This thesis, completed in collaboration with Purification Process Development of Pfizer Biotherapeutics, is concerned with how mechanistic models of chromatographic bioseparations can be applied in industry to accelerate development and increase robustness of industrial protein purification processes, whilst also realising the benefits of a systematic development approach based on fundamental process and product understanding. The first results chapter considers the application of mechanistic models to provide a link between high throughput screening (HTS) and scouting runs conducted during early process development. The chapter focuses on an anion exchange (AEX) weak partitioning chromatography (WPC) polishing step in a platform monoclonal antibody purification process. Adsorption isotherms are formulated from experimental multicomponent batch adsorption studies of monomer – aggregate. A new approach is taken where the adsorption equilibria is characterised as a function of the product partition coefficient, enabling the model to be applied to new candidate monoclonal antibodies without additional experimental effort. Stochastic simulations conducted at an early stage of process development identify promising operating parameter ranges for challenging separations, directs optimal performance, and reduces development times. A detailed analysis of model predictions increases fundamental knowledge and understanding of the complex WPC multidimensional design space, which enables better informed process development at Pfizer. Resin fouling over a chromatography columns lifetime can cause significant (undesired) changes in process performance. A lack of fundamental knowledge and mechanistic understanding of fouling in industrial bioseparations limits the application of mechanistic models in industry. An experimental investigation was conducted into fouling of the AEX WPC considered in the first results chapter. Analysis of fouled resin samples by batch uptake experiments, scanning electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and scale down column studies, indicated significant blockage of the pores at the resin surface occurred that after successive batch cycles. Mass transport into resin particles was severely hindered, but saturation capacity was not affected. The increased understanding of resin fouling can direct future efforts to mitigate this detrimental phenomenon and maintain process performance, whilst providing a basis for the development of new fouling models. The third results chapter considers an industrial hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) separation at a late stage of process development. Resin lot variability, combined with a variable feed stream, had resulted in serious performance issues during the purification of a therapeutic protein from crude feed material. The traditional approach to tackling this type of problem involves defining a design space based on an extensive experimental effort directed by factorial design of experiments conducted at great cost. The result is a fixed, inflexible manufacturing process, with a control strategy based on reproducibility rather than robustness, and little fundamental understanding of the source of the issue. In the third results chapter, the application of mechanistic models to identify robust operating conditions for the HIC is considered. A model is developed, validated experimentally, and used to generate probabilistic design spaces accounting the historical variability in the resin lots and load material. The stochastic simulation approach is extended to explore the impact of reducing variability in the load material on the design space. With historical process variability, no operating condition was found where the probability of meeting product quality specifications remained > 0.95 for all resin lots. Model simulations indicated that adopting an adaptive design space, where operating conditions are changed according to which resin lot is in use, is favorable for ensuring process robustness, which is a step change concept for bioprocessing. The conclusions and outcomes resulting from the application of mechanistic models to the two industrial systems in this thesis, provides a basis for the next generation purification process development platform.


Previous research suggests that the allocation of attention is largely controlled either in a stimulus-driven or in a goal-driven manner. To date, few studies have systematically manipulated variables affecting stimulus-driven and goal-driven selection independently in order to investigate how both manners of control interrelate and affect performance in visual search. In the present study observers were presented with search displays consisting of an array of line segments rotated at various orientations. The task of observers was to indicate the presence or absence of a vertical line segment (the target) presented amongst a series of nontargets and possibly one distractor. By varying the absolute differences in orientation between the target, nontargets, and distractors, relative target–distractor salience and target–distractor similarity were independently manipulated to investigate the contribution of stimulus-driven and goal-driven control. The major result was that relative target–distractor salience and target–distractor similarity affected search performance independently. Performance was better in cases where the irrelevant distractor was not a salient item in the search display and did not look similar to the target. The results are discussed in terms of models of attentional control.


In this article I explore how mythopoeic Young Adult (YA) fantasy offers examples of living and being an adolescent female body that challenge the dominant, hegemonic discourses dictating the adolescent girl's appearance in the West's imagesaturated culture. I begin by establishing the features of mythopoeic YA fantasy, before looking at Daine in Tamora Pierce's Immortals quartet and Cinder(ella) in Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles. Daine's shape-shifting body and Cinder's cybernetic one offer bodily change as an integral part of the (adolescent female) body, as opposed to the fixed perfection required by the fantasy femininity on offer in popular culture, including print, televisual, and social media. Employing a reading of touch in order to explore the multiplicity that is available on, and through, these bodies, I question the representational economy dominating the hegemonic discursive construction of the adolescent girl.


The primary objective of the research reported here is to provide evidence, arguments and recommendations in relation
to the development of a more unified framework for the Health & Safety Executive's programme on 'Health, Work and
Wellbeing'. Essentially, it is to answer the key question 'can the Management Standards approach be used more widely
to address the most common health problems at work?' In order to answer this question, a better understanding of the
current strengths and weaknesses of the Management Standards approach and its potential had to be developed.
The identified information needs have been addressed using a Delphi methodology, framed by a focussed review of the
relevant scientific and professional literatures, to elicit, harvest and explore expert knowledge in this area. The programme
of work took six months to complete starting in March 2008 and finishing in September 2008.
This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its contents, including any
opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy.


Working together, NRCS and Purdue University staff developed a GIS, web-based EQIP decision program. Landowners and NRCS personnel enter required EQIP information via a mapping service. Other subroutines store the information for use by NRCS in ranking and funding EQIP applications that receive the highest scores subject to budget constraints.


Abstract An overview of the use of copaiba balsams in paint media and in restoration practice is given. Twenty-eight samples of copaiba balsam, which were obtained from pharmacies, artists' materials suppliers, various museums and archives, were analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) in order to identify their sesquiterpene and diterpenoid constituents. Two types of copaiba balsam could be distinguished, which probably originate from Copaifera langsdorfii L. and Copaifera multijuga Hayne. In particular, the 'historical' samples, which were taken from old remnants of copaiba balsam provided by museums and archives, were produced by C. langsdorfii L., whereas the samples which are still commercially available probably originate from c. multijuga Hayne. The analyses of the 28 samples of copaiba balsam indicated that almost all of them had been adulterated with a Pinus balsam. Copaiba balsam is not stable and changes by evaporation, oxidation and polymerization. Natural aging tests showed the complete evaporation of the sesquiterpenes and the oxidation of some diterpenoid acids but also revealed various stable diterpenoid acids, which were used as marker molecules for the presence of copaiba balsam. This is illustrated by the analytical results of the samples from three paintings: 'The Girl with the Pearl Earring' by J. Vermeer (Mauritshuis, The Hague), 'Unknown Lady with a Carnation' by F. Bol (Staatlichen Museen, Kassel) and 'Farming Village at Twilight' by V. van Gogh (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).


Here we investigate the evaporation of a 8.2× 10 kg primordial black hole. This mass is shown to satifisfy the compactness parameter constraint L/R ≥ 1031ergscm−1s−1. We assume only photon-photon production according to a Planck distribution. We calculate the distance from the black hole at which the optical depth due to photon-photon collisions to produce positron/electron pairs becomes unity in which a pair plasma is produced within a volume of inner radius of 90RS and outer radius 123000RS respectively. We then calculate corresponding positron/electron production rates, production rate densities, and optical depth rates due to subsequent Compton scattering by photons. We quantitatively investigate annihilation rate densities and number of annihilations for number densities generated by an initially static fireball that after a time 4tL = 5 × 10−20s is allowed to propagate radially at the speed of light. We show that the annihilation rate per particle is given by = 1.2×10−39m3s−1 where we approximate cos θ ≈ 1 between positron and electron collisions and derive a probability distribution function by Monte Carlo methods for positron and electron velocities sourced by field and target photons emitted by the black hole given by the approximation γ+ = γ− ≈ E+ 2mec whose corresponding velocities are directed radially. We show that no annihilations occur within the expanding fireball and that electrons and positrons freely stream from the proximity of the BH. We investigate the spectra produced by different mass (thermal energy) BH's that are currently evaporating. We analyze their limiting behavior and compare with blackbody emission from stars. We then discuss detection methods and limitations from possible gamma ray and positron sources including the 511 keV line emission from the galactic center, high energy cosmic ray positron production, and direct gamma ray burst events.


Excerpt] In the fall of 2000, legislation was enacted by the U.S. Congress to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate, assess, and report to Congress on the economic and security implications of the bilateral economic relationship between the U.S. and China. Unfortunately, to date no government body in the U.S. has had the responsibility for collecting comprehensive national data on the wage and employment effects of trade agreements and policies. Because of this deficit of information, the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission contracted with a team of researchers from Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to conduct a pilot study to lay the groundwork for more comprehensive research to monitor and analyze the impact of U.S.-China trade relations on workers, wages, and employment in the U.S. The purpose of the pilot study was twofold. The first component involved designing and implementing a media-tracking system to monitor and analyze media coverage of the employment and wage effects of China trade and investment by tracking all media reported production shifts out of the U.S. to China, Mexico, and other Asian and Latin American countries and out of Asian and Latin American countries into China that occurred between October 1, 2000 and April 30, 2001. Because of the lack of government data in this area, the media-tracking study is the first and only national database on production shifts out of the U.S. The second component of the study involved collecting and analyzing macro data on imports, exports, and foreign direct investment in those industries and economic sectors that have an active trade, investment, and production relationship with China. In combination, findings from the media-tracking and macroeconomic data provide further evidence that U.S.-China trade and investment policies have had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on employment and wages for workers in the U.S. and other countries actively involved in trade and/or investment with China. The study also lays the groundwork for future research on the economic impact of U.S-China trade relationships and demonstrates the importance of government-mandated corporate reporting requirements for all companies shifting goods, investments, or production in and out of the U.S.


Laboratory model tests have been conducted to investigate the responses of piles subjected to lateral soil movement. The results of a single pile test and four tests on two piles arranged in a row perpendicular to the direction of soil movement are presented. The development of maximum bending moment, maximum shear force, and pile deflection with soil movement and the largest pile response profiles for the single pile and pile groups are compared. Group effect was evaluated using group factor which is defined in terms of the measured maximum bending moment. The major findings are (1) the pile head conditions (free or capped) are insignificant on piles subjected to lateral soil movement when arranged in a row, (2) the group factor decreases as the pile spacing reduces, (3) a linear relationship exists between the maximum bending moment and maximum shear force for both the pile groups and single pile.


Lysine monomethylation of the transcription factor NF-κB affects the stability of its interaction with specific gene promoters. The transcription factor NF-κB plays key roles in inflammatory and immune responses. In different contexts, NF-κB regulates different sets of genes. Previous work had suggested that the methyltransferase Set9 influenced the expression of NF-κB–responsive genes. Ea and Baltimore show that treatment of human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells with a nonspecific methyltransferase inhibitor decreased activation of an NF-κB reporter gene in response to tumor necrosis factor–α (TNF-α). When recombinant Set9 was incubated in vitro with peptides from the p65 subunit of NF-κB, peptides containing Lys37 were methylated. To investigate the function of NF-κB Lys37 methylation in vivo, they developed an antibody specific for this modified form of NF-κB and verified its specificity with a mutant (K37Q) that could not be methylated. In Western blot experiments, the antibody detected methylated NF-κB in the nuclear fractions, but not the cytosol, of cells treated with TNF-α or interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Lys37 methylation in response to TNF-α or IL-1β was undetectable in cells in which Set9 was knocked down with short-interfering RNAs. Selected induction of specific NF-κB–responsive genes was inhibited in cells in which Set9 was knocked down: Induction of the genes encoding TNF-α and the chemokine CXCL10 was decreased, but induction of the gene encoding IκBα was not. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays performed under high salt conditions on nuclear extracts from control or Set9-knockdown cells suggested that Lys37 methylation stabilized a subset of p65-DNA interactions, a finding confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments. Induction of the genes encoding TNF-α and CXCL10 was only fully restored by reconstitution of p65-deficient mouse embryo fibroblasts with wild-type p65 and not the K37Q mutant. The authors suggest that this modification may be context-specific and speculate that lysine methylation of this N-terminal lysine (Lys37) may be important for gene activation, whereas lysine methylation of more C-terminal residues (Lys315, Lys316) may be important for termination of activity, a phenomenon that had been reported previously. C.-K. Ea, D. Baltimore, Regulation of NF-κB activity through lysine monomethylation of p65. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 18972–18977 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Lipid content in mammalian oocytes or embryos differs among species, with bovine and porcine oocytes and embryos showing large cytoplasmic droplets. These droplets are considered to play important roles in energy metabolism during oocyte maturation, fertilisation and early embryonic development, and also in the freezing ability of oocytes or embryos; however, their detailed distribution or function is not well understood. In the present study, changes in the distribution and morphology of porcine lipid droplets during in vivo and in vitro fertilisation, in contrast to parthenogenetic oocyte activation, as well as during their development to blastocyst stage, were evaluated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The analysis of semi-thin and ultra-thin sections by TEM showed conspicuous, large, electron-dense lipid droplets, sometimes associated with mitochondrial aggregates in the oocytes, irrespective of whether the oocytes had been matured in vivo or in vitro. Immediately after sperm penetration, the electron density of the lipid droplets was lost in both the in vivo and in vitro oocytes, the reduction being most evident in the oocytes developed in vitro. Density was restored in the pronculear oocytes, fully in the in vivo specimens but only partially in the in vitro ones. The number and size of the droplets seemed, however, to have decreased. At 2- to 4-cell and blastocyst stages, the features of the lipid droplets were almost the same as those of pronuclear oocytes, showing a homogeneous or saturated density in the in vivo embryos but a marbled or partially saturated appearance in the in vitro embryos. In vitro matured oocytes undergoing parthenogenesis had lipid droplets that resembled those of fertilised oocytes until the pronuclear stage. Overall, results indicate variations in both the morphology and amount of cytoplasmic lipid droplets during porcine oocyte maturation, fertilisation and early embryo development as well as differences between in vivo and in vitro development, suggesting both different energy status during preimplantation development in pigs and substantial differences between in vitro and in vivo development.


In Ineffective Legal Assistance, Redress for the Accused in Dutch Criminal Procedure and Compliance with ECHR Case Law, Dr. Jill E.B. Coster van Voorhout, LL.M, MSc examines the extent to which ineffective legal assistance and its redress for the accused in the Netherlands abide by minimum guarantees set by the European Court on Human Rights regarding the right to an effective defence in a fair trial. Coster van Voorhout demonstrates convincingly that, currently, Dutch law and case law do not guarantee the right to effective legal assistance and are not fully compliant with related minimum guarantees. This book offers recommendations as to how redress for ineffective legal assistance could better conform to the relevant ECHR standards.


This study examines the airflow and contaminant transport in an existing room (89 inch x 77 inch x 98 inch) that houses a downdraft table at LLNL. The facility was designed and built in the 1960's and is currently being considered for redesign. One objective of the redesign is to reduce airflow while maintaining or improving user safety. Because this facility has been used for many years to handle radioactive material it is impractical to conduct extensive experimental tests in it. Therefore, we have performed a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis of the facility. The study examines the current operational condition and some other cases with reduced airflow. Reducing airflow will lead to savings in operating costs (lower fan power consumption), and possible improvements in containment from reduced turbulence. In addition, we examine three design (geometry) changes. These are: (1) increasing the area of the HVAC inlet on the ceiling, (2) adding a 15{sup o} angled ceiling inlet and (3) increasing the area of the slot in the doorway. Of these three geometry modifications, only the larger doorway slot leads to improved predicted containment.


English, an international language, is widely taught and learnt as a foreign language in France. However, French learners face pronunciation difficulties, as the two languages differ both on the segmental level (i.e. individual sounds) and on the suprasegmental, prosodic level (i.e. stress, rhythm, intonation). It has been argued that focus on the prosodic features of the target language (L2) would improve learners' oral skills. Nevertheless, very few studies have brought evidence of the greater role of prosody in the acquisition of a second or foreign language. The current study seeks to address this gap by directly comparing prosody-centred and segment-centred teaching to determine whether one approach is more effective than the other in the improvement of L2 oral perception skills. The study shows that both teaching approaches enabled French EFL learners to improve their perception skills; however, neither method proved to have a stronger impact, suggesting that both segmental and suprasegmental aspects should both be addressed in L2 teaching.


This study investigated the delivery of electron arc treatment with a trapezoidal aperture. The aim of the investigation is to reduce the nonuniformity of the dose distribution, which is caused by the variation of the patient contour from superior to inferior. The characteristics of static electron beam were first investigated. Then a measurement-based algorithm was developed and implemented as a computer program called EarcMU to calculate the monitor units required for delivering the prescribed dose with a trapezoidal aperture. The central axis percentage depth dose was found to be independent of source-to-surface distance (SSD) and the width of the aperture. The inplane profiles of a trapezoidal aperture show that the dose decreases longitudinally from the wide to the narrow end of the trapezoidal aperture. The EarcMU program was verified using two cylindrical water phantoms. The measured dose and the dose calculated by the program agreed within 2.1% in the typical clinical conditions. A simple method was also proposed for determining the trapezoidal aperture for an individual patient. Under the same conditions, the trapezoidal apertures calculated by this method along with the open aperture were used to deliver treatments to several conical phantoms. Significant improvement in the uniformity of dose distribution was observed. On average, the flatness index of the longitudinal dose distribution from superior to inferior decreases dramatically from 8% for open aperture down to 0.58% for trapezoidal aperture. The results are clinically significant, indicating that delivering the electron arc treatment using a trapezoidal aperture can bring more uniform dose to the patient regardless of the change of patient contour from superior to inferior.


Geographical study of tourism has a long history and well-established relationship with human geography. The purpose of this paper is thus to discuss the role and nature of tourism geographies in relation to human geography, by focusing on connections/disconnections between the fields. The issue of responsibility, representing one of the latest major focal points in geographical tourism studies of tourism, is also overviewed in relation to sustainability. It is concluded that, although the field of tourism geographies has become versatile and closer to the conceptual and theoretical understandings of human geography, there are increasing processes challenging the academic production and circulation system of international tourism geographies, which scholars need to deal with.


Abstract. The reactive uptake of carbonyl-containing volatile organic compounds (cVOCs) by aqueous atmospheric aerosols is a likely source of particulate organic material. The aqueous-phase secondary organic products of some cVOCs are surface-active. Therefore, cVOC uptake can lead to organic film formation at the gas-aerosol interface and changes in aerosol surface tension. We examined the chemical reactions of two abundant cVOCs, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, in water and aqueous ammonium sulfate (AS) solutions mimicking tropospheric aerosols. Secondary organic products were identified using Aerosol Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Aerosol-CIMS), and changes in surface tension were monitored using pendant drop tensiometry. Hemiacetal oligomers and aldol condensation products were identified using Aerosol-CIMS. Acetaldehyde depresses surface tension to 65(±2) dyn cm −1 in pure water (a 10% surface tension reduction from that of pure water) and 62(±1) dyn cm −1 in AS solutions (a 20.6% reduction from that of a 3.1 M AS solution). Surface tension depression by formaldehyde in pure water is negligible; in AS solutions, a 9% reduction in surface tension is observed. Mixtures of these species were also studied in combination with methylglyoxal in order to evaluate the influence of cross-reactions on surface tension depression and product formation in these systems. We find that surface tension depression in the solutions containing mixed cVOCs exceeds that predicted by an additive model based on the single-species isotherms.


The article distinguishes three essential aspects in Habermas´s Theory of Social Action. Firstly, it studies the conformation of Habermas´s thought from his early distinctions between "work" and "interaction" to last formulations of "teological/estrategic action" and "communicative action". It points out the problematic character of the first distinction, in which there is interest in connecting with the contributions of Hegel and Marx about the role of the work in social life. Secondly, it analyses the typology of action in his 'Theory of Communicative Action', emphasising the problematic character of central concept of "communicative action". It debates the question of its nature: an analytical or real distinction, and it points out Habermas´s attempts to resolve some objections. Finaly, Theory of Social Action is a metatheoric proposal as wll as a central element of the Theory of Social Evolution, which Habermas wants to oppose to Horkheimer´s and Adorno´s theories. The article hishlights the role of communicative action in the reproduction of symbolic structures of 'Lebenswelt', but at the end, in the evolution of social formations, Habermas recovers the classical Marxist thesis about the relation between productive forces and relations of production.


ABSTRACT The Guéra Massif of South-Central Chad is composed of collisional and post-collisional intrusive rocks related to the Central African Orogenic Belt. Collisional granites were emplaced at 595–590 Ma but there are a series of post-collisional intrusions that were emplaced at 570–560 Ma. The older granites have zircon U-Pb weighted-mean ages of 569 ± 6 Ma, 568 ± 7 Ma, and 568 ± 6 Ma, whereas the younger granites are 556 ± 7 Ma and 561 ± 6 Ma but all ages are within their maximum uncertainty. Both groups of post-collisional granites are peraluminous, ferroan, and alkali calcic to calc-alkalic but dioritic microgranular enclaves were observed within the older granites. The chemical variability of each group can be explained by fractional crystallization and it is likely that their parental magmas were derived by partial melting of the lower crust. The Nd isotopes of the older rocks (εNd(t) = −9.5 to −1.2) are slightly less enriched than the younger rocks (εNd(t) = −13.1 and −9.1). Moreover, the Nd isotopic compositions appear to indicate the existence of two isotopically distinct regions of the Guéra Massif with one centred on the Mongo (west) region and the other near the El Hidjer to Zan (east) region. The older group was emplaced during a period of crustal thinning after oblique collision and shearing related to the final suturing of the Congo-Saõ Francisco Craton and the Saharan Metacraton. The younger group was likely emplaced after a period of regional WNW-ESE directed crustal shortening. The punctuated nature of deformation/crustal relaxation cycles in the southern Saharan Metacraton suggests that there may have been many small terranes rather than larger cratonic blocks involved in the lithotectonic evolution of the Central African Orogenic Belt north of the Congo-Saõ Francisco Craton. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


"Androcles and the Lion" is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw. "Androcles and the Lion" is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.


The Normalized Compression Distance (NCD) has been used in a number of domains to compare objects with varying feature types. This flexibility comes from the use of general purpose compression algorithms as the means of computing distances between byte sequences. Such flexibility makes NCD particularly attractive for cases where the right features to use are not obvious, such as malware classification. However, NCD can be computationally demanding, thereby restricting the scale at which it can be applied. We introduce an alternative metric also inspired by compression, the Lempel-Ziv Jaccard Distance (LZJD). We show that this new distance has desirable theoretical properties, as well as comparable or superior performance for malware classification, while being easy to implement and orders of magnitude faster in practice.


Themes, preverbs and particles partake in expressing aspectual notions. In this paper we will study the distribution of these markers and their grammatical and semantic compatibilities (when it is possible to retrace their etymology) with the two aspects inherent to the themes upon which the Arabic verbal system rests: the perfective and the imperfective. To what extent does the analysis of the affinities and incompatibilities between these external markers and the perfective and imperfective contribute to the definition of these very same notions? How to distinguish between constraints linked to verbal semantics (lexical aspect) and those which fall under one or the other of these two notions? This paper will also explore, from a crossdialectal and typological angle, which notions are encoded specifically and which belong to broader categories, so as to extrapolate the aspectual system dynamics in the dialects under study.


In the actual context of globalization, carmakers face a highly competitive market. The pace of technological innovation, the increase in international competition, the saturation of markets and the shortening of product lifespan are but some of the factors requiring a new organization of production. In order to face these radical changes, carmakers are implementing new strategies, not only by embracing the concept of globalization, but also by promoting changes in labour management practices, work organization and industrial relations. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of Fiat's new managerial strategies in response to increased global competition on the situation of the industrial relations, on the role of the Unions and on the condition of workers. These strategies include an intensification of work, shift and wage flexibility, plus a severe limitations of workers' rights (including the right to strike). On the one hand, such a strategy was presented and justified to the workers and the public as an objective necessity of global economy, and was even submitted to a referendum; on the other, the process was conducted unilaterally, under the recurring threat of transferring production abroad if the workers and their Unions refused to accept the new method. This brought to a split of the Unions and dialogue was maintained only with collaborative organisations, causing the discrimination of the other Unions and a situation of great dissatisfaction amongst all the workers. Through the words of workers and Union activists, the research showed evidence of the failure of claims that new management strategy can ensure both productivity and a new form of workplace democracy in the post-fordist factory. Despite new labour-saving technologies, lean production organisation and the adoption of new metric systems (such as Ergo-UAS), car industry would need, more than in the past, the involvement and active participation of Unions and workers. On the contrary, the paper points out how Fiat's actual form of production organization generates new tensions and increases employee's discontent, likely to ignite industrial conflict.


Understanding the response of diatoms to nutrient stress is important, both on its own terms and for the accurate portrayal of this key group of organisms in ecological and biogeochemical models. We therefore examined the growth and elemental composition of Thalassiosira weissflogii grown into nutrient starvation and then recovery following nutrient readdition. During nitrate starvation, T. weissflogii continued dividing, producing cells with low quotas of N, P, and Si. Following nitrate readdition, cells immediately began taking up nitrate at relatively low net cell specific rates and to rebuild cellular stores of all nutrients. More than 30 hours elapsed before there was a visible increase in cell numbers. Cellular C/N and C/P ratios remained high and N/P ratios remained low for the remaining 45 hours of the experiment. Cells in the silicon starvation experiment abruptly ceased dividing at 1-3 µM dissolved silicon (DSi) and immediately resumed dividing upon resupply of DSi. Growth rates and net cell specific rates of silicon uptake recovered to maximal values within 3 to 7 hours, but net cell specific rates of nitrate and phosphate never did, driving a decline in N and P per cell during the whole experiment. Ratios of C/N and N/P remained close to Redfield values. While cell specific rates of silicon uptake scaled strongly with DSi concentrations during all portions of the silicon starvation experiment, during the nitrogen starvation experiment, they were directly related to cellular growth rates, suggesting that during nitrate starvation, silicon acquisition was acting as the rate limiting step for cell division.


Legitimated and thereby dominant knowledges of youth violence that aim to explain its causes and develop ways of responding are primarily informed by a positivist scientifically-based mainstream psychology. The purpose of this thesis is to offer ways of (re)thinking youth violence outside of an objectivist paradigm. By examining the significant contextual issues and numerous complexities involved for young men who have been violent, this research critically analyses normative notions of youth violence. The theoretical and methodological foundation for this research employed a critical psychology framework along with a discourse analysis approach informed by poststructural concepts derived, primarily, from Michel Foucault. This research foundation has enabled the dominant constructions of youth violence that are reflected and (re)produced by mainstream psychology to be disrupted and hence the modernist assumptions in the positivist scientific basis of mainstream psychology are questioned. The participants in this study were seven young New Zealand men, aged between 14 and 17, who were incarcerated for violent offences. A poststructural discourse analysis of interviews with these young men critically examined the ways they spoke about their violence, their explanations for it as well as their ideas about intervention. My analysis shows that dominant constructions of youth violence that are (re)produced in mainstream psychology theories as taken-for-granted truths, can position violent young men as 'abnormal', 'deviant' and 'dangerous'. However, participants resisted these pathologising and demonising positions. Instead, they embraced the rational position of 'man'. Dominant discourses around traditional masculinity were identified as being of paramount importance to these young men and showed that successfully performing the subject position of 'man' took precedence for them. Being violent acted as a means for participants to achieve 'being a man'. Against this, therapeutic intervention designed to prevent future violence was viewed as irrelevant to these young men. In addition, the 'therapeutic subject' position made available within discourses of intervention did not enable young men to perform 'man' correctly. Contradictions are highlighted in this thesis, showing the multiple subjectivities of the participants, along with various effects of the differing discourses. This was most pronounced in the differences revealed in participants' talk of their general violence compared to their sexual violence. Since general violence was constructed as a way of 'getting it right as a man', participants spoke in considerable detail about their activities. However, participants were reluctant to talk about their sexual violence and silences predominated. As an alternative, they took up an 'unknowing' position about why they were sexually violent. Sexual violence was constructed as irrational and therefore unknowable. In contrast to not wanting intervention for their general violence, participants talked of a willingness to engage with therapeutic intervention. They positioned intervention experts as being able to make rational sense of their sexual violence and spoke of expectations that this would stop them from being sexually violent again. The limitations of traditional approaches to youth violence have been highlighted in this research. Such approaches are unable to attend to the contextual issues presented here or the complexities of multiple subjectivities. The construction of violence as a way to perform 'man' contests discourses of 'abnormality' that positions young men who have been violent as 'disordered' and 'deviant'. Future theorising about youth violence and subsequent intervention approaches require attending to the significance that normative notions of 'manhood' have in the (re)production of violence.


The air quality of Sindri after closure of FCI has been assessed with respect to Particluate Matters. The SPM has been found to vary between 99 ug/m3 to 174 ug/m3, PM10 between 60 to 74.5ug/m3 and PM2.5 between 35 to 48 ug/m3. The Air Quality Index has been computed based on the standard break-point definitions and as per CPCB guidelines. The quality index has been assessed for PM10 and PM2.5. On scale 1-10, the Air Quality Index(AQI) has been found in the range of 8 to 10 for PM10 and for PM2.5 the air quality index corresponds to 3. The Air Quality Index on scale 1 to 100 has been found between 41 to 52 for PM2.5. Similarly, on scale 0-500, the AQI with respect to PM10 has been found in the range of 53 to 61 and for PM2.5, AQI has been found in the range of 99 to 132. As per CPCB guidelines, the air quality has been assessed by calculating exceedence factor. The exceedence factor has been found to vary between 0.6 to 0.7 for PM10 and between 0.58 to 0.80 for PM2.5. The Air Quality Index falls under moderate to un-healthy quality of air. A long/ chronic exposure may impart ill-health effect. The need, justification and objective of the paper has been highlighted through a review of literature presented in the introductory part of the paper. Major portion of the study is based on literature survey through standard hand books, journals, Google, Google Medline and Google scholar and information available from the records of Government and non-government organizations with the use of following key words.


The Author reviews Sally Satel's 2000 book "How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine." Despite the fact that African-Americans suffer from a variety of health problems at disproportionately higher rates than whites, inequities in the medical system make access to care more difficult for minorities. The problem of racial disparities in health care encompasses more than problems of access or payment, however. Communication difficulties between physician and patient and disparate provision of services covered by insurance also may contribute substantially to health disparities between the races. This review canvasses some of the evidence of differential medical treatment and offers some suggestions that may improve the quality of communication between physicians and patients. In addition to considering the usefulness of the cultural competence movement in the health profession and its connection to the requirement of informed consent, this review calls for an increased commitment to diversity in medical education, and it considers how an often-ignored component of the informed consent doctrine may serve to redress cases of individual discrimination in health care.


The use of hybrid eucalypts in commercial forestry has generally resulted from opportunistic
crossing events with superior individuals being vegetatively propagated in large numbers. To
develop strategies to breed hybrids, it is important to understand the barriers to hybridisation
in the genus and as well as the genetic behavior of hybrid populations. Using F 1 hybrid
populations of E. gunnii × globulus , E. nitens × globulus and outcrossed parental controls we
demonstrate, firstly, the importance of environment on hybrid performance and secondly, that
high levels of F 1 and advanced generation hybrid inviability can occur at an early age, even in
crosses between closely related species. Inviable F 1 hybrids are a sensitive indicator of
genomic incompatibility and add a cost to hybrid selection and production. However,
surviving F 1 's may be vigorous and of interest to breeders. F 1 hybrid populations do not
appear to conform to classical quantitative genetic models for growth with inflated estimates
of additive genetic variance and poor predictability of hybrid performance. Nevertheless, this
does not appear to be so for other more highly heritable traits. Advanced generation
hybridisation is one means of overcoming the constraints and costs of poor clonal propagation
and F 1 hybrid seed production, but hybrid breakdown may substantially reduce genetic gains.


The aim of the study is to investigate the relative importance of plant-plant interactions with regard to flooding and drought effect on perennial plant performances in wetlands. Flooding is expected to be the major driver and, accordingly, the importance of drought is hardly if ever taken into account. Focusing on five widespread species, the growth, the survival and the competitive ability of plants were monitored on permanent plots spread along two elevation gradients. Flooding duration and drought intensity were found to vary substantially along the ~ 0.5 meter range elevation gradient. Flooding and drought alternate over the hydrological year and the pin-point surveys were thus conducted over the course of one year. The data were modeled taking into account survival, recruitment and competitive growth throughout flooding and drying out periods. Flooding and drought both directly impacted the plant performances and their competitive effect, with the effect of drought being much more general among species and of higher magnitude than flooding. The importance of competition was found to be high for all species, particularly during the drying out period. It varied more along the flooding gradient than along the drought gradient. The higher flooding tolerance shown by the studied species compared to drought may be related to species specific growth timing together with efficient response traits. These results offer new insights into the filters operating over the species pools. This suggests that the drying out period and drought conditions may be even more important for species' relative success and the importance of competition than the flooding pattern. The general applicability of this result, obtained in mild Atlantic climate and fertile wetlands, remains to be studied.


While U.S. legislation prohibits employers from sharing information about their employees' compensation with each other, companies are still allowed to acquire and use more aggregated data provided by third parties. Most medium and large firms report using this type of data to set salaries, a practice that is known as salary benchmarking. Despite their widespread use across occupations, there is no evidence on the effects of salary benchmarking. We provide a model that explains why firms are interested in salary benchmarking and makes predictions regarding the effects of the tool. Next, we measure the actual effects of these tools using administrative data from one of the leading providers of payroll services and salary benchmarks. The evidence suggests that salary benchmarking has a significant effect on pay setting and in a manner that is consistent with the predictions of the model. Our findings have implications for the study of labor markets and for ongoing policy debates. JEL Classification: D83, J31, J38, M52.


Acknowledging the general difficulty of new e-learning pedagogical approaches to achieve wide acceptance and use, the study examined the adoption of a proposed online interactive learning environment by a class of MBA students. To this end, a web-based, case-based constructivist learning environment was developed for the purposes of the study embedding interactivity. The class students were given the choice to develop their group work using the proposed online environment, or develop it through more traditional group collaboration means. A wide array of possible factors influencing the student adoption decision was considered by the study (e.g. perceived attributes of the proposed environment, student characteristics, peer student actions and attitudes, change facilitator interventions). The obtained results led to the development of a model depicting the observed influencing factors along with their relative importance. A notable finding of the study is the high influence of change facilitator actions, making the whole adoption phenomenon observed more instrumentalist in nature.


Childhood lead poisoning is a major, preventable environmental health problem in the USA. The primary source of lead poisoning in children is exposure to deteriorating lead-based paint in older low-quality, low-income housing. The circumstance of concentrated poverty and the shortage of high quality low-income housing provide a recipe for increasing disease rates attributed to lead exposure. This paper assesses the economic impact of lead exposure in high-risk housing among children residing in the Commonwealth of Kentucky as measured by productivity and tax revenues lost. It examines remediation costs of high-risk housing statewide against the costs of exposure. Specifically, it examines the relationships between IQ and earnings potential, lost earnings and tax revenue generation, remediation costs and the cost of exposure, and it evaluates these costs against exposure reduction and suggests a strategy for comprehensive remediation activities that pays for itself over time. The results of this analysis determine that the long-term benefits of reducing the outcomes associated with lost productivity among young children per year due to lead exposure would generate sufficient tax revenue to pay for complete remediation of all high risk low-quality housing units in Kentucky.


Notions of religion in media are not only found in literature, movies, or music but also in the growing field of digital games. We want to dive into this field by thinking about in what ways religion can be and is used by developers in the narration of a game and what religious motifs we encounter in our research. This essay attempts also to show that cultural studies can make a significant contribution to a better understanding of digital games, by regarding the 'game-text' together with its production contexts and acquisition processes. We try to highlight this trough an examination of different aspects of religion in games and with a special focus on how the notion of 'god' is used in games. We will discuss the genre 'god games' that puts the player in a position to influence different layers of a complex game system, like a tribe, a city, or other social or economic systems, etc. There we will ask what this genre has to do with concepts of 'god' or gods. Ultimately we will explore games that present more distinct images of gods and show how concepts from different religious contexts, like Greek or Japanese mythology, are used in a game's narrative.


This article examines the perspectives of governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders in South Africa on the dynamics of human trafficking in South Africa, and on efforts to protect the human rights of rescued victims of human trafficking prior to the promulgation of human trafficking legislation in the country. The authors seek to understand the range of views and approaches of stakeholders to trafficking, including possible links to HIV, as human trafficking is commonly discussed in the media, but empirical research on the scale, dynamics, and impacts of trafficking in South Africa is scarce. This exploratory situation analysis involves desk review and 24 key informant interviews, using purposive and sequential referral sampling. Respondents included government departments and non-governmental organisations working at a border-crossing site (Musina), and two major destination sites for irregular migrants, including trafficked people (Johannesburg and Cape Town). Almost all respondents reported that human trafficking is significant and complex, and that both cross-border and internal movement of trafficked victims violate victims' rights in several ways. While they suffer at the hands of organised crime syndicates, their rights are further violated even after rescue, prior to the recently-promulgated human trafficking legislation in the country. Victims' access to justice is also either delayed or denied in many cases due to the inability to prosecute the perpetrators. The study concludes that, despite the recent giant step in the right direction in promulgating human trafficking legislation in South Africa, there is a need for further efforts by the South African government to take additional proactive and practical measures for optimum effectiveness of the law without which the goal of the Act may remain a tall dream.


Context
Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder in which previous reports have described obesity and a metabolic syndrome.

Objective
We describe the endocrine and metabolic characteristics of a large BBS population compared with matched control subjects.

Design
We performed a case-control study.

Setting
This study was performed at a hospital clinic.

Patients
Study patients had a clinical or genetic diagnosis of BBS.

Main Outcome Measurements
Our study determined the prevalence of a metabolic syndrome in our cohort.

Results
A total of 152 subjects were studied. Eighty-four (55.3%) were male. Mean (± standard deviation) age was 33.2 ± 1.0 years. Compared with age-, sex-, and body mass index-matched control subjects, fasting glucose and insulin levels were significantly higher in subjects with BBS (glucose: BBS, 5.2 ± 1.2 mmol/L vs control, 4.9 ± 0.9 mmol/L, P = 0.04; insulin: BBS, 24.2 ± 17.0 pmol/L vs control, 14.2 ± 14.8 pmol/L, P < 0.001). Serum triglycerides were significantly higher in subjects with BBS (2.0 ± 1.2 mmol/L) compared with control subjects (1.3 ± 0.8 mmol/L; P < 0.001), but total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein were similar in both groups. Systolic blood pressure was higher in the BBS group (BBS, 135 ± 18 mm Hg vs control subjects, 129 ± 16 mm Hg; P = 0.02). Alanine transaminase was raised in 34 (26.8%) subjects with BBS, compared with five (8.9%) control subjects (P = 0.01). The rate of metabolic syndrome, determined using International Diabetes Federation criteria, was significantly higher in the BBS group (54.3%) compared with control subjects (26% P < 0.001). Twenty-six (19.5%) of male subjects with BBS were hypogonadal (serum testosterone, 9.9 ± 5.3 mmol/L), but significant pituitary abnormalities were uncommon. Subclinical hypothyroidism was present in 24 of 125 (19.4%) patients with BBS, compared with 3 of 65 (4.6%) control subjects (P = 0.01).

Conclusions
Insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome are increased in adult patients with BBS compared with matched control subjects. Increased subclinical hypothyroidism in the BBS cohort needs further investigation.


In response to the augmented haemodynamic load placed upon the heart by intense and prolonged exercise, various forms of physiological remodelling are elicited. The resultant cardiac structural, functional and electrical adaptations are coined the athlete's heart. Due to the nature of the remodelling, in some cases these adaptations may however overlap with the diagnostic criteria for varying pathological conditions, often related to sudden cardiac death. Several variables are associated with the athlete's heart including age, sex, sport, body size, and ethnicity. Ethnicity is of particular importance as athletes of an African/Afro-Caribbean ethnicity demonstrate a greater prevalence of abnormal changes suggestive of pathology. There is however paucity in the literature of the athlete's heart among other ethnicities. For this reason Study 1 investigated the impact of Arabic ethnicity upon the structure, function and electrophysiology of the heart in male athletes. Study 1 identified that while Arabic athletes had larger hearts than Arabic controls, they had significantly smaller hearts than their Black and Caucasian athletic counterparts. While Black athletes had a significantly greater prevalence of training unrelated/abnormal ECG findings, Arabic and Caucasian both had similar levels of training unrelated/abnormal findings, suggesting the European Society of Cardiology guidelines for ECG interpretation in athletes are applicable for the ethnicity.Study 2 investigated another important facet of the athlete's heart, which is body size. Study 2 identified that while there was a progressive relationship between body size and cardiac dimensions, the previously identified upper limits of cardiac structural remodelling were applicable even among those with a body surface area (BSA) over 2.3m2. Among the cohort of athletes with a BSA >2.3m2, Black athletes demonstrated significantly greater wall thickness' than Caucasian and Arabic athletes.The second aspect to the thesis highlighted how the findings of Study 1 and 2 impact upon pre-participation screening. While debate still exists around the most effective methodology to screen for pathological cardiac conditions, several organisations mandate the use of the echocardiography alongside the resting 12-Lead ECG. Study 3 established that should echocardiography be limited to use as a follow up investigation, significant cost benefits could be elicited (47% reduction). The premise of this significant cost reduction was that no pathological case was identified by echocardiography in isolation. While still found to be useful in confirming pathology, significantly, in our study the investigation failed to identify two cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.Study 4 investigated the implications of adopting modified ECG interpretation guidelines in light of the criticism that ECG screening should be avoided due to a high false positive rate. Utilising an ethnically diverse cohort, Study 4 demonstrated that using the 'Refined' criteria reduced the false positive rate from 22% when using the 2010 ESC guidelines to 5%. Importantly both criteria achieved 100% sensitivity, highlighting the importance of the ECG in cardiovascular screening.


A new class of interest rate models is proposed where the main driving terms for the large
scale dynamics of the system are deterministic. As an example, an economically motivated two
factor model of the term structure is presented that generalises existing stochastic mean term
structure models.
By allowing a certain parameter to acquire dynamical behaviour the model is extended to
three factors. It is shown, that in a deterministic version, the model is equivalent to the Lorenz
system of differential equations. With reasonable parameter values the model exhibits chaotic
behaviour. It successfully emulates certain properties of interest rates including regime switching
and behaviour of a business cycle nature. Pricing and term structure issues are discussed.
Standard PCA techniques used to estimate HJM type models are observed to be equivalent to
dimensional estimates commonly applied to 'spatial data' in non-linear systems analysis. An
empirical investigation uncovers surprising structure consistent with the existence of a low
dimensional attractor. Issues of control of the chaotic system with reference to the underlying
economic model are discussed.
A heuristic approach is made to estimating the three factor model. Exploiting properties of the
term structure, the existence of noise, and the geometry of the system allows a variety of
methods for uncovering the parameters of the model. A better approach is found in the
application of the Kalman filter to the estimation problem. Lack of explicit solutions motivates an
investigation into the use of approximated forms for the term structure. The traditional Kalman
filter is seen to be unstable when applied to the chaotic three factor model. A stable variant, from
the class known as 'square-root' filters, is adopted. A new method is created for finding the
analytical derivatives of the log-likelihood function such that it is consistent with the 'square-root'
filter. Estimates for the empirical estimation of the models developed earlier in the thesis are
given.
It is concluded that there is much scope for expanding the literature within the new class of
models proposed. The particular three factor model developed has been shown to have realistic
properties and be amenable to bond and contingent claim pricing. The chaotic nature of the
model, underpinned by an economic derivation, opens up new methods for authorities to
control/stabilise the economy. An analysis of the underlying dynamical structure of UK money
market rates is consistent with a low dimensional deterministic driving force. Heuristic methods
employed to estimate the parameters of the model allow for an insight into exploiting the
geometry of the system. Application of the Kalman filter to estimation of non-linear models is
found to be problematic due to the linearisations/approximations that are necessary.
An outline of areas for future research is given, providing ideas for extending the economic
formulation, further investigating control of chaotic interest rate systems, testing empirical data
for evidence of chaotic invariants and methods for quantifying and improving the Kalman filtering
procedures for better handling non-linear models.


Pyroclastic density currents have been observed to both enter the sea, and to travel over water for tens of kilometers. Here, we identified a 1.2-m-thick, stratified pumice lapilli-ash cored at Site U1396 offshore Montserrat (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program [IODP] Expedition 340) as being the first deposit to provide evidence that it was formed by submarine deposition from pumice-rich pyroclastic density currents that traveled above the water surface. The age of the submarine deposit is ca. 4 Ma, and its magma source is similar to those for much younger Soufriere Hills deposits, indicating that the island experienced large-magnitude, subaerial caldera-forming explosive eruptions much earlier than recorded in land deposits. The deposit's combined sedimentological characteristics are incompatible with deposition from a submarine eruption, pyroclastic fall over water, or a submarine seafloor-hugging turbidity current derived from a subaerial pyroclastic density current that entered water at the shoreline. The stratified pumice lapilli-ash unit can be subdivided into at least three depositional units, with the lowermost one being clast supported. The unit contains grains in five separate size modes and has a >12 phi range. Particles are chiefly subrounded pumice clasts, lithic clasts, crystal fragments, and glass shards. Pumice clasts are very poorly segregated from other particle types, and lithic clasts occur throughout the deposit; fine particles are weakly density graded. We interpret the unit to record multiple closely spaced (<2 d) hot pyroclastic density currents that flowed over the ocean, releasing pyroclasts onto the water surface, and settling of the various pyroclasts into the water column. Our settling and hot and cold flotation experiments show that waterlogging of pumice clasts at the water surface would have been immediate. The overall poor hydraulic sorting of the deposit resulted from mixing of particles from multiple pulses of vertical settling in the water column, attesting to complex sedimentation. Slow-settling particles were deposited on the seafloor together with faster-descending particles that were delivered at the water surface by subsequent pyroclastic flows. The final sediment pulses were eventually deflected upon their arrival on the seafloor and were deposited in laterally continuous facies. This study emphasizes the interaction between products of explosive volcanism and the ocean and discusses sedimentological complexities and hydrodynamics associated with particle delivery to water.


Awareness of the key role of the intestinal microflora in the generation of the immunophysiological regulation and in the defence against pathogenic agents has attracted our interest in ways of manipulating the microbiota to improve health. Dietary modulation of the intestinal microflora is today one of the main topics of interest in the nutritional sciences. Performing this modulation in the neonatal or early infancy period, when immunological programming takes place, is a relatively new concept. Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are prebiotics whose bifidogenic activity has been proven in adults. However, only recently have they been combined in infant formulas to reproduce the prebiotic effect of human milk oligosaccharides. In two consecutive trials, it has been demonstrated that supplementation of infant formulas with a mixture of GOS and FOS modified the fecal flora of term and preterm infants, stimulating the growth of Bifidobacteria. In the trial with term infants, the bifidogenic effect of the prebiotic mixture was dose dependent and there was also a significant increase in the number of Lactobacilli in the supplemented group. These findings offer a promising horizon for the early prevention of allergy and infections in infants.


In Listening to Images Tina M. Campt explores a way of listening closely to photography, engaging with lost archives of historically dismissed photographs of black subjects taken throughout the black diaspora. Engaging with photographs through sound, Campt looks beyond what one usually sees and attunes her senses to the other affective frequencies through which these photographs register. She hears in these photos—which range from late nineteenth-century ethnographic photographs of rural African women and photographs taken in an early twentieth-century Cape Town prison to postwar passport photographs in Birmingham, England and 1960s mug shots of the Freedom Riders—a quiet intensity and quotidian practices of refusal. Originally intended to dehumanize, police, and restrict their subjects, these photographs convey the softly buzzing tension of colonialism, the low hum of resistance and subversion, and the anticipation and performance of a future that has yet to happen. Engaging with discourses of fugitivity, black futurity, and black feminist theory, Campt takes these tools of colonialism and repurposes them, hearing and sharing their moments of refusal, rupture, and imagination.


The paper discusses state-space generalized predictive control and the preview control algorithms. The optimization procedure used in the derivation of predictive control algorithms is considered. The performance index associated with the generalized predictive controller (GPC) is examined and compared with the linear quadratic (LQ) optimal control formulation used in preview control. A new performance index and consequently a new algorithm is proposed dynamic performance predictive controller (DPPC) that combines the features of both GPC and preview controller. This algorithm minimizes the performance index through a dynamic optimization. A simple example illustrates the features of the three algorithms and prompts a discussion on what is actually minimized in predictive control. The DPPC algorithm, derived in this paper, provides for a minimum of the predictive performance index. The differences and similarities between the preview control and the predictive control have been discussed and optimization approach of predictive control has been explained.


The proportion of elderly people in the world's population is growing. Thailand and Sweden have disparate cultural traditions of caring for older people, though both countries are facing a larger population of older people. Sweden and Thailand are involved in several cooperative projects and exchange programs for nursing students in this area, raising the questions of if and how the different cultures of gerontological care influence students' attitudes in the issue. The aim of the study was to compare Swedish and Thai nursing students' attitudes towards older people. A convenience sample of 241 Thai nursing students and 299 Swedish nursing students participated in the study. The Kogan's Old People Scale, a 34-item questionnaire, was used in this research. The questionnaire consists of 17 positive (OP+) statements and 17 negative (OP-) statements and uses a Likert scale. Concerning attitudes towards older people, there was no significant difference in Swedish and Thai students' positive scores in the distribution across the groups. In contrast, these students did differ on negative scores across countries (p = .001). This was understood to be related to age; the Swedish students' higher age was positively associated with their positive attitudes; as the age increased, the students' scores were also higher. Attitudes towards older people are not only influenced by cultural values, norms, and social structures, they also have a foundation in gerontological knowledge and experiences. Education addressing cultural awareness of negative ageism should be incorporated into all aspects of education, not just gerontological courses.


Complete immersion of servers in synthetic dielectric fluids is rapidly becoming a popular technique to minimize the energy consumed by data centers for cooling purposes. In general, immersion cooling offers noteworthy advantages over conventional air-cooling methods as synthetic dielectric fluids have high heat dissipation capacities which are roughly about 1200 times greater than air. Other advantages of dielectric fluid immersion cooling include even thermal profile on chips, reduction in noise and addressing reliability and operational enhancements like whisker formation and electrochemical migration. Nevertheless, lack of data published and availability of long-term reliability data on immersion cooling is insufficient which makes most of data centers operators reluctant to implement this technique. The first part of this paper will compare thermal performance of single-phase oil immersion cooled HP ProLiant DL160 G6 server against air cooled server using computational fluid dynamics on 6SigmaET®. Focus of the study are major components of the server like Central Processing Unit (CPU), Dual in Line Memory Module (DIMM), Input/output Hub (IOH) chip and Input/output controller Hub (ICH). The second part of this paper focuses on thermal performance optimization of oil immersion cooled servers by varying inlet oil temperature, flow rate and using different fluid.


"Armaments and Economic Performance". The literature on military expenditure (milex) is scrutinized with respect to five areas. Investment is reduced when milex increases. Most studies have found economic growth hindered by higher milex. No clear association between milex and employment is found. However, the same amount of other public expenditure creates more jobs. There is some evidence for milex as counter-cyclical instrument in the US. The result for studies if milex is used in electoral cycles in the US is contradictory. Disaggregated data are emphasized as a possible solution to get more definite results."The Economic Costs of Civil Wars". The empirical studies of the economic costs of internal armed conflicts are divided into accounting and modelling methods. Cost is seen as the difference between the counterfactual production without conflict and the actual production. The average economic cost of internal armed conflict is a 3.7% yearly reduction of GDP. There are large differences between the estimates. One of the reasons for pursuing such studies is to give improved basis for more cost-effective post-conflict reconstruction, which is better achieved with an accounting method."War and Economic Performance – Different Data, Different Conclusions?" This article studies the importance of armed conflict for economic growth by replicating an earlier analysis with new data on conflicts. The basic model investigates how conflicts in 1960-1974 affect economic growth in 1975-1989. Koubi finds that "wars are conducive to higher growth". Koubi's finding is confirmed when different conflict data is used in a similar research design."The Role of External Factors in Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of Thailand and the Philippines 1950-1990". Can differences in economic performance be explained by external factors? Both historical and regression analyses are utilised to answer the question. Three external factors are analysed: International trade, foreign direct investment, and external debt. In the regression analysis none of the external factors qualify as statistically significant. The historical analysis finds two external factors discriminating between the two countries. Thus, they might explain the differing growth rates of Thailand and the Philippines: Manufactured exports and external debt.


© 2014 Adrian Furnham. The New Psychology of Money is an accessible and engrossing analysis of our psychological relationship to money in all its forms. Comprehensive and insightful, Adrian Furnham explores the role that money plays in a range of contexts, from the family to the high street, and asks whether the relationship is always a healthy one. Discussing how money influences what we think, what we say, and how we behave in a range of situations, the book places the dynamics of high finance and credit card culture in context with traditional attitudes towards wealth across a range of cultures, as well as how the concept of money has developed historically. The book is split into four sections: Understanding Money. What are our attitudes to money, and how does nationality, history and religion mediate those attitudes? Money in the Home How do we grow up with money, and what role does it play within the family? What role does gender play, and can we lose control in dealing with money? Money at Work. Are we really motivated by money at work? And what methods do retailers use to persuade us to part with our money? Money in Everyday Life. How do we balance the need to create more money for ourselves through investments with the desire to make charitable contributions, or give money to friends and family? How has the e-revolution changed our relationship to money? Radically updated from its original publication in 1998, The New Psychology of Money is a timely and fascinating book on the psychological impact of an aspect of daily life we generally take for granted. It will be of interest to all students of psychology, economics and business and management, but also anyone who takes an interest in the world around them.


This study investigated lexical labelling of people and their actions in terms of ownership and non-ownership of territories by the Nigerian and Cameroonian newspaper reports on the Bakassi Peninsula border conflict, with a view to uncovering ideologies underlying the representations. Van Dijk's socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis which relates discursive practices to social and psychological dimensions was used to analyse instances of labelling in three Nigerian and three Cameroonian English-medium national newspapers. The analyses revealed that the newspapers generally labelled Nigerians in Bakassi as both owners (natives and indigenes) and non-owners (inhabitants and residents). Specifically, the Cameroonian news reports deployed more labels of non-ownership to project Nigerians in Bakassi as mere tenants and occupants of the region while the Nigerian news reports employed more labels of ownership to depict Nigerians as aboriginals and owners of the peninsula. The ideologies of economic interests and ancestral roots motivated the labelling of territorial ownership and non-ownership in both nations' newspapers.


In the aquaculture of prawns in inland facilities, the supply with natural seawater is technically difficult and expensive, while the use of artificial salt may be suboptimal due to unfavorable ionic composition. In the present study, Amazon River prawn, Macrobrachium amazonicum , were reared from hatching through nine larval stages to the first juvenile instar, comparing four experimental conditions with two salinities (5, 10) and two different types of salt (artificial, natural). Larval biomass growth was measured in terms of changes in dry weight (W), contents of carbon and nitrogen (C, N), and proximate biochemical composition (lipid, protein); moreover, body size (carapace length, CL) was measured in first-stage juveniles. After passing through the nonfeeding first larval stage, later stages showed an exponential increase in values of biomass per individual. Rates of increase differed significantly among treatments, showing generally lower growth in experiments with artificial vs . natural salt, and at 5 vs. 10. The same response pattern was found also in CL of early juvenile shrimps. Similar but mostly weaker effects were observed in the percentage C, N, lipid, and protein values (in % of W), and in the C: N mass ratio. Our data indicate that larval rearing of M. amazonicum is feasible with artificial salts and at lower than commonly used standard salinity (10). This makes the cultivation of this species feasible also in aquaculture facilities located at large distance from the coast, where a reduction of costs and logistic investments may compensate for reduced larval growth and production of smaller juveniles. However, these salinity effects on offspring production have to be taken into account in comparisons of growth data from different laboratories and locations. Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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In this paper we studied the isolation and identification of phytoplankton from aquatic ecosystems of Lampung Mangroves Center (LMC) as biology feed. The analysis of sea water quality parameters in the location of the study consisting of pH, salinity, brightness, water temperature, nitrate, nitrite and phosphate, revealed that all the parameters meet the quality standard, except for nitrates and nitrites. Isolation and identification of Phytoplankton taken from aquatic ecosystem of the LMC using net plankton ± 15 was carried out to obtain pure cultures in Live Feed Laboratory of the Center for Marin Culture Lampung, Indonesia. The Phytoplankton samples were isolated in the bacto agar and were added the fertilizers Conwy and Gillard to spur the growth of green and brown algae. The isolation of media was done by scratch method and cultured in a petri dish with upside down position for seven days, and observed every day for evaluating the algae growth. The results showed that there were 14 genera of phytoplankton identified. Six types of 14 genera of phytoplankton identified have potential to be developed as a biological feed: Thalassiosira, Cyclotella, Chaetoceros, Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis, and Isochrysis, The isolates of phytoplankton produced can be stored in the refrigerator as pure stock cultures and can last for up to 6 months before being used in a medium culture or laboratory culture scale.


The category of aspect is grammaticized in both Greek and Russian opposing perfective and imperfective verb forms in all inflectional categories except the nonpast ('present'). Despite these similarities there are important differences in the way the aspectual systems function in the two languages. While in Greek nearly all verbs oppose a perfective to a given imperfective grammatical form, Russian aspect is more strongly lexicalized with pairs of imperfective and perfective lexemes not only differing aspectually, but also as far as their lexical meanings are concerned. This is especially true of perfective verbs formed by prefixes as compared to their imperfective bases. Thus, in pairs of prefixed and unprefixed dynamic verbs, the derived prefixed (perfective) member has a telic meaning while its unprefixed (imperfective) counterpart is atelic (e.g. sjest' (PFV) 'to eat up' vs. jest' (IPF) 'to eat'). Such derived perfective verbs may in turn be "secondarily" imperfectivized by suffixation furnishing the only "true" perfective/imperfective pairs of verbs (e.g. sjest' (PFV) 'to eat up' vs. sjedat' (IPF) 'to eat up' (iterative)). "Secondary" imperfectives do not occur in our child data. In this pilot study, we will analyze the tense-aspect-mood forms of the 20 most frequent verbs with equivalent meanings occurring in the longitudinal audiotaped data of a Greek and a Russian boy between 2;1 and 2;3 (their entire lexical inventories comprise approx. 100 verbs each). We adopt a constructivist perspective on the development of aspect in Greek and Russian child language and will show that in spite of a broad inventory of imperfective and perfective verb forms to be found in the speech of both children aspect has not yet developed into a generalized grammatical category, but is strongly dependent on aktionsart (stative/dynamic, telic/atelic) in both languages. While this results in a strong preference for perfective verb forms of telic verbs and of imperfective forms of atelic ones in the speech of the Greek boy, the Russian child tends to use the unmarked members


Differences and similarities in the development paths taken by six East Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan) provide a fertile ground for policy analysis from which important lessons are drawn and major challenges identified for the Indochinese transitional economies (ITEs for short, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Viet Nam, and China) in advancing the twin objectives of economic growth and poverty reduction. The paper first examines the comparative growth performance of these two groups of Asian economies over the period 1970-1997, describes the significant features of transition and development in the ITEs, and analyzes the relationship between development performance and policies among the East Asian countries. The following major policy challenges for ITEs are discussed towards the end of the paper: (1) sustaining reform efforts toward market orientation; (2) promoting broad-based agricultural growth; (3) supporting labor-intensive, export-oriented industries; (4) dealing with macroeconomic imbalances; and (5) building a strong financial system.


We present nlrpBENCH: a new platform and framework to improve soft-
ware engineering research as well as teaching with focus on requirements engineering
during the software engineering process. It is available on http://nlrp.ipd.
kit.edu.
Recent advances in natural language processing have made it possible to process
textual software requirements automatically, for example checking them for flaws or
translating them into software artifacts. This development is particularly fortunate,
as the majority of requirements is written in unrestricted natural language. However,
many of the tools in in this young area of research have been evaluated only on limited
sets of examples, because there is no accepted benchmark that could be used to assess
and compare these tools. To improve comparability and thereby accelerate progress,
we have begun to assemble nlrpBENCH, a collection of requirements specifications
meant both as a challenge for tools and a yardstick for comparison.
We have gathered over 50 requirement texts of varying length and difficulty and
organized them in benchmark sets. At present, there are two task types: model extrac-
tion (e.g., generating UML models) and text correction (e.g., eliminating ambiguities).
Each text is accompanied by the expected result and metrics for scoring results. This
paper describes the composition of the benchmark and the sources. Due to the brevity
of this paper, we omit example tools comparisons which are also available.


We studied the adsorption of carbon on (100), (010) and (001) surfaces of alloyed cementite (Fe2MC with M = Cr, Mn, Mo, Ni and V), in comparison with that of cementite (Fe3C), to predict the catalytic effect of the element-doped cementite on diamond-like carbon (DLC) growth through first-principles analysis. The adsorption of carbon on the alloyed cementite surface is related to its surface stability. The more stable a surface, the weaker its adsorption capability. Mn, Mo, Cr or V alloyed cementite have a higher adsorption energy than unalloyed cementite. A correlation has also been found between the adsorption and the transferred charge based on Bader charge analysis. Among all the types of doped cementite under study, Fe2NiC possesses the strongest catalytic activity for DLC growth based on the formation energy of diamond carbon. Doping cementite with the appropriate elements provides a promising means to improve the catalytic activity of Fe3C for effective DLC growth.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


Climate change is driving movements of many plants beyond, as well as within, their current distributional ranges. Even migrant plants moving within their current range may experience different plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) because of divergent nonlocal biotic soil conditions. Yet, our understanding to what extent soil biotic conditions can affect the performance of within-range migrant plants is still very limited. We assessed the emergence and growth of migrant forest herbs (Milium effusum and Stachys sylvatica) using soils and seeds collected along a 1,700 km latitudinal gradient across Europe. Soil biota were manipulated through four soil treatments, i.e. unsterilized control soil (PSFUS ), sterilized soil (PSFS ), sterilized soil inoculated with unsterilized home soil (PSFS+HI ) and sterilized soil inoculated with unsterilized foreign soil (PSFS+FI , expected to occur when both plants and soil biota track climate change). Compared to PSFS , PSFUS had negative effects on the growth but not emergence of both species, while PSFS+FI only affected S. sylvatica across all seed provenances. When considering seed origin, seedling emergence and growth responses to nonlocal soils depended on soil biotic conditions. Specifically, the home-away distance effect on seedling emergence differed between the four treatments, and significant responses to chemistry either disappeared (M. effusum) or changed (S. sylvatica) from PSFUS to PSFS . Soil biota emerge as an important driver of the estimated plant migration success. Our results of the effects of soil microorganisms on plant establishment provide relevant information for predictions of the distribution and dynamics of plant species in a changing climate.


Sum-product networks (SPNs) are a deep probabilistic representation that allows for efficient, exact inference. SPNs generalize many other tractable models, including thin junction trees, latent tree models, and many types of mixtures. Previous work on learning SPN structure has mainly focused on using top-down or bottom-up clustering to find mixtures, which capture variable interactions indirectly through implicit latent variables. In contrast, most work on learning graphical models, thin junction trees, and arithmetic circuits has focused on finding direct interactions among variables. In this paper, we present ID-SPN, a new algorithm for learning SPN structure that unifies the two approaches. In experiments on 20 benchmark datasets, we find that the combination of direct and indirect interactions leads to significantly better accuracy than several state-of-the-art algorithms for learning SPNs and other tractable models.


For the realization of more efficient environmental monitoring applications, e.g., precision
agriculture, the current technologies face many constraints in terms of observation precision
and real-time capabilities. Nanotechnology promises new solutions to address such limitations
through the fabrication of nano-scale devices which can be interconnected. The tiny
size of these devices offers entirely new features that cannot be observed at larger scales,
including the fine-grained detection of substances even at the molecular level. According
to the existing literature, the predicted communication channel for nano-devices will be in
the THz band, which has not been broadly studied yet. However, the limited research work
already indicates numerous challenges for THz communications, mainly in terms of signal
attenuation. These issues, which will be more prominent in the proximity of vegetation, can
drastically affect the transmission range and channel capacity. As it is evident in the current
literature, the traditional communication protocols cannot be deployed for nanonetworks,
since they do not consider the specific constraints of such networks.
Through this thesis, we propose a framework for THz nanonetwork communications in
vegetation environments, to address those challenges. This research work can be considered
as an initial step towards the realization of such types of communications.
The proposed framework is composed of different components, including a cross-layer
communication approach with specifications at the the physical and data link layers. It is also
comprised of generic models of plants as well as models for approximation of the probability
of success in transmissions. The performance of the proposed framework is analyzed based
on the proposed theoretical models and by considering various communication scenarios.


In this paper we outline a cybersemiotic foundation for the trend of pragmatics-based functional linguistics, Functional Discourse Grammar. Cybersemiotics is a substantial inter- and transdisciplinary semiotic theory which integrates, on the one hand, second-order cybernetics and autopoiesis theory and, on the other, Peircean biosemiotics. According to Cybersemiotics, language is primarily a creative process of total integrative evolutionary communication. It comprises three evolutionary stages: (1) biological reflexive languaging (the reflexive foundation of social coordination), (2) instinctual-motivational-emotional sign plays (a level which is shared with other animals and is the domain of ethology), and (3) premeditated, intentional symbol-based language games (specifically human unitary thinking-speaking-gesturing, the domain of pragmatics-based functional linguistics). In this inclusive hierarchy language games subsume the other stages, and thus human evolutionary communication is primarily a symbolic-conventional practice. It is intertwined with the practice of living, that is, with different life forms, including other forms of semiotic behavior. Together they form a coherent biological and socio-cultural practice. The basic "molecule" of the cybersemiotic model of human communication is a dyad between two linguistic cyborgs, alias natural language users. Single human communicators are thus "atoms". They are hybrids between nature and nurture, manipulating all sorts of artificiality (e.g. pen and ink writing, digital-electronic texting, mobile telephonic amplification). A conventional practice, language occurs in three phases: as discourse process, product, and pattern. As discourse pattern it is deontological-directive (rather than epistemic-declarative) and functions as a finalistic guideline for the communicative processes of single individuals. Thus, rather than being the speech community's invariant langue, a discourse pattern is a single individual's communicative competence. Accordingly, shared communicational norms and conventions of the speech community are emergent and not determinant.


New regulatory standards require central counterparties (CCPs) to have robust processes in place to mitigate their counterparty credit risk exposures. At the same time, the standards allow CCPs to tailor their risk management models. This paper considers how CCPs can optimally determine the relative mix of initial margin and default fund contributions in a stylised setting, by balancing the costs of default resources with the expected losses they protect against. Where members are of good credit quality and the probability of experiencing losses is low, the loss-mutualising properties of the default fund are favoured over the defaulter-pays properties of initial margin. Significant tail risks in the markets cleared by the CCP further favour the use of the default fund as a cost-effective insurance against potentially large losses. By contrast, when members are more likely to default or extreme losses are unlikely, the CCP has incentives to maximise the defaulter-pays collateral it takes, and the benefits of the loss-mutualising default fund are reduced. Our numerical results support the recognition that CCPs should have some discretion over how they set the optimal level and composition of their default resources, based on the specific risks of the markets and portfolios that they clear. Our results also show that changes in collateral costs and capital requirements can have a significant impact on a CCP's optimal risk management choices.


We design and mathematically analyze sampling-based algorithms for regularized loss minimization problems that are implementable in popular computational models for large data, in which the access to the data is restricted in some way. Our main result is that if the regularizer's effect does not become negligible as the norm of the hypothesis scales, and as the data scales, then a uniform sample of modest size is with high probability a coreset. In the case that the loss function is either logistic regression or soft-margin support vector machines, and the regularizer is one of the common recommended choices, this result implies that a uniform sample of size $O(d \sqrt{n})$ is with high probability a coreset of $n$ points in $\Re^d$. We contrast this upper bound with two lower bounds. The first lower bound shows that our analysis of uniform sampling is tight; that is, a smaller uniform sample will likely not be a core set. The second lower bound shows that in some sense uniform sampling is close to optimal, as significantly smaller core sets do not generally exist.


Purpose: To determine the key dosimetric characteristics of a newly developed and clinically implemented inverse‐planned modulated‐arc total‐body irradiation (MATBI) technique, including optimal treatment beam parameters, a redefined beam model, and patient‐specific quality assurance (QA). Methods: During MATBI treatment, the patient is positioned prone and supine underneath the gantry at 2 m source‐to‐surface distance (SSD). The dose is delivered using open‐field beams at different gantry angles. Monitor units per beam are inverse‐planned through beam‐weight optimization based on the patient's anatomy from full‐body computed tomography(CT)images. Beam output characteristics were measured at extended SSD and a new beam model was commissioned. Delivery time and dose uniformity were studied vs. beam field size and geometry. Dose delivery accuracy was determined by comparing ion chamber measurements inside anthropomorphic water phantoms to planning system predictions. A phantom with Gaf‐Chromic film inserts was designed for clinical use to streamline patient‐specific QA. Results: MATBI was used on 17 patients so far. The best dose uniformity and shortest delivery time were achieved for a beam field size of 40×40 cm2 at isocenter with 5° step size between adjacent beams, using 16 to 28 beams per side depending on patient size. Compared to the original beam model, the new beam model improved the dose delivery accuracy by a fraction of a percent to 1.2%. The largest discrepancy between measurement and prediction was 3.2%. The patient‐specific QA procedure showed that QA with a 5% tolerance limit could be routinely performed. Conclusions: The new inverse‐planned MATBI technique permits dose optimization, dose‐volume histogram calculation and dosimetric analysis. MATBI beam setup parameters for optimal dose uniformity and treatment duration were determined. The developed phantom allows for a patient‐specific quality assurance procedure, which is now used routinely. These results are the basis for the safe and accurate clinical implementation of MATBI. Work supported by Siemens.


We present a method to dynamically image structures at nanometer spatial resolution with far-field instruments. We propose the use of engineered nanoprobes with distinguishable spectral responses and the measurement of coherent scattering, rather than fluorescence. Approaches such as PALM/STORM have relied on the rarity of emission events in time to distinguish signals from distinct probes. By distinguishing signals in the spectral domain, we enable the acquisition of data in a multiplex fashion and thus circumvent the fundamental problem of slow data acquisition of current techniques. The described method has the potential to image dynamic systems with a spatial resolution only limited to the size of the scattering probes.


In Greek literary papyri coming from Egypt we can find only a few evidences of works about animals, for example fragments of Aristotelian works or works linked to the scientific production. Only in recent years two papyri were published that contained a "bestiary" in a broad sense. The first papyrus is a fragment of the Physiologus, one of the most important ancient Greek treatises devoted to the animals: it is a fragment small in size, but of great importance since it testifies the spreading of this work. The second papyrus full of animal figures is the so-called Artemidorus Papyrus, which on one side bears the drawings of many animals. In some cases it is possible to trace them back to the animals described in the chapters of the Physiologus, and determine connections between such different products, an illustrated scroll belonging to the first century AD and a Christian essay of the third century AD.