This scene of a river flowing through a rough valley achieves a level of realism not seen before in real time. The river exhibits a variety of medium- and small-scale details, including breaking waves, waterfalls, foam, and splashes resulting from interaction with solids. The goal of the player or autopilot is to drive a boat past as many checkpoints as possible while avoiding falling rocks and logs as well as deformable water plants.
 A hybrid water-simulation method combines a height-field grid with particles. The main body of water is simulated by solving the shallow-water equations on the grid. Four types of particles are auto-generated using physically inspired criteria. Wave fronts with slopes exceeding a limit emit particles to form breaking waves. Waterfall particles are generated when the water flows across steep terrain. Collisions of solids with the water surface produce splashes with a volume that depends on the impact velocity. When particles fall into the grid, they are turned into foam which is then advected with the horizontal flow of the water surface. When particles are created, they take away mass from the grid and deposit it again when they return. The system adds water-surface details using wave textures generated by an FFT-based simulation. Texture coordinates are advected with the water flow and regenerated periodically to reduce distortion. Rigid and deformable objects are two-way coupled with the height-field simulation. Solids alter the height and velocity of water, which in turn exerts drag, lift, and buoyancy forces on the solids.
 The underlying simulation technique is an extension of Chentanez N. and Muller M., Real-time simulation of large bodies of water with small scale details, Proceedings of the 2010 ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics SCA.


Background: Coronary microvascular dysfunction results in angina and adverse outcomes in patients with evidence of ischemia and nonobstructive coronary artery disease; however, no specific therapy exists. CD34+ cell therapy increases microvasculature in preclinical models and improves symptoms, exercise tolerance, and mortality in refractory angina patients with obstructive coronary artery disease. The objective of this research was to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of intracoronary CD34+ cell therapy in patients with coronary microvascular dysfunction. Methods: We conducted a 2-center, 20-participant trial of autologous CD34+ cell therapy (protocol CLBS16-P01; NCT03508609) in patients with ischemia and nonobstructive coronary artery disease with persistent angina and coronary flow reserve ≤2.5. Efficacy measures included coronary flow reserve, angina frequency, Canadian Cardiovascular Society angina class, Seattle Angina Questionnaire, SF-36, and modified Bruce exercise treadmill test obtained at baseline and 6 months after treatment. Autologous CD34+ cells (CLBS16) were mobilized by administration of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor 5µg/kg/day for 5 days and collected by leukapheresis. Participants received a single intracoronary left anterior descending infusion of isolated CD34+ cells in medium that enhances cell function. Results: Coronary flow reserve improved from 2.08±0.32 at baseline to 2.68±0.79 at 6 months after treatment (P<0.005). Angina frequency decreased (P<0.004), Canadian Cardiovascular Society class improved (P<0.001), and quality of life improved as assessed by the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (P≤0.03, all scales) and SF-36 (P≤0.04, all scales). There were no cell-related serious adverse events. Conclusions: In this pilot clinical trial of microvascular angina, patients with ischemia and nonobstructive coronary artery disease receiving intracoronary infusion of CD34+ cell therapy had higher coronary flow reserve, less severe angina, and better quality of life at 6 months. The current study supports a potential therapeutic role for CD34+ cells in patients with microvascular angina. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03508609.


Indian automotive parts industry plays an important role in the automotive supply chains of major manufacturers around the world. Nearly all global auto manufacturers including Hyundai, GM, Ford, and Honda have established plants in India. After a decade of strong growth the industry suffered during 2008-2009 as a result of the global crisis. This case study analyzes Rane (Madras) Ltd., a leading parts maker in India, and illustrates the complexity in navigating the challenging current environment of severe price constraints and pressuring suppliers while working with them and supporting them for long-term growth.


This paper contains the reflections of the first author as a forensic psychologist working with convicted terrorists in prison between 2008 and 2011, and subsequently as an academic and government consultant in this field. The task of making sense of this learning has been helped by a psychoanalytic understanding of the causes of terrorism by the second author who is a psychotherapist and group analyst. Psychoanalytic processes of defences, splitting and projection throw light on the potential unconscious thoughts, feelings and behaviour of those who resort to terrorism. Two broad groups are identified whose motivations are ostensibly noble cause and criminality respectively, but whose involvement also serves to avenge their personal humiliations and feelings of injustice that are projected into a political cause. A third group is also described of mainly lone actors motivated by pathological narcissism. It is proposed that terrorism manifests as a political phenomenon but is also a form of communication that reveals much about the state of mind of those who choose to become involved.


Context. The equivalent mutant problem (EMP) is one of the crucial problems in mutation testing widely studied over decades. Objectives. The objectives are: to present a systematic literature review (SLR) in the field of EMP; to identify, classify and improve the existing, or implement new, methods which try to overcome EMP and evaluate them. Method. We performed SLR based on the search of digital libraries. We implemented four second order mutation (SOM) strategies, in addition to first order mutation (FOM), and compared them from different perspectives. Results. Our SLR identified 17 relevant techniques (in 22 articles) and three categories of techniques: detecting (DEM); suggesting (SEM); and avoiding equivalent mutant generation (AEMG). The experiment indicated that SOM in general and JudyDiffOp strategy in particular provide the best results in the following areas: total number of mutants generated; the association between the type of mutation strategy and whether the generated mutants were equivalent or not; the number of not killed mutants; mutation testing time; time needed for manual classification. Conclusions . The results in the DEM category are still far from perfect. Thus, the SEM and AEMG categories have been developed. The JudyDiffOp algorithm achieved good results in many areas.


The study of of course presented in this article has an applied, a descriptive and a theoretical aim. Since of course proves to be very frequent in English, learners will need to know what meanings the item has and in what pragmatic contexts it is used. It has indeed been shown that some learners tend to use of course in contexts where it is felt by native speakers to be inappropriate. In order to explain such inappropriate uses we need detailed descriptions of the semantics and pragmatics of of course. From a theoretical point of view such multifunctional items raise the question of whether semantic polysemy or pragmatic polysemy is the best explanatory account. It is argued in this paper that empirical cross-linguistic work can contribute to providing answers to all three research questions. First, the study of correspondences and differences between languages with regard to the meanings and uses of pragmatic markers is a necessary step in the explanation of learner problems. Second, the bidirectional approach to equivalents, which involves going back and forth from sources to translations, enables us to show to what extent the equivalents have partially overlapping pragmatic functions. An in-depth comparison of the semantic fields in which the translation equivalents operate is the ultimate goal. Third, the translation method helps to see to what extent a core meaning account is justified. In this paper three languages are brought into the picture, viz. English, Swedish and Dutch. The cross-linguistic data have been gathered from three translation corpora, i.e. the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus, the Oslo Multilingual Corpus and the Namur Triptic Corpus.


Our study determines the competitive positions of the dairy sectors of Hungary and the other European Union (EU) Member States in the light of the abolition of the milk quota. We analyse the recent market positions of the EU Member States, the changes in the relationships between global, EU and Hungarian milk procurement prices, and the medium-term forecasts for the international markets for milk and milk products, including the results of our own model. In most Member States, milk production is below the quota level, although the most competitive countries are paying substantial penalties for excess production. The medium-term projections and the price relationships underline the fact that, due to the liberalisation of the milk market and the rapid rise in global demand, the impacts of global market developments in the EU will be further enhanced. Owing to sustained international demand, the EU's export opportunities will improve, reducing the pressure on the internal market, and this will have a spill over effect on Hungarian milk prices. Although in terms of trade balance and quota utilisation Hungary is one of the least competitive Member States, the concentration, modernisation and selection processes that have taken place in the country's dairy sector in recent years could, taking into account the favourable medium-term market forecasts, result in a slight increase in milk production levels. Thus, in contrast to the European Commission's projection, according to our profitability based model projection the Hungarian dairy herd and milk production are expected to increase slightly during the period 2016-2020.


The growth in biotechnology has led to new techniques for the design, selection and production of ligands capable of molecular recognition. One promising approach is the production of specific receptor binding molecules based on specific nucleic acid sequences that are capable of recognising a wide array of target molecules. These oligonuclide ligands are known as aptamers (1.2). The technology that allows production of aptamer molecules is known as systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). We have used combinatorial chemistry techniques coupled with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to rapidly select aptamers from degenerate libraries that bind with high affinity and specificity to the protein core of the MUC1 antigen, a tumour marker previously extensively used in tumour imaging and therapy. MUC1 is widely expressed by normal glandular epithelial cells. However this expression is dramatically increased when the cells become malignant. This has been well documented for breast and ovarian cancer, as well as some lung, pancreatic and prostate cancers (3). Recently it has also been shown that MUC1 is a valuable marker for bladder and has been used for the imaging and targeted therapy of bladder cancer.
The aptamer selection process was performed on affinity chromatography matrices. After ten rounds of selection and amplification, aptamers were cloned and sequenced. Post SELEX amino modifications have been used to confer nuclease resistance and coupling potential. The aptamers bound to MUC1 antigen with a Kd of 5nm and high specificity, demonstrated by fluorescent microscopy on MUC1-expresing tumour cells. Using peptide coupling reactions, we have successfully attached chelators for Tc-99m radiolabelling. Two of the constructs tested were based on mono-aptamer chelator complexes, one with commercially available MAG3 and one with a novel designed cyclen-based chelator. The other two constructs were based on the use of multi-aptamer complexes, where four aptamers were attached to the four arms of either DOTA or carboxy-porphyrin.
The four complexes were labelled with Tc-99m and tested for their efficacy as tumour imaging agents. All four complexes demonstrated specificity for the tumour, due to their MUC1 specificity, at various levels. Biodistribution studies were carried out in mice with MCF7 xenografts. The monomeric aptamer complexes had rapid renal clearance from the system, due to their small size (MW of 8,000 Da). More than 90% of the aptamer based radiopharmaceutical was cleared from the system within the first 15 minutes. To increase retention time, additional constructs based on the design of a tetra-aptamer complex were prepared. A core chelator, such as DOTA and carboxy-porphyrin has been used as a skeleton for the building of multiaptamer constructs aiming to increase the molecular weight of the complex and potentially its stability of binding due to interactions with more than one MUC1 molecules at the surface of the tumour cell. The increase of the MW to 32,000 Da allowed increased retention times in the system, without compromising the exceptional tumour penetration exhibited by all the aptamer based constructs under study.
The development of aptamers as small building blocks for targeting agents offers several advantages. These molecules penetrate tumour more readily than whole antibodies, reach peak levels in the tumour more rapidly and clear from the body faster, thereby reducing toxicity to healthy tissues. Our strategy is to manipulate the molecular weight of the construct utilising previously devised methodologies to achieve various polymeric aptamer complexes in order to achieve the optimum balance between the low immunogenicity and excellent tumour penetration. In this way we aim to achieve a balance against the rapid renal clearance that leads to premature elimination of the complex from the system and adequate tumour uptake for diagnostic imaging and targeted therapy. We intend to undertake further work using Re-188 to produce a therapeutic aptamer conjugate.


In this paper, a linear system of equations with crisp coefficients and fuzzy right-hand sides is investigated. All possible cases pertaining to the number of variables, n, and the number of equations, m, are dealt with. A solution is sought not as a fuzzy vector, as usual, but as a fuzzy set of vectors. Each vector in the solution set solves the given fuzzy linear system with a certain possibility. Assuming that the coefficient matrix is a full rank matrix, three cases are considered: For m = n (square system), the solution set is shown to be a parallelepiped in coordinate space and is expressed by an explicit formula. For m > n (overdetermined system), the solution set is proved to be a convex polyhedron and a novel geometric method is proposed to compute it. For m < n (underdetermined system), by determining the contribution of free variables, general solution is computed. From the results of three cases mentioned above, a method is proposed to handle the general case, in which the coefficient matrix is not necessarily a full rank matrix. Comprehensive examples are provided and investigated in depth to illustrate each case and suggested method.


In this article we examine changes in the patterns of collaboration among information systems researchers since 1987, in terms of number of authors and order of authorship. The proportion of multiple authored papers, particularly among articles published in more prestigious journals, increased significantly. One possible explanation may be in increased research complexity, as evidenced by much longer papers. At the same time, among prestigious journals, the alphabetical model for ordering authorship all but disappeared. The article calls for consideration of a standard for authorship order in IS research.


Recent events have moved questions about the nature and power of property into the center of academic, political, and legal debate. The goal of this book is to advance a new way to understand the idea of property, and what - in law - the power of claimed individual property rights should be. The book begins by describing the strain that exists between private property's protective ideals and the exigencies of modern governance. Environmental laws, zoning regulations, endangered-species laws, cultural-property laws, and other measures have overwhelmed traditional ideas about what property is and the extent to which it should be protected. Some have concluded that we have simply abandoned traditional notions of property-as-protection in favor of an idea of property that confers much greater collective control. I argue that we have multiple conceptions of property in law - some which protect, and some which do not. I argue that there are deep reasons for property's protective power, or lack of it - reasons grounded in the nature of property, as an idea, and in the conflicts of that idea with competing public interests. In Part I of the book, I critique conceptions of property offered in the philosophical and legal literature and offer a different way to understand this important idea. I argue that property is, in fact, comprised of four dimensions: theory, space, stringency, and time. Using this insight, I identify two common conceptions of property in law: one which protects, and one which does not. I then explore how these different conceptions of property subtly influence our thinking about the nature of property and its protective force. Part II begins with a general discussion of the nature of legal rights and competing public interests. It describes how, under the traditional view, rights enjoy presumptive power against competing public interests. However, this view fails to describe many relationships between rights and public interests that we find in law. I advance a theory that explains this seeming paradox, and propose a model which predicts when - in the settings of particular claims - claimed rights will (and should) enjoy presumptive power. In the following chapters, I apply this model to the particular context of property claims. Chapters in this part explore an array of legal contexts, and whether - in those contexts - claimed individual property rights should enjoy presumptive power against competing public interests. These include claims involving title to land and chattels; exclusion from land; patent claims; environmental, zoning, and other land-use controls; the body as property; personal information as property; cultural property; state redistributive claims; and others. I show that although affording property claims presumptive power is justified in some cases, in others it is not. Indeed, property is unique among rights in the justified failure of its claim to presumptive power across a broad range of cases. This is - I argue - not an aberrational or unprincipled result, as some have charged. Rather, it is an entirely predictable and justified one, particularly in cases involving external, physical, finite resources. Part III explores the implications of these discoveries for the protection of property as a constitutionally entrenched guarantee. I argue that the nature of property renders it fundamentally different in critical ways from freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, due process of law, and other rights. This necessitates its different treatment (and lesser protection). It also compels state recognition of redistributive issues, and - in some circumstances - compels state assertion of redistributive claims.


In many networks, it is less costly to transmit a packet to any node in a set of neighbors than to one specific neighbor. This observation was previously exploited by opportunistic routing protocols by using single-path routing metrics to assign to each node a group of candidate relays for a particular destination. This paper addresses the least-cost anypath routing (LCAR) problem: how to assign a set of candidate relays at each node for a given destination such that the expected cost of forwarding a packet to the destination is minimized. The key is the following tradeoff: On one hand, increasing the number of candidate relays decreases the forwarding cost, but on the other, it increases the likelihood of "veering" away from the shortest-path route. Prior proposals based on single-path routing metrics or geographic coordinates do not explicitly consider this tradeoff and, as a result, do not always make optimal choices. The LCAR algorithm and its framework are general and can be applied to a variety of networks and cost models. We show how LCAR can incorporate different aspects of underlying coordination protocols, for example a link-layer protocol that randomly selects which receiving node will forward a packet, or the possibility that multiple nodes mistakenly forward a packet. In either case, the LCAR algorithm finds the optimal choice of candidate relays that takes into account these properties of the link layer. Finally, we apply LCAR to low-power, low-rate wireless communication and introduce a new wireless link-layer technique to decrease energy transmission costs in conjunction with anypath routing. Simulations show significant reductions in transmission cost to opportunistic routing using single-path metrics. Furthermore, LCAR routes are more robust and stable than those based on single-path distances due to the integrative nature of the LCAR's route cost metric.


Based on a review of the servant leadership, well-being, and performance literatures, the first study develops a research model that examines how and under which conditions servant leadership is related to follower performance and well-being alike. Data was collected from 33 leaders and 86 of their followers working in six organizations. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses revealed that servant leadership was indeed related to eudaimonic well-being and lead-er-rated performance via followers' positive psychological capital, but that the strength and di-rection of the examined relationships depended on organizational policies and practices promot-ing employee health, and in the case of follower performance on a developmental team climate, shedding light on the importance of the context in which servant leadership takes place. In addi-tion, two more research questions resulted from a review of the training literature, namely how and under which conditions servant leadership can be trained, and whether follower performance and well-being follow from servant leadership enhanced by training. We subsequently designed a servant leadership training and conducted a longitudinal field experiment to examine our sec-ond research question. Analyses were based on data from 38 leaders randomly assigned to a training or control condition, and 91 of their followers in 36 teams. Hierarchical linear modeling results showed that the training, which addressed the knowledge of, attitudes towards, and ability to apply servant leadership, positively affected leader and follower perceptions of servant leader-ship, but in the latter case only when leaders strongly identified with their team. These findings provide causal evidence as to how and when servant leadership can be effectively developed. Fi-nally, the research model of Study 1 was replicated in a third study based on 58 followers in 32 teams drawn from the same population used for Study 2, confirming that follower eudaimonic well-being and leader-rated performance follow from developing servant leadership via increases in psychological capital, and thus establishing the directionality of the examined relationships.


Abstract. TUBITAK UZAY has conducted a research study on the use of space-based satellite resources for several aspects of agriculture. Especially, there are two precision agriculture related projects: HASSAS (Widespread application of sustainable precision agriculture practices in Southeastern Anatolia Project Region (GAP) Project) and AKTAR (Smart Agriculture Feasibility Project). The HASSAS project aims to study development of precision agriculture practice in GAP region. Multi-spectral satellite imagery and aerial hyperspectral data along with ground measurements was collected to analyze data in an information system. AKTAR aims to develop models for irrigation, fertilization and spectral signatures of crops in Inner Anatolia. By the end of the project precision agriculture practices to control irrigation, fertilization, pesticide and estimation of crop yield will be developed. Analyzing the phenology of crops using NDVI is critical for the projects. For this reason, absolute radiometric calibration of the Red and NIR bands in space-based satellite sensors is an important issue. The Gokturk-2 satellite is an earth observation satellite which was designed and built in Turkey and was launched in 2012. The Gokturk-2 satellite sensor has a resolution 2.5 meters in panchromatic and 5 meters in R/G/B/NIR bands. The absolute radiometric calibration of the Gokturk-2 satellite sensor was performed via the ground-based measurements - spectra-radiometer, sun photometer, and meteorological station- in Tuz Golu cal/val site in 2015. In this paper, the first ground-based absolute radiometric calibration results of the Gokturk-2 satellite sensor using Tuz Golu is demonstrated. The absolute radiometric calibration results of this paper are compared with the published cross-calibration results of the Gokturk-2 satellite sensor utilizing Landsat 8 imagery. According to the experimental comparison results, the Gokturk-2 satellite sensor coefficients for red and NIR bands estimated in this work sustained to agree within 2% of calibration coefficients estimated in the cross-calibration results.


This thesis examines the contention that effective regulation has as much to do with the capacity for co-operation between inter-dependent actors as it has to do with the state's capacity for control. This contention, and the alternative conception of regulation that it implies, is significant because it is associated with a tension that runs through many areas of public policy: does cooperation between the public and the private, or between the regulators and the regulated, lead to effective collective action or to regulatory capture? Following a conceptual examination of the nature of regulation and implementation, the thesis considers the explanatory value of two different perspectives on cooperation and collective action: the rational choice perspective, which suggests that the behaviour of economically responsive actors is shaped by the incentives for cooperation that stem from their interdependence, and the institutional perspective, which contends that as particular forms of behaviour emerge, evolve and become institutionalised, so the implementation process becomes embedded in particular institutional structures that enable the continuation of existing approaches whilst restricting the potential for change. In seeking to examine the explanatory value of these perspectives, the thesis considers the factors shaping the implementation of two frameworks of environmental regulation, namely the frameworks of Integrated Pollution Control and Local Air Pollution Control as applied in England and Wales. Based on a comparative analysis of the factors that shape the nature and influence of each implementation process, the thesis concludes that the explanatory value of the rational choice perspective is fundamentally limited and that the value of the institutional perspective is much more complete. On this basis, the thesis proposes an institutional perspective on regulation and implementation that recognises the significance of resource inter-dependencies and the ways in which cooperative approaches can increase the prospects for collective action whilst reducing the accountability and the manageability of the implementation process. As is discussed, this conclusion has significant implications for broader debates on regulation and governance.


The coronary guidewire re-crossing position before the final kissing balloon post-dilation is important to reduce the incidence of incomplete stent apposition in bifurcation lesions. Angiography and intravascular ultrasonography are unreliable at detecting the site of wire re-crossing. The high resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers the advantage of precise assessment of construction in bifurcation. However, the OCT technique still has some limitations, including the requirement for additional contrast and expense. We present two cases where the ClearStent Live system technique was used to estimate the wire location, which was verified by using OCT. In conclusion, ClearStent can be used with or to replace the intracoronary imaging technique in selected cases.


This study was conducted to estimate the profitability of different varieties of wheat in two villages of District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. A total of 100 respondents were interviewed to collect the data on cost and revenue in the target area. 27.2 percent of the area was under wheat cultivation. 38 percent of the respondents were literate while about 52 percent of the wheat growers were owners. Owner cum tenants and tenants were 15 and 33 percent respectively. Simple budgeting technique was used for estimation. The overall total cost of wheat production was Rs. 20760.2 per acre, while for Bakar variety and other varieties total cost of production were , Rs. 21856 and Rs. 22309 per acre respectively. The overall net return was Rs. 13447.3 per acre; while from Baker variety and other varieties net return were Rs. 11825 and Rs. 12425 per acre respectively. OLS estimation technique was used to analyze contribution of major factors in the wheat yield. The sings of the explanatory variables were found according to our prior expectation of the economic theory. The estimated results of yield function indicated that seed rate, FYM (Farm Yard Manure), NPK (Nitrogen, Phospouras and Potassium) and labor days have positive and significant effect on wheat yield, while number of tractor hours and educational level of the growers have positive but statistically insignificant effect. Finally, it is suggested that extension personal should transfer latest technology and diseases free seeds of wheat to the farmer's for optimum yield.


Small grain varieties are evaluated each year by University of Arizona personnel. The purpose of these tests is to characterize varieties in terms of yield and other attributes. Variety performance varies greatly from year to year and several site-years are necessary to adequately characterize the yield potential of a variety. A summary of small grain variety trials conducted by the University of Arizona can be found online at http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/crops/az1265.pdf.


This thesis addresses the legal and policy issues relating to what may be the most exciting prospect in the history of the human civilisation: the commercial exploitation of natural resources in outer space. The thesis is based on the hypothesis that such ventures are inhibited not by physical, technological and economic factors, but by the inadequacies and uncertainties present in the current body of space law and policy. Consequently, a new international legal framework and a policy consensus are required to provide a legal environment favourable for such a valuable and necessary development.

To substantiate this hypothesis, the thesis begins by establishing the economic necessity and technical feasibility of space mining today, an estimate of the financial commitments required. This is followed by a risk analysis of a typical commercial mining venture in space, identifying the economic and legal risks. This leads to the recognition that the legal risks must be minimised to enable such enormous financial commitments to be made.

What then follows is a detailed analysis of the legal framework for such activities as well as identifying the inadequacies of space law for the commercial exploitation of celestial resources. This is achieved through a discussion of the general principles of international space law, particularly dealing with state responsibility and international liability, as well as some of the issues arising from space mining activities. Much detail is devoted to the analysis of the content of the "common heritage of mankind" doctrine in international law and the effect of international disagreement over its application to celestial bodies.

Having established the relevant legal issues, the thesis then turns to consider the past failures in reach similar agreements and the competing policy interests that have prevented the success of such agreements. It attempts to balance such interests in creating a legal and policy compromise that may be acceptable to a majority of the international community and provide some practical proposals on the structural, procedural, administrative and judicial aspects of creating and implementing a new legal framework.


This paper analyzes a strategy deployed by the Brazilian Government for combating hunger and poverty: the Solidarity Community (1995-2003), particularly institutional mechanisms used to fine-tune targeting processes and allocate resources to the Food Stocks Distribution Program (PRODEA) and the Undernourished Child and High-Risk Pregnancy Program (PCDMI). Primary data were obtained through interviews with policy network players, including segments of government and society: nine Federal; six State and 82 from eight Municipalities in Rio de Janeiro state. Moving towards its goal of converging programs for the poorest municipalities, the Solidarity Community made them more visible to executive civil servants. The introduction of different sectors into the Solidarity Community network varied, according to the political clout and institutional capacity of each sector. The Solidarity Community strategy was: to negotiate criteria with Ministries for setting priorities and provide technical support and information for local governments, improving their skills for obtaining federal funding. The role of the Solidarity Community was thus limited at the local level, due to poor intersectoral networking and difficulties in monitoring program implementation and beneficiary selection processes, blunting its advantages for more vulnerable groups.


With the tremendous growth of system memories, memory-resident databases are increasingly becoming important in various domains. Newer memories provide a structured way of storing data in multiple chips, with each chip having a bank of memory modules. Current memory-resident databases are yet to take full advantage of the banked storage system, which offers a lot of room for performance and energy optimizations. In this paper, we identify the implications of a banked memory environment in supporting memory-resident databases, and propose hardware (memory-directed) and software (query-directed) schemes to reduce the energy consumption of queries executed on these databases. Our results show that high-level query-directed schemes (hosted in the query optimizer) better utilize the low-power modes in reducing the energy consumption than the respective hardware schemes (hosted in the memory controller), due to their complete knowledge of query access patterns. We extend this further and propose a query restructuring scheme and a multi-query optimization. Queries are restructured and regrouped based on their table access patterns to maximize the likelihood that data accesses are clustered. This helps increase the inter-access idle times of memory modules, which in turn enables a more effective control of their energy behavior. This heuristic is eventually integrated with our hardware optimizations to achieve maximum savings. Our experimental results show that the memory energy reduces by 90% if query restructuring method is applied along with basic energy optimizations over the unoptimized version. The system-wide performance impact of each scheme is also studied simultaneously.


Before coupled atmosphere-lake models can be used to study the response of large lake systems to climatic forcings, we must first evaluate how well they simulate the water balance and associated lake atmosphere interactions under present-day conditions. We evaluate the hydrology simulated by a lake model coupled to NCAR's regional climate model (RegCM2) in a study of the Aral Sea. The meteorological variables that are input to the lake model are simulated well by RegCM2. Simulated surface air temperatures closely match observed values, except during spring and fall when the simulated temperatures are too cold. The magnitude of precipitation is too high in the region surrounding the Aral Sea during summer and fall. On a yearly basis, RegCM2 produces a reasonable amount of runoff throughout the drainage basin. The lake model coupled to RegCM2 accurately simulates Aral Sea surface temperatures (SSTs). The lake model also simulates observed mid-winter ice fraction well, although the onset of ice growth occurs too late in the year and the ice melts too rapidly in the spring. The simulated annual evaporation from the Aral Sea is consistent with observed estimates; however, the simulated evaporation is greater than observed during summer and less than observed during winter. In a "stand-alone" lake model simulation, the simulated Aral Sea hydrology does not match observations as closely as in the coupled model experiment. These results suggest that a stand-alone lake model would not accurately simulate the hydrologic response of the Aral Sea to various forcings.


Meaningful thresholds are essential for promoting source code metrics as an effective instrument to control the internal quality of software systems. Despite the increasing number of source code measurement tools, no publicly available tools support extraction of metric thresholds. Moreover, earlier studies suggest that in larger systems significant number of classes exceed recommended metric thresholds. Therefore, in our previous study we have introduced the notion of a relative threshold, i.e., a pair including an upper limit and a percentage of classes whose metric values should not exceed this limit. In this paper we propose RTTOOL, an open source tool for extracting relative thresholds from the measurement data of a benchmark of software systems. RTTOOL is publicly available at http://aserg.labsoft.dcc.ufmg.br/rttool.


A potentially rich framework for analyzing many aspects of interpersonal relationships has been provided by Evolutionary Psychology (Buss, 1994, Buss et al., 1999). With increasing frequency, jealousy as an aspect of relationship has been the focus of both empirical research and theoretical formulation.
It is often speculated that there are important gender differences with regard to the elicitation of jealousy. Women may be more threatened by the potential loss of attention and other emotional resources in a romantic relationship, whereas men may be more concerned about potential sexual infidelity. Based on the evolutionary model (Symons, 1979) it has been proposed that because males can never be completely confident about the paternity of any offspring they would be more concerned by sexual infidelity. Sexual infidelity would raise questions about paternity and the risk of investing resources, both human and economic, in another person's offspring. On the other hand, females would be more upset by emotional infidelity that might indicate a lack of long-term commitment and success of the relationship by the male. Females know that their offspring will have their genetic legacy, but need assurance that the partner will provide resources for the survival of the offspring (Cann et al., 2001). Gender and Behaviour Vol. 2 2004: 225-239


Background and objectives: Boys and girls have approximately the same prevalence of migraine, but after puberty there is a female preponderance. About half of all women with migraine report an association with menstruation (menstrually related headache), though attacks exclusively in relation to menstruation occurs in only 5-8 % (pure menstrual migraine) of these women. Menstrual migraine is typically without aura, it is often more severe and of longer duration. The abrupt decline in estrogen levels before menstruation is thought to be responsible for menstrually related headaches. During pregnancy, when estrogen levels steadily increase, improvement of migraine is reported by 48-80 percent of female migraineurs. When women enter menopause estrogen levels decline and stabilize on a lower level, and although some tend to experience more attacks in the perimenopausal period a decrease in headache prevalence occurs between 50 and 60 years. The aims of this thesis were to examine more specifically in an unselected population the relation between headache, both migraine and nonmigrainous headache, and various states and events related to female sex hormones, in particular levels of estrogen, i.e. use of oral contraceptives in fertile women, use of HRT in postmenopausal women, pregnancy and menarche. Methods: HUNT (Helseundersokelsen i Nord-Trondelag) was conducted in 1995-1997. It consisted of a questionnaire covering a broad range of health related issues, including questions on headache and on menstruation, menarche, menopause, use of hormone supplement, pregnancy and child births. Results: There was a significant association between headache and reported use of estrogen-containing OCs in premenopausal women, both for migraine and for non-migrainous headache. A significant doseresponse relationship between headache and the amount of estrogen in OCs could not be demonstrated. No significant association between headache and OCs containing only gestagen was found. There was a significant association between headache and present use of HRT, both with local and systemic application. This was found for non-migrainous headache and migraine. Both nonmigrainous headache and migraine were more prevalent among users of HRT than among those who had never used HRT. Adjusting for age and educational level, the headache prevalence was lower among pregnant than among non-pregnant women. The association between headache and pregnancy was significant for nulliparous, but not for primi- and multiparous women, evident both for migraine and non-migrainous headache. Among nonpregnant women there was increased headache prevalence among primi- and multiparous women compared with nulliparous . Headache was more prevalent among females with menarche at ≤12 years, both among adolescents and adults, evident for migraine and non-migrainous headache. Conclusions: Headache, especially migraine, was more likely among premenopausal women using oral contraceptives containing estrogen HRT use in the menopause was associated with increased headache prevalence, of both migraine and non-migrainous headaches Headache, both migraine and non-migrainous headache, was less prevalent in nulliparous pregnant women compared with all non-pregnant women, and to nulliparous non-pregnant women. Headache was less prevalent in the third trimester of pregnancy, but not in the first and second trimesters, compared with non-pregnant women. Also in non-pregnant women, headache was less prevalent in nulliparous than in primi- and multiparous women. Headache, both migraine and non-migrainous headache, was more prevalent among both adolescents and adult females with early menarche, when adjusted for important confounders as age, education and BMI.


Balancing a duty to a tribunal and a duty to a client can paralyze a lawyer. The task raises difficult questions about how to reconcile competing obligations as an advocate and as an officer of the court. Individuals licensed to prosecute patent applications must decide how to honor both their obligations to the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and their obligation to successfully prosecute patent applications. This burden can result in willful blindness, where the patent attorney or patent agent ("patent practitioner") limits inquiry into information that may bar a patent application. The recent Federal Circuit opinion in Therasense may have eliminated the judicial "duty to inquire" doctrine that kept these obligations in balance. This Issue Brief argues that there is a need to protect against willful blindness and proposes a resurrection of the eliminated doctrines.


The clubs and bars of contemporary nightlife are held by supporters in the cultural industries and critics in social policy to be a zone of transgression where the state is powerless to intervene. However, closer inspection of the processes by which nightlife is regulated and incorporated into economic development strategies indicates a more differential approach to social control. Far from being deregulated, nightlife is still largely understood as a 'social problem' to be contained by law, policy and policing. However, the forms in which strategies of regulation are being redefined indicate renewed concerns by policy-makers with acceptable and unacceptable cultures. The duel impact of economic development strategies and licensing policies has been to reinforce particular cultural forms in nightlife spaces at the expense of others. This paper explores findings from a London case study and will attempt to pinpoint the ways in which the practices of economic development and licensing have thrown up barriers to cultural expression and racial diversity being realised in the city spaces of the night. It will argue that, far from being a solution to the perceived problems of the 'night-time economy', regulatory strategies reinforce the notion of nightlife as consumption against that of experimental and racially diverse cultures.


The Improvisatore, or John Anderson, My Jo, John `is a neglected work by Coleridge, little read, and held in low estimation by most of his critics. In Coleridge's Later Poetry, for instance, Morton Paley gives it a paragraph; in The Poetic Voices of Coleridge Max F. Schulz wittily mocks what he calls its "noisome smugness." J. Robert Barth acknowledges briefly its playful acceptance of limitations, its wise contentment. (1) But this seven-page mini-drama--part dialogue, part lecture, and part poem--deserves reconsideration for presenting a complex array of Coleridge's personae; it shows him self-consciously accumulating versatile selves in relation to others. It shows him responding to new circumstances, the daily association with talkative women and the heady atmosphere of women's literary productivity throughout England in the 1820s. (2) In this dramatic performance, a humble and sociable 54-year-old man addresses women immediately present to him and at large in the reading public; he adapts his own ideas about love to women's necessarily intense preoccupation with it; with some humor, he sees himself anew. The Improvisatore focuses upon issues popular in women's writing in the 1820s. Composed in 1826, it was published in 1828 in The Amulet, an album of Christian and sentimental prose and poetry. The annual volume was graced with exquisite engravings of ladies in fashionable dresses and tiny shoes, guiding winsome toddlers or fluffy dogs. (3) Printed on thick paper and bound in rich watered silk, it was small enough to hold in an embroidery basket or to carry on a country walk. Its list of authors featured Mrs. Hemans, L.E.L., Mrs. Hannah More, Miss Jane Porter, Mrs. Emmerson, the late Mrs. Barbauld, and the late Mrs. Henry Tighe, and also included token males such as John Clare, Thomas Hood, and several "Reverends." Like similar gift books named Friendship's Offering, Keepsake, and Bijou, The Amulet appealed to the many middle class women in an ever larger reading public. Coleridge's repeated letters to the editor, Samuel Carter Hall, about publication suggest that he was eager to appear in such an elegant and remunerative setting. (4) Anticipating this wider female audience, Coleridge directed The Improvisatore to two specific young women, whom he called Eliza and Katharine, and adjusted his own thoughts about love, yearning, and the incompleteness of life to women's hopes and dreams. The realities of Coleridge's social life bear on the publication of this work. Along with his legendary evenings of talk with crowds of male disciples, he also had close women companions in his last fifteen years. His daily life at Highgate in the upper rooms of Dr. Gillman's house--where his comforts were met, his laudanum intake partially monitored, his writings encouraged, and his old and new friends welcome--was enhanced by the surgeon's wife, Mrs. Anne Gillman, her sister Lucy, and many female visitors. (5) In the autumn Coleridge and Mrs. Gillman travelled to Ramsgate, bathed at the shore on the Strait of Dover, and wrote Dr. Gillman detailed accounts of their athletic and social activities. These long vacations without Dr. Gillman aroused a rumor that Coleridge "was living in a state of open a--y with Mrs. ******* at Highgate"; Charles Lamb passed the rumor on to Sara Hutchinson, of all people, adding in his own ironic voice, "Such it is if Ladies will go gadding about with other people's husbands at watering places. How careful we should be to avoid the appearance of evil" (CL 5:512-13). In an 1825 notebook Coleridge called himself the Jacob to Mrs. Gillman's Rachel, (6) a hint that his passions, desperate for Sarah Hutchinson in his thirties and forties, did not atrophy in his fifties. Along with such surges of emotion, he felt for the Gillmans a tender affection, the fulfillment of a dream of living among sisters that he had nurtured since the death of his only sister Nancy when he was nineteen. (7) In addition to his companionship with Mrs. …


Integrated system health management (ISHM) technologies have been developed to address safety, replace time-based maintenance with condition-based maintenance, and to reduce life cycle costs. Traditional space system designs have focused on safety to minimize the risk to crew and to protect the public, astronauts and pilots, the NASA workforce, and high-value equipment and property. Systems have relied on high reliability components to provide the necessary safety margins and avoid operational mission failures. The current vision for future manned and unmanned space missions to the International Space Station, the Moon, Mars, and beyond, will require longer duration missions and will rely on complex assemblages of components. Increased mission duration and complexity increase the probability of operational mission failures that must be mitigated without jeopardizing safety or the objectives of the current or future missions that might reuse critical mission components. ISHM technology will be essential for providing near-real-time assessments of system capability, safety margins, and maintenance and sustainment requirements. The Applied Research Lab has conducted a series of workshops for NASA which focused on defining requirements for integrated system health monitoring and for the integration of health monitoring and control to provide intelligent self situational awareness (ISSA). The results of these workshops indicate that the benefits of ISHM and greater integration between ISHM and control include increased safety and mission assurance, the ability to rapidly respond to system failures, and decreased operator workload. Emerging open system standards such as OSA-EAI provide a framework for integrating system health monitoring with control functionality in spacecraft avionics systems. The purpose of this paper is to describe areas where system health monitoring can impact safety, reliability and sustainment in space applications and present the results of workshops conducted for NASA to identify requirements for the integration of health monitoring and control in future space systems


We present a project-based approach to teaching an introductory circuit analysis course. Traditional introductory courses emphasize analysis techniques at the expense of instilling an intuitive understanding of the problem and the underlying engineering principles. We propose that an introductory circuit analysis course should teach the inter-relationships of current, voltage, power, resistance, inductance, and capacitance both mathematically and intuitively, since much of practical circuit design is not linear and cannot be reduced to linear circuit analysis problems. The fundamentals of linear circuit analysis remain important for working with linearized models of devices and for developing closed-form solutions that develop intuitive understanding of simple circuits. We describe a revision to our Circuit Analysis I course that balances both the theoretical and intuitive aspects of circuit analysis. We have also introduced a hands-on design project to engage the students in the material and to unify the laboratory exercises. The course project also introduces students to the excitement and breadth of the field of electronics, including a basic understanding of practical devices such as diodes, transistors, oscillators, and amplifiers. We present evidence that this project-based approach has benefits that include increased student interest in electronics and improved student preparation for subsequent courses.


Tacca leontopetaloides L. (Kunze) is a wild perennial herbaceous and underutilized tuber crop. This study was aimed at analyzing quantitatively the tuber starch of T. leontopetaloides L. (Kunze) collected in the wild from Angwan Zam and Ntuer in Shendam Local Government Area (L.G.A) of Plateau State Nigeria for the presence of nutritional and anti-nutritional components. The proximate composition, elemental analyses and phytochemical composition of the tuber starch carried out revealed the presence of moisture, 8.66%, crude protein, 6.79%, crude fibre, 5.44%, crude fat, 0.51%, ash, 0.41%, and NFE (total carbohydrate), 78.19%. The elemental analysis of T. leontopetaloides indicated presence of some trace elements including sodium, 34.71 mg/100 g, potassium, 40.18 mg/100 g, calcium, 0.25 mg/100 g, magnesium, 1.40 mg/100 g, iron, 1.37 mg/100 g, zinc, 1.64 mg/100 g, manganese, 0.72 mg/100 g, copper, 0.68 mg/100 g and phosphorus, 0.06 mg/100 g. The results of antinutrient composition of T. leontopetaloides revealed the presence of tannins, 2.50 mg/100 g, Phytate, 49.77 mg/100 g, oxalate, 15.51 mg/100 g, cyanide, 0.18 mg/100 g, alkaloids, 42.90 mg/100 g, saponins, 14.67 mg/100 g and flavonoids, 1.46 m g/100 g. It was observed that steeping in water for sometimes had effects on the concentration of the anti-nutritional components. This in effect presents the tuber crop a good candidate as food source for humans in a developing country like Nigeria.


This paper describes the system design for an extended optical fiber line testing system that uses a new L/U-band crossed optical waveguide coupler and a fiber Bragg grating filter for L-band wavelength-division multiplexing transmission. We describe the reflection characteristic required for optical filters located in central offices in order to suppress the ghost signal caused by multireflection in the optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) trace. We design and evaluate an eight-channel crossed optical waveguide coupler with a new thin dielectric film filter that separates a 1650-nm test light from the L-band communication light, and confirm that there was no degradation caused by multireflections in the OTDR trace. We also demonstrate the in-service line monitoring of a 10-Gb/s L-band transmission with no degradation in the transmission quality.


Testing distributed systems is challenging due to multiple sources of nondeterminism. Conventional testing techniques, such as unit, integration and stress testing, are ineffective in preventing serious but subtle bugs from reaching production. Formal techniques, such as TLA+, can only verify high-level specifications of systems at the level of logic-based models, and fall short of checking the actual executable code. In this paper, we present a new methodology for testing distributed systems. Our approach applies advanced systematic testing techniques to thoroughly check that the executable code adheres to its high-level specifications, which significantly improves coverage of important system behaviors.

Our methodology has been applied to three distributed storage systems in the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. In the process, numerous bugs were identified, reproduced, confirmed and fixed. These bugs required a subtle combination of concurrency and failures, making them extremely difficult to find with conventional testing techniques. An important advantage of our approach is that a bug is uncovered in a small setting and witnessed by a full system trace, which dramatically increases the productivity of debugging.


This paper proposes a reliability-driven task scheduling scheme for multiprocessor real-time embedded systems that optimizes system energy consumption under stochastic fault occurrences. The task scheduling problem is formulated as an integer linear program where a novel fault adaptation variable is introduced to model the uncertainties of fault occurrences. The proposed scheme, which considers both the dynamic power and the leakage power, is able to handle the scheduling of independent tasks and tasks with precedence constraints, and is capable of scheduling tasks with varying deadlines. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed reliability-driven parallel scheduling scheme achieves energy savings of more than 15% when compared to the approach of designing for the corner case of fault occurrences.


Are you looking for high-impact, research-based strategies to transform your students into highachieving and inspired learners? In The Strategic Teacher, you'll find a repertoire of strategies designed and proven to meet today's high standards and reach diverse learners. Twenty reliable, flexible strategies (along with dozens of variations) are organized into these groups of instruction: *mastery style to emphasize the development of student memory; *understanding style to expand students' capacities to reason and explain; *self-expressive style to stimulate and nourish students' imaginations and creativity; *interpersonal style to help students find meaning in the relationships they forge as partners and team members, united in the act of learning; and *fourstyle strategies that integrate all four styles. To guide teachers in delivering content to students, the authors started with the best research-based teaching and learning strategies and created a tool called the Strategic Dashboard. The dashboard provides information about each teaching strategy in a concise, visual profile; it is also designed to document how you incorporate current, highly respected research into your instructional plans. For each strategy, you'll find the following information: *a brief introduction to the strategy; *an example of a teacher using the strategy in the classroom; *the research base supporting the strategy and how the strategy benefits students; *how to implement the strategy using a list of clear steps; *guidance through the planning process, providing steps, examples, and suggestions for designing superior lessons; and *additional tools, strategies, and resources for adapting and expanding the use of each strategy. The authors have combined their years of research and practice to deliver reliable, high-impact, flexible teaching and learning strategies grounded in current, highly regarded research to teachers at all levels of experience.


Background: Kallmann syndrome is a rare genetic hormonal condition of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism with a prevalence of 1 in 4000-10000 live born. It is often associated with anosmia or hyposmia. To the best of the author's knowledge, it has not been reported in Nigerian literature. Methodology: The patient had been presented at the Endocrine and Metabolic Unit of our hospital, and was thus managed. The patient's hospital records were reviewed and relevant data were extracted, with investigation results and clinical pictures presented. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institution Ethics review board. Results: We report the case of a 15-year-old boy who was presented with a small sized penis since birth, with only a slight increment since then. His developmental milestones were reportedly normal but he had the inability to smell. Examination revealed a well grown apparently healthy looking male, weighing 40 kg; with a normal height of 151.5 cm and BMI of 17.5 kg/m2. The testes were 1 ml each in volume with a stretched penile length of 3.5 cm. Laboratory investigation revealed low testosterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicular stimulating hormone. His karyotype was 46XY. He was commenced on 200 mg monthly injection of testosterone to which he made significant improvement as his penile length increased to 8.5 cm over 8 months of therapy, pubic hair also developed to Tanner 3 but his testicular volume remained pre-pubertal. He also reported that he could now smell. Conclusion: Kallmann syndrome though a rarely reported condition in the Nigerian population, could be treatable, though attainment of reproductive capability might require further intervention. A high index of suspicion and early treatment may yield a better outcome.


Aloe vera L. is a valuable medicinal plant and is currently used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries worldwide. In the present study, the effect of various concentrations of Aloe vera leaf gel extracts was investigated on mitotic and phase indexes of Allium cepa L. root tip cells for 24 and 48 h durations. The EC50 value of gel extracts was found to be 20% and was used to determine the experimental concentrations. The results indicated that the mitotic index and root growth rate of A. cepa were considerably decreased in comparison to the control. We found that the cytotoxic effect of A. vera gel extracts depends on the concentration rather than the exposure time. Even the low doses caused a considerable decrease in root growth rate. The lowest mitotic index value was found to be 3.72% at 40% gel extract treatment for 48 h duration. Average prophase index during 24 and 48 h applications was found to be 53.80% and 56.48%, respectively. We conclude that A. vera gel extracts have a cytotoxic effect on the root tip cells of A. cepa.


With trends for installing subsea pipelines and flowlines in deeper water conditions, designers and contractors are being forced to address the potential for high strain conditions during pipelay operations. Conventional analysis methods, even those based on strain, are often difficult to implement because questions arise regarding acceptable design strain conditions. To address this particular shortcoming, limit analysis methods can be applied. Limit analysis involves loading a structure, either through analysis or testing, to the point where unbounded displacements occur. The load at which this occurs is defined as the lower bound collapse load (LBCL). Using the LBCL, designers can determine appropriate design loads based on a specified safety design margin. This paper provides discussions using limit analysis methods and applications for deepwater pipelay activities. Of particular interest are a series of analyses and full-scale tests performed on a tee assembly prior to installation in the Independence Hub field using a stinger. The intent is to provide industry with an alternative analysis methodology to properly size and design piping and components subjected to high strain loading during installation. PROJECT BACKGROUND


Describes a single unifying abstraction called 'dynamic sets', which can offer substantial benefits to search applications. These benefits include greater opportunity in the I/O subsystem to aggressively exploit prefetching and parallelism, as well as support for associative naming to complement the hierarchical naming in typical file systems. This paper motivates dynamic sets and presents the design of a system that embodies this abstraction.


Objective: This study evaluated dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry-assessed whole-body bone-muscle relationship (bone mineral content/lean mass [BMC/LM]) as an indicator of its nonmechanical perturbations (ie, systemic) in pre- and postmenopausal women. A total of 3,205 women were studied, either healthy (no fracture [No Fx] groups, 1,035 premenopausal, 1,556 postmenopausal) or with recent fractures (Fx groups, 139 premenopausal, 475 postmenopausal) located at osteoporotic sites (hip, spine, long-bone metaphyses; Type II Fx, n = 386) or at other skeletal sites (Type I Fx, n = 228) to evaluate the impact of decreased muscle mass on fracture incidence before and after menopause. Design: SD-scored graphs of BMC/LM proportionality were obtained from the No Fx groups as normal references. Based on the reference BMC versus LM curves obtained from their respective No Fx pre- and postmenopausal controls, BMC-LM SD scores were calculated for all women with fractures. Results: BMC-LM SD scores in all premenopausal women with fractures and in Type I Fx postmenopausal women were similar to the reference. In contrast, SD scores in Type II Fx postmenopausal women were lower than the reference, especially in those with hip fractures. Except for Type II Fx postmenopausal women, all groups showed linear and similar BMC versus LM curves. Type II Fx postmenopausal women showed nonlinear relationships, with progressively decreasing BMC and BMC-LM SD scores as their LM decreased. Conclusions: Results suggest that both LM and BMC-LM SD scores can help to differentiate between systemic and mechanical (disuse-related) osteopenia/osteoporosis after menopause. Low LM values or BMC-LM SD scores seem to constitute additional fracture risk factors beyond those usually detected in premenopausal women or in women with other types of fractures. This application of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry technology may lead to more effective diagnosis and treatment at low cost.


Abstract This paper presents aspects of the steering gear onboard a merchant ship by analyzing aft and bow systems based on automation and use of modern propulsion. The choice of the transverse propeller is based on several economic considerations (its price, consumption, efficiency, etc.), technical considerations (positioning, size, vibrations induced in the ship's hull), and maneuverability considerations (the ship's turning rate under the action of the propeller. Accordingly, the propulsion system can come in various sizes, power values, shapes of the tunnel, and can present fixed or variable pitch propellers. Depending on the maneuverability of the ship, the transverse propulsion is analyzed by taking into account two tests: the turning of the transverse propulsion system test in calm and windy weather, and the steering test. The automation system is designed to control and monitor the on-board operational systems and equipment, and it encompasses a wide range of control, monitor and alarm. The integrated navigational equipment includes the following sub-systems: navigation consoles, ship handling consoles, dynamic positioning consoles, anchoring and deck operations consoles, and propulsion system control consoles. The propulsion control system is especially dedicated to the propeller and thruster control system, resulting in a joint control system, and the cables are reduced in number since the communication lines are used in series. The mandatory condition for successfully solving the problem with the complex automation of naval installations and equipment is the construction of complex automatic control systems (ACS), consisting of: automated commands or remote controls, a system of collecting, processing and displaying information, as well as a system of control, fault detection and diagnosis


Abstract Survival of chicks of the interior least tern (Sterna antillarum athalassos) has been difficult to estimate due to their semi-precocial development and cryptic coloration. After chicks disperse from the nest, they rarely are relocated. Our objectives were to estimate survival of chicks and study their movement patterns. In 1999, we attached radiotransmitters to 25 chicks and tracked them for 2–19 days depending on retention of transmitter. Because fate could not be determined always when signals were lost, a high and low estimate of survival was calculated. Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival were calculated first by assuming that all lost signals represented mortalities, and second that these transmitters failed and chicks were alive. This resulted in a minimum estimate of 5% of chicks surviving at the end of the study period and a high of 27%. Five chicks fledged, six died, and fate of the remaining 14 was undetermined. Although chicks appeared to allocate a substantial part of their daily movement to nocturnal periods, average rates of diurnal (7.6 m/h) and nocturnal movement (12.5 m/h) did not differ. Chicks primarily moved toward stable sources of water.


The AMPA receptor, which is involved in most fast glutamatergic transmission in the mammalian brain and is expressed in most neurons, is made up of four subunits, GluR1–4. In situ hybridzation, immunocytochemistry studies, and single-cell PCR analyses show that the number and type of AMPA receptor subunits expressed vary among neuronal populations and that two to four subunits usually are expressed in each neuron. Neurons that express two or more subunits theoretically could produce multiple pentameric receptor complexes that differ in their subunit compositions, and these complexes could be targeted to different synaptic populations. To determine whether a single neuronal population produces multiple AMPA receptor complexes, we used a preparation of CA1/CA2 hippocampal pyramidal neurons and immunoprecipitation with subunit-specific antibodies to characterize the receptor complexes. The CA1/CA2 pyramidal neurons express high levels of GluR1–3 and receive multiple excitatory inputs, offering the possibility that distinct receptor complexes may be assembled and expressed selectively at different synaptic populations. Our results suggest the presence of two major populations of AMPA receptor complexes: those made up of GluR1 and GluR2 and those made up of GluR2 and GluR3. Very few complexes contained both GluR1 and GluR3, whereas approximately 8% of the total AMPA receptor complexes was homomeric GluR1. The integrity of the receptor complex was verified by measuring [3H]AMPA binding activity in the immunoprecipitated fractions. These results show that AMPA receptor complexes with different subunit compositions are present in CA1/CA2 pyramidal neurons and suggest an additional mechanism to regulate receptor expression in neurons.


ABSTRACTThis paper aims to offer a lens to explore conceptually the impact of being cynical with high political sophistication and efficacy in turning such individuals to be partisan rebels against their ruling regime. For that reason, a model that encompass political cynicism, sophistication, and efficacy, endorser's credibility, the brand image, credibility and equity of an opposition party, CPHPSE-opposition party identification, trust, emotional attachment, and rebels loyalty is developed. In building the conceptual model, the researchers adopted social identity theory, emotional attachment theory, sensemaking model, selective perception theory, the associative network memory model, and brand signalling theory. The present study could be the first to explore the impact of the CPHPSE and their social network interpersonal and selective perception of political endorser's credibility, brand image, credibility and equity of an opposition party on CPHPSE behaviour.INTRODUCTIONThe arrest of 15 school children who were inspired by the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt was the straw that broke the strong and patient Syrian camel's back. The domino effect started when some people marched to the streets of the small Syrian town Deraa at March 15, 2011 (BBC 2012). Both the oppositions and loyalists had their aims either to move toward a more democratic country or to repress the demonstrators. Now at this point of time the protesters demand toppling the regime and the execution of the president, but the Syrian regime is trying everything to frighten, spread a negative propaganda and isolate the pro-democracy demonstrators from the outside world (BBC 2012). All for the sake of sustaining for the longest time possible and without any compromise, because what the pro-democracy protesters demands could topple the regime in one way or another (Fisk 2011). From the government perspective there are us and them, whoever demands more democratic constitution are them and this type of people are conspirators, outsiders, germs, armed ganged, and terrorists. As the Assad of Syria for the last decade has established the image of 'rejectionists' for the foreign affaire polices of the country it seems that he is using the same platform in dealing with the protesters, by rejecting their existence.Political groups on social networking sites have been a key political issue in many Middle Eastern countries. This may be due to the political and psychographic environments of this region; it can be a political discussion arena, and that the act leads the actor(s) to be politically cynical public with high political sophistication and efficacy (CPHPSE). CPHPSE can be defined as a group of individuals who (1) doubt and distrust the intention of their governments; (2) interested and knowledgeable politically; and (3) they feel that their individual actions can and have an impact on the political process. Building on the assumption that partisan rebels in Syria are CPHPSE, the current study aims to (1) build a model that relates political cynicism, sophistication and efficacy with rebel loyalty; and (2) demonstrate the moderating effect of the brand credibility of an opposition party on the rebel loyalty provoked by the endorser's credibility. Achieving these two goals will enable the researchers to identify the effect of the brand image, equity and credibility of an opposition party on the rebels' loyalty through the different routes of influence that the model proposes.Zakaria (2011) argued that "Today's information technology has the effect of breaking down hierarchies and monopolies. That's got to be good for the individual, and it must be bad for dictatorships". Furthermore, the finding of Weiwu, Thomas, Trent, and Shannon (2010) study revealed that political groups on social networking sites have a positive impact on the public political sophistication and efficacy. The engagement of Syrian CPHPSE with oppositions' political groups on social networking sites could represent a sign of the transformation probability of the CPHPSE to loyal rebels against the Syrian regime. …


A polymer focusing grating coupler was implemented on a slab waveguide using nanoscale UV-replication process. Numerical aperture and spot size were measured at 0.85 and 347 nm, respectively. The out-coupling efficiency was 28 % although aberration induced distortion of the beam shape should be further reduced.


Central Dronning Maud Land is a key area for reconstruction of the Gondwana supercontinent. The transition from continental to oceanic crust takes place in a 200 km wide zone, remarkably narrow in comparison with other parts of the Antarctic continent.The ground-based geophysical data presented here were obtained in three campaigns along profiles in the area of Schirmacheroase in 1991-95. Gravity measurements, radio-echo-sounding (RES) measurements of ice thickness, and magnetic measurements were made along three profiles. Geodetic and glaciological studies were made at the same time along these profiles.Gravity values were measured at about 350 stations. The Bouguer reductions were made for the 276 sites for which ice thickness data were available from the RES survey. Geomagnetic data were taken into consideration for the interpretation of the free-air and Bouguer anomaly data.Bouguer gravity values decrease southwards from the ice edge of the Nivlisen Ice Shelf to the Wohlthatmassiv by 220-240 mGal due to the increase in thickness of the Earth's crust, known from deep seismic soundings.A local maximum in the Bouguer anomaly data of approximately 60 mGal has been observed along a profile from Schirmacheroase to the ice shelf front. This zone starts south of the grounding line of the Nivlisen Ice Shelf at 70°24'S, 12°30'E in the area of a geomagnetic anomaly. The gradient south of this Bouguer anomaly maximum is much higher along the profile than on a comparable profile surveyed by the RV Polarstern in the marine area off the shelf ice front. This anomaly is also observed in both gravimetric and geomagnetic data and could be interpreted as a signal from the boundary between the continental and oceanic plates.


Family violence creates ethical challenges for all family law lawyers, but it creates unique challenges for collaborative lawyers. Two of the tenets of collaborative practice are good faith and transparency. Two of the fundamental professional duties for lawyers are the duty of loyalty and the near-absolute obligation to keep client confidences. These ideas are at odds with each other, and the impact is problematic where there is family violence. This paper looks at the duties of loyalty and confidentiality, the contractual obligation in collaborative practice of full disclosure, and the presence of family violence. It looks specifically at the ethical challenges that arise when disclosing information pursuant to the collaborative practice participation agreement that create risk of harm for a spouse when there is family violence. Collaborative practice is still in its infancy in Canada, and without regulation, the options lawyers have when there are ethical challenges due to family violence are not conducive to meeting client interests, including promoting safety. Ultimately, this paper presents a solution in the form of collaborative practice legislation, amendments to the Model Code, and practice guidelines. The focus of the paper is collaborative practice, but some of this discussion is relevant to non-CP family lawyers as well, so where possible the recommendations are broad enough to include all family law lawyers.


Title of dissertation: DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND EVALUATION OF A DISCRETELY ACTUATED STEERABLE CANNULA Elif Ayvali, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jaydev P. Desai Department of Mechanical Engineering Needle-based procedures require the guidance of the needle to a target region to deliver therapy or to remove tissue samples for diagnosis. During needle insertion, needle deflection occurs due to needle-tissue interaction which deviates the needle from its insertion direction. Manipulating the needle at the base provides limited control over the needle trajectory after the insertion. Furthermore, some sites are inaccessible using straight-line trajectories due to delicate structures that need to be avoided. The goal of this research is to develop a discretely actuated steerable cannula to enable active trajectory corrections and achieve accurate targeting in needle-based procedures. The cannula is composed of straight segments connected by shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators and has multiple degrees-of-freedom. To control the motion of the cannula two approaches have been explored. One approach is to measure the cannula configuration directly from the imaging modality and to use this information as a feedback to control the joint motion. The second approach is a model-based controller where the strain of the SMA actuator is controlled by controlling the temperature of the SMA actuator. The constitutive model relates the stress, strain and the temperature of the SMA actuator. The uniaxial constitutive model of the SMA that describes the tensile behavior was extended to one-dimensional purebending case to model the phase transformation of the arc-shaped SMA wire. An experimental characterization procedure was devised to obtain the parameters of the SMA that are used in the constitutive model. Experimental results demonstrate that temperature feedback can be effectively used to control the strain of the SMA actuator and image feedback can be reliably used to control the joint motion. Using tools from differential geometry and the configuration control approach, motion planning algorithms were developed to create pre-operative plans that steer the cannula to a desired surgical site (nodule or suspicious tissue). Ultrasound-based tracking algorithms were developed to automate the needle insertion procedure using 2D ultrasound guidance. The effectiveness of the proposed in-plane and out-of-plane tracking methods were demonstrated through experiments inside tissue phantom made of gelatin and ex-vivo experiments. An optical coherence tomography probe was integrated into the cannula and in-situ microscale imaging was performed. The results demonstrate the use of the cannula as a delivery mechanism for diagnostic applications. The tools that were developed in this dissertation form the foundations of developing a complete steerable-cannula system. It is anticipated that the cannula could be used as a delivery mechanism in image-guided needle-based interventions to introduce therapeutic and diagnostic tools to a target region. DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A DISCRETELY ACTUATED STEERABLE CANNULA


This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the 'Jesus phone' in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the 'Jesus phone' clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.


This article focuses on gender mainstreaming in practice using the example of agriculture departments in Australia. Gender mainstreaming is a policy initiative adopted internationally following the Beijing women's conference in 1995 to address gender inequality. The move represents a policy shift from a focus solely addressing women's disadvantage to a broader attention to gender inequality. This article provides an historical overview of the move toward gender mainstreaming in the international environment, as well as a theoretical critique. Using the Australian case example, the shift of attention from rural women to gender mainstreaming in Australian agricultural departments appears to be taking place with little understanding of the concept of gender mainstreaming or its goals. It is further argued that recent moves by government departments of agriculture toward gender mainstreaming may have disadvantaged women. This article argues that, while in theory mainstreaming is a more successful way of addressing gender inequality, in practice it risks reducing attention to women unless changes occur in departmental cultures and gender mainstreaming accountability measures are introduced at international and national levels.


THOMPSON, SARAH RACHEL. Biological control and behavioral studies of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae) with the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin. (Under the direction of Rick L. Brandenburg.) The objectives of this research conducted with the entomogenous fungus, Beauveria bassiana, include: a) to determine if a behavioral response occurs when mole crickets are exposed to conidia b) to measure the viability of conidia when applied to turfgrass and c) to evaluate the efficacy of various strains and rates of the fungus against mole crickets in a laboratory topical bioassay. All three studies focused on two strains of B. bassiana propagated and formulated by JABB of the Carolinas, Inc. (Pine Level, NC), DB-2 and 1022. A commercially available strain, GHA formulated as BotaniGard ES, from Emerald Bioagriculture Corporation (Butte, MT) was also evaluated. Greenhouse studies at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC) to determine behavioral changes in response to the fungus were conducted during the fall and winter of 2001-2002 and the spring and summer of 2003 using tawny and southern adult mole crickets. Significant variations in behavior were observed in containers treated with strain DB-2 and bifenthrin, indicating avoidance responses associated with these control agents. Field research to evaluate conidial viability was conducted on Bermudagrass Cynodon dactylon ( L.) plots at Sea Trails Golf Course (Sunset Beach, NC) in August 2002 and TriState Sod Farm (Newton Grove, NC) in June 2003. Strains DB-2 and 10-22 were significantly more viable than BotaniGard in the 2003 study but all three strains were able to persist in the environment up to 28 days after application in both field studies. 10-22 showed the best performance in both field tests as well as after day 7 in an accompanying greenhouse trial. The laboratory topical bioassay was conducted in August 2003 on tawny and southern mole cricket nymphs to determine the most efficacious strain and rate of B. bassiana. There were significant differences in survival functions for all fourteen treatments (four rates of each of the three B. bassiana strains as well as two control treatments). BotaniGard caused the greatest mortality in the shortest amount of time after exposure. The highest rate tested, 10 conidia per cricket, appeared to have the most considerable effect for all three strains as measured by total percent mortality and LT25. Results from these studies emphasize the importance of strain selection for the use of B. bassiana as a biological control agent for mole crickets. An appropriate isolate that maintains viability, effectively targets the host, and dose not elicit behavioral responses from the crickets will have the most potential as an efficacious control agent for these serious turfgrass pests. BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AND BEHAVIORAL STUDIES OF MOLE CRICKETS (ORTHOPTERA: GRYLLOTALPIDAE) WITH THE ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGUS, BEAUVERIA BASSIANA (BALSAMO) VUILLEMIN by SARAH RACHEL THOMPSON A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science


This volume of original essays fills a significant research gap in Chinese film studies by offering an interdisciplinary, comparative examination of ethnic Chinese film stars from the silent period to the era of globalization. Whereas studies of stars and stardom have developed considerably in the West over the past two decades, there is no single book in English that critically addresses issues related to stars and stardom in Chinese culture. Chinese Film Stars offers exemplary readings of historically, geographically and aesthetically multifaceted star phenomena. An international lineup of contributors test a variety of approaches in making sense of discourses of stars and stardom in China and the US, explore historical contexts in which Chinese film stars are constructed and transformed in relation to changing sociopolitical conditions, and consider issues of performance and identity specific to individual stars through chapter-by-chapter case studies. The essays explore a wide range of topics such as star performance, character type, media construction, political propaganda, online discourses, autobiographic narration, as well as issues of gender, genre, memory and identity. Including 15 case studies of individual Chinese stars and illustrated with film stills throughout, this book is an essential read for students of Chinese film, media and cultural studies.


The demand for transparent but robust designs in architecture is still enormous. One of the most complex points of the application of glass is the use of efficient and appropriate connection details. The article examines a modular glass system about its architectural possibilities with a special focus on the connection methodology. We constructed a 2 x 2 x 1m prototype of specially laminated glass sheets with integrated connection details in the framework of a Master of Science programme on digital fabrication with support from Seele and Bischoff Glastechnik, which was also featured in two public exhibitions at TU Munich and the House of Architecture in Munich. The design potential is investigated using parametric geometrical modelling as well as FEM sensitivity analysis. At the interface between the architect and the engineer, the consequences of the FEM analysis are discussed reflecting the influence of the chosen connection to the peak stresses within the structure and expected deflections. A typical part of the examined structure is prepared as an FEA-model. The abstraction of the connection details within the model allows a more in-depth analysis of the load transmissions between the glass panes using non-linear contact effects as well as the rheological behaviour of the interlayer material. The examined structure was designed for application in small-scale architectural design. Beside the design, and analysis of the structure fabrication and installation aspects and their consequences to the design is explained in detail. Unique aspects of this article are new possibility to build transparent and efficient facade systems that can be flexibly adapted to possible areas of application due to the parametrically supported design processes. In addition to the design process, the direct interaction between the architect and the engineer was also able to consider the aspects of the data exchange regarding detail development. The article concludes with a description of further development for full-scale architectural applications and the necessary research.


The role of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system in breast cancer is well defined, and inhibitors of this pathway are currently in clinical trials. Themajority of anti-IGF1R clinical trials are in estrogen receptor–positive patients who have progressed on prior endocrine therapy; early reports show no benefit for addition of IGF1R inhibitors to endocrine therapy in this setting. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of IGF1R inhibitors in vitro by generating tamoxifen-resistant (TamR) cells. We found that TamR cells had diminished levels of IGF1R with unchanged levels of insulin receptor (IR), and failed to respond to IGF-I–induced Akt activation, proliferation, and anchorage-independent growth while retaining responsiveness to both insulin and IGF-II. The IGF1R antibody dalotuzumab inhibited IGF-I–mediated Akt phosphorylation, proliferation, and anchorageindependent growth in parental cells, but had no effect on TamR cells. An IGF1R tyrosine kinase inhibitor, AEW541, with equal potency for the IGF1R and IR, inhibited IGF-I-, IGF-II-, and insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation, proliferation, and anchorage-independent growth in parental cells. Interestingly, AEW541 also inhibited insulinand IGF-II–stimulated effects in TamR cells. Tamoxifen-treated xenografts also had reduced levels of IGF1R, and dalotuzumab did not enhance the effect of tamoxifen. We conclude that cells selected for tamoxifen resistance in vitro have downregulated IGF1R making antibodies directed against this receptor ineffective. Inhibition of IRmaybe necessary tomanage tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.Cancer Res; 72(13); 1–9.


OF DISSERTATION ASPECTS OF SCIENCE ENGAGEMENT, STUDENT BACKGROUND, AND SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS: IMPACTS ON SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT OF U.S. STUDENTS Science achievement of U.S. students has lagged significantly behind other nations; educational reformers have suggested science engagement may enhance this critical measure. The 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was science-focused and measured science achievement along with nine aspects of science engagement: science self-efficacy, science self-concept, enjoyment of science, general interest in learning science, instrumental motivation for science, future-oriented science motivation, general value of science, personal value of science, and science-related activities. I used multilevel modeling techniques to address both aspects of science engagement and science achievement as outcome variables in the context of student background and school characteristics. Treating aspects of science engagement as outcome variables provided tests for approaches for their enhancement; meanwhile, treating science achievement as the outcome variable provided tests for the influence of the aspects of science engagement on science achievement under appropriate controls. When aspects of science engagement were treated as outcome variables, gender and father's SES had frequent (significant) influences, as did science teaching strategies which focused on applications or models and hands-on activities over-and-above influences of student background and other school characteristics. When science achievement was treated as the outcome variable, each aspect of science engagement was significant, and eight had medium or large effect sizes (future-oriented science motivation was the exception). The science teaching strategy which involved hands-on activities frequently enhanced science achievement over-and-above influences of student background and other school characteristics. Policy recommendations for U.S. science educators included enhancing eight aspects of science engagement and implementing two specific science teaching strategies (focus on applications or models and hands-on activities). Focused implementation of these research findings could enhance both science engagement and science achievement of U.S. students. I identified five key limitations of my research project: the age of the dataset, the lack of racial/ethnic identifiers, the low proportion of student-level variance accounted for by multilevel models with aspects of science engagement as outcome variables, the lack of class-level measures, and the lack of inclusion of students' epistemological and fixed/flexible beliefs. These limitations provide opportunities for further investigations into these critical issues in science education.


Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS) has emerged as a new, scalable technology for implementing cloud-based web services. As an event-driven programming paradigm, FaaS systems are also gaining in popularity as a technology for implementing the "back end" of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In this paper, we describe CSPOT – a portable, multi-scale FaaS system for implementing IoT applications. CSPOT is designed to run at all scales employed by cloud-based IoT applications. The current implementation is available for micro-Linux devices, edge computing devices, moderately-sized private clouds, and public clouds. CSPOT features include a lightweight runtime system that automatically logs causal relationships between FaaS function invocations, and a portable, append-only storage abstraction which also serves as a communication substrate for functions.


Abstract. The ability of a coupled meteorology–chemistry model, i.e., Weather Research and Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ), to reproduce the historical trend in aerosol optical depth (AOD) and clear-sky shortwave radiation (SWR) over the Northern Hemisphere has been evaluated through a comparison of 21-year simulated results with observation-derived records from 1990 to 2010. Six satellite-retrieved AOD products including AVHRR, TOMS, SeaWiFS, MISR, MODIS-Terra and MODIS-Aqua as well as long-term historical records from 11 AERONET sites were used for the comparison of AOD trends. Clear-sky SWR products derived by CERES at both the top of atmosphere (TOA) and surface as well as surface SWR data derived from seven SURFRAD sites were used for the comparison of trends in SWR. The model successfully captured increasing AOD trends along with the corresponding increased TOA SWR (upwelling) and decreased surface SWR (downwelling) in both eastern China and the northern Pacific. The model also captured declining AOD trends along with the corresponding decreased TOA SWR (upwelling) and increased surface SWR (downwelling) in the eastern US, Europe and the northern Atlantic for the period of 2000–2010. However, the model underestimated the AOD over regions with substantial natural dust aerosol contributions, such as the Sahara Desert, Arabian Desert, central Atlantic and northern Indian Ocean. Estimates of the aerosol direct radiative effect (DRE) at TOA are comparable with those derived by measurements. Compared to global climate models (GCMs), the model exhibits better estimates of surface-aerosol direct radiative efficiency (Eτ). However, surface-DRE tends to be underestimated due to the underestimated AOD in land and dust regions. Further investigation of TOA-Eτ estimations as well as the dust module used for estimates of windblown-dust emissions is needed.


Consequential decision-making incentivizes individuals to strategically adapt their behavior to the specifics of the decision rule. While a long line of work has viewed strategic adaptation as gaming and attempted to mitigate its effects, recent work has instead sought to design classifiers that incentivize individuals to improve a desired quality. Key to both accounts is a cost function that dictates which adaptations are rational to undertake. In this work, we develop a causal framework for strategic adaptation. Our causal perspective clearly distinguishes between gaming and improvement and reveals an important obstacle to incentive design. We prove any procedure for designing classifiers that incentivize improvement must inevitably solve a non-trivial causal inference problem. Moreover, we show a similar result holds for designing cost functions that satisfy the requirements of previous work. With the benefit of hindsight, our results show much of the prior work on strategic classification is causal modeling in disguise.