Because Urban Design is a territory of integrative synthesis, the  "overall view" that it requires comes through the collaboration of various sources of knowledge, some through professional  and others through non-professional knowledge of users. The representation of actors involved in design (be them other professionals, urban deciders or users) is a part of research and teaching culture for several reasons namely because social and cultural interaction in the context of Urban Design management requires several capacities. CRPOLIS, an research interdisciplinary center on urban studies in Barcelona University is linked to Urban Design teaching at master's degree level and supports an interdisciplinary research program also at PhD level in collaboration with other centers, in Spain and Portugal (such as CESUR-IST) where some cases of real "hands on" processes are developed. The role of interdisciplinarity in collaborative knowledge is relevant in gathering and interacting in three major directions: In the construction of collaborative interdisciplinary research methodologies In the design process of cities in transformation In the development of design practice and studio teaching methods We shall see in this paper how interdisciplinary approaches correspond to new and complex urban transformations, focusing on the importance of actors' interaction processes, combining professional and non-professional knowledge and theory-practice relations. Therefore, we aim at a deepening in public space area of knowledge under the growing complexity of urban life. We see it as a base for further development of collaborative projects and their implications on community empowerment and urban governance at local level. Motivations of this line of work are persistent in several ongoing research projects, aiming to: - Understand public space as a cohesion factor both in urban life and urban form - Manage processes and strategies as elements of urban transformation, - Stimulate the understanding of actors' roles in urban design practices. - Favoring the questioning of emerging aspects of urban space production… The paper presents and analyses processes, methods and results from civic participation projects developed in the neighbourhood of Baro de Viver (Barcelona) and in the District of Marvila (Lisbon). In the first case, a long process initiated in 2004 and partially completed in 2011, neighbours developed the projects "Memory Wall" and Ciutat d'Asuncion Promenade as part of identity construction in public space, in collaboration  with a team of facilitators from CrPolis group. In the second case, different participatory processes dated from 2001 and 2003 have resulted in the implementation of a specific identity urban brand and communication system with an ongoing project of "maps" construction according to the neighbours perception and representation systems. We may conclude that processes of urban governance require more active participation of citizens in projects regarding the improvement of quality of life. At the same time, the implementation of these processes requires a clear interdisciplinary approach, both with respect to the negotiation processes and the development of public space as an "urban structuring product" that we can axiomatically define by its multidimensional structure and its interaction with urban social life. In all these projects neighbors have a prominent role, which in theory and method offers a serious reflection on how to develop participatory processes on public space with actors interaction at the same level, with local governments, experts and politicians, involving non-professional knowledge in collaborative environment


The present research sought to investigate stress in the New Zealand Army from a transactional perspective (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Traditional models of stress have focused on linear or cause and effect relationships, often referred to as stressor-strain models, when attempting to explain the complex nature of stress. However, stressor-strain models often emphasise the negative consequences of stress and tend to incorporate a "one size fits all" approach where stress is assumed to be negative and unavoidable. It is argued that people differ in their response to stress, the types of stress they experience as well as the intensity and duration of stressful encounters. The current research investigated appraisal, coping, cognitive hardiness and work related stress in 439 military personnel. Positive and negative outcomes were measured as well as the role of moderating and mediating variables in the stress process. Results provide empirical support for a transactional model of occupational stress consisting of both negative and positive pathways. Associations were found between challenge appraisals, adaptive coping and positive psychological and physical outcomes. Associations were also found between threat appraisals, maladaptive coping and negative psychological and physical outcomes. Cognitive hardiness was not found to be associated with building adaptive coping strategies and did not mediate or moderate the positive pathway to stress. However, cognitive hardiness did mediate the negative pathway suggesting a potential protective element to this construct.


Several dCTP or dATP analogues, bearing an azido or amino group on 2'- or 3'-position of its sugar moiety, were examined for their inhibitory effects on DNA polymerase alpha 2-primase from developing cherry salmon (Oncorhynchus masou) testes, and the recognition of sugar moieties of the analogues by primase and related nucleic acid polymerases were compared. Among the dCTP analogues tested, 2'-azido-2',3'-dideoxy CTP inhibited primase strongly and RNA polymerases I and II to lesser extent. Although, the Ki value for primase was larger than those of RNA polymerases, the Ki/Km value for primase was smaller. In contrast, 3'-amino-2',3'-dideoxy CTP selectively inhibited DNA polymerase beta. In dATP analogue series, 3'-amino-3'-deoxy ATP inhibited RNA polymerases I and II very strongly to the same extent as 3'-deoxy ATP. This analogues was a more selective inhibitor for RNA polymerases I and II than 3'-dATP itself.


Background. Alcoholism is a public health problem. Chronic ethanol consumption determines physiological and morphological changes, reflected by an abnormal response to regular medication and nutrients, with consequences on the efficiency of anesthesia and the surgical act. Material and methods. A retrospective study was conducted on the latest 1750 cases (2016-2018), hospitalized and operated, in which the preoperative identification of alcohol abuse was made by dosing biochemical markers (gamma-glutamyl transferase, poor carbohydrate transferrin and medium erythrocytic corpuscular volume), by standard questionnaires and, of course, by preanesthetic exam. Results and discussions. The study showed a rate of 8% (140 cases) of alcohol abuse among these surgical patients. The paper reviews the somatic complications of alcoholism: neurological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, metabolic, hematological, immunological and hormonal, and discusses the effectiveness of the study method. Conclusions. It is proposed to implement a preoperative identification protocol for patients with alcoholism to prevent postoperative withdrawal.


Objective: The present study was undertaken to explore the effect of piperine in obesity induced insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and methods: Male Sprague dawley rats were fed High fat diet (HFD) for first 8 weeks to develop obesity which induced insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. Later on piperine (400 mg/kg) and sibutramine (5 mg/kg) were administered for 3 weeks along with the continuation of HFD to two separate groups which served as test and standard respectively. Result: Body weight, serum triglyceride and glucose levels were measured at the end of 4th, 8th (before treatment) and 11th (after treatment) week while insulin tolerance test and fat mass were measured at the end of 11th week in normal, HFD-control, test and standard groups. Conclusion: Piperine significantly reduced not only body weight, fat mass, triglyceride and glucose levels but also improved sensitivity of exogenous insulin. The above results suggest that piperine has significant anti-obesity, antidiabetic activity and also improved insulin sensitivity.


Background: This study addresses the fast developing behavioural issue of cyberbullying in schools and its complex legal context. Purpose: This study set out to investigate teachers' perceptions of the extent of cyberbullying and the extent to which school leaders in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland feel knowledgeable and confident about dealing with cyberbullying problems in school. The study also examined the legal responsibility that schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have in dealing with incidents of cyberbullying. Sample: The sample comprised 14 headteachers and senior teachers from primary and post-primary schools (focus groups), and a further 143 school headteachers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland who responded to the postal questionnaire. Design and Methods: The sample was stratified according to geographical location, school management type and school size. The study had qualitative and quantitative elements. Focus group discussions were held in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland involving experienced primary and post-primary teachers and headteachers. Questionnaires were sent to primary and post-primary school headteachers (n = 143 completed: response rate = 28.6%). Data were analysed to provide a descriptive overview of knowledge and attitudes as well as the experiences of staff working in schools in both jurisdictions. Results: The study indicates that school leaders in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland reported a level of frustration in their attempts to deal with the growing and very complex problem of cyberbullying. They expressed a desire for more guidance from their respective government departments of education. Analysis of data suggests that confusion surrounding the legal responsibilities of schools was common in both jurisdictions. Findings indicate that rather than relying on evidence-based strategies and procedures proposed by government, school leaders were resorting to ad hoc solutions, at best consulting neighbouring schools, while trying to unravel intricate webs of interpersonal online aggressive acts, many of which had taken place outside of school and outside-of-school hours. Conclusion: Recommendations are made in relation to the development and dissemination of training and resources for schools in both jurisdictions. In describing the challenges faced by school leaders in dealing with cyberbullying, this study highlights, more generally, the need for the development of guidance and professional support frameworks to help educators manage the problems that are presented by this complex and evolving social phenomenon.


A trading ratio is required for water quality trading that involves nonpoint sources to compensate for the difficulty of determining nonpoint loadings, the stochastic characteristics of nonpoint loadings, and the uncertainty inherent in nonpoint source pollution control strategies. Compensating for risk and uncertainty is one of the primary justifications that a trading ratio greater than one is commonly considered. However, the appropriate specific value of a trading ratio remains unclear because of qualitative differences between point and nonpoint sources. This study addresses a growing concern with the analytical underpinnings of point/nonpoint trading ratios in water quality trading programs. This paper considers a basic spatial-temporal optimal control model assuming that the goal of the decision maker is to maximize ecological services from the watershed over a 10-year planning horizon given a predetermined budget each year to treat acid mine drainage problems. The level of pollution is assumed to be known but declining slightly over time as the acid mine drainage sources evolve. Resources are assumed to be spent on remediation projects that produce long term but declining treatment results. The primary goal of the model is to distribute the available resources over the basin by investing in restoration projects for targeted streams each year that will maximize the ecological return on this investment. The model reflects both the spatial reality of variations in flow, in pollution, in treatment, and in the ecological benefits produced and the intertemporal constraints of limited resources and the inability to move remediation programs once the initial investment is made. The resulting optimal temporal and spatial investment strategies are derived from solutions to a mixed integer programming problem obtained using the GAMS/CPLEX mixed integer programming package. The optimal results are then manipulated to evaluate trading ratios. A hypothetical acidity trading scenario is proposed in which a point source (a new coal mine operation subject to TMDL rules) uses credits generated through remediation projects at other sites from treatment of nonpoint sources within the same basin over the 10-year planning horizon. The trading ratio is the ratio of the expected amount of pollutant removed by treating the nonpoint source divided by the amount of additional pollution allowed from the new point source. Our results indcate that point/nonpoint trading ratios in proposed trading scenarios greater than one can be justified. For example, for a point/nonpoint trade between sources in adjacent stream segments, the appropriate trading ratio is 3.66 (or 3.66 to one). We note that current regulations give a lower bound for point/nonpoint trading ratio of 1:1. The upper bound for point/nonpoint trading ratio depends on technical aspects of the relative costs of treating the point source or treating nonpoint sources and reflects the limit of how much one is willing to pay for credits. A variety of factors determine trading ratios. First, to encourage trades with less uncertainty, trades in which the credit seller and buyer are in close proximity, and in which the credit seller is upstream, lower trading ratios are recommended. Second, trading ratios should be adjusted to favor trades that contribute to strategic restoration goals such as the improvement or maintenance of water quality in a particular basin. Reduced ratios provide incentives to promote the generation of credits in priority locations. Finally, trading ratios for same-pollutant trades should be lower than those for cross-pollutant trades. Three separate trading currencies would be used to account for same-pollutant acid mine drainage trades: pounds of iron, aluminum, and manganese. There would be little uncertainty in the outcome of a trade if the credit generator and buyer were affecting the same pollutant. In contrast, cross-pollutant trades that use a common currency such as ecological indices would be measured based on their ecological effect, which is one step removed from the actual changes in pollutant loads. The higher trading ratio required for cross-pollutant trades reflects this greater uncertainty. All potential trades considered in this study are interspatial trades; trades occur in the same basin; trades could be cross-pollutant trades within acid mine draiange and same-pollutant trades as well; and the credit buyer is the new coal mining operation; credit generators could be government agencies or nonprofit organization; and abandned mine lands and bond forfeiture sites can be sites where credits are generated.


Although it is known that wetland plant species exhibit considerable interspecific variation in salt tolerance across coastal plant communities, very little is known concerning the amount of intraspecific variation in salt tolerance within plant species. Panicum hemitomon. Spartina patens and Spartina altemiflora are dominant emergent macrophytes of fresh, brackish and salt marshes, respectively. To investigate intraspecific variation in salt tolerance, plant material was collected from Gulf Coast populations of each of these species and subjected to a salinity screening protocol. All three of the plant species displayed significant intraspecific variation in lethal salinity level and plant morphology. Lethal salinity levels ranged from 7.6%o to 12.0%o in Panicum hemitomon. from 63%c to 93%o in Spartina patens, and from 83%0 to 115%o in Spartina altemiflora. Population morphological differences were most correlated with salt tolerance in Panicum hemitomon. the fresh marsh dominant and least correlated with Spartina altemiflora. the salt marsh dominant. Investigations conducted at sublethal salinity levels on subsets of populations showed that plant photosynthetic response was able to differentiate highly salt-tolerant and poorly salt-tolerant populations within each species to varying degrees. These differences were greatest in Panicum populations, with the highly salt-tolerant populations having higher photosynthetic rates and greater water use efficiencies. Highly salt-tolerant populations of Panicum hemitomon and Spartina patens were able to limit the total cation concentrations in their leaves, maintain greater leaf xylem pressures, and accumulate less proline than poorly salt tolerant populations, but apparently had only limited control over the ionic composition. Conversely, Spartina altemiflora populations showed no differences in leaf total cation concentrations, but the highly salt-tolerant populations were able to selectively decrease their Na:K ratio and accumulate more glycinebetaine than poorly salt-tolerant populations. It is concluded that in Panicum hemitomon plant size factors and photosynthetic rates are important in explaining population differences in salt tolerance by providing more mature tissue for the translocation of salts away from actively growing regions. The importance of plant morphology decreases as physiological/biochemical responses become progressively more important in explaining intraspecific variation in salt tolerance in Spartina patens and Spartina altemiflora.


This paper was presented as a lecture for the 2005 Clarke Prize. It addresses the global challenge for adequate and safe water through several cases involving water scarcity and quality. The first case, in Namibia, exemplifies water scarcity and the harnessing of water science and technology to extract water for potable use from a nontraditional source – domestic wastewater. The second case focuses on water scarcity and the implications for national stability and regional peace, illustrated by Israel and its neighboring countries. The third discussion is related to water quality, specifically the lack of safe drinking water in the developing world. Drawing from these cases, it is shown that global water scarcity and quality problems involve complex technological, societal, cultural, economical, and political aspects.


The Merger Guidelines released in March 2008 by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) provide a guide to the analytical approach the ACCC intends to adopt to assessing mergers for the purposes of s.50 of the Trade Practices Act. The new Guidelines do a relatively good job in listing the factors that the contemporary economic literature identifies as potentially characterising mergers that reduce competition and harm consumer welfare. However, unlike the earlier Guidelines, they rarely explain the mechanism connecting the factors to the harm, and the conditions that need to be met for that harm to occur. This paper provides a "user's guide" to the Guidelines that explains the reasoning that underpins the Guidelines' assertions, and draws attention to the assumptions on which those assertions rest. We also provide an economic assessment of the Guidelines and recommend a simpler criterion by which the ACCC should judge mergers.


Hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and leading cause of premature death globally. In 2008, approximately 40% of adults were diagnosed with hypertension, with more than 1.5 billion people estimated to be affected globally by 2025. Hypertension disproportionally affects low- and middle-income countries, where the prevalence is higher and where the health systems are more fragile. This qualitative study explored patients' experiences on the management and control of hypertension in rural Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. We conducted sixty semi-structured interviews, with 20 participants in each country. Hypertensive individuals were recruited based on age, gender and hypertensive status. Overall, patients' reported symptoms across the three countries were quite similar, although perceptions of hypertension were mixed. The majority of patients reported low knowledge on how to prevent or treat hypertension. The main barriers to accessing health services, as reported by participants, were inadequate services and poor quality of existing facilities, shortage of medicine supplies, busyness of doctors due to high patient load, long travel distance to facilities, and long waiting times once facilities were reached. Patients also mentioned that cost was a barrier to accessing services and adhering to medication. Many patients, when asked for areas of improvement, reported on the importance of the provider-patient relationship and mentioned valuing doctors who spent time with them, provided advice, and could be trusted. However, most patients reported that, especially at primary health care level and in government hospitals, the experience with their doctor did not meet their expectations. Patients in the three countries reported desire for good quality local medical services, the need for access to doctors, medicine and diagnostics and decreased cost for medication and medical services. Patients also described welcoming health care outreach activities near their homes. Areas of improvement could focus on reorienting community health workers' activities; involving family members in comprehensive counseling for medication adherence; providing appropriate training for health care staff to deliver effective information and services for controlling hypertension to patients; enhancing primary health care and specialist services; improving supplies of hypertensive medication in public facilities; taking into account patients' cultural and social background when providing services; and facilitating access and treatment to those who are most vulnerable.


To make mobile IP telephony over cellular radio systems an economically viable alternative to circuit-switched voice, it is an absolute requirement that the 40-octet IP/UDP/RTP headers on IP telephony packets be reduced in size to conserve bandwidth and radio spectrum. We evaluate the performance of the default header compression scheme for IP/UDP/RTP, CRTP (RFC-2508), over links built on cellular radio access technology. We find that CRTP does not perform adequately over such links, and suggest that a more robust header compression scheme must be developed to make IP telephony over cellular economically viable.


This paper compares the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) forecasts for output, inflation and key public sector finance variables against the corresponding forecasts from HM Treasury (HMT), the Bank of England (Bank) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). We find that NIESR outperforms, on average, other major bodies in its forecasts for output and in particular inflation where simple scores are used. It also performs well on the forecasting of the government current budget surplus but not public sector net borrowing. Statistical estimates of accuracy provide a less clear picture but their reliability is blighted by the small sample size.


Using coarse meshes with textures and/or normal maps to represent detailed meshes often results in poor visual quality along silhouettes. To tackle this problem, we introduce silhouette texture, a new data structure for capturing and reconstructing the silhouettes of detailed meshes. In addition to the recording of color and normal fields in traditional methods, we sample information that represents the original silhouettes and pack it into a three dimensional texture. In the rendering stage, our algorithm extracts relevant information from the texture to rebuild the silhouettes for any perspective view. Unlike previous work, our approach is based on GPU and could achieve high rendering performance. Moreover, both exterior and interior silhouettes are processed for better approximation quality. In addition to rendering acceleration, our algorithm also enables detailed silhouette visualization with minimum geometric complexity.


The construction and implementation of a microprocessor controlled real time recursive digital filter have been given. The system designed could also be applied to a variable coefficients system such as ADAPTIVE FILTER and it makes use of a programmable LSI digital filter and detect "FAD" chip. High flexibility of such system has been proved by the realization of recursive IIR filter with different types and different orders. A wide sampling ranges could be achieved by altering the clock frequency of the filter.


This study tries to analyze whether irrigation technologies have reduced the incidence, depth, and severity of poverty in Fogera district of the Amhara National Regional State of Ethiopia. It also assesses the possible impact brought about by irrigation technologies on households' per capita consumption expenditure. FosterGreer-Thorbeck (FGT) index and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) were used for analyzing the data collected from 180 farm households through formal survey techniques. The result indicated that annual per capita consumption expenditure of irrigation technology users is better than that of non-users. Among the different irrigation technology user groups, per capita consumption expenditure of diversion irrigation users is higher followed by that of motor pump users and treadle pump users in that order. Results from FGT index showed that users of different irrigation technologies are in a better position in terms of incidence, depth, and severity of poverty as compared to the non-users group. The PSM result also indicated that irrigation has increased per capita consumption expenditure of user households by 21 percent. It is, therefore, necessary to develop small-scale irrigation technologies and to encourage farm households to use the technologies in order to reduce poverty.


Background There is evidence that different subtypes of orofacial cleft have distinct aetiologies, although the precise molecular mechanisms underlying these are unknown. Given the key role of epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation in embryonic development, it is likely that aberrant DNA methylation may also play a part in the development of orofacial clefts. Methods In this study, we explored whether blood samples from children with different cleft subtypes showed distinct DNA methylation profiles. In whole blood samples from 150 children from the Cleft Collective cohort study, we measured DNA methylation at over 450,000 sites on the genome. We then carried out epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) to test the association between methylation at each site and cleft subtype (cleft lip only CLO n=50; cleft palate only CPO n=50; cleft lip and palate CLP n=50). Results We found four genomic regions differentially methylated in CLO compared to CLP, 17 in CPO compared to CLP and 294 in CPO compared to CLO. These regions included several mapping to genes that have previously been implicated in the development of orofacial clefts (for example, TBX1, COL11A2, HOXA2, PDGFRA) and over 250 novel associations. Conclusion Our finding of distinct methylation profiles in different cleft subtypes might reflect differences in their aetiologies, with DNA methylation either playing a causal role in development of OFC subtypes or reflecting causal genetic or environmental factors.


High speed laser diagnostics are performed in two vastly differing swirl combustors at conditions relevant for industrial gas turbines. This high quality data can not only be used to elucidate key features of the flow field but also for validation of computational models simulating turbulence, chemistry, and their interactions. The first combustor is a piloted lean premixed prevaporized arrangement common in aviation applications. Fueling parameters are varied and sensitivity towards the pilot flame is observed. Conditioning to the stagnation line demonstrates increased fluctuations of shear and rotation in the inner shear layer when the pilot fueling is reduced.The second flame has a simpler configuration with a single swirler and combusting natural gas. Thermoacoustic instability coupled to a helical precessing vortex core is found at certain conditions. Sparse Dynamic Mode Decomposition and phase averaging is applied to the velocity fields to create a three dimensional reconstruction of the helical vortex core in a non-precessing reference frame. Heat release is found to be correlated to the interaction strength of the central recirculation bubble and the helical vortex core. Finally, intermittent phenomena within a thermoacoustic instability are examined. The most prominent deviation is that the flame is observed to randomly lift and reattach. In addition, a convolutional neural network is employed to extract the morphology from otherwise qualitative OH species imaging. The average characteristics of the lifted and attached flame are compared and dramatic differences are found. All of the flow structures have been altered such as the precessing vortex core being greatly intensified during flame lift-off. Evaluating the average events before flame lift-off revealed the importance of conditions at the combustor inlet. However, evidence for a future reattachment event was only found with a less spatially confined perspective. In addition, transition to lift-off was very sudden while reattachment was far slower.


The understanding of the inner workings of a research community is essential for the success of an author's academic publications. One of the key metrics for the evaluation of researchers is the number of citations that their publications receive. To understand citation behavior of an academic community, existing publication's citations can be studied. In this paper, we analyze whether several factors influence the number of citations in the domain of covert channels/steganography (CC/St). In particular, we study the significant differences on average yearly citations received by journal, conference and workshop publications. We also analyze the influence of tier-levels, number of references, number of pages, type of contribution, and number of authors on the average yearly citations. Our study is based on the meta-data of 1,531 publications on CC/St and 8,391 publications on other topics of information security extracted from IEEEXplore as well as on 110 publications' meta-data from Google Scholar.


Over centuries, a variety of decentralized societies and centralized states have formed in territories across the western Sahel and southwest Sahara, and along the Niger and Senegal river valleys. Women have played central yet often unacknowledged roles in building these communities. By the late 11th century, some were rulers, as tombstones from the Gao region seem to suggest. A travelogue describing the Mali empire, and a chronicle from Songhay, tell stories of women who plotted political dissent or staged rebellions in the 14th–16th centuries. By and large, everyday women's reproductive and productive labor sustained their families, and structured life in agricultural, pastoral, fishing, or trading communities. In the 1700s in Segu, women brewed mead, cultivated crops, dyed textiles, and participated in the building of fortifications. In Masina in the 1800s, girls attended qurʾanic school, and a woman was the custodian of the caliph's library. Women also suffered great violence stemming from conflicts, forced displacement, and slavery. By the end of the 19th century, they made up a considerable portion (at times the majority) of enslaved individuals in the region. After the European conquest and creation of the French Soudan colony, the French administration imposed an export-oriented wage economy, in which women worked to supply crops and sustain infrastructure projects. From the regions of Kayes, Kita, and Nioro, many migrated to groundnut- or gold-producing regions of Senegambia. While women's labor and migrations were seldom accounted for in administrative records, their attempts to leave unhappy marriages or escape enslavement do appear in court records. However, colonial domination was gendered: the administration ultimately shunned women's emancipation efforts, seeking to channel its rule by reinforcing patriarchal authority in communities. In 1960, the Republic of Mali achieved independence. Under the democratic and military governments that followed, women built pan-African and transnational alliances. In 1991 and beyond, they fought to achieve more rights, and greater political power and representation. Their labor and migrations have continued to sustain a large portion of the economy. Post-2011, they have been both active participants in, and victims of, the conflicts that have engulfed the country, suffering displacement, loss of livelihood, and sexual violence, for which many have yet to receive justice.


An experimental study was carried out to understand the way the turbulence interacts with the boundary layer along the attachment-line of a swept wing, since it may have an important role in the receptivity process of cross-flow instability to freestream turbulence.

The work focused on the freestream turbulence amplification process approaching a leading edge, previously seen on two-dimensional bodies, but yet not investigated for swept models.

Two experimental investigations were carried out in two different wind tunnels using two different models. The first was carried out in the Gaster wind tunnel, characterised by very low turbulence intensity. The model consisted of a swept aluminium vertical flat plate inserted in a wooden fairing, similar to the unswept model used by Bearman (1972). The flow field was measured using a single hot-wire anemometer. In the low turbulent environment, no increase in the velocity fluctuations was observed as the wall was approached. Therefore, the freestream turbulence level was increased using, as a first attempt, a metallic string, crossing the entire wind tunnel section, placed at different orientations ahead of the model. It was found that the vertical string generated a localised freestream disturbance which was convected in the spanwise direction, following the streamlines, without influencing the level of fluctuations in the boundary layer. The horizontal string created a disturbance, distributed in the spanwise direction, that made the boundary layer turbulent at the attachment-line. A second attempt was carried out using a turbulent grid made of parallel rods, mounted either in a horizontal or vertical configuration. In both configurations, the grid had an effect similar to that of the horizontal string creating a turbulent boundary layer on the attachment-line. This effect may have been due to a contamination of turbulence from the root of the wing. In all the cases, the turbulent boundary layer presented an increase of fluctuations approaching the wall.

A second experiment was carried out in the T2 wind tunnel, characterised by a level of turbulence higher than that of the Gaster wind tunnel, on a circular cylinder model. In this case, a multi-component Laser Doppler anemometer was used, enabling simultaneous measurements of the three velocity components. The experiment focused on the flow approaching the stagnation point of a cylinder mounted in the unswept configuration and then at four different sweep angles (5°; 10°; 20°; 30°). The results achieved on the unswept configuration showed an amplification of the spanwise velocity fluctuations approaching the stagnation point with a maximum around the boundary layer edge, followed by decay as the wall was approached. The spanwise velocity fluctuation profiles were similar to those, based on hot-wire measurements, reported in the literature. In the swept configurations the increment of the spanwise velocity fluctuations was found to be still present and similar to the unswept case. At 30° sweep angle, the spanwise velocity fluctuations were observed to increasing right up to the measured point closest to wall. One of the effects of increasing sweep angle was to increase the frequency at which the turbulence was most amplified.

A number of new trends have been identified, confirming that, in general, the phenomena at the swept leading edge boundary layer cannot be explained using two-dimensional arguments.


Introduction Statins are widely prescribed for the prevention of cardiovascular events. A change in 2014 of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events, lowered the threshold for prescribing statins from a 10 year risk of cardiovascular events of 20% to 10%. It was anticipated that this would result in over 4 million new patients commencing a statin. We sought to determine the trends in statin prescriptions in primary care in England over a 17 year period. We also analysed data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in 2015/16 to assess QOF achievement for prescription of statins for primary prevention. Methods We conducted a nationwide retrospective study. Data were obtained from the Prescription Cost Analysis system, which holds information on every prescription dispensed in the community in England, covering a population of over 50 million people. We obtained data for four statins from 1998 to 2015. We analysed data collected from the Quality and Outcomes Framework, an incentive programme rewarding primary care for achieving targets. We reviewed the outcomes of care commissioning groups (CCGs) for the QOF indicator CVDPP001 defined as: for primary prevention in patients with hypertension and a cardiovascular risk assessment score 20%, the proportion treated with a statin. Results The total number of statins prescribed has increased annually from 1998 (4.5 million prescriptions) to 2015 (66.3 million prescriptions) in a sigmoid pattern (Figure 1). There has not been a significant increase in statin prescriptions since the change in NICE guidelines in 2014. The majority of statin prescriptions are for simvastatin or atorvastatin. From 1998 to 2005 both were prescribed equally and more frequently on an annual basis. In 2005 prescriptions for atorvastatin fell, then plateaued, while prescriptions for simvastatin increased. In 2012 prescriptions for atorvastatin increased while simvastatin prescriptions fell. For QOF CVDPP001, out of 209 CCGs, 49 achieved 100% and the vast majority reached>95% (Figure 2). Conclusions Our data demonstrate that the number of statin prescriptions has increased annually from 1998 to 2015. The 2014 NICE guidance has not resulted in a significant increase in statin prescriptions, in fact the rate of increase in prescriptions is beginning to plateau. The QOF for statin use in primary prevention has not yet adopted the new NICE guidelines and it may be that a change in prescribing trends is only seen after this occurs. The current QOF target is achieved to a high degree so it is likely that a new QOF with a 10% risk cut-off could also be met. The trends in prescribing of simvastatin and atorvastatin are likely cost driven, with an increase in simvastatin prescribing in 2004 and atorvastatin prescribing in 2012 correlating to the expiration of the UK patents for each drug.Abstract 92 Figure 1Abstract 92 Figure 2


A large number of compounds containing quinonoid or hindered phenol functions were examined for their roles as antifatigue agents. Among the evaluated quinones and phenols expected to have macroalkyl radical scavenging ability, BQ, αTOC, γTOC and GM showed relatively good performance for fatigue resistance (although their performance was slightly less effective than the commercial aromatic amine antioxidants, IPPD and 6PPD). The compounds which were shown to have higher reactivity with alkyl radicals (via calculated reactivity indices) showed better fatigue resistance. This fact supports the suggestion that strong alkyl radical scavengers should be also effective antifatigue agents. Evidence produced based on calculation of reactivity indices suggests that the quinones examined react with alkyl radicals on the meta position of the quinone rings producing phenoxyl radicals. The phenoxyl radicals are expected either to disproportionate, to recombine with a further alkyl radical, or to abstract a hydrogen from another alkyl radical producing an olefine. The regeneration of quinones and formation of the corresponding phenols is expected to occur during the antifatigue activity. The phenol antioxidant, HBA is expected to produce a quinonoid compound and this is also expected to function in a similar way to other quinones. Another phenol, GM, which is also known to scavenge alkyl radicals showed good antifatigue performance. Tocopherols had effective antifatigue activity and are expected to have different antifatigue mechanisms from that of other quinones, hence αTOC was examined for its mechanisms during rubber fatiguing using HPLC analysis. Trimers of αTOC which were produced during vulcanisation are suggested to contribute to the fatigue activity observed. The evidence suggests that the trimers reproduce αTOC and a mechanism was proposed. Although antifatigue agents evaluated showed antifatigue activity, most of them had poor thermoxidative resistance, hence it was necessary to compensate for this by using a combination of antioxidants with the antifatigue agents. Reactive antioxidants which have the potential to graft on the polymer chains during reactive processing were used for this purpose. APMA was the most effective antioxidant among other evaluated reactive antioxidants. Although high ratio of grafting was achieved after optimisation of grafting conditions, it is suggested that this was achieved by long branches of APMA due to large extent of polymerisation. This is expected to cause maldistribution of APMA leading to reducing the effect of CB-D activity (while CB-A activity showed clear advantages for grafting). Further optimisation of grafting conditions is required in order to use APMA more effectively. Moreover, although synergistic effects between APMA and antifatigue agents were expected, none of the evaluated antifatigue agents, BQ, αTOC, γTOC and TMQ, showed significant synergism both in fatigue and thermoxidative resistance. They performed just as additives.


The purpose of this study is to systematically review the city branding literature, organize the subject matters and draw a map of the development and change in the city branding research domain. As a result, city branding literature is categorized under four thematic areas: (1) city branding concept, processes and measurement; (2) branding strategies; (3) social urbanism; and (4) branding culture and tourism. Most of the studies are research based. The qualitative methods are commonly used. There is a general tendency to describe the data but not to interpret the relations between the concepts and theories. Therefore, the knowledge is idiographic.


The virtual output queued (VOQ) switching architecture was adopted for high speed switch implementation owing to its scalability and high throughput. An ideal VOQ algorithm should provide Quality of Service (QoS) with low complexity. However, none of the existing algorithms can meet these requirements.
Several algorithms for VOQ switches are introduced in this dissertation in order to improve upon existing algorithms in terms of implementation or QoS features. Initially, the earliest due date first matching (EDDFM) algorithm, which is stable for both uniform and non-uniform traffic patterns, is proposed. EDDFM has lower probability of cell overdue than other existing maximum weight matching algorithms. Then, the shadow departure time algorithm (SDTA) and iterative SDTA (ISDTA) are introduced. The QoS features of SDTA and ISDTA are better than other existing algorithms with the same computational complexity. Simulations show that the performance of a VOQ switch using ISDTA with a speedup of 1.5 is similar to that of an output queued (OQ) switch in terms of cell delay and throughput. Later, the enhanced Birkhoff-von Neumann decomposition (EBVND) algorithm based on the Birkhoff-von Neumann decomposition (EBVND) algorithm, which can provide rate and cell delay guarantees, is introduced. Theoretical analysis shows that the performance of EBVND is better than BVND in terms of throughput and cell delay. Finally, the maximum credit first (MCF), the Enhanced MCF (EMCF), and the iterative MCF (IMCF) algorithms are presented. These new algorithms have the similar performance as BNVD, yet are easier to implement in practice.


Video restoration tasks, including super-resolution, deblurring, etc, are drawing increasing attention in the computer vision community. A challenging benchmark named REDS is released in the NTIRE19 Challenge. This new benchmark challenges existing methods from two aspects: (1) how to align multiple frames given large motions, and (2) how to effectively fuse different frames with diverse motion and blur. In this work, we propose a novel Video Restoration framework with Enhanced Deformable convolutions, termed EDVR, to address these challenges. First, to handle large motions, we devise a Pyramid, Cascading and Deformable (PCD) alignment module, in which frame alignment is done at the feature level using deformable convolutions in a coarse-to-fine manner. Second, we propose a Temporal and Spatial Attention (TSA) fusion module, in which attention is applied both temporally and spatially, so as to emphasize important features for subsequent restoration. Thanks to these modules, our EDVR wins the champions and outperforms the second place by a large margin in all four tracks in the NTIRE19 video restoration and enhancement challenges. EDVR also demonstrates superior performance to state-of-the-art published methods on video super-resolution and deblurring. The code is available at https://github.com/xinntao/EDVR.


Civil procedure, more than any other of the basic law-school courses, conveys to students an understanding of the whole legal system. I propose that this purpose should become, more openly, the organizing theme of the course. The focus should remain, of course, on the mechanics of the judicial branch. What I champion is giving some conscious attention, albeit mainly in the background and at an introductory level, to the big ideas of the constitutional structure within which the law formulates civil procedure. Such attention would unify the doctrinal study, while enriching it for the students and revealing its true importance.


Make: Getting Started with 3D Printing is a practical, informative, and inspiring book that guides readers step-by-step through understanding how this new technology will empower them to take full advantage of all it has to offer. The book includes fundamental topics such as a short history of 3D printing, the best hardware and software choices for consumers, hands-on tutorial exercises the reader can practice for free at home, and how to apply 3D printing in the readers' life and profession. For every maker or would-be maker who is interested, or is confused, or who wants to get started in 3D printing today, this book offers methodical information that can be read, digested, and put into practice immediately!


Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming a significant field of research with numerous applications, ranging from mapping to surveillance. New applications, such as aerial delivery of goods, are expected to appear in the next years and will require more and more autonomy from UAVs. One challenge preventing UAVs from being fully autonomous is their current limitations in handling potential collisions among multiple vehicles. This paper presents a collision avoidance algorithm for fixed-wing UAVs navigating in a three dimensional space. It satisfies limited field of view constraints that stem from the use of a single camera system as sensing device. The proposed algorithm uses potential fields to both navigate and avoid obstacles. To guarantee collision avoidance, the algorithm is enhanced with a turning behavior that allows for ensuring the safety of the method. Simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


This paper tries to outline some aspects of the interdependency between the unemployment rate and the GDP rhythm under the specific circumstances of the Romanian economy in the pre-accession period to the EU. The paper presents two methodological versions used in the study of this correlation, namely: the version of the level of the gross domestic product (LGDP) and the version of the growth rate (GR). The implementation of this methodology shows that the reversed connection between the two macroeconomic variables cannot be applied for Romania in the analyzed period. These situations are also proved and the end of the paper presents the way of using the results obtained for the preparation of predictions.


— Aim of this paper is to present the challenges and developments of the Albanian insurance market during the process of its liberalization. Consequently the insurance market has shown instability with regard to the fluctuations of the premium levels. A fair pricing based on the market conditions is one of the biggest challenges of the albanian insurance market. By means of an econometric model, the correlation between the liberalization process and profitability of insurance companies has been shown. This paper discusses also the efficiency of the Bonus-Malus System, which is expected to be implemented in Albania in 2018 in order to stabilize the insurance market. In this regard the elasticity according to Loimaranta (1972) is calculated for Albania. As the Bonus-Malus System is already implemented in other region countries, the paper suggests that in addition to the advantages this system can bring, there is also the risk of the phenomenon known in the literature as " Hunger for Bonus", according to which, people tend to not report the claims. Under such conditions the result would be a lower claim frequency deriving from the non-reporting of claims and not from the implementation of the Bonus-Malus System. The implementation of the Bonus-Malus system must be accompanied by an increase of anti-fraud measures.


Objective:To compare the Medicare managed care (MC) and fee-for-service (FFS) sectors on stage at diagnosis and treatment patterns for prostate, female breast, and colorectal cancers, and to examine patterns across MC plans. Data:Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results—Medicare linked data. Methods:Among cases diagnosed at ages 65–79 between 1998 and 2002, we selected all MC enrollees (n = 42,467) and beneficiaries in FFS (n = 82,998) who resided in the same counties. MC and FFS samples were compared using logistic regression, adjusting for demographic, geographic, and clinical covariates. Results:The percentage of late stage cases was similar in MC and FFS for prostate and colorectal cancers; there were slightly fewer late stage breast cancer cases in MC after adjustment (7.3% vs. 8.5%, P < 0.001). Within MC, radical prostatectomy was performed less frequently for clinically localized prostate cancer (18.3% vs. 22.4%, P < 0.0001), and 12 or more lymph nodes were examined less often for resected colon cancer cases (40.9% vs. 43.0%, P < 0.05). Treatment patterns for early stage breast cancer were similar in MC and FFS. Analyses of treatment patterns at the individual plan level revealed significant variation among plans, as well as within the FFS sector, for all 3 types of cancer. Conclusions:On average, there are few significant differences in cancer diagnosis and treatment between MC and FFS. Such comparisons, however, mask the wide variability among MC plans, as well as FFS providers. Observed variation in patterns of care may be related to patient selection, but can potentially lead to outcome differences. These findings support the need for quality measures to evaluate plan practices and performance.


Promote bank services and products involve above all extensive market studies, identifying consumer needs, consumer segmentation, improving the quality of supply - all for shaping a promotional campaign to be completed by attracting new customers. Today, organizations are struggling to shape new ways to create their own image, strong among consumers, which means a model of education with valuable content. Communication with current customers or potential achieved through well thought out promotional strategies. Due to the changes through which humanity moves into the digital world technology - internet, mobile and social media networks, which have major impact on consumer behavior and institutions? Markets are conversations; The Clue train Manifesto was said in the book fundamental Internet era, that marketing is not the key element in an institution, BUT THE ABILITY TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION.


This paper presents a new multi-level DC-AC-AC converter topology for medium voltage grid integration of Megawatt (MW) scale utility photovoltaic (PV) plants. It is envisioned that a large PV field is divided into many zones, each comprising of two PV arrays. The number of zones depends on the voltage of the grid with which it is interfaced. In the proposed approach, zonal power balancing is achieved by employing a current-sharing technique. The power conversion architecture consists of an IGBT based full-bridge inverter feeding a medium frequency (MF) transformer with three secondary windings. The voltages at the transformer secondaries are then converted to three phase line frequency AC by three, full-bridge AC-AC converters. This also eliminates the 2nd harmonic power from the DC bus, thereby reducing the capacitor size. By stacking several such modules in series, a high quality multilevel medium voltage output is generated. Further, the bulky line frequency utility interface transformer is eliminated. A new control method is proposed for the series connected modules during partial shading while minimizing the switch ratings. This paper presents the analysis, design example and simulation of a 10 MW PV system with preliminary experimental results on a laboratory prototype.


We report on VERITAS very high energy (VHE; E ⩾ 100 GeV) observations of six blazars selected from the Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalog (1FGL). The gamma-ray emission from 1FGL sources was extrapolated up to the VHE band, taking gamma-ray absorption by the extragalactic background light into account. This allowed the selection of six bright, hard-spectrum blazars that were good candidate TeV emitters. Spectroscopic redshift measurements were attempted with the Keck Telescope for the targets without Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic data. No VHE emission is detected during the observations of the six sources described here. Corresponding TeV upper limits are presented, along with contemporaneous Fermi observations and non-concurrent Swift UVOT and X-Ray Telescope data. The blazar broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are assembled and modeled with a single-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. The SED built for each of the six blazars shows a synchrotron peak bordering between the intermediate- and high-spectrum-peak classifications, with four of the six resulting in particle-dominated emission regions.


Exhibited at 'Unlocking the Treasures', a colloquium and poster exhibition to mark the launch of the Long Room Hub on June 14th 2006


In order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of complex biological systems, researchers must develop new techniques that incorporate key features of the system across all relevant spatial and temporal scales. Recent advances in molecular biology and genetics have generated a wealth of experimental data that provides details with respect to gene-expression patterns and individual gene and protein functions, but integration of this information into meaningful knowledge of the complete system is a challenge borne by a new scientific era dependent on computational tools. In this paper, we review new computational techniques, developed to reconstruct single-cell biochemical networks for generating quantitative descriptions of network properties, and agent-based models designed to study multicell interactions important in tissue patterning. We also discuss the challenges and promises of combining these approaches in a single quantitative framework for advancing medical care for diseases that arise from a multitude of factors.


Mass events, such as concerts, music festivals, conventions about technology and popular culture, and celebrity-mediated events, have become privileged spaces to showcase the exceptionality of a lived experience. In these contexts, the selfie can be considered an expression of the here and now as well as a key element when integrated in the everyday personal narratives favored by social media platforms such as Instagram. This article presents an in-depth analysis of selfies in the context of cultural events as part of a project testing a mixed-methods perspective that included both quantitative and ethnographic approaches.


To simulate a fuel and coolant interaction phenomenon during a postulated severe accident in a nuclear reactor, a series of experiments were performed using a partially oxidized corium, which is a mixture of UO2, ZrO2, Zr, and stainless steel. The composition of the melt was chosen such that a separation of the oxidic liquid from the metallic liquid occurred due to the existence of a miscibility gap. A melting and solidifying experiment and two fuel and coolant interaction experiments to explore the possibility of an energetic steam explosion were performed in the TROI facility. The placement of a metal-rich layer consisting of U, Fe, and ZrO2 beneath the oxidic corium layer due to the existence of a miscibility gap was observed in the melting and solidifying experiment. An energetic steam explosion with a propagation of the dynamic pressure wave was observed in one test out of the two tests. The physical and chemical analyses were performed for the corium particles collected after the experiments. It is shown that U, Zr, and Fe formed a heterogeneous mixture and the morphology was in irregular shape with many pores at nonuniform sizes. In the case of nonenergetic interaction, where the melt temperature was lower than the energetic case, the mean particle size was bigger than that of the energetic case, and the melt-water interaction resulted in a substantial amount of hydrogen gas generation, while the amount of hydrogen gas generation was negligible in the case with an energetic steam explosion.


The article describes the problematic spots of the court system ordained by the temporary law during the inter-war period in Lithuania and the prolonged attempts of the authority to transform it into the permanent one. It demonstrates that there has been a constant involvement in this situation among the authority representatives and the institutions until the issue of the Judiciary Act in 1933. The new legislation has been prepared, even though not all of it has been implemented. The first legislation on judiciary of an independent Lithuania was enacted in 1918 as the Temporary Act on Lithuanian Courts and their Operation. It acknowledged the weak spots such as the procedure for assigning peace judges, no provision for cassation, elimination of jury as well as no limitations of guarantees during assignment and dismissal of judges, etc. Current imperfections resulted from lack of knowledge and no possibility to have an election as well as the limited financial potential of the state. It has been intended to solve these problems in the near future. The legal regulation of the fundamental points on court organization and operation, that lacked in the Temporary Judiciary Act, has been supported by the provisions incorporated into the Constitution of Lithuania of 1922. The distinct laws have let the colegially operating courts to temporary incorporate the advocate under oath as a member of the judicial board. Also, considerably transcendent salaries of the court official workers as compared to other civil servants has been established. The bill ascertaining the court system and their operation has finally been drawn and hereafter for several years it has been refined by various legal institutions and experts. This situation ended with enactment of the new Judiciary Act in 1933. Although it retained the assignment of judges and finally eliminated the institution of the jury, it solved the majority of questions related to the court organization and operation that had not been regulated by law before.


On-site greywater reuse (GWR), in the urban sector, reduces urban demand of fresh water resources. In the last years research on GWR has generally overlooked the effects that GWR may have on municipal sewer systems. This paper discusses and quantifies these effects. The effects of GWR, positive and negative, were studied by modeling a representative urban sewer system. Five GWR scenarios were modeled and analysed using the SIMBA simulation system. The results show that as expected as GWR increases, the flow, velocity and proportional depth decrease. Nevertheless, the reduction is not evenly distributed but mainly occurs during the morning and evening peaks. Further, it is indicated that as a result of the GWR, blockages rate of sewers is not expected to increase. The results support the possibility to construct new sewer systems with smaller pipe diameters. The analysis shows that as the penetration of GWR system increases, concentrations of pollutants increase too, but at a rate lower than proportional reduction of sewage flow.


One just need to google "divorce statistics" to get an idea of the wide spread occurrence of separation and divorce. The 2012/2013 annual report of the department of Justice reported there was a 28% increase in new divorce matters. Hence, it seems as though everyone knows someone who has gone through a divorce or separation in which children are involved. The potentially devastating and far reaching consequences of this phenomena are also well documented: be they economic and or emotional/mental. Parties who wish to separate/divorce are faced with numerous and often overwhelming decisions, these decisions become even more complicated when there are children to consider.


This paper uses the Structure - Conduct - Performance (SCP) model to analyze the structure, behavior and performance of the OTT media market. First of all, the OTT media market structure is fully described by the classification of competitive enterprises, differentiation of products, market concentration and entry barriers. Then, through reviewing the service modes of the OTT license owners, content providers, telecom operators, Internet companies and other parties, the market behavior, competition and cooperation, were analyzed. Finally, the efficiency of resource allocation and the economies of scale were used to evaluate the market performance. This paper shows that the market structure of OTT media tends to be concentrated and monopolized. The market behaviors of all parties are to seek the efficiency of resource allocation and economy of scale.


This thesis has been conducted within the framework of the doctoral programme in Prehistoric Archaeology of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. The study focuses on the recent prehistory of the western Mediterranean region, specifically on the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. This is an area in which the Universitat Autonoma has a well-established research record. Various studies have highlighted the economical, political and social changes undergone by societies during the last millennia before the change of era. These changes include an increasing social distinction between communities and between individuals, the use of specific subsistence techniques and a proliferation of metalwork. They led both to the dismantling of previous economic systems and to the development of new production methods, which, in cases like that of the Argaric society, brought the introduction of political and economical control relationships and exploitation. The study of the economic dynamics of prehistoric societies can, and already has been, approached through the analysis of different archaeological material features. (Macro)lithic materiality provides a crucial source of information which has hardly been exploited by traditional archaeological studies, with the exception of the chipped stone industry (silex, quartzite, etc.). In fact, many macrolithic instruments (grindingstones, hammerstones, whetstones, etc.) were the means of production in crafts and/or everyday activities. The organisation of these activities and crafts was directly affected by the aforementioned social and economical changes. Consequently, Chapter 1 of this thesis deals with the importance of analysing macrolithic materiality from a prehistoric point of view and discusses what this analysis can reveal about the economic systems in use in the western Mediterranean from the 4th to the 1st millennia cal BC. Furthermore, this study defines the archaeological context through reference to various sites. In the Vera basin (Almer'a), the settlement of Gatas is particularly relevant. This is because it is a useful dating reference for the last three thousand years in the south¬east of the Peninsula, especially for the Argaric period. R. Risch's thesis of 1995 listed the macrolithic items found on earlier digs and this study adds more recent finds. This, therefore, completes the study of macrolithic sets of instruments used in the settlement during the periods corresponding to the Chalcolithic Age, the Argar culture, the Late Bronze Age and the Final Bronze Age. In addition to this region of Almer'a, we focus on a geographic area which, until now, had been excluded from the study of macrolithic instruments: the valley of the River Guadalent'n. There are some settlements here that were continuously occupied from the end of the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Earlier studies have indicated how important the town of Lorca was in the Argaric period. For this reason, it is interesting to note the relationship between Lorca and other enclaves in the same area, such as Los Cipreses and El Barranco de la Viuda. During the Late Bronze Age, there was another settlement near Lorca, Murviedro, which has yielded a significant number of macrolithic items. These are also presented in this study. Finally, we have incorporated the lithic materials from the settlement of Son Fornes in Mallorca. This has allowed us to explore both a physical and a chronological context which is very different from that of the south-east of the Peninsula. As will be seen, what stands out in the comparison between two geographic and chronological areas is the non-linear nature of the historical development of past societies. The historical setting described above gives us a picture of complex, surplus societies within a framework of considerable social and economical change. Therefore, a paleo-economic examination of the organisation of the production process will necessarily require an evaluation of technical working conditions. Of particular interest, in this case, are those aspects relating to the efficiency of the tools employed. The functionality of these tools and their suitability to the tasks for which they were used are two aspects which are dealt with in the methodological discussion in Chapter 2. On one hand, we base the functional description of macrolithic inventories on the mechanical properties of the raw materials from which the instruments are made (Section 2.1). To do this, it was necessary to design a test programme, using industrial machinery on which to submit stones to a series of specific conditions of wear and tear. On the other hand, the fields of application of each of the lithologies, in their role as work instruments, were defined through the analysis of archaeological and experimental marks, together with archaeological-contextual information (Section 2.2). The results obtained using this methodological approach were integrated into the study of the selection and management of macrolithic resources (Chapter 3) to define the configuration of the raw-materials supply system. These results were also taken into account when presenting the macrolithic material from other technological perspectives, such as the manufacture, use and maintenance of work tools (Chapter 4). In this way, it is possible to obtain an approximate idea of the degree to which the economic system adapted to the optimisation of the instruments at each historical context. The spatial analysis of macrolithic materiality makes it possible to describe the productive activities performed and the composition of the technical equipment used in production units (Chapter 5). These aspects determined the productive capacity of each of the settlements and the position each one adopted in a particular economic system. Together with the contexts of production, the contexts of amortisation of macrolithic instruments obtained a certain importance during specific periods of prehistory. It is possible that materials amortised in building structures, domestic and funerary constructions, as well as those used in gravegoods, correspond to different technological patterns to those we see in operative instruments. Therefore, in Chapter 6 we contrast the criteria that rule in both types of production. Chapter 7 deals with the overall evaluation of the results obtained throughout the study of macrolithic inventories presented in this work. This chapter includes a paleo-economic interpretation of social contexts based on the economic aspects that we consider most relevant: production value, use value and production volume. These aspects help to define the level of specialisation of the work tools and of the working areas in each of the spatial-temporal contexts. They also help to determine the degree of access that the inhabitants had to the production and consumption of the products obtained from the various production areas. The objective is to identify the productivity conditions under which the production processes operated and the arguments which determined the different economic systems that were established in each period and place. Finally, in Chapter 9 we provide a synthesis of the main characteristics of the social dynamics of lithic resources and instruments in the western Mediterranean throughout recent prehistory.


The last decade has witnessed rapid developments in computer technology, which in
return, has found widespread applications in manufacturing systems, communication
networks, robots etc. Such systems are called Discrete Event Systems (DESs), in which
properties such as non-determinism, conflict and parallelism are exhibited. As DESs
become more complex, the need for an effective design tool and its implementation
becomes more important. Supervisory control theory, based on finite state machines
(FSM) and formal languages, is a well established framework for the study of DESs. In
supervisory control, given a model of the system and the desired system behaviour
specifications, the objective is to find a supervisor (controller) such that the controlled
behaviour of the system does not contradict the specifications given and does not
unnecessarily constrain the behaviour of the system. In general, the classes of
specifications that have been considered within the supervisory control fall into two
categories: the forbidden state problem, in which the control specifications are expressed
as forbidden conditions that must be avoided, and the desired string problem, in which
the control specifications are expressed as sequence of activities that must be provided.
In supervisory control, there are some problems when using FSMs as an underlying
modelling tool. Firstly, the number of states grows exponentially as the system becomes
bigger. Secondly, FMSs lack from graphical visivalisation. To overcome these problems
Petri nets have been considered as an alternative modelling tool for the analysis, design
and implementation of such DESs, because of their easily understood graphical
representation in addition to their well formed mathematical formalism.
The thesis investigates the use of Petri nets in supervisory control. Both the forbidden
state problem and the desired string problem are solved. In other words, this work
presents systematic approaches to the synthesis of Petri-nets-based supervisors
(controllers) for both the forbidden state problem and the desired string problem and
introduces the details of supervisory design procedures. The supervisors obtained are the form of a net structure as oppose to supervisors given as a feedback fiinction. This
means that a controlled model of the system can be constructed and analysed using the
techniques regarding to Petri net models.
In particular the thesis considers discrete manufacturing systems. The results obtained
can be applied to high level control of manufacturing systems, where the role of the
supervisor is to coordinate the control of machines, robots, etc. and to low-level control
of manufacturing systems, where the role of the supervisor is to arrange low-level
interactions between the control devices, such as motors, actuators, etc.
An approach to the conversion from the supervisors to ladder logic diagrams (LLDs)
for implementation on a programmable logic controller (PLC) is proposed. A discrete
manufacturing system example is then considered. The aim of this is to illustrate the
applicability, strengths and drawbacks of the design techniques proposed.


Abstract We use econometric methods based on the propensity score to estimate the causal effect of HIV status on employment outcomes in South Africa. Relying on rich data from a national survey, which included HIV testing, we control for systematic differences between HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals. We provide the first nationally representative estimates of the impact of HIV status on employment outcomes for southern Africa. Being HIV positive is associated with an increase of 6 to 7 percentage points in the likelihood of unemployment overall and 10 to 11 percentage points for those who are less educated. This disadvantage reinforces existing inequalities in South Africa.


It has been suggested that the differences among the observational Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) set can be accounted for by invoking two regimes of propagation of combustion. Normal SNIa should be produced by rapid deflagrations that rapidly propagate across a white dwarf, while dim SNIa should be a consequence of a detonation issued during the contraction phase of a pulsation induced by a very slow conductive deflagration. In this paper, we explore the observational consequences of deflagrations, the properties of which are in between both behaviours. Using different laws for the flame velocity as a function of flame radius, a number of different outcomes were found, including direct explosions ejecting small quantities of 56Ni, pulsations leading to recontraction and likely reignition of the flame, and a threshold explosion characterized by an extended gravitationally bound phase (several 103 s), in which most of the white dwarf matter was ejected by the energy input of radioactive isotopes.

Not one of these strange supernovae has been detected up to now. Nevertheless, since they are very dim and, for nucleosynthesis reasons, very rare, their existence cannot be excluded. Furthermore, the computed light curve shows that these events mimic the behaviour of peculiar Type II supernovae (SNII), for which reasons there is always the possibility that they have been misclassified as peculiar SNII whose spectrum is lacking.


Drought frequently occurs in North China and is one of the most damaging disasters in this region, and drought also brings a great challenge for the world-famous South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) project. However, it is difficult to identify the drought-induced water deficit at a regional scale. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites monitor temporal variations in the Earth9s gravitational potential and provide quality data sets for water storage analysis. In this study, we quantify the water deficit over North China by focusing on a recent drought event, the 2009/10 drought, and identifying its onset, persistence, and recovery. The results indicate that GRACE can successfully capture temporal variations in total water storage (TWS). TWS shows a declining trend, reaching a low point during the 2009/10 drought with a water storage deficit of up to 25 km 3 (∼22 mm). Groundwater storage shows a similar pattern, with a trend of −6.97 mm/yr. Together with the water deficit, vegetation growth is substantially restricted, as indicated by a reduction in the leaf area index. The amount of water transferred by the SNWD project may ease the water crises in North China.


This project (No. 93-04) supported by the 3R Research Foundation is focused on characterisation and validation of an innovative 3-dimensional (3D) model to investigate development of the blood brain barrier (BBB)[*] and its response to stress and drug exposure. Given the large number of diseases characterised by BBB breakdown, the present model will have wide applications in life sciences as well as pharmaceutical industries.


The temperature dependence of the structure factor S(k) of the instantaneous magnetic fluctuations in copper formate tetradeuterate has been investigated using neutron scattering techniques. Our data extend to unprecedently high temperatures (T similar to J) compared to the 2D exchange coupling. The correlation length xi and amplitude S-0 are in good agreement with the predictions for a 2D S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice.


"A classic of a very special kind...A gem of a book, crafted with passion for the truth and love for mankind. " -Christian Science Monitor. . Controversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conflicts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern. In this classic work, Thomas Sowell analyzes this pattern. He describes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power: the "constrained" vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the "unconstrained" vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.


The concept of bonding and antibonding orbitals is fundamental in chemistry. The population of those orbitals and the energetic difference between the two reflect the strength of the bonding interaction. Weakening the bond is expected to reduce this energetic splitting, but the transient character of bond-activation has so far prohibited direct experimental access. Here we apply time-resolved soft X-ray spectroscopy at a free-electron laser to directly observe the decreased bonding-antibonding splitting following bond-activation using an ultrashort optical laser pulse.


In data-based reconstruction of complex networks, dynamical information can be measured and exploited to generate a functional network, but is it a true representation of the actual (structural) network? That is, when do the functional and structural networks match and is a perfect matching possible? To address these questions, we use coupled nonlinear oscillator networks and investigate the transition in the synchronization dynamics to identify the conditions under which the functional and structural networks are best matched. We find that, as the coupling strength is increased in the weak-coupling regime, the consistency between the two networks first increases and then decreases, reaching maximum in an optimal coupling regime. Moreover, by changing the network structure, we find that both the optimal regime and the maximum consistency will be affected. In particular, the consistency for heterogeneous networks is generally weaker than that for homogeneous networks. Based on the stability of the functional network, we propose further an efficient method to identify the optimal coupling regime in realistic situations where the detailed information about the network structure, such as the network size and the number of edges, is not available. Two real-world examples are given: corticocortical network of cat brain and the Nepal power grid. Our results provide new insights not only into the fundamental interplay between network structure and dynamics but also into the development of methodologies to reconstruct complex networks from data.


Base cations are essential to the sustainability of forest ecosystems. They are important for neutralizing the acidifying effects of atmospheric deposition. There is the need for in-depth understanding of base cation depletion and leaching from forest canopy. This is important particularly due to the increasing acidification and anthropogenic influences that alter biogeochemistry of the ecosystems. Availability and leaching of base cations (Ca 2+ , Na + , P , and K + ) from the tree canopies were examined in two rubber ( Hevea brasiliensis Willd. Muell-Arg) stands (40- and 15-year-old) in southwestern part of Nigeria. The chemical composition of throughfall in the area was dominated by calcium. Concentrations of Ca2+, Na+, P, and K + were relatively high throughout the sampling periods. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed between precipitation and throughfall in concentrations of nutrient elements, and the enrichment occurred within the rubber plantation for all the nutrient elements. Ca2+ is mainly from precipitation , while over 70% of total K and total Mg were probably leach from canopy. Total annual nutrient returns via throughfall for the 15-year-old stand were 28.39, 4.49, 38.9, and 3.54 kg ha year -1 for Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + and Na + respectively, while that of the 40-year-old stand were 22.7, 3.64, 36.3, and 3.17 kg ha year -1 for Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + and Na + respectively. Keywords: Agroecosystem; atmospheric deposition; base cations, Hevea brasiliensis ; nutrient cycling, throughfall


Establishes the requirements for preservice and inservice testing and examination of certain components to assess their operational readiness in light-water reactor power plants. It identifies the components subject to test or examination, responsibilities, methods, intervals, parameters to be measured and evaluated, criteria for evaluating the results, corrective action, personnel qualification, and record keeping. These requirements apply to:

(a) pumps and valves that are required to perform a specific function in shutting down a reactor to the safe shutdown condition, in maintaining the safe shutdown condition, or in mitigating the consequences of an accident;

(b) pressure relief devices that protect systems or portions of systems that perform one or more of these three functions; and

(c) dynamic restraints (snubbers) used in systems that perform one or more of these three functions.


Cotton fabric is covalently functionalized with a porous β-cyclodextrin polymer by including the fabric in the polymerization mixture. The resulting functionalized fabric (CD-TFP@cotton) sequesters organic micropollutants, such as bisphenol A, from water with outstanding speed and a capacity 10-fold higher than that of untreated cotton. The functionalized fabric also readily captures volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the vapor phase more quickly and with a capacity higher than that of untreated cotton as well as three commercially available fabric-based adsorbents. Volatile adsorbed pollutants were fully extracted from CD-TFP@cotton under reduced pressure at room temperature, permitting simple reuse. These properties make cotton functionalized with the cyclodextrin polymer of interest for water purification membranes, odor controlling fabrics, and respirators that control exposure to VOCs. This functionalization approach is scalable, likely to be amenable to other fibrous substrates, and compatible w...


In separate experiments, detection and identification thresholds were obtained for a set of 25 common environmental sounds (e.g., dog barking, car starting). In the detection task, threshold values of the event‐to‐noise ratio (Ev/N) were established using an adaptive tracking procedure. The identification experiment was part of a larger individual differences study reported earlier [Watson et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 2516(A) (1996)]. A 3AFC identification task was used, with sounds presented at eight levels of Ev/N. Thresholds were estimated from the psychometric functions derived from the data. The correlation between thresholds in the two tasks indicates that the identifiability of these sounds is only weakly related to their detectability. Several models were evaluated to identify the properties that determine the detectability of environmental sounds. Leaky integrator and cross‐correlation models were used to predict detection data; identification data were evaluated using a multidimensional scali...


Preface Part I. Rational Series: 1. Rational series 2. Minimization 3. Series and languages 4. Rational expressions Part II. Arithmetic: 5. Automatic sequences and algebraic series 6. Rational series in one variable 7. Changing the semiring 8. Positive series in one variable Part III. Applications: 9. Matrix semigroups and applications 10. Noncommutative polynomials 11. Codes and formal series 12. Semisimple syntactic algebras Open problems and conjectures References Index of notation Index.


A bias in heading estimation is observed if an extraneous object moves so as to obscure the focus of expansion of an optic flow field generated by linear translation. This bias, however, has only been shown for simple, non-articulated objects with no social or behavioural relevance. Contrastingly, objects in the real world are often much more complex and can be comprised of multiple, differently moving elements. Additionally, the movements of particular objects, such as other human actors, may carry information essential to the survival of the observer. In the current study we tested the accuracy of heading estimates in the presence of normal and scrambled point-light walkers. We found that both walkers biased heading estimation when crossing the focus of expansion. This heading bias, however, was significantly larger in the scrambled walker condition than the normal walker condition. Based on these results, we suggest that during translation the visual system is able to use biological form information to efficiently group and segment extraneous points from the optic flow field, thus simplifying the estimation of heading. This has important ramifications for models of heading perception, which generally ignore the characteristics of moving objects and simply treat them as noise. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Modeling the water content in soil is important for the development of agricultural information systems. Various data are necessary for such modelling. In this paper the authors are proposing a methodology for a frequent situation, i.e., when the modeler is facing a problem due to the lack of available data. Soil water prediction, e.g., for irrigation planning, should be performed with a daily time step. Unfortunately, past measurements of soil moisture, which are necessary for the calibration of a model, are often not available at such a frequency. In the case study presented the soil moisture data were acquired every two weeks. The authors have tested a model utilizing the Random Forests (RF) algorithm, which was used for the conversion of the original data to data with a daily time step. The accuracy of the application of RF to this task is compared with a neural networkbased model. The testing accomplished shows that the RF algorithm performs with a higher degree of accuracy and is more suitable for this task.


Pequi is the fruit of Caryocar brasiliense and its oil has a high concentration of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids, which are anti- and pro-atherogenic agents, respectively, and of carotenoids, which give it antioxidant properties. Our objective was to study the effect of the intake of a cholesterol-rich diet supplemented with pequi oil, compared to the same diet containing soybean oil, on atherosclerosis development, and oxidative stress in atherosclerosis-susceptible LDL receptor-deficient mice (LDLr−/−, C57BL/6-background). Female mice were fed a cholesterol-rich diet containing 7% soybean oil (Soybean group, N = 12) or 7% pequi oil (Pequi group, N = 12) for 6 weeks. The Pequi group presented a more atherogenic lipid profile and more advanced atherosclerotic lesions in the aortic root compared to the Soybean group. However, the Pequi group presented a less advanced lesion in the aorta than the Soybean group and showed lower lipid peroxidation (Soybean group: 50.2 ± 7.1; Pequi group: 30.0 ± 4.8 µmol MDA/mg protein) and anti-oxidized LDL autoantibodies (Soybean group: 35.7 ± 9.4; Pequi group: 15.6 ± 3.7 arbitrary units). Peritoneal macrophages from the Pequi group stimulated with zymosan showed a reduction in the release of reactive oxygen species compared to the Soybean group. Our data suggest that a pequi oil-rich diet slows atherogenesis in the initial stages, possibly due to its antioxidant activity. However, the increase of serum cholesterol induces a more prominent LDL migration toward the intimae of arteries, increasing the advanced atherosclerotic plaque. In conclusion, pequi oil associated with an atherogenic diet worsens the lipid profile and accelerates the formation of advanced atherosclerotic lesions despite its antioxidant action.


A great body of literature suggests that the poor were better off before the microfinance sector's paradigm shift of the mid-1990s. The sector's 'dependent' constituents' focus changed in an effort to cope with the changes dictated by its 'controlling' constituents. This paper's key finding is that the not-for-profit sector, where beneficiaries' interests are at stake, and the corporate sector, where owners and management are separate, should undergo an externally dictated change only after passing through a regulating agency's scrupulous check, lest the change harm the sector's beneficiaries. The paper attempts to create awareness among policymakers of the need to be thoughtful of the ultimate beneficiaries in similar cases of externally dictated organisational change.


Methods were developed for directly linking the distributed parameter model, AGNPS with a GIS and a relational database management system (RDBMS) to investigate a nonpoint source pollution problem. AGNPS is an event-based model that simulates runoff and the transport of sediment and pollutants from mainly agricultural watersheds. Distributed parameter models such as AGNPS are often applied to large problem domains. Linking such models to GIS and database management system can facilitate better data storage, manipulation and analysis than conventional methods. In this study, rather than manually implementing AGNPS, extracted data are integrated in an automatic fashion through a direct linking between the AGNPS model engine and GIS. This direct linkage results in a powerful, up-to-date tool that would be capable of monitoring and instantaneously visualizing the transport of any pollutant that AGNPS can simulate. Thereby, it reduces the time required to analyze the numerical output from AGNPS, and enables users to identify critical areas of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution and furthermore, to perform various `what if' scenarios to support the decision making processes such as Best Management Practices (BMP) for the watershed. A case study was performed on a watershed of 98.1 km 2 (= 24240 acres) in the upper segment of the Sand Hill River Subbasin in Minnesota by using this linkage implementation. Simulated results showed that the optimal BMP scenario achieved an average reduction of about 26% from current nonpoint source pollutant levels on soluble and sediment-attached nitrogen and phosphorous. Especially, this optimal BMP scenario was most effective in controlling the erosion and sediment yield. As a result, a maximum 50% reduction of sediment yield was observed.


This research demonstrates that the automatic implementation of a dynamic load balancing (DLB) strategy within a parallel SPMD (single program multiple data) structured mesh application code is possible. It details how DLB can be effectively employed to reduce the level of load imbalance in a parallel system without expert knowledge of the application. Furnishing CAPTools (the Computer Aided Parallelisation Tools) with the additional functionality of DLB, a DLB parallel version of the serial Fortran 77 application code can be generated quickly and easily with the press of a few buttons, allowing the user to obtain results on various platforms rather than concentrate on implementing a DLB strategy within their code. Results show that the devised DLB strategy has successfully decreased idle time by locally increasing/decreasing processor workloads as and when required to suit the parallel application, utilising the available resources efficiently.

Several possible DLB strategies are examined with the understanding that it needs to be generic if it is to be automatically implemented within CAPTools and applied to a wide range of application codes. This research investigates the issues surrounding load imbalance, distinguishing between processor and physical imbalance in terms of the load redistribution of a parallel application executed on a homogeneous or heterogeneous system. Issues such as where to redistribute the workload, how often to redistribute, calculating and implementing the new distribution (deciding what data arrays to redistribute in the latter case), are all covered in detail, with many of these issues common to the automatic implementation of DLB for unstructured mesh application codes.

The devised DLB Staggered Limit Strategy discussed in this thesis offers flexibility as well as ease of implementation whilst minimising changes to the user's code. The generic utilities developed for this research are discussed along with their manual implementation upon which the automation algorithms are based, where these utilities are interchangeable with alternative methods if desired. This thesis aims to encourage the use of the DLB Staggered Limit Strategy since its benefits are evidently significant and are now easily achievable with its automatic implementation using CAPTools.


Spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties causes considerable variations in water and solute flow and transport processes. It remains a difficult task to determine and describe the spatial pattern of soil physical properties for modeling landscape‐scale vadose zone processes. Strategies that involve measurements of relevant variables and appropriate spatial modeling tools need to be identified for this purpose. The objective of this study was to investigate a nested sampling approach for soil hydraulic properties and associated variables, such as soil texture, in a highly variable soil landscape in northeastern Germany dominated by soils derived from glacial till. Additionally, spatially highly resolved and nondestructive measurements of geoelectrical resistivity were examined for their spatial relation to soil physical and transport properties and their applicability in spatial process models of soil hydraulic property coefficients. Two pedotransfer function (PTF) approaches were applied to gain insight into their capacity to estimate the mean and the spatial variation of soil hydraulic property coefficients, although pedotransfer functions are originally not developed for this purpose. State‐space models estimated the spatial process of hydraulic conductivity at a soil water pressure head of −50 cm and the van Genuchten parameter n with relatively narrow confidence bands, whereas for α confidence was larger. Geoelectrical resistivity supported the estimation of the spatial distribution of soil hydraulic property coefficients. Despite the fact that without calibration, pedotransfer variable estimates did not always represent the mean of the respective variable, there was generally little spatial fluctuation reflected. However, considerable horizontal and vertical variability in soil textural properties existed within the investigated landscape. The findings suggest that state‐space models incorporating intermittent observations and spatial autocovariance behavior provide more flexibility in the estimation of the spatial process of hydraulic functional coefficients than regression type functions only.