movements that have contributed to democratization. Revived by recent events of the Arab Spring, this question is once again paramount. Is the disappearance real, given the focus of mass media and scholarship on electoral processes and 'normal politics'? Does it always happen, or only under certain circumstances? Are those who struggled for change destined to be disappointed by the slow pace of transformation? Which mechanisms are activated and deactivated during the rise and fall of democratization? This volume addresses these questions through empirical analysis based on quantitative and qualitative methods (including oral history) of cases in two waves of democratization: Central Eastern European cases in 1989 as well as cases in the Middle East and Mediterranean region in 2011.


This article builds upon a relatively small but growing literature in geography, planning and cognate disciplines that seeks to understand the variegated geographies and histories of policy mobilities. The article uses a case study of an exchange trip between town planners in the Soviet Union and the UK between 1957 and 1958. It focuses on the experiences of the British planners in the Soviet Union and sets the tour within the wider context of a fluctuating and sometimes turbulent history of Anglo-Soviet politics, travels and connections. In doing this, the article makes three arguments: first, there is much to be gained by bringing together the geography-dominated policy mobilities literature with that on exchanges and visits by architects, engineers and planners. Secondly, the greater sensitivity to the histories of policy mobilities allows contemporary studies to be contextualized in the longer history of organized learning between different urban professions. Thirdly, despite the long history of policy mobilities, what differentiates the current era from previous eras is the prominent 'knowledge intermediary' roles now played by consultancies and think tanks. As the article will demonstrate, it was branches of government and professional bodies, rather than consultancies and think tanks, that tended to dominate such roles previously.


Because of the extreme heterogeneity and lumpiness of commercial real estate, the topic of diversification and risk management has always attracted substantial interest, and a large body of work has been written on the subject. However, most of the analysis has focused on just a few markets, most notably the United Kingdom, or has been based on limited samples. This article uses asset-level data from over 9,000 office assets in the MSCI Global Annual Property Index to explore the performance of small portfolios (1 to 30 assets) over two separate five-year periods (2007–2011 and 2013–2017) in 16 national markets. The analysis focuses on small portfolios of fewer than 30 assets because many investors (even institutional investors and funds) have portfolios that are relatively small in terms of number of assets. The results provide a globally consistent overview of how asset correlations and market risk affected small commercial real estate portfolios and may have implications for the way investors and managers think about diversification in their exposures. TOPICS: Real estate, risk management Key Findings • Simulating the performance of commercial real estate portfolios with up to 30 assets suggests that even small portfolios can substantially reduce the amount of expected tracking error and volatility. • However, asset correlations vary considerably across markets and over time, meaning that estimates of risk reduction and diversification potential for one market during a specific period may be of limited use when applied to another market or a different period. • Investors may also wish to consider the fact that while the average portfolio can be expected to achieve a reasonable amount of diversification, individual portfolios cannot always be expected to behave like the average portfolio due to the heterogeneity of the asset class.


The transmittance spectrum of halftone prints on paper is predicted thanks to a model inspired by the Yule-Nielsen modified spectral Neugebauer model used for reflectance predictions. This model is well adapted for semi-opaque printing supports and applicable to duplex prints. Model parameters are obtained by a few transmittance measurements on calibration patches printed at one side of the paper. The model was verified with duplex specimens printed by inkjet with standard and custom inks, at different halftone frequencies and on various types of paper. Predictions are as accurate as those obtained with a previously developed reflectance and transmittance prediction model relying on the multiple reflections of light between the paper and the print-air interfaces.


Introduction: A number of treatment options for amblyopia have been reported in the recent years. Haidinger's brushes have also been used to treat amblyopia and correct fixation abnormalities in amblyopia though there is no study that addresses visual acuity to the best of our knowledge. Type of Study: This is a nonrandomized prospective case series. Materials and Methods: Patients between the age groups of 5 and 15 years with strabismic/anisometropic/mixed/ametropic amblyopia were enrolled for the study. All patients wore their refractive correction for a month prior to the study. All patients were made to view the Haidinger's brushes through the amblyopic eye for 15 min/day for a total of 10 consecutive days. Part-time occlusion was commenced thereafter. The vision was recorded prior to the commencement of the exercise, after conclusion of the same and at 2-month review. Results: Thirty-seven eyes of 30 patients were enrolled for the study. The mean age of the patients was 8.7 ± 3.4 years. The mean number of lines of improvement was 1.2 ± 0.9 at completion of 10 days of exercise and 1.36 ± 0.9 at 2 months with patching. None of the patients had a loss of visual acuity at 2-month review. The series included patients with anisometropic, ametropic, and strabismic amblyopia though the numbers did not permit a subgroup comparison. Overall, eight eyes did not respond to exercises. Conclusions: 10 days of exercises with Haidinger brushes produces substantial visual gain in patients with strabismic, anisometropic and mixed amblyopia. The improvement is sustained at 2-month review. The results of this study need to be validated in a larger series of patients.


This paper uses data from the 2003 and 2006 National Employment Surveys to analyse the public-private sector wage gap in Ireland. In particular, we investigate the impact of awards implemented under a number of wage setting institutions on the pay differential. These include the pay increases awarded by the Public Service Benchmarking Body in its first report and the increases given to higher-level posts in the public sector by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector, Reports No. 40 and 41. The pay increases that were awarded under the Social Partnership process in Sustaining Progress and the Mid-Term Review of Part Two of Sustaining Progress are also captured in the data used. Furthermore, we assess the impact of pensions on the gap. The results indicate that the public sector pay premium increased dramatically from 9.7 to 21.6 per cent between 2003 and 2006. Furthermore, we found that by 2006 senior public service workers earned almost 8 per cent more than their private sector counterparts, while those in lower-level grades earned between 22 and 31 per cent more. The public premium results derived in this paper relating to March 2006 predate the payment of the two most recent Social Partnership wage deals, along with the pay increases awarded in the second Benchmarking exercise and by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in Reports No. 42 and 43. The results presented raise serious questions with respect to the justification for any further boosts to the pay levels of public sector workers. Finally, the study highlights the importance of correcting for differences in pension coverage between public and private sector workers when making any assessment of the public-private sector pay differential.


This paper outlines the centrality of market structures in positioning Sport Management and in driving the institutional boundaries that guide most research in the field. I synthesize past work related to competition policy to center an approach to developing an impactful Sport Management literature, broadly speaking. Beginning with a description of industrial organizational lessons for Sport Management research, I exhibit how this frame provides additional scholarly substance to the trajectory of Sport Management as a discipline at the nexus of management, policy, and sport. Although this disciplinary framing is necessarily grounded in the economic structure of sport, and lessons from the Sports Economics literature, I do not argue for a supremacy or exclusivity of economics research. Rather, I propose that framing the discipline in the context of policy and market power allows for a more legitimized and inclusive area of social science that does not sacrifice its managerial roots.


In most countries, the rules concerning anti-dumping and customs reside in different laws. However, since the enforcement of anti-dumping measures is the responsibility of customs authorities, there is necessarily interaction between both areas of law. It is important to get this interaction right. For instance, changes in customs legislation could (inadvertently) increase the number of products covered by anti-dumping measures, arguably violating the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article examines two key points of tension between customs and anti-dumping laws, which have previously not been given much attention, taking the European Union (EU) as an example. First, the article sets out the problem of two competing interests concerning product description: that of a description that is accurate for purposes of coverage under an anti-dumping regulation, on the one hand, and that of a description that is efficient for purposes of ensuring simple and automatic duty collection by the customs authorities, on the other. It then explains the EU's practical solution to this problem (TARIC codes), but advises caution regarding that practice. Second, it sets out how the EU uses rules of origin to impose anti-dumping duties on products that otherwise might not be covered, and cautions against that practice as well. Finally, the article discusses how to avoid breaching WTO law and how to ensure certainty and transparency for companies.


Liberation movement in Indonesia has been influenced by a number of factors, one of these factors is often ignored in key debates. The works of the writing on the struggle of Ulama in colonial period in Indonesia has been widely researched. However, one aspect of the Muslim history in Indonesia is still rarely discussed in the Qur'anic exegesis as medium of struggle; their focus is not on the Qur'anic exegesis as one inspiration for Indonesian Independence. The focus of their works is on the intellectual discourse of Ulama and their contribution in the struggle for independence through organization, journal, magazine, and newspapers. This study focuses on Ahmad Sanusi's Qur'anic interpretation as a medium of struggle in resisting against colonial power. This paper analyses Ahmad Sanusi's messages on anti-colonial spirit in his works. Hermeneutics would be applied to understand Ahmad Sanusi's thought by looking at the context of social and political condition in revolutionary era. Ahmad Sanusi contributed to Indonesian liberation in many forms of movement such as building pesantren (Islamic boarding school), organisation, and religious publications. He had two tafsir books, using Sundanese and Indonesian language namely al Mal ja' al Thalibin, and Tamsiyat al Muslimin fi tafsir Kalami Rabbil Alamin respectively. These works had significant impact on national liberation movement as these two tafsir were written while he was in exile. Due to his contribution to Indonesian liberation, the government of Indonesia rewarded him with Bintang Maha Putra Utama in 1992 and Bintang Maha Putra Adi Pradana in 2009.


Abstract. To improve the model simulation through decisive coupling mechanisms, rather than blindly updating the parameterization schemes, it is necessary to compare model performances between the CGCMs with the same atmospheric or oceanic component model. Therefore, two new CGCMs have been developed with the same oceanic component model, namely ECHAM5-NEMO3.6 and ECHAM6-NEMO3.6. The MPI-ESM that consists of ECHAM6 and MPIOM has also been employed. Experiments are carried out with the same settings in coupler and individual component model if applicable, and the new models show substantial improvements in the simulation of SST, precipitation and ocean currents. Further analysis has made it clear that the primary cause of SST biases in ECHAM5-NEMO3.6 and ECHAM6-NEMO3.6 can be attributed to the momentum field, while oceanic dynamics and surface radiation budget are accountable for more SST deviations in the MPI-ESM. Inter-model comparison between the coupled models with the same oceanic model suggests that cumulus convection is in the central part of simulation differences, which finally influence the SST through WES feedback mechanism. Whereas the OGCM replacement shows that latent heat of evaporation plays a predominant role in changing SST and surface radiation budget, and eventually bringing about variations in air temperature and atmospheric circulation. The mechanisms revealed in this study provide a new perspective of bias genesis during model coupling, which can be helpful for tuning other climate models towards a more realistic simulation.


In recent years, graphical programming systems based on the jigsaw puzzle metaphor have gained popularity due to their ability to visualize syntactical constraints. The supported languages usually have very simple type systems and little to no static type checking. The jigsaw puzzle metaphor has the potential to visualise the constraints and possibilities in languages with more complex types. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a reusable GUI toolkit based on the jigsaw puzzle metaphor. The toolkit supports concepts from object oriented design, such as type polymorphism, inheritance and generics.


OBJECTIVE
We previously documented that abatacept was effective and safe in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who had not previously achieved a satisfactory clinical response with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or tumor necrosis factor blockade. Here, we report results from the long-term extension (LTE) phase of that study.

METHODS
This report describes the long-term, open-label extension phase of a double-blind, randomized, controlled withdrawal trial in 190 patients with JIA ages 6-17 years. Children were treated with 10 mg/kg abatacept administered intravenously every 4 weeks, with or without methotrexate. Efficacy results were based on data derived from the 153 patients who entered the open-label LTE phase and reflect >or=21 months (589 days) of treatment. Safety results include all available open-label data as of May 7, 2008.

RESULTS
Of the 190 enrolled patients, 153 entered the LTE. By day 589, 90%, 88%, 75%, 57%, and 39% of patients treated with abatacept during the double-blind and LTE phases achieved responses according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Pediatric 30 (Pedi 30), Pedi 50, Pedi 70, Pedi 90, and Pedi 100 criteria for improvement, respectively. Similar response rates were observed by day 589 among patients previously treated with placebo. Among patients who had not achieved an ACR Pedi 30 response at the end of the open-label lead-in phase and who proceeded directly into the LTE, 73%, 64%, 46%, 18%, and 5% achieved ACR Pedi 30, Pedi 50, Pedi 70, Pedi 90, and Pedi 100 responses, respectively, by day 589 of the LTE. No cases of tuberculosis and no malignancies were reported during the LTE. Pneumonia developed in 3 patients, and multiple sclerosis developed in 1 patient.

CONCLUSION
Abatacept provided clinically significant and durable efficacy in patients with JIA, including those who did not initially achieve an ACR Pedi 30 response during the initial 4-month open-label lead-in phase.


In 1918, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) to curb mass avian extermination caused by hunting and poaching. Despite Congress's initial concern with these activities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) expanded the scope of MBTA enforcement to include bird deaths caused by industrial activities. This created a glaring split of authority among U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, with one side applying strict liability under the MBTA for all deaths of protected birds caused by industrial activities and the other side refusing to apply the MBTA to indirect and unintentional bird deaths. This article argues that the best solution would be for Congress or the FWS to establish an incidental take permit program that would exempt industrial operators from prosecution for certain indirect, unintentional bird deaths caused by industrial activities. Such a program would provide the best balance between the MBTA's conservation principles and the reality of vital and growing industrial operations. A permit program would provide industrial operators with certainty concerning liability and project planning, and provide the FWS with a tool to fund and ensure conservation of migratory birds, while still allowing the FWS to prosecute those failing to obtain a permit or violating the Act in another way.


Cardiovascular diseases have been one of the main causes of mortality during the past years in Costa Rica. Many risk factors associated to these disorders include the intake of high-fat diets, being cheese an example of such a dietary component. Thus, the fatty-acid characterization of different cheeses was needed, in order to obtain a more ample scope of this public health issue. Cheeses derived from both bovine and caprine milks were included in this study. The Laboratorio Costarricense de Metrologia of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce carried out the sampling needed for this work. The chemical parameters determined in the samples studied were: fatty acid composition (by GC and NMR techniques), saponification and iodine numbers, average triacylglycerol molecular weight, polyunsaturated fatty acids / saturated fatty acids ratio, atherogenic index and number of allylic hydrogens. The experimental values of water and lipid content found were compared with the data in the nutritional-fact labels, designed according to existing national and international food regulations.


Abstract: Modern culture has found in representative democracy the most refined form of government of our time. This form of democracy created and increments public time as confrontation of political parties, of ideologies, of opinions and at the same time as occasion of political participation. The emergence of economic time and of economistic mentality has led to a radical ideological transformation of the meaning of contemporary politics. Public time, within which democratic dialectic took place, has become publicity time; the moral tie of citizenship has been substituted by a plurality of demands; the representation has been reduced to a representation of vested interests, namely a debased form of representation limited in time, space and function . In face of radical changes and of the claims of economistic mentality one could argue that the political time has come to an end and that the future will be decided by economic time and the force of vested interest. But it is also possible that time of democracy will be reconstructed, taking into account mass phenomena as well as including the emerging aspects of vital worlds.;


Given the central role of private individuals and firms in determining the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, and the quality and availability of criminal opportunities, private actions arguably deserve a central role in the analysis of crime and crime prevention policy. But the leading scholarly commentaries on the crime drop during the 1990s have largely ignored the role of the private sector, as have policymakers. Among the potentially relevant trends: growing reporting rates (documented in this paper); the growing sophistication and use of alarms, monitoring equipment and locks; the considerable increase in the employment of private security guards; and the decline in the use of cash. Private actions of this sort have the potential to both reduce crime rates and reduce arrests and imprisonment. Well-designed regulations and programs can encourage effective private action. One creative method to harness private action to cost-effective crime control is the creation of business improvement districts (BIDs). Our quasi-experimental analysis of Los Angeles BIDs demonstrates that the social benefits of BID expenditures on security are a large multiple (about 20) of the private expenditures. Creation and operation of effective BIDs requires a legal infrastructure that helps neighborhoods solve the collective action problem.


In this work, we have developed 3D hybrid microstructures consisting of a short ferromagnetic CoNi segment for wireless magnetic control, coupled to a photocatalytic Bi2O3/BiOCl segment for water remediation under UV-visible light. These hybrid microstructures (pillars and helices) were fabricated using 3D photolithography and template-assisted electrodeposition, followed by in situ creation of a Bi2O3/BiOCl heterojunction after oxidation of Bi. This heterojunction is not only active under a wider solar spectrum but also ensures sufficient charge separation and hence low electron–hole recombination rate. As a result, these hybrid microstructures were able to degrade rhodamine B dye with a 90% efficiency in 6 hours. On application of magnetic fields we were able to precisely control the structures and collect them for reuse. Cytotoxicity tests were performed on our hybrid structures and a 95% cell viability was reported showing that our structures are biocompatible.


In academic discussions it is widely noticed that lobbying is one of the public policy elements indicating quality of governance. However, in practise the concept often acquires negative connotations. The article discusses the lobbying phenomenon in Lithuania, examines the tendencies of lobbying activity and its development in 2000–2013 and analyses challenges for the public policy embedded by various interest groups in Lithuania. The analysis is based on the results of semi-structured in depth interviews with lobbying experts carried out in 2013. The study revealed the challenging issues about the gaps in lobbying legal regulation system in Lithuania. Despite the fact that Lithuania is one of a few countries in Europe which has legal regulation of lobbying activity, as a result of above mentioned issues it could be noticed that the official numbers of registered lobbyists do not represent the amount of lobbying activity in reality. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.13.1.6462


Monocular enucleation induced changes in the visual system in neonates have been reported by many workers but information regarding its effects in adults remains scanty. Present study is an attempt to find out the latter in rabbits. 25 adult rabbits of either sex were subjected to monocular enucleation under general anaesthesia. A similar number of nonenucleates served as controls. Animals were sacrificed after post lesion-survival periods ranging from 2 weeks to 4 months. Brains were fixed by trans-cardiac perfusion of 10% formalin. Superior colliculi were removed from midbrain and processed for paraffin embedding. 10 μ thick sections were stained with Hae-matoxylin and Eosin, Cresyl violet and Luxol fast blue and Thionin as well as Kluver Barrera and Glees and Marshland stains. To access the deafferentation-induced changes in the contralateral (with respect to enucleation), sections from superior colliculi were observed under light micro-scope. Morphological changes were in the form of vacuolation in the neuropil, fascicular disor-ganization and fragmentation of myelin, cytoplasmic and nuclear disintegration of neurons and glial cell aggregation. It was concluded that though the deafferentation-induced changes were not dramatic at any point of time during study, yet its extent could be correlated with duration of post-experimental survival period of the animal.


There is little consensus internationally as to whether and how the law should respond when celebrities find themselves subjected to unwanted public discussions of their private lives in the media (increasingly on a global basis online), and when their personal attributes are referenced without their consent in certain kinds of advertising and trade. A number of commentators have characterized such intrusions on a celebrity's personal dignity or autonomy as simply falling among the minor inconveniences of being a celebrity, insufficient to warrant legal protection given important social values such as freedom of speech and cultural pluralism. The lack of consensus is reflected in the uncertain shifting legal lines drawn around celebrity protection, especially in common law jurisdictions which, unlike many civil law jurisdictions, do not adhere to the idea of a full-scale personality right. In this chapter, we canvass the diverse devices that the common law courts have deployed to deal with the grant of celebrity rights. We note and support the messy multivalence we find recognised in common law approaches given the range of dynamic interests that are at play. Such heterogeneity of values might also be relevant to the curtailment of celebrity rights. Thus, we equally support a flexible approach to the limitations, defences and other points at which discretion may be exercised by judges to find a balance between the interests/rights that may be claimed for celebrities (human and otherwise) in controlling the uses of their personal attributes in advertising and trade, and the countervailing interests/rights that others may seek to maintain including in freedom of speech and cultural pluralism.


At the end of 2002 more than 150,000 families in Israel were receiving income maintenance allowances, about ten percent of the number of families of working age; twenty years ago about one percent of families received such support. Annual income maintenance payments amount to about 0.7 percent of Israel's GDP. The structure of income maintenance has hardly changed since the introduction of the system in 1982, with high offset rates against labor income and with a low income-disregard level. This structure had a negative effect on the rate of participation in the labor force and on the propensity to cheat. A reform was introduced in 2003 which among other things sharply reduced the allowances, the offset rates and the disregard-income level. In addition various programs were introduced to facilitate wider participation in the labor market by income maintenance recipients. This paper presents a simulation of the optimal structure of the income maintenance allowances taking into consideration social preferences regarding the inequality of income distribution, labor supply elasticity and the propensity to cheat. The results of the simulation indicate that the optimal maintenance payment is higher than that determined in the reform and that the optimal offset rates against labor income are far below the current rates, and there is even room for a wage subsidy for recipients of income maintenance.


Pregnancy brings so much change to a woman's body that it is not surprising that some discomforts occur during pregnancy. One of the most common discomforts in pregnancy is back pain, stress urinary incontinence and anxiety in pregnancy. The enlargement of the uterus affects the center of gravity of the body shifts forward, changing the posture and putting pressure on the back. This is what causes back pain in pregnant women. The risk of incident urinary incontinence is known to increase during pregnancy and this may persist postpartum. Concerns and anxiety in pregnant women if not handled seriously will bring impact and influence on physical and psychic, both for mother and fetus. The purpose of this study was to determine the description of the incidence of back pain, urinary incontinence stress, and anxiety levels in pregnancy. This research is descriptive research with cross sectional approach. Research location at Tiron public health care in May – June 2018. The sample of research was 34 respondents by using purposive sampling technique. Data on back pain, urinary incontinence stress and anxiety levels in pregnancy were obtained through questionnaire instruments. The results showed that from 34 respondents, 13 respondents (38.25%) had mild back pain, 18 respondents (52.94%) had slight urinary incontinence stress, and there were 1 respondent (2.94%) experiencing severe pregnancy anxiety. The results of this study can be made by health personnel in providing services and counseling pregnancy to help reduce complaints such as back pain, urinary incontinence stress and anxiety in pregnancy.


Over the past five years, the World Bank has undertaken a major project looking at how to achieve the benefits of open trading through liberalization policies. This has involved very detailed analysis of the experience of 19 countries to uncover the fundamental principles by which governments can achieve neutrality in their countries' trading systems and the demonstrable advantages of an international free market economy. The results of the work are published in seven volumes, two each for each of the three major regions (Latin America, Asia and Pacific and Mediterranean) plus a volume synthesizing the results and acting as a manual of trade liberalization.


Decision making takes place in an environment of uncertainty. Therefore, it is necessary to have information which is as accurate and complete as possible in order to minimize the risk that is inherent to the decision-making process. In the financial domain, the situation becomes even more critical due to the intrinsic complexity of the analytical tasks within this field. The main aim of the KBS4FIA project is to automate the processes associated with financial analysis by leveraging the technological advances in natural language processing, ontology learning and population, ontology evolution, opinion mining, the Semantic Web and Linked Data. This project is being developed by the TECNOMOD research group at the University of Murcia and has been funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation Aimed at the Challenges of Society.


The article is devoted to the problem of tax risks of the state, which are described from three standpoints: as damage; through a combination of factors that define them; and from the standpoint of the probabilistic nature of their implementation. It is underlined that the competitive risk of the tax system is closely related to the process of tax competition. The country tax competition is illustrated by the experience of the European Union member states in reducing corporate income tax rates during the period of the European Union expansion in 2004 and 2007. The statistical data are provided to confirm the trend of the reduction of tax rates by the EU member states in the context of economic integration. The experience of the regions of the Russian Federation is described as an example of tax competition at the regional level. The option of assessing the scale of regions' introduction of tax competition tools available in the conditions of modern Russian model of tax federalism is proposed. The comparative analysis of introduction of tax competition tools by regions and advance of the tax revenue growth over the growth of the regional economy is carried out. The absence of an unambiguous relationship between the scale of the introduction of the tax competition tools and the growth of tax revenues is shown by the example of the regions of the Central Federal District. The absence of such dependence is determined by similar taxation conditions in the regions of the Russian Federation, which describe broad prospects for the development of tax competition.


It is presented a hermetic compressor startup simulation procedure considering a simplified approach to obtain the transient data of different compressor parameters. The main numerical technique is a four order Runge-Kutta procedure to numerically integrate the systems of ordinary differential equations, which describe the variables' variation with time in each part of the compressor. The simulations were performed in the Windali software. The results show how the oil viscosity influences the electrical motor torque, the compressor load and crankshaft angular velocity with time for two electric motor input voltage values. The increase of oil viscosity by a factor of 2, retards the compressor startup for more than one second. The presented simple model could be valuable for studying the geometrical and operational influence on compressor startup.


Each day, rod photoreceptors of the vertebrate retina synthesize rhodopsin and insert it into new membranes of the rod outer segment (ROS). The authors determined which components of the rod cell transport opsin from the Golgi to the ROS by a combined EM autoradiographic and immunocytochemical study using radiolabeled amino acid precursors and antiopsin antibodies. Radiolabeled proteins in the ellipsoid region of Xenopus laevis retinal rods were localized by comparison of the distribution of silver grains with the predicted distribution generated by a hypothetical source: grain matrix. Sources of decay were not uniformly distributed. Small vesicles compressed between mitochondria and clustered beneath the connecting cilium that joins the inner to the outer segment contained more than 30% of the radiolabel and had a specific activity 17 times higher than the surrounding cytoplasm. Opsin was localized immunocytochemically on thin sections of retinas embedded in Lowicryl K4M (Polysciences; Warrington, PA) by reaction sequentially with biotinyl-rabbit antifrog opsin, biotinyl-sheep antirabbit F(ab')2, and avidin-ferritin. Golgi apparatus, intermitochondrial vesicles, and vesicles that clustered beneath the connecting cilium were prominently labeled. Subellipsoid smooth endoplasmic reticulum was labeled at background levels. These results demonstrate that intracellular vesicular membranes transport newly synthesized opsin from the Golgi to the base of the connecting cilium of X. laevis retinas. Antibody labeled the outer segment plasma membrane at a 10-fold greater density than the contiguous inner segment plasma membrane. The polarized distribution of opsin apparently involves not only vectorial transport of opsin in the inner segment but also restrictions to the randomization of opsin inserted into the inner and outer segment plasma membrane.


Underwater noise is a severe annoyance and danger to marine life. The innovative Hydro Sound Dampers (HSD) lead to an effective general method to reduce piling underwater noise. HSD were developed between 2007 and 2010 by K.-H. Elmer to reduce marine and offshore piling noise. The theory and the acoustical background of the new noise mitigation method will be presented. HSD systems use nets with air filled elastic balloons and special PE-foam elements with high dissipative effects to reduce continuous and impact noise. The resonance frequency of the HSD-elements, the optimum damping rate for impact noise, the distribution and the effective frequency range can be fully controlled. Offshore tests and serial applications in offshore wind farms in Germany and Great Britain demonstrate this new effective way to reduce the very high offshore piling noise. It is also intended to use systems of Hydro Sound Dampers in Australia to reduce high underwater piling noise levels in coastal ports and harbours. HSD-systems are very small systems and easy to handle. They are more effective than air-bubble curtains, independent of compressed air, not influenced by tidal currents, not expensive and easy adaptable to different applications. Measured results of underwater noise reductions between 10dB (SEL) and more than 20dB (SEL) will be presented and discussed.


Electrical arcing injuries are the most common form of electrical injury in mining. MSHA data show that 381 "non-contact electric arc burn" injuries occurred in the mining industry from 1996 - 2005. A more detailed study of data from 1990-2001 showed that five types of apparatus - circuit breakers, conductors, nonpowered hand tools, electrical meters and test leads, and connectors and plugs were involved in two-thirds of the lost workday injuries. Many of the protections from electrical arcing injury available to workers in other industries stem from the application of National Fire Protection Association Standard 70E - Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace (NFPA 70E). NFPA 70E is a generally accepted industry guideline document, but excludes underground mining from its scope. Many of its practices and procedures, however, can be applied in the mining workplace to supplement the existing electrical safety requirements of Title 30 Code of Federal Regulations. This paper describes how NFPA 70E can be applied to mining workplaces after an analysis of the mine power system electrical arcing hazards has been completed (and Hazard/Risk Categories determined) using the tables from NFPA 70E or the calculation method as described in IEEE 1584. NFPA 70E can then be used to determine the levels and types of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to protect miners against burn injuries. Appropriate lockout and tagout (LOTO) procedures for use in the mining industry are also described. Suggestions for better selection of electrically-rated hand tools are included. Recommendations for electrical meter selection and use based on transient withstand capability are also discussed.


This article seeks to contest the frequently repeated assertion that anger poses the greatest threat to transitional societies moving from authoritarianism to democracy. Against suggestions that victims of past injustices should forswear their `negative emotions' lest they spark a renewed cycle of violence, it argues that it is important to recognize the moral legitimacy of their anger. While anger is notoriously (though contestably) vulnerable to excess and needs to be moderated in reference to shared norms of reasonableness, it represents an appropriate response to wilful harm and needs to be afforded a central role in any conception of justice.


Purposes
This study aims to investigate what consumer's preference, as group members, to participate in boycott movement in Indonesia.

Design/methodology/approach
A mix method, qualitative (the first phase) and quantitative (the second phase), approach is used. The first phase used secondary data from media reporting interconnected themes on boycott, and the result of which was analyzed using content analysis method. Based on the results of the first phase, the authors continue with the second phase. The second phase used primary data from survey. The data were analyzed using analytical hierarchy process method.

Findings
The results showed that the primary target of boycott is the firm. The primary objective of boycott is the changing in firms' behavior (instrumental), and the primary root cause of boycott is economy.

Originality Value
The study contributes to improve the authors' knowledge about consumers' preference, as group members, in their attempt to get involved in boycott movement. From the perspective of reference group theory, the study shows that consumers always compare what they do to what their groups do. Consumers also tend to be willingly persuaded if an opinion has been adopted by a group of preferred people or when they are the members. From the perspective of expectancy-value theory, the decision to present particular behaviors is the results of rational process directed to a particular objective. Behavior chosen is considered, consequences and results of an action are evaluated, and the decision is made whether or not to take any action.


We present an iterative Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for computing reference priors and minimax risk for general parametric families. Our approach uses MCMC techniques based on the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm for computing channel capacity in information theory. We give a statistical analysis of the algorithm, bounding the number of samples required for the stochastic algorithm to closely approximate the deterministic algorithm in each iteration. Simulations are presented for several examples from exponential families. Although we focus on applications to reference priors and minimax risk, the methods and analysis we develop are applicable to a much broader class of optimization problems and iterative algorithms.


Web services are the main implementation technology of the service oriented architecture (SOA). Web services exchange SOAP XML messages, thus they provide a true platform and language independent distributed communication. SOAP XML messages burden the communication with a significant serialization and deserialization overhead which can even be comparable with the execution time of the service's application logic itself. Web services are built on XML.It use XML for describing the service interface, message exchange and the WSprotocols that provide addressing, security and reliable messaging. When the interface of a web service is being designed, it is important to find the right granularity for the parameters, i.e., the most reusable interface with the best response times. To determine the best response times, it is essential to have the capability to predict the estimated response time based on the interface and on its expected usage of the service. This problem inspired us to examine the response time overhead of the various frameworks implementing the web service stack, and to give a performance model equipped with performance prediction capability for web services. I proposed a performance model with which the response time overhead of web services with arbitrary interfaces can be predicted if the coefficients of the model are calculated from some simple measurements for the given set of test cases. It shows the measurement results for two web service frameworks and also gives a detailed description of the performance model. Keywords— Performance model;Web services;WSDL;SOAP; WS-* protocols.


This dissertation investigates a prominent group in the patriot/militia movement called the Oath Keepers. It explores how the group uses references to core political ideas and important political events from American history. It argues that these rhetorical strategies serve three purposes: (1) helping the group's supporters to make sense of contemporary America, (2) providing the group's supporters with models of appropriate behavior in response to ongoing events, and (3) help the group to gain additional support. It also argues that different rhetorical strategies are useful for different purposes and target different audiences. The Oath Keepers: Patriotism, Dissent, and the Edge of Violence


T cells of the immune system respond only to foreign antigens because those cells with reactivity for self proteins are either deleted during their development or rendered non-responsive (anergic). The maintenance of the nonresponsive state was found to require the continual exposure of the anergic T cells to antigen. When anergic T cells were removed from the self antigen by adoptive transfer to a mouse strain lacking the antigen or by in vitro culture, nonresponsiveness was reversed and the anergic cells returned to normal functional status.


Since 1985, Architect? has been an essential text for aspiring architects, offering the best basic guide to the profession available. This third edition has been substantially revised and rewritten, with new material covering the latest developments in architectural and construction technologies, digital methodologies, new areas of focus in teaching and practice, evolving aesthetic philosophies, sustainability and green architecture, and alternatives to traditional practice. Architect? tells the inside story of architectural education and practice; it is realistic, unvarnished, and insightful. Chapter 1 asks "Why Be an Architect?" and chapter 2 offers reasons "Why Not to Be an Architect." After this provocative beginning, Architect? goes on to explain and critique architectural education, covering admission, degree and curriculum types, and workload as well as such post-degree options as internship, teaching, and work in related fields. It offers a detailed discussion of professors and practitioners and the "-isms" and "-ologies" most prevalent in teaching and practicing architecture. It explains how an architect works and gets work, and describes architectural services from initial client contact to construction oversight. The new edition also includes a generous selection of drawings and cartoons from the author's Washington Post column, "Shaping the City," offering teachable moments wittily in graphic form. The author, Roger Lewis, has taught, practiced, and written extensively about architecture for many years. In Architect? he explains -- for students, professors, practitioners, and even prospective clients -- how architects think and work and what they care about as they strive to make the built environment more commodious, more beautiful, and more sustainable.


In this study, we address the interesting task of classifying historical texts by their assumed period of writ-ing. This task is useful in digital humanity studies where many texts have unidentified publication dates.For years, the typical approach for temporal text classification was supervised using machine-learningalgorithms. These algorithms require careful feature engineering and considerable domain expertise todesign a feature extractor to transform the raw text into a feature vector from which the classifier couldlearn to classify any unseen valid input. Recently, deep learning has produced extremely promising re-sults for various tasks in natural language processing (NLP). The primary advantage of deep learning isthat human engineers did not design the feature layers, but the features were extrapolated from data witha general-purpose learning procedure. We investigated deep learning models for period classification ofhistorical texts. We compared three common models: paragraph vectors, convolutional neural networks (CNN) and recurrent neural networks (RNN), and conventional machine-learning methods. We demon-strate that the CNN and RNN models outperformed the paragraph vector model and the conventionalsupervised machine-learning algorithms. In addition, we constructed word embeddings for each timeperiod and analyzed semantic changes of word meanings over time.


We consider the problem of delivering content cached in a wireless network of n nodes randomly located on a square of area n. The network performance is described by the 2n × n-dimensional caching capacity region of the wireless network. We provide an inner bound on this caching capacity region, and, in the high path-loss regime, a matching (in the scaling sense) outer bound. For large path-loss exponent, this provides an information-theoretic scaling characterization of the entire caching capacity region. The proposed communication scheme achieving the inner bound shows that the problems of cache selection and channel coding can be solved separately without loss of order-optimality. On the other hand, our results show that the common architecture of nearest-neighbor cache selection can be arbitrarily bad, implying that cache selection and load balancing need to be performed jointly.


Abstract. Rates of denitrification in sediments were measured with the isotope pairing technique at different sites in the southern and central Baltic Sea. The rates varied between 0.5 μmol N m−2 h−1 in sands and 28.7 μmol N m−2 h−1 in muddy sediments and showed a good correlation to the organic carbon contents of the surface sediments. N-removal rates via sedimentary denitrification were estimated for the entire Baltic Sea calculating sediment specific denitrification rates and interpolating them to the whole Baltic Sea area. Another approach was carried out by using the relationship between the organic carbon content and the rate of denitrification. The N-removal by denitrification in sediments varied between 426–652 kt N a−1, which is around 48–73% of the external N inputs delivered via rivers, coastal point sources, and atmospheric deposition. Moreover, an expansion of the anoxic bottom areas was considered under the assumption of a rising oxycline from 100 to 80 m water depth. This leads to an increase of the area with anoxic conditions and an overall decrease in sedimentary denitrification by 14%. Overall, we show here that this type of data extrapolation is a powerful tool to estimate the nitrogen losses for a whole coastal sea and may be applicable to other coastal regions and enclosed seas.


The Luxi–Nujiang suture, which extends from Yunnan into Myanmar, is shown to continue into Thailand and the Malacca Strait. It forms the eastern boundary of a discrete block, here called the Irrawaddy Block, which was formerly considered to be part of Gondwana-derived Sibumasu. It has a distinct Palaeozoic succession, with thick Lower Permian, glacially influenced, diamictite-bearing, marine mass-flow intervals deposited at the Gondwana margin. The rest of Sibumasu, east of the suture, also has local, thin, Lower Permian diamictite units; however, they have been interpreted as ice-rafted deposits, laid down at a greater distance from the Gondwana margin. In NE Sumatra a diamictite-bearing (?)Carboniferous–Lower Permian succession has also been described as of mass-flow origin and it is suggested that it is also part of the Irrawaddy Block. It requires that the bounding suture is aligned SE, beneath the Malacca Strait. In the Late Cretaceous–Palaeogene, the dextral India–Australia oceanic transform propagated onshore as a strike-slip fault, bounding on the east the north-going India Plate. It disrupted the Irrawaddy Block and for much of its length coincided with the line of the earlier suture. Insofar as the acronym Sibumasu was coined to include Sumatra, consideration should be given to renaming this block Sibuma.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with the accumulation of aggregates of insoluble amyloid-β (Aβ) protein, in particular Aβ42, which is released from the membrane-bound amyloid precursor protein by the proteases β- and γ-secretase. Oligomeric Aβ42 alters synaptic activity by affecting glutamate receptor abundance at synaptic membranes and reducing the number of dendritic spines, but its effects on intracellular signaling are unclear. Berman et al. had previously shown that mutations in genes encoding components of the γ-secretase complex are linked to abnormal metabolism of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P2]. Here, they showed that exposure of mouse cortical neurons to a preparation of oligomeric Aβ42 or to cell-derived Aβ42 reduced the abundance of membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2 compared with that in control neurons, as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. This Aβ42-dependent reduction of membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2 abundance was blocked when extracellular Ca2+ was chelated by EGTA or when neurons were treated with an antibody against Aβ. The membrane localization of a fluorescent PtdIns(4,5)P2-binding protein was lower in Aβ42-treated PC12 cells than in control cells; however, an inhibitor of phospholipase C, which hydrolyzes PtdIns(4,5)P2, restored membrane localization of the PtdIns(4,5)P2 probe in Aβ42-treated cells. When neurons from mice heterozygous for the gene encoding the PtdIns(4,5)P2 phosphatase synaptojanin 1 (Synj1+/– mice) were treated with Aβ42, the abundance of membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2 was unchanged. Furthermore, whereas long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal slices of wild-type mice was inhibited by Aβ42 treatment, LTP in hippocampal slices from Synj1+/– mice was unaffected. Thus, Aβ42 appears to impair synaptic plasticity by reducing membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2 abundance, an effect that is partly dependent on synaptojanin 1, whose inhibition may well prove beneficial in the treatment of AD. D. E. Berman, C. Dall'Armi, S. V. Voronov, L. B. J. McIntire, H. Zhang, A. Z. Moore, A. Staniszewski, O. Arancio, T.-W. Kim, G. Di Paolo, Oligomeric amyloid-β peptide disrupts phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate metabolism. Nat. Neurosci. 11, 547-554 (2008). [PubMed]


Plant genetic diversity is the fundamental of plant-breeding programs to improve desirable characteristics. Hence, evaluation of genetic diversity is the first step in fruit-breeding programs. Accordingly, the current study was carried out to evaluate 25 superior walnut genotypes in respect of phenotypic and cytological characteristics. For this purpose, 560 walnut genotypes in southwest of Iran were evaluated based on UPOV and International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) descriptor. After a 2-year primary evaluation, 25 superior genotypes were selected for future phenotypic and genome size assessment. Flow cytometry was used to estimate genome size of the selected superior genotypes. A high genetic diversity was found in walnut population collected from the southwest of Iran. The selected superior genotypes had high yield, lateral bearing, thin-shell thickness (0.90–1.64 mm), high nut (12.54–19.80 g) and kernel (7.02– 9.91 g) weight with light (L) to extra light (EL) kernel color which easily can be removed from the shell. Also, FaBaCh2 genotype turned out to be protogynous being important as a pollinizer cultivar. In addition to extensive phenotypic analysis, genome size was determined. The studied genotypes were diploid (2n = 2x = 32) and varied in genome size from 1.29 (FaBaAv2) to 1.40 pg (FaBaNs12). Correlation analysis showed that lateral bearing, budbreak date, nut size, and weight were the main variables contributing to walnut production. A linear relationship was found between genome size and nut weight (r = 0.527**), kernel weight (r = 0.551**), and nut size index (NSI) (r = 0.487**). Therefore, genome size can be considered as a strong and valuable tool to predict nut and kernel weight and nut size.


Introduction: The Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a combination of distress physical, psychological and behavioral changes that occur in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and lead to disordering in individual relationships and normal activities. Since, the etiology of the PMS is not clear, to relief the symptoms of this syndrome, different methods were used. The main object of this project is to compare the effects of 2 different methods of aerobic exercise and vitamin B6 intake on the severity of symptoms of premenstrual syndrome in Non-Athlete girls in 2011-12. Methods: Sixty non - athlete girl students aged 18-25 at Khorasgan University were chosen 5 questionnaires and also daily symptoms the were divided into three aerobic exercise, vitamin B6 and control groups randomly. They aerobic exercise constructed for 8 weeks, 3 sessions in a week, and each session 60 minutes done in the University Club. The experimental group (vitamins B6) were used a pill every day for 2 months. After 1 months the PMS questionnaire was distributed among the 3 groups again (mid-test) and after 2 months the posttest was conducted. Results: The results showed that the severity of symptoms reduced after 1 and 2 (P ≤ 0.001) months exercise. Also the results indicate that the mean score in decreasing physical, psychological symptoms and total score in Aerobic was more than vitamins B6 and control group (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study concluded that aerobic exercise and vitamins B6 intake can reduce the severity of symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.


This study explored in depth the factors that trigger Specialist Trainees' reflection and why documented evidence may not always encapsulate their practice. Specialist Trainees in the UK are required to record reflections on their clinical experiences and evidence of their professional development in an e-portfolio. Fifteen qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with first year general medical Specialist Trainees in one Deanery in the North of England. Thematic framework analysis of the qualitative interviews generated categories. Four categories emerged from the qualitative data analysis: help/hindering forces; strategic and superficial entries; triggers for reflection; and the role of others, including Educational Supervisors. This study identified clear triggers for reflection but the art of writing it down often seems superficial, sometimes hurried, sometimes selective and often strategic. There is some evidence from this series of semi-structured interviews to suggest that reflective entries are limited by time constraints and also privacy concerns regarding the reliability of security systems within the e-portfolio. Findings suggest that the e-portfolio, in its current form, may not be the most appropriate way of encouraging written accounts of reflective practice.


Abstract. Supersaturation often occurs at the top of the troposphere where cirrus clouds form, but is comparatively unusual near the surface where the air is generally warmer and laden with liquid and/or ice condensation nuclei. One exception is the surface of the high Antarctic Plateau. One year of atmospheric moisture measurement at the surface of Dome C on the East Antarctic Plateau is presented. The measurements are obtained using commercial hygrometry sensors modified to allow air sampling without affecting the moisture content, even in the case of supersaturation. Supersaturation is found to be very frequent. Common unadapted hygrometry sensors generally fail to report supersaturation, and most reports of atmospheric moisture on the Antarctic Plateau are thus likely biased low. The measurements are compared with results from two models implementing cold microphysics parameterizations: the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts through its operational analyses, and the Model Atmospherique Regional. As in the observations, supersaturation is frequent in the models but the statistical distribution differs both between models and observations and between the two models, leaving much room for model improvement. This is unlikely to strongly affect estimations of surface sublimation because supersaturation is more frequent as temperature is lower, and moisture quantities and thus water fluxes are small anyway. Ignoring supersaturation may be a more serious issue when considering water isotopes, a tracer of phase change and temperature, largely used to reconstruct past climates and environments from ice cores. Because observations are easier in the surface atmosphere, longer and more continuous in situ observation series of atmospheric supersaturation can be obtained than higher in the atmosphere to test parameterizations of cold microphysics, such as those used in the formation of high-altitude cirrus clouds in meteorological and climate models.


Immigration scholars largely focus on adaptation processes of immigrant groups, while race scholars focus on structural barriers nonwhite immigrants face. By comparing nonwhite immigrants with native-born Americans, we can better understand how racial logics affect the identification of racial minorities in the United States. Drawing on 153 interviews with Indian, Caribbean, Chinese, Filipino, and Mexican immigrants, and comparing their narratives to those of black native-born respondents, the authors find similar understandings of American identity across immigrant groups as well as barriers to recognition as American shared by immigrants and native-born blacks. Immigrant narratives continue to reify the United States as a white nation, thus leading to their exclusion by default.


Wasserstein gradient flow has emerged as a promising approach to solve optimization problems over the space of probability distributions. A recent trend is to use the well-known JKO scheme in combination with input convex neural networks to numerically implement the proximal step. The most challenging step, in this setup, is to evaluate functions involving density explicitly, such as entropy, in terms of samples. This paper builds on the recent works with a slight but crucial difference: we propose to utilize a variational formulation of the objective function formulated as maximization over a parametric class of functions. Theoretically, the proposed variational formulation allows the construction of gradient flows directly for empirical distributions with a well-defined and meaningful objective function. Computationally, this approach replaces the computationally expensive step in existing methods, to handle objective functions involving density, with inner loop updates that only require a small batch of samples and scale well with the dimension. The performance and scalability of the proposed method are illustrated with the aid of several numerical experiments involving high-dimensional synthetic and real datasets.


Papua New Guinea has taken a global lead in seeking to combat climate change, particularly by proposing measures to realise the carbon abatement opportunity offered by preserving and sustainably managing tropical forests, i.e. by introducing the concept of REDD+ into international negotiations. Domestically, PNG is also committed to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. The country's Vision 2050 envisages low-carbon economic development, aiming to increase per capita GDP by a factor of three by 2030, while maintaining an aspirational goal of net carbon neutrality by 2050.


Recent poststructuralist theories of identity posit identities as being discursively constructed in interactions with society, institutions, and individuals. This study used a Linguistic Ethnographic framework to investigate the discursive identity construction of two English teachers, one 'non-native' English speaker, and one 'native' English speaker, teaching English in a tertiary institution in Japan. Using naturally occurring data taken from classroom observations as well as data from reflexive semi-structured interviews, a Membership Categorization Analysis approach was taken to analyze how the participating teachers are positioned and position themselves in relation to the institution itself as well as at the classroom level when interacting with students. The study found that a clear distinction between 'native' and 'non-native' speaker teachers was created at the institutional level, which the teachers had little control over. However, at the classroom level, the participants exercised greater agency, which was used by the teachers to resist straightforward identity ascriptions.


Postcoital contraception (PC) has become more effective in recent years and is recommended for women who have had unprotected coitus between the 8th and 17th days of their cycles. Vaginal douche using a spermicide solution is ineffective as it has resulted in a 37% pregnancy rate. Estrogens are far more effective: Diethylstilbestrol (DES), taken in doses of 25-50 mg daily for 5 days, e.g., 10 mg of conjugated estrogens 3 times daily, and 2.5 mg ethinyl estradiol 2 times daily for 5 days 24-72 hours after coitus, has resulted in a .5-1.5% pregnancy rate. Side effects, however, include nausea, vomiting, mastalgia, menorrhagia, extrauterine pregnancy, and adenocarcinoma in daughters of DES-treated women. Gestagens, such as .15-.40 mg of d-norgestrel taken 3 hours after coitus, can be used as a form of planned PC. In an experiment, an estrogen-gestagen preparation consisting of 50 mcg ethinyl estradiol and 500 mcg dl-norgestrel taken 12-72 hours after coitus produced a .9% pregnancy rate in 1300 menstrual cycles with few serious side effects. Copper 7 or copper-T IUDs also prevent the implantation of the fertilized egg, and, when used within 5 days after coitus, produced only 1 pregnancy in 727 cases. The ideal future PC would be a preparation that inhibits either ovulation or nidation and has limited side effects. Among some promising agents are a luteinizing hormone-releasing factor agonist as well as natural and synthetic prostaglandins; however, until their cardiovascular and gastrointestinal side effects have been ameliorated, their routine use is unlikely.


Nowadays, a variety of Big Data architectures are emerging to organize the Big Data life cycle. While some of these architectures are proposed for general usage, many of them are proposed in a specific application domain such as smart cities, transportation, healthcare, and agriculture. There is, however, a lack of understanding of how and why Big Data architectures vary in different domains and how the Big Data architecture strategy in one domain may possibly advance other domains. Therefore, this paper surveys and compares the Big Data architectures in different application domains. It also chooses a representative architecture of each researched application domain to indicate which Big Data architecture from a given domain the researchers and practitioners may possibly start from. Next, a pairwise cross-domain comparison among the Big Data architectures is presented to outline the similarities and differences between the domain-specific architectures. Finally, the paper provides a set of practical guidelines for Big Data researchers and practitioners to build and improve Big Data architectures based on the knowledge gathered in this study.


This research addresses a gap in the literature on responsible investing (RI) in South Africa by studying the risk-adjusted performance of RI unit trusts available to retail investors. The Sharpe, Sortino and Upside-potential ratios for 16 RI unit trusts, their benchmarks and a matched sample of conventional unit trusts were calculated for the period 1 June 1992 – 31 August 2011. Most of the RI unit trusts in South Africa use exclusionary screens based on Shari'ah (Islamic) law with the remaining funds focusing on social issues, such as labour relations and social development. The total expense ratios of RI unit trusts are slightly higher than those of conventional funds, but no different from that of their benchmarks or a matched sample of conventional unit trusts. It is suggested that local assets managers expand the range of retail RI unit trusts available in the country.


This research was conducted to study the perception of the students towards literature in improving their English Language proficiency. A survey was conducted at SMK Ibrahim Fikri, Kuala Terengganu to elicit information of the students' perception towards literature in improving their language proficiency. A total of 50 students were selected at random as the respondents in this study. The instruments employed were mainly a questionnaire which comprised of a Likert five point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. An informal interview with five teachers were also conducted to support the data. All the data collected were analysed using the frequency count technique and percentages. Then a descriptive analysis of the results were made. The findings indicated positive responses from the students towards literature in improving their English Language proficiency. Learning literature has made their learning of English more enjoyable and their interest in literature tend to be determined by how it was taught and the type of text used. Majority of the students agreed that learning literature has benefited them in some ways in improving their language proficiency in terms of speaking and writing. Finally, it is hoped that the recommendations in this study will assist the relevant stakeholders to select suitable materials for the literature component in English Language syllabus. The introduction of literature is definitely a positive step towards improving English Language among students in schools.


Abstract Experiments suggest that the presence of a weapon impairs memory for the appearance of the perpetrator ("weapon focus"), although whether this reflects threat or novelty value remains unresolved. To date, no studies have explored whether a parallel effect occurs with children. In a paradigm based on "Kim's game", children aged 7, 8 and 9 years memorized an array of common objects. For one group, the array contained a syringe filled with red liquid (threat item) while for others this was replaced by a fountain pen (control) or mobile phone (novelty item). Children were tested immediately for recall of the array and unexpectedly, 3 hours later, for the appearance of the experimenter. Consistent with a threat interpretation, children of all ages who saw the array containing the syringe showed significantly decreased recall relative to those who saw the pen or phone (p<0.001) and exhibited poorer memory for the appearance of the experimenter (p<0.001). In addition, children who prioritized the syringe in their recall provided less accurate appearance information, an effect not found for the phone or pen. It is concluded that weapon focus occurs in children and that the current findings are consistent with a threat interpretation.


In this brief, we propose three efficient three-input XOR/XNOR circuits as the most significant blocks of digital systems with a new systematic cell design methodology (SCDM) in hybrid-CMOS logic style. SCDM, which is an extension of CDM, plays the essential role in designing efficient circuits. At first, it is deliberately given priority to general design goals in a base structure of circuits. This structure is generated systematically by employing binary decision diagram. After that, concerning high flexibility in design targets, SCDM aims to specific ones in the remaining three steps, which are wise selections of basic cells and amend mechanisms, as well as transistor sizing. In the end, the resultant three-input XOR/XNORs enjoy full-swing and fairly balanced outputs. They perform well with supply voltage scaling, and their critical path contains only two transistors. They also outperform their counterparts exhibiting 27%-77% reduction in average energy-delay product in HSPICE simulation based on TSMC 0.13-μm technology. The symmetric schematic topologies significantly simplify and minimize the layout, as 26%-32% improvement in area is demonstrated.


Objective To identify knowledge of breast cancer (BC) symptoms, time taken to consult a doctor and factors contributing to delays in medical help-seeking. Design A cross-sectional study of Omani women diagnosed with BC. Setting The two main teaching hospitals in Oman: Royal Hospital and Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. Participants Adult Omani women recently diagnosed with BC. Tools The Breast Module of the Cancer Awareness Measure and the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership questionnaire were used to collect data. Results A total of 300 women with BC participated (response rate: 91.0%). The mean age at diagnosis was 43.0±12.50 years and 33.5% were diagnosed at stage III or IV. Although most women (74.4%) recognised breast/armpit lumps to be a symptom of BC, less than half identified other symptoms, including breast/armpit pain (44.0%), changes in the position of the nipple (36.2%), redness (31.7%), fatigue (26.3%), weight loss (23.4%) and loss of appetite (20.8%). While most (91.6%) were aware that BC could be cured if detected early, only 66.4% sought medical help within a month of developing symptoms. Initial responses to symptoms included informing husbands (40.2%) or family members (36.5%). Barriers to seeking medical help included feeling scared (68.9%) and worried about what the doctor might find (62.8%). Highly educated women were more likely to recognise the following as BC symptoms: changes in nipple position (OR: 0.16, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.81), breast pain (OR: 0.10, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.86) and unexplained weight loss (OR: 0.18, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.88) (all p<0.05). Conclusions Although many Omani women with BC were aware of the importance of early diagnosis, most demonstrated inadequate knowledge of symptoms, did not prioritise seeking medical help and reported emotional barriers to help-seeking. More educational measures are needed to improve symptom recognition and address help-seeking barriers to minimise delays in diagnosis.


An analysis of transverse laser resonator modes is presented, based on a recently developed coherence theory in the space-frequency domain. The modes are introduced by means of solutions of an integral equation that expresses a steady-state condition for a second-order correlation function of the field across a mirror of the laser cavity. All solutions of this integral equation are found to be expressible as quadratic forms involving the Fox–Li modes of the conventional theory. If there is no degeneracy, each mode is shown to be necessarily completely spatially coherent, at each frequency, within the framework of second-order correlation theory. It is also shown that, if several transverse modes are excited, the output cannot be completely spatially coherent.


Significant others of people with dementia suffer high levels of burden and distress, creating the conditions for the negative attitudes and unhelpful responses described within the construct of Expressed Emotion (EE). It is not known however, whether EE then further enhances significant other burden and distress, and whether these processes operate early after symptoms of dementia have started. The current study used a longitudinal design to examine the potential influence of EE on burden and distress in significant others of people with a recent diagnosis of dementia. Sixty-one significant others of people with dementia were recruited. Significant other EE was coded from the Camberwell Family Interview. Significant other burden and distress, and relationship quality were collected through questionnaires at baseline and at 6-month follow-up. Significant other high-EE was associated with higher levels of burden and greater distress at both baseline and 6-month follow-up, when existing relationship quality was controlled for. High-EE significant others showed increases in burden and distress from baseline to follow-up not seen in low-EE significant others. Interventions aiming to modify significant other response styles and to reduce high-EE may potentially benefit significant others by reducing their levels of burden and distress.


Despite the large number of publications on Search--Based Software Testing (SBST), there remain few publicly available tools. This paper introduces AUSTIN, a publicly available SBST tool for the C language. The paper validates the tool with an empirical study of its effectiveness and efficiency in achieving branch coverage compared to random testing and the Evolutionary Testing Framework (ETF), which is used in-house by Daimler and others for Evolutionary Testing. The programs used in the study consist of eight non--trivial, real-world C functions drawn from three embedded automotive software modules. For the majority of the functions, AUSTIN is at least as effective (in terms of achieved branch coverage) as the ETF, and is considerably more efficient.


In 2007, McNamara proved that two skew shapes can have the same Schur support only if they have the same number of $k \times \ell$ rectangles as subdiagrams. This implies that two ribbons can have the same Schur support only if one is obtained by permuting row lengths of the other. We present substantial progress towards classifying when a permutation $\pi \in S_m$ of row lengths of a ribbon $\alpha$ produces a ribbon $\alpha_{\pi}$ with the same Schur support as $\alpha$; when this occurs for all $\pi \in S_m$, we say that $\alpha$ has full equivalence class. Our main results include a sufficient condition for a ribbon $\alpha$ to have full equivalence class. Additionally, we prove a separate necessary condition, which we conjecture to be sufficient.


I study the incentives of oligopolists to acquire and disclose information on a common demand intercept. Since firms may fail to acquire information even when they invest in information acquisition, firms can credibly conceal unfavorable news while disclosing favorable news. Firms may earn higher expected profits under such a selective disclosure regime than under the regimes where firms commit to share all or no information. In particular, this holds under both Cournot and Bertrand competition, if the firms have sufficiently flat information acquisition cost functions. For steeper cost functions Cournot duopolists prefer strategic disclosure, if their goods are sufficiently differentiated.