This year9s Nobel Prize in chemistry honored three U.S.-based scientists for advances in computer modeling of large, complex molecules. Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel combined classical and quantum approaches to simulate reactions that had stymied traditional approaches. The economics Nobel (formally, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences) went to three academic economists who studied why prices of stocks are so hard to predict. In the 1960s, Eugene Fama and colleagues showed that stock markets respond to new information too quickly for analysts to predict prices in the short term. Robert Shiller later discovered that markets eventually tend to correct overpricing and underpricing, making prices more predictable over several years. Finally, Lars Peter Hansen showed that psychological factors such as investors9 optimism or pessimism play a much larger role in pricing than traditional "cold calculation" theories had assumed.


&NA; The rapid diversification of Myotis bats into more than 100 species is one of the most extensive mammalian radiations available for study. Efforts to understand relationships within Myotis have primarily utilized mitochondrial markers and trees inferred from nuclear markers lacked resolution. Our current understanding of relationships within Myotis is therefore biased towards a set of phylogenetic markers that may not reflect the history of the nuclear genome. To resolve this, we sequenced the full mitochondrial genomes of 37 representative Myotis, primarily from the New World, in conjunction with targeted sequencing of 3648 ultraconserved elements (UCEs). We inferred the phylogeny and explored the effects of concatenation and summary phylogenetic methods, as well as combinations of markers based on informativeness or levels of missing data, on our results. Of the 294 phylogenies generated from the nuclear UCE data, all are significantly different from phylogenies inferred using mitochondrial genomes. Even within the nuclear data, quartet frequencies indicate that around half of all UCE loci conflict with the estimated species tree. Several factors can drive such conflict, including incomplete lineage sorting, introgressive hybridization, or even phylogenetic error. Despite the degree of discordance between nuclear UCE loci and the mitochondrial genome and among UCE loci themselves, the most common nuclear topology is recovered in one quarter of all analyses with strong nodal support. Based on these results, we re‐examine the evolutionary history of Myotis to better understand the phenomena driving their unique nuclear, mitochondrial, and biogeographic histories.


In recent years, graphics processing units (GPUs) have evolved into powerful devices with significant computational performance and memory throughput. Efforts to exploit their potential to tackle problems from various scientific domains with high computational requirements have proven quite successful. In addition, previous research suggests that database query processing algorithms can be accelerated with the utilisation of the GPU. In this project, we use the OpenCL framework to implement a parallel version of a database partitioning algorithm that calculates a set of optimal splitters to partition a database table with specific size bounds. We identify the parts of the algorithm that can be executed in parallel and implement additional steps to combine partial results. By evaluating the performance of the algorithm and how it behaves with input tables of different statistical properties, we conclude that the use of the GPU can result in considerable performance gains, provided certain issues such as memory usage optimisation are addressed. iii Acknowledgements


In solar thermochemical redox cycles for H2O/CO2-splitting, a large portion of the overall energy demand of the system is associated with heating the redox material from the oxidation temperature to the reduction temperature. Hence, an important measure to improve the efficiency is recuperation of sensible heat stored in the redox material. A solid–solid heat exchanger can be subjected to undesirable oxygen crossover, which decreases the oxygen uptake capacity of the redox material and consequently the system efficiency. We investigate the extent of this crossover in ceria-based cycles, to identify, under which conditions a heat exchanger that allows oxygen crossover can improve the system efficiency. In a thermodynamic analysis, we calculate the amount of transferred oxygen as a function of the heat exchanger efficiency and show the system efficiency of such a concept. A second law analysis is applied to the model to check the feasibility of calculated points of operation. For the investigated parameter set, the heat exchanger design improves the system efficiency by a factor of up to 2.1.


The role of emotion in social movement mobilization and political protest has received renewed attention in the past decade. However, few, if any, studies have followed the emotional trajectories of activists through their involvement in protest activity. This paper explores the significance of emotion in rural protests in Britain since 1997. Drawing on first-hand and second-hand sources, it focuses on the emotions of participants in pro-hunting countryside marches and in farmers' demonstrations as they move through various stages of mobilization. It proposes the metaphor of a 'ladder of emotions' to describe the different emotions that are foregrounded as mobilization proceeds. It suggests that emotional responses to perceived threats to a landscape or place-rooted way of life to which individuals have an emotional attachment are important as motives for political mobilization. These individual emotions are subsequently translated into collective action as emotions such as anger, frustration and desperation guide pathways for action. Successful mobilization also relies on participants overcoming initial emotions of fear or trepidation at protest activity, giving way to emotions of pleasure and pride that enthuse activists and help reproduce and sustain campaigns.


Launched by the G8 two years ago, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (NASAN) aims to improve food security in 10 African countries through attracting private investors into agriculture. However, in Burkina Faso, implementation of the New Alliance risks harming rather than helping family farming and food security. Burkina Faso is deregulating its farming sector, to attract big agribusiness investors, and enacting political reforms (including tax reform and land access reform) that will exclude smallholder farmers from investment opportunities and endanger food security. In this paper, Oxfam again denounces the unacceptable risks surrounding the G8 New Alliance initiative. The New Alliance in Burkina Faso is paving the way for growing agribusiness investments and smallholder farmer marginalization. The set-up of the New Alliance in Burkina Faso needs to be reviewed, based on food security and nutrition objectives. Civil society organisations and those affected by the initiative should be consulted throughout the process; and risks to smallholder agriculture need to be urgently mitigated. Urgent reforms are needed to strengthen existing accountability and measurement mechanisms and to ensure that smallholder farmers, particularly women, are seen as the priority investors in agriculture.


Two important tools for manipulating polygonal models are simplification and repair and we present voxel-based methods for performing both of these tasks. We describe a method for converting polygonal models to a volumetric representation in a way that handles models with holes, double walls, and intersecting parts. This allows us to perform polygon model repair simply by converting a model to and from the volumetric domain. We also describe a new topology-altering simplification method that is based on 3D morphological operators. Visually unimportant features such as tubes and holes may be eliminated from a model by the open and close morphological operators. Our simplification approach accepts polygonal models as input, scan converts these to create a volumetric description, performs topology modification, and then converts the results back to polygons. We then apply a topology-preserving polygon simplification technique to produce a final model. Our simplification method produces results that are everywhere manifold.


Institutional investors play a central role in corporate finance and ownership. But their direct role in corporate governance has received only limited attention, focused mainly on shareholder activism, with its focus on strategic change and rapid improvement in corporate performance. Following the financial crisis, however, policy has sought ways to counteract the perceived short-termism in equity markets. It has cast a spotlight on the role of investors, not least in the UK, with its Stewardship Code (introduced in 2010 and revised in 2012) and in related moves in a number of European countries and by the European Union. In the US too, policy has paid special attention to questions of proxy access and enhancing shareholder rights to voice. They share a concern to evoke the spirit of the 'universal owner', interested in both the long term and in the broad development of the economy as a whole. This paper examines developments in the policy against the backdrop of changing practices and structures, raising doubts about the premises of the policy direction and discussing the promises and drawbacks alternatives within other forms of ownership.


Neurodevelopmental Basis of Autism Spectrum Disorder based on Age and Gender by Sursatie D. Chetram MA, University of New Haven, 2000 BA, Hunter, CUNY, 1997 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology Walden University January 9, 2018 Abstract Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affectsAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects communication, socialization, and restricted/repetitive behaviors. In 2012, one out of every 55 children (1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls) have been diagnosed with ASD in the United States. Only 30-40% of ASD has a known etiology (e.g., genetic predisposition) and the other 60-70% is unknown. Prior to this study, there was no known literature on age and gender differences related to neuro-developmental functioning of ASD. The purpose of this study was to examine how the differences in age and gender of people with ASD were related to total and domain scores, as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2). This quantitative research study included a sample size of 80 and 2 independent variables: age groupings (ages 1-4, 5-8, 9-17, and 18-older), and gender (male and female). The 4 dependent variables were the total and domain scores measured by the ADOS-2. The statistical analyses included a multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) and a 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine age and gender differences in the ADOS-2 domain and total scores. There was a statistically significant difference for age on the domain dependent variables, F(9, 171) = 2.64, p = .007; Wilks' Lambda = .73; partial η = .10. However, there were no statistically significant differences for gender on domain scores and there were no statistically significant differences for age and gender on the overall scores. Those with ASD between ages 5-8 were more severely impaired for socialization when compared to other age groups and other domains. This research can be used for the improvement of intervention strategies for the diverse ASD population, and to improve the understanding of the neurodevelopmental functioning of individuals with ASD based on age and gender. Neurodevelopmental Basis of Autism Spectrum Disorder based on Age and Gender Disorder. by Sursatie D Chetram MA, University of New Haven, 2000 BA, Hunter College, CUNY, 1997 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology


This study is conducted to determine the extent to which the drug abuse programs are implemented (SEJADAH) by teachers and counselors are affected students in schools at the Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The subjects have 150 students from form 1 to 5, and 96 regular teachers and counselor. A set of questionnaires which is divided into three sections, part A contains student biographical information, section B contains items about the effects of the program on students and section C contains items about program implementation by teachers and school staff. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data and found that 124 students considered the program drug abuse (SAJADAH) has a good effected on them. For the implementation stage, total of 58 teachers feel that the program is very effective.


The Vredefort impact structure contains a suite of granophyric dykes, referred to as the Vredefort Granophyre, occurring within and at the edge of the Archaean basement core. New whole-rock chemical analyses, together with previous data, represent a complete suite of the Granophyre occurrences. These data show that the Vredefort Granophyre has a remarkable chemical homogeneity, within and between dykes, on a regional scale, and a unique composition ( approximately 67 wt.% SiO 2 , approximately 1 wt.% TiO 2 , approximately 13 wt.% Al 2 O 3 , approximately 7 wt.% Fe 2 O 3 , approximately 3 wt.% MgO, approximately 4 wt.% CaO, approximately 3 wt.% Na 2 O. approximately 2 wt.% K 2 O). Five volumetrically abundant regional lithologies are: Transvaal carbonate, Ventersdorp lava. Witwatersrand quartzite, Witwatersrand shale, and Outer Granite Gneiss. These lithologies are used as components in both harmonic and least-squares mixing calculations to reproduce the Vredefort Granophyre composition. The best-fit mixture is made up of the five target rocks used and corresponds to: approximately 40% lava, approximately 30% quartzite, approximately 25% gneiss, approximately 3% shale, and approximately 2% carbonate. These results are geologically reasonable, given our knowledge of the pre-impact regional stratigraphic succession at Vredefort, but they do not conform with the clast population in the dykes. This is easily reconcilable. however, since previous studies demonstrated that the clast population in impact melt rocks is not necessarily representative of the components, or their proportions, melted to form the melt. Characteristics of the Vredefort Granophyre are similar to those of terrestrial impact melt rocks. Our previous interpretation that the Vredefort Granophyre dykes are injections, and the only remaining evidence of the existence, of the impact melt rocks produced during the formation of the Vredefort impact structure about 2 Ga ago is confirmed by this geochemical study.


International treaties require ratification to go into effect. But while some treaties have high ratification rates, many do not, leading to a system where issues appear to be addressed on paper but are not in practice. This article seeks to address why treaties receive varying levels of support and finds that factors present during the negotiation phase of the agreement affect the ratification phase. Specifically, bargaining power at and away from the negotiation table influences both the substantive nature of the treaty and the extent to which it will be widely ratifiable. This article explores this issue both in a statistical analysis and in two pairs of qualitative case studies. The evidence indicates that negotiation processes cast a long shadow on the fate of international agreements leading to the current treaty system of prolific international law that is not ratified by most states.


Adjacency constraints along with harvest volume constraints are important in long term forest management planning. Simulated annealing (SA) has previously been successfully applied when addressing such constraints. The objective of this paper is to assess the performance of SA using three methods for generating candidate solutions. Biased probabilities in the management unit (MU) selection were introduced, one static and one dynamic. The rst one (Method 1) is the conventional (static) method. The two other methods were implemented through a search vector used in the candidate solution generator. These methods are based on (Method 2) the number of treatment schedules and standard deviation of NPV within MUs and (Method 3) the MU's potential improvement in the objective function value, the number of URM adjacency violations an MU is involved in, the period specic volume harvested in an MU and the number of times an MU is selected. The methods were tested on a large number of datasets including 300 hypothetical forest landscapes characterized by three dierent initial age class distributions, respectively young, normal and old. Evaluation of the methods was accomplished by means of objective function values and rst feasible iteration. Solutions improved when introducing bias in the probabilities for MU selection (Methods 2 and 3) compared to the conventional method (Method 1) and when the probability bias for selecting MUs is dynamic (Method 3) rather than static (Methods 1 and 2). The mean improvement for the average GAP obtained by Method 3 for young, normal and old forest landscapes was 20.88%, 12.84% and 5.20%, respectively. Whereas for the minimum GAP the mean improvement was 21.96%, 14.30% and 6.05% for young, normal and old forest landscapes, respectively.


This poster presents models of, and approaches to, user-centered design of online-reference systems (encyclopedias, dictionaries, and their aggregations).   This is based not only on approaches used by Credo's product development team, but also on specific interviews of key staff at other online reference companies such as Tom Bayer at iFactory (who has built award-winning reference platforms for Sage, Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, and others), and Erin McKean at ReVerb (who has built the largest online English dictionary).   Approaches that model user behavior such as personas, audience analysis, and a specific model related to reference (the modes of reference) will be featured. The focus of this poster is on the earliest stages of product design, the point at which you are deciding who your users are and what needs of theirs you are going trying to solve. Getting a complete picture of potential users, understanding their goals and objectives, and appreciating the context in which they will experience your new product or application is essential.  This includes an understanding of the economics of their access to the product, the other players in their world who may play an important role in the purchase and set-up of the product, and even a sense of the emotional connection you are hoping to create with your users. Keywords : reference, user-centered design, user models, product development, user experience


In order to remain competitive, modem systems developers are increasingly under pressure to produce software solutions to complex problems faster and cheaper, whilst at the same time maintaining a high level of quality in the delivered product. One of the key quality measures is the delivery of a system that meets the customer's requirements. Failure to meet the customer's requirements may engender significant re-design, which in turn will cost money, delay product introduction and may seriously damage the developer's credibility. For these reasons, the problem of developing a precise and unambiguous statement of requirements for a proposed system is perhaps one of the most challenging problems within software engineering today. Formal, model-based specification languages such as the Z notation have been widely adopted within the context of requirements engineering, to provide a vehicle for the development of precise and unambiguous specifications. However, the mathematical foundation upon which these notations are based often makes them unapproachable and difficult to assimilate by a non-specialist reader. The problem then faced is that if the customer cannot understand the semantics of the specification, how can the customer agree that the specification is indeed a true reflection of the requirements for the desired system? Several researchers have proposed that rapid prototyping and animation of specifications can be used to increase the customer's understanding of the formal specification. This is achieved by executing specification components on candidate data and observing that the behaviour is as expected. However this requires that the original formal specification be reliably transformed into a representation capable of being executed within a computer system. To achieve this aim requires the support of computer-based tools able to assist the requirements engineer in capturing, manipulating and transforming the formal specification in an efficient and consistent manner. This thesis describes the research and development of the TranZit tool, which is a Z notation editor, checker and transformation system. TranZit supports the efficient capture and maintenance of Z notation specifications using the Windows Graphical User Interface, supported by a suite of powerful language-driven features. In addition TranZit contains a highly integrated and optimised syntax and type checker, combining traditional compiler design techniques with innovative use of object-oriented data structures and methods, to assist the requirements engineer in ensuring the internal consistency of the captured specification. Most importantly, TranZit contains a novel transformation engine, which is capable of transforming a captured Z specification into an executable representation based on extensions to LISP, suitable for direct execution in an animation environment. This process is supported by an eclectic strategy combining automated transformation with user assistance, to overcome many of the well-documented problems associated with transforming non-executable clauses in formal specifications.


Star formation rate (SFR) measurements at z > 4 have relied mostly on the rest-frame far-ultraviolet (FUV) observations. The corrections for dust attenuation based on the IRX-β relation are highly uncertain and are still debated in the literature. Hence, rest-frame far-infrared (FIR) observations are necessary to constrain the dust-obscured component of the SFR. In this paper, we exploit the rest-frame FIR continuum observations collected by the ALMA Large Program to INvestigate [CII] at Early times (ALPINE) to directly constrain the obscured SFR in galaxies at 4.4 < z < 5.9. We used stacks of continuum images to measure average infrared luminosities taking both detected and undetected sources into account. Based on these measurements, we measured the position of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies and the specific SFR (sSFR) at z ∼ 4.5 and z ∼ 5.5. We find that the main sequence and sSFR do not significantly evolve between z ∼ 4.5 and z ∼ 5.5, as opposed to lower redshifts. We developed a method to derive the obscured SFR density (SFRD) using the stellar masses or FUV-magnitudes as a proxy of FIR fluxes measured on the stacks and combining them with the galaxy stellar mass functions and FUV luminosity functions from the literature. We obtain consistent results independent of the chosen proxy. We find that the obscured fraction of SFRD is decreasing with increasing redshift, but even at z ∼ 5.5 it constitutes around 61% of the total SFRD.


Although anti-virus software has significantly evolved over the last decade, classic signature matching based on byte patterns is still a prevalent concept for identifying security threats. Anti-virus signatures are a simple and fast detection mechanism that can complement more sophisticated analysis strategies. However, if signatures are not designed with care, they can turn from a defensive mechanism into an instrument of attack. In this paper, we present a novel method for automatically deriving signatures from anti-virus software and discuss how the extracted signatures can be used to attack sensible data with the aid of the virus scanner itself. To this end, we study the practicability of our approach using four commercial products and exemplary demonstrate anti-virus assisted attacks in three different scenarios.


Abstract. Biogeochemical models that simulate realistic lower-trophic-level
dynamics, including the representation of main phytoplankton and
zooplankton functional groups, are valuable tools for improving our
understanding of natural and anthropogenic disturbances in marine ecosystems.
Previous three-dimensional biogeochemical modeling studies in the northern
and deep Gulf of Mexico (GoM) have used only one phytoplankton and one
zooplankton type. To advance our modeling capability of the GoM ecosystem and
to investigate the dominant spatial and seasonal patterns of phytoplankton
biomass, we configured a 13-component biogeochemical model that explicitly
represents nanophytoplankton, diatoms, micro-, and mesozooplankton. Our model
outputs compare reasonably well with observed patterns in chlorophyll,
primary production, and nutrients over the Louisiana–Texas shelf and deep GoM
region. Our model suggests silica limitation of diatom growth in the deep GoM
during winter and near the Mississippi delta during spring. Model
nanophytoplankton growth is weakly nutrient limited in the Mississippi delta
year-round and strongly nutrient limited in the deep GoM during summer. Our
examination of primary production and net phytoplankton growth from the model
indicates that the biomass losses, mainly due to zooplankton grazing, play an
important role in modulating the simulated seasonal biomass patterns of
nanophytoplankton and diatoms. Our analysis further shows that the dominant
physical process influencing the local rate of change of model phytoplankton
is horizontal advection in the northern shelf and vertical mixing in the
deep GoM. This study highlights the need for an integrated analysis of
biologically and physically driven biomass fluxes to better understand
phytoplankton biomass phenologies in the GoM.


Heuristic search methods are widely used in many real-world autonomous systems. Yet, people always want to solve search problems that are larger than time allows. To address these challenging problems, even suboptimally, a planning agent should be smart enough to intelligently allocate its computational resources, to think carefully about where in the state space it should spend time searching. For finding optimal solutions, we must examine every node that is not provably too expensive. In contrast, to find suboptimal solutions when under time pressure, we need to be very selective about which nodes to examine. In this work, we will demonstrate that estimates of uncertainty, represented as belief distributions, can be used to drive search effectively. This type of algorithmic approach is known as metareasoning, which refers to reasoning about which reasoning to do. We will provide examples of improved algorithms for real-time search, bounded-cost search, and situated planning.


We have used high spectral resolution spectroscopic measurements from the MIPAS instrument on the Envisat satellite to simultaneously retrieve vertical profiles of H 2 O and HDO in the stratosphere and uppermost troposphere. Variations in the deuterium content of water are expressed in the common δ notation, where δD is the deviation of the Deuterium/Hydrogen ratio in a sample from a standard isotope ratio. A thorough error analysis of the retrievals confirms that reliable δD data can be obtained up to an altitude of ~45 km. Averaging over multiple orbits and thus over longitudes further reduces the random part of the error. The absolute total error of averaged δD is between 36‰ and 111‰. With values lower than 42‰ the total random error is significantly smaller than the natural variability of δD. The data compare well with previous investigations. The MIPAS measurements now provide a unique global data set of high-quality δD data that will provide novel insight into the stratospheric water cycle.


Bodies are currently recognized as central to organizations. However, until now certain kinds of bodies have remained largely outside the concerns of organization studies, especially the ones of the human beings who use the products/services provided by organizations. Using a conceptual framework that mixes elements of Foucault's developments on discipline and science and technology studies, this article attempts to contribute to filling this void by proposing to see the management of these bodies as a matter of performing disciplinary devices, understanding them as sociotechnical devices designed with the explicit aim of disciplining users' bodies in accordance with certain predetermined programs or plans. In order to explore the empirical validity of this conceptualization, the article will study the performance of disciplinary devices by Metro de Santiago, Santiago de Chile's underground railway, during preparations for a substantive increase in the number of daily users. Making a historical genealogy based on interviews with involved actors and document analysis, the article demonstrates disciplinary devices as always existing in a double way: as inscriptions of future users that the involved actors develop during the design phase and as incorporations when human beings have to start behaving in certain ways to deal with the organization. In the daily management of such disciplinary devices, never absent of conflict and resistances, lies a central way in which organizations exerts power over human bodies.


In recent days people are interested in using social network applications in smart phones. Text messaging consumes less network resources than voice or wireless broadband. In this paper we propose an emergency alert response system. In reality, there is no proper alert system in place to report disaster related events and hence there is no way for immediate rescue. In our proposed system, we have implemented an emergency alert for disaster management using Big Data analytics by using tweets posted by users on the social networks. Here an emergency alert will be sent to appropriate people and disaster related keywords are used to identify the specific location of the worst hit area due to disaster. This can enable the rescue team to focus on the worst hit


ABSTRACT To determine the physiological functions of a novel death-specific protein gene, Skeletonema costatum DSP-1 (ScDSP-1) in a marine diatom, Skeletonema costatum, the mRNA abundance of ScDSP-1 was measured in cultures subjected to light manipulation and treatments with various chemicals. When cells were transferred to a dim light intensity of 15 μmol m−2 s−1, ScDSP-1 mRNA levels showed a transient increase of 1 to 17.2 μmol (mol 18S rRNA)−1 in 60 h. Furthermore, treatments with the photoinhibitors 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) and 2,5-dibromo-3-methyl-6-isopropyl-p-benzoquinone (DBMIB) resulted in high ScDSP-1 mRNA levels, which reached 943 and 72 μmol (mol 18S rRNA)−1, respectively. Treatment with the nitric oxide (NO) donor diethylamine nitric oxide also induced ScDSP-1 expression, and this inducible expression was inhibited by the NO scavenger hemoglobin. Additionally, the expression of ScDSP-1 mRNA elicited by DCMU and DBMIB was efficiently reduced when cultures were pretreated with the cell-penetrating NO scavenger 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide. In contrast, treatment with another photoinhibitor, paraquat, had no effect on ScDSP-1 expression. Our results indicated that NO is the crucial secondary messenger which signals the expression of ScDSP-1 when electron flow between photosystem II and photosystem I is blocked in S. costatum cells. In addition, the discovery of a similar gene, ScDSP-2, is briefly described.


Strong evidence for cooling flows has been found in low-resolution X-ray imaging and spectra of many clusters of galaxies. However, high-resolution X-ray spectra of several clusters from the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on XMM-Newton now show a soft X-ray spectrum inconsistent with a simple cooling flow. The main problem is a lack of the emission lines expected from gas cooling below 1–2 keV. Lines from gas at about 2–3 keV are observed, even in a high-temperature cluster such as A1835, indicating that gas is cooling down to about 2–3 keV, but is not found at lower temperatures. Here we discuss several solutions to the problem: heating, mixing, differential absorption and inhomogeneous metallicity. Continuous or sporadic heating creates further problems, including the targeting of the heat at the cooler gas and also the high total energy required. So far there is no clear observational evidence for widespread heating, or shocks, in cluster cores, except in radio lobes which occupy only part of the volume. Alternatively, if the metals in the intracluster medium are not uniformly spread but are clumped, then little line emission is expected from the gas cooling below 1 keV. The low-metallicity part cools without line emission, whereas the strengths of the soft X-ray lines from the metal-rich gas depend on the mass fraction of that gas and not on the abundance, since soft X-ray line emission dominates the cooling function below 2 keV.


The circumstances preceding the future revision of the medical curriculum are analysed, main internal and external stimuli are described, and sources of resistance to changes in medical training require new educational philosophy, privileging oriented training during undergraduation, as a preliminary phase of medical education. The definition and accompaniment of the general and specific objectives, the strategy and programme used, the design and adequacy of the available support, and the related engagement of all political, academic and socially responsible persons and institutions, are fundamental factors for successful change. The education and training of polyvalent medical doctors requires methodological modifications, namely the definition of a core curriculum, made dynamic through the teaching of interdependent subjects and earlier contact with common clinical problems. Learning through interconnected basic and clinical matters will benefit the technical and psychosocial education of future doctors. The education resulting from a renewal in undergraduate medical education will be mostly determined by organizational and institutional frameworks, teaching methods and the evaluation process used, as well as by teacher commitment, pedagogic and scientific capacities. Professional competence should be the end product of efficient training. Otherwise, undergraduate medical education would not prepare the professional development of the young doctors, thus diminishing the quality of medical training in the future.


According to the strongest version of aesthetic functionalism, aesthetic value is completely determined by and therefore reducible to practical function. According to the opposite view, function and aesthetic value are completely independent of each other. Both these views are shown to be untenable, and instead aesthetic dualism is defended. By this, I mean that some aesthetic judgments that can legitimately be made about an object refer to it under descriptions of its practical function, whereas others refer to it, for instance, under descriptions of its physical appearance. Since valuations of the former type are in most cases positively correlated with satisfaction of functional requirements, this amounts to a defense of a radically weakened version of aesthetic functionalism.


Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a well‐established risk factor for ischemic stroke (IS). Emerging evidence also indicates an association between AF and pulmonary embolism (PE). Because IS may potentially mediate the observed risk of PE in AF, we aimed to assess the impact of AF on the cause‐specific risks of PE and IS in a large cohort recruited from the general population. Methods and Results We observed 29 842 participants from 3 surveys of the Tromsø study (inclusion in 1994–1995, 2001–2002, and 2007–2008) to the end of 2012. Incident events of AF, IS, and PE during follow‐up were recorded, and information on potential confounders was obtained at baseline. Cox regression models, with AF as a time‐dependent variable, were used to calculate cause‐specific hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for PE and IS. There were 2067 participants diagnosed as having AF, 296 with PE and 1164 with IS, during a median of 17.6 years of follow‐up. The risks of PE (HR, 10.88; 95% CI, 6.23–18.89) and IS (HR, 6.16; 95% CI, 4.47–8.48) were substantially increased during the first 6 months after AF diagnosis, with crude incidence rates of 18.5 per 1000 person‐years for PE and 52.8 per 1000 person‐years for IS. The risk estimates remained elevated for both PE (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.10–2.71) and IS (HR, 2.45; 95% CI, 2.05–2.92) throughout the study period. Conclusions AF was associated with increased cause‐specific risks of both PE and IS. Our findings infer that the risk of PE in AF is not explained by intermediate IS.


With growing applications of machine learning across many domains, it is increasingly important to assess whether or not a given machine learning model is applicable to a domain. It is well-known that accuracy of a deployed model is highly dependent on the "similarity" of the deployed environment to the training environment where data was collected and processed. Present methods for assessing the applicability of a given model on a new dataset rely on the dataset having the "ground truth" labels. However, in many scenarios, especially those involving coalition edge operations, labeling the new datasets is costly or not feasible. As a result, model predictions based on anomalous data inputs may lead to erroneous predictions and faulty downstream decisions. This paper presents a novel unsupervised algorithm for detecting whether or not a given input to a deployed model is anomalous, without requiring the input to be labeled. Further, a practical approach for discovering new emerging classes in the edge environment is presented. The algorithm is evaluated on the MNIST character recognition dataset. The results show that the anomaly detection algorithm catches 93 % of the anomalies when the model is deployed in a new domain. Further, only 1.5% of the normal inputs are falsely identified as anomalies. Via existing clustering techniques, we also show the effectiveness of our algorithm in discovering new classes from the anomalous inputs.


Herbaria are collections of preserved plant specimens, primarily composed of paper sheets with pressed plants or plant parts attached to them. The most valuable kind of sheet is the holotype specimen. This is the specific plant that was used in describing the species by the person who first identified it. Botanists must reference the holotype when reclassifying or renaming a species. In the past, this meant either borrowing the sheet or visiting the herbarium in which it was housed. With digitization of these sheets, there is much greater and easier access to this information. However, digital images are not substitutes for the sheets themselves. This article will discuss why this is the case, why scanning herbarium sheets is still worthwhile effort, and why the sheets themselves are still necessary to plant research.


Asymmetric Ca2+ signals inside neuronal growth cones can mediate attractive or repulsive turning. Localized increases in growth cone Ca2+ concentration that elicit Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release (CICR) are attractive (the growth cone turns toward the side with greater Ca2+ concentration), whereas signals that do not elicit CICR are repulsive (the growth cone turns away from the side with greater Ca2+ concentration). Using localized photolysis of caged Ca2+ to elicit asymmetric increases in Ca2+ in the growth cones of cultured chick dorsal root ganglion neurons, Tojima et al. manipulated CICR pharmacologically or through culture on different substratum to generate attractive or repulsive turning. Attractive Ca2+ signals led to the microtubule-dependent migration of fluorescently labeled vesicles from the central to the peripheral region of the growth cone on the side with the Ca2+ increase, whereas repulsive Ca2+ signals had no effect on vesicle trafficking. The vesicles contained VAMP2 (vesicle-associated membrane protein 2, a SNARE protein implicated in Ca2+-dependent vesicle fusion with the membrane). When vesicles were labeled with a pH-sensitive fluorescent VAMP2 fusion protein, experiments indicated that attractive Ca2+ signals stimulated asymmetric VAMP2-mediated exocytosis. Pharmacological blockade of VAMP2-mediated exocytosis blocked turning to attractive Ca2+ signals or toward attractive cues (nerve growth factor or myelin-associated glycoprotein), but not axon growth or repulsive turning. Thus, the authors conclude that attractive—but not repulsive—growth cone turning depends on asymmetric vesicle trafficking and exocytosis. T. Tojima, H. Akiyama, R. Itofusa, Y. Li, H. Katayama, A. Miyawaki, H. Kamiguchi, Attractive axon guidance involves asymmetric membrane transport and exocytosis in the growth cone. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 58-66 (2007). [PubMed]


Background The Syrian conflict presents the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world today, with over four million people now displaced outside the country. Existing literature suggests that family planning services are often still neglected in crisis response efforts. Methods A small-scale qualitative study conducted in May 2013, interviewing Syrian women residing in a Jordanian refugee camp about use and barriers to accessing family planning services. Results The study shows that significant barriers remain, and suggests that international attempts to address refugees' family planning needs remain inconsistent. Conclusions Several practical measures are identified to address barriers to access, making the article of both practical and academic relevance.


Each year millions of young children undergo procedures requiring sedation or general anesthesia. An increasing proportion of the anesthetics used are provided to optimize diagnostic imaging studies such as magnetic resonance imaging. Concern regarding the neurotoxicity of sedatives and anesthetics has prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to change labeling of anesthetics and sedative agents warning against repeated or prolonged exposure in young children. This review aims to summarize the risk of anesthesia in children with an emphasis on anesthetic-related neurotoxicity, acknowledge the value of pediatric neuroimaging, and address this call for conversation.


Congress should establish an initiative to designate 20 institutions of higher education as "U.S. Manufacturing Universities" as part of a needed push to strengthen the position of the United States in the increasingly innovation-driven global economy. In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Act, which established land-grant colleges to promote learning in "agriculture and the mechanic arts." These colleges played a key role in enabling the United States to later take the lead in the mechanization of agriculture and the industrialization of the economy. Today, the challenge is even greater as America competes against a wide array of nations seeking to win the race for global innovation advantage, especially in advanced manufacturing. A new cadre of federally-designated "Manufacturing Universities" that revamp their engineering programs with particular emphasis on work that is relevant to manufacturing firms while providing engineering students with real-world work experience should be part of the solution.


The Novell Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) Study Guide is designed to prepare you for the challenge of the most current CLE practicum. The author's experience as a certification trainer and system administrator will provide you with a real-world understanding of how to administer and troubleshoot Novell Linux products and services. Exam topics are covered through real-world examples with guided steps that were developed in the field. With the Novell Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) Study Guide, you will master the knowledge of administering and troubleshooting the Novell Linux systems and prepare for CLE exam success.


A graph G is hypohamiltonian if G is non-hamiltonian and G  −  v is hamiltonian for every v  ∈  V ( G ) . In the following, every graph is assumed to be hypohamiltonian. Aldred, Wormald, and McKay gave a list of all graphs of order at most 17. In this article, we present an algorithm to generate all graphs of a given order and apply it to prove that there exist exactly 14 graphs of order 18 and 34 graphs of order 19. We also extend their results in the cubic case. Furthermore, we show that (i) the smallest graph of girth 6 has order 25, (ii) the smallest planar graph has order at least 23, (iii) the smallest cubic planar graph has order at least 54, and (iv) the smallest cubic planar graph of girth 5 with non-trivial automorphism group has order 78.


In the casting industries, sand is typically reused through the production cycles. Since sand for itself do not have the necessary properties to this process, it's necessary to introduce binders to force the sand grains to hold their shape during the casting process. When the casting sand cannot be reused it considered a residue, and it is formally called waste foundry sand.
Worldwide, China is the larger producer with 35.3 million tonnes (in 2009), followed by
North America with 9.6 million tonnes per year and finally Europe with 12 million tonnes. In Europe, this value is 75% of sand waste. Europe as a producer, has Germany as the largest producer of foundry casting. In 2006 total casting production was 5.5 million tonnes divided between ferrous (82.3%) and non-ferrous foundries (17.7%). At present Germany is the 6th largest producer of cast components.
Available in large quantities, and considered an inert residue, waste foundry sand presents
good characteristics to adsorption processes. The adsorption of metals by waste foundry sand is a key parameter to be considered in the application of passive barriers.
Special attention was given to Antimony and Germanium. Antimony, is commonly used in
alloys, batteries, cable sheathing, flame-proofing compounds, paints, and glass, among others.
Germanium is a very important semiconductor material, doped with arsenic, or gallium, it is used as a transistor element in electronic applications, as PET catalysts in the plastic bottling industry, in infrared spectroscopes, glass and in fiber optics.
In this work, sophisticated nanoscale techniques were used to identify and characterise this material. Adsorption studies were carried out with positive results and the time evolution was analysed. In this dissertation its proved that sand grains were covered partially by a clay layer, and that germanium is well adsorbed by waste foundry sand. In the first 5 minutes of reaction an adsorption of Ge of 10% is observed, followed by an increase up to 22% at 90 minutes of reaction. It is also shown that equilibrium is reached after 30 minutes of reaction.
It is possible to conclude that there is an increase in the efficiency of adsorption with time, and it stabilizes at a level of 22%.


Background Attributes that caregivers assign to complementary foods have been primarily described in the context of illness, but attributes assigned to foods in everyday circumstances must be understood to effectively promote good complementary feeding. Objective This study aimed to understand how mothers judge complementary foods to be appropriate by cross-cultural examination of food perceptions in four different Latin American and Caribbean countries. Methods We used semistructured interviews to assess attributes that mothers ascribed to a list of key foods, both home-made and manufactured, and reasons for feeding or not feeding them. We elicited attributes from 79 caregivers with children 6 to 24 months of age from two urban and periurban sites each in Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, and Panama. Results Textual analysis based on six home foods common to the four countries and manufactured foods resulted in six attribute categories, five of which could be positive or negative (Nutrient Content, Effects on Child, Child's Response, Availability and Accessibility, and Other Food Attributes); one (Food Quality and Safety) was only negative. Analysis of attributes of home foods (chicken, eggs, beans, carrots, bananas or plantains, and oranges) revealed many beliefs that were common within and across countries, whereas analysis of the attributes of manufactured foods revealed that these foods were less known. Conclusions The consistency of the attribute categories across countries and across home and manufactured foods suggests their relevance to planning programs to improve complementary feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean and possibly other developing countries. These results can be used programmatically to assess the need for and the focus of food education programs, and to indicate which countries will be more receptive to certain foods as a means of improving complementary feeding.


As climate warms, abiotic factors, as well as plant community and biodiversity structure, may constrain or promote the movement of ecotone boundaries. Our study sought to examine how plant communities change across the tree-line ecotone of the Mealy Mountains in Labrador, Canada. We established eight transects (50–100 m in length) along an elevation gradient in three tree-line zones (forest, forest-tundra, and alpine-tundra) and recorded all species and cover of vegetation in contiguous 1 × 1 m quadrats. Companion abiotic parameters of nutrients and soil temperature were also measured. The absence of abrupt changes in important soil nutrients and growing season temperatures suggests that these factors do not limit tree species establishment beyond the current tree line. Vegetation cover and richness, however, were highly variable and in some cases changed non-linearly across the tree-line ecotone. Tree cover and species density generally decreased with elevation, while some field layer species (< 25 cm in height) increased; the latter change seems to be influenced by ground shrubs rather than herbaceous species. As expected, transects separated by the greatest difference in elevation were the least similar (higher beta diversity/species turnover); however, species turnover between the forest and forest-tundra transects was higher than it was between forest-tundra and alpine-tundra transects, even though the latter were separated by a greater elevation. Community structure and species turnover vary greatly across a tree line with the greatest differences between the forest and the forest-tundra, suggesting a biotic or abiotic barrier. While our ability to predict how the tree line will respond to continued climate change is complicated by these patterns in plant communities, the potential barriers investigated and others identified will be a useful focus for future studies.


At the empirical level, this paper aims to provide a reasonably systematic overview of the distribution of resumptive pronouns in one language (Irish) and of their behaviour under certain tests. At the theoretical level, it argues that resumptive pronouns are syntactic variables (locally Ā-bound elements) and that there is a syntactically visible relation between the pronoun and its binder. It follows that it must be possible for pronouns to be directly A-bar bound. The paper also argues, however, that the pronominal character of resumptive pronouns emerges in the so-called Highest Subject Restriction which is analyzed as an anti-locality effect (reminiscent of Condition B of the Binding Theory) acting in the A-domain.


Background: Experimentally and clinically collected time series data are often contaminated with significant confounding noise, creating short, non-stationary time series. This noise, due to natural variability and measurement error, poses a challenge to conventional changepoint detection methods. Results: We proposed a novel, real-time changepoint detection method for effectively extracting important time points in non-stationary, noisy time series. We validated our method with three simulated time series, a widely benchmark data set, two geological time series, and two physiological data sets, and compared it to three existing methods. Our method demonstrated significantly improved performance over existing methods in several cases. Conclusion: Our method is able to effectively discern meaningful changes from system noise and natural fluctuations, accurately detecting change points. The ability of the method to extract meaningful change points with minimal user interaction opens new possibilities in clinical monitoring dealing with Big Data.


There is a distinct need for predictive equations of state for supercritical aqueous solutions, both for understanding fluids in deeper levels of Earth's crust or in subduction zones, as well as in experimental work on mineral solubility. Here we develop a semi-empirical approach introduced by Gerya & Perchuk (1997) based on the P-T partition function of statistical thermodynamics, using experimental data on quartz and wollastonite solubility, as well as data on speciation of dissolved solution components derived from first principles molecular dynamics simulations. Two approaches are possible, differing in the degree of explicit information provided on the nature of the solution modelled and also in the amount of basic data needed to implement them. Both have their potential fields of application. A "simple" model using only the semi-empirical formulation for the H 2 O solvent is useful if independent data on speciation are lacking, overall neutrality of the dissolving species can be assumed, and the number of components is relatively low. Computation is fairly straightforward, because the system can be treated as a simple "mixing" problem, and adopted effective dissolved species are characterized by conventional thermodynamic properties that allow interpolation and extrapolation of fitted experimental solubility data. Application to the system CaO–SiO 2 –H 2 O shows that experimental data on fluids coexisting with wollastonite + quartz/coesite can be successfully modelled up to 900 °C and 4 GPa. This simple semi-empirical formulation can lay the groundwork for an "internally consistent data set" allowing descriptions of fluids in relatively simple fluid-rock systems at high pressures. With the addition of independent data on actual speciation, and an optimized model for the dissociation of H 2 O from available literature data, the semi-empirical approach can be extended to a comprehensive description of aqueous solutions in the CaO–SiO 2 –H 2 O system. Both models have one positive feature in common. Because standard thermodynamic properties for dissolved species, oxides or fictive aggregates/clusters can be derived, solutions of arbitrary compositions can be modelled from data obtained from experiments in which fluids are saturated with a given solid phase or phases.


Title of dissertation: ESSAYS IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE Christian Daude, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Enrique G. Mendoza and Professor Carlos A. Vegh Department of Economics Access to private capital markets is the most salient difference between emerging market economies and other developing countries. However, in contrast to developed economies, emerging markets have had a troubled relationship with capital flows. In particular, balance of payments and debt crises have been a recurrent problem. The three chapters of this dissertation contribute to the literature on emerging markets and their relationship with capital markets. Chapter 1 analyzes the effects of volatility on sovereign default risk. Empirically, the paper establishes a concave relationship between spreads and volatility. While for low levels of volatility an increase in volatility is associated with an increase in the sovereign risk premium, the risk premium increases at a decreasing rate. This empirical relationship is robust to different estimation methods, samples and control variables. Furthermore, the relationship between volatility and risk premia is non-monotonic: while at low levels of volatility an increase in volatility implies an increase also in spreads, for sufficiently high levels of volatility this relationship turns negative. The chapter also presents a quantitative model of sovereign debt with default risk consistent with this feature and other characteristics of EME debt. The intuition for this result is the existence of a trade-off between prudential behavior in order to avoid large consumption fluctuations under autarky and the increased likelihood of a default, given default provides some short-run relief under a very bad realization of shocks. Chapter 2 addresses the determinants of the composition of cross-border investment positions. Using a novel database of bilateral capital stocks for all types of investment FDI, portfolio equity securities, debt securities as well as loans for a broad set of 77 countries, we show the importance of two key determinants of the composition of cross-border asset positions: information frictions and the quality of host country institutions. Overall, we find that in particular FDI, and to some extent also loans, are substantially more sensitive to information frictions than investment in portfolio equity and debt securities. We also show that the share as well as the size of FDI that a country receives are largely insensitive to corruption in host countries, while portfolio investment is by far the most sensitive to the quality of institutions. Chapter 3 focuses on a related topic to chapter 2. Using bilateral FDI stocks around the world, we explore the importance of a wide range of institutional variables as determinants of the location of FDI. While we find that better institutions have overall a positive and economically significant effect on FDI, some institutional aspects matter more than others do. Especially, the unpredictability of laws, regulations and policies, excessive regulatory burden, government instability and lack of commitment play a major role in deterring FDI. For example, the effect of a one standard deviation improvement in the regulatory quality of the host country increases FDI by a factor of around 2. These results are robust to different specifications, estimation methods and institutional variables. We also present evidence on the significance of institutions as a determinant of FDI over time. ESSAYS IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE


In this study we investigated the influence of five different cations on the physical-chemical properties of protic ionic liquids (PILs) based on bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (TFSI - ). We showed that the viscosities, ionic conductivities, densities and thermal properties of these PIL are strongly affected by the structure of the protic cation. Furthermore, the influence of the cation structure on the lithium coordination was investigated by Raman spectroscopy for all investigated PIL-based electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This investigation clearly demonstrates, that the lithium average coordination number in PIL-based electrolytes is strongly affected by (ring) size and the number of protons on the cations structure and, more importantly, it might be significantly lower (more than 60%) of that of electrolytes containing aprotic ionic liquids (AILs). Electrochemical performances of these PILs-based electrolytes were then also investigated to dress some conclusion on their applicability for LIB.


We validate a theoretical approach for analyzing correlations in the fluctuations of two cantilevers in terms of a deterministic model, using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem [M. R. Paul and M. C. Cross, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 235501 (2004)]. The validation has been made possible through measurement of the correlations between the thermally stimulated vibrations of two closely spaced micrometer-scale cantilevers in fluid. Validation of the theory enables development of a method for characterizing fluids, which we call correlation force spectrometry.


As human population size increases and cities become denser, several urban-related selection pressures increasingly affect species composition in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Yet, it is not well known whether and how urbanization influences other facets of biodiversity, such as the functional and evolutionary composition of communities, and at what spatial scale urbanization acts. Here we used a hierarchical sampling design in which urbanization levels were quantified at seven spatial scales (ranging from 50 to 3200 m radii). We found that urbanization gradients are associated with a strong shift in cladoceran zooplankton species traits, which in turn affected phylogenetic composition of the entire metacommunity, but only when considering urbanization at the smallest spatial scale (50 m radius). Specifically, small cladoceran species dominated in more urbanized ponds whereas large-bodied, strong competitors prevailed in less urbanized systems. We also show that trait and phylogenetic metrics strongly increase the amount of variation in β-diversity that can be explained by degree of urbanization, environmental and spatial factors. This suggests that the mechanisms shaping β-diversity in our study system are mediated by traits and phylogenetic relatedness rather than species identities. Our study indicates that accounting for traits and phylogeny in metacommunity analyses helps to explain seemingly idiosyncratic patterns of variation in zooplankton species composition along urbanization gradients. The fact that urbanization acts only at the smallest spatial scale suggests that correctly managing environmental conditions locally has the power to counteract the effects of urbanization on biodiversity patterns. The multidimensional approach we applied here can be applied to other systems and organism groups and seems to be key in understanding how overall biodiversity changes in response to anthropogenic pressures and how this scales up to affect ecosystem functioning.


War--or the threat of war--usually strengthens states as governments tax, draft soldiers, exert control over industrial production, and dampen internal dissent in order to build military might. The United States, however, was founded on the suspicion of state power, a suspicion that continued to gird its institutional architecture and inform the sentiments of many of its politicians and citizens through the twentieth century. In this comprehensive rethinking of postwar political history, Aaron Friedberg convincingly argues that such anti-statist inclinations prevented Cold War anxieties from transforming the United States into the garrison state it might have become in their absence. Drawing on an array of primary and secondary sources, including newly available archival materials, Friedberg concludes that the "weakness" of the American state served as a profound source of national strength that allowed the United States to outperform and outlast its supremely centralized and statist rival: the Soviet Union.Friedberg's analysis of the U. S. government's approach to taxation, conscription, industrial planning, scientific research and development, and armaments manufacturing reveals that the American state did expand during the early Cold War period. But domestic constraints on its expansion--including those stemming from mean self-interest as well as those guided by a principled belief in the virtues of limiting federal power--protected economic vitality, technological superiority, and public support for Cold War activities. The strategic synthesis that emerged by the early 1960s was functional as well as stable, enabling the United States to deter, contain, and ultimately outlive the Soviet Union precisely because the American state did not limit unduly the political, personal, and economic freedom of its citizens.Political scientists, historians, and general readers interested in Cold War history will value this thoroughly researched volume. Friedberg's insightful scholarship will also inspire future policy by contributing to our understanding of how liberal democracy's inherent qualities nurture its survival and spread.


Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. National Resources Defense Council, Inc., the foundation for much of contemporary administrative law, is under siege. Several members of the Supreme Court have suggested that they would like to overrule it. Under standard principles of stare decisis, doing that would be a serious mistake. Even if Chevron was wrongly decided, overruling it would create an upheaval—a large shock to the legal system, producing a great deal of confusion, more conflicts in the courts of appeals, and far greater politicization of administrative law. For example: What would happen to the countless regulations that have been upheld under the Chevron framework? Would they be newly vulnerable? More fundamentally,, a predictable effect of overruling Chevron would be to ensure a far greater role for judicial policy preferences in statutory interpretation and far more common splits along ideological lines. There is also the question of reliance interests: For decades, Congress has legislated against the background set by Chevron, and the resulting statutes reflect an understanding that the Court's framework will apply. Though the argument for overruling Chevron is unconvincing, its critics have legitimate concerns. Those concerns should be addressed by (1) insisting on a fully independent judicial role in deciding whether a statute is ambiguous at Step One; (2) invalidating arbitrary or unreasonable agency interpretations at Step Two; and (3) deploying canons of construction, including those that are designed to serve nondelegation functions and thus to cabin executive authority. The result would not quite be Zombie Chevron, but it would be close to that, and the most reasonable path forward.


In communication system environment speech signal is corrupted due to presence of additive acoustic noise, so with this distortion the effective communication is degraded in terms of the quality and intelligibility of speech. Now present research is going how effectively acoustic noise can be eliminated without affecting the original speech quality, this tends to be our challenging in this current research thesis work. Here this work proposes multi-tiered detection method that is based on time-frequency analysis (i.e. filter banks concept) of the noisy speech signals, by using standard speech enhancement method based on the proven spectral subtraction, for single channel speech data and for a wide range of noise types at various noise levels. There were various variants have been introduced to standard spectral subtraction proposed by S.F.Boll. In this thesis we designed and implemented a novel approach of Spectral Subtraction based on Minimum Statistics [MinSSS]. This means that the power spectrum of the non-stationary noise signal is estimated by finding the minimum values of a smoothed power spectrum of the noisy speech signal and thus circumvents the speech activity detection problem. This approach is also capable of dealing with non-stationary noise signals. In order to analyze the system in time frequency domain, we have implemented two different filter bank approaches such as Weighted OverLap Added (WOLA) and Fast Fourier Transform Modulated (FFTMod). The proposed systems were implemented and evaluated offline using simulation tool Matlab and then validated their performances based on the objective quality measures such as Signal to Noise Ratio Improvement (SNRI) and Perceptual Evaluation Speech Quality (PESQ) measure. The systems were tested with a pure speech combination of male and female sampled at 8 kHz, these signals were corrupted with various kinds of noises at different noise power levels. The MinSSS algorithm implemented using FFTMod filter bank approach outperforms when compared the WOLA filter bank approach.


This paper describes the plans and strategies to develop Portage, a national network of sustainable, shared services for research data management (RDM) in Canada. A description of the RDM context in Canada is provided. This environment has heightened expectations around the Government of Canada's Open Science plans and includes deliverables aimed at improving access to publications and data resulting from federally funded scientific activities. At the same time, a recent environmental scan published by Canada's three federal research granting councils reveals significant gaps in services, infrastructure, and funding mechanisms to support RDM. In addition, Canada's RDM environment consists of stakeholders from a variety of communities with minimal ongoing coordination or cooperation. The Portage network was conceived as a collaborative network model based on libraries' strong connections with researchers across the disciplines, an ethos of curation and preservation, and experience with systems for managing data in all its forms. A pilot project provided Portage with a vision and set of principles, and identified several objectives as the small wins that would build the trust and shared understanding required for a successful network. Current services and activities of Portage, including a data management planning tool and an infrastructure project, are described in this paper. Portage now faces the challenge of moving from project to operational network, and the challenge of establishing a sustainable governance model. CARL appointed a Steering Committee that will be proposing a full governance model at the conclusion of this transition period. Using a framework of factors identified in the literature, several relevant collaborative and network governance models are being explored. This paper outlines experience to date with Portage and matters under consideration for long-term sustainability, with a goal of engaging international colleagues in discussion and furthering the concepts for the benefit of RDM networks everywhere.


Abstract This Bachelor thesis has been written at the Blekinge Institute of Technology. The thesis describes electricity production in Shoaiba Steam Power plant in Saudi Arabia. Shoaiba Power Plant is located 100 km South of Jeddah city in Saudi Arabia. Total power production ability reaches 4400 MW. Shoaiba Power Plant has two stages and is constructed with 11 units, each unit produces 400 MW at line voltage 24 kV and line current 16 kA. Main pieces of equipment and their function in the station are as follows: A Steam Generator (boiler), produces steam by burning natural gas or crude oil in the furnace. The steam is superheated and is passed into a steam turbine, which converts the thermal energy of the steam into mechanical power, in form of rotary motion. The turbine drives a generator, which converts the rotary energy of the turbine into electric power. Steam generator, steam turbine and electrical generator are components that are described in the thesis. When the flow of steam to the turbine is controlled, then the amount of thermal energy that changes to mechanical energy in the steam turbine is controlled. The electrical generator is where the final energy conversion takes place. The mechanical energy from the turbine is converted by the generator into electrical energy, which is transmitted to the service area by help of electrical transmission lines. The plant cycle is an essential part of the energy flow path. Without the plant cycle, the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy would not occur, The plant cycle is a closed loop that allows the same water to be used over and over again. Always, the power plants are situated far from residential areas and located outside cities and close to the sea, because the steam is produced from seawater. The advantages of the steam power stations are as follows: They can produce high amounts of electrical energy from small amounts of fuel. They have low initial costs, obstetrics and maintenance costs are not high, and the stations do not need much space to be built and they have usually high capacity. The disadvantages of steam stations are the following: They cause environmental pollution, they have low efficiency, and require very big quantities of cooling water, and the stations must be built away from populated areas.


The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could be the most economically and politically significant free trade agreement (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region. Conceived in 2006 by just four small countries, it now embraces 12 that account for 40 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It looks to be a 21st century accord in terms of the breadth and depth of trade barriers it identifies and disciplines.But, with plenty of likely exceptions, TPP appears to fall short of a 'free' trade accord in the Neo-Classical Economic sense. It seems to manage trade in sensitive sectors. Worse yet, negotiated in an almost shamefully non-transparent manner, TPP may well advance an American corporate agenda, with insufficient regard to the most pressing matter in the Asia-Pacific region: poverty alleviation.


Stabilization has become a buzzword in peacekeeping, with UN missions in such diverse environments as Haiti, the Central African Republic, and Mali all claiming it as their central goal. Few of these missions, however, seem to have a clear understanding of what the concept means in practice.1 The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) appears to refer to stabilization as a transitory phase between all-out conflict and development, which in practice consists of support to military operations, rebuilding state institutions, and conducting socioeconomic recovery work to undermine the appeal of armed groups. Should it wish, DPKO could have an excellent test case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for its ideas on stabilization. It is here where the assumptions and activities of stabilization have been tested for longer than in any other peacekeeping environment—and where the UN's difficulties in moving away from a focus on short-term, technical solutions have become clear.2


The main objective of the paper is to clarify, as far as possible, the issues raised in civil law countries - and Italy in particular - by the introduction of a common law legal category like that of trust. The work sets off from a new piece of legislation issued by the Italian government in 2006, regulating the transcription of acts of destination for the fulfillment of interests worthy of legal protection, referred to people with disabilities, to public administrations and to other entities or physical persons. In a simple and basic way, the Italian legislator tried to introduce by a mere law of application (transcription, which is the formal procedure one has to undertake to be entitled of certain estates by means of law) what instead ought to be regarded as a substantial change in the way property is understood in Italian law. In this respect, it is concluded that the main difference between civil law and common law systems, as will be appropriately illustrated in the paper, lies in the fact that the former have flexible instruments to protect titles and interests, while the latter are bound to ancient actions, and can't therefore adapt to smoother solutions.


Distributed data storage is an important component of wireless sensor networks, which protects the mission critical information from unexpected node failures or malicious destruction of parts of the network. In this paper we present DISC, a protocol for distributed information storage and collection. The two major mechanisms in DISC which make our solution distinct from the related approaches are probabilistic choice of storing nodes and a search engine based on the usage of Bloom filters. In comparison to the deterministic choice of the backup node, the random selection strategy makes it virtually impossible for an attacker to determine and destroy the exact node keeping a particular piece of information. The usage of Bloom filters in the information search engine makes the navigation to a specific data fast and efficient. We show that with DISC the amount of recovered information is more than two times higher than that in deterministic storage schemes.


We present a method for training support vector machine (SVM)-based classification systems for combination with other classification systems designed for the same task. Ideally, a new system should be designed such that, when combined with existing systems, the resulting performance is optimized. We present a simple model for this problem and use the understanding gained from this analysis to propose a method to achieve better combination performance when training SVM systems. We include a regularization term in the SVM objective function that aims to reduce the average class-conditional covariance between the resulting scores and the scores produced by the existing systems, introducing a trade-off between such covariance and the system's individual performance. That is, the new system "takes one for the team", falling somewhat short of its best possible performance in order to increase the diversity of the ensemble. We report results on the NIST 2005 and 2006 speaker recognition evaluations (SREs) for a variety of subsystems. We show a gain of 19% on the equal error rate (EER) of a combination of four systems when applying the proposed method with respect to the performance obtained when the four systems are trained independently of each other.


We propose a conceptually simple, finite simplicial branch-and-bound algorithm for minimizing a concave function over a polytope. The proposed algorithm requires at each iteration the solution of two closely related linear programs of constant size for the computation of the lower bound and of the subdivision point; moreover, the objective function need to be evaluated only at extreme points of the polytope and of the initial simplex. Preliminary computational results are presented, which point to future improvements.


Background: Published evidence indicates that individual use of metformin and statin is associated with reduced cancer mortality. However, their differential and joint effects on pancreatic cancer survival are inconclusive. Methods: We identified a large population-based cohort of 12,572 patients ages 65 years or older with primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) diagnosed between 2008 and 2011 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare-linked database. Exposure to metformin and statins was ascertained from Medicare Prescription Drug Event files. Cox proportional hazards models with time-varying covariates adjusted for propensity scores were used to assess the association while controlling for potential confounders. Results: Of 12,572 PDAC patients, 950 (7.56%) had used metformin alone, 4,506 (35.84%) had used statin alone, and 2,445 (19.45%) were dual users. Statin use was significantly associated with improved overall survival [HR, 0.94; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.90–0.98], and survival was more pronounced in postdiagnosis statin users (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.56–0.86). Metformin use was not significantly associated with overall survival (HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.94–1.09). No beneficial effect was observed for dual users (HR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.95–1.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest potential benefits of statins on improving survival among elderly PDAC patients; further prospective studies are warranted to corroborate the putative benefit of statin therapy in pancreatic cancer. Impact: Although more studies are needed to confirm our findings, our data add to the body of evidence on potential anticancer effects of statins. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(8); 1225–32. ©2017 AACR.


In Sweden, and internationally, there is a movement towards increased transparency in healthcare including giving patients online access to their electronic health records (EHR). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Swedish patient accessible EHR (PAEHR) service using a socio-technical framework, to increase the understanding of factors that influence the design, implementation, adoption and use of the service. Using the Sitting and Singh socio-technical framework as a basis for analyzing the Swedish PAEHR system and its context indicated that there are many stakeholders engaged in these types of services, with different driving forces and incentives that may influence the adoption and usefulness of PAEHR services. The analysis was useful in highlighting important areas that need to be further explored in evaluations of PAEHR services, and can act as a guide when planning evaluations of any PAEHR service.


Carbofuran (2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl N-methyl carbamate) is extensively used pesticide against wide variety of insects. It is highly toxic pesticide, which inhibits acetyl cholinesterase, a vital enzyme involved for functioning of central nervous system. pseudomonas sp. 50432 isolated from soil degraded carbofuran and generated several metabolites of both, hydrolytic and oxidative pathways. One of these metabolites was found to be 7-phenol (2,3-dihydro-7-hydroxy-2,2-dimethyl benzofuran), and it was mediated by a hydrolase, which was constitutively synthesized by the bacterium. Three of the unknown metabolites accumulated transiently during the induction of oxidative pathway and were identified as 4-hydroxy carbofuran, 2,3 dihydro-4,7-dioxo-5,6-epoxy-2,2-dimethyl benzofuran and 2,3-dihydro-4,5-dicarboxy 2,2-dimethylfuran. A dual metabolic pathway for degradation of carbofuran was proposed involving both, hydrolytic and oxidative pathways. Like carbofuran, Pseudomonas sp. 50432 hydrolyzed other N-methyl carbamates such as carbaryl (1 naphthyl N-methyl carbamate) and I-naphthyl acetate to l-naphthyl (I-naphthyl enol-N-methylcarbamate) and aldicarb to oxime.

The hydrolytic enzyme of Pseudomonas sp. 50432 was purified 2257 fold to homogeneity from cytosol fraction by using a combination of anion exchange, gel filtration and hydrophobic interaction chromatography techniques. Characterization of the purified enzyme showed that it was a monomer with a molecular weight of 88 kDa. The enzyme had pH and temperature optima of 8.5 and 37"C, respectively. The isoelectric point of the purified enzyme was found to be 6.9. The Km and Vmax, of the purified enzyme was determined to be 40 uM and 1200 nm/min/mg, respectively for carbofuran and 7 uM and 1600 nm/min/mg, respectively for carbaryl. This is the first purified and biochemically characterized carbamate hydrolase with unique properties including low Km and high Vmax, constitutive expression, and broad substrate range. Pseudomonas sp. 50432 harbored six plasmids. Plasmid curing and transposon mutagenesis studies tailed to implicate the role of these plasmids in hydrolysis of carbofuran and other carbamates. A 4 Kb Hind111 fragment from total genomic DNA containing the gene mediating hydrolysis of methyl carbamate linkage in carbofuran and other carbamates was cloned in pUCP 19 vector. The cloned gene expressed hydrolase activity in Escherichia coli HB101. The specific activity of the cloned carbofuran hydrolase was determined to be 1.0 nm/min/mg. further investigation of the cloned gene should help in understanding the location of carbamate hydrolase gene.


In object-oriented systems, runtime memory is composed of an object graph in which objects refer to other objects. This graph of objects evolves while the system is running. Graph exporting and swapping are two important object graph operations. Exporting refers to copying the graph to some other memory so that it can be loaded by another system. Swapping refers to moving the graph to a secondary memory (e.g., a hard disk) to temporary release part of the primary memory. While exporting and swapping are achieved in different ways, each of them faces a common and central problem which is the speed of the approach in presence of large object graphs. Nevertheless, most of the existing solutions do not address well this issue. Another challenge is to deal with extremely common situations where objects outside the exported/swapped graph point to objects inside the graph. To correctly load back an exported subgraph, it is necessary to compute and export extra information that is not explicit in the object subgraph. This extra information is needed because certain objects may require to be reinitialized or recreated, to run specific code before or after the loading, to be updated to a new class definition, etc. In this paper, we present most of the general problems of object exporting and swapping. As a case of study, we present an analysis of ImageSegment, a fast solution to export and swap object graphs, developed by Dan Ingalls. ImageSegment addresses the speed problems in an efficient way, as shown by the results of several benchmarks we have conducted using Pharo Smalltalk. However, ImageSegment is not a panacea since it still has other problems that hampers its general use.


In this article, the authors argue for more theoretical discussion and empirical research into the organizational and managerial dynamics of commercial cultural production. Their concern grows out of their observation that management research is neglecting cultural production as a serious object of investigation despite its economic, social, and political significance. Moreover, even when management researchers have studied cultural production, the distinctive characteristics and dynamics of cultural industries have largely eluded the traditional research approaches adopted. As a result, the unique dynamics of cultural production remain largely uninvestigated.


Abstract The Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) is an active continental volcanic arc/back-arc basin in central North Island, New Zealand. It is the youngest area of volcanic activity that extends southwards from the Coromandel Volcanic Zone (CVZ), where andesitic volcanism began c. 18 Ma and rhyolitic volcanism c. 10 Ma. It is an extensional basin (average c. 8 mm a−1) with numerous, predominantly normal (dip >60°) faults within the Taupo Rift, but with some strike-slip component. TVZ can be divided into three parts. In the north (Whakatane Graben – Bay of Plenty) and south (Tongariro volcanic centre) volcanism is predominantly andesitic, while in the central part it is predominantly rhyolitic. This central area comprises eight caldera centres; the oldest of which (Mangakino caldera; 1.62–0.91 Ma) may be transitional between CVZ and TVZ. Kapenga caldera (c. 700 ka) is completely buried by younger volcanics, but is probably a composite structure with most recent subsidence related to volcano-tectonic processes. Of the remaining five caldera centres, Rotorua, Ohakuri and Reporoa are all simple, sub-circular structures which collapsed c. 240 ka, and are each associated with one ignimbrirte outflow sheet (Mamaku, Ohakuri and Kaingaroa, respectively). Okataina and Taupo are caldera complexes with multiple ignimbrite eruptions and phases of collapse. The three simple calderas are extra-rift, occurring outside the main fault zone in the centre of the Taupo Rift system, while the two caldera complexes are both intra-rift. There is a close relationship between volcanism and structure in TVZ, and many of the structural caldera boundaries have rectangular geometry reflecting the fault pattern. Intrusion of high-alumina basalts as dykes, parallel to the fault trend, may have had a strong influence in causing rhyolitic eruptions in central TVZ.


Poverty alleviation for smallholders must consider the increasingly varied and intertwined impacts of climate change and globalization. This calls for a resilience perspective that includes eradication of poverty and resilience enhancement under extreme events and shocks. Applying the framework of development resilience, we constructed an agent-based model based on small farming households in the Amazon Delta region in Brazil, and we used it to identify pathways out of poverty and sources for resilience among these households. The model allows us to explore the nonlinearity and heterogeneous nature of the smallholder livelihood systems, including how different household characteristics and livelihood strategies contribute to divergent livelihood outcomes. Using a unique yet simple tracking method, we were able to show the stochastic dynamics of individual household livelihoods in the face of various shocks, and how these households move in and out of different states of poverty over time (i.e., extremely poor, chronic poor, and nonpoor). By comparing traits of households that ended up in different states, we showed the need for targeted interventions for alternative livelihood strategies and key resources improvement. Different from conventional poverty alleviation programs, our findings emphasize empowering smallholders with different livelihood options. This has practical implications in terms of identifying leverage points in smallholder livelihood systems (e.g., livelihood strategy, land resources) that government and other agencies can use to intervene more effectively for households to become prosperous.


Detection of biomolecules at low abundances is crucial to the rapid diagnosis of disease. Impressive sensitivities, typically measured with small model analytes, have been obtained with a variety of nano- and microscale sensors. A remaining challenge, however, is the rapid detection of large native biomolecules in real biological samples. Here we develop and investigate a sensor system that directly addresses the source of this challenge: the slow diffusion of large biomolecules traveling through solution to fixed sensors, and inefficient complexation of target molecules with immobilized probes. We engineer arrayed sensors on two distinct length scales: a ∼100 μm length scale commensurable with the distance bacterial mRNA can travel in the 30 min sample-to-answer duration urgently required in point-of-need diagnostic applications; and the nanometer length scale we prove necessary for efficient target capture. We challenge the specificity of our hierarchical nanotextured microsensors using crude bacterial lysates and document the first electronic chip to sense trace levels of bacteria in under 30 min.


The striated and polished glacial pavements on the farm Nooitgedacht 66, northwest of Kimberley, developed at the base of the Dwyka Group, on a substrate of basic lavas of the Pniel Group, Ventersdorp Supergroup, are very well known as both geological and archaeological monuments. First discovered by Stone Age people who left numerous engravings on the striated rock surfaces, the pavements were rediscovered soon after the discovery of diamonds in the Kimberley area in 1870. Despite the extensive studies and abundant geological and archaeological literature on these pavements since 1880, certain peculiar features have been found that seem to have escaped the notice of previous researchers. The newly-discovered features are circular or oval shaped fractures, sometimes concentric sets of fractures, usually arranged around a central circular or oval shaped depression of the smooth glacially striated substrate of Ventersdorp lava, with, in many cases, radial fractures emanating from the central depression. In this paper these structures are analysed, and they are shown to be a form of Hertzian fracture, which forms through impulsive or static loading of an elastic medium by an indenter. Large quartz porphyry erratic boulders found in the Dwyka tillites overlying the glacial pavements are presumed to have acted as the indenters. By the use of Hertzian fracture theory, the average radii of the Hertzian fractures, and the radii of the largest glacial erratics, are used to infer the total maximum thickness of the Karoo Supergroup strata which once covered the area of the glacial pavements. The thicknesses estimated from this preliminary analysis (5.86 km) are about a factor of 2.6 to 2.3 times higher than estimates derived from studies of crustal xenoliths from kimberlite pipes in the Kimberley area. This may be attributed to the assumptions and the many uncertainties inherent in the calculations performed, but it hints at an independent method of calculating the former thickness of eroded Karoo strata in the area, if some of the parameters involved can be refined by further studies.


Introduction: Thalassemia can impose adverse effects on the individual, family and community. It is therefore important to specify the needs of children with thalassemia and their parents. This study intended to assess the knowledge and educational needs of adolescents suffering from thalassemia major and active members of the family in Bandar Abbas. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2014 in Bandar Abbas on 70 adolescents with thalassemia major and active members of the family. The Data were gathered by interview and using a questionnaire. The research instrument used in this study was demographic information questionnaire and need assessment self-made questionnaire for needs assessment. The need assessment self-made questionnaire was two parts. The first part consisted of 22 questions in three areas: the recognition of the nature of the disease (16 questions), nutrition (3 questions) and prevention (3 questions). And the second part contains 24 terms that specified the educational needs of the individual. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS software version 16. Results: Regarding the measurement of awareness, the highest score in the area of prevention and the lowest score belonged to the nature of the disease. The "I do not know" response to the 4 questions on the nature of the disease was 50% percent among the adolescents and more than 75% among the active members. Also, in relation to the need assessment, the highest score in both groups was related to "need more information about modern treatment methods". Conclusion: According to the results, adolescents with thalassemia major and active members of the family need to be trained in all areas studied, especially the nature of the disease, treatment and complications of the disease.


The purpose of this study is to assess the implementation level of the physical education program in secondary schools in Selangor, and to determine the effect of the
implementation level on the students' health-related physical fitness. The checklist total score was used by 56 experienced physical education teachers from 38 selected schools to evaluate the implementation level. A pilot study test was conducted to identify any ambiguities, and ensure the suitability of the checklist questionnaire. Accordingly, the implementation level was categorized into three classes: high, moderate, and low. Based on this categorization, three different implementation levels of schools were selected randomly as samples of the study.
The effect of the implementation level was determined by comparing the pre-and posthealth-related physical fitness performance (push-up, sit-and-reach, 7-stage sit-up, and
20m shuttle run) of the students. In all, 918 children (459 boys and 459 girls) participated in the present study. Three different age groups were assigned for 13-, 14-,
and 16-year old students from each of these three different implementation levels schools. Each group consisted of 102 students (51 boys and 51 girls). Anthropometric
measurements and other covariates [height, weight, body mass index (BMI), maturity status, family income, time spent within and outside school hours, and race] were
measured or constructed to control the differences among the students in the statistical analysis.
 The results obtained from the first part of the study suggested that overall program content and policy had been implemented moderately, as planned by the Ministry of
Education. The biggest problems faced by physical education teachers in running the physical education program were related to this area of the program: the inadequacy in
the number of qualified physical education teaching staff, involvement of students in the physical education program, quality of the students, and apathy of the students. The
results also indicated that the overall adequacy of the facilities offered by the schools to the physical education program was merely adequate.
 Significant effects of the implementation levels on the health-related physical fitness performance of boys and girls from all age groups were observed. However, the healthrelated physical fitness tests affected were not consistent across all age groups. Among the boys, the school with high implementation level reported an enhanced performance in push-ups by the 13-year-old students and sit-and-reach and sit-ups by the 14-year-old students, whereas, the performances of the 16-year-old students were enhanced in all physical fitness activities, except for the 20m shuttle run. Among the girls, the school with high implementation level enhanced the performance of sit-and-reach only in the 13-year-old students; sit-and-reach, sit-ups and 20 m shuttle runs in the 14-year-olds;and push-up in the 16-year-old students. The effect of high implementation level on the students varied. The boys in the 16-year-old group demonstrated a better performance in
all health-related physical fitness activities than the two younger age groups, except in the 20m shuttle run, whereas the girls from the 14-year-old group showed better
performance in sit-and-reach, sit-ups, and 20m shuttle run than did the girls in the 13-year-old group.
 To conclude, different implementation levels have affected students' health-related physical fitness. Students' health fitness increases if schools implemented high quality
physical education program. Based on that, multiple plans needed to ensure high quality physical education program in schools.


Plotinus (205-270 A.D.): a detailed study of Plotinus' theories on matter and the soul (Enn. III 9 [13] 1; IV 3 [27] 13), in relation to select passages from his treatise Against the Gnostics (Enn. II 9 [33] 3.14-21; 8.39-43; 12.30-44).