Micro heat exchangers using smart fins undergo variation of temperature along the passage of fluid flow. This requires analysis of these smart cantilevers under thermal load. In the present research, thermal analysis of bi-metallic smart, surface mounted, piezo patched cantilevers under thermal excitation, has been carried out. Electro-thermo-elastic governing equations and constitutive equations have been used to develop the variational formulation for a dielectric continuum. The electric field in the dielectric medium has been assumed to be varying non-linearly along transverse and longitudinal directions to capture the sensing and actuation behaviour properly. The results of the study indicate that the piezo patches can be effectively used to control the deformation of the structure under thermal load. By suitable choice of piezo actuator length and thickness, the performance of the piezo actuators can be enhanced.


Abstract:  Objectives: Oral deferiprone (L1) appears to be promising in the treatment of β‐thalassemia major (TM) patients. T2* magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a single measurement in the mid‐ventricular septum was validated as a quantitative evaluation of myocardial iron overload. Previous studies suggested a marked heterogeneity of iron distribution in the myocardium. We set up a multislice multiecho T2* MRI for the detection of this heterogeneity. The aim of our study was to investigate differences between the L1 vs. the subcutaneous desferrioxamine (DF)‐treated patients using this new approach.Methods: Thirty‐six β‐TM patients (age 29 ± 8 yr) underwent MRI. Eighteen patients received long‐term L1, and 18 other patients matched for age and sex received DF. T2* multiecho sequences on three short axis views of the left ventricle were obtained and analyzed by custom‐made software. In each slice, the myocardium was automatically segmented into four segments. Cine‐dynamic images were also obtained to evaluate biventricular function.Results: For multislice T2* technique, the coefficient of variation for intra‐ and inter‐observer, and inter‐study reproducibility was 3.9%, 4.7%, and 5.5%, respectively. The global heart T2* value was significantly higher in the L1 vs. DF group (35 ± 7 vs. 27 ± 2 ms; P = 0.02). The number of segments with normal T2* value (>20 ms) was significantly higher in the L1 vs. the DF group (11 ± 1 vs. 8 ± 5 segments; P = 0.03). We did not detect significant differences in biventricular function parameters.Conclusions: This new approach confirms that L1 could be more effective than DF in removal of myocardial iron.


Fiber nonlinearity has become a major limiting factor to realize ultra-high-speed optical communications. We propose a fractionally-spaced equalizer which exploits a trained high-order statistics to deal with data-pattern dependent nonlinear impairments in fiber-optic communications. The computer simulation reveals that the proposed 3-tap equalizer improves Q-factor by more than 2 dB for long-haul transmissions of 5,230 km distance and 40 Gbps data rate. We also demonstrate that the joint use of a digital backpropagation (DBP) and the proposed equalizer offers an additional 1-2 dB performance improvement due to the channel shortening gain. A performance in high-speed transmissions of 100 Gbps and beyond is evaluated as well.


This document describes a convention by which Delay-Tolerant
Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP) "convergence-layer" adapters may
represent endpoint identifiers in a compressed form within the primary
blocks of bundles, provided those endpoint identifiers conform to the
structure prescribed by this convention. Compressed Bundle Header
Encoding (CBHE) compression is a convergence-layer adaptation. It is
opaque to bundle processing. Therefore, it has no impact on the
interoperability of different Bundle Protocol implementations, but
instead affects only the interoperability of different convergence-
layer adaptation implementations. This document is a product of the
Delay-Tolerant Networking Research Group and has been reviewed by that
group. No objections to its publication as an RFC were raised. This
document defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.


A new series phthalazine derivatives was synthesized from the reactionof 1-chloro-4-(4-phenoxyphenyl)phthalazine as a reactive starting material with different carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur nucleophiles. The Structural formula of all products were confirmed and characterized by elemental analyses and spectral data. Most of the synthesized derivatives were screened for their antitumor activity against fourhuman tumor cell lines using (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) (MTT) assay. Compounds 1,20 and 25 showed the most potent cytotoxic effect concluded from their IC50.


The paper suggests a protocol for qualifying bridge deck systems based on experience obtained during a Federal Highway funded Highways for LIFE project that was completed in 2013. A full range of qualification tests was conducted, starting with characterization of materials at the coupon level, then subcomponent testing of custom pultruded tubes, mechanical testing of full scale structural panels in a laboratory, fire exposure, followed by service-critical details that included panel-to-panel field joints, connections to the bridge superstructure, railing attachment, and durability of the wearing surface. After installation on a bridge, load testing was done to evaluate the system as a whole, then, after three years of service, observations were made based on performance under actual operational and environmental conditions. Good correlation was obtained between the global finite element model analysis and the behavior of the as-built structure. Observations of unanticipated opening of the centerline field joint after an exceptionally cold winter indicate that a more detailed thermal analysis may be necessary to provide a model that accurately predicts joint behavior during seasonal thermal cycling.


Conventional wisdom in many agricultural systems across the world is that farmers cannot, will not, or should not pay the full costs associated with surface water delivery. Across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, only a handful can claim complete recovery of operation, maintenance, and capital costs; across Central and South Asia, fees are lower still, with farmers in Nepal, India, and Kazakhstan paying fractions of a U.S. penny for a cubic meter of water. In Pakistan, fees amount to roughly USD 1-2 per acre per season. However, farmers in Pakistan spend orders of magnitude more for diesel fuel to pump groundwater each season, suggesting a latent willingness to spend for water that, under the right conditions, could potentially be directed toward water-use fees for surface water supply. Although overall performance could be expected to improve with greater cost recovery, asymmetric access to water in canal irrigation systems leaves the question open as to whether those benefits would be equitably shared among all farmers in the system. We develop an agent-based model (ABM) of a small irrigation command to examine efficiency and equity outcomes across a range of different cost structures for the maintenance of the system, levels of market development, and assessed water charges. We find that, robust to a range of different cost and structural conditions, increased water charges lead to gains in both efficiency and concomitant improvements in equity as investments in canal infrastructure and system maintenance improve the conveyance of water resources further down watercourses. This suggests that, under conditions in which (1) farmers are currently spending money to pump groundwater to compensate for a failing surface water system, and (2) there is the possibility that through initial investment to provide perceptibly better water supply, genuine win-win solutions can be attained through higher water-use fees to beneficiary farmers.


Winner of the the National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction 'Spellbinding ... a magisterial account of the great tragedy of our age ... it is a classic' Evening Standard 'In the finest traditions of American investigative journalism' The Times 'Spectacular ... makes Bourne movies pale in comparison' Financial Times From the Pulitzer Prize winning of the acclaimed Ghost Wars, this is the full story of America's grim involvement in the affairs of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2016. In the wake of the terrible shock of 9/11, the C.I.A. scrambled to work out how to destroy Bin Laden and his associates. The C.I.A. had long familiarity with Afghanistan and had worked closely with the Taliban to defeat the Soviet Union there. A tangle of assumptions, old contacts, favours and animosities were now reactivated. Superficially the invasion was quick and efficient, but Bin Laden's successful escape, together with that of much of the Taliban leadership, and a catastrophic failure to define the limits of NATO's mission in a tough, impoverished country the size of Texas, created a quagmire which lasted many years. At the heart of the problem lay 'Directorate S', a highly secretive arm of the Pakistan state which had its own views on the Taliban and Afghanistan's place in a wider competition for influence between Pakistan, India and China, and which assumed that the U.S.A. and its allies would soon be leaving. Steve Coll's remarkable new book tells a powerful, bitter story of just how badly foreign policy decisions can go wrong and of many lives lost.


Professional ethics instruction in engineering is commonly conducted by examining case studies in light of the code of conduct of a suitable professional body. Although graphical presentations of spectacular failures, sobering stories of the repercussions and the solid framework provided by the tenets of a code of ethics may leave a lasting impression, students generally gain their professional identity from relatives and colleagues. Their professional ethics tend to be mostly an extension of their personal ethics. Instruction on ethics generally serves only to reinforce students' inclination to act ethically and provides encouragement to act on these beliefs. In this study a survey based on previous investigations was conducted (n = 1136) to examine the personal ethical perceptions of engineering students. The survey measured how engineering students perceive their own ethical beliefs and how they perceive the ethical beliefs and actions of their peers. As a learning exercise, students were then challenged by examining their personal ethical beliefs in light of the professional ethics requirements of the Institute of Engineers Australia (IEAust) code of conduct. After familiarisation with the Engineers Australia code of ethics, students were also invited to comment regarding their beliefs regarding adherence to this code.


Back ground and objectives: Evidences on the impact of Core Stability Training (CST) on Sports Functional Performances (SFP) have demonstrated some positive correlation between them in few sports, however evidences lack to prove causal relationship between them, especially among normal subjects. This study attempts to investigate the effect of 'CST' on 'SFP' and Dynamic Balance among healthy undergraduate college students.Methods:50 Healthy undergraduate college students were selected after initial screening process. They were randomly allocated to either core stability Training Group (TG) or Control Group (CG). Subjects in TG underwent 8-weeks of core stability training, whereas the subjects in CG were given no intervention and asked to carry out their usual activities. All the subjects underwent a pre and post intervention measurements for their level of sports functional performances such as agility running, distance running, ball throwing, vertical jumping, which were measured using 'T-test', '40-Yard dash test', 'Medicine ball throw test' 'Vertical jump height test' respectively and dynamic balance was measured using YBT Functional Goniometer. Results: Immediately after the 8-weeks of core stability training, sports functional performances such as ability to Tagility running (p=0.022), 40-Yard running (p=0.006), vertical jump height (p=0.030), have improved significantly in Training Group compared to Control Group, except medicine ball throw (p=0.348) and dynamic balance (p=0.200).Conclusion:8-weeks of core stability training in healthy undergraduate college students has resulted in improved lower limb sports functional performances . This causal relationship can provide reasonable support in recommending core stability trainings in sports performance enhancement training programmes for normal subjects.


More than 120 rhinocerotid remains unearthed in the middle Turolian locality of Akkasdagi (Central Anatolia) are described. The fauna is diversified, with a pair of large two-horned species, Ceratotherium neumayri (Osborn, 1900) and Stephanorhinus pikermiensis (Toula, 1906), and two smaller species of short limbed aceracheriines (Chilotherium sp. and Acerorhinus sp.). Ceratotherium neumayri is by far the most common species, with a complete skull, 114 specimens and at least 11 individuals. The cranial, dental and postcranial remains of C. neumayri are among the largest ones described so far for this species. The coexistence of C. neumayri, S. pikermiensis, and chilotheres is common in the Turolian of Eastern Mediterranean: comparable rhinocerotid associations are known at Kavakdere (MN 12, Turkey) and Samos (MN 12, Greece). The large size of the C. neumayri specimens is consistent with the middle Turolian age for Akkasdagi (MN 12), as stated on the whole mammalian fauna and radiometric data.


As a genre that has evolved from a complex mix of literary, filmic, documentary and radio sources, many of which have been circulating globally for some time, television crime drama provides an illuminating lens through which to explore the issue of the television remake in an era when the transnational traffic in television renders the impulse to translate an original into a different cultural location more questionable than ever. Employing a case study approach, this essay investigates the possible motives underlying the American remake of the British crime drama Broadchurch. While the failure of Gracepoint to find an American audience may have been a disappointment to the Fox network and BBC America, as this essay will argue, it came as no surprise to reviewers and fans of Broadchurch as this had earlier been the fate of previous UK/US crime series adaptations including Cracker, Prime Suspect and Life on Mars. Success in the long run, however, may well be measured in economic rather than aesthetic returns.


When Jessie Hawkins' adopted daughter told her she had another mom back in Ethiopia, Jessie didn't, at first, know what to think. She'd wanted her adoption to be great story about a child who needed a home and got one, and a family led by God to adopt. Instead, she felt like she'd done something wrong. Adoption has long been enmeshed in the politics of reproductive rights, pitched as a "win-win" compromise in the never-ending abortion debate. But as Kathryn Joyce makes clear in The Child Catchers, adoption has lately become even more entangled in the conservative Christian agenda. To tens of millions of evangelicals, adoption is a new front in the culture wars: a test of "pro-life" bona fides, a way for born again Christians to reinvent compassionate conservatism on the global stage, and a means to fulfill the "Great Commission" mandate to evangelize the nations. Influential leaders fervently promote a new "orphan theology," urging followers to adopt en masse, with little thought for the families these "orphans" may already have. Conservative evangelicals control much of that industry through an infrastructure of adoption agencies, ministries, political lobbying groups, and publicly-supported "crisis pregnancy centers," which convince women not just to "choose life," but to choose adoption. Overseas, conservative Christians preside over a spiraling boom-bust adoption market in countries where people are poor and regulations weak, and where hefty adoption fees provide lots of incentive to increase the "supply" of adoptable children, recruiting "orphans" from intact but vulnerable families. The Child Catchers is a shocking expose of what the adoption industry has become and how it got there, told through deep investigative reporting and the heartbreaking stories of individuals who became collateral damage in a market driven by profit and, now, pulpit command. Anyone who seeks to adopt-of whatever faith or no faith, and however well-meaning-is affected by the evangelical adoption movement, whether they know it or not. The movement has shaped the way we think about adoption, the language we use to discuss it, the places we seek to adopt from, and the policies and laws that govern the process. In The Child Catchers, Kathryn Joyce reveals with great sensitivity and empathy why, if we truly care for children, we need to see more clearly.


Three classes of compounds inhibit prostaglandin synthetase. The first group consists of the substrate analogues. The specificity of these analogues is unknown but many possess good inhibitory potency which makes them useful tools to demonstrate the involvement of the synthetase enzyme. However, although they are active in some organised tissue preparations, their use in vivo has not been widespread. The absorption, excretion and distribution of these fatty acids is not yet fully understood and this tends to detract from their usefulness in whole animal work. Apart from the substrate analogues a number of other fatty acids also inhibit the synthetase but probably in a non-specific manner and only in high concentrations.

The second class of inhibitors consists of the aspirin-like drugs. Although these may not be as specific as the substrate analogues, they have several advantages; they are readily available, easily administered and in many species abolish prostaglandin synthesis almost completely in therapeutic doses. In addition, a considerable amount is known concerning their absorption, distribution and excretion. The final group of inhibitors which inhibit the synthetase includes such diverse agents as metal ions, anti-oxidants and nucleotides. The concentrations necessary to achieve inhibition are often high and no degree of specificity can be claimed. Thus, these agents are not likely to be of value for in vivo work, although in vitro studies with different cofactors and ions may contribute to our understanding of how the synthetase system is regulated.

Concerning the inhibition of the dehydrogenase, the situation is far less clear. Certain substrate analogues appear to be good inhibitors of the purified enzyme, although they have not been tested in vivo. Some of the aspirin-like drugs are also active in this respect, but the concentrations are again rather high. Polyphloretin phosphate inhibits PGDH and on this basis it may be worth investigating other prostaglandin blocking agents or agonists as inhibitors of PGDH.

In conclusion, the participation of prostaglandins in complex biological events may be investigated with the aid of substrate analogues or with pharmacological agents which block prostaglandin biosynthesis both in vitro and in vivo. At the time of writing no convenient technique for producing the complementary effect, by inhibition of metabolism, is available.


This article argues for a reassessment of the idea of learning from critical incidents and crises in organizations. Crisis management research looks upon crisis-induced learning as highly desirable albeit immensely challenging. This paper argues that, although learning from crisis is important for crisis management performance, the idea of crisis-induced learning holds an intrinsic contradiction, which becomes one of the main challenges to building crisis management capacities and competencies from lessons learned from previous crisis experiences. As crises are dynamic and evolving processes permeated by uncertainty and elements of surprise, learning from prior crisis experiences will not suffice for an effective future crisis response. Empirical episodes from inductive case studies are used to show that learning from crisis can lead to rigid structures and behavior hampering crisis management and organizational resilience. The study concludes by discussing conditions that need to accompany crisis-induced learning processes in organizations in order to avoid rigidity in future crisis response.


In "The England's Dreaming Tapes", Jon Savage has gone back to the source to re-create, in original interview form, the extraordinarily disparate and contentious personalities who emerged in the mid-70s as the harbingers of what became known as punk. Here in uncut form is the story of a generation that changed the world in just a few months in 1976. In interviews with all the major figures of the time - including all four original Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Chrissie Hynde, Jordan, Siouxsie Sioux, Viv Albertine, Adam Ant, Lee Black Childerss, Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley, Syl Sylvain, Debbie Wilson, Tony Wilson and Jah Wobble - Jon Savage has produced a book huge in scope, vision and generosity of perspective. "The England's Dreaming Tapes" will surely become the final word and the must-have oral history of the music, fashion and attitude that defined this influential and incendiary era.


Calls for accountability in the nonprofit sector have never been stronger, and the rise of various forms of self-regulation represents a profound shift for nonprofits. Existing studies tend to focus on effective design and implementation of accountability policies, with an eye toward improving nonprofit efficiency and reducing instances of misconduct. Against this backdrop, we draw on sociological institutionalism to theorize an alternative view of one form of self-regulation, formal codes of conduct or ethical codes. In this view, formal policies, such as codes, are assumed to be adopted as a response to pressures in an organization's institutional environment, beyond their purported instrumental value. Using a quantitative analysis of code adoption by 24 of 45 state nonprofit associations over the period 1994 to 2011, we provide evidence that codes arise due to general environmental conditions, particularly related to the influences of neoliberalism and professionalization, net of the functional demands of any particular context.


Development of the scope of the subject protection of personal interests in light of challenges of the 21st centuryOne of the greatest and most important challenges of private law in the 21st century is the adaptation and evolution of key institutions to the consequences of social or economic development. An extremely interesting process in this context is the development of the scope of the subject protection of personal rights. The aim of the article is to discuss this phenomenon, with particular emphasis on the influence of the literature and jurisprudence on extending the scope of the subject of personal rights. The author also draws attention to the way in which the concept and scope of personal rights were developed and modified, citing and discussing the most important positions and doctrinal disputes. In addition, an example was presented, which serves to illustrate the analyzed trend. It is the potential recognition of violations related to the low level of air quality in Poland covered by protection under the provisions on personal property. The author describes this issue, taking into account the provisions of European law, through Polish regulations and positions of the literature, formulating his own predictions about the future of this particular problem, emphasizing its importance. This reflection illustrates how the discussed civil law institution undergoes modification as a result of the social challenges of the 21st century. In the elaboration of the above issue, scientific methods were used, such as: analysis of judicial decisions, normative acts — both domestic and European ones, in addition the dogmatic method was used. Numerous conclusions have been derived as a result of the analysis, among other things — an indication of universality as one of the greatest achievements of doctrine. This dependence results from the fact that new private law challenges can be assessed through the prism of universal institutions that have already been created, only by modifying them, developing or deliberating on how to use them. The tendency described in the work can be extended to a range of other contemporary challenges before courts, but above all to the legislator.


Phlyctinus callosus (Schoenherr, 1826) (Curculionidae, Entiminae, Oosomini) is a species native to the Western Cape province of the Republic of South Africa. It is regarded as a key pest of orchards and vineyards. Detailed observations of its morphology and ecology have shown this species to be a complex of closely related species. In this study we describe the species of this complex, provide morphological and molecular diagnostic tools to distinguish between species, and review their distribution and host plant associations. In all, six species are recognized in the P. callosus complex and five are described as new (P. grootbosensis Haran sp. nov., P. xerophilus Haran sp. nov., P. planithorax Haran sp. nov., P. littoralis Haran sp. nov., P. aloevorus Haran sp. nov.). Sequences of the mitochondrial gene used (cytochrome oxidase I, COI) indicated that P. xerophilus Haran sp. nov. might comprise several cryptic species for which stable morphological features could not be identified at this stage. The species of the genus Phlyctinus appear to be primarily associated with various Asteraceae found in humid, sandy and disturbed habitats.


Although the general theory macroscopic quantum entanglement of is still in its infancy, consideration of the matter in the framework of action-at-a distance electrodynamics predicts for the random dissipative processes observability of the advanced nonlocal correlations. These correlations were really revealed in our previous experiments with some large-scale heliogeophysical processes as the source ones and the lab detectors as the probe ones. Recently a new experiment has been performing on the base of Baikal Deep Water Neutrino Observatory. The thick water layer is an excellent shield against any local impacts on the detectors. The first annual series 2012/2013 has demonstrated that detector signals respond to the heliogeophysical processes and causal connection of the signals directed downwards: from the Earth surface to the Baikal floor. But this nonlocal connection proved to be in reverse time. In addition advanced nonlocal correlation of the detector signal with the regional source-process: the random component of hydrological activity in the upper layer was revealed and the possibility of its forecast on nonlocal correlations was demonstrated. But the strongest macroscopic nonlocal correlations are observed at extremely low frequencies, that is at periods of several months. Therefore the above results should be verified in a longer experiment. We verify them by data of the second annual series 2013/2014 of the Baikal experiment. All the results have been confirmed, although some quantitative parameters of correlations and time reversal causal links turned out different due to nonstationarity of the source-processes. A new result is displaying of the advanced response of nonlocal correlation detector to the earthquake. This opens up the prospect of the earthquake forecast on the new physical principle, although further confirmation in the next events is certainly needed.


IIUM's vision and mission is its commitment to the integration of values with the modern fields of knowledge. Today, Islamization and integration have emerged as niche areas of the IIUM. There are various phases and orientations of the implementation of Islamization of knowledge (IOK) at the IIUM. Furthermore, the tolerant atmosphere in the IIUM has encouraged many scholars and staff to use their own approaches of Islamization. IIUM academic staff also integrates Islamic values into the University curriculum in different ways. However, the problem is an evaluating these various ways of integrating Islamic values into the University curriculum. The study is important as its helps IIUM to identify and monitor the areas of specialization that need to be improved with regards to the Islamic values integration. Thus, the aim of the paper is to investigate the perceptions and practices of IIUM academics in their effort to do IOK. The study is exploratory in nature and involves focus group discussion (FGD) with six kuliyyahs namely Kuliyyah of Engineering., ICT, Laws (AIKOL), Economics (ENM), IRKHS, and Science. Each FGD lasted between one to two hours, and involved about five to six lectures from each Kuliyyah. Two broad themes were generated from the data, which are perceptions and practices of IOK. The general findings of the study reveal that IIUM academic perceive and practice IOK differently according to their background and various specializations. IIUM academics generally perceive IOK as an important endeavor through challenging, yet differ in their views of its success. Meanwhile, the practices of IOK involve content, teaching and learning, materials, research and publication, assessment, and students. IIUM academics face many challenges in implementing IOK such as lack of resources, lack of academic involvement in IOK activities, and lack of Islamic knowledge to integrate technical, scientific and conventional knowledge. The study suggests that with proper and continuous support from the University, IOK could be implemented more effectively.


Oxyresveratrol (trans-2,3',4,5'-tetrahydroxystilbene) has been receiving increasing attention because of its astonishing biological activities, including antihyperlipidemic, neuroprotection, antidiabetic, anticancer, antiinflammation, immunomodulation, antiaging, and antioxidant activities. Oxyresveratrol is a stilbenoid, a type of natural phenol and a phytoalexin produced in the roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of several plants. It was first isolated from the heartwood of Artocarpus lakoocha, and has also been found in various plants, including Smilax china, Morus alba, Varatrum nigrum, Scirpus maritinus, and Maclura pomifera. Oxyresveratrol, an aglycone of mulberroside A, has been produced by microbial biotransformation or enzymatic hydrolysis of a glycosylated stilbene mulberroside A, which is one of the major compounds of the roots of M. alba. Oxyresveratrol shows less cytotoxicity, better antioxidant activity and polarity, and higher cell permeability and bioavailability than resveratrol (trans-3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene), a well-known antioxidant, suggesting that oxyresveratrol might be a potential candidate for use in health functional food and medicine. This review focuses on the plant sources, chemical characteristics, analysis, biosynthesis, and biological activities of oxyresveratrol as well as describes the perspectives on further exploration of oxyresveratrol.


It's not easy being part of Ginger's family when you're allergic to cats - three of them love cats and five of them are cats. Ginger tries to be good, but it's not easy when your new best friend is a fierce looking stray dog. It gets even harder when the school principal starts trying to kill your best friend. But Ginger manages to save the dog and expose Mr Napier for the phoney he is.


This Article analyzes patent mistakes — that is, mistakes made by the patent system when it decides whether a particular invention has met the patentability requirements. These mistakes are inevitable. Given resource constraints, some might even be desirable. This Article evaluates the relative costs of patent mistakes, so that we can make better ones.Three characteristics drive the costs of mistakes: their type (false positive or false negative), timing (early or late), and doctrinal basis (utility, novelty, nonobviousness, and so on). These characteristics make some mistakes more troubling than others.This Article compares the costs of making mistakes of different types, at different times, and on different doctrinal bases. These comparisons produce some surprising results — for example, under certain plausible conditions, it will be better to wrongly refuse to grant a patent than to wrongly invalidate a patent that had already been granted. The conclusions here have important implications for persistent issues in patent law, including how closely courts should scrutinize the validity of issued patents and how the Patent and Trademark Office should allocate scarce enforcement resources.


Peripartum thrombocytopenia and thrombotic events are usually attributable to diseases like Hemolysis Elevated Liver Enzymes Low Platelets (HELLP) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Malignancy is a rare cause and gastric cancer even more unusual. We report the case of a 28-year-old female with undiagnosed hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) in the peripartum period initially presenting with nausea and blurry vision at 35 weeks' gestation. Following cesarean section 1 week later, she developed thrombocytopenia and elevated blood pressure; HELLP was diagnosed. Development of acute kidney injury, decreasing platelet count and anemia lead to consideration of TTP. Despite plasmapheresis she had no improvement, developed respiratory failure and had acute large vessel arterial and venous thrombosis with multiple cerebral, renal, splenic and lower extremity arterial infarctions. Deep venous thrombosis of lower limbs was also seen. She was placed on corticosteroids and anticoagulation. Following extensive workup, vegetations on mitral valve were seen on echocardiography and she was started on antibiotics for endocarditis. She deteriorated into refractory shock, multiple organ failure and died on postpartum day 8. Autopsy done revealed diffuse submucosal gastric adenocarcinoma (linitus plastica). Metastases were present on small bowel, fallopian tubes, ovary and the placenta. Mitral valve had marantic vegetations. Tumor cells showed CDH1 gene mutation. Such a diagnosis in pregnancy is very challenging due to overlapping symptoms leading to misdiagnosis. Here, thromboembolism was malignancy-related and rapid spread probably hormone-associated. The purpose of this report is to highlight the need to warrant investigation for cancer, among workup for other common conditions, for atypical thromboembolism in pregnancy. J Clin Gynecol Obstet. 2018;7(3-4):81-83 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcgo512w


The rapid growth of informal employment in China in recent decades has attracted attention, but to understand its implications, the concept of informality must be deconstructed. We reclassify employment status into three categories: salaried workers who have long-term contracts; the self-employed; and causal workers without long term contracts (working in either the formal or the informal sector). The monthly earnings of the self-employed are much (47%) higher than those casual employees. Self-employment is not necessarily a misfortune and the flexibility it provides may be optimal for some kinds of workers. For example, the self-employed are more likely to be disabled and to have young families. Institutionally, it is still difficult for casual workers and most rural-urban migrant workers to embark on business ownership. Although a large group of rural-urban migrants are employees with longer term contracts, their rural registration (hukou) means they lack the social protection of urban residents. The labour force with rural hukou is more likely to fall into the informal sector and, within that sector, is most likely to be engaged in casual labouring jobs. Policies to support small businesses may be warranted given the detrimental impacts of informality on casual workers. Experimental interventions could be tried along the lines of those used in Peru to provide funds to support entrepreneurial activities by this group to lift themselves out of a poverty trap into more sustainable employment. Skill training, encouragement for innovation, tax credits and reducing institutional constraints on starting up small business should be all considered.


Combining multiple information sources such as streams (with different features) and multi modal data has shown to be a very promising trend, both in experiments and to some extend in real-life biometric authentication applications. However, combining too many biometric systems (base-experts) will also increase both hardware and computation costs. Conventional way to selecting a subset of optimal base-experts out of $N$ is to carry out the experiments explicitly. There are $2^N-1$ possible combinations. In this paper, we propose an analytical solution to this task using weighted sum fusion on normalised scores (zero-mean and unit variance). The algorithm depends only on how accurately one can estimate the covariance matrix of the actual test data. The proposed algorithm has a complexcity that is additive between the number of examples and the number of possible combinations while the conventional approach is multiplicative between these two terms. Hence, our approach is more efficient. It was tested on the BANCA multi-modal database. Experimental results showed that such an algorithm is a viable solution


Heterotrophic bacterial growth efficiency (BGE), the ratio between the carbon consumed and the bacterial biomass produced, is a key factor in understanding flows of organic matter in aquatic ecosystems. Methods generally used to estimate bacterial respiration require long incubations (24 to 36 h) to measure significant rates during which nonlinear patterns of oxygen decrease may bias BGE computation. These respiration estimates are generally compared to bacterial production rates determined from radiotracer incorporation from much shorter incubations. The aim of this study was to improve the determination of bacterial respiration to better estimate BGE. For this purpose, we employed oxygen microprobes in predator free (0.6 µm filtered) seawater samples and determined in parallel bacterial abundance. The use of oxygen microprobes allowed us to continuously monitor oxygen concentration during the incubation. Hence, the length of incubation can be adjusted as soon as a significant decrease of oxygen is observed. At the most productive sites, respiration was measurable from the beginning of the incubation and varied with time. In contrast, at the oligotrophic sites, respiration was often detectable only after a lag‐phase of 5 to 10 h and remained constant thereafter. BGE was computed from the changes in bacterial abundance observed during the respiration measurements. This way, both processes were determined in similar incubation conditions. In comparison, the use of radiotracer derived bacterial production systematically resulted in an underestimation of BGE.


Binge alcohol drinking is a major public health concern world wide and its occurrence is rising among young adults. Using animal and human subjects, this thesis evaluates the impact of binge drinking during a time of neurodevelopment on aspects of impulse control, and studies the potential of addressing a molecular target, the μ-opioid receptor, to alleviate elevated impulsive-like behaviour.
First, the nature of impulsivity is described in a review paper. We demonstrate the suitability of the Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task (5-CSRTT) for measuring one facet of impulsivity, waiting impulsivity, in mice. Bridging the animal and human laboratories, we developed a novel human analogue of the 5-CSRTT (paper 2). Elevated impulsive behaviour was detected in both young human binge drinkers and in an ethanol-preferring strain of mice, suggesting impulsivity to occur as a prelude to heavy alcohol use. In a second approach (paper 3), we studied the long term effects of intermittent alcohol exposure using a mouse model of adolescent binge drinking. We revealed disrupted impulsive behaviour in adulthood in two different inbred strains, which differ in baseline impulsivity and ethanol drinking patterns, indicating that impulsivity is also a consequence of ethanol exposure. In paper 4 we studied the ability of an opioid antagonist to improve top-down control of impulsive behaviour. Consilience between species and paradigms will need to be further addressed in future studies, but antagonising μ-opioid systems may aid in preventing binge drinking by facilitating inhibitory control mechanisms.
Collectively, from animal and human evidence, this thesis will argue that exaggerated impulsivity may result from repeated ethanol withdrawal in adolescence as well as being a pre-existing endophenotype contributing to adolescent binge drinking. Disentangling such a relationship may help delineate new lines of intervention for at-risk individuals.


Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in flowering occur in many plant species with abiotic pollination and may confer fitness advantages through mechanisms such as predator satiation or pollination efficiency. Environmental factors such as light quality or quantity and temperature play an important role in inducing synchronization on wide geographic scales. On a smaller geographic scale, external factors such as resource availability and herbivory are theorized to trigger flowering, while genetic factors may also play an important role. In this study, we assessed the importance of ecological and genetic factors in shaping seascape‐level spatial heterogeneity in flowering of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica. By investigating spatially close sites (<20 km) with similar seascape configurations and depth, we assume that major environmental drivers (temperature and light) were equivalent. We assessed four ecological factors (productivity, leaf nitrogen and carbon content and herbivory) and three genetic factors (heterozygosity, relatedness and clonality) to assess three hypotheses for synchronized flowering in P. oceanica: (i) clone synchronization (internal clock hypothesis), (ii) variation in nutrient availability, potentially caused by spatial heterogeneity in herbivory rates or nutrient translocation via clonal integration (resource budget hypothesis) or (iii) kin selection and sibling synchronization. Internal relatedness and heterozygosity had a significant positive effect on the abundance of flowers. Moreover, productivity and genotypic richness (clonality) were negatively associated with flower density, although at a lower level of significance. In addition, we found that clones were almost exclusively shared among mass‐flowering patches and patches without mass‐flowering, respectively. Synthesis. The results shed new light on seagrass flowering patterns and on the mechanisms of flower synchronization at the patch level within a wider spatial scale. We found support for the kin selection hypothesis and indirect evidence for the resource budget hypothesis. Thus, a combination of mainly genetic but also ecological factors causes the observed heterogeneous flowering patterns in Posidonia oceanica seascapes. In addition, we found a strong positive relationship between the number of flowers and heterozygosity, adding evidence to the controversial association between heterozygosity and fitness when a limited number of loci are used. To our knowledge, this study is the first to link both ecological and genetic factors with flower abundance in a species with a presumed masting strategy.


SUMMARY: The direct control of fishing effort as a management tool is of special interest in the Mediterranean, where the lack of effective international management systems and the high diversity of the catches significantly increases the complexity of implementing TAC's as an indirect control of fishing effort. However, its enforcement should be based on the precise knowledge of the relationship between the fishing effort and its corresponding fishing mortality. In this sense, the general aim of this study was to develop an approach for analysing this relationship. In order to estimate the annual effective fishing effort on hake, a relational data base including daily landings by vessel and species of trawl fleet based on the port of Palma, Mallorca island (western Mediterranean) during the period 1983-1991 was built. Fishing mortalities were available from VPA. Fishing effort and fishing mortality were split by subfleets or metiers which were identified by cluster analysis. Significant linear relationships between the two parameters were obtained when fishing effort was considered as the number of days in which hake catch was higher than 10 kg multiplied by GRT of correspondent vessels. These CPUE values are mainly obtained when trawlers operate in the muddy bottoms of the shelf and on the upper slope, where hake populations are mostly distributed. On the other hand, no clear trends in catchability by metier were found during the period analysed.


Lightweight virtualization (i.e., containers) offers a virtual host environment for applications without the need for a separate kernel, enabling better resource utilization and improved efficiency. However, the shared kernel also prevents containers from taking advantage of security features that are available to traditional VMs and hosts. Containers cannot apply local policies to govern integrity measurement, code execution, mandatory access control, etc. to prevent application-specific security problems. Changes have been proposed to make kernel security mechanisms available to containers, but such changes are often adhoc and expose the challenges of trusting containers to make security decisions without compromising host system or other containers. In this paper, we propose security namespaces, a kernel abstraction that enables containers to have an autonomous control over their security. The security namespace relaxes the global and mandatory assumption of kernel security frameworks, thus enabling containers to independently define security policies and apply them to a limited scope of processes. To preserve security, we propose a routing mechanism that can dynamically dispatch an operation to a set of containers whose security might be affected by the operation, therefore ensuring the security decision made by one container cannot compromise the host or other containers. We demonstrate security namespace by developing namespaces for integrity measurement and mandatory access control in the Linux kernel for use by Docker containers. Results show that security namespaces can effectively mitigate security problems within containers (e.g., malicious code execution) with less than 0.7% additional latency to system call and almost identical application throughput. As a result, security namespaces enable containers to obtain autonomous control over their security without compromising the security of other containers or the host system.


Style classification of document page images is crucial for logical structure analysis of heterogeneous collections of documents. Both layout and contextual features contain significant information about document styles. Most existing methods are supervised methods in which specific document models or classifiers are learned from a training set of document page images with known class labels. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised classification method that involves no training or manual selection of algorithm parameters. In particular, we first represent each document page as an ordered labeled X-Y tree. A tree matching algorithm is then used to compute style dissimilarity between two document pages. We propose a set of tree edit cost functions based on Karl Pearson distance between two multivariate feature observations, which is robust to the over-segmentation problem and zone length variations of same logical entities. Finally, the K-medoids algorithm is used to find an optimal grouping of the trees into K clusters, each of which corresponds to a distinct document style. We evaluate our algorithm on test datasets with different cluster sizes and degrees of style similarity. Experimental results show our algorithm achieved an average classification accuracy of 95.69% over six datasets consisting of 150 pages of 11 different styles.


Safety culture and safety climate have been a focus of heated debate for over three decades. Despite the general recognition of their importance in safety performance, many disparate views exist in their definition and theoretical framework. While some researchers stress the importance of clear distinctions between safety culture and safety climate, others seem to take a more flexible view using the terms interchangeably. One of the dominant definitions describes safety culture as "the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation's health and safety management" (Health and Safety Commission, 1993). Safety culture is based on shared underlying beliefs, values and assumptions towards work and the organisation in general. On the other hand, safety climate is defined as organisational members' shared perceptions about their work environments, safety policies and practices. Safety culture is regarded as stable and long-enduring, while safety climate can fluctuate in response to external factors (e.g. political and socio-economic change). Safety climate is regarded as a "snapshot" of the underlying safety culture. Proponents of the culture-climate distinction maintain that safety culture cannot be quantified and that safety climate can be used as a 'surrogate' measure of safety culture, for example, through self-report questionnaires. Other researchers take a more pragmatic approach and claim safety culture can also be measured. For the purpose of the current study, the definitional distinction is respected with the understanding that safety climate is an integral part of safety culture.

An industry-specific questionnaire was created, utilising retrospective and prospective approaches for evaluating safety perception and culture in the rail industry in Australia. This was achieved through: a) analysis of 104 rail safety accident investigation reports based on Reason's Generic Error Modelling System; and b) adapting items from an instrument extensively used by a large multinational organisation for assessing the level of safety culture maturity based on Westrum's typology. This facilitated a holistic approach, which addressed both technical/structural aspects and psychological aspects of safety as perceived by the employees. Six rail organisations in four jurisdictions across Australia participated, which yielded 241 responses. Factor analysis was conducted to identify safety perception and culture factors for further statistical analyses. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA revealed significant differences among occupational groups in the evaluation of the organisations' safety measures and culture. Predictive analyses were also conducted to investigate factors potentially associated with safety outcomes. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that when the effect of occupational group was controlled for, a safety perception factor External Factors and a safety culture factor Reactivity – Blame Culture were significant predictors of the experience of near misses. Furthermore, when the effect of occupational group, tenure and near miss frequency were controlled for, Workplace Stress and Reactivity – Blame Culture were significant predictors of the frequency of safety defect reporting. The predictive values of both retrospective items (predominantly safety climate pertaining to employees' perception about technical/structural aspects of safety measures) and prospective items (safety culture) were both validated. The implications of the results are discussed, particularly in terms of cultivating leadership attributes which embrace organisational learning.


Although a substantial amount of research documents the increased likelihood of maltreated youths to engage in delinquency, very little is known about them once they cross into delinquency. These youths are often referred to as "crossover youth,""dual jurisdiction," or "dually involved" youth, and based on a growing amount of research, it appears these youths face a number of challenges. They have significant educational problems, high rates of placement changes and high rates of substance abuse and mental health problems, and when they enter the juvenile justice system, they are more likely to stay longer and penetrate deeper into the system then their nonmaltreated counterparts. Using data from Los Angeles County (N= 581), the purpose of this study is to identify what characteristics among a crossover population are more likely to result in receiving harsher dispositions and higher recidivism rates.


Shooting deaths in police custody (including police and self-inflicted shootings) account for 30 percent of all deaths in police custody. This paper uses National Deaths in Custody Program data and coronial records to examine the circumstances of these deaths between 2006–07 and 2016–17.Shooting deaths in police custody were most likely to involve non-Indigenous men. Most decedents were in the process of being detained for a violent offence, were in possession of a weapon and had a history of mental illness. Almost half had used alcohol and/or drugs shortly before their deaths.


The learning objective of vision-language approach of CLIP [63] does not effectively account for the noisy many-to-many correspondences found in web-harvested image captioning datasets, which contributes to its compute and data inefficiency. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel training framework based on cross-modal contrastive learning that uses progressive self-distillation and soft image-text alignments to more efficiently learn robust representations from noisy data. Our model distills its own knowledge to dynamically generate soft-alignment targets for a subset of images and captions in every minibatch, which are then used to update its parameters. Extensive evaluation across 14 benchmark datasets shows that our method consistently outperforms its CLIP counterpart in multiple settings, including: (a) zero-shot classification, (b) linear probe transfer, and (c) image-text retrieval, without incurring extra computational cost. Analysis using an ImageNet-based robustness test-bed [70] reveals that our method offers better effective robustness to natural distribution shifts compared to both ImageNet-trained models and CLIP itself. Lastly, pretraining with datasets spanning two orders of magnitude in size shows that our improvements over CLIP tend to scale with number of training examples.


Fund Flow Statements abridge a firm's arrival and address of funds. Simply put, it tells investors area funds accept appear from and area funds accept gone. The statements are generally acclimated to actuate whether companies calmly antecedent and advance funds accessible to them. Fund flow statements are able by demography the antithesis bedding for two dates apery the advantage period. The increases and decreases have to again be affected for anniversary item. Finally, the changes are classified beneath four categories: (1) Abiding sources, (2) abiding uses, (3) concise sources, (4) concise uses. It is as well important to aught out the non-fund-based adjustments in adjustment to abduction alone the changes that are accompanies by flow of funds. However, assets accrued but accustomed and costs incurred but not accustomed reckoned in the accumulation and accident account should not be afar from the accumulation amount for the fund flow statement. Fund flow statements can be acclimated to analyze a array of problems in the way a aggregation operates. For example, companies that are application concise money to accounts abiding investments may run into clamminess problems in the future. Meanwhile, a aggregation that is application abiding money to accounts concise investments may not be calmly utilizing its capital


In Multiple Instance Learning (MIL), each entity is normally expressed as a set of instances. Most of the current MIL methods only deal with the case when each instance is represented by one type of features. However, in many real world applications, entities are often described from several different information sources/views. For example, when applying MIL to image categorization, the characteristics of each image can be derived from both its RGB features and SIFT features. Previous research work has shown that, in traditional learning methods, leveraging the consistencies between different information sources could improve the classification performance drastically. Out of a similar motivation, to incorporate the consistencies between different information sources into MIL, we propose a novel research framework -- Multi-Instance Learning from Multiple Information Sources (MI2LS). Based on this framework, an algorithm -- Fast MI2LS (FMI2LS) is designed, which combines Concave-Convex Constraint Programming (CCCP) method and an adapte- d Stoachastic Gradient Descent (SGD) method. Some theoretical analysis on the optimality of the adapted SGD method and the generalized error bound of the formulation are given based on the proposed method. Experimental results on document classification and a novel application -- Insider Threat Detection (ITD), clearly demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method over state-of-the-art MIL methods.


Symptoms of Parkinson Disease (PD), the second most common
neurodegenerative disease, emerge due to degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Approximately 10% of PD is familial with a number of genes that have been recognized to play a role. In 2012, a genome wide study revealed a role for the foxO transcription factor in PD. To more fully understand human diseases, model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster are widely used. In the present study, I have attempted to model Parkinson Disease in Drosophila by foxO modulation using RNAi transgenes. To achieve this goal, I conducted longevity assays and locomotion measurements along with supportive experiments that target expression in the developing eye. Results suggest that under certain conditions, slight elevation of foxO by down-regulation of one of foxO's inhibitors, the kinase minibrain (mnb), can model PD in flies. Results are presented here showing that expression of mnb-RNAi (and predicted subsequent slight elevation of foxO) in dopaminergic neurons results in significant loss of climbing ability: the defining feature of PD models in fruit flies. Other results suggest that slight decrease of foxO by foxO-RNAi decreases life span significantly when expressed under the control of TH-Gal4( Tyrosine Hydroxylase-Gal4) . In addition, results show that GFP-RNAi expression under the control of TH-Gal4 reduces life span significantly.


A Silversmith's Manual has been reprinted yet again in response to public demand. The author, Bernard Cuzner, was a leading authority on working in silver - not only as a craftsman, but also as a practised lecturer and teacher. In addition, the work includes a chapter with twenty-four designs by Anthony Elson DesRCA, one of the foremost designers of silverware. This is a practical, comprehensive guide that will appeal to anyone who works with silver, from student and specialist craftsmen, to designers, salesmen and collectors. Cuzner teaches the theory and application of silversmithing through a series of exercises. The creation of bowls, boxes, beakers and basins is covered, as are the decorative techniques of applied wire, chasing and piercing. Throughout the course of the book the student will come to understand the principles and problems of good design as well as the pros and cons of machine work. This is an important book which has been a source of inspiration to many generations of silversmiths. Packed with many modern designs of numerous styles, for all types of domestic silverware, no amateur or student silversmith should be without a copy.


In the domain of Web Services, it is not uncommon to find redundant services that provide functionalities to the clients. Services with the same functionality can be clustered into a group of redundant services. Respectively, if a service offers different functionalities, it belongs to more than one group. Having various Web Services that are able to handle the client's request suggests the necessity of a mechanism that selects the most appropriate Web Service at a given moment of time. This thesis presents an approach, Virtual Web Services Layer, for dynamic service selection based on virtualization on the server side. It helps managing redundant services in a transparent manner as well as allows adding services to the system at run-time. In addition, the layer assures a level of security since the consumers do not have direct access to the Web Services. Several selection techniques are applied to increase the performance of the system in terms of load-balancing, dependability, or execution time. The results of the experiments show which selection techniques are appropriate when different QoS criteria of the services are known and how the correctness of this information influences on the decision-making process.


Mississippi leads the nation in child obesity, chronic diseases, poverty, and food insecurity.  Stemming the long-term consequences of high obesity rates will require a cultural attitude and behavioral shift towards healthy eating.  This study explored the perceptions, beliefs, practices, and self-efficacy towards healthy eating among limited resource Mississippi parents to inform a SNAP-Ed social marketing campaign.  A statewide telephone survey was conducted with income-eligible or current SNAP recipients who provided or prepared food for children in their household.  Likert-type scale questions measured intrapersonal factors, self-efficacy, and practices regarding healthy eating, such as shopping and meal planning.  A total of 206 surveys were analyzed.  Seventy-nine percent (n=163) of participants were currently receiving SNAP benefits.  Healthy eating was perceived as balanced meals and fruits and vegetables.  Though 60% agreed that cost was a barrier to eating more fruits and vegetables, 90% of participants had positive attitudes and beliefs towards healthy eating.  In summary, Mississippi parents with limited resources were interested in providing healthy balanced meals but faced cost as the major barrier.  A social marketing message with this population can be effective in emphasizing affordable healthy meals.


Africa has enjoyed fifteen years of sustained economic growth. Per capita income for the region as a whole is rising steadily, and regional growth has exceeded the global average. During the last decade six of the world's ten fastest-growing economies were in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, there are worrying signs that this growth turnaround has not resulted in robust growth of "good" jobs – those offering higher wages and better working conditions – especially for the young. Driven by a delayed demographic transition, the share of youth (aged 15-24) in Africa – both north and south of the Sahara - has been rising over time and is now higher than in any other part of the world. This demographic bulge offers the possibility of a growth dividend, if – as in the case of East Asia – a rapidly growing work force can be combined with capital and technology. But it can also represent a major threat. Africa is not creating the number of jobs needed to absorb the 10-12 million young people entering its labor markets each year, and as recent events in North Africa have shown, lack of employment opportunities in the face of a rapidly growing, young labor force can undermine social cohesion and political stability. This paper argues that Africa's "employment problem" is in fact a symptom of its lack of structural change – the shift in resources from lower to higher productivity uses. Despite rapid growth, Africa has had very little structural change (Arbacha and Page, 2009). While many African economies have relatively low unemployment rates, including for the young, they also have large informal sectors, condemning many of their workers to vulnerable employment and working poverty. Indeed, there is some evidence that since 1990 structural change has moved in the wrong direction in Africa: labor has moved from higher to lower productivity employment (McMillan and Rodrik, 2011). Seen from this perspective, employment policies cannot focus only on the supply side of the labor market. Indeed, while labor market reforms and active labor market policies can make a contribution to solving the employment problem, the greatest traction is likely to come from policies and public actions designed to accelerate the growth of sectors with high value added per worker: in short from a strategy for structural change.The paper is organized in the following way. The next section summarizes recent evidence on employment in Africa. It argues that the youth employment problem is a subset of a larger employment problem arising from growing informalization of work and limited growth of good jobs. Section 3 sets out the nature of Africa's "structural deficit". It makes the case that the typical low income economy in Africa needs to accelerate the growth of agro-industry, manufacturing and tradable services to create higher productivity jobs. Sections 4 and 5 turn to public policy. Because of the diversity of Africa's economies and labor markets, public actions need to be tailored to individual country circumstances. Section 4 begins the discussion by examining potential labor market interventions. Section 5 then turns to policies to accelerate structural change and employment creation. Section 6 concludes


The U.S. government is about to exceed its statutory debt limit of $14.3 trillion. But that actually underestimates the size of the fiscal time bomb that this country is facing. If one considers the unfunded liabilities of programs such as Medicare and Social Security, the true national debt could run as high as $119.5 trillion.Moreover, to focus solely on debt is to treat a symptom rather than the underlying disease. We face a debt crisis not because taxes are too low but because government is too big. If there is no change to current policies, by 2050 federal government spending will exceed 42 percent of GDP.Adding in state and local spending, government at all levels will consume nearly 60 percent of everything produced in this country. Whether financed through debt or taxes, government that large would be a crushing burden to our economy and our liberties.Driving this massive increase in the size and cost of government are so-called "entitlement programs," in particular Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Indeed, by 2050, those three programs alone will consume 18.4 percent of GDP. If one assumes that revenues return to and stay at their traditional 18 percent of GDP, then those three programs alone will consume all federal revenues. Therefore any serious attempt to balance the federal budget and reduce our growing national debt must include a plan to reform entitlements.It may well be politically convenient to continue ducking entitlement reform. But doing so will condemn our children and our grandchildren to a world of mounting debt and higher taxes.


Mid-infrared diagnostics are presented for a large portion of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) sample plus archival data from ISO and Spitzer. The SINGS data set includes low- and high-resolution spectral maps and broadband imaging in the infrared for over 160 nuclear and extranuclear regions within 75 nearby galaxies spanning a wide range of morphologies, metallicities, luminosities, and star formation rates. Our main result is that these mid-infrared diagnostics effectively constrain a target's dominant power source. The combination of a high-ionization line index and PAH strength serves as an efficient discriminant between AGNs and star-forming nuclei, confirming progress made with ISO spectroscopy on starbursting and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The sensitivity of Spitzer allows us to probe fainter nuclear and star-forming regions within galaxy disks. We find that both star-forming nuclei and extranuclear regions stand apart from nuclei that are powered by Seyfert or LINER activity. In fact, we identify areas within four diagnostic diagrams containing >90% Seyfert/LINER nuclei or >90% H II regions/H II nuclei. We also find that, compared to starbursting nuclei, extranuclear regions typically separate even further from AGNs, especially for low-metallicity extranuclear environments. In addition, instead of the traditional mid-infrared approach to differentiating between AGNs and star-forming sources that utilizes relatively weak high-ionization lines, we show that strong low-ionization cooling lines of X-ray-dominated regions like [Si II] 34.82 μm can alternatively be used as excellent discriminants. Finally, the typical target in this sample shows relatively modest interstellar electron density (~400 cm-3) and obscuration (AV ~ 1.0 mag for a foreground screen), consistent with a lack of dense clumps of highly obscured gas and dust residing in the emitting regions.


National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) are a globally established and expanding phenomenon. They are increasingly merging and being mapped onto meta-qualifications frameworks. One key NQF in both these roles is the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). There is much research that categorises the different types of NQF, details their success and failure, and there is a steadily expanding body of critical research into NQF. Despite this, little research has focused on how NQF are used in day to day academic practice in the very institutions whose qualifications they frame. This paper begins to redress this through focusing on the SCQF as an exemplar. It presents a synthesis between contemporary literature, documentary analysis of SCQF literature and the data from in-depth interviews with 15 stakeholders from a range of educational roles. The findings show that despite the claims of the SCQF literature and of contemporary literature regarding the success of the SCQF, its diffusion and the extent of its use amongst these stakeholders is limited. Instead, it is used more as a symbolic tick box exercise and largely ignored. We discuss the implications of this and posit a number of questions that challenge the focus of existing research into NQF and argue for a shift in the criteria by which they are judged from educational to market based ones.


Supervised deep learning has gained significant attention for speech enhancement recently. The state-of-the-art deep learning methods perform the task by learning a ratio/binary mask that is applied to the mixture in the time-frequency domain to produce the clean speech. Despite the great performance in the single-channel setting, these frameworks lag in performance in the multichannel setting as the majority of these methods a) fail to exploit the available spatial information fully, and b) still treat the deep architecture as a black box which may not be well-suited for multichannel audio processing. This paper addresses these drawbacks, a) by utilizing complex ratio masking instead of masking on the magnitude of the spectrogram, and more importantly, b) by introducing a channel-attention mechanism inside the deep architecture to mimic beamforming. We propose Channel-Attention Dense U-Net, in which we apply the channel-attention unit recursively on feature maps at every layer of the network, enabling the network to perform non-linear beamforming. We demonstrate the superior performance of the network against the state-of-the-art approaches on the CHiME-3 dataset.


The Web is a dynamic, ever changing collection of information. This paper explores changes in Web content by analyzing a crawl of 55,000 Web pages, selected to represent different user visitation patterns. Although change over long intervals has been explored on random (and potentially unvisited) samples of Web pages, little is known about the nature of finer grained changes to pages that are actively consumed by users, such as those in our sample. We describe algorithms, analyses, and models for characterizing changes in Web content, focusing on both time (by using hourly and sub-hourly crawls) and structure (by looking at page-, DOM-, and term-level changes). Change rates are higher in our behavior-based sample than found in previous work on randomly sampled pages, with a large portion of pages changing more than hourly. Detailed content and structure analyses identify stable and dynamic content within each page. The understanding of Web change we develop in this paper has implications for tools designed to help people interact with dynamic Web content, such as search engines, advertising, and Web browsers.


The aim of this article is threefold. To begin with, I sketch in outline form some main aspects of Hegel's theory of history. Second, I will consider in some detail its relation to theology, which is an important theme for his position in general, including his view of history. Finally, and since I believe that this theory is practically relevant, useful for our understanding of the historical world, I will apply Hegel's theory of history to a practical contemporary problem, namely, 9/11. I argue that Hegel's theory of history is best understood as a secular, idealist view based, not on theology, but rather on philosophical anthropology and idealist epistemology. Hegel's approach to history as the result of human actions that are never irrational but in principle always rational helps us to understand the historical process. This theory is specifically useful in understanding the series of events leading up to and away from 9/11, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the War on Terror.


This thesis takes a closer look at Activiy Based Computing (ABC), at health workers and how they use computers, at what aspects of ABC they find useful for their everyday work and at what should be taken into consideration when designing the next generation ABC-system. For answering these questions, doctors and nurses were asked to participate in a workshop where the theme was: "Next generation clinical infomation systems". In all seven health workers participated in two workshops. Previous work has produced the "ABC-principles" and the "Attributes of session-aware systems". The cross-section of the two sets of principles have been derrived, and yielded the list used as the base in the evaluations: Multiple patients Multiple tasks Mobility Collaboration Handover Interruption The two workshops both started with an introduction of the differet principles, before a usability evaluation (evaluating the principles), a role play and finally a focus group (containing a card ranking). In addition some of the participants were observed in their natural environment. The results of the different methods conclude that the evaluated principles all are appreciated by the health workers, but have to be implemented in a satisfactory way. They should all be taken into consideration when designing a new computer system for use within the health sector.


Hyperpigmentation occurs when there is an increase in melanin content in the skin. It can be localised i.e. limited to a certain area or it can be diffuse i.e. occurring all over the body. Localised form of hyperpigmentation can happen as a result of injury or inflammation from conditions such as Acne, contact dermatitis, lupus etc known as post inflammatory hyperpigmentation or Melasma. Diffuse generally results from a systemic disease, drug or neoplasm. Localised hyperpigmentation like PIH and melasma can lead to a lot of psychological distress with skin type IV and above being particularly susceptible. It is not only important to find the cause of pigmentation in order to arrest further progression but it is also important to treat the pigmented lesions. Further prevention should advocate the use of daily sun protection with sunscreen agents and other sun avoidance measures.


This article argues that there is an epistemological style associated with much American evangelical Christianity that is strikingly different from that found in never-secular Christianities. This epistemological style is characterized by a playful, self-consciously paradoxical framing of belief-claims in which God's reality is both clearly affirmed and qualified. One can describe this style as using an "epistemological double register" in which God is described as very real—and as doubted, in some way. The representation of God generated by this complex style is a magically real or hyper-real God, both more real than everyday reality and in some way fictive. The article goes on to argue that these epistemological features can be understood as generated by and generative of particular theories of mind. The article argues for the development of an anthropological theory of mind in which at least four dimensions are important: boundedness, interiority, sensorium, and epistemic stance.


This article analyzes data on the values of adults affiliated with the Jewish community in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania. There was wide agreement among the populations' value prioritization, but they are not monolithic. Overall, family-related values were more important than materialistic values. Those in Romania were the most religious, those in Hungary the least so. A graphic portrayal of the data is presented and interpreted, guided by the Schwartz axiological typology. Sub-populations by home country and age group are compared in the context of this model. The older cohort tends towards Family-related values, while the younger cohort tends towards values of Hedonism and Stimulation. The placement of the national sub-groups illustrates their relative emphasis on materialist values versus post-materialist values of self-enhancement, which reflects the degree of democratization of the countries and the socio-economic level of the Jewish communities.


In this thesis, we consider the problem of exploiting the gene-environment independence assumption in a case-control study inferring the joint effect of genotype and environmental exposure on disease risk. We first take a detour and develop the constrained maximum likelihood estimation theory for parameters arising from a partially identified model, where some parameters of the model may only be identified through constraints imposed by additional assumptions. We show that, under certain conditions, the constrained maximum likelihood estimator exists and locally maximizes the likelihood function subject to constraints. Moreover, we study the asymptotic distribution of the estimator and propose a numerical algorithm for estimating parameters. Next, we use the frequentist approach to analyze case-control data under the gene-environment independence assumption. By transforming the problem into a constrained maximum likelihood estimation problem, we are able to derive the asymptotic distribution of the estimator in a closed form. We then show that exploiting the gene-environment independence assumption indeed improves estimation efficiency. Also, we propose an easy-to-implement numerical algorithm for finding estimates in practice. Furthermore, we approach the problem in a Bayesian framework. By introducing a different parameterization of the underlying model for case-control data, we are able to define a prior structure reflecting the gene-environment independence assumption and develop an efficient numerical algorithm for the computation of the posterior distribution. The proposed Bayesian method is further generalized to address the concern about the validity of the gene-environment independence assumption. ii Finally, we consider a special variant of the standard case-control design, the case-only design, and study the analysis of case-only data under the gene-environment independence assumption and the rare disease assumption. We show that the Bayesian method for analyzing case-control data is readily applicable for the analysis of case-only data, allowing the flexibility of incorporating different prior beliefs on disease prevalence.


Information systems are more and more often based on aggregation of other systems that must be maintained and evolved in an agile way and with no entropy creation. This is not without interoperability problems! Among others, the aim of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is to provide solutions for interoperability issues between systems. This paper summarizes thoughts that have come up from the specific action "Interoper- ability of information systems and model-driven engineering: What challenges? What solutions?" supported by inforsid. We propose a summary of approaches that are based on MDE and knowledge engineering and that tackle interoperability issues in the industry. Open questions and limitations that raised during the meetings are also reported.


This bulletin was originally prepared for the 100th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, in Phoenix, Arizona as part of the Coal Division Field Trip. Four days of roadlogs (from Albuquerque to Phoenix via the San Juan Basin) and eight invited papers were compiled in this volume.The field-trip route goes through areas with excellent exposures of the lower two-thirds of the Late Cretaceous coal-bearing sequences and their marine counterparts, showing the facies relationships along the transgressive-regressive shoreline in the southern San Juan Basin. The field trip goes through west-central New Mexico. The purpose was to look at the recent activity in the coal mining industry and the current geological investigations in the region. The route of the field trip goes through areas with excellent exposures of the lower two-thirds of the Late Cretaceous coal-bearing sequences and their marine counterparts, showing the facies relationships along the transgressive-regressive shoreline in the southern San Juan Basin. Several stops are planned to look at these sequences and discuss their depositional environments. The coal mines that will be visited are different in both size and method of operation, a reflection on the extent of the coal resource and the quality characteristics of the coal.The papers included in this bulletin cover the geology of west-central New Mexico, the hydrogeology of the area, and the individual coal mines to be visited. Most of these articles represent recent work of the authors in areas which had not previously been looked at in such detail. It is hoped that these contributions are representative of the present knowledge of the Late Cretaceous in the southern San Juan Basin and outlying areas. Articles included are Coal mining and production in New Mexico by G. H. Roybal, Geology and mining activity in the Lee Ranch area, McKinley County, New Mexico by E. C. Beaumont, Characterization of New Mexico coals, Menefee and Crevasse Canyon Formations by F. W. Campbell and G. H. Roybal, Water supply in southern San Juan Basin, New Mexico by J. W. Shomaker and R. W. Newcomer, Jr., McKinley mine by W. R. Erickson, S. L. Johnson, J. C. Klinger, N. A. Wildman, and J. Wilson, Stratigraphy and coal occurrences of the Tres Hermanos Formation and Gallup Sandstone, Zuni Basin, west-central New Mexico by O. J. Anderson and G. D. Stricker, Coal geology of the Salt Lake coal field by F. W. Campbell, Hydrogeologic considerations in mining, Nations Draw area, Salt Lake coal field, New Mexico by W. J. Stone and B. E. McGurk, and Large-scale combustion test of Fence Lake coal at the Coronado Generating Station by M. A. Greenberg.


Real estate professionals, such as investors, owner-occupants, and lenders who are involved in the investment decision-making process are increasingly interested in sustainability and energy efficiency investment. However, current tools and techniques, both technical and financial, typically used for assessing sustainability on their own are unable to provide comprehensive and reliable financial information required for making high-quality investment decisions. Sustainability investment often includes non-cost benefits, value implications, as well as substantial risk and uncertainty that current methods do not simultaneously incorporate in their assessment process. Through a combined quantitative and qualitative approach, this research creates a new systematic assessment process to consider both cost and non-cost savings and therefore the true financial performance of a set of sustainable options in the context of value and risk, while explicitly deriving and including various uncertainties inherent in the process. The framework integrates assessment tools of technical decision-makers with those of investment decision-makers into a single platform to improve the quality of financial performance projections, and therefore, investment decisions concerning sustainable options in real estate. A case study is then conducted to test and demonstrate the numeric application of the proposed framework in the context of a non-green office building. The case study presents how to connect the technical outcomes to financial inputs, present the information, and estimate the true financial performance of a green retrofit option, where incremental value and uncertainty have been modeled and included. Three levels of financial analysis are performed to estimate the distribution of financial outcomes including: 1) Cost-based level-1: only energy related costs savings were considered; 2) Costbased level-2: the non-energy cost savings, including heath and productivity, were also considered; and 3) Value-based level: the value implications of the green retrofit option were considered in addition to items in level 2. As a result of applying the proposed framework when evaluating sustainability investment options, many investment opportunities that were otherwise ignored may be realized, and therefore, the breadth and depth of sustainability investment in real estate will increase.


The importance of schools as a setting for health promotion is increasingly being acknowledged. Part of this health promoting function includes curricular offerings to increase health awareness and to assist in ensuring that young adults are able to make informed decisions about their health. For these programmes to be successfully implemented and sustained there is a need to determine the views of the participants. This study aims to determine the views of learners regarding the impact of a school based health education programme relating to risk factors for chronic diseases of lifestyle. A questionnaire with three open ended questions was used to determine the views of the learners regarding the programme, what they would like to have changed and recommendations regarding the future of the programme. Information was recorded and coded by two independent reviewers. Themes were decided upon independently and agreed upon between the author and an independent reviewer. Focusing on the comments relating to what was good about the programme, three main themes emerged which included course structure, course content and personal development. The themes that emerged from what the students did not like about the programme included communication, group interaction / personal factors and feedback. The recommendations and suggestions were mostly positive and included focusing on the following aspects of the programme namely more interaction, content, links to other subjects and time. The opinions of participants provided valuable information during the evaluation process and the qualitative method allowed them to express their views.


A loose network of educators, entrepreneurs, and investors are promoting Massive Open Online Courses as an innovation that will radicaly disrupt higher education. These Merchants of MOOCs see MOOCs' novel features -- star professors, flipped classrooms, economies of scale, unbundling, and openness -- as the key to dramatically improving higher education while reducing its cost.But MOOCs are far from unprecedented. There is very little in them that has not been tried before, from 19th-century correspondence courses to Fathom, Columbia's $25 million dot-com boondoggle. Claims of disruption look rather different when this missing context is restored. This essay examines some common arguments about what gives MOOCs their value, and finds them wanting. There is a sharp division between the features that make MOOCs exciting for education and the features that make them financially appealing to the Merchants of MOOCs.


The image obtained by the robot's video cameras passes through several stages of transformation. At the first stage, the color image is converted to black and white, then with the selected threshold value is contrasted. It is assumed that the interference has the form of curves of minimum thickness (one pixel) or single points. The filter removes all noise. Next, a threshold filter is applied to the image obtained, which, unlike the  Sobel type masking algorithms, works much faster and more accurately. The program uses the operators of the Maple system.


Among various forms of innovation in industry structures and business models an increasing number of companies have shown interest in aligning themselves to an open source software model as a means to capture intellectual energy, productive software processes and relevant technical skills. This is evident both within small and niche businesses, but also within the largest companies – a phenomenon known as open-sourcing. This paper presents findings from a field study of open-sourcing of software development within two large, global technology companies. It reports on the ways in which open-sourcing is accommodated within the corporate context, and assesses the innovative strategies managers use as they engage with this phenomenon and seek to work co-operatively with open source communities. The analysis focuses on three primary areas that emerge from the data and which are seen to require particular attention in such organizations; license and IPR regime; community approach; and a modified development process.


Facilitation of new methods for learning materials delivery and adoption of new learning experiences and practices in e-learning is always a challenge. Using synthesis of digital audio learning assets and learning objects as one of main sources for conducting learning is not new, but research on using audio lectures or combined audio with presentation lecture is not well investigated and adopted in traditional online learning environments. The main goal of current paper is to present requirements elicitation, software analysis, design, construction and testing of secure and reusable software architecture for production and delivery of learning resources with audio elements in university programming courses. Paper presents different architecture styles for designing the system and finish with presentation of development and usage of contemporary Software Server for Automatic Generation of Audio Lectures (uListenSrv). Main difference here is support of languages, not only in English, but not so popular languages, like Bulgarian language.


Ethics is constantly topical, and times of economic crises, issues of migration and refugees, and threat of terrorism are no exception. In almost all cases brought before it, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg faces morally oriented issues to some extent. The article examines key dimensions of ethics as addressed by it (the common ethical grounds and European values on which the decisions are often based; areas of differences in ethical grounds in cases wherein no European consensus on a given issue seems to exist; and the independence, impartiality, and internal ethics of the Court and its judges), and it discusses some central topics related to moral issues in its case law. The case law addresses matters from serious human‑rights violations to rights of prisoners and refugees, but the article pays particular attention to case law defining human dignity, which is closely connected with ethics. It elaborates on the beginning of life and reproductive rights: cases have dealt with access to lawful abortion, embryo donation and scientific research, home birth, medically assisted procreation, precautionary measures to protect a newborn baby's health, prenatal medical tests, sterilisation, surrogacy, and an unborn child's right to life. With regard to the end of life, the Court has found that the right to life could not, without a distortion of language, be interpreted as conferring the diametrically opposite right, a right to die. The article also considers the delicate issue of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Also considered is the case law related to freedom of research and the responsibility of researchers and universities, with focus on the essence of academic freedom and morals, classical and other types of cases in connection with questions related to procedural rights before the Court that involve academic freedom, and the use of research results and academic freedom. The author presents conclusions related to the careful, pragmatic balancing among rights, between European and state level, and of public and private interests. There need not be a 'European ethics', but there certainly exist certain common values and understandings.


The aim of this chapter is to examine an entrepreneurial training program using a theoretical foundation to assess pedagogical and programmatic outcomes. First, the chapter begins by reviewing military veteran entrepreneurship. Next, key constructs previously shown to impact entrepreneurial capabilities and intentions are reviewed. Subsequently, the case used in this study of an entrepreneurial education program is shared, along with how the program impacted a cohort of military veterans. Finally, we provide a discussion about how these results should influence thinking about entrepreneurial training programs for veterans.


Ten enzymes and proteins: transferrin, amylase, haemoglobin, esterase D, red cell acid pho.phatau,
superoxide dismutase, phosphoglycolate phosphatase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate
dehydrogenase and soluble glutamate oxaloace.tate transaminase, from the serum and red blood cell of 88 water
buffaloes, Bubalus bubahs, have been investigated by starch gel or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Four
of these: transferrin, amylase, haemoglobin and esterase D show electrophoretic variation at polymorphic
proportions.


In Japan, research on function al foods had humble beginnings about 30 years ago. It traced a unique path of development to a mainstay of frontal food science. Meanwhile, nutrigenomics was launched as a comprehensive method for investigating total effects of nutrients in the body. This can be applied to functional foods as well as nutrients. However, the data analysis needs care. Since even functional foods contain a variety of compounds together with functional factors, the data inherently include noises to a certain extent. Thus, there are often the cases that inappropriate choices of experimental designs and statistic data analyses lead to incorrect or even erroneous conclusions. Also, since roods cannot elicit physiological functions so efficiently as pharmaceuticals, it is necessary to detect any minute change taking place after ingestion. Responding to the necessity, we must elaborate research plans, select accurate experimental methods, and use suitable statistics. Taking those into consideration, our group has been conducting functional food genomics, often with satisfactory results in several cases. Genomics can be applied for safety as well as nutritional and functional evaluation. Though the nutrient requirement has been statistically established, no genomic information is available regarding the risk of the inadequate or excessive intakes. We are assessing safety intake levels of minerals.


Background : Pb that enters the human body every day will be absorbed, stored and then acc u m ul ated in the blood. Health effects of exposure to lead include various influences cognitive function, learning ability, inhibit growth in height (stunting), hearing impairment, affecting behavior and intelligence, damaging the function of organs, such as kidneys, nervous system (one of which balance the body functions), reproduction, increases blood pressure and affect brain development. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between exposure to Pb with body balance disorders in workers in lead smelting industry Kebasen Tegal regency . Methods : A cross sectional study carried out on 39 workers at Village Small Industries Kebasen Tegal, Central Java. The variables used were Pb exposure with body balance disorders. The selection of the sample us ed simple random sampling technique as many as 39 workers. Relationship exposure Pb and body balance disturbances are analyzed using the chi square . Results : Result showed a total of 37 (94.9%) of respondents had blood lead levels > 10 mg/100 ml and the remaining 2 (5.1%) of the respondents had blood lead levels < 10 mg/100ml. A total of 27 (69,2%) of respondents impaired body balance and the remaining 12 (30,8%) of respondents not impaired body balance. There is a relationship between blood levels of Pb in the presence of body balance disorders. There is a relationship between the body of work with balance disorders. There is no relationship between the use of personal protective equipment by body balance disorders. There is no relationship between a history of social diseases with impaired body balance. Conclusion : There is a relationship between Pb exposure Pb with the body balance disorders. Keywords : Lead Exposure, Body Balance Disorders