If you're like many users, you may just now be figuring out what Apple may have neglected to mention: A built-in movie studio-in the form of the free iMovie and iDVD apps included in Mac OS X-does not a moviemaker make. This book, however, does! Realizing that you won't want to waste a single minute reading about all you can do with iMovie and iDVD, best-selling author Jeff Carlson cuts straight to the chase in this compact, low-priced volume, using simple project-based instruction and big, colorful screen shots to guide you through the process of making your first movie with iMovie and iDVD. By focusing on a single goal (making that first movie) rather than exploring every option and feature, Jeff demonstrates the quickest, easiest, smartest route to cinematic success. Each short lesson builds on the last as you learn how to shoot, edit, and produce your own movies and then distribute them on DVDs to share with friends, family, and colleagues.


In development of any country depends upon higher educational status. India is fast growing country in the field of education and technology. Most of IT engineers are deputed in world's most IT companies. It has been possible because of strong development higher education system in India. This paper focuses on the comparative study of higher educational universities located in Haryana and Punjab. The findings of this paper explores that government has emphasized on privatization of higher education in two states.


Following our analysis of institutional categorisations of teacher education in England, we extended our interests to the practical activities in which teacher educators engage - the tasks and the material conditions that constitute their work - in England and also in Scotland, where a very different policy environment for teacher education has evolved historically. We constructed a sample of 13 university-based teacher educators (8 in England, 5 in Scotland), a sample that nonetheless can claim to represent the range of teacher educators according to recent statistical data (HESA 2009) - gender balance, age, range of experience and expertise, institution-type in our sample reflects the demographics of the sector as a whole (Mills et al 2006). Throughout the 2009 - 2010 academic year, we generated data with our sample participants in the following ways: telephone interviews to elicit life histories and perspectives on the material conditions of work; completion of work diaries for two different seven day periods at key points in the academic year; observation of the teacher educator at work for at least one full day. In this paper, we focus on the quantitative analysis of the work diary data (completed by each participant in increments of one hour over two separate weeks), supplemented by field notes from our observations. Lists of the activities of the teacher educators as they had recorded them on the work diaries were made by two members of the research team. This process resulted in a total of 70 items, which contained numerous duplications. The two lists were then reviewed, and items grouped into a reduced number of 32 categories, from which a final combined list of ten job dimensions was agreed. Statistical analyses were made to ensure that comparisons of the two sets of diaries would be reliable and to check for significance (t-tests). To exemplify this in the terms of our data, seven participants (or 54 per cent of the sample) carried out zero hours of research, whereas everyone undertook a measure of relationship maintenance. Relationship maintenance accounted for both the highest maximum individual allocation of hours, as well as the highest minimum individual allocation of hours. Although there were no differences observed between English and Scottish teacher educators in the sample (working in very different policy environments), this finding suggests there may be implications for policy in other national systems that seek essentially school-based but university-partnered teacher education programmes.


In recent years, the particle filter has gained prominence in the area of target tracking because it is robust to non-linear target motion and non-Gaussian additive noise. Traditional track filters, such as the Kalman filter, have been well studied for linear tracking applications, but perform poorly for non-linear applications. The particle filter has been shown to perform well in non-linear applications. The particle filter method is computationally intensive and advances in processor speed and computational power have allowed this method to be implemented in real-time tracking applications. This thesis explores the use of particle filters to detect and track stealthy targets in noisy imagery. Simulated point targets are applied to noisy image data to create an image sequence. A particle filter method known as Track-Before-Detect is developed and used to provide detection and position tracking estimates of a single target as it moves in the image sequence. This method is then extended to track multiple moving targets. The method is analyzed to determine its performance for targets of varying signal-to-noise ratio and for varying particle set sizes. The simulation results show that the Track-Before-Detect method offers a reliable solution for tracking stealthy targets in noisy imagery. The analysis shows that the proper selection of particle set size and algorithm improvements will yield a filter that can track targets in low signal-to-noise environments. The multi-target simulation results show that the method can be extended successfully to multi-target tracking applications. This thesis is a continuation of automatic target recognition and target tracking research at Cal Poly under Dr. John Saghri and is sponsored by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.


A prominent motive for corporate venture capital (CVC) is the identification of entrepreneurial-firm acquisition opportunities. Consistent with this view, we find that one of every five startups purchased by 61 top corporate investors from 1987 through 2003 is a venture portfolio company of its acquirer. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that takeovers of portfolio companies destroy significant value for shareholders of acquisitive CVC investors, even though these same investors are "good acquirers" of other entrepreneurial firms. We explore numerous explanations for these puzzling findings, which seem rooted in managerial overconfidence or agency problems at the program level.


Silicone oil, a lubricant in pharmaceutical containers, has been implicated as a risk factor for protein formulations because of its tendency to cause protein aggregation and/or particulate generation. Due to a lack of published data in this area, it is not clear as to what extent this risk can be generalized across protein pharmaceuticals. A fundamental understanding of the factors that influence protein-silicone oil interactions can help in better understanding the implied risks to drug product stability. The technique of quartz crystal microbalance with silicone coated quartz crystals, mimicking the lubricated syringe surface, was used for the studies. The frequency (F) and resistance (R) signals were measured to determine the mass adsorbed and property of adsorbed layer, respectively. The effect of processing parameters on the physical stability of silicone oil coating against leaching was studied. The application of an optimized silicone amount and using silicone of higher viscosity significantly improved the coating stability. Adsorption studies for a Fc-fusion protein as a function of solution pH (3.0-9.0) at 10 and 150 mM ionic strength indicated the role of both electrostatic and hydrophobic forces in governing protein adsorption at silicone oil/water interface. The adsorption of the protein caused a small change in the R value, and was irreversible to a significant extent. This rigidity suggested strong protein-silicone oil interactions, potentially resulting from the Nitin Dixit University of Connecticut, 2013 protein denaturation at the hydrophobic interface. The inability of the nonionic surfactants to displace the adsorbed protein, when studied in sequential mode, supported this argument. However, surfactants were effective in reducing the interfacial protein adsorption when present as pre-adsorbed species. The total mass adsorbed at silicone oil/water interface from a mixture of protein and surfactant implied the absence of surfactant binding to protein as a mechanism in affecting the interfacial protein adsorption. The lack of any measurable binding between protein and surfactant in the bulk, using dynamic surface tension studies, supported this hypothesis. The overall results demonstrated that controlling the variables related to silicone oil is important to reduce the free silicone oil in a formulation, and how favorable solution conditions could be chosen to minimize the protein-silicone oil interactions. Investigation of Factors Affecting Protein-Silicone Oil Interactions


There is currently much talk of the private sector role in nutrition, and whether the state can better 'shape' the market to deliver nutritional outcomes. This article introduces an issue of the IDS Bulletin which presents research findings in this area developed by the consortium of research partners under the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) programme. It is the first attempt at nutrition-oriented whole value chain research in South Asia, studying the supply and demand side of the agri-food chain. It explores existing (or potential) agri-food value chain pathways to deliver nutritious foods to vulnerable populations in South Asia, as well as the role that both public and private actors have, in enhancing these value chains. It provides evidence on what is working and what is not; policy recommendations for the role and use of market-based interventions for nutrition-related challenges; and suggests a new agenda for research.


One of the core issues in the debate on a future Constitution within the framework of the European Convention was the reform of competences. On 29 October 2004, the Heads of State or Government signed the outcome of the reform process, the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. With regard to the fundamentals of the competence system, namely the attribution and control of competences, as well as the definition of competence categories, the Constitutional Treaty essentially codifies the present acquis communautaire. In the field of external action, however, it introduces significant amendments that might have a considerable impact on the balance of powers within the European Union. This paper analyses these changes. It looks at the potential implications of the institutional amendments regarding the new post of the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs and the strengthened role of the European Council, as well as the newly defined principles and objectives of the Union's external action. Further emphasis is placed on the scope of the Union's external powers following the incorporation of the principle of implied powers, as well as an analysis of the individual competence provisions in Title V of the Constitutional Treaty. (author's abstract)


Limestones are particularly susceptible to drastic early diagenetic modifications, either during or shortly after deposition or during periods of subaerial exposure. Tracing the depth to which the vadose zone penetrated along the sea level notch-opening and combining petrographic results, stable isotope data and carbon-14 dating, studies from the limestones, i.e. beachrock, marine hardground and elevated reef limestone in the Celebes Sea, east of Sabah, Malaysia suggest that the sea level fluctuated approximately ~ 1.0 m above/below modern MSL in Holocene. Blocky calcite mosaic with meniscus fabric from elevated reef islands that have been already exposed between 32,845 and 20,770 years BP, gives depleted values for δ18O and δ13C, suggesting a mixing between an original signature and a soil-derived meteoric signature and meteoric water in origin. The formation of beachrock at the intertidal zone between 3,840 to 2,660 years BP, with meniscus fabric of aragonite cement, confirmed this interpretation.


Most of TSVs are filled with the copper, even siliconpoly and tungsten are the alternatives. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of copper (~17.5x10-6/degC) is a few times higher than that of silicon (~2.5x10-6/degC). Thus, when the copper filled TSV is subjected to temperature loadings, there is a very large local thermal expansion mismatch between the copper and the silicon/dielectric (e.g., SiO2), which will create very large stresses and strains at the interfaces between the copper and the silicon and between the copper and the dielectric. These stresses/strains can be high enough to introduce delamination between the interfaces. In this study, the nonlinear thermal stresses and strains at the interfaces between the copper, silicon, and dielectric have been determined for a wide-range of aspect ratios (of the silicon thickness and the TSV diameter). One of the major applications of TSV is as an interposer. Because of Moore's (scaling/integration) law, the silicon chip is getting bigger, the pin-out is getting higher, and the pitch is getting finer. Thus, the conventional substrates, e.g., BT (bismaleimide triazine) cannot support these kinds of silicon chips anymore and a silicon interposer (substrate) is needed to redistribute the very fine-pitch and high pin-count pads on the chip to much larger pitch and less pin-count through the silicon vias on the silicon substrate. Depending on the via-size and pitch of the copper filled TSV, the effective CTE of the copper filled TSV interposer could be as high as 10x10-6/degC. Consequently, the global thermal expansion mismatch between the silicon chip and the copper filled TSV substrate can be very large and the bumps (usually very small, e.g., microbumps) between them may not be able to survive under thermal conditions. In this study, the nonlinear stresses and strains in the microbumps between the silicon chip and copper filled TSV interposer (with and without underfills) have been determined for a wide-range of via sizes and pitches, and various temperature conditions. These results should be useful for (1) making a decision if underfills are necessary for the reliability of microbumps, and (2) selecting underfill materials to minimize the stresses and strains in the microbumps.


We present a simple analytical solution for a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The analysis permits calculating the depletion efficiency of the OPO even when the resonated signal (or idler) suffers from strong intracavity losses. The main results are (1) that the maximum efficiency as a function of the pump power is highly dependent on the mirror reflectivity and on the intracavity losses; (2) that the threshold intensity and the pump intensity at which maximum efficiency is reached depend on the reflectivity, and the ratio between the two intensities maintains the relation 1⩽I3max/Ith⩽π2/4; and (3) that the maximum efficiency for a Gaussian beam is 70%.


. Corpus may be considered as fuel for the data driven approaches of machine translation. Parallel corpus building is a labour intensive task, which makes it a costly and scarce resource. Full potential of available data needs to be exploited and this can be ensured by removing different types of inconsistencies as being faced throughout the NLP domain. The paper presented here describes the experiments carried out on corpus text pre-processing for building the baseline Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) system. Text pre-processing performed here is classified in two stages – i. the first one relates to handling of orthographic representation of content and ii. the second stage relates to handling of non-lexical words. The first stage covers punctuation symbols, casing, word spellings and their normalization while second stage covers handling of numbers and named entities (NEs) applied on the best settings observed in first stage. The motivation behind performing these experiments was to derive a relationship and gauge the extent of pre-processing the corpus, thereby building a considerably optimized baseline SMT system. This baseline system would provide platform for performing further experiments with different syntactic and semantic factors in future. The findings presented here is for English-Hindi language pair, however, the concept of pre-processing is language neutral and can be transcended to any other language pair. The best performance is reported with retaining the punctuation symbols, lower-cased English corpus and spell normalized Hindi corpus for English to Hindi translation. Further to these, in the second stage of experiments, handling numbers and Named Entities have been described wherein these are mapped to unique class labels. The impact of these experiments have been explained with their appropriateness for the concerned language pair.


Abstract : This report describes a framework for the specification of acquisition models. The exposition is formal in nature. The framework is defined in terms of activities, events, requirements, and instances of a system. In addition, various relations among these items, such as the relation between acquisition activities and acquisition events, are defined. The timing properties associated with the items receives special treatment. The value of a framework is that one can develop specifications of various acquisition models, such as waterfall, spiral, or incremental, as instances of that framework. Formalizing the specification of an acquisition model has benefit in that one can reason about the characteristics of the domain addressed by the model. When this is done for multiple acquisition models, each derived from the same framework, it is possible to compare different acquisition approaches.


Megaliths have figured prominently in discussions of sociopolitical complexity and ideological systems in prehistoric societies, leading to a very wide range of interpretations concerning their significance. What has limited these discussions is the paucity of ethnoarchaeological studies of the living processes associated with megalith building. In this dissertation, I present an ethnoarchaeological examination of the continued traditional practice of erecting megalithic tombs in West Sumba, Indonesia. The construction of megalithic tombs has occurred for hundreds of years on the island of Sumba. The persistence of this practice to the present day, particularly in West Sumba, makes Sumba an incredibly unique context in which to examine megalith building and its larger social context from an ethnoarchaeological perspective. This ethnoarchaeological analysis of megalith construction in West Sumba approaches the subject from a political ecological perspective guided by the following primary objectives: I) to examine the social aspects of megalithic tomb building in West Sumba in order to determine whether there are sociopolitical and economic advantages associated with the practice; 2) to investigate the household material signatures of megalith building; and 3) to develop a model for the sociopolitical processes that surround megalith building which can be applied to prehistoric contexts. Ethnoarchaeological data on megalith building and its social significance in West Sumba was collected in interviews and household material culture inventories. Analysis of this data indicates that megalith erection provides a visual representation of individual and group power and is enmeshed in a larger feasting economy through which power is achieved and relations are defined. From this analysis and a review of ethnographic accounts of megalithic cultures in other areas, I have developed a model which links megalith building to the power of individuals and groups in contexts of corporately controlled resources, relational power, competition over key resources, and the importance of group sociopolitical power.


Purpose: The purpose of this work is to assess the degree of similarity in the structure of the unemployed according to various categories (gender, age, education, the duration of unemployment) in the EU countries. Approach/Methodology/Design: As a research tool, the vector elimination method was used, which facilitates a division of a set of objects into subgroups with similar structures. Statistical data on the structure of the unemployed due to selected features in 28 European Union countries come from the Eurostat database and relate to 2018. Findings: The spatial distribution of groups of EU countries in 2018 confirms the authors' observations formulated at the beginning of the work that the structures of the unemployed by selected categories are similar in most countries, but it is also possible to distinguish countries in which these structures are significantly different. Practical Implications: The knowledge about the regularities of the structures of the unemployed in individual EU countries is necessary when developing strategies to combat unemployment, especially among people in a particular situation on the labor market. Originality/Value: There are no comprehensive analyzes in the literature to determine the similarity of the structure of the unemployed in EU countries, taking into account various demographic features that are typically taken into account in this type of research (e.g., gender, age, or level of education). The presented studies fill a gap in this area, they can also complement existing studies focusing mainly on the level of unemployment.


Background: Long-distance truckers (LDTs) belong to a special sentinel group with potentially high risk of acquisition of HIV owing to their high mobility, sociodemographic vulnerability, and high-risk behaviors. Objective: The objective is to estimate the prevalence of HIV and identifies its sociodemographic correlates among a representative population of LDTs in West Bengal, India. Methods: Between May and July 2017, HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS) was conducted in West Bengal by the National AIDS Control Organization. A total of 749 LDTs were recruited for the study, were interviewed, and tested for HIV. Descriptive and logistic regression analysis of socio-demographics, sexual risk behavior, and HIV serostatus were performed using SAS 9.3.2. Results: The prevalence of HIV among LDT was 1.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.4–2.0). Mean age was 32.8 years (standard deviation 8.5), 77.1% were currently married, 89.9% were literate, 85.7% visited HSS site for collecting condoms or seeking medical care and treatment, 53.1% were rural residents, 86.7% had sex at least once with a female partner other than wife in the past 6 months, 2.7% had sex with a male partner and 1.7% injected drugs for recreational purpose. Higher age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.1 [95% CI = 1.0–1.1]), literate (OR = 0.3 [95% CI = 0.1–0.9]), visiting HSS sites for collecting condoms or seeking medical care and treatment (adjusted OR [AOR] = 0.2 [95% CI = 0.1–0.6]), rural residence (OR = 0.2 [95% CI = 0.1–0.3]) and duration of stay in home (AOR = 1.3 [95% CI = 1.1–1.5]) were found to be significant predictors of having sex with a female partner other than wife.Conclusion: High HIV burden calls for urgency in the implementation of targeted intervention to minimize HIV risk among LDTs in West Bengal to fight against HIV/AIDS.


Analysing the engagement of students in university-based Facebook groups can shed light on the nature of their learning experience and highlight leverage points to build on student success. While post-semester surveys and demographic participation data can highlight who was involved and how they subsequently felt about the experience, these techniques do not necessarily reflect real-time engagement. One way to gain insight into in-situ student experiences is by categorising the original posts and comments into predetermined frameworks of learning. This paper offers a systematic method of coding Facebook contributions within various engagement categories: motivation, discourse, cognition and emotive responses.


Previous research suggests that ideology, material interests, and moral values drive citizens' preferences over foreign aid policy. Little attention has been paid to how perceptions of the international environment affect these preferences. We examine the extent to which citizens in a traditional donor country consider donor competition when deciding whether to impose aid sanctions on governments engaged in human rights violations. Employing an information experiment conducted among Japanese adults, we find that the prospect of another donor ready to act as a substitute aid-provider reduces support for the use of aid sanctions. This effect runs most strongly through a pathway privileging security concerns, and the effect is larger among respondents who have preexisting concerns about the other donor. These results highlight the way in which public desires for foreign aid to bring about material returns can hinder a government's ability to use aid to promote good governance ends.


Cosmological inflation is the most successful theory that explains the homogeneity and flatness of the early universe. It also provides a quantum origin for the primordial perturbations that we observe in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB). The simplest models make use of a single scalar field, which produces the exponential expansion of the early universe. In this thesis the effects of additional heavy fields is studied from several points of view. On the one hand, possible signatures due to the presence of such fields are searched for in the current CMB data, and a new formalism is developed, allowing the analytical study of features arising from the presence of these fields. On the other hand, in the context of supergravity theories, the presence of additional heavy fields is ubiquitous, and their stability is needed in order to not spoil the basic predictions of single-field inflation. The viability of inflation in the presence of an additional heavy supersymmetric sector is studied, and several stability constraints are derived. The conclusion is that CMB data might be already sensitive enough to the presence of additional heavy fields, and that the landscape of supergravity scenarios which stabilize these fields is very constrained.


Abstract. Systematic geological mapping of a country is done mainly by state authorities often involving industrial and academic partners in the process. The resolution of the result is controlled primarily by the financial background of the firms and the scale of the available base maps. In Hungary the state authority for geological mapping was established in 1869. Prior to this, geological maps were aimed to give an overview of the country. Later the mapping campaigns focused on providing support for the industry, agriculture and civil engineering. The need for detailed maps of raw materials led to increased efforts and founding, but from the end of the 1970s the mining industry did not need more maps and the geological mapping campaigns lost their inertia. Parallel with this, in the Cold War era, the ban to use detailed topography on geological maps ruined the ergonomic value of the produced cartographic materials. After the collapse of the socialist economy in 1989 the state authority concentrated on digitizing the existing data instead of systematic geological mapping. Geological maps became an illustration of extensive contributed books about certain regions, which were made by scientists for scientist. Though, many of these medium-scale geological maps are now provided via internet, large-scale maps are not available. In the last decade, the use-case of the geological maps seem to be changing again. The geological information interests not only the professionals, but the larger audience as well. Also, the spreading of geotourism, created a need to compile geotourist maps.


In this paper, we establish the existence of the moments of a Cauchy distribution with parameters, a and b denoted by Cauchy (, ) ab , via a simple transformation of dividing with a suitable constant. As a result of this transformation every Cauchy (, ) ab would be distributed on the interval [-1, 1]. The results for the first four crude moments were given in view of their importance in obtaining the very important statistical measures namely variance, skewness and kurtosis.


Foot and mouth disease (FMD) and peste des petits ruminants (PPR) are highly contagious viral diseases affecting sheep and goats all over the world. Small ruminants are often owned by poor small-scale farmers in the developing world, and several studies have identified them to be among the most important livestock species for the poor. Controlling, or even eradicating, FMD and PPR is important for alleviating poverty. More than half of Zambia's population was living below the national poverty line in 2015. FMD is today considered to be endemic in Zambia, the most recent outbreak was in March 2018. No clinical cases of PPR have been found within the country so far but PPR is highly present in Zambia's bordering countries in the north and Zambia is therefore under constant risk of the incursion of PPR.

This study was carried out in the districts Nakonde and Mbala in northeastern Zambia on the border to Tanzania. The purpose was to investigate the seroprevalence of FMD and PPR in sheep and goats and to identify possible associations between animal characteristics, management of herds or trade and seropositivity. Serum samples were collected from 480 small ruminants from 160 herds in 40 randomly selected villages. Details on species, breed, origin, sex, age and history of disease were noted for each sampled individual. The owner of each herd was also questioned about management of the herd and trade. Serum samples were analyzed for presence of antibodies to foot-and-mouth-disease virus and peste-des-petits ruminants virus. Potential risk factors were analyzed with Fisher's Exact Test to see if there were any significant correlations with seropositivity for FMD or PPR.

The results showed that the dominating species in the villages was goat, and the dominating gender was female. The majority of the sampled animals were born at the farm where they were sampled, only two were bought from another country. The herd size varied between two and 34 animals. The majority of the farmers let their herds graze freely in the dry season and had them tethered during the rainy season. Seventy-one percent of the herds met other herds of sheep and/or goats on at least a weekly basis, and the proportion that met cattle as often was only 21%. Four percent of the herds met wild ruminants on at least a weekly basis. Most farmers never bought goats or sheep from other countries. The true herd seroprevalence in the Nakonde and Mbala districts was approximately 3.2 percent (95% CI 1.1; 7.4) for FMD and 0.03 percent (95% CI 0;3) for PPR. No risk factors for FMD or PPR seropositivity could be identified.

The study design was considered to have good external and internal validity. The low seroprevalences of both FMD and PPR, relatively to what was expected, are most likely representative of the true seroprevalences in the target population. This study found serological evidence of PPR in a goat in Zambia, but this result needs to be confirmed with other methods since there is a high risk of the result being falsely positive. It could be interesting to do further research on whether there are any protective factors keeping the small ruminants from encountering FMDV and PPRV in this area since the seroprevalence was lower than expected for both diseases.


Reflections and learnings from our involvement in contextual analyses of large collaborative/participatory research and development programs within NRM are captured within this paper. The authors deconstruct community psychology's involvement in NRM with reference to a metaphorical understanding of the concept of iatrogenesis, a term used to refer to the unintended consequences of any form of intervention by health care professionals. Such a deconstruction creates an awareness of the lack of recognition of community psychology's involvement in the replication of systems of NRM which 'do no harm', rather than create structural change. Although new structural processes that take into account the issues raised within this paper are yet to be defined, concepts such as biopolitics and biogovernmentality, are considered as platforms for understanding how these processes may begin to be conceptualised, for the future of community psychology's role within NRM.


This Thesis has been devoted to the study of the Environmental Management Systems in Danish waste incineration plants. It is made with the cooperation of one waste incineration plant (Nordforbraending). Besides it, collaboration of other three plants supports the research (Amagerforbraending, Roskilde Forbraending and Vestforbraending). Two different analyses have been developed. On one side, analysis of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in the three incineration plants mentioned which have an EMS implemented, and on the other, an analysis of one waste incineration plant which has not any EMS (Nordforbraending).
First of all, conclusions and findings obtained among literature are discussed in order to establish a framework and evaluate which are the remarkable aspects to consider concerning Environmental Management Systems.
The first analysis is focused on the implementation of EMS in three different plants. It includes the analysis of the organizational aspects: organization strategy, departments, communication, organizational solutions, routines, etc. In addition, focus areas of EMS and identification of main aspects are included. These three plants are compared and contrasted in order to find out which are the differences and similarities. Later, experiences and knowledge obtained are used by Nordforbraending.
Secondly, an evaluation and assessment of the present situation of Nordforbraending is developed. Main environmental aspects and organizational structures are identified by carrying out an Initial Environmental Review. A method for ranking and scoring the environmental aspects is elaborated.
Finally, transference of knowledge is made from the three plants to Nordforbraending. Experiences and organizational matters are adapted to Nordforbraending and some alternatives are proposed in order to conclude how EMS could be implemented in Norforbraending. Besides it, a Spanish comparison is made to obtain an example of another country.


Most forms of religion are best understood in the context of their relationship with the surrounding culture. This may be particularly true in the United States. Certainly, immigrant Catholicism became Americanized; mainstream Protestantism accommodated itself to the modern world; and Reform Judaism is at home in American society. In "Evangelicalism", Richard Kyle explores paradoxical adjustments and transformations in the relationship between conservative Protestant Evangelicalism and contemporary American culture. Evangelicals have resisted many aspects of the modern world, but Kyle focuses on what he considers their romance with popular culture. Kyle sees this as an Americanized Christianity rather than a Christian America, but the two are so intertwined that it is difficult to discern the difference between the two. Instead, in what has become a vicious self-serving cycle, Evangelicals have baptized and sanctified secular culture in order to be considered culturally relevant, thus increasing their numbers and success within abundantly populous and populist-driven American society. In doing so, Evangelicalism has become a middle class movement, one that dominates America's culture, and unabashedly populist. Many Evangelicals view America as God's chosen nation, thus sanctifying American culture, consumerism and middle-class values. Kyle believes Evangelicals have served themselves well in consciously and deliberately adjusting their faith to popular culture. Yet, he also thinks Evangelicals may have compromised themselves and their future in the process, so heavily borrowing from the popular culture that in many respects the Evangelical subculture has become secularism with a light gilding of Christianity. If so, he asks, can Evangelicalism survive its own popularity and reaffirm its religious origins, or will it assimilate and be absorbed into what was once known as the Great American Melting Pot of religions and cultures? Will the Gospel of the American dream ultimately engulf and destroy the Gospel of Evangelical success in America? This thoughtful and thought-provoking volume will interest anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical movement in America and the aspirations and fate of its faithful.


Metric-based meta-learning has attracted a lot of attention due to its effectiveness and efficiency in few-shot learning. Recent studies show that metric scaling plays a crucial role in the performance of metric-based meta-learning algorithms. However, there still lacks a principled method for learning the metric scaling parameter automatically. In this paper, we recast metric-based meta-learning from a Bayesian perspective and develop a variational metric scaling framework for learning a proper metric scaling parameter. Firstly, we propose a stochastic variational method to learn a single global scaling parameter. To better fit the embedding space to a given data distribution, we extend our method to learn a dimensional scaling vector to transform the embedding space. Furthermore, to learn task-specific embeddings, we generate task-dependent dimensional scaling vectors with amortized variational inference. Our method is end-to-end without any pre-training and can be used as a simple plug-and-play module for existing metric-based meta-algorithms. Experiments on miniImageNet show that our methods can be used to consistently improve the performance of existing metric-based meta-algorithms including prototypical networks and TADAM.


Batch scheduling accommodates a group of tasks with the start/end time constraints to maximize the revenue from scheduling tasks over a number of servers, which has been extensively studied in the context of Job-machine scheduling. In optical networks, batch scheduling refers to the process of scheduling a group of data units (i.e., the jobs) that competing for the same set of wavelength channels (i.e., the machines). Classical Job-machine scheduling studies considered both the case of a pure-loss system, and the case with waiting rooms (i.e., buffers), which are generally in the form of Random Access Memory (RAM). In optical networks, the buffering is achieved by feeding the optical signal into a fixed length of fiber, namely Fiber Delay Lines, since optical RAM is not yet available. The unique feature of the discrete and predefined buffering time in fact instantiates a new type of problem, namely Job-machine scheduling with Discrete-time Buffers. In this work, we comprehensively study batch scheduling in optical networks. We show that batch scheduling with and without FDLs corresponds to two different instances of Job-machine scheduling problem. While proving their NP-Completeness, we mathematically model both cases using Integer Linear Programming formulations to provide an optimal scheduling. Given the timeliness request for on-line batch scheduling and the dramatic problem size in optical networks, we also propose polynomial-time heuristic algorithms, which are shown to be near-optimal in our simulations.


This paper develops an organizational approach to corporate governance and assesses the effectiveness of corporate governance and implications for policy. Most corporate governance research focuses on a universal link between corporate governance practices (e.g., board structure, shareholder activism) and performance outcomes, but neglects how interdependencies between the organization and diverse environments lead to variations in the effectiveness of different governance practices. In contrast to such closed systems approaches, we propose a framework based on open systems approaches to organizations, which examines these organizational interdependencies in terms of the costs, contingencies, and complementarities of different corporate governance practices. These three sets of organizational factors are useful in analyzing the effectiveness of corporate governance in diverse organizational environments. We also explore the impact of costs, contingencies, and complementarities on the effectiveness of different governance aspects through the use of stylized cases and discuss the implications for different approaches to policy such as soft law or hard law.


One of the current proposed strategies for the disposal of intermediate level radioactive waste (ILW) is that of an underground facility termed a geological disposal facility (GDF). Under the anoxic alkaline conditions (10.5 13) expected to develop within an ILW-GDF cellulose will undergo chemical degradation to a range of cellulose degradation products (CDP). The major components of which will be the isosaccharinic acids (ISA). ISA is of particular interest with regards to the long term performance of a GDF due to its ability to complex radionuclides altering their solubility and thus the long term retention of such radionuclides. The removal of these complexants by microbial action could therefore have an impact upon the long term performance of an ILW-GDF.

The biofilm mode of existence is able to increase the resistance of microbes to environmental stresses and could be a mechanism for microbial survival under ILW-GDF conditions. Recent research has shown the ability of microbes from an ILW-GDF anthropogenic analogue site to degrade ISA under hyperalkaline conditions, however, no studies have yet looked at the ability of alkaliphilic biofilms to survive under these conditions whilst using ISA as a carbon source. The aim of this work was to ascertain the ability of alkaliphilic biofilm consortia to survive and degrade ISA under near field conditions and to further investigate the mechanisms of this survival.

Using cotton bait, biofilm was able to be grown in-situ at an analogue site located at Harpur Hill, Buxton, UK. Enrichment of this biofilm using CDP driven microcosms under both sulphate reducing and methanogenic conditions at pH 11 showed the degradation of the α-ISA, β-ISA and xylo ISA types through a fermentation pathway to acetate and hydrogen. Investigation into the morphology of these microcosms revealed the microbes to existing within flocs or aggregates of EPS which had a complex EPS composition. Microelectrode profiling of these flocs revealed areas of lower pH than the external pH to be present within the interior of these flocs, a finding which was attributed to microbial survival under the alkaline conditions.

Floc cultures were able to form thick dense biofilm within sand columns which enhanced the rate of ISA degradation and facilitated the production of methane and sulphide under relevant conditions. Micro-electrode pH profiling again demonstrated low pH areas within the biofilm which contributed towards biofilm survival and ISA degradation up to pH 13. Biofilms were able to impact ILW-GDF relevant surfaces with evidence of carbonation and EPS substances found upon NRVB, steel and graphite surfaces.

The ability of biofilms to form under ILW-GDF conditions could facilitate microbial survival under ILW-GDF conditions and have an impact upon the long term performance of an ILW-GDF. This could be through the carbonation of NRVB surfaces, the blocking of pore throats, gas production, microbial induced corrosion related to sulphide production and through the removal of radionuclide complexants.


ABSTRACT Lyssaviruses, which are members of the Rhabdoviridae family, induce apoptosis, which plays an important role in the neuropathogenesis of rabies. However, the mechanisms by which these viruses mediate neuronal apoptosis have not been elucidated. Here we demonstrate that the early induction of apoptosis in a model of lyssavirus-infected neuroblastoma cells involves a TRAIL-dependent pathway requiring the activation of caspase-8 but not of caspase-9 or caspase-10. The activation of caspase-8 results in the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-6, as shown by an increase in the cleavage of the specific caspase substrate in lyssavirus-infected cells. However, neither caspase-1 nor caspase-2 activity was detected during the early phase of infection. Lyssavirus-mediated cell death involves an interaction between TRAIL receptors and TRAIL, as demonstrated by experiments using neutralizing antibodies and soluble decoy TRAIL-R1/R2 receptors. We also demonstrated that the decapsidation and replication of lyssavirus are essential for inducing apoptosis, as supported by UV inactivation, cycloheximide treatment, and the use of bafilomycin A1 to inhibit endosomal acidification. Transfection of cells with the matrix protein induced apoptosis using pathways similar to those described in the context of viral infection. Furthermore, our data suggest that the matrix protein of lyssaviruses plays a major role in the early induction of TRAIL-mediated apoptosis by the release of a soluble, active form of TRAIL. In our model, Fas ligand (CD95L) appears to play a limited role in lyssavirus-mediated neuroblastoma cell death. Similarly, tumor necrosis factor alpha does not appear to play an important role.


Objective To characterise the time window in which endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is associated with good outcome, and to test the differential relationship between functional outcome and onset-to-reperfusion time (ORT), depending on collateral status. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of clinical and imaging data of 554 consecutive patients, who had recanalisation success by EVT for anterior circulation large artery occlusion, from the prospectively maintained registries of 16 comprehensive stroke centres between September 2010 and December 2015. The patients were dichotomised into good and poor collateral groups, based on CT angiography. We tested whether the likelihood of good outcome (modified Rankin Scale, 0–2) by ORT was different between two groups. Results ORT was 298 min±113 min (range, 81–665 min), and 84.5% of patients had good collaterals. Age, diabetes mellitus, previous infarction, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, good collaterals (OR 40.766; 95% CI 10.668 to 155.78; p<0.001) and ORT (OR 0.926 every 30 min delay; 95% CI 0.862 to 0.995; p=0.037) were independently associated with good outcome. The drop in likelihood of good outcome associated with longer ORT was significantly faster in poor collateral group (OR 0.305 for every 30 min; 95% CI 0.113 to 0.822) than in good collateral group (OR 0.926 for every 30 min; 95% CI 0.875 to 0.980). Conclusions Earlier successful recanalisation was strongly associated with good outcome in poor collateral group; however, this association was weak during the tested time window in good collateral group. This suggests that the ORT window for good outcome can be adjusted according to collateral status.


Background Determining the underlying causes of racial disparities in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is important. In the USA, rates of the most common STIs range from 5 to 20 times higher for African–Americans compared to Caucasians, and the health consequences of STIs can be serious. Residential racial segregation results in very different contexts for individuals and may be an important determinant of sexual risk. The purpose of this study was to examine how segregation and race interact to impact the age trajectory of sexual risk behaviours. Methods Using 11 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (1997–2007) and 2000 Census data, the authors performed three-level hierarchical linear regression to examine the associations between hypersegregation, race and a sexual risk behaviour index among black and white non-Hispanic adolescents as they transition to adulthood. Results Through most of the teenage years, African–Americans are at higher sexual risk than Caucasians. However, by age 19, Caucasians are at higher risk. Hypersegregation was not associated with increased sexual risk index score on average and did not impact the trajectory of the race–sexual risk association. Conclusions The authors did not find any evidence that hypersegregation was associated with the sex risk index or that it modified the race–sex risk association as individuals got older. Future studies should examine whether segregation is associated with other causes of STI/HIV acquisition risk, such as sexual network patterns.


Taking into account the international literature on the subject, it is necessary to advance in terms of leading theoretical definitions to go beyond the existing theoretical and methodological currents of thought. Past research has approached the issues of water management in a fragmented way; that is to say, without considering the multiple interrelations with other natural resources such as the soil, fauna, plants, and human beings. This reveals the need for acknowledging the nature and complexity of water management by involving socioeconomic, cultural, governance, sustainability, ecological, geological and other concepts related to natural resources. The purpose of this paper is to show how, from a new approach named the time-concept, it is possible to represent things as interrelated complex phenomena experiencing constant changes (in development). Thus, it is aimed at proposing new conceptual water management alternatives that integrate the multiple relations between nature and culture, including the appropriation of water heritage. The central underlying assumption in the paper considers that comprehensive water management conceived from the integration of nature–culture relations would encourage a respect for the uniqueness of biophysical and social contexts (which are in constant transformation). This, in turn, would favour the protection of water resources as a heritage in all its manifestations on Earth. The consolidation of the relations between nature and culture is interpreted as an interaction that occurs between human beings and the environment (the biophysical environment); this happens through cultural practices related to the different forms of appropriation of water: use, improvement, respect, love and protection. The contribution of this research is centred on proposing an alternative approach to an integral water management model from a complexity perspective; it would lead to studying water-related subjects in an interrelated and progressive way. © 2017 WIT Press.


After backpacking her way around India, 21-year-old Sarah Macdonald decided that she hated this land of chaos and contradiction with a passion, and when an airport beggar read her palm and insisted she would come back one day - and for love - she vowed never to return. But twelve years later the prophecy comes true when her partner, ABC's South Asia correspondent, is posted to New Delhi, the most polluted city on earth. Having given up a blossoming radio career in Sydney to follow her new boyfriend to India, it seems like the ultimate sacrifice and it almost kills Sarah - literally. After being cursed by a sadhu smeared in human ashes, she nearly dies from double pheumonia. It's enough to send a rapidly balding atheist on a wild rollercoaster ride through India's many religions in search of the meaning of life and death. From the 'brain enema' of a meditation retreat in Dharamsala to the biggest Hindu festival on earth on the steps of the Ganges in Varanasi, and with the help of the Dalai Lama, a goddess of healing hugs and a couple of Bollywood stars - among many, many others - Sarah discovers a hell of a lot more.


This deeply informed text sets the government and politics of Britain firmly in the context of Britain's enduring membership in the European Union. Michael Mannin thoroughly applies the concept of 'Europeanization' across the political system to explore how far change is a product of Britain's interdependent relationship with the EU. He shows how the EU's treaty relationships present new challenges to sovereign states, especially Britain, whose psyche has long revolved around iconic notions of Parliamentary sovereignty, imperial power, national independence, and an assumed cultural homogeneity. Examining the cultural, economic, and social background to Britain's twenty-first century politics, Mannin challenges some of the historical myths on which Britain's exceptionalism is founded. He then analyzes contemporary political institutions and processes in the context of Europeanization, as well as the impact of the EU on policy and policy making. Ideal for courses in British and European politics, this book breaks new ground in exploring the complex interdependence that the EU should bring to the study of European political systems.


"Mother India" goes to the movies. This title looks at the hand-painted movie posters that made Bollywood a winner. Since its inception in the second decade of the 20th century, the Bombay-based Indian film industry - Bollywood - has developed a unique visual language, articulated by the vivid hand-painted movie posters that have since become highly-desirable collectors' items. While Bollywood poster artists produced a staggering number of these hand-painted images, their ephemeral work has traditionally been presented unevenly, with shoddy reprints and re-release posters. "The Art of Bollywood" digs deeper into the tradition, presenting the original art in its true glory - from seldom-seen posters to rare images of street publicity and cinema displays. The text provides a detailed discussion of the works of key artists, in this, the first comprehensive overview of a previously neglected and underrated artistic genre.


Most of the effort AI has put into common sense reasoning has involved inference by sequential rule application. This approach is most effective in well characterized domains where any valid chain of inference from a set of observations leads to an acceptable interpretation. In more realistic cases where there are multiple consistent interpretations that are not equally good, or where there are no consistent interpretations, it seems more natural to choose the best alternative based on the interpretations themselves rather than the chains of inference used to derive them. µKLONE is a connectionist network which uses simulated annealing to search the space of interpretations, or models. Inconsistent theories lead to generation of models which come as close as possible to satisfying all of the axioms, so counterfactual reasoning can be accomplished by the same mechanism as factual reasoning. An example involving conflicting information is presented for which µKLONE finds an intuitively plausible interpretation.


The central tenet of the new Constitution of South Africa is to create equal and socially just economic order. This resulted in the higher education sector being restructured through incorporations and mergers. The limited financial resources, forces universities to evaluate and review their marketing strategies in order to attract suitably prepared and qualified students. The universities have not fully explored the role played by choice factors in influencing the students' decision of enrolling at a particular university. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that may influence students in their choice of selecting a public university in the Tshwane Metropolitan Region, South Africa. An empirical study was conducted amongst first year students at two public universities in the Tshwane Metropolitan Region, Pretoria. The study design was quantitative in nature, using a descriptive technique, cross sectional and collected data through the application of a non-probability sampling being utilized to obtain data from a sample of 216 respondents. The results of this study suggest that South African education landscape has evolved towards a market-orientated system in which Higher Education Institutions operate as businesses with marketing challenges. The results provide HEIs a guide to identify the key factors that influence students in the selection of a university in a developing country. University management should take cognizance of the gaps and position the university as an institution of first choice in South Africa.


BACKGROUND
When resection is not an option, platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has been the historic standard of care in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Prognosis remains poor with CRT alone. Durvalumab has shown significant improvement (versus placebo) in progression-free and overall survival in patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC without progression following CRT.

OBJECTIVES
This article aims to provide an overview of the efficacy and safety outcomes with durvalumab in patients with stage III NSCLC and identify management strategies for potential adverse events (AEs).

METHODS
A review of published literature and guidelines was performed to evaluate durvalumab clinical outcomes and AE management strategies.

FINDINGS
Durvalumab has established efficacy in patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC and is now the standard of care following CRT. Nurses need to be trained to recognize potential immune-related AEs in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.


BACKGROUND: Venetoclax (VenclextaTM) is a potent, selective, orally available, small‐molecule B‐cell lymphoma 2 inhibitor that achieves response rates of about 80% and has an acceptable safety profile for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). OBJECTIVES: The aim was to describe treatment management considerations when caring for patients using venetoclax. METHODS: A review was done of safety and management considerations based on current clinical practice and 240 patients with CLL who received venetoclax monotherapy on clinical trials from 2011‐2016. FINDINGS: Common adverse events were neutropenia, diarrhea, nausea, anemia, upper respiratory tract infection, thrombocytopenia, and fatigue. Because of rapid tumor reduction with venetoclax, nurses should be aware of the potential for tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) and the need to educate patients on steps to minimize risks, including gradual dose ramp‐up, adequate hydration, and use of prophylactic antihyperuricemia agents. Following implementation of these risk‐reducing measures, no clinical TLS events were reported in ongoing trials.


In 2008, income management of recipients' social security payments was implemented as part of the Cape York Welfare Reform package (CYWR), a program supported by both the Queensland and federal governments. The income management scheme rests on the Family Responsibilities Commission Act 2008 (Qld) (FRC Act) and Commonwealth social security legislation. The CYWR applies to five communities in northern Queensland predominantly populated by Aboriginal peoples (Aurukun, Hope Vale, Mossman Gorge, Coen and Doomadgee). These communities have long colonial histories which have involved the implementation of paternalistic laws, policies and practices all aimed at controlling Aboriginal peoples, including attempts at forced assimilation. The CYWR commenced as a four year trial and is now permanent.

The stated objectives of the reform are to assist people in the CYWR communities in becoming 'socially responsible' for the wellbeing of themselves, their families and other people in their communities, and by providing support for local authority. This thesis argues that these objectives are a continuation of the paternalism inherent in previous laws, policies and practices, and questions their connection to income management, particularly as government evaluations have found that income management has not had any immediate positive impact on people's compliance with what are deemed by the government to be their social responsibilities.

Section 8 Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) exempts from racial discrimination any special measures taken for the sole purpose of securing adequate advancement of certain racial groups requiring protection in order to achieve equal enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Income management has been deemed a special measure by the Commonwealth legislature, and by both Queensland and Commonwealth governments; however, it differs from previous special measures (excluding alcohol restrictions) because it restricts Aboriginal peoples' human rights.

The thesis argues that, if challenged, the High Court is likely to decide that income management is a special measure. To date, the High Court has applied a formal and literal statutory interpretative approach to special measures cases, despite the broad words used in the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) on which the Act is based. Analysis of these cases shows that the court takes a restrictive view of the relevance and importance of international law and international committee recommendations with regard to racial discrimination. Further, on the basis that the decision to implement special measures is political, the court defers to the legislature by limiting itself to assessing whether the decision was reasonable.

The thesis finds that the approach of deeming measures which restrict rights, to be special measures, appears to be unique to Australia. The United States of America, Canada and South Africa have legislation and processes that enable the court to assess measures which may restrict the rights of minority peoples. Australia lacks similar legislative or process safeguards, thus enabling restrictive measures affecting Aboriginal peoples' rights to be found lawful.


We examined serum and erythrocyte lead and manganese levels in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing (AIBL), which contains over 1000 registrants including over 200 cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 100 mildly cognitively impaired (MCI) individuals. After correcting for confounding effects of age, collection site and sex, we found a significant decrease in serum manganese levels in AD subjects compared to healthy controls. Analysis of smaller subset of erythrocytes revealed no difference in either lead or manganese levels in AD. Although lead and manganese have neurotoxic effects and may be involved in AD pathology, our results showed that neither metal in serum nor erythrocytes are suitable biomarkers in our cohort. However, prospective studies might reveal whether the burden of either metal modifies disease outcomes.


BACKGROUND
Ankle brachial index (ABI) is the principal screening method for peripheral arterial disease (PAD). In this study, we compare various types of Doppler-derived and oscillometric ABIs with results obtained through duplex ultrasonography.

METHODS
62 patients were enrolled in the study. For each limb, blood pressures for both ankle arteries and the arm were measured using Doppler and an automated oscillometric device. Duplex ultrasound was performed for all limbs and occlusions >50% were considered PAD-positive. ABI was calculated using both higher (HABP) and lower (LABP) arterial blood pressure on the individual limbs and the ability to predict duplex-detected stenoses was evaluated.

RESULTS
LABP calculation provided results superior to the guideline-recommended HABP. Considering patients with ABI >1.4 or measurement failure as PAD-positive further enhanced the test parameters. The higher ABI cut-off of 1.0 resulted in somewhat better sensitivities (max 92%) and negative predictive values (max 87%) at the expense of a substantial increase in the number of false positives. Oscillometric method yielded poor sensitivities but very good specificities (max 94%) and positive predictive values (max 90%).

CONCLUSIONS
Doppler-based LABP provides better results than the guideline-recommended HABP in diabetic patients, nevertheless even this method is not perfect. Increasing the cut-off value to 1.0 in these patients does not bring a substantial improvement of the test performance. Patients with high ABI should be automatically considered PAD-positive and referred for further investigation using imaging techniques.


We analyze a number of unstudied aspects of retail electricity competition. We first explore the implications of load profiling of consumers whose traditional meters do not allow for measurement of their real time consumption, when consumers are homogeneous up to a scaling factor. In general, the combination of retail competition and load profiling does not yield the second best prices given the non price responsiveness of consumers. Specifically, the competitive equilibrium does not support the Ramsey two-part tariff. By contrast, when consumers have real time meters and are billed based on real time prices and consumption, retail competition yields the Ramsey prices even when consumers can only partially respond to variations in real time prices. More complex consumer heterogeneity does not lead to adverse se1ection and competitive screening behavior unless consumers have real time meters and are not rational. We then examine the incentives competitive retailers have to install one of two types of advanced metering equipment. Competing retailers overinvest in real time meters compared to the Ramsey optimum, but the investment incentives are constrained optimal given load-profiling and retail competition. Finally, we consider the effects of physical limitations on the ability of system operators to cut off individual customers. Competing retailers have no incentive to determine the aggregate value of non-interruption of consumers in the zones they serve, preferring instead to free ride on other retailers serving consumers in the same zones.


This study investigated the annual and seasonal variations in nutrient loads (NO2− + NO3− and orthophosphate) delivered to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB) and examined the water quality variations. The results indicate that (1) annually, the mean NO2− + NO3− and orthophosphate loads showed a steady increase during 1996–1999, a persistent level during 2000–2007, and a moderate increase during 2008–2016; (2) seasonally, NO2− + NO3− and orthophosphate in MARB in spring and summer were higher than those in autumn and winter. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) identified highly significant differences among seasonal loads; and (3) the median value of NO2− + NO3− in normal weather conditions were higher than that during and right after the hurricanes, while the median value of orthophosphate loads in normal weather conditions was higher than that during the hurricanes, but higher than that right after hurricanes. The two-sample t-test indicates a significant difference (p < 0.046) in orthophosphate loads before and after Hurricane Katrina. Moreover, it is found that there is a significant (p < 0.01) increase in nutrient loads during normal weather conditions. The results indicate that hurricane seasons can significantly influence the nutrient loads from the MARB to the Gulf of Mexico.


The purpose of this paper is to understand and criticize the role of social media in the development and/or encouragement of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body dissatisfaction in college-aged women. College women are exceptionally vulnerable to the impact that social media can have on their body image as they develop an outlook on their bodies and accept the developmental changes that occurred during puberty. This paper provides evidence that there is a relationship between the recent surge in disordered eating and high consumption of social media. I examine the ways in which traditional advertising has portrayed women throughout history, as well as analyze the ways in which this depiction of the female ideal has helped shaped society's perspectives about beauty and increased the rate of disordered eating among college aged females. Further, this analysis assesses the ways in which the thin ideal as portrayed in advertising encourages women to look a certain, unrealistic way. I also consider various social psychological theories to explain how women in society form their perceptions with a combination of what they see in the media as well as what they see in their friends and family. I demonstrate that social networking sites (SNS) have similar effects on young women as advertising and other forms of mass media do. Therefore, I will argue that SNS, as a combination of real life and a personalized form of advertising, can potentially have the same, yet amplified, consequences. Indeed, I argue that the ubiquitous and enduring nature of social media websites result perhaps in a wider and more detrimental impact to the body image concerns of college aged women than advertising or the media


The output characteristics of an amplified-stimulated-emission laser are developed with a simple model of a rod of lasing material along which the beam propagates in both directions. Detailed expressions are derived for the saturation of gain and spontaneous emission. From these a series of analytic models is developed for calculation of the output intensity and linewidth. The exact solution is obtained for the case in which the line has a rectangular profile, and this solution is used as the basis for a complete solution for inhomogeneous broadening and to validate an approximation used for the homogeneous case. The mixed case in which the line has both homogeneous and inhomogeneous components is developed. The role of collisional relaxation in changing the nature of broadening is discussed.


Abstract It is a familiar mantra of American politics that the best response to dangerous speech that incites violence and spreads hate is 'more speech'. Yet the principle obscures at least three crucial questions. Who, in particular, is to undertake the counter-speech that the doctrine recommends? What, exactly, are they required to do? And why is it morally justified to demand that they do it? This article argues that if citizens are to rely on counter-speech to defuse the dangers of dangerous expression, it is not enough to cheerlead its abstract importance and then sit back and hope for the best. Someone needs to do the work, and do it well. The article defends the thesis that all citizens have a moral duty to engage in counter-speech against dangerous expression. Focusing on counter-speech against expression that implicitly or explicitly advocates wrongful criminal violence, it argues that these duties can be derived from a much more basic normative source: the samaritan obligation, held by all moral agents, to rescue others from risks of harm. The specification of these duties' content, however, depends upon interdisciplinary work that integrates normative theory with social scientific research on human communication.


Speaking is one of the most important skills to be developed and enhanced as means of effective communication. Speaking skill is regarded one of the most difficult aspects of language learning. Many language learners find it difficult to express themselves in spoken language. They are generally facing problems to use the foreign language to express their thoughts effectively. They stop talking because they face psychological obstacles or cannot find the suitable words and expressions. The modern world of media and mass communication requires good knowledge of spoken English. This paper aims at establishing the need to focus on the factors affecting on language learners' English speaking skill. This review paper traces out the body of research concerning the term speaking, the importance of speaking, characteristics of speaking performance, speaking problems, and factors affecting speaking performance. According to the review of literature, appropriate speaking instruction was found to be the learners' priority and a field in which they need more attention. This study can be useful to teachers and researchers to consider their language learners' speaking needs in English language teaching and learning context.


Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) remain a substantial problem in the workplace. Rotation, in which workers are rotated between tasks, is widely used as an administrative control, as it is considered to reduce WMSD risk through reducing physical exposures and increasing exposure variation. However, despite its widespread use, there is limited evidence that rotating between tasks is effective in reducing the risk of WMSDs. Inconsistencies in measured outcomes of rotation may be attributed to the variety of parameters involved in determining rotation schedules, including which tasks to include in a schedule, the rate at which workers rotate, and the order in which tasks are performed. This research assessed the effects of rotation, specifically focusing on rotation frequency and task order, on muscle fatigue and performance when included tasks loaded the same muscle group. Twelve participants completed six experimental sessions in each of three studies, during which repetitive tasks were performed for one hour either with or without rotation. Each study simulated a different task, including static shoulder abduction, box lifting, and a light assembly task. Rotation occurred between lower and higher exertion levels, and each rotation schedule varied in both rotation frequency (rotating every 15 minutes vs. 30 minutes) and task order (starting with the lower vs. higher intensity task). Muscle fatigue was assessed through several measures, including electromyography, and ratings of perceived discomfort. Performance was assessed through the accuracy of shoulder moment output, the accuracy of box placement, or the speed of assembly completion. As expected, rotation was effective in reducing fatigue compared to higher intensity tasks with no rotation, although it increased fatigue compared to the lower intensity with no rotation. While effects of rotation frequency and task order were seen on some measures, results across all three studies did not indicate consistent effects of either rotation frequency or task order on fatigue or performance. As such, the practical relevance of these rotation parameters and the likely impacts of rotation are not yet clear, and further assessments are needed. Such assessments should ideally involve longer durations, field studies, and/or more direct measures of injury or injury risk.


This article discusses the finite distance properties of three likelihood-based estimation strategies for GARCH processes with non-Gaussian conditional distributions: (1) the maximum likelihood approach; (2) the Quasi Maximum Likelihood approach; (3) a multi-steps recursive estimation approach (REC). We first run a Monte Carlo test which shows that the recursive method may be the most relevant approach for estimation purposes. We then turn to a sample of SP500 returns. We confirm that the REC estimates are statistically dominating the parameters estimated by the two other competing methods. Regardless of the selected model, REC estimates deliver the more stable results.


Access to effective and affordable medicines (medical care) is considered an equitable right for all (European) citizens. Ensuring access to medical care is a challenge for governments and health care systems across the world. Choices need to be made about which medicine can be used and in what quantity because there are many (effective) medicines available on the market, but resources are limited. These choices may differ among countries and may be influenced by a (large) number of factors. In addition, it is likely that any given level of use of a specific medicine in one country is determined by a set of factors that might vary in another country. In the last decade an interest has arisen in studying the variation in medicines use in an integrated way, i.e. by including relevant pharmaceutical system parameters, to enhance our understanding of causes and consequences of this variation. This thesis includes studies on cross-national variation in medicines use from a pharmaceutical system perspective. The level of medicines use in various countries and across multiple medical conditions is measured, while also taking into account pharmaceutical system factors. An overview of national medicines policies and a global view on outpatient pharmaceutical consumption is followed by five comparative studies in Europe; two with regard to TNF alpha inhibitors (biologicals for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis), two with regard to psychotropic medicines and one on time to market in relation to national participation to the European regulatory activity. These studies address the importance of the quality of data collection, and equal access to new medicines (TNFalpha inhibitors), the impact of cultural diversity and the impact of reimbursement delay and restrictions on medicines use (psychotropic medicines), and the contribution of EU member states to the regulatory process in light of the availability and uptake of medicines that received a granting of the market authorization in 2004. Finally, two studies focus on the impact of a single policy: the delisting of benzodiazepines in the Netherlands in 2009. One study describes the impact on volume of use in patients newly diagnosed with anxiety and or sleeping disorder, and one assesses the importance of information services for patients in the context of this policy intervention. The thesis identified two critical factors for performing a successful study on the extent and causes of cross-national variation in medicines use from a pharmaceutical perspective; a) to improve data harmonization and combine data(sources) and b) to have adequate information on the environmental context. By comparing and combining datasets researchers may detect more subtle and complex associations among variables, which in the end may improve the interpretation of variation caused by historical and societal developments – the contextual environment. Furthermore, it is essential to hypothesize why certain pharmaceutical system factors may influence medicines use, and by which mechanisms. Finally, the studies in this thesis have shown that the currently available databases and epidemiological methods provide ample opportunities for studying cross-national variation in medicines use from a pharmaceutical system perspective.


The aim of this article is to describe the seasonal fluctuations of suspended sediment yield in the Baltic Sea drainage basin and to quantify the monthly inflow of suspended sediment to the Baltic. The seasonal fluctuations of sediment yield are controlled by rain and snow amounts and by ground thawing. The rhythm of the sediment yield shows great differences between mountainous and lowlandic areas, and also between areas with oceanic and continental climates. The seasonal fluctuations of the total suspended sediment inflow to the different sub-areas of the Baltic Sea imitate the seasonal regimes of the sediment yield within the different catchments. Most of the suspended load is supplied to the sea during snow melting. For the Baltic as a whole, the inflow reaches a maximum value in April (22.2% of the annual inflow) and a minimum value in January (3.7% of the annual inflow).


Using a structural vector autoregression, we document that a contractionary monetary policy shock triggers a decline in durable and non-durable outputs as well as a contraction in bank equity and a rise in the excess bond premium. The latter points to an important transmission channel of monetary policy via financial markets. It has long been recognized that a standard two-sector New Keynesian model, where durable goods prices are flexible and non-durable and services sticky, does not generate the empirically observed sectoral comovement across expenditure categories in response to a monetary policy shock. We show that introducing financial frictions in a two-sector New Keynesian model can resolve its disconnect with the empirical evidence: a monetary tightening generates not only comovement, but also a rise in credit spreads and a deterioration in bank equity.


Gels have received increased attention as potential materials for biological materials because they can exhibit similar mechanical properties. One obstacle for using gels is that their mechanical properties are significantly altered by defects, such as an inhomogeneous crosslink density distribution. If these defects could be detected and the values and spatial distributions of mechanical properties in the gel could be determined, it would be possible to apply gels for several fields. To achieve the high spatial and temporal resolution measurement of mechanical properties in hydrogels, in our method, a conventional contact excitation device is replaced with a non-contact excitation using laser ablation for the input and magnetic resonance elastography to measure stress waves is replaced with the Schlieren method with a high-speed camera. Magnetic resonance elastography is a local measurement technique, and consequently, requires a lot of time to characterize a sample, as well as does not have sufficient spatial resolution to obtain a broad range of elasticity coefficients of gels. We use laser ablation to apply non-contact impulse excitations to gels to generate stress waves inside them. We can determine mechanical properties of gels using the stress waves' propagation velocity.


Ethereum is a major blockchain-based platform for smart contracts - Turing complete programs that are executed in a decentralized network and usually manipulate digital units of value. Solidity is the most mature high-level smart contract language. Ethereum is a hostile execution environment, where anonymous attackers exploit bugs for immediate financial gain. Developers have a very limited ability to patch deployed contracts. Hackers steal up to tens of millions of dollars from flawed contracts, a well-known example being "The DAO", broken in June 2016. Advice on secure Ethereum programming practices is spread out across blogs, papers, and tutorials. Many sources are outdated due to a rapid pace of development in this field. Automated vulnerability detection tools, which help detect potentially problematic language constructs, are still underdeveloped in this area. We provide a comprehensive classification of code issues in Solidity and implement SmartCheck -- an extensible static analysis tool that detects them. The source code is available at https://github.com/smartdec/smartcheck. SmartCheck translates Solidity source code into an XML-based intermediate representation and checks it against XPath patterns. We evaluated our tool on a big dataset of real-world contracts and compared the results with manual audit on three contracts. Our tool reflects the current state of knowledge on Solidity vulnerabilities and shows significant improvements over alternatives. SmartCheck has its limitations, as detection of some bugs requires more sophisticated techniques such as taint analysis or even manual audit. We believe though that a static analyzer should be an essential part of contract developers' toolbox, letting them fix simple bugs fast and allocate more effort to complex issues.


Dataflow analysis-based dynamic parallel monitoring (DADPM) is a recent approach for identifying bugs in parallel software as it executes, based on the key insight of explicitly modeling a sliding window of uncertainty across parallel threads. While this makes the approach practical and scalable, it also introduces the possibility of false positives in the analysis. In this paper, we improve upon the DADPM framework through two observations. First, by explicitly tracking new "uncertain" states in the metadata lattice, we can distinguish potential false positives from true positives. Second, as the analysis tool runs dynamically, it can use the existence (or absence) of observed uncertain states to adjust the tradeoff between precision and performance on-the-fly. For example, we demonstrate how the epoch size parameter can be adjusted dynamically in response to uncertainty in order to achieve better performance and precision than when the tool is statically configured. This paper shows how to adapt a canonical dataflow analysis problem (reaching definitions) and a popular security monitoring tool (TAINTCHECK) to our new uncertainty-tracking framework, and provides new provable guarantees that reported true errors are now precise.


A large English pedigree in which heterocellular hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) segregates is described. beta-globin cluster deletions and gamma gene promoter mutations associated with HPFH have been excluded. Of particular importance in this pedigree is the absence of any cosegregating hemoglobinopathy, thus allowing observation of the segregation pattern of this form of HPFH without the complicating effect of a beta-globin gene mutation. Information gained in this study confirms that the extent of elevation of hemoglobin (Hb) F and F cells varies between affected individuals. There are one example of incomplete penetrance and three examples of father-to-son transmission, thus excluding X-linked inheritance. Consistent with previous reports, the most likely mode of inheritance is autosomal codominant. Linkage studies using a beta-globin cluster microsatellite show no evidence of linkage to this chromosomal region implicating the presence of trans-acting regulatory factor(s). We have recently mapped one such locus to the chromosome 6q region in a very large Asian-Indian pedigree. Linkage to chromosome 6q in the English pedigree was excluded, thus indicating the presence of genetic heterogeneity in heterocellular HPFH.


Learning by imitation is an essential process in human cognition. Recently, imitation learning has also become important in robotics research. We address the problem of learning by imitation in interactive, robotic agents using case-based reasoning. We describe two tasks for which case-based reasoning may be used: (i) interpretation, in which the robot interprets new skill demonstrations as being related to previous observations, and (ii) imitation, in which a robot seeks to use previously learned skills to address new problem scenarios. We present a case-based framework for imitation and interpretation in a robotic agent that learns from observations of a human teacher.


Both tillage and fertilizer management influence soil organic C (SOC) storage, but their interactive effects remain to be determined for various soil and climatic conditions. We evaluated the long-term effects of tillage (no-till, NT, and moldboard plowing, MP), and N and P fertilization on SOC stocks and concentrations in profiles of a clay loam soil (clayey, mixed, mesic Typic Humaquept). Corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] were grown in a yearly rotation for 14 yr. Our results showed that NT enhanced the SOC content in the soil surface layer, but MP resulted in greater SOC content near the bottom of the plow layer. When the entire soil profile (0-60 cm) was considered, both effects compensated each other, which resulted in statistically equivalent SOC stocks for both tillage practices. Nitrogen and P fertilization with MP increased the estimated crop C inputs to the soil but did not significantly influence SOC stocks in the whole soil profile. At the 0- to 20-cm depth, however, lower C stocks were measured in the plowed soil with the highest N fertilizer level than in any other treatment, which was probably caused by a greater decomposition of crop residues and soil organic matter. Conversely, the highest SOC stocks of the 0- to 20-cm soil layer were observed in the NT treatment with the highest N rates, reflecting a greater residue accumulation at the soil surface. When accounting for the whole soil profile, the variations in surface SOC due to tillage and fertilizer interactions were masked by tillage-induced differences in the 20- to 30-cm soil layer.


The goal of environmental education is to increase individuals' ecological knowledge, awareness of associated environmental problems, . and motivation to evaluate and implement solutions. This project combined the concepts of environmental education with community service learning to create a new method of curriculum integration; environmental community service learning. The California State standards for environmental education, service learning, language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies were integrated into four thematic units using the teaching methodologies of cooperative learning, authentic assessment, and reflection. The integrated, thematic units of this project could be used by educators in a multi-disciplinary, team teaching scenario or in a single classroom setting as either sequential, thematic units of study or independent activities.


Automatic license plate recognition system is an image processing technology used to identify vehicles by their license plates. Such systems require the localization of number plate area in order to identify the characters present on it. Since number plate standards are not strictly practiced in India, a large amount of variations are obtained in parameters like, size of number plate and characters, location of number plate, type of font used, background and foreground colour, etc. which makes the task of number plate localization all the more difficult. The proposed algorithmconsists of two main modules: image splitting and localization of region of interest (ROI). A two-step approach for localization is presented. In the first step, image is split in two parts. In the second step, a two dimensional digital filter is used to find the probable number plate location. This approach enables the localization of number plates in widely varying illumination conditions with relevance to the commonly found types of car number plates with a success rate of 89%.


Anthropologists and sociologists studying religious practices have to navigate through terminological preconceptions that assume religious identity to be essentially stable, only interrupted at times by dramatic instances of conversion. In this article, we introduce a metaphor as a way of thinking about religious phenomena outside of an exclusivist theological model and as self-fashioned, flexible, mobile, and composite practice. Using an allusion to the behavior of pollinizing insects, we speak of religious butinage as a way of stimulating the discussion regarding such dynamic religious practice, proposing that religious mobility is perhaps more common than some are inclined to think. By presenting the case in favor of this metaphor, we invite a fresh perspective on religious practices and religious identity.


This paper presents results of testing square RC columns wrapped with FRP. The influence of the number of FRP layers and the magnitude of eccentricity were studied through experimental. A total of 16 short square reinforced concrete columns wrapped with CFRP were investigated. The columns had the dimensions 200 mm x 200 mm x 800 mm and a round corner with radius of 34 mm. 12 columns were tested under compressive loading and four columns were tested under flexural loading. Based on the number of CFRP layers, the columns were grouped into four: no-layer (unwrapped), wrapped with one layer, wrapped with three layers, and wrapped with two layers after the application of one vertical layer of CFRP straps. From each group, one column was tested under concentric loading, one column was tested under 25 mm eccentric loading, one column was tested under 50 mm eccentric loading and the last column was tested under flexure loading. The results have shown that wrapping column with CFRP composite increase the capacity and ductility of the column.


The shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans in the United States has drawn new attention to the effect of participants' asset allocation decisions on their financial resources for retirement. This paper develops a stochastic simulation algorithm to evaluate the effect of holding a broadly diversified portfolio of common stocks, or a portfolio of index bonds, on the distribution of 401(k) account balances at retirement. We compare the alternative distributions of retirement wealth both by showing the empirical distribution of potential wealth values, and by computing the expected utility of these outcomes under standard assumptions about the structure of household preferences. Our analysis highlights the critical role of other sources of wealth, such as Social Security, defined benefit pension annuities, and saving outside retirement plans in determining the expected utility cost of holding equities in the retirement account. Our findings also demonstrate the importance of the equity premium in affecting investors' utility from different retirement asset allocations. Viewed from the beginning of a working career, and given the historical pattern of returns on stocks and bonds, a household that does not have extremely high risk aversion would achieve a higher expected utility by holding a portfolio of stocks rather than bonds.


We provide evidence regarding the dynamic behaviour of net labour flows across U.S. states in response to a positive technology shock. Technology shocks are identified as disturbances that increase relative state productivity in the long run for 226 state pairs, encompassing 80 per cent of labour flows across U.S. states in the 1976 - 2008 period. The data suggest heterogeneous responses of both employment and net labour flows across states, conditional on a positive technology shock. We build a two-region dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with endogenous labour mobility and region-specific shocks to account for this evidence. We calibrate the model economy consistently with the observed differences in the degree of nominal rigidities across states, and show that we replicate the different patterns of the responses in employment and net labour flows across states following a technology shock.


In the framework of this PhD thesis, the study of the distribution of an extended mass close to the super-massive black hole (SMBH) at the centre of our Galaxy is addressed using observational data and theoretical modelling. The main emphasize is on establishing a distinction between the fraction of dark mass present in the form of a black hole and that in an extended form. Despite the significant observational and theoretical progress in the understanding of SMBHs in the last ten years, the formation of SMBHs and the interplay with their host galaxy are still poorly understood. The work presented here extends our understanding of the dynamics in the vicinity of the SMBH. Already in 1974, it was proposed that the radio source SgrA* could be a SMBH. With observations during the following years, it became more clear that the centre of our Galaxy hides an amount of dark mass close to 3 million solar masses. However, the strongest evidence for the existence of a SMBH, was only after it became possible to trace for the first time stellar orbits of fast moving stars, the so-called S-stars, around SgrA*. This was achievable using the SHARP near-infrared speckle camera at la Silla in Chile as well as the near-infrared camera NAOS/CONICA at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal in Chile. In collaboration with the near-infrared group at the Max-Planck-Institut for Extra-terrestrial Physics in Garching by Munich, I used the imaging data on the Galactic Centre to study the stellar distribution, and used proper motion and radial velocity data to study the motion of the S-stars at the Galactic Centre. In order to investigate the distribution of mass around the black hole, in this work, stellar orbits are modelled assuming an extended mass potential, in addition to the potential of the black hole. I study the orbits in both Keplerian and non-Keplerian potentials. This is the first study of this kind combining observational data and theoretical modelling. This work shows also the first approach where the mass-to-light ratio (M/L) is considered to be varying from the outer regions to the inner regions of the galaxy. From earlier dynamical studies on galaxy evolution, it is widely agreed upon the M/L increasing in the inner regions of a galaxy. This implies that there could exist an additional quantity of hidden mass close to the centre. Here, I study explicitely possible candidates for this hidden component - faint, low-mass stars and heavier compact remnants. In practice, meaningful analysis is only possible on the star S2 which shows the shortest orbital period and therefore the most complete orbit of all other S-stars. A fourth-order Hermite integrator, which I optimized for this study, is used to model the S2-orbit in response to the SMBH potential as well as an additional extended mass distribution. A grid method is implemented to the Hermite scheme to fit the S2 orbit to the positional and velocity data available from the year 1992 till 2003. I was able to confirm the position of the black hole candidate SgrA*, to determine an upper limit on the total amount of mass that could be present in the central 20 mpc and extended into the outer regions of the central stellar cluster, as well as to deduce an upper limit on the M/L. This work leads to the results that the total central dark mass is not necessarily confined entirely in a SMBH. A fraction <20% of this mass could be present in an extended distribution. Testing different distributions for this extended mass component, it turned out that the present data do not suffice to discriminate between the different potentials. In order to study the constituents of the possible extended dark component, I investigate the K-band luminosity function (KLF) of the observed stellar cluster. The result is that, the extended mass cannot be formed only by faint, low-mass stars. The presence of stellar black holes and neutron stars is required in order to account for the possible extended mass fraction in the centre of the Milky Way. Furthermore, such a cluster of stellar remnants analysed in an approximative analytical form, is found to be stable.