Hyperpartisanship dominates modern American politics and government, but today's politics are strikingly different from the preceding period of American history, a Cold War Era when bipartisanship and ideological moderation predominated. Hyperpartisanship was not the salient dynamic in American politics when campaign finance law began, and as a result, campaign finance law developed under strikingly different assumptions about American politics than the current prevailing circumstances. Today's campaign finance law, inherited from this preceding era, is thus mismatched to the campaign finance of today. Campaign finance law focuses on individual candidates as the central actors in fundraising and misses the role of parties in organizing the campaign finance landscape. It therefore both systematically underestimates the risk that parties pose in collectivizing the potential for campaign finance corruption and overestimates the First Amendment values promoted by modern campaign finance when the parties today focus so heavily on mobilizing their base and preaching to the choir.


In March 2004, the author attended the Inaugural International Conference on Longevity at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre in Darling Harbour. As a cultural researcher interested in the interactions between demographic shifts, capitalist globalisation and changing forms of political power, the prospect of a direct encounter with the debates and practices surrounding the burgeoning field of anti-ageing medicine promised a means to observe the complex cultural dynamics of population ageing at play. This article explores the discord the atuhor witnessed; a quarrel that, despite the march of technological advance, attests the ongoing conflict in the nexus where politics meets life.


ABSTRACT All isolates of serotype M1 of group A streptococci possess a gene for streptococcal inhibitor of complement (SIC) in the mga regulon, which harbors genes for other virulence factors, such as M and M-like proteins, C5a peptidase, and a regulator. In serotype M57 the gene for a protein that is closely related to SIC (crs57) is located outside the mga regulon. We mapped the location of the crs57 gene in six strains of emm57 (gene encoding the M57 protein) sequence types to an intergenic region between the ABC transporter gene (SPy0778) and the gene for a small ribosomal protein (rpsU). The noncoding sequences on both sides of crs57 exhibited high degrees of identity to the corresponding regions of sic from M1 strains. This included one of the inverted repeat sequences of IS1562 but not the insertion element itself. These observations suggest that crs57 was recently acquired by serotype M57 or its progenitor via horizontal acquisition from serotype M1. The six emm57 sequence type isolates analyzed in this study belong to two distinct molecular types (vir types VT8 and VT101). Although the crs57 sequences from VT8 strains had very few substitution mutations, the VT101 crs57 sequence had a large number of such mutations. The CRS57 proteins from these strains are secretory products and have the ability to bind to complement proteins. All these proteins contain several tryptophan-rich repeats designated DWS motifs and internal repeat sequences. In all of these structural and biochemical characteristics CRS57 resembles SIC from M1 strains. Hence, CRS57 has a functional role similar to that of SIC in an M1 strain.


Spectral information alone is often not sufficient to distinguish certain terrain classes such as permanent crops like orchards, vineyards, and olive groves from other types of vegetation. However, instances of these classes possess distinctive spatial structures that can be observable in detail in very high spatial resolution images. This paper proposes a novel unsupervised algorithm for the detection and segmentation of orchards. The detection step uses a texture model that is based on the idea that textures are made up of primitives (trees) appearing in a near-regular repetitive arrangement (planting patterns). The algorithm starts with the enhancement of potential tree locations by using multi-granularity isotropic filters. Then, the regularity of the planting patterns is quantified using projection profiles of the filter responses at multiple orientations. The result is a regularity score at each pixel for each granularity and orientation. Finally, the segmentation step iteratively merges neighboring pixels and regions belonging to similar planting patterns according to the similarities of their regularity scores and obtains the boundaries of individual orchards along with estimates of their granularities and orientations. Extensive experiments using Ikonos and QuickBird imagery as well as images taken from Google Earth show that the proposed algorithm provides good localization of the target objects even when no sharp boundaries exist in the image data.


The aim of this research is to identify the relationship between absorptive capacities and the generation of innovation, as well as their level of influence in companies graduated from an incubator in the north of Mexico. Through a quantitative research, correlational with a non-experimental design, a sample of 100 companies was obtained. The hypotheses of the study were partially approved, finding that the entrepreneurs were able to acquire, assimilate and transform the process of absorptive capacity, generating incremental innovation which is an intangible asset with high value for organizations.


The high species diversity and endemism of the Maritime Alps suggest that this region may have held several refugia during the Pleistocene glaciations. Nevertheless, this assumption has rarely been examined. Here we investigate the genetic diversity of Saxifraga florulenta, a rare endemic restricted to siliceous substrates in the Maritime Alps. Overlaying the maximum extension of the ice sheet during the Pleistocene, the current distributions of S. florulenta and siliceous substrates suggest the existence of two putative refugial areas in the Maritime Alps. By using evidence from amplified fragment length polymorphisms we aim at elucidating whether genetic structure of the species corresponds to this two-refugia hypothesis and how this genetic information can be used to ensure its long-term conservation. Low levels of species-wide and within-population genetic diversity were detected, suggesting strong historical bottlenecks. Bayesian and principal coordinate analyses identified two population groups in agreement with the two refugia hypothesis. However, weak genetic divergence between these groups suggests that their separation happened more recently, and that S. florulenta survived the Pleistocene glaciations in one main refugium. The lack of a significant correlation among genetic and geographic distances implies that populations are not at migration-drift equilibrium and current levels of gene flow among them do not appear to be sufficient to balance the effect of genetic drift. Hence, in future conservation strategies, special care should be taken to preserve both gene pools and prevent further fragmentation of populations.


In Our Mathematical Universe, Max Tegmark, one of the most original physicists at work today, leads us on an astonishing journey to explore the mysteries uncovered by cosmology and to discover the nature of reality. Part-history of the cosmos, part-intellectual adventure, Our Mathematical Universe travels from the Big Bang to the distant future via parallel worlds, across every possible scale - from the sub-atomic to the intergalactic - showing how mathematics provides the answers to our questions about the world. Where do we come from? What makes the universe the way it is? In essence, why are we here? With dazzling clarity, Max Tegmark ponders these deep mysteries and allows us to grasp the most cutting-edge and mind-boggling theories of physics. What he proposes is an elegant and fascinating idea: that our physical world not only is described by mathematics, but that it is mathematics. "Our Mathematical Universe is nothing if not impressive. Brilliantly argued and beautifully written, it is never less than thought-provoking about the greatest mysteries of our existence". (New York Times). "An amazing ride through the rich landscape of contemporary cosmology...Physics could do with more characters like Tegmark . ..an imaginative intellect and a charismatic presence". (Clive Cookson, Financial Times Max). Tegmark is author or co-author of more than 200 technical papers, twelve of which have been cited more than 500 times. He has featured in dozens of science documentaries, and his work with the SDSS collaboration on galaxy clustering shared the first prize in Science magazine's "Breakthrough of the Year: 2003". He holds a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a physics professor at MIT.


We present a method to continuously blend between multiple facial performances of an actor, which can contain different facial expressions or emotional states. As an example, given sad and angry video takes of a scene, our method empowers the movie director to specify arbitrary weighted combinations and smooth transitions between the two takes in post-production. Our contributions include (1) a robust nonlinear audio-visual synchronization technique that exploits complementary properties of audio and visual cues to automatically determine robust, dense spatiotemporal correspondences between takes, and (2) a seamless facial blending approach that provides the director full control to interpolate timing, facial expression, and local appearance, in order to generate novel performances after filming. In contrast to most previous works, our approach operates entirely in image space, avoiding the need of 3D facial reconstruction. We demonstrate that our method can synthesize visually believable performances with applications in emotion transition, performance correction, and timing control.


We present updated estimates of Galactic foreground emission using seven years of WMAP data. Using the power spectrum of differences between multi-frequency template-cleaned maps, we find no evidence for foreground contamination outside of the updated (KQ85y7) foreground mask. We place a 15 μK upper bound on rms foreground contamination in the cleaned maps used for cosmological analysis. Further, the cleaning process requires only three power-law foregrounds outside of the mask. We find no evidence for polarized foregrounds beyond those from soft (steep-spectrum) synchrotron and thermal dust emission; in particular we find no indication in the polarization data of an extra "haze" of hard synchrotron emission from energetic electrons near the Galactic center. We provide an updated map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using the internal linear combination method, updated foreground masks, and updates to point source catalogs using two different techniques. With additional years of data, we now detect 471 point sources using a five-band technique and 417 sources using a three-band CMB-free technique. In total there are 62 newly detected point sources, a 12% increase over the five-year release. Also new are tests of the Markov chain Monte Carlo foreground fitting procedure against systematics in the time-stream data, and tests against the observed beam asymmetry. Within a few degrees of the Galactic plane, the behavior in total intensity of low-frequency foregrounds is complicated and not completely understood. WMAP data show a rapidly steepening spectrum from 20 to 40 GHz, which may be due to emission from spinning dust grains, steepening synchrotron, or other effects. Comparisons are made to a 1 deg 408 MHz map (Haslam et al.) and the 11 deg ARCADE 2 data (Singal et al.). We find that spinning dust or steepening synchrotron models fit the combination of WMAP and 408 MHz data equally well. ARCADE data appear inconsistent with the steepening synchrotron model and consistent with the spinning dust model, though some discrepancies remain regarding the relative strength of spinning dust emission. More high-resolution data in the 10–40 GHz range would shed much light on these issues.


Abstract
 Based on former collections from Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, supplemented by a small collection from Yemen by E. Schröder in 1988–1989, new records of ten mosses are given for the Arabian Peninsula. New to the Peninsula are Bryum alpinum With. and Vesicularia montagnei (Bél.) Broth., the latter new for Southwest Asia and a major range extension. Vesicularia montagnei belongs to a number of xeric Palaeotropical elements with an Arabian-Southeast Asian distribution pattern that reach their westernmost limit on the Arabian Peninsula and the Socotra archipelago. These Palaeotropical species are mostly concentrated in the xerotropical relict forests of the border mountains, and indicate a common Tertiary floral history of South Arabia and Southeast Asia.


The increasing density of international regimes has contributed to the proliferation of overlap across agreements, conflicts among international obligations, and confusion regarding what international and bilateral obligations cover an issue. This symposium examines the consequences of this "international regime complexity" for subsequent politics. What analytical insights can be gained by thinking about any single agreement as being embedded in a larger web of international rules and regimes? Karen Alter and Sophie Meunier's introductory essay defines international regime complexity and identifies the mechanisms through which it may influence the politics of international cooperation. Short contributions analyze how international regime complexity affects politics in specific issue areas: trade (Christina Davis), linkages between human rights and trade (Emilie Hafner-Burton), intellectual property (Laurence Helfer), security politics (Stephanie Hofmann), refugee politics (Alexander Betts), and election monitoring (Judith Kelley). Daniel Drezner concludes by arguing that international regime complexity may well benefit the powerful more than others.


Full and frank disclosure between corporate issuers and their auditors and accounting advisors is critical for maintaining access to the information required for audits and public confidence in the capital markets. While tax authorities in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have the power to make broad requests for working papers, in all four jurisdictions, legislation or administrative practice reflects the determination that the best approach for balancing tax and capital markets requirements is for the revenue authorities to seek working papers only in exceptional circumstances. Additionally, limited forms of privilege for accountants have been recognized in all four jurisdictions. In contrast, Canada Revenue Agency practices require broad disclosure of corporate information and working papers. This paper suggests that the result of CRA practice is to restrict access for auditors to information necessary for the assessment of financial statements and required by capital markets. It argues that by driving corporations to seek tax advice from lawyers rather than accountants, CRA paradoxically is creating an environment where less information, not more, is available for tax authorities. The author proposes that the CRA adopt a policy of requesting working papers and information only in exceptional and well-defined circumstances. Such a policy would accord with recent corporate governance reforms aimed at encouraging more open and transparent financial reporting, and would bring Canadian practice in this area into step with recent international developments.


Andrographolide (AG) is a pure isolate of the chemical synthesis of sambiloto (Andrographis paniculata Nees.) which has various pharmacological properties such as anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial. In order to improve the ability of AG to penetrate the membrane in transdermal use, an inclusion complex was formed using beta-cyclodextrin (BCD) by modifying the physical chemistry properties of AG, particularly the solubility in its base, partition, and distribution on the skin, as well as by changing the permeability of the stratum corneum. The inclusion complexes of AG with BCD were prepared by the solvent evaporation method in the mole ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 2:1. The solid of the yield of AG inclusion complex in BCD has been tested with a solubility test until it reached equilibrium at 37 ± 5 °C for 24 hours and In vitro dissolution rate test using the II USP method (paddle type), then compared to a single AG compound, and a physical mixture of AG-BCD. Based on the solubility and dissolution rate tests, it showed that the formation of AG-BCD inclusion complex was obtained at the mole ratio of 1:2. Moreover, the AG solubility increased 38 timesand the dissolution rate in the 60th minute increased twice  in the inclusion complex with BCD.Key words: andrographolide, inclusion complex, beta cyclodextrin, solubility, dissolution rate


The large number of scalar meson states below 2 GeV contradicts the expected number derived from a quark-antiquark description. One possibility is that one or more of the light scalar mesons can be described as four quark states composed of quark-antiquark pairs (qq̄qq̄). This scenario has been explored with sum-rule methods in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) to leading-order in the strong coupling constant. Higher loop contributions are significant in the QCD sum-rule analysis of quark-antiquark scalar states and a similar situation could occur in the four-quark case. In this thesis the leading order and pieces of the second order terms of the correlation function, as needed to study properties of a four-quark state via a QCD sum-rule, are calculated in the chiral limit (i.e. massless quarks) in QCD. Operator mixing related to renormalization of the composite operators appearing in the correlation function first contributes at second order. The result for the second order contributions to the correlation function indicate that operator mixing must be addressed before using proper dispersion relations to link this calculation with the mass of an existing state.


Recent seismic reflection profiling in western Georgia and adjacent eastern Alabama, conducted by the Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling (COCORP), shows that reflections commonly associated with the Appalachian detachment do not continue southeastward beneath the Pine Mountain belt. Rather, these reflections terminate abruptly on the north side of the belt, along the downdip projection of the Towaliga fault. This observation is difficult to reconcile with the basement duplex interpretation traditionally applied to the Pine Mountain belt and to all other Appalachian interior basement massifs. An alternative interpretation, consistent with the reflection data and with local surface geologic relations, is that the Towaliga fault is, at least in its later evolution, a large northwest-dipping normal fault that cuts the Piedmont allochthon, Appalachian detachment, and Grenville basement. Where crossed by the COCORP profile, this fault has an inferred average dip of about 54° and offsets Grenville basement about 9 km. This interpretation is consistent with the view that the Pine Mountain belt is a structural window through the Piedmont allochthon. However, it implies that much of the structural relief on the basement exposed in the window is due to late normal faulting rather than to thrust imbrication alone. If correct, this has several important implications for Appalachian geology: (1) It implies that normal faulting of late Paleozoic and/or Mesozoic age has played a much more important role in the development of the exposed southern Appalachians than has generally been considered to date. (2) Grenville basement exposed in the Pine Mountain belt has been attached to North America since Precambrian time; it does not represent a Paleozoic accreted terrane. (3) The Appalachian detachment may be exposed around the periphery of the Pine Mountain belt and hence may be available for direct observation at this locality.


For many years after his death in the mid-1840s, residents of Craven County, North Carolina, recalled the remarkable career of slave-born John Carruthers Stanly, who had risen from bondage to become one of the most prosperous planters in the area. Stephen F. Miller, a lawyer who arrived in New Bern during the early 1820s and remained there for nearly a half-century, recalled that Stanly "was a man of dignified presence" who lived "in fashionable style." "No citizen of Newbern would hesitate to walk the streets with him," Miller said. "He was uniformly courteous and unobtrusive." Although quite young at the time, the minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Lachlan Cumming Vass, remembered Stanly as a large property owner. His holdings included two plantations on Bachelor's Creek along the Neuse River, several houses and business properties in New Bern, and a large contingent of slaves. "Mrs. J. C. Stanly, his wife, whom he bought and had legally emancipated, was one of the original members of the New Bern Church," Vass explained, "and the family occupied and owned two pews." Other observers, including John D. Whitford and D. W. Hurt, either remembered Stanly themselves or recalled others who had told them stories about the former slave who himself became a slave owner.


This report, the first of its kind yet to be published, provides a detailed and impartial account of how the individual's right to hold beliefs is understood, protected or denied throughout the world. Consisting of accessible, short edited entries based on drafts commissioned from experts living in the countries surveyed, it exposes persecution and discrimination in virtually all world regions. The book: * provides an analysis of United Nations standards of freedom of religion and belief * covers over fifty countries, divided into regions and introduced by a regional overview * covers themes including: the relationships between belief groups and the state; freedom to manifest belief in law and practice; religion and schools; religious minorities; new religious movements; the impact of beliefs on the status of women; and the extent to which conscientious objection to military service is recognised by governments * draws on examples of accommodation and co-operation between different religions and beliefs and identifies the main challenges to be overcome if the diversity of human conviction is to be established.


This study asks if and to what extent religiosity and repression moderate the effect of TV viewing on crime prevalence estimates and personal victimization likelihood assessments. Taking place in Israel, the study used a content analysis of a representative sample of TV programming (56 hours of prime-time shows) to identify the most common crimes depicted on the small screen, followed by a survey of a representative sample of the adult public in a large urban district (778 respondents). Participants were asked to estimate the prevalence of these crimes and assess their personal victimization likelihood. Nonreligious people increased their estimates of crime prevalence for crimes that are often depicted on TV as they devoted more time to watching TV (ordinary cultivation), whereas the estimates of crime prevalence and personal victimization likelihood assessments of religious respondents became lower in correspondence with the increase in the amount of time they devoted to television viewing (counter-cultivation). Repression had a small negative effect on crime assessment that was more consistent among nonreligious people, where it also decreased the size of the cultivation effect. The effect of demographic factors was less robust. Overall, religiosity comes out as a potent attenuator of TV viewing effects on estimates concerning crime and personal safety.


New methods thinking about the enterprise architectures are developing, The Urbanization of the IS in particularis proposed as French framework of EA being appropriate to evolve the IS and proposed outcomes of firms.Where IS became one of the main assets of modern corporations. And it faces many problems Among the mostimportant are low productivity and a large number of failures like obsolescence, heavier, slower and complexityof applications integration. The problem of low productivity of IS was the product of the software crisis, asindicated by the delayed development and implementation of ISs and accumulation which leads to maintenanceproblems. To do this, urbanization is a framework that aims to simplify the IS, to improve communicationbetween its components and to ensure its evolution. In an exploratory approach, this research examines theimpacts of urbanization in private sector studying it to ascertain agility and its nets benefits. This was done inorder to ascertain the evolution of IS and guarantee the agility facing the environment turbulence. The generalassertion is that the Urbanized Information Systems (UIS) changes a firm vision because its procure agility toface environment turbulence. The originality of this paper is to explore IS urbanization considered as a Frenchframework of Enterprise Architecture (EA). This research therefore contributes to the body of knowledge by anempirical study and validation of the urbanization success assessments.


Abstract Preparations for London 2012 included promises for a sporting legacy across Britain. APS data suggest that, despite a slight spike in 2012, we have not experienced the rise in participation promised. The importance of preparations for legacy were well documented but little research has examined these processes. We examine planning for sporting legacy within a non-Olympic city in England, Birmingham. Thirty-Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with people delivering sport in Birmingham to provide a figurational analysis of relationships involved. The change in government during the economic recession saw budget cuts and a reduction in sport development personnel. Whilst various organisations struggled financially, others wanted to link to legacy. This increase in groups involved led to confusion and the unintended outcome of 'initiativitis'. In trying to leverage legacy, a strategic approach to managing potential opportunities with clear communication of opportunities is vital. A belief in inherent inspiration cannot be relied upon.


The statistical models used for dialogue systems need annotated data (dialogues) to infer their statistical parameters. Dialogues are usually annotated in terms of Dialogue Acts (DA). The annotation problem can be attacked with statistical models, that avoid annotating the dialogues from scratch. Most previous works on automatic statistical annotation assume that the dialogue turns are segmented into the corresponding meaningful units. However, this segmentation is not usually available. Most recent works tried the annotation with unsegmented turns using an extension of the models used in the segmented case, but they showed a dramatical decrease in their performance. In this work we propose an enhanced annotation technique based on N-gram transducers that outperforms the accuracy of the classical HMM-based model for annotation and segmentation of unsegmented turns.


1. Twenty-nine patients with residual neuropsychiatric symptoms after C.S.F. in early life were studied. The majority of the patients showed personality defects and complained of symptoms suggestive of an encephalopathy. They were backward in their studies, and had difficulties of adaptation at school and later at work. They were unstable, dependent, restricted in their interests, and showed tendencies to invalidism.

2. Those with a family history of instability showed severe and persistent reactions after recovery from C.S.F.

3. Nearly all showed tendencies to neurotic breakdown under conditions of even moderate stress.


Sustainable development will require replacement of older technologies and increased use of both renewable energy and wireless technology. What if there was a way we could harvest the energy that is being transmitted and use it as a source of power for handhelds? And also that to from Non-conventional energy source like solar power. This paper deals with a system that enables you to charge your handhelds wirelessly form zero pollutant solar energy. A system that to be presented will be using a receiving antenna and charge pump technology to charge a handhelds battery without wires. The base station which is a transmitter of power is powered from solar energy. The solar energy which is trapped is transmitted as radio frequency from the base station. At the receiving end we contain antenna that is tuned to transmitted frequency and a charge pump to charge up the battery of Handhelds.


This book brings together essays from scholars working on the first century of French print culture, with a particular focus on the networks formed by authors, editors, translators and printers in the earliest years of print technology. The volume is structured around the themes of collection and translation. The first part of the book examines the gathering of sources, the creation of anthologies and collections and the efforts of collectors to create a legacy. The second part deals with translation and the ways in which editors present a text to a new audience, either in a different language, as part of a different culture or through images that translate the text visually. Together, the essays raise important questions about early modern French culture, revealing how texts are the products both of the networks that create them and of those that distribute, read and interpret them after publication.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) consist of small sensor nodes which operate until their energy reserve is depleted. These nodes are generally deployed to the environments where network lifespan is much longer than the lifetime of a node. Therefore, WSN are typically operated in a multiphase fashion, as in [1-3, 9-10], which use different key pools for nodes deployed at different generations. In multiphase WSN, new nodes are periodically deployed to the environment to ensure constant local and global network connectivity. Also, key ring of these newly deployed nodes is selected from their deployment generation key pool to improve the resiliency of WSN. In this paper, we propose a key predistribution scheme for multiphase WSN which is resilient against permanent and temporary node capture attacks. In our Hash Graph based (HaG) scheme, every generation has its own key pool which is generated using the key pool of the previous generation. This allows nodes deployed at different generations to have the ability to establish secure channels. Likewise, a captured node can only be used to obtain keys for a limited amount of successive generations. We compare the connectivity and resiliency performance of our scheme with other multiphase key predistribution schemes and show that our scheme performs better when the attack rate is low. When the attack rate is high, our scheme still has better resiliency performance inasmuch as using less key ring size compared to the existing multiphase schemes.


Israelites in History and Tradition, by Niels Peter Lemche. Library of Ancient Israel, ed. Douglas A. Knight. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. Pp. ix +246. $25.00. This work's title might lead the unwary reader to believe that the author is going to present his understanding of the nature of the "historical" Israel of the Iron Age and how it compares with the literary Israel of the biblical "tradition." Such is not the case. Essentially it is an extremely long critique/debunking of the efforts of most biblical scholars (historians, archaeologists, and theologians), over the last century, including his own earlier work (Ancient Israel: A New History of Israelite Society), to try to utilize the Hebrew texts as a source for reconstructing a history of Israel. The book is divided into a prolegomenon, five main chapters of varying length, and a conclusion. Chapter 1, "Playing the von Ranke Game," discusses the nature of the Hebrew Scriptures as a historical source. In chapter 2, "Israel in Contemporary Historical Documents from the Ancient Near East," he discusses the major extrabiblical texts that mention Israel, Judah, or their ruling houses. Here he repeats his earlier assertions, a minority opinion at best, that the various fragments of the Bet David inscription from Tel Dan do not belong to the same stela, do not mention the House of David, and may be a forgery. Lemche derides scholars at several points for not following basic rules of historiography; yet in the case of this inscription he is guilty of the same charge. A basic tenet of historical research is always to follow the simplest solution which answers the most questions while raising the fewest problems in the process. Surely it is sounder methodology to understand the text to read "House of David" than as an otherwise completely unattested place name. Lemche seems somewhat obsessed with the fact that one of the in situ pictures of the inscription does not really show the fragment as it was found, but after it was repositioned for the photograph (p. 181 n. 25), and that this may be grounds for suspecting that it is a forgery. This sort of repositioning is a fairly common practice in archaeology, especially when the significance of an apparently innocuous object may not be realized until it has been removed from the debris and cleaned and should not be used to impugn the reputation of the excavator(s). Chapter 3, "Archaeology and Israelite Ethnic Identity," discusses the role of material culture in studies of ethnicity. Chapter 4, "The People of God," examines the historical value of such traditions as the exodus and the twelve-tribe system and asserts that while they have value as foundation myths for postexilic Israel, they have no bearing on the institutions of the Iron Age. Chapter 5, "The Scholar's Israel," critiques specifically the works of J. Wellhausen, M. Noth, J. Bright, and R. Albertz. In some respects it is difficult to evaluate this book as the author never explicitly defines the goal of his work, or the methodology he will use to establish his thesis. In fact, the author's thesis, that the Hebrew Scriptures are essentially religious propaganda of the Persian-Hellenistic period created to justify the existence of a Jewish nation, propaganda useless for reconstructing the history of Iron Age Israel, is really only established in the last few pages of his conclusion. In many ways Lemche's opus is only half a book. While the long critical appraisal of prior scholarship may be interesting and possibly useful, it is not the entire race. It is a barren exercise to tear down the work of others without offering a least some concrete examples of how the material should be studied, and some preliminary results of this new method. For example, while most scholars accept a Persian-Hellenistic date for the final shaping/editing of the Hebrew Scriptures, Lemche asserts that these works were composed at that time. If Lemche is going to insist that these works tell us more about the emerging Judaism of this latter period than they do about Iron Age Israel, he should offer examples of what these texts tell us about postexilic Israel. …


This paper described endmember extraction as a combinatorial optimization problem (COP). By defining particles' position and velocity, discrete particle swarm optimization (D-PSO) was proposed based on particle swarm optimization to resolve COP. The algorithm was tested and evaluated by hyperspectral remote sensing data. Experimental results showed that, while extracting the same number of endmembers, D-PSO could get a smaller root-mean-square error between an original image and its remixed image on the precondition of correct extraction results compared to the algorithms of vertex component analysis (VCA) and N-FINDR, which meant that D-PSO could acquire higher extraction precision.


This thesis consists of three essays that examine household savings and portfolio choice behavior. Chapter One analyses the effects of employer matching contributions and tax incentives on participation and contribution behavior in employer-sponsored 401(k) savings plans. Employer sponsored retirement savings plans consist of several different incentives designed to increase employee savings, including matching contributions, tax deductibility, and tax free compounding. There is a substantial literature on the effects of match rates on retirement savings, but little on the effects of preferential tax treatment. This chapter provides estimates of the impact of employer matching and tax deductibility on retirement savings using a uniquely suited dataset from a large United States Corporation. I estimate that the effect of a one percentage point change in the match rate corresponds to a 0.06 percentage point increase in savings plan participation rates, while a similar one percentage point increase in marginal tax rates increases participation by 1.35 percentage points. Changes in the match rate have an insignificant effect on contribution rates (conditional on participation), though a one percentage point change in marginal tax rates tends to increase contribution rates by 0.16 percentage points. The effects of the match rate and marginal tax rate are transformed into changes in the annualized rate of return of the savings plan and this disparity remains. Finally, these estimates are used to calculate the changes in wealth at retirement due to changes in match rates and marginal tax rates under a variety of parameterizations. Chapter Two examines the trading and contribution behavior of employees participating in the 401(k) plan at a large United States corporation. This corporation offers employer matching contributions in company stock, and employees are prohibited from trading the matching contributions for an extended period. The empirical work details evidence of rebalancing behavior that is impacted by vesting restrictions and within-firm variation in match rates. Employees are between 3 and 7 percentage points more likely to rebalance their retirement portfolio once matching contributions have fully vested, and an additional 6 to 11 percentage points more likely if they face a 100% match rate relative to a 50% match rate. Variation in match rates also leads to changes in composition of employee contributions: increases in the match rate lead to decreases in the amount of company stock that the employee purchases with their own funds. Employees are between 13 and 19 percentage points less likely to contribute their own income to the matched asset and, if they still contribute to company stock, the employee's own-money contributions in company stock fall by between 13 and 18 percentage points. Together, these estimates provide evidence that employee contribution and rebalancing behavior is altered by asset-specific matching contributions and by restrictions on the trade of particular assets. Chapter Three uses data from multiple panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to identify the effect of unemployment insurance benefits on household savings behavior. This chapter extends existing literature on precautionary savings and insurance to allow for the fact that insurance benefits are multi-dimensional, including replacement rates and benefit durations; incorporates additional econometric methods to accommodate the skewness and variation in household savings; allows for heterogeneous savings responses based on the likelihood of the insured risk through a two-step estimation procedure; and by allowing insurance benefits to affect the level and composition of assets by analyzing changes in the composition of the household's portfolio across assets that are likely (or unlikely) to represent precautionary savings. I find suggestive evidence of quantitatively large reductions in precautionary savings behavior in response to variation in both replacement rates and benefit durations, though these results are not statistically distinguishable from zero. The negative effect of benefit increases on savings is magnified for households at greater risk of unemployment, and for the households with below median levels of financial wealth, though again these results are statistically insignificant once standard errors are properly adjusted. These extensions do not provide enough power to detect savings responses to variation in insurance benefits at standard levels of confidence, despite point estimates that represent economically large responses. Thesis Supervisor: James Poterba Title: Mitsui Professor of Economics Thesis Supervisor: Amy Finkelstein Title: Professor of Economics


Historically, midwifery has struggled to gain and maintain professional status and identity. Amid the challenges of
fulfilling the characteristics of a profession (Flexner 1915, Bixler& Bixler 1959, Pavalko 1971, cited in Ellis, Hartley
2004, pg. 156) and working under the subsumption as a special branch of nursing, midwifery practice has been
influenced, defined and governed by Codes of Ethics, Practice and Conduct. However, recognition and acceptance by
the general public and other professionals is the ultimate goal of any professional group (Wilkerson, 1998). Increasing
public awareness of midwives has a dual role in that it also provides women with knowledge of models of care in
pregnancy, thereby promoting the World Health Organisation recommendation: 'the need for every woman to have
skilled care in pregnancy, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period…midwives are the most appropriate primary
health care provider…' (WHO 1996, pp 1, 7). Therefore, community awareness of midwifery needs to be raised to
achieve these objectives. In this paper, I will consider the Nursing Board of Tasmania's (NBT) 'Code of Practice for
Midwives in Tasmania' 2003 and the Australian College of Midwives' (ACMI) 'Code of Ethics' 2001. After
exploring these documents, I will outline the role they, and the organisations controlling them, have in regards to the
professional practice of midwives. I will then look briefly (due to size constraints of this assignment) at strategies the
profession can adopt to raise community knowledge of the role and function of the midwife.


Background: The increasing rate of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a threat to the public health and TB control. In Korea, about 75∼80% of TB patients are treated in private hospitals and the rate has been continuously increasing since 2000. Methods: On a retrospective basis, we enrolled 170 newly diagnosed with or retreated for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in 2004 from 21 private hospitals. We extracted the following demographics and treatment history from patient medical records: initial treatment outcomes, cumulative survival rates, treatment outcomes, and prognostic factors. Results: Of the 170 patients, the majority were male (64.1%), the mean age was 44.5 years old, and mean body- mass-index was 20.2 kg/m 2 . None of the patients tested positive for HIV. Eleven (6.5%) were confirmed to have extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) at treatment initiation. Treatment success rates were not different between XDR-TB (36.4%, 4/11) and non-XDR MDR-TB (51.6%, 82/159). Default rate was high, 21.8% (37/170). Far advanced disease on X-ray was a significant negative predictor of treatment success; advanced disease and low BMI were risk factors for all-cause mortality. Conclusion: In private hospitals in Korea, the proportion of XDR-TB in MDR-TB was comparable to previous data. The treatment success rate of MDR-/XDR-TB remains poor and the failure rate was quite high. Adequate TB control policies should be strengthened to prevent the further development and spread of MDR-/XDR-TB in Korea.


This chapter is an overview of the study of lexical cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in oral production at different stages of third language development. The character of CLI in the developing vocabulary is illustrated with data from learners of French and Italian as foreign languages in Sweden. Different types of formal vs. meaning-based CLI are displayed and discussed in relation to the proficiency level of background languages and target language. Linking research into CLI to more general views on vocabulary learning, the study shows that CLI in L3 production is predominantly formal in early stages of development and that meaning based CLI shows in later stages. New data that confirm results from earlier studies pointing in this direction are presented.


A Review of:
Rivera, E. (2017). Flipping the classroom in freshman English library instruction: A comparison study of a flipped class versus a traditional lecture method. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 23(1), 18-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2016.1244770

Abstract

Objective – To determine whether a flipped classroom approach to freshman English information literacy instruction improves student learning outcomes.

Design – Quasi-experimental.

Setting – Private suburban university with 7,000 graduate and undergraduate students.

Subjects – First-year English students.

Methods – Students in six sections of first-year "English 2" received library instruction; three sections received flipped library instruction and three sections received traditional library instruction. Students in the flipped classroom sections were assigned two videos to watch before class, as an introduction to searching the Library's catalog and key academic databases. These students were also expected to complete pre-class exercises that allowed them to practice what they learned through the videos. The face-to-face classes involved a review of the flipped materials alongside additional activities.

Works cited pages from the students' final papers were collected from all six sections, 31 from the flipped sections and 34 from the non-flipped sections. A rubric was used to rate the works cited pages. The rubric was based on the Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL, 2000), Standard Two, Outcome 3a, and included three criteria: "authority," "timeliness," and "variety." Each criterion was rated at one of three levels: "exemplary," "competent," or "developing."

Main Results – Works cited pages from the students who received non-flipped instruction were more likely to score "exemplary" for at least one of the three criteria when compared to works cited pages from the flipped instruction students (68.6% vs. 52.7%). Differences were found in the scores for "timeliness" (88.2% non-flipped scored "exemplary" compared to 58% flipped), and "variety" (55.9% non-flipped scored "exemplary" vs. 35.5% flipped). This pattern was not found for the "authority" category, in which 61.8% of non-flipped works cited pages scored "exemplary" vs. 64.5% of flipped works cited pages.

Conclusion – The results suggest that the flipped library instruction approach did not improve student learning outcomes. The study's findings are limited by the small sample size, the unknown impact of the variability of research assignments between sections, and the lack of control over whether students in the flipped sections completed the pre-class assignments. The author also notes that future research should examine how well the content of flipped library instruction mirrors that of non-flipped instruction sessions. The study concludes that the flipped classroom model needs further research to understand whether it is a strong fit for one-shot library instruction.


Objective: Family caregivers are the mainstay of caregiving support to persons with dementia, and often care for a family member with dementia for a decade or more prior to institutionalization or death. Malnutrition, including weight loss, is common among older adults with dementia, occurs throughout the disease process, and is associated with institutionalization and death. Nutrition education for caregivers is an important aspect of addressing the care needs of adults with dementia; however, nutrition education research in community-based persons and families experiencing dementia is minimal to non-existent. The need for tailored education resources ranks as highly important among caregivers; however, the nutrition concerns of caregivers in the home have not been identified. The purpose of the current study was to gather descriptive data about the nutrition-related concerns of family caregivers of persons with dementia. Design: A qualitative descriptive design using semi-structured interviews of caregivers of persons with dementia (n = 4) was used to collect the data. Thematic and content analysis was used. Results: Family caregivers experienced nutrition-related concerns and described a need for nutrition education to support the caregiving role. Four themes emerged: (1) meal preparation and food choices; (2) lack of appetite and eating behaviors; (3) making sense of existing nutrition information; (4) searching for reliable nutrition information. A discussion of each theme, including exemplars, is presented, along with suggestions provided by participants regarding how to address existing nutrition education resource needs.Conclusions: Issues surrounding care often are complex and require accurate and tailored information. Findings from the current study provide rich, valuable data regarding the needs of family caregivers with respect to nutrition concerns, allowing for the development, design, testing, and delivery of nutrition education resources and strategies.


Brazil can expect significant benefits from joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The organization has shown to effectively promote better policies and institutions among its members countries, with significant positive effects. Considering the evidence that institutions are behind a large share of long-term increases in welfare standards, the benefits of membership go well beyond the modest costs involved in participating in the organization. Among the studied benefits are increases in trade – which are larger than those due to other international organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) –, increases in foreign direct investment, improvements in education, and better results in governance. Risks are small compared to potential benefits. We estimate the benefits by benchmarking against an estimate of the benefits of acceding to an institution with similar goals and policies – the European Union (EU)  – and find them to be very large.


This report describes and assesses a 30-day household food security scale that can be applied specifically to Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) data. In the analysis described here, a 30-day scale was originally developed for use in the analysis of the 1995 CPS data. This report revises the scale to make it more consistent with the standard 12-month U.S. food security scale commonly used in food security household analyses. A non-linear (Rasch-model-based) scaling method was used to statistically assess both the original and revised scales. The report specifies procedures for calculating the revised 30-day scale from CPS-FSS data and classifying households as to 30-day food security status. The report also compares prevalence rates of food insecurity with hunger based on the 30-day scale with those based on the 12-month scale for the years 1998-2000. assumed logistic relationship square


Australia, Canada, and New Zealand currently apply health requirements to prospective immigrants, denying residency to those with health conditions that are likely to impose an "excessive demand" on their publicly funded health and social service programs. In this paper, I investigate the charge that such policies are wrongfully discriminatory against persons with disabilities. I first provide a freedom-based account of the wrongness of discrimination according to which discrimination is wrong when and because it involves disadvantaging people in the exercise of their freedom on the basis of morally arbitrary features of their identity. Discrimination is permissible, I suggest, when it is necessary to advance a valuable exercise of the discriminating agent's freedom. I then apply this account to the case of social cost health requirements. Against critics of these requirements, I argue that it is sometimes permissible for states to discriminate against prospective immigrants with disabilities. States may do so, I suggest, when such discriminatory treatment is necessary to prevent an increase in rates of mortality and/or morbidity amongst citizens. Alongside critics of social cost health requirements however, I argue that existing policies are likely a form of wrongful discrimination insofar as they are too broad to satisfy this standard.


Hydrodynamic cosmological simulations at present usually employ either the Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique or Eulerian hydrodynamics on a Cartesian mesh with (optional) adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). Both of these methods have disadvantages that negatively impact their accuracy in certain situations, for example the suppression of fluid instabilities in the case of SPH, and the lack of Galilean invariance and the presence of overmixing in the case of AMR. We here propose a novel scheme which largely eliminates these weaknesses. It is based on a moving unstructured mesh defined by the Voronoi tessellation of a set of discrete points. The mesh is used to solve the hyperbolic conservation laws of ideal hydrodynamics with a finite-volume approach, based on a second-order unsplit Godunov scheme with an exact Riemann solver. The mesh-generating points can in principle be moved arbitrarily. If they are chosen to be stationary, the scheme is equivalent to an ordinary Eulerian method with second-order accuracy. If they instead move with the velocity of the local flow, one obtains a Lagrangian formulation of continuum hydrodynamics that does not suffer from the mesh distortion limitations inherent in other mesh-based Lagrangian schemes. In this mode, our new method is fully Galilean invariant, unlike ordinary Eulerian codes, a property that is of significant importance for cosmological simulations where highly supersonic bulk flows are common. In addition, the new scheme can adjust its spatial resolution automatically and continuously, and hence inherits the principal advantage of SPH for simulations of cosmological structure growth. The high accuracy of Eulerian methods in the treatment of shocks is also retained, while the treatment of contact discontinuities improves. We discuss how this approach is implemented in our new code arepo, both in 2D and in 3D, and is parallelized for distributed memory computers. We also discuss techniques for adaptive refinement or de-refinement of the unstructured mesh. We introduce an individual time-step approach for finite-volume hydrodynamics, and present a high-accuracy treatment of self-gravity for the gas that allows the new method to be seamlessly combined with a high-resolution treatment of collisionless dark matter. We use a suite of test problems to examine the performance of the new code and argue that the hydrodynamic moving-mesh scheme proposed here provides an attractive and competitive alternative to current SPH and Eulerian techniques.


This paper aims to present a novel methodology for real time monitoring of Internal Emotion State (Mental Stress). The method does not require any contact as contact measurement tend to effect emotions and burden physiologically. We have found out that user stress is correlated with the increased blood flow in three facial areas of sympathetic importance which is periorbital, supraorbital and maxillary. This increased blood flow dissipates convective heat which can be monitored through thermal imaging. In the stress experiment conducted, blood vessel is also detected via thermal imaging for several subjects in real time. Thermal infrared and visible cameras are being used in the stimulus experiment. Sample of several faces are also taken in real time in our experimental setup to measure the effectiveness of our method. Almost 98% of correct measurement of ROI and temperature was detected. The results of temperature before and after stress stimulus experiment are also compared and show promising results. In this paper also, a new method for detecting facial feature in both thermal and visual is presented by applying Nostril Mask, which allows one to find facial feature namely nose area in thermal and visual. Graph Cut algorithm is applied to remove unwanted ROI and correctly detect precise temperature values. Extraction of thermal-visual facial feature images is done by using Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) Feature detector and extractor to verify the method of using nostril mask. Based on the experiment conducted, it shows 88.6% of correct matching. An Accurate and efficient thermal-infrared camera calibration is also important for advancing computer vision research approach for geometrically calibrating individual and multiple cameras in both thermal and visible modalities. We also propose new printed Fever Cold Plaster (FCP) chessboard using a popular existing approach which is comparatively accurate and simple to execute. Based on the experiment conducted by comparing the degradation of image quality with the current approach, our proposed chessboard can be more clearly located than those on the applied standard chessboard by 39%.


Abstract The Electro-Coagulated Thermal Waste (ECTW) sample of the impedance spectroscopy investigation for electrical modulus and conductivity are presented. Electrical properties via temperature and frequency dependent impedance spectroscopy were investigated. Real and imaginary parts of electrical modulus were measured at various frequencies and a related Cole-Cole plot was acquired as well. The surface resistivity of the ECTW was measured by the four-point probe measurement technique, yielding a relatively high surface resistivity. As a result of this study, an effective building shielding material, which is a cost effective alternative, is proposed. The activation energy values were calculated from the Arrhenius plots at different frequencies. The transition region in this plot may be attributed to activation of ionic conductivity at lower temperatures.


Vibration exposure can occur at work, commuting between home and work, and in leisure activities. Any form of transportation will expose humans to some degree of vibration. Exposure to vibration can cause health problems, but more likely comfort problems. Health problems are normally related to back pain. Comfort on the other hand is related to both physiological and psychological factors, which can have a wide range of effects from a general annoyance to a reduced work capability.
The standard ISO 2631-1 (1997) provides a guidance, which can be used to measure, evaluate and assess effects of whole-body vibration to discomfort. The standard allows several interpretations, which can lead to different results, as the standard does not provide an explicit guidance for selecting which axes and locations to measure and which averaging method to use for evaluating the axes. The suggested averaging method is the root mean square (r.m.s.) method, but additionally vibration dose value (VDV) can be used. This can lead to different results, as VDV emphasises shocks more than the r.m.s. method. The standard guides to measure and evaluate at least the seat translational axes, but the additional nine axes from the seat, backrest and floor are not mandatory. However, this can result in a different comfort value, as the values from the measured axes are combined. So taking into account all possible interpretations the assessment can vary significantly for the same environment.
The selection of the averaging method is not a technical issue, as both methods are supported by all commercial equipment. However, it is rare that more than three axes are possible to be measured with typical whole-body vibration measurement equipment, thus the majority of studies have published results based on only the seat translational axes. Especially the rotational axes have been missing in most studies. The full method (i.e. using all possible axes to calculate the comfort value) of ISO 2631-1 (1997) has been rarely used and there is very little information on how accurate the method is for assessing discomfort in a multi-axis environment. There are only a few studies that have used the full method, but there are no known studies which have actually validated the full ISO 2631-1 method.
The objective of the thesis was to validate and, if necessary, to improve the full method of the ISO 2631-1 standard for evaluating discomfort from whole-body vibration in a multi-axis environment. It was assumed that the ISO 2631-1 method can be used to predict discomfort in practice, but there are a relatively low number of studies to confirm this. Frequency weightings have been the focus of many published studies and it was assumed that these are broadly correct. Other aspects of the ISO 2631-1 method are the focus of this thesis. The goal was to keep a backward compatibility to previous studies and the current commercial equipment, thus several limitations were defined for the improvement of the standard.
Several laboratory experiments, field measurements, and field and laboratory trials were conducted to validate the standard method. At first it was concluded that practical equipment for measuring 12-axis data was needed as there was no commercial system available. The equipment and software was validated in two experiments, which showed that simple and affordable components could be used to develop equipment for the full method. Even though the standard does not include information about a six-axis sensor for measuring both translational and rotational axes, there was a method to validate the sensor.
The first field study included measuring several machines using all twelve axes. The analysis showed that the seat and backrest translational axes will contribute about 90 % of the overall vibration total value of the standard method, thus very little justification was found for including the seat rotational and floor translational axes. Similar results were found based on the data from the previous 12-axis studies. It was also found that the neglected axes could be compensated with a factor for estimating the overall vibration total value including all twelve axes. As the overall vibration total value is directly related to the number of used axes, the compensating factors can be used to compare results which used different axes.
The laboratory trial confirmed the results from the field study, and it was concluded that sufficient accuracy to predict discomfort can be achieved using just the seat translational axes, even though the correlation improved when more axes were included. It was found that the evaluation of discomfort was improved by the use of the frequency weighting curves and the r.m.s. averaging method. However, as the multiplying factors degraded correlation, it was concluded that a new set of factors should be calculated. The new factors showed that a higher emphasis on the seat horizontal axes should be given (x=2.7, y=1.8 and z=1.0). The new factors improved the correlation systematically for all subjects.
The field trial showed a similar trend, where optimised multiplying factors improved the correlation, but it was also noted that different multiplying factors are required for different environments, thus a procedure to optimise the standard method to different environments was developed. The trial showed systematic behaviour and the optimised multiplying factors were best for all subjects and groups.

Keywords: Discomfort, whole-body vibration, standard, ISO 2631-1, multi-axis, multiplying factors


We designed waveguide crossings with small angles by the wavefront matching method to reduce excess loss and crosstalk. The designed waveguide crossings were fabricated using silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology. We experimentally obtained excess loss and crosstalk values of less than 0.3 and -30 dB, respectively, for a crossing angle of 5deg, and of less than 0.1 and -38 dB, respectively, for an angle of 20deg, in the 1530-1565-nm wavelength range. The designed waveguide crossings are promising as basic circuit elements for realizing more compact PLC devices


Tracking the state of the conversation is a central component in task-oriented spoken dialogue systems. One such approach for tracking the dialogue state is slot carryover, where a model makes a binary decision if a slot from the context is relevant to the current turn. Previous work on the slot carryover task used models that made independent decisions for each slot. A close analysis of the results show that this approach results in poor performance over longer context dialogues. In this paper, we propose to jointly model the slots. We propose two neural network architectures, one based on pointer networks that incorporate slot ordering information, and the other based on transformer networks that uses self attention mechanism to model the slot interdependencies. Our experiments on an internal dialogue benchmark dataset and on the public DSTC2 dataset demonstrate that our proposed models are able to resolve longer distance slot references and are able to achieve competitive performance.


Abstract Psychologists practicing in multicultural schools face a wide range of cultural issues that can influence their consultation. The purposes of this article are (a) to use a multicultural lens to explore the practice of multicultural and cross-cultural consultation in schools; and (b) to identify issues, constructs, and processes to explore in future research. A review of empirical and conceptual literature summarizes existing knowledge and identifies needs for the future. The article defines the constructs of culture, multicultural and cross-cultural consultation, and additional constructs. Multicultural school consultation (MSC) offers a conceptual framework to explore structures, processes, and interrelationships among consultation members. The five components of MSC include domains for consultant learning and development, consultee learning and development, cultural diversity in consultation constellations, contextual and power influences, and methods to support consultee and client success. Cases exemplify how MSC attends to individual and group differences and facilitates building bridges of understanding and communication across dimensions of diversity.


Newcastle disease virus causes an economically important poultry disease
known as Newcastle disease in Malaysia. The velogenic strain of this virus causes
1 00% mortality in infected chicken. Therefore, a rapid and sensitive diagnostic
method is necessary for the detection of the virus. In this study a sensitive one tube
reverse transcription nested PCR was developed by using two nested pairs of primer
which were designed from the consensus fusion gene sequences. The outer primer
sequences are 5'-T ACACCTCATCCCAGACAGGGTC-3' (FOP1) and 5'-
AGGCAGGGGAAGTGATTTGTGGC-3' (FOP2). The inner primer pair with the
sequence of 5'-T ACTTTGCTCACCCCCCTT-3' (FIP1) and 5'-CATCTTCCCAACTGCCACT-3' (FIP2) were labeled with biotin and digoxigenin at
their 5' ends respectively. The PCR condition for the outer primers is 90°C/30 s,
67°C/30 s and 72°C/30 s for 20 cycles in which a 532 bp PCR product was generated.
While for the inner primers, the PCR condition used is 90°C/30 s, 55°C/30 s and 72°C/15 s for a total of 30 cycles for the amplification of a labeled 280 bp PCR
product. The primer pairs used are highly specific enabling the identification of all the
three different pathotypes of NDV. No cross-reactions with other avian infectious
agents such as infectious bronchitis virus, infectious bursal disease virus, influenza
virus, and fowl pox virus were observed. The detection limit of this one tube nested
peR technique was 3 pfu/ml of NDV by agarose gel electrophoresis detection
method and was about 100 fold more sensitive compared to that of a non-nested RT -
peR. To facilitate the detection of the peR product, the amplified peR product was
then subjected to a colorimetric detection method using ELIS A where the labeled
peR product was captured in a streptavidin coated microtiter plate and was detected
by using anti-digoxigenin-peroxidase enzyme conjugate and 2,2'-azinodiethylbenzothiazolinesulfonic
acid (ABTS) as the substrate. Comparisons between the
detection methods of agarose gel electrophoresis and ELISA showed that the latter
was 10-fold more sensitive than the former. The efficacy of the nested PCR-ELIS A
was also compared with the conventional NDV detection method (HA test) and nonnested
RT-PCR by testing against a total of 35 tissue specimens collected from NDsymptomatic
chickens. With the cutoff value of 0.154 having been calculated from 15
known negative samples, 21 of 35 (60%) samples were tested to be NDV positive by
nested peR-ELISA. One of these positive samples, however, was negative by nested
peR and gel detection method. Only 8 of 35 (22.9%) samples were tested positive by
non-nested RT-PCR and 2 of 35 (5.7%) samples were positive by the conventional
HA test. Due to the high sensitivity of nested PCR-ELISA for the detection of NDV from tissue specimens, a peR-ELISA based diagnostic test may be a useful screening
test especially in dealing with large number of samples.


Reduction of operational cost and certification of safety for treated water are required for the membrane filtration process for drinking water. Therefore a model-based control system is developed to reduce operational cost. A process model is used for the model-based control system that calculates the transmembrane pressure (TMP) in the future. This allows the model-based control system to optimize the coagulant dosage for the pretreatment process and the backwash interval for the membrane filtration process automatically. The cost reduction effect is verified using a pilot-scale plant.


Symbolism, which initially emerged in Paris as an avant-garde literary movement, became prominent in major cultural centres across Europe in the late 1880s and 1890s. In their art and writing the Symbolists articulated their affinity to Idealist concerns and aspirations to express the eternal, immutable and intangible. Influenced by Baudelaire's theory of correspondences, that implies that the material world is linked to the spiritual and that the curious and sensitive artist could perceive a glimmer of the Ideal through fleeting sensations, the Symbolists developed new visual and poetic languages and adopted strategies such as the fragmentation of text, idiosyncratic use of symbolic, hyper-sensual and synaesthetic imagery, ambiguity and obscurity.
While the Symbolist's nihilistic tendencies were recognised by peers and critics in relation to the poets, they have not been adequately acknowledged in regard to the visual artists. In this thesis, focusing on the art critic and novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907), I consider the Symbolists' claims of Idealism. I argue that Huysmans' powerful critical insights, while aligned with the Symbolist movement, stemmed not from Idealist convictions but from metaphysical questioning and anxiety as he wavered on the brink of an intellectual and spiritual abyss. Having outlined the evolution of Huysmans' aesthetic and metaphysical position, I consider how the complexity of his ideas – often articulated through references to disease and mortality, and juxtaposition of these against Symbolist tropes alluding to the immutable and eternal – informed his critical approach and elucidate nihilistic tendencies in the work of artist Mathias Grunewald (1475-1528), and Symbolist artists Gustave Moreau (1836-1898), Odilon Redon (1840-1916) and Felicien Rops (1833-1898).


Well integrity is an important topic in oil and gas well operations. The intention is to control the reservoir fluids and well pressures, by technical, operational and organizational barriers. Inadequate barriers can lead to unwanted influx and cause a kick, which can escalate further into a blowout. The Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 raised concerns about the safety of offshore deepwater drilling. This rig was considered to be an efficient and safe drilling unit, until the fatal blowout occurred leading to the loss of eleven lives, and the worst environmental disaster in US history. The main objective of a well barrier is to prevent leakage from the wellbore to the external environment during the various well operations. Well barriers are classified as primary or secondary barriers. The primary barriers are the barriers closest to the hydrocarbons and are the first obstacle to unwanted flow of formation fluid. The secondary barrier acts as a backup barrier. Barriers can further be classified as static or dynamic. The static barriers apply for the production phase, meaning that they are present over a longer period of time. Dynamic barriers occur during drilling and well intervention, and these are the once that are most difficult to assess because of the constantly changing parameters involved. Various drilling types such as overbalanced (conventional) and underbalanced drilling are used in the search for oil and gas. The main difference between these types, is how the pressure in the wellbore is maintained, and for this different barriers are needed. Laws and regulations dictate the requirements the industry has to follow. The Petroleum Safety Authority governs the regulations in Norway, and gives requirements to well barriers. In their regulations, they also refer to other guidelines and standards for more detailed requirements. NORSOK D-010 from 2013, "Well integrity in drilling and well operations", is a widely used standard which defines requirements and guidelines relating to well integrity in drilling and well activities. Ways to regulate is found to vary between countries, such as for Norway and the US. During drilling, a dynamic barrier situation applies, where the activation of the barrier depends on the current situation, and there is no pre-made sequence of barrier activation. Overall, this makes the assessment a difficult task. Various approaches have been suggested for the assessment of dynamic barriers over the years, with contributions to the topic from oil-companies, standards and research papers. Most of what has been suggested has some kind of weaknesses, and no common approach has been accepted and put into use by the industry. As a contribution a new approach has been suggested in this thesis. An overbalanced drilling operation in deep waters initiated by a kick is selected as case study. The approach is based on using two different types of analysis, in combination. An event tree is used to illustrate the dynamics of the event, and various fault trees are used to analyze the barriers involved. To understand what can cause a kick, the possibility of avoiding it, and what to do if it happens are given attention. From the suggested approach, it emerges that the human factor plays an important role in the kick evaluation and to maintain the well integrity. If the primary barrier is lost, there will be a kick. For this to escalate into a blowout, the secondary barrier must also be lost. If the control equipment functions as intended, lack of detection and understanding, together with insufficient training and competence of personnel can make this happen. To prevent major accidents and hazardous events in the future, it is important to learn and gain experience from previous incidents and learn from each other, and the ability to work together, also between companies, on these difficult topics.


It is generally recognized that interarterial coronary anastomoses of functionally significant size occur with great frequency in the presence of occlusive coronary artery disease and in other conditions such as anemia and cardiac hypertrophy in which myocardial anoxia may be present. Disagreement has been expressed by some investigators regarding the incidence of these anastomoses in normal and abnormal hearts. The problem has therefore been reinvestigated by means of a technic of infusion of saline solution and injection of wax spheres of known size. The results of these observations in 75 hearts are presented and their significance is discussed.


Abstract The quantification of the relationship between accumulation of snow and vegetation is crucial for understanding the influence of vegetation dynamics. We here present an analysis of the thickness of the snow and hydrological availability in relation to the seven main vegetation types in the High Arctic in Northeast Greenland. We used ground penetrating radar (GPR) for snow thickness measurements across the Zackenberg valley. Measurements were integrated to the physical conditions that support the vegetation distribution. Descriptive statistics and correlations of the distribution of each vegetation type to snow thickness, as well as to external factors that influence the redistribution of snow were performed. We found that although there is wide variability in the snow packing, there is strong correlation between snow thickness and the distribution of certain plant communities in the area. The accumulation of snow and occurrence of vegetation types such as Dryas octopetala heath and Salix arctica snowbed showed more influence by the microtopography than by other vegetation types that showed independence of the terrain conditions.


Background: Siblings of pediatric cancer patients have a higher risk of developing emotional, behavioral, and social problems. However, little is known about specific experiences of this population in the first time after diagnosis. Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences of siblings of pediatric cancer patients in different areas of life in the first half-year after the cancer diagnosis. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 7 siblings of pediatric cancer patients (ages 11–18 years). Siblings were asked about their experiences in the hospital, in school, in their family, with peers, and with the ill child. Content analysis was used to derive important themes from the interviews. Results: Twenty-three categories of siblings' experiences were identified from the data. Conclusions: In all areas of life, siblings reported difficulties, such as absence of parents, dealing with the ill child's or other patients' suffering and appearance, or impaired school achievement. But the siblings also mentioned important resources such as peer relationship, helpful coping strategies, and increased family cohesion. Implications for Practice: The results of the present study lead to a list of important topics in different areas of life that might be helpful for healthcare professionals to have in mind when meeting with siblings of cancer patients. Integration of these findings should serve to improve sibling support and develop standardized sibling interventions.


"Separation of ownership and control" is a phrase whose history will forever be associated with Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means' The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932), as well as with Institutionalist economics, Legal Realism, and the New Deal. Within that milieu the large publicly held business corporation became identified with excessive managerial power at the expense of stockholders, social irresponsibility, and internal inefficiency. Neoclassical economists both then and ever since have generally been critical, both of the historical facts that Berle and Means purported to describe and of the conclusions that they drew. In fact, however, within neoclassical economics the separation of ownership and control has always been an essential element of efficient corporate governance and corporate finance. This paper explores the history of the concept of separation of ownership and control within neoclassical economics, starting with Yale economist Irving Fisher's separation theorem developed early in the twentieth century, which held that a corporation's profit function could not be derived from shareholders' utility functions; Ronald Coase's The Nature of the Firm (1937), which applied purely marginalist analysis to the determinants of the horizontal and vertical structure of the corporation; and then to the great corporate finance theorems of the 1950s and 1960s. These concluded that ownership and debt are nothing more than alternative, fungible sources of capital, and that a profitable stock ownership strategy involves no knowledge whatsoever about the firms in which purchasers are investing. Within this model "separation of ownership and control" actually understates the degree of separation. A better phrase would be "separation of ownership and awareness."


Optimal timing and investment strategies are critical in markets when project demand is uncertain. When developer has more than one project located in close proximity to each other, interactive effects will have significant effects on the optimal timing decision. If positive interactive effects can be created by integrating the two projects, the values of the two projects could be collectively enhanced when they are developed jointly by the developer. Similarly, if the projects are developed by two competing developers, development strategy may be adopted such that the completion of one project may create negative externality on the neighboring project owned by another developer. This paper aims to develop a deterministic model to examine multiproject interactive effects on developer's investment and development strategies. The model will also evaluate how investment strategies change under different market situation and for different project type, either homogeneous or heterogeneous. Under the constant demand and cost functions, portfolio effects of multiple projects are examined. The portfolio effects, in this context, refer to the spill-over benefits generated by second projects when two projects located in close proximity enjoy positive externality. The spill-over effects may include higher revenue or lower cost for the second development projects vis-‡-vis the case when the two projects are developed as if they are independent or by two independent developers. This paper sets a basic optimal development timing model with only one developer, who will develop two homogenous projects. We further extend the model to incorporate heterogeneous projects. We find that the developer will abort the project when the demand is weak, and he will choose to develop single project when the demand curve is steep. In a market with flat demand curve, it will be more optimal economically for the developer to develop the two projects simultaneously. The positive portfolio effects shorten the time to wait to develop for the two projects, and the developer will prefer to undertake the two projects simultaneously.


Traditionally, wastewater treatment in urban areas has been carried out through a centralised system with collection of sewage from a large area, treatment to an adequate standard and then disposal of the treated effluent. However, there are situations, such as small rural townships, unsewered peri-urban areas and remote
tourist areas (RTA), where centralised wastewater treatment is not available. In such situations, implementation of decentralised or onsite wastewater treatment technologies is of utmost importance to prevent groundwater or surface water contamination with untreated wastewater, and ultimately to protect environmental and public health.

Selection of appropriate decentralised wastewater treatment and recycling technologies is a complicated process due to the large amount of factors, specific to each wastewater situation, which must be considered. There are over 160 commercially available technologies. This increases the complexity of choosing one that is appropriate for a particular wastewater situation. Furthermore, the decision making process is often carried out by individuals with limited experience and familiarity to different technologies; therefore there is a need for an expert system (a decision support tool) to simplify the technology selection process.

RTA exhibit an exclusive range of factors that must be taken into account when implementing wastewater treatment. These factors range from energy availability, land availability, nutrient management for protection of the environment, as well as, ecotourism principles that need to be incorporated into technology selection.

Through this research project the DeWaTARS:RTA EDST (Decentralised Wastewater Treatment and Recycling System for Remote Tourist Areas Electronic Decision Support Tool) was developed to allow for appropriate decentralised wastewater technology selection for RTA, with a primary focus on nutrient management and energy availability. The tool operates as a binary algorithm, asking the user a series of questions (requiring a 'yes' or 'no' answer) related to their specific wastewater situation. These questions allow the consideration of factors related to wastewater treatment and recycling in RTA in a systematic manner. The algorithm has been electronically adapted into an automated form in Microsoft Excel to allow uncomplicated application by the user.

The DeWaTARS:RTA EDST was tested on selected decision makers and was found to be able to ensure appropriate wastewater treatment and recycling technology is chosen for remote tourist areas.


Although polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine and prophylactic penicillin are used to prevent overwhelming Streptococcus pneumoniae septicemia in infants and young children with sickle cell anemia, infection rates remain high. We have reviewed our seven-year experience with a regimen of twice daily oral penicillin V potassium prophylaxis in 88 affected children. The median age at the start of prophylaxis was 10 months, and the median duration of prophylaxis was 29 months (range, three months to seven years). The total period of observation of patients who were prescribed penicillin was 248 person-years. Most patients also received one or two doses of polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine. Despite penicillin prophylaxis and pneumococcal vaccine, eight episodes of S pneumoniae septicemia have occurred and three have been fatal. Four episodes were in children older than 3 years. Suboptimal compliance with the prescribed oral penicillin regimen was usually apparent. With one possible exception, the infections occurred when penicillin had not been taken during the previous 24 hours. The S pneumoniae septicemia rate in this patient population, 3.2 per 100 person-years, is somewhat less than that described in previous reports of children not receiving penicillin but is still unacceptably high. Vigorous advocacy of a penicillin prophylaxis regimen does not eliminate the risk of pneumococcal septicema in this patient population.


This paper continues and extends the earlier works by the author on a novel model of a complex dynamical system called a kinetic automaton. The primary goal of the paper is to introduce an alternative tensorbased method of modulation and to demonstrate that it not only significantly enhances the tunability of the model and the complexity of its behavior, but also is able to emulate many other discrete-time continuous-state dynamical systems. The paper provides the results of the investigation of spatio-temporal patterns arising under different modes or parameters of modulation in elementary (one-dimensional) kinetic automata. Special attention is given to quantity conservation, which is the most salient feature of the model.


Regardless of the number of constellation points, all quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) signals can be generated using a single dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator. When the general method is applied to quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) signals, three different QPSK transmitters are shown with drive signals having four, three, or two levels. The usage of only one dual-drive modulator greatly simplifies the design of QAM and QPSK transmitters.


This report presents the top-line findings of the Australian Screen Producer survey conducted in December 2011. The report was prepared by Bergent Research and commissioned by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), Queensland University of Technology, with assistance from the Centre for Screen Business, Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). The 2011 producer survey was a national study of the demographics, motivations, sentiments and activities of screen producers across four industry segments: Film, Television, Commercial and Digital Media. This survey is the second Australian Screen Producer survey and builds upon research undertaken in the Australian Screen Content Producer Survey conducted in 2009. The 2011 study is referred to in this report as Wave 2 and the 2009 study is referred to as Wave 1.


A new method to fabricate the fine magnetic abrasives by using mechanical alloying is proposed. The mechanical alloying process is a solid powder process where the powder particles are subjected to high energetic impact by the balls in a vial. As the powder particles in the vial are continuously impacted by the balls, cold welding between particles and fracturing of the particles take place repeatedly during the ball milling process using a planetary mill. After the manufacturing process, fine magnetic abrasives which the guest abrasive particles c lung to the base metal matrix without bonding material can be obtained. The shape of the newly fabricated fine magnetic abrasives was investigated using SEM and its polishing performance was verified by experiment. It is very helpful to finishing the injection mold steel in final polishing stage. The areal ms surface roughness of the workpiece after several polishing processes has decreased to a few nanometer scales.


It is notoriously difficult to demonstrate causal relationships between the achievements of culture and the driving force of events in history, between the acquisitions of the mind and the commissions of material efforts, between developments of high-temperature thought and developments of often over-heated action. As we learn increasingly well with the advance of scientific research, the parts of us that contemplate and the segments of our selves that direct our actions are more dubiously and tenuously related and more distant than we often prefer to believe--believing ourselves the proudly self-willing creatures we like to think we are. Our thinking triggers further thoughts, but our behavior stems from some deeper part of our minds, some sector that does not speak to our conscious considerations. We are not what we are. And noting our essential psychological self-division is not yet to recognize the full range of difficulties in tying the products of thought to the outcomes of action. We must also reckon w ith the long history of errors in stipulating causal linkages, specifically in trying to lay out accurately the direction along which cause falls, and there is the perennial peril of committing the logical fallacy of "false cause." Yet, it is well beyond doubt that the signal moments of culture--the notable and distinctive emergences of philosophy, art, literature, and science-are pertinent and revealing notations on the underlying systems of values from which they arise, values that lace through, inform, and make common commerce of not only our thoughts but the logics of our behavior. Even presumably objective scientific theories are barometric readings of our assumptions and implicit values. They are litmus tests of the cultural agar in which they grow--indicators of the fertility and of the active bases and acids of the ideological loam. Science wears as a skin the subtler aspects and instigations of our nature, or it arises from them as if from soil--and here again we confront the comprehensive problems in laying the grid of cause--to tell us, by the molecular codes in the arrangements of its active parts, who we are and for what we stand. We can read our natures clearly impressed into our sciences--as well as in the arts, writings, and philosophies we create--for in them, we reflect ourselves. It is the position of this paper that the late nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche established a philosophy rooted in science and succeeded in laying the foundation for a system of values capable of generating alternate forms of cultural expression--many of which have come to fruition in our own time, many of which have yet to be achieved. In particular, his philosophy, beginning in science, is capable of setting standards for and structuring radical formations in epistemology, ethics, and literature. It is our claim that Nietzsche was primarily an ontologist -- a philosopher of the real, a delver and discloser of the hidden truth of the cosmos -- and that his ontology was rooted in and succeeded in achieving an intended advance upon the scientific principles of his time. His work constitutes a philosophical development by which he transformed the materialist and atomistic viewpoint of the physics of the late nineteenth century into what can be characterized as a process philosophy--aphilosophy of the world as a energeticist system, as what he called "a monster of energy,"(1) in which there are no discrete and persisting entities, in which there can be found no instance of reified substance, (2) no example of anything purely, singly, and integrally itself, in which everything is constantly in the process of becoming something else (WP, sect. 511). It is a philosophy that prefigures the world view of twentieth-century physics and, as will be seen, a world view that encompasses far more than merely science. Nietzsche discovered in the scientific debates of his time, and particularly in the development of heat theory, a foundation for and a justification of his processual philosophy of the world, a philosophical view that valorized Becoming over Being. …


This article, one of several for the seventy-fifth anniversary volume of the University of Chicago Law Review, assesses the intellectual contribution of Harry Kalven, Jr. and Maurice Rosenfield's 1941 article in that journal on "The Contemporary Function of the Class Suit." Kalven and Rosenfield anticipated what would emerge thereafter as among the most distinctive features of the American civil justice system: the elaboration, in parallel, of both private class action litigation and public enforcement by the administrative state. Whereas Kalven and Rosenfield sought to delineate the "contemporary function" of the class action, the agenda for the law today consists of resolving two contemporary dilemmas to which that function has given rise. The first dilemma speaks to the tension between the class action device as a vehicle for privatized enforcement and the allocation of authority within the United States along both federal-versus-state and public-versus-private lines. The challenges for the law today in these regards consist of addressing two situations that are the converse of each other. The first consists of what one might describe as a class in search of a settlement; the second involves a settlement in search of a class. Recent developments from the Class Action Fairness Act to the controversial employment discrimination class action in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Inc. are discussed in this light. The second dilemma stems from the recognition that settlements, not adversarial trials, stand as the endgame for class actions. Here, there is a need both for finality by way of class settlements and for attentiveness to the process due to absent class members. Kalven and Rosenfield's comparison of class actions and the administrative state has the potential to set longstanding debates over due process for absent class members on a new path. Current doctrine casts the basis for preclusion of class members in terms of a mixture of protections in the nature of individual autonomy (rights to participate and to opt out) and fiduciary oversight (from both class counsel and the rendering court). Since the early twentieth century, however, procedural thinking in connection with the administrative state has focused less on the individual autonomy familiar to one-on-one litigation and more on measures to hew - if only roughly - the loyalties of regulators over time to the interests of those they purport to serve. In an era when empirical research has documented the rarity with which rights of individual autonomy are actually exercised in class actions, the law of due process in that sphere would benefit from redirection along lines familiar to the administrative state. The article closes with analysis of some promising developments along these lines, with reference to the emerging literature on positive political accounts of the administrative state.


African mahoganies belonging to the genera Khaya and Entandrophragma suffer severely from damage caused by the shoot borer, Hypsipyla robusta (Lepidotpera: Pyralidae). Attacks result in profuse branching of the stem which significantly reduces the timber value of the tree.  The impact of shoot borer attack on Khaya ivorensis planted in mixtures with two 'insect-repellent' companion species [ Azadirachta indica and Cedrela odorata ] and one 'neutral' species [ Triplochiton scleroxylon ], was evaluated in the field. K. ivorensis was planted at densities of 11%, 25%, and 50% with each of the companion species and compared to a 100% K. ivorensis control plot.  Shoot borer infestation was not observed in the plantation until after 20 months. Damage was recorded on 53% of the host species during the initial assessment with no significant differences in percent of host plants attacked per treatment.  Howver, attack intensity was lower in the mixed species plots than in the control, though the levels of reduction were small. Generally, K. ivorensis mixtures in which Cedrela odorata was the companion species showed higher prospect to  mitigate damage than those with A. indica or T. scleroxlyon. K. ivorensis in C. odorata mixtures recorded lower incidence of attack, and consequently lower incidence of epicormic branching.