Asset Owners are significant, powerful investors and can play a leading role in ESG integration and the move towards a longer-term horizon. Unfortunately, little has changed so far in terms of moving towards more sustainable and responsible business practices. To find what influences the rate of adoption on the Asset Owner level, I conduct 10 interviews with major players in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. I find that they prefer to hire an Asset Manager who integrates ESG, but that they struggle to translate this into action. Looking at the perceived attributes of Responsible Investment, I find that its complexity, relative advantage and trialability impede the rate of adoption. I also find that there is too little dialogue for this complex innovation and that Asset Owners are making too little effort. Overall, German AOs are lagging behind compared to those in the Netherlands and the UK. However, they are not as large and have significantly less exposure to equity. This means that they also do not have as much of a responsibility to drive Responsible Investment forward.


After a complete overhaul of the library science and instructional technology curriculum, faculty members worked with the university's marketing team to develop a campaign to attract undergraduate students to the library science program. The "Some Librarians…" campaign was designed to showcase the diverse interests and personal stories of current students and recent graduates of the program. Advertisements for the program were targeted to individuals on Facebook during two six-week campaigns using information gathered from student focus groups comprised of students and faculty. Both campaigns exceeded industry benchmarks in terms of click through rates, indicating success both in terms of content and placement of the advertisements.


Australia's Poisonous Plants, Fungi and Cyanobacteria is the first full-colour, comprehensive guide to the major natural threats to health in Australia affecting domestic and native animals and humans. The overriding aim of the book is to prevent poisoning, as there are few effective treatments available, particularly in domestic animals.
The species have been chosen because of their capacity to threaten life or damage important organs, their relative abundance or wide distribution in native and naturalised Australian flora, or because of their extensive cultivation as crops, pastures or in gardens. These include flowering plants, ferns and cone-bearing plants, macrofungi, ergot fungi and cyanobacteria.
The plant species are grouped by life form such as herbs, grasses and sedges, shrubs, trees, and for flowering plants by flower type and colour for ease of identification. Species described have colour photographs, distribution maps and notes on confusing species, habitats, toxins, animals affected, conditions of poisoning, clinical signs and symptoms, post mortem changes, therapy, prevention and control. Symbols are used for quick reference to poisoning duration and available ways of managing poisoning. As further aids to understanding, poisoning hot-spots are highlighted and the book lists plants under the headings of animals affected and organs affected. A Digest gives brief details for all poisonous species in Australia.
This book is written in a straightforward style making it accessible to a wide audience including farmers, veterinarians, agricultural advisors, gardeners, horticulturists, botanists and park rangers, medical practitioners and paramedics, teachers, parents and pet owners.


This paper presents an integrated approach to exploration, mapping, and localization. Our algorithm uses a highly efficient Rao-Blackwellized particle filter to represent the posterior about maps and poses. It applies a decision-theoretic framework which simultaneously considers the uncertainty in the map and in the pose of the vehicle to evaluate potential actions. Thereby, it trades off the cost of executing an action with the expected information gain and takes into account possible sensor measurements gathered along the path taken by the robot. We furthermore describe how to utilize the properties of the Rao-Blackwellization to efficiently compute the expected information gain. We present experimental results obtained in the real world and in simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.


Objectives To identify if maternal educational attainment is a prognostic factor for gestational weight gain (GWG), and to determine the differential effects of lifestyle interventions (diet based, physical activity based or mixed approach) on GWG, stratified by educational attainment. Design Individual participant data meta-analysis using the previously established International Weight Management in Pregnancy (i-WIP) Collaborative Group database (https://iwipgroup.wixsite.com/collaboration). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data Statement guidelines were followed. Data sources Major electronic databases, from inception to February 2017. Eligibility criteria Randomised controlled trials on diet and physical activity-based interventions in pregnancy. Maternal educational attainment was required for inclusion and was categorised as higher education (≥tertiary) or lower education (≤secondary). Risk of bias Cochrane risk of bias tool was used. Data synthesis Principle measures of effect were OR and regression coefficient. Results Of the 36 randomised controlled trials in the i-WIP database, 21 trials and 5183 pregnant women were included. Women with lower educational attainment had an increased risk of excessive (OR 1.182; 95% CI 1.008 to 1.385, p =0.039) and inadequate weight gain (OR 1.284; 95% CI 1.045 to 1.577, p =0.017). Among women with lower education, diet basedinterventions reduced risk of excessive weight gain (OR 0.515; 95% CI 0.339 to 0.785, p = 0.002) and inadequate weight gain (OR 0.504; 95% CI 0.288 to 0.884, p=0.017), and reduced kg/week gain (B −0.055; 95% CI −0.098 to −0.012, p=0.012). Mixed interventions reduced risk of excessive weight gain for women with lower education (OR 0.735; 95% CI 0.561 to 0.963, p=0.026). Among women with high education, diet based interventions reduced risk of excessive weight gain (OR 0.609; 95% CI 0.437 to 0.849, p=0.003), and mixed interventions reduced kg/week gain (B −0.053; 95% CI −0.069 to −0.037,p<0.001). Physical activity based interventions did not impact GWG when stratified by education. Conclusions Pregnant women with lower education are at an increased risk of excessive and inadequate GWG. Diet based interventions seem the most appropriate choice for these women, and additional support through mixed interventions may also be beneficial.


Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSSs) are interactive, computer-based systems designed to support policy making. Important components of SDSSs are models that can be used to assess the impact of possible decisions. These models usually simulate complex spatio-temporal phenomena, with input variables and parameters that are often hard to measure. The resulting model uncertainty is however rarely communicated to the user of the SDSS, mostly because the user prefers clear and unambiguous results, or because of limitations of the used software regarding uncertainty analysis. Current SDSSs thus yield clear, but therefore sometimes deceptively precise outputs. Yet, calculation and communication of the uncertainty and its distribution in space and time makes the model more transparent and the output more informative, which gives policy makers a better basis for decision making. So, there is a strong need to include uncertainty in SDSSs. This requires modelling tools to calculate uncertainty and tools to visualise indicators of uncertainty that can be understood by users of an SDSS, having mostly limited knowledge of spatial statistics. Until recently however, most software packages were monolithic, i.e. either dedicated to model development, or to uncertainty analysis, or to visualization, where most visualisation tools do not support visualisation of stochastic spatio-temporal data. This hampers easy implementation in an SDSS as multiple toolboxes need to be linked. The PCRaster Python framework provides an important step towards a solution of this issue. It comprises both a spatio-temporal modelling framework and a Monte Carlo analysis framework as a Python class. These classes include methods to write the simulation results and uncertainty analysis to disk as stochastic maps, which can be visualized with the Aguila software, included in the PCRaster Python distribution package. This research shows how a modeller can use the PCRaster Python framework to construct an SDSS that integrates simulation, uncertainty analysis and visualization. This is illustrated by the implementation of a land use change model of Mozambique. The aim of this already fully operational model is to evaluate where bioenergy crops can be cultivated without endangering food production now and in the near future when population and food intake per capita and thus food arable land and pasture areas will increase. Population growth predictions and future change in food intake patterns are highly uncertain, so this uncertainty needs to be taken into account in the SDSS. It is shown that due to the capabilities of the PCRaster Python modelling framework the integration of modelling and uncertainty analysis can be accomplished without too much additional work on the modeller's side. Also, the outputs can be visualized and interpreted by users without specialist knowledge of statistics. This is considered a major step forward in the exposure of uncertainty in SDSSs


The world is becoming ever more interconnected and vulnerable, as has been demonstrated by the recent cyber attacks on Estonia. Thus the need for stringent and comprehensive methods for combating cyber crime and terror have never before been needed more than now. CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime is a straightforward and pragmatic guide. It details how best practices and standards can be used to combat cyber criminals and terrorists. This book is written by Dr. Julie Mehan who is a Principal Analyst for a strategic consulting firm in the State of Virginia. She has been a Government Service employee, a strategic consultant, and an entrepreneur. Until November 2007, she was the co-founder of a small woman-owned company focusing on secure, assured software modernization and security services. She led business operations, as well as the information technology governance and information assurance-related services, including certification and accreditation, systems security engineering process improvement, and information assurance strategic planning and programme management. During previous years, Dr Mehan delivered information assurance and security-related privacy services to senior department of defense, federal government, and commercial clients working in Italy, Australia, Canada, Belgium, and the United States. Information security should not be an after thought. It should be ingrained into the organization's culture. This book will help you create this forward thinking culture using best practices and standards.


The research study aligns with the social sciences, art and humanities, themes of the main research priority areas of the four ARC'18 pillars (The Context) Recent Transit oriented development in Qatar embodies transportation and land use planning strategies targeting a cardinal improvement based on shifting from a car dependent era-associated with intense traffic congestion and environmental impacts- to public transport dependent era. The correlation between practicality of form, use, and density in transit driven urban development goes far beyond environmental influence; it also acts as a stimulus for livability, cultural stability, mobility, and socioeconomic performance. (The problem) Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) does not automatically generate better livability. The absence of a well-planned mediating element between complexity of transit stations and surrounding developments can result in TOD exclusion and decay. The comprehensive planning of multifaceted relations between built environment, mobility network and social interactions is the key to TODs revitalizing the sources of the city. (The Objective) This research study aims to form alternate integration strategies related to how public transit systems and land use fit into the larger challenge of urban transformation and regeneration, particularly focusing on the TODs of Alwakrah, Alsadd, West bay). Three governance arrangements are distinguished at the station, corridor and neighborhood levels as a catalyst for progressive sustainable urbanism and smart growth around transit stations in Qatar. (The research Design) Subsequent to a comprehensive discussion of existing literature on TODs' spatial urban form towards the improvement of livability by enhancing social interactions and capital, a thorough analysis of Alwakrah, Westbay and Alsadd transit urban zones is performed based data collected from surveys, in-depth interviews of key personal in planning authorities and site analysis documentation. (The findings and contribution to knowledge) The three primary cases are investigated and discussed individually to evaluate possible conceptual integration strategies of TODs in Qatar. The identification of ultimate relations between the morphology of single urban development features into the overall TOD environment, whilst considering social and cultural stability as a doctrine in means to resemble the incremental prototypical model of development strategies and policy making in TOD future vision of Qatar, will contribute to define measuring tools for the contemporary development of transit urban villages, where a sense of heritage, community and livability are enhanced by well-connected physical urban arrangements.


Abstract. This paper presents atmosphere-only and coupled climate model configurations of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Integrated Forecasting System (ECMWF-IFS) for different combinations of ocean and atmosphere resolution. These configurations are used to perform multi-decadal ensemble experiments following the protocols of the High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP) and phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). These experiments are used to evaluate the sensitivity of major biases in the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere to changes in atmosphere and ocean resolution. All configurations successfully reproduce the observed long-term trends in global mean surface temperature. Furthermore, following an adjustment to account for drift in the subsurface ocean, coupled configurations of ECMWF-IFS realistically reproduce observation-based estimates of ocean heat content change since 1950. Climatological surface biases in ECMWF-IFS are relatively insensitive to an increase in atmospheric resolution from  ∼ 50 to  ∼ 25 km. However, increasing the horizontal resolution of the atmosphere while maintaining the same vertical resolution enhances the magnitude of a cold bias in the lower stratosphere. In coupled configurations, there is a strong sensitivity to an increase in ocean model resolution from 1 to 0.25°. However, this sensitivity to ocean resolution takes many years to fully manifest and is less apparent in the first year of integration. This result has implications for the ECMWF coupled model development strategy that typically relies on the analysis of biases in short ( < 1 year) ensemble (re)forecast data sets. The impacts of increased ocean resolution are particularly evident in the North Atlantic and Arctic, where they are associated with an improved Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, increased meridional ocean heat transport, and more realistic sea-ice cover. In the tropical Pacific, increased ocean resolution is associated with improvements to the magnitude and asymmetry of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability and better representation of non-linear sea surface temperature (SST)–radiation feedbacks during warm events. However, increased ocean model resolution also increases the magnitude of a warm bias in the Southern Ocean. Finally, there is tentative evidence that both ocean coupling and increased atmospheric resolution can improve teleconnections between tropical Pacific rainfall and geopotential height anomalies in the North Atlantic.


After briefly describing the essential mandates of the relevant EC directives, this Article discusses the novel-for-Italy independent regulatory commissions that are critical to the developing competitive frameworks for electricity and telecommunication. It then reviews applicable substantive law for each of the electricity and telecommunication sectors, and offers examples of how the independent regulatory commissions are working to shape competitive markets. Italy's independent regulatory commissions have resulted in a reorganization of its electric and telecommunication sectors quite different than that contemplated as recently as the early 1990s. Italy's creation of its new independent regulatory commissions, as well as the mixed experience of its Law No. 9 of 1991 experiment with non-ENEL power plants have shaped: the initiatives that ENEL's own management has taken to restructure and reposition ENEL; recent regulation relative to restructuring of the electric sector as a whole; and the terms of the mandated break up of ENEL. As for telecommunications, the acquisition of Telecom Italia Italy's former State-held monopoly, via a hostile, bank-funded takeover and the entrance of new players in the exploding fields of cellular and fixed line telephony provide evidence that the new institutional arrangements are beginning to produce the desired competitive markets.


This rapid response computer program predicts Orbiter Wing Leading Edge (WLE) damage caused by ice or foam impact during a Space Shuttle launch (Program "IMPACT2"). The program was developed after the Columbia accident in order to assess quickly WLE damage due to ice, foam, or metal impact (if any) during a Shuttle launch. IMPACT2 simulates an impact event in a few minutes for foam impactors, and in seconds for ice and metal impactors. The damage criterion is derived from results obtained from one sophisticated commercial program, which requires hours to carry out simulations of the same impact events. The program was designed to run much faster than the commercial program with prediction of projectile threshold velocities within 10 to 15% of commercial-program values. The mathematical model involves coupling of Orbiter wing normal modes of vibration to nonlinear or linear springmass models. IMPACT2 solves nonlinear or linear impact problems using classical normal modes of vibration of a target, and nonlinear/ linear time-domain equations for the projectile. Impact loads and stresses developed in the target are computed as functions of time. This model is novel because of its speed of execution. A typical model of foam, or other projectile characterized by material nonlinearities, impacting an RCC panel is executed in minutes instead of hours needed by the commercial programs. Target damage due to impact can be assessed quickly, provided that target vibration modes and allowable stress are known.


Amur grape (Vitis amurensis) is a dioecious species. To elucidate the time of and reason for pistil abortion in male amur grape from the perspective of cytology, we observed the sections of pistil of a male line during its development using optical and transmission electron microscopes. The abnormity in the morphology of nucellar cell and the development of various organelles appeared before the abnormity of functional megaspore mitosis. Programmed cell death (PCD) of the nucellar cells might be an important reason for mitosis disorder, leading to the abortion of pistil in male flower. However, the abortion can be eliminated by forchlorfenuron treatment, resulting in the recovery of functional pistil in male amur grape. This study provides cytological information on the gender conversion mechanism in male amur grape, which can promote gender determination studies in Vitis species.


Growth expectations and institutional settings in central eastern Europe are assumed favorable for the establishment of vibrant venture capital and private equity markets. However, there is only a little risk capital market activity in the region. This article examines the obstacles to institutional investments in central eastern Europe through a questionnaire addressed to limited partners worldwide. The respondents provide information about their perceptions of the region. The protection of property rights is the dominant concern, followed by social criteria, such as the belief in the entrepreneurial management quality of local people, and the lacking size, and liquidity of the central eastern European capital markets. However, limited partners appreciate the growth expectations and the deal opportunities and rank the region as attractive as India and China.


There is no consensus about trends in agricultural productivity among agricultural economists. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the investigation of this issue by estimating a Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index for global agriculture and global agricultural regions. One of the biggest challenges with analysing global productivity trends is the lack of price data or cost shares, especially in developing countries. We apply recently introduced econometric models that permit accounting for technology heterogeneity and the time-series properties of data to estimate cost shares. Aggregate sectoral data from the USDA ERS database are investigated for the period 1990 to 2013. Although we used a different method, our results are in line with earlier findings that used USDA or FAO database. TFP growth has accelerated in world agriculture, largely due to better performance in transition countries. Although TFP growth has accelerated in world agriculture, it has slowed down in industrialized countries. TFP growth in the EU has increased, but at slower rate in recent years. In the Old Member States the growth rate has decreased, whereas in the New Member States it has increased. The results highlight that insufficient spending on productivity-enhancing agricultural R&D in industrialized countries may put future agricultural productivity growth at risk.


ABSTRACT World biofuel production has been increasing to improve energy security and mitigate global warming. Southern Africa's bioenergy demand could increase with South Africa's planned fuel blending mandates, triggering increased demand for feedstocks and agricultural land. Ensuring sustained production will require a full understanding of the constraints to production expansion, considering the tradeoffs that may be generated in rural areas, as has been observed for large-scale land acquisitions. We analyse the social and biophysical constraints to biofuel production expansion in Zambia. Previously social constraints have received limited attention even though they may prove more problematic. Results indicate that Zambia is at least moderately suitable for bioenergy investments with biophysically suitable areas largely coinciding with the socially suitable areas. However, existing gaps in compensatory procedures may inhibit large-scale projects' access to development finance if not aligned with internationally acceptable practices, and generate negative outcomes if safeguards are not in place.


In the past, ray tracing has been used widely in offline rendering applications since it provided the ability to better capture high quality secondary effects such as reflection, refraction and shadows. Such effects are difficult to produce in a robust, high quality fashion with traditional, real-time rasterization algorithms. Motivated to bring the advantages to ray tracing to real-time applications, researchers have developed better and more efficient algorithms that leverage the current generation of fast, parallel CPU hardware within the past few years. This thesis provides the implementation and design details of a high performance ray tracing solution called "RTTest" for standard, desktop CPUs. Background information on various algorithms and acceleration structures are first discussed followed by an introduction to novel techniques used to better accelerate current, core ray tracing techniques. Techniques such as Omni-Directional Packets, Cone Proxy Traversal and Multiple Frustum Traversal are proposed and benchmarked using standard ray tracing scenes. Also, a novel soft shadowing algorithm called Edge Width Soft Shadows is proposed which achieves performance comparable to a single sampled hard shadow approach targeted at real time applications such as games. Finally, additional information on the memory layout, rendering pipeline, shader system and code level optimizations of RTTest are also discussed.


Abortion is a legal, common, and safe medical procedure that one in three American women will undergo. Yet ever since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, anti-abortion forces have tried nearly every tactic to eliminate it. Legislative and judicial developments dominate the news, but a troubling and all-too-common phenomenon -- targeted vigilante action against individual abortion providers -- is missing from the national discussion, only cropping up when a dramatic story like the murder of an abortion provider pushes it to the forefront. Every day, men and women who are associated with abortion care are harassed, threatened, stalked, picketed, sent hate mail, and otherwise terrorized. Those who seek help from the law are sometimes successful, but not always, either because there are insufficient protections built into the law, or because law enforcement officials fail to respond. In Living in the Crosshairs, the voices of these providers are heard for the first time, through extensive interviews that David S. Cohen and Krysten Connon conducted across the country. Abortion providers are targeted at home, at work, or in community spaces; they can be harassed in person or online. Abortion opponents target not only the providers themselves but also may go after their families, neighbors, and others close to them. This kind of targeting happens anywhere in the country, not just in more conservative areas, and can victimize all providers, not just high-profile doctors. For some, being the victim of targeted harassment inspires significant fear and leads to changes in behavior; for others, it has become a normal part of life; and for yet others, it actively strengthens their resolve.The response of law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels is spotty -- though there are some strong laws on the books, especially at the federal level, abortion providers have had mixed experiences when it comes to legal recourse, and effectiveness varies. Drawing on ideas from the interviews, the authors propose several legal and societal reforms that could improve the lives of providers, foremost among them redefining targeted harassment as terrorism rather than protest. Living in the Crosshairs is a rich and humane portrait of women's health professionals who persist in their work despite harassment because they believe in what they are doing. These providers' voices have not been heard in recent debates, leaving the public with a deficient understanding of exactly how abortion is limited in this country, yet their experiences illuminate the truth of the issue and offer us a path to a better policy.


The theorising in accounting prior to 1970 was rejected as not providing sufficiently general theories. Informed by theories in economics and finance (and other disciplines such as psychology) and with the aid of computers, attempts to theorise accounting took a new direction. Large data collection and analysis emphasized a purportedly more systematic empirical approach to developing theory.


We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model of a small open economy where domestic entrepreneurs face borrowing constraints and finance their investment projects both in domestic and international capital markets. We parametrize the degree of financial exposure as the fraction of borrowing expressed in foreign units of denomination, and study its interaction with alternative exchange rate regimes. We find that a regime of flexible exchange rates greatly amplifies, relative to fixed rates, the response to domestic shocks. However, when financial exposure is high investment can fall and financial conditions can worsen in response to favorable productivity shocks, due to detrimental balance-sheets effects. Asset price volatility and overall financial instability are found to be monotonically increasing in financial exposure. In response to a rise in world interest rates, higher financial exposure greatly worsens the performance of flexible exchange rates (relative to the case with no exposure), so that the acclaimed insulating role of the latter (relative to fixed) barely applies to output and vanishes for financial variables. In general, the higher the degree of financial exposure, the closer the resemblance between flexible and fixed exchange rates, a result that provides a theoretical background for a fear-of-floating argument.


The ERA2010 exercise changed the landscape of research and publication management at the University
of Wollongong (UOW), pushing the research agenda into the spotlight across the University. The Library,
always alert to its value to the University, quickly understood that it could play an integral role in further
supporting researchers through the development of its skill sets and services. The recognised need to rebalance
its services to reflect the broad University goals, particularly the research agenda, resulted in the
major review and realignment in 2011-2012 of the two large divisions in the UOW Library, Resources
and Client Services.
The delivery of an integrated research support and publication management services model at UOW
Library is now becoming established after a period of restructure, process review and rationalisation, and
staff re-skilling. Closer connectivity between the Resources and Client Services Divisions in delivering
these services ensures that stratified elements of the large and complex process of supporting research and
publications are captured and handled effectively.
Restructuring the Client Services and Resources Divisions has enabled the Library to commit resources
and build expertise in delivering specialised services to research staff, thus re-positioning the Library
strategically in this space, and making it an essential piece in the complex research support puzzle.


The loss of a loved one is one of the most painful experiences that most of us will ever have to face in our lives. This book recognises that there is no single solution to the problems of bereavement but that an understanding of grief can help the bereaved to realise that they are not alone in their experience. This new edition has been revised and extended to take into account recent research findings on both sides of the Atlantic. Parkes and Prigerson include additional information about the different circumstances of bereavement including traumatic loss, disasters, and complicated grief, as well as providing details on how social, religious, and cultural influences determine how we grieve. "Bereavement" provides guidance on preparing for the loss of a loved one, and coping after they've gone. It also discusses how to identify the minority in whom bereavement may lead to impairment of physical and/or mental health and how to ensure they get the help they need. This classic text will continue to be of value to the bereaved themselves, as well as the professionals and friends who seek to help and understand them.


Response of the Texas Coast to Global Change: Geologic Versus Historic Timescales by Davin Johannes Wallace The response of coastal systems to global change is currently not well understood. To understand current patterns and predict future trends, we establish a geologic record of coastal change along the Gulf of Mexico coast. A study examining the natural versus anthropogenic mechanisms of erosion reveals several sand sources and sinks along the upper Texas coast. It appears that hurricane washover and offshore sand deposits are minimal sand sinks, while flood-tidal deltas are areas of significant sand sequestration. Additionally, it appears that damming of rivers has had only a minimal effect on sedimentation along the upper Texas coast. However, hard engineering structures placed on the beach have exacerbated erosion due to trapping sand of that would otherwise be in the longshore transport system. Coastal sand budgets are derived to put geologic events (such as hurricanes and erosion) into context. Sand budgets often use engineering assumptions to establish sand transport within a coastal system. However, a disconnect typically exists between engineering principles and geologic concepts when quantifying these budgets. Geologic principles are relied upon to calculate a sand budget and evaluate published sediment budgets. This reveals that assuming too shallow a depth of closure can result in~ 17% error in the total calculated sediment flux and an error of ~40% of the total longshore transport flux for the upper Texas coast. This suggests that revised approaches are necessary to accurately represent sand transport within the coastal zone. The long-term probability of hurricane impacts in the western Gulf of Mexico is constructed. For south Texas, an intense hurricane landfall probability of ""'.46% is established for the past ~5,000 years. Based on published studies, this is similar to the intense hurricane impact probability of~ .39% for the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Studying the evolution of San Luis Pass provides a unique opportunity to study the response of accelerated sea-level rise and hurricane impacts on the evolution of a natural tidal delta system and adjacent Galveston Island. This study reveals an increased sand flux into San Luis pass tidal delta, and suggests that the erosion along Galveston Island has more than doubled over historic time relative to geologic time.


Key theological and ethical words of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are explained by an outstanding group of biblical scholars in this wordbook. The articles deal with groups of related words, drawing the reader into the meanings of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words. The book will be useful for lay readers of the Bible, university and seminary students, and pastors, adding depth to their understandings of hundreds of important terms, such as "justice," "Son of Man," "resurrection," and "kingdom of God."


Comprehensive methodologies are proposed for improving the quality of both freeway and arterial intersections traffic volumes for the purpose of enabling and improving traffic simulations. Specifically, established and enhanced procedures for checking and correcting freeway temporal errors are integrated with an optimization-based algorithm for reconciling spatial inconsistencies in freeway traffic counts. In addition to this, an empirical methodology is further integrated to balance arterial intersection traffic counts. The proposed methodologies have been successfully automated and implemented as two computer programs, i.e., TradaX for processing freeway volume and ArtBaT for arterial intersection traffic counts. Initial evaluations of these tools suggest that they have the potential of reducing total modeling time by 25% ~ 30%, while resulting in improved calibration of simulation models, more reliable analysis, and better use of staff resources for meeting project deadlines.


Title of dissertation: ESSAYS IN RETAIL OPERATIONS AND HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS Kiran V. Panchamgam Ph.D. Candidate, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Prof. Bruce L. Golden France-Merrick Chair in Management Science Prof. Itir Z. Karaesmen Aydin Assistant Professor of Operations Management This dissertation introduces and analyzes research problems related to Retail Operations and Humanitarian Logistics. In Retail Operations, the inventory that ends up as unsaleable at primary markets can be significant (up to 20% of the retail product). Thus retailers look for strategies like selling in secondary markets at a discounted price. In such a setting, the decisions of how much to order for a product of limited shelf life and when (if at all) to start selling the product in the secondary market become critical because these decisions not only affect the retailer's cost of procurement and sales revenues obtained from the product but also affect utilization of shelf space, product rollover and assortment decisions of the retailer. Apart from using secondary markets, retailers that sell seasonal products or products with sales horizons shorter than the typical production/procurement lead time also enter into contractual agreements with suppliers. These contracts are in place to share risks associated with unknown or uncertain demand for the product. Presence of such contracts does affect a retailer's order quantity as well as the time to start selling in the secondary market. In our two essays on retail operations, we analyze a retailer's optimal order quantity and when he/she starts selling in the secondary market. We refer to the former as the 'ordering decision' and the latter as the 'timing decision.' These two decisions are studied first without risk sharing contracts in Essay 1, and then in the presence of contracts in Essay 2. In Essay 1, we build a two-stage model with demand uncertainty. The ordering decision is made in the first stage considering cost of procurement and expected sales revenue. The timing decision is made in the second stage and is conditional on the order quantity determined in the first stage. We introduce a new class of aggregate demand model for this model. We study the structural properties of the retailer's timing and ordering problem and identify optimality conditions for the timing decision. Finally, we complement our analytical results with computational experiments and show how retailer's optimal decisions change when problem parameters are varied. In Essay 2, we extend the work in first essay to include the contracts between the retailer and a supplier. In this essay, we introduce a time-based Poisson demand model. We define three different types of contracts and investigate the effect of each of these contracts on the retailer's ordering and timing decisions. We investigate how the analytical structure of the retailer's decision changes in the presence of these contracts. For a given order quantity, we show that the timing decision depends on the type of contract. Our analytical results on the timing decision are complemented with computational experiments where we investigate the impact of contract type on the optimal order quantity of the retailer. In Humanitarian Logistics, non-profit organizations receive several-billion-dollarsworth of donations every year but lack a sophisticated system to handle their complex logistics operations; the absence of expertly-designed systems is one of the significant reasons why there has been a weak link in the distribution of relief aid. The distribution of relief aid is a complex problem as the goal is humanitarian yet at the same time, due to limited resources, the operations have to be efficient. In the two essays on humanitarian logistics, we study the distribution of aid using homogeneous fleet, with and without capacity restrictions. In Essay 3, we discuss routing for relief operations using one vehicle without capacity restrictions. Contrary to the existing vehicle routing models, the key property of our routing models is that the nodes have priorities along with humanitarian needs. We formulate this model with d-Relaxed Priority rule that captures distance and response time. We formulate routing models with strict and relaxed forms of priority restrictions as Mixed Integer Programs (MIP). We derive bounds for this problem and show that this bound is attained in limiting condition for a worst-case example. Finally, we evaluate the optimal solutions on test problems for response time and distance and show that our vehicle routing model with priorities captures the trade-off between distance and response time unlike existing Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) models without priorities. In Essay 4, we extend the problem dealt in third essay to consider fleet consisting of multiple vehicles (homogeneous) with capacity and route length restrictions. First, we show that the humanitarian aspect imposes additional challenges and develop routing models that capture performance metrics like fill rate, distance traversed, response time and number of victims satisfied. Proposed routing models are formulated as Mixed Integer Programs and are solved to optimality for small test problems. We conduct computational experiment and show that our models perform well on these performance metrics. ESSAYS IN RETAIL OPERATIONS AND HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS


Chinese populated areas have the highest density of alcohol outlets. Self-administered questionnaire completed by 326 respondents. Those who had at least 1 family member who consumed alcohol; 72% had tried alcohol, 48% were current consumers, and 30% were binge drinkers. More than half of the binge drinkers were Indians followed by Chinese at 39% and Malays at 8%. Those who binge drink were nearly 3 times more likely to be forced into sexual intercourse and 3.5 times more likely forced to do sexual acts than non-drinkers. Binge consumers were also 17.5 times more likely to smoke compared to current consumers.


This source book examines the development of Italian Fascism, and surveys the themes and issues of the movement. It spans from the emergence of the united Italian state in the nineteenth century, to the post-war aftermath of fascism. It provides: * analysis of propaganda and Mussolini's journalism * new documentary material, previously unavailable in English * an extensive range of other source material, including images * thematic coverage of major topics such as the transformation of agrarian and urban society * analysis of the political, social, and economic status of Italy * the legacy of fascism in modern Italy. John Pollard also includes extensive notes on sources as well as a glossary and guide to further reading.


In this paper I shall write about the significance of breakdown in the lives of traumatised and abused children. I will highlight the implications for those attempting to provide treatment for these children, potentially enabling them to recover. I also hope to demonstrate how important it is to have a conceptual framework, which I think must be underpinned by sound theory. The concept of breakdown is often perceived negatively and this can dominate our response. However, with an informed approach a breakdown can be seen as an opportunity for growth and a point of healing. By applying a theory of Winnicott's I will show how useful and relevant established theory can still be in our work. In particular I will show how Winnicott's distinction, between the breakdown that has been experienced and the breakdown that has happened but not been experienced, is relevant in work with traumatised children. I will be writing primarily about severely traumatised children placed in a residential setting, where the aim is to provide recovery and to do this by broadly working within a psychodynamic approach. However, many of the ideas described in this paper may also be relevant to those working with children in other settings, such as foster families as well as with adults where breakdown is a theme.


Six Sigma is a methodology that uses data and statistical analyses on business processes to measure and improve the conduct and the output of production and service-oriented processes. Derived from a variety of quality management and industrial engineering approaches, it has emerged into one of the most popular process re-design methodologies. This paper complements the rich body of knowledge on Six Sigma methods and techniques with insights into the actual adoption of Six Sigma. Sunstate Financials is one of Australia's leading financial organizations. Having recognized the advantages of Six Sigma, Sunstate Financials started their Six Sigma journey in 2001. The peak of Six Sigma deployment at Sunstate Financials lasted for approximately 2 years. Almost every person in the company was aware of the Six Sigma methodology, and many projects commenced under the Six Sigma banner. Although the use of Six Sigma has shown dramatic process improvements and cost reductions, Six Sigma is no longer in use at Sunstate Financials. This teaching case explores the Six Sigma experiences of one of Australia's leading financial service providers, and why this methodology failed as a sustainable long term approach. It describes the key issues of Six Sigma and provides valuable lessons learnt.


The first in-depth analysis of some of the most important epic poems of the Spanish Golden Age, "Myth and Identity in the Epic of Imperial Spain" breathes new life into five of these long- neglected texts. Elizabeth Davis demonstrates that the epic must not be overlooked, for doing so creates a significant gap in one's ability to appraise not only the cultural practice of the imperial age, but also the purest expression of its ideology.Davis's study focuses on heroic poetry written from 1569 to 1611, including Alonso de Ercilla's "La Araucana, " undeniably the most significant epic poem of its time. Also included are Diego de Hojeda's "La Christiada, " Juan Rufo's "La Austriada, ." Lope de Vega's "Jerusalen Conquistada, " and Cristobal de Virues's "Historia del Monserrate."Examining these epics as the major site for the construction of cultural identities and Renaissance nationalist myths, Davis analyzes the means by which the epic constructs a Spanish sense of self. Because this sense of identity is not easily susceptible to direct representation, it is often derived in opposition to an "other," which serves to reaffirm Spanish cultural superiority. The Spanish Christian caballeros are almost always pitted against Amerindians, Muslims, Jews, or other adversaries portrayed as backward or heathen for their cultural and ethnic differences.The pro-Castilian elite of sixteenth-century Spain faced the daunting task of constructing unity at home in the process of expansion and conquest abroad, yet ethnic and regional differences in the Iberian Peninsula made the creation of an imperial identity particularly difficult. The epic, as Davis shows, strains to convey the overriding image of a Spain that appears more unified than the Spanish empire ever truly was.An important reexamination of the Golden Age canon, "Myth and Identity in the Epic of Imperial Spain" brings a new twist to the study of canon formation. While Davis does not ignore more traditional approaches to the literary text, she does apply recent theories, such as deconstruction and feminist criticism, to these poems, resulting in an innovative examination of the material.Confronting such issues as canonicity, gender, the relationship between literature and Golden Age culture, and that between art and power, this publication offers scholars a new perspective for assessing Golden Age and Transatlantic studies."


The design of models that govern diseases in population is commonly built on
information and data gathered from past outbreaks. However, epidemic outbreaks
are never captured in statistical data alone but are communicated by
narratives, supported by empirical observations. Outbreak reports discuss
correlations between populations, locations and the disease to infer insights
into causes, vectors and potential interventions. The problem with these
narratives is usually the lack of consistent structure or strong conventions,
which prohibit their formal analysis in larger corpora. Our interdisciplinary
research investigates more than 100 reports from the third plague pandemic
(1894-1952) evaluating ways of building a corpus to extract and structure this
narrative information through text mining and manual annotation. In this paper
we discuss the progress of our ongoing exploratory project, how we enhance
optical character recognition (OCR) methods to improve text capture, our
approach to structure the narratives and identify relevant entities in the
reports. The structured corpus is made available via Solr enabling search and
analysis across the whole collection for future research dedicated, for
example, to the identification of concepts. We show preliminary visualisations
of the characteristics of causation and differences with respect to gender as a
result of syntactic-category-dependent corpus statistics. Our goal is to
develop structured accounts of some of the most significant concepts that were
used to understand the epidemiology of the third plague pandemic around the
globe. The corpus enables researchers to analyse the reports collectively
allowing for deep insights into the global epidemiological consideration of
plague in the early twentieth century.


Most of the early uses of nanotechnology have come from material sciences, although applications in agriculture are still expanding. Due to a few comprehensive reviews, we described application of nanomaterials along with their fate in soil and interaction with soil and plant system. From synthesis to metabolism, nano-fertilizers like zinc, silver, selenium, titanium oxide have enhanced the physio-chemical characteristics of crop plants in every manner conceivable. On the other hand, it has the potential to minimize pesticide use by boosting reactivity and surface area of nanoparticles. Nanotechnology in pesticides will, without a doubt, replace the current way of pesticide application because of its efficacy. Nano-based approaches can readily overcome the constraints of conventional soil remediation technologies. While soil nanomaterials mobility has been investigated in a limited number of research studies, it's likely the most critical gap in knowing the real risk of their transport. As well as enhancing plant nutrient absorption, nanomaterials may also be used to regulate soil microbial activity and stimulate plant defenses. When it comes to shipping food, nanotechnology has made things easier by extending the shelf life of most foods. While it offers tremendous potential for agricultural applications, the health effects of nanoparticles on plants, animals, and humans must be thoroughly investigated.


Gendun Chopel is considered the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century. His life spanned the two defining moments in modern Tibetan history: the entries into Lhasa by British troops in 1904 and by Chinese troops in 1951. Recognized as an incarnate lama while he was a child, Gendun Chopel excelled in the traditional monastic curriculum and went on to become expert in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, linguistics, geography, and tantric Buddhism. Near the end of his life, before he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of the young Dalai Lama, he would dictate the "Adornment for Nagarjuna's Thought", a work on Madhyamaka, or "Middle Way," philosophy. It sparked controversy immediately upon its publication and continues to do so today. "The Madman's Middle Way" presents the first English translation of this major work, accompanied by an essay on Gendun Chopel's life liberally interspersed with passages from his writings. Donald S. Lopez Jr. also provides a commentary that sheds light on the doctrinal context of the Adornment and summarizes its key arguments. Ultimately, Lopez examines the long-standing debate over whether Gendun Chopel in fact is the author of the "Adornment"; the heated critical response to the work by Tibetan monks of the Dalai Lama's sect; and what the "Adornment" tells us about Tibetan Buddhism's encounter with modernity. The result is an insightful glimpse into a provocative and enigmatic work that will intrigue anyone interested in Buddhism or Asian religions.


After defining applicative periphrases as constructions in which a verb (the verb-operator) acts as a valency operator licensing the expression of an additional participant fulfilling a given semantic role in the event encoded by another verb (the lexical verb), this paper analyses applicative periphrases licensing beneficiaries. I recognize three formal types with respect to the grammatical nature of the two verb forms involved in the periphrasis and examine their distribution in the languages of the world. I then discuss grammaticalization paths leading to benefactive applicative periphrases, as well as further evolutions of benefactive applicative periphrases. The last two sections are devoted to autobenefactive applicative periphrases and to the use of verbs other than 'give' as verb-operator in benefactive applicative periphrases.


Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is one of the most common among causes of spinal cord dysfunction worldwide. In this article, we provide a broad narrative review of the options to treat CSM from an anterior approach to the cervical spine. Anterior procedures are effective and safe, especially for one or two level disease (although can be used up to 7-8 levels). This approach can be used in patients with lordotic, neutral, or kyphotic cervical spine alignment and provide excellent access for direct neural decompression. The most common adverse effects of anterior cervical operations are dysphagia and dysphonia, but fortunately, these are mild and transient in the majority of cases. Severe complications, such as vertebral arterial injury, spinal cord injury or airway compromise, are rare but must be taken into consideration, especially when additional risk factors are present (multilevel procedures, revision surgeries, older, and infirm patients). The primary anterior cervical procedures for treating CSM are anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF), oblique cervical corpectomy, and cervical disc arthroplasty. A combination (hybrid) of ACDF and ACCF is also utilized as an option to allow for wide decompression, deformity correction, and provide more surface area of exposed, and bleeding cancellous bone. More recently, the senior author (KDR) has utilized a hemi-corpectomy and fusion hybrid technique which will be described in this text. Advantages and disadvantages of each of these options are discussed in detail, as well as the need for posterior instrumentation supplementation in selected patients; such as those with concomitant cervical deformity, poor bone quality, or those at risk for pseudarthrosis following multilevel arthrodeses. The management of patients with cervical spinal cord compression without myelopathy or with mild symptoms is also discussed.


THIS ISSUE of theArchivescontains three articles that examine diverse aspects of the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric illness. 1-3 These articles attest to the vibrancy of this field, which represents a hybrid discipline, combining features of traditional medical genetics and epidemiology. While medical genetics has generally focused on classic, rare, Mendelian disorders where the genetic signal is so powerful that environmental effects are irrelevant, genetic epidemiology examines common, familial disorders where an inherited vulnerability interacts with environmental risk factors in often complex and uncertain ways. 4,5 As demonstrated by these articles, the field of the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric illness has been maturing rapidly. As little as a decade ago, most publications focused solely on the assessment of the familial or genetic transmission of psychiatric disorders. Although these questions are fundamental, they represent only the beginning rather than the conclusion of the endeavor. Each article examines a critical issue


Through the years, the complexity and the size of a system are growing. Thus, to perform a testing with manual creation of test cases is very time consuming. This is because developer or tester will need to manually look into the source codes, line by line, to define the test cases. Moreover, manual creation of test cases does not increase reliability of testing the source codes. For example, tester may perhaps miss or fail to define some of the possible test cases if they are not aware of it. Furthermore, manual creation of test cases based on source codes is also high costing. This paper discusses a system that generates test cases automatically based on program source codes. This system is able to scan the program source codes, line by line, and check the syntaxes of the source codes. Then, the codes are parsed using the parser to generate the test cases based on detected tokens. The purpose of generating test cases automatically is to reduce the cost of testing the system.


Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) reactive with human melanoma tumor cells occasionally display cross‐reactivity with normal melanocytes. Previously, we identified the melanocyte lineage‐specific antigen gp100 that is expressed by both melanoma cells and normal melanocytes, as a target antigen for tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes derived from a melanoma patient (TIL 1200). Here, we demonstrate that the oligoclonal HLA‐A2.1‐restricted TIL 1200 line is reactive with 2 distinct peptides derived from the gpl00 protein. Apart from the peptide corresponding to gpl00 amino acids 457–466, we identified the gpl00 peptide 154–162 as a second epitope recognized by TIL 1200. A 100‐fold lower concentration of this novel gpl00 peptide was required for target‐cell sensitization compared to peptide 457–466, indicating that the 154–162 peptide is the dominant gpl00 epitope for TIL 1200. Together with the recently described gpl00 280–288 epitope, 3 distinct CTL epitopes have now been identified in gpl00, all presented in the context of HLA‐A2.1. Therefore, gpl00 is an attractive target antigen in the development of immuno‐therapeutic protocols against melanoma. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss Inc.


South Africa is scheduled to migrate all of its terrestrial television signals from analogue to digital by June 2015. In 2007, the South African Department of Communications (DoC) called for the switchover to digital terrestrial television (DTT), using the Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T) transmission standard, to begin in November 2008 and be complete just three years later, with an analogue switch-off on 1 November 2011. This ambitious plan for a rapid three-year migration is currently in disarray. At the time of writing in October 2010, household migration to DTT has not begun, and there are multiple uncertainties: the DoC is considering replacing the DVB-T transmission standard with Integrated Services Digital Broadband-Terrestrial; the DTT set-top box specifications are not yet finalized; and the government's first Digital Dzonga advisory body has been disbanded by the Communications Minister and is being replaced by new appointees. Other key stakeholders in the migration, the public broadcaster (the South African Broadcasting Corporation) and the state-owned signal carrier (Sentech), are in financial and management disarray. The regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has effectively ruled that the earliest analogue switch-off could occur would be in 2013, and it now appears that even the June 2015 International Telecommunication Union switchover deadline may be difficult to meet. The authors consider the possible consequences of these events.


GUIDE TO WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, 3rd Edition is designed for an entry level course in wireless data communications. The text covers the fundamentals wireless communications and provides an overview of protocols, transmission methods, and IEEE standards. GUIDE TO WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, 3rd Edition examines the broad range of wireless communications technologies available beginning with the basics of radio frequency and wireless data transmission and progressing to the protocols and mechanisms that every wirless network technician should understand. Key topics cover several technologies for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), and Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) giving an overview of the most current cellular and satellite communications.


Distributed interactive applications may have stringent latency requirements and dynamic user groups. These applications may benefit from a group communication system, and to improve the system support for such applications, we investigate graph algorithms that construct low-latency overlay networks for application-layer multicast. In particular, we focus on reducing the diameter and the pair-wise latencies in the overlay. The overlay construction time is also considered, as it is often time-dependent in our dynamic target applications. Here, we have implemented and experimentally analyzed spanning-tree heuristics and mesh construction heuristics, and compared their performance and applicability to distributed interactive applications. We found that trees are faster to construct and save considerable amounts of resources in the network. Meshes, on the other hand, yield lower pair-wise latencies and increases the fault tolerance, but at the expense of increased resource consumption.


systeMatiC Review and Meta- analysis of studies puBlished in the uK Aims This study explores the reported rate of surgical site infection (SSI) after hip fracture surgery in published studies concerning patients treated in the UK. Methods Studies were included if they reported on SSI after any type of surgical treatment for hip fracture. Each study required a minimum of 30 days follow- up and 100 patients. Meta- analysis was undertaken using a random effects model. Heterogeneity was expressed using the I 2 statistic. Risk of bias was assessed using a modified Newcastle- Ottawa Scale (NOS) system. Results There were 20 studies reporting data from 88,615 patients. Most were retrospective cohort studies from single centres. The pooled incidence was 2.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.54% to 2.62%) across 'all types' of hip fracture surgery. When analyzed by operation type, the SSI incidences were: hemiarthroplasty 2.87% (95% CI 1.99% to 3.75%) and sliding hip screw 1.35% (95% CI 0.78% to 1.93%). There was considerable variation in definition of infection used, as well as considerable risk of bias, particularly as few studies actively screened participants for SSI. Synthesis of published estimates of infection yield a rate higher than that seen in national surveillance procedures. Biases noted in all studies would trend towards an underestimate, largely due to inadequate follow- up.


Data forms the basis for research publications. But still the focus of researchers is a paper based publication, data is rather seen as a supplement that could be offered as a download, often without further comments. Yet validation, verification, reproduction and re-usage of existing knowledge can only be applied when the research data is accessible and identifiable. For this reason, precise data citation mechanisms are required, that allow reproducing experiments with exactly the same data basis. In this paper, we propose a model that enables to cite, identify and reference specific data sets within their dynamic environments. Our model allows the selection of subsets that support experiment verification and result re-utilisation in different contexts. The approach is based on assigning persistent identifiers to timestamped queries which are executed against timestamped and versioned databases. This facilitates transparent implementation and scalable means to ensure identical result sets being delivered upon re-invocation of the query.


Excerpt] United States labor law on workers' right to strike meets international human rights standards—up to a point. The law does not ban strikes in the private sector. Unlike many countries that nominally allow strikes but create onerous procedural obstacles (Mexico is a prime example), the United States, aside from modest notice requirements, lets workers decide to strike. In a handful of states, public-sector workers can strike. So far, so good. But beyond this point, U.S. labor law and practice deviate from international standards. In the public sector, most strikes are prohibited even with no threat to public health or safety (the main proviso developed by the International Labor Organization). In the private sector, employers' power to permanently replace workers who exercise the right to strike effectively nullifies that right.


Nine adult patients with cystic fibrosis, nearly a quarter of the 38 patients with this disease who were treated with piperacillin (59 courses in all) during 1981-3 at the Brompton Hospital, developed a swinging pyrexia after a mean of 13.5 days' treatment with this antibiotic. The fever resolved shortly after the piperacillin treatment was stopped, as did the widespread rashes in the two patients who developed them. Three of four patients who had probable reactions to azlocillin may have been sensitised by piperacillin. As piperacillin does not appear to be any more effective than other antipseudomonal penicillins in cystic fibrosis, it is no longer used at the hospital for treating bronchopulmonary exacerbations in such patients.


A theory of color vision is presented which attempts to account for the physics, physiology, and psychology of the color-vision process. Three types of photopigments are assumed to be distributed among five types of cones. It is suggested that color signals are of an opponent-colors variety from retina to lateral geniculate body, then coded in terms of the four psychologically unique colors from the lateral geniculate to the visual cortex. The theory is quantitative and provides an explanation of protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia. A new color diagram is developed, based upon the simplest version of the theory. Suggestions are made concerning how this diagram might be modified to produce a more uniform color space, and the meaning of such modifications is discussed in terms of the theory.


The aim of this paper is to specify the role of coal‐fired power plants (CFPPs) in the formation of global emissions/harmful pollutants and to discuss the benefits of current and future technologies to minimize environmental damage. In this regard, pollutant/emission reduction technologies from CFPPs are discussed in detail by considering the environmental and global warming aspects. Pollutant gases from CFPPs around the globe have always been the most important source of environmental concern in societies. In particular, due to the burning of the coal without taking the necessary precautions, the nitrogen in the coal and combustion air and the combustible sulfur components in the coal content are oxidized and released to the atmosphere as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx). Another pollutant from power plants is carbon monoxide (CO). CO is a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas that can remain in the atmosphere for a long time. In addition, significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) occur by virtue of the combustion of coal. CO2 emission is in the class of greenhouse gases causing global warming. As a result of this study, the factors causing the formation of harmful pollutants in CFPPs are determined and present and potential suggestions are provided for the environmental sustainability of such facilities. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this paper we consider the problem of integrated scheduling of various types of handling equipment at an automated container terminal in a dynamic environment. This means that the handling times are not known exactly beforehand and that the order in which the different pieces of equipment handle the containers need not be specified completely in advance. Instead, (partial) schedules may be updated when new information on realizations of handling times becomes available. We present an optimization based Beam Search heuristic and several dispatching rules. An extensive computational study is carried out to investigate the performance of these solution methods under different scenarios. The main conclusion is that, in our tests, the Beam Search heuristic performs best on average, but that some of the relatively simple dispatching rules perform almost as good. Furthermore, our study indicates that it is effective important to base a planning on a long horizon with inaccurate data, than to update the planning often in order to take newly available information into account.


Object detection is considered one of the most challenging problems in this field of computer vision, as it involves the combination of object classification and object localization within a scene. Recently, deep neural networks (DNNs) have been demonstrated to achieve superior object detection performance compared to other approaches, with YOLOv2 (an improved You Only Look Once model) being one of the state-of-the-art in DNN-based object detection methods in terms of both speed and accuracy. Although YOLOv2 can achieve real-time performance on a powerful GPU, it still remains very challenging for leveraging this approach for real-time object detection in video on embedded computing devices with limited computational power and limited memory. In this paper, we propose a new framework called Fast YOLO, a fast You Only Look Once framework which accelerates YOLOv2 to be able to perform object detection in video on embedded devices in a realtime manner. First, we leverage the evolutionary deep intelligence framework to evolve the YOLOv2 network architecture and produce an optimized architecture (referred to as O-YOLOv2 here) that has 2.8X fewer parameters with just a ∼2% IOU drop. To further reduce power consumption on embedded devices while maintaining performance, a motion-adaptive inference method is introduced into the proposed Fast YOLO framework to reduce the frequency of deep inference with O-YOLOv2 based on temporal motion characteristics. Experimental results show that the proposed Fast YOLO framework can reduce the number of deep inferences by an average of 38.13%, and an average speedup of ∼3.3X for objection detection in video compared to the original YOLOv2, leading Fast YOLO to run an average of ∼18FPS on a Nvidia Jetson TX1 em-


Dr. Waters is one of a new breed of analysts for whom the interpenetration of politics, culture, and national development is key to a larger integration of social research. Race, Class, and Political Symbols is a remarkably cogent examination of the uses of Rastafarian symbols and reggae music in Jamaican electoral campaigns. The author describes and analyzes the way Jamaican politicians effectively employ improbable strategies for electoral success. She includes interviews with reggae musicians, Rastafarian leaders, government and party officials, and campaign managers. Jamaican democracy and politics are fused to its culture; hence campaign advertisements, reggae songs, party pamphlets, and other documents are part of the larger picture of Caribbean life and letters. This volume centers and comes to rest on the adoption of Rastafarian symbols in the context of Jamaica's democratic institutions, which are characterized by vigorous campaigning, electoral fraud, and gang violence. In recent national elections, such violence claimed the lives of hundreds of people. Significant issues are dealt with in this cultural setting: race differentials among Whites, Browns, and Blacks; the rise of anti-Cubanism; the Rastafarians' response to the use of their symbols; and the current status of Rastafarian ideological legitimacy.


Judges and scholars are convinced that the Constitution forbids gerrymandering that goes "too far" - legislative redistrictings that are too partisan, too focused on race, etc. Gerrymanders are said to be unconstitutional for many reasons - they dilute votes, they are anti-democratic, and they generate uncompetitive elections won by extremist candidates. Judges and scholars cite numerous clauses that gerrymanders supposedly violate - the Equal Protection Clause, the Guarantee Clause, and even the First Amendment. We dissent from this orthodoxy. Most of these claims rest on the notion that the Constitution establishes certain ideals about representation in legislatures and about the outcome and conduct of elections. Yet the Constitution nowhere provides that a party's strength in the legislature should roughly mirror its strength in the populace, as the partisan gerrymandering cases suppose. Nor does the Constitution favor competition in legislative races, thereby forcing legislators to draw districting lines that maximize the number of competitive elections. In maintaining that the Constitution establishes districting and election ideals, the critics of gerrymandering have supposed that the Constitution incorporates their preferences about what is fair and just with respect to electoral outcomes. But as we show, there are innumerable reasonable preferences about the composition of districts and legislatures, not all of which can be satisfied simultaneously. More importantly, there is no reason to think that the Constitution enshrines any of these preferences about districting and election outcomes, let alone the critics' particular preferences. We believe that the critics of gerrymandering have made the mistake of imagining that the Constitution incorporates their particular preferences. That is to say, they have sought a constitutional resolution to an ordinary political issue. Unfortunately, the search is futile, for the Constitution does not address the ills, real or imagined, associated with drawing district lines. The Constitution no more regulates gerrymandering than it regulates pork barrel spending or the many advantages of incumbency.


Aquifer Storage Recovery (ASR) is a recently developed (circa 1970) method (in the U.S.A.) to reduce groundwater-pumping stresses by injecting treated wastewater or surface water during periods of low demand into an aquifer followed by its recovery during periods of high demand. This method has been successfully implemented in numerous locations across the U.S.A. and worldwide, mainly due to the cost savings provided by the use of an unlimited reservoir (aquifer) in which to store water compared to the costs to construct surface impoundments and the inherent problems with storing such water for extended periods of time under evaporative atmospheric conditions. This study describes the use of a highly discretized, three-dimensional, variabledensity, numerical model (SEAWAT 2000) that incorporates the vertical variation of hydraulic conductivities, measured foot by foot, from a continuous core collected from the upper Floridan aquifer in southwest Florida, to evaluate the effects of small-scale heterogeneities on a hypothetical ASR system well. In order to compare these effects to the more general case in which average hydraulic parameters are used to characterize flow zones, a model is constructed with average parameters taken from the heterogeneous case. This study attempts to determine whether aquifer heterogeneities influence the performance of ASR systems, compared to assumed homogeneous conditions, by quantifying differences in recovery efficiency, horizontal and vertical flow due to advection and dispersion, plume dimensions, and storage periods. The results of this study indicate that 1) the geometry of the injectate plume under homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions differ significantly; 2) background formation total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations significantly control the quantity of potable water available xi for recovery; 3) dispersion exhibits a strong control on vertical mixing; 4) multiple injection cycles are required to generate a plume of potable water for long term storage; and 5) the percent recoveries under homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions are generally similar only in low-salinity background concentrations, due to the absence of the effects of buoyancy. Although the percent recoveries of the systems modeled are similar, the success of an ASR well is strongly controlled by the existence of heterogeneities, which essentially determine the degree of horizontal and vertical mixing of the injectate with formation waters. Heterogeneities result in varying groundwater and mass transport paths during injection and recovery periods. Presumably these variations would need to be considered when evaluating potential variations in groundwater quality due to mixing between formation and injected water. Understanding potential variations in groundwater quality and treatment alternatives due to the presence of ASR-associated geochemical conditions, e.g., elevated arsenic concentrations, may also be improved with a detailed heterogeneous numerical model.


Many critics of William Gilmore Simms rate Woodcraft, his novel about Captain Porgy's return to the plantation after the Revolution, as his best literary achievement. (1) Woodcraft, however, has not been omitted from the common disparagement of Simms for lacking the critical spirit. As V. L. Parrington stated, Simms "could perceive no shortcomings in a society he warmly admired." This view has been most cogently opposed by John R. Welsh in his article, "William Gilmore Simms: Critic of the South," in which he cites much evidence from his writings to show that Simms attacked topics as varied as anti-intellectualism and backward farming practices in the South over an extended period of time. He does not, nevertheless, include Woodcraft in his survey. In a recent dissertation, "Social Criticism in the Revolutionary Romances of William Gilmore Simms," Daniel Joseph Sullivan, Jr., discusses Simms's criticism of the aristocracy in the Revolutionary romances, but finds it lacking in Woodcraft. William R. Taylor, on the other hand, writes perceptively that a pessimistic tone hovers over Woodcraft from beginning to end and that Simms's critical observations in his letters about the contemporary planter found embodiment in Porgy. (2) In arguing that Woodcraft (1852) was Simms's refutation of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851), J. V. Ridgely cites the author's crucial remark in a letter to James H. Hammond, governor of South Carolina, that his novel was "probably as good an answer to Mrs. Stowe as has been published." (3) He states that in Woodcraft Simms presented "what he conceived the whole Southern system ideally to be." The modern planter has overcome the faults of the earlier planter and the slave of the present day is as satisfied as his ancestor. The profligate planter reforms and learns that "self-knowledge and responsibility" are necessary to run a successful plantation: "Mrs. Stowe's hedonistic planters of 1852 were anachronisms." In contrast to families of slaves being torn apart in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the reunion of a family occurs in Woodcraft. The refusal by Tom, Porgy's body servant, of freedom expresses the contemporary slave's satisfaction with his life. (4) Simms's reference to Woodcraft in his letter is very important because it makes unmistakable the novel's application to contemporary times. Ridgely's interpretation, however, is only half right because he views the novel as lacking any criticism of the contemporary South. Woodcraft presents not only a defense of the South but also a penetrating criticism of its failings in the author's own time. In this novel, Simms satirizes and denounces the follies and vices of the planter, the overseer, the nouveau riche and the poor white. Simms's concept of an "answer" to Mrs. Stowe, historical scholarship, and the author's remarks in other writings corroborate this meaning of the novel. At the time that Simms published Woodcraft in 1852, he considered an "answer" to Northern attacks to include criticism deserved by the South. In 1848, a satire of Charleston's literary fame, Charleston: A Poem, by an anonymous Northern woman, provoked "a reply" from him. He wrote in the preface to his verse satire Charleston, and Her Satirists, "I have been tempted to a reply--somewhat glad of the chance, indeed--to confirm the justice of some of the satirist's points of censure, while dissenting from the propriety of others." He admitted that Charleston had many faults; furthermore the whole state was "open to criticism--vulnerable in its vanities" and it would do "no harm to draw attention to these subjects." In his poem, after defending the city's reputation, he proceeded to take up the region's shortcomings. He derided "our Southern planter" for his faults and the "Hunkers" (the political Establishment of South Carolina) for ignoring youthful worth. (5) On April 23, 1849, Simms wrote Beverley Tucker about his "local satire." He said that "the occasion was a good one for the utterance of some severities which were more legitimately bestowed by a native pen, and more appropriate to the deserts of our people. …


Most growth factors naturally involved in development and regeneration demonstrate strong binding to the extracellular matrix and are retained there until being locally mobilized by cells. In spite of this feedback between cell activity and growth factor mobilization in the extracellular matrix, this approach has not been extensively explored in therapeutic situations. We present an engineered bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) fusion protein that mimics such function in a surgically relevant matrix, fibrin, incorporated into the matrix until it is locally liberated by cell surface-associated proteases. A tripartite fusion protein, denoted TG-pl-BMP-2, was designed and produced recombinantly. An N-terminal transglutaminase substrate (TG) domain provides covalent attachment to fibrin during coagulation under the influence of the blood transglutaminase factor XIIIa. A central plasmin substrate (pl) domain provides a cleavage site for local release of the attached growth factor from the fibrin matrix under the influence of cell-activated plasmin. A C-terminal human BMP-2 domain provides osteogenic activity. TG-pl-BMP-2 in fibrin was evaluated in vivo in critical-size craniotomy defects in rats, where it induced 76% more defect healing with bone at 3 weeks with a dose of 1 mug/defect than wildtype BMP-2 in fibrin. After a dosing study in rabbits, the engineered growth factor in fibrin was evaluated in a prospective clinical study for pancarpal fusion in dogs, where it induced statistically faster and more extensive bone bridging than equivalent treatment with cancellous bone autograft. The strong healing response shown by fibrin including a bound BMP-2 variant suggests that with the combination of bound growth factor and ingrowth matrix, it may be possible to improve upon the natural growth factor and even upon tissue autograft.


A survey of Bahamians living on the island of New Providence (N = 381) explored the different factors that influence media use in the evacuation decision-making process along with investigating the different outlets used in the process. Results of the survey showed that Bahamians preferred to use state media (both television and radio), Internet sources, and television generally when making the decision to evacuate. Personal factors such as false alarm experience, threat knowledge, and perceived quality of the home had no influence on media use in the evacuation decision-making process. However the results showed that affective response (fear/worry) and information insufficiency both increased media use in the evacuation process (specifically state media). The results of the study are discussed in light of the uses and gratification paradigm along with several segments of the risk information seeking and processing model.


Food contains nutrients, including carbohydrate which has major role in energy production needed for internal and external activities. Several kinds of carbohydrate, such as inulin (fruktan) and fructooligosacharides (FOS) were proven be able to modify physiologic and biochemical process, specifically fatty acids and cholesterol metabolism. These fact showed that this both carbohydrate compounds biologically active in influencing blood lipid profile, including tryasilglycerol (TAG) or tryglycerides. Both compounds have been claimed as functional food ingredients. Health effect of inulin and FOS will be emerged if the subject has enough energy and nutrient intake. In Indonesia, clinical trial of health effect of functional food ingredient on human is difficult to be done because of problem in controlling entirely the subject food consumption. This study was done on dyslipidemic subject that fulfill inclusion requirement and willing (informed consent) to follow all experiment procedures for 21 days, with their daily food consumption pattern as usual. Dyslipidemic subjects are out patient in Subandi Hospital in Jember. Therefore, they have been given nutrition consultation from specialized medical doctor in cardiovascular diseases and from nutrition unit as well. This experiment aims to evaluate the effect of inulin and FOS intake from Nutrafosin beverage consumption on tryglycerides level of dyslipidemic whom their consumption pattern was as usual. Food consumption data was gained through 24 hours Recall Method for 3 days. Energy requirement was determined based on relative body weight (RBW). This experimental study was a clinical trial as a pararel matched pairs design. The intended sample were choosen from accesible population thru non-probability and consecutive sampling. One cup of Nutrafosin beverage contained 2 g inulin powder and 50 ml FOS that given by single blinding placebo designed to 16 dislipidemic subject for 21 days consumption orally. Tryglycerides level measurement was done at 0 days and 22th days. The tryglycerides level difference between before and after treatment from placebo and treatment groups was analyzed using statistical T-test pair at 95 % confidence interval. The result showed that Nutrafosin beverage consumption by dyslipidemic for 21 days decreased trygycerides by 18.5 percent, significantly (Tc= 1,108 < Ttab = 2,365). Kata kunci : inulin, fructooligosacharide (FOS), tryglycerides, dysl ipidemic, dietary fibreconsumption pattern


Abstract. In the last decades the Alpine landscape has dramatically changed due to social and economic factors. The most visible impact has been the reduction of the population for mid and high altitude villages and the shrinking of the part of the land used for agriculture and grazing, with a progressive reduction of pastures and meadows and the expansion of the forested areas. For these reasons, a dataset describing the forest, meadows and pasture coverage for the Trentino region, in the eastern Italian Alps, has been created. A set of heterogeneous sources has been selected so that maps and images cover the longest possible time span on the whole Trentino region with comparable quality, creating a Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) map based on historical maps from 1859 to 1936 and aerial images from 1954 to 2015. The achieved accuracy ranges from 98% for historical maps to 94% for aereal imagery. The analysis of selected landscape metrics provided preliminary results about the forest distribution and patterns of recolonization during the last 155 years. It has been possible to create future scenarios for the forest evolution for the next 85 years. Given the large number of maps involved, the great flexibility provided by FOSS for spatial analysis, such as GRASS, R, QGIS and GAMA and the possibility of scripting all the operations have played a pivotal role in the success both in the creation of the dataset and in the extraction and modeling of land use changes.


The Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) is a rare breeding bird in England with less than twenty
pairs breeding in recent years. It's preference for breeding and hunting on heather
moorland used for grouse shooting brings it into direct conflict with man.
Bowland in Lancashire is the most successful breeding site for hen harriers in England
due to a partnership between the RSPB and United Utilities who are a large land owner in
the area. Whilst working for the RSPB through the breeding season of 2006 & 2007 the
author was able to study the species closely and realised that nests were failing each year.
The hypothesis for the project was 'Is hen harrier breeding success linked to egg laying
date'. If a relationship between egg laying date and the success of the nest could be
proven then this would then help to identify the nests more likely to fail.
All harrier nests on United Utilities land in Bowland over 2006 & 2007 were found and
monitored and data for egg laying and nest success collected and analysed. Also rainfall
data from a gauge on the breeding grounds was analysed to see if rainfall affected
breeding success. The data for the nest data (figure 3) proved that date did affect nest
success with a peak around the 23rd April with the most successful nests grouped around
this date and the further from this date eggs were laid the less successful the nest.
However, the data for rainfall data in Bowland (figure 4) showed no connection between
amounts of rainfall and nest success.


With the growing number of textual resources available, the ability to understand them becomes critical. An essential first step in understanding these sources is the ability to identify the parts-of-speech in each sentence. The goal of this research is to propose, improve, and implement an algorithm capable of finding terms (words in a corpus) that are used in similar ways – a term categorizer. Such a term categorizer can be used to find a particular part-of-speech, i.e. nouns in a corpus, and generate a lexicon. The proposed work is not dependent on any external sources of information, such as dictionaries, and it shows a significant improvement (~30%) over an existing method of categorization. More importantly, the proposed algorithm can be applied as a component of an unsupervised part-of-speech tagger, making it truly unsupervised, requiring only unannotated text. The algorithm is discussed in detail, along with its background, and its performance. Experimentation shows that the proposed algorithm performs within 3% of the baseline, the Penn-TreeBank Lexicon.


U.S foreign policy interests in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region has always had three components: economy, security and politics. It is not overstated to stress the centrality of energy resources in the economic sector as a predominant factor. In this context, securing access to energy and the flow of oil become vital for world economic prosperity. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, added more impetus to the U.S security issues in the Persian Gulf. President Bush's doctrine of "preemptive war" and "the global war on terror" placed the Persian Gulf region at the heart of his post-9/11 strategic vision. The Bush administration used the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington as a great opportunity to revamp the regional security by undertaking some drastic measures. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the idea of regime change in Iran as well as other American Neocons' grandiose plans about the necessity to reshape the "Greater Middle East", made governments in the region nervous. In addition, by giving prominence to the "security question" over all other considerations, the US policy plunged the region deeper into uncertainty. Washington has systematically tried, and to a large extent succeeded, to securitize the inter-state relations in the region. This approach combined with the NATO plan to further its regional partnership, made any significant rapprochement among the Persian Gulf states on the issue of security almost impossible. For these reasons, a collective regionally crafted security arrangement that includes littoral states of Iran, Iraq the countries of Persian Gulf Cooperation Council would be unattainable in a foreseeable future.


"Migration can serve as an outlet for employment, higher earnings, and reduced income risk for households in developing countries. We use the 2004–2005 Human Development Profile of India survey to examine correlations between the receipt of remittances from internal migrants and human capital investment in rural areas. We employ a propensity score–matching approach to account for the selectivity of households into receiving remittances. We interpret the results conservatively due to the cross-sectional nature of the data. We find a positive correlation between remittances received from internal migrants and the schooling attendance of teens. The magnitude of the correlation is greater when focusing on low-caste households, and male schooling attendance in particular becomes more positive and statistically significant. Our findings provide a basis for establishing future research in the areas of migration and social protection in India." from authors' abstract


The paper makes the following novel claims: (1) the semantics of noun–noun compounds which is activated by metaphor and/or metonymy (often termed as "exocentric" compounds in linguistics and generally regarded as semantically opaque) can be accounted for within a cognitive linguistic framework, and the term "creative compound" is proposed for such linguistic phenomena; (2) there are regular patterns of creative compounds, depending on which constituent is affected by conceptual metaphor and/or metonymy. The second part of the paper presents one type of creative compounds: noun–noun combinations whose meaning is influenced by a metaphor-based semantic relationship between the two constituents. Such compounds seem to be quite frequent in English and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: ranging from the "simpler" cases of image metaphors to the more elaborate single scope blends. The paper will give examples of the various types and will provide detailed analyses of each, within a cognitive linguistic framework.


Spray drying is a widely used process step in ceramic technology to
convert fine grained raw powders to free-flowing granules. Type and
amount of the organic additives (dispersants, binders and plasticizers)
define viscosity and stability of the slurry, the granulate structure and
the compaction behaviour.
Alumina and Zirconia powders were characterized with regard to
particle size, shape and specific surface area (BET). Zeta-potential
measurements by Stabino® were used to investigate the effect of
different dispersants on slurry stability. Unfortunately, this method is
restricted to suspensions with less than about 30% by weight of solid
content. The multi-sample analytical centrifuge LUMiSizer® overcomes
this problem. This device enables analysis of the separation behaviour
of suspensions over a wide range of solid content. On the basis of
position and time resolved photometric detection of transmitted light,
it is possible to determine the instability index, the sedimentation
velocity, and the sediment height in dependence of type and amount
of organic additives at various centrifugal accelerations. Additional
information is obtained from the shape of the transmission profiles.
Based on LUMiSizer® measurements, suitable additive concentrations
were derived. Thereby, the number of investigations by viscometry and
spray drying experiments can be significantly reduced.
Finally, it was possible to produce alumina, zirconia and ZTA aqueous
slurries with up to 80 weight-% of solid. The optimized suspensions
were successfully spray dried and the resulted granules show good
compaction behaviour.


Due to the rapid technological development and a globally competitive business environment, creative marketing methods become increasingly important for a unique value proposition. As a result, the aim of this research paper is to critically evaluate the influence of creative thinking on marketing creativity. In order to evaluate this correlation, examples of creative marketing concepts in traditional marketing and online marketing campaigns are examined and analysed in regards to potentially required creative thinking processes. This evaluation led to the conclusion that creative thinking influences marketing creativity in a holistic way by creating experiences, forming relationships, and addressing large audiences in a cost-efficient way.


Generating natural, diverse, and meaningful questions from images is an essential task for multimodal assistants as it confirms whether they have understood the object and scene in the images properly. The research in visual question answering (VQA) and visual question generation (VQG) is a great step. However, this research does not capture questions that a visually-abled person would ask multimodal assistants. Recently published datasets such as KB-VQA, FVQA, and OK-VQA try to collect questions that look for external knowledge which makes them appropriate for multimodal assistants. However, they still contain many obvious and common-sense questions that humans would not usually ask a digital assistant. In this paper, we provide a new benchmark dataset that contains questions generated by human annotators keeping in mind what they would ask multimodal digital assistants. Large scale annotations for thousands of images are expensive and time-consuming, so we also present an effective way of automatically generating questions from unseen images. In this paper, we present an approach for generating diverse and meaningful questions that consider image content and metadata of image (e.g., location, associated keyword). We evaluate our approach using standard evaluation metrics such as BLEU, METEOR, ROUGE, and CIDEr to show the relevance of generated questions with human-provided questions. We also measure the diversity of generated questions using generative strength and inventiveness metrics. We report new state-of-the-art results on the public and our datasets.


Non-wood fibers such as bamboo and wheat straw have been playing important roles in the pulp and paper industry in China. In this study an ECF-bleached bamboo kraft pulp was compared with a bleached softwood kraft pulp (NBSK) as the reinforcement pulp in fine paper production. Areas that were examined include the refining of pure fibers, influence of bamboo on dewatering, retention, and sizing. The influence of bamboo kraft pulp as a part of a furnish replacing NBSK was compared as well. Results show that fiber shortening was more prominent with bamboo when refined. This resulted in a higher amount of fines, and addition wet-end chemicals may be required to compensate. Handsheets with bamboo as a reinforcement fiber showed similar mechanical and optical properties to handsheets containing NBSK.