Target marketing requires selecting customers on the basis of sociodemographic characteristics ... logit regression can help to identify the right characteristics... demonstrates with the help of an example how this method can be used. As competition increases and budgets grow tighter, companies are looking for cheaper and more effective ways to sell their products and services, Greater emphasis is placed on identifying those customers who are most likely to purchase. In the past, targeting those customers may have been done in an ad-hoc manner depending on how historical sales data look in tables and cross-tabs. Now the movement is toward a statistical modeling framework which can be implemented at product introduction or any time during the product's life cycle. AD-HOC ANALYSIS Although the ad-hoc analysis of tables and cross-tabs for targeting customers is very informative, there are some drawbacks. First, it is difficult to perform more than a two or three dimensional look at the data. What you would like to do is to account for as many customer characteristics (factors) as possible while trying to answer a particular question. For example, do family size, household income, credit card debt, and consumer age have an impact on the decision to purchase a product? These types of questions can be answered only with a statistical based model. Second, conclusions drawn from crosstab analysis may not take into account sampling error. Constructing a statistically based model allows the analyst to quantify behavior for a number of factors simultaneously and draw conclusions that are statistically valid. A statistically based framework also has the added flexibility of testing for numerous specifications. As a result, a best solution can be selected from a set of plausible solutions. Benchmarks can then be established for comparisons with future analyses as more of the product is sold. LOGIT REGRESSION Standard econometric methods like ordinary least squares were designed for evaluating variables that can assume any value within a range, i.e. continuous variables. These methods are usually appropriate for examining data which have been accumulated over time into totals representing aggregate market response. When the outcome variable is not continuous, for example, to buy or not to buy a product, other techniques will be needed to properly measure and evaluate the decision making process. These techniques are called Discrete Choice Models. The discrete choice technique discussed here is Logit Regression. Numerous statistical packages are available to handle these types of models (SAS, SPSS, SHAZAM, LIMDEP). In the simplest of cases, the consumer is faced with only two choices: (1) to purchase a product or (2) not to purchase. The consumer is assumed, in general, to make the decision in such a way as to maximize his or her utility. One of the advantages of discrete choice methods is that it treats the decision making process in a probabilistic manner. Once the equation is estimated, we can project the probability that a consumer will purchase the product based upon a set of explanatory criteria (education, income, age, etc.). This probability (ranging from 0 to 100%) can be interpreted as a score and used to rank each customer from those who are most likely to purchase to those least likely to purchase the product. Setting up the data for estimation looks very similar to ordinary least squares. The main difference is that the dependent variable (whether or not the product was purchased) is coded as a zero or one. Moreover, the logit procedure is non-linear and actually estimates the log of the odds of purchase. Once estimated, the equation can be used to show how the probability of purchase varies across different values of the explanatory variable. Since logit regression is a non-linear technique, it is able to capture certain curvilinear relationships that may exist. …


The development of optical techniques for non-invasive diagnosis of cancer is an ongoing challenge to biomedical optics. For head and neck cancer we see two main fields of potential application 1) Screening for second primaries in patients with a history of oral cancer. This requires imaging techniques or an approach where a larger area can be scanned quickly. 2) Distinguishing potentially malignant visible primary lesions from benign ones. Here fiberoptic point measurements can be used as the location of the lesion is known. This presentation will focus on point measurement techniques. Various techniques for point measurements have been developed and investigated clinically for different applications. Differential Pathlength Spectroscopy is a recently developed fiberoptic point measurement technique that measures scattered light in a broad spectrum. Due to the specific fiberoptic geometry we measure only scattered photons that have travelled a predetermined pathlength. This allows us to analyse the spectrum mathematically and translate the measured curve into a set of parameters that are related to the microvasculature and to the intracellular morphology. DPS has been extensively evaluated on optical phantoms and tested clinically in various clinical applications. The first measurements in biopsy proven squamous cell carcinoma showed significant changes in both vascular and morphological parameters. Measurements on thick keratinized lesions however failed to generate any vascular signatures. This is related to the sampling depth of the standard optical fibers used. Recently we developed a fiberoptic probe with a ~1 mm sampling depth. Measurements on several leukoplakias showed that with this new probe we sample just below the keratin layer and can obtain vascular signatures. The results of a first set of clinical measurements will be presented and the significance for clinical diagnostics will be discussed.


We report on a new wireless interface type for the OSPF routing protocol that greatly improves performance in multihop wireless networks. In this paper, we describe how to adapt OSPF to adequately handle wireless networks in a scalable manner. Our simulation-based study first illustrates that the operation of legacy OSPF routers in mobile ad hoc network environments can generate prohibitive amounts of overhead for networks as small as 20 nodes. Next, we study the possibility of constraining the number of OSPF adjacencies formed in the wireless network, and find that, while scalability can be improved in this manner, the performance does not approach that of the OLSR protocol designed specifically for mobile networks. Consequently, we describe how OSPF can be extended to incorporate key design concepts from OLSR, such that the scaling performance of OLSR can be approached while maintaining backward compatibility with legacy OSPF routers. Our "wireless" interface type achieves bandwidth efficiency within a factor of two to three of OLSR, and allows wireless networks to be incorporated into larger heterogeneous networks. Finally, we describe some strategies and open issues regarding the composition of large heterogeneous networks including wireless subnets.


The objective of this paper is to evaluate the frame stability analysis methods proposed by the AISC specification (AISC (2010)). The AISC specification prescribes in its main body the direct analysis method for frame analysis, which relies on a second-order elastic analysis. As an alternative analysis method, the AISC specification permits the use of the traditional effective length method combined with additional requirements, or a simplified version of the direct analysis method called the first-order analysis method. Rigorous finite element (FE) models of typical steel buildings were built to evaluate the frame stability analysis methods proposed by the AISC specification. The FE analysis consists of a second-order inelastic analysis that also considers the effects of initial geometric imperfections, partial yielding, and residual stress. Although all the methods in the AISC specification reasonably predict the required strength in the members, their approach to assessing the impact of second-order effects is inadequate. According to the AISC specification, the impact of second-order effects should be measured by the ratio of second-order drift to first-order drift. This ratio, however, especially for the gravityonly load combination, can be greater than the limit defined by the AISC specification, while the second-order effects on the required strength are negligible. Based on the examples explored in this paper and other design standards, alternative methods are proposed to assess the impact of second-order effects.


This study investigated library as a change agent: the invaluable roles of library in private higher institutions of learning in South-west, Nigeria. The study was aimed at identifying the emerging roles of libraries; investigate the ways the emerging roles in libraries have influenced the higher institutions and examine the technological change the library has brought to the higher institutions of learning. The descriptive survey method was used for the study, the population of the study is 32 respondents from higher institutions of learning in South-west, Nigeria. The researcher adopted the entire population as the sample size for this study using the complete enumerative sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection and 32 copies of questionnaire were administered for this study. In response, 31 copies were retrieved and found useable, thereby indicating a response rate of 97%. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics (frequencies). The study contributed significantly to knowledge as it was able to identify the novel roles of libraries in this digital age. The findings revealed that libraries are now performing newer roles in order to keep pace with technological advancement. This new roles currently performed by the library has also transformed learning in higher institutions of learning. The study concluded that the library has acted as a change agent in institutions of higher learning by fostering the creation of new academic communities on campus (virtual community), enhancing life-long learning, improving communication linkages and consultations between policymakers, policy analysts, and policy beneficiaries as well as supporting, managing and improving the institution's intellectual capital. The study recommended that adequate funds and resources be allocated to the library in order to improve the priceless and invaluable services rendered by the library as libraries in Nigeria are generally underfunded.


Introduction Colonoscopy is the gold standard modality for investigation of colonic disease.1 The procedure can be challenging to perform.1 Complete colonoscopy, defined as intubation of the terminal ileum, neo-terminal ileum, or caecum, should be achieved in greater than 90% of cases on an intention to complete basis.1 Historically trainees have performed colonoscopy on service lists, and ad hoc training lists and may have had incomplete access to training.2 Trainees currently working in our unit perform colonoscopy on dedicated training lists prior to JAG certification of independence. We performed a large retrospective study of colonoscopy completion rate, comparing two groups of gastroenterology trainees with consultant Gastroenterologists. Methods 5307 consecutive colonoscopies, from a five-year period in a single centre, were triaged by first endoscopist. Groups identified were 1) consultant Gastroenterologists 2) previous trainees (individuals who trained in the unit in the past, performing colonoscopy on service, adhoc training, and dedicated training lists) 3) Current trainees (employed in the unit at time of study, performing colonoscopy on dedicated training lists). Colonoscopy completion rate, as defined above, was determined for each group. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to compare the completion rate between groups. Results Results are summarised in the table Abstract PTU-008 Table 1 Group Total colonoscopies Complete procedures Probability of completion OR 95% CI Consultant 4439 4104 0.92 X X Previous trainees 646 561 0.87 1.72 1.44–2.39 Current trainees 222 206 0.93 0.95 0.57–1.60 Conclusion Consultants were more likely to achieve complete colonoscopy than previous trainees, who did not achieve >90% completion rate. In contrast, there was no statistical difference when consultants were compared to current trainees on dedicated training lists. The observed effect is likely to reflect additional allocated time, and immediate consultant trainer availability. Procedures were grouped by first endoscopist. Extent of examination by trainee or trainer in each case is not known: assistance may have been required on a greater proportion of procedures performed on training lists. Colonoscopy completion rate is an important marker of quality. Other indicators include adenoma detection rate, comfort score, and withdrawal time.1 Inclusion of these indices would provide further comparative performance data. Trainees performing colonoscopy on dedicated training lists delivered comparable completion rates to consultants and outperformed their predecessors. Our data supports dedicated colonoscopy training prior to certification of independence. References Gavin et al. Gut 2013:62:2 242 Bowles et al. Gut 2004:53:2 277 Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


As more than 20% of nosocomial infections occur in intensive care units and
the crude mortality rate is between 10 and 80%, the objective of the present study was to survey the
prevalence of nosocomial infections to provide appropriate preventive guides based on international
standards.
Material & Methods: The present Descriptive and analytical,cross- sectional study was carried out on
101 patients with hospital-acquired infections in one year. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.
0 (SPSS Inc. , Chicago, IL, USA) to compute descriptive and analytical statistics.
Results: the total cross infections rate was 0. 4%. Of which 54. 45% was for the intensive care units.
The highest infections occurred in the respiratory system (47. 27%). Significant differences was
observed between the numbers of patients with cross infections in various wards (P<. 001). The
average hospital stay was 21. 19 days for the intensive care unit and significant differences was also
observed between patients with cross infections with various length of hospital stay (P<. 05), and was
between male and female patients with cross infections number in various hospital wards (P<. 001).
Discussion and Conclusion: The prevalence of patients with cross infections was below the standards .
The results of current study is made us aware of the significance of a more exact investigation of
declared cross infection reports of the hospitals, the standardization of those reports, and solving the
existing problems.


This study examines the decadal changes in the in-phase relationship between Indian summer monsoon and the subsequent Australian summer monsoon using observational data from 1950–2005. The in-phase relationship is the tendency for a strong Indian summer monsoon to be followed by a strong Australian summer monsoon and vice versa. It is found that the in-phase relationship was weak during the late 1950s and early 1960s, strengthened to a maximum in the early 1970s just before the 1976/77 Pacific climate shift, then declined until the late 1990s. Pacific SST anomalies are noticed to have strong persistence from boreal to austral summer, providing the memory to connect the Indian and subsequent Australian summer monsoon. The simultaneous correlation between the Pacific SST anomalies and the Indian summer monsoon is always strong. It is the weakening and strengthening of the simultaneous correlation between the Australian summer monsoon and the Pacific SST anomalies that contributes to the decadal variations of the inphase monsoon relation. This study suggests that the interaction between the Australian monsoon and the Pacific Ocean is crucial to tropical climate variability and has experienced significant changes over the past five decades.


Abstract. Information about geomechanical and physical rock properties, particularly uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), are needed for geomechanical model development and updating with logging-while-drilling methods to minimise costs and risks of the drilling process. The following parameters with importance at different stages of geothermal exploitation and drilling are presented for typical sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Northwest German Basin (NWGB): physical (P wave velocities, porosity, and bulk and grain density) and geomechanical parameters (UCS, static Young's modulus, destruction work and indirect tensile strength both perpendicular and parallel to bedding) for 35 rock samples from quarries and 14 core samples of sandstones and carbonate rocks. With regression analyses (linear- and non-linear) empirical relations are developed to predict UCS values from all other parameters. Analyses focus on sedimentary rocks and were repeated separately for clastic rock samples or carbonate rock samples as well as for outcrop samples or core samples. Empirical relations have high statistical significance for Young's modulus, tensile strength and destruction work; for physical properties, there is a wider scatter of data and prediction of UCS is less precise. For most relations, properties of core samples plot within the scatter of outcrop samples and lie within the 90% prediction bands of developed regression functions. The results indicate the applicability of empirical relations that are based on outcrop data on questions related to drilling operations when the database contains a sufficient number of samples with varying rock properties. The presented equations may help to predict UCS values for sedimentary rocks at depth, and thus develop suitable geomechanical models for the adaptation of the drilling strategy on rock mechanical conditions in the NWGB.


Propositional proof complexity is an area of complexity theory that addresses the question of whether the class NP is closed under complement, and also provides a theoretical framework for studying practical applications such as SAT solving. Some of the most well-studied contradictions are random k-CNF formulas where each clause of the formula is chosen uniformly at random from all possible clauses. If the clause-to-variable ratio is chosen appropriately, then with high probability such a formula will be unsatisfiable, and the lack of structure in these formulas makes them natural candidates for proving lower bounds on the size of refutations in strong systems such as Frege systems where basically no nontrivial lower bounds are known. In this work we prove exponential lower bounds on treelike resolution refutations of random 3-CNFs using new combinatorial techniques. The basic idea is to show that any formula with a short refutation can be compressed in a way that a random formula cannot be by algorithmically constructing such a short encoding. It is important to emphasize that the actual results in the work are not new; exponential lower bounds for random k-CNFs are already known for treelike resolution, and in fact for much stronger systems such as general resolution and the RES(k) system. However, it is our hope that these new techniques generalize in a way that the known combinatorial techniques based on size-width tradeoffs do not, and that we can use these encoding techniques to attack stronger systems such as constant depth Frege systems where the old techniques are not applicable.


Out of the core of experience, these essays began as obsessions. Whether founded in some strongly lived moment, deeply held conviction, long-term interest, or persistent and unanswered question, these essays reveal the writer's voice-personal, often passionate, full of conviction, certainly unmistakable. Marianna Torgovnick has drawn together writings by leading contemporary scholars in the humanities, representing fields of literary criticism, American and Romance studies, anthropology, and art history. Eloquent Obsessions presents cultural criticism at its thoughtful and writerly best. This collection explores a wide range of issues at the intersection of personal and social history-from growing up in the South to exploring a love for France or Japan, from coming of age as a feminist to mapping the history of National Geographic, from examining the cultural "we" to diagnosing class structures in Israel or showing how photography deals with AIDS. The authors here bring writerly genres-autobiography, memoir, or travel narrative-to intellectual tasks such as textual readings or investigating the histories of institutions. Continuing a tradition of cultural criticism established by writers such as Samuel Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Edmund Wilson, Hannah Arendt, or Raymond Williams, these essays seek to make a difference, to have an impact, and are based on the fundamental premise that writers have something to say about society. Simply put, this collection offers models for writing eloquently about culture-models that are intellectually and socially responsible, but attuned to the critic's voice and the reader's ear. Aimed not just at academics but also at a more general audience alive to the concerns and interests of society today, Eloquent Obsessions, a revised and expanded version of a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (Winter 1992), will extend beyond the academy contemporary ways of writing about culture. Contributors. Jane Collins, Cathy N. Davidson, Virginia R. Dominguez, Mark Edmundson, Gerald Graff, Richard Inglis, Aldona Jonaitis, Alice Yaeger Kaplan, Catherine Lutz, Nancy K. Miller, Linda Orr, Andrew Ross, Henry M. Sayre, Jane Tompkins, Marianna Torgovnick


We show that risk mitigating incentives dominate risk shifting incentives in fragile banks. Risk shifting could be particularly severe in banking since it is the most opaque industry and banks are one of the most leveraged corporations with very low skin in the game. To analyze this question, we exploit security trading by banks during financial crises, as banks can easily and quickly change their risk exposure within their security portfolio. However, in contrast with the risk shifting hypothesis, we find that less capitalized banks take relatively less risk after financial market stress shocks. We show this using the supervisory ISIN-bank-month level dataset from Italy with all securities for each bank. Our results are over and above capital regulation as we show lower reach-for-yield effects by less capitalized banks within government bonds (with zero risk weights) or within securities with the same rating and maturity in the same month (which determines regulatory capital). Effects are robust to controlling for the covariance with the existence portfolio, and less capitalized banks, if anything, reduce concentration risk. Further, effects are stronger when uncertainty is higher, despite that risk shifting motives may be then higher. Moreover, three separate tests – based on different accounting portfolios (trading book versus held to maturity), the distribution of capital and franchise value – suggest that bank own incentives, instead of supervision, are the main drivers. Results are confirmed if we consider other sources of balance sheet fragility and different measures of risk-taking. Finally, evidence from the recent COVID-19 shock corroborates findings from the Global Financial Crisis and the Euro Area Sovereign Crisis.


The hydrogen evolution reaction is a crucial step in electrochemical water splitting. The most efficient catalysts for this reaction in acidic media are Pt based, but the high cost of Pt limits its practical applications. We developed a novel matrix architecture in which a trace amount of Pt is alloyed in situ with Ru nanoparticles uniformly and partially embedded in porous carbon spheres. The synthetic procedure is simple and efficient. Surface enrichment of metallic Pt nanoclusters on PtRu alloy nanoparticles results in weak bonding with hydrogen and rapid hydrated proton dissociation. These effects significantly increase the electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution process. This robust catalyst, with a Pt loading 99.9% less than that of a commercial Pt-based catalyst, gave a high turnover frequency (4.03 H2 s−1), a small Tafel slope (27.2 mV dec−1), and comparable overpotentials (19.7 mV and 43.1 mV), as well as achieved current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm−2, i.e., better than those obtained with commercial Pt/C catalyst, in 0.5 M H2SO4. This structure prevents nanoparticles from dissolving, agglomerating, and detaching during long-term operation; therefore there was no obvious decrease in catalytic activity after continuous reaction.


Musselman Library Strategic Plan 2013-2016 reflects the evolution of libraries and higher education since the 2007 adoption of Crossroads, Connections, and Creativity: Musselman Library Strategic Plan. The 2013-2016 strategic plan challenges Musselman Library to think about ways in which the library can further support its community of learners. This plan builds upon the core issues of services, collections, learning, and access that were identified in 2007 and recognizes the growth accomplished in these areas. In early 2013, Robin Wagner, Director of Library Services, formed the Strategic Planning Steering Committee in order to develop a plan to guide Musselman Library's priorities for the next three years. Following an environmental scan, focus groups, and dialogue with library staff, the committee identified five issues confronting libraries: lifelong learning, leadership, sustainability, continual assessment, and partnerships. Working groups were formed and charged to create goals and objectives inspired by these five issues. From the work completed by the groups, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee distilled these issues and articulated goals that advance the library within four strategic directions: lifelong learning, leadership, sustainability, and continual assessment. Recognizing the foundational role of collaboration in a liberal arts environment, partnerships is integrated across the four strategic directions, goals, and objectives. The 2013-2016 plan demonstrates Musselman Library's commitment to contribute to Gettysburg College's mission and addresses challenges presented to a new generation of learners and scholars in an age of information abundance. [excerpt] This other is available at The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: http://cupola.gettysburg.edu/librarypubs/24 Musselman Library Strategic Plan 2013-2016 Submitted by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee September 5, 2013


We report a case of systemic lupus erythematosus in a 27-year-old female complicated with pneumonia and severe respiratory failure, requiring treatment in an intensive care unit and non-invasive ventilation. Symptoms developed in an otherwise healthy female with no comorbidities except recurrent oral ulcers. Despite evidence of pulmonary infection, response was noted only after early introduction of intensive immunosuppressive treatment. Differential diagnosis and treatment of this condition represent a real challenge but close co-operation between the intensive care unit, pulmonology, and rheumatology departments reduce the risk of a fatal outcome.


Inspecting bridges and monitoring scour during high flow can improve public transportation safety by providing early identification of scour and stream stability problems at bridges. Most bridge-inspection data are collected during low flow, when scour holes may have refilled. More than 25 percent of the States that responded to a questionnaire identified lack of adequate methodology and/or equipment as reasons for not collecting scour data during high-flow conditions. Therefore, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, has begun to develop instrumentation for measuring scour that could be used by inspection and maintenance personnel during high-flow conditions. A variety of instruments and techniques for measuring scour were tested and evaluated in real-time bridge-scour data-collection studies by the USGS. In the National Scour study, fathometers were found to be superior to sounding weights and will be the primary bed-measuring instrument. The ability of low-cost fathometers and fish finders to locate the bed accurately is being evaluated. Simple and efficient methods for deploying the transducer during floods are also important for a successful measurement. The information and additional testing are being used to design new, portable scour-measuring systems.


Liver transplants have their highest technical failure rate in the first two weeks following surgery. Currently, there are limited devices for continuous, real-time monitoring of the graft. In this work, a three wavelengths system is presented that combines near-infrared spectroscopy and photoplethysmography with a processing method that can uniquely measure and separate the venous and arterial oxygen contributions. This strategy allows for the quantification of tissue oxygen consumption used to study hepatic metabolic activity and to relate it to tissue stress. The sensor is battery operated and communicates wirelessly with a data acquisition computer which provides the possibility of implantation provided sufficient miniaturization. In two in vivo porcine studies, the sensor tracked perfusion changes in hepatic tissue during vascular occlusions with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.135 mL/min/g of tissue. We show the possibility of using the pulsatile wave to measure the arterial oxygen saturation similar to pulse oximetry. The signal is also used to extract the venous oxygen saturation from the direct current (DC) levels. Arterial and venous oxygen saturation changes were measured with an RMSE of 2.19% and 1.39% respectively when no vascular occlusions were induced. This error increased to 2.82% and 3.83% when vascular occlusions were induced during hypoxia. These errors are similar to the resolution of a commercial oximetry catheter used as a reference. This work is the first realization of a wireless optical sensor for continuous monitoring of hepatic hemodynamics.


In this review article, some of the challenging research areas related to the development of novel catalysts and catalytic processes for the chemical fixation of CO2 by converting it to alcohols and ethers, and for the conversion of alcohols to olefins and other hydrocarbons are reviewed. Ethanol, methanol, and the ethers derived from them, such as DEE and DME, have good burning characteristics and may be considered attractive transportation fuel alternates. New processes for catalytic selective oxidation and dehydration of alcohols may open up new pathways for the production of olefins and other petrochemicals from non-petroleum feedstock. Developments in CO2 capture and its chemical fixation processes will help reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and will produce alternative fuels to petroleum. All these new processes involve challenging catalysis research.


Intravascular lymphoma is a rare subtype of extranodal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma characterized by clonal proliferation of lymphocytes inside of small and medium caliber vessels. Its incidence is estimated at one case per million. The clinical picture is very variable, but frequently has skin and central nervous system involvement. It is diagnosed by demonstrating pathological blood vessel infiltration by lymphoma cells. We report a 44 years old male presenting with fever, malaise and erythematous lesions in the abdominal wall. An abdominal wall biopsy showed dilated vascular vessels with atypical cells in their lumen, compatible with large B-cell intravascular lymphoma. He was treated with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine and prednisone and an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, achieving a complete remission that has lasted two years.


At the end of 2010, almost all reservoirs in Taiwan have sedimentation problem. Sedimentation in major reservoirs, such as Wushoh reservoir, had reached 63.73% of its storage capacity in 2009, and must undergo dredging. However, agencies responsible for the final processing stages of reservoir sediments failed to come up with a breakthrough. Limitations established by environmental protection laws also hindered proper dredging of the reservoirs. Hence, further investigation was required for solidifying and reusing reservoir sediments. This research focused on the reuse of Wushoh reservoir sediments. Experimental results showed that when bacteria Bacillus Pastuerii(B.P.) was utilized in sediment solidification, higher bacterial concentrations could induce higher sedimentation of calcium carbonate. In a 70% Urea-CaCl2 medium, a bacterial concentration of 100% resulted in the highest compressive strength that was 30% higher than the control group (bacterial concentration of 0%). Therefore, bacteria can be used to solidify sediments and improve compressive strength. In specimens treated with higher concentrations of bacteria, more square and polygonal crystals were observed via SEM. X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD) analysis showed that bacteria-treated sediments contained calcium carbonate crystals in every stage of processing. Hence, it was shown that bacteria can promote solidification by inducing calcium carbonate sedimentation.


The CMS experiment at the LHC relies on HTCondor and glideinWMS as its primary batch and pilot-based Grid provisioning systems, respectively. Given the scale of the global queue in CMS, the operators found it increasingly difficult to monitor the pool to find problems and fix them. The operators had to rely on several different web pages, with several different levels of information, and sift tirelessly through log files in order to monitor the pool completely. Therefore, coming up with a suitable monitoring system was one of the crucial items before the beginning of the LHC Run 2 in order to ensure early detection of issues and to give a good overview of the whole pool. Our new monitoring page utilizes the HTCondor ClassAd information to provide a complete picture of the whole submission infrastructure in CMS. The monitoring page includes useful information from HTCondor schedulers, central managers, the glideinWMS frontend, and factories. It also incorporates information about users and tasks making it easy for operators to provide support and debug issues.


Most aircraft component are currently being manufactured by machining, forging, welding and also assembling such parts. However, the possibilities of cutting cost from a single component has brought about a growing trend towards looking into casting as a possible option for manufacturing aircraft parts. This thesis was done at the request of Saab Avitronics. It evaluates the possibilities of one aircraft part, a chassis for an electronic unit that was first designed to be machined from a blank, to be cast. The thesis goes through the multifaceted tasks of product development. Casting process selection, cast alloy selection as well as geometry modification were some of these tasks that were performed in this thesis. It also evaluates the performances of chosen casting processes, the design of gating systems as well as various process parameters set, by simulating the casting processes. The alloy chosen was A356.0 with a T6 temper and the casting processes chosen were plaster mold casting and rheocasting. The geometry of the original chassis, which had very thin sections and undercuts which were complex to cast, was modified and made easier to cast with an acceptable slight increase of mass and size. The modification done on the geometry as well as the gating systems used had proven to be worthwhile, as the simulation of both process showed that such a part can be casted with no crucial defects foreseen. However, probable cavities might occur at the very tip of the chassis's thin-fins – that it has for carrying away heat. Minor subsurface porosities might also be formed, which would not impair the function of the chassis. The modified chassis was made as close to as finished piece as possible, for the purpose of reducing machining costs. The cost of producing such a part by casting was also seen to be much less than machining it from blank. This could be taken as rationale for casting the chassis with thicker sections, to avoid problems that may arise in casting, and to subsequently machine these faces later, as it would still be cheaper than machining the chassis from a blank.


Psychological formulations are central to cognitive behavioural approaches. The use of such formulations presents a number of difficulties when working with clients with psychotic problems. Despite this, sophisticated psychological formulations can be collaboratively developed with psychotic clients. This paper presents one method of developing such formulations through an evolutionary process. Early in the therapeutic process, simple formulations involving straightforward theoretical models are presented, which are systematically elaborated as therapy proceeds. This involves developing, collaboratively with clients, successive layers of formulation. Each of these layers builds on and incorporates the previous one, yet involves an incremental increase in complexity, depth and informational content. The evolutionary process is illustrated with a case example.


The notion that acts of deliberate self-harm serve an expressive or communicative function is the central premise upon which many of the main functional models of selfharm are based. However despite the importance of this notion, very little empirical evidence exists to support it. Within this project the notion that acts of DSH serve an expressive or communicative function was explored in detail. Four studies investigating the expressive and communicative qualities of acts of DSH, the content which such behaviours serve to express, and the dynamics by which several different modalities of DSH do this were performed utilising Internet methods of data collection. The use of online methods of data collection findings of this project only apply to the sub-group of individuals who engage in DSH and also participate in online discussion forums. Photographs of words and phrases engraved into the skin along with detailed first person narratives of past episodes of deliberate self-harm were used as data sources in this project. Due to their high frequency of occurrence, acts of skin-cutting, self-burning, self-hitting, and self-poisoning were the main modalities of deliberate self-harm investigated in the four studies. Acts of skin-cutting, self-burning, self-hitting, and self-poisoning were all reported to serve expressive functions which allowed emotions and issues to be released or discharged from the body. Conversely, acts of skin-cutting and self-poisoning were also reportedly used to communicate emotional distress and a need for support from others. The content expressed or communicated by such behaviours, and indeed the dynamics by which they did so depended largely upon the modality by which injuries were inflicted. However in general the content expressed and communicated by the acts of deliberate self-harm reported in this project typically related to the events which preceded such behaviours, how they were interpreted, the types of psychological experiences they represented, and the emotions which they evoked. Such events were overwhelmingly interpersonal in nature, and typically involved the dissolution or disruption of relationships with primary support group members. The dynamics by which acts of deliberate self-harm reportedly served these functions differed widely, however the concept of symbolism was central to all modalities. The data collected within this project relating to the expressive and communicative functions of acts of skin-cutting, self-burning, self-hitting, and selfpoisoning was finally collated with the existing literature on the subject.


Cold beverage dispensers belong to the group of light commercial refrigeration machines that includes beverage coolers, ice machines and storage units for food items. Beverage dispensers use a vapor compression system to charge a thermal storage, usually an ice bank, which is used to indirectly cool tap water and beverage concentrate. For these machines, R290 (propane) and R744 (carbon dioxide) are among the favorite candidates to completely replace high GWP HFC refrigerants in the future. Because of flammability and charge restrictions for R290, carbon dioxide is in some cases preferred even if some of its thermodynamic and transport properties are less favorable than those of R290, especially at high ambient temperature. This study evaluated the performance of a baseline R134a beverage dispenser machine by experimentally measuring initial pull down time and energy consumption during compressor cycling operation at 24°C and 38°C ambient temperatures, respectively. Another important performance criteria for dispensers is the burst capacity, which is the number of 350 ml drinks dispensed at the rate of 3 drinks per minute while maintaining a beverage temperature below 5°C. This test simulates the typical load profile of the machine during peak serving time in hotels and motels. Burst capacity is closely related to thermal storage capacity and therefore the ice amount was also closely monitored. The machine's refrigeration system was afterwards converted to R744 refrigerant, using a transcritical cycle. Special attention was given to optimization of capillary tube size, refrigerant charge amount and gas cooler design where the strongest impact on the performance at different ambient temperatures was expected. Appropriate instrumentation and theoretical analysis helped to identify optimum selection of capillary tube and R744 refrigerant charge. The optimized R744 system used 385g of charge and pulled down in approximately half the time and dispensed at least 25% more drinks while keeping the energy consumption comparable with its baseline R134a system. Slight increase in gas cooler cost was well overcome by the benefits of larger burst capacity and significantly shorter pull down time allowing: the redesigned beverage dispenser can be kept off longer and needs to be turned on shortly before the serving time.


This article describes the anisotropic P-wave processing and resulting velocity attributes of the Durham Ranch 3D Firefly survey in the southern Sand Wash Basin of northwest Colorado (Figure 1). The goal of the seismic effort at Durham Ranch is to provide a clearer 3D image of the structures that may influence reservoir fracturing and capture anisotropy attributes that can be related to the local distribution of these fractures. With structural dip greater than 10° in portions of the reservoir, accurate imaging and properly positioned anisotropy information requires prestack migration. The high-density spatial coverage achieved in the Durham Ranch shoot afforded an opportunity to migrate in a domain that preserves a wide-azimuthal distribution of prestack data for anisotropy analysis. Improved imaging and positioning of the anisotropy attributes provides a clearer (perhaps causal) relationship between local deformation and fracturing, thus aiding in the selection of productive well locations and/or stimul...


This paper presents and analyzes the results of a recent field experiment in which residential electricity customers in Washington State with price-responsive in-home devices could use those devices to change their electricity consumption autonomously. Doing so also required an important institutional change: the regulatory institutions had to change to allow dynamic pricing. Customers could choose a retail pricing contract from a portfolio of contracts, instead of the fixed, regulated retail rate. Here we focus on the results of the real-time contract, under which homeowners participate in a double auction with a market clearing occurring every five minutes. These customers saved money, and their peak demand (and pressure on infrastructure at peak capacity) fell by 15 percent. Moreover, this combination of technology and institutional design enabled decentralized coordination, and we use complexity science to interpret results that show that the real-time market outcomes were those of a self-organizing and scalable complex adaptive system. We also draw policy implications from these results.


Taxation is one of the main components of a country's fiscal space. Its internal origin and the accountability it creates between rulers and populations make it a key element in financing public expenditure. Tax capacity differs between countries and depends on structural factors. A number of empirical studies attempted to determine countries' overall tax potential and tax effort (Lotz and Morss, 1967; Stotsky and Wolde Mariam, 1997; Fenochietto and Pessino, 2013). However, the methodologies used tend to underestimate or overestimate countries' tax potential and thereby their tax effort. The purpose of this study is to better assess countries' non-resource tax potential and VAT's tax potential independently using a more appropriate method. It is in line with the study of Brun et al. (2014) and rests on a large sample of developing countries over the period 1980/2014. We first employ the previous models and discuss about their shortcomings, after we use the stochastic frontier model of Kumbhakar, Lien and Hardaker (2014). This model allows to disentangle the overall tax effort into a persistent tax effort due to policy economy decisions and a time-varying tax effort relating to tax administration efficiency. The results are more realistic. Low income countries have higher tax effort along the period even if their tax effort decline at the end of period on the opposite of resource depending countries. In fact, the latter characterized by lower tax effort compared to non-resource countries improved consequently the efficiency of their system since 2010. The results also suggest that inefficiency in taxation depends more on policy decisions than on tax administration performance.


This study has been undertaken because of a gap in popular music and subcultural
history. The significance of the first large influx of women into rock music, as punk
instrumentalists in the late 1970s, has been underplayed; instead, women punks have
been stereotypically documented. Girls' and womens' roles as producers of music, and
their consequent contribution to the sound of punk music, have been subjected to a
collective amnesia.
Four areas of literature have been reviewed to clarify the reasons for, and extent of the
gap: writings on subcultures and scenes, writings on women in rock and pop, writings
on the socio-political context, and writings on punk.
One of the main foci of the study has been to identify the reasons for the fading away
of the presence of women instrumentalists in the early 1980s. I wanted to discover why
this phenomenon had such a short time span.
The primary research involved a newspaper survey (300 local papers were contacted
across Britain) from which 24 useful questionnaires were gleaned; I interviewed 15
women who were in bands at the time, as well as a radio DJ, record company owner,
band manager, and several male band members and political activists from the scene.
Fanzines, music papers and the feminist magazine Spare Rib have also been referred to
extensively. I have also had my own recollections of the time to draw upon.
Following the literature review, the study is divided into sections on Access (enabling
and empowering factors), Media Gatekeepers and Cultural Intermediaries (external
controls and filters), The Brighton Scene (a case study of my own local punk
envirom-nent), Noise, Violence and Femininity (the practice of music making by these
women, and the resistance to it), the Aftermath (exploring factors contributing to the
ending of the moment), and Conclusions.


The U.S. pulp and paper industry—defined in this Energy Guide as facilities engaged in the manufacture of pulp, paper, and paperboard—consumes over $7 billion worth of purchased fuels and electricity per year. Energy efficiency improvement is an important way to reduce these costs and to increase predictable earnings, especially in times of high energy price volatility. There are a variety of opportunities available at individual plants in the U.S. pulp and paper industry to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner. This Energy Guide discusses energy efficiency practices and energy-efficient technologies that can be implemented at the component, process, facility, and organizational levels. This Energy Guide begins with an overview of the trends, structure, and energy consumption characteristics of the U.S. pulp and paper industry, along with descriptions of the major process technologies used within the industry. Next, a wide variety of energy efficiency measures applicable to pulp and paper mills are described. Many measure descriptions include expected savings in energy and energy-related costs, which are based on case study data from real-world applications in pulp and paper mills and related industries worldwide. Typical measure payback periods and references to further information in the technical literature are also provided, when available. Given the importance of water use in pulp and paper mills, a summary of basic measures for improving plant-level water efficiency is also provided. The information in this Energy Guide is intended to help energy and plant managers in the U.S. pulp and paper industry reduce energy and water consumption in a cost-effective manner while maintaining the quality of products manufactured. Further research on the economics of all measures—as well as on their applicability to different production practices—is needed to assess their cost effectiveness at individual plants.


The social sciences disagree on how democracy should be defined and measured. This study approaches the conceptualization of democracy from the demos side. Using Q-methodology, we pin down the way ordinary Estonians live and understand democracy. The analysis reveals three distinct discourses: a libertarian democracy as freedom; a participatory democracy as empowerment; and a populist democracy as the utopia of good policies. It also points to strong consensus on what it means to live together in society. The study has both general and specific value. It tests the correspondence between defined democracy and lived democracy; it demonstrates how Q-methodology can objectivize the subjective; and it provides new empirical knowledge about how ordinary people perceive democracy. Understanding how people conceive of democracy is essential for ensuring measurement validity when using either conventional quantitative or qualitative approaches.


Eleven new Lagynochthonius species from thirteen karst caves of Guizhou Province are described, including detailed diagnosis and illustrations: L. biyunensis sp. nov. from Biyun Cave (Panzhou City), L. guanniuensis sp. nov. from Guanniu Cave (Xifeng County), L. latipectus sp. nov. from Xianren Cave and Shenxian Cave (Jiangkou County), L. longedentatus sp. nov. from Hongbaituo Cave (Ceheng County), L. longyanensis sp. nov. from Longyan Cave (Bozhou District), L. maanensis sp. nov. from Pianxiao Cave (Zheng'an County), L. mawangensis sp. nov. from Mawang Cave (Wuchuan County), L. nigriculus sp. nov. from Yuqiyan Cave and unnamed cave (Weining County), L. tuoluoensis sp. nov. from Tuoluodadong Cave (Shuicheng District), L. xiaoensis sp. nov. from Xiao Cave (Suiyang County) and L. zhijinensis sp. nov. from Long Cave (Zhijin County). All species are endemic to Guizhou. An identification key to all known Lagynochthonius species from China is also provided.


Sport has been one of my passions for a very long time. Whilst never being the fastest or most athletic kid in school, growing up in London, England, my father took me to see my first soccer match at the age of 10. More than a generation later, 1 500+ games, visiting more than 100 stadiums around the world, and having spent a huge portion of my annual salary each year, I think I may have finally kicked my addiction for soccer. These days I am more of an "armchair" TV fan, and embracing a wider range of sports, with the occasional outburst to attend a live event, such as the Springbok test against my home country in Durban recently.


Background: Despite the substantial increase in the number of probiotic products available in the U.S. during the last decade and the potential for millennials to be a large market for probiotics, there is a lack of understanding about millennials' awareness, use, and preference for probiotics. In this study, we examine the relationship between the millennials' health and diet perceptions and health outcomes, estimate awareness and use levels of probiotics among the millennials, and identify the drivers of use of probiotics.Methods: An online opt-in Internet panel is used to collect national level survey data on awareness, and use of probiotics from the U.S. population in the age group of 21 to 37 years old.Results:  The study finds that there is divergence in millennials' perceptions about their health and diet and health outcomes; awareness about probiotics is high and probiotics use is common among the millennials; demographic, socio-economic, and life style related attributes are influential in millennials' decision on the use of probiotics;, and shakes and yogurt are the most preferred carrier forms of probiotics among the millennials. The study also finds that income constraints and perception of good health status are the major factors hindering the use of probiotics among the millennials.Conclusion: The study shows that millennials are already an important market for probiotics and there is substantial scope for expanding that market. The ability of probiotics to address public health concerns will depend greatly on how health care providers and probiotic industry will leverage these high levels of awareness and use by the millennials. Findings from our study provide insights that are helpful for probiotics product and market development and outreach efforts that will result in increased use of probiotics among the millennials with positive implications for public health and overall economy.Keywords: consumer preference, probiotic industry, health policy, shakes, yogurt


This paper reports on the red algae of Rodrigues, collected in the framework of the Shoals of Capricorn Programme (10 September to 5 October 2001). In total 68 species are reported, of which 65 represent new records for the island. Although most taxa represent rather common species, which are generally widespread in the Indian and western Pacific Ocean, some are of special interest to algal systematists and biogeographers. Renouxia antillana is reported for the first time for the Indian Ocean. The presence of Renouxia also constitutes the first record of the order Rhodogorgonales for the entire Indian Ocean. A few species have interesting distribution patterns. Halydictyon sp. is restricted in its distribution to South Africa, Mauritius and Australia. Despite these interesting records, the red algal flora of Rodrigues is most remarkable by the absence of several 'ubiquitous' species.


The primary objective of the Study Leave period last year was to initiate a new body of studio-based research into an ongoing analysis of pictorial space. Following a major survey of artistic output over the last twenty years in early 2009, Zika undertook a major review of that work and potential sites for new field trip study in Europe. The research employs a radical fusion of surface and form, drawing upon various decorative systems within architectural interiors – particularly where the synthesis of architecture, sculpture, painting and applied art are combined in a united scenography. So the field trips concentrated on Baroque, Rococo, Art Nouveau and Islamic sites in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, St Petersburg, Granada, Cordoba, Valencia and Rome.

Paul Zika has been teaching at the Tasmanian School of Art since 1979, and has regular solo exhibitions in Melbourne.


In the global crisis context crossed by organizations and countries in the past six years we assist also at conflicting measures in which regards knowledge, innovation and human capital; for example, countries such as England and France have reduced their costs for education, while Germany and other countries (Australia, Austria, Canada and Norway) maintained the same allocations for education. What will be the effects of such measures on human capital in the near future? What are the best human resources policies in companies in the crisis context? Given that the subject of the research is "knowledge and human capital", in this paper we refer to the induced effects of the crisis on human capital and innovation. We will also identify the key steps that can be taken during crisis, and not only, to stimulate human capital.


A response to a previously published article or letter can be submitted to the Online Correspondence section at http://www.anaesthesiacorrespondence.com. A selection of this correspondence is published several times a year in Anaesthesia.All correspondence intended for publication in Anaesthesia should be addressed to Dr David Bogod, Editor-in-Chief, and submitted as an e-mail attachment to firstname.lastname@example.com. For multi-author letters, a covering letter signed by all authors must be submitted either by post, fax (44 (0) 115 962 7670) or by e-mail as a scanned document before correspondence can be published. Alternatively, letters may be submitted typewritten on one side of paper, double spaced with wide margins to Anaesthesia, 1st Floor, Maternity Unit, Nottingham City Hospital, Hucknall Road, Nottingham, NG5 1PB, UK. All paper submissions must include a signed covering letter, a disc or CD-ROM with a Word for Windows or .rtf version of the letter and an email address for the corresponding author.Copy should be prepared in the usual style of the Correspondence section. Authors must follow the advice about references and other matters contained in the Author Guidelines at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journals/ana/submiss.htm. Correspondence presented in any other style or format will be returned to the author for revision.


Drug-drug interaction (DDI) prediction is a challenging problem in pharmacology and clinical application, and effectively identifying potential DDIs during clinical trials is critical for patients and society. Most of existing computational models with AI techniques often concentrate on integrating multiple data sources and combining popular embedding methods together. Yet, researchers pay less attention to the potential correlations between drug and other entities such as targets and genes. Moreover, recent studies also adopted knowledge graph (KG) for DDI prediction. Yet, this line of methods learn node latent embedding directly, but they are limited in obtaining the rich neighborhood information of each entity in the KG. To address the above limitations, we propose an end-to-end framework, called Knowledge Graph Neural Network (KGNN), to resolve the DDI prediction. Our framework can effectively capture drug and its potential neighborhoods by mining their associated relations in KG. To extract both high-order structures and semantic relations of the KG, we learn from the neighborhoods for each entity in the KG as their local receptive, and then integrate neighborhood information with bias from representation of the current entity. This way, the receptive field can be naturally extended to multiple hops away to model high-order topological information and to obtain drugs potential long-distance correlations. We have implemented our method and conducted experiments based on several widely-used datasets. Empirical results show that KGNN outperforms the classic and state-of-the-art models.


Gnetum is a genus in the Gnetales that has a unique but ambiguous placement within seed plant phylogeny. Previous studies have shown that Gnetum has lower values of photosynthetic characters than those of other seed plants, but few Gnetum species have been studied, and those that have been studied are restricted to narrow taxonomic and geographic ranges. In addition, the mechanism underlying the lower values of photosynthetic characters in Gnetum remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the photosynthetic characters of a Chinese lianoid species, i.e., Gnetum parvifolium, and co-occurring woody angiosperms growing in the wild, as well as seedlings of five Chinese Gnetum species cultivated in a greenhouse. The five Gnetum species had considerably lower values for photosynthesis parameters (net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, intercellular CO2 concentration, and stomatal conductance) than those of other seed plant representatives. Interrelated analyses revealed that the low photosynthetic capacity may be an intrinsic property of Gnetum, and may be associated with its evolutionary history. Comparison of the chloroplast genomes (cpDNAs) of Gnetum with those of other seed plant representatives revealed that 17 coding genes are absent from the cpDNAs of all species of Gnetum. This lack of multiple functional genes from the cpDNAs probably leads to the low photosynthetic rates of Gnetum. Our results provide a new perspective on the evolutionary history of the Gnetales, and on the ecophysiological and genomic attributes of tropical biomes in general. These results could also be useful for the breeding and cultivation of Gnetum.


We develop SHOPPER, a sequential probabilistic model of market baskets. SHOPPER uses interpretable components to model the forces that drive how a customer chooses products; in particular, we designed SHOPPER to capture how items interact with other items. We develop an efficient posterior inference algorithm to estimate these forces from large-scale data, and we analyze a large dataset from a major chain grocery store. We are interested in answering counterfactual queries about changes in prices. We found that SHOPPER provides accurate predictions even under price interventions, and that it helps identify complementary and substitutable pairs of products.


Purpose

The current focus on air tight construction to minimise energy use in homes in the UK requires analysis of the behaviour of the occupants. The purpose of this paper is to review current literature and explore the methods used to dry clothes, to assess current standards and recommendation for the drying of laundry in new homes and the issues arising with increased moisture within the building envelope where there may be inadequate ventilation caused by impermeable design.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature is reviewed on new housing in the UK and as part of a wider study of behaviour questionnaires were delivered to occupants of a recently completed housing estate in the UK to ask the questions with regard to their laundry practice.

Findings

There are inherent problems in drying laundry in new air tight homes. This case study identifies 95 per cent of residents on a new estate own a tumble dryer and use either this high energy method for clothes drying or hang clothes internally within the property leading to higher energy use or potential mould growth.

Research limitations/implications

Further research is required into how drying laundry impacts on internal air quality in new homes designed to be energy efficient.

Practical implications

The design of new houses needs to be considered to provide a shift in people's behaviour with regard to low energy clothes drying.

Social implications

Policy and regulation need to be changed urgently to ensure new homes are fit for purpose with regards to laundry drying.

Originality/value

Other research has focussed on tenants in social housing in properties of mixed ages. This is the first study which focusses specifically on new energy efficient housing for owner occupiers.


Robot intelligence has become a major focus of intelligent robotics. Recent innovation in computational intelligence including fuzzy learning, neural networks, evolutionary computation and classical Artificial Intelligence provides sufficient theoretical and experimental foundations for enabling robots to undertake a variety of tasks with reasonable performance. This book reflects the recent advances in the field from an advanced knowledge processing perspective; there have been attempts to solve knowledge based information explosion constraints by integrating computational intelligence in the robotics context.


We live in a dangerous world. Numerous hazards can strike us down from infectious diseases and genetic disorders to food poisoning and car crashes. Furthermore, the advances in information technology enable consumers to be more aware of these problems as the latest data on new hazards is spun around the world in a matter of seconds. As part of the opinion forming sector (as a think tank researcher and opinion editorial writer) Roger Bate has contributed to this information exchange. His writing over the past five years, as reflected in this book, has focussed on 5 key themes: 1. Hazards are as likely to come from natural as from man-made substances. 2. The linear no-threshold hypothesis is rubbish (i.e. the dose makes the poison). 3. An entire industry has developed to scare us into stopping certain activities, or making us feel guilty for continuing them, or lobbying to have them banned by government. 4. The public are quite capable of making decisions that involve complex trade-offs if only we would let them; indeed not letting them causes enormous problems as government bodies do not have the dispersed knowledge to do this, and are subject to interest group pressure. 5. There are innumerable benefits, as well as costs, from risk taking. Most articles concerning risk avoid mentioning any of the above five themes. The articles for this book were originally published in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economic Affairs, and The Sunday Times. An introduction will draw all the articles together.


Ecological research into rodents in New Zealand commenced in the late 1940s with the creation of the Animal Ecology Section, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). Field surveys of rodents were backed by study skins and skeletal material. Supplemented by specimens from the Wildlife Service and the public, these accrued over the next 45 years laying the foundation for our present knowledge of rodent distribution. In 1951, J. S. Watson joined the DSIR from the Bureau of Animal Population, Oxford, and brought much needed experience in rodent biology and control. Publications followed on the identification, distribution and interrelations of rodents with native fauna, but such research waned temporarily following his death in 1959. In the early 1960s, Forest & Bird Protection Society members and the Wildlife Service used pre-packaged warfarin baits to control rats on small islands in the Hauraki Gulf, but the full significance of these operations was not understood for many years, it being widely held that complete extermination of rats was impossible. The 1964 ship rat invasion of Big South Cape Island and subsequent extinctions of endemic birds and bats sent shock waves through conservation circles and led to an increased interest in the ecology of rodents and their impact on native species. The mid-1960s saw the start of intensive research into Norway and ship rats. The next decade was one of intensified research culminating in the historic 1976 Department of Lands and Survey symposium on the Ecology and Control of Rodents in New Zealand Nature Reserves, further boosting interest in rodent distribution, food habits, reproduction, dispersal ability, interspecific competition, interactions with other species, and the steady development of eradication techniques now employed worldwide.


The aim of this thesis is to increase engine efficiency by studying the flow structures created in an engine cylinder during the intake phase and the effect of the subsequent compression.The invention of the combustion engine has enabled three centuries of economic growth fueled by energy stored as hydrocarbons. However, during the latter part of the twentieth century negative consequences on health and environment of the combustion engine were observed. In order to reduce emissions without increasing fuel consumption, improved knowledge of all physical processes occurring in the engine are necessary. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the flow prior to combustion, which can lead to reduced engine emissions and fuel consumption.Intake flow structures are studied using large eddy simulations and experiments on a steady swirl test rig. Flow acceleration was observed to reduce the swirl coefficient, and higher swirl coefficient was found during valve closing as compared to during valve opening. This implies that the rotation is stronger during the later part of the intake then what has been previously assumed. In addition, the computations show that the volume above the valves has a profound effect on the swirl created during the intake. To take this into account a novel way of calculating the swirl number was suggested. This approach gives a lower swirl number as compared to the commonly used Thien methodology. The effects of compression are studied using simulations of predefined flow structures undergoing compression. The peak turbulence levels were found to be increasing with tumble number and decreasing with swirl. It was noted that compression increased the turbulent fluctuations in the cylinder axis leading to anisotropic turbulence and that a small tilt angle was observed to have a significant effect on swirl homogeneity at top dead center. In this thesis, a new methodology was proposed and validated for calculation of in-cylinder turbulence for a flat piston.The results of the thesis enhance the understanding of the dynamic effects encountered during intake as well recognizing that a small tumble component has a strong effect on the flow structures prior to combustion. These results can be used to improve the simplified computational methods used to optimize the engine.


ZnO thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on three different substrates: sapphire (0 0 0 1), MgO (1 0 0) and fused silica (FS). The structure and morphology of the films were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy and defect studies were carried out using slow positron implantation spectroscopy (SPIS). Films deposited on all substrates studied in this work exhibit the wurtzite ZnO structure and are characterized by an average crystallite size of 20–100 nm. However, strong differences in the microstructure of films deposited on various substrates were found. The ZnO films deposited on MgO and sapphire single-crystalline substrates exhibit local epitaxy, i.e. a well-defined relation between film crystallites and the substrate. Domains with different orientation relationships with the substrate were found in both films. On the other hand, the film deposited on the FS substrate exhibits fibre texture with random lateral orientation of crystallites. Extremely high compressive in-plane stress of σ ∼ 14 GPa was determined in the film deposited on the MgO substrate, while the film deposited on sapphire is virtually stress-free, and the film deposited on the FS substrate exhibits a tensile in-plane stress of σ ∼ 0.9 GPa. SPIS investigations revealed that the concentration of open-volume defects in the ZnO films is substantially higher than that in a bulk ZnO single crystal. Moreover, the ZnO films deposited on MgO and sapphire single-crystalline substrates exhibit a significantly higher density of defects than the film deposited on the amorphous FS substrate.


The paper examines the evolution of environmental policy and law in India and the dominant influences that defined the course of policy. It identifies four distinct phases – the colonial and immediate post-colonial phase, the second phase commencing from the UN Conference on Human Environment in 1972, the Bhopal Gas leak disaster marking the milestone for the third phase and judicial activism extending over two decades as the fourth phase. In the initial colonial and post-colonial phase, environment policy was centered around State rights over forests and usage of forest produce. The dominant themes were revenue accretion and usage of forest products to fulfill development needs specifically in the spread of the railways and communication network. The post-colonial phase immediately after Independence in 1947 did not see a significant shift from the colonial period. The UN Conference on Human Environment in 1972 marked a significant milestone that changed the course of environment policy forever. The presence and participation of the Prime Minister of India in the Conference deliberations brought an immediate response in Government's focus towards conservation actions. The period from 1972 to 1980 saw a large number of legislations being enacted. The Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster was a defining movement in India's environmental history. The inadequacy of the governance structure in prevention of the disaster, the inability of legal and administrative processes to deliver adequate compensation to the affected people and stirring of public consciousness about the threats posed by environmental negligence came together to reshape environmental policy. A chemical leak incident in the national capital shortly after the Bhopal disaster and the death of a practicing advocate in the incident became the trigger for judicial involvement in environmental matters. The source of policy developments in environment decisively shifted from an elected political executive to an unelected judiciary. International debates on climate change in recent years and commitments to abatement measures appeared only at the fringes of policy discussions. The paper narrates the progression of environment policy and law in India in each of these phases.


Much of South African psychology has pursued the national imperative of critical engagement and reconstruction since 1994, in spite of collusion with Apartheid ideologies before 1994. Critical psychologists who mobilised against apartheid were also active post-1994 in reshaping the discipline and profession. Many of these efforts were directed towards curriculum development to attempt to challenge the dominance of western and northern scholarship in psychology by developing multiple texts that represented local experiences and challenged traditional asocial and ahistorical thinking in psychology. This paper presents critical thoughts on contemporary psychology in higher education, with a particular focus on progress made in curriculum transformation and demographic representativity, to interrogate the extent to which the profession continues to reproduce existing patterns of privilege and inclusion/exclusion. We suggest that considering curriculum as discourse which acts to reproduce larger power relations in society, may be a useful approach to think about inclusion and transformation of the curriculum in psychology.


The effects of the growth of multinational enterprises and globalization in the past fifty years have been profound, and many multinational enterprises, such as international banks, now operate around the world through branches known as permanent establishments. The business profits article (Article 7) of the OECD model tax treaty attributes a multinational enterprise's business profits to a permanent establishment in a host country for tax purposes. Michael Kobetsky analyses the principles for allocating the profits of multinational enterprises to permanent establishments under this article, explains the shortcomings of the current arm's length principle for attributing business profits to permanent establishments and considers the alternative method of formulary apportionment for allocating business profits.


After a brief review of classical, Keynesian, New Classical and New Keynesian theories of macroeconomic policy, we assess whether New Keynesian Economics captures the quintessential features stressed by J.M. Keynes. Particular attention is paid to Keynesian features omitted in New Keynesian workhorses such as the micro-founded Keynesian multiplier and the New Keynesian Phillips curve. These theories capture wage and price sluggishness and aggregate demand externalities by departing from a competitive framework and give a key role to expectations. The main deficiencies, however, are the inability to predict a pro-cyclical real wage in the face of demand shocks, the absence of inventories, credit constraints and bankruptcies in explaining the business cycle, and no effect of the nominal as well as the real interest rate on aggregate demand. Furthermore, they fail to allow for quantity rationing and to model unemployment as a catastrophic event. The macroeconomics based on the New Keynesian Phillips curve has quite a way to go before the quintessential Keynesian features are captured.


In the twentieth century, American society has experienced a "rights revolution": a commitment by the national government to promote a healthful environment, safe products, freedom from discrimination, and other rights unknown to the founding generation. This development has profoundly affected constitutional democracy by skewing the original understanding of checks and balances, federalism, and individual rights. Cass Sunstein tells us how it is possible to interpret and reform this regulatory state regime in a way that will enhance freedom and welfare while remaining faithful to constitutional commitments.Sunstein vigorously defends government regulation against Reaganite/Thatcherite attacks based on free-market economics and pre-New Deal principles of private right. Focusing on the important interests in clean air and water, a safe workplace, access to the air waves, and protection against discrimination, he shows that regulatory initiatives have proved far superior to an approach that relies solely on private enterprise. Sunstein grants that some regulatory regimes have failed and calls for reforms that would amount to an American perestroika: a restructuring that embraces the use of government to further democratic goals but that insists on the decentralization and productive potential of private markets.Sunstein also proposes a theory of interpretation that courts and administrative agencies could use to secure constitutional goals and to improve the operation of regulatory programs. From this theory he seeks to develop a set of principles that would synthesize the modern regulatory state with the basic premises of the American constitutional system. Teachers of law, policymakers and political scientists, economists and historians, and a general audience interested in rights, regulation, and government will find this book an essential addition to their libraries.


Incorporating previously overlooked materials, including tribal council records, oral histories, and reservation newspapers, "Ruling Pine Ridge" explores the political history of South Dakotas Oglala Lakota reservation during the mid-twentieth century. Akim D. Reinhardt examines the reservations transition from the direct colonialism of the pre-1934 era to the indirect colonial policies of the controversial Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) and the advent of the tribal council governing system still in place today on Pine Ridge and on many other reservations. Reinhardt demonstrates how conflicting political values foregrounded by the new governing format led to an aggravation of social divisions on the reservation and eventually came to a head in 1973 with the occupation and siege of Wounded Knee. The siege is best understood, he claims, not as a political stunt of the American Indian Movement (AIM) but as a spontaneous, grassroots protest at least forty years in the making.


The Little Diet which makes a significant episode in the history of Lithuanian parliamentarism was established by the Constituent Assembly on 22 October 1920 after the country was exposed to the danger of the Polish aggression. The article considers the prerequisites for the origination of the institution, analyses the provisions of the law on the establishment of the Diet with an emphasis on the fact that the Diet was established solely to fill in the break of the Constituent Assembly which occurred as a result of the war, when in the face of a threat for the country the functioning of the State powers had to be co-ordinated better, to operate more flexibly and actively. The Little Diet was authorized by the Constituent Assembly with nearly full jurisdiction, except for the constituent powers in defining the basics of the state and the ratification of international agreements. In setting up the Little Diet which consisted of seven members, the interfraction proportion of the Constituent Assembly was preserved. The article surveys an almost three–month–long history of the Little Diet.


First Year Healthy purports to be the story of a young woman, recently released from the hospital after an outburst, and her burgeoning relationship with an odd, perhaps criminal Turkish immigrant. In a scant thirty-two pages, working with a vibrant, otherworldly palette of magentas, yellows, and greys, Michael DeForge brings to life a world whose shifting realities are as treacherous as the thin ice its narrator walks on. First Year Healthy is all it appears to be and more: a parable about mental illness, a folk tale about magical cats, and a bizarre, compelling story about relationships. Michael DeForge's singular voice and vision have, in a few short years, rocketed his work to the apex of the contemporary comics canon. Ant Colony was his first book with Drawn and Quarterly: it appeared on the New York Times Graphic Bestseller list and was lauded by the Chicago Tribune, Globe and Mail, and Harper's Magazine. His effortless storytelling and eye for striking page design make each page of First Year Healthy a fascinating puzzle to be unravelled. First Year Healthy is knotty and mysterious - it demands to be read and reread.


ABSTRACT The article responds to the article by Weinberg in this issue. She traces the trajectory of court hearings concerning the contested inheritance of land in Botswana, which, after several prior judgements eventually resulted in a positive outcome for the woman litigants. I acknowledge the author's key argument, which concerns the impact of power relations on the construction of customary law and the reproduction of knowledge in the courts. Certain versions of "custom" were promoted and others stilled to the disadvantage of women. I argue that the normative patterns of landholding are indeed gendered, but do not result in a binary structure of men and women. "Gender" should be disaggregated to take into account a range of status criteria within and across the categories of male and female in order to understand the differential impact of social relations on the outcomes of property struggles. The normative lines of property transmission frequently follow a logic of "family property" that allows for qualifying women to rights of property. Family property has vastly different social and legal consequences to private, individualised property rights. The corollary is that it is misleading to speak of the processes of succession to rights of access to, and control of customary property in terms of one-to-one "inheritance" of land. The concept of "living law" inadequately reflects these social dynamics.


The purpose of this chapter is to identify the moral norms applicable to killing in armed conflict and determine whether and to what extent the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and international criminal law (ICL) track these moral norms, justifiably depart from them, or unjustifiably depart from them. Part I explores the moral and legal norms governing the killing of civilians not directly participating in hostilities, both as an intended means and as a foreseen side-effect, and defends one account of these norms against important philosophical challenges by Thomas Scanlon, Victor Tadros, Frances Kamm, and Jeff McMahan. I argue that these moral norms are best understood and defended using the distinctions drawn in criminal law theory between wrongdoing, justifiability, and justification. The LOAC tracks these moral norms quite closely. By contrast, ICL departs from these moral norms in ways that are difficult to defend, in part because ICL seems to mistakenly assign intention a wrong-making rather than a wrong-justifying function. The balance of the chapter examines the moral and legal norms governing the killing of civilians directly participating in hostilities as well as of members of armed forces and organized armed groups. Part II attempts to identify the conditions under which individuals lose their moral immunity from direct attack, partly by critically examining an analogy drawn by Jeff McMahan between these conditions and the legal doctrine of criminal complicity. Both the LOAC and ICL generally track these conditions fairly closely, but both should be revised to prohibit direct attacks on members of armed forces whom the attacker knows are not directly participating in hostilities and have not assumed a 'continuous combat function'. Finally, Part III argues that moral constraints of necessity and proportionality limit the use of force even against individuals who are morally liable to direct attack. Several arguments to the effect that the LOAC and ICL may justifiably fail to enforce these moral constraints are examined and found unpersuasive.


Bias of ring-laser-gyroscope (RLG) changes with temperature in a nonlinear way. This is an important restraining factor for improving the accuracy of RLG. Considering the limitations of least-squares regression and neural network, we propose a new method of temperature compensation of RLG bias-building function regression model using least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). Static and dynamic temperature experiments of RLG bias are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Moreover, the traditional least-squares regression method is compared with the LS-SVM-based method. The results show the maximum error of RLG bias drops by almost two orders of magnitude after static temperature compensation, while bias stability of RLG improves by one order of magnitude after dynamic temperature compensation. Thus, the proposed method reduces the influence of temperature variation on the bias of the RLG effectively and improves the accuracy of the gyro scope considerably.


In this work, we evaluate performance of a real-world image processing application that uses a cross-correlation algorithm to compare a given image with a reference one. The algorithm processes individual images represented as 2-dimensional matrices of single-precision floating-point values using Θ(n) operations involving dot-products and additions. We implement this algorithm on a NVIDIA Fermi GPU (Tesla 2050) using CUDA, and also manually parallelize it for the Intel Xeon X5680 (Westmere) and IBM Power7 multi-core processors. Pthreads and OpenMP with SSE and VSX vector intrinsics are used for the manually parallelized version on the multi-core CPUs. A number of optimizations were performed for the GPU implementation on the Fermi, including blocking for Fermi's configurable on-chip memory architecture. Experimental results illustrate that on a single multi-core processor, the manually parallelized versions of the correlation application perform only a small order of factor slower than the CUDA version executing on the Fermi – 1.005s on Power7, 3.49s on Intel X5680, and 465ms on Fermi. On a two-processor Power7 system, performance approaches that of the Fermi (650ms), while the Intel version runs in 1.78s. These results conclusively demonstrate that performance of the GPU memory subsystem is critical to effectively harness its computational capabilities. For the correlation application, a significantly higher amount of effort was put into developing the GPU version when compared to the CPU ones (several days against few hours). Our experience presents compelling evidence that performance comparable to that of GPUs can be achieved with much greater productivity on modern multicore CPUs.


Speaker identification based on voice input is a fundamental capability in speech processing enabling versatile downstream applications, such as personalization and authentication. With the advent of deep learning, most state-of-the-art methods apply machine learning techniques and derive acoustic embeddings from utterances with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs). This paper addresses two inherent limitations of current approaches. First, voice characteristics over long time spans might not be fully captured by CNNs and RNNs, as they are designed to focus on local feature extraction and adjacent dependencies modeling, respectively. Second, complex deep learning models can be fragile with regard to subtle but intentional changes in model inputs, also known as adversarial perturbations. To distill informative global acoustic embedding representations from utterances and be robust to adversarial perturbations, we propose a Self-Attentive Adversarial Speaker-Identification method (SAASI). In experiments on the VCTK dataset, SAASI significantly outperforms four state-of-the-art baselines in identifying both known and new speakers. Keywords— Self-attention, adversarial training, speaker identification in households


A fuzzy knowledge-based network is developed based on the linguistic rules extracted from a fuzzy decision tree. A scheme for automatic linguistic discretization of continuous attributes, based on quantiles, is formulated. A novel concept for measuring the goodness of a decision tree, in terms of its compactness (size) and efficient performance, is introduced. Linguistic rules are quantitatively evaluated using new indices. The rules are mapped to a fuzzy knowledge-based network, incorporating the frequency of samples and depth of the attributes in the decision tree. New fuzziness measures, in terms of class memberships, are used at the node level of the tree to take care of overlapping classes. The effectiveness of the system, in terms of recognition scores, structure of decision tree, performance of rules, and network size, is extensively demonstrated on three sets of real-life data.


Abstract Natural selection has imbued biological agents with motivations moving them to act for survival and reproduction, as well as to learn so as to support both. Artificial agents also require motivations to act in a goal-directed manner and to learn appropriately into various memories. Here we present a biologically inspired motivation system, based on feelings (including emotions) integrated within the LIDA cognitive architecture at a fundamental level. This motivational system, operating within LIDA's cognitive cycle, provides a repertoire of motivational capacities operating over a range of time scales of increasing complexity. These include alarms, appraisal mechanisms, appetence and aversion, and deliberation and planning.


Using the case study of Slovakia, this article considers the role of the state in the rapid growth of the automotive industry in integrated peripheral markets of the global automotive industry. Although this growth has been mainly driven by the investment strategies of automotive lead firms, the state has played an important role by accommodating the strategic needs of foreign capital through neoliberal economic policies. In addition to secondary sources, the empirical research is based on a 2010 survey of 299 Slovak-based automotive firms with a response rate of 44% and on 38 on-site firm-level interviews conducted between 2011 and 2013 and one in 2005. The analysis draws upon approaches in economic geography, international political economy and upon global value chains and global production networks perspectives to argue that the successful development of the automotive industry in Slovakia has been achieved at the expense of its overwhelming dependence on foreign capital and corporate capture. The article considers the potential consequences of dependent industrial development for the domestic automotive industry and its position in the international division of labor.


We introduce a class of systems that motivate and aid users to think and write about their personal experiences by presenting them with similar first-person narratives, which allows them to reflect on the connection between their experience and the story presented. These systems rely upon the narrative intelligence of humans to establish the relevance connections, and so can make use of story indexing techniques which do not require the system to have full story understanding. We present the Victorian Laptop, an implementatio n of such a system in the domain of travelogue. This system is designed to give users a richer connection to a place that they are visiting, and deeper engagement with their own experience of that site, by presenting them with first-person travelogues, which allows them to reflect on the connection between their own travel and the travel of others who have come before.


The Durness Group of northwest Scotland represents a nearly one-kilometer-thick succession of mid-Cambrian to lower Middle Ordovician carbonates. These rocks crop out in a narrow belt along the foreland of the Caledonian orogen and in the Moine Thrust zone, stretching some 170 km from Loch Eriboll southwestwards to the Isle of Skye. The Cambrian parts of the succession represent deposition on a paleo-southeast-facing, low-latitude, passively subsiding continental margin, situated at around 20° S. Carbonate deposition in Scotland formed part of the extensive Great American Carbonate Bank. The Sauk II–III supersequence boundary occurs above an interval of thin, meter-scale shallowing-upward peritidal cycles containing intraclast dolorudstones, stromatolites, tepees, siliciclastic sand, and surface karst. Evidence of former evaporites in the succession comprises pseudomorphs of nodular and bedded anhydrite, crystal-shaped calcite-filled vugs representing growth of sulfate, dissolution breccias, and local halite casts. These features represent sabkha facies arranged into cycles that constitute a preserved falling-stage systems tract (FSST). The top of the FSST is marked by a pronounced karst surface of sandstone-filled fissures. The section preserves a rare snapshot of a seldom-preserved environment on the Cambrian Laurentian margin. Its preservation during a time of falling relative sea level under slow tectonic subsidence is discussed.


This article studies the depiction of Chinese miners in the Ghanaian news website entitled Modern Ghana. A total of 87 articles comprising 43752 words were retrieved. Van Leeuwen's (2008) theory of the representation of the social actors was utilised to examine the depiction of Chinese miners in the Ghanaian press. In this regard, six applicable tools were used and these include exclusion, role allocation, genericization and specification, assimilation, indetermination and differentiation, and functionalization and identification. Furthermore, Van Dijk's (1998a) ideological square theory was also implemented to investigate the depiction of the Self and the Other. The results of the study indicated that the Chinese miners in Ghana are regularly depicted in a negative way because they are believed to be a direct cause for the killing of several Ghanaians and also the destruction of the Ghanaian environment. It is hoped that this research, with its multifaceted analysis of discourse, will provide awareness to readers regarding the way certain social actors are represented in media discourse.


This essay comprises two sections. The first one presents and explains the proposal to broaden the meaning and scope of "intese" (agreements) between the State and minority denominations. "Broadened intese" is the label employed here to define the attempt to align the "intese" with both the generally pluralistic aspirations of the Italian Constitution and the need for the hetero-integration of national legal systems stemming from globalization processes. The device of hetero-integration is, in turn, strictly related to freedom and, even more specifically, religious freedom. The proposal for "broadened intese" is motivated, moreover, by the need to develop an instrument for legal intercultural integration that is more powerful than private international law. This use of "intese" should function as a means to promote and implement a value-based pluralism rather than a merely inter-legal or inter-normative one, so as to further the legal inclusion of cultural and religious differences.In the second section, the topic of religious and cultural difference is analyzed with regard to the request from the UAAR, an Italian atheist/agnostic association, to conclude their own "intesa." In the framework of the survey on the intercultural use of "intese," the examination of this request from the atheist organization and the subsequent refusal of the State serves to highlight the connections extant between legal secular culture and religious tradition in the Italian legal system as well as, comparatively, in other legal systems. The "atheist difference," actually, proves to be a radical one. In this respect, it allows for a strengthening, by reflection, of the argument for broadening the scope of "intese" in order to guarantee both religious freedom and equality before law.