In 1927 the National Association of Life Underwriters collaborated with Professor Solomon Huebner of the University of Pennsylvania to found the American College of Life Underwriters, an institution devoted to establishing and maintaining professional standards for the nation's life insurance salesmen. Their work sheds light on the new politics of expertise and associations that emerged in the 1920s. While many historians have portrayed the period's experts as purveyors of new, technical knowledge and apolitical agents of an inevitable modernity, Huebner in fact brought little real knowledge of insurance to his work. Instead, he introduced the industry's prevailing ideology of public service into his classroom, and it informed his professionalization project as well. The professor worked as a campaigner for professionalism, attempting to persuade life insurance salesmen, industry executives, and the American public to accept the notion that salesmen could become professionals. Ultimately, Huebner's career shows how a Progressive expert worked directly with a trade association representing a disorganized industry. But instead of merely seeking to build new capacity for economic planning and stabilization, Huebner and the association boldly positioned their industry as a voluntary and private means of providing Americans with basic social welfare benefits and paved the way for the growth of the modern financial services industry.


The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is of particular importance to humans, and the consumption of tea has a long history of over 2000 years. Currently, tea is one of the most popular beverages worldwide. In recent years the subject of tea has attracted a great deal of attention. As well as the use of tea in traditional medicine, modern biochemical research has shown the potential application of tea and tea products to disease prevention and therapy.The goal of this book is to cover all relevant aspects including botanical identification, processing and major categories of tea, physiological and pharmacological effects, and experimental therapeutic effects. The therapeutic applications of tea based on traditional Chinese medicine are also included. The contributors are renowned experts from botanical, agricultural, chemical, biochemical, and medical circles. Tea: Bioactivity and Therapeutic Potential will be an invaluable reference source for physicians and all professionals in pharmaceutical, agricultural, and food research and development industries as well as anyone who is interested in the potential medical applications of tea.


Acknowledgements ... iv List of Contributors ... v Introduction ... 1 Pamela Barnhouse Walters and Annette Lareau Part I: The Call for Rigor ... 22 The first set of reprinted documents below traces the development of the charges that education research is low quality and of limited usefulness. The second set highlights the key elements of the federal reforms to improve education research. The final set provides examples of some of the major responses from the education research community. *The Problem Carl F. Kaestle, "The Awful Reputation of Education Research." ... 23 Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst, "New Wine, New Bottles." Address at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association... 30 Selection from Request for Proposals for Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences, Issued by the Institute of Education Sciences in 2004 ... 43 *Remedies for Improvement The Definition of "Scientifically Based Research" in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ... 46 The Definitions of Scientific Validity in the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 ... 48 Mission and Functions of the Institute of Education Sciences, as Detailed in Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 ... 50 The What Works Clearinghouse Standards for Evaluating Existing Research Studies of Education ... 52 * *Reactions from the Education Research Community ... 53 A selection from the 2002 report from the National Research Council, Scientific Research in Education... 54 Margaret Eisenhart and Lisa Towne, "Contestation and Change in National Policy on 'Scientifically Based' Education Research." ... 64 The American Educational Research Association's "Standards for Reporting on Empirical Social Science Research in AERA Publications." ... 72 Part II: The Politics of Knowledge ... 87 *The Politics of Science: Battles for Scientific Authority in the Field of Education Research ... 88 Pamela Barnhouse Walters Walters argues that the current debates about the quality of education research and the best ways to improve it do not turn only on issues of the scientific merits of competing positions. The debates are part of political and social struggles between groups of scientific experts, and between policymakers and scientific experts, over who gets to decide what counts as science and to claim scientific legitimacy within the research field. *A History of Efforts to Improve the Quality of Federal Education Research: From Gardner's Task Force to the Institute of Education Sciences ... 142 Maris Vinovskis Vinovskis shows that the current critique of the quality of education research is related in important ways to recurring dissatisfaction on the part of federal lawmakers and bureaucrats with the decisions and priorities of the federal agencies that provide the bulk of federal funding for education research. Part III: Seeking Rigor Finding Rigor ... 191 *Assessing Quality in Educational Journals ... 192 Barbara Schneider Schneider addresses the question of whether the quality of education research is as bad as its critics charge by comparing the scientific standards and processes in place at major education journals with the standards and processes in place in journals in other fields generally considered to be more scientific. She finds the education journals to be comparably rigorous. *Can Non-Randomized Studies Provide Evidence of Causal Effects? A Case Study Using the Regression Discontinuity Design ... 228 Larry V. Hedges and Jennifer Hanis While in sympathy with the call to make education research more rigorous, Hedges and Hanis show that randomized controlled trials are not the only way to rigorously assess causal relationships about education. They illustrate the usefulness of regression discontinuity models for assessing causality in conditions in which random assignment is not possible. *Blending Quality and Utility: Lessons Learned From the Quality Debates ... 260 Sheri Ranis Ranis shows that the debates about the quality of education research have been propelled by and conflated with debates about the utility of education research in ways often unacknowledged. She demonstrates that research utility became a "resonant problematic" that provided a powerful justification for the movement to improve the quality of education research. Part IV: Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Science ... 286 *Narrow Questions, Narrow Answers: The Need to Broaden the Methodological Scope of Education Research ... 287 Annette Lareau Lareau argues that the education sciences movement has misapplied the medical model to education research. She suggests there is a need for more attention to a broader array of questions about meaning, process, and interactional dynamics and greater attention to issues of implementation. *A Quixotic Quest? Philosophical Issues in Assessing the Quality of Education Research ... 289 Denis C. Phillips Philips demonstrates that the current drive to establish a single model of scientific research in education takes an overly-simplistic view of the nature of "science," in the process ignoring the complexities inherent in studying the intrinsically social and cultural dynamics of schooling. He calls the search for a single model of scientific research a "quixotic quest."


We present the Open Predicate Query Language (OPQL); a method for constructing a virtual KB (VKB) trained entirely from text. Large Knowledge Bases (KBs) are indispensable for a wide-range of industry applications such as question answering and recommendation. Typically, KBs encode world knowledge in a structured, readily accessible form derived from laborious human annotation efforts. Unfortunately, while they are extremely high precision, KBs are inevitably highly incomplete and automated methods for enriching them are far too inaccurate. Instead, OPQL constructs a VKB by encoding and indexing a set of relation mentions in a way that naturally enables reasoning and can be trained without any structured supervision. We demonstrate that OPQL outperforms prior VKB methods on two different KB reasoning tasks and, additionally, can be used as an external memory integrated into a language model (OPQL-LM) leading to improvements on two open-domain question answering tasks.


Abstract Context. Estimating animal abundance often relies on being able to identify individuals; however, this can be challenging, especially when applied to large animals that are difficult to trap and handle. Camera traps have provided a non-invasive alternative by using natural markings to individually identify animals within image data. Although camera traps have been used to individually identify mammals, they are yet to be widely applied to other taxa, such as reptiles. Aims. We assessed the capacity of camera traps to provide images that allow for individual identification of the world's fourth-largest lizard species, the perentie (Varanus giganteus), and demonstrate other basic morphological and behavioural data that can be gleaned from camera-trap images. Methods. Vertically orientated cameras were deployed at 115 sites across a 10 000 km2 area in north-western Australia for an average of 216 days. We used spot patterning located on the dorsal surface of perenties to identify individuals from camera-trap imagery, with the assistance of freely available spot ID software. We also measured snout-to-vent length (SVL) by using image-analysis software, and collected image time-stamp data to analyse temporal activity patterns. Results. Ninety-two individuals were identified, and individuals were recorded moving distances of up to 1975 m. Confidence in identification accuracy was generally high (91%), and estimated SVL measurements varied by an average of 6.7% (min = 1.8%, max = 21.3%) of individual SVL averages. Larger perenties (SVL of >45 cm) were detected mostly between dawn and noon, and in the late afternoon and early evening, whereas small perenties (SVL of <30 cm) were rarely recorded in the evening. Conclusions. Camera traps can be used to individually identify large reptiles with unique markings, and can also provide data on movement, morphology and temporal activity. Accounting for uneven substrates under cameras could improve the accuracy of morphological estimates. Given that camera traps struggle to detect small, nocturnal reptiles, further research is required to examine whether cameras miss smaller individuals in the late afternoon and evening. Implications. Camera traps are increasingly being used to monitor reptile species. The ability to individually identify animals provides another tool for herpetological research worldwide.


The supercritical CO2 heat removal system is a very innovative reactor heat removal concept as it improves the safety of both currently operating and future BWRs and PWRs through a self-propellant, self-sustaining and self-launching, highly compact cooling system powered by an integrated Braytoncycle using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as its working fluid. Since this system is powered by the decay heat itself, it provides new ways to deal with beyond design accidents. The turbine of a Brayton-cycle provides more energy than necessary to drive the compressor, which means that the sCO2-HeRo system provides electricity in addition. Therefore, this system can be an excellent backup cooling system for the reactor core in case of a Fukushima-like scenario, with a combined station blackout (SBO), loss of ultimate heat sink (LUHS) and loss of emergency cooling. In addition, this system might also be used as a heat removal system for the reactor in hot stand-by condition, removing the decay heat by keeping the reactor pressure vessel at operation temperature and pressure. The system is developed within a EU funded project called "Supercritical CO2 Heat Removal System, sCO2-HeRo". The objective of this project is to build a small-size demonstrator and install it at the PWR glass model at GfS in Essen, Germany. By means of this down-scaled demonstration unit, important operational data will be gained to demonstrate the feasibility of this heat removal system.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the in vitro antibacterial activity of ethanolic extracts of cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum; CIN), clove (Syzygium aromaticum, CLV) and cumin (Cuminum cyminum, CMN) against clinical isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), from Kolkata, India.

METHODS
The CIN, CLV and CMN were tested for their antibacterial activity against MRSA by in vitro methods. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the three extracts were determined, and time-kill studies were performed in order to investigate the bactericidal activity of the extracts (at the MIC level) for the isolates. The killing efficacy of the extracts was determined at various concentrations.

RESULTS
The zone diameter of inhibition (ZDI) obtained due to CIN, CLV and CMN ranged between 22-27 mm, 19-23 mm and 9-15 mm, respectively; while the MICs, for the isolates, were in the range of 64-256, 64-512 and 128-512 µg/ml, respectively. When tested for their MIC levels; the CIN and CLV were found to be bactericidal after 6 hrs of incubation, while CMN showed bactericidal activity after 24 hrs. However, when tested at various concentrations; CIN, CLV and CMN displayed bactericidal activity against S. aureus, after 24 hrs of incubation, at 200, 200 and 300 µg/ml, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The C. zeylanicum and S. aromaticum showed the strongest in vitro antibacterial activity followed by C. cyminum against MRSA, and such findings could be considered a valuable support in the treatment of infection and may contribute to the development of potential antimicrobial agents for inclusion in anti- S. aureus regimens.


In recent decades, a series of regulatory agencies has been created at the European Union (EU) level. The existing literature on EU agencies focuses either on autonomy as reason for their creation or on the autonomy that they are granted by design. As a result, we do not know much about how EU agencies' de facto autonomy comes about. This paper therefore probes into the development over time of two particular agencies. On the basis of document analysis and interviews with agency officials and external actors, it explores why in practice the European Medicines Agency (EMA) seems to have developed a higher level of autonomy than the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), whereas on paper EMA appears to be similarly autonomous as, or, if anything, less autonomous than EFSA. The paper demonstrates the importance of tracing the developmental trajectories of EU regulatory agencies for understanding the actual practice of their autonomy.


The quantum spin Hall (QSH) phase in a trigonal lattice requires typically a minimal basis of three orbitals with one even parity s and two odd parity p orbitals. Here, based on first-principles calculations combined with tight-binding model analyses and calculations, we demonstrate that depositing 1/3 monolayer Bi or Te atom layers on an existing experimental Ag/Si(111) surface can produce a QSH phase readily but with three p-orbitals (px, py and pz). The essential mechanism can be understood by the fact while in 3D, the pz orbital has an odd parity, its parity becomes even when it is projected onto a 2D surface so as to act in place of the s orbital in the original minimum basis. Furthermore, non-trivial large gaps, i.e., 275.0 meV for Bi and 162.5 meV for Te systems, arise from a spin-orbit coupling induced quadratic px-py band opening at the Γ point. Our findings will significantly expand the search for a substrate supported QSH phase with a large gap, especially in the Si surface, to new orbital combinations and hence new elements.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


The Phonological Processing Deficit (PPD) hypothesis remains the most influential theory to explain why some children fail to acquire appropriate reading skills. However, current research suggests that there may be other deficits operating, and that the phonological processing deficit may be just one manifestation of a deeper underlying anatomical syndrome that originates in the cerebellar or vestibular areas of the brain. Claims that exercise regimes or programmes of vestibular stimulation may provide a 'cure' for developmental dyslexia (specific reading difficulties) prompt scepticism among the scientific community and raise concerns about the exploitation of vulnerable parents. The paper provides a review of research into the causes of specific reading difficulties at the behavioural, cognitive and biological level of explanation, and considers whether or not there is any theoretical basis for the use of exercise-based intervention programmes. Following consideration of recent findings from a range of scientific disciplines, it is concluded that such 'unconventional' methods of intervention may draw some theoretical support from the scientific literature, although researchers are cautioned to be wary of comorbidity issues. It is also concluded that more rigorous and independent evaluations of the success (or otherwise) of exercise-based interventions are needed.


In the present study the antimutagenic effects of Phyllanthus fruit extract (PFE) has been evaluated against cyclophosphamide induced genotoxicity in bone marrow cells of mice. when animals are treated with different doses of phyllanthus fruit extract i.e., 170,340 and 680 mg/kg to mice, the treated group has not showed any significant increase in the percentage of chromosomal aberrations in bone marrow cells of mice at 48 hrs treatment. A single Intra peritoneal of 50mg/kg of cyclophosphamide induced significant increase in the percentage of chromosomal aberrations in bone marrow cells of mice. However after co administration of three doses of PFE extract there was a dose dependent decrease in the % of micronuclei was observed. When animals were administered with Phyllanthus Fruit Extract PFE 170, 340 & 680 mg/kg/bw orally for seven days and on eightieth day CP (50 mg/kg/bw) was given intraperitonially. For each experimental group control, animals were maintained simultaneously. After the administration of the last dose, the animals were killed and air dried metaphase preparations were made and processed for identification of chromosomal aberrations in somatic cells of mice. In animals treated with single dose of CP, an increase was observed when compared with the values of control group. But when animals primed with PFE + CP group, there was a decrease in the frequency of chromosomal aberrations in somatic cells of mice. Thus the results clearly indicated the protective role of PFE on cyclophosphamide induced genotoxic damage in somatic cells of mice.


Static and dynamic properties of single-track vehicles components (such as frames, front forks and swing-arms) play a fundamental role from the point of view of vehicle stability, which is a key issue of single-track vehicles dynamics and safety. Nowadays, the stability of a vehicle is studied by means of multi-body codes, in which it is possible to implement models of the tires and of the components of the vehicle. Actually, the chassis and the forks of motorcycles are mechanical systems with distributed mass and stiffness properties, but in most simulation codes the elastic properties of the structural elements are modeled with lumped stiffness and damping elements. Very few research has been carried out on the identification of the lumped elements, of their natural frequencies and damping from laboratory tests.In the first section of the paper, the concept of modal twist axis is proposed to characterize the dynamic deformability of a structural element. The twist axis is defined as the intersection between the un-deformed plane of the structural element and the plane tangent to the free end of the structural element in deformed condition. If the identification of the twist axis is carried out in resonance condition, the modal twist axis is found. A method for measuring the modal twist axis position and orientation is described. It is based on impulse excitation by means of a modally tuned hammer and three accelerometers which are used for defining the deformed plane.In the second section of the paper, experimental results obtained on two motorcycle frames are shown. In order to know the modal shapes of the components at the measured natural frequencies, modal analysis is carried out. A correlation between the modal twist axis position and the mode of vibration is shown and discussed. In order to study the influence of the constraints on dynamic properties, the frames are tested in two different constraint conditions: rear constrained and front constrained.The last section of the paper shows the experimental results obtained by applying the proposed method to other motorcycle components, such as a front fork and a frame with the engine.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


This thesis represents a comprehensive study, giving first extensive information on the hydrogeological and speleological characteristics of the spring cave Slatinski Izvor and its catchment area. The researched spring is located in the Porece basin of West-Central Macedonia, in the river valley of Slatinska Reka. The wider area around the spring belongs to two tectonic units. The Slatinski Izvor spring is situated on the Pelagonian horst anticlinorium, which is composed of carbonate rocks. The second is the Western Macedonian zone, and it is composed of non-carbonate rocks. The spring represents a significant potential for water supply for the settlement Slatina. Prior to this research only some basic information about the karst aquifer in Precambrian dolomite marbles was available. Therefore, my goal was to ensure better understanding of the functioning of the karst system in the recharge area of the spring, assessment of its vulnerability to various pollution sources, as well as study of karst development of the area.
Because karst aquifers have unique hydrogeological characteristics and specific nature, they also require specifically adapted investigation methods. In order to reach the main goal, speleological investigations, hydrological methods, hydrochemical methods and tracer test were used. A monitoring network was combined with regular samplings for major and trace elements analysis, which enabled considerable advances in understanding the functioning of the karst system. The data from two-year period (December 2011 – November 2013) was compared and analyzed.
The controlling of the karst development in the study area mostly depends on the tectonic and geologic conditions. Incision of Slatinska Reka is the main controlling factor in cave development by lowering the base level of karst terrains. All investigated caves (Gorna Slatinska, Slatinska II, Ovcarska Pestera, Puralo, Slatinski Izvor) have "normal" epigenic karst development. Slatinski Izvor is the youngest cave. The Slatinski Izvor spring serves as a cave entrance for the same cave and, represents the outflow of groundwater from the karst system.
A conceptual model of the karst system of the study area was developed. The Slatinski Izvor spring has typical karst hydrological regime. The karst system is well developed by conduits and rains infiltrated into vadose zone flow rapidly towards the spring. The travel time of low mineralized water within the system corresponds well with the results from an artificial tracer test. Performed artificial tracer test confirmed that the Slatinski Izvor spring is recharged by allogenic stream. The dominant apparent flow velocity of 250 m/h, a single peak of the tracer breakthrough curve and more than 87% of tracer recovered indicate a rapid conduit flow and high vulnerability of the observed drinking water source. Analysis of spatial and temporal variations of physical and chemical parameters show that waters in the study area had different origin and were transmitted along different flow paths. The origin of the water of the Slatinski Izvor spring is from non-carbonate area, but the influence of mixed limestone-dolomite sequence in the carbonate area is significant. The results point out to short residence time of the water in the karst aquifer.
The anthropogenic impact in the study area is insignificant which is reflected in the good water quality. In order to preserve it, land surface zoning was performed in terms of groundwater and spring water vulnerability to pollution according to the hydrogeological research.
A comprehensive research with a combined use of various research tools presents an innovative approach and a new contribution to the Macedonian karstological science. Applied methods proved to be successful for to study of the karst system. Finally, the results of the study have clear applicative significance in terms of drinking water management.


St. Jamestown is the most densely populated vertical immigrant-receiving urban neighbourhood in Canada. The Photovoice project engaged and empowered immigrant residents of St. Jamestown to influence public policy and secure improved local services for promoting health and well-being. Twenty-seven residents used photography and storytelling to record neighbourhood characteristics and their implications on residents' health and well-being. Eight participants presented recommendations actionable at neighbourhood level to the councillor and worked with the city to carry out the recommendations made that were recognized as important for neighbourhood residents' health and well-being. The results indicate Photovoice can be used to generate dialogue on community concerns and priorities and promote community action. (Global Health Promotion, 2011; 18(1): pp. 16—19)


Childhood onset spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common autosomal recessive disorder primarily characterized by the loss of lower alpha motor neurons. The underlying chromosomal defects causing SMA have been found in the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene. SMN has been shown previously to play a role in both snRNP biogenesis and mRNA processing, although direct evidence for the relationship between SMN and disease pathology has not been elucidated. SMN orthologues have been isolated in many species including Caenorhabditis elegans and Danio rerio. To study the function of SMN, we have identified and characterized the Schizosaccharomyces pombe orthologue of human SMN, smn1 (+). We have demonstrated that smn1 (+) is essential for viability in S.pombe and yeast expressing missense mutations in Smn1p, which mimic mutations in patients with Type I SMA, show significant mislocalization of the protein and a decrease in cell viability. Wild-type Smn1p is localized predominantly in the nucleus whereas yeast expressing Smn1p with missense mutations or deletions of specific domains of the protein accumulate cytoplasmic aggregates. Overexpression of Smn1p results in an increase in the growth rate of cells. Furthermore, mutations within two highly conserved protein interaction domains have a dominant-negative effect on growth, indicating that each domain is of functional significance in S.pombe. These dominant phenotypes can be suppressed by overexpression of murine Smn in the same cell. Given the structural and functional similarities between the protein in fission yeast and higher eukaryotes, S.pombe will be an ideal organism to study the role of SMN in RNA processing.


Whether in their homes, schools, streets, parks, in children's centres or cyberspace, children and young people live their lives in spaces which impact on their language and concepts, and on their social worlds and relationships. This important and innovative text provides a new framework for thinking about how relationships are developed with children and young people in the spaces they inhabit.

Drawing on a wide range of perspectives, it analyses how spaces are negotiated, produced and experienced by children and young people. It offers clear guidance on how practitioners can use spaces productively to form and maintain working relationships with children and young people. In particular the book:

■ assesses how places and spaces influence and are influenced by children and young people
■ situates the development of work with children and young people within the thinking and values associated with social pedagogy, an approach to practice favoured in Continental Europe and attracting much interest in the UK
■ advocates democratic practice and includes methods for participatory practice-led research.

An illuminating anthology of readings with a truly multidisciplinary and holistic approach, this is an essential text for students and practitioners working or intending to work with children, young people and their families. It also makes insightful reading for those with broader theoretical interests in social science, psychology and human geography.


The termination of U.S. treaties provides an especially rich example of how governmental practices can provide a "gloss" on the Constitution's separation of powers. The authority to terminate treaties is not addressed specifically in the constitutional text and instead has been worked out over time through political branch practice. This practice, moreover, has developed largely without judicial review. Despite these features, Congress and the President — and the lawyers who advise them — have generally treated this issue as a matter of constitutional law, rather than merely political happenstance. Importantly, the example of treaty termination illustrates not only how historical practice can inform constitutional understandings, but also how these understandings can change. Whereas it was generally understood throughout the nineteenth century that the termination of treaties required congressional involvement, the consensus on this issue disappeared in the early parts of the twentieth century, and today it is widely (although not uniformly) accepted that presidents have a unilateral power of treaty termination. This shift in constitutional understandings did not occur overnight or in response to one particular episode but rather was the product of a long accretion of Executive Branch claims and practice in the face of congressional inaction. An examination of the way in which historical practice has shaped the constitutional debates and understandings concerning this issue can help shed light on some of the interpretive and normative challenges associated with a practice-based approach to the separation of powers.


This article discusses the changing ways in which the Oxford English Dictionary has recorded the vocabularies of 'World English'—English as spoken outside of the British Isles—from the first to the present edition. Based on direct analyses of the coded text of multiple editions, it documents and compares the practices of successive editors, taking into account various contextual factors, such as editorial principles and policies, institutional resources, and historical language development. Significant attention is given to labelling practices, including the notorious 'tramline' mark of the First Edition and Second Supplement, designating 'alien' vocabulary; the evolution of the notion of 'regional' English within the dictionary; and the contributions of technology to the art of lexicography. The final section details changes in policy and methods in the current revision and expansion, evaluating both its practices vis-à-vis its predecessors, and the picture it gives us of the current state of World English.


Ammonia removal is an important problem that Canadian municipalities are encountering in their wastewater treatment systems due to ammonia's adverse environmental effects and its increasingly stringent discharge standards. Nitrogen compounds are generally removed from wastewater by a combination of nitrification and denitrification. In full nitrification, ammonia is first biologically oxidized to nitrite, which is then oxidized to nitrate by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. In denitrification, the resulting nitrate has to be first reduced to nitrite in order to be converted to nitrous oxide, then nitric oxide, and finally to nitrogen gas. Since, nitrite is an intermediary compound in both nitrification and denitrification, it may be more efficient to produce a partial nitrification up to nitrite and then denitrification starting from this nitrite. In this research, EnviroPro Designer was used to simulate, optimize and compare process models for both full nitrification and partial nitrification. The Full System model simulates the traditional full nitrification followed by denitrification. Partial System-1 model simulates the partial nitrification process followed by denitrification directly from nitrite. Partial System-1 significantly reduced the ammonia and domestic waste concentrations in the effluent while achieving 1.5 times faster denitrification rates and utilizing 33% less oxygen. Partial System-1 was further optimized to develop a novel nitrogen removal process, Partial System-3, which incorporated an additional third anoxic stage while the aerobic stage in sludge treatment was removed. Partial System-3 successfully reduced the ammonia and nitrite concentrations in the effluent to values well within the current guidelines while consuming 50% less oxygen than the Full System, which reflected favorably on utility savings. It also showed 2 times faster denitrification rates, and displayed superior domestic waste consumption. Furthermore, the capital and operational costs were less than other nitrogen removal systems investigated in this thesis. The novel Partial System-3 appears to be the best option for removal of nitrogen from medium to high strength wastewater, and further experimental research is required to confirm the kinetic and yield constants assumed in the simulations.


The hippocampal slice preparation was used to classify cholinergic effects in terms of muscarinic receptor subtypes (M1 or M2) and biochemical effector systems linked to these effects in CA1 pyramidal cells. Based on the action of the M1 antagonist pirenzepine and the M2 antagonist gallamine, the muscarinic-induced membrane depolarization and blockade of the afterhyperpolarization appear to result from activation of an M1 receptor, while the cholinergic depression of the EPSP and the blockade of a potassium current termed the M-current appears to involve the activation of an M2 receptor. All of the muscarinic actions could be observed in pertussis toxin-treated hippocampi, suggesting that a pertussis toxin-sensitive G-protein is not involved in these actions. Cholinergic agents that are weak agonists of phosphoinositide (PI) turnover are fully effective in all of the muscarinic actions except the blockade of the M-current on which they had little agonist activity and actually blocked the action of full agonists. These results strongly suggest that the blockade of the M-current may involve stimulation of PI turnover. In addition, we show that the blockade of the M-current is mimicked by intracellular application of inositol trisphosphate. Our results do not show any obvious relationship between the muscarinic receptor subtypes and the biochemical effector systems.


Iron (Fe) is a limiting nutrient for phytoplankton productivity in many different oceanic regions. A critical aspect underlying iron limitation is its low solubility in seawater as this controls the distribution and transport of iron through the ocean. Processes which enhance the solubility of iron in seawater, either through redox reactions or organic complexation, are central to understanding the biogeochemical cycling of iron. In this work we combined iron solubility measurements with parallel factor (PARAFAC) data analysis of Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) fluorescence along a meridional transect through the Atlantic (PS ANT XXVI‐4) to examine the hypothesis that marine humic fluorescence is a potential proxy for iron solubility in the surface ocean. PARAFAC analysis revealed 4 components (C1‐4), two humic like substances (C2&4) and two protein‐like (C1&3). Overall none of the 4 components were significantly correlated with iron solubility, though humic‐like components were weakly correlated with iron solubility in iron replete waters. Our analysis suggests that the ligands responsible for maintaining iron in solution in the euphotic zone are sourced from both remineralisation processes and specific ligands produced in response to iron stress and are not easily related to bulk CDOM properties. The humic fluorescence signal was sharply attenuated in surface waters presumably most likely due to photo bleaching, though there was only a weak correlation with the transient photo product H2O2, suggesting longer lifetimes in the photic zone for the fluorescent components identified here.


Converting relational database into XML is increasing daily for publishing and exchanging data on the web. Most of the current approaches and tools for generating XML documents from relational database generate flat XML documents that contain data redundancy which leads to produce a massive data on the web. Other approaches assume that the relational database for generating nested XML documents is normalized. In addition, these approaches have problem that lies in the difficult of how to specify the parent elements from the children elements in the nested XML document. Moreover, most of the current approaches and tools do not generate nested XML documents automatically. They require the user to specify the constraints and the schema of the target document.
This research proposes an approach to automatically generate nested XML documents from flat relational database views that are unnormalized. The research aims to reduce data redundancy and storage sizes for the generated XML documents. The proposed approach consists of three steps. The first step is converting flat relational view into nested relational view. The second is generating DTD from the nested relational view. The third is generating nested XML document from the nested relational view.
The proposed approach is evaluated and compared to other approaches such as NeT, CoT, and Cost-Based and tools such as Allora, Altova, and DbToXml with respect to two measurements: data redundancy and storage size of the document. The first measurement includes several parameters that are number of data values, elements, attributes, and tags.
Based on the results of comparing the proposed approach to several other approaches and tools, the proposed approach is more efficient for reducing data redundancy and storage size of XML documents. It can reduce data redundancy and storage size by approximately 50% and 55%, respectively.


In this paper, we derive the random coding error exponent of amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks in presence of arbitrary number of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) interferers both at the relay and the destination. Multiuser networks are common examples of interference limited networks. We derive the ergodic capacity of the network and present simulation results on the performance of the network where we compare the capacity and error exponent performance of interference limited networks with noise limited networks. Numerical results show that noise limited networks outperform interference limited networks even when only a very few interferers exist in the network.


For more than half of the twentieth century, the Korean peninsula has been divided between two hostile and competitive nation-states, each claiming to be the sole legitimate expression of the Korean nation. The division remains an unsolved problem dating to the beginnings of the Cold War and now projects the politics of that period into the twenty-first century. Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey is designed to provide readers with the historical essentials upon which to unravel the complex politics and contemporary crises that currently exist in the East Asian region. Beginning with a description of late-nineteenth-century imperialism, Michael Robinson shows how traditional Korean political culture shaped the response of Koreans to multiple threats to their sovereignty after being opened to the world economy by Japan in the 1870s. He locates the origins of both modern nationalism and the economic and cultural modernization of Korea in the twenty years preceding the fall of the traditional state to Japanese colonialism in 1910.


Abstract. Despite ongoing efforts, the vertical distribution of aerosols globally is poorly understood. This in turn leads to large uncertainties in the contributions of the direct and indirect aerosol forcing on climate. Using the Global Aerosol Synthesis and Science Project (GASSP) database – the largest synthesised collection of in-situ aircraft measurements currently available, with more than 1000 flights from 37 campaigns from around the world – we investigate the vertical structure of sub-micron aerosols across a wide range of regions and environments. The application of this unique dataset to assess the vertical distributions of number size distribution and Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) in the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM-HAM reveals that the model underestimates accumulation mode particles in the upper troposphere, especially in remote regions. The processes underlying this discrepancy are explored using different aerosol microphysical schemes and a process sensitivity analysis. These show that the biases are predominantly related to aerosol ageing and removal rather than emissions.


Procedures are recommended for solving the equations of equilibrium of reinforced panels and isolated fuselage rings as represented by the external loads and the operations table established according to Southwell's method. From the solution of these equations the stress distribution can be easily determined. The method of systematic relaxations, the matrix-calculus method, and several other methods applicable in special cases are discussed. Definite recommendations are made for obtaining the solution of reinforced-panel problems which are generally designated as shear lag problems. The procedures recommended are demonstrated in the analysis of a number of panels. In the case of fuselage rings it is not possible to make definite recommendations for the solution of the equilibrium equations for all rings and loadings. However, suggestions based on the latest experience are made and demonstrated on several rings.


Extracted from text ... LOCAL GOVERNMENT BULLETIN 18
When everything
is political A CUSTOMER CARE MODEL FOR
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
A mayor was called to a community meeting. People had been promised houses, but where were they? The mayor had
no houses handy and she had not made the promise, but the people were angry. One man got up and threatened to
drive out those who had been allocated houses in a neighbouring development. Conflict was in the air. The mayor
listened. She had no magic solution to this problem, but she listened and showed the people that she understood. She
did not solve the ..


Although industry clusters are major targets of regional economic development in less developed regions as well, we still need a deeper understanding of how the spatial clustering of firms generates dynamics in lagging regions. These latter environments may differ from the typical cluster policy examples that are usually specialised global centres of dynamically growing industries. Using census-type data of Hungarian firms, we test the effect of major cluster indicators — regional specialisation and spatial concentration of industries — and the impact of FDI on regional productivity and employment growth in Hungary. Our results suggest that regional specialisation does not affect regional growth, while the spatial concentration of industries is found to influence productivity and employment growth with an overwhelmingly negative effect. Furthermore, regional employment growth is associated negatively with the initial level of regional specialisation. Results suggest that Hungary has evolved into a dual economy in which previously specialised regions and geographically concentrated industries have lost their pace, while the main factor that favoured regional economic growth was the presence of large foreign companies. Therefore, economic policies fostering regional specialisation and the spatial concentration of industries — such as cluster policy — may have minor effects unless the interaction of foreign-owned and domestic companies is encouraged.


A major shortcoming of previous structural models for bonds is that they ignore how the complex terms of a call feature interact with default to determine term structures at issuance. A term structure of par coupon yields is different from and superior to a term structure based on the option-adjusted spread and, furthermore, is the most useful term structure for firms issuing bonds because it is the most accurate measure of the cost of debt. The authors present a par coupon structural model that can be used as an aid in timing bond issues because some parameters of the model have been proven to exhibit predictability. One can use the model to incorporate the impact of alternative future Federal Reserve policies for short-term interest rates upon the optimal timing and maturity of corporate bond issuance. The authors report that par coupon term structures can have shapes distinctly different from other simultaneous term structures, such as those derived from option-adjusted spreads where the difference depends on default risk, alternative call features, and the interaction of default risk and call features. As one finding among many, they find that call option value (at issuance) declines as credit quality declines.


Flammable materials such as gasoline, ethanol, and diesel fuel are commonly transported in bulk via rail. In many cases, pockets of vapor can be generated inside the tank that can present a hazard if spilled during a collision or other catastrophic accident. Vapor conditions above the Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) if exposed to an external ignition source can result in an explosion or fire. Alternately, residual vapors within a tank present an explosion hazard if not properly vented or inerted prior to maintenance activities. This paper summarizes a generalized study of hazards associated with flammable liquids using computation fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict vapor conditions within a tank or following a spill. The analysis was verified in laboratory testing using scaled tank geometries. A demonstration case was developed using diesel fuel in a locomotive fuel tank. Typical road locomotives carry 3000–5000 gal of diesel fuel during normal operation. As the locomotive consumes fuel, large volumes are available for vapor generation within the tank. In a post-collision scenario, under ambient temperatures over the flash point of the fuel, the vapor that vents to the atmosphere presents a significant fire hazard. Further, flammable mists can be generated by the sprays that develop due to fuel leaks from a moving train. Studies of accident cases over a 10 year period indicated that a fire occurred in 80% of the accidents in which fuel was spilled. A CFD analysis was applied to the geometry associated with a locomotive fuel tank. The analysis models the two phase flow using the "volume of fluid" formalism in Fluent, and using a user defined diesel fuel evaporation algorithm. The tank and environmental parameters included fuel volume, fuel temperature, and air flow within the tank, and critical values of vapor content, temperature and velocity were plotted. The analysis predicted ignition of the external vapor cloud at temperatures relevant to a spill in a summer environment in the southwest, and propagation of the flame into the fuel tank. Laboratory testing confirmed the analysis: Once ignited, a flame propagated into the tank, causing an explosion and fire. The analysis methods developed can be applied to a variety of geometries and fluids, providing a basis for full scale testing. The overall intent of the analysis is to aid in the development of fire mitigation approaches for fuel and flammable material transport that would be practical for railroad use.


As PALESTINIANS EDGE TOWARD a territorial settlement that is less than satisfactory in terms of their minimal requirements for statehood, the idea of a binational state for Israelis and Palestinians begins to acquire a certain attractiveness. A public opinion poll published at the end of 1999 suggested that close to 20 percent of the respondents from the West Bank and Gaza and about 15 percent of the Jewish respondents from Israel (17 percent of the Israeli Arab respondents) favored a binational solution if the attempts at establishing two states fail (Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, December 1999). But the debate on binationalism begs for elucidation. While at the conceptual level the issue raises interesting possibilities for examining new dimensions in the nature of extraterritorial nationalism and ethnicity, at the level of practical politics the concept could be counterproductive and escapist.


We examine the correspondence between first-order recurrent neural networks and deterministic finite state automata. We begin with the problem of inducing deterministic finite state automata from finite training sets, that include both positive and negative examples, an NP-hard problem (Angluin and Smith 1983). We use a neural network architecture with two recurrent layers, which we argue can approximate any discrete-time, time-invariant dynamic system, with computation of the full gradient during learning. The networks are trained to classify strings as belonging or not belonging to the grammar. The training sets used contain only short strings, and the sets are constructed in a way that does not require a priori knowledge of the grammar. After training, the networks are tested using various test sets with strings of length up to 1000, and are often able to correctly classify all the test strings. These results are comparable to those obtained with second-order networks (Giles et al. 1992; Watrous and Kuhn 1992a; Zeng et al. 1993). We observe that the networks emulate finite state automata, confirming the results of other authors, and we use a vector quantization algorithm to extract deterministic finite state automata after training and during testing of the networks, obtaining a table listing the start state, accept states, reject states, all transitions from the states, as well as some useful statistics. We examine the correspondence between finite state automata and neural networks in detail, showing two major stages in the learning process. To this end, we use a graphics module, which graphically depicts the states of the network during the learning and testing phases. We examine the networks' performance when tested on strings much longer than those in the training set, noting a measure based on clustering that is correlated to the stability of the networks. Finally, we observe that with sufficiently long training times, neural networks can become true finite state automata, due to the attractor structure of their dynamics.


When polyethersulfone was irradiated by y rays and then poled at 37"C, a new TSC (thermally stimulated current) peak appeared at -100°C. This new peak and other peaks near 40 and 150°C increase with an increase in dose of -0.6 kGy, and this is considered to be due to trapped charges and other ionic carriers becoming mobile when rearrangement of scissioned chains occurs. However, if the dose exceeds 0.6 kGy, the peak magnitude decreases. Furthermore, if the TSC was poled at 120"C, only the peak near 150°C appeared and this peak monotonically decreased with an increase in the irradiation dose. A similar decreasing tendency was also observed in the conduction current and in the residual voltage. These decreasing features are considered to be caused by the radiation-induced change that rearrangement of scissioned chains decreases free volume for ionic transport.


Studies aimed at determining why female birds often produce offspring sired by males other than their social mates generally compare traits of social and genetic mates. Here I examine paternity patterns in nests of the same female red–winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) in successive breeding seasons. Returning females preferentially selected their former social mates as their new social mates when those males were present. However, paternity patterns were much less consistent. A female's behaviour (faithful versus unfaithful) in one year did not predict her behaviour the following year. Females unfaithful in successive years did not prefer the same extra–pair males. Females unfaithful in one year that switched social mates the next year did not preferentially choose their former extra–pair mates as their new social mates. By switching genetic mates, females did not generally improve the quality of their mates. These results, together with previous analyses, suggest that female blackbirds in this population have little control over extra–pair mating. Although females may benefit from extra–pair mating because extra–pair males are generally longer lived, paternity patterns in this population are not consistent with extra–pair mating being part of a finely tuned female reproductive strategy.


The identity and literary intentions of the author of the most well-known Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is probably going to forever remain a mystery; however, hints and traces of the author's philosophy can be if not determined then at least approximated with a fair amount of certainty. The poem is a bicultural composite, an amalgam of two different cultures: it is not entirely Christian or purely Anglo-Saxon. The essay focuses on Augustinian thought that pervades the poem and several features of the text, such as vocabulary used to describe the heroes and monsters of the poem and the melting pot of Anglo-Saxon and Christian customs. Also, the speeches of the main characters are explored and contrasted with the teachings of Augustine as found in his two most important texts, De Civitate Dei and On Christian Doctrine. The essay concludes by arguing that while we might never know for certain, it is safe to assume that the author of Beowulf had at least second-hand knowledge of Augustine's philosophy since it is, after a detailed analysis, clearly present in the epic poem.


In this reported work, 2-dimsensional computational fluid dynamics studies of n-heptane combustion and soot formation processes in the Sandia constant-volume vessel are carried out. The key interest here is to elucidate how the chemical kinetics affects the combustion and soot formation events. Numerical computation is performed using OpenFOAM and chemistry coordinate mapping (CCM) approach is used to expedite the calculation. Three n-heptane kinetic mechanisms with different chemistry sizes and comprehensiveness in oxidation pathways and soot precursor formation are adopted. The three examined chemical models use acetylene (C2H2), benzene ring (A1) and pyrene (A4) as soot precursor. They are henceforth addressed as nhepC2H2, nhepA1 and nhepA4, respectively for brevity. Here, a multistep soot model is coupled with the spray combustion solver to simulate the soot formation/oxidation processes. Comparison of the results shows that the simulated ignition delay times and liftoff lengths have good agreements with the experimental measurements across wide range of operating conditions when the nhepC2H2 model is implemented. The performance of this mechanism however drops in cases with low ambient temperatures. Besides, the overall soot precursor and particle distribution prediction is found to be improved with the use of A4 as soot precursor. The variation of the soot precursor production with respect to the change of ambient temperature and oxygen levels qualitatively agrees with that of the conceptual models. Also, the revised nhepC2H2 model replicates the experimental spatial soot distribution reasonably well, although the absolute soot volume fraction values are not reproduced with the default soot model constant values.


The increase in the global air temperature is an inadequate measure of global warming, which should rather be considered in terms of energy. The ongoing global warming means that heat has been accumulating since 1880 in the air, ground and water. Before explaining this warming by external heat sources, the net heat emissions on Earth must be considered. Such emissions from, e.g., the global use of fossil fuels and nuclear power, must contribute to global warming. The aim of this study is to compare globally accumulated and emitted heat. The heat accumulated in the air corresponds to 6.6% of global warming, while the remaining heat is stored in the ground (31.5%), melting of ice (33.4%) and sea water (28.5%). It was found that the net heat emissions from 1880-2000 correspond to 74% of the accumulated heat, i.e., global warming, during the same period. The missing heat (26%) must have other causes, e.g., the greenhouse effect, the natural variations in the climate and/or the underestimation of net heat emissions. Most measures that have already been taken to combat global warming are also beneficial for the current explanation, though nuclear power is not a solution to (but part of) the problem.


Fully distributed models of alpine catchment surface processes typically use the geomorphological information provided by digital maps for describing the dynamics of rain, snow, soil and vegetation with much detail. These models are largely used to provide reliable estimations of the total amount of water that can be stored in alpine catchments in relation to different climate change scenarios. Many applications of the model Alpine3D have shown a good agreement between numerical results and local measurements of snow height distribution and runoff production, thanks to the physically based description of surface energy balance and mass balance. The simulation of streamflow generation at catchment scale would also require a detailed description of the sub-surface characteristics, which is hardly available. This motivates the testing of a spatially-explicit hydrologic response model based on geomorphologic travel time distributions, in connection with the detailed description of alpine surface processes as provided by Alpine3D. In this contribution we characterize the hydrologic response, considering patchy snow covers, in the Dischma catchment (Grisons, Switzerland) during the time period 2001 - 2006. We show that the spatially-explicit hydrological response model, which explicitly accounts for geomorphologic travel time distributions, reacts adequately to spatially varying water input from melting snow. In fact, a good agreement with the measurements is obtained both in terms of daily and seasonal cycles of discharge. Moreover, the direct physical meaning of the model parameters turns out to be a great advantage in the calibration of the model, supporting the conclusion that a travel time distribution approach is an interesting new avenue for the hydrologic response simulation in Alpine3D.


This study examines the text-chat interaction of second language learners and teacher trainees engaged in an online exchange linking classes in two countries: Sweden and the United States. During the semester, students met online for 6 sessions using the chat program Live Messenger. As part of the exchange, each U.S. student served as a tutor and chat partner for Swedish students on four writing tasks. These tasks were designed in accordance with language features (i.e. the zero article, agreement, possessives) and topics (i.e. human rights, environmental issues, Swedish and US culture) relevant for both classes. Chatscripts from focal participants' interactions were analyzed to explore the potential to foster attention to form in text-chat based telecollaboration that emphasized L2 writing.


Recent studies have identified a new genus of the Orthomyxoviridae family, Influenza D virus (IDV). This virus was shown to infect farm animals including swine and cattle, and to efficiently replicate and transmit in ferrets, the animal model of choice for transmission of influenza A virus to humans. This partnering grant on IDV addressed the need for capacity building at EU level to improve the EU's scientific assessment capacity and international competitiveness. We have promoted cross‐disciplinary cooperation between the partner institutes representing six Member States (BE, FR, IT, LU, NL and SE). We have shown that the available antigen and genome test systems allow reliable influenza D diagnostics in partners laboratories, while for a few of the applied antibody testing methods adjustments are recommended. Tools were developed to study virus‐host range, with a gain of knowledge on host and tissue tropism of IDV in farm animals but also in wild life and very preliminary data was generated on human tissues. Serological results in European cattle suggest that influenza D virus is enzootic. Virus diversity is still unfolding: new virus introductions were identified, as well as new reassortants whose differential clinical impact or cross‐protection levels are still poorly understood. Considering drivers of emergence, IDV was in the top five in comparison with 29 other diseases. The main risk factors of IDV in cattle are related to the animal density, presence of respiratory clinical signs in cattle and contact rates between animals. Simplified quantitative IDV risk assessment exposure model indicated a possible infection of human by IDV through aerosols in cattle farms. Further studies are warranted to fully assess the risk of IDV for both animal and Human health in Europe.


Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying the oceans, reducing the concentration of carbonate ions ([CO32−]) that calcifying organisms need to build and cement coral reefs. To date, studies of a handful of naturally acidified reef systems reveal depauperate communities, sometimes with reduced coral cover and calcification rates, consistent with results of laboratory‐based studies. Here we report the existence of highly diverse, coral‐dominated reef communities under chronically low pH and aragonite saturation state (Ωar). Biological and hydrographic processes change the chemistry of the seawater moving across the barrier reefs and into Palau's Rock Island bays, where levels of acidification approach those projected for the western tropical Pacific open ocean by 2100. Nevertheless, coral diversity, cover, and calcification rates are maintained across this natural acidification gradient. Identifying the combination of biological and environmental factors that enable these communities to persist could provide important insights into the future of coral reefs under anthropogenic acidification.


Jobs are essential for the growth of individuals and countries alike. Achieving personal fulfillment is harder without a job, just as an economy as a whole cannot develop without the impetus of the labor market. These two perspectives unquestionably go hand in hand: from the individual perspective, finding a good job is a legitimate aspiration for anyone who wishes to support oneself and one's family; from the societal perspective, creating more and better jobs is essential to the achievement of lasting and equitable growth. Jobs for Growth rests on this dual vision. This book examines the performance of the region's labor market and, based on this analysis, proposes an integrated package of measures for both personal growth (through successful career paths) and economic growth (through more high-quality jobs and higher productivity). Over the past two decades, the bullish economic cycle has yielded undeniable gains for labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), among them lower unemployment, improved job creation, and a substantial increase in wages. However, the situation on the horizon -stagnation of the region's growth and weaknesses in the global macroeconomic outlook- have increased the urgency to find solutions to today's most pressing labor problems. This volume shows that, despite the still-low unemployment rates, the region may find itself trapped in a vicious cycle of poor-quality jobs -a phenomenon especially visible in the high percentage of informal jobs (which are defined in this publication as those without access to social security benefits) and in the high proportion of very short-lived jobs. As the title Jobs for Growth indicates, breaking this cycle will require comprehensive policies that boost productivity.


Background Despite rigorous systematic reviews of efficacy and effectiveness of health care interventions, patients, providers and policymakers may remain in doubt about what they should do because of uncertainty, tradeoffs among benefits and harms, and conflicting preferences. Modeling and simulation studies in health care can supplement systematic reviews to increase the usefulness of the evidence summary. The aims of this report are four-fold: (1) to summarize evidence- and consensus-based guidance on the conduct and reporting of health care modeling and simulation; (2) to summarize guidance from Health Technology Assessment (HTA) groups for modeling; (3) to prioritize future research needs to improve models; and (4) to provide an overview of methods for model calibration and validation. Methods With guidance from a Technical Expert Panel and a Clinical and Policy Advisory team with clinical, methodological research, and policymaking expertise, we completed the following projects: For Aim 1, we conducted a systematic review of articles that provided evidence- or consensus-based recommendations for the conduct and reporting of health care modeling and simulation studies. We classified recommendation statements into four domains: model structure, data, consistency, and communication of model results. To contextualize the findings of the systematic review, we organized a meeting with a group of 28 stakeholders, including modelers, users of models, and funders of research. For Aim 2, we searched the web sites of 126 international agencies and institutes conducting HTA for real-world practices regarding when to apply modeling and simulation methods, which we summarized. For Aim 3, from the systematic review and from the stakeholders in Aim 1 we identified and collected suggestions for future research needs. Stakeholders prioritized those needs based on importance, desirability of new research, feasibility, and potential impact. For Aim 4, we searched for articles that compared or applied alternative validation methods for modeling and simulation. We extracted and summarized descriptions and comparisons of any methods and reported results for face validity, internal validity, external validity, cross-model validation, and calibration. Results The systematic review of modeling recommendations (Aim 1) found 71 eligible articles. 90 percent of articles (n=64) provided recommendations regarding model structure. Almost all articles (n=68, 96%) also provided recommendations regarding obtaining appropriate data to populate models. Stakeholders highlighted the importance of establishing guiding principles for "good practice" but discouraged the use of "cookbook" checklists. Of the 71 articles, 38 (54%) provided suggestions for future research; stakeholders provided 28 additional suggestions. We found 21 HTA organizations provided guidance (Aim 2) through their web sites regarding the application of modeling and simulation in the context of conducting a HTA. The HTA organizations varied widely in what areas of modeling they provided guidance for and what specific recommendations they made. In general, HTA organizations favored incorporating models into HTA, provided recommendations on how to model data and structure, and recommended inclusion of costs in cost-effectiveness models. Future research needs that were prioritized (Aim 3) included questions about model data, model structure, consistency, and reporting. Studies comparing validation methods (Aim 4) provided information on model validation (face validity and internal, external, and cross-model validation) and calibration (varying specifications of the calibration problem with the same and different algorithms and use of alternative algorithms for the same calibration problem). Conclusion Our systematic review and stakeholder meeting summary provides a comprehensive compendium of guidance documents for modeling and simulation studies, annotated with information on the domains covered by each document, and the methods used to arrive at specific recommendations. We also summarized modeling recommendations for HTA organizations. These processes enabled us to prioritize future research needs to form an empirical basis for and to improve recommendations for modeling. Our overview of model validation and calibration provides insights into the relative value and efficiency of different methods.


This paper presents a novel approach for designing a fixed gain robust power system stabilizer (PSS) with particu lar emphasis on achieving a minimum closed loop perfor mance, over a wide range of operating and system condi tion. The minimum performance requirements of the con troller has been decided apriori and obtained by using a genetic algorithm (GA) based power system stabilizer. The proposed PSS is robust to changes in the plant parameters brought about due to changes in system and operating con dition, guaranteeing a minimum performance. The efficacy of the proposed method has been tested on a multimachine system. The proposed method of tuning the PSS is an at tractive alternative to conventional fixed gain stabilizer de sign, as it retains the simplicity of the conventional PSS and still guarantees a robust acceptable performance over a wider range of operating and system condition.


This journal article undertakes a biblical and theological analysis of 1 Corinthians 15, in order to discern what Paul had to say about Jesus' resurrection and the nature of the believer's resurrection body. The essay first considers Paul's theology within the context of Second Temple Judaism and Adamic motifs in ancient Jewish literature. Then, the essay highlights Paul's teaching that the Messiah conquered death so that believers could have new life in Him. The apostle revealed that the resurrection body would not die or engage in sin, and it would share in the resurrection power of the Messiah. Furthermore, Paul declared that this transformation would not be slow and gradual; instead, when the Saviour returned, believers - whether dead or alive - would be instantly changed. They would receive incorruptible bodies, and this transformation would display the Son's complete and final victory over death


The effects of replacing a digestible energy source from fat (fish oil) with carbohydrate (wheat starch) on performance, glycogenesis and de novo lipogenesis was examined in triplicate groups of juvenile gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), fed four extruded experimental diets. In order to trace the metabolic fate of dietary starch, 0·7 % wheat starch was replaced with isotope-labelled starch (>98 % 13C). Fish were fed the experimental diets for three consecutive 10 d periods, and isotope ratio MS was applied to quantify 13C enrichment of liver and whole-body glycogen and lipid pools over the three feeding periods. Glycogenesis originating from dietary starch accounted for up to 68·8 and 38·8 % of the liver and whole-body glycogen pools, respectively, while up to 16·7 % of the liver lipid could be attributed to dietary starch. Between 5 and 8 % of dietary starch carbon was recovered in whole-body lipid, and estimated deposition rates of de novo synthesised lipid originating from starch ranged from 18·7 to 123·7 mg/kg biomass per d. Dietary treatments did not significantly affect growth, feed performance or body composition of the fish, while the hepatosomatic index and glycogen content of whole fish and livers correlated directly with dietary starch inclusion level. The study suggests that gilthead sea bream efficiently synthesises glycogen from both dietary starch and endogenous sources. In contrast, lipogenesis from carbon derived from starch seems to play a minor role in overall lipid synthesis and deposition under the specified experimental conditions.


The article addresses some of the key issues that are raised for researchers engaging with counterterrorism police officers and initiatives, when undertaking research. A significant area to explore in this context is, in fact, the issue of relationships with counterterrorism police officers who may themselves directly have been covert police officers in the past and/or who may be continuing in their current, apparently more open, role (wittingly or otherwise) as agents of broader state strategies of exploiting trust for intelligence-gathering purposes. This article suggests that it is important for researchers to understand that working within the counterterrorism field involves degrees and shades of risk in the service of trust-building, sensitivity and the empowerment of communities, and that researchers themselves can (wittingly and unwittingly) be part of wider strategies instigated by security-minded individuals or groups of counterterrorism police officers. Reflecting upon the research that we have undertaken individually and collectively over the last number of years, in the light of the most recent spate of allegations about counterterrorism police officers infiltrating activist and political protest groups, having sexual relationships, and indeed, on occasion, children, with women whilst undercover and of potentially working to entrap vulnerable individuals into planning terrorist acts, this article raises questions around trust, credibility, legitimacy, the prevalence and near unavoidability of dysfunctional agendas and the implications of all of the above for community-based approaches to counterterrorism.


"This volume, the second in a series of three, examines the institutional architecture underpinning the global climate integrity system. This system comprises an inter-related set of institutions, governance arrangements, regulations, norms and practices that aim to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Arguing that governance is a neutral term to describe the structures and processes that coordinate climate action, the book presents a continuum of governance values from 'thick' to 'thin' to determine the regime's legitimacy and integrity. The collection contains four parts with part one exploring the links between governance and integrity, part two containing chapters which evaluate climate governance arrangements, part three exploring avenues for improving climate governance and part four reflecting on the road to the UNFCCC's Paris Agreement. The book provides new insights into understanding how systemic institutional and governance failures have occurred, how they could occur again in the same or different form and how these failures impact on the integrity of the UNFCCC. This work extends contemporary governance scholarship to explore the extent to which selected institutional case studies, thematic areas and policy approaches contribute to the overall integrity of the regime."--Publisher website


A periodic grating with an integer number of periods is fabricated at the resist-coated wall of a cylinder by exposing a circularly symmetrical planar high index phase mask to a cylindrical wave. This extends the spatial coherence features easily achievable in a planar 2D space to the 3D space of cylindrical waves and elements.


Flow instability conditions, in particular during surge and stall phenomena, have always influenced the operational reliability of turbo-compressors and have attracted significant interest resulting in extensive literature. Nowadays, this subject is still one of the most investigated because of its high relevance on centrifugal and axial compressor operating flow range, performance and efficiency. Many researchers approach this important issue by developing numerical models, whereas others approach it through experimental studies specifically carried out in order to better comprehend this phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to experimentally analyze the stable and unstable operating conditions of an aeronautic turbo-shaft gas turbine axial-centrifugal compressor installed on a brand new test-rig properly designed for this purpose.The test facility is set up in order to obtain i) the compressor performance maps at rotational speeds up to 25,000 rpm and ii) the compressor transient behavior during surge. By using two different test rig layouts, instabilities occurring in the compressor, beyond the peak of the characteristic curve, are identified and investigated.These two types of analysis are carried out thanks to pressure, temperature and mass flow sensors located in strategic positions along the circuit. These measurement sensors are part of a proper control and acquisition system, characterized by an adjustable sampling frequency. Thus, the desired operating conditions of the compressor, in terms of mass flow and rotational speed and transient of these two parameters are regulated by this dedicated control system.© 2016 ASME


Using comment information available from Digg we define a co-participation network between users. We focus on the analysis of this implicit network, and study the behavioral characteristics of users. We use the comment data and social network derived features to predict the popularity of online content linked at Digg using a classification and regression framework. We also compare network properties of our co-participation network to a previously defined reply-answer network on news forums.


This article addresses the national-political functions of mainstream Hebrew literature, focusing on three questions: What are soldiers' mothers in the canonical literature "allowed" to think, feel, and do, and what is considered transgressive? How has the presence of soldiers' mothers in Israeli public life changed since the 1982 Lebanon War? At the center of the discussion is David Grossman's novel To the End of the Land (2008). I argue that the author posits "the flight from bad tidings" as both a maternal strategy and the author's psychopoetic strategy. This article examines the cultural and gendered significance of the analogy between the act of flight and the act of writing that Grossman advances in his epilogue.


Phase-change memory (PCM) is an emerging non-volatile memory technology that is based on the reversible and rapid phase transition between the amorphous and crystalline phases of certain phase-change materials. The ability to alter the conductance levels in a controllable way makes PCM devices particularly well-suited for synaptic realizations in neuromorphic computing. A key attribute that enables this application is the progressive crystallization of the phase-change material and subsequent increase in device conductance by the successive application of appropriate electrical pulses. There is significant inter- and intra-device randomness associated with this cumulative conductance evolution, and it is essential to develop a statistical model to capture this. PCM also exhibits a temporal evolution of the conductance values (drift), which could also influence applications in neuromorphic computing. In this paper, we have developed a statistical model that describes both the cumulative conductance evolution and conductance drift. This model is based on extensive characterization work on 10 000 memory devices. Finally, the model is used to simulate the supervised training of both spiking and non-spiking artificial neuronal networks.Phase-change memory (PCM) is an emerging non-volatile memory technology that is based on the reversible and rapid phase transition between the amorphous and crystalline phases of certain phase-change materials. The ability to alter the conductance levels in a controllable way makes PCM devices particularly well-suited for synaptic realizations in neuromorphic computing. A key attribute that enables this application is the progressive crystallization of the phase-change material and subsequent increase in device conductance by the successive application of appropriate electrical pulses. There is significant inter- and intra-device randomness associated with this cumulative conductance evolution, and it is essential to develop a statistical model to capture this. PCM also exhibits a temporal evolution of the conductance values (drift), which could also influence applications in neuromorphic computing. In this paper, we have developed a statistical model that describes both the cumulative conductance evoluti...


Humpback whales utilize waters off the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea as foraging grounds during summer months. Currently, the fine-scale movements of humpback whales within these feeding grounds are poorly understood. In the summers of 2007 to 2011, 8 humpback whales were tracked with satellite tags deployed near Unalaska Bay. Individuals were tracked for an average of 28 d (range = 8�67 d). Three whales remained within 50 km of their tagging locations for approximately 14 d, while 2 others explored areas near the northern shore of Unalaska Bay and Unimak Pass. Two whales moved west: one traveled to the Island of Four Mountains and returned to the northern side of Umnak Island, while the other moved through Umnak Pass and explored feeding areas on both sides of Umnak Island. Remarkably, 1 individual left Unalaska Bay soon after tagging and moved ~1500 km (in 12 d) along the outer Bering Sea shelf to the southern Chukotka Peninsula, Russia, then east across the Bering Sea basin to Navarin Canyon, where it remained until transmissions ceased. Most area-restricted search (i.e. foraging) was limited to waters shallower than 1000 m, while movement into deeper water was often associated with travel behavior. Tagged animals spent more time on the Bering Sea shelf and slope than the North Pacific. Movement patterns show individual variation, but are likely influenced by seasonal pro- ductivity. This study provides evidence that although humpbacks aggregate in well-known forag- ing areas, individuals may perform remarkably long trips during the feeding season.


There is significant interest in the technical and policy communities regarding the extent, scope, and consumer harm of persistent interdomain congestion. We provide empirical grounding for discussions of interdomain congestion by developing a system and method to measure congestion on thousands of interdomain links without direct access to them. We implement a system based on the Time Series Latency Probes (TSLP) technique that identifies links with evidence of recurring congestion suggestive of an under-provisioned link. We deploy our system at 86 vantage points worldwide and show that congestion inferred using our lightweight TSLP method correlates with other metrics of interconnection performance impairment. We use our method to study interdomain links of eight large U.S. broadband access providers from March 2016 to December 2017, and validate our inferences against ground-truth traffic statistics from two of the providers. For the period of time over which we gathered measurements, we did not find evidence of widespread endemic congestion on interdomain links between access ISPs and directly connected transit and content providers, although some such links exhibited recurring congestion patterns. We describe limitations, open challenges, and a path toward the use of this method for large-scale third-party monitoring of the Internet interconnection ecosystem.


Polychaetes of the family Cirratulidae are common components of the benthic fauna of the northeastern United States. Although several species have been treated by Blake (1991), the true diversity of northeastern Atlantic cirratulids is underestimated since species remain largely undescribed or are erroneously assigned european names. The present paper provides descriptions of three new species of Chaetozone and one new species of Caulleriella . All four of these taxa were collected as part of environmental monitoring programmes in Long Island Sound, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts Bay, and/or Georges Bank from depths ranging from 10 to 200 m. In addition to traditional observations, details provided by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and staining patterns revealed by Methyl Green are used to further define these taxa and to distinguish them from congeners. Formal descriptions of these new taxa will contribute to a larger understanding of the systematics and interrelationships of the bitentaculate Cirratulidae.


The topic of my research is consumer brand equity (CBE). My thesis is that the success or otherwise of a brand is better viewed from the consumers' perspective. I specifically focus on consumers as a unique group of stakeholders whose involvement with brands is crucial to the overall success of branding strategy. To this end, this research examines the constellation of ideas on brand equity that have hitherto been offered by various scholars. Through a systematic integration of the concepts and practices identified but these scholars (concepts and practices such as: competitiveness, consumer searching, consumer behaviour, brand image, brand relevance, consumer perceived value, etc.), this research identifies CBE as a construct that is shaped, directed and made valuable by the beliefs, attitudes and the subjective preferences of consumers. This is done by examining the criteria on the basis of which the consumers evaluate brands and make brand purchase decisions. Understanding the criteria by which consumers evaluate brands is crucial for several reasons. First, as the basis upon which consumers select brands changes with consumption norms and technology, understanding the consumer choice process will help in formulating branding strategy. Secondly, an understanding of these criteria will help in formulating a creative and innovative agenda for 'new brand' propositions. Thirdly, it will also influence firms' ability to simulate and mould the plasticity of demand for existing brands. In examining these three issues, this thesis presents a comprehensive account of CBE. This is because the first issue raised in the preceding paragraph deals with the content of CBE. The second issue addresses the problem of how to develop a reliable and valid measuring instrument for CBE. The third issue examines the structural and statistical relationships between the factors of CBE and the consequences of CBE on consumer perceived value (CPV). Using LISREL-SIMPLIS 8.30, the study finds direct and significant influential links between consumer brand equity and consumer value perception.


We analysed the representations of science and of scientists at Jornal Nacional, the main Brazilian TV news. We carried out content and frames analysis, besides the lexical and semantic analysis of the transcriptions of the science and technology stories. Our results show a narrative that highlights the novelties and the epopee of the scientific advance, mainly in the health field. But to the emotional palette feelings of combat, anxiety and triumph were added. The face of the scientist presented by the TV news is mainly masculine, suggesting a stereotyped role of the male and female scientist: meanwhile men go out to literally explore other worlds, women take care of health and of the body.


For many albatross species squid are important prey. Whether albatrosses depend on scavenging (e.g. of vomit from cetaceans, post-spawning die-offs or fishery waste) or on live-capture of squid (e.g. via diel vertical migrations in association with aggregations of squid prey) is controversial. This review of the nature of interactions between squid and the four species of albatross breeding at South Georgia uses data on the foraging range, methods and timing of feeding of the albatrosses in relation to the size, distribution, buoyancy characteristics (floaters or sinkers), bioluminescence and prey of the squid and access to fishery waste. We conclude that most evidence for scavenging needs critical re-evaluation; nevertheless, whereas wandering albatrosses and possibly light-mantled sooty albatrosses probably depend significantly on scavenged squid, black-browed and especially grey-headed albatrosses are unlikely to do so.


Water dispersible clay (WDC) can influence soil erosion by water. Therefore, in highly erodible soils such as the ones in eastern Nigeria, there is a need to monitor the clay dispersion characteristics to direct and modify soil conservation strategies. Twenty‐five soil samples (0–20 cm in depth) varying in texture, chemical properties and mineralogy were collected from various locations in central eastern Nigeria. The objective was to determine the WDC of the soils and relate this to selected soil physical and chemical attributes. The soils were analysed for their total clay (TC), water‐dispersible clay (WDC), clay dispersion ratio (CDR), dispersion ratio (DR), dithionite extractable iron (Fed), soil organic matter (SOM), exchangeable cations, exhangeable sodium percentage (ESP) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). Total clay contents of the soil varied from 80–560 g kg−1. The USLE erodibility K ranges from 0·02 to 0·1 Mg h MJ−1 mm and WEPP K fall between 1·2 × 10−6–1·7 × 10−6 kg s m−4. The RUSLE erodibility K correlated significantly with CDR and DR (r = 0·44; 0·39). Also, a positive significant correlation (r = 0·71) existed between WEPP K and RUSLE K. Soils with high clay dispersion ratio (CDR) are highly erodibile and positively correlates (p < 0·51) with Fed, CEC and SOM. Also, DR positively correlates with Mg2+ and SOM and negatively correlate with ESP and SAR. Principal component analysis showed that SAR, Na+ and percent base saturation play significant role in the clay dispersion of these soils. The implication of this result is that these elements may pose potential problem to these soils if not properly managed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Corn ( Zea mays L.) stover is a potential bioenergy feedstock, but little is known about the impacts of reducing stover return on yield and soil quality in the Northern US Corn Belt. Our study objectives were to measure the impact of three stover return rates (Full (~7.8 Mg ha −1 yr −1 ), Moderate (~3.8 Mg ha −1 yr −1 ) or Low (~1.5 Mg ha yr −1 ) Return) on corn and soybean ( Glycine max . L [Merr.]) yields and on soil dynamic properties on a chisel-tilled (Chisel) field, and well- (NT1995) or newly- (NT2005) established no-till managed fields. Stover return rate did not affect corn and soybean yields except under NT1995 where Low Return (2.88 Mg ha −1 ) reduced yields compared with Full and Moderate Return (3.13 Mg ha −1 ). In NT1995 at 0–5 cm depth, particulate organic matter in Full Return and Moderate Return (14.3 g kg −1 ) exceeded Low Return (11.3 g kg −1 ). In NT2005, acid phosphatase activity was reduced about 20% in Low Return compared to Full Return. Also the Low Return had an increase in erodible-sized dry aggregates at the soil surface compared to Full Return. Three or fewer cycles of stover treatments revealed little evidence for short-term impacts on crop yield, but detected subtle soil changes that indicate repeated harvests may have negative consequences if stover removed.


The regulatory guidelines on obtaining informed consent require that all protocols be reviewed by an ethics review committee; in addition study information must be presented to volunteers by the research teams in simple and understandable language, to ensure they are able to give informed consent for their participation. Despite the innovative methods that have been developed over the years to improve informed consent, the informed consent process is still a difficult subject and not fully understood particularly in developing countries.

Objective: In this study I sought to understand and evaluate the informed consent process as perceived by the different actors in two HIV clinical trials and how their understandings and interpretation of the process are reflected in standardized informed consent guidelines.

Methodology: The actors included: members of the ethics review committee, senior researchers, the field research teams, the community advisory board members and the research volunteers. Data were collected using semi-structured interview guides and focus group discussion guides and unstructured observation and document review.

Results: A total of sixty three respondents took part in this study. I found that although the informed consent process is emphasised in research ethics guidelines and clinical research protocols which are approved by the ethics research committees before they are implemented, how the process is perceived and interpreted by the actors is very varied. The different actors' beliefs, values, gender, trust, power differentials and decision making all contribute to the negotiations that take place during the informed consent process. The standardised informed consent guidelines are a useful tool to manage the bureaucracy of conducting research in order to protect research volunteers from any form of harm and allow for individual autonomy; it is however the relationships and interactions of the different actors which are built over time during the research process that in practice lead to a meaningful informed consent process as each actor interprets and understands the process within their own context and experience.


The thesis consists of empirical analysis of the labour supply behaviour of married and single females in Egypt, using data from the 1984 LFS, 1980 EFS and 1976 Census.

A utility maximisation approach, in which leisure time and
consumption goods represent the choice faced by individuals, is used to determine work behaviour. The nature of the labour force participation decision is examined and a model is presented based on the comparison of the market wage and own wage functions. Finally, the time-allocation model, which incorporates non-working time, is presented and other household decisions, such as the determination of family size are brought into the sphere of analysis.

The results obtained using aggregated data indicate that educational attainment and family size and composition are the major determinants of labour supply. Wage and income elasticities are small. And, overall, a higher unemployment rate creates a discouraged-worker effect for married females and an added-worker effect for single females. Similar results are obtained using individual data for Cairo, though there exists a discouraged-worker effect for all marital status groups and the income level is found to exert a positive effect contrary to theoretical expectation.

The use of a framework where household decisions are Jointly determined is tested using two simultaneous-equation models. One of the conclusions reached is that mothers with higher wage and educational levels are in occupations least compatible to child-rearing and so have lower fertility levels. The results also indicate that completed rather than current fertility levels is a better determinant of the decision of a female to work.


A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Life Sciences of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of
Science and Technology


Groundwater is recognised as an important resource for drinking water, agriculture, and industry, but it also plays an essential role in supporting the functioning of freshwater ecosystems and providing habitat for a number of rare species. However, despite its importance, groundwater ecology often receives little attention in environmental legislation or research. This study aims to improve our understanding of the organisms living in groundwater-dependent habitats and the influence of environmental conditions on their distribution.


Approximately 10%-20% of people have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) worldwide. It is well known that IBS is associated with altered motility of the intestine. Currently, the diagnosis of IBS is made through expensive invasive radiographic and endoscopic examinations. The bowel sounds (BSs) are produced by the propelled-air during peristalsis, and can be easily recorded using non-invasive and low-cost equipment. In this study we propose a novel autoregressive moving average (ARMA)-based method to automatically detect BSs, and we use the measure, BS duration (BSD), to capture gastrointestinal motor activity. The performance of the proposed method is investigated and evaluated via computer simulations. Working on healthy volunteers during mosapride administrations, we show that the proposed method for automatic detection could achieve a sensitivity of 83.4%, specificity of 93.3% and accuracy of 91.2%. Moreover, we show that the measure BSD can conveniently capture gastrointestinal motor activity. Our findings should have the potential to contribute towards developing bowel-sound based diagnosis of IBS.


Micropaleontological studies of carbonaceouis chert from the Fig Tree Series of South Africa (> 3.1 x 109 years old) revealed the presence of spheroidal microfossils, here designated Archaeosphaeroides barbertonensis, interpreted as probably representing the remnants of unicellular alga-like organisms. The presumed photosynthetic nature of these primitive microorganisms seems corroborated by organic geochemical and carbon isotopic studies of the Fig Tree organic matter, and is consistent with the geologically and mineralogically indicated Early Precambrian environment. These alga-like spheroids, together with a bacterium-like organism previously described from the Fig Tree chert, are the oldest fossil orgisms now known.


Agreed, the title of this month's follow-up article to September's Paradise lost: Our digital life, does not sound very promising. I have invested much in explaining that almost everything one does online is a privacy risk, and I am not about to refute my claims. The unwavering truth is that we live in a digital world and shutting oneself off from it would be as foolish as discontinuing transport via roadways because South African roads are dangerous. We assume a necessary but calculated risk every day and we may apply a similar strategy to mitigate risk whilst online in a digital world.