Multiple-choice machine reading comprehension is an important and challenging task where the machine is required to select the correct answer from a set of candidate answers given passage and question. Existing approaches either match extracted evidence with candidate answers shallowly or model passage, question and candidate answers with a single paradigm of matching. In this paper, we propose Multi-Matching Network (MMN) which models the semantic relationship among passage, question and candidate answers from multiple different paradigms of matching. In our MMN model, each paradigm is inspired by how human think and designed under a unified compose-match framework. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our model, we evaluate MMN on a large-scale multiple choice machine reading comprehension dataset (i.e. RACE). Empirical results show that our proposed model achieves a significant improvement compared to strong baselines and obtains state-of-the-art results.


Cambridge English for Scientists develops the communication skills and specialist English language knowledge of science students and professionals, enabling them to communicate more confidently and effectively in their work or study environment. Uniquely, this course focuses on both spoken and written communication, with each of the ten units relating to a case study based on real, published research. This makes the course ideal for scientists from a wide range of scientific backgrounds. Cambridge English for Scientists also develops the learners' language skills with practical reading and writing skills - such as applying for research funding or writing for publications - as well as with speaking and listening skills including 'Describing and Reporting Problems With Experiments' and 'Presenting at a Conference'. Cambridge English for Scientists requires no specialist knowledge on the part of the teacher and comprehensive teacher's notes are available online. The course is also ideal for self-study.


Handling mobility at the transport layer is a promis- ing approach to achieve seamless handover in the context of het- erogeneous wireless access networks. In particular, features such as multihoming and dynamic address reconfiguration provided by mobile SCTP (mSCTP) protocol are among the key enablers for handover support at the transport layer. This paper investigates the applicability of Concurrent Multipath Transfer (CMT) to dis- tribute data among two end-to-end paths of a mSCTP association during handover transition process. To that end, the principles of the mSCTP-CMT design are given, emphasizing the consequences of such a sender-introduced reordering and its congestion control implications in a handover scenario. The proposed mSCTP-CMT handover scheme is benchmarked with a pure mSCTP handover scheme. Provided analysis indicates the possible application area of mSCTP-CMT, taking into account not only handover scenario parameters (dwelling time, available bandwidth ratio and round-trip time), but also the most important constraint of such a design: receiver buffer (rbuf) size. Rbuf size proves to be the major limiting factor shrinking significantly possible mSCTP-CMT application scope, yet not excluding definitively the proposed idea.


This document extends the Incident Object Description Exchange Format
(IODEF) defined in RFC 5070 to exchange enriched cybersecurity
information among security experts at organizations and facilitate
their operations. It provides a well-defined pattern to consistently
embed structured information, such as identifier- and XML-based
information.


Normal 0 0 1 110 630 5 1 773 11.768 0 21 0 0 In this paper we reflect on how research and policies can and/or should help in the development of a sustainable information society for all. More specifically, we critically investigate how social computing & informatics can entail both potential and pitfalls, especially with regard to the difficult relationship between digital and social inclusion. First of all, traditional information society policies are scrutinized. Furthermore, we point at the existence of digital inequalities and we reflect briefly on policy intervention on this (e-inclusion). In addition, we also evaluate the raise of social computing & informatics. Finally, attention is given to the challenge of how research can contribute to the participation of all in the information society.


Aims The article aims to gain insight into the private worlds of users of hallucinogenic drugs in spiritual contexts, with a focus on the self-perceived mental health implications of their practices. This will help us understand the rationale behind and consequences of hallucinogenic drug use. Method Respondents were recruited at several internet fora for individual email-mediated interviews (n = 5) or group interviews in public discussion threads (n = 11). They were predominantly males in their 30s or 40s with stable jobs and living conditions and extensive hallucinogen experience. Results Both positive and adverse consequences were assessed, and respondents emphasised the capacity of hallucinogenic drugs for healing and personal growth; even adverse experiences ("bad trips") were regarded as valuable for these purposes. The dependence potential of these drugs was regarded as low because of an inherent self-regulatory mechanism whereby positive effects disappear with overuse. A minority of participants reported mental health problems that may result from their hallucinogen use, but the majority have experienced no significant adverse reactions after many years of use. This should be seen in light of the low frequency of their hallucinogen use. Conclusion The study obtained evidence of a predominantly male group of mature users taking hallucinogens in carefully prepared sessions for the purpose of personal spiritual growth, acknowledging some risks but also several benefits from this practice.


This paper may be regarded as a continuation of two which I have already had the honour to communicate to the Geological Society; and with a view of preventing misapprehension, I think it will be well to state clearly what I am seeking to demonstrate, and the mode in which I am endeavouring to effect my purpose. As I have already stated, I am unable to accept the theory which was put forward by Professor Ramsay in a paper communicated to this Society, a theory which attributes the existence of the various Alpine lake-basins mainly to the erosive action of the glaciers by which they were once occupied. I do not deny the possibility of some lake-basins being the result of glacial erosion, or of others being considerably modified by it; the position which I am endeavouring to maintain is that none of the greater Alpine lake-basins has been primarily so formed, or indeed has undergone any important secondary modification. I will add that all the opportunities which I have had of examination of lake-basins in this and other countries have suggested to me serious doubts as to the excavating power of glaciers; and, notwithstanding the weighty arguments which have been advanced in favour of this theory in more northern regions, I am still disposed to believe, from what I have seen, that it is only under very exceptional circumstances that they can in any proper sense of the word excavate a rock-basin.


This study examines some major issues regarding competitiveness in one of the medium-high technology industries namely non-electrical machinery industry. Besides a review of the evolution and structure of the industry, the growth performance of the component industries is examined at the three-digit ASI level. A detailed analysis of exports as well as imports at the four-digit ITC classification is undertaken to examine the impact of liberalisation on specific machinery categories. The study indicates the inward orientation of the industry. Low tariffs and liberal imports including imports of second hand machinery have affected some industries like textile machinery and machine tools. The study considers two specific issues that are important for establishing export competitiveness namely developing technological capability and FDI in the industry. A case study of machine tool industry is incorporated for a better understanding of these issues. The report concludes with suggestions for strengthening competitiveness in the industry.


We propose a new approach consisting in combining genetic algorithms and regret-based incremental preference elicitation for solving multi-objective combinatorial optimization problems with unknown preferences. For the purpose of elicitation, we assume that the decision maker's preferences can be represented by a parameterized scalarizing function but the parameters are initially not known. Instead, the parameter imprecision is progressively reduced by asking preference queries to the decision maker during the search to help identify the best solutions within a population. Our algorithm, called RIGA, can be applied to any multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem provided that the scalarizing function is linear in its parameters and that a (near-)optimal solution can be efficiently determined when preferences are known. Moreover, RIGA runs in polynomial time while asking no more than a polynomial number of queries. For the multi-objective traveling salesman problem, we provide numerical results showing its practical efficiency in terms of number of queries, computation time and gap to optimality.


Biomass feed comes in many varieties, but have common chief constituents of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin. As the relative proportions of these constituents may vary, customization of the pyrolysis process conditions is required to produce a desired product profile. By recognizing the sources of variation, the reactor settings may be intelligently controlled, to achieve optimal operation. These considerations include biomass classification, feed rate, moisture content, particle size, and interparticle thermal gradients (which arise during pyrolysis based on heating rate and temperature distribution). This chapter addresses the optimization of product profiles during biomass pyrolysis from a modeling perspective. Fundamental models for packed bed and fluidized bed pyrolyzers are developed, using kinetics from existing literature. The proposed optimization approach (inclusive of the kinetic and process models) can guide practical achievement of desired product profiles of the biomass pyrolysis process.


Pruning is a well-established technique for removing unnecessary structure from neural networks after training to improve the performance of inference. Several recent results have explored the possibility of pruning at initialization time to provide similar benefits during training. In particular, the "lottery ticket hypothesis" conjectures that typical neural networks contain small subnetworks that can train to similar accuracy in a commensurate number of steps. The evidence for this claim is that a procedure based on iterative magnitude pruning (IMP) reliably finds such subnetworks retroactively on small vision tasks. However, IMP fails on deeper networks, and proposed methods to prune before training or train pruned networks encounter similar scaling limitations.
In this paper, we argue that these efforts have struggled on deeper networks because they have focused on pruning precisely at initialization. We modify IMP to search for subnetworks that could have been obtained by pruning early in training (0.1% to 7% through) rather than at iteration 0. With this change, it finds small subnetworks of deeper networks (e.g., 80% sparsity on Resnet-50) that can complete the training process to match the accuracy of the original network on more challenging tasks (e.g., ImageNet). In situations where IMP fails at iteration 0, the accuracy benefits of delaying pruning accrue rapidly over the earliest iterations of training. To explain these behaviors, we study subnetwork "stability," finding that - as accuracy improves in this fashion - IMP subnetworks train to parameters closer to those of the full network and do so with improved consistency in the face of gradient noise. These results offer new insights into the opportunity to prune large-scale networks early in training and the behaviors underlying the lottery ticket hypothesis


This thesis explores the relationship between the monster and the tragic in 16 and 17 century French literature, in particular through the analysis of the figure of the tragic monster. We borrowed the term "tragic monster" from F. Dupont (Monstres de Sénèque) and we have elaborated this concept in conjunction with the structure of Ancient Greek and Roman tragedy, composed of dolor, furor, néfas and the tragic monster. Our first chapter explores the many connotations associated with the monster in 16 and 17 century France (prodigious births, grotesques, and monstrous heroes of Greek and Roman tragedy) and establishes the similarities between the scenario of Ancient tragedy and the story of the Fall of man. In our second chapter, we take note of the coincidence between monstrous form and monstrous behaviour in Aubigné's depiction of France as a "monstrous giant" in Les Tragiques and also demonstrate the strong connection between the tragic and the monstrous for Aubigné. In chapter three, a comparison of Bèze's Abraham sacrifiant to the medieval treatment of the story of Abraham and Isaac reveals the concept of the tragic monster as an innovation that Bèze develops from his Greek and Roman models. We also note the important differences between Bèze's biblical tragedy and his models. In chapter four we follow the tragic arc of both Thésée and Phèdre in Racine's Phèdre, highlighting the importance of self-knowledge in this play and that of lucidity for the concept of the tragic monster. In chapter five, lucidity continues to be a major theme as Pascal attempts to convert his reader by impressing upon him his status as a "monstre incompréhensible" in Les Pensées. In our conclusion, we attempt to trace an evolution in the concept of the monster – originally thought of something "against nature", to finally being


Abstract Shell beds are products of complex biological, taphonomic, and sedimentological factors. Paleoecological analysis of Pliensbachian shell accumulations from northeast Italy, Southern Alps, records successive phases of colonization and demise, each of which are characterized by specific taphonomic features and sedimentary fabrics. Field studies were augmented by serial sectioning and thin sections revealing microfacies and microtaphofacies, as well as scanning electro-microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The term bivalve carpet is introduced to describe the original geometry of the bivalve accumulation colonizing the substrate. Within a lagoonal depositional setting, small, thin-shelled Isognomonidae-like bivalves lived as endo-byssate, non-siphonate suspension feeders. These bivalves, interpreted as juveniles, constructed bivalve carpets with a primary lateral extension while lacking a distinct vertical growth. Bivalves colonized firm, dysoxic carbonate substrates consisting of a mixture of peloids, bioclasts, and chemolithotrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria. Oxygen-rich bottom currents and microbial activity stabilized the lagoon floor thus allowing for the episodic settlement of fixosessile bivalves and their autochthonous preservation. Short-term anoxic phases interpreted to reflect seasonal decreases in water energy resulted in the mass mortalities of the juvenile bivalves. The abundance of articulated, vertical orientated valve pairs in the shell accumulations indicate that the bivalve carpets were embedded soon after the death of the organisms without prior physical disturbance.


Monitoring, control and optimization of chemical reaction systems often requires in-depth analysis of the underlying reaction mechanisms. This dissertation investigates appropriate tools that facilitate the analysis of homogeneous and gas-liquid reaction systems. The main contribution is a novel procedure for computing the extents of reaction and the extents of mass transfer for reaction systems with inlet and outlet streams. These concepts can help reduce the dimension of reaction models and are useful in the identification of reaction kinetics based on concentrations and spectral data. Extents of reaction, mass transfer and flow The concept of extents of reaction is well established for single-phase closed systems such as batch homogeneous reactors. However, it is difficult to compute the extent of reaction for open and heterogeneous reactors due to material exchange with the surroundings via inlet and outlet streams and between phases via mass transfer. For open homogeneous reaction systems involving S species, R independent reactions, p independent inlet streams and one outlet stream, this dissertation proposes a linear transformation of the number of moles vector (S states) into four distinct parts, namely, the extents of reaction, the extents of inlet, the extent of outlet and the invariants, using only the stoichiometry, the inlet composition and the initial conditions. The open gas-liquid reaction systems considered in this thesis involve Sg species, pg independent inlets and one outlet in the gas phase, Sl species, R independent reactions, pl independent inlets and one outlet in the liquid phase. In addition, there are pm mass-transfer fluxes between the two phases. For these systems, various extents are developed successively for the liquid and gas phases. Using only the stoichiometry, the inlet composition, the initial conditions, and knowledge of the species transferring between phases, a linear transformation of the numbers of moles (Sl states) in the liquid into five distinct parts is proposed, namely, the extents of reaction, the extents of mass transfer, the extents of liquid inlet, the extent of liquid outlet and the invariants. Similarly, a transformation of the numbers of moles (Sg states) in the gas phase into four distinct parts is proposed to generate the extents of mass transfer, the extents of gas inlet, the extent of gas outlet and the invariants. Minimal state representation and state reconstruction A state representation is minimal if (i) it can be transformed into variant states that evolve with time and invariants that are constant with time (representation condition), and (ii) the transformed model is minimal (minimality condition). Since the linear transformation transforms the numbers of moles into variant states (the extents) and invariant states, it satisfies the representation condition. For homogeneous reaction systems, the linearly transformed model is of the order (R + p + 1), while the order of the linearly transformed model for open gas-liquid reaction systems is (R + pl + pg + 2pm + 2). Using the concept of accessibility of nonlinear systems, the conditions under which the transformed models are minimal state representations are derived for both types of reaction systems. Since it is often not possible in practice to measure the concentrations of all the species, the unmeasured concentrations have to be reconstructed from available measurements. Using the measured flowrates and the proposed transformations, it is possible to reconstruct the unmeasured concentrations without knowledge of the reaction and mass-transfer rate expressions. Furthermore, it is shown that the minimal number of measured concentrations is R for homogeneous reactors and (R + pm) for gas-liquid reactors. Use of concentrations and spectral data The identification of reaction kinetics can be done incrementally or globally from experimental data. Using measured concentrations and spectral data with knowledge of pure-component spectra, incremental identification proceeds in two steps: (i) computation of the extents of reaction and mass transfer from measured data, and (ii) estimation of the parameters of the individual reaction and mass-transfer rates from the computed extents. In the first step, the linear transformation is applied to compute the extents of reaction, mass transfer and flow directly from measured concentrations without knowledge of the reaction and mass-transfer rate expressions. The transformation can be extended to measured spectral data, provided the pure-component spectra are known. An approach is developed for the case where concentrations are only available for a subset of the reacting species. In the second step, the unknown rates can be identified individually for each reaction or each mass transfer from the corresponding individual extent using the integral method. For the case of measured concentrations corrupted with zero-mean Gaussian noise, it is shown that the transformation gives unbiased estimates of the extents. For the case of spectral data with unknown pure-component spectra, the contributions of the reactions and mass transfers can be computed by removing the contributions of the inlet flows and the initial conditions. This leads to the reaction- and mass-transfer-variant (RMV) form of spectral data, from which the reaction and mass-transfer rate parameters can be estimated simultaneously. However, if the RMV-form is rank deficient, the rank must be augmented before applying factor-analytical methods. In such cases, it is shown that, for example, gas consumption data can be used for rank augmentation. The concepts and tools are illustrated using simulated data. Several special reactors such as batch, semi-batch and continuous stirred-tank reactors are considered.


In recent years, the art world has shown a renewed interest in collective work and activity. Collaborations between artists and artists, artists and curators, and artists and outside professionals have begun to rival the traditional focus on the individual artist. This type of collaboration has called into question how we view works of art that are not the voice of a single individual, and how that impacts on the concept of art as a means of self-expression. "Taking the Matter into Common Hands" maps out the issues surrounding collaborative art from a practitioner's perspective. With contributions from Marion von Osten, Nav Haq, 16 Beaver, Copenhagen Free University, Maria Lind and Lars Nilsson, it examines the working relations between artists and other producers of culture, and explores the future of collective action in the art world. "Taking the Matter Into Common Hands" is essential for both academics, practitioners and lay audiences alike.


Non-contact rapid charging inductive power supply (IPS) system has been developed and tested as a charger for electric-driven vehicles (EdV). By using the developed system, EdV charging can be carried out safely, easily, and in a short period. Optimizing the track and pick up design of the IPS based on finite-element electromagnetic field analyses achieved significant improvements in efficiency (92%), weight (35kg), thickness (33mm), and air gap length (100mm) during 30kW power transmissions.


OBJECTIVE: Machinists have an increased risk of lung cancer and bladder cancer, and this may be caused by exposure to carcinogenic compounds such as asbestos and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the engine room. The aim of this study was to investigate the exposure of engine room personnel to PAHs, with 1-hydroxypyrene in urine as a biomarker. METHODS: Urine samples from engine room personnel (n = 51) on 10 ships arriving in different harbours were collected, as well as urine samples from a similar number of unexposed controls (n = 47) on the same ships. Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene was quantitatively measured by high performance liquid chromatography. The exposure to PAHs was estimated by a questionnaire answered by the engine room personnel. On two ships, air monitoring of PAHs in the engine room was performed at sea. Both personal monitoring and area monitoring were performed. The compounds were analysed by gas chromatography of two types (with a flame ionisation detector and with a mass spectrometer). RESULTS: Significantly more 1-hydroxypyrene was found in urine of personnel who had been working in the engine room for the past 24 hours, than in that of the unexposed seamen. The highest concentrations of 1-hydroxypyrene were found among engine room personnel who had experienced oil contamination of the skin during their work in the engine room. Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed a significant relation between the concentrations of 1-hydroxypyrene, smoking, and estimated exposure to PAHs. No PAHs were detected in the air samples. CONCLUSION: Engine room personnel who experience skin exposure to oil and oil products are exposed to PAHs during their work. This indicates that dermal uptake of PAHs is the major route of exposure.


Distributed file systems are key building blocks for cloud computing applications based on the MapReduce programming paradigm. In such file systems, nodes simultaneously serve computing and storage functions; a file is partitioned into a number of chunks allocated in distinct nodes so that MapReduce tasks can be performed in parallel over the nodes. However, in a cloud computing environment, failure is the norm, and nodes maybe upgraded, replaced, and added in the system. Files can also be dynamically created, deleted, and appended. This results in load imbalance in a distributed file system; that is, the file chunks are not distributed as uniformly as possible among the nodes. Emerging distributed file systems in production systems strongly depend on a central node for chunk reallocation. This dependence is clearly inadequate in a large-scale, failure-prone environment because the central load balancer is put under considerable workload that is linearly scaled with the system size, and may thus become the performance bottleneck and the single point of failure. In this paper, a fully distributed load rebalancing algorithm is presented to cope with the load imbalance problem. Our algorithm is compared against a centralized approach in a production system and a competing distributed solution presented in the literature. The simulation results indicate that our proposal is comparable with the existing centralized approach and considerably outperforms the prior distributed algorithm in terms of load imbalance factor, movement cost, and algorithmic overhead. The performance of our proposal implemented in the Hadoop distributed file system is further investigated in a cluster environment.


There has been a multitude of research literature on breastfeeding benefits, incidence and duration of breastfeeding, characteristics of women who breastfeed and formula feed , and variables associated with breastfeeding initiation and success in the 'general' breastfeeding population. Unfortunately there has been very little written about breastfeeding in women who deliver small for gestational age (SGA) babies. The literature has demonstrated that women with SGA babies have different characteristics to women in the general breastfeeding population as illustrated in the adjacent literature review. The literature review, which accompanies this thesis, has highlighted the multiple advantages associated with breastfeeding, which may be particularly beneficial for SGA babies. Whether women delivering SGA babies have different breastfeeding experiences, or reasons for discontinuing breastfeeding, however has never been investigated. The research presented in this thesis is part of a randomised-controlled trial entitled "The effect of educational information on the duration of breastfeeding in small for gestational age babies". Only one arm of this larger study has been analysed due to the restraints of a 75-point thesis. The full program of study is in progress. The primary aim of this arm was to determine why women with small for gestation age babies stop breastfeeding. Other influences on breastfeeding success were also investigated to determine if these external influences were statistically significant. The findings from this research project have demonstrated that women with SGA babies have the same breastfeeding concerns as women in the general breastfeeding population. The most commonly cited reason for stopping breastfeeding were concerns about 'not enough milk'. Forty four percent of the women cited the midwife as being the most 'valuable' support with their breastfeeding experience. Overall the women with SGA babies had very good breastfeeding rates at 3 and 6 months postnatally compared with the general breastfeeding population statistics. This is a credit to the midwives caring for these women and babies and may also be related to the fact that term SGA babies have been undernourished in utero and can often be hungry babies with 'catching up' to do. IV These research findings also support the idea that the introduction of supplementary bottles administered on the postnatal wards can have a detrimental effect on future breastfeeding success. However, small for gestational age infants are at increased risk of hypoglycaemia and supplemental feeding may be necessary if the infant is feeding poorly or shows evidence of hypoglycaemia. Any strategies that can improve the breastfeeding duration for SGA infants can result in a wide range of health benefits. The adjacent literature review demonstrates that breastfeeding is the best form of infant feeding and may be even more so for small term babies.


Background Prevention of injury and illness in elite sport can have not only athlete health benefits but also potential positive performance gains. As the first step towards prevention, valid injury/illness surveillance data is needed. Objective Develop and implement a valid and sensitive multisport surveillance model for elite sport in Great Britain, to identify incidence, severity, nature, and risk factors for injury/illness in both individual and team sports. Design A longitudinal prospective surveillance study, with definitions for injury/illness, time loss and restriction severity, and implementation practices, was developed by the research group, and methodology framework modified from recent injury surveillance consensus statements to be applicable for individual and team sports. Setting National training centres for elite sport in Great Britain, including domestic and international competition venues. Participants National team lottery funded athletes from identified sport national governing bodies. Interventions Report forms recording all athlete injuries/illnesses causing complete time loss or restricted participation in competition or training are completed by medical support staff, and competition and training exposure by coaching support staff. Data collection commenced pre season 2009/2010 and is ongoing. Main outcome measure Sport specific injury incidence and illness prevalence, time loss and restriction severity, and risk factors for the most common and severe injuries/illnesses. Results 14 Olympic sports are involved in the surveillance study. Sport specific results reports on injury incidence, illness prevalence, and associated risk factors are being produced, with targeted sport specific recommendations for prevention strategies. Conclusion The injury/illness performance project provides objective information to medical and coaching support staff, and elite sports are starting to implement prevention interventions for key risk factors. The long term aim is to reduce the number and severity athlete injuries/illnesses, the detrimental effects of time loss and restriction in competition and training, and ultimately through this enhance athlete performance.


This project aims to investigate the influence of UV on the properties under natural and artificial weathering. The real-time outdoor weathering exposures provide the most accurate results but, they are very slow and manufacturers cannot afford to wait in order to see if a new or improved product formulation is really an improvement. So, accelerated testing methods are designed to simulate natural weathering with the combined action of the most weathering damaging factors; UV radiation, oxygen, temperature and water. Whatever the application, there is a concern regarding the durability of the products because if its useful lifetime can be estimated in short time, their maintenance and replacement can be planned in advance.

In this study, recycled PET samples were exposed to UV outdoors and to accelerated weathering up to 13,000 hr. The mechanical behaviour (tensile and impact), thermal behaviour (DSC), molecular structure analysis (FTIR), flow characteristics (MFI) and surface properties (colour and gloss) of the samples were investigated. The whole body of the samples was substantially unaffected by degradation for long exposure time and this is confirmed by MFI and DSC results. However, the surface of the samples is affected which is seen in FTIR analysis, colour and gloss change. This explains that the photodegradation is a surface effect.

FTIR analysis shows an increase in the gauche ratio and decrease in the trans ratio for both types of weathering indicating a less ordered structure after the UV radiation due to chain scission by Norrish Type I and II mechanism. Carboxylic acid is formed as a result of degradation and increases with the extent of UV exposure in both types of weathering, the formation of carboxylic acid by Norrish II is dominated over Norrish I. Colour and gloss measurement shows that the effect of degradation takes place strongly in the first 2000 hr of exposure in natural weathering and extended up to 5000 hr in accelerating weathering due to the formation of microcracks.

Mechanical tests show that the UV effect was not significant on bulk properties such as yield stress and elongation at yield for accelerated weathering samples up to 1000 hours, then dropped by 62% and 57% respectively up to 13000hr of exposure and remained unchanged for the whole period of exposure for outdoors samples. The drop in the failure stress and elongation at failure for accelerated weathering samples right from the beginning indicate the formation of microcracks is from the early stages of exposure. For outdoor samples, failure stress remained unchanged for the first 1000 hr of sunlight exposure, then decreases progressively with increasing exposure in the environment. The elongation to failure is unchanged up to 13000 hours.

After 13000 hrs of exposure to sunlight, r-PET samples failed to break while those exposed to UV lamps failed in a brittle manner under impact after 250 hrs and this indicates the transition from ductile to brittle behaviour just after 10 days of accelerated UV exposure because of crack formation. For accelerated weathering samples, the impact strength remained unchanged in the first 1000 hr of exposure, then a decrease up to 5000 hr of exposure when the effects of flaws become significant and dropped sharply by 85% after 5000hr of exposure.

The correlation between both types of weathering shows that one year in natural weathering is equivalent to one and a half months in accelerated weathering according to colour measurements. The effect of accelerated weathering is much bigger than the natural weathering and this is due to higher radiation dosage, temperature and humidity during the test which accelerate chain scission rate that lead to faster crack growth.


With the development of e-education and e-society it is important for information and communication systems and services to be equally accessible to all users, including people with disabilities. Learning management systems (LMSs) are becoming a necessity in higher education and making them accessible to all users, both students and teachers, is crucial. Existing studies on accessibility of LMSs mostly focus on students and their access to learning materials. Very few studies have focused on the accessibility of LMSs for teachers who are responsible for using LMSs to create accessible contents for students. This paper presents the heuristic evaluations of two learning management systems (Fronter and Sakai) focusing on their accessibility from teachers' perspective. Based on universal design principles and guidelines we aim to identify accessibility issues and to propose possible improvements. The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 were adopted in the heuristic evaluations and qualitative data have been collected. We have also compared the findings from the evaluations of Fronter and Sakai, as well as Moodle, an open source LMS which was evaluated in our previous heuristic evaluation. The analysis of the data shows that the level of conformance of the systems to the ATAG2.0 guidelines is very low and many issues needs to be solved for them to be fully accessible for teachers with disabilities.


The thesis is a study of religion and social change seen from the perspective of Brazil's Roman Catholic Church and urban Labour Movement. The relationship between Catholicism and urban trade union struggles is explored within the specific institutional setting of the metalworkers' unions and Roman Catholic dioceses of Greater Sao Paulo during the period 1970-1986. Although the value of the study derives partly from the quantitative significance of the institutions selected (Sao Paulo' archdiocese is the world's largest and the metalworkers' union of the region is the largest in Latin America), it is their qualitative make-up that is of most interest. On the one hand, this is marked by a church firmly committed to liberation theology perspectives; and on the other hand by a deeply divided labour movement which is split into radical and conservative factions. By exploring relations between these respective groupings, the thesis highlights the contradictions and dilemmas faced by a radical church seeking to reconcile traditional catholic themes of unity with its more recent acceptance of the class-divided nature of society and the so-called "preferential option for the poor". The study also discusses in detail the profound historical realignment of relations between radical sectors of the Church and the progressive Labour Movement during the 1970's and early 1980's. It examines the pivotal role of Catholic labour militancy in this process of rapprochement, together with the institutional as well as self-imposed limits to
this process.


The SunZia Southwest Transmission Project is a high-voltage transmission line under development in southern New Mexico and Arizona. The project was created to allow the expansion of the renewable energy production economy, and is also part of larger efforts at climate change mitigation. It has the support of federal and state governments, and has been fast-tracked by the Obama Administration. However, in spite of its potential to increase the availability of clean energy, conflicts between local environmental groups and government agencies over siting difficulties have impeded its development. Efforts to streamline the permitting process have been largely unsuccessful, as they often focus on centralizing authority at the expense of local input, and result in increased opposition from citizen groups and local governments who feel their needs and concerns are being ignored. This article examines the current permitting process, potential methods of centralization to increase efficiency, and the procedural protections that will be necessary to ensure that this efficiency does not reduce local input. Easing the development of renewable energy is both necessary to protect the climate, and a concept that lends itself to broad support from environmental groups, government agencies, and the business sector. This article proposes that this potential for support should be encouraged and conflict minimized by ensuring adequate opportunities for meaningful citizen input that can help SunZia and similar projects be embraced rather than rejected by their local communities.


We report the characterization of carbonaceous aluminium oxide, Al2O3:C, films grown on Si(100) by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The focus is on the study of the effects of carbon on the dielectric properties of aluminium oxide in a qualitative manner. The carbon present in the aluminium oxide film derives from aluminium acetylacetonate used as the source of aluminium. As-grown films comprise nanometer-sized grains of alumina (∼ 20–50 nm) in an amorphous carbonaceous matrix, as examined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The films are shiny; they are smooth as observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An attempt has been made to explore the defects (viz., oxide charge density) in the aluminium oxide films using room temperature high frequency capacitance – voltage (C-V) and current–voltage (I-V) measurements. The hysteresis and stretch-out in the high frequency C-V plots is indicative of charge trapping. The role of heteroatoms, as characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, in the transport of charge in Al2O3:C films is discussed.


We report a miniature, wavelength-selectable crystalline Raman laser operating either in the yellow (588 nm) or lime (559 nm) selected simply by changing the temperature of an intracavity LBO crystal. Continuous-wave (CW) output powers are 320 mW and 660 mW respectively, corresponding to record diode-visible optical conversion efficiencies of 8.4% and 17% for such miniature devices. The complex laser behavior arising from interplay between nonlinear processes is studied experimentally and theoretically. We show that the interplay can lead to complete suppression of the first-Stokes field and that the phase matching conditions for maximum visible powers differ markedly for different length LBO crystals. By using threshold measurements, we calculate the round-trip resonator losses and show that crystal bulk losses dominate over other losses. As a consequence, Raman lasers utilizing shorter LBO crystals for intracavity frequency mixing can produce higher visible output power. These are new considerations for the optimum design of CW intracavity Raman lasers with visible output.


This study looks into the federal government' s relinquishment of its 1980 energy policy known as the National Energy Programme. Such a sacrifice was made in the name of free trade between Canada and the U.S. Indeed, it is suggested that for the Conservatives, their deregulation of the energy industry for the sake of the economic integration of North America has served as the very proof of free trade. Hence also the end of the Foreign Investment Review Agency symbol of Canadian nationalism. For the free trade negotiations to be concluded, Ottawa needs to establish a common front with the provinces. This new context is in agreement with the "national reconciliation" policy extolled by the Tories soon after they came to power. In the name of a more decentralized Federation, they would surrender much in order to stimulate trade between the regions and the American market. This appears to them as the best way to boost the economy to a point which is already reached by our neighbours in the south. Thus the two projects, i.e. a complete redefinition of the energy policy and rapprochement with Washington, are being seen through simultaneously, in a spirit of compromise. In handing over to the provinces the administration of their off shore territories, and going as far even as to promote their traditional stance regarding the canadian energy policy, Alberta being a case in point, the government espouses a particular style of relationship with the industry. So as to bring Canada to par with current practices in the U.S., it brings forth its objective of "privatisation" which is in accordance with the neo-conservative credo: the subsidization of industry, deregulation, sharing out of the energy industry to the advantage of the private sector, the eventual privatization of Petro Canada. In this study, a first framework for analysis of those phenomena, with regard to the current negotiations between Canada and the US, is proposed.


These considerations are devoted to literary pictures of the Onsernone Valley located on the Italian-Swiss border. It was here in the 1930s and 1940s that the Swiss writer Aline Valangin (1889– 1986) created an extraordinary oasis of freedom and peace in her estate in Comologno. She hosted famous figures such as Kurt Tucholsky, Elias Canetti, Ignazio Silone, or Wladimir Vogel, and provided shelter to many politically persecuted artists. The subject of detailed reflection is the question of the perception, experience and acquisition of the Ticino mountains both in works by Valangin and in biographical works about her; with a particular focus on narrative perspective — from the outside and the inside. Eveline Hasler in biographical novel Aline und die Erfindung der Liebe (2000) attempts to (re)construct an image of the Onsernone Valley as a specific "valley of poets", presenting a subtle analysis of the interaction between the conservative inhabitants of the valley, attached to tradition, and the extravagant artists who found asylum and inspiration in the Ticino Alps. This novel is an example of a modern biography, which is characterized by narrative polyphony; the description of space becomes an important carrier of meanings and collective memory in the author's concept.
Aline Valangin sketches in her novels (Die Bargada, 1943 / Dorf an der Grenze, 1982) and short stories (Tessiner Erzählungen, 2018) an image of Onserone indigenous people's everyday life in the thirties and forties, full of worries. Her stories include outsiders, misfits, social outcasts, guerrillas, smugglers, and exiles — and they all find haven in the Valley. Valangin's works are also an important voice in the discussion of the essence of Swiss patriotism not only through strong criticism of Swiss immigration policy during World War II, but also by reflecting on the concept of the border as a place that unexpectedly proves to be a challenge and a particular kind of self-experience in the face of events that are tearing up the current existence.


We report the growth and characterization of (Ag, Au) nanoparticles thin films deposition on a glass substrate by pulse laser deposition (PLD) method. The (Ag, Au) thin films prepared through different laser fluence (0.4, 0.6 and 0.7) J/cm 2 . The effect of laser fluence energy on the morphological, structural and optical properties were studied by XRD, AFM and UV-Visible spectrophotometer. X-ray diffraction showed nanostructure, with dominated peak at 2θ values 38.3182° corresponding to (111) for silver and peak observed at 2θ values 38.2° which can be indexed to the (111) of face-centered cubic (fcc) structure for Au. Surface topography studied by atomic force microscopy revealed narrowed size distributions, with grain sizes ranging from 21.81 to 37.06 nm for Ag, and grain sizes ranging from 12.63 to 15.01nm for Au thin films. The results showed the Average gran Size increased with increasing laser fluence energy and RMS roughness increased with increasing laser fluence energy. Optical properties measurements showed that(Ag, Au) thin films have two peak the first one related with interband transitions, and the second peak formation of a surface plasmon peak (SPR). Optical properties measurements showed transformation from metallic properties of bulk (Ag, Au) to semiconductor properties when formed by sort of nanostructure evidenced by the formation of optical energy gap about (0.8, 0.7 and 0.5) eV when laser fluence increased (0.4, 0.6 and 0.7) J/cm 2 respectively for Ag thin films. when grain size become smaller the optical energy gap increased. Optical energy gap(E g ) decreased (1.4, 1.2 and 0.8) eV when laser fluence increased (0.4, 0.6 and 0.7) J/cm 2 respectively for Au thin films.


Background & Objectives: The environment surrounding an organism can have a direct impact on methylation and trans-generational effects in both mammals [1] and plants [2, 3]. Some epigenetic changes are heritable or somehow passed on to future generations without altering the organism's underlying DNA sequence[4]. The concept of DNA methylation heritability in mammals is emerging, although the mechanism through which environmental impact is epigenetically transmitted is still not clearly understood. We search for methylation sites that exist in three states (trimodal) on a population level in a Qatari population for the first time. Using this subset of sites, we can test for a pattern of Mendelian inheritance of methylation, specifically by looking at trios. These patterns are then compared to randomized individuals where the trio structure was disrupted to conclude on the effect of family structure towards DNA methylation heritability. Methods: We used a Qatari cohort consisting of families. Some of the families contained trios (father, mother, and offspring). We obtained both methylation data (Illumina 450K array) [5] and whole genome sequencing data (Illumina Hiseq2500 platform) for the samples. We tested the 450K methylation sites for trimodality and filtered those satisfying the definition. The trimodal sites were then tested for Mendelian agreements and violations only in the trios. This was compared to randomized samples having no parent-offspring relationship as an enrichment study. Finally, we checked the trimodal sites for the likely possibility of being explained by an underlying genetic association. Results: We found less than 1% of the methylation sites across the dataset to meet the predefined trimodal criterion. We report that non-related individuals have a higher average of trimodal sites showing Mendelian violation in comparison with actual trios. Moreover, the average of trimodal sites exhibiting Mendelian agreement in trios is significantly higher in comparison with randomized samples. We also studied the effect of cis-acting SNPs on explaining the observed patterns of methylation heritability. Although in the majority of the sites, the pattern is elucidated by SNPs, there still a minute number of sites where the methylation is not explained by SNPs. These findings are replicated and validated in a bigger cohort. Conclusions: The great majority of methylation sites that follow a Mendelian inheritance pattern in trios are driven by an underlying SNP association. However, a minor percent of the trimodal sites we studied did not have a cis-acting SNP association although this does not rule out the effect of trans-acting SNP associations. We can speculate on other factors that could be causative of the trimodal pattern such as correlations between neighboring CpGs, SNPs otherwise in the genome, or even genome-wide probe-SNP eQTL associations.


Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. The prevalence of marijuana use has remained stable over the past several years, with 14.6 million persons older than 12 years reporting past-month use in 2005. Given the prevalence of illicit use and interest in the medicinal use of marijuana, an understanding of the potential negative health consequences of marijuana smoking is needed. While tobacco smoking is clearly associated with numerous adverse respiratory complications, including increased cough and wheeze, the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and an increased incidence of infections,1-3 the relationship between marijuana and pulmonary disease is controversial, despite similarities in many compounds found in marijuana and tobacco smoke.


Non-lethal alternatives are needed to manage bird damage to confectionery and oilseed sunflower crops (Helianthus annuus). Ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) can cause localized damage to newly planted sunflower, and blackbirds (Icterids) damage ripening sunflower annually in the United States of America. We conducted seed germination experiments, a repellent efficacy study with ring-necked pheasants and Avipel® repellent (a.i. 50% 9,10-anthraquinone), and laboratory and field efficacy studies with common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula) and Avipel®-treated confectionery sunflower. Compared to the germination of seeds not treated with anthraquinone, we observed no negative effects of up to 12,223 ppm, 14,104 ppm, and 11,569 ppm anthraquinone seed treatments for germination of confectionery sunflower, oilseed sunflower, and canola seeds, respectively. Pheasants avoided emergent sunflower seedlings (12 days post-planting) from 15,800 ppm anthraquinone seed treatments during a caged preference test (P = 0.045). We observed a positive concentration–response relationship (P = 0.001) and predicted a threshold concentration (i.e., 80% repellency) of 9200 ppm anthraquinone for common grackles offered Avipel®-treated confectionery sunflower seeds. Grackles also reliably discriminated between untreated sunflower and seeds treated with 1300 ppm anthraquinone in captivity (P < 0.001). During our field efficacy study for ripening confectionery sunflower, we observed 18% damage among anthraquinone-treated enclosures and 64% damage among untreated enclosures populated with common grackles (P < 0.001). Harvested seed mass averaged 2.54 kg (dry weight) among treated enclosures and 1.24 kg among untreated enclosures (P < 0.001). Our laboratory and field efficacy data provide a reliable basis for planning future field applications of anthraquinone-based repellents for protection of sunflower crops. Supplemental field efficacy studies are necessary for development of an effective avian repellent and management of avian depredation of ripening agricultural lseed su crops, including oi ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 970 266 6136; fax: +1 970 266 6138. E-mail address: firstname.lastname@example.com (S.J. Werner). 168-1591/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier B.V. oi:10.1016/j.applanim.2010.11.010 nflower. Published by Elsevier B.V.


This article compares heterosexual and sexual minority street-involved youth across a number of sociodemographic, risk and current mental health, victimization and delinquency measures with a particular focus on gender differences. The sample consists of 147 homeless and street-involved young men and women aged 16–21 years in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bivariate analyses indicate that many of the differences between the heterosexual and sexual minority youth are driven by differences among the young women. Multivariate analyses are then used to test for interactions between gender and sexual minority status alongside controls. The results suggest that gender, sexuality and street involvement intersect to shape outcomes in more complex ways than are acknowledged by the notion of accumulating or multiplying disadvantage common in the literature. The article concludes with a discussion focused on providing a more nuanced view of the experience of youth homelessness at the intersection of gender and sexuality.


The present thesis develops an Armstrong-Frederick (A-F) type coupled kinematic hardening rule to assess ratcheting response of steel alloys under various multiaxial loading paths. The hardening rule is constructed on the basis of the recently proposed Ahmadzadeh-Varvani (AV) hardening rule to further evaluate the ratcheting response of materials under multiaxial loading spectra. The modified model offers a simple framework with limited number of terms and coefficients in the dynamic recovery portion of the model. The dynamic recovery further holds inner product of plastic strain increment p dand backstress unit vector a a with different directions under multiaxial stress cycles enables the model to track different directions. Term 1/ 2 n. a a taking positive values less than unity for multiaxial loading conditions is to control the accumulation rate of ratcheting strain and to prevent the modified model to experience plastic shakedown over stress cycles in stage II. Term(2 n. a a ) taking the values between 1 and 3 under multiaxial loading, magnifies the effect of coefficient γ2 to take into account the nonproportionality effect of various loading paths and further to shift down the predicted ratcheting strain over the stress cycles.

The predicted ratcheting curves by the modified rule were compared with those predicted based on earlier developed hardening rules of Ohno-Wang (O-W), Jiang-Sehitoglu (J-S), McDowell, and Chen-Jiao-Kim (C-J-K) holding relatively complex framework and more number of coefficients. The O-W, the J-S, McDowell and C-J-K models mainly deviated from the experimental ratcheting strain of steel alloys for various multiaxial loading histories, while the
predicted curves of the modified model closely agreed with experimental data of steel samples over ratcheting stages. The predicted ratcheting curves based on the modified model closely agreed with experimental data of steel samples under various multiaxial step-loading histories. The modified model was also found capable of predicting ratcheting in the opposite direction as the tensile axial mean stress dropped in magnitude. The O-W, J-S, McDowell and C-J-K models holding more backstress components and coefficients require longer Central Processing Unit (CPU) time. While time required for ratcheting assessment using the modified hardening rule was found to be twice shorter due to its simpler framework and limited number of coefficients.


The nature of blended learning is expressed through dynamic educational process streaming towards perfect match of teaching and technology. That alone represents a blended learning strength for both, academic and business world. In higher education blended learning has been not a new term, but has intensively attached the importance owing to rapid development of available digital and social media that have been utilised for adequate learning environments. This paper identifies core issues and points to the challenges of this delivery mechanism in higher educational context. Some experience in the development of engineering graphics blended course is presented along with few directions for future course redesign and research.


Transferring the knowledge learned from large scale datasets (e.g., ImageNet) via fine-tuning offers an effective solution for domain-specific fine-grained visual categorization (FGVC) tasks (e.g., recognizing bird species or car make & model). In such scenarios, data annotation often calls for specialized domain knowledge and thus is difficult to scale. In this work, we first tackle a problem in large scale FGVC. Our method won first place in iNaturalist 2017 large scale species classification challenge. Central to the success of our approach is a training scheme that uses higher image resolution and deals with the long-tailed distribution of training data. Next, we study transfer learning via fine-tuning from large scale datasets to small scale, domain-specific FGVC datasets. We propose a measure to estimate domain similarity via Earth Mover's Distance and demonstrate that transfer learning benefits from pre-training on a source domain that is similar to the target domain by this measure. Our proposed transfer learning outperforms ImageNet pre-training and obtains state-of-the-art results on multiple commonly used FGVC datasets.


This paper examined the distribution of health care financing in Finland in 1990-2012. In addition, the study provided insight to recent developments in the financing system, and analyzed various scenarios associated with the planned financing reform of 2020. The results indicated, that over the two decade study period overall progressivity first steadily decreased, and after turning regressive by 2006, returned to a progressive track leading to the highest level of measured progressivity by 2012. The distributional implications of the financing reform in the "stationary" scenario were shown to be significant; substituting revenue collected previously by local income taxes by an equiproportinate increase in state income tax revenue would increase the progressivity of overall financing to an unprecedentedly high level. In the "counterbalanced" scenario, where the state income tax scales were adjusted to correspond to the average income tax rate, the progressivity of overall financing increased more moderately. Finally, the "system-level" scenario indicated that taking into account recent changes in other financing sources outweighed the progressivity effect, and a slightly less progressive overall financing distribution would emerge in 2020 in comparison to 2012. The monetary effects of abolishing the public reimbursement scheme of private health services fees were shown to be rather small in magnitude, but the economic burden fell more heavily on low-income households. Published: Online May 2018.


The payoff matrix of a finite stage game is realized randomly, and then the stage game is repeated infinitely. The distribution over states of the world (a state corresponds to a payoff matrix) is commonly known, but players do not observe nature's choice. Over time, they can learn the state in two ways. After each round, each player observes his own realized payoff (which may be stochastic, conditional on the state), and he observes a noisy public signal of the state (whose informativeness may vary with the actions chosen). Actions are perfectly observable. The result is that for any function that maps each state to a payoff vector that is feasible and individually rational in that state, there is a sequential equilibrium in which patient players learn the realized state with arbitrary precision and achieve a payoff close to the one specified for that state. That result extends to the case where there is no public signal, but instead players receive very closely correlated private signals of the vector of realized payoffs.


The Generalized Likelihood Ratio (GLR) test for fault detection as derived by Willsky and Jones is a recursive method to detect additive changes in linear systems in a Kalman filter framework. Here, we evaluate the GLR test on a sliding window and compare it to stochastic parity space approaches. Robust fault detection defined as being insensitive to faults in the signal space is also studied in the GLR framework.


Part 1 The coming of war: American modernization, 1800-1860 the antebellum south the ideological conflict over slavery Texas, Mexico, and the compromise of 1850 filibusters, fugitives, and nativists Kansas and the rise of the Republican party the deepening crisis, 1857-1859 the critical year, 1859-1860 secession and the coming of war. Part 2 The Civil War: a brother's war - the upper South mobilizing for war the balance sheet of war the war at home and abroad the springtime of Northern hope Jackson and Lee strike back slavery and the war - Northern politics, 1861-1862 the first turning point - Antietam and emancipation the winter of northern discontent the second turning point - Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga war issues and politics in 1863 behind the lines wartime reconstruction and the freedpeople military stalemate, 1864 the third turning point - the election of 1864 the end of the Confederacy. Part 3 Reconstruction: the problems of peace the origins of "racial" reconstruction reconstruction and the crisis of impeachment the first grant administration the southern question, 1869-1872 social and economic reconstruction the retreat from reconstruction the new South.


The problem of translation has become increasingly central to critical reflections on modernity and its universalizing processes. Approaching translation as a symbolic and material exchange among peoples and civilizations—and not as a purely linguistic or literary matter, the essays in Tokens of Exchange focus on China and its interactions with the West to historicize an economy of translation. Rejecting the familiar regional approach to non-Western societies, contributors contend that "national histories" and "world history" must be read with absolute attention to the types of epistemological translatability that have been constructed among the various languages and cultures in modern times.

By studying the production and circulation of meaning as value in areas including history, religion, language, law, visual art, music, and pedagogy, essays consider exchanges between Jesuit and Protestant missionaries and the Chinese between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and focus on the interchanges occasioned by the spread of capitalism and imperialism. Concentrating on ideological reciprocity and nonreciprocity in science, medicine, and cultural pathologies, contributors also posit that such exchanges often lead to racialized and essentialized ideas about culture, sexuality, and nation. The collection turns to the role of language itself as a site of the universalization of knowledge in its contemplation of such processes as the invention of Basic English and the global teaching of the English language. By focusing on the moments wherein meaning-value is exchanged in the translation from one language to another, the essays highlight the circulation of the global in the local as they address the role played by historical translation in the universalizing processes of modernity and globalization.

The collection will engage students and scholars of global cultural processes, Chinese studies, world history, literary studies, history of science, and anthropology, as well as cultural and postcolonial studies.

Contributors . Jianhua Chen, Nancy Chen, Alexis Dudden Eastwood, Roger Hart, Larissa Heinrich, James Hevia, Andrew F. Jones, Wan Shun Eva Lam, Lydia H. Liu, Deborah T. L. Sang, Haun Saussy, Q. S. Tong, Qiong Zhang


Macrophages, the primary cell of the innate immune system, act on a spectrum of phenotypes that correspond to diverse functions. Dysregulation of macrophage phenotype is associated with many diseases. In particular, defective transition from pro-inflammatory (M1) to anti-inflammatory (M2) behavior has been implicated as a potential source of sustained inflammation that prevents healing of chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers. In order to design effective treatments, an understanding of the relative presence of macrophage phenotypes during tissue repair is necessary. Inferring the relative phenotype composition is currently challenging due to the heterogeneous nature of the macrophages themselves and also of tissue samples. We propose here a method to deconvolute gene expression from heterogeneous tissue samples into the composition of two primary macrophage phenotypes (M1 and M2). Our final method uses gene expression signatures for each phenotype cultivated in vitro as input to a predictive model that infers sample composition with an average error of 0.16, and whose predictions fit known compositions prepared in vitro with an R2 value of 0.90. Finally, we apply this model to describe macrophage behavior in human diabetic ulcer healing using clinically isolated ulcer tissue samples. The model predicted that non-healing diabetic ulcers contained higher proportions of M1 macrophages compared to healing diabetic ulcers, in agreement with numerous studies that have implicated a dysfunctional M1-to-M2 transition in the impaired healing of diabetic ulcers. These results show proof of concept that the model holds utility in making predictions regarding macrophage behavior in heterogeneous samples, with potential application as a wound healing diagnostic.


When the Jesuits entered Germany in the 1540s, the Protestant Reformation was on the verge of obliterating a Catholic Church already in tatters. Yet the seemingly imminent collapse never happened, and Catholicism recovered dramatically. This extensively illustrated book explores a key reason why German Catholicism survived and flourished. It provides the first comprehensive treatment of the Jesuits' poorly understood but remarkable revitalization of German religious art and culture--an accomplishment that would guide the direction of both religious life and subsequent German baroque art. Jeffrey Chipps Smith describes how the Jesuits, partly through their rich contributions to art, catalyzed the re-formation of German Catholic religious identities. Their diverse missions included the erection or renovation of over thirty major churches between 1570 and 1648. Aided by wealthy benefactors and bringing in artists from across Europe, the Jesuits built imposing and beautifully appointed churches, including St. Michael's in Munich and Mari Himmelfahrt's in Cologne. Designed to impress and to teach, these structures reflect Jesuit commitments to the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who emphasized individual responsibility for salvation. Jesuit churches triumphantly celebrated fundamental Catholic beliefs, while providing a setting for the worshipper's spiritual maturation. The Jesuits embraced the affective potential of art to transform the individual by stimulating the senses to promote memory, intellect, and will. Sensuous Worship shows how, by doing so, they revived German Catholicism and had lasting effects on German art.


Will more realistic behaviour among non-playing characters (NPCs) in a role-playing game(RPG) improve the overall feeling of the game for the player? Would players notice the enhanced life of a NPC in a role-playing game, or is the time spent in cities and villages insufficient to notice any difference at all? There are plenty best-selling RPGs with simplistic, repetitive NPC behaviour on the market. Does that mean that smarter NPCs is not necessary and that an improvement of them wouldn't benefit the players' impression of it? Or would some of these well recognised games get even better with a more evolved AI? These are some of the thoughts that created the initial spark of curiosity that inspired the making of this article. By assuming that a more complex game AI for the NPCs will improve the realism and feeling in a role-playing game, a research about possible techniques to achieve this was made. The technique Smart Terrain was found most beneficial for the purpose with this research. It's been used successfully in the well-selling game The Sims and appeared to be a good choice for an NPC AI with the flexibility and expandability it delivers. With a technique of great potential selected, a first version of an AI using it was implemented as a module to the commercial RPG Neverwinter Nights 2(NWN2). With the implemented Smart Terrain AI at hand, twelve testers got to compare this AI with the one that is encountered in the original campaign of NWN2. As all the participants in the test thought the new version of the AI more realistic than the original AI, the hypothesis was proven to be true. The results gave a strong indication of that using the Smart Terrain technique is a good choice to achieve higher realism among non-hostile NPCs in a RPG like NWN2.


This research explores human resource development ?HRD? as a ?nationalization strategy? within developing contexts. A framework for managing nationalization challenges and issues is constructed based on a ?development? concept at a national level. The development concept researched in the study is examined and explored through HRD and capacity building. Nationalization as an HRD national strategy is of crucial importance in developing country contexts, and this is especially true for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the Middle East. Nationalization strategies have been applied by GCC countries in the Middle East to increase national labour participation within the economy. Since the early 1980s, although nationalization strategies have been implemented through government authorities and ministries, the expatriate employment share remains at around 70 per cent with increasing national unemployment rates. The main aim of the research is to explore the role of nationalization programs within an HRD framework designed to build capacity from national human resources. Forces of resistance towards nationalization are addressed through a development framework that depends on human resource development and capacity building. Nationalization challenges are examined within developing contexts along with HRD theories presenting an intersection that positions ?nationalization? within HRD literature. Addressing nationalization issues through a ?qualitative? approach, distinct from quantitative measures such as quotas, proves to be a necessity for transitioning national labour towards a diversified economy in the GCC. The framework presented to address nationalization in the GCC was explored at the individual, organizational and national levels, hence presenting the nationalization challenges faced by the main executors of nationalization policies. The research findings reveal a strong correlation between the real practice of nationalization and HRD theories revealing the intersection between key concepts. The research findings demonstrate the significance of the intersection of nationalization and HRD, thus positioning nationalization within the HRD literature. The research findings reveal other ?qualitative? factors necessary to ensure long-term economic returns. The relevant areas include preparation of HRD professionals, coordination among entities, balancing supply and demand for labour, creating desired private sectors, education and culture. Considering retention strategies within nationalization indicates to be a crucial necessity to avoid lost investments in nationalization efforts. An examination of the role of career development in private sector organizations in Bahrain for managing and retaining local talents within nationalization initiatives reveals the importance of considering monetary rewards and creating suitable nationalized sectors that are attractive to nationals. The research examination of change management processes within nationalization in Bahrain provides strong evidence of the importance of considering qualitative approaches for developing economic sectors through national human resource interventions by embedding capacity building processes that can create long-term economic sustainable benefits within the economy. Therefore, the research findings provide a nationalization framework that takes a holistic approach by revealing findings at the individual, organizational and national levels that are essential to consider for increasing national human resources participation in developing economies such as the GCC countries where resistance towards nationalization persists. ?


Aim/Purpose: The UAE and other Middle Eastern countries suffer from various cybersecurity vulnerabilities that are widespread and go undetected. Still, many UAE government organizations rely on human-centric approaches to combat the growing cybersecurity threats. These approaches are ineffective due to the rapid increase in the amount of data in cyberspace, hence necessitating the employment of intelligent technologies such as AI cybersecurity systems. In this regard, this study investigates factors influencing users' intention to adopt AI-based cybersecurity systems in the UAE.

Background: Even though UAE is ranked among the top countries in embracing emerging technologies such as digital identity, robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent automation, and blockchain technologies, among others, it has experienced sluggish adoption of AI cybersecurity systems. This selectiveness in adopting technology begs the question of what factors could make the UAE embrace or accept new technologies, including AI-based cybersecurity systems. One of the probable reasons for the slow adoption and use of AI in cybersecurity systems in UAE organizations is the employee's perception and attitudes towards such intelligent technologies.

Methodology: The study utilized a quantitative approach whereby web-based questionnaires were used to collect data from 370 participants working in UAE government organizations considering or intending to adopt AI-based cybersecurity systems. The data was analyzed using the PLS-SEM approach.

Contribution: The study is based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) framework, widely used in information security research. However, it extends this model by including two more variables, job insecurity and resistance to change, to enhance its predictive/exploratory power. Thus, this research improves PMT and contributes to the body of knowledge on technology acceptance, especially in intelligent cybersecurity technology.

Findings: This paper's findings provide the basis from which further studies can be conducted while at the same time offering critical insights into the measures that can boost the acceptability and use of cybersecurity systems in the UAE. All the hypotheses were accepted. The relationship between the six constructs (perceived vulnerability (PV), perceived severity (PS), perceived response efficacy (PRE), perceived self-efficacy (PSE), job insecurity (JI), and resistance to change (RC)) and the intention to adopt AI cybersecurity systems in the UAE was found to be statistically significant. This paper's findings provide the basis from which further studies can be conducted while at the same time offering critical insights into the measures that can boost the acceptability and use of cybersecurity systems in the UAE.

Recommendations for Practitioners: All practitioners must be able to take steps and strategies that focus on factors that have a significant impact on increasing usage intentions. PSE and PRE were found to be positively related to the intention to adopt AI-based cybersecurity systems, suggesting the need for practitioners to focus on them. The government can enact legislation that emphasizes the simplicity and awareness of the benefits of cybersecurity systems in organizations.

Recommendation for Researchers: Further research is needed to include other variables such as facilitating conditions, AI knowledge, social influence, and effort efficacy as well as other frameworks such as UTAUT, to better explain individuals' behavioral intentions to use cybersecurity systems in the UAE.

Impact on Society: This study can help all stakeholders understand what factors can increase users' interest in investing in the applications that are embedded with security. As a result, they have an impact on economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Future Research: Future research is expected to investigate additional factors that can influence individuals' behavioral intention to use cybersecurity systems such as facilitating conditions, AI knowledge, social influence, effort efficacy, as well other variables from UTAUT. International research across nations is also required to build a larger sample size to examine the behavior of users.


This article is a tribute to James Birren (1918-2016), a pioneer in Gerontology. Among his many contributions was the development of Guided Autobiography (Birren & Deutchman, 1991). This structured reminiscence technique includes various themes, but innovatively, explores life experience with death as a key component of individuals' lives. Inspired by his recognition of death as part of life, we provide a conceptualization for further consideration of death as part of the life story. We suggest two central ways in which this occurs: (i) while individuals are alive, others' endings become part of their continuing life story, and (ii) part of being human is that we all die. The fact that humans know that their story will one day end may affect what they do and the stories they tell about their lives well before-hand. Empirical research from our own lab is woven with extant literature to support our conceptualization of death as part of the life story.


The whole society is digitalizing, filled with streaming services, cloud computing and an ambition of ubiquitous connectivity. To address the data demand, ultra-fast broadband, at the speeds of 1Gbps and more, is developed and deployed. Optical fibers have been long viewed as a future-proof carrier for the ultra-fast broadband. However, the physical deployment of fiber networks, including digging, burying, rewiring, drilling, etc., is still an expensive and disruptive process. The economic concern repeatedly defers the delivery of end-to-end fiber connections to every premise while the 5G development cannot wait any longer. This dilemma motivates the industry to use the readily in-place copper-based network to deliver the last-mile communication which is the most expensive segment for fiber roll-outs. The challenge is: are the copper cables capable of offering a fiber-like experience?This thesis supports the answer: Yes. Focusing on the network side, where centralized cooperative processing is available, the potential of copper networks is explored in three subparts: evolution, maintenance and extension. The first subpart, devoted to DSL evolution, continues extracting available resources to increase network capacity. The main concept of the 4GBB is to further broaden bandwidth over shorter cables for loading more data. However, its effectiveness gets saturated after around 200MHz due to severe data channel attenuation and strong interference level. To cut this Gordian knot, a new precoding scheme combining beamforming and crosstalk mitigation is presented, improving the bit-loading capability at high frequencies via constructive crosstalk from adjacent twisted pairs.The second subpart addresses a newly observed disruption of the evolved broadband network to maintain the stability of services. The disruption, caused by sudden termination changes at user premises, significantly degrades performances at high frequencies, which are the key for the DSL evolution. A low-cost precoder updating procedure is proposed and applied to two types of common-used precoders. It enables quick retrieving of the normal operation state without the end-users experiencing any impairment on the quality of service.The third subpart extends the application from providing fixed access to fronthauling 4G and 5G mobile networks. In order to coordinate power and spectrum usage, the mobile network has its baseband unit (BBU) centralized, while pushing the radio unit (RU) closer to end-users with fronthaul links connected in between. Those links are then normally served by the fixed access network. In this regard, this thesis firstly sketches and analyzes the feasibility of an LTE-over-copper system considering the crosstalk issue. When it comes to 5G where the number of antennas scales up to be "massive", strategies of beneficial functional split are discussed to lessen the dramatically growing traffic on the fronthaul links. (Less)


This study aims to investigate the use of clove oil as an anaesthetic agent for Heterobranchus bidorsalis juveniles and assess the effects on the test fish, using some hematological parameters. Different concentrations of clove oil (0.8 to 1.2 ppm) were used in static water to determine the induction time and recovery time of the test organisms. Behavioral changes of the test fish were observed, the time the fish became immobilized and recovery from anaesthesia was recorded. The results showed erratic swimming, loss of equilibrium, loss of body movement with continued operculum movements, and loss of reflex of the test organisms during the period of exposure at higher concentrations (1.0 to 1.2 ppm) of clove oil. The physiological stress responses of H. bidorsalis juveniles increase when compared with fish in the control experiment. The induction time (119 s) significantly decreased with increasing concentrations of clove oil (1.2 ppm), while the recovery times ranged between 180 to 906 s from lower concentration (0.8 ppm) of clove oil to the highest concentrations (1.2 ppm).There was a positive linear effect (R2=0.95, P<0.05) between the concentration of clove oil and the induction time. The values obtained from hematological responses of the test organisms exposed to different concentrations of clove oil showed that the clove oil caused a concentration dependent changes in the blood of H. bidorsalis juveniles with significant reduction (P<0.05) in the values of packed cell volume (PCV) (26.00 to 16.00), haemoglobin (Hb) (8.70 to 5.90), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) (130.00 to 70.70) and the values of mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) (38.61 to 32.41), and white blood cell (WBC) (29.50 to 73.50) increased significantly (P<0.05) with increasing concentrations of clove oil, while the values of red blood cell (RBC) and mean cell haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) varies with no definite pattern. Clove oil could be used as anaesthetic agent in fisheries because the induction and recovery times were within the recommendation range used in fishery management and does not pose any environmental hazard.

 Key words:  Heterobranchus bidorsalis, clove oil, anaesthetic effect, haematology examination, induction time, recovery time.


This thesis presents new information about the global megaregolith of the Moon, using 2059 craters (5 to 50 km diameter) as natural probes. Iron (FeO) and titanium (TiO2) concentrations were obtained from crater ejecta blanket data over an area between 600 North to 600 South latitude derived from the 1994 Clementine mission. The average iron and titanium weight percentages for lunar crater ejecta were calculated using the US Geological Survey's ISIS software, and used to determine the variation with depth of iron (FeO) and titanium (TiO2) in the highlands, mare areas and the South Pole Aitken basin. In addition, megaregolith compositional Iron (FeO) and Titanium (TiO2) Maps and compositional Province Maps were generated, and studied in detail. The Lunar Megaregolith Iron Province Map divides the Highland areas into 2 distinct provinces of low-iron Highland I (0-3.7 FeO weight percentage) and low-medium level iron Highland II (3.8-6.4%), and the Mare and South Pole Aitken Basin each into 3 distinct provinces (6.5-9.7%, 9.8-13.6%, and 13.7-18.3%). Similarly, a Titanium Megaregolith Province Map divides the Moon globally into 5 provinces based on weight percentages of TiO2. A new finding is the Highland II Province of elevated iron concentration which surrounds basins. These elevated iron levels may be explained in terms of an 'Intrusion Model'. In this model, basin formation fractures the surrounding anorthositic bedrock, and the middle level anorthositic crust allows mafic (basaltic?) magma to intrude. This intrusion into the megaregolith is in the form of sills and dykes from deep mafic sources but generally does not intrude into the surface regolith. In some places however, the mafic (basaltic?) lava may have extruded onto the surface, such as near Crater 846 (15.6N 92.2W). The megaregolith, which consists of large volume breccia, would have voids and vacancies in this structure into which mafic or basaltic material could intrude. 'Islands' of Highland I Province material surrounded by Highland II Province indicate this intrusion was non-uniform. Another possible explanation for the Highland II Province iron levels comes from the 'Thrust Block' model, where deep mafic material has been broken into large blocks by the basin-forming events, and 'thrusted' or uplifted to displace most of the overlying anorthosite bedrock, thereby mechanically mixing with the megaregolith to provide the additional iron input. However, this does entirely fit comfortably with the data in this study. A third explanation for the Highland II Province arises from the 'Basin Impact Ejecta Model' such as the Imbrium Impact described by Haskin (1998). The Basin Impact Ejecta model describes the effect of basin impacts around 4.0 billion to 3.8 billion years ago in the Moon's history (Ryder, 1990; Taylor, 2001)). This model implies that basin material was ejected and deposited on a global or similar scale. However, the results of this study place severe limitations on the feasibility of the 'Basin Impact Ejecta' model to explain any significant mafic input from such ejecta in forming the Highland II megaregolith material. These Province Maps provide a new dimension to the study of the Moon's crustal development and reveal a highly complex history, providing a basis for future study.


The wealth of data available through student management systems and eLearning systems has the potential to provide faculty with important, just-in-time information that may allow them to positively intervene with struggling students and/or enhance the learning experience during the delivery of a course.  This information might also facilitate post-delivery review and reflection for faculty who wish to revise course design and content.  But to be effective, this data needs to be appropriate to the context or pedagogical intent of the course. This session revisits the ideas of the integration of learning design and learning analytics work-shopped at LAK12.


Twenty years ago Tim Berners-Lee proposed a distributed hypertext system based on standard Internet protocols. The Web that resulted fundamentally changed the ways we share information and services, both on the public Internet and within organizations. That original proposal contained the seeds of another effort that has not yet blossomed: a Semantic Web designed to enable computer programs to share and understand structured and semi-structured information easily. We will review the evolution of the idea and technologies to realize a Web of Data and describe how we are exploiting them to enhance information retrieval and in¬formation extraction. A key resource in our work is Wikitology, a hybrid knowledge base of structured and unstructured information extracted from Wikipedia.


In 'Gentrification in Hong Kong? Epistemology vs. Ontology', Ley and Teo examine what they find to be the absence of identification and naming of gentrification in Hong Kong. They argue for the need to look at urban redevelopment in non-Anglo-American cities, those in Asia Pacific at the very least, in a different light. They query the extent to which the concept of gentrification has been overly stretched to explain urban processes falling outside Anglo-American cities. This essay is a response to their argument. It presses for further and closer examination of local complexities and greater critical-theoretical reflection on the transferability of analytical concepts to different socio-economic contexts. Ley and Teo have raised some important questions for serious theoretical reflection and discussion. Yet they seem to have fallen into the problematic positions that they critique. Without sufficient attention to the part played by historical and local context in shaping the urban landscape, they have wrongly associated the absence of any identification of gentrification with the hegemony of a property-related ideology of social mobility. The unpacking of the different social and political processes and mechanisms in urban redevelopment in different stages of urban growth in Hong Kong alerts us to the complexities of the local. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Support is growing for the incorporation of fetching time and/or distance considerations in the definition of access to improved water supply used for global monitoring. Current efforts typically rely on self-reported distance and/or travel time data that have been shown to be unreliable. To date, however, there has been no head-to-head comparison of such indicators with other possible distance/time metrics. This study provides such a comparison. We examine the association between both straight-line distance and self-reported one-way travel time with measured route distances to water sources for 1,103 households in Nampula province, Mozambique. We find straight-line, or Euclidean, distance to be a good proxy for route distance (R(2) = 0.98), while self-reported travel time is a poor proxy (R(2) = 0.12). We also apply a variety of time- and distance-based indicators proposed in the literature to our sample data, finding that the share of households classified as having versus lacking access would differ by more than 70 percentage points depending on the particular indicator employed. This work highlights the importance of the ongoing debate regarding valid, reliable, and feasible strategies for monitoring progress in the provision of improved water supply services.


Cyber-attacks on financial institutions and financial market infrastructures are becoming more common and more sophisticated. Risk awareness has been increasing, firms actively manage cyber risk and invest in cybersecurity, and to some extent transfer and pool their risks through cyber liability insurance policies. This paper considers the properties of cyber risk, discusses why the private market can fail to provide the socially optimal level of cybersecurity, and explore how systemic cyber risk interacts with other financial stability risks. Furthermore, this study examines the current regulatory frameworks and supervisory approaches, and identifies information asymmetries and other inefficiencies that hamper the detection and management of systemic cyber risk. The paper concludes discussing policy measures that can increase the resilience of the financial system to systemic cyber risk.


Image quality assessment (IQA) of carotid vessel walls from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is critical to accurate diagnosis and prevention of stroke. However, most existing solutions for IQA are either manual or based only on holistic information. The low efficiency and accuracy of these methods hampers the transition of vessel wall imaging into clinical use. In this paper, we propose an IQA framework which assesses image quality using local features from multiple patches close to the target region in the image. Following criterion for target-oriented medical imaging quality assessment, we highlight the patch covering the artery detected by a neural network built on YOLOv2 and set the weights for other patches based on the human visual system both in training and testing. Finally, the image score is determined by a weighted average of patch scores. This method proved able to identify and quantify image quality using MRI datasets of different sequences with over 82% sensitivity and 90% specificity for four sequences (3D-MERGE, T1, T2, TOF) separately tasked with binary classification. Our proposed system shows the method's advantages on accuracy, efficiency, and adaptability in clinical use.


ABSTRACT The static-dynamic-static multi-state multi-reference second-order perturbation theory (SDS-MS-MRPT2 or SDSPT2 in short), which employs a multi-partitioned (state-dependent) Møller–Plesset-like diagonal operator for the zeroth-order Hamiltonian and individual configuration state functions for the perturbers, is reconsidered by making use of the state-universal Dyall Hamiltonian for the zeroth-order Hamiltonian and the union of spin-adapted, internally contracted basis functions generated from all the reference functions for the perturbers. The graphical unitary group approach along with particle–hole correspondence is employed in the evaluation of Hamiltonian matrix elements. This particular variant of SDSPT2 can also be regarded as an extension of the spin-adapted, partially contracted variant of NEVPT2 (n-electron valence state second-order perturbation theory). The performance of SDSPT2 is examined by taking C2, LiF, and Fe(C5H5)2 as examples. The results show that the low-lying states of the systems can be obtained very accurately.


This paper presents a complete approach to a successful utilization of a high-performance extreme learning machines (ELMs) Toolbox for Big Data. It summarizes recent advantages in algorithmic performance; gives a fresh view on the ELM solution in relation to the traditional linear algebraic performance; and reaps the latest software and hardware performance achievements. The results are applicable to a wide range of machine learning problems and thus provide a solid ground for tackling numerous Big Data challenges. The included toolbox is targeted at enabling the full potential of ELMs to the widest range of users.


This paper presents five exploratory trials investigating scenarios likely to occur when a personal robot shares a home with a person. The scenarios are: a human and robot working on a collaborative task, a human and robot sharing a physical space in a domestic setting, a robot recording and revealing personal information, a robot interrupting a human in order to serve them, and finally, a robot seeking assistance from a human through various combinations of physical and verbal cues. Findings indicate that participants attribute more blame and less credit to a robot than compared to themselves when working together on a collaborative task. Safety is a main concern when determining participants' comfort when sharing living space with their robot. Findings suggest that the robot should keep its interruption of the user's activities to a minimum. Participants were happy for the robot to store information which is essential for the robot to improve its functionality. However, their main concerns were related to the storing of sensitive information and security measures to safeguard such information.


CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are the primary cause of global warming. Much attention has been focused on the CO2 directly emitted by each country, but relatively little attention has been paid to the amount of emissions associated with the consumption of goods and services in each country. Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions differs from traditional, production-based inventories because of imports and exports of goods and services that, either directly or indirectly, involve CO2 emissions. Here, using the latest available data, we present a global consumption-based CO2 emissions inventory and calculations of associated consumption-based energy and carbon intensities. We find that, in 2004, 23% of global CO2 emissions, or 6.2 gigatonnes CO2, were traded internationally, primarily as exports from China and other emerging markets to consumers in developed countries. In some wealthy countries, including Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom, and France, >30% of consumption-based emissions were imported, with net imports to many Europeans of >4 tons CO2 per person in 2004. Net import of emissions to the United States in the same year was somewhat less: 10.8% of total consumption-based emissions and 2.4 tons CO2 per person. In contrast, 22.5% of the emissions produced in China in 2004 were exported, on net, to consumers elsewhere. Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions demonstrates the potential for international carbon leakage. Sharing responsibility for emissions among producers and consumers could facilitate international agreement on global climate policy that is now hindered by concerns over the regional and historical inequity of emissions.