We present a robust and efficient approach to video stabilization that achieves high-quality camera motion for a wide range of videos. In this article, we focus on the problem of transforming a set of input 2D motion trajectories so that they are both smooth and resemble visually plausible views of the imaged scene; our key insight is that we can achieve this goal by enforcing subspace constraints on feature trajectories while smoothing them. Our approach assembles tracked features in the video into a trajectory matrix, factors it into two low-rank matrices, and performs filtering or curve fitting in a low-dimensional linear space. In order to process long videos, we propose a moving factorization that is both efficient and streamable. Our experiments confirm that our approach can efficiently provide stabilization results comparable with prior 3D methods in cases where those methods succeed, but also provides smooth camera motions in cases where such approaches often fail, such as videos that lack parallax. The presented approach offers the first method that both achieves high-quality video stabilization and is practical enough for consumer applications.


This project won the 2014 Signature Course Information Literacy Award. The award recognizes exemplary student work that achieves the learning outcomes of the Signature Course information literacy requirement, which are that students will be able to create and execute a research strategy, critically evaluate information, and use citations. This paper was nominated by Dr. Jonathan Kaplan from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and was submitted in his Fall 2013 Signature Course "Jerusalem." This project was selected for its sophisticated analysis of sources in conversation with one another.


This book is about getting better at making sense of the world...so you can make decisions that respond to reality, not some obsolete model of reality.Drawing on the latest neuroscientific research and their experience with corporate transformations, Jerry Wind and Colin Crook explain how your mental models stand between you and reality, distorting all your perceptions...and how they create both limits and opportunities.You'll learn how to develop new ways of seeing...how to keep your mental models fresh and relevant...when to change to a new model...how to build a portfolio of models...and improving your models through constant experimentation.Better mental models = smarter decisionsUnderstand what's real, so you can act on itHow people get "stuck," and what to do about itHow obsolete mental models keep you from making changesThe neuroscience of mental modelsWhat scientists can teach us about perception-and realityCreating new modelsPractical ways to see things in new ways-fast "Wind and Crook have written a marvelous book that can teach you how to think more effectively in personal and business settings. Read it and learn!" Drea Zigarmi Author of The Leader Inside: Learning Enough About Yourself To Lead Others and co-author of Leadership and the One Minute Manager "We like to say, 'See it with your mind's eye.' Wind and Crook show us that our mind is our eye. What we think is what we see, and what we see directs how we act. Not only do the authors make this paradigm clear, but they offer concrete and practical ways to change our mind's eye and as a consequence change our actions and the results we get. The value of that is hard to top." J. Stewart Black, Ph.D. co-author of Leading Strategic Change and Professor, University of Michigan Business School "I have been trying to explain why Japan has fallen into a pitfall and cannot come out of even the simplest problems. One can call it an innovators dilemma, but that does not solve the problem. This book suggests we have to go back to the basics of reviewing our underlying 'mental models' now and then, and only then, have to construct a new model, perhaps plural, and move onto exploring the new terrain." Kenichi Ohmae Author of the international bestseller, The Borderless World "While most of us may recognize that the world we respond to is more in our mind than in any physical reality, often we don't have a clue why this is so. This very important book clearly explains how our mental models work to construct these distinct inner worlds. And more importantly it offers empowering advice on how we can use this knowledge to work for us rather than against us in creating a better outer world for ourselves, our organizations, and our societies." Charles C. Manz Best-selling author of SuperLeadership, Fit to Lead, and Temporary Sanity "This is an important book that 'makes sense of how we make sense.' The authors provide a thorough, fresh, and compelling exploration into the dimensions of mental models. All leaders who want to be more effective in their actions would be served well to leverage the principles in this book to learn about how they think and make sense of the world around them." Nick Pudar Director of Strategic Initiatives, General Motors


Background Taenia solium, a parasitic cestode that affects humans and pigs, is the leading cause of preventable epilepsy in the developing world. T. solium eggs are released into the environment through the stool of humans infected with an adult intestinal tapeworm (a condition called taeniasis), and cause cysticercosis when ingested by pigs or other humans. A control strategy to intervene within high-risk foci in endemic communities has been proposed as an alternative to mass antihelminthic treatment. In this ring strategy, antihelminthic treatment is targeted to humans and pigs residing within a 100 meter radius of a pig heavily-infected with cysticercosis. Our aim was to describe the roaming ranges of pigs in this region, and to evaluate whether the 100 meter radius rings encompass areas where risk factors for T. solium transmission, such as open human defecation and dense pig activity, are concentrated. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we used Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to track pig roaming ranges in two rural villages of northern Peru. We selected 41 pigs from two villages to participate in a 48-hour tracking period. Additionally, we surveyed all households to record the locations of open human defecation areas. We found that pigs spent a median of 82.8% (IQR: 73.5, 94.4) of their time roaming within 100 meters of their homes. The size of home ranges varied significantly by pig age, and 93% of the total time spent interacting with open human defecation areas occurred within 100 meters of pig residences. Conclusions/Significance These results indicate that 100 meter radius rings around heavily-infected pigs adequately capture the average pig's roaming area (i.e., home range) and represent an area where the great majority of exposure to human feces occurs.


The lower Mekong Delta, one of the largest river deltas in Asia, is a landscape shaped by the waters of the Mekong River that flows, as last part of its long way from the Tibetan Plateau to the South Chinese Sea, through a dense river and canal network in the Southwest of Vietnam. People in this area are, traditionally, exposed to a water-shaped environment and have lived for generations in adaptation to their natural surrounding without much human interference into the complex natural hydraulic system of the delta. However, this has changed dramatically during recent decades when hydraulic management started to become a key issue for the development of the lower Mekong Delta constantly, in particular with respect to the agricultural sector, which is the backbone of the delta's economy. After the Second Indochinese War ended in 1975 the delta started to shift from human adaption to human control, transforming itself into what Wittfogel has described as a hydraulic society. This was mainly due to the new socialist government's policy of rapid agricultural extension and growing endeavours in hydraulic management for fostering irrigated rice production. By now, in many places of the delta hydraulic works such as additional canals, dykes and sluices have been set up, constructed for regulating water flows. Technical innovations in hydraulic management and agricultural production have not only had significant impact on the delta's environment and ecology, but also have triggered social transformation, in particular the appearance of new social groups struggling for access to resources and power. This paper intends to analyzes recent trends of social development and water management in the Mekong Delta from a scientific approach that is based on two social theories, firstly "strategic group analysis", and secondly selected core aspects of Wittfogel's social theory of "hydraulic society". By presenting recently collected data, it is illustrated how the Mekong Delta has been transformed into a modern hydraulic society, in which certain strategic groups emerged as a consequence of growing activities in hydraulic management and agricultural-based economic growth. More specifically, the paper aims to give an overview of strategic group development in the delta by putting a strong focus on the process of forming a state bureaucracy of hydraulic management and the appearance of hydraulic construction companies as its clients. The paper shows how the strategic alliance between both groups has increased the chances for mutually appropriating government funds spent on hydraulic works and how this has caused ecologically and socially far-reaching impacts for the Mekong Delta.


Objective: Community responses are important for the management of early-phase outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Perceived susceptibility and severity are considered key elements that motivate people to adopt nonpharmaceutical interventions. This study aimed to (i) explore perceived susceptibility and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) examine the practice of nonpharmaceutical interventions, and (iii) assess the potential association of perceived COVID-19 susceptibility and severity with the practice of nonpharmaceutical interventions among people living in Afghanistan. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used, using online surveys disseminated from April to May 2020. Convenience sampling was used to recruit the participants of this study. The previously developed scales were used to assess the participants' demographic information, perceived risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, and perceived severity of COVID-19. Multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the potential association of perceived COVID-19 susceptibility and severity with the practice of nonpharmaceutical interventions. Results: The Internet was the main source for obtaining COVID-19 information among participants in this study. While 45.8% of the participants believed it was "very unlikely" for them to get infected with COVID-19, 76.7% perceived COVID-19 as a severe disease. Similarly, 37.5% believed the chance of being cured if infected with COVID-19 is "unlikely/very unlikely." The majority of participants (95.6%) perceived their health to be in "good" and "very good" status. Overall, 74.2% mentioned that they stopped visiting public places, 49.7% started using gloves, and 70.4% started wearing a mask. Participants who believed they have a low probability of survival if infected with COVID-19 were more likely to wear masks and practice hand washing. Conclusions: It appears that communities' psychological and behavioral responses were affected by the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan, especially among young Internet users. The findings gained from a timely behavioral assessment of the community might be useful to develop interventions and risk communication strategies in epidemics within and beyond COVID-19.


In New Zealand approximately 30 per cent of workplace deaths and 13 per cent of workplace injuries occur on the road, in work vehicles, making them the biggest single category of workplace deaths. A survey in 2009 found that most fleet owners were not meeting their responsibilities under the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act (2002). The survey findings n and the high workplace road risk prompted the development of an interagency Fleet Safety Programme. The programme has been designed to help employers and managers improve their fleet safety by offering information, advice and practical help. The programme is an innovative approach in that it uses traffic infringement, crash and fleet data. Commercial fleets are then ranked according to potential road risk. Injury claim data and employer information are also considered for fleets indicating higher potential risk n to produce a broader understanding of health and safety performance for companies. All fleet owners identified as having medium or high risk fleets receive automated letters inviting them to log on to a Fleet Safety website offering information and resources to enhance safety interventions. Additionally, regional inter-agency teams will visit high risk businesses to offer advice and initiatives to reduce existing risks. Phase 1 of the programme (Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions) will be discussed, including the process evaluation and findings. Experiences of stakeholders will be explored by sharing some case studies.


Silvopasture, the integration of trees and pasture for livestock, has numerous potential benefits for producers. However, size or scale of the operation may affect those benefits. A review of relevant research on the scale and size economies of silvopasture, general forestry, and livestock agriculture was undertaken to better understand potential silvopasture production in the U.S. Southeast. This information was synthesized into a discussion of the factors that might affect production differently at different scales, and adaptations smaller scale producers might use with silvopasture to mitigate problems and enhance benefits tied to scale.


Different types of biological materials are available for an enormous amount of bioscience, biotechnology and environmental technology applications. These materials are mainly diamagnetic, which means they do not interact significantly with an external magnetic field. However, several procedures can be used to convert biological materials into magnetically responsive composite materials which can be efficiently separated using simple magnets or magnetic separation systems. The prepared magnetic biocomposites can be used for many applications, such as magnetic removal and separation of xenobiotics and biologically active compounds, immobilization of target compounds, as parts of biosensors or as whole cell biocatalysts.


This paper examines voluntary contributions to public education via charitable school foundations, booster clubs, parent teacher associations, and parent teacher organizations. We use panel data on school-supporting charities with national coverage from 1995 to 2010, which we geocode and match to school districts. We document the meteoric rise of school-supporting nonprofits during this panel, and then estimate a series of regression models to examine the distributional consequences of voluntary contributions. We find relatively large districts have higher probabilities of receiving revenues from a school-supporting nonprofit but the level of per-pupil voluntary contributions declines with student enrollment. In addition, we find school districts with higher endowments have higher probabilities of being served by at least one school-supporting nonprofit and higher levels of per-pupil contributions. Finally, we find no evidence that impressive recent growth in the number and financial size of these school-supporting charities relates to reductions in the public financing of schools.


In the current study, well-defined polymer brushes are shown as an effective surface modification to resist biofilm formation from opportunistic pathogens. Poly[oligo(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate] (poly(MeOEGMA)) and poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide] (poly(HPMA)) brushes were grown by surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) and subsequently characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and dynamic water contact angle measurements. Their remarkable resistance to protein fouling after long term contact with biological media was evidenced by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Challenging these brushes with an environmental strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in mineral media as well as a casein–soja–pepton–agar (CASO) medium resulted in no biofilm formation, while a decrease of the biofilm formation by 70% (poly(HPMA)) and 90% (poly(MeOEGMA)) was observed when the medium was rich in nutrients and proteins (fetal bovine serum). In contrast to the antibiotic sensitive strains, biofilm formation was observed using an antibiotic multi-resistant P. aeruginosa strain on both brushes. Protein fouling was fully prevented on both types of brushes, which might challenge the proposed mechanism of biofilm formation mediated by a pre-formed conditioning film of proteins. The resistance to biofilm formation and the possibility to precisely control their growth and functionalities makes these brushes ((poly(HPMA) and (poly(MeOEGMA)) promising candidates for surface modification of various biomaterials as well as platforms for basic studies into the mechanisms of bacteria fouling.


Anti-dilution provisions are designed to protect holders of convertible securities against dilution from a large variety of corporate events, including among others, stock dividends and splits, cheap issuances of additional common stock, and distributions of cash or property. These provisions are complex and can have significant economic consequences; yet they have been subject to little systematic thought. Even the most experienced practitioners often poorly understand how common anti-dilution provisions work. This article provides a framework to understand various anti-dilution adjustments and to reconcile the apparent inconsistencies among various clauses. We believe the scope and extent of different types of anti-dilution provisions can generally be understood as a rational response to the nature and level of the information barriers and agency costs typically confronted in the particular circumstances, and the existence or absence of other mechanisms to address these issues. Because dilution arising from information barriers essentially occurs at the time the investment in the convertible security is made and dilution arising from agency costs occurs at the time of the subsequent action, anti-dilution provisions designed to protect primarily against information barriers adjust for dilution differently than those designed to protect primarily against agency costs. In cases where information barriers are the primary concern, anti-dilution provisions are designed to reduce (or eliminate) the economic dilution from initial investment that arises because the investor had imperfect information at the time the convertible security was issued. Because information barriers are not a significant issue for large public companies, anti-dilution provisions addressing information barriers are rarely included in the convertible securities of these companies. In cases where agency costs are the primary concern, anti-dilution provisions are designed to reduce (or eliminate) the economic dilution from current value that can arise from the transfer of value to common stockholders. Because the risk of agency costs is present regardless of the type of issuer, these provisions are generally included in all types of convertible securities unless alternative means are available to protect against these actions.


The financial interests of doctors and not clinical need are driving up the use of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for treating prostate cancer, says a new report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).1

Major urological groups in the United States immediately denounced the report, calling it "a flawed, misleading study," while the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, ASTRO, called it a "striking report" that "details clear mistreatment of patients who trusted their physicians to care for their prostate cancer."

In the study investigators from the accountability office looked at the referral patterns of practices caring for Medicare patients with prostate cancer. They compared the referral patterns of practices that had no financial stake in an IMRT service, called "non-self referrers," with those that did have a financial interest, called "self referrers."

IMRT is a form of external beam radiation treatment in which the radiation beams are shaped to maximize the amount of radiation the tumor receives while reducing the amount to which normal tissue is exposed.

The treatment is substantially …


Background. This study examines the effects of distress and three types of social relationships (family, friends, and confidantes) on the use of out-patient health services in an adult sample from a community survey of 3481 persons in Baltimore, Maryland. Methods. Independent effects of predisposing (age, education, marital status, race and sex), enabling (employment, income and insurance) and need (physical health) factors are adjusted for in estimating the odds of using health care services. Results. Illness, being female, and having insurance were positively related to use of services, while being aged was inversely related. After adjustment for the above factors, social support interacted with psychological distress to effect the use of medical care: the combination of high distress and low social support by a confidante results in a fourfold increase of medical utilization. Conclusions. Our findings support the inclusion of psychological distress and social network variables in addition to physical health status in models attempting to explain the use of health services. Despite an inability to analyse change over time, our data suggest an understanding of the interrelationship between psychosocial factors, distress and health care use would benefit health providers and their patients.


Abstract. A framework is developed to assess the directional changes in sea ice drift paths and associated deformation processes in response to atmospheric forcing. The framework is based on Lagrangian statistical analyses leveraging particle dispersion theory which tells us whether ice drift is in a subdiffusive, diffusive, ballistic, or superdiffusive dynamical regime using single-particle (absolute) dispersion statistics. In terms of sea ice deformation, the framework uses two- and three-particle dispersion to characterize along- and across-shear transport as well as differential kinematic parameters. The approach is tested with GPS beacons deployed in triplets on sea ice in the southern Beaufort Sea at varying distances from the coastline in fall of 2009 with eight individual events characterized. One transition in particular follows the sea level pressure (SLP) high on 8 October in 2009 while the sea ice drift was in a superdiffusive dynamic regime. In this case, the dispersion scaling exponent (which is a slope between single-particle absolute dispersion of sea ice drift and elapsed time) changed from superdiffusive (α ∼ 3) to ballistic (α ∼ 2) as the SLP was rounding its maximum pressure value. Following this shift between regimes, there was a loss in synchronicity between sea ice drift and atmospheric motion patterns. While this is only one case study, the outcomes suggest similar studies be conducted on more buoy arrays to test momentum transfer linkages between storms and sea ice responses as a function of dispersion regime states using scaling exponents. The tools and framework developed in this study provide a unique characterization technique to evaluate these states with respect to sea ice processes in general. Application of these techniques can aid ice hazard assessments and weather forecasting in support of marine transportation and indigenous use of near-shore Arctic areas.


A highly original work, in Making it Up, Penelope Lively examines alternative destinies, choices and the moments in our lives when we could have chosen a different path. In this fascinating piece of fiction, Penelope Lively takes moments from her own life and asks 'what if' she had made other choices: what if she hadn't escaped from Alexandria at the outbreak of WWII? What would her life have been like if she had become pregnant when she was 18? If she had married someone else? If she taken a different job? If she had lived her life abroad? "A highly original form of fictional autobiography as well as a fascinating insight into the seemingly random nature of destiny". (Daily Mail). "Lively's writing has always tackled deep questions of identity, memory, love and loss...These elegant 'confabulations', as she calls them, allow Lively's talents full range. Intelligent, limpidly well-written and full of human understanding, they evoke the times she has seen and the richness of other lives as well as her own". (Sunday Telegraph). Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.


Abstract We compare two methods for obtaining similarity data in the conceptual domain. In the Spatial Arrangement Method (SpAM), participants organize stimuli on a computer screen so that the distance between stimuli represents their perceived dissimilarity. In Total-Set Pairwise Rating Method (PRaM), participants rate the (dis)similarity of all pairs of stimuli on a Likert scale. In each of three studies, we had participants indicate the similarity of four sets of conceptual stimuli with either PRaM or SpAM. Studies 1 and 2 confirm two caveats that have been raised for SpAM. (i) While SpAM takes significantly less time to complete than PRaM, it yields less reliable data than PRaM does. (ii) Because of the spatial manner in which similarity is measured in SpAM, the method is biased against feature representations. Despite these differences, averaging SpAM and PRaM dissimilarity data across participants yields comparable aggregate data. Study 3 shows that by having participants only judge half of the pairs in PRaM, its duration can be significantly reduced, without affecting the dissimilarity distribution, but at the cost of a smaller reliability. Having participants arrange multiple subsets of the stimuli does not do away with the spatial bias of SpAM.


Off-policy evaluation (OPE) in contextual bandits has seen rapid adoption in real-world systems, since it enables offline evaluation of new policies using only historic log data. Unfortunately, when the number of actions is large, existing OPE estimators – most of which are based on inverse propensity score weighting – degrade severely and can suffer from extreme bias and variance. This foils the use of OPE in many applications from recommender systems to language models. To overcome this issue, we propose a new OPE estimator that leverages marginalized importance weights when action embeddings provide structure in the action space. We characterize the bias, variance, and mean squared error of the proposed estimator and analyze the conditions under which the action embedding provides statistical benefits over conventional estimators. In addition to the theoretical analysis, we find that the empirical performance improvement can be substantial, en-abling reliable OPE even when existing estimators collapse due to a large number of actions.


The chapter describes and discusses interaction within the Norwegian Armed Forces. Military interaction is understood as the dynamic and sometimes unpredictable action undertaken when two or more services interact. The chapter explores why interaction between military services, such as land, sea and air forces, is difficult – and, in some circumstances, completely absent. How can inadequate interaction between the military branches be explained? As Europe's armed forces become increasingly complex and sophisticated, two perspectives from organisational theory are applied. First, an instrumental perspective is used to comprehend the problem. Particular attention is paid to the tension between hierarchical authority and the division of labour. Thereafter, a cultural perspective is used to comprehend inter-service rivalry. Here, attention is paid to informal rules and regulations, or habitual 'rules of thumb' that have become institutionalised over time. These 'the behavioural patterns' affect the way military services perceive themselves in contrast to others. The main finding is that Norway's Armed Forces suffer from 'limited rationality'. This is because Norway's military units operate within a fragmented command structure that consists of many different sub-organisations; individually, in times of peace in Norway, they pursue their own myopic agendas rather than a comprehensive national objective. In this process, the branches are also forced to compromise with each other to reach their individual objectives. A form of limited rationality therefore arises because the Army, Navy and Air Force act rationally. This is, however, not on the basis of what serves Norwegian security best, but on the basis of what is rational for their specific branch.


Building on data from a survey (n = 4000) conducted in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk in late 2013, this article explores the link between national identity and foreign policy preferences in the Donbas, suggesting that they are increasingly conflated in distinct geopolitical identities. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression are used to compare the characteristics of pro-West and uncertain individuals with those of the pro-Russian/Soviet individuals, with preferences on North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) accession underlying this distinction. The results show that geopolitical identities in Luhansk have a complex political stratigraphy that includes demographic, socioeconomic, cultural, and attitudinal components. The pro-West constituency is younger, not Russian but often including members of other ethnic groups, well educated, more tolerant toward sexual minorities, generally more satisfied with life, and it also speaks better English. Conversely, those with pro-Russia/Soviet geopolitical identities are older, Russian, low educated, less fluent in English, intolerant, and unsatisfied with their lives. Uncertainty is more randomly distributed among social groups, indicating different underlying causes related to the source of the respondents' uncertainty.


This article questions the conventional theory purporting to establish that environmental benefit trading encourages innovation better than comparable traditional regulation. It argues that the induced innovation hypothesis, that high costs encourage innovation, suggests that trading would lessen incentives for innovation by lowering the cost of complying with conventional approaches. The conventional theory relies upon the incentive emissions trading creates for polluters to make additional reductions in order to sell credits. But emissions trading also creates incentives for half of the pollution sources (the credit buyers) to make less reductions than they would under a traditional regulation. By focusing analysis only upon the sellers of credits, the traditional theory systematically biases results. Trading's inferiority is especially apparent with respect to high-cost innovation. Even innovation that costs a lot now can prove economically and environmentally superior over the long run, because innovation can make costs of new techniques fall over time and some innovations provide very wide ranging environmental benefits. But trading encourages selection of the techniques with the cheapest current cost, not the cheapest long-term cost or the greatest long-term value. It also argues that design variables, such as the stringency of regulation and the quality of monitoring play an important role in encouraging (or failing to encourage) innovation. And it argues that neither traditional regulation nor environmental benefit trading stimulate innovation especially well, because government often regulates weakly. The article suggests an alternative economic incentive program that would maximize incentives for innovation and progress on environmental problems. This article forms part of a larger project arguing for an economic dynamic approach to environmental law and law and economics. The author's book, The Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law (MIT Press 2003), sets out the full theory.


Open data makes transparent whether public officials are conducting their activities in conformity with standards that can be bureaucratic, political or moral. Actions that violate these standards are colloquially lumped together under the heterogeneous heading of corruption. However, the payment of a large bribe for a multi-million contract differs in kind from a party saying one thing to win votes and doing another once in office or an individual public figure promoting high standards of personal morality while conducting himself in private very differently. This paper conceptually distinguishes different forms of corruption with concrete examples. It also shows how sanctions for different forms of corruption require different sanctions: punishment by the courts, by political leaders or the electorate, or by public morality and a sense of individual shame. Such sanctions are most effective when there is normative agreement that standards have been violated. There are partisan as well as normative disagreements about whether standards have been violated. The paper concludes by pointing out that differences in violating standards require different policy responses.


Species migrations in response to climate change have already been observed in many taxonomic groups worldwide. However, it remains uncertain if species will be able to keep pace with future climate change. Keeping pace will be especially challenging for tropical lowland rainforests due to their high velocities of climate change combined with high rates of deforestation, which may eliminate potential climate analogs and/or increase the effective distances between analogs by blocking species movements. Here, we calculate the distances between current and future climate analogs under various climate change and deforestation scenarios. Under even the most sanguine of climate change models (IPSL_CM4, A1b emissions scenario), we find that the median distance between areas in the Amazon rainforest and their closest future (2050) climate analog as predicted based on just temperature changes alone is nearly 300 km. If we include precipitation, the median distance increases by over 50% to >475 km. Since deforestation is generally concentrated in the hottest and driest portions of the Amazon, we predict that the habitat loss will have little direct impact on distances between climate analogs. If, however, deforested areas also act as a barrier to species movements, nearly 30% or 55% of the Amazon will effectively have no climate analogs anywhere in tropical South America under projections of reduced or Business‐As‐Usual deforestation, respectively. These 'disappearing climates' will be concentrated primarily in the southeastern Amazon. Consequently, we predict that several Amazonian ecoregions will have no areas with future climate analogs, greatly increasing the vulnerability of any populations or species specialized on these conditions. These results highlight the importance of including multiple climatic factors and human land‐use in predicting the effects of climate change, as well as the daunting challenges that Amazonian diversity faces in the near future.


SUMMARY Recently, there has been growing attention to the need to include girls (and boys) more prominently in poverty reduction and development agendas. How to do this effectively, however, remains an under‐researched subject, especially in debates around chronic poverty, that is, the experience of severe, multidimensional poverty for an extended period of time. Although the Chronic Poverty Research Centre has spotlighted the often overlooked social and nonincome dimensions of poverty traps, including social discrimination and limited citizenship, in general scholarship has paid relatively limited attention to the interplay between gender, poverty reduction and governance institutions. To address this lacuna, this article draws on recent research by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and the Overseas Development Institute that highlights the key role context‐specific social institutions play in informing and determining the life opportunities and agency of girls and young women. To more effectively address the governance challenges involved in tackling such deprivations, the article discusses three key measures that can support the eradication of gendered experiences of poverty: the importance of involving local community leaders, working with men and boys to raise awareness about girls' and women's rights, and promoting collective action and voice among girls and young women. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We show that strong overlap of adjacent pulses in dispersion-managed return-to-zero transmission reduces pulse-to-pulse interaction and timing jitter. The limiting factors for this pulse-overlapped transmission are the amplitude fluctuations and the ghost pulse generation induced by four-wave mixing between spectral components within a single channel.


Prior U.S.-based research examining the collective remembrance of racially charged events has focused on the black-white binary, largely bypassing such remembrance among U.S. Hispanics. In this article, I ask how a group of Mexican-origin Hispanics in an historic Houston barrio remember two racially charged events as well as whether and how these events are publicly commemorated. Additionally, race and collective memory research has often highlighted the role of collective memory in shaping race relations. I argue that collective memory can also be an institution, structuring macro- and micro-level representations of race. Thus, I ask whether and how respondents' memories shape the social construction of the Hispanic category. I find strong memory convergence with respect to one event—the case of Jose Campos Torres—and divergence in three directions with respect to the Moody Park riot. The former corresponds to a collective understanding of what Hispanic meant in the past while the latter corresponds to a fractured understanding of what Hispanic means in the present. I also explore how respondents' racial self-perceptions coincide with their various interpretations of the riot. Overall, I theorize that a fractured collective memory of a racially charged event suggests a fractured collective identity and contributes to an ambiguous Hispanic category. I conclude by discussing suggestions for future research.


Objective: To explore the association between physical neighbourhood stressors and smoking, and the contribution of these stressors to neighbourhood and individual socioeconomic inequalities in smoking. Methods: Data were analysed of participants of the baseline measurement of the Dutch GLOBE study (1991), aged 20 years and older, who lived in 79 neighbourhoods of the city of Eindhoven (n = 9062). The neighbourhood socioeconomic environment was assessed from aggregated self reported information of participants' education and occupation level, and employment status. Neighbourhood stressors included were the physical quality (decay), required police attention, noise pollution from traffic, and population density in neighbourhoods. Current smokers were distinguished from previous and never smokers. Results: Compared with those living in the most advantaged neighbourhoods, residents living in the socioeconomically most disadvantaged neighbourhoods were more likely to smoke (adjusted for age, sex, education, occupation, and employment status) (OR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.46). An increase in a summary neighbourhood stressor score was associated with smoking, independently of the neighbourhood socioeconomic environment (OR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.21, in the neighbourhoods with the highest stress score). Adjustment for the score substantially reduced the odds ratio for living in the socioeconomic most disadvantaged neighbourhoods (OR = 1.03, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.28, for those in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods). Neighbourhood stressors contributed 10% to the increased probability of smoking in the lowest educated persons. Conclusions: Physical neighbourhood stressors are related to smoking and contribute substantially to neighbourhood inequalities in smoking over and above individual level characteristics.


Digital piracy is the illegal copying or downloading of copyrighted digital products. Based on individuals' need for a digital product and the price of the product, we propose a model that distinguishes between active piracy and passive piracy. We believe that passive piracy explains why pirates are not necessarily potential buyers of digital products. The research contributes to the literature by showing that not all piracy behavior is the same. To curb the piracy problem, digital product providers and government agencies should educate the general public not to lend out their copies for piracy purpose.


How can nature help us design and build our cities? Nature-based solutions have the potential to provide multiple benefits across a range of sustainability challenges facing cities. They can help to limit the impacts of climate change, enhance biodiversity and improve environmental quality while contributing to economic activities and social well-being.But what are nature-based solutions? Examples include green roofs and city parks that reduce heat, city lagoons that can store water as well as vegetation and rain gardens to intercept storm water.This course will explore nature-based solutions in cities in Europe and around the world. It will connect together the key themes of nature, cities and innovation. We will discuss how to assess what nature-based solutions can achieve in cities. We will examine how innovation is taking place in cities. And we will analyse the potential of nature-based solutions to help respond to climate change and sustainability challenges.This course combines both technical knowledge and the social sciences to better understand nature-based solutions in a holistic perspective. New governance arrangements, business models and financing, forms of citizen engagement and innovation pathways will be needed to make the promise of nature-based solutions a reality.In this course, we bring together a collection of diverse films and key short readings on nature-based solutions as well as interactive forums and practical assignments to create an online learning community for nature-based solution in an urban world. (Less)


ABSTRACT Using the 2011–2013 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this paper utilizes the quarter of the year in which a child was born as an instrumental variable to measure child education shock and explores its impact on migrated households. We only find significant education-induced migration among boys, which we attribute to son preference in China. Due to child education-induced migration, the per capita household consumption increases by 56.7%, the savings rate decreases by 40.3%, and remittances sent home decline by about 1.3 monthly household incomes, however, there are no effects on income, food consumption, and house rent. After exploring the mechanisms underlying child education-induced migration, we find that children migrate with their parents are less likely to pursue a better education in urban areas. Because of the closure and consolidation of rural primary schools, children are forced to migrate due to their education needs. The accessibility of primary schools in urban areas is also responsible for migration decisions regarding children. This paper facilitates understanding of how Hukou influences gender inequality in China. We also provide evidence to show that the segregation of the education system through Hukou is a possible explanation for the low consumption rate of migrants.


Background: Research on poisoning epidemiology in different regions is highly important for evidence-informed health planning. The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the two-year epidemiologic pattern of acute poisoning cases treated at Adama Hospital Medical College (AHMC) in Adama, Ethiopia. Methods: In this retrospective descriptive study, medical records of emergency department patients with diagnosis of acute poisoning from the beginning of April 2013 to the beginning of April 2015 were reviewed. Result: Data of 292 patients with acute poisoning were retrieved, of which 50.3% were women. The majority of the patients (83.6%) were below 30 years of age. There most common affected patients were in the 21-30 year age-group (39.5%). The highest number of patients were farmers (18.8%) followed closely by unemployed individuals (18.2%). Considering the location of residence, the majority of the patients lived in rural areas (68.8%). Organophosphates were the most commonly used toxic agents (52.1%), followed by household cleaning products (12.7%) and alcohols (10.3%). Four patients died (case fatality rate = 1.37 %) and all of them were due to complications of OP poisoning. Data analyses showed significant correlations between age-groups and intention of poisoning (P < 0.001), poison types and patients' gender (P = 0.011), and poison types and place of residence (P = 0.010). Conclusion: In Adama, poisonings are more common in rural residents and young adults, and organophosphates are the leading cause of poisoning. These findings warrant social empowerment actions as well as educational programs on poisonings and their outcomes, which should be especially targeted on this stratum of the society (young adult rural residents).


In this work we present EyeContext, a system to infer high-level contextual cues from human visual behaviour. We conducted a user study to record eye movements of four participants over a full day of their daily life, totalling 42.5 hours of eye movement data. Participants were asked to self-annotate four non-mutually exclusive cues: social (interacting with somebody vs. no interaction), cognitive (concentrated work vs. leisure), physical (physically active vs. not active), and spatial (inside vs. outside a building). We evaluate a proof-of-concept EyeContext system that combines encoding of eye movements into strings and a spectrum string kernel support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Our results demonstrate the large information content available in long-term human visual behaviour and opens up new venues for research on eye-based behavioural monitoring and life logging.


We describe an efficient algorithm for the simulation of large sets of non-convex rigid bodies. The algorithm finds a simultaneous solution for a multi-body system that is linear in the total number of contacts detected in each iteration. We employ a novel contact model that uses mass, location, and velocity information from all contacts, at the moment of maximum compression, to constrain rigid body velocities. We also develop a new friction model in the configuration space of rigid bodies. These models are used to compute the feasible velocity and the frictional response of each body. Implementation is simple and leads to a fast rigid body simulator that computes steps on the order of seconds for simulations involving over one thousand non-convex objects in high contact configurations.


The aim of this work was to investigate the roles of the apoplasmic and symplasmic pathways in the delivery of solutes to the outer pericarp of developing green-fleshed kiwifruit berries (Actinidia deliciosa [A. Chev.] C. F. Liang et A. R. Ferguson var. deliciosa 'Hayward'). Experiments with the symplasmic tracer 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein (CF) showed symplasmic movement of dye during the initial rapid growth stage of the fruit, but as fruit growth slowed and starch content increased, a reduction in symplasmic spread of CF was observed (+126 DAA [days after anthesis]). Measurements of sugar uptake rates from the apoplasm were sufficient to account for the dry matter accumulation in growing fruit at each stage of fruit growth, and could potentially operate alongside a symplasmic pathway for post-phloem unloading of sugars during the rapid growth period. Energy requirements driving uptake from the apoplasm appear to depend on the sugar concentration gradients across the cell membrane throughout fruit development. Together, these data suggest: 1) the post-phloem symplasmic pathway is important during the fruit rapid growth stage, 2) the uptake of sugars from the apoplasm has a role in the transport of carbohydrates in the fruit, especially later in fruit development when the symplasmic pathway is reduced, and 3) apoplasmic sugar has an important role in the flow of water into the apoplasm of the fruit, providing a mechanism to maintain hydrostatic pressure gradients along the phloem supplying the fruit.


The brain's connectivity skeleton—a rich club of strongly interconnected members—was initially shown to exist in human structural networks, but recent evidence suggests a functional counterpart. This rich club typically includes key regions (or hubs) from multiple canonical networks, reducing the cost of inter-network communication. The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a hub node embedded within the default mode network, is known to facilitate communication between brain networks and is a key member of the "rich club." Here, we assessed how metabolic signatures of neuronal integrity and cortical thickness influence the global extent of a functional rich club as measured using the functional rich club coefficient (fRCC). Rich club estimation was performed on functional connectivity of resting state brain signals acquired at 3T in 48 healthy adult subjects. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy was measured in the same session using a point resolved spectroscopy sequence. We confirmed convergence of functional rich club with a previously established structural rich club. N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) in the PCC is significantly correlated with age (p = 0.001), while the rich club coefficient showed no effect of age (p = 0.106). In addition, we found a significant quadratic relationship between fRCC and NAA concentration in PCC (p = 0.009). Furthermore, cortical thinning in the PCC was correlated with a reduced rich club coefficient after accounting for age and NAA. In conclusion, we found that the fRCC is related to a marker of neuronal integrity in a key region of the cingulate cortex. Furthermore, cortical thinning in the same area was observed, suggesting that both cortical thinning and neuronal integrity in the hub regions influence functional integration of at a whole brain level.


A novel, portable, electrical detection system was constructed for DNA sensor application to detect DNA hybridisation. The read-out circuit consists of an analogue circuit and a digital circuit. The analogue circuit with an IC MAX038 generates a sine wave with a constant frequency (10 kHz), which serves as the input for the DNA sensor. The DNA sensor consists of active and reference sensors. DNA hybridisation between the DNA probe and the target sequences causes changes in the conductance of the conductive membrane (DNA/MWCNTs) on the sensor surface, which lead to changes in the amplitude of the sine wave from the sensor output compared with that of the reference signal output (input sine wave). We used a digital circuit with a microprocessor (PIC33FJ256MC710) to determine the change in the amplitude of the sine wave signal of the sensor. From these digital data, the difference in the amplitudes of the active and reference sensors was calculated and displayed on the liquid crystal display. Measurement results show that the portable electrical detection system can detect DNA target concentrations as low as 0.16 µM. The detection of the amplified polymerase chain reaction sample and the reproducibility of the DNA sensor results were also determined using the designed readout circuit. The proposed electrical detection system is suitable for DNA sensor application.


Fore-arc magmatic sequences associated with high Mg number andesite lavas unconformably overlie LeMay Group accretionary complex in Alexander Island. High-resolution 40Ar/39Ar, U–Pb zircon, fission track and K–Ar ages demonstrate that subduction-related fore-arc magmatism migrated northwards along the length of Alexander Island between c. 80 Ma and c. 46 Ma. The magmatic rocks represent a third of the western margin of the Antarctic Peninsula magmatic arc and are critical to the understanding of the final phase of subduction along the southern Antarctic Peninsula margin. The onset of late Cretaceous magmatism is recorded by poorly exposed volcanic rocks on Monteverdi Peninsula (79.7±2.5 Ma). In central and northern Alexander Island, the magmatic rocks can be distinguished by the proportion, range and types of lithofacies present, and by the periods of magmatism represented. The volcanic rocks of the Colbert Mountains range in age from c. 69–62 Ma and are dominated by large volume dacitic and rhyolitic crystal-rich ignimbrites interpreted as caldera-fill deposits. Elgar Uplands sequences range in age from c. 55–50 Ma, and contain approximately equal proportions of pyroclastic deposits and less evolved (basaltic-andesite and andesite) lavas including high Mg number andesite lavas near the base of three sequences. The volcanic rocks of Finlandia Foothills probably represent the youngest calc-alkaline units on Alexander Island (48±2 Ma). The sequence is lithologically similar to the Elgar Uplands and also contains high Mg number andesite lavas, but it is dominated by polymict conglomerates, with minor lavas, which were deposited in a graben associated with regional extension. Plutonic rocks exposed in the Rouen Mountains, adjacent to the Elgar Uplands, yielded a U–Pb age of 56±3 Ma which is in discordance with a previously published Rb–Sr age (46±3 Ma), probably due to hydrothermal perturbation of the Rb–Sr system. Northwards migration of magmatism was caused by the progressive collision and subduction of three ridge segments prior to the previously reported ridge crest–trench collisions that occurred c. 20–30 Ma later and following which subduction ceased.


The scale of ecological crises made us realize that every kind of politics has always been cosmopolitics, politics of a cosmos. Cosmos embraces everything, including the multifarious natural and material entities that make humans act. The book examines cosmopolitics in its relation to design practice. Abandoning the modernist idea of nature as being external to the human experience - a nature that can be mastered by engineers and scientists from outside, the cosmpolitical thinking offers designers to embark in an active process of manipulating and reworking nature 'from within.' To engage in cosmopolitics, this book argues, means to redesign, create, instigate, and compose every single feature of our common experience. In the light of this new understanding of nature, we set the questions: What is the role of design if nature is no longer salient enough to provide a background for human activities? How can we foster designers' own force and make present what causes designers to think, feel, and act? How do designers make explicit the connection of humans to a variety of entities with different ontology: rivers, species, particles, materials and forces? How do they redefine political order by bringing together stars, prions and people? In effect, how should we understand design practice in its relation to the material and the living world? In this volume, anthropologists, science studies scholars, political scientists and sociologists rethink together the meaning of cosmopolitics for design. At the same time designers, architects and artists engage with the cosmopolitical question in trying to imagine the future of architectural and urban design. The book contains original empirical chapters and a number of revealing interviews with artists and designers whose practices set examples of 'cosmopolitically correct design'.


The development of new drugs against Human African Trypanosomiasis is much needed due to toxicity, efficacy and availability problems with current drug treatments for this resurgent parasitic disease. Delivery of drugs into cells is an important determinant of therapeutic efficacy of drugs. An effective means of selective drug delivery is to use plasma membrane transport systems to mediate the entry of drugs into the cell.

Some amino acid transporters fulfil the criteria needed for successful exploitation of nutrient transport systems for drug delivery. The Trypanosoma brucei genomic database was screened to identify the full gene repertoire of amino acid transporters. From this, candidate genes were selected and functional genetic approaches were employed to characterise candidate amino acid transporter genes. Further characterisation of TbAATP1, a RNAi cell line shown to be a transporter of small neutral amino acids (serine, glycine, cysteine, asparagine and alanine), showed a role in threonine uptake.

Amino acid analogues were tested for trypanocidal activity. Of the 96 tested, two (Azaserine and Levodopa) were investigated in more detail, paying special attention to the nature of their trypanocidal action and possible route of entry through an amino acid transporter. Azaserine showed a trypanostatic action as well multiple routes of entry into the protozoan interior (as shown by inhibition of glutamine, phenylalanine and tyrosine uptake). The trypanocidal Levodopa showed entry through a tyrosine specific transporter. However, it is possible that Levodopa's trypanocidal activity may not be as a result of the analogue itself, but secondary products of the analogue.

Amino acids are important for protozoa as energy sources as well as forming pools of soluble osmolites. Amino acid usage in trypanosomes was investigated. Upregulation of proline transport and catabolism in response to reduced glucose availability was exhibited by the genome strain of T. brucei. Moreover, this metabolic shift could be mimicked by addition of GlcNAc to the medium, which blocks the hexose transporter limiting glucose entry to the cell. Systems biology approaches were initiated to investigate the undergoing metabolic changes. More specifically, mass spectrometry methodologies were employed to investigate underlying metabolite changes in procyclic form trypanosomes grown in differing medium.


The registers of the singing voice, as commonly understood by singers, refer to the different vocal qualities induced by adjustments at the level of the larynx and of the vocal tract. This explains why register unification can be approached either one or a combination of the following procedures: (1) resonance alignment through vowel modification, (2) register alignment through intensity exercises. The wide-spread acceptance of vowel modification has made singers reluctant in exploring other avenues of register development. If registers are laryngeally derived, there should be another way of register unification, which directly addresses the coordination of the laryngeal muscles. In support of this argument, this thesis investigates the teaching practices of a group of twentieth-century American voice teachers, who rely on intensity manipulation as the primary means for enhancing the register adjustments. Intensity exercises such as the messa di voce has long been practiced in historical pedagogy, but it is not until now that voice science confirmed its significance in register coordination.


Abstract Up to now, modern machine learning (ML) has been based on approximating big data sets with high-dimensional functions, taking advantage of huge computational resources. We show that biologically inspired neuron models such as the leaky-integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron provide novel and efficient ways of information processing. They can be integrated in machine learning models and are a potential target to improve ML performance. Thus, we have derived simple update rules for LIF units to numerically integrate the differential equations. We apply a surrogate gradient approach to train the LIF units via backpropagation. We demonstrate that tuning the leak term of the LIF neurons can be used to run the neurons in different operating modes, such as simple signal integrators or coincidence detectors. Furthermore, we show that the constant surrogate gradient, in combination with tuning the leak term of the LIF units, can be used to achieve the learning dynamics of more complex surrogate gradients. To prove the validity of our method, we applied it to established image data sets (the Oxford 102 flower data set, MNIST), implemented various network architectures, used several input data encodings and demonstrated that the method is suitable to achieve state-of-the-art classification performance. We provide our method as well as further surrogate gradient methods to train spiking neural networks via backpropagation as an open-source KERAS package to make it available to the neuroscience and machine learning community. To increase the interpretability of the underlying effects and thus make a small step toward opening the black box of machine learning, we provide interactive illustrations, with the possibility of systematically monitoring the effects of parameter changes on the learning characteristics.


The cervical spine experiences shear forces during everyday activities and injurious events yet there is a paucity of biomechanical data characterizing the cervical spine under shear loading. This study aimed to 1) characterise load transmission paths and kinematics of the subaxial cervical spine under shear loading, and 2) assess a contemporary finite element cervical spine model using this data. Subaxial functional spinal units (FSUs) were subjected to anterior, posterior and lateral shear forces (200 N) applied with and without superimposed axial compression preload (200 N) while monitoring spine kinematics. Load transmission paths were identified using strain gauges on the anterior vertebral body and lateral masses and a disc pressure sensor. Experimental conditions were simulated with cervical spine finite element model FSUs (GHBMC M50 version 5.0). The mean kinematics, vertebral strains and disc pressures were compared to experimental results. The shear force-displacement response typically demonstrated a toe region followed by a linear response, with higher stiffness in anterior shear relative to lateral and posterior shear. Compressive axial preload decreased posterior and lateral shear stiffness and increased initial anterior shear stiffness. Load transmission patterns and kinematics suggest facet joints play a key role in limiting anterior shear while the disc governs motion in posterior shear. The main cervical spine shear responses and trends are faithfully predicted by the GHBMC cervical spine model. These basic cervical spine biomechanics and the computational model can provide insight into mechanisms for facet dislocation in high severity impacts, and tissue distraction in low severity impacts.


This paper presents an intertemporal portfolio selection model for pension funds that maximize the intertemporal expected utility of the surplus of assets net of liabilities. Following Merton (1973) it is assumed that both the asset and the liability return follow Itô processes as functions of a state variable. The optimum occurs for investors holding four funds: the market portfolio, the hedge portfolio for the state variable, the hedge portfolio for the liabilities, and the riskless asset. It is shown that pension funds should purchase hedging for liabilities. In contrast to Merton's result in the assets only case, this hedge depends exclusively on the funding ratio of a specific pension fund and not on preferences. With HARA utility the investments in the state variable hedge portfolios are also preference independent. With log utility the market portfolio investment depends only on the current funding ratio.


Water flow in soils with sufficiently large aggregate size or pore-class heterogeneity may exhibit a nonequilibrium between the actual water content and that given by the water retention curve. The result is deeper penetration of infiltrating water than predicted using classical infiltration theory. Models of this process usually divide the soil into two or more exchanging flow regions. A simpler treatment is possible by combining Richards' equation with a dynamic description of the approach to equilibrium. We present a first-order time constant equilibration model of infiltration into a hypothetical structured soil and use the model to describe published outflow responses to constant rate rainfall on six large, undisturbed cores. Using measured hydraulic properties and varying only the A and B horizon time constants, the model was fitted to cumulative outflow from one particular soil core that had measured time domain reflectometry (TDR) water contents at the 0.05- and 0.5-m depths recorded during the experiment. Cumulative outflow was fitted using time constants of 4 and 5 h for A and B horizons, respectively, and this also gave good agreement with TDR measured water contents. Cumulative outflow and runoff from a further four of the six cores was described using the same A and B horizon time constants and varying only the macropore hydraulic conductivity. The remaining core contained a decayed root, which conducted water rapidly with little opportunity for lateral exchange. A description of cumulative outflow required both the macropore hydraulic conductivity and the time constant to be altered.


Two-phase ejectors have been gaining increased attention in recent years due to their ability to directly improve the COP of the cycle. Of common interest in two-phase ejector studies is how the ejector improves cycle COP. However, less emphasis is often given to the performance of the two-phase ejector itself. The amount of COP improvement offered by an ejector cycle is very strongly influenced by the performance of the two-phase ejector; thus, it is important to understand the operation and performance of the two-phase ejector. Defining the performance of a two-phase ejector is not as straightforward as for an isentropic expander because there are multiple fluid streams in an ejector and because it is difficult to obtain flow properties at some locations in the ejector. As a result, there are a variety of performance metrics that have been proposed for use with ejectors in general and specifically for two-phase ejectors. In the present study, several different metrics that have been proposed for measuring the performance of ejectors are presented and analyzed. Performance metrics that were originally proposed for single-phase ejectors as well as those proposed specifically for two-phase ejectors are both considered. A simple numerical ejector model is used to simulate ejector operation and calculate the performance of the ejector based on the various performance metrics. The various ejector performance metrics are then compared based on the numerical results. Experimental data for R134a and CO2 two-phase ejectors is also presented, and the ejector performance metrics are compared based on the available experimental data as well. It is seen that R134a and CO2 offer somewhat similar ejector performance, though the CO2 ejector does seem to have noticeably better performance. CO2 has significantly higher throttling loss than R134a, meaning that there is more work available for the two-phase ejector to recover with CO2 and larger potential COP improvement for a CO2 cycle.


Educational buildings form a major part of public buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as is true for many Middle Eastern countries in the region. As a result of the rapid growth in the KSA, prototype educational buildings are designed with little or no effort towards standards of energy efficient design, and therefore are considered to be one of the highest energy consumers in the country. Educational buildings are unique facilities accommodating a large number of people and services for the purpose of learning, propagation of knowledge and the development of skills for life. Hence, the energy efficiency of educational buildings has now become a priority for educational organisations, design professionals and particularly governments with visions for sustainable development. The main objective of this study is to assess the energy consumption of typical Higher Technical Institutes (HTIs) buildings in five different cities representing different climatic zones of the KSA. The investigation will evaluate the total energy consumption of a prototype building design and its response to the climate conditions in each region. In this study, a whole building energy simulation was used to investigate the sensitivity of various factors affecting energy use and a detailed computer model of a prototype building in five different cities in the KSA have been constructed using EnergyPlus thermal analysis engine through DesignBuilder software package. The results revealed that the energy consumption in investigated prototype educational building differed significantly because of each city location of the project. Moreover, it was found that the variations in the total energy consumption between the five selected cities were a result of the consumption of the cooling and heating systems. The study emphasised on the total energy consumption of educational buildings demonstrating a prototype HTIs building as a case study and concluded that the KSA would require its own building energy benchmarking classification system if it is to develop best or good practice energy standards for buildings within the country. Moreover, to optimise the energy consumption in educational buildings, each region should have its own guidelines according to the climatic conditions within the KSA, which is also applicable to other types of buildings.


No other New England state is as vulnerable to Zappers as is the State of Massachusetts. Zappers and related software programming, Phantom-ware, facilitate an old tax fraud – skimming cash receipts. In this instance skimming is performed with modern electronic cash registers (ECRs). Zappers are a global revenue problem, but to the best of this author's knowledge they have not been uncovered in Massachusetts. A global perspective says: it is highly unlikely that Zappers are not in the Commonwealth – we just need to find them. In fact, using a Quebec template, tax losses from Zappers and related frauds in the Massachusetts restaurant industry alone could exceed $600 million. Thus, if Massachusetts is indeed in need of revenue it might do well to looks for Zappers and Phantom-ware installed in the ECRs of retail establishments that have a high volume of cash sales. Given the recent attempt to increase in the sales tax by 25% to 6.25%, an effort that is supposed to raise $600 million in new taxes, it might be appropriate to consider looking for the software add-on programs that are taking the same amount of "old taxes" from the public fisc. There should be the political will to this. Governor Deval L. Patrick conceded that there is a need to raise additional revenue when he promised to veto the tax increase on April 27, 2009. The legislature agreed with the Governor (at least on this point) when it passed the rate increase by veto-proof margins. It is also likely that the citizens of the State are in accord. At least with respect to the sales tax, what we are essentially taking about is recovering the taxes that the citizens have already paid. This should be preferable to paying more taxes. Zappers are a documented problem in Quebec, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Sweden, Austria, France, the UK and the US. This is the reason that representatives of the German, Quebec and Dutch revenue authorities will be sharing both their technology solutions and their auditing techniques with other government officials at the Federation of Tax Administrators Annual Conference in Denver Colorado, June 2, 2009.


Aim: To estimate the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome in dental students, from a public university, and compare the mean scores obtained in each dimension of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI-S), according to the sociodemographic variables of interest. A total of 235 students participated in the study. Methods: The psychometric characteristics of OLBI-S were estimated. The comparison of Exhaustion and Disengagement mean scores was performed, using the Student's t test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results: A total of 72.8% of the participants were women and the mean age was 21.0 ± 1.8 years. After the removal of three items, OLBI showed adequate factorial validity and reliability. Of the surveyed students, 61.7% had Burnout Syndrome, 22.1% Exhaustion and 4.7% Disengagement. A higher Disengagement mean score was observed for students who did not chose the Dentistry course as their first choice, and who consider teachers to be incompetent/reasonable. Those whose initial expectations were frustrated, with poor course performance, who already used medication due to their study load, and who thought about quitting the course, had higher mean scores of both Exhaustion and Disengagement. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of Burnout Syndrome, with a significant relation to sociodemographic variables.


Articulation of 3D characters requires control over many degrees of freedom: a difficult task with standard 2D interfaces. We present a tangible input device composed of interchangeable, hot-pluggable parts. Embedded sensors measure the device's pose at rates suitable for real-time editing and animation. Splitter parts allow branching to accommodate any skeletal tree. During assembly, the device recognizes topological changes as individual parts or pre-assembled subtrees are plugged and unplugged. A novel semi-automatic registration approach helps the user quickly map the device's degrees of freedom to a virtual skeleton inside the character. User studies report favorable comparisons to mouse and keyboard interfaces for the tasks of target acquisition and pose replication. Our device provides input for character rigging and automatic weight computation, direct skeletal deformation, interaction with physical simulations, and handle-based variational geometric modeling.


Time lapse (4D) seismic in the Rotliegend reservoirs of the Southern North Sea is extremely challenging due to small 4D pressure depletion signals and complex overlying salt geometries. With gas production, pore pressure in the reservoir is reduced, stiffening the rock frame and inducing a velocity increase and reduction in travel time across the reservoir. In order to map depletion away from the producing wells and thereby identify potentially un-depleted areas, we are required to detect time shifts in the order of 1ms or less beneath the reservoir. Here, reflectivity can be variable and signal to noise poor, due to multiple contamination and complex imaging. In addition most baseline surveys in the area date from the late eighties and use two boat towing configurations, requiring additional acquisition effort and processing corrections. This paper describes the processing and interpretation workflows we have developed to measure reliable sub-salt time shifts, calibrate results for pressure prediction and estimate uncertainty. After a multi-field 4D seismic program, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) has drilled three wells to date based on 4D results and in all cases pressures were within the pre-drill predicted ranges.


The present study builds on the work of Lipski (2005a) regarding the nature and scope of Afro-Iberian language. It narrowly focuses on pluralization patterns found in historical texts covering five centuries. The analyses show that the representations of Black speech in Afro-Portuguese examples are consistent with a pattern of plural marking independently verified in comparable creole and semi-creole systems, such as Cape Verdean, Papiamentu, Helvecia and popular varieties of Brazilian Portuguese. Comparatively, the evidence of variation found in earlier Afro-Hispanic texts is less conclusive about the possible contribution of the bozal language to modern-day varieties of Caribbean Spanish. The analyses add to the debate over the prior creolization of non-standard varieties in Latin America.


[Extract]. Key Findings. This synthesis contains light thresholds for seagrass species in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). The thresholds can be applied to ensure protection of seagrasses from activities that impact water quality and the light environment over the short-term, such as coastal and port developments. Thresholds for long-term maintenance of seagrasses are also proposed.

•The synthesis provides clear and consistent guidance on light thresholds to apply in managing potential water quality impacts to seagrass.

•All available information on biological light thresholds was tabulated and conservative management thresholds were identified to ensure seagrass protection.

•Acute management thresholds are suited to compliance guidelines for managing short-term impacts and these and are the focus of this synthesis. Long-term thresholds are suited to the setting of water quality guidelines for catchment management.

•The synthesis identified key areas where further information is required, including: ◦species for which almost no information on light thresholds exists; ◦location and population-specific thresholds particularly for the most at-risk species; ◦definitions of desired state to underpin the development of long-term light guidelines to meet them; ◦the effect of spectral quality on light thresholds; and, consideration of cumulative impacts (temperature, nutrients, sedimentary conditions) on acute and long-term light thresholds.

•Light management thresholds for acute impacts are presented for twelve species. Colonising species are the most sensitive to light reduction (i.e. lowest thresholds) and have the shortest time to impact while larger, persistent species have higher light thresholds and a longer time to impact.

•The recommended acute management thresholds are ready for application, as the conservative approach (higher light threshold, shortest time to impact) for species with low confidence should ensure protection to seagrass meadows at risk from acute light stress.


This article presents a methodological study in which an assessment procedure of translational creativity is tested. The study was conducted in the context of an empirical investigation into the development of translational creativity (Bayer-Hohenwarter 2012). The creativity assessment procedure on which this empirical investigation relied used product data and process data ("combined approach"). Some of the process data were think-aloud (TA) data. The article discusses the ways in which TA can influence the results of this assessment procedure and which alternatives could have been used. As a purely product-oriented approach is considered to be largely free from TA influence, the combined approach is compared with the purely product-oriented approach. This is to find out whether the results from creativity assessments according to the two approaches match. The results indicate convergent creativity scores, certain methodological risks, but also several benefits of the combined approach.


This paper outlines findings of research into how journalists' use and report issues related to freedom of information (FOI) and right to information (RTI) in Queensland, following the introduction of access to information reforms in 2009. A triangulated analysis was used incorporating quantitative and qualitative methods. At a quantitative level, the text analytics software Leximancer was used to identify key concepts, issues and trends in 786 relevant articles from national, metropolitan and regional newspapers. At a qualitative level, discourse analysis was used to identify key themes and patterns from the newspaper articles. Finally, semi-structured interviews with journalists who use and report on RTI/FOI were conducted in order to identify journalists' attitudes towards RTI and to provide context for the analysis of newspaper reports.Both qualitative and quantitative shifts in the media reporting of RTI and FOI were revealed across three time periods representing the periods before, during and after the reform implementation. The findings offer insights into the role of newspapers in promoting and/or framing the public sector information environment in Australia. This benchmark study will enable researchers within and beyond Asian contexts to monitor the role journalists' play as information converters under push model RTI and their capacity to work collaboratively with government agencies in maximizing the usefulness of public sector information.


Currently, intercellular chemical signaling in bacteria, known as quorum sensing, is described for several species of bacteria; however, for many clinically important pathogens this significant sensory mechanism remains unknown. Among such pathogens are the pyogenic streptococci that include groups A and B streptococcus (GAS, GBS). Evidence now points to a family of transcription factors, known as Rgg/GadR/MutR, can serve as receptors for secreted pheromones. Within the genome of Streptococcus pyogenes four Rgg paralogs can be identified, two of which (Rgg2 and Rgg3) were shown to rely on short hydrophobic peptides (SHPs) to control transcription of their target promoters. SHPs were found to promote biofilm development and could offset biofilm-dispersion effects caused by Rgg1. Since Rgg homologs are present in genomes throughout Firmicute species, their newfound ability to serve as quorum-sensing mediators offers a potential opportunity to manipulate bacterial behaviors by interfering with communication networks.


In 2004, the Botswana legislature introduced section 27(4) into the Penal Code as a means to temper the rigours of minimum mandatory sentences. Section 27(4) allowed presiding officers in criminal trials leeway to depart from prescribed minimum sentences where 'exceptional extenuating circumstances' justifying a lesser sentence were proven to exist. Since then, judges, practitioners and academics have grappled with the meaning of the phrase, 'exceptional extenuating circumstances'. Judicial officers have attached to the phrase a myriad of interpretations which are both tacit and express. This article explores the rationale for minimum mandatory sentences in Botswana and the use of section 27(4) in decided cases. It investigates whether the courts have settled on an acceptable interpretation of the phrase 'exceptional extenuating circumstances' and explores the effects of any lack of uniformity in the use of section 27(4). It then considers similar legislation in South Africa, examining responses to the legislation and the efficacy of the judicial test developed to assist presiding officers in their interpretation of such legislation. Finally, the article proposes a similar test for Botswana tailored for our unique circumstances. It is hoped that this article will trigger conversation on the appropriateness of a judicial test to determine the existence of exceptional extenuating circumstances.


This thesis concerns the performance of identity in the music of Indian American jazz musicians Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer. In combining the use of Indian classical music elements with jazz, Iyer and Mahanthappa create music that is inextricably tied to their multifaceted identities. Traditional musicological analysis is juxtaposed with a theoretical framework that draws on postcolonial theory and the history of Asian immigrant populations to the U.S. I chronicle the interactions between Indian and Western music and link it to larger issues of Asian American identity formation and activism through music. Through interviews and transcriptions of studio recordings, I identify specific compositional and improvisational strategies of the musicians. I emphasize the role of individual agency in the formation of second-generation identities, drawing attention to the distinct ways that Iyer and Mahanthappa approach their music. Finally, I connect this research to a larger discourse on Indian American artistic identity.


The concept of middleware based architectures for telecommunication services in the broadband, multimedia, and information era is emerging. One representative example is the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture (TINA), which is characterised by a variety of services, a multitude of service providers, a well defined business model, a middleware platform for service development and provision, and the assumption of advanced costumer premises equipment. Concepts for its security architecture are developed in the CrySTINA project. We introduce TINA, analyse it with regard to security and present the CrySTINA security architecture. CrySTINA is aligned with the OMG`s CORBA Security specification, but enhances it with regard to security interoperability despite the heterogeneity of security policies and technologies that must be expected in TINA networks. Thus, we present a model for the enforcement of security policies that supports the negotiation of security contexts.


Chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) is a common long-term complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The objective of our study was to compare the metabolic profiles for allotransplant recipients and thereby identify metabolic characteristics of patients with treatment-requiring cGVHD. The study included 51 consecutive patients (29 men and 22 women; median age: 44 years, range: 15–66 years) transplanted with peripheral blood stem cells derived from human leukocyte antigen-matched family donors. All serum samples investigated by global metabolomic profiling were collected approximately 1 year posttransplant (median 358 days). Thirty-one of the 51 patients (61%) had cGVHD 1 year posttransplant. The affected organs were (number of patients) liver/bile duct (23), eyes (15), gastrointestinal tract (14), skin (13), mouth (10), lungs (3), and urogenital tract (1). We compared the metabolic profile for patients with and without cGVHD, and a Random Forrest Classification Analysis then resulted in 75% accuracy in differentiating the two groups. The 30 top-ranked metabolites from this comparison included increased levels of bile acids, several metabolites from the cytokine-responsive kynurenine pathway for tryptophan degradation, pro-inflammatory lipid metabolites, phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolites derived from the gut microbial flora, and metabolites reflecting increased oxidative stress. However, nine of these 30 top-ranked metabolites were probably altered due to cyclosporine or steroid treatment, and we therefore did a hierarchical clustering analysis including all 51 patients but only based on the other 21 cGVHD-specific metabolites. This analysis identified three patient subsets: one cluster included mainly patients without cGVHD and had generally low metabolite levels; another cluster included mainly patients with cGVHD (most patients with at least three affected organs) and high metabolite levels, and the last intermediate group including cGVHD patients with limited organ involvement. We conclude that allotransplant recipients with cGVHD have an altered metabolic profile caused both by the disease and its immunosuppressive treatment.


The purpose of this study is to unearth and bridge a population gap, which is the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between dynamics of job satisfaction, i.e., work-life balance, leadership and employee retention. This is quantitative study with hypothesis testing through correlational investigation in a non-contrive setting. Conducted with minimum researchers' interference, the time horizon of this study is cross-sectional with individual unit of analysis, i.e. managerial employees and non-managerial employees in XYZ diversified company using 77 samples selected based on simple random sampling. Data was gathered through a self-directed questionnaire. In order to bridge the identified population gap, a set of hypotheses was developed based on theoretical and empirical justifications. The findings suggest that there is a mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between work-life balance and retention. As employee retention is crucial for any organization's success, organizations should give more emphasis on the constructs such as work-life balance and job satisfaction in order to enhance retention of employees.


Abstract. Cosmic noise at 40 MHz is measured at Ny-Alesund (79° N, 12° E) using a relative ionospheric opacity meter ("riometer"). A riometer is normally used to determine the degree to which cosmic noise is absorbed by the intervening ionosphere, giving an indication of ionisation of the atmosphere at altitudes lower than generally monitored by other instruments. The usual course is to determine a "quiet-day" variation, this representing the galactic noise signal itself in the absence of absorption; the current signal is then subtracted from this to arrive at absorption expressed in decibels (dB). By a variety of means and assumptions, it is thereafter possible to estimate electron density profiles in the very lowest reaches of the ionosphere. Here however, the entire signal, i.e. including the cosmic noise itself, will be examined and spectral characteristics identified. It will be seen that distinct spectral subranges are evident which can, in turn, be identified with non-Gaussian processes characterised by generalised Hurst exponents, α . Considering all periods greater than 1 h, α ≈ 24, an indication of fractional Brownian motion, whereas for periods greater than 1 day α ≈ 0.9 – approximately pink noise and just in the domain of fractional Gaussian noise. The results are compared with other physical processes, suggesting that absorption of cosmic noise is characterised by a generalised Hurst exponent  ≈ 1.24 and thus non-persistent fractional Brownian motion, whereas generation of cosmic noise is characterised by a generalised Hurst exponent  ≈ 1. The technique unfortunately did not result in clear physical understanding of the ionospheric phenomena, and thus, in this respect, the application was not successful; the analysis could, however, be used as a tool for instrument validation.


The objective of this study was to assess the beliefs of parents of youth soccer players about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), concussion, and retirement from sport decisions and compare them to those of concussion-specialized clinicians. An electronic survey was completed by parents of youth club soccer players (n=247/1600, 15.4% response rate) and concussion-specialized clinicians (n=18/47, 38.3% response rate) located in a large U.S. urban center. Parents believed more strongly in the causal relationship between concussions and CTE, and between CTE and harm than did clinicians. Parents who themselves had participated in sport at a high level had more conservative beliefs than other parents about the number of concussions after which an athlete should retire from contact or collision sport. Results are discussed in the context of ethical risk communication between clinicians and parents. This includes the importance of communicating information about CTE to parents and youth athletes in an understandable way so that they can make informed choices about contact and collision sport participation. Further research is encouraged to evaluate approaches of communicating evidence about CTE to a diverse population of families of youth athletes.


Background. Coccidioidomycosis is often diagnosed with a collection of tests that rely on the patient's ability to mount an immune response to the fungus (antibody-based diagnostics), making diagnosis of this infection challenging. Here we present an antigen-based assay that detects and quantifies coccidioidal chitinase-1 (CTS1) in human serum. Methods. An inhibition-based enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) was developed that utilizes a monoclonal antibody specific for coccidioidal CTS1. CTS1 was quantified in commercial antigen preparations using recombinant CTS1 as a standard. Sera from 192 individuals from an endemic area were tested which included 78 patients (40.6%) with proven or probable coccidioidomycosis. Results. The quantity of CTS1 in diagnostic commercial antigen preparations from different suppliers varied. CTS1 antigenemia was detected in 87.2% of patients with proven or probable coccidioidomycosis. Specificity was determined to be 96.94% using serum from individuals who reside in the Phoenix, Arizona area who did not have coccidioidomycosis. Levels of CTS1 correlated with low- and high-titer serology from patients with a coccidioidomycosis diagnosis. Conclusions. Since the CTS1 inhibition ELISA described in this report does not depend on the host immune response, it is a promising diagnostic tool to aid in diagnosis and disease monitoring of coccidioidomycosis.


The epistemological rupture proffered by finance in the seventies, seeming to inaugurate a distinct mode of production, is merely a form of appearance that capital's struggle takes in crisis, beneath which the capitalist economy remains under the sway of the law of value and its source in socially necessary labor time. While narrative fiction has been taken insistently as the relevant literary mode or genre for understanding the motion and particularly the temporality of finance, poetry finally provides a better heuristic for such an understanding and, more substantially, for grasping the motion and dynamic of value moving behind the seeming of finance's hegemony.


The paper explores the novel dimensions of agrarian change and of an agricultural knowledge‐creation culture in Vietnam's Mekong Delta by examining cases of farmers engaged in knowledge brokering. Farmers empowered with knowledge, and through intensive engagement in networks and communities of practice, are taking an increasingly more important role in diffusing and (re)producing knowledge via brokering services. This research investigates the development path, brokerage undertakings and knowledge networking practiced by farmers, who act as knowledge brokers. In addition, it analyses the stories and knowledge flow networks of three selected cases. The analysis is contextualised in the diffusion of the VACB farming system, designed to make small-scale rural farming more sustainable through integrated horticulture (V), pisciculture (A), animal husbandry (C) and biogas installation (B). The findings suggest an appreciation of farmer-constructed learning structures in managing knowledge diffusion, and an integration of informal knowledge flows into the common agricultural/rural development goals of responsible organisations and the sector. An extended framework of knowledge diffusion management is also proposed. The data used in this analysis were collected during a one-year field research project in the Mekong Delta within the period April 2010-11.


PurposeThis study focused upon whether outcome following Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS) groups for incarcerated offenders could be predicted by the offenders' pre-training levels of executive function. It also addressed whether this predictive function was above and beyond that predicted by intelligence, demographic information, conviction history, emotional distress and social compliance. MethodsOffenders due to undergo ETS were assessed using a battery of neuropsychological measures of executive functioning and other psychometric instruments. Change in behaviour following ETS was assessed using the Behaviour Rating Scale (BRS). The results of this assessment were entered into regression analyses, with the post-ETS changes in the positive and negative scales of the BRS as the independent variables in 2 separate analyses. ResultsAspects of executive functioning related to attentional set shifting ability were found to be highly predictive of outcome, with those with relatively weaker executive functioning showing the most improvement. Participant age and number of previous convictions were found to be predictive of reductions in negative behaviour but not of improvements in positive behaviour, with older participants and those with more previous convictions showing the greatest degree of improvement. ConclusionsETS can be of particular benefit to those offenders with relatively poor executive functioning.


There are around 40 new geothermal power projects commissioned in each of the last few years. Growth of the market is around 5% annually and current installed capacity is about 13,300 MW with about the same in development in 24 countries. These figures are impressive, but they do not bear comparison with any of the fossil fuels. However, few will realise that the global oil industry has a cryptic geothermal power potential that is equal to the entire current output of the geothermal industry. The oil industry is ageing. Many areas still produce copious quantities of oil, but the oil comes with an unwanted by-product, water. The volume of water produced is typically is 10–20 times that of the oil; and the water is hot—in some places very hot (>100°C). In a recent study we showed that the power depleted oil production platforms of the North Sea's North Viking Graben produce sufficient hot water to deliver around 60% of the power requirement for each field. A review of global oil and hence water production has enabled us to calculate that power production alone from waste water from producing oilfields could be at least 15,000 MW.