This work investigates the models and tools for support of developing a kind of future user interfaces, which are partially built upon the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing device: the mouse) interaction techniques and devices; and able to observe and leverage at least one controlled process under the supervision of their user(s). In this thesis, they are called WIMP+ user interfaces. There are a large variety of applications dealt with WIMP+ user interfaces, e.g., robot control, telecommunication, car driver assistant systems, distributed multi-user database systems, automation rail systems, etc. At first, it studies the evolution of user interfaces, deduces the innovative functions of future user interfaces, and defines WIMP+ user interfaces. Then, it investigates high level models for user interface realization. Since the most promising user-centered design methodology is a new emerging model, it is still short of modeling methodology and rules to support the concrete development process. Therefore, in this work, a universal modeling methodology, which picks up the design pattern application, is researched and used to structure different low level user interface models. And a framework, named Hot-UCDP, for aiding the development process, is proposed. Among the design patterns required by Hot-UCDP, this work puts its most effort on investigating user interface software architectural patterns. As a result, a WIMP+ user interface software architectural pattern Acquisition-Computation-Expression-Execution (ACEE) was discovered. Tools for user interface implementation are also surveyed. Based on the research results, an ACEE-based software framework prototype called Hot-WIMP+ was developed. To support programming WIMP+ user interfaces from multiple abstract levels, Hot-WIMP+ provides not only white and black box technique but also visual tools, e.g., Acquisition Definer, Expression Specification Tools, Execution Definer. The practicability of Hot-UCDP, ACEE, and Hot-WIMP+ is proven by applying them to create three WIMP+ user interfaces, LLDemo, Hot-WebRobi, and Hot-Demo for controlling a model robot. During their development, a robot application domain pattern SelectMe-ConveyMe-SettleMe and a human and computer interaction pattern Two-handed Manipulation were well researched and documented. SelectMe-ConveyMe-SettleMe could be, in principle, used as a starting point to develop other WIMP+ user interfaces for controlling the end-effector of a 3-D robot. Two-handed Manipulation could also be used to guide the design of bimanual interaction. The effect and efficiency of these WIMP+ user interfaces for support of users fulfilling telecontrol tasks are also investigated through a case study. Additionally, the combination of the Internet and telerobotics is also considered within this work.


Plant remedies are the mainstay of treatment in underdeveloped regions owing to the side effects, unavailability and unaffordability of the conventional therapy. Among the traditional plants that have been used as an alternative therapy for diabetes mellitus is Ocimum lamiifolium, however, it has received limited scientific and medical evaluation to assess its efficacy. In this study, the in vivo hypoglycemic activity of aqueous leaf extracts of this plant was determined in male swiss white albino mice. The antidiabetic activity was screened in alloxan induced diabetic mice using oral and intraperitoneal routes. The phytochemical composition was assessed using standard procedures. The extract showed hypoglycemic activity at dose levels of 25, 48.4, 93.5, 180.9, and 350 mg/kg body weight. The extracts contained tannins, sterols, flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids, and alkaloids. The observed hypoglycemic activity could be associated with the phytochemicals present in this plant extract.


Online learning is transcending from the text-rich educational experience of the past to a video- and audio-rich learning transformation. The greater levels of media-rich content and media-rich interaction that are currently prevalent in online leisure experiences will help to increase e-learning s future efficiency and effectiveness. Enhancing E-Learning with Media-Rich Content and Interactions presents instructional designers, educators, scholars, and researchers with the necessary foundational elements, theoretical underpinnings, and practical guidance to aid in the technology selection and design of effective online learning experiences by integrating media-rich interactions and content.


We present an algorithm for multi-person tracking-by-detection in a particle filtering framework. To address the unreliability of current state-of-the-art object detectors, our algorithm tightly couples object detection, classification, and tracking components. Instead of relying only on the final, sparse output from a detector, we additionally employ its continuous intermediate output to impart our approach with more flexibility to handle difficult situations. The resulting algorithm robustly tracks a variable number of dynamically moving persons in complex scenes with occlu-sions. The approach does not rely on background modeling and is based only on 2D information from a single camera , not requiring any camera or ground plane calibration. We evaluate the algorithm on the PETS'09 tracking dataset and discuss the importance of the different algorithm components to robustly handle difficult situations.


Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands is a common and devastating pathogen of cultivated proteas worldwide. Webb (1997) described a Sudden Death plant disease of proteas in Western Australia (WA) protea plantations. Proteas that suffer the syndrome display symptoms such as stunted growth, wilting, chlorosis and often death. In the current study, a number of protea plantations in the southwest of WA were visited to quantify the extent that P. cinnamomi was attributing to deaths of cultivated proteas. The survey indicated that P. cinnamomi is the major cause of Sudden Death in proteas. A range of other fungi (Fusarium, Botryosphaeria, Pestalotiopsis, Alternaria) and pests (nematodes, mealy bug, scale insects) were also identified to be contributing to protea death and decline in WA plantations. In many cases the factors contributing to protea disease appeared complex, with a range of physical factors or nutritional imbalances commonly associated with these pathogens and pests. As P. cinnamomi was the major cause of death of cultivated proteas the remainder of the experiments described in this dissertation investigated its control in horticultural plantings.

Biofumigation has the potential to become an important technique in an overall integrated management approach to P. cinnamomi. In this thesis, biofumigation refers to the suppression of pathogens and pests by the incorporation of Brassica plants into the soil. Two biofumigants (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern., B. napus L.) were screened for their effect on the in vitro growth of five common Phytophthora species (P. cinnamomi, P. cactorum (Lebert and Colin) Schroeter., P. citricola Sawada, P. cryptogea Pethyb. and Laff. and P. megasperma Drechsler). Growth was determined by the measuring dry weight and radial growth of vegetative hyphae. B. juncea was found to be superior in its suppressive effect compared to B. napus. There was also significant variation in the sensitivity of the Phytophthora species to the suppressive effects of the biofumigants. P. cinnamomi was the most sensitive of the five species investigated. Where the rates of the biofumigant were sufficient to suppress growth of Phytophthora, the suppressive effect was mostly fungicidal.

To determine how B. juncea and B. napus affect the infective ability and survival of P. cinnamomi, their effects on sporangia and chlamydospores production in soil was investigated in vitro. P. cinnamomi colonised Miracloth discs were added to soil amended with the two Brassica species, before being removed every two days over an eight day period for the determination of sporangia production, chlamydospore production and infective ability. Only the soils amended with B. juncea significantly reduced sporangia production in P. cinnamomi. Both Brassica species increased the percentage of aborted or immature sporangia and reduced the infective ability of the pathogen. Neither Brassica species had any effect on zoospore release or chlamydospore production in P. cinnamomi.

Soil cores and soil leachate were collected from biofumigant-amended field soils to determine the inoculum potential and infective ability of the pathogen under glasshouse conditions. Amending the soil with both Brassica species had an immediate suppressive effect on the inoculum potential and infective ability of the P. cinnamomi. However, after this initial suppression there was a gradual increase in the recovery of the pathogen over the monitoring period of four weeks. To determine if the suppression would result in decreased disease incidence in a susceptible host, Lupinus angustifolius L. seeds were planted in the biofumigant amended soil. B. juncea amended soils reduced the disease incidence of P. cinnamomi by 25%. B. napus had no effect on disease incidence in L. angustifolius.

Although the current study had demonstrated that biofumigants could suppress the growth, sporulation and infection of P. cinnamomi, it was unclear if this would equate to a reduction in disease incidence when applied in the field. A field trial was conducted on a protea plantation in the southwest of Western Australia that compared biofumigation with B. juncea to chemical fumigation (metham sodium) and soil solarisation. The three soil treatments were used in an integrated management approach to control P. cinnamomi that included the use of a hardwood compost, mulch and water sterilisation. All treatments were monitored during their application to ensure the treatments were conducted successfully. The three soil treatments significantly reduced the recovery of the pathogen and the infective ability of the pathogen to a soil depth of 20 cm. Metham sodium was the most suppressive soil treatment and soil solarisation was the least suppressive treatment. Only the metham sodium treatment resulted in a significant reduction in the incidence of root rot in Leucadendron salignum P.J. Bergius x laureolum (Lam.) Fourc (c.v. Safari Sunset) over the monitoring period of three years.

Another field trial was conducted on the same protea plantation to compare the effectiveness of B. juncea and B. napus, without the use of other control strategies, to reduce the incidence of P. cinnamomi infection of Leucadendron Safari Sunset. The concentration of isothiocyanates was monitored for seven days after the incorporation of the biofumigants. Although both Brassica species reduced the recovery and infective ability of the pathogen, neither biofumigant reduced the incidence of root rot in Leucadendron Safari Sunset.

In conclusion, P. cinnamomi is the most common and devastating pathogen in WA protea plantations. The current study demonstrated that P. cinnamomi is sensitive to the suppressive nature of biofumigants. Biofumigants can suppress the in vitro growth, sporulation, infective ability of P. cinnamomi and reduce the incidence of the disease caused by the pathogen in the glasshouse. Of the two Brassica species investigated, B. juncea was superior in its ability to control P. cinnamomi compared to B. napus. When applied in the field, biofumigation using B. juncea was found to be more suppressive that soil solarisation, but not as effective as metham sodium.


This Article sets out various perspectives that litigants, lawyers and judges commonly bring to settlement conferences, perspectives on lawyer-client relations, negotiation, and the role of the judicial host. In examining the opinions in the Heileman case, along with other materials, the Article attempts to uncover the underlying assumptions about the settlement conference that informed the behavior of the judges and lawyers in that case, arguing that Heileman's explanation lies in the lawyers' and judges' tendency to embrace one of two radically different visions of the settlement conference. The Article then catalogs the advantages and disadvantages of involving clients in settlement conferences and describes the many different ways in which a client can participate, and offers general suggestions about when and for what purposes a judicial host should require a litigant or a representative of an organizational litigant to accompany the litigant's lawyer to a settlement conference. It then proposes an explanation for the expression "full authority to settle the case" as it applies to an organization. Finally, the Article reviews the obligations of the client or client representative once he or she appears at the settlement conference and suggests a special benefit flowing from client participation in settlement conferences.


Although tidal channel networks are a near-ubiquitous feature of saltmarsh environments
developed on the marine sedimentary shores of Britain, only limited progress has been
made towards achieving a scientific understanding of their morphological characteristics
and the physical functions that they perform.
Based on data acquired from a combination of high resolution aerial photography and
field survey, a range of descriptive indices and morphometric measures are used to
characterise planimetric, longitudinal and cross-sectional adjustment in saltmarsh channel
networks from 29 localities around England and Wales. In accordance with the extensive
methodological approach employed during this exploratory phase of the study, regularities
and distinguishing features of the selected formations are interpreted in terms of broad-scale
environmental controls, which represent the relative intensity of erosional versus
resistive forces. While statistical analyses suggest that creek morphology reflects a
multiplicity of influences, the strongest bivariate associations, between tidal prism and
cross-sectional geometry, are consistent with the finding of earlier process studies that
creek morphology is principally adapted to perform a conveyance function.
Theoretically-based mathematical models are employed to more fully elucidate relations
of causality between creek morphology and function. This intensive investigation utilises
Brancaster Marsh, Norfolk as an illustrative case study. The availability of airborne laser
altimetry (lidar) for this site facilitates the evaluation of alternative models of channel
function. Optimality models of angular geometry are implemented at a network-scale, and
cross-sectional adjustments are modelled with reference to the concept of stability shear
stress.
While of interest from a geomorphological perspective, the insights offered into creek
morphology and function are also relevant to the field of coastal engineering. Here, they
provide an empirical basis for post-project appraisal, and may lead to theoretical
guidelines for the design of tidal channel networks, as an integral component of saltmarsh
restoration and flood defence realignment schemes.


Essentially all data mining algorithms assume that the data-generating process is independent of the data miner's activities. However, in many domains, including spam detection, intrusion detection, fraud detection, surveillance and counter-terrorism, this is far from the case: the data is actively manipulated by an adversary seeking to make the classifier produce false negatives. In these domains, the performance of a classifier can degrade rapidly after it is deployed, as the adversary learns to defeat it. Currently the only solution to this is repeated, manual, ad hoc reconstruction of the classifier. In this paper we develop a formal framework and algorithms for this problem. We view classification as a game between the classifier and the adversary, and produce a classifier that is optimal given the adversary's optimal strategy. Experiments in a spam detection domain show that this approach can greatly outperform a classifier learned in the standard way, and (within the parameters of the problem) automatically adapt the classifier to the adversary's evolving manipulations.


My perspective on international law and human dignity can be simply stated: International law, as currently constituted, is likely to fail to advance human dignity. The vehicles most relied upon to advance this great goal--human rights treaties--are flawed as a matter of substance and process. Nor can much hope be placed in the principles of customary law, because its process of generation provides no guarantee that its principles as a whole will be beneficial, particularly to those who most struggle for human dignity--the impoverished of the developing world. In contrast, world trade agreements provide the most likely international vehicle for advancing human dignity. By increasing wealth and bringing the world's poor into the web of exchange, multinational trade agreements are likely to move societies onto paths leading to more democratic governance and improved civil rights. (1) The central premise of my talk is that, as a general matter, political systems that create the conditions necessary for human dignity are best rooted in popular consent and respect for basic economic freedoms. My reasons for this conclusion are historical, empirical, and theoretical. Historically, growing popular consent and economic freedom permitted a rising middle class in England, and then America, to create a society that protected civil rights to a degree unprecedented in human history. (2) Empirically, the nations that respect popular consent and democracy tend to protect the other civil rights that permit human beings to flourish. (3) Theoretically as well, popular consent is an important step to make rulers govern according to the preferences of the people. Without popular consent and democracy, government structures operate for the benefit of the rulers and the factions that support them--a problem that bedevils all political systems and detracts systematically from human dignity. But even democratic institutions are bedeviled by high agency costs. Insofar as the actions of elected officials are not transparent, and the officials themselves are not accountable to the electorate, rulers of democratic governments display the same tendencies as dictatorships: to protect their own interests and the interests of the factions that support them at the expense of the public. Government should be structured to reduce those agency costs. When either tradition of constitutional principle allows individuals very substantial control over their own economic destiny, the scope and thereby the agency costs of government are substantially curtailed. Unfortunately, as currently constituted, most mechanisms of international law rail to provide means for popular consent to the rules they create, and the substance of these rules have utterly failed to protect economic freedom. One reason for this failure is that the citizens of sovereign nations have no process by which they may hold accountable the architects of international rules. International rules do not generally emerge from the kind of process that gives us historical, empirical, and theoretical reasons to believe that the rules will actually protect human dignity. Because these international processes are distant from the average citizen, agency costs are in fact particularly high. Here, I briefly review human rights treaties and customary international laws--two sources from which advocates seek a greater infusion of dignity from international law--and show why they are unlikely to contribute to human dignity. In contrast, the treaties promoting free trade under the aegis of the World Trade Organization can contribute to human dignity because their operations have relatively low agency costs and, in fact, particularly empower the poor, a group whose interests are at risk even in democratic systems. First, let me begin with the procedural problems in the family of international law provisions that human rights advocates hold up as charters of human dignity, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (4) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. …


This paper proposes a novel transformer-based model architecture for medical imaging problems involving analysis of vertebrae. It considers two applications of such models in MR images: (a) detection of spinal metastases and the related conditions of vertebral fractures and metastatic cord compression, (b) radiological grading of common degenerative changes in intervertebral discs. Our contributions are as follows: (i) We propose a Spinal Context Transformer (SCT), a deep-learning architecture suited for the analysis of repeated anatomical structures in medical imaging such as vertebral bodies (VBs). Unlike previous related methods, SCT considers all VBs as viewed in all available image modalities together, making predictions for each based on context from the rest of the spinal column and all available imaging modalities. (ii) We apply the architecture to a novel and important task: detecting spinal metastases and the related conditions of cord compression and vertebral fractures/collapse from multi-series spinal MR scans. This is done using annotations extracted from free-text radiological reports as opposed to bespoke annotation. However, the resulting model shows strong agreement with vertebral-level bespoke radiologist annotations on the test set. (iii) We also apply SCT to an existing problem: radiological grading of inter-vertebral discs (IVDs) in lumbar MR scans for common degenerative changes.We show that by considering the context of vertebral bodies in the image, SCT improves the accuracy for several gradings compared to previously published model.


In the past decades different methods based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have been developed to image a variety of hemodynamic parameters in tissue. However, simultaneous high resolution imaging of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin is not yet possible in clinical practices with millimeter accuracy. Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a well established technique that has been widely utilized in research and clinical practice to monitor the concentration of different chromophores in blood. It is capable of measuring a variety of parameters such as oxygenation levels in tissue, hematocrit, and cytochrome c oxidase levels among others. By increasing the amount and complexity of the light sources and detectors integrated in NIRS systems, in the last years researchers have been able to acquire tomographic images of such chromophores. This new imaging modality is known by different names: near-infrared optical tomography (NIROT), optical tomography (OT), diffuse optical tomography (DOT), or diffuse optical imaging (DOI). One of the main factors that limited the quality of the tomographic images obtained with NIROT has been the low number of sources and detectors employed in NIROT systems. The integration of the first single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) together with time-to-digital converters (TDCs) in CMOS enabled a whole new range of possibilities in the field of single-photon detection. In this thesis the application of a SPAD-TDC image sensor in NIROT is presented for the first time. The main objective was to develop a new system that could perform acquisitions nearly in real time and that was capable of delivering tomographic images in a short period of time for medical evaluation. A new optical setup was conceived based on this detector to take advantage of the large amount of information delivered by the SPADs. By employing line-shaped illumination sources instead of point like sources, the target is more homogeneously illuminated and consequently a reduced number of sources is necessary. It was experimentally demonstrated that a resolution of 5 mm is possible with this new NIROT system. New algorithms that reduced the ill-posed nature of the image reconstruction problem were developed thanks to the wide-field time-resolved measurements delivered by the SPAD image sensors. The large datasets obtained with our NIROT system and its time-resolved capabilities enabled the development of fast methods capable of reconstructing an image with millimeter resolution in a few seconds with a laptop computer. We also analyze the effect of microlenses on the light sensitivity of the image sensor, showing that it is possible to increase it by a factor of 10 under certain conditions. A new image sensor with 4x400 pixels implemented in a 3D CMOS technology for NIROT applications is also presented. To our knowledge, this is the first backside illuminated SPAD array that incorporates in-pixel TDCs. A novel TDC architecture was introduced that reduces the energy consumed per conversion, consequently allowing a high number of TDCs working in parallel. The study of how NIROT can benefit from SPAD image sensors is presented in this thesis. Despite their current limitations, they enable the implementation of systems with thousands of detectors capable of millimeter resolution. Further developments in SPAD array architectures and TDCs will continue improving the performance of time-resolved NIROT systems.


Excerpt] This paper will attempt to determine the extent to which changes in female college attendance over time have been responses to the various factors discussed above. In Section I, a simple model of the college attendance decision is developed which incorporates most of the factors discussed above. Section II presents the results of fitting the specification implied by the theory developed in Section I to data on the college attendance choices of 29,141 women who were high school juniors in 1960. Major findings of this analysis are that female college attendance is very responsive to public decisions about the location of colleges and the level of tuition. A second finding is that the economic payoff to college is also an important determinant of attendance.


Narrative methods have been extensively used to study the subjective experience of physical illness with only a handful of studies looking at narratives of madness. However, much of the research on both physical and mental illness has focused on isolating specific narrative structures and thematic categorisation. As traditional temporally linear forms of narrative are often not available to those experiencing psychological distress, there is the risk that such individuals become narratively dispossessed (Baldwin, 2005). This paper challenges the usefulness of a traditionally linear narrative approach in first-person accounts of madness, by presenting an analysis of the narrative of Mary Barnes, a resident in R.D. Laing's Kingsley Hall in the late 1960s. In order to go beyond the confines of linear narrative research and the textual confines of discourse analysis, Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope is used to examine the different ways in which time and space are represented in the narrative, revealing not only the temporal complexities of the narrative structure, but also, through Bakhtin's concept of unfinalizability, the meaning of the embodied phenomenological dimension of lived experience. I shall argue that by engaging with more ancient chronotopes in the throes of madness and rejecting modernist, linear conceptions of timespace, Barnes loses her finalised identity, becoming other, and, as such, is able to construct meaning out of chaos and distress, which critically impacts on her experience of recovery. Using Bakhtinian concepts as analytic tools has implications for the way researchers engage with, and construct meaning from, narratives of both physical and psychological trauma, which in turn highlights the complex, multi-dimensional nature of recovery.


In this study, the problem of cooperative fault accommodation in formation flight of unmanned vehicles represented by linear time-invariant models that are subject to loss-of-effectiveness actuator faults is investigated through a hierarchical framework. Three hierarchical levels are envisaged, namely a low-level fault recovery (LLFR), a formation-level fault recovery and a high-level supervisor. In the LLFR module, a recovery controller is designed by using an estimate of the actuator fault. A performance monitoring module is then introduced at the high-level to identify a 'partially low-level recovered' vehicle because of inaccuracy in the fault severity estimate that results in violating the 'error specification' of the formation mission. The high-level supervisor then activates the formation-level fault recovery module to compensate for the resulting performance degradations of the partially low-level (LL) recovered vehicle at the expense of other healthy vehicles. The fault is accommodated by reconfiguring the formation structure through the novel notion of the weighted absolute measurement formation digraph, activating a robust controller for the partially LL recovered vehicle, and imposing a constraint on the desired input signals. Numerical simulations for a formation flight of five satellites in the planetary orbital environment are presented to confirm the validity and effectiveness of the proposed analytical work.


In eastern Nebraska, current status of the Plains Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys montanus griseus) is not well understood. Infrequent captures during the last century have led to a paucity of information regarding this taxon, and some researchers postulate that its distribution has contracted in the state. In 2008, we conducted a field survey for R. m. griseus in eastern Nebraska, amassed prior specimen records, and examined most of the specimens for this subspecies from the state to better understand its distribution, natural history, and subspecific status. In our field efforts, we only captured a single individual despite > 8,000 trap nights in suitable habitats. Our literature review and queries for vouchers yielded 20 specimens of R. m. griseus from eastern Nebraska, based on published distributional limits for this subspecies. In eastern Nebraska, R. m. griseus has been captured in tallgrass prairies, short-grass upland pastures, roadside ditches, and open areas associated with salt flats. Observations across eastern Nebraska in the last 40 years demonstrate that this taxon still exists across the entire region and has been captured more frequently in cooler months. We suspect that some combination of low abundance, trap shyness, and trapping biases towards heavily vegetated habitats and warm seasons likely has led to infrequent captures of R. m. griseus in eastern Nebraska. After examination of many museum specimens of this species from across Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, we questioned the delineations in distribution for the two subspecies in the region. On the basis of dorsal gray fur coloration, R. m. albescens appears limited to the Sandhill and Panhandle regions of Nebraska, whereas all of eastern and southern Nebraska as well as Kansas and western Missouri represent R. m. griseus, a subspecies with brown dorsal fur coloration. Based on our proposed distributional changes for these two subspecies in Nebraska, we do not find that either subspecies requires conservation efforts. Reithrodontomys montanus griseus likely will persist at low densities throughout eastern Nebraska in appropriate habitats and persist at higher densities farther westward in southern parts of the state. Reithrodontomys montanus albescens always has been more common in the Sandhill Region of Nebraska, as individuals still are observed and captured with regularity.


Development of the cortical circuits for sensory-motor processing require the coordinated integration of both columnar and long-range synaptic connections. To understand how this occurs at the level of individual neurons we have explored the timeline over which vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)-expressing interneurons integrate into mouse somatosensory cortex. We find a distinction in emergent long-range anterior-motor and columnar glutamatergic inputs onto layer (L)2 and L3 VIP+ interneurons respectively. In parallel, VIP+ interneurons form efferent connections onto both pyramidal cells and interneurons in the immediate column in an inside-out manner. Cell-autonomous deletion of the fate-determinant transcription factor, Prox1, spares long-range anterior-motor inputs onto VIP+ interneurons, but leads to deficits in local connectivity. This imbalance in the somatosensory circuit results in altered spontaneous and sensory-evoked cortical activity in vivo. This identifies a critical role for VIP+ interneurons, and more broadly interneuron heterogeneity, in formative circuits of neocortex.


This paper we propose a continuous review inventory system for perishable inventory with lost sales. We consider a single demand types and a single unit for placing and depleting the demand. The demand, lead time and life time is random variables according to an exponentially distributed. We develop the inventory system as a Markov process with impatient customer. We formulate the model as a M/M/∞ queuing model given a (r, S) and (r, K) policies. The state of system is a number of on-hand inventories and obtains the limited steady state probability at state n. The limited steady state probability approach is based on a basic rule of the rate of transition out equal to the rate of transition into the state. Numerical results indicate that the model provides no difference of the limited steady state probability comparing to the results of the augmented generator matrix. Furthermore, the results show that the (r, S) policy provides more efficiency than the (r, K) policy as (K > r) on the probability of lost sale (P0) whereas the (r, S) policy provides a larger on-hand inventory than the (r, K) policy as (K > r).


Chronic inflammation has been identified as an important component of the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Therefore, environmental and genetic factors contributing to the variation of inflammatory responses could affect individuals' susceptibility to MetS. We investigated the association between common IL1beta genetic polymorphisms, inflammation, and the MetS, and the modulation of diet-related variables (i.e., erythrocyte membrane fatty acid composition) in a white U.S. population. IL1beta single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) (-1473G > C, -511G > A, -31T > C, 3966C > T, 6054G > A), clinical and biochemical measurements were characterized in a total of 1120 subjects (540 males and 580 females) participating in the Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN) Study. The 6054 G > A SNP was significantly associated with plasma C-reactive protein (P = 0.054), adiponectin (P = 0.021), and the prevalence of MetS (P = 0.004). Moreover, there was a significant interaction between the 6054G > A SNP and erythrocyte membrane (n-3) PUFA (P = 0.019). Among subjects with low (n-3) PUFA content (below the median), the 6054 G allele was associated with increased risk of the MetS (OR = 3.29, 95%CI = 1.49-7.26 for GG and OR = 1.95, 95%CI = 0.85-4.46 for GA, P < 0.001) compared with the AA genotype, but there were no significant genotype associations among subjects with high (n-3) PUFA content (above the median). Further analyses supported a significant haplotype global effect on the MetS (P = 0.017) among subjects with low (n-3) PUFA content. These results suggested that IL1beta genetic variants were associated with measures of chronic inflammation and the MetS risk, and that genetic influences were more evident among subjects with low (n-3) PUFA intake.


Linear cryptanalysis and differential cryptanalysis are the most important methods of attack against block ciphers. Their efficiency have been demonstrated against several ciphers, including the Data Encryption Standard. We prove that both of them can be considered, improved and joined in a more general statistical framework. We also show that the very same results as those obtained in the case of DES can be found without any linear analysis and we slightly improve them into an attack with theoretical complexity 242.9 We can apply another statistical attack-the ?2 cryptanalysis-on the same characteristics without a definite idea of what happens in the encryption process. It appears to be roughly as efficient as both differential and linear cryptanalysis. We propose a new heuristic method to find good characteristics. It has found an attack against DES absolutely equivalent to M. Matsui's (1994) one by following a distinct path.


In Madagascar, where 85% of the working population earn their living through agriculture and livestock farming, farmers produce mainly rice and zebu cattle. But the country is neither able to produce enough food for its 12 million inhabitants nor able to earn enough foreign exchange to import rice and the cattle are not used widely as draught animals. In order to increase agricultural production, the zebu should be harnessed to the plough.

Food self-sufficiency is a national priority, to be attained either by intensifying crop production or by increasing the area of land under cultivation. The first option, to increase yield per hectare, has attracted considerable attention and extension services have been established to promote the use of fertilizer, manure, pesticides, better quality seeds and improved techniques. But this has proved to be an expensive exercise that has failed to achieve convincing results. In fact in areas where intensified farming practices have been tried over the last few years, per capita rice production has actually decreased. However, extending the area under cultivation could lead to food self-sufficiency.

At the present time, only 5% of the island of Madagascar is cultivated. The limiting factor to increased agricultural production is neither a shortage of land nor an unsuitable climate. Madagascar's climate is such that practically any type of crop can be cultivated. Farmers are willing, intelligent and ingenious, as can be seen from the terraced paddy fields that they have developed. The major constraint to increasing the area of land under cultivation is the lack of muscle power: hands to cultivate and to weed. Unfortunately, increasing the number of working hands also increases the number of hungry mouths and only by increasing the productivity of the existing workforce will the vicious circle be broken. This means increasing production per unit of time worked, not increasing the size of workforce.

Malagasy farmers work hard but their principal farming tool, the angady, limits what they can produce. The angady is a metal blade set into a wooden handle and it is used to turn over the soil and break down large clods of earth. Every farmer owns at least one and swears by it since survival depends upon it. But while the angady is an excellent gardening implement, it is not suitable for agriculture. In fact to be using this prehistoric hand ploughing tool in today's age of mechanization is agriculturally disastrous.

It takes at least 60 days to cultivate one hectare using an angady, by which time not only does the most favourable time for sowing seed pass, but weeds destroyed when work began start to regrow. No matter how much farmers may wish to produce more, this laborious way of working means that they can cultivate no more than one hectare, sufficient only to feed a family and survive.

Mechanization could improve this low productivity, but unfortunately people tend to think that mechanization invariably means tractors. However, tractors are only successful where there is a commitment to maintenance and where money, spare parts and skilled mechanics are available to ensure regular servicing and repair. Few people think of animal draught power as an alternative and, remarkably, of the hundreds of projects in Madagascar, none has been devoted solely to its development. Nevertheless, using animal traction for ploughing produces good results since it takes only six days to plough one hectare instead of 60 using the angady. A farmer can therefore cultivate four or five hectares during the best sowing season and prepare land on the hillsides as well as paddies along the valley floor. Implements and harness equipment can, for the most part, be maintained and repaired by the owner himself, by the local blacksmith or at the local market.

Although zebus are plentiful in Madagascar (there are almost as many zebus as there are people), developing animal traction is not easy. It is the dream of every farmer to own a zebu and, when his dream comes true, he becomes the animal's slave as he strives to feed and care for it. The zebu also becomes a form of savings bank because it is easy to sell if the need arises. In effect, farmers are happy just to feed their cattle and keep them to a great age. Yet one solution to the challenge of achieving food self-sufficiency in Madagascar could be to improve the productivity of farmers by making some of their zebu cattle work for their living.

'Operation Plough' schemes have been tried before in Madagascar, but they failed. Sometimes this was because ploughs were acquired by farmers who had no zebu to draw them, and sometimes because zebus were acquired by farmers who neither knew how to feed nor look after them. It was a case of 'putting the plough before the ox'. It would have been better to have begun by training the animals and targeting only those farmers who already owned zebus and knew how to look after them.

In the thirties, near Lake Alaotra, in a region known as the 'rice bowl' of Madagascar, a training centre was established to which farmers could bring their zebus. The incentive was the opportunity to buy a plough at a very favourable price. And now no-one in the region works his paddy field with an angady. Draught cultivation is widespread and it is the only region of Madagascar where a commercial surplus of rice is produced. This proves the viability of animal draught power in Madagascar.

In the future, animal traction should not remain merely a secondary project component. It should be the principal component in all rural development projects where the major constraint is the human muscle power involved.


The existing regional balance of power in the Persian Gulf is likely to shift after Iran becomes a nuclear state. Conservative Arab Gulf monarchies, which emerged relatively unscathed from previous tectonic changes, are poised to mimic the Iranian program with far-reaching consequences for all concerned. Although major powers may well tolerate a nuclearized Iran, its neighbors face daunting security challenges to protect and promote preferred regional interests, including tested alliances with key Western governments. Saudi Arabia and its smaller Arab Gulf partners will need to exercise savvy policies to prevent a fourth regional war before the first decade of the 21st century is out. They may even have to address intrinsic political and socioeconomic reforms to preserve existing privileges. Iran will probably become a nuclear power sometime within the next ten years, ushering in a permanent shift in the regional balance of power in the Persian Gulf with ominous consequences for the conservative Arab Gulf monarchies. Although the United States and Israel today publicly oppose such an outcome, they will possibly learn to live with a nuclear Iran. Small and medium size countries on the other hand will, in all likelihood, assume the heavy burden of a nuclearized neighbor, one which has never been shy of hegemonic ambitions. In fact, the Iranian desire to acquire nuclear weapons is long-standing policy, spanning two generations of successive pre- and post-revolutionary leaderships. In other words, the Iranian quest for nuclear technology, as well as a natural follow-up acquisition of nuclear weapons, cannot be solely attributed to national pride but must be understood as forming an intrinsic part of Iranian doctrine.1 Equally important, despite heated political rhetoric, both the United States and Israel perceive such a quest as being largely compatible with their respective long-term interests, as long as Tehran does not intend to destabilize the Persian Gulf region. This was also the gist of a carefully setup recent conversation between French President Jacques Chirac and leading American and French journalists. Speaking to The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, Chirac maintained that it would not in fact be dangerous for Iran to have a "bomb or perhaps a second [one] a little while later." In a Gallic moment of candor, however, the French President perceived the danger in terms of proliferation, and in the temptation "for other countries in the region that have large financial resources to say: 'Well, we too are going to do that; we're going to help others do it.' Why wouldn't Saudi Arabia do it? Why wouldn't it help Egypt to do so as well? That is the real danger."2 Although Chirac formally retracted these remarks on February 1, 2007, his official communique declared that "France and the international community cannot accept the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, and asked [Tehran] to respect its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." He affirmed, nevertheless, Iran's "right to civilian nuclear energy."3 Whether the prescient Frenchman intended to delay a fourth war in the Gulf, or whether he wished to caution Arab Gulf leaders on their more recent initiatives, was difficult to gauge. "I drifted," opined Chirac, "because I thought we were off the record - to say that, for example, Saudi Arabia or Egypt could be tempted to follow this example. I retract it, of course, since neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt has made the slightest declaration on these subjects, so it is not up to me to make them."4 In fact. Western governments perceived the Middle East in general, and the Gulf states in particular, as being largely unstable areas that required guidance. Towards that end, major powers provided over-the-horizon support when tensions were manageable, and intervened when such intrusions were of the "doable" variety to further maintain unique power privileges. …


Starting from the base, soil is one of nature's most abundant construction materials. Almost all type of construction is built with or upon the soil. The most important part of a road pavement is subgrade soil and its strength. If strength of soil is poor, then stabilization is normally needed. Subgrade is sometimes stabilized or replaced with stronger soil material so as to improve the strength. Such stabilization is also suitable when the available subgrade is made up of weak soil. Increase in sub grade strength may lead to economy in the structural thicknesses of a pavement. Cement, fly ash, lime, fibres etc. are very commonly used for soil stabilization. The main objective of this experimental study is to improve the properties of the gravel soil by adding bitumen emulsion. An attempt has been made to use emulsion for improving the strength of gravel soil expressed in terms of CBR values which may prove to be economical. In this study, the whole laboratory work revolves around the basic properties of soil and its strength in terms of CBR. A little cement added to provide better soil strength. It is observed that excellent soil strength results by using cationic bitumen emulsion (CMS) with little quantity of cement used as filler. The appropriate mixing conditions for gravelly soil with CMS Bitumen emulsion have been first attempted. This is followed by deciding four particular material conditions to show the variation in dry density and CBR value to achieve the best possible strength properties of gravel soil.


This paper asks whether immigration to Britain has had any impact on average wages. There seems to be a broad consensus among academics that the share of immigrants in the workforce has little or no effect on the pay rates of the indigenous population. But the studies in the literature have typically not refined their analysis by breaking it down into different occupational groups. In this paper we find that once the occupational breakdown is incorporated into a regional analysis of immigration in Britain, the immigrant-native ratio has a significant, small, negative impact on average wages. Closer examination reveals that the biggest impact is in the semi/unskilled services sector. This finding accords well with intuition and anecdote, but does not seem to have been recorded previously in the empirical literature.


As one of the main sedimentary Messinian components of the Chelif basin with the gypsum deposits, the diatomites were studied in detail along four sections from the southwestern border of the Dahra.The studied sections show significant vertical and lateral lithological changes, allowing to distinguish two units (the lower member and the upper member). The lower member is dominated by the neritic-oceanic and oceanic planktonic assemblage (Coscinodiscus marginatus, C. oculus-irridis, C. radiatus, Nitzschia reinholdii, N. fossilis, Thalassiosira eccentrica, T. miocenica, Thalassiothrix longissima, etc.). Whereas, the littoral planktonic species [Actinoptychus senarius, Thalassionema nitzschioides, Actinocyclus octonarius, A. tenellus, Paralia sulcata, etc.) and benthic forms characterized the upper member, indicating a general decrease in bathymetry over the Messinian diatoms. This assemblage is also dominated by cold water diatoms characteristic of boreal area (Coscinodiscus marginatus) in the lower member and Actinocyclus curvatulus in the upper member), which correspond to the defined lithological units. The paleoecological data from diatoms, silicoflagellates and radiolarians indicate that the diatomites were deposited in open marine environment submitted to the inputs of Atlantic cold water, until last levels before gypsum deposits. Moreover, the abundance of Thalassionema nitzschioides, constantly present from the base to the top of the section and often associated with Thalassiothrix longissima, is indicative of a high productivity, which can be characteristic of an upwelling regime, responsible of the development of the diatom microflora.


Surface ozone is a secondary air pollutant formed from reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. In this work we examine effects of the climate pattern known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and NOx variability on surface ozone from 1990 to 2007 over the South African Highveld, a heavily populated region in South Africa with numerous industrial facilities. Over summer and autumn (December–May) on the Highveld, El Niño, as signified by positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the central Pacific Ocean, is typically associated with drier and warmer than normal conditions favoring ozone formation. Conversely, La Niña, or negative SST anomalies over the central Pacific Ocean, is typically associated with cloudier and above normal rainfall conditions, hindering ozone production. We use a generalized regression model to identify any linear dependence that the Highveld ozone, measured at five air quality monitoring stations, may have on ENSO and NOx. Our results indicate that four out of the five stations exhibit a statistically significant sensitivity to ENSO at some point over the December–May period where El Niño amplifies ozone formation and La Niña reduces ozone formation. Three out of the five stations reveal statistically significant sensitivity to NOx variability, primarily in winter and spring. Accounting for ENSO and NOx effects throughout the study period of 18 years, two stations exhibit statistically significant negative ozone trends in spring, one station displays a statistically significant positive trend in August, and two stations show no statistically significant change in surface ozone.


This is a report of a customer intercept survey of customers in seven central Ohio grocery stores. Six were conventional stores of a national grocery chain (Traditional Grocery); of these, two were suburban , two were city central, and two were in predominately rural locations. The seventh store was a health/whole foods store (Specialty Grocery). The survey addressed customer willingness to pay for alternative levels of organic content in breakfast cereals, customer purchase patterns for organic foods, and customer opinions about the benefits of organic and other food characteristics. Forty-two percent of traditional grocery shoppers reported purchases of organic foods, the majority purchasing at least twice monthly. Shoppers in the specialty grocery were much more likely to purchase organic foods (92 percent). Consumers indicated a willingness to pay higher prices for processed foods with organic content. This willingness to pay varied with income and demographic characteristics of the households. Specialty grocery shoppers were more likely to purchase organic foods than their traditional grocery counterparts, and had a greater willingness to pay for these products.


Nowadays, people's daily lives are increasingly dependent on Internet applications provided by cloud service providers that replicate their content among geographically distributed datacenters using inter-datacenter wide area networks to meet performance and reliability requirements. This paper provides means for efficient design of inter-datacenter networks with static traffic scenarios, where unicast and multicast connection requests are known a priori along with their start and end times. Also, the optical channel setup/teardown time is given. Integer linear programming (ILP) formulations that consider light-tree and lightpath connections are developed to minimize the network resource consumption. Since solving ILP formulations is time consuming for large networks, we also propose efficient heuristic algorithms. We demonstrate by simulations an advantage in efficiency for a light-tree based heuristic algorithm over its lightpath counterpart. This is due to its ability to construct and extend light-trees to groom more connections. Both heuristic algorithms perform very close to the corresponding ILP optimal results in the case of a small network.


The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) represents individual and organisational Members from all sectors and parts of the UK. Our Membership includes practitioners, researchers and policy makers with an interest in Learning Technology. Our community grows more diverse as Learning Technology has become recognised as a fundamental part of learning, teaching and assessment.

Our charitable objective is "to advance education through increasing, exploring and disseminating knowledge in the field of Learning Technology for the benefit of the general public". We have led professionalisation in Learning Technology since 1993.

This strategy sets out our aims for 2017-2020:

Increasing the impact of Learning Technology for the wider community, strengthening recognition and representation for the Membership at a national level and leading professionalisation for individual Learning Technology professionals in a broad range of roles.


Since the onset of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in February 2014, the World Health Organization estimates that more than 370 health care workers have been infected with Ebola virus disease (EVD), and 216 have since died.1

During the height of the Ebola epidemic, I had the unique opportunity of working at the Ebola Case Management Center of the Eternal Love Winning Africa (ELWA) hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. About a third of all patients with Ebola admitted to ELWA were health care workers.2 Some of these brave individuals had worked tirelessly, treating Ebola patients while fully aware that they could become infected themselves. Others were likely exposed to EVD at their respective government health facilities, unaware that their patients had Ebola. Exposure to Ebola patients outside of an Ebola management center increases one's risk of contracting the illness, especially since there are no infection control measures in place for protection.

A famous quote from author Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon (born James Neil Hollingworth) goes3:

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The timid presume it is lack of fear that allows the brave to act when the timid do not. But to take action when one is not afraid is easy. To refrain when afraid is also easy. To take action regardless of fear is brave.

Redmoon's assertion describes perfectly the bravery of those who have sacrificed their lives to treat an illness with no known scientifically proven cure. In my time serving at ELWA, as more health care workers became infected, fewer reported to duty, leading to a further shortage of personnel. I, too, experienced fear that I or my other colleagues would become infected as I watched several of my coworkers contract Ebola. In fact, I would sometimes have dreams at night that I had symptoms, prompting me to check my temperature in the middle of the night—sometimes several times. Each time I came into contact with bodily fluids of a patient with Ebola, I realized that I was putting myself at risk of contracting the disease. Despite this, I overcame my fears and continued to provide medical care to my patients, which included my own coworkers.

Fear of contracting Ebola was compounded by fear for personal safety; many times there were protests from local residents who were concerned about having a treatment center in their community. I was also cognizant that individuals who used to be child soldiers during Liberia's civil war earlier in the decade were now adults. I feared that the violence surrounding ELWA would soon escalate, making it impossible for patients to receive medical care. On my last day at ELWA, the treatment center was brimming with patients in every bed and there were a limited number of health care workers providing vital medical care while dozens of protesters stood outside chanting and shouting; the challenges in providing patient care were insurmountable.

Fear of contracting Ebola was compounded by fear for personal safety.

Fear of EVD is not anything new to me. As a child, I grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was there during the 1994 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, 250 miles away from Kinshasa, where I lived. I recall clearly that the population in Kinshasa feared that the outbreak would spread; thus, Kikwit residents were quarantined. Little did I know, 20 years later, I would experience fear of Ebola in a completely different context.

But fear was not the only challenge in fighting the Ebola epidemic. Given the high case fatality rate, health care workers were repeatedly forced to face the death of those whose lives they had worked so hard to preserve. Every morning, I recall coming to the clinic and receiving the update that a patient my team had cared for had succumbed to EVD overnight. I remember vividly the mother of one of my patients looking into my eyes and pleading with me, "Please save my son. He is my only son. Don't let him die." Ebola shows no such justice. Her son passed away two days later—his mother's worst fears were realized, and I was devastated.

As a physician, I have always aspired to provide compassionate care to each of my patients. Providing such compassionate care to patients with Ebola while wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE) proved to be extremely challenging. When health care providers are covered with PPE, it is difficult for patients to perceive their caregivers' emotions or to understand their body language. As there is no guarantee of recovery with Ebola, one of the few opportunities I had to demonstrate empathy to my patients was through my own verbal communication and nonverbal behavior, such as nodding or looking into the eyes of my patients with concern. Touching patients more than required for administering treatments, even while wearing full protective gear, was not advisable.

Providing compassionate care to patients with Ebola while wearing full personal protective equipment proved to be extremely challenging.

I often wondered if these communication barriers constructed by the PPE caused additional distress to patients. Already in physical isolation, afflicted with a deadly illness, and unable to witness the attitude and emotions of their health care provider, patients were mentally and emotionally isolated. To see the face of their health care provider obscured by a mask and hood only contributed to their trepidation. Furthermore, because of isolation requirements, many patients' sense of loneliness was magnified, as they died alone without family members nearby.

When my time at ELWA came to an end, I struggled to leave Monrovia knowing that the outbreak would not be contained any time soon. As a matter of fact, given the challenges of implementing infection control measures nationwide, I feared that the situation would soon escalate into a humanitarian emergency.

A myriad of factors have led to an inadequate response to this horrendous outbreak, from the lack of public health and health care delivery infrastructure to the persistence of unsafe burial practices and an environment of mistrust. Today, many Liberians believe either that Ebola does not exist or that patients with the disease are being experimented upon at clinics. In order to contain this outbreak, we must have a thorough understanding of cultural practices. And to overcome the mistrust, it is paramount that we use credible voices from Liberian communities to reinforce health promotion messages that are tailored to Liberian culture.

To overcome community mistrust, we must use credible community voices to reinforce health promotion messages that are tailored to the specific culture.

Despite these challenges, I have faith and am hopeful that the international community will come together and create a clear plan of action to prevent the loss of thousands of lives. I applaud the bravery of my Liberian colleagues, as well as those from Samaritan's Purse, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and Serving in Mission, who have engaged Ebola from the beginning and continue to provide care despite many obstacles.

This is a unique opportunity for the international community to combine our technical expertise in public health, medicine, disaster management, and social science to better understand and address barriers that are preventing an effective response to the Ebola outbreak of 2014. It is also an opportunity to review how we can build the health infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries to prevent a disaster of this proportion from recurring.recurring.

Dr. Linda Mobula and Dr. Nathalie McDermott wearing full personal protective equipment in the ELWA Ebola Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia.

Gloves, boots, and goggles drying after decontamination with chlorine in the courtyard at the ELWA Ebola Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia.


We performed a detailed study on the carbon build‐up over the 140‐year‐long chronosequence of the Damma glacier forefield, Switzerland, to gain insights into the organic carbon dynamics during the initial stage of soil formation and ecosystem development. We determined soil carbon and nitrogen contents and their stable isotopic compositions, as well as molecular‐level composition of the bulk soils, and recalcitrance parameters of carbon in different fractions. The chronosequence was divided into three age groups, separated by small end moraines that resulted from two glacier re‐advances. The net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) showed an exponential increase over the last decades, with mean annual values that range from 100 g C m−2 yr−1 in the youngest part to over 300 g C m−2 yr−1 in a 60–80 years old part. However, over the entire 140‐year chronosequence, the NECB is only 20 g C m−2 yr−1, similar to results of other glacier forefield studies. The difference between the short‐ and long‐term NECB appears to be caused by reductions in ecosystem carbon (EC) accumulation during periods with a colder climate. We propose that two complementary mechanisms have been responsible: 1) Reductions in net primary productivity down to 50% below the long‐term mean, which we estimated using reconstructed effective temperature sums. 2) Disturbance of sites near the terminus of the re‐advanced glacier front. Stabilization of soil organic matter appeared to play only a minor role in the coarse‐grained forefield. We conclude that the forefield ecosystem, especially primary productivity, reacts rapidly to climate changes. The EC gained at warm periods is easily lost again in a cooling climate. Our conclusions may also be valid for other high mountain ecosystems and possibly arctic ecosystems.


XML (eXtensible Markup Language), with wide-ranging applications in business and other applications, is hailed as a revolutionary advance in data transfer and information identification on the Internet. This tutorial explores XML applications in business transactions and then focuses on XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language). XBRL is an application of XML in financial reporting. XBRL uses accepted financial reporting standards, and allows automatic exchange and reliable extraction of financial statements across all software and technologies. XBRL includes a well-defined dictionary of markups and is supported by many supplementary technologies. This tutorial explores the following aspects of XBRL: markups, documents and schemas; transformation and processing technologies that support XBRL; tools and software that enable real-world implementation of the language; and audit and control issues associated with XBRL.


Fungal endophytes, specifically, Trichoderma asperellum, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae ; strains M2RT4, S4SU1 and S4ST7, respectively, are known to deter aphid infestation and damage to leguminous crops, but no research exists on their biochemical profiles and effects on French bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris ) leaf miners. The objective of this study was to assess the ability of these endophytic bio-inoculants to produce extracellular enzymes, as well as determine their impact on French beans seedling emergence and growth, and leaf miner fecundity and pupation. Laboratory and greenhouse experiments were conduct at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE, Nairobi), and the University of Bonn (Germany). Bio-priming French bean seeds by soaking in fungal suspension containing 10 8 conidia/ ml for 4 hr positively impacted on seedling vigour. Six weeks after germination, all bio-inoculant treatments improved nodulation by 1.5-1.7 folds, while S4SU1 and M2TR4 improved shoot biomass by ~ 2g. In vitro , spore suspensions of these isolates were highly toxic to leaf miner larvae, often resulting in high mortalities and a suppression of pupation by over 70%. All tested isolates exhibited protease (Index=1.22), lipase (Index=1.32) and cellulase (Index=1.06) activities; with M.  anisopliae being the best enzyme secretor when cultured under dark conditions on enzyme-specific substrate for 7-14 days. In vivo B. bassiana -primed seedlings deterred larval feeding and development, resulting in reduced number of larvae, pupae and adults, by 65.3, 43.2 and 54.0%, respectively. For the first time, this study showed that bio-priming French bean seeds with bio-inoculants can boost P. vulgaris growth and nodulation, consequently altering its interaction and response to leaf miner infestation, feeding and damage to treated seedlings. These bioinoculants, thus, hold great potential as crop protection agents and could be safely used for priming seeds prior to planting, if leaf mining damages and associated yield losses in French beans are to be minimised in an environmentally sound manner. Further studies should be undertaken to elucidate the mechanisms involved in plant growth promotion, nodulation and insect feeding deterrence. Key Words : Bio-priming, endophytes, Liriomyza spp., nodulation


Waveguides were inscribed into a 9.5 mm long periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal with a Ti:sapphire femtosecond-laser. Waveguiding was achieved between two parallel written tracks with spacings of 17-19 μm. The fundamental power of 1.6 W for frequency doubling in the waveguide was delivered by a continuous wave Ti:sapphire laser at a wavelength of 943.18 nm. A maximum output power of 76 mW in the blue spectral region was achieved. This corresponds to a single pass normalized conversion efficiency of 4.6%  W(-1) cm(-2).


The diversity of macrofungi in 8 sandstone gorges (narrow valleys bordered by sandstone walls, mostly covered by Picea forests with admixed Fagus, alt. 170–390 m) was assessed with respect to microclimatic data from 235 stations measuring temperature and soil moisture along the elevation gradient. In total, 253 species of macrofungi were found including some boreal-montane species, species preferring moist habitats and/or species of more or less natural vegetation. Microclimatically, the bottoms of gorges are significantly colder than their slopes and slope crests during the vegetation period (climatic inversion) and show higher soil moisture throughout the year. However, they are not significantly colder during the winter period and even show a higher average minimal temperature than the rest of gorges. Generally, bottoms of sandstone gorges function as "buffers" maintaining a stable, humid and rather cold microclimate and enabling the occurrence of some boreal-montane fungi and species requiring humid conditions. Climatic inversion is a phenomenon markedly influencing the distribution of fungi in the landscape and enabling extrazonal occurrence of some species.


Entomophagy — the practice of eating insects — has the potential to help meet the demand for human food and address food insecurities in an environmentally sustainable manner. The realization of the potential of insects as food, however, is not without its challenges. These challenges include the lack of regulation specifically addressing insects as food and the stigma towards the use of insects as food.
While the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has devoted significant attention to insects as defects in human food, it has given comparatively little attention to insects as human food. The insect food industry in the United States, while still limited, is growing, as is the number of packaged foods offered for sale that intentionally incorporate insects. This Article critically examines FDA's regulation of insects in the context of food, including its regulation of insects as defects, insect-derived products, and insects as food or a component of food. To date, FDA's regulation of insects as food has been largely characterized by inaction. This Article argues that in light of the substantial law categorizing insects as "filth" under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and FDA's extensive regulation of insects as filth, this inaction is not neutral and FDA should affirmatively and unambiguously recognize that insects used as food are "food" under the FDCA. FDA should also develop a test to distinguish between insects as food and insects as filth and should consider using intent to distinguish between insects as food and insects as filth. This Article suggests that culturally, insects are not commonly considered food in the United States, in part because FDA has generally regulated insects as filth. By recognizing insects as food, FDA may help to facilitate greater cultural acceptance of the use of insects as food.


Written prior to the arrival of Asian Studies as an academic discipline, the volumes in this set were greeted as ground-breaking, eye-opening and exciting by the critics of the day. Containing in-depth analysis of education, politics, wealth, family, housing and leisure in rural and urban areas of Japan, China and Hong Kong, these books are key reading for students and researchers in Asian, Development and Urban Studies.


Section 35(5) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996 governs the exclusion of unconstitutionally obtained evidence in criminal trials. Three groups of factors must be considered to assess whether unconstitutionally obtained evidence should either be excluded or admitted. This contribution is focussed on the third group of factors (also known as the "effect of exclusion", or the "social costs of exclusion") which consists of the "seriousness of the charge faced by the accused", and the "importance of the evidence to secure a conviction". This group of factors is concerned with the public interest in crime control. Some scholars argue that the "public mood" should be a weighty factor when our courts consider this group of factors. Against this background this article considers three issues: First, whether considerable weight should be attached to the "current mood" of society when our courts weigh and balance this group of factors against other relevant factors; secondly, whether a consideration of the "seriousness of the charge" and the "importance of the evidence for a successful prosecution" could possibly encroach upon the presumption of innocence; and, thirdly, whether factual guilt should be allowed to tip the scales in favour of the admission of unconstitutionally obtained evidence when the evidence is crucial for a conviction on a serious charge. KEYWORDS: Admissibility of evidence; unconstitutionally obtained evidence; exclusion of unconstitutionally obtained evidence; section 35(5); exclusionary rule; effect of exclusion; presumption of innocence


Design, Development and Testing of Web Services for Multi-Sensor Snow Cover Mapping Jiri Kadlec Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy This dissertation presents the design, development and validation of new data integration methods for mapping the extent of snow cover based on open access ground station measurements, remote sensing images, volunteer observer snow reports, and cross country ski track recordings from location-enabled mobile devices. The first step of the data integration procedure includes data discovery, data retrieval, and data quality control of snow observations at ground stations. The WaterML R package developed in this work enables hydrologists to retrieve and analyze data from multiple organizations that are listed in the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences Inc (CUAHSI) Water Data Center catalog directly within the R statistical software environment. Using the WaterML R package is demonstrated by running an energy balance snowpack model in R with data inputs from CUAHSI, and by automating uploads of real time sensor observations to CUAHSI HydroServer. The second step of the procedure requires efficient access to multi-temporal remote sensing snow images. The Snow Inspector web application developed in this research enables the users to retrieve a time series of fractional snow cover from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for any point on Earth. The time series retrieval method is based on automated data extraction from tile images provided by a Web Map Tile Service (WMTS). The average required time for retrieving 100 days of data using this technique is 5.4 seconds, which is significantly faster than other methods that require the download of large satellite image files. The presented data extraction technique and space-time visualization user interface can be used as a model for working with other multi-temporal hydrologic or climate data WMTS services. The third, final step of the data integration procedure is generating continuous daily snow cover maps. A custom inverse distance weighting method has been developed to combine volunteer snow reports, cross-country ski track reports and station measurements to fill cloud gaps in the MODIS snow cover product. The method is demonstrated by producing a continuous daily time step snow presence probability map dataset for the Czech Republic region. The ability of the presented methodology to reconstruct MODIS snow cover under cloud is validated by simulating cloud cover datasets and comparing estimated snow cover to actual MODIS snow cover. The percent correctly classified indicator showed accuracy between 80 and 90% using this method. Using crowdsourcing data (volunteer snow reports and ski tracks) improves the map accuracy by 0.7 – 1.2 %. The output snow probability map data sets are published online using web applications and web services.


Pd nanoalloys show great potential as hysteresis-free, reliable hydrogen sensors. Here, a multi-scale modeling approach is employed to determine optimal conditions for optical hydrogen sensing using the Pd-Au-H system. Changes in hydrogen pressure translate to changes in hydrogen content and eventually the optical spectrum. At the single particle level, the shift of the plasmon peak position with hydrogen concentration (i.e., the"optical"sensitivity) is approximately constant at 180 nm/c_H for nanodisk diameters>~ 100 nm. For smaller particles, the optical sensitivity is negative and increases with decreasing diameter, due to the emergence of a second peak originating from coupling between a localized surface plasmon and interband transitions. In addition to tracking peak position, the onset of extinction as well as extinction at fixed wavelengths is considered. We carefully compare the simulation results with experimental data and assess the potential sources for discrepancies. Invariably, the results suggest that there is an upper bound for the optical sensitivity that cannot be overcome by engineering composition and/or geometry. While the alloy composition has a limited impact on optical sensitivity, it can strongly affect H uptake and consequently the"thermodynamic"sensitivity and the detection limit. Here, it is shown how the latter can be improved by compositional engineering and even substantially enhanced via the formation of an ordered phase that can be synthesized at higher hydrogen partial pressures.


The process of turbo-code decoding starts with the formation of a posteriori probabilities (APPs) for each data bit, which is followed by choosing the data-bit value that corresponds to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability for that data bit. Upon reception of a corrupted code-bit sequence, the process of decisionmaking with APPs allows the MAP algorithm to determine the most likely information bit to have been transmitted at each bit time. The metrics needed for the implementation of a MAP decoder are presented here, along with an example to illustrate how these metrics are used.


The pharmaceutical industry is under continual pressure to speed up the drug development process, reduce costs, and improve process design. At the same time, FDA's new Process Analytical Technology initiatives encourage the building of product quality and the development of meaningful product and process specifications that are ultimately linked to clinical performance. Together, these two issues present significant challenges to formulation and process scientists because of the complex, typically non-linear, relationships that define the impact of multiple formulation and process variables (independent variables) and such outcome responses (dependent variables) as drug release, product stability, and others. The number of variables that must be addressed is substantial and include, for example, the level of drug substance, the types and levels of various excipients, potential drug-excipient interactions, and their potential positive or negative interactions with a host of process variables. Often, the relationships between these variables and responses are not understood well enough to allow precise quantitation. And, since an optimal formulation for one response is not necessarily an optimal formulation for another response, product development is further confounded by the need to optimize a number of responses simultaneously. Clearly, formulation scientists work in a complex, multidimensional design space. In recent decades, scientists have turned more and more to such tools as multivariate analysis and response surface methodology, knowledge-based systems and other artificial intelligence applications to identify critical formulation and process variables, to develop predictive models, and to facilitate problem solving and decision making in product development. The goal of this chapter is to address artificial intelligence applications and describe their role in supporting formulation and process development.


ABSTRACT Xylella fastidiosa is an insect-borne, xylem-limited pathogenic bacterium that has been associated with a rise in incidence of diseased landscape ornamentals in southern California. The objective of this study was to genetically characterize strains isolated from ornamental hosts to understand their distribution and identity. Strains of X. fastidiosa isolated from ornamentals were characterized using a multiprimer polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR, and sequence analysis of the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region (ISR). Based on RAPD-PCR and 16S-23S rDNA ISR, strains isolated from daylily, jacaranda, and magnolia clustered with members of X. fastidiosa subsp. sandyi and caused oleander leaf scorch but not Pierce's disease symptoms in glasshouse assays on oleander and grape, respectively. This demonstrated both that our groupings based on genetic characterization were valid and that strains of X. fastidiosa subsp. sandyi are present in hosts other than oleander. Strains isolated from Spanish broom, cherry, and one strain isolated from western redbud clustered with X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa members. Strains isolated from purple-leafed plum, olive, peach, plum, sweetgum, maidenhair tree, crape myrtle, and another western redbud strain clustered with members of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex. All strains isolated from mulberry and one from heavenly bamboo formed a separate cluster that has not yet been defined as a subspecies.


Federal legislation, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, and national and state technological standards strongly encourage faculty to use computer technology in their lessons as a teaching tool. Technological standards have existed for several years that strongly encourage the use of computer technology in colleges and universities as a teaching tool. Yet it is difficult for faculty to infuse technology into their teaching.
The purpose of this study was to assess and identify the factors that influence business teacher educators to adopt computer technology methods and utilize them in their instruction and to determine the extent to which business teacher educators are adopting computer technology in their teaching. The population consisted of 95 members of the National Association of Teacher Educators for Business Education.
Findings from the descriptive statistics revealed that the largest percentage of the business teacher educators were early adopters. They indicated that they always used word processing and almost always integrated computers, projectors, and email in their instruction during the past semester. The study also found certain social, organizational, and personal motivational factors that the business teacher educators considered as very important in influencing them to adopt emerging computer technology for use in their instruction.
The means revealed differences within the respondents' personal and employment characteristics and the extent to which they adopt current computer technology as a teaching tool; however, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated no significant difference between these variables. Also, multiple regression analysis revealed that the importance of students, a specific adoption category, and the importance of physical resources (hardware) significantly predicted computer technology adoption.
The study also revealed that the business teacher educators in this study have the potential to serve as change agents and role models for their student clientele and peers since the findings suggest that these faculty members are among the first individuals to adopt computer technology for use in their instruction. The findings from the study have the potential to contribute to the development of an adopter profile that could be used to identify potential adopters of emerging computer technology.


Sketch as the most intuitive and powerful 2D design method has been used by artists for decades. However it is not fully integrated into current 3D animation pipeline as the difficulties of interpreting 2D line drawing into 3D. Several successful research for character posing from sketch has been presented in the past few years, such as the Line of Action [Guay et al. 2013] and Sketch Abstractions [Hahn et al. 2015]. However both of the methods require animators to manually give some initial setup to solve the corresponding problems. In this paper, we propose a new sketch based character posing system which is more flexible and efficient. It requires less input from the user than the system from [Hahn et al. 2015]. The character can be easily posed no matter the sketch represents a skeleton structure or shape contours.


We have examined the ability of normal and heterotopically transplanted neural crest cells to migrate along cranial neural crest pathways in the axolotl using focal DiI injections and in situ hybridization with the neural crest marker, AP-2. DiI labeling demonstrates that cranial neural crest cells migrate as distinct streams along prescribed pathways to populate the maxillary and mandibular processes of the first branchial arch, the hyoid arch and gill arches 1-4, following migratory pathways similar to those observed in other vertebrates. Another neural crest marker, the transcription factor AP-2, is expressed by premigratory neural crest cells within the neural folds and migrating neural crest cells en route to and within the branchial arches. Rotations of the cranial neural folds suggest that premigratory neural crest cells are not committed to a specific branchial arch fate, but can compensate when displaced short distances from their targets by migrating to a new target arch. In contrast, when cells are displaced far from their original location, they appear unable to respond appropriately to their new milieu such that they fail to migrate or appear to migrate randomly. When trunk neural folds are grafted heterotopically into the head, trunk neural crest cells migrate in a highly disorganized fashion and fail to follow normal cranial neural crest pathways. Importantly, we find incorporation of some trunk cells into branchial arch cartilage despite the random nature of their migration. This is the first demonstration that trunk neural crest cells can form cartilage when transplanted to the head. Our results indicate that, although cranial and trunk neural crest cells have inherent differences in ability to recognize migratory pathways, trunk neural crest can differentiate into cranial cartilage when given proper instructive cues.


users think about validation. The complex supply chains of SUS are not always as robust as necessary. This presents both manufacturers and end users of SUS with validation challenges not present with a stainless steel equivalent. Given increased regulatory scrutiny on supply chain security and risk mitigation strategies throughout the development and manufacture of a therapeutic drug product, how can end users ensure the expected level of compliance in this new world of SUS? The secret: shared responsibility for validation with your supply chain.


International boundaries, their history, location, disputes concerning their exact delimitation, their strategically importance, and other facts led many scholars to deal with that important subject. International lawyers, geographers, historians, political scientists, researchers of international relations, cartographers, military people, all are concerned with the location of a boundary, its legal status, its history, its defensible ability and so on. However, the influence of the international boundaries upon the landscape where they run has not received the attention to its merits. This article will present some areas of this kind, where a political boundary brought changes to the landscape on both sides of it. The boundary between Israel and Egypt will be the case study, although some other areas will be presented.


BASIS AND OBJECTIVES: The practice of physical exercises, besides avoiding idleness, contributes expressively for the maintenance of the physical fitness of the elderly. The objective of this study was to verify the effect of hydrogymnastics on the physical fitness and the elderly health. METHODOLOGY: A controlled assay on 74 elderly women with no regular physical activity was performed. A group of 37 women had two weekly hydrogymnastics classes during 3 months and other 37 women served as control. The physical fitness was evaluated though the Rikli and Jones (1999) test battery, where the following parameters were evaluated: power and resistance of the lower members (to sit down and to stand up), power and resistance of the upper members (forearm flexion), lower members flexion (at sitting position, to touch lower members), physical mobility - velocity, agility and balance (to stand up, to walk 2.44 m and to sit back down), flexibility of the upper members (reading up the back with hands) and aerobic resistance (6-minute walk). The test battery was applied before the beginning of classes and at the end of the program 3 months later. The groups had similar behavior with regard to age, IMC, familiar income and educational level. RESULTS: During the three months, 30 women of each group were followed, sampling loss of 18.9%. In the hydrogymnastics group, a better performance in all post-tests was observed, when compared to results of the own group in the pre-test and to the control group in the post-test (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: One concludes that the practice of hydrogymnastics for elderly women with no regular physical exercises, contributes to the improvement of the physical fitness and elderly health.


The effect of sampling designs and estimation methods on the accuracy of
predicted total suspended sediment load (SSL) were evaluated in Gorgan-
Rood and Sg. Pangsun, two rivers in Iran and Malaysia respectively.
Concerning the rare clustered nature of high load periods during transport,
adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) was conducted. Nevertheless, some
adaptations were made because continuous sediment records of study rivers
are time-scale populations rather than ordinary spatial-scale in previous
studies. This study suggests the use of forward neighborhood relation
instead of symmetric and the use of flow duration curve instead of ranking of
initial samples.
In order to evaluate the ACS in river sediment estimation, 1 2000 sample sets
were generated in each river which categorized in scenarios differed in terms
of neighborhood relation, flow discharge threshold, cluster size and initial
sample size. For all sample sets, total SSLs were predicted using the modified Hansen-Hurwitz (HH) and Horvitz-Thompson (HT) estimators which
then were statistically evaluated. The results suggests that ACS can not
estimate sediment load properly when sample size is smaller than 15 % of
the size of respective population. HT estimator showed a better performance
than the HH. Moreover, employing forward neighborhood relation instead of
symmetric showed underestimations less than 5%.


Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs), the third most important solid components of BM (the first and the second being lactose and lipids respectively), are a highly variable family of unconjugated glycans related to many pathophysiological short- and long-term effects on infants and, as recently demonstrated, even on the mother. Among their functions are promotion and modulation of gut microbiota, effects on intestinal mucosa and its development, protection against intestinal or extra-intestinal infections, modulation of several immune responses and even extra-intestinal effects, such as brain development, as described in literature. Regarding HMOs composition, it appears that maternal genetic factors play the major role in conferring its high and peculiar inter- and intra-individual variability to BM. HMOs greatly depend on four maternal phenotypes, defined depending on the expression of two specific genes and maternal blood group. The α-1-2-fucosyltransferase (FUT2) gene, expressed in more than 70% of Caucasian women, is codified by the Se gene and allows classification of secretor (Se+) and non-secretor (Se-) mothers. In addition, the α-1-3-4-fucosyltransferase (FUT3) gene indicates positivity or negativity for the Lewis Group (Le+ or Le-). Even other environmental and maternal factors, represented by age, diet, health status, medication and drugs appear to play a role in HMOs composition.