Title of Dissertation: CHARACTERIZATION OF NON-LINEAR POLYMER PROPERTIES TO PREDICT PROCESS INDUCED WARPAGE AND RESIDUAL STRESS OF ELECTRONIC PACKAGES Yong Sun, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor Bongtae Han Department of Mechanical Engineering Nonlinear thermo-mechanical properties of advanced polymers are crucial to accurate prediction of the process induced warpage and residual stress of electronics packages. The Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor based method is advanced and implemented to determine temperature and time dependent nonlinear properties. The FBG sensor is embedded in the center of the cylindrical specimen, which deforms together with the specimen. The strains of the specimen at different loading conditions are monitored by the FBG sensor. Two main sources of the warpage are considered: curing induced warpage and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch induced warpage. The effective chemical shrinkage and the equilibrium modulus are needed for the curing induced warpage prediction. Considering various polymeric materials used in microelectronic packages, unique curing setups and procedures are developed for elastomers (extremely low modulus, medium viscosity, room temperature curing), underfill materials (medium modulus, low viscosity, high temperature curing), and epoxy molding compound (EMC: high modulus, high viscosity, high temperature pressure curing), most notably, (1) zero-constraint mold for elastomers; (2) a two-stage curing procedure for underfill materials and (3) an air-cylinder based novel setup for EMC. For the CTE mismatch induced warpage, the temperature dependent CTE and the comprehensive viscoelastic properties are measured. The cured cylindrical specimen with a FBG sensor embedded in the center is further used for viscoelastic property measurements. A uniaxial compressive loading is applied to the specimen to measure the time dependent Young's modulus. The test is repeated from room temperature to the reflow temperature to capture the time-temperature dependent Young's modulus. A separate high pressure system is developed for the bulk modulus measurement. The time temperature dependent bulk modulus is measured at the same temperatures as the Young's modulus. The master curve of the Young's modulus and bulk modulus of the EMC is created and a single set of the shift factors is determined from the time temperature superposition. The supplementary experiments are conducted to verify the validity of the assumptions associated with the linear viscoelasticity. The measured time-temperature dependent properties are further verified by a shadow moiré and Twyman/Green test. CHARACTERIZATION OF NON-LINEAR POLYMER PROPERTIES TO PREDICT PROCESS INDUCED WARPAGE AND RESIDUAL STRESS OF ELECTRONIC PACKAGES


In this paper, we propose a novel method for facial expression recognition based on the combination of using Gabor filters and Local Gradient Code-Horizontal Diagonal (LGC-HD) features to generate the Local Gabor Gradient Code-Horizontal Diagonal (LGGC-HD) descriptor. In this approach, we firstly extract the Gabor Features Map (GFM) by convolving the facial image with three scales and eight orientations of the Kernel Gabor Filters (KGFs). We then apply the LGC-HD on each image in the GFM in order to increase the gradient information features to obtain the LGGC-HD descriptor. Histogram sequence concatenation is then applied to the LGGC-HD descriptor to represent the facial image after dividing it into a number of nonoverlapping blocks. Finally, the Chi-square distance is employed to classify the different emotions. To increase the recognition rate and reduce the classifier time, a weighted mask is adopted, in which specific regions in the face were labelled such as eye, eyebrow and mouth with higher weights than other regions. Comparison results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method against other methods that utilized different approaches for describing the histogram sequence features such as Local Gabor Binary Pattern (LGBP). Experimental results on the JAFFE and CK databases showed high recognition rate of 93.33% and 90.62%, respectively.


In 2006, the Bolivian government introduced a large-scale cash transfer programme, Bono Juancito Pinto (BJP). Exploiting the exogenous variation of the programme expansion, this paper examines the impact of BJP on schooling and child labour. The analysis suggests that the transfer increases the likelihood of school enrolment but has no sizeable effect on the incidence of child labour. The results are in line with theoretical models that predict that if leisure and schooling decisions are substitutes, a school incentive will have either positive or neutral effects on child labour. Our findings support previous evidence that schooling and work decisions are not perfect substitutes among children.


Rangeland in the arid zone of Western Australia has been degraded by sheep overstocking since the turn of the century. The strategies available for restoring the productivity of such degraded rangelands are limited. In this paper optimal economic policies with respect to the choice of stocking rates and grazing patterns were derived for various starting states under a stochastic optimal control framework. Evaluation of these optimal policies was carried out by comparing their long run economic and ecological impacts on grassland.
All optimal policies call for a strategy of set stocking or destocking only. Rotational grazing is not economically viable at the specified cost levels. Optimal stocking rate increases with the level of forage biomass and adult plants, but decreases with the level of either young or old seedlings at the degraded range condition. The results indicate that under the criterion of maximisation of the long run average return, for slightly degraded range, rehabilitation through grazing management alone is possible. For range which is moderately to severely degraded, rehabilitation to fair or good condition is not technically practical. On the other hand, under the criterion of maximisation of the net present value at a discount rate of 5 percent, the consequence of the long run impact on the range resource following the optimal policy is ecologically unsustainable, though economically viable. These findings suggest that if degraded ranges continue to be exploited for private profit, the range resource may be driven beyond its capability to renew. If ecological sustainability is an Australian social norm, economic rationality should subside in the decision criterion, and range management will require some willingness to forego short term profits for the sake of long term rewards or investment in regeneration measures.


This thesis seeks to explain the phenomenon of discretionary effort in Korean bank branches in terms of its antecedents and outcomes. Specifically, it has the following main objectives: First, it seeks to test whether or not discretionary effort in Korea can be explained in terms of the five motivation mechanisms identified by Benkhoff (1994)- need theories, positive work disposition, intrinsic motivation, behavioural commitment and social exchange theory by replicating her model, which originally functioned in the German context. The statistical results confirm that some of the motivation mechanisms function in the Korean context, such as the need for achievement, the need for esteem, and behavioural commitment, but others, such as work disposition, intrinsic motivation and social exchange theory, do not apply to the Korean context. This implies that the universality of motivation theories can be affected by national culture. Secondly, the thesis investigates the impact of group motivation mechanisms, in particular group norms and identification, on employees' discretionary effort and performance in Korean bank branches. This is because group motivation is not the same as individual motivation, since there is more to a group than the sum of the individuals who comprise it, although norms and identification as group motivation mechanisms can partly be explained by the individual motivation theories identified by Benkhoff (1994). For this reason, group motivation mechanisms are here treated as having an alternative and independent explanatory power for discretionary effort. Statistical results confirm that group motivation mechanisms are indeed independent of the five individual motivation theories. With regards to the relationship with discretionary effort, multiple-regression analysis demonstrates that employees' identification with their work organisation and some discretionary effort-promoting norms have a significant impact on discretionary effort of employees in Korea. Thirdly, the thesis examines the relationship between discretionary effort and financial performance in the service context. It is shown that there is a significant link in the Korean context. Finally, this thesis seeks to investigate the similarities and differences between motivation mechanisms to ensure whether or not they have their own explanatory power. It is concluded that employees' discretionary effort and performance in Korean bank branches are strongly affected not only by individual motivation mechanisms, but also by group motivation mechanisms such as norms and identification.


The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has put increased pressure on health and social service providers, including social workers who continued front line practice throughout the pandemic, engaging with some of the most vulnerable in society often experiencing multiple adversities alongside domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Movement restrictions and stay-at-home orders introduced to slow the spread of the virus, paradoxically leave these families at even greater risk from those within the home. Utilising a survey methodology combining both open- and closed-ended questions, this study captured a picture of social work practice in Ireland with families experiencing DVA during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight both the changes and challenges in work practices and procedures that limit social work assessment and quality contact with families, changes to the help-seeking behaviours from victims/survivors, as well as emerging innovative practice responses with enhanced use of technology. Implications for practice include an increased awareness of the risk and prevalence of DVA accelerated by the pandemic. Conclusions assert that social work assessment and intervention with families experiencing DVA must remain adaptive to the changing COVID-19 context and continue to develop innovative practice approaches.


This essay seeks to explicate an unorthodox idea that spans psychology, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and computer science called homuncular flexibility (HF). HF posits that the homunculus—the part of the cortex that maps movement and sensing of body parts—is capable of adapting to novel bodies, in particular bodies that have extra appendages or appendages capable of atypical movements. Evidence demonstrates neural plasticity in nature; for example, amputees experience cortical shifting such that their face receives extra attention in the brain after a limb is amputated. However, experiments such as the rubber hand illusion, in which people respond to rubber hands placed near their arms as if they were their actual hands, demonstrated that a person's sense of their body can be adjusted to include external objects. The recent advent of virtual reality technology, which can track physical human motions and display them on avatars, allows for the wholly new human experience of inhabiting distinctly nonhuman bodies. HF is a paradigm in which physical motions are transformed by remapping degrees of freedom from tracked movements onto an avatar. For example, if a human being were to inhabit an avatar of a lobster, controlling two of the eight lobster arms would be simply be a function of tracking the two physical arms and directly mapping those movements onto the avatar's first two arms. However, in order to control the remaining six arms, degrees of freedom that are orthogonal to the movements of the first two arms need to be measured and remapped. In this essay, we discuss advancements in neuroscience, psychology, and computer science that relate to HF. We review some preliminary studies that demonstrate how humans accommodate novel bodies. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications and practical applications relating to HF.

Keywords:

homuncular flexibility;
avatars;
tool use;
body schema;
virtual reality


Abstract. Plant activity in semi-arid ecosystems is largely controlled by pulses of precipitation, making them particularly vulnerable to increased aridity that is expected with climate change. Simple bucket-model hydrology schemes in land surface models (LSMs) have had limited ability in accurately
capturing semi-arid water stores and fluxes. Recent, more complex, LSM hydrology models have not been widely evaluated against semi-arid ecosystem
in situ data. We hypothesize that the failure of older LSM versions to represent evapotranspiration, ET, in arid lands is because simple
bucket models do not capture realistic fluctuations in upper-layer soil moisture. We therefore predict that including a discretized soil hydrology scheme based on a mechanistic description of moisture diffusion will result in an improvement in model ET when compared to data because the temporal
variability of upper-layer soil moisture content better corresponds to that of precipitation inputs. To test this prediction, we compared ORCHIDEE LSM simulations from (1) a simple conceptual 2-layer bucket scheme with fixed hydraulic parameters and (2) an 11-layer discretized mechanistic scheme of moisture diffusion in unsaturated soil based on Richards equations, against daily and monthly soil moisture and ET observations, together
with data-derived estimates of transpiration / evapotranspiration, T∕ET, ratios, from six semi-arid grass, shrub, and forest sites in the south-western USA. The 11-layer scheme also has modified calculations of surface runoff, water limitation, and resistance to bare soil
evaporation, E, to be compatible with the more complex hydrology configuration. To diagnose remaining discrepancies in the 11-layer model, we
tested two further configurations: (i) the addition of a term that captures bare soil evaporation resistance to dry soil; and (ii) reduced bare soil
fractional vegetation cover. We found that the more mechanistic 11-layer model results in a better representation of the daily and monthly ET
observations. We show that, as predicted, this is because of improved simulation of soil moisture in the upper layers of soil (top
∼ 10 cm). Some discrepancies between observed and modelled soil moisture and ET may allow us to prioritize future model development
and the collection of additional data. Biases in winter and spring soil moisture at the forest sites could be explained by inaccurate soil moisture
data during periods of soil freezing and/or underestimated snow forcing data. Although ET is generally well captured by the 11-layer model, modelled
T∕ET ratios were generally lower than estimated values across all sites, particularly during the monsoon season. Adding a soil
resistance term generally decreased simulated bare soil evaporation, E, and increased soil moisture content, thus increasing transpiration, T,
and reducing the negative bias between modelled and estimated monsoon T∕ET ratios. This negative bias could also be accounted for at
the low-elevation sites by decreasing the model bare soil fraction, thus increasing the amount of transpiring leaf area. However, adding the bare soil resistance term and decreasing the bare soil fraction both degraded the model fit to ET observations. Furthermore, remaining discrepancies in
the timing of the transition from minimum T∕ET ratios during the hot, dry May–June period to high values at the start of the
monsoon in July–August may also point towards incorrect modelling of leaf phenology and vegetation growth in response to monsoon rains. We conclude that a discretized soil hydrology scheme and associated developments improve estimates of ET by allowing the modelled upper-layer soil moisture to more closely match the pulse precipitation dynamics of these semi-arid ecosystems; however, the partitioning of T from E is not solved by this
modification alone.


Current federal law prohibits corporations from spending corporate funds directly to promote or oppose a candidate for federal office. Instead, a corporation can set up an indirect funding mechanism subject to a number of restrictions on the source, use, and disclosure of funds. The prohibition on direct corporate spending, however, does not always apply to media corporations. If the New York Times Corporation, that prints the New York Times, or Time-Warner, through Time or CNN, endorses or opposes a candidate for federal office, federal law does not consider this a corporate campaign-related expenditure. A number of states have a similar "media exception" to their campaign finance laws. Recent campaign finance reform proposals aimed at promoting political equality have similar media exceptions. Skeptics and critics of campaign finance reform point to the media exception as a potent argument against equality-based reform and even against current campaign finance laws. They argue that: (1) equality cannot be achieved when the media are given an even more preeminent place than they already have in shaping public attitudes toward federal candidates, especially, as some argue, given the media's supposed "liberal bias" and (2) the media exception cannot be eliminated without violating the First Amendment. This Article argues (contrary to my earlier and more cursory examination of the issue) that a media exception to campaign finance laws is unjustifiable, though current Supreme Court doctrine permits, and may even require, such an exception. Part I briefly sets forth current federal campaign finance law and explains how it would apply to news media in the absence of a media exception. It also discusses media exceptions found in some proposed reform plans and campaign finance legislation. Part II uses a public choice/egalitarian pluralist model to argue against a media exception to otherwise applicable campaign finance laws. It posits and examines the evidence indicating that media owners are profit or influence maximizers who use their news outlets' endorsement decisions to rationally further their own interests, including as a means to secure access to public officials. Part II argues that equality is somewhat undermined by the current media exception, and equality would be greatly undermined by a media exception to a more comprehensive equality-based campaign finance reform plan like my voucher plan. Eliminating the media exception likely would not have a significant effect on the outcome of federal elections. It may, however, have a significant effect on some federal policy outcomes, and an end to the exception would be an important symbolic measure to eliminate perceived inequality of political capital under a more comprehensive equality-based campaign finance reform plan. Part III examines two major objections to repeal of the media exception. The first is a constitutional argument that a campaign finance law without a media exception violates the First Amendment. I examine this issue both under current campaign finance jurisprudence and in a post-Buckley era where the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of broader, equality-based campaign finance reform. The Supreme Court in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce upheld the permissibility of a media exception, and if the Court followed current doctrine it likely would hold that the exception is not only permissible, but required by the First Amendment. But if the Supreme Court rethinks its approach to campaign finance generally to allow promotion of political equality, an equality-promoting law lacking a media exception stands a fair chance of being upheld under the First Amendment. Part III also examines a second objection, that eliminating the media exception would do little to promote political equality because the law would not regulate the real source of media power: subtle bias in news coverage of political candidates. Though there is some merit to this objection, the evidence of systematic bias in news reporting in favor of or against Democratic or Republican candidates for federal office is weak, probably due to increased norms of professional objectivity internalized by journalists. Finally, Part IV briefly argues against repeal of the current media exception for corporate media. Though narrowing the media exception to non-corporate media companies may be constitutional, I argue against enactment of such a law given the already strong inequalities in our campaign finance system and the costs associated with its repeal. I conclude that the media exception should be eliminated only as part of a comprehensive campaign finance reform plan aimed at promoting political equality.


Hunger continues to be one of humanity's greatest challenges despite the existence of a more-than-adequate global food supply equal to 2,800 kilocalories for every person every day. In measuring progress, policy-makers and concerned citizens across the globe rely on information supplied by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an agency of the United Nations. In 2010 the FAO reported that in the wake of the 2007–2008 food-price spikes and global economic crisis, the number of people experiencing hunger worldwide since 2005–2007 had increased by 150 million, rising above 1 billion in 2009. However, in its State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 (SOFI 12) the FAO presented new estimates, having revamped its methods and reinterpreted its hunger data back to 1990. The revised numbers for the period 1990–1992 to 2010–2012 reverse the trend to a steadily falling one. Based on the FAO's new calculations, extreme undernourishment peaked in 1990 at a record-breaking one billion, followed by a significant decline through 2006, when progress stalled but did not reverse (see chart below).


The past few years have seen a great deal of controversy concerning the continued viability of the tort system as a remedy for accidental injuries. Talk of a "torts crisis" has been widespread in both the public media and the scholarly community. While some accuse the insurance industry of orchestrating the crisis, there can be no question that lack of confidence in the tort system is both widespread and deeply felt. The depth of this feeling can be seen in the frequent proposals by respectable scholars and responsible officials that the system as a whole should be radically altered or abolished. What is new and surprising in these developments is the widespread dissatisfaction with the alleged "generosity" of the tort system. Many tort plaintiffs are sympathetic claimants while defendants are often large and seemingly callous institutions. Beyond this, the system itself - with its reliance on jury verdicts and its emphasis on public accountability - has served as a deeply democratic symbol of the state's commitment to individualized justice. Nevertheless, there is a growing perception that the system is arbitrary and excessive and that its costs far outweigh its benefits.


Abstract Objective: Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (anti-NMDA) receptor encephalitis is an acute, immune-mediated paraneoplastic syndrome that often presents with psychobehavioral changes, abnormal movements, autonomic instability, seizures, and cognitive dysfunction. While the disease continues to be more readily identified and appropriately treated, the course of cognitive deficits from the acute to post-acute to chronic phase has not been well described, particularly in the pediatric population. This case series describes the neuropsychological functioning of three adolescent females with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis from its early presentation to long-term follow-up.Method: All three cases are adolescent females with antibody-confirmed anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. A review of the literature is provided summarizing the disorder and its known cognitive sequelae, pathophysiology, treatment, and prognostic factors, as well as each patient's relevant history, symptom presentation, and disease course. Neuropsychological functioning of each patient was evaluated from her initial inpatient hospitalization to long-term follow-up (3.5–12 months after acute evaluation).Results: All three patients demonstrated clear improvement in cognitive functioning during the course of their recovery, though selected deficits in executive functioning, fine motor dexterity, language, and memory were observed at long-term follow-up in some of our patients.Conclusions: Findings are consistent with studies in adults that found cognitive deficits following anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Though gradual recovery was noted over time, all three patients reported no clinically significant difficulties during their final evaluation, despite showing mild impairment in some areas, emphasizing the importance of ongoing neuropsychological follow-up.


The antibiotic nucleoside tubercidin produced by Streptomyces violaceoniger was evaluated for in-vivo efficacy and in-vitro activity against Phytophthora capsici, Magnaporthe grisea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Tubercidin was more effective against P. capsici and M. grisea than against C. gloeosporioides in inhibiting mycelial growth. The bioassay on TLC plates was the most sensitive method and allowed the evaluation of antifungal activity of tubercidin even at a low concentration of 0.1 μg ml -1 . As compared to the systemic fungicide metalaxyl, tubercidin was similar or somewhat higher in inhibition of mycelial growth of P. capsici. When applied to pepper stems, tubercidin was equally as effective as metalaxyl in the control of phytophthora blight in pepper plants, irrespective of application time and concentration. The treatment with 1000 μg ml -1 tubercidin induced phytotoxicity in pepper plants. No control efficacy of phytophtora blight was observed in pepper plants supplied with a soil drench of tubercidin. Treatment with tubercidin at 500 μg ml -1 completely protected pepper plants at first branch stage from phytophthora blight until four days after application. The control efficacy of tubercidin drastically declined seven days after application.


The herein described inelastic neutron scattering (INS) method of measuring soil carbon was based on a new procedure for extracting the net carbon signal (NCS) from the measured γ spectra and determination of the average carbon weight percent in the upper ∼8‐cm soil layer (AvgCw%8). The NCS extraction utilized the net‐INS spectrum, which was the difference between the INS and thermal neutron capture (TNC) spectra and the net‐INS system background spectrum. The proportionality between NCS and AvgCw%8 for any shape of soil carbon depth distribution was demonstrated theoretically. The theoretical model for NCS calculations accounted for carbon depth distribution and neutron and γ ray propagation laws in our analysis; previous model results were verified by comparison with a Monte Carlo simulation using Geant4. The experimental results confirmed the identified proportionality. The mobile INS system was calibrated using pits filled with synthetic soil; this calibration was used for AvgCw%8 determinations in INS field measurements. The AvgCw%8 was also determined by the dry combustion method. Benchmarking the soil carbon determination by INS demonstrated results that coincided with dry combustion technique (DCT) results (within experimental error limits). Given the agreement between these methods, the described INS measurement system can be recommended as a reliable alternative means for measuring soil carbon.


Transcriptional profile of spermatozoa can be used to assess male fertility; differences in spermatozoa attributes require adjustment of protocols for RNA isolation. Ten RNA precipitation modifications of heated TRIzol protocol were applied to total RNA extraction form bull spermatozoa. Motile spermatozoa were isolated from cryopreserved semen straws prepared from an ejaculate of a fertile bull. To evaluate total RNA purity and quantity, Ribogreen RNA detection system and Nanodrop 2000 were used. In RiboGreen assay, a consistent standard curve was not obtained, thus the measurements were ignored. Total RNA purity and concentrations also were assessed using Nanodrop. The A260/280 ratio obtained from Nanodrop showed a good range in the isolated total RNA samples (1.9±0.4). However, all RNA samples presented very low A260/230 ratios (≥1.26). It might be the effect of low concentration of the isolated total RNA. Statistical analysis of total RNA concentrations showed using manufacturer standard protocol had the highest concentration yield. Using either ethanol or Isopropanol as RNA precipitant and changing the incubation temperature had not significant effect on RNA concentration yields. However incubating samples in freezer overnight lowered the total RNA concentration. Using glycogen as a RNA carrier increased the total RNA precipitation yield. In other similar studies the highest total RNA concentration was obtained by using RNA carrier. Validating these findings by qRT-PCR and Bioanalyser might be helpful to enhance the total RNA extraction yield from bull sperm as well as for subsequent genomic studies of bull fertility.


Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy and account for approximately one-half of the private-sector economy and 99% of all businesses. To start a small business, individuals need access to capital. Given the importance of an entrepreneur's personal debt capacity in financing a startup business, student loan debt, which is difficult to discharge via bankruptcy, can have lasting effects and may have an impact on the ability of future small business owners to raise capital. This study examines the impact of the growth in student debt on net small business formation. We find a significant and economically meaningful negative correlation between changes in student loan debt and net business formation for the smallest group of small businesses, those employing one to four employees. This is important since these small businesses depend heavily on personal debt to finance new business formation. Based on our model, an increase of one standard deviation in student debt reduced the number of businesses with one to four employees by 14% on average between 2000 and 2010. The effect on larger firm formation decreased with firm size, which we interpret to mean that these firms have greater access to outside capital.


Recently, there is an increasing interest in obtaining the relational structures of the environment in the Reinforcement Learning community. However, the resulting "relations" are not the discrete, logical predicates compatible with the symbolic reasoning such as classical planning or goal recognition. Meanwhile, Latplan (Asai and Fukunaga 2018) bridged the gap between deep-learning perceptual systems and symbolic classical planners. One key component of the system is a Neural Network called State AutoEncoder (SAE), which encodes an image-based input into a propositional representation compatible with classical planning. To get the best of both worlds, we propose First-Order State AutoEncoder, an unsupervised architecture for grounding the first-order logic predicates and facts. Each predicate models a relationship between objects by taking the interpretable arguments and returning a propositional value. In the experiment using 8Puzzle and a photo-realistic Blocksworld environment, we show that (1) the resulting predicates capture the interpretable relations (e.g., spatial), (2) they help to obtain the compact, abstract model of the environment, and finally, (3) the resulting model is compatible with symbolic classical planning.


Real-time systems are considered in most cases as critical systems because they must strictly satisfy expected requirements in respect to giving timing constraints. The best way to develop and deploy these complex systems is the component-based software engineering. Traditionally, software components are developed independently and often considered as black boxes. However, they might be dependent from each other at assembly and deployment stages and used by a third party in various environments. In a previous work Belguidoum et al., 2011, we have proposed a Maude-based framework for safe component installation. In this paper, we extend this work by taking into account real-time constraints for installation operation. This framework is implemented using Real-Time Maude system enabling both the real-time installation execution and its formal analysis using its LTL model checker.


The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) is an ETS-developed measure of proficiency in English as a second language (ESL) or foreign language (EFL), designed to assess aspects of English language listening comprehension (LC) and reading comprehension (RC). In general samples of native speakers of Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, and Arabic, respectively, scores on the TOEIC have been found to be strongly related to performance on the Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) procedure, a widely recognized direct measure of speaking proficiency. In this exploratory study, TOEIC/LPI relationships in subgroups (e.g., by gender, educational level, organizational setting at time of assessment) were assessed within a general national/linguistic sample—native speakers of Thai who are involved in operational assessments under the aegis of the TOEIC representative agency in Thailand, the Center for Professional Assessment. Observed relationships were relatively strong and positive in the total sample and within each of the subgroups studied. Observed coefficients were noticeably larger in subgroups of females than in corresponding subgroups of males and for a sample of university students than for examinees tested in places of employment. Means of observed LPI rating for the respective subgroups were consistent with expectations based on TOEIC scores. Further research is needed to assess the extent to which the subgroup findings may tend to be generalizable in the Center (Thailand) context or elsewhere.


Consideration of risk as a criterion for selecting hazardous materials distribution routes contributes substantially to the reduction of accident probability and the severity of accident impacts. Moreover, optimum deployment of emergency response units ensures an immediate response to a hazardous materials accident and consequently contributes significantly to the reduction of accident impacts. Vehicle routing and emergency response facility location are two of the most frequently faced logistical decisions in hazardous materials distribution management and emergency response planning, respectively. In particular, hazardous materials transportation can be defined as a bi-objective vehicle routing problem with time windows since risk minimization accompanies cost minimization in the objective function. Furthermore, the emergency response unit location problem aims at locating a set of response units to minimize the total response time and distribute the emergency response workload equally among them. The complexity of these two problems causes a heavy computational burden for their solution, especially in cases of large-scale distribution networks. Two new heuristic algorithms are presented for solution of the bi-objective vehicle routing and scheduling problem and the emergency response facility location problem. The algorithm for the hazardous materials routing problem was applied to several benchmark problems and provided results superior to those of other competing algorithms. The algorithm for the emergency response problem was applied to several case studies and provided near-optimal solutions.


The fossil record of siliceous sponges, compared with that of other skeleton- secreting Metazoa, is poorly known, based as it is on disarticulated spicules and sporadically preserved body fossils. Abundant spicules recovered from Lower Cambrian strata in Shaanxi, China, essentially double the known morphological diversity of siliceous sponges for that interval of geologic time. These fossils, along with a comparable coeval fauna from South Australia, have a remarkably modern aspect, thereby demonstrating that the principal siliceous sponge groups and styles of body architecture were established quickly in the earliest Phanerozoic as part of the Cambrian "explosion" and that they inhabited a variety of low-energy, relatively deep water settings. The similarity of spicule shape and variation to that of younger assemblages reflects a conservative architecture for the siliceous sponges.


Background: This is the second of two papers using qualitative methods from a study of an intervention for family members affected by close relatives' substance misuse problems. Participants: 168 primary healthcare professionals (PHCPs: GPs, practice nurses and health visitors) working in general practices in two areas of England, and who took part in the study. Data sources: Recruitment and post-session forms completed by PHCPs; telephone interviews with each PHCP 12 weeks after recruitment of a family member; interviews with PHCPs at the end of the study. Results: At the end of the project PHCPs were overwhelmingly positive about the family member intervention and about primary care as the appropriate site. Difficulties were encountered, however, in identifying and engaging affected family members, who were often excluded on grounds of the complexity of their problems or the level of their distress. Shortage of PHCP time and other practice-related factors added to the difficulty. Active work by a PHCP was often necessary in order to make the link between presenting symptoms of physical or mental ill-health and the existence of a family substance misuse problem. When family members were identified and recruited, PHCPs were usually positive about what was achieved. Nearly all were in favour of an approach that combined giving a self-help manual with some follow-up contact with a family member as needed. Conclusions: Taken in conjunction with statistical outcome findings of significant reductions in symptoms and changes in ways of coping, plus qualitative analysis of the views of family members, the present results encourage the view that a flexible form of this intervention should be developed for use in primary healthcare, and that further work should build on existing strengths and attempt to overcome weaknesses identified.


This paper reports on a market segmentation of eco-oriented wood furniture consumers. An Engel-Blackwell-Kollat (EBK) model of purchase decisions was combined with conjoint analysis to gather individual characteristics on information search, purchase assessment and choice. The eco-oriented segments were identified and described, applying both a priori predictive segmentation based on lifestyle characteristics and post hoc cluster-based segmentation based on the conjoint choice part-worths and product attribute preferences. A convenience sample of consumers at an IKEA warehouse were interviewed in situ, responding to EBK-related questions on the demand for eco-labelled wood furniture, information search and trust, the evaluation of product attributes, sequential conjoint choices and media use and media interest. Based on the a priori segmentation, modern idealists obtained the highest eco-label part-worth. This segment represented a better distinguishable segment than the 'most eco-oriented' segment identified from the post hoc cluster-based segmentation. Some individual characteristics discriminated similarly for the a priori and post hoc segmentations.


German law requires both private and public companies to disclose a far-ranging set of information to shareholders, creditors, other market participants and the public. The information that must be disclosed under these rules is more extensive in scale and scope than those provided by data storage and retrieval systems that merely focus on public corporations and the needs of the capital markets (such as the U.S. Edgar system). However, previously to the recent reforms, two significant weaknesses of the German disclosure system were widely discussed among corporate scholars: First, the lack of efficient enforcement vis-a-vis private companies, and secondly, the fragmentation of the system. In particular, German companies needed to distribute corporate information through a plethora of methods, including newspapers, the website of the corporation and those of stock exchanges, the Federal Bulletin and others. The German legislature sought to fix these problems with two major legislative projects: The Law regarding the Electronic Commercial and Company Registrar (which came into force 1 January 2007), and the Law implementing the Transparency Directive (which came into force 20 January 2007). Under these reforms, the newly established Federal Justice Agency enforces the disclosure obligations. In addition, the legislature provided a significant overhaul to the methods of, and the channels through, which companies need to utilize in order to fulfill their disclosure obligations. This paper introduces into the most significant amendments that were achieved by the aforementioned pieces of legislation. In particular, it describes in which way the German legislature established a one-stop-shop option for the retrieval of all company data that German companies must disclose both under corporate and securities law. However, the delivery of company data by the issuers to the company register is still complicated. While the overall situation has improved significantly when compared to the status ex ante, companies still need to simultaneously distribute the relevant information through several channels. The several-stop-delivery concept is more costly to issuers than a one-stop-delivery system whose entry-gate is an officially administered, or supervised, website. It was the intention of the German Federal Secretary of Justice to implement such a one-stop-delivery-system for both corporate and securities law-based information. However, the European rules of, and implementing, the Transparency Directive require a concept of intermediary-based dissemination for certain securities law-based information. Under this concept, issuers must forward their disclosures to informational intermediaries before they may disclose them in any other way. Disclosure in any other way includes storage in, and access through, an officially administered information storage and retrieval system. This intermediary-based approach mandated by European law exhibits two significant flaws. First: European law does neither define the intermediaries. Secondly, European law does not require the intermediaries to publish the information sent to them by the issuers. Thus, transparency is a random effect. Moreover, internet-based technologies (such as RSS-feed, etc.) render an intermediary-based concept for the dissemination of information useless. This paper argues in favour of reforms to the European rules on the dissemination of information.


Logic and its components (propositional, first-order, non-classical) play a key role in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. While a large amount of information exists scattered throughout various media (books, journal articles, webpages, etc.), the diffuse nature of these sources is problematic and logic as a topic benefits from a unified approach. Logic for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence utilizes this format, surveying the tableaux, resolution, Davis and Putnam methods, logic programming, as well as for example unification and subsumption. For non-classical logics, the translation method is detailed.Logic for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence is the classroom-tested result of several years of teaching at Grenoble INP (Ensimag). It is conceived to allow self-instruction for a beginner with basic knowledge in Mathematics and Computer Science, but is also highly suitable for use in traditional courses. The reader is guided by clearly motivated concepts, introductions, historical remarks, side notes concerning connections with other disciplines, and numerous exercises, complete with detailed solutions, The title provides the reader with the tools needed to arrive naturally at practical implementations of the concepts and techniques discussed, allowing for the design of algorithms to solve problems.


OBJECTIVES
Clinical isolates of Salmonella enterica serovar Haifa and Newport, which displayed extended multidrug resistance phenotypes, were investigated for the presence of Salmonella genomic island 1 (SGI1) and the genetic organization of its antibiotic resistance gene clusters.

METHODS
The S. enterica strains were isolated from humans in France in 2003 and 2004. Antibiotic susceptibility tests and various molecular techniques were used for detection and characterization of SGI1.

RESULTS
We identified SGI1 integrated in the 3' end of the chromosomal thdF gene in six multidrug-resistant serovar Haifa and Newport strains. Two strains, of serovar Haifa and Newport, harboured the previously described SGI1-H variant. A new variant of the novel SGI1-Ks group, named SGI1-K6, revealed IS26-mediated rearrangements of the antibiotic resistance gene cluster in two serovar Newport strains. Two other serovar Newport strains harboured the SGI1-L complex class 1 integron containing the dfrA15 and bla(PSE-1) resistance gene cassettes. In addition, these variants of SGI1 also contained large IS26-composite transposons inserted by a transposition event in the SGI1 backbone. These IS26-composite transposons showed a similar genetic structure to the SGI1-K variants containing an In4-type integron, a mercury resistance operon and parts of Tn1721 and Tn5393. These extended resistance gene clusters containing up to 10 antibiotic resistance genes were named SGI1-L1 and -L2.

CONCLUSIONS
The serovar Haifa represents the 16th S. enterica serovar in which SGI1 has been identified. The genomic island SGI1 appears to be a hotspot of acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes by the transposition of In4-type integrons and large IS26-composite transposons.


The "reasonable apprehension of bias" test for judicial disqualification has been a fixture of Canadian law for many years, despite a considerable amount of litigation concerning judicial impartiality. The test itself has remained fundamentally unaltered and is well accepted in the jurisprudence. Unfortunately, the application of the test continues to generate difficulties for judges who need to use it to make decisions in marginal cases. Based on previously published doctrinal and empirical research, our goal in the present paper is to suggest modifications to the test that will better explain the existing jurisprudence and make it easier for judges to understand when recusal is or is not necessary in marginal cases. We begin considering the advantages of and suggest that in order to be useful, any refinement to the test must to the greatest extent possible preserve those advantages. In the second part of the paper we consider why inconsistent application of the test in marginal cases is a concern. This is followed by a more detailed consideration of the ways in which the existing test, and the jurisprudence explaining and applying it, are problematic. The fourth part of the paper proposes a modification to the "reasonable apprehension of bias" test that is designed to address these shortcomings while preserving the key advantages of the existing test.


Connecting people across the Digital Divide is as much a social effort as a technological one. We are developing a community-centered approach to learn how interaction techniques can compensate for poor communication across the Digital Divide.

We have incorporated the lessons learnt regarding Social Intelligence Design in an (abstract) device called the SoftBridge. The device allows information to flow from endpoints through adapters (getting converted if necessary), and out to destination endpoints.

Field trials are underway with two communities in South Africa, disadvantaged deaf users and an isolated rural community. First lessons learned show that we have to design user interfaces that allow users to understand and cope with delay (latency) as a necessary consequence of our approach.


The system of biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) has been selected for technology transfer to New Zealand to generate electricity and thermal energy using wood residues. This is due to its advantages of higher electrical efficiency, lower emission and more flexible ratio of electricity to thermal energy. However, the technology needs to be further developed and improved for commercialisation. This paper reviews and evaluates five BIGCC demonstration projects and a steam gasification project developed overseas to learn their experiences and lessons. A BIGCC system with steam gasification is recommended for technology transfer to New Zealand. The key areas for further research and development are identified to be optimisation of the gasification performance, improvement of gas cleaning technology, optimisation of the system integration, and reduction of capital cost.


South Africa, Australia and New Zealand participated in numerous sporting contests prior to World War Two. These encounters were primarily on cricket pitches and rugby fields. After nearly four decades of negotiations the first Association football matches were played between the three countries in 1947. The first tour of South Africa to Australia and New Zealand was plagued by scandals on and off the pitch, but despite this Australia returned the favour and toured South Africa three years later. Another five years would pass before South African returned to Australia, by which time it was clear that a large gulf had emerged between the two nations in terms of sporting ability and organisational efficiency. This article focuses on the three tours of 1947, 1950 and 1955, dissecting each as they occurred against a backdrop of scandal, organisational inefficiency and sporting mismatch.


Background and Hypothesis: Chronic hypoxia during growth and development results in adaptive responses to increase oxygen transport to tissues, such as increasing lung volume and lung diffusion. Asthma is characterized by airway hyper-reactivity, which can result from increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) and airway remodeling following airway inflammation. Chronic hypoxia may attenuate airway inflammation, airway reactivity and airway remodeling in patients with asthma. Measured by in vivo airway resistance in response to 50 mg/ml Ach, our preliminary data suggests that rats conceived and raised under chronic hypoxic conditions (15% O2) exhibit lower airway reactivity, compared to room air controls (20% O2) at baseline (0.397, 0.789 respectively) and following Ova sensitization/challenge (0.696, 1.159 respectively). We hypothesized lower airway reactivity was associated with less ASM in response to hypoxic conditions.
Methods: Sprague Dawley rats were conceived, raised and evaluated in 4 groups: hypoxia/PBS challenge (HA-PBS); hypoxia/Ova challenge (HA-Ova); normoxia/PBS challenge (RA-PBS); normoxia/Ova challenge (RA-Ova). The lung tissue (4 animals/group) was fixed, sectioned, and ASM was quantified by immunohistochemistry using imageJ software.
Results: Measured ASM (mm2) from each group was log transformed to normalize data acquired from various lumen sizes and the least square means of each group were calculated. Airways from HA-PBS animals (N= 59) tended to have the lowest ASM, and ASM progressively increased in RA-PBS (N=41), HA-Ova (N=58) and RA-Ova groups (N=38 airways) [-6.41, -6.3, -6.26, -6.17]. There was an excellent correlation between ASM and airway resistance; more ASM was associated with greater airway reactivity (Pearson correlation of 0.99).
Conclusions and Potential Impact: Chronic hypoxia may suppress ASM development, as well as suppress the increase in ASM associated with atopic inflammation. Understanding the mechanisms that inhibit ASM growth under conditions of chronic hypoxia may provide insight into new therapies for asthma.


High-quality conductive composite hydrogels composed of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), polypyrrole (PPy) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogel were successfully fabricated through interfacial polymerization (IP). Compared to the conventional sequential interpenetrating polymerization (CI), IP is superior in improving the electrical/electrochemical properties of the incorporated hydrogel due to the higher content of PPy up to 14.1 wt% in its dry weight. The electrical conductivity of PPy/PEGDA hydrogel is nearly more than two orders of magnitude higher than that of the hydrogel prepared via CI. Furthermore, simultaneous incorporation of SWNTs and PPy results in significantly enhanced compressive modulus, from 183 ± 13 kPa to 1823 ± 201 kPa. Electrochemical measurements clearly indicate that the electron-transfer resistance is significantly decreased from 9320 Ω of native PEGDA hydrogel to 247 Ω of SWNT/PPy/PEGDA composite hydrogel.


Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy is an important technique that allows determining protein structure in solution. An important problem in protein structure determination using NMR spectroscopy is the mapping of peaks to corresponding amino acids. Structure Based Assignment (SBA) is an approach to solve this problem using a template structure that is homologous to the target. Our previously developed approach NVR-BIP computed the optimal solution for small proteins, but was unable to solve the assignments of large proteins. NVR-TS extended the applicability of the NVR approach for such proteins, however the accuracies varied significantly from run to run. In this paper, we propose NVR-ACO, an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based approach to this problem. NVRACO is similar to other ACO algorithms in a way that it also consists of three phases: the construction phase, an optional local search phase and a pheromone update phase. But it has some important differences from other ACO algorithms in terms of solution construction and pheromone update functions and convergence rules. We studied the data set used in NVR-BIP and NVR-TS. Our new method finds optimal solutions for small proteins and achieves perfect assignment on EIN and higher accuracy on MBP compared to NVR-TS. It is also more robust.


In the context of globalized markets and localized R&D structures, tertiary (also called higher or university) education becomes one of the main factors facilitating economic performance. In the face of globalization and digitalization, substantial institutional changes, reforms and merges of universities represent a challenge for the higher education in the 21st century. These changes go hand in hand with economic development and global economic growth as far as higher education significantly impacts economic performance of regions and countries. European Union (EU) also faces these challenges and therefore has to promote higher education policies and invest into tertiary education in order to increase the level of human capital of its citizens with the purpose of achieving competitiveness on the global markets and higher economic growth. Our paper focuses on the reforms in higher education that are currently taking place worldwide and employ best practices occurring in universities throughout the world. In particular, we show that higher education has a positive impact on the economic performance as well as on the individual social and economic performance. We employ an empirical model that demonstrates the tertiary Received: June, 2018 1st Revision: October, 2018 Accepted: December, 2018 DOI: 10.14254/20718330.2018/11-4/23 Journal of International Studies S ci en ti fi c P a pe rs © Foundation of International Studies, 2018 © CSR, 2018 Vyacheslav Volchik, Anna Oganesyan, Tadeusz Olejarz Higher education as a factor of socio-economic performance and development 327 education has a significantly positive economic outcome for local citizens, EU citizens and third-country nationals on the example of the Federal Republic of Germany, EU largest economy and a major hub for higher education. Moreover, we compare the situation of immigrants from the EU and non-EU countries and their level of returns to higher education. Overall, it appears that current system of higher education requires deeper institutional reforms that would both reflect opening up of the EU to migrants from various non-EU countries with implication for its labour market, and recent trends in higher education. Our results might prove to be resourceful for researchers, academics, educators, policy-makers as well as for the stakeholders in higher education.


We describe a methodology for reasoning about realistic concurrent programs. Our methodology allows two-state invariants that span multiple objects without sacrificing threador data-modularity, as well as the derived construction of first-class objects that capture knowledge about the system state. The methodology has been implemented in an automatic sound verifier for concurrent C programs being used to verify the code of the Microsoft Hypervisor, the virtualization kernel of Hyper-V.


We analyze two different feature selection problems: finding a minimal feature set optimal for classification (MINIMAL-OPTIMAL) vs. finding all features relevant to the target variable (ALL-RELEVANT). The latter problem is motivated by recent applications within bioinformatics, particularly gene expression analysis. For both problems, we identify classes of data distributions for which there exist consistent, polynomial-time algorithms. We also prove that ALL-RELEVANT is much harder than MINIMAL-OPTIMAL and propose two consistent, polynomial-time algorithms. We argue that the distribution classes considered are reasonable in many practical cases, so that our results simplify feature selection in a wide range of machine learning tasks.


Diabetes is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease and its associated morbidity. While the medical community has had access to numerous glucose lowering therapies over the last decades, it was not until recently that newer agents demonstrated improvement in cardiovascular outcomes. In particular, diabetes care and management of its attendant cardiovascular risk is now being revolutionized with the development and provision of the SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP1-receptor agonists. Given the exciting data with these new classes of diabetes therapeutics, there is a clear need to improve education and utilization of these evidence-based medications across a wide spectrum of clinicians, including cardiologists. The aim of this review is to familiarize the cardiovascular specialist with the benefits and harms of the most commonly used oral anti- hyperglycemic medications, with an emphasis on SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists.


Monitoring and control of automated laser beam welding is necessary in order to increase weld quality and to optimise the process. This paper presents an evaluation of an optic monitoring system using photodiodes, integrated coaxial into the laser welding tool to monitor the optical electromagnetic emissions from the process. Three photodiodes are used, one for the visual spectra, one for the reflected laser light and one for the infrared spectra.A survey of previous research regarding monitoring of welding using photodiodes have been conducted, it indicated the need for development of a high bandwidth monitoring system able to capture the fast dynamic events of the welding process. Based on this a monitoring system was developed and the frequency components of the monitored signals was analysed. Welding experiments, using a 1 μm YAG laser on nickel-based alloy sheet metal of different thicknesses, has also been conducted in order to evaluate the correlation between monitored signals and change of parameters effecting the weld quality. Laser power and laser focus was changed during the experiments.I was shown that a bandwidth of 30 kHz for the monitoring system would be sufficient to capture the interesting components of the signals from the photodiodes. A clear correlation between signal level from the sensor monitoring the infrared spectra and weld penetration was found and also a correlation between reflected laser light and laser beam focus. High intensity peaks was found in the signal from the sensor monitoring the visual spectra. It is assumed, but not confirmed, that they show the formation plasma in the key hole.


Air pollution is one of the environmental influences that degrade cultural heritage objects situated indoors. Other essential influences, such as temperature, relative humidity, and light are often well monitored. The presence of air pollutants is less often measured or included in risk assessment. The MEMORI® technology presented in this paper was developed as a tool for easy measurement and assessment of the general risk of degradation of heritage objects situated indoors due to indoor exposure to air pollutants. MEMORI dosimetry was performed in locations belonging to English Heritage and Tate (both located in London) and the National Archives of Norway in Oslo, to assess air quality. The related damage risk for collection objects and the protection offered by display and storage designs was assessed. A high level of acidic effect was observed inside a number of showcases, and a high level of oxidizing effect was observed in some room locations. Relatively simple mitigation measures, such as constructing tightly sealed showcases using low emitting materials, installing active carbon absorbing media inside a 'microclimate' frame, and using cardboard storage boxes for paper, significantly improved air quality. Overall, implementation of such measures is likely to improve the preservation of objects and reduce conservation costs.


The choice of a seismic damage assessment method depends fundamentally on how the assessment will be used, but always involves definition of the expected ground motion and the structure and value at risk. The crux of the problem however is the assessment of the seismic vulnerability, or the conditional damage given the seismic hazard. When a rapid assessment of seismic vulnerability is required, resort must be made to one of several available methods, including (i) judgement by an experienced engineer, (ii) consideration of relevant design codes, (iii) use of empirical relationships, and/or (iv) simplified analytical methods. This paper provides an overview of these methods and outlines the requirements for an advanced analytical method, which is feasible with present knowledge and technology.


Social psychological research on gendered persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions is dominated by two explanations: women leave because they perceive their family plans to be at odds with demands of STEM careers, and women leave due to low self-assessment of their skills in STEM's intellectual tasks, net of their performance. This study uses original panel data to examine behavioral and intentional persistence among students who enter an engineering major in college. Surprisingly, family plans do not contribute to women's attrition during college but are negatively associated with men's intentions to pursue an engineering career. Additionally, math self-assessment does not predict behavioral or intentional persistence once students enroll in a STEM major. This study introduces professional role confidence—individuals' confidence in their ability to successfully fulfill the roles, competencies, and identity features of a profession—and argues that women's lack of this confidence, compared to men, reduces their likelihood of remaining in engineering majors and careers. We find that professional role confidence predicts behavioral and intentional persistence, and that women's relative lack of this confidence contributes to their attrition.


Phishing and Counter-Measures discusses how and why phishing is a threat, and presents effective countermeasures. Showing you how phishing attacks have been mounting over the years, how to detect and prevent current as well as future attacks, this text focuses on corporations who supply the resources used by attackers. The authors subsequently deliberate on what action the government can take to respond to this situation and compare adequate versus inadequate countermeasures.


The scale of modern datasets necessitates the development of efficient distributed optimization methods for machine learning. We present a general-purpose framework for distributed computing environments, CoCoA, that has an efficient communication scheme and is applicable to a wide variety of problems in machine learning and signal processing. We extend the framework to cover general non-strongly-convex regularizers, including L1-regularized problems like lasso, sparse logistic regression, and elastic net regularization, and show how earlier work can be derived as a special case. We provide convergence guarantees for the class of convex regularized loss minimization objectives, leveraging a novel approach in handling non-strongly-convex regularizers and non-smooth loss functions. The resulting framework has markedly improved performance over state-of-the-art methods, as we illustrate with an extensive set of experiments on real distributed datasets.


An ordinal regression method was used to model the relationship between the ordinal outcome variable, an ADHD index created for the purpose of this research, and the predictor variables of Race, Economics, Neighborhood Rating, and School Category/Type. A secondary data analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and Child Development Supplement (CDS) was used in this study. The final sample consisted of 1,169 elementary, middle, and high school children ages 9-18. Six analyses were conducted to determine the best fit model for the data: a combined model with all the predictor variables, one for each individual predictor variable, and one model with the combination of race and neighborhood because they were the closest in showing value. The individual model using the variable on race was the only model that showed fit at a statistically significant level. Although the model was a good fit, the R2 was statistically small, which showed that race is likely to be a poor predictor of the outcome of ADHD severity for any student.


The aim of this research is to study the effect of partial replacement of river sand with glass wastes on some of the mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural and absorption) of reactive powder concrete (RPC). Moreover, the effect of curing the samples has been studied by using two types of curing (water and kerosene). RPC was designed using local cement, silica fume, and super plasticizer with a water/cement ratio of (0.2) to reach a compressive strength of (70 MPa) at the age of (28 days). (58 cubes) and (48 prisms) have been casted and tested with four percentages of glass wastes replacement (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%). The results showed that the (25%) of glass wastes replacement increased the compressive strength of RPC up to (4.35 and 2.6) % and the flexural strength up to (4 and 2.2) % for both methods of curing (water and kerosene) respectively. A reduction in the compressive strength, flexural strength, and absorption has been produced when the percentage of glass wastes was increased more than 25%. Furthermore, the results showed that the mechanical properties of samples cured in oil product (kerosene) were reduced when compared to those cured in water.


Research on workforce diversity at the organisational level gained momentum in the 1990s, because of the growing trend in HR research to link HR practices with organisational performance. The new parallel wave of research focused on the business case for diversity, in which diversity was linked to organisational performance. However, the results of these studies, mainly focusing on linear diversity-performance relationships, have been inconsistent. Based on contrasting theories, this paper proposes three competing predictions of the gender diversity-performance relationship at the organisational level: a positive linear relationship derived from the resource-based view of the firm, a negative linear relationship derived from self-categorisation and social identity theories, and a U-shaped curvilinear relationship derived from the integration of the resource-based view of the firm with self-categorisation and social identity theories. The U-shaped relationship accounts for the inconsistent findings in past research, because different proportions of men and women produce different social dynamics that have different effects on organisational performance. Further, the proposed U-shaped relationship can have different slopes in the manufacturing and services industries. The paper contributes to the field of diversity by strengthening its weak theoretical foundations and by highlighting the industry differences.


We give several characterizations of basic concepts of S-linear algebra in terms of weak duality on topological vector spaces. On the way, some classic results of Functional Analysis are reinterpreted in terms of S-linear algebra, by an application-oriented fashion. The results are required in the S-linear algebra formulation of infinite dimensional Decision Theory and in the study of abstract evolution equations in economical and physical Theories.


In this work, we study how legislation can be published as open data using semantic web technologies. We focus on Greek legislation and show how it can be modeled using ontologies expressed in OWL and RDF, and queried using SPARQL. To demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of our approach, we develop a web application, called Nomothesia, which makes Greek legislation easily accessible to the public. Nomothesia offers advanced services for retrieving and querying Greek legislation and is intended for citizens through intuitive presentational views and search interfaces, but also for application developers that would like to consume content through two web services: a SPARQL endpoint and a RESTful API. Opening up legislation in this way is a great leap towards making governments accountable to citizens and increasing transparency.


A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Makerere University


During the total solar eclipse observed in Europe on August 11, 1999, measurements were made of the amplitude and phase of four VLF transmitters in the frequency range 16–24 kHz. Five receiver sites were set up, and significant variations in phase and amplitude are reported for 17 paths, more than any previously during an eclipse. Distances from transmitter to receiver ranged from 90 to 14,510 km, although the majority were <2000 km. Typically, positive amplitude changes were observed throughout the whole eclipse period on path lengths <2000 km, while negative amplitude changes were observed on paths > 10,000 km. Negative phase changes were observed on most paths, independent of path length. Although there was significant variation from path to path, the typical changes observed were ∼3 dB and ∼50°. The changes observed were modeled using the Long Wave Propagation Capability waveguide code. Maximum eclipse effects occurred when the Wait inverse scale height parameter β was 0.5 km−1 and the effective ionospheric height parameter H′ was 79 km, compared with β=0.43 km−1 and H′=71 km for normal daytime conditions. The resulting changes in modeled amplitude and phase show good agreement with the majority of the observations. The modeling undertaken provides an interpretation of why previous estimates of height change during eclipses have shown such a range of values. A D region gas‐chemistry model was compared with electron concentration estimates inferred from the observations made during the solar eclipse. Quiet‐day H′ and β parameters were used to define the initial ionospheric profile. The gas‐chemistry model was then driven only by eclipse‐related solar radiation levels. The calculated electron concentration values at 77 km altitude throughout the period of the solar eclipse show good agreement with the values determined from observations at all times, which suggests that a linear variation in electron production rate with solar ionizing radiation is reasonable. At times of minimum electron concentration the chemical model predicts that the D region profile would be parameterized by the same β and H′ as the LWPC model values, and rocket profiles, during totality and can be considered a validation of the chemical processes defined within the model.


Abstract: In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the concern with exclusionary and unethical business practices has led to the growing popularity of social entrepreneurship, which focuses on the creation of social value, not wealth. In this article, I reflect on social entrepreneurship in China, a unique context given the strong communist party leadership and the transition to a market economy. To begin, I discuss the legal and political framework for social entrepreneurship in China, followed by an overview of the sector's characteristics, including age, size, social issues emphasized, leader characteristics, and the role of women. Next, I provide examples of three social enterprises in China that illustrate the diverse possibilities for this sector as a force for social and institutional change. I conclude with some suggestions for strengthening China's social enterprise ecosystem.


A new species Formonsella pyramidosa gen. et sp. nov. is described to accommodate a widely distributed warm-water coccolithophore species that has previously been referred to as Pappomonas sp. 2. Formonsella differs from Pappomonas with respect to, in particular, the detailed structure of the rim on both calicate and non-calicate coccoliths. In Formonsella the rim comprises two cycles of rod-shaped elements. Although elements in the distal layer are higher at one end, giving this cycle a serrate outline, the overall appearance is very different from the Pappomonas rim which encompasses a distal cycle of pentagonal elements, giving the rim a very distinct toothed appearance. Inverted rectangular pyramidal structures terminate the calicate F. pyramidosa coccoliths. In non-calicate coccoliths the central area calcification comprises differently sized tile-shaped elements, mostly arranged along the longitudinal axis in a rather irregular way.


Here we report a detailed synthetic procedure for monodisperse octa(ethylene glycol) p-toluenesulfonate, a member of the heterobifunctional oligo(ethylene glycol) derivatives family. The method offers completely chromatography-free workup and purification, resulting in higher yields and a lower cost than any of the alternative strategies. We also introduce several upgrades, simplifying the method even more, and discuss the chromatography-free design limitations.


The JROTC program is one of service and commitment. Its mission is to build better citizens and give them a sense of pride in service to their fellow man. Today these core principles are still needed, but with the increase in the student dropout rate, the JROTC program can be one of many alternatives needed to help public education reach today's youth who are struggling to stay in school. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the impact of the Air Force JROTC Leadership Program on the grade point average (GPA), attendance rate, disciplinary referrals, and dropout rate of JROTC students at an urban high school in southeastern Virginia. The study also addressed the perceptions of school administrators, Air Force JROTC instructors, teachers, JROTC students and their parents on students enrolled in the program during the 2005-2009 school years. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the means, standard deviations and frequency distributions for the groups in the study. Three independent sample t-tests and seven one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA's) were used to determine where there was a statistically significant difference for each group. The Tukey post hoc procedure was used to determine where the difference occurred in the variables. There were three major findings revealed in this study. The first finding indicated that students who participated in the JROTC program had lower grade point averages (M =2.47, SD = 1.17) than non-JROTC participants (M = 3.00, SD = 0.94). Second, administrators had higher levels of agreement (100%) than AFJROTC instructors, teachers, JROTC students and parents that leadership skills were developed in the AFJROTC program. Third, JROTC students (12%) and parents (7%) had lower levels of agreement than administrators, AFJROTC instructors and teachers that the AFJROTC program is used as a recruitment tool. Focus groups results showed strong support for the program from administrators, teachers, JROTC students and parents. These findings suggest that if school districts and educational leaders are to benefit from implementing the AFJROTC program they must understand that the program is not designed to impact academics. The program is designed to develop leadership skills along with helping students become better citizens. Educational leaders in school districts should read the findings and consider utilizing the program as a possible alternative to help students to develop skills to keep them from dropping out of school.


Let $G=(V,E)$ be an undirected graph. Let $C$ be a subset of vertices that we shall call a code. For any vertex $v\in V$, the neighbouring set $N(v,C)$ is the set of vertices of $C$ at distance at most one from $v$. We say that the code $C$ identifies the vertices of $G$ if the neighbouring sets $N(v,C), v\in V,$ are all nonempty and different. What is the smallest size of an identifying code $C$ ? We focus on the case when $G$ is the two-dimensional square lattice and improve previous upper and lower bounds on the minimum size of such a code.


How will the rapid growth of trade, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and international joint ventures alter antitrust enforcement? Can national antitrust enforcement guard against anticompetitive corporate practices in a globalizing world? Or will international friction increase as nations disagree over antitrust cases, like the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger? Recognizing the sheer volume of transatlantic commerce, the EU and U.S. have long cooperated on antitrust matters, but what has that cooperation achieved? And how far should such cooperation go in the future? This volume addresses these questions in the context of antitrust policies towards cartels, mergers and acquisitions, and vertical restraints. Leading experts elucidate the changing nature of antitrust enforcement on both sides of the Atlantic, with a keen eye to future multilateral, as well as bilateral, developments.


Hypoxia is associated with tumor progression and may contribute to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process in which epithelial cells become motile and invasive. In tumors, EMT may represent the initial stages of metastasis. Sahlgren et al. found that hypoxia enhanced activation of a Notch reporter in tumor cell lines cocultured with cells expressing the Notch ligand Jagged1 and enhanced ligand-dependent expression of Notch target genes. Hypoxia increased Notch activation [abundance of the Notch 1 intracellular domain (N1ICD)] in SKOV-3 ovarian tumor cells and also increased expression of the mRNA and protein of the Notch ligand Delta-like 1. Hypoxic conditions stimulated morphologic changes and decreased E-cadherin mRNA and protein in SKOV-3 cells, phenotypic changes characteristic of EMT that were blocked by a γ-secretase inhibitor (GSI, to prevent release of N1ICD) or transfection with dominant-negative components of the Notch pathway. In contrast, exposure to Jagged-1 under normoxic conditions promoted morphologic changes similar to those seen in hypoxia, and introduction of N1ICD decreased E-cadherin abundance. Hypoxia stimulated recruitment of the N1ICD to the promoter of Snail-1, which encodes a transcription factor implicated in the EMT; moreover, introduction of N1ICD increased Snail-1 expression, whereas GSI inhibited an increase in Snail-1 mRNA in response to hypoxia. Further, Notch signaling enhanced the hypoxia-dependent recruitment of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) to the promoter of lysyl oxidase (LOX, which encodes a protein that increases Snail-1 stability) and the hypoxia-dependent stimulation of LOX expression. GSI inhibited the promotion of SKOV-3 cell migration by hypoxia in a wound-healing assay and inhibited their migration across a membrane in an assay of invasion. The authors thus propose that Notch signaling plays a critical role in initiating EMT in response to tumor cell hypoxia. C. Sahlgren, M. V. Gustafsson, S. Jin, L. Poellinger, U. Lendahl, Notch signaling mediates hypoxia-induced tumor cell migration and invasion. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 6392-6397 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Far from the sirens of Modernism and the models founded on a standard vision of humanity, the scope of the Post-Car World research project is pluralistic. This project, funded by the Fonds National (Synergia), aims to create urban planning scenarios, focusing on the role of the car. Originally based on our investigation of people's relationship with the car, the plurality of practices and their possible (and desired) alternatives will likewise enhance these scenarios. This plurality of views will be the gauge of the pragmatism of the scenarios proposed, along with the fact that they tend to exhaust the practices and expectations to come. Neither utopian nor imaginary, these scenarios will come from inhabitants themselves, who we will interview regarding their expectations via surveys that will be conducted throughout Switzerland. In addition to the qualitative portion, we will also introduce a participatory process wherein respondents – originating from a variety of socio-spatial categories (different levels of urbanity, lifestyles, age groups, etc.) will be interviewed in two phases. In the first, they will describe their relationship to the car and their expectations in terms of mobility. This group of interviews will provide avenues for the construction of new scenarios, indicating the specific needs of users in their domains. We will then return to the field for a second phase, now armed with the already developed scenarios, in order to collect feedback from the respondents. The methods to be used will include: commentated itineraries, where users' behaviors in their mobility context will provide us with non-verbal information; images and photos of real and projected situations to stimulate the imagination and encourage commentary and critique by respondents; and collective interviews, which will allow us to evaluate the scenarios via discussions during the second interview. In our communication, we will present the findings from the pre-survey of experts regarding the opportunities and constraints linked to the place of the automobile in participants' lifestyles.


This conference brings together scientists interested in a range of basic phenomena linked to the ejection and scattering of electrons from atoms, molecules, clusters, liquids and solids by absorption of light. Photoionization, a highly sensitive probe of both structure and dynamics, can range from perturbative single-photon processes to strong-field highly non-perturbative interactions. It is responsible for the formation and destruction of molecules in astrophysical and plasma environments and successfully used in advanced analytical techniques. Positive ions, which can be produced and studied most effectively using photoionization, are the major components of all plasmas, vital constituents of flames and important intermediates in many chemical reactions. Negative ions are significant as transient species and, when photodetached, the corresponding neutral species often undergoes remarkable, otherwise non-observable, dynamics. The scope of the meeting spans from novel observations in atomic and molecular physics, such as Coulomb Crystals, highly excited states and cold Rydberg plasmas, to novel energy resolved or ultrafast time-resolved experiments, photoionization in strong laser fields, theoretical method development for electron scattering, photoionization and photodetachment and more complex phenomena such as charge transfer and DNA and protein conductivity, important for biological and analytical applications.


A typical 3U and 6U CubeSat hosting antennas ranging from the low UHF to the higher Ka band are modelled in the ESTEAM software package. The antennas are inspired by recent designs published in the literature. RF performances of the antennas installed on the CubeSats are computed with the MoM/MLFMM full wave analysis method and compared with the ones in the absence of the CubeSat platform. The results show that the RF performances of the antennas are substantially changed once these are installed on the CubeSats, indicating that platform scattering and coupling with the neighboring antennas must be included and accounted for already in the antenna design phase.


As an autonomous quantization procedure, deformation quantization describes quantum mechanics as a deformed classical mechanics by introducing a noncommutative but associative ⋆-product on the space of C∞-functions on a symplectic manifold. In this paper, we demonstrate to construct and classify unitary irreducible representations of a Lie group, in particular, the Euclidean motion group M(2) via deformation quantization. These representations uniquely correspond with infinite cylinders, generated by the coadjoint action of M(2) on the dual of its Lie algebra. Via the chart defined by the cylindrical coordinate system, an M(2)-covariant Moyal ⋆-product gives rise to representations of the Lie algebra of M(2). The exponentiation of these representations are exactly the desired unitary representations of M(2).


This paper examines the impact of regulatory intervention to cut termination rates of calls from fixed lines to mobile phones. Under quite general conditions of competition, theory suggests that lower termination charges will result in higher prices for mobile subscribers, a phenomenon known as the "waterbed" effect. The waterbed effect has long been hypothesized as a feature of many two-sided markets and especially the mobile telephony industry. Using a uniquely constructed panel of mobile operators' prices and profit margins across more than twenty countries over six years, we document empirically the existence and magnitude of this effect. Our results suggest that the waterbed effect is strong, but not full. We also provide evidence that both competition and market saturation, but most importantly their interaction, affect the overall impact of the waterbed effect on prices.


After measuring in 2012 a relatively large value of the neutrino mixing angle θ13, the door is now open to observe for the first time a possible CP violation in the leptonic sector. The measured value of θ13 also privileges the 2nd oscillation maximum for the discovery of CP violation instead of the usually used 1st oscillation maximum. The sensitivity at this 2nd oscillation maximum is about three times higher than for the 1st oscillation maximum inducing a lower influence of systematic errors. Going to the 2nd oscillation maximum necessitates a very intense neutrino beam with the appropriate energy. The world's most intense pulsed spallation neutron source, the European Spallation Source, will have a proton linac with 5 MW power and 2 GeV energy. This linac, under construction, has the potential to become the proton driver of the world's most intense neutrino beam with very high potential to discover a neutrino CP violation. The physics performance of that neutrino Super Beam in conjunction with a megaton underground Water Cherenkov neutrino detector installed at a distance of about 500 km from ESS has been evaluated. In addition, the choice of such detector will extent the physics program to proton–decay, atmospheric neutrinos and astrophysics searches. The ESS proton linac upgrades, the accumulator ring needed for proton pulse compression, the target station optimization and the physics potential are described. In addition to neutrinos, this facility will also produce at the same time a copious number of muons which could be used by a low energy nuSTORM facility, a future Neutrino Factory or a muon collider. The ESS neutron facility will be fully ready by 2023 at which moment the upgrades for the neutrino facility could start. This project is now supported by the COST Action CA15139 "Combining forces for a novel European facility for neutrino-antineutrino symmetry-violation discovery" (EuroNuNet).


Located in Africa's Sahel region, the Republic of Mali enjoyed various fruits of its transition to political pluralism and liberal economic restructuring from the 1990s to the early 2000s. When the Malian government sought to amend civil laws governing marriage and family life, and eliminate legal discrimination against women, however, it faced considerable political opposition. Islamic civil society groups capitalised on men's heightened anxieties to claim a more assertive role in the national public sphere. Subsequent legal reforms constituted a clear political victory for political Islamism in the country and a corresponding setback for Western-backed women's organisations. Tracing the evolution of Malian marriage and family law from the 1960s to the 2020s, this article argues that conflicting notions of what it means to protect women, coupled with the structural failings of Mali's post-colonial state, have stymied efforts to ensure women's rights within a secular, egalitarian legal framework.


You thought your bank had compliance under control--until yesterday's final meeting with your compliance examiners. In that meeting, they told you that--although they did not find any really serious violations--they are giving you a poor rating. Why? They say it's because you don't have written compliance policies and procedures. Worse yet, you don't have a compliance "program." You ask them what, exactly, they mean by "written policies and procedures." They explain that they want to see policies and procedures for "every regulation." You protest. There are more regulations than you have employees. The examiners aren't impressed. So you change tacks and ask, isn't your part-time compliance manager, who also heads up Community Reinvestment Act compliance and loan review, doing a good enough job? Yet with every question you ask, the examiners become more critical. Your survival instinct tells you to stop asking questions. Accent on paper Now, with the examiners gone, you must figure out what to do. What is a compliance program? When did written policies and procedures become a requirement? And how are you going to get them developed by the deadline the examiners gave you--while you also operate your bank? And most of all, why is all this formality important if, based on the examiners' own findings, compliance seems to be working fairly well in your bank? The regulatory agencies themselves cite two reasons. First, your written policies and procedures make the examiner's job easier. The documents give the examiner the yardstick by which to measure your bank's performance. Second, your regulator reasons that, without committing your compliance program, policies, and procedures to writing, your system may become inconsistent. After all, what happens when your person responsible for compliance and loan review retires? How will you be certain that all of the responsibilities and knowledge needed for the job have been picked up by someone else? Thus, the most important reason for having written policies and procedures is to ensure that the effort invested in learning and managing compliance is institutionalized. Getting busy Start by informing and involving your board. This is essential to the compliance program's success because it makes clear to everyone in the bank that the commitment to compliance is a corporate priority. Depending on your bank's circumstances, designate a board member who will take the lead in compliance oversight. Better yet, create a board-level compliance committee. Establish a schedule for board discussions of compliance issues. Start by scheduling review and discussion of your new compliance policies. Next, formalize your compliance effort. Establish a clear definition of the compliance responsibilities of all bank officers and employees, rather than simply compliance staff. The key to success is an understanding throughout the bank that everyone is responsible--and accountable--for some aspect of the bank's compliance. Ingredients of success Your program should contain a number of essential elements: (1) Select a clearinghouse. Determine who will receive all regulatory transmittals and forward them to the appropriate staff within the bank. If you do not have a compliance department--or even if you do--consider splitting this burden up by assigning lead responsibility for each regulation or regulatory requirement. (2) Plan for training. Remember that training need not always be conducted in formal classes. On many occasions, a staff meeting will serve the purpose. In any event, guidelines must be set for how your bank will meet its compliance training needs. (3) Build in self-policing. Consider using a system of ongoing compliance controls such as checklists. These should identify each important compliance requirement related to the particular transaction, and indicate the date the requirement was completed and who completed it. …


This paper evaluates the effects of big-box openings on the closure of grocery stores at the municipality level. To estimate these effects, I use a discontinuity in commercial regulation in Spain as the source of exogenous variation for the period 2003 to 2011. More specifically, this regulation, which varies by region, establishes entry barriers on big-box stores in municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants. I first test whether there is a discontinuity on the number of big-box openings when crossing the population threshold from regulated to non-regulated areas. This first stage shows that non-regulated municipalities recorded 0.3 more big-box openings than the regulated ones. I then use this discontinuity as an instrument to examine the effects of these openings on the number of grocery stores. The results show that, four years after the big-box opening, between 20 and 30% of the grocery stores in the municipality have disappeared. However, even if a big-box store opening is a big threat to grocery stores the results also indicate that it does not seem to be the case for the city centre's activity given that the empty commercial premises are taken by some new small retail stores. Additionally, when examining by typology, the conventional big-boxes (those selling well-known brands) seem to compete more with grocery stores than do the discount big-boxes (those selling their own, lower price brands) and the former are, therefore, more instrumental in forcing them to close down.


Islet transplantation is an attractive treatment for selected patients with brittle type 1 diabetes. In the clinical setting, intraportal transplantation predominates. However, due to extensive early islet cell death, the quantity of islets needed to restore glucose homeostasis requires in general a minimum of two donors. Moreover, the deterioration of islet function over time results in few insulin-independent patients after five-year followup. Specific obstacles to the success of islet transplantation include site-specific concerns for the liver such as the instant blood mediated inflammatory reaction, islet lipotoxicity, low oxygen tension, and poor revascularization, impediments that have led to the developing interest for alternative implantation sites over recent years. Within preclinical settings, several alternative sites have now been investigated and proven favorable in various aspects. Muscle is considered a very promising site and has physiologically properties and technical advantages that could make it optimal for islet transplantation.


Julie Tyler was recently hired as President of the Sacramento River Cats, a Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. With a little over one month on the job, Julie encounters a situation she has never had to deal with when an earthquake strikes her facility. The River Cats are not severely impacted by the earthquake, but a rival organization (the Fresno Grizzlies; Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros) experiences some fairly serious damage and injuries. Julie has to decide whether to modify the schedule to meet the needs of the Grizzlies, to appease some of her other stakeholders with varying interests, and/or pursue a competitive advantage for her organization. Julie makes the decision to review a similar situation for guidance on her decision. The situation she decides to employ is a series relocation that the Houston Astros had to make to Tampa, Florida following the devastation created by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. Her decision has to be made expeditiously as their next series with the Grizzlies takes place in four days.


This work investigates machining performance of Inconel 825 using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) TiN coated inserts in minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) approach. Three important measures in relation to machining of hard-to-cut materials viz., surface roughness (Ra), tool wear (VB), and cutting temperature (CT) have been considered for investigation. The response surface methodology (RSM) modelling and relationship between input and output factors is studied. The machining parameters are optimised individually as well as simultaneously using genetic algorithm (GA). The minimum Ra of 0.39 μm, VB of 15.37 μm and CT of 56.47°C was obtained. The significant contribution of this research is that the values of Ra, VB and CT obtained are quite low when compared to those reported in literatures. For the application in manufacturing industries, a technology table is generated for selection of optimum process parameters having minimum VB or minimum CT satisfying the desired value of surface finish of components produced.