In this paper, a physical model is developed that is semiphenomenological and takes into account Schroeder's paradox. Using the wealth of knowledge contained in the literature regarding polymer-electrolyte membranes as a basis, a novel approach is taken in tying together all of the data into a single coherent theory. This approach involves describing the structural changes of the membrane due to water content, and casting this in terms of capillary phenomena. By treating the membrane in this fashion, Schroeder's paradox can be elucidated. Along with the structural changes, two different transport mechanisms are presented and discussed. These mechanisms, along with the membrane's structural changes, comprise the complete physical model of the membrane. The model is shown to agree qualitatively with different membranes and different membrane forms, and is applicable to modeling perfluorinated sulfonic acid and similar membranes. It is also the first physically based comprehensive model of transport in a membrane that includes a physical description of Schroeder's paradox, and it bridges the gap between the two types of macroscopic models currently in the literature.


We consider a wireless sensor network where the nodes have limited energy. We first analyze the delay performance of a transmission scheme based on time division multiple access (TDMA). We propose a simple link scheduling algorithm to find the minimum-delay schedule given the slot lengths for all the links. We then combine these results with our previous work on energy-optimal cross-layer design to minimize the delay in transferring a fixed number of bits from the source nodes to the sink, in an energy-constrained manner. We also study the tradeoff between the total energy consumption and delay. Pareto optimal energy-delay curves are computed by solving a series of convex optimization problems where each objective function is a weighted sum of the delay and the total energy consumption. The computation is done for networks with and without link adaptation capabilities.


The authors explored American Indian male college students' HPV attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of HPV prevention and transmission. Eight focus groups with male and female students ages 19-26 were conducted at four Southwest universities. Audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed using Grounded Theory methods. American Indian males reported little or no responsibility for HPV prevention and transmission (p=0.048) and held poor personal risk perception (p=0.0001). Male students also had low levels of HPV knowledge (p=0.003) and lenient attitudes, indicating an overall disregard for safer sexual practices. Misinformation regarding HPV vaccination played a significant part in their lack of intention to modify sexual behaviors. Cultural barriers to obtaining HPV information and sources of HPV education were identified, as was preference for receiving HPV information. We recommend school-based culturally sensitive HPV prevention programs that focus on improving responsible safer sexual practices by educating students in activities to reduce cancer and STI disease burden. Emphasis on preventing genital warts, other STIs, as well as HPV-related cancers found in males and females may increase acceptability and responsibility of HPV prevention measures among male American Indian students.


INTRODUCTION In pedagogical and didactic literature one usually says that Bildung was defined by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1784 (Kant [26] 1784, Slagstad 2003). In his famous article on being enlightened and educated he emphasized that "a person is enlightened when this person leaves his or her self-inflected incapability of managing own affairs". And incapability of managing one's own affaires means "lack of using one's intellect without guidance from somebody else". Hence, when a human being has been enlightened in this definite respect he or she has got Bildung. So in this way the concept of Bildung is now well defined. Or as Kant also stated this shortly in Latin: "Sapere aude", i. e. "Dare to know". Bildung became both an axiom and an aim in a new pedagogical philosophy. But as the word Bildung indicates it has a religious background coming from the "Imago Dei" in early Christian mysticism. Imago Dei means God's image, so the concept of Bildung is referring to an action or a process in which something is depicted. That is: What we experience and perceive is depicted in our minds. Immanuel Kant was born in Konigsberg in East Prussia and his parents were deeply religious and pietists (Hartnack [15] 1966). Of course this had a big influence on Kant's way of thinking and it is interesting to see that Bildung had its origin in the pietistic movement. Also he was influenced pretty much by his university teacher, the natural philosopher Martin Knutzen (1713-1751), who introduced him to Newton's natural philosophy and mechanical physics. To a pietist the virtues of duty and industry are very central and important, and to do one's duty and being industrious it is necessary to be educated. Therefore to the pietistic philosophers it was very important to educate people such that they were able to read and write and to do their work conscientiously. Hence the pietistic movement was also a pedagogical movement with educational aims. The pietistic school of philosophy was started by the German theologians Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) and August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) and both its theological and pedagogical ideas were spread in the beginning of the 18th century to the united monarchy Denmark-Norway and to Sweden (Korsgaard 2004, Lange 2003). It is interesting to see that to the first pietistic king of Denmark-Norway, Frederik IV (king 1699-1730), it was important to establish schools for children all over the united monarchy such that his subjects learned to read and write. It is also interesting to see that pietism led to a new and deep respect to the individual. When the Danish-Norwegian clergyman Hans Egede (1686-1758) came to Greenland in 1721 with the purpose to Christian the population he denied baptizing anybody until they had got a sufficient education (Kristensen 2008, Hoiris and Faegteborg 2009). So in fact Hans Egede and the pietistic philosophers had the idea of Bildung as an important educational and civilizing aim. Since Kant was brought up in a pietistic home it is no wonder that his pedagogical philosophy was based on the pietistic virtues. It is also important to notice that Kant was influenced by the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712- 1778). In 1690 John Locke published his great work "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (Hartnack [14] 1965), and he pointed out that when a child is born its mind is totally empty, "tabula rasa" (a blank slate or a clean blackboard). But nature outside the child is full of light, and by means of experience and recognition the human mind is enlightened. So, according to John Locke, our knowledge is determined only by experience and is derived from our sense perception. This point of view was also central to Rousseau when he wrote his pedagogical masterpiece "Emile ou de l'education" in 1772 (Korsgaard [55] 2003, Korsgaard [35] 2004). …


The Tonle Sap is South East Asia's largest lake and Cambodia's most important fishery. The hydrology of the Tonle Sap is directly linked to water levels of the Mekong River, which will experience major alterations as a response to hydropower development, irrigation, and climate change. This paper proposes a landscape approach to understand the impacts of hydrological alteration on the floodplain's terrestrial vegetation. A land cover map, a digital elevation map and historical water records were used to create histograms of water depth for key vegetation communities. These histograms were used to create maps of vegetation coverage probability for future scenarios of hydrological changes. Selected scenarios of water resources development and climate change were used to demonstrate how vegetation could shift within the floodplain. This approach generated satisfactory results for land cover classes that extend over large portions of the floodplain such as wet season rice, abandoned fields, flooded shrubland and open lake.


In contemporary life, the marketplace has emerged as an important arena for the practice of politics. Concerns about personal and family well-being as well as ethical or political assessment of favorable and unfavorable business and government practices become part and parcel of the market-place of politics. This volume, now in paperback, describes this phenomenon as political consumerism, reflecting an understanding of politics as a product embedded in a complex social and normative context. "Politics, Products, and Markets" is the first general study of political consumerism. It asks fundamental questions, including what is new and what is old about the phenomenon. The authors discuss the mediating role of political consumerism in the problematic relationship between markets and morality. They explore whether institutional arrangements have been developed to permit consumers and producers to assume ethical responsibility for their choices and behavior. They ask why political consumerism is presently on the rise. And they investigate the relationship between globalization and political consumerism. Part 1, "Making Money Morally," discusses how political consumerism challenges the perceived division between private interests pursued by private actors in the market and public interests pursued through political means. Part 2, "Consumer Choices and Setting of the Agenda of Politics," contains examples of how political consumerism sets the agenda of politics and discusses its democratic quality. Part 3, "Building Responsible Institutions in Multi-Risk Society," has as its central theme the development of new political consumer institutions. Part 4, "Politicizing Consumers and Change in Politics," studies the characteristics of political consumers and raises the question of whether political consumerism really is politics.


In English, singular institutional nouns like church or hospital are variably used with or without a definite article following verb-preposition collocations like go to and be at. British English has been reported to prefer the bare NP use whereas American English allegedly tends towards the variant with the definite article. Corpus data from the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English are used to test this hypothesis. In addition to regional variation, language-internal factors (choice and form of head noun, modification, semantics of the construction, collocational effects) are investigated. A variable rule analysis shows that regional variation is, in fact, not the most important factor and that choice of head noun and modification play a more important part. The results confirm that grammar often has a strong lexical base. Theoretical background to the study is provided by construction grammar, on the one hand, and previous work on category gradience.


The very concept of cybercrime is still a very vague notion. There are different types of "lenses" used to observe cybercrime and consequently many contradictory "facts" about its scope. Article shows different forms of what we call "cybercrime" and the variety of assessment of its dangerousness. It presents origins of cybercrime regulation and current disputes on the Council of Europe's allegedly impartial and independent legal solutions. In spite of the definitional heterogeneity it defines novelties in the notion of cybercrime and more or less accepted legal definitions andtaxonomy. In order to escape one-sided estimates of the real danger posed by cybercrime, article does not rely solely upon legal definitions of illicit behaviour in cyberspace. Additionally, the phenomenon of cybercrime is examined through sociological reflections of cyberspace and cyber (contra-) culture. These are important for theunderstanding of the criminological/victimological pair: offenders and a 'hackerculture' on one hand, and victims and victimological characteristics on the other.After analyzing a social construction of hackers, the article outlines the ideologicalstruggle for primacy over cyberspace: a struggle between contra-cultural values, interwoven in the very creation of cyberspace and the values of post-modern digital capitalism; a struggle for the primacy fought between a computer "underground" on the one and the security and cultural industry on the other hand.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to investigate whether the use of dating apps is a risk factor for acquiring Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infections.

METHODS
Patients attending the drop-in facility at the STI clinic at Umeå University Hospital between April 2016 and November 2017 were asked to fill in a survey about their sexual preferences and behaviors, including dating app use.

RESULTS
Of 943 participants, 80 (8.5%) received a CT diagnosis (34 women and 46 men). Dating app users did not seem to have an increased risk of CT infection. Having 3 or more sex partners within the last year was a risk factor for CT only among those not using a dating app. Alcohol use before sex and unprotected sex with a new partner were risk factors for CT infection in the univariate but not in the multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
Dating app users did not seem to have an increased risk of acquiring CT and for dating app users the seemingly well-established risk factor of having many partners was not valid.


This study analyzes the ways in which a variety of cultural manifestations were the necessary preconditions for (religious) policy and power in the Rome of Urban VIII (1623-1644). Precisely their interaction created what we now call 'Baroque Culture'.


Inside the risk management and corporate governance issues behind capital structure decisions

 Practical ways of determining capital structures have always been mysterious and riddled with risks and uncertainties. Dynamic paradigm shifts and the multi-dimensional operations of firms further complicate the situation. Financial leaders are under constant pressure to outdo their competitors, but how to do so is not always clear. Capital Structure Decisions offers an introduction to corporate finance, and provides valuable insights into the decision-making processes that face the CEOs and CFOs of organizations in dynamic multi-objective environments.

 Exploring the various models and techniques used to understand the capital structure of an organization, as well as the products and means available for financing these structures, the book covers how to develop a goal programming model to enable organization leaders to make better capital structure decisions. Incorporating international case studies to explain various financial models and to illustrate ways that capital structure choices determine their success, Capital Structure Decisions looks at existing models and the development of a new goal-programming model for capital structures that is capable of handling multiple objectives, with an emphasis throughout on mitigating risk.

 Helps financial leaders understand corporate finance and the decision-making processes involved in understanding and developing capital structure

 Includes case studies from around the world that explain key financial models

 Emphasizes ways to minimize risk when it comes to working with capital structures

 There are a number of criteria that financial leaders need to consider before making any major capital investment decision. Capital Structure Decisions analyzes the various risk management and corporate governance issues to be considered by any diligent CEO/CFO before approving a project.


The terms "independent" and "dependent" scattering are ubiquitous in the phenomenological discipline of light scattering by particulate media. Yet there is a wide range of ad hoc definitions of these terms, many of which are vague and conceptually inconsequential. In this paper we perform a first-principles analysis of these terms based on the rigorous volume-integral-equation formulation of electromagnetic scattering. We argue that scattering by a multi-particle group can be called independent if certain optical observables for the entire group can be expressed in appropriate single-particle observables. Otherwise one deals with the dependent scattering regime. The prime (and perhaps the only) examples of independent scattering are scattering scenarios described by the first-order-scattering approximation and the first-principles radiative transfer theory.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this research was to evaluate the visco-elastic properties of conditioned wheat kernels and their doughs by applying the compression test under a small strain. Conditioned wheat kernels and their doughs, from soft and hard wheat classes were evaluated for total work (Wt ), elastic work (We ) and plastic work (Wp ).

RESULTS
Soft wheat kernels showed lower We than Wp , while the hard wheat kernels had a We that was higher than Wp . Regarding dough visco-elasticity, cultivars from soft and hard wheat showed higher Wp than We . The degree of elasticity (DE%) of the conditioned wheat kernel related to its dough decreased ∼46% in both wheat classes. The Wt , We and Wp from the soft wheat kernel and dough correlated with physico-chemical and farinographic flour tests. The Wt , Wp and the maximum compression force (Fmax ) of the dough from hard wheat class presented highly significant negative correlations with wet gluten.

CONCLUSION
The visco-elasticity parameters from compression test presented significant differences among conditioned wheat classes and their doughs. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.


Francis Fukuyama's book America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy , the latest from a prolific writer who as a neoconservative thinker has contributed many books on political and economic development, concerns American foreign policy since 9/11. It is a book that has a confessional tone when he traces his pedigree and how his views deviate from the outlook of his neoconservative friends—Paul Wolfowitz, Albert Wohlstetter, Allan Bloom, and William Kristol. As he writes 'unlike manu other neoconservatives, I was never persuaded of the rationale of the Iraq war' (p. x). He goes further 'I have concluded that neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something that I can no longer support' (p.xi). By this he means insofar as neoconservatism has been irretrievably identified with the policies of the Bush administration, he thinks it has 'gone wrong' and he wants to outline a position he calls 'realistic Wilsonianism' as the basis for a position not captured in the U.S. foreign policy debate that serves as an alternative means of the U.S. relating to the rest of the world. He omits from his biographical Preface the fact that he was active in the Project for the New American Century [ 1 ] starting in 1997 and also signed the organization's letter to President Clinton recommending the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and another calling for his overthrow in 2001.


Background: Students' motivation is known to influence academic outcomes. However, there is a paucity of research showing the relative influences of motivational factors on short-term and long-term outcomes. Purpose: The study investigates the relative influences of motivational factors – mastery goal orientation, value of schooling, and academic self-concepts (perceived competence in and affect to schoolwork) on four outcomes – rule acceptance, identity, general self-efficacy and achievement. Sample: Students in grades 3 to 6 from six primary schools in the Sydney were surveyed (N = 979). The ages of the participants varied from 8 to 13 years (mean = 9.78). Design and methods: Students completed a questionnaire and literacy and numeracy achievement tests. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the paths from four predictors to four outcomes. Results: Whereas all four predictors were positively associated with all four outcomes, students' mastery goal had stronger positive influences on self-efficacy and identity. Value, perceived competence and affect were found to influence outcomes in different ways – positive influences were found for value on achievement, rule-acceptance, and identity; for perceived competence on achievement and efficacy; and for affect on rule-acceptance and identity. Conclusion: Mastery goal had stronger influences on long-term outcomes while other predictors are stronger for short-term outcomes. To facilitate short-term and long-term outcomes, all four motivational factors need attention.


The growing phenomenon of "paying to participate" is an important yet understudied aspect of crowdfunding, especially in the context of civic crowdfunding, where meaningful participation is linked to the production of public goods. In this study, we propose "end states" as a theoretical and methodological vehicle to examine how narratives of civic crowdfunding projects stimulate crowd participation and how this participation shapes the broader institutional and organizational context. We analyze narrative end states in two civic crowdfunding projects taking place in the Netherlands. The results of our analysis show three types of narrative end states: plotted, revised, and future. Initial end states were plotted to fulfill a specific need of the project initiators, however, these proved unsuccessful in mobilizing the crowd. Through an intense revision of end states, project initiators learned how to connect the crowd-community to the project, ultimately inspiring new end states for greater crowd-community participation in the future. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on narrative approaches to crowdfunding and the theory and practice of civic crowdfunding.


Elevated moisture due to driving rain impact on unrendered brick walls can lead to frost damage or accelerated decay of the exposed facade. Additionally, in the case of monolithic exterior walls which are often encountered in historic buildings, a high water content reduces the already low thermal resistance of the wall, thus leading to poor hygienic indoor conditions. Since the appearance of the facade should in general remain unaltered for esthetical reasons, the obvious measure to improve the moisture protection and thermal quality of brick masonry is the impregnation with water repellent agents, possibly combined with an interior insulation. In field test, the effect of siloxane impregnation on the moisture behaviour of exposed brick masonry with and without cracks was examined in comparison with untreated as well as with sheltered facades. In all cases the impregnation of exposed wall elements with elevated moisture led to a drying process which resulted in low water contents, similar to the moisture conditions of sheltered facades. The drying of the impregnated wall elements with a thickness of 24 cm takes about one year. Since monolithic brick walls of historic buildings are mostly thicker, complementary heat and moisture transport calculations were carried out for representative walls. Depending on the interior finish (e.g. insulation) of such brick walls, the drying time after impregnation ranges from 2 to 7 years. In order to avoid frost damage or a long dry-out time, an interior insulation is best applied some time after impregnation.


Master sushi making at home - delicious results for minimal effort Sushi: Taste and Technique is the quintessential book for any sushi lover telling you all you need to know about this delicious and healthy cuisine. From makizushi and hand rolls to vegetarian versions, master techniques and learn trade secrets from Hiroki Takemura, previously head chef at London's Nobu, and Asian fusion specialist Kimiko Barber. Discover how to locate the freshest ingredients, use the right equipment and appreciate the art of sushi making. Step by steps and beautiful photographs demonstrate how you can make sushi at home with minimal effort using authentic and foolproof techniques that succeed every time. The book also includes a handy fish identification guide detailing over 20 kinds of fish and shellfish and how to prepare them. And for those more interested in eating, there are also essential tips on sushi etiquette. Elegant, compact yet comprehensive: Sushi: Taste and Technique is a must for anyone serious about sushi.


Recent climate variability and anomaly in the Great Lakes region provided a valuable opportunity in examining the response and regulation of ecosystem carbon cycling across different ecosystems. A simple Bayesian hierarchical model was developed and fitted against three-year (2011–2013) net ecosystem CO2 exchange (FCO2 ) data observed at three eddy-covariance sites (i.e., a deciduous woodland, a cropland, and a marsh) in northwestern Ohio. The model was designed to partition the variation of gross ecosystem production (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER) and FCO2 that resulted directly from the shortterm environmental forcing (i.e., direct effect) and indirectly from the changes of ecosystem functional traits (e.g., structural, physiological, and phenological traits) (i.e., indirect effect). Interannual variation of FCO2 was mainly driven by indirect effects, accounting for 54%, 89%, and 86% of the interannual variation at the woodland, cropland, and marsh sites, respectively. On the other hand, direct climatic effects accounted for 33% of interannual FCO2 variation at the woodland site and became irrelevant (<10%) at the cropland and marsh sites. In general, annual GEP and ER at each site tended to co-vary and dampen the interannual variability in FCO2 . Yet, year-to-year changes of GEP and ER were not spatially synchronous, suggesting that the ecosystem's response to climate was strongly site-specific in terms of the annual net CO2 uptake. Future research should focus on the disparate response among ecosystems and develop a suitable framework to examine the mechanisms that drive differences in closely co-located ecosystems. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Conclusions * Nuclear weapons will continue indefinitely to play an indispensable role in U.S. national security policy: as a hedge against uncertainties, to deter potential aggressors who are both more diverse and less predictable than in the past, and to allow the United States to construct a more stable security environment. Recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan make it clear that nuclear weapons remain part of the security setting. The aggressive pursuit of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons by states such as Iran and North Korea underscores the role of deterrence as a central component of U.S. security strategy. * The United States requires a credible nuclear deterrent posture, broadly defined to include forces-in-being; capabilities for weapon system design and production; and the ability to assure the safety and reliable performance of the nuclear stockpile--a fundamental challenge in the absence of underground testing. Because this posture must be both adaptable and responsive to new threats, the national deterrent infrastructure must be treated as a strategic resource. The posture must also incorporate a greater role for defenses in future deterrence calculations. All of this requires trained and motivated people, as well as new ways of thinking and considerable agility and foresightedness on the part of U.S. leaders. * A nuclear force that is not backed by the perceived ability and willingness to maintain and, when necessary, reconstitute important elements will increasingly be seen as hollow. The decisions and actions that the United States takes concerning the total force posture in the years ahead will influence decisively how both allies and adversaries perceive the credibility of the U.S. deterrent. In turn, this holds important implications for the overall capacity of the United States to shape the security setting at the outset of the new millennium and to provide for the nation's defense in a world of change and turbulence. Setting a New Paradigm Recognizing the need for a fresh, long-term look at national security strategy and requirements, and specifically at U.S. nuclear policy in the 21st Century, the Center for Counterproliferation Research at the National Defense University and the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory brought together a group of experts with extensive experience in security policy and military affairs. The participants examined the broad trends in the international environment and considered how the United States could both shape and respond to them. A forward-looking paradigm for the nuclear dimension of U.S. security policy emerged that builds on the lessons of the past while addressing the opportunities and challenges of the future. The paradigm is based on five elements: 1. Sweeping positive changes have occurred. The bilateral "nuclear balance" that occupied center stage in the past no longer dominates the strategic calculations of the United States or Russia. Yet, there remains a continuing need for deterrence and for the retention of nuclear weapons as an essential component of U.S. national security strategy. 2. Nuclear weapons will remain part of the global security setting. The knowledge to build them will continue to exist; they cannot be disinvented. Even if the United States were to divest itself of its nuclear arsenal, other nations would be unlikely to follow suit. To the contrary, some states would gain incentives to retain or acquire nuclear weapons against a conventionally superior but nuclear-free United States. If nuclear weapons were somehow eliminated, a serious deterioration of the international environment could engender strong incentives for nuclear rearmament. A rapid and competitive race to rebuild nuclear arsenals could increase prospects for a devastating war. 3. In the changing security setting, the nuclear weapons infrastructure--broadly defined to include both the operational forces and the development and production capabilities that can bring new forces into being when needed--takes on a heightened strategic prominence. …


"Culture and corruption," murmured Dorian, "I have known something of both." --Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray I hold that no work of art can be tried otherwise than by laws deduced from itself: whether or not it be consistent with itself is the question. --Thomas Wainewright, quoted by Wilde in "Pen, Pencil, and Poison" Recent genre theory reminds us of just how often our disagreements about the meaning or interpretation of a text are actually debates about how the text should be read, or, more precisely, what kind of text it should be read as. If we are persuaded that a text is indeed an urban eclogue, a Bildungsroman, a Horatian ode, a parody of pastoral, or an example of postmodern female Gothic, we are more likely also to be persuaded of the critic's interpretation of that text's meaning. Thus a critic who interprets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as a modern secular morality play is not so much claiming to have found the meaning of the text as he or she is trying to persuade us to read the text as a particular kind of play. What a text means is inseparable from how it is read, and since we must always read a text as something, genre often asserts itself as a set of instructions, implicit or explicit, on how to read a text. The debate over the genre, and thereby the meaning, of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray exemplifies this protocol of reading. Dorian Gray (1) has always provoked contradictory interpretations, but underlying the disagreements about the work's meaning there has persisted a more fundamental debate about what kind of novel it should be read as. This debate is discernible in the early reviews, though somewhat obscured by the hysteria over the novel's alleged immorality. Reading the novel as an English imitation of a decadent French text, for example, the reviewer for the Daily Chronicle denounced it as "a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French Decadents, a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction" (NCE 342-43). The St. James Gazette repeated this attack: "The writer airs his cheap research among the garbage of the French Decadents like any drivelling pedant" (NCE 333). But while the popular secular press was denouncing Wilde's novel for its "spiritual putrefaction," Christian publications, such as the Christian Leader, the Christian World, and Light, which interpreted it as an ethical parable or moral fable, praised it as "a work of high moral import" (qtd. in Pearce 169). In America, Julian Hawthorne (son of Nathaniel Hawthorne) was undecided whether Dorian Gray was "a novel or romance (it partakes of both)." But he finally settled on "parable" and pronounced the novel "a salutary departure from the ordinary English novel" (NCE 348-349). Clearly, the judgment of early reviewers depended, at least to some extent, on the genre in which they placed the novel. Modern critics are as divided about the novel's meaning as the original reviewers were obsessed with its morality. But what has not changed is the role the perceived genre of the novel plays in interpretation. (2) While some critics read the novel as belonging to a single genre and assume that the conventions of that genre provide the key to unlock the text's meaning, others see it as a kind of heteroglossia combining two or more genres. In "The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wilde's Parable of the Fall," for example, Joyce Carol Oates finds the novel to be "a curious hybrid. Certainly it possesses a 'supernatural' dimension, and its central image is Gothic; yet in other respects it is Restoration comedy" (427). For her, the novel's generic anomalies make its message at once transparently clear and enigmatically opaque: While in one sense The Picture of Dorian Gray is as transparent as a medieval allegory, and its structure as workman-like as Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, to which it bears an obvious family resemblance, in another sense it remains a puzzle: knotted, convoluted, brilliantly enigmatic. …


For many homeowners, refinancing a mortgage can save them significant money, considerably reducing their monthly payments. It can also give them breathing space to pay off debts or allow them to make other investments, pay for college, or finance home improvements. An Insider's Guide to Refinancing Your Mortgage is dedicated to an often-misunderstood aspect of mortgage lending: refinancing a mortgage loan. Readers will learn why to refinance, when to finance, as well as how to find the best lender, loan officer, and rate. Mortgage expert David Reed takes readers step bystep through the refinance process and shows them how to evaluate their current loan program and compare it with other options. By following Reed's invaluable advice, homeowners will learn: when a refinance is right for them • how to lock in the absolute lowest rate at the lowest cost • how the mortgage process works from the inside • how loan officers get paid • how to identify and avoid predatory lenders • how to negotiate closing costs An Insider's Guide to Refinancing Your Mortgage will save readers money and heartache when negotiating a loan.


The study the behaviour of concrete, having partial replacement of cement with waste marble powder M25 grade for which the marble powder is replaced by an experimental study was carried out and the effect on compressive strength and split tensile strength characteristics (0%, 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20%) was studied. The result of this present investigation indicates that the replacement of 12% of cement with waste marble powder attains maximum compressive and tensile strength. The optimum percentage for replacement of marble powder with cement and it is almost 12%cement for both cubes and cylinders and it also minimize the costs for construction with usage of marble powder


The emergence of experimental economics in the last third of the 20th century revisited the long-standing belief that economics is a non-experimental discipline. The history of this new practice reveals this went further than simply introducing the experimental method to economics. Its history shows individual economists and research communities above all redefining the relationship between economic theory and rigorous data. Replicable data that were specifically created to satisfy conditions set by theory in controlled environments could not be avoided by economists or explained away as irrelevant to economic theory. The reconceptualization of the relationship between economic theory and rigorous experimental data culminated at the end of the 1980s in what I call the experimental turn, after which the experimental method became accepted in the wider economics community.


An account of successive legal theories in England and America against a background of the varieties of natural law in the ancient, medieval and modern worlds. The outcome in Legal Realism provides insight into contemporary issues in law and the judicial process and their relation to moral philosophy. As Levy shows, legal theory has always been inspired by forces outside the law in philosophy and politics. In England the philosophy of Utilitarianism as expounded by Bentham and Austin brought legal positivism into prominence as an alternative to natural law. In the United States the philosophy of pragmatism spearheaded by James and Dewey and shared by Justice Holmes gave the functional turn resulting in the movement of Legal Realism. After sketching the background of varieties of natural law in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, Levy presents leading figures and trends in England and the United States. The book is written so as to be intelligible to lawyers, philosophers, and students of cultural history and social science.


Leafing through early accounting journals from the last two decades of the 19th century, accounting historians and enthusiasts piece together the history of accountancy in the U.S., yet pay little attention to the editors of these journals who at times almost single-handedly willed their existence, clearing the road for modern accounting journals. Anson O. Kittredge, who was probably the most outstanding and influential editor of the 19th century, was also an author, teacher, CPA examiner, innovator, practitioner, and organizer.


Abstract Regional wildlife–habitat models are commonly developed but rarely tested with truly independent data. We tested a published habitat model for black bears (Ursus americanus) with new data collected in a different site in the same ecological region (i.e., Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma, USA). We used a Mahalanobis distance model developed from relocations of black bears in Arkansas to produce a map layer of Mahalanobis distances on a study area in neighboring Oklahoma. We tested this modeled map layer with relocations of black bears on the Oklahoma area. The distributions of relocations of female black bears were consistent with model predictions. We conclude that this modeling approach can be used to predict regional suitability for a species of interest.


This article begins with a puzzle. Statutory provisions relating to trademark dilution were introduced for the first time into Indian law with the Trade Mark Act of 1999, which came into effect in 2003. Yet since their inception, these provisions have remained on the shelf, largely untouched for half a decade. By contrast, dilution features prominently in litigation based upon the common law tort of passing off. It thus exists in both favoured and relatively ignored forms. In Part II, this Article offers an explanation for why this polymorphism for dilution exists in India. Under passing off, dilution is a newly recognised species of harm, which flows from a misrepresentation. It is not the basis for an independent cause of action. Its recognition can be traced to prior doctrinal developments within the Indian law of passing off, concerning the abolition of the common field of activity requirement and the sufficiency of a transborder or 'spillover' reputation. Dilution is thus qualified as a new type of injury within a familiar tort geared towards preventing consumer confusion. However under the Act of 1999, dilution, in its aspect of blurring or 'detriment to distinctive character', is the basis for an independent action. This article suggests that the statutory provisions require a more narrowly defined harm in order to be triggered and differ in important ways from dilution under passing off, making precedents for the latter unsuitable for the former. Part III concludes by selectively considering the extent to which E.U. and U.S. experiences with dilution could meaningfully inform the future development of the Indian statutory regime.


Background : Opacity that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye is called the cataract. Decrease amounts of GRP78 involved in the pathogenesis of cataracts by reticulum endoplasmic stress of lens epithelial cells. Aim : The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of Catechin on sodium-selenite induced cataract formation and activities of GRP78. Methods : 19 μmol/kg of sodium selenite was injection by intraperitoneal to ten day-old Wistar rats. The rats were separated randomly in five groups (n = 5 in each group): a control group, and four cataract induction groups, treated with 0, 50, 100, 200 mg / kg catechin isolates. GMB4 Clone of Green Tea. By slit-lamp bio microscopic we performed degree of lens opacity and analysis of GRP78 by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results : Both eyes of all rats in Group 1 no cataract formation. 20% of group 2 were found grade 3 cataracts and the remaining four of five (80%) developed grade 4 cataracts. Cataract in the lens of all rats between group 2 and any eyes from groups 3 or 4 and 5 showed a significant difference (P = 0.022, 0.001, 0.001). The degree of cataract formation in groups 3, 4 and 5 decreased. Grp78 levels in Group I, Group III, Group IV and Group V were significantly higher than the mean lens levels in Group II (P <0.01). Conclusion : Reticulum endoplasmic stress in the lens that increased following cataract formation in rats was suppressed by catechin Isolate From GMB4 Clone Green Tea.


Rain combined with wind action provoking vibration has been observed in the longest stays of the Alamillo cable-stayed bridge in Sevilla (Spain). The maximum displacements observed are in the order of magnitude of 0.5 m and have caused discomfort problems to the pedestrian circulation across the bridge. The paper shows the analytical and experimental studies carried out to analyse the possible solutions and also the steps developed to stop the vibration phenomenon. In 2004, a dynamic test in the cables was envisaged to measure the actual damping in the cables. It became clear that damping in the cables was very low and the solution required the installation of dampers. The damping devices had to be in accordance with the relevant aesthetic constraints of the structure. The installation of the damping devices took place during 2007. After the installation of the damping devices, a new dynamic test was carried out in February of 2008 to check if the level of damping introduced by the dampers was appropriate. During the tests performed in 2004, the natural frequencies of vibration were also obtained at the same time than damping. The comparison between the two sets of natural frequencies (1992 and 2004) allow to extract important conclusions about the correct performance and condition state of the bridge as well as the evolution of forces in the cables after 12 years of construction due to creep in the tower.


Forced arbitration has long been controversial. In the 1980s, the Supreme Court expanded the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), sparking debate about whether private dispute resolution is an elegant alternative to litigation or a rigged system that favors repeat-playing corporations. Recently, these issues have resurfaced, as the Court has decided a rash of cases mandating that lower courts enforce class arbitration waivers in almost all circumstances. Critics argue that abolishing the class action insulates companies from wrongdoing, but businesses have predicted that pro se plaintiffs will flood the arbitral forum with their own low-value claims. The Obama administration responded to the Court's FAA jurisprudence by regulating arbitration clauses in the employment, financial services, and healthcare fields. However, after the balance of power shifted in 2017, Republicans have repealed many of these rules.

Despite this policymaking frenzy, we know little about what happens inside the confidential world of arbitration. This Article sharpens our understanding of this pervasive and polarizing institution by reporting the results of an empirical study of 40,775 cases filed in four major arbitration providers between 2010 and 2016. It highlights three main points. First, a wave of reforms has made arbitration surprisingly affordable for consumers, employees, and medical patients. Indeed, in leading arbitration providers such as the American Arbitration Association, JAMS, and the Kaiser Office of the Independent Administrator, a majority of plaintiffs pay no arbitration fees. Second, enterprising plaintiffs' lawyers — not pro se litigants — have taken advantage of arbitration's open doors. In fact, some attorneys have filed class action-style cases, bringing dozens or even hundreds of related arbitrations against the same company. Third, although arbitration does indeed favor repeat playing businesses, that is just half of the repeat player story. Repeat playing plaintiff's law firms also fare well. In fact, in a variety of settings, no variable affects win rates as dramatically as whether a plaintiff hires attorneys with arbitration experience.

The Article then uses these findings to propose reform. For decades, state lawmakers have tried to protect substantive rights by exempting claims from arbitration. Yet because the FAA prohibits state law from discriminating against arbitration, these efforts have failed. Accordingly, this Article urges policymakers to reverse course and create incentives for plaintiffs' lawyers to arbitrate. Specifically, jurisdictions should create an "arbitration multiplier": a bounty for winning a case in arbitration. By encouraging skilled plaintiffs' lawyers to capitalize on arbitration's accessibility, this approach would counteract the corporate repeat player advantage. In addition, because the multiplier actually encourages arbitration, it would not be preempted.


Cystic lesions of the pancreas are increasingly being recognized due to the widespread use of cross-sectional imaging. The initial evaluation of a pancreatic cyst should be directed toward exclusion of a pseudocyst. Patients with pseudocysts generally have a history of acute or chronic pancreatitis, whereas those with cystic tumors most often lack such a history. Several types of cystic lesions are encountered in the pancreas. Because of morphologic overlap at imaging, accurate characterization of these lesions can be difficult. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are excellent modalities for both initial detection and characterization of cystic pancreatic lesions. An imaging classification system for these lesions has been proposed that is based on the morphologic features of the lesion. This system can be helpful in characterizing lesions, narrowing the differential diagnosis, and making decisions regarding the treatment of affected patients. Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided aspiration and biopsy is useful in cases that are indeterminate at cross-sectional imaging or that require observation.


From the fruit extract of Alnus sieboldiana, a new hydrolyzable tannin, alnusiin (1), was isolated together with five known tannins : tellimagrandin I (6), pedunculagin (7), casuarinin (9), casuariin (10) and 2, 3-O-(S)-hexahydroxydiphenoyl-D-glucose (11). The structure (1) of alnusiin in which a monolactonized tergalloyl group, a rare component unit, bonds to the glucose residue, was elucidated based on spectral analyses including 1H-13C long-range shift correlation spectroscopy, and chemical methods. Another new hydrolyzable tannin with a related structure, bicornin (21), and six known galloylglucoses as well as six ellagitannins (including oligomers), were isolated from Trapa bicornis fruits and their structures were characterized.


This study aimed to evaluate and compare the quality of post thawing spermatozoa of buffalo frozen semen produced by artificial insemination centers on standard values, and proposed reference values (PRV). Materials of the research were 60 samples of straws obtained from three Artificial Insemination Center, which are each 20 straws, respectively. Parameters observed were motility, concentration, longevity, plasma membrane integrity (PMI), acrosome integrity (AIn) and recovery rate. The obtained data were tested by Z test then presented as mean ± standard deviation. The research results from three artificial insemination center showed that motility mean was 45.00±3.07%, concentration mean was 26.09±3.11 x10 6 cells/0.25mL, longevity mean was 10.38±0.75%/hour, PMI mean was 45.86±10.67%, AI mean was 73.99±5.28% and recovery rate mean was 64.38±5.16%. The conclusions of this research were the motility and concentration mean were higher than Indonesian National Standard (INS), longevity mean was lower than Department of Animal Husba ndry, Dairying and Fisheries (DADF) standard but PMI and AIn mean were higher, the mean value of recovery rate was higher than of proposal value.


New questions dealing with the growth of foreign direct investment in the United States have prompted this reassessment of the adequacy of U.S. data on direct investment--data on both foreign direct investment in the United States and U.S. direct investment abroad. We have examined the adequacy of the existing data system for answering important questions in a number of areas--some of them new, but others of longstanding interest: the coverage and accuracy of the data, and the public's accessibility to them; the measurement of the U.S. investment position and servicing burden; the interaction between direct investment and the trade balance; the impact of direct investment operations on a country's economic welfare; and the explanation and forecasting of direct investment flows and activities. A series of conclusions and recommendations is collected in the last section of the paper.


A membrane-integrated , core-glycosylated form of bovine opsin was synthesized in vitro when bovine retina mRNA was translated in a wheat germ cell-free system supplemented with dog pancreas microsomal vesicles; glycosylation and integration of opsin into membranes were coupled to translation. Proteolysis with themolysin was used to probe the orientation of opsin within the dog pancreas microsomal membrane, and to compare it with that of opsin in rod cell disk membranes isolated from bovine retina. Intact microsomal or disk vesicles were required for production of discrete, membrane-associated thermolysin fragments of opsin; no discrete opsin fragments were detected when membranes were incubated with thermolysin in the presence of the nonionic detergent, Triton X-100. The major opsin fragments produced by themosylin treatment of intact microsomal vesicles resembled those from disk vesicles in their size, oligosaccharide content, and order of appearance. In each case, the first cleavage of opsin took place at the COOH-terminus, generating a glycosylated fragment, O', which was only slightly smaller than intact opsin. Both the microsomal and disk membrane forms of O' were next cleaved internally; glycosylated fragments of similar sizes in both cases were detected which were derived from the NH(2)-terminal portion of O'. Several smaller NH(2)-terminal fragments of opsin were detected only in thermolysin-treated microsomal membranes, and not in disk membranes. The data suggest that the topology of opsin integrated into dog pancreas microsomal vesicles is similar to that in rod cell disk vesicles, although not identical. In each case, the glycosylated NH(2)-terminal region of opsin is located within the lumen of the vesicle, while discrete COOH-terminal and internal segments of opsin apparently emerge at the outer, cytoplasmic face of the membrane. Thus, opsin in the heterologous microsomal membrane, like its counterpart in the native disk membrane, may cross the bilayer at least three times. The internal domain of the polypeptide that emerges at the outer membrane surface is apparently more highly exposed in the case of opsin in microsomal membranes, evidenced by the additional internal thermolysin cleavage sites detected.


Under the tenets of Anderson's ACT-R model (Anderson & Lebiere, 1998), an information-processing system is governed by a library of production rules which specify, for a given stimulus configuration, the requisite processing procedure. Access to productions is postulated to be in parallel. We tested this postulate by measuring production selection and execution as a function of the size of the production library (varied from set size 1 to 4), using arithmetic-like rules that operated on digit stimuli. After five sessions of training, the ACT-R prediction was confirmed for most younger and a few older participants: beyond the special case where only one production was active, increases in set size had no further effect on response time. The step increase from size 1 to size >1 was substantial and was represented by an analysis of RT distributions as a shift in all three ex-Gaussian distribution parameters, mu, sigma, and tau. It is suggested that the step size 1 to size >1 reflects either the engagement of processes active in cognitive control or the manifestation of a limited capacity system. The form of the step function can also be characterized in terms of task switch costs (Rogers & Monsell, 1995), in which case there were constant global and local switch costs attached to the maintenance of any production set >1. In older participants, the increase in RT was negatively accelerated and all of the individuals had equivalent RTs for set size >2. The curvilinear form of the older adult function was largely determined by global switch costs and a corresponding shift in the mu parameter, which has been implicated in peripheral processing (Balota & Speiler, 1999). Preliminary studies also suggest that in either age group, non-"homogeneous" rule sets may be less well-behaved.


In this paper, for the purpose of service differentiation in opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) enabled networks, we take different priority queueing disciplines into account as decision variables in a dynamic optimization model. The objective is to optimize, after the departure of each packet, a weighted utility function of the performance of different classes of cognitive radio traffic by dynamically deciding the priority queueing discipline. A dynamic programming (DP) model, which takes into account the channel availability and channel handover recovery periods of the OSA network, is provided for two classes of traffic to solve this problem. Simulation results are presented.


Background Bacterial translocation (BT) may cause infections, in particular, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). In the absence of overt infection, BT may further stimulate the immune system and contribute to haemodynamic alterations and complications. Bacterial DNA (bDNA) is claimed to be a promising surrogate marker for BT, although its clinical relevance has been questioned. Materials and methods In 38 cirrhotic patients with and without SBP, bDNA in blood and ascites were assessed by 16S rDNA quantitative PCR. Levels of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein in plasma and highly sensitive C-reactive protein, tumour necrosis factor-&agr;, soluble urokinase plasminogen activating receptor, interleukin-6, interleukin 8, interferon-&ggr; inducible protein-10 and vascular endothelial growth factor in plasma and ascites were measured by multiplex cytokine and ELISA assays. Results In patients without signs of SBP or positive cultures, we found a high frequency of bDNA but low concordance of bDNA between blood and ascites. Markers of inflammation were not significantly different between blood bDNA-positive (22%), ascites bDNA-positive (52%), and bDNA-negative patients. The 16S rDNA PCR failed to show bDNA in two out of six samples with SBP. Sequencing of positive samples did not determine the source of bDNA. Conclusion bDNA as assessed by this PCR method was largely unrelated to markers of inflammation and does not seem to be of clinical value in the diagnosis of SBP. According to our results, bDNA is not a reliable marker of BT.


The study of the eye movement provides us with the functioning of the visual perception of a human while observing images such as: book illustrations, book covers, posters and other standard publications. The current experiment was performed using the series of collections of book covers. The both configurations of layout and images data set constitute the variables. Due to given results several rules of visual composition for library users are formulated. However, usually the process of analysis relies on determining the areas of the highest concentration of visual attention, which is only interpreted in the frame of mind space mapping paradigm.


We consider the problem of maximum likelihood (ML) signal detection in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. We propose a new preprocessing algorithm in the form of channel ordering for sphere decoders. Numerical results show that this new channel ordering leads to significantly lower complexity (in the form of the number of nodes visited by the search algorithm); for MPSK modulation where M ≥ 8 and a moderate SNR range of 15 - 24 dB, our channel ordering results in a two-fold to four-fold decrease in the number of nodes visited by the search algorithm. We also present a brief review of the SDR-ML detector, formulated using semidefinite programming and relaxation techniques. Finally, we propose a combined SDR-ML-sphere decoder and demonstrate that it further reduces the number of nodes visited by the search algorithm; for a 20×20 BPSK-modulated MIMO system and SNR of 8 dB, the SDR-ML-sphere decoder has an average complexity that is approximately 5 times less than the sphere decoder.


The influence of very high heat fluxes (10 5 to 10 6 W/m²) on the boiling behavior of R404A are investigated. By using a new evaporator design it is possible to change the evaporating effects even at these high heat fluxes to bulk boiling. This paper focusses on the experimental analysis of the new evaporator by varying the parameters geometry, mass flux, subcooling and fluid velocity. The results are compared with experimental works and mathematical models at lower heat fluxes. The results show, that fluid velocity, mass flux and geometry have high influence on the transferred heat flow, while the subcooling of the liquid phase has only a small effect.


Many longwall coordinators are examining the use of pre-driven recovery roadways. This method, if performed successfully can improve the overall efficiency and safety of moving longwall equipment from panel to panel. However, it is difficult to assess the feasibility of using predriven recovery unless extensive research is carried out or a consultant is used to analyse the particular situation. A number of previous case studies have been analysed to discover which parameters have the greatest influence on the success of pre-driven recovery. Floor strength, Coal Mine Roof Rating (CMRR), extraction depth, Roof Density Index (RDI), standing support and mining rate were the main parameters impacting on the successful implementation of pre-driven recovery roadways. These parameters have been incorporated into a program that was developed to assess the feasibility of using pre-driven recovery roadways. The Pre-driven Recovery Evaluation Program (PREP) is simple to operate and it will enable new longwall mining operations as well as current operations to quickly determine the suitability of the method to their site.


The present study contributes to our understanding of local level forest crimes and law enforcement in community forestry. A total of 211 individuals from 5 categories of stakeholders, that all are involved in community forestry in Nepal, responded to a structured questionnaire administered face to face. The questionnaire elicited respondents' perceptions on the nature, frequency, motives and consequences of forest crimes. Findings show that illegal collection of firewood is perceived to be the most frequent crime, followed by illegal appropriation of timber, poles and thatch grasses. Stakeholders have clear ideas about the characteristics and motives of forest criminals and sanctions are perceived to be lenient.


Distributed computing continues to be an alphabet-soup of services and protocols for managing computation and storage. To live in this environment, applications require middleware that can transparently adapt standard interfaces to new distributed systems; such middleware is known as an interposition agent. In this paper, we present several lessons learned about interposition agents via a progressive study of design possibilities. Although performance is an important concern, we pay special attention to less tangible issues such as portability, reliability, and compatibility. We begin with a comparison of seven methods of interposition and select one method, the debugger trap, that is the slowest but also the most reliable. Using this method, we implement a complete interposition agent, Parrot, that splices existing remote I/O systems into the namespace of standard applications. The primary design problem of Parrot is the mapping of fixed application semantics into the semantics of the available I/O systems. We offer a detailed discussion of how errors and other unexpected conditions must be carefully managed in order to keep this mapping intact. We conclude with a evaluation of the performance of the I/O protocols employed by Parrot, and use an Andrew-like benchmark to demonstrate that semantic differences have consequences in performance.


Objective In this study, the effects of vibration therapy (VT) on delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and associated inflammatory markers after downhill running were determined. Methods 29 male recreational runners (33 (8) years; Vo2peak 57 (6) ml kg−1 min−1) completed a 40-min downhill run and were randomly allocated to a VT group or Control group. For 5 days post-run, the VT group underwent once-daily sessions of VT on the upper and lower legs. DOMS was assessed pre-run and for 5 days post-run by visual analogue scale. Immune cell subsets and plasma inflammatory markers were assessed pre-run, post-run, 24 and 120 h post-run by full differential cell count, and by ELISA and enzyme immunoassay, respectively. Data were analysed as per cent change from pre-run (ANOVA) and the magnitude of the treatment effect (Cohen's effect size statistics). Results VT significantly reduced calf pain 96 h post-run (−50% (40%), 90% confidence limits) and gluteal pain 96 h (−50% (40%)) and 120 h post-run (−30% (30%)); decreased interleukin 6 (IL6) 24 h (−46% (31%)) and 120 h post-run (−65% (30%)); substantially decreased histamine 24 h (−40% (50%)) and 120 h post-run (−37% (48%)); substantially increased neutrophils (8.6% (8.1%)) and significantly decreased lymphocytes (−17% (12%)) 24 h post-run. There were no clear substantial effects of VT on other leukocyte subsets and inflammatory markers. Conclusion VT reduces muscle soreness and IL6. It may stimulate lymphocyte and neutrophil responses and may be a useful modality in treating muscle inflammation.


Abstract This study evaluates the economic competitiveness of a sample of Kansas farrow-to-finish operations by estimating relative firm efficiency using nonparametric mathematical programming techniques. Measures of technical, allocative, scale, economic, and overall efficiency are then related to farm characteristics to identify sources of efficiency. Results indicate that overall efficient farms produce a high quantity of pork per litter, produce a portion of their own feed grains, generate a large portion of their income from swine and other livestock enterprises, and have a lower debt-to-asset ratio.


Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are two different chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, one rheumatic and the other one neurological, apparently without any connection between them. Yet a few case reports proved that AS may be associated with MS and this situation should be considered in some epidemiological environment. Although the geographic map of incidence is approximately superposed for both entities there are only a few cases of association. Recent studies revealed that most loci associated with MS are located very close to or even within genes encoding molecules involved in immune system function, confirming the hypothesis that MS is a disease with immunologic mechanism. In addition, some of these loci are also associated at least with another autoimmune disease, thus reinforcing the idea that autoimmune diseases may have a common origin. If MS is more common in patients with AS than in the general population, we can speculate the existence of common factors involved in these diseases. Because of the limited number of cases that associated these two diseases, the correct diagnosis of both entities considered separately or together becomes mandatory especially reflecting on the anti-TNFα agents used to treat AS which may exacerbate or induce a latent MS or demyelination processes in the central nervous system. In terms of pathogenic mechanisms, they are poorly known in both diseases, but each is characterized by an initial immune and inflammatory attack, in MS the target is the myelin sheath and in AS the enthesis tissue. A case with association between the two diseases raises important issues in choosing an appropriate treatment.


This work concerns analysis of spherical indentation experiments through
extensive finite element simulations involving the J2 flow and the J2 deformation
plasticity theories both under finite and infinite deformations
to gain a fundamental comprehension into the mechanics of the transition
between elasto-plastic and fully-plastic contacts. A decrease in hardness
with increasing penetration is found to be a manifestation of the differences
in material pileup responses between the two plasticity theories, so that in
contrast to prior investigations, a peak in hardness cannot be taken to mark
onset of a so-called finite deformation fully-plastic regime. The accuracy of
Tabor's hardness relation is examined in detail in light of the simulations
and a general relation is proposed through dimensional analysis to correlate
hardness with the uniaxial mechanical properties for any arbitrary
elasto-plastic or fully-plastic contact. Experiments are also performed in
different groups of metallic materials and a methodology is proposed to extract
yield strength ys and power-law strain hardening parameter n from
a minimum of two hardness measurements performed at different penetration
depths. Influence of pressure sensitivity in the extracted properties is
then examined through the experimental results. The issue of the uniqueness
in the extracted properties and of frictional effects between indenter
and material are briefly covered. The investigation ends with a discussion
on the robustness of mechanical property extractions through single
crystal spherical indentation experiments. Along these lines, consistency is
found between simulations with the flow theory of plasticity and the crystal
plasticity model for fcc metals. Finally, the potential of spherical indentation
to distinguish between single crystal elastic and plastic anisotropy is
considered.


Human populations inhabiting urban landscapes have increased from 224 million in 1900 to 2.9 billion in 1999. The wildlife biology profession utilizes telemetry derived location information for ecological and management studies that involve movement, behavior, habitat use, survival, productivity, and others. World-wide there were more than 1.2 billion cellular telephone users in 2003. A cellular phone based telemetry system is a feasible technology to assist wildlife biologists and researchers overcome the obstacles and requirements for conducting research in urbanized landscapes. A study was performed to assess functional and economic feasibility of developing a cellularbased telemetry system for urban wildlife use. A review of current literature that used traditional wildlife telemetry technologies resulted in the focus of four areas: the study of urban wildlife; traditional telemetry technologies; radio tag weights, frequency use, power, and cost of traditional telemetry technologies; and performance of traditional technologies in urban and non-urban landscapes. Geolocation by wireless communications systems is a relatively new market in the United States, and thus requirements and standards are still developing. Due to constraints outlined in this paper, at this time, the most feasible and promising approach to utilizing the cellular infrastructure for geolocation of urban wildlife is by establishing an ad hoc system for data transferal and accomplishing geolocation by ultra-wide band (UWB) technology.


An important question in the physics of superconducting nanostructures is the role of thermal fluctuations (TFs) on superconductivity in the zero-dimensional limit. Here, we probe the evolution of superconductivity as a function of temperature and particle size in single, isolated Pb nanoparticles. Accurate determination of the size and shape of each nanoparticle makes our system a good model to quantitatively compare the experimental findings with theoretical predictions. In particular we study the role of TFs on the tunneling density of states (DOS) and the superconducting energy gap (Delta) in these nanoparticles. For the smallest particles h <= 13 nm, we clearly observe a finite energy gap beyond T-c giving rise to a "critical region." We show explicitly through quantitative theoretical calculations that these deviations from mean-field predictions are caused by TFs. Moreover, for T << T-c, where TFs are negligible and typical sizes below 20 nm, we show that Delta gradually decreases with reduction in particle size. This result is described by a theoretical model that includes finite size effects and zero temperature leading order corrections to the mean-field formalism.


The Yule-Nielsen modified spectral Neugebauer model enhanced for accounting for ink spreading in the different ink superposition conditions (EYNSN) requires measuring the reflectances of halftone calibration patches in order to compute the ink spreading curves mapping nominal ink surface coverages to effective ink surface coverages. Spectral measurements of dozens of halftone patch reflectance spectra for each considered halftoning method, screen shape or screen frequency variant is cumbersome and time consuming. As an alternative, we compute automatically the reflectance of the calibration patches necessary to establish the ink spreading curves by making use of the two-by-two dot centering model (abbreviated "2-by-2"). The two-bytwo dot centering model requires its own set of calibration patches, among which a very small subset is necessary for predicting the reflectance of the EYNSN calibration patches. For a given combination of printer, paper and inks, using only 68 two-by-two calibration patches for the three CMY inks, respectively 118 two- by-two calibration patches for the four CMYK inks, we are able to predict the reflection spectra of most classical halftone screens and at many different frequencies. We compare the results of predictions where the EYNSN model calibration patches are measured or are predicted with the two-by-two dot centering model. For 125 (CMY) and 625 (CMYK) uniformly distributed patches printed with an ink-jet printer at three different screen frequencies (75lpi, 100lpi and 125lpi), the mean reflectance prediction accuracy is similar, i.e. the decrease in accuracy due to the two-by-two prediction of EYNSN calibration patch reflectance is less than ΔE94=0.4.


The response of cardiomyocytes to biomechanical stress can determine the pathophysiology of hypertrophic cardiac disease, and targeting the pathways regulating these responses is a therapeutic goal. However, little is known about how biomechanical stress is sensed by the cardiomyocyte sarcomere to transduce intracellular hypertrophic signals or how the dysfunction of these pathways may lead to disease. Here, we found that four-and-a-half LIM domains 1 (FHL1) is part of a complex within the cardiomyocyte sarcomere that senses the biomechanical stress-induced responses important for cardiac hypertrophy. Mice lacking Fhl1 displayed a blunted hypertrophic response and a beneficial functional response to pressure overload induced by transverse aortic constriction. A link to the Galphaq (Gq) signaling pathway was also observed, as Fhl1 deficiency prevented the cardiomyopathy observed in Gq transgenic mice. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that FHL1 plays an important role in the mechanism of pathological hypertrophy by sensing biomechanical stress responses via the N2B stretch sensor domain of titin and initiating changes in the titin- and MAPK-mediated responses important for sarcomere extensibility and intracellular signaling. These studies shed light on the physiological regulation of the sarcomere in response to hypertrophic stress.


ABSTRACT Aspergillus flavus is a soil-inhabiting fungus that frequently produces aflatoxins, potent carcinogens, in cottonseed and other seed crops. A. flavus S strain isolates, characterized on the basis of sclerotial morphology, are highly toxigenic. Spatial and temporal characteristics of the percentage of the A. flavus isolates that are S strain (S strain incidence) were used to predict patterns across areas of more than 30 km(2). Spatial autocorrelation in S strain incidence in Yuma County, AZ, was shown to extend beyond field boundaries to adjacent fields. Variograms revealed both short-range (2 to 6 km) and long-range (20 to 30 km) spatial structure in S strain incidence. S strain incidence at 36 locations sampled in July 1997 was predicted with a high correlation between expected and observed values (R = 0.85, P = 0.0001) by kriging data from July 1995 and July 1996. S strain incidence at locations sampled in October 1997 and March 1998 was markedly less than predicted by kriging data from the same months in prior years. Temporal analysis of four locations repeatedly sampled from April 1995 through July 1998 also indicated a major reduction in S strain incidence in the Texas Hill area after July 1997. Surface maps generated by kriging point data indicated a similarity in the spatial pattern of S strain incidence among all sampling dates despite temporal changes in the overall S strain incidence. Geostatistics provided useful descriptions of variability in S strain incidence over space and time.


With the decision early 2002 to develop Galileo, the second generation European GNSS-system, and to have it fully operational by 2008, the member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have taken a large step forward. The question "Quo vadis, Galileo?' has therefore, by and large, been answered 'Into orbit!' However, many legal parameters for the future system have yet to be defined; amongst those one of the most important is the definition and establishment of the institutional structure which should bring Galileo there and make sure it remains there, in a safe, sensible and operational manner. In other words: 'Quis vadit cum vobis, Galileo?' 'Who goes (there) with you?' The paper will present a brief overview of the issues involved in determining and developing the future institutional structure of Galileo, starting with the current Galileo Interim Support Structure (GISS) and the Joint Undertaking (JU) which will be its successor. This will lead into the issue of the prospective public supervisor and private operator which are supposed to be at the core of that institutional structure, tied together by a Concession Agreement-type of arrangement. In reflecting upon the various issues, attention will be paid to an interesting precedent from the satellite sector, i.e. the privatisation of INMARSAT and its transformation into Inmarsat. Other issues to be touched upon in this light concern the possibilities for non-EU and non-ESA member states to join the Galileo core institutional structure, the need for coordination and interoperability with GPS and GLONASS (and possible other systems), issues of negotiation with nonEuropean states, and dealing with liability issues.


Recent studies have shown promising results on utilizing pre-trained image-language models for video question answering. While these image-language models can efficiently bootstrap the representation learning of video-language models, they typically concatenate uniformly sampled video frames as visual inputs without explicit language-aware, temporal modeling. When only a portion of a video input is relevant to the language query, such uniform frame sampling can often lead to missing important visual cues. Although humans often find a video moment to focus on and rewind the moment to answer questions, training a query-aware video moment localizer often requires expensive annotations and high computational costs. To address this issue, we propose Self-Chained Video Localization-Answering (SeViLA), a novel framework that leverages a single image-language model (BLIP-2) to tackle both temporal keyframe localization and QA on videos. SeViLA framework consists of two modules: Localizer and Answerer, where both are parameter-efficiently fine-tuned from BLIP-2. We chain these modules for cascaded inference and self-refinement. First, in the forward chain, the Localizer finds multiple language-aware keyframes in a video, which the Answerer uses to predict the answer. Second, in the reverse chain, the Answerer generates keyframe pseudo-labels to refine the Localizer, alleviating the need for expensive video moment localization annotations. SeViLA outperforms several strong baselines/previous works on five video QA and event prediction tasks, and achieves the state-of-the-art in both fine-tuning (NExT-QA, STAR) and zero-shot (NExT-QA, STAR, How2QA, VLEP) settings. We show a comprehensive analysis, e.g., the impact of Localizer, comparisons of Localizer with other temporal localization models, pre-training/self-refinement of Localizer, and varying the number of keyframes.


ABSTRACT Research and Development (R&D) has often been cited as key to promote the development of clean technologies in both the short and long runs. Robust economic performance for clean technology firms may occur in countries in which R&D is conducted by governments as well as by businesses. The goal of this paper is to examine how private and public R&D affects firm profitability. Utilizing an international data set of clean technology firms, this study finds performance of clean technology firms to be quite favorable when compared to firms in the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index. The study examines how different countries perform in these industries. Finally, the impact both corporate and public R&D have had on these firms' performance is analyzed.


We calculate graviton n-point functions in an anti-de Sitter black brane background for effective gravity theories whose linearized equations of motion have at most two time derivatives. We compare the n-point functions in Einstein gravity to those in theories whose leading correction is quadratic in the Riemann tensor. The comparison is made for any number of gravitons and for all physical graviton modes in a kinematic region for which the leading correction can significantly modify the Einstein result. We find that the n-point functions of Einstein gravity depend on at most a single angle, whereas those of the corrected theories may depend on two angles. For the four-point functions, Einstein gravity exhibits linear dependence on the Mandelstam variable s versus a quadratic dependence on s for the corrected theory.


The value of a seasonal forecasting system based on phases of the Southern Oscillation was estimated for a representative dryland wheat grower in the vicinity of Goondiwindi. In particular the effects on this estimate of risk attitude and planting conditions were examined. A recursive stochastic programming approach was used to identify the grower's utility-maximising action set in the event of each of the climate patterns over the period 1894-1991 recurring in the imminent season. The approach was repeated with and without use of the forecasts. The choices examined were, at planting, nitrogen application rate and cultivar and, later in the season, choices of proceeding with or abandoning each wheat activity. The value of the forecasting system was estimated as the maximum amount the grower could afford to pay for its use without expected utility being lowered relative to its non-use.


The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Physical Activity and Nutrition Program needed to come up with an innovative solution to the many health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease that plagued residents of poorer areas in the city, while increasing economic opportunity for neighborhood residents. The result was the launching of Green Carts, a new mobile food vending initiative to support the introduction of healthier food options to residents of "food deserts" in New York City boroughs. The challenge was navigating the diverse landscape of players and engaging all of the relevant stakeholders to come up with a solution that was both feasible and sustainable. This case exemplifies the how partnership and strategic alliances can be used to have significant social impact. The beauty of this example is that it simultaneously addresses two large social issues: 1) access to healthy food options in urban food deserts and 2) creating self-employment opportunities for members of disadvantaged communities. This case also illustrates how the public sector can act as social innovators.

Evaluate a complex real-world example of the types of partnership that must be formed in order to achieve scalable social impact. Use the ecosystem analysis framework provided in class to analyze the potential stakeholder groups and make recommendations about the types of partnership that should be put in place in order to maximize the effectiveness of the program.


Stroke is a major cause of disability and death worldwide. Although different clinical studies and trials used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to examine patterns of change in different imaging modalities (eg: perfusion and diffusion), we still lack a clear and definite answer to the question: "How does an acute ischemic stroke lesion grow?" The inability to distinguish viable and dead tissue in abnormal MR regions in stroke patients weakens the evidence accumulated to answer this question, and relying on static snapshots of patient scans to fill in the spatiotemporal gaps by "thinking/guessing" make it even harder to tackle. Different opposing observations undermine our understanding of ischemic stroke evolution, especially at the acute stage: viable tissue transiting into dead tissue may be clear and intuitive, however, "visibly" dead tissue restoring to full recovery is still unclear. In this thesis, we search for potential answers to these raised questions from a novel dynamic modeling perspective that would fill in some of the missing gaps in the mechanisms of stroke evolution. We divided our thesis into five parts. In the first part, we give a clinical and imaging background on stroke and state the objectives of this thesis. In the second part, we summarize and review the literature in stroke and medical imaging. We specifically spot gaps in the literature mainly related to medical image analysis methods applied to acute-subacute ischemic stroke. We emphasize studies that progressed the field and point out what major problems remain. Noticeably, we have discovered that macroscopic (imaging-based) dynamic models that simulate how stroke lesion evolves in space and time were completely overlooked: an untapped potential that may alter and hone our understanding of stroke evolution. Progress in the dynamic simulation of stroke was absent –if not inexistent. In the third part, we answer this new call and apply a novel current-based dynamic model âpreviously applied to compare the evolution of facial characteristics between Chimpanzees and Bonobos [Durrleman 2010] – to ischemic stroke. This sets a robust numerical framework and provides us with mathematical tools to fill in the missing gaps between MR acquisition time points and estimate a four-dimensional evolution scenario of perfusion and diffusion lesion surfaces. We then detect two characteristics of patterns of abnormal tissue boundary change: spatial, describing the direction of change –outward as tissue boundary expands or inward as it contracts–; and kinetic, describing the intensity (norm) of the speed of contracting and expanding ischemic regions. Then, we compare intraand inter-patients estimated patterns of change in diffusion and perfusion data. Nevertheless, topology change limits this approach: it cannot handle shapes with different parts that vary in number over time (eg: fragmented stroke lesions, especially in diffusion scans, which are common). In the fourth part, we suggest a new mathematical dynamic model to increase rigor in the imaging-based dynamic modeling field as a whole by overcoming the topology-change hurdle. Metamorphosis. It morphs one source image into a target one [Trouvé 2005]. In this manuscript, we extend it into dealing with more than two timeindexed images. We propose a novel extension of image-to-image metamorphosis into longitudinal metamorphosis for estimating an evolution scenario of both scattered and


It has become a habit in recent literary criticism to read Joyce's collection of poems, Pomes Penyeach, in terms of a biographical sketch reflecting the impact that his relationship with Amalia Popper and his mother's death had on his life between 1913 and 1927. A closer look at the poems, however, clearly reveals that the biographical foundation of the collection is tenuous and that Joyce utilizes late-Victorian forms and images to redefine the modernist age as a period that is remote from the Georgian idiom and, to a significant extent, in line with the dreariness of the decadent period.Deeply rooted in nineteenth-century literary contexts ranging from Matthew Arnold to William Butler Yeats, these poems deal with festering existential wounds, "the ache of modernism," from which the speakers, in the wake of Thomas Hardy's tragic heroine Tess, suffer. The woman who hears her dead lover's voice summoning her in the graveyard, the father who senses impenetrable darkness descending on his child's delicate shoulders, or the elderly man who ruthlessly watches his physical deterioration in the mirror—they all give expression to a feeling of paralysis and ontological pessimism that radically breaks with the Romantic tradition and serves as a dark matrix for Joyce's later experimental narratives.When, in "The Nightpiece," even the speaker vanishes, and the emptiness of the night assumes the form of an ecclesiastical building, Joyce shows that he is familiar with a pervasive rhetoric of nihilism, making him an apt mediator between late-Victorian poets of despair and modern writers of absurdity.


That which determines us, from given premisses, to draw one inference rather than another, is some habit of mind, whether it be constitutional or acquired. The habit is good or otherwise, according as it produces true conclusions from true premisses or not; and an inference is regarded as valid or not, without reference to the truth or falsity of its conclusion specially, but according as the habit which determines it is such as to produce true conclusions in general or not. The particular habit of mind which governs this or that inference may be formulated in a proposition whose truth depends on the validity of the inferences which the habit determines; and such a formula is called a guiding principle of inference. Suppose, for example, that we observe that a rotating disk of copper quickly comes to rest when placed between the poles of a magnet, and we infer that this will happen with every disk of copper. The guiding principle is, that what is true of one piece of copper is true of another. Such a guiding principle with regard to copper would be much safer than with regard to many other substances – brass, for example.


This paper provides a statistical test to assess the adequacy of static equilibrium models. The test is based on a restricted cost function framework together with the envelope conditions which characterize static equilibrium for the quasi-fixed factors. We also show how restricted cost function models can be exploited to investigate some important issues such as the calculation of the rates of return to quasi-fixed factors, the determination of over- or underinvestment in particular assets, and the distinction between short run excess capacity and long run economies of scale. We provide an empirical application of these techniques to data on the Bell System for the period 1947-1976, treating the stocks of physical capital and of research and development (R&D) as quasi-fixed inputs. The results suggest that there was substantial overinvestment in capital and underinvestment in R&D compared to the static equilibrium levels, and that the rates of return to capital and R&D were about 4.5 and 10-15 percent, respectively.


The legacy of apartheid and continued social and economic change have meant that many South African men and women have grown up in families from which biological fathers are missing. In both popular and professional knowledge and practice this has been posed as inherently a problem particularly for boys who are assumed to lack a positive male role model. In drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of South African men in which they speak about their understandings of being fathered as boys, this paper makes two key arguments. The first is that contemporary South African discourses tend to pathologize the absence of the biological father while simultaneously undermining the role of social fathers. Yet, this study shows that in the absence of biological fathers other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers often serve as social fathers. Most of the men who participated in this study are able to identify men who – as social rather than biological fathers – played significant roles in their lives. Secondly, we suggest that while dominant discourses around social fatherhood foreground authoritarian and controlling behaviours, there are moments when alternative more nurturing and consultative versions of being a father and/or being fathered are evident in the experiences of this group of men.


All animals can be classified into three types depending on their modes of germ cell formation; epigenetic, intermediate and preformistic. In urodeles, which show the intermediate mode, primordial germ cells (PGCs) are morphologically recognized at first in early tailbud embryos. The PGCs, which are located within the lateral plate mesoderm, are induced as part of the regional induction of the mesoderm by the vegetal yolk endoderm. No cytologically distinctive, germ cell-specific germ plasma can be detected during early development of urodeles. 'Nuage' materials, which are specific to germ line cells in almost all animals, do, however, appear in the cytoplasm of the urodele PGCs during later embryogenesis. In contrast, PGCs in anurans are preformistically established under the influence of germ plasma. Because all germ cells, once established, show virtually identical behavior, regardless of whether different modes of germ cell formation are employed, the basic mechanism of germ cell formation and differentiation in all animals could be similar at the molecular levels. Although the molecules involved in germ cell formation in amphibians have not been identified, many aspects of germ plasm formation in anurans are similar to Drosophila, in which three classes of genes involved in germ cell formation have been identified: Class I genes are necessary for pattern specification during germ cell formation, Class II for the assembly of germ plasm components, and Class III for germ cell segregation. Assuming that germ cell formation in all animals requires the expression of all such genes, the three modes of germ cell formation mentioned above could be explained in terms of spatio-temporal expression of genes which are similar to those that have been identified in Drosophila. A tentative model of gene regulation for the three different modes of germ cell formation has been proposed in terms of temporal expression of these three classes of genes.


The Black church is often praised for its contribution to Black culture and politics. More recently Islam has been recognized as an important force in African American liberation. Anthony Pinn's new anthology By These Hands demonstrates the crucial, often overlooked role that Humanism has played in African American struggles for dignity, power and justice. Pinn collects the finest examples of African American Humanism and shows how its embrace by a variety of prominent figures in African American thought and letters has served as the basis for activism and resistance to American racism and sexism. Pinn uncovers little known treasures of African American Literature such as The Slave Narrative of James Hay, where an abused slave decides to rely on himself, rather than God, for deliverance from the horrors of slavery, and a letter from Frederick Douglass which scandalized his religious friends by proclaiming that "One honest Abolitionist was a greater terror to slaveholders than whole acres of camp-meeting preachers shouting glory to God." Essays by Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright demonstrate the profound influence of Humanism in the Harlem Rennaisance, and pieces by James Farmer, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Huey Newton show Humanism's impact on the civil rights and Black Power movements. Designed for classroom use, this radical reconsideration of African American history will be a must read for anyone interested in African American History, African American Religion and Philosophy, and American History. Contributors: Norm Allen, Jr., Herbert Aptheker, James Baldwin, Amiri Imamu Baraka, J. Mason Brewer, Sterling Brown, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.Du Bois, James Foreman, Duchess Harris, Hubert H. Harrison, Harry Haywood, Zora Neale Hurston, William R. Jones, William Loren Katz, Benjamin E. Mays, Huey P. Newton, Daniel Payne, J. Saunders Redding, William L. Van DeBurg, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright.


We present an application of inductive program synthesis to learning XSL transformations (XSLT) with recursive template application. Since XML and XSLT are term languages, we use an approach to inductive synthesis of functional programs. Synthesis is divided in two steps: First, a straight-forward, non-recursive program is generated which transforms a given set of input examples into the desired outputs; second, the straight-forward program is folded into a generalized recursive program based on recurrence detection. For our application, starting point is a single input/output example, that is, an XML document in its given form as input and in its desired form as output. A non-recursive XSLT is constructed via genetic programming. To apply our folding algorithm, the transformation is rewritten in standard term form. The resulting recursive XSLT is transformed back into XSL syntax.


In this paper I analyze Latin America's very long term economic performance (since the early 18th century), and I compare it with that of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the countries of Western Europe. I begin with an analysis of long term data and an attempt at determining when the region's decline really began. The next section deals with the relation between the strength of institutions since colonial rule and the region's economic performance. Next I move to an analysis of Latin America's long history with instability, crises and debt defaults. I show that currency collapses have been a staple of the region's economic history. In the Section that follows I analyze the long term evolution of social conditions, including poverty and income inequality. This analysis shows that a high degree of income disparity and poverty have a long history in the region. The paper ends with an analysis of the way in which Latin American intellectuals and scholars have seen the increasing economic and income gap with the United States and Canada.


Ray tracing is a graphical technique that provides realistic simulation of light sources and complex lighting effects within three-dimensional scenes, but it is a time-consuming process that requires a tremendous amount of compute power. In order to reduce the number of calculations required to render an image, many different algorithms and techniques have been developed. One such development is the use of tree-like data structures to partition space for quick traversal when finding intersection points between rays and primitives. Even with this technique, ray-primitive intersection for large datasets is still the bottleneck for ray tracing. This thesis proposes the use of a specific spatial data structure, the K-D tree, for faster ray casting of primary rays and enables a ray-triangle culling technique that compliments view frustum and backface culling. The proposed method traverses the entire tree structure to mark nodes to be inactive if it is outside of the view frustum and skipped if the triangle is a backface. In addition, a ray frustum is calculated to test the spatial coherency of the primary ray. The combination of these optimizations reduces the average number of intersection tests per ray from 98% to 99%, depending on the data size.