Application of bioremediation technologies for hydrocarbon contaminated soil is often limited by the presence of high recalcitrant and low bioavailable compounds within the mixture of contaminants. It has been demonstrated that slow release of these compounds from the soil particles into the water phase could represent a rate-limiting factor for bioremediation processes, leading to inability to reach the target of remediation. Due to their surface properties, both chemically synthesised surfactants and microbial produced surfactants (biosurfactants) are used in soil remediation processes to improve removal rate of pollutants in conventional methods. Surfactants are utilised within chemico-physical remediation technologies such as in situ soil flushing and ex situ soil washing for remediation of unsaturated zone and pump and treat technologies for aquifer remediation. However, due the complex interactions between the amphiphilic molecules, the cell surfaces and their abiotic environment, both cases of success and failures have been reported in literature. In this chapter the current knowledge about the natural role of biosurfactants and the effect of (bio)surfactants on the biological systems and abiotic compartments during bioremediation treatments are reviewed.


A new method has been developed that provides mass-conserving wind fields for global chemistry-transport models. In previous global Eulerian modeling studies a mass-imbalance was found between the model mass transport and the surface pressure tendencies. Several methods have been suggested to correct for this imbalance, but so far no satisfactory solution has been found. Our new method solves these problems by using the wind fields in a spherical harmonical form (divergence and vorticity) by mimicing the physics of the weather forecast model as closely as possible. A 3-D chemistry-transport model was used to show that the calculated ozone fields with the new processing method agree remarkably better with ozone observations in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. In addition, the calculated age of air in the lower stratosphere show better agreement with observations, although the air remains still too young in the extra-tropical stratosphere.


ATC-NY and Cornell University are developing SCorES, a mathematically based tool to support the development of demonstrably correct distributed systems. SCorES extends to distributed and hybrid systems a paradigm for program development that has been successful in the world of sequential programming-employing methods that are declarative (rather than operational) and constructive. Declarative methods permit systems to be specified, analyzed, developed, and verified at a conceptual level congenial to human designers. Constructive methods permit automatic code synthesis. Incorporating these methods within the NuPrl environment provides powerful automated support for specifying, developing, verifying, and synthesizing real-time distributed systems at a high level of abstraction. This report describes two things: a prototype that supports automatic code generation from proofs in a domain-specific logic of distributed systems (one that does not model real-time); an extension of that logic to the domain of hybrid systems, which may contain variables that vary continuously in real time. We demonstrate the code generator by deriving a verifiably correct leader election protocol; and we demonstrate the logic of hybrid systems by applying it to a mutual exclusion algorithm that generalizes Fischer's protocol to distributed systems.


These lines conclude the account of Hermes inventing the primitive method of producing fire by friction, and it is evident that the writer had in mind σ 308: περ δ ξλα κγχανα θ;καν, αὖα πλαι περκηλα, νον κεκεασμνα χαλκῷ, cf. also ε 240. Gemoll accordingly in his edition (1886) read αὖα λαβών, and for so doing was rebuked by Messrs. S. and A. in their best dogmatic manner: 'Gemoll's αὖα cannot be accepted; οὖλα is sound, though the meaning is not certain.' In other words: 'Whether οὖλα makes sense or nonsense, it is right.' Finally, they say that οὖλα probably means 'whole', and this translation is, I think, confirmed by l. 137; but then it follows that the hymn-writer was flatly contradicting the κεκεασμνα in Homer's line, and knew no more about fire-lighting than these trenchant editors. Ignition fuel has a character of its own, and from this point of view Gemoll has the advantage.


The abundance, biomass and composition of planktonic ciliates were studied in two Great Lakes of Africa, Malawi and Victoria, between June, 1997, and June, 1999, to investigate their role in the food webs of these lakes. Oligotrichs ( Strombidium , Strobilidium and Halteria ) were the most abundant group of ciliates in both lakes. Other important ciliates in terms of abundance and/or biomass included heterotrichs, peritrichs, haptorids, and peniculids. Mean ciliate abundance was 1.5 ciliates · mL m 1 and 20.1 ciliates · mL m 1 in Lakes Malawi and Victoria, respectively. Ciliate biomass ranged from 0.03 to 7.82 w g C · L m 1 (mean 1.8 - 0.7 w g C · L m 1 ) in Lake Malawi and ranged from 24.2 to 61.82 w g C · L m 1 (mean 36 w g C · L m 1 ) in Lake Victoria. Ciliate abundance and biomass were higher at offshore than inshore stations of both lakes despite that chlorophyll exhibited the opposite trend. Both lakes demonstrated vertical and temporal variation in their ciliate communities as well. Herbivores were an important feeding guild in both lakes, while mixotrophs and bacterivores were also important in Lakes Malawi and Victoria, respectively.


Many annotation projects have shown that the quality of manual annotations often is not as good as would be desirable for reliable data analysis. Identifying the main sources responsible for poor annotation quality must thus be a major concern. Generalizability theory is a valuable tool for this purpose, because it allows for the differentiation and detailed analysis of factors that influence annotation quality. In this article we will present basic concepts of Generalizability Theory and give an example for its application based on published data.


The failure of Doha negotiation made regional integration organizations became the choice of development strategies in many member states. Thus, free trade rules of origin from the initial functions of determining whether goods were eligible for preferential treatment and preventing trade deflection added the characteristics of reflecting the interests of regional member countries as well as closely integrated with the production stage. The function changes led to preferential rules of origin in free trade area as the regional trade protection tools, increased regional trade diversion effect, reduced the level of global welfare, and had a definite conflict with the multilateral trading system. However, the preferential rules of origin promoted the openness within the region and increased freedom degree, was consistent with the multilateral trading system purpose, which had a coherent basis for the two. Member countries needed to adopt the principle of gradual, cumulative to achieve the principle of preferential rules of origin coordination in WTO level, in order to facilitate common development of free trade area and the multilateral trading system. China-ASEAN Free Trade Area rules of origin needed to be further adjusted, improved regional trade in services rules of origin, and adopted the principle of gradual and cumulative to eliminate the non-symmetry effects on Member States. Key words: Preferential rules of origin; Free trade area; Multilateral trade system


1. The temperature dependence of the absolute refractory period and of the maximum response frequency was studied in the median and lateral giant fibres of the nerve cord of earthworms acclimated to 13° or 23° C. 2. Compensatory acclimation of the absolute refractory period in the median giant fibre was statistically significant at 6° and 13° C. The temperature coefficient Q10) was significantly lower in cold-acclimated animals. 3. Compensatory acclimation of the maximum response frequency was significant at 6° C. The ratio between the minimum impulse interval and the absolute refractory period was about 2.2. It was unaltered by temperature acclimation.


The article considers the terms 'directing', as used in spiritual directing, and 'coaching' related to its general use, but spiritual 'coaching', in particular. Directing and coaching are said to be misnomers that communicate directivity instead of primarily being situated in a non‑directive style of engagement. Within the author's theoretical paradigm, spiritual accompaniment and spiritual, narrative informed, coaching were said to be kindred spirits. Both emphasise experience, broadly adhere to a facilitative style of engagement, and do not subscribe to a deficit model, aiming to fix or remedy, in the first instance, least of all attempting to be an expert on a person's life. Attention is paid to what potentially contributes to the said misnomers. The article concludes that misnomers cause barriers to inter‑professional inquiry and practice.


Asia is the fastest growing economic region that has attracted significant economic and infrastructure development. With increasing development, this region has become one of the main environmental polluters with significant environmental degradation, reduced water and air quality, and imperilled biodiversity. Traditional international donor and funding agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have strict environmental safeguard policies drawn from Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure borrowing countries and projects comply with environmental sustainability. However, with an increasing shift to non-traditional donors such as China, environmental safeguards are not a key priority in developmental projects. The public sector plays a significant role in ensuring environmental sustainability and accountability, and is increasingly being pressured to revisit their concept of sustainability. Robust public sector accountability frameworks are paramount to achieve environmentally sustainable development. However, environmental sustainability research in developing country context is limited, public sector research is even scarce. This paper aims to fill this gap by clarifying the concept of environmental accountability of public sector entities in pursuing internationally funded development projects in Sri Lanka as a fast developing country in the south Asian region. This further analyses the roles and responsibilities of public sector agencies in relation to the environmental sustainability practices and the impact of international development funding agencies, including donor agencies on public sector accountability. The analysis indicates that despite the existing environmental sustainability guidelines and principles set by international agencies, environmental degradation continued to be a significant challenge in the country.


Abstract : The U.S. Army Strategic Software Improvement Program (ASSIP) is a multi-year effort to improve the way the Army acquires software-intensive systems. As part of the ASSIP, the Carnegie Mellon (trademark) Software Engineering Institute interviewed the Army's Program Executive Officers (PEOs) to get their perspectives on the state of Army acquisition of software-intensive systems. The PEOs are senior acquisition professionals with a wealth of experience in Army acquisition and the attempts to improve it in the past. This report documents the results of the PEO interviews. The PEOs identified shortcomings and some interesting potential solutions in various aspects of the acquisition function, including skills and training, policy, the acquisition organization, metrics, process, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, and facilities and tools.


Environmental concern in contemporary societies is a complex phenomenon which is shaped and influenced by a host of different factors. One of the most important of these is the interplay between culture and nature that has taken place during the course of a nation's history and the various 'views of nature' that such interplay has generated. Such views can e.g. manifest themselves in aesthetic judgments of natural scenery or, more generally, in the values that nature is seen to contain or carry. They form the base from which contemporary ideas, conceptions, and evaluations of nature are generated and debated.The five studies that together comprise this thesis explore the socio-cultural background of Icelandic environmentalism from a number of different perspectives. The first study concerns the depiction(s) of nature that can be found in the oldest literary works that have survived in Iceland. The second study deals with the first attempts by an Icelander to visualize nature in his homeland, using photographic media. The third study seeks to compare contemporary views of nature amongst Icelanders, e.g. concerning the appreciation of natural beauty, with those of Swedes and Danes. The fourth study reports the results of an extensive survey which probed the environmental values, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of presentday Icelanders. The fifth study builds on this same survey but focuses on the public understanding and perceptions of sustainable development, and also on the connections between attitudes toward environmental and developmental issues.This overall thesis project was multi-disciplinary in nature, combining theory drawn from environmental philosophy, especially ethics and aesthetics, with the theories and methods of environmental sociology, politics and history. The empirical studies employed, furthermore sought to operationalize certain key theoretical constructs relating to views of nature, such as environmental value orientations and aesthetic appreciation of nature, and thus 'build bridges' between the concerns, theories and methods of the humanities, on one side, and those of the social sciences, on the other.


Over the past few decades, much research work has been conducted on the development of advance crashworthy structures to increase the energy absorption of mechanical systems. Thin-walled tubes are primarily used as structural reinforcements and as energy absorbing components. The high-energy absorption characteristics of cellular foams have attracted great attention to further enhance this superior capability. In particular, nanotechnology has been utilized in the development of advanced cellular materials for the automotive and aerospace industry. The primary objective of this study is to conduct a parametric study using experimental and finite element methods to examine and quantify the performances of thin-walled tube when filled with carbon nano particulates. To accomplish this study, compression tests are carried out to obtain the load-deflection curves of the nano-foams when subjected to different weight percentages of carbon nano fibers. Next, the specific energy absorbed and the collapse mechanism of nano foam filled thin-walled tubes are analyzed and compared with the empty ones. Finally, an illustrative study on the use of nano foams for vehicular applications is presented by using a vehicle bumper numerical model. The carbon nano foam is installed into the cavity of the bumper model and a full-frontal crash simulation is performed. Overall, this study has shown that the energy absorption capacity of thin-walled structures can be significantly enhanced with the use of carbon nano foams.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The onset of cigarette smoking begins primarily in adolescence, and prevalence of smoking among adolescents has been increased during the last ten years. The prevalence of adolescent smoking increases with age and is more common or at least as common in girls as in boys in most western countries.Until recently the intensive investigation on health effects of smoking has been mostly conducted among adults. In adolescence the long-term health consequences have been reviewed, but current health problems are probably more important to adolescents and may be more motivating for smoking prevention and cessation. Increased morbidity among adolescent smokers has been reported, but specific current health problems and medication use have received little attention. MoreControl of smoking is a primary health goal. An underlying premise for promotion of physical activity in adolescence is that it may mead to a healthy lifestyle persisting through adulthood. Encouraging participation in sports has been recommended as smoking prevention and as part of smoking cessation programs. Smoking habits within different types of sports has received less attention, and whether physical activity has an impact on lung function is debated.Adolescent smokers are often unsuccessful in quitting and difficult to recruit and retain in smoking cessation programs. Occasional smoking may be the strongest risk factor for daily smoking, but occasional smokers could be an important target group for smoking cessation who could be discouraged from moving into daily smoking status. The first aim of this thesis was to study associations between smoking and current health status by examining associations between daily smoking and subjective health problems (Paper 1), and gender specific effects on respiratory symptoms and lung function (Paper II). The associations between physical activity and lung function in never smokers and daily smokers were also assessed (Paper III). The second aim was to study factors that might be useful in smoking


In what ways could teachers' attempts to make mathematics understandable and easy to learn affect how the topic to be learned is handled in the classroom? From the point of departure of two Learning studies - a collaborative work among teachers aiming at exploring and developing what is made possible to learn in the classroom - I describe how the teachers' good will to facilitate learning by reducing complexity had an un-expected effect. It is also described how the teachers successively got to know that aspects of the object of learning, either taken for granted or deliberately avoided by the teachers, were necessary for learning. Two studies - teaching and learning to convert sentences into algebraic expressions and addition and substraction with negative numbers respectively - are reported.


Abstract Zircon U–Pb age, whole-rock elemental and Sr–Nd isotopic data are presented for the Rushan intrusive complex from the northern Sulu orogen, China. The intrusion, emplaced at c. 111 Ma, consists mainly of biotite-bearing gabbro and pyroxene-bearing diorite. The rocks are high-K calc-alkaline in major elements, and enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and light rare earth elements (LREE), depleted in high field strength elements (HFSE), and possess narrow ranges of initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.70746–0.70827) and ɛNd(t) (−12.37 to −8.26). The complex is interpreted to originate from decompression melting of spinel-facies cratonic mantle that was metasomatized by the subducted Yangtze crustal materials and the melts experienced fractionation of olivine, clinopyroxene, apatite and Fe–Ti oxides. The Rushan complex is similar in composition to other Early Cretaceous mafic-intermediate complexes from the southern margin of the North China Craton, such as the Fangcheng basalts and Yinan gabbros, implying the mantle source of the Rushan intrusion is tectonically affiliated to the southern wedge of the Craton. We infer that the Rushan complex formed in an extensional regime corresponding to the asthenosphere upwelling during gradual erosion and replacement of the cratonic mantle by the fertile lithosphere beneath the eastern North China Craton.


There exist a variety of algorithms for the detection and picking of a seismic event in real-time seismic monitoring. However, all have some limitations. We propose and test a multi-window algorithm for the automatic detection and picking of impulsive P-phases of seismic events in low SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) environments. This method employs both the instantaneous and the averaged absolute amplitude of traces in several time windows before and after each time point (sample) as the characteristic functions. When the instantaneous absolute value of a characteristic function exceeds an automatically adjusted dynamic threshold, ratios based on the averages of the windows over time samples provide parameters to differentiate an expected event from unwanted noise. Examination of the algorithm by using synthetic and real data shows that the picking accuracy of impulsive first arrivals can be less than 1-2 samples even when the signal-tonoise ratio is lower than 3.


The bond and anti-abrasion performance of repair materials are the key factors for successful repair of hydraulic concrete. Acrylic acid emulsion (AAE) mortar, silica fume (SF) mortar, high strength (HS) mortar, polypropylene (PP) fiber mortar and basalt fiber (BF) mortar were prepared and their direct tensile bond strength, splitting tensile bond strength, abrasion resistance and SEM analysis of bond interface are studied in this paper. The results show that the highest direct tensile bond strength was recorded for fiber mortar. But compared to homogenous specimen's tensile strength, AAE mortar showed the highest direct tensile bond strength. The anti-abrasion properties of repair mortars were tested with decreasing performance recorded in the following order: PP fiber mortar, SF mortar, BF mortar, HS mortar and AAE mortar. Compared with the HS mortar without fiber, the wear rate of PP fiber mortar was decreased by 29.2 % and the anti-abrasion strength was increased by 37.7%. This shows that adding fiber can greatly improve the anti-abrasion property. SEM analysis showed that addition of PP fiber and BF into repair mortar did not change the type of hydrates. The interface of AAE mortar was level and dense. The bond interface of SF mortar was uniform without big porosity. Addition of super plasticizer, the bond interface of HS mortar presented a large quantity of fibrous the CSH gel and less porosity which could improve the mortar bond effect effectively.


ABSTRACT We demonstrate robot assisted radical nephrectomy with hysterectomy in the same sitting position followed by specimen retrieval per vagina (NOSE- Natural Orifice Specimen Extraction) A 36 year old female P2L2, presented with long standing dysmenorrhoea. Abdominal sonography detected incidental large left renal mass with a large fundal fibroid. CT scan revealed 8cmx8cm mass arising from mid and lower zone of the left kidney without vascular invasion and lymphadenopathy with a large fundal fibroid. Rest of the adnexae were normal. She underwent robot assisted left radical nephrectomy first in lateral docking position. After bagging the nephrectomy specimen, robot was dedocked. Later, the patient was put in lithotomy position and with central docking, and hysterectomy was completed. Both the specimens were retrieved through the vagina without compromising the oncological principles. Patient had a smooth postoperatory recovery and discharged on postoperative day 2. Histopathology revealed RCC Furhman grade 4 while hysterectomy specimen showed fibroadenoma with adenomyosis. No adjuvant therapy was instituted and at 3 months patient is doing well. We conclude that two organ excision and extraction of specimen through vagina (NOSE) using two arms is possible in selected cases with excellent outcome in terms of early return to work with minimal morbidity. Also. limited use of instruments augments reduction in treatment cost.


Financial liberalization programs have been adopted by many countries in Latin
America during the past twenty years. Opening the economy to inflows and outflows of
capital – 'opening the capital account' – has been a key part of these programs. Many
economists have heralded capital account liberalization as a 'fast track' to economic
growth and efficiency in developing countries, partly due to the way that it tightens the
constraints on governments and disciplines them to avoid 'bad' policies. Others,
however, have emphasized the dangers of capital account openness, such as its close
relationship with financial crises and the substantial risks it poses for macroeconomic
stability.
While some governments have sustained the opening of their capital account over
decades, others have reversed course after only a short time. The existing literature has
focused on the adoption of capital account liberalization, but has neglected to consider
the reasons for its durability or fragility. My dissertation addresses the question of why
different countries have sustained their opening of the capital account to different
degrees and for different periods. The central argument is that the sustainability of
capital account openness is determined by domestic informal institutions. By informal
institutions I refer to the shared understandings or rules among a country's
policymaking and business elites about legitimate economic policies. Whether capital
account openness is sustained over time depends on the extent of domestic agreement as
to whether capital controls continue to be effective and legitimate, or whether they have
lost their effectiveness and legitimacy as instruments of macroeconomic policymaking.
Not only is my dissertation the first study of the sustainability of capital account
openness, it is the first to emphasize the importance of informal institutions as distinct
from formal ones.
The next question refers to the factors that determine the content of domestic informal
institutions, such that they favor capital account openness in some countries, and are
much more equivocal in others. My answer emphasizes the legacy of pre-liberalization
state-business relations. Capital account openness is unlikely to be sustained over time
if the export-oriented sector of the economy – concerned about a stable and competitive
exchange rate – preserves its leverage over national policymaking. Conversely, capital
account openness tends to become a durable policy if economic actors benefitting from
capital mobility and largely unaffected by exchange-rate issues dominate state-business
relations.
After the introduction, Chapter 2 describes the essential elements of capital account
policy and explains the methodological approach of the dissertation. Chapter 3 provides
an overview of the literature to explain capital account policy. It distinguishes between
interest-based, institutionalist, and ideas-based approaches located at different levels of
analysis. This review highlights a notable gap in the literature. Analyses of the role of
informal institutions at the domestic level are conspicuously lacking. My dissertation
seeks to fill this analytical lacuna.
Chapter 4 analyzes the international campaign for capital freedom, personified by the
International Monetary Fund. How did the push for capital account liberalization come
into being at the international level, and how has the capital account policy discourse
within the IMF evolved until the present time? Ultimately, the attempt to transform capital freedom into an international norm was not successful. The effects of the Asian
financial crisis in 1997-98 within and outside the IMF undermined the international
norm campaign, symbolized by the failure of the attempt to change the IMF's Articles
of Agreement in order to give the organization the legal mandate over member-states'
capital account policies. However, the IMF still subscribes to the idea that the free
movement of capital is a desirable policy for all countries.
Yet country responses have been very different. Chapters 5 and 6 examine the link
between IMF prescriptions and domestic policy outcomes, fleshing out the central
argument with case studies of Peru and Colombia, respectively, in the time period from
1990 to the present day. Both countries shared similar economic challenges, a national
community of elite economists convinced of free-market principles, and outside
pressure from the IMF. At the start of the liberalization period in the early 1990s, both
switched from a largely closed to a largely open capital account. However, due to the
effect of different informal institutions based on different state-business relations, Peru
and Colombia then followed different paths. The two cases serve to illustrate that, in the
broader context of financial liberalization, socially shared understandings about
legitimate economic policies reinforce or constrain the impact of international norms,
thus making – or breaking – attempts at economic reform.
Scholars interested in explaining the sustainability of neoliberal economic reforms and
the impact of international norms and ideas on domestic policy choices ignore the role
of domestic informal institutions at their peril. Traditional approaches focused on
material interests, formal political and economic institutions, and global norms and
ideas fail to account for the variation of capital account policy in an age of mobile
capital. Paying heed to the change and continuity of shared understandings about
legitimate economic policies is key to understanding both the influence of international
norms on domestic policy, and the durability or fragility of economic reforms. In order
to become institutionalized in the domestic political economy, international norms
setting out to diffuse free-market policies must encounter a social context in which
alternative development strategies have lost their legitimacy.


With the growing development of cloud manufacturing (CM) applications in industry, one concern potential users have is security of the data, remote machines and operators. Potential security risks in communication with remotely operated manufacturing equipment have been of recent interest. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of security measures being considered to ensure the protection of data being sent to physical machines in a CM system. Topics covered include: internet of things, remote equipment control, security concerns in remote equipment control, existing proposed security measures for remote equipment control, and the future outlook of remote equipment control and security in CM systems. [Received 20 December 2015; Revised 12 May 16; Accepted 12 May 2016]


Traffic spikes in big data cloud have led to great challenges for middlebox management in the behind datacenter networks, especially for load distribution among varieties of middleboxes. Contemporary flat load distributing strategies are inadequate to handle traffic spikes in terms of time and resource efficiency. Based on the spike patterns, a hybrid load distributing solution is proposed with hierarchical architecture, which conducts static distributing and dynamic collaborative distributing in respect of flow types. The evaluation results from the prototype system and simulation show that our solution is superior to existing load distributing strategies in terms of both time and resource efficiency.


Steering and control of semi-autonomous agency is a largely debated issue in public administration and public management. This article - based on a survey carried out in 2007 - analyzes the steering and control systems in use in Italian central administration. The results are presented with reference to two different clusters of agencies: those created before 1999 and those created afterwards. In 1999, in fact, a major reform of central government, that can be considered a watershed event, was enacted in Italy. Data show that agencies created after 1999 are in some respects different form the other cluster, mainly concerning the contractualisation of the ministry-agency deal. On the other hand, some other features of the pre-existent model of steering and control are strongly resilient.


Born in New York into a world of wealth and privilege, and writing with unique insight into the lives of the rich and fashionable, Edith Wharton was a best-seller in her time, and is now, again, one of the most widely read American authors. This book provides an accessible and stimulating introduction to Wharton's life and writings, to help map her work for new readers, and to encourage more detailed exploration of her texts and contexts. Suggesting a range of perspectives on her most famous novels – The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), The Custom of the Country (1913) and The Age of Innocence (1920) – it stimulates fresh lines of inquiry, examining these alongside other writings that are now attracting lively critical interest. With its clear structure, illustrations and guide to further study, this book will form the ideal starting point for students and for general readers.


This thesis is a comparative analysis of the process of national identity formation in Eritrea and Lebanon, examining the different paths both societies took after the end of the European colonial/mandate regimes up until the early 1990s. Grounded in theories relating to the concepts of nationalism and national identity, a contrast-orient history approach is taken that seeks to unpack the international, regional, and domestic factors that impacted on the formation of national identity in both cases.
The creation of both countries by their respective colonial and mandate power, Italy and France, took place under different circumstances and by different means. Yet in both cases different communities, half of which were Muslim and the other half Christian, were joined under a single administration. The fact that in both Eritrea and Lebanon one of the communities had nationalist aspirations linked to the larger neighbouring political entity of co-religionists hampered the transfer of allegiances to the newly created entity and the development of a cohesive national identity in the wake of being granted self-determination.
This thesis argues that, despite their different treatment by the international community with regards to their right to self-determination, a form of syncretistic nationalism developed in the territorial entities created by the colonial/mandate powers in both Eritrea and Lebanon. While Lebanon was able to obtain independence from the French in 1943, Eritrea was not granted independence after the defeat of their colonial master, Italy. Instead, federation and finally annexation by Ethiopia resulted in thirty years of liberation struggle. Thus this thesis affirms the aptness of the concept of syncretistic nationalism for multicommunal societies while attesting to the difficulties of its development and realisation through the analysis of the process of national identity formation in Eritrea and Lebanon.


Given by mouth, drugs based on 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) are often effective in inducing or maintaining remission in patients with ulcerative colitis.1 All of them depend on delaying the release of 5-ASA, so minimising its absorption in the small intestine and maximising delivery to the colon. With sulphasalazine (a chemical combination of 5-ASA and sulphapyridine) and olsalazine (a combination of two molecules of 5-ASA) cleavage of the azo bond by bacteria releases free 5-ASA in the colon. Oral formulations of mesalazine (the approved name for 5-ASA when given alone as a drug) use various physical mechanisms to release the 5-ASA gradually during transit through the gastrointestinal tract. Mesalazine can now be administered directly to the colon as an enema (Pentasa - Yamanouchi Pharma). How effective is this method of administering mesalazine and does it have a specific place in therapy?


Maugham's studies of the lives and masterpieces of ten great novelists are outstanding examples of literary criticism at its finest. Afforded here are some of the formulae of greatness in the genre, as well as the flaws and heresies which enfeeble it. Written by a master of fiction, "Ten Novels and Their Authors" is a unique and invaluable guide.


Leaders of the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) celebrated in 1973 when President Nixon named the organization to select contestants and represent the United States in the International Youth Skill Olympics. But costs of the selection process proved high and began to impact other important VICA programs. The organization faced a chouce: either drop the international proram, or build additional public awareness and financial support. The solution was to make the skills trials part of major industrial association annual meetings. VICA was formed in 1965 at the suggestion of the U.S. Department of Education, and labor and state vocational education leaders. The founders wanted an organization that would raise the standards of vocational curriculum, provide national recognition for achievements of vocational students, and enhance vocational programs with leadership, citizenship and character development programs. Today, the Leesburg, VA-based organization has more than 14,000 local chapters with more than 265,000 members. It sponsors training in nearly 100 skilled occupations ranging from advertising design, industrial electronics and brick masonry to robotic work cell technology, commercial baking and consumer electronics. VICA also conducts an annual National Leadership Conference, the United States Skill Olympics (USSO), a professional development program and an employment network. Each year, more than 3,000 USSO finalists, each a gold medal winner at the statewide level, compete nationally in one of 44 skill contests at the USSO. "These grueling contests, designed and judged by industry experts, clearly demonstrate vocational students' skills to attendees who are expects themselves," noted John H. Whiteside, a former VICA Foundation chairman and a human resources executive with General Dynamics. In 1991, the contests covered 425,000 square feet of floor space at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville. The cost of the event including floor space, machines donated for the contestants' use in demonstrating their skills, and the manpower to produce and judge the contests, was $6.5 million. In addition, the USSO brought $2 million to the host city's hotels, restaurants and other services. Justifying the costs In 1973, VICA's board of directors saw its new association with the International Youth Skill Olympics as a major opportunity to publicize the need for skills training. Board members were eager to obtain the support of major corporations for the event, particularly at a time when international competitiveness is an important business issue. They viewed participating in the skill olympics as a way to demonstrate what properly skilled Americans are capable of achieving compared to people from other countries. But, by 1986 the board was seriously considering bowing out: the costs were impacting other programs. "For the first three International Youth Skill Olympics, we paid for selection contests, international travel for contestants and necessary support staff from our annual budget," explained Thomas W. Holdsworth, VICA director of public affairs. The costs of participating are substantial. Transportation, training and international membership fees cost almost $300,000. In addition, manufacturers donate modern tools and equipment for students to train on. And thousands of volunteer and staff hours are necessary to raise money and train the U.S. team for competition. The level of competition is intense. Robert E. Pope, of St. Petersburg, FL, was the United States' only 1991 gold medal winner, earning the prized medallion for his skill in electric welding. It is the first time an American contestant has won this event. Pope's outstanding performance in several projects, including the assembly of a pressure vessels using several types of welds on different types of metal from aluminum to stainless steel, scored the highest of any contestant in any event with 583 out of a possible 600 points. …


Title of Document: HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF THE STUDENT INTERVENTION SPECIALIST IN PREVENTING DROPOUTS Boyd John Michael III, Doctor of Education, 2014 Directed By: Dr. Dennis M. Kivlighan This qualitative study investigated and determined both commonalities and differences in a school system's high school principals' perceptions and expectations of the High School Dropout Prevention/Intervention Services Specialist position. These positions are more commonly referred to as student intervention specialists, and the individuals hired for these positions primarily focus on reducing high school dropouts and supporting students' efforts to graduate. The researcher used face-to-face interviews to determine critical responsibilities of the student intervention specialist position. Principals were asked five open-ended questions to evoke their perceptions of the role of the student intervention specialist in preventing dropouts and increasing graduation rates of high school students. Sixteen themes emerged from the principal interviews. Ten themes were specific descriptors of the responsibilities of the student intervention specialist as perceived by the principals: advocates and relationship builders, staff liaisons, community connectors, team members, academic supporters, attendance monitors, crisis managers, transition facilitators, cohort graduation monitors, and graduation coaches. Six of the emerged themes were identified changes or support for the student intervention specialist position: resources, employment, caseloads, professional development, qualifications, and the position as a worthwhile investment. The study validates the support principals have for the student intervention specialist position in reducing dropouts and increasing graduation rates. The researcher offers ten recommendations as a result of the study which may further contribute to the position's success: a review of the current job description, a change of the job title, an enhancement of available resources to support the position, the development of a contact list of community resources, an expansion of the position from 10-months to 12-months, differentiated professional development, manageable caseloads, information supplied to high school principals regarding the outcomes of the study, refinements to hiring practices, and a review of the study by senior staff. The results of this study are important because of the increasing need for students to minimally graduate from high school to prepare for the 21 century workforce. Each school system must use limited resources to maximize student achievement. An outcome of this study confirms the worth of the student intervention specialist in support of this effort at a minimal cost and a substantial return on investment. HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF THE STUDENT INTERVENTION SPECIALIST IN PREVENTING DROPOUTS by Boyd John Michael III Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education 2014 Advisory Committee: Dr. Dennis M. Kivlighan, Chair Dr. Helene K. Cohen Dr. Paul B. Gold Dr. Carol S. Parham Dr. Donna L. Wiseman


Little is known on the combined effect of interpersonal trust and power factors on the traits and skills of knowledge acquisition. A survey of 140 first line managers was conducted to investigate the relationship between power, interpersonal trust and knowledge acquisition. The results showed that the interpersonal trust measures were not predictive of knowledge acquisition attributes compared to those of the power dimensions. It was also found that the dimensions of power provided statistically significant additional predictive power, after having statistically controlled for the predictive effects of interpersonal trust.


This paper explores the familiar history of the development of conservation ideas and practice in twentieth-century England, focusing on the postwar period. It begins by reviewing a longer period, to establish context for wartime and postwar legislation; we will see, for example, that postwar policies did not arise wholly from the scale of bomb damage. Area-based conservation appears in plans from the 1940s, predating its adoption in 1967 legislation (and even the 1962 French law that is sometimes credited with inspiring the British practice). Attention to local events and actions deepens our understanding of conservation history, including the influence of individual plan-writers, officials and legislators. This paper seeks to reinterpret the traditional history of conservation through an examination of changing values. It also suggests that the dominant approach of the period—to identify yet more ''things'' to conserve—has been of limited value in the wider practice of urban management.


Targeting specific chromosomal sequences for genome modification or regulation during particular phases of the cell cycle may prove useful in creating more precise, predictable genetic changes. Here, we present a system using a fusion protein comprised of a programmable DNA modification protein, Cas9, linked to a cell cycle regulated protein, geminin, as well as green fluorescent protein (GFP) for visualization. Despite the large size of Cas9 relative to geminin, cells were observed to express Cas9-GFP-geminin at levels which oscillate with the cell cycle. These fusion proteins are also shown to retain double-strand break (DSB) activity at specific chromosomal sequences to produce both indels and targeted integration of donor ssDNA. Most importantly, the ratio of ssDNA donor integration to non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) was observed to increase, suggesting that cell cycle control Cas9 expression may be an effective strategy to bias DNA repair outcomes.


Land-use history is often overlooked when assessing soil fertility of intensive cropland production systems. The unusually high organic carbon (OC) content of many sandy cropland soils in Northwestern Europe is unexpected given their general low clay content (3-8%) and organic matter (OM) input typical of cropland, but appears to be related to historical heathland land-use. Clay fraction OM composition was compared between two groups of sandy cropland soils with (HC) or without (CC) a history of heathland/forest land-use. Light (1.6―2.2 g cm ―3 ) and heavy (> 2.2 g cm ―3 ) clay fractions in HC soils were nearly twice as rich in OC (on average 199 g kg ―1 ) compared with those of CC soils (on average 109 g kg ―1 ). The hypothesized preferential presence of stable heathland derived OM in light soil fractions, was not supported by our data. Pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometry of the clay fractions revealed a more decomposed character of OM in the CC soils and lasting long-term influence of land-use history on SOM composition. This could be concluded from higher proportions of lipids and sterols, a lower thermostability in the HC compared with the CC soils, and enrichment of alkylaromatics and heterocyclic N-containing compounds in the latter. The density fractionation methodology separated organic-mineral particles with similar OM loadings but lower proportions of sterols and medium to long-chained lipids in the heavy compared with the light clay fraction. Given the very high clay OC loadings (6-16 mg C m ―2 ) and low binding capacity of the quartz/kaolinite/mica dominated clays, we hypothesize that OM-OM interactions are involved as an OM stabilization mechanism. However, contrary to our hypothesis high clay OC loading (and hence thick OM layering) were found in all sandy croplands regardless of land-use history or density fraction.


This thesis explores the relationship between policies and initiatives designed to widen participation in post-compulsory learning and notions of social inclusion. Whilst both widening participation and social inclusion can be viewed as distinct policy areas, the focus for this research are the links between the two, the impact that these links have on the development of specific education policy initiatives and what that means for those implicated in these initiatives. This thesis begins with an examination of the way in which notions of social exclusion, lifelong learning and widening participation are constructed in policy texts and practices. I argue that dominant discourses of social inclusion, which emphasise equality of opportunity brought about through participation in paid employment, lead to an under-valuing in policy terms of learning programmes that seek to promote the wider benefits of learning. I also argue, however, that the potential exists for practitioners and learners to resist and subvert these dominant discourses. Drawing on the work of Bacchi (2002) I highlight how, through theorising the 'spaces for challenge', analysts can examine processes of micromanipulation – the unique ways in which marginalised people or groups raise problems or attempt to influence any agenda. Adopting a Foucauldian genealogical approach I explore the ways in which a specific widening participation initiative, that of Adult Learners' Week (ALW), has been used by practitioners to both engage potential learners and influence Government policy. The range of data drawn on includes archive material relating to the ALW initiative; policy texts and documents; interviews with practitioners and learners involved with ALW and other widening participation initiatives; and, participant and non-participant observations of interactions between practitioners involved in planning for and delivering ALW. In this thesis I use the ALW themes of 'Community, Culture and Citizenship', 'Equality and Diversity' and 'Skills for Life' to explore examples of micromanipulation identified in the analysis of these data. This thesis concludes with reflections on the usefulness of adopting a genealogical approach and a discussion of the lessons that can be learned from the examples of micromanipulations discussed, including the challenges to widening participation that persist.


Since 2011, an international group of health policy experts has been working on a value-framework to be used for pharmaceutical policy decisions based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). This tool can be easily adapted to a local decision-making context through a facilitated workshop format. Several workshops have been conducted in emerging markets to test the acceptance and feasibility of using MCDA in local decision-making. In China, national policy goals for expanding health-care coverage pressure the provincial governments to implement more comprehensive coverage schemes. This chapter demonstrates the adaptation of a global value-framework to the local policy environment. In September 2018, nine leaders from provincial health insurance bureaus responsible for the urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) participated in a 1-day workshop to build a consensus on the most important objectives for the health-care reform and to translate these into measurable criteria. The participants ranked the criteria by importance and MCDA methodology was used for weighing the importance of each criterion in the final decision. The model driving this process will be presented and discussed by comparing two policy options for health-care reform.


This paper explains some of the principle ways in which public health laws seek to influence sexual behaviour and rates of transmission of STIs (sexually transmissible infections), with particular reference to HIV. It then presents two competing models for identifying, evaluating and debating the values inherent in legal and policy responses to STIs in Australia. These are, firstly, the "contain and control" model inherited from historical responses to contagious diseases, and secondly, a "human rights" model, which seeks to implement a harm minimization approach to STIs and assumes a happy alignment, in most circumstances, between the public health interest and individual rights and interests. Elements of both approaches are evident in Australian laws responding to HIV and other STIs. Despite the acknowledged success of Australia's response to HIV, the rate of new infections is rising, contributing to debate about the appropriate limits of a human rights-focused approach. The paper evaluates, in particular, debates about the persistent criminalization of HIV and STI transmission as a public health tool; the policy challenges posed by risk-seeking behavior; and the challenge to "HIV exceptionalism" posed by the "test and treat" strategy in the United States, which emphasizes opt-out HIV testing and wider use of HIV test data.


This session will discuss how the roles of systems librarians are expected to change in migrating to Alma from other ILS systems such as Voyager or Aleph. Since Alma is deployed via cloud computing, Ex Libris will centrally implement applications, upgrades, enhancements, etc. Consequently, the roles and responsibilities of systems librarians will be changing, and systems librarians should re-engineer themselves accordingly so that they will be able to support more critical issues in the library.


Culture evolves in ways that are analogous to, but distinct from, genetic evolution. Previous studies have demonstrated correlations between genetic and cultural diversity at small scales within language families, but few studies have empirically investigated parallels between genetic and cultural evolution across multiple language families using a diverse range of cultural data. Here we report an analysis comparing cultural and genetic data from 13 populations from in and around Northeast Asia spanning 10 different language families/isolates. We construct distance matrices for language (grammar, phonology, lexicon), music (song structure, performance style), and genomes (genome-wide SNPs) and test for correlations among them. After controlling for spatial autocorrelation and recent contact, robust correlations emerge between genetic and grammatical distances. Our results suggest that grammatical structure might be one of the strongest cultural indicators of human population history, while also demonstrating differences among cultural and genetic relationships that highlight the complex nature of human cultural and genetic evolution. Significance Statement Comparing cultural traits to the genetic relationships of populations can reveal the extent to which cultural diversification reflects population history. To date, this approach has been mostly used to compare genetic relationships with the linguistic relationships that hold within language families, thereby limiting time depth to considerably less than 10,000 years. Here, we compare the genetic relationships of 13 populations in and around Northeast Asia to linguistic and musical relationships spanning different language families, thereby probing potential effects of population history at deeper time depths. We find that after controlling for geography, similarities in grammatical relationships reflect genetic relationships, suggesting that grammatical structure captures deep-time population history.


Surfaces in close proximity exchange heat through evanescent photon tunnelling modes as well as by freely propagating modes. These additional near field contributions to radiation scale with separation, d, between surfaces as d-2 and are dominant at spacings d<<T, a typical wavelength at temperature T. We calculate simple expressions for the photon tunnelling and find that there are drastic effects in many nanostructured systems, for example in the scanning tunnelling microscope. The results are linked to quantum information theory which dictates that the maximum heat tunnelling current in any one channel is determined by the temperature alone. Consequences for the scanning tunnelling microscope are discussed, where a hot tip may cause intense local heating of a surface without actually being in physical contact, hence desorbing molecular species, or even modifying the surface itself: a possible extension of the STM's capacity for surface modification. A further extension of this concept is proposed in the form of a `heat stamp' capable of delivering a high definition pattern of heat to a second surface.


Background Neonatal autosomal-recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) is associated with pulmonary hypoplasia and severe respiratory distress. There is no published information on long-term lung function in ARPKD survivors. Methods Pulmonary function tests, including spirometry and diffusion capacity, were performed in a nationwide cohort of Finnish paediatric patients with ARPKD. The annual incidence of respiratory infections and the need for permanent asthma medication were also evaluated in this population. Results Pulmonary function in 11 children surviving the neonatal period was good when measured after a median follow-up time of 10.4 years (range 5.4–16.1 years). None of the patients required oxygen supplementation, and only one patient had asthma. Patients who had received ventilator therapy during infancy had significantly lower maximal instantaneous forced expiratory flow (MEF%) (66%; 43–93% vs 105%; 63–110%; p=0.048) and forced expiratory volume/forced vital capacity (0.76; 0.7–0.81 vs 0.89; 0.77–0.91; p=0.03) than patients without a history of mechanical ventilation, suggesting tendency for airway obstruction in the former group of patients. The frequency of respiratory infections did not differ from Finnish paediatric population in general. Conclusions The results of pulmonary function tests were within reference values for most patients with ARPKD, which suggested good long-term lung prognosis. Lung function tests should be considered for patients with ARPKD with a history of mechanical ventilation during infancy.


Arterial restenosis limits the effectiveness of coronary stenting. Restenosis is caused by excessive tissue growth which is stimulated by arterial injury and alterations to the arterial WSS. The altered WSS results from stent-induced disturbances to the natural haelnodynamics of the artery. Recent numerical studies have predcted only minor digerences in altered WSS between different stent designs using a commonly employed threshold assessment technique. While it is possible that there are only minor differences, it is more likely that the assessment technique is incapable of fully elucidating the altered WSS created by stent implantation. This thesis proposes a methodology that involves a more complete level of investigation into the stentinduced alterations to the WSS by incorporating the full suite of WSS-based variables: WSS, WSS gradient (WSSG), WSS angle gradient (WSSAG) and oscillatory shear index (OSI). Each of these variables highlights a different type of alteration to the arterial WSS that could lead to excessive tissue growth. The four variables are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively using statistical methods to assess the effect of the stent implantation. The methodology is applied to three stents with contrasting designs: the Palinaz-Schatz (PS), the Gianturco-Roubin II (GR-11) and the Bx-Velocity (Bx) stents. From the results, the sients are ranked (best to worst) for WSS: GR-11, PS, Bx (Cohen's d: -0.01, -0.6131, for WSSG: PS, Bx, GR-I1 (d: 0.159,0.764), for WSSAG: PS GR-I1 Bx (d: 0.213, 0.082), and for OSI: PS, GR11, Bx (d: 0.3 15, 0.380). The proposed method of analysis is shown to elucidate the alterations to the WSS created by the stents to a far greater level than with the previously used threshold technique. This method of stent assessment could be utilised to minimise WSS alterations at the design stage of future bare metal, as well as permanent and bioabsorbable drug-eluting coronary stents.


ABSTRACT Politicians and policy-makers in education routinely proclaim the centrality of schools and teachers in sustaining and consolidating democracy and democratic society. This article offers an account of teachers engaged in research in their schools and classrooms, with peers and students, so as to highlight the democratic potential of this engagement. In order to do so, it draws on an agonistic account of democracy that is distinct from more familiar liberal or procedural versions. Such an account is characterised by an emphasis on the values of constitutive pluralism, robust contestation and enduring tragedy, where the latter entails recognition of the ineliminable nature of (political) conflict and the inevitability of loss in human life. The teachers involved in this research demonstrated capacities which, it is argued, reflect an agonistic democratic ethos, including: developing the confidence to assume intellectual leadership by asking questions and eliciting and engaging plural perspectives in relation to these questions; engagement in the cut and thrust of research without the expectation of finding any final or perfect solutions; and an acceptance of difference and disagreement as constitutive and constructive elements in rethinking areas of policy and practice. Developing and encouraging these capacities, it is argued, is important in an increasingly authoritarian policy context that threatens the vital links between democracy and education highlighted by Dewey a century ago.


An analysis of motes of the Moon maker How did the Moon form? According to the prevailing hypothesis, a Mars-sized body known as Theia smashed into Earth. Herwartz et al. analyzed fresh basalt samples from three Apollo landing sites and compared them with several samples of Earth's mantle. The oxygen isotope values measured in these lunar rocks differ significantly from the terrestrial material, supporting the giant-impact hypothesis. Science, this issue p. 1146 Isotopic oxygen measurements suggest that the Moon comprises material distinct from Earth's mantle. The Moon was probably formed by a catastrophic collision of the proto-Earth with a planetesimal named Theia. Most numerical models of this collision imply a higher portion of Theia in the Moon than in Earth. Because of the isotope heterogeneity among solar system bodies, the isotopic composition of Earth and the Moon should thus be distinct. So far, however, all attempts to identify the isotopic component of Theia in lunar rocks have failed. Our triple oxygen isotope data reveal a 12 ± 3 parts per million difference in Δ17O between Earth and the Moon, which supports the giant impact hypothesis of Moon formation. We also show that enstatite chondrites and Earth have different Δ17O values, and we speculate on an enstatite chondrite–like composition of Theia. The observed small compositional difference could alternatively be explained by a carbonaceous chondrite–dominated late veneer.


Major complication rates during limb lengthening were plotted in a consecutive series to produce a learning curve. All unwanted events during and after treatment were considered complications, and graded as minor, serious, and severe. All serious and severe complications were considered major. A novel system was used to classify the preoperative severity of each deformity. One-hundred ten patients had 140 bone segments lengthened between 2.2 cm and 10.5 Em, with a mean of 4.4 cm. Three methods were used in lengthening: the Wagner method in 22 patients, the DeBastiani method in 34 patients, and the Ilizarov method in 84 patients. Ninety-eight complications categorized as serious or severe occurred, for a total major complication rate of 72%. The percentage of major complications began to drop after 30 lengthenings to a current rate of 25%. Major complications were frequent in patients with more severe deformities, particularly in those whose cases occurred early in the series. Bone healing complications were high (72%) in the Wagner segments but were also high (80%) in the first ten patients treated with the DeBastiani technique. The first ten Ilizarov patients, who were treated later in the series, had a 40% rate of bone-healing complications. The current rate of major complications is 13% for those patients treated with DeBastiani's method and 33% for those patients treated with Ilizarov's method. This difference in complication rates appears to relate to the severity of the deformity, rather than the device used. There was a significant decrease in complications as experience was gained. Directed formal study and surgical in-


We are midst the Internet revolution and are leading a digital age with all sophisticated technology and connectivity. It is widely believed and asserted that, "Information and  Communication Technologies (ICTs) have positive impact on the economic, social, and political development of a country, region, or community". ICT relates to benefits for civil society, and this can come from the application of ICT to improving the lives of citizens in general and the poorest in particular.Governments are becoming increasingly important users of ICT, particularly for e-government services, where Internet technology serves as a platform for exchanging information, providing services, and transacting with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. This research paper provides insight into 'Awareness of E-Government services among low-income group'. The present study was carried out with intense interview of fifty respondents belonging to lowincome group. Those who lack access, majority are aware of the E-Government services and are likely to use the services in the future provided if access is extended. It was noted that respondents were in favour of expansion of e-government related computer training and they expect the government to expand e-government services further. A positive attitude was noted among many respondents towards E-Government services, which is a healthy sign for the Government and its initiatives towards digitization.


The use of management accounting in the agricultural industry has received very little attention by accounting researchers. Agriculture is currently in an era of significant change and adjustment, where change in accounting practice needs to occur in response to external pressures. The traditional use of the gross margin system of accounting has tended to underline a notion that has had a powerful influence on farm business planning that most costs are fixed and that the best way of reducing them to achieve profit maximisation is to spread them by increasing the scale of operation. This logic has been supported by an economic environment heavily influenced by agricultural policy measures that focused on artificial support for market prices and/or direct payments linked to production activities. We argue that the decoupling of support from production has combined with a number of other changes related to payments and cost structures (including those linked to the recent dramatic rise in the price of oil) to provide a very different economic context for farm business planning. The response we advocate to this changed situation is to make greater use of two alternative methods of cost analysis; namely relevant costing and target costing. These have been developed and applied outside agriculture. They have not so far been used in a formal sense within agriculture but have links to existing methodologies used in farm business planning, such as partial budgeting, and in intuitive approaches already adopted by farmers as revealed in recent fieldwork.


Earlier opencast coal mining activities were done or being carried out only by conventional system of mining which includes drilling, blasting and crushing. All these operations are resulting a lot of adversative impacts on the environment and the surrounding atmosphere. The adverse impacts that the conventional mining system results are ground vibration, noise pollution, air pollution, land degradation, ecological disturbances etc. This generates necessity of additional machineries and manpower, eventually cost of mining coal rises. And also due to existence of villages adjacent the mines, blasting is limited as a result massive quantity of coal is blocked. And we all know that quality of coal has great concern in our country since most of the coal seams comprise low-grade quality of coal due to drift origin. Government legislation also forbids the dispatch of coal for more than 1000 Km if coal comprises more than 36% ash. In these circumstances, surface miner was being introduced which can capable of solving the above declared problems. This allows the operator of the mine to ensure selective mining of coal so that quality of coal develops. The variety of thinner seams which are unworkable in conventional system of opencast mining now converts workable and the whole reserve of non-renewable source of fossil fuel rises. It also decreases cost of production so that total profit of a mine growths.


Marine reserves are gaining attention around the world as a tool to both conserve ocean resources and improve the productivity of fisheries. Using simulation analysis, we investigate in a limited-entry fishery comprising nine subpopulations the inherent bioeconomic trade-offs associated with cost-effective designs of marine reserve networks—that is, the trade-offs between the degree of connectedness of a site and the biological and economic heterogeneity. We find in many cases that closing two low-value patches can result in larger biological gains and lower costs than closing one high-value patch. We also simulate biological productivity effects after creation of a reserve and find that under special conditions, aggregate sustainable rents are maximized with the closing of a portion of the fishable habitat. Finally, we find that the biological gains of implementing a more rationalized management system can outweigh the gains from closing multiple subpopulations under open access.


As the battle for Afghanistan intensifies, with humanitarian workers increasingly finding themselves on the frontline, aid expert Peter Marsden draws on decades of personal experience in the country to unravel the relationship between great power politics and development, from the Great Game era to the present day. Whilst the US has recently been criticised for blurring the distinctions between military and humanitarian operations, the use of aid to further great power strategic objectives is, Marsden finds, nothing new. Examining the interventions of the British in the 19th Century, the Soviets in 1979, and the US in 2001, he brings to light significant new information on the use of aid in pursuit of strategic objectives. Drawing on his own experience, he explains the changing relationship between the aid community and different Afghan governments, including the Taliban. His rigorously argued conclusions are surprising and make compelling reading matter for military and humanitarian policymakers alike. "Afghanistan: Aid, Armies and Empires" offers both a coruscating exploration of the relationship between aid and power, and a fresh and original history of Afghanistan through the prism of great power politics.


Small and medium sized Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are today used in military missions, and will in the future find many new application areas such as surveillance for exploration and security. To enable all these foreseen applications, the UAV's have to be cheap and of low weight, which restrict the sensors that can be used for navigation and surveillance. This thesis investigates several aspects of how fusion of navigation and imaging sensors can improve both tasks at a level that would require much more expensive sensors with the traditional approach of separating the navigation system from the applications. The core idea is that vision sensors can support the navigation system by providing odometric information of the motion, while the navigation system can support the vision algorithms, used to map the surrounding environment, to be more efficient. The unified framework for this kind of approach is called Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) and it will be applied here to inertial sensors, radar and optical camera.Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) uses a radar and the motion of the UAV to provide an image of the microwave reflectivity of the ground. SAR images are a good complement to optical images, giving an all-weather surveillance capability, but they require an accurate navigation system to be focused which is not the case with typical UAV sensors. However, by using the inertial sensors, measuring UAV's motion, and information from the SAR images, measuring how image quality depends on the UAV's motion, both higher navigation accuracy and, consequently, more focused images can be obtained. The fusion of these sensors can be performed in both batch and sequential form. For the first approach, we propose an optimisation formulation of the navigation and focusing problem while the second one results in a filtering approach. For the optimisation method the measurement of the focus in processed SAR images is performed with the image entropy and with an image matching approach, where SAR images are matched to the map of the area. In the proposed filtering method the motion information is estimated from the raw radar data and it corresponds to the time derivative of the range between UAV and the imaged scene, which can be related to the motion of the UAV.Another imaging sensor that has been exploited in this framework is an ordinary optical camera. Similar to the SAR case, camera images and inertial sensors can also be used to support the navigation estimate and simultaneously build a three-dimensional map of the observed environment, so called inertial/visual SLAM. Also here, the problem is posed in optimisation framework leading to batch Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimate of the navigation parameters and the map. The ML problem is solved in both the straight-forward way, resulting in nonlinear least squares where both map and navigation parameters are considered as parameters, and with the Expectation-Maximisation (EM) approach. In the EM approach, all unknown variables are split into two sets, hidden variables and actual parameters, and in this case the map is considered as parameters and the navigation states are seen as hidden variables. This split enables the total problem to be solved computationally cheaper then the original ML formulation. Both optimisation problems mentioned above are nonlinear and non-convex requiring good initial solution in order to obtain good parameter estimate. For this purpose a method for initialisation of inertial/visual SLAM is devised where the conditional linear structure of the problem is used to obtain the initial estimate of the parameters. The benefits and performance improvements of the methods are illustrated on both simulated and real data.


Based on the principle that the intensification of people mobility and societies configurations differentiation is the ongoing process de facto in societies living under democratic values , reaction to the dynamism of the plurality in societies is one of the most urgent problems in the contemporary world. Focusing on this problem and trying to find answers for it, the author of this article created a unique model: KSAK model. KSAK is the abbreviation in Lithuanian of the phrase "The four "table legs" for consensus" (Keturios "stalo atramos" konsensusui). The objective of this model is to provide strong premises for the pursuit of consensus. In pluralistic societies, where living individuals differently perceive and react to reality, social cohesion cannot be sought through universalism. In this case, this cohesion can be reached only by compromise, by pursuit of consensus. The KSAK model consists of four main affirmations. These affirmations raised by the KSAK model require being analyzed and confirmed empirically and theoretically, being a strong base for the model, and consequently, to the "table" for consensus it might have a firm basis. Therefore, the goal of this article is to analyze the affirmations of the new model created by the author of this article, through various sociological perspectives, namely through the modern and postmodern sociological theory. For this, as a representative of modern sociology, functionalism of Emile Durkheim was chosen. As representatives of postmodern sociology, liquid modernity of Zygmunt Bauman and theory of complexity of Edgar Morin were chosen. For the accomplishment of this work various theoretical literatures, mainly Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English, were analyzed.


I study the implications of recursive utility, a popular preference specification in macro-finance, for the design of optimal fiscal policy. Standard Ramsey tax-smoothing prescriptions are substantially altered. The planner over-insures by taxing less in bad times and more in good times, mitigating the effects of shocks. At the intertemporal margin, there is a novel incentive for introducing distortions that can lead to an ex-ante capital subsidy. Overall, optimal policy calls for a much stronger use of debt returns as a fiscal absorber, leading to the conclusion that actual fiscal policy is even worse than we thought.


Drilling for oil/gas and trawling on a continental shelf can cause damage to hard-bottom communities. Moving these activities offshore poses a threat to offshore communities. Habitat complexity is correlated with species diversity. The relationship of bottom relief to benthic species richness is not well understood in deeper communities. Relief may act as a proxy for species richness and disturbance risk. Geographic patterns in relief and richness are also not well understood. We gathered information on bottom relief and species richness of the sessile epibenthic community using a remotely operated vehicle. We surveyed hard bottom on the flanks of 13 banks in the north–central Gulf of Mexico, greater than 27-m (89-ft) depth, on the shelf and at the shelf edge. We found a positive asymptotic relationship between mean relief and species richness at the transect level. Secondary analyses at the drop site level revealed a similar relationship; variance was higher. The relationship was positively linear at the bank level. Analyses using standard deviation of relief yielded even stronger positive results. There was no significant relationship between species richness and latitude or longitude over the study area (215 km [133 mi]). When species richness was plotted in three dimensions, however, peaks in richness emerged in the southeastern study area and the western region, with a trough between them, coinciding with bottom relief. Species richness is positively correlated with bottom relief on banks in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Relief and species richness may be predicted at many spatial scales, up to hundreds of kilometers.


Objective This opinion paper summarizes the main findings and recommendations of an advisory report on health and prolonging working life, which was requested by the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment. Methods The advisory report was compiled by a multidisciplinary committee of ten scientists appointed by the Health Council of The Netherlands. The committee`s aims were to (i) describe the health of the ageing population, (ii) describe how prolonging working life influences health, (iii) describe determinants, besides health, for prolonging working lives, and (iv) review the literature on interventions aimed at retaining or improving employability of older workers. Results The report was presented to the Minister on 26 June 2018. As the likelihood of health problems increases with age, prolonging working life may be difficult. In general, life expectancy increases and gains in life years and health seem mainly attributable to people aged >75 years. Work is good for mental health. However, it may be beneficial for mental health to stop working around the retirement age. Besides health, financial factors, lifestyle, motivation to work, and working conditions play a role in prolonging working life. A systematic review of the evidence indicated that interventions such as worksite health promotion or career development workshops can support older workers in this matter. Conclusions The Health Council advised the Dutch Government to focus on worksite health promotion and career development interventions as well as the improvement of their implementation. This requires a tailored approach as there is a large diversity in health among older workers and particularly between low- and high-educated people. With this in mind, it was further recommended to explore whether flexible pension schemes might better suit this diversity.


Gaussian Processes (GPs) can be used as flexible, non-parametric function priors. Inspired by the growing body of work on Normalizing Flows, we enlarge this class of priors through a parametric invertible transformation that can be made input-dependent. Doing so also allows us to encode interpretable prior knowledge (e.g., boundedness constraints). We derive a variational approximation to the resulting Bayesian inference problem, which is as fast as stochastic variational GP regression (Hensman et al., 2013; Dezfouli and Bonilla,2015). This makes the model a computationally efficient alternative to other hierarchical extensions of GP priors (Lazaro-Gredilla,2012; Damianou and Lawrence, 2013). The resulting algorithm's computational and inferential performance is excellent, and we demonstrate this on a range of data sets. For example, even with only 5 inducing points and an input-dependent flow, our method is consistently competitive with a standard sparse GP fitted using 100 inducing points.


The use of multiples is a popular approach employed by analysts to perform valuations. These multiples are based on optimal value drivers, the valuation performance of which should be underpinned by empirical findings from carefully designed, unbiased research initiatives. This paper firstly investigates the risk of biasing the design of market-based studies which aim to test the valuation performance of individual value drivers. The evidence revealed that, when testing the valuation performance of value drivers, there is an inherent risk of biasing the design of a study of this kind, and therefore, its outcome. Secondly, the paper presents evidence in support of the consistency of previous research findings regarding the valuation performance of individual value drivers in the South African market over the period 2001-2010. To this end, the paper introduces a new approach for the analysis of multidimensional equity valuation research data in the form of principal component analysis (PCA)-based biplots. Thirdly, the paper provides evidence that multiples-based modeling seems to be biased to the downside, which is an important consideration for analysts who choose to adjust their valuations outside of these models.


Purpose: Frame‐based stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) requires fixation of an invasive head ring to ensure accurate targeting. Minimizing waiting time with head ring on is important for patient comfort and satisfaction. We report a practical preplanning solution for the Brainlab iPlan treatment planning system (TPS) that reduces waiting time by expediting the planning process on treatment day. Methods: A water‐filled anthropomorphic head phantom was used to acquire a surrogate CT image set for preplanning and fused with patient MRI image set which is usually available before the treatment day. Once an acceptable preplan was obtained, it was saved as a plan template and the phantom image set was removed from the Brainlab database to prevent any confusion and mix‐up. On treatment day, patient CT was fused with MRI, customized beam settings from the preplan template were applied and optimized. Considerable reduction in treatment planning time was demonstrated by bench testing with both a conformal beam and a circular arc case. Results: Preplans were generated in 20–25 minutes to satisfy <130% homogeneity, 100% coverage and <2.0 conformity index with the phantom CT. After applying the plan template and fine‐tuning the pre‐configured beam settings, treatment plans of comparable evaluation indices were obtained in 5 min and 1 min for the conformal and arc cases, respectively. This technique was successfully applied to our last 16 patient treatments. Conclusion: The SRS preplanning technique implemented in this study for the Brainlab iPlan TPS offers an opportunity to thoroughly explore possible beam configurations, optimize planning parameters, resolve gantry angle clearance issues, and communicate and address challenges with physicians before treatment day. Preplanning has proven useful and time‐saving in our clinic particularly for multiple‐isocenter and dosimetrically challenging cases.


This study sought a textual evaluation of Dawood's style in his sampled prose narratives. It was a linguistic study of literary texts, using linguistic theories of the social semiotics, the bottom-up top-down and the coding and analysis of cohesion by Halliday and Hasan approaches. Dawood's 'Surgeon's Diary' articles from the Sunday Nation newspaper were sampled, as well as Dawood's autobiography, Nothing But The Truth; which were classified under the categories of short story and novel respectively, under the broader narrative genre. The objectives of the research were to identify the main cohesive stylistic features in Dawood's written works. A comparison was then made of the similarities and differences in the style used in the two categories of the articles and the novel. A total of twenty-seven articles were sampled since 1980 when the author started writing, to 2008, using the systematic probability sampling procedure whereby one article in the last week in the month of May each year was chosen. The autobiography was studied under the five sections of the book, namely, The Introduction, The Surgeon, The Writer, The Rotation and The Final Word. The introductory, middle and concluding paragraphs of each article and section of the book were sampled in order to establish whether or not there is cohesion throughout the said texts. The primary data from the texts was analyzed using the descriptive research design which was done using content analysis. Observation checklists were used to note the prevalent cohesive devices from the texts, and the frequencies of occurrence were calculated in terms of percentages. The stylistic variation per category of the narrative genre was also
established. The process of data collection and analysis was done with reference to Halliday and Hasan's Cohesion (1976) in achieving the objectives of the study. The findings were such that there are specific major and mmor cohesive devices in Dawood's work; these ensure cohesion in the author's works, with a similar trend in the similarities and differences between the cohesive devices used in the narration of the short stories and the autobiography. The recommendations arising from this study, based on its conclusion were particularly related to the secondary level of education whereby the study of English and Literature are integrated. It is therefore important that some of Dawood's texts be considered as set books for study at the secondary school level since they are likely to offer sufficient readings regarding the use oflanguage - Dawood's texts exhibit the quality of wholeness as a single unit, despite the length of the text - proof of a text's cohesiveness.
A lot of linguistic peculiarities in the expression of complex medical jargon in simple I" language probably offer an interesting read, with proper use of a variety of linguistic as well as literary techniques, especially after the comprehensive conclusion that a writer's style will most likely be similarly representative across his many works, as found out in previous studies and supported in this particular study in Dawood's case.


This paper aims at identifying a most frequently multivariate technique,Principal Components Analysis(PCA), to solve a multicollinear single equation econometric model .results of the method used were compared to Ordinary Least Squares( OLS) and(Two Stages Least Squares( 2SLS) to see if satisfactory results can be obtained. The proposed technique was applied to annual time series economic data, mainly total value added in agriculture. The method seemed to have little usefulness in the model; this might be referred to the nature and the number of the explanatory variables under concern. The method seemed to have few applications in economic fields and recommended when the number of explanatory variables included in the model is very large relative to sample size, or when multicollinearity exists.


We propose an efficient indexing structure for searching a human face in a large database. In our method, a set of eigenfaces is computed based on the faces in the database. Each face in the database is then ranked according to its projection onto each of the eigenfaces. A query input will be ranked similarly, and the corresponding nearest faces in the ranked position with respect to each of the eigenfaces are selected from the database. These selected faces will then form a small database, namely a condensed database, for face recognition, instead of considering the original large database. In the experiments, the effect of the number of eigenfaces used on the size of the condensed database is investigated. Experimental results show that the size of the condensed database is 35% of the original large database when 25% of the eigenfaces with the largest eigenvalues are selected. The processing time required to generate the condensed database is less than one second.


The Murthly Hours consists of two parts: a book of hours of the end of the thirteenth century preceded by twenty-three slightly earlier miniatures of Old and New Testament scenes surviving from another book, probably a psalter. It is therefore one of the earliest books of hours, written before the greater standardization of text and decoration during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The book was a special commission and reflects the interests and devotions of its first owner, a lady apparently from the Worcester area whose portrait appears in one of the initials. The choice of feasts in the calendar and the choice of saints invoked in the litany reflects the owner's taste. They show how the book was used and can tell us something about secular devotions and literacy among the aristocracy in England and the West of Scotland in the later Middle Ages. The book also contains the second oldest surviving pieces of Gaelic which can be said with certainty to have been written in Scotland rather than in Ireland. They were written phonetically by someone not trained to write Gaelic and one piece has been identified as a form of charm.John Higgitt recounts the provenance of this magnificent work of medieval art and its recent rediscovery and purchase by the National Library of Scotland. He discusses the writing, decoration, and style of illumination and the particular influence of the Paris school on the manuscript artists. The author presents the first interpretive study which will be of interest to historians of art, liturgy, and medieval literacy.


Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the principal bioactive ingredient in green tea and has been reported to have many health benefits. EGCG influences multiple signal transduction pathways related to human diseases, including redox, inflammation, cell cycle, and cell adhesion pathways. However, the molecular mechanisms of these varying effects are unclear, limiting further development and utilization of EGCG as a pharmaceutical compound. Here, we examined the effect of EGCG on two representative transmembrane signaling receptors, integrinαIIbβ3 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). We report that EGCG inhibits talin-induced integrin αIIbβ3 activation, but it activates αIIbβ3 in the absence of talin both in a purified system and in cells. This apparent paradox was explained by the fact that the activation state of αIIbβ3 is tightly regulated by the topology of β3 transmembrane domain (TMD); increases or decreases in TMD embedding can activate integrins. Talin increases the embedding of integrin β3 TMD, resulting in integrin activation, whereas we observed here that EGCG decreases the embedding, thus opposing talin-induced integrin activation. In the absence of talin, EGCG decreases the TMD embedding, which can also disrupt the integrin α-β TMD interaction, leading to integrin activation. EGCG exhibited similar paradoxical behavior in EGFR signaling. EGCG alters the topology of EGFR TMD and activates the receptor in the absence of EGF, but inhibits EGF-induced EGFR activation. Thus, this widely ingested polyphenol exhibits pleiotropic effects on transmembrane signaling by modifying the topology of TMDs.


Historically, land use regulation has been considered a matter of local concern. The federal government left land use to the states, and the states, in turn, empowered municipalities to enact zoning laws to guide planning and development decisions. Today, however, formal distinctions between state and federal spheres of power have been supplanted by a multi-jurisdictional understanding of federalism, in which local authority to regulate land overlaps with federal and state authority. To that end, Congress has experimented with a variety of preemption regimes aimed at compelling local governments to site nationally relevant facilities, such as radioactive waste disposal facilities and telecommunication towers. This Article explores the spectrum of federal preemption options, ranging from federal delegation, empowering states to independently design and implement siting regimes, to unitary federal preemption, vesting siting authority in a federal administrative agency and displacing traditional state and local land use authority. In particular, this Article identifies an innovative approach to facilities siting, termed "Process Preemption." In a Process Preemption regime Congress imposes federal constraints on the siting process, but leaves primary decisionmaking power in the hands of local land use regulators. This Article argues that Process Preemption has the potential to aid in federal siting schemes because (a) its hybrid federal-local framework accounts for the interjurisdictional nature of a federal siting policy, effectively balancing national and local land use priorities and (b) its emphasis on procedure increases the legitimacy, consistency, and ultimate public acceptance, of controversial siting decisions. This Article is this year's co-winner of the 2010 AALS Scholarly Paper Competition.


Real‐time cardiovascular assessment is vital for monitoring patients at an early stage of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), at risk of reoccurrence of heart attacks and strokes and during pharmacological and non‐pharmacological treatments. Blood Pressure (BP), Arterial Stiffness (AS) and Blood Viscosity (BV) are three essential parameters that can provide a reliable assessment of hypertension, atherosclerosis, and hyperviscosity associated with the development and progression of cardiovascular pathologies to complex stages. The currently available methods designed for evaluation of such parameters incur limitations and challenges that stand as an obstacle to the development of non‐invasive, portable and reliable all‐in‐one device intended for personal use. This project engaged in novel fundamental and rigorous in vivo and in vitro investigations in an effort to shed more light on the photoplethysmographic signals (AC and DC) during induced changes of BP, AS, and BV. The underlying hypothesis is to show for the first time that Photoplethysmography (PPG) has the potential to non‐invasively assess, in a qualifying and quantifying manner, the above parameters. Positives outcomes from such approach will establish the potential of the PPG as a preferential monitoring (screening and possible diagnosis) technique for the assessment of CVDs.

Novel miniature PPG sensors were developed along with a state of the art PPG processing unit, a data acquisition system and a customised manuscript for offline signal analyses. ECG and temperature processing systems were also designed and developed for use in the in vivo investigations. State of the art in vitro experimental rig was developed to mimic the human circulation under a wide range of flow conditions. A pilot volunteer investigation highlighted the effect of a cold pressor test in one hand on the PPG signals from both hands. The results indicated that there are changes in flow regulation mechanisms and hemodynamics besides the expected vasoconstriction effects of local cooling. These findings led to the controlled in vitro experiments. The in vitro investigations were completed in four stages where the potential of the PPG to provide a measure of blood pressure values, volume elastic modulus (Ev) and to detect fluid viscosity and haemorheological changes.

Results from the in vitro investigations highlighted that Adjusted Pulse Volume (APV) was found to be the optimum method for measuring BP values using Red (R) and Infrared (IR) wavelengths as validated under a range of BP values simulating hypotensive to hypertensive scenarios. The correlation was significant with Rsquare ranging between 0.96 and 0.99 for different arterial models and circulating fluids. Moreover, a proposed mathematical derivation allowed the PPG to provide a direct measure of AS using Ev. The method showed strong agreement with the gold standard measurement of material testings, the Instron device, with a percent error of 0.26% and 1.9% for different arterial models. Furthermore, the PPG signals also responded to changes in rheological characteristics in relation to fluid viscosities, the presence of the red blood cells, changes in shear rates and blood clotting.

These results strongly suggest that PPG has the potential to be used as a non‐invasive and continuous method for the assessment of cardiovascular disease markers such as blood pressure, arterial stiffness and blood viscosity.