This thesis presents a new routing and admission control algorithm for dynamic routing of bandwidth-guaranteed Label Switched Paths ( LSPs) in Multi_Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. The bandwidth-guaranteed LSPs are useful for traffic engineering applications, delivery of multimedia traffic that required service assurance, and implementation of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Our proposed algorithm works online I.e. handle requests arriving one-by-one without the knowledge of future traffic arrival. It is designed based on two previously developed routing concepts: minimal interference routing and non-greedy admission control scheme. The minimal interference routing concepts considers the knowledge of ingress-egress points to defer loading on certain critical links. These critical links are defined as links that, if heavily loaded, would make it impossible to satisfy future demands between certain ingress-egress pairs. On the other hand, the non-greedy framework suggests the use of exponential function to convert utilisation into link cost, and performs admission control based on the computed path cost. Our new algorithm is derived from the observations of the success and failure of both strategies. In particular , we develop a new weight assignment scheme, which is based on the objectives to minimise interference under low network loading , and resource usage under high network loading. We also propose a new admission control strategy that can achieve fair acceptance rate for ingress-egress pairs with diffent hop distances. The performance evaluation is carried out through an extensive set of simulation experiments. A flow-level event-driven routing simulator was developed specifically for the evaluation. We compare the performance of the algorithm with several previously proposed algorithms under a wide range of operating conditions. The simulation results show that our algorithm out -performs other strategies on several metrics, like the bandwidth blocking probability, fairness, and successful rerouting of demands upon link failure. In addition, the algorithm is capable of protecting LSP setup requests for certain ingress-egress pairs that have higher priority level.


Reversible phosphorylation of proteins, executed by kinases and phosphatases, is the major posttranslational protein modification in eukaryotic cells, causing them to become activated or deactivated. This intracellular event represents a critical regulatory mechanism of several signaling pathways and can be related to a broad number of diseases, including cancer. Few decades ago, protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) were considered as tumor suppressors. However, nowadays, accumu-lating evidence demonstrates that a misregulation of PTP activities plays a crucial and decisive role in cancer progression and metastasis. In this chapter, we will focus on the molecular aspects that support the crucial role of PTPs in cancer and in turn make them promising for prediction, monitoring, and rational appropriate therapy selection of individual patients.


At the Cascadia subduction zone, intraslab earthquakes occur mostly in the northern part of the margin and its southern end, the Mendocino triple junction (MTJ). We determine intraslab stress orientations by inverting earthquake focal me- chanisms and develop working hypotheses to explain the inferred intraslab stresses and observed seismicity. Our inversion results show that the subducting Juan de Fuca (JDF) slab in northern Cascadia is primarily under compression normal to the slab surface and tension in the downdip direction, most likely controlled by the net slab pull. An exception is a northernmost shallow region near the Nootka fault zone where the state of stress is dominated by nearly east-west tension. We hypothesize that the shear force on the Nootka fault zone and margin-parallel mantle resistance to slab motion induce the east-west tension in this region. Near the MTJ, stresses in the JDF plate are dominated by north-south compression down to about 20 km depth, consistent with a strong push by the Pacific plate from south of the Mendocino trans- form fault, but the deeper part of the slab shows downdip-tension, similar to northern Cascadia. Deviatoric stresses in the JDF slab appear to be very low, resulting in very low intraslab seismicity. In comparison with northern Cascadia, the stresses in most of southern Cascadia are even lower, resulting in nearly no intraslab seismicity.


Abstract. We report measurements of bromoform made by gas chromatography during the OP3 campaign in 2008. Measurements were made simultaneously for a few days at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) site in the Danum Valley, a rainforest location in Sabah, Borneo, and at a nearby coastal site at Kunak. Background values at Kunak were higher than those measured in the rainforest (2–5 ppt compared with 1 ppt) and excursions away from the background were very much higher, reaching 10 s of ppt. Measurements of C 2 Cl 4 , an industrial tracer, showed no significant difference in background at the two sites. Modelling using two different models can reproduce a number of the observed features. The data are consistent with a strong, local coastal source of bromoform in eastern Sabah and can be used to infer the strength of the source of bromoform in South East Asia. However, they provide only a very weak constraint on global emissions. The global model results highlight the difficulty for short-lived species of extrapolating limited duration, local measurements to a global source.


Telecommunications networks, and in particular optical WDM networks, are vulnerable to large-scale failures of their physical infrastructure, resulting from physical attacks (such as an Electromagnetic Pulse attack) or natural disasters (such as solar flares, earthquakes, and floods). Such events happen at specific geographical locations and disrupt specific parts of the network but their effects are not deterministic. Therefore, we provide a unified framework to model the network vulnerability when the event has a probabilistic nature, defined by an arbitrary probability density function. Our framework captures scenarios with a number of simultaneous attacks, in which network components consist of several dependent subcomponents, and in which either a 1+1 or a 1∶1 protection plan is in place. We use computational geometric tools to provide efficient algorithms to identify vulnerable points within the network under various metrics. Then, we obtain numerical results for specific backbone networks, thereby demonstrating the applicability of our algorithms to real-world scenarios. Our novel approach allows for identifying locations which require additional protection efforts (e.g., equipment shielding). Overall, the paper demonstrates that using computational geometric techniques can significantly contribute to our understanding of network resilience.


Incorporating cultural and religious contexts, this unique Encyclopedia provides a vital guide to the main concepts and thinkers in Asian philosophy - starting with Abhidharma and ending with Zurvan.The main philosophical trends and thinkers in each geographical area are featured, with an emphasis on endtemporary developments and movements. The A-Z structured encyclopedia emphasizes that Asian philosophy is not merely an ancient form of thought but that it is a living philosophy, with roots in the past, and also a potent and animate presence today. This translates into the reciprocal exchange of theories between Eastern and Western thinking, for example of new schools of thought such as orientalism. Requiring no prior knowledge of philosophy, religion or Asian cultures, this book is essential reading for students, teachers and the interested individual who wishes to gain an understanding of the philosophical basis to Asian cultural systems.


In two previous articles concerning the relation of the law to problems of assisted conception, Professor Chester considered legislation as a means of addressing the difficulties presented. These articles considered posthumous reproduction (33 Houston L. Rev. 967) and human whole-body cloning (49 Florida L. Rev. 303). In response to legislative inaction in the assisted conception field, Professor Chester's current article considers other forms of non-governmental regulation, including self-regulation by the medical profession, regulation by insurance companies, and private actions, chiefly in tort and contract, against doctors and fertility clinics. The article, "Double Trouble: Legal Solutions to the Medical Problems of Unconsented Sperm Harvesting and Drug-Induced Multiple Pregnancies" (44 St. Louis U. L. J. 451 (2000)) addresses the two problems indicated by the title in the title in light of the methods of regulation mentioned above. Professor Chester concludes that unconsented sperm harvesting from dead or comatose males may involve several forms of tortious behavior (and in the case of the comatose male, breaches of both fiduciary duty and contract by the doctor), but also that potential damages do not seem either certain enough or high enough to significantly interest the private bar. However, interested parties may be able to obtain injunctive relief, if not against the actual harvesting of the sperm, then at least against its use. In the latter case, for example, expectant, living heirs may be able to stop the conception of additional claimants to the male's estate. Chester also discusses regulation by the medical profession and by the insurance industry and finds such regulation largely ineffective. On the other hand, overstimulation by drugs of the ovaries of women unable to conceive, which stimulation causes troublesome and expensive multiple pregnancies, may trigger causes of action, particularly in tort, with damages sufficient to interest the private bar. In addition, although medical self-regulation has proved largely ineffective, health insurers may themselves regulate such procedures if, as projected, injuries to the mother (and in some ways to the father) and the production of multiple unhealthy offspring cause insurance costs to soar.


The scope and versatile nature of Career and Technical Education (CTE) discipline areas provide a platform for the integration of STEM subject areas, accomplishing the goal of providing all students a STEM-geared curriculum as well as preparing them for the world of work. Today, it is commonplace to say that relationships between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines are becoming increasingly stronger, permeating the workplace and creating new demands for solving daily work-related problems. This article discusses the integration of STEM practices into the curriculum and highlights ways to think about a conceptual framework that may facilitate the teaching and integration of STEM concepts. The intent of this article is to contribute to ongoing discussions among educators, employers, parents, and all those concerned in order to seek coherence in STEM instruction.


In this paper, we present the most extensive comparison of synchronization techniques. We evaluate 5 different synchronization techniques through a series of 31 data structure algorithms from the recent literature on 3 multicore platforms from Intel, Sun Microsystems and AMD. To this end, we developed in C/C++ and Java a new micro-benchmark suite, called Synchrobench, hence helping the community evaluate new data structures and synchronization techniques. The main conclusion of this evaluation is threefold: (i) although compare-and-swap helps achieving the best performance on multicores, doing so correctly is hard; (ii) optimistic locking offers varying performance results while transactional memory offers more consistent results; and (iii) copy-on-write and read-copy-update suffer more from contention than any other technique but could be combined with others to derive efficient algorithms.


ALHAMBRA is a project to gather data to sample a fraction of the Universe with enough precision to follow the evolution of its content and properties with z, a kind of Cosmic Tomography. It is defined as a 4 square degrees photometric survey with 20 contiguous, equal width, medium band filters covering from 3500 to 9700 A, plus the JHKs NIR bands. It was optimized to get (for a fixed observing time) the maximum number of objects with accurate classification and redshift and to be sensitive to relatively faint emission features. The observations will be carried out with the 3.5m telescope in Calar Alto (Spain). We intend to reach the limit AB=25 in all the optical filters from the bluest to 8300 A, and from 24.7 to 23.4 for the remainder. The expected limit in the NIR is fixed at Ks=20, H=21, J=22. The homogeneous and contiguous spectral coverage will result in several hundred thousand objects with accurate SED identification and z-values. The accuracy of the survey will allow to make detailed studies, including galactic, without the need for any further follow-up. Indeed, it will provide exciting targets for large telescopes, the GTC in particular.


Histories of futurism and/or futures studies tend to see the discipline as having its roots in the "operations research" paradigm of the mid-20th Century, which in turn emerged from what eventually became the RAND Corporation (for an exemplar see e.g. Bell, 1996). To construct futurism in such a manner is to ignore many other disciplines whose focus has also been on the development, description and analysis of imagined futures. The RAND-rooted history restricts "proper" futurism to a predominantly scientific (and frequently scientistic), positivist, quantitative and rationalist paradigm, and excludes the more qualitative work of political science, sociology, social theory, architecture and urban planning, as well as the more nakedly speculative and/or imaginative futurist practices of artists and authors. To discard this history is, I believe, to discard some important lessons about what futurism can realistically hope to achieve as regards depicting normative or "preferred" futures.


Two data libraries based on the 1974 United States Census of Agriculture are described. The data packages (AGDATC and AGDATG) are available from the Radiation Shielding Information Center (RSIC), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (contact: B. L. McGill, 615-574-6176 or FTS 624-6176). Agricultural production and land-use information by county (AGDATC) or by 1/2 by 1/2 degree longitude-latitude grid cell (AGDATG) provide geographical resolution of the data. The libraries were designed for use in risk assessment models that simulate the transport of radionuclides from sources of airborne release through food chains to man. However, they are also suitable for use in the assessment of other airborne pollutants that can affect man from a food ingestion pathway such as effluents from synfuels or coal-fired power plants. The principal significance of the data libraries is that they provide default location-specific food-chain transport parameters when site-specific information are unavailable. Plant food categories in the data libraries include leafy vegetables, vegetables and fruits exposed to direct deposition of airborne pollutants, vegetables and fruits protected from direct deposition, and grains. Livestock feeds are also tabulated in four categories: pasture, grain, hay, and silage. Pasture was estimated by a material balance of cattle and sheep inventories, forage feed requirements, and reported harvested forage. Cattle (Bos spp.), sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus), hog (Sus scrofa), chicken (Gallus domesticus), and turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) inventories or sales are also tabulated in the data libraries and can be used to provide estimates of meat, eggs, and milk production. Honey production also is given. Population, irrigation, and meteorological information are also listed.


- By America's most popular progressive radio host
 - Updated throughout, including analysis of recent critical Supreme Court decisions
 - Reveals how corporations achieved their current near-imperial status and what we can do to change it

 Unequal taxes, unequal accountability for crime, unequal influence, unequal control of the media, unequal access to natural resources -- corporations have gained these privileges and more by exploiting their legal status as persons and by winning special protections that enable them to avoid the responsibilities that come with these rights. How did something so illogical and unjust become the law of the land? Is there a way for American citizens to recover democracy of, by, and for the people? Thom Hartmann takes on these difficult questions and tells a startling story that will forever change your understanding of American history.

 Americans have been struggling with the role of corporations since before the birth of the republic. Hartmann uncovers evidence that the Boston Tea Party was actually a protest against actions of the East India Company - the world's first modern corporation - making it the great-great-granddaddy of today's World Trade Organization protests. But eventually the corporations won. Hartmann tells the astonishing story of how an offhand comment by a Supreme Court justice led to the Fourteenth Amendment -- originally passed to grant basic rights to freed slaves -- becoming the justification for changing the status of corporations from "artificial persons" with limited rights to persons entitled to the same rights granted to human beings.

 Unequal Protection details the deeply destructive results. Corporations now enjoy extraordinary priveleges that make them virtually independent kingdoms. This new feudalism is not what our founders intended. Hartmann proposes specific legal remedies that could truly save the world from political, economic, and ecological disaster. It's time for "we, the people" to take back our lives.

 With huge corporations now benefiting from massive taxpayer-funded bailouts, Hartmann's hard-hitting critique of corporate personhood is more timely than ever. This new edition has been thoroughly updated and features Hartmann's analysis of two recent critical Supreme Court corporate speech cases.


Silicon heterojunction solar cells have record-high open-circuit voltages but suffer from reduced short-circuit currents due in large part to parasitic absorption in the amorphous silicon, transparent conductive oxide (TCO), and metal layers. We previously identified and quantified visible and ultraviolet parasitic absorption in heterojunctions; here, we extend the analysis to infrared light in heterojunction solar cells with efficiencies exceeding 20%. An extensive experimental investigation of the TCO layers indicates that the rear layer serves as a crucial electrical contact between amorphous silicon and the metal reflector. If very transparent and at least 150 nm thick, the rear TCO layer also maximizes infrared response. An optical model that combines a ray-tracing algorithm and a thin-film simulator reveals why: parallel-polarized light arriving at the rear surface at oblique incidence excites surface plasmons in the metal reflector, and this parasitic absorption in the metal can exceed the absorption in the TCO layer itself. Thick TCO layers—or dielectric layers, in rear-passivated diffused-junction silicon solar cells—reduce the penetration of the evanescent waves to the metal, thereby increasing internal reflectance at the rear surface. With an optimized rear TCO layer, the front TCO dominates the infrared losses in heterojunction solar cells. As its thickness and carrier density are constrained by anti-reflection and lateral conduction requirements, the front TCO can be improved only by increasing its electron mobility. Cell results attest to the power of TCO optimization: With a high-mobility front TCO and a 150-nm-thick, highly transparent rear ITO layer, we recently reported a 4-cm2 silicon heterojunction solar cell with an active-area short-circuit current density of nearly 39 mA/cm2 and a certified efficiency of over 22%.


The field of empirical research on public defense is in an early stage of development. Yet the field is also diverse, as a growing community of researchers applies training in disciplines ranging from law and criminology to economics and social psychology. These facts invite reflection on baseline questions about the field that may inform future work. For example, what factors shape our research agendas? What data, methods, and theories are in play? Do these new research agendas align with the research priorities of public defenders and the communities they serve? Should they do so? To begin exploring such questions, this pilot study asked public defense providers for their views on the top-priority issues that empirical research should investigate in order to improve public defense. The study engaged 71 Mississippi defenders in a modified group-level assessment (GLA), which is a qualitative, participatory method of social science inquiry. Study goals included facilitating defender identification of empirical research priorities, comparing defender perspectives based on role and experience level, and assessing GLA's utility in this new setting. The modified GLA was productive. With little variation across provider role or experience level, defenders prioritized four main research topics: formation of positive attorney-client relationships, optimizing outcomes for clients, the prevalence and impact of resource disparities between defense and law enforcement, and systemic problems in areas that affect public defense such as policing, prosecution, the judiciary, and corrections. Project background, methodology, preliminary results, and limitations are discussed.


The global wine market has undergone intense changes in recent decades after a sharp increase in the competitiveness of the new Southern Hemisphere exporters. The dynamism of the New World and increased demand for new consumer countries have accelerated the process of wine globalization. We study the global competition and the main changes in the world wine trade from 1961 to 2010. The article shows the relative distribution of exports in the Old and New World, and it examines the comparative advantage of foreign trade through the Revealed Competitive Advantage Index (RCA). It concludes showing the Southern Hemisphere growing competitiveness in the global market, mainly from Chile, from the 1990s, and Argentina in the last decade.


The cloud computing model aims to make large-scale data-intensive computing affordable even for users with limited financial resources, that cannot invest into expensive infrastructures necesssary to run them. In this context, MapReduce is emerging as a highly scalable programming paradigm that enables high-throughput data-intensive processing as a cloud service. Its performance is highly dependent on the underlying storage service, responsible to efficiently support massively parallel data accesses by guaranteeing a high throughput under heavy access concurrency. In this context, quality of service plays a crucial role: the storage service needs to sustain a stable throughput for each individual accesss, in addition to achieving a high aggregated throughput under concurrency. In this paper we propose a technique to address this problem using component monitoring, application-side feedback and behavior pattern analysis to automatically infer useful knowledge about the causes of poor quality of service and provide an easy way to reason in about potential improvements. We apply our proposal to Blob Seer, a representative data storage service specifically designed to achieve high aggregated throughputs and show through extensive experimentation substantial improvements in the stability of individual data read accesses under MapReduce workloads.


Abstract This article argues that the theoretical invisibility of non-privatized land tenures constitutes a failure of the urban imaginary, which restricts the ability to forge less commodified urban futures. The article explicates two attributes of non-privatized land?fungibility and combinatoriality?that produce an urban land nexus capable of fostering pro-poor agglomeration economies and generating socialities that exceed the model of the separative self that is hegemonic in more propertied settings. Fungibility, it shows, externalizes supportive economies of production and reproduction into surrounding neighborhoods by shifting the boundaries and terms of usufruct without cadastral oversight or regulation. Combinatoriality?a hybrid formulation of combined territories and combined territorialities?describes overlapping forms of access to land or demarcations of legitimate land use, either competitive or reciprocal. Together, these two attributes of non-privatized land systems produce a propinquity requirement for economic production, or a social density and liveliness more limited in privatized land markets. Through a diagnostic analogy with the simple reproduction squeeze characteristic of subsistence agrarian settings, it charts how an urban spatial reproduction squeeze?felt globally in dense, rising-rent environments across the global North and South?generates subsistence needs that mixed-tenure environments are uniquely capable of fulfilling and that can provide inspiration for radical housing struggles elsewhere.


The promotion of competition in the American economy is a task that has traditionally fallen to the enforcement agencies at the federal and state level, relying on the main antitrust statutes. However, the challenge of declining competition has also prompted interest in the use of regulatory alternatives to antitrust to "catalyze" competition. The strategy involves using industry-specific statutes, rulemakings, or other tools of the regulatory state to achieve the traditional competition goals associated with the antitrust laws. Hence, "antitrust via rulemaking."
This paper has two goals. The first goal is to better describe the regulatory tools used by agencies and government—the so-called "competitive catalysts." This paper attempts to develop both a vocabulary and basic theoretical account that helps to understand how rulemaking can promote competition. It does so by providing a taxonomy of major tools used to catalyze competition.
A second goal of the paper is the admittedly difficult goal of trying to understand why some competition initiatives have worked, while others fail. As these are highly complex industries and regulatory initiatives, any such analysis cannot be definitive. Nonetheless, a study of the efforts to jump-start competition yields patterns from which best-practices might be derived, and from which any future regulator should learn. The paper concludes with a list of best-practices or rules-of-thumb for those who would hope to use laws to catalyze competition in the future.


This study reports on investigations into the use of synthetic zeolites in
catalysis in an attempt to design catalyst systems which have size and shape
selectivity. Zeolites have been widely used in petroleum refineries as acid
catalysts. This has led to the field of study known as "shape selective
catalysis", since the product distribution is limited to those molecules which
can pass through the zeolite channel. In this study, zeolites have been used
both as an acid catalyst for the cracking of hydrocarbons, and as a catalyst
support for a cationic palladium complex.
n-Octane and 2-methylheptane were used in cracking reactions over
zeolites HY, HZSM-5, and their combinations. The two hydrocarbons were
selected to discern the skeletal effect introduced by the structure of a molecule,
while the zeolites were chosen because of their common use in commercial
catalytic cracking.
Three ways of mixing the zeolites were employed, by which the
influence of each zeolite on a particular feedstock could be isolated:-
i. Placing the bed of zeolite HY prior to that of zeolite HZSM-5.
ii. Placing the bed of zeolite HZSM-5 prior to that of zeolite HY.
iii. Mixing the two zeolites thoroughly.
It was found that overall distributions of cracking products by carbon
number from reaction of either paraffin on combinations of HY and HZSM-5,
and from reaction of a mixture of the paraffins on either zeolite, can be
reasonably described by the addition of product distributions on individual
catalysts and from individual paraffins, weighted according to the relative
amounts present.
Ratios of branched to linear paraffins are much more strongly influenced
by catalyst type and feedstock than the corresponding ratios for olefinic
products. For reactions on catalyst mixtures, distributions of the total products
by carbon number correspond well to a summation o~ contributions on the
individual catalysts. However, a greater departure from prediction is seen for
individual distributions of paraffins, olefins and aromatics, as well as for ratios
of branched to linear paraffins, showing that hydrogen transfer processes and
isomerisation must occur. The addition of pentasil resulted in enrichment of the linear saturates at lower carbon number which is due to preferential cracking of linear paraffins over the branched isomers.
The use of zeolite as a catalyst support was investigated by immobilising
a cationic palladium complex, [Pd(2,2'-bipy)i]2+, in NaY zeolite.
Three immobilisation methods were investigated, from which a model for
location and distribution of the supported complex was proposed:-
i. Prepared from [Pd(2,2'-bipy)i](N03)2 complex which was exchanged
directly with the zeolite (method I).
ii. Synthesised in-situ from Pd(2,2'-bipy)Cl2 complex which was
exchanged with the zeolite in the presence of 2,2'-bipyridyl
(method II).
iii. Synthesised in-situ from [Pd(NH3)4]2+ which was exchanged with the
zeolite. Free 2,2'-bipyridyl was then added to the cation-exchanged
zeolite in solution to replace the ammine (method III).
UV-visible, atomic absorption, and raman spectroscopies, together with
microprobe and elemental analyses, were used to characterise the zeolite
supported complexes.
Attempts to directly ion-exchange [Pd(2,2'-bipy)i]2+ into the zeolite
resulted in a maximum palladium loading of 0.62 wt% compared with a
maximum loading of 8.97 wt% when [Pd(NH3)4]2+ was ion-exchanged into
the zeolite. Efforts to obtain higher loadings of [Pd(2,2'-bipy)i]2+ by in-situ
synthesis from Pd(2,2'-bipy)Cli and 2,2'-bipyridyl resulted in an increased
maximum palladium loading to 1.15 wt%. Although a maximum Pd loading of
8.97 wt% could be obtained by ion-exchanging [Pd(NH3)4]2+ into the zeolite,
it was found that the [Pd(NH3)4]2+ could only be partially converted to
[Pd(2,2'-bipy)i]2+. The inability to achieve 100% conversion using this method
is probably due to the steric constraints within the smaller zeolite cages.
The catalytic activity of the zeolite supported complexes was tested for
dimerisation of ethene. It was found that the product distribution resulting from
the supported complexes was similar to that obtained from the homogeneous
system.


Elastic moduli contrast between the adjacent layers in a layered formation can lead to various problems in a conventional hydraulic fracturing job such as improper fracture height growth, limited penetration in a weaker layer only, and nonconductive fractures. In this study, the results of thermochemical fracturing experiment are presented. The hydraulic fracturing experiments presented in this study were carried out on four-layered very tight cement block samples. The results revealed that the novel fracturing technique can reduce the required breakdown pressure in a layered rock by 26%, from 1495 psi (reference breakdown pressure recorded in the conventional hydraulic fracturing technique) to 1107 psi (breakdown pressure recorded in the thermochemical fracturing). The posttreatment experimental analysis showed that the thermochemical fracturing approach resulted in deep and long fractures, passing through majority of the layers, while conventional hydraulic fracturing resulted in a thin fracture that affected only the top layer. A productivity analysis was also carried out which suggested that the fracturing with thermochemical fluids can raise the oil flowrate up to 76% when compared to a conventional hydraulic fracturing technique. Thermochemical fluids injection caused the creation of microfractures and reduces the linear elastic parameters of the rocks. The new technique is cost effective, nontoxic, and sustainable in terms of no environmental hazards.


Throughout the history of reference services, the creation and production of reference resources have been the province of professionals. Authors and editors, even when acting as volunteers, have been characterized by substantial, identifiable expertise. Production has been the domain of established publishers and database vendors. Control has been tight, with a generally agreed-upon understanding that the emphasis on expertise both in creation and in production serves to ensure the quality of reference resources. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia (www.wikipedia.org) represents a completely different paradigm. Authors and editors are volunteers in every sense: the general principle is that nearly anyone can--and by implication, should--be a contributor to Wikipedia. There is no centralized editorial control. Instead content is influenced by individual contributors working collaboratively to achieve consensus and, when that fails, calling for a vote among interested contributors. The result can be thought of as a sort of democratized reference resource by, of, and for the people. Applying Katz's Criteria to Wikipedia The late Bill Katz, in his landmark Introduction to Reference Work, identified six fundamental evaluation criteria for reference sources: purpose, authority, scope, audience, cost, and format. A brief examination of Wikipedia in light of those criteria may prove instructive. Purpose According to Katz, "[t]he purpose of a reference work should be evident from the title or form." (1) According to Bopp and Smith, "the focus or purpose of an encyclopedia is generally found in its prefatory remarks." (2) Wikipedia, however, offers nothing that could really be termed prefatory remarks. The first of the "key policies" that underlie Wikipedia is "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Its goals go no further." (3) Wikipedia's subtitle, "The Free Encyclopedia," provides direct guidance on nature and purpose. Wikipedia is further described as "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language." (4) Grammatical incorrectness aside, this is a lofty goal that sets an incredibly high standard. Although the motive behind the purpose remains somewhat unclear, use of Wikipedia, which rose from an audience of 3.3 million in September 2004 to 12.8 million in September 2005, seems to suggest that the encyclopedia is serving some purpose. (5) Authority and Objectivity Authority is clearly the major challenge to Wikipedia. The limitations imposed by this challenge are freely recognized. "Its open nature allows vandalism, inaccuracy, and opinion. It has also been criticised for systemic bias, preference of consensus to credentials, and a perceived lack of accountability and authority when compared with traditional encyclopedias." (6) Although the last edition of Katz seemingly downplayed the role of authority and objectivity, earlier editions identified four subcriteria related to authority: 1. The qualifications of the author within the context of the purpose of the source; 2. The sources of the author's knowledge; 3. The reputation of the publisher; and 4. Objectivity and fairness. (7) Author Qualifications Wikipedia relies primarily on unsigned, truly anonymous contributors. Wikipedia's slogan is "The Free Encyclopedia that anyone can edit." (8) This means that for most articles, the reader has no access to information about author qualifications. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Wikipedia is the explicit statement that "Its authors need not have any expertise or formal qualifications in the subjects which they edit," which seems to move beyond openness and democracy of information into the potential for information anarchy. (9) There are clearly, however, some controls in place. The most important of these controls is the potential for articles to be re-edited or rewritten by other contributors. …


As the world's only truly universal global organization, the United Nations has become the foremost forum to address issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be resolved by any one country acting alone. This authoritative reference provides a comprehensive introduction and overview of the work of the UN in key areas of international peace and security, economic and social development, human rights, and humanitarian action.


Cloud computing is a wide-spread technology that enables the enterprises to provide services to their customers with a lower cost, higher performance, better availability and scalability. However, privacy and security in cloud computing has always been a major challenge to service providers and a concern to its users. Trusted computing has led its way in securing the cloud computing and virtualized environment, during the past decades. In this paper, first we study virtualized trusted platform modules and integration of vTPM in hypervisor-based virtualization. Then we propose two architectural solutions for integrating the vTPM in container-based virtualization model.


We explore the variation in pupil attainment at the end of secondary schooling in England. The paper links data on all schools and all pupils within these schools to analyse the role of the school in accounting for this variation. We analyse a number of different indicators of pupil attainment including value added between the end of primary and secondary schooling and attainment levels at the end of secondary schooling. We examine indicators that were the focus of the school accounting framework as well as other indicators that were not directly part of how schools were assessed. We show that schools account for a minority of the variance in pupil attainment, and the extent of the variation accounted for by the school is sensitive to the measure of pupil attainment used. In addition, we find that the majority of the explained school-level variance in attainment is related to school composition. However, most of the variance in attainment remains unexplained, raising questions about what other factors contribute to the variation in school performance.


Abstract Nasal congestion due to the common cold occurs because of dilation of the blood vessels, leading to swelling of the nasal mucosal epithelium. This narrows nasal passages, which are further blocked by increased mucus production. Nasal sprays and drops are often recommended for the treatment of rhinorrhoea and nasal congestion associated with the common cold. This brief review discusses over-the-counter nasal therapies that are used to relieve rhinorrhoea and nasal congestion in adults and children.


Dedicated sensors are widely used throughout many industries to monitor everyday operations, maintain safety, and report performance characteristics. In order to adopt a more sustainable solution, much research is being applied to self-powered sensing, implementing solutions which harvest wasted ambient energy sources to power these dedicated sensors. The adoption of not only wireless sensor nodes, but also self-powered capabilities in the nuclear energy process is critical as it can address issues in the overall safety and longevity of nuclear power. The removal of wires for data and power transmission can greatly reduce the cost of both installation and upkeep of power plants, while self-powered capabilities can further reduce effort and money spent in replacing batteries, and importantly may enable sensors to work even in losses to power across the plant, increasing plant safety. This thesis outlines three harvesting opportunities in the nuclear energy process from: thermal, vibration, and radiation sources in the main structure of the power plant, and from thermal and radiation energy from spent fuel in dry cask storage. Thermal energy harvesters for the primary and secondary coolant loops are outlined, and experimental analysis done on their longevity in high-radiation environments is discussed. A vibrational energy harvester for large rotating plant machine vibration is designed, prototyped, and tested, and a model is produced to describe its motion and energy output. Finally, an introduction to the design of a gamma radiation and thermal energy harvester for spent nuclear fuel canisters is discussed, and further research steps are suggested. Energy Harvesting Opportunities Throughout the Nuclear Power Cycle for Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Nodes


In this paper we chart the geography of the gold standard. We highlight the late date of the move to gold and the variety of transition strategies. Whether a country with a currency convertible into specie operated a gold, silver or bimetallic standard at mid-century depended not so much on whether it was rich or poor as on the monetary standard of the foreign country or countries to which its transactions were linked. When it came to the distinction between specie convertibility and inconvertibility, however, domestic economic conditions came into play. In particular, there was a strong correlation between economic development, as proxied by the level of per capita incomes, and possession of a convertible currency.Most countries went onto the gold standard between the 1870s and the first decade of the twentieth century. We enumerate the factors propelling this transition and analyse variations in its timing. Factors shaping the course of this transition include the level of economic development, the magnitude of reserves relative to world specie markets, whether reserves were concentrated at the central bank, and the presence or absence of imperial ties.


Researchers in many fields of economics often compare distributions using some criterion or another of inequality, poverty or welfare. It is standard practice to base such comparative analysis on aggregated data. But will the results obtained be dependent on the degree of aggregation of the data? This paper argues, on the basis of a simulation study, that they will be since the probability of obtaining a ranking can increase rapidly with the degree of aggregation. Aggregation exaggerates the differences between similar distributions and overlooks crossings at the lower tail. A change in research strategy where possible and statistical inference used in its place.


Rhenium, with its high melting temperature, excellent elevated temperature properties, and lack of a ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT), is ideally suited for the hot gas components of the ACM (Attitude Control Motor), and other high-temperature applications. However, the high cost of rhenium makes fabricating these components using conventional fabrication techniques prohibitive. Therefore, near-net-shape forming techniques were investigated for producing cost-effective rhenium and rhenium alloy components for the ACM and other propulsion applications. During this investigation, electrochemical forming (EL-Form ) techniques were evaluated for producing the hot gas components. The investigation focused on demonstrating that EL-Form processing techniques could be used to produce the ACM flow distributor. Once the EL-Form processing techniques were established, a representative rhenium flow distributor was fabricated, and samples were harvested for material properties testing at both room and elevated temperatures. As a lower cost and lighter weight alternative to an all-rhenium component, rhenium- coated graphite and carbon-carbon were also evaluated. The rhenium-coated components were thermal-cycle tested to verify that they could withstand the expected thermal loads during service. High-temperature electroforming is based on electrochemical deposition of compact layers of metals onto a mandrel of the desired shape. Mandrels used for electro-deposition of near-net shaped parts are generally fabricated from high-density graphite. The graphite mandrel is easily machined and does not react with the molten electrolyte. For near-net shape components, the inner surface of the electroformed part replicates the polished graphite mandrel. During processing, the mandrel itself becomes the cathode, and scrap or refined refractory metal is the anode. Refractory metal atoms from the anode material are ionized in the molten electrolytic solution, and are deposited onto the cathodic mandrel by electrochemical reduction. Rotation of the mandrel ensures uniform distribution of refractory material. The EL-Form process allows for manufacturing in an inert atmosphere with deposition rates from 0.0004 to 0.002 in./h (10.2 to 50.8 m/h). Thicknesses typically range from microns to greater than 0.5 in. (13 mm). The refractory component produced is fabricated, dependably, to within one micron of the desired tolerances with no shrinkage or distortion as in other refractory metal manufacture techniques. The electroforming process has been used to produce solid, nonporous deposits of rhenium, iridium, niobium, tungsten, and their alloys.


In this paper, a new class of pulsed latches is introduced and experimentally assessed in 65-nm CMOS. Its conditional push-pull pulsed latch topology is based on a push- pull final stage driven by two split paths with a conditional pulse generator. Two circuit implementations of the concept are discussed, with their main difference being in the pulse generator, which can be either shared (CSP3L) or not (CP3L). Measurements show that the proposed topology is very fast, as it outperforms the well-known transmission gate pulsed latch (TGPL) [1] by 1.5×-2×; hence the proposed pulsed latch has the highest performance ever reported. The proposed pulsed latch is also shown to significantly improve the energy efficiency compared to the state of the art. Indeed, a 2.3× improvement in ED3 product (energy × delay3) over TGPL was found for designs targeting minimum ED3. For designs targeting minimum ED, a 1.3× improvement was found in ED product. This comes at the cost of a 1.15×-1.35× cell area penalty, which translates into an overall area increase well below 1% in typical systems. Measurements on 256 replicas confirm that the above benefits are kept in the presence of variations. Accordingly, the proposed class of pulsed latches goes beyond the current state of the art and is well suited for VLSI systems that require both high performance and energy efficiency.


The mechanisms of compensation of aberration between cornea and lens are somehow modified during both accommodation and aging. In 15 individualized ocular models of young and unaccommodated eyes, we used morphological data of the lens to simulate the effect of accommodation and aging on these mechanisms. The predicted changes in aberrations were compared to data from the literature. In general, only the variation of the lens curvature was enough to reproduce the decrease in ocular spherical aberration (SA) during accommodation. However, the increase in SA with age could only be explained as a consequence of an increase in the conic constant of the lens and/or additional changes on the gradient index.


This paper uses synthetic life-cycle paths at the individual level to analyze the distribution of long-term care expenditures in the Netherlands. Using a comprehensive set of administrative data 20,000 synthetic life-cycle paths of household income and long-term care costs are constructed using the nearest neighbor resampling method. We show that the distribution of these costs is less skewed when measured over the life-cycle than on a cross-sectional basis. This may provide an argument for self-insurance by smoothing these costs over the life-cycle. Yet costs are concentrated at older ages, which limits the scope for self-insurance. Furthermore, the paper investigates the relation between long-term care expenditures, household composition, and income over the life-cycle. The expenditures on a lifetime basis from the age of 65 are higher for low income households, and (single) women.


To the Editor: Access to antiretroviral drug therapy (ART) is increasing in Africa. For instance, today about 3200 HIVinfected patients have initiated ART in Côte d'Ivoire as part of the UNAIDS Drug Access Initiative. Because most drugs were designed, tested, and validated against HIV-1 subtype B viruses, a wider implementation of ART in Africa requires evaluation of the role of drug resistance since limited data exist regarding resistance profiles of HIV-1 non-B strains. In Côte d'Ivoire and most of West Africa, about 75% of HIV-1 strains are CRF02_AG, which is a complex mosaic with subtypes A or G in the pol region. Limited studies of naive persons infected with HIV-1 non-B subtypes have examined mutational resistance profiles in the protease region or protease and reverse transcriptase regions of HIV-1. However, only limited phenotypic testing, which is a direct measure of resistance in the presence of drugs, has been done. Here we describe baseline polymorphism and phenotypic antiretroviral drug-resistant mutational profiles of patients infected with HIV-1 CRF02_ AG recombinant forms in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. We analyzed ART drug resistance among a consecutively enrolled subset of 20 ART-naive HIV-1-infected patients who participated in the UNAIDS Drug Initiative (DAI). For sequencing of the Pol genes, we have used the TrueGene HIV-1 genotyping assay (version 2.5) (Visible Genetics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Amino acid sequences obtained were compared with a reference HIV-1 sequence HXBr2, using the ADRA program from Los Alamos, New Mexico. Mutations were classified as primary or secondary and associated or not associated with ARV drug resistance, according to the consensus statement on ARV drug resistance. The Bioedit (www. mbio.nesu.edu) program was used to align the 20 HIV pol sequence with the HXBr2 HIV-1 reference sequence. For identification of secondary HIV-1 resistance mutations or baseline polymorphisms we used the ADRA program from www.hiv.lanl.gov site. Phenotypic resistance was performed by a recombinant virus assay technology (Antivirogram, Virco NV, Mechelen, Belgium) as described previously. Of the 20 patients, 8 (40%) were men; all the patients were infected with the HIV-1 CRF02_AG strains. Median age was 38 years (interquartile range [IQR] 30–40], median CD4 T-cell count was 84 cells/μL (IQR, 13–137), and median viral load was 5.0 log10 RNA copies/mL (IQR, 5.0–6.0). We successfully sequenced all 20 protease and 19 RT regions. Compared with the HIV-1 subtype B (HXBr2) amino acid sequence, the RT gene was less conserved than protease gene. No primary genotypic resistance mutation was observed in any of the 20 protease or 19 RT sequences. Baseline polymorphisms were restricted to the following positions in the protease: M36I (n = 20, 100%), K20I (n = 19, 95%), L63P/H/L/S (n = 6, 30%), L10I/V (n = 4, 21%). Secondary mutations for the RT were at positions: L214F (n = 16, 84%), I135V (n = 12, 60%), R211K (n = 6, 31.6%), L283I (n = 2, 10.5%), V189I (n = 1, 5.3%), and W88S (n = 1, 5.3%) for the RT. Of the 20 patients' viruses, 12 (60%) had 2 protease mutations, and 8 (45%) had >2 mutations. Of the 19 RT sequences, 3 (15.8%) had a single mutation, 9 (47.4%) had 2 mutations, and 7 (36.8%) >2 mutations. We observed polymorphisms at positions not yet described to be genotypic resistance mutations in the protease and in the RT deduced amino acids. Of the 19 HIV-1 patients' viruses tested for phenotypic resistance, we observed low-level phenotypic resistance in 4 patients (21%) (Table 1). No correlation was observed between any secondary genotypic mutations and phenotypic resistance, as not all patients with the R211K, L214F, I135V, and L210M mutations had phenotypic resistance (Table 1). One patient had a 5.1-fold resistance to delarvidine (DLV) and had the I135V, the R211K, and L214F mutations. One patient had a 4.4fold resistance to DLV but no sequence information was available for the RT gene. Lastly, one patient's virus had a 6-fold resistance to EFV and had the L214F and I135V mutations. Our results show that none of the 20 patients infected with the recombinant virus CRF02_AG had primary genotypic resistance mutations; however, low levels of phenotypic resistance were found in 4 patients' viruses. The high proportion of M36I (100%) and K20I (94%) in the protease region is comparable with what others have reported with other HIV-1 non-B subtypes. We found a high percentage of the R211K (31.6%), L214F (84%), and I135V (60%) mutations in the 19 HIV-1 RT sequences analyzed. The R211K mutation has also been shown to be present in high percentage in non-B subtype. The 135 and 283 RT positions have been strongly associated with reduced susceptibility to efavirenz, nevirapine, and delavirdine. In the present study these mutations are observed in 13 samples but reduced susceptibility to drugs was observed in only 3 samples. Our findings that 4 ART-naive HIV-1 patients had low levels of phenotypic resistance are not clear. However, natural resistance to nevirapine (NVP) has been reported in HIV-1 ART-naive patients. Taken together, our results suggest that persons infected with the CRF02_AG


We consider the problem of representing collective behavior of large populations and predicting the evolution of a population distribution over a discrete state space. A discrete time mean field game (MFG) is motivated as an interpretable model founded on game theory for understanding the aggregate effect of individual actions and predicting the temporal evolution of population distributions. We achieve a synthesis of MFG and Markov decision processes (MDP) by showing that a special MFG is reducible to an MDP. This enables us to broaden the scope of mean field game theory and infer MFG models of large real-world systems via deep inverse reinforcement learning. Our method learns both the reward function and forward dynamics of an MFG from real data, and we report the first empirical test of a mean field game model of a real-world social media population.


We generalize the notion of graded posets to what we call sign-graded (labeled) posets. We prove that the W-polynomial of a sign-graded poset is symmetric and unimodal. This extends a recent result of Reiner and Welker who proved it for graded posets by associating a simplicial polytopal sphere to each graded poset. By proving that the W-polynomials of sign-graded posets has the right sign at -1, we are able to prove the Charney-Davis Conjecture for these spheres (whenever they are flag).


In this thesis the maximum a posteriori (MAP) approach to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) analysis is reviewed. The MAP model consists of two probability density functions (PDFs): the likelihood function and the prior model. Contributions related to both models are made. As the first contribution a new likelihood function describing the multilook three-polarisation intensity SAR speckle process, which is equivalent to the averaged squared amplitude samples from a three-dimensional complex zero-mean circular Gaussian density, has been derived. This PDF is a correlated three-dimensional chi-square. density in the form of an infinite series of modified Bessel functions with seven independent parameters. Details concerning the PDF such as the estimation of the PDF parameters from sample data and the moments of the PDF are described. new likelihood function is tested against simulated and measured SAR data. The second contribution is a novel parameter estimation method for discrete Gibbs random field (GRF) prior models. Given a quantity of sample data, the parameters of the GRF model, which comprise the values of the potential functions of individual cliques, are estimated. The method uses an error function describing the difference between the local model PDF and the equivalent estimated from sample data. The concept of "equivalencies" is introduced to simplify the process. The new parameter estimation method is validated and compared to Besag's parameter estimation method (coding method) using GRF realisations and other sample data. In most cases the new parameter estimation method performs better than Besag's method.


We suggest that parthenocarpic or fertile fig branches were planted along with staples like wild barley in the early Neolithic villages of Gilgal and Netiv Hagdud. In contrast to the repeated sowing of wild barley, we argue that planting branches of selected fig trees constitutes a form of domestication. The simplicity of fig tree propagation likely contributed to its domestication before cereal crops.


The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60 per cent of the world's population, around four billion people, live. The latest global scientific consensus from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that all of Asia is very likely to warm during this century. Warming will be accompanied by less predictable and more extreme patterns of rainfall. Tropical cyclones are projected to increase in magnitude and frequency, while monsoons, around which farming systems are designed, are expected to become more temperamental in their strength and time of onset. This report asks, will global warming send Asia and the Pacific 'up in smoke'?


Stable carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope data from Maastrichtian planktic and benthic foraminifera from southern high-latitude Ocean Drilling Program Sites 690, 750, and 761 reveal major changes in climate and ocean chemistry during the early to late Maastrichtian transition, some 4 to 6 m.y. prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary. The δ18O results suggest accelerated cooling, resulting in the lowest marine temperatures of the Late Cretaceous. The late Maastrichtian rise in the seawater 87Sr/86Sr ratio begins at the time of this change and suggests increased rates of continental weathering and/or runoff. The δ13C values show a negative shift of ∼0.5‰ followed by a positive shift of ∼1‰. These δ13C fluctuations may reflect change in deep water chemistry with cooling, variation in reduced carbon storage in coastal areas caused by eustatic sea-level fluctuation, and increased surface-water productivity. These findings contradict the common representation of stable and climatically equable environmental conditions in the latest Cretaceous before the K-T boundary event.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the function of improvised song creation for two individuals with autism spectrum disorder in the formation of self-identity using grounded theory analysis. Data were collected through video recordings of archival clinical sessions. The method included analyses of musical, lyrical, and interpersonal transcriptions of sessions. The transcription process included a combination of holistic listening and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy indexing techniques. A grounded theory coding process was employed to identify concepts and categories related to the broader context of identity formation from patterns in the data and to develop theoretical conclusions from these concepts. Findings included concepts presented under domains of (a) musical emergence, (b) lyrical emergence, and (c) interpersonal emergence of identity. These concepts were as follows: (a) musical emergence: finding musical synchronization, expansion of the voice, types of singing (reflection, unison, and harmonization), musical style, song structure; (b) lyrical emergence: lyrical initiation and development, song of self, and use of abstracted or metaphoric language; (c) interpersonal emergence: choosing to create a song, finding roles, nonverbal acknowledgment, and integrating client preferences and tendencies. Additional findings revealed how improvised song creation served to allow the client to be engaged in a collaborative, exploratory performance of the self through an aesthetically and creatively driven process. Conclusions and implications of theory to clinical practice and methods are presented. In addition, the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and relevance of their sense of identity in broader sociocultural contexts are discussed.


ABSTRACT Inbreeding has been difficult to quantify in wild populations because of incomplete parentage information. We applied and extended a recently developed framework for addressing this problem to infer inbreeding rates in Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) across the Pacific Northwest, USA. Using pedigrees from 14,187 Northern Spotted Owls, we inferred inbreeding rates for 14 types of matings among relatives that produce pedigree inbreeding coefficients of F = 0.25 or F = 0.125. Inbreeding was most common in the Washington Cascades, where an estimated 15% of individuals are inbred. Inbreeding was lowest in western Oregon (3.5%) and northern California (2.7%), and intermediate for the Olympic Peninsula of Washington (6.1%). Estimates from the Olympic Peninsula were likely underestimates because of small sample sizes and the presence of few pedigrees capable of resolving inbreeding events. Most inbreeding resulted from matings between full siblings or half siblings, although a high rate of inbreeding from mother–son pairs was identified in the Olympic Peninsula. Geographic variation in inbreeding rates may reflect population declines and bottlenecks that have been detected in prior investigations. We show that there is strong selection against inbred birds. Only 3 of 44 inbred birds were later identified as parents (6.8%), whereas 2,823 of 10,380 birds that represented a comparable cross section of the data were later seen as reproducing parents (27.2%). Habitat loss and competition with Barred Owls (S. varia) remain primary threats to Northern Spotted Owls. However, given the negative consequences of inbreeding, Spotted Owl populations in Washington with suitable habitat and manageable numbers of Barred Owls may benefit from translocations of individuals from Oregon and California to introduce new genetic variation and reduce future inbreeding events.


Sperm whales occur worldwide and feed largely on meso- and bathypelagic squid, but little is known about the behavioral ecology of this predator and its prey. In the Gulf of California, sperm whales are thought to feed on the abundant jumbo (Humboldt) squid, an ecologically and com- mercially important species. In this study, we attached satellite-linked dive recorders to 5 sperm whales and pop-up archival transmitting tags to 3 jumbo squid in the same area and time period in or- der to record their diving behavior and movements. Most (91%) deep dives by whales ranged from 100 to 500 m (average 418 ± 216.0 m) and lasted 15 to 35 min (average 27 ± 9.1 min). During daytime hours, jumbo squid spent about 75% of the time in the 200 to 400 m depth range, and sperm whales showed a similar dive-depth preference. The vertical distribution pattern of squid changed during the night, with squid spending about half the time at depths of <200 m and the remainder at 200 to 400 m. Al- though the whales shifted their nighttime diving to somewhat shallower depths, about 75% of dives remained in the 200 to 400 m depth range. Analysis of squid nighttime diving behavior, based on archival time-series data, showed that excursions into warm surface waters were often terminated by deep dives to typical daytime depths, after which the squid appeared to be relatively quiescent. Diving behavior by whales is thus consistent with the idea that they feed on jumbo squid at depth during the day, and we suggest that deep nighttime foraging may target squid that are recovering from stress af- ter recent surface activity and are therefore more susceptible to predation.


Background and Aim: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by exacerbation and stable periods. Early diagnosis in the exacerbation period of COPD can reduce morbidity and mortality rates. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between Proteoglycan 4 (PRG4) and other parameters, including Procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and White Blood Cell (WBC) count, in the exacerbation period.
Materials and Methods: This preliminary study was conducted on patients admitted to the Emergency Department and Chest Diseases Department in University Medical Faculty Hospital. Patient demographics, spirometric measurements, clinical scoring used for COPD classification and laboratory test results were recorded for each patient. The final diagnosis of COPD was made by pulmonary physicians.
Results: A total of 78 patients (38 in exacerbation and 40 in stable period) with COPD were included in the study. PRG4 levels of patients in the exacerbation period (183.7 ± 9.4 ng/ml) were significantly higher than those of patients in the stable period (177.1 ± 15.9 ng/ml; p=0.034). The sensitivity of PRG4 (88.9%) was equal to that of PCT (88.9%) and higher than that of CRP (86.1%) and WBC (80.6%); the specificity of PRG4 (50%) was higher than that of the other parameters (33.3%, 43.0%, and 40.0%, respectively).
Conclusion: PRG4 can be used for discriminating between the exacerbation and stable periods of COPD and is superior in diagnosing the exacerbation period compared with other laboratory parameters.


Many of the research projects currently underway and being considered for the future at the Engineering Design Research Center involve geographically distributed project teams. The extent of interaction within this distributed team may vary from that of distant vendors who are not members of the project team but whose performance and synchronization with the project are vital to members of the design team actively collaborating on a project to the extent of discussing detailed design, systems interface issues, and joint authoring of documentation. This report presents issues encountered in creating and operating an infrastructure to support such a distributed design team. Our approach is to identify requirements for supporting collaboration in an engineering design project from the perspective of types of information used and interactions between participants involved in the process, examining the set of available tools from this framework, as well as the changes in the design process necessitated due to constraints imposed by geographical remoteness of team members and limitations of existing technology. Recommendations are made for future engineering design projects considering the use of computer supported collaboration tools. This work has been supported by the Engineering Design Research Center, a NSF Engineering Research Center.


OBJECTIVE To assess whether the risk of subsequent lower-limb amputations and death following an initial toe amputation among individuals with diabetes has changed over time and varies by demographic characteristics and geographic region. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic medical records from 1 October 2004 to 30 September 2016, we determined risk of subsequent ipsilateral minor and major amputation within 1 year after an initial toe/ray amputation among veterans with diabetes. To assess changes in the annual rate of subsequent amputation over time, we estimated age-adjusted incidence of minor and major subsequent ipsilateral amputation for each year, separately for African Americans (AAs) and whites. Geographic variation was assessed across VHA markets (n = 89) using log-linear Poisson regression models adjusting for age and ethnoracial category. RESULTS Among 17,786 individuals who had an initial toe amputation, 34% had another amputation on the same limb within 1 year, including 10% who had a major ipsilateral amputation. Median time to subsequent ipsilateral amputation (minor or major) was 36 days. One-year risk of subsequent major amputation decreased over time, but risk of subsequent minor amputation did not. Risk of subsequent major ipsilateral amputation was higher in AAs than whites. After adjusting for age and ethnoracial category, 1-year risk of major subsequent amputation varied fivefold across VHA markets. CONCLUSIONS Nearly one-third of individuals require reamputation following an initial toe amputation, although risks of subsequent major ipsilateral amputation have decreased over time. Nevertheless, risks remain particularly high for AAs and vary substantially geographically.


Abstract Risk is one of the greatest challenges in a medical laboratory. Risk-based thinking is a concept that always preoccupies medical laboratory technicians. The objectives of this work were to bring forward the specialty standards recommendations for the implementation of risk management principles in medical laboratory, the accreditation requirement of ISO 15189:2012; to demonstrate that the understanding of the fundamental notions of the concept of risk, the effectively apply of the means of identifying, assessing and controlling risks, and the risk monitoring and handling through strategies of acceptance, elimination, transfer and mitigation of risks can ensure the continuous improvement processes. A model to approach to risk management in a medical laboratory establishes the inputs, the outputs, the techniques, and the activities carried out in each of the following sub-processes of the risk management process: risk management process planning, risk identification, risk analysis and evaluation, development of the risk response plan and risk monitoring, control and revision. The concepts of risk and risk management are applied accordingly to standards ISO 31000:2018 and ISO 22367:2020 of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Risk management ensures that the fundamental requirements for healthy, proactive internal control of the medical laboratory are met.


Approximately 80-million Muslims with type 2 diabetes fast annually during Ramadan1,2. This study aims to determine the effects of Ramadan Specific Diabetes Education (RSDE) on glycaemic control of patients with Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM).

A prospective cohort study of 437 outpatients was carried out in the Abaseen Institute of Medical Sciences Sugar Hospital Pakistan from April to August 2019. A month before Ramadan, the intervention group of 238 subjects (54%) received one to one RSDE sessions. This was in addition to information leaflets; treatment adjustment plans and a questionnaire which were provided to the control group of 199 subjects (46%). International Diabetes Federation - Diabetes and Ramadan risk stratification guidelines3 were applied. Both groups had their HbA1c levels measured before and after Ramadan.

The gender distribution and mean age (50 S.D. ± 10 years) in both groups were similar. The mean reduction in HbA1c levels for the intervention and control group was (0.3 S.D. ± 0.9) % and (0.7 S.D. ± 1.5) %, respectively with (independent-samples t-test p-value < 0.001). Based on the IDF-DAR risk stratification, the intervention group consisted of 82 (34%) low or moderate risk, 146 (61%) high risk and 10 (4.2%) very high-risk subjects. The mean reductions of HbA1c in these three groups were (0.0 SD ±0.0) %, (0.4 SD 1.0) % and (0.3 SD 0.8) %, respectively with (ANOVA test p-value < 0.001).

Conclusion & Significance: Post Ramadan, both groups showed reduction in HbA1c levels. The control group had a greater reduction which was statistically significant.


Milton H. Erickson has been called the most influential hypnotherapist of our time. Part of his therapy was his use of teaching tales, which through shock, surprise, or confusion-with genius use of questions, puns, and playful humor-helped people to see their situations in a new way. In this book Sidney Rosen has collected over one hundred of the tales. Presented verbatim and accompanied by Dr. Rosen's commentary, they are grouped under such headings as Motivating Tales, Reframing, and Capturing the Innocent Eye.


Orogenic Au deposits have contributed the majority of Au recovered globally throughout history. However, the mechanism that concentrates Au to extremely high bonanza grades in small domains within these deposits remains enigmatic. The volume of fluid required to provide extreme Au endowments in localized occurrences is not reflected in field observations (e.g., in the extent of quartz veining or hydrothermal alteration). Detailed optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry, and 3-D neutron tomography have been used to investigate the processes responsible for development of anomalously high grade ore (upward of 3% Au) found in quartz veins at Fosterville gold mine (Victoria, Australia). Distinct textural settings of visible Au include (1) Au concentrated along pressure solution seams associated with wall-rock selvages, (2) as nano- to microscale dusty Au seams parallel to pressure solution seams, and (3) in microscale tension fractures perpendicular to stylolitic seams. The distribution of Au in arsenopyrite and pyrite hosted within pressure solution seams changes as a function of the extent of deformation. Sulfides in highly deformed pressure solution seams exclusively host Au as nano- to micrometer-sized clusters within features associated with corrosion and brittle failure, whereas sulfides in mildly deformed pressure solution seams have Au bound in the crystal structure. It is proposed that Au supersaturation in fluids introduced during seismic periods led to the deposition of abundant Au nanoparticles in quartz-carbonate veins. Subsequent pressure dissolution of vein quartz and carbonate during interseismic intervals allowed for episodic increase in the Au/quartz ratio and permitted liberation and migration of Au nanoparticles, promoting Au grain growth in favorable textural settings. Galvanic corrosion and brittle fracturing of auriferous sulfides during the interseismic period allowed additional remobilization and/or enrichment of sulfide-hosted Au. Repetition of this mechanism over the time scale of deposit formation acted to concentrate Au within the lodes. This Au ore upgrading model, referred to as "aseismic refinement," provides a new insight for the genesis of ultrarich Au mineralization and, based on textures reported from many Au deposits, may be a globally significant component in the formation of orogenic Au deposits.


Several new climate change proposals are now before Congress. This comment on Victor Flatt's forthcoming article, The Legislative Temperature on Climate Change, notes some surprises. The first surprise is that, unlike past environmental legislation, several bills showcase market-based regulation (MBR) without first going through a sequence of more dirigiste regulatory measures. This altered pattern undoubtedly reflects the perceived success of the U.S.'s cap-and-trade program for acid rain precursors, as well as other cap-and-trade legislation here and abroad. The second and bigger surprise is that some MBR proposals call for payment by the regulated entities, in the form of auctioned emission permits or even taxes, instead of purely grandfathered permits. This development may reflect divisions among the regulated entities. As between MBRs, most economists prefer emissions taxes to cap-and-trade, but cap-and-trade has some advantages, including prior experience and enhanced possibilities for paying less developed nations for participating-including avoiding burn-offs of tropical rain forests. Whatever MBR systems may emerge, however, they will only be as good as the monitoring systems for emission reductions and sequestrations.


With an ever-growing amount of data generated on the web, aggregating information from the crowd into meaningful knowledge has become crucial to companies in order to create a competitive edge. Not only companies, but also organizations and governments can benefit from this aggregation. In this thesis, we illustrate the benefits of aggregating information from the crowd with three applications. In the first application, we investigate different ways of aggregating users' ratings on review websites. With the help of gamification techniques, we introduce a new methodology for studying users' rating behaviour, and show that there is a balance between the amount of private information elicited from the crowd and the accuracy of the aggregated rating. In the second application, we consider the aggregation of implicit feedbacks from the crowd in order to generate personalized recommendations of news articles. We propose a new class of recommender systems based on Context Trees (CT), specifically designed for a dynamic domain like the news. We show that CT recommender systems generate accurate and novel recommendations in an offline setting, but also in real time on the newspaper website swissinfo.ch. In the last application, we address the problem of eliciting private information to predict outcomes of events. We report on an experimental platform called swissnoise that allows users to express their opinions on various topics ranging from sports to politics. It is the first platformto implement a peer prediction mechanism for online opinion polls. We show that peer prediction can be practically implemented, and discuss the design choices and variations made to such mechanism. Finally, we find that peer prediction achieves a performance comparable to that of prediction markets


We apply a semi-parametric latent variable model to estimate selection and sorting effects on the evolution of private returns to schooling for college graduates during China's reform between 1988 and 2002. We find that there were substantial sorting gains under the traditional system, but they have decreased drastically and are negligible in the most recent data. We take this as evidence of growing influence of private financial constraints on decisions to attend college as tuition costs have risen and the relative importance of government subsidies has declined. The main policy implication of our results is that labor and education reform without concomitant capital market reform and government support for the financially disadvantaged exacerbates increases in inequality inherent in elimination of the traditional "wage-grid."


Many higher education organizations face the issue of structural isolation (Ruben, 2004) based on a lack of integration and functional coordination between faculty, staff, and students. Community-based research (CBR) offers higher education a more collaborative, wider reaching avenue of organizing a variety of stakeholders around social change. The CBR model is an atypical change model due to its interdisciplinary, participatory, and collaborative structure that values multiple sources of knowledge and focuses on social justice action. As opposed to serving as the 'experts' who were performing research on a community of people, academics and community members who utilize CBR focus on the importance of co-learning, capacity building, findings to benefit all partners, and a long-term commitment to reduce social disparities. Taken in the context of higher education, CBR allows students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders to work together as partners around areas that involve social justice issues. This dissertation highlights an instrumental case study that took place between 2006-2012 involving an Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution and its effort to use principles similar to those found in CBR around organizational change. Themes that were identified in the study include cynicism/fear, sustainability, participatory action, commitment to social justice, transparency, and interdisciplinary spirit.


Virtual collaboration continues to gain in significance and is attracting attention also as virtual collaborative learning (VCL) in education. This paper addresses aspects of VCL that we identified as critical in a series of courses named 'Net Economy': (1) technical infrastructure, (2) motivation and collaboration, and (3) assessment and evaluation. Net Economy is an international online setting, focusing on the business impact of new technologies and is highly notable for the divergent educational and cultural backgrounds of its participants. Having been subject to research from the onset in 2008, in which approximately 10 students were analysed and evaluated, the course has continued to gain significant success as a learning tool, with over 150 students currently enrolled throughout the various course cycles. In this paper we focus on how we implemented changes with regard to the above mentioned critical elements as part of canonical action research between the last course cycles. We outline the general learning scenario behind our VCL-courses, describe problems that we identified with the help of evaluation results and explain solution approaches and the impact of their implementation. The paper aims to provide a comprehensive example for virtual collaborative learning as well as explaining and exemplifying a systematic approach of improving complex e-learning settings through a series of steps, developed to ease the transition between each stage.


GENDER ALARM! was commissioned by La Centrale, Montreal's first feminist artist-run art gallery, to mark their change in focus from that of women artists to those of any gender who address social and sexual power relations. Starting with the 2008 group exhibition GENDER ALARM!, which inaugurated this new mandate, the essay highlights that show's open-ended, process-based, DIY aesthetics and its spirit of irreverence and glee. It relates GENDER ALARM! to two US exhibitions from 2006 that shared a similar spirit, as well as featuring some of the same artists: Ridykeulous, at Participant, Inc., New York, and Shared Women, at LACE, Los Angeles. All three exhibitions underscore the libidinal dimensions of collective feminist and queer activity. Less concerned with critiquing the status quo than with staging alternatives to it, these exhibitions are read as examples of what Lauren Berlant and Michael Werner term counterpublics. Non-normative forms of sexual activity, including polyamory, promiscuity, public and anonymous sex, are presented as metaphors for ways of relating to others, pooling resources, building communities, and making art. Many works in these exhibitions salute earlier eras of feminist art, especially that of a tactile, emotive and performative nature. They also hail earlier moments of feminist and gay activism. Such gestures are read in the light of Elizabeth Freeman's concept of 'temporal drag'. The attachment to seemingly discarded, devalued and outmoded attitudes and tropes points to the unfulfilled potential of earlier moments and movements. This evokes the desire for a queer feminist lineage that cuts across gender and sexual identification. This sense that earlier pioneering moments remain relevant and unfinished is reflected in these exhibitions' grounding in processes of improvisation and DIY and in un-heroic artistic materials. By keeping feminism as a category in question, these exhibitions aim to question orthodoxies, including that of feminism.


BACKGROUND
Chemotherapy is one of the common approaches in treatment of cancers, especially leukemia. However, drug resistance phenomena reduce the likelihood of treatment success. Resveratrol is a herbal compound which through complicated processes makes some selected cells sensitive to treatment and induction of apoptosis. In the present study, the effects of resveratrol on the expression of miR 15a and miR16-1 and apoptosis in the CCRF-CEM cell line were investigated.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The CCRF-CEM cell line was cultured under standard conditions and changes in miR 15a and miR 16-1 expression were analyzed by real time-PCR technique, with attention to reveratrol dose and time dependence. Also, apoptosis is evaluated by flow cytometry using annexin V and PI.

RESULTS
CCRF-CEM cells underwent dose-dependent apoptotic cell death in response to resveratrol. MiR 15a and miR 16-1 expression was up-regulated after 24 and 48 hours resveratrol treatment (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study indicate that resveratrol induces apoptosis in a time and dose- dependent manner in CCRF-CEM cells. Also, increased expression level of miR 16-1 and miR 15a by means of resveratrol in CCRF-CEM cells might have a role in apoptosis induction and predisposition. According to our results resveratrol can be regarded as a dietary supplement to improve efficacy of anti-leukemia therapies.


Hyperspectral change detection offers a promising approach to detect objects and features of remotely sensed areas that are too difficult to find in single images, such as slight changes in land cover and the insertion, deletion, or movement of small objects, by exploiting subtle differences in the imagery over time. Methods for performing such change detection, however, must effectively maintain invariance to typically larger image-to-image changes in illumination and environmental conditions, as well as misregistration and viewing differences between image observations, while remaining sensitive to small differences in scene content. Previous research has established predictive algorithms to overcome such natural changes between images, and these approaches have recently been extended to deal with space-varying changes. The challenges to effective change detection, however, are often exacerbated in an airborne imaging geometry because of the limitations in control over flight conditions and geometry, and some of the recent change detection algorithms have not been demonstrated in an airborne setting. We describe the airborne implementation and relative performance of such methods. We specifically attempt to characterize the effects of spatial misregistration on change detection performance, the efficacy of class-conditional predictors in an airborne setting, and extensions to the change detection approach, including physically motivated shadow transition classifiers and matched change filtering based on in-scene atmospheric normalization.


Training with larger number of parameters while keeping fast iterations is an increasingly adopted strategy and trend for developing better performing Deep Neural Network (DNN) models. This necessitates increased memory footprint and computational requirements for training. Here we introduce a novel methodology for training deep neural networks using 8-bit floating point (FP8) numbers. Reduced bit precision allows for a larger effective memory and increased computational speed. We name this method Shifted and Squeezed FP8 (S2FP8). We show that, unlike previous 8-bit precision training methods, the proposed method works out-of-the-box for representative models: ResNet-50, Transformer and NCF. The method can maintain model accuracy without requiring fine-tuning loss scaling parameters or keeping certain layers in single precision. We introduce two learnable statistics of the DNN tensors - shifted and squeezed factors that are used to optimally adjust the range of the tensors in 8-bits, thus minimizing the loss in information due to quantization.


This study aimed at reviewing the Basel Mission educational policy on teacher education in Ghana, and how teacher education has been managed by post-independence governments. It examined how educational policies affected teacher education delivery in Ghana from 1848 to 2013 in the areas of educational structure, curriculum and management. The Presbyterian College of Education was used as a case study. A theoretical framework for the study was provided based on the Basel Mission's theology of education. This was followed by a review of teacher education in Ghana during the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods. Content analyses of educational policy documents and archival materials as well as interviews were used for the collection of data. The findings revealed that the use of different structural models of teacher education, different curricula and different educational management styles were influenced by the educational policies of the colonial, nationalist, military and democratic governments of the Gold Coast / Ghana from 1848 to 2013. The study commends the Basel Mission for its initiative, and recommends the Ministry of Education to provide in-service training for teachers; governments to be guided by past educational policies; and governments to formulate educational policies that seek to promote national interest, rather than partisan interest, in order to ensure quality teacher education delivery.


The World Islamic Conference, held in Jerusalem in 1931 under the auspices of Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Supreme Muslim Council, marked a turning point in the Palestinian nationalist struggle as well as in the struggle between the two main factions—the more extremist one led by Hajj Amin and the more moderate Opposition—for control of the Palestinian leadership. The Conference, though co-sponsored by Shawkat 'Ali and the Muslim Indian Congress, and ostensibly representative of the worldwide community of Muslims, was effectively dominated by Hajj Amin and his Palestinian supporters. Through his control of its proceedings, Hajj Amin was able to redefine the Palestinian nationalist cause as essentially a pan-Islamic one, in connection with the perceived need to defend the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem against Zionist encroachment. Contrasted here with the World Islamic Conference (and held concurrently with it) is the Second Arab Orthodox Congress. Whereas the World Islamic Conference sought to redefine an issue arguably specific to Palestine as pan-Islamic, the local Christian Orthodox community, in keeping with its desire to Arabise Palestine's Greek Orthodox Church (hence their self-designation as the Arab Orthodox Church in Palestine), sought to redefine what was essentially a religious matter—concerning the succession of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem—in nationalist terms. It was not simply a matter of differing ideological perspectives; defining the cause of the Haram al-Sharif as a pan-Islamic one also served a political objective, namely the enhancement of Hajj Amin's position vis-à-vis his political rivals. Nonetheless, whatever the motivations involved, this development was a factor in the marginalisation of the Christian Arab component of the Palestinian nationalist movement. Whereas at the start of the British Mandate they had played a role disproportionately large relative to their actual numbers, by its end, their role in the nationalist movement had diminished almost to the point of near inconsequence, as evidenced, for instance, by their marginal involvement in the Arab Revolt (1936–1939).


Stamp collecting and industrial capitalism in the United States emerged simultaneously in the mid-nineteenth century. England issued the first government postage stamp in 1840, and other nations quickly adopted the idea. The United States printed its first official stamp in 1847, although it was preceded by the provisionals issued by local postmasters. Postage stamps were a product of the industrial revolution. The adoption of the prepaid penny post in England, while opposed by the General Post Office, was widely supported by large merchants who understood that a low-cost, single-rate system was vital to the communication demanded by an increasingly national market. The adhesive label was originally conceived by the English postal reformer, Rowland Hill, as a convenience for illiterates who would not be able to write addresses on the official envelopes that he preferred as proof of prepayment. Within a decade, almost every major nation in the world had borrowed this device, which became a symbol of the economic transformation of the nineteenth century. I would argue that the collecting of these tokens was a microcosmic performance of the system that created them. Stamp collectors took on many of the key roles of actors in the market economy and played out various conflicts embodied in the larger society in the philatelic arena.


There is considerable interest in determining the sequences that are evolving rapidly in our genome, as these may well confer an advantage that has helped to propel the evolution of our species. Owing to sex chromosome-specific modes of natural selection, genes on the human X chromosome are evolving rapidly in comparison to genes located on autosomes. However, it is not clear to what extent these loci are evolving adaptively or due to other molecular (mutation and recombination) and evolutionary (selection and drift) processes. Biological factors in addition to selection could contribute to elevated rates, such as the evolutionary history and genomic features of the X chromosome. Additionally, genes on the X are distributed in a nonrandom fashion, potentially influencing their evolution. Furthermore, the function and expression profile of each X-linked gene may play a role in determining its evolutionary rate. Recent technological advances have provided rich datasets for the investigation and unravelling of these confounding factors.

Key Concepts:

The human X chromosome is a compilation of biological contradictions: it is remarkably conserved in gene content between species, while being highly diverged from its Y counterpart; it is present in twice as many copies in females than males, and yet enriched for genes with male-biased expression.

The theory of fast-X evolution is based on the observation that genes on the X in XY males will be more easily targeted by natural selection, thus accelerating the rate of adaptive evolutionary change for beneficial mutations.

Many genes on the X tend to evolve more slowly than their Y counterparts, due to the higher mutation rate in the male germline.

Genes on the X are likely to be involved in reproduction, sex biased in their expression profile and tissue-specific in nature – each of these factors has been linked to accelerated rates of sequence and/or expression divergence independently of the fitness advantage of the associated allele.

Although fast-X has been observed in different taxa, the relative contribution of the underlying evolutionary forces (selection for advantageous mutations versus drift of slightly deleterious mutations) can be very different between species.

Keywords:

sex chromosomes;
evolutionary rates;
positive selection;
sex-biased genes;
Fast-X


1. Introduction Since September 1, 2001, when the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, also known as RSTP, came into force, FIFA has provided the international football world with a legal basis. Through these rules FIFA has inserted three fundamental pillars to guarantee the contractual stability of players' employment contracts and regulate their international transfers more properly. It should bring more certainty in the football industry. The three pillars are: (i) contractual stability, (ii) protection of minors and (iii) two annual registration periods pre-established by the relevant association, i.e. one fixed in the end of the season and another in the middle of the season. The main principle that safeguards the predictability of the football industry as well as equality of chances in planning sports activities, i.e. the registration period, has been recently breached in Brazilian football, which can dismantle, from now on, the whole doctrine of registration periods. 2. Facts The Registration Periods in Brazil were stipulated by the CBF through Regulations named "RDP 02/2005". These Regulations laid down two periods per year during which players transferred from another National Association may be registered, one established from January 2 to March 25 and the other from August 3 to August 31. RDP 02/2005 was reiterated by Circular no. 534/2010, issued on July 12, 2010, expressly stating the following: "Please be informed that, pursuant to RDP no. 02/2005, the second player registration period shall be from August 3 to August 31 of the current year." (1) On July 19, 2010, CBF anticipated the second Registration Period of the 2010 season without communicating the new dates to FIFA at least 12 months before they come into force, as provided in Article 6 of the RSTP and without informing the clubs previously about such modification. On July 28 and August 5, 2010, at a knockout stage, the Sao Paulo Futebol Clube and Sport Club Internacional contested two play-offs for the semi-finals of Copa Santander Libertadores de America 2010. Regarding the Regulations of Copa Santander Libertadores de America 2010 (article 10.6), "after the Second Phase of the competition, and no later than 48 hours before the semi-final, each club may substitute up to a total of three players from the initial list of 25 (twenty five)". (2) It was only because of the above-mentioned modification in the rules that SC Internacional was able to register for the Copa Santander Libertadores de America three players transferred from other National Associations. 3. Governing Law First of all, the law upon which this case is grounded is the last ver-sion of the RSTP which came into force on October 1, 2009 after its amendment was approved by the FIFA Executive Committee on September 29, 2009. In fact, Definition no. 8 of the RSTP is self-explanatory. It provides for the following: "Registration period: a period fixed by the relevant association in accordance with article 6". Article 6 of the RSTP, specifically in its paragraph 2, stipulates that: "(...) The two registration periods for the season shall be communicated to FIFA at least 12 months before they come into force." If a National Association fails to comply with such regulation, then FIFA will determine the dates for its registration periods as the National Association did not communicate FIFA about them on time and established the dates in disagreement with the spirit of the registration periods. (3) In accordance with the Commentary on the RSTP, page 21, definition 3, "the registration periods apply primarily to competitions with the participation of professional (...) players and are meant to regulate these competitions by safeguarding the sporting integrity of the ongoing championship". In this respect, the extemporaneous anticipation of the second registration period by the CBF has a direct impact on the ongoing international championship, i. …