When it was granted by King John in 1215, Magna Carta was a practical solution to a political crisis. In the centuries since, it has become a potent symbol of liberty and the rule of law. This catalogue accompanies a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the British Library commemorating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. It takes us on a journey from the charter's medieval origins through to what it means to people around the world today. Drawing on the rich historical collections of the British Library - including two original copies of Magna Carta from 1215 - the catalogue brings to life the history and contemporary resonance of this globally important document. It features treasured artefacts inspired by the rich legacy of Magna Carta, including Thomas Jefferson's handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence and an original copy of the Bill of Rights.


This study explored a 130-passenger advanced turboprop commercial airliner with the purposes of economic feasibility and energy efficiency. A baseline vehicle and a derivative vehicle were researched and analyzed in detail. Based on the findings of this analysis, an advanced future airliner was designed. For the advanced airliner, advanced technologies were suggested and projections of these technology benefits were implemented. Detailed performance analysis was conducted for all three aircraft. The energy efficiency of each vehicle was compared to current and future N+3 aircraft. Lastly, cost analysis was performed to observe the impact of these energy savings. The three existing and future concepts evaluated were: 1) Bombardier 80passenger Q400 baseline, 2) An expanded 130-passenger Bombardier Q400 termed the Q400XL, and 3) an N+3 advanced 130-passenger turboprop airliner termed the N+3 Airliner. The N+3 Airliner was compared to the SUGAR High, a Boeing/NASA N+3 aircraft, in both fuel efficiency and economic feasibility. The N+3 Airliner was 22 percent more energy efficient. At current oil prices, the N+3 Airliner had nearly identical operating cost. However, at two times current oil prices, the N+3 Airliner has a slight advantage economically. Therefore, as long as the price of oil is above 2011 oil prices, $3.03 per barrel, the N+3 Airliner will be an economically viable option.


Greek policy-makers like to make the point that their economy cannot recover because of a lack of credit and that this affects exports, in particular. Austerity is an easy explanation for the weakness of domestic demand, argues Daniel Gros in this CEPS Commentary, but it is more difficult to see why Greek exports have stagnated in recent years. The author considers the argument that the Greek economy could not recover via export-led growth because of a credit crunch. The overall availability of credit was higher than GDP, and interest rates remained relatively low. There is some indication of a misallocation of bank credit, but the responsibility for any mistakes in this direction must lie squarely with the government and the Troika, given that the Greek banking system has been under government control since 2012.


A wealth of information exists on ex post returns to research investments for agriculture in the aggregate and for several agricultural commodity groups of commercial importance in the United States. Many of the investments made in agricultural research and, consequently, many of the allocative decisions on research funding, are, however, commodity-specific. Probably the main reason for the limited empirical literature on returns to commodity-specific research is that of the limited production input data available for individual commodities. Data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture, for example, do not permit commodity disaggregation beyond that employed by Bredahl and Peterson. Their analysis which utilizes commodity groups including cash crops, dairy, livestock, and poultry, has been updated by Norton using 1974 Census data. The research reported in this paper represents "early stage" progress in an effort to extend the cross-sectional production function-type analyses of Bredahl, Peterson, and Norton to three specific crops--corn, wheat, and soybeans. The production functions estimated are for the 1977 crop year.


In Africa, women leaders have a strong legacy. Female pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt, queens and queen mothers have reigned throughout contemporary Africa, and women across the continent have led modern liberation movements. This book's wide-ranging examination of African women leaders focuses especially on women in elected or appointed national government positions. The author provides an extensive analysis of the progress made by women leaders in each individual country, as well as an overall analysis of the historical role of women in African governments. In addition, the book offers in-depth profiles of eleven women in high-office positions, including current Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Diogo.


In the marketing world, especially through internetmarketing or what is known as e-commerce, an e-marketercannot ignore the role of the online shop as a medium fortheir marketing communications, where marketingactivities via e-commerce is currently being favorable bythe people in Indonesia. However transaction through ecommercehas the fairly high riskpotential. Therefore thefactor of security and service quality become a benchmarkon purchasing decisions through e-commerce. The purposeof this study is to analyzewhether security factordirectlyinfluences purchasing decisions through e-commerce,service quality factor directly influences purchasingdecisions through e-commerce, security and service qualityfactor directly influences purchasing decisions through ecommerce,as well as security and service qualityfactorgives significant effect on e-commerce consumer loyalty.This research was conducted by taking samples of ecommerceusers in Indonesiawhich were most active topurchase online products or services in 2014. KEYWORDS: E-commerce, Security, ServiceQuality, Purchasing Decisions, Loyalty


We address the problem of estimating the spherical-harmonic power spectrum Sl of a statistically isotropic scalar signal s(r) from noise-contaminated data d(r) = s(r) + n(r) on a region R of the unit sphere. Three different methods of spectral estimation are considered: (i) the spherical analogue of the 1-D periodogram, (ii) the maximum likelihood method, and (iii) a spherical analogue of the 1-D multitaper method. The periodogram exhibits strong spectral leakage, especially for small regions of area A << 4π, and is generally unsuitable for spherical spectral analysis applications, just as it is in 1-D. The maximum likelihood method is particularly useful in the case of nearly whole-sphere coverage, A=4π, and has been widely used in cosmology to estimate the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation from spacecraft observations. The spherical multitaper method affords easy control over the fundamental tradeoff between spectral resolution and variance, and is easily implemented, requiring neither non-linear iteration nor large-scale matrix inversion. As a result, the method is ideally suited for routine applications in geophysics, geodesy or planetary science, where the objective is to obtain a spatially localized estimate of the spectrum of a signal s(r) from data d(r) = s(r)+n(r) within a pre-selected and typically small region R.


Irregular hepatectomy plays a prominent role in the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with severe cirrhosis and localized liver metastasis. In clinical practices, intraoperative tumor boundaries delineation facilitates to accomplish tumor resection with negative margin, remarkably decreasing the recurrence rates. Currently, ultrasound (US) and ICG fluorescence-guided surgery has been used for intraoperative navigation in irregular hepatectomy, but insufficient specificity results in a limited prevalence. Inspired by the high resolution of photoacoustic (PA) imaging and established clinical efficacy of 18F-Alfatide that is specific for integrin αvβ3-overexpressed tumors, we herein developed a fluorescent analogue IR820-E[c(RGDfK)]2, and a proof-of-concept intraoperative multispectral PA imaging navigation for precise irregular hepatectomy using hand-held PA/US imaging system. An integrin αvβ3-targeted fluorescent contrast agent IR820-E[c(RGDfK)]2 was designed, synthesized, and characterized. In vitro studies were performed to determine optical and PA properties, affinity and specificity and biocompatibility. Multispectral PA imaging, the optimal imaging time point and contrast, multispectral PA imaging-guided irregular hepatectomy, pharmacokinetics, and safety profile were evaluated in subcutaneous and orthotopic HCC tumor models. Ex vivo macroscopic three-dimensions (3D) PA imaging with IR820-E[c(RGDfK)]2 staining was also performed in surgical biospecimens from patients with HCC. IR820-E[c(RGDfK)]2 has a simple synthetic method at gram scale, high affinity, and specificity for integrin αvβ3, excellent pharmacokinetic and safety profile can effectively differentiate tumor from normal liver tissues in animal models and surgical biospecimens from HCC patients. Preoperative tumor localization, intraoperative tumor boundaries delineation, and tumor excision, and postoperative negative margin assessment were successfully achieved during irregular hepatectomy. This initial attempt allows one to preoperatively detect tumor lesions, intraoperatively delineate tumor boundaries and guide tumor resection, and postoperatively evaluate tumor margin status during irregular hepatectomy. IR820-E[c(RGDfK)]2 has the potential to be an investigational new drug for clinical use in multispectral photoacoustic imaging-guided irregular hepatectomy.


[About the book]:

The International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies is a definitive description of the field, spanning individual, organizational, societal, and cultural perspective in a cross-disciplinary manner. Editors Stewart R. Clegg and James R. Bailey have sought to capture much of the cutting-edge thinking that characterizes the best scholarship internationally. The Encyclopedia is thoroughly cross-referenced and entries are based around a series of broad themes.

Key Features

- Offers a comprehensive overview of many of the major ideas, concepts, terms, and approaches that characterise this diverse field of organization studies

- Illustrates the fluidity, dynamism, and innovation that now occur in organization studies-internationally

- Brings together a team of international contributors from the fields of: Management, Psychology, Sociology, Communications, Education, Political Science, Public Administration, Anthropology, Law and other related areas.

- Examines how organizations are devices for structuring life and lives are structured by organizations

Key themes include organization;

Careers
Struture
Design
Communications
Cultures
Diversity
Innovation
Change
Strategy
Power
Leadership
Learning
Knowledge
Ethics
Theory
Research
Conflict
Politics


A new round of English teaching reform is aimed at constructing new mode of teaching, which is centered on enhancing foreign language comprehensive application ability of students. The diversification of English teaching model is the development tendency of English teaching. As the main entry point of personal training mode of education, it is now positively promoting the major reform of educational field in China. At the same time, single-chip project type teaching has broken the traditional knowledge system. Based on constructivism, situation theory and pragmatic theory and centered on work task, single-chip project selects and organizes course content. And finish of work task is its main learning style. This paper listed one teaching case and imitated the job fair one by one, and elaborated the construction of diversification of English teaching model from the perspective of project teaching.


Variances from local zoning ordinances are traditionally understood to be extraordinary remedies for parcels that are unique within their zones and because of the unique circumstances the parcel cannot be used for any reasonable purposes. The uniqeness requirement assures that more widespread problems are addressed by the legislature rather than the zoning boards of adjustment that grant variances. Empirical studies have found that zoning boards of adjustment routinely ignore the statutory conditions for granting variances and grant them instead based on their own assessment of the appropriateness of the variance. Nonetheless, until recently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court applied the statutory law strictly to overturn rogue decisions by local boards. Recently, however, led by an activist conservative majority, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reinterpreted its past decisions more consistent with the practices of the boards. It interpreted the standard as embodying a substantive due process standard rather than a takings standard with the result that boards are now empowered to balance the desires of the property owner against the policies adopted by the local legislative body. The decisions not only reflect a poor interpretive methodology, they also distort the roles of appointed boards and local legislatures.


Abstract. This study provides a baseline from which changes in the chemistry of the atmosphere over Antarctica can be monitored under expected warming scenarios and continued intensification of industrial activities in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the first study to measure more than 25 chemical constituents in the surface snow and firn across extensive regions of Antarctica. We present major ion, trace element, heavy metal, rare earth element and oxygen isotope data from a series of surface snow samples and shallow firn sections collected along four US ITASE traverses across East and West Antarctica. In each sample we measure dissolved concentrations of Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl−, NO3+, SO42−, and MS− using ion chromatography and total concentrations of Sr, Cd, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Pb, Bi, U, As, Al, S, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Na, Mg, Li, and K using inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS). We also measure δ18O by isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Satellite remote sensing measurements of microwave backscatter and grain size are used to assist in the identification of glaze/dune areas across Antarctica and determine if these areas can possibly contain useful chemical climate records. The majority of the non-glaze/dune samples in this study exhibit similar, or lower, concentrations to those from previous studies. Consequently, the results presented here comprise a conservative baseline for Antarctic surface snow chemical concentrations. The elements Cd, Pb, As and Bi are enriched across Antarctica relative to both ocean and upper crust elemental ratios. Local and global volcanic outgassing may account for the majority of the Bi measured in East and West Antarctica and for a significant fraction of the Cd and As. However, significant concentrations of Cd, Pb, and As remain across much of Antarctica.


The majority of program editors available on the market support the view of a directory-explorer style to display only those code lines of interest. Among them, the fisheye and the fractal views of source code (in which each line has a value reflecting the degree of interest and importance) have received a lot of attention in the literature. In information visualization, drawing trees based on fractal theory also plays an interesting role as the so-called balloon drawing of hierarchical data includes two models: the fractal and the SNS (subtrees with nonuniform sizes) models. It is therefore natural to consider a new source code visualization style based on the SNS model of balloon drawing. A main feature of the SNS view is that the value of each line reflects the number of its descendants when the source code is viewed as a tree structure. Unlike the view of a directory- explorer style, the multiscalable font mode (which was originally utilized in the fractal view of source code) displays all the lines in such a way that each line has the font size proportional to its value. In this paper, we investigate various issues concerning the multiscalable font modes of the fish- eye, the fractal, and the SNS views of source code, in hope of providing guidelines for the programmer to better comprehend the program code in practice.


CultureShock! Belgium is the definitive guide for anyone who wants to settle seamlessly into the country famous for its chocolates, mussels, frites, waffles and beer. Though linguistic differences have divided the land into distinct regions, it is these same differences that have given Belgium much of its cultural diversity and its multi-faceted society. This book will provide you with much-needed knowledge about the three main languages—Walloon, Flemish and French—and show you the importance of knowing which one you should speak in which region of the country. But that is not all. Glean all the practical tips and advice that will make settling in a breeze plus other information such as how to socialise with Belgians. Learn more about the priorite a droite rule and what you should do if you are made Bob for the night or if a Gilles de Binche with tarantula headgear throws oranges at you. CultureShock! Belgium is the only guide you will need to understand Belgium and its people as well as fully enjoy your life in this delightful country.


Over the past few decades, Indonesia has made strong progress in improving education outcomes, with a particularly emphasis being placed on access to basic education in line with the government's nine-year compulsory education policy. As in many other developing countries, moving beyond gains in education access and toward meaningful gains in education quality has been a greater challenge for Indonesia, however several notable positive trends have emerged. While the progress achieved specifically in terms of improving the quality of education remains a work in progress, several positive developments have emerged in recent years. Some of the key drivers of progress discussed in this report include strengthening the teaching force, reforming the curriculum and pedagogy, decentralization and school-based management, and increased budget and targeted support to address inequities. The diversity of reforms that have emerged and the use of research and evaluation to inform policy-making make Indonesia's experience a particularly interesting case study with some useful lessons to offer. Published version (July 2014) of this paper can be accessed in http://www.odi.org/publications/8563-towards-better-education-quality-indonesias-promising-path.


The extent of freshwater biological invasions is difficult to predict. The thermophilic Daphnia lumholtzi Sars, 1885 (Cladocera: Daphniidae) has successfully invaded a large section of temperate North America from an Old World source, damaging ecosystems and fisheries. The species was later reported introduced into Mexico and Brazil. Here we report D. lumholtzi in Argentina - the most southerly record in the New World for this species. Our genetic analyses establish haplotype identity with North American specimens, consistent with the colonization of South America from North America. The detection dates of the records in South America and the association with the Parana River, provide evidence that river ways play a role in expansion of D. lumholtzi. The invasion of D. lumholtzi has now reached a similar wide latitudinal span to the distribution in the Old World.


In the last edition of Teaching History, Arthur Chapman described how he uses ICT to develop
sixth form students' conceptual understanding of interpretations, significance and change. In
this article, he turns his attention to causal reasoning and analysis. Drawing on the work of
historians such as Evans and Carr, he develops a sophisticated – but accessible – way of
classifying causes that enables post-16 students to get to the heart of what a robust causal
analysis might look like. He ends his article by outlining a series of ICT tasks on the causes
of the 1857 Revolt in India in which knowledge, conceptual awareness and causal reasoning
fit together seamlessly and in mutual support. The quality of the thinking underpinning his
students' work – illustrated here – attests to the effectiveness of his approach.


The history of erosion of southwestern North America and its relationship to surface uplift is a long-standing topic of debate. We use geologic and thermochronometric data to reconstruct the erosion history of southwestern North America. We infer that erosion events occurred mostly in response to surface uplift by contemporaneous tectonism, and were not long-delayed responses to surface uplift caused by later climate change or drainage reorganization. Rock uplift in response to isostatic compensation of exhumation occurred during each erosion event, but has been quantified only for parts of the late Miocene–Holocene erosion episode. We recognize four episodes of erosion and associated tectonic uplift: (1) the Laramide orogeny (ca. 75–45 Ma), during which individual uplifts were deeply eroded as a result of uplift by thrust faults, but Laramide basins and the Great Plains region remained near sea level, as shown by the lack of significant Laramide exhumation in these areas; (2) late middle Eocene erosion (ca. 42–37 Ma) in Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado, which probably occurred in response to epeirogenic uplift from lithospheric rebound that followed the cessation of Laramide dynamic subsidence; (3) late Oligocene–early Miocene deep erosion (ca. 27–15 Ma) in a broad region of the southern Cordillera (including the southern Colorado Plateau, southern Great Plains, trans-Pecos Texas, and northeastern Mexico), which was uplifted in response to increased mantle buoyancy associated with major concurrent volcanism in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico and in the Southern Rocky Mountains; (4) Late Miocene–Holocene erosion (ca. 6–0 Ma) in a broad area of southwestern North America, with loci of deep erosion in the western Colorado–eastern Utah region and in the western Sierra Madre Occidental. Erosion in western Colorado–eastern Utah reflects mantle-related rock uplift as well as an important isostatic component caused by compensation of deep fluvial erosion in the upper Colorado River drainage following its integration to the Gulf of California. Erosion in the western Sierra Madre Occidental occurred in response to rift-shoulder uplift and the proximity of oceanic base level following the late Miocene opening of the Gulf of California. We cannot estimate the amount of rock or surface uplift associated with each erosion episode, but the maximum depths of exhumation for each were broadly similar (typically ∼1–3 km). Only the most recent erosion episode is temporally correlated with climate change. Paleoaltimetric studies, except for those based on leaf physiognomy, are generally compatible with the uplift chronology we propose here. Physiognomy-based paleo elevation data suggest that near-modern elevations were attained during the Paleogene, but are the only data that uniquely support such interpretations. High Paleogene elevations require a complex late Paleogene–Neogene uplift and subsidence history for the Front Range and western Great Plains of Colorado that is not compatible with the regional sedimentation and erosion events we describe here. Our results suggest that near-modern surface elevations in southwestern North America were generally not attained until the Neogene, and that these high elevations are the cumulative result of four major episodes of Cenozoic rock uplift of diverse origin, geographic distribution, and timing.


Roger Douglas compares responses to terrorism by five liberal democracies--the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand--over the past 15 years. He examines each nation's development and implementation of counterterrorism law, specifically in the areas of information-gathering, the definition of terrorist offenses, due process for the accused, detention, and torture and other forms of coercive questioning. Douglas finds that terrorist attacks elicit pressures for quick responses, often allowing national governments to accrue additional powers. But emergencies are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for such laws, which may persist even after fears have eased. He argues that responses are influenced by both institutional interests and prior beliefs, and complicated when the exigencies of office and beliefs point in different directions. He also argues that citizens are wary of government's impingement on civil liberties and that courts exercise their capacity to restrain the legislative and executive branches. Douglas concludes that the worst antiterror excesses have taken place outside of rather than within the law and that the legacy of 9/11 includes both laws that expand government powers and judicial decisions that limit those very powers.


The authors discuss recent developments in services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the Nordic countries. They note that all of the countries saw important reforms during the 1990s, regarding both deinstitutionalization and decentralization. However, they posit that the litmus test of the reforms is not what happens during reform years, but after the reform energy decreases and political attention fades. Thus, developments after 2000 are of particular interest. The comparative analysis is based on research reviews in the five Nordic countries. The analysis observed a trend toward larger group homes and congregations, inequality across municipalities, marketization, and new public management, but also an increasing emphasis on consumer rights and the use of the personal assistance scheme in services for people with ID. The authors conclude that diverging trends coexist, with improvements going together with significant setbacks. They explore the trends from a political science perspective and, in particular, note how they relate to recent shifts in public management and changing drivers of change.


Engineering plants typically have a variety of interlinked production chains, where process flows are dependent on upstream or downstream events. Raw material feeds may fluctuate over time, resulting in fluctuating off-gas and steam productions, and therefore an inefficient energy resource usage. It is common practice to generate steam from burnable offgases, in boiler houses, where excess steam is allocated for power generation after plant usages. Over time fluctuating steam flow may result in turbine trips. A problem is that unused off-gases are flared where the energy potential goes to waste. This paper investigates turbine investment choices under fluctuating steam productions. A mathematical model is used that determines how steam should be distributed between turbines in a fluctuating environment, for optimal power generation. Investment options can be explored regarding which combination of turbines will result in higher power generation for the same combined power generation capabilities and how each turbine configuration will influence the total number of turbine trips due to steam shortages. A number of simulations are performed for various turbine configurations and it was found that an increase in the number of turbines for a fixed maximum total power generation capacity will deliver slightly higher power generation but significant more turbine trips. All simulations are based on real world data.


Jacob, the protein encoded by the Nsmf gene, is involved in synapto-nuclear signaling and docks an N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-derived signalosome to nuclear target sites like the transcription factor cAMP-response-element-binding protein (CREB). Several reports indicate that mutations in NSMF are related to Kallmann syndrome (KS), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH) associated with anosmia or hyposmia. It has also been reported that a protein knockdown results in migration deficits of Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) positive neurons from the olfactory bulb to the hypothalamus during early neuronal development. Here we show that mice that are constitutively deficient for the Nsmf gene do not present phenotypic characteristics related to KS. Instead, these mice exhibit hippocampal dysplasia with a reduced number of synapses and simplification of dendrites, reduced hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) at CA1 synapses and deficits in hippocampus-dependent learning. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) activation of CREB-activated gene expression plays a documented role in hippocampal CA1 synapse and dendrite formation. We found that BDNF induces the nuclear translocation of Jacob in an NMDAR-dependent manner in early development, which results in increased phosphorylation of CREB and enhanced CREB-dependent Bdnf gene transcription. Nsmf knockout (ko) mice show reduced hippocampal Bdnf mRNA and protein levels as well as reduced pCREB levels during dendritogenesis. Moreover, BDNF application can rescue the morphological deficits in hippocampal pyramidal neurons devoid of Jacob. Taken together, the data suggest that the absence of Jacob in early development interrupts a positive feedback loop between BDNF signaling, subsequent nuclear import of Jacob, activation of CREB and enhanced Bdnf gene transcription, ultimately leading to hippocampal dysplasia.


Conventional blue water scarcity indicators suffer from four weaknesses: they measure water withdrawal instead of consumptive water use, they compare water use with actual runoff rather than natural (undepleted) runoff, they ignore environmental flow requirements and they evaluate scarcity on an annual rather than a monthly time scale. In the current study, these shortcomings are solved by defining blue water scarcity as the ratio of blue water footprint to blue water availability – where the latter is taken as natural runoff minus environmental flow requirement – and by estimating all underlying variables on a monthly basis. In this study we make for the first time a global estimate of the blue water footprint of humanity at a high spatial resolution level (a five by five arc minute grid) on a monthly basis. In order to estimate blue water scarcity at river basin level, we aggregated the computed monthly blue water footprints at grid cell level to monthly blue water footprints at river basin level. By comparing the estimates of the monthly blue water footprint with
estimates of the monthly blue water availability at river basin level, we assess the intra-annual variability of blue water scarcity for the world's major river basins. Monthly blue water footprints were estimated based on
Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2011a). Natural runoff per river basin was estimated by adding estimates of actual runoff from Fekete et al. (2002) and estimates of water volumes already consumed. Environmental flow requirements were estimated based on the presumptive standard for environmental flow protection as proposed
by Richter et al. (2011), which can be regarded as a precautionary estimate of environmental flow requirements. Within the study period 1996-2005, in 223 river basins (55% of the basins studied) with in total 2.72 billion
inhabitants (69% of the total population living in the basins included in this study), the blue water scarcity level exceeded one hundred per cent during at least one month of the year, which means that environmental flow requirements were violated during at least one month of the year. In 201 river basins with in total 2.67 billion people there was severe water scarcity, which means that the blue water footprint was more than twice the blue water availability, during at least one month per year. Global average blue water scarcity – estimated by averaging the annual average monthly blue water scarcity
values per river basin weighted by basin area – is 85%. This is the average blue water scarcity over the year within the total land area considered in this study. When we weight the annual average monthly blue water scarcity values per river basin according to population number per basin, global average blue water scarcity is 133%. This is the average scarcity as experienced by the people in the world. This population-weighted average scarcity is higher than the area-weighted scarcity because the water scarcity values in densely populated areas –
which are often higher than in sparsely populated areas – get more weight. Yet another way of expressing water scarcity is to take the perspective of the average water consumer. The global water consumption pattern is different from the population density pattern, because intensive water consumption in agriculture is not specifically related to where most people live. If we estimate global blue water scarcity by averaging monthly blue water scarcity values per river basin weighted based on the blue water footprint in the respective month and basin, we calculate a global blue water scarcity at 244%. This means that the average blue water consumer in the world experiences a water scarcity of 244%, i.e. operates in a month in a basin in which the blue water footprint is 2.44 times the blue water availability and in which presumptive environmental flow requirements are thus strongly violated.
The data presented in this report should be taken with care. The quality of the presented blue water scarcity data depends on the quality of the underlying data. The estimates of both monthly blue water footprint and monthly blue water availability per river basin can easily contain an error of ± 20 per cent, but a solid basis for making a precise error statement is lacking. This obviously needs additional research. Furthermore, improvements in the estimates can be made by including the effect of dams on the blue water availability over time, by accounting for inter-basin water transfers, by distinguishing between surface water, renewable groundwater and fossil groundwater, by improving estimates of environmental flow requirements, by looking at water scarcity at the level of sub-basins, and by considering inter-annual variability as well. Despite this great room for improvement and bringing in more detail, the current study is a milestone in global water scarcity studies by mapping water
scarcity for the first time on a monthly basis


Improving Nanowire Photovoltaics In principle, solar cells based on arrays of nanowires made from compound inorganic semiconductors, such as indium phosphide (InP), should decrease materials and fabrication costs compared with planar junctions. In practice, device efficiencies tend to be low because of poor light absorption and increased rates of unproductive charge recombination in the surface region. Wallentin et al. (p. 1057, published online 17 January) now report that arrays of p-i-n InP nanowires (that switch from positive to negative doping), grown to millimeter lengths, can be optimized by varying the nanowire diameter and length of the n-doped segment. Efficiencies as high as 13.8% were achieved, which are comparable to the best planar InP photovoltaics. Nanowire solar cells were fabricated that exhibit high photocurrents and low surface recombination. Photovoltaics based on nanowire arrays could reduce cost and materials consumption compared with planar devices but have exhibited low efficiency of light absorption and carrier collection. We fabricated a variety of millimeter-sized arrays of p-type/intrinsic/n-type (p-i-n) doped InP nanowires and found that the nanowire diameter and the length of the top n-segment were critical for cell performance. Efficiencies up to 13.8% (comparable to the record planar InP cell) were achieved by using resonant light trapping in 180-nanometer-diameter nanowires that only covered 12% of the surface. The share of sunlight converted into photocurrent (71%) was six times the limit in a simple ray optics description. Furthermore, the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.906 volt exceeds that of its planar counterpart, despite about 30 times higher surface-to-volume ratio of the nanowire cell.


This report deals with the investigation of the apparent inertia of an airship hull. The exact solution of the aerodynamical problem has been studied for hulls of various shapes and special attention has been given to the case of an ellipsoidal hull. In order that the results for this last case may be readily adapted to other cases, they are expressed in terms of the area and perimeter of the largest cross section perpendicular to the direction motion by means of a formula involving a coefficient K which varies only slowly when the shape of the hull is changed, being 0.637 for a circular or elliptic disk, 0.5 for a sphere, and about 0.25 for a spheroid of fineness ratio 7. For rough purposes it is sufficient to employ the coefficients, originally found for ellipsoids, for hulls otherwise shaped. When more exact values of the inertia are needed, estimates may be based on a study of the way in which K varies with different characteristics and for such a study the new coefficient possesses some advantage over one which is defined with reference to the volume of fluid displaced. The case of rotation of an airship hull has been investigated also and a coefficient has been defined with the same advantages as the corresponding coefficient for rectilinear motion.


* Though violent crime rates have decreased generally over the past two decades, youth violence remains a significant public health problem. Each year in the United States there are over 5,000 homicide victims between the ages of 1 0 and 24 years and more than 700,000 youths are treated in emergency departments for violence-related injuries (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [CDC], 2012). In a recent national survey, over 60% of children reported that they were exposed to violence within the past year, and 46% were assaulted within the past year (Finkelhor, Turner, Ormrod, & Hamby, 2009). The short- and long-term consequences of youth violence are significant. Exposure to youth violence contributes to a range of other poor physical and mental health outcomes for youth, including substance use, high risk sexual behavior, depression, academic problems, and suicide (Arseneault, Walsh, Trzeniewski, Newcombe, & Caspi, 2006; Finkelhor, Turner, & Ormrod, 2006; Menard, 2002; Swahn & Bossarte, 2006).Developmental studies have provided increasing clarity about the types of risk factors to target in order to reduce youth violence (CDC, 2012; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001; World Federation of Mental Health, 2002). The key risk factors associated with youth violence are generally divided into four broad domains: individual, family, peer, and community or neighborhood (Hawkins et al., 1998; Herrenkohl et al., 2000). As a result, a growing list of preventive interventions aimed at children and youth and targeting risk factors identified in basic developmental studies have been shown to be effective (Catalano, Arthur, Hawkins, Berglund, & Olson, 1 998). Thus, we know that programs can be designed to affect developmental trajectories and risk.Much of the work in youth violence prevention has been based in a public heath model and guided by a developmental-ecological perspective on risk and prevention (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1988). A central tenet of developmental-ecological theory is that individual development is influenced by the ongoing qualities of the social settings in which the child lives or participates and the extent and nature of the interaction between these settings. Child development and behavior is influenced by family functioning, peer relationships, schools, communities, and larger societal influences (e.g., norms; media). This model also emphasizes development as an important consideration, recognizing children's capacity for change over time. The same factor may have a different impact depending on the age of the child. Thus, the developmental stage must be considered when identifying and attempting to intervene on risk and protective factors.The key implication of the developmentalecological model for violence prevention is that the impact of preventive interventions is likely dependent on the social ecology in which development occurs and the intervention that is provided (Gorman-Smith, Tolan, & Henry, 2000; Tolan, Gorman-Smith, & Henry, 2003). Just as the social-ecological model of development emphasizes that individual development depends in part on social context, so the developmental-ecological prevention model emphasizes that prevention efforts always take place within some social context, so their impact may depend in part on features of that context.In addition to the substantive findings of each, the papers in this special issue contribute to the field of youth violence by advancing understanding of the nature and importance of context in risk and prevention for a population often left out of the youth violence prevention discussion - students with disabilities. Given the risk for both peer victimization and sometimes perpetration of violence found among this population, these papers highlight the need for further research to better inform the development of effective preventive interventions for these vulnerable youth.The paper by Farmer, Lane, Lee, Hamm, and Lambert (2012 [this issue]) highlights the important contextual influence of school social dynamics in supporting or suppressing aggressive behavior. …


Abstract This article reviews several recent books on the Islamic State in order to understand its goals, motivations, strategy, and vulnerabilities. It argues that the Islamic State's ideology is powerful but also highly instrumental, offering the group legitimacy and recruiting appeal. Raison d'etat often dominates its decisionmaking. The Islamic State's strength is largely a consequence of the policies and weaknesses of its state adversaries. In addition, the group has many weaknesses of its own, notably its brutality, reliance on foreign fighters, and investment in a state as well as its tendency to seek out new enemies. The threat the Islamic State poses is most severe at the local and regional levels. The danger of terrorism to the West is real but mitigated by the Islamic State's continued prioritization of the Muslim world and the heightened focus of Western security forces on the terrorist threat. A high-quality military force could easily defeat Islamic State fighters, but there is no desire to deploy large numbers of Western ground troops, and local forces have repeatedly shown many weaknesses. In the end, containing the Islamic State and making modest rollback efforts may be the best local outcomes.


Wikis are Web-based applications that allow all users not only to view pages but also to change them. The success of the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia has drawn increasing attention from private users, small organizations and enterprises to the various possible uses of wikis. Their simple structure and straightforward operation make them a serious alternative to expensive content management systems and also provide a basis for many applications in the area of collaborative work. We show the practical use of wikis in carrying out projects for users as well as for maintainers. This includes a step-by-step introduction to wiki philosophy, social effects and functions, a survey of their controls and components, and the installation and configuration of the wiki clones MediaWiki, TWiki and Confluence. In order to exemplify the possibilities of the software, we use it as a project tool for planning a conference.


This judicious history of modern Mexico's revolutionary era will help all readers, and in particular students, understand the first great social uprising of the twentieth century. In 1911, land-hungry peasants united with discontented political elites to overthrow General Porfirio Diaz, who had ruled Mexico for three decades. Gonzales offers a path-breaking overview of the revolution from its origins in the Diaz dictatorship through the presidency of radical General Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940) drawn from archival sources and a vast secondary literature. His interpretation balances accounts of agrarian insurgencies, shifting revolutionary alliances, counterrevolutions, and foreign interventions to delineate the triumphs and failures of revolutionary leaders such as Francisco I. Madero, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Alvaro Obregon, and Venustiano Carranza. What emerges is a clear understanding of the tangled events of the period and a fuller appreciation of the efforts of revolutionary presidents after 1916 to reinvent Mexico amid the limitations imposed by a war-torn countryside, a hostile international environment, and the resistance of the Catholic Church and large landowners.


Intensity modulated radiotherapy(IMRT) provides an improvement in the conformality of radiotherapydose distributions. Its application to photonradiotherapy for prostate adenocarcinoma is well established. A quality assurance tool for verifying photonIMRT treatment and the potential application of intensity modulation to neutronradiotherapy (IMNRT) to prostate cancer are investigated here. This study evaluates the use of an amorphous silicon flat panel imager for dose verification of photonIMRT fields. Various correction factors were developed to allow accurate estimation of the absorbed dose using this portal imager. The ratio of the dose measured with the portal imager to that measured using an ionization chamber was found to be 0.991 ± 0.026 for 23 measured IMRT fields. The study also yielded an accurate estimate of the relative beamlet intensity (fluence) at the plane of the detector. The raw difference between the relative beamlet intensity predicted by the EPID and that of the planning system for 23 IMRT fields was found to be − 0.65 ± 2.69 . These results demonstrate the capabilities of this imager as a robust IMRTquality assurance tool. An in-house optimization algorithm was used to optimize forward planned segments for the treatment of prostate cancer using IMNRT. The applicability of two different algorithms was investigated for IMNRT dose calculation, namely, the differential scatter air ratio (DSAR) and the finite size pencil beam (FSPB) algorithms. Measured profiles and absolute point doses were compared to results calculated by the treatment planning system. Dual ion-chamber measurements were performed to determine the individual neutron and gamma doses and to estimate the whole body dose equivalent. IMNRT plans retrospectively calculated for five prostate cancer patients provided dose distributions superior to conventional fast neutron therapy. When normalized to provide equivalent target coverage, the volume of the rectum and bladder receiving 80% of the prescription dose in the IMNRT plans was reduced by an average of 16% and 13%, respectively. Measured and calculated profiles for IMNRT fields matched to within ± 3 % with the exception of the penumbral region. Absolute point dose measurements also agreed with calculated doses to within ± 3 % at various points within the modulated dose distribution. Whole body dose estimates for IMNRT plans generated in this study were only an average of 16% higher than conventional fast neutron therapy and no significant variations in RBE are expected based on current measurements. Based on the results presented here, clinical implementation of IMNRT is currently achievable.


The six Coral Triangle countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste—each have evolving systems of marine protected areas (MPAs) at the national and local levels. More than 1,900 MPAs covering 200,881 km2 (1.6% of the exclusive economic zone for the region) have been established within these countries over the last 40 years under legal mandates that range from village level traditional law to national legal frameworks that mandate the protection of large areas as MPAs. The focus of protection has been primarily on critical marine habitats and ecosystems, with a strong emphasis on maintaining and improving the status of near-shore fisheries, a primary food and economic resource in the region. This article brings together for the first time a consistent set of current data on MPAs for the six countries and reviews progress toward the establishment of MPAs in these countries with regard to (i) coverage of critical habitat (e.g., 17.8% of the coral reef habitat within the region lies within an MPA), (ii) areas under effective management, and (iii) actions needed to improve the implementation of MPAs as a marine conservation and resource management strategy. The contribution of MPAs to the Coral Triangle MPA System as called for in the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security Regional Plan of Action is clarified. Options for scaling up existing MPAs to networks of MPAs that are more ecologically linked and integrated with fisheries management and responsive to changing climate through the Coral Triangle MPA System development are discussed. A key point is the need to improve the effectiveness of existing MPAs, and plan in a manner leading to ecosystem-based management.


Although supervised deep learning has revolutionized speech and audio processing, it has necessitated the building of specialist models for individual tasks and application scenarios. It is likewise difficult to apply this to dialects and languages for which only limited labeled data is available. Self-supervised representation learning methods promise a single universal model that would benefit a wide variety of tasks and domains. Such methods have shown success in natural language processing and computer vision domains, achieving new levels of performance while reducing the number of labels required for many downstream scenarios. Speech representation learning is experiencing similar progress in three main categories: generative, contrastive, and predictive methods. Other approaches rely on multi-modal data for pre-training, mixing text or visual data streams with speech. Although self-supervised speech representation is still a nascent research area, it is closely related to acoustic word embedding and learning with zero lexical resources, both of which have seen active research for many years. This review presents approaches for self-supervised speech representation learning and their connection to other research areas. Since many current methods focus solely on automatic speech recognition as a downstream task, we review recent efforts on benchmarking learned representations to extend the application beyond speech recognition.


Block-based programming systems employ a jigsaw metaphor to write programs. They are popular in the domain of programming education (e.g., Scratch), but also used as a programming interface for end-users in other disciplines, such as arts, robotics, and configuration management. In particular, block-based environments promise a convenient interface for Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) for domain experts who might lack a traditional programming education. However, building a block-based environment for a DSL from scratch requires significant effort. This paper presents an approach to engineer block-based language interfaces by reusing existing language artifacts. We present Kogi, a tool for deriving block-based environments from context-free grammars. We identify and define the abstract structure for describing block-based environments. Kogi transforms a context-free grammar into this structure, which then generates a block-based environment based on Google Blockly. The approach is illustrated with four case studies, a DSL for state machines, Sonification Blocks (a DSL for sound synthesis), Pico (a simple programming language), and QL (a DSL for questionnaires). The results show that usable block-based environments can be derived from context-free grammars, and with an order of magnitude reduction in effort.


Localized operators, like Gabor wavelets and difference-of-gaussian filters, are considered useful tools for image representation. This is due to their ability to form a sparse code that can serve as a basis set for high-fidelity reconstruction of natural images. However, for many visual tasks, the more appropriate criterion of representational efficacy is recognition rather than reconstruction. It is unclear whether simple local features provide the stability necessary to subserve robust recognition of complex objects. In this article, we search the space of two-lobed differential operators for those that constitute a good representational code under recognition and discrimination criteria. We find that a novel operator, which we call the dissociated dipole, displays useful properties in this regard. We describe simple computational experiments to assess the merits of such dipoles relative to the more traditional local operators. The results suggest that nonlocal operators constitute a vocabulary that is stable across a range of image transformations.


Amphibian species have experienced global declines since the 1970s andplethodontid salamanders are no exception. The green salamander, Aneides aeneus, is aplethodontid salamander that has experienced declines throughout its range in the BlueRidge Escarpment.Species distribution models are algorithms that predict occurrences of a speciesacross a landscape and can be used to determine conservation priority areas. However,there are commonly only presence locations without corresponding absence locationsavailable to a researcher. These presence-only datasets can present a challenge whentrying to depict reliable distributions for a species of concern. Maximum Entropy(MaxEnt) is an algorithm empirically tested to model species distributions givenpresence-only datatsets.I used landscape-level species distribution models including MaxEnt and logisticregression to model the occurrence of green salamanders across the Blue RidgeEscarpment of North Carolina. These models were used to assess particular featuresassociated with A. aeneus presence as well used to search for new localities. MaxEnt models outperformed logistic regressions for all methods of evaluation.MaxEnt models had fairly low omission (false negative) and commission (false positive)rates whereas my logistic regression had extremely high error rates for both. "Area Underthe Receiver Operator Curve" evaluation scores were excellent (0.96) and good (0.81) forthe top Maxent model and logistic regression, respectively.Aneides aeneus is known to be associated with habitat that includes rockoutcroppings with thin, deep crevices. My models indicated that forested areas,intermediate elevations, and shallow soils of particular types are desirable landscapefeatures for A. aeneus. Soil was the most important variable in all models, accounting foralmost half of the variation in MaxEnt models. Elevation accounted for most of theremaining variation. Percent canopy cover accounted for 4-6.5% of the variation inMaxent models. While these models did not specifically predict presence of outcrops,they were extremely helpful in identifying habitat with conditions supportive for A.aeneus if a rock outcrop was present. With the help of these models I discovered onepreviously unknown locality for A. aeneus and am confident addition locations can befound.


This paper employs a wage-setting approach to analyze the labor market effects of immigration into Germany. The wage-setting framework relies on the assumption that wages tend to decline with the unemployment rate, albeit imperfectly. This enables us to consider labor market rigidities, which are particularly relevant in Europe. We find that the elasticity of the wage-setting curve is particularly high for young and well-educated workers. The labor market effects of immigration are moderate: a 1 percent increase in the German labor force through immigration increases the unemployment rate by less than 0.1 percentage points and reduces wages by 0.1 percent.


Modal auxiliary is one of the difficult grammatical components in learning English as an ESL/EFL because the students found some difficulties in distinguishing between modal auxiliary and the simple present tense. They tend to add -s ending in modal auxiliary. Based on the consideration above, it is important to analyze the type of errors and the frequency of the errors made by the fourth semester students in using modal auxiliaries at UMM.
This study used descriptive research design because it was basically aimed at describing the errors made by the fourth semester students of English Department in using modal auxiliary. The population of this study was the fourth semester students; 36 students were taken as the sample of this study by using proportional random sampling. The data were obtained from the result of the test on modal auxiliaries.
After collecting and analyzing the data, it was found that 267 errors were made by the fourth semester students. They were 64 (23.97%) errors in omission; in this case, the students omitted an item that must appear in a well-form sentence, 32 (11.96%) errors in addition; in this case, the students presented an item which must not appear in a sentence, 77 (28.84%) errors in misformation; in this case, the students used a wrong form of modal auxiliaries, and 94 (35.20%) errors in misordering; in this case, the students put modal auxiliaries in an incorrect order. Based on the percentage of each type of errors made by the students, it was found out that the highest frequency of the errors was misordering error (35.20%).
It can be concluded that the fourth semester students of English Department at UMM still had problems in using modal auxiliaries, it was proved that they still made errors in using modal auxiliaries and the highest frequency of error was misordering error.


Although marketing strategies are often accused of stimulating overconsumption, businesses increasingly show potential as enablers of sufficiency. The concept of sufficiency contributes to sustainable development through the absolute reduction of resources and energy used for consumption by questioning the level of demand. This study analyzes reasons and potential practices for commercial marketing to promote sufficiency through a systematic literature review of scientific publications, guided by the following research questions: Why should commercial marketing promote sufficiency? How can commercial marketing promote sufficiency? Which barriers for promoting sufficiency occur? The content-based study of 17 publications in the final review sample delivers recommendations for how to practically implement marketing for sufficiency, and theoretical considerations for strengthening the discourse within macromarketing and beyond.


: On the hardware level, we are proposing and testing a bio-inspired quadruped robot design (Oncilla robot), based on light-weight, compliant, and three-segmented legs. Our choice of placing the compliance such that it is spanning two joints enforces a non-linear spring stiffness. Based on the SLIP-model assumption, we compare progressive and degressive stiffness profiles against a linear-leg stiffness. To facilitate fast and throughout testing also of control approaches we have created a robot model of Oncilla robot in simulation (in Webots [1], a physics-based simulation environment). Here we are presenting new simulation results based on open-loop-central pattern generator (CPG) control and PSOoptimization of the CPG parameters. Our quadruped robot is equipped with passive compliant elements in its legs, and we apply two different strategies to make use of the legs' compliance during stance phase. This enables us to find stable trot gait patterns propelling the robot up to 1 m/s (more than four times the robot's leg length), depending on the applied stance phase leg-strategy. Different trot gait patterns emerge, and resulting trot gaits are variable in stability (tested as robustness against external perturbations) and speed


This article analyzes the dual as well as overlapping role of madrasah in the history of Indonesian Islamic education. It argues that madrasah has long been playing the double roles at once; on the one hand it has served as the enlightening process of Indonesian Islam by giving a sense of moderation. It also has paved the way for the accommodation of non-religious subjects within its existing religious ones. In this sense, madrasah has played its social humanism. Madrasah, however, has been an effective means of power struggle as well as social mobilization among Muslims into the center of socio-political spheres. As Indonesian Muslims have long been marginalized by non-Islamic schooling system, madrasah has helped them struggle from their marginality through the emancipation and participation programs launched by madrasah. Muslims have been incessantly fought for their equality in terms of madrasah's legal status and demanded more equal treatment from the state. In effect, the enactment of the Law No. 2/1989 marks a radical shift in the direction of Islamic education in Indonesia which is celebrated by the community of madrasah as a new era for their autonomy and equal status before the state.


In this paper, a robust design framework is proposed to mitigate torque ripple for line-start permanent magnet synchronous machines (LS-PMSM) by using the Taguchi method. The framework is intended for fine-tuning initial optimum designs to further improve the steady-state torque quality of LS-PMSMs. The proposed framework was successfully implemented on an LS-PMSM design. A notable decrease in steady-state torque ripple was achieved without a significant reduction in steady-state performance and transient load synchronization capability. It has been shown that the proposed robust torque ripple mitigation framework is both functional and time efficient and can be applied to a wide range of electrical machines.


This study investigates the predictive ability of current and past cash flows with respect to the estimation of future cash flow, and compares this predictive ability with that of current and past earnings. Future cash flow is estimated in this study on the basis of a model hierarchy that initially incorporates aggregated predictors and then their disaggregated components, with the objective of improving on conventional research design with respect to the problematic issues surrounding missing values in source databases, extreme values in the sampled data and variability in fiscal year length. In determining whether the disaggregation of earnings into cash flow, accruals and their components adds to the predictive ability of cash flow, the present thesis also documents out-of-sample accuracy tests for the UK based on initial in-sample estimations, with accruals being computed using both the information in the Statement of Cash Flows and the information that may be derived from Balance Sheet changes. Using the information in the Statement of Cash Flows, the results of the in-sample estimation indicate that, whilst there is no notable difference between the ability of cash flow and aggregate earnings to predict future cash flow, the disaggregation of earnings into cash flow and accruals improves the prediction. The out-of-sample accuracy tests confirm the standard result that this disaggregated earnings model is a better predictor of future cash flow. In contrast, this thesis shows that, when using information in the Balance Sheet, by way of changes from one period to the next, the results of both the in-sample estimation and the out-of-sample accuracy tests show that disaggregated earnings is unable to outperform aggregate earnings in predicting future cash flow. Nevertheless, when the total accrual is further disaggregated into its deferral and accrual components, in-sample estimation reveals additional improvement in predictive ability, using each of the two sources of information to compute total accruals (the Statement of Cash Flows and Balance Sheet changes), although this is less evident with the out-of-sample tests. Whilst further analysis indicates that disaggregation is more informative when the firm size is large, the magnitude of accruals is low and the firm reports a positive CFO and EBIT, the thesis shows that the ability of the estimation models to predict future cash flow differs across industries in the UK, and that the findings are generally sensitive to the effect of database choice, the fiscal year length, and the identification and treatment of unrecorded data.


We explore strategies for probing Hidden Valley scenarios exhibiting confinement. Such scenarios lead to a multiplicity of light hidden hadrons from showering processes. Their decays are typically soft and displaced, making them challenging to probe with traditional LHC searches. We show the low trigger thresholds and excellent track and vertex reconstruction at LHCb provide an ideal environment to search for such signals -- in both muonic and hadronic channels. We also explore the potential of ATLAS/CMS and discuss modifications to present searches that might make these experiments competitive with the LHCb reach. Our proposed searches can probe $Z^{\prime}$ models with dominant decays to dark sectors as well as exotic Higgs boson decays in Twin Higgs models.


Criteria for Selecting PEGylation Sites on Proteins for Higher Thermodynamic Stability Paul B. Lawrence Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, BYU Doctor of Philosophy PEGylation of protein side-chains has been used for more than 30 years to enhance the pharmacokinetic properties of protein drugs, and has been enabled by the recent development of many chemoselective reactions for protein side-chain modification. However, there are no structureor sequence-based guidelines for selecting sites that provide optimal PEG-based pharmacokinetic enhancement with minimal loss to biological activity. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction to protein PEGylation. In chapter 2 we use the WW domain of the human protein Pin 1 (WW) as a model system to probe the impact of PEG on protein conformational stability. Using a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches, we develop a structure-based method for predicting which sites within WW are most likely to experience PEG-based stabilization, and show that this method correctly predicts the location of a stabilizing PEGylation site within the chicken Src SH3 domain. PEG-based stabilization in WW is associated with enhanced resistance to proteolysis, is entropic in origin, and likely involves disruption by PEG of the network of hydrogen-bound solvent molecules that surround the protein. Chapter 3 shows that PEG-based stabilization of the WW domain depends strongly on the identity of the PEG-protein linker, with the most stabilizing linkers involving conjugation of PEG to an Asn side-chain amide nitrogen. Chapter 4 investigates the interplay between structure-based guidelines for PEG-base stabilization developed in chapter 2 and the different chemistries explored in chapter 3.


The dietary preference of Sivatherium hendeyi (Harris, 1976), an extinct giraffid from the early Pliocene of South Africa, was investigated by applying three dietary reconstruction tools - hypsodonty, mesowear and microwear. The hypsodonty index for S. hendeyi is 1.51 ± 0.06, which is within the brachyodont category as in most ruminant browsers. The mesowear signature of S. hendeyi is most similar to the mixed feeders (the seasonal mixed feeders). Microwear investigations also support a mixed diet for S. hendeyi. Taken together, results indicate that the dietary preference of this extinct giraffid is most similar to that of seasonal mixed feeders and show no similarities with grazers. The slight differences in the type of mixed feeding are discussed and highlight the constraints of each method for the interpretation of diets of fossil herbivores. The importance of the results in terms of the evolution of dietary strategies amongst African Sivatheriinae are also discussed.


Liquefaction of granular soil deposits can have extremely detrimental effects on the stability of embankment dams, natural soil slopes, and mine tailings. The residual or liquefied shear strength of the liquefiable soils is a very important parameter when evaluating stability and deformation of level and sloping ground. Current procedures for estimating the liquefied shear strength are based on extensive laboratory testing programs or from the back-analysis of failures where liquefaction was involved and in-situ testing data was available. All available procedures utilize deterministic methods for estimation and selection of the liquefied shear strength. Over the past decade, there has been an increasing trend towards analyzing geotechnical problems using probability and reliability. This study presents procedures for assessing the liquefied shear strength of cohesionless soil deposits within a risk-based framework. Probabilistic slope stability procedures using reliability methods and Monte Carlo Simulations are developed to incorporate uncertainties associated with geometrical and material parameters. The probabilistic methods are applied to flow liquefaction case histories from the 1999 Kocaeli/Duzce, Turkey Earthquake, where extensive liquefaction was observed. The methods presented in this paper should aid in making better decisions about the design and rehabilitation of structures constructed of or atop liquefiable soil deposits.


MOTIVATION
The evolutionary distance inferred from gene-order comparisons of related bacteria is dependent on the model. Therefore, it is highly important to establish reliable assumptions before inferring its magnitude.

RESULTS
We investigate the patterns of dotplots between species of bacteria with the purpose of model selection in gene-order problems. We find several categories of data which can be explained by carefully weighing the contributions of reversals, transpositions, symmetrical reversals, single gene transpositions and single gene reversals. We also derive method of moments distance estimates for some previously uncomputed cases, such as symmetrical reversals, single gene reversals and their combinations, as well as the single gene transpositions edit distance.


Background/Aims: The risk factors for pituitary hormone dysfunction (PHD) in children with optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) are not well understood. This study identified the type, timing, and predictors of PHD in children with ONH. Methods: ONH patient charts were reviewed retrospectively. The incidence rate of PHD was calculated assuming a Poisson distribution. Predictors of PHD were identified through a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model. Results: Among 144 subjects with ONH, 49.3% (n = 71) developed PHD over 614.7 person-years of follow-up. The incidence was 11.55 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.02–14.57/100 person-years). The median time to first PHD was 2.88 (interquartile range: 0.02–18.72) months. Eighty-two percent developed their first PHD by their 5th and 90% by their 10th birthday, and 89% within 5 years of ONH diagnosis. Prematurity (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.1–1.07), blindness (aHR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.03–2.86), maternal substance abuse (aHR: 1.51; 95% CI: 0.91–2.48), abnormal posterior pituitary (aHR: 3.8; 95% CI: 2.01–7.18), and hypoplastic/absent anterior pituitary (aHR: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.29–4.91) were significant predictors of PHD. Conclusions: The clinical predictors of PHD included blindness, pituitary gland abnormalities, and maternal substance abuse. These predictors help clinical decision-making related to the need for and frequency of hormone testing in pediatric patients with ONH.


Silicon and hematite, both important functional materials with high theoretical capacity, have been intensively investigated separately for application as anode materials in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). The main challenges associated with these anode materials are their low electronic conductivity and structural degradation caused by large volume expansion during cycling, which are not tolerable for future LIBs with high energy density and large power output. Active particles anchored on a porous conductive skeleton are widely used for improving the electrochemical performance of silicon as well as that of hematite. Herein, we develop a novel-structured carbon–silicon–hematite anode material via a single-step technique that addresses these problems. In the resultant architecture, silicon nanoparticles are sandwiched between the iron-oxide-embedded porous carbon sheets. The flexible and conductive carbon sheets improve the conductivity and accommodate the volume changes of the embedded hematite and silicon nanoparticles, and thus maintain the structural and electrical integrity. Meanwhile, the void space between the carbon layers leaves enough room for the expansion and contraction of silicon during the lithiation and delithiation processes. High capacity (∼1980 mA h g−1 at 750 mA g−1) and long cycle life (250 cycles) have been achieved for this sandwich-like carbon–silicon–hematite electrode.


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for preventing the drivers of vehicles from overlooking light vehicles, when turning the vehicle, where the light vehicle comprises means for transmitting a radio signal, where the vehicle comprises means for receiving the radio signal, where the vehicle comprises information means for informing the driver of the presence of a light vehicle near the vehicle. It is the object of the invention to prevent the drivers of vehicles and lorries from over-looking pedal bikes and other light vehicles, when turning the vehicle. The vehicle comprises means for transmitting a radio signal to the light vehicle, where the light vehicle comprises means for receiving the radio signal, and where the means on the light vehicle convert the received radio signals into electric power, which power is used for the means to transmit a radio signal to at least one receiver, which receiver is placed on the vehicle. This ensures that a very reliable radio transmitting device can be used on the light vehicle. As the circuit on the light vehicle operates without any kind of power supply, it is independent of batteries that may run down. The driver of the vehicle is warned of light vehicles by means of light emitting diodes, which flash in front of him and also by means of an acoustic signal. Thus, the driver will recognize light vehicles approaching his vehicle, and he will know when it is safe to make a turn.


Mammalian skeletal muscle is a highly dynamic organ capable of structural and metabolic remodeling in response to exercise demands, nutrient supply, and environmental insults. Muscle also plays a central role in the maintenance of whole-body energy balance, capable of both storing and oxidizing carbohydrate and lipid fuels. The course of natural aging leads to a gradual decline in the mass, strength, and oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle, which increases the susceptibility of the elderly to frailty and metabolic diseases, such as Type II Diabetes. Ectopic muscle lipids can also exacerbate the metabolic complications of obesity, prompting interest in new means of combating this effect by stimulating aerobic muscle metabolism. Several lines of evidence have converged on the fundamental electron-shuttling metabolite, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), as a co-factor and signaling intermediate uniquely positioned to modulate whole-body energy balance through transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms. Though it has long been known that NAD supports essential metabolic pathways in muscle, attempts to stimulate oxidative metabolism by systemically increasing intracellular NAD concentration have been unable to resolve the specific contribution, if any, of skeletal muscle to the resulting phenotypes. Furthermore, the observation that muscle NAD content tends to decline with age has never been demonstrated to have functional consequences. I have addressed these questions experimentally by generating transgenic mice with altered muscle expression of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt), the rate-limiting enzyme in the mammalian NAD salvage biosynthetic pathway. Despite effectively increasing the muscle NAD pool, Nampt expression alone is not sufficient to stimulate mitochondrial function in young mice and provides no protection from diet-induced obesity. However, aging these mice for 24 months revealed partial preservation of youthful exercise capacity through primarily non-transcriptional mechanisms. Specific deletion of Nampt in adult mice elucidated a critical threshold of NAD required to maintain the exercise performance, as well as the mass and strength of muscle, by directly supporting aerobic ATP synthesis. Importantly, these parameters can be rapidly and uniformly restored by administration of the NAD precursor, nicotinamide riboside. These studies indicate that loss of NAD homeostasis is a reversible cause of skeletal muscle dysfunction with wideranging therapeutic implications. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Joseph A. Baur This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1725


Depth-based 3D hand trackers are expected to estimate highly accurate poses of the human hand given the image. One of the critical problems in tracking the hand pose is the generation of realistic predictions. This paper proposes a novel "anatomical filter" that accepts a hand pose from a hand tracker and generates the closest possible pose within the real human hand's anatomical bounds. The filter works by calculating the 26-DoF vector representing the joint angles and correcting those angles based on the real human hand's biomechanical limitations. The proposed filter can be plugged into any hand tracker to enhance its performance. The filter has been tested on two state-of-the-art 3D hand trackers. The empirical observations show that our proposed filter improves the hand pose's anatomical correctness and allows a smooth trade-off with pose error. The filter achieves the lowest prediction error when used with state-of-the-art trackers at 10% correction.


In Vitro Characterization of the Percutaneous Absorption of Lorazepam into Human Cadaver Torso Skin, Using the Franz Skin Finite Dose Models
Objective
Lorazepam is a sedative that may be used for the management of anxiety, insomnia, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Lorazepam can be incorporated into transdermal bases such as Lipoderm, referred to as Phospholipid Base, for drug delivery across the skin. The purpose of this study is to characterize the percutaneous absorption of lorazepam 5 mg/g in Phospholipid Base, when applied to human cadaver torso skin, in vitro, using the Franz skin finite dose model.
Methods
The percutaneous absorption of lorazepam was evaluated using ex vivo human cadaver torso skin from 3 donors. The skin from each donor was cut into small sections to fit on nominal 2 cm2 Franz diffusion cells. A nominal volume equivalent to 5 mg formulation/cm2/skin section was then applied to a 2 cm2 dosing surface of 3 replicate skin sections for each donor. At predetermined time points (0, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24, 32, and 48 hr), the receptor solution within each chamber was removed, replaced with fresh receptor solution, and an aliquot of 6 mL was saved for analysis. Mean values for lorazepam total absorption, rate of absorption, skin content, and surface wash were quantified via HPLC analysis.
Results
Lorazepam mean total absorption was 8.38% ± 4.37, with a rise to peak rate of absorption at approximately 30 hr following dose application. Lorazepam was also found within the dermis and epidermis at 0.22% ± 0.02 and 3.65% ± 1.29 of the applied dose, respectively.
Conclusion
Results show that Phospholipid Base can facilitate the percutaneous absorption of lorazepam. This study's findings may be helpful when justifying the viability of using Phospholipid Base as a vehicle for the transdermal delivery of lorazepam and could potentially be useful for practitioners and pharmacists considering the skin as an alternative route for the delivery of lorazepam.


Large web search engines process billions of queries each day over tens of billions of documents with often very stringent requirements for a user's search experience, in particular, low latency and highly relevant search results. Index generation and serving are key to satisfying both these requirements. For example, the load to search engines can vary drastically when popular events happen around the world. In the case when the load is exceeding what the search engine can serve, queries will get dropped. This results in an un- graceful degradation in search quality. Another example that could increase the query load and affect the user's search experience are ambiguous queries which often result in the execution of multiple query alterations in the back end. In this paper, we look into the problem of designing robust indexing strategies, i.e. strategies that allow for a graceful degradation of search quality in both the above scenarios. We study the problems of index generation and serving using the notions of document allocation, server selection, and document replication. We explore the space of efficient algorithms for these problems and empirically corroborate with existing theory that it is hard to optimally solve the alocation and selection problems without any replication. We propose a greedy replication algorithm and study its performance under different choices of allocation and selection. Further, we show hat under random selection and allocation, our algorithm is optimal.


The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to considerably affect the Ethiopian economy directly and indirectly due to global shocks and to the different restrictive preventative measures the country is taking. We analyze these economic effects using multisector economywide income multiplier models built on the two latest Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) developed for Ethiopia. Three external sector channels are the focus of the analysis: commodity exports, strategic imports, and remittances. Results indicate that in the absence of any policy responses, the Ethiopian economy is expected to experience a loss of approximately 4.3 to 5.5 percent of its annual GDP due to exports, strategic imports, and remittances that are one-third lower relative to the no-COVID situation over a period of six-months. This translates into estimated reductions in labor income of between 4.2 and 5.2 percent. The SAM multiplier model estimates also imply that these negative shocks lead to household income losses that amount to between 3.9 and 6.4 percent. In particular, the urban poor will be the most affected as they lose real incomes in the range of 6.6 to 8.5 percent. These income losses are estimated to result in a 3.5 percentage point rise in the national poverty headcount.


Article history: Received 6 July, 2016 Accepted 30 October 2016 Available online 31 October 2016 Application of cooling slope in casting is a relatively simple process with low equipment and processing costs, which is able to produce semi-solid slurries with different parameters such as pouring temperature, length and angle of slope plate, and plate type. In this study, the effect of angle and length of copper made slope plate on the microstructure of A360-Aluminum alloy is investigated. Microstructure study of metallographic samples in different conditions revealed that for 400mm slope length and 60° slope angle the optimum sphierized and homogenized microstructure is achieved. Also, under these conditions, the most hardness (77HB) was obtained, which might be because of suitable solidification conditions namely time and rate of shear stress. After finding the suitable conditions of slope length and angle, the effect of the circulation cooling system was examined; and the method with cooling system was found to result in more homogenized microstructure compared to ordinary method. © 2017 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


The central role of the cellular immune response in the control and clearance of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been well-established. The contribution of humoral immunity, including B cell and antibody responses against HBV, has been investigated for a long time but has attracted increasing attention again in recent years. The anti-HBs antibody was first recognized as a marker of protective immunity after the acute resolution of the HBV infection (or vaccination) and is now defined as a biomarker for the functional cure of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). In this way, therapies targeting HBV-specific B cells and the induction of an anti-HBs antibody response are essential elements of a rational strategy to terminate chronic HBV infection. However, a high load of HBsAg in the blood, which has been proposed to induce antigen-specific immune tolerance, represents a major obstacle to curing CHB. Long-term antiviral treatment by nucleoside analogs, by targeting viral translation by siRNA, by inhibiting HBsAg release via nucleic acid polymers, or by neutralizing HBsAg via specific antibodies could potentially reduce the HBsAg load in CHB patients. A combined strategy including a reduction of the HBsAg load via the above treatments and the therapeutic targeting of B cells by vaccination may induce the appearance of anti-HBs antibodies and lead to a functional cure of CHB.


These puzzles emerged during the first ACM Conference on Universal Usability (http://www.acm.org/sigchi/cuu/), held on November 15-17, 2000 near Washington, DC. The international group of organizers, presenters, and attendees of this conference shared an unusual commitment and passion for making information and communications services accessible, usable, and useful. They want to see effective healthcare services and appealing distance education. They want to create successful e-commerce and accessible government services for all. Realizing these possibilities requires more than low-cost hardware or broadband networks. These mass-market services are often too complex, unusable, or irrelevant for too many users [1]; usability and design become the keys to success.


Access to safe drinking water remains a challenge in many regions of the world. New methods to treat drinking water are constantly developped and improved in both in industrialised countries and in developing countries. SODIS is an interesting household-level disinfection technique that simply consists of pouring water into a PET bottle and exposing it to sunlight for at least 6 hours. Bacteria are efficiently inactivated by sunlight during SODIS, but the efficiency of SODIS on virus removal is much less studied. In this work, the inactivation of bacteriophages MS2 and phiX174, and human echovirus and adenovirus was studied in three different waters, two from India and one from Switzerland. Good removal (4 logs in 6 hours at 22°C and a fluence rate of 600 1.34 kJ/cm2) of MS2 was achieved in Swiss tap water, while less efficient inactivation was achieved in both Indian waters for MS2 and echovirus (1 log in 6 hours at 22°C and a fluence rate of 1.34 kJ/cm2). Both phiX174 and adenovirus were much more resistant to SODIS disinfection and less than 1 log of inactivation was obtained in Swiss tap water for phiX174. However, inactivation was not significantly different from the dark control in Indian water and for all experiments with adenovirus. Echovirus was inactivated similarly than MS2 and adenovirus was equally slow as phiX174. An increased temperature during SODIS enhanced inactivation substantially; 6 logs in 6 hours could be expected at 45 °C and with a fluence rate of 1.34 kJ/cm2. Indirect-solar inactivation was responsible for the MS2 removal, while direct inactivation via sunlight absorption of genome was not occurring during SODIS. We argue that iron could be responsible for the formation of reactive oxygen species which react with the viruses and yield their inactivation. The slower inactivation in Indian waters was probably due to the quenching effect of the higher concentration of organic matter. Removal of echoviruses during SODIS could be sufficient (4 logs in 6 hours) particularly at higher temperatures and for water with a low organic matter content. In contrast, SODIS may not be effective to remove Adenoviruses.


This project involved using aerial imagery and GIS procedures to automatically map the basic vegetation communities present within Montana de Oro State Park, CA: grassland, coastal scrub, bare ground, woodland, and riparian areas. 1m resolution color imagery of the park from the NAIP 2005 (National Agriculture Inventory Program) and 1m resolution LiDAR height data were also used to determine the locations of the different vegetation types in the park. This data was then classified by color using the interactive supervised classification tool in ArcGIS. Points were taken in the park using a GPS unit, and compared with the GIS results to test for the accuracy of the resultant map. The main goals of this project were to classify the vegetation types in Montana de Oro, and provide information that could be useful in the future. This project will also serve as a set of guidelines for students wishing to do similar projects using GIS. Through image classification tools in ArcGIS and field verification, we were able to accurately classify vegetation types in Montana de Oro and provide the basis for similar projects in the future.


The area of computer-generated artificial life-forms is a relatively recent field of inter-disciplinary study that involves mathematical modelling, physical intuition and ideas from chemistry and biology and computational science. Although the attribution of "life" to non biological systems is still controversial, several groups agree that certain emergent properties can be ascribed to computer simulated systems that can be constructed to "live" in a simulated environment. In this paper we discuss some of the issues and infrastructure necessary to construct a simulation laboratory for the study of computer generated artificial life-forms. We review possible technologies and present some preliminary studies based around simple models.


Arguably the most remarkable property of the human brain is its ability to construct the world that appears to consciousness. The brain is capable of building worlds during waking life, but also in the complete absence of extrinsic sensory data, entirely from intrinsic thalamocortical activity, as during dreaming. DMT, an extraordinary psychedelic, perturbs brain activity such that indescribably bizarre and apparently alien worlds are built. This property of DMT continues to defy explanation. However, by regarding this unique molecule as equivalent to serotonin, an endogenous neuromodulator with a long-standing relationship with the brain, DMT's eff ects may be explained. Serotonin has evolved to hold the brain's thalamocortical system in a state in which the consensus world is built. When serotonin is replaced by DMT, the thalamocortical system shifts into an equivalent state, but one in which an apparently alien world is built. This suggests that DMT may be an ancestral neuromodulator, at one time secreted endogenously in psychedelic concentrations—a function apparently now lost. However, DMT maintains a number of unique pharmacological characteristics and a peculiar affi nity with the human brain that supports this model. Thus, the modern practice of ingesting exogenous DMT may be the reconstitution of an ancestral function. Friends, right here and now, one quantum away, there is raging a universe of active intelligence that is transhuman, hyperdimensional, and extremely alien. —Terence McKenna


Abstract Habitat loss and modification are causing declines in the abundance and distribution of plant and animal species, yet robust information on which to base management and regulatory decisions for these species frequently is not available. Thamnophis gigas (Giant Gartersnakes), a species listed as threatened under the U.S. and California Endangered Species Acts, is strongly associated with aquatic ecosystems in the Great Central Valley (California), yet many aspects of its ecology remain poorly understood. We evaluated relationships between environmental attributes and occupancy of T. gigas and predicted the species' occupancy across ∼300,000 ha in the northern Central Valley. We trapped T. gigas at 159 sites and characterized land cover, land use, and soil type at each site. Occupancy of T. gigas was strongly and negatively associated with elevation and strongly and positively associated with canal density and the proportion of rice and perennial wetland. We also found a strong and previously undescribed association between occupancy and soil order. Estimated occupancy was over five times greater at sites underlain by alfisols, molisols, and vertisols than at sites underlain by entisols and inceptisols. We used the statistical associations between environmental variables and occupancy to predict occupancy at a spatial resolution and extent consistent with management of both T. gigas and regional land and water use.


The molecular basis of Costello syndrome (CS) is heterozygous germline mutations in HRAS. Over 95% of patients with CS have been found to have mutations in codon 12 or codon 13, with over 80% having the single mutation c.34G>A, p.(Gly12Ser). The mutational spectrum is similar, but not identical, to that observed for somatic HRAS mutations in cancer. These mutations result in constitutive activation of the HRAS protein. The function of HRAS as a molecular switch is therefore perturbed, resulting in increased downstream Ras-MAPK pathway activity. The severity of clinical features of CS in any given individual may be influenced by which mutation is present, with mutations more commonly observed in cancer, such as p.(Gly12Val), which have more dramatic effects at the cellular level, tending to lead to a more severe presentation. As for other germline disorders, however, much variability is seen, which may be due to further genomic and other modifying factors.

Key Concepts:

Germline gain of function mutations in HRAS cause Costello syndrome (CS).

Somatic gain-of-function HRAS mutations (often with more extreme biochemical effects) are also found in cancer.

HRAS p.(Gly12Ser) is the cause of CS in 80% of patients diagnosed with this condition.

CS is associated with advanced paternal age.

Spermatogonia in the testes of older fathers may be enriched for mutations conferring a proliferative advantage, such as the HRAS mutations that underlie CS.

Keywords:

Costello syndrome;
HRAS;
germline mutation;
paternal age effect;
selfish spermatogonial selection


The existential psychology's concern with the feeling of meaningfulness in life forms the basis for the present study aiming to investigate the relationship between perceived meaningfulness, and search for meaningfulness in life, and level of conformity. An online survey was distributed to employees at a university in Sweden, and included two questionnaires; the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Concern for Appropriateness (CFA) questionnaire. One hundred and two respondents completed the survey. CFA was found to significantly correlate with MLQ-Presence (r = -.456 p = <.001) and MLQ-Search (r = .307 p = .002). The present study found that the feeling of present meaningfulness was significantly lower among those who cared more about fitting into others´ norms concerning how to behave.


Pedagogies incorporating technology-enhanced learning (TEL) are growing in social work education. However, there have been few explorations of the effectiveness of use of particular pedagogical designs based upon authentic learning principles in social work education. This paper contributes to such scholarship on teaching and learning using technologies through the analysis of five qualitative case studies of South African social work educators in order to ascertain whether and how the principles underpinning authentic learning are present in their teaching practices. The paper concludes by arguing that the use of TEL in combination with the principles of authentic learning have the potential to support social work students become work-ready


Abstract Toxic releases and spills along the U.S.‐Mexican border are examined to define the "chemical frontier," where economic growth is increasing industrial‐chemical risks to local populations. The chemical frontier is expanding into Mexico as a consequence of industrialization and free trade, creating what is known as la frontera quimica. Analyses show that emitting facilities are found in counties with higher population densities and little or no agricultural activity. Spill reports were greatest in counties with high populations of non‐Hispanics and non‐Spanish speakers, high incomes, low poverty rates, and low percentages of employment in the agricultural sector. The borderland is being assimilated into the U.S. industrial landscape. The growth and movement of non‐Hispanic populations into the greater border region represents not only economic growth and development, but also the transference of the hazards that come with that growth.


Existing multi-view learning methods based on kernel function either require the user to select and tune a single predefined kernel or have to compute and store many Gram matrices to perform multiple kernel learning. Apart from the huge consumption of manpower, computation and memory resources, most of these models seek point estimation of their parameters, and are prone to overfitting to small training data. This paper presents an adaptive kernel nonlinear max-margin multi-view learning model under the Bayesian framework. Specifically, we regularize the posterior of an efficient multi-view latent variable model by explicitly mapping the latent representations extracted from multiple data views to a random Fourier feature space where max-margin classification constraints are imposed. Assuming these random features are drawn from Dirichlet process Gaussian mixtures, we can adaptively learn shift-invariant kernels from data according to Bochners theorem. For inference, we employ the data augmentation idea for hinge loss, and design an efficient gradient-based MCMC sampler in the augmented space. Having no need to compute the Gram matrix, our algorithm scales linearly with the size of training set. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate that our method has superior performance.