Finite Difference (FD) is a widely used method to solve Partial Differential Equations (PDE). PDEs are the core of many simulations in different scientific fields, e.g. geophysics, astrophysics, etc. The typical FD solver performs stencil computations for the entire computational domain, thus solving the differential operators. In general terms, the stencil computation consists of a weighted accumulation of the contribution of neighbor points along the cartesian axis. Therefore, optimizing stencil computations is crucial in reducing the application execution time. Stencil computation performance is bounded by two main factors: the memory access pattern and the inefficient reuse of the accessed data. We propose a novel algorithm, named Semi-stencil, that tackles these two problems. The main idea behind this algorithm is to change the way in which the stencil computation progresses within the computational domain. Instead of accessing all required neighbors and adding all their contributions at once, the Semi-stencil algorithm divides the computation into several updates. Then, each update gathers half of the axis neighbors, partially computing at the same time the stencil in a set of closely located points. As the Semi-stencil progresses through the domain, the stencil computations are completed on precomputed points. This computation strategy improves memory access pattern and efficiently reuses the accessed data. Our initial target architecture was the Cell/B.E., where the Semi-stencil in a SPE was 44% faster than the naive stencil implementation. Since then, we have continued our research on emerging multi-core architectures in order to assess and extend this work on homogeneous architectures. The experiments presented combine the Semi-stencil strategy with space and time-blocking algorithms used in hierarchical memory architectures. Two x86 (Intel Nehalem and AMD Opteron) and two POWER (IBM POWER6 and IBM BG/P) platforms are used as testbeds, where the best improvements for a 25-point stencil range from 1.27 to 1.76× faster. The results show that this novel strategy is a feasible optimization method which may be integrated into auto-tuning frameworks. Also, since all current architectures are multi-core based, we have introduced a brief section where scalability results on IBM POWER7, Intel Xeon and MIC based systems are presented. In a nutshell, the algorithm scales as well as or better than other stencil techniques. For instance, the scalability of the Semi-stencil on MIC for a certain testcase reached 93.8× over 244 threads.


This article introduces the Special Issue of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice on the topic of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO). In addition to overviewing the preparation and structure of the Special Issue, this article addresses various substantive matters pertinent to the continuing development of EO theory and research including (1) the issue of whether EO is more defensibly conceived of as a dispositional or behavioral construct; (2) the reasons why EO is regarded by some as an "annoying construct," and what might be done about it; (3) the reasons why the concept of EO fills an important gap in the literature on firm–level entrepreneurship; (4) a proposal that EO theory and research proceed along two concurrent paths corresponding the unidimensional and multidimensional conceptualizations of the construct; (5) a review of EO measurement issues focused on why, in particular, it is problematic to conceive of and measure EO as a formative construct; and (6) a brief consideration of both marginal–value and high–potential topic areas for future EO theory and research.


The net ecosystem exchange of CO2 between forests and the atmosphere, measured by eddy covariance, is the small difference between two large fluxes of photosynthesis and respiration. Chamber measurements of soil surface CO2 efflux (Fs), wood respiration (Fw) and foliage respiration (Ff) help identify the contributions of these individual components to net ecosystem exchange. Models developed from the chamber data also provide independent estimates of respiration costs. We measured CO2 efflux with chambers periodically in 1996–97 in a ponderosa pine forest in Oregon, scaled these measurements to the ecosystem, and computed annual totals for respiration by component. We also compared estimated half‐hourly ecosystem respiration at night (Fnc) with eddy covariance measurements. Mean foliage respiration normalized to 10 °C was 0.20 μmol m–2 (hemi‐leaf surface area) s–1, and reached a maximum of 0.24 μmol m–2 HSA s–1 between days 162 and 208. Mean wood respiration normalized to 10 °C was 5.9 μmol m–3 sapwood s–1, with slightly higher rates in mid‐summer, when growth occurs. There was no significant difference (P > 0.10) between wood respiration of young (45 years) and old trees (250 years). Soil surface respiration normalized to 10 °C ranged from 0.7 to 3.0 μmol m–2 (ground) s–1 from days 23 to 329, with the lowest rates in winter and highest rates in late spring. Annual CO2 flux from soil surface, foliage and wood was 683, 157, and 54 g C m–2 y–1, with soil fluxes responsible for 76% of ecosystem respiration. The ratio of net primary production to gross primary production was 0.45, consistent with values for conifer sites in Oregon and Australia, but higher than values reported for boreal coniferous forests. Below‐ground carbon allocation (root turnover and respiration, estimated as Fs– litterfall carbon) consumed 61% of GPP; high ratios such as this are typical of sites with more water and nutrient constraints. The chamber estimates were moderately correlated with change in CO2 storage in the canopy (Fstor) on calm nights (friction velocity u* < 0.25 m s–1; R2 = 0.60); Fstor was not significantly different from summed chamber estimates. On windy nights (u* > 0.25 m s–1), the sum of turbulent flux measured above the canopy by eddy covariance and Fstor was only weakly correlated with summed chamber estimates (R2 = 0.14); the eddy covariance estimates were lower than chamber estimates by 50%.


The Politics of Writing in Iran: A History of Modern Persian Literature, by Kamran Talattof. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000. xi + 181 pages. Notes to p. 218. Bibl. to p. 233. Index to p. 250. n.p. Reviewed by Nasrin Rahimieh The Politics of Writing in Iran is an ambitious and timely undertaking. Although numerous critics have analyzed aspects and phases of modern Persian literature, few have attempted to provide a single paradigm for the history of its development. As Talattof signals in the subtitle of his book, the history he sketches is marked by an inextricable intertwining of ideology and literature. Talattof s approach has certain resemblances to sociological models of literary analysis, but his methodology is also informed by poststructuralist critics such as Jacques Derrida and Gayatri Spivak. Talattof begins with the premise that ideology underwrites all forms of communication, including literary and artistic. He further argues that from its inception modern Persian literature has been highly ideological in nature and that its history is made up of distinct "episodes" whose character is shaped by the dominant ideology of the time. Despite his assertion that "Persian literary history is not an integrated continuum but a series of distinct episodes distinguishable by their ideology of representation" (p. 3), he allows for some overlaps between episodes and a degree of continuity from one to the other. The four episodes that for Talattof make up modern Persian history are Persianism, Marxism, Islamism, and feminism. Persianism refers to the turning point in modern Persian prose and poetry that coincided with Iran's encounter with modernity at the turn of the century. The primary preoccupation of this generation of Iranian literati, Talattof points out, "was a struggle against the Qajar Islamic tradition and the influence of Arabic language as manifested in poetry and fiction" (p. 64). Drawing on close readings of Nima Yushij and overviews of the works of Muhammad Ali Jamalzadih, Sadiq Hidayat, and Kusraw Shahani, Talattof illustrates his argument through the analysis of themes and metaphors. The next chapter in Persian literary history is distinguished by its revolutionary fervor and political commitment. This episode encompasses literary creativity of the period between the American-led coup in 1953 and the 1979 revolution, and shows a great deal of affinity with socialist realism. Tracing the Persian translations of sources as diverse as Bertold Brecht, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maxim Gorky, and Mao Tse-tung, Talattof provides a rich and complex background to the formative influences on Persian literary and intellectual life of this era. …


Multi-agent coordination tends to benefit from efficient communication, where cooperation often happens based on exchanging information about what the agents intend to do, i.e. intention sharing. It becomes a key problem to model the intention by some proper abstraction. Currently, it is either too coarse such as final goals or too fined as primitive steps, which is inefficient due to the lack of modularity and semantics. In this paper, we design a novel multi-agent coordination protocol based on subgoal intentions, defined as the probability distribution over feasible subgoal sequences. The subgoal intentions encode macro-action behaviors with modularity so as to facilitate joint decision making at higher abstraction. Built over the proposed protocol, we present Dec-SGTS (Decentralized Sub-Goal Tree Search) to solve decentralized online multi-agent planning hierarchically and efficiently. Each agent runs Dec-SGTS asynchronously by iteratively performing three phases including local sub-goal tree search, local subgoal intention update and global subgoal intention sharing. We conduct the experiments on courier dispatching problem, and the results show that Dec-SGTS achieves much better reward while enjoying a significant reduction of planning time and communication cost compared with Dec-MCTS (Decentralized Monte Carlo Tree Search).


Cryptically colored prey species are often polymorphic, occurring in multiple distinctive pattern variants. Visual predators promote such phenotypic variation through apostatic selection, in which they attack more abundant prey types disproportionately often. In heterogeneous environments, disruptive selection to match the coloration of disparate habitat patches could also produce polymorphism, but how apostatic and disruptive selection interact in these circumstances is unknown. Here we report the first controlled selection experiment on the evolution of prey coloration on heterogeneous backgrounds, in which blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) searched for digital moths on mixtures of dark and light patches at three different scales of heterogeneity. As predicted by ecological theory, coarse-grained backgrounds produced a functional dimorphism of specialists on the two patch types; fine-grained backgrounds produced generalists. The searching strategies of the jays also varied with the habitat configuration, however. Complex backgrounds with many moth-like features elicited a slow, serial search that depended heavily on selective attention. The result was increased apostatic selection, producing a broad range of moth phenotypes. Backgrounds with larger, more uniform patches allowed the birds to focus on the currently most rewarding patch type and to search entire patches rapidly in parallel. The result was less apostatic selection and lower phenotypic variability. The evolution of polymorphism in camouflaged prey depends on a complex interaction between habitat structure and predator cognition.


RSA is one of the oldest and until now one of the most widely used public key cryp- tographic systems, which is based on the modular raising to power. In this article it is pointed out that most of the essential properties of the RSA can be read out from the number of the modulo n roots of the polynomial mentioned in the title of this article. The results explain almost all of the properties taken into account at the choice of the parameters of the RSA. By the help of the polynomial it is pointed out how the modulus and the exponent must be chosen so that the modular raising to power realizes a secure cryptosystem. The article investigates also the role of the choice of the parameters related to the success of the cycling attack. The article conveys a unified point of view for the examination of a lot of the number theoretic problems arising with respect to the RSA.


Primary cilia are multisensory organelles recently found to be absent in some tumor cells, but the mechanisms of deciliation and the role of cilia in tumor biology remain unclear. Cholangiocytes, the epithelial cells lining the biliary tree, normally express primary cilia and their interaction with bile components regulates multiple processes, including proliferation and transport. Utilizing cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) as a model, we found primary cilia are reduced in CCA by a mechanism involving histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6). The experimental deciliation of normal cholangiocyte cells increased the proliferation rate and induced anchorage-independent growth. Furthermore, deciliation induced the activation of MAPK and Hedgehog signaling, two important pathways involved in CCA development. We found HDAC6 is overexpressed in CCA and overexpression of HDAC6 in normal cholangiocytes induced deciliation, and increased both proliferation and anchorage-independent growth. To evaluate the effect of cilia restoration on tumor cells, we targeted HDAC6 by shRNA or by the pharmacologic inhibitor, tubastatin-A. Both approaches restored the expression of primary cilia in CCA cell lines and decreased cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth. The effects of tubastatin-A were abolished when CCA cells were rendered unable to regenerate cilia by stable transfection of IFT88-shRNA. Finally, inhibition of HDAC6 by tubastatin-A also induced a significant decrease in tumor growth in a CCA animal model. Our data support a key role for primary cilia in malignant transformation, provide a plausible mechanism for their involvement, and suggest that restoration of primary cilia in tumor cells by HDAC6 targeting may be a potential therapeutic approach for CCA. a that the restoration primary cilia, by targeting HDAC6 in CCA cells, decreases Hh and MAPK signaling pathways.


To achieve the business goals, projects must be accurately done by project-based organizations. So, the aware of project performance is vital for this type of organizations. Given the projects play an important role in the development of any society, so the use of the best ways to implement, is very important. One of the most important methods employed is agile project management .method that the purpose of the application of this approach is delivering value to the employer. The employer in this project plays an important role. The contractor will also have an important role in the implementation of projects, knowledge of the perceptions of the employer and contractor project management agility standards play an important role in improving implementation of the projects. The purpose of this paper is that examine the criteria for agile project management, then compare it with the traditional method. Therefore, evaluates the projects in Foolad Technique according to perception of contractors and employer of the criteria for agile project management agility using MCDM. From 6 project which studying in Foolad Technique, project of Foundation equipment Abarkooh rolling Hall, received the highest level of priority based on perception of contractors and employers. The managers can increase and estimate the agility level of their organization through knowing and using these criteria.


OF THE DISSERTATION Mechanics of Heart Tube Formation in the Early Chick Embryo by Victor D. Varner Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, 2011 Research Advisor: Professor Larry A. Taber The heart is the first functioning organ to form in the embryo. For decades, biologists have worked to identify many of the genetic and molecular factors involved in heart development, and over the years, these efforts have helped elucidate the vast biochemical signaling networks, which drive cardiac specification and differentiation in the embryo. Still, the biophysical mechanisms which link these molecular factors to actual, physical changes in cardiac morphology remain unclear. The aim of this thesis is to identify some of the mechanical forces which drive heart tube assembly in the early chick embryo. A unique feature of this work is the combination of mathematical modeling with ex ovo culture experiments. Head fold formation is the first step in this process. It sets the stage for early cardiac development by folding the (initially flat) heart fields out-of-plane, enabling them to form a tube along the ventral side of the embryo. Here, we show that head fold formation is driven by forces that originate in the ectoderm, forces that are typically associated with neurulation — the formation of the neural tube. ii The primitive heart tube itself then forms as these bilateral heart fields move toward the midline and fuse to construct a straight, muscle-wrapped tube. We show that the endoderm plays a crucial mechanical role during this process. Instead of just serving as a passive, secretory substrate for the crawling mesodermal heart fields, the endoderm actively contracts to pull the heart fields toward the midline. We then investigate how this endodermal contraction is spatially distributed, and how different distributions of contraction might affect the observed morphogenetic deformations during heart tube formation. Our methods can be readily generalized to other morphogenetic processes, enabling us to investigate how physical forces are organized at the tissue-level to create biological form.


3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software is widely used in engineering industries to design products and manage their lifecycles. It is crucial to the economy as it records vital design information and knowhow on all engineered products in the developed and developing worlds. The industry is oligopolistic with few suppliers and while efforts have been made to standardise data transfer formats by the promulgation of standards there are formidable interoperability issues. Once users have purchased a particular brand of software they are essentially "locked in" and the industry has all the elements associated with a lack of interoperability, namely network effects, lock-in, and proprietary software and interfaces. Intellectual Property Rights in software are granted to incentivise innovation but cause a lack of interoperability. The ideas and principles which underlie software interfaces are not protected by copyright but there is no such exemption for patents. Interfaces are similar to standards and their indirect effect amplifies their impact and value and distorts the intended intellectual property protection. As the machine code which is distributed to users is not readable, reverse engineering is permitted to enable interoperability, subject to restrictions, including prohibiting the sharing of interface specifications, which is tantamount to making the information a statutory trade secret. Using legal doctrinal research of primary and secondary materials including case law, previous research alongside industry documents and interviews with experts in the industry, this thesis makes original and significant contributions to knowledge. Firstly, the research provides an assessment of the legal regulation of lock-in in an oligopolistic market and identifies the inability of competition law to provide a remedy. It had previously been assumed that competition law would provide a remedy of last resort to require disclosure of interface information. Secondly, considering the indirect function of control of interfaces the justification for patents in interface standards is critically evaluated. Thirdly, with reference to the normative framework of balancing control and openness of interfaces, the ability of the studied market to achieve an optimum balance is evaluated, taking account of the impact of market conditions including the lock-in of the users' proprietary data, the software's functional nature and the need for data integrity. Fourthly, with reference to this research and intellectual property law principles and practice existing proposals are critically evaluated including the reduction of the term of protection which will harm vertical interoperability of complementary software. The argument that the time and cost of reverse engineering has a purpose in protecting first comers is countered and it is proposed that reverse engineering of interfaces should be easy and effective. Recommendations are made to improve the dissemination of interface information to allow markets to move towards an optimum balance with minimum regulatory interference. The regulation of interoperability is a balancing act between control by rightsholders and openness of interfaces and this thesis builds on existing research to refine and expand the criteria that identifies the 'pivot'. Recommendations with least intervention and encouraging efficient market solutions are made with an emphasis on improving reverse engineering's effectiveness, particularly in the openness and dissemination of interface specifications.


This study aims to know the effectiveness of using the Cooperative Learning based on Experts groups' method onPrincessRahmaUniversityCollegestudents' direct and postponed achievement in English 99 course compared with the traditional method. The study sample consists of 141 students males and females from Princess Rahma University College organised in four sections, two sections were chosen randomly from the four sections to form the experimental two sections and their number was 75 students males and females taught by (Jigsaw 2) and the controlled group was 66 students males and females taught by the traditional way. The instruments of the study contains pre-cognitive test for assuring the equality between the two groups, and an achievement test whose validity and reliability was assured, and the results showed that there were statistically significant differences (a=0.01) between the controlled and experimental groups in achievements due to (Jigsaw 2) method which were in favour of  the experimental group. Also, the results showed that there were no statistical differences due to gender or the interaction between gender and teaching method variants. The study has a number of relevant recommendations.


An important issue in the analysis of cross-sectional dependence which has received renewed interest in the past few years is the need for a better understanding of the extent and nature of such cross dependencies. In this paper we focus on measures of cross-sectional dependence and how such measures are related to the behaviour of the aggregates defined as cross-sectional averages. We endeavour to determine the rate at which the cross-sectional weighted average of a set of variables appropriately demeaned, tends to zero. One parameterisation sets the exponent of the cross-sectional dimension, N, being between 1/2 and 1. We refer to this as the exponent of cross-sectional dependence. We derive an estimator of this exponent from the estimated variance of the cross-sectional average of the variables under consideration. We propose bias corrected estimators, derive their asymptotic properties and consider a number of extensions. We include a detailed Monte Carlo study supporting the theoretical results. Finally, we undertake an empirical investigation of the exponent of cross-sectional dependence using the S&P 500 data-set, and a large number of macroeconomic variables across and within countries.


We present Views, a file system architecture that provides isolation between system components for the purposes of access control, regulatory compliance, and sandboxing. Views allows for discrete I/O entities, such as users, groups, or processes, to have a logically complete yet fully isolated perspective (view) of the file system. This ensures that each entity's file system activities only modify that entity's view of the file system, but in a transparent fashion that does not limit or restrict the entity's functionality. Views can therefore be used to monitor system activity based on user accounts for access control (as required by federal regulations such as HIPAA), provide a reliable sandbox for arbitrary applications without inducing any noticeable loss in performance, and enable traditional snapshotting functionality by manipulating and transplanting views as snapshots in time. Views' architecture is designed to be file system independent, extremely easy to use and manage, and flexible in defining isolation and sharing polices. Our implementation of Views is built on ext3cow, which additionally provides versioning capabilities to all entities. Benchmarking results show that the performance of Views is nearly identical to other traditional file systems such as ext3.


The extensive use of herbicides in agriculture becomes an important factor in environmental pollution, especially in case of slowly degradable compounds. Some agents act on plants during a long period of time, even if a very low concentration of the herbicide remains in the soil. Here, we investigated the tox-icological effect of a low concentration of dinitroaniline herbicide, trifluralin, on growing seedlings of Hordeum vulgare L. Trifluralin in concentration of 1 μg/ml inhibited root growth. The mitotic activity of meristematic cells was suppressed due to the retardation of metaphase progression — alteration that can be caused by cytoskeleton disorder. Using antibodies to a-tubulin, we investigated the distribution of microtubules in root meristem cells. During all stages of mitosis, the highly regular system of micro-tubular cytoskeleton observed in control cells was slightly disorganized. An examination of root structure using light and electron microscopy demonstrated that the cell walls did not form normally during cell division that led to the appearance of large multinucleated cells. Also, the premature (pathological) cell differentiation was induced by trifluralin. A part of differentiating cells showed intracellular structural changes that are consistent with programmed cell death. It seems that the development of alterations in trifluralin-treated roots was due to the microtubular cytoskeleton disorganization.


The place and authority of international law in South African domestic law, with reference to the Glenister judgement
Since 1994 in particular, South Africa has been incurring several obligations in terms of international law. This raises the question of the place and authority of international law in the domestic law of the country.
An important example of where a South African court had to consider this question was Glenister v President of the Republic of South Africa. In this case the constitutional court had to take into account, inter alia, the United Nations convention against corruption in order to come to the conclusion that the controversial legislation that had turned the highly successful elite crime unit, the Scorpions, into the Hawks was unconstitutional and invalid.
Both the minority and majority judgements in Glenister paid considerable attention to the role, place and authority of international law in South African domestic law. However, they did so in essentially different ways. One is left with the impression that the majority judgement has created uncertainty about the incorporation of international treaties in domestic law, particularly on the notion of self-executing treaty provisions. My submission is that there is only one way of clarifying this uncertainty, and that is for the South African courts to interpret this principle as articulated by section 231(4) of the Constitution. It is disappointing that it did not do so in this judgement.
By comparing the United Nations convention against corruption with the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004, comments are also made about the methods by which international law is incorporated into South African law. The comparison demonstrates that the United Nations convention indeed played a substantial role in the design and promulgation of the act.


ABSTRACT From the tropics to Antarctica, penguins depend on predictable regions of high ocean productivity where their prey aggregate. Increases in precipitation and reductions in sea ice associated with climate warming are affecting penguins. The largest breeding colony of Patagonian (Magellanic) penguins, at Punta Tombo, Argentina, had approximately 200,000 breeding pairs in October 2006—a decline of 22% since 1987. In the 1980s and 1990s, petroleum pollution was a major source of Patagonian penguin mortality. In 1994, tanker lanes were moved 40 kilometers (km) farther off the coast of Chubut, and the dumping of ballast water and the oiling of penguins are now rare. However, penguins are swimming 60 km farther north from their nests during incubation than they did a decade ago, very likely reflecting shifts in prey in response to climate change and reductions in prey abundance caused by commercial fishing. These temperate penguin species, marine sentinels for southern oceans, demonstrate that new challenges are confronting their populations.


A total of 121 European eels (Anguilla anguilla) from 2 sampling sites on the River Rhine were investigated in respect of their parasite communities. Special attention was given to the swim bladders, intestines, gills and fins of the fish. Twelve different parasite species were found to live in and on the eels. Data from each sampling site were kept separate. Parasites found in descending order of prevalence were: Anguillicola crassus, Trypanosoma granulosum, Myxobolus sp., Paratenuisentis ambiguus, Pseudodactylogyrus sp., Bothriocephalus claviceps, Myxidium giardi, Pomphorhynchus laevis, Trichodina sp., Raphidascaris acus, Acanthocephalus lucii and Acanthocephalus anguillae. Significantly different prevalences were reported for L3 larvae of A. crassus, adult P. ambiguus, B. claviceps and Myxobolus sp. at the 2 sampling sites. The highest number of parasite species was recorded from the intestine, which contained up to 6 different helminths. The coexistence of the acanthocephalans P. laevis and P. ambiguus, which showed clear patterns of distribution within the intestine of the respective hosts, was reported for the first time. Up to 3 different helminth species were found in the intestine of individual fish. Among those, acanthocephalans were the most prevalent worms with the eel-specific parasite P. ambiguus as the dominant species not only of the intestinal but also of the total component communities. Both infra and component communities exhibited low diversity and were dominated by this single species. The evenness reached only approximately 50% or less and it remained unclear why the helminth communities of the eels from the River Rhine with its huge catchment area exhibit such a low parasite diversity and high dominance.


In 2013, Erdum Gunduz's passive "standing man" performance in Istanbul spontaneously attracted thousands of participants, online followers and copyists in public acts of dissent. But exactly what form of new social relations, or more precisely, what kind of collective emancipatory political engagement did this facilitate? This paper examines the consequentialities of performative modes of "being public" through addressing the shift from "being singular" to "being plural" or, more pertinently, "being-in-common" (Nancy 2000). Reflecting on the historical activities of the Dutch Provo, which briefly enacted mayhem in public in the mid-1960s through a set of performative strategies, it considers a disparate set of situated but transitory "improvisational forms of public assembly" (Butler 2015, 22) from passive acts of togetherness to collective viral performative utterances (e.g., We are Charlie 2015; Oh Jeremy Corbyn! 2017). Informed by Lauren Berlant's (2016) troubling of the ambiguous and contingent nature of collective encounters of "becoming common," this paper acknowledges there is a preponderance of positivist political fantasizing associated with "being in proximity." That said, it concludes that public participative modes of performance that embrace spatial proxemics facilitate the development of alternative subjectivities through affective bodily encounters between strangers. These collective encounters of incipient "commoning" (Stavrides 2016) resonate with what Jeremy Gilbert refers to as the boundlessness, the "infinite relationality" (Gilbert 2014) of the human condition.  While collective acts of political performativity may be fugitive in their convergent emancipatory politics, they engender a provisional unity toward being-in-common, a foundational ontological state to which individuals are already predisposed.


Motivation: The technology to genotype single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at extremely high densities provides for hypothesisfree genome-wide scans for common polymorphisms associated with complex disease. However, we find that some errors introduced by commonly employed genotyping algorithms may lead to inflation of false associations between markers and phenotype. Results: We have developed a novel SNP genotype calling program, SNiPer-HighDensity (SNiPer-HD), for highly accurate genotype calling across hundreds of thousands of SNPs. The program employs an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm with parameters based on a training sample set. The algorithm choice allows for highly accurate genotyping for most SNPs. Also, we introduce a quality control metric for each assayed SNP, such that poor-behaving SNPs can be filtered using a metric correlating to genotype class separation in the calling algorithm. SNiPer-HD is superior to the standard dynamic modeling algorithm and is complementary and non-redundant to other algorithms, such as BRLMM. Implementing multiple algorithms together may provide highly accurate genotyping calls, without inflation of false positives due to systematically miss-called SNPs. A reliable and accurate set of SNP genotypes for increasingly dense panels will eliminate some false association signals and false negative signals, allowing for rapid identification of disease susceptibility loci


In the end, we are all dead. But for some of us, our deaths become entangled online. Our vast data legacies and the appropriation of social media by the bereaved can result in online networks being used to mediate loss, mourning and memory in the event of a death. Recognising this phenomenon between death and technologies has resulted in researchers and designers being asked to become 'thanatosensitive', or death-sensitive. In particular, designers have been presented with Thanatosensitive Design [TSD] as an optimistic and non-prescriptive design methodology, devised by Massimi, for researching, designing and developing thanatosensitive technologies within sensitive end-of-life contexts (Massimi, 2012). This thesis is an invitation to reconsider TSD, to rethink what sensitive design practice could look like and the kinds of commitments and claims it is making to bereaved people. This reconsideration takes place through the development of an interdisciplinary conceptual framework that supports 'thinking with' and 'caring for' other elements in a situation of inquiry (Diprose, 2009; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2012; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2011). Empirically, this exposes a messy human landscape of loss, non-living 'ghosts' and non-human networks, the presences and agencies of which unsettle the human-centred ethico-political assumptions that lie within the TSD agenda. This thesis embraces the disturbances that have arisen from empirical and theoretical commitments and uses them as a way to reconsider what thanatosensitivity looks like when it embraces a more inclusive ethico-political landscape that decentres the human. Therefore, this thesis contributes to emerging literatures at the recent intersection between death and technology studies, firstly, by exposing a complex and previously unaccounted for messy ecology of loss across networks online, and, secondly, by reflexivity, exploring how this messy ecology disturbs the centrality of the human in TSD framings. These contributions cumulate in a reconfiguration of TSD that draws out an alternative approach and considerations for practitioners interested in designing sensitively for the end of life. This reconfiguration aims to be socially responsible, inclusive and ecologically sensitive in ways that set it apart from Massimi's original concept of TSD. This new vision of sensitive design is summarised into a design statement and a polemic design manifesto to aid practitioners who wish to sensitively design for the end of life. The thesis leaves us with a speculative afterword, to consider future work and envision what other forms designing for death might take if we continue to push at the human-centeredness within design ecologies in light of the apocalyptic shadow of the Anthropocene.


The Calvert Cliffs, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA, erode by direct wave undercutting or by freeze/thaw erosion accompanied by wave removal of slope debris. Directly undercut slopes recede more rapidly, with long-term rates exceeding 1.0 m/yr; freeze/thaw slopes recede at rates approaching 0.5 m/yr. The frequency of wave height and water level at the shoreline is estimated for eleven sites based on a 37-year wind record, estimates of storm surge, offshore wave geometry, nearshore wave transformation, and breaking wave type. Locations experiencing the largest slope recession are not uniformly those with the largest cumulative wave energy; the resistance to erosion of the slope toe must also be accounted for. An index of relative wave strength is defined as the ratio of wave pressure T and the cohesive strength S of the slope material. For the Calvert Cliffs, a minimum relative wave strength for initiating erosion of intact material is 0.05 < T/S < 0.1. A cumulative duration of ≥ 50 hours per year for T/S ≥ 0.1 distinguishes undercut and nonundercut slopes and recession rates greater or lesser than 0.5 m/yr. The relative wave strength index may be used to identify sites at risk of increased erosion. At one site with a small historical erosion rate, the loss of a protective beach and associated decrease in toe elevation caused a positive shift in the frequency of large T/S. Direct wave undercutting and increased slope recession may be anticipated at this site, as indicated by the development of an undercut notch during the course of the study.


Deep neural networks have enabled progress in a wide variety of applications. Growing the size of the neural network typically results in improved accuracy. As model sizes grow, the memory and compute requirements for training these models also increases. We introduce a technique to train deep neural networks using half precision floating point numbers. In our technique, weights, activations and gradients are stored in IEEE half-precision format. Half-precision floating numbers have limited numerical range compared to single-precision numbers. We propose two techniques to handle this loss of information. Firstly, we recommend maintaining a single-precision copy of the weights that accumulates the gradients after each optimizer step. This single-precision copy is rounded to half-precision format during training. Secondly, we propose scaling the loss appropriately to handle the loss of information with half-precision gradients. We demonstrate that this approach works for a wide variety of models including convolution neural networks, recurrent neural networks and generative adversarial networks. This technique works for large scale models with more than 100 million parameters trained on large datasets. Using this approach, we can reduce the memory consumption of deep learning models by nearly 2x. In future processors, we can also expect a significant computation speedup using half-precision hardware units.


Aristotle could write that we ascribe "universal education to one who in his own individual person is thus critical in all or nearly all branches of knowledge, and not to one who has a like ability merely in some special subject." Today nobody can know about everything. The flow of information so far exceeds what anyone can observe, learn, or appreciate that we must look at methods of compression, summarization, and filtering. These methods must achieve reductions of a million to one to cope with what is now routine. Fortunately, technology is making this possible.


1. In anaesthetized cats, reversible nenal nerve denervation (cooling of the renal nerves on one side at 4°C for 16 min) was performed and its effects on haemodynamic and excretory functions of the ipsilateral and the contralateral kidneys were studied. 2. Renal nerve cooling did not cause any change in arterial pressure. Slight increase in blood flow, no change in glomerular filtration rate and a large increase in water and sodium excretion occurred in the ipsilateral kidney; simultaneously, no change in blood flow, a slight and transient decrease in glomerular filtration rate, and a significant decrease in diuresis and natriuresis were observed in the contralateral kidney. 3. Ipsilateral and contralateral renal changes were equally evident in the early (minutes 0 to 8) and late phases (minutes 8 to 16) of the cooling period. 4. When renal nerve cooling was repeated after surgical denervation of the contralateral kidney all contralateral effects were abolished.


. The field of Artificial Life studies the nature of the living state, by modeling and synthesizing living systems. Such systems, under certain conditions, may come to deserve moral consideration similar to that of non-human vertebrates or even human beings. The fact that these systems are non-human and evolve in a potentially radically different substrate should not be seen as an insurmountable obstacle to their potentially having rights, if they are sufficiently sophisticated in other respects. Nor should the fact that they owe their existence to us be seen as reducing their status as targets of moral concern. On the contrary, creators of artificial life may have special obligations to their creations, resembling those of an owner to their pet or a parent to their child. For a field that aims to create artificial lifeforms with increasing levels of sophistication, it is crucial to consider the possible ethical implications of our activities, with an eye toward assessing potential moral obligations for which we should be prepared. If artificial life is larger than life , then the ethics of artificial beings should be larger than human ethics .


Since 2004 Germany established ten Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the German Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ, 12-200 nautical miles zone) of the North and Baltic Sea as a contribution to the European Natura 2000 network. The main target of the coherent network of Natura 2000 sites is to reach a favourable conservation status of habitats and species. Even though commercial fisheries is known as one of those human activities in the marine ecosystem with the most severe negative impacts on habitats and species, fishing activities in the designated Natura 2000 sites are almost unregulated up to now. To analyze the impacts of fisheries on habitats and species in Natura 2000 sites and to develop site specific management plans the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) had initiated in 2006 the research and development project "Environmentally Sound Fisheries Management in Marine Protected Areas" (EMPAS), which was accomplished by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). EMPAS was a pioneering approach in Europe, which benefited by the participation of different scientist from marine and fisheries biology, as well as stakeholders from the fishing industry and nature conservation. This book gives a comprehensive overview of the process and the results of the EMPAS project as well as the scientific advice for management measure in marine Natura 2000 sites given by ICES. A further chapter presents presentations given at the international conference "Marine Natura 2000 sites and Fisheries management: The results of the EMPAS project" November 2008 in Stralsund. Environmentally Sound Fisheries Management in Marine Protected Areas (EMPAS) in Germany gives a fascinating insight in the process and main outcome of this project from which also other EU member states may gain a lot of information and experience in order to fulfil the tasks of developing appropriate fisheries management plans for Natura 2000 sites in European waters.


Deep frozen food was one of the most important technological developments when the distribution system was modernised and rationalised in the post WW2 era. While the technique of cold storage and transports was developed and used already in the late 19th century, the boom in consumption of deep frozen food relied on the development of a unbroken distribution chain of frozen food from the producer to the final consumer, and this development did not take place in earnest in Europe until the 1940s and 1950s.Similar to the case of self-service Sweden was one the prime movers in Europe concerning the development of a system for deep frozen food. Pioneers such as Findus, producer of vegetables and berries, started production of deep frozen food already in the mid 1940s, while the major actors in the grocery trades started constructing cold stores in the late 1940s.The real challenge was however to convince the retailers and the customers (both private and commercial) to adopt the new technique and the new products and ultimately to install freezing equipment in the stores and in their homes or in restaurants and canteens. This development was more gradual over the 1950s and 1960s, although there was an explosion of the consumption of deep frozen food in the 1950s.Similar to the development of self-service in Sweden, a number of actors was involved in the lobbying for and also practical development of the system of deep frozen food. One important actor was the producers of equipment for deep frozen products. Other actors involved were of course the producers, wholesalers and retailers of deep frozen food. Trade associations such as the Bureau for Deep Freezing was linking all above actors with for instance the The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, while also the trade associations of the retailers and wholesalers were active in the development process.The aim of this paper is to study the Swedish discussion surrounding the system of deep frozen food 1945-1970. I will use journals and possibly also business archives from the actors involved in the discussion. The study will show what arguments for and possibly also against deep frozen food that was used in order to further the development of the system of deep frozen food in Sweden.


Recent attention to hybrid cars that run on both gasoline and electric batteries has made the electric car an apparent alternative to the internal combustion engine and its attendant environmental costs and geopolitical implications. Few people realize that the electric car-neither a recent invention nor a historical curiosity-has a story as old as that of the gasoline-powered automobile, and that at one time many in the nascent automobile industry believed battery-powered engines would become the dominant technology. In both Europe and America, electric cars and trucks succeeded in meeting the needs of a wide range of consumers. Before World War II, as many as 30,000 electric cars and more than 10,000 electric trucks plied American roads; European cities were busy with, electrically propelled fire engines, taxis, delivery vans, buses, heavy trucks and private cars. Even so, throughout the century-long history of electric propulsion, the widespread conviction it was an inferior technology remained stubbornly in place, an assumption mirrored in popular and scholarly memory. In The Electric Vehicle, Gijs Mom challenges this view, arguing that at the beginning of the automobile age neither the internal combustion engine nor the battery-powered vehicle enjoyed a clear advantage. He explores the technology and marketing/consumer-ratio faction relationship over four "generations" of electric-vehicle design, with separate chapters on privately owned passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Mom makes comparisons among European countries and between Europe and America. He finds that the electric vehicle offered many advantages, among them greater reliability and control, less noise and pollution. He also argues that a nexus of factors-cultural (underpowered and less rugged, electric cars seemed "feminine" at a time when most car buyers were men), structural (the shortcomings of battery technology at the time), and systemic (the infrastructural problems of changing large numbers of batteries)-ultimately gave an edge to the internal combustion engine. One hopes, as a new generation of electric vehicles becomes a reality, The Electric Vehicle offers a long-overdue reassessment of the place of this technology in the history of street transportation.


The beliefs, feelings, and thoughts that make up our streams of consciousness would seem to be inherently private. Nevertheless, modern neuroscience is offering to open up the sanctity of this domain to outside viewing. A common retort often voiced to this worry is something like, 'Privacy is difficult to define and has no inherent moral value. What's so great about privacy?' In this article I will argue against these sentiments. A definition of privacy is offered along with an account of why privacy is morally valuable. In the remaining sections, several privacy protecting principles are defended that would limit various sorts of neuro-surveillance promised by advancements in neuroscience.


Research summary: This article investigates the social context of entrepreneurship in organizational sectors. Prior research suggests that firm foundings are driven by collective patterns of activity—such as patterns of prior foundings in a given sector. Building on research on social salience and signals, we consider the influence of singular sector-level triggers, which we call entrepreneurial beacons. We argue that the actions or outcomes of single, salient organizations attract and motivate entrepreneurs, thus increasing the rate of foundings. We test this logic by examining the impact of the Yale University endowment's investment choices and of venture-capital-backed IPO run-ups on venture-capital foundings between 1984 and 2011. We find support for the existence and influence of beacons and outline boundary conditions for their effects.

Managerial summary: What leads entrepreneurs to found new companies in nascent sectors? In contrast to prior research, which emphasizes patterns of activity, we argue that entrepreneurial activity can sometimes be driven by the actions of a singular trigger—what we call an entrepreneurial beacon. We examine the influence of two such beacons, Yale University's endowment investments and exceptional venture-capital-backed IPO run-ups, on the founding of new venture-capital firms over a 28-year period. We find that Yale's increased allocations to the venture-capital asset-class has a significant influence on the founding of new venture-capital firms, while exceptional venture-capital-backed IPO run-ups only influence venture-capital foundings under certain conditions. Overall, we offer an explanation for heretofore anecdotal accounts of certain organizations or events that appear to have an outsized influence on entrepreneurial activity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Key Papers on Korea is a commemorative collection of papers celebrating 25 years of the Centre of Korean Studies (CKS), SOAS, University of London that have been written by senior academics and emerging scholars. The subjects covered in this collection reflect the different research interests and different strengths of the CKS and include historical perceptions of ancient kingdoms in Manchuria, North Korean propaganda literature, the problematic history of Sino-North Korean borderlands, the millenarian aspects of Won Buddhism, and the importance of the years 1910-11 in the development of Korean music. The collection is framed by two pieces on SOAS, which have been commissioned exclusively for this publication: an introduction that examines the 60-year history of Korean studies at SOAS, and a closing paper that sheds light on the rare collections of Korean art held at SOAS.


Technological development in the last years leads to increase the access speed in the networks that allow a huge number of users watching videos online. The Quality of Experience (QoE) Knowledge of services that provide from the network is a very critical matter to have a strong design of multimedia streaming networks. This paper provides a video streaming QoE prediction metric that does not require any information on the reference video. The proposed system extract numbers of features from videos that used to train the neural network and finally prediction the QoE value. Verify models prediction using 10-fold cross-validation that in a regular way split dataset (training set and test set) with multiple percentages. The proposed system verifies the best result.


Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is defined as thrombotic microangiopathy occurring in the context of severe ADAMTS13 deficiency (<10%) which is a normal enzyme in plasma that cleaves large forms of von Willebrand factor into smaller functional subunits. We report a case of a middle aged male with de novo iTTP ( idiopathic thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura) after vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCov-19. He presented with severe abdominal pain, increased bruising, hematuria along with episodes of transient ischemic attacks, 5 days from the first dose of the antiCOVID-19 vaccine. Laboratory data revealed a very severe ADAMTS13 deficiency, however, autoantibody titer could not be measured due to the failure of refrigerating facility in our reference laboratory. Patient was successfully treated with serial plasma exchange and immunosuppression with steroids and rituximab.


Plio-Pleistocene Soricidae have been studied from Tegelen (The Netherlands) and from seven Hungarian localities: Osztramos 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, Csarnota 2, and Villany 3. The subdivision of the subfamily Soricinae into tribes is revised. Of the three tribes recognized by Repenning (1967), two have been retained, viz. the Soricini Fischer von Waldheim, 1817 and the Blarinini Kretzoi, 1965. The third tribe (Neomyini Repenning, 1967) is split into four new (or resurrected) tribes: Soriculini Kretzoi, 1965 (this name having preference over Neomyini Repenning, 1967); Beremendiini new tribe, Amblycoptini Kormos, 1926, and Notiosoricini new tribe. In addition, the Allosoricini Fejfar, 1966 replaces the formerly separate subfamily Allosoricinae, but it includes taxa included earlier in the Neomyini (Petenyiella gracilis) and in the Limnoecinae (Paenelimnoecus). Two new genera are discribed: Mafia and Sulimskia, both belonging to the Blarinini. Five new species are discribed: Sorex bor, Deinsdorfia janossyi, Deinsdorfia kordosi, Blarinella europaea, and Mafia csarnotensis. Some new terms are introduced for the dental morphology. In the P4, the connective ridge between the parastyle and the paracone is called the parastylar crest. For the lower incisor, names (adjectives) are introduced to describe the number of cuspules on the dorsal edge: acuspulate (for an I inf. without cuspules), monocuspulate (1), bicuspulate (2), tricuspulate (3), and tetracuspulate (4 cuspules). Furthermore, the degree of posterior emargination in M1 and M2 has been quantified by means of a formula; the result is the PE-index. Some palaeoecological conclusions are drawn. The observed differentiation of the climate during the Csarnotanian and the Villanyian is of particular interest. For two genera it has been possible to reconstruct migratiory trends. It is noted that in Central Europe Episoriculus gradually retreated southwards. This retreat started in the Ruscinian and continued into the Pleistocene; it might have been caused by the gradual deterioration of the climate. Crocidura originates from Africa and invaded Europe, starting in Asia Minor in the Ruscinian and ending its invasion in England during the last interglacial. It has since withdrawn from England, but still occurs in Europe below c. 53°N. Finally, it can be concluded that during the Ruscinian the Soricidae were a very successful group, showing an explosion in species diversity. The Villanyian climatic decline caused many extinctions and a considerable impoverishment of the soricid diversity. Of the — at least — eleven genera found in the late Ruscininian, four became extinct at the Ruscinian-Villanyian boundary, two during the Villanyian and two at the Villanyian-Biharian boundary. At present only four genera are found in Europe; only one of these (Sorex) was already in Europe during the early Ruscinian, the others immigrated later.


Deduplication is a key operation in integrating data from multiple sources. The main challenge in this task is designing a function that can resolve when a pair of records refer to the same entity in spite of various data inconsistencies. Most existing systems use hand-coded functions. One way to overcome the tedium of hand-coding is to train a classifier to distinguish between duplicates and non-duplicates. The success of this method critically hinges on being able to provide a covering and challenging set of training pairs that bring out the subtlety of deduplication function. This is non-trivial because it requires manually searching for various data inconsistencies between any two records spread apart in large lists.We present our design of a learning-based deduplication system that uses a novel method of interactively discovering challenging training pairs using active learning. Our experiments on real-life datasets show that active learning significantly reduces the number of instances needed to achieve high accuracy. We investigate various design issues that arise in building a system to provide interactive response, fast convergence, and interpretable output.


The implementation and evaluation of biological nitrification as a possible treatment option for the small-scale drinking water supply of a rural Upper Austrian community was investigated. The drinking water supply of this community (average system input volume: 20 m 3 /d) is based on the use of deep anaerobic groundwater with a high ammonium content of geogenic origin (up to 5 mg/l) which must be treated to prevent the formation of nitrites in the drinking water supply system. This paper describes the implementation and operation of biological nitrification despite several constraints including space availability, location and financial and manpower resources. A pilot drinking water treatment plant, including biological nitrification implemented in sand filters, was designed and constructed for a maximum treatment capacity of 1.2 m 3 /h. Online monitoring of selected physicochemical parameters has provided continuous treatment performance data. Treatment performance of the plant was evaluated under standard operation as well as in the case of selected malfunction events.


Environmental education is considered an appropriate intervention for creating awareness of, and an understanding of the challenges of environmental degradation. The introduction of EE into the Nigerian school curricular creates a challenge of how to teach it. A majority of the teachers still employ the old, traditional "chalk and talk" method. This study experimented with two modes of participatory strategies, the full and quasi participatory modes in teaching secondary school students in Nigeria some EE concepts. Three hundred and sixty students were randomly selected and assigned to the three treatment groups. Five hypotheses were tested at P<.05 and data was collected using a test instrument measuring students' understanding of the EE concepts taught. Findings from the study indicate that generally students taught using the participatory modes performed better than their counterparts in the conventional lecture group. However, between the two participatory modes examined, it was noted that students in the quasi participatory mode performed better than their colleagues in the full participatory group. An explanation of this could be that the quasi mode offers the learners a unique opportunity to work together in a more flexible way, to read, accept and internalize the basic environmental concepts. The implications of the findings for classroom practice were discussed in the paper.


Modern society is now demanding "greener" materials due to depleting fossil fuels and increasing environmental awareness. In the near future, industries will need to become more resource-conscious by making greater use of available renewable and sustainable raw materials. In this context, agro-forestry and related industries can in‐ deed contribute to solve many resource challenges for society and suppliers in the near future. Thus, cellulose can be predicted to become an important resource for ma‐ terials due to its abundance and versatility as a biopolymer. Cellulose is found in many different forms and applications. However, the dissolution and regeneration of cellulose are key (and challenging) aspects in many potential applications. This chap‐ ter is divided into two parts: (i) achievements in the field of dissolution and regenera‐ tion of cellulose including solvents and underlying mechanisms of dissolution; and (ii) state-of-the-art production of value-added materials and their applications includ‐ ing manmade textile fibers, hydrogels, aerogels, and all-cellulose composites, where the latter is given special attention.


Norio Usui writes that the recent surge in global commodity prices has brought large windfall revenues to resource-rich economies in Asia. Booming economies have, however, faced challenges of macroeconomic stabilization and intergenerational income distribution, and sought a solution to setting up a separate fund outside the budget. This brief assesses the experiences of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in their oil revenue management, and concludes that if there is insufficient control of expenditure or deficits, setting up an oil fund by itself does not guarantee either a prudent stance on overall fiscal management or commitment to savings for future generations.


In order to identify targets for metabolic engineering interventions or understand the physiology of the cell, the first and foremost prerequisite is the knowledge or a hypothesis about the intracellular network state(s). However, even with the advanced metabolomics and fluxomics methods currently at our disposal, it is still impossible or rather difficult to determine the exact intracellular flux states due to the number of reactions in the real system compounded with the reversibility of many of these reactions. As such, it may not be feasible to elucidate exactly the single state of the cell but to propose what could be all the possible states under given fermentation conditions, and ask what are the most important and consistent factors for achieving our metabolic engineering target given these states. In this contribution, we developed a framework for identifying all the possible intracellular flux and thermodynamic states using available experimental information provided, such as substrates/products profiles and any additional information such as metabolite concentrations and regulatory constraints that can be systematically integrated to differentiate all the possible directional profiles. Using the methods from Thermodynamics-based Flux Balance Analysis (TFBA), we then perform sampling of the flux and metabolite concentration states, which ensures network thermodynamic consistency, and we employ statistical techniques in order to extract representative flux and concentration profiles for the different network states. With these representative flux and concentration states, we can next perform kinetic analysis in order to identify targets for metabolic engineering and select those that are consistently important across these possible states.


In after-school programs, skill-building is a holistic process by which adolescents—guided by adults—achieve mastery. Developmental theories such as Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model position youth as active learners; however, little is known about the specific actions youth use to enhance their learning during skill-building opportunities. Qualitative analysis of 49 semi-structured observations of enrichment activities at a high-quality after-school program showed that adolescents used four types of actions while completing a project: inquiry, contribution, self-regulation, and peer education. These behaviors indicated youths' level of cognitive engagement. Instructors' practices related to questioning, monitoring, group management, and sharing control demonstrate the range of instructional practices that can be used in response to teens' use of the four types of learning actions. This study presents a theoretical model of the skill-building process that illustrates how teens' behaviors interact with staff practices and the demands of project-based learning.


This book is the first comprehensive study of the radical political thought of the brothers Johan and Pieter de la Court, two eminent theorists from the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic who played a pivotal role in the rise of commercial republicanism.


Therrnophilic bacterial culture capable of producing extracellular pullulanase was isolated from the soil. The culture was identified as a strain of Bacillus subtilis. The productivity of strain was improved by using UV-irradiation and alkylating agents. Maximum enzyme activity was achieved after 48 hours of shaking cultivation at 35 °C with an initial pH of 6.2. The production of enzyme pullulanase was significantly enhanced in the presence of liquefied starch, malt extract or tryptone in the medium The maximum production of pullulanase was observed with corn meal. Enzyme synthesis was stimulated by Mn2+; but not with Ca2+. At aeration rate of 1 L/ L/ min. with agitation of 200 rpm the el1zyrne activity was maximum. The optimum cultural conditions in solid state fermentation were incubation time 48 hour, thickness of bran layer 1.8 cm, moisture level 68%.Supplenlentation of wheat bran with various carbohydrates or nitrogen sources did not enhance the enzyme synthesis. The enzyme pullulanase was used together with amyloglucosidase to improve the efficiency of starch conversion to glucose. The enzyme was most active and stable in pH range 5.5-7.5 and 5.59.0 respectively. Pullulanase was stable at 70OC for 60 minutes at pH 6.2 in the presence of 5% starch. The activity of pullulanase was enhanced by the addition of 1. 6 m M Ca2+


Multi-touch interactive tables are becoming increasingly affordable and are likely to become commonplace in both schools and homes. Despite many advances in technology, interaction and co-located collaboration, there is little to no knowledge of how people communicate around these interactive tables. Communication is vital for humans as it is a necessary part of our everyday life and an important tool for humans to express themselves. This paper presents the findings of a study that observed the conversation styles of teenagers working on interactive and non-interactive tables. We looked at five types of utterances: identification, proposals, responses, interdependence and instructions. We describe the implications of these results for designers of interactive tables for educational purposes.


Guidance in the UK requires the co-ordination and standardisation of services to protectadults from abuse. However, there remains considerable ambiguity about the basic conceptsof abuse and vulnerability. This paper reports an empirical study of factors in professionaldecision making in relation to identifying and reporting abuse of older people.A systematic review and a panel of expert practitioners were used to identify factors thatmight influence professional recognition and reporting of elder abuse. These factorswere incorporated into a questionnaire that included randomised factorial survey vignettesand additional questions on decision making. Sets of unique vignettes were completedby 190 social workers, nurses and other professional care managers acrossNorthern Ireland in 2008, giving 2,261 randomised vignettes used as the units of analysis.Recognition and reporting were influenced by case factors specific to the abuse eventwhile contextual factors did not significantly influence recognition or referring ofabuse. This study has shown that the factorial survey can be a powerful tool to investigateprofessional decision making. It provides an insight into practitioners' responses tocomplex ethical dilemmas. The findings are considered within the context of currentpolicy and the need for further research is discussed.


Abstract To illuminate the fundamental concepts involved in object-oriented programming languages, we describe the design of TOOPL, a paradigmatic, statically-typed, functional, object-oriented programming language which supports classes, objects, methods, hidden instance variables, subtypes and inheritance. It has proven to be quite difficult to design such a language which has a secure type system. A particular problem with statically type checking object-oriented languages is designing typechecking rules which ensure that methods provided in a superclass will continue to be type correct when inherited in a subclass. The type-checking rules for TOOPL have this feature, enabling library suppliers to provide only the interfaces of classes with actual executable code, while still allowing users to safely create subclasses. To achieve greater expressibility while retaining type-safety, we choose to separate the inheritance and subtyping hierarchy in the language. The design of TOOPL has been guided by an analysis of the semantics of the language, which is given in terms of a model of the F-bounded second-order lambda calculus with fixed points at both the element and type level. This semantics supports the language design by providing a means to prove that the type-checking rules are sound, thus guaranteeing that the language is type-safe. While the semantics of our language is rather complex, involving fixed points at both the element and type level, we believe that this reflects the inherent complexity of the basic features of object-oriented programming languages. Particularly complex features include the implicit recursion inherent in the use of the keyword, self, to refer to the current object, and its corresponding type, MyType. The notions of subclass and inheritance introduce the greatest semantic complexities, whereas the notion of subtype is more straightforward to deal with. Our semantic investigations lead us to recommend caution in the use of inheritance, since small changes to method definitions in subclasses can result in major changes to the meanings of the other methods of the class.


ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra is an attenuated tubercle bacillus closely related to the virulent type strain M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Despite extensive study, the reason for the decreased virulence of M. tuberculosis H37Ra has not been determined. A genomic approach was therefore initiated to identify genetic differences between M. tuberculosis H37Rv andM. tuberculosis H37Ra as a means of pinpointing the attenuating mutation(s). Digestion with the rare-cutting restriction endonuclease DraI revealed two polymorphisms between the strains: a 480-kb fragment in M. tuberculosis H37Rv was replaced by two fragments of 220 and 260 kb in M. tuberculosis H37Ra, while there was a ∼7.9-kb DraI fragment in M. tuberculosis H37Ra that had no counterpart in M. tuberculosis H37Rv. As the M. tuberculosis insertion sequence IS6110 contains a single DraI restriction site, it was considered possible that these polymorphisms were the result of IS6110transposition events in M. tuberculosis H37Ra, events that may have inactivated virulence genes. The 7.9-kb polymorphism was found to be due to the presence of the previously described H37Rv RvD2 deletion in M. tuberculosis H37Ra, with sequence analysis suggesting an IS6110-mediated deletion mechanism for loss of RvD2. Three other IS6110-catalyzed deletions from theM. tuberculosis H37Rv chromosome (RvD3 to RvD5) were also identified, suggesting that this mechanism plays an important role in genome plasticity in the tubercle bacilli. Comparative mapping and sequencing revealed that the 480-kb polymorphism was due to an IS6110 insertion in M. tuberculosis H37Ra nearoriC. Complementation of M. tuberculosis H37Ra with a 2.9-kb restriction fragment from M. tuberculosisH37Rv that encompassed the IS6110 insertion did not increase the survival of recombinant M. tuberculosis H37Ra in mice. In conclusion, this study describes the presence and mechanisms of genomic variation between M. tuberculosisH37Ra and M. tuberculosis H37Rv, although the role that they play in the attenuation of M. tuberculosis H37Ra is unclear.


After winning the right to same-sex marriage in all 50 states just last year, the LGBT community is once again battling in court for its rights, this time for the right of transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. In its "Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students," the Federal Government has recently interpreted federal law as requiring that transgender students be permitted to use bathroom and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity in schools receiving federal funding. In two separate lawsuits, 20 states have challenged the legitimacy of this interpretation. This Article examines the current court battles over transgender bathroom and locker room rights and discusses possible outcomes of the most contentious legal issues in dispute. These issues include: the procedures used by the Federal Government in issuing its interpretation; the substantial legitimacy of the interpretation; and the Constitutional authority of the Federal Government to issue its interpretation. The Article concludes that courts should uphold the Federal Government's recent interpretation of federal civil rights law because the Federal Government's interpretation is a reasonable interpretation, lawfully issued, that mirrors the best practices medical and psychiatric recommendations for the protection and inclusion of a vulnerable group.


"Social sorting" is a concept used by Mason (2016) to explain the process by which individuals' social identities grow increasingly aligned with a partisan identity, reducing social cross-pressures on political behavior. Roccas and Brewer (2002) have found that individuals who feel fewer cross-pressures more strongly identify with their ingroups and are less tolerant of outgroups. Accordingly, we create "objective" and "subjective" measures of social sorting to help identify the mechanism by which individual partisans connect social sorting to partisanship in the CCES and a nonprobability Internet sample. As racial, religious, and ideological identities have cumulatively moved into greater alignment with Democratic and Republican identities in recent decades, American partisans have grown increasingly identified with their parties due to the psychological effects of identity alignment captured in objective and subjective sorting mechanisms. However, we find that this effect is more powerful among Republicans than among Democrats, due to the general social homogeneity of the Republican party. Contrary to the assessments of modern political punditry, Republicans are more susceptible to identity-based politics.


ABSTRACT In this paper we examine the current state of play with regards to the security of smart city initiatives. Smart city technologies are promoted as an effective way to counter and manage uncertainty and urban risks through the effective and efficient delivery of services, yet paradoxically they create new vulnerabilities and threats, including making city infrastructure and services insecure, brittle, and open to extended forms of criminal activity. This paradox has largely been ignored or underestimated by commercial and governmental interests or tackled through a technically-mediated mitigation approach. We identify five forms of vulnerabilities with respect to smart city technologies, detail the present extent of cyberattacks on networked infrastructure and services, and present a number of illustrative examples. We then adopt a normative approach to explore existing mitigation strategies, suggesting a wider set of systemic interventions (including security-by-design, remedial security patching and replacement, formation of core security and computer emergency response teams, a change in procurement procedures, and continuing professional development). We discuss how this approach might be enacted and enforced through market-led and regulation/management measures, and then examine a more radical preventative approach to security.


Biocorrosion in marine environment is often associated with biofilms of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). However, not much information is available on the mechanism underlying exacerbated rates of SRB-mediated biocorrosion under saline conditions. Using Desulfovibrio (D.) vulgaris and Desulfobacterium (Db.) corrodens as model SRBs, the enhancement effects of salinity on sulfate reduction, N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) production and biofilm formation by SRBs were demonstrated. Under saline conditions, D. vulgaris and Db. corrodens exhibited significantly higher specific sulfate reduction and specific AHL production rates as well as elevated rates of biofilm formation compared to freshwater medium. Salinity-induced enhancement traits were also confirmed at transcript level through reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) approach, which showed salinity-influenced increase in the expression of genes associated with carbon metabolism, sulfate reduction, biofilm formation and histidine kinase signal transduction. In addition, by deploying quorum sensing (QS) inhibitors, a potential connection between sulfate reduction and AHL production under saline conditions was demonstrated, which is most significant during early stages of sulfate metabolism. The findings collectively revealed the interconnection between QS, sulfate reduction and biofilm formation among SRBs, and implied the potential of deploying quorum quenching approaches to control SRB-based biocorrosion in saline conditions.


Flexible pavements fail majorly due rutting and fatigue. These failures compromise the quality of the road by causing discomfort to the passengers and requires periodic maintenance which is inefficient and uneconomical. Although flexible pavements are the most popular pavements, their life is much lower generally ranging between 15- 20 years. After the life of the pavement is over pavement has to be entirely reconstructed or temporary measures may be taken which are not that effective. Many modifiers are being used to improve the performance of the asphalt concrete mixes. Fatigue failure happens when vehicular loads repeatedly applied on the pavement layer lead to bottom up cracking in the asphalt layer. Vehicular loads induce micro cracks at the bottom of the asphalt layer which accumulate over time to develop into macro cracks and lead to the fatigue fracture of the pavement layers. Many techniques are being employed to enhance the performance of asphalt concrete like asphalt binder modification using polymers and reinforcing the asphalt mix with fibers of high tensile strength. Fiber reinforcement of asphalt mixes has gained considerable attention during the past decade due to its effectiveness in improving the fatigue performance of the asphalt. Out of these mostly synthetic fibers like polypropylene fibers, polyester fibers etc., and mineral fibers are used. Natural fibers like cellulose, wool, jute and coir are also studied by some researchers. But the fatigue behavior of these fibers is not very well understood. It is observed in the existing literature that jute fiber possesses a great potential as an alternative for synthetic fibers which are much costlier and not easily available in all the places. Most of the literature focused on marshall mix design of the jute fiber asphalt concrete. A limited number of studies are available to understand the fatigue performance of the jute fiber reinforced asphalt concrete. It is also observed that most of the test methods employed are not representative of the field conditions. In this context the present study aims to evaluate the fatigue performance of the jute fiber reinforced asphalt concrete based on repetitive load tests conducted on beams in four point beam bending mode. In addition attempt has been made to understand the mechanism of the jute fiber reinforcement in the asphalt beams. In order to achieve these goals a two stage experimental program was designed in which three jute dosages are used 0%, 0.1%, 0.25% and 0.45% to understand the effect of the fiber content on various parameters. These percentages were chosen based on the literature. In these tests jute fiber are mixed thoroughly with the asphalt ensuring randomness in fiber distribution and then compacted to make slabs which were eventually cut into beams. Static and repetitive four point bending tests were conducted on these beams in load controlled mode at a constant temperature of27°C. 50% (120N) of the strength obtained from the static tests is taken as amplitude for the load controlled testing in repetitive tests. In the first stage the effectiveness of the jute fiber reinforced asphalt concrete is studied by analyzing the load-deflection data. The initial stiffness values, dissipated energy during crack propagation, peak loads of the beams were obtained from this data. Further to understand the fatigue behaviour of jute fiber reinforced asphalt concrete images were captured during the test and were analyzed using DIC technique. All the fiber contents have improved the performance of the asphalt mixes by improving the strength and crack resisting potential of the asphalt mixes. Among these specimens 0.25% jute fiber reinforced specimens have shown best performance based on all parameters. 0.25% JFR has shown an increase in peak load by 65%, initial stiffness by 31% and reduction in tensile strain at 245N load by 33% as compared to control section. DIC technique employed was effective in obtaining vertical deflections and tensile strains. In addition to static tests, it is necessary to evaluate the behaviour of the asphalt mixes in repetitive fatigue loading. Load controlled repetitive tests were conducted with 120N amplitude and 10Hz frequency. DIC technique as employed to study the strain mobilization and crack initiation. The effectiveness of the jute fiber reinforcement in the asphalt beams is evaluated using the vertical deflections, tensile strains and normalized complex modulus values obtained from load deflection data and DIC data. All the jute fiber reinforced beams have showed improved results in all the above mentioned parameters. 0.25% jute fiber reinforced specimen has performed better than other specimens. At lower reinforcement percentages not enough fibers are present to reinforce the tension zone. But when the fiber content increases beyond a point the fibers start clumping thus reducing the effectiveness of the jute fibers. This was observed to be the reason behind the reduction in performance of the 0.45% jute fiber reinforced asphalt mix. The control section has failed at 15900 cycles. At 15900 cycles the reinforced specimens have not failed and have shown promising performance. Especially the 0.25% reinforced specimens has shown no fatigue cracks and the maximum tensile strains at this cycle were reduced by 30%.


Coordinating the interactions of applications running on the diversity of both mobile and embedded devices that will be common in ubiquitous computing environments is still a difficult and not completely solved problem. We look at one such environment, an interactive workspace, where groups come together to collaborate on solving problems. Such a space will contain a heterogeneous collection of both new and legacy applications and devices. We propose the Event Heap, a coordination model most similar to tuplespaces, as being appropriate for such environments. We also present a prototype implementation of the Event Heap, and show that the system has performed well in actual use over the last two years in our prototype interactive workspace, the iRoom.


constructed wetlands are now recognised as an ecologically sustainable option for water pollution control. Natural wetlands are biologically diverse ecosystem. They provide an array of physical, biological and chemical processes to facilitate the removal, recycling, transformation or immobilisation of sediment and nutrients. Most of these processes are facilitated by the wetland vegetation, associated biofilms and micro-organisms. Wetland ecosystems are complex and the interactions between abiotic and biotic components are fundamental to an understanding of the treatment processes. Constructed wetlands must therefore be designed to have the attributes of natural wetland ecosystems. The treatment efficiency of a wetland system requires a balance between pollutant loading rate and hydraulic retention time, which is also affected by the water quality and quantity of wastewater effluent or stormwater runoff: The size of a wetland will depend upon the volume of runoff, pollutant characteristics, desired level of treatment and the extent to which the wetland is expected to function as a flood retention basin. Water depth and extent of inundation will determine the types and species of aquatic plants. A combination of emergent, submerged and floating species should be selected. Pretreatment and detention times are crucial parameters to maximise pollutant removal efficiency. Sedimentation ponds are important in stormwater wetlands to remove particulates, but dense vegetated macrophyte zones are essential to enhance the removal of suspended solids and nutrients. Ecologists and engineers need to work together to maximise the treatment efficiency of constructed wetlands. Planners and landscape architects' must become involved to ensure that stormwater wetlands have a multi-functional role in the urban setting. Constructed wetlands offer the ideal challenge to environmental engineers allowing for the integration of engineering and ecological principles to find the technical solution to fit both nature and society.


This dissertation examines military spending in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It comprises three chapters. Chapter one uses documents and key informant interviews to examine four important issues related to Uganda's defence budget: the process leading to its formulation, the key actors involved in that process, the structure of military expenditures, and the internal and external threat environment. The analysis shows that defence spending in Uganda generally follows a process of intra-governmental bargaining with political oversight. Despite the government's military roots, and the President's ultimate control over military spending, the defence budget has not overwhelmed other government priorities. In addition, the nature and level of internal and external threats to Uganda do not seem to pose a serious challenge to its security. While there are several perceived threats that may influence Uganda's defence budget, the limited volatility of military spending over time suggests that overall there is a perception that Uganda's government has been able to provide a reasonable level of security without compromising its obligations to promote social and economic development as well.
Chapter two examines empirically the factors associated with the level and changes in military budget in Uganda, using an auto-regressive distributed lag model. The analysis shows that there is a long-run relationship between Uganda's military expenditure and real GDP, net official development assistance and security dynamics at regional level. Detailed analysis about which neighbour's military spending affects Uganda, however, is often different from expectations based on the interviews.
Chapter three uses panel data to examine military spending in a sample of 30 of Sub-Saharan African countries for the period of 1988-2016. Two distinct specifications are performed, a fixed effects model and a dynamic panel data model. The results of different regressions show that the size of the economy, demography, military spending of neighbouring countries, and the lagged of military spending are the most important explanatory variables. Furthermore, the estimations of the fixed effect models show that the nature of the political regime and civil war also influence the defence budget. However, the estimations of the dynamic panel models fail to corroborate this influence.


In the Swiss Alps the year 1974/75 brought early snow on the glaciers and a winter of high precipitation, with a very long duration of the snow cover as a result of late melting and a normal summer, so that it favoured the growth of the glaciers. The mean annual mass balances measured for four glaciers were all distinctly positive (cf. Table 2b). In the observation network of 115 glaciers changes in length were observed at the snouts of 107 glaciers (cf. Table 2a). Of these, 56 advanced, It remained stationary and 40 retreated. About two-thirds of the length changes were between -10 and +10 metres (cf. Figure 2). The relationship between the sign of the length change and various morphological parameters was investigated for a random sample of 96 glaciers from the observation year 1974/75. A significant relation to the sign was found for the size and the mean gradient of the glaciers, advances predominating among small and steep glaciers and retreats among the large and less steep ones. The relationship between the sign and the altitude of the glacier snout was significant only for a random sample limited to the 48 smallest glaciers. Another question investigated was whether the +/- ratio of the number of advancing to the number of retreating glaciers depended on their exposure. There was found to be a clear dependence, with a maximum of 1.72 in the NE sector, where the advances predominate, and a minimum in the SW sector, where the retreats are more numerous. In the International Hydrological Decade (IHD) of 964 (65 to 1973/74 the sum of the mean annual mass balances for the Aletsch Glacier (+ 156 g cm -2 ) and the Silvretta (+ 169 g cm -2 ) was positive, while it was negative for the Gries (- 91 g cm -2 ) and Limmern (- 134 g cm -2 ) Glaciers. On the average the overall mass balance for all glaciers in the Swiss Alps over the period of the IHD seems to be about even. The annual mass balances plotted in Figure 7 show that the long recession period ended with the extreme shrinkage of the year 1963/64 and that with the growth year 1964/65 a slight recovery of the glaciers began. This is also reflected in the increase of the number of advancing glaciers. During the period of retreat the discharges of the glacier streams were large and led to marked mass losses. The glaciers losing a good deal of their ice area particularly in the ablation zone. The deterioration of climatic conditions in the IHD led to a lowering of the equilibrium line and thus to an increase in the proportional area of the accumulation to the ablation zone. The result was an equalization of the mass balances and a reduced discharge of the glacier streams which was also aggravated by the decrease in melt water due to the foregoing loss of surface area. Consequently the power generation figures of the hydroelectric stations in catchment areas with high glaciation have also diminished in the last few years.


Abstract The brain uses temporal structure in the environment, like rhythm in music and speech, to predict the timing of events, thereby optimizing their processing and perception. Temporal expectations can be grounded in different aspects of the input structure, such as a regular beat or a predictable pattern. One influential account posits that a generic mechanism underlies beat-based and pattern-based expectations, namely, entrainment of low-frequency neural oscillations to rhythmic input, whereas other accounts assume different underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we addressed this outstanding issue by examining EEG activity and behavioral responses during silent periods following rhythmic auditory sequences. We measured responses outlasting the rhythms both to avoid confounding the EEG analyses with evoked responses, and to directly test whether beat-based and pattern-based expectations persist beyond stimulation, as predicted by entrainment theories. To properly disentangle beat-based and pattern-based expectations, which often occur simultaneously, we used non-isochronous rhythms with a beat, a predictable pattern, or random timing. In Experiment 1 (n = 32), beat-based expectations affected behavioral ratings of probe events for two beat-cycles after the end of the rhythm. The effects of pattern-based expectations reflected expectations for one interval. In Experiment 2 (n = 27), using EEG, we found enhanced spectral power at the beat frequency for beat-based sequences both during listening and silence. For pattern-based sequences, enhanced power at a pattern-specific frequency was present during listening, but not silence. Moreover, we found a difference in the evoked signal following pattern-based and beat-based sequences. Finally, we show how multivariate pattern decoding and multiscale entropy—measures sensitive to non-oscillatory components of the signal—can be used to probe temporal expectations. Together, our results suggest that the input structure used to form temporal expectations may affect the associated neural mechanisms. We suggest climbing activity and low-frequency oscillations may be differentially associated with pattern-based and beat-based expectations.


This paper presents original studies of the phase modulation of light by nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) with a sign change of the dielectric anisotropy (Δe) as a function of the frequency of the supplied sinusoidal voltage. The voltage dependences of the phase lag are obtained for a number of frequencies. The threshold voltage of the S effect is experimentally determined, and its frequency dependences are found to have a characteristic maximum that corresponds to the critical frequency at which the sign of Δe of the NLC mixture changes. It is shown that, in the frequency interval 100–5000Hz where Δe>0, the phase lag and the threshold voltage are independent of the frequency of the supplied voltage, but they are affected by the conditions of the anisotropic-elastic interphase interaction associated with the orienting surface.


Pregnancy incidence in patients affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing, despite the fact that renal disease is associated with high maternal and fetal morbidity. From an obstetrical perspective, the main complications for the developing pregnancy are often represented by preeclampsia or preterm delivery, in addition to the progression of their underlying renal dysfunction on a continuously increasing physiologic demands. If a pregnancy is considered, preconception counseling is advised. The lower the stage of CKD, the safer it is to consider in conceiving; however, in recent years, pregnancy in advanced or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), while on dialysis, is not a rare event, as overall outcome for those with advanced CKD has improved over time. The final risk of negative maternal-fetal outcomes is inversely related to renal function and increases with proteinuria. A multidisciplinary approach involving obstetricians, nephrologists and also neonatologists is needed in order to improve pregnancy outcomes in women with chronic kidney disease. The frequency of nephrological and obstetrical examination for pregnant CKD patients should be individualized for each patient.


A specially produced Swedish translation of my book 'With A Bao A Qu Reading When Attitudes Become Form' which is published in the Literature magazine Kritiker. When Attitudes Become Form is one of art history's most eulogized exhibitions curated by the hugely influential Harald Szeemann in 1969. Yet before this book there had been no substantial, critical examination of the research methods involved in the exhibition's innovative curatorial strategy. My book utilises the working methods of the exhibition's sixty-three contributing artists to embody, through experimental writing, one entry per artist creating an alternative, critical taxonomy of the exhibition. The book was recognised with the prestigious Canadian publishing Alcuin Society Award (2013). The book is produced in an edition of 2,000 copies is almost sold out and will receive a second edition. It has been translated into Swedish this year. It was launched in Arbroath, Edinburgh, London, New York and Vancouver and my performative readings of it take place in academic institutions, as a form of teaching, including Emily Carr University (Vancouver), Royal Academy, Royal College of Art, The Ruskin (Oxford) and Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Jens Hoffman, Director of The Jewish Museum in New York and a Harald Szeemann scholar, wrote of the book that it is "… a thought provoking addition to the reexamination of one of art history's most mythologised exhibitions that demonstrates how language is attitude and how words are form."


We present an improved partitioning-based placement tool in terms of the half-perimeter wirelength. In contrast to placement tools that exploit white spaces to reduce the routing congestion, our placement tool exploits white spaces to reduce the total wirelength. In particular, we generate white spaces during the legalization step and treat white spaces as pseudo cells during the detailed placement step. On IBM benchmarks, our results are better than those of Feng Shui [1] and Capo [4] by 1.8% and 11.1%, respectively, on the average. Our results are comparable to those of Dragon [17]. On the synthetic benchmarks PEKO, our placement tool outperforms all other placement tools except mPL [6]. On another suite of synthetic benchmarks PEKU with global nets, our results are the best among all the existing public academic placement tools.