As part of a wider study of law school websites, this article examines the nature of the material available on law school websites. Whilst recognising that official law school websites are only one source of information for the various audiences that might have an interest in them, they have a particular quality as the "official" version. Such websites, however, contain a mixture of information and marketing. The provision of information has recently been a key theme in official thinking, culminating in the requirement that all HE institutions will have to publish "Key Information Sets" (KIS), the object of which is to ensure comparability and accessibility of selected information. We argue that making information available is not of itself sufficient: the information also has to be comprehensible to its audience. Assumptions appear to be made about the capacity of the audience to understand not only what is being said on its face but also its subliminal meaning, something which has implications for equality: material that is not explicit about matters such as academic practices privileges those with knowledge of such practices and discriminates against those who do not.


This paper is concerned with the nature of common-sense reasoning and understanding in relation to practical behaviour. It examines the relationship between intuitive knowledge based on everyday experience and institutionalized theory and practice. An analysis of the types of knowledge that guide the selection of actions and understanding in the domain of cooking practice is presented. Verbal transcripts were elicited from participants, with varying levels of experience, of the cooking methods they followed and their underlying rationale. The results suggest that individuals utilize various high level knowledge primitives in combination with pragmatic utility principles in their reasoning. The findings are discussed in the light of recent theoretical approaches concerned with the relationship between knowledge and inference.


This paper proposes different methods to aggregate heterogeneous policies for renewable energy. We compare time-varying indicators built using principal component analysis with average-based indicators. The main goal of the paper is to account for the evolution of both types of policy indicators with a set of common variables. Our empirical results are consistent with predictions of politicaleconomy models of environmental policies as lobbying, income and, to a less extent, inequality have expected effects on policy. The brown lobbying power, proxied by entry barriers in the energy sector, has negative influence on the policy indicators even when taking into account endogeneity in its effect. The results are also robust to dynamic panel specifications and to the exclusion of groups of countries. Interestingly, too, corruption has only an indirect effect on policy mediated by entry barriers, while the negative effect of inequality is much stronger for the richer countries.


Several major trends have been driving the increase of meat consumption in China. By using equilibrium displacement modeling, we focused on the factors of rapid income growth and a pork price subsidy. In a single commodity market, theory predicts that the total income elasticities are less than the partial responses of quantities to income growth. However, when the model was specified to China's five products meat market, counter-intuitive simulation results were obtained, which led us to an important finding of this study: results in the multi-commodity market do not conform to those in the single commodity market, due to the influence of cross-commodity effects. Our analysis shows that substitution or complementary effects may cause the "quasi-singularity" problem of the comparative static results matrices, during matrix inversion. The values of cross-commodity elasticities could influence the results significantly, that is, the relative changes of endogenous variables (prices and quantities) with respect to exogenous variables (e. g. income) could be represented as a function of the crosscommodity elasticities, in the form of, or approximately relating to a hyperbola curve. Unlike the income effects, results indicate that a pork price subsidy would influence other meat very slightly. Results also suggest that a pork subsidy would benefit both meat producers and consumers in the market, and the less elastic side enjoys more welfare, as expected.


We propose a method to perform a safe unintentional islanding maneuver of microgrids. The method is derived in the context of a framework for the real-time control of microgrids, called Commelec, recently proposed by the Authors. The framework uses a hierarchy of software agents that communicate with each other using a common, device independent protocol in order to define explicit power setpoints without the need of droop controllers. We show that the features of the framework allow to design a generic control method for treating unintentional islanding with the following properties. First, the method is able to choose the best candidate slack resource, based on the information obtained from the agents. Second, as the agent responsible for the grid has a global view of the network's status and its resources, it is possible to optimize the performance of the network during and after the islanding transition. Third, after the islanding maneuver it allows for the online switching of the slack resource to that with the best capabilities to face the network's needs. Finally, the method is suitable for inertia-less systems as the control is performed using explicit power setpoints and it does not rely on the frequency signal. We illustrate the benefits of the proposed method via simulation on the LV microgrid benchmark defined by the CIGRÉ Task Force C6.04.02, by comparing its performance to that of the standard droop-based method called load drop anticipator.


An environmental factor of particular importance to children's physical activity levels appears to be the presence of parks and open space. Thus, in promoting children's health, school grounds merit consideration as a potential setting for intervention. This paper explores how 'green' school grounds, which contain a greater diversity of landscaping and design features, affect the quantity and quality of physical activity among elementary school children. Teachers, parents and administrators associated with 59 schools across Canada completed questionnaires (n = 105). Analysis reveals that through greening, school grounds diversify the play repertoire, creating opportunities for boys and girls of all ages, interests and abilities to be more physically active. Complementing the rule-bound, competitive games supported by asphalt and turf playing fields, green school grounds invite children to jump, climb, dig, lift, rake, build, role play and generally get moving in ways that nurture all aspects of their health and development. Of particular significance is the potential to encourage moderate and light levels of physical activity by increasing the range of enjoyable, non-competitive, open-ended forms of play at school. Seen in this light, green school grounds stand to be an important intervention to be included in school health promotion initiatives.


Injecting false data attack is a well known serious threat to wireless sensor network, for which an adversary reports bogus information to sink causing error decision at upper level and energy waste in en-route nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel bandwidth efficient cooperative authentication scheme for filtering injected false data. Based on the random graph characteristics of sensor node deployment and the cooperative bit-compressed authentication technique, the proposed scheme can save energy by early detecting and filtering the majority of injected false data with minor extra overheads at the enroute nodes. In addition, only a very small fraction of injected false data needs to be checked by the sink, which thus largely reduces the burden of the sink. Both theoretical and simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in terms of high filtering probability and energy saving.


With the increased use of DNS anycast, load balancing, and other
mechanisms allowing more than one DNS name server to share a single IP
address, it is sometimes difficult to tell which of a pool of name
servers has answered a particular query. A standardized mechanism to
determine the identity of a name server responding to a particular
query would be useful, particularly as a diagnostic aid for
administrators. Existing ad hoc mechanisms for addressing this need
have some shortcomings, not the least of which is the lack of prior
analysis of exactly how such a mechanism should be designed and
deployed. This document describes the existing convention used in some
widely deployed implementations of the DNS protocol, including
advantages and disadvantages, and discusses some attributes of an
improved mechanism. This memo provides information for the Internet
community.


About a week ago we featured a regulatory expert on the program explaining why the FDA's letter telling 23andMe to stop selling their PGS test is a good thing. Today we feature an outspoken fan of the DTC company, Gholson Lyon, medical geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Gholson is himself a happy customer of 23andMe, and says he's found the service invaluable. In 2011, Gholson led a team in the identification of a new rare genetic disease, Ogden Syndrome, which caused the death of a four month old Utah boy. At the time, Gholson did genetic tests on the boy's family, but was unable to return their results because the tests were not done in a CLIA laboratory. This led Gholson to become an advocate for doing genetic tests for research in a CLIA facility so that results might be returned to patients. Since the 23andMe service is done in a CLIA approved lab, Gholson found the company an excellent place to do genome wide testing.

But is CLIA regulation--which guarantees analytic validity--good enough for the kind of disease risk reports put out by 23andMe to their more than 500,000 customers? Gholson says yes. And regulating the tests further will cut out an important part of a new revolution in medicine.

Gholson acknowledges the diagnostics industry is attempting to bring up the quality of genetic tests, but says that industry companies are producing one-off tests done without the broader context of the genome. This is why he likes the 23andMe service.

"If you don't sequence or genotype the rest of there person's genome, then you have no knowledge about their ancestry and what population they come from. And so you really cannot predict the expression of a particular mutation in that person," he says in the interview.

Gholson also points out that by being a DTC company, 23andMe has been able to recruit many many more participants and data sets than a non-profit, such as the Personal Genome Project, of which he's also a member.

Just how far does Gholson go in his stance against regulation? And how does he envision this revolution in medicine?


OF THESIS MONITORING DAIRY COW FEED INTAKE USING MACHINE VISION The health and productive output of dairy cows can be closely correlated to individual cow feed intake. Being able to monitor feed intake on a daily basis is beneficial dairy farm management. Each cow can be addressed individually with minimal time required from those working with the animals. This is essential as time management is closely tied to resource management in a dairy operation. Anything that can save time and resources and increase profitability and herd health is a paramount advantage in dairy farming. This study examined the use of machine vision structured light illumination three-dimensional scanning of cow feed to determine the volume and weight of feed in a bin before and after feeding dairy cow. Calibration and control tests were conducted to determine the effectiveness and capability of implementing such a machine vision feed scanning system. Such a system is ideal as it does not obstruct workflow or cow feeding behavior. This is an improvement over existing systems as the system in this research study can be implemented into existing farm operations with minimal effort and costs.


Paul Tournier has practised medicine in Geneva since 1928, as a physician who acquired psychiatric training and experience because he learned that many of his patients needed help going deeper than drugs or surgery. Many of his books are in paperback editions, including A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible, The Meaning of Persons, Escape from Loneliness, The Strong and the Weak, The Person Reborn and A Place for You. Previous books by Dr Tournier have, he remarks, grown spontaneously out of his work and experience. Now, for the first time, he writes at the request of his English and American publishers on a topic not of his own choosing: old age and retirement. 'It sounds rather like homework', he commented, because although he is now seventy-three he is still young in spirit and has by no means retired from active life. But he accepted the invitation, because of his firm belief that the problems of old age and retirement concern not only the elderly, but also the whole of society. How we grow old depends upon the way we live throughout our life and the kind of social conditions that we create. Here, then, is a book of personal counsel for those for whom retirement is, or soon will be, a reality. Yet at the same time it is a book for everyone concerned that ours should be a humane society, to learn from while there is still time.


This article presents research concerning the relationship between media and public spheres through an investigation of an African-American-owned and -operated talk-radio station in Chicago. The article concludes that, contrary to some scholars' pessimistic view of commercial media's role in the decline of the public sphere, the radio station portrayed here is an integral and useful institution for the Black public sphere in Chicago. The study reveals how African-American community members and listeners use the station as a public forum wherein traditional political concerns, as well as identity politics, are aired and discussed. Furthermore, the article argues that it is precisely because the station is owned and operated by Blacks that it is able to draw and sustain a substantial and loyal audience. Because they trust the station to "talk their talk," community members are enthusiastic about participating in the station's conversational activities and are even willing to make personal financial contributions when advertising revenue is low.


What should be the future institutional configurations of the second generation of the EU's Integrated Border Management strategy for the common external borders? The Stockholm Programme endorsed by the European Council on December 2009 and the European Commission's action plan implementing it published in April 2010 have brought back to the EU policy agenda the feasibility of setting up a European system of border guards as a long-term policy vision. This Working Document examines the origins of this proposal and aims at thinking ahead by asserting that any future discussion and study in this context should be refocused by initially addressing two central questions: First, what kind of 'border guard' and what kinds of 'border controls' does the EU need in light of the current EU acquis on external border crossings and the Schengen Borders Code? Second, what would be the 'added value' of any new institutional arrangement at the current stage of European integration? Author Sergio Carrera, CEPS Research Fellow, argues that these questions could presage the establishment of a common European border service aimed at i) guaranteeing a uniform implementation and high-standard application of EU border law and the materialisation of a European approach to external border controls; ii) ensuring the respect of fundamental rights and guarantees in all external border control-related activities; iii) facilitating the (de)politicisation and accountability of external border controls; and iv) addressing issues of solidarity and mutual trust building across the external borders in an enlarged EU.


The majority of rabies cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control each year occur in wildlife includmg skunks, raccoons, bats, foxes, and coyotes. Currently, oral rabies vaccination campaigns are employed to immunize coyotes, foxes, and raccoons. Though skunks are vectors of 6 rabies strains, there is currently no effective oral vaccine or delivev system for skunks. More information is needed to determine if baits currently used are sufficiently attractive to skunks, or if the baits are dficult for skunks to handle and consume. We observed bait manipulation by skunks in penned f&g tnals to determine the bait type most conducive to ingestion and delivery of a mock vaccine to skunks. Smaller baits were easier for skunks to manipulate and consume, and vaccine containers coated with bait facilitated sachet puncture and increased the potential for vaccine delivery. Our information will be useful in the development of baits and vaccine containers for large-scale rabies vaccination campaigns that target skunks.


Since the publication of Jose Arguelles' book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology (Arguelles 1987) brought to the attention of lay audiences the ancient prophecy concerning the end of the Maya Long Count calendar, which started on August 11, 3114 BC, and will end on December 21, 2012 AD, this date has become the focus of many articles, books, and conferences and of a forthcoming movie entitled 2012. Similar prophecies about the end of the Great Cycle can be found in many other cultural and religious groups – the Hopi, Navajo, Cherokee, Apache, Iroquois confederacy, ancient Egyptians, the Kabbalists, Essenes, Qero elders of Peru, the Subsaharan Dogon tribe, and the Australian Aborigines.


A new species of Porroglossum (Pleurothallidinae), Porroglossum raoi Baquero & Iturralde, apparently endemic to a cloud forest close to Chical, is described here. Porroglossum raoi is compared to known species within the genus growing close to the area where it was discovered. The big white flower, the thick, subclavate and brown-purple lateral sepal tails, a single subacute angle on the lower margin of the petals and a strong cinnamon and clove smell, immediately separates this from other species in Porroglossum . Taxonomical and ecological notes are given.


This case study presents an innovative initiative to facilitate safe reuse of faecal sludge (FS) by introducing the World Health Organisation9s multi-barrier approach within a Farmer Field Schools framework for participatory experiential learning. A novel FS treatment process based on fermentation by 'effective organisms' (EM) was piloted to test the feasibility, safety and acceptability of the resulting fertilizer. Fermented FS in agricultural application was found to perform at least as well as other common fertilizers it was compared with, while its lower cost delivered higher profits per cultivated hectare. Participating farmers found it easy to prepare and use, and viewed it favourably overall. EM-based fermentation was, however, found to be insufficient as an FS treatment to render safe reuse, particularly with respect to helminth inactivation. The paper discusses strengthening the treatment barrier, and improving the application of the multi-barrier approach by the systematic consideration of non-treatment barriers using guidance from the WHO9s Sanitation Safety Planning Manual. Further research to enable effective monitoring and support systems for maintaining treatment and non-treatment barriers, and for understanding long term impacts of fermented FS application is recommended. In combination, adequately treated fermented FS may be a candidate for scale up necessary for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.


In this collection of essays, Tom Farer examines critically the stand taken by U.S. foreign policy makers on such issues as right and left-wing dictatorships, revolution, human rights and national autonomy. In this fascinating manner, focusing sharp observations at times with polemical intent, Farer scrutinizes the key assumptions, including the "Soviet or revolutionary threat," which have guided American foreign policy for Latin America since the end of World War II. One central conviction is that changes in regimes rarely have objective significance for U.S. strategic interests properly conceived. Farer describes the grand strategy of the United States in Latin America (he sees very much the same strategic assumptions guiding U.S. policy throughout the Third World) as unrealistic and misguided in terms both of U.S. interests and ideals. He argues that America has over the years maneuvered itself into political, legal and moral dilemmas by disregarding or misunderstanding the internal dynamics of Latin American countries and their implications for U.S. interests and by seeing dangerous and irremedial hostility in all revolutionary movements. Against this tradition in U.S. policy, Farer advocates tactics and strategies he deems more consonant with the proper goals of U.S. policy and with Latin American needs and aspirations. His essays combine a sophisticated analysis of Latin American society with assessment of U.S. policy from legal, moral and strategic perspectives.


Rapidity-odd directed flow (v1) measurements for charged pions, protons, and antiprotons near midrapidity (y=0) are reported in sNN=7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV Au+Au collisions as recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. At intermediate impact parameters, the proton and net-proton slope parameter dv1/dy|y=0 shows a minimum between 11.5 and 19.6 GeV. In addition, the net-proton dv1/dy|y=0 changes sign twice between 7.7 and 39 GeV. The proton and net-proton results qualitatively resemble predictions of a hydrodynamic model with a first-order phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined matter, and differ from hadronic transport calculations.


Bioimprinting, which involves capturing cell morphological details into a polymer matrix, provides a new class of patterned surfaces which opens an opportunity to investigate how cells respond to their own signatures and may introduce possibilities for regulating their behaviour. In this study, phenotypic details of human nasal chondrocytes (HNCs) were replicated in soft polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mould resulting in inverse replicas of cells, which have been termed here as 'negative bioimprint'. For the first time, the information from this negative bioimprint was then transferred into another PDMS layer resulting in surfaces which resemble cell morphology and were called 'positive bioimprints'. Soft lithography was used to transfer these details from PDMS into different polymers like polystyrene, tissue culture polystyrene and clinically used block co-polymer poly (ethylene glycol) terephthalate–poly (butylene terephthalate) (PEGT–PBT). Results obtained from surface characterization confirmed that fine details of cells were successfully replicated from cells to different polymer matrices without any significant loss of information during the different steps of pattern transfer. HNCs seeded on different polymer surfaces with positive and negative bioimprints exhibited distinct behaviour. Cells cultured on positive bioimprints were more spread out and displayed high levels of proliferation compared to those on negative bioimprints, where cells were more compact with lower proliferation.


We show that market volatility of volatility is a significant risk factor that affects index and volatility index option returns, beyond volatility itself. The volatility and volatility of volatility indices, identified model-free as the VIX and VVIX, respectively, are only weakly related to each other. Delta-hedged index and VIX option returns are negative on average and are more negative for strategies that are more exposed to volatility and volatility-of-volatility risks. Further, volatility and volatility of volatility significantly negatively predict future delta-hedged option payoffs. The evidence suggests that volatility and volatility-of-volatility risks are jointly priced and have negative market prices of risk.


The courtroom, like the movie theater, is an arena for the telling and interpreting of stories. Investigators piece them together, witnesses tell them, advocates retell them, and judges and juries assess their plausibility. These narratives reconstitute absent events through words, and their filming constitutes a double narrative: one important cultural practice rendered in the terms of another. Drawing on both film studies and legal scholarship, David A. Black explores the implications of representing court procedure, as well as other phases of legal process, in film. His study ranges from an inquiry into the common metaphorical ground between film and law, explored through "the detective" and "the witness", to a critical survey of legal writings about the cinema, to close analyses of key films about law. In examining multiple aspects of law in film, Black sustains a focus on the central importance of narrative while also unearthing the influences-pleasure in film, power in law-that lie beyond the narrative realm. Black's penetrating study treats questions of narrative authority and structure, social authority, and cultural history, revealing the underlying historical, cultural, and cognitive connections between legal and cinematic practices.


Reliable water forecasting provides the basis for making operational, tactical and strategic decisions for water utilities. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a spatial and temporal forecasting of water consumption patterns that has been carried out at the District Metered Area (DMA) level. Flow, infrastructure and billing data were collected from water utilities and combined with recently published census data. Results include empiric relations for estimating design and operational parameters for different seasonal and weekday scenarios, as well as average demand patterns for different consumer profiles taking into consideration key variables. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the CCWI2013 Committee.


We demonstrate vCBIR, a verifiable search engine for Content-Based Image Retrieval. vCBIR allows a small or medium-sized enterprise to outsource its image database to a cloud-based service provider and ensures the integrity of query processing. Like other common data-as-a-service (DaaS) systems, vCBIR consists of three parties: (i) the image owner who outsources its database, (ii) the service provider who executes the authenticated query processing, and (iii) the client who issues search queries. By employing a novel query authentication scheme proposed in our prior work [4], the system not only supports cloud-based image retrieval, but also generates a cryptographic proof for each query, by which the client could verify the integrity of query results. During the demonstration, we will showcase the usage of vCBIR and also provide attendees interactive experience of verifying query results against an untrustworthy service provider through graphical user interface (GUI).


A new iterative low complexity algorithm has been presented for computing the Walsh-Hadamard transform (WHT) of an N dimensional signal with a K-sparse WHT, where N is a power of two and K = O(Nα), scales sublinearly in N for some 0 <; α <; 1. Assuming a random support model for the nonzero transform domain components, the algorithm reconstructs the WHT of the signal with a sample complexity O(K log2(N/K)), a computational complexity O(K log2(K) log2(N/K)) and with a very high probability asymptotically tending to 1. The approach is based on the subsampling (aliasing) property of the WHT, where by a carefully designed subsampling of the time domain signal, one can induce a suitable aliasing pattern in the transform domain. By treating the aliasing patterns as parity-check constraints and borrowing ideas from erasure correcting sparse-graph codes, the recovery of the nonzero spectral values has been formulated as a belief propagation (BP) algorithm (peeling decoding) over an sparse-graph code for the binary erasure channel (BEC). Tools from coding theory are used to analyze the asymptotic performance of the algorithm in the "very sparse" (α ∈ (0, 1/3]) and the "less sparse" regime (α ∈ (1/3, 1)).


Abstract The Fontan operation was initially designed to provide a "physiological correction" of tricuspid atresia, but its indications have been extended to more complex forms of congenitally malformed hearts. In selected patients with two adequately sized ventricles, but highly complex intra cardiac anatomy which makes a biventricular repair more hazardous and which would require multiple reoperations, a univentricular repair using Fontan's principle has been proposed. Between 1978 and 1992, a modified Fontan operation was carried out in 34 such patients. Of the patients. 13 had double outlet right ventricle and 21 had transposed great arteries. Anomalies of ventricular loop were present in 14 patients. A non-committed ventricular septal defect was found in 26 whilst multiple defects were present in 10. All patients had anomalies of the atrioventricular valves, with straddling of the tricuspid valve,11 and/or of the mitral valve11, and abnormal tricuspid5, or mitral4 cordal attachments. Two patients had mild tricuspid hypoplasia, 1 had mitral hypoplasia and 3 had a cleft mitral valve. Fourteen patients had anomalies of both atrioventricular valve but only 6 had mild atrioventricular valvar incompetence. Pulmonary stenosis or atresia was seem in 26. All the patients had at least one or more (mean 2.35) intracardiac anomalies that preculded a biventricular repair. The Fontan operation was performed at a median age of 4.75 years. There were 4 early (11.4%, 70% CL: 5.1–19.8) and 2 late deaths, with a 4 year actuarial survival rate of 79.6±8.1%. Univariate analysis did not reveal any risk factor for early of late death. Follow-up at a mean interval of 3.6 ±2.6 years was available in all but 1 survivor. There were 6 early and 2 late reoperations, and 3 patients required implantation of a pacemaker. In conclusion, the modified Fontan operation can provide satisfactory early and mid term results in patients with two ventricles but with complex intracardiac anatomy which precludes a biventricular repair.


Peer-led programmes on AIDS prevention have shown a good level of effectiveness when tested among high-risk populations. This study compared peer-led and teacher-led methods of education about HIV/AIDS among female high-school students in Yazd city, Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2009 students in 3 high schools were trained by their classmates (peer-led), by the research team (teacher-led) or had no education (controls); 180 students completed a specially designed questionnaire based on the health belief model, before and after the intervention. Post-intervention mean knowledge scores increased 2-fold in the peer-led group, and this was significantly higher than the increase in the teacher-led group scores (1.5-fold). Control group scores were unchanged. In the peer-led programme all of the components of the model were significantly improved whereas in the teacher-led programme, only perceived severity and perceived barriers scored significantly higher after the intervention.


In this book, we introduce the background and mainstream methods of probabilistic modeling and discriminative parameter optimization for speech recognition. The specific models treated in depth include the widely used exponential-family distributions and the hidden Markov model. A detailed study is presented on unifying the common objective functions for discriminative learning in speech recognition, namely maximum mutual information (MMI), minimum classification error, and minimum phone/word error. The unification is presented, with rigorous mathematical analysis, in a common rational-function form. This common form enables the use of the growth transformation (or extended Baum–Welch) optimization framework in discriminative learning of model parameters. In addition to all the necessary introduction of the background and tutorial material on the subject, we also included technical details on the derivation of the parameter optimization formulas for exponential-family distribut ons, discrete hidden Markov models (HMMs), and continuous-density HMMs in discriminative learning. Selected experimental results obtained by the authors in firsthand are presented to show that discriminative learning can lead to superior speech recognition performance over conventional parameter learning. Details on major algorithmic implementation issues with practical significance are provided to enable the practitioners to directly reproduce the theory in the earlier part of the book into engineering practice. Table of Contents: Introduction and Background / Statistical Speech Recognition: A Tutorial / Discriminative Learning: A Unified Objective Function / Discriminative Learning Algorithm for Exponential-Family Distributions / Discriminative Learning Algorithm for Hidden Markov Model / Practical Implementation of Discriminative Learning / Selected Experimental Results / Epilogue / Major Symbols Used in the Book and Their Descriptions / Mathematical Notation / Bibliography


Little empirical research exists about highly effective psychotherapists, and none about the factors that mediate the acquisition and maintenance of superior performance skills (e.g., Ericsson, 1996, 2006; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993). In the full sample, a 3-level multilevel modeling (Level 1: clients; Level 2: therapists; Level 3: organization types) of practitioner outcomes was used to examine the contribution of the therapist to treatment effectiveness. Consistent with prior research, in the full sample (n = 69 therapists; n = 4,580 clients) it was found that therapist effects explained 5.1% of the variance in outcome, after adjusting for initial severity. Therapist gender, caseload, and age were not found to be significant predictors. In a subsample of therapists, the relationship between outcome and therapist demographic variables, professional development activities, and work practices was analyzed (n = 17 therapists, n = 1,632 clients). Therapist characteristics (e.g., years of experience, gender, age, profession, highest qualification, caseload, degree of theoretical integration) did not significantly predict client-reported outcomes. Consistent with the literature on expertise and expert performance, the amount of time spent targeted at improving therapeutic skills was a significant predictor of client outcomes. Further, highly effective therapists indicated requiring more effort in reviewing therapy recordings alone than did the rest of the cohort. Caveats and implications for clinical practice, continuing professional development, and training are discussed.


This paper presents part of the results of a completed study entitled A Longitudinal Study of Minority Ph.D.s from 1980-1990: Progress and Outcomes in Science and Engineering at the University of California during Graduate School and Professional Life. It focuses particularly on the graduate school experience and degree of preparation for the professoriate of African American doctoral students in the sciences and engineering, and presents the results of a survey of 33 African American STEM Ph.D.s from the University of California earned between 1980-1990. Relationships with thesis advisors and principal investigators are evaluated by the study participants in fifteen specific areas from highly-ranked intellectual development to low-ranked training in grant writing. Deficits in training and socialization are discussed along with the tension between being both an African American and a graduate student. Career choices and outcomes are presented. These findings, in conjunction with current analyses of graduate education in STEM, suggest ways in which graduate training for all could be improved.


We prove in this paper the linear stability of the celebrated Schwarzschild family of black holes in general relativity: Solutions to the linearisation of the Einstein vacuum equations around a Schwarzschild metric arising from regular initial data remain globally bounded on the black hole exterior and in fact decay to a linearised Kerr metric. We express the equations in a suitable double null gauge. To obtain decay, one must in fact add a residual pure gauge solution which we prove to be itself quantitatively controlled from initial data. Our result a fortiori includes decay statements for general solutions of the Teukolsky equation (satisfied by gauge-invariant null-decomposed curvature components). These latter statements are in fact deduced in the course of the proof by exploiting associated quantities shown to satisfy the Regge--Wheeler equation, for which appropriate decay can be obtained easily by adapting previous work on the linear scalar wave equation. The bounds on the rate of decay to linearised Kerr are inverse polynomial, suggesting that dispersion is sufficient to control the non-linearities of the Einstein equations in a potential future proof of nonlinear stability. This paper is self-contained and includes a physical-space derivation of the equations of linearised gravity around Schwarzschild from the full non-linear Einstein vacuum equations expressed in a double null gauge.


How to Read an Impressionist Painting is a new, original exploration of the hugely popular and revolutionary 19th-century art movement. James Rubin organizes his discussion by subject matter, rather than by artist, looking at urban views and city life, interiors and still life, family and friends, and other common themes. By avoiding an artist-based structure, and without the convention of a chronological approach, he provides readers with the tools to think critically and analytically about Impressionism as a movement, and offers a new understanding of the collective momentum that drove the artists to work with such originality and commitment to modern themes and pictorial originality.


Purpose To analyse the outcome of twenty children (24 hips), C.P. patients with established dislocation of the hips submitted to surgical reduction. Methodology Betwen 1998 to 2002, a retrospective review of twenty children, (24 hips) with spastic or mixed quadriplegic cerebral palsy with established hip dislocation was undertaken,. Patients were operated by the same technique: – open reduction and capsulorraphy (anterior approach) plus proximal femoral VDRO with shortening of the femur and psoas tenotomy (lateral approach). Follow-up was 4.6 years (2–6 y). Age average 9.4 years, (range 4y 8m to 13y 6m). There were 12 boys and 8 girls. All patients were mentally retarded and nonambulatory. All patients were clinically evaluated, pre and postoperatively, and pelvic AP X-rays were taken in a standard supine position, in order to determine the percentage of uncover-age of the femoral head (Reimer's method) and the acetabular index. Results The results were generally good with a postop migration percentage of 21,1% (1 hip subluxated) and a better acetabular index. As complications we had 1 fracture, 3 pressure sores and 1 epiphysiodesis. As clinical evaluation we had difficulty in wheelchair seating in 4 patients and pain in 2 patients. Conclusion Concentric stable reduction of the dislocated femoral head is quite possible with an agressive surgical technique. An easy reposition of the femoral head without any abnormal tension is possible through a generous shortening of the femur, usually without need of an extra bone procedure in the acetabulum. As these patients are always bone immature is possible to extend this surgical procedure into the adolescents.


Compatibilization of incompatible isotactic polypropylene (iPP)/polyethylene oxide (PEO) is studied with an emphasis on the crystallization behavior of polyethylene oxide. An attempt is made to correlate the crystallization data for PEO obtained from optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, x-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis. PEO and iPP are incompatible in the temperature range -50C to 200C. iPP was used as the matrix while PEO was used as the dispersed phase. Experimental observations demonstrated that PEO underwent fractionated crystallization in the blends in the temperature region from -10C to 40C when cooled at a rate of 10C/min. PEO domains nucleated homogeneously as well as heterogeneously in these blends. Larger domains (30-100 microns) crystallized at higher temperatures (heterogeneous nucleation), while smaller domains (10-60 microns) crystallized at lower temperatures (homogeneous nucleation). Heterogeneous nucleation occurred both thermally, and athermally. The graft copolymer, polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride-graftpolyethylene glycol was used to increase compatibility between iPP and PEO. Three blends systems were studied; iPP and PEO, polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride and PEO and polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride-graft-polyethylene oxide and PEO. An increase in the concentration of PEO in the blends increased its crystallinity. However there was a decrease in the crystallinity of PEO, as the blends were made more compatible. This behavior of PEO was observed both by optical microscopy differential scanning calorimetry. Results from x-ray diffraction, however, showed an increase in the crystallinity of PEO relative to iPP as compatibility between the blends increased. The compatibilizer reduced the size of the dispersed phase thus increasing compatibility between iPP and PEO. There was clustering of small PEO domains in the compatibilized blends. Heterogeneous nucleation can be seen only for the 30% PEO concentration of the uncompatibilized blends. The melting point of PEO in the blends was depressed, while that of iPP was the same as the pure polymer. PEO domains existed as spherical droplets in the melt. The crystallization temperatures for PEO were higher when seen through optical microscopy as compared to differential scanning calorimetry. Results from infrared spectroscopy revealed a change in the nature of the spectra for iPP and PEO in the blends as compared to the pure spectra. The infrared spectra of the blends are distinctly different from the coadded spectra of iPP and PEO. Spectroscopy also revealed a change in the composition or structure of PEO in the blends from the targeted compositions. Mechanical analysis revealed a change in the nature of the graph of the loss modulus versus temperature, as the blends are made compatible. Crystal rearrangement of both iPP and PEO is seen as the blends were heated in the temperature range from -50C to 100C.


When procurement contracts are awarded through competitive tendering participating firms commit ex ante to fulfil a set of contractual duties. However, selected contractors may find profitable to renege ex post on their promises by opportunistically delivering lower quality standards. In order to deter ex post moral hazard, buyers may use different strategies depending on the extent to which quality dimensions are contractible, that is, verifiable by contracting parties and by courts. We consider a stylized repeated procurement framework in which a buyer awards a contract over time to two firms with different efficiency levels. If the contractor does not deliver the agreed level of performance the buyer may handicap the same firm in future competitive tendering. We prove that under complete information extremely severe handicapping is never a credible strategy for the buyer, rather the latter finds it optimal to punish the opportunistic firm so as to make the pool of competitors more alike. In other words, when opportunistic behaviour arises, the buyer should use handicapping to "level the playing field".


Monitor and control operations demand deep interaction between users and devices, while they require the adoption of high interoperable solutions that only SOA-based Web services can offer. When the access is performed via Internet using Web services calls, the remote invocation time becomes crucial in order to understand if a service can be controlled properly, or the delays introduced by the wire and the serialization/deserialization process are unacceptable. We propose methodologies, based on a 2 factorial analysis and a Gaussian majorization of previous service execution times, which enable the estimation of a generic remote method execution time.


OBJECTIVE: To use qualitative and quantitative findings to describe patterns of smoking experimentation and initiation among adolescent girls. DESIGN: Ethnographic in-person interviews, focus groups, telephone interviews, and a survey questionnaire were used over a one-year period. The paper reports on cross-sectional data drawn from a three-year longitudinal study. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: 205 girls participated in the survey and interviews during year 3 of the study. Girls were drawn from two urban high schools in Tucson, Arizona (USA), and were in grades 10 and 11 (mean ages 16 and 17, respectively) during year 3. RESULTS: Overall, 30% (n = 61) of informants reported that they currently smoked, 7% (n = 15) were ex-smokers, and 63% (n = 129) were "non-smokers". The most frequently cited reasons for smoking were stress reduction and relaxation. Several stress-inducing situations, including family environment, social relations with classmates, and schoolwork, are discussed. The notion of peer pressure is re-examined in the light of teenagers' experience that there is little overt pressure to initiate smoking. Consonant with notions of adolescent autonomy, the theme of independence in smoking initiation and continuation permeated girls' narratives about their smoking behaviour. Girls projected the image that they could control their cigarettes rather than have their cigarettes control them. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking prevention and cessation programmes need to address and counter the smoking/relaxation association, which was identified as an important reason for smoking among adolescent girls. Questions typically used in surveys to measure smoking behaviour do not adequately define the smoking experience as described by teenagers.


A solo exhibition of drawings, exhibited in Kensington Palace, London, 9 January -9th May 2013. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue publication and an educational workshop. The exhibition is the outcome of 3 years research with the underwear collections housed at Kensington which are rarely seen and cannot be easily displayed, including underwear belonging to Queen Victoria (a recent acquisition attracting considerable press attention: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-victorias-bloomers-revealed-1783555.html). The project has also involved delivering drawing workshops at Kensington funded entirely by Historic Royal Palaces. The project received substantial in kind funding from Kensington and was supported by Lancaster University Small Grant (£4140). About the project Situated at the frontier of drawing research, this interdisciplinary project researches parallels between the activities of conservators and those of drawing. It asks what drawing, as an analytical tool of Art, might share with the activities of material conservation in a mutual preoccupation with preserving fugitive matter. It aims to provide significant new insight into the language, forms and processes of drawing and explore its relevance as an interdisciplinary research tool. This constitutes an original contribution to the burgeoning research area of Art–Science collaboration: although there is an established history of artists working with science (Wellcome Trust/Cape Farewell projects), essentially, the dialogue between art and material conservation has been little explored. More significantly, this is the first instance of substantial and rigorous fine art research on the Kensington Collections. This exhibition tests what this collaboration may reveal about the artefacts and how tensions of concealment and display inherent to them may be understood. In engaging with conservation, the drawings push the boundaries of conventional drawing, testing the limits of visual and material delicacy associated with this discipline through unconventional processes and materials, informed by conservation. The resulting works are unusual drawings-object hybrids; as such the research contributes to both clusters of languages of Form and Process in the LICA research strategy. This timely project responds to current debates within the international drawing research community about the relationship of drawing to other disciplines (Garner 2008, Ridley & Rodgers 2010). The methodology and emergent drawings are both innovative in the field of contemporary drawing research. Kensington Palace is a prestigious venue of international standing, part of Historic Royal Palaces comprising Tower of London, Hampton Court Kew and Kensington. One of the major London museums, it attracts an international audience. Through partnership with the Princes Drawing School (which has studios onsite), it has become a venue for exhibiting drawing. Emergent outcomes have been shown in international juried exhibitions: The 5th international Drawing Biennale (2009), touring Melbourne and Victoria, Australia, The Art of Research, Helsinki, Finland). An interim paper discussing the project methodology was delivered as a plenary paper at The Art of Research- processes, methods results' conference in Helsinki, 24-25th November 2009. A version of this paper will be published as a chapter in a forthcoming publication ('The Art of Research- processes , methods results') by Aalto University, Helsinki in collaboration with Chelsea college of Art (UAL): Autumn 2011. The project was also presented in a paper at the International Drawing Research Network conference 2010. http://www.drawing-research-network.org.uk/drn-2010-conference-programme-and-summaries/


Case-cohort designs are increasingly commonly used in large epidemiological cohort studies. Nan, Yu, and Kalbeisch (2004) provided the asymptotic results for censored linear regression models in case-cohort studies. In this article, we consider computa- tional aspects of their proposed rank based estimating methods. We show that the rank based discontinuous estimating functions for case-cohort studies are monotone, a property established for cohort data in the literature, when generalized Gehan type of weights are used. Though the estimating problem can be formulated to a linear pro- gramming problem as that for cohort data, due to its easily uncontrollable large scale even for a moderate sample size, we instead propose a Newton-type iterated method to search for an approximate root for the discontinuous monotone estimating function. Simulation results provide a good demonstration of the proposed method.


Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are relatively rare and often present with vague symptoms. Their first clinical manifestation as acute abdomen due to perforation is extremely rare. We report a rare case of spontaneous perforation of exophytic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) causing perforation of jejunum. A 61 year, male patient presented with symptoms of acute abdomen. After evaluation, a laparotomy was performed, where perforation of a tumor in the jejunum was found. The perforated part along with the tumor was resected and the histopathological examination showed that the tumor was GIST. In emergency setting the patients with perforation peritonitis, a diagnosis of spontaneous perforation of GIST though rare should be kept in mind specially in elderly patients.


According to the UN there is need to attain 17 heterogeneous goals with 169 different targets in order to reach sustainable development. Is this programme strong enough to become successful? The decisive point for assessing its quality is whether it offers only a catalogue of demands or an integrated concept. Satisfying human needs whilst respecting the limits of the biosphere with future-capable forms and rates of production and consumption are of central importance. But an alternative approach to civilizational progress has to outline as well that kind of eco-social transformations by which these requirements could be realized. Major transitions of this type should be multi-dimensional. They have to provide the capacity of simultaneously altering several dimensions of human life: social and ecological as well as economic and political.

Re-directing human progress cannot be done by means of superior ethics and good will alone. Instead, effective forms of management and governance are required. Realizing sustainable development in practice takes place under conditions of targeting-conflicts about priorities, utilization competences about resources as well as divergent interests and contrasting visions of how "our common future" should look like. Facing "great challenges" of humankind therefore means tailoring well-designed interventions in the ongoing dynamics of existing patterns: in communicative culture as well as in material culture, in the organizational sphere as well as in the technological sphere.

Two promising research perspectives working on the development of solutions for the above framed problems concern leading principles and generative forces. With leading principles for eco-social transformations the emphasis is on efficiency, sufficiency and consistency. They respond to different groundings and favour distinct instruments. They are supported by different arguments and seem to be excluding each other, as suggested by the semantics of "hard" and "soft" sustainability. We can understand them as strategies that are competing for attention on the public agenda: for being accepted and having the chance to become converted into practice. Besides focussing on the advantages of a balanced approach further research and development (above all in "sustainability science" itself) should concentrate on delivering fresh understandings and novel concepts like the cradle-to-cradle approach.

The guiding question for this research perspective reads:
How to combine these strategies with effective principles of design such as to enable far reaching transformations in material culture and social life?
The other research perspective deals with generative forces that link valuable personal resources like awareness, imagination and motivation to institutional transactions and social change. The social sciences provide three well-known categories: actors, cultures and systems. What kind of conditions and drivers for eco-social transformations can be identified within these contexts? How do they correlate with generative forces?

After giving an overview we will focus on the field of organizational cultures and their relationship to generative forces. Here, they are stimulating creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, finding novel solutions to old problems and other understandings of conflicts, that may lead to new beginnings and vital reforms. Approaches for utilizing generative forces in this field (that is: mobilizing and organizing them in multiple arrangements like innovation hubs, business theatre or systemic constellation work and world cafes) are now originating from sources as different as academic innovation research, professional consultancy practice as well as civil society movements. Of special interest here are artistic installations and performances (resuming ideas of anthropological art and social plastic) because they have a unique capacity of opening horizons and transcending limitations while intervening in public spaces of urban life-worlds as well as private enterprises and public administrations within functionally organized labour-worlds. As guiding questions for this second research perspective we can note:
How can we identify and understand generative forces? Which are their general characteristics and which peculiar traits can be observed? What are viable forms of evoking and expressing them in order for them to flourish in eco-social transformations?

Making use of generative forces to enable and facilitate purposes seems to be easy. But first of all we have to satisfy one precondition: becoming more sensitive and capable to perceive and recognize them, tracing their signature within the turbulent climate of modern world.
Hence, my contribution to RSD7 will neither offer fixed understandings of problems nor stubborn repetitions of common solutions. Instead, the focus lies on outlining fresh perspectives for doing research and development as well as on sharing insights and seeking partners for organizing sparkling dialogues and future collaborations.


A trade mark is a mark, word, name, sign, symbol, device or any combination thereof by means of which manufacturers may distinguish their products from the products of others. The law protects trade marks by allowing them to be registered and exclusively used by the trade mark holder. Traditionally marks are classified in order of descending strength, as arbitrary or fanciful, suggestive, descriptive or generic. Terms that are deemed generic are not entitled to trade mark protection because such words are in the public domain and available for all to use. A generic term identifies 'a type of product', not the source of the product, and is not entitled to legal protection. A generic term therefore serves to name the goods themselves, rather than the producer of the product.


Throughout the 20th century, electricity was considered to be the primary vehicle of modernity, as well as its quintessential symbol. In India, electrification was central to how early nationalists and planners conceptualized Indian development, and huge sums were spent on the project from then until now. Yet despite all this, sixty-five years after independence nearly 400 million Indians have no access to electricity. Electrifying India explores the political and historical puzzle of uneven development in India's vital electricity sector. In some states, nearly all citizens have access to electricity, while in others fewer than half of households have reliable electricity. To help explain this variation, this book offers both a regional and a historical perspective on the politics of electrification of India as it unfolded in New Delhi and three Indian states: Maharashtra, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. In those parts of the countryside that were successfully electrified in the decades after independence, the gains were due to neither nationalist idealism nor merely technocratic plans, but rather to the rising political influence and pressure of rural constituencies. In looking at variation in how public utilities expanded over a long period of time, this book argues that the earlier period of an advancing state apparatus from the 1950s to the 1980s conditioned in important ways the manner of the state's retreat during market reforms from the 1990s onward.


This article gives an overview on Indonesian student activism in Berlin, Germany. Based on documents (published and unpublished), interviews, and conversations with former and current student activists, the paper scrutinizes the trajectory of activism of Indonesian students in the capital of Germany since the 1960s and asks about the evolution of specific student organizations, the issues and topics they tackled, and their media and networking strategies. The article illustrates the activities of the PPI Berlin as a dominant example of Indonesian students' political activism abroad and the activities of Indonesian Muslim students as a prominent example of religious-based activism which has gained significance since the fall of Suharto. These examples indicate the diversity of Indonesian student activists in Berlin that are nevertheless united in their aspirations to challenge politics back home.


Throughout the world, efforts are under way to restore watersheds, but restoration planning rarely accounts for future climate change. Using a series of linked models of climate, land cover, hydrology, and salmon population dynamics, we investigated the impacts of climate change on the effectiveness of proposed habitat restoration efforts designed to recover depleted Chinook salmon populations in a Pacific Northwest river basin. Model results indicate a large negative impact of climate change on freshwater salmon habitat. Habitat restoration and protection can help to mitigate these effects and may allow populations to increase in the face of climate change. The habitat deterioration associated with climate change will, however, make salmon recovery targets much more difficult to attain. Because the negative impacts of climate change in this basin are projected to be most pronounced in relatively pristine, high-elevation streams where little restoration is possible, climate change and habitat restoration together are likely to cause a spatial shift in salmon abundance. River basins that span the current snow line appear especially vulnerable to climate change, and salmon recovery plans that enhance lower-elevation habitats are likely to be more successful over the next 50 years than those that target the higher-elevation basins likely to experience the greatest snow–rain transition.


This is an Inter-Disciplinary Higher Degree (IHD) thesis about Water Pollution Control in the Iron and Steel Industry. After examining the compositions, and various treatment methods, for the major effluent streams from a typical Integrated Iron and Steel works, it was decided to concentrate investigative work on the activated-sludge treatment of coke-oven effluents. A mathematical model of this process was developed in an attempt to provide a tool for plant management that would enable improved performance, and enhanced control of Works Units. The model differs from conventional models in that allowance is made for the presence of two genera of microorganisms, each of which utilises a particular type of substrate as its energy source. Allowance is also made for the inhibitive effect of phenol on thiocyanate biodegradation, and for the self-toxicity of the bacteria when present in a high substrate concentration environment. The enumeration of the kinetic characteristics of the two groups of micro-organisms was shown to be of major importance. Laboratory experiments were instigated in an attempt to determine accurate values of these coefficients. The use of the Suspended Solids concentration was found to be too insensitive a measure of viable active mass. Other measures were investigated, and Adenosine Triphosphate concentration was chosen as the most effective measure of bacterial populations. Using this measure, a model was developed for phenol biodegradation from experimental results which implicated the possibility of storage of substate prior to metabolism. A model for thiocyanate biodegradation was also developed, although the experimental results indicate that much work is still required in this area.


"Since 2008, Europe has been shaken by an ongoing crisis. If relevant parts of populations are exposed to socioeconomic risks, it is a distinctive characteristic of European political ethics that they must not be left alone, but should be subject to support and solidarity by budget support policy, economic development policies and social policy at different levels. But, in analogy with medical and psychological findings, some parts of the vulnerable population, although experiencing the same living conditions as others, are developing resilience, which in our context means that they perform social, economic and cultural practices and habits which protect them from suffer and harm and support sustainable patterns of coping and adaption. This resilience to socioeconomic crises at household levels is the focus of the project. It can consist of identity patterns, knowledge, family or community relations, cultural and social as well as economic practices, be they formal or informal. Welfare states, labour markets and economic policies at both macro or meso level form the context or 'environment' of those resilience patterns. For reasons of coping with the crisis without leaving the common ground of the implicit European social model (or the unwritten confession to the welfare state) under extremely bad monetary conditions in many countries, and for reasons of maintaining quality of life and improving social policy, it is a highly interesting perspective to learn from emergent processes of resilience development and their preconditions. Thus, the main questions are directed at understanding patterns and dimensions of resilience at micro-/household level in different types of European member and neighbour states accounting for regional varieties, relevant internal and external conditions and resources as well as influences on these patterns by social, economic or labour market policy as well as legal regulations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))


Juvenile polyposis syndrome (JPS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by juvenile polyps of the gastrointestinal tract. We present a new pathogenic mutation of the SMAD4 gene and illustrate the need for a multidisciplinary health care approach to facilitate the correct diagnosis. The patient, a 47-year-old Caucasian woman, was diagnosed with anaemia at the age of 12. During the following 30 years, she developed numerous gastrointestinal polyps. The patient underwent several operations, and suffered chronic abdominal pain, malnutrition, and multiple infections. Screening of the SMAD4 gene revealed a novel, disease-causing mutation. In 2012, the patient suffered hypoalbuminemia and a large polyp in the small bowel was found. Gamma globulin was given but the patient responded with fever and influenza-like symptoms and refused more treatment. The patient underwent surgery in 2014 and made an uneventful recovery. At follow-up two months later albumin was 38 g/L and IgG was 6.9 g/L. Accurate diagnosis is essential for medical care. For patients with complex symptomatology, often with rare diseases, this is best provided by multidisciplinary teams including representatives from clinical genetics. Patients with a SMAD4 mutation should be followed up both for JPS and haemorrhagic hereditary telangiectasia and may develop protein loosing enteropathy and immunodeficiency.


Background: The pathogenesis of recurrent pregnancy loss includes complex interaction of several genetic and environmental factors. Changes in blood coagulation factors during pregnancy may play an important role in the occurrence of recurrent abortions (RA). Recently, inherited thrombophilia has been considered as a possible cause. Therefore, in this study we have investigated association of factor V (G1691A) and factor II (G20210A) polymorphisms in Iranian patients with recurrent abortions. Materials and Methods: A total of 203 women participated in this study: 105 women with two or more consecutive unexplained miscarriage as cases and 98 women with at least two healthy children as control group. Total genomic DNA was isolated from Peripheral blood leukocytes. The presence or absence of mutation in the FV (G1691A) and FII (G20210A) polymorphisms were assessed by PCR-RFLP, using Mnl1 and HindIII digestion enzymes, respectively. Finally, data was analyzed using Chi-Square(χ) test. Results: The results showed no statistical significant differences in the prevalence of FV (G1691A) and FII (G20210A) polymorphisms between patients and control group. Conclusion: considering the results of this study, these polymorphisms seem to have no role in etiology of recurrent pregnancy loss in the studied population.


Background Cervical dystonia (CD) produces involuntary neck muscle contractions that result in abnormal and often asymmetrical postures of the head and neck. Basal ganglia oscillatory activity in the 3–12 Hz band correlating with involuntary muscle activity suggests a role in the pathophysiology of primary dystonia. Despite the asymmetrical postures seen with CD, no comparison of interhemispheric differences of pallidal local field potential (LFP) activity has been reported. Objective The aim of this study was to examine the interhemispheric differences of LFP power in globus pallidus interna (GPi) in CD patients and compare these with their predominant head excursion identified as torticollis, laterocollis and retrocollis. Methods LFPs were recorded from bilateral GPi in 11 patients with CD using microelectrodes during deep brain stimulation surgery. LFP power was measured in right and left GPi separately. The mean percentage of total GPi LFP power in 4–30 Hz frequency band on each brain side was determined and related to their predominant CD symptoms. Results Interhemispheric difference in the mean percentage of LFP power in 4–12 Hz and 13–30 Hz band frequencies was found in patients with torticollis and laterocollis regardless of excursion direction. However, patients with retrocollis did not show interhemispheric difference in LFP activity in any band frequency. Conclusions Interhemispheric differences in synchronisation of pallidal LFP activity in 4–12 Hz and 13–30 Hz bands are related to the CD clinical condition, suggesting that these frequencies are important in the pathophysiology of dystonia.


There is an increasing consensus that global climate change occurs and that potential changes in climate are likely to have important regional consequences for biota and ecosystems. Ecological restoration, including (re)afforestation and rehabilitation of degraded land, is included in the array of potential human responses to climate change. However, the implications of climate change for the broader practice of ecological restoration must be considered. In particular, the usefulness of historical ecosystem conditions as targets and references must be set against the likelihood that restoring these historic ecosystems is unlikely to be easy, or even possible, in the changed biophysical conditions of the future. We suggest that more consideration and debate needs to be directed at the implications of climate change for restoration practice.


Hospitals are increasingly experimenting with workplace innovations designed to improve the quality of patient care, alleviate financial pressures, and retain staff. The authors examine one such innovation, patient-centered care (PCC), and its effects on clinical and employee outcomes in hospitals in the United Kingdom. Employing PCC entails a shift from an institutional and physician focus to one that emphasizes patients' needs and preferences. Drawing on a combined dataset covering the period 2001–2005 that includes 173 hospitals belonging to the British National Health Service as well as employee and patient survey data, the authors examine how hospital use of PCC affects patient care, perceptions of care, and employee outcomes. They find that greater use of PCC has positive consequences for hospital error rates and perceptions of care. They also find that PCC is associated with lower turnover intentions, which are positively related to the quality of care. The effectiveness of PCC is enhanced when complemented by the use of high involvement work practices.


This thesis describes the development of nickel(I) complexes incorporating ring expanded N-heterocyclic carbene (RE NHC) ligands and examines their electronic characterisation, activation of O2, reactivity and catalytic applications. A series of three coordinate, paramagnetic Ni(I) complexes of the form Ni(RE NHC)(PPh3)Br (1 – 10) were prepared by comproportionation of Ni(COD)2 and Ni(PPh3)2Br2 in the presence of RE NHCs. The RE NHCs employed varied in the degree of ring expansion (6-, 7- and 8-membered), extent of N-substituent steric bulk (Mes, oTol, oAnis) and the donor/acceptor properties of the carbene (diamino vs. diamido). EPR and DFT electronic characterisation of 1 – 10 confirmed that the unpaired electron was located on the nickel ion in a mixed orbital of predominantly 3dz2 character. Yellow solutions of 1 or 6 (RE NHC = 6Mes and 7Mes respectively) immediately became purple in the presence of O2 due to O2 activation and incorporation of the oxygen atoms as bridging ligands resulting from C-H activation/oxygenation of an RE NHC N-substituent. This generated the dimeric Ni(II) complexes Ni(6/7Mes)Br(µ-OH)(µ-O-6/7Mes)'NiBr (6Mes = 13; 7Mes = 14). Mass spectrometry demonstrated that the doubly activated complexes [NiBr(µ-O-6/7Mes)']2 (15 and 16 respectively) were also formed in the reactions. UV-vis spectroscopy revealed the reactions took place rapidly, even at 190 K. Contrasting reactivity was observed when 2 or 7, bearing the less sterically encumbered N-oTol substituents 6oTol and 7oTol respectively, were exposed to O2, which led to the ligand redistribution products NiII(6/7oTol)(PPh3)Br2 (17 and 18 respectively). The less electron rich diamido analogue containing 6MesDAC (5), underwent dissociation and oxidation of the RE NHC and PPh3 ligands. Attempts to abstract the bromide from 1 generated novel two and three coordinate Ni(I) products. Reaction with additional 6Mes produced the two coordinate cation [Ni(6Mes)2]+ (19), which could be reduced with KC8 to Ni(6Mes)2 (20). SQUID analysis of 19 revealed it to be the first example of a nickel containing mononuclear single molecular magnet (SMM). Addition of [Et3Si]+ to 1 followed by work up in toluene led to the isolation of the Ni(I)-(η2-toluene) complex [Ni(6Mes)(η2-C6H5CH3)]+ (21). Mesitylene generated the analogous [Ni(6Mes)(η2-C6H3(CH3)3)]+ (23), but neither 1,4-xylene nor naphthalene gave isolable products. In all cases, cocrystallisation of [6MesH]+…arene was observed in variable amounts, which compromised reaction studies of the Ni-arene complexes. Removal of bromide from 1 with TlPF6 in THF generated the solvent coordinated cationic species [Ni(6Mes)(PPh3)(THF)]+ (24). Attempts to remove the ligated THF molecule were unsuccessful, however, it could be directly substituted by CO to form [Ni(6Mes)(PPh3)(CO)]+ (26). Similarly to 1, complex 24 activated O2, generating a dimer analogous to the singly activated complex 13 (Ni(6Mes)(PPh3)(µ-OH)(µ-O-6Mes)'NiBr (25)). Reactivity of 1 with NaBH4 produced [Ni(6Mes)(κ2-BH4)]2 (28), a Ni(I) dimer bridged by two BH4 ligands. The catalytic efficiency of neutral 1 in Kumada cross-coupling of aryl halides and PhMgCl or MesMgBr was probed. Of note was the high activity towards both aryl chlorides and aryl fluorides. Comparisons with cationic 24, larger 7- (7) and 8-membered ring (8 and 9) variants and the Ni(II) complexes Ni(6Mes/6oTol/7oTol)(PPh3)Br2 (29, 17 and 18 respectively) revealed that 1 exhibited the highest reactivity of all the precursors.


In the decades since the mid-1970s, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has led the quest to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system. JPL spacecraft, including Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, and the Mars rovers, have brought the planets into close view. JPL satellites and instruments also shed new light on the structure and dynamics of earth itself, while their orbiting observatories opened new vistas on the cosmos. This comprehensive book recounts the extraordinary story of the lab's accomplishments, failures, and evolution from 1976 to the present day. This history of JPL encompasses far more than the story of the events and individuals that have shaped the institution. It also engages wider questions about relations between civilian and military space programmes, the place of science and technology in American politics, and the impact of the work at JPL on the way we imagine the place of humankind in the universe.


With the rapid development of three-dimensional laser scanning technology, ultra-large fine point cloud data has been gradually become an important data source of threedimensional model. In an interactive computer graphics application system, the interactive pickup of graphics is an important method. However, the traditional pick-up algorithm is limited to a situation that CPU-based ray intersection algorithm can only pick up a small amount of data triangular facets. Because the speed of picking up large scale point cloud data is slow, a GPU-based point cloud picking algorithms was presented to solve the problem. The basic idea of the algorithm is that by spatial transformation to convert the point cloud to screen space, and then, the point was calculated which is the nearest to the mouse click point in screen space. The GPU's parallel computing capabilities were used to achieve spatial transformation and distance comparison by Computer Shader in this algorithm. So the speed of the pickup has been increased. The experimental results show that compared with the CPU, the pickup method based on GPU parallel computing has greater speed advantage. Especially for the point cloud over 10 million points, the speed of the pickup has been increased 2-3 times faster. This use of GPU parallel computing capabilities have significant advantages in terms of handling large scale data volumes.


The yearly Atlantic Currents publication aims to provide a detailed analysis and a fresh perspective about ongoing cultural, economic, political and security dynamics that are shaping the wider Atlantic area today. Launched in December during the Atlantic Dialogues Conference, previous editions explored ways to change mental maps and examined promising opportunities for the African continent. The chapters in this edition of the Atlantic Currents aim to cover key issues and choke points lying at the heart of this strategic region, ranging from the migration crisis, transatlantic cooperation in food and agriculture, the North-South divide on climate change, the future of multilateral governance in security and international trade, to the prospects of a new global financial crisis. Drawing on the analysis of leading scholars and renowned practitioners in the field of development, this report distills the policy issues at stake for the Atlantic space in a shifting world order and provides a look ahead by identifying opportunities for further integration and cooperation.


New Hampshire's mountains and winter climate support a ski industry that contributes substantially to the state economy. Through more than 70 years of history, this industry has adapted and changed with its host society. The climate itself has changed during this period too, in ways that influenced the ski industry's development. During the 20th century, New Hampshire's mean winter temperature warmed about 2.1° C (3.8° F). Much of that change occurred since 1970. The mult‐decadal variations in New Hampshire winters follow global temperature trends. Snowfall exhibits a downward trend, strongest in southern New Hampshire, and also correlates with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Many small ski areas opened during the early years while winters were cold and snowy. As winters warmed, areas in southern or lowelevation locations faced a critical disadvantage. Under pressure from both climate and competition, the number of small ski areas leveled off and then fell steeply after 1970. The number of larger, chairliftoperating ski areas began falling too after 1980. Aprolonged warming period increased the importance of geographic advantages, and also of capital investment in snowmaking, grooming and economic diversification. The consolidation trend continues today. Most of the surviving ski areas are located in the northern mountains. Elsewhere around the state, one can find the remains of "lost" ski areas in places that now rarely have snow suitable for downhill skiing. This case study demonstrates a general approach for conducting integrated empirical research on the human dimensions of climate change.


The research paper discusses the concept of competitiveness of economy and analyzes export as an indicator of it. The analysis is started by the historical review of export development. Statistical data show that three Baltic countries have been following different path of export growth since Russian crisis. Different export market orientation and manufacturing sector's longer reorientation process provide an explanation. Furthermore, the historical analysis shows that export growth relation with foreign demand growth and GDP growth is not as strong as it might be expected. In order to estimate possible long-run GDP growth prospects, the structural analysis of trade is performed. The conclusions of the latter revealed high dependence of trade on conjuncture in foreign markets and supported the need of further price and non-price competitiveness analysis. Surprisingly, the results of the former indicate that price indicators do little to explain export development. Conversely, the results of the latter, based on CMSA methodology, show that market orientation of Lithuanian exports adds the most to its competitiveness; meanwhile the product orientation is generally unfavorable. Finally, the relation between FDI structure by countries and trade flows of processed industrial supplies is analyzed. Although data analysis does not reject the existence of such hypothesis, a more detail analysis should be conducted in the future.


Planning of tax payments serves the backbone for forming a forecast of the social and economic development of the state, its subjects and municipalities for the long and medium term. This process covers planning of tax payments in the context of federal, regional and local budgets and allows forming sound macroeconomic indicators. The objective of the research is to study the theoretical foundations of planning tax payments, as well as to identify problems and justify possible ways to solve them for strengthening economic growth. Meanwhile, there are certain problems in the system of tax payments planning, their solution being important for the country's economy and upholding the sustainable development of financial security. The lack of knowledge of the basics of tax payments planning makes the topic of the research highly important and relevant. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the development of scientific and methodological recommendations for improving the system of planning tax payments to increase economic growth. The material studied revealed problems in the field of the research related to tax legislation, unreliable information, low financial security of sub-federal budgets, tax evasion and fees evasion. To solve these problems, it is necessary to improve the institute of tax planning payments to the budget system.


"This technical report is a reprint of the thesis written by M. J. Nealon as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois."


In the ΛCDM cosmology, merging is one of the most important physical
processes that drives the formation and evolution of galaxies. In the present
work, we use N-body techniques to investigate some of currently open issues
related to the formation and evolution of galaxies along the Hubble sequence
(see Chapter 1). In particular, we address (i) the role of dissipation-less
merging on the scaling relations and internal color gradients of early-type
galaxies, by modeling these systems with two-component Sersic models; (ii)
the formation and survival of cold disks in the merging of late-type gas-rich
systems, and (iii) the different merging history of galaxy types through cosmological
simulations.
We present new spherical, isotropic, non rotating, two-component (dark +
stellar matter) models of early-type galaxies (see Chapter 2). In order to
realistically describe the observed light profile of early-type systems and the
shape of the mass profile of galaxy dark matter haloes predicted by recent numerical
simulation results, both components of these models are described by
a deprojected Sersic law. We perform a detailed analysis of structural properties
and distribution function of these models, proving that they represent
physically admissible and stable systems. The free parameters of the models
are derived from observational properties of early-type galaxies. We perform
discrete realizations of the two-component Sersic models, analyzing in detail
how to derive an optimal softening length for the gravitational potential of
these discrete systems. The models are then used to simulate dry mergers of
early-type galaxy systems, by means of the N-body simulation code Gadget-2
(Springel 2005, see Chapter 3). The mergers are performed with progenitors
spanning a wide range of galaxy luminosities and with a variety of initial
orbital parameters. We find that dissipation-less merging preserves the Fundamental
Plane relation of early-type galaxies, in agreement with previous
works. However, in contrast to previous findings, we find that dissipationless
merging also moves galaxies along other observed correlations, such as
the Kormendy, the Faber-Jackson, and the luminosity–size relations. Hence,
we conclude that all the above correlations are preserved after dissipationless encounters of early-type galaxies. For the first time, we are also able
to perform a detailed analysis of how dissipationless merging affects internal
stellar population gradients of ETGs. We find that the metallicity profiles,
initially assigned to the merging progenitors, can be significantly flattened
after the encounters. The amount of flattening is larger for low mass-ratio
mergers (down to a minor-merger ratio of 1:4), and also becomes larger as
the mass of the progenitors decreases. Remarkably, this allows the existence
of shallow stellar population gradients in ETGs to be explained as a result
of galaxy-galaxy merging.
The second issue we have addressed is the possibility of rebuilding late-type
systems starting from merging of disk galaxies. Recent pioneering works
have shown that, in merger simulations with a significant stellar feedback,
even a major merger can produce a disk-dominated remnant. These works
show that a combination of strong stellar feedback (in very peculiar conditions)
and a large gas content are essential ingredients to the survival of disks
after a merging process. However, merger remnants result to have a large
bulge component, which can likely describe only early spiral galaxy types. In
contrast, our simulations show that disk formation through merging of gas
rich systems might be an important ingredient of galaxy formation theories
in more general conditions. Using realistic galaxy models (M33-like) whose
main novelty is that of having a hot gaseous halo component (in addition
to cold gas in the disk), we performed a set of hydrodynamical merger simulations.
We show that mergers between these progenitors, whose baryonic
component mainly consists of gas, produce late-type galaxies rather than
elliptical/S0 systems. We interpret this result by the fact that gas cooling
from the halo has a crucial role in producing the disk-dominated remnants.
In fact, we find that gas particles in the halo have a temperature very close
to the peak of the gas cooling function. Hence, the hot gas cools very rapidly
after merging, acquiring angular momentum from the orbit, and settles on
the final disk.
Finally, we have studied the formation and evolution of different galaxy types,
with the main focus of studying the properties of S0 galaxies, in N-body cosmological
simulations. From a large cosmological simulation, we have selected
a cluster of galaxies with size and velocity dispersion similar to the Virgo cluster,
developing an original scheme to identify elliptical, S0, and spiral galaxy
candidates. With this scheme, we have derived the morphology-radius relation
and the velocity distribution of galaxies in the simulated cluster at
redshift z = 0, and compared them to observational results. The first results
presented in this work show a relatively good match of the simulated and
observed morphology-radius relation, but unfortunately, we also find that
our simulations suffers of the low resolution problem. The number of substructures that we included in the analysis is lower than that expected from
the total abundance of Virgo cluster members. As a future work, we plan
to re-do the analysis on different simulated clusters with improved mass and
spatial resolution.
Conclusions for each part of the present work are reported at the end of each
chapter of the thesis.


We describe the design process of "Vyo", a personal assistant serving as a centralized interface for smart home devices. Building on the concepts of ubiquitous and engaging computing in the domestic environment, we identified five design goals for the home robot: engaging, unobtrusive, device-like, respectful, and reassuring. These goals led our design process, which included simultaneous iterative development of the robot's morphology, nonverbal behavior and interaction schemas. We continued with user-centered design research using puppet prototypes of the robot to assess and refine our design choices. The resulting robot, Vyo, straddles the boundary between a monitoring device and a socially expressive agent, and presents a number of novel design outcomes: The combination of TUI "phicons" with social robotics; gesture-related screen exposure; and a non-anthropomorphic monocular expressive face. We discuss how our design goals are expressed in the elements of the robot's final design.


The origins of photography and sociology date back almost at the same time, but the relationship between them was not as intimate as it was to be. Sociologists refrained from using photography as a method in their researches until the importance of qualitative research was realized. Debate is still going on whether photographs expose total social reality or just provide the possibilities of subjective interpretations in the form of partial truths. Anthropologists, to some extent, are ahead in using photographs in their ethnographic works from early years. The essay deals photography only as a means of sociologists' engagement with issues of identity formation with reference to ethnicity. The narrative potentiality of photography, which is crucial to uncover the meanings embedded in peoples' struggles for identity, becomes its strength to claim as a research tool in qualitative research in sociology. Furthermore, enriched with meanings photographs bring subjectivists and constructivists closer to the discipline of photography. The importance of photography in constructing meanings through grounded theory method research on ethnic identity concerns of various cultural groups, largely in south Asia, cannot be underscored since the photographic practice has already made its claim for the place in qualitative sociology and anthropology.  Himalayan Journal of Sociology & Anthropology - Vol. VII (2016), Page: 75-95


This column lists new and current publishers' catalogs received since the last issue, and aims at comprehensive coverage. Also included are stock order blanks, agents' catalogs, catalogs of books on music, catalogs of single series, substantial publishers' catalogs of single composers, and rental catalogs. Excluded are catalogs that are exclusively retail. The list also includes catalogs published by national music centers and by licensing agencies. Since the list is international in scope, the same body of music may be represented in catalogs issued by more than one publisher or exclusive agent. Cross references have been provided to the publishers and subsidiaries listed in catalog titles and in cases where catalogs have been issued by agents. The cross references are intended only to lead the user to particular catalogs listed elsewhere in the column. Publishers whose catalogs are exclusively on the Web are indicated with only a Web address following the postal address. All Web sites accessed 26 May 2010.


1 Department of anatomy, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS) Saveetha University, Chennai, India  2 Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals Saveetha Institute  of Medical and Technical Sc iences (SIMATS) Saveetha University, Chennai, I d a 3 Senior Lecturer, Department of Physiology, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Saveetha University, Chennai, India 1 151801078 .firstname.lastname@example.com  2 firstname.lastname@example.com  3 firstname.lastname@example.com  ABSTRACT Pregnancy has some physiological changes which complicate the process of diagnosis and treatment. Over 200 million people suffer from anaemia especially among women of reproductive age. Anaemia is a major health problem among pregnant and non -pregnant wome n. Anaemia during pregnancy is considered as a public health problem especially in developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined anaemia during pregnancy as a haemoglobin concentration of less than 11g/dl. In severe anaemia, the haemogl obin level is 6g/dl. Anaemia threatens both mother and foetus. The causes may be multifactorial, such as nutrient deficiency, parasitic infections or chronic infections. It may also be due to acute blood loss. It may also depend on geographical location an d economic status. The effects of anaemia on mothers are tiredness, weakness, dizziness and affects the immune system. In children, it may cause preterm delivery, low birth weight. On both the mother and the fetus it can cause mortality and morbidity. Intake of balanced diet and awareness programmes on anaemia is a measure to prevent anaemia. This study is to evaluate the awareness and prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women. A cross-sectional survey was conducted containing a set of self -developed quest ionnaires. The data was collected and analysed using SPSS software. The results are analysed and tabulated. The result was gained as follows, 25% of the participated population"s haemoglobin level is less than 11, 75.89% of the population participated are aware that anaemia can affect pregnant women, 66.07% of the population agree that haemoglobin level less than 11 can cause anaemia. From the study, it is obvious that there is an awareness between the effects of anaemia during p egnancy.


The research is devoted to the representation of the experience in creation of The Encyclopedia of Ukraine as a fundamental work of encyclopedic literature and at the same time as a significant part of the national heritage of culture. This book presents archival documents that describe the functioning of editorial board of The Encyclopedia of Ukraine during 1948–1985. In addition, the Encyclopedia of Ukraine is investigated as a stage in history of the encyclopedic-and-publishing activity in Ukraine; it is characterized as an object and a source for scientific studies.


Introduction: The modern cataract surgery is involved in implanting the posterior chamber intraocular lens (PCIOL) in the intact posterior capsule. However, the implantation of PCIOL is not possible in case of weak or no capsular support. In such situations, iris-claw lens (ICIOL) and scleral-fixated intraocular lens (SFIOL) remain as treatment options. Objective: The objective was to analyze the efficacy of ICIOL and SFIOL in terms of visual outcomes and complications. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective study with 30 aphakia patients fulfilling inclusion criteria. These patients were divided into two groups with 15 in each group. Group I patients underwent ICIOL and other 15 patients in Group II underwent SFIOL implantation. Patients with preexisting ocular pathologies were excluded. The preoperative and postoperative evaluation was done for the follow-up period of 6 months. Results were analyzed with Chi-square test and t-test using SPSS software. Results: In ICIOL group, 86.67% of patients and 80.6% of SFIOL patients had final best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) 6/18–6/6. The mean logMAR BCVA in both groups was comparable. The surgical time in ICIOL was significantly less than SFIOL group (P = 0.00). Suture-related complications were significantly more in the SFIOL group. Complications found in the ICIOL group were harmless. Conclusion: The visual outcome was found to be comparable in both groups. ICIOL requiring less surgical time with fewer complications was found to be a good alternative to SFIOL in correction of aphakia.