The thesis addresses the issue of what are primary school age children's concepts of death and life after death and explores their place in the teaching of Religious Education in the UK.A synopsis of the doctrines and death rite practices of the six major religions are reviewed. The place of those concepts in Religious Education is presented and discussed. Qualitative and quantitative research method techniques are employed using semi- structured interviews and questionnaires. Two age groups of primary school children are targeted for the purposes of the interviews and main research study questionnaire 一 7-8 (Year 3) and 10-11 (Year 6) year olds. A total of fifteen interviews was conducted as a pilot study. The main research study questionnaire involved 763 respondents from eleven schools ― 406 from a multi-faith and multi-cultural region and 357 from a culturally more homogenous region. These elements allow for age and gender demographic factors and for the environmental factors ― belonging to a faith community and living in a multi-faith and multi-cultural region to be analysed. Four hypotheses were formulated and focused on the patterns of association between children's concepts of death and life after death and four independent variables —— age, faith, gender and location. The following hypotheses were tested for evidence of the patterns of association between the variables through a quantitative test of significance:1. Age: Younger children are as able as older children to conceptualize death and life after death2. Faith: Children with no faith-base are as able as those with a faith-base to conceptualize death and life after death3. Gender: Boys are as able as girls to conceptualize death and life after death4. Location: Children not living in a multi-faith and multi-cultural region are as able as those who do to conceptualize death and life after death The results of the analysis were as follows: Age hypothesis: there was a difference between younger and older children. Faith hypothesis: it was possible to trace differences according to faith-base. Gender hypothesis: there was only a difference between boys and girls with respect to what they think comes after death. Location hypothesis: there was a difference according to location. The tests of significance were then complemented by examining patterns in the qualitative data to explore trends and exceptions where appropriate. A range of examples of the children's responses are used to illustrate the findings and are evaluated. This research shows that children are willing and able to express their concepts of death and life after death regardless of age, faith, gender or location. The research affirms that children are capable of considering the concepts of death and life after death and they should be given the opportunity to explore them further. School is m advantageous and universally available place where meaningful consideration of the search of these concepts should occur as school is a familiar environment for discovery, learning and understanding for children. Religious Education is the most relevant area of the school curriculum where children's discovery and learning can be focused on the exploration of these concepts through investigating ultimate questions with the rites of passage and doctrines of the major world religions. The quantitative and qualitative data produced and analysed in this thesis provide sufficient confirmation to support the meaningful and worthwhile updating of Religious Education syllabi for implementation by teachers and those responsible for Religious Education.


Flood-frequency relations that are developed by fitting the logarithms of annual peak discharges to a Pearson Type-III distribution are sensitive to skew coefficients. Estimates of population skew for a site are improved when computed from the weighted average of (1) the sample (station) skew, and (2) an unbiased, generalized skew estimate. A weighting technique based on the number of years of record at each of 226 sites was used to develop a contour map of unbiased, generalized skew coefficients for New York. An attempt was made to group (regionalize) the station skew coefficients into five hydrologically similar areas of New York, but the statewide version proved to be as accurate as the regionalized version and therefore was adopted as the final generalized skew-coefficient map for New York. An error analysis showed the statewide contour map to have lower MSE's (mean square errors) than those computed from (1) the five regional skewcoefficient contour maps, (2) a previously used (1982) nationwide skew coefficient map, and (3) the weighted mean of skew coefficients for sites within each of five hydrologically uniform, but distinct areas of New York.


Commodity Ethernet networks are used in many HPC systems. Extensions based on OpenFlow have been proposed for large HPC deployments, considering scalability and power consumption concerns. Such designs employ low-diameter topologies to minimize power consumption, such as Flattened Butterflies or Dragonflies. However, these topologies require non-minimal adaptive routing to deal with varying traffic characteristics and avoid pathological behaviors. The solutions to this issue in previous work relies on Ethernet Pauses to adapt minimal or non-minimal routing, depending on the availability (Pause status) of each corresponding output port. Nevertheless, such design provides an undesired high average latency under adversarial traffic patterns and a reduction in peak throughput under uniform traffic. This paper identifies the causes of the issues presented above, and presents a preliminary study of alternative solutions based on exploiting commodity congestion notification messages (QCN, 802.1Qau), currently available in Datacenter switches. This work presents the main differences between a congestion control mechanism such as QCN, which performs injection throttling reducing average network load, and an adaptive routing mechanism, which diverts traffic away from the congested area but increases average network load. In particular, it identifies the difficulty of separating the cases of uniform traffic at saturation and adversarial traffic at low loads.


The mechanism of tongue protraction in the archaeobatrachian frog Discoglossus pictus was studied using high-speed video motion analysis before and after denervation of the submentalis and genioglossus muscles. The kinematics of prey capture were compared (1) between successful and unsuccessful feeding attempts before surgery; (2) before and after denervation of the m. submentalis; and (3) before and after denervation of the m. genioglossus. Prey capture by D. pictus is similar to that of Ascaphus truei , hypothesized to be the sister group of all other living frogs. These archaeobatrachians have tongues of limited protrusibility (maximum tongue reach=0.21-0.27cm) and lunge forward with the whole body to catch prey. In Discoglossus , unsuccessful attempts to capture prey differ from successful captures in having a longer duration of most kinematic variables. These results suggest that kinematic events are postponed in unsuccessful attempts at prey capture, owing to the absence of the somatosensory feedback that results from successful prey contact. Denervation of the m. submentalis prevents mandibular bending, but does not affect tongue protraction. Denervation of the m. genioglossus significantly decreases maximum tongue reach and maximum tongue height, but does not affect mandibular bending. The m. submentalis is necessary for mandibular bending, but neither mandibular bending nor m. submentalis activity are necessary or sufficient for tongue protraction. The m. genioglossus is necessary for normal tongue protraction. It does more than stiffen and support the tongue. These results are not consistent with the current model of tongue protraction developed for the neobatrachian toad Bufo marinus . If this model withstands the denervation test in Bufo marinus , then archaeobatrachians and neobatrachians must differ in their mechanisms of tongue protraction.

Note:

Present address: Brain Research Institute FB2, University of Bremen, D-2800 Bremen, Federal Republic of Germany.


The notion of capitalist relations in Ghanaian cocoa-farming is familiar, yet their development has been relatively little studied. In Amansie district, Asante, capitalist relations of production developed as a result rather than as a cause of the cocoa 'take-off', c. 1900–16. This paper examines their emergence, which occurred largely during the subsequent period of much slower growth and generally lower prices. The introduction and spread of regular wage-labour, the widening and deepening burden of rent on 'stranger' cocoa farms, the proliferation of 'advances', and the introduction of farm mortgaging are described, together with the accompanying decline of slavery, pawning, and other non-wage forms of labour. Colonial officials ineffectually deplored the growth of money-lending and, to a lesser extent, that of wage-labour. From the mid-1930s, however, the tendency towards greater separation of labour from control of the farm was partly reversed by a new insistence by northern labourers on the replacement of annual wage contracts by a managerial form of share-cropping. This demand was sustained against the opposition of farmowners and despite persistent unemployment, an achievement made possible by the migrants continued foothold in subsistence agriculture in their home areas. This case of migrant labourers successfully challenging the extension of wage relations raises questions concerning the relationships between commercial agriculture and 'precapitalist' social relations of production in Africa generally.


A physician assistant in our hospital's primary care clinic asked me to provide a consultation for a young woman who had been discharged from the community mental health center's crisis unit. Her discharge form listed a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, admission and discharge dates spanning two weeks, and the treating psychiatrist's directive to follow up with her primary care physician for medication management. Attached to the form was a mind-stunning list of discharge medications—nothing short of a psychoactive granola, composed of three antipsychotics, three mood stabilizers, two antidepressants, and an antianxiety agent. The physician assistant had been so overwhelmed by this pharmacologic complexity that he did not provide refill prescriptions, except for one antipsychotic. By the time I met with the patient it was unclear what were the symptoms of her mental illness, what were the lingering iatrogenic effects of polypharmacy, and what was the consequence of abrupt discontinuation. Her suffering was heartbreaking. It was also avoidable. As community psychiatrists we live by ethical commitments, anchored in our personal and professional identities, to do the right thing by patients who come under our care. Unfortunately, organizational budgetary priorities sometimes shape our allocation decisions. As personally confounding as such decisions may be, I trust that most of us have been guided by the ethical commitment to benefit our patients above all else. In the rare situations in which we cannot lay the groundwork for beneficial outcomes, we have an even greater duty to try to minimize or prevent potential harm. Community psychiatry has struggled for years to treat the most seriously ill individuals within the constraints of severely limited resources. However, the practice of referring the most vulnerable and seriously ill patients in our community mental health systems to agencies and providers whom we know are illtrained to treat them can hardly be justified morally. Clearly, the fundamental ethical brake to this practice ought to be based on the realization that we cannot do something that we know—or that we should know—could harm those we have a covenant to serve. The choice not to participate in the cost-shifting practice of "turfing" uninsured—but clinically complex and seriously ill—individuals onto primary care providers should be an ethical no-brainer. We ought to know better and act better. And our patients have a right to expect nothing less of us. —RICHARD C. CHRISTENSEN, M.D., M.A., clinical associate professor and director of the community psychiatry program, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville


Abstract. In spite of the fact that cyanobacterial blooms are classically associated with high nutrient loadings, there is also abundant evidence revealing that nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria (diazotrophs) can prevail under oligotrophic conditions. The mechanisms favouring diazotrophs in oligotrophic water bodies remain, however, poorly resolved. Here we analyse biogeochemical and ecological factors regulating the distribution of nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria in the oligotrophic Lake Tanganyika using sensor profiles of hydrodynamic conditions, nutrient and pigment analyses, as well as phytoplankton community assessment. During periods of stable or re-establishing water column stratification, we find evidence that the location of the thermocline and the euphotic depth can create a functional niche for diazotrophic cyanobacteria: Nitrogen limitation provides an ecological advantage for an apparent mutualistic interaction between diazotrophs and diatoms when the upward transport of nitrate into the euphotic zone is reduced by a subjacent thermocline. Diazotrophs, comprising the filamentous genera Dolichospermum and Anabaenopsis, are key players under these conditions (up to 41.7 % of phytoplankton community), while they are rare otherwise. By contrast, a thermocline located within the euphotic zone allows rapid vertical transport of nitrate for a thriving nitrate assimilating phytoplankton community that evidently outcompetes diazotrophs. Finally, multiple observations of relatively high diazotroph densities in the upwelling region in the South of Lake Tanganyika imply that they may additionally thrive under high nutrient conditions, when nitrogen is heavily deficient with respect to phosphorous. This study highlights that, under nitrogen deficient conditions, cyanobacterial blooms may form in response to reduced nutrient fluxes to the productive surface waters.


Corporate social responsibility has been widely discussed and analyzed from the business perspective for several decades. The changes and challenges that universities have had to face during this time made them begin to undertake, with varying degrees of awareness, socially responsible actions. The aim of the paper is to present the issue of university social responsibility and attempt to evaluate whether the activities undertaken by the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Bialystok can be regarded as socially responsible ones. The analysis of the actions taken by this institution leads to the conclusion that despite the lack of a formally developed concept of social responsibility, the Faculty engages in a number of pro-social activities.


Among the atmospheric effect of laser propagation, the variations of the radiation transmittance by water aerosol evaporation have quantitatively been investigated. When the aerosol was exposed by a 1.07 μm cw fiber laser, the increased amount of the transmittance variation was a maximum of 19.1% and the volume concentration variation of aerosol was observed as an increasing of laser intensity. Also, significant irregularity of refractive index was not found in the heated area during the continuous laser heating.


Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a rapidly developing field that has seen tremendous progress over the past 15 years. The development of GPR spans aspects of geophysical science, technology, and a wide range of scientific and engineering applications. It is the breadth of applications that has made GPR such a valuable tool in the geophysical consulting and geotechnical engineering industries, has lead to its rapid development, and inspired new areas of research in academia. The topic of GPR has gone from not even being mentioned in geophysical texts ten years ago to being the focus of hundreds of research papers and special issues of journals dedicated to the topic. The explosion of primary literature devoted to GPR technology, theory and applications, has lead to a strong demand for an up-to-date synthesis and overview of this rapidly developing field. Because there are specifics in the utilization of GPR for different applications, a review of the current state of development of the applications along with the fundamental theory is required. This book will provide sufficient detail to allow both practitioners and newcomers to the area of GPR to use it as a handbook and primary research reference. *Review of GPR theory and applications by leaders in the field *Up-to-date information and references *Effective handbook and primary research reference for both experienced practitioners and newcomers


ABSTRACT Explorer Joseph Elzéar Bernier's famous 1909 sector claim on Melville Island is often described as a key moment in the evolution of Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago. Writers such as Yolande Dorion-Robitaille and Marjolaine Saint-Pierre have argued that Bernier was unfairly deprived of the credit he deserved for his sovereignty contributions. Alan MacEachern has recently stated in Polar Record that civil servants in the 1920s were to blame for this supposed unfair treatment. In particular, he sees Oswald Finnie of the Department of the Interior as a man who was determined at all costs to rewrite the historical record. This article contests MacEachern's depiction of Finnie and his colleagues, based on a range of primary source documents. It also emphasises the little-known but very significant role played by James White, who first placed the sector lines on an official map five years before Bernier's 1909 proclamation. The article thus clarifies the complicated relationship between White's 1904 map, Bernier's 1909 claim, an earlier sector claim made by Bernier in 1907, and the views on the sector theory held by influential members of the Canadian civil service at the time when an official sector claim was made by Ottawa in 1925.


Abstract Tritium behavior in the breeder/coolant plays a crucial role in keeping the tritium loss under an allowable limit and realizing high tritium recovery efficiency. In this paper, progress toward the development of a comprehensive 3D predictive capability is discussed and presented. The sequence of transport processes leading to tritium release includes diffusion and convection through the PbLi, transfer across the liquid/solid interface, diffusion of atomic tritium through the structure, and dissolution-recombination at the solid/gas interface. Numerical simulation of the coupled individual physics phenomena of tritium transport is performed for DCLL/HCLL type breeder blankets under realistic reactor-like conditions in this paper. Tritium concentration and permeation are presented and the MHD effects are evaluated. Preliminary results shows that the MHD velocity profile has the significant effect in preventing tritium permeation due to the higher convection effects near the wall.


Summary. Three putative ciliate fossils were described from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation in China: Eotintinnopsis, Wujiangella, and Yonyangella. The identity of these fossils is important for our understanding of the origins and early morphological evolution within ciliate clades. Here we compare the homology of the fossil characteristics with those in their proposed ciliate relatives. Eotintinnopsis resembles a tintinnid, but its feathery tentacle-like apical structure is probably not homologous within any known ciliate. Wujiangella presents homology issues with the size and distribution of its putative somatic cilia. Yonyangella appears to be a suctorian with its tentaclelike structures, but the presence and size of its putative somatic cilia pose homology issues. We suggest that these three fossils are likely to be taphonomically and diagenetically distorted and altered acritarchs. These alterations include secondary mineral encrustations on the interiors of vesicles, the crushing, folding and other distortions of the vesicles, the bending and crushing of the acritarch spines, and the preservation of organic material in and outside of the cysts. The earliest known ciliate fossil remains a tintinnid that occurs in the Ordovician of Kazakhstan.


The Encyclopedia of Farm Animal Nutrition deals with the whole of farm animal nutrition, embracing a wide range of disciplines, including physiology, biochemistry, veterinary medicine and feed technology. It covers every type of farm animal found in both developing and developed countries, including cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, goats, horses, fish, deer, buffaloes, rabbits and camelids, as well as ducks, turkeys, ostriches and other birds. The encyclopedia contains approximately 2000 entries from 90 contributors. These entries range from short definitions to more discursive articles, all entries are fully cross-referenced to aid further research. It represents an essential reference work for all working in animal nutrition, and for libraries in agriculture and veterinary science.


The few following notes may help to explain the maps on which I have sketched the leading features of the mineralogy of the Channel Islands. The specimens which I collected having been mislaid, I am unable to give a more particular description of the, stones which I have noticed.

These islands are situated in St. Michael's Bay, and from the general direction of the land, the form of the bottom, and the numerous rocks which are scattered around, may possibly have once been more intimately connected with the Coast of Normandy. Of this however any further evidence, arising from continuity or similarity of strata, is, for the present at least, inaccessible.

It will be seen that they are chiefly formed of granitic rocks. The Islands of Choze, which lie deeper in the Bay, are of similar formation, and I am informed that Mont St. Michel is also a mass of granite. Excepting this, I have not been able to obtain any information with regard to the Coasts of Normandy or Brittany, from the Islands of Brehat to La Hogue. But from the Seven Islands to l'Isle de Siecle, including Morlaix and Treguier, I have had opportunities of ascertaining that granite is the predominant rock; and more extensive observation may possibly prove, that a chain of granitic rock extends from Cape La Hogue to Ushant, a line parallel to that granitic chain, which rans in a WSW direction, from Dartmoor to the Scilly Islands. This is rendered further probable, from the


We report on two novel choice experiments with real goods where subjects in one treatment are forced to choose, as is the norm in economic experiments, while in the other they are not but can instead incur a small cost to defer choice. Using a variety of measures, we find that the active choices (i.e., those that exclude the deferral outside option) of subjects in the nonforced‐choice treatment are generally more consistent. We also find that the combined deferral and active‐choice behavior of subjects in that treatment is explained better by a model of dominant choice with incomplete preferences than it is by rational choice. Our results suggest that nonforced‐choice experiments and models can be helpful in separating people's rational, hesitant/not‐yet‐rational and genuinely irrational behavior, and can potentially offer important new insights in revealed preference analysis.


To be able to meet the growing demand for food and ensure food security, arable farming systems need to be made more sustainable. However, making arable farming systems more sustainable could sometimes mean reductions in the use of productivity improving inputs such as fertiliser and pesticide in order to reduce their impacts on the environment. This presents conflicting environmental and economic goals, which increase management complexities in sustainable arable farming systems. An arable farm level model, consisting of four modules, which combines mixed-integer, risk and goal-programming approaches, has been developed to capture many of the complexities in arable farming and optimise farm profit, risk and nitrate leaching. Statistical validation of the model using data from the Farm Business Survey (FBS) showed a good association between model-predicted results and observed farm data. Results of the application of the mixed-integer weighted goal-programming module to estimate aggregate cost of non-chemical (spring cropping) control of black-grass showed that in the short run the strategy could cost the UK arable farming sector, however there could be a long term benefit of reductions in black-grass infestation. On per hectare basis, cost estimates provide indication of possible farm payment to incentivise adoption of the strategy. On individual farm basis, spring cropping could be beneficial dependent on the soil type, rainfall and hectares of land available to the farm. The application of the MOTAD module and randomly generated risk-aversion parameter method showed that arable farmers in England are risk-averse and that farmers in different regions would react to change in policy differently depending on their levels of risk-aversion. The results also showed the need for regional policies and relevance of the model in policy analysis. The model, which has been developed as part of this research adds to the few arable farm level models identified in the UK and bridges model capability gaps identified in arable farm modelling. Given available data for calibration and validation, results generated by the model can be applied to better inform arable farming and policy decisions to enhance the development of robust and sustainable arable farming systems to ensure food security.


A growing number of individuals with special needs are discovering the benefits of therapies and activities involving horseback riding. Special Needs, Special Horses , by Naomi Scott, offers information about the amazing results possible with therapeutic riding, or hippotherapy. From recreational riding for individuals with disabilities, to the competitions some riders enter (and win), Scott describes the various techniques of the process and its benefits to the physically and mentally challenged. The book explores the roles of the instructors, physical therapists, volunteers, and the horses, and explains carriage driving, vaulting, and educational interactions with horses. Scott profiles individuals involved in the therapy, including clients whose special needs arose from intrauterine stroke, cerebral palsy, transverse myelitis, Parkinson's disease, paralysis, sensory integration dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, shaken baby syndrome, sensory damage, stroke, seizures, infantile spasms, Down syndrome, and autism. Special Needs, Special Horses is an excellent guide for the families of the many who do—or could—enjoy improved lives from therapeutic riding. It will also appeal to practitioners of therapeutic riding as an overview of their profession.


Delay games are two-player games of infinite duration in which one player may delay her moves to obtain a lookahead on her opponent's moves. For $\omega$-regular winning conditions it is known that such games can be solved in doubly-exponential time and that doubly-exponential lookahead is sufficient.
We improve upon both results by giving an exponential time algorithm and an exponential upper bound on the necessary lookahead. This is complemented by showing EXPTIME-hardness of the solution problem and tight exponential lower bounds on the lookahead. Both lower bounds already hold for safety conditions. Furthermore, solving delay games with reachability conditions is shown to be PSPACE-complete.
This is a corrected version of the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.3701v4 published originally on August 26, 2016.


ESSAYS ON BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS SEPTEMBER 2010 PHILIP PABLO MELLIZO, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Peter Skott and Professor Jeffrey Carpenter Overview Economists typically understand the firm as an organization comprised of a series of incomplete contracts among input suppliers (e.g. Coase, (1937), Williamson, (1985)). The ultimate right to make decisions that are not subject to a pre-existing contractual arrangement – hereafter referred to as decision-control rights, are assigned to some person or group associated with the enterprise. The entity with decision-control rights has the final say over how to organize essential firm operations that range from the determination of production techniques, to deciding how to monitor or compensate the firm's members. To 1 As an example, if management is held accountable by all of the laborers (or shareholders as the case vii the extent that firm members have competing interests or are asymmetrically affected by such decisions, those members with decision-control rights may be confronted with important normative issues regarding which firm objectives should be pursued. In my dissertation, I employ a behavioral economic perspective in order to examine how workplace governance practices interact with both the level of satisfaction and motivation of workers. In the first essay of the dissertation, I collected data from a real-effort experiment to compare changes in the performance of research participants that were subjected to an identical set of wage incentives that were either implemented (1) endogenously by the group to which subjects belong through a simple majority vote, (2) endogenously by only one member of the group who had all decision-control rights, or (3) a random process completely exogenous to the group. The 3 (3 distinct decision-control rights regimes) X 2 (2 distinct incentive contracts) between-subjects design allows for a clean comparison of performance under different decision-control rights treatments. I report evidence suggesting that the decision-control rights arrangement used to select the compensation contract can significantly influence the subsequent level of performance of research subjects. may be) in the firm insofar that they can override or replace management of the firm, then the decisioncontrol rights are ultimately held by labor and not the management. viii The second essay (co-authored with Michael Carr), analyzes the relative effects of voice, autonomy, and wages in explaining job satisfaction using subjective evaluations of work conditions and satisfaction recorded in the 2004 wave of the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS). We show that the amount of autonomy and voice that a worker has over the firm is an important omitted variable, biasing the estimated coefficient on the wage upwards. And, conditional upon having a job, voice and autonomy are considerably more important determinants of job satisfaction than the wage. The final essay offers a critique of the traditional economics of work organization in consideration of the literature developed in behavioral and experimental economics. I argue that many models of worker motivation developed using the rational choice model (RCM) carry the cost of ignoring common sentiments and behaviors that have been systematically demonstrated in experimental studies. After providing an extensive review of the experimental economics literature as it may inform various workplace organizational faculties, I conclude that the literature suggests that establishment of work teams and incentive schemes that reward teams for collective success would carry the expectation of sustained satisfaction and productivity of workers more than firm environments that rely on employee competition as a motivational device.


The most common route of the drug administration is oral route despite the fact that most drugs have low oral aqueous solubility and bioavailability especially for BCS class II and class IV drugs. Many methods have been developed in recent years to overcome the poor solubility and oral bioavailability which includes self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDS) as one of the approaches. Not only for hydrophobic drugs, but also for hydrophilic compounds with low permeability, bioavailability can be enhanced by self nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems. Recently, a lot of focus and attention has been put in the conversion of liquid SEDDS (L-SEDDS) to solid SEDDS (S-SEDDS) to overcome the limitations of liquid formulations related to their physical and chemical stability, portability, accurate dosing, and limited choices of dosage forms. This article aims to review the formulation components used in SEDDS, various approaches used in the conversion of L-SEDDS to S-SEDDS, their applications, merits, and demerits.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of better compliance with corporate governance regulation on managerial accruals (discretionary accruals) in New Zealand listed companies. Unlike previous research of earnings management, Jones model ( Jones 1991), Modified Jones model (Dechow, Sloan, & Sweeney, 1995) and Performance Matched Accruals Model (Kothari, Leone, & Wasley, 2005) this research focuses on free cash flow as a measure of discretionary accruals instead of cash flow from operating activities. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis was done on 70 New Zealand listed firms over the period of 2000 2007 (inclusive). Results found that better compliance with corporate governance reduces discretionary accruals implying lower managerial opportunistic behaviour. Consistent with existing theories and models of discretionary accruals, this research documents that free cash flow increase managerial discretion by comparing with commonly used accruals model such as Jones Model, Modified Jones Model and Performance Matched Accruals Model. This study provides insights to regulators in developing corporate governance and financial reporting guidelines. It suggests that 'Comply or Explain' form of soft regulation reduces managerial discretion with stock exchange listing. This research uses a comparative analysis of traditional discretionary accrual measure with free cash flow approach of discretionary accruals. Moreover, an integration approach of discretionary accrual measure was never done in New Zealand.


After moving to Yang Xunqiao Town, Shaoxing County in Zhejiang Province, Peng Qiugen found himself in this position. Living in a four storey block in the burgeoning city and with no access to land, he felt that his green fingered days were over. Much of the new housing in China is of a sturdy reinforced concrete construction, and once Mr. Peng had realised that his building had a sturdy flat roof, he made plans for his 120m2 rooftop farm.


The development of an accurate chronology for the Vostok record continues to be an open research question because these invaluable ice cores cannot be dated directly. Depth-to-age relationships have been developed using many different approaches, but published age estimates are inconsistent, even for major paleoclimatic events. We have developed a chronology for the Vostok deuterium paleotemperature record using a simple and objective algorithm to transfer ages of major paleoclimatic events from the radiometrically dated 500,000-year δ18O-paleotemperature record from Devils Hole, Nevada. The method is based only on a strong inference that major shifts in paleotemperature recorded at both locations occurred synchronously, consistent with an atmospheric teleconnection. The derived depth-to-age relationship conforms with the physics of ice compaction, and internally produces ages for climatic events 5.4 and 11.24 which are consistent with the externally assigned ages that the Vostok team needed to assume in order to derive their most recent chronology, GT4. Indeed, the resulting V-DH chronology is highly correlated with GT4 because of the unexpected correspondence even in the timing of second-order climatic events that were not constrained by the algorithm. Furthermore, the algorithm developed herein is not specific to this problem; rather, the procedure can be used whenever two paleoclimate records are proxies for the same physical phenomenon, and paleoclimatic conditions forcing the two records can be considered to have occurred contemporaneously. The ability of the algorithm to date the East Antarctic Dome Fuji core is also demonstrated.


Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) often are found in large aggregations offshore from the eastern coast of New Zealand. They are the primary target of at least six marine mammal tourism operations from Whakatane to the Hauraki Gulf. This report details the first longterm investigation of interactions between tourists and common dolphins. During a 3-y study offshore from Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula, 105 focal group follows, totaling 118 h of observations were conducted from a 5.5-m, rigid-hull inflatable boat. Seventy-two of these observations were conducted in the absence of the tour boat (baseline), and 33 with the tour boat. Baseline data were compared with "tour boat" data to assess changes in dolphin behaviour resulting from the tour boat approaching and swimmers entering the water to snorkel with the dolphins. Common dolphins responded with a relatively predictable pattern to approaching boats. Initial attraction (mean duration 8 min) typically was followed by neutral behaviour (mean duration 57 min) and eventually replaced by boat avoidance. Smaller dolphin groups showed boat avoidance sooner and more frequently than larger groups. When swimmers entered the water, dolphins only spent an average of 2 min in their vicinity. Throughout encounters, they maintained a distance of at least 3 m from the nearest swimmer. During half of the attempted swims, dolphins did not change their course or their activity in response to swimmers. Swimmers had a better chance of a sustained interaction when the group of dolphins was large (> 50 individuals) and/or the number of swimmers in the water was small (< 5). The results of this study suggested that common dolphins can be affected by tourism; however, adherence to New Zealand's Marine Mammals Protection Regulations and the current low level of tourism appear to minimise the impact on this species.


Experiences of profound existential or spiritual significance can be triggered reliably through psychopharmacological means using psychedelic substances. However, little is known about the benefits of religious, spiritual, or mystical experiences (RSMEs) prompted by psychedelic substances, as compared with those that occur through other means. In this study, 739 self-selected participants reported the psychological impact of their RSMEs and indicated whether they were induced by a psychedelic substance. Experiences induced by psychedelic substances were rated as more intensely mystical (d = .75, p < .001), resulted in a reduced fear of death (d = .21, p < .01), increased sense of purpose (d = .18, p < .05), and increased spirituality (d = .28, p < .001) as compared with nonpsychedelically triggered RSMEs. These results remained significant in an expanded model controlling for gender, education, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation. These findings lend support to the growing consensus that RSMEs induced with psychedelic substances are genuinely mystical and generally positive in outcome.


Aims: Differences in wine flavour proceed primarily from grape quality. Environmental factors (climate, soil), cultivars and training systems modify many grape and wine quality traits. Metabolic profiling based on proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectra has been proved to be useful to study multifactorial effects of the vine environment on intricate grape quality traits. The capacity of this method to discriminate the environmental effects on wine has to be demonstrated.Methods and results: : 1H-NMR spectra were made from wines produced with grapes harvested at maturity of three cultivars (Cabernet-Sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot) and three soil types (gravely, sandy and clayey) during two vintages (2002 and 2003). Data were analysed by multivariate statistical methods. Principal component analysis applied on the NMR spectra data were not always able to separate satisfactorily wines from the 3 soil types. Conversely, partial least square analysis separated clearly the 3 soil types independently of the vintage and cultivar.Conclusion: By comparing the NMR signals that contribute to the two first axes of the PCA and PLS analyses, a significant soil effect on NMR signals in wines is reported. However, the effect of the vintage on wine composition was greater then the effect of the soil type.Significance and impact of study: After validation on a larger number of wine samples this chemical profiling will be a useful new method to the qualify wines in relation to climate, soil, and cultivar effects which contribute to the terroir.


Against a backdrop of only 337 black chartered accountants in a total of approximately 20 000 in South Africa in 2003, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) is reviewing its current transformation targets for 2005. Information was required to review the obstacles that black trainees in general and accountants in particular experience en route to qualifying. Accounting as a career was investigated from a theoretical point of view. A questionnaire was designed, which focused mainly on problems and barriers in respect of career guidance; funding and bursaries; role models in the profession; knowledge of the profession; and exposure to business. The questionnaire was distributed to all 755 black trainee accountants that were registered with SAICA. A total of 313 questionnaires were returned, representing a response rate of 41,45%. A lack of knowledge about the chartered accountancy profession and careers related to the profession was identified as one of the main reasons for the small number of blacks in the profession. Career guidance at school was stated as the main contributing factor in this regard. A lack of funding and of bursaries was stated as the second most important reason why students do not choose a career in accounting. Other important barriers identified include the limited nature of the work given to trainee accountants to do and the resulting limited work experience that they gain; a lack of black mentors in firms; racial bias on the part of supervisors; and a lack of recognition of and respect for the work completed. Black trainee accountants suggest that academic support programmes should be introduced to assist them to prepare for examinations, a forum should be established for students of Accounting in which they can interact with accounting professionals through workshops; a network group of professional black mentors in the business sector should be formed; and the advancement and retention of black members within the profession should be encouraged. Awareness programmes should be accorded a high priority in the short term.


Robert Johnson's story presents a fascinating paradox: Why did this genius of the Delta blues excite so little interest when his records were first released in the 1930s? And how did this brilliant but obscure musician come to be hailed long after his death as the most important artist in early blues and a founding father of rock 'n' roll? Elijah Wald provides the first thorough examination of Johnson's work and makes it the centerpiece for a fresh look at the entire history of the blues. He traces the music's rural folk roots but focuses on its evolution as a hot, hip African-American pop style, placing the great blues stars in their proper place as innovative popular artists during one of the most exciting periods in American music. He then goes on to explore how the image of the blues was reshaped by a world of generally white fans, with very different standards and dreams. The result is a view of the blues from the inside, based not only on recordings but also on the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, and original research. Wald presents previously unpublished studies of what people on Delta plantations were actually listening to during the blues era, showing the larger world in which Johnson's music was conceived. What emerges is a new respect and appreciation for the creators of what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music. Wald also discusses how later fans formed a new view of the blues as haunting Delta folklore. While trying to separate fantasy from reality, he accepts that neither the simple history nor the romantic legend is the whole story. Each has its own fascinating history, and it is these twin histories that inform this book.


Usually, in the Black-Scholes pricing theory the volatility is a positive real parameter. Here we explore what happens if it is allowed to be a complex number. The function for pricing a European option with a complex volatility has essential singularities at zero and infinity. The singularity at zero reflects the put-call parity. Solving for the implied volatility that reproduces a given market price yields not only a real root, but also infinitely many complex roots in a neighbourhood of the origin. The Newton-Raphson calculation of the complex implied volatility has a chaotic nature described by fractals.


IMPORTANCE
Melanoma has a high survival rate if it is detected early. Training patients with early-stage melanoma who are at risk of developing new melanomas to perform skin self-examination (SSE) may improve survival.

OBJECTIVE
To examine for whom the intervention works best in a sample composed of dyads of patients with melanoma and skin-check partners who received an SSE intervention vs customary care.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
For 494 patients with stage 0 to IIB melanoma (mean age, 55 years; 253 [51.2%] females) and their skin-check partners (mean age, 55 years; 280 [56.7%] females), a randomized clinical trial was conducted in ambulatory care dermatologic offices from June 6, 2011, to April 14, 2014. Follow-up assessments were performed at 12 months. Analysis was performed between March 23 and June 25, 2015.

METHODS
Dyads of 494 patients and their partners were randomly assigned to receive the intervention (395 patients) or customary care (control) (99 patients). The main outcome was patient SSE self-efficacy. Partner motivation to assist with SSE and relationship quality (eg, agreeability, activities with partner, and happiness) were assessed for moderation of the influence of the intervention's effect on SSE self-efficacy.

RESULTS
Relationship quality, defined by activities with the partner (β = -0.892, SE = 0.432, t = -2.066; P = .001) and happiness (β = -4.586, SE = 2.044, t = -2.24; P = .001), significantly moderated the intervention effects on patients' SSE self-efficacy. In contrast, patient-partner agreeability (β = -0.262, SE = 0.148, t = -1.773; P = .09) and partner motivation (β = -0.328, SE = 1.024, t = -0.320; P = .10) did not significantly moderate the intervention effects on patients' SSE self-efficacy. Differences between the conditions were highest when activities performed with the partner were below average (mean difference, 6.652; P = .001) and when happiness was below average (mean difference, 7.000; P = .001). Although everyone receiving the intervention experienced some benefit, the findings indicate the greatest increases in self-efficacy were observed for those with below-average activities performed with the partner and happiness.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
The training of patients with melanoma and their partners in early-detection SSE benefited some more than others. Pairs who have low relationship quality, as determined by activities performed with the partner and happiness, may have received the greatest benefits from the training intervention because they were given an activity to perform together.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01432860.


By describing how consumers are qualified and mobilised in advertising agencies, this paper aims to contribute to this increasing body of literature that explores ordinary marketing and advertising practices, knowledge and devices. This is done by unpacking and analysing a particular aspect of routine advertising work, which is the production and circulation of insights about consumers in advertising agencies. We argue that producing insight involves performing a particular type of qualification of the consumer that relates to two specific processes. Firstly, we describe these practices in terms of an a extensive process of mediation that involves the deployment of progressive definitions of products and consumers that pass by different actors in the agency and through which production and consumption are connected in the very local and specific space of the advertising agency. Secondly, we argue that this process of mediation goes together with a process of 'purification' that involves performing a specific version of the consumer aligned with creative advertising work. Furthermore, we describe how this process involves considering some specific consumer qualities and descriptions (mostly interpretations about possible connections between goods and consumers) and leaving others asides. We identify this last operation as a particular type of cultural calculation. This argument is empirically supported by evidence collected from 40 interviews with advertising professionals and ethnographic fieldwork carried out at eight advertising agencies based in Santiago, Chile.


Criminal punishment is systematically harsher, given a fixed crime, where victims are vulnerable or innocent, and systematically less harsh where victims are powerful or culpable. We make a distinction between one gangster attacking another and a gangster attacking a bystander (though the assaults might be formally identical), or between selling drugs to an adult and selling them to a child (though the penal code might treat the two as the same). Yet this pattern in blame and punishment has been overlooked. Criminal scholarship and moral philosophy have offered no theory by which to explain it. And, lacking a theory, the pattern itself has been missed or misunderstood empirically. This Article sets forth the concept of "victimization" — the idea that the moral status of a wrongful act turns in part on the degree to which the wrong's victim is vulnerable or innocent and the wrongdoer preys upon that vulnerability or innocence. It shows the concept to be implicit in both the doctrine and practice of criminal law. And it argues normatively that victimization is at the same time essential to criminal justice and peculiarly prone to illiberal distortions, and should therefore be at once preserved and constrained. A concluding section reflects methodologically on the paper's approach to moral philosophy in law — an approach in which the law is not just a tool with which to implement the conclusions of an extralegal philosophical inquiry, but an object of study with a certain immanent moral content already in place, which philosophy can help bring to light and expose to question.


Long-distance migrants often arrive on their breeding grounds with large fat stores . Two expl anations for this phenomenon are (1) that large fat stores at arrival are needed to speed up the breeding schedule and to counteract possible time constraints, and (2) that they are used as insurance against adverse weather conditions during the days after arrival . We compared body condition (fat stores, breast muscle volume, body mass) and reproductive state (cloac al protuberance) at spring arrival of two Garden Warbler 1~ 1 Sylvia borin populations li ving at different altitudes (200 in asl versus 1500 in asl) under completely different climatic conditions . Newly arrived indi` vidual s (predomin antly males) of the lowl and population carry slightly smaller fat stores at spring arrival th an their mountain conspecifics . Fur~~,' thermore, lowland males return with smal ler fat stores than lowland females whereas in the mountains no sex differences seem to exist . For lowland ~ 1 1J females, which initiate reproductive activities soon after arrival , the fat stores are most likely used to boost these activities. For the mountain birds, the 1 ~ fat stores are presumably used as an insurance against adverse weather con~ ~ ditions upon arriv al. According to the different physiologic al demands of endurance flight and reproduction, newly arrived birds show rapid changes in their body stores . Individual s recaptured during the transition phase from arrival to reproduction show a significan t decrease of their fat stores within a few days, accompanied by shrinkage of the breast muscle. At the same time, the cloac al protuberance of males grows rapidly and females increase their body mass .


Cardiovascular diseases causing high morbidity and mortality represent a major socioeconomic burden. The primary cause of impaired heart function is often the loss of cardiomyocytes. Thus, novel therapies aim at restoring the lost myocardial tissue. One promising approach is cardiac tissue engineering. Previously, it is shown that Antheraea mylitta silk protein fibroin is a suitable material for cardiac tissue engineering, however, its quality is difficult to control. To overcome this limitation, the interaction of primary rat heart cells with engineered Araneus diadematus fibroin 4 (κ16) (eADF4(κ16)) is investigated here, which is engineered based on the sequence of ADF4 by replacing the glutamic acid residue in the repetitive unit of its core domain with lysine. The data demonstrate that cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells attach well to eADF4(κ16) films on glass coverslips which provide an engineered surface with a polycationic character. Moreover, eADF4(κ16) films have, in contrast to fibronectin films, no hypertrophic effect but allow the induction of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Finally, cardiomyocytes grown on eADF4(κ16) films respond to pro‐proliferative factors and exhibit proper cell‐to‐cell communication and electric coupling. Collectively, these data demonstrate that designed recombinant eADF4(κ16)‐based materials are promising materials for cardiac tissue engineering.


Over the past decade, several data mining techniques have come into use within a variety of data intensive fields. Mining transaction data to discover interesting patterns or help forecast future rare events based upon historical records is of key interest. Among the classic problems facing any supply chain is that of determining how much of a given item to keep on the shelf of a warehouse or a store, and at what level to initiate replenishment of this supply. This problem has been well examined and extensively researched. However, applying current data mining techniques to support the determination of effective inventory stock levels and economic re-order points has yet to be explored. In this paper, Naive Bayes, Bayes Network, SVM, MLP, Logistic, and J48 decision tree data mining techniques are compared with respect to their effectiveness when tasked with predicting stock shortage conditions indicated by the reduced transaction history of a bench stock inventory. These comparisons have been made using training and test data sets drawn from a set of 1.8 million transactions. Each method is applied to the same set of transaction data that spans three years of bench stock inventory activity. This set of transactions contains orders, receipts, stock outages, and stock shortages but it does not include issue transactions from the inventory. Since the time of issue or removal of the item from the inventory is not known, determining the expected demand becomes very difficult. The effectiveness of the data mining predictive capability is measured with respect to the accuracy of the prediction and the lead-time provided to the inventory planner for the given prediction. The results show similar performance among most of the data mining algorithms using "actual event" prediction evaluation criteria.


I have received letters from Mr D. M. Milne and Dr P. F. Worthington pointing out an error in the application of the analytical methods in this paper, (published in 1977 in Q. Jl Engng Geol. 12, 125–143). I would therefore like to take this opportunity to clarify the matter. The source of the error lies in the use of mixed time-units in the evaluation of the storage coefficient S. Time is given in minutes while the discharge rates are given in m3/day throughout the paper. These units, if applied consistently throughout an analysis, will give correct values for the various well-loss equations and the aquifer transmissivity. The value of the storage coefficient, however, will be 1440 times too great. The storage coefficient is obtained (p. 139) by the evaluation of the equation: The discharge rates used in obtaining a and T in this equation are expressed in m3/day. However, a is derived through Figs. 4 and 5 using the specific drawdown at unit time, t = 1 minute, in order to remove the expression (b log t) from (a + b log t) (p. 132). The units in this equation above have to be made consis- tent with this derivation and the equation therefore becomes: where 1440 = number of minutes in one day. This procedure was carried out in the original paper in order to get the storage coefficient in Table 2 but was not adequately explained in the text. It is possible to remove the source of


We present a method for multiplexed hyperspectral imaging of scenes which partly change during observation. New multiplexing codes, redundant measurement strategies and reconstruction algorithms will be discussed. The method delivers spectrally resolved information of the fixed background and separately of changing parts of the scene at different times during observation.


Background. Prior population-based twin studies from two Anglophonic countries with relatively high rates of drug use – the USA and Australia – suggest that genetic factors contribute substantially to individual differences in the use, abuse and dependence of illicit psychoactive substances. Would these results replicate in Norway, a Nordic country with a low prevalence of illicit drug use? Method. Lifetime use, abuse and dependence of five illicit drug categories (cannabis, stimulants, opiates, cocaine and psychedelics) were assessed at personal interview in 1386 complete young adult twin pairs ascertained from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Twin Panel. Twin model fitting was performed using the Mx statistical package on three phenotypes: any lifetime use, endorsement of at least one DSM-IV symptom of abuse or dependence, and meeting DSM-IV criteria for abuse or dependence. Results. Significant lifetime use of illicit substances (defined as use 10 or more times) was reported by only 6·4% of the sample. Meaningful analyses were possible for use of any substance and each of the five substances individually, but for symptoms or a diagnosis of abuse/dependence meaningful analyses were possible only for any substance and cannabis. Full twin models uniformly found twin resemblance to be due largely or entirely to genetic factors. Best-fit models for all analyses included only genetic and individual-specific environmental effects with heritability estimates ranging from 58% to 81%. Conclusion. In accord with prior results from the USA and Australia, genetic factors appear to play an important role in the etiology of use and abuse/dependence of illicit drugs in Norway.


In Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board the Supreme Court invalidated Congress's decision to protect members of the Board from at will removal by the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose members in turn are protected from at will removal at the hands of the President. In the Court's view, the congressional structure - in particular, the double layer of tenure insulation - undermined the Article II imperative that all exercises of significant executive authority be subject to strong supervision by the President. The Court's insistence in Free Enterprise Fund on formal presidential control over an inferior executive branch entity should cast grave doubt on the constitutionality of comparable congressional delegations outside the executive branch. Should Congress delegate to a private or state entity, no removal is likely possible, let alone the removal for cause found insufficient in Free Exercise Fund. Had Congress delegated the same financial oversight duties scrutinized in Free Exercise Fund to a commission comprised of the heads of Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young, the President's removal authority would be further eroded, as would be the case if Congress had delegated that authority to a commission of state secretaries of the treasury. The recent Supreme Court decision therefore may toll congressional experimentation to vest executive authority in private and state hands.I first argue that Free Enterprise Fund should cabin congressional delegations of significant authority to private parties, whether to self-regulatory organizations or private experts. Such delegations deprive the President of the ability to superintend implementation of the law. I conclude, however, that a similar delegation to a state entity should survive the Free Enterprise Fund analysis. Although the same concern for executive branch control exists, our structure of federalism presupposes that the federal government can share power with the states. The fear of congressional aggrandizement is much reduced when Congress delegates to state as opposed to private entities. Accordingly, the essay concludes that Free Enterprise Fund should bar delegations of significant authority to private individuals and groups but leave untouched most congressional efforts to share power with state governmental entities.


This thesis examines the role of reflection in Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) practice, with particular reference to becoming aware of the role of taken-for-granted assumptions. It is grounded in the literature concerning taken-for-granted assumptions, personal knowledge and reflection in the context of professional practice.
It is a qualitative study evolving through three iterative cycles, with an additional 'pre-cycle' exploring the origins of the research in the researcher's own experience as an IAG professional working with ethnic minority women.
The first main research cycle explored, in dialogue with a co-researcher, how we became aware of our own taken-for-granted assumptions. Subsequent cycles extend the data to responses from practitioners less close to me.
Using the concept of researcher-as-bricoleur, a range of methodologies were employed. In the pre-cycle and first research cycle an auto-ethnograpahic approach captures the researcher's voice and that of a co-researcher. In later cycles a heuristic approach enabled the researcher to focus on the self and engage with her own and other practitioners' experiences of taken-for-granted assumptions. These cycles explored, through written capture sheets, conversational interviews and email exchanges, IAG practitioners' understanding of and engagement with reflection and reflective practice.
The research demonstrated different types and interpretations of reflection and reflective practice. Although practitioners described themselves as reflective and used self-reflection, this was insufficient to unearth taken-for-granted assumptions. The research ascertained that assumptions regarding whiteness were difficult to unearth, and were rarely acknowledged openly. Even less frequent was the sharing of unearthed assumptions with others.
The research revealed that reflective practice has itself become taken-for-granted and does not achieve what it advocates. The need to coach and nurture the skill of reflective practice is emphasised, with one of the data analysis tools – the 'I Poem' – proposed as a reflective tool for enhancing self awareness and assisting practitioners to examine their reflective journals and reveal their taken-for-granted voice.


British history as we know it is a cluttered patchwork of questionable stories which have been re-written, re-evaluated and ridiculed, and yet there is still an unquestioned narrative thread which runs through the nation's historical record, accepted as fact. But final editorial control has always belonged to the winners. And nobody likes winners..."The True History of the Black Adder" is the very first in-depth examination of the creation of a British institution like no other - arguably the greatest sitcom of all time - not to mention the first historical investigation into the lives of the Blackadder family, one of the nation's most villified dynasties. Using existing archive footage and rare literature, plus new revelations from personal interviews with the makers including John Lloyd, Tony Robinson, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed; Rowan Atkinson and many more, J. F. Roberts relates the full scope of the tale of how the 70s alumni of three great universities - Oxford, Cambridge and not Hull, but Manchester - discovered a unique chemistry that would see them build a timeless comic masterpiece. At last Blackadder enthusiasts can now uncover the cunning plan, in all its hideous hilarity.


SYNTHESIS AND MODIFICATION OF NANOPARTICLES FOR SURFACE NANOSTRUCTURATION OF POLYMERIC MEMBRANES Iran David Charry Prada The objectives of this work are (i) to prepare silver and TiO2 nanoparticles functionalized with polymers or alkoxysilanes as capping agents with specific control of morphology, size, and chemical reactivity and (ii) their attachment to the surface and pore wall of ultrafiltration membranes. These particles are interesting due to their known antibacterial, anti-biofouling efficiency, besides the photocatytic activity exhibited by TiO2. The first chapter focuses on the synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles. Their performance depends on the shape, size and other colloidal characteristics. A complete analysis of the effect of the stabilizer and pH conditions on particle size and shape was conducted by using polyethyleneimine and polyvinylpyrrolidone. Opposite trends and different morphologies were observed for both stabilizers. The second chapter describes the surface attachment of TiO2 nanoparticles onto polyetherimide ultrafiltration membrane with pore size around 134nm by using organoalkylsilanes. Excellent hydrophilicity (contact angle 39  2) and high and thermal stability (260C) was achieved. Particles and membranes samples were characterized by microscopy, chemical and surface analysis.


Arabinoxylans (AXs) are major components of non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs). Recently, AXs have attracted a great deal of attention, because of their possible antitumor and immunomodulation activities. These activities have been suggested to be related to the content of low molecular weight (Mw) AXs, in particular those with a Mw below 32 kDa.
Rice bran and wheat pentosan are rich sources of AXs. However, extraction of AXs is difficult and often gives low yield. Various methods have been used to increase the extraction yield of AXs with varying degrees of success, such as alkaline hydrolysis and enzymatic treatment. However, some of these treatments have been reported to be either expensive or produce hazardous wastes and non-environmentally friendly. Extrusion processing has been used to increase the solubility of cereal dietary fibre, however, these studies used alkaline or enzyme treatments with the extrusion to maximise the extraction yield.
The use of extrusion alone as a pre-treatment method to increase the extraction yield and reduce the molecular weight (Mw) of AXs from rice bran or wheat endosperm pentosan has not been investigated. Hence, the current study aimed to determine if extrusion alone could change the extraction yield and Mw of the AXs. Wheat endosperm pentosan and rice bran were extruded with a twin-screw extruder at screw speeds of 80 and 160 revolutions per minute (rpm). It was found that the extraction yield of AXs increased with an increase in screw speed and was accompanied by a decrease in the Mw of the AXs.
In vitro studies using immunoassays to measure proinflammatory markers showed that AXs from extruded rice bran and wheat pentosan significantly (P<0.05) increased nitric oxide (NO) and tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) production from both U937 monocytes and macrophages in a concentration-dependent manner at (50, 500 and 1000 μg/ml), respectively. Moreover, the immunomodulatory activity of AXs was associated with the very low Mw of AXs. Moreover, inhibition of toll like receptor 4 (TLR4), which is known to be the receptor for bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS), significantly inhibited the AXs-induced increase in NO and TNFα production in both U937 monocytes and macrophages (P<0.05), suggesting the actions of AXs may be mediated at least in part through TLR4.
The findings of this study indicate that AXs may compete with LPS for the same receptor TLR4, resulting in decreasing the inflammatory response that LPS produces during the infection. Thus AXs can produce a non-detrimental moderate increase in the inflammatory response.


The purpose of this study is to examine the cost recovery impact on national budget (APBN) and state shared fund (DBH).The analysis of this research unit is on upstream of oil and gas industry which is managed by the Indonesian government with Production Sharing Contract for 44 companies.The population of this research comprises operators of Production Sharing Contract and the body of government that manages oil & gas or that is called "SKKMIGAS" consisting of 62 managers, 51 professionals, and 18 researchers from a university.This study uses secondary data obtained from "SKKMIGAS" documents for the year 1984 to 2014.The results of this research indicate the variable which has big impact on state shared fund is cost recovery, and the variable which does not have any impact on national budget is cost recovery.


Legal education typically treats substance and form as unrelated entities -- the same pedagogical structure and tools are used regardless of the nature of the course. This Essay attempts to align the way we teach civil rights law with the nature of the subject matter by exploring three central conflicts that touch on both substance and form: the battle between coercion and freedom, the battle between public and private, and the battle between law and love. It argues that while the form of legal education polarizes each of these divides, the substance of civil rights law takes a more ambiguous position, creating a wide disconnect between the subject matter of civil rights courses and the structure of the typical law school classroom.


The experiments undertaken in order to understand the variables which affect the adsorption characteristics of the dye-carbon system represented the major experimental part of the investigation. The disperse dyes and activated carbon were studied with and without the auxiliary chemicals normally present in a dye effluent such as surfactants, alkaline salts, acids, and bases. To gain some understanding of the dye-carbon adsorption system, six experimental areas were investigated. These were: The effects of concentration, the effects of pH, the effects of nonionic surfactants, the effects of anionic surfactants, the effects of alkaline salts, and the effects of an alkaline salt in the presence of a nonionic surfactant. Three different classes of disperse dye were chosen for these experiments: Disperse Yellow 54, a quinonapthalone type used for batch dyeing polyester and polyester blends, Disperse Red 73, a monazo type commonly used in thermosol dyeing of polyester fabrics, and Disperse Blue 7, an anthraquinone type widely accepted by the carpet industry for dyeing nylon carpets. The powdered activated carbon used in this study was Hydrodarco C, a lignite type developed specifically for water treatment by ICI Incorporated, Wilmington, Delaware.


The paper reviews critical processes for the land-sea fluxes of biogenic elements (C, N, P, Si) in the Baltic Sea catchment and discusses possible future scenarios as a consequence of improved sewage treatment, agricultural practices and increased hydropower demand (for N, P and Si) and of global warming, i.e., changes in hydrological patterns (for C). These most significant drivers will not only change the total amount of nutrient inputs and fluxes of organic and inorganic forms of carbon to the Baltic Sea, their ratio (C:N:P:Si) will alter as well with consequences for phytoplankton species composition in the Baltic Sea. In summary, we propose that N fluxes may increase due to higher livestock densities in those countries recently acceded to the EU, whereas P and Si fluxes may decrease due to an improved sewage treatment in these new EU member states and with further damming and still eutrophic states of many lakes in the entire Baltic Sea catchment. This might eventually decrease cyanobacteria blooms in the Baltic but increase the potential for other nuisance blooms. Dinoflagellates could eventually substitute diatoms that even today grow below their optimal growth conditions due to low Si concentrations in some regions of the Baltic Sea. C fluxes will probably increase from the boreal part of the Baltic Sea catchment due to the expected higher temperatures and heavier rainfall. However, it is not clear whether dissolved organic carbon and alkalinity, which have opposite feedbacks to global warming, will increase in similar amounts, because the spring flow peak will be smoothed out in time due to higher temperatures that cause less snow cover and deeper soil infiltration.


Centrally released oxytocin (OT) is believed to attenuate stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis as well as being anxiolytic. Therefore, it is expected that OT deficient (OT-/-) mice that do not synthesize or release OT centrally or peripherally will display enhanced HPA axis activation, as well as increased anxiety-related behavior compared to wildtype (OT+/+) mice. To test this hypothesis, OT-/- mice were exposed to shaker stress, (psychogenic stressor), cholecystokinin- (CCK) administration (physical stressor), or the elevated plus maze (EPM), a behavioral test of anxiety. Female OT-/- mice released more corticosterone than OT+/+ mice in response to shaker stress. Shaker stress exposure activated Fos in OT neurons of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) of male and female OT+/+ mice and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) within the PVN of male and female mice of both genotypes. In addition, shaker stress exposure revealed that Fos expression in the medial nucleus of the amygdala (MeA) was lower in female OT-/- than OT+/+ mice. Genotypic differences in corticosterone release and Fos activation of the MeA in response to shaker stress exposure were not observed in male mice. Furthermore, similar genotypic (and/or sex) differences were not revealed in response to CCK-administration. OT is also anxiolytic in female mice. Female OT-/- mice tested in the EPM displayed increased anxiety-related behavior compared to OT+/+ mice. In response to EPM exposure Fos expression in the MeA was greater in female OT-/- mice than OT+/+ mice. Surprisingly, male OT-/- mice tested in the EPM displayed decreased anxiety-related behavior compared to OT+/+ mice, but did not display genotypic differences in the Fos expression within the MeA. The results of this thesis suggest that OT is anxiolytic and attenuates HPA activation in female, but not male mice. Furthermore, it appears that OT plays a modulatory role in the processing of psychogenic stressors, but may not be involved in the processing of physical or systemic stressors. More specifically, it is possible that OT plays a role in behavioral and physiological responses that depend upon neuronal processing within the MeA.


Objectives: Hesitance and resistance to COVID-19 vaccination poses a serious challenge to achieving adequate vaccine uptake in the general population. Cross-sectional data from the early months of the pandemic indicates that approximately one-third of adults in multiple nations are hesitant or resistant to a vaccine for COVID-19. Using longitudinal data, we tracked changes in attitudes to COVID-19 vaccination during the pandemic.Study Design: A quantitative, longitudinal design.Method: Nationally representative samples of the adult general population of the Republic of Ireland (N = 1,041) and the United Kingdom (N = 2,025) were assessed for their attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination at three points from March to August 2020.Results: Statistically significant increases in resistance to COVID-19 vaccination were observed in Irish (from 9.5% to 18.1%) and British (6.2% to 10%) adults. Conclusion: Resistance to vaccination has significantly increased in two European nations as the pandemic has progressed. Growing resistance to COVID-19 vaccination will pose a challenge to public health officials responsible for ensuring sufficient vaccine coverage.


Abstract. The scientific initiative Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB) (2003–2012 by the IAHS) put considerable effort into improving the reliability of hydrological models to predict flow response in ungauged rivers. PUB's collective experience advanced hydrologic science and defined guidelines to make predictions in catchments without observed runoff data. At present, there is a raised interest in applying catchment models to large domains and large data samples in a multi-basin manner, to explore emerging spatial patterns or learn from comparative hydrology. However, such modelling involves additional sources of uncertainties caused by the inconsistency between input data sets, i.e. particularly regional and global databases. This may lead to inaccurate model parameterisation and erroneous process understanding. In order to bridge the gap between the best practices for flow predictions in single catchments and multi-basins at the large scale, we present a further developed and slightly modified version of the recommended best practices for PUB by Takeuchi et al. (2013). By using examples from a recent HYPE (Hydrological Predictions for the Environment) hydrological model set-up across 6000 subbasins for the Indian subcontinent, named India-HYPE v1.0, we explore the PUB recommendations, identify challenges and recommend ways to overcome them. We describe the work process related to (a) errors and inconsistencies in global databases, unknown human impacts, and poor data quality; (b) robust approaches to identify model parameters using a stepwise calibration approach, remote sensing data, expert knowledge, and catchment similarities; and (c) evaluation based on flow signatures and performance metrics, using both multiple criteria and multiple variables, and independent gauges for "blind tests". The results show that despite the strong physiographical gradient over the subcontinent, a single model can describe the spatial variability in dominant hydrological processes at the catchment scale. In addition, spatial model deficiencies are used to identify potential improvements of the model concept. Eventually, through simultaneous calibration using numerous gauges, the median Kling–Gupta efficiency for river flow increased from 0.14 to 0.64. We finally demonstrate the potential of multi-basin modelling for comparative hydrology using PUB, by grouping the 6000 subbasins based on similarities in flow signatures to gain insights into the spatial patterns of flow generating processes at the large scale.


Railway ballast consists of crushed aggregate and serves as foundation and drainage for railway tracks. Over time, ballast loses its geotechnical properties and cannot be reused within the rail industry but can be sold on to other users to be utilized as a recycled engineering fill. However, it is often contaminated with diesel, grease, lubricating oils, and other deposits from locomotives and carriages. Its reuse generally involves cleaning at a specialist plant. Such contamination may also be removed from geotechnically sound ballast returned to the track where the appearance of dirty ballast is considered unsightly, e.g. in railway stations, and a potential health hazard. Cleaning of the ballast generally involves the use of solvent or surfactant cleaning agents, each with different efficiencies and potential environmental impacts. In this study, the efficiency of three cleaning agents, two terpene-based organic solvents and a surfactant-based system were tested on heavily contaminated ballast using a laboratory-scale cleaning system. The solvents used, both derived from oranges, reduced contamination by 96% or 98%. The surfactant-based cleaning removed 93%. Environmental impacts of residual contamination, solvent or surfactant are discussed and consideration given to the over-all sustainability of the approach including disposal of wastewater.


The Church's role in education has to be real, the proportion should be clear. Why? Because the church may not get appreciation in education if the church is not able to provide the benefits. This is a problem that should be taken serious with church. The main solution to the problems of education is the provisition of human resources (HR) that have excellence of visition, professional expertise, farsighted, visionary and highly competitive. Human resources (HR) as this would have a high confidence and skills appropriate bargaining power market. In addition to human resources (HR, other solutions are needed to address the problem of education is the provision of facilities that are useful and appropriate quality demands. With participating from human resources and facilities like that, obviously the church has supported the government to achieve national education goals. Keywords : Church, National Education


During a one-hundred-day period in 1994, Hutus murdered between half a million and a million Tutsi in Rwanda. The numbers are staggering; the methods of killing were unspeakable. Through personal interviews with trauma survivors living in Rwandan cities, towns, and dusty villages, We Cannot Forget relates what happened during this period and what their lives were like both prior to and following the genocide. Through powerful stories that are at once memorable, disturbing, and informative, readers gain a critical sense of the tensions and violence that preceded the genocide, how it erupted and was carried out, and what these people faced in the first sixteen years following the genocide.


A recently discovered material, carbon nanotubes covered with diamond (DCNTs) was tested for its suitability in bioelectronics applications. Diamond shows advantages for bioelectronics applications (wide electro chemical window and bioinertness). This study investigates the effect of electrode surface shape (flat or three dimensional) on cell growth and behavior. For comparison, flat nanocrystalline diamond substrates were used. Primary embryonic neurons were grown on top of the structures and neither incorporated the structures nor did they grow in between the single structures. The interface was closely examined using focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscopy. Of special interest was the interface between cell and substrate. 5% to 25% of the cell membrane adhered to the substrate, which fits the theoretical estimated value. While investigating the conformity of the neurons, it could be observed that the cell membrane attaches to different heights of the tips of the 3D structure. However, the aspect ratio of the structures had no effect on the cell viability. These results let us assume that not more than 25% of cell attachment is needed for the survival of a functional neuronal cell.


The presence of a reservoir of latently infected cells in HIV-infected patients is a major barrier towards finding a cure. One active cure strategy is to find latency-reversing agents that induce viral reactivation, thus leading to immune cell recognition and elimination of latently infected cells, known as the shock-and-kill strategy. Therefore, the identification of molecules that reactivate latent HIV and increase immune activation has the potential to further these strategies into the clinic. Here, we characterized synthetic molecules composed of a TLR2 and a TLR7 agonist (dual TLR2/7 agonists) as latency-reversing agents and compared their activity with that of the TLR2 agonist Pam2CSK4 and the TLR7 agonist GS-9620. We found that these dual TLR2/7 agonists reactivate latency by 2 complementary mechanisms. The TLR2 component reactivates HIV by inducing NF-κB activation in memory CD4+ T cells, while the TLR7 component induces the secretion of TNF-α by monocytes and plasmacytoid dendritic cells, promoting viral reactivation in CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, the TLR2 component induces the secretion of IL-22, which promotes an antiviral state and blocks HIV infection in CD4+ T cells. Our study provides insight into the use of these agonists as a multipronged approach targeting eradication of latent HIV.


This thesis aims to study and analyse the complex spatio-social relations among social entities who interact together in a spatially structured social group. This aim is approached in three steps:

 1. Collecting and classifying spatio-social data,
 2. Disambiguating place names that people use to refer to their homes and
 3. Analysis of data of this kind (numerical and visual).

The source of spatio-social data used in this work is Flickr. Flickr is a yahoo photo sharing site. Users have a social network of friends and a collection of photos on their profiles. According to available statistics1 the Flickr database contains more than three billion photos, out of which a hundred million are geo-tagged. In retrieving data from Flickr database two different samples have been explored. Initially a random collection of photos that have been uploaded in Flickr during the examined periods has been collected on a daily basis. This is followed by much narrower and more precise criteria for the second data sampling that resulted in Flickr sample GB data.

The thesis concludes that location dominates a significant pattern in online behavior of social entities who interact together via internet. The core contributions of this thesis are in the areas of:

 1. Extracting indicative sample from very large data sets,
 2. Disambiguation of place names that people use in their natural language to refer to their home locations and
 3. Proposing potential new insights into behaviors of social entities with spatio-social relations.

Overall, the popularity of social networking sites and availability of data that can be obtained from the web (whether people provide voluntarily or can be retrieve as a consequence of online interactions) are likely to continue the increasing trend in future. In addition, the realm of spatio-social data analysis and its visualization also continue to expand, as do the types of maps that are achievable, the visualization packages that the maps can be built with, the number of map users and improved gazetteers with more comprehensive coverage of vague terms. Therefore, the developed methods, algorithm and applications in this study can be beneficial to researchers in social and e-social sciences, those who are interested in developing and maintaining social networking sites, geographers who work on disambiguation of fuzzy vernacular geographic terms, visualization and spatial data analysts in general and those who are looking for development and accommodation of better business strategies (i.e. localization and personalization).

1 (http://www.Flickr.com, retrieved 20/07/09)


Foreword by DAVID M. KAHN x Acknowledgments xi Chapter 1: Contributors 1 Introduction: Rediscovering the Public Art of Early American Inn Signs by Susan P. Schoelwer 2 Chapter 2 Signs of the Times: A Brief Cultural History of Sign Painting by Bryan J. Wolf 14 Chapter 3 Reading the Signs: An Object History of Tavern Signs from Connecticut, 1750-1850 by Philip D. Zimmerman 22 Chapter 4 "Some suitable Signe ... for the direction of Strangers": Signboards and the Enterprise of Innkeeping in Connecticut by Margaret C. Vincent 36 Chapter 5 Lions and Eagles and Other Images on Early Inn Signs by Nancy Finlay 56 Chapter 6 "Faithfully and Promptly Executed": A Conservator's View of Sign Painting by Sandra L. Webber 66 Chapter 7 Weather It Is or Whether It Isn't by Alexander M . Carlisle 80 Chapter 8 From Tavern Signs to Golden Arches: A Landscape of Signs Catherine Gudis 84 Chapter 9 Signs of the Past in the Present Kenneth L. Ames 94 Chapter 10 Afterword: Signs in American Art and Cultural History by Susan P. Schoelwer 102 CATALOGUE: Plates of The Connecticut Historical Society Collection of Early American Tavern and Inn Signs 111 Morgan B. Brainard, 1879-195'7, and the Brainard Tavern Sign Collection by Ellsworth S. Grant 178 Catalogue Entries by Philip D. Zimmerman, Margaret C. Vincent and Susan P. Schoelwer 182 Appendix 1: Sign Painters in Connecticut, 1760-1850 by Margaret C. Vincent 243 Appendix 2: Checklist of Connecticut Tavern and Inn Signs by Philip D. Zimmerman and Margaret C. Vincent 256 Appendix 3: Conservation Treatment Protocol 261 Further Readings 264 Index 269


The present paper reports on an experimental study performed in a seminar room of the University of Luxembourg in a building of the 1970ies without a major renovation. This lecture room is typical for this building period and has a capacity of 60 seats. It is equipped with a mechanical ventilation system that is normally in operation on workdays for 11 hours a day in semester periods (8:00-19:00h), while windows can be opened manually. A Blower-Door-Test revealed that the room is not airtight. During a year, the ventilation system was shut "on" and "off" in periods of some weeks and the consumed finalenergy was measured, as well as the indoor climate assessed by physical and psychological measurements. For instance, the measured CO2 concentrations are marginally better with the ventilation system "on", which was not perceived in any way by the occupants during the investigations. It was not possible to properly identify the impact of ventilation on the consumed heat-energy, as the room could not be thermally separated from the rest of the building. But with the system "on" there was a clear increase in consumed primary energy due to the electric consumption of the fans. No relationship between the perceived percentage of dissatisfied and perceived climate could be observed. It is concluded that the typical normal operation modus is questionable for seminar rooms in older buildings with variable occupancy and that a simple shut down or semi-automatic user controlled modus by lowcost retrofit seems advantageous.


Sign language research has shown that all sign languages have verbs of motion in which the movement expressed by the verb is combined with an animateentity handshape. These handshapes iconically represent certain salient characteristics of their referents, and are therefore referred to as 'classifiers'. The objective of this paper is to describe and illustrate the nature of iconic handshapes (especially the thumb, pinky, and pointer) of classifier-like constructions in Japan Sign Language (JSL), and show how their functions and patterns of grammaticalization are in some ways similar to and in other ways different from those identified for classifiers in spoken languages


In a household or nations production system, social capital has been recognized as an input having major implications for project design as well as policy development. Using a structured questionnaire, household level data was obtained from a representative sample of 300 rural households in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal. This study employed the conventional household economic behaviour model under constrained utility maximisation to examine the effect of social capital on the welfare of household, testing the hypothesis that the possession of social capital improves household welfare. The result shows that social capital endowments have a statistically significant positive effect on household welfare, in addition to the some household's demographic and socio-economic characteristics. The study concluded that, access to social capital among other factors, is very crucial for improved rural household welfare and poverty reduction. It is therefore important for government to have knowledge of existing social groups and networks as this will improve the effectiveness of the present strategies aimed at reducing poverty.


Abstract Analytic philosophy is sometimes said to have particularly close connections to logic and to science, and no particularly interesting or close relation to its own history. It is argued here that although the connections to logic and science have been important in the development of analytic philosophy, these connections do not come close to characterizing the nature of analytic philosophy, either as a body of doctrines or as a philosophical method. We will do better to understand analytic philosophy – and its relationship to continental philosophy – if we see it as a historically constructed collection of texts, which define its key problems and concerns. It is true, however, that analytic philosophy has paid little attention to the history of the subject. This is both its strength – since it allows for a distinctive kind of creativity – and its weakness – since ignoring history can encourage a philosophical variety of "normal science."


This paper examines the effect of value-added taxes (VATs) on international trade. Destination-based VATs are commonly thought to encourage exports, since exports are exempt from tax while imports are taxed. Economic theory implies that exchange rate adjustment prevents destination-based VATs from affecting exports and imports, since exchange rate appreciation completely undoes the effects of introducing a VAT. Indeed, this proposition is so well accepted among economists that it has not been subjected to serious prior testing. Evidence from 136 countries in 2000 indicates instead that reliance on VATs is associated with fewer exports and imports. Countries using VATs have one-third fewer exports than do countries not using VATs, and 10 percent greater VAT revenue is associated with two percent fewer exports. A similar pattern appears in an unbalanced panel of 168 countries from 1950-2000, in which VAT use is associated with 12 percent fewer exports. These patterns persist with the inclusion of income and geographic controls, and while the effect of VATs on exports is stronger among low-income countries than it is among high-income countries, there is a significant negative effect of VATs on exports even among high-income countries. The behavior of American multinational firms in 1999 is consistent: ten percent greater local VAT collections are associated with 5 percent fewer exports by local American-owned affiliates. Two features of VAT implementation may account for these effects: VATs tend to be imposed at higher rates on traded goods than on nontraded goods, and exporters often receive only incomplete VAT rebates. JEL Classifications: H87, H25, F17, F23. Mihir A. Desai James R. Hines Jr. Harvard Business School University of Michigan Morgan 363 Business School Soldiers Field 701 Tappan Street Boston, MA 02163 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234 email@example.com email@example.com


Given a real parameter-dependent matrix, we obtain an algorithm for computing the value of the parameter and corresponding eigenvalue for which two eigenvalues of the matrix coalesce to form a 2-dimensional Jordan block. Our algorithms are based on extended versions of the implicit determinant method of Spence and Poulton [55]. We consider when the eigenvalue is both real and complex, which results in solving systems of nonlinear equations by Newton's or the Gauss-Newton method. Our algorithms rely on good initial guesses, but if these are available, we obtain quadratic convergence. Next, we describe two quadratically convergent algorithms for computing a nearby defective matrix which are cheaper than already known ones. The first approach extends the implicit determinant method in [55] to find parameter values for which a certain Hermitian matrix is singular subject to a constraint. This results in using Newton's method to solve a real system of three nonlinear equations. The second approach involves simply writing down all the nonlinear equations and solving a real over-determined system using the Gauss-Newton method. We only consider the case where the nearest defective matrix is real. Finally, we consider the computation of an algebraically simple complex eigenpair of a nonsymmetric matrix where the eigenvector is normalised using the natural 2-norm, which produces only a single real normalising equation. We obtain an under-determined system of nonlinear equations which is solved by the Gauss-Newton method. We show how to obtain an equivalent square linear system of equations for the computation of the desired eigenpairs. This square system is exactly what would have been obtained if we had ignored the non uniqueness and nondifferentiability of the normalisation.


To explore the value of speech input focus for handling notifications, we built and deployed SpeechToast, an Outlook Add-in that replaces standard email notifications with a version that includes speech input commands (e.g. "open", "delete"). Notifications shown by SpeechToast have speech input focus when the audio context surrounding the computer is favorable for speech recognition. We deployed SpeechToast to 18 current users of email notifications for 4 weeks. Overall, speech input focus appealed to some participants, while non-users indicated their willingness to have it enabled as long as it did not detract from their experience. Our research suggests that selectively enabling speech input focus could provide natural and intuitive interactions that complement other input modalities.


The current communications environment is characterized by a complex and hybrid system. Individuals use multiple digital platforms in various ways to communicate politically. This presents both theoretical and methodological challenges. As a response, we propose trace interviewing, an actor-centric method that employs visualizations of a user's digital traces during the interview process. Trace interviews are useful for enhancing recall, validating trace data-generated results, addressing data joining problems, and responding to ethical concerns that have surfaced in the current era of surveillance and big data. If the challenges of the method are successfully navigated,trace interviewing could allow researchers to respond creatively to new questions about the current, complex political communication environment.