The acquisition studies reviewed in this paper have clearly shown the importance of research into the learning and teaching of relative clauses. This line of research has led us to question some of our most basic conceptions regarding acquisition, in particular the assumption that students should always be taught easier constructions first. However, at the same time, the projects have highlighted the undeveloped nature of SLA research. The fact that the majority of acquisition studies into relativization rely upon the flawed "linear" method of relative clause teaching is particularly disappointing. It is important that future research strives to incorporate teaching methodology that more closely resembles real-world language usage. It is also disappointing that the projects reviewed concentrated too much on syntactic factors at the expense of pragmatic and semantic elements. Acquisition studies in this area using learners of Korean would be particularly welcome. Despite the universal nature of some of the findings, it is evident that relativization in Korean relies more on pragmatic and semantic factors than in English and also that KFL differs in vital aspects to EFL. We would especially like to test our assumption that elementary learners of Korean would learn relative clauses best by working from left to right along the hierarchy, whereas advanced learners could improve fluency of all positions by being taught relativization on less accessible constituents.


In thinking through the impact of digital media on how frontline workers, activists, practitioners and researchers understand and fight HIV and AIDS, it is important to acknowledge that digital media does not only provide new channels and strategies for communicating information around HIV prevention and education. It also establishes innovative domains for conceiving of, and building, 'resilient communities' like The HIVe. Such digital interventions are cultural assets that confront biomedical and behavioural approaches to HIV prevention and education. Immersive and social technologies, network ubiquity and low cost mobile phones provide new tools for aggregating, representing, collecting and disseminating community-based and led data that 'plays' public health differently. This play involves fore-fronting the success of social science HIV prevention and education against the essentialist logic of dominant biomedical approaches. 'Playing public health' provides an entirely new and comprehensive picture of the agency of the HIV virus that goes beyond the pathology of the individual. This paper proposes the goal of putting HIV prevention back into the 'game' of public health and playing it to win by building The HIVe.


Providing desirable data security, that is, confidentiality, authenticity, and availability, in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is challenging, as a WSN usually consists of a large number of resource constraint sensor nodes that are generally deployed in unattended/hostile environments and, hence, are exposed to many types of severe insider attacks due to node compromise. Existing security designs mostly provide a hop-by-hop security paradigm and thus are vulnerable to such attacks. Furthermore, existing security designs are also vulnerable to many types of denial of service (DoS) attacks, such as report disruption attacks and selective forwarding attacks and thus put data availability at stake. In this paper, we seek to overcome these vulnerabilities for large-scale static WSNs. We come up with a location-aware end-to-end security framework in which secret keys are bound to geographic locations and each node stores a few keys based on its own location. This location-aware property effectively limits the impact of compromised nodes only to their vicinity without affecting end-to-end data security. The proposed multifunctional key management framework assures both node-to-sink and node-to-node authentication along the report forwarding routes. Moreover, the proposed data delivery approach guarantees efficient en-route bogus data filtering and is highly robust against DoS attacks. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed design is highly resilient against an increasing number of compromised nodes and effective in energy savings.


The main purpose of this thesis is to present, discuss and criticize the effect of negative body imagining caused by social media. This will be achieved in part by explaining the history of women and the change of their appearances and Body Mass Index during different times in history. It will also discuss the historical differences of what was considered attractive during those times based on different forms of social media and how it changed from time period to period. Later on in the thesis I will discuss the strong negative influences caused by social media and in the fashion industry. This explains how these two combined forces can causes the average women to view themselves poorly. In comparison to these perfect and unrealistic versions of beauty that media displays and the idea behind the perfect body. Also explaining how this can lead to mental and physical effect on women to fit societies view of perfect. A long with how new technology for designers can change the appearance and look of the actual models, compared to what is being shown to society.


In this work we present a comparison of the current SCIAMACHY and MERIS reflectance calibrations at wavelengths between 442 and 885 nm. For that purpose we, firstly , locate all the SCIAMACHY pixels within a given MERIS image and, secondly, we calculate the median and standard deviation of all the MERIS pixels ( 1000) within each SCIAMACHY pixel. Results show that SCIAMACHY underestimates the reflectance by 13% at 442 nm reaching up to 21% at 885 nm as compared to MERIS.


Measurements of the neutron emission, resulting from nuclear fusion reactions between the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, can provide a wealth of information on the confinement properties of fusion plasmas and how these are affected by Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic (MHD) instabilities.This thesis describes work aimed to develop neutron measurement techniques for nuclear fusion plasma experiments, specifically regarding the performance and design of collimated neutron flux monitors (neutron cameras) for the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak, MAST, and for MAST Upgrade. The first part of the thesis focuses on the characterization of a prototype neutron camera installed at MAST and provides an account of the very first measurements of the neutron emissivity along its collimated fields of view. It is shown that the camera has sufficient temporal and spatial resolution to measure the effect of MHD instabilities on the neutron emissivity. The neutron camera fulfils the requirement on the measurements of the neutron count rate profile with less than 10 % statistical uncertainty in a time resolution of 1 ms. The instrument's more rudimentary capabilities to provide information on the neutron energy distribution are also presented and discussed. The encouraging results obtained with the prototype neutron camera show the potential of a collimated neutron flux monitor at MAST and suggest that an upgraded instrument for MAST Upgrade will provide crucial information on fast ions behavior and other relevant physics issues.The design of such an upgraded instrument for MAST Upgrade is discussed in the second part of the thesis. Two design options are explored, one consisting of two collimator arrays in the horizontal direction, another more traditional design with lines-of-sight in the poloidal cross section plane. On the basis of the experience gained with the prototype neutron camera and on the exploratory design and estimated performance for the upgraded camera presented here, a conceptual design of a neutron camera upgrade is proposed.


Application mobility has been an operating system research topic for many years. Many approaches have been tried and solutions are found across the industry. However, performance remains the main issue and all the efforts are now focused on performant solutions. In this paper, we will discuss a prototype which minimizes the overhead at runtime and the amount of application state. We will examine constraints and requirements to enhance performance. Finally, we will discuss features and enhancements in the Linux kernel needed to implement migration of applications.


The performance of batteries as uninterruptable power sources in any industry cannot be taken for granted. The failures in battery systems of safety-related electric systems can lead to performance deterioration, costly replacement, and, more importantly, serious hazards. The possible failures in battery systems are currently determined through periodic maintenance activities. However, it is desirable to be able to detect the underlying degradation and to predict the level of unsatisfactory performance by an online real-time monitoring system to prevent unexpected failures through early fault diagnosis. Such an online fault diagnosis method can also contribute to better maintenance and optimal battery replacement programs. A robust nonlinear estimator-based online condition monitoring method is proposed to determine the state of health of the battery systems online in industry. Real-world experimental data of a modern battery system are used to assess the efficiency of the proposed approach in the existence of parameter uncertainties.


Abstract Given a set of global (natural) tree parameters measured for many specimens of different ages for a range of species, we have developed a tool that visualizes these parameters over time. The parameters include measures of tree dimensions such as heights, diameters, and crown shape, and measures of costs and benefits for growing the tree. We visualize the tree dimensions by animating tree growth over time, while the accumulated costs and benefits are visualized using animated bar charts. As our vizualisation system is targeted towards application for city planning purposes, the tree growth animation should produce trees of an appearance close to nature while being on conformation with the measured parameters. We have developed a system for single-stemmed trees that creates branching structures for different species, where the local bifurcation and elongation parameters are derived from the globally measured parameters. In addition to the measured data, we use biological knowledge to model general tree growth and to adjust to specific species. We have implemented several computationally fast methods to improve the natural growth and appearance of the trees, where the main task was to keep the tree growth modelling and the tree rendering interactive. Thus, the user can interact with the 3D visualization system during the tree growth modelling and rendering process. We have applied our visualization techniques to the growth and the temporal costs/benefits changes of nine single-stemmed tree species.


Throughout much of human history, changes to forest ecosystems have come about through natural climatic changes occurring over long periods of time. But scientists now find changes in forest cover dramatically accelerated by such human activities as large-scale agriculture, the building of dams and roads, and the growth of cities with vast areas of asphalt. Changes that once took centuries now take only decades. Seeing the Forest and the Trees examines changes in land cover and land use in forested regions as major contributors to global environmental change. It investigates why some forested areas thrive even in the presence of high human densities and activity while others decline and disappear.The book brings together findings from an ongoing, large-scale, multidisciplinary research project undertaken by anthropologists, geographers, economists, sociologists, political scientists, environmental scientists, and biologists in more than twelve countries at over eighty locations. After addressing theory and methodology, including chapters on satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems, and modeling of land-cover change, the book presents case studies that compare data across sites and across temporal and spatial scales. It contributes to Human Dimensions in Global Change research and proposes new directions for this area of study.


The definition of alpha as the difference between a portfolio's returns and those attributable to its expected beta to the market underpins a common belief of an almost axiomatic conviction that alpha and the market returns are completely unrelated. Yet, at least hypothetically, it is quite possible for alpha to be affected by the market returns if there are more opportunities to generate alpha in certain market environments. The article argues that this is indeed the case in the corporate bond market even if tactical beta timing is not allowed. In particular, when security selection is the only possible source of alpha, a consistently skillful corporate bond manager should generate higher alpha in the bear market. This is because cyclical downturns serve as a catalyst for greater credit re-rating which can be profitably exploited. Conversely, the alpha opportunity set consisting of all potentially profitable security selection trades shrinks when there is relatively less credit re-rating as the bull market becomes more entrenched. Unless the use of leverage is permitted, the counter-cyclical fluctuations in the alpha opportunity set support a switch from fixed to floating alpha targets for corporate bond portfolios.


Aim/Purpose This paper reports our implementation of a prototype system, namely PRATO (Proposals Reviewers Automated Taxonomy-based Organization), for automatic assignment of proposals to reviewers based on categorized tracks and partial matching of reviewers' profiles of research interests against proposal keywords. Background The process of assigning reviewers to proposals tends to be a complicated task as it involves inspecting the matching between a given proposal and a reviewer based on different criteria. The situation becomes worse if one tries to automate this process, especially if a reviewer partially matches the domain of the paper at hand. Hence, a new controlled approach is required to facilitate the matching process. Methodology Proposals and reviewers are organized into categorized tracks as defined by a tree of hierarchical research domains which correspond to the university's colleges and departments. In addition, reviewers create their profiles of research interests (keywords) at the time of registration. Initial assignment is based on the matching of categorized sub-tracks of proposal and reviewer. Where the proposal and a reviewer fall under different categories (sub-tracks), assignment is done based on partial matching of proposal content against reviewers' research interests. Jaccard similarity coefficient scores are calculated of proposal keywords and reviewers' profiles of research interest, and the reviewer with highest score is chosen. Evaluation The system was used to automate the process of proposal-reviewer assignment at the Umm Al-Qura University during the 2017-2018 funding cycle. The list of proposal-reviewer assignments generated by the system was sent to human experts for voting and subsequently to make final assignments accordingly. With expert votes and final decisions as evaluation criteria, data system-expert agreements (in terms of "accept" or "reject") were collected and analyzed by tallying PRATO: An Automated Reviewers-Proposals Assignment System 384 frequencies and calculating rejection/acceptance ratios to assess the system's performance. Contribution This work helped the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), a funding agency at Umm Al-Qura University, in managing the process of reviewing proposals submitted for funding. We believe the work can also benefit any organizations or conferences to automate the assignment of papers to the most appropriate reviewers. Findings Our developed prototype, PRATO, showed a considerable impact on the entire process of reviewing proposals at DSR. It automated the assignment of proposals to reviewers and resulted in 56.7% correct assignments overall. This indicates that PRATO performed considerably well at this early stage of its development. Recommendation for Practitioners It is important for funding agencies and publishers to automate reviewing process to obtain better reviewing quality in a timely manner. Recommendations for Researchers This work highlighted a new methodology to tackle the proposal-reviewer assignment task in an automated manner. More evaluation might be needed with consideration of different categories, especially for partially matched candidates. Impact on Society The new methodology and knowledge about factors influencing the implementation of automated proposal-reviewing systems will help funding agencies and publishers to improve the quality of their internal processes. Future Research In the future, we plan to examine PRATO's performance on different classification schemes where specialty areas can be represented in graphs rather than trees. With graph representation, the scope for reviewer selection can be widened to include more general fields of specialty. Moreover, we will try to record the reasons for rejection to identify accurately whether the rejection was due to improper assignment or other reasons.


This thesis presents a framework to automate the process of designing Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) powertrain architectures. An algorithm was developed to assemble and compare all possible configurations of powertrain components. Combinatorics was used to discover all possible combinations of: an internal combustion engine, high-torque lowspeed electric motor, low-torque high-speed electric motor, planetary gearset, and fivespeed discrete gearbox. The Graph Theoretic Method was used to generate the powertrain models. The powertrain models were comprised of steady-state equations in symbolic form. An optimal control strategy is required to fairly compare the different topologies because a powertrain control strategy is dependant on the configuration. Dynamic Programming was used to determine the control law that minimizes the energy consumption for a given drivecycle. Evaluating every possible topology would take an extremely long time, so topologies were evaluated using a multi-stage screening process. The first stage examined the structure of the powertrain and used heuristics to eliminate infeasible topologies; 512 topologies were feasible. The second stage eliminated topologies that could not meet basic driving performance; 193 topologies were feasible. Basic driving performance was tested using a section of the US06 drivecycle. The sizes of three components was optimized to ensure the topology is feasible independent of the size of the components. The third stage eliminated topologies which could not achieve driving performance design goals; 159 could achieve the performance requirements, but only 119 were reasonably fuel efficient. The driving performance goals were implemented with a drivecycle based on the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) goals. The sizes for five components were optimized at this stage. The 20 most fuel efficient powertrains were selected for further evaluation. Additionally, 4 common powertrains were evaluated for reference. The size of the components were optimized for a combination of the PNGV drivecycle and the HWFET drivecycle. The most fuel efficient topology was found to be a Powersplit hybrid which has a discrete gearbox between the final drive and the powersplit device. The electric motor, planetary carrier gear, and gearbox were connected in parallel. It was found that Parallel-like, Powersplit-like, and Complex-like topologies were were the most efficient powertrain configurations. Powertrains containing two gearboxes were more efficient because the geartrain models ignored mechanical inefficiencies.


In this paper we report on the results of a four-year study of how automated tools are used in application development (AD). Drawing on data collected from over 100 projects at 22 sites in 15 Fortune 500 companies, we focus on understanding the relationship between using such automated AD tools and various measures of AD performance—including user satisfaction, labor cost per function point, schedule slippage, and stakeholder-rated effectiveness. Using extensive data from numerous surveys, on-site observations, and field interviews, we found that the direct effects of automated tool use on AD performance were mixed, and that the use of such tools by themselves makes little difference in the results. Further analysis of key intervening factors finds that training, structured methods use, project size, design quality, and focusing on the combined use of AD tools adds a great deal of insight into what contributes to the successful use of automated tools in AD. Despite the many grand predictions of the trade press over the past decade, computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tools failed to emerge as the promised "silver bullet." The mixed effects of CASE tools use on AD performance that we found, coupled with the complex impact of other key factors such as training, methods, and group interaction, suggest that a cautious approach is appropriate for predicting the impact of similar AD tools (e.g., object-oriented, visual environments, etc.) in the future, and highlight the importance of carefully managing the introduction and use of such tools if they are to be used successfully in the modern enterprise.


Many rural and remote communities are struggling to attract and retain GPs while experiencing poorer population health outcomes and burden of disease. Therefore, the provision of a reliable rural GP workforce is vital.

Registered Training Organisations provide high quality training experiences for GP registrars. A collaborative project between JCU and Monash University aimed to identify aspects of GP training which impact registrars' experience. Perspectives were obtained from GP registrars, supervisors, and practice managers. This presentation focuses on training and supervision aspects in rural and remote north-west Queensland.

A mixed methods study was undertaken and both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. A modified survey based on the adapted Critical Access Hospital Community Apgar Questionnaire was used to collect data about perceptions of rural GP training and supervision with the highest rated factor being medical quality and the lowest rated being scope of practice.

Semi-structured interviews were then used to gather additional information about training and supervision experiences. Interviews were thematically analysed and primary themes relating to attractors and barriers for workforce training and supervision, and impact of rural remote practice were elicited. Attractors included lifestyle, rural medicine, scope of practice, services and incentives while barriers included workforce factors, lifestyle, location, services and incentives.

Rural remote GP training experiences contribute a variety of attractors and barriers which impact on a positive training experience for registrars. Identification of these factors make it possible to tailor training accordingly and foster a positive rural experience that may translate to a future reliable workforce.


Water infiltration into soil is one of the basic factors for estimating irrigation intensity according to the plants' requirements; this is aimed at avoiding problems of surface run-off and degradation. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the spatial variation of infiltration and its relationship to some physical properties of soil by means of geostatistical techniques in Typic Plinthaquult soils having average texture and flat relief. A 113-point mesh was designed, having a regular distance of 10 m between points, samples being taken from 0 to 0.20 meters depth. Sand, silt and clay content, bulk density, macroporosity, microporosity and total porosity were determined. Infiltration tests were carried out in the field by means of a 15 cm diameter ring. Descriptive statistics and geostatistics were used for analysing the data. Infiltration, silt and microporosity data did not fit a normal distribution curve. Infiltration had high variability, having an average 36.03 mm h-1. Total porosity was 56.73%, this being the only property that did not show spatial dependency. The smallest ranges were observed for bulk density, macroporosity and microporosity, having values of less than 40 m. The smallest degrees of spatial dependence were observed for infiltration, silt and clay, evidence also being shown of the influence of silt and clay on infiltration rate. Contour maps were constructed; fitting them to the semivariogram models, together with studying the correlations, led to establishing relationships between the properties.


This article discusses two contributions to decision-making in complex partially observable stochastic games. First, we apply two state-of-the-art search techniques that use Monte-Carlo sampling to the task of approximating a Nash-Equilibrium (NE) in such games, namely Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and Monte-Carlo Counterfactual Regret Minimization (MCCFR). MCTS has been proven to approximate a NE in perfect-information games. We show that the algorithm quickly finds a reasonably strong strategy (but not a NE) in a complex imperfect information game, i.e. Poker. MCCFR on the other hand has theoretical NE convergence guarantees in such a game. We apply MCCFR for the first time in Poker. Based on our experiments, we may conclude that MCTS is a valid approach if one wants to learn reasonably strong strategies fast, whereas MCCFR is the better choice if the quality of the strategy is most important.

Our second contribution relates to the observation that a NE is not a best response against players that are not playing a NE. We present Monte-Carlo Restricted Nash Response (MCRNR), a sample-based algorithm for the computation of restricted Nash strategies. These are robust bestresponse strategies that (1) exploit non-NE opponents more than playing a NE and (2) are not (overly) exploitable by other strategies. We combine the advantages of two state-of-the-art algorithms, i.e. MCCFR and Restricted Nash Response (RNR). MCRNR samples only relevant parts of the game tree. We show that MCRNR learns quicker than standard RNR in smaller games. Also we show in Poker that MCRNR learns robust best-response strategies fast, and that these strategies exploit opponents more than playing a NE does.


This project was commissioned by DasCoin in the summer of 2017. Z/Yen's Long Finance project team reviewed the limited literature on the topic to produce four discussion papers that described the issues and explored some potential ways of addressing them.

On 4 October 2017, Long Finance held a symposium to explore the discussion papers in the ornate Main Reception Room at Chartered Accountants' Hall in London. The 28 participants had wide ranging backgrounds and interests. They included representatives from regulators, professional associations, external audit firms, technology companies, and academia.

This report includes the background information chapters on Auditing Distributed Ledgers, Auditing Distributed Data, Auditing Distributed 'Smarts', and Auditing Consortium Blockchain Systems, along with a brief summary of the symposium discussions. The final chapter makes suggestions for the audit profession to address.


Existence, functionality and sustainability of the interbank deposit market significantly determinate bank's asset and liability management (ALM) potentials and thus an overall banking sector performance. Among other numerous factors in the banking business, key roles of the interbank deposit market like availability of short-term liquidity sources, ensuring investment and lending opportunities as well as allowing hedging potentials, considerably contribute to commercial bank's risk – return profile formation. In such a manner, the research objectives of this paper are twofold and include theoretical explanation and empirical examination of the impact of the interbank deposit market development to Croatian banking system performance. In addition, key relations between the interbank deposit market and connected risks are imbedded in developed model. Direct dependence of Croatian banking sector's sustainable development on the interbank deposit market's stability is evidenced on the empirical data from the 2002-2009, with remark that the presence of high-rated foreign owned banks significantly decreased related risks. Even in the absence of the extreme risk events on the interbank deposit market, Croatian banking system is constantly vulnerable on the systemic risk in a form of fund transfer prices' growth. Therefore, empirical results of this research and presented conclusions might be useful for management structures of commercial banks as well as for the national banking authorities.


The synthesis of complexity and nonlinear science with evolutionary theory informs both functional neuroscience and psychotherapeutic exploration of conscious and unconscious processes. The nonlinear dynamical systems approach allows psychiatric practitioners to shift from categorical diagnostic and treatment algorithms to integrative process models of individual and group dynamics. Dynamical systems therapy (DST) represents a complexity derived application that conceptualizes individuals as Complex Adaptive Systems with emergent properties of subjective and cultural experience. It puts self-organization and flexible adaptation to changing environmental demands at the cornerstone of psychological health. Within the DST model, recurrent patterns of feeling, thinking and relating can be analysed by using modified fitness diagrams (adaptive A-landscapes), which integrate objective, subjective and intersubjective clinical data. This approach allows to chart the patient's unique life trajectory through attractor/repellor configurations and reveals a paradigm shift from reductionism towards systemic psychobiology conceptualized as an integrative scientific perspective that incorporates emergent levels of psychobiological complexity.


Formalized orientation can prepare and socialize nurse educators for academic roles, increasing job satisfaction and retention. This article describes a community college nursing faculty orientation program that includes goals, pre- and post-assessment, a group-determined instructional plan, support and mentoring, and outcomes evaluation. Posttest scores showed that at program completion, perceived teaching competency was either the same or greater in all identified skill areas (increase of 40% to 60% above the original group baseline). Nurse educator participants reported that the program contributed to their overall perception of support and satisfaction with academia, with open group discussion times rated highest. At the end of 3 years, 91% of novice faculty (n=11) were retained.


Jatropha and Pongamia are a potential source of biodiesel and grow in a wide range of agroclimatic zones and soil conditions. Data and knowledge available on water requirement of Jatropha and Pongamia are very scarce. Crop coefficients are important parameters used for assessing water requirement and irrigation scheduling. In the present study, crop coefficients of Jatropha and Pongamia were estimated using water balance approach. Temporal data on soil moisture at different depths in block plantations of Jatropha and Pongamia at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi‐Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) farm, Patancheru in India, were collected at 15 days interval between 2007 and 2010. Measured soil moisture data were analyzed using one‐dimensional water balance model. Results showed that annual water requirement of Jatropha is 750 mm and of Pongamia is about 950 mm in semi‐arid tropics. Crop coefficients of Jatropha ranged from 0.10 to 0.95 and of Pongamia from 0.30 to 1.10 depending on plant growth stage in different months. ICRISAT received 820 mm of rainfall in a normal year (data between 2001 and 2010) during the monsoon, of which 52% (430 mm) contributed to evapotranspiration (ET), 34% (280 mm) was stored in soil, and 14% (110 mm) was lost through surface runoff. Stored soil moisture during monsoon season was subsequently utilized by the Jatropha and 270 mm converted into ET during nonmonsoonal period. Pongamia utilized stored soil moisture more effectively than Jatropha as it could remove water from deeper soil layers even at high levels of soil moisture suction.


Planning by Rewriting (PbR) is a new paradigm for efficient high-quality planning that exploits plan rewriting rules and efficient local search techniques to transform an easy-to-generate, but possibly suboptimal, initial plan into a high-quality plan. Despite the advantages of PbR in terms of scalability, plan quality, and anytime behavior, PbR requires the user to define a set of domain-specific plan rewriting rules which can be difficult and time-consuming. This paper presents an approach to automatically learning the plan rewriting rules based on comparing initial and optimal plans. We report results for several planning domains showing that the learned rules are competitive with manually-specified ones, and in several cases the learning algorithm discovered novel rewriting rules.


Questions with quantifiers such as 'Which book did every student read?' can receive a pair-list reading, but the availability of this reading depends on the quantifier, as well as the environment of the question (matrix or embedded under various predicates), with possible interactions between these factors. The details of these interactions have been a subject of debate in the literature. We tested the acceptability of pair-list readings with 5 quantifiers (most, two, no, every, and fewer than three) in 4 different environments (matrix, find out, be certain, and wonder). Our results confirm that the availability of pair-list interpretations for questions with quantifiers depends heavily on both the quantifier and the environment in which the question appears, and more specifically that there is a qualitative divide between responsive and rogative predicates, not between intensional and extensional predicates.


Abstract
In this essay, three hard facts of soft social systems are identified, intended to inform instructional designers and designers of organizational change efforts. The facts are gleaned out of an elaboration of Boulding's nine-level typology of system complexity. The need for these hard facts is great, given the failure of many well-intentioned reform efforts to positively impact schools and organizations.

In brief, the three facts are as follows.  First, things are designable--mass, space, time, and organization goals (cf. Boulding's levels 1-3).  Second, people are not designable. A person's behavior is determined by internally prescribed criteria (level 4: cell), generally predictable by Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, but increasingly variable with each individual/person/ system member (e.g., employee, student, teacher, parent) because people differ (level 5: plant, genetic variety). They act according to their own immediate perceptions (level 6: animal, sensory perceptors), and their own long term reflections and choices (level 7: human, symbol processing).  The third fact is: It is natural, biological, and scientific law that people will behave to meet their individual and personal needs before their social system or organization's needs (levels 8 and 9). Level 8 systems (social) are optional; level 7 functioning is mandatory.  A person can transfer schools (level 8), but cannot transfer bodies (level 7).

Implications are that effective instructional and organization designers put all their attention to the designable components of a social system: space (e.g., buildings, rooms, book shelves, books and equipment), time (e.g., school and classroom routines, schedules and calendars), school and classroom goals (e.g., classroom projects, school mission statements, etc.); and ratios and flows of resources. Effective designers fashion these designable components as attractors, to attract system members.  These attractors function to allow system members to meet individual/personal goals as first priority, and organization goals as second priority.  Contribution to systemic change theory is a new systemic approach, referred to and named here as systemic renewal.  Systemic renewal is defined here as systemic change efforts with goals of facilitating each system member to learn and grow at his or her own pace. The ISSS Morning RoundTable is a practice that corresponds to the goals of systemic renewal.


BACKGROUND
Scaling up treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a global health priority. However, current treatment regimens are long and associated with side effects, and default rates are consequently high. This systematic review aimed to identify strategies for reducing treatment default.

METHODS
We conducted a systematic search up to May 2012 to identify studies describing interventions to support patients receiving treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The potential influence of study interventions were explored through subgroup analyses.

RESULTS
A total of 75 studies provided outcomes for 18 294 patients across 31 countries. Default rates ranged from 0.5% to 56%, with a pooled proportion of 14.8% (95%CI 12.4-17.4). Strategies identified to be associated with lower default rates included the engagement of community health workers as directly observed treatment (DOT) providers, the provision of DOT throughout treatment, smaller cohort sizes and the provision of patient education.

CONCLUSION
Current interventions to support adherence and retention are poorly described and based on weak evidence. This review was able to identify a number of promising, inexpensive interventions feasible for implementation and scale-up in MDR-TB programmes. The high default rates reported from many programmes underscore the pressing need to further refine and evaluate simple intervention packages to support patients.


Reactive synthesis, where a finite-state system is automatically generated from its specification, is a particularly ambitious way to engineer correct-by-construction systems. In this paper, we propose implementation-extraction based on computational learning of Boolean functions as a final synthesis step in order to obtain small and fast circuits for realizable specifications in a symbolic way. Our starting point is a restriction of the system player's choices in a synthesis game such that all remaining strategies are winning. Such games are used in most symbolic synthesis tools, and hence, our technique is not tied to one specific synthesis workflow, but rather supports a large variety of these. We present several variants of our implementation-learning approach, including one based on Bshouty's monotone theory. The key idea is the efficient use of the system player's freedom in the game. Our experimental results show a significant reduction of implementation size compared to previous methods, while maintaining reasonable computation times.


Porcupine Strand, on the central coast of Labrador, has experienced dramatic landscape changes since deglaciation: sea level has fallen over 110m; the former nearshore seabed now lies exposed, forming the coastal lowlands; powerful glacier-fed braided rivers flowed across the northern lowlands, carrying sand and gravel to the sea; with sea-level change, the coastline configuration has evolved from a large indented embayment to a relatively straight shoreline. Although most of this landscape change occurred quite rapidly during the two or three millennia following deglaciation, considerable change must have been witnessed by humans since they first occupied the Strand over 7200 ¹⁴C BP. Perhaps the most notable of these were changes in sea level and related coastline displacement, climate variability and its impact on landscape processes (e.g., coastal erosion, sand dune activity), and vegetation change. Because prehistoric cultures relied heavily on marine resources and located their habitation sites close to the active shoreline, the position of ancient shorelines is critical in planning archaeological surveys and interpreting site function in the context of local environment and landscape. -- The primary objectives of this research are: (1) to refine postglacial relative sea-level history using new radiocarbon-dated geological and archaeological samples; (2) to reconstruct palaeoshoreline elevation and configuration for selected time slices using relative sea-level records, topography and mapped raised marine features; and (3) to interpret the local landscape context of archaeological sites preserved in sand dunes and on raised beaches. -- Two 1:50,000 scale surficial geology maps (13H114 E and Wand 13I/3 W) were prepared from aerial photograph interpretation and limited field mapping as baseline data for the study. Glaciofluvial sand and gravel, deposited in front of the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet, constitute a large proportion of the surficial sediment in the map area. Coastal exposures, extending tens of kilometres along the Strand, reveal thick deposits of glaciomarine mud and sand overlying rare occurrences of till and bedrock. Glaciomarine sediments were deposited by glacier-fed meltwater streams onto the glacioisostatically depressed coastal lowlands, forming Hjulstrom type deltas. Raised shorelines were identified up to 116 m above present sea level. Fossiliferous mud and sand underlie much of the coastal lowlands, and in places is obscured by bog. Organic samples (4 shell, 2 driftwood) from raised marine sediments were collected for radiocarbon dating. They range in age from 30 to 8820 ¹⁴C BP. Aeolian deflation of emerged glaciomarine sand has resulted in the development of dune systems discontinuously along the entire Strand. Radiocarbon dates on buried soils (n=10) and peaty horizons (n=2) in the dunes range between 40 and 3000 ¹⁴C BP and indicate periodic cycles of stabilization and reactivation. Coastal hills and upland surfaces consist mostly of exposed or concealed bedrock having only minor till cover. -- Holocene marine limit elevation declines from 116 m in the south to 98 m above sea level (asl) in the north. The establishment of marine limit is estimated to be between 9000 and 8000 ¹⁴C BP based on a marine shell date in the south and a previously published age on the isolation of a freshwater basin to the north, respectively. Initial emergence was rapid in the south at 6.4 m/century until 7000 ¹⁴C BP, when relative sea level dropped below the modem shoreline. No data are available to reconstruct the submerged interval of sea-level history. Farther north, initial emergence was slightly slower at 4.6 m/century until 6000-7000 ¹⁴C BP. After this time the relative sea-level record is poorly constrained and may represent either continued slow emergence to present or emergence followed by submergence. This latter scenario is supported by the apparent absence of raised marine deposits in the age range 30 to 6750 ¹⁴C BP and evidence for recent coastal submergence (e.g. coastal cliff recession). -- Many archaeological sites are located on raised beaches. All prehistoric groups are represented by sites within 15 m of sea level. No obvious pattern is identified between site age and elevation; however this may be explained by the small change in the relative sea level position over the last 6000 to 7000 ¹⁴C BP. If sites older than 7000 ¹⁴C BP are present, they should occur on shorelines higher than 15 m asl. The position and configuration of these shorelines are reconstructed using the refined sea-level history and available topographic data for the Strand. These shorelines tend to be highly embayed in contrast to the relatively straight shorelines of the last 7000 ¹⁴C BP or so. These reconstructed coastal landscapes should help refine search strategies for older archaeological site on the Strand. -- The oldest radiocarbon-dated soil suggests that sand dune development has primarily occurred over the last 3000 ¹⁴C BP. Buried soils and peat horizons overlie strongly indurated marine and glaciomarine sediments. These sediments are the likely source of the aeolian sand. Twelve radiocarbon-dated buried soils and peat indicate eight periods of dune re-vegetation and stabilization in the last 500 ¹⁴C BP, which were likely due to changing local conditions (e.g., aridity, forest fires, and human activity). -- Over half of the archaeological sites recorded on the Strand are exposed in sand dunes through deflation. As a result, much of the artifact evidence and related cultural features (e.g., fire hearths) are reworked onto the bottoms of blowouts and have lost their stratigraphic context. Archaeological sites were located in four blowouts which also contain dated soil horizons. Generally, there is weak correspondence between the interpreted age of the cultural material and the radiocarbon-dated soil horizons exposed in blowout walls. This is thought to reflect the locally variable and complex dune stratigraphy. Caution is therefore advised in using dated soil horizons in sand dunes to define cultural history of local archaeological sites along the Strand.


In Arun the Constitutional Court held that section 28 of the Land Use Planning Ordinance (LUPO) vests all land indicated as public roads on a development plan in the local authority upon approval of such a plan. This includes land that is in excess of the normal need of the development. The appellant must hence be compensated for the "expropriation" of such excess land if the provision is to comply with section 25(2) of the Constitution . This ruling is problematic for both expropriation law and administrative law. In terms of section 25(2) four objections may be raised against the Arun decision. Firstly, it disregards the function of the public interest requirement for expropriation, as understood in view of the law-of-general-application requirement (which, in turn, is informed by the legality principle). The state cannot expropriate property for purposes that are ultra vires (or ulterior to) the authorising legislation. Yet the Arun court seems to allow just this by permitting the local authority to acquire land unrelated to the normal need of the development against payment of compensation instead of setting the attempted expropriation aside. The judgment, secondly, ignores the role of compensation under section 25(2). Merely paying compensation to an affected party cannot turn an invalid expropriation into a valid one, since compensation is merely the result of a valid expropriation and not a justification for it. Thirdly, it makes the distinction between deprivation and expropriation pivot on the effect of the property limitation, which is unable to properly distinguish between these two forms of limitation in all instances. Finally, Moseneke DCJ's ruling seems to afford an election to litigants who are affected by materially defective expropriations to choose whether to accept the expropriation and claim compensation or to have it reviewed and set aside under PAJA. This election, if it indeed exists, subverts the principles of expropriation law and may have negative repercussions for both expropriation law and administrative law, especially in view of the single-system-of-law principle. From an administrative law perspective the authors identify four considerations that could assist courts in determining whether administrative law should be considered, if not applied, in a given case. The first is the internal coherency of the law in view of the subsidiarity principles. The subsidiarity principles provide guidelines for courts to decide cases where two fundamental rights might be applicable. A principled approach is necessary in this context to ensure that the law operates as a single system and displays the positive characteristics of such a system. The fact that Moseneke DCJ preferred to award compensation to Arun instead of reviewing the expropriation under PAJA runs contrary to these principles and seems to result in an outcome which endorses – instead of prevents – administrative injustice. Secondly, the Constitutional Court's refusal to follow PAJA by reason of its being onerous on the appellant contradicts earlier case law where the Court held that time-periods under the Act cannot be circumvented by reason of their being burdensome. The rationale behind these time-periods is integral to securing administrative justice, since time-periods are not merely formalistic technicalities. Thirdly, the authors argue that a green-light approach to internal remedies could have resulted in the broadening of the interpretative context and recognition of the legitimate role of the public administration in the state. Finally, deference as understood by Dyzenhaus also exemplifies why administrative law should not be ignored in cases which concern the exercise of public power. According to Dyzenhaus, deference requires courts to actively participate in the justification of administrative decisions by asking whether the administration's "reasoning did in fact and also could in principle justify the conclusion reached".


2013 News Literacyeracy Leaders Conference Photos (Hi-Resolution Photographs) 480 x 6401/15 sec / 2.86 mm ISO 500 Canon PowerShot SX110 IS


BACKGROUND
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common pathological arrhythmia in horses. After successful treatment, recurrence is common. Heart rate monitors are easily applicable in horses and some devices offer basic heart rate variability (HRV) calculations. If HRV can be used to distinguish between AF and sinus rhythm (SR), this could become a monitoring tool for horses at risk for recurrence of AF.

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to assess whether in horses AF (before cardioversion) and SR (after cardioversion) can be differentiated based upon HRV parameters.

STUDY DESIGN
Cohort study with internal controls.

METHODS
Six HRV parameters were determined in 20 horses, both in AF and in SR, at rest (2- and 5-min and 1- and 4-h recordings) and during exercise (walk and trot, 2-min recordings). Time-domain (standard deviation of the NN intervals, root mean squared successive differences in NN intervals and triangular index), frequency domain (low/high frequency ratio) and nonlinear parameters (standard deviation of the Poincaré plot [SD]1 and SD2) were used. Statistical analysis was done using paired Wilcoxon signed rank tests and receiver operating characteristic curves.

RESULTS
HRV was higher during AF compared to SR. Results for the detection of AF were good (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0.8-1) for most HRV parameters. Root mean squared successive differences in NN intervals and SD1 yielded the best results (AUC 0.9-1). Sensitivity and specificity were high for all parameters at all recordings, but highest during exercise. Although AUCs improved with longer recordings, short recordings were also good (AUC 0.8-1) for the detection of AF. In horses with frequent second degree atrioventricular block, HRV at rest is increased and recordings at walk or trot are recommended.

MAIN LIMITATIONS
Animals served as their own controls and there was no long-term follow-up to identify AF recurrence.

CONCLUSIONS
AF (before cardioversion) and SR (after cardioversion) could be distinguished with HRV. This technique has promise as a monitoring tool in horses at risk for AF development.


Massive hemorrhage is associated with coagulopathy and high mortality. The transfusion guidelines up to 2006 recommended that resuscitation of massive hemorrhage should occur in successive steps using crystalloids, colloids, and red blood cells (RBCs) in the early phase and plasma and platelets in the late phase. With the introduction of the cell-based model of hemostasis in the mid-1990s, our understanding of the hemostatic process and of coagulopathy has improved. This has contributed to a change in resuscitation strategy and transfusion therapy of massive hemorrhage along with an acceptance of the adequacy of whole blood hemostatic tests to monitor these patients. Thus, in 2005, a strategy aiming at avoiding coagulopathy by proactive resuscitation with blood products in a balanced ratio of RBC:plasma:platelets was introduced, and this has been reported to be associated with reduced mortality in observational studies. Concurrently, whole blood viscoelastic hemostatic assays have gained acceptance by allowing a rapid and timely identification of coagulopathy along with enabling an individualized, goal-directed transfusion therapy. These strategies joined together seem beneficial for patient outcome, although final evidence on outcome from randomized controlled trials are lacking. We present how we in Copenhagen and Houston, today, manage patients with massive hemorrhage.


Terrorist groups repeatedly include operatives of varying commitment and often rely on a common set of security-reducing bureaucratic tools to manage these individuals. This is puzzling in that covert organizations are commonly thought to screen their operatives very carefully and pay a particularly heavy price for record keeping. The authors use terrorist memoirs and the internal correspondence of one particularly prominent group to highlight the organizational challenges terrorist groups face and use a game-theoretic model of moral hazard in a finitely sized organization to explain why record keeping and bureaucracy emerge in these groups. The model provides two novel results. First, in small heterogeneous organizations longer institutional memory can enhance organizational efficiency. Second, such organizations will use worse agents in equilibrium under certain conditions. The core logic is that in small organizations the punishment strategies that allow leaders to extract greater effort are credible only when operatives can identify and react to deviations from the leaders' equilibrium strategy. This dynamic creates incentives for record keeping and means that small organizations will periodically use problematic agents in equilibrium as part of a strategy that optimally motivates their best operatives.


Ensuring identity, purity, and reproducibility are equally essential during synthetic chemistry, drug discovery, and for pharmaceutical product safety. Many peptidic APIs are large molecules that require considerable effort for integrity assurance. This study builds on quantum mechanical 1H iterative Full Spin Analysis (HiFSA) to establish NMR peptide sequencing methodology that overcomes the intrinsic limitations of principal compendial methods in identifying small structural changes or minor impurities that affect effectiveness and safety. HiFSA sequencing yields definitive identity and purity information concurrently, allowing for API quality assurance and control (QA/QC). Achieving full peptide analysis via NMR building blocks, the process lends itself to both research and commercial applications as 1D 1H NMR (HNMR) is the most sensitive and basic NMR experiment. The generated HiFSA profiles are independent of instrument or software tools and work at any magnetic field strength. Pairing with absolute or 100% qHNMR enables quantification of mixtures and/or determination of peptide conformer populations. Demonstration of the methodology uses single amino acids (AAs) and peptides of increasing size, including the octapeptide, angiotensin II, and the nonapeptide, oxytocin. The feasibility of HiFSA coupled with automated NMR and qHNMR for use in QC/QA efforts is established through case-based examples and recommended procedures.


Abstract Coccolithophores, among which Emiliania huxleyi is the most abundant and widespread species, are considered the most productive calcifying organism on earth. The export of organic carbon and calcification are the main drivers of the biological CO2 pump and are expected to change with oceanic acidification. Coccolithophores are further known to produce transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) that promote particle aggregation. As a result, the TEP and biogenic calcium carbonate (CaCO3) contribute to the export of carbon from the surface ocean to deep waters. In this context, we followed the development and the decline of E. huxleyi using batch experiments with monospecific cultures. We studied the link between different processes such as photosynthesis, calcification and the production of TEP. The onset of calcification was delayed in relation to photosynthesis. The timing and the general feature of the dynamics of calcification were closely related to the saturation state of seawater with respect to calcite, Ωcal. The production of TEP was enhanced after the decline of phytoplankton growth. After nutrient exhaustion, particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration increased linearly with increasing TEP concentration, suggesting that TEP contributes to the POC increase. The production of CaCO3 is also strongly correlated with that of TEP, suggesting that calcification may be considered as a source of TEP precursors.


Perinatal asphyxia is still a major cause of mortality and morbidity despite significant improvements in neonatal intensive care. The incidence of perinatal asphyxia is 6/1000 in term infants, and it is the third leading cause of death after prematurity and sepsis. Perinatal asphyxia is an important cause of permanent damage to the central nervous system which may result in cerebral palsy and developmental disability later on. It can also affect renal, gastrointestinal, and hepatic systems and may cause severe non-reversible sequelae. Therefore, management of asphyxic new-borns, appropriate resuscitation, and planning of follow-up and treatment by an experienced team are helpful to reduce mortality and morbidity. Herein, we report a severe asphyxiated newborn in the light of literature review.


The characteristics of carers in successful foster placements are identified to enable targeting them through customised marketing and recruitment campaigns. A longitudinal study with seventy-five carers was conducted over twenty months. Eleven instances of placement breakdown were compared to placements that did not break down. Several personal and family factors were identified as increasing the likelihood of foster-placement success, including higher cognitive empathy of the carer, a high level of social support from family, a high-quality carer-partner relationship, higher levels of care-giving and role-carer demand satisfaction, and a good match, fewer conflicts and better relationship between the carer and foster child. Conflicts between the carer and the child mediate the association between carer-partner relationship quality and carer satisfaction with role demands. Findings have important practical implications: additional evaluations should be conducted during screening processes with a focus on the key markers of placement success identified in this study; more emphasis should be placed on developing support networks amongst carers' friends and family; and greater involvement of carer partners in screening and training processes is of key importance.


Farmer-herder conflicts are enduring features of social life in the Sudano-Sahelian zone. A survey was carried out between August and December 2004 in four sites in Niger, namely Bokki, Katanga, Sabon Gida and Tountoube to determine the proximate and long-term causes of conflict over natural resource use, to evaluate the appropriateness of existing institutional arrangements for managing conflicts and identify innovative options and incentives to reduce the incidence and severity of conflicts. The research was implemented in three phases: (1) collection of village and household level socioeconomic information, (2) social network mapping, and (3) collection of conflict history and conflict management strategies. Additionally, governmental and NGO agencies in Niamey that address conflict management and/or resolution at the regional and national levels were interviewed. The research employed both quantitative and qualitative survey instruments. Surveys collected information on: historical micro-geographies of cropping and herding in the area encompassing village territory; local day-to-day relationships between transhumance herders, settled herders, and farming households at the study site; nodes of communication under different types of disagreements and negotiative settings; documentation of past conflicts and role of government officials, customary authorities and NGOs in conflict management. Results from this study showed that in all sites, damage to crops was the first reported cause of conflict between farmers and herders. Crop damage is not limited to damage to growing crops on the field but also included unauthorized grazing of crop residues after harvest. Other causes of conflict reported were access to watering points, expansion of crop fields across corridors for animal passage and thefts of animal. The ability of rural communities to prevent and manage conflict is largely based on the strength of networks of communication between herding and farming interests, respected community leaders, and leaders in neighboring communities. Overall, the local institutional arrangements are functional and a high percentage of conflicts are effectively managed at local levels. In all the study sites except Bokki, there was a high level of involvement of internal mediators.


This thesis approaches securitization of mortgage loans. In particular, the foremost objective of the thesis is to conduct a theoretical examination of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs). The analysis of mortgages and mortgage-related securities gets complicated due to uncertainty concerning the amount and timing of the prepayment element of cash flows from mortgages. This thesis therefore examines how prepayments are dealt with in the valuation of such securities. The thesis also conducts a numerical illustration of the state-of-the-art valuation methodology – the Monte Carlo simulation model.


The preference of running as a form of exercise exposes more recreational athletes to the risk of injury. Stress fractures occur for 0.7-20% of all running injuries (Wilder & Sethi, 2004) and 24-50% of stress fractures occur in the tibia (Aweid, Aweid, Talibi, & Porter, 2013). Stress fractures have been associated with high vertical impact peaks while running (Willy & Davis, 2013) so methods such as barefoot running and minimalist shoes aim to reduce these impact peaks by enforcing a more forefoot running pattern. Shoes with a lower drop height have been shown to induce a more forefoot running pattern without the discomfort of running barefoot or in non-cushioned minimalist shoes (Horvais & Samozino, 2012). The purpose of this study was to compare ankle joint kinematics, dorsiflexor muscle activity, and tibial axial acceleration while wearing low and high heel-drop shoes. Six female participants (19.8(1.0) years, 163.0(3.8) cm, and 60.4(5.5) kg) who ran a minimum of 10 miles per week provided informed consent prior to testing. Participants were equipped with a 16g BioNomadix tri-axial accelerometer attached to the tibia, a Bi-axial electrogoniometer attached at the ankle, two Ag-AgCl surface electrodes attached to the tibialis anterior with adhesive discs, one reference electrode placed on the anteromedial aspect of the tibia (not above a muscle), and a heart rate monitor. Participants completed two data running trials at a target effort of 65-70% of the heart rate reserve. Trials were performed in different shoes (drop heights 4mm(S1) and 11.7mm(S2)) with a minimum 10-minute rest between trials. Paired t-tests were used to compare conditions for each variable. Mean ankle angles at ground contact (S1=100.9(3.8)°, S2=102.6(3.0)°) were not significantly different (t(5)=-1.465, p=0.203) and had a small effect size (Cohen d=0.598). Mean peak tibial accelerations (S1=5.22(2.51g), S2=5.90(2.90)g) were not significantly different (t(5)=-1.238, p=0.271) and had a small effect size (Cohen d=0.505). The mean percentages of maximal EMG for the tibialis anterior (S1=66.2(45.7)%, S2=55.6(38.5)%) were not significant (t(5)=1.380, p=0.226) and had a small effect size (Cohen d=0.563). Though differences were observed between shoe conditions for each participant, the shoe drop height did not significantly affect the measured variables and cannot be assumed to be responsible for these observed differences.


Although recent studies of individual accessibility have used detailed representations of urban street networks, unrealistic measures of travel time based on assumptions about constant travel speeds through the network were often used. Utilizing constant travel times does not allow for daily congestion and assumes that the effects of congestion are uniform throughout the city and affect all people equally. This research measures individual space-time accessibility in order to show that the incorporation of locally specific travel times within a street network allows a significant increase in the ability to realistically evaluate individual accessibility within cities. The results show that the accessibility of individuals within cities is not homogenous, and neither does access to employment or shopping opportunities vary according to common expectations about urban form and human behavior. Instead, the role of distance in predicting accessibility variations within cities is quite limited. This article also shows that incorporating time into accessibility measures in the form of congestion and business hours leads to additional (and highly spatially uneven) reductions in accessibility, revealing that the temporal dimension is very important to accurately assessing individual accessibility.


Methodologically innovative in its use of mixed-media diary research, this timely book offers a focused sociological study of non-binary people's identities and experiences in the UK. From negotiating a sense of legitimacy when 'not feeling trans enough' to how identities can shift over time, it reveals important nuances of diverse gender identities while offering crucial insights into trans-related healthcare inequalities. The findings of this ground-breaking research mark an important contribution to the wider fields of gender studies, LGBTQ scholarship and medical policy.


This thesis reports on a study exploring the academic writing practices of sixteen women postgraduate research students in a UK university in the first two years of their research journeys. An emerging body of empirical work has focussed on the rhetorical features of postgraduate students' written texts such as the thesis, but less work has explored the range of writing that postgraduate writers do or their experiences of writing. A key dimension to such experience is that of gender and a key goal of the thesis is to explore the ways in which postgraduate writing can be considered a gendered practice.

The methodology involves a social practice approach, using ethnographic methods, including interviews, written texts, field notes and images to investigate the participants' writing and the contexts and relationships that frame their writing.

Findings in the thesis are presented in two ways: firstly, by recording and categorising the written texts that the students are producing in the first two years of their research qualifications, secondly in the form of a series of writing tales (from Lather, 1991). The use of 'tales' as an analytical unit and as a form of representation is the primary mechanism through which parts of the data are drawn together to foreground participants' stories about their experiences of academic writing. These tales draw attention to the significance of both occluded and more institutionally visible writing and represent the struggles and tensions the women experienced as developing researchers and writers.

This thesis contributes to knowledge in three key ways: 1) by extending the empirical base through the documentation of the range of postgraduate writing; 2) by illuminating the gendered nature of postgraduate research writing practices; 3) by demonstrating the significance of place and space to academic writing and the specific ways in which these are reinvented.


Retro and Vintage are buzzwords that include 1930s Jagermeister, 1950s Roberts DAB Radio, and 1970s G Plan Furniture. While Eames Lounge Chairs, Levis 501, or Chanel N- 5 have always been popular and evolved into style icons, other products and styles were (almost) forgotten. Rediscovered in recent years, some of them have made a comeback, reaching unprecedented levels of popularity today and becoming part of a hip lifestyle. This volume presents a wide range of products that are back in the limelight in their original version, or with modern technology behind the old exterior. Furthermore, the selection also includes new products that draw on styles from the past as well as modified relaunches and new editions. Whether regarding food, technology, fashion or transportation, it is a celebration of nostalgia that makes reference to bygone times.


In this paper we present evidence on the relationship between mental health and unemployment among Polish youth. The literature establishes links between mental health and unemployment, but the evidence concerning youths is scarce. We utilize 2010/2011 World Mental Health Survey that contains detailed information on the prevalence of psychiatric diseases and mental disorders in Poland. We compare health distributions in terms of both inequality and welfare relying on methods for ordinal data developed recently. We find that youth employed generally have better health status than youth unemployed, but the differences are very small when it comes to more detailed questions concerning mood (i.e. sadness, anxiety, anger). To observe substantial differences between two populations, one needs to ask even more detailed questions concerning personal feelings. Clear differences, however, emerge for social interactions and undertaking own initiative. Here employed present unambiguously better than unemployed.


With the ascendency of English as a global lingua franca, a clearer understanding of what constitutes intelligible speech is needed. However, research systematically investigating the threshold of intelligibility has been very limited. In this article, we provide a brief summary of the literature as it pertains to intelligible and comprehensible speech, and then report on an exploratory study seeking to determine what specific features of accented speech make it difficult for global listeners to process. Eighteen speakers representing six English varieties were recruited to provide speech stimuli for two English listening tests. Sixty listeners from the same six English varieties took part in the listening tests, and their scores were then assessed against measurable segmental, prosodic, and fluency features found in the speech samples. Results indicate that it is possible to identify particular features of English speech varieties that are most likely to lead to a breakdown in communication, and that the number of such features present in a particular speakers' speech can predict intelligibility.


A 73-year-old man presented with a 4-month history of increasing low-back pain. Upon physical examination, deep tendon reflex and muscle strength of both lower limbs were normal, but paraesthesia on his left thigh was observed. A plain lumbar spinal radiograph showed a compression fracture within the L2 vertebra and absent pedicle sign at both L1 and L2. Because a spinal tumour was suspected, magnetic resonance imaging was performed, which revealed a loculated cystic mass with multivesicular lesions in the thoracolumbar spine (figure …


A 69-year-old man underwent minimal incision mitral valve repair for severe symptomatic mitral regurgitation. The echocardiography showed that he had normal left ventricular function with a moderately to severely dilated left atrium, a mildly dilated right atrium, and a large patent foramen ovale. The multistage venous cannulation was very challenging because we could not negotiate the guide wire from the inferior vena cava via the right atrium into the superior vena cava. Despite several attempts, the guide wire would pass into the patent foramen ovale. Methods that we routinely attempt with difficult cannulations such as withdrawing and reinserting, twisting, and to-and-fro movements did not result in success. Eventually, we attempted a novel maneuver, the modified "Valsalva maneuver," that worked incredibly well.


Introduction: Penetrating cardiac injuries generally occur secondary to gunshot or stab wounds and have a high mortality rate. They are rare and often fatal in children. When a foreign object penetrates the myocardium, it is dangerous to remove it, suddenly, and should be removed gradually to prevent excessive bleeding. Case report: We report a case of an unusual penetrating cardiac injury in a 12-year-old boy with a rivet pushed into his sternum and penetrating the right ventricle. After the patient underwent sternotomy and pericardiotomy, the site of the rivet was exposed. A purse was then sutured around the rivet and tightened while pulling it out. The patient was discharged five days post-op, with normal echocardiography after 12 months. A review of the English-written literature revealed that this is the first case of heart trauma with rivet.


This paper examines the syntactic and semantic behavior of object arguments in Moro, a Kordofanian language spoken in central Sudan. In particular, we focus on multiple object constructions (ditransitives, applicatives, and causatives) and show that these objects exhibit symmetrical syntactic behavior; e.g., any object can passivize or be realized as an object marker, and all can do so simultaneously. Moreover, we demonstrate that each object can bear any of the non-agentive roles in a verb's semantic role inventory and that the resulting ambiguities are an entailment of symmetrical object constructions of the type found in Moro. Previous treatments of symmetrical languages have assumed a syntactic asymmetry between multiple objects and have developed theoretical analyses that treat symmetrical behaviors as departures from an asymmetrical basic organization of clausal syntax. We take a different approach: we develop a Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar account that allows a partial ordering of the argument structure (arg-st) list. The guiding idea is that languages differ with respect to the organization of their arg-st lists and their consequences for grammatical function realization: there is no privileged encoding, but there is large variation within the parameters defined by arg-st organization. This accounts directly for the symmetrical behaviors of multiple objects. We also show how this approach can be extended to account for certain asymmetrical behaviors in Moro.


New techniques for modifying the genomes of agricultural organisms create difficult ethical challenges. We provide a novel framework to replace worn-out ethical lenses relying on 'naturalness' and 'crossing species lines.' Thinking of agricultural intervention as a 'negotiation' of 'integrity' and 'agency' provides a flexible framework for considering techniques such as genome editing with CRISPR/Cas systems. We lay out the framework by highlighting some existing uses of integrity in environmental ethics. We also provide an example of our lens at work by looking at the creation of 'cisgenic' (as opposed to 'transgenic') potatoes to resist late potato blight. We conclude by highlighting three distinct advantages offered by the integrity framework. These include a more fitting way to look at the practice of scientific researchers, a more inclusive way to consider ethics around agriculture, and a more flexible way to provide the ethical grounds for regulation in different cultural contexts.


This article explores homeless men's visits to a public library. It shows how homeless men identified the library as a space for safety and social participation, at a time when the regional newspaper published an item questioning the appropriateness of their presence in the library. The news report promotes universal narratives that would exclude homeless people, showing the intimate relationship between the symbolic space of news, the material space of the local library, and the lifeworlds of homeless men. We report fieldwork in which we interviewed homeless men, library staff and patrons. In addition, we worked with journalists on follow-up articles foregrounding the positive function of the library in homeless men's lives, and to challenge existing news narratives that advocate the exclusion of 'the homeless' from prime public spaces.


Soft errors are changes in memory value caused by external radiation or electrical noise. Decreases in computing feature sizes and power usages and shorting the microcycle period enhance the influence of soft errors. Self-stabilizing systems are designed to be started in an arbitrary, possibly a corrupted, state due to, say, soft errors, and to converge to a desired behavior. Self-stabilization is defined by the state space of the components and is essentially a well-founded, clearly defined form of the terms self-healing, automatic-recovery, automatic-repair, and autonomic-computing. To implement a self-stabilizing system, one needs to ensure that the microprocessor that executes the program is self-stabilizing. A self-stabilizing microprocessor copes with any combination of soft errors, converging to perform fetch-decode-execute in fault-free periods. Still, it is important that the microprocessor will avoid convergence periods if possible by masking the effect of soft errors immediately. In this work, we present design schemes for a self-stabilizing microprocessor and a new technique for analyzing the effect of soft errors. Previous schemes for analyzing the effect of soft errors were based on simulations. In contrast, our scheme computes a lower bound on microprocessor reliability and enables the microprocessor designer to evaluate the reliability of the design and to identify reliability bottlenecks. When analyzing the resiliency of digital circuits to soft errors, we examine the logical masking, i.e., errors in internal nodes of the circuits that are masked later by the computation. We show that the problem of computing the reliability of a circuit such that logical masking is taken into account is an NP-hard problem.


In situ measurements of aerosol water uptake and activation of aerosols into cloud droplets provide informa- tion on how aerosols influence the microphysical properties of clouds. Here we present a computational scheme that can be used in connection with such measurements to assess the influence of the particle hygroscopicity and mixing state (in terms of the water uptake) on the cloud nucleating ability of particles. Additionally, it provides an estimate for the peak supersaturation of water vapour reached during the formation of the observed cloud(s). The method was applied in inter- preting results of a measurement campaign that focused on aerosol-cloud interactions taking place at a subarctic back- ground site located in Northern Finland (second Pallas Cloud Experiment, 2nd PaCE). A set of case studies was conducted, and the observed activation behavior could be successfully explained by a maximum supersaturation that varied between 0.18 and 0.26% depending on the case. In these cases, the di- ameter corresponding to the activated fraction of 50% was in the range of 110-140 nm, and the particles were only moder- ately water soluble with hygroscopic growth factors varying between 1.1 and 1.4. The conducted analysis showed that the activated fractions and the total number of particles acting as CCN are expected to be highly sensitive to the particle hy- groscopic growth properties. For example, the latter quantity varied over a factor between 1.8 and 3.1, depending on the case, when the mean hygroscopic growth factors were varied by 10%. Another important conclusion is that size-dependent activation profiles carries information on the mixing state of particles.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to examine key challenges associated with conducting politically sensitive research within a workplace setting, and to highlight strategic partnerships that can be developed to address these challenges.

METHOD
The author's research on employee mental health issues within a large healthcare facility serves as the foundation for identification and description of "political minefields" that investigators may encounter when conducting organizational case study research. Key methodological principles from the literature on qualitative case study research will frame discussion of how to understand and address political sensitivities in the research process.

RESULTS
The benefits of conducting organizational case study research will be outlined, followed by discussion of methodological challenges that can emerge in negotiating entry, collecting data (gatekeepers, researcher reflexivity, participant authenticity and non-maleficence), and communicating research findings.

CONCLUSION
Courage, collaboration and clear communication with stakeholders at all levels of the organization are critical to the success of workplace based case study research.


Electronic patient records, containing data about the health and care of a patient, are a valuable source of information for longitudinal clinical studies. The General Practice Research Database (GPRD) has collected patient records from UK primary care practices since the late 1980s. These records contain both structured data (in the form of codes and numeric values) and free text notes. While the structured data have been used extensively in clinical studies, there are significant practical obstacles in extracting information from the free text notes. The main obstacles are data access restrictions, due to the presence of sensitive information, and the specific language of medical practitioners, which renders standard language processing tools ineffective.

The aim of this research is to investigate approaches for computer analysis of free text notes. The research involved designing a primary care text corpus (the Harvey Corpus) annotated with syntactic chunks and clinically-relevant semantic entities, developing a statistical chunking model, and devising a novel method for applying machine learning for entity recognition based on chunk annotation. The tools produced would facilitate reliable information extraction from primary care patient records, needed for the development of clinically-related research. The three medical concept types targeted in this thesis could contribute to epidemiological studies by enhancing the detection of co-morbidities, and better analysing the descriptions of patient experiences and treatments.

The main contributions of the research reported in this thesis are: guidelines for chunk and concept annotation of clinical text, an approach to maximising agreement between human annotators, the Harvey Corpus, a method for using a standard part-of-speech tagging model in clinical text chunking, and a novel approach to recognising clinically relevant medical concepts.


Throughout human history, water has defined our sense of place. American water law reflects the connections between water and local people, communities, and the environment. Against this backdrop, global water markets have developed to sell and export this increasingly precious resource. Water markets are recognized in international trade law and take many forms, from tankers of freshwater crossing the Mediterranean to bottles of spring water coming to America from distant pacific islands. While the scale of water sales and exports is still relatively small, this emerging market represents a new challenge for management of water resources. This article examines the challenge of protecting freshwater resources in the era of global water markets by looking at the most mature and developed example – bottled water. Bottled water in America dates back to colonial times, but over the past decade it has become a massive global industry. As bottled water has grown, so has the backlash against it. The resulting lawsuits and legislation offer a glimpse of the future of domestic water law in the global water market era. Bottled water fights provide important lessons for how the law should (and should not) respond to globalization of water use. By learning from these lessons, we can meet the challenge of global trade in water by developing effective legal protections for our freshwater resources.


This paper discusses what are now known as dormant or "zombie" accounts, which have their origin in conditional transfer programs and other government programs that created accounts for beneficiaries at the respective state bank or in the banking system. The focus is on Peru, where these accounts were created at the Banco de la Nacion. Based on statistical analysis, this paper adopts two definitions for an account to be "non-zombie". On this basis, on the deposit side, for Juntos only 4 percent of accounts were found to be non-zombie; for Pension 65, only 0.2 percent; and for Beca 18, 32 percent. On the expenditures side, 10 percent qualified as non-zombie for Juntos and Pension 65, and above 90 percent for Beca 18. Although zombie accounts can evolve into non-zombie accounts, under current conditions the process is slow. While significant prima facie benefits can come from converting dormant accounts to digital wallets, a number of requirements need to be fulfilled first, including users' requirements and minimum ecosystem requirements, and various sub-ecosystems must be integrated, such as payments between persons, digital payments to service institutions, and digital payments to businesses.


Fulfilling the production objectives of a grassland-based beef system requires a robust management strategy to secure the best practicable use of forage resources with regard to the cattle demand. To address the challenging issue of designing such strategies, this article describes the application of an ontology of agricultural production systems to the generic conceptual model SEDIVER, which supports the representation and dynamic farm-scale simulation of specific grassland-based beef systems. The most salient and novel aspects of SEDIVER concern the explicit modeling of (a) the diversity in plant, grassland, animal and farmland, and (b) management strategies that deal with the planning and coordination of activities whereby the farmer controls the biophysical processes. By using the SEDIVER conceptual framework, part of the subjective and context-specific knowledge used in farm management can be captured and, in this way, enable scientific investigation of management practices. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0333-2.ch006


This paper concentrates on three main points: a) The City of al-Quds is An Arab Islamic City for 5000 years. It was founded by the Arab Canaanites. Archaeological and Historical evidence, such as Egyptian sources, the Execration Text, Tell alAmarna Tablets as well as the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian sources, clearly. Show this fact. b) Moslem and Christian historical and geographical sources emphasize the religious, historical, economic, cultural and political Status of Bait al Maqdis. The architectural elements such as the Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock passed through restoration and reservation activities under the Moslem rules ever since the inception of the Islamic State, 1500 years ago, al-Quds has not fallen to foreigners during the Moslem rules except in the Frank Period. In for thirty years modern time it has been under Israeli occupation. c) Archaeological excavations conducted by Israeli scholars in the South-West corner of the Haram al-Sharif Area indicate, without doubt, that there is no evidence of the presence of the so-called Solomon Temple. Furthermore, all the archaeological findings, such as pottery, coins, and architecture point to the Islamic architectural character which is refleeteel in the Umayyad palaces in Bilad al-Sham (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan). O•:•O•:•O


The synthesis of a series of neutral dinuclear rhenium complexes of the general formula [Re2(μ-ER)2(CO)6(μ-pydz)] (pydz = pyridazine; E = S, Se or Te; R = methyl or phenyl; the TeMe is not included) has been carried out via new, either one-pot or two-step, procedures. The one-pot synthesis consists of the oxidative addition of RE–ER across the Re–Re bond of [Re2(CO)10], in the presence of 1 equivalent of pyridazine, and affords the corresponding dinuclear complexes in high yields (ca. 85%). Furthermore, a general two-step procedure has been carried out, which involves the synthesis of heterocubane-like [Re4(μ3-ER)4(CO)12] molecules and their reaction with pyridazine, quantitatively affording the corresponding dinuclear species through a symmetric [2+2] fragmentation pathway. The molecular structure of the complexes has been elucidated by single crystal XRD analysis, and TD-DFT calculations predicted the existence of conformers differing in the orientation of the chalcogen substituents with respect to the pyridazine ligand. The relative stabilities and the activation barriers for the interconversion have been calculated, observing a regular trend that has been rationalized depending on the hybridization of the chalcogen atom. Variable temperature NMR studies experimentally confirmed the theoretical prediction, showing, in solution, two conformers with different relative amounts and different interconversion rates between them, depending on the chalcogen nature. From the electrochemical point of view the S, Se and Te complexes display a bi-electronic reversible oxidation peak, differently from the two mono-electronic irreversible oxidation peaks previously observed for the O derivatives. Moreover, a progressive narrowing of the HOMO–LUMO gap on going from O to Te, arising from the increase of the HOMO level, has been observed. This is in line with the decreasing electron-withdrawing strength of the chalcogenide bridging ligand, so that the energy gap for the telluride derivative is 1.64 eV, the smallest value in the whole family of the di-rhenium pyridazine complexes. The spectroscopic HOMO–LUMO gap parallels this trend, with a significant red-shift of the metal-to-ligand charge transfer absorption, making the telluride complex highly promising as a photosensitizer in the field of solar energy conversion. In agreement with the narrow HOMO–LUMO gap, no photoluminescence has been observed upon optical excitation.


Background The increased use of meta-analysis in systematic reviews of healthcare interventions has highlighted several types of bias that can arise during the completion of a randomised controlled trial. Study publication bias has been recognised as a potential threat to the validity of meta-analysis and can make the readily available evidence unreliable for decision making. Until recently, outcome reporting bias has received less attention. Methodology/Principal Findings We review and summarise the evidence from a series of cohort studies that have assessed study publication bias and outcome reporting bias in randomised controlled trials. Sixteen studies were eligible of which only two followed the cohort all the way through from protocol approval to information regarding publication of outcomes. Eleven of the studies investigated study publication bias and five investigated outcome reporting bias. Three studies have found that statistically significant outcomes had a higher odds of being fully reported compared to non-significant outcomes (range of odds ratios: 2.2 to 4.7). In comparing trial publications to protocols, we found that 40–62% of studies had at least one primary outcome that was changed, introduced, or omitted. We decided not to undertake meta-analysis due to the differences between studies. Conclusions Recent work provides direct empirical evidence for the existence of study publication bias and outcome reporting bias. There is strong evidence of an association between significant results and publication; studies that report positive or significant results are more likely to be published and outcomes that are statistically significant have higher odds of being fully reported. Publications have been found to be inconsistent with their protocols. Researchers need to be aware of the problems of both types of bias and efforts should be concentrated on improving the reporting of trials.


The physiologic demands of exercise constitute a form of stress which is accompanied by modulation of immune responses. However, numerous studies in many different model systems have failed to clearly define the effects of exercise on immunity. Furthermore, the role of the neuroendocrine system in exercise-induced immunomodulation has been largely unexplored. To address these issues, we evaluated the effect of acute exercise stress on 3 indices of immune function in horses, before and after completion of a 12 week treadmill-based physical conditioning program. In addition, we determined the effects of corticosteroids, catecholamines, beta endorphin, and adrenocorticotropic hormone on these same immune parameters. In this work, we found that an acute severe exercise challenge of unconditioned horses induced immediate and significant post-exercise decreases in pokeweed mitogen (PWM) and equine influenza virus type 2 lymphoproliferative responses. Lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cell activity was also significantly elevated. After training, basal immune responses of resting horses were unchanged compared to those of untrained animals. Further, acute exercise stress no longer produced significant elevations of equine LAK activity, and depressions in PWM responses were delayed and enhanced. Of the neuroendocrine compounds tested for their effects on immune responses, most were capable, at one or more of their tested concentrations, of causing changes in PWM, influenza, or LAK responses similar to those observed after exercise. Physical conditioning attenuated their effects. Surprisingly, in vitro corticosteroids augmented influenza, LAK, and PWM responses depending upon concentration. However, intravenous cortisol injection did not mimic immediate post-exercise changes in the hemogram or immune responses. We conclude that acute exercise stress of horses may be temporarily immunosuppressive, but the observed decrease in lymphoproliferative responses is partially offset by increases in LAK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. While providing no enhancement of basal immune responses, physical conditioning may serve to increase the severity of immune suppression following exercise, possibly contributing to increased morbidity of equine athletes experiencing repeated episodes of exercise stress. Finally, direct effects of corticosteroids, catecholamines and neuropeptides on immune cell function may contribute to exercise effects on immunity in unfit horses and to a lessor extent in fit horses.


This paper examines the implications of sticky rents on the measurement of owner-occupied housing in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). I argue that market and not average rents are the most theoretically justified measurement of owners' equivalent rent (OER), and that the current measurement of rental inflation using average rents is methodologically incorrect. A new data source is used to construct a market rent measure to compare to the existing CPI measure of owner-occupied housing inflation for the Baltimore/Washington D.C. CMSA. The results show that market rents reflect housing market turning points sooner, and show a larger post-housing bubble decline in rents. In addition, market rents are shown to forecast overall inflation better than average rents. The results suggest that switching to market rents may allow the Federal Reserve to be more responsive to housing bubbles.


The diverse reason of Political failure in the World that has been pointed out by the Researchers. The reason is to find out the root cause of its failure by the compound theories of Political Psychology , Political Socialization, Political Idealism and Political Attitude ;however my research paper will project  Politics  among students by  working out in context of producing intellect Leadership, Political Idealism , Political Vision, Formation of Policy with its effective Presentation ,Political Research with Pragmatics ,Students relentless Revolutions, Emergence pattern of Political Leadership and Political Attitude systematically . The research paper brings out the impact version of findings with Political Literate Leadership for the development of the State. The analytical and Descriptive method, is being focused for the easiness of readers of Politics so as to emphasize the new political Dimension.