In recognition of importance of access to education, national leaders and international development agencies met in 1990 in Jomtien Thailand and committed themselves to universalizing access to primary schooling by 2000. Recognizing that the success of the access to education agenda requires a significant and well-targeted increase in financing, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared a benchmark of at least 26% of total public expenditure to education. Nigeria despite being a member of UNESCO, allocates persistently below, 6% of her budget to education since the UNESCO Declaration in 1990. It is also worrisome to note that as at 2014, 40% of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school, 30% of pupils drop out of primary school and only 54% transit to secondary schools (Federal Ministry of Education, 2014; and UNICEF, 2015). Could it be that, poor education spending is the reason for poor student's enrolment in Nigeria? If education spending had increased up to 26% of the total budget, is there reason(s) to believe that access to basic education will also increase and, if so, by how much? To answer these pertinent questions, secondary times-series data were obtained from both local and international sources and 26% allocation to education was projected from the existing total expenditure outlay for the period 1990-2015 in line with UNESCO declaration. Ganger causality tests was conducted and ordinary least square regression estimation technique was used in estimating the impacts from both actual education expenditure and that of projected 26% expenditure on access to all levels of education. The results point to three conclusions: First, there is strong and positive relationship between education expenditure and access to all levels of education in Nigeria. Second, 26% expenditure on education as prescribed by UNESCO would have had 19-times impact on access to primary school enrolment, more than 2-times impact on secondary school enrolment and 9-times impact on access to tertiary education, and on average 10-times access to all levels of education in Nigeria. Third, urbanization is symbiotic with access to education in Nigeria. Accordingly, the study recommended that that government should adhere to the UNESCO declaration of 26% budget allocation to education. Government should intensify urbanization of Nigeria enclaves by building infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, road network, markets, industries, etc.


A relocation program, especially to overcome natural disasters, has a tendency of being emergency and imperfect in planning so that some important considerations concerning to society preferences in deciding their residency become less ignored as said by Rees (1980). At last the relocation program implementation will put more orientation on meeting houses demands as basic ones so that generating policies are to fulfill people housing demand in mathematical counts. In the case of the relocation of Damai III in Balikpapan City, it can be seen that there is an interesting phenomena to be studied. On one side, the program at the beginning of dwelling was assumed less consider the society preferences so that the target is not optimally attained. The other side the existing condition of the after dwelling shows that the relocation become a fast growing area and favorite to Balikpapan society.
The phenomena will be studied in this thesis. By studying the case of the relocation in Damai
the research objectives are to study the after-dwelling condition and the preference factors and influencing perceptions of the societies in deciding to dwell in the relocation area. The aims of the study are to find out the socio-economic characteristics of the relocated societies, to know the relocation area characteristics, and to identify and analyze the influencing factors of people preferences as their basic to make a decision to live in the relocation area.
The method being used in the research is a descriptive method with an evaluative and ex post facto approach. The techniques to analyze research results will integrate qualitative and quantitative ones. The quantitative techniques are a statistic descriptive (frequency distribution, table, graphics, percentage, diagram) and cross tabulation. The number of the research sampling is 91 (ninety-one) people based on the random sampling method.
From the research shows findings i.e. (1). Some conditions in the location area that do not meet the society preferences are accessibility to service facilities, down town, and working places is relatively difficult at the beginning of dwelling that caused by no public transportation serving the area and the physic quality of the houses in the relocation is also not quite good and the infrastructure is not quite enough as well The condition is suspected as one of the reasons makes some dwellers (20 %) moved to other location. (2). The housing infrastructures especially local roads and drainage at the beginning of the dwelling are not relatively enough and the condition is not quite good even though the infrastructure condition is better than in the previous dwellings. (3). The positive findings although a little bit too late are that the Local Government consistently keeps on internally and externally developing the relocation area so that the location area had become an interesting housing and a generating point of the surrounding area.
The conclusions of the research are (I). The condition of relocation area at the beginning of the dwelling is not as expected by the society preferences as a basic need and sustain their daily lives i.e. the physics quality of their houses is not quite good and accessibility is quite difficult as well. However, The Balikpapan City local government consistently keeps on developing step by step andfinally became growth fast (2). Factors to be considered for relocation programs to make society enjoy staying in the relocation area are consists of the dwelling quality (physic and non-physic), infrastructure and accessibility factors.
Recommendation to be conveyed are: (1). In implementing the relocation program, the Local Government should seriously consider the basic needs as expected by society preferences in order that the society do not feel that the relocation program is a form of discard (2). In this case, three principal basics to be taken as priority are the provision of the proper dwelling easy access to places by public transportation and the proper housing facilities and infrastructures to sustain their lives; (3) the implemented relocation program needs to be evaluated as soon as possible at the beginning of the after-dwelling time and proceeded by the following program to consistently improve it (4). Learned from the case of the relocation of Damai III, the local Government needs to determine a certain area in the Land Use Planning of Balikpapan city to anticipate if the local government opts the relocation program as an alternative of the housing arrangement caused by disaster Pe easily) or commonly slump area arrangement By putting into the City Spatial Planning the mobilization and support of resources, fund and other facilities and infrastructures can be carefully arranged, planned and managed


We present first results from Galaxy Zoo 2, the second phase of the highly successful Galaxy Zoo project (http://www.galaxyzoo.org). Using a volume-limited sample of 13 665 disc galaxies (0.01 < z < 0.06 and Mr < −19.38), we study the fraction of galaxies with bars as a function of global galaxy properties like colour, luminosity and bulge prominence. Overall, 29.4 ± 0.5 per cent of galaxies in our sample have a bar, in excellent agreement with previous visually classified samples of galaxies (although this overall fraction is lower than that measured by automated bar-finding methods). We see a clear increase in the bar fraction with redder (g−r) colours, decreased luminosity and in galaxies with more prominent bulges, to the extent that over half of the red, bulge-dominated disc galaxies in our sample possess a bar. We see evidence for a colour bimodality for our sample of disc galaxies, with a 'red sequence' that is both bulge and bar dominated, and a 'blue cloud' which has little, or no, evidence for a (classical) bulge or bar. These results are consistent with similar trends for barred galaxies seen recently both locally and at higher redshift, and with early studies using the RC3. We discuss these results in the context of internal (secular) galaxy evolution scenarios and the possible links to the formation of bars and bulges in disc galaxies.


Predicting ad click-through rates (CTR) is a massive-scale learning problem that is central to the multi-billion dollar online advertising industry. We present a selection of case studies and topics drawn from recent experiments in the setting of a deployed CTR prediction system. These include improvements in the context of traditional supervised learning based on an FTRL-Proximal online learning algorithm (which has excellent sparsity and convergence properties) and the use of per-coordinate learning rates. We also explore some of the challenges that arise in a real-world system that may appear at first to be outside the domain of traditional machine learning research. These include useful tricks for memory savings, methods for assessing and visualizing performance, practical methods for providing confidence estimates for predicted probabilities, calibration methods, and methods for automated management of features. Finally, we also detail several directions that did not turn out to be beneficial for us, despite promising results elsewhere in the literature. The goal of this paper is to highlight the close relationship between theoretical advances and practical engineering in this industrial setting, and to show the depth of challenges that appear when applying traditional machine learning methods in a complex dynamic system.


This thesis provides a series of strategies to fabricate hierarchically arranged nanohybrids from distinct nanoparticles using polymer linkers. Benefit from the controlled reversible-deactivation radical polymerization technique, the topology and size of the polymer linker can be precisely controlled, which further enables full control over the size and architecting of the binary nanostructures. Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was employed to synthesize polymers with narrow molecular weight distribution while inherently carrying the strong aurophilic and argentophilic trithiocarbonate moieties on their chain termini.
Start on the basis of the strong affinity of RAFT terminated polymer to the surface of gold and silver, the gold-planet–silver-satellite nanostructures are fabricated by firstly creating four-arms star RAFT polymer capped gold nanoparticles as a globular scaffold using a grafting-to approach. The multi-arm design of the polymer enables further linkage to the silver nanoparticles yielding a planet–satellite-like nanostructure. The strengths of this approach include the fine-tuning of interparticle distances on the nanometer scale by tailoring the size of the star polymer linker. The gold-planet–silver-satellite nanostructure possesses significant plasmonic coupling phenomena making it potentially a very powerful tool for surface-enhanced Raman application.
This thesis focuses further on the creation of binary planet–satellite nanoparticles with more distinct nanoparticles. This binary nanostructure is designed for the application of nanopatterning on a substrate. The final goal is to implement the highly ordered arrangement of both nanoparticles as a binary template for the cell-response experiment. Under the consideration of the chemical feasibility and the following biological accessibility, silica is chosen as the nano-planet while gold as the satellites. This thesis established a general and straightforward method to fabricate silica-planet–gold-satellite nanostructure with full control of the structural details, i.e., the number of satellites, interparticle distance, and the size of the satellite nanoparticles. In this approach, surface-initiated RAFT polymerization is implemented to obtain a well-defined polymer brush on the silica surface featuring trithiocarbonate moieties at the polymer chain termini which allows further attachment of noble metal nanoparticles. AuNP is chosen as the satellite nanocomponent due to its well-established protocols for the cell-response experiments in the previous studies. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that the silica-planet–gold-satellite nanostructure can self-assemble into a highly ordered hexagonal pattern on carbon film by simply drop-casting. The interparticle-distance between planet and satellite nanoparticles can be precisely controlled between 10 to 50 nm range which meets the design of the cell-response experiment. Based on these results, the polymer-based planet–satellite nano-assemblies have a very high potential to be applied as a unique and powerful template for creating a 2D binary bifunctional nanopattern. To unfold this feature, a method for producing a homogenous monolayer of the planet–satellite nanostructure on the CaF2 surface is established by using dip-coating technique. The polymer component is successfully removed by plasma treatment exposing the nanoparticles for further chemical or biological modification.
According to the cell experiments, CaF2 is found to be an unsuitable substrate for the desired task due to the insufficient passivation (PEGylation) toward the labeling peptide. A method of transferring both gold and SiO2 nanoparticles onto hydrogel is established by introducing specific linker molecules on gold and SiO2 nanoparticles and successive photopolymerization with PEG-diacrylate.
Furthermore, the RAFT-polymer functionalized nanoassemblies can quickly expend their utility by taking advantage of its inherent flexibility in the design of the polymer structure and nano component. Two distinct strategies are applied to build new features into the nanoassemblies. The first strategy uses RAFT/thiol terminated polyethylene to create an efficient synthesis route for the self-assembly of gold/silver-core–PE-shell nanohybrids. This nanohybrids successfully inherit the unique solution behavior of PE. The second approach utilizes the microemulsion technique to achieve a one-to-one silica coating of ~7 nm magnetite nanoparticles and introduces the favored superparamagnetism to the nanosystem. Owing to the silica coating and polymer shells, the magnetic interaction between each magnetite nanoparticle is effectively inhibited, which is highly favored in the realm of magnetic hyperthermia applications.


Summary
1. Grazing by invasive species can affect many aspects of an aquatic system, but most studies have focused on the direct effects on plants. We conducted mesocosm and laboratory experiments to examine the impact of the invasive apple snail Pomacea canaliculata on macrophytes, filamentous algae, nutrients and phytoplankton.

2. In a freshwater pond, we confined 500 g of Myriophyllum aquaticum or Eichhornia crassipes with 0, 2, 4 or 8 apple snails in 1 m × 1 m × 1 m enclosures for approximately 1 month. Apple snails grazed heavily on both species of macrophytes, with higher overall weight losses at higher snail densities. The damage patterns differed between the two macrophytes. In M. aquaticum, both leaves and stems suffered from substantial herbivory, whereas in E. crassipes, only the roots suffered significant weight reduction.

3. In addition to grazing on macrophytes, apple snails appeared to have controlled the growth of filamentous algae, as these did not develop in the snail treatments. The ability of P. canaliculata to control filamentous algae was supported by a laboratory experiment where the consumption was as high as 0.25 g g−1 snail DW d−1. Because of a lack of native herbivorous snails in the pond, the growth of filamentous algae (mainly Spirogyra sp.) reached 80.3 g m−2, forming a spongy pond scum in the no-apple snail control. Together with previous reports that apple snails could eat the juveniles and eggs of other freshwater snails, our results indicated that P. canaliculata could have out-competed native herbivorous snails from the pond by predation on their juveniles or eggs. Alternatively, P. canaliculata might have out-competed them by monopolisation of food resources.

4. Nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations remained low throughout both experiments and were not correlated with apple snail density. The treatment effects on chlorophyll a (Chl a) and phytoplankton composition varied in the two experiments. In the M. aquaticum experiment, with increasing snail density, Chl a increased, and the phytoplankton community became dominated by Cryptophyceae. In the E. crassipes experiment, Chl a level was independent of snail density, but with increasing snail density, the phytoplankton community became co-dominated by Cryptophyceae, Chlorophyceae and Bacillariophyceae.

5. Given the multiple effects of P. canaliculata on wetland biodiversity and function, management strategies should be developed to prevent its further spread. In invaded wetlands, strategies should be developed to eradicate the apple snail and re-introduce native snails which can control the development of filamentous algae.


This dissertation investigates the topic of verbal ellipsis in English. Two main issues are addressed in this work: (i) the identity condition that restricts the application of ellipsis and (ii) the different locality restrictions that apply to elliptical constructions. The identity condition is examined from the point of view of competence, while the locality condition is given a natural answer from the processing domain. Furthermore, a parsing algorithm based on minimalist grammars is defined.
Chapter 1 introduces the topic. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 deal with the syntactic identity condition. Chapter 2 reviews some proposals in the literature, namely, Lasnik (1995b), Kitagawa (1991) and Fiengo and May (1994). All these analyses examine controversial examples where, apparently, partial syntactic identity between antecedent and gap is found. Chapter 3 presents a new analysis which assumes late lexical insertion, in the spirit of derivational morphology (Marantz 1993), and offers a unified account of all the cases of partial identity introduced in the previous chapter. It is argued that syntactic identity must be respected, and that the crucial notion for ellipsis is identity of syntactic categories—a condition that is met before lexical items are inserted. Also, the different readings that obtain under ellipsis (i.e., sloppy and strict readings) are explained as emerging at different points in the derivation: before and after lexical insertion, respectively.
Chapter 4 reviews one proposal in the parsing literature (Lappin and McCord 1990) as well as the problems it faces. Chapter 5 offers a processing account of the locality restrictions on gapping (as opposed to VPE and Pseudogapping), those are analyzed as a result of (i) tense absence/presence (Fodor 1985), (ii) low initial attachment of coordinates, and (iii) Spell-out operations which render syntactic structure unavailable (Uriagereka 1999). A two-fold ellipsis resolution process is presented here—where some work is done on-line, but some at the LF level.
Chapter 6 defines an algorithm based on minimalist grammar operations, precisely on the preference of Merge-over-Move-over-Spell-out (as defined by Weinberg 1999); thus, showing that minimalist grammar models can be translated into computational models. Chapter 7 presents the conclusions.


Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) is a clean and efficient energy utilization technology. Partial oxidation reforming(POX) can be used to simplify SOFC system structure, but its lower hydrogen production rate deteriorates system performance. A wise method may be combining anode off gas recirculation(AOGR) and cathode off gas recirculation(COGR) with POX. Thus, their influence on the coupled system of intermediate temperature SOFC and POX is researched in detail in this paper. Results show that the reforming process gradually changes from exothermic to endothermic as AOGR rate increases. Meanwhile, its oxygen demand declines sharply and the process can even be self-sustained without external air input at the AOGR rate of 0.5 and 0.6. The application of AOGR can improve electrical efficiency up to 51%, but at the expense of thermal efficiency. Excessive AOGR rates will result in decreased cell voltage and insufficient energy supply to the after-burner, so it should be restricted within a reasonable range and the best recommended value is 0.5. The application of COGR has little effect on fuel line parameters, so it cause little deterioration in electrical efficiency while improving thermal efficiency. Besides, cell voltage is also insensitive to it. The combination of AOGR and COGR can obtain better fuel economy and larger cogeneration scale simultaneously at the cost of a tiny electrical output power, while an optimal balance between three efficiencies is also achieved.


When the Mississippi Canyon-252 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill occurred in April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, wildlife professionals were quickly mobilized to assess, recover, and treat oiled marine mammals as part of the Incident Response operating under the Unified Command. There were significant challenges associated with the crisis, including the sustained response to a prolonged, uncontrolled oil release (from a deepwater wellhead rather than a controllable and finite source like a tanker); the large geographic scale of the oiled area and thus the response effort; and ensuring effectiveness without the benefit of previous experience of cetacean response in oil spills. The response phase for this spill lasted from April 2010 to May 2011, and the mobilization of field teams resulted in the confirmation of 13 live and 178 dead stranded cetaceans across 4 states and offshore waters. Four primary care centers were coordinated to de-oil animals, and additional facilities and personnel were mobilized to augment and support the effort. Numerous protocols were implemented to ensure appropriate animal care as well as documentation and sample collection, informing both response and Natural Resource Damage Assessment decisions. Additional efforts included the implementation of a wildlife observer program integrated into oil recovery operations (skimming and in situ burns) and behavioral observations of nearshore cetaceans. The unprecedented effort resulted in the first rehabilitation of an oiled dolphin and the coordination of a very large-scale response, with important information collected, and lessons learned for future oil spills in marine mammal habitat.


The paper presents a large scale overlapping generation model with heterogeneous agents, where the family is the decision unit. We model a large number of tax and public expenditure (cash and in kind) programmes, so that the equity and efficiency implications of public sector intervention may be assessed in its complexity. We do this for three european countries that show remarkable differences in the design of most of these programmes: France, Italy and Sweden. We show that the model is able to match relevant aggregate and distributional statistics of the three countries we analyse. To illustrate the working of the model, we provide examples of policy experiments that can be simulated. That is, we compare our model economies featuring the current set of public policies implemented in France, Italy and Sweden, with alternative economies where some (all) public finance programs are absent. The comparison is done, looking at the effects on both inequality and individual welfare.


Caring for a child with a life-limiting condition brings a number of challenges and many families require additional support. The need for services to move away from a 'one size fits all' approach to a personalised care planning approach is well recognised, as is the value of establishing a robust way of assessing family members' differing needs. A number of assessment tools that consider individuals' holistic needs already exist. These are predominantly for the adult cancer population and exclude consideration of the child in its system. There was therefore a need to develop a tool that would appropriately meet the needs of children and parents who access services provided by a children's hospice. The tool was evaluated qualitatively. Feedback was positive; the experience of professionals was one of concordance with their ethical stance, improved communication, improved documentation and the wish to embed the tool into daily practice.


The globalisation along with the interdependence of various economies has resulted in creating
extra dimension to the employability skills requirements. Various socio-economic indicators
have increased the pressure on vocational education sector and changed it from supply driven to demand
driven by the labour market requirements to minimise the existing employability skills gap. The paper
presents a study that has been conducted to identify the existing skills gap between School Based
Learning (SBL) and Work Based Learning (WBL) in Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) System
in Bahrain by asking teachers, Human Resources departments from industry, and industrial supervisors
to complete questionnaires. Their answers have been analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Based
on these drawn conclusions, an improved employability skills model has been developed which shows
the importance of the required skills. This model will be the basis for suggested modifications in SBL
and WBL structure in TVE in Bahrain.
Keywords: School Based Learning (SBL), Work Based Learning (WBL), Technical and Vocational
Educatio(TVE), Employability, Skills, Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor


Even the simplest singularities of planar curves, e.g. where the curve crosses itself, or where it forms a cusp, are best understood in terms of complex numbers. The full treatment uses techniques from algebra, algebraic geometry, complex analysis and topology and makes an attractive chapter of mathematics, which can be used as an introduction to any of these topics, or to singularity theory in higher dimensions. This book is designed as an introduction for graduate students and draws on the author's experience of teaching MSc courses; moreover, by synthesising different perspectives, he gives a novel view of the subject, and a number of new results.


Gigantism is the result of one lineage within a clade evolving extremely large body size relative to its small-bodied ancestors, a phenomenon observed numerous times in animals. Theory predicts that the evolution of giants should be constrained by two tradeoffs. First, because body size is negatively correlated with population size, purifying selection is expected to be less efficient in species of large body size, leading to a genome-wide elevation of the ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous substitution rates (dN/dS) or mutation load. Second, gigantism is achieved through higher number of cells and higher rates of cell proliferation, thus increasing the likelihood of cancer. However, the incidence of cancer in gigantic animals is lower than the theoretical expectation, a phenomenon referred to as Peto's Paradox. To explore the genetic basis of gigantism in rodents and uncover genomic signatures of gigantism-related tradeoffs, we sequenced the genome of the capybara, the world's largest living rodent. We found that dN/dS is elevated genome wide in the capybara, relative to other rodents, implying a higher mutation load. Conversely, a genome-wide scan for adaptive protein evolution in the capybara highlighted several genes involved in growth regulation by the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway. Capybara-specific gene-family expansions included a putative novel anticancer adaptation that involves T cell-mediated tumor suppression, offering a potential resolution to Peto's Paradox in this lineage. Gene interaction network analyses also revealed that size regulators function simultaneously as growth factors and oncogenes, creating an evolutionary conflict. Based on our findings, we hypothesize that gigantism in the capybara likely involved three evolutionary steps: 1) Increase in body size by cell proliferation through the ISS pathway, 2) coupled evolution of growth-regulatory and cancer-suppression mechanisms, possibly driven by intragenomic conflict, and 3) establishment of the T cell-mediated tumor suppression pathway as an anticancer adaptation. Interestingly, increased mutation load appears to be an inevitable outcome of an increase in body size. Author Summary The existence of gigantic animals presents an evolutionary puzzle. Larger animals have more cells and undergo exponentially more cell divisions, thus, they should have enormous rates of cancer. Moreover, large animals also have smaller populations making them vulnerable to extinction. So, how do gigantic animals such as elephants and blue whales protect themselves from cancer, and what are the consequences of evolving a large size on the 'genetic health' of a species? To address these questions we sequenced the genome of the capybara, the world's largest rodent, and performed comparative genomic analyses to identify the genes and pathways involved in growth regulation and cancer suppression. We found that the insulin-signaling pathway was involved in the evolution of gigantism in the capybara. We also found a putative novel anticancer mechanism mediated by the detection of tumors by T-cells, offering a potential solution to how capybaras mitigated the tradeoff imposed by cancer. Furthermore, we show that capybara genome harbors a higher proportion of slightly deleterious mutations relative to all other rodent genomes. Overall, this study provides insights at the genomic level into the evolution of a complex and extreme phenotype, and offers a detailed picture of how the evolution of a giant body size in the capybara has shaped its genome.


By monitoring perturbations of the natural atmospheric electric potential gradient, it is possible to detect and track particle laden volcanic plumes. The perturbations are produced by electrical charge that resides on the solid particles and liquid droplets of the plume, and the ions within it. A network of potential gradient monitoring stations around a volcano can provide data on eruption time, magnitude, plume dispersion direction and areas of ashfall. Our laboratory experiments have produced electrically charged ash by fragmenting pumice. These results support the theory that charging is due to the magma fragmentation process and should therefore be ubiquitous in all particulate volcanic plumes.


In Belief Revision the new information is generally accepted, following the principle of primacy of update. In some case this behavior can be criticized and one could require that some new pieces of information can be rejected by the agent because, for instance, of insufficient plausibility. This has given rise to several approaches of non-prioritized Belief Revision. In particular (Hansson et al. 2001) defined credibility-limited revision operators, where a revision is accepted only if the new information is a formula that belongs to a set of credible formulas. They provide several representation theorems in the AGM style. In this work we study credibility-limited revision operators when the information is represented in propositional logic, like in the Katsuno and Mendelzon framework. We propose a set of postulates and a representation theorem for credibility-limited revision operators. Then we explore how to generalize these definitions to the Iterated Belief Revision case, using epistemic states in the Darwiche and Pearl style.


Research on continual learning has led to a variety of approaches to mitigating catastrophic forgetting in feed-forward classification networks. Until now surprisingly little attention has been focused on continual learning of recurrent models applied to problems like image captioning. In this paper we take a systematic look at continual learning of LSTM-based models for image captioning. We propose an attention-based approach that explicitly accommodates the transient nature of vocabularies in continual image captioning tasks -- i.e. that task vocabularies are not disjoint. We call our method Recurrent Attention to Transient Tasks (RATT), and also show how to adapt continual learning approaches based on weight egularization and knowledge distillation to recurrent continual learning problems. We apply our approaches to incremental image captioning problem on two new continual learning benchmarks we define using the MS-COCO and Flickr30 datasets. Our results demonstrate that RATT is able to sequentially learn five captioning tasks while incurring no forgetting of previously learned ones.


Despite the recent progress in the broad-scaled analysis of proteins in body fluids, there is still a lack in protein profiling approaches for biomarkers of rare diseases. Scarcity of samples is the main obstacle hindering attempts to apply discovery driven protein profiling in rare diseases. We addressed this challenge by combining samples collected within the BIO-NMD consortium from four geographically dispersed clinical sites to identify protein markers associated with muscular dystrophy using an antibody bead array platform with 384 antibodies. Based on concordance in statistical significance and confirmatory results obtained from analysis of both serum and plasma, we identified eleven proteins associated with muscular dystrophy, among which four proteins were elevated in blood from muscular dystrophy patients: carbonic anhydrase III (CA3) and myosin light chain 3 (MYL3), both specifically expressed in slow-twitch muscle fibers and mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase 2 (MDH2) and electron transfer flavo-protein A (ETFA). Using age-matched sub-cohorts, 9 protein profiles correlating with disease progression and severity were identified, which hold promise for the development of new clinical tools for management of dystrophinopathies.


Isogeometric analysis (IGA) is a computational methodology recently developed to numerically approximate Partial Differential Equation (PDEs). It is based on the isogeometric paradigm, for which the same basis functions used to represent the geometry are then used to approximate the unknown solution of the PDEs. In the case in which Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) are used as basis functions, their mathematical properties lead to appreciable benefits for the numerical approximation of PDEs, especially for high order PDEs in the standard Galerkin formulation. In this framework, we propose an a priori error estimate, extending existing results limited to second order PDEs. The improvements in both accuracy and efficiency of IGA compared to Finite Element Analysis (FEA), encourage the use of this methodology in the haemodynamic applications. In fact, the simulation of blood flow in arteries requires the numerical approximation of Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) problems. In order to account for the deformability of the vessel, the Navier-Stokes equations representing the blood flows, are coupled with structural models describing the mechanical response of the arterial wall. However, the FSI models are complex from both the mathematical and the numerical points of view, leading to high computational costs during the simulations. With the aim of reducing the complexity of the problem and the computational costs of the simulations, reduced FSI models can be considered. A first simplification, based on the assumption of a thin arterial wall structure, consists in considering shell models to describe the mechanical properties of the arterial walls. Moreover, by means of the additional kinematic condition (continuity of velocities) and dynamic condition (balance of contact forces), the structural problem can be rewritten as generalized boundary condition for the fluid problem. This results in a generalized Navier-Stokes problem which can be expressed only in terms of the primitive variables of the fluid equations (velocity and pressure) and in a fixed computational domain. As a consequence, the computational costs of the numerical simulations are significantly reduced. On the other side, the generalized boundary conditions associated to the reduced FSI model could involve high order derivatives, which need to be suitably approximated. With this respect, IGA allows an accurate, straightforward and efficient numerical approximation of the generalized Navier-Stokes equations characterizing the reduced FSI problem. In this work we consider the numerical approximation of reduced FSI models by means of IGA, for which we discuss the numerical results obtained in Haemodynamic applications.


: Here we have developed a new model to simulate supplemental irrigation and the hydro-economic potential of a rainwater harvesting system in rainfed agricultural areas. Using the model, soil moisture in rainfed crop land, supplemental irrigation requirements, rainwater storage in an on-farm reservoir (OFR) system, and surface and ground water availability were predicted. In an irrigated system, an OFR was used to harvest rainwater during the rainy season, and stored water was applied to cropland as supplemental irrigation (SI). An economic analysis was performed to calculate the benefits due to an OFR irrigation system, and gains from increased crop yield and downstream water availability in the irrigated OFR system were compared with rainfed system (i.e. no OFR). In addition, we calculated the impacts of dry and wet seasons on total value gains (grain and water gains) for irrigated and rainfed conditions and performed a sensitivity analysis to quantify the impacts of model input parameters on total value gains. Analyses showed that the OFR system can produce crop yields three times greater than rainfed agriculture. During a water stress season, the total water use in the irrigated system was 65% greater than for the rainfed system. Water use efficiency of the irrigated system was 82% higher than for the rainfed system. In a dry season, the total value gains due to increased crop yield by supplemental irrigation and downstream water availability of the irrigated system were 74% greater than for the rainfed system, while in a wet season the total value gain of the irrigated system was 14% greater than for the rainfed system. A precipitation scenario analysis of wet and dry seasons indicated that the benefits of a rainwater harvesting system can be considerably greater in dry seasons than wet seasons.


Abstract In a medical information extraction system, we use common word association techniques to extract side-effect-related terms. Many of these terms have a frequency of less than five. Standard word-association-based applications disregard the lowest-frequency words, and hence disregard useful information. We therefore devised an extraction system for the full word frequency range. This system computes the significance of association by the log-likelihood ratio and Fisher's exact test. The output of the system shows a recurrent, corpus-independent pattern in both recall and the number of significant words. We will explain these patterns by the statistical behavior of the lowest-frequency words. We used Dutch verb-particle combinations as a second and independent collocation extraction application to illustrate the generality of the observed phenomena. We will conclude that a) word-association-based extraction systems can be enhanced by also considering the lowest-frequency words, b) significance levels should not be fixed but adjusted for the optimal window size, c) hapax legomena, words occurring only once, should be disregarded a priori in the statistical analysis, and d) the distribution of the targets to extract should be considered in combination with the extraction method.


In an ideal world, review and changes to computing curricula should be driven solely by academic
concerns for the needs of students. The process should be informed by industry accreditation
processes and international best practice (Hurst et al., 2001). However, Australian computing
curricular review is often driven by the need for financial viability of programs with declining
student numbers as much as concerns for academic merit.
Worldwide there remains a strong job market and high demand for computing professionals (Liu,
2007; Melymuka, 2006), which predicates an impending IT workforce shortage. However, computing
programs currently do not attract students due to perceived problems of the inadequacy of
courses to prepare students sufficiently to cope with the practical challenges in current technologies
adoption, to acquire strong communication skills and business aptitude (Taft, 2007), to foster
problem solving skills, and to find the relevance of program contents to specific occupations.
Therefore, computing curricula wishing to attract students need to have specialized studies that
are of industrial strength that are updated regularly to reflect the progress in the discipline
(Finkelstein & Hafner, 2002; Lui, 2007). Yet the challenge for universities is to weigh this need
against preparing students to be universal and lifelong learners. Given the impetus to be financially independent, the greatest challenge since 2004 for the School
of Computer Science and Mathematics at Victoria University, Melbourne, has been the steady
decline in both local and international student numbers. In response, between 2004 and 2006 the
School underwent various restructurings, reviews, and assessments to meet government legislative
requirements, professional accreditation needs and to capture new market share. In 2007,
continued poor enrolment numbers threatened the School's long term sustainability necessitating
urgent strategic analysis and decision making surrounding the future of computing programs. It
was decided that a new and innovative program embracing emerging computing paradigms was
needed to attract potential students. The proposed program structure would be based upon input
from industry representatives, senior academics, and government reports whilst operating within
existing budget constraints. Essentially, existing programs were to be condensed into a core offering
with six specializations in a) Interactive
Digital Media and Game Development,
b) Web Technologies and Mobile
Computing, c) IT Security, d) Computational
Finance, e) Business Intelligence
and Service Computing, and f) Aviation
Technology. The choice of specializations
was made to firstly incorporate the
major characteristics and paradigm
shifts in the ICT industry, secondly to
cater for the broad diversity of student interests, and thirdly to capitalize on historical strengths. Through these specializations, the program
offers prospective students the necessary skills needed for future predicted employment
shortages. With adequate marketing, it is hoped that the proposed new structure will allow for
quick responses to external positive changes in demand and thus attract student interest.


The frequent occurrence of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in association with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) could be due to the fact that the etiological agent of this tumor is the same retrovirus causing AIDS, to another oncogenic virus frequently found in AIDS patients, or to the unmasking of the tumorigenic potential of KS cells by immunosuppression. We have therefore investigated the presence of DNA sequences homologous to the AIDS retrovirus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and hepatitis B virus in 13 KS necropsies and biopsies from AIDS patients. All KS DNA samples were negative for AIDS retrovirus or hepatitis B DNA sequences. Two DNAs from necropsies contained CMV DNA, but the data suggested the presence of replicating CMV DNA due to generalized infection. We have also studied cell cultures derived from KS skin biopsies of AIDS patients. These cultures had a short lifetime in vitro and expressed some markers of endothelial cells. The cells were not tumorigenic in nude mice but contained a number of chromosomal rearrangements which were often monoclonal within the same culture. However, these abnormalities were different from culture to culture and even in cultures from the same biopsy. The presence of these chromosomal abnormalities seemed to correlate with the cell positivity for endothelial markers. Taken together these results indicate that neither the AIDS retrovirus, CMV, or hepatitis B virus is directly responsible for the altered growth of KS cells, that KS may be polyclonal even within the same lesion, and that KS cells have a tendency to karyotypic rearrangements.


An original solo work for harpsichord, commissioned by the leading UK harpsichordist and harpsichord maker Colin Booth. Written to complement, and add to, the modern repertoire for solo harpsichord, the commissioner will be giving the world premiere (probably at the Dartington International Summer School) in 2011 and including the work in a CD recording of mostly 16th and 17th century music.

Tactus was inspired by the sectional structure of fantasias found in this era with their free improvisatory elements; however, in this piece, each section's motifs evolve throughout whilst the tempo is underpinned by a steady pulse. It is this which gives the piece its title, Tactus, being a term used to describe a source of timekeeping dating back to the Renaissance, often around the rate of a human heartbeat. Whilst the metronome markings for Tactus have a broader range of tempos, the nature of the pulse behind the improvisatory elements remains constant throughout, and both title and subtitle reflect the instrument's rich historical heritage.


OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the serum levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are increased in IDDM children and adolescents and to study the effect of puberty on serum levels of AGEs (S-AGEs). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 68 children and adolescent IDDM patients (age, 13.3 ± 4.0 years; duration of diabetes, 5.0 ± 3.6 years; HbA1c, 8.2 ± 2.0%; Tanner stage [public hair], 1 vs. 2–5, 24/42) recruited from the pediatric outpatient clinic at Aker University Hospital were compared with 25 healthy nondiabetic control subjects. S-AGEs were measured by a fluoremetric immunoassay. RESULTS S-AGEs were significantly elevated in the diabetic group when compared with the control group (14.4 ± 3.5 vs. 11.7 ± 3.0 U/ml, P < 0.002). A significant correlation (r = 0.26, P < 0.04) was found between S-AGEs and HbA1c in the diabetic group but not in the control group. No significant correlation was found between S-AGEs and the duration of diabetes in the diabetic group or S-AGEs and blood glucose concentration or age in either group. We found no difference between S-AGEs in boys and girls and in prepubertal and pubertal diabetic or control subjects. CONCLUSIONS S-AGEs are increased in young patients with diabetes before puberty. Since AGEs are linked to the pathogenesis of vascular complications, this observation suggests that the pathological processes leading to diabetic late complications start even before puberty.


In the arid sweetveld regions of South Africa producers are marketing beef steers increasingly as long weaners (ca. 12 months of age) or finishing them on the natural grazing to a ready-to-slaughter stage at between 18 and 30 months of age. Limited production norms in this regard are available since most growth and carcass studies have been conducted in the sourveld regions of the country. In this study steers from four different beef maturity types which differ in body frame size were used, viz. Simmentaler crosses (large, >500 kg mature weight), Bonsmara crosses (large-medium, 450-500 kg mature weight), the Afrikaner (small-medium, 400-450 kg mature weight) and the Nguni (small, <400 kg mature weight). After weaning the steers in each type were randomly allocated to three groups, viz. groups slaughtered at 18, 24 or 30 months of age after raising them on natural sweetveld pasture. Live weight, cold carcass weight, carcass fat classification code and number of visible incisors were recorded. Growth rates from weaning to 24 months of age were similar for the different maturity types, though the Afrikaner steers gained significantly less than the Bonsmara crossbreds. Periods where high growth rates occurred (at 12 to 18 months of age and 24 to 30 months of age) coincided with the rainy season. Relatively low dressing percentages were noted and could be attributed to the fact that all internal organs and fat were removed at slaughtering, as well as a possible high level of gut fill. Due to genetic variation within maturity types it was not possible to predict the market readiness of a particular individual from its live weight. The carcass weights were heavier for steers slaughtered at 24 months of age than those at 18 months of age, but had a lower fat classification code. This seems to be due to the fact that these steers were slaughtered at the end of the winter period when the quality of the grazing was at its lowest. The carcasses of all maturity types had the highest fat classification codes at 30 months of age. However, the carcasses of 77.8% of the Simmentaler crossbreds were graded 1 (lean) in the fat classification. Furthermore, at 30 months of age 23.8% of all steers had more than two permanent incisors. This increases their carcass age classification, which lowers their carcass grading according to the South African grading standards, and thus their price per kg relative to the younger ages. The results of this investigation indicated that steers of all frame sizes would have to be fed additional energy to ensure that they finish with a fat classification code of at least 2 before the age of 30 months to ensure optimal financial returns.


We study the effect of a cash transfer to elderly individuals on their labour supply decisions by using data on households in Bolivia. We identify the effect thanks to a regression discontinuity design since a policy reform makes the eligibility for the transfer discontinuous at age 60. We find that the transfer decreases the probability of being employed by 5-10 percentage points although it is not statistically significant. In addition, the transfer decreases employment by 20-44 percentage points for females in urban areas and it is highly significant while it is not for the remaining subgroups of individuals by gender and residence in an urban area. The empirical evidence informs policy decisions about the labour market for elderly individuals by suggesting i) that the cash transfer program that the Bolivian government setup only marginally affects labour supply on average and ii) that policy design should account for heterogeneous responses by different subgroups of individuals. JEL Classification: H53, H55, J22, J26


AbstractBACKGROUND: Though many patients and physicians believe that they should discuss out-of-pocket costs, research suggests that they infrequently do.
 OBJECTIVE: To examine barriers preventing patient-physician communication about out-of-pocket costs among study subjects recalling a time when they wanted to discuss these costs but did not do so.
 DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional surveys of 133 general internists and 484 of their patients from 3 academic and 18 community practices in a large midwestern metropolitan region.
 MEASUREMENTS: Patient- and physician-reported barriers to discussing out-of-pocket costs.
 MAIN RESULTS: Overall, 54 patients (11%) and 27 physicians (20%) were able to recall a specific time when they wanted to discuss out-of-pocket costs but did not do so. Among patients, a wide variety of barriers were reported including their own discomfort (19%), insufficient time (13%), a belief that their physician did not have a viable solution (11%), and concerns about the impact of discussions on quality of care (9%). Among physicians, the most common barriers reported were insufficient time (67%) and a belief that they did not have a solution to offer (19%).
 CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to promote discussions of out-of-pocket costs should emphasize the legitimacy of patients' concerns and brief actionable alternatives that physicians can take to address them.


ABSTRACT Holgate, S.J.; Matthews, A.; Woodworth, P.L.; Rickards, L.J.; Tamisiea, M.E.; Bradshaw, E.; Foden, P.R.; Gordon, K.M.; Jevrejeva, S., and Pugh, J., 2013. New data systems and products at the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. Sea-level rise remains one of the most pressing societal concerns relating to climate change. A significant proportion of the global population, including many of the world's large cities, are located close to the coast in potentially vulnerable regions such as river deltas. The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) continues to evolve and provide global coastal sea-level information and products that help to develop our understanding of sea-level and land motion processes. Its work aids a range of scientific research, not only in long-term change, but also in the measurement and understanding of higher frequency variability such as storm surges and tsunamis. The PSMSL has changed considerably over the past 10 years, and the aim of this paper is to update the community about these changes as well as provide an overview of our continuing work.


A catastrophe averted is likely not to be viewed as a catastrophe. A predicted event that fails to materialize is a non-event, something that did not happen, and politicians who expend wealth and lives on something that fails to happen cannot expect to reap the rewards of their decisions. Quite to the contrary, politicians who spend lives and treasure to prevent catastrophes such as genocide are likely to be vilified and punished for their efforts: to the extent that their actions succeed in averting a catastrophe, there is no proof of their success, only of the costs of their efforts. This last point is especially intriguing, and it goes to the heart of the paradox of genocide prevention.Consider the famous case of Winston S. Churchill. Had he, instead of Neville Chamberlain, been Britain's prime minister in the 1930s, and thus gone to Munich to meet Adolf Hitler in 1938, there is a good chance that World War II would have been averted and the Holocaust prevented. The irony is that had Churchill been successful in preventing war and genocide, the British public would not know about his triumph, because there would be no evidence for it. All the public would be sure of was that Churchill had brought the world to the brink of war, and he would be blamed for that. The further irony is that, had Churchill succeeded in preventing the war, he might have gone down in history as an erratic warmonger rather than as the greatest war leader of the Western world.


A range of crystalline and nano-sized carbonate- and silicate-substituted hydroxyapatite has been successfully produced by using continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis technology. Ion-substituted calcium phosphates are better candidates for bone replacement applications (due to improved bioactivity) as compared to phase-pure hydroxyapatite. Urea was used as a carbonate source for synthesising phase pure carbonated hydroxyapatite (CO3-HA) with ≈5 wt% substituted carbonate content (sample 7.5CO3-HA) and it was found that a further increase in urea concentration in solution resulted in biphasic mixtures of carbonate-substituted hydroxyapatite and calcium carbonate. Transmission electron microscopy images revealed that the particle size of hydroxyapatite decreased with increasing urea concentration. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy result revealed a calcium deficient apatite with Ca:P molar ratio of 1.45 (±0.04) in sample 7.5CO3-HA. For silicate-substituted hydroxyapatite (SiO4-HA) silicon acetate was used as a silicate ion source. It was observed that a substitution threshold of ∼1.1 wt% exists for synthesis of SiO4-HA in the continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis system, which could be due to the decreasing yields with progressive increase in silicon acetate concentration. All the as-precipitated powders (without any additional heat treatments) were analysed using techniques including Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, Differential scanning calorimetry, Thermogravimetric analysis, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.


Non-haem iron concentrations were measured in 65 specimens of liver obtained from 50 male and 15 female black adults who died from carcinoma of the oesophagus in the Johannesburg area between 1971 and 1980. The results were compared with those obtained in two earlier studies on subjects who died from other causes. The first was carried out on 220 men and 164 women in 1959/1960 at Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, and the second series, which consisted of 248 men and 181 women, was obtained at the same hospital in 1976. During the intervening period there was a marked drop in the incidence and severity of iron overload in urban blacks. A direct comparison between subjects with carcinoma of the oesophagus and the 1976 group showed that the geometric mean hepatic iron concentrations in the carcinoma patients were significantly higher in the 40-49, 50-59 and over-60 age groups. While geometric mean hepatic iron concentrations in the various age groups were also higher than those obtained in the 1959/1960 study, the differences only reached statistical significance in subjects over the age of 60 years. Seven of the 15 women had significant hepatic iron deposits (greater than 0,5% dry weight). These results suggest that the excessive consumption of home-brewed alcoholic drinks contaminated with iron may be directly or indirectly associated with the development of carcinoma of the oesophagus in urban black adults.


Abstract Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is increasingly employed to date encrusted carbonized food residues on prehistoric pottery sherds, particularly in regions where other datable material is absent or scarce, or where such materials lack good association with objects of chronological interest. The accuracy of AMS dating of residues has recently been questioned in Europe and North America, with skepticism directly or indirectly attributed to the presence of carbonate rich bedrock, a freshwater carbonate reservoir resulting from association with such bedrock, or the cooking of aquatic resources such as mollusk or fish engaged in the uptake of older carbonates. It is argued that carbonized food residues from such contexts or resources are expected to display older apparent ages than dates on other materials. We evaluate this proposition through hypotheses assessing the accuracy and internal consistency of a broad range of data from the northeastern and midwestern United States. We statistically assess dates from 25 site components where either both dates on residue and context dates on other materials have been obtained. Of the 70 dates on residue tested, only 5.7 percent are considered inconsistent with their respective context dates. We also test for consistency 46 dates on residues from 14 site components lacking context dates. Of these, only 4.5 percent are considered internally inconsistent with expectations at the site or regional level. At present, we conclude that AMS dating of residues provides results consistent with those of other datable materials.


Due to the extreme operating conditions in phase-change memory (PCM) cells in terms of temperature and heating/cooling rate, thermal stress is regarded as one of the most critical problems in PCM devices. Here, we report on the thermal stress analysis of Ge1Sb4Te7-based PCM cells using numerical simulations. Thermomechanical properties are measured prior to the thermal stress analysis, where the Young's modulus, thermal expansion coefficient, and density of (poly)crystalline Ge1Sb4Te7 are measured to be 37.8 GPa, 17.913 × 10 �6 K �1 , and 5685 kg · m �3 , respectively. Transient thermal stress evolution in conventional T-structured and trench depth-varying PCM cells is simulated during the reset process. For the T-structured PCM cell, thermal stress is developed largely in the interface of the phase-change and bottom contact layers (PCL and BCL respectively), which may lead to the delamination of the PCL from the metal electrode. However, we observe that, as the trench depth is increased, the thermal stress along the interface of the PCL and the interlayer dielectric (ILD) also increases. Therefore, in a deep-trenched PCM cell, a possible thermal failure is likely to occur not only at the interface of the PCL and the BCL but also at the interface of the PCL and the ILD.


Computer aided engineering is becoming an increasingly important tool in the automotive industry since it can reduce development time of new vehicles. However, in order to draw the same conclusions from test and simulation results it is important that the behaviour and characteristics of a simulation model match test data. Traditionally, to ensure that a suspension simulation model is accurate, it is correlated by a manual adjustment of the parameters in the model. This is time-consuming and error-prone. By automating the correlation process using a suitable optimization technique and a properly defined procedure, the process can be performed faster and the quality of the results can be improved since more parameters and objectives can be included. The aim of this study was to develop a well-defined correlation procedure, with minimal user input, that optimizes parameters in a suspension model so the behaviour of the model matches test data. A design of experiment study was conducted to analyse the influence of suspension parameters on corresponding suspension characteristics, and based on this a suitable correlation method and optimization model setup could be defined. By running the correlation procedure in the optimization software HEEDS MDO, connected with ADAMS/Car, suspension characteristics could be correlated to measurement data. The defined auto-correlation procedure was found to be effective and a front suspension assembly was successfully correlated to physical kinematics and compliance measurement results. However, the baseline suspension model has to be modelled correctly and include all the necessary variables in order to fully correlate the suspension simulation model. Some of the correlated suspension parameters were found to have optimized values outside normal production tolerances, in order to compensate for limitations in the simulation model, such as rigid modelling of components. By using the defined auto-correlation procedure, the correlation time was reduced and it is recommended that HEEDS MDO is used for future correlation of suspension assemblies. If the setup of the optimization model is adjusted, the defined correlation procedure can also be used to create suspension simulation models of competitor vehicles or optimizing suspension design concepts to meet requirements


Abstract This paper examines the role of small newspapers in Australia when bizarre and shocking crimes are committed locally. These crimes often attract intense media attention that casts a net of shame across entire townships through their representation as places of fascination and fear in the public imagination. We take a practice approach in the tradition of Pierre Bourdieu to explore the complex editorial considerations, news judgements and community responsibilities small newspapers must negotiate when covering these stories for local audiences. This study focuses on three towns in regional Australia that have been represented in metropolitan and international news media as 'dead zones' after shocking crimes: Bowral in NSW, Snowtown in South Australia and Moe in Victoria.


This book provides a uniform and coherent approach to the analysis of distribution systems in general and retail systems in particular. It develops the fundamentals of retail demand and supply, and demonstrates how the provision of distribution services is a principal determinant of economic outcomes in retail exchanges for both retailers and their customers, as well as for other agents such as suppliers and franchisors.


Strongly correlated oxides exhibit a rich spectrum of closely competing orders near the localizeditinerant Mott insulator transition leaving their ground states ripe with instabilities susceptible to small perturbations such as lattice distortions, variation in stoichiometry, magnetic and electric fields, etc. As the field of interfacial engineering has matured, these underlying instabilities in the electronic structure of correlated oxides continue to be leveraged to manipulate existing phases or search for emergent ones. The central theme is matching materials across the interface with disparate physical, chemical, electronic, or magnetic structure to harness interfacial reconstructions in the strongly coupled charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom. In this dissertation, we apply the above paradigm to cuprate-manganite and cuprate-titanate interfaces. We examine ultrathin YBa2Cu3O7/La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 multilayers, where interfacial charge reconstruction modulates the distribution of charge carriers within the superconducting planes and thereby act as dials to tune through the cuprate doping phase diagram. The ultrathin nature of the cuprate layers allows the reconstructed states to be resolved free of a bulk admixture. The depleted carriers are observed to directly enter the CuO2 planes. With increasing LCMO thickness, magnetic correlations are introduced, and coupling between interfacial Cu and Mn develops. The reconstructions in spin and electronic degrees of freedom found in cuprate-manganite heterostructures are expected to completely mask all other competing interactions. To this end, SrTiO3 is incorporated as a spacer material in cuprate-titanate multilayers to reveal the role of dimensionality, interlayer coupling, and broken translational symmetry. At the unit cell limit, a decrease in carrier concentration is found that directly correlates with underdoping from lost charge reservoir layers at the interface, while increased STO layer thickness is found to augment the carrier concentration with the charge reservoir layers but has no effect on the doping within the superconducting planes. Also spectroscopic evidence for charge transfer across the interface between Cu and Ti is shown to support a recent theoretical prediction of pre-doping at the cuprate-titanate interface in response to a polar discontinuity at the interface.


We propose a theory of the instability of the space-charge field induced in a semiconductor by the movement of light fringes against subharmonic generation. A crucial element of this theory is taking into account three-dimensional perturbations and higher spatial harmonics of the space-charge field. It is shown that, irrespective of fringe contrast and velocity, the strongest instability corresponds to the excitation of subharmonics that are not split in the transverse direction. The theory is applied to experimental data on subharmonic generation in sillenites.


The paper deals with a specific introduction into probability propagation nets. Starting from dependency nets (which in a way can be considered the maximum information which follows from the directed graph structure of Bayesian networks), the probability propagation nets are constructed by joining a dependency net and (a slightly adapted version of) its dual net. Probability propagation nets are the Petri net version of Bayesian networks. In contrast to Bayesian networks, Petri nets are transparent and easy to operate. The high degree of transparency is due to the fact that every state in a process is visible as a marking of the Petri net. The convenient operability consists in the fact that there is no algorithm apart from the firing rule of Petri net transitions. Besides the structural importance of the Petri net duality there is a semantic matter; common sense in the form of probabilities and evidencebased likelihoods are dual to each other.


This thesis considers how second generation British Asian Muslim males negotiate arranged marriage, religion and leisure, and how this negotiation is a means to achieve a culturally prescribed goal. The culturally prescribed goal will be demonstrated to be the attainment of wealth and the maintenance of family bonds. An ethnographic study of thirty second generation British Asian Muslim males was conducted in order to understand how decisions regarding marriage and leisure are made. The modes of negotiation of marriage, leisure and religion are analysed using Merton's (1938, 1957) Anomie and Strain theory as well as Murphy and Robinson's (2008) concept of the maximiser. Empirical research is used to describe and analyse how the maximiser achieves the culturally prescribed goal mentioned above. It is argued that the maximiser uses both legitimate and illegitimate means in order to achieve a culturally prescribed goal. The legitimate means in this study are having an arranged marriage and abiding by rules of Islam and the family. It will be argued that through a process of intense socialisation, the means to achieve the culturally prescribed goal are learnt from childhood for some British Asian Muslims. It will be argued that culture is misrepresented as religion in order to facilitate this process of intense socialisation in some British Muslim communities which creates a pressure to conform. The modes of adaptation to this pressure including the conformist, the innovator, the Ritualist, the Retreatist and the Rebel are explored. The focus of the study is on the maximiser as it is argued that the maximiser reproduces a system of transnational consanguineous arranged marriages. The methods of negotiation are analysed using symbolic interactionist perspectives, namely Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Goffman 1959) and Delinquency and Drift (Matza 1964). This process of negotiating marriage particularly when considering transnational consanguineous marriages, is referred to as the lifelong Business of Marriage. The Business of Marriage is defined as: a system in which transnational consanguineous marriages are taking place under the following conditions: (1) There is a process of intense socialisation where respect for parents and cultural practices are internalised (2) where British nationality is given to the incoming spouse (3) where financial and social support is given to the British husband. This thesis will demonstrate that British Asian Muslim males who fall under the category of the Maximiser are willing to forgo the opportunity of choosing their own spouses in order to inherit the family wealth and to keep bonds between families strong. It is also demonstrated that when a transnational marriage fails within the period required in order for the transnational wife to apply for a British visa, the British husband will stay legally married to his spouse in order to ensure the attainment of a permanent British visa. Finally, this research explores the future generations and argues that the Business of Arranged Marriage will end with the fourth generation of British Asian Muslim males. It is argued that this is the case because at this time, the first generation of south Asian Muslim immigrants into this country will not be present and the wealth of the families would have been passed on to the next generation. This thesis concludes by recommending further research into British Asian Muslim males and marriage, specifically around the areas of forced and arranged marriage.


User-defined syntax extensions are useful to implement an embedded domain specific language (EDSL) with good code-readability. They allow EDSL authors to define domain-natural notation, which is often different from the host language syntax. Nowadays, there are several research works of powerful user-defined syntax extensions. One promising approach uses user-defined operators. A user-defined operator is a function with user-defined syntax. It can be regarded as a syntax extension implemented without macros. An advantage of user-defined operators is that an operator can be statically typed. The compiler can find type errors in the definition of an operator before the operator is used. In addition, the compiler can resolve syntactic ambiguities by using static types. However, user-defined operators are difficult to implement language constructs involving static name binding. Name binding is association between names and values (or memory locations). Our inquiry is whether we can design a system for user-defined operators involving a new custom name binding. This paper proposes a module system for user-defined operators named a dsl class. A dsl class is similar to a normal class in Java but it contains operators instead of methods. We use operators for implementing custom name binding. For example, we use a nullary operator for emulating a variable name. An instance of a dsl class, called a dsl object, reifies an environment that expresses name binding. Programmers can control a scope of instance operators by specifying where the dsl object is active. We extend the host type system so that it can express the activation of a dsl object. In our system, a bound name is propagated through a type parameter to a dsl object. This enables us to implement user-defined language constructs involving static name binding. A contribution of this paper is that we reveal we can integrate a system for managing names and their scopes with a module and type system of an object-oriented language like Java. This allows us to implement a proposed system by adopting eager disambiguation based on expected types so that the compilation time will be acceptable. Eager disambiguation, which prunes out semantically invalid abstract parsing trees (ASTs) while a parser is running, is needed because the parser may generate a huge number of potentially valid ASTs for the same source code. We have implemented ProteaJ2, which is a programming language based on Java and it supports our proposal. We describe a parsing method that adopts eager disambiguation for fast parsing and discuss its time complexity. To show the practicality of our proposal, we have conducted two micro benchmarks to see the performance of our compiler. We also show several use cases of dsl classes for demonstrating dsl classes can express various language constructs. Our ultimate goal is to let programmers add any kind of new language construct to a host language. To do this, programmers should be able to define new syntax, name binding, and type system within the host language. This paper shows programmers can define the former two: their own syntax and name binding.


Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a disease involving a broad range of alterations of calcium homeostasis, sustained by parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels that are clearly abnormal. The anomalies directly associated with hyperparathyroidism are nephrolithiasis and fibrocystic bone disease. Since PHPT resolves when abnormal parathyroid tissue is removed, surgery is clearly the only definitive approach to this type of hyperparathyroidism. However there are large subgroups of patients for whom medical therapy should be considered instead of surgery. Pharmacological therapy consists largely of bisphosphonates, or calcimimetics such as cinacalcet. However, recent preliminary data suggests that cinacalcet could also be effective in the specific group of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism associated with nephrolithiasis. Finally, since cinacalcet reduces calcemia in most PHPT patients without improving bone mass, whereas bisphosphonates and especially alendronate improve bone mass, it could make sense to combine the two drugs in PHPT patients with concomitant bone loss and possibly nephrolithiasis who cannot or do not wish to undergo surgery.


Business logics of relational databases applications are an important source of security violations, namely in respect to access control. The situation is particularly critical when access control policies are many and complex. In these cases, programmers of business logics can hardly master the established access control policies. Now we consider situations where business logics are built with tools such as JDBC and ODBC. These tools convey two sources of security threats: 1) the use of unauthorized Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) expressions and also 2) the modification of data previously retrieved by Select statements. To overcome this security gap when Role-based access control policies are used, we propose an extension to the basic model in order to control the two sources of security threats. Finally, we present a software architectural model from which distributed and typed RBAC mechanisms are automatically built, this way relieving programmers from mastering any security schema. We demonstrate empirical evidence of the effectiveness of our proposal from a use case based on Java and JDBC.


Momentum imaging techniques have been used to measure the full momentum vectors of coincident pairs of singly ionized fragments emerging from the focus of 8-35 fs pulses of 800 nm light onto targets of H2, O2 and N2. Three mechanisms for double ionization are identified and discussed.


Adults all too easily forget, or overlook, the exhilaration and anxieties of childhood. For the developmental psychologist Ernest Schachtel, the tendency to forget one's childhood is largely cultural. What he calls 'childhood amnesia' is a repressive mechanism which demonstrates the extent to which our former experiences and personalities are incompatible with, and even threaten, the society in which we live. The more manageable and comforting 'myth' of a happy childhood typically occupies a rural landscape that stands apart from history and modernity; further, a long-standing association between childhood and nature has rendered children and urban environments incompatible. But what of suburban childhoods? Perhaps because suburban childhood is the most common type of childhood in the West, it is seen by geographers to deserve only minimal attention.
This paper, however, brings to bear recent developments in children's geography – those which try to 'bridge' the gap between adult researcher and the experience of children – on the innovative memory work which takes place in imaginative accounts of suburban childhood. I outline a number of recent visual and textual examples from the UK, Germany and Australia before examining in more detail some recent American memoirs, including Joanne Jacobson's Hunger Artist: A Suburban Childhood (2007). What is most distinctive about these narratives is an emphasis on the unfinished quality of the environment, and how this reflects the child subject's own 'becoming'. I argue these narratives are also always self-reflexive projects: the unformed landscape is a spur to imagine one's past and present self, as well as others, anew. Indeed, what is most potent about stories of suburban childhood is their capacity to remind us that, even though often heavily prescribed, this realm of the ordinary, being also incomplete, at times volatile, is also a place of possibility, and a source of new stories.


Although it is well known that sandstone porosity and permeability are controlled by a range of parameters such as grain size and sorting, amount, type, and location of diagenetic cements, extent and type of compaction, and the generation of intergranular and intragranular secondary porosity, it is less constrained how these controlling parameters link up in rock volumes (within and between beds) and how they spatially interact to determine porosity and permeability. To address these unknowns, this study examined Triassic fluvial sandstone outcrops from the UK using field logging, probe permeametry of 200 points, and sampling at 100 points on a gridded rock surface. These field observations were supplemented by laser particle-size analysis, thin-section point-count analysis of primary and diagenetic mineralogy, quantitative XRD mineral analysis, and SEM/EDAX analysis of all 100 samples. These data were analyzed using global regression, variography, kriging, conditional simulation, and geographically weighted regression to examine the spatial relationships between porosity and permeability and their potential controls. The results of bivariate analysis (global regression) of the entire outcrop dataset indicate only a weak correlation between both permeability porosity and their diagenetic and depositional controls and provide very limited information on the role of primary textural structures such as grain size and sorting. Subdividing the dataset further by bedding unit revealed details of more local controls on porosity and permeability. An alternative geostatistical approach combined with a local modeling technique (geographically weighted regression; GWR) subsequently was used to examine the spatial variability of porosity and permeability and their controls. The use of GWR does not require prior knowledge of divisions between bedding units, but the results from GWR broadly concur with results of regression analysis by bedding unit and provide much greater clarity of how porosity and permeability and their controls vary laterally and vertically. The close relationship between depositional lithofacies in each bed, diagenesis, permeability, and porosity demonstrates that each influences the other, and in turn how understanding of reservoir properties is enhanced by integration of paleoenvironmental reconstruction, stratigraphy, mineralogy, and geostatistics.


In 1848 an expedition led by German scientist Ludwig Leichhardt set out from Moreton Bay (Brisbane) with the intention of crossing the continent to the Swan River (Perth). The trip was expected to take two to three years, but instead the entire expedition disappeared and its fate remains a mystery to this day. It is now recognised that in his time Leichhardt was the best-trained scientist-explorer to have visited Australia, having studied under many of the most eminent European scientists and absorbed the works of others, including the great Alexander von Humboldt. Because of this, I argue that his 1848 expedition was not intended to be merely an east-west traverse of the continent. I determine what route Leichhardt planned to follow and show that he chose this route with several 'Humboldtian' aims in mind. If his expedition had succeeded, it would have been the greatest land-based scientific expedition in Australia's history, and Leichhardt would arguably now be venerated as the father of Australian landscape ecology. From the time it was realised Leichhardt's expedition was lost, many theories have been put forward as to its fate. Most suggest that the expedition perished somewhere in western Queensland or in the vicinity of the Simpson Desert. I present evidence to suggest that Leichhardt followed his proposed course and that this took him far from the Simpson Desert-Central Australian region, that in fact he made it more than two-thirds of the way across the continent and perished in the area where the Tanami Desert meets the Great Sandy Desert.


Social media platforms have become key portals for sharing and consuming information during crisis situations. However, humanitarian organisations and effected communities often struggle to sieve through the large volumes of data that are typically shared on such platforms during crises to determine which posts are truly relevant to the crisis, and which are not. Previous work on automatically classifying crisis information was mostly focused on using statistical features. However, such approaches tend to be inappropriate when processing data on a type of crisis that the model was not trained on, such as processing information about a train crash, whereas the classifier was trained on floods, earthquakes, and typhoons. In such cases, the model will need to be retrained, which is costly and time-consuming. In this paper, we explore the impact of semantics in classifying Twitter posts across same, and different, types of crises. We experiment with 26 crisis events, using a hybrid system that combines statistical features with various semantic features extracted from external knowledge bases. We show that adding semantic features has no noticeable benefit over statistical features when classifying same-type crises, whereas it enhances the classifier performance by up to 7.2% when classifying information about a new type of crisis.


It is a familiar scenario in U.S. antitrust litigation: The plaintiffs allege that a pattern of identical pricing (or refusals to deal) is "concerted" and therefore per se illegal; the defendant responds that the practice is merely "consciously parallel" or "interdependent" and therefore legal. Under U.S. law, to avoid summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law, a plaintiff must produce a "plus factor," evidence that "tends to exclude the possibility" that the defendants' actions were merely interdependent. Courts have identified various plus factors - for example, evidence that the alleged conduct was against the defendant's interest unless it was pursuant to an agreement - but they have been notably vague about what exactly constitutes concerted action. Obviously, the Sherman Act does not require the plaintiff to prove that the defendants formed a legally enforceable contract - the Sherman Act, after all, makes agreements illegal and therefore unenforceable. But beyond that, the law tells us little. Courts still quote the Supreme Court's sixty-year-old formulation that a Sherman Act agreement requires only "a unity of purpose, a common design and understanding, or a meeting of the minds." Unfortunately, however, this language could easily be interpreted to condemn conscious parallelism.In this article, I argue that concerted action should be defined to require communication among rivals. I begin by describing the development of the distinction in law and theory between consciously parallel and concerted action. I then show that the received definitions of concerted action leave courts and especially juries with inadequate guidance. Economic expert testimony does not fill the void, because economic theory does not distinguish concerted and interdependent conduct. I propose, building on the recent work of Oliver Black, that the distinguishing characteristic of concerted action is communication among rivals, not only of intentions, but also of the firms' reliance on their rivals' actions in choosing a common course of action. I argue that the proposed definition has implications for U.S. antitrust law. First, it is at least consistent with the older Supreme Court cases. Second, it helps us evaluate whether various public announcements or private communications justify the inference that parallel conduct is concerted. Finally, courts applying the standard plus-factors analysis in recent years have implicitly required something like the sort of communications in the proposed definition, even though they continue nominally to apply the received nebulous definitions.Including communication in the definition of concerted action would have limited consequences. Communication is itself an ambiguous term that requires clarification. Even if it can be defined with reasonable clarity, courts will still be required to determine whether proven communications satisfy the definition. Moreover, plaintiffs would not necessarily be required to produce direct evidence of communications that meet the definition, so long as they can offer circumstantial evidence that would permit an inference that the requisite communications have occurred. Thus, the problem of inferring an agreement from ambiguous evidence, including communications of various kinds, will remain under the proposal. But at least courts, juries, and litigants will know better what are supposed to be inferring.


Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one-dimensional nanomaterials with outstanding electrical and thermal conductivities and mechanical properties. This combination of properties offers routes to enable lightweight structural aerospace components. Recent advances in the manufacturing of CNTs have made bulk forms such as yarns, tapes and sheets available in commercial quantities to permit the evaluation of these materials for aerospace use, where the superior tensile properties of CNT composites can be exploited in tension dominated applications such as composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs). To investigate their utility in this application, aluminum rings were overwrapped with thermoset/CNT yarn composite and their mechanical properties measured. CNT composite overwrap characteristics such as processing method, CNT/resin ratio, and applied tension during CNT yarn winding were varied to determine their effects on the mechanical performance of the CNT composite overwrapped Al rings (CCOARs). Mechanical properties of the CCOARs were measured under static and cyclic loads at room, elevated, and cryogenic temperatures to evaluate their mechanical performance relative to bare Al rings. At room temperature, the breaking load of CCOARs with a 10.8% additional weight due to the CNT yarn/thermoset overwrap increased by over 200% compared to the bare Al ring. The quality of the wound CNT composites was also investigated using x-ray computed tomography.


This article uses recent events and litigation involving Citigroup to ask whether corporate law as created and enforced by state legislatures and courts - such as the legislature and courts of the State of Delaware - is capable of reducing the possibilities for a replay of the recent financial crisis. Specifically, after presenting the activities within Citigroup as a case study in excessive risk taking by financial institutions, this article outlines generally the tools available to the law to limit the sort of excessive risk taking that occurred at Citigroup and elsewhere. These tools include: regulation of business activities; capital requirements; rules for executive compensation; imposing liability on directors and officers for unreasonable risks; and rules governing the selection of directors and officers. This article then divides these tools into those addressed by banking law (regulation of business activities and capital requirements) and those for which state corporate law plays a role (compensation limits, personal liability for unreasonable risks, and director and officer selection). This article then uses the results in the recent Citigroup litigation as a case study in the limited willingness of state legislatures and courts to use the important tools allocated, at least in part, to corporate law to curb excessive risk taking by financial institutions. Specifically, the article contrasts the weaker standards and application for finding directors and officers liable for their inattention to risk in Citigroup with the probable analysis under a banking law or other regulatory regime. This article also explains why this result is inherent in a regime in which directors and shareholders select which state's corporate law will govern. The article concludes with a discussion of normative implications.


Motivated software engineers make a critical contribution to delivering successful software systems. Understanding the motivations of software engineers and the impact of motivation on software engineering outcomes could significantly affect the industry's ability to deliver good quality software systems. Understanding the motivations of people generally in relation to their work is underpinned by eight classic motivation theories from the social sciences. We would expect these classic motivation theories to play an important role in developing a rigorous understanding of the specific motivations of software engineers. In this article we investigate how this theoretical basis has been exploited in previous studies of software engineering. We analyzed 92 studies of motivation in software engineering that were published in the literature between 1980 and 2006. Our main findings are that many studies of software engineers' motivations are not explicitly underpinned by reference to the classic motivation theories. Furthermore, the findings presented in these studies are often not explicitly interpreted in terms of those theories, despite the fact that in many cases there is a relationship between those findings and the theories. Our conclusion is that although there has been a great deal of previous work looking at motivation in software engineering, the lack of reference to classic theories of motivation means that the current body of work in the area is weakened and our understanding of motivation in software engineering is not as rigorous as it may at first appear. This weakness in the current state of knowledge highlights important areas for future researchers to contribute towards developing a rigorous and usable body of knowledge in motivating software engineers.


Abstract This paper analyzes simple models of editorial control. Starting from the framework developed by Krishna and Morgan (2001a), we analyze two-sender models of cheap talk where one or more of the senders has the power to veto messages before they reach the receiver. A characterization of the most informative equilibria of such models is given. It is shown that editorial control never aids communication and that for small biases in the senders' preferences relative to those of the receiver, necessary and sufficient conditions for information transmission to be adversely affected are (i) that the senders have opposed preferences relative to the receiver and (ii) that both senders have powers of editorial control. It is shown that the addition of further senders beyond two weakly decreases information transmission when senders exercising editorial control are anonymous, and weakly increases information transmission when senders exercising editorial control are observed.


ABSTRACT Contemporary art practices are characterized by the transformation of completed or finalized objects into open works, fluid spatial situations and relations in the social field. Art processes raise the question: Can the complex structure of artworks provide an analogy and methodology that art researchers can use to co-design our culture from anthropological, philosophical, aesthetic and sociopolitical perspectives? This paper addresses this question through an examination of the artistic use of, and critical commentary on, media and available technologies, and of the artistic treatment of life forms found in the work of the younger generation of Slovenian artists (Tratnik, Berlot, Peljhan, Lovin and others). The strategies these artists employ in their projects significantly strengthen the case for a re-articulation of the aesthetic, the ethical and the political, through a transition in various territories: art, (biotechnological) science, technology, new media and everyday reality.


This review focuses on the topic of re-teaching within a formative cycle of instruction, in regular classroom settings. Although re-teaching is assumed integral to effective teaching, learning, and formative assessment, effective re-teaching is but scantly described in pedagogical literature and has been neglected in empirical research. Teachers and school systems seeking to improve student achievement, especially for lower-achieving students, would be well-served by more information and evidence about effective re-teaching. Accordingly, this review follows a defined and replicable protocol, using four questions to explore the extent and detail of existing information about re-teaching and use this information as the basis for suggestions of approaches and strategies for effective re-teaching. The importance of effective re-teaching for students with learning difficulties is emphasised and the potential benefits of effective re-teaching on academic self-concept and motivation for students, and on teacher effectiveness, are discussed. Collecting evidence from practice and the need to quantify the effectiveness of re-teaching are proposed as key aspects of future research and development.


Although recycling is often experienced as a moral dilemma, studies that systematically approach this issue from an ethical perspective are scarce. Moreover, previous studies have explored recycling by mainly using single ethical constructs, such as moral norms, values or obligations, rarely approaching it as an ethical decision-making process. Our study takes a more holistic approach and integrates the recycling literature with business ethics theory in order to develop a conceptual model of ethical decision making involved in recycling. The model is based on Jones' issue-contingent model and its key concept, that is, moral intensity, which we extend by adding altruism as an important personality trait that influences pro-social behaviour. The data were collected from a sample of 367 adult consumers, representative of the Slovenian population by gender and age. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. The results of our study confirmed the relationships between three key facets of ethical decision making: moral recognition, moral judgment and moral intention. Higher levels of moral recognition were found to lead to more positive moral judgments, which in turn positively influenced the formation of intentions to recycle. Moreover, moral intensity was found to be a significant predictor of moral recognition and moral judgment, while altruism was found to be a significant predictor of moral recognition. These findings hold important implications for public policy makers and social marketers who have to consider not only the consumer characteristics but also the issue characteristics in seeking to understand and influence consumer recycling. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.