Improvement of design performances requires exploration of a larger amount of analyzed design solutions in the early design phase. Computational design systems use parametric modeling, building performance simulations and genetic algorithms to iterate through a large amount of design alternatives, converging towards optimal design solutions. Computational design systems proposed by most existing researches do not enable interconnected analysis of quantitative and qualitative design performances, however. Consequently, they are rarely used in the field of architecture. This thesis proposes a visual analytics system that visualizes design geometries and performances of a large data set of design alternatives in a highly interactive data environment. The visual analytics system is developed conjointly to the concept design of a nearly Zero-Energy sports hall. The sports hall is designed using a computational design system that generates a large set of design alternatives and analyzes energy performances, visual comfort performances and thermal comfort performances of each alternative. This thesis develops a prototype of the visual analytics tool to visualize a data set of sports hall design alternatives. Peer review and user experience determine whether the tool as a whole and whether its data analytics methods suit the design-making process of practitioners in the field of architecture. The functionality of the computational design system is assessed by its suitability to facilitate a performance-driven design process. The computational design system proposed in this thesis uses multiple parametric models to create a varied set of design alternatives. The proposed visual analytics system is a game-like 3D environment. This environment integrates and displays a Self-Organizing Map with other data analytics methods and all designs' geometries in a single viewport. Multiple means of interaction facilitate deduction of qualitative and quantitative performances. The visual analytics system is intuitive in use because of the use of metaphorical visualizations of data analytics methods. Peer review and testing of the visual analytics system indicate that the computational design system proposed in this thesis is generally able to improve design performances. The computational design system is effective in facilitating comparison of design alternatives and in use as a frame of reference throughout the design processes. Furthermore, the visual analytics system has potential in use for educative and documentation purposes.


Progress in Language , first published in 1894, dates from fairly early in Otto Jespersen's (1860-1943) academic career; it already contains many of the essentials of his argument against the prevailing mode of 19th-century linguistic thought which he maintained until the end of his life. As James D.McCawley writes in the Introduction:" Much of the fascination of reading this long out-of-print classic lies in seeing its relationship to Jespersen's long and distinguished subsequent career: seeing how much importance he already attached to variation in language, how tightly his views on linguistic change were already integrated with his views on synchronic grammar, how intransigently sociolinguistic his thinking about language change was (...), and how vast a collection he had already amassed of English examples illustrating even very subtle details of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics."


A 12-year experiment designed to show the benefits of applying lime to acid soils when growing annual pasture, perennial pasture, and annual crops in rotations with annual or perennial pastures, provides the context for comparing methods of economic analysis. In this study enterprise gross margins are compared with whole-farm cumulative monthly cash flows derived using a business process model. The current study gave gross margins comparable with those of a recently published study based on the first 12 years of the same field experiment at Book Book near Wagga Wagga in southern NSW (Li et al., 2010). Both gross margin analyses indicated positive results for all treatments. However, because key fixed and capital cost items were not taken into account in the gross margin analysis the financial benefits of the treatments were overstated. In the whole-farm analysis, a full set of accounts (including fixed and capital costs) was developed for the experimental combinations of prime lamb and dryland cropping enterprises and used to generate a monthly cash flow sequence for each treatment over the 12-year term of the experiment. This full financial analysis, where all costs are included, showed all mixed treatments (cropping and grazing) accumulated unsustainable losses over the period of the trial. The grazing-only treatments generated positive cash lows over the 12 year period, but 2 accumulated high levels of debt in the initial years. None of these outcomes were predicted by gross margins, which were consistently positive for all treatments. This paper concludes that the analysis of trial results benefits from interpretation in the context of whole-farm analysis, verified by district experience. Relying on gross margin analysis alone would have supported loss-making outcomes in this trial. This conclusion has important ramifications for analysis of all systems trials.


Several authors have resorted to physical modelling in the field of rock avalanches. After a review of some of these works, the present paper describes tests carried out at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. The main goal of these experiments, i.e. unconstrained flows of gravel and blocks, is to better understand propagation mechanisms and to identify parameters influencing rock avalanche deposit characteristics. The use of new measuring techniques and of bricks that can be arranged orderly allows studying parameters such as the structure of the mass before failure, which was not considered before and resulted to have a relevant influence on propagation. This underlines that, despite the difficulty in matching the scaling laws, observation of experiments contributes in highlighting new aspects of complex phenomena and in better understanding mechanisms likely to happen at large scale and it confirms that physical modelling is an essential tool in rock avalanche study.


The difficulties in predicting whole catchment water balance from observations at patch scales motivate a search for theories that can account for the complexity of interactions in catchments. In this paper we suggest that the spatial patterns of vegetation may offer a lens through which to investigate scale dependence of hydrology within catchments. Vegetation patterns are attractive because they are observable drivers of evapotranspiration, often a dominant component in catchment water balance, and because the spatial distribution of vegetation is often driven by patterns of water availability. We propose that nontrivial, scale‐dependent spatial patterns in both vegetation distribution and catchment water balance are generated by the presence of a convergent network of flow paths and a two‐way feedback between vegetation as a driver of evapotranspiration and vegetation distribution as a signature of water availability. Implementing this hypothesis via a simple network model demonstrated that such organization was controlled by catchment properties related to aridity, the network topology, the sensitivity of the vegetation response to water availability, and the point‐scale controls on partitioning between evapotranspiration and lateral drainage. The resulting self‐organization generated spatial dependence in areally averaged hydrologic variables, water balance, and parameters describing hydrological partitioning. This spatial scale dependence provides a theoretical approach to connect water balance at patch and catchment scales. Theoretical and empirical studies for understanding the controls of vegetation spatial distribution, point‐scale hydrological partitioning, and the implications of complex flow network topologies on the spatial scale dependence of catchment water balance are proposed as a research agenda for catchment ecohydrology.


Splicing is the process by which introns are removed from an mRNA precursor (pre-mRNA) and exons are ligated to form a mature mRNA 1. Most types of splicing, in organisms ranging from yeast to human, take place within the spliceosome�a large complex comprised of five ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) containing the small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6 and as many as 150 proteins 2�5. The splicing machinery recognizes exons and introns by using multiple signals, which presumably results in a network of interactions across exons and/or introns; this recognition is known as exon definition and intron definition, respectively. The four main splice signals that delineate the proper exon-intron boundaries are the 5' and 3' splice sites (5'ss and 3'ss), located at the upstream and downstream exon�intron junctions, respectively; the branch site (BS); and the polypyrimidine tract, which is located upstream of the 3'ss (Figure 1A). In metazoans, these four splice signals are not sufficient for the recognition of exons and introns by the splicing machinery; it has been estimated that these splicing signals provide only one�half of the information required. So what other factors assist the splicing machinery in precisely recognizing the exon-intron junctions? Studies of the molecular basis of splicing revealed the existence of exonic and intronic cis-acting regulatory sequences that bind trans-acting factors and thus influence splice-site selection. These cis-acting elements are relatively short, usually 4�18 nucleotides, and are classified as exonic or intronic splicing enhancers or silencers. These regulatory elements are required for constitutive splicing and for the regulation of alternative splicing. Specific binding of splicing regulatory proteins (such as SR and hnRNP proteins) to these splicing regulatory elements assists in the placement of the spliceosome on the appropriate splice sites. Alternative splicing is a mechanism, by which more than one mRNA transcripts are generated from the same mRNA precursor due to variations in the incorporation of coding regions, giving rise to functionally different proteins. Alternative splicing of untranslated (UTR) regions can also determine mRNA localization and stability, as well as efficiency of translation.


Abstract The 1997 Asian currency "crisis" affected Malaysians in profound ways and complicated dominant nation and modernity narratives centered on economic growth and development and the stability of ethnic relations. In the ensuing months, Malaysia's political landscape—dominated by one party and its leadership — was also reconfigured. The ouster of Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, heir apparent to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad set the stage for the Reformasi movement, which was arguably the country's first organized large-scale protest movement to embrace a range of social actors, including nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and political parties. By 2001 Reformasi was in decline and meaningful political and social reform had failed to materialize. What happened to this once vibrant movement? How can we account for its decline? This article analyzes the challenges encountered by Reformasi in confronting these dominant narratives and in reframing political discourse. The article situates Reformasi's decline in the context of its struggles with the dominant Barisan Nasional-led state as well as the complex relationship between different elements of the movement. It also explores how democratic deepening, the movement's inability to provide an alternative discourse that takes into account ethnicized divisions in Malaysia, and the tensions between the party political and movement aspects of protest politics have contributed to Reformasi's demise.


Currently the critically endangered Javan Rhino is only found in Ujung Kulon National Park (NP) in Banten province of west Java, Indonesia. As per annual camera trapping surveys being carried out by the Ujung Kulon NP authorities the current Javan rhino population is estimated to be 72 of which 38 are male and 33 are female. The gender of a further individual could not be determined from camera trap photographs due to poor quality. Out of the 72 Javan rhinos 15 are calves and for the first time in a decade this gives us cause to be hopeful for the critically endangered Javan rhino inhabiting its lone abode in the world.
While the trend in rhino numbers is increasing (with at least one new birth recorded every year since 2012), efforts to look for a suitable second habitat for Javan rhinos within Indonesia continues. This is based on sound scientific analysis among key rhino conservation partners in Indonesia, however no consensus on a potential site for Javan rhino has yet been reached. The species remains at risk from a range of threats—from infectious diseases to natural disasters, including tsunamis. In December 2018, Arak Krakatoa erupted causing tsunamis in both Sumatra and Java. Poaching is also a threat although no poaching incidents have been reported in the past two decades due to enhanced vigil by Rhino Protection Units in Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI). The Rhino Protection Units work in tandem with the Ujung Kulon NP rangers under an MOU signed by YABI and Ujung Kulon NP authorities with due approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Republic of India, while the Javan rhino camera trapping exercises in Ujung Kulon NP are carried out by the Rhino Monitoring Unit (RMU) of the Park. (Up until October 2019 the RMU was known as the Rhino Observation and Activity Management (ROAM) in association with WWF-Indonesia). Since January 2020, the camera trapping of Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon NP has been conductedo by RMU members of the Park and is being funded by the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) through its Indonesian partner YABI.
There are also programmes to improve the habitat, and an exercise in the removal of the invasive palm, Arenga Palm is continuing as it blocks out sunlight, inhibiting the germination process and disrupting the growth of vegetation, which rhinos feed on.  This habitat improvement activity is being supported by the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) through its Indonesian partner YABI.


Abstract Starch-based adhesives play a relevant role in paperboard production and are becoming more and more interesting, for different uses, because they are based on renewable biopolymers. Starch modifications or additive addition are becoming frequent to obtain the macroscopic properties desired for specific uses. In this paper the effects of the addition of four different tannins on a typical adhesive, adopted for corrugated paperboard production, were investigated by using fundamental rheological techniques, both in dynamic and steady conditions. It was found that tannins increase the onset of starch gelatinisation, estimated as the knee point of the storage modulus in a dynamic temperature ramp test, and decrease the steady shear viscosity. This is due to the interactions between tannin and starch that affect the gelatinisation and retrogradation reactions weakening the starch network. Even though a partial reinforcement effect was also observed, owing to the polymeric nature of tannin components, a lower consistency, with respect to the neat adhesive, was found for all modified samples. Tannin has shown itself able to modify technological properties such as gelatinization temperature and viscosity, since the specific results are determined by the nature and amount of tannin; therefore it could be used to adapt adhesive characteristics to specific applications, potentially improving starch-based adhesive competitiveness with respect to different adhesives.


Living organisms are capable of autonomously adapting to dynamically changing environments by receiving inputs from highly specialized sensory organs and elaborating them on the same parallel, power-efficient neural substrate. In this paper we present a prototype for a comprehensive integrated platform that allows replicating principles of neural information processing in real-time. Our system consists of (a) an autonomous mobile robotic platform, (b) on-board actuators and multiple (neuromorphic) sensors, and (c) the SpiNNaker computing system, a configurable neural architecture for exploration of parallel, brain-inspired models. The simulation of neurally inspired perception and reasoning algorithms is performed in real-time by distributed, low-power, low-latency event-driven computing nodes, which can be flexibly configured using C or specialized neural languages such as PyNN and Nengo. We conclude by demonstrating the platform in two experimental scenarios, exhibiting real-world closed loop behavior consisting of environmental perception, reasoning and execution of adequate motor actions.


"The Wrestler's Body" tells the story of a way of life organized in terms of physical self-development. While Indian wrestlers are competitive athletes, they are also moral reformers whose conception of self and society is fundamentally somatic. Using the insights of anthropology, Joseph Alter writes an ethnography of the wrestler's physique that elucidates the somatic structure of the wrestler's identity and ideology. Young men in North India may choose to join an akhara, or gymnasium, where they subject themselves to a complex program of physical and moral fitness. Alter's first-hand description of each detail of the wrestler's regimen offers a unique perspective on South Asian culture and society. Wrestlers feel that moral reform of Indian national character is essential and advocate their way of life as an ideology of national health. Everyone is called on to become a wrestler and build collective strength through self-discipline.


Hierarchy is such a defining feature of organizations that its forms and basic functions are often taken for granted in organizational research. In this chapter, we revisit some basic sociological and psychological elements of hierarchy to explain why hierarchy is so pervasive across groups and organizations. We argue that status and power are two distinct and important bases of hierarchical differentiation, and we integrate a number of different literatures to explain why status and power hierarchies tend to be self-reinforcing. Power, related to one's control over valued resources, transforms individuals psychologically such that they think and act in ways that lead to the acquisition and retention of power. Status, related to the respect one has in the eyes of others, generates expectations for behavior that favor those with a prior status advantage.


This paper in light of pedagogical observations seeks to explore and examine an alternative approach to pattern cutting through volumetric shape making and a practical, process led investigation using Alien body shapes as a teaching resource. The holistic fashion designer explores and engages with both silhouette and pattern cutting, by developing the skills of volumetric shape making. The process of pattern-cutting and volumetric shape making is an iterative translation between two dimensions and three dimensions which requires a practical, experimental approach.
A sequential series of interactive workshops have been developed using irregular shaped mannequins to facilitate and develop this process, promoting creative outcomes and a deeper understanding of pattern cutting. This hands-on improvisational approach without a known outcome allows for design to progress organically. The above process of thinking, 'drawing' and pattern-cutting in three-dimensions can be extremely challenging and alien to fashion students who often have a pattern cutting foundation based on technical drawings and drafting principles mostly in a two dimensional format. The aim is to explore whether a synaptic link created between hand, eye and mind through an algorithm, can assist the holistic fashion designer and enhance creativity. The vehicle of delivery for this investigation is a series of experimental workshops undertaken by all three levels of BA (Hons) Fashion Design students at Sheffield Hallam University. This dynamic working method challenges conventional teaching methods of demonstration, books and handouts and promotes enjoyment of the journey, thus reducing preconceived ideals allowing more scope for spontaneous outcomes. Student workshops also explore morphology as a challenge to the traditional western convention of body contouring through flat pattern cutting. Morphology is explored through a series of irregular shaped, non-humanoid forms - Alien Bodies. Full-scale Alien Body mannequins are provided as a resource in the workshop on which to apply the method of direct working in three dimensions to generate an initial pattern. Reflection, analysis and discussion of the pattern shape when transformed back to the flat plane, aims to promote comprehension and underpin the holistic designing/pattern-cutting approach. 'Alien Body - Pushing Pattern Parameters' workshops culminated in an exhibition at the Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery where a selection of 18 garments and their flat patterns, all created by students during the previous 6 month period, were displayed. This paper evaluates data captured and draws on anecdotal evidence gathered from students attending these workshops as well as looks at the methodologies used including process led investigation and peer review within the university environment. It forms a cornerstone for further questioning of whether the fashion designer and pattern-cutter is the same person.


Summary: The objective of this study was to compare drug injection‐ and sex‐related risk behaviors of younger and older injection drug users (IDUs) in two adjacent neighborhoods. IDUs were recruited from street settings in two adjacent neighborhoods in San Francisco in April, 1997. All participants were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire and were tested for HIV antibodies. Drug injection‐ and sex‐related risk behaviors were compared between younger IDUs (<30 years; n = 56) and older IDUs (≥30 years; n = 116). Younger IDUs were more likely to be white, be homeless, have injected amphetamines, and have been arrested in the past year. Older IDUs were more likely to be African American and smoke crack cocaine; they had injected a mean of 18 years longer. Younger IDUs were more likely to have shared syringes in the past month (52% versus 10%; p < .05), report drug overdose in the past 15 months (39% versus 7%; p < .05), and to have had unprotected vaginal intercourse in the past 6 months (77% versus 53%; p < .05). After controlling for confounding factors using logistic regression analysis, all these associations remained significant. There is an urgent need for innovative prevention programs that target younger, homeless IDUs.


Advanced composites are widely employed in load bearing structures due to their high strength-to-weight ratios, stiffness, corrosion resistance and fatigue performance. Monitoring the manufacturing process and detecting the damage during service are rather troublesome. In this study, practicality and feasibility of fiber optic based sensors are evaluated for monitoring the state or the structural health of the composite materials from manufacturing phase to service phase continuously. 2D and 3D composite structures were designed and manufactured by resin transfer molding (RTM) method. A novel ingress/egress technique is utilized to embed the fiber optic sensors. The capabilities of fow and cure monitoring of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are presented. The strain and the temperature sensitivity of the embedded FBG sensors was calculated. Following the calculation of the sensitivities, a manufactured composite with embedded FBG sensor is subjected to cantilever beam experiments. To be able to show that the FBG sensor is capable of detecting damage formation in composites, the composite plate was drilled to create artificial defects of different size. The wavelength shift of the FBG was monitored as a function of the size of the hole and wavelength measurements are compared with those of sound structure to conclude on the health of the structure. Technique for prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) of composite materials with embedded FBG sensors is demonstrated and fatigue testing of composite materials are performed to verify this technique.


Several types of theoretical literature on the topic of trade, growth and specialisation, including neoclassical approaches, post-Keynesian literature and some models in evolutionary economics, have shown that it is possible enjoy higher rates of economic growth, given the presence of certain sectors in the economy, being it high-tech or fast-growing sectors. This paper investigates these propositions empirically. Basically the idea is to conduct a constant market share (CMS) analysis, and afterwards include the obtained effects in regression models, using panel data techniques in explaining aggregate economic growth. The results display that the fixed effects model is the most appropriate technique, and that using this tool, the initial level of income (the catch up variable) is significant and has a negative sign as expected. The investment (growth of the capital stock) variable is also significant, while the growth adaptation effect (measuring whether the country in question has actively (more than the average country) moved into slow or fast growing sectors) is the only significant variable (positive sign) of the CMS effects. Hence, it is concluded that a certain dynamism in terms of structural change is required by countries in order to achieve high levels of economic growth at the macro level. The final part of the paper deals with the question of whether the fast-growing sectors (as measured in the CMS analysis) are high-tech or not. Based on a comparison between the OECD growth vector from the CMS analysis, on the one hand, and R&D intensities in the 22 sectors (for the 1970s and for the 1980s), on the other, it is concluded that the fast-growing sectors are in general also high-tech sectors.


Bridging the water infrastructure gap has become a major policy concern. In rural areas of Africa, access to water is as much constrained by territorial coverage as it is by the poor conditions of water points due to the difficulty in mobilizing communities for repairs. This paper examines the equity considerations of a rural water and sanitation programme in a district of Mozambique, and their impacts on the achievement of the programme's objectives. Our analysis underlines the contradictions in the conceptualization of equity in the design, planning and implementation of the programme. Even an explicitly pro‐poor strategy can fall short of delivering equity. Our findings stress the fact that overlooking local perception of equity can have a direct impact on the ability of a community to ensure the maintenance of their water points. They call for a careful definition of equity in the design of water programmes, as well as closer attention to this criterion as a precondition to achieving the long‐term objective of the programme.


Author's reference theory As group Psychoanalyst the author refers to Ferdinando Vanni's Interactive Group Theory (1988, 1992). In F. Vanni's theory Interactive groups are characterized by interactional communicative exchanges among participant. In these exchanges an "interactive" self emerges: the "self-in-others". This "self-in-others" presents itself as an indifferentiated Self which allows parts of personality to be projected, reflected or induced in others. The leader of an interactive group will then, as a first step, activate feed-backs from participants in order to recognize projections and inductions. He/she will, as a second step, begin the psychoanalytic working through, thus allowing the remodelling of self through group exchanges. Interactive Group Theory refers to mixed gender groups. In all women's groups interactional communicative exchanges have revealed specific therapeutic power. Relaxations of boundaries between individual selves derive from the affective quality of women's interactions in group cultures like Interchangeability (Cantarella, 2002; 2005), illustrated in the following pages. As shown in this paper attention, respect and appreciation allow interactional experiences which build the sense of self, enhance positive self esteem and foster gender esteem. We can as consequence, say that warm and intimate group exchanges among women are essential to the emerging and remodelling of the female self . As a psychoanalist the author's reference theory is Psychoanalytic Theory, in particular Fairbairn's Objectrelations theory of the personality (1952).


Mutations in the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) gene result in red blood cells with increased susceptibility to oxidative damage. Significant haemolysis can be caused by primaquine and other 8-aminoquinoline antimalarials used for the radical treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria. The distribution and phenotypes of mutations causing G6PD deficiency in the male population of migrants and refugees in a malaria endemic region on the Thailand-Myanmar border were characterized. Blood samples for G6PD fluorescent spot test (FST), G6PD genotyping, and malaria testing were taken from 504 unrelated males of Karen and Burman ethnicities presenting to the outpatient clinics. The overall frequency of G6PD deficiency by the FST was 13.7%. Among the deficient subjects, almost 90% had the Mahidol variant (487G>A) genotype. The remaining subjects had Chinese-4 (392G>T), Viangchan (871G>A), Açores (595A>G), Seattle (844G>C) and Mediterranean (563C>T) variants. Quantification of G6PD activity was performed using a modification of the standard spectrophotometric assay on a subset of 24 samples with Mahidol, Viangchan, Seattle and Chinese-4 mutations; all samples showed a residual enzymatic activity below 10% of normal and were diagnosed correctly by the FST. Further studies are needed to characterise the haemolytic risk of using 8-aminoquinolines in patients with these genotypes.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To examine the role of apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype in the cognitive function of postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer prior to initiation of adjuvant therapy and over time with treatment.

DESIGN
Longitudinal, genetic association study.

SETTING
Urban university cancer center.

SAMPLE
Three cohorts of postmenopausal women: 37 women with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy and anastrozole, 41 women with breast cancer receiving anastrozole alone, and 50 healthy women.

METHODS
Cognitive function was evaluated three times during a 12-month period using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Participants were genotyped and classified based on the presence or absence of at least one APOE e4 allele. Multiple linear regression was used to determine if APOE genotype accounted for observed variability in cognitive function data.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
APOE genotype, breast cancer treatment, and cognitive function.

FINDINGS
Performance or changes in performance on tasks of executive function, attention, verbal learning and memory, and visual learning and memory were found to be influenced by APOE genotype and/or interactions between APOE genotype and study cohort.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that cognitive function in postmenopausal women with breast cancer is modified by APOE genotype and the combination of APOE genotype and treatment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
APOE genotype, along with other biomarkers, may be used in the future to assist nurses in identifying women with breast cancer most at risk for cognitive decline.


We demonstrate the first self-coherent detection of 10 Gbit/s BPSK signals based on narrow-band amplification of the optical carrier by means of Stimulated Brillouin effect in a common fiber. We found that this technique is very effective only if it is combined with proper line coding and high-pass electrical filtering at the receiver. In this case we obtain OSNR-performance close to the ideal coherent receiver.


For novel therapeutic approaches of cardiovascular diseases, the preclinical investigation is of paramount and required appropriate technologies. We investi-gated the use of high-resolution ultrasound imaging system to evaluate the progression of vascular lesions in a rabbit model. Animals underwent vascular injury using two standard procedures. A bare-metal stent was placed within the left iliac artery, and a balloon injury was induced in the contralateral artery. The animals were kept on a regular diet for 8 weeks. A Vevo3100© VisualSonic high-resolution ultrasound imaging system and the associated software VevoVasc were used for the longitudinal evaluation of the injured arteries and the distal abdominal aorta. The lumen size increased rapidly after the intervention in both iliac arteries. In the balloon-injured artery, the augmentation was transient and significantly reversed, inducing an alteration of the blow flow. In contrast, in the stented segment, the lumen size was maintained enlarged overtime. We demonstrated a significant correlation for the wall thickness and the lumen size between ultrasonic and histological quantification. High-resolution ultrasound imaging in rabbit iliac arteries and the distal abdominal aorta is feasible, reliable and of relevance to investigate novel strategies for the inhibition of hyperplasia induced with standard injury models.


The species cited from Pakistan included Ardea goliath, Ardea cinerea cinerea, Ardea cinerea rectirostris, Ardea purpurea manilensis and Butorides striatus javanicus, Ardeola grrayii grayii and Bubulcus ibis coromandus, Ardea alba alba, Ardea alba modesta, Egretta intermedia intermedia, Egretta garzetta garzetta and Egretta gularis schistacea, Nycticorax nycticorax nycticorax, Ixobrychus minutus minutus, Ixobrychus sinensis and Ixobrychus flavicollis flavicollis. The study was carried out from October 2000 to September 2001, spanning the area from Kikar Post to Head Marala. Point count method was used to record the number of birds observed (Ralph et al., 1995). The birds were further identified using literature. Cattle egret ( Bubuleus ibis ), little egret ( Egretta garzetta ), intermediate egret ( Egretta intermedia ) and pond heron ( Ardeola grayeii ) were present at river Jammu Tawi, river Chenab and river Manawar Tawi throughout study period. However, Egretta alba was only observed from December to January.


Software as a service (SaaS) has grown to be a significant segment of many software product markets. SaaS vendors, which charge customers based on use and continuously improve the quality of their products, have put competitive pressure on traditional perpetual software vendors, which charge a licensing fee and periodically upgrade the quality of their software. We develop an analytical model to study the competitive pricing strategies of an incumbent perpetual software vendor in the presence of a SaaS competitor. We find that, depending on both the SaaS quality improvement rate and the network effect, the perpetual software vendor adopts one of three different strategies: (1) an entry deterrence strategy, (2) a market segmentation strategy, or (3) a sequential dominance strategy. Surprisingly, we find that vendor competition does not always result in higher consumer surplus, and it might lead to a socially inefficient outcome under certain conditions. We further show insights into how the incumbent perpetual software vendor can defend its market position by providing incremental quality improvement through patching and/or by releasing consecutive versions with major quality upgrades. Finally, we extend our model to include the vendor's quality improvement cost and users' switching cost. These additional analyses help to identify the effect of different quality and cost factors on the market competitive equilibrium.


In this Paper we assess the progress made by the profession in understanding whether and how exchange rate intervention works. To this end, we review the theory and evidence on official intervention, concentrating primarily on work published within the last decade or so. Our reading of the recent literature leads us to conclude that, in contrast with the profession's consensus view of the 1980s, official intervention can be effective, especially through its role as a signal of policy intentions, and especially when it is publicly announced and concerted. We also note, however, an apparent empirical puzzle concerning the secrecy of much intervention and suggest an additional way in which intervention may be effective but which has so far received little attention in the literature, namely through its role in remedying a coordination failure in the foreign exchange market.


In this fascinating and disturbing work, James Douglass presents a compelling account of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and why unmasking and accepting this truth remains crucial for the future of our country and the world. The title comes from a phrase of Thomas Merton, naming of the attitudes, forces and interests that generate and support international tension and conflict. Drawing on a vast field of investigations, including many sources available only recently, Douglass lays out a sequence of of steps over the last three years of his life that transformed JFK from a traditional "Cold Warrior" to someone determined to pull the world back from the edge of nuclear apocalypse. Beginning with the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs invasion (which left the President wishing to "splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces"), followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis and his secret back-channel dialogues with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, JFK pursued a series of actions--right up to the week of his death--that caused members of his own U.S. military-intelligence establishment to regard him as a virtual traitor who had to be eliminated. As the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination approaches, the story of why he was killed--his turn toward peace--is not ancient history, and bears crucial lessons for today in the light of a decade of war and continuing revelations of clandestine national security and military activities. Douglass shows convincingly how those who plotted the death of JFK were determined not simply to eliminate a single man but to kill a vision. Douglass's book has all the elements of a political thriller. But the stakes couldn't be higher. Only by understanding the truth behind the murder of JFK can we grasp his vision and assume the urgent struggle for peace today. "In JFK and the Unspeakable Jim Douglass has distilled all the best available research into a very well-documented and convincing portrait of President Kennedy's transforming turn to peace, at the cost of his life. Personally, it has made a very big impact on me. After reading it in Dallas, I was moved for the first time to visit Dealey Plaza. I urge all Americans to read this book and come to their own conclusions about why he died and why--after fifty years--it still matters." -- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.


Platinum silicide films are widely used in silicon devices for ohmic and Schottky contacts. It has been demonstrated in the recent years that Schottky barriers employing ultra-thin platinum silicide films (thickness < 10 nm) are useful for photodetection in the near infrared. We have studied the formation of thin platinum silicide films and their electrical properties as a function of the annealing temperature in presence of an interfacial native silicon oxide layer and with plasma etching damage on the Si substrate surface. The thickness of the interfacial oxide layer was varied as well as the depth of the plasma etching damage. The interest of these investigations lies in understanding the role played by the imperfections due to the two usual cleaning processes, namely incomplete SiO2 chemical removal and Si damace due to plasma etching bombardment, on the final silicide film characteristics. The quality and reproducibility of platinum silicide films in routine fabrication depends strongly of the process control, where the substrate cleanliness plays a crucial role. The native silicon oxide can be present at the silicon substrate surface due to an incomplete chemical etching or due to the rapid re-growth of the oxide after the chemical etching. It is well accepted that this interfacial oxide layer can cause problems for Pt-contact metallization, although the characteristics of the resulting platinum silicide film as a function of the oxide thickness and the annealing temperature are not well known. On the other hand, to guarantee the complete removal of the native silicon oxide mainly in the delicate ultra-thin silicide films fabrication, a plasma etching bombardment is performed on the substrate surface prior to metal deposition. This can introduce a certain amount of damage in the substrate surface which can influence the Pt-Si reaction as well as the morphology, crystallography and electrical characteristics of these films. We prepared samples using different chemical etching procedures to obtain complete and incomplete native oxide layer removal. Plasma etching on the substrate surface was performed for various duration and using a range of discharge powers to obtain different plasma etching damage depth. The silicidation reaction was performed at different annealing temperatures. Five characterization techniques were used to study these samples: Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Photoelectron Microscopy (PEM), Internal Photoemission (IPE) and Four-Point Probe Measurements. Morphological, compositional, structural and crystallographic information is obtained from the first three techniques. This is subsequently correlated to the electrical properties of the films obtained using the last two techniques. We observe that silicide films with interfacial oxide layer up to 2.2 nm-thick, annealed at an appropriate temperature, are equivalent to oxide-free samples for application in device metallization. Resistivity measurements show the same minimum value of 30 μΩcm, for samples with and without interfacial oxide in the 350 – 550 °C annealing temperature range. The role played by the interfacial native oxide layer is observed during the early stages of Pt – Si formation. In the absence of the interface oxide, platinum silicide can easily form even at low temperatures (T < 200 °C). If the interfacial oxide is present, the reactant interdiffusion proceeds through the oxide pinholes; the Pt-Si reaction rate and the phase formation mostly depend on the pinhole density and diameter. In the 350 – 550 °C annealing temperature range, silicide films with and without interfacial oxide layer reach a stable, homogeneous and quite similar structure, consisting of epitaxial and polycrystalline PtSi grains and a very flat silicide/Si interface. This annealing temperature range gives crystallographic and morphologic conditions in which silicide films with and without interfacial oxide layer show the best transport properties. Silicide films with an interfacial oxide show a continuous Pt2Si sub-layer on the top. It is observed from 350 °C and remains unchanged up to annealing temperatures as high as 600 – 650 °C. The existence of this sub-layer can guarantee the film continuity up to 700 °C, even if PtSi grains below it are already epitaxial and isolated from each other. In oxide-free samples this layer does not exist and the transformation to an island-type film is observed after annealing at 550 – 600 °C. The presence of the Pt2Si layer is beneficial and even desirable for preserving the transport properties. A few nanometers of plasma etching damage on the substrate surface are beneficial to ultra-thin (3 – 5 nm-thick) silicide films. Plasma damage contributes to slowing down the beginning of the island formation and extends the temperature range in which platinum silicide films maintain their continuity and the transport properties. Plasma damage can slightly increase the resistivity of films in the 4 – 5 nm thickness range. On the other hand, the plasma etching damage depth in the range mentioned above can help films thinner than 3.5 nm to improve their transport properties.


The selection of an appropriate aggregate structure is a key step during mix design since this directly affects mix performance and the amount of asphalt in the mix. During conventional batching procedures, the aggregates are dried and sieved into different sizes only to be recombined later into the appropriate proportions to reproduce the design gradation. This type of procedure can produce gradations with substantially larger percent passing the sieve No.200 relative to the target gradation. This paper explores the effects that fines adhered to larger particles have on the batch gradation, the resulting optimum binder content and dust proportion. An improved batching procedure that corrects for fines adhered to larger particles and trapped moisture is presented in detail and shown to replicate the target design gradation more closely. The optimum asphalt content was determined by means of the Superpave® design method for both, a gradation batched conventionally and a gradation batched with the suggested corrected procedure. The results show that the optimum asphalt content and volumetrics obtained in both cases are substantially different. The procedure developed for the fines correction is recommended for routine batching in order to minimize the inclusion of additional fines that can potentially affect the performance characteristics of the mix.


Abstract. The observation of deep and optically thick aerosol layers by a nadir-pointing lidar poses a challenge in terms of the signal inversion into a geophysically meaningful quantity such as extinction coefficient. A far-end reference molecular layer will usually be unavailable if the observed layer is near the surface, and using a near-end reference results in an unstable mathematical solution. In this paper, it is demonstrated that a far-end reference, taken within the aerosol layer, yields a better solution, and that the influence of the reference reduces strongly when coming inward, so that 1–2 km above reference the solution can be trusted. A method is developed to set the reference using the assumption of a well-mixed layer near the surface, and its effect is tested on data collected during recent aircraft-based campaigns. The method is also tested on simulated profiles in order to verify its limits and accuracy. The assumption of a well-mixed layer can be relaxed if one is able to set the reference well within a layer rather than at its boundaries.


The future belongs to the youth, but do they really have a say in it? Learning processes with regard to a successful socio-ecological change must start in childhood and adolescence in order to succeed in social transformation. The youth cannot be a passive part in a changing society—they have to be actively included in its design. When allowed to participate, young people can make important and effective contributions—which should not be reduced to sub-projects and opportunity structures. In a socio-political context, participation means involvement, collaboration, and commitment. In the context of intra- and inter-generational equity, as the core part of sustainable development, participation strategies should be developed that allow for a permanent and purposeful involvement of children and adolescents. Participation of young people is an important and appropriate step in strengthening those who are so strongly affected by the planning processes but are otherwise powerless. A successful involvement and participation of non-professional actors requires a target group-oriented method, a supportive culture of participation, as well as clarity and decision latitude. Abiding by these rules leads to central results.


Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is known to be an effective treatment for a variety of neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease and essential tremor (ET). At present, it involves administering a train of pulses with constant frequency via electrodes implanted into the brain. New 'closed-loop' approaches involve delivering stimulation according to the ongoing symptoms or brain activity and have the potential to provide improvements in terms of efficiency, efficacy and reduction of side effects. The success of closed-loop DBS depends on being able to devise a stimulation strategy that minimizes oscillations in neural activity associated with symptoms of motor disorders. A useful stepping stone towards this is to construct a mathematical model, which can describe how the brain oscillations should change when stimulation is applied at a particular state of the system. Our work focuses on the use of coupled oscillators to represent neurons in areas generating pathological oscillations. Using a reduced form of the Kuramoto model, we analyse how a patient should respond to stimulation when neural oscillations have a given phase and amplitude. We predict that, provided certain conditions are satisfied, the best stimulation strategy should be phase specific but also that stimulation should have a greater effect if applied when the amplitude of brain oscillations is lower. We compare this surprising prediction with data obtained from ET patients. In light of our predictions, we also propose a new hybrid strategy which effectively combines two of the strategies found in the literature, namely phase-locked and adaptive DBS. Author summary Deep brain stimulation (DBS) involves delivering electrical impulses to target sites within the brain and is a proven therapy for a variety of neurological disorders. Closed loop DBS is a promising new approach where stimulation is applied according to the state of a patient. Crucial to the success of this approach is being able to predict how a patient should respond to stimulation. Our work focusses on DBS as applied to patients with essential tremor (ET). On the basis of a theoretical model, which describes neurons as oscillators that respond to stimulation and have a certain tendency to synchronize, we provide predictions for how a patient should respond when stimulation is applied at a particular phase and amplitude of the ongoing tremor oscillations. Previous experimental studies of closed loop DBS provided stimulation either on the basis of ongoing phase or amplitude of pathological oscillations. Our study suggests how both of these measurements can be used to control stimulation. As part of this work, we also look for evidence for our theories in experimental data and find our predictions to be satisfied in one patient. The insights obtained from this work should lead to a better understanding of how to optimise closed loop DBS strategies.


In 430 BC Greek playwright Euripides transformed the mythological figure of Medea into the proto-typical murdering mother when he put a dagger in her hand and had her slaughter her two young sons. Euripides, at the same time, created the only known ancient version of the classic legend to portray Medea sympathetically. It is this combination of sympathy power and repulsion that has seen Euripides' Medea endure down through the ages. In nineteenth-century London adaptations of Euripides' play struck a chord with audiences at a time when unprecedented numbers of English mothers were killing their babies. At a time when it was claimed that London harboured 16,000 women who had destroyed their children (Behlmer, Child Abuse 23) Medea was the most ubiquitous heroine of the London stage. While Medea on the London stage was the object of public gaze, so too were the real-life Medeas of London, who were charged with infanticide and stood in the dock of the Old Bailey, or in a room set aside for inquests at a public inn. This paper examines the intersections between the imagined Medea of the nineteenth-century London stage and real-life Medeas of the London streets by analysing editorial texts in London's most influential nineteenth-century newspaper, the London Times. I will draw upon news reports of infanticide trials and inquests, editorials and letters to the editor, and on theatre reviews and news stories about theatre performances and performers, to map both the 19th century stage persona of Medea and the experience of young abandoned mothers driven to murder their children.


The Personal Reader Framework enables the design, realization andmaintenance ofpersonalized Web Content Reader. In this architecture personalized access to web content is realized by various Web Services - we call them Personalization Services. With our new approach of Configurable Web Services we allow users to configure these Personalization Services. Such configurations can be stored and reused at a later time. The interface between Users and Configurable Web Services is realized in a Personal Reader Agent. This Agent allows selection, configuration and calling of the Web Services and further provides personalization functionalities like reuse of stored configurations which suit the users interests.


Moshe Safdie achieved worldwide recognition as an architect when his very first building, Habitat 67, at Expo in Montreal, proved to be eminently livable. He was also enthusiastically praised as a writer on architectural and human values after the publication of his first book, "Beyond Habitat" (The MIT Press, 1970). He has since added to his luster a number of exciting architectural projects, and now this second book, "For Everyone a Garden, " goes beyond "Beyond Habitat" in several ways: it provides further detail and technical specificity of Safdie's experience with industrialized building methods for architects and engineers; it updates the status of ongoing projects; and, best of all, it throws off a cascade of sparkling new ideas about people, building, planning, sites, processes, and their interactions. His readers will be glad to know that he remains as outspoken as ever.The book is an integral synthesis of words and pictures. The greater part of its total net area is devoted to illustrations--about 125 drawings, 165 halftones, and 5 color photographs, supported by substantial captions--while the text proper puts these into perspective from four thematic points of view: the idea of the three-dimensional community; the requirements and possibilities of human habitation, ranging in amenity from the minimal to the luxurious; the techniques of building in the factory, with a case study that includes a typical plant layout and simplified flow diagrams; and the attributes of well-planned urban meeting places, whether in Jerusalem, Paris, or San Francisco.The specific projects discussed in the book range from a proposal to convert Expo into a viable community of a quarter-million people after the close of the exhibition to his plans for a synagogue and rabbinical college near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. There are also reports on Safdie's more recent commissions, including the following: --Two projects intended for Manhattan along the East River. In one, the pre-built housing modules were to be suspended from cables. For everyone, a garden and a view.--The original plans for Habitat Puerto Rico, a cluster of modules clinging to a hillside, and a geometric variation designed to root like a cactus to a rocky peninsula in the Virgin Islands. For everyone, a private garden within a natural community garden.--Habitat Israel: even near the desert, a garden terrace for every family.--Habitat Rochester, a community for low- and moderate-income families, with units of minimal size, but all with a small terrace beyond sliding glass doors.--Coldspring New Town, Baltimore, a Commission of 1971. It promises to be one of the few "garden cities" in America to live up to the name in reality.


New York, NY (February 19, 2013) — New findings by Columbia researchers suggest that along with amyloid deposits, white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) may be a second necessary factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease. Most current approaches to Alzheimer's disease focus on the accumulation of amyloid plaque in the brain. The researchers at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, led by Adam M. Brickman, PhD, assistant professor of neuropsychology, examined the additional contribution of small-vessel cerebrovascular disease, which they visualized as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). The study included 20 subjects with clinically defined Alzheimer's disease, 59 subjects with mild cognitive impairment, and 21 normal control subjects. Using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative public database, the researchers found that amyloid and WHMs were equally associated with an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Amyloid and WMHs were also equally predictive of which subjects with mildcognitive impairment would go on to develop Alzheimer's. Among those with significant amyloid, WMHs were more prevalent in those with Alzheimer's than in normal control subjects. Because the risk factors for WMHs—which are mainly vascular—can be controlled, the findings suggest potential ways to prevent the development of Alzheimer's in those with amyloid deposits. (Source: EurekAlert! A service of AAAS and Columbia University Medical Center).


Nationalism has experienced a global resurgence, with many world leaders advocating a return to a glorious, and often illusory, past. In the United States, economic nationalism has received support from Democrats and Republicans alike, fueled by growing public backlash to free trade. These changes are having a major impact on U.S. patent policy. Over the past several decades, the government has cultivated an identity of the United States as being an innovative country. It has implemented patent policies that reinforced this identity, such as strengthening domestic patent rights and requiring trading partners to adopt U.S.-style patent and intellectual property laws. Many times, these policies have negative consequences, such as forcing U.S. consumers to subsidize chosen industries through paying higher prices for goods. This innovation-driven approach to economic nationalism, however, is changing under the Trump administration. President Trump has chosen to advance a national identity of nativism and cultural traditionalism, in which foreign people and foreign ideas are viewed with disdain. With regard to economic policy, he has embraced a strong sovereign model of governance, implementing protectionist import tariffs and threatening unilateral trade sanctions against China. This Article looks to political science and international political economy research to understand what economic nationalism is and how U.S. patent policy helps advance it. It looks at the emergence of innovation nationalism under prior administrations and examines how shifting national identity under the Trump administration is impacting it.


The implementation of a stand-alone system developed in JAVA language for motion detection has been discussed. The open-source OpenCV library has been adopted for video surveillance image processing thus implementing Background Subtraction algorithm also known as foreground detection algorithm. Generally the region of interest of a body or object to detect is related to a precise objects (people, cars, etc.) emphasized on a background. This technique is widely used for tracking a moving objects. In particular, the BackgroundSubtractorMOG2 algorithm of OpenCV has been applied. This algorithm is based on Gaussian distributions and offers better adaptability to different scenes due to changes in lighting and the detection of shadows as well. The implemented webcam system relies on saving frames and creating GIF and JPGs files with previously saved frames. In particular the Background Subtraction function, find Contours, has been adopted to detect the contours. The numerical quantity of these contours has been compared with the tracking points of sensitivity obtained by setting an user-modifiable slider able to save the frames as GIFs composed by different merged JPEGs. After a full design of the image processing prototype different motion test have been performed. The results showed the importance to consider few sensitivity points in order to obtain more frequent image storages also concerning minor movements. Sensitivity points can be modified through a slider function and are inversely proportional to the number of saved images. For small object in motion will be detected a low percentage of sensitivity points. Experimental results proves that the setting condition are mainly function of the typology of moving object rather than the light conditions. The proposed prototype system is suitable for video surveillance smart camera in industrial systems.


Stanley v. Illinois is one of the Supreme Court's more curious landmark cases. The holding is well known: the Due Process Clause prohibits the state from removing children from unwed fathers simply because they are not married and requires the state to provide all parents with a hearing on their fitness. By recognizing strong due process protections for parents' rights, Stanley reaffirmed Lochner-era cases that had been in doubt, and formed the foundation of modern constitutional family law. But Peter Stanley never raised due process arguments, so it has long been unclear how the Court reached this decision.This Article tells Stanley's untold story for the first time, using original research of state court and Supreme Court records. Those records show that the state was concerned about Stanley's parental fitness, and did not remove his children simply because he was unmarried, as is frequently assumed. But the state refused to prove Stanley unfit and relied instead on his marital status to justify depriving him of custody. That choice, and Stanley's avoidance of a due process argument, created a complicated Supreme Court decision-making environment. This Article explores the Supreme Court's decision-making in Stanley, and reveals new insights both about Stanley and the Court more broadly. Four justices changed their votes from conference to the final decision – an extreme amount of voting fluidity that shifted the case outcome. The justices' varying and evolving views eventually led them to a strong due process holding, even though Stanley did not ask for one. This issue fluidity – when the Court issues a ruling based on arguments not raised by the parties – reflects a complex interaction between justices' efforts to form a majority coalition and lawyers' litigation choices. Finally, the justices' papers reveal how Justice Harry Blackmun's shift to the liberal wing of the Court – and to a staunch parents' rights vote – began with his angst over Stanley, despite his vote for the state.


Base station clustering is necessary in large interference networks, where the channel state information (CSI) acquisition overhead otherwise would be overwhelming. In this paper, we propose a novel long-term throughput model for the clustered users which addresses the balance between interference mitigation capability and CSI acquisition overhead. The model only depends on statistical CSI, thus enabling long-term clustering. Based on notions from coalitional game theory, we propose a low-complexity distributed clustering method. The algorithm converges in a couple of iterations, and only requires limited communication between base stations. Numerical simulations show the viability of the proposed approach.


This study sought to investigate aspects of gender as represented in one of the currently used English language series, namely, Top Notch Series from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. This series is widely used for adult language learners from beginner to advanced levels in numerous Iranian language institutes. In effect, the study analyzed the series in terms of three major aspects of gender (relations, positions, and content). To this end, Fairclough's (2001) three-dimensional model, as a well-established CDA model, which emphasizes the importance of language/power relationship, was adopted in order to extract the ideologies comprising the foundation of this series. The findings revealed that the series represents both genders in a somewhat balanced way. In addition, the series presents both genders equally in such a way that stereotypical norms ingrained into learners are nearly removed. Furthermore, this textbook is argued to have adopted the discourse of marketing and advertising by exploiting both genders, especially the females.


Multi-fidelity modeling and learning are important in physical simulation-related applications. It can leverage both low-fidelity and high-fidelity examples for training so as to reduce the cost of data generation while still achieving good performance. While existing approaches only model finite, discrete fidelities, in practice, the fidelity choice is often continuous and infinite, which can correspond to a continuous mesh spacing or finite element length. In this paper, we propose Infinite Fidelity Coregionalization (IFC). Given the data, our method can extract and exploit rich information within continuous, infinite fidelities to bolster the prediction accuracy. Our model can interpolate and/or extrapolate the predictions to novel fidelities, which can be even higher than the fidelities of training data. Specifically, we introduce a low-dimensional latent output as a continuous function of the fidelity and input, and multiple it with a basis matrix to predict high-dimensional solution outputs. We model the latent output as a neural Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) to capture the complex relationships within and integrate information throughout the continuous fidelities. We then use Gaussian processes or another ODE to estimate the fidelity-varying bases. For efficient inference, we reorganize the bases as a tensor, and use a tensor-Gaussian variational posterior to develop a scalable inference algorithm for massive outputs. We show the advantage of our method in several benchmark tasks in computational physics.


In this thesis we have studied detection of 3D structures having a forward camera movement which has strong influence of translation along the optical axis of the camera. During the forward movement the camera might undergoes rotation and translation .We have used "Plane plus Parallax" algorithm to cancel out this unwanted rotation. The input to the algorithm is a sequence of frames aligned with respect to a certain planar surface. The algorithm gives three types of outputs. (i) Dense correspondence across all frames. (ii) Dense 3D structure relative to the planar surface. (ii) Focus of Expansion (FOE) in all frames with respect to reference frame. Camera calibration is not needed for this algorithm. We have applied this algorithm to real world images and synthetic images. In both cases the 3D structure information could be obtained clearly even for objects far from the reference plane. Our result shows the potential of the method in 3D reconstruction implementing ego-motion of a single camera.


Solvent-based polyurethanes and poly(urethane-acrylate)s were synthesized using phosphorus-containing polyester polyols in order to compare the thermal properties of different polymer types. Since the location of the phosphorus group might have vital importance when comparing the thermal properties, phosphorus groups were kept on the pendant chains in poly(urethane-acrylate)s using phosphorus-containing urethane macromonomers while they were kept on the backbone in polyurethanes. The effect of molar mass of polyurethanes and pendant urethane chains of poly(urethane-acrylate)s on thermal properties was also investigated. Characterization of the synthesized polymers was carried out using FT-IR, GPC, NMR, and DSC followed by evaluation of the thermal properties.


The Tentacle Flora is a robotic sculpture inspired by a vision of a colony of the sea anemone growing on the coral. A shape-memory alloy actuator is used as tentacles and is composed of a BioMetal Fiber such that it can bend in three directions. The top of the actuator glows softly mimicking a bioluminescent organism using a full colored LED. The Tentacle Flora induces the beauty, wonder, and existence of living sea anemones in the depths of the ocean.


Even though paraffin interactions with plastics are known by industry, plastics are commonly proposed as container materials for encapsulating phase change materials (PCM) in many applications. In the literature, there are very few experimental studies of organic PCM migration in plastics and its effects on plastic properties. These interactions are a case study of environmental stress cracking, which is considered one of the most common causes of plastic failure. The aim of this work is an experimental study of interactions of some PCM typically used for thermal energy storage, and some plastic materials currently used as encapsulating materials. With the materials tested in this work, it can be concluded that, for encapsulating organic PCM, low‐density polyethylene and polypropylene showed worse behaviour than high‐density polyethylene. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The advances in solar technology and electric propulsion now offer the promise of new, very capable space transport systems that will allow us to effectively explore the solar system. NASA has developed many concepts of space-powered spacecraft with power levels ranging from tens to hundreds of kilowatts for robotic and asteroid-driven missions and Mars. This paper describes two electrical/chemical propulsion concepts developed over the last 5 years and discusses how they could be used to humanize the solar system. A possible sustainable solution for the supply of spacecraft power would be to achieve and utilization nuclear fusion energy. The paper briefly presents some contributions to obtaining nuclear fusion energy as a viable alternative to current energies. For the energy of spacecraft of the future, the combination of photovoltaic energy (obtained from the stars) and that produced by a nuclear reactor on fusion is essential. NASA is developing a strategy to send a crew to Mars by 2030. To achieve this goal, NASA plans to develop the technology for long-haul flights including advanced transportation work and living systems. Among these technologies, Solar Electric Propulsion (PES) has been identified as very effective in moving large masses through interplanetary space. For decades it has been known that missions outside the low Earth's orbit can be made cost-effective by PSA, but yet such space missions have not yet been done because the manufacturing technology is not advanced enough. NASA's recent investments in solar power systems and propulsion systems have now matured so that the 50 kW PSA is already ready to be put on flight missions. It has been demonstrated analytically that these technologies can be resized to systems with the power of several hundred kilowatts.


Praise for the Previous Edition: "This book attempts to clarify misunderstandings about self-esteem and offer a rationale for the legitimacy of including the construct as an important variable for mental health The author writes fluently and clearly. He is also considerate in his explanations by organizing chapters appropriately so that his narrative follows well-articulated empirical findings. " -PsycCritiques "Why another book on self-esteem? As Mruk points out to begin his own, there are already 7,337 articles and books on this topic. What Mruk also makes clear early on is just how little we really do understand of the complexity of this topic. Most have settled for overly simplistic, popularized truisms, and most scientific studies reveal ambiguous or insignificant consequences Mruk's solution is to supplement these traditionally scientific studies with findings from qualitative, specifically phenomenological research The approach allows Mruk a very close access to the lived dimensions of self-esteem, and an astute basis for his concrete suggestions for enhancing self-esteem." - Chris Aanstoos Editor, The Humanistic Psychologist This new edition of the most comprehensive text available on the theories, research findings, and practice implications of self-esteem represents a major shift in our contemporary understanding of self-esteem and positive psychology. The book has been thoroughly updated to integrate positive psychology themes throughout and explain how self-esteem enhancement interventions fit into evidence-based practice. This insightful work provides scholars, clinicians, and students with both an extensive overview of research and with Mruk's often-cited theoretical framework for self-esteem. Featuring the author's noted Competence and Worthiness Training program for enhancing self-esteem, this fourth edition reflects changes in the field by also including expanded coverage of: Self-esteem in relationships Validity issues in researching self-esteem The concept of authenticity in the self Self-esteem as a function of motivation and well-being Existentially oriented theory Key Features: Offers the most comprehensive and thorough overview of self-esteem theory and research available Considers self-esteem from personality, human development, and clinical perspectives Contains updated and more integrated coverage of self-esteem as a major element of positive psychology Places clinical practices that enhance self-esteem in the context of evidence-based practice Features expanded coverage of personal relationships, research issues, and well-being in self


Finding maximum a posteriori (MAP) assignments in graphical models is an important task in many applications. Since the problem is generally hard, linear programming (LP) relaxations are often used. Solving these relaxations efficiently is thus an important practical problem. In recent years, several authors have proposed message passing updates corresponding to coordinate descent in the dual LP. However, these are generally not guaranteed to converge to a global optimum. One approach to remedy this is to smooth the LP, and perform coordinate descent on the smoothed dual. However, little is known about the convergence rate of this procedure. Here we perform a thorough rate analysis of such schemes and derive primal and dual convergence rates. We also provide a simple dual to primal mapping that yields feasible primal solutions with a guaranteed rate of convergence. Empirical evaluation supports our theoretical claims and shows that the method is highly competitive with state of the art approaches that yield global optima.


Hall measurement was done on a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) thin film. The Hall voltage, VH, was obtained using the method of magnetic field direction reversal. Below the critical temperature, it was found that VH changes sign from positive to negative until it reaches a negative dip, after which it increases again to become zero and undergo a second sign change. With decreasing applied magnetic field, this dip was observed to become more prominent and greater in magnitude and to shift to lower temperatures. The sign change is explained by considering that the Hall field consists of two anti-parallel components: one is attributed to the deflection of the charge carriers by the Lorentz force, and the other is attributed to the dynamic motion of vortices in the mixed state.


Jonathan Swift is widely recognized as a major writer in English. His Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub, and "A Modest Proposal," in particular, are masterpieces of political satire. Swift was never a politician in his own right, but the politics of his writing and his role as a politically committed priest in the Irish Anglican Church made him important nonetheless as a political and historical figure. In fact, for a time in the early eighteenth century, Swift truly became a part of English politics, first by negotiating with the English government on the part of the Irish Church, and then by beginning to write political propaganda for the Tory regime then in power. Near the end of 1710, Jonathan Swift changed his political allegiance from Whig to Tory. This paper discusses the four major explanations that have been advanced regarding Swift's "switch," and suggests that none of the four is adequate, though all of them contain elements of what is likely to have happened. It suggests, further, that Swift's switch was at least as much a result of the changing nature of political parties and the party system as inconsistency on Swift's part.


We present the latest formal security definitions for blind signature schemes and for group signature schemes. We start by introducing theory about algorithms, probability distributions, distinguishers, protocol attacks and experiments, which is needed to understand the definitions. In the case of blind signatures, we define blindness and non-forgeability, and we present the blind Schnorr and Okamoto-Schnorr signature schemes and prove that the latter is secure. For group signatures, we define full-anonymity and full-non-forgeability (full-traceability). In the end, we sketch a secure general group signature scheme presented by Bellare, Micciancio and Warinschi.


Thirty five litter samples of village chickens, 35 broilers and 32 samples of
raw milk were examined for the presence of E. coli. All samples were positive for
E. coli. Three hundred and five isolates of E. coli were isolated from litter samples
of village chickens (105 isolates), broilers (105 isolates) and raw milk samples (95
isolates). All the isolates were examined for antibiotic resistance, plasmid profiles
and polymorphism using random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD)
analysis. Isolates isolated from litter of village chickens and broilers had a multiple
antibiotic resistance (MAR) index of 0.31 to 0.75 and 0.44 to 0.69, respectively.
Isolates isolated from raw milk had a MAR index of 0.31 to 0.88. High MAR
index suggests that all the isolates originated from high risk sources. The E. coli
isolates isolated from village chickens, broilers and raw milk samples were grouped into 34,30 and 28 distinct antibiotypes, respectively. Eighty (76.2%) and
99 (94.3%) isolates were found to harbour plasmids ranging in size from 1.2 to 64
MDa and 1.2 to 80 MDa among isolates isolated from village chickens and
broilers, respectively. Isolates isolated from raw milk harboured plasmids ranging
in size from 1.4 to 68 MDa. Based on their plasmid profiles, the E. coli isolates
isolated from village chickens, broilers and raw milk were grouped into 28, 57 and
5 plasmid patterns, respectively. Three l0-mer oligonucleotides primers (Gen1-50-02, Gen1-50-09 and Gen1-50-10) were used to amplify genomic DNA. The
profiles observed after electrophoretic separation for the three primers when
combined together were able to distinguish the E. coli isolates from village
chickens, broilers and raw milk into 92, 96 and 50 RAPD patterns, respectively.
The large number of subgroups within these isolates indicates that there is a high
degree of diversity within E. coli isolates, isolated from village chickens, broilers
and raw milk samples. Isolates, isolated from village chickens, broilers and raw
milk are genotypically diverse as shown by RAPD pattern, suggesting that
different strains have been brought into the geographic region and strains already
present have continued to evolve. These results suggest that RAPD-PCR assay is
more discriminating than plasmid profiling and antibiotyping, and could be a
valuable tool for epidemiological studies.


In recent years, the home environment has seen a rapid introduction of network enabled digital technology. This technology offers new and exciting opportunities to increase the connectivity of devices within the home for the purpose of home automation. Moreover, with the rapid expansion of the Internet, there is the added potential for the remote control and monitoring of such network enabled devices. However, the adoption of home automation systems has been slow. This paper identifies the reasons for this slow adoption and evaluates the potential of ZigBee for addressing these problems through the design and implementation of a flexible home automation architecture. A ZigBee based home automation system and Wi-Fi network are integrated through a common home gateway. The home gateway provides network interoperability, a simple and flexible user interface, and remote access to the system. A dedicated virtual home is implemented to cater for the system's security and safety needs. To demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system, four devices, a light switch, radiator valve, safety sensor and ZigBee remote control have been developed and evaluated with the home automation system.


ABSTRACT There is growing evidence supporting comprehensive community development efforts that focus on multiple determinants of well-being. Yet evaluation has been limited by a lack of longitudinal studies, difficulty tracking displaced residents, and limited data on diverse cultural communities. The Yesler Terrace Redevelopment Project analyzes longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional data to evaluate the impact of redevelopment on a low-income, ethnically diverse cohort of residents in Yesler Terrace. Yesler Terrace is a 30-acre publicly subsidized housing community in downtown Seattle, Washington, owned and operated by the Seattle Housing Authority. To evaluate the redevelopment strategies and related programs on resident well-being, we are examining multiple sources of data, linking housing and healthcare data, and collecting contextual data about residents' experiences. Here we describe the participating agencies and residents, study objectives and methods, and preliminary results. Early study results include shifts in resident demographics, health outcomes, and community social cohesion and perception of safety measures.


Clinical genetics has become a major medical specialty in Britain since its beginnings with Lionel Penrose's work on mental handicap and phenylketonuria (PKU) and John Fraser Robert's first genetic clinic in 1946. Subsequent advances in diagnosis and prediction have had key impacts on families with inherited disorders and prospective parents concerned about their unborn children. The Witness Seminar focused on the beginnings of British clinical genetics in London, Oxford, Liverpool and Manchester, the development of subspecialties, such as dysmorphology, and also the roles of the Royal College of Physicians, the Clinical Genetics Society and the Department of Health in the establishment of clinical genetics as a specialty in 1980. Specialist non-medical genetic counsellors, initially from the fields of nursing and social work, progressively became a more significant part of genetic services, while lay societies also developed an important influence on services. Prenatal diagnosis became possible with the introduction of new genetic tools in regional centres to identify fetal anomalies and chromosomal disorders. This volume complements the 2001 Witness Seminar on 'genetic testing', which emphasizes laboratory aspects of medical genetics, with limited coverage of clinical genetics.

Participants include: Ms Chris Barnes, Dr Caroline Berry, Professor Martin Bobrow (chair), Professor Sir John Burn, Dr Ian Lister Cheese, Professor Angus Clarke, Dr Clare Davison, Professor Joy Delhanty, Dr Nick Dennis, Professor Dian Donnai, Professor Alan Emery, Professor George Fraser, Mrs Margaret Fraser Roberts, Professor Peter Harper, Dr Hilary Harris, Professor Rodney Harris, Professor Shirley Hodgson, Dr Alan Johnston, Mrs Ann Kershaw, Mrs Lauren Kerzin-Storrar, Professor Michael Laurence, Professor Ursula Mittwoch, Professor Michael Modell, Professor Marcus Pembrey, Professor Sue Povey, Professor Heather Skirton, Professor Sir David Weatherall.


In the present paper, we introduce the sequence space [{l_p}(E,Delta) = left{ x = (x_n)_{n = 1}^infty : sum_{n = 1}^infty left|  sum_{j in {E_n}} x_j - sum_{j in E_{n + 1}} x_jright| ^p < infty right},] where $E=(E_n)$ is a partition of finite subsets of the positive integers and $pge 1$. We investigate its topological properties and inclusion relations. Moreover, we consider the problem of finding  the norm of certain matrix operators from  $l_p$ into $ l_p(E,Delta)$, and apply our results to Copson and Hilbert matrices.


The article aims to shed light on the privileges accorded by the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as GDL) as a legal means of printed press regulation. It should be noted that so far, the research has mostly been focused on the privileges granted to the printing houses of the Mamoniciai and Vilnius academies. The current research, based on various studies about the privileges granted to other printing houses and new historical sources, attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of the privilege phenomenon in its entirety, by examining the dynamics of granting privileges, privilege providers and recipients, types of privileges, sanctions imposed and the languages in which printing was allowed. It has been established that during the period of 1569–1793, the 37 privileges by rulers were granted to GDL printing houses. In the second half of the 16th century, the GDL rulers accorded 6 privileges, in the 17th century – 8, and in the 18th century – 22 privileges, respectively. The greatest number of the privileges was granted during the reign of Augustus III (the period of 1734–1763) and Stanislaw II Augustus (the period of 1764–1795). During the 29 years of holding the throne, Augustus III granted 10 privileges to the GDL printing houses. Stanislaw II Augustus reigned the GDL for 31 years, during which he issued 7 privileges. Among the GDL rulers were also the individuals who failed to grant a single privilege to the existing printing houses. They were John II Casimir Vasa (1648–1668), whose reign coincided with the wars waged against Moscow and Sweden and Stanislaw I Leszczynski (1704–1709, 1733–1734). On the grounds of the intended business purposes, the privileges granted to the GDL printing houses can be classified as publishing privileges (in total 13 privileges, accounting for 35%), the privileges to establish a printing house (in total 9 privileges, accounting for 24%), confirming privileges (in total 11 privileges, accounting for 30%) and miscellaneous privileges (in total 4 privileges). In the 16th and the first half of the 17th century, the privileges accorded by the rulers were not very widespread, as part of the printing houses conducted their activities under the auspices of the GDL noblemen. In the 18th century, GDL saw the predominance of institutional printing house. It is only natural that such printing houses sought the privileges granted by the rulers as an important means to establish themselves in the book printing market. Among the GDL institutions having a printing house of its own, was a higher education institution (Vilnius Jesuit Academy), religious organizations of city-dwellers (so-called fraternities) and monasteries (Catholic, Orthodox and Uniate). The largest number of privileges was granted to the printing house of the Vilnius Jesuit Academy (in total 13 privileges), whereas the printing houses of other GDL institutions (brotherhoods of city-dwellers as well as Catholic, Orthodox and Uniate monasteries) were usually accorded one, two or three privileges. The analysis of thirteen privileges granted to the GDL printing houses revealed that they included penalties foreseen for violating publishing rights. The greatest sanction ever in the history of GDL printing – 5000 florins (Italian coins)– was in 1588 imposed on the GDL nobleman Kazimierz Leon Sapieha for violating the privilege to publish the Lithuanian Statute. In the history of GDL printing, one case should be particularly highlighted, namely, when a large fine was imposed not for illegal reproduction but for resisting the failing to comply with the purpose of the privilege – to establish a printing house. More specifically, the 1701 privilege granted by Augustus II foresaw a fine of 1000 kapa (medieval unit of measurement used in the 15–18th century GDL) imposed on anybody for hindering the Mogilev Orthodox brotherhood in their attempt to establish a printing house. The privileges accorded by GDL rulers gave permission to publish books not only in the official literary languages – Polish and Latin – but also in the languages of ethnoconfessional communities such as Ruthenian, Lithuanian and Jewish. Even though in principle, the privileges granted by GDL rulers did reflect benevolence for printing books in the languages of other GL confessions and cultures, the monopoly of the Vilnius Jesuit Academy hindered the development of other printing houses.


Abstract— Organic geochemistry applied to samples of bedrock and surface sediment from the Haughton impact structure detects a range of signatures representing the impact event and the transfer of organic matter from the crater bedrock to its erosion products. The bedrock dolomite contains hydrocarbon‐bearing fluid inclusions which were incorporated before the impact event. Comparison of biomarker data from the hydrocarbons in samples inside and outside of the crater show the thermal signature of an impact. The occurrence of hydrocarbon inclusions in hydrothermal mineral samples shows that organic matter was mobilized and migrated in the immediate aftermath of the impact. The hydrocarbon signature was then transferred from bedrock to the crater‐fill lacustrine deposits and present‐day sediments in the crater, including wind‐blown detritus in snow/ice. Separate signatures are detected from modern microbial life in crater rock and sediment samples. Signatures in Haughton crater samples are readily detectable because they include hydrocarbons generated by the burial of organic matter. This type of organic matter is not expected in crater samples on other planets, but the Haughton data show that, using very high resolution detection of organic compounds, any signature of primitive life in the crater rocks could be transferred to surface detritus and so extend the sampling medium.


The study examines the nature of women's roles in integrated water resources management (IWRM), with a focus on a water user association in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The study was based on the premise that the literature related to women's role and their involvement in the water sector has failed to explain adequately the nature and experiences of women, as they attempt to achieve productivity, decision-making and equity. Also, various studies assumed that women are only concerned about water for domestic purposes and men are responsible for productive water use. This underlying assumption has not only led to a number of unsustainable development interventions around water but has also underestimated women's role. The importance of women has been recognised in IWRM. IWRM is a set of ideas to help manage water holistically. It is an integrated approach with more coordinated decision-making across sectors, scales and genders. Despite the significance of women in IWRM, they face various challenges that hinder them from effectively performing their decision-making roles. In most rural areas, women are predominantly recognised as the ones primarily responsible for the management of domestic water supply and sanitation. In these societies, women also play the role of family caregivers in terms of provision of food and nutrition. The design of the study was qualitative in nature. A grounded theory approach was used with semi-structured interviews as the main data collection tool. The interview involved 14 respondents from the Mutale WUA, Limpopo, South Africa. The results showed marked gender difference in terms of roles performed. Based on the study, three kinds of roles were revealed: domestic, productive and decision-making roles. Men were overwhelmingly involved in productive roles, giving low priority to domestic roles. The traditional view of a domestic role being a feminine chore was well reflected in the data collected. Women were responsible, among other things, for collecting drinking water, cooking, laundry, and house cleaning. The study also revealed that the decision-making role was dominated by men, with women having a passive involvement in IWRM. The key factors found to affect the role of women in decision-making in IWRM were cultural practices, low self-confidence, low levels of capacity, and high workloads. This study has significant implications for promoting gender equality, since it has unveiled barriers inherent within the specific society. The impact of culture on women in water management raises concerns about gender issues in rural and remote areas where people are poorer and more culturally conservative. The study recommended, among other things, capacity building to increase the understanding of gender implications for water management as part of an effort to empower women so that they can acquire knowledge and skills to participate meaningfully in water management issues. It is suggested that further studies should be conducted treating women as a heterogeneous group.


Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Pocket Singapore is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Sail on a jungle-fringed reservoir at the Singapore Zoo, walk through the lush botanic gardens, or venture on a night safari with free-roaming creatures; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of the best of Singapore and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet Pocket Singapore: *Full-colour maps and images throughout *Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests *Insider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots *Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices *Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss *Free, convenient pull-out Singapore map (included in print version), plus over 17 colour local maps *User-friendly layout with helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhoods to help you determine the best spots to spend your time *Useful features - including For Kids, For Free, and Worth a Trip *Coverage of Holland Village, Tanglin Village, Orchard Road, Sentosa, Southwest Singapore, Little India, Kampong Glam, Chinatown, CBD, Tanjong Pagar, Marina Bay, the Quays, the Colonial District, and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Pocket Singapore is a handy guide that literally fits in your pocket, providing on-the-go assistance to travellers who seek only the can't-miss experiences. Colourful and easy-to-use, this neighbourhood-focused guide includes unique local recommendations to maximise your quick trip experience. * Looking for a comprehensive guide that recommends a wide range of experiences, both popular and offbeat, and extensively covers all of Singapore's neighbourhoods? Check out Lonely Planet's Singapore guide. * Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei guide for a comprehensive look at all the region has to offer, or Lonely Planet's Discover Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei photo-rich guide to the country's most popular attractions. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet and Cristian Bonetto. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)


A powerful category of (invisible) data poisoning attacks modify a subset of training examples by small adversarial perturbations to change the prediction of certain test-time data. Existing defense mechanisms are not desirable to deploy in practice, as they often either drastically harm the generalization performance, or are attack-specific, and prohibitively slow to apply. Here, we propose a simple but highly effective approach that unlike existing methods breaks various types of invisible poisoning attacks with the slightest drop in the generalization performance. We make the key observation that attacks introduce local sharp regions of high training loss, which when minimized, results in learning the adversarial perturbations and makes the attack successful. To break poisoning attacks, our key idea is to alleviate the sharp loss regions introduced by poisons. To do so, our approach comprises two components: an optimized friendly noise that is generated to maximally perturb examples without degrading the performance, and a randomly varying noise component. The combination of both components builds a very light-weight but extremely effective defense against the most powerful triggerless targeted and hidden-trigger backdoor poisoning attacks, including Gradient Matching, Bulls-eye Polytope, and Sleeper Agent. We show that our friendly noise is transferable to other architectures, and adaptive attacks cannot break our defense due to its random noise component. Our code is available at: https://github.com/tianyu139/friendly-noise