The current coronavirus outbreak 2019 (COVID-19) may be a double-edged sword in the fight against climate change. In fact, 2020 marks a key assessment of climate protection initiatives and progress made by individual countries, which are due to submit their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as agreed in the Paris Agreement (1).
Although pre coronavirus crisis global GHG emissions are expected to continue growing by 1,9% (2), recent CO₂ calculations in Europe are predicting a surprising scenario. For instance, the German climate target for 2020, which until February 2020, was considered unattainable, should now be met (3). Due to this year's mild, stormy, windy winter, and, above all the coronavirus crisis, the target of 40% CO₂ savings, compared to 1990, is within reach.
While COVID-19 is "first and foremost an issue of human health and safety", the change in people's behaviour to contain the virus is having "some subtle effects on the environment" (4). Some of the spreading virus tangible effects on the environment have been, among others (e.g. air pollution, wildlife etc.), the decreasing use of gasoline, electricity, as well as a drop on fuel production and consumption. If similar trends can be proven for the performance of the G20 countries only, 2020 could represent an epic cornerstone not only for climate negotiations but also for the future world economy.
Yet, the COVID-19 crisis may also have negative implications and impacts on the climate, as a rebound effect is expected once the pandemic is over (5). In the short-term, some are already affecting electric vehicles (EV) and the solar sectors, challenged by dips in oil/gasoline prices, the decreasing demand, and disruptions to both supply chains and manufacturing facilities (5). Besides, low commodity prices may drastically alter food supply chains, resulting in increased levels of food loss and waste, as well as exacerbating existing scenarios of food insecurity, especially in developing countries (5)(6).
Notwithstanding the future developments, the current global situation is an opportunity to consider structural changes that may go hand-in-hand with the economic and environmental reforms needed to achieve a sound paradigm shift to avoid destabilizing the climate in order to have the best possible chance to avoid setting off irreversible chain reactions (e.g. melting glaciers etc.). This shift can and needs to be taken now (7)(8). While rethinking unforeseen and unexpected scenarios when drafting global climate targets, policy-makers and global leaders should envision a new world economy without fossil fuels, with a higher reliance on renewable energies, decreasing travels, shortening value chains, and challenging first-world living standards (9)(10). This pandemic is showing us that refinements are possible. Investments and measures taken beyond and after the coronavirus crisis are what would define the global fight against climate change.


Composed by three poet-saints between the sixth and eighth centuries A.D., the Tevaram hymns are the primary scripture of the Tamil Saivism, one of the first popular large-scale devotional movements within Hinduism. Indira Peterson eloquently renders into English a substantial portion of these hymns, which provide vivid and moving portraits of the images, myths, rites, and adoration of Siva and which continue to be loved and sung by the millions of followers of the Tamil Saiva tradition. Her introduction and annotations illuminate the work's literary, religious, and cultural contexts, making this anthology a rich sourcebook for the study of South Indian popular religion.Indira Peterson highlights the Tevaram as a seminal text in Tamil cultural history, a synthesis of pan-Indian and Tamil civilization, as well as a distinctly Tamil expression of the love of song, sacred landscape, and ceremonial religion. Her discussion of this work draws on her pioneering research into the performance of the hymns and their relation to the art and ritual of the South Indian temple.Originally published in 1989.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Abstract. The tsunami of December 2004 caused extensive human and economic losses along many parts of the Sri Lankan coastline. Thanks to extensive national and international solidarity and support in the aftermath of the event, most people managed to restore their livelihoods completely but some households did not manage to recover completely from the impacts of the event. The differential in recovery highlighted the various vulnerabilities and coping capacities of communities exposed to the tsunami. Understanding the elements causing different vulnerabilities is crucial to reducing the impact of future events, yet capturing them comprehensively at the local level is a complex task. This research was conducted in a tsunami-affected area in southwestern Sri Lanka to evaluate firstly the role of coastal vegetation in buffering communities against the tsunami and secondly to capture the elements of vulnerability of affected communities. The area was chosen because of its complex landscape, including the presence of an inlet connecting the Maduganga estuary with the sea, and because of the presence of remaining patches of coastal vegetation. The vulnerability assessment was based on a comprehensive vulnerability framework and on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework in order to detect inherent vulnerabilities of different livelihood groups. Our study resulted in the identification of fishery and labour-led households as the most vulnerable groups. Unsurprisingly, analyses showed that damages to houses and assets decreased quickly with increasing distance from the sea. It could also be shown that the Maduganga inlet channelled the energy of the waves, so that severe damages were observed at relatively large distances from the sea. Some reports after the tsunami stated that mangroves and other coastal vegetation protected the people living behind them. Detailed mapping of the coastal vegetation in the study area and subsequent linear regression revealed significant differences between three vegetation classes present in the area with regard to water level and damages to houses. As our region showed homogeneity in some important factors such as coastal topography, our results should only be generalised to comparable regions.


Background: Pregnancy at young age has been recognized as one of the most important social and public health issues all over the world. Studies done have shown that these are the adverse outcomes and complications linked to pregnancy at a young age such as the need for instrumental delivery or cesarean section, postpartum hemorrhage, prematurity, low birth weight, low APGAR score, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) admissions, and perinatal mortality are significant. The aim of our study was to know the neonatal outcomes (birth weight, APGAR score, and NICU admissions) in young mothers and older mothers and to compare the neonatal outcomes of these two groups. Materials and Methods: Our study was a retrospective chart-based study, done in neonates delivered to young mothers (19–21 years) and older mothers (22–30 years). Parameters included in our study were period of gestation, birth weight, APGAR at 1 min and 5 min, NICU admissions, and neonatal outcomes such as asphyxia, hypoglycemia, jaundice, convulsion, and sepsis. Data were recorded in a pro forma. Collected data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, Chi-square test, and odds ratio. Results: A total of 330 neonates were included in the study (165 cases and 165 controls). In young mothers, there was higher incidence of preterm deliveries, 60 cases as compared to 9 controls were of gestational age 28–34 weeks, 60 cases had low birth weight as compared to 21 babies in the control group, and 90 babies born to young mother's required NICU admissions as compared to 23 babies born to older mothers. Neonates born to younger mothers had a higher incidence of NICU admissions, hypoglycemia, sepsis, and neonatal hyperbilirubinemia as compared to older mothers, whereas the incidence of APGAR at 1 min and 5 min showed no correlation between both the groups. Conclusion: Young mothers had a higher incidence of having preterm babies, low birth weight babies, with comorbidities and NICU admissions as compared to older mothers.


The present thesis analyzes the reform of congregational singing in Livonia and Estonia in the first half of the 19th century. In this process the writings on the aesthetics of the congregational singing of a German pastor Johann Leberecht Ehregott Punschel (1778–1849) active in Livonia, and a chorale book (1839) that he edited occupied the central place. Punschel's activities are directly associated with the protestant restoration movement in the first half of the 19th century, and his ideas pertaining to aesthetics are intelligible only when projected to the background of German publications of his contemporaries. But to the same degree his reform has also been influenced by the unique political and religious situation of Baltic provinces characteristic of which were the increasing ambitions for power of Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of the 19th century, the unusually high activity of the Herrnhut Unity of the Brethren (Herrnhuter Brudergemeine), as well as the deepening of a national conflict between the Estonian and Latvian natives and the Lutheran church led by clergymen who had immigrated mostly from Germany. In this thesis the ideo-historical background of the historicistic reforms of Lutheran hymnals and chorale books has been investigated, as well as the motives for standardizing congregational singing. The situation of hymn singing before Punschel's reform has been described on the basis of the local chorale books, printed and in manuscript, from the period of 1774–1831. The phenomenon of the "old way of singing", its replacement with the "regular singing", and the role of musical education in this process has been approached from the ethnohymnological perspective. In researching the genesis of the Punschel chorale book attention is paid to its models, the repertory of hymnal tunes, characterizing aesthetics, as well as its early reception. The issue of counteraction to this chorale book in Estonia has been treated as well: the activities of a German organist Johann August Hagen (1786–1877) who has worked in Tallinn led to the publication of an alternative chorale book. Hagen proceeded from the tunes and singing tradition of the Unity of the Brethren, widespread in the Baltic provinces. In these two different attempts of reform a paradoxical conflict between restoration and tradition appears. The successful chorale reform realized by Punschel and the 16 editions of his chorale book (1839–1935) is understood as the inculturation of the German tradition of protestant church singing in the spirit of the period of historicistic restoration. (Less)


ABSTRACT Background: Indigenous health matters have largely been neglected in the speech-language pathology literature and have particular import for the aphasia clinician. The influence of culture on people's experiences and expectations after an event such as stroke can vary widely and there is a need to understand the impact of context on assessment and therapy. Standard approaches may not be adequate or relevant, nor always ethical to apply. Examination of aphasia in contexts with Indigenous populations provides an opportunity to explore methods and approaches with socially complex and marginalised communities and to expand our understanding of the lived experience of aphasia. Aims: The goal of this paper is to explore the role of culture in aphasia in Indigenous populations and drawing from a body of emerging research, highlight relevant dimensions of understanding and practice for the aphasia clinician. Main Contribution: A series of qualitative studies undertaken with Indigenous people with aphasia in two separate contexts – Australia and South Africa – will be described and their findings considered along several dimensions. A consideration of methods of approach and understanding will be provided, followed by discussion of some central constructs. A series of conceptual and clinical propositions for culturally safe research and practice in aphasia will be derived from this evidence. Models of collaboration are derived which are decolonising and potentially transformative and supplement models of knowledge and intervention in a local community. Particular attention is paid to temporal and spatial issues, the role of family, identity and community, the notion of resilience in such communities and addressing some of the specific challenges that may be involved such as working with cultural brokers. A series of recommendations is provided which allows for a critical engagement with interdisciplinary frameworks of understanding aphasia in context. Conclusion: As a reflective piece, this paper has enabled a collation of knowledge about aphasia in two Indigenous cultures and has helped consolidate some novel principles and insights and the need for expanded skills, attitudes, insights, explanations and methodologies – ones that acknowledge and accommodate diversity and difference, and that are relevant to Indigenous communities. Language difficulties are only one cause of social exclusion and issues such as poverty and identity make a huge impact on the lives of our clients and their families, and on the approach we adopt. A shift from the primary framework of our profession is required to accommodate the central role of culture in communication.


Why are the social problems of ghettos so bad? This article proposes that ghettos are communities that have experienced epidemics of social problems. One important implication of this theory is that the pattern of neighborhood effects on social problems should be nonlinear in large cities. As neighborhood quality decreases, there should be a sharp increase in the probability that an individual will develop a social problem. The jump should occur somewhere near the bottom of the distribution of neighborhood quality. This hypothesis is tested by analyzing the pattern of neighborhood effects on dropping out and teenage childbearing. The analysis strongly supports the hypothesis, with exceptions for certain subgroups. Even after controlling for individual characteristics, black and white adolescents are exposed to sharp increases in the risk of dropping out and having a child in the worst neighborhoods in large cities.


This is about people, not texts – a translator ethics seeks to embrace the intercultural identity of the translatory subject, in its full array of possible actions. Based on seminars originally given at the College International de Philosophie in Paris, this translation from French has been fully revised by the author and extended to include critical commentaries on activist translation theory, non-professional translation, interventionist practices, and the impact of new translation technologies. The result takes the traditional discussion of ethics into the way mediators can actively create cooperation between cultures, while at the same time addressing very practical questions such as when one should translate or not translate, how much translators should charge, or whose side they should be on. On Translator Ethics offers a point of reference for the key debates in contemporary Translation Studies.


The commissioning year of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has demonstrated that many cataclysmic variables (CVs) have been missed in previous surveys with brighter limits. We report the identification of 22 CVs, of which 19 are new discoveries and three are known systems (SW UMa, BH Lyn, and OU Vir). A compendium of positions, colors, and characteristics of these systems obtained from the SDSS photometry and spectroscopy is presented, along with data obtained during follow-up studies with the Apache Point Observatory and Manastash Ridge Observatory telescopes. We have determined orbital periods for three of the new systems, two show dwarf nova outbursts, and the third is a likely magnetic system with eclipses of its region of line emission. Based on these results, we expect the completed survey to locate at least 400 new CVs. Most of these will be faint systems with low accretion rates that will provide new constraints on binary evolution models.


Whereas systemic vasculitis is the most common form of vasculitis, vasculitis restricted to a single organ system is rare. Primary vasculitis restricted to striated skeletal muscle has been described in few case reports for polyarteritis nodosa and leucocytoclastic vasculitis, but not for small vessel vasculitis, type microscopic polyangiitis. The authors describe three patients with primary small vessel vasculitis of the skeletal muscle without evidence of other major organ involvement. All three patients presented with myalgias and highly elevated acute phase reactants while muscle weakness and elevated creatine kinase levels were not consistently present. Diagnoses were established by muscle biopsy and extensive search for potential causes of secondary vasculitis. Complete remission could be accomplished by steroids alone in only one case, while additional immunosuppressants were needed in the other two cases. Primary small vessel vasculitis of the skeletal muscle should be considered in patients presenting with myalgia and signs of systemic inflammation in the absence of other organ manifestations. Once diagnosed, aggressive systemic immunosuppression is appropriate.


Introduction In 2001, the UK National Screening Committee advised that all pregnant mothers should be offered a screening test for Down's syndrome (DS). This is performed at first (biomarkers and ultrasound) or second trimester (biochemical screen). There are limited data reporting pregnant women with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have higher false positive screening rates possibly because of reduced clearance of β-hCG (1–3). Our aim was to establish whether standard DS screening is appropriate in pregnant women with renal disease. Methods We performed a retrospective, single centre review of DS screening data for women attending a tertiary renal-antenatal clinic over the past 5 years and correlated with clinical outcome. Results A total of 240 women had renal function checked at the time of screening. Twenty-seven% had creatinine ≥60 µmol/L-above upper normal pregnancy value (range 24–544). There were a higher proportion of positive screens compared to the general population at first (5.7% vs 2%) and second trimester (9% vs 3.5%). No patient had a baby affected with DS. Increased creatinine was associated with higher levels of unconjugated oestriol (uE3), free and total β-hCG (p ≤ 0.01) and a higher DS risk score (p ≤ 0.01). Increased proteinuria also correlated with a higher β-hCG (p ≤ 0.01) and risk score (p ≤ 0.02). In patients with a high risk score; 30% had IUGR, 10% pre-term delivery and 56% delivered a small baby. Conclusion Renal function appears to affect levels of β-hCG and uE3and also independently influence the risk score in DS screening. Alternative screening may need to be considered in this group or renal impairment corrected for. References Cararach V, Casals E, Martinez S, Carmona F, Aibar C, Quinto LI, et al. Abnormal renal function as a cause of false-positive biochemical screening for Down's syndrome. Lancet. 1997;350(9087):1295. Epub 1997/11/14 Cheng PJ, Liu CM, Chang SD, Lin YT, Soong YK. Elevated second-trimester maternal serum hCG in patients undergoing haemodialysis. Prenat Diagn. 1999;19(10):955–8. Epub 1999/10/16 Benachi A, Dreux S, Kaddioui-Maalej S, Czerkiewicz I, Fakhouri F, Thervet E, et al. Down syndrome maternal serum screening in patients with renal disease. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2010;203(1):60 e1–4. Epub 2010/04/27


Crime as legal fact allows to try penal case and civil action simultaneously and is a base to apply penal and civil amenability. Civil action in penal proceedings is one of the methods to compensate the person who has suffered loss caused by the crime. Civil action in penal case is an institution of penal proceedings that is regulated and argued in accordance with standards of Code on Penal Proceedings of the Republic of Lithuania, which has not changed since 1961. According to the said Code person who has suffered loss caused by crime can bring in an action and become civil plaintiff. Object of civil action is composed of: 1. Claim to compensate loss caused by crime; 2. Material loss that the person suffered because of crime; 3. Expenditure related to consequences caused by crime. Civil action can not be based on fact of moral damages because Lithuanian laws neither determine its conception nor possibility to compensate it. Conception of civil action provided by Code on Penal Proceedings of the Republic of Lithuania is not perfect. It is not right to limit basis of civil action account to traditional understanding directly relating to standards of Code on Penal Proceedings. There is necessity to pay attention to Constitution, Civil and Penal Codes and include compensation of moral damages as basis of civil action. Regulation of civil action in Code on Penal Proceedings of the Republic of Lithuania must be improved taking into account realia of life, essence and purpose of civil action, i.e. that civil action in penal proceedings is a claim of a person directed to competent institutions to acknowledge and rehabilitate his violated right and force the culprit or other persons who are materially responsible for criminal activities of culprit to compensate damages caused by the crime. According to concept of civil action, person who has suffered material or/and moral damages because of crime must be recognized as civil plaintiff, if on the basis set by law he has applied to legal institutions to rehabilitate his violated right and compensate damages by culprit or by person who bear material responsibility for actions of culprit.


In this paper we present the design and fabrication of two flexible sensor devices: humidity sensor and ammonia sensor integrated with electronic circuit interface on thin flexible substrate (8 mum). The transducers layout has been optimized by means of numerical simulations. A thin layer of Bisbenzocyclobytene (BCB) is used as dielectric sensitive material in humidity sensor. Conversely a mixed polymer layer based on polyaniline emeraldine base (PANi-EB) is used as sensing conductive polymer for ammonia.


The research reported in this volume attempts to refine our understanding of persuasive messages of television advertising by studying the role of language in persuasion in two ways. First, it comprises an attempt to refine our understanding of how language might function in persuasion by examining relevant work from a variety of related disciplines, potentially germane either in terms of their theoretical approaches to the process or in terms of the actual linguistic techniques which they have suggested as enhancing the persuasive impact of a message. Second, a comparative study was undertaken in order to test the generalizability of the linguistic features found to characterize persuasive language in television advertising.


In pedicle screws placement using a free-hand technique or a fluoroscopic guided technique the main difficulties are facing to the bone morphology (i.e in deformity cases) and it could be easily reproduced in a patient's specific spine simulator (we can choose the case). The aim of this work is to evaluate the use of 3D printed patientspecific models (3D printing) not only as a surgical planning tool but also as a surgical training tool in spine surgery and in particular in pedicle screws placement. The manufacturing of patient-specific physical replica involves the elaboration of CT dataset and rapid prototyping techniques. . Five resident surgeons were involved in different training sessions on simulators. To evaluate the exact screws position we performed a CT evaluation of each instrumented simulators. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS software. A total of 120 pedicle screws were positioned, 90 screws were well-positioned and 30 screws were bad-positioned. There were a significant difference (p = 0.000008) between the bad-positioning screw rate of the "senior" resident (13/72) and those of "young" participants (17/48). Timeline analysis of pedicle instrumentation training showed the presence of a learning effect, with a lower error rate in the latest session (p=000001). We believe that the use of patientHealth Sciences EPiC Series in Health Sciences Volume 4, 2020, Pages 225–230 CAOS 2020. The 20th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery F. Rodriguez Y Baena and F. Tatti (eds.), CAOS 2020 (EPiC Series in Health Sciences, vol. 4), pp. 225–230 specific surgical simulators, especially for those surgical tasks in which the complexity is mainly linked to the spine morphology (i.e. deformity), may represent a valid alternative to the use of cadavers that generally present a standard or otherwise poorly predictable anatomy.


The present paper provides the first experimental investigation of an oscillating acoustic streaming jet. The observations are performed in the far field of a 2 MHz circular plane ultrasound transducer introduced in a rectangular cavity filled with water. Measurements are made by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) in horizontal and vertical planes near the end of the cavity. Oscillations of the jet appear in this zone, for a sufficiently high Reynolds number, as an intermittent phenomenon on an otherwise straight jet fluctuating in intensity. The observed perturbation pattern is similar to that of former theoretical studies. This intermittently oscillatory behavior is the first step to the transition to turbulence.


In recent years there has been an exponential increase in publicly available DNA data. This data encodes a huge amount of information on the ancestry of organisms, their evolution, and their abilities and properties. Until recently, it was not possible to search this data in its entirety. Providing online search facilities would enable research into epidemiology, basic science of disease, and antimicrobial resistance. Such search would be as enabling for microbial genomics as natural text search engines are for many everyday tasks. Recently the Bitsliced Genomic Signature Index (BIGSI) [BdBR+17] was introduced allowing the search on all viral and bacterial genomic sequence reads in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) [TAA+17]. As of December 2016, the data set consists of 447,833 genomes using 170 TiB of space. However, longer queries can take up to half an hour on a high performance machine. In this thesis we introduce the Compact Bit-Sliced Signature Index (COBS), a new index variant with significantly improved space and time requirements. In our empirical evaluation we show that execution time is improved by two orders of magnitude while space requirements are cut in half. For longer queries the execution time can be reduced from half an hour to under five seconds. Additionally, we enrich the query results with quality information which can be used for ranking the result set. Several techniques are introduced which make these improvements possible. A compact data structure layout is used to achieve large decreases in index size with only a marginal increase in execution time. Additionally, algorithm engineering techniques are employed to show why the choice of index parameters made by BIGSI was not optimal and how optimal parameters can be chosen. This insight is used to significantly reduce execution time. Next, a new set of equations is introduced to enrich the result with quality information which gives the user more insight into the composition of the result and could be used to increase effectiveness in the future. Lastly, we add several low-level optimizations, exploiting modern hardware, which further lower execution time. To evaluate the techniques, several experiments are conducted which give insight into index construction, execution performance, space-time trade-offs, false positive distributions and the impact of the engineering optimizations. Multiple areas where future work can be conducted are introduced. Finally, the steps required for the creation of a dynamic online index which supports sharding on multiple machines are described. While COBS was constructed to address the challenges of searching large genomic collections, the main findings can be applied to a wide range of problems. COBS is written in C++17 and is available at https://github.com/devgg/cobs.


We investigate the photo-induced creep behavior of a network polymer that can relax stress upon irradiation at particular wavelengths (Scott et al., 2006; Scott et al., 2005). The underlying mechanism is a photochemical-mediated structural rearrangement of the polymer network through polymer chain cleavage and reformation which results in macroscopic stress relaxation. Previous work on this material focused on photo-induced stress relaxation experiments where the overall deformation of the material is fixed. In that case, evolution of the network structure occurs in a single configuration of the body. In this paper, we investigate simultaneous light-stimulated material evolution and deformation under a creep setup. In contrast to stress relaxation, under photo-induced creep, evolution of the network occurs in different configurations as network relaxation is necessarily accompanied by further deformation of the body. Hence, photo-induced creep involves additional complexity because the newly reformed networks have different stress-free configurations and states of deformation. To model the light-stimulated activity, we decompose the cross-linked network into three parallel networks: an initial, a reformed, and a newly formed network. These three networks are distinguished by their volume fractions, stress-free configurations, and states of deformation. Together, the combined mechanical behavior of all three networks describes the mechanical response of the material. The model is used to predict photo-induced creep behavior under different applied nominal stresses and light intensities. Generally, the model performs well in predicting the overall creep behaviors as well as capturing the trends produced by changing the light intensity and applied nominal stress.


Scale-dependent parameter models were developed and nested to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool-SWAT to simulate climate and land use change impacts on water-sediment-nutrient yields in Benin at a regional scale (49,256 km²). Weighted contributions of relevant landscape attributes characterizing the spatial pattern of ongoing hydrological processes were used to constrain the model parameters to acceptable physical meanings. Climate change projections (describing a rainfall reduction of up to 25%) simulated throughout the Regional Model-REMO, very sensitive to a prescribed degradation of land cover, were considered. Land use change scenarios in which the population growth was translated into a specific demand for settlements and croplands (cropland increase of up to 40%) according to the development of the national framework, were also considered. The results were consistent with simulations performed at the meso-scale (586 km2) where local management operations were incorporated. Surface runoff, groundwater flow, sediment and organic N and P yields were affected by land use change (as major effects) of −8% to +50%, while water yield and evapotranspiration were dominantly affected by climate change of −31% to +2%. This tendency was more marked at the regional scale as response to higher scale-dependent rates of natural vegetations with higher conversions to croplands.


Few writers know more about baseball's role in American life than Jules Tygiel. In Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, Tygiel penned a classic work, a landmark book that towers above most writing about the sport. Now he ranges across the last century and a half in an intriguing look at baseball as history, and history as reflected in baseball. In Past Time, Tygiel gives us a seat behind home plate, where we catch the ongoing interplay of baseball and American society. We begin in New York in the 1850s, where pre-Civil War nationalism shaped the emergence of a "national pastime." We witness the true birth of modern baseball with the development of its elaborate statistics-the brainchild of English-born reformer, Henry Chadwick. Chadwick, Tygiel writes, created the sport's "historical essence" and even imparted a moral dimension to the game with his concepts of "errors" and "unearned" runs. Tygiel offers equally insightful looks at the role of rags-to-riches player-owners in the formation of the upstart American League and he describes the complex struggle to establish African-American baseball in a segregated world. He also examines baseball during the Great Depression (when Branch Rickey and Larry MacPhail saved the game by perfecting the farm system, night baseball, and radio broadcasts), the ironies of Bobby Thomson's immortal "shot heard 'round the world," the rapid relocation of franchises in the 1950s and 1960s, and the emergence of rotisserie leagues and fantasy camps in the 1980s. In Past Time, Jules Tygiel provides baseball history with a difference. Instead of a pitch-by-pitch account of great games, in this groundbreaking book, the field is American history and baseball itself is the star.


INTRODUCTION This paper reports on a research project in the area of accounting education. Business faculty members at three colleges/universities were surveyed for their opinions about the essential accounting knowledge needed by business majors. This project was designed to provide necessary information for evaluating and developing curricula for principles of accounting courses in colleges and universities. Specifically, the objectives of the study are to: * Identify a common body of accounting knowledge that is essential for business majors. * Determine the level of knowledge perceived to be necessary for the various topics in the common body. * Compare the perceptions of business faculty members by discipline. The following sections present the background and related literature review the research methods used for this study, the study results, a discussion, and the conclusion. BACKGROUND AND RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW Accounting educators and practitioners have studied the state of accounting education for years. The Bedford Committee in the mid-1980s called for a complete reorientation. The eight largest public accounting firms claimed in 1989 that accounting education was not up-to-date. In 1992, The Accounting Education Change Commission called for a major evaluation of content and teaching methods for the introductory accounting courses. Continuing this theme in 2001, Albrecht and Sack suggested major changes to the course content, curricula, pedagogy, technology, faculty development and reward systems, and strategic direction of accounting education. In many reports, the introductory courses have been the primary focus and concern. Today, the goals for the introductory accounting courses have not changed. Most faculty members would agree that business majors are to learn about accounting as it supports business decision making. Many authors have made substantive recommendations for improving the introductory accounting courses. The Bedford Committee Report In the mid-1980s, the Bedford Committee of the American Accounting Association (AAA) assessed the state of accounting education (AAA, 1986). The committee's analysis indicated that accounting education would require major reorientation by the year 2000. The report stated that massive changes had taken place in the business environment--particularly in technology and social values. However, at the same time, academic institutions had failed to evolve as rapidly as business practice. As a result "... a complete reorientation of accounting education is needed" (pp. 171-172). Big Eight Firms' White Paper In 1989, the chief executives of the eight largest public accounting firms presented their position on education for the accounting profession. The theme was the same as stated by the Bedford Committee: although the business environment had changed in dramatic ways, accounting education had not kept up-to-date. Curricular change was mandatory for accounting degree programs and for the introductory accounting courses as well (Kullberg et al., 1989, p. 1). Accounting Education Change Commission Position Statement (AECC) No. Two The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) was appointed in 1989 by the American Accounting Association (AAA). The primary objective of the AECC was to be a catalyst for improving the academic preparation of accountants. The AECC stated that the primary objective of the introductory courses in accounting is "for students to learn about accounting as an information development and communication function that supports economic decision-making" (AECC, 1992, p. 2). Note that this objective reflects a user rather than a preparer perspective. This primary objective of the introductory sequence was in sharp contrast with the long-held objective which has been to teach bookkeeping essentials to accounting majors. In traditional curricula, the introductory courses are viewed as the first courses in accounting (for accounting majors) rather than the only (and last) courses in accounting for business majors (Baldwin & Ingram, 1991, pp. …


Executive Summary The growing numbers of vulnerable migrants seeking shelter and refuge in the United States and Europe are finding increased racism and xenophobia as well as renewed efforts by humanitarian volunteers to offer them aid, sanctuary, and protection. This article sets forth a typology to better understand the motivations of volunteers working to help migrants in need of humanitarian assistance. Why do people go out of their way to offer humanitarian aid to someone they do not know and, in some cases, they will never meet? What are the drivers of altruistic behavior of humanitarian volunteers in the face of rising injustice, nationalism, and xenophobia? In answer to these questions, we offer a typology centered on empathic concern, differentiating secular/faith-based motivations, and deontological/moral-virtue motivations, with particular behaviors in each of the four resulting categories: the Missionary Type, the Good Samaritan Type, the Do Gooder Type, and the Activist Type. We also suggest four additional self-centered (non-altruistic, or not-other-centered) types (Militant, Crusader, Martyr, and Humanitarian Tourist). The nuances offered by this typology can help organizations working with migrants and refugees better understand and channel the enthusiasm of their volunteers and better meet the needs of the vulnerable populations they serve. This is especially important at a time when migration is being criminalized and when humanitarian aid is deemed unpatriotic, if not outright illegal. In the face of increased nationalistic and xenophobic messages surrounding migration, we need to articulate the altruistic humanitarian motivations of volunteers in the context of migration aid. Our typology may also be used to understand altruistic behaviors in other contexts such as disaster relief, community organization and activism, international adoptions, or organ donations to strangers, among others, in which altruistic empathic concern can be an important motivation driving people to act for the well-being of distant others.


At the end of August 1914 the Sydney newspaper the Sunday Times described the Red Cross as 'Angels of Mercy', 'the one bright spot' in the newly emerging war. [1] From the beginning of the Great War, Sydney women, mostly conservative, founded and joined Red Cross branches and sewed, knitted and raised funds for the war effort. They also worked in Voluntary Aid Detachments both locally and overseas. By 1918 the Red Cross effectively owned the story of the war effort at home.


Modern systems biology requires extensive, carefully curated measurements of cellular components in response to different environmental conditions. While high-throughput methods have made transcriptomics and proteomics datasets widely accessible and relatively economical to generate, systematic measurements of both mRNA and protein abundances under a wide range of different conditions are still relatively rare. Here we present a detailed, genome-wide transcriptomics and proteomics dataset of E. coli grown under 34 different conditions. Additionally, we provide measurements of doubling times and in-vivo metabolic fluxes through the central carbon metabolism. We manipulate concentrations of sodium and magnesium in the growth media, and we consider four different carbon sources glucose, gluconate, lactate, and glycerol. Moreover, samples are taken both in exponential and stationary phase, and we include two extensive time-courses, with multiple samples taken between 3 hours and 2 weeks. We find that exponential-phase samples systematically differ from stationary-phase samples, in particular at the level of mRNA. Regulatory responses to different carbon sources or salt stresses are more moderate, but we find numerous differentially expressed genes for growth on gluconate and under salt and magnesium stress. Our data set provides a rich resource for future computational modeling of E. coli gene regulation, transcription, and translation.


Many questions about homotopy are provably hard or even unsolvable in general. However, in specific settings, it is possible to efficiently test homotopy-equivalence or compute shortest cycles with prescribed homotopy. We focus on computing such "interesting" topological features in three settings. The first two results are about cycles on surfaces; the third is about classes of homotopies in R2 minus a set of obstacles; and the final result is about paths and cycles in Rips complexes.
First, we examine two problems in the combinatorial surface model. Combinatorial surfaces combine properties of graphs and manifolds, making a rich set of techniques available for analysis and algorithm design. We give algorithms to find the shortest noncontractible and nonseparating cycles in a combinatorial surface in O(g3n log n) time. Our main tool is a data structure that kinetically maintains the shortest path tree as the root of the tree moves around the vertices of a single face. The total running time is O(g2n log n). By maintaining the data structure persistently, we can answer shortest path queries in O(log n) time.
Next we consider finding the shortest splitting cycle in a combinatorial surface, or simple cycle which is both separating and noncontractible; such cycles divide the topology of the surface as well as the underlying graph. We prove that finding the shortest splitting cycle is NP-Hard. We then give an algorithm that runs gO(g) n log n time, which is polynomial if the surface is fixed.
We then examine a very different setting, namely similarity between curves in some underlying metric space. If we imagine a homotopy between the curves as a way to morph one curve into the other, we can optimize the morphing so that the maximum distance any point must travel is minimized This is a generalization of the more well known Frechet distance, with the additional requirement that the leash to move continuously in the ambient space. We call this distance the homotopic Frechet distance. We give a polynomial time algorithm to compute the homotopic Frechet distance between two curves in the plane minus a set of polygonal obstacles. We also extend our characterization of optimal morphings to surfaces of nonpositive curvature.
Finally, we examine a more fundamental homotopy problem in a different setting. A Rips complex is a simplicial complex defined by a set of points from some metric space where every pair of points within distance 1 is connected by an edge, and every (k + 1)-clique in that graph forms a k-simplex. We prove that the projection map which takes each k-simplex in the Rips complex to the convex hull of the original points in the plane induces an isomorphism between the fundamental groups of both spaces. Since the union of these convex hulls is a polygonal region in the plane, possibly with holes, our result implies that the fundamental group of a planar Rips complex is a free group, allowing us to design efficient algorithms to answer homotopy questions in planar Rips complexes.


Thirteen-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl has constructed a supercomputer from stolen fairy technology. In the wrong hands, it could be fatal for humans and fairies alike. But no need to worry, Artemis has a brilliant plan. He's not going to use the computer; he's just going to show it to a ruthless American businessman with Mafia connections. His bodyguard, Butler, will be with him. What could possibly go wrong...?


Abstract This article presents the formation of a dextran nanofibrous layer by needleless electrospinning. Optimum process parameters such as polymer solution and addition (surfactant) concentration, voltage, distance, etc. were determined to obtain uniform and smooth dextran nanofibers. It was not possible to produce nanofibers from pure dextran/water solution. Instead, solution drops were deposited on the collector; therefore, anionic surfactant was added in various concentrations to start the nanofiber production. Also, the effects of surfactant concentration on the solution properties, spinnability and fiber properties were determined. Generally, uniform and fine nanofibers were obtained from the rod electrospinning method. The value of 2 wt% surfactant concentration was chosen as the optimum concentration to produce a dextran nanofibrous layer by roller electrospinning. According to the results, spinning performance was 0.6726 g/min per meter, average fiber diameter was 162 nm, diameter uniformity coefficient was 1.03 and the nonfibrous area was 0.5%. In conclusion, this methodology resulted in the production of good product properties such as good spinnability, fine and uniform nanofibers and high fiber density.


International Journal of Exercise Science 6(1) : 52-62, 2013. Volleyball is typically considered a non-aesthetic sport. However, the revealing nature of volleyball uniforms may place additional pressure on female volleyball players to be thin and increase the risk of disordered eating. The purpose of this study was to provide descriptive data concerning the body composition, nutritional habits, eating disorder risk, and menstrual health of collegiate volleyball players. Female collegiate volleyball players (N = 14) completed a 7-day food record, menstrual health questionnaire, and EAT-26 survey. Participant body composition was determined using a 3 site skinfold test and the Bod Pod®. Half (50%) of participants were deemed "At-Risk" (AR) for disordered eating according to EAT-26 results, while the other half were consider "Not AtRisk" (NR). Participants consumed inadequate calories (1928 + 476) meeting only 69.35% of their predicted energy expenditure (2780.66 + 148.88). Additionally, all participants were below the recommended CHO intake range of 6-10g/kg/day for athletes (3.49 + 0.89g/CHO/kg/day) and the recommended intake range of 1.2-1.7 g/kg/day for protein for athletes (1.17 + 0.35). Body fat percentage using the Bod Pod® (22.76 + 6.25%) was similar to values reported by other studies. Seven of the participants were currently using oral contraceptives (OC). Menstrual dysfunction was reported by 3 participants not using OC. Of those using OC, 3 reported irregular menses as the reason for taking OC. No significant difference existed in macronutrient and energy intake, prevalence of menstrual dysfunction, or body composition between AR and NR groups. In conclusion, the current study suggests that collegiate female volleyball players' diets tend to be inadequate in calories, protein, and carbohydrates, placing them at risk for subsequent medical ailments including menstrual dysfunction.


A series of 10 tetradentate 1-hydroxy-pyridin-2-one (1,2-HOPO) ligands and corresponding eight-coordinated photoluminescent Eu(III) and Sm(III) complexes were prepared. Generally, the ligands differ by the linear (nLI) aliphatic linker length, from 2 to 8 methylene units between the bidentate 1,2-HOPO chelator units. The photoluminescent quantum yields (Φtot) were found to vary with the linker length, and the same trend was observed for the Eu(III) and Sm(III) complexes. The 2LI and 5LI bridged complexes are the brightest (Φtotxε). The change in ligand wrapping pattern between 2LI and 5LI complexes observed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) is further supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The bimodal Φtot trends of the Eu(III) and Sm(III) complexes are rationalized by the change in ligand wrapping pattern as the bridge (nLI) is increased in length.


The West Antarctic ice sheet is particularly sensitive to global warming and its evolution and impact on global climate over the next few decades remains difficult to predict. In this context, investigating past sea ice conditions around Antarctica is of primary importance. Here, we document changes in sea ice presence, upper water column temperatures (0-200 m) and primary productivity over the last 9000 yr BP (before present) in the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) margin from a sedimentary core collected in the Palmer Deep Basin. Employing a multi-proxy approach, based on the combination of two biomarkers proxies (highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) alkenes for sea ice and TEX86L for temperature) and micropaleontological data (diatom assemblages), we derived new Holocene records of sea ice conditions and upper water column temperatures. The early Holocene (9000-7000 yr BP) was characterized by a cooling phase with a short sea ice season. During the mid-Holocene (~7000-3800 yr BP), local climate evolved towards slightly colder conditions and a prominent extension of the sea ice season occurred, promoting a favorable environment for intensive diatom growth. The late Holocene (the last ~2100 yr) was characterized by warmer temperatures and increased sea ice presence, accompanied by reduced local primary productivity, likely in response to a shorter growing season compared to the early or mid-Holocene. The gradual increase in annual sea ice duration over the last 7000 yr might have been influenced by decreasing mean annual and spring insolation, despite increasing summer insolation. We postulate that, in addition to precessional changes in insolation, seasonal variability, via changes in the strength of the circumpolar Westerlies and upwelling activity, was further amplified by the increasing frequency/amplitude of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, between 3800 and 2100 yr BP, the lack of correlation between ENSO and climate variability in the WAP suggests that other climatic factors might have been more important in controlling WAP climate at this time.


Work as paid employment is economic in character and is undertaken across the life course usually as a means of sustaining self and dependents. Orientations to work, however, are complex and are shaped by education, cultural values and family practices that influence the choice of career or occupation (Taylor, 2005). The choices and decisions people make about their work are also shaped by the structure of the labour market that operates to economically 'value' some forms of work more than others as well as some types of worker over others and there now exists a wide body of literature that debates the experience and meaning of work in contemporary society.

An emerging theme in recent years has been the blurring of boundaries between paid and unpaid work that challenges the preoccupation of policy makers with employment as the only work of value such that those outside or excluded from employment are not recognised as 'working'. Indeed, recent debates about the centrality of paid work to living a useful life have been increasingly tied to the credentials for citizenship that Lister (1997) argues is an essentially contested concept. This notwithstanding, there is growing acknowledgement by commentators of the significance of the voluntary sector in the provision of a range of services particularly in the field of health and social care giving rise to new understandings of work. The importance of voluntary work (unpaid work outside the home) is central to these new understandings and is now the subject of considerable government interest in its attempts to stimulate social engagement in a plethora of community programmes. For the hospice sector, however, volunteering has long been embedded within its operational ethos such that Howlett (2009) argues that many hospices could not continue to offer a range of services without the commitment of their volunteer workforce. Recruiting and retaining volunteers to work in different parts of the hospice is thus an important priority for hospice managers and this article considers some of the factors that influence the experience of both becoming and being a hospice volunteer.


Background One of the half dozen most powerful authors of Native American crime fiction is Jake Page, who has published five novels on the subject so far: The Stolen Gods (1993), The Deadly Canyon (1994), The Knotted Strings (1995), The Lethal Partner (1997), and A Certain Malice (1998). His tribe of concentration is the Hopi of New Mexico and northeastern Arizona. He centers on their lives and activities around Santa Fe, New Mexico, a city for which he has a love-hate relationship - love of its beauty and tradition, contempt for the commercialization of its facade and its pretentiousness. Santa Fe, Page has his leading character say, has "various social tribes that effectively define the city," and those tribes "have two overriding convictions. "One is that Santa Fe is as close to the original Eden as mankind has come since Adam and Eve were banished" (Gods 13). The second is that Santa Fe is a small city, with all of the advantages generally associated with a town of that size. Page thinks that both personal convictions about a geographical site may be pushed too far. His evaluation comes from a cool, dispassionate analysis, which reveals all kinds of serpents in the Garden, such as pride, greed, blatant ambition, desire to shine in the public eye, and self-nurtured ignorance. In other words, Santa Fe is or is coming to be like Albuquerque, which Page hates, and other American cities. Page, who has no Indian blood, writes of the Hopis of the area because he has lived and worked among them with his photographer wife, Susanne Anderson, since the early 1980s. He knows them well- not, he says in a letter to me, in the "sappy way a lot of people are who meet Indians and want to wear feathers or whatever," but in a much more profound and respectful way. Knowledge breeds respect. He respects the Hopis, and they know that they can count on him for friendly assistance whenever he can help, as he has on several occasions. A Hopi tribal chieftain once asked Page if he would publish magazine articles about the theft of four Indian gods, a matter of profound importance to the Hopis. Page wrote such an article for Smithsonian magazine, but it was turned down. Page feels, as he said in his biographical letter to me, the reason was that the article "implicated a sister museum" in the trading of Indian religious artifacts. This is a crime against the federal government because the tribes fall under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and therefore are policed by the FBI. Page subsequently wrote another article for Connoisseur magazine, which also turned it down because, as Page told me in his biography, it "would be offensive to galleries." Having been forced to drink the gall of the injustice of the dominant art world's treatment of less powerful cultures, Page decided to write a novel on the subject, focusing on the kachinas, the religious artifacts that he considers splendid and deserving of the praise voiced by some art historians who consider this art form the most profound in America. In his first novel, The Stolen Gods, Page shakes a large fist of accusation at art collectors and dealers who, by hook or crook, get control of and sell Hopi art to outside collectors who cannot understand and are indifferent to its religious significance. Callously and greedily they deprive the Indians of the soul of their existence, fattening on the commercial exploitation of religious artifacts. Page scornfully labels such practice simony, in the biblical sense of the word. Page does understand the significance of the kacbinas, their use in religious practices, and other manifestations of spirituality in the lifestyle of the Hopis. He wants to pay back the Indians for the sins of his fellow Americans and freely and fully offers his personal, family, and racial remorse and atonement for the misbehavior of fellow whites: "Over the years," he says in the author's note to The Stolen Gods, "many Hopi people have enriched my life and my family's lives in ways that one does not count. …


In July 2017, a group of five Florida teenagers taunted a drowning disabled man while filming his death on a cell phone. In the video, the teenagers laughed and shouted harsh statements like "ain't nobody finna to help you, you dumb bitch." At the moment the man's head sank under the water for the very last time, one of the teenagers remarked: "Oh, he just died" before laughter ensued. None of the teenagers helped the man, nor did any of them report the drowning or his death to the authorities.
Because the Good Samaritan law in Florida, like in most states, does not require bystanders to assist another person who they know is in danger or is suffering serious physical harm, the teenagers who chose to film, rather than aid, the drowning disabled man are free of any liability. They face no penalties for their inaction and no punishment for their callousness.
This Article urges states to revisit traditional Good Samaritan laws. States need to consider penalizing a person's failure to aid when another person is clearly in danger of physical harm or death. This need is particularly great given the power of social media and its intersection with a bystander's ability and decision to help. As technology advances, relationships have become increasingly impersonal, thereby diminishing the individual's connection to and compassion for others. Social media has added a new dimension to the longstanding debate of whether laws should impose on bystanders a duty to help. In cases where a bystander is observing a crime online, the individual can meet the duty quite simply by alerting authorities to the crime or danger. And in cases where the circumstances might tempt a bystander to use social media rather than provide help, the legal duty will compel the more moral choice. Accordingly, states should adopt duty to aid statutes mandating that bystanders give aid or call for help when they can.


Any business that opts to adopt a recommender engine (RE) for various potential benefits must choose from the candidate solutions, by matching to the task of interest and domain. The purpose of this paper is to choose RE that fits best from a set of candidate solutions using rule-based automated machine learning (ML) approach. The objective is to draw trustworthy conclusion, which results in brand building, and establishing a reliable relation with customers and undeniably to grow the business.,An experimental quantitative research method was conducted in which the ML model was evaluated with diversified performance metrics and five RE algorithms by combining offline evaluation on historical and simulated movie data set, and the online evaluation on business-alike near-real-time data set to uncover the best-fitting RE.,The rule-based automated evaluation of RE has changed the testing landscape, with the removal of longer duration of manual testing and not being comprehensive. It leads to minimal manual effort with high-quality results and can possibly bring a new revolution in the testing practice to start a service line "Machine Learning Testing as a service" (MLTaaS) and the possibility of integrating with DevOps that can specifically help agile team to ship a fail-safe RE evaluation product targeting SaaS (software as a service) or cloud deployment.,A small data set was considered for A/B phase study and was captured for ten movies from three theaters operating in a single location in India, and simulation phase study was captured for two movies from three theaters operating from the same location in India. The research was limited to Bollywood and Ollywood movies for A/B phase, and Ollywood movies for simulation phase.,The best-fitting RE facilitates the business to make personalized recommendations, long-term customer loyalty forecasting, predicting the company's future performance, introducing customers to new products/services and shaping customer's future preferences and behaviors.,The proposed rule-based ML approach named "2-stage locking evaluation" is self-learned, automated by design and largely produces time-bound conclusive result and improved decision-making process. It is the first of a kind to examine the business domain and task of interest. In each stage of the evaluation, low-performer REs are excluded which leads to time-optimized and cost-optimized solution. Additionally, the combination of offline and online evaluation methods offer benefits, such as improved quality with self-learning algorithm, faster time to decision-making by significantly reducing manual efforts with end-to-end test coverage, cognitive aiding for early feedback and unattended evaluation and traceability by identifying the missing test metrics coverage.


In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, some of the nascent chains can be post-translationally translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum through the heptameric post-translational translocon complex (post-translocon). This membrane-protein complex is composed of the protein-conducting channel and the tetrameric Sec62/63 complex. The Sec62/63 complex plays crucial roles in targeting of the signal recognition particle-independent protein substrate to the protein-conducting channel and in assembly of the post-translocon. Although the molecular mechanism of the post-translational translocation process has been well established, the structure of the post-translocon and how the channel and the Sec62/63 complex form the heptameric complex are largely uncharacterized. Here, we report a 20-Å resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of the post-translocon. The purified post-translocon was found to have a mass of 287 kDa, which is consistent with the unit stoichiometry of the seven subunits as determined by a cysteine labeling experiment. We demonstrated that Triton X-100 dissociated the heptameric complex into three subcomplexes identified as the trimeric translocon Sec61-Sbh1-Sss1, the Sec63-Sec71-Sec72 trimer, and the heterotetramer Sec62-Sec63-Sec71-Sec72, respectively. Additionally, a role of the sixth cytosolic loop of Sec61 in assembly of the post-translocon was demonstrated. Mutations of conserved, positively charged amino acid residues in the loop caused decreased formation of the post-translocon. These studies provide the first architectural description of the yeast post-translocon.


The Statewide Wireless Communications Project was an umbrella project intended to support various Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) activities in the area of wireless communications. As these activities were conducted independently the report for the project is organized into three volumes. Volume 1 contains the results of satellite and cellular communications field testing undertaken in support of INDOT's SiteManager application. Volume 1 also contains the results of an evaluation of spread spectrum radios for long-range communications. Volume 2 contains the results of detection zone evaluation for loop detection of bicycles and the results of testing algorithms for travel time estimation using vehicle re-identification based on inductive and micro-loop signatures. Finally, Volume 3 contains the results of preliminary testing of a vehicle-infrastructure integration application in road condition monitoring. In Volume 1 we found that SiteManager could not be adequately run over a satellite link because the long round trip delay of the communication link negatively interacted with SiteManager's internal client-server communications protocol to severely reduce overall throughput. A solution to the problem was to use terminal emulation in the field with the client software running on a computer connected to the server via a high bandwidth, low delay link. The downside to the terminal emulation approach is that it requires that the field engineer have a communication link wherever the application is run. In Volume 1 we also found that current generation spread spectrum radio ranges in Indiana topography with antenna heights corresponding to signal arm mounting were on the order of 3 miles. This was too short by a factor of 3 to support a multihop network for traffic signal control and telemetry. In Volume 2 we developed a numerical technique for mapping the bicycle detection zones of loop detectors. A number of recommendations were made concerning loop geometry, depth, detector sensitivity, and pavement markings for purposes of improving bicycle detection. We also developed algorithms for travel time estimation based on vehicle signatures captured from commercially available inductive and micro-loop detector cards. The travel time estimation algorithms were field tested and show promise. In Volume 3 a prototype road condition monitoring system was built upon a passenger van platform and preliminary field testing and data analysis was done. Algorithms were developed to address positional uncertainties present in GPS measurements in order to allow the averaging of data taken in multiple independent runs. The results were also field tested using INDOT's Laser Profiling vehicle.


Water ingress and de-icing salt cause deterioration of reinforcement in land-based concrete structures. Mitigation has involved application of retrofit Cathodic Protection (CP) systems of both surface-mounted anodes, and anodes installed in holes bored into the concrete. Cathodic Prevention has been used for marine reinforced concrete structures, using anodes immersed in the seawater to control the cathodic potential of the steel, and thereby modify the critical chloride threshold for the initiation of corrosion. For many years simulation has been successfully applied to CP of steel structures immersed in electrolyte (water, soil or rock), for design optimisation of new CP systems; assessment of combined performance of CP systems nearing end of life and retrofit CP systems for life extension of the structure; and forensic investigations which aim to improve understanding of unexpected observed effects. Techniques developed initially for marine-based steel structures can readily be applied to determination of cathodic potential on reinforcement of both land-based concrete structures (such as bridge beams) and marine-based structures (such as pontoons). This paper shows examples of application of simulation to CP of reinforced concrete structures, and demonstrates how parameter studies may be used to optimise the design and so improve the distribution of potential on the reinforcement.


Scholars in many fields have long noted the importance of social context in the development of political ideology. Recent work suggests that political ideology also has a heritable component, but no specific gene variant or combination of variants associated with political ideology have so far been identified. Here, we hypothesize that individuals with a genetic predisposition toward seeking out new experiences will tend to be more liberal, but only if they are embedded in a social context that provides them with multiple points of view. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we test this hypothesis by investigating an association between self-reported political ideology and the 7R variant of the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4), which has previously been associated with novelty seeking. Among those with DRD4-7R, we find that the number of friendships a person has in adolescence is significantly associated with liberal political ideology. Among those without the gene variant, there is no association. This is the first study to elaborate a specific gene-environment interaction that contributes to ideological self-identification, and it highlights the importance of incorporating both nature and nurture into the study of political preferences.


We derive global analytic representations of fundamental solutions for a class of linear parabolic systems with full coupling of first order derivative terms where coefficient may depend on space and time. Pointwise convergence of the global analytic expansion is proved. This leads to analytic representations of solutions of initial-boundary problems of first and second type in terms of convolution integrals or convolution integrals and linear integral equations. The results have both analytical and numerical impact. Analytically, our representations of fundamental solutions of coupled parabolic systems may be used to define generalized stochastic processes. Moreover, some classical analytical results based on a priori estimates of elliptic equations are a simple corollary of our main result. Numerically, accurate, stable and efficient schemes for computation and error estimates in strong norms can be obtained for a considerable class of Cauchy- and initial-boundary problems of parabolic type. Furthermore, there are obvious and less obvious applications to finance and physics. Warning: The argument given in the current version is only valid in special cases (essentially the scalar case). A more involved argument is needed for systems and will be communicated soon in a replacement,


Women have become increasingly physically active in recent decades. While exercise provides substantial health benefits, intensive exercise is also associated with a unique set of risks for the female athlete. Hypothalamic dysfunction associated with strenuous exercise, and the resulting disturbance of GnRH pulsatility, can result in delayed menarche and disruption of menstrual cyclicity. Specific mechanisms triggering reproductive dysfunction may vary across athletic disciplines. An energy drain incurred by women whose energy expenditure exceeds dietary energy intake appears to be the primary factor effecting GnRH suppression in athletes engaged in sports emphasizing leanness; nutritional restriction may be an important causal factor in the hypoestrogenism observed in these athletes. A distinct hormonal profile characterized by hyperandrogenism rather than hypoestrogenism is associated with athletes engaged in sports emphasizing strength over leanness. Complications associated with suppression of GnRH include infertility and compromised bone density. Failure to attain peak bone mass and bone loss predispose hypoestrogenic athletes to osteopenia and osteoporosis. Metabolic aberrations associated with nutritional insult may be the primary factors effecting low bone density in hypoestrogenic athletes, thus diagnosis should include careful screening for abnormal eating behavior. Increasing caloric intake to offset high energy demand may be sufficient to reverse menstrual dysfunction and stimulate bone accretion. Treatment with exogenous estrogen may help to curb further bone loss in the hypoestrogenic amenorrheic athlete, but may not be sufficient to stimulate bone growth. Treatment aimed at correcting metabolic abnormalities may in fact prove more effective than that aimed at correcting estrogen deficiencies.


My research over the past several years has focused on the role of taxes and other instruments in environmental and energy policy. I have focused mainly on instrument design issues in a general equilibrium framework, as well as on the distributional implications of energy and environmental taxation. Environmental Policy An influential paper by Bovenberg and deMooij touched off a large research agenda on the optimal design of environmental taxes in a second-best world with pre-existing taxes. (1) It had long been understood that taxes on pollution could help to internalize pollution externalities. Beginning in the 1980s, analysts began to argue that the revenue from pollution taxes could be used to reduce other distortionary taxes, thereby generating a second "dividend" with a pollution tax. Some analysts concluded that the existence of this second dividend argued for a higher tax on pollution than the first-best Pigouvian prescription, where the tax is set equal to the social marginal damages of pollution. Bovenberg and deMooij showed that for reasonable consumer preferences the optimal tax would, in fact, be lower than social marginal damages. Their insight was that while an environmental tax would enhance efficiency by discouraging pollution, it was still a distortionary tax and could interact with other distortionary taxes with first-best efficiency losses. Building on this initial result, researchers began to identify the gains from raising revenue via environmental policy instruments (pollution taxes or auction revenues from cap and trade systems). With Don Fullerton, I showed that the popularly held view that revenue-raising instruments were preferred to non-revenue-raising instruments focused on the wrong point. (2) What mattered was whether policies created scarcity rents and whether the government received the rents and used them to lower other distortionary taxes. The result--that the second-best tax on pollution was below social marginal damages--was troubling to many environmentalists who were concerned that it implied that in a world with distortionary taxation more pollution should be allowed. Such a conclusion confuses price and quantity effects. That a first-best price rule ("set pollution taxes equal to social marginal damages") is modified in the presence of tax distortions ("set pollution taxes below social marginal damages") does not imply anything about changes in the optimal level of pollution. Using a simple analytic general equilibrium model, I provide a counter-example to show that having a tax below social marginal damages could be consistent with a higher level of environmental quality. (3) The analytic general equilibrium framework constructed for the research just described was easily extended to a consideration of monopoly behavior among polluting firms and instrument design when policymakers cannot target pollution directly but rather must target some proxy for pollution. (4) The interest in second-best environmental policy design was widespread at this point and the NBER co-sponsored a conference on environmental policy with FEEM in Italy that Carlo Carraro and I co-organized. (5) One of the hotly debated topics during this period was whether tradable permits for pollution (like those for S[O.sub.2] trading under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990) should be given away or sold. One paper from that conference made the important point that this was not an either-or situation; rather, some of the permits could be traded and some sold. (6) The paper showed that only a small portion of permits need be given away in order to preserve the equity value of the energy industries because most of the burden of the permit price is passed forward to consumers in the form of higher prices. I also have applied insights from the literature on second-best environmental taxation in my research on climate modeling. In particular, an empirical analysis of European energy and climate policy suggested that the benefits from auctioning permits from a European carbon cap and trade system vary substantially across countries, suggesting the need for country-specific policy guidance. …


This article examines a classroom discussion of multiple interpretations of the scales on two distance versus time graphs. The analysis describes how two students and a teacher used multiple meanings for phrases of the form "I went by" and coordinated these meanings with different views of the scales. Students' ambiguous and shifting meanings did not prove to be obstacles to this discussion. Instead, this teacher used student interpretations as resources, built on them, and connected them to canonical mathematical concepts—in particular by highlighting (Goodwin, 1994) a "unitized" (Lamon, 1994, 1996, 2007) view of the scales. Research in mathematics education describes teaching that promotes conceptual development as having two central features: One is that teachers and students attend explicitly to concepts, and the other is that students wrestle with important mathematics (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007). Not only does this classroom discussion provide an example that it is possible to balance these two features, but the analysis provides the details of how instruction can simultaneously provide explicit attention to concepts while allowing students to wrestle with these concepts.


Background The study being undertaken builds on earlier work that found general practitioners (GPs) were at times uncertain of their role in paediatric palliative care and questioned whether their involvement had been beneficial to the child and family. The rarity of childhood cancer makes it difficult for GPs to develop or maintain palliative care knowledge and skills yet the GP is perceived by the family as the gatekeeper of care within the community. Aim The study is examining GPs perception of their role in caring for an individual child with cancer receiving palliative care and comparing this with families' perceptions of their GP's roles. Methodology The methodology incorporates tape-recorded semi-structured interviews, thematic framework analysis and Q methodology (QM) to capture the experiences of GPs who have cared for a child with cancer receiving palliative care as well as the perspectives of care experienced by the families. The semi-structured interview sample comprises 10 families (parents/guardians) whose child has been treated at a regional childhood cancer centre and their GPs. A further 40–60 GPs will be involved in the QM. Findings Findings detailing GP experiences from the initial study along with the preliminary findings of the semi-structured interviews with parents and GPs will be presented. Papers' contribution The results will identify and clarify GPs perceptions of their roles, and what families perceive their GPs role to be, enabling development of strategies to support GPs roles. It is anticipated that findings will inform the wider field of palliative care generally and the practice of both hospital and community paediatricians.


The uncontrolled release of sewage, industrial wastes, and agricultural run-off continue to affect Asia. Although many Asian countries are getting closer to meeting the improved sanitation targets, much of the waste remains untreated. Comprehensive databases are rarely available and national data indicate that the water quality situation is serious. However, there are many signs of hope. Water quality monitoring efforts are improving and several countries now have systems in place that could guide other nations in the region. The efforts of basin agencies, such as the Mekong River Commission, could lead the way to transboundary or even regional assessments. Many regulatory and economic options are being tested for pollution control, but institutional and social challenges remain, in particular those related to population growth and the various ways in which it is affecting water quality across the region.


Large-scale annotated corpora are a prerequisite to developing high-performance NLP systems. Such corpora are expensive to produce, limited in size, often demanding linguistic expertise. In this paper we use text rewriting as a means of increasing the amount of labeled data available for model training. Our method uses automatically extracted rewrite rules from comparable corpora and bitexts to generate multiple versions of sentences annotated with gold standard labels. We apply this idea to semantic role labeling and show that a model trained on rewritten data outperforms the state of the art on the CoNLL-2009 benchmark dataset.


The composition and the origin of raw materials used in the ancient mortars and concrete of the Nora theatre (first century AD) have been analysed to define their provenance and construction technologies of the Roman period.The use of geomaterials in the binder / aggregate mixtures of the mortars vary according to their function in the different sectors (i.e., structure-wall, tribunalia vaults, wall of external niches, foundation of cavea tiers, stage inner wall) but also according to different construction phases of the theatre or the work-steps. The mortars with structural function are mainly hydraulic (e.g., concrete of vaults, jointing and foundation mortars of cavea ashlars), while the lime mortars were used mainly for plasters, and rarely as bedding mortars. As recommended by Vitruvius, in the hydraulic mortars were mainly used volcanic rocks, as coarse and fine pozzolanic aggregate (pulvis puteolanus), and quartz-feldspar sands (present as crystal-clasts with an almost constant ratio of about 2:1, respectively). The cocciopesto is anomalously rare or absent. In the mortars local dacitic volcanic rock were also used, especially in the concrete as caementia.The grey-black volcanic rocks are glasses with characteristics more near to obsidian and less to natural pozzolan normally used in the Roman period. To identify the provenance of these glasses, a geochemical comparison between the samples taken from the theatre mortars and the volcanic outcrops of some probable Sardinian source areas is made by XRF and SEM-EDS / WDS analysis.To verify the quality of the pozzolan (by its chemical reaction with the binder), the edges and inside of volcanic glasses were analysed with an SEM-EDS microprobe, while the compositional characteristics and the hydraulic degree of the binder was analysed with XRPD and TG/DSC methods, respectively.The use of this kind of pozzolanic glass, without local origins, is a novelty because it has never been found in the mortars of the archaeological site of Nora. Given the wide use of Sardinian obsidian in the Neolithic or Calcolithic periods for production of tools and instruments, some considerations about its use, origin and trade are made.


Small-satellites and CubeSats offer a low-cost pathway to access Low Earth Orbit at altitudes of 450 km and lower thanks to miniaturization and advancement in reliability of commercial electronics. However, at these low altitudes, atmospheric drag has a critical effect on the satellite resulting in natural deorbits within months. As these small systems further increase in reliability and radiation tolerance they will be able readily access higher orbits at altitudes of 700 km and higher, where atmospheric drag has little to no effect. This requires alternative technologies to either de-orbit these small spacecrafts at the end of life or move them to a safe parking orbit. Use of propulsion and de-orbit mechanisms have been proposed, however they require active control systems to be trigged. Other typical de-orbit mechanism relies on complex mechanisms with many moving parts. In this work, we analyze the feasibility of using inflatable de-orbit devices that are triggered passively when a spacecraft is tumbling. Inflatables have already been proposed as hypersonic deccelerators that would carry large payload to the Martian surface. However, these systems are quite complex and need to withstand high-forces, temperature and enable survival of a critical payload. Furthermore, inflatables have been proposed as communication antennas and as structures using a class of sublimates that turn into gas under the vacuum of space. These inflatables system are relatively simple and does not require a specialized inflation system.


This article examines sustainable development discourses while addressing the unsustainable structures within which these discourses take place. The main research question concerns how sustainability is understood in relation to class and capitalism and what ideologies are expressed as neutral in the anodyne context of public information. Critical discourse analysis is applied as a method to examine how sustainable development is shaped through the construction of problems, responsibilities and solutions in a Swedish municipal magazine. The analysis reveals two parallel constructions: hyper-politicised discourses about free enterprise and a trivialisation of discourses about socio-economic challenges. Texts about social care and social responsibility are represented in the form of banal politics, transforming conflict into consensus, while stories about the business sector rely heavily on market rationales stressing the importance of political intervention to increase the attractive power of entrepreneurialism. Taking Critical Theory as its starting point, the analysis discusses the neoliberal paradox, namely that in the neoliberal political regime, despite the rhetoric of individualism and freedom, the role of the state is to support private enterprises. The article argues that the role of communication needs further analytical attention to increase our understanding of how sustainability is shaped and established in mainstream public discourse. It concludes that the specific communication practice examined here promotes neoliberal capitalism by encouraging the continued unsustainable class structuring of our society.


The robust phase locking of a linear diode array consisting of 49 broad-area emitters was demonstrated. The single lobe in the far field with output power of 0.83 W was observed. The far-field divergence was reduced to 2.0 mrad. The spectral bandwidth was reduced from 1.7 to 0.13 nm.


PgMP Exam Practice Test and Study Guide, Fourth Edition is the book you need to pass the Program Management Professional (PgMP) exam the first time around. It reflects recent revisions based on PMI's Standard for Program Management - Third Edition (2013).Based on best practices that complement PMIs standards, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource available to help you prepare for the exam with new and changed terminology. It includes a list of the major topics covered on the exam organized by the five performance domainsstrategic program management, program life cycle, benefits management, stakeholder management, and governanceas presented in the Program Management Professional Examination Content Outline. It also includes helpful tips on how to make the most of the time you have available to prepare for the exam. Just like its bestselling predecessors, this indispensable study guide includes 20 multiple-choice practice questions for each domain along with a comprehensive answer key. The program life cycle domain includes 20 questions for each of the five phases. Each question also has a plainly written rationale for each correct answer with bibliographic references for further study.Two challenging, 170-question practice tests that simulate the actual exam are included in the book and online, so you can retake them as many times as necessary. They also include a rationale and reference.Scores for the online tests are presented as if each question is rated similarly, but this edition also includes a new component: the authors own weighting system for the level of difficulty for each question. This system will show you what they feel meets the exams criteria for Proficient, Moderately Proficient, and below Proficient. You then will see your scores by domain in both approaches.Supplying an insider's look at the questions, terminology, and sentence construction you will encounter on the day of the exam, this indispensable study tool is designed to help you pass the exam and achieve the highly sought after PgMP certification.


PURPOSE
Effective treatment planning for radiotherapy is dependent on accurate spectra determination; however, direct measurements of spectra arecomplicated by fluence rates that exceed detection system limitations. This work demonstrates the potential to use a Compton scattering technique to measure the spectrum of a 6MV linac. These spectra are further characterized using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations.

METHODS
A high-purity germanium detector was used to measure the photon spectrum scattered at35 degrees from the central axis of 3cmx3cm and lOcmxlOcm 6MV fields from a Varian linac. Photons were scattered using aluminum rods positioned at isocenter, and were admitted to the detector through a 30cm-long collimating aperture. The measured Compton-scattered spectra were corrected for background. An MC model of the linac was developed in MCNP5 to calculate central- and off-axis spectra. The model geometry was verified by comparisons with percentage depth-dose and profilemeasurements. The spectroscopic effect of the mean energy, radius, and divergence of the electron beam incident on the target was tested for twofield sizes.

RESULTS
The count rate of the scattered beam increased with field size and scattering rod diameter. Preliminary measurements indicate that the spectrum was shifted to lower energies using this technique; however, the signal-to-noise ratio was poor due to leakage and room scatter. MC simulations demonstrate that the central- and off-axis spectra were sensitive to changes in mean electron energy; however, changes in beam diameter and angular divergence did not substantially affect either the central- or off-axis spectra.

CONCLUSIONS
This work demonstrates that the spectrum from a 6MV linac can be measured using Compton spectrometry. Further work is required to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and correct fordetector response. MC simulations indicate that the spectra were sensitive to variations in the parameters used to define the primary electron beam incident on the target.


Diotima, the priestess of Plato's Symposium, is an important reference for Proclus' thinking about the role of women in philosophical and religious practices. This character does not just offer Proclus an example for women's ability to attain the same level of virtue than men, but she is also a model for the joint work of philosophical and religious practices. Thereby she stands for practices which are orientated on the human condition and therefore depend on intermediary entities as demons, and for practices which transcend both the human condition and the intermediary entities. Most interesting in Proclus' presentation of Diotima as a priestess and a philosopher is that he does not present her to fulfill these roles by masculinizing her soul through a sole focus on the intelligible entities – as for example Porphyry advises his wife Marcella – but by using the female element in her soul, i.e. the circuit of the Different, as an intermediate through which she can get in touch with the demons and – through them – also with higher entities. The ideal which Diotima incorporates is therefore not becoming masculine (despite having a female body) but harmonizing the male and female elements within the soul.


Using social media for political discourse is becoming common practice, especially around election time. One interesting aspect of this trend is the possibility of pulsing the public's opinion about the elections, and that has attracted the interest of many researchers and the press. Allegedly, predicting electoral outcomes from social media data can be feasible and even simple. Positive results have been reported, but without an analysis on what principle enables them. Our work puts to test the purported predictive power of socialmedia metrics against the 2010 US congressional elections. Here, we applied techniques that had reportedly led to positive election predictions in the past, on the Twitter data collected from the 2010 US congressional elections. Unfortunately, we find no correlation between the analysis results and the electoral outcomes, contradicting previous reports. Observing that 80 years of polling research would support our findings, we argue that one should not be accepting predictions about events using social media data as a black box. Instead, scholarly research should be accompanied by a model explaining the predictive power of social media, when there is one.


In order to develop the federal common law of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), courts must consider the history, foundations, and policies of ERISA. However, federal courts have yet to conduct this process. This failure is explained by either the fundamental nature of the American adversary system leading to the undermining of congressional intent, or the failure of the incompetent federal judiciary to follow legislative intent. Conclusively, the lack of developing federal common law has resulted in ERISA law that is hostile to participants and the policies that Congress intended ERISA to foster.

Although seldom following the proper principles for the development of the federal common law of the ERISA, the federal judiciary has developed a plan interpretive rule fostering the policies of ERISA. The interpretive rule uses a lay understanding principle, allows extrinsic evidence to determine that understanding as well as resolve ambiguities, and employs a default principle of construing the plan in favor of participants. Unfortunately, this interpretive rule is used only by some circuits, and only if the plan denies the plan administrator plan interpretive discretion. Once the judiciary and participants' bar understand the foundations for this minor success, however, they can apply the proper plan interpretive rule to all ERISA plans and, hopefully, develop all the proper ERISA rules for the benefits-due lawsuit.


The benthic reef communities of Bathurst Channel represent an important feature for the ongoing management of Tasmania's marine ecology and diversity. Containing a number of fragile deep-water invertebrate species growing at accessibly shallow depths, the reef habitats are both susceptible to impacts and of scientific importance. The foundation for this study was the continuing need for a practical, quantitative monitoring program which will provide information on species composition, species distribution throughout the channel, and detect any changes occurring over time. The survey, conducted in March 2010, collected digital image data from depth intervals ranging from the intertidal zone to 20 metres depth at 13 monitoring sites extending throughout Bathurst channel, and compared it to baseline imagery taken in 2002. The high resolution imagery collected in 2010 was used to create a descriptive catalogue of the biota observed, which can be used for future monitoring and species referencing. Species and substrate percentage cover in the photos was analysed using an easily repeatable point count method (CPCe) where data files can be stored and reanalysed.

The information collected described the changes in species composition along Bathurst Channel, and thus provided some insight into the relevant environmental and biological factors limiting the distribution of algal and invertebrate species throughout the estuary. Results were consistent with previous descriptions of the community types within the Channel, showing that this system is inherently stable over these time frames. Patterns in assemblage distribution reflected strong species' responses to gradients in tannin levels and salinity throughout the estuary, distance from the ocean and the strength of currents/mixing. Percentage abundances of key species and species groupings (e.g. lace bryozoans) between 2002 and 2010 data were also comparable, albeit with a few differences resulting from an improvement in image quality between surveys. One notable change was an apparent 50% decline in sea whip abundance at both Munday Island and Forrester Point at 5 metres depth. This is presumed to be a consequence of drought conditions leading up to the 2010 survey, reducing the tannin concentration to a point where algal growth became possible in this zone, smothering components of the invertebrate fauna. Ongoing monitoring will enable recovery rates to be determined, and improve our understanding of the natural variability of these fragile assemblages in a changing climate. The decline in sea whip numbers does indicate that there is a delicate balance between invertebrates and algae in the lower photic zone within the Channel, one that corresponds with the depth occupied by many fragile invertebrate species, and that this balance could be significantly altered under climate change scenarios that relate to reduced rainfall. Due to new image analysis protocols established during this study, and the development of high resolution digital photography since 2002, further surveys and analysis of data will now be more easily comparable using the same sites, depths, and the methods of analysis as established here. This will allow for the successful provision of reliable monitoring data to feed into ongoing management and conservation of the unique ecosystems found in Bathurst Channel.