Development of geothermal energy in sedimentary basins is an attractive option given the availability of data from the oil and gas industry. Previous geothermal studies in sedimentary basins have focused on temperatures and petrophysical properties. In this study, the focus is placed on historical reservoir performance. In the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, estimated temperatures and measured fluid production and injection rates at existing wells are combined to provide a per-well estimate of thermal power production. Nearly 700 of these hypothetical geothermal wells would produce 1 MW of power, and a total of 6 GW could be produced if all wells were converted to geothermal wells. Many of these wells may not be suitable for immediate use because of temperature anomalies resulting from injection of cooler water into target strata. Further research is needed to characterize the magnitude and extent of these anomalies. Geothermal potential should also be considered in the development of oil and gas resources in sedimentary basins.


We demonstrate that trapping of dispersive waves between two optical solitons takes place when resonant scattering of the waves on the solitons leads to nearly perfect reflections. The momentum transfer from the radiation to solitons results in their mutual attraction and a subsequent collision. The spectrum of the trapped radiation can either expand or shrink in the course of the propagation, which is controlled by arranging either collision or separation of the solitons.


The power system is a complex network with numerous equipment's interconnected for it's reliable operation. These power system networks are forced to operate under highly stressed conditions closer to their limits. One of the key objective of the power system operators is to provide safe, economic and reliable power to it's consumers. However, such network experiences perturbations due to many factors. These perturbations may lead to system collapse or even black out, which impacts the reliability of the system. Thus, one of the major aspect for the secure operation of the system can be achieved through security assessment. In this context, the power system static security assessment is necessary to evaluate the security status under contingency scenario. One of the approach for the security assessment is by contingency ranking, where the severity of a specific contingency is computed and ranked with highest severity to the lowest one. Initially, this approach is implemented using several load flow methods in order to identify the limit violations. However, these approaches are complex, time consuming and not feasible for real time implementation. These approaches are applied to a specific system operating condition. Thus in this context, this thesis focusses to implement soft computing and data mining approaches for security assessment by contingency ranking and classification approach. Along with the security assessment, this thesis also focusses on a control mechanism approach for the security enhancement under contingency scenario using evolutionary computing techniques.
 In this thesis, the various aspects of the power system security such as it's assessment, and it's enhancement are studied. The conventional contingency ranking approach by NRLF method is presented for the security assessment. In order to predict the system severity, a ranking module is designed with two neural network models namely, MFNN and RBFN for security assessment under different load conditions. Both neural network models are quite accurate in predicting the performance indices in less time.
 Another aspect of power system static security assessment is by classification approach, where the security states are classified into secure, critically secure, insecure and highly insecure. This approach helps in proper security monitoring. Thus, this thesis also presents the design and implementation of two security pattern classifier models namely the decision tree and the random forest classifiers. The classifiers are trained and tested with several security patterns generated in an offline mode. The proposed models are compared with MLP, RBFN and SVM classifier models in order to prove their efficiency in classifying the security levels.
 Further, this thesis work also focusses on a control mechanism for security enhancement under N-1 line outage contingency scenario. Initially contingency analysis is carried out under N-1 line outage case and critical contingencies are identified. The objective is to reschedule the generators with minimum fuel cost in such a way that the overloaded lines are relieved from stress. In order to enhance the power system security, an evolutionary computing algorithm, namely an enhanced cuckoo search algorithm is proposed for the contingency constrained economic load dispatch. To study the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the results are compared with CS, BA and PSO algorithms.


This Food Brexit Briefing brings together three interlinked issues that demand policy attention as the clock ticks towards Brexit:

1. The question of whether the Government is paying enough attention to agri-food in the negotiating process, given its central role in both public wellbeing and the national economy.
2. The threat a careless Brexit poses to the UK's short-term food security – and any long-term attempt to develop a genuinely sustainable food strategy for the whole of the UK.
3. The risk generated to the UK's status as a potential trading partner of the EU by the Food Standards Agency's decision to press ahead with major reform of UK food safety regulation, at a time when regulatory stability and clarity have never been more important.

The report was written by FRC's Professor Tim Lang, with Professor Erik Millstone (Sussex), Tony Lewis (Head of Policy at Chartered Institute for Environmental Health) and Professor Terry Marsden (Cardiff). It takes stock of 'food Brexit' and argues that a hard Brexit or no-deal Brexit (and retreat to WTO rules) would imperil the sustainability and security of Britain's food supply.

The report recommends that the Government should:

- Maintain a clear and explicit focus on the potential adverse effects of Brexit on food security in the UK, while negotiating the UK's future trading relationships with the EU and other jurisdictions.
- Publish Brexit impact studies on the UK's agricultural and food system for the White Paper and Chequers Statement and any subsequent proposals.
- Ensure that high food standards remain at the heart of any future trade deals.
- Provide clarity on its proposed migration policy, taking account of the contributions that non-UK citizens of the EU are making to the quantity and quality of the UK's food supply and services.
- Avoid a hard Food Brexit at all costs.The UK must not retreat to a WTO-rules-based regime. The EU would then categorise the UK as a '3rd Country', which could be a recipe for chaos.
- Create a new Sustainable Food Security Strategy. This would engage with the complexities of the food system and the multiple criteria by which it should be evaluated; and identify clear priorities and pathways for progress.

The report also calls on the Food Standards Agency to:

- Address the calls for clarification and evidence posed in the paper in respect of its Regulating Our Future (ROF) Where such clarification or evidence is not available, then the Agency should modify or suspend the introduction of its proposals, at least until after Brexit.


Crk associated substrate (Cas) is an adaptor protein that becomes phosphorylated upon integrin signaling and influences regulation of cell processes such as migration, proliferation and survival. It consists of multiple domains and regions that can interact with several signaling proteins involved in different signaling pathways. Cas was first discovered as a highly phosphorylated protein in v-Src and v-Crk transformed cells, showing involvement of this protein in cell transformation High level of Breast cancer antiestrogen resistance protein (BCAR-1), a homologue to Cas has shown to correlate with rapid reoccurrence of breast cancer and also create resistance towards Tamoxifen, the widely used medicine for receptor positive breast cancer patients. We have defined boundaries of two regions of Cas termed serine rich region (SRR) and Src binding domain (SBD) respectively and have isolated these segments for biochemical and structural studies. The structure of the serine rich part of Cas has been determined by NMR spectroscopy and reveals a four-helix bundle with unusually long loops. The 14-3-3 protein binds to Cas in a phospho-serine dependent manner and our study suggests that the binding site is located between two helices. The SH2-SH3 domain of a Src family kinase, Lck has also been crystallized in complex with a nine residue long peptide corresponding to the region in Cas that binds to SH2 domains. The structure of this complex has been solved at 2.7A and shows that Cas binds Src family kinases (SFK) with high affinity suggesting a specific interaction between these two molecules. The biochemical studies on the specific binding site of these molecules show that SFK can bind to any of the phosphorylated tyrosines on the SH2 binding domain of Cas and only one phospho-tyrosine is enough to establish the binding. This binding assay does also indicate that SH3 binding domain of Cas is not essential for SFK binding.


This is the first of three articles that deals with the goal of using non-contact nonlinear acoustic methods for the damage localization in plates. In this first part, the resonant air gap wave field between one active and one passive reflecting plate was investigated experimentally. Of particular interest is the wave field amplitude strength, and its distribution on the passive surface. The wave amplitude may be increased by choosing one plate to be concave, overcoming the nonlinear damping taking place for two flat plates. Applications are connected with an increased wave field having advantages for processes taking place under open conditions and for a non-contact transducers' efficiency of transferring energy into an object. A double resonance gives highest air pressure, while a triple provides most energy in the passive object. By choosing the gap distance, frequency and transducer width, the appearing resonant wave will have a considerably larger amplitude at the object surface. The work through the interface from air to object is investigated and the wave field in a resonant air-plate system is shown.


We experimentally observe the interplay among coexisting multiwave-mixing (MWM) signals via multiple electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) windows, including two ladder-type EIT windows and one V-type EIT-like window in a five-level atomic system of Rb85. In the presence of these EIT windows, one can control the interplay between these MWM signals easily by changing the frequency detuning. Meanwhile, we also report the spatial and temporal interferences with a femtosecond time scale among three coexisting MWM signals in two overlapped EIT windows.


In this paper, we propose a reachable set based collision avoidance algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs have been deployed for agriculture research and management, surveillance and sensor coverage for threat detection and disaster search and rescue operations. It is essential for the aircraft to have on-board collision avoidance capability to guarantee safety. Instead of the traditional approach of collision avoidance between trajectories, we propose a collision avoidance scheme based on reachable sets and tubes. We then formulate the problem as a convex optimization problem seeking suitable control constraint sets for participating aircraft. We have applied the approach on a case study of two quadrotors collision avoidance scenario.


Triaxial accelerometers have been used to measure human movement parameters in swimming. Interpretation of data is difficult due to interference sources including interaction of external bodies. In this investigation the authors developed a model to simulate the physical movement of the lower back. Theoretical accelerometery outputs were derived thus giving an ideal, or noiseless dataset. An experimental data collection apparatus was developed by adapting a system to the aquatic environment for investigation of swimming. Model data was compared against recorded data and showed strong correlation. Comparison of recorded and modeled data can be used to identify changes in body movement, this is especially useful when cyclic patterns are present in the activity. Strong correlations between data sets allowed development of signal processing algorithms for swimming stroke analysis using first the pure noiseless data set which were then applied to performance data. Video analysis was also used to validate study results and has shown potential to provide acceptable results.


From turf wars to low morale, most companies attempt to cure what ails them with the latest management fad—and fail. They are treating the symptoms while ignoring the true problem.

 Success starts with knowing the kind of business you're really in. Lead Right for Your Company's Type argues that every enterprise falls into one of four categories as dictated by their customer promise: customized (e.g. ad agency), predictable and dependable (e.g utility company), benevolent (e.g. educational institution), and best in class (e.g. high-tech company like Apple). When leadership practices fit the customer promise and company type, the organization thrives. But apply the wrong practices and the mismatch pulls the enterprise apart. Example after example exposes the fallout:

 A small arts college destabilized by top-down rules designed for a predictable and dependable company

 A mid-tier retail chain derailed by leadership demands for superior products instead of reliably low prices

 A software giant brought to its knees by prioritizing profits over innovation

 Insightful and practical, the book's proven tools and five-step process will help you diagnose your organization's ills—and stop them at their source.


Interference is usually viewed as an obstacle to communication in wireless networks. This paper proposes a new strategy, compute-and-forward, that exploits interference to obtain significantly higher rates between users in a network. The key idea is that relays should decode linear functions of transmitted messages according to their observed channel coefficients rather than ignoring the interference as noise. After decoding these linear equations, the relays simply send them towards the destinations, which given enough equations, can recover their desired messages. The underlying codes are based on nested lattices whose algebraic structure ensures that integer combinations of codewords can be decoded reliably. Encoders map messages from a finite field to a lattice and decoders recover equations of lattice points which are then mapped back to equations over the finite field. This scheme is applicable even if the transmitters lack channel state information.


Investigations of metal ecotoxicity in life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) are becoming important tools for evaluating the environmental impact of a product or process. There is, however, improvement needed for LCIA of metal ecotoxicity in order to make this assessment more relevant and robust. In this work, three issues within the LCIA of metal ecotoxicity are investigated, mainly focusing on topics related to stainless steel manufacturing. The first issue is the importance of considering regional water chemistry when constructing the characterization factor (CF). A model freshwater of relevance for stainless steel manufacturing in a region of Sweden was created with chemistry different from available options. The second issue is related to the lack of consideration on changes in speciation of Cr(VI) in freshwater for a given emission, as Cr(VI) to some extent will be reduced to Cr(III). Two new options are suggested based on relationships between the Cr(VI)–total Cr ratio as a way to improve the relevancy of LCIA for Cr(VI) in freshwater. The last issue is how to treat metal release from slags in LCIA. Metal release from slags was shown to vary significantly between different ways of modelling slag emissions (differences in total metal content, slag leaching tests, estimated emissions to groundwater).


Family has been identified as the first place that enhances students' awareness about, attitude toward and capabilities of entrepreneurship. However, little attentions has been directed to how family nurtures entrepreneurial abilities particularly, the competencies to lead entrepreneurial activities in students. This study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of how family develops entrepreneurial leadership competencies of university students. A total of fourteen student entrepreneurial leaders, defined as students who were highly involved in leading university entrepreneurship clubs and projects, was purposefully selected and interviewed. Half of the students had one of their parents as an entrepreneur and the parents of the half were not involved in entrepreneurship. Analysis of the data revealed that parents played an influential role in inspiring students to get involved in entrepreneurial activities, whether or not they themselves were entrepreneurs. Furthermore, lived and continuous involvement in family business developed the students' self-efficacy in leading entrepreneurial activities. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.


Framing—selecting certain aspects of a given issue and making them more salient in communication in order to "frame" the issue in a specific way—is a key concept in the study of communication. At the same time, it has been used very differently in scholarship, leading some to declare it a "fractured paradigm," or an idea whose usefulness has expired. In studies of climate change communication, frame analyses have been used numerous times and in various ways, from formal framing approaches (e.g., episodic vs. thematic framing) to topical frames (both generic and issue-specific). Using methodological approaches of frame analysis from content analysis over discourse analysis and qualitative studies to experimental research, this research has brought valuable insights into media portrayals of climate change in different countries and their effects on audiences—even though it still has limitations that should be remedied in future research.


For many tasks, tactile or visual feedback is helpful or even crucial. However, designing controllers that take such high-dimensional feedback into account is non-trivial. Therefore, robots should be able to learn tactile skills through trial and error by using reinforcement learning algorithms. The input domain for such tasks, however, might include strongly correlated or non-relevant dimensions, making it hard to specify a suitable metric on such domains. Auto-encoders specialize in finding compact representations, where defining such a metric is likely to be easier. Therefore, we propose a reinforcement learning algorithm that can learn non-linear policies in continuous state spaces, which leverages representations learned using auto-encoders. We first evaluate this method on a simulated toy-task with visual input. Then, we validate our approach on a real-robot tactile stabilization task.


Modeling is a key component to sciences from mathematics to life science, including environmental and ecological studies. By looking at the underlying concepts of the software, we can make sure that we build mathematically feasible models and that we get the most out of the data and information that we have. This book shows how models can be analyzed using simple math and software to generate meaningful qualitative descriptions of system dynamics. This book shows that even without a full analytical, mathematically rigorous analysis of the equations, there may be ways to derive some qualitative understanding of general behavior of a system. By relating some of the modeling approaches and systems theory to real world examples the book illustrates how these approaches can help understand concepts such as sustainability, peak oil, adaptive management, optimal harvest and other practical applications.

 Relates modeling approaches and systems theory to real world examples
 Teaches students to build mathematically feasible models and get the most of our the data and information available
 Wide range of applications in hydrology, population dynamics, market cycles, sustainability theory, management, and more


One of the early "California Limiteds" entering the suburbs of Los Angeles, possibly dating from the late 1870's. The ten-wheeler, type 4-6-0, heading the train bears an original Santa Fe engine No. 54, indicative of ancient age.
At the turn of the century the Santa Fe owned a large fleet of these locomotives: 478 ten-wheelers; these were versatile engines, known as "Jack of all Trades." However, no steam locomotives of this type were built to Santa Fe blueprints later than 1901.
Observe the consist: the old weather-worn wooden railway post office car in the lead and the other open-platform wooden cars - all heated by potbellied iron stoves which burned wood or coal, and illuminated by kerosene.
In this era, travel by rail had potential hazards but its popularity never waned.


We propose a two-generation anti-poverty strategy to improve the economic fortunes of children in the United States. Our policy bridges two traditionally siloed interventions to boost their impacts: Head Start for children and career pathway training offered through community colleges for adults. We expect that an integrated two-generation human capital intervention will produce greater gains than either Head Start or community college alone for developmental and motivational, logistical and financial, social capital, and efficiency reasons. We suggest a competitive grant program to test and evaluate different models using federal dollars. We estimate average benefit-cost ratios across a range of promising career fields of 1.3 within five years and 7.9 within ten years if 10 percent of Head Start parents participate in two-generation programs.


The effect of eight vitamin E homologues, i.e. α-, β-, γ-, and δ-tocopherol and α-, β-, γ, and δ-tocotrienol, on the inhibition of autoxidation of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) were investigated. The oxidation was carried out in the dark for 21 days at 50 °C and monitored by peroxide values (PV) and TBA values. The levels of the individual vitamin E homologues in CLA during storage were determined by HPLC. γ-Tocopherol exhibited the highest antioxidant activity among the homologues tested in this study when the antioxidant activities of the individual homologues in CLA were compared by PV. The order of antioxidant activity of eight homologues was γ-tocopherol > δ-tocopherol = δ-tocotrienol > γ-tocotrienol > β-tocopherol = β-tocotrienol > α-tocopherol = α-tocotrienol. The degradation rates of α-tocopherol and α-tocotrienol were faster than those of the other homologues, whereas δ-tocopherol had the highest stability in CLA during storage. All homologues exhibited an antioxidant activity by inhibiting the formation of secondary oxidation products. It appears that α-tocotrienol and β-tocotrienol have significantly higher antioxidant activities for secondary oxidation in CLA than α-tocopherol and β-tocopherol. Meanwhile, the other homologues, namely γ-tocopherol, γ-tocotrienol, δ-tocopherol, and δ-tocotrienol, exhibited similar antioxidant activity for secondary oxidation in CLA.


Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) inhibits the release of acetylcholine from cholinergic nerve terminals in muscles or salivary glands. With reduced activation, the muscle activity or secretion decreases. Indications for medical, non‐cosmetic use of BoNT in the orofacial area include among others oromandibular dystonia, painful masseter hypertrophy, Frey's syndrome, and severe drooling. The chapter covers anamnestic characteristics of these conditions as well as clinical, electromyographic (EMG) and laboratory findings, treatment methods with guided injections, and outcome from systematic treatment controls and follow‐up examinations.


Mechanical compaction or loss of porosity due to increase in effective stress is a fundamental geological process that governs many of the rock elastic and transport parameters, all of great importance in exploring and developing subsurface reservoirs. The ability to model the compaction process enables us to improve our understanding of the seismic signature of the basin and better relate the geology of deposition to current porosity, velocity, pore pressure, and other mechanical parameters that depend on the state of compaction of the sediment. In this paper, a set of mathematical equations that can be used to model the plastic deformation associated with primary and secondary loading curves is presented. Compaction laws are posed in terms of natural strain increment formulation often used in plasticity theory to model large deformation. Laboratory and field estimates of constitutive plastic deformation relations for sand–shale mixtures are used in a numerical model that generates estimates of porosity under various pore pressures, shale content, and loading scenarios. These estimates can be used in a variety of settings to predict various basin and reservoir properties associated with different loading conditions and/or sedimentation processes.


REFLECTIONS : glass : water : art : science showcases contemporary artwork by a variety of artists inspired by the creative interaction of reflective material within the designed landscape of the Haining House and loch.

The residency programme, coordinated by Inge Panneels, local artist and senior lecturer from the Department of Glass & Ceramics, University of Sunderland, was led by 3 artist agent provocateurs, and brought together creative practitioners from a variety of backgrounds including sculpture, photography, sound and dance.as well as glass and architecture students from Sunderland and Edinburgh University respectively.

Inge Panneels explained "…."

The Residency was a short creative lab where creative people, who each work with different materials, at different stages of their career and with different working practices, were sharing three days of experimentation reflecting on both the surroundings of the Haining and the Loch. This resulted in collaborative working, sharing skills, ideas and working methods. It was wonderful to see this burst of creativity in such a short space of time and with limited materials. The material of glass was a focus but found and recycled materials also played a big role in the creation of these experimental works, most of which were sited in or around the Loch.

The exhibition will bring together a selection of the works produced as part of the residency as well as some developed pieces such as the collaborative sound and visual experience by Mark Timmins and James Wyness; the choreographed kinetic film by Helen Douglas, Jenna Agate and Claire Pencak; and the reflective installation by Felicity Bristow and Graham Patterson.

A series of related events will also take place throughout the exhibition period including on glass blowing by Lindean Mill lampworking Zoe Garner and engraving by Heather Gillespie supported by Craft Scotland ; presentations on contemporary glass art by eminent Borders artist Douglas Hogg and the history of Scottish window glass; talks by leading academics Inge Panneels, Dr Cate Watkinson, and Dorian Wiszniewski on their research into glass : water : art : science; as well as the entertaining children's performance 'the Medieval Construction Science show'.

All of the events are FREE to attend


To conduct policy efficiently, central banks must use available data to infer, or learn, the relevant structural relationships in the economy. However, because a central bank's policy affects economic outcomes, the chosen policy may help or hinder its efforts to learn. This paper examines whether real-time learning allows a central bank to learn the economy's underlying structure and studies the impact that learning has on the performance of optimal policies under a variety of learning environments. Our main results are as follows. First, when monetary policy is formulated as an optimal discretionary targeting rule, we find that the rational expectations equilibrium and the optimal policy are real-time learnable. This result is robust to a range of assumptions concerning private-sector learning behavior. Second, when policy is set with discretion, learning can lead to outcomes that are better than if the model parameters are known. Finally, if the private sector is learning, then unannounced changes to the policy regime, particularly changes to the inflation target, can raise policy loss considerably.


The nutrient budget, the difference between the nutrient output via stream and input via precipitation, can provide insights into how environmental processes affect forested ecosystem biogeochemistry. In this study, field measurements of the nutrient budgets—including Na+, Cl−, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, NO3−, and SO42−—of 19 sites were conducted in Feitsui Reservoir Watershed (FRW) of northeastern Taiwan. A series of power-law regressions were developed to establish the relationship of the nutrient budget to the discharge, nutrient input, agricultural land cover, and slope. The result show that the weekly nutrient budget is significantly affected by agricultural land and input via precipitation (R2 of regression models ≥ 0.90), yet the relationship varies among different nutrient elements. The agricultural land cover is the major factor, while the input via precipitation plays a relatively minor role in the budget of Cl−, Mg2+, Ca2+, and SO42−. These nutrients could be provisioned abundantly from the system, and thus the input via precipitation is not the predominant controlling factor. By contrast, the Na+ and K+ inputs via precipitation are indispensable for accurately estimating the riverine exports. Because weathering is a limited source of K+, the roles of agricultural activities and input via precipitation are likely decisive for transport. Besides, the NO3− budget reveals a strong interplay between the atmospheric input and agricultural land, as expected. Because the nutrient budget model of NO3− is strongly improved, the R2 changes from 0.34 to 0.99 when a larger coefficient in exponent term (10.2) for agricultural land cover (showing that NO3− export is strongly hydrologically controlled) and precipitation input are included. Our analysis is based on one year of data, so extrapolating the result to a long-term period should be done with caution, as there could be substantial inter-annual variation. The nutrient budget approach provides a preliminary assessment to evaluate the impacts of agriculture and atmospheric deposition on nutrient export, which can provide a precursory reference for watershed management for improving water quality and mitigating eutrophication.


We present a method for object categorization in real-world scenes. Following a common consensus in the field, we do not assume that a figure- ground segmentation is available prior to recognition. However, in contrast to most standard approaches for object class recognition, our approach automati- cally segments the object as a result of the categorization. This combination of recognition and segmentation into one process is made pos- sible by our use of an Implicit Shape Model, which integrates both into a common probabilistic framework. In addition to the recognition and segmentation result, it also generates a per-pixel confidence measure specifying the area that supports a hypothesis and how much it can be trusted. We use this confidence to derive a nat- ural extension of the approach to handle multiple objects in a scene and resolve ambiguities between overlapping hypotheses with a novel MDL-based criterion. In addition, we present an extensive evaluation of our method on a standard dataset for car detection and compare its performance to existing methods from the literature. Our results show that the proposed method significantly outper- forms previously published methods while needing one order of magnitude less training examples. Finally, we present results for articulated objects, which show that the proposed method can categorize and segment unfamiliar objects in differ- ent articulations and with widely varying texture patterns, even under significant partial occlusion.


More than 40 years of war, ethnic conflict, violence and poverty have made Afghanistan a country where at least one in five live with a serious physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychosocial disability. Women with disabilities in Afghanistan are considered to be 'doubly stigmatized' due to gender inequality and disability stigmatization, and are often hidden from the social and political aspects of life. Although in the post-Taliban era, development interventions backed by international aid have been designed to include women with disabilities, their intersectionalities cutting across class, ethnicity, region, different types of impairments and other positionalities have not been explored to address different needs, barriers and inequalities across various regions. In this context, the Covid 19 crisis has made the lives of Afghan women with disabilities harder due to gender discrimination, stigma and shame, unemployment, lack of mobility, lack of awareness, and insufficient institutional support and infrastructure coupled with widespread feelings of insecurity resulting from conflict and terrorist attacks. Based on both primary and secondary data, this paper will shed a feminist intersectional insight into the plight of women with dis/abled experience during the Covid 19 pandemic in the complex political and social terrain of Afghanistan. The paper will also explore visions for designing interventions aimed at integrating women with disabilities in post Covid development plans.


Many real-time systems have firm real-time requirements which allow occasional deadline violations but discard any jobs that are not finished by their deadlines. To measure the performance of such a system, a quality of service (QoS) metric is needed. Examples of often used QoS metrics for firm real-time systems are average deadline miss rates and (m, k)-firm constraints. However, for certain applications, these metrics may not be adequate measures of system performance. This paper introduces a novel QoS constraint for firm real-time systems. The new QoS constraint generalizes existing firm real-time constraints. Furthermore, using networked control system as an example, we show that this constraint can be directly related to the control system's performance. We then present three different scheduling approaches with respect to this QoS constraint. Experimental results are provided to show the effectiveness of these approaches.


The rising prevalence of overweight and obesity globally is a major public health concern. There are no simple solutions to obesity, weight management is a long term challenge influenced by behavioural, emotional and physical factors. In order to establish effective weight management strategies, overweight and obese people's experiences with weight management need to be comprehensively understood. This study explores the experiences of adult Nigerians who have been successful at weight loss maintenance. Aim: To establish effective weight loss maintenance strategies used by overweight and obese adults in Abuja, Nigeria Method: Qualitative study with in-depth interviews of 7 successful weight losers in Abuja, Nigeria. Results: Participants employed a combination multiple dietary strategies and exercise to maintain their weight loss. They reported that they avoided certain meals, substituted meals, practiced portion control, skipped meals, counted calories, avoided eating out, ate many small meals, ate unprocessed foods, ate low calorie meal, and ate mainly fruits and vegetables. Most had a flexible eating restraint behaviour. For most, dancing was the favorite form of exercise. They viewed these changes as life goals. From their report, t a sustainable weight loss plan, setting weight loss goals, regular self -monitoring of weight, positive outcomes, positive thinking, positive feedback, self-encouragement and determination, helped them to maintain their weight loss. Conclusion: This study has helped us understand some of the factors that doctors should consider when giving advice to Nigerian women on maintenance of weight loss. The combination of multiple strategies is consistent with existing literature on successful weight loss maintenance.


Recent empirical studies have examined the determinants of economic growth using country-average (cross-sectional) data. By contrast, this paper employs a technique for using a panel of cross-sectional and time series data for 98 countries over the 1960-85 period to determine the quantitative importance for economic growth of both country-specific and time-varying factors such as human capital, public investment, and outward-oriented trade policies. The empirical results support the view that these factors exert a positive and significant influence on growth. They also provide estimates of the speed at which the gap between the real per capita incomes of rich and poor countries is likely to be reduced over the longer term.


In this thesis, we tackle the problem of video object segmentation where we have to classify every pixel of every frame in a video sequence into background and foreground classes. Our algorithms fall in the semi-supervised category, i.e., they start with the object of interest annotated in the first frame and then they track and segment that object in the following frames. The first algorithm that we have implemented describes the object of interest in terms of a set of points distributed on the object and then tracks them in the following frames. To make the tracking robust, we impose that the spatial distribution of these points is stable along the frames. To do so, we place a mesh on top of the mask of the object, whose vertices are the interest points to track, and the edges define the spatial structure within them. We then compute a descriptor of the appearance of each of the points and look for the displacements that bring those points in the following frame to a point with a similar descriptor. We enforce that the displacements of neighboring points are similar, which favors coherent deformations of the object. This algorithm may experience difficulties at the contours of the objects as the point descriptors might be influenced by the background. To overcome this problem, our second algorithm is based on the idea of tracking the contour of the object by imposing smooth deformations between frames. Starting from a polygonal representation of the contour of the object,we look for the locations at the following frame that have a strong response of an edge detector while minimizing the deformation of the shape. Specifically, we build a multiscale pyramid of segments of the contour polygon and look for the displacement of every segment that matches the edge response while being coherent with the rest of elements of the pyramid. This second algorithm can be understood as complementary to the first one, since it might fail in object with low-contrasted contours or with cluttered background. As an overall trade off, we propose a combination of the two algorithms that tries to make the most out of each of them and compensate their weaknesses. In order to validate our approaches, we perform an extensive validation on a recently-published database called DAVIS that provides fifty sequences with the ground truth annotated in each of their frames. We sweep all the different parameters of the algorithms in order to achieve the best performance in this database. The results show that the contour algorithm outperforms the mesh algorithm, so the weaknesses presented in the previous paragraph are more prominent in the mesh algorithm. Once we combine both of them, although we have not been able to do a full search in the parameter space, the results obtained are promising and an increase in the parameter space search suggests that we would outperform any of the standalone methods. We also perform a comparison against six state-of-the-art algorithms which shows that although we are still behind the better-performing ones, our approach might be competitive with further tuning and experimentation.


Abstract Assistance to refugees is shifting from a humanitarian model, which focuses on protection, emergency relief, and shelter, to a development model promoting refugee self-reliance through income-generating activities, market development, and cash transfers. Evidence on the effects of this paradigm shift is limited. Exploiting a regression discontinuity design, this paper tests whether the adoption of a development approach to refugee assistance in a new settlement in Kenya has a positive impact. We find that refugees benefiting from the new approach have better diets and perceive themselves as happier and more independent from humanitarian aid. We find no effect on assets and employment. These effects appear to be driven by the switch from food rations to cash transfers and by the wider promotion of small-scale agriculture. Our findings argue in favor of the development approach to refugee assistance, which is cheaper and leads to better outcomes.


The effect of butanol challenge (0, 1.0, 1.5% [vol/vol]) and growth temperature (22, 37, 42°C) on the membrane composition and fluidity of Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 and a butanol-tolerant mutant, SA-2, was examined in chemically defined medium. Growth of strain ATCC 824 into the stationary phase coincided with a gradual increase in the percent saturated to percent unsaturated (SU) fatty acid ratio. When challenged with butanol at 22 and 37°C, ATCC 824 demonstrated an immediate (within 30 min) dose-response increase in the SU ratio. This strain showed little additional change over a 48-h fermentation. Compared with ATCC 824, growth of SA-2 into the late stationary phase at 22 or 37°C resulted in an overall greater increase in the SU ratio for both unchallenged and challenged cells. This effect was minimized when SA-2 was challenged at 42°C, probably due to the combination of the membrane fluidizing effect of butanol and the elevated temperature. Growth at 42°C resulted in an increase in longer acyl chain fatty acids at the expense of shorter acyl chains for both strains. The membrane fluidity exhibited by SA-2 remained essentially constant at various butanol challenge and temperature combinations, while that for the ATCC 824 strain increased with increasing butanol challenge. By synthesizing an increased amount of saturated fatty acids, the butanol-tolerant SA-2 strain has apparently developed a mechanism for maintaining a more stable membrane environment. Growth of the microorganism is necessary for butanol to fluidize the membrane. Incorporation of exogenous fatty acids (18:1) did not significantly improve the butanol tolerance of either strain. Since SA-2 was able to produce only trace amounts of either butanol or acetone, increased tolerance to butanol does not necessarily coincide with greater solvent yields in this strain.


The foodborne and waterborne disease continues to pose significant health problems in the Middle East. This region specifically Arabic speaking countries, imports large amounts of food products from all over the world. At the same time, this region exports a variety of food commodities to many countries worldwide. The increased international food trade, changes in agriculture production, food processing, and consumer demand for wholesome safe food have led to new food safety challenges which have impacted the food safety systems. There are country- and intra-country/subregional specific based food safety systems. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an example of a subregional coalition aimed at harmonizing their country-members' food safety standards based on Codex Alimentarius. There are a number of challenges and potential opportunities available for the Middle Eastern countries to enhance their food safety systems. These challenges include: 1) domestic and imported food inspection, 2) laboratory capacity and staff training, 3) foodborne surveillance systems, and 4) scientific research to support policies and regulations. Given these challenges, there are a number of opportunities to enhance food safety in the Middle East. These include: 1) Training of inspectors for domestic and imported food and making available a detailed and comprehensive manual to follow as a guideline in their daily work. This guideline would be a valuable aid especially to those with limited training. In addition, standard uniform methods for sampling and data collection would be needed, 2) building research institutions for food safety and quality research that supports laboratory capacity, surveillance, and data analysis, and 3) better risk assessment and communication is needed to focus on highest foodborne disease risks and to link the strategies to reduce those risks across the full food production chain. Special consideration should be given to certain situations in specific countries to overcome barriers of non-collaboration among disciplines and responsible agencies.


The response of the human acute myeloid leukemia cell line THP-1 to phorbol esters has been widely studied to test candidate leukemia therapies and as a model of cell cycle arrest and monocyte-macrophage differentiation. Here we have employed Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) to analyze a dense time course of transcriptional regulation in THP-1 cells treated with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) over 96 h. PMA treatment greatly reduced the numbers of cells entering S phase and also blocked cells exiting G2/M. The PMA-treated cells became adherent and expression of mature macrophage-specific genes increased progressively over the duration of the time course. Within 1–2 h PMA induced known targets of tumor protein p53 (TP53), notably CDKN1A , followed by gradual down-regulation of cell-cycle associated genes. Also within the first 2 h, PMA induced immediate early genes including transcription factor genes encoding proteins implicated in macrophage differentiation ( EGR2, JUN, MAFB ) and down-regulated genes for transcription factors involved in immature myeloid cell proliferation ( MYB, IRF8, GFI1 ). The dense time course revealed that the response to PMA was not linear and progressive. Rather, network-based clustering of the time course data highlighted a sequential cascade of transient up- and down-regulated expression of genes encoding feedback regulators, as well as transcription factors associated with macrophage differentiation and their inferred target genes. CAGE also identified known and candidate novel enhancers expressed in THP-1 cells and many novel inducible genes that currently lack functional annotation and/or had no previously known function in macrophages. The time course is available on the ZENBU platform allowing comparison to FANTOM4 and FANTOM5 data.


An epileptic seizure is the external manifestation of a functional cerebral disorder that can affect 10% of the world's population. Virtually any brain abnormality can irritate vulnerable neurons and produce epileptic seizures. The nature and characteristics of the seizure depend on the part of the brain involved in the disturbance.


This paper provides an overview of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) as a
budgetary instrument. A preliminary analysis of the quantitative impact of its first year and a
half of activity is complemented by an outline of the corollary policies that can determine the
success of EFSI. Taking into account the instrument's original mission, the preliminary evidence
is encouraging and suggests that it is on track to attain expected targets. For EFSI 2.0, the study
recommends revising the regulation to provide a window-specific definition of additionality and
strengthening parliamentary oversight. In order for EFSI to contribute to the greater goal of
cohesion and development, it further recommends the creation of a Development Window
with a special guarantee for riskier regions and a push on EFSI corollary policies, including the
establishment of country offices for the Advisory Hub and the development of a strategy for
investment in human capital.


The timeliness of financial reporting has been an important topic in the accounting literature for decades. There is a tradeoff between the timeliness of reporting and the value of the information being reported. Prior to the advent of the internet, reporting had to be done using print media. However, now that many companies post their annual and quarterly reports on the internet, it is possible to report in a more timely fashion than has previously been possible. The problem is that companies in some countries do not make full use of this disclosure tool. They sometimes take many months to make the information available to the general public. The present empirical legal study examines the timeliness of financial reporting in the Russian banking sector and compares it to the SEC benchmark.


Purpose: To develop a tumor blood flow rate measurement system utilizing positron emission after proton therapy for potential evaluation of the efficacy of radiotherapy, concurrent chemotherapy and/or antiangiogenesis therapy of proton therapy patients. Method: Daily proton treatment generates positron emission nuclei, i.e., 15O, 13N and 11C inside the treated volume of patients. In‐room measurement of activities of 15O as a function of time right after proton treatment can directly measure tumor blood flow rate due to the biological washout characteristics. A pair of NaI2 detectors and coincidence detection electronics were obtained. The NaI2 detectors were mounted on a modified C‐arm for good axial alignment and flexible isocentric rotation. The detector energy spectrum was calibrated using 60Co, 137Cs and 22Na sources. The energy window was set for 511 keV peaks. Current system is not optimized for collimation and shielding. The system performance was evaluated using 18F‐FDG. Proton irradiated water and/or ice were also measured for positron emission activity and the acquired data were analyzed. Detector shielding and collimation is under construction. IRB approval for proton patient blood flow rate measurement was obtained for evaluation of their tumor blood flow rates and changes over treatment course. Results: The C‐arm based detector platform demonstrated precise alignment and great flexibility for different treatment sites. The 18F‐FDG decay measurement using the system showed the measured half life is within 16s of the theoretical value. Activity measurement of proton irradiated water and ice showed about 10s half life difference between the measured and theoretical value. This was potentially due to the activation inside the water/ice container and lack of detector collimation and shielding. Conclusions: A non‐invasive in‐room tumor blood flow rate measurement system for proton therapy patients is under development. The preliminary data is reported. American Cancer Society Chris DiMarco Institutional Research Grant


The Birthing on Noongar Boodjar project investigated the cultural birthing practices of Aboriginal women living on country (Noongar Boodjar) in an urbanised environment; and their experiences of interactions with maternal health care providers (especially midwives). The evidence from the five year study identified changes required in health systems to adequately support Aboriginal women and their families during the significant cultural and life event of childbearing.
This paper sets out the methodological and theoretical considerations which framed how the Birthing on Noongar Boodjar project was conducted by the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal investigators. We provide a brief project background before describing the Indigenous research methodologies and practices crucial to exploring the research questions, collecting data in culturally secure ways and using cultural lenses to analyze and interpret the data. The study design and results are reported in other publications.


The shale gas boom in the United States has been reforming the world energy market. The supply response of shale gas to productivity shocks and relative price changes, however, has not been adequately studied. We analyze the change in price responsiveness of shale gas drilling using well-level data covering all major producing reservoirs in the United States. Shale gas drilling becomes more responsive to energy prices after the major productivity shock in 2009. Oil price elasticity increases from -0.32 (statistically insignificant) in period I (2000Q1-2008Q3) to 1.09 (significant) in period II (2009Q1-2016Q2). Gas price elasticity increases from 0.42 (insignificant) in period I to 0.59 (significant) in period II. These changes in elasticities can be attributed to the increase in natural gas condensate production of new wells, the increase in gas productivity during the shale gas boom, and the difficulties in transporting gas to the global market.


In this note we focus on the relations between analytical life satisfaction measures and a general well-being indicator, measured by the two general subjective well-being (SWB) questions. A global SWB factor, measured by the single happiness and by the general life satisfaction questions, is explained through regression of first order factors on the questionnaire of satisfaction in the life domains. The research is based on the 2008 wave of the European Value Study (EVS) for Luxembourg. The validity of the personal living conditions as a measure of general well-being has been assessed by a MIMIC-model. Therefore, satisfaction in personal affairs indicators can constitute an enrichment of general well-being measures.


Abstract. Hydrological drought characteristics (drought in groundwater and streamflow) likely will change in the 21st century as a result of climate change. The magnitude and directionality of these changes and their dependency on climatology and catchment characteristics, however, is uncertain. In this study a conceptual hydrological model was forced by downscaled and bias-corrected outcome from three general circulation models for the SRES A2 emission scenario (GCM forced models), and the WATCH Forcing Data set (reference model). The threshold level method was applied to investigate drought occurrence, duration and severity. Results for the control period (1971–2000) show that the drought characteristics of each GCM forced model reasonably agree with the reference model for most of the climate types, suggesting that the climate models' results after post-processing produce realistic outcomes for global drought analyses. For the near future (2021–2050) and far future (2071–2100) the GCM forced models show a decrease in drought occurrence for all major climates around the world and increase of both average drought duration and deficit volume of the remaining drought events. The largest decrease in hydrological drought occurrence is expected in cold (D) climates where global warming results in a decreased length of the snow season and an increased precipitation. In the dry (B) climates the smallest decrease in drought occurrence is expected to occur, which probably will lead to even more severe water scarcity. However, in the extreme climate regions (desert and polar), the drought analysis for the control period showed that projections of hydrological drought characteristics are most uncertain. On a global scale the increase in hydrological drought duration and severity in multiple regions will lead to a higher impact of drought events, which should motivate water resource managers to timely anticipate the increased risk of more severe drought in groundwater and streamflow and to design pro-active measures.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to developed microemulsion based gel formulation for topical delivery of dapsone with an objective to increase the solubility and skin permeability of the drug for treatment of acne. Methodology: The solubility of dapsone in oils, surfactants and cosurfactants was evaluated by saturation solubility to screen the components of the microemulsion. The pseudoternary phase diagrams were constructed using capryol 90 and N-methyl-2 pyrrolidone as the oil phase, Kolliphor EL as surfactant and PEG 400 as the co-surfactant. The system were assessed for drug-loading efficiency and characterized for pH, conductance, viscosity, particle size, drug content, globule size, zeta potential and drug release. Optimized formulation systems were formulated into gel form by using poloxamer- 407 and evaluated for viscosity, spreadability, drug content, stability, in-vitro skin permeation, steady state flux, permeability coefficient, enhancement ration and skin irritation study. Result and Discussion: Globule size of optimized microemulsion (F2) was found to be 27.53 nm, zeta potential was found to be-14.6 mV, permeability of drug from microemulsion within 8h was observed 82%, In- vitro diffusion study showed increase in flux of microemulsion based gel (392.43 μg cm-2 h-1) to that of simple dapsone gel (274.4 ± 0.78 μg cm-2h-1). Draize test revealed absence of irritation and inflammation on rat skin. Conclusion: Microemulsion based gel of dapsone formulation provided better application property and stability in comparison to simple gel. Key words: Acne vulgaris, Dapsone, Flux, In-vitro skin permeation, Topical delivery.


Clinical trials of cholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI) drugs, although generally reporting only minimal improvements in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), indicate that a subgroup of patients may respond substantially to treatment. This study aimed to assess the clinically variable ChEI treatment effects in a group of patients with mild AD using a semantic association and an N-back light working memory activation paradigm. Twenty-six patients with probable mild AD treated with a ChEI for 20 weeks were retrospectively divided into responders and non-responders. Patients were classified as responders if their Clinician's Interview Based Impression of Change (CIBIC - Plus) score was four or less and if they had an increase of at least two points on the MMSE. These criteria resulted in two subgroups comprising nine responders and seventeen non responders. Nine healthy elderly age-matched controls were also recruited as a comparison group. ChEI treatment was accompanied by significant modulation of task induced activation increases in both fMRI tasks in AD responders. The effect of ChEI response was in effect a restoration of regional brain function in the same areas used by elderly controls when performing these tasks. In non-responders decrements in task related activation were observed and over time activation patterns appeared less like the elderly controls. Screening semantic fluency scores correlated negatively with activation increases at retest. In the paper, a tentative explanation is offered of why subgroups of patients with a similar clinical diagnosis and level of clinical severity show a different physiological response to ChE inhibition.


Africa is richly blessed with cultural and natural heritage, key resources for nation building and development. Unfortunately, heritage is not being systematically researched or recognised, denying Africans the chance to learn about and benefit from heritage initiatives. This book offers a preliminary discussion of factors challenging the management of intangible cultural heritage in the African communities of Zanzibar, Mauritius and Seychelles. These islands are part of an overlapping cultural and economic zone influenced by a long history of slavery and colonial rule, a situation that has produced inequalities and underdevelopment. In all of them, heritage management is seriously underfinanced and under-resourced. African descendant heritage is given little attention and this continues to erode identity and sense of belonging to the nation. In Zanzibar tensions between majority and minority political parties affect heritage initiatives on the island. In Mauritius, the need to diversify the economy and tourism sector is encouraging the commercialisation of heritage and the homogenisation of Creole identity. In Seychelles, the legacy of socialist rule affects the conceptualisation and management of heritage, discouraging managers from exploring the island's widerange of intangible heritages. The author concludes that more funding and attention needs to be given to heritage management in Africa and its diaspora. Rosabelle Boswell is a senior lecturer in the Anthropology Department at Rhodes University, South Africa and a specialist of the southwest Indian Ocean islands. Her research interests include ethnicity, heritage, gender and development. Boswell's PhD was on poverty and identity among Creoles in Mauritius and her most recent work is onthe role of scent and fragrances in the heritage of the Swahili islands of the Indian Ocean region.


Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) based on Recurrent Neural Network Transducers (RNN-T) is gaining interest in the speech community. We investigate data selection and preparation choices aiming for improved robustness of RNN-T ASR to speech disfluencies with a focus on partial words. For evaluation we use clean data, data with disfluen- cies and a separate dataset with speech affected by stuttering. We show that after including a small amount of data with disfluencies in the training set the recognition accuracy on the tests with disfluencies and stuttering improves. Increasing the amount of training data with disfluencies gives additional gains without degradation on the clean data. We also show that replacing partial words with a dedicated token helps to get even better accuracy on utterances with disfluencies and stutter. The evaluation of our best model shows 22.5% and 16.4% relative WER reduction on those two evaluation sets.


This thesis contains three essays on asset pricing. The first chapter examines how introducing an options market affects the liquidity and expected returns of underlying assets when the economy features asymmetric information. I show that introducing derivatives can have opposite effects on underlying asset prices: doing so increases (resp., reduces) prices when the market has relatively more liquidity suppliers (resp., liquidity demanders). Thus the non-monotonic effects of derivatives on underlying assets could reconcile the mixed empirical evidence on options listing effects. Introducing derivatives reduces the price impact of liquidity demanders' trades on the underlying risky asset but has no effect on its price reversal dynamics. In the second chapter, I solve for the equilibrium of a pure-exchange Lucas economy under jump diffusion and populated by one unconstrained agent and one VaR agent in closed form. First, I show that the VaR constraint can generate excess market volatility and the inclusion of the jump component amplifies this effect, which provides a new mechanism to explain the prevalent smirk pattern of Black-Scholes implied volatility in options markets. Second, the VaR constraint pushes up the jump risk premium. Finally, the VaR constraint can generate a decline in the zero coupon bond yields at the VaR horizon, which is consistent with a flight to safety phenomenon taking place during a crisis. The third chapter, co-authored with Chunbo Liu and Zhiping Zhou, documents a positive relationship between funding liquidity and market liquidity in the options market. Further analysis reveals that the positive relationship is mainly driven by short-term and deep out-of-the-money options. Furthermore, liquidity of puts is more sensitive to changes in funding liquidity. In addition, this paper finds a positive relationship between the options market liquidity and VIX, which is in contrast to the negative relationship documented in the equity market.


After several years of declining investment levels, it changed during 2004 and the investments in the Swedish industry increased. New information shows that there is a change in the investment conjunction; several branches report plans that indicate an increase in investments the next coming years.An investment in a machine is for a small private company often a large investment. The investment will lead to both a cost and an asset for the company that can have a huge impact of the profitability for the company. The small company has normally not the same access to expert recourses. Often the same person is handle the different roles and also within a limit of time. Investments are normally rarer in a small company and as a result of that it makes it harder to keep a high level of investment competence. Therefore, small companies often apply a more simple investment model. How the investment process is handled in a small company varies and it is also often very personal attached.The purpose of the thesis is to study how small family owned companies within the county of Smaland makes calculations of their investments within the production process. Furthermore, consider the purpose and the importance of the calculation. Moreover, consider aspects that affect the investments and the investment decision. Finally, give suggestions for improvements within the investment calculation.To receive all the needed information to this study, semi-structured qualitative interviews have been made. The interviews have been made with the executive chief and the owner of the selected companies, which have been the same person. The selection of companies has been made from several different selection criteria's such as turnover, number of employees, and yearly revenue. The Empirical study consists of four different small family owned companies. The information from the interviews are compared and analysed with previous studies and theory, this to receive a good comparison over years and between different sizes and types of companies. The study also gives small family owned companies suggestions for improvement within their investment calculation.The results form the interview and the analysis have given the study the following conclusions. Small family owned companies within the county of Smaland does not make much investment calculations and they do not in very large extend use instructions or routines they do not either use a fully calculation method instead they use a "home made" method, which could be deduced from the pay-back method.


Graduate studies and a career in research and/or teaching in acoustics are often the result of an interest in acoustics started with the playing of a musical instrument. In teaching and research, there is a need for the application of acoustic theory to real sources, which often cannot be treated effectively with academic idealizations. Taking advantage of the interest in and familiarity with musical instruments possessed by most students in acoustics, and the need for application of acoustic theory to real sources, a course in the acoustics of musical instruments has been developed for graduate students in acoustics. This source is not a course in musical acoustics designed for musicians. Acoustic theory and mathematical models are applied to the analyses of the mechanisms of sound generation and radiation by musical instruments. A description of and philosophy behind this course are presented. The instruments treated are discussed. The principles revealed by each instrument are outlined.


School  Safety  is  an  integral  and  indispensable  component  of  the  teaching and learning  process.  Indeed no meaningful  teaching and  learning  can take place  in an  environment  that is  unsafe and  insecure  to  both  learners  and  staff.  It is therefore important that educational stakeholders foster safe and secure school environment (Republic of Kenya, 2008). In an apparent response to tragedies that hit schools in the last decade, Ministry of Education (MOE) introduced a Safety Standards Manual four years ago. However it is emerging that most schools have no capacity to handle emergencies and are yet to even implement Safety Standards Manual produced four years ago. The purpose of this study was to establish why school management is not fully implementing MOE Safety Standards and Guidelines in Public Secondary schools in Marani District, Kenya. The Government policies, administrative factors, disaster management and emergency facilities exemplify the independent variables while school safety exemplify the dependent variable. The objectives of the study were to: establish the safety situation, outline the main causes of disasters, examine the constraints in the implementation of safety measures and explore major strategies put in place to prevent occurrence of disasters in public secondary schools in Marani District, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and data was collected using one questionnaire. The target population was 28 public secondary schools in Marani District. Stratified, purposive and simple random sampling was used to select the required sample of the study of 49 teachers. Reliability of instruments was determined by use of test-retest method. Validity of research instruments was determined by conducting pilot study before the actual study. Data was quantified using descriptive statistics like frequencies and percentages and finding presented in charts, tables and graphs. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The major findings of the study were the MOE safety standards and guidelines had not been fully implemented majorly due to inadequate funds and inadequate supervision. The major recommendations therefore were policy makers to follow up, monitor and evaluate safety situation in all educational institutions and provide funds to all schools to enhance disaster preparedness. Significantly the study findings underscore the importance of adhering to safety standards and guidelines in schools thus education policy makers and other stakeholders'  must come up with strategies to sustain school safety to prevent occurrence of disasters in schools.


BACKGROUND
The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) assessed the clinical and economic impact of algorithm-driven treatment (ALGO) as compared with treatment-as-usual (TAU) in patients served in public mental health centers. This report presents clinical outcomes in patients with a history of mania (BD), including bipolar I and schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, during 12 months of treatment beginning March 1998 and ending with the final active patient visit in April 2000.

METHOD
Patients were diagnosed with bipolar I disorder or schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, according to DSM-IV criteria. ALGO was comprised of a medication algorithm and manual to guide treatment decisions. Physicians and clinical coordinators received training and expert consultation throughout the project. ALGO also provided a disorder-specific patient and family education package. TAU clinics had no exposure to the medication algorithms. Quarterly outcome evaluations were obtained by independent raters. Hierarchical linear modeling, based on a declining effects model, was used to assess clinical outcome of ALGO versus TAU.

RESULTS
ALGO and TAU patients showed significant initial decreases in symptoms (p =.03 and p <.001, respectively) measured by the 24-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-24) at the 3-month assessment interval, with significantly greater effects for the ALGO group. Limited catch-up by TAU was observed over the remaining 3 quarters. Differences were also observed in measures of mania and psychosis but not in depression, side-effect burden, or functioning.

CONCLUSION
For patients with a history of mania, relative to TAU, the ALGO intervention package was associated with greater initial and sustained improvement on the primary clinical outcome measure, the BPRS-24, and the secondary outcome measure, the Clinician-Administered Rating Scale for Mania (CARS-M). Further research is planned to clarify which elements of the ALGO package contributed to this between-group difference.


High renewable energy penetration is a goal for many countries to increase energy security and reduce carbon emissions from conventional power plants. Wind energy is one of leading sources among different renewable resources. However, high wind energy penetration in the system brings new challenges to the electric power system due to its variable and stochastic nature, and non-correlation between wind and load profiles. The term non-correlation is used in this research refers to the fact that wind or any other renewable generation, which is nature driven, does not follow the load like conventional power plants. Wind spill is a challenge to utilities with high wind energy penetration levels. This occurs from situations mentioned above and the fact that wind generation sometimes exceeds the servable load minus must-run generation. In these cases there is no option but to curtail non-usable wind generation. This dissertation presents grid-scale energy storage and demand response options as an optimization problem to minimize spilled wind energy. Even after managing this spilled wind energy, there is still a challenge in a system with high wind energy penetration coming from wind power forecast error. Wind power forecast error is handled by having more back-up energy and spilling the non-usable wind power. This research offers a way to use the grid-scale energy storage units to mitigate impacts of wind power forecast error. A signal processing method is proposed to decompose the fluctuating wind power forecast error signal, based on the fact that each energy storage or conventional unit is more efficient to operate within specific cycling regimes. Finally, an algorithm is proposed to schedule energy storage for mitigating both impacts. Mitigating Impacts of High Wind Energy Penetration through Energy Storage and Demand Response


The fish communities of the rocky littoral zone of Lake Malawi contain a large number of ecologically similar cichlid species. It has been suggested that dietary niche segregation may play a role in the coexistence of these species, but previous studies have yielded ambiguous results. Stable isotope analysis was used to determine whether five sympatric species are segregated by diet. Significant differences were found between the mean isotopic signatures of the study species, but there was considerable interspecific overlap between three species from the same subgenus that were anatomically almost indistinguishable. The implication that this was due to substantial dietary similarity was supported by stomach content analysis. We propose that ecological segregation may not always be necessary to allow coexistence of Lake Malawi cichlids.


We consider learning to optimize a classification metric defined by a black-box function of the confusion matrix. Such black-box learning settings are ubiquitous, for example, when the learner only has query access to the metric of interest, or in noisy-label and domain adaptation applications where the learner must evaluate the metric via performance evaluation using a small validation sample. Our approach is to adaptively learn example weights on the training dataset such that the resulting weighted objective best approximates the metric on the validation sample. We show how to model and estimate the example weights and use them to iteratively post-shift a pre-trained class probability estimator to construct a classifier. We also analyze the resulting procedure's statistical properties. Experiments on various label noise, domain shift, and fair classification setups confirm that our proposal compares favorably to the state-of-the-art baselines for each application.


MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. *Achievement; Biology; *Cooperative Learning; Intermediate Grades; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Science Education *Middle School Students In recent years, science educators have struggled with the dual challenge of equity and excellence, of providing all students access to a quality science education, and ensuring each student achieves an understanding of scientific concepts and processes. The Program for Complex Instruction, a model of group work, addresses this dual challenge by teaching various subject matter at a high intellectual level to students with diverse academic skills. By examining science learning in Complex Instruction classrooms, insight into the following three questions was sought: (1) What scientific facts, concepts, and applications do students learn during group work?; (2) Are all students provided equal access to science learning?; and (3) What are the strengths and limitations of using open-ended paper-and-penci, tests to measure student learning of science? The study was conducted in 13 middle school science classrooms over the course of 2 years. The results are organized into four areas of interest: conditions for learning, excellence, equity, and issues of test construction. Findings include: all observed classrooms met the standard for the percentage of students talking and working together; significant gains were found on all five pre-, post-tests concerning the topics of systems, respiration, digestion, circulation; reading scores were significantly correlated with the preand post-test scores on each of the five unit tests; gender effects were found on the various tests but they varied by grade level; and on some_ tests (respiration and circulation 2) students scored higher when tests lacked large percentages of drawings or diagrams while other tests (digestion and circulation 1) showed gains when large amounts of diagrams were included. Contains 19 references. (MVL) **************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from th:: original document. * *********************************************************************** COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN THE UNTRACKED MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASSROOM: A STUDY OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT


Outside observers could be forgiven for expecting Ecuador to suffer terribly during and after the recent global crisis. Two of the country's largest sources of foreign earnings, petroleum exports and remittances from abroad, crashed during the global recession. Furthermore, lacking its own currency, the government's options for responding were limited. But instead of a deep, protracted recession, Ecuador lost only 1.3 percent of GDP during three quarters of contraction. After four additional quarters the economy returned to the pre-recession level of output, and two years after the recession started, it reached its 20-year growth trend. This paper takes a detailed look at the fiscal, monetary, and other economic and social policies implemented during the last five years, as well as the role of the external sector in the economy. It also examines economic and social outcomes including levels of poverty, inequality, and unemployment as well as education and health outcomes for children.


Cytoplasmic TDP-43 aggregates are a hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Today, only two drugs are available for ALS treatment, and their modest effect prompts researchers to search for new therapeutic options. TDP-43 represents one of the most promising targets for therapeutic intervention, but reliable and reproducible in vitro protocols for TDP-43-mediated toxicity are lacking. Here, we used HEK293T cells transfected with increasing concentrations of TDP-43-expressing plasmid to evaluate different parameters of toxicity and alterations in cellular metabolism. Overexpression of TDP-43 induced aggregates occurrence followed by the detection of 25- and 35-kDa forms of TDP-43. TDP-43 overexpression decreased cell viability and increased cells arrested at G2/M phase and nuclear fragmentation. Analysis of the energetic metabolism showed a tendency to decrease oxidative phosphorylation and increase glycolysis, but no statistical differences were observed. Metabolomics revealed alterations in different metabolites (mainly sphingolipids and glycerophospholipids) in cells overexpressing TDP-43. Our data reveal the main role of TDP-43 aggregation in cellular death and highlight novel insight into the mechanism of cellular toxicity induced by TDP-43. Here, we provide a simple, sensitive, and reliable protocol in a human-derived cell line to be used in high-throughput screenings of potential therapeutic molecules for ALS treatment.


The assessment of coronary artery disease has advanced beyond the mere quantification of luminal stenosis to include mult-modality imaging that is capable of assessing the extent and functional significance of a stenosis and the possible vulnerability of a lesion. CT coronary angiography is now an established technique for the investigation of coronary artery disease, and the potential for CT myocardial perfusion imaging is being established. However, the optimal methods for CT myocardial perfusion image acquisition, image analysis and quantification have yet to be defined.

CT coronary angiography with modern imaging techniques has a sensitivity approaching 100%.1 However, the specificity of this technique is reduced by its propensity to overestimate heavily calcified stenosis.2 For such patients, additional imaging procedures may be required to assess adequately the significance of their coronary artery disease. In addition, it has been established that the selection of patients for coronary revascularisation is best performed by identifying inducible myocardial ischaemia.3 It would therefore be a major advance if CT myocardial perfusion imaging could be performed in patients with coronary artery disease of uncertain severity and as a means of planning coronary revascularisation, especially as an optional follow-on procedure to CT coronary angiography.

Previous research studies have compared CT myocardial perfusion imaging with other functional imaging techniques such as MRI, radionucleotide perfusion imaging and fractional flow reserve measurements made during invasive coronary angiography, and have identified sensitivities of 83–91% and specificities of 72–98%.4 At present, beam hardening, motion and reconstruction artifacts are important limitations for CT myocardial perfusion imaging. Nevertheless, CT myocardial perfusion imaging is additive to CT coronary angiography5 and useful in the assessment of patients with coronary artery stents.6 However, the primary method used in …


Influenza is a global public health problem causing considerable morbidity and mortality. Although vaccination is the most effective way to prevent infection, vaccination coverage is insufficient in people with chronic disease under 65 years, especially diabetes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate influenza vaccination coverage and identify factors associated with influenza vaccination in Korean diabetic adults under 65 years. Data were obtained from 24,821 subjects in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2014-2017). Socioeconomic, health-related, and diabetic factors were investigated for their relations with influenza vaccination in diabetic patients under 65 years using univariate and multivariate analyses. Among 24,821 subjects, 1,185 were diabetic patients under 65 years and their influenza vaccination rate was 36.5%. Socioeconomic (older age, female gender, non-smoker, light alcohol drinker, lower educational level, and employed status), health-related factors (lower fasting glucose and HbA1c level, good self-perceived health status, recent health screening, and diet therapy), and diabetic factors (more awareness and getting treated) were associated with influenza vaccination. In multivariate analysis, more awareness and getting treated for diabetes were associated with influenza vaccination in diabetic patients under 65 years (odds ratio: 1.553 and 1.495; 95% confidence interval: 1.080-2.233 and 1.057-2.115, respectively). Influenza vaccination rate was low in diabetic patients under 65 years, especially in those with unawareness and not getting treated for diabetes. Active screening and treatment for diabetes may be helpful to improve the influenza vaccination rate in these patients. Disclosure S. Ko: None. Y. Ahn: None. K. Song: None. J. Lee: None. S. Kim: None. K. Han: None. Funding Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare (HI18C0275)


This Thesis focuses on the X-ray study of the inner regions of Active Galactic
Nuclei, in particular on the formation of high velocity winds by the accretion
disk itself. Constraining AGN winds physical parameters is of paramount
importance both for understanding the physics of the accretion/ejection flow
onto supermassive black holes, and for quantifying the amount of feedback
between the SMBH and its environment across the cosmic time. The sources selected for the present study are BAL, mini-BAL, and NAL QSOs,
known to host high-velocity winds associated to the AGN nuclear regions.

Observationally, a three-fold strategy has been adopted:
- substantial samples of distant sources have been
analyzed through spectral, photometric, and statistical
techniques, to gain insights into their mean properties as a population;
- a moderately sized sample of bright sources has been
studied through detailed X-ray spectral analysis, to give a first
flavor of the general spectral properties of these sources, also from a temporally resolved point of view;
- the best nearby candidate has been thoroughly studied
using the most sophisticated spectral analysis techniques applied to
a large dataset with a high S/N ratio, to understand the details of the physics of its accretion/ejection flow.

There are three main channels through which this Thesis has been developed:
- [Archival Studies]: the XMM-Newton public archival data has been extensively used to analyze both a large sample of distant BAL QSOs, and several individual bright sources, either BAL, mini-BAL, or NAL QSOs.
- [New Observational Campaign]: I proposed and was awarded with new X-ray pointings of the mini-BAL QSOs PG 1126-041 and PG 1351+640 during the XMM-Newton AO-7 and AO-8. These produced the biggest X-ray observational campaign ever made on a mini-BAL QSO (PG 1126-041), including the longest exposure so far. Thanks to the exceptional dataset, a whealth of informations have been obtained on both the intrinsic continuum and on the complex reprocessing media that happen to be in the inner regions of this AGN. Furthermore, the temporally resolved X-ray
spectral analysis field has been finally opened for mini-BAL QSOs.
- [Theoretical Studies]: some issues about the connection between theories and observations of AGN accretion disk winds have been investigated, through theoretical arguments and synthetic absorption line profiles studies.


The sugar sector is one of the most heavily protected commodities in agriculture using a system of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) with a complex set of administration procedures. General equilibrium models are not suitable to analyze trade liberalization scenarios that involve numerous tariff-rate quotas across narrowly defined product lines. We use the Rutherford/Grant/Hertel modeling approach by embedding a detailed, partial equilibrium (PE) model into a standard, global general equilibrium (GE) framework. We use this PE/GE model to compare trade and welfare outcomes of two liberalization scenarios: Increasing quota levels by 25% and cutting over tariffs by 50%, versus increasing quota levels by 50% and cutting over-quota tariffs by 25%. We find that lowering over-quota tariffs relatively more has more positive welfare effects than increasing quota levels relatively more.


This paper contains the first detailed empirical examination of the information content of the Bank of England Credit Conditions Survey (CCS). The CCS asks a wide selection of questions of UK lenders relating to all aspects of bank credit provision. We examine the association between the survey responses and comparable official quantitative rates and lending growth data, and the extent to which the survey responses can help us to predict changes in those variables one quarter ahead. We find that many of the survey responses – especially those for household lending – are significantly associated with movements in the quantitative data. Similarly to the findings of equivalent surveys in the United States and euro area, we find that a subset of banks' survey expectations of credit conditions provide a statistically significant guide for predicting changes in credit spreads and lending growth one quarter ahead.


The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment offers a philosophical perspective on an eighteenth-century movement that has been profoundly influential on western culture. A distinguished team of contributors examines the writings of David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, Colin MacLaurin and other Scottish thinkers, in fields including philosophy, natural theology, economics, anthropology, natural science and law. In addition, the contributors relate the Scottish Enlightenment to its historical context and assess its impact and legacy in Europe, America and beyond. The result is a comprehensive and accessible volume that illuminates the richness, the intellectual variety and the underlying unity of this important movement. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers in philosophy, theology, literature and the history of ideas.


Human behavior is the joint product of (i) contingencies of survival responsible for natural selection, and (ii) contingencies of reinforcement responsible for the repertoires of individuals, including (iii) the special contingencies maintained by an evolved social environment. Selection by consequences is a causal mode found only in living things, or in machines made by living things. It was first recognized in natural selection: Reproduction, a first consequence, led to the evolution of cells, organs, and organisms reproducing themselves under increasingly diverse conditions. The behavior functioned well, however, only under conditions similar to those under which it was selected. Reproduction under a wider range of consequences became possible with the evolution of processes through which organisms acquired behavior appropriate to novel environments. One of these, operant conditioning, is a second kind of selection by consequences: New responses could be strengthened by events which followed them. When the selecting consequences are the same, operant conditioning and natural selection work together redundantly. But because a species which quickly acquires behavior appropriate to an environment has less need for an innate repertoire, operant conditioning could replace as well as supplement the natural selection of behavior. Social behavior is within easy range of natural selection, because other members are one of the most stable features of the environment of a species. The human species presumably became more social when its vocal musculature came under operant control. Verbal behavior greatly increased the importance of a third kind of selection by consequences, the evolution of social environments or cultures. The effect on the group, and not the reinforcing consequences for individual members, is responsible for the evolution of culture.


We previously demonstrated the anti-inflammatory effects and renal tissue protection in response to adenosine A(2A)-receptor (A(2A)R) activation in acute renal injury. We sought to extend these studies and determine the efficacy of A(2A)R agonists in a chronic model of renal injury. We hypothesized that A(2A) agonists mediate renal tissue protection in diabetic nephropathy by reducing glomerular inflammation. Diabetes was induced with single intravenous injection of streptozotocin in Sprague-Dawley rats (50 mg/kg). Increases in urinary albumin excretion (UAE) and plasma creatinine at week 6 in the diabetes group (26- and 6-fold over control, respectively) were markedly reduced by continuous subcutaneous administration of ATL146e (10 ng x kg(-1) x min(-1)), a selective A(2A) agonist. The increase in UAE in the diabetes group was associated with a significant reduction in the expression of slit diaphragm-associated molecules compared with control (nephrin; P < 0.05 and podocin; P < 0.005) that was reversed by ATL146e treatment. Diabetes led to an increase in urinary excretion of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (705% of control), TNF-alpha (1,586% of control), IFN-gamma (298% of control), kidney fibronectin mRNA (457% of control), and glomerular infiltration of macrophages (764% of control), effects significantly reduced by ATL146e treatment. Mesangial expansion and basement membrane thickness were reduced with ATL146e. To further confirm the selectivity of ATL146e, we used wild-type (WT) or A(2A)knockout (A(2A)-KO) mice. Four weeks after diabetes, UAE increased significantly in both WT and A(2A)-KO diabetic mice (3.0- and 3.3-fold over control). A(2A) agonist treatment blocked the increase in UAE in WT diabetic mice (P < 0.001), whereas it had no effect on the A(2A)-KO diabetic mice. These results demonstrate that chronic A(2A)R activation in diabetic rats 1) ameliorates histological and functional changes in kidneys induced by diabetes and 2) causes reduced inflammation associated with diabetic nephropathy.


The present study was taken up to standardize the stem of Aralia racemosa L. for quality, purity and sample identification. Various standardization parameters like morphological, microscopical and physicochemical evaluations, preliminary phytochemical screening and fluorescence analysis of the stem of A. racemosa were done and qualitative parameters were reported. Macro and microscopic evaluation studies were performed as per the routine laboratory procedures. Phytochemical, physicochemical, florescence analysis, behaviour of powdered drug have been conducted as per the World Health Organization guidelines. Microscopy of stem revealed the presence of phellem, phellogen, phelloderm, medullary rays usually bi-serrate and powder analysis showed the presence of cork cells, lignified xylem vessels, xylem fibers and parenchyma cells. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of saponins, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, glycosides and volatile oil. Physicochemical parameters such as moisture content, ash value, extractive value and fluorescent behaviour of stem powder were determined. These parameters are useful tools to differentiate the powdered drug material. The findings of this study will be helpful in the identificat0ion of A. racemosa stem.


Three resistance monitoring methods were tested to evaluate their relative reliability, discriminating ability, convenience, and practicality for monitoring insecticide resistance in Arizona whiteflies. Adult whiteflies were collected from the field and tested in the laboratory with three methods: leaf disk, sticky trap, and vial. Each method was evaluated against two populations divergent in susceptibility using a mixture of Danitol® + Orthene® and two single chemicals, Thiodan® and Danitol®. The Yuma population was relatively susceptible and the Gila River Basin population highly resistant. Correlations of field efficacy and leaf disk bioassays were conducted with the Yuma population and a comparatively resistant Maricopa population. At each location egg, immature, and adult whitefly densities were monitored before and after Danitol® + Orthene® treatments and resistance estimates were also monitored in the populations using leaf disk bioassays. Our results illustrated that the leaf disk method had the greatest discriminating ability between susceptible and resistant populations. The results also indicated that the vial method was the most practical, and that the sticky trap method was good at discriminating between populations that have large differences in susceptibility. The field efficacy trials indicated results from leaf disk assays reflected what had occurred in the field


BACKGROUND
Endarterectomy is the treatment of choice for internal carotid artery critical stenosis. Some authors have proposed that the use of regional anesthesia has advantages over general anesthesia.

AIM
To report our initial experience with carotid endarterectomy under regional anesthesia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Between 1998 and 1999, patients with critical carotid artery stenosis, asymptomatic or with transient and recovered symptoms, were selected. A C2, C3, C4 root deep cervical block and superficial block was performed, using a mixture of lidocaine and bupivacaine. A carotid endarterectomy with patch and without routine shunt insertion, with standard and neurological monitoring, was performed.

RESULTS
During the study period, 94 carotid endarterectomies were done, 22 under regional anesthesia in 21 patients (12 male, age range 58-90 years old). Ninety five percent had hypertension, 52% smoked and 38% had renal dysfunction. One patient was converted to general anesthesia. Seventeen patients were discharged within 48 hours of the procedure and the rest, within 72 hours. There was no mortality or complications.

CONCLUSIONS
Endarterectomy under regional anesthesia is less invasive, has excellent results and is well accepted by patients.