Surface melting of copper having the (100), (110), and (111) orientations has been investigated with the use of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The interaction between copper atoms was expressed by the approximation of second-moment tight-binding scheme potential. The structures of copper were determined at temperatures between 500 and 1390K by constant-temperature MD, where calculation was conducted on bulk and surface models of copper having the (100), (110), and (111) orientations. The position and velocity of atoms calculated led to the internal energy, the number density of atoms, and the mean square amplitude of thermal vibrations of atoms. The (110), (100), and (111) surface models melted at temperatures of about 1270, 1290, and 1310K, respectively; these temperatures are lower than the melting point of copper. The surface internal energies for the (110), (100), and (111) surface models, derived as the difference between the internal energies for the bulk and surface models having the same plane orientation, displayed steep increases at temperatures of about 1100, 1200, and 1300K, respectively. In addition, the distribution of the number density of atoms in the direction normal to the surface indicated the presence of a structurally disordered layer near the surface of each surface model. Lindemann's law on melting has suggested that surface melting occurs in the surface models at temperatures lower than the melting point of copper, from the profiles of the mean square amplitude of atomic vibrations. The surface melting temperatures have been determined as 800 K for (110), 1000 K for (100), and 1300 K for (111). It has also been concluded that the steep increase in the surface internal energies originates from the formation of the surface-melting layer. The dependence of the surface-melting temperature on the plane orientation would be dominated by the ease with which atoms can move in the plane or the number density of atoms in the plane.


The USDA Forest Service broke ground on its first nursery in 1902 and since then its nurseries have adapted to many changes in scope and direction: from fire restoration to conservation, to reforestation, and back to restoration. In addition to providing a reliable source of native plant material, they have also been a source of research and technology transfer in seedling production and quality. Today, Forest Service nurseries face difficult times due to sharp declines in reforestation seedling orders, but strive to respond to increased demand for a wide variety of native plants for ecosystem restoration.


While concern about coastal erosion on arctic coasts arises due to increasing impacts on several northern communities and potential threats to oil and gas activities in the circum-arctic, means to document and assess precisely rates and causes of coastal erosion remain scarce due to the remote locations of arctic coastal settings. Remote sensing tools offer relatively cheap and efficient means to compensate for the remoteness of these areasWe present in this poster several applications of remote sensing tools which address the issue of coastal erosion on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory with sensors operating at different spatial and temporal scales. Optical high resolution imagery is used to map periglacial features and ground ice presence in the backshore zone and assess planimetric coastal retreat rates. High resolution stereo-pairs provide a mean to document the volume of sediment eroded from the coast as well as the quantities of total organic carbon released to the nearshore zone. Finally, investigations of the spectral characteristics of coastal landcovers using high to medium resolution imagery enables the reconstruction of several stages of landslide activity and the prediction of zones at risk on ice-rich coasts.We put into perspective these applications with the expected launches of new generations of high resolution satellites and satellite constellations and the subsequent changes in approach of the temporal and spatial scales of coastal erosion. In addition, we highlight the potential of these types of tools within the context of future arctic research as mean to provide a common baseline for coastal erosion studies in the circum-arctic.


Although a case can be made for rewarding scientists for risky, novel science rather than for incremental, reliable science, novelty without reliability ceases to be science. The currently available evidence suggests that the most prestigious journals are no better at detecting unreliable science than other journals. In fact, some of the most convincing studies show a negative correlation, with the most prestigious journals publishing the least reliable science. With the credibility of science increasingly under siege, how much longer can we afford to reward novelty at the expense of reliability? Here, I argue for replacing the legacy journals with a modern information infrastructure that is governed by scholars. This infrastructure would allow renewed focus on scientific reliability, with improved sort, filter, and discovery functionalities, at massive cost savings. If these savings were invested in additional infrastructure for research data and scientific code and/or software, scientific reliability would receive additional support, and funding woes—for, e.g., biological databases—would be a concern of the past.


Peer assessment provides students with multiple benefits during their learning process. The aim of our study is to examine students' perception of peer assessment. Questionnaires were administered before and after the peer-assessment process to 416 students studying 11 different subjects in four different fields taught at the University of Girona. Results suggest that students have a positive predisposition towards this methodology, both before and after its implementation. Students perceive it as a both motivating and recommended methodology that facilitates the acquisition of learning at different levels. As for its limitations, students highlight the responsibility that comes with it and a certain amount of distrust in fellow students' abilities to peer-assess.


We first analyze legal provisions relating to corporate transparency in Germany. We show that despite the new securities trading law (WpHG) of 1995, the practical efficacy of disclosure regulation is very low. On the one hand, the formation of business groups involving less regulated legal forms as intermediate layers can substantially reduce transparency. On the other hand, the implementation of the law is not practical and not very effective. We illustrate these arguments using several examples of WpHG filings. To illustrate the importance of transparency, we show next that German capital markets are dominated by few large firms accounting for most of the market's capitalization and trading volume. Moreover, the concentration of control is very high. First, 85% of all officially listed AGs have a dominant shareholder (controlling more than 25% of the voting rights). Second, few large blockholders control several deciding voting blocks in listed corporations, while the majority controls only one block.


Identifying the optimal time for mitral valve surgery in the setting of severe mitral regurgitation (MR) remains an ongoing challenge due to continually improving surgical options and outcomes. Hence, the threshold for surgical intervention has been reduced in successive iterations of the valve disease guidelines of the American and European cardiology communities.1 ,2 Nevertheless, timing of surgical intervention in primary MR remains arbitrary, as patients can remain apparently asymptomatic for prolonged periods and are understandably reluctant to undergo a potentially hazardous procedure without objective evidence of definitive benefit. This is compounded by the diverse variation in outcomes of morbidity, mortality, size of incision and likelihood of repair at different centres. Hence, in the asymptomatic patient, objective evidence of impaired exercise capacity or other pathophysiological surrogates may be valuable in optimising the timing of surgery. Exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) has been widely used for this purpose to assess symptoms and exercise capacity, determine MR severity with exercise, examine LV contractile reserve and establish peak exercise pulmonary pressure.3 These variables have been used to predict the need for surgical intervention based upon the likelihood of adverse outcomes.

Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is seen in a minority of patients with severe primary MR at rest. It is usually associated with more severe MR and with higher surgical morbidity, although it typically improves and may even normalise after successful mitral valve surgery. The mechanism of PHT relates to high left atrial (LA) pressure from the regurgitant mitral jet, though individual factors related to the pulmonary vasculature may also be important.4 The significance of exercise PHT in primary MR is somewhat more controversial. Prior to the 2014 revision of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines in valve …


Deconstructing Ireland intervenes with authority and originality in an area rife with debate and passionate opinion, where cultural theory and analysis run alongside the daily challenge of political events. Colin Graham examines the course by which the history of modernity and colonialism has constructed an idea of 'Ireland', produced more often as a citation than an actuality. The author's approach - using Derridean deconstruction in alliance with positions in postcolonial and Subaltern Studies - illuminates the way in which this concept of the nation plays across discourses of authenticity, fiction and fantasy in a fascinating range of material. Successive chapters examine the utopian musings of Ignatius Donnelly, John Mitchel and Sean Hillen; the continuing reinvention of Irish criticism; the relation of the figure of the intellectual-artist and the 'people' in James Joyce; the tension between postcolonialism and nationalism in the Field Day project and the political thought of John Hume and Richard Kearney; the relation of gender and nation in stories by Gerry Adams and Frank Delaney; the complex appeal to authenticity in political philosophy, tourism and advertising; and the resonant cultural meanings of 'Irish' ephemera and kitsch. Deconstructing Ireland presents a compelling, astutely theorised cultural history. It will be of interest to readers both inside and outside Irish Studies, who are keen to unravel the implications of postcoloniality and to understand the role of literature, political writing, popular culture and criticism itself in maintaining, deconstructing, and reconfiguring the idea of national identity. Key Features: *Includes illustrations of various images of Ireland *Offers a unique and compelling cultural history of Ireland *Considers relationship of cultural forms such as television, film, tourism, advertising to the formation of Irish identity *Sets these cultural forms against the complacencies of an essentialised 'Irishness' constructed by dominant cultural and political discourse


In this paper we evaluate the memory system behavior of two distinctly different implementations of the UNIX operating system: DEC's Ultrix, a monolithic system, and Mach 3.0 with CMU's UNIX server, a microkernel-based system. In our evaluation we use combined system and user memory reference traces of thirteen industry-standard workloads. We show that the microkernel-based system executes substantially more non-idle system instructions for an equivalent workload than the monolithic system. Furthermore, the average instruction for programs running on Mach has a higher cost, in terms of memory cycles per instruction, than on Ultrix. In the context of our traces, we explore a number of popular assertions about the memory system behavior of modern operating systems, paying special attention to the effect that Mach's microkernel architecture has on system performance. Our results indicate that many, but not all of the assertions are true, and that a few, while true, have only negligible impact on real system performance.


The offshore Levant Basin demonstrates one of the most phenomenal natural examples of a working petroleum system associated with a relatively rapid unloading and loading cycle caused by the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC). In this study, 2D basin and petroleum systems modelling suggests that the geologically instantaneous water unloading of approximately 2070 m, and subsequent rapid salt deposition and refill, impact the subsurface pore pressure and temperature in the underlying sediments. The pressure drop is modelled to be instantaneous, whereas the impact on temperature is more of a transient response. This has important consequences for the shallow sub-Messinian biogenic petroleum system, which is assumed to have experienced fluid brecciation associated with massive fluid escape events. Deeper Oligo-Miocene sediments are far less affected, thus indicating a 'preservation window' for biogenic gas accumulations, which host the recent discoveries (Tamar, Leviathan, Aphrodite). Hydrocarbon accumulations of a 'bubblepoint oil' composition are modelled to have experienced cap expansion during the drawdown, with the pressure drop being the primary control. This study suggests that seal-limited traps are expected to have undergone a catastrophic seal failure, whereas the impact of the MSC is modelled to be less destructive for size-limited and, particularly, charge-limited traps.


The use of computational fluid dynamics to investigate surface ship dynamics and characteristics has been growing during recent years. With technological advancements continuing in leaps and bounds more and more complex simulations are possible. The interests of this paper concern the numerical simulations of a surface effect ship which is a specific type of air cushion vehicle. The simulation work presented here attempts to replicate the model tests involving a generic surface effect ship and demonstrate the value of numerical simulations in understanding air cushion vehicles. The model tests consist of a surface effect ship running through a range of Froude numbers in calm seas and a variety of wave cases. The numerical simulations were developed using CD-adapcos's STAR-CCM+ to model the surface effect ship characteristics and dynamics. The pressurized air cushion and flexible, dynamic seals are of the greatest importance when modeling a surface effect ship; however, some idealizations had to be made. The air cushion fans are represented as constant momentum sources while the seals are represented as shortened and rigid. Throughout the simulations drag, pitch, and heave were constantly monitored for comparison purposes with the model tests. It was found that the rigid skirt approximation accounts for a large portion of error when comparisons were made between the numerical and analytical data. Furthermore, it would be impossible to accurately represent the surface effect ship dynamics in waves with this approximation. An alternative method to modeling the skirts was investigated which would include the use of a porosity function. It was found that the porosity skirt model would allow for cushion pressure to be maintained while limiting the interaction of the rigid skirt and the free surface. The full implementation of porous skirts on the surface effect ship is a difficult challenge as numerical instabilities arise. However, implementing the porous skirt would lead to more accurate calm water simulations and the ability to model the surface effect ship in wave cases.


The preclearance regime is a system by which the administration ensures that state and local jurisdictions, which have a history of government-ratified discrimination, abide by the Fifteenth Amendment. In 2006, due to the success of the regime in promoting political participation and office-holding for minorities, both houses of Congress agreed to reauthorize the regime for an additional twenty-five years. However, the question remains when, if ever, there will no longer be a need for the preclearance regime and how the government will be able to determine when that occurs.The article offers suggested alterations to the regime that would provide a "clear, effective, and lasting means" of protecting voting rights. The alterations address both the goal of minimizing federal influence in this state-run area of policymaking and also insuring that these protections will be effective and lasting. Rather than only slightly adjusting the preclearance regime as has been done in previous legislation, the "reinvention" of the regime will prove much more rewarding. The suggested reform would place particular emphasis on setting goals, enhancing efficiencies and encouraging innovation.


ABSTRACT Poxviruses and gamma-2 herpesviruses share the K3 family of viral immune evasion proteins that inhibit the surface expression of glycoproteins such as major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I), B7.2, ICAM-1, and CD95(Fas). K3 family proteins contain an amino-terminal PHD/LAP or RING-CH domain followed by two transmembrane domains. To examine whether human homologues are functionally related to the viral immunoevasins, we studied seven membrane-associated RING-CH (MARCH) proteins. All MARCH proteins located to subcellular membranes, and several MARCH proteins reduced surface levels of known substrates of the viral K3 family. Two closely related proteins, MARCH-IV and MARCH-IX, reduced surface expression of MHC-I molecules. In the presence of MARCH-IV or MARCH-IX, MHC-I was ubiquitinated and rapidly internalized by endocytosis, whereas MHC-I molecules lacking lysines in their cytoplasmic tail were resistant to downregulation. The amino-terminal regions containing the RING-CH domain of several MARCH proteins examined catalyzed multiubiquitin formation in vitro, suggesting that MARCH proteins are ubiquitin ligases. The functional similarity of the MARCH family and the K3 family suggests that the viral immune evasion proteins were derived from MARCH proteins, a novel family of transmembrane ubiquitin ligases that seems to target glycoproteins for lysosomal destruction via ubiquitination of the cytoplasmic tail.


This paper tests a new hypothesis that bank managers issue bonds, at least in part, to convey positive, private information and refrain from issuance to hide negative, private information. We find evidence for this hypothesis, using rating migrations, equity returns, bond issuance, and balance sheet data for US bank holding companies. The results add to our understanding of the role of "market discipline" in monitoring bank holding companies and also inform upon how proposed regulatory requirements that banking organizations frequently issue public bonds might augment "market discipline."


Background: In the current investigation, we explored the impact of swimming training and dietary fortification of Hemidesmus indicus (HI) extract on markers of oxidative stress (OS) and antioxidant capacity in the middle-aged Wistar rats. Materials and Methods: Male rats received oral supplementation of HI at a dosage of 50 and 100 mg/kg B.W and swim trained for 30 min/day with 3% intensity, 6 days/week for a duration of 84 days. Results: Training and dietary intake of 100 mg/Kg B.W HI extract enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities in the discrete regions of the brain. The OS indicators were attenuated in response to single or combined interventions. The levels of thiols were significantly upregulated in SW-T (+HI2) group. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that both interventions improve antioxidant status, by attenuating the OS markers, which can be used as a therapeutic strategy in preventing age-associated neurological disorders.


This paper studies the Internet as an information source for research scholars and PG students of the Science faculty, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India. A structured questionnaire is distributed to the research scholars and the PG students of Science Faculty, AMU. The study shows Internet-based information sources are more useful than print sources. This study also indicates the Internet is most satisfactory source of information. There are many related studies on the use of Internet but this study is the first of its kind within the specific user community and specific geographical area.


Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and works on Wall Street; he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to face and it takes us on a head-on collision with America's greatest dream -- and its worst nightmare. 'A serious, clever and shatteringly effective piece of writing ...For its savagely coherent picture of a society lethally addicted to blandness, it should be judged by the highest standards' John Walsh, Sunday Times 'That the book's contents are shocking is downright undeniable, but just as Bonfire of the Vanities exposed the corruption and greed engendered in eighties politics and high living, American Psycho examines the mindless preoccupations of the nineties preppy generation' Maria Lexton, Time Out 'Ellis's book is, ultimately and valuably, a black-hearted satire on the terrible power of money' Jenny Turner, Scotsman


For the last two decades, pulse oximetry has been used as a standard procedure for monitoring arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2). However, SpO2 measurements made from extremities such as the finger, ear lobe and toes become susceptible to inaccuracies when peripheral perfusion is compromised. To overcome these limitations, the external auditory canal has been proposed as an alternative monitoring site for estimating SpO2, on the hypothesis that this central site will be better perfused. Therefore, a dual wavelength optoelectronic probe along with a processing system was developed to investigate the suitability of measuring photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals and SpO2 in the human auditory canal. A pilot study was carried out in 15 healthy volunteers to validate the feasibility of measuring PPGs and SpO2 from the ear canal (EC), and comparative studies were performed by acquiring the same signals from the left index finger (LIF) and the right index finger (RIF) in conditions of induced peripheral vasoconstriction (right hand immersion in ice water). Good quality baseline PPG signals with high signal-to-noise ratio were obtained from the EC, the LIF and the RIF sensors. During the ice water immersion, significant differences in the amplitude of the red and infrared PPG signals were observed from the RIF and the LIF sensors. The average drop in amplitude of red and infrared PPG signals from the RIF was 52.7% and 58.3%. Similarly, the LIF PPG signal amplitudes have reduced by 47.52% and 46.8% respectively. In contrast, no significant changes were seen in the red and infrared EC PPG amplitude measurements, which changed by +2.5% and −1.2% respectively. The RIF and LIF pulse oximeters have failed to estimate accurate SpO2 in seven and four volunteers respectively, while the EC pulse oximeter has only failed in one volunteer. These results suggest that the EC may be a suitable site for reliable monitoring of PPGs and SpO2s even in the presence of peripheral vasoconstriction.


We investigate prestellar core formation and accretion based on three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. Our simulations represent local ∼1 pc regions within giant molecular clouds where a supersonic turbulent flow converges, triggering star formation in the post-shock layer. We include turbulence and self-gravity, applying sink particle techniques, and explore a range of inflow Mach numbers  = 2 − 16 ?> . Two sets of cores are identified and compared: t1 cores are identified from a time snapshot in each simulation and represent dense structures in a single cloud map; tcoll cores are identified at their individual time of collapse and represent the initial mass reservoir for accretion. We find that cores and filaments form and evolve at the same time. At the stage of core collapse, there is a well-defined, converged characteristic mass for isothermal fragmentation that is comparable to the critical Bonnor–Ebert mass at the post-shock pressure. The core mass functions (CMFs) of tcoll cores show a deficit of high-mass cores ( ≳ 7 M ☉ ?> ) compared to the observed stellar initial mass function (IMF). However, the CMFs of t1 cores are similar to the observed CMFs and include many low-mass cores that are gravitationally stable. The difference between t1 cores and tcoll cores suggests that the full sample from observed CMFs may not evolve into protostars. Individual sink particles accrete at a roughly constant rate throughout the simulations, gaining one core mass per freefall time even after the initial mass reservoir is accreted. High-mass sinks gain proportionally more mass at later times than low-mass sinks. There are outbursts in accretion rates, resulting from clumpy density structures falling into the sinks.


: Being as an important part of construction project, the quality of construction design has great influence on investments, progress and quality of the whole construction project. In order to improve the overall quality of China's construction project, technology as well as management level, the informatization of technology and management must be implemented throughout the construction industry. Documentary research method, investigation and induction are used to analyze the qualities of knowledge and project management which are required to construction design management and the adaptability of applying BIM in it; the present paper analyzes problems appeared in management of progress early warning and proposes the adaptability of applying BIM into progress early warning. At last, the application of BIM technology into construction safety management is researched. And a model framework of construction safety management based on BIM is established. Combine with case study, the paper constructs a visual safety management platform through BIM modeling, 4D construction simulation and collision detection technology. Dynamically rehearse construction progress and manage the hidden dangers such as falling and collision during actual construction progress. And control safety risks through optimization of construction scheme and formulating defense system and emergency measure. Avoid or reduce safety accidents, achieving safety management.


Insulin is a well-known anabolic hormone. The mechanism of insulin's protein anabolic effect remains controversial. Although insulin undoubtedly inhibits protein degradation, its effect on protein synthesis is incompletely defined. Recent studies reviewed in this article highlight the methodologic limitations in studying the effect of insulin on protein synthesis. These methodological issues are related to the hypoaminoacidemia that ensues after insulin administration and to the difficulty in measuring the obligatory precursor pool (aminoacyl tRNA) label. Differential responses to unweighing in different muscle proteins has been demonstrated. The protein loss during unweighing is due to the loss of myofibrillar proteins, although sarcoplasmic proteins are spared. A recent study has found that lipid emulsion has no effect on whole protein degradation but decreases forearm protein degradation and synthesis. Age-related muscle wasting in humans has been shown to be related to a decline in fractional myofibrillar protein synthesis rate. Although some progress has been made by recent studies, refined methodologies are needed to define the regulation of muscle protein turnover in humans.


Institutional regulations by way of licensing and capacity restrictions have often been considered as barriers to competition in Indian industry. As most of these regulations have given way for market signals an increase in the number of entrants and alterations in the conditions of entry, mainly the barriers to entry are expected. In this paper I attempt to analyse the extent of barriers to entry in Indian manufacturing by empirically quantifying the height of these barriers. Econometric estimation of the height of the barriers for 1991 and 1996 shows that the height of barriers increased in 1996 at the aggregate level. An examination at the disaggregate level reveals that in almost all the industries examined from a sample of firms drawn from the CMIE the height of the barriers have increased in 1996 compared to 1991. The dilution and dismantling of commands and controls intended to ease entry have thus paved the way for the erection and strengthening of market barriers which have grown over time.


The AT&T Teaching Theater is a highly interactive, multimedia electronic classroom at the University of Maryland offering instructors many new and creative teaching opportunities. Although this technology may hold many exciting possibilities, it is important to not lose sight of the main objective of any teaching facility - the students. Therefore, the important questions are: "How do students rate the AT&T Teaching Theater? What are their opinions of the various types of software programs currently offered? Do they facilitate or interfere with the learning process?" This paper discusses the results from a survey of students who attended classes in the AT&T Teaching Theater, Fall semester, 1992. A comparison among the different types of software used by the various instructors is the focus for this evaluation. In particular, HyperCourseware, a program providing an "electronic infrastructure" for computer based education will be at the center of this comparison. HyperCourseware is a "work in progress" and is one of the few software packages used in the electronic classroom designed with the Teaching Theater in mind. The findings from this paper will be used to determine where improvements need to be made in order to benefit the students and to make the most of the technology offered in the AT&T Teaching Theater in the future.


In this paper, we analyse export competition between individual EU Member States and China in third-country goods markets. We find that competitive pressure from China is strongest for small and peripheral EU members, especially for the Southern periphery, Ireland and Central, Eastern and South-eastern European EU members. While we find no hard evidence for "cut-throat" competition between China and EU countries, we see an increasing tendency of smaller EU exporters leaving markets that are increasingly served by China. We base our findings on traditional market share analysis, the exploration of intensive versus extensive margin export growth and on a Dynamic Trade Link Analysis. The latter, a newly developed tool, identifies different types of competitive pressure at the detailed product-destination market level. We use UN Comtrade data at the highest level of disaggregation (6-digit HS) for 75 world exporters and importers over the period 2000-2011. JEL Classification: F14, F15, O57


To look human, digital full-body avatars need to have soft-tissue deformations like those of real people. We learn a model of soft-tissue deformations from examples using a high-resolution 4D capture system and a method that accurately registers a template mesh to sequences of 3D scans. Using over 40,000 scans of ten subjects, we learn how soft-tissue motion causes mesh triangles to deform relative to a base 3D body model. Our Dyna model uses a low-dimensional linear subspace to approximate soft-tissue deformation and relates the subspace coefficients to the changing pose of the body. Dyna uses a second-order auto-regressive model that predicts soft-tissue deformations based on previous deformations, the velocity and acceleration of the body, and the angular velocities and accelerations of the limbs. Dyna also models how deformations vary with a person's body mass index (BMI), producing different deformations for people with different shapes. Dyna realistically represents the dynamics of soft tissue for previously unseen subjects and motions. We provide tools for animators to modify the deformations and apply them to new stylized characters.


OBJECTIVES
While an accurate placement in cochleostomy is critical to ensure appropriate insertion of the cochlear implant (CI) electrode into the scala tympani (ST), the choice of preferred cochleostomy sites widely varied among experienced surgeons. We present a novel technique for precise yet readily applicable localization of the optimum site for performing ST cochleostomy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Twenty fresh frozen temporal bones were dissected using the mastoidectomy-posterior tympanotomy approach. Based on the facial nerve and the margins of the round window membrane (RWM), the cochleostomy site was chosen to insert the electrode into the ST while preserving the surrounding intracochlear structures.

RESULTS
There is a limited safe area suitable for the ST implantation in the area inferior and anterior to the RWM. There is a higher risk of scala vestibuli (SV) insertion anterior to that area. Posterior to that area, the cochlear aqueduct (CA) and inferior cochlear vein (ICV) are liable for the injury.

CONCLUSION
For atraumatic CI, precise and easy localization of the site of cochleostomy play a pivotal role in preserving intracochlear structures. Accurate setting of the vertical and horizontal orientations is mandatory before choosing the site of cochleostomy. The facial nerve and the margins of the RWM offer a very helpful clue for such localization; meanwhile, it is readily identifiable in the surgical field.


The talk will discuss the challenges and a roadmap for digital business innovation for entrepreneurs as well as enterprises. Actually, digital business innovation requires a change of perspective with regard to IT governance and the management of IT infrastructure. This is due to the need to adapt them to the constant evolution and changes in business models, consequent to the digitalization of a company products and services. In particular, the talk will discuss the characteristics of four key types of digital business organisation, resulting from their orientation towards execution or else differentiation. Also, the talk will consider the business models fitting each specific type, showing as well their mapping to a company value chain. The talk is based on insights from the FutureEnterprise project, which aims to deliver a research roadmap on new forms of internet-based enterprise innovation. The focus of the project is on what are defined there as enterprises of the future, that are driven by constant business model transformation and innovation, acting as multi-sided platforms built on - as well as emerging from - digital innovations at the global as well as local level to produce shared value including that beyond monetization.


This thesis expounds China's foreign reserve policy and the investment management of the reserves in a behavioural approach. The research provides a behavioural explanation of China's reserve accumulation, which is based on the optimal decision making under uncertainty. Then the thesis proposes a multiple-goal framework for strategic asset allocation of China's reserve management and for the investment decision of Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).
The research first tackles the reserve accumulation puzzle in China, by incorporating loss aversion and narrow framing into the utility maximisation of the representative agent who makes the decision of wealth allocation between consumption and saving under uncertainty. Due to China's policy maker's subscription to promoting GDP growth as the primary political goal, it is reasonable to assume that the policy maker as a representative agent derives utility not only from consumption but also from fluctuations of the value of GDP/income. This agent evaluates the possible uninsured risk of GDP fluctuation narrowly and tends to exhibit the attribute of loss aversion relative to her growth expectation as the reference point. Under the influence of loss aversion and narrow framing, the more the policy maker cares about GDP growth, the more she needs reserve assets as a precautionary means that may provide self-insurance against uninsured income risk. Such cognitive biases enhance the agent's precautionary motive for foreign reserves in an uncertain world, which in turn leads her to believing in an optimal level of foreign reserves that is higher than that under conventional models with rational agents. Hence, this heightens the accumulation of foreign reserves in China.
Second, this thesis develops a new construction of strategic asset allocation for central banks' management of foreign reserves by way of embedding the Black-Litterman (B-L) model into the mean variance mental accounting (MVMA) framework. While the MVMA measure suggests a multiple-objective framework that may embrace the traditional objectives of reserve management, i.e. safety, liquidity and profitability, it is based on the mean-variance approach, which suffers from profound deficiencies such as the unrealistic objective function that it relies on and the tendency that the methods are prone to undue influences of outliers. So, the B-L model is applied in this study to form forward-looking return forecasts. This method allows us to overcome the error-maximising influences of the mean-variance optimization. Furthermore, one can combine the implied equilibrium excess returns as investors' investment views to form priors for Bayesian estimation. The optimal asset allocation then can be derived in this framework, which is applied to practical use in the context of China.
The third main Chapter of this thesis concerns the investment of China's sovereign wealth fund (SWF). The establishment of the Chinese SWF can be regarded as an optimal policy response to the changing economic conditions facing China. This fund as a special investment vehicle proves very useful for China to focus on the returns objective of managing the reserve assets, on top of the safety and liquidity objectives. This is especially important in a low yield international environment. To help achieve the yield objective, this Chapter develops further the behavioural portfolio model cum the Black-Litterman method to derive the optimal asset allocation for China's sovereign wealth fund.


The purpose of this sequential mixed method investigation was to discern the personal attributes that a music therapist employs to engender therapeutic relationships with children and to begin ascertaining the music therapy profession's attempts to foster these qualities in music therapy students. The overarching goals of this dissertation were to identify aspects of relationship-building that go beyond skills, techniques, and theoretic orientation and to open a discussion about how to best address training of the person of the music therapist. The Phase One phenomenological inquiry consisted of thematic cross-comparison of in-depth interviews with five highly experienced children's music therapists. Results revealed strong participant agreement about essential personal attributes and relationship-building aptitude which centered on personal qualities, relational abilities, cognitive abilities, and the music. These findings then served as the basis for the Phase Two quantitative survey of 119 music therapy educators and clinical trainers which sought to corroborate the Phase One results and investigate whether and how these abilities were currently being addressed within music therapy education and training. Results indicated >90% overall agreement with the delineated attributes and relational abilities among survey participants. Strong consensus was also evidenced in relation to the importance of possessing these abilities and belief that personal attributes and relationship building skills were currently being addressed within student training. Modeling, discussion, and role playing were overwhelmingly cited as the preferred teaching strategies and music therapy methods courses and clinical practica were indicated as predominant instructional milieu for addressing personal attributes. Survey responses also demonstrated near unanimous agreement that, though difficult, these


The spectral response of the arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) plays an important role in optical networks. Ideally, the grating should have a rectangular transfer function to reduce the need for accurate wavelength control and achieve low crosstalk. A new technique for designing an AWG with flat spectral response is presented. The problem of the optimization of the transfer function is reduced to that of adjusting the arrayed waveguide lengths and their relative positions on the edge of the free propagating regions in order to minimize a certain error function. As a result, the waveguide lengths and their positions are determined using a rigorous mathematical procedure. The resultant transfer function is flat with low sidelobes.


In their recent book, The Limits of International Law, Professors Goldsmith and Posner throw down the gauntlet to scholars of international law. They advance a deeply pessimistic account of international law and its role in affecting state behavior -- alleging that customary international fails to act as "an exogenous influence on states' behavior," and expressing skepticism that multinational collective action problems can be solved by treaty. This review represents a response to the book's claims. It is demonstrated that there is no theoretical reason to conclude that international law is ineffective, whether it addresses bilateral or multilateral problems and whether it takes the form of written agreements or customary law. Adopting the same rational choice framework used by Goldsmith and Posner, it is shown that rational states have a reason to value a reputation for compliance with international law and, therefore, a reason to comply with their international legal obligations. The mechanism through which international law affects state behavior is obviously of central importance to those seeking to understand the international legal system. This review both explains the assumptions required to generate the results provided in The Limits of International Law and illustrates how more reasonable assumptions support a theory of international law in which state behavior is constrained by their international legal commitments.


TREATING FAMILY MEMBERS: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A FAMILYORIENTED DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY PROGRAM Melissa L. Miller, M.S. Marquette University, 2013 Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe emotion regulation disorder that, according to the biosocial theory, is developed and maintained through transactions that occur between biologically vulnerable persons and their environment. The family members of persons with BPD may experience many deleterious consequences as a result of their relative's illness, including both objective and subjective forms of burden. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was originally developed as a comprehensive treatment for persons with BPD, and new programs designed specifically to treat family members are emerging. These programs aim to help family members cope with their own stressors, as well as help them to learn more effective ways to communicate and interact with their relatives with mental illness. The effectiveness of a family-oriented DBT program called Family Skills was evaluated. It was hypothesized that family members' scores on the Beck Depression Inventory – II (BDI – II), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and Burden Assessment Scale (BAS) would decrease from pre-treatment to post-treatment. Descriptive analyses indicated great variability in the functioning of family members at pre-treatment, with females generally reporting more symptomology than males. Statistical analyses showed that depression, hopelessness, and interpersonal sensitivity significantly decreased from pre-treatment to post-treatment. The clinical significance of individual participant changes was also examined, and clinically significant changes were noted in depression, hopelessness, and interpersonal sensitivity. These findings are consistent with previous research in this area and provide further information regarding the utility of family-oriented DBT programs. The theoretical underpinnings of these changes are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.


We investigate the generation of discrete spatial solitons in arrays of coupled waveguides. Light was launched into the center of the array, and different beam sizes and array geometries were tested. At low power, the propagating field spreads as it couples to more waveguides. When the intensity is increased, localization is observed around the input waveguides, leading to the formation of a discrete soliton. For wide input beams, exciting a few waveguides, soliton splitting, which is due to instability induced by multiphoton absorption, is observed. All of these effects are described well by a coupled-mode formalism.


Autism and Intellectual Disability in Adults: Volume 1 explores issues and practice affecting the support of adults with intellectual disabilities who are on the autism spectrum. This annual explores potential key moments in the lives of adults with intellectual disabilities who are on the autism spectrum, covering a breadth of subjects including; policy, health, economics, wellbeing and equality, as well as a wealth of practical information and advocacy-related material.

The first volume in this annual series has been brought to you by a highly creative group of people, many of whom are either on the autism spectrum or have close family ties to autistic people. The focus of this annual is not on the causes of autism; our interest instead lies in considering ways in which autistic people (focusing here on those with additional intellectual impairments) can have the best possible quality of life, on their own terms. Common themes emerge between authors, including the fundamental requirement to acknowledge, respect and facilitate autistic expertise as being central to the production of research, policy and practice.

Autism and Intellectual Disability in Adults: Volume 1 will inform and benefit health, social care, and education professionals, families, students, support staff in learning disability services and many others. The annual shares information, tools and resources in ways that are accessible, useful and usable by the broad range of professional groups involved in this area of practice.


Microsoft TerraServer displays aerial, satellite, and to-pographic images of the earth in a SQL database available via the Internet. It is one of the most popular online at-lases, presenting seventeen terabytes of image data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Initially de-ployed in 1998, the system demonstrated the scalability of PC hardware and software - Windows and SQL Server - on a single, mainframe-class processor. In September 2000, the back-end database application was migrated to 4-node active/passive cluster connected to an 18 terabyte Storage Area Network (SAN). The new configuration was designed to achieve 99.99% availability for the back-end application. This paper describes the hardware and software components of the TerraServer Cluster and SAN, and describes our experience in configuring and operating this system for three years. Not surprisingly, the hardware and architecture delivered better than four-9's of availability, but operations mistakes delivered three-9's.


Slope streaks are prevalent and intriguing dark albedo surface features on contemporary Mars. Slope streaks are readily observed in the equatorial and subequatorial dusty regolith regions with low thermal inertia. They gradually fade over decadal timescales. The proposed mechanisms for their formation vary widely based on several physicochemical and geomorphological explanations. The scientific community is divided in proposing both dry and wet mechanisms for the formation of slope streaks. Here we perform a systematic evaluation of the literature for these wet and dry mechanisms. We discuss the probable constraints on the various proposed mechanisms and provide perspectives on the plausible process driving global‐scale slope streak formation on contemporary Mars. Although per our understanding, a thorough consideration of the global distribution of slope streaks, their morphology and topography, flow characteristics, physicochemical and atmospheric coincidences, and terrestrial analogies weighs more in favor of several wet mechanisms, we acknowledge that such wet mechanisms cannot explain all the reported morphological and terrain variations of slope streaks. Thus, we suggest that explanations considering both dry and wet processes can more holistically describe all the observed morphological variations among slope streaks. We further acknowledge the constraints on the resolutions of remote sensing data and on our understanding of the Martian mineralogy, climate, and atmosphere and recommend continuous investigations in this direction using future remote sensing acquisitions and simulations. In this regard, finding more wet and dry terrestrial analogs for Martian slope streaks and studying them at high spatiotemporal resolutions can greatly improve our understanding.


BACKGROUND
Alcohol dependence is extremely common in patients with bipolar disorder and is associated with unfavorable outcomes including treatment nonadherence, violence, increased hospitalization, and decreased quality of life. While naltrexone is a standard treatment for alcohol dependence, no controlled trials have examined its use in patients with co-morbid bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence. In this pilot study, the efficacy of naltrexone in reducing alcohol use and on mood symptoms was assessed in bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence.

METHODS
Fifty adult outpatients with bipolar I or II disorders and current alcohol dependence with active alcohol use were randomized to 12 weeks of naltrexone (50 mg/d) add-on therapy or placebo. Both groups received manual-driven cognitive behavioral therapy designed for patients with bipolar disorder and substance-use disorders. Drinking days and heavy drinking days, alcohol craving, liver enzymes, and manic and depressed mood symptoms were assessed.

RESULTS
The 2 groups were similar in baseline and demographic characteristics. Naltrexone showed trends (p < 0.10) toward a greater decrease in drinking days (binary outcome), alcohol craving, and some liver enzyme levels than placebo. Side effects were similar in the 2 groups. Response to naltrexone was significantly related to medication adherence.

CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest the potential value and acceptable tolerability of naltrexone for alcohol dependence in bipolar disorder patients. A larger trial is needed to establish efficacy.


Mineral deposits represent extraordinary metal concentrations that form by magmatic, magmatic–hydrothermal or hydrothermal processes in geodynamic environments typified by anomalously high thermal and/or mechanical energy near plate boundaries. As they require the conjunction of specific environmental conditions to form, particular mineral deposit types tend to occupy specific geodynamic niches. The temporal distributions of mineral deposit types reflect both formational and preservational processes. In the Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic, these were linked because of preservation in continental crust connected to thick buoyant subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM), but were decoupled by the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic as a result of evolution to thinner, increasingly dense SCLM. The transition marks a change from mantle plume-influenced plate tectonics to modern-style plate tectonics, with broadly coincident environmental changes and a major impact on the nature and abundance of preserved mineral deposit types. As mineral deposits represent an integral part of tectonic process, they are essential indicators of that process and geodynamic settings, and should be incorporated into any holistic tectonic terrane analysis. Their distribution also provides a particularly critical test on ancient continental reconstructions derived from palaeomagnetic data. Conversely, such reconstructions provide a first-order targeting tool for the conceptual exploration required to discover new mineral provinces and deposits under cover.


Since the creation of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), European power producers have monitored carbon emissions resulting from the composition of their production. Fuel switching is the main short-term abatement measure under the EU ETS. It consists in substituting combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) for hard-coal plants in off-peak power generation. Thereby coal plants run for shorter periods, allowing power producers to reduce their CO2 emissions. The aim of this paper is two-fold. First, we summarise the main characteristics of fuel switching under the EU ETS. Second, we show how differences in the energy/environmental efficiency of power plants impact the marginal cost of fuel switching. We demonstrate that the level of switching effort influences the dependence of the marginal cost of switching on fuel prices. The marginal cost of switching is shown to be increasingly dependent on the gas price as the switching effort increases, whereas the net effect is undetermined for the coal price. All the conclusions are summarised in several illustrative examples.


Research on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the Chalk aquifer is described in relation to the timescales and spatial extent of solute transport, focussing on the Tilmanstone - Eastry valley in east Kent. Groundwater contamination occurred there over a 70-year period as a result of coalfield brine infiltrating from surface lagoons. The resulting contamination is used as a large-scale, long-term conservative solute transport experiment, within which a series of geological and hydrogeological observations, and tracer tests, are used to investigate the transport properties of the Chalk. The objective is to consider appropriate methodologies for application to groundwater contamination investigations in the Chalk and characterisation of Chalk groundwater bodies in the context of the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive. The geology and hydrogeology of the Tilmanstone area are reassessed in the light of recent work on Chalk lithostratigraphy, using available hydrological data and employing a regional groundwater flow model, coupled with a solute transport model utilising a first order mass transfer coefficient dual porosity approach. Field tests are analysed in terms of aquifer properties pertinent to solute transport at a scale of metres to tens of metres. Vertical profiles of hydraulic conductivity, groundwater velocity, fracture aperture and effective porosity are developed. A profile of chloride concentration in porewater is interpreted in the light of this work to develop a hydrostratigraphy for the area. A 1-D dual porosity model employing Fickian diffusive exchange is used to compute chloride concentration of fracture water and matrix porewater over time. This provides predictions for comparison with observations and the results of the mass transfer coefficient approach in the 3-D regional model. The combined results from the 1-D and 3-D models are used to direct development of a conceptual model of contaminant transport in the Chalk. Emphasis is placed on the effects of diffusive exchange between porewater and fracture water and the effects of the solute exchange approach adopted at different times in the plume history. Results are used to judge the applicability of methods for investigating contaminated groundwater and characterising groundwater bodies in the dual porosity Chalk aquifer.


This chapter focuses on both syntagmatic (i.e. a neologism made by following syntactic rules) and vernacular compounding (i.e. a neologism made by following lexical rules). We have studied both kinds of neologisms collected in all Catalan nodes. Vernacular compounding is the fifth most frequent kind of neologism formation source, and syntagmatic compounding occupies the eighth position. In general terms, no significant differences are found among the different regions. Regarding vernacular compounding, we show that the genuine word-formation pattern NN, in which there is a dependence relation (as in filferro), is no longer used to create new words in Catalan. Additionally, the genuine word-formation pattern VN still produces new words, but it only represents 11.5% of all vernacular compound neologisms. We have found VN neologisms related to agentive nouns (aparcacotxes, cerca-talents), tools (parafocs, marcapagines), spatial areas (passaplats), and also neologisms with a metaphorical meaning (escanya-pobres, buscavides). According to data collected by the NEOXOC network, the majority of neologisms correspond to the pattern NN with no dependence relation (as in actriu cantant), which is made up of two Ns with no obvious nucleus. This kind of neologism is not as genuine as filferro, but they are very frequent. Evidently, two classes can be distinguished. On the one hand, a coordinated NN compound, which creates a neologism that gets its meaning from the two nouns (as in acte-homenatge, actor-cantant, aler-pivot). This class represents the majority of neologisms in all Catalan zones. On the other hand, an attributive NN compound whose first N is the nucleus and the second one is a specifier (like an adjective). In some cases, it is difficult to establish how a neologism gets its meaning from the first and second nouns. That is why our approach from cognitive linguistics and blending (Fauconnier & Turner 2002) allows for a new account to these phenomena (Schmid 2011): the new word compresses the meanings from two inputs (the first and the second nouns) into a new meaning. Similarly, the adjectival vernacular compounding AA has been studied following this approach. Concerning syntagmatic compounding, it gives rise to a neologism when there is fixation and, sometimes, idiomaticity. NA units are the most frequent in all zones: balanca fiscal, banda ambla, bombolla immobiliaria. There are neologisms with a compounded meaning: federalism fiscal, pais emergent, and there are neologisms with a metaphorical meaning (idioms): caixa tonta, llengua blava, ovella negra. Other kinds of syntagmatic compounding include the following: N SP (canco d'autor), V N (carregar piles), V SP (pujar al carro). To sum up, we find a similar evolution of these kinds of compounds in all Catalan zones. The most genuine patterns are decreasing, and the NN compounds – the closest to syntagmatic compounds – are increasing.


The epidermis is the outermost layer in the skin, and it is the first line of defence against the environment. The epidermis also provides a barrier against loss of fluids and electrolytes, which is crucial for life. Essential in the maintenance of this tissue is its ability to continually self-renew and regenerate after injury. These two characteristics are critically dependent on the ability of the principal epidermal cell type, the keratinocyte, to proliferate and to respond to differentiation cues. Indeed, the epidermis is a multilayered tissue composed of keratinocyte stem cells and their differentiated progeny. Central for the control of cell proliferation is the E2F transcription factor regulatory network. This signaling network also includes cyclins, cdk, cdk inhibitors and the retinoblastoma (pRb) family of proteins. The biological importance of the E2F/pRb pathway is emphasized by the fact that a majority of human tumours exhibit alterations that disrupt the ability of pRb proteins to inhibit E2F, leading to permanent activation of the latter. Further, E2F is essential for normal epidermal regeneration after injury. Other member of the E2F signaling pathway are also involved in epidermal development and pathophysiology. Thus, whereas the pRb family of proteins is essential for epidermal morphogenesis, abnormal regulation of cyclins and E2F proteins results in tumorgenesis in this tissue. In this review, we discuss the role of each member of this important growth regulatory network in epidermal formation, homeostasis and carcinogenesis.


Long-lived reactive protein products were shown to be evolved under heat treatment and low-intensity laser irradiation in blood serum in presence of dissolved oxygen from the air. These reactive protein products generate hydrogen peroxide for a long time, which results from conjugated electron-radical chain reactions. Long-lived reactive protein species play an important role in the adaptation of living systems to stress factors. Apparently, the formation of visible light- and heat-induced reactive protein species is not specific to just blood serum proteins, rather than it could also be a feature of other proteins.


Mainstream neoclassical economics as well as heterodox schools should be regarded as different kinds of "political economics". There is no value-free economics. We therefore need to bring democracy into economics. The present challenge of sustainable development suggests that a new conceptual framework in economics is needed. In this essay, a political and democratic view of individuals, organizations, decision-making, markets, assessment of investment projects and policy options is proposed. The imperative of democracy also implies that the close to monopoly position of neoclassical theory and method at university departments of economics has to be replaced by pluralism. There is a continued role for neoclassical theory and method, considering the fact that millions of professionals globally have been indoctrinated in this particular way of understanding efficiency and governance but the idea that neoclassical theory is best for all purposes has to be abandoned.


For negative-index materials(NIM) of second-harmonic wave(SHW) and positive-index materials of fundamental frequency wave(FFW),the equations of the coupled wave was deduced,taking account of absorption coefficient,walk-off effect,phase mismatching capacity and the approximation of slow-varying amplitudes of the plane wave. On the basis of the equations,a formulation of SHW conversion efficiency was obtained in condition of small signal approximation for FFW. Through numerical simulation, the effects of phase mismatching capacity,walk-off angle and absorption coefficient of SHW on the conversion efficiency of SHW were scrutinized respectively. The maximum conversion efficiency of SHW was realized via increasing the length of NIM,that is,there exists an optimum length of NIM; however, the conversion efficiency of SHW shows an evidencet periodic evolution and the maximum conversion efficiency always diminishes. The conversion efficiency decreases with the increases of the phase mismatching capacity and the absorption coefficient. The influence of walk-off effect is not evident so that it may be neglected with respect to the conversion efficiency of SHW. This study provides a basis for investigating nonlinear theory of negative-index materials.


This paper addresses the classical problem of keeping huge bitmaps predominantly consisting of long ranges of zeros and ones. The problem is most often encountered in filesystems (free space tracking) and network protocols (transmission progress tracking). Three classical solutions to the problem are plain bitmaps (NTFS), extent lists (TCP SACK) and extent binary trees (XFS, Btrfs). Bitmaps are simple but have high fixed space requirements. Lists are able to aggregate solid ranges, but they don't scale well with regard to search. Extent binary trees are able of aggregation, allow scalable search, but have high overhead and extremely bad worst case behavior, potentially exploding to sizes a couple orders of magnitude higher than plain bitmaps. The latter problem is sometimes resolved by ad-hoc means, e.g. by converting parts of an extent tree to bitmaps (Btrfs). Another possible workaround is to impose a divide-and-conquer multilayered unit system (BitTorrent). We introduce a new data structure named "binmap", a hybrid of bitmap and binary tree, which resolves the shortcomings of the extent binary tree approach. Namely (a) it has lower average-case overhead (b) it is tolerant to patchy bitmaps and (c) its worst-case behavior is dramatically better.


Over the past ten years, TPI has proved to be the leading methodology to assess the maturity of an organization s or project s test process. This is a success we, at Sogeti, are very proud of. But this success by no means implies that we are done and can rest on our laurels. Sogeti s answer to this need now lies in front of you: TPI NEXT, the Business Driven Test Process Improvement model (BDTPI)! The strengths of the original model (Key areas, Maturity levels, Checkpoints, Improvement suggestions and Stepwise improvement) have been kept and have been made even stronger. The improvements that make the new model truly business-driven are the Clusters and the Enablers. Since business drivers change over time and from entity to entity, this model is flexible and adaptable, and works in synch with Sogeti s other worldleading test methodology, TMap NEXT. But the Business Driven TPI model is independent so no matter what test method is used, this approach can be applied under any circumstance. If you have not started improving your testing process, now it is the time to begin, and, with the TPI NEXT book at hand, it is now even easier to do so and to convince all of your stakeholders of its business value. But also, if you are already on the way to improving your testing process, a close look at Business Driven TPI will help you focus even more on the goal of improving your testing process, namely bringing business value to your organization!


Although central to many disciplines, modality has not received adequate treatment in the field of contrastive studies of English-Arabic translation. Since there are no neat Arabic counterparts to English modals, the only valid arguments for comparison are, therefore, the semantic-pragmatic ones. The current study investigates the relationship between modality and implicature in English-Arabic translation. The main argument is based on the premise that the speaker's choice of modal expressions signals both the degree and type of involvement a speaker has in the content of the message, and consequently the interpretation of textual implicatures. The study shows that there are other textual means of expressing modality in Arabic that go beyond the immediate verbal construction. In some contexts, the whole discoursal effect will determine the degree of deontic or epistemic modality. The paper also explores shifts and transitions in translating modal patterns between English and Arabic with a view to assessing their overall effect. The examples cited show that the shift in rendering ST modals often entails an alteration in the possible interpretation of their meanings in the TT. In sensitive contexts, such as religious texts, political treaties and negotiations, business deals and court testimonies, some changes may have grave consequences. Although an analysis of the areas of convergence and divergence may help identify common causes of translation errors, the notion of 'indeterminacy' remains paramount in translating texts between these two languages. The paper concludes with a pragmatic strategy for the interpretation of modals in context.


Trace impurities in organic solar cells, such as those from residual catalyst material in conjugated polymers, are often ignored but are known to deleteriously affect device performance. Batch-to-batch variations in the nature and quantity of such impurities leads to widespread issues with irreproducible optoelectronic function, yet to date no technique has emerged that is reliably capable of identifying the character of impurities or their concentration in organic photovoltaic active layer blends. Here we focus on state-of-the-art, high-performance bulk heterojunction blends and show that synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence can detect and quantify trace concentrations of metal impurities in these systems. Adopting a strategy of artificially introducing known quantities of additional catalyst into polymer/fullerene blends, we identify both the threshold concentration at which performance degrades and the mechanism for the degradation. With the knowledge of a target impurity concentration and a technique in hand to accurately measure their presence, researchers can implement materials preparation processes to achieve consistent, high performance in organic solar cells.


The relative intensities of 16 of the more important multiplets of normal titanium have been measured in the vacuum arc. The intensities of the multiplets in triads are found to agree with Kronig's intensity formulas. The agreement is closest if the effective temperature of the arc is taken as 10,000°A. when the average deviation is about 7%. This is shown to be as good as could be expected, considering the wide separations involved, and the uncertainty of the ν4 and excitation corrections, together with the fact that some of the multiplets contain lines which are abnormal in intensity. A triad due to a two-electron transition is shown to agree with Kronig's formulas for the most closely analogous one-electron transition. Certain definite deviations from the intensity formulas which cannot be due to experimental error are noted. The strongest line in the spectrum under normal excitation conditions is found to be λ3653.49, confirming the selection of this as the raie ultime by spectrochemical means. A number of quintet system lines were found to be stronger fundamentally than this, however, the greater inner quantum numbers overcoming the disadvantage of elevation of the metastable state. Curves showing the relative amounts of self-reversal in multiplets coming from different lower states in the atom are given.


Virality of online content on social networking websites is an important but esoteric phenomenon often studied in fields like marketing, psychology and data mining. In this paper we study viral images from a computer vision perspective. We introduce three new image datasets from Reddit1 and define a virality score using Reddit metadata. We train classifiers with state-of-the-art image features to predict virality of individual images, relative virality in pairs of images, and the dominant topic of a viral image. We also compare machine performance to human performance on these tasks. We find that computers perform poorly with low level features, and high level information is critical for predicting virality. We encode semantic information through relative attributes. We identify the 5 key visual attributes that correlate with virality. We create an attribute-based characterization of images that can predict relative virality with 68.10% accuracy (SVM+Deep Relative Attributes) -better than humans at 60.12%. Finally, we study how human prediction of image virality varies with different "contexts" in which the images are viewed, such as the influence of neighbouring images, images recently viewed, as well as the image title or caption. This work is a first step in understanding the complex but important phenomenon of image virality. Our datasets and annotations will be made publicly available.


Complex motor skills take considerable time and practice to learn. Without continued practice the level of skill performance quickly degrades, posing a problem for the timely utilization of skilled motor behaviors. Here we quantified the recurring development of vocal motor skills and the accompanying changes in synaptic connectivity in the brain of a songbird, while manipulating skill performance by consecutively administrating and withdrawing testosterone. We demonstrate that a songbird with prior singing experience can significantly accelerate the re-acquisition of vocal performance. We further demonstrate that an increase in vocal performance is accompanied by a pronounced synaptic pruning in the forebrain vocal motor area HVC, a reduction that is not reversed when birds stop singing. These results provide evidence that lasting synaptic changes in the motor circuitry are associated with the savings of motor skills, enabling a rapid recovery of motor performance under environmental time constraints.


In a company, one can take advantage of semantic technologies for online sales and advertising of products or services. Objects for semantic descriptions of business effects are already declared on the web and suffice for such purpose. On the other hand, describing specific characteristics of the business effects generally requires developing our own ontology. Afterwards, this ontology can be used by any application on the web for querying our semantically described cases.
The first part describes the Semantic Web development. It starts with a vision of the web founder, Tim Berners-Lee, about web linked data, and continues to search a way to present web contents to computers in a simpler manner. This part also describes approaches to assigning the meaning to the data, and issues which arise in developing semantic technologies. Semantic Web works on the already existing web technologies, and changes the web into a database. Web ontologies, resource description framework and intelligent agents are presented as its complete unit.
The final chapter begins with a description of the company and its website. It captures the benefits brought by the use of the semantics. Technological approaches to the semantic marking of data on the website address Microformats, RDFa and Microdata. We encounter the issue of semantics input via the CMS. Wines are the target groups of objects for semantic description. Their specific characteristics confirm choosing RDFa technology. Further research leads to the development of wine domain ontology and displays its potential use on the website.


Two metrically defined subspecies have traditionally been recognised within the Palaearctic distribution range of the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus; the larger R. a. aegyptiacus in Egypt and the northern part of the Middle East and the smaller R. a. arabicus in the southern Middle East. An extensive material of R. aegyptiacus from all parts of this area, i.e. the Levant (incl. Turkey and Cyprus), Egypt (incl. Sinai), northern Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Iran, and Pakistan, as well as comparative samples from its sub-Saharan range, were tested using both morphological and genetic approaches in order to revise the species' taxonomic status. The results indicated two possible processes, depending on the method used. Genetic analysis of the mitochondrial genome (nd1 and cytb) indicated low variation (< 2.0% of genetic distance) and lack of geographical structure while morphometric analysis indicated significant metric differences. Two basic size morphotypes were found within the Palaearctic range, with a rather mosaic-like geographical distribution and a lack of clear size distinction between the two categories, though intermediate types were detected. Thus, we suggest that all Palaearctic populations of R. aegyptiacus represent one form, the nominotypical subspecies, which is uniform in genetic traits but plastic in metric traits.


Subgraph enumeration aims to find all the subgraphs of a large data graph that are isomorphic to a given pattern graph. As the subgraph isomorphism operation is computationally intensive, researchers have recently focused on solving this problem in distributed environments, such as MapReduce and Pregel. Among them, the state-of-the-art algorithm, Twin TwigJoin, is proven to be instance optimal based on a left-deep join framework. However, it is still not scalable to large graphs because of the constraints in the left-deep join framework and that each decomposed component (join unit) must be a star. In this paper, we propose SEED - a scalable sub-graph enumeration approach in the distributed environment. Compared to Twin TwigJoin, SEED returns optimal solution in a generalized join framework without the constraints in Twin TwigJoin. We use both star and clique as the join units, and design an effective distributed graph storage mechanism to support such an extension. We develop a comprehensive cost model, that estimates the number of matches of any given pattern graph by considering power-law degree distribution in the data graph. We then generalize the left-deep join framework and develop a dynamic-programming algorithm to compute an optimal bushy join plan. We also consider overlaps among the join units. Finally, we propose clique compression to further improve the algorithm by reducing the number of the intermediate results. Extensive performance studies are conducted on several real graphs, one containing billions of edges. The results demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms all other state-of-the-art algorithms by more than one order of magnitude.


The intonation produced by current text-to-speech systems is often either flat or artificial sounding. Pitch range is one of the contributing factors which could be improved by more detailed linguistic knowledge. In this study, a corpus of read speech is analysed to provide information about prosodic structure and pitch range, which can be used to improve the intonation models for speech synthesis. The results show how the pitch range variation is most apparent at a tone group level of prosodic structure, and how phrase initial and phrase final tone groups have significantly different pitch ranges from tone groups which are phrase medial.


Summary We assessed whether radiologists' reading of the CT portion of the PET-CT identifies significant additional lesions and whether these findings result in major clinical management changes. 716 consecutive patients (pts) aged 13–87 underwent FDG PET-CT scans for known or suspected cancer between 07/05–03/06. Only those pts without a diagnostic CT within 1 month prior to the PET-CT were included. The CT portion of the PET-CT was read by a nuclear medicine or radiology resident or fellow with 1 of 3 designated radiologists and dictated separately from the PET report, which was read with 1 of 5 nuclear medicine faculty physicians. Typically the PET portion was read on the day of scan and CT portion next morning. The radiologists were aware of the PET results and had access to fused PET-CT images. The PET-CT system used was a 2-slice Siemens Biograph. Particular attention was paid to 5 major findings, which are not FDG avid: small pulmonary nodules, lymph nodes, pneumothorax, aortic aneurysm, and renal cell carcinoma. Other CT findings were listed as minor. The major findings identified by radiologists, but not mentioned by nuclear medicine faculty, were FDG-negative lung nodules (typically sub-cm) in 91 pts (12.8%), 43 FDGnegative lymph node/soft tissue masses (6.0%), 1 pneumothorax, 1 pneumoperitoneum, 15 aortic aneurysms (1.9%) and no renal cell carcinoma. This resulted in 21% of all patients having findings. However, major clinical management changes as a result of these findings only occurred in 3 pts: one with a 7-cm AAA who underwent endograft repair and another patient with enlarged right iliac lymph nodes that were subsequently excised. The pt with pneumothorax did not require chest drain. The pt with pneumoperitoneum underwent laparotomy for perforation of duodenal ulcer. The remaining 7 aneurysms are being followed, as are the cases of small pulmonary nodules. Among the minor radiology findings were: calcified granulomas 122 (17%), atherosclerotic calcifications 77 (10.8%), kidney/liver cysts 35 (4.9%), emphysema 39 (5.4%), gallstones 21 (2.9%), and pericardial effusion 19 (2.7%). None of these led to major clinical management changes. The reading of the CT portion of a PET-CT study often identifies FDG-negative lesions; however, it infrequently leads to major clinical management changes in oncology patients. Nevertheless, given the severity of some of these findings, it seems warranted that that the CT portion of the examination be carefully examined by a physician with appropriate CT experience.


Background: The study was conceived with the aim of investigating the availability and utilization of information and communication technology for accessing health information by medical professionals in Kenya. The study started from the premise that access to relevant information and knowledge is critical to the delivery of effective healthcare services.
Objectives: These were to: identify the information needs of the medical professionals; determine the sources and channels of information used by the medical professionals; identify the factors for which they require ICT support in accessing health information; establish the extent of the current usage and level of adoption of ICTs among the medical professionals; determine the potential challenges and prospects of utilization of ICTs in health information access; and suggest and recommend measures to be taken into account in the improvement, adoption and use of ICTs in health information access by the medical professionals.
Design: Semi-structured qualitative interview study. Data were collected on individual occurrences of the phenomenon. Grounded theory approach was used as an analytical tool.
Setting: The research was exploratory in nature and used Kenyatta National Hospital as a case study
Results: Major themes that emerged from the data are highlighted. The key findings of the study were that: medical professionals needed information continuously in the course of their clinical work. Clinical governance, care of patients and professional updating on the current medical practices were the main reasons for needing and seeking information. When the medical professionals needed clinical information, they turned to colleagues. Text books and journals were also frequently used sources of information. However, there was a substantial preference for e-searching for information from the internet and e-journals. The findings revealed lack of library and information services, inadequate access and use of electronic information resources and inadequate ICT skills among the medical professionals.
Conclusions: Many critical information needs of the medical professionals were not being met adequately. Improved usage of ICT was viewed as the only realistic strategy for enhancing information access and information sharing among the medical professionals at the hospital. Recommendations for enhancing access to health information at KNH include: establishment of a hospital library and information services; appointment of information professionals with skills and capabilities to conduct online information searches to assist in clinical decision-making and ability to train clinicians in ICT skills; formulation of ICT strategies and policy; capital investments in the form of internet and supporting ICT infrastructure; involvement of all stakeholders; and allocation of adequate financial resources for improved access to health information by the medical professionals. A framework for establishing an e-health library was proposed and presented.


Trade in food and other agricultural products is increasingly important across East and Southeast Asia, where high-income Asian economies have driven significant agricultural expansion, and the momentous growth of the People's Republic of China (PRC) promises more stimulus to agrofood activity in the region. The PRC is expected to become a net importer of agrofood in the coming decades, which will have significant implications within the region. As its middle class continues to emerge, the resource intensity of food consumption (e.g., meat and dairy) will lead to net imports and require expansion of agricultural capacity elsewhere. Because low-income Southeast Asia is generally seen to be well below its agrofood potential, this situation suggests a significant opportunity for self-directed poverty reduction through regional agrofood market expansion. This paper reviews the history of high-income Asia and the PRC's emergence in the region's agrofood markets. Finally, the Greater Mekong Subregion's role is analyzed for the potential of Asian agrofood trade to contribute to poverty reduction.


The place of experimental work in laboratories has always assumed a high profile at all levels of chemical education. This paper seeks to review the main strands of evidence available today and argues that the place of experimental work needs to be reconsidered at higher education levels. There is a need for a clarification of aims and objectives, and these need to be communicated to learners. It argues that higher education needs to be acutely aware of what goes on at school and to build on these skills. Pre-laboratory exercises are strongly supported by the evidence, while there needs to be a radical re-thinking of the use of laboratory manuals, with assessment being explored afresh. In addition, seeing the laboratory experience in the context of what goes on before and after, as well as other learning, will enhance the learning potential of this time. Examples of some ways forward are presented. Overall, it is argued that much more could be gained by the students if the laboratory experience, using similar experiments, was radically re- thought. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (2), 172-185]


An efficient fare structure combined with good service quality can stimulate demand and increase revenue. This paper presents an optimization approach for an intercity transportation system where demand is sensitive to fare and wait time and the fare sensitivity further varies with trip length. The approach jointly optimizes service headway and distance-based fare structure to maximize total profit, subject to service capacity and fleet size constraints. The optimal fares are also differentiated on the basis of trip length. An efficient solution method is developed and applied to solve the profit maximization problem. The model is applied to a case study of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail System. Numerical results, including optimal solutions and sensitivity analyses, are presented. Insights that may lead to managerial decisions are discussed.


AIM: This study aims to determine, the accessibility of physically disabled persons to community pharmacy. Other objectives are understanding the sensitivity of pharmacists to disability and pharmacists' desire to change. METHOD: A web survey is used to collect the data. Survey questions are prepared by the researchers which includes demographic information and 14 open and/or closed ended questions related to pharmacy size, location, suitability of pharmacy placement and pharmacists knowledge on disabled laws and etc. In 2011 a priliminary face to face survey had been performed in Kayisdagi-Atasehir region. Then in 2012 wider spread survey was performed via web, through all pharmacies of Istanbul and the data of web survey was collected in two months at January-March, 2012. RESULTS: The survey applied to community pharmacists; over 50% of the pharmacists have declared that their pharmacies are not suitable for access by disabled people. 91% of pharmacies' placement area found to be satisfactory as meter square. Pharmacists believe that necessary arrangements are needed and the responsibility belongs to the government agencies. However, only 41% of pharmacists are aware of the legal arrangements for disabled citizens. 27% of community pharmacists stated that, their pharmacies have fully compatible and 54% of them pointed out that their pharmacy have some deficiencies in habitat. CONCLUSION: It has been found that community pharmacies are partly accesible for phsically disabled people. This condition is not only pharmacy related, but also caused by many architectural problems in the neighbourhood of pharmacy. It appears that, presence of legislations could not solve the architectural problems itself. Primarily standard measurements should be implemented by government authorities. However, legislation implementions may not enough for and education is needed to improve the thoughts and behaviours of public and health professionals. KEY WORDS: disability, accessibility to pharmacy, pharmacy, patient satisfaction


The term 'school' is often used, in various contexts, as a means of trying to understand
different strains of performance style and practice. Sometimes the word suggests a literal
association with a particular institution, sometimes a set of genealogical relationships between
teachers and pupils, and sometimes in the manner of musicological terms such as 'Classical' or
'Romantic' — as a way of generalising chronological and characteristic parameters. In violin
playing the term has been used with varying degrees of effectiveness and the need to try and
examine such terms critically (or at the least to define their usage) is of obvious relevance
and importance. This article, taken from a keynote presentation, attempts to look at the
notional 'Franco-Belgian School' of violin playing. It aims to ascertain the basis of the term by
examining chronological aspects — when it might be said to exist — and what appear to be its
characteristics in terms of style. The 'Franco-Belgian School' was cited towards the end of the
nineteenth century mainly, it would seem, as a means of differentiating it from the so-called
'German School'; certainly, there are clear distinctions to be made between those trained in
Paris and Brussels and those trained, for example, in the cultural milieu of Leipzig and (via
Joachim's activities there) at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik. This paper will attempt to trace
the development of a 'Franco-Belgian School' by looking at critical reception and the writings
of contemporary observers, as well as examining key aspects of performance style (such as
forms of portamento) which might be said to create a clear 'Franco-Belgian' performance
identity. The paper will conclude by musing upon the changing trends in violin performance
and the extent to which the 'Franco-Belgian School' contributed to later, twentieth-century
trends in style


In the project development of office buildings, the project budget is set at a very early stage based on both the obtainable market rent as well as the profitability evaluation. The current approach in project development is wasteful and not value-oriented, as the calculation and allocation of the target costs does not follow a standardized process. The estimation of costs for realisation and follow-up costs is corporate-oriented and not carried out detailed enough in the early stages of the project development process. Although the approach of target costing has prevailed in product development for a long time, so far no implementation in the German construction and real estate sector can be observed. Target costing is necessary to integrate proper cost-planning, costmanagement, and cost-controlling in the project development process to create valuable and user-oriented properties. The objective of this conference paper is to analyse the adoption and potentials for increasing values with target costing pertaining to an optimised cost-benefit-ratio for project development of office buildings. The lessons learned are transferred to an optimised method approach. The focus of this approach for practical application is on the determination and allocation of the component-level target costs in terms of specific requirements of users or project developers. In particular, due to the strict market orientation and focus on customer requirements, target costing provides support for project developers in developing properties of increasing value.


Increasingly developed social sharing websites like Flickr and Youtube allow users to create, share, annotate, and comment medias. The large-scale user-generated metadata not only facilitate users in sharing and organizing multimedia content, but provide useful information to improve media retrieval and management. Personalized search serves as one of such examples where the web search experience is improved by generating the returned list according to the modified user search intents. In this paper, we exploit the social annotations and propose a novel framework simultaneously considering the user and query relevance to learn to personalized image search. The basic premise is to embed the user preference and query-related search intent into user-specific topic spaces. Since the users' original annotation is too sparse for topic modeling, we need to enrich users' annotation pool before user-specific topic spaces construction. The proposed framework contains two components: (1) a ranking-based multicorrelation tensor factorization model is proposed to perform annotation prediction, which is considered as users' potential annotations for the images; (2) we introduce user-specific topic modeling to map the query relevance and user preference into the same user-specific topic space. For performance evaluation, two resources involved with users' social activities are employed. Experiments on a large-scale Flickr dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Object. Idiopathic spinal cord hemiation (ISCH) is an uncommon clinical entity typically presenting with lower-extremity myelopathy. Despite the existence of 85 ISCH cases in the literature, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis remain a major concern. Methods. The authors conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent surgery for ISCH at their institutions between 1993 and 2004. Seven patients were treated for ISCH, five in New York and two in Buenos Aires. The patients' ages ranged from 32 to 72 years. There were three men and four women. The interval between the onset of symptoms and surgery ranged from 12 to 84 months (mean 42.1 months). Preoperatively, spinal cord function in four patients was categorized as American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Grade D, and that in the other three patients was ASIA Grade C. In all patients a diagnosis of posterior intradural arachnoid cyst had been rendered at other institutions, and three had undergone surgery for the treatment of this entity. In all cases, the hemiation was reduced and the defect repaired with a dural patch. The follow-up period ranged from 10 to 147 months (mean 49.2 months). Clinical recovery following surgery varied; however, there was no functional deterioration compared with baseline status. Syringomyelia, accompanied by neurological deterioration, developed postoperatively in two patients at 2 and 10 years, respectively. Conclusions. Patients presenting with a diagnosis of posterior intradural arachnoid cyst should be evaluated carefully for the presence of an anterior spinal cord hemiation. Based on the authors' literature review and their own experience, they recommend offering surgery to patients even when neurological compromise is advanced.


Extreme storms can have a large impact on coastal sediment budgets and the character of strata preserved in the geologic record. Here, we investigate the impact of a cyclonic storm-surge flood and ebb on sediment transport in a microtidal beach barrier–shelf system. Hurricane Ike made landfall on the Texas (United States) coast on 13 September 2008. The accompanying storm surge flooded Galveston Bay with up to 5 m of water above sea level. The surge flood and ebb preferentially flowed over a low-elevation, bay-fronting spit known as the Bolivar Peninsula, destroying buildings and eroding sediments. Surge waters also flowed through Bolivar Roads tidal inlet, the main passageway through the barrier system that separates the gulf and the bay. Bathymetry, Chirp data, and samples were collected in Bolivar Roads tidal inlet 9 to 10 d after the storm, and we compare them here to data collected 4 mo prior. Additional data were collected offshore of Bolivar Peninsula in October 2008. Our results document the dominance of the storm-surge ebb in forcing sediment transport through the inlet, which is not considered in models of beach-barrier evolution. Shoreface sands appear to have been incised by the storm, and advected with beach-barrier sediments sufficiently offshore by the storm-surge ebb that they cannot be reincorporated, indicating a significant loss to the barrier system9s sediment budget as a result of a single storm.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the factors influencing non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Bangladesh to communicate with potential donors by using social media. Because it is very strongest way to reach mass people. Social media is a composition of various online communications channels that build relationships between community people by sharing messages and collaboration. In recent years, social media becomes a convenient way to build personal relationship among people as well as corporate relationships. Organizations are more interested to build relationships with prospective customers by using social media.
Methodology: This paper is both in exploratory and descriptive in nature. Types of research methods can be broadly divided into two categories such as quantitative and qualitative research. Qualitative research is used for problem setting and quantitative research is used for collecting primary data and analyzing them. Our sampling units are 100 that are most of the students and service holders. Samples were chosen by using nonprobability sampling technique. Using close ended question, a survey was conducted on target respondents for collecting primary data. For analyzing those data IBM SPSS software was used.
Findings: This study is basically initiated to identify the factors that nonprofit organizations must consider to create brand awareness through the usage of social media. We have found three factors considering twenty-five variables: increase brand memorability, charity involvement as well as ease of brand recognition and chain referrals.
Research Limitations: This study is a descriptive one and small sample size was used. For future research, sample size could be broadened.
Practical Implications: This study will contribute to the non-profit organizations' strategic planning to create brand awareness among prospective donors by using social media.
Originality/value: This study develops an integrated model that explicitly exemplifies the factors influencing NPOs to build strong relationships with potential donors by using social media. By using factor analysis, this paper became able to find out three factors such as increase brand memorability, charity involvement as well as ease of brand recognition and chain referrals.