In the twentieth century after the advent of republicanism in Turkey, nationalistic and regional approaches were at odd s with approaches influenced by the West in search of Turkish identity in architectural works. For this reason, this interested Turkish architectures to pay attention to their native architecture and urbanism during Ottoman era. In this context, traditional houses came to the fore as the key to achieving Turkish identity in architecture in the course of the second nationalist movement in modern times, and thereafter it was developed by following generation of Turkish architectures. The acclaimed modern features lying in the architecture of the houses and customs representing the Turkish civil identity have turned them into a symbol of contemporary Turkish identity in this course of action. Ottoman tradition of house construction and its effect on Turks' architecture in the course of the second nationalist movement in Turkey's contemporary architecture have made the study of Turkish architectures' transition from tradition to modernity a significant issue, which is addressed in this paper. The results of the seminal works by the second nationalist leaders as to Turkey's architecture were here approached in terms of how they were impressed by the architecture of Ottoman traditional houses, which were divided into three categories and the architectural characteristics of each of them were analyzed and compared.


ABSTRACT Absolute-dated high frequency (Milankovitch cycles) marine climate/sealevel oscillatory stratigraphy can be correlated generally with continental stratigraphies. Improvements in absolute dating of Neogene formations across the North American Great Plains make this a candidate area in which to correlate marine and continental stratigraphies. Mid-latitude continental areas respond directly to climate variations. During glaciated/cold climates, sealevel lowering results in steepened river gradients, increased erosion all along the river channel, and larger stress-bed loads. This, combined with glacial catastrophic flooding, produces greater cut-and-fill sequences along river systems than crevasse splays along the emergent coastal plain, deltas along the shelf, and submarine fans on the slope. Eustatic sealevel oscillations for the Tertiary are accepted as driven by glacial accumulations on the continents. Great Plains climate over the past 65 million years apparently has changed from generally nonseasonal, humid tropical to ever drier and cooler with seasonal variations accentuated. Absolute correlation between the available marine and continental is sufficiently tenuous, given the uncertainties of the various age dates, that only general pattern similarities may be recognized. Detailed verification must wait.


Thoroughly revised and updated, this Third Edition encompasses the most recent advances in molecular and cellular research and describes the newest therapeutic modalities for type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Chapters by leading experts integrate the latest basic science and clinical research on diabetes mellitus and its complications. The text is divided into ten major sections, including extensive sections on therapeutics, diabetes during pregnancy, and complications. New chapters cover stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes; genetics and treatment of obesity; new therapies to promote insulin action; vasculopathy; islet cell protocols; triglycerides in muscle; hypoglycemia in the adult; and the Diabetes Prevention Program.


3D front-face fluorescence spectroscopy and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to differentiate between Extra Virgin Olive (EVOO) and Olive Oil (OO). The results show that 3D front-face fluorescence could be an effective tool to characterize EVOO and OO. Fourteen samples of olive oils were acquired directly from producers and from retail markets and their 3D fluorescence spectra were measured and analyzed. The first principal component of the PCA model retained the most important variability as a combination of freshness due to the presence of antioxidant compounds and chlorophyll; and of oxidation stage due to the presence of oxidation products. Olive oil samples presented different spectral pattern providing different scores for EVOO and OO in the PCA model. EVOO samples selected according to the differences in their scores in the PCA were exposed to indirect light. The evolution of their emission spectra was monitored with a right-angle set-up showing differences in concordance with their scores. This technique, the 3D front-face, is useful for characterization of olive oil samples according to their fluorescent compounds. The combination with other techniques ( 1 H HR-NMR, HPLC, NIR spectrometry, etc.) may also be useful in protocols devoted to decision making processes with regard to olive oil quality specifications.


The human peripheral cannabinoid (CB2) receptor has been cloned by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction from human spleen RNA and expressed, to study both ligand binding characteristics and signal transduction pathways. Receptor binding assays used the aminoalkylindole [3H]Win 55212-2 and membranes from transiently transfected COS-M6 cells. Saturation analysis showed that [3H]Win 55212-2 specific binding to the CB2 receptor was of high affinity, with a Kd of 2.1 +/- 0.2 nM (four experiments), and a high level of expression was attained, with a maximal number of saturable binding sites of 24.1 +/- 4.4 pmol/mg of protein (four experiments). The rates of association and dissociation for [3H]Win 55212-2 specific binding were both rapid when measured at 30 degrees. [3H]Win 55212-2 specific binding to the CB2 receptor was moderately enhanced by divalent and monovalent cations but was only slightly inhibited by guanosine-5'-O-(3-thio)-triphosphate. Competition for [3H]Win 55212-2 specific binding to the CB2 receptor was stereoselective, with the following rank order of potency for the more active stereoisomers: HU-210 > (-)-CP-55940 approximately Win 55212-2 >> (-)delta 9-THC > anandamide. The signaling pathway of the human CB2 receptor was investigated in a CB2-CHO-K1 stable cell line. CB2 receptor activation by cannabinoid agonists inhibited forskolin-induced cAMP production in a concentration-dependent and stereoselective manner but did not increase either cAMP production or Ca2+ mobilization in fura-2/acetoxymethyl ester-loaded CB2-CHO-K1 cells. The CB2 receptor-mediated inhibition of forskolin-induced cAMP production was abolished by pretreatment of the cells with 10 ng/ml pertussis toxin. These results demonstrate that the CB2 receptor is functionally coupled to inhibition of adenylyl cyclase activity via a pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein.


There is an upper bound to the amount of power that can be generated by turbines in tidal channels as too many turbines merely block the flow. One condition for achievement of the upper bound is that the turbines are deployed uniformly across the channel, with all the flow through them, but this may interfere with other uses of the channel. An isolated turbine is more effective in a channel than in an unbounded flow, but the current downstream is non-uniform between the wake of the turbines and the free stream. Hence some energy is lost when these streams merge, as may occur in a long channel. We show here, for ideal turbine models, that the fractional power loss increases from 1/3 to 2/3 as the fraction of the channel cross-section spanned by the turbines increases from 0 to close to 1. In another scenario, possibly appropriate for a short channel, the speed of the free stream outside the turbine wake is controlled by separation at the channel exit. In this case, the maximum power obtainable is slightly less than proportional to the fraction of the channel cross-section occupied by turbines.


ABSTRACT The distribution patterns of the sediment and the various characteristics in Apalachicola Bay and vicinity, Florida, are clearly defined and greatly influenced by the submarine topography. Analysis shows a slight variability in the mean grain size and in the carbonate content between the basins and the shoals. The coarse fractions of the sediments consists of reworked relict quartz sands with negligible percentages of heavy mineral or calcareous material indigenous to the area. This coarse material is associated with topographic elevations, channel floors, and the most distant shelf areas. Distribution of the fine-grained sediment is related directly to the submarine physiography, which is essentially formed from the coarse sediments in the area. The bays, shoals, and intervening depr ssions inhibit the migration of the sediment by forming natural traps. In addition, these features cause a dissipation of the wave energy. All the fine-grained sediment in the area can be attributed to the Apalachicola River; the bulk of it is contained in Apalachicola Bay proper. The distribution of the mean grain size, the organic carbon content, and the standard-deviation patterns closely approximate the configuration of the bottom topography. The regional and residual aspects of these characteristics are also closely related.


Neofusicoccum ribis (Slippers, Crous & M.J. Wingf.), previously known as Botryosphaeria ribis (Grossenb. & Duggar), is an aggressive fungal plant pathogen that is part of the N. ribis/N. parvum species complex that causes stem cankers on a variety of woody plant species (2). An isolate of N. ribis was obtained from decayed 'Honeycrisp' apple fruit from a commercial cold storage facility located in Pennsylvania in October of 2011. The decayed apple fruit sample had a brownish lesion that was soft, dry, and leathery on the surface while sporulation was not evident. To conduct Koch's postulates, three 'Golden Delicious' apple fruits were wound-inoculated with a 50-μl mycelial suspension, obtained from aseptically scraping a 7-day-old potato dextrose agar (PDA) culture of the fungus, and was repeated using 'Fuji' apple fruit. The inoculated fruit developed lesions, while water-inoculated fruit were symptomless after 5 days at 20°C. N. ribis was reisolated from infected tissue and was morphologically identical to the original isolate. Genomic DNA was isolated, a portion of the β-tubulin gene was amplified with the gene specific primers, and the amplicon was sequenced and analyzed using BLAST (1). The nucleotide sequence (GenBank Accession No. KC47853) had 99% identity with N. ribis SEGA8 isolate (JN607146.1). The N. ribis isolate produced a grayish-white mycelium with abundant aerial hyphae on PDA and had an olive-colored reverse. Microscopic investigation revealed septate mycelia with right angle branching and conidiomata were not evident on PDA, V8, oatmeal agar (OMA), or water agar (WA). Growth on WA was sparse and transparent, and aerial mycelial growth was not produced. Growth rate analyses were conducted on PDA, V8, and OMA and were 10.1 (±1.39), 20.4 (±1.15), and 17.6 (±0.70) mm/day at 20°C and the experiment was repeated. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for the N. ribis isolate was carried out for three postharvest fungicides as described by Pianzzola et al. (3). Briefly, 96 well plates were filled with PDA alone (0 ppm) and PDA amended with 10 fungicide concentrations ranging from 1 to 1,200 ppm for thiabendazole (Mertect), and 1 to 1,000 ppm for fludioxonil (Scholar) and pyrimethanil (Penbotec). A mycelial suspension of the fungus was obtained from pure culture, 50 μl of the mycelial suspension was pipetted into each well, and allowed to grow for 72 h at 25°C. The experiment was conducted twice. The N. ribis isolate displayed MIC values of >1 ppm thiabendazole (Mertect), >1 ppm fludioxonil (Scholar), and 50 ppm pyrimethanil (Penbotec), which are all well below the labeled application rates for these postharvest fungicides. To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. ribis causing postharvest decay on apple fruit obtained from a commercial storage facility in Pennsylvania. References: (1) S. F. Altschul et al. J. Mol. Biol. 215:403, 1990. (2) D. Pavlic et al. Mycologia 101:636, 2009. (3) M. J. Pianzzola et al. Plant Dis. 88:23, 2004.


Resins containing dibenzo-18-crown-6 (phiDB18C6) as anchor groups have been prepared according to the procedure suggested by Blasius and the total capacity, CT, determined by micro analysis. The effective capacity, CE, of phiDB18C6 towards the alkali-metal salts using water as reaction media was obtained from saturation experiments. The electrolyte concentration dependence of the distribution ratio of 1:1 electrolytes between phiDB18C6 and water at 298K was studied and the results used to determine the concentration range at which a maximum separation factor between two ions could be achieved. The rational equilibrium constant, log K'ex, corrected for activity in the solution phase and the derived apparent free energy change, DeltaG'ex for the process taking place when phiDB18G6 is equilibrated with an aqueous or non-aqueous solutions (s) of the different M+A- electrolytes as represented by are calculated. The results obtained clearly reflect the influence of the anions on the extraction of cations by the resin containing the macrocyclic ligand. For aqueous solutions of electrolytes containing a common cation and different anions the selectivity found is in the order Pi→SCN→I→Br→C1-. An enhancement of selectivity by a factor of 1.55x104, 8.91x103, 2.09x103 and 1.55x103 is found for the picrate salts relative to the chloride, bromide, iodide and thiocyanate, respectively. The heats associated with the interaction of phiDB18C6 and 1:1 electrolytes in aqueous solutions were measured calorimetrically at 298K and the apparent enthalpy change evaluated. Combination of the free energy and enthalpy changes yield the corresponding entropy changes. The contribution of the enthalpy and entropy terms to the free energy suggests that the process of extraction of 1:1 electrolytes from the aqueous I s solution to the resin phase is enthalpically controlled. An interesting relationship is obtained when values for the effective capacity of the resin towards the different 1:1 electrolytes are plotted against the apparent enthalpies(DeltaH'ex) obtained for the different electrolytes in water. Distribution data for the 1:1 electrolytes and phiDB18C6 were obtained in solvents such as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), propylene carbonate (PC), acetonitrile, (AN), methanol (MeOH) and water (H2O), in an attempt to evaluate the reaction media effects on the extraction of 1:1 electrolytes by these resins. Distribution ratios decrease in the order AN→PC→MeOH→DMF→H2O. Interaction between organic molecules in aqueous solutions (urea, thiourea, and phenol) and phiDB18C6 were also studied. Effective capacity measurements as determined by saturation experiments at 298K using thiourea and phenol indicate that the 1:1 organic molecule crown ether ratio obtained for the former compound is altered to a 4:1 ratio in the case of phenol. A possible mechanism based on hydrogen bond formation in the resin phase is suggested.


The US policy of supporting a democratic Taiwan while simultaneously engaging China is a delicate and complex balance, with outcomes critical to economic, security and strategic interests in Asia. At the same time, rising Taiwanese identity amid the emerging power of China continues to change the paradigm. The contributors to this volume explore the political and economic dimensions of this complicated and pressing issue.


IRVINE, CALIFORNIA--New observations described at a National Academy of Sciences colloquium here suggest that giant walls of galaxies, hundreds of millions of light-years long, may have crisscrossed the universe when it was just 15% of its present age. Such structures are similar to what we see today, which raises a problem for theorists: If gravity hasn't radically resculpted the universe over time, that implies that it may have far less mass than theorists prefer. That is in line with evidence of a scarcity of mass in the nearby universe but at odds with one measurement of how fast the cosmic expansion rate is changing, which hints at a much higher density of matter (see p. 37).


In structured prediction, most inference algorithms allocate a homogeneous amount of computation to all parts of the output, which can be wasteful when dierent parts vary widely in terms of diculty. In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous approach that dynamically allocates computation to the different parts. Given a pre-trained model, we tune its inference algorithm (a sampler) to increase test-time throughput. The inference algorithm is parametrized by a meta-model and trained via reinforcement learning, where actions correspond to sampling candidate parts of the output, and rewards are loglikelihood improvements. The meta-model is based on a set of domain-general metafeatures capturing the progress of the sampler. We test our approach on ve datasets and show that it attains the same accuracy as Gibbs sampling but is 2 to 5 times faster.


Individual oral tutorial presentations have been utilised in numerous undergraduate courses to develop and assess students' skills in organising and communicating ideas and information to a select audience. However, evidence from the literature, interviews with academics (n=5), and the author's own experiences have demonstrated that these presentations have been plagued with issues ranging from poor quality presentations to non-attendance on the part of students and boredom for both academics and undergraduates alike. This article highlights these issues, then details a variety of successful ways in which academics have innovated to improve the level of student engagement and facilitate a higher achievement of learning outcomes. Some of these innovations pertain to individual presentations, yet interview data gathered indicated a strong trend towards replacing these with small group and whole group exercises, models for which are also explicated in this article. These models have been drawn from the Social Sciences and Humanities and provide templates that may be adapted for use in a range of different contexts. The resultant improvements in co-ordinating undergraduate students' tutorial presentations may contribute towards a more satisfying experience for lecturers, tutors, and students, and improved learning outcomes.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the Sport Education Tactical Model (SETM) on game performance, content knowledge, and physical activity levels of university students enrolled in badminton. Thirty-eight university students completed 19 lessons. Pre- and posttests consisted of a 15-min, video recorded singles badminton match, plus a 50-question content knowledge test. Game performance was measured via the Game Performance Assessment Instrument. Physical activity levels during each SETM lesson were measured via Actigraph GT3X triaxial accelerometers. Paired-samples t tests revealed significant increases between pre- and posttest scores for game performance and content knowledge. Participants achieved 60.10% (9.03) in moderate to vigorous activity during badminton lessons. In conclusion, the SETM was effective in improving game performance and content knowledge while helping participants meet the recommended 50% moderate to vigorous physical activity level. Subscribe to TPE


Systemic design focuses on issues of greater "scale, social complexity and integration" than service or experience design (Systemic Design Association accessed 2018). Given the rapid emergence of the systemic design field, attention has focused on theoretical and methodological development (Jones and Bowes 2017). In this paper, we contribute to this development by formalizing a method, grounded in complexity/resilience theory, for mapping social system identity.

From complexity/resilience theory, we adopt the "landscape" and "attractor" metaphors for conceptualizing stability and change in social systems (Sheffer 2009, Byrne and Callaghan 2014). In this approach, existing or potential social systems can be characterized as "regimes," with dominant regimes described as business-as-usual and alternatives as niche or innovation regimes (Westley et al. 2011). To further develop this approach, we characterize social systems in terms of identity (Vickers 1980), and then relationally analyze social regime identities in terms of their underlying social factors or logics (Thornton et al. 2012). In these terms, a social attractor can be characterized as a constellation of logics, the "attraction" to which, among social actors, individually and collectively, serves to stabilize the regime (Silverman and Hill 2018).

Based on this model, we describe a method (and suite of techniques) for mapping analogies and distinctions in selected and bounded social systems and scenarios, as constructed by design strategists and/or by group-process participants. While this method is itself quite straightforward, its application encourages systemicity both in the models that can be developed and in the dialogs and deliberations that can be facilitated. In order to situate this method within a systemic design toolkit, we compare it with the methods described and illustrated by, for example, Sevaldson (2012/2017) and Jones and Bowes (2017), as well as with the wider literature on analogy making and comparative analysis (e.g., Hesse 1966, Hofstadter and Sander 2013).

In 2017, seeking to standardize and accelerate adoption of one mapping technique, we developed a "regime shift canvas" (Silverman et al. accessed 2018). This canvas is based on a bricolage of the landscape model with the design "bridge model" (Dubberly et al. 2008). In this bricolage, the "model of what is" in the bridge model represents a business-as-usual social regime and, by analogy and/or distinction, the "model of what might be" represents an alternative social regime or scenario. This canvas can be used in a variety of ways: as a prompt to individual creativity, as a basis for group facilitation, and as a heuristic device that informs the use of other analytical, group process, and/or foresight techniques.

This standardization also highlights the limitations of a singular technique and artifact (i.e., "canvas"). We discuss these limitations, and then describe additional techniques for mapping social system identity. Each of these techniques is illustrated herein, with examples drawn from the referenced literature and from student mappings developed in masters degree-level design programs at Pacific Northwest College of Art. In effect, these techniques represent variations on the bridge model, and we diagram each of them as such.


Vital Forsikring ASA( Vital)are planning their next platform of infrastructure, one of the objectives with this platform are better interactions. In order to gain more efficient interaction within the company, and to save travel expenses due to lot's of traveling between Vital's offices in Norway. Vital planes to use software based video- conferencing systems, also referred to as Web- conferencing systems. This thesis researches some of the challenges for Web- conferencing systems compared to traditional Video- conferencing system. It proposes some a set of minimum requirements and analyses the requirements with consideration to Microsoft's Unified Communications: Web- conferencing system. The thesis discusses a set of requirements, which need to be present in the system, in order to succeed introducing the system. The thesis considers the technical challenges for Web- conferencing, what thechnology needs to be present, and what strategies needs to be made in order to encurage and foster collaborative interactions. The research conludes that Microsoft's solution is an early verison with some problems delivereing a user friendly service. Their dedicated camera Microsoft RoundTable does not fulfill the requirements for eye- contact, which is one of the most vital parts of a video- conferencing system in order to represent the nonverbal communication that video- conferencing brings. The research within Collaborative Managements shows that very few companies have made an effort to arrange for collaborative work, most companies invest in inventory and operation facilities without considering how this will affect the collaborative work. The most effective way to encourage employees is to make use of the system is to enable the employee to see their advantages within the solution.


Many empirical studies have shown that factor models produce relatively accurate forecasts compared to alternative short-term forecasting models. These empirical findings have been established for different macroeconomic data sets and different forecast horizons. However, various specifications of the factor model exist and it is a topic of debate which specification is most effective in its forecasting performance. Furthermore, the forecast performances of the different specifications during the recent financial crisis are also not well documented. In this study we investigate these two issues in depth. We empirically verify the forecast performance of three factor model approaches and report our findings in an extended empirical out-of-sample forecasting competition for quarterly growth of gross domestic product in the euro area and its five largest countries over the period 1992-2012. We also introduce two extensions of existing factor models to make them more suitable for real-time forecasting. We show that the factor models have been able to systematically beat the benchmark autoregressive model, both before as well as during the financial crisis. The recently proposed collapsed dynamic factor model shows the highest forecast accuracy for the euro area and the majority of countries that we have analyzed. The forecast precision improvements against the benchmark model can range up to 77% in mean square error reduction, depending on the country and forecast horizon.


This thesis is a collection of different results on braids, and draws connections between them. We first introduce braids by showcasing a number of equivalent ways of describing what a braid is, and how those representations are related. Then, while uncovering enumerative properties of the positive braid monoid, we consider algorithms to compute the lcm of a set of braids. This leads to more than one elegant solution to the word problem. We explore some efficient algorithms which solve the word problem for braids, and then also explore the conjugacy problem and the cryptosystems that rely on the hardness of it in their proofs of security.


This paper presents an evaluation of the global and regional consequences of climate change for heat extremes, water resources, river and coastal flooding, droughts, agriculture and energy use. It presents change in hazard and resource base under different rates of climate change (representative concentration pathways (RCP)), and socio-economic impacts are estimated for each combination of RCP and shared socioeconomic pathway. Uncertainty in the regional pattern of climate change is characterised by CMIP5 climate model projections. The analysis adopts a novel approach using relationships between level of warming and impact to rapidly estimate impacts under any climate forcing. The projections provided here can be used to inform assessments of the implications of climate change. At the global scale all the consequences of climate change considered here are adverse, with large increases under the highest rates of warming. Under the highest forcing the global average annual chance of a major heatwave increases from 5% now to 97% in 2100, the average proportion of time in drought increases from 7% to 27%, and the average chance of the current 50 year flood increases from 2% to 7%. The socio-economic impacts of these climate changes are determined by socio-economic scenario. There is variability in impact across regions, reflecting variability in projected changes in precipitation and temperature. The range in the estimated impacts can be large, due to uncertainty in future emissions and future socio-economic conditions and scientific uncertainty in how climate changes in response to future emissions. For the temperature-based indicators, the largest source of scientific uncertainty is in the estimated magnitude of equilibrium climate sensitivity, but for the indicators determined by precipitation the largest source is in the estimated spatial and seasonal pattern of changes in precipitation. By 2100, the range across socio-economic scenario is often greater than the range across the forcing levels.


Enteric pathogens induce intestinal epithelium to secrete chemokines that direct movement of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Mechanisms that might downregulate secretion of these proinflammatory chemokines and thus contain intestinal inflammation have not yet been elucidated. The antiinflammatory activities exhibited by the arachidonate metabolite lipoxin A4 (LXA4) suggests that this eicosanoid, which is biosynthesized in vivo at sites of inflammation, might play such a role. We investigated whether chemokine secretion could be regulated by stable analogs of LXA4. Monolayers of T84 intestinal epithelial cells were infected with Salmonella typhimurium, which elicits secretion of distinct apical (pathogen-elicited epithelial chemoattractant) and basolateral (IL-8) chemokines. Stable analogs of LXA4 inhibited S. typhimurium-induced (but not phorbol ester-induced) secretion of both IL-8 and pathogen-elicited epithelial chemoattractant. LXA4 stable analogs did not alter bacterial adherence to nor internalization by epithelia, indicating that LXA4 stable analogs did not block all signals that Salmonella typhimurium activates in intestinal epithelia, but likely led to attenuation of signals that mediate chemokine secretion. Inhibition of S. typhimurium-induced IL-8 secretion by LXA4 analogs was concentration- (IC50 approximately 1 nM) and time-dependent (maximal inhibition approximately 1 h). As a result of these effects, LXA4 stable analogs inhibited the ability of bacteria-infected epithelia to direct polymorphonuclear leukocyte movement. These data suggest that LXA4 and its stable analogs may be useful in downregulating active inflammation at mucosal surfaces.


Energy storage is widely considered to be an important component of a decarbonised power system if large amounts of renewable generation are to provide reliable electricity. However, storage is a highly capital intensive asset and clear business cases are needed before storage can be widely deployed. A proposed business case is using storage to prevent overvoltage in low voltage (LV) distribution networks to enable residential photovoltaic systems.

Despite storage being widely considered for use in LV networks, there is little work comparing where storage might be installed in LV networks from the perspective of the owners of distribution networks (DNOs). This work addresses this in two ways. Firstly, a tool is developed to examine whether DNOs should support a free market for energy storage in which customers with PV purchase storage (e.g. battery systems) to improve their self-consumption. This reflects a recent policy in Germany. Secondly, a new (published) method is developed which considers how DNOs should purchase and locate storage to prevent overvoltage. Both tools use a snapshot approach by modelling the highest and lowest LV voltages.

On their own, these tools enable a DNO to determine the cost of energy storage for a particular LV network with a particular set of loads and with PV installed by a given set of customers. However, in order to predict and understand the future viability of energy storage it is valuable to apply the tools to a large number of LV networks under realistic future scenarios for growth of photovoltaics in the UK power system. Therefore, the work extracts over 9,000 LV network models containing over 40,000 LV feeders from a GIS map of cables provided by one of the UK's electricity distribution networks- Electricity North West.

Applying the proposed tools to these 9,000 network models, the work is able to provide projections for how much LV energy storage would be installed under different scenarios. The cost of doing so is compared to the existing method of preventing reinforcement- LV network reconductoring. This is a novel way of assessing the viability of LV energy storage against traditional approaches and allows the work to draw the following conclusions about the market for energy storage in LV distribution networks in the UK:

- Overvoltage as a result of PV could begin to occur in the next few years unless UK regulations for voltage levels are relaxed. There could be a large cost (hundreds of millions of pounds) to prevent this if the traditional approach of reconductoring is used.

- If overvoltage begins to occur, a free market for energy storage (randomly purchased by electricity consumers) cannot offer large benefits to DNOs in reducing the reinforcement cost unless this is properly controlled, located and/or widely installed by customers.
- Optimally located storage by the DNO can reduce overall reinforcement costs to mitigate overvoltage. This would enable more energy storage to balance renewable generation and present large savings to the power system. The exact topology of storage and the storage rating in each LV network could be determined using the tool proposed in this work.


This thesis is concerned with the development of a new measurement device for the realistic assessment of braking capability of landing airplanes for winter runways. Landing represents one of the most safety-critical phases of aircraft operation. Aircraft runway excursion incidents occur due to the unpredictability of the runway pavement condition. This is especially true during winter time when the runway is often covered by deformable contaminants. Several accidents are discussed that list the deteriorated condition of the runway pavement and the inability to accurately report this condition as the main causes for the excursions. The accuracy of the approaches currently adopted by the airport authorities around the world to monitor the condition of the runway pavement are evaluated. The conventional and current practice of runway condition monitoring is focused on identifying the maximum tire-pavement frictional drag (μ value) and often neglect the characteristics of actual aircraft brake control system as well as the comprehensive effects coming from various factors such as deformable contaminants on the winter runway. The braking availability tester discussed here is designed to take a different approach for the realistic assessment of braking availability of landing aircrafts. The main idea of this device is to mimic the braking operation of actual aircrafts as closely as possible by incorporating the same brake mechanism and the brake control system used in existing aircrafts. The architecture of the device from the ground-up including the suite of sensors, the structure of the wheel, important actuators, and the real-time brake control system are discussed in detail. More importantly, the operational principles of the braking availability tester (BAT) are outlined which help one understand how the system works together. A new method to quantify the braking availability on the runway using the BAT is explained. The testing and data collection strategy for implementing this technique is also outlined. Additionally, the results from preliminary tests are presented to verify the functionality of the BAT. The results are used to verify that the BAT operates with the brake control system of an aircraft. Finally, experimental data sets from dry and contaminated pavement testing are presented to show the effect of different weather conditions on the operation of the BAT.


There is a general consensus that human activity has significant impact on global climate change with significant consequences to the environment. Although there has been relatively limited research on the relationship between corporate environmental performance and corporate financial performance, empirical of the relationship between proactive corporate climate change strategies and economic performance is still in need of clear delineation. It is in light of this hat this research examines the impacts of sustainability adoption on competitive performance of oil and gas companies. The research explores the notion of market driven sustainability by establishing an empirical link between sustainable supply chains characteristics and organisational competitiveness. The overall aim is to develop an empirical model of sustainable supply chain characteristics that improves resource utilisation, profit maximization and competitiveness in the oil and gas industry. The research reviews existing literature on supply chain management, sustainability and competitive objectives in order to generate an appropriate and adequate context for relevant analytical investigations. Primary data on sustainability and its impacts on organisational performance were collected from UK and gas industry through survey by questionnaire. The results show that the most significant drivers of sustainability are the desire to conserve energy, increase market share and improve competiveness. However, legal and regulatory pressure, in contrast to common perspectives in the literature, was not seen as strong drivers of sustainability. The most significant inhibitors of sustainability are inappropriate infrastructural facilities, higher take-up costs, shortage of information on sustainability and employees lack of environmental awareness. The results further indicate that, though sustainability strategies implemented by the respondent firms varied in scopes, these strategies were being extensively and successfully implemented. Generally, the adoption of sustainability in oil and gas supply chain leads to improved economic performance and environmental performance, which, in turn, positively impact organisational competitiveness. These results are of particular importance to managers, government policy makers environmentalists and researchers.


Hans Christoph Binswanger is professor emeritus in economics at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. His research has concentrated on monetary theory, and environmental and resource economics, for which he has received several prizes. He has authored numerous books including Money and Magic: A Critique of the Modern Economy in Light of Goethe's Faust , translated by J. E. Harrison (University of Chicago Press, 1994).

![Figure][1]

I n Part II of his greatest play, Faust (1832),[*][2] Goethe confronts the promises and pitfalls of the Industrial Revolution and the economic growth that it generated. As finance minister at the Court of Weimar he was well placed to comment on these developments, and his insights remain astonishingly relevant today.

Goethe's protagonist is representative of modern man who, through science, seeks to subjugate nature and to build up a new economic realm of freedom and prosperity. Faust's exultation at the "lovely moment" ( verweile doch, du bist so schon ) that this would bring expresses the delight of modern man at the sheer cornucopia of these new riches. But not all is rosy in this economic garden, for Goethe warns that these riches may be built upon an unsustainable illusion. After all, Mephistopheles, who is "the spirit, that evermore denies," is Faust's business partner! As we ponder whether the new riches that we have amassed are real or illusory, it is worth taking a closer look at how Goethe dramatizes this issue.

Faust declares his aims as he looks out upon the sea and its ceaseless ebb and flow.

> Onward it sweeps by courses numberless,
>
> Barren itself, to squander barrenness;
>
> Now swelling, growing, rolling on, it drowns
>
> In desolation leagues of wasted downs;
>
> There riots, wave on wave, with wanton force,
>
> Then ebbs—and nothing's been achieved, of course.
>
> I might despair, to see the aimless way
>
> Such lawless elements exert their sway.
>
> Yet no despair shall my resolve benumb;
>
> Here I might struggle, here might overcome!

Subsequently Goethe shows how, through a combination of economic activity and technological progress, the subjugation of nature and of natural forces—symbolized by ebb and flow—is effected. The section of coastline that Faust had observed is enclosed by a dyke and transformed into a garden "like an Eden." This subjugation seems miraculous, like an alchemical process: What had hitherto been economically worthless has been transmuted into something economically valuable.

![Figure][1]

Faust is a vigorous entrepreneur who drives his workers to their utmost. Yet Goethe realizes that entrepreneurial vision and human labor are not enough to achieve the great project. Money is required to pay the workers who, now far from home, have lost their means of subsistence. However, the limited supply of gold that can be mined is insufficient to supply the monetary requirement of the project. Faust has taken care of this with the help of the emperor, that is, the state, by founding a bank that issues paper money, a currency not convertible into gold:

> 'Twere hopeless now the flying leaves to stop;
>
> With lightning speed they spread through-out the land.

The state profits from the invention of paper money by using it to pay its debts. But Faust invests the money in the production of real goods and through this transaction creates an equivalence between manufactured goods and paper money, thereby turning valueless paper into an instrument of real buying power. The potency of this buying power derives from both traditional and new sources of energy. Faust no longer relies on human labor alone, but also on newly created, energy-driven machines because these are more efficient. The change seems almost magical:

> Vain all day is their hacking, tearing,
>
> Pick and shovel, stroke on stroke!
>
> Where night-long great fires were flaring,
>
> Stood a bank when morning broke.

The prerequisite for this is the renewed establishment of the laws of property which grants mankind the right of absolute power over nature, and now Faust unabashedly proclaims, "Property and dominion I want to gain."

In Faust Goethe thus describes, with historical accuracy, the establishment of three crucial instruments that enabled economic growth and served as a motor for further development: (i) The creation of paper money, which began with the issuance of bank notes by the Bank of England at the end of the 17th century and forms the basis of our global system of currency, with its potential for constant expansion; (ii) James Watt's invention of the steam engine at the end of the 18th century and the use of coal, which marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; (iii) the Roman property law of "dominium," the ius utendi et abutendi re sua (the right not merely to use, but also to consume, one's private property) in the Code Napoleon —the new civil code created by Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century. This concept of ownership provides the necessary legal sanction for the increasing subordination of nature to the requirements of economic exploitation.

Goethe not only reveals how Faust, the representative modern man, realizes this massive project of economic progress, but also shows the existing and potential dangers associated with it. Human progress entails curbing nature by constructing an artificial world consisting of cities, industry, transport, and intensified agriculture, symbolized in Faust by land reclamation through building of the dyke. With great insight Goethe tells us that the intervention into the natural environment that this demands may have unforeseen consequences because nature reacts according to its own laws, which humans can never entirely predict. Unintended or unanticipated consequences may wipe out wholly or in part the successes gained by earlier interventions or cast retrospective doubt upon them. In Faust Goethe draws attention to three dangers, in particular: (i) Environmental damage may ensue, exemplified by a "foul morass" in the reclaimed land, because there is no outflow for the stinking water. This is a consequence of the short-sighted construction of the dyke, which has led to the formation of algae and the silting up of drainage channels. As attempts are made to correct these problems, new ones are created, which in their turn require further corrections. Thus Faust's megalomanic project is never-ending! (ii) To realize his plans Faust needs more and more land. So he drives out the established population—exemplified in Faust by the old couple, Baucis and Philemon—from the dunes above the newly embanked land. The beauty of the natural landscape, which had evolved and been carefully maintained over centuries—everything we associate with the idea of "home"—is now ruined. (iii) New risks arise that could completely destroy Faust's entire project. For example the dam, which Faust sets against the might of the ocean, could break! Faust knows this, but he believes that if all available forces are coordinated, then all possible dangers can be overcome:

> Howe'er may rage the angry baffled tide,
>
> Striving to sap, to force an entrance, each
>
> And all rush swiftly to close up the breach.

But Mephistopheles disagrees:

> Yet all your labor's spent for us alone.
>
> With your fine dams and bulwarks vast,
>
> You're but preparing a superb repast
>
> For Neptune, the sea-fiend, to feast upon.
>
> You're trumped and done for every way,
>
> Into our hands the elements play,
>
> Destruction onwards is striding fast.

The real danger is that Faust—modern man—will not acknowledge the need for careful planning to forestall such damage as he pushes on relentlessly, not seeing what is going on around him. Goethe symbolizes this blind irresponsibility by Faust's loss of eyesight. In other words, Faust is so obsessed with his plans to subdue nature that he loses sight of the realities that may require careful reflection and possibly a total rethinking of the project. Hence mankind compounds its natural limitations—its inability to fully understand nature's complexity—with a blindness induced by hubris.

The Rio conference on "Sustainable Development" (1992) demonstrated that we live in a finite, limited world and that development is only sustainable if we take account of these limitations. This is a challenge for Faust, a challenge for modern man. Here, too, Goethe was prophetic. In his comments on "Contemplative Judgement" he writes: "Our aim must be, through contemplation of the ceaseless processes of nature, to make ourselves worthy to share spiritually in her productions." [**][3] In other words, we must be careful observers of nature's parameters and allow ourselves, more than ever before, to be guided by them. Instead of continuing our attempt to dominate nature with linear thinking, we must cultivate an intuitive sensitivity and responsiveness to her complexities. Science must respond to this reorientation by developing the corresponding technology. We need to develop products—consumer goods, machines, buildings—that produce less waste, last longer, are recyclable, consume less energy, and fit gracefully into the landscape and/or model themselves on natural forms (bionics).

This is only possible if economists, too, understand that less can be more, that in economic production what matters is not so much the amount produced but its increased utility, and that, accordingly, both quantitative and qualitative growth can benefit mankind without damaging nature. Perhaps Faust, or modern man, may never, as Goethe once hoped, achieve a moment so lovely that he would want to hold on to it forever. But if we strive to develop a more respectful relationship with nature, we may very well come closer to creating just such a moment.

 [1]: pending:yes
 [2]: #fn-1
 [3]: #fn-2


GPS positioning devices are becoming a commodity sensor platform with the emergence and popularity of smartphones and ubiquitous networking. While the positioning capability has been exploited in location-based services, so has its spatiotemporal cousin, tracking, so far only been considered in costly and complex fleet management applications.
The proposed project, SimpleFleet will make it easy for SMEs, both, from a technological and business perspective, to create (Mobile) Web-based fleet management applications. For this purpose, we build a large data pool comprising base data such as maps and traffic data from dedicated providers. A simple interface will provide a means to connect user-contributed data streams to this pool. In addition and to increase the market potential of the data pool, we also want to address the related geomarketing domain, which uses travel information in various geo-statistical analysis methods as well as visualizations of the data to be used in online and print publications.
An algorithmic framework dubbed "TrafficIntelligence" that includes map-matching algorithms, vehicle routing services and a statistics package will utilize the collected data and provide value-added service. SMEs will be able to access the data and services by means of a Web-based API, a Software Development Kit (SDK) wrapping API access for specific languages and environments and Application Frameworks for rapid application development for target platforms such as Web (JavaScript), and iPhone and Android mobile platforms.


The Agricultural and Food Policy Center's (AFPC) primary purpose is to analyze the economic and financial impacts of alternative government policies on U.S. farming and ranching operations. This is accomplished through the maintenance of data necessary to simulate the economic and financial activities of more than 80 representative crop and livestock farms chosen from major production areas across the United States. Twenty of the 41 crop farms are located in the Southern region. A brief description of these crop farms and their location is summarized in Appendix A. The economic and financial observations reported in this paper are based on AFPC's experience with the crop farms in the Southern region. The paper is organized into four sections. The first section summarizes the process used to develop the representative farms. The second section presents the crop farms in terms of total crop cash receipts and economic efficiency as measured by the ratio of total cash costs to receipts. The third section reports the economic and financial conclusions inferred by AFPC's experience with these crop farms. The final section addresses research, education and policy implications drawn from the analysis.


I Efficiency and Equity Effects of an International Carbon Tax Considerable attention has been given during recent years to the possible adoption of an international carbon tax to help deter the perceived threat of global warming.(1) Such a tax is an economic-incentive, a market-based alternative to direct, command-and-control curbs on carbon emissions.(2) A carbon tax comes under the classification of a pigovian(3) tax (Pigou, 1920), that is, a tax designed to internalize negative externalities into the price system. To accomplish this end, the carbon tax places a price upon the nonmarket or social costs of environmental pollution in the form of carbon emissions as generated by the use of the fossil fuels - coal, oil, and natural gas - in the production of energy.(4) Since fossil fuels do not emit carbon in their natural state prior to mining, a property or wealth tax on the stocks of such fuels would be meaningless. Instead, an efficient carbon tax must be levied upon the negative externalities themselves, the carbon emissions which result from the use of such fuels. Ideally, this would take the form of an excise tax imposed upon each unit of carbon emitted when fossil fuels are used to produce energy for consumption and production activities such as automobile driving and factory operations. Unfortunately, it is not administratively feasible to impose the tax at the actual time of carbon emissions. However, feasible alternatives are available such as the imposition of an excise tax on fossil fuels either (a) when they are mined or imported into a nation (a primary carbon tax), or (b) when they are sold to businesses and households for use in energy production (a final carbon tax). In order to capture the negative externalities, the tax base should be defined in specific rather than ad valorem terms since it is the physical amount of fuel used to produce energy that is linked to carbon emissions, not the pretax price of the fuel. The destination principle of international trade may be used to help harmonize a carbon tax across nations, thus reducing the risk of trade distortions and free-rider behavior. The maximum reduction in carbon emissions would be attained from a tax imposed solely upon fossil fuels and not upon alternative sources of energy which do not emit carbon. Energy created from geothermal, nuclear, solar, water, and wind-driven sources does not contribute to global warming and, thus, should not be included in the tax base. In fact, a pure carbon tax levied only upon fossil fuels would encourage the substitution of these noncarbon-emitting energy sources for fossil fuels by making them relatively cheaper than coal, oil, and natural gas. While it is true that a broadbased tax on all energy sources would decrease carbon emissions in accordance with the relevant price elasticities of demand for fossil fuels and the level of the tax rate, it would not maximize carbon abatement since cross-price elasticity effects between fossil and nonfossil fuels would be ignored. Another feature of an efficiently designed international carbon tax is the requirement that differential marginal tax rates be imposed upon the various fossil fuels since coal, oil, and natural gas emit various amounts of carbon per unit of energy production. Thus, since coal emits 25.1, oil 20.3, and natural gas 14.5 grams of carbon per 1000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy production, the carbon tax rate should be highest on coal, next-highest on oil, and lowest on natural gas in accordance with these carbon intensity ratios. These differential tax rates would encourage the substitution of "cleaner" for "dirtier" fossil fuels while simultaneously encouraging the substitution of nonfossil fuels for fossil fuels if the former are not included in the tax base. In addition, an efficient international carbon tax regime would assure that such differential tax rates be uniform across nations since the atmosphere is a global public good and common property resource that does not recognize the arbitrary nation-state political boundaries imposed by mankind (Herber, 1991). …


It is important for every educated member of our society to be able to read, comprehend, and interpret graphs. To that end, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the Common Core State Standards have endorsed a kindergarten through eighth-grade mathematics curriculum that is rich in data analysis and graphical literacy skills. These skills are important, as graphs in the public sphere may include certain features that can cause misperceptions of the data. Such features may be intentional or unintentional and can include non-zero baselines, representing data with extra dimensions, stretching and shrinking graphics, not displaying outliers, and more. It is unclear whether the recommended mathematics curriculum prepares students to accurately comprehend these kinds of graphs. This study investigates how effectively the kindergarten through eighth-grade public mathematics curriculum prepares students to read graphs that contain distortions. It focuses on student perceptions and interpretation of data presented in bar graphs. A survey instrument was created to measure student perceptions that included comprehension questions referring to bar graphs with zero baselines and others with non-zero baselines. The instrument was used to assess 181 ninth-grade students in a school in a New England suburb. The results from this survey suggest that many students are susceptible to graphical misperceptions while reading a graph with a non-zero baseline. It suggests that while the current curriculum may include strategies to solve mathematically rigorous graph comprehension problems, it may not equip students with the ability to make simple qualitative conclusions about real world graphs. It is the hope of the researcher that this study may inform future curricula on a local and state level.


In the style of Stephenie Meyer, three tales of supernatural love that all hinge on a life-changing kiss. Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls: Goblin Fruit: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls? Spicy Little Curses: A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.


Given the challenges to life at low pH, an analysis of inorganic sulfur compound (ISC) oxidation was initiated in the chemolithoautotrophic extremophile Acidithiobacillus caldus. A. caldus is able to metabolize elemental sulfur and a broad range of ISCs. It has been implicated in the production of environmentally damaging acidic solutions as well as participating in industrial bioleaching operations where it forms part of microbial consortia used for the recovery of metal ions. Based upon the recently published A. caldus type strain genome sequence, a bioinformatic reconstruction of elemental sulfur and ISC metabolism predicted genes included: sulfide–quinone reductase (sqr), tetrathionate hydrolase (tth), two sox gene clusters potentially involved in thiosulfate oxidation (soxABXYZ), sulfur oxygenase reductase (sor), and various electron transport components. RNA transcript profiles by semi quantitative reverse transcription PCR suggested up-regulation of sox genes in the presence of tetrathionate. Extensive gel based proteomic comparisons of total soluble and membrane enriched protein fractions during growth on elemental sulfur and tetrathionate identified differential protein levels from the two Sox clusters as well as several chaperone and stress proteins up-regulated in the presence of elemental sulfur. Proteomics results also suggested the involvement of heterodisulfide reductase (HdrABC) in A. caldus ISC metabolism. A putative new function of Hdr in acidophiles is discussed. Additional proteomic analysis evaluated protein expression differences between cells grown attached to solid, elemental sulfur versus planktonic cells. This study has provided insights into sulfur metabolism of this acidophilic chemolithotroph and gene expression during attachment to solid elemental sulfur.


This thesis consists of four self-contained essays.Essay 1 studies the implications of relaxing the assumption that the elasticity of international substitution is constant over time horizons, through the modeling of habit formation. Compared to the standard model without habits, the proposed dynamic demand model exhibits substantially more volatile exchange rates and it can generate higher real exchange rate persistence in the presence of interest-rate smoothing. Moreover, welfare-maximizing monetary policy results in even stronger exchange rate responses to shocks than does the classical Taylor rule.Essay 2 evaluates the effects of changes in the replacement rate of unemployment benefits on wages and unemployment in an estimated DSGE model. Allowing for permanent shocks to the replacement rate, we find a semielasticity of unemployment of 1.22. Our rich model of the wage bargain further allows us to determine the relative importance of match separation and strike/lockout in wage bargaining. Results from our main specification indicate that breakdowns are more important threat points than conflicts in negotiations when wages are determined.Essay 3 examines the econometric methodology of the empirical literature on the elasticity of international substitution following Feenstra (1994), looking in more detail at the effect on the results of the non-linear mapping between reduced-form and structural parameters. Our main contribution is the use of bootstrap methods, which can explain why researchers applying the Feenstra method may tend to find high estimates. The bootstrap further allows us to better characterize the accuracy of the obtained estimates, a point vastly overlooked by the literature.In Essay 4 we estimate the elasticity of substitution of a country's imports, and that of its exports on the world market, for EU countries using sector level trade data. We present a new empirical strategy based on the identification scheme by Feenstra (1994), which enables the estimation of elasticities from data on exports. We obtain aggregate elasticities for the EU27 countries, with a mean of 3.5 for imports and 4.0 for exports, bringing us closer to traditional estimates and bridging the gap between the newer micro data estimates and the more traditional estimates found in the macroeconomic literature.


Development cycle time is the elapsed time from the beginning of idea generation to the moment that the new product is ready for market introduction. Market entry timing is contingent upon the new product's cycle time. Only when the product is completed can a firm decide whether and when to enter the market to exploit the new product's window of opportunity. To determine the right moment of entry a firm needs to correctly balance the risks of premature entry and the missed opportunity of late entry. Proficient market entry timing is therefore defined as the firm's ability to get the market entry timing right (i.e., neither too early nor too late). The literature has produced divergent evidence with regard to the effects of development cycle time and proficiency in market entry timing on new product profitability. To explain these disparities this study: (1) explores the mediating roles of development costs and sales volume in the relationships between development cycle time, proficiency in market entry timing and new product profitability, respectively, and it; (2) explores the moderating influence of product newness on the relationship between development cycle time and development costs, and that of new product advantage on the link between proficiency in market entry timing and sales volume. The results from a survey-based study of 72 manufacturers of industrial products in The Netherlands suggest that development costs mediate the relationship between development cycle time and new product profitability and that sales volume mediates the link between proficiency in market entry timing and new product profitability. In addition, the findings indicate that new product advantage strengthens the positive relationship between proficiency in market entry timing and sales volume. The results provide no evidence for a moderating effect of product newness. These results have important implications because to maximize new product profitability managers need to distinguish between costs and demand side effects of development cycle time and market entry timing on new product profitability. Keeping this distinction in mind should help them to better determine the relative profit impact of investments in cycle time reduction and/or improved entry timing. Moreover, the findings suggest that highly advantaged products that enter the market at the right time may have a highly attenuated sales volume. It also implies that new products with lower advantage may have very little leeway in hitting the "sweet spot" in market. The message is that "doing the right thing" (i.e., to develop a highly advantaged new product) may be at least as important as correctly balancing the risks of premature entry and the missed opportunity of late entry.


Abstract:Globalization has reinforced the conflicts among the varieties of capitalism. The colliding units are not just nation states, but transnational production regimes, which cut through national boundaries. The conflicts lead global corporate codes, which are developed by international organizations, to take different directions when they are concretized on the enterprise level. They will be differently enforced according to whether they are located in Liberal Market Economies (LME), adapted to the New Sovereignty of enterprises, or in Coordinated Market Economies (CME) with greater components of social welfare state and economic democracy.Different patterns of enforcement emerge particularly when the courts have to decide whether corporate codes are legally binding. Multinational corporations seek by any means to keep the courts out. For them, interpretation, application, and enforcement of the codes are exclusively a matter of private ordering. Thus, they insist that their "voluntary" codes are legally non-binding. Accordingly, American courts are very reluctant when public interest litigation pushes them to implement the codes as legally binding rules.The chances of enforcement appear to be different in continental Europe. If they are adapted into thoroughly regulated neo-corporate arrangements, then the codes will be confronted with stronger legislative activities and stronger enforcements by the courts. In the European Union, the codes of conduct will have to adapt to the principles of the welfare state and economic democracy.


The assumption that the occupational identification of "lawyer" is the salient feature in evaluating political motivation is interesting, if questionable, according to the Author. Does occupational identity overwhelm other identities? Are politically active lawyers really a homogeneous group? Are they less affected by competing identities associated with wealth, geography, familial and constituency concerns, political ideology, party considerations, or any of the myriad other sources of public and private motivation of behavior? Surely the hypothesis that politically active lawyers behave differently from nonlawyers is worth investigating. This Article offers some preliminary responses to these questions posed, which are grounded in empirical research. The completed first stage of the project, with which this Article is concerned, entailed the intensive examination of the behavior of lawyers in a self-contained legislative body. The Author chose the state constitutional convention held in Kentucky in 1849. The Author states that whether political lawyers acted together, capturing and shaping the substantive public policy of mid-nineteenth century Kentucky, may seem a small matter. However, the broad question concerning the impact of the legal profession on our institutions and society, addressed here in the Kentucky setting, is not. Given the ubiquity of lawyers in American life and politics, the question surely deserves more serious attention from legal historians than it has hitherto received. A definitive answer to the question whether a "lawyer's interest" has existed-or perhaps still exists-and has seriously influenced our public life in support of particular groups or for its own benefit, must await further research. However, armed with the new tools of the social sciences we are today better able than ever before to undertake the empirical research which is necessary in order to offer a response.


The evidence in the detection of blood doping among endurance athletes is conflicting especially when these athletes are undergoing autologous blood transfusions and abusing recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO). Continuous monitoring all year round and creating haematological profiles, known as athlete's haematological or blood passport with cut-off values, are being practiced by some international sport federations to ban athletes from participating or apply sanctions and punishments when the tested athletes are proven to be doped. However, athletes who use prohibited substances or methods that increase the concentration of red blood cells and haemoglobin (Hb) are also using masking agents and other methods to manipulate the samples. The use of plasma expanders are prohibited as they induce haemodilution and can potentially result in false negatives of athletes' blood samples. Other substances to date, specifically the ingestion of Creatine (Cr) and Glycerol (Gly), can cause plasma expansion when taken together by their novel synergistic effect on the human body and particularly on total body water (TBW). However, Gly has recently been added to the WADA 2010 prohibited substances list (following the completion and publication of some of the results from the experiments presented here). In addition, the posture of the sampled athlete during blood collection may also influence the concentration of blood parameters and potentially plasma volume. The main objectives of the studies presented in this thesis are to test the hypothesis that the use of hyperhydration agents, particularly Cr and Gly, in conjunction with postural changes will dilute blood samples to the extent that this manipulation could potentially influence the results of a blood doping test.

In the first experiment (EXP1), eight subjects volunteered to take part in Cr and Gly fluid loading for 7 days. Urine samples and body mass were obtained before subjects lay in a supine (0°) postural position for 30 min. During that period, body water compartments were estimated and urine and blood samples were obtained from the subjects. This hyperhydration strategy and posture resulted in a significant increase in body mass by 0.82 ± 0.22 kg, TBW by 0.67 ± 0.17 L, intracellular water (ICW) by 0.35 ± 0.09 L, extracellular water (ECW) by 0.37 ± 0.15 L and urine osmolality by 161 ± 115 mOsmol.kg-1 (P<0.05) with significant decreases in Haematocrit (Hct) values at 10 min, 20 min and 30 min blood samples by 1.26% ± 0.65%, 1.3% ± 0.96% , 1.35% ± 0.73%, respectively, (P<0.05) and an insignificant decease in Hb concentration (P=0.07). These results showed that the fluid loading protocol and posture used induced a degree of hyperhydration and haemodilution that could potentially influence the outcome of a drug test.

The second experiment (EXP2) focused on the changes in Hb and Hct with different postural positions of ten euhydrated subjects. The extensive research done to detect blood doping by indirect markers and equations used the supine postural position for 5-10 min prior to obtaining blood samples. However, WADA's only approved postural position is to have the selected athlete, undergoing a doping test, be seated for 10 min before venipuncture. However, most of WADA's anti-doping research relating to this application have been based on tests developed with subjects tested in a supine position. In this experiment, three postural positions were applied: Supine (0°), sitting and standing. As subjects changed their postures from supine (0°), sitting and ending with standing, there was an increased haemoconcentration as reflected by an increase in Hb and Hct values (P<0.05). Hb concentration and Hct values increased by 0.55 ± 0.06 g.L-1 and 0.87% ± 0.12%, respectively, when subjects changed their posture from supine to sitting and increased by 0.71 ± 0.14 g.L-1 and 1.70% ± 0.08%, respectively, when subjects changed their posture from sitting to standing. This experiment showed that the posture in which the blood samples were obtained from human subjects has a direct effect on the concentration of blood parameters such as Hb and Hct. While not a new finding, this observation confirmed the idea that posture requires standardisation for meaningful research outcomes aimed at developing valid doping tests to be developed (currently not the case).

In the third experiment (EXP3), seven healthy trained subjects volunteered to take part in Cr and Gly hyperhydration followed by 2 running bouts at 60% of their maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max) in an environmental chamber. This experiment employed a different Cr and Gly hyperhydration strategy to the one used in EXP1. Specifically, Cr was loaded for 7 days and Gly was only ingested on the day of experiment and precisely 5 hours prior to the first blood sample. Each exercise bout consisted of 30 min running bouts but at two different climatic temperatures 10°C and 35°C, respectively with 70% relative humidity. Body mass and urine samples were taken before the start of the test. Blood samples were obtained after the subjects were comfortably seated for 10 min and just prior to the start of the test as well as after each running bout. This protocol resulted in no significant changes in Hb, Hct, Reticulocytes (Retics%) and OFF-hr scores and values. In general this revised hyperhydration regiment did not induce the same degree of haemodilution and plasma expansion as the previous approach and could therefore account for the negative findings on blood profiles.

The hyperhydration protocol of EXP1 using Cr and Gly for 7 days succeeded in significantly manipulating and increasing body mass, TBW, ICW, ECW and urine osmolality (P<0.05) and decreasing Hct (P<0.05) values but not Hb concentration (P=0.07) when blood was withdrawn in supine (0°) posture. In EXP2, the change of posture from supine (0°), to sitting and ending with standing resulted in haemoconcentration and increases in Hct and Hb values. With a slight change of hyperhydration protocol in EXP3 of Cr for 7 days and Gly on the seventh day only, it resulted in no significant changes in Hct, Hb, %Retics and OFF-hr scores and therefore no haemodilution effects when compared to pre-supplementation tests at rest and following submaximal exercise bouts in cool and warm environments. In all EXP1, EXP2 and EXP3, Hct among other blood parameters was the most affected by hyperhydration, posture and time at which blood samples were obtained. The hyperhydration protocol of EXP1 was more successful in decreasing Hct and Hb values than EXP3.

More research should be focused on determining whether the extent of blood dilution induced by hyperhydration strategies such as those used in the present series of experiments can alter the outcome of a doping test. Other hyperhydration/fluid loading protocols should be assessed including plasma expanding substances and methods in view of these substances being considered by WADA to be included in the prohibited substances and methods list (if proven effective). It is recommended that the emphasis of WADA-related research is also shifted to the identification of other physiological/molecular markers that are not significantly affected by haemodilution such genetic signatures in response to drug perturbations (e.g. autologous blood transfusions and rHuEPO injections).


This thesis will assess the sustainability of managerial corporate governance systems in the context of the current economic globalisation wave. In order to do so corporate governance is studied as the function of decision-making undertaken by managers as corporate controllers, which is embedded in the national and supranational institutional context. The latter determine not only how much discretion managers have but also how they use it. Two main workable institutional equilibria are identified, reflecting two respective visions of the corporation that emerge from an overview of the most influential theories developed to study the nature of the firm. The first emphasises market transactions by promoting the externalisation of corporate functions and tends to align managerial decision-making to the interests of current shareholders, i. e. the maximisation of the firm's market value. The second contains a tendency towards the internalisation of corporate functions by the corporate organisation with enhanced managerial discretion being a crucial element for the sustainability of this sort of coordination. The crucial difference between these two institutional equilibria, i. e. the shareholder-oriented and the managerial, is that the former is less growth-oriented/dependent and emphasises the lack of commitment between stakeholders and "exit" from corporate relationships, whereas the latter is more growth-oriented/dependent and relies on stakeholder commitment and "voice". It is due to this difference that the managerial system is more susceptible to price competition which involves drastic cost-cuttings that affect stakeholder relationships and therefore more reliant on stable but relatively high macroeconomic growth rates and effective demand. A central hypothesis of this project is that this fundamental difference between the two systems is the decisive factor behind their ability to survive within the current context of economic globalisation. It is argued that globalisation, as a process where national institutional structures are gradually replaced by others determined by world market forces, not only promotes market based macroand microeconomic coordination but has also (as a result) led to a global economic slowdown due to the inherent imperfections of the market mechanism. Simultaneously, the gradual removal of economic barriers has brought national corporate governance systems in competition with each other with increasing emphasis being placed on cost-reductions and short-term investments due to slower demand-growth. This has a negative impact on the workability of managerial systems and through a process of global isomorphism leads to the emergence of the shareholder-oriented system as the most likely winner not because it is better in terms of economic efficiency, but because it is more flexible. While these pressures are real, global corporate governance convergence is not guaranteed in the short and medium term due to different institutional dynamics that exist in each national system and which determine the scale and scope of adaptation. Empirical evidence from Germany confirms this since, although many basic institutions supporting German managerialism are being eroded, some path dependent ones remain stable and thus prevent the complete institutionalisation of shareholder supremacy. However, this creates systemic workability problems that can in the long term undermine even those institutional structures that are highly path dependent. The progress of further adaptation in the future depends on whether the costs of unworkability exceed adaptation costs.


This Essay responds to comments by Samuel Calhoun, Wayne Barnes, and David Smolin, made as part of a roundtable discussion on Calhoun's symposium address Separation of Church and State: Jefferson, Lincoln, and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Show It Was Never Intended to Separate Religion from Politics. In Part I, I discuss current events, especially as they pertain to Smolin's comments. In Part II, I answer Calhoun's challenges to my own response. In Part III, I criticize Barnes's response, which was diametrically different from my own. In Part IV, I draw on Smolin's observations to discuss the path forward for Christians in the current climate.


Industries strive to find the balance between increased productivity and future sustainability of production. To this end, the sugar cane industry maintains records from each farm about CCS (commercial cane sugar content (%)), total cane yield, cane varieties and growing conditions throughout each region. A challenge that the cane industry faces is how to accurately extract useful information from this vast array of data to better understand and improve the production system. Data mining methods have been developed to search large data sets for hidden patterns. This paper introduces a powerful data mining method known as Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). By applying the MARS methodology to model CCS production data from the Herbert district, a model was produced for the 2005 harvest period. This model produced a north-south geographic separation between low and high CCS producing farms in line with recorded CCS values. The model was also able to identify farm groupings which contributed to lower, modelled CCS values, relative to other farms. A brief investigation on the isolated effects of variety was also conducted.


Quantitative or algorithmic trading is the automatization of investments decisions obeying a xed or dynamic sets of rules to determine trading orders. It has increasingly made its way up to 70% of the trading volume of one of the biggest nancial markets such as the New York
Stock Exchange (NYSE). However, there is not a signi cant amount of academic literature devoted to it due to the private nature of investment banks and hedge funds.
This projects aims to review the literature and discuss the models available
in a subject that publications are scarce and infrequently. We review the basic and fundamental mathematical concepts needed for
modeling nancial markets such as: stochastic processes, stochastic integration
and basic models for prices and spreads dynamics necessary for building quantitative strategies. We also contrast these models with real market data with minutely sampling frequency from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Quantitative strategies try to exploit two types of behavior: trend
following or mean reversion. The former is grouped in the so-called technical models and the later in the so-called pairs trading. Technical models have been discarded by nancial theoreticians but we show that they can be properly cast into a well de ned scienti c predictor if the signal generated by them pass the test of being a Markov time.That is, we can tell if the signal has occurred or not by examining the information up to the current time; or more technically, if the event is Ft-measurable. On the other hand the concept of pairs trading or market neutral strategy is fairly simple. However it can be cast in a variety of mathematical models ranging from a method based on a simple
euclidean distance, in a co-integration framework or involving stochastic
di erential equations such as the well-known Ornstein-Uhlenbeck mean reversal ODE and its variations. A model for forecasting any economic or nancial magnitude could be
properly de ned with scienti c rigor but it could also lack of any economical value and be considered useless from a practical point of view.


Uncertain outcomes can be described by raw probabilities (e.g., There is 40% chance), but also by verbal probabilities (e.g., There is a chance, It is not absolutely certain). Beyond their probabilistic meaning verbal probabilities also have a directionality (Teigen & Brun, 1995), i.e. can be positive or negative. The directionality gives verbal probabilities a framing effect on decisions: when presented with the likelihood that a drug for a headache will work, people typically recommend other people taking this drug more often if the likelihood was given using a positive verbal probability (e.g., some possibility) than if it was given using a negative verbal probability (e.g., quite uncertain), despite both verbal probabilities being judged by other participants as having the same probabilistic meaning (Teigen & Brun, 1999). In this study we made the first investigation into the potential differences in processing directionality and probabilistic meaning that could explain the framing effect of the directionality. We will also examine the conditions potentially favourable to this effect.

In experiment 1, nineteen participants chose between two outcomes described by verbal probabilities. In one third of the trials the probabilistic meaning was controlled and the directionality varied. In another third the directionality was controlled and the probabilistic meaning varied. In the last third, both dimensions were different, reinforcing each other (congruent trials; e.g., a positive verbal probability carrying a high probabilistic meaning) or contradicting each other (incongruent trials; e.g. a negative verbal probability carrying a high probabilistic meaning).
When both dimensions differed, participants chose more quickly between congruent verbal probabilities than between incongruent verbal probabilities. When only one dimension (directionality or probabilistic meaning) varied, participants chose more quickly between positive verbal probabilities and between pairs of high probabilistic meaning than between negative verbal probabilities and between pairs of low probabilistic meaning. Participants were also more accurate (i.e. chose the verbal probability carrying the highest probabilistic meaning most often) when choosing between congruent verbal probabilities and between positive verbal probabilities than when choosing between incongruent verbal probabilities and between negative verbal probabilities. Finally when the probabilistic meaning was held constant, participants tended to choose the outcome with the positive verbal probability more often than chance.

In experiment 2, twenty participants completed the same task under two time conditions (in counterbalanced order): in the limited time condition, they had to answer within five seconds; in the unlimited time condition, they could take as much time as they needed. We aimed here to replicate the results of experiment 1 and to investigate if the framing effect could be overcome when time pressure was removed. In both time conditions the same pattern as in experiment 1 was observed regarding accuracy and response time. However when the probabilistic meaning was held constant, we observed that the preference for the positive verbal probability was no longer observed given unlimited time.

In both experiments and both time conditions we observed a longer response time in the incongruent and low conditions, i.e. if the probabilistic meaning was contradicted by the directionality and if it was inconsistent with the task goal (find some treasure). This signals that people do not consider independently the probabilistic meaning or the directionality and suggests that the framing effect of directionality cannot be explained by people considering only the directionality. Also, even when there was no time pressure, the framing effect was seen for incongruent verbal probabilities. However if they had the same probabilistic meaning the framing effect was not observed in the unlimited time condition. Therefore having more time to choose between two verbal probabilities helps to overcome the framing effect of directionality, but this is the case only in some conditions. We conclude that the framing effect of directionality does not result only from performance costs and we will present suggestions to explore the pragmatics factors which are favourable to this framing effect.


In this research, photocatalytic degradation method has been introduced to clean up Spent Caustic of Olefin units of petrochemical industries (neutralized Spent Caustic by means of sulfuric acid) in the next step, adaptable method and effective parameters in the process performance have been investigated. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) was measured by the commercial zinc oxide that synthesized with precipitation synthesis method in a two-shell photoreactor. The percent of reduction of COD in the photocatalytic process was modeled using Box–Behnken design and artificial neural network techniques. It was concluded that the ANN was a more accurate method than the design of experiment. The effect of important parameters including oxidant dosage, aeration rate, pH, and catalyst loading was investigated. The results showed that all of the parameters, except pH, had positive effects on increasing COD removal. According to the obtained results, adsorption and photolysis phenomena had a negligible effect on COD removal.


Pharmacists with greater frequency are refusing to fill certain prescriptions on religious grounds. These employees contend that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires pharmacies to accommodate refusing pharmacists by allowing other pharmacists to fill objectionable prescriptions. Some employers embrace this view and accommodate refusing pharmacists by sending customers to other pharmacies to have their prescriptions filled. This Note examines Title VII's requirement that employers provide reasonable accommodations for employees' religious beliefs unless those accommodations would create an undue hardship on the business. Part I outlines the two-prong analysis for evaluating religious accommodation claims once a prima facie case of religious discrimination is established. Part II applies that two-prong analysis to explore the various accommodations available for refusing pharmacists. For each accommodation that objecting pharmacists are likely to find reasonable, the Note demonstrates that the accommodation usually imposes a greater than de minimis cost on the employer, and hence would not be required under Title VII. The Note concludes by observing that some employers choosing to accommodate pharmacists beyond the obligations of Title VII may be using the law as a pretense to justify policies that some customers and pressure groups find objectionable. This Note's exploration of the actual requirements for religious accommodation under Title VII therefore serves as a valuable tool to distinguish between employers' legal obligations and their voluntary employment practices.


Luoranen, J., Konttinen, K. & Rikala, R. 2009. Frost hardening and risk of a second flush in Norway spruce seedlings after an early-season short-day treatment. Silva Fennica 43(2): 235–247. There have been years in Finland when container seedlings of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karsten) planted in the summer have been damaged by early-autumn frosts. For August and September plantings, the seedlings can be hardened by means of short-day (SD) treatment, but little information is available about its usability for earlier plantings. We studied the effects of early-season SD treatment on the frost hardiness and risk of a second flush of Norway spruce seedlings. In three successive years, second-year seedlings were grown in a greenhouse or outdoors in the spring and early summer and then subjected to two or three-week SD treatment beginning on the second, third, or fourth week of June. We monitored the height growth cessation, bud formation, and frost hardiness of the seedlings in the nursery. All SD treatments made the height growth cease, but the risk of a second flush increased if the temperature sum was less than 300 d.d. before the beginning of the SD treatment or more than 450 d.d. between the end of the treatment and mid-August. Clearly, then, SD treatment reduced the risk of a second flush in seedlings that had been grown in a greenhouse in the spring. Earlyseason SD treatment increased the frost hardiness of both needles and stems for late July to early September in comparison with untreated seedlings. Later in the autumn, however, the differences disappeared. Before recommending the use of early-season SD-treated seedlings for summer planting, the method has to be tested in practical field conditions.


Abstract EFSA was requested by the European Commission to produce a report on the susceptibility of olive varieties to the Apulian strain of Xylella fastidiosa (subsp. pauca strain CoDiRO, ST53). A systematic literature search identified 21 references providing results of primary research studies on olive plants infected (naturally or artificially) by ST53. From experimental infectivity studies and from surveys in olive orchards, converging lines of evidence indicate tolerance of the Leccino variety to ST53 infections, although no long‐term observations on yield are available yet. While the variety Leccino can become infected with the pathogen, it develops milder symptoms compared to those observed on susceptible varieties (e.g. Cellina di Nardò, Ogliarola salentina). Also, the size of the X. fastidiosa bacterial populations measured in Leccino‐infected plants is lower compared to susceptible olive varieties. Preliminary results show that tolerance or resistance traits can also be found in other olive varieties. New research is now in place in the EU to study the level of susceptibility of many olive varieties to ST53 infections, therefore more relevant results will become available in the coming years.


Rhys was born in Wales, attended a grammar school in Cardiff and won a scholarship to Cambridge University in 1959 where he studied basic sciences and mathematics, and archaeology and anthropology, participating in excavations and travelling in Europe and southwestern Asia (Meehan 2001). He was appointed as teaching fellow in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Sydney in 1963, graduating with a doctorate from there in 1971, and as research fellow in prehistory at the then Research School of Pacific Studies of the Australian National University in 1968. He held the visiting chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, was appointed to a personal chair at ANU in 1993, and was a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and of the Society of Antiquarians. Rhys retired in June 2001, when he was presented with a festschrift contributed to by many of his numerous colleagues and friends (Anderson et al 2001). Rhys Jones died in September last year of leukaemia. Rhys researched in several parts of Australia and contributed broadly to hunter-gatherer studies. His initial, doctoral, project in Tasmania confirmed pre-land-bridge-separation occupation there; in 1977 he collaborated with filmmaker Tom Haydon in a documentary, The Last Tasmanians; in the early 1980s, Rhys' research into Pleistocene archaeological sites contributed to the recognition of the antiquity of early human occupation of high-latitude southwestern Tasmania, and World Heritage listing, in 1982, of the Western Tasmania Wilderness National Parks (Anon. 2002). In western New South Wales, Rhys contributed to the initial archaeological research at Lake Mungo whose archaeological sites demonstrated early and continuing human occupation through fluctuating Holocene environments to historic times (Johnston and Clark 1998). With Betty Meehan, Rhys worked with Anbarra people in northeastern Arnhem Land from the early 1970s, and developed aspects of ethnoarchaeology that have been significant in interpretation of archaeological evidence in Australia. In the last decade, Rhys, working in conjunction with various colleagues, including Alan Watchman and Bert Roberts, pursued his interest in identifying aspects of the earliest settlement of the continent through fieldwork in northern Western Australia and in Arnhem Land, at sites dating up to circa 60ka bp. Rhys published consistently and widely, in Welsh and French as well as English, and the list of his papers (Anon. 2001a) and the various contributions to the festschrift reveal the considerable breadth of his interests. Rhys' involvement with AIATSIS began shortly after his arrival in Australia when he applied successfully for assistance to carry out a survey of archaeological sites in Tasmania (Lambert 2001). The Institute assisted his later work in Tasmania, in western New South Wales and in the Northern Territory. Rhys became a Member of the Institute in 1966; he served the Institute on numerous committees and panels, including the Research Advisory Committee as Prehistory, Sites and Material Culture specialist, and was an elected member of Council between 1978 and 1990. Rhys sought collaboration with Indigenous Australians and established good working relationships and many friendships from Tasmania to Arnhem Land. With colleagues such as Les Hiatt and Betty Meehan he was instrumental in formalising relationships between the Institute and Arnhem Land peoples through the ritual diplomacy Rom ceremony, performed by Anbarra at the Institute in 1982 and 1995. The published obituaries listed in the References attest to what many recognised: the breadth of Rhys Jones' research interests and skills, his curiosity, Rhys Jones (middle) with wife Betty Meehan and AIATSIS Principal Russ Taylor at launch of WEH Stanner Finding Aid, Institute's Library Stanner Room, 3 April 2001. Photographer Brendan Bell. …


ABSTRACT Rusu, E. and Guedes Soares, C., 2013. Modeling waves in open coastal areas and harbors with phase-resolving and phase-averaged models. A wave-prediction system based on spectral models was validated against in situ measurements in the Portuguese continental nearshore and is now operational. As a final extension of this system, the present article describes the implementation and validation of high-resolution wave models. In this connection, the objective of the present work was to evaluate the performance of such models in different coastal environments. The first target was an open coastal area located in the central part of the Portugal continental. An evaluation of the two state-of-the-art phase-resolving wave models, REFDIF1 and FUNWAVE, was carried out, and the results are compared with those from a field experiment. The second target area was the port of Leixões in the north of the Portuguese continental coast. A high-resolution SWAN computational domain that included the harbor area, was implemented and connected to the modeling system that provides ocean forcing. To provide a more realistic picture of the wave conditions inside the harbor area, the FUNWAVE model was also coupled to the wave-prediction system. Comparisons between the results provided by the two wave models provide a better image of the reliability and limitations of both models at the entrance and inside the harbor area.