The answer to a top-k query is an ordered set of tuples, where the ordering is based on how closely each tuple matches the query. In the context of middleware systems, new algorithms to answer top-k queries have been recently proposed. Among these, the threshold algorithm (TA) is the most well-known instance due to its simplicity and memory requirements. TA is based on an early-termination condition and can evaluate top-k queries without examining all the tuples. This top-k query model is prevalent not only over middleware systems, but also over plain relational data. In this work, we analyze the challenges that must be addressed to adapt TA to a relational database system. We show that, depending on the available indices, many alternative TA strategies can be used to answer a given query. Choosing the best alternative requires a cost model that can be seamlessly integrated with that of current optimizers. In this work, we address these challenges and conduct an extensive experimental evaluation of the resulting techniques by characterizing which scenarios can take advantage of TA-like algorithms to answer top-k queries in relational database systems


Rumours about finds and prospects could not be proved either way until more prospecting could be done, and this had to await the official proclamation of the new goldfield. Despite optimism, no reef, or even a leader, had been discovered, and all the hopes were based on surface stone of uncertain value. Apart from the original prospectors, nobody was doing much development, most waiting to see where others made good finds so that they could peg out adjoining ground. Although increasing numbers continued to arrive, some in organized parties, most of their time was spent hanging around the hotels discussing the latest news and arguing about the value of the local ore, which even some experienced miners misunderstood. As officials considered that delaying the opening would create more difficulties, they were not convinced the field would be valuable. They, like some journalists, discouraged exaggerated hopes and men from rushing to Te Aroha. Two canvas settlements were formed, with storekeepers arriving in increasing numbers to service them. As opening day approached, the influx increased, and so did arguments over the new regulations to be applied. On the eve of the day of the proclamation, hundreds were ready to compete for mining claims and for residence and business sites.


In Fatal Strategies, Jean Baudrillard argues that music and literature are seductive in themselves. Given his later interest in photography and the work of Sophie Calle, it
could be argued that seduction is also an attribute of the visual arts. But what makes a work of art seductive? My research is concerned with the relational and psychodynamic aspects of the encounter between the work of the art and the viewer; one that, when seduction operates, is characterised by interplay, flow and conflict.
The first step towards disentangling this problem is to define seduction, a concept that is contingent, ridden with confusion, contradictions and connotative interpretations, even in the gallery space (as recent exhibitions on seduction demonstrate). Any attempt at pinning down the term, however, shows that it is pervasive and as a ruling principle, it operates everywhere – especially where efforts
to study it are made. The problem, then, becomes a methodological one: how might one study seduction as it operates in the encounter with works of art? I put forward a
subjective, practice-led approach, comprised of three strands: artistic – in particular photography – psychoanalytic and writing practices. All three enact the self-reflexive methodology that is at the core of the contribution my project aims to make and which is constituted of three steps: recognition, capture and reflection.
The context for the research is multiform, interdisciplinary and is located in converging fields concerned with textual and visual material: eighteenth-century libertine novels, in particular Les Liaisons Dangereuses and the writings of the Marquis de Sade; Giacomo Casanova's memoirs; Frank Sinatra's peculiar arrest in 1938; Sigmund Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory; Soren Kierkegaard's games between Johannes and Cordelia; Karl Marx's commodity fetishism; Naia del Castillo's works, which are linked to Surrealist concerns, and Jacques Lacan's mysterious objet petit a, the object cause of desire. All these play a part in delineating seduction.
My own (nearly missed) encounter with a work of art, Marcel Duchamp's Etant donnes, and a bold shoe in a New York shop window are used as support for the writing, together with the occasional appearances of a detective – who will provide the forensic gaze required of PhD studies – and other minor characters.


This paper delves into the challenges of engaging patients, clinicians and industry stakeholders in the participatory design of an mHealth platform for patient-clinician collaboration. It follows the process from the development of a research prototype to a commercial software product. In particular, we draw attention to four major challenges of (a) aligning the different concerns of patients and clinicians, (b) designing according to clinical accountability, (c) ensuring commercial interest, and (d) dealing with regulatory constraints when prototyping safety critical health Information Technology. Using four illustrative cases, we discuss what these challenges entail and the implications they pose to Participatory Design. We conclude the paper by presenting lessons learned.


The purpose of this study was to develop a model which could be used in the identification and prediction of potential school dropouts. This model has attempted to determine the extent to which certain selected variables studied could all be used by schools in the future, special instrumentation was avoided. -- The variables used were the five Canadian Test of Basic Skills subtests Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, English Usage, Mathematical Concepts, and Mathematical Problem Solving; school achievement in the form of grade average and overage variables; the two mental ability variables of verbal and non-verbal IQ from the Canadian Lorge-Thorndike Group Intelligence Test; father's occupational level; mother's level of education and father's level of education; number of natural parents in the home; two dwelling area variables community 1 and community 2; percent of time absent; and the nine variables involving teacher ratings of student self-control, courtesy, leadership, co-operation, attitude toward criticism, concentration, attention, tenacity and self-reliance. -- Twenty- three of these initial twenty-five variables were found to discriminate statistically between the two groups from the analysis of variance. The two exceptions, number of natural parents and community variable 1, were eliminated from further consideration. The school achievement variables of grade average and overage were also eliminated from the discriminant analysis because a new promotion policy in the district was eliminating the strength of these variables for future studies. -- The remaining twenty-one variables provided the model that discriminated between the two groups. The most important variables were verbal IQ, absence, self-reliance, co-operation, vocabulary and mother's level of education. These 6 variables accounted for 79 percent of the between groups variance between the dropouts and non-dropouts. This model would correctly classify 87.3 percent of the sample. -- An extreme difference was found between the verbal and non-verbal IQ's of the two groups, with the suggestion, however, that reading ability was not the cause of the difference.


The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between some biometrical measurements (length and width) and some electrolytic concentration (Na , K and Cl) in sheep spleen. This study was conducted on 19 spleens of male sheep, they were imported from Syria to Sulaimani province, aged between less than 1 year to 1.5 year. The results showed that the mean values of weight were 108 gm and mean values of length and width of the spleens were 13.72 cm and 9.05 cm, respectively. Also, the mean values of Cl, Na and K concentration were 14.17 mmol/L, 6.58 mmol/L, 32.89 mmol/L, respectively. The correlation coefficient between weight and width was (r = 0.661, P=0.002) was a higher correlation with R = 0.437. Also It was (r= 0.932, P≤0.0001) between Na and K which was a high correlation, with the higher value of R =0.869. The results showed the negative correlation between weight and Na, weight and K with (r= -0.161, P=0.509) and (r= -0.214, P=0.379), respectively. However, it showed the positive correlation between other parameters; weight, length, width , Na, K and Cl, the correlation coefficient (r= 0.421, P= 0.072) between width and Cl was the highest correlation, and the value R = 0.177. In conclusion, our study shows the positive correlation between some parameters (weight, length and width) and some electrolytes concentration (Na, K and Cl) and the highest correlation between width and Cl, however there was a negative correlation between weight and Na and between weight and K in sheep spleen.


Teenagers are age-prone to new problems that arise in day life. In the face of problems in Buddhism, adolescents are taught to be independent from early adolescence to dealing with various problems in their lives. The adolescent in the Buddhist teenagers' has the independence ability taught in the Buddhist theory that "make yourself a protector for yourself", so that the individual is required to use his mind in conquering himself." Self-regulation is component of critical thinking skills as the ability to control ourself to solve the problem where in behaving need consideration using thought for making decision. Critical thinking skills is a thought process that includes the ability to interpret, analyze information, evaluate the problem, conclude for decision-making, and ends with self-regulation. This study aims to identify qualitatively the representative of self-regulatory in critical thinking skills on the Buddhist adolescents in solving the problem. In the results of this study, the representation of self-regulatory of the Buddhist teenagers' critical thinking in solving problems uses independence and thinking systematically without instruction to solve the problems. This research is supporting theory about critical thinking that includes aspects of self-regulation and improvement of self-regulatory can be started by group exercise.


The privatisation of formerly state-owned sugar cane estates and mills in the late 1990s led to the reconfiguration of the ownership structure and production of the Tanzanian sugar industry. This included the decentralisation of sugar cane production operations to outgrowers and their associations. Based on an investigation of sugar cane outgrowers of the Kilombero Sugar Company, this article explores the outcomes of this transformation and the dynamics of social differentiation, and the ways in which this is shaped by Tanzania's institutional and legal framework governing the sugar industry. While increased sugar cane production has created jobs and income for some outgrower households, it has also been associated with several adverse impacts. Large-scale outgrowers have rapidly captured the most lucrative business opportunities and the land they require, marginalising smaller outgrowers. This is further exacerbated by heightened competition among farmers and patronage relations affecting the distribution of harvest quotas and cheap sugar imports. The outgrower model is central to national development initiatives such as the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania and 'Big Results Now'. Despite the grand ambitions of large-scale agricultural commercialisation, who wins and who loses out depends more on the local political economy, where the sugar industry, local business, political elites and local communities compete for the benefits of expanded sugar production.


It is a common conception among beginner face illustrators that drawing or copying a face that is vertically inverted (upside-down) will improve the accuracy of the drawing because there will be less interference from how we expect the face to look. This study looks into that conception; decades of research have shown that holistic processing of faces is disrupted when they are inverted. The disruption of holistic processing should thus lead to more accurate face drawings. We tested this theory by having participants draw upright and inverted parameterized face profiles and analyzing their accuracy. We constructed a parameterized profile face space by recording the location of 66 landmark points on a collection of 720 profile faces (see Davidenko, 2007). For this study, we generated 16 parameterized faces by sampling from the first 8 dimensions of this face space. In each trial, participants were shown a face on the left side of the screen and had 45 seconds to copy it on the right side of the screen, using a stylus on a Windows 8 Surface tablet. Each participant drew each of 16 faces both upright and inverted (the presentation order was randomized and counterbalanced across subjects). We carefully recorded the location of the 66 landmark points on each face drawing, allowing us to compute a distance metric between each drawing and its corresponding original face [see supplementary materials fig.1]. This distance metric served as a measure of accuracy, with higher distances corresponding to greater errors. Contrary to common belief, people's drawings were significantly more accurate for upright versus inverted faces (t(15) = 4.9; p=0.0002) [see supplementary materials fig.2]. Our results suggest that holistic processing may be vital to accurate face drawing. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The aim of the article is to present the results of a study of the main problems and prospects for sustainable development of a green economy in Ukraine, as well as, using the example of forestry, the key aspects of environmental audit in ensuring sustainable forest management are identified. The results show that environmental audit can make a positive contribution to the sustainable development of a green economy. However, in Ukraine, as in other developing countries where economic goals dominate over environmental ones, the role of environmental audit is still limited. The methodology of conducting an audit has been improved in terms of assessing the possibility of reliable economic assessment of audit subjects to further reflect its results in analytical studies. It is established that the subject of internal economic and environmental audit is a set of economic, environmental, social, informational, organizational and other subsystems in the forestry system. It is determined that to optimize the cost structure, it is advisable to control the compliance of the amounts declared in the primary accounting documents – the amounts involved in the calculation of production costs.


This paper builds on the literature on agricultural policy analysis under costly and imperfect enforcement by analyzing the effect of enforcement costs and noncompliance on the relative transfer efficiency of output and export subsidies. Analytical results show that, in addition to changing the incidence of output and export subsidies, relaxing the assumption of perfect and costless enforcement found in the traditional analysis of these policy instruments can affect their relative efficiency in transferring income to producers. The effect of enforcement issues is shown to depend on the way export subsidies are being administered and the size of the exporting country.


When different legal controversies arise, parties frequently employ alternative dispute resolution procedures to resolve them. Yet some members of ethnic minority groups and women may seek judicial proceedings out of a concern that their ethnicity or gender may undermine their ability to achieve beneficial bargaining outcomes through ADR. This article addresses the real and perceived challenges of ethnic minorities and women in ADR. It draws upon decades of research into dispute resolution bargaining processes to illustrate that most traits associated with ethnicity and gender are irrelevant today with respect to ADR. When persons are taught even minimally about the bargaining process and how it operates, such information greatly enhances their likelihood of interacting effectively. Well-prepared minorities and women should thus be able to seek advantageous terms for themselves in ADR, even when dealing with white-male counterparts. Conversely, there is no guarantee that members of ethnic groups or women would achieve more advantageous outcomes in judicial proceedings. Even the formal rules of judicial proceedings may be influenced by subconscious stereotypes that still influence the ways that judges, jurors, and arbitrators assess litigant situations. Therefore, this article posits that adjudication is not clearly preferable to ADR procedures for minority group members and women.


Patients suffering from pituitary macroadenomas - pituitary tumors larger than 10mm - often have visual deficits, typically bilateral hemianopsia, because of chiasmal compression. Treatment of macroadenomas is usually successful, and thus such patients provide a unique opportunity for studying neuroplasticity in the human visual system and its consequences for vision. This case study focuses on patient BS, a 48-year-old man, who had a large prolactinoma, a common pituitary tumor, and, as a consequence, a severe visual field loss. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the retinotopic organization of primary visual cortex (V1) of patient BS before and after successful treatment of his prolactinoma with cabergoline over the course of 13 months. In addition, we used the same fMRI protocol to examine the organization of V1 in a healthy age- and gender-matched control participant with normal vision. Humphrey's perimetry was used to assess the integrity of the visual fields, before and after the completion of treatment for patient BS, and over two successive scans in the healthy control. The Humphrey field exam revealed significant visual improvement after treatment and this recovery was accompanied by substantial changes in V1 activation. Before the start of treatment, the amount of cortical tissue in V1 which was activated by the retinotopic stimuli was only 21% that of the healthy control participant. After treatment, the amount of activation normalized to approximately 90% of that of the control participant. The organization of retinotopic representations in V1 also normalized after treatment. These results illustrate that the visual system is capable of repair following conservative medical treatment, opening the door for assessing the effects of compression on different components of the optic nerve and tract. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Several econometric models for the analysis of relationships with limited dependent variables have been proposed, including the probit, Tobit, two-limit probit, ordered discrete, and friction models. Widespread application of these methods has been hampered by the lack of suitable computer programs. This paper provides a concise survey of the various models; suggests a general functional model under which they may be formulated and analyzed; reviews the analytic problems and the similarities and dissimilarities of the models; and outlines the appropriate and necessary methods of analysis including, but not limited to, estimation. It is thus intended to serve as a guide for users of the various models, for the preparation of suitable computer programs, for the users of those programs; and, more specifically, for the users of the program package utilizing the functional model as implemented on the NBER TROLL system.


We performed long-haul WDM transmission experiments to compare 10 Gbit/s MSK and QPSK modulation with a channel grid of 12.5 GHz. A standard link setup with inline dispersion compensation was applied in combination with coherent detection and following offline signal processing. Both modulation formats showed nearly equal performance bridging about 4000 km at a BER of 10(-3).


In this application paper, we report on over fifteen years of experience with relativistic and astrophysical visualization, which has been culminating in a substantial engagement for visualization in the Einstein Year 2005 - the 100/sup th/ anniversary of Einstein's publications on special relativity, the photoelectric effect, and Brownian motion. This paper focuses on explanatory and illustrative visualizations used to communicate aspects of the difficult theories of special and general relativity, their geometric structure, and of the related fields of cosmology and astrophysics. We discuss visualization strategies, motivated by physics education and didactics of mathematics, and describe what kind of visualization methods have proven to be useful for different types of media, such as still images in popular-science magazines, film contributions to TV shows, oral presentations, or interactive museum installations. Although our visualization tools build upon existing methods and implementations, these techniques have been improved by several novel technical contributions like image-based special relativistic rendering on GPUs, an extension of general relativistic ray tracing to manifolds described by multiple charts, GPU-based interactive visualization of gravitational light deflection, as well as planetary terrain rendering. The usefulness and effectiveness of our visualizations are demonstrated by reporting on experiences with, and feedback from, recipients of visualizations and collaborators.


The present thesis offers a reading of the book of Exodus as a literary artifact. This is
accomplished through the investigation of its main literary characters Yhwh, Moses and
Israel. The text is understood to be part of a communicative situation between author and
reader. This hermeneutical claim and the nature of Exodus itself entail certain consequences
with regard to the method of enquiry. The method applied is a modified form of
rhetorical criticism, which is understood to provide an interpretive perspective on the text.
The particular focus is on the functional aspects of the text which direct the reading process
and thus guide the reader. Given the difficulties in determining the circumstances of
the origin of Exodus and the paucity of secured knowledge about early Israelite history, the
`implied reader' is introduced as a key-term. It is assumed that this implied reader informed
the inventio and dispositio of the book. Because of the book's central themes - identity
and relationship -a careful investigation of the characters is a worthy avenue to pursue.
Three characters have been chosen on account of their continuous involvement in the
plot. The introduction of each character into the plot receives special attention. The developing
portrayal of each character is closely linked to its paradigmatic qualities and to its influence
on the reader. First, the portrait of God is discussed, especially in relation to the
contributions of the narrative, poetic and legal parts of Exodus. The very important but
often neglected legal characterisation of Yhwh in Exodus is a topic of special interest. Although
the legal collections say much about their recipients, they also reveal deep insights
into the law-giver's nature and concerns. Yhwh is identified as the king who justly claims
obedience and service. A further focus is the possibility of the relationship between Israel
and their king, Yhwh. Second, with regard to Moses there is a significant difference between
his first appearance in Exod 2-5 and his later development. This remarkable tension
in the Mosaic portrayal reveals interesting insights into the implied reader's preconceptions.
Here we trace closely the argumentative strategy of the author in his attempts to convince
this reader. Furthermore, it is necessary to discuss the paradigmatic qualities of the character
Moses. Third, reader-identification is at the heart of the construction of Israel. Here the
historical gulf between the Israel of the narrative and the one of the implied reader is
bridged. The complexity of Israel is a central aspect of Exodus' rhetoric, urging its readers
to comply with the ideal which the author sought to communicate in his book.
The results of this study provide insights into the specific poetics of Exodus and its
management of the reading process. Because of the proposed unity of form and content, it
is possible to specify the message of the entire book by taking into account its intriguing
mixture of different genres. An abstraction from modern reading-conventions in the
encounter of ancient Hebrew texts is shown, and the possibility of reading the text on its
own terms is explored.


The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) margin is dominated by glaciomarine fjords and has experienced rapid climate warming in recent de cades. Glacial calving along the peninsula delivers icerafted debris (e.g. dropstones) to heavily sedimented fjord basins and the open continental shelf. Dropstones provide hard substrate, increase habitat heterogeneity, and may function as island habitats surrounded by mud. We used seafloor photographic transects to evaluate the distribution and community structure of Antarctic hard-substrate megafauna and the role of dropstones as island habitats in 3 WAP fjords and at 3 nearby shelf stations. Several lines of evidence indicate that dropstones function as island habitats; their communities adhere to principles of island biogeography theory with (1) a positive correlation between dropstone size and species richness, (2) an increase in the proportion of colonized dropstones with increasing dropstone size, and (3) a species−area scaling exponent consistent with island habitats measured globally. Previous work on the soft-sediment megafauna of this region found strong differences in community composition between fjord and shelf sites, whereas we found that dropstone communities differed within sites at small scales (1 km and smaller). We identified 73 megafaunal morphotypes associated with dropstones, 29 of which were not previously documented in the soft-sediment mega fauna. While dropstones constituted <1% of the total seafloor area surveyed, they contributed 20% of the overall species richness of WAP megabenthos at depths of 437−724 m. WAP dropstone communities adhere to key principles of island biogeography theory, contribute environmental heterogeneity, and increase biodiversity in the WAP region. A rich community of megafauna inhabiting a glacial dropstone in Flandres Bay (400 m), a glaciomarine fjord on the West Antarctic Peninsula. Photo: Dr. Craig R. Smith


Graphic warning labels are gruesome images on cigarette packages depicting diseased body parts, suffering, and death. An increasing number of countries have mandated them. The scholarly literature unequivocally concludes that they are effective, as measured by elicited cognitive and emotional reactions, increased motivation to quit smoking, and greater awareness of the risks and warnings. But studies investigating actual changes in smoking behavior are more limited. Focusing on a widely cited difference-in-difference study in Tobacco Control by Jidong Huang, Frank Chaloupka, and Geoffrey Fong (2014), we discuss some of the challenges faced in attempting to estimate the impact of cigarette graphic warning labels on population smoking rates in Canada. We demonstrate that spurious correlation may arise when the key underlying assumptions of the difference-in-difference methodology do not hold, or when the specification is plagued by such issues as serial correlation or omitted variables. Our findings suggest that there remains uncertainty in the causal relationship between Canada's policy that mandates graphic warning labels and smoking rates. Estimates could be improved with additional data, better-specified instruments for problematic data, or alternative methods that would address the limitations identified in the present study.


With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), the automatic analysis of video interviews to recognize individual personality traits has become an active area of research and has applications in personality computing, human–computer interaction, and psychological assessment. Advances in computer vision and pattern recognition based on deep learning (DL) techniques have led to the establishment of convolutional neural network models that can successfully recognize human nonverbal cues and attribute their personality traits with the use of a camera. In this paper, an end-to-end AI interviewing system was developed using asynchronous video interview (AVI) processing and a TensorFlow AI engine to perform automatic personality recognition (APR) based on the features extracted from the AVIs and the true personality scores from the facial expressions and self-reported questionnaires of 120 real job applicants. The experimental results show that our AI-based interview agent can successfully recognize the "big five" traits of an interviewee at an accuracy between 90.9% and 97.4%. Our experiment also indicates that although the machine learning was conducted without large-scale data, the semisupervised DL approach performed surprisingly well with regard to APR despite the lack of labor-intensive manual annotation and labeling. The AI-based interview agent can supplement or replace existing self-reported personality assessment methods that job applicants may distort to achieve socially desirable effects.


We present a novel derivation of both the Minkowski metric and Lorentz transformations from the consistent quantification of a causally ordered set of events with respect to an embedded observer. Unlike past derivations, which have relied on assumptions such as the existence of a 4-dimensional manifold, symmetries of space-time, or the constant speed of light, we demonstrate that these now familiar mathematics can be derived as the unique means to consistently quantify a network of events. This suggests that space-time need not be physical, but instead the mathematics of space and time emerges as the unique way in which an observer can consistently quantify events and their relationships to one another. The result is a potential foundation for emergent space-time.


Seborrheic keratosis is a benign epithelial neoplasia that commonly occurs on the face and eyelids of middle-aged individuals. Its occurrence on the conjunctiva is rare. We report a case of conjunctival seborrheic keratosis that clinically resembled an ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN). A 77-year old male was referred with a right temporal juxta-limbal conjunctival mass. Based on its appearance, a clinical diagnosis of OSSN was made and a wide excisional biopsy, cryotherapy and amniotic membrane graft was performed. A diagnosis of seborrheic keratosis was confirmed by histopathology. Our case highlights the fact that conjunctival seborrheic keratosis, though rare, can mimic malignant lesions such as OSSN and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of conjunctival tumours.


To realize lightweight structures of material combinations like aluminum/magnesium and aluminum/steel an Ultrasound Enhanced Friction Stir Welding (USE-FSW) process was used. This process has a beneficial influence on the resulting microstructure (elimination of the brittle intermetallic phase Al3Mg2 as coherent layer) and the mechanical properties (increased tensile strength) of Al/Mg-joints and was now also applied for Al/steel-hybrid joints. Besides the mechanical properties the corrosion properties of the hybrid joints may play a significant role concerning the later use of the hybrid materials. Therefore, the corrosion properties of various hybrid joints have been investigated by different methods. With the Scanning Kelvin Probe (SKP) Volta potential differences between the base alloys and the welded area were investigated in air. The two-dimensional color-plots illustrate not only the Volta potential differences between the different phases but also their oxidation properties in air during the measurement time. Electrochemical measurements (open circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarization) have been carried out for the investigation of the corrosion properties of the FSW and USE-FSW hybrid joints in 0.5 molar NaCl solution. A three electrode setup within a mini-cell was used to enable measurements on different areas of the joints. This allows to observe the corrosion activity of the base alloys and the nugget phase separately. Differences between Al/steel-hybrid joints processed with and without ultrasound enhancement are discussed and compared with Al/Mg-hybrids.


This paper discusses results of a simulation with the regional climate model HIRHAM for 1958-2001, driven by the ECMWF reanalysis (ERA40) data over the Arctic domain. The aim is to analyze the ability of the model to capture certain features of climate extremes derived from daily mean, maximum and minimum temperatures. For this purpose, a range of climate indices (frost days, cold and warm spell days, growing degree days and growing season length) was calculated from the model output as well as from ERA40 data and region-specific station data for Eastern and Western Russian Arctic for comparison. It is demonstrated that the model captures the main features in the spatial distribution and temporal development of most indices well. Though systematic deviations in the seasonal means occur in various indices (frost days, growing degree days), variability and trends are well reproduced. Seasonal mean patterns in frost days are reproduced best, though the model persistently calculates too many frost days. Seasonal means of cold and warm spell days are reproduced without systematic biases, though deviations occur in summer for cold spells and in spring and summer for warm spells due to an early spring warming in the regional climate model and a low variability of the daily maximum temperature over sea ice.


Lately, lots of effort has been put into the construction of robots able to live among humans. This fact has favored the development of personal or social robots, which are expected to behave in a natural way. This implies that these robots could meet certain requirements, for example, to be able to decide their own actions (autonomy), to be able to make deliberative plans (reasoning), or to be able to have an emotional behavior in order to facilitate human-robot interaction. In this paper, the authors present a bioinspired control architecture for an autonomous and social robot, which tries to accomplish some of these features. In order to develop this new architecture, authors have used as a base a prior hybrid control architecture (AD) that is also biologically inspired. Nevertheless, in the later, the task to be accomplished at each moment is determined by a fix sequence processed by the Main Sequencer. Therefore, the main sequencer of the architecture coordinates the previously programmed sequence of skills that must be executed. In the new architecture, the main sequencer is substituted by a decision making system based on drives, motivations, emotions, and self-learning, which decides the proper action at every moment according to robot's state. Consequently, the robot improves its autonomy since the added decision making system will determine the goal and consequently the skills to be executed. A basic version of this new architecture has been implemented on a real robotic platform. Some experiments are shown at the end of the paper.


Angiotensin converting enzyme exists in two different isoforms, somatic and germinal, whose respective distributions and intracellular localizations have not been precisely determined. The differing biochemical and molecular characteristics of the two isozymes allowed the preparation of antibodies specific for each of the two angiotensin converting enzyme isoforms and of two nucleic acid probes, one of which was specific for the germinal isoform. Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization were used to determine the cell distribution of, respectively, the two isoforms and their corresponding messenger RNAs in the classically studied tissues of male adult humans and marmosets. Results provided by the two different methods were always concordant and were identical in the two species. The somatic angiotensin converting enzyme form was expressed uniquely in somatic tissues (vascular endothelial cells and at the brush border of renal proximal convoluted tubule, jejunal villus, and epididymal duct epithelia), and the germinal form was expressed uniquely in germinal cells with a precise stage-specific pattern, starting in round spermatids and finishing in spermatozoa. In situ hybridization documented the presence of somatic angiotensin converting enzyme messenger RNA in renal tubule epithelium, jejunal enterocytes, and epididymal epithelium and demonstrated that there was no direct correlation between the levels of angiotensin converting enzyme messenger RNA and the enzyme it encodes for, i.e., angiotensin converting enzyme, in a given epithelium. The significance of the ultraselective expression of germinal angiotensin converting enzyme and of its specific messenger RNA at a very precise stage of spermatogenesis remains uncertain.


Simultaneous hypothesis tests can fail to provide results that meet logical requirements. For example, if A and B are two statements such that A implies B, there exist tests that, based on the same data, reject B but not A. Such outcomes are generally inconvenient to statisticians (who want to communicate the results to practitioners in a simple fashion) and non-statisticians (confused by conflicting pieces of information). Based on this inconvenience, one might want to use tests that satisfy logical requirements. However, Izbicki and Esteves shows that the only tests that are in accordance with three logical requirements (monotonicity, invertibility and consonance) are trivial tests based on point estimation, which generally lack statistical optimality. As a possible solution to this dilemma, this paper adapts the above logical requirements to agnostic tests, in which one can accept, reject or remain agnostic with respect to a given hypothesis. Each of the logical requirements is characterized in terms of a Bayesian decision theoretic perspective. Contrary to the results obtained for regular hypothesis tests, there exist agnostic tests that satisfy all logical requirements and also perform well statistically. In particular, agnostic tests that fulfill all logical requirements are characterized as region estimator-based tests. Examples of such tests are provided.


Advances in wireless and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology has given birth to a new technology field sensor networks. These new technologies along with pervasive computing have made the dream of a smart environment come true. Sensors being small and capable of sensing, processing and communicating data has opened a whole new era of applications from medicine to military and from indoors to outdoors. Sensor networks although exciting have very limited resources, for example, memory, processing power and bandwidth, with energy being the most precious resource as they are battery operated. However, these amazing devices can collaborate in order to perform a task. Due to these limitations and specific characteristics being application specific and heterogeneous there is a need to devise techniques and software which would utilize the meager resources efficiently keeping in view the unique characteristics of this network. This thesis presents a lightweight, flexible and energy-efficient middleware framework called MidWSeN which combines aspects of queries, events and context of WSN in a single system. It provides a combination of core and optional services which could be adjusted according to the resources available and specific requirements of the application. The availability of multiple copies of services distributed across the network helps in making the system robust. This middleware framework introduces a new Persistent Storage Service which saves data within the sensor network on the nodes for lifetime of the network to provide historical data. A Priority algorithm is being also presented in this thesis to ensure that enough memory is always available. A novel context enhanced aggregation has also been presented in this thesis which aggregates data with respect to context. Application management service (AMS) provides Service optimization within the network is another novel aspect of the proposed framework. To evaluate the functionality of the work presented, different parts of the framework have also been implemented. The tests and results are detailed to prove the ideas presented in the framework. The work has also been evaluated against a set of requirements and compared against existing works to indicate the novel aspects of framework. Finally some ideas are presented for the future works.


SUMMARY We examined whether exogenous glucose affects contractile performance of electrically paced ventricle strips from rainbow trout under conditions known to alter cardiomyocyte performance, ion regulation and energy demands. Physiological levels of d-glucose did not influence twitch force development for aerobic preparations (1) paced at 0.5 or 1.1 Hz, (2) at 15 or 23°C, (3) receiving adrenergic stimulation or (4) during reoxygenation with or without adrenaline after severe hypoxia. Contractile responses to ryanodine, an inhibitor of Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, were also not affected by exogenous glucose. However, glucose did attenuate the fall in twitch force during severe hypoxia. Glucose uptake was assayed in non-contracting ventricle strips using 2-[3H] deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG) under aerobic and hypoxic conditions, at different incubation temperatures and with different inhibitors. Based upon a lack of saturation of 2-DG uptake and incomplete inhibition of uptake by cytochalasin B and d-glucose, 2-DG uptake was mediated by a combination of facilitated transport and simple diffusion. Hypoxia stimulated lactate efflux sixfold to sevenfold with glucose present, but did not increase 2-DG uptake or reduce lactate efflux in the presence of cytochalasin B. Increasing temperature (14 to 24°C) also did not increase 2-DG uptake, but decreasing temperature (14 to 4°C) reduced 2-DG uptake by 45%. In conclusion, exogenous glucose improves mechanical performance under hypoxia but not under any of the aerobic conditions applied. The extracellular concentration of glucose and cold temperature appear to determine and limit cardiomyocyte glucose uptake, respectively, and together may help define a metabolic strategy that relies predominantly on intracellular energy stores.


The Czech Republic recently approved a new National Energy Policy (SEP) that aims to reduce energy consumption and improve the economy's energy intensity. This IEA country review provides a snapshot of the energy sector in the Czech Republic and examines the impact of the SEP. The review warns that reaching long-term energy targets will require greater effort if the country is to play its part in the on-going global energy transition.
The SEP broadly seeks to strengthen security of energy supply and build a competitive and sustainable energy sector. While the Czech Republic has experienced strong growth in the renewable energy sector – notably solar PV – policy changes have created uncertainty. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions, which have been falling since 2000, are expected to increase. Coal dominates the power sector and is the largest source of carbon emissions and also poses a substantial threat to local air quality.
The review finds that natural gas supply security remains strong, and the country is expected to remain a net exporter of electricity. The expansion of nuclear power is one of the main pillars of the SEP, and will play a greater role in coming years. The SEP also establishes key targets for energy security, emissions, energy savings, electricity generation and affordability.
This review also provides recommendations for further policy improvements that are intended to help guide the country towards a more secure and sustainable energy future.


A more intensive integrated research and development approach to the work carried out on the growth on sandy soils of stands of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) has been adopted in recent years, revealing several factors influencing stand growth. The fact that certain ecological factors influencing fundamentally the growth of trees have become unfavourable in Hungary in recent years has led to the more extensive use of black locust in the course of afforestation and forest regeneration schemes. The study presents a new, simplified tending operation model for black locust stands and age, growing space and target diameter models suitable for qualitaty log production and for mass assortments. The simplicity of these practice-oriented models may foster the qualitative development of black locust management in Hungary and in some other countries where this tree species may gain greater acceptance by landowners and the forest industry.


In 2017, the price of bitcoin skyrocketed and many investors wanted to participate in the crypto-hype. Hence, a lot of companies took the new opportunity to obtain financing by issuing crypto-assets in initial coin offerings instead of going the heavily regulated way through venture capital or initial public offerings. Besides valuable projects, many projects fail or turn out to be a scam. Retail investors are not aware of the potentially high risks of ICO investments. Regulators of most jurisdictions have not yet proposed new rules, but monitor the new phenomenon to gain insights. Many regulators stick to regulation in place and pursue case-by-case assessments in order to apply existing rules. This paper develops a taxonomy of crypto-assets based on academic literature and empirical data. The taxonomy covers embodied investor rights, security-like characteristics, and crypto-specific features being able to support regulators with their case-by-case assessment. The taxonomy helps regulators to classify crypto-assets allowing them to decide which characteristics are subject to regulation and whether new rules are necessary to ensure market integrity and investor protection. Further, the taxonomy is also designed to support issuers with the design of new crypto-assets helping them to understand which characteristics might be subject to regulation.


Coronary artery disease has been leading cause of death in the world, angioplasty stent implantation is an important strategy in these cases. Studies indicate that biodegradability, immobilization of antiproliferatives and bioactive molecules in stents, are the characteristics of future generations of these devices. Amongst them, hyaluronic acid contributes to decrease of the aggregation and proliferation of cells between artery layers and the implanted device. For this purpose, poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) bioresorbable coronary stents with hyaluronic acid (HA) grafting in poly (LD- lactic acid) (PLDLA) were developed. The models were characterized as their thermal properties with Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetric Analysis (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR), Wettability, with study of Contact Angle using Water swelling. PLDLA ADH-modified HA grafting presented more hydrophilic surface characteristics, ideal for coating material of this devices. In conclusion, grafting of hyaluronic acid in the PLDLA matrices confirmed, by technics used at this project. The coating of models of PLLA with PLDLA-HAADH made by dip coating technic.


Great advances have been made in our understanding of the phylogeny and classification of Agavaceae in the last 20 years. In older systems Agavaceae were paraphyletic due to overemphasis of ovary position or habit. Discovery of a unique bimodal karyotype in Agave and Yucca eventually led to a reexamination of concepts and relationships in all the lilioid monocots, which continues to the present day. Developments in cytogenetics, microscopy, phylogenetic systematics, and most recently DNA technology have led to remarkable new insights. Large-scale rbcL sequence studies placed Agavaceae with the core Asparagales and identified closely related taxa. Analysis of cpDNA restriction sites, rbcL, and ITS nrDNA sequences all supported removal of Dracaenaceae, Nolinaceae, and clarified relationships. Agavaceae s.s. presently consists of Agave, Beschorneria, Furcraea, Hesperaloe, Hesperoyucca, Manfreda, Polianthes, Prochnyanthes, and Yucca. In this paper we analyze recently obtained ndhF sequence data from Agavaceae and Asparagales and discuss the implications for classification. Parsimony analysis of ndhF data alone resolves most genera of Agavaceae and supports the inclusion of Camassia, Chlorogalum, Hesperocallis, and Hosta within Agavaceae s.l. Analysis of combined ndhF and rbcL data sets of selected Asparagales results in better resolution and stronger bootstrap support for many relationships. Combination of all available ndhF, rbcL, and ITS data in a single analysis results in the best resolution currently available for Agavaceae s.l. Implications for classification schemes past and present are discussed.


We demonstrate a high-resolution technique to measure the optical magnitude and phase responses of fiber gratings. The technique employs single-sideband modulation of an optical source and has spectral resolution in the hertz regime. The technique is demonstrated by measurement of the phase ripples of unapodized and apodized chirped gratings as well as the transmission spectrum of a pi-phase-shifted grating. Although it is demonstrated on fiber gratings, the technique is applicable to any optical device.


The work in this exhibition engages with how to make paintings that are speaking different languages to me and to each other; some of them are secret. It draws on other lines of communication in an attempt to hold the inner narratives together. Using four music related objects to navigate the exhibition space the meaning within the objects history becomes a narrative force in the exhibition.
The eponymous The Tenderness Only we Can See is a painting on a piano part. Like an altarpiece the picture surface is partitioned in three parts, at the centre a fish in yellow, brown and pink on a light yellow background is surrounded by baskets. Chopin's Heart, a piece of piano standing column-like, contrasts birds and patterns as if in a fabric sample book. Plants and animals, like patterns, traverse time and key into our register of recognition, assumption and place of cultural belonging. Painting British fish, for instance, is a strategy for recasting notions of the exotic, deconstructing that which is familiar, turning the everyday into 'other'. The sh is silent whereas the pattern speaks a secret language. The baskets are women's companions and familiars. The piano in contrast to a banjo is an instrument that straddles bourgeois drawing room entertainment, the concert hall, jazz club and more.
Another painting, The Captain and the Mate expands on a long-term interest in the work of James Tissot (1832 – 1902). Since the early 90s Himid has been recasting paintings from his period of painting fashionable women, replacing white figures with black figures, suggesting alternative stories that could have been concurrent, but that also operate in their own time space continuum. Whilst far removed from the original, the pulleys on the ship have been faithfully painted – the mechanisms in the painting asking for as much attention as the drama unfolding in front of us; oblivious of their audience, the figures are caught up with each other. If we think about the Tissot painting this might be a scene of adieu, an anxious moment of heightened emotional charge. Or it could be that the new pairings evoke another set of relations entirely, relationships that cross heteronormative pictorial space and gender identification. Like in previous bodies of work, the painting demonstrates a commitment to clothing and fashion; the protagonists are well dressed, either expensively or fashionably. A simple singular yellow stick held by the captain offers an aspect of theatre to the mis en scene, cutting through the picture plane, it seems both provocative and benign, emblematic of power or merely of dress.
In Her Print on Me the role of the audience has moved from curious observer to unwelcome visitor, bringing the fictional world of the painting into our reality. Interrupted, something falls from the hands of the foregrounded woman, the sketchy chair and the large windows serve to increase the feeling of vast space emoted by the wild sea that functions in opposition to the calm gaze of the women. The bodies of the women, separated by a long beam dividing the space, are poised as if in the middle of a task or a ritual. They face an unwelcome interlocutor in the form of our gaze set in their intimate scenario. This painting evokes a constant preoccupation of Himid's; the dialectic of safety and danger. As she would say "Somehow it's very challenging to tell the difference between the two."
A drawer, another found object that Himid returns to, provides a surface for two male portraits. Drawers act metaphorically perhaps, but also offer a performative aspect to the paintings, the placement of the drawer itself as well as the hiding and revealing of the body, and like Himid's earlier 'paintings on wood', these works offer the possibility of being looked at in different ways by placing the draw this way or that.


In today's inter-connected world, threats from anywhere in the world can have serious global repercussions. In particular, two types of threats have a global impact: 1) cyber crime and 2) cyber and biological weapons. If a country's environment is conducive to cyber criminal activities, cyber criminals will use that country as a basis to attack end-users around the world. Cyber weapons and biological weapons can now allow a small actor to inflict major damage on a major military power. If cyber and biological weapons are used in combination, the damage can be amplified significantly. Given that the cyber and biological threat is global, it is important to identify countries that pose the greatest threat and design action plans to reduce the threat from these countries. However, prior work on cyber crime lacks empirical substantiation for reasons why some countries' environments are conducive to cyber crime. Prior work on cyber and biological weapon capabilities mainly consists of case studies which only focus on select countries and thus are not generalizeable. To sum up, assessing the global cyber and biological threat currently lacks a systematic empirical approach. In this thesis, I take an empirical and systematic approach towards assessing the global cyber and biological threat. The first part of the thesis focuses on cyber crime. I examine international variation in cyber crime infrastructure hosting and cyber crime exposure. I also empirically test hypotheses about factors behind such variation. In that work, I use Symantec's telemetry data, collected from 10 million Symantec customer computers worldwide and accessed through the Symantec's Worldwide Intelligence Network Environment (WINE). I find that addressing corruption in Eastern Europe or computer piracy in Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to reduce the global cyber crime. The second part of the thesis focuses on cyber and biological weapon capabilities. I develop two computational methodologies: one to assess countries' biological capabilities and one to assess countries' cyber capabilities. The methodologies examine all countries in the world and can be used by non-experts that only have access to publicly available data. I validate the biological weapon assessment methodology by comparing the methodology's assessment to historical data. This work has the potential to proactively reduce the global cyber and biological weapon threat.


We discuss how we use the Japanese version of PAPPI, a multilingual parsing engine in the Principles-and-Parameters framework (Chomsky 1981), to computationally model a theory that accounts for the grammaticality of certain Japanese wh-constructions. In this theory, a Q-feature is base generated within a wh-phrase and raises to C, where it checks an uninterpretable Q-feature. Qfeature movement can be blocked by an intervening quantificational head; an effect due to the Minimal Link Condition (Chomsky 1995). Furthermore, certain multiple wh-questions in which Q-feature movement is not subject to the Minimal Link Condition are accounted for in terms of the Principle of Minimal Compliance (Richards 2001), which is basically the notion that once a constraint is satisfied it may be subsequently ignored. In this paper, we describe modifications to the parsing engine of PAPPI necessary to implement this Qfeature movement theory.


AIM
To evaluate the impact of several clinical and pathological factors on the outcomes of surgery for hepatic colorectal cancer metastasis.

METHODS
Eighty-four liver metastasectomies in 77 consecutive patients with 90 colorectal cancer hepatic metastases were performed in our institution from 2009 to 2014. Surgery was carried out in 75 cases, as two patients were not eligible for surgery. Among them 43 (Group A) were affected by synchronous, and 32 (Group B) by metachronous lesions. Furthermore, 9 reoperations were performed in patients with initially synchronous lesions. The follow-up after surgery included total body CT scans every 3 months for the first year, and every 6 months for 4 years thereafter. Blood level of CEA was determined every 3 months.

RESULTS
The univariate analysis evidenced significantly more recurrences in patients with synchronous lesions (p=0.011), and higher grade, pN stage and CEA blood levels. In multivariate logistic regression analysis the statistically significant parameters found were: the pT stage (OR: 3.92, p = 0.039), the use of adjuvant chemotherapy for the colonic tumor (OR: 0.19, p = 0.025), and the adjuvant chemotherapy (OR: 4.11, p = 0.048). The global survival was 32 patients (41.5%), 17 with synchronous and 15 with metachronous lesions, and a significant difference in long term survival between these two groups was found (p = 0.008).

CONCLUSIONS
The most relevant prognostic factor in patients with hepatic colorectal cancer dissemination is the timing of metastasis; the metachronous lesions present better survival when surgically treated.

KEY WORDS
Colorectal cancer, Liver, Metastasis, Surgery.


This article describes how online information can be optimally presented to older cancer patients. Specifically, it describes how illustrations and videos influence website satisfaction and recall of online cancer information, the underlying processes explaining those relationships (i.e. attention and narrative engagement), and the role of age and age-related factors. By combining theories from communication science, cognitive aging, and educational psychology, this article overviews seven studies using experiments as well as survey and eye-tracking methodology in which 973 healthy adults and 540 (ex-)cancer patients participated. The studies presented in this article provide new insights into how to present online cancer materials in such a way that older patients can effectively process online cancer information. The article shows conditions under which illustrations and videos can be effectively used in online communication with older cancer patients, and describes the implications of the findings for communication theory and practice.


Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how faculty members teaching undergraduate diversity courses at liberal arts colleges in the southern United States addressed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in their classrooms.

Background: Humanities and social science faculty teaching undergraduate diversity courses faced the decision of whether, and how, to address the 2016 U.S. presidential election in their courses. Diversity courses represent a compelling context for examining this event, as instructors must routinely tackle charged and controversial topics and such courses have become the subject of debates around purpose, course content, and instructional methods.

Methodology: This study draws upon one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with 38 faculty members teaching required undergraduate diversity courses at three predominantly White liberal arts colleges in the southern United States.

Contribution: Understanding faculty members' approaches to handling a critical political event sheds light on how faculty in multiple contexts might prepare for difficult dialogues in their classrooms. This study can serve to prompt reflection about how campuses engage with contemporary controversies in an era of reduced public trust in higher education and skepticism that free speech is a fundamental value of higher education. This study also offers a contribution to understanding how faculty members' and students' social identities including race and gender influence the dynamics of classroom discussions about contemporary controversies.

Findings: Drawing upon the curricular processes detailed in the multicontextual model for diverse learning environments, findings from this study address faculty members' personal post-election reactions, concern for minoritized students, decisions whether to disclose their political leanings, and their attempts to promote multiple perspectives, civility, and disciplinary connections to the political climate.

Recommendations for Practitioners: Faculty members, educational developers, and administrators can use this study to consider how to address challenging and controversial events in the classroom and how to protect academic freedom to teach about and learn from these events.

Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can advance understandings of how contemporary controversies and discussions of the political climate play out in college classrooms by investigating faculty and student experiences in multiple disciplinary, institutional, and regional contexts.

Impact on Society: Higher education institutions in the United States face increasing public scrutiny and calls for greater accountability. Professors, in particular, are often caricatured as partisan ideologues intent upon indoctrinating students to particular political positions. A better understanding of how faculty members consider and approach discussions of a critical event may help shed light on the reality of many college classrooms and the self-reflective approaches to handling controversy faculty members may espouse.


Amyloid precursor protein binding protein-1 (APP-BP1) binds to the carboxyl terminus of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and serves as the bipartite activation enzyme for the ubiquitin-like protein, NEDD8. In the present study, we explored the physiological role of APP-BP1 in the cell cycle progression of fetal neural stem cells. Our results show that cell cycle progression of the cells is arrested at the G1 phase by depletion of APP-BP1, which results in a marked decrease in the proliferation of the cells. This action of APP-BP1 is antagonistically regulated by the interaction with APP. Consistent with the evidence that APP-BP1 function is critical for cell cycle progression, the amount of APP-BP1 varies depending upon cell cycle phase, with culminating expression at S-phase. Furthermore, our FRET experiment revealed that phosphorylation of APP at threonine 668, known to occur during the G2/M phase, is required for the interaction between APP and APP-BP1. We also found a moderate ubiquitous level of APP-BP1 mRNA in developing embryonic and early postnatal brains; however, APP-BP1 expression is reduced by P12, and only low levels of APP-BP1 were found in the adult brain. In the cerebral cortex of E16 rats, substantial expression of both APP-BP1 and APP mRNAs was observed in the ventricular zone. Collectively, these results indicate that APP-BP1 plays an important role in the cell cycle progression of fetal neural stem cells, through the interaction with APP, which is fostered by phopshorylation of threonine 668.


Higher education aid, initially, was primarily used to provide graduate training in donor countries. Later, aid money was invested to establish new institutions or to strengthen existing institutions in the developing world. With criticisms of brain drain, mounting unemployment of the educated, and the emerging priority of Education for All programs, donor support to higher education declined from the 1980s. However, higher education is back on the agenda of the donors in this millennium. The analysis in this paper shows that higher education aid either remains concentrated in selected countries with expanded higher education systems, or is fragmented and spread too thinly mostly in countries with less expanded higher education systems. The paper argues for aid to support the higher education sector in implementing national policies and institution-wide improvement rather than focusing on selected faculties for targeted intervention. This may be a way of improving aid effectiveness in higher education.


This article focuses on making "school talk," or classroom discourse, more explicit on two levels. One level involves making explicit for teachers both the nature of school talk, and the reasons why many children may come to school unfamiliar with the school talk register. Providing teachers with this awareness enables them, in turn, to make school talk explicit for their students by directly explaining the rules for engaging in this type of discourse to them. As tools for enhancing teacher awareness, this article clearly distinguishes the school talk and everyday social talk registers and provides information regarding the cultural variation in children learning to use school talk at home. The shortcomings of previous implicit approaches to teaching school talk are examined, and ways to make the rules for engaging in this register explicit for children are suggested.


Whenever the invariant stationary density of metastable dynamical systems decomposes into almost invariant partial densities, its computation as eigenvector of some transition probability matrix is an ill-conditioned problem. In order to avoid this computational difficulty, we suggest applying an aggregation/disaggregation method which addresses only well-conditioned subproblems and thus results in a stable algorithm. In contrast to existing methods, the aggregation step is done via a sampling algorithm which covers only small patches of the sampling space. Finally, the theoretical analysis is illustrated by two biomolecular examples.


This paper systematically examines the dominant processes and key issues of China's governance reforms over the last 30 years since the start of the reform and opening policies. It argues that the main thrust of China's governance reforms is the shift from monistic governance to pluralist governance, from centralization to decentralization, from rule of man to rule of law, from regulatory government to service-oriented government, and from intra-party democracy to people's democracy. This paper argues further that the focus of China's governance reform includes ecological balance, social justice, public service, social harmony, government cleanness, government innovation, intra-party democracy, grassroots democracy, etc. The variables of governance reform in China are social and economic development, the logic of political development, influence of new political culture and impacts of globalization. After persistent efforts in the past three decades, this paper contends that in China a unique governance model is emerging which is destined to democracy, rule of law, justice, accountability, transparency, cleanness, efficiency and harmony.


The Illustrated Plant Glossary is a comprehensive glossary of over 4000 terms related to plant sciences, featuring many superb colour illustrations to aid understanding.

The topics covered in this glossary include anatomy, angiosperms, bryophytes, chemistry, cytology, family specific terms, ferns and fern allies, flowers, fruit, genetics, gymnosperms, habit and growth, habitat and ecology, indumentum, inflorescence, leaves, reproduction, roots, seeds, systematics and more.

The Illustrated Plant Glossary is a must-have reference for plant scientists, plant science teachers and students, libraries, horticulturalists, ecologists, gardeners and naturalists.


Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with persistent systemic inflammation. Anti-inflammatory therapies have been shown to decrease acute exacerbations of COPD. The antidiabetic medication metformin decreases oxidative stress and inflammation and may benefit patients with COPD. We aimed at investigating the effect of metformin on health care utilizations in patients with coexisting COPD and diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods We studied 5% Medicare beneficiaries with coexisting COPD and DM prescribed metformin or other antidiabetics during the period 2007–2010. The primary outcome was COPD-specific emergency room (ER) visits and hospitalizations; the secondary outcome was all-cause ER visits and hospitalizations over the 2-year follow-up after the index antidiabetic prescription. The effects of metformin were examined by COPD complexity and compared with the effects of other antidiabetic medications. Results Among 11,260 patients, 3,193 were metformin users and 8,067 were nonusers. Metformin users were younger, were less sick, were less likely to be on oxygen, and had fewer hospitalizations in the prior year compared with the nonusers. Over a 2-year period, metformin users had lower COPD-specific and all-cause ER visits and hospitalizations (7.11% vs 9.61%, p<0.0001; and 61.63% vs 71.27%, p<0.0001, respectively). In a stratified multivariable analysis, the odds of COPD-specific ER visits and hospitalizations were lower in patients with low-complexity COPD (adjusted odds ratio =0.66, 95% confidence interval =0.52–0.85). However, patients with all COPD complexities get benefits of metformin on all-cause ER visits and hospitalizations. Conclusion The use of metformin in patients with coexisting COPD and DM was associated with fewer COPD-specific ER visits and hospitalizations, especially in low-complexity COPD.


Background Preterm infants often experience poor growth during the neonatal period, and are discharged with weights and head circumferences on centiles well below that on which they were born. One reason for this is inadequate nutrient provision. Whilst recommendations for nutrient intakes exist, their validity is the subject of debate, and there is a need to better understand optimal nutrient intakes for these infants. Methods Detailed nutrient intake and growth data collected on preterm infants as part of another study was used. Growth was assessed using the difference in standard deviation score (dSDS) for weight and head circumference between birth and discharge. Linear regression of growth and mean intakes of protein and energy during hospital stay was carried out, and optimal intakes were then estimated assuming that ideal growth would result in a dSDS of zero. Results 186 preterm infants were included, with a mean (SD) gestational age and birth weight of 28.6(2.8) weeks and 1.01(0.28)kg. Mean intakes of energy and protein were significantly associated with weight dSDS, with coefficients (95% confidence intervals) of 0.01 (0.001–0.020) and 0.56 (0.307–0.818) respectively. Using regression constants, this equates to estimated optimal intakes of 174 kcal/kg/day and 4.11 g/kg/day protein. However, r 2 values were low at 0.02 and 0.09 respectively. Conclusions This study demonstrates the utility of detailed clinical nutritional data in studying the relationships between intake and growth. Whilst r2 values were low, these findings suggest that energy and protein intakes required for growth along birth centile line may be higher than those currently recommended, and warrant further investigation.


ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to understand issues that climate change poses for major Australian sport stadia and the organizations that manage them, and any organizational responses to such issues. Like climate-dependent agriculture and tourism, the sport sector is potentially vulnerable to climate change impacts, yet has largely been overlooked in empirical research. The results reveal four primary climate change issues: organizational uncertainty; greater management complexity and cost risks associated with water and energy resources, and waste outputs. No revenue opportunities were evident. The results demonstrate that while most physical impacts are manageable, the primacy of commercial and operational imperatives determine organizational responses ahead of government climate policy, and any direct climate "signal" to adapt. Ten factors shape three organizational responses that we have typed using Berkhout's [2012, Adaptation to climate change by organizations. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 3(1), 91–106] adaptation framework. The results challenge the assumption that climate change impacts and responses are limited to non-sport and leisure industries.


In an ongoing effort to identify predictors of educational success and achievement, grit has emerged as a seemingly useful disposition. Grit is conceived as the combination of perseverance of effort and consistency of interest over time, but the predictive utility of these two dimensions has rarely been explored separately, and the limited research available has considered a small number of outcomes. This article draws upon three samples at two universities to examine the relationships between grit dimensions and various student outcomes. Multiple regression results indicated that perseverance of effort predicted greater academic adjustment, college grade point average, college satisfaction, sense of belonging, faculty–student interactions, and intent to persist, while it was inversely related to intent to change majors. Consistency of interest was associated with less intent to change majors and careers, but it was not significantly associated with any other outcome in the expected direction when controlling for other variables.


In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the role of argumentation in the health care domain. Argumentation and Health is a collection of essays by argumentation theorists reflecting on the way in which the institutional context of health care shapes the argumentative interaction. The volume provides for the first time an overview of the most important recent developments and achievements of the study of argumentation in medical and public oriented health communication. In Argumentation and Health , attention is paid to argumentation in different forms of health communication, such as the medical consultation, direct-to-consumer drug advertising, health brochures and health risk communication. This book is of interest to argumentation theorists, (health) communication scholars, healthcare practitioners, students of medicine and health-related fields, and all other researchers and practitioners interested in the function and characteristics of argumentation in health communication.


ISCPES stands for International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sports and it is going to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2018. Since the beginning (Israel 1978) the main goals of the Society were established under a worldwide mind set considering five continents and no discrimination of any kind. The founders wanted to compare Physical Education and Sports across the world, searching for the best practices deserving consideration and applied on the purpose of improving citizen quality of life. The mission still stands for "Compare to learn and improve".As all the organizations lasting for 39 years, ISCPES experienced several vicissitudes, usually correlated with world economic cycles, social and sports changes, which are in ISS journal articles - International Sport Studies.ISS journal is Scopus indexed, aiming to improve its quality (under evaluation) to reach more qualified students, experts, professionals and researchers; doing so it will raise its indexation, which we know it is nowadays a more difficult task. First, because there are more journals trying to compete on this academic fierce competitive market; secondly, because the basic requirements are getting more and more hard to gather in the publishing environment around Physical Education and Sports issues. However, we can promise this will be one of our main strategic goals.Another goal I would like to address on this Editorial is the language issue. We have this second strategic goal, which is to reach most of languages spoken in different continents; besides the English language, we will reach Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. For that reason, we already defined that all the abstracts in English will be translated into Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese words so people can find them on any search browser. That will expand the demand for our journal and articles, increasing the number of potential readers. Of course this opportunity, given by Motricidade, can be considered as a good example to multiply our scope.In June 2017 we organized a joint Conference in Borovets, Bulgaria, with our colleagues from the BCES – Bulgarian Society for Comparative Educational Studies. During those days, there was an election to appoint a new (Portuguese) president. This constitutes an important step for the Portuguese speaker countries, which, for a 4th year term, will have the opportunity to expand the influence of ISCPES Society diffusing the research results we have been achieving into a vast extended new public and inviting new research experts to innovative debates. This new president will be working with a wide geographical diverse team: the Vice President coming from a South American country (Venezuela), and the other several Executive Board members are coming from Brazil, China, Africa and North America. This constitutes a very favorable situation once, adding to this, we kept the previous editorial team from Australia and Europe. We are definitely committed to improve our influence through new incentives to organize several regional (continental) workshops, seminars and Conferences in the next future.The international research is crossing troubled times with exponential number of new indexed journals trying to get new influence and visibility. In order to do that, readers face new challenges because several studies present contradictory conclusions and outcome comparisons still lacking robust methodologies. Uncovering these issues is the focus of our Society.In the past, ISCPES started its activity collecting answers to the same questions asked to several experts in different countries and continents across the world. The starting studies developed some important insights on several issues concerning the way Physical Education professionals approached their challenges. In the very starting documents ISCPES activity focused in identifying certain games and indigenous activities that were not understood by people in other parts of the world, improving this international understanding and communication. This first attempt considered six groups of countries roughly comprehending 26 countries from all the continents.ISCPES has on its archives several seminal works, PhD proposals and program proposals, which constitutes the main theoretical framework considered in some textbooks printed at the end of the sixties in the XXth century.The methods used mostly sources' country comparisons, historic development of comparative education systems, list of factors affecting those systems and a systematic analysis of case studies; additionally, international organizations for sports and physical education were also required to identify basic problems and unique features considered for the implementation of each own system. At the time, Lynn C. Vendien & John E. Nixon book "The World Today in Health, Physical Education and Recreation", Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1968, together with two monographies from William Johnson "Physical Education around the World", 1966, 1968, Indianapolis, Phi Epsilon Kappa editions, were the main textbook references.The main landscapes of interest were to study sports compared or the sport role in Nationalisms, Political subsidization, Religion, Race and volunteering versus professionalism. The goal was to state the true place of sports in societies.In March 1970, Ben W. Miller from the University of California compiled an interesting Exhibit n.1 about the main conclusions of a breakfast meeting occurred during the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. There, they identified thirty-one individuals, which had separate courses in "Comparative and/or International Physical Education, Recreation and Sports"; one month later, they collected eighteen responses with the bibliographic references they used. On this same Exhibit n.1 there is detailed information on the title, catalogue description, date of initial course (1948, the first), credit units, eligibility, number of year offer, type of graduation (from major to doctorate and professional). Concluding, the end of the sixties can be the mark of a well-established body of literature in comparative education and sports studies published in several scientific journals.What about the XXIst century? Is it still important to compare sports and education throughout the world? Only with qualitative methods? Mixed methods?We think so. That is why, after a certain decline and fuzzy goal definition in research motivations within ISCPES we decided to innovate and reorganize people from physical education and sports around this important theme of comparative studies. Important because we observe an increasing concern on the contradictions across different results in publications under the same subject. How can we infer? What about good research questions which get no statistically significant results? New times are coming, and we want to be on that frontline of this move as said by Elsevier "With RMR (results masked review) articles, you don't need to worry about what editors or reviewers might think about your results. As long as you have asked an important question and performed a rigorous study, your paper will be treated the same as any other. You do not need to have null results to submit an RMR article; there are many reasons why it can be helpful to have the results blinded at initial review".https://www.elsevier.com/connect/reviewers-update/results-masked-review-peer-review-without-publication-bias.This is a very different and challenging time. Our future strategy will comprehend more cooperation between researchers, institutions and scientific societies as an instrument to leverage our understanding of physical activity and sports through different continents and countries and be useful for policy designs.Next 2018, on the occasion of the UE initiative Sofia – European Capital of Sport 2018 we - Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) & the International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport (ISCPES) - will jointly organize an International Conference on Sport Governance around the World.Sports and Physical Education are facing complex problems worldwide, which need to be solved. For health reasons, a vast number of organizations are popularizing the belief that physical education and sports are 'a must' in order to promote human activity and movement. However, several studies show that modern lifestyles are the main cause for people's inactivity and sedentary lifestyles.Extensive funded programs used to promote healthy lifestyles; sports media advertising several athletes, turning them into global heroes, influencers in a new emerging industry around sports organizations. Therefore, there is a rise in the number of unethical cases and corruption that influence the image of physical education and sports roles.We, the people emotional and physically involved with sports and physical activity must be aware of this, studying, discussing and comparing global facts and events around the world.This Conference aims to offer an incentive to colleagues from all continents to participate and present their latest results on four specific topics: 1. Sport Governance Systems; 2. Ethics and Corruption in Physical Education and Sports Policies; 3. Physical Education and Sport Development; 4. Training Physical Educators and Coaches. Please consider your selves invited to attend. Details in http://bcesconvention.com/


Background Preoperative embolization is based on the preoperative digital subtraction angiography (DSA) tumor blush, and as such is considered the "gold standard" for determining tumor vascularity. However, to our knowledge reliability studies evaluating vascularity ratings of DSA tumor blush in spinal metastases have not been published previously. Purpose To evaluate inter- and intra-rater agreement in the assessment of the vascularity of spinal metastases using DSA tumor blush. Material and Methods This reliability study included 46 patients with symptomatic metastatic spinal cord compression requiring surgery. DSA data stored in the hospital picture archiving and communication system (PACS) from the participants of a randomized controlled trial were used. Inter- and intra-rater agreement on vascularity assessment using DSA tumor blush according to a three-step ordinal scale was evaluated: no hypervascularity; moderate hypervascularity; and pronounced hypervascularity. The statistical analysis was based on the linear weighted kappa's for multiple raters that extend Cohen's κ. Three raters and κ = 0.2 in the null hypothesis implied that the power of the study was 0.96. Results Inter- and intra-rater agreements were moderate in rating the vascularity of spinal metastases and the agreements were significantly higher than the κ = 0.20 in the null hypothesis (P = 0.0002 and P = 0.0001). The κ value for inter-rater agreement was 0.57 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41–0.72) and for intra-rater agreement 0.55 (95% CI, 0.38–0.71). Conclusion There is moderate inter-rater and intra-rater agreement in classifying the vascularity of spinal metastases on a three-step ordinal scale for DSA tumor blush.


OBJECTIVE
To describe maternal beliefs and practices of spanking infants and toddlers and the relations between factors affecting these beliefs and practices.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.

SETTING
Site 1 was an inner-city teaching hospital pediatric clinic. Site 2 was a private pediatrician's office in a nearby suburban neighborhood.

PARTICIPANTS
Mothers of children less than 4 years old in the waiting area. Site 1: n = 104; site 2: n = 100.

SELECTION
Systematic sample of convenience.

METHODS
Mothers were interviewed using a 20-minute structured questionnaire. Measures were constructed to assess beliefs (Cronbach's alpha = .90) and practices about spanking and approach to discipline (alpha > .71).

RESULTS
Belief in spanking correlated significantly (P < .001) with belief in negative approach (r = .52) and with the practice (r = .46) and severity (r = .34) of spanking. Nineteen percent of the mothers believed that there are times when it is appropriate to spank a child less than 1 year old, and 74% believed this about children 1 to 3 years old. Forty-two percent reported that they had spanked their own child in the past week. Mothers believed more strongly in spanking for dangerous misbehaviors than for annoying ones (P < .001). Belief in spanking and negative approach were stronger for older toddlers (P < .001). Belief in and frequency of spanking were more common at the inner-city site (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
The belief in and practice of spanking are prevalent in disciplining very young children. The context of the spanking affects beliefs and practices. The finding that belief and practice of spanking are highly correlated suggests that belief rather than impulse largely explains spanking of children less than 4 years old. The high correlation between spanking and negative approach toward discipline raises questions about whether negative consequences of spanking are the result of spanking per se, the negative approach toward the child, or both.


Provision of sanitation services to urban informal settlement is one of the challenges that the urban planners and decision makers are face with in the current era. High population growth and lack of legal status in informal settlements makes it challenging to improve the level of sanitation. The question then is whether there are possible technology options that can be utilized to achieve sanitation crisis in informal settlements. This paper thus delves into the dark and complex world of the sanitation crisis in informal settlements. Using system dynamics approach, it describes the key elements in the sanitation provision in informal settlements, and specifically, in the context of Enkanini, an illegal informal settlement in Stellenbosch. The system dynamics model demonstrates differences between four sanitation technologies, namely: pour flush; ventilated improved pit latrine; compost toilet; and regular toilet. The results show that there is a long-term benefit from waterborne sanitation, as well as rapid improvement in sanitation from cheaper options of a compost toilet and ventilated improved pit latrine. The pour flush toilet and ventilated improved pit latrine occupied the beneficial middle ground of minimal investment for decent output in sanitation improvement as well as improvement of the sanitation experience.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated the development of protocols for for measuring spray drift reduction technologies (DRTs) related to the application of agricultural protection chemicals. The DRT Program is an EPA-led initiative program to "achieve improved environmental and human health protection through drift reduction by accelerating the acceptance and use of improved and cost-effective application technologies." The first step in implementing the DRT program is to develop a set of protocols, standard operating procedures, and data quality assurance steps so that the results from any trials or research conducted are scientifically valid and repeatable. A protocol for measuring spray droplet spectra via laser diffraction equipment in a high speed wind tunnel (air velocities >160 kph (100 mph)) was tested. Following the proposed protocol, five reference nozzles were evaluated with spray solutions of deionized water, water + 9 % isopropanol, and water + 0.25 % of a nonionic surfactant. Each of the nozzle and spray solution combinations were evaluated in 160, 193, and 225 kph (100, 120, and 140 mph) airstreams, as well as under static (0 kph) conditions. The results of these atomization studies showed that there were significant differences in droplet spectra between the spray solutions and from the different air velocities. Based on the time to complete the tests, the author suggest using a ±5 % standard deviation values as criteria for accepting atomization tests results.


A combination of segmentation tools and fast volume renderers that provides an interactive exploration environment for volume visualization is discussed. The tools and renderers include mechanisms that distribute volume data across multiple processors, as well as image compositing techniques and solutions to representation problems in the selection and display of subregions within bounding volumes. A volume visualization technique using the interactive control of images rendered directly from volume data coupled with a user-controlled semantic classification tool is described. The variations of parallel volume rendering being explored on the Pixel-Planes 5 system and the region-of-interest selection methods and the interactive tools used by the system are presented. The flexibility and power of combining volume rendering with region-of-interest selection techniques are demonstrated using examples of medical imaging applications.<<ETX>>


The rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake is estimated from the joint inversion of teleseismic body waves and geodetic data using multiple time‐window analysis. To enhance the reliability of the inversion solution, two important inversion‐setting parameters that control the spatiotemporal slip distribution, the maximum slip duration of each subfault ( T sd) and the propagation velocity of the first time window ( V ftw), are determined by objective criteria. By performing a semblance analysis of small‐aperture seismic array data of near‐source strong motion waveforms, T sd is determined to be 100 s. V ftw is determined to be 2.0  km/s from the matching of the teleseismic and geodetic slip models. The spatial resolution of geodetic inversion is significantly improved by using seafloor crustal deformation data in the source area in addition to the terrestrial Global Positioning System network data. The estimated seismic moment and the maximum slip are 3.4×1022  N·m ( M w=9.0) and 43 m, respectively. The total rupture duration is ∼150  s. Large slip is seen in the shallow part of the fault surface, including the hypocenter, and its spatial extent along the trench axis is ∼300  km. This model is consistent with the results of bathymetric surveys and the slip models from tsunami data. The relationships among the fault parameters of the characterized source model of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake suggest the possibility that saturation of fault width occurs for this huge earthquake.

Online Material: Text S1 denotes the explanation of how the rupture propagation in the dip direction affects the estimated value of maximum slip duration ( T sd). Table S1 denotes the detailed information of the teleseismic stations. Table S2 denotes the detailed information of the terrestrial geodetic stations.


We analyze the inelastic electron-electron scattering in undoped graphene within the Keldysh diagrammatic approach. We demonstrate that finite temperature strongly affects the screening properties of graphene, which, in turn, influences the inelastic scattering rates as compared to the zero-temperature case. Focussing on the clean regime, we calculate the quantum scattering rate which is relevant for dephasing of interference processes. We identify an hierarchy of regimes arising due to the interplay of a plasmon enhancement of the scattering and finite-temperature screening of the interaction. We further address the energy relaxation and transport scattering rates in graphene. We find a non-monotonic energy dependence of the inelastic relaxation rates in clean graphene which is attributed to the resonant excitation of plasmons. Finally, we discuss the temperature dependence of the conductivity at the Dirac point in the presence of both interaction and disorder. Our results complement the kinetic-equation and hydrodynamic approaches for the collision-limited conductivity of clean graphene and can be generalized to the treatment of physics of inelastic processes in strongly non-equilibrium setups.


My motivation for undertaking this research stemmed from the fascination I had in the
ways of working with adult learners and the way in which adult and community
education was a powerful tool for change. The purpose of this study was to explore this
interest in close detail, examining how praxis, the cycle of action and reflection, and
critical pedagogy in adult and community education might work towards social
transformation. Critical pedagogy, the dynamic interaction between 'really useful
knowledge', the educators and the learners, in the learning environment, lacked an
ingredient that I sought to uncover in the study. What do adult educators do that enables
them and the learners to act upon the world?
The literature centred on critical pedagogy in mainstream education, feminist pedagogy,
praxis and critical consciousness. It conceptualised the study with a brief overview of
Ireland, with a particular focus on inequalities and injustice.
To gather data, I interviewed fifteen critical adult educators, policy workers and other
stakeholders, asking how they developed their critical outlooks, and further, inquiring
how critical pedagogy was carried out. The research endeavoured to be congruent with
adult and community education, and thus, focused on the stories that the interviewees told
about their lives. Their reflections revealed their aspirations to work for social justice,
particularly through adult and community education.
The study found that the practice which aimed to develop critical consciousness
comprised a wide variety of methods, 'really useful methods', which engaged learners,
motivating them to think critically, to discuss and to question. That was a way to create
the environment for acting upon the world.


Reconstruction of dynamic objects in a scene is a highly challenging problem in the context of SLAM. In this paper, we present a real-time monocular object localization system that estimates the shape and pose of dynamic objects in real-time, using video frames captured from a moving monocular camera. Although the problem seems to be ill-posed, we demonstrate that, by incorporating prior knowledge of the object category, we can obtain more detailed instance-level reconstructions. As opposed to earlier object model specifications, the proposed shape-prior model leads to the formulation of a Bundle Adjustment-like optimization problem for simultaneous shape and pose estimation. Leveraging recent successes of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for object keypoint localization, we present a CNN architecture that performs precise keypoint localization. We then demonstrate how these keypoints can be used to recover 3D object properties, while accounting for any 2D localization errors and self-occlusion. We show significant performance improvements compared to state-of-the-art monocular competitors for 2D keypoint detection, as well as 3D localization and reconstruction of dynamic objects.