OBJECTIVE
Anterograde amnesia is characterized by a profound inability to retain new information. Recent research suggests that at least some of this severe memory impairment may be the product of retroactive interference. What exactly interferes with memory in amnesic patients, however, remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to examine whether or not postlearning material which is highly dissimilar from the material to be remembered would interfere with amnesic patients' memory.

METHOD
Prose retention was tested in 10 densely amnesic patients and 10 controls following a 10 minute delay period, which was either unfilled (minimal interference) or filled with a tone detection task in which participants were required to listen for piano notes (nonspecific interference).

RESULTS
A significant nonspecific retroactive interference effect was observed in the amnesic patients (p < 0.004): Whereas 7 out of the 10 amnesic patients were able to recall some prose material following the unfilled delay period, only 1 of them was able to recall any material after the tone detection delay.

CONCLUSIONS
The data reveal that some amnesic patients have the capacity to retain new material for much longer than usual but that apparently any new postlearning information profoundly interferes with such retention. This nonspecific retroactive interference effect deviates from the item-specific interference effect that is typically assessed in clinical practice and which is frequently observed in patients with executive impairment. We hypothesize that these interference effects are qualitatively different, occurring during distinct memory processes, namely retrieval (item-specific interference) and consolidation (nonspecific interference).


The rapidly expanding proportion of elderly individuals in the population demands systematic efforts to maintain quality of life, prevent mental deterioration, and restore lost or declining mental functions. The Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) Program for the Elderly is proposed as an effective way of meeting these needs. The program is described and suggestions made for designing research and intervention protocols. Preliminary results of program participant responses from early implementation projects are presented. Benefits for the elder client, the caretakers, and care providing settings are discussed. Implications for the care providing settings and caretakers are also identified.


The aim of this briefing paper is to consider the various ways in which widely reported fear and resistance to the Ebola response can be understood, and what each way of understanding offers to those battling with the current epidemic. As far as this paper is concerned, there is no single 'right way' to comprehend resistance to educators, medics and burial teams, as this is a very complex social phenomenon. The aim instead is to outline the variety of ways in which resistance can be (has been) conceived and what each might suggest for better communication and response. The paper couches these different modes of understanding within a wide repertoire of perspectives that social theorists take to understanding social phenomena, as this provides an analytical framework that is as encompassing as possible.


This study shows that state efforts at child protection are structured by the policy regimes in which they are enmeshed. Using administrative data on child protection, criminal justice, and social welfare interventions, I show that children are separated from their families and placed into foster care far more frequently in states with extensive and punitive criminal justice systems than in states with broad and generous welfare programs. However, large welfare bureaucracies interact with welfare program enrollment to create opportunities for the surveillance of families, suggesting that extensive and administratively complex welfare states engage in "soft" social control through the surveillance and regulation of family behavior. The article further shows that institutionalization, a particularly restrictive form of foster care placement, is least common in states with broad and generous welfare regimes and generally more common under punitive regimes. Taken together, these findings show that policy regimes influence the interaction between families and the state through their proximate effects on family structure and well-being and through institutional effects that delimit the routines and scripts through which policymakers and street-level bureaucrats intervene to protect children.


The devlopment of domestic heat pump systems is mainly based on the use of volumetric oil lubricated compressors. Following the implementation of economizer based rotary compressors, which represented a major improvement step, one major opportunity to improve both efficiency and heat rate, in particular for high temperature lift heat pumps, is to use two stage cycles. However the reliability of those can be strongly impaired by oil migration, resulting in oil level unbalance when using oil lubricated compressors, unless more sophisticated auxiliaries including an oil pump are added. The need for this additional equipment, the requirement of higher vapour velocity for oil return and impediments to the efficiency of enhanced surfaces for heat exchangers are some of the incentives for the development of oil free compressor systems. As high speed bearings and electrical motors are gradually becoming available this open the way to consider the use of low power, compact, oil-free and high speed radial compressors. This paper describes the basic design of a high speed single stage radial compressor for high pressure ratios and a wide flow range aimed for the first stage of a two stage heat pump. A commercially available 3D viscous code has been applied to calculate the flow field through the impeller and the diffuser. The particular choice of the bearings allows using very small tip clearences resulting in low leakage losses. To complete the design a commercial 3D Finite Element code has been used for stress prediction as well as for the calculation of the blade critical frequencies and their corresponding modes. During the design process the impeller blade geometry has been continuously checked for machinability in order to ensure a feasible impeller using conventional 5 axis milling machines. This paper furthermore describes the setup of the test rig to be used for testing.


Although democracy is being questioned and even battered throughout Latin America, what is happening in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia is qualitatively different. It is more than a "ratcheting up" of the assault on democracy; it is a deliberate, well-designed project to deconstruct democracy and substitute something else in its place, poorly defined as that may be. What is new here—and completely unanticipated by the legions of academics who wrote in the 1980s and 1990s about the "transition" to democracy—is the use of democracy to dismantle democracy. These projects pose a political and moral dilemma: how do you oppose political change that has been approved by a majority, sanctified by elections? Especially in poor countries with marked income and wealth disparities, which frequently overlap with race, how do you in good faith oppose the political projects of those who not only speak in the name of the oppressed, but who have the electoral support of the oppressed?


Streaming analysis is widely used in a variety of environments, from cloud computing infrastructures up to the network's edge. In these contexts, accurate modeling of streaming operators' performance enables fine-grained prediction of applications' behavior without the need of costly monitoring. This is of utmost importance for computationally-expensive operators like stream joins, that observe throughput and latency very sensitive to rate-varying data streams, especially when deterministic processing is required. In this paper, we present a modeling framework for estimating the throughput and the latency of stream join processing. The model is presented in an incremental step-wise manner, starting from a centralized non-deterministic stream join and expanding up to a deterministic parallel stream join. The model describes how the dynamics of throughput and latency are influenced by the number of physical input streams, as well as by the amount of parallelism in the actual processing and the requirement for determinism. We present an experimental validation of the model with respect to the actual implementation. The proposed model can provide insights that are catalytic for understanding the behavior of stream joins against different system deployments, with special emphasis on the influences of determinism and parallelization.


The International Crime (Victim) Survey was initially launched in 1989 by the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands and subsequently further developed by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) in Rome. It is currently the major empirical international comparative research project in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice with particular emphasis on victimisation all over the world.
Although fifty-eight countries participated in the research, only four Southern African countries had previously participated, namely Botswana, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In the light of this the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI), the Department of Criminology and the Institute for Criminological Sciences (Unisa), as well as the Technikon Southern Africa (Division:Public Safety and Criminal Justice) are collaborating with a view to promoting research and the sharing of expertise in the field of Criminology in Africa. The project has therefore been extended to Lesotho where very little research was previously done in the field of crime and related phenomena.


One of the most common strategies to develop new software is to take advantage of existing source code, which is available in comprehensive packages called third-party libraries. As for all software systems, even these libraries change to offer new functionalities and fix bugs or security issues. The way the changes are propagated has been studied by researchers, interested in understanding their impact on the non-functional attributes of the systems source code. While the research community mainly focused on the change propagation phenomenon in the context of traditional applications, only little is known regarding the mobile context. In this paper, we aim at bridging this gap by conducting an empirical study on the evolution history of 291 mobile apps, by investigating (i) whether mobile developers actually update third-party libraries, (ii) which are the categories of libraries with respect to the developers' proneness to update their apps, (iii) what are the common patterns followed by developers when updating a software library, and (iv) whether high-and low-rated apps present peculiar update patterns. The results of the study showed that mobile developers rarely update their apps with respect to the used libraries, and when they do, they mainly tend to update the libraries related to the Graphical User Interface, with the aim of keeping the mobile apps updated with the latest design tendencies. In some cases developers ignore updates because of a poor awareness of the benefits, or a too high cost/benefit ratio. Finally, high-and low-rated apps present strong differences.


Background: Prevailing conditions of COVID-19 has hit all sectors of society including dentistry. Both personal and professional lives of dentists have been influenced. Several studies have been undertaken regarding aspects likes influence of clinical practices, awareness regarding the pandemic among patients and dentists. Only a few studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia. The present study evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on Fear, anxiety, socioeconomic status and performance of clinical practices of dental professionals in Riyadh. Methods: A Questionnaire was designed as Google form and sent to 400 dental professionals and responses were statistically evaluated. Results: 244 males and 156 females' dental professionals participated in study. Most of the clinical practices were found to be open but with lower patient volumes. There was decline in both monthly volumes of patients and volumes of collections. Majority of dental professionals were in fear of getting COVID-19 and transmitting to their families. They were afraid of getting quarantined also. In general, all agreed that it will take more than a year for their practices to come back to normal but most of them did not want to shift their profession. There was found to be significant association between designation and effects of COVID-19. Conclusion: There was definite negative impact of COVID-19 on socioeconomic status and performance of clinical practices along with increase in Fear and anxiety among dental professionals.


Ideas require words for their expression and words are sharp instruments, potentially dangerous if used unwisely. Inappropriate selection of words to convey a concept can powerfully inhibit progress that otherwise may have flowed unrestrained had superior linguistics prevailed. The syndrome associated with systemic manifestations in patients who experience rapid increases in serum creatinine concentrations provides an excellent example of this. Observers have used many terms over centuries to describe this condition, with one of them, 'acute tubular necrosis' (commonly 'ATN'), providing a particular example. Graham Bull, A.M. Joekes and K.G. Lowe introduced this phrase in 1950 to escape from previous inadequate terminology bedevilling a then recently redescribed condition. They envisaged a unifying pathogenetic mechanism that would underlie all cases. Enthusiastic to improve therapy, they relied heavily on observations made by others to justify their novel terminology. Many adopted it: it gained huge traction and current textbooks continue to employ it. Yet as early as 1962 investigators such as Ernest Finckh had demonstrated quite unequivocally that it seriously failed the task assigned to it. Other unsatisfactory terms such as 'acute renal failure' of 1951 have come and persisted somewhat uncomfortably alongside it until challenged by 'acute kidney injury' in 2007, yet even this has weaknesses. The present communication reviews the linguistic history of this field over the past 75 years, the backgrounds of some of the people involved, and the importance to the scientific enterprise of care in choice of vocabulary.


Transactional memory (TM) is a promising paradigm for concurrent programming, in which threads of an application communicate, and synchronize their actions, via inmemory transactions. Each transaction can perform any number of operations on shared data, and then either commit or abort. When the transaction commits, the effects of all its operations become immediately visible to other transactions; when it aborts, however, those effects are entirely discarded. Transactions are atomic: programmers get the illusion that every transaction executes all its operations instantaneously, at some single and unique point in time. The TM paradigm has raised a lot of hope for mastering the complexity of concurrent programming. The aim is to provide programmers with an abstraction, i.e., the transaction, that makes handling concurrency as easy as with coarse-grained locking, while exploiting the parallelism of the underlying multi-core or multi-processor hardware as well as hand-crafted fine-grained locking (which is typically an engineering challenge). It is thus not surprising to see a large body of work devoted to implementing this paradigm efficiently, and integrating it with common programming languages. Very little work, however, was devoted to the underlying theory and principles. The aim of this thesis is to provide theoretical foundations for transactional memory. This includes defining a model of a TM, as well as answering precisely when a TM implementation is correct, what kind of properties it can ensure, what the power and limitations of a TM are, and what inherent trade-offs are involved in designing a TM algorithm. In particular, this manuscript contains precise definitions of properties that capture the safety and progress semantics of TMs, as well as several fundamental results related to computability and complexity of TM implementations. While the focus of the thesis is on theory, its goal is to capture the common intuition behind the semantics of TMs and the properties of existing TM implementations.


Finno-Ugric and Samoyed meteorological verbs form an interesting and insufficiently studied group with much internal diversity. Some verbs have zero valence, others display a more or less semantically faded subject, yet others feature an object. There are also expressions which have simply fossilized. With causative transitive verbs, the prevailing restriction seems to be that either a subject or object is possible, but not both. Purely nominal utterances and those consisting of a noun and the verb 'to be' have generally been disregarded. The study draws on data from 14 Uralic languages and as such constitutes the most comprehensive account to date of the expression meteorological phenomena in Uralic.
Keywords: weather verbs; Uralic; avalent verbs; varying valencies; cognate constructions; impersonal (?)


Outlook 2017 is a truly global source book reflected in the varied national and cultural origins of the contributors as well as the topics and case studies covered. The book includes selection of the best papers presented during the 15th International Conference of World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD), held in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain in the period 25th to 27th April 2017. The conference was hosted by Ahlia University Bahrain and under the Patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The conference provided a forum for academics, government and industry to discuss the various challenges facing the world particularly the Middle East and North Africa countries in their efforts to achieve a sustainable knowledge-based inclusive development.


Twentieth century environmentalist literature tends to blame Christian religious tradition, especially its influence upon Western culture, for introducing ways of "seeing" (theoria) the world of nature (non-human creation) that produce anti-environmental practices. But does Christianity – in its biblical, and ancient/early medieval sources that explain the notions of creation, human uniqueness, and purpose – really promote a vision of nature-culture dualism, despotic anthropocentricism, and thus natural disenchantment? By analyzing the hexameronic material of church fathers, both East and West, we discover that Genesis must not be read in the anti-natural way that modern environmental critics have argued, but as a proto-environmentalist text which, properly interpreted, underwrites responses to modern environmental needs. Maximus the Confessor joins the conversation with dogmatic assistance about environmentalism via the doctrine of creation. Maximus' work carries the ancient vision of creation into the medieval period, entirely supportive of environmentalist concerns; indeed, his Christological interpretation of creation is perhaps the "greenest" theology of all, for its evaluation of creation's source and end is wrapped up in divine destiny. Also, Maximus' Eucharistic theology expresses the idea that the church is ultimately the "community of creation," implying a dual task of "seeing" creation sacramentally and an ethos for earth care. When Maximus' creation dogma is synthesized with the "leisure" practice of Josef Pieper, we find a helpful tool for Christian environmental care that affirms the goodness of the world's being. In conclusion, both the theological foundation in the church fathers and the praxis of Pieper combine to reveal that the broad tradition of Christianity and its mode of "seeing" the world are environmentally sound.


The bilateral investment treaties ("BITs") signed between developed and developing countries are supposed to increase the flow of investment from the former to the latter. But the evidence indicates that the existing approach of guaranteeing special protections for foreign investors has only a modest impact on luring their dollars. At the same time they are failing to produce meaningful benefits, these treaty commitments create substantial costs for the host States that make them, exposing them to liability and constraining their regulatory authority. Given this state of imbalance, the time seems ripe for a new approach, but existing proposals for revising BITs are either insufficient or unrealistic, or in some instances even counterproductive.
This Article calls for a fundamental redesign of BITs based on empirically validated premises about how host States actually attract foreign investment. Political science and economic studies show that foreign investors place substantial weight on the quality of domestic institutions. Existing BITs fail to promote investment because they are not an adequate substitute for these institutions, nor are they effective in generating reform. The proposed model would make domestic institutional reform the organizing principle of BIT design, and the Article offers several specific provisions that would help achieve that goal. Such an approach would produce immediate benefits for host States and so should be particularly attractive to developing countries. But the institutional reform model also retains the end goal shared by both sides of increasing foreign investment and so should be more realistically attainable than proposals pitched as benefiting developing States alone.


In this thesis, I first investigate the relation between the aggregate unemployment rate and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and outflows. To study this relationship, I use a panel data set that contains 45 (developed and developing) countries observed from 1987 through 2008, and I employ Arellano and Bonds generalized methods of moments (ABGMM) estimation method for dynamic panel data. My results show that FDI inflows and outflows are not determinants of the aggregate unemployment rate. In addition, in line with macroeconomic theory, the previous level of aggregate unemployment has a positive impact on the current level of aggregate unemployment. Again, as macroeconomic theory suggests, my results show that per capita real gross domestic product (RGDP) has a negative effect on the current level of aggregate unemployment. Second, I study the long-run relationship between exports and per capita gross domestic product (instrumented by total population) using a panel data set of 51 countries from 1970 through 2008. To study this relationship, I employ the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimation method. I find that the percentage of exports in nominal gross domestic products (GDP) is sensitive to changes in the populations of host countries and, hence, to the changes in their GDP. In addition, my results show that the agreement on trade related investment measures increased the percentage of exports in the nominal GDP of developed host countries more than it did in developing host countries.


The decision to intervene in preterm infants with low blood pressure remains unresolved and as a result significant variability in practice persists.1 However, there are two consistent findings: first, in the majority (90%) of circumstances, intervention commences on the first day of life and second, intervention is driven by blood pressure values.1 ,2 A recent survey confirmed that the gestational age-based rule remains the most common criterion used by neonatologists, with over 75% of respondents using this value to direct intervention.2 It is not surprising that neonatologists continue to rely on blood pressure values, as there are relatively few other options readily available at the bedside. Echocardiography, and perhaps non-invasive cardiac output monitoring, may change the way we approach this all too familiar problem in the future, but currently these assessment tools provide many of their own challenges.3

So should we worry when the blood pressure is low? Gopel and colleagues present very compelling data from the German Neonatal Network exploring the association between short-term outcome and hypotension in very preterm infants.4 This study examined the lowest mean blood pressure on day 1 in over 4900 preterm infants <32 weeks born in 47 centres throughout Germany. The study has many strengths: the very large number of infants included, the large number of predefined variables entered, the consistency in data entry, the consistency in the outcome definitions and robust analysis of the data. The lowest mean arterial pressure (MAP) defined …


A solution architecture for monolithic system-on-chip (SoC) power conversion is in high demand to enable modern electronics with a reduced footprint and increased functionality. A promising solution is to reduce the microinductor size by using novel magnetically-enhanced 3-D design topologies. This work presents the design, modeling, and analysis of a 3-D spiral inductor with magnetic thin-films for power supply applications in the frequency range of 3–30 MHz. A closed-form analytical expression is derived for the inductance, including both the air- and magnetic-core contributions. To validate the air-core inductance model, we implement a 3-D spiral inductor on PCB. The theoretical calculation of air-core inductance is in good agreement with experimental data. To validate the inductance model of the magnetic-core, a 3-D spiral inductor is modeled with Ansys Maxwell electromagnetic field simulation software. A winding AC resistance model is additionally presented. We perform a design space exploration (DSE) to investigate the significance of the 3-D spiral inductor structure. Two important performance parameters are discussed: dc quality factor <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(Q_{dc})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and ac quality factor <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(Q_{ac})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Also, a 3-D spiral inductor structure with magnetic thin-films is characterized in Ansys Maxwell to estimate its potential, and a novel fabrication method is proposed to implement this inductor. The measured relative permeability (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu _{r}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and the magnetic loss tangent (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$tan~\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of Co-Zr-Ta-B magnetic thin-films, developed in-house, are used to simulate the proposed structure. The promising results of the DSE can be easily extended to improve the performance of other 3-D inductor topologies, such as the solenoid and the toroid. The numerical simulations reveal that the 3-D spiral inductor with magnetic thin-films has the potential to demonstrate a figure-of-merit (FOM) that is significantly higher than traditional inductors.


Commentators from a broad range of perspectives have been at pains to explain Donald Trump's transition from billionaire businessman to populist presidential candidate. This article draws on cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and rhetorical theory to argue that the success of Trump's candidacy in the 2016 Republican primary was in part due to its value as comedic entertainment. We examine the ways that Trump's unconventional political style, particularly his use of gesture to critique the political system and caricature his opponents, brought momentum to his campaign by creating spectacle. Post-structuralist and neo-Marxist scholars have asserted that late capitalism values style over content: Trump took this characteristic to new heights. The exaggerated depictions of the sociopolitical world that Trump crafts with his hands to oppose political correctness and disarm adversaries accrue visual capital in a mediatized twenty-first-century politics that is celebrity driven.


A calcium alginate (CA) hydrogel film was prepared by cross-linking sodium alginate (SA) with a CaCl2 solution. Haemoglobin (Hb) molecularly imprinted polysiloxane (MIP) was synthesized using silane as a functional monomer, Hb as a template and a CA hydrogel film as a matrix. SEM, TEM, TG and a water contact angle test were used to characterize the CA hydrogel and MIP film. The adsorption and recognition properties of MIPs were evaluated and the results showed that the MIP exhibited a significant improvement in terms of rebinding capacity for Hb compared with non-imprinted polysiloxane (NIP). Haemoglobin imprinted polysiloxane could selectively recognize the template protein from a mixture of other competitive proteins. The surface hydrophilicity and the swelling behaviour of the MIP film can be adjusted by changing the ratio of two types of silane. Hb was released from the MIP in a sustained manner in PBS and Tris–HCl solutions. The Higuchi model fits best for the MIP film no matter whether it is in PBS or in a Tris–HCl solution. It is a diffusion-controlled release mechanism for the MIP film. But diffusion is not the key factor for release of the NIP film.


With nearly universal access to vast information sources, it is difficult to discern what is important from what is not. Users, especially mobile users, are faced with a tradeoff: either check many information sources frequently or miss important information that may impact them. Improvements in information retrieval are required to consolidate diverse information and reduce the overall effort required to monitor multiple sources. Effective personal information retrieval requires context awareness, and in this work we propose the use of knowledge of future context as the basis for identifying and prioritizing information. By taking into account the user's planned activities, it is possible to be continually informed of information that may have an impact on the user, with minimal disruption to the user. This paper provides an overview of the issues surrounding the use of future context in information retrieval and presents a context-aware retrieval system built to explore these issues: the Integrated Management of a Personal Augmented Calendar Tool (IMPACT). IMPACT employs future context to prioritize, organize and deliver information, leveraging the user's calendar to determine future context. The goal of the IMPACT system is to provide the user with all information that will impact activities in a timely manner, while minimizing the effect of interruptions on the user.


This quantitative study is concerned with what determines prospective university students' first choice between universities of different status. The results suggest that examination performance, going to an independent school and fear of debt independently affect students' decisions. Social factors and students' perceived level of information on universities had no independent effect at this stage of decision‐making. There were considerable differences between two geographic areas considered in the study, with a large decrease in the probability of attending a high‐status institution in the locality with no such local institution. This particularly affects high‐achieving students, with an estimate suggesting an increased probability of 18% of going to a high‐ranking institution where such an institution is local for such students. If these findings apply similarly to other areas, the results suggest a 'postcode lottery' in higher education.


There appears to be no evidence of research that has attempted to bring together the knowledge relating to trust among team members working in virtual organisations. Unlike traditional workplaces, the nature of virtual teams is such that working relationships are typically short and often there is no actual personal contact. In this environment trust must be taken to a new level as it is essential for the success of collaborative ventures. The scope of this review will involve an examination of a range of articles sourced through Proquest and Business Premier Resource databases. These will be reviewed based on a content analysis to develop patterns of issues raised. This will involve using a combination of integrative and interpretative approaches. It is anticipated the outcome of this review will contribute to a greater understanding of trust from the perspectives of key stakeholders in virtual working relationships.


As the deterioration of the modern environmental problems, developed countries started to explore concrete ways of internalization of external effects produced by environmental problems. The theory of new institutional economics which produced the environmental property theory is widely used in the research of environmental management. On the premise of total amount control of pollution, the subjects of public power distribute or sell the rights is the basic paradigm of this method. Buyers take possession of the rights and utilize, profit from or dispose of them. The coordinated development of urban agglomeration is the main direction of China's regional development strategy. As there are differences in environmental governance in different cities, the environment property trading system of urban agglomeration needs to be established urgently. Due to environmental property's complexity and its attributes of public goods, the transaction of environmental property is restricted by amounts of factors. This research concludes that it is necessary to define the possessor of environmental property, strengthen the construction of trading platform, improving the public participation and supervision mechanism and control transaction cost by establishing and analyzing the emission trading model of the city-cluster along the Yangtze River in Anhui Province.


The objective of river enclosing and fish protection is to recuperate river ecology in an attempt to achieve sustainable management of natural resources. However, improper dredging works and construction of public facilities, as well as panoramic restaurants beside rivers, still commonly occur today. This project examined cases of river reserves at Miaoli, for their policies and implementation effects towards the river enclosing and fish protection. We found that the values and environmental attitudes of the local representatives were critical for residents to support or oppose certain reserve development. On the other hand, the public sectors generally played a passive role and did not operate based on the integral viewpoint of resource conservation. Additionally, the affairs of the public sectors often overlap which impact on the efficiency of environmental management. As the existing efforts of river reserve are mainly confined to protecting fish resources, holistic restoration strategies and environmental monitoring system for controlling land use and restoring natural ecology of disturbed land and ecology are deficient. This study suggested that environmental education with a more active and powerful role in environmental restoration played by the grassroots is considered important and should be encouraged.


This essay, written for a book on jurisprudence in America today, asks what the critical tradition in American jurisprudence means today in the light of the events of the past 30 years.Critical theories ask how law legitimates power in both senses of the word: how it shapes, channels and restrains power and how it mystifies, disguises, and apologizes for it. In addition, a critical theory studies how the very acts of making, interpreting and applying law produce and proliferate ever new forms of power, both just and unjust.Critical theory features an ambivalent conception of law rather than a pejorative conception: it recognizes law's partial but incomplete autonomy from other forms of power in social life. It sees both law's limitations in the face of power and its possibilities as a means of articulating ideals of human association, channeling and restraining arbitrary power and preventing its most serious injustices.Critical theory of law looks different today than it appeared thirty years ago because the world itself looks very different. In the world of the 1970s, critical theory pointed out how law failed when it was not supported by a robust politics; in doing so it deemphasized and marginalized positive features of law and legal culture implicit in an ambivalent conception. But in a world of executive arrogance, authoritarian posturing, and blatant disregard for rule of law values, recognizing those positive elements should also be part of a critical account of law. Critical scholars have prided themselves on their deconstructive acumen: their ability to elucidate the hidden and marginalized values and assumptions that bodies of legal doctrine deemphasize but on which they secretly depend. We should apply those same deconstructive insights to critical legal theory itself.


In the strong mode-coupling regime, the model for mode-dependent gains and losses (collectively referred as MDL) of a multimode fiber is extended to the region with large MDL. The MDL is found to have the same statistical properties as the eigenvalues of the sum of two matrices. The first matrix is a random Gaussian matrix with its standard deviation proportional to the accumulated MDL. The other matrix is a deterministic matrix with uniform eigenvalues proportional to the square of the accumulated MDL. The results are analytically correct for fibers with two or very large number of modes, and also numerically verified for multimode fibers with other number of modes.


Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne tropical/subtropical disease caused by an intracellular parasite transmitted to humans by sand fly bite. It is endemic in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Mediterranean region. Worldwide reports include 1.5 – 2 million new cases each year, more than 300 million at risk of acquiring the disease, and 70,000 deaths per year. Clinical features depend on the Leishmania species and immune response of the host, varying from localized cutaneous disease to visceral form with potentially fatal outcome; however, the common presentation is either cutaneous, mucocutaneous, or visceral leishmaniasis. Many therapeutic agents are being used in Leishmania treatment, but the only effective treatment is achieved with current pentavalent antimonials. WHO considers Leishmaniasis as one of the " Neglected Tropical Diseases " that continues to be prevalent despite international, national, and local efforts towards its control and elimination over the last decade. This chapter reviews the global perspective of Leishmaniasis with increasing recognition of emerging " Atypical forms " and new surge of disease across the world mainly due to increasing conflicts in endemic areas leading to forced migration among other causes. All these challenges related to environment, disease, and vector pose major implications on WHO ' s leishmaniasis control and elimination plan.


Is redistricting the result of partisan gerrymandering or apolitical considerations? I develop a statistical test for partisan gerrymandering and apply it to the U.S. Congressional Districting plan chosen by the Republican legislature in Pennsylvania in 2001. First, I formally model the optimization problem faced by a strategic Republican redistricter and characterize the theoretically optimal solution. I then estimate the likelihood a district is represented by a Republican, conditional on district demographics. This estimate allows me to determine the value of the gerrymanderer's objective function under any districting plan. Next, I use a geographic representation of the state to randomly generate a large sample of legally valid plans. Finally, I calculate the estimated value of a strategic Republican redistricter's objective function under each of the sample plans and under the actual plan chosen by Republicans. When controlling for incumbency the formal test shows that the Republicans' plan was a partisan gerrymander.


The purpose of this study is to investigate student interactions with simulations, and teacher support of those interactions, within naturalistic high school physics classroom settings. This study focuses on data from two lesson sequences that were conducted in several physics classrooms. The lesson sequences were conducted in a whole class discussion format in approximately half of the class sections and in a hands-on-computer small group format in matched class sections. Analysis used a mixed methods approach where: (1) quantitative methods were used to evaluate pre-post data; (2) open coding and selective coding were used for transcript analysis; and (3) comparative case studies were used to consider the quantitative and qualitative data in light of each other and to suggested possible explanations. Although teachers expressed the expectation that the small group students would learn more, no evidence was found in pre-post analysis for an advantage for the small group sections. Instead, a slight trend was observed in favor of the whole class discussion sections, especially for students in the less advanced sections. In seeking to explain these results, qualitative analyses of transcript and videotape data were conducted, revealing that many more episodes of support for interpreting visual elements of the simulations occurred in the whole class setting than in the matched small group discussions; not only teachers, but, at times, students used more visual support moves in the whole class discussion setting. In addition, concepts that had been identified as key were discussed for longer periods of time in the whole class setting than in the matched small group discussions in six of nine matched sets. For one of the lesson sequences, analysis of student work on in-class activity sheets identified no evidence that any of the Honors or College Preparatory students in the small groups had made use in their thinking of the key features of the sophisticated and popular physics simulation they had used, while such evidence was identified in the work of many of the whole class students. Analysis of the whole class discussions revealed a number of creative teaching strategies in use by the teachers that may have helped offset the advantage of hands-on experience with the simulations and animations enjoyed by the small group students. These results suggest that there may exist whole class teaching strategies for promoting at least some of the active thinking and exploration that has been considered to be the strength of small group work, and appear to offer encouragement to teachers who do not have the resources to allow their classes to engage regularly in small group work at the computer. Furthermore, these examples suggest the somewhat surprising possibility that there may be certain instructional situations where there is an advantage to spending at least part of the time with a simulation or animation in a whole class discussion mode.


This study represents the first substantial assessment of Italian comic operas composed during the central years of the Risorgimento -- the period during which upheavals, revolutions, and wars ultimately led to the liberation and unification of Italy. Music historians often view the period as one during which serious Romantic opera flourished in Italy while opera buffa inexorably declined. Laughter between Two Revolutions revises this widespread notion by viewing well-known masterpieces -- such as Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843) -- as part of a still-thriving tradition. Also examined are opere buffe by Luigi Ricci, Lauro Rossi, Verdi (Un giorno di regno), and others, many of which circulated widely at the time. Francesco Izzo's pathbreaking study argues that in the "realm of seriousness" of mid-nineteenth-century Italy, comedy was not an anachronistic intruder, but a significant and vital cultural presence. Laughter between Revolutions: Opera Buffa in Italy, 1831-1848 offers new insights into opera history and theories of humor in the arts. It will be of interest to opera lovers everywhere and to students in such fields as music, philosophy, comparative literature, and Italian cultural studies.


Among image segmentation algorithms there are two major groups: (a) methods assuming known appearance models and (b) methods estimating appearance models jointly with segmentation. Typically, the first group optimizes appearance log-likelihoods in combination with some spacial regularization. This problem is relatively simple and many methods guarantee globally optimal results. The second group treats model parameters as additional variables transforming simple segmentation energies into high-order NP-hard functionals (Zhu-Yuille, Chan-Vese, Grab Cut, etc). It is known that such methods indirectly minimize the appearance overlap between the segments. We propose a new energy term explicitly measuring L1 distance between the object and background appearance models that can be globally maximized in one graph cut. We show that in many applications our simple term makes NP-hard segmentation functionals unnecessary. Our one cut algorithm effectively replaces approximate iterative optimization techniques based on block coordinate descent.


Here, we present a MEMS atomic force microscope sensor for use inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM). This enables direct in situ TEM force measurements in the nanonewton range and thus mechanical characterization of nanosized structures. The main design challenges of the system and sensor are to reach a high sensitivity and to make a compact design that allows the sensor to be fitted in the narrow dimensions of the pole gap inside the TEM. In order to miniaturize the sensing device, an integrated detection with piezoresistive elements arranged in a full Wheatstone bridge was used. Fabrication of the sensor was done using standard micromachining techniques, such as ion implantation, oxide growth and deep reactive ion etch. We also present in situ TEM force measurements on nanotubes, which demonstrate the ability to measure spring constants of nanoscale systems.


Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles

Shown in conjunction with the preceding exhibitions at the Fondation from February to April 2016, the film Yes, These Eyes Are the Windows (2015) by Saskia Olde Wolbers is once again being presented in its own room.

This film revisits the unusual past of the house at 87 Hackford Road in the Brixton area of south London where Van Gogh lived from 1873 to 1874. On the basis of his letters and different accounts relating to his brief stay in this terraced house, Saskia Olde Wolbers creates a video piece combining fantasy with realism, in which her free interpretation of the facts mingles with elements of reality.

The house, in the role of narrator, unfolds a fiction about the layers of myth that have settled upon the artist and about his ghostly influence on the fate of the house and its subsequent owners. Organic and talkative, this storyteller built of bricks and wood conducts us into its universe of fluid outlines, a mosaic of visual and documentary elements.

The work Yes, These Eyes Are the Windows is the fruit of a production in two stages. It was first presented in 2014 as a site-specific audio installation in Van Gogh's house in Brixton, as the culmination of a two-year collaboration with the London-based art association Artangel. In 2015 it was then created as a film, in which form it is now being shown in Arles.

Curators of the exhbition: Bice Curiger and Julia Marchand

About the artist

Dutch artist Saskia Olde Wolbers, born in 1971 and living in the UK, has been working with video since the mid-1990s.

Her short productions are meticulously elaborated microcosms that blend fictional scenarios, documentary facts and fantastical environments. Sustained by a narrative that is delivered – anonymously and out of sync – by an off-screen voice, and which attests to the artist's fascination with the transmission of histories, these videos mirror the question as to the credibility of today's profusion of information. Simultaneously aerial and aquatic, Saskia Olde Wolbers's fluid universe oscillates between utopia and nightmare: like images in a darkroom, these stories prove to be at once reality and illusion.

Represented in numerous museums, collections, galleries and public spaces, Saskia Olde Wolbers has won multiple awards.


This dissertation examines how family business portfolios endure across time and investigates the entrepreneurial strategies that they engage in. The goal of this dissertation is addressed through five appended papers in which I have argued for the importance of business families owning multiple firms, that is, portfolio entrepreneurship. Portfolio entrepreneurship plays a central role in economic development as it is a prevalent phenomenon in developed and emerging economies. However, despite its importance, there is currently very little research on portfolio entrepreneurship, especially in the context of family firms.In so doing, I study nine business families owning multiple businesses in Pakistan. I conducted in-depth interviews with family owners and employees; the interviews were supplemented with other sources of data such as observations and archival material. When studying questions such as how a portfolio is built-up across generations, how and why business families exit and, when they exit, which businesses they choose to exit from, I draw on insights from the literature on portfolio entrepreneurship, business exit, family firms, socioemotional wealth, sensemaking, compassion and social identity theory in the five papers.The dissertation addresses the calls for studies on portfolio entrepreneurship in the context of family firms by examining the process through which a portfolio is constructed by studying performance and exit related issues. In other words, it examines both the growth and the contraction of portfolios. The study offers several contributions. First, it contributes to studies on enduring entrepreneurship by investigating how business families last across time despite encountering difficult situations and declining business. Second, the study contributes to the portfolio entrepreneurship literature by elucidating how portfolios are built across generations and the roles of both growth and contractions while addressing processual and contextual issues.Third, the study contributes to the business exit literature by looking at the exit process in a family business context and exploring multiple exits. This isunique, as it is, to the best of my knowledge, the first study on business exits looking at multiple exit in the context of family firms. Fourth, the study also contributes to the literature on family firms by exploring how and why business families refrain from exiting from their core legacy business and how their emotions influence the exit process.Finally, the study contributes to context-related issues. The study adds to the literature on contextualization and addresses the call for more context-specific studies in entrepreneurship scholarship. This dissertation is focused on context-based factors considering the spatial and social context, where the former has been undertaken by taking an emerging economy and country context as the setting, while the latter refers to the relational and emotional ties within family firms. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this dissertation has important implications for practice. The dissertation brings to the fore some promising and unique ways in which entrepreneurship endures across time and context through the transgenerational transmission of entrepreneurship and insights into how business families behave in a declining business situation. Additionally, this study offers insights for family owners and managers on how to address the dilemma of continued entrepreneurship, that is, how to encourage and foster enduring entrepreneurship in organizations, in particular in the context of family firms.


This paper presents a study with practicing language teachers in Ireland, within the framework of Threshold Concepts (Meyer, Land et al. 2010), to identify the core but troublesome knowledge and practices of language teaching and the conditions that facilitate the integration of these concepts over a teaching career. The project draws on the voice of professionals in the two jurisdictions, North and South, articulating key points of learning in their careers. Qualitative analysis of participant interviews suggests that, while the threshold concepts identified are quite consistent across both jurisdictions, their articulation and implementation are contingent upon the local and broader policy context in which teachers work. The concepts are expressed as a belief system where contextual factors mediate the degree to which teachers can teach in accordance with their beliefs.


Recent scholarship highlights the importance of institutions to the processes of economic growth, but the precise nature of their relationship bears further examination. This paper considers how the evolution of legal institutions has contributed to, and in turn been affected by, major technological innovations. The first section of the paper examines the U.S. intellectual property system. Patent and copyright laws, and their interpretation and enforcement by the federal judiciary, certainly influenced the course of technical and cultural change, but it is clear that they did not develop independently of the state of technology and of the economy. Both the statutes and their interpretations altered in response to the introduction and diffusion of new technologies. The second section explores in more detail the impact of some of these technological innovations -- including steamboats, railroads, telegraphy, medical technologies, and automobiles -- on the common law, regulation and insurance. Such technological advances often led to institutional bottlenecks, which then required accommodations in legal rules and their enforcement. Although the common law had some capability for economizing on legal adjustment costs through 'adjudication by analogy', the socio-economic changes wrought by major innovations ultimately produced more fundamental change in legal institutions, such as shifts in the relative importance of state and federal policies, and in the degree of reliance on regulation by bureaucracy. In sum, the historical record of the evolution of legal rules and standards in the United States indicates a remarkable degree of flexibility as such institutions responded to changing economic circumstances.


Gliding mammals occur worldwide and many are subject to increasing levels of habitat fragmentation. Knowledge of their ability to cross tree-gaps by gliding is quite poor. We describe aspects of the gliding performance of the squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) based on recorded parameters of 85 glides of 73 individuals. Animals launched from a horizontal position ~1.7 m below the top of a tree and 2.3 m out from the main trunk. All but one glide was to the trunk of a tree, landing 5.7 m above the ground. Animals glided a mean of 21.5 ± 0.9 m (range 9–47 m) in a horizontal plane, with no significant difference between the sexes. Horizontal glide distance appears to reflect tree spacing where individuals were released. The mean glide angle was 28.5 ± 0.8°, with no significant difference between the sexes. We predict that trees beside roads that create a tree-gap of 20 m (two-lane road) or 43 m (four-lane road) will need to be a least 13 m and 25 m tall, respectively, to enable animals to safely glide across a road. Where trees are absent, 12-m-high wooden poles could be installed, requiring some in the median strip of four-lane roads.


Energy is one of the most important resources in wireless sensor networks. Recently, the mobility of base station has been exploited to preserve the energy. But in event driven networks, the mobility issue is quite different from the continuous monitoring one because only a small portion of sensor node has data to send at one time. The number of sensor node that forward traffic should be minimized to prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, we propose a movement-assisted energy conserving method which tries to reduce the amount of forwarding sensor node by directing the base station to move close to the hotspots. This method achieves good performance especially when applied to a network with a set of cooperative mobile base station. Extensive simulation has been done to verify the effectiveness of the propose schema.


Abstract It is known that offenders with immigrant backgrounds are over-represented in criminal as well as forensic psychiatric populations and that the prevalence of dyslexia among prisoners with Swedish as a native language is much higher than in the general population in Sweden. The aim of this study was to diagnose dyslexia in a sample of 23 male offenders with immigrant backgrounds undergoing a forensic psychiatric investigation with the objective to discuss the appropriateness of a commonly used assessment procedure in accordance with DSM-IV. Dyslexia was diagnosed individually; the participants took reading and writing tests, as well as intelligence and neuropsychological tests. Nine out of 23 participants (39%) were diagnosed as having dyslexia. Thus, dyslexia seems to be common among male offenders with immigrant backgrounds undergoing FPI, and for that reason it is important to investigate their reading and writing abilities. Dyslexia is regarded as a functional impairment in Sweden, and therefore all offenders with dyslexia undergoing a forensic psychiatric investigation, irrespective of their background, should receive help with the legal procedure, for example their crime files and police investigation documents should be read to them. We conclude that in addition to the criteria in DSM-IV the assessment procedure should be extended with phonological tests.


We investigate the evolution of a state which is dominated by a finite-dimensional non-Hermitian time-dependent Hamiltonian operator with a nondegenerate spectrum by using a biorthonormal approach. The geometric phase between any two states, biorthogonal or not, are generally derived by employing the generalized interference method. The counterpart of Manini-Pistolesi non-diagonal geometric phase in the non-Hermitian setting is taken as a typical example.


During an expedition to the Southern Argentinean town of Ushuaia, the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctic Islands and the Falkland Islands, we collected 94 faecal specimens from wild birds to screen for yeast within the different bird species. The yeast species were identified by morphological features and commercial characterisation kits. From 54% of the specimens, we isolated 122 strains representing 29 yeast species. Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida lambica and Candida krusei were the most frequently isolated species. We found a plethora of yeasts in birds living in proximity to humans, whereas birds living in more remote areas were colonised with a lower number of fungal species.


OBJECTIVE
To determine physicians' knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Jamaica, and their current certification status in basic life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), paediatric advanced life support (PALS) and advanced trauma life support (ATLS).

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study. A 23-item self-administered questionnaire was used to assess physicians practising at the UHWI, from the Departments of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Accident and Emergency, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Oncology.

RESULTS
One hundred and forty-three (65%) of the targeted 220 physicians responded. There were 77 (55%) females and 41% of respondents were between ages 26 and 30 years. Knowledge of CPR guidelines was inadequate, as the median score obtained was 4.0 (interquartile range [IQR] 2-5) out of a possible eight. Physician seniority was inversely related to knowledge scores (p < 0.01). While 86% of all respondent physicians had been trained in BLS, only 46% were certified at the time of the study. Fewer (52%) were trained in ACLS with only 36% currently certified. Only 65% had been trained in the use of a defibrillator. Most knew the correct compression rate (78%), but only 46% knew the compressions to breaths ratio for both single and two-rescuer CPR. Only 42% of anaesthetists and 27% of emergency physicians were currently ACLS certified.

CONCLUSION
Physician knowledge of CPR protocols was suboptimal and current certification levels were low. Increased training and recertification is necessary to improve physician knowledge which is expected to result in improved performance of CPR.


The deformation field associated with chip formation in plane strain (2-D) machining has been simulated using the finite element method (FEM), with the objective of developing 2-D machining as an experimental technique for studying very large strain deformation phenomena. The principal machining parameters are the tool rake angle, cutting velocity and the friction at the toolchip interface while the deformation field parameters are strain, strain rate and temperature. The relation between rake angle and the shear strain in the deformation zone is studied for the low-speed cutting of lead. This correspondence is validated by comparison with measurements of the deformation parameters made by applying a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique to highspeed photographic image sequences of the deformation. It is shown that plastic strains in the range of 1-15 can be realized in a controlled manner by appropriate choice of the rake angle. The unique capabilities offered by 2-D machining for studying micro- and nano- mechanics of large strain deformation, and the creation of ultra-fine grained materials are highlighted in the context of these results.


To obtain further evidence that action observation can serve as a proxy for action execution and planning in posterior parietal cortex, we scanned participants while they were (1) observing two classes of action: vocal communication and oral manipulation, which share the same effector but differ in nature, and (2) rehearsing and listening to nonsense sentences to localize area Spt, thought to be involved in audio-motor transformation during speech. Using this localizer, we found that Spt is specifically activated by vocal communication, indicating that Spt is not only involved in planning speech but also in observing vocal communication actions. In addition, we observed that Spt is distinct from the parietal region most specialized for observing vocal communication, revealed by an interaction contrast and located in PFm. The latter region, unlike Spt, processes the visual and auditory signals related to other's vocal communication independently. Our findings are consistent with the view that several small regions in the temporoparietal cortex near the ventral part of the supramarginal/angular gyrus border are involved in the planning of vocal communication actions and are also concerned with observation of these actions, though involvements in those two aspects are unequal.


PURPOSE
To assess the accuracy of MR imaging in predicting dural, venous sinus, and perineural invasion by skull base tumors.

METHODS
The preoperative MR images of 22 patients who had resection of skull base neoplasms were evaluated for the following characteristics: dural enhancement, pial enhancement, local perineural invasion by adjacent tumor, and venous sinus invasion by tumor. The greatest width of dural enhancement was measured, and the character of dural enhancement was noted. The pathologic and surgical reports were reviewed retrospectively with specific attention to dural, venous, and local perineural invasion.

RESULTS
Of the 22 patients studied, dural invasion by tumor was confirmed in eight patients, vascular invasion in six patients, and perineural invasion in four patients. The sensitivity of dural enhancement in predicting invasion was 88%, the specificity 50%, and the accuracy 64%. When enhancement and focal nodularity were present, the sensitivity remained at 88%; however, specificity was 100% and accuracy 95%. If the dural enhancement was more than 5 mm thick, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 75%, 100%, and 91%, respectively. Predicting tumor invasion of the dura by the presence of pial enhancement was 50% sensitive and 100% specific. Venous sinus/jugular vein invasion was predicted with 100% sensitivity, 94% specificity, and 95% accuracy. Local perineural invasion was predicted with 100% sensitivity, 50% specificity, and 59% accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS
The presence of pial enhancement, focal dural nodules, or dural thickening of more than 5 mm is highly accurate in predicting the presence of neoplastic dural invasion. Linear enhancement of dura does not imply dural infiltration by tumor. Venous invasion by tumor can be predicted accurately with preoperative MR imaging.


ABSTRACT The aim of the study is to investigate and compare approaches to algebra in the Estonian, Finnish, and Swedish national core curricula (Grades 1–9). Despite the similarities in the school systems of these neighboring countries, the analysis reveals three quite different curricular approaches. The Estonian approach shows influences of the Russian Davydov School. The Finnish approach to some extent resembles the traditional one whereby algebra is addressed first at the lower secondary level and then in a formal manner. However, there are also characteristics typical of the functional view, which dominates the Swedish curriculum. Here, as opposed to the documents from the other two countries, a transition to more formal sophisticated methods at the secondary level is not visible at all. We discuss the results in relation to earlier research and students' different learning outcomes in light of international evaluations.


The structural strength of soils has been extensively described by physical and mechanical properties evaluated on the mesoscale for different soils and management conditions. However, changes in the organization of the soil matrix at the microstructural level, which can be obtained by rheometry, are still seldom used in soil mechanics. Our aim was to use the amplitude sweep test, a rheometry technique, to investigate the microstructural strength of four subtropical soils (two Oxisols, an Ultisol and a Vertisol) and to discuss difficulties with respect to the samples, water content, soil density and vertical force. The various rheological properties which reveal the soil microstructural strength were determined: deformation at the end of the linear viscoelastic range, LVE range (γLVE), shear stress at the end of the LVE range (τLVE), deformation at yield point, YP (γYP), storage and loss moduli at YP (G′G″YP), maximum shear stress (τmax), and integral z. In general, soil elasticity (γLVE and γYP) and microstructural strength (τLVE and τmax) were greater in the Oxisols and the Vertisol, which both possess high clay content, while the latter also contains expansive clay minerals. The lowest structural strength was observed in the Ultisol which had a high sand content. As rheological properties are related to soil properties such as particle size distribution and carbon content, they can be applied in the evaluation of the microstructural strength of clayey and sandy soils and allows for inferences regarding inter-particle shear strength. However, the test is not applicable to very dry soil samples and sample preparations can affect the results. We suggest a number of approaches to find solutions for these difficulties/problems.


Android has rocketed to the top of the mobile market thanks in large part to its open source model. Vendors use Android for their devices for free, and companies make customizations to suit their needs. This has resulted in a myriad of configurations that are extant in the user space today. In this paper, we show that differences in configurations, if ignored, can lead to differences in test outputs and code coverage. Consequently, researchers who develop new testing techniques and evaluate them on only one or two configurations are missing a necessary dimension in their experiments and developers who ignore this may release buggy software. In a large study on 18 apps across 88 configurations, we show that only one of the 18 apps studied showed no variation at all. The rest showed variation in either, or both, code coverage and test results. 15% of the 2,000 plus test cases across all of the apps vary, and some of the variation is subtle, i.e. not just a test crash. Our results suggest that configurations in Android testing do matter and that developers need to test using configuration-aware techniques.


This study aims to demonstrate, through a clinical case report, the applicability of the use of microtomography (μCT) in the histopathological evaluation of a ranula lesion on the oral floor and to evaluate the use of 2 % elemental iodine solution as a contrast agent, in order to obtain a better contrast effect in a tissue sample, thus facilitating the identification of anatomical structures, the histomorphological evaluation and the potential use of μCT in the imaging diagnosis of lesions. Different parameters were evaluated for obtaining images in SkyScan 1172, in a biopsied piece, when impregnated in a 10 % formalin solution and in a 2 % elemental iodine solution, when impregnated for 24h and 48h. Contrast agent impregnation was evaluated using the Hounsfield unit. The use of μCT allowed the identification of sialoliths dispersed inside the biopsy specimen, while the impregnation with Elemental iodine 2 % for 24h resulted in a better contrast when compared to the other conditions. The use of the Hounsfield unit allowed an adequate evaluation of the contrast obtained when the different parameters of impregnation and image acquisition were applied. The comparison between the 3D images with and without a specific marker highlighted a better evidencing of the soft tissues, with an improvement in the contrast of the images, also allowing the identification of the glandular duct obstructed by the sialoliths, allowing a conclusive histopathological evaluation of the biopsied lesion.


So why do movie studios care about the right of publicity? The answer is quite simple. Our studios make lots of movies and television programs about and inspired by real people and events. It is critical to our studios that they have the right to do that—whether or not the subjects of those movies and television shows want movies or television shows made about them.
To illustrate how important this issue is to our studios in present day, let me say a couple things. The word "copyright" is included in my job title. I am mostly a copyright lawyer, and I think that is why I was hired at the Motion Picture Association. But over the last two to three years, I have spent the majority of my time on right of publicity, more so than on issues involving copyright. My counterparts—the intellectual property lawyers in-house at the movie studios— consider court decisions threatening their right to make movies and television shows about and inspired by real people and events, without obtaining the subjects' permission, "existential threats." One of the things that Professor Jennifer Rothman mentioned in her remarks is that we need to do a better job articulating what the nature of this threat is, or what it means as a practical matter. Let me take up the baton and try to give you a sense of just how fundamentally important this issue is in current years.


Deep generative models have shown success in automatically synthesizing missing image regions using surrounding context. However, users cannot directly decide what content to synthesize with such approaches.We propose an end-to-end network for image inpainting that uses a different image to guide the synthesis of new content to fill the hole. A key challenge addressed by our approach is synthesizing new content in regions where the guidance image and the context of the original image are inconsistent. We conduct four studies that demonstrate our method yields more realistic image inpainting results over seven baselines.


The aim of this study was to conduct a lifecycle analysis of the direct and indirect energy inputs and outputs flowing through a bioethanol pathway in Kenya, using the life cycle energy assessment technique and energy performance indicators. The study was performed in western Kenya, and data was obtained from Mumias Sugar Company and Spectre International ethanol distillery. Fertilizers made up the largest share of energy inputs, while industrial chemicals were the lowest. Indirect inputs had a larger impact on the energy balance because of co-generation of electricity and steam by bagasse and biogas. The energy ratio of the system was 1.5 MJ of ethanol produced per MJ of net energy inputs. The total energy consumed in the system was 13.6 MJ of inputs per litre of ethanol produced. The primary energy ratio which takes into account only the primary energy use is much higher, at about 4.2 MJ of ethanol produced per MJ of fossil inputs. The wider implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions made as to how to improve the results of this assessment. The significance of biofuel assessments to decision making is also discussed.


Summary 1. There is a clear need to improve our ability to assess the ecological consequences of environmental change. Because of the complexity of ecosystems and a need to disentangle the effects of multiple pressures, predictions are often reliant on models and expert opinion. These require validation with observed data; in this respect, long-term data sets are particularly valuable. 2. Innovative statistical methods (nonparametric regression and additive models) are presented for identifying nonparametric ecological trends and changes in seasonality in response to environmental change. These are illustrated through the example of Loch Leven, a shallow freshwater lake. Monitoring data for 35 years are examined, spanning periods of enrichment, ecological recovery and changing climate. 3. Models are developed for phosphorus and nitrogen; temperature and rainfall; Daphnia grazers; and chlorophyll a, with the ecological objectives of examining trends in water quality and the corresponding trends in nutrient availability, grazer abundance and climate. 4. The analysis highlighted a generally decreasing availability of P over the study period, and generally increasing nonparametric trends in nitrate concentration and rainfall. Increasing spring temperatures were also evident, as were significant nonparametric changes in density of summer grazers. 5. Significant reductions are highlighted in spring and summer chlorophyll a, related to the return of Daphnia to the loch. However, no response in chorophyll a to the later declining trends in P is apparent, but seasonality has changed. 6. Synthesis and applications. The analysis highlights the value of nonparametric statistical models for assessing complex ecological responses to environmental change. The models outlined can examine key ecological impacts of climate change, particularly effects on the timing of seasonal events and processes. The models are illustrated using long-term water-quality data from Loch Leven to explore patterns in key environmental drivers and ecological responses affecting freshwater ecosystems. Analysis of chlorophyll a, in particular, highlighted the value of examining the seasonal trends separately, with different trends evident for winter and spring and a changing seasonal pattern.


Abstract Virtual Reality has long been proposed to combine the reliability of controlled laboratory settings with the ecological validity of real life. While the technological development steadily pushes towards even more realistic renderings of the real world—the elusiveness of social and emotional elements gradually becomes more evident. This is not the least true for behavioral studies in rich sociocultural contexts. This article examines the outcomes of a study on distractions, taking place in a socially rich context—the classroom. The study made use of a Virtual Reality environment simulating a junior high school lesson, where the Distraction condition consisted of peers watching nonrelevant content on their laptops. In the control condition these laptops were closed. No significant distraction effects were found, neither on learning nor behavior. Given the strong support in the literature for such effects, the study design, including technical aspects, is scrutinized and discussed. We specifically highlight the difficulty of simulating a social relationship between the participant and agents in VR, which in this case makes the distraction stimulus significantly weaker. It is argued that the distraction effect of nearby peers' laptop use relies (partly) on shared attention with social agents with an established social relation and common interests.


How do we enlarge the space of the possible to encourage our students to notice the educational, social, economic, communal, and political scripts that perform us? Academic performance imagines new ways of performing research. Conventional academic performances have been interrupted. Be aware. We can never take for granted the performance that is us. I want to be awakened to the gaps and absences in the performances that our students offer us, as we create space for them to perform in our classrooms, on school stages, in our hearts. How might performance become an action site of resistance, of resolution, of advocacy, of invitation, of renewal?


CONFESSIONAL POLITICS AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN THE EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE Robert J. Clines In its first century, the Society of Jesus undertook numerous missions to the various Christian communities of the Ottoman Empire. In each instance, the Jesuits faced obstacles to their efforts to Catholicize the Christian Orient. Through an examination of the Jesuit experience in the early modern Ottoman Empire, I argue that particular historiographical trends concerning confession-building, early modern empire-building, and globalization need to be revised. First, rather than seeing the consolidation and alliance of religious practice and political allegiance as institutionally forced through negotiation and resistance, I argue that the unique experiences of individuals demonstrate how confessionalization was not just a question of institutional control or communal solidarity, but was driven by individual desires to conform to a confessional identity, a process I call self-confessionalization. Second, this project revises the historiographical notion of the Jesuits as participants in European imperialism. I argue against the notion that the Jesuits were willful agents of European monarchs and the papacy, but rather that the Jesuits were forced to negotiate their place between Rome and the Ottoman world. They had to amend their missionary efforts based on the circumstances in which they found themselves, and this often ran contrary to the wishes of their patrons. Finally, I argue that the Jesuits in the early modern Ottoman Empire were equal participants in a global process of group identity formation that centered on the development and maintenance of borders along the lines of religious confession and larger cultural identities. They participated in this global exchange on both individual and collective levels, demonstrating that the early stages of globalization depended upon cooperation between the major powers of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In sum, the Jesuit missions to the Ottoman world lay bare the existence of intersecting processes of religious solidification, empire-building, and global interconnectedness that are all indicative of the collaborative character of the early modern world. CONFESSIONAL POLITICS AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN THE EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE By Robert J. Clines B.A. John Carroll University, 2007 M.A. Miami University, 2009 M.Phil. Syracuse University, 2011 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate School of Syracuse University August 2014 © Copyright 2014 by Robert J. Clines


This paper compares two rivers, Tana River in Northern Norway and Columbia River on the northwest coast of the United States of America. Both rivers host indigenous populations, the Sami and the Nez Perce, whose cultural and material existence depends upon salmon. Because these people live indigenously within highly industrial, postcolonial societies, their lives have been part of larger economic, political and legal structures for substantial periods of time. In these rivers, peoples have been, and are currently dealing with the possibility of salmon extinction. This article is concerned with how such a crisis has been interpreted and acted upon within two nation's natural-resource management regimes. We observe how the threat of extinction has initiated commotion where nature, economies, legal instruments, politics and science have come into play, in ways that reveal differences in the Norwegian and American constellations of interests and powers, manifested as differences in natural resource management regimes' hierarchies of positions. The outcome is the protection of different entities, which could be labeled cultural and biological sustainability. In the Columbia River, cultural sustainability was promoted while in the Tana, biological sustainability became prioritized. By way of our comparison we ask if the protection of one kind of sustainability has to be to the detriment of the other.


This comprehensive overview of the modern Chinese economy by a noted expert on China's economic development offers a quality and breadth of coverage not found in any other English-language text. In The Chinese Economy, Barry Naughton provides both an engaging, broadly focused introduction to China's economy since 1949 and original insights based on his own extensive research. The book will be an essential resource for students, teachers, scholars, business people, and policymakers. It is suitable for classroom use for undergraduate or graduate courses. After presenting background material on the pre-1949 economy and the industrialization, reform, and market transition that have taken place since, the book examines different aspects of the modern Chinese economy. It analyzes patterns of growth and development, including population growth and the one-child family policy; the rural economy, including agriculture and rural industrialization; industrial and technological development in urban areas; international trade and foreign investment; macroeconomic trends and cycles and the financial system; and the largely unaddressed problems of environmental quality and the sustainability of growth. The text is notable also for placing China's economy in interesting comparative contexts, discussing it in relation to other transitional or developing economies and to such advanced industrial countries as the United States and Japan. It provides both a broad historical and macro perspective as well as a focused examination of the actual workings of China's complex and dynamic economic development. Interest in the Chinese economy will only grow as China becomes an increasingly important player on the world's stage. This book will be the standard reference for understanding and teaching about the next economic superpower.


`Human security' is a promising but still underdeveloped paradigmatic approach to understanding contemporary security politics. We argue that tension between those embracing the politics of development and those supporting the human security paradigm has intensified because the transnational dimensions embodied within the latter approach have been under-assessed. The idea of `threat' also needs to be identified with more precision for the human security concept to accrue analytical credibility. We focus on how transnational behaviour addresses the central human security problems of vulnerability and immediacy. Human security's utility for confronting crisis is also evaluated via the application of two case studies of humanitarian intervention: the 1994 multinational operation in Haiti and the 1999 intervention in East Timor. We conclude that, while general security politics includes both domestic and international issues, human security allows us to transcend sovereign prerogatives and to address emerging transregional threats more effectively.


The success and degree of excellence that a business can achieve greatly depends on the business process flow that the enterprise adopts, where the more efficient and effective the process flow, the greater the degree of excellence the business can achieve. In analyzing the business process, most conventional methodologies focus only on the qualitative approach, which lacks a solid measurement to evaluate the business process. In order to have better process improvement and move towards business process excellence, a quantitative approach using process centric activity modeling that is described in this paper can be applied. This involves the use of the Boolean adjacent matrix that can explicitly determine whether there is any inefficient and ineffective activity looping in the business process. If there is, it can be eliminated, then the business process can be implemented more effectively. In this paper, a simulation of the process centric activity modeling is proposed and applied to a typical purchasing business process activity. Satisfactory results have been achieved with this modeling method.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) places significant burden not only on quality of life, but is also associated with considerable costs to healthcare systems. Diagnosis of AD may be challenging when it starts in adolescence or adulthood, and is further complicated as its manifestations are different from those generally seen in children. Accordingly, better definition of diagnostic criteria for adult onset AD is needed to avoid misdiagnosis and undertreatment in adult patients. To provide practical guidance for clinicians to reliably diagnose AD in adult patients, representatives from three Italian dermatology scientific societies [Italian Society of Dermatology and Venereology (SIDeMaST), Italian Association of Hospital Dermatologists (ADOI), Italian Society of Allergological, Occupational and Environmental Dermatology (SIDAPA)] carried out a joint consensus meeting to develop useful indications for improving diagnosis of moderate to severe AD in adult patients in routine clinical practice. The most representative criteria for morphological criteria, localization, clinical history, and differential diagnosis were identified by the experts. The most frequent clinical presentations are those on the flexural areas, hands, face/neck, and trunk, with itch and eczema as key manifestations. The diagnostic path defined herein can form a sort of 'check list' for physicians to adopt when evaluating patients with suspected AD, which can help in refining a diagnosis and refer the patient for specialist dermatological care. It is hoped that the practical guidance developed by the consensus group will help to improve outcomes, lower overall costs of care, and ameliorate the patient's quality of life, even though validation in a large cohort of patients is still needed.


This paper examines the similarities and differences between public and private ownership of water utilities, including variations such as corporatisation. In any utility where the asset owner and the asset operator are the same, there are pressures to reduce operations and maintenance costs and capital expenditure to maximise returns. The authors argue that this is the case irrespective of whether such returns are to private shareholders or dividends to government. On the other hand, where the asset owner and the asset operator are separate entities with a clearly defined contractual interface, it is not possible to increase returns by reducing operations and maintenance standards, presuming a properly constructed contract. This is because the performance standards are clearly stipulated in the contract with payment reductions applying for non-performance. Such a model can be put in place irrespective of whether the asset owner is a private company or a public utility. The paper examines the profit incentive applying to private and public sector organisations in models where: the asset owner and the asset operator are the same organisation; models where the asset owner and the asset operator are separate organisations, with the service delivery performance governed by a clearly defined contractual interface. The paper shows why the drivers governing the behaviour of public sector and private sector owners are similar, and how the separation of asset owner and asset operator can be used to ensure that service delivery standards are achieved at the lowest cost, whilst providing full transparency to shareholders, regulators and customers alike. The paper also reviews actual comparative data on service quality and performance under a number of ownership and contractual models, and draws conclusions on the effectiveness of the various asset owner/operator models in terms of service delivery performance and costs.


The centrosome is an organelle that resides at the center of most animal cells and comprises two microtubule-based centriole cylinders surrounded by pericentriolar material (PCM). The centrosome plays a fundamental role for nucleating and organizing a radial array of cytoplasmic microtubules during interphase and promoting the assembly of the mitotic spindle during mitosis. In proliferating cells, the centrosome duplicates once per cell cycle, a process that involves notably the formation of one procentriole at the base of each centriole. The procentriole then grows until it reaches the same size of its associated centriole. The formation of supernumerary centrosomes causes severe problems, since this can lead to multipolar spindle formation, chromosome missegregation and genomic instability, which are hallmarks of cancer cells. The mechanisms regulating centrosome duplication are still incompletely understood. We have studied the role of the centrosomal P4.1-associated protein (CPAP) in human cells. We found that this protein is required for efficient growth of cytoplasmic microtubules from centrosomes as well as for centrosome duplication. There, CPAP is required at an early step during procentriole assembly, after the incorporation of HsSAS-6 but before that of Centrin. Importantly, we found also that the overexpression of CPAP leads to abnormal elongation of procentrioles and centrioles, indicating that the levels of CPAP determine centriole length. Excess CPAP levels furthermore lead to the formation of multiple procentrioles along overly elongated centrioles, multipolar spindle formation and cell division errors. Therefore, proper regulation of proteins such as CPAP that set centriole length contributes to ensure genome integrity. Overall, we gained important insights into the functions of CPAP at the centrosome and identified a novel control mechanism of centriole length. This will be relevant for a better understanding of how centrosomes function in the progression of cancer and other diseases.


This thesis suggests the possibility that psychoanalytic frameworks may prove insufficient to apprehend the workings of post-millennial horror. Through a sustained exploration of how affect theory may be applied to horror, I propose a new affective corporeal model that accounts for the impact of recent films such as Saw (James Wan, 2004) and Hostel (Eli Roth, 2005). I also explore how such a theoretical approach exceeds cognitivism in favour of an understanding of the genre founded on phenomenology, Pain Studies and Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the 'body without organs'. This thesis finds the seed for spectatorial affect in the dramatic tradition and its corporeal instantaneity. It thus also offers a brief genealogy of affective mutilation as it is evolves in Greek tragedy, Shakespearean drama, the Gothic stage, the theatre of the grand guignol and Artaud's theatre of cruelty. Case studies of representative texts shed light on the affective innovations that cinema draws from in order to convey similar participatory experiences. I consider how contemporary horror appeals directly to the somatic body through a focus on moments of extreme mutilation. I therefore find it necessary to complicate traditional views of the genre as sadistic, and offer a more nuanced conceptualisation of visual mutilation that allows for fluid, organic and non-representational connections between on-screen bodies and spectators. Issues of cinematic identification and alignment are addressed in relation to key texts of the 'torture porn' and 'snuff films' subgenres. Ultimately, I show that the affective corporeal model may be used to analyse a number of texts which utilize and manipulate the organic aspects of human embodiment. Precisely because the chosen texts have not been traditionally studied under an affective lens before, the results render an innovative re-evaluation of their cultural and spectatorial dimensions.


Annual electricity consumption forecasting is one of the important foundations of power system planning. Considering that the long-term electricity consumption curves of developing countries usually present approximately exponential growth trends and linear and accelerated growth rate trends may also appear in certain periods, this paper first proposes a small-sample adaptive hybrid model (AHM) to extrapolate the above curves. The iterative trend extrapolation equation of the proposed model can simulate the linear, exponential, and steep trends adaptively at the same time. To estimate the equation parameters using small samples, the partial least squares (PLS) and iteration starting point optimization algorithms are suggested. To evaluate forecasting performance, the artificial neural network (ANN), grey model (GM), and AHM are used to forecast electricity consumption in China from 1991 to 2014, and then the results of these models are compared. Analysis of the forecasting results shows that the AHM can overcome stochastic changes and respond quickly to changes in the main electricity consumption trend because of its specialized equation structure. Overall error analysis indicators also show that AHM often obtains more precise forecasting results than the other two models.


Background Flavonoids have positive effects on health, including the nervous system. High flavonoid content can be found in chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Verbal working memory is important for reasoning, language comprehension, planning, and spatial processing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a single dose of dark and white chocolate administration on verbal working memory in medical students. Methods A study of experimental pre-post test design with controls was conducted on 60 students. These were simply randomized into two groups: the first group was supplemented with white chocolate as control, and the second group received dark chocolate, at an identical single dose of 100 g. Working memory was measured with the digit span forwards (DSF) and the digit span backwards (DSB) tests, before, at 1 hour, and at 3 hours after intervention. Independent t and Mann-Whitney tests were used for data analysis. Results Scores for DSF and DSB in control and treatment groups were similar at baseline. At 1 hour after dark and white chocolate administration, DSF and DSB scores were not significantly different between the two groups (p=0.832; p=0.683). Supplementation of dark chocolate at 3 hours after intervention significantly increased DSB scores compared to white chocolate (p=0.041), but DSF scores were not significantly different between the two groups (p=0.204). Conclusions Dark chocolate as a single dose is capable of improving verbal working memory in students, 3 hours after its consumption. Since cocoa contains multiple bioactive compounds, one approach might be to examine the neurocognitive effects of combinations of potential functional ingredients.