Abstract This paper discusses the issue of rights within the context of contemporary policies and the extent to which they address the challenges confronting environmentally displaced people in Ghana. It also explores the role of labels in the drive toward affording appropriate rights protection for the environmentally displaced. The discussions are an offshoot from two extant studies conducted through interviews and focus group sessions. The objective of the first study was to assess the level of preparedness of government to offer appropriate rights protection to environmentally displaced persons. The second study investigated how migrants, especially those affected by changing environmental condition are able to gain access and negotiate their rights in all the different places they go to. From the studies, it was found that there are no clear policies in Ghana meant to afford rights protection to environmentally displaced people and that the rights of such migrants keep shifting with both time and location. People migrating from areas of environmental scarcity lack the capacity to negotiate for 'better' rights due to weak leadership and the fear of losing courtesies extended to them by the host communities. It concludes that there are ample opportunities within the policy and social environments for supporting and promoting appropriate rights protection for environmentally displaced people. It recommends a shift in the national policy drive toward a rights-based protection with clear blue prints for targeting and addressing the needs of environmentally displaced in Ghana.


This dissertation describes the development of a virtual reality (VR) interface for the evacuation model buildingEXODUS. The VR interface is intended to represent the outcome of a buildingEXODUS simulation in three dimensions and makes use of third party virtual reality authoring software. There were several stages involved in the process:

The first task was to investigate the current usage of VR in evacuation modelling, comment on its effectiveness and then come up with a list of key elements that should be included in a VR interface.

Then using these key elements as guide lines, a list of objectives was prepared and the design of the interface was constructed. Also a data transfer layer was designed so information concerning the evacuation could be extracted from the buildingEXODUS simulation and then used to faithfully reproduce the simulation in 3D.

Next the design was implemented using the virtual reality software package VRT by Superscape. This involved constructing 3D objects to represent the geometry and occupants in the evacuation, then using these objects along with the information extracted from buildingEXODUS the simulation was recreated, accurately showing the position and movement of the geometry and occupants throughout the simulation.

Once the geometry and occupant movement had been recreated, the user interface was implemented, giving the user full control of the playback of the simulation. A set of useful tools was also added that gave the user the ability to change the viewpoint, the speed of playback, the detail level of the occupants and record the simulation in order to create an AVI.

Finally the vrEXODUS software passed a vigorous testing phase, which included field testing and detailed comparisons between the vrEXODUS simulation and its buildingEXODUS counterpart.

The vrEXODUS software is now available, distributed freely with the buildingEXODUS software.


This article draws on research with resident action groups and other alliances in Sydney. It investigates the ways in which citizens work beyond the formal planning system to approach and achieve their urban development goals. The post-political treatment of community voices in planning relies on the centrality of consensus politics in current participatory planning regimes. By providing a democratic outlet that is far removed from the actual development outcome, powerful urban actors can silence through inclusion. Planning theorists have posited that one pathway beyond this post-political moment in urban planning is provided by Chantal Mouffe's critique of Habermasian communicative theory and consensus politics, which she bases on her theory of agonistic pluralism. Following Mouffe, to achieve a productive agonistic politics, any rigid antagonisms between "enemies" need to be moderated to more mutable "adversarial" positions. However, we have little knowledge of the conditions that might precipitate such a change in praxis. To address this gap between theory and praxis, we use focus group data to show how local resident action groups and urban alliances work through three modalities of antagonism to achieve their urban development goals. We add empirical weight to the idea that citizens can shift from rigid and fundamental antagonisms to the potentially more productive adversarial politics of agonistic pluralism but therein expose some limitations with how Mouffe's ideas are being applied to urban planning.


Phase distributions to generate holograms for use in laser scanning are investigated to create a multidirectional scanning pattern such as an X, asterisk, and lattice. The scanning direction for elliptic and hyperbolic phase distribution holograms is oblique to the hologram moving direction. A hyperbolic phase-distribution hologram can be used to scan a laser beam in a direction perpendicular to the hologram moving direction. Experimentally, elliptic, and hyperbolic phase distributions were generated using a spherical and a cylindrical lens pair. To converge the scanning beam, a stacked drum configuration holographic scanner has been proposed. Multidirectional scanning is demonstrated using the drum scanner.


An analytical study to predict multipath fading outages in terrestrial digital radio systems is described. The method, which is quite general, makes specific use of previously reported statistics on multipath fading. It is applied, in this study, to 6- and 11-GHz systems carrying 90 Mbits/s per RF channel. For purposes of comparing alternate approaches, three different modulations are considered, namely, (i) conventional QPSK at 45 Mbits/s, using two polarizations per channel; (ii) Offset-QPSK at 45 Mbits/s using two polarizations per channel; and (iii) 8-level PSK at 90 Mbits/s, using one polarization per channel. In all cases, a fourthorder Butterworth transmit filter is assumed which enforces FCC spectral emission requirements. The channel is treated as a two-path propagation medium, the receiver is assumed to be coherent, and various practical assumptions are invoked regarding the recovered carrier phase, timing phase, receive filter response, bit error rate objectives and fade margin. Results are given in terms of expected yearly fraction of multipath outage per repeater hop vs. hop length. We find that the choice of operating band has only a minor effect on the results; that OffsetQPSK systems suffer somewhat more multipath outage than conventional QPSK systems; that 8-level systems suffer more multipath outage than 4-level systems (although this difference may be offset by cross-polarization effects in the latter); and that all the approaches considered require repeater spacings of 15 mi or less in order to meet short-haul outage objectives over average terrain.


Prolonged exposure to topotecan (TPT) in in vitro experiments and in vivo studies in animals yielded the highest antitumor efficacy. An oral bioavailability of TPT of 32-44% enables convenient prolonged administration. Because of unpredictable diarrhea in the third week of the twice daily (b.i.d.) 21-day schedule of p.o. administered TPT and the finding of optimal down-regulation of topoisomerase I level after 10-14 days in mononuclear peripheral blood cells, a shorter period of administration (10 days) was chosen for Phase I and pharmacological studies of oral administration of TPT. Adult patients with malignant solid tumors that were refractory to standard forms of chemotherapy were entered. Two dose schedules were studied: once daily (o.d.) and b.i.d. administration for 10 days every 3 weeks. TPT o.d. for 10 days was studied at dose levels 1.0, 1.4, and 1.6 mg/m2/day, and dose levels were 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8 mg/m2 with the 10-day b.i.d. schedule. Pharmacokinetics were performed on days 1 and 8 of the first course using a validated high-performance liquid chromatographic assay and noncompartmental pharmacokinetic methods. Nineteen patients were entered in the 10-day o.d. schedule, with a total of 48 courses given. Dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) was reached at 1.6 mg/m2/day and consisted of common toxicity criteria (CTC) grade IV thrombocytopenia and CTC grade III diarrhea. The maximum tolerated dose was 1.4 mg/m2/day. In the 10-day b.i.d. administration of TPT, a total of 64 courses were studied in 20 patients. DLT was reached at a dose of 0.8 mg/m2 b.i.d. and consisted of CTC grade IV myelosuppression and CTC grade IV diarrhea. The maximum tolerated dose was 0.7 mg/m2 b.i.d. Nonhematological toxicities with both schedules included mild nausea and vomiting, fatigue, and anorexia. Pharmacokinetics revealed a substantial variation of the area under the plasma concentration-time curve of TPT lactone in both schedules. Significant correlations were observed between the myelotoxicity parameters and the area under the plasma concentration-time curve at day 1 of TPT lactone o.d. and b.i.d. The DLT of 10 daily administrations of oral topotecan every 3 weeks consisted of a combination of myelosuppression and diarrhea for both schedules studied. The recommended doses for Phase II studies are 1.4 mg/m2/day for 10 days for the o.d. administration and 0.7 mg/m2 for the b.i.d. schedule.


Women's minimal leadership role in national and local political spheres remains a serious concern worldwide. The Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005–2015 calls on governments to introduce measures to promote at least 30 per cent representation of women in parliament, government and business.
The Impact of Women's Political Leadership on Democracy and Development describes the barriers to women's political participation and explains why the contribution of women is so crucial to democracy. It identifies established strategies – electoral reform (New Zealand), party voluntary quotas (South Africa), and legislative quotas (Bangladesh and India) – that have helped these Commonwealth countries to meet the global target of 30 per cent and thus to effectively advance the participation of women in decision-making at all levels.


Network-on-Chip (NoC) is the interconnect of choice for many-core processors and system-on-chips in general. Most of the existing NoC designs focus on the performance with respect to average throughput, which makes them less applicable for real-time applications especially when applications have hard timing requirements on the worst-case scenarios. In this paper, we focus on a Round-Robin Arbitration (RRA) based wormhole-switched NoC which is a common architecture used in most of the existing implementations. We propose a novel segmentation algorithm targeting RRA-based NoCs in order to improve the schedulability of real-time traffic without modifying the hardware architecture. According to the evaluation results, the proposed segmentation solution can significantly improve the schedulability of the whole network.


BACKGROUND
Early risk factors for poor child outcomes are well established, and some group parenting programmes have demonstrated good outcomes for children under 3 years of age. This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of the Incredible Years® Toddler Parenting Programme with parents of 1-year-old and 2-year-old children recruited by staff in disadvantaged Flying Start areas across Wales.

METHODS
Eighty-nine families with a child aged between 12 and 36 months at baseline participated in a pragmatic community-based trial of the programme in eight Flying Start areas. Outcomes were measured at baseline, 6 months and 12 months using measures of parental mental health, competence, child behaviour, child development, home environment and blinded-observation of parent-child interactions.

RESULTS
Significant intervention group improvements were found in parental mental well-being and observed praise at 6 months. Significant improvements for the intervention group at 12 months included child development, home environment and parental depression.

CONCLUSION
The study provides preliminary evidence for programme attendance.


The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of mindful engagement in the relationship between male high school athletes' motivational climate perceptions on their teams (i.e., caring, task-, and ego-involving climate) to athlete coachability. Athletes (N = 164, Mage = 15.58 years) from multiple sports completed measures assessing mindful engagement in sport (Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale—Revised), Caring Climate Scale, task- and ego-involving climate perceptions (Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire), and coachability (Athletic Coping Skills Inventory). Initial bivariate correlations linked mindful engagement and coachability positively with perceptions of a caring and task-involving climate and negatively with ego-involving climate perceptions. Structural equation modeling analyses then revealed mindful engagement mediated the relationship between climate and coachability. Encouraging coaches and players to foster a caring/task-involving climate might assist in enhancing athletes' mindful engagement in sport, which may positively influence the degree to which they are coachable.


The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a client protein of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), is a ligand-activated transcription factor that plays a role in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-induced carcinogenesis. Tobacco smoke activates AhR signaling leading to increased transcription of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1, which encode proteins that convert PAHs to mutagens. Recently, p53 was found to regulate Hsp90 ATPase activity via effects on activator of Hsp90 ATPase (Aha1). It is possible, therefore, that AhR-dependent expression of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 might be affected by p53 status. The main objective of this study was to determine whether p53 modulated AhR-dependent gene expression and PAH metabolism. Here, we show that silencing p53 led to elevated Aha1 levels, increased Hsp90 ATPase activity, and enhanced CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 expression. Overexpression of wild-type p53 suppressed levels of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1. The significance of Aha1 in mediating these p53-dependent effects was determined. Silencing of Aha1 led to reduced Hsp90 ATPase activity and downregulation of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1. In contrast, overexpressing Aha1 was associated with increased Hsp90 ATPase activity and elevated levels of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1. Using p53 heterozygous mutant epithelial cells from patients with Li–Fraumeni syndrome, we show that monoallelic mutation of p53 was associated with elevated levels of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 under both basal conditions and following treatment with benzo[a]pyrene. Treatment with CP-31398, a p53 rescue compound, suppressed benzo[a]pyrene-mediated induction of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 and the formation of DNA adducts. Collectively, our results suggest that p53 affects AhR-dependent gene expression, PAH metabolism, and possibly carcinogenesis. Cancer Prev Res; 7(6); 596–606. ©2014 AACR.


We present a low-cost acoustic sensor using tapered fiber structure attached to a nitrile polymer-based diaphragm. The tapered fiber is attached in the line of symmetry of a circular diaphragm of optimized thickness and diameter. The applied acoustic pressure deforms the diaphragm, which bends the tapered fiber attached with it. The bending induced change in transmission power is utilized to detect the applied acoustic pressure. The acoustic sensitivity and minimum detectable pressure at 2500 Hz are 36 mV/kPa and 21.11 Pa/√Hz, respectively, for the sensor setup with tapered fiber waist diameter of 18.37 μm. The sensor shows a reasonably flat response from 250 to 2500 Hz. The performance parameters of the sensor, such as sensitivity, minimum detectable pressure, and flat response range can be easily tailored by changing the dimensions of diaphragm and tapered fiber.


The objective of this study was to determine the effects of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) oil supplementation on the growth performance and lipid metabolism in geese and the fatty acid concentrations in their liver and muscle tissues. One hundred and ninety two one-day old geese were randomly assigned to one of four dietary treatments. The diet in Group A, the control, contained 2.5% soyabean oil, that in Group B 2.0% soyabean oil and 0.5% CLA, that in Group C 1.0% soybean oil and 1.5% CLA and that in Group D 2.5% CLA. The birds were fed for 56 days. No significant effects were observed in body weight and body weight gain between Groups B, C and the control, but these parameters were significantly lower in Group D compared to the control. The feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and abdominal fat percentage (AFP) were significantly lower in the groups receiving CLA in their diets compared with the control. Dietary CLA altered serum lipid concentrations by decreasing total cholesterol, triglyceride and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol concentrations, the atherogenic index and activity of lipoprotein lipase, and increased serum concentration of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol. The fatty acid composition of the liver and muscle tissues showed significant increases in the biologically active cis-9, trans-11 and trans-10, cis-12 CLA isomers in the geese fed increasing levels of CLA. The supplementation of CLA to the geese led to significant increases in saturated fatty acid concentrations and significant reductions in the monounsaturated fatty acid concentrations in liver and muscle tissues. The results clearly demonstrated that geese can successfully incorporate CLA in their liver and muscle tissues, thus producing a healthy food for humans.


The extinction of small populations is a stochastic process, affected by both environmental variation and chance variation in the fates of individuals (demographic stochasticity). Here I examine how population extinction risk is affected by variation in the underlying individual phenotypes, using a branching-process approach. I define the long-term individual extinction risk as the chance of ultimately leaving no descendants, and the cumulative individual extinction risk as the chance of leaving no descendants by a specified time. I use these to show that if there is a phenotypic correlation between parents and their offspring, variation in these quantities always reduces both the long- and short-term population extinction risk. Such variation in individual extinction risk arises from individual variation in demographic parameters and may have both genetic and environmental causes. Using a well-known approximation of the difference between the log arithmetic and log geometric means, I derive expressions for the sensitivity and elasticity of the approximate log extinction risk to changes in the mean and variance of the individual extinction risk, and to changes in population size. One conclusion is that increasing the variance among individuals in extinction risk can sometimes be at least as important in reducing population extinction risk as increasing the population size itself. These analyses also point to reasons why changes in environmental factors (e.g., toxicants) or management practices may have either larger or smaller effects than would be anticipated by considering the change in the mean risk alone.


Petroleum-contaminated soil (PCS) is typically a mixture of sand, silt, clay, and petroleum products. In Oman, Petroleum Development Oman generates approximately 53,000 tons/year of PCS. The amount raises a significant disposal problem. Results are presented on the use of PCS in hot asphalt mixes as potential surface mixes for low-volume roads. The mixes were designed with the Marshall mix design method. The dynamic modulus |E*| test, as a primary material property input in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), was conducted at different frequencies (0.1 to 16 Hz) and temperatures (25°C to 60°C). |E*| master curves and shift factors were developed for the control and PCS mixes and compared with Witczak's predictive models. Environmental assessment of PCS indicated that it posed no threat to the environment. The mix design results indicated that mixes containing up to 15% PCS met the specification limits set for high-volume surface mixes except for voids in mineral aggregate (VMA), which was lower than the specification limits. Mixes containing up to 30% and 40% PCS met the low-volume surface or base mix specifications set by the Asphalt Institute with the exception of air voids or VMA for some mixes. The |E*| and indirect tensile strength results were consistent with Marshall stability. Witczak's predictive model for |E*| agreed well with the laboratory-fitted results for 0% and 5% PCS mix up to a 10-Hz frequency. This paper contributes to MEPDG implementation by developing the necessary parameters and optimizing the mix design of the PCS mixes.


The fifth-generation mobile telecommunication network is expected to support multi-access edge computing (MEC), which intends to distribute computation tasks and services from the central cloud to the edge clouds. Toward ultra-responsive, ultra-reliable, and ultra-low-latency MEC services, the current mobile network security architecture should enable a more decentralized approach for authentication and authorization processes. This paper proposes a novel decentralized authentication architecture that supports flexible and low-cost local authentication with the awareness of context information of network elements such as user equipment and virtual network functions. Based on a Markov model for backhaul link quality as well as a random walk mobility model with mixed mobility classes and traffic scenarios, numerical simulations have demonstrated that the proposed approach is able to achieve a flexible balance between the network operating cost and the MEC reliability.


In a series of seven experiments, the role of articulatory rehearsal in verbal short-term memory was examined via a shadowing-plus-recall paradigm. In this paradigm, subjects shadowed a word target presented closely after an auditory memory list before they recalled the list. The phonological relationship between the shadowing target and the final item on the memory list was manipulated. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that targets sounding similar to the list-final memory item generally took longer to shadow than unrelated targets. This inhibitory effect of phonological relatedness was more pronounced with tense- than lax-vowel pseudoword recall lists. The interaction between vowel tenseness and phonological relatedness was replicated in Experiment 3 using shorter lists of real words. In Experiment 4, concurrent articulation was applied during list learning to block rehearsal; consequently, neither the phonological relatedness effect nor its interaction with vowel tenseness emerged. Experiments 5 and 6 manipulated the occurrence frequencies and lexicality of the recall items, respectively, instead of vowel tenseness. Unlike vowel tenseness, these non-articulatory memory factors failed to interact with the phonological relatedness effect. Experiment 7 orthogonally manipulated the vowel tenseness and frequencies of the recall items; slowing in shadowing times due to phonological relatedness was modulated by vowel tenseness but not frequency. Taken together, these results suggest that under the present paradigm, the modifying effect of vowel tenseness on the magnitude of slowing in shadowing due to phonological relatedness is indicative of a prominent articulatory component in verbal short-term retention. The shadowing-plus-recall approach avoids confounding overt recall into internal memory processing, which is an inherent problem of the traditional immediate serial recall and span tasks.


Institutional Repositories are collections of digital resources organized to facilitate their long term access. Two fundamental issues that need to be addressed at the moment of implementing these repositories are their maintenance and search instruments. This article describes an intelligent tool whose goal is to overcome certain general limitations encountered in current mechanisms for managing Institutional Repositories. The novel aspects of the proposed tool are the use of previous examples to generate suggestions for cataloging incoming digital resources and the ability to refect a thematic context during the search process. The proposed tool applies casebased reasoning in combination with information retrieval techniques to take advantage of a large set of previously classified resources with the purpose of supporting the cataloger's task. The tool has been evaluated using a collection consisting of 9792 training examples from the SciELO electronic library and a test set containing 100 articles coming from diferent disciplines.


Poultry lameness is a significant problem resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue annually. In commercial broilers, the most common cause of lameness is bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO). The majority of BCO infections involve Staphylococcus agnetis, a bacterium previously not isolated from poultry. Administering S. agnetis in drinking water to broilers reared on wire flooring increased the incidence of BCO three-fold when compared with broilers drinking tap water (P = 0.001). We are completing an assembly ofthe sequence of the S. agnetis genome. Currently, the assembly is in 2 large contigs of 2491 kbp and 38 kbp, and 7 small contigs of 2-3 kbp. We have been using bioinformatics and PCR sequencing to determine how these contigs are organized relative to the main bacterial chromosome and plasmids to constitute the entire S. agnetis genome. Annotation of that genome and identification of toxin genes will allow future researchers to better understand the etiology of BCO in broilers, and possibly develop vaccines for reducing BCO in commercial settings. Isolating pathogenic bacterial species, defining their likely route of transmission to broilers, and genomic analyses will contribute substantially to the development of measures for mitigating BCO losses in poultry.


ness : Workshop Outcomes. William J. McLaughlin and Charles D. M. Black. The Hunter Valley Research Foundation, Downie Street, Maryville, NSW 2293, Australia. June 1991. 17p. This document describes the procedures and reports the outcomes of a series of tourism workshops conducted by the Hunter Valley Research Foundation for the Tweed Shire Council in May 1991. The purpose of the workshops was to present preliminary findings from the Hunter Valley Research Foundation's Tweed Tourism Strategy and to further involve Tweed citizens in the tourism strategy decision making process.


Undin, T. 2015. Characterization of Molecular Adsorption Using Liquid Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1248. 50 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9235-9. Molecular adsorption is a key feature in several disciplines of chemistry, covering as diverse fields as chromatographic separation to biomaterial development. This thesis aims at developing methods and techniques for the characterization of molecular adsorption at the liquidsolid interface. Two different experimental models were used, small molecular interaction characterization using liquid chromatography and complex protein adsorption on polymeric materials possible for biological sampling. Holistic approaches, where both detailed molecular interactions and identifications of trends, could improve the fundamental understanding of adsorption systems, were invariably part of the scientific process. The characterization of small molecular interactions on liquid chromatography stationary phases via adsorption isotherm determination used combined data from physical phase parameters i.e. carbon loading, linear-, and nonlinear-characterization methods. These experiments were conducted on high performance liquid chromatography systems, using both ordinary reversed phase stationary phases, and hybrid phases. The expansion of the improved elusion by characteristic point (ECP) for adsorption isotherm determination, led to that previous impossible isotherm types, having inflexion points, now could be determined by the method. It also reduced errors in isotherm parameters due to the elimination of inaccurate determined retention times where the mobile phase concentration was zero. The characterization of protein adsorption where performed in an unbiased way. Adsorbed proteins on different surfaces were identified using mass spectrometry (MS) and data dependent acquisition or a targeted method. Prior MS, an improved on surface enzymatic digestion (oSED) method was used to enable identification and quantitation of adsorbed protein originating from ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (vCSF). oSED was found to be able to experimentally determine large variations in protein adsorption characteristics between native and coated polycarbonate surfaces in contact with vCSF. The method was also confirmed being mechanistic in favor of enzymatic digestion of the proteins adsorbed on a surface, rather than a prior desorption into solution before digestion. An improvement of the overall understanding of adsorption systems was not only achieved with the oSED method as a promising tool for characterization of protein adsorption on arbitrary surfaces, but also the use of linear and nonlinear approaches in stationary phase characterization that strengthened drawn conclusions. Torgny Undin, Department of Chemistry BMC, Analytical Chemistry, Box 599, Uppsala University, SE-75124 Uppsala, Sweden.


Terahertz spectroscopy holds great promise in the advancement of the field of astrochemistry. The sensitive observation of interstellar THz radiation is expected to lower detection limits and allow the study of larger and more complex species than is currently possible at millimeter wavelengths, which will place further constraints on chemical models and permit a direct comparison to the organic compounds seen in carbonaceous chondrites. With the successful recent launch of the Herschel Space Telescope, which will give high-fidelity access to interstellar THz radiation for the first time, and the completion of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) by 2013, the THz astronomy era is upon us. Unfortunately, laboratory THz spectroscopy presents significant challenges and will be soon be lagging behind the newly available observational platforms. Technologies to extend the capabilities of high-resolution spectroscopic systems into the THz domain are actively being pursued on many fronts, but affordable systems that are broadly tunable, sensitive and achieve the necessary resolution are not yet available. The work in this thesis should therefore be seen as part of the effort in the transition from centimeter-/millimeter-wave to THz spectroscopy that is currently taking place in the astrochemistry community.

As part of this thesis, observational searches for the complex organics hydroxyacetone (CH_3COCH_2OH), 2-cyanoethanol (OHCH_2CH_2CN) and methoxyacetonitrile (CH_3OCH_2CN) were attempted at millimeter wavelengths. The unsuccessful nature of these searches highlight the current limits of studying interstellar chemistry using pure rotational spectroscopy. The characterization of the laboratory spectra of these molecules is nonetheless important as it will aid in the assignment and description of the rotational substructure and band shapes of their THz torsional spectra, features that may allow their interstellar detection; and this thesis presents methods by which such complex spectra may be rapidly and efficiently collected and fit using automated spectrometers and modern software tools.

The description of the spectrum of hydroxyacetone is furthermore of interest due to the presence of the very low barrier to internal rotation in this molecule. Many interstellar compounds, both known and potential future targets, have functional groups capable of internal rotation in their structure; and so the effort in understanding the complex effects of the low barrier rotor in this case will benefit the general effort to further understand internal rotation.

In searching for new interstellar molecules, both at millimeter wavelengths and at higher THz frequencies, characterization of the complete spectra of known interstellar molecules is of great importance to allow substraction of their contribution to observational spectra. In this thesis, the ground-state rotational spectrum of methanol, the most important ``interstellar weed", is catalogued and described in detail through most of the THz region that will be accessible with Herschel and ALMA.

Lastly, as part of the effort to increase the sensitivity of THz spectrometers, the use of Fabry-Perot cavities at these frequencies is explored. Such resonant cavities hold the potential to significantly increase the possible path lengths in spectroscopic system and to allow novel and sensitive detection techniques. Optimal configurations and the limits on achievable path lengths and Q-factors of such cavities are discussed, as are the possible extensions of Fourier Transform MicroWave (FT-MW) techniques to THz frequencies.


The European Convention on Human Rights underwent a spectacular evolution over the first fifty years of its life. In recent times the European Court of Human Rights has been compared to a quasi-constitutional court for Europe in the field of human rights, and for some time the Convention has been viewed as a European Bill of Rights. The 'coming of age' of the ECHR system in the late 1990s was marked by the entry into force of Protocol 11, creating a new, full time Court. By contrast those who first proposed a European human rights guarantee were driven by an ambition to put in place a collective pact to prevent the re-emergence of totalitarianism in 'free' Europe. They were motivated by grisly memories of human rights abuse associated with World War Two, and the protection of 'human rights' was seen in that light. When the Convention was opened for signature in 1950 it was viewed by many with scepticism and disappointment. The Convention system took many years to get established. In the mid-1960s doubts were expressed as to whether the Court had a future and in the 1970s the Convention system of control faced a number of serious challenges. This book examines the story of the evolution of the Convention over its first 50 years (1948-1998). It reflects on the Convention's origins and charts the slow progress that it made over the 1950s and 1960s, before, in the late 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a series of landmark judgments which proved to be the foundation stones for the European Bill of Rights that we know today.


Abstract This study aimed to obtain students' first-person perspectives of their experience of positive teacher–student relationships (TSRs) in upper secondary school. We also explored their experiences of qualities of TSRs concerning students' mental health and dropout from upper secondary school. We used a qualitative and participative approach, whereby key stakeholders were included as co-researchers. Seventeen students participated in semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups. Interview data were analysed via thematic analysis. Participants' experiences were clustered around five themes: (1) it takes two: mutual responsibility in TSRs, (2) don't be unfair: negative experiences challenge TSRs, (3) talk to us: bonding and problem solving through conversation, (4) help us: adapting to students' academic and personal needs, and (5) we need kind teachers: the importance of teachers' demeanour. The findings demonstrated the value of positive TSRs and illustrated the ways in which they promote students' well-being at school.


Linguistic and cultural diversity is becoming an inherent feature of most schools in Europe. This is specially so in contexts such as the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, where the presence of two official languages (Basque and Spanish) is complemented by the early teaching of English, which sets out as early as the age of four in the majority of schools. Nevertheless, the low foreign language command of Spanish students in general and the Basque students in particular has led to the implementation of CLIL experiences, which have been mushrooming in the last decade. Some voices have been raised though against the ever increasing presence of English due to its probable negative impact on language attitudes, especially on attitudes towards Basque. Many efforts have been made to normalize the situation of Basque at school and some scholars consider that these achievements can be jeopardized if the minority language yields too much space to the two international languages (Spain and English). In this paper the effect of CLIL programmes on attitudes towards trilingualism is examined through a holistic questionnaire completed by 277 secondary students. The results obtained demonstrate that CLIL can help to boost positive attitudes towards trilingualism at school, a matter of the utmost importance due to the ever increasing number of multilingual educational systems in Europe.


An extensive debris-avalanche deposit has been discovered on Canadas volcano, Tenerife (Canary Islands). The onshore component of the 733 ± 3 ka Abona landslide deposit exposes classic block facies and mixed facies across 90 km 2 . Three lines of evidence together show that the avalanche was triggered by an ignimbrite-forming explosive eruption: (1) the deposit is enclosed by phonolitic ignimbrites and is draped by a Plinian fallout layer, all within a single eruption unit; (2) it contains prismatic-jointed pumice blocks that were hot during landslide emplacement, indicated by chilled rims and breadcrust surfaces; (3) these blocks yield the same 40 Ar/ 39 Ar date as the associated ignimbrite and fall deposit. Landslide hummocks dammed surface water, forming ephemeral lakes perched on the volcano flank. Phonolite dome growth destabilized the southeast sector of a mid-Pleistocene Canadas caldera wall, and created a major breach that affected the passage of destructive pyroclastic density currents on Tenerife for 0.5 m.y., showing that landslides can have enduring consequences for pyroclastic dispersal and hazards.


The Brazilian electric sector went through a redesign of its structure in the mid-1990s. This reform initiated a transition to a more competitive environment in the generation and supply of electricity with a wider participation of private companies. The rationing of electricity in 2001/2002 interrupted this process. In the second reform of the Brazilian electric sector, after the rationing, the state took back the coordination of the sector as means to pull back any possibility of new rationing and also to make the tariffs as low as possible. The electricity trade was concentrated on a pool of distributors in a scheme of public auctions. This paper briefly explains the two reforms and analyses the results of those auctions. We estimate that the Brazilian electric sector is still vulnerable to adverse hydrology periods. In other words, the goals of the new model designed for the Brazilian electricity sector have not been achieved.


This article provides a critical view of Human Rights Education (HRE) within a context of colonial occupation and an authoritarian national ruling structure. It explores the reasons behind the introduction of HRE in Palestinian Authority (PA) schools in the Occupied West Bank and investigates how teachers and students make meaning of and implement HRE. Through examining the relationship between HRE and the struggles against injustice, the article problematizes the theoretical basis of HRE and highlights the importance of indigenous knowledges and strategies utilized to bring the decontextualized global to the nuanced and politicized local. This article shows that institutionalizing HRE turns it into a harmful tool in the hands of those in power. Reverting to alternative sources of knowledge and linking human rights to the vernacular of the people, adopting a bottom-up approach and allowing for criticality are necessary measures to enable the re-appropriation of human rights, where HRE becomes a true strategy to build a culture of human rights that can dismantle structures of oppression. There is a need to rethink HRE as a concept, shifting its current reality to one that contributes to building 'critical consciousness'. This shift, particularly in the case of Palestine, will not emerge without developing alternative forms of education. This idea might be considered problematic. However, as critical educators and researchers, it is our responsibility to take on this battle.


I present a game-theoretic model where economic competition and attention competition are interdependent. On the one hand the effort to attract consumer attention depends on the value of attention to the firm which depends on the grade of price competition among all perceived firms. On the other hand attracting attention involves costs which must be covered by the earnings from competition. It is the task of this paper to clarify the consequences of such an interdependence between attention competition and economic competition for prices, attention effort and market structure as determined by the strategic equilibrium. Under limited attention the market as perceived by consumers and not the effective market is relevant to the firms which implies that prices also reflect the scarcity of attention. Less attentive consumers lead to higher prices but at the same time getting attention is more valuable which intensifies the competition for attention and leads to higher attention costs. I show that if attention competition is relatively inelastic or the commodities are strong substitutes then the gains from consumer inattention outweigh the costs of attracting attention which leads to higher profits and larger effective markets.


In post-industrial societies the use of the Internet for multiple functions in commerce and government has generated debate about whether the introduction of e-voting could reduce the costs of casting a ballot and therefore promote electoral participation. The argument developed in this paper makes three claims: first, the evidence from the distribution of Internet access in the 15 EU member states confirms that, at least in the short-term, the impact of introducing e-voting into elections to the European parliament could probably deepen and worsen the existing socioeconomic "voting gap". Second, even if we assume that use of the Internet gradually "normalizes" across the European population, there are still good reasons to be skeptical about any potential revolutionary benefits from e-voting on turnout. E-voting at home or work can be seen as analogous to the use of voting facilities exemplified by postal ballots, and the evidence suggests that the use of such facilities has had little or no impact on turnout. Instead, it is argued, the most important role of information technology in democracy lies in its potential capacity to strengthen the public sphere. As such the debate about e-voting may well prove largely irrelevant to the primary political impact of the Internet on democracy within the European Union.


Questions related to violence, vulnerability, and sexual and gender minorities continuing to occupy a focal place in U.S. public discourse. We reviewed findings from 20 years of research on that topic to make recommendations for policy, practice, and future research. This article synthesizes findings from 102 peer-reviewed articles as well as a small number of unpublished studies and grey literature. We found no data to support the idea (widespread in popular discourse) that those in the sexual or gender majority require protection from sexual or gender minority individuals. Instead, this wide body of research indicates that sexual and gender minorities are themselves at elevated risk for physical and sexual assault, harassment, bullying, and hate crime victimization throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Contradicting the image of hate crimes as perpetrated by strangers or acquaintances, we find that bias-related verbal abuse, physical, and sexual assault by close family members contribute heavily to observed victimization rates. Further, despite the perception that society is becoming more welcoming, victimization disparities appear to be stable or widening since the 1990s. More studies with probabilistic sampling approaches, standardized measures, and larger samples of gender minorities are needed. However, widespread victimization of sexual and gender minorities is clearly an urgent issue, demanding attention from clinicians, program developers, and policy makers.


The hippocampus is essentially involved in learning and memory processes. Its functions are affected by various neuromodulators, including 17beta-estradiol, testosterone, and retinoid. Brain-synthesized steroid hormones act as autocrine and paracrine modulators. The regulatory mechanism underlying brain steroidogenesis has not been fully elucidated. Synthesis of sex steroids in the gonads is stimulated by retinoic acids. Therefore, we examined the effects of retinoic acids on estradiol and testosterone biosynthesis in the rat hippocampus. We used cultured hippocampal slices from 10- to 12-d-old male rats to investigate de novo steroidogenesis. The infant rat hippocampus possesses mRNAs for steroidogenic enzymes and retinoid receptors. Slices were used after 24 h of preculture to obtain maximal steroidogenic activity because steroidogenesis in cultured slices decreases with time. The mRNA levels for P450(17alpha), P450 aromatase and estrogen receptor-beta in the slices were increased by treatment with 9-cis-retinoic acid but not by all-trans-isomer. The magnitude of stimulation and the shape of the dose-response curve for the mRNA level for P450(17alpha) were similar to those for cellular retinoid binding protein type 2, the transcription of which is activated by retinoid X receptor signaling. 9-cis-Retinoic acid also induced a 1.7-fold increase in the protein content of P450(17alpha) and a 2-fold increase in de novo synthesis of 17beta-estradiol and testosterone. These steroids may be synthesized from a steroid precursor(s), such as pregnenolone or other steroids, or from cholesterol, as so-called neurosteroids. The stimulation of estradiol and testosterone synthesis by 9-cis-retinoic acid might be caused by activation of P450(17alpha) transcription via retinoid X receptor signaling.


The D.C. district court recently upheld regulations that require U.S. banks to report to the IRS interest paid to nonresident aliens on accounts held in those banks. The purpose of this reporting requirement is to enable the United States to share this information with treaty partners. In upholding the regulations, the court incorrectly concluded that only would-be tax evaders would withdraw funds from U.S. banks in response to this reporting requirement. Smith argues it was unreasonable for the IRS to conclude that no funds would be withdrawn by NRAs simply out of fear that the information would be misused by their home country government. The fact that the IRS may reasonably believe the safeguards against that misuse are adequate does not justify its assumption that any NRA who is not attempting to avoid paying tax would share that belief.


The chrome tanned leather shavings which are produced by chrome tanning process and disposed as a waste, has to be treated and recycled. In this study the chrome shavings were incinerated at 1000 o C to transform chromium III to chromium VI. In our previous work on extraction of chromium six from chrome shavings, the dichromate was leached and all the factors affecting leaching were determined, the optimum values of these factor: were solid/liquid ratio of 1:10, time of 1 hour and temperature of 37 o C with mixing at 200rpm. The hexavalent chromium was reduced to basic chromium sulphate using 250% water, 92% Sulphuric acid and 25% sugar based on the dichromate weight. The basic chromium sulphate obtained was of 33% basicity and 21% chromic oxide with conversion of 96.80%. Experiments on the reaction kinetics were performed to determine the reaction order, the reaction rate and conversion. These were found to be first-order reaction and 100% conversion after ageing for two weeks. Complete reduction was achieved in three hours with pH of 2.5. A chrome tanning trials were performed using pickled sheep skin. The tannage was completed and the pelts passed the boiling test, then pelt were neutralized and fat-liquored and left overnight. The dried pelts were conditioned and the crusts produced were subjected to chemical and physical analysis, with chromic oxide 4.4, moisture content 14%, ash content 4.6%, shrinkage temperature 100 o C, fat content 3.4% , tensile strength 171kg/cm 2 , elongation at break 49% , tear strength 100kg/cm, and load at grain burst 40 kg.


ABSTRACT Physically disabled children and young people (PDC&YP) face many challenges when participating in out-of-school activities. PDC&YP should have the same choices and opportunities as other C&YP: to forge friendships locally and to access out-of-school activities. However, PDC&YP have fewer opportunities than their non-disabled peers due to challenges such as access, support, and suitable provision. This multi-method qualitative study examined the factors affecting participation of PDC&YP in out-of-school activities. The perspectives of PDC&YP and parents were sought using a range of data collection tools. These included interviews, focus groups, and creative focus groups with 13 PDC&YP and 19 parents. Play-based creative focus groups were specifically designed for PDC&YP aged 7 to 17 years. The study demonstrated that PDC&YP enjoy specialist disabled activities to meet others 'like them' but want more local opportunities to do this. Some PDC&YP and parents felt they were not disabled enough for 'disabled' activities but not able enough for mainstream. PDC&YP requiring personal care were a 'hidden' group who are at risk of missing out on experiences that they are entitled to. The study concludes by presenting the need to improve provision through disability awareness training and a co-ordinated partnership approach to be employed by the local authority to raise the profile of disability and 'bridge the gap' between service users and service providers. The social needs of children require the same focus and attention to aid their wellbeing and to enhance out-of-school lives.


Most students and early career professionals desire mentoring relationships. Mentors can provide numerous added benefits to their protégés beyond what they typically obtain from classroom and other formal training experiences. Yet, despite the many potential benefits of mentoring relationships, the very nature of successful mentoring relationships brings with it certain risks for participants. Issues of boundaries and multiple relationships must be understood and successfully navigated to help ensure that mentors' objectivity and judgment are not impaired and that protégés are not exploited or harmed. The concepts of boundaries, boundary crossings, boundary violations, and multiple relationships are explored in this article and applied in the context of mentoring relationships. Recommendations for successfully navigating the challenges they bring are made in the hope of helping to ensure productive and healthy mentoring relationships.


Book Description: The occurrence of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water has been an issue of major concern during several decades. The formation of many DBPs species during water disinfection has been documented, while new by-products are still being detected, as the analytical instrumentation available becomes more accurate and sensitive. Most of the DBPs have been proven to have toxic effects on living organisms; therefore they pose risks to human health during drinking water consumption. The factors affecting their formation have been extensively investigated, their transport and fate have been studied, modelling efforts for several of them have been performed, in order to understand better their behaviour and therefore try to minimize their occurrence in waters. Techniques for their removal from water have also been applied, and a variety of disinfection methods or combinations of disinfecting agents have been investigated with the aim to produce safe drinking water containing the minimum possible concentrations of DBPs. This book deals with the advances in control of DBPs in drinking water systems. Further than an providing an overview of existing disinfection techniques and by-products, up-to-date information on the parameters affecting the procedures of DBPs formation, analytical methods for their determination, toxicity, regulation, it pays special emphasis on the advanced treatment methods applied recently for DBPs control and presents recent promising findings as well as case studies in this field, as the relevant research is proceeding, producing more knowledge and practical solutions in regard to the disinfected drinking water quality.


As research on serious games continues to grow, we investigate the efficacy of digital games to train enhanced decision making through understanding cognitive biases. This study investigates the ability of a 30-minute digital game as compared with a 30-minute video to teach people how to recognize and mitigate three cognitive biases: fundamental attribution error, confirmation bias, and bias blind spot. We investigate the effects of character customization on learning outcomes as compared with an assigned character. We use interviews to understand the qualitative differences between the conditions. Experimental results suggest that the game was more effective at teaching and mitigating cognitive biases than was the training video. Although interviews suggest players liked avatar customization, results of the experiment indicate that avatar customization had no significant effect on learning outcomes. This research provides information future designers can use to choose the best medium and affordances for the most effective learning outcomes on cognitive processes.


Development of extension and outreach that effectively engage farmers in climate change adaptation and/or mitigation activities can be informed by an improved understanding of farmers' perspectives on climate change and related impacts. This research employed latent class analysis (LCA) to analyze data from a survey of 4,778 farmers from 11 US Corn Belt states. The research focused on two related research questions: (1) to what degree do farmers differ on key measures of beliefs about climate change, experience with extreme weather, perceived risks to agriculture, efficacy, and level of support for public and private adaptive and mitigative action; and (2) are there potential areas of common ground among farmers? Results indicate that farmers have highly heterogeneous perspectives, and six distinct classes of farmers are identified. We label these as the following: the concerned (14%), the uneasy (25%), the uncertain (25%), the unconcerned (13%), the confident (18%), and the detached (5%). These groups of farmers differ primarily in terms of beliefs about climate change, the degree to which they had experienced extreme weather, and risk perceptions. Despite substantial differences on these variables, areas of similarity were discerned on variables measuring farmers' (1) confidence that they will be able to deal with increases in weather variability and (2) support for public and private efforts to help farmers adapt to increased weather variability. These results can inform segmented approaches to outreach that target subpopulations of farmers as well as broader engagement strategies that would reach wider populations. Further, findings suggest that strategies with specific reference to climate change might be most effective in engaging the subpopulations of farmers who believe that climate change is occurring and a threat, but that use of less charged terms such as weather variability would likely be more effective with a broader range of farmers. Outreach efforts that (1) appeal to farmers' problem solving capacity and (2) employ terms such as "weather variability" instead of more charged terms such as "climate change" are more likely to be effective with a wider farmer audience.


This collection of essays, based on international collaboration by scholars in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, is a systematic, interdisciplinary attempt to address the social, political, and spiritual significance of the modern arts both in Japan and its empire between 1920 and 1960. These 40 years, punctuated by war, occupation, and reconstruction, were turbulent and brutal, but also important and even productive for the arts. The volume takes a trans-war (rather than an inter-war) approach, beginning with the cultural politics of painting, poetry, and fiction in Japanese-occupied Korea and Taiwan following World War I. The narrative continues with the impact of Japan's war in China and the Pacific War on major Japanese novelists, playwrights, painters, and filmmakers, before moving on to the final stage, Japan's defeat and initial recovery. During the Allied Occupation of Japan and in its aftermath, Japanese artists both confronted and dismissed the question of war responsibility by preserving, reviving, or reinventing the political cartoon, Kabuki drama, literature of the body, and the aesthetics of decadence.


We investigated whether tweets can be used to map dialect features (such as pronunciation or lexis) in the Dutch province of Limburg and, if so, how the resulting maps can be interpreted. We developed a mapping procedure based on the relative frequency of dialect variants of individual Twitter users and the relative frequencies of their geographically neighbouring Twitter users. We evaluated this procedure by comparing the geographical locations of written dialect variants retrieved from Twitter with the isoglosses and dialect regions known from dialectology. The results show that Twitter can indeed be a good source for dialect studies, when applied with some caution, to track new patterns of dialect variation caused by dialect shift and loss, internal migration within Limburg and the immigration of non-dialect speakers. Next, we compared, for the same Twitter data, this knowledge-rich approach (known dialect variants) to a knowledge-poor approach (letter trigrams). Here we found that trigram counts show strong correlational overlap with dialect variant counts, but the exact relation between the two needs further study


Arctic clouds are one of the largest uncertainties in climate modeling. Based on
the atmospheric regional climate model HIRHAM5, a single-column model version was
developed and applied to investigate the performance of a relative humidity (RH-Scheme)
and a prognostic statistical (PS-Scheme) cloud scheme in the central Arctic. The
simulated total cloud cover was evaluated with satellite-based MODIS observations.
The more sophisticated PS-Scheme, with the beta distribution as probability density
function, was identified to perform more realistically and match the observations better
than the RH-Scheme. Nevertheless, a systematic overestimation of monthly averaged total
cloud cover was found. Thus, sensitivity studies were conducted to assess the effect of
changing model "tuning" parameters. Lower values of the cloud ice threshold g_thr, which
controls the Bergeron-Findeisen process, show here the most significant reduction of
simulated Arctic cloudiness. Furthermore, the combined effect of lower g_thr and a
modified PS-Scheme (permitting negatively skewed beta distributions) can be used to
minimize biases relative to MODIS. The height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is
related to various subgrid-scale processes in the PBL and can be used to describe e.g.
cloud characteristics, like cloud-top entrainment rate or the evolution of stratocumulus
clouds, and connections between the surface and free troposphere. This study evaluates
simulated Arctic PBL heights with ERA-Interim reanalysis and GPS-RO as well as CALIOP
satellite data. HIRHAM5, ERA-Interim, and CALIOP spatial patterns agree fairly well
associated with the same annual cycle, but GPS-RO seems to be biased in the JJA and SON
seasons. While the low bias of ERA-Interim PBL heights was reconfirmed, relative
differences between HIRHAM5 and the satellite datasets show in part contrary spatial
patterns due to significant differences between GPS-RO and CALIOP.


An efficient strategy has been developed for the preparation of four generations of electroluminescent dendrimers that contain tris(distyrylbenzenyl)amine cores, stilbene dendrons, and tert-butyl surface groups. The synthesis involved coupling of benzylphosphonate focused dendrons with tris(4'-formylstilbenyl)amine to give the dendrimers in yields ranging from 63 to 86%. The dendrimers were found to be monodisperse by gel-permeation chromatography. The zeroeth generation dendrimer underwent two chemically reversible oxidations while for the higher generations only one chemically reversible oxidation was observed. On reduction, the dendrimers were found to aggregate with the level of aggregation dependent on the switching potential. The four dendrimer generations were investigated by means of optical spectroscopy. Time-resolved luminescence of the dendrimers in solution showed that the excited state of each of the generations had a monoexponential decay with a lifetime of 1.8 ns. The photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the dendrimers in solution was independent of generation and was found to be in the region of 0.62. This suggests that the origin of the luminescence is the same for all dendrimer generations. In thin films, time-resolved luminescence of the zeroeth dendrimer generation revealed a long-lived luminescence component in the red part of the spectrum with a lifetime of 7.5 ns. This emission component could not be found in the first, second, and third generation dendrimers, where the long-lived luminescence had a lifetime of 1.5-3 ns at all detection wavelengths. Furthermore, the PLQY of the dendrimer films was found to be dependent on generation and significantly lower than the solution PLQYs. The dendrimer film PLQY increased with generation from 5% for the zereoth generation to 12% for the third generation. The differences observed in the time-resolved luminescence and PLQY of the dendrimers in the solid state arise from the fact that intermolecular interactions between the emissive cores of the dendrimers are considerably stronger in the zeroeth generation than in higher generations. The intermolecular interactions result in an aggregate, which we ascribe to an excited-state species, such as an excimer.


Optical properties of India ink (1950375, Parker, Quink, England) and 1-µm polystyrene microsphere (07310-15, Polysciences, USA) have been predicted at 405nm. For this purpose, a single integrating sphere system and spectrophotometric transmission spectroscopy have been used to estimate the radiometric characteristics. Radiometric measurements utilized to retrieve optical coefficients based on two different methods. Extinction coefficient has been estimated using collimated transmittance. To reconstruct absorption and scattering coefficients, total transmittance, diffuse reflectance and transmittance were measured. Polystyrene albedo was 0.9925 and was 0.1044 for ink. The agreement of PS scattering coefficient in comparison to Mie theory was obvious. Full Text: PDF References B.W. Pogue, and M.S. Patterson, "Review of tissue simulating phantoms for optical spectroscopy, imaging and dosimetry", J. Biomed. Opt. 11, 4(2006). CrossRef D. Coluccia, J. Fandino, M. Fujioka, S. Cordovi, C. Muroi, and H. Landolt, "Intraoperative 5-aminolevulinic-acid-induced fluorescence in meningiomas", Acta. Neurochir. 152 (2010). CrossRef P. Valdes et al. "https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/8928/892809/Quantitative-spectrally-resolved-intraoperative-fluorescence-imaging-for-neurosurgical-guidance-in/10.1117/12.2039090.short", Congress. Neuro. Surg. 10, 1(2014). CrossRef S. J. Madeson, M. S. Patterson, and B. C. Wilson, "The use of India ink as an optical absorber in tissue-simulating phantoms", Phys. Med. Bio. 37, 5(1997). CrossRef P. Ninni, F. Martelli, and G. Zaccanti, "The use of India ink in tissue-simulating phantoms", Opt. Express. 18, 26(2010). CrossRef F. Martelli, and G. Zaccanti, "Calibration of scattering and absorption properties of a liquid diffusive medium at NIR wavelengths. CW method", Opt. Express.15, 2(2007). CrossRef L. Spinelli et al. "Determination of reference values for optical properties of liquid phantoms based on Intralipid and India ink", Biomed. Opt. Express. 5, 7(2014). CrossRef Y. Liu, Y. Kim, and V. Beckman, "Development of a bioengineered tissue model and its application in the investigation of the depth selectivity of polarization gating", App.Opt. 44, 12 (2005). CrossRef B. Wilson, M. Patterson, and S. Flock, "INDIRECT VERSUS DIRECT TECHNIQUES FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TISSUES", Photochem. Photobiol. 46, 5(1987). CrossRef L. L. Sandell, and T. C. Zhu, "A review of in‐vivo optical properties of human tissues and its impact on PDT", J. Biophotonics. 4,(2011). CrossRef A. Shahin, M. Sayem El-Daher, and W. Bachir, "Determination of the optical properties of Intralipid 20% over a broadband spectrum", Phot. Lett. Poland. 10, 4(2018). CrossRef A. Karinov, A. Mokeeva, E. Segeeva, P. Agrba, and M. Kirillin, "Optical properties of mouse biotissues and their optical phantoms", Opt. Spec. 115, 2(2013). CrossRef C. Matzler, Matlab Functions for Mie Scattering and Absorption, version 2 (Bern, Bern university 2002). DirectLink D. Roysten, R. Poston, and S. Prahl, "Optical properties of scattering and absorbing materials used in the development of optical phantoms at 1064 nm", JBO. 1, 1(1996). CrossRef A. Shahin, and W. Bachir, "Broadband spectroscopy for characterization of tissue-like phantom optical properties", Pol. J. Med. Phys. Eng. 21, 4(2017). CrossRef


THE HERMENEUTICS OF ESCHATOLOGICAL FULFILLMENT IN CHRIST: BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL EXEGESIS IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS Aubrey Maria Sequeira, PhD The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner This dissertation addresses the use of the OT in Hebrews using an authororiented and biblical-theological approach. The thesis advanced is that the author of Hebrews cites and alludes to the OT in a manner that is warranted by the meanings of the texts in their original contexts, but also develops and clarifies the original meaning in light of progressive biblical-theological development across the canon of Scripture and eschatological fulfillment in Christ. Furthermore, it is argued that an examination of citations and allusions to the OT illumines the biblical-theological framework and hermeneutical presuppositions guiding the author of Hebrews (his "interpretive perspective") and thus helps guide our interpretation of Scripture today. Chapter 1 introduces the subject of the NT use of the OT, briefly surveys this field, and identifies the issues of the validity and the normativity of the NT hermeneutic as controlling questions in the discussion. Chapter 2 considers the history of research on the use of the OT in Hebrews and establishes the rationale for the present work. Chapter 3 sets forth the methodology for this dissertation, describing the interpretive presuppositions and hermeneutical constraints for "biblical-theological exegesis," which is the approach employed for this study. Chapter 4 examines the citation of Isaiah 8:17–18 in Hebrews 2:13 and argues that Hebrews' interpretation of Isaiah 8:17–18 is warranted by the function of Isaiah and his "children" in the original context as typological prefigurements of the Davidic Messiah and the eschatological people of God. Isaiah 8:17–18 is interpreted through the biblical-theological framework of the book of Isaiah's promises of a new exodus and the eschatological hopes set forth in Psalm 22. Chapter 5 considers the use of Psalm 40:6–8 in Hebrews 10:5–10 and contends that the author of Hebrews reproduces what was already present in his LXX Vorlage, which interpretively renders the Hebrew. Furthermore, it is argued that Hebrews' interpretation of Psalm 40:6–8 is warranted by redemptive-historical development through a biblical-theological matrix of interconnected texts across the OT canon (Exod 25:9; Ps 110:1, 4; Jer 31:31–34; and Isa 53) and eschatological fulfillment in Christ. Chapter 6 investigates the citation of Habakkuk 2:3–4 (with the introductory allusion to Isa 26:20) in Hebrews 10:37–38 and maintains the author's interpretation of Habakkuk 2:3–4 goes beyond Habakkuk's original meaning, but by extending it rather the contravening it. Habakkuk 2:3–4 is shown to be open-ended and eschatological in its orientation, anticipating its fulfillment in Christ's second coming. Chapter 7 proposes certain allusions in Hebrews and investigates what they reveal about the author's "interpretive perspective." First, this chapter posits an allusion to the Abrahamic promise of a "great name" in Hebrews 1:4 and argues that Hebrews understands this promise in light of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, now fulfilled in Christ. Second, this chapter maintains that allusions to the new exodus in Hebrews 2:10–18 and 13:20–21 indicate that Hebrews sees the hopes of an eschatological new exodus as fulfilled through Christ's death and resurrection. Chapter 8 distills the findings of the previous chapters to delineate the author's hermeneutical principles and describe his "interpretive perspective." On the basis of this description, a prescriptive framework is set forth for Christian interpreters today to imitate the exegesis of the author of Hebrews.


Abstract. The collision-induced O2 complex, O2O2, is a very important trace gas for understanding remote sensing measurements of aerosols, cloud properties and atmospheric trace gases. Many ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) measurements of the O2O2 optical depth require correction factors of 0.75 ± 0.1 to reproduce radiative transfer modeling (RTM) results for a nearly pure Rayleigh atmosphere. One of the potential causes of this discrepancy is uncertainty in laboratory-measured O2O2 absorption cross section temperature and pressure dependencies due to difficulties in replicating atmospheric conditions in the laboratory environment. This paper presents ground-based direct-sun (DS) and airborne multi-axis (AMAX) DOAS measurements of O2O2 absorption optical depths under actual atmospheric conditions in two wavelength regions (335–390 and 435–490 nm). DS irradiance measurements were made by the Washington State University research-grade Multi-Function Differential Spectroscopy Instrument instrument from 2007 to 2014 at seven sites with significant pressure (778 to 1013 hPa) and O2O2 profile-weighted temperature (247 to 275 K) differences. Aircraft MAX-DOAS measurements were conducted by the University of Colorado (CU) AMAX-DOAS instrument on 29 January 2012 over the Southern Hemispheric subtropical Pacific Ocean. Scattered solar radiance spectra were collected at altitudes between 9 and 13.2 km, with O2O2 profile-weighted temperatures of 231 to 244 K and nearly pure Rayleigh scattering conditions. Due to the well-defined DS air-mass factors during ground-based measurements and extensively characterized atmospheric conditions during the aircraft AMAX-DOAS measurements, O2O2 "pseudo" absorption cross sections, σ, are derived from the observed optical depths and estimated O2O2 column densities. Vertical O2O2 columns are calculated from the atmospheric sounding temperature, pressure and specific humidity profiles. Based on the ground-based atmospheric DS observations, there is no pressure dependence of the O2O2 σ within the measurement errors (3%). Two data sets are combined to derive the peak σ temperature dependence of the 360 and 477 nm dimer absorption bands from 231 to 275 K. DS and AMAX-derived peak σ ( O2O2) as a function of T can be described by a quadratic function at 360 nm and linear function at 477 nm with about 9% ± 2.5% per 44 K rate. Recent laboratory-measured O2O2 cross sections by Thalman and Volkamer (2013) agree with these "DOAS apparent" peak σ( O2O2) at 233, 253 and 273 K within 3%. Changes in the O2O2 spectral band shape at colder temperatures are observed for the first time in field data. Temperature effects on spectral band shapes can introduce errors in the retrieved O2O2 column abundances if a single room temperature σ( O2O2) is used in the DOAS analysis. Simultaneous fitting of σ( O2O2) at temperatures that bracket the ambient temperature range can reduce such errors. Our results show that laboratory-measured σ( O2O2) (Hermans, 2011, at 296 K and Thalman and Volkamer, 2013) are applicable for observations over a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Column densities derived using Hermans (2011) σ at 296 K require very small correction factors (0.94 ± 0.02 at 231 K and 0.99 ± 0.02 at 275 K) to reproduce theoretically calculated slant column densities for DS and AMAX-DOAS measurements. Simultaneous fitting of σ( O2O2) at 203 and 293 K further improved the results at UV and visible wavelengths for AMAX-DOAS.


Construction industry, as one of the main contributor in depletion of natural resources, influences climate change. This paper discusses incremental and evolutionary development of the proposed models for optimization of a life-cycle analysis to explicit strategy for evaluation systems. The main categories are virtually irresistible for introducing uncertainties, uptake composite structure model (CSM) as environmental management systems (EMSs) in a practice science of evaluation small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The model simplified complex systems to reflect nature systems' input, output and outcomes mode influence "framework measures" and give a maximum likelihood estimation of how elements are simulated over the composite structure. The traditional knowledge of modeling is based on physical dynamic and static patterns regarding parameters influence environment. It unified methods to demonstrate how construction systems ecology interrelated from management prospective in procedure reflects the effect of the effects of engineering systems to ecology as ultimately unified technologies in extensive range beyond constructions impact so as, energy systems. Sustainability broadens socioeconomic parameters to practice science that meets recovery performance, engineering reflects the generic control of protective systems. When the environmental model employed properly, management decision process in governments or corporations could address policy for accomplishment strategic plans precisely. The management and engineering limitation focuses on autocatalytic control as a close cellular system to naturally balance anthropogenic insertions or aggregation structure systems to pound equilibrium as steady stable conditions. Thereby, construction systems ecology incorporates engineering and management scheme, as a midpoint stage between biotic and abiotic components to predict constructions impact. The later outcomes' theory of environmental obligation suggests either a procedures of method or technique that is achieved in sustainability impact of construction system ecology (SICSE), as a relative mitigation measure of deviation control, ultimately. Keywords—Sustainability, constructions ecology, composite structure model, design structure matrix, environmental impact assessment, life cycle analysis, climate change.


Culvert flow computations are generally computed by the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) nemographs or its HY8 computer program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (COE) HEC-2 computer program, and the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) culvert program. However, the USGS culvert program is not as widely known as HY8 or HEC-2 programs. FHWA nomographs are also applied in the Soil Conservation Service's WSP2 computer program and FHWA-USGS WSPRO computer program. This paper examines the ability of the programs to analyze differen types of flow through the culvert when the inlet is submerged. Although the USGS culvert program can analyze all types of flow, the decision to choose the proper type of flow is left to the user. However, HEC-2 and HY8 programs do not have an option to analyze for full flow with free outlet condition (USGS type 6 flow). This paper presents a procedure to select consistent typer of flow through culverts. The differences in results amoung the present computer programs and suggested procedure can best be illustrated by an example.


This study analyzed the process of subject formation in South African underground hip hoppers. The main focus of the study was to explore how resistance is constructed and achieved through embodied discursive practices and discourse in underground Hip Hop music. The study analyzed how the terms, 'Representing', 'Keeping it real' and 'Hustling', were used by hip hoppers in their construction of a hip hop subject. These terms were used by the hip hoppers as the standard against which all hip hoppers are compared if they are to be considered authentic hip hoppers.
It was found that resistance was framed in the form of a heroic narrative that made use of these vernacular terms. The word 'Hustling' was used to denote the difficulties that face the hero in a heroic narrative. This heroic narrative was a strategy in which the hip hoppers repositioned themselves as heroes fighting in a hard world, one full of inopportunity against people like themselves. Overcoming this space was important to the hip hoppers but retaining connections to it was also seen as equally important. Because of the history of opposition surrounding the emergence of hip hop, claiming and retaining marginalization remain important to hip hoppers in accounts of themselves.


BACKGROUND
The outcomes of urethroplasty in the management of different types of hypospadias have continued to improve since the introduction of the tubularized incised plate (TIP) urethroplasty (Snodgrass method). The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of TIP urethroplasty in the management of different types of hypospadias.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This work was carried out at Al-Azhar University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt in the period from January 2002 to December 2002 and King Abdul Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia; in the period from January 2003 to January 2007 by the same authors. The medical records of 175 boys with different types of hypospadias, who underwent TIP urethroplasty, were critically reviewed. Their age ranged from 9 to 36 months (mean age; 22.72 +/- 7.75 months).The period of follow-up was ranged from 7 to 60 months (mean 34.42 +/- 15.41).

RESULTS
All families were happy with penile aesthetic appearance. The total number of boys with different types of hypospadias was 175 (145 1ry and 30 2ry). Out of 175 cases, the overall urethrocutaneous fistula rate was 11 (6.29%), and the overall rates for glanular dehiscence, urethral stricture, meatal stenosis and meatal regression were 4 (2.29%), 5 (2.86%), 17 (9.71%), and 10 (5.71%), respectively. All cases of urethral stricture and most cases of meatal stenosis 12 (6.86%) responded well to regular urethral dilatation. Meatoplasty was performed in only 5 (2.85%) cases (1 of 1ry and 4 of 2ry cases). Secondary surgery for fistula repair and glans closure was successful in all patients. All children void with a single straight urinary stream in a forward direction, and have a rounded glans with vertical slit- like terminal glanular meatus. The mean hospital stay was 4.6 days.

CONCLUSION
TIP urethroplasty with neourethral coverage using a vascularized pedicle of dartos flap is versatile and simple operation in management of different types of hypospadias. It has a good functional and cosmetic outcome.


The importance of environmental fluctuations in the evolution of living organisms by natural selection has been widely
noted by biologists and linked to many important characteristics of life such as modularity, plasticity, genotype size, mutation rate, learning, or epigenetic adaptations. In artificial-life simulations, however, environmental fluctuations are usually seen as a nuisance rather than an essential characteristic of evolution. HetCA is a heterogeneous cellular automata characterized by its ability to generate open-ended long-term evolution and "evolutionary progress". In this paper, we propose to measure the impact of different types of environmental fluctuations in HetCA. Our results indicate that environmental changes induce mechanisms analogous to epigenetic adaptation or multilevel selection. This is particularly prevalent in two of the tested fluctuation schemes, which involve a round-robin inhibition of certain cell types, where phenotypic selection seems to occur.


Whether stromal components facilitate growth, invasion, and dissemination of cancer cells or suppress neoplastic lesions from further malignant progression is a continuing conundrum in tumor biology. Conceptualizing a dynamic picture of tumorigenesis is complicated by inter-individual heterogeneity. In the post genomic era, unraveling such complexity remains a challenge for the cancer biologist. Towards establishing a functional association between cellular crosstalk and differential cancer aggressiveness, we identified a signature of malignant breast epithelial response to stromal signaling. Proximity to fibroblasts resulted in gene transcript alterations of >2-fold for 107 probes, collectively designated as Fibroblast Triggered Gene Expression in Tumor (FTExT). The hazard ratio predicted by the FTExT classifier for distant relapse in patients with intermediate and high grade breast tumors was significant compared to routine clinical variables (dataset 1, n = 258, HR – 2.11, 95% CI 1.17–3.80, p-value 0.01; dataset 2, n = 171, HR - 3.07, 95% CI 1.21–7.83, p-value 0.01). Biofunctions represented by FTExT included inflammatory signaling, free radical scavenging, cell death, and cell proliferation. Unlike genes of the 'proliferation cluster', which are overexpressed in aggressive primary tumors, FTExT genes were uniquely repressed in such cases. As proof of concept for our correlative findings, which link stromal-epithelial crosstalk and tumor behavior, we show a distinctive differential in stromal impact on prognosis-defining functional endpoints of cell cycle progression, and resistance to therapy-induced growth arrest and apoptosis in low vs. high grade cancer cells. Our experimental data thus reveal aspects of 'paracrine cooperativity' that are exclusively contingent upon the histopathologically defined grade of interacting tumor epithelium, and demonstrate that epithelial responsiveness to the tumor microenvironment is a deterministic factor underlying clinical outcome. In this light, early attenuation of epithelial-stromal crosstalk could improve the management of cases prone to be clinically challenging.


The Commendatory Verses included in the 1590 edition of Spenser's The Faerie Queene merit more sustained attention. (1) These often-overlooked poems provide both valuable indices to contemporary assumptions about the poem and the author, and, I would contend, points of entry into Spenser's epic vision. Indeed, the Commendatory Verses can cue us to aspects of Spenser's poem that might otherwise remain neglected or obscured. This is certainly the case with the poems by R.S., H. B., and Ignoto. These poems are quite unlike the other four in the sequence in several respects, but especially in sketching a London context for The Faerie Queene. Those by R. S. and Ignoto situate Spenser's poem firmly within London's commercial culture. The poem by R. S., which I will examine in detail, draws particularly on London's mercantile character and seaborne aspirations. Equipped with the perspectives afforded by this context, we can return to Spenser's poem to consider how Spenser's imperial epic vision accommodates commercial values. This is a question that does not customarily figure in critical discussions of Spenser's aims, despite recent and increasing interest in cities, London, and mercantile culture. (2) My aims in this essay will be primarily heuristic, fittingly, I think, since Spenser's own views of mercantilism eschew easy classification; what I hope to do is promote discussions that contextualize The Faerie Queene in new, or at least newly re-tooled, ways. The poem by R. S., the fourth in the sequence, introduces several new notes into the chorus of praise accompanying The Faerie Queene. Its opening apostrophe--which is not to Spenser, or the poem, or the queen, but to "FAyre Thamis streame" (1)--announces a significant departure from the literary milieux and the close hermeneutical quarters outlined in the preceding poems, two by Ralegh and one by Harvey. Harvey's poem in particular, as I have suggested elsewhere (Owens 75-77), beggars Spenser's achievement, not only by carping about Spenser's abandonment of the pastoral mode, but also by imagining that Spenser's aim is primarily to "feast the humour of the courtly trayne" (32) and by urging Spenser to subject himself--and his imperial vision--entirely to Elizabeth's "Empyring spright" (35). While Ralegh's is an altogether more ample and thrilling conception of The Faerie Queene as a momentous achievement, a vision that installs Spenser in the pantheon of great poets that includes Homer and Petrarch, Ralegh, too, narrows Spenser's audience (and so closes the hermeneutic circle) to include just Ralegh himself, long-dead poets, and the queen. With its opening reference to the Thames, R. S.'s poem takes us from the rarefied air of Ralegh's poems and the unctuousness of Harvey's praise right into the heart of London. In doing so, R. S.'s poem prompts us to consider contexts, constituencies, audiences, and aims that are substantially different from those assumed by Ralegh and Harvey. I Far from simply setting a new scene, R. S.'s invoking of the Thames draws, in subtle and sustained ways, upon certain features of the river, and the activities it supports, to create a milieu for Spenser and his epic that capitalizes on London's growth in shipping and mercantile ventures. Like the actual ebbing and flowing Thames, R. S.'s river flows in two directions, first running in "tribute to the Ocean seas" and then reversing its course to "Present ... prayes" of "this Bryttane Orpheus" to the "sacred crowne" living near the river's bank, that is, at Westminster (2, 8, 4, 5). In accounting for London's expanding commercial and seaborne mercantile life, contemporary commentators identify the Thames's tidal nature as a prominent contributing factor in this growth. John Stow, for example, notes the usefulness of a tide that "twice in twenty-four hours' space doth ebb and flow more than sixty miles in length," remarking that it serves "to the great commodity of travellers, by which all kind of merchandise be easily conveyed to London" (13). …


This book describes the most important kinds of texts in English and introduces the methodological techniques used to analyse them. Three analytical approaches are introduced and compared, describing a wide range of texts from the perspectives of register, genre and style. The primary focus of the book is on the analysis of registers. Part 1 introduces an analytical framework for studying registers, genre conventions, and styles. Part 2 provides detailed descriptions of particular text varieties in English, including spoken interpersonal varieties (conversation, university office hours, service encounters), written varieties (newspapers, academic prose, fiction), and emerging electronic varieties (e-mail, internet forums, text messages). Finally, Part 3 introduces advanced analytical approaches using corpora, and discusses theoretical concerns, such as the place of register studies in linguistics, and practical applications of register analysis. Each chapter ends with three types of activities: reflection and review activities, analysis activities, and larger project ideas.


Africa's dynamic security environment is characterized by great diversity—from conventional challenges such as insurgencies, resource and identity conflicts, and post-conflict stabilization to growing threats from piracy, narcotics trafficking, violent extremism, and organized crime taking root in urban slums, among others. This precarious environment jeopardizes security at the societal, community and individual levels. In a globalized and interconnected world, millions of people worldwide are affected by some form of human insecurity. Infectious and parasitic diseases annually kill millions. Internally displaced persons number millions, including 5 million in Sudan alone. In Zambia 1 million people in a population of 11 million are reported to be HIV-positive, a situation much worse in other countries. Potable water crisis looms almost everywhere. In this book Tatah Mentan points out the need to shift the focus away from a state-centric and military-strategic emphasis on security to an interdisciplinary and people-centric approach that embraces notions like global citizenship, empowerment and participation. The primary elements of economic, food, health, environment, personal, community and political security all comprise the broader understanding of human security in an intricately interconnected world.


Presenting new research findings on undocumented Indonesian migrant workers in Macau, this article explicates the dovetailing arrangements between public and private sector interests that are systemically creating undocumented labor migration flows. It then shows how these arrangements are structurally inherent in the mutual competitiveness of globalizing nodes of wealth creation. Undocumented migration cheapens production costs and results in a flexible black market of vulnerable, right-less, and exploited workers. Contrary to illusions of an urbanizing Asia with expanding spaces for civil liberties, the development of globally competitive megacities, built and supported by low-skilled migrant workers, rests on a global underclass of transient workers who bear the human costs of transience and labor flexibility, enabling megacities to externalize such costs and enhance their global competitiveness. The article analyzes the vulnerabilities of undocumented Indonesian workers in the context of Macau's rapid economic development as an aspiring megacity The Macau government's laissez-faire tolerance of such workers is grounded in its need for human labor that is abundant, cheap, marginal, and disposable. The flow of Indonesian migrant workers into Macau is linked to Hong Kong's exclusionary immigration policies, which aim at extricating surplus migrant labor. Meanwhile, the Indonesian government refuses responsibility for its migrant workers in Macau because Macau is not recognized as an official destination. The article shows how public and private interests motivate increasing numbers of migrants to become undocumented overstayers in Macau, as they try to avoid oppressive practices in labor migration from Indonesia and the exclusionary policies of Hong Kong.


Standard real-time 3D graphics rendering algorithms use brute force polygon rendering, with complexity linear in the number of polygons and little regard for limiting processing to data that contributes to the image. Modern hardware can now render smaller scenes to pixel levels of detail, relaxing surface connectivity requirements. Sub-linear scalability optimizations are typically self-contained, requiring specific data structures, without shared functions and data. A new point based rendering algorithm 'Canopy' is investigated that combines multiple typically sub-linear scalability solutions, using a small core of data structures. Specifically, locale management, hierarchical view volume culling, backface culling, occlusion culling, level of detail and depth ordering are addressed. To demonstrate versatility further, shadows and collision detection are examined. Polygon models are voxelized with interpolated attributes to provide points. A scene tree is constructed, based on a BSP tree of points, with compressed attributes. The scene tree is embedded in a compressed, partitioned, procedurally based scene graph architecture that mimics conventional systems with groups, instancing, inlines and basic read on demand rendering from backing store. Hierarchical scene tree refinement constructs an image tree image space equivalent, with object space scene node points projected, forming image node equivalents. An image graph of image nodes is maintained, describing image and object space occlusion relationships, hierarchically refined with front to back ordering to a specified threshold whilst occlusion culling with occluder fusion. Visible nodes at medium levels of detail are refined further to rasterization scales. Occlusion culling defines a set of visible nodes that can support caching for temporal coherence. Occlusion culling is approximate, possibly not suiting critical applications. Qualities and performance are tested against standard rendering. Although the algorithm has a 0(f) upper bound in the scene sizef, it is shown to practically scale sub-linearly. Scenes with several hundred billion polygons conventionally, are rendered at interactive frame rates with minimal graphics hardware support.


Norway is at a crossroad with its drug policies. In the end of 2019,a model for a Drug Reform that will put an end to punishment for use and possession of illegal drugs will be presented to the Ministries of Health and Justice.The goal is to offer help from health services instead.In this reform climate I wanted to explore possibilities for service innovation in the drug care landscape to give new beginnings to persons with addiction challenges. I came across harm reduction,which is an approach to improve health and give persons with high-risk addiction challenges a more dignified life,through offerings such as safe injection sites with supervison and sterile syringes. My diploma proposes a new public service, Luna, which serves as national harm reduction centers. At Luna,the members can get a more comprehensive care package when living a high-risk drug life. A person with high-risk addiction needs more than just health care,that means help with nutrition, hygiene,social inclusion and other aspects that relates to human well-being. Luna is a holistic approach to the user's needs and an attitude towards drug care. It includes a language, a set of values and offerings, service structure, identity and new ways of delivering public drug related services. Luna's values are openness & tolerance, support & responsibility. Luna brings brighter days to its members. Luna – for lysere dager.


Methodology texts frequently emphasize the limitations of self-report measures. Empirical information on the validity of self-report data, however, tends to be limited to particular topics and populations. This paper examines the validity of self-report data in a sample of young adolescents for whom objective and self-report data were available on course grades, height, and weight. A comparison of the two kinds of data generally supported the validity of the self-reports, although there was some evidence of response effects. It was concluded that while young adolescents exhibit some systematic errors in reporting, self-reports can provide a useful substitute for some kinds of objective data.


This article analyzes how the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is recalled and described by members of a Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) whose leadership can be linked to the 1994 atrocities in Rwanda. The article explores how individuals belonging to this rebel group, currently operating in the eastern territories of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), articulate, contest, and oppose the dominant narrative of the Rwandan genocide. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with members of the FDLR in a rebel camp, this article shows how a community of exiled fi ghters and second-generation Hutu refugees contest the official version of genocide by constructing a counterhistory of it. Th rough organized practices such as political demonstrations and military performances, it further shows how political ideologies and violence are being manufactured and reproduced within a setting of military control.


Numerical deconvolution is a powerful mathematical operation that can be used to extract the impulse response function of a linear, time-invariant system. We have found this method to be useful for preliminary analysis of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) data, capable of quickly producing voxel-wise parametric maps describing the heterogeneity of contrast agent kinetics over the entire field of view, typically comprising tens of thousands of voxels. The statistical programming language R is well suited for this type of analysis and when combined with LATEX, via Sweave, allows one to perform all calculations and generate a report with a single script. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the R package DATforDCEMRI, a Deconvolution Analysis Tool for DCE-MRI contrast agent concentration vs. time data, which allows the user to perform kinetic deconvolution analysis and visualize/explore the resulting voxel-wise parametric maps and associated data.