Invasive exotic plants pose a serious threat to the ecological integrity of forests in the eastern United States. Presence and expansion of these plants are closely associated with human-caused disturbances. Land preservation to exclude human-caused disturbances could protect against invasions, yet natural disturbances persist. We ask if windthrow forest disturbances in preserved National Park lands facilitate exotic species invasions. We hypothesized that exotic plant expansion is positively correlated with forest canopy disturbance from windthrow and proximity of disturbed area to forest edge. Pre and post-disturbance data from National Park Service long-term vegetation monitoring were used to analyze exotic plant richness and abundance in four National Park Service units affected by 2012 severe storms. No significant difference in exotic plant richness or cover occurred between disturbed (n = 18) and undisturbed plots (n = 262) over three years following disturbance. Exotic plant cover prior to disturbance was positively correlated with the amount of nearby linear edge habitat, but there were no significant correlations between edge and change in exotic plant cover following disturbance. Lack of increase in exotic plants after windthrow disturbance suggests that land preservation provides short-term resistance to invasion.


Focusing on resource awareness in field-programmable gate array (FPGA) design, Applications of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays in Scientific Research covers the principle of FPGAs and their functionality. It explores a host of applications, ranging from small one-chip laboratory systems to large-scale applications in "big science." The book first describes various FPGA resources, including logic elements, RAM, multipliers, microprocessors, and content-addressable memory. It then presents principles and methods for controlling resources, such as process sequencing, location constraints, and intellectual property cores. The remainder of the book illustrates examples of applications in high-energy physics, space, and radiobiology. Throughout the text, the authors remind designers to pay attention to resources at the planning, design, and implementation stages of an FPGA application, in order to reduce the use of limited silicon resources and thereby reduce system cost. Supplying practical know-how on an array of FPGA application examples, this book provides an accessible overview of the use of FPGAs in data acquisition, signal processing, and transmission. It shows how FPGAs are employed in laboratory applications and how they are flexible, low-cost alternatives to commercial data acquisition systems. Web Resource A supporting website at http://scipp.ucsc.edu/~hartmut/FPGA offers more details on FPGA programming and usage. The site contains design elements of the case studies from the book, including VHDL code, detailed schematics of selected projects, photographs, and screen shots.


We examined the static axial displacement of a ceramic d31-gradient flextensional transducer both experimentally and theoretically. Two lead zirconate titanate systems, (PZT)/PZT and PZT/ZnO, were studied. The PZT/PZT transducers consisted of two PZT layers of different d31 coefficients. The PZT/ZnO transducers consisted of a PZT and a ZnO layer. The PZT/PZT transducers were of an inner-type dome structure. The PZT/ZnO transducers were either flat, or had an inner- or outer-type dome structure by varying the thickness ratio between the two layers or the Sb2O3 content in the ZnO layer. An inner (outer)-type transducer has the large-d31 layer on the inside (outside) of the dome structure. For the PZT/PZT transducers, the axial displacement varied with the thickness ratio and reached a maximum when the two layers had similar thickness, in agreement with the calculations. With a conductive nonpiezoelectric layer, the PZT/ZnO transducers had higher axial displacements, which varied with the thickness ratio and the Sb2O3 content, than the PZT/PZT transducers. With 6 wt% Sb2O3, the transducers were flat and the measured displacements at various thickness ratios were similar to the calculated values. With 4 wt% Sb2O3, the transducers were of an outer type. The measured axial displacements were about twice the calculated values, suggesting an enhanced d31 value because of the tensile bending stress in the PZT layer. The scaled axial displacements of the PZT/ZnO transducers with 4 wt% Sb2O3 were comparable to that of the Rainbow transducers. With 8 wt% Sb2O3, the displacements of transducers with thin PZT layers (<0.3 mm) were lower than the calculated values because of increased conductivity in the PZT layer.


Osteopetrosis (OP) is a rare genetic condition characterised by osteoclast impairment, deficient bone remodelling and increased bone density. Human patients with OP often present with fractures, osteomyelitis, anaemia, abnormal skeletal development, cranial nerve compression and rarely increased intracranial pressure secondary to craniosynostosis and/or calvarial thickening. A 17-month-old male neutered Cavalier King Charles spaniel was presented for evaluation of occasional painful vocalisation. MR of the brain and the vertebral column revealed a rare association of Chiari-like malformation (CLM) and calvarial thickening due to diffuse OP resulting in severe cerebellar compression and herniation into the foramen magnum. To the authors' knowledge, this report represents the first described case of calvarial thickening caused by OP in association with CLM and syringomyelia in veterinary medicine.


Abstract. Owing to a lack of resources, tools, and knowledge, the natural variability and distribution of Total Alkalinity (TA) has been poorly characterised in coastal waters globally, yet variability is known to be high in coastal regions due to the complex interactions of oceanographic, biotic, and terrestrially-influenced processes. This is a particularly challenging task for the vast Australian coastline, however, it is also this vastness that demands attention in the face of ocean acidification (OA). Australian coastal waters have high biodiversity and endemism, and are home to large areas of coral reef, including the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system in the world. Ocean acidification threatens calcifying marine organisms by hindering calcification rates, threatening the structural integrity of coral reefs and other ecosystems. Tracking the progression of OA in different coastal regions requires accurate knowledge of the variability in TA. Thus, estimation methods that can capture this variability at synoptic scales are needed. Multiple linear regression is a promising approach in this regard. Here, we compare a range of both simple and multiple linear regression models to the estimation of coastal TA from a range of variables, including salinity, temperature, chlorophyll-a concentration and nitrate concentration. We find that regionally parameterised models capture local variability better than more general coastal or open ocean parameterised models. The strongest contribution to model improvement came through incorporating temperature as an input variable as well as salinity. Further improvements were achieved through the incorporation of either nitrate or chlorophyll-a, with the combination of temperature, salinity, and nitrate constituting the minimum model in most cases. These results provide an approach that can be applied to satellite Earth observation and autonomous in situ platforms to improve synoptic scale estimation of TA in coastal waters.


Large-scale networks such as the Internet has emerged as arguably the most complex distributed communication network system. The mere size of such networks and all the various applications that run on it brings a large variety of challenging problems. Similar problems lie in any network transportation, logistics, oil/gas pipeline etc where efficient paths are needed to route the flow of demands. This dissertation studies the computation of efficient paths from the demand sources to their respective destination(s). We consider the buy-at-bulk network design problem in which we wish to compute efficient paths for carrying demands from a set of source nodes to a set of destination nodes. In designing networks, it is important to realize economies of scale. This is can be achieved by aggregating the flow of demands. We want the routing to be oblivious : no matter how many source nodes are there and no matter where they are in the network, the demands from the sources has to be routed in a near-optimal fashion. Moreover, we want the aggregation function f to be unknown, assuming that it is a concave function of the total flow on the edge. The total cost of a solution is determined by the amount of demand routed through each edge. We address questions such as how we can (obliviously) route flows and get competitive algorithms for this problem. We study the approximability of the resulting buy-at-bulk network design problem. Our aim is to find minimum-cost paths for all the demands to the sink(s) under two assumptions: (1) The demand set is unknown, that is, the number of source nodes that has demand to send is unknown. (2) The aggregation cost function at intermediate edges is also unknown. We consider different types of graphs (doubling-dimension, planar and minor-free) and provide approximate solutions for each of them. For the case of doubling graphs and minor-free graphs, we construct a single spanning tree for the single-source buy-at-bulk network design problem. For the case of planar graphs, we have built a set of paths with an asymptotically tight competitive ratio.


Background: One of the natural products that have many benefits is green tea ( Camellia sinensis L.). It can be used to maintain health because of its high antioxidant activity from epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). However, EGCG has a low ability to penetrate through the skin due to its hydrophilicity. The aim of this study is to improve the penetration of EGCG through the skin by lipid nanovesicle, namely ethosome. Methods: Ethosomes were made using thin layer hydration method. Ethosomes were formulated with different concentration, equal to 1% (F1), 1.5% (F2), and 2% (F3) of EGCG from green tea leaves extract. They were characterized, then a chosen formula would be formulated into a gel dosage form (ethosomal gel). A gel without ethosome (non-ethosomal gel) was prepared as a control. Both of them were evaluated their penetration enhancement ability using Franz diffusion cells with the abdomen skin of Sprague-Dawley rats. Results and Discussion: Based on the results, F1 had a spherical shape, Dv90 129.00 ± 0.00 nm, polydispersity index 0.05 ± 0.00, zeta potential at -62.6 ± 5.05 mV, and the highest entrapment efficiency of 54.39 ± 0.03 %. The cumulative amount of EGCG penetrated from ethosomal and non-ethosmal gel were 1364.28 ± 56.32 μg/cm 2 and 490.17 ± 2.60 μ g/cm 2 , respectively ( p μ g/cm 2 . hour and 31.09 ± 0.29 μ g/cm 2 . hour, respectively. Conclusion: It can be concluded that ethosomal gel can increase the penetration of EGCG from green tea leaves extract. Key words: EGCG, Epigallocatechin Gallate, Ethosomes, Franz Diffusion Cell, Green Tea Leaves Extract, in-vitro Penetration Test.


JVRB, 10(2013), no. 6. - Non-verbal communication (NVC) is considered to represent more than 90 percent of everyday communication. In virtual world, this important aspect of interaction between virtual humans (VH) is strongly neglected. This paper presents a user-test study to demonstrate the impact of automatically generated graphics-based NVC expression on the dialog quality: first, we wanted to compare impassive and emotion facial expression simulation for impact on the chatting. Second, we wanted to see whether people like chatting within a 3D graphical environment. Our model only proposes facial expressions and head movements induced from spontaneous chatting between VHs. Only subtle facial expressions are being used as nonverbal cues - i.e. related to the emotional model. Motion capture animations related to hand gestures, such as cleaning glasses, were
randomly used to make the virtual human lively. After briefly introducing the technical architecture of the 3D-chatting system, we focus on two aspects of chatting through VHs. First, what is the influence of facial expressions that are induced from text dialog? For this purpose, we exploited an emotion engine extracting an emotional content from a text and depicting it into a virtual character developed previously [GAS11]. Second, as our goal was not addressing automatic generation of text, we compared the impact of nonverbal cues in conversation with a chatbot or with a human operator with a wizard of oz approach. Among main results, the within group study -involving 40 subjects- suggests that subtle facial expressions impact significantly not only on the quality of experience but also on dialog understanding.


Despite the widespread agreement on the importance of preserving ecological integrity in conservation and outdoor recreation decision-making processes, traditional metrics analyzing the supply of and demand for conservation and recreation resources have focused on geographical and population-centric units of measurement rather than ecological ones. One tool past researchers have used to inform recreation resource planning is the recreation location quotient (RLQ). While simple park-to-population ratios or acres-per-capita metrics provide a base measure of carrying capacity and are often useful to set broad recreation supply standards, the RLQ offers a more nuanced snapshot of supply and demand by comparing regional ratios to a standardized reference region. The RLQ is thus able to provide a statistic or quotient that highlights regions where recreation resources are particularly abundant and/or scarce relative to a reference area. This project expands the past RLQ analyses by investigating the distribution of recreation resources across the 10 ecological sections found within the US state of Minnesota. RLQs were calculated using recreation trail mileage, natural resource and recreation area acreage data, and recreation facility data from federal, state, and local agencies. Results found notable differences in supply of recreation resources across ecological sections. Some sections were considerably underrepresented in recreation resources-per area (e.g., Red River Valley and North Central Glaciated Plains) while others were underrepresented in recreation resources-per capita (e.g., Minnesota and Northeast Iowa Morainal). The RLQ statistics and resulting maps illustrating relative surplus or deficiencies can inform future land acquisition decisions and highlight the need for cross-jurisdictional planning in order to ensure outdoor recreation systems are ecologically representative. Possible implications and recommendations for future planning decisions are discussed.


The detection of transiting exoplanets in time-series photometry requires the removal or modeling of instrumental and stellar noise. While instrumental systematics can be reduced using methods such as pixel level decorrelation, removing stellar trends while preserving transit signals proves challenging. As a result of vast archives of light curves from recent transit surveys, there is a strong need for accurate automatic detrending, without human intervention. A large variety of detrending algorithms are in active use, but their comparative performance for transit discovery is unexplored. We benchmark all commonly used detrending methods against hundreds of Kepler, K2, and TESS planets, selected to represent the most difficult cases for systems with small planet-to-star radius ratios. The full parameter range is explored for each method to determine the best choices for planet discovery. We conclude that the ideal method is a time-windowed slider with an iterative robust location estimator based on Tukey's biweight. This method recovers 99% and 94% of the shallowest Kepler and K2 planets, respectively. We include an additional analysis for young stars with extreme variability and conclude they are best treated using a spline-based method with a robust Huber estimator. All stellar detrending methods explored are available for public use in Wōtan, an open-source Python package on GitHub (https://github.com/hippke/wotan).


There are two primary treatment alternatives available to those with mild to moderate depression or anxiety: psychotherapy and medication. The medical literature and our analysis suggests that in many cases psychotherapy, or a combination of therapy and medication, is more curative than medication alone. However, few individuals choose to use psychotherapy. We develop and estimate a dynamic model in which individuals make sequential medical treatment and labor supply decisions while jointly managing mental health and human capital. The results shed light on the relative importance of several drawbacks to psychotherapy that explain patients' reluctance to use it: (1) therapy has high time costs, which vary with an individual's opportunity cost of time and flexibility of the work schedule; (2) therapy is less standardized than medication, which results in uncertainty about its productivity for a given individual; and (3) therapy is expensive. The estimated model is used to simulate the impacts of counterfactual policies that alter the costs associated with psychotherapy.


The family of Armadillo(ARM) repeat proteins is known to play key roles in the cellular machinery of eukaryotic cells, including processes like gene expression, cell signalling and cytoskeletal organisation. Their repeating 42 amino acid motif provides a platform for numerous protein-protein interactions. Despite their known importance in eukaryotic cells, ARM repeat proteins remain poorly investigated in Apicomplexan parasites, including the malaria causing Plasmodium species. This study characterises the phylum-specific large Armadillo repeat protein (LARP), one of the 10 ARM repeat proteins known in Apicomplexa. For the first time, the localisation of a fluorescent tagged LARP protein was determined in the rodent malaria model system Plasmodium berghei. Live cell imaging revealed a predominant cytosolic expression of the protein in every life cycle stage of the parasite. The invasive P. berghei stages additionally demonstrate a distinct apical localisation of LARP-GFP, that forms a ring-like structure at the apical end of the cell. Subcellular fractionation assays confirmed the cytosolic expression, but also indicated a partial membrane attachment of LARP, that is possibly enabled through post-translational methylation. The apical expression and membrane attachment of LARP-GFP strongly suggest a localisation of LARP to the apical complex and therefore a connection to the invasion and motility machinery of P. berghei. A functional analysis indicated that LARP is likely essential in the asexual blood stages. Despite different approaches in this study, a comprehensive functional analysis through a conditional knockdown system has not yet been achieved. However, the presence of LARP in every P. berghei life cycle stage, its distinct properties in invasive parasite stages and apicomplexan-specific nature suggest LARP as a possibly interesting drug-target and highlight the overall importance of ARM repeat proteins in Plasmodium.


The article presents a new approach to the generation of business models based on value streams. The originality of the study lies in the assumption that in every business model the generator of added value is the value chain which, if original enough, will maximize potential while minimizing costs. This approach will provide the respective enterprise with a high level competitiveness in the long term. The tested group of enterprises consisted of 354 SMEs, one hundred eightyseven of which were from the manufacturing and industry sector, with 167 from the services sector. The novelty of this approach also consists of the integrated approach to the business environment in which the value streams were analyzed. The results suggest that the analysis of value streams is suitable for the projection of business models. In addition, the methods of dimensional reduction and logit regression have been identified as appropriate analytical tools, with representative results found valid and utilizable in business practice. The authors of the article are aware that this is only the first step in addressing this issue, one which will play a critical role in the gradual process of the upcoming digital transformation of all business models, not only those of SMEs in the Czech Republic.


Tumorigenesis is driven by alterations in tumor cells and also changes in the stromal microenvironment. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidates for the treatment of various tumors. MSCs are unlikely to be rejected by the immune system, could potentially home to the tumor site, and may interact with tumor cells to influence their growth and metastasis. Using mouse models of inflammation-induced gastric cancer, at least 20% of cancer-associated fibroblasts were found to originate from bone marrow (BM) and were derived from MSCs. Direct contact between BM-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) and gastric cancer cells in vitro increases the proportion of CD133-positive gastric cancer cells. This mechanism is thought to involve stimulation of Wnt-5a and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β by BM-BMCs, directly affecting the gastric cancer cells. Moreover, direct contact between BM-MSCs and gastric cancer cells increases the expression of vimentin and Snail, which is a transcription factor that mediates epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT). Human BM-MSCs can enhance the proliferation, invasion, and chemoresistance of gastric cancer cells. The regulatory mechanism involved is likely associated with increased expression of stem cell markers and EMT-related factors in gastric cancer cells. CD271, which is a marker of BM-MSCs, is expressed in scirrhous carcinoma, and the expression of Wnt-5a and TGF-β in cancer cells is up-regulated.BM-MSCs provide an advantageous tumor microenvironment for gastric cancer. Moreover, BM-MSC-related molecules may be considered biomarkers of gastric cancer.


Gallium Nitride (GaN) and its ternary alloys with aluminium and indium have met a growing interest in the last decade. These semiconductors have a large direct bandgap and can be doped with either silicon (Si) for n-type and magnesium (Mg) for p-type layers. Consequently, they are attractive targets for the fabrication of electrically driven light-emitting diodes, laser diodes and photodetectors, operating in the UV and visible range. Nitride semiconductors are also robust ans stable at high temperatures, suggesting their use in high frequency – high power electronic devices. The research on the III-nitride semiconductors is still in its infancy and, although several devices have been demonstrated and commercialized, there are still many issues to be solved. In particular, the III-nitride materials suffer from the lack of an adequate lattice-matched substrate for epitaxial growth, the high density of defects and dislocations, the poor quality of the p-type layers (low hole concentration and mobility), localization effects in indium containing layers, chemical inertness, etc… Also, due to the material quality issues, some electrical and optical parameters are only approximatively known. AlInN alloys have not attracted much attention compared to the InGaN and AlGaN ternary alloys, due to their unstable growth conditions. High-quality AlInN layers were deposited by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE). AlInN with an indium content of 18% is lattice-matched to GaN. It has a bandgap energy of about 4.35 eV and a refractive index contrast to GaN of 7% at 450 nm. It is shown that the optical, electrical and structural characteristic of epitaxial AlInN layers start degrading above a critical thickness of 200 nm, due to an ongoing pollution of the MOVPE reactor by products of the reaction. The distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) is an essential building block for advanced optoelectronic devices such as vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). The introduction of the lattice-matched AlInN quarter-layers allows to grow thick DBR structures, with limited strain issues. It is used with GaN quarter-layers for visible reflectors and AlGaN quarter-layers for UV reflectors Optimizing the growth conditions of AlInN layers leads to the realization of DBRs with reflectivity above 99 % in the blue wavelength range (410-450 nm) as well as in the UV wavelength range (345 nm). The novel AlInN/GaN DBR is introduced in various microcavity LED (MCLED) structures. The basic features of the MCLED devices are presented, as well as optical simulations obtained using the transfer matrix representation (TMR) formalism, coupled with a dipole approximation for source terms. Electrical characterizations on these devices show that an intra-cavity contact (ICC) scheme should be used to achieve a sufficient electron injection in the active region. The external quantum efficiency of MCLED devices with thick AlInN/GaN DBRs (12 pairs) were lower than expected, due to the degradation of the crystalline quality of the active layers caused by the pollution of the reactor. Another requirement for the realization of a nitride VCSEL is the optimization of the electrical injection of carriers in the optical cavity. Assuming that circular metallic contacts are used, the carriers should spread laterally and be injected in the active region under the top DBR. This is generally achieved by the combination of a current spreading cap layer, which helps for the lateral injection of the carriers, and a current confinement layer, which inhibit the injection of the carriers in the active region outside of the vertical cavity. For the III-nitride structures, several methods are available for the lateral injection: n+/p+ tunnel junctions, doped-AlGa(In)N/GaN superlattices, semi-transparent electrodes, etc… A novel technique is developed to oxidize selectively surface or buried AlInN layers and form a stable, semi-insulating compound, with a refractive index of about 1.8. A detailed description of the technique is presented. It can be applied to form current confinement layers in VCSELs, but also layers for high reflectivity distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), layers for improved light confinement in planar waveguides or insulating buffer layers for field effect transistors (FETs). Also, oxidized AlInN could be used as a sacrificial layer for the preparation of free-standing GaN substrates. In this work, the technique was applied to form a current confinement aperture in a LED device. A buried AlInN layer was oxidized laterally, leaving a small 5 µm aperture in a 28 µm × 28 µm mesa structure. Optical and electrical confinement are demonstrated. With the availability of a high-reflectivity lattice-matched nitride DBR and a technique to produce small current apertures, both based on the new AlInN material, the realization of an electrically injected VCSEL becomes a realistic goal. An ideal structure is realized and discussed.


Slope streaks are albedo features that form frequently on equatorial Martian slopes. Most slope streaks are dark relative to surrounding terrains, a minor fraction is bright, and there are rare transitioning streaks that exhibit a contrast reversal partway downslope. Their formation mechanisms and physical surface properties are not well understood. New observations acquired by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) on board ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) provide insights into slope streaks' surface microstructure, roughness and particle size ranges. Using multiple phase angle observations, we show that dark slope streaks are substantially rougher and possibly more porous than their bright counterparts, which are likely composed of more compact regolith. Color data acquired in the four wavelength bands suggest that dark streaks are spectrally similar to bright streaks but are composed of larger particles. The comparison of our orbital results to the laboratory measurements of Martian regolith analogs indicates that particles within dark slope streaks may be up to a factor of four larger than the granular material of the surrounding terrains. At one study site in Arabia Terra, using complementary imagery from other orbiters, we identify a case where dark slope streaks turned fully bright in a twenty-year period. These and CaSSIS observations suggest that bright slope streaks are old dark slope streaks, likely formed by deposition of dust or decomposition of surface aggregates into smaller particles.


Blue colored essential oil samples were obtained from chamomile flowers by a Solvent Extraction Clevenger Distillation (SECD) method and by the standard Clevenger distillation of Chamomile flowers. The solvents used were hexane, acetone, dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate and methanol. The solvents were evaluated in terms of the yield of extract, and the quality of extract (determined by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry). Of all the SECD extracts, the DCM extract gave the highest yield of the essential oil while the hexane extract gave the lowest yield of the blue essential oil.


Recent economic events have sparked debates over the degree of structural mismatch in the U.S. economy. One of the most frequent claims is that workers lack the skills that employers demand. The existing literature, however, analyzes this potential mismatch at a high level of aggregation with abstract indices and noisy proxies that obscure the underlying mechanisms. The authors address these issues by presenting and analyzing results from a survey of U.S. manufacturing establishments. The survey is the first, to their knowledge, to directly measure concrete employer skill demands and hiring experiences in a nationally representative survey at the industry level. The findings indicate that demand for higher-level skills is generally modest, and that three-quarters of manufacturing establishments do not show signs of hiring difficulties. Among the remainder, demands for higher-level math and reading skills are significant predictors of long-term vacancies, but demands for computer skills and other critical-thinking/problem-solving skills are not. Of particular interest, high-tech plants do not experience greater levels of hiring challenges. When the authors examine the potential mechanisms that could contribute to hiring difficulties, they find that neither external regional supply conditions nor internal firm practices are predictive of hiring problems. Rather, the data show that establishments that are members of clusters or that demand highly specialized skills have the greatest probability of incurring long-term vacancies. The authors interpret these results as a sign that it is important to think about factors that complicate the interaction of supply and demand—such as disaggregation and communication/coordination failures—rather than simply focusing on inadequate labor supply.


The subliminal impact of framing of social, political and environmental issues such as climate change has been studied for long time in political science and communications research. Media framing offers "interpretative package" for average citizens on how to make sense of climate change and its consequences to their livelihoods, how to deal with its negative impacts, and which mitigation or adaptation policies to support. A line of related work has used bag of words and word-level features to detect frames automatically in text. Such works face limitations since standard keyword based features may not generalize well to accommodate surface variations in text when different keywords are used for similar concepts. In this paper, we develop a new type of textual features that generalize (subject, verb, object) triplets extracted from text, by clustering them into high-level concepts. We utilize these concepts as features to detect frames in text. Our corpus comprises more than 45,000 climate change related sentences. Expert coders annotated those sentences as frame/non-frame and framed sentences were mapped into one of four general frame categories: solution, problem threat, cause, and motivation. Compared to unigram and bigram based models, classification using our generalized concepts yielded better discriminating features and a higher accuracy classifier with a 12% boost (i.e. from 74% to 83% in f-measure) for frame/no frame detection.


Both English language and English political life underwent unprecedented change in the sixteenth century, creating acute linguistic and legal crises that, in Elizabeth I's later years, intersected in the pioneering poetry of Edmund Spenser. This volume explores Spenser's linguistic experimentation and his engagement with political, and particularly legal, thought and language in his major works, demonstrating by thorough lexical analysis and illustrative readings how Spenser figured the nation both descriptively and prescriptively. As a study of the language of 'The Faerie Queene', the book restores Spenser to his rightful place as a bold but scholarly linguistic innovator, the equal of contemporaries such as Skelton, Shakespeare, Nashe, and Donne. As an enquiry into Spenser's interest in contemporary politics and law, it exposes his serial and contentious engagements in contemporary political theory and practice, and indicates his substantial influence on his contemporaries and successors. Spenser emerges in this book as a poet peculiarly preoccupied with fashioning, or 'applying', his reader to the lawful use of words and deeds. ANDREW ZURCHER is Tutor and Director of Studies in English at Queens' College Cambridge.


The aim of the paper is to analyse the actual status of book publishing in Croatia, envisage the trends of its future development and, by analyzing the current state of affairs and new book marketing trends, draw conclusions as to which directions the publishing companies should take in order to survive on the market. The aims stated as such result from the author's research and review of the business operations of the 'Naklada Ljevak' publishing company, and from the monitoring of relevant home and foreign literature in the field of marketing in general as well as specialized book marketing literature. In the introductory part the author defines publishing and its amphibious nature that lies in the fact that publishing is at the same time the process of creation and distribution of knowledge and culture, as well as a business resulting in education, as well as in entertainment. The following chapter offers an explanation of the most important facts required to understand the current publishing marketing (globalization, huge sales chains, fierce competition, ever lower standard of living in Croatia…) and lists the marketing programme elements applicable to publishing. Further on, the focus shifts on the book as a product and a part of publishing marketing. It mentions the economic and business trends that have affected the development of publishing as an industry over the past sixty years, and the book as a product. New book content trends have been elaborated as well: novels on exotic countries, current affairs issues, autobiographies and biographies, self-help manuals and titles offering 'instant-knowledge'. There is a definition and explanation of trends that relate to the book as a material product such as cover design, format, binding, types of print paper and technical features such as layout, margins, font size and spacing.


How does the TCJA's Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) provision—a global minimum tax on excess profits—fit into the larger debate about international tax avoidance, "harmful" tax competition, and taxation of the "digital" economy? Far from rolling in a U.S. Trojan horse, GILTI offers developed resident economies (particularly EU member states) a critical tax instrument to combat base erosion and profit shifting to low-tax jurisdictions. As a residence-based global minimum tax, GILTI is a tax tool "Made in America" for European tax.

GILTI does for profit shifting and base erosion what FATCA did for financial information exchange and tax evasion. GILTI provides a globally significant baseline around which other countries can implement defensive tax measures for resident firms. The OECD and EU might bemoan GILTI's unilateral character. But behind the boogeyman of arrogant American unilateralism, GILTI stands out as a critical tax tool for countries wishing to foster beneficial competition on productive economic factors. As with FATCA, the "Made in America" medicine might be distasteful to EU member states inclined towards multilateral efforts built on consensus building. Yet the United States' ability to facilitate cooperative multi-state action through a unilateral strategy with cooperative potential is precisely what gives GILTI its potency. For countries seeking to protect and recoup government subsidies for innovation, GILTI's medicine is far superior to the disease of veiled and ineffectual multilateralism on display in BEPS' empty attempts to "combat" harmful tax competition.

This paper argues that GILTI enables potential cooperative behavior among developed economies through signaling and minimum standards by a sovereign with "pricing" power to set global rate and base terms for MNEs. Part II introduces GILTI and the origins of the TCJA's shift to current taxation of excess profits; it also defends GILTI's reliance on intangibles to define excess profits. Part III introduces the EU and OECD's efforts to combat base erosion and profit shifting through multilateral initiatives—like BEPS—as well as the debate about "digital taxation." Part IV introduces theories of tax competition and international tax neutrality benchmarks to establish "national welfare" as the appropriate descriptive and normative framework for evaluating international tax policy within a multi-sovereign tax competition game. Part V applies game theory to the tax competition and "digital taxation" debates to show how GILTI's resident based global minimum tax liberates developed economies to compete on productive factors and combat base erosion and profit shifting.


To image objects that are present in a random medium, one needs to know how sensitive measurements are to different kinds of objects and to the position of those objects. Within the diffusion theory we generalize expressions that describe the sensitivity to extra scattering and extra absorption. The sensitivity is influenced by the geometry and by the boundaries of the medium. We describe how sources and detectors at different boundaries have to be handled theoretically. We then compare an unbounded medium, a medium having a black boundary, and a medium having a mirror as a boundary and study the differences in sensitivity. Our results are confirmed by experiments.


BACKGROUND The Fulbright program is an international exchange program for educators that is sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State and is administered by the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) in over 155 countries. There are several Fulbright programs that range in length from two weeks to a year. A Fulbright grant is an unusual and gratifying method to gain experience in grant writing and international education. The experience also provides a means to further establish collaborative projects with the host institution. The Fulbright Senior Specialists program provides short term grant opportunities that range in length from two to six weeks for U.S. faculty and professionals. Typically the Fulbright Senior Specialists collaborate with their international counterparts on scholarly activities such as curriculum and faculty development, institutional planning and giving lectures. Many academic disciplines are available and range from information technology and business to archaeology and urban planning. When a person applies and is selected, his/her name goes on a roster for up to five years and then the Fulbright staff tries to match the person with an overseas host institution. Some scholars are selected from the roster once or even twice while others may not be selected at all. Sometimes it is beneficial for the applicant, or "candidate," to have contacts in the country of interest. A candidate can serve for a maximum of two times during a five-year period. At least two years must elapse before a candidate is eligible for another specialist project. After returning from a Fulbright assignment, the grantee must complete the final expense report and file a final report. A few months later the grantee normally receives a Certificate of Completion and becomes a member of the Fulbright alumni organization. The specialists are also encouraged to submit their story for possible posting on the CIES web site and to help publicize the program through conferences, journals and appropriate media. This paper describes the process of acquiring a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant and the primary activities performed, which included conducting a needs assessment, evaluating curricula, conducting seminars and preparing a final report for faculty at the host institution. AUTHOR APPLIES FOR FULBRIGHT SENIOR SPECIALIST PROGRAM About three years prior and unbeknown to the Ugandan hosts, the author applied for the Fulbright Senior Specialist program; recently "Senior" has been dropped from the name. The lengthy application process consists of completing the on-line application, preparing a five page curriculum vita and obtaining at least three letters of recommendation. There are several rolling deadlines throughout the year. The review process can take up to a year before applicants are notified whether or not they have been accepted for the Fulbright Specialist roster. Once an applicant is accepted for the roster, s/he becomes a "candidate" for a Fulbright scholarship and remains on the list for five years. When an opportunity arises in the candidate's field information technology in the case of the author--the candidate applies for that specific opportunity. Typically a few candidates are notified of the opportunity and then if interested need to develop a proposal, or application, for the specific opportunity. In this case, a CIES representative notified the author of the opportunity in Uganda and suggested developing a proposal. Three proposals from Fulbright Specialist candidates were submitted and the Ugandan host institutions, in conjunction with the Ugandan Fulbright Office, selected the winning proposal. A summary of the author's proposal appears in Exhibit 1. Once the author's proposal was selected, the representatives at the host institutions, Kyambogo University and Logel Project, wanted to get going on the project as soon as possible. …


Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are an ongoing problem in today's Internet, where packets from a large number of compromised hosts thwart the paths to the victim site and/or overload the victim machines. In a newly proposed future Internet architecture, Named Data Networking (NDN), end users request desired data by sending Interest packets, and the network delivers Data packets upon request only, effectively eliminating many existing DDoS attacks. However, an NDN network can be subject to a new type of DDoS attack, namely Interest packet flooding. In this paper we investigate effective solutions to mitigate Interest flooding. We show that NDN's inherent properties of storing per packet state on each router and maintaining flow balance (i.e., one Interest packet retrieves at most one Data packet) provides the basis for effective DDoS mitigation algorithms. Our evaluation through simulations shows that the solution can quickly and effectively respond and mitigate Interest flooding.


In this study, a coordinated charging scheduling model for EVs connecting to microgrid is proposed to achieve peak shaving and valley filling. In the model, we develop an EV Charging Emergency Indicator (CEI) that used to measure whether the EVs have emergent charging demand. For the EVs that have emergent charging demand, the emergent charging strategy is employed. Considering the emergent EV charging, the optimal dispatch model including all the EVs (both emergent charging EVs and usual charging EVs) is developed. The objective of the model is to minimize the overall peak-valley load difference. The proposed model considered both the randomness of the EVs connected to the microgrid and the emergent charging demand of some EVs. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed model.


Abstract. The first permanent magnetic observatories in colonial India were established by the East India Company and under the Gottingen Magnetic Union. One of the world's longest running observatories was set up at Colaba (Bombay) in 1841, which was shifted to Alibag in 1904 to avoid electric traction effects on magnetic recordings. The observatory is located at the northwestern tip of Maharashtra, India, on the Arabian Sea. The magnetic data at Colaba were collected through eye-observation instruments from 1841 to 1872 and by photographic (magnetograph) instruments from 1872 to 1905, which reveal seasonal and other periodic effects on geomagnetic elements. Seasonal influence can be deciphered on the H minimum, but not on the maximum; the disturbances in March and April were opposite to those in December and January. D was maximum in 1880 (57' E) and minimum in 1904 (10' E). The data from 1882 to 1905 revealed that H annual inequality was influenced by 5.5-year periodicity, D by 13.5 days from 1888 to 1905, and I and Z by 11-year periodicity from 1894 to 1905 and 1873 to 1905, respectively. Secular variation of Z was parallel to that of I. Z exhibited an increasing trend from 1868 (12 874 nT) to 1905 (15 083 nT). The plan and location of Colaba–Alibag as well as the instruments used are discussed. The initial Colaba magnetic data containing "magnetic disturbances" was harnessed to identify the "disturbing point" on Earth. Nanabhoy Moos, the first Indian director, presciently hinted at a solar origin for magnetic disturbances, revealed the dependence of magnetic elements on the sunspot cycle, unraveled disturbance daily variation, and tried to understand the association, if any, between geomagnetic, seismological and meteorological phenomena. The two giant volumes published in 1910 attest to Moos' seminal work and his inventiveness in organizing and analyzing long series data. He also had a major role in moving Colaba magnetic observatory to Alibag. Thus, the observatory and Moos had a synergestic relationship influencing each other. The long data series has as much historical significance as scientific, which can bring out short- as well as long-term trends in geomagnetic data.


Perspectives on Seattle Women's Decisions to Bike for Transportation Anne Broache Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Chair Qing Shen Department of Urban Design and Planning A tangle of health, quality-of-life, environmental, and economic concerns has prompted Seattle and other major US cities to pursue strategies that encourage more trips by foot, bike, and transit. Yet increasing bicycling rates remains a distinct challenge, as evidenced by the extremely low share of Americans—especially women—who choose the two-wheeled mode for their everyday journeys. Even in Seattle, which has earned accolades for bikefriendliness, men compose more than 70 percent of bike commuters. An understudied research area lies in determining why these gender differences exist, to what extent they can be overcome, and, in general, how best to attract cycling skeptics. A better understanding of motives for bicycling among both genders and their nuanced subgroups is essential if planners hope to shift more trips away from motorized modes and reap the array of benefits associated with active transportation. This master's thesis contributes to the limited body of research on gender-related bicycling behavior and preferences by examining four major questions: (1) What are the major barriers associated with Seattle women's decisions to bicycle for transportation? (2) What are the key motives that may cause Seattle women to start or increase their cycling? (3) How do these barriers and motives differ among Seattle women who do or do not consider themselves daily riders? and (4) Based on these factors, what strategies might planners and other interested stakeholders employ to encourage more cycling among Seattle women? This research centers on a quantitative analysis of responses from a non-representative sample of 365 Seattle women, including 106 women who reported not riding for any of their everyday trips and 259 women who reported riding daily, collected through a survey by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals' Women's Cycling Project in 2010. Through a quantitative comparison of these two ridership groups, I investigated how barriers and motives vary by self-reported experience levels. My analysis was informed by the ecological model, which suggests that individual, social-environment, and physicalenvironment factors all play roles in transportation behavior. Consistent with existing literature, safety in the presence of motorized traffic was the paramount concern for daily and non-daily riders alike. Weather, steep topography, distances between origins and destinations, route connectivity, and grooming and cargo issues also played important roles in the women's cycling decisions, especially for non-daily riders. By contrast, bike and equipment issues, presence of social supports in the community, and connectivity with transit appeared to be less relevant considerations. Based on these findings, I recommended that planners consider greater separation of bikes from motorized traffic, improve end-of-trip facilities, explore creative workarounds to steep topography, seek solutions to increase route connectivity, and enhance marketing activities that address cycling for transportation as a lifestyle.


We present an optical design for a fingerprint scanner that addresses the challenges involved in capturing the prints of rolling fingers. A rolling fingerprint scanner requires a high performance distortion free system with big object space numerical aperture (0.022) and larger capture size (40 \times 40 (mm)). We show how these requirements can be achieved with the approach of optical and computational hybrid distortion correction. In addition, dark background illumination is utilized to increase fingerprint contrast.


Enormous social and economic inequalities notwithstanding, a colossal and ever-expanding middle-class has come to symbolise a new India. Because of the economic and social fluidity of this class, its members are prisoners of social and economic aspiration, negotiating and manoeuvring imagined and actual worlds, tradition and modernity. This middle-class is reinventing individual and household consumption by accessing hitherto out-of-reach resources and technologies. Water as an everyday resource has not escaped this whirlwind of change; a substantial volume of water is caught within the interstices of urban homes, where western-influenced, water-intensive forms of living are becoming the norm. New water consumption technologies now adorn most middle-class homes, indicating residents' changing values and practices regarding water. As these practices change existing meanings of water and redefine what is meant by pure and clean water fit for drinking, the new technologies required to purify water fundamentally recast their users as a new type of water consumer: the use of new technologies of water purification thereby represents new ways of being, recreating in the process middle-class subjectivity.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of image quality on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and retinal thickness measurements obtained using three commercially available spectral domain-optical coherence tomographers (SD-OCT). Subjectively determined good, medium and poor quality images were obtained from four healthy and one glaucoma suspect eyes. RNFL and retinal thickness measurements were compared as a function of image quality. Results indicate that when image quality is within the range specified as acceptable by SD-OCT manufacturers, RNFL and retinal thickness measurements are comparable.


We present a 2‐yr time series of the oxygen isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic phosphate (Δ18Op) in Monterey Bay, California. Δ18Op can serve as a proxy for phosphate utilization because its approach toward isotopic equilibrium is a function of the degree of biological phosphate cycling. When phosphate is extensively cycled by the biological community in the euphotic zone, the Δ18Op approaches isotopic equilibrium with surrounding water. Our results indicate that Δ18Op in the upper water column is consistently out of isotopic equilibrium with respect to seawater and fluctuates between the equilibrium value and the isotopic signatures of phosphate sources. This suggests that either phosphate is not extensively utilized or that the input of new phosphate to the bay exceeds the requirements of the biological community. Δ18Op is variable and linked to episodic upwelling events and the biotic response to these events. The greatest percent of phosphate oxygen exchange, and thus the greatest phosphate utilization relative to input, occurs at the locus of upwelling (Sta. M1), followed by the offshore (M2) and nearshore (C1) stations, respectively. During the highly productive upwelling season, phosphate turnover is greater than in the winter. Episodes of higher phosphate turnover, as indicated by peaks in d18Op, occur simultaneously throughout the upper 200 m of the water column and at all three stations, indicating that these events affect the bay on a large scale. Δ18Op data also suggest that deep water (≫500 m) may be a source of phosphate to the euphotic zone in Monterey Bay.


We show that ominidirectional reflection is not a sufficient signature of a photonic bandgap. Although dramatic angular redistribution takes place, the mode density of the electromagnetic field is hardly altered within the ominidirectional reflection range but rather has characteristics typical of a waveguide. The strikingly large polarization anisotropy is due to the huge dielectric contrast but not to a photonic bandgap.


Communication strategy use varies with proficiency in the target language and less proficient learners rely on L1 strategies for conversational repair. In an English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) context where the technical register is unfamiliar, little is known on whether communication strategies can enable learners with limited English proficiency to overcome hesitancy in speech. The study examined learners' use of communication strategies and fluency in group interactions in an EOP context using an integrated problem-solving, interactional and discourse-based framework of communication strategies. A 13-week communication strategy training was conducted focusing on conversational repair strategies (fillers, approximation, code-switching), meaning negotiation strategies (clarification request, comprehension check, confirmation check), response strategies (rephrase, shadowing, reply) and discourse-based strategies (lexical repetition, topic fronting). The results on communication strategy use in three group interaction sessions involving three participants showed that the most frequently used communication strategies were lexical repetition and fillers. The participants' fluency, as measured in C-units and frequency of fillers, was higher when they interacted on familiar topics. The participants learnt to use discourse-based strategies but not meaning negotiation strategies. The findings suggest that for better negotiation of meaning, the communication strategy training needs to create metacognitive awareness of the interlocutors' communicative needs.


In the theory for domain decomposition algorithms of the iterative substructuring family, each subdomain is typically assumed to be the union of a few coarse triangles or tetrahedra. This is an unrealistic assumption, in particular if the subdomains result from the use of a mesh partitioner, in which case they might not even have uniformly Lipschitz continuous boundaries. The purpose of this study is to derive bounds for the condition number of these preconditioned conjugate gradient methods which depend only on a parameter in an isoperimetric inequality, two geometric parameters characterizing John and uniform domains, and the maximum number of edges of any subdomain. A related purpose is to explore to what extent well-known technical tools previously developed for quite regular subdomains can be extended to much more irregular subdomains. Some of these results are valid for any John domain, while an extension theorem, which is needed in this study, requires that the subdomains have complements which are uniform. The results, so far, are complete only for problems in two dimensions. Details are worked out for a FETI-DP algorithm and numerical results support the findings. Some of the numerical experiments illustrate that care must be taken when selecting the scaling of the preconditioners in the case of irregular subdomains.


Internet and digital technologies allowed for the emergence of new modes of production involving cooperation and collaboration amongst peers (peer-production). In contrast with traditional models of production oriented towards the maximization of profits, these alternative modes of production are, more often than not, oriented towards the maximization of the common good. To ensure that content will always remain available to the public, the output of production is often released under a specific regime that prevents anyone from subsequently turning it into a commodity (the regime of information commons). While this might reduce the likelihood of commodification, information commons can nonetheless be exploited by the market economy. Indeed, since they have been made available for use by anyone, large online service providers can indirectly benefit from the commons by capturing the value derived from it. While this is not a problem per se, problems arise when the exploitation of the commons by one agent is likely to preclude others from doing the same — often as a result of commodification. This is especially true in the context of cloud computing, where the content holder has become as powerful as, if not more powerful than, the copyright owner. Nowadays, regardless of their legal status, information commons are increasingly controlled by large corporations who can precisely define the manner in which they can be used or accessed. Digital communities need to be aware of these risks. This Article proposes a theoretical and normative exploration of these issues based on an analysis of recent trends in cloud computing. It argues that, in order to reduce the likelihood of commodification but still benefit from the advantages offered by cloud computing, digital communities should rely on decentralized platforms based on peer-to-peer architectures, thereby escaping from the centralized control of large service providers while nonetheless preserving the autonomy of the commons they produce.


Poland has noticeably increased its activity in Arctic affairs in recent years. Although the first Polish research facilities on Svalbard were established back in the 1950s (by virtue of being a party to the Treaty concerning Spitsbergen) and the country has been involved in the Arctic environmental cooperation since its inception in the early 1990s, it was not until 2006/2007 when a policy shift towards assumption of a more ambitious role could be observed. The current Polish activity in the Arctic is motivated primarily by scientific interests, but nonetheless the region has been given a renewed attention in the Poland's foreign policy. Taking advantage of its status as a "permanent" observer to the Arctic Council (AC), Poland has keenly engaged in advancements at different international levels by introducing and supporting various initiatives within the AC and bilateral relations with Arctic and non-Arctic states as well as the European Union. This article attempts to explain the shift in Polish foreign policy towards the Arctic and how Poland, as a country without significant economic and/or strategic interests in the Arctic, has become one of the most active outside actors discussing their role in the region with the Arctic states. Furthermore, it assesses prospects for a coherent Polish polar policy.


The grid overlay system model is a new technique for forming a grid computing model for research computing. In this method we construct a grid that is dynamically allocated from a set of resources in a unique and progressive manner. This new system model allows for construction of virtual environments for execution of applications on many diverse shared resources. The system can dynamically scale to create a range of resources from a single machine to a virtual cluster of machines. This model provides a virtual container that can run legacy and customized software in an emulated environment or directly on the host's hardware through virtualization. Using this model on current consumer hardware allows for a unique blend of software containment with dynamic resource allocation. Our model, in combination with commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware and software, is able to create a large grid system with multiple combinations of hardware and software environments. In our model we propose a unique set of abstraction layers for systems. The combination of our model with current consumer hardware and software provides a unique design principle for addressing grid implementation, hardware reusability, operating system deployment and implementation, virtualization in the grid, and user control techniques. This provides a robust and simple framework that allows for the construction of computational research solutions in which performance can be traded for flexibility, and vice versa. Our model can be applied to computational research grids, service oriented grids, and even scales to collections of mobile or embedded system grids.


Leptin, a multifunctional hormone, controls various processes in both the central nervous system and in peripheral tissues. Because of the presence of multiple leptin/receptor (ObR) interaction sites and diverse leptin activities, the literature lacks truly monofunctional leptin protein derivatives or fragments. To date, selective ObR antagonists have not been reported. We developed short, pharmacologically advantageous peptide analogs of ObR‐binding site III of leptin that acted as selective ObR inhibitors without any partial agonistic activity. These reduced leptin‐dependent growth and signaling in cancer cell lines at picomolar and low nanomolar concentrations. In immunocompromised mice the peptides suppressed the growth of rapidly proliferating orthotopic human breast cancer xenografts by 50% when administered either intraperitoneally (i.p.) or subcutaneously (s.c.) for 38 days at a 0.1 mg/kg/day dose. The peptides were distributed to the brain, and when added to growing C57BL/6 normal mice i.p., s.c., or orally, the lead antagonist accelerated normal weight increase without producing any toxic effects. Weight gain increases could not be observed after 10–12 days of treatment indicating that the mice became resistant to the central nervous system activity of leptin antagonists. However, in normal growing rats the intranasal administration at 0.1 mg/kg/day for 20 days resulted in a 2% net total body weight gain without signs of resistance induction. In addition to the potential of these peptides in drug development against primary and metastatic tumors and cachexia, our data confirm that resistance to leptin resides at the blood‐brain barrier. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 96: 117–125, 2011.


The status of psalm singing in the Dutch Reformed Church Over the past three decades, there have been consistent and increasing signs that psalms are disappearing from the repertoire of hymns that are sung in the Dutch Reformed (DR) Church. In an attempt to turn this tendency around, research was undertaken to determine the seriousness and the cause of the current situation. An empirical study was done to determine the frequency of use and the functionality of psalms, and to identify the practical factors that influence these. Results confirmed the low application frequency, dysfunctionality, unpopularity and sparse liturgical employment of psalms, and showed that most psalms that appear in the hymn book of the Church, Liedboek (2001), have not become part of the repertoire of hymns of the DR Church. Respondents also provided valuable information in their explanations of why psalms are out of touch with the needs of congregations in contemporary Afrikaans culture. The research concluded that psalm singing is falling into disuse in the DR Church in South Africa. Only a small number of psalms stand a chance to survive, and then only in congregations where the singing of psalms is propagated, where well-known psalms are sung regularly and where new psalms are being learned.


The efficacy of lithium carbonate plus imipramine hydrochloride vs lithium carbonate plus placebo in preventing relapse was assessed in a prospective, random-assignment double-blind study of 75 bipolar 1 patients. Outcome measures included type of relapse, time until relapse, and subsequent illness course. Infrequent depression relapse in either treatment group precluded any demonstration of an advantage of adding imipramine to a lithium carbonate regimen. There was little evidence that the combination of lithium carbonate and imipramine caused adverse reactions. However, interactions between type of most recent episode, treatment condition, sex, and type of relapse showed that women and mania-prone patients treated with imipramine had an increased risk of mania. Life table analysis showed that the overall probability of remaining well was the same for both treatment groups and that two thirds of all relapses occurred in the first six months.


Outside of the accounting and finance departments, not many business people are interested in the finer points of financial reports. But every manager must have a thorough understanding of what their finance and accounting staffs do, why they do it, and what these reports really mean. This indispensable book demystifies the role that accounting and finance play in a corporation and demonstrates how financial decisions are manifestations of company goals. The author's crystal-clear examples show how managers can connect corporate financial information directly to their own strategies and actions. To demonstrate these connections, the author covers such essential topics as: Balance sheets and income/cash flow statements Reading and understanding annual reports Fixed-cost and variable-cost issues Financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting.


This report describes data-analytic modeling of the Minnesota soil chemical data produced by the 2001 metro soil survey and by the 2003 state-wide survey. The chemical composition of the soil is characterized by the concentration of many metal and non-metal constituents, resulting in high-dimensional data. This high dimensionality and possible unknown (nonlinear) correlations in the data make it difficult to analyze and interpret using standard statistical techniques. This project applies a machine learning technique, called Self Organizing Map (SOM), to present the high-dimensional soil data in a 2D format suitable for human understanding and interpretation. This SOM representation enables analysis of the soil chemical concentration trends within the metro area and in the state of Minnesota. These trends are important for various Minnesota regulatory agencies concerned with the concentration of polluting chemical elements due to both (a) human activities, i.e., different industrial land usage, and (b) natural geological factors, such as the geomorphic codes and provenance of glacial sediments.


Waiting time for public hospital care is a regular matter for political debate One political response has been to suggest that expanding private sector activity will reduce public waiting times. This paper tests the hypothesis that increased private activity in the health system is associated with reduced waiting times using secondary analysis of hospital activity data for 2001-02. Median waiting time is shown to be inversely related to the proportion of public patients. Policymakers should therefore be cautious about assuming that additional support for the private sector will take pressure off the public sector and reduce waiting times for public patients.


A production lot of plastic wire clips was failing after limited service. The failures were characterized by excessive relaxation of the clips, such that the corresponding wires were no longer adequately secured in the parts. No catastrophic failures had been encountered. Parts representing an older lot, which exhibited satisfactory performance properties, were also available for reference purposes. The clips were specified to be injection molded from an impact-modified grade of nylon 6/6. However, the part drawing did not indicate a specific resin. Investigation included visual inspection, micro-FTIR in the ATR mode, and analysis using DSC. The spectrum representing the reference parts showed a relatively higher level of a hydrocarbon-based impact modifier, while the results obtained on the failed parts showed the presence of an acrylic-based modifier. Also, the reference clip thermogram showed a melting transition attributed to a hydrocarbon-based impact modifier. The conclusion was that the control and failed clips had been produced from two distinctly different resins. It appeared that the material used to produce the failed clips had different viscoelastic properties, which produced a greater predisposition for stress relaxation.


In the paper, presented is a research on effectiveness of absorbing electromagnetic waves at frequency 2.45 GHz by unhardened moulding sands prepared of three kinds of high-silica base and a selected grade of sodium silicate. Measurements of power loss of microwave radiation (Pin) expressed by a total of absorbed power (Pabs), output power (Pout) and reflected power (Pref) were carried-out on a stand of semiautomatic microwave slot line. Values of microwave power loss in the rectangular waveguide filled with unhardened moulding sands served for determining effectiveness of microwave heating. Balance of microwave power loss is of technological and economical importance for manufacture of high-quality casting moulds and cores of various shapes and sizes. It was found that relative density influences parameters of power output and power reflected from samples of moulding sand placed in a waveguide. Absorption expressed by the parameter Pabs is not related to granularity of high-silica base: fine, medium and coarse. It was found that the semiautomatic microwave slot line supports evaluation of effectiveness of microwave absorption on the grounds of power loss measurements and enables statistic description of influence of relative density of the sandmix on penetration of electromagnetic waves in unhardened moulding sands.


Bats are among the most diverse animals on the planet and harbor numerous bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic symbionts. The interplay between bacterial community composition and parasitism in bats is not well understood and may have important implications for studies of similar systems. Here we present a comprehensive survey of dipteran and haemosporidian parasites, and characterization of the gut, oral, and skin microbiota of Afrotropical bats. We found significant correlation between bacterial community composition of the skin and dipteran ectoparasite prevalence across four major bat lineages, as well as links between the oral microbiome and malarial parasitism, suggesting a potential mechanism for host selection and vector-borne disease transmission in bats. Mirroring recent studies of host-microbiome co-speciation in mammals, we find a weak correlation between chiropteran phylogenetic distances and bacterial community dissimilarity across the three anatomical sites, suggesting that host environment is more important than shared ancestry in shaping the composition of associated bacterial communities.


The paper examines a specific advertising campaign of a biotech company characteristic of the whole biotech industry and discusses how the evocation of universal values, such as the protection and correct management of the planet's resources, the struggle against poverty and against the shortage of raw materials, the support of farmers and their families, distorts information about nature, global agriculture and the biotech industry's products. This distortion is a necessary and vital part of this industry's existence. The rhetorical techniques of conscious informational repression and distortion, which are often discussed only in terms of informational loss , are expressly evident and even taken to their extremes in the case of biotechnology. Yet on the other hand they are characteristic of a translation process that takes place in the rhetoric of advertisement in general, as is evident in the use of Goran Sonesson's translation model which we suggest is appropriate for the definition and study of advertising codes.


Search engines represent one of the most popular web services, visited by more than 85% of internet users on a daily basis. Advertisers are interested in making use of this vast business potential, as very clear intent signal communicated through the issued query allows effective targeting of users. This idea is embodied in a sponsored search model, where each advertiser maintains a list of keywords they deem indicative of increased user response rate with regards to their business. According to this targeting model, when a query is issued all advertisers with a matching keyword are entered into an auction according to the amount they bid for the query, and the winner gets to show their ad. One of the main challenges is the fact that a query may not match many keywords, resulting in lower auction value, lower ad quality, and lost revenue for advertisers and publishers. Possible solution is to expand a query into a set of related queries and use them to increase the number of matched ads, called query rewriting. To this end, we propose rewriting method based on a novel query embedding algorithm, which jointly models query content as well as its context within a search session. As a result, queries with similar content and context are mapped into vectors close in the embedding space, which allows expansion of a query via simple K-nearest neighbor search in the projected space. The method was trained on more than 12 billion sessions, one of the largest corpuses reported thus far, and evaluated on both public TREC data set and in-house sponsored search data set. The results show the proposed approach significantly outperformed existing state-of-the-art, strongly indicating its benefits and the monetization potential.


Surface and bulk laser damage probability distribution functions are derived for a Gaussian laser beam and a power-law defect damage ensemble. Closed-form solutions are derived and plotted for six and three values of the defect ensemble parameter p in the surface and bulk damage distribution functions, respectively. The derived degenerate (p = 1) and nondegenerate (p = 0) bulk damage equations are least-squares fitted to measured laser damage statistics in polymethyl methacrylate. The results show that the power-law defect ensemble is a reasonable description of the laser-damageable defects in the damage-tested polymethyl methacrylate and that the ensemble is more degenerate in character than uniform.


This thesis sets out to demonstrate the influences on the personality of a Black African Male Educator – specifically mine - as I enquire: ―Why do I do things the way I do?‖ and ―What has enabled me to meet, face and resolve the challenges that I have come across in life?‖ I have addressed these questions from a self-study perspective, using narrative enquiry, living theories methods and auto-ethnography. I have written this thesis aware that I lived the first thirty seven years of my life under the potentially personality deforming oppression of apartheid, and that I have conducted my study and written my thesis in the context of the HIV&AIDS pandemic. In creating my own ―living theory‖ philosophy, I look at my epistemology - How do I know what/that I know? - my ontology – Who am I? Who am I becoming? What do I believe? and my axiology – What do I value? In creating my own ―living theory‖ (Whitehead, 2008), I examine the influences which have informed my personality development and that of my research participants. The originality of the contribution of this thesis to the academy is to demonstrate the influence of one person's personal origin and naming, carers and family, childhood experiences and learning, sport and sport instructors on his personality development. In addition, the thesis highlights the usefulness of forms of knowledge - herding and induku - that have not been explicitly declared as useful and included formally in education. To this end, I demonstrate the connections that exist between, induku, herding, work, community involvement and education as influential in personality development. I use my personal beliefs and values – principally ubuntu and ukuhlonipha – and the Critical Cross Field Outcomes to demonstrate the relationship between these values and outcomes, my personal account and the development of my human personality. I look at the implications for education. I review the Republic of South Africa's National Curriculum Statement in Life Orientation Grades 10–12. I suggest ways in which the Beliefs and Values demonstrated and examined in this thesis, and Critical Cross Field Outcomes can be incorporated in Community Service Integrated Projects that can help learners to make their beliefs and values explicit in their learning, all to the end of influencing values-informed personal development.


Strep throat is a bacterial infection contracted by millions of people every year. Due to its similarity in symptoms to viral infections, a rapid diagnostic test to distinguish Group A Streptococcus bacteria (Strep A) from a viral infection is necessary for proper treatment. Any delay in treatment may cause secondary infections in the patients' sinus and/or kidneys. Current Strep A diagnosis methods, including bacteria culture and the rapid antigen detection test (RADT), are not as sensitive as molecular detection. Molecular detection is the ultimate tool for bacterial DNA detection, but often needs to be performed in a hospital laboratory. In this study, molecular technologies were incorporated into a home-based DNA detection assay to replace current bacterial detection methods. The molecular assay consists of three parts: DNA extraction on Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) filter paper for Micro Extraction Technology (MET), isothermal DNA amplification using Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA), and bacterial detection through a lateral flow strip. We hypothesized that the rapid molecular assay possesses higher sensitivity in comparison to current detection methods. Controlled initial experiments showed that the molecular assay is 100-fold more sensitive than RADT, and has a low detection limit. Negative results using similar microorganisms, and the absence of cross reactivity support the specificity of the assay. Lastly, identical inter-run results suggest the assay has good reproducibility. Overall, this initial experiment provides potential for home molecular testing on Strep A patients. Further studies on the use of this assay on patients with Strep A infections will require clinical trials.


1.1 These test methods determine the time of setting of hydraulic cement by means of the Vicat needle. Two test methods are given; Method A is the Reference Test Method using the manually operated standard Vicat apparatus, while Method B permits the use of an automatic Vicat machine that has, in accordance with the qualification requirements of this method, demonstrated acceptable performance. 1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard. 1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. See 1.4 for a specific warning statement. 1.4 Warning—Fresh hydraulic cementitious mixtures are caustic and may cause chemical burns to skin and tissue upon prolonged exposure. The use of gloves, protective clothing, and eye protection is recommended. Wash contact area with copious amounts of water after contact. Wash eyes for a minimum of 15 min. Avoid exposure of the body to clothing saturated with the liquid phase of the unhardened material. Remove contaminated clothing immediately after exposure. 1.5 The text of this standard references notes and footnotes which provide explanatory material. These notes and footnotes (excluding those in tables and figures) shall not be considered as requirements of the standard.


ABSTRACT While widening participation in higher education for regional, rural and remote (RRR) Australian communities has been a major policy focus in recent years, the pandemic and resulting lockdowns and closures of internal borders between Australian states and territories has impacted significantly upon RRR students who relocate to pursue tertiary education. In this article we draw on intersectional theory and in-depth interview data to understand the experiences, challenges faced by, and related choice-making processes of students during the height of the pandemic period. In the wake of the lockdown and implementation of a study from home university policy, the 27 students interviewed uncovered a new variation of the classic dilemma faced by young people living in rural areas: should I stay or should I go? Drawing on existing insights about student choice in higher education, we analyse mobility decision-making in relation to the participants' classed, gendered and locational identities. We find that although the pandemic impacted upon all of the participants, their experiences differed significantly and were stratified across existing lines of inequalities related particularly to their access to financial resources and practical assistance. We ultimately contend that while the pandemic and resulting public health measures provide an extraordinary context, they nevertheless highlight some of the key challenges and vulnerabilities faced by RRR students who are unable to quickly marshal financial, emotional and practical support when crises occur, providing insights whose utility persists beyond the pandemic.


This thesis consists of four papers and focuses on function spaces related to first-order analysis in abstract metric measure spaces. The classical (i.e., Sobolev) theory in Euclidean spaces makes use of summability of distributional gradients, whose definition depends on the linear structure of Rn. In metric spaces, we can replace the distributional gradients by (weak) upper gradients that control the functions' behavior along (almost) all rectifiable curves, which gives rise to the so-called Newtonian spaces. The summability condition, considered in the thesis, is expressed using a general Banach function lattice quasi-norm and so an extensive framework is built. Sobolev-type spaces (mainly based on the Lp norm) on metric spaces, and Newtonian spaces in particular, have been under intensive study since the mid-1990s.In Paper I, the elementary theory of Newtonian spaces based on quasi-Banach function lattices is built up. Standard tools such as moduli of curve families and the Sobolev capacity are developed and applied to study the basic properties of Newtonian functions. Summability of a (weak) upper gradient of a function is shown to guarantee the function's absolute continuity on almost all curves. Moreover, Newtonian spaces are proven complete in this general setting.Paper II investigates the set of all weak upper gradients of a Newtonian function. In particular, existence of minimal weak upper gradients is established. Validity of Lebesgue's differentiation theorem for the underlying metric measure space ensures that a family of representation formulae for minimal weak upper gradients can be found. Furthermore, the connection between pointwise and norm convergence of a sequence of Newtonian functions is studied.Smooth functions are frequently used as an approximation of Sobolev functions in analysis of partial differential equations. In fact, Lipschitz continuity, which is (unlike -smoothness) well-defined even for functions on metric spaces, often suffices as a regularity condition. Thus, Paper III concentrates on the question when Lipschitz functions provide good approximations of Newtonian functions. As shown in the paper, it suffices that the function lattice quasi-norm is absolutely continuous and a fractional sharp maximal operator satisfies a weak norm estimate, which it does, e.g., in doubling Poincare spaces if a non-centered maximal operator of Hardy–Littlewood type is locally weakly bounded. Therefore, such a local weak boundedness on rearrangement-invariant spaces is explored as well.Finer qualitative properties of Newtonian functions and the Sobolev capacity get into focus in Paper IV. Under certain hypotheses, Newtonian functions are proven to be quasi-continuous, which yields that the capacity is an outer capacity. Various sufficient conditions for local boundedness and continuity of Newtonian functions are established. Finally, quasi-continuity is applied to discuss density of locally Lipschitz functions in Newtonian spaces on open subsets of doubling Poincare spaces.


The purpose of this study was to investigate effective change communication in the workplace by utilizing goal setting theory. Due to potential validity issues with previous organizational communication audit research, a multi-methods study was devised to investigate and construct a new measure for effective change communication in the workplace. Preliminary interviews along with previous research were utilized to construct a survey questionnaire gauging effective change communication in the workplace. Over 1,000 employees at a large, health-services companies participated in the study. The results from the study yield a framework for evaluating effective change communication on individual (i.e. behavior, trait, and knowledge) and organizational (i.e. accuracy, clarity, and availability) levels. Also, the data was divided between males and females, communication sources, and the perceptions of effective supervisory communication. The study's practical implications, addition to goal setting theory, limitations, and future research are noted.


This paper presents a description of post-flood reconnaissance and geotechnical investigation of four earthen dams that were breached or damaged following an extreme flooding event in South Carolina in 2015. As a result of unprecedented rainfall and flooding that occurred during a five-day period at the beginning of October in 2015, a total of 51 earthen dams failed and nearly 200 were damaged. Many of these dams failed due to overtopping that led to a breach of the dam. Among the four dams investigated, full breach was observed at three dams; two of which were overtopped, and one was not. The fourth dam was not breached but was severely damaged. For each of these dams, the paper documents background information, pre-flood conditions, post-flood field observations and measurements, and laboratory testing results of collected soil samples. Impacts of vegetation on the dams and the effects of dam failure on critical infrastructure are also presented. The detailed descriptions and geotechnical investigations of the dam failures presented herein serve as case histories that can be used for dam breach modeling and risk assessment of dam failure.


Since the advent of Radio Broadcast that acoustic designers have tried to define a standard for control rooms. Although many years have passed since the first control rooms were built and many different solutions have been tried and tested, a final standard design has not yet been devised.
The purpose of this report is to define and demonstrate that a proposed route of investigation will present novelty, address an important issue in this industry and fulfil the necessary requirements for the attainment of a PhD degree.
The report is subdivided in chapters.
Chapters 2 and 3 are an extended Literature Review of Designs (Chapter 2) and Specifications (Chapter 3) previously published on this type of listening spaces. A detailed description of each paper is given. This is done in order to better identify problems and reasons for specific requirements on Critical listening spaces.
Chapter 4 is a personal view of the author on critical listening spaces. It is an organisation of the ideas brought forward in previous chapters, and its relevance is on the identification of generally accepted concepts and their application on the successful design of a critical listening space. Currently accepted design steps are listed.
Chapter 5 presents results from a survey performed by the author on a panel of professional recording engineers and producers in the UK. This represents the main subject of this project during the past year.
The result of this survey gives an indication of research routes that are important in order to solve eminent problems on the design of critical listening spaces.
Finally, Chapter 6 gives a plan of investigation detailing a specific area of research in order to continue this project with the objective of attaining a PhD degree.
In this chapter, the author feels that a short literature review should be presented. The reason for another literature review at this stage of the report is mainly to show that previous research done in the field is not comprehensive and therefore leaves scope for further investigation. Additionally, it also indicates which publications will be the basis to start from on the current research.
This chapter also presents the relevant points to be investigated, expected results and explains how this will bring originality and novelty to the academic community.
Methods to be used, practical work to be carried out and possible problems are described.


Does internet use trigger sex crime? We use unique Norwegian data on crime and internet adoption to shed light on this question. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points in 2000-2008, and provides plausibly exogenous variation in internet use. Our instrumental variables and fixed effect estimates show that internet use is associated with a substantial increase in reported incidences of rape and other sex crimes. We present a theoretical framework that highlights three mechanisms for how internet use may affect reported sex crime, namely a reporting effect, a matching effect on potential offenders and victims, and a direct effect on crime propensity. Our results indicate that the direct effect is non-negligible and positive, plausibly as a result of increased consumption of pornography.


Abstract : An implementation of a distributed dynamical simulation is presented. Issues concerning real time simulation are discussed. Three dimensional, animated, object oriented graphics software is presented with problems and solutions. Libipc(3), a library for fast, easy interprocess communications, is designed, along with a general discussion on client/server models. The equations of motion for an N body planar chain are derived in a Lagrangian setting. The solution of these equations using the Newmark technique is presented. Finally, a control system for reorienting the chain is described, and its relation to the NASREM architecture is discussed.


Abstract The pressure sensor for the Tropical Wind Energy conversion and Reference Level Experiment (TWERLE) is described. Key design features of the sensor are: capacitive coupling, reference at midrange, up-down counting, passive oven, storage at flight pressure and prelaunch calibration. Sensor specifications are given which are based on the production results of 440 units. Drift, as estimated from simulated life tests, is 1 mb per 6 months. The overall weight of the sensor, including thermal package, is 180 g.


We report on our progress in extending the behavioral repertoire of RHex, a compliant leg hexapod robot. We introduce two new controllers, one for climbing constant slope inclinations and one for achieving higher speeds via pronking, a gait that incorporates a, substantial aerial phase. In both cases, we make use of an underlying open-loop control strategy, combined with low bandwidth feedback to modulate its parameters. The inclination behavior arises from our initial alternating tripod walking controller and adjusts the angle offsets of individual leg motion profiles based on inertial sensing of the average surface slope. Similarly, the pronking controller makes use of a "virtual" leg touchdown sensing mechanism to adjust the frequency of the open-loop pronking, effectively synchronizing the controller with the natural oscillations of the mechanical system. Experimental results demonstrate good performance on slopes inclined up to /spl sim/250 and pronking up to speeds approaching 2 body lengths per second (/spl sim/1.0 m/s).


A re-investigation of the six major outcrops of granitic gneiss within the Glenfinnan and Loch Eil divisions of the Moine has shown that they are a suite of deformed and metamorphosed granite intrusions. They record all the tectonic events recognized in their host metasediments, while the absence of thermal aureoles suggests that their emplacement was synmetamorphic, i.e. syn-D1 rather than pre-D1. Their dominant gneissic fabric is of S2 age, but in low-strain augen an earlier S1 fabric is preserved which is cut by MP1 leucocratic segregations contemporaneous with, but compositionally distinct from, those in the pelitic regional migmatites of the Moine. The deformed granites underwent local MP2 remelting and have been widely intruded by later, Caledonian pegmatites. The gneiss has a uniformly granitic (sensu stricto) bulk composition, regardless of country-rock lithology or location within the Glenfinnan and Loch Eil divisions. It has strongly S-type chemical affinities, being reduced and peraluminous with a high initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio. It was probably produced at least in part by partial melting of Moine-like rocks at depth. A published Rb/Sr whole-rock isochron of c. 1028 Ma probably dates intrusion of the Ardgour body and confirms the reality of a 'Grenvillian' event in the Glenfinnan and Loch Eil divisions of the Moine.


Due to copyright restrictions various images have been removed from the electronic version of this thesis. The unabridged version can be consulted, on request, at the University of Leicester's David Wilson Library.


The design of Web-based user interfaces is of primary importance for achieving successful operation of Internet-based monitoring and control systems. Operators need to be able to act promptly on changing situations requiring remote actions to process plants. A formal development process is proposed to determine the minimum amount of information that needs to be presented at interfaces. The first stage of the process is a specification of states of components that require operator actions. The main stage of the process uses model checking to generate interfaces with a minimal amount of information sufficient for the operator to perform all required actions. As well as improving the efficiency of operators, simpler interfaces allow for greater concurrency in the implementation of the remote operation of the process plant


The Heijkoop method is used widely in ID challenging behaviour services across Northern Europe; the lack of an English-language account has inhibited its uptake in the UK. The method is fundamentally experiential and aimed at understanding the 'Who' of the client to complement the objectified 'What' knowledge of standard diagnostics. It is conceptually grounded in developmental psychology, focusing on interpersonal relationships and intersubjectivity, in particular Daniel Stern's combination of clinical and empirical perspectives on attachment and the emerging sense of self. This working paper is informed by 5 years' clinical use in Nottingham of Discovery Awareness, a process of video-analysis that is the core instrument in Heijkoop's approach. Heijkoop introduced and developed this during three separate week-long periods of service consultancy into two NHS Assessment and Treatment Units within Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust's specialist service for adults with ID.