This thesis presents some deterministic modeling and interpretation of various aspects of observed near-source ground motions. In Chapter 1, finite source parameters determined from waveform modeling studies are presented for two California earthquakes; the 1979 Coyote Lake event and the 1966 Parkfield event. These events were recorded by strong motion arrays with similar station to fault rupture geometries. Thus it is possible to demonstrate that differences in the ground motions recorded within 30 km of the epicenter are indeed due to the differences in rupture fault length and dislocation distribution. Details of the waveform modeling for the August 6, 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake are described in part 1-A. A finite fault striking N24°W and extending to a depth of 10 km is proposed to model the strong-ground motion data. The source model suggests that right-lateral faulting initiated at a depth of 8 km and ruptured towards the south with a velocity of 2.8 km/sec. This unilateral rupture can explain the large displacements recorded south and southwest of the epicenter. However, the waveform coherency observed across an array south and southwest of the epicenter suggests that the rupture length is less than 6 km. The maximum dislocation is about 120 cm in a small area near the hypocenter and the total moment is estimated to be 3.5 x 1024 dyne-cm. An abrupt stopping phase, which corresponds to a cessation of right-lateral motion, can explain the high peak acceleration recorded at array station 6. The stress drop in the hypocentral area is about 140 bars; although the average stress drop over the entire rupture surface is 30 bars. This preferred finite source model can predict observed Pni waveforms as well as the beginning features of teleseismic body waves. In part 1-B, a similar waveform modeling technique is used to interpret the ground motions recorded during the June 28, 1966 Parkfield earthquake. The preferred model suggests that the earthquake involved two fault segments; one is the NE branch which extends 22 km southward from epicenter and has an average slip of 45 cm, another is the SW branch which ruptured less than 10 km and has an average slip of about 22 cm. The total moment indicated by this model is 1.25 x 1025 dyne-cm. The anomalous large amplitude ground displacement seen at station Cholame No. 2 is modeled as a local amplification effect rather than a source effect due to significant dislocation near this station. Direct waveform comparisons between recordings of the Parkfield event and the Coyote Lake event also support the conclusion that the rupture length of the Coyote Lake earthquake is much shorter than that of the Parkfield event. The waveform modeling also emphasizes the importance of using array data to constrain source parameters. The solution derived from a single station's recording, which in many cases is the only available information, may often produce misleading results. In Chapter 2, high-frequency ground motions (ground velocity and acceleration) recorded at less than 30 km epicentral distances are studied for two aftershocks of the 1979 Imperial Valley, California earthquake. In the past, little has been done to understand these high frequency waves through a deterministic modeling approach. The waveform modeling technique and the source mechanisms of these two aftershocks are described in sections 2-A and 2-B. An important feature of the ground motions recorded during the October 15, 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake sequence is the strong high frequency waves observed on the vertical components. This feature is also seen in recordings of the aftershock of October 16, 23:16, 1979, which is described in section 2-A. This polarization feature is easily explained by the basin velocity structure which bends rays towards the vertical at the free surface. Short S-P times are observed at the three closest stations (epicentral distances of 3 km to 5 km) suggesting that this aftershock occurred at a very shallow depth of about 2 km. A fault plane orientation (strike = N20°E, dip = 30°SE, and rake = -80°) obtained from a first P-motion study, generates synthetic waveforms of the strong ground velocities which are similar to those observed at three closest stations. The source time duration is determined to be 1.0 second and the moment is 1.6x1023 dyne-cm. Synthetics for a number of line source models are compared with the observations. These comparisons lead to two basic mechanisms that are necessary to explain the frequency content of the observed P- and S- waves. One is that the source process is characterized by irregular rupture. It is postulated that the heterogeneous stiffness in the layered medium is the basic cause of the irregular rupture. Heterogeneous rupture generates both high-frequency P- and S-waves. In order to explain the contrast in observed frequency content it is also necessary that there is a mechanism for attenuating S-waves much stronger than P-waves. The aftershock that occurred about 3 minutes after the mainshock, at 23:19 October 15, 1979 is presented in section 2-B. This aftershock was located on the Imperial fault near Highway 8 and close to the zone of high frequency energy release of the main event. The impulsive seismograms for 16 array stations, ranging from 8 km to 26 km in epicentral distance, are well suited for source parameter inversion studies to obtain an optimal solution for ground velocity and acceleration. The earthquake source is approximated by a model consisting of several point dislocation sources separated in space and time and having different dislocation orientations and moments. These source parameters were deduced by trial and error modeling as well as by applying inversion procedures. The waveforms and amplitudes of horizontal ground velocities are well modeled by two predominantly strike-slip point sources; the first source (strike = N41°W, dip = 42°NE and rake = 174°) has a moment of 0.7 x 1024 dyne-cm, the second source (strike = N36°W, dip = 82°SW and rake = 181°) lies about 1 km to the north of the first and has a seismic moment of about twice that of the first source. It is suggested that the higher-frequency ground motions, such as accelerations, can be derived from very irregular source processes, whereas the longer-period ground motions, such as ground displacements, can be well modeled by simpler planar source. A Futterman attenuation operator with a t*β of about 0.08 to 0.1 and a t*α of about 0.001 in the sedimentary region produces longer period S waves and the proper amplitude ratio between P and S waves. In Chapter 3, the ground motion data from the 1971 San Fernando earthquake recorded at epicentral distances of less than 100 km are presented. Three long profiles (> 50 km ) and three short profiles ( Although there is considerable variation in waveforms and peak amplitudes observed along the long profiles, there are also many examples of coherent phases seen at adjacent stations. Ground velocity profiles show striking differences in amplitude and duration between stations located on hard rock sites and stations located within the sedimentary basins. The San Fernando basin, in which the source is located, seems to respond quite differently from the Los Angeles basin which is about 30 km from the earthquake source area. Ground acceleration profiles show that there is little change in the duration of high-frequency shaking along the long profiles. The three short profiles, which are all located within the Los Angeles basin, demonstrate that ground velocity waveforms are nearly identical along these profiles. Although greater variation of waveforms and amplitudes are seen for ground acceleration along these short profiles, strong phase coherence is still observed. The 2D acoustical finite difference method is used to compute the effects on SH-waves of irregular velocity structures believed to exist along Profile I and Profile II. Profile I extends 65 km southward from the epicenter across the San Fernando and Los Angeles basins to a station on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Profile II extends 95 km S 40° E along the front of the San Gabriel mountains and across the San Gabriel and Los Angeles basins. These numerical models consist of low-velocity sedimentary basins (β = 2.1 km/sec) of irregular shape which are imbedded in high-velocity basement rock (β = 3.5 km/sec). Heaton's (1982) finite source model derived from modeling the five nearest stations for the San Fernando event, is also incorporated in the interpretation. The resulting simulation suggests that the smaller S! phases in both Profile I and Profile II are direct S waves from the deep source region (13 km). The shallow source region (at 1 km) dominates high amplitude later arrived phases observed along Profile I and are due to the complicated basin path along this profile. The shallower source region, however, contributes little to the ground motions along Profile II due to the lack of thick sediments near the source region along this azimuth.


The paper tests 'twoalternative specifications for the opportunity cost of time in travel cost models. The standard travel cost survey design is enriched to include a contingent valuation type question about peoples' willingness to accept compensation to forgo a precisely defined recreational experience. It is hypothesized that individually revealed value of time more appropriately reflects the opportunity costs of time associated with a particular aspect of recreation than the wage rate which measures the trade-off between work and leisure generally. The results seem to indicate a better overall tit for the models with the elicited value of individual consumer's time than for the models with the more traditional hourly earnings (wage rates). The importance of the correct measurement of the opportunity cost time is illustrated by showing that estimated consumer surpluses based on two different value of time measurements differ significantly.


Solution- and solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) have been used to investigate a series of substituted, triazinylamino azo dyes. Proton, (^13)C and (^15)N solution-state spectra have been assigned using a variety of techniques and the chemical shifts are discussed. Site-exchange effects have been observed in (^1)H and (^13)C spectra for many of the dyes studied but most prominently for compound 13.The exchange effects were investigated at different temperatures below ambient, for a CD(_3)OD solution of compound 13. The bandshapes were fitted for three-site exchange and the relevant rate constants extracted. The exchange has been attributed to internal rotation of the substituents about the triazine ring. Activation parameters have been calculated: for exchange between one pair of sites H(^#) = 76 ± 8 kJ mol(^-1) and ɅS(^#) = 52 ± 27 J mol(^-1) K-(^-1) and for a second pair, H(^#) = 76 ± 4 kJ mol(^-1), S(^#) = 55 + 15 J mol(^-1) K(^-1). Direct exchange between the remaining pair of sites is negligible. Exchange involving a fourth site affects the spectra at somewhat lower temperatures, which assists in a partial assignment of the observed peaks to the rotamers. The rotations that are causing the effects observable in the NMR spectra are identified, with the help of molecular modelling investigations. Three out of the four possible energy barriers are found to be a combination of rotation and nitrogen inversion. Exploration of the energy surface shows that nitrogen inversion with rotation actually reduces the rotational energy barrier, compared to the planar rotation. The relative barrier heights can be rationalised, although their exact values are not consistent with those measured using NMR. Solid-state (^13)C spectra have also been recorded but are broad, making detailed assignment difficult. The broadness is found to be mainly due to the amorphous nature of the samples. The resolution is not vastly improved on increasing the spectrometer field and the powder X-ray diffraction exhibits only broad reflections.


A number of short-lived, iteroparous animal species have small broods in the early breeding season and larger broods in later breeding season. Brood size affects not only offspring size, but as recent results suggest, may also affect offspring's temperament, hormonal status, and aggression as adults. Most populations of short-lived, iteroparous mammals fluctuate predictably over the season, with low densities in winter, increasing densities in summer and a population peak in late summer followed by a population breakdown. If animals live only through parts of the season, possibly such differences in density and hence also in social environments among seasons require different personality types to increase individual fitness. We present data on behavior of European rabbits from a field enclosure study. These data clearly show that aggressiveness is higher in young from smaller litters than in young from larger litters, and smaller litters are usually born during the early breeding season. Moreover, our data suggest that behavioral types of the young rabbits are stable over time, at least during their subadult life. We suggest, that changes in mean litter size over the course of the breeding season may not only be a product of mothers' age or food availability, but may also have an adaptive function by preparing offspring characteristics for adulthood in a social environment undergoing predictable density changes within the season.


For centuries, and not just in the period we refer to as "realism", writers of novels and short stories have consciously exploited our ability to believe in what is manifestly fiction. In this study, Armine Kotin Mortimer contends that we can best understand the illusion of reality by examining works where acts of writing play an integral part within the story. Characters who are writing letters in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", for instance, or writing a book manuscript in Sollers's "Femmes" are "writing realism". Such depicted acts of writing and storytelling inform readers about the author's own writing of realism. This is a provocative study of how readers can believe in the realism, if not the reality, of what they read, often despite overwhelming evidence of unreality. This persistence of the mimetic illusion is, Mortimer says, the magic of realism. Mortimer analyzes striking examples from the 16th through to the 20th centuries, examining works by Balzac, Diderot, Laclos, and Marguerite de Navarre and by contemporary writers Serge Doubrovsky and Philippe Sollers. Each of these texts allows Mortimer to explore how the mimetic illusion operates on readers, both in French literature and in narrative as a genre.


The need for improved estimation and planning methods for solid waste management (SWM) is particularly strong in emerging economies such as India, China and Phillipines where problems are severe, expectations for improvements are high, but finances are constrained. An attempt has been made to relate the average costs of SWM using 200x, NIUA data from ... municipalities in India. The data were analysed for different population ranges. The data present high scatter but indicate no clear correlation between per ton or per capita costs and population, indicating no clear economy-of-scale.. Stepwise multiple regression involving ... predictor variables was conducted on costs to detect any statistically significant correlations. It can be concluded that average costs on either a per ton or per capita basis are most influenced by the total number of staff employed in municipalities. This result is expected because SWM is a highly labour intensive activity in India. The analysis, although preliminary, can be useful as a planning tool for SW managers.


BACKGROUND
It remains unclear whether depression increases the risk for dementia in the elderly. We evaluated the relationship between depressed mood at baseline and the incidence of dementia, particularly Alzheimer's disease, in the elderly living in the community.

METHODS
A total of 1070 elderly individuals, aged 60 years or older, were identified as part of a registry for dementia in the Washington Heights community of North Manhattan, NY. In a prospective, longitudinal design with follow-up for 1 to 5 years, annual physician evaluation and neuropsychological testing were used to assess levels of cognitive impairment and to diagnose dementia. Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Based on clinical considerations and a validity study, a positive score for the depressed mood item was used in statistical analyses. To confirm the results, the total Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score was also evaluated as the "depression" variable.

RESULTS
Of the 1070 subjects, 218 met criteria for dementia at baseline evaluation. In the 852 subjects without dementia, depressed mood was more common in individuals with greater cognitive impairment. In a follow-up study of 478 of these subjects without dementia (mean +/- SD, 2.54 +/- 1.12 years of follow-up), the effect of baseline depressed mood on the end-point diagnosis of dementia (93% had possible or probable Alzheimer's disease) was evaluated in a Cox proportional hazards model. Depressed mood at baseline was associated with an increased risk of incident dementia (relative risk, 2.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.76 to 4.91; P < .001). This effect remained after adjustment for age, gender, education, language of assessment, Blessed Memory Information and Concentration test scores, and Blessed Functional Activity Scale scores (relative risk, 2.05; 95% confidence interval, 1.16 to 3.62; P < .02). Similar results were obtained when the total Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score was used as the depression variable, with the use of the same covariates (relative risk, 1.07 per point interval; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.11; P < .01).

CONCLUSIONS
Depressed mood moderately increased the risk of developing dementia, primarily Alzheimer's disease. Whether depressed mood is a very early manifestation of Alzheimer's disease, or increases susceptibility through another mechanism, remains to be determined.


Ergogenic claims for oxygenated water cannot be taken seriously

A decade or so ago, the idea arose that athletes might gain a competitive edge by drinking water that contained extra dissolved oxygen (O2). The notion stems from observations that O2 breathing during exercise enhances athletic performance,1,2 but the connection of O2 breathing during exercise with drinking "hyperoxygenated" water before exercise conflates physics and physiology in a struthonian visit to placebo land. Fuelled by bottled-water mavens, who collect testimonials for oxygenated waters, claims abound of ergogenic benefits of water advertised to hold up to 40 times more O2 than plain water.

The issue of hydration aside, such claims have a flimsy rationale and no rigorous experimental support. On close inspection, three scientific problems immediately arise. Firstly, for all practical purposes, supplemental O2 improves performance only during exercise, not before or between bouts.3 With normal lungs, breathing of even pure O2 at sea level increases maximal O2 uptake (o2max) by only 5–10% because air breathing alone, except at high intensity work, keeps the arterial O2 saturation (Sao2) and content (Cao2) very high.2

The next problem is that the solubility of O2 in water (and plasma) is low. The solubility constant obeys Henry's Law: it is directly proportional to O2 …


Enhancement of an unknown signal from distorted ob servations is an extremely important Engineering problem. In addition to noise, the observation space often contains a degrading filter component. A typical example is blind speech enhancement, where a reverberant channel between a stationary source and the receiver can be modeled as a static infinite impulse response component. Particle filters have become popular and versatile estimators for estimat ing the clean source signal and unknown model parameters by sequentially drawing a large number of samples from a hypothesis distribution. However, direct sampling of static components leads to particle impoverishment as a dynamic is implicitly enforced on the parameters. To circumvent this issue, this paper proposes a novel approach by exploit ing analytically tractable substructures of the state space to marginalize static components, facilitating separate estima tion of the static parameters using their optimal estimator. The approach is tested for blind dereverberation of speech. Results show that the proposed algorithm effectively removes the effects of the static reverberant channel.


Abstract This contribution discusses the construction of citizenship as a category of belonging in the newly formed multi-ethnic state of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Due to the violent conflicts between 1991–1995, ethno-national identifications are today often seen as overriding and exclusive means of defining group-membership in BiH. Whether and how citizens fill the concept of citizenship with any meaning of belonging to a state-wide community remains an open question. Drawing on fieldwork recently conducted in Mostar, I provide some tentative answers to this question. My research focuses on the process of re-unifying politico-administrative structures in this formerly divided city and closely follows interactions between international agents, citizens and various public bodies. Attributing special importance to administrative categorization practices, I argue that these constitute a source of shared experience for citizens, thus shaping their perception of what it means to be a citizen of BiH. Events in Mostar show how such a shared experience of bureaucratic categorization practices might become a powerful incentive for multiethnic collective action and a source for imagining a multiethnic, civic community. The same categorization practices might also fuel new divisive forces that diminish the internal solidarity of ethnic groups and instill new categorical divisions within the local community. I demonstrate the complexity of such processes in the case of the closely related post-war categories "refugee", "internally displaced person" and "returnee" and conclude with some remarks on the intricacy of post-war state-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina.


The unplugged section edits some book reviews special forums dedicated to a topic, an author or a theoretical perspective. This first forum considers three very stimulating and rejuvenating volumes for academics in organization and management studies about research methods. They offer some new insights about problematizing, theorizing and academic writing which may contribute to regain scientific imagination.


In Dead Dads: Thawing an Heir from the Freezer the author examines the difficult legal problems created by the growing practice of using the cryopreserved gametes of deceased persons to conceive a posthumous child. The law has long recognized the legal parental status of a man whose fetus is in utero in his wife's pregnancy at the time of the father's death, but developments in reproductive science has now made it possible to conceive a child after either a parents' death. This has been made more complicated by the use of assisted reproduction by unmarried persons, its growing use by same-sex couples and the developing marketplace for stored sperm, eggs and embryos. The science of preserving sperm or embryos by cryopreservation is a fact, and research is improving the preservation of eggs as well. However, the law has been slow to deal with the post-death conception of a child. An optional section of the Uniform Parentage Act, the new A.B.A. Model Act Governing Assisted Reproductive Technology (2008) and new additions to the Uniform Probate Code (2008) signal an attempt to change this, but except for a California statute and minor efforts by other jurisdictions, states have not attempted to deal with this by statute. Instead, the courts have had to struggle with the issued in the context of social security rights, disputes over the ownership of cryopreserved embryos, or the interpretation of gratuitous transfer instruments. The author argues that there is no legitimate reason for treating posthumous children differently from other children, although recognizing that legislatures should enact laws to deal with issues such as efficiency in timely estate distribution.This article was drafted before and does not examine the recently proposed amendments to the Uniform Probate Code dealing with posthumous reproduction and which if enacted by the states would comply with the author's urging support for uniform legislation on the subject.


Previous research has noted that members of research ethics committees are unclear about the extent of their roles. In this study, research amongst members of independent ethics committees (IECs) about how the 'expert' and 'lay' roles are understood and operationalized offers an explanation for this lack of clarity. IECs were selected for study because they have only addressed one type of research (Phase 1 'healthy volunteer' studies) and this limited remit suggested that it would be in such committees that the member roles would have become most pronounced. Drawing on findings from the sociology of professions and employing a phenomenological approach to understanding, 20 semi-structured interviews with both expert and lay members of these committees revealed that a number of members were not only unclear about the roles, but unclear too whether they, or certain of their colleagues, were in which membership category. Notwithstanding this fact, and paradoxically, the 'expert' designation was seen as granting its members a privileged position on the committees. The expert member was seen to be either a medically qualified member or one tightly associated with the medical model. Such a repository of expertise being with the medical model privileges this model in ethics review such that other matters formally to be scrutinized by ethics committees become marginalised. Participant safety was the prime concern of the ethics review for IEC members. This relegated other matters including the adequacy of the insurance arrangements, the readability of the consent forms, the fairness of the inclusion criteria, and so forth, into areas of lesser concern. That this occurs though when the science, the safety and the methodology of the trials are already – separately subject to an independent analysis by a body of experts, whose statutory role is to concern itself with these issues such that no trial may occur without their sanction, is of significance. IEC members were cognizant of this duplication of role but unable to resolve it. The situation could be accounted for as due to capture by the medical model and a cognitive dissonant process. Members' training and education were found to have been neglected because under the medical professions' gaze no other type of knowledge was considered necessary in ethics review. The study revealed that the medical profession's dominance of such committees accounts for the members' role uncertainty and as such allies itself to Freidson's theory of professional dominance. If such a concept has been thought to be an obsolete one, this study suggests such a notion of the status of the theory is premature. The medical model's status is implicitly accepted such that nothing else need be considered. The research calls for further studies to corroborate such findings in other research ethics settings and for a debate about what society wants its ethics committees to focus upon in their review.


ASSESSING TRAINER HAND FORCES FOR MANUAL BODY WEIGHT SUPPORTED WALKING by Manish Raval Spinal cord injuries occur in approximately 12,000 to 15,000 people per year in the U.S. About 10,000 of these people are permanently paralyzed. Most spinal cord traumas occur in young, healthy individuals. Males between 15 and 35 years old are most commonly affected. Recently new approaches to facilitate walking recovery for individuals after a spinal cord injury, have been directed towards a therapy known as Locomotor Training (LT) that implements repetitive stepping on a treadmill using body weight support. A major intent of LT research is to investigate the effect of an extended period of LT on bilateral muscle activation (EMG pattern, amplitude, and burst duration). Currently, training is subjective and there is no way to evaluate if trainers are applying the appropriate force or not. Researchers have requested a method to measure the amount of force applied by the trainers. Researchers would use this information to assess the subject's progress over the course of training, to evaluate the consistency of training and to ensure trainers are properly trained. A glove-like device was built to measure how much force the human trainers apply while performing LT for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) for the goal of quantifying force and assessing effectiveness. The development of the above mention device would be directly used by therapists to improve rehabilitation treatments. Measuring levels of assistance, rehab programs can identify how much improvement a particular patient has achieved and at what rate. Rehabilitation programs would also be able to evaluate the performance of the trainers and observe just how effective they are. ASSESSING TRAINER HAND FORCES FOR MANUAL BODY WEIGHT SUPPORTED WALKING


Using thirteen male and eleven female undergraduate students as participants the novelty/encoding hypothesis (NEH), as offered by Tulving & Kroll (1995) was tested. Participants were verbally presented with a list of either familiar or unfamiliar words and later given a test containing some of the words they had heard and some distracter words. Participants were asked to give positive identifications of the words they were presented with in the first phase of the experiment while being subjected to the verbal recitation of lists of either familiar or unfamiliar words. As predicted by the NEH participants in the high familiarity interference/ low familiarity recognition task gave significantly more correct identifications than those in the low familiarity interference/ high familiarity recognition task condition t(20) = 2.16, p<.05, .22. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to overall accuracy scores t(20) = 1.00, p <.05. These results offer support to Tulving & KroU's (1995) NEH, but suggest that the effects of such a mechanism are not as robust or as wide ranging in scope as they had theorized.


Handwriting disorder (termed dysgraphia) is a far from a singular problem as nearly 8.6% of the population in France is considered dysgraphic. Moreover, research highlights the fundamental importance to detect and remediate these handwriting difficulties as soon as possible as they may affect a child's entire life, undermining performance and self-confidence in a wide variety of school activities. At the moment, the detection of handwriting difficulties is performed through a standard test called BHK. This detection, performed by therapists, is laborious because of its high cost and subjectivity. We present a digital approach to identify and characterize handwriting difficulties via a Recurrent Neural Network model (RNN). The child under investigation is asked to write on a graphics tablet all the letters of the alphabet as well as the ten digits. Once complete, the RNN delivers a diagnosis in a few milliseconds and demonstrates remarkable efficiency as it correctly identifies more than 90% of children diagnosed as dysgraphic using the BHK test. The main advantage of our tablet-based system is that it captures the dynamic features of writing -- something a human expert, such as a teacher, is unable to do. We show that incorporating the dynamic information available by the use of tablet is highly beneficial to our digital test to discriminate between typically-developing and dysgraphic children.


We study wealth disparities in the formation of anthropometrics, cognitive skills and socio-emotional skills. We use a sample of preschool and early school children in Chile. We extend the previous literature by using longitudinal data, which allow us to study the dynamics of child growth and skills formation. Also, we include information on mother's and father's schooling attainment and mother's cognitive ability. We find that there are no significant anthropometric differences favoring the better-off at birth (and indeed length differences at birth to the disadvantage of the better-off), but during the first 30 months of life wealth disparities in height-for-age z scores (HAZ) favoring the better-off emerge. Moreover, we find wealth disparities in cognitive skills favoring the better-off emerge early in life and continue after children turn 6 years of age. We find no concurrent wealth disparities for and socio-emotional skills. Thus, even though the wealth disparities in birth outcomes if anything favor the poor, significant disparities favoring the rich emerge in the early post-natal period. Mother's education and cognitive ability also are significantly associated with disparities in skill formation.


Diverse Indian communities scattered across the globe now complement the nineteenth century diaspora of indentured laborers and traders, and nowhere has the growth of the Indian diaspora registered such a phenomenal increase as in the United States. This book offers a crisp and politically engaged narrative of the social and cultural history of Indian Americans: commencing with the circulation of ideas about India in America, it considers such phenomena as the Ghadr movement, the struggles over rights of citizenship, the reification of 'Indian culture', the emergence of 'temple Hinduism' and the attempts by NRIs to influence the course of events in India.


The accreditation of undergraduate medical education is a universal undertaking. Despite the widespread adoption of accreditation processes and an increasing focus on accreditation as a mechanism to ensure minimum standards are met in various fields, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of accreditation. The new accreditation body in Saudi Arabia, the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA), is viewed anecdotally as a positive development; however, its effect on the quality of medical education has not been formally assessed. This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to address this gap in understanding. Accreditation systems for undergraduate medical educational programs can have many goals including ensuring minimal quality standards are met; encouraging continuous improvement; fostering international recognition of medical programs; guaranteeing that students and graduates of accredited programs have comparable opportunities in the global market; and providing relevant stakeholders with transparent and credible information on the quality of various educational programs. Limited published research was found on the impact of accreditation and its outcomes, with the majority of literature comprising opinion pieces. While many studies provide speculative evidence about the value and impact of accreditation, they are commonly narrow in scope; many are from specific geographical areas and only a few are in the field of undergraduate medical education. Therefore, the value of accreditation in medical education remains to a certain extent unclear, with many unanswered questions regarding its legitimacy, influence and effectiveness. In addition, confounding factors such as internal quality management, external evaluation, and other developmental processes like student capacity, teacher ability and natural improvement, make the causes and effects of accreditation difficult to analyse. The theoretical frameworks for this thesis were chosen in light of the research questions, the literature review and the context and nature of accreditation in Saudi Arabia, which is administered by a mandatory governmental regulatory body. The Hogwood and Gunn (1984) policy analysis model was chosen as a theoretical framework for this thesis as well as Boud's concept of 'sustainable assessment'; both hone in on the purposes of accreditation and stakeholders' experience of accreditation, particularly in relation to perceptions of the long-term impact of accreditation on programs. This study consists of two phases, guided by the theoretical framework and the literature review findings, for evaluating the impact of accreditation processes. Phase one of the study involved a comprehensive review of international accreditation models and comparison between these and the Saudi model in relation to the purpose of accreditation and accreditation procedures. Secondly, phase one entailed a systematic review of the evaluation of accreditation processes and quality assurance mechanisms in international higher education generally and medical education specifically. Phase two of the study used a mixed methods approach. Three key approaches were employed to explore the research questions. Quantitative data on graduate performance was analysed pre- and post-accreditation, document analysis was undertaken (self-review and external panel reports), and interviews and focus groups were conducted with students, educators and medical education leaders to examine the perceived impact of the NCAAA on the quality of undergraduate medical education. Analysis of the quantitative graduate performance data showed a significant increase in pass rates following the accreditation process. Although these pass rates have increased, it was important for students and educators to provide feedback to the researcher about how accreditation has impacted on the educational process. A majority of students and educators concluded that the accreditation process had been helpful in improving the learning experiences of medical students, especially female students, in Saudi Arabia. Some changes included greater power for student bodies, improved teaching and learning practices, opportunities for student feedback, and better extracurricular facilities. Thus, the NCAAA has played a crucial role in promoting change in medical schools. However, building an effective quality culture takes great effort and time on the part of all members of the organisation. Improving quality in medical colleges is not a one-person job. It needs to involve different stakeholders in the planning and implementation stages. As the external driver of higher education quality, the NCAAA needs to be a supportive body, rather than a punitive one, in order to achieve the goal of implementing a quality culture and continuous quality improvement. Otherwise, the danger is that unless stakeholders in medical schools believe in quality as a culture, and gain knowledge and skills in how to evaluate and change practices, seeking accreditation will be a superficial exercise characterised by 'ticking boxes' and 'performing well on the day.' In this study, respondents emphasised the need for a specialised body to regulate medical schools in Saudi Arabia. A specialised body is needed because the NCAAA, in its current capacity, cannot regulate medical schools in Saudi Arabia, given the huge expansion of medical schools in a short period of time. However, by creating standards specifically for medical schools and supporting the NCAAA with more quality assurance experts from health professional backgrounds, the accreditation process could become more focused, easier to carry out, and more effective. This thesis examined the impact of the NCAAA on undergraduate medical education and identified key ways that the process has influenced quality, and at times, constrained productive educational practices. Of particular importance were stakeholders' variable experiences of accreditation. Some study participants expressed the view that the process added stress and burden, and that the resultant changes were short-term in nature, as they were undertaken in order to satisfy the examiners during the site visit. In contrast, other participants gave vastly different accounts of accreditation and its impact. These participants raised the concept of developing a quality culture through accreditation, and highlighted the importance of leadership and the development of targeted 'quality' roles in order to monitor and improve practices over time. Analysis of the data led the researcher to assessment literature in higher education, which describes the 'double duty' assessment can serve within a 'sustainable assessment' model. This paradigm was borrowed to develop a model of 'sustainable accreditation' in medical education. The characteristics of sustainable accreditation are outlined in this study, and it is hoped that these features may reach policy makers and educators, prompting more effective practices in medical education accreditation in Saudi Arabia. The implications of this study for the accreditation body and related quality assurance sectors, stakeholders, and future researchers in accreditation of medical education practice, are also outlined.


As always it is a great pleasure to attend a LIBER conference and be once again at the University of Graz. I am sure this past year has been a busy one for you – it certainly has for me in terms of the creation of the new OCLC PICA organisation. My purpose today is to provide you with an update on these events, to outline OCLC's strategic priorities and OCLC PICA's involvement in them. Before I do so I would like to say how much OCLC PICA welcomes the opportunity to become a LIBER Main Sponsor. Both OCLC Europe and Pica have been active within LIBER for many years and this new more formalised relationship has the opportunity to strengthen that link.


Ice edges and associated water column features are key areas of increased productivity in all regions of the Arctic (Smithand Sakshaug, 1990). Stability of the water column and ice edge associated currents allow phytoplankton to be retained in a defined active photosynthetic layer at the margin of the ice (Marshall 1957). In many areas, the ice edge phytoplankton bloom follows the retreat of the ice margin, and can extend to 50 km or more from the ice edge (Smith and Sakshaug 1990). Nine arctic deep-sea stations (between 1000-5500 m depth) along this Ice Margin have been intensively sampled since the year 2000 by the Alfred-Wegener Institute with RV Polarstern and will be sampled for another 6 years. In this study meiofauna samples of the first five years are analyzed with emphasis on nematode and copepod communities which are identified up to species level. Density, biomass and length-width spectra, diversity (α-,β- and γ-diversity) are assessed and linked to biological and physical environmental variables (especially food supply). High nematode and copepod densities were found in the area due to increased sediment bound chloroplastic pigments. Topography of the area, food availability (especially bacteria) and presence of macrofaunal organisms may be important in structuring the meiofaunal communities along the bathymetric gradient. Spatial patchiness, seasonal variations in moment and intensity of the bloom and time lags in response to increased food input hamper a sound interpretation of inter-annual variations. Over 300 nematode and 20 copepod species were found, of which over 90% undescribed.


Fiji's infrastructure is regularly affected by rainfall-induced slope failures, but the engineering properties of failed soils are rarely described. We report mineralogical, geotechnical and index properties of soils from headscarp exposures of 18 slope failures from tropical residual soils of differing parent rocks in Viti Levu, Fiji. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction revealed that kaolinite and smectite are the dominant clay minerals in the soils. Index properties included in situ moisture content (28–114%), dry bulk density (0.7–1.5 g cm−3), Atterberg limits (25–56% plastic limit; 38–79% liquid limit), effective particle size (0.4–12.6 μm) and clay fraction (0.6–19%). Geotechnical measurements included field compressive strength (127–461 kPa), hydraulic conductivity (c. 10−7 m s−1), shear vane (16–128 kPa), ring shear (9.3–17.4°) and Emerson dispersion. Collectively, results indicated that most of the soils were cohesive, stiff, sensitive and in a plastic state in the field. Soils plotted below the A-line on the plasticity chart as fine silts of intermediate to high plasticity, and can theoretically sustain >50° slopes. Failure of these soils following high rainfall events is influenced by low permeability and the presence of expanding clays (e.g. smectite), causing temporary porewater pressure increases. No explicit relationships between soil properties and parent lithology were evident.


The story of David Hockney, one of the most widely acclaimed of all living artists, is one of passion: passion for seeing, passion for telling, passion for images. But to these should be added the passion for life. Hockney's art is a celebration of what it is to be alive. All of his pictures-sometimes tender, as when he draws close friends and family; sometimes playful, as in his paintings of lazy, carefree days at the pool; sometimes awe-inspiring, as with his monumental images of the Grand Canyon-convey what it means to be in the world, to see it, to move in it, to love it. This constant exploration of how to communicate such feelings through his work emerges with particular clarity in this stunning, lively volume, which charts almost fifty years of extraordinary creativity. Hockney's Pictures is the first definitive "retrospective" to show the evolution and diversity of Hockney's prolific paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, and photography, including new and published works. The pieces, presented thematically, are selected and organized by David Hockney himself, and track Hockney's lifelong experiments in ways of looking and depicting. With 325 illustrations, accompanied by extensive quotes from the artist himself that illuminate the passionate thinking behind the work, Hockney's Pictures is destined to become a classic. David Hockney is Britain's most celebrated living artist and one of the most popular artists working today. His pieces are in the permanent collections of major museums internationally, and his book Secret Knowledge was one of the bestselling art books of 2001.


Abstract Oral contraceptives (OCs) are classified according to the dosage of ethinyloestradiol (EE) and type of progestogen, and whether the dosages of EE and progestogen stay the same during the cycle, or change in a phasic manner. Ultimately, there is no statistically significant difference in efficacy between high-dose and low-dose OCs. There is also no difference in efficacy between monophasic and multiphasic products, which, other than having a lower hormone content, have no benefit over monophasic products. Several medications, such as rifampicin, some of the anticonvulsants and certain human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) medications, may reduce the efficacy of OCs. Higher-dose OC preparations are recommended in patients taking these concomitant drugs. The effectiveness of OCs with typical use is largely dependent on compliance, which is influenced by bleeding patterns and side-effects. In this regard, the composition of an OC may play a significant role. The dosage of EE and type of progestogen may relate to specific non-contraceptive benefits, such as improvement in dysfunctional uterine bleeding, dysmenorrhoea, premenstrual tension, endometriosis, iron deficiency anaemia, hyperandrogenism and acne. The third- generation progestogens and anti-androgens are generally regarded as more "skin friendly". The cardiovascular safety of OCs has long been controversial, and although complications such as myocardial infarction and stroke have been reduced over the years with lower EE dosages, the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) has not decreased consistently. In fact, some of the low-dose products containing third-generation progestogens and anti-androgens may be associated with a higher risk of VTE. Breast cancer is another controversial issue that is associated with OC use. Epidemiological studies do not report an increased risk, whereas other meta-analyses do. The risk may be amplified by genetic susceptibility, although data on the subject are not consistent. An increased risk of hepatic adenoma and cervical cancer has also been noted with OC use, but the latter seems to be dependent on persistent human papillomavirus infection. On the other hand, ovarian and endometrial cancers are reduced by the use of OCs, although genetic susceptibility may also modify the risk. As indicated by several studies on risk factors relating to the safety of contraceptives, the choice of contraceptive is more complicated in patients with certain medical conditions. This is because the physiological changes and side-effects that are associated with the method may increase the risk of morbidity or mortality in these women. Before starting on a contraceptive, the woman should undergo a risk-benefit assessment to ensure the safety of the method. This is also true for OCs, and in this regard, the latest World Health Organization (WHO) safety categories may be consulted.


Remote magnetic navigation of catheters is a technique used to perform radiofrequency ablation of heart tissue in order to treat cardiac arrhythmias. The flexible magnetic catheters used in this context are in some cases not sufficiently dexterous to navigate the complex and patient-specific anatomy of the heart. To overcome such limitations, this paper proposes a new approach that relies on the integration of variable stiffness segments into a magnetic catheter. The magnetic variable stiffness (VS) catheter presented here is based on silicone and a low melting point alloy (LMPA) that transforms from a solid to liquid phase upon joule heating. This dramatically changes the bending stiffness of the segment in which it is integrated, improving dexterity. Compared to standard catheters, a VS catheter can partially (just one segment) or completely lock its shape (shape fixity) in order to explore a larger 3D volume inside a magnetic navigation system, thus extending regions of the heart that can be reached for performing ablation procedures.


Fab fragments imprinted surface plasmon resonance (SPR) chip was prepared for the real-time detection of human immunoglobulin G (IgG). In order to attach polymerization precursor on SPR chip, the SPR chip surface was modified with allyl mercaptan. Fab fragments of the IgG molecules were prepared by papain digestion procedure and collected by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) system using HiTrap r Protein A FF column. The collected Fab fragments were complexed with histidine containing specific monomer, N-methacryloyl-l-histidine methyl ester (MAH). Molecular imprinted polymeric nanofilm was prepared on SPR chip in the presence of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate. The template molecules, Fab fragments, were removed from the polymeric nanofilm using 1 M NaCl solution (pH: 7.4, phosphate buffer system). The molecular imprinted SPR chip was characterized by contact angle, atomic force microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. By the real-time IgG detection studies carried out using aqueous IgG solutions in different concentrations, the kinetics and isotherm parameters of the molecular imprinted SPR chip–IgG system were calculated. To show selectivity and specificity of the molecular imprinted SPR chip, competitive kinetic analyses were performed using bovine serum albumin (BSA), IgG, Fab and Fc fragments in singular and competitive manner. As last step, IgG detection studies from human plasma were performed and the measured IgG concentrations were well matched with the results determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results obtained with the molecular imprinted SPR chip were well fitted to Langmuir isotherm and the detection limit was found as 56 ng/mL. In the light of the results, we can conclude that the proposed molecular imprinted SPR chip can detect IgG molecules from both aqueous solutions and complex natural


We propose a model-free algorithm for learning efficient policies capable of returning table tennis balls by controlling robot joints at a rate of 100Hz. We demonstrate that evolutionary search (ES) methods acting on CNN-based policy architectures for non-visual inputs and convolving across time learn compact controllers leading to smooth motions. Furthermore, we show that with appropriately tuned curriculum learning on the task and rewards, policies are capable of developing multi-modal styles, specifically forehand and backhand stroke, whilst achieving 80% return rate on a wide range of ball throws. We observe that multi-modality does not require any architectural priors, such as multi-head architectures or hierarchical policies.


The IFDS and IDE frameworks by Reps, Horwitz and Sagiv are two general frameworks for the inter-procedural analysis of data-flow problems with distributive flow functions over finite domains. Many data-flow problems do have distributive flow functions and are thus expressible as IFDS or IDE problems, reaching from basic analyses like truly-live variables to complex analyses for problems from the current literature such as typestate and secure information-flow.
 In this work we describe our implementation of a generic IFDS/IDE solver on top of Soot and contrast it with an IFDS implementation in the Watson Libraries for Analysis (WALA), both from a user's perspective and in terms of the implementation. While WALA's implementation is geared much towards memory efficiency, ours is currently geared more towards extensibility and ease of use and we focus on efficiency as a secondary goal.
 We further discuss possible extensions to our IFDS/IDE implementation that may be useful to support a wider range of analyses.


We study the collapse and virialization of an isolated spherical cloud of self-gravitating particles initially at rest and characterised by a power-law density profile, with exponent 0<= \alpha < 3, or by a Plummer, an Hernquist, a NFW, a Gaussian profile. We find that in all cases the virialized structure formed after the collapse has a density profile decaying, at large enough radii, as ~ r^{-4}, and a radial velocity dispersion profile decaying as ~r^{-1}. We show that these profiles originate from the physical mechanism responsible of the ejection of a fraction of cloud's mass and energy during the collapse and that this same mechanism washes out the dependence on the initial conditions. When a large enough initial velocity dispersion is given to the cloud particles, ejection does not occur anymore and consequently the virialized halo density and velocity profiles display features which reflect the initial conditions.


Spicka, J. and J. krauSe, 2013. Selected socioeconomic impacts of public support for agricultural biogas plants: the case of the czech republic. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 929-938 The main goal of the article is to assess selected socioeconomic impacts of public support for investments and effects of investments in biogas plants in the cr. The need for this analysis arises from requirements for impact evaluation of public subsidies from the Rural Development Programme. The quantification of economic effects of investment support of biogas plants is based on counterfactual analysis. propensity score matching ( pSM) with Mahalanobis distance was used to create treatment-control matches based on propensity scores and/or observed covariate variables. Mann-Whitney u test was used to compare selected indicators between supported and not supported agricultural enterprises. regarding economic performance of agricultural enterprises, analysis revealed that investments and investment subsidies targeted at biogas plants have positive effect on EBIT, cash flow and value added per hectare of agricultural enterprises. On the other side, there is no significant impact on ROA, ROE and ROCE even if these indicators have been considered as key indicators of companies' economic performance. Setting up biogas plants does not create any new working positions in most cases, so supported enterprises with biogas plant in operation significantly increased labour productivity compared to companies without biogas plant.


Although fiscal adjustment was urged on developing countries during the 1980s to lead them out of economic malaise, considerable uncertainty remains about the relations between fiscal policy and macroeconomic performance. To illustrate how financial markets, private spending, and the external sector react to fiscal policies, the behavior of holdings of money and public debt, private consumption and investment, the trade balance, and the real exchange rate is modeled for a sample of ten developing countries. The studies find strong evidence that over the medium term, money financing of the deficit leads to higher inflation, while debt financing leads to higher real interest rates or increased repression of financial markets, with the fiscal gains coming at increasingly unfavorable terms. Consumers respond differently to conventional taxes, unconventional taxes (through inflation or interest and credit controls), and debt financing, in ways that make fiscal adjustment the most effective means of increasing national saving. Private investment-but not private consumption-is sensitive to the real interest rate, which rises under domestic borrowing to finance the deficit. Contrary to the popular presumption, in some countries private investment increases when public investment decreases. There is strong evidence that fiscal deficits spill over into external deficits, leading to appreciation of the real exchange rate. Fiscal deficits and growth are self-reinforcing: good fiscal management preserves access to foreign lending and avoids the crowding out of private investment, while growth stabilizes the budget and improves the fiscal position. The virtuous circle of growth and good fiscal management is one of the strongest arguments for a policy of low and stable fiscal deficits.


Oceanographic Engineering of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Woods Hole, MA 02543. Oceanographers have long sought to verify the theoretical Ekman transport relation, which predicts that a steady wind stress acting together with the Coriolis force will produce a transport of water to the right of the wind. In situ measurements of wind and ocean currents provide a detailed view of this phenomenon. By separating the wind-driven current from the measured total current and by averaging over a long record, it is found that the observed transport is consistent with theoretical Ekman transport to within about 10 percent. In this case the wind-driven transport is strongly surface trapped, with 95 percent occurring in the upper 25 meters as a result of fair summer weather.


Abstract. In spite of being located at the heart of the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayan Nepal Climate Observatory (5079 m a.s.l.) at the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid is shown to be affected by the advection of pollution aerosols from the populated regions of southern Nepal and the Indo-Gangetic plains. Such an impact is observed along most of the period April 2006–March 2007 addressed here, with a minimum in the monsoon season. Backtrajectory-analysis indicates long-range transport episodes occurring in this year to originate mainly in the west Asian deserts. At this high altitude site, the measured aerosol optical depth is observed to be about one order of magnitude lower than the one measured at Ghandi College (60 m a.s.l.), in the Indo-Gangetic basin. As for Ghandi College, and in agreement with the in situ ground observations at the Pyramid, the fine mode aerosol optical depth maximizes during winter and minimizes in the monsoon season. Conversely, total optical depth maximizes during the monsoon due to the occurrence of elevated, coarse particle layers. Possible origins of these particles are wind erosion from the surrounding peaks and hydrated/cloud-processed aerosols. Assessment of the aerosol radiative forcing is then expected to be hampered by the presence of these high altitude particle layers, which impede an effective, continuous measurement of anthropogenic aerosol radiative properties from sky radiance inversions and/or ground measurements alone. Even though the retrieved absorption coefficients of pollution aerosols were rather large (single scattering albedo of the order of 0.6–0.9 were observed in the month of April 2006), the corresponding low optical depths (~0.03 at 500 nm) are expected to limit the relevant radiative forcing. Still, the high specific forcing of this aerosol and its capability of altering snow surface albedo provide good reasons for continuous monitoring.


Direct policy gradient methods for reinforcement learning and continuous control problems are a popular approach for a variety of reasons: 1) they are easy to implement without explicit knowledge of the underlying model 2) they are an "end-to-end" approach, directly optimizing the performance metric of interest 3) they inherently allow for richly parameterized policies. A notable drawback is that even in the most basic continuous control problem (that of linear quadratic regulators), these methods must solve a non-convex optimization problem, where little is understood about their efficiency from both computational and statistical perspectives. In contrast, system identification and model based planning in optimal control theory have a much more solid theoretical footing, where much is known with regards to their computational and statistical properties. This work bridges this gap showing that (model free) policy gradient methods globally converge to the optimal solution and are efficient (polynomially so in relevant problem dependent quantities) with regards to their sample and computational complexities.


The question of identity in Switzerland, and more specifically in Lausanne, has been a question throughout the last century. Developments in our social situation and morphological patterns through history has brought us to a certain place in time where these elements must find a common meeting ground. On this basis, the study of a certain zone in Lausanne, namely, the Flon platform has proven to be one such meeting of cultures and philosophies. A place can change its appearance during a strictly planned development phase due to increasing and changing needs of the local population. The question that arises, in view of this changing situation, is which social values - often too briefly analyzed - are threatened by elimination. Lausanne Flon has already experienced a substantial identity change over the past years. In looking back on the social "cleansing" within the area and the almost elimination of Flon "subculture", one can see a distinct change in its spatial quality and use. It seems to me a necessary attitude, to consider in which phases change and development should be introduced, and to maintain the use of all different age ranges. Introducing into the district of Flon, a program that focuses on cultural and social interests of a certain user group, could prove to be a stabilizing element reinforcing the desire to retain diversity and mutual respect in the area. As a platform for communication, networking and council, a Youth Embassy represents in physical form the structuralisation of these entities typically seen as seperate in a physical and political sense. It is a place in which its interchangeable role of presentation and retreat allows for internal concentration, yet at the same time offers an external pioneering attitude for the youth of Lausanne.


As the local government turnaround strategy gains momentum (see page 7 and the editorial) and energy is focused on assessing the state of local government, the role of provincial oversight in respect of municipalities, including interventions, is critical. The Mnquma case revisited what is required of provinces in the context of an intervention. The judgment, while contributing to the debate, may, however, have raised more questions than it provided answers.


How does a law turn society on its head? How does technology keep a movement alive? Through the lens of her home, Hong Kong, the author discusses legal loopholes in a new national security law that might bring about a dystopian reality, and how tomorrow's secure and private tech can fight back.


Myoclonus dystonia (DYT11) is a movement disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations in SGCE and characterized by involuntary jerking and dystonia that frequently improve after drinking alcohol. Existing transgenic mouse models of DYT11 exhibit only mild motor symptoms, possibly due to rodent-specific developmental compensation mechanisms, which have limited the study of neural mechanisms underlying DYT11. To circumvent potential compensation, we used short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to acutely knock down Sgce in the adult mouse and found that this approach produced dystonia and repetitive, myoclonic-like movements in mice that improved after administration of ethanol. Acute knockdown of Sgce in the cerebellum, but not the basal ganglia, produced motor symptoms, likely due to aberrant cerebellar activity. The acute knockdown model described here reproduces the salient features of DYT11 and provides a platform to study the mechanisms underlying symptoms of the disorder, and to explore potential therapeutic options.


Abstract Blueberry anthocyanins have the ability to efficiently reach the GI tract and exhibit a broad range of biochemical effects. In the context of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), they remain a promising complement to current IBD treatments. Here, we investigated the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capabilities of Highbush blueberries in-vitro on two normal colon epithelial cell lines, NCM 356 and CCD 841 CoN using fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry following stimulation with a pro-inflammatory cytokine cocktail. Treatment with blueberry extract revealed a significant decrease in nuclear and cytoplasmic generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) compared to controls. Additionally, the blueberry extract increased cell viability following treatment with the pro-inflammatory cytokine cocktail. A comparison with previous report on rice callus suspension culture (RCSC) revealed opposing trend with reference to the levels of nuclear and cytoplasmic ROS. It is likely that blueberry extract and RCSC employ different players and pathways to mitigate inflammation.


ESDU 06018 is one of a series of Data Items concerned with temperature measurement and provides background information and practical guidance on designing temperature measuring systems using thermocouples. The nominal temperature range covered is -272 to 2000 degrees C but the comments will apply, in general terms, to all thermocouple systems. It is aimed at the user who wishes to design and install a practical thermocouple system using improved techniques that will allow temperatures to be measured within known tolerances. ESDU 06018 considers the selection, preparation, and installation of thermocouples, the use of compensating or extension cables, and methods of referencing to a known temperature. The requirements for reliable systems operating to commercial tolerances are also described. Various factors that might impair the accuracy and stability of thermocouples are identified together with methods of reducing their effect. A check list for the design of a thermocouple system is given and a flowchart procedure for selecting appropriate thermocouple materials is provided. The employment of the techniques described will ensure that the temperature of the measuring junction is within known tolerances.


This paper offers a refined conceptualization of consensus formation and demonstrates in three organizations how this conceptualization enables us to uncover new patterns of consensus building. It describes a longitudinal study which investigated consensus formation in three organizations undergoing major strategic change. The study explored whether consensus building occurred during the strategic change and, if so, how. Initial participants of consensus were also investigated as well as changes in the scope of participants in consensus. Consensus building did occur, but contrary to some views less through an increase in the strength of consensus and more through an increase in the scope of consensus. Additionally, initial consensus was not located among members of the top management team, but more within an interest group whose members benefited from the given direction of the change. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract The potential for cross-country mobility (CCM) by vehicles has increasingly become an integral part of tactical planning for military operations and depends on a multitude of parameters. A comprehensive trafficability forecast requires the analysis of terrain, including slope, land cover and soil properties, and weather, as well as specific vehicle parameters. Terrain and weather interactions were recognized as important for the first time during World War I, when all types of vehicle would frequently bog down in muddy ground. The lessons learned influenced the orientation of future German military geology. During World War II, German military geologists and engineers prepared their first CCM maps. However, these often lacked a consistent format and standardized analysis. During the Cold War, the US Army carried out extensive research to create empirical mobility models based on physical properties and trafficability tests. These results were incorporated into the production of CCM maps. Present day computer-based data processing and analysis have opened up the possibility of enhancements to trafficability forecasting and thus make a vital contribution to providing the armed forces with advice on exercises and operations.


The strict anaerobe Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. The oxygen-resistant C. difficile spores play a central role in the infectious cycle, contributing to transmission, infection and recurrence. The spore surface layers, the coat and exosporium, enable the spores to resist physical and chemical stress. However, little is known about the mechanisms of their assembly. In this study, we characterized a new spore protein, CotL, which is required for the assembly of the spore coat. The cotL gene was expressed in the mother cell compartment under the dual control of the RNA polymerase sigma factors, σE and σK . CotL was localized in the spore coat, and the spores of the cotL mutant had a major morphologic defect at the level of the coat/exosporium layers. Therefore, the mutant spores contained a reduced amount of several coat/exosporium proteins and a defect in their localization in sporulating cells. Finally, cotL mutant spores were more sensitive to lysozyme and were impaired in germination, a phenotype likely to be associated with the structurally altered coat. Collectively, these results strongly suggest that CotL is a morphogenetic protein essential for the assembly of the spore coat in C. difficile.


In recent years, the communications industry has changed drastically as new technologies have created industry convergence. On its face, convergence is beneficial to the consumer because it provides more options when choosing services, which in turn should lead to decreased prices. However, convergence has also led to enormous problems in communications regulations. Traditionally, the FCC regulated the industry with regulations that focused on the type of service provider and the technology medium used to provide services. While this worked for many years, the recent onslaught of convergent technologies has led to an environment where companies selling essentially the same services to consumers face different regulations because they use different mediums of transmission. This leads to obvious competition problems because some companies have fewer restrictions and/or costs associated with their service offerings. At this point, the FCC has begun to update its regulations to conform with the newly converged industry, but it still has a long way to go. In the mean time, companies are using defective regulatory classifications to their benefit. This sort of a system is not only unfair, but it is unconstitutional.  The United States has long adopted the idea that corporations are "persons" under the constitution, and for that reason, the constitution bestows equal protection guarantees upon them. Corporations have rarely challenged the FCC's regulations on constitutional grounds because they would probably be valid if examined under rational basis review. Until now, the FCC could hide behind technological distinctions and antitrust concepts to protect its regulations from equal protection claims. However, with the convergence of markets, a valid argument could be made challenging the government's interest in its regulations. If a corporation makes that claim, the courts will have to decide whether these regulatory distinctions further a legitimate  government interest. If the courts take a closer look, they may realize that the distinctions are arbitrary and capricious and mandate regulatory parity on equal protection grounds.


Most of the new Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures which are built nowadays have a high
safety level. Nevertheless, we cannot claim the same for structures built in the past. Many of
these were designed without any regulations, or are based on those which have proved to be
inadequate. Additionally, it seems that many old structures have reached the end of their
service life and, in many cases, were designed to carry loads significantly lower than the
current needs specify. Therefore, the structural evaluation and intervention are considered
necessary, so they can meet the same requirements as the structures which are built today.
Existing techniques for the strengthening and retrofitting of RC structures present crucial
disadvantages which are mainly related to the ease of application, the high cost, the time it
takes to be applied, the relocation of the tenants during the application of the technique and
the poor performance. Research is now focused on new techniques which combine strength,
cost effectiveness and ease of application. The superior mechanical properties of Ultra High
Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) compared to conventional concrete,
together with the ease of preparation and application of the material, make the application of
UHPFRC in the field of strengthening of RC structures attractive.
The present research aims to investigate the effectiveness of UHPFRC as a strengthening
material, and to examine if the material is able to increase the load carrying capacity of
existing RC elements. This has been achieved through an extensive experimental and
numerical investigation. The first part of the present research is focused on the experimental
investigation of the properties of the material which are missing from the literature and the
development of a mixture design which can be used for strengthening applications. The
second part is focused on the realistic application of the material for the strengthening of
existing RC elements using different strengthening configurations. Finally, in the last part,
certain significant parameters of the examined technique, which are mainly related to the
design of the technique, are investigated numerically.
From the experimental and numerical investigation of the present research it was clear that
UHPFRC is a material with enhanced properties and the strengthening with UHPFRC is a
well promising technique. Therefore, in all the examined cases, the performance of the
strengthened elements was improved. Finally, an important finding of the present research
was that the bonding between UHPFRC and concrete is effective with low values of slip at
the interface.


This article analyses the distribution of the modal enclitic άν in the homilies Adversus Iudaeos by John Chrysostom. The main question is whether άν has narrow syntactic scope (i.e. belongs to the verb syntactically) or wide syntactic scope (i.e. belongs to the clause syntactically). I argue that the clues provided by its distribution (mainly its tendency towards P2 position) seem to point in the direction of the wide scope analysis.


A European collaborative group, under the auspices of the European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee (EEVC), has produced test methods and performance criteria for pedestrian protection. An adaptation of these test methods has been used in the European Union's Directive for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users (2003/102/EC). EEVC specifies both the physical and dynamic requirements of their impactors. TRL have developed a legform impactor to meet the EEVC requirements. The dynamic performance of the legform impactor is difficult to determine in a simple dynamic certification test because it has three very different injury modes which all need to be activated in the one test. The current version of the legform dynamic certification method has tolerance bands that are wider than normal because the certification test was found to be unduly sensitive to variations in the properties of the Confor(super TM) foam used to represent human flesh. Another factor that has been shown, by Matsui and Takabayashi, to affect the acceleration achieved in legform certification results is the relative humidity, which influences the behaviour of the foam flesh. The main objective of this current study was to further investigate the effects of humidity on the legform impactor certification results. (A)


Hybrid solar thermal power plants (with parabolic trough type of solar collectors) featuring gas burners and Rankine steam cycles have been successfully demonstrated by California's Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS). This system has been proven to be one of the most efficient and economical schemes to convert solar energy into electricity. Recent technological progress opens interesting prospects for advanced cycle concepts: a) the ISCCS (Integrated Solar Combined Cycle System) that integrates the parabolic trough into a fossil fired combined cycle, which allows a larger exergy potential of the fuel to be converted. b) the HSTS (Hybrid Solar Tower System) which uses high concentration optics (via a power tower generator) and high temperature air receivers to drive the combined cycle power plant. In the latter case, solar energy is used at a higher exergy level as a heat source of the topping cycle. This paper presents the results of a thermoeconomic investigation of an ISCCS envisaged in Tunisia. The study is realized in two phases. In the first phase, a mixed approach, based on pinch technology principles coupled with a mathematical optimization algorithm, is used to minimize the heat transfer exergy losses in the steam generators, respecting the off design operating conditions of the steam turbine (cone law). In the second phase, an economic analysis based on the Levelized Electricity Cost (LEC) approach was carried out for the configurations, which provided the best concepts during the first phase. A comparison of ISCCS with pure fossil fueled plants (CC+GT) is reported for the same electrical power load. A sensitivity analysis based on the relative size of the solar field is presented.  This paper was presented at the ECOS'00 Conference in Enschede, July 5-7, 2000


In this contribution we propose a method to increase the energy efficiency of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based femtocells. This is accomplished with no impact to the current power consumption, radio frequency (RF) circuitry, link adaptation strategies, bandwidth and transmit power. The proposed technique recycles redundant resources of OFDM transmissions (e.g., guard bands and cyclic prefixes), introduced to combat frequency selectivity. We borrow the underlying idea from a technique called cognitive interference alignment (CIA). Interestingly, our novel approach does not suffer from the same issues inherent to CIA, such as synchronization at the primary receiver and channel knowledge related complications. Nevertheless, it introduces a new issue related to the interference from the OFDM signal, which prompted the adoption of an adequate linear receiver at the femtocell user equipment. Numerical findings demonstrate that spectral efficiency gains are achieved, improving the energy efficiency of the femtocell by up to 20% for the simulated scenario.


Background: Knowledge about consumers color preferences is important for marketers to be able to reach out with attractive product offerings to consumers. To determine the color that appeals to consumers, marketers have used color consultants. Associative to learning can help marketers better understand the evolution of color preferences.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the contextual independence/dependence of consumers associations of colors.Findings: The result showed that color associations were dependent of the context. The two hypotheses, the association to the blue/black color on context is different compared to the general and symbolic associations to the color blue/black are not rejected. This means that the color associations depend on context.


Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have reduced or eliminated fertilizer subsidies and liberalized input marketing as part of the reform process that began in the early 1980s. The effect on fertilizer prices and use is one of the most frequently mentioned criticisms of liberalization. The effect of these reforms, however, has varied widely across countries. The study finds that fertilizer use is closely related to crop mix and access to inputs on credit, but not to household income.. In Benin, 88 percent of the fertilizer purchased by farmers is bought on credit through the integrated cotton marketing system managed by the parastatal SONAPRA. However, almost one third of this fertilizer is diverted to maize and other crops. In Malawi, tobacco is the most important cash crop among smallholders, but less than half the tobacco growers are able to purchase fertilizers on credit. Maize accounts for about 60 percent of the fertilizer use, compared to less than a third for tobacco. This difference in the tradability of the main crop being fertilized helps explain some of the difference in performance. The results demonstrate some of the paths by which cash crop and food crop production may be complementary. This can occur through the residual effect of fertilizer on food crop production, through the alleviation of cash constraints for the purchase of fertilizer, and through the availability of inputs on credit.Thus, the benefits of export liberalization must be weighed against the risk that it will weaken the enforceability of seasonal agricultural credit, with indirect consequences for food crop productivity.


This publication is a result of an international research project which took place from 2012-2014. Among the participators were four universities, number of service providers, NGOs and people with psychiatric and learning disabilities from Amersfoort and Maastricht in the Netherlands, Budapest in Hungary and Tallinn
in Estonia. The aim of the project was to explore the wishes and needs of persons with psychiatric or learning difficulties with regard to community participation, and how services could be (more) supportive in order to meet these needs. We also looked at local policies, especially from the perspective of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). From the research we learn that regardless of the country where people live, persons with disabilities have similar struggles to cope with vulnerability and deprivation. They also share the same desires as any other human being: the wish to live a good and valued life, to have meaningful activities and to belong to a social community. The stories in this book were selected from the interviews which were conducted by researchers during the project. The portraits illustrate experiences of illness, disability and recovery. They also reflect experiences of using social- and mental health services, exclusion and inclusion. By reading these stories we see, how multifaceted life can be, and what are the challenges towards the real participation in community


Objective: To investigate (i) the performance and agreement between various activity indices and response criteria in TNF-blockade of RA; (ii) the predictive ability of different response criteria and disease activity states regarding continuation of anti-TNF treatment of RA; (iii) Euro-QoL-5-dimensions utility development during TNF blockade of RA, PsA and SpA. Also, (iv) to develop a simple, utility-based outcome measure, the number needed to treat per quality adjusted life year gained (NNQ) and apply it in RA, PsA and SpA patients on anti-TNF treatment.
Methods: Data were retrieved from the South Swedish Arthritis Treatment (SSATG) register. In patients with RA, PsA and SpA commencing treatment with adalimumab, etanercept or infliximab, date of treatment start and stop, core set variables and EQ-5D were recorded, and various activity indices, responses and EQ-5D utility were calculated. Descriptive statistics and completer analysis were used. The NNQ was calculated as the inverted value of the area under the utility gain curve for one year.
Results: Agreement between RA response criteria was poor at the individual level, except at the ACR20/overall level. Disease states exhibited moderate or good agreement at all levels and for most criteria sets, except for remission. Response at ACR20/overall and ACR50/good/major level was found to significantly predict treatment continuation, for most indices already after 6 weeks. EQ-5D utilities improved rapidly (at 2 weeks in RA and PsA) and remained stable over 5 years in TNF blockade of RA, PsA and SpA. NNQ for TNF blockade of RA, PsA and SpA and was found to be 4-6, irrespective of diagnosis and treatment course order.
Conclusions: Response criteria are less suitable for use in individual patients in routine care than disease activity states in RA. By contrast, they are often useful as predictors of continued TNF blockade. EQ-5D utility rises almost instantaneously in TNF blockade and remains stable in RA, PsA and SpA patients remaining on therapy. NNQ is easy to calculate and understand and performs well across 3 diagnostic entities.


Widening participation in higher education has been a stated priority of the Government since it came to power in 1997. In its 2001 election manifesto, the Government set a target that, by 2010, 50% of people aged between18-30 will have had the opportunity to experience higher education. The percentage of this age group currently engaged in higher education is calculated at 43%. Government education policy in the last six to seven years has explicitly encouraged collaboration between institutions in the higher and further education sectors as a means of widening participation in higher education. Partnerships are seen as holding the key to delivering the Government's 50% target. This research explored the contribution that such partnerships make to Government objectives for widening participation in higher education. Four case studies of partnership were examined: the Higher Education and Training Partnership, based at Middlesex University; the Staffordshire University Regional Federation, the Anglia Polytechnic University Regional University Partnership and the Bedfordshire Federation for Further and Higher Education, involving the University of Luton. The case studies represented two examples each of the two main models of indirect funding between higher and further education, the funding consortium and the franchise partnership.
The case studies were informed by a review of the literature. Quantitative and qualitative evidence was gathered for the case studies through a study of the data and documentation provided by the four case study partnerships and by means of a series of semi-structured interviews with a range of carefully selected respondents.
The analysis of the qualitative evidence and the limited quantitative evidence that it was possible to obtain from the case studies generated a set of findings from which conclusions were drawn. The analysis, findings and conclusions represent a valuable contribution to the knowledge about partnerships and their behaviour, a hitherto under researched area.
The main conclusion was that it is difficult to assess the contribution of partnerships between higher and further education to Government objectives for widening participation because of the lack of robust, comparable student number data. This conclusion addresses the main research question and is the major outcome of the study. On the basis of the data it was possible to obtain from the four partnerships that constituted the case studies, there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate conclusively the value of partnerships. None of the partnerships measured the extent to which the range of higher education provision delivered by partner colleges had been extended. Case study respondents expressed a strong belief in the value of what they were doing but the benefits had not been translated into performance indicators that were capable of being measured and monitored. Only one of the four partnerships had analysed fully its contribution to widening participation in quantitative terms.
Based on the quantitative data it was possible to collect from the case study partnerships, there appeared to be a growth trend in the numbers of higher education students in partner colleges. But it is impossible to identify how much of the growth was as a result of the partnerships and their efforts to widen participation.
Partnerships between higher and further education offer a number of actual or potential benefits to their members. The qualitative analysis of the case studies highlighted the respondents' perceptions of the purposes of partnership which were frequently expressed in terms of the benefits of partnership to their respective institutions. The purposes and benefits went beyond what was captured in partnership agreements.
Both the funding consortium and the franchise partnership models offer a basis for effective partnership. The funding consortium model may be more difficult to manage than the franchise partnership model because the principle of equality in relation to the arrangements for data collection and quality assurance can create additional operational challenge. However, the research identified that partnerships have to a large extent been allowed by HEFCE to develop in their own way, with an absence of prescriptive frameworks or criteria for success, making it difficult to evaluate their effectiveness.
There are a number of themes that may impact on the effectiveness of partnerships. These formed the basis of the thematic framework against which the case studies were analysed. The findings confirmed the validity of the themes. The findings were clustered under two further themes, barriers to effective partnership operation and critical success factors in effective partnerships.
There are a number of barriers to effective partnership operation. Seven barriers were identified as a result of the analysis of the case studies. Four of these related to factors outside the partnerships' control, including the different arrangements in the two sectors for data collection, quality assurance, and the terms and conditions of service for academic staff.
There appear to be a number of critical success factors in effective partnerships. The analysis revealed six factors that appeared from the research to be critically important to the success of partnerships between higher and further education.
Partnerships demonstrate a range of good practice in their strategies to widen participation that could usefully be shared more widely. In the course of the research, eight examples of good practice were identified as potentially having applicability for other partnerships.
The conclusions prompted ideas for further research or development in the area of partnerships between higher and further education:
• A more sophisticated quantitative analysis, based on more robust and comprehensive data, of the growth delivered by colleges in higher/further education partnerships, including how much of the increase in higher education student numbers can be ascribed to other wider societal factors
• Evaluation of the respective benefits and costs to institutions of their involvement in collaborative activities
• Development of appropriate performance indicators for partnerships
• Evaluation of the barriers that have a real impact on partnerships' ability to achieve their objectives
• Evaluation of the critical success factors identified through the research
• Evaluation of the selected examples of good practice in strategies to widen participation
• Development of mechanisms for sharing good practice.


The corporate fraud narrative suggests that misleading and inaccurate accounts engender misplaced confidence that robs creditors and investors alike. Yet, this view underplays nested ambiguities in business accounts first in the (im)possibility of accuracy in a set of accounts and second in the constituent figures themselves as embodying uncertain monetary value. This article analyses these phenomena and argues that confidence, nurtured by governments through their regulatory practices, is essential to maintaining perceived integrity to both in spite of continuing ambiguity. This management of confidence is engendered through the interdependent yet contested relationships between government, business and professional elites. Corporate fraud is embedded within these relationships and hence difficult to dislodge without threatening the productiveness that business promises and government craves. Criminalization of corporate fraud deflects attention to one of these actors, the business and its directors, without clear recognition of the role played by government itself.


We demonstrate that azimuthally polarized surface emitting Terahertz quantum cascade lasers fabricated in a micro-ring resonator geometry can be coupled to cylindrical hollow aluminum waveguides reaching efficiencies as high ≈98%, when a collimating lens is used. By placing the waveguide in close contact with the QCL in a simple back-to-back geometry, the laser mode can be perfectly matched with the low loss TE(01) waveguide mode showing attenuation losses as low as ≈2.3-2.7 dB/m at 3.2 THz.


The major goals of the present thesis are to develop a measure of Work Related Self-Esteem (WRSE) for nonmanagerial employees, gather evidence on its reliability and validity and learn something about the nature and importance of this concept through correlations with other job attitudes. Particular attention is focused on job involvement and job satisfaction. The overall framework has a multivariable approach, with particular emphasis on the subjective outlooks and evaluations of the individual. 474 employees, consisting of industrial workers, psychiatric nurses, clerical staff and general nurses are surveyed. The reliability and validity of WRSE, as well as its usefulness as a moderator variable are supported. WRSE is found to be the best predictor of performance appraisals, job satisfaction and job involvement. The motivational model behind WRSE is shown to be that of self enhancement rather than that of self consistency. Regarding job involvement, a significant inferrence is made from the results that high levels of it sometimes bring low performance appraisals, and that when coming in conjunction with a perceived inability to make decisions, it leads to long-term absences attributed to psychosomatic illnesses. In general, the results show that age and job involvement are the best predictors of intended length of service (explaining 35% of the latter's total variance). In one of the samples it is possible to explain a great deal more (7 1%), with two additional measures original to this study, namely the desirability of the type of work in one's own eyes and in the eyes of significant others. Results partly support the two-factor theory of job satisfaction. A suggestion is made, following many of the results, that correlations tend to emerge mainly when the variable(s) in question do not represent the person's main orientation, but nevertheless, remain significant to the individual.


Neuromarketing is the application of the neuroscientific approaches to analyze and understand economically relevant behavior. In this study, the effect of loud and rhythmic music in a sample neuromarketing setup is investigated. The second aim was to develop an approach in the prediction of preference using only brain signals. In this work, 19- channel EEG signals were recorded and two experimental paradigms were implemented: no music/silence and rhythmic, loud music using a headphone, while viewing women shoes. For each 10-sec epoch, normalized power spectral density (PSD) of EEG data for six frequency bands was estimated using the Burg method. The effect of music was investigated by comparing the mean differences between music and no music groups using independent two-sample t-test. In the preference prediction part sequential forward selection, k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) and the support vector machines (SVM), and 5-fold cross-validation approaches were used. It is found that music did not affect like decision in any of the power bands, on the contrary, music affected dislike decisions for all bands with no exceptions. Furthermore, the accuracies obtained in preference prediction study were between 77.5 and 82.5% for k-NN and SVM techniques. The results of the study showed the feasibility of using EEG signals in the investigation of the music effect on purchasing behavior and the prediction of preference of an individual.