This master thesis is performed at the Department of Electric Power Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim in the spring 2008. The thesis is done in collaboration with Statkraft Energi AS and is a continuation of a specialization project from autumn 2007. The purpose of the master thesis is to perform an evaluation of simulation tools for expansion planning in hydro power systems. The aim is to evaluate the interaction between the EOPS model for long- and medium term scheduling and the SHOP model for short term hydro generation optimization. The SHOP model should be tested with seasonal, monthly and weekly time horizons, just to determine the optimal horizon. The goal is to consider if these tools made for use in hydro dominated power systems can interact in order to determine the market value of MW capacity and to quantify it by use of the simulation tools. Specified watercourses with different complexity are chosen in order to determine the possibilities of cooperation between the tools, and to verify their disposal of the hydro resources and the impact of the income for the particular cases. The importance of having reliable and sufficient simulation tools for decision making related to production optimization and expansion planning after the restructuring of the Norwegian power market are examined. The increasing amount of connections to continental markets has impact of the daily and seasonal price fluctuations, and it's thereby of significant value to have simulation tools with high degree of effectiveness and credibility. This is of really importance due to expansion planning in order to have sufficient capacity available for contribution at peak-prices. The watercourses and power stations which are studied have been of different structure and complexity which has resulted in interesting outcome. The aim was to compare the interaction between the models for three watercourses and hydro power systems just to examine the possible increased benefit. The watercourses was Rana which is quite simple in its structure, while Ulla-Forre is of a more complex category and at least the planned watercourse in Devoll, Albania, which is a run-off-river system in another power market. These cases have several restrictions and constraints such as minimum release of water and many small reservoirs which again lead to less storage possibilities. The price profiles which are used are different for the cases but reflect the year with nearly average inflow. There are used price data from Nord Pool which is adjusted to correspond to the price estimate of the EMPS model for the actual year. The results from the simulations show that it is considerable differences between the stochastically and deterministic models. The SHOP horizon which gives the most realistic results is the weekly horizon. The outcome of the three cases shows that the reservoir disposals are fairly similar when there are large and well regulated reservoirs in the watercourses. There are some differences in their disposal of the reservoirs and the production of the power plants when we are dealing with small reservoirs. There have been some difficulties for the SHOP model to hit the disposal from the EOPS model in the end of the week since there are many reservoirs involved, each with restrictions to fulfill. There is in some cases beneficial to use SHOP in interaction with the EOPS model for the optimization process in order to utilize the resources in the best way. But there are some challenges when it comes to the model consistence, especially the PQ (power and discharge) curves versus the detailed turbine curves. There are difficulties to hit the disposal from the EOPS model when there are many small reservoirs because of this inconsistency. It is observed small increase in the income when the watercourse are well regulated and when the marked price are non-volatile. There are discovered up to 15% increased income in systems which are coupled to markets with larger price variations, such as the Devoll case. This means that it seems beneficial to use SHOP in such cases where there are volatile prices.


In this research, conceptualizations of the links between technological innovation and organizational change are explored and recommendations in the literature concerning such changes are reviewed and criticized. Such recommendations do not usually address the details of social interactions by which organizational changes take place. As a consequence, the issue of how these recommendations become relevant for the actors who would carry them out is not addressed. The complexity of organizational change processes highlights the role of actors' interpretations of organizational reality. Interpretations take place through the use of language in the interaction between actors. Theoretical contributions and recommendations concerning organizational changes should be seen therefore as discourses which contribute to these interpretations. They will influence the process of change only if they become relevant for organizational actors'. A method for analysing discourse in organizations is presented. It is used to identify the variety of discourses which are put forward in organizations, and to describe the structure of their distribution among actors. The structures of discourses in three companies suggest that knowledge about technological innovation processes becomes relevant to the extent that it contributes to political/discursive processes maintained by actors attempting to secure or change their role definitions. It follows that recommendations concerning planned organizational change should take into account these processes explicitly. It is therefore suggested that the analysis of discourse can be a valuable instrument for monitoring change processes. Suggestions for further research are made, concerning (i) the development of the method itself and its use in real situations (ii) the study of how discourse structures evolve over time and episodes of change.


Early hypertext visionaries proposed entire online archives of the world's literature, with everything associatively linked to everything else. Today, the most widespread hypertext system is the World-Wide Web (WWW), a publicly accessible and globally distributed medium. However, the WWW is not living up to the promise of hypertext associativity - the majority of hypertext linking on the WWW is estimated to be intended for navigational purposes only. WWW authors typically have new ideas to contribute, and assert particular relationships between these and existing ideas already published in order to demonstrate both the reliability of the conceptual foundation being built on, and the innovation and significance of the new ideas. However, these associations are rarely rendered as associative links which seamlessly link the new material into the global context. This research investigates the possibility of capturing these implicit inter-document associations through annotation, and then using these annotations to assist the hyperauthoring process. The hypothesis of this work is therefore that by capturing inter-document associations through annotation, a better hyperauthoring process will result, both in terms of the quality and coverage of the new writing, and in terms of the seamless (associative) integration with the global context, helping the WWW evolve to achieve all of its potential hypertextual richness. The Annotation LInking ENvironment (ALIEN) has been implemented to demonstrate techniques for capturing inter-document associations made by an author whilst reading, using free form annotations. Further work proposed includes the re-purposing of these captured associations to assist the authoring and linking processes through dynamic visualisation of the association structures "as-you-type", and automatic associative linking.


Data dissemination in sensor networks requires four components: resource discovery, route establishment, packet forwarding, and route maintenance. Resource discovery can be the most costly aspect if meta-data does not exist to guide the search. Geographic routing can minimize search cost when resources are defined by location, and hash-based techniques like data-centric storage can make searching more efficient, subject to increased storage cost. In general, however, flooding is required to locate all resources matching a specification. In this paper, we propose BARD, Bayesian-assisted resource discovery, an approach that optimizes resource discovery in sensor networks by modeling search and routing as a stochastic process. BARD exploits the attribute structure of diffusion and prior routing history to avoid flooding for similar queries. BARD models attributes as random variables and finds routes to arbitrary value sets via Bayesian estimation. Results of occasional flooded queries establish a baseline probability distribution, which is used to focus additional queries. Since this process is probabilistic and approximate, even partial matches from prior searches can still reduce the scope of search. We evaluate the benefits of BARD by extending directed diffusion and examining control overhead with and without our Bayesian filter. These simulations demonstrate a 28% to 73% reduction in control traffic, depending on the number and locations of sources and sinks.


The proper organization and differentiation of the anterior segment is pivotal for normal eye
development. Neural crest-derived POM cells are key contributors to correct anterior segment
formation, differentiating to form the monolayered corneal endothelium. Mice with homozygous
null mutations in the forkhead transcription factor gene, Foxc1, fail to develop a proper corneal
endothelium stabilized by adherens junctions, with the endothelium adhering to the lens,
preventing anterior chamber separation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the interaction
between Foxc1 and the adherens junction protein, N-cadherin, as well as an associated gene,
Msx1, during key stages in corneal endothelium development. Foxc1 was over-expressed in
E12.5 and E13.5 POM cells and qPCR was carried out to determine the effect of Foxc1 on N-cadherin
and Msx1 gene expression. Data showed over-expression of Foxc1 in wildtype E12.5
and E13.5 POM cells to cause significant fluctuations in N-cadherin and Msx1 expression (p <
0.05). POM cells were then transfected with a Foxc1 knock-down plasmid or the Foxc1 overexpression
plasmid to evaluate the effect of Foxc1 on N-cadherin protein expression by Western
blot analysis, however, these results were inconsistent with the gene expression analyses with no
significant differences in N-cadherin expression detected. N-cadherin protein expression and
localization was then further assessed by means of immunocytochemistry (ICC) and confocal
microscopy in monolayer and hanging-drop POM cell cultures. Both qPCR and confocal
microscopy data showed consistency, indicating increased amounts of N-cadherin in E12.5 cells
relative to E13.5 cells, with membrane-bound N-cadherin showing a clear lattice-work pattern in
hanging drop culture. Foxc1 over-expression/knock-down studies on E12.5 and E13.5 POM cells
together suggest that N-cadherin is transcriptionally regulated by Foxc1 and that Foxc1 has a
threshold level at which it is able to exert control over N-cadherin in POM cells. Foxc1
expression is therefore essential in establishing N-cadherin adhesion junctions in the corneal
endothelium. Preliminary data also suggests that Msx1 may directly interact with Foxc1 in POM
cells, however, further studies must be undertaken to verify and establish the effects of Foxc1/N-cadherin/
Msx1 interaction in the development of a cohesive, integrated corneal endothelium and
functional anterior segment.


I discuss path dependence in organizational culture as an evolutionary process that is driven by a continuous stream of new variations, many of which lead to dead ends but are nevertheless important because they affect the fate of those variations that survive to the future. I conceptualize this process at the micro-level of ideas in terms of changes in the distribution of ideas in populations and environments in which ideas compete for human attention. For illustrative purposes I present a case study of an organizational project embedded in a "culture of creativity." The findings indicate a process of path formation that is driven by competition among similar and different ideas, with variations in the timing and duration of combinations of ideas, and with outcomes that are neither unidirectional nor predictable.


Abstract The Reverend Charles Wilton arrived in the colony of New South Wales, Australia, in 1827 to take up an appointment as chaplain in an outer Sydney parish. His interest in the natural sciences, particularly in geology, led him to undertake many excursions to study and describe the largely unknown natural features of his adopted country. A transfer to the then small town of Newcastle to the north of Sydney gave him the opportunity to carry out more detailed and scientifically well-reasoned studies of such geological curiosities as the 'Burning Mountain', initially thought to be a volcano, the giant concretions along the Hunter River, and also of the coal measure sequence cropping out along the nearby coast. Wilton felt a strong need to communicate his discoveries, both for the benefit of science and the enlightenment of the general public. He achieved this by contributing to a short-lived journal he had founded and through many scientific publications and newspaper articles. His main purpose, however, was to demonstrate that there was agreement between science and religion. This conviction led him to criticize other naturalists who explained natural features and processes by accepting some latitude in the literal interpretation of the biblical account of the creation and of Noah's Flood. Some of his actions and behaviour, following his arrival in the colony, met with disapproval and censure from his superiors. However, he atoned for his early errors by the subsequent conscientious fulfilment of his clerical duties and by the communication of his work in the natural sciences.


ABSTRACT Previous research has analyzed the extent to which the structural characteristics of news organizations and the outlets where journalists operate explain differences in media diversity. Based on a content analysis of 16,281 news stories from Chilean television, radio, print, online media and Twitter, this study examines whether differences in source diversity remain stable across news media platforms within the same medium. The findings show that both platform type and medium significantly influence the presence of source diversity at different levels. Our results speak to the strong influence that each media platform has on how journalists manage news balance and number of sources when producing a story. They also provide strong evidence of the importance of the macro organizational structure of the medium for the type of sources included in the news. Likewise, our study questions common assumptions as it reveals that online media do not favor the presence of a greater diversity of sources and points of view in the news and are associated with a lower degree of diversity in general.


Deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) is a chronic progressive estrogen-dependent disease that can also affect structures of the gastrointestinal tract. The disease is usually asymptomatic in long-term, respectively, is manifested with very nonspecific symptoms. Its late detection can lead to irreversible changes in the individual structures. This case report describes a rare case of extensive deep infiltrating endometriosis of posterior pelvic compartment, which resulted into the state of obstructive ileus. It focuses on the essential role of "virtual colonoscopy" using three-dimensional transvaginal sonography (3D-TVUS) in evaluating the extent of the disease.


Few herbicides are labeled for weed control when establishing alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)-grass mixtures. Varying the planting date of the grass in relation to alfalfa and adjusting herbicide application timing could improve weed control and forage grass safety. The research objective was to evaluate the use of glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine] for weed control in seedling glyphosate-resistant alfalfa mixed with orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.). Orchardgrass was seeded with alfalfa or 4 and 5 wk after alfalfa; while glyphosate was applied 4 wk after planting and all treatments included an untreated check. First year harvests varied in composition and orchardgrass was slower to establish than alfalfa. At the first harvest, glyphosate treatments had 17 to 35% higher alfalfa content, reduced or similar orchardgrass content, and 75 to 90% lower weed content than treatments without glyphosate. By the third harvest of the establishment year, weed biomass in the 4 and 5 wk after planting treatments not treated with herbicide was at least 4.5 times greater and orchardgrass content was the same or less than the comparable glyphosate treatments. Forage species composition and weed control differences present during the establishment year dissipated during the second year of the study. By 2 yr after establishment, orchardgrass content was lower only in the first two cuttings when orchardgrass was seeded with the alfalfa and a glyphosate application followed, a practice not generally recommended. This study demonstrates the utility of glyphosate in glyphosate-resistant alfalfa and should provide some guidance for establishment of successful alfalfa-grass mixtures.


Solve real-world shell scripting problems with over 110 simple but incredibly effective recipes Master the art of crafting one-liner command sequence to perform tasks such as text processing, digging data from files, and lot more Practical problem solving techniques adherent to the latest Linux platform Packed with easy-to-follow examples to exercise all the features of the Linux shell scripting language Part of Packt's Cookbook series: Each recipe is a carefully organized sequence of instructions to complete the task as efficiently as possible In Detail GNU/Linux is a remarkable operating system that comes with a complete development environment that is stable, reliable, and extremely powerful. The shell being the native interface to communicate with the operating system is capable of controlling the entire operating system. There are numerous commands on Linux shell which are documented but hard to understand. The man pages are helpful but they are very lengthy and it does not give any clues on key areas where commands can be used. Proper usage of shell commands can easily solve many complex tasks with a few lines of code, but most linux users don't have the right know-how to use the Linux shell to its full potential. Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook is a collection of essential command-line recipes along with detailed descriptions tuned with practical applications. It covers most of the commands on Linux with a variety of usecases accompanied by plenty of examples. This book helps you to perform complex data manipulations involving tasks such as text processing, file management, backups and more with the combination of few commands. Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook shows you how to capitalize on all the aspects of Linux using the shell scripting language. This book teaches you how to use commands to perform simple tasks all the way to scripting complex tasks such as managing large amounts of data on a network. It guides you on implementing some of the most common commands in Linux with recipes that handle any of the operations or properties related with files like searching and mining inside a file with grep. It also shows you how utilities such as sed, awk, grep, cut can be combined to solve text processing related problems. The focus is on saving time by automating many activities that we perform interactively through as browser with a few lines of script. This book will take you from a clear problem description to a fully functional program. The recipes contained within the chapter will introduce the reader to specific problems and provide hands-on solutions. This practical book will help you gain control over all the aspects of Linux using the powerful shell scripting language What you will learn from this book Explore a variety of regular usage tasks and how it can be made faster using shell command Couple frequently used commands like grep, find, sed, awk Write shell scripts that can dig data from web and process it with few lines of code Perform and automate tasks such as automating backups and restore with archiving tools Understand file systems, file types and manipulations Create and maintain file/folder archives, compression formats and encrypting techniques with shell Set up Ethernet and Wireless LAN with the shell script Monitor different activities on the network using logging techniques Approach This book is written in cookbook style and it offers learning through recipes with examples and illustrations. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions about everything necessary to execute a particular task. The book is designed so that you can read it from start to end for beginner's or just open up any chapter and start following the recipes as a reference for advanced users. Who this book is written for If you are a beginner or an intermediate user who wants to master the skill of quickly writing scripts to perform various tasks without reading the entire man pages, this book is for you. You can start writing scripts and one-liners by simply looking at the similar recipe and its descriptions without any working knowledge of shell scripting or Linux. Intermediate/advanced users as well as system adminstrators/ developers and programmers can use this book as a reference when they face problems while coding.


LibraBFT is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol based on HotStuff. We present an abstract model of the protocol underlying HotStuff / LibraBFT, and formal, machine-checked proofs of their core correctness (safety) property and an extended condition that enables non-participating parties to verify committed results. (Liveness properties would be proved for specific implementations, not for the abstract model presented in this paper.) A key contribution is precisely defining assumptions about the behavior of honest peers, in an abstract way, independent of any particular implementation. Therefore, our work is an important step towards proving correctness of an entire class of concrete implementations, without repeating the hard work of proving correctness of the underlying protocol. The abstract proofs are for a single configuration (epoch); extending these proofs across configuration changes is future work. Our models and proofs are expressed in Agda, and are available in open source.


A method for assessing potential synergies among different sets of transport telematic services (TTSs) is suggested. An Intelligent Transport System enhances transport by delivering one or more TTSs. The ability to deliver multiple TTSs to address a wide range of stakeholder needs is gaining momentum, not only from a marketing perspective but also from a technological perspective. The total cost of TTSs can be reduced if they share functionalities (i.e., sub-services provided by telematic systems). We show how this synergy can be assessed with the help of clustering methods. Knowledge about possible synergies of functionalities is useful in the (re)design and eventual deployment of TTSs, especially when the underlying telematic systems are able to support multiple TTSs. To adapt the clustering method for this purpose, we suggest a mathematical formulation of synergy among functionalities of TTSs. By applying the method to a set of 32 TTSs, we obtain a cluster formation of these TTSs according to their synergy measures. Overall, the results suggest that the joint implementation of TTSs targeted toward some problem domains can lead to significant cost savings, for example, Road User Charging, Infrastructure Repair and Maintenance, and Information on the Transport of extra large goods for the management of road transport infrastructure.


Understanding the participation motives of youth athletes is vital if their needs are to be met and their sport involvement enhanced. The purpose of this study was to examine the participation motives of a squad of competitive and noncompetitive, youth-age, male and female swimmers. A qualitative interview technique was employed to identifY the participation motives of 12 youth-age swimmers. The interview schedule was based on theories describing participation motivation, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Data was deductively analysed, with statements classified into the motivatic n categories described by Passer (1981). Consistent with previous studies on participation motives in youth sport, the swimmers cited multiple reasons for participation. Fitness was revealed to be the most important motive across the sample. Competitive swimmers were more competitively oriented than their non-competitive counterparts, while noncompetitive swimmers emphasised improving strokes and excitement motives. Being in the water was an important motive identified by all non-competitive swimmers, indicating that they participate, in part, for the intrinsic joy being in the water brings. The motives cited by competitive swimmers suggest a more extrinsic motivational orientation, while the non-competitive swimmers are more intrinsically motivated. Male and female swimmers identified similar motives for participation. However, female swimmers identified stronger affiliation motives than male swimmers, who were more competitively oriented. Non-competitive male swimmers were notably more competitively and extrinsically oriented than ii their female counterparts. It is important that young swimmers' reasons for participating, as well as the differences between competitive and non-competitive, and male and female swimmers, be identified, so that the needs of all youth-age· swimmers can be realised and met.


A strict emission regime for marine operations in Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), increasing fuel prices and tax on environmental emissions, have led to a need to consider alternative solutions for supplying power for offshore oil and gas installations. Conventionally, natural gas and diesel are used for the production of electricity on offshore installations. However, this conventional approach has developed into a real burden, as it conflicts with the aim of achieving least emission to the environment. Electrification has been considered as one of the alternatives to cut down the emission level to a reasonable extent as well as to increase the power supply efficiency. This analysis deals with electrification of new facilities, while the cost of electrification of existing facilities has not been estimated yet. Although electrification might be selected as the best available technique for a given field, it is necessary to assure that the electrification technique will be fit for the purpose if it is going to be implemented in an unknown environment. This paper will address a method to qualify the electrification technique for a new oil field development on the NCS. Further, this study will help to confirm that the Best Available Technique (BAT) should be qualified prior to the implementation to avoid consequence of harm to the environment, society, health and finances.


The rise of new cultural identitarian movements is explained by changing politico-economic conditions at the global and the local level, which led to the decline of the secular elites. These movements are the result of the collapse of the state classes, which had been formed by the secular wings of the national liberation movements and had engaged in import-substituting industrialization on the basis of enhanced claims for better terms of trade. Cultural nationalists were marginalized by the retreating colonial powers but subsequently reemerged where import-substituting industrialization and state-led development were reasonably able to create new middle classes. The property-owning middle classes and a large stratum of the newly educated, often from hitherto uneducated, rural, middle strata, form the basis of the new cultural identitarian movements together with the marginal poor. Because of the diversity of possible coalitions bases, different orientations prevail in these cultural identitarian movements, from violent extremism to moral economy and moderate conservatism. The construction of large class alliances is facilitated as these movements reject any overall economic doctrine and engage in the market-oriented pragmatism they call moral economy or integral humanism. Taking examples from different cultural settings, Elsenhans's article shows that we are heading for a world of diverse cultural identities incorporated by powers that defend their sovereignty but will not clash, as they are both saturated and interested in maintaining the emerging multipolar system.


The Notch signaling pathway is a key regulator of cell fate decisions in embryonic development and in adult tissue homeostasis. Mounting evidence suggests that Notch signaling is frequently deregulated in human neoplasms, where depending upon the cellular context it can function both as an oncogene or a tumor suppressor. A plethora of studies shed light on how Notch crosstalks with signaling pathways downstream to manifest either its oncogenic or tumor suppressive activity. However, regulatory networks upstream of the Notch signaling pathway are still poorly understood. Since protein kinases are well-known regulators of a majority of cell signaling pathways, the aim of the current study was to identify novel positive and negative regulatory kinases that modulate Notch signaling. Using a HeLa cell based co-culture assay to read Notch-dependent luciferase activity, a small interference RNA (siRNA) library against the human kinase genome was previously tested in a high-throughput manner. Validation of top candidate kinases from the screening using both siRNA as well as pharmacological inhibitors led to further elimination of false positives and identification of Protein Kinase B (AKT2) and Calmodulin Kinase II (CaMKII) as key positive while Janus kinases (JAKs) as key negative regulators of the Notch signaling pathway. In the first part of the study, we analyzed the positive regulation of AKT2 and CaMKII kinases on Notch signaling in the T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells where Notch is oncogenic. It was shown that pharmacological inhibition of either AKT2 or CaMKII kinase in T-ALL cell lines in vitro abrogated the expression of active Notch1 intracellular domain (N1-ICD) as well as of Notch target genes. Moreover, inhibition of these kinases blocked proliferation of T-ALL cells. In the second part of the study, we analyzed the negative regulation of JAK kinases on Notch signaling using a distinct physiological context where Notch is tumor suppressive. It was shown that pharmacological inhibition of JAK kinases led to an induction of Notch receptor transcription and of Notch target genes in the human primary epidermal keratinocytes (HPEK) as well as in the skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell lines. In addition, the pharmacological inhibition of JAK kinases induced a block in proliferation, cell cycle arrest and differentiation in HPEKs and skin SCCs by increased expression of early differentiation markers. Suppression of Notch signaling in primary keratinocytes counteracted the differentiation-inducing effect of JAK inhibition. Since JAK inhibition affected Notch transcription, global gene expression profiling using RNA sequencing was done to identify transcription factors involved in an indirect regulation of JAK kinases on the Notch cascade. EGR1 and EGR2 belonging to the early growth response family of transcription factors were significantly modulated downstream of JAK inhibition. In vivo, topical inhibition of JAK kinases provided marked resistance against chemically induced cutaneous carcinogenesis.Taken together, our data reveals a key role of AKT2 and CaMKII kinases in positive regulation while of JAK kinases in the negative regulation of Notch signaling, of potential relevance for combinatory approaches for cancer therapy. Pharmacological inhibitors against these kinases could be tested for their ability to modulate Notch signaling and may prove highly beneficial in the therapy of Notch-driven cancers.


Significant developments have recently occurred in the ongoing campaign by the Australian Government to combat illegal foreign fishing in Australian waters, particularly against Patagonian toothfish poaching. On 22 March 2004 significant amendments to Australia's fisheries laws were passed by the Commonwealth Parliament to improve regulatory efficiency and combat illegal foreign fishing in the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ). In addition, on 12 March 2004 the Federal Court of Australia delivered a landmark decision in Olbers v Commonwealth of Australia (No 4) [2004] FCA 229 concerning the automatic forfeiture of foreign vessels to the Commonwealth of Australia at the time when a fisheries offence occurs rather than upon apprehension. It is argued that the Federal Court's decision and the amendments increase the disparity between measures Australia has adopted within its domestic legal regime to deter illegal foreign fishing in the AFZ and its responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC).


A course on Electronic Instrumentation has recently been developed at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain), which specifically emphasizes practical aspects. The objective of the course is to link theoretical principles with practical issues of electronic instrumentation through the development of a final project. First, students take practical work in several different scenarios, which are the basis for the design of an engineering project aimed to solve an electronic instrumentation problem which is set by the students. Students are exposed to a set of multidisciplinary aspects, both theoretical and practical, providing them with the ability of integrating blocks in which they have practically worked into a full instrumentation project. The course provides not only enhanced academic training but also increased student motivation, as students are encouraged to propose their own projects.


A method to determine the refractive index and thickness of silver halide emulsions used in holography is presented. The emulsions are in the form of a layer of film deposited on a thick glass plate. The experimental reflectances of p-polarized light are measured as a function of the incident angles, and the values of refractive index, thickness, and extinction coefficient of the emulsion are obtained by using the theoretical equation for reflectance. As examples, five commercial holographic silver halide emulsions are analyzed. The procedure to obtain the measurements and the numerical analysis of the experimental data are simple, and agreement of the calculated reflectances, by use of the thickness and refractive index obtained, with the measured reflectances is satisfactory.


An In-rich Au-In bonding system has been developed to transfer vertical light-emitting diodes (VLEDs) from a sapphire to a graphite substrate and enable them to survive under n-ohmic contact treatment at 350 °C. The bonding temperature is 210 °C, and three intermetallic compounds are detected: AuIn, AuIn2, and γ phase. As a result, the remelting temperature increases beyond the theoretical value of 450 °C according to the Au-In binary phase diagram. In fact, reliability testing showed that joints obtained by rapid thermal annealing at 400 °C for 1 min survived whereas those obtained at 500 °C for 1 min failed. Finally, a GaN-based blue VLED was transferred to the graphite substrate by means of the proposed bonding method, and its average light output power was measured to be 386.6 mW (@350 mA) after n-ohmic contact treatment. This wafer-level bonding technique also shows excellent potential for high-temperature packing applications.


In response to the expiration of the transitory restrictions imposed on agricultural land acquisitions by foreigners, governments in Central and Eastern Europe have introduced new rules governing land sales transactions. Since direct restrictions on foreign investors would now be illegal under the EU treaties, the desire to preserve the status quo has resulted in limited access to land not only for foreigners but also for some groups of domestic investors. In this study, we analyze land market regulations adopted in Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. We argue that these new regulations create particularized or non-inclusive institutions. We also argue that the new land market regulations will likely result in reduced competition and thus affect land prices, sale transactions, and access to land. The market impacts are different across the four countries due to the heterogeneity in the newly adopted regulations.


The state of Arkansas is implementing a novel approach to expanding health care coverage for individuals newly eligible for Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Through a section 1115 demonstration waiver, the state will use federal funding via a premium assistance model to secure private health insurance offered through the newly formed health insurance marketplace to those individuals aged nineteen to sixty-four who have incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. As of April 2014, the Health Care Independence Program (HCIP), as it is formally known, had over 155,000 individuals who had been determined eligible. The HCIP premium assistance approach is commonly referred to as the "private option" and was designed to achieve comparable access, network availability, quality of care, and opportunities for improved outcomes for HCIP enrollees (i.e., those who would be eligible for traditional, fee-for-service Medicaid through ACA expansion) when compared with their privately insured counterparts. This article provides the background, political discourse, policy development, evaluation strategy, and progress report for this innovative new program.


A decade before the American Civil War, James Churchwill Vaughan (1828–1893) set out to fulfill his formerly enslaved father's dying wish that he should leave America to start a new life in Africa. Over the next forty years, Vaughan was taken captive, fought in African wars, built and rebuilt a livelihood, and led a revolt against white racism, finally becoming a successful merchant and the founder of a wealthy, educated, and politically active family. Tracing Vaughan's journey from South Carolina to Liberia to several parts of Yorubaland (present-day southwestern Nigeria), Lisa Lindsay documents this "free" man's struggle to find economic and political autonomy in an era when freedom was not clear and unhindered anywhere for people of African descent. In a tour de force of historical investigation on two continents, Lindsay tells a story of Vaughan's survival, prosperity, and activism against a seemingly endless series of obstacles. By following Vaughan's transatlantic journeys and comparing his experiences to those of his parents, contemporaries, and descendants in Nigeria and South Carolina, Lindsay reveals the expansive reach of slavery, the ambiguities of freedom, and the surprising ways that Africa, rather than America, offered new opportunities for people of African descent.


10 PM, on the 7 May. The exit poll predicting the result of the 2015 General Election is announced. In that instant three lives are changed for ever. David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg were three very different men, from very different backgrounds. But they shared one ambition. To lead their country. In pursuit of their dream they were forced to make sacrifices. Of their principles. Of those they loved. Of themselves. And right up until the final moment the exit poll was released each man clung to the hope those sacrifices had not been in vain. Then the clock struck ten. In One Minute to Ten, Dan Hodges brings to life the most dramatic general election campaign in living memory, and tells the untold story of the three men who contested it. And in doing so reveals the price paid by those who risk everything in their quest for the ultimate political prize...


Portable systems require long battery lifetime while still delivering high performance. Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) algorithms reduce energy consumption by changing processor speed and voltage at run time depending on the needs of the applications running. Dynamic power management (DPM) policies trade off the performance for the power consumption by selectively placing components into low-power states. In this work we extend the DPM model with a DVS algorithm, thus enabling larger power savings. We test our approach on MPEG video and MP3 audio algorithms running on the SmartBadge portable device. Our results show savings of a factor of three in energy consumption for combined DVS and DPM approaches.


Ji et al. have conjectured that using the matrix form (to represent a basic solution) instead of the Simplex tableau in the dual Simplex method will lead to an algorithm with the time complexity comparable to the Hungarian algorithm for solving the Assignment Problem. In this note we show that both the time complexity and the CPU times of the Ji et al. algorithm are far away from being competitive to the Hungarian algorithm.


We simulate a range of fault slip behaviors using the discrete element method (DEM) to examine the controls on different slip modes on rough faults. Shear strain is imposed upon a 2‐D bonded particle assemblage that contains a predefined fault. Slip modes on the fault vary from creep, to slow‐slip, to stick‐slip behavior, both spatially and temporally. The mode of slip is controlled largely by the local stress field along the fault, which depends on the local fault roughness. Portions of the fault that fail in relatively low normal stress regimes tend to slide continuously, whereas areas with high clamping stress produce stick‐slip events. During stick‐slip events, regions within the rupture zone that experience high slip are associated with physical asperities on the fault; ruptures terminate at barriers and through dissipation of the stored elastic energy. The simulated events show stress drops between 0.2–50 MPa, a slightly larger range than is inferred for natural earthquakes. Simulated events also have higher slip magnitudes than are observed during earthquakes for a given rupture length. The simulation produces many characteristics of fault behavior and is shown to be a successful avenue for future studies on the mechanics of fault slip.


Mobility prediction algorithm is the significant aspect to improve QoS (Quality of Service) for heterogeneous wireless networks because it decreases handoff latency and preserves resources in arriving cells for users. Since existing mobility prediction algorithms based on GPS (Global Positioning System) often suffer from low prediction accuracy for complex and irregular trajectory, this paper combines support vector regression with local prediction to propose a novel mobility prediction algorithms based on local support vector regression (LSVR) to overcome above deficiency. Simulation results show that LSVR algorithm achieves high prediction accuracy for a size of historical data in three typical mobile scenes.


Abstract The objective of this study was to report on the iron status of South African primary schoolchildren, as reported in independent studies conducted since the last National Food Consumption Survey-Fortification Baseline (NFCS-FB) in 2005. Internet searches were conducted for cross-sectional and randomised controlled trials that reported on the iron status of South African primary schoolchildren, published after the NFCS-FB of 2005. Search engines that were used included Science Direct, Sabinet, PubMed, EBSCOhost (Academic Search Premier, Health Source and Medline) and Web of Knowledge. The search terms in different combinations were "South Africa", "children", "iron", "anaemia", "iron deficiency", "micronutrient", "malnutrition" and "nutritional status". Secondary analysis was carried out on the NFCS-FB data on children aged 7-9 years at provincial level. Outcome measures used were haemoglobin (Hb) and serum ferritin. The search identified four independent studies that were conducted in four different provinces: KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Western Cape and Northern Cape. All four were conducted in low socio-economic areas and selected children with poor iron status for intervention purposes. The studies reported an anaemia prevalence lower than that of the NFCS-FB: 11.5% vs. 14.4%, KwaZulu-Natal; 6.9% vs. 27%, North West; 17.2% vs. 18.8%, Western Cape; and 5.4% vs. 22.2%, Northern Cape. Serum ferritin was more difficult to interpret because different cut-off points were used.Anaemia prevalence, based on Hb concentration in primary schoolchildren, might have improved in some regions since the NFCS-FB. Regular national surveys are recommended to ensure that the iron status of South African primary schoolchildren is kept under surveillance.


This research aimed to verify biological parameters of Aedes aegypti Linnaeus, from Londrina, Paraná, in an incubator chamber (BOD) with different temperatures, and to analyze biological aspects of this mosquito from Manaus, Amazonas, in environments simulating the climatic conditions provided by the IPCC. In Londrina, the eggs were incubated for 10 days in BOD at different temperatures. The viability of eggs, number of adults, and mortality rate were analyzed later. In Manaus, the biological cycle time, number of adults, and mortality rate were analyzed in environmental rooms with different temperatures and CO2 concentrations. The viability of eggs and the number of adults from Londrina was greater at 5 and 25°C, while the mortality rate of immatures was greater at 0°C; eggs incubated at 45°C did not hatch. Mosquitoes from Manaus completed the fastest biological cycle in room 4. The mortality percentage in the different instars for rooms 1, 2 and 4 was: 14.4; 28 and 53.6%, respectively. Thus, temperatures from 5 to 29.74°C were more appropriate since values outside these limits can cause deleterious effects on the species during its development, but the A. aegypti mosquitoes from Londrina and Manaus can benefit from the increase in temperature stipulated by the IPCC.


Annual cereal and legume grain production is dependent on inorganic nitrogen (N) and other fertilizers inputs to resupply nutrients lost as harvested grain, via soil erosion/runoff, and by other natural or anthropogenic causes. Temperate-adapted perennial grain legumes, though currently non-existent, might be uniquely situated as crop plants able to provide relief from reliance on synthetic nitrogen while supplying stable yields of highly nutritious seeds in low-input agricultural ecosystems. As such, perennial grain legume breeding and domestication programs are being initiated at The Land Institute (Salina, KS, USA) and elsewhere. This review aims to facilitate the development of those programs by providing criteria for evaluating potential species and in choosing candidates most likely to be domesticated and adopted as herbaceous, perennial, temperate-adapted grain legumes. We outline specific morphological and ecophysiological traits that may influence each candidate's agronomic potential, the quality of its seeds and the ecosystem services it can provide. Finally, we suggest that perennial grain legume breeders and domesticators should consider how a candidate's reproductive biology, genome structure and availability of genetic resources will determine its ease of breeding and its domestication timeline.


Smart Learning Environments (SLEs) are designed by integrating Usability design principles, aesthetics and functionalities, however, contextual constituents supporting Smart Learning Behavior (SLB) are rarely considered. Particularly, how Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) is effective when compared with Faculty-Assisted Learning (FAL) in a VoIP based Disruptive Learning Environment (DLE). Studies report that learners focus on superficial features instead of the underlying principles, concepts, or theories in design-centric SLEs. Likewise, learners acquire individual skills or pieces of knowledge in SLEs that they are unable to apply in user-centric complex contexts. In this paper, a framework is evolved to address the design and development considerations of SLEs with a focus to empirically validate the effectiveness of PAL in comparison with FAL. The study is a Quasiexperimental design with manipulative and controlled non-repeated groups. Disruptive contextual factors (DCF) are believed to be ingredients of SLB and are cross-examined using Univariate-Analysis, Cohen's D, Partial Eta squared values and Standardized Beta Coefficients. The experimental data was analyzed in PASW 2.0. This study empirically validates the effectiveness of DCF and concludes SLB is better supported through PAL than FAL in a SLE. The study findings support institutions of higher learning in the process of transition and transforming old models of university education into SLEs. While HCI researchers may benefit in defining cognitive thought processes behind PAL that support SLB in DLE.


Extracted from text ... Boekbesprekings / Book Reviews
De Gruchy J W & De Gruchy S 2005 - The Church struggle in South Africa: 25th Anniversary edition
Publishers: Fortress. xxx + 286 pp. Price: Unknown
Reviewer: Prof G A Duncan (University of Pretoria)
Earlier editions of this book have already made it an established classic in its field. During the 1980s, it became the only reliable textbook of its kind and was to be found on the shelves of many ministers, particularly in the English-speaking churches. It was avidly read, studied and engaged with in theological institutions such as the Federal Theological Seminary of ..


Recent developments in higher education, with leading institutions starting to offer courses online, suggest that the Internet is going to disrupt this industry, just as it has already disrupted the music and book industries and many others. We are entering a period of experimentation with new business models for higher education, with MOOCs (massive open online courses) the most prominent among these. At this early stage, it is not clear what the final product will look like. But regardless of the specific form the new industry will take, there is likely to be more competition, lower costs, and higher quality. This is great news for consumers of higher education.However, some existing institutions may fare badly in this transition and are likely to call for government support. This would happen even if higher education were exclusively a national market. But demands for government protection will be even stronger where foreign online competition is hurting traditional domestic institutions. With education now moving online, it has become tradeable across borders like never before. Until now, trade in education was fairly small in scope, limited mostly to students studying abroad and a few foreign branch campuses. The growth of online education will make international trade in higher education services far more common. And in response to this increasing trade, there are likely to be complaints about the impact of foreign competition on domestic institutions. We must resist these calls for protection. The great beneficiaries of the coming online revolution in higher education are people all around the world looking for access to better educational opportunities. We should embrace this new period of innovation in higher education, not try to hold it off. One way to promote free trade in higher education is with international trade agreements. Through these agreements, governments can make commitments not to discriminate against foreign online higher education programs. The past few decades have seen great progress in bringing down tariffs and other protectionist trade barriers through trade agreements. In order to bring the benefits of international competition to an important sector of the global economy, we should apply that same model to trade in higher education services.


Silk fibroin (SF) is a natural, degradable, fibrous protein that is biocompatible, is easily processed, and possesses unique mechanical properties. Another natural material, wool keratose (WK), is a soluble derivative of wool keratin, containing amino acid sequences that induce cell adhesion. Here, we blended SF and WK to improve the poor electrospinability of WK and increase the adhesiveness of SF. We hypothesized that microwave-induced argon plasma treatment would improve chondrogenic cell growth and cartilage-specific extracellular matrix formation on a three-dimensional SF/WK scaffold. After argon plasma treatment, static water contact angle measurement revealed increased hydrophilicity of the SF/WK scaffold, and scanning electron microscopy showed that treated SF/WK scaffolds had deeper and more cylindrical pores than nontreated scaffolds. Attachment and proliferation of neonatal human knee articular chondrocytes on treated SF/WK scaffolds increased significantly, followed by increased glycosaminoglycan synthesis. Our results suggest that microwave-induced, plasma-treated SF/WK scaffolds have potential in cartilage tissue engineering.


In this contribution to the Snowmass process 2013 (which is a preliminary version of [1]) we give a brief review of how new physics could enter in the electroweak (EW) sector of the Standard Model (SM). This new physics, if it is directly accessible at low energies, can be parameterized by explicit resonances having certain quantum numbers. The extreme case is the decoupling limit where those resonances are very heavy and leave only traces in the form of deviations in the SM couplings. Translations are given into higher-dimensional operators leading to such deviations. As long as such resonances are introduced without a UV-complete theory behind it, these models suffer from unitarity violation of perturbative scattering amplitudes. We show explicitly how theoretically sane descriptions could be achieved by using a unitarization prescription that allows a correct description of such a resonance without specifying a UV-complete model.


The phenomenon of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, which in the last decade has changed from a marginal 'non-issue' to a legitimate concern in many parts of the world, has become familiar through newspaper coverage, and now, finally, legislators and law enforcement agencies have begun to act. In Europe many EU Member States now have (or are developing) at least some sort of anti-trafficking policies (with some of them in the forefront of global anti-trafficking efforts). Moreover, the EU itself has become markedly more active with regard to curbing trafficking in human beings, as part of its migration control and police and judicial co-operation functions.
However, even co-ordinated efforts such as those being worked on by the EU tend to produce only short-term 'cures' to a problem that is in truth global and structural in nature and which cannot be eradicated - or necessarily even significantly reduced - through policing and migration control measures alone. Too often there is little debate on broader measures which might be targeted to address the 'root causes' of trafficking, such as poverty, under-development, general lack of economic and migration opportunities and, above all, gender inequality.
Against this background, this book deals with present efforts to control trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. In doing so it examines claims that what is needed effectively to prevent and tackle trafficking is a 'comprehensive' approach, and at the very least one that is far more wide-ranging and coherent than what exists today, and also analyses the assertion that destination countries, and more specifically Member States of the EU, could and perhaps should, take more action against trafficking through regional co-operation, particularly in the framework of the EU, rather than as individual Member States.
The book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars in EU law, human rights, comparative law, sociology, feminist theory and politics, as well as policy-makers, practitioners and NGO activists in various European countries.


What is it that designers talk about as mattering in their professional competencies? In this article, we empirically investigated industrial designers' own assumptions on their design practice in relation to innovation. In applying a method potentially suitable for design research, interview statements from design professionals (n=17) were categorised according to 12 pre-selected categories of potential design core competencies. Of a total of 2,267 statements, 1,990 were classified as related to design competence. A qualitative classification of the statements revealed that 1,259 (63.3%) of these could be classified under the pre-set categories. The results showed that out of the 12 categories, 'creativity', 'particular design methods and techniques' and 'user' were emphasised. From the remaining statements, two additional categories were revealed: 'teamwork' and 'project management'. These results can be used to reveal design professionals' self-understanding of their contributions to innovation processes.


Accelerated graphics cards, including specialized high-performance processors called Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), have become ubiquitous in recent years. On the right kinds of problems, GPUs greatly surpass CPUs in terms of raw performance. However, GPUs are currently used only for a narrow class of special-purpose applications; the raw processing power available in a typical desktop PC is unused most of the time. The goal of this work is to present an extension to JikesRVM that automatically executes suitable code on the GPU instead of the CPU. Both static and dynamic features are used to decide whether it is feasible and beneficial to off-load a piece of code to the GPU. Feasible code is discovered by an implementation of data dependence analysis. A cost model that balances the speedup available from the GPU against the cost of transferring input and output data between main memory and GPU memory has been deployed to determine if a feasible parallelization is indeed beneficial. The cost model is parameterized so that it can be applied to different hardware combinations. We also present ways to overcome several obstacles to parallelization inherent in the design of the Java bytecode language: unstructured control flow, the lack of multi-dimensional arrays, the precise exception semantics, and the proliferation of indirect references.


The activity of the human prefrontal cortex is modulated by ascending neurotransmitter systems. However, the differential modulation of cognition by distinct neurochemical systems in man has yet to be elucidated. Chamberlain et al. demonstrate in healthy human volunteers a double dissociation for involvement of noradrenaline and serotonin in two cognitive functions that are critically implicated in everyday behavioral regulation and in the manifestation and treatment of psychiatric illnesses. S. R. Chamberlain, U. Müller, A. D. Blackwell, L. Clark, T. W. Robbins, B. J. Sahakian, Neurochemical modulation of response inhibition and probabilistic learning in humans. Science 311, 861-863 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Abstract Volcán Villarrica (39°25′12″ S, 71°56′27″ W; 2847 m a.s.l.) is an active ice-capped volcano located in the Chilean lake district. The surface energy balance and glacier frontal variations have been monitored for several years, using automatic weather stations and satellite imagery. In recent field campaigns, surface topography was measured using Javad GPS receivers. Daily changes in snow-, ice-and tephra-covered areas were recorded using an automatic digital camera installed on a rock outcrop. In spite of frequently damaging weather conditions, two series of consecutive images were obtained, in 2006 and 2007. These photographs were georeferenced to a resampled 90 m pixel size SRTM digital elevation model and the reflectance values normalized according to several geometric and atmospheric parameters. The resulting daily maps of surface albedo are used as input to a distributed glacier-melt model during a 12 day mid-summer period. The spatial pattern of cumulative melt is complex and controlled by the distribution of airfall and wind-blown tephra, with extremely high melt rates occurring downwind of the crater and exposed ash banks. The camera images are also used to visualize the pattern of glacier crevassing. The results demonstrate the value of terrestrial photography in understanding the energy and mass balance of the glacier, including the generation of meltwater, and the potential value of the technique for monitoring volcanic activity and potential hazards associated with ice–volcano interactions during eruptive activity.


In taking a senior perspective, the author first steps back and offers an historical view and then offers her senior advice for moving forward. When the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) was in its infancy (early 1970s), the psychology subarea was known as social psychology and physical activity, and our research largely followed social psychology theories and research methods. In subsequent developing years, our research split into sport psychology and exercise psychology, with more focused research lines that moved away from social psychology and physical activity. While the more focused research builds our evidence base, that research has little impact on the wide range of participants and professionals. To have greater impact, we can reclaim the "social," and we can take a more inclusive view of physical activity. We must recognize and highlight the powerful and complex role of "social" context and relationships and directly engage with professionals and participants in those real-world settings. We need more scholars who partner with other (nonacademic) professionals, teach those future professionals, and engage with their community and the public to enhance our real-world impact.


Physicists have devoted much effort to reproducing the conditions of the primordial universe in laboratory conditions in their quest to work out a comprehensive theory of the appearance and evolution of nuclear matter. Whether it be trying to recreate the predicted primordial state of high-energy density matter in which quarks and gluons are effectively deconfined - the so-called Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) - or exploring the structure and reaction properties of very unstable nuclei in experiments using radioactive beams, they have striven to understand the events which characterized the Big Bang and the various nucleosynthesis mechanisms which occur in the stars. This book contains the proceedings of the 2010 Enrico Fermi summer school held in Varenna, Italy, in July 2010, and devoted to the present understanding of the primordial universe and the origin of the elements, as achieved by studying nuclei and their constituents in extreme regimes of energy and composition. Subjects covered include: QGP formation; exotic nuclei, their degrees of freedom from the ground state and the properties of the excited states; the complex, but appealing theory describing the supernovae explosion and neutron stars; dark energy and matter; Big Bang nucleosynthesis and energy and solar neutrino production; nuclear cosmochronology; and, beta and gamma decay relevant for the nucleosynthesis of heavy nuclei. The annual Enrico Fermi summer school is internationally renowned and this book will be of great interest to all those involved in the field of nuclear physics.


This paper deals with the problem of automatic language identification of noisy texts, which represents an important task in natural language processing. Actually, there exist several works in this field, which are based on statistical and machine learning approaches for different categories of texts. Unfortunately, most of the proposed methods work fine on clean texts or long texts, but often present a failure when the text is corrupted or too short. In this research work, we use a typical dataset consisting of short texts collected from several discussion forums containing several types of noises. Our dataset contains 32 different languages; where we notice that some languages are quite different while some others are too closed. In this investigation, we propose two types of methods to identify the text language: term-based method and character-based method. Moreover, we propose two hybrid methods to enhance the performances of those techniques. Experiments show that the proposed hybrid methods are quite interesting and present good language identification performances in noisy texts. Keywords—Natural Language Processing; Text categorization; Automatic Language Identification; Noisy Text; Hybrid Approach.


Models of banks operating under limited liability with deposit insurance and employee incentive problems are used to analyze how banker compensation contracts can contribute to bank risk shifting. The first model is a multi-agent, moral-hazard model, where each agent (e.g. a loan officer) operates a risky lending technology. Results differ from the single-agent model; pay for performance contracts do not necessarily indicate risk at the bank level. Correlation of returns is the most important factor. If loan officer returns are uncorrelated, the form of pay is irrelevant for risk. If returns are correlated, a low wage causes risk. If correlation is endogenous, relative performance contracts that encourage correlation of returns can create bank risk. A sufficient condition for a contract to induce risk at the bank level is provided. The second model adds a loan review and risk management function that affects risk characteristics of loan officers' loans. Counter to common perception, paying loan reviewers and risk managers for performance does not necessarily create risk. The model also identifies the importance of evaluating the quality of bank controls as a means for limiting bank risk.


In Speech Emotion Recognition (SER), emotional characteristics often appear in diverse forms of energy patterns in spectrograms. Typical attention neural network classifiers of SER are usually optimized on a fixed attention granularity. In this paper, we apply multiscale area attention in a deep convolutional neural network to attend emotional characteristics with varied granularities and therefore the classifier can benefit from an ensemble of attentions with different scales. To deal with data sparsity, we conduct data augmentation with vocal tract length perturbation (VTLP) to improve the generalization capability of the classifier. Experiments are carried out on the Interactive Emotional Dyadic Motion Capture (IEMOCAP) dataset. We achieved 79.34% weighted accuracy (WA) and 77.54% unweighted accuracy (UA), which, to the best of our knowledge, is the state of the art on this dataset.


The increasing momentum of the Positive Psychology movement has seen burgeoning research in positive mental health and adaptive functioning; a critical question is how this knowledge can now be applied in real-world settings. Positive Education seeks to combine principles of Positive Psychology with best-practice teaching and with educational paradigms to promote optimal development and flourishing in the school setting. Interest in Positive Education continues to grow in line with increasing recognition of the important role played by schools in fostering wellbeing, and the link between wellbeing and academic success. To date, however, a framework to guide the implementation of Positive Education in schools has been lacking. This paper provides an overview of the Geelong Grammar School (GGS) Model for Positive Education, an applied framework developed over five years of implementing Positive Education as a whole-school approach in one Australian school. Explicit and implicit teaching in combination with school-wide practices target six wellbeing domains, including positive emotions, positive engagement, positive accomplishment, positive purpose, positive relationships, and positive health, underpinned by a focus on character strengths. The Model provides a structured pathway for implementing Positive Education in schools, a framework to guide evaluation and research, and a foundation for further theoretical discussion and development.


This study examines how career interruptions and subsequent wages of employees are related. Using individual panel data of middle managers from the German chemical sector, we are able to differentiate between different reasons for interruptions as well as between various compensation components. We show that career interruptions are more related to lower subsequent bonus payments than they are to fixed salaries and that interruptions caused by unemployment are associated with higher interruption pay gaps than those resulting from other reasons. In addition, the pay gap after career interruptions is more pronounced for male employees than it is for females.


Importance
The 2018 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol recommends the use of risk-enhancing factor assessment and the selective use of coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring to guide the allocation of statin therapy among individuals with an intermediate risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

Objective
To examine the association between risk-enhancing factors and incident ASCVD by CAC burden among those at intermediate risk of ASCVD.

Design, Setting, and Participants
The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis is a multicenter population-based prospective cross-sectional study conducted in the US. Baseline data for the present study were collected between July 15, 2000, and July 14, 2002, and follow-up for incident ASCVD events was ascertained through August 20, 2015. Participants were aged 45 to 75 years with no clinical ASCVD or diabetes at baseline, were at intermediate risk of ASCVD (≥7.5% to <20.0%), and had a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level of 70 to 189 mg/dL.

Exposures
Family history of premature ASCVD, premature menopause, metabolic syndrome, chronic kidney disease, lipid and inflammatory biomarkers, and low ankle-brachial index.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Incident ASCVD over a median follow-up of 12.0 years.

Results
A total of 1688 participants (mean [SD] age, 65 [6] years; 976 men [57.8%]). Of those, 648 individuals (38.4%) were White, 562 (33.3%) were Black, 305 (18.1%) were Hispanic, and 173 (10.2%) were Chinese American. A total of 722 participants (42.8%) had a CAC score of 0. Among those with 1 to 2 risk-enhancing factors vs those with 3 or more risk-enhancing factors, the prevalence of a CAC score of 0 was 45.7% vs 40.3%, respectively. Over a median follow-up of 12.0 years (interquartile range [IQR], 11.5-12.6 years), the unadjusted incidence rate of ASCVD among those with a CAC score of 0 was less than 7.5 events per 1000 person-years for all individual risk-enhancing factors (with the exception of ankle-brachial index, for which the incidence rate was 10.4 events per 1000 person-years [95% CI, 1.5-73.5]) and combinations of risk-enhancing factors, including participants with 3 or more risk-enhancing factors. Although the individual and composite addition of risk-enhancing factors to the traditional risk factors was associated with improvement in the area under the receiver operating curve, the use of CAC scoring was associated with the greatest improvement in the C statistic (0.633 vs 0.678) for ASCVD events. For incident ASCVD, the net reclassification improvement for CAC was 0.067.

Conclusions and Relevance
In this cross-sectional study, among participants with CAC scores of 0, the presence of risk-enhancing factors was generally not associated with an overall ASCVD risk that was higher than the recommended treatment threshold for the initiation of statin therapy. The use of CAC scoring was associated with significant improvements in the reclassification and discrimination of incident ASCVD. The results of this study support the utility of CAC scoring as an adjunct to risk-enhancing factor assessment to more accurately classify individuals with an intermediate risk of ASCVD who might benefit from statin therapy.


Shallow-water carbonate platforms and reefs are drowned when tectonic subsidence or rising sea level outpaces carbonate accumulation, and benthonic carbonate production ceases. Drowned platforms are common in the geologic record, but they present a paradox if one considers rates of processes involved. During the early Holocene, when sea level rose at rates of 6,000 to 10,000 µm/yr (= mm/1,000 yr), most reefs and platforms were outpaced by the rising sea. During the late Holocene with sea level rising 500 to 3,000 µm/yr in the Atlantic-Caribbean area, reefs and platforms started to recover, built to sea level, and prograded seaward, 1,000 µm/yr is thus a conservative estimate of the average growth potential of modern reefs and platforms. Independently, accumulation rates of prograding platforms in the geologic record suggest growth potential in excess of several hundred microns per year. The growth potential of 1,000 µm/yr exceeds any relative rise of sea level caused by long-term processes in the geologic record. Newly formed ocean crust subsides at a maximum of 250 µm/yr, basin subsidence averages 10 to 100 µm/yr, and sea level rises due to increased sea-floor spreading amount to less than 10 µm/yr. Rapid pulses of relative rise of sea level or reduction of benthic growth by deterioration of the environment remain the only plausible explanations of drowning. The geologic record shows examples of both of these processes. Global mass extinctions of reefs and platforms occurred in the middle Cretaceous (eustatic rise due to submarine volcanism or desiccation of a small ocean basin?) and the Late Devonian (global crisis of ocean environment, extraterrestrial cause?). Drowning controlled by regional tectonics prevailed in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of the Tethyan realm, and the drowning of Mesozoic platforms in the western North Atlantic seems to have been dictated by plate-tectonic drift to higher latitudes.


Abstract We use mono-crystalline gold platelets with ultra-smooth surfaces and superior plasmonic properties to investigate the formation of interference patterns caused by surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with scattering-type scanning near-field microscopy at 521 and 633 nm. By applying a Fourier analysis approach, we can identify and separate several signal channels related to SPPs launched and scattered by the atomic force microscopy tip and the edges of the platelet. Especially at the excitation wavelength of 633 nm, we can isolate a region in the center of the platelets where we find only contributions of SPPs which are launched by the tip and reflected at the edges. These signatures are used to determine the SPP wavelength of λSPP = 606 nm in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we were still able to measure SPP signals after 20 µm propagation, which demonstrates impressively the superior plasmonic quality of these mono-crystalline gold platelets.


Abstract. Recently, attention has been drawn towards black carbon aerosols as a short-term climate warming mitigation candidate. However the global and regional impacts of the direct, indirect and semi-direct aerosol effects are highly uncertain, due to the complex nature of aerosol evolution and the way that mixed, aged aerosols interact with clouds and radiation. A detailed aerosol microphysical scheme, MATRIX, embedded within the GISS climate model is used in this study to present a quantitative assessment of the impact of microphysical processes involving black carbon, such as emission size distributions and optical properties on aerosol cloud activation and radiative effects. Our best estimate for net direct and indirect aerosol radiative flux change between 1750 and 2000 is −0.56 W/m2. However, the direct and indirect aerosol effects are quite sensitive to the black and organic carbon size distribution and consequential mixing state. The net radiative flux change can vary between −0.32 to −0.75 W/m2 depending on these carbonaceous particle properties at emission. Taking into account internally mixed black carbon particles let us simulate correct aerosol absorption. Absorption of black carbon aerosols is amplified by sulfate and nitrate coatings and, even more strongly, by organic coatings. Black carbon mitigation scenarios generally showed reduced radiative fluxeswhen sources with a large proportion of black carbon, such as diesel, are reduced; however reducing sources with a larger organic carbon component as well, such as bio-fuels, does not necessarily lead to a reduction in positive radiative flux.


Shortages of qualified principal candidates and retention of motivated principals, combined with the evidence that the principal is a vital part of effective school improvement, has ominous implications for the future quality of education. A body of research exists describing school administrators' stress over the last 25 years; yet, limited research reflects the impact the changing role of the principal in the accountability era of No Child Left Behind has had on principal stress and the possible connections to the shifting paradigms in organizational leadership.

If principals perceive themselves to be overstressed and unprepared to meet the current expectations and challenges of the position, then it becomes more difficult to find people desiring to lead our schools, to keep us competitive in our global community, and to prepare our students for the future.

This study utilized two conceptual lenses to address school principals' stress, new science organizational theories of chaos and complexity and transactional stress theory. Transactional stress theory helped to describe the relationship between principals and their perceived environmental stressors. New science theories provided a basis to view principal stress from an organizational leadership perspective.

The following research questions guided the study:
1. What are the perceived stressors of principals in Nevada?
2. What are the perceived differences in the intensity and types of principal stressors identified prior to and following the implementation of No Child Left Behind?
3. What differences in perceived principal stressors are related to school and principal demographics?
4. Which perceived stressors may reflect conflicting paradigms between the current construct of our educational system and the expectations of leading school improvement in the globally interconnected and dynamic environment in which we live?

Descriptive survey methodology was used for this study. Active public school principals in the state of Nevada were included in the sample. The 35 item Likert scale Administrative Stress Index developed by Gmelch and Swent (1984) was utilized to collect data, along with additional Likert items and open-ended and demographic questions designed by the researcher. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze and report findings from the demographic and Likert scale questions and qualitative coding methodology was used to analyze open-ended questions.

A total of 256 surveys were completed for a 45% return rate. Study findings revealed the participants' highest reported stressors were related to the No Child Left Behind accountability reforms. Connections between principals' perceived stress and conflicting organizational paradigms are discussed.


The Early Cambrian organism Olivooides is known from both embryonic and post-embryonic stages and, consequently, it has the potential to yield vital insights into developmental evolution at the time that animal body plans were established. However, this potential can only be realized if the phylogenetic relationships of Olivooides can be constrained. The affinities of Olivooides have proved controversial because of the lack of knowledge of the internal anatomy and the limited range of developmental stages known. Here, we describe rare embryonic specimens in which internal anatomical features are preserved. We also present a fuller sequence of fossilized developmental stages of Olivooides, including associated specimens that we interpret as budding ephyrae (juvenile medusae), all of which display a clear pentaradial symmetry. Within the framework of a cnidarian interpretation, the new data serve to pinpoint the phylogenetic position of Olivooides to the scyphozoan stem group. Hypotheses about scalidophoran or echinoderm affinities of Olivooides can be rejected.


Development is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Some of its major dimensions include: the level of economic growth, level of education, level of health services, degree of modernization, status of women, level of nutrition, quality of housing, distribution of goods and services, and access to communication. In India, the progress of socio-economic development among major states is not uniform. This study examines the existing variability of inter-state development and thereby identifying the indicators responsible for the diversity in development. Instead of studying the variability of a particular variable across states, a composite index based on several indicators has been developed using principal component analysis and states are arranged according to the indices derived using four broadly accepted components: (a) economic production and economic condition or in other words level of economic development; (b) common minimum needs; (c) health and health-related services and (d) communication. The findings of the analysis support the general perception about the states. The states in India are marked with wide disparity in socio-economic development. The factors, which are found out to be more important for the overall development process, relate to basic needs like education, availability of food, minimum purchasing power and facilities like safe drinking water, health care infrastructure, etc. It is also found that enrollment ratio cannot be raised unless minimum needs of the common people are satisfied. Therefore, true development requires government action to improve elementary education, safe drinking water facilities and health care, and to remove barriers against social minorities, especially women. The role of social development such as literacy (and particularly of female literacy) in promoting basic capabilities emerges as the prerequisite to overall development. These results clearly emphasize the role of well-functioning public actions in improving the overall living conditions of the people. Although economic growth in the sense of expanding gross national product and other related variables is one of the most fundamental input to the overall development process, the basic objective of development should focus on the expansion of human capabilities which has been neglected for long in India.


Climate change is occurring and not being mitigated, motivating adaptation but adaptation strategies can have biophysical, economic, technological, and social limits. We review publicly available documents to assess how successful current and proposed adaptation strategies may be for the Australian Alps, including likely limits and potential collaborations and conflicts among stakeholders. Conservation managers, the tourism industry, and local communities have implemented or are proposing a range of adaptation strategies in the region. Some stakeholder strategies complement each other (e.g. invasive species control, fire management), while others are potential sources of conflict (water and electricity for snowmaking, year-round tourism). Economic costs and biophysical constraints are the most important limits to these adaptation strategies. These types of limits and conflicts between different stakeholders on adaptation strategies are likely to occur in other regions and demonstrate that adaptation may only provide partial and short term solutions to the challenges of climate change.


Abstract Initial Teacher Education quality is often judged through the auspices of audit-style mechanisms designed to facilitate the identification of matters pertaining to the 'readiness' of student teachers to enter the world of the classroom as fully qualified. In this regard, quality of programmes is often determined by the knowledge and skills student teachers demonstrate. Whilst ontological aspects are not necessarily elided, they are often ignored in favour of such epistemological matters. While such knowledge-based positions do not describe the totality of ITE quality evaluation they do predominate. This paper identifies a tripartite heuristic for the identification of ITE epistemology that explicitly refers to, and is requiring of, ontological matters in the development of student teachers: identifying teaching, doing teaching, knowing teaching. Whilst it is the result of a Scottish project, Measuring the Quality of Initial Teacher Education (MQuITE), its emphasis is notable for other countries.


Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), urocortin, sauvagine and urotensin I form the CRF family. These peptides bind with different affinities to two subtypes of CRF receptor (CRFR), CRFR1 and CRFR2. The latter exists as two splice variants, the neuronal CRFR2a and the peripheral CRFR2b. CRFR is a G protein-dependent receptor which acts mainly through Gs enhancing cAMP production. However, CRFR1 expressed in neutrophils of the spleen in response to immunologic stimulation and psychological stress does not seem to function through Gs, as indicated by the inability of CRF to stimulate the cAMP production of CRFR1+ neutrophils. Besides the two receptors, a 37 kD CRF binding protein (CRF-BP) binds several CRF peptides with high affinity. CRFR and CRF-BP do not share a common amino acid sequence representing the ligand binding site. In view of the unusually slow offrate of CRF-BP, it is proposed that CRF-BP provides an efficient uptake of free extracellular CRF. Thus, the time of exposure of CRFR to CRF or urocortin can be limited. At this time, the fate of the ligand CRF-BP complex is unclear. CRFR1 is not only involved in the hypophyseal stimulation of corticotropin release, but hippocampal CRFR1 mediates enhancement of stress-induced learning. CRFR1 may also be involved in basic anxiety. In contrast, at least in the mouse, CRFR2 of the lateral intermediate septum mediates tonic impairment of learning. In response to stressful stimuli or after local injection of high CRF doses, CRFR2 mediates anxiety. Effects requiring CRFR2 can be blocked specifically by the recently developed peptidic antagonist antisauvagine-30.


Action research (AR) has for many years been promoted and practised as one way to conduct field studies within the information systems (IS) discipline. Based on a review of articles published in leading journals, we explore how IS researchers practise AR. Our review suggests that AR lends itself strongly towards pluralist approaches which facilitate the production of both theoretical and practical knowledge. First, on the level of each study we analyse how research and problem‐solving activities are mixed, in three ways: the research dominant, the problem‐solving dominant and the interactive approaches. Second, in the context of the wider research programme in which the study is situated, we analyse how AR is mixed with other research methods, in two ways: the dominant and the sequential approaches. We argue that these pluralist practices of mixing types of research activities and types of research methods provide IS action researchers with a rich portfolio of approaches to knowledge production. This portfolio helps them address the risks involved in AR to ensure their efforts contribute to the literature as well as to practical problem‐solving.


The Supreme Court has been criticized for taking and deciding too few cases, with its current full opinion output down to 70 cases a year from 150 or more as recently as the middle of the 1980s. Much of the criticism has centered around the Court's reluctance to decide important cases, but sorting out the criticism depends on an understanding of what we mean by "important." It is true that the Court decides very few of the important issues of our time, and the distance between the Court's docket and current concerns about health care, jobs, the economy in general, bank bailouts, auto company bailouts, executive compensation, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the nuclear capability of Iran and North Korea underscore this gap. Current public opinion polling updating Schauer, "Foreword: The Court's Agenda - and the Nation's," 120 Harv. L. Rev. 4 (2006), confirms that there is no change in the gap between the two agendas, and little suggests that there is anything wrong with this. But if we turn from the question of social and political importance to legal importance, it appears that the Court is failing to resolve many of the issues that appear with great frequency in the lower courts, and as to which the law is highly uncertain. The Court's increasing failure to adequately perform the function of guiding the lower courts is indeed a problem, a problem caused in part by the lack of a way for the Court systematically to obtain accurate information about the array of often-litigated issues in need of resolution. The Essay concludes with possible suggestions on how the informational deficit and informational distortion might be corrected.


This chapter places the debate on multi-level constitutionalism within the context of a wider tendency in EU studies to focus on the aggregation of interests and the way the EU's institutional set-up accommodates national diversity rather than on how expertise is channeled and functional diversity accommodated. It analyzes how arguments about expertise and knowledge have been framed specifically in relation to different European governance mechanisms. Debates on expertise have developed in relation to three institutional settings in particular, namely, European agencies, integrated impact assessments, and the open method of coordination (OMC). Section 3 deals with the debates on both agencies and impact assessments (IAs). These debates emerged at different moments in time, and the debate on IAs picked up where the one on agencies had left off, and more particularly extended the discussion on expertise from the implementation stage to the legislative stage. Despite their differences, these two debates have much in common, both in relation to their inspirational origin, and the "rational technical" approach to conceiving the place of expertise in governance, relying mainly on a traditional understanding of democracy focused on aggregating interests via parliament. The debate on the OMC instead is very different in nature. The chapter finally reflects on whether a more holistic argumentation on expertise in European governance can be made, beyond the specific settings of agencies, IAs and OMC, and whether the language of constitutionalism is the appropriate solution for that.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Introduction There has been a great deal of discussion in the past few years about implementing engineering design in K-12 classrooms. Experts from K-12 education, universities, industry, and government officials attended the ASEE leadership workshop on K-12 Engineering Outreach in June of 2004 and came to a consensus on the need to implement engineering in K-12 schools (Douglas, Iversen, & Kalyandurg, 2004). Many leaders in the field of technology education believe that developing technological literacy in students can be best delivered by teaching engineering design (Wicklein, 2006, Lewis, 2005, Dearing & Daugherty, 2004). The use of the engineering design process is stressed throughout Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (ITEA, 2000/2002/2007), especially Standards 8 through 13. While there may be strong support for teaching engineering concepts to K-12 students, how this knowledge is properly delivered to high school students is still a debatable topic. This article seeks to consider engineering case studies as a logical way to teach the engineering design process to students not commonly familiar with it. Arguments have been made against assigning students to full-scale engineering design problems when they are new to engineering. Often novice engineering students lack the analytical tools necessary for successful development of design solutions to full-sale engineering problems (Petroski, 1998, Dym, 1994). Introducing engineering design to K-12 students through the employment of design case studies is a logical solution. Design Case Studies Defined Although design case studies have been used in engineering schools since the late 1960s, the term may be new to those in the field of technology education. Design case studies have a variety of definitions, depending on the source. The general term design case study has several variations in title including engineering cases and case studies. Geza Kardos (1979) says that the terms "engineer case, cases, and case studies are used loosely and interchangeably," (p.1). In a separate article, Kardos (1979) defines engineering cases as "... a written account of an engineering activity as it was actually carried out" (p.1). H.O. Fuchs (1974) defines an engineering case as: "A case is a written account of an engineering job as it was actually done, of of an engineering problem as it was actually encountered" (p. 1). A common key to any engineering case is that the writing is based on factual information about a real engineering case or problem. One common practice is to change the names of the parties involved in the engineering case; however, the overall details must remain factual. Variety of Formats Some engineering cases tell the full story by providing the problem statement, the processes and procedures, and the actual applied solution; thus, these cases are known as case histories. "A case history is an account of an actual event or situation; it reviews the variables and circumstances, describes how a problem was solved, and examines consequences of decisions and the lessons learned" (Richards & Gorman, 2004, p. 2). Henry Petroski (1996) documents a number of historical design cases that highlight the design evolution of everyday items such as the standard GEM paperclip along with eight other design categories that ate presented in the book Invention by Design: How Engineers Get From Thought to Thing. He provides an historical perspective of the design and engineering of everyday artifacts. Petroski provides early patents of many household items such as the zipper and aluminum can. Petroski also presents case histories that feature the detailed analysis of engineering, such as the case of a common pencil. This particular case history illustrates how important it is to scrutinize and interpret the often seemingly trivial details of engineering analysis. …


Cosmic rays are accelerated in astrophysical plasmas which collide at supersonic speeds where shock waves are formed, and along with other instabilities, they compete for the dissipation and acceleration mechanisms. The diffusive acceleration mechanism plays a leading role in the explanation of very high energy cosmic rays observed. In this mechanism, particles are repeatedly gaining energy in multiple crossings of an astrophysical shock discontinuity, due to collisions with upstream and downstream magnetic scattering centers, resulting in a power-law spectrum extending up to very high energies. Relativistic jets and their shocks in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is a prominent source for particle acceleration. Especially, relativistic single or multiple shocks have been theorized and observed along the jets of AGN and are claimed to be responsible for accelerating even the highest-energy cosmic rays observed. In this paper we will report and discuss the cosmic ray acceleration efficiency and properties of single or multiple shocks in the limit of relativistic plasmas in AGN jet environments.


Polymer nanocomposite (NC) synthesis from processing of polymer/nanoparticle dispersions remains an active area of research today due to its ability to create nanomaterials using large-area techniques. The benefits of nanomaterials are well documented; however, specific applications remain limited due to their poor durability and scalability. Durability is the tendency of NCs to retain their desirable properties. Scalability is the ability of a given synthesis technique to be implemented at a manufacturing-level. So while large-area processing of superhydrophobic (SHPo) coatings from spray deposition of polymer/nanoparticle dispersions is well documented, most established processes require the use of organic solvents and fluorinated polymers, which raises issues of cost and safety, and in turn, limiting their commercial implementation and scalability. This thesis presents a methodology for generating a SHPo coating from a non-fluorinated, water-based dispersion, eliminating processing hazards. The durability of the SHPo NCs is a major problem impeding commercial implementation. Surfaces typically become compromised through fouling or mechanical failure. This thesis reports wettability studies on two classic, robust NCs. The effect of final composition of NCs on mechanical durability, wettability, and electrical conductivity is considered. The work also investigates failure modes of NCs undergoing mechanical strain and the associated effects on coating wettability. A methodology is presented for dramatically reducing the required filler concentration for achieving superhydrophobicity; ultimately, mechanical properties are enhanced. Surfaces with heterogeneous wettability—so-called patterned wettability (PW)—are also of importance. PW finds applications in pool boiling and lab-on-a-chip; however, previous work emphasized handling water (high surface tension). A methodology for synthesizing a PW coating capable of handling lower surface tension liquids is presented; applications are in combinatorial chemistry. Other PW surfaces—presented in this thesis—were also shown to play an important role in droplet impact and volumetric shaping. Finally, this thesis aims to develop large-area PW surfaces for pool boiling applications; previous work was non-scalable. The work demonstrates the potential of large-area wet processing of NCs for advancing many technologies that require efficient fluid management.