Sheldon's "Plus Ca Change" hypothesis predicts that there is a tendency towards evolutionary stasis in response to long-term climatic fluctuations (i.e. during the Quaternary) and gradualism during phases of relative climatic stability. Published Plio-Pleistocene climatic proxy data are examined and used to subdivide previously published and newly collected evolutionary series into "unstable" and "stable" climate subsets. Tests on these data are conducted using two similar fractal-based methods that determine evolutionary modes as deviations from a null hypothesis of random walk. Both methods are critically examined and are found to produce robust results in most cases. The results reveal a wide range of evolutionary modes during both the Pliocene and Quaternary with no overall tendency towards increasing stasis during the Quaternary. However, a slight tendency towards less stasis is also exhibited in temperate/polar forms during the Quaternary.
Examination of three newly collected evolutionary series is conducted: (l) Morphometric trends in the ostracod Limnocythere inopinata from a high-resolution African Holocene sequence (25 - 37 years/sample) reveal short-term (10[sup]1 years) correlation between morphology and Sr/Ca-inferred salinity, interpreted to represent non-genetic physiological response. Evolutionary mode analysis also reveals relaxation of stasis where Sr/Ca ratios are more widely fluctuating, although the overall trend is one of stasis. (2) Attempts at confirming stasis in a Pliocene to recent bivalve, Glycymeris glycymeris are unsuccessful due to the low-resolution nature of the data. It is proposed that such studies should not be over-emphasised in analyses concerned with summarising evolutionary patterns in the fossil record unless sampling resolution is greatly improved. (3) Morphometric trends in the Miocene to recent foraminifera Globigerina bulloides exhibit stasis throughout with no significant change in evolutionary mode during the Quaternary.
Previous work on latitudinal diversity gradients has revealed that there are no significant differences between speciation rates in tropical and temperate clades. Also, evidence from studies on recent floral and faunal changes has shown that both tropical and temperate communities respond in similar ways to a globally averaged change in temperature. It is proposed that these latitudinal similarities can be transposed on a temporal scale, representative of the changes between Pliocene to Pleistocene conditions: therefore no significant change would be expected at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. The higher degree of disturbance encountered in colder regions may, however, have resulted in conditions that led to more evolutionary change during the Quaternary. The mechanisms underlying the latter response can be invoked by using genetic algorithm modelling: where simulations are run with a large-scale shift in the environmental target, population means are seen to shift further from the optimum. It is expected that in "real" populations, this would lead to evolutionary change (or migration) in order to avoid extinction in unfavourable conditions. Further studies, utilising improved genetic algorithm modelling, tied to further compilation and testing of evolutionary series is expected to provide further insights into the mechanisms underlying evolutionary processes.


Abstract Background: Suicidal behaviour has become a major public health concern worldwide. Non-fatal suicidal attempts outnumber fatal episodes by wide-ranging figures across, and within, many countries. Approximately 6 500 suicides and 130 000 suicide attempts occur annually in South Africa, with at least one suicide taking place every 40 seconds, compared to one suicide attempt every three seconds. It is more common for all forms of suicidal behaviour to occur in younger persons. This study aimed to analyse the characteristics of suicide attempters who were admitted to two community-based state hospitals in the south of Durban. Method: Adult patients presenting at two university-affiliated state hospitals, following a suicide attempt during a two-year period, were invited to participate in the study. A World Health Organization standardised questionnaire was used to collect basic data relating to the suicide attempt. All participants provided informed consent. Data were analysed using SPSS® version 19. Results: The majority of the 688 participants were women who were young, single, unemployed, low-income earners, of Indian ethnicity, belonged to the Christian faith, and had a primary school education. Four hundred and thirty-eight participants (63.7%) suffered from varying levels of depression. The majority of suicide attempts (97.2%) had taken place within the home environment of the attempters. Self-poisoning emerged as the dominant method that was used by 92.2% of all attempters. Conclusion: Disturbing levels of non-fatal suicidal behaviour were found in all the population groups. A number of modifiable factors were identified. These have implications for healthcare policy planners and prevention strategies.


The genome sequence of the paleohexaploid Brassica rapa shows that fractionation is biased among the three subgenomes and that the least fractionated subgenome has approximately twice as many orthologs as its close (and relatively unduplicated) relative Arabidopsis than had either of the other two subgenomes. One evolutionary scenario is that the two subgenomes with heavy gene losses (I and II) were in the same nucleus for a longer period of time than the third subgenome (III) with the fewest gene losses. This "two-step" hypothesis is essentially the same as that proposed previously for the eudicot paleohexaploidy; however, the more recent nature of the B. rapa paleohexaploidy makes this model more testable. We found that subgenome II suffered recent small deletions within exons more frequently than subgenome I, as would be expected if the genes in subgenome I had already been near maximally fractionated before subgenome III was introduced. We observed that some sequences, before these deletions, were flanked by short direct repeats, a unique signature of intrachromosomal illegitimate recombination. We also found, through simulations, that short—single or two-gene—deletions appear to dominate the fractionation patterns in B. rapa. We conclude that the observed patterns of the triplicated regions in the Brassica genome are best explained by a two-step fractionation model. The triplication and subsequent mode of fractionation could influence the potential to generate morphological diversity—a hallmark of the Brassica genus.


Fiction. "More Pricks Than Kicks", Beckett's early tragicomic masterpiece, is a collection of stories about Belacqua, a student in Dublin in the twenties, his adventures, encounters and amours, that through its original style and wry commentary succeeds in turning everyday incidents into high drama and lets us see street and university life through the observant and caustic wit of the author. Highly enjoyable to read, it delights in exuberant language and the pleasure of discovery, very typical of the young writer who in the post-war years was to astonish the world with Waiting for Godot and Molloy. First published in 1934, "More Pricks Than Kicks" is Beckett's second work of fiction. It serves as an excellent introduction to the later work of one of the most seminal and exciting major writers of the twentieth century.


There are two main decisions faced by utility managers regarding meters in an undertaking: which meter to instal and when to replace it. Traditionally the criteria used to make these decisions have been arbitrary and often imposed by third parties regardless of the situation of the individual undertakings. This paper presents "Comparative billing analysis", a methodology to analyse meter performance within the undertaking, as a means to support decision making in water meter management. The main difference between the comparative billing analysis and previous methodologies resides in the use of the commercial billing database that most undertakings have these days. By analysing existing data with a systematic approach, it is possible to determine which kind of domestic meter is most appropriate for the utility. This method turns out to be as reliable as previous ones, but much more efficient in the use of economic and human resources.


This book examines an interesting and relatively understudied area of the evolution of the international rule of law and the role of professional ethics. The rule of law has been gradually developed and promoted at the national level over centuries, however at the international level it has only recently received (more in rhetoric than in implementation) support from a macro perspective - developments of international rules and institutions, and from a micro perspective - ethical codes, independence and un-bias of professionals, working in international organizations and tribunals. The book offers analysis and recommends policies to strengthen the rule of law at international level to meet a major global governance demand in ensuring equity, justice, stability and consistency in international affairs.


Only few reports of surgical approach to T4 lung carcinoma invading the heart have been reported in the medical literature. It is also controversial if such cancer should be treated by surgery. The aim of this review is to assess the current risk/benefit ratio of the surgical management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) invading the left atrium, especially in the light of a multidisciplinary approach. We also expose our surgical experience and the procedure we have developed in order to increase our rate of complete resection as this criterion appears to be mandatory as well as patients' nodal status in order to increase life expectancy.


Abstract Previous research investigating Australian swimming culture revealed a deeply entrenched 'slim to win' ideology, a notion that is centred on the swimmer body needing to be lean in order to achieve competitive performance. While previous research revealed that 'slim to win' was occurring in situ, this study examines how media representations might come to be possible contributors to this ideology being proliferated to outsiders of the culture. Specifically, three professional sports photographs are examined for materiality criteria. Further, an affect perspective is employed through Foucault's idea of 'dispositive' to consider how the messages provided by the images, their captions and the titles of the news items they were included in, were consumed. We argue that the media representations included in this investigation are highly problematic because they reinforce the 'slim to win' ideology. Further, we argue that many people who contributed to the online forums relating to these media representations reproduced and to a certain extent negotiated 'slim to win' through their comments. This latter point occurred via the representations which provided a platform for critical interpretation.


Faith in the resurrection of Jesus: Barth and Bultmann. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the views of Barth and Bultmann on the interpretation of Jesus' resurrection. It deliberately steers away from the abundance of secondary material available on the subject and focuses on the relevant primary sources with the result that the differences between the two authors come sharp into focus. The fundamental difference between Barth and Bultmann is not that Barth believes that Jesus has truly risen from the grave, but that Bultmann does not believe it. The hermeneutical question about the presence of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord and his work of salvation is the central issue of Christology for both theologians, but this is also the point on which they differ radically from each other. The Auseinandersetzung between Barth and Bultmann indicates how ongoing and intensive theological discourse can benefit the proclamation of the gospel and the church.


Accurate knowledge of the electron density structure of the Earth's upper atmosphere is crucial to forecasting the performance of transionospheric radio signals. For this research, we focus on storm-time structuring in the midto high latitude ionosphere where large gradients in electron density can cause severe degradation of communication and navigation signals. We begin in Chapter 2 with a review of the primary data sets and methods used to accomplish the collaborative, multi-instrument studies described in this dissertation. In Chapter 3, we compare observational techniques for tracking polar cap patches during a moderate geomagnetic storm interval. For the first time, we monitor the transportation of patches with high spatial and temporal resolution across the polar cap for 1–2 h using a combination of GPS TEC, all-sky airglow imagers (ASIs), and Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) HF radar backscatter. Simultaneous measurements from these data sets allow for continuous tracking of patch location, horizontal extent, and velocity even under adverse observational conditions for one or more of the techniques. A focus is placed on the structuring of patches, particularly on the nightside ionosphere as they become wider in the dawn-dusk direction and develop narrow finger-like structures. In Chapter 4, we perform a superposed epoch analysis to characterize the average response of GPS TEC in the North American sector during more than 100 geomagnetic storms over a 13-year interval. For the first time a rigorous approach is used to fully separate storm-time, local time, longitudinal, and seasonal effects at midlatitudes where dense ground receiver coverage is available. The rapid onset of a positive phase is observed across much of the dayside and evening ionosphere followed by a longer-lasting negative phase across all latitudes and local times. Our results show clear seasonal variations in the storm-time TEC, such that summer events tend to be dominated by the negative storm response while winter events exhibit a stronger initial positive phase with minimal negative storm effects. A prominent magnetic declination effect is identified and examined in terms of thermospheric zonal winds pushing plasma upward/downward along magnetic field lines of opposite declination. Finally in Chapter 5 we summarize several co-authored studies which examined various storm-time phenomena utilizing GPS TEC mapping tools developed for this dissertation research, with topics including subauroral polarization stream (SAPS), storm enhanced density (SED), tongue of ionization (TOI), and polar cap patches.


In this paper we significantly extend previous work on methods for ensuring that control system behavior is invariant with respect to units chosen for critical state variables when intermediate operations require solutions to underdetermined or overdetermined systems of equations. For example, least-squares methods are intrinsically sensitive to whether lengths are defined in units of, e.g., centimeters or meters. Prior work has argued that many practical control systems have such unrecognized unit dependencies and are thus vulnerable to exhibiting unexpected behaviors in some situations. Here we extend the underlying theory of unit-consistent generalized inverses (UC inverse) to the more common practical situation in which some state variables have unit dependencies while others require consistency with respect to rigid rotations. We also extend the theory of UC inverse by formally proving that their consistency guarantees are preserved under Kronecker (tensor) products, which is a critical property for using and analyzing complex control systems defined as compositions of simpler subsystems. Key–Words: Control Systems, Generalized Matrix Inverse, Inverse Problems, Kronecker product, Linear Estimation, Linear Systems, Moore-Penrose Pseudoinverse, System Design, UC Generalized Inverse, Unit Consistency.


The research entitles The Influence Analysis of Working Capital and Solvability to Profitability of United Tractors Company. This purpose of this research is to determine whether there is influence of Working Capital and Solvability on Profitability of United Tractors Company. The tool of analysis used in this research are Working Capital Turnover (WCT), Debt Ratio (DR) and Return On Investment (ROI). To prove the hypothesis of the research with multiple linier regression analyzes used SPSS. The results of the simultaneous regression calculations indicate that there are significant effect between independent variable (Working Capital Turnover and Debt Ratio) to dependent variable (Return On Investment) of United Tractors Company, while the partial indicates that all of variable are significant effect too. The amount of determinant coefficient (R 2 ) 0,331 or 33,1% means the ability of explaining the influence Working Capital Turnover and Debt Ratio to Return On Investment while the remaining is influenced by others independent variable which are not examined in this research. Keywords : Working Capital , Solvability and Profitability


Purpose: The aim of the research was to identify changes that have occurred in the business models of enterprises as a result of pandemic COVID-19 situation as a Black Swan. Design/Methodology/Approach: The method used was case study. The research tool was an in-depth interview questionnaire - based on the Business Model Canvas structure. The research sample consisted of 31 entities from the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises. Findings: The interview showed that, the impact of the pandemic is not uniform and depends on the industry and territorial determinants of individual enterprises (both internal and external). There are industries and organizations that are resistant to significant changes in the environment. Practical Implications: The practical nature of the research is related to determining the regularities in the transformation of business models in case of an unforeseen event of high destructive force (Black Swan), so as to quickly adapt the organization to the new circumstances of the environment. Originality/Value: It should be emphasized that despite numerous analyzes related to the impact of the pandemic on economic activity, no modifications, changes or actions taken in response to the pandemic have been confronted so far, based on a structured business model (eg Canvas). The added value of the article is related to the identification of the regularity of changes in selected areas of the model .


Vegetable oils are a potential alternative towards partial or total substitution of diesel fuels. In this study, we used ethanol as the solvent, and a bio fuel enhancer as additive to explore the possible use of higher percentages of biodiesel in an unmodified diesel engine. Biodiesel was produced from cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) by pyrolysis process. A mixture containing 80% (by volume) of Number 2 diesel fuel and 20% (by volume) of biodiesel is called here as B20. The effect of 10% ethanol, (by volume) blended with B20 was studied in a single cylinder, four strokes direct injection diesel engine after adding a bio fuel enhancer as additive. The impact of test fuels on engine torque, power, brake specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, and exhaust gas temperature were investigated by the performance tests. The influence of blends on CO, CO2, HC, NO and smoke opacity were measured by emission tests. The experimental results showed that when a fuel mixture containing 10% ethanol, B20 and a bio fuel enhancer as additive was used, the exhaust emissions were fairly reduced; especially the NO is reduced remarkably by 30% when compared to using B20 alone. Smoke opacity was reduced by 20% when compared to using diesel alone.


To solve the problem of nonlinear blind source separation (BSS), a novel algorithm based on kernel multi- set canonical correlation analysis (MCCA) is presented. Combining complementary research fields of kernel feature spaces and BSS using MCCA, the proposed approach yields a highly efficient and elegant algorithm for nonlinear BSS with invertible nonlinearity. The algorithm works as follows: First, the input data is mapped to a high-dimensional feature space and perform dimension reduction to extract the effective reduced feature space, translate the nonlinear problem in the input space to a linear problem in reduced feature space. In the second step, the MCCA algorithm was used to obtain the original signals.


Salamanders (urodela) have among the largest vertebrate genomes, ranging in size from 10 to over 80 pg. The urodela are divided into ten extant families each with a characteristic range in genome size. Although changes in genome size often occur randomly and in the absence of selection pressure, non-random patterns of genome size variation are evident among specific vertebrate lineages. Here we report that genome size in salamander families varies inversely with species richness and other ecological factors: clades that began radiating earlier (older crown age) tend to have smaller genomes, higher levels of diversity and larger geographical ranges. These observations support the hypothesis that urodel families with larger genomes either have a lower propensity to diversify or are more vulnerable to extinction than families with smaller genomes.


This paper examines how following different personal retirement account (PRA) asset allocation strategies over the course of a worker's career would affect the distribution of retirement wealth and the expected utility of wealth at retirement. It considers rules that allocate a constant portfolio fraction to various assets at all ages, as well as "lifecycle" rules that vary the mix of portfolio assets as the worker ages. The analysis simulates retirement wealth using asset returns that are drawn from the historical return distribution. The expected utility associated with different PRA asset allocation strategies, and the ranking of these strategies, is sensitive to four features of markets and households: the return on corporate stock, the worker's relative risk aversion, the amount of non-PRA wealth that the worker will have available at retirement, and the expense ratios charged for the investment. At modest levels of risk aversion, or in the presence of substantial non-PRA wealth at retirement, the historical pattern of stock and bond returns implies that the expected utility of investing completely in diversified stocks is greater than that from any of the more conservative strategies. Higher risk aversion or lower expected returns on stocks raises the expected utility of portfolios that include less risky assets. There often exists a fixed-proportions portfolio of stocks and inflationindexed government bonds that yields expected utility at retirement that is at least as high as that from typical lifecycle investment strategies. When asset allocation is near the allocation that generates the highest expected utility, variation in expense ratios has a greater effect on retirement utility than variation in asset allocation.


When the term gained currency in the 1960s, the dominant image of postmodernism in both academic discourses and in the popular imagination was one of elitist "art pour art." Theoretical discussions tended to focus on formal and linguistic experimentation, and studies as diverse as those by Brian McHale and Ihab Hassan identified a list of techniques, including pastiche, briccolage, appropriation, and misappropriation as defining features of postmodernism. Works that presented extreme formalist experimentation, such as those by Raymond Federman and Marvin Cohen, were celebrated as high postmodern achievements, while works by women or multicultural artists were conspicuously absent in discussions of metafiction, surfiction, or the narcissistic novel.(1) However, at least since the early 1980s, critics have questioned such aesthetic postmodernism by investigating intersections between postmodernism and multiculturalism. Following Andreas Huyssen's statement that "women and minority artists ... added a whole new dimension to the criticism of high modernism and alternative forms of culture" (250), Chicano critics such as Rafael Perez-Torres and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano have sought to relate the experimentalism of Chicana texts to their social, cultural, and historical contexts and have viewed Chicana cultural productions as instances of discursive resistance against dominant ideologies. Norma Alarcon, for instance, has indicated that Chicano works engage in textual politics or "revisionary dialogue" with older forms of representation (99). Similarly, Perez-Torres describes Chicana texts as counterdiscursive, as "writ[ing] through and against, not in place of, dominant and dominating discourses" (34). As a result, in Alarcon's words, "a variety of discourses can be negated, supplemented, modified, and repeated" (99). Unlike early critics, who focus on formal experimentation in their postmodernism criticism, I suggest that postmodernism is a cultural politics that exposes the constructed nature of literary and social conventions. By focusing on Ana Castillo's novel So Far From God (1993) and Sandra Cisneros's short story "Little Miracles, Kept Promises" (1991), I will demonstrate how these authors use an aesthetics of appropriation and pastiche to stage a dialogue between Mexican and Anglo-American traditions. Both incorporate and deconstruct narratives that derive from diverse cultures: Castillo's novel incorporates the family saga and the telenovela (Mexican soap operas), and Cisneros's work makes use of the short story and Mexican-American oral tradition, specifically that of the declamadores. These techniques capture the experiences of Mexican-Americans as a constant process of negotiating two cultures while simultaneously countering eurocentric notions in prose fiction. Their works show that discontinuities in Mexican-American experience motivate experimentation and ground their fiction in historical and material reality. Barbara Kingsolver's 1993 review of Ana Castillo's So Far From God draws attention to this generic hybridization when she characterizes the novel as "the offspring of a union between One Hundred Years of Solitude and `General Hospital'" (1). Castillo's third novel is an outrageous tale about an untraditional Mexican-American family in the New Mexico town of Tome. The story moves in circular fashion from the death and magical resurrection of one of the daughters to her repeated death and resurrection at the end. Kingsolver's description foregrounds Castillo's combination of elements from both "high" and "low" cultures; the novel is a web of intertextual references, blending American literary and popular culture with Mexican-American folklore. Castillo draws on a variety of genres, including the family saga, the telenovela, myth (Pueblo, Apache, and Aztec), cuentos (oral stories), magic realism, comedy, tragedy, folkloric elements such as remedios and recipes, and religious narratives.(2) Such blending of forms highlights issues of representation and of the representability of Mexican-American experience in the novel form. …


Since John von Neumann's seminal work on developing cellular automata models of self-replication, there have been numerous computational studies that have sought to create self-replicating structures or "machines". Cellular automata (CA) has been the most widely used method in these studies, with manual designs yielding a number of specific self-replicating structures. However, it has been found to be very difficult, in general, to design local state-transition rules that, when they operate concurrently in each cell of the cellular space, produce a desired global behavior such as self-replication. This has greatly limited the number of different self-replicating structures designed and studied to date.
In this dissertation, I explore the feasibility of overcoming this difficulty by using genetic programming (GP) to evolve novel CA self-replication models. I first formulate an approach to representing structures and rules in cellular automata spaces that is amenable to manipulation by the genetic operations used in GP. Then, using this representation, I demonstrate that it is possible to create a "replicator factory" that provides an unprecedented ability to automatically generate a whole class of new self-replicating structures and that allows one to systematically investigate the properties of replicating structures as one varies the initial configuration, its size, shape, symmetry, and allowable states. This approach is then extended to incorporate multi-objective fitness criteria, resulting in production of diversified replicators. For example, this allows generation of target structures whose complexity greatly exceeds that of the seed structure itself. Finally, the extended multi-objective replicator factory is further generalized into a structure/rule co-evolution model, such that replicators with unspecified seed structures can also be concurrently evolved, resulting in different structure/rule combinations and having the capability of not only replicating but also carrying out a secondary pre-specified task with different strategies. I conclude that GP provides a powerful method for creating CA models of self-replication.


Abstract A simple model of the effect of a concentrated radial stiffness non-uniformity in a passenger car tire is presented. The model treats the tread band of the tire as a rigid ring supported on a viscoelastic foundation. The distributed radial stiffness is lumped into equivalent horizontal (fore-and-aft) and vertical stiffnesses. The concentrated radial stiffness non-uniformity is modeled by treating the tread band as fixed, and the stiffness non-uniformity as rotating around it at the nominal angular velocity of the wheel. Due to loading, the center of mass of the tread band ring model is displaced upward with respect to the wheel spindle and, therefore, the rotating stiffness non-uniformity is alternately compressed and stretched through one complete rotation. This stretching and compressing of the stiffness non-uniformity results in force transmission to the wheel spindle at twice the nominal angular velocity in frequency, and therefore, would excite a given resonance at one-half the nominal angular wheel velocity that a mass unbalance would. The forcing produced by the stiffness non-uniformity is parametric in nature, thus creating the possibility of parametric resonance. The basic theory of the parametric resonance is explained, and a parameter study using derived lumped parameters based on a typical passenger car tire is performed. This study revealed that parametric resonance in passenger car tires, although possible, is unlikely at normal highway speeds as predicted by this model unless the tire is partially deflated.


In recent years, efforts to institutionalise resource security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region have intensified. Soaring world prices for minerals and energy have seen a range of resource security strategies launched—through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), ASEAN Plus Three, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the East Asia Summit—all of which aim to promote intergovernmental dialogue, policy coordination and the integration of regional resource markets. However, the practical achievements of these regional efforts have been limited, as none have advanced beyond dialogue activities to more formalised types of resource security cooperation. This article examines the dynamics of these abortive attempts to regionalise resource cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, arguing that economic nationalist resource policy preferences held by governments have acted as a major obstacle to cooperation. Through an analysis of national resource policy regimes and the outputs of recent cooperative efforts, it demonstrates how economic nationalism has encouraged inward-looking and sovereignty-conscious actions on the part of major resource players in the Asia-Pacific. As a result, intergovernmental resource cooperation has been limited to informal and voluntary 'soft-law' initiatives, which have not made a substantive contribution to the resource security of economies in the region.


The Formation of Christianity in Antioch: A Social-Scientific Approach to the Separation between Judaism and Christianity, by Magnus Zetterholm. Routledge Early Church Monographs. London/New York: Routledge, 2003. Pp. xiv + 272. $92.95 (hardcover). ISBN 0415298962. Historical analysis of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in the first centuries of the Common Era, long a central concern in the study of Christian origins, seems to be approaching a crossroads. The general "Parting of the Ways" model that has dominated scholarship since the second World War has become the object of substantial and serious criticism (see, e.g., Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds., The Ways That Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages [TSAJ 95; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003]). And Paul, traditionally regarded as a (if not the) decisive figure in this respect, has himself been read "within Judaism" in an increasing number of recent studies (see on this point John G. Gager, Reinventing Paul [New York: Oxford University Press, 2000]). Yet another sign of the healthy reconsideration of conventional wisdom on this matter is the revised version of Magnus Zetterholm's doctoral dissertation (Lund University, 2001), which brings current sociological theory to bear on the separation as it occurred in one specific location, Antioch-on-the-Orontes. The book's provocative thesis is that the "parting of the ways," at least here, was essentially an inner-Christian affair: the result of a conscious effort by "Jesus-believing Gentiles" to dissociate themselves from the "Jesus-believing Jews" to whose community they were attached. What is more, it was not Paul who laid the groundwork for this separation, but James. In the first chapter, Zetterholm explains that the approach to the general problem of the separation of Judaism and Christianity taken by James D. G. Dunn's The Parting of the Ways (London: SCM, 1991) is inadequate on three scores: its limited focus on "ideological aspects" (Zetterholm will deal with these, but "within a sociological framework" [p. 4]); its notion that Paul meant to replace "the Torah with faith in Christ for both Jews and Gentiles" (Zetterholm assumes, with Gager, that Paul envisioned separate paths to salvation for Jews and Gentiles [p. 5]); and, most interestingly, its assumption that "the original Jewish and Gentile identities of the adherents to the Jesus movement are transformed into a common Christian identity" (Zetterholm prefers to speak of "Jesus-believing Jews" and "Jesus-believing Gentiles" [p. 6, his emphasis]). Since the separation cannot in any case be assumed to have occurred uniformly everywhere, Zetterholm limits his study to one location: Antioch. Given the paucity and questionable reliability of the sources, Zetterholm finds sociological theories to be indispensable "gap-fillers," indeed, "providers of information" in those cases where "the alternative," given the state of the evidence, "is to say nothing" (pp. 10, 11). He thus proposes a four-part method involving (i) the assumption of the general theoretical perspective of the sociology of knowledge as presented by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman, The Social Construction of Reality (London: Penguin, 1991); (ii) the use of more specific sociological theories and models to illuminate particular problems; (iii) comparative study of other data from antiquity; and, of course, (iv) analysis of the primaiy source material from Antioch. A case is considered made "if we find something in texts about the local situation in Antioch that makes sense from an underlying social-scientific perspective, and if this text can be analyzed with modern theories in order to extract more information from it, and if we also find expressions of the same phenomenon in other ancient texts dealing with other locations" (p. 14). In eh. 2, Zetterholm provides a broad treatment of the history of, and sociopolitical conditions in, ancient Antioch in order to provide a general context for the study. …


Toni Morrison has said in her Nobel acceptance speech, "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." How we "do language" in judicial decisions about infanticide can perhaps be compared to and informed by fiction such as Toni Morrison's Beloved.Beloved provides a fictional account of the life of a historical woman, a slave who escaped to freedom and then attempted to kill all four of her children, successfully killing one when her master came to claim her under the Fugitive Slave Act. In addition to telling a story about infanticide, which not only the typical reader but also characters in the novel find impossible to understand, Beloved is a story about the spectrum of love from hate to smothering affection. The novel suggests that understanding infanticide depends upon a notion of outlaw justice that is grounded in a mother's private ethics. The mother's action becomes comprehensible, if at all, only through "love for the other," through Morrison's use of legal narrative which helps readers to begin to understand the other. We view the infanticidal mother as "other" as a result of our binary, hierarchized thinking. "Love for the other" can take place when we refuse to label the infanticidal mother as "other," when we privilege the "other," and begin to hear pieces of her story from her view, when we allow her to be a speaking subject. Before examining the novel, Part I of this article compares the plot of Beloved with Modern Medea, the nonfiction account of the slave mother who committed infanticide and who served as the inspiration for Morrison's main character. Part II explores ways in which law constructs definitions of motherhood, especially of mothers who kill their children — by pecularizing women, by silencing women, and by labeling mothers who kill their children as either "bad or mad." Part III then examines the historical and fictional reaction to infanticide in both Beloved and Modern Medea in order to show how discourse constructs motherhood and how difficult it is to respond to infanticide with love for the other. Both the historical and fictional communities ostracized the slave mother as "other" and refused to understand the circumstances or motivation for the murder. Part III weaves together the narrative threads Morrison uses to help the reader overcome the community's bias and to understand the mother's murder. Although the reader may not condone the mother's action, the reader of Beloved may be able to see her not as "other," but with "other love" as a speaking subject, and thus perceive the circumstances that led to the infanticide.Part IV of this article is a selected sampling of Texas judicial decisions and news reports of cases of infanticide by Texas mothers from 1899 to the present, and Part V analyzes trial and media responses to the infanticides by Andrea Yates, a Houston mother who drowned her five children. Both Parts IV and V examine how juridico-legal discourse constructs mothers who kill their children. Finally, this article concludes by arguing that legal narratives of infanticide could benefit by striving to fully hear and record the accused mother's tale not as "other," but with "other love," to understand the complexity of a mother's experience.


Prague-born Michael Konupek emigrated to Norway in 1977 and became a recognized prose writer there. His novel Rutenia (Ruthenia) from 2013 is a sequel of sorts to his earlier novel I sin tid (1993, At One Point ), which told the story of a Czech exile trying to cope with the reality of a new life in a foreign country – Norway. The main character and narrator of Rutenia is also a Czech exile living in Norway (arriving in 1975), and some of the characters from I sin tid also appear in this novel. This time, however, the story involves an even more manifold set of mutually clashing and intermingling cultures: apart from contrasting northern with central Europe, the novel also deals with the differences between Western Europe and the Soviet Union/Russia. The protagonist would love to forget his past, but he cannot help constantly thinking about his roots and the curious multicultural circumstances that had determined his fate. What plays a crucial role in his musings on his life is Ruthenia, a region in Eastern Europe where his mother, who moved to Prague in 1945, was born. Ruthenia has had many different names and its borders have shifted many times due to frequent struggles between various powers; for some time, it was even an autonomous part of Czechoslovakia. The 'country' of Ruthenia comes to reflect the main character's ambivalent feelings: it is both a real region from which it is best to escape and, at the same time, the promised land.


In environments characterised by active tectonics, it is widely accepted that river morphology will be affected by active fault displacement. For example, there is documented evidence of change in channel slope, channel width, channel braiding patterns, grain size distribution trends, and stream power in response to active faults. Therefore, river morphology can carry a measurable signature of tectonic activity. Furthermore, it can be hypothesised that fluvial systems are in fact more sensitive to local faulting than raw topographic expression. This would mean that young active faults will affect river morphology before they are expressed in the local topography. Therefore, detailed morphological measurements of rivers in tectonic settings could allow for an early detection of faulting which is not yet expressed in the landscape.

The Dehradun region of the Northwest Himalayan foothills is an ideal test case for this hypothesis. In this area, the Ganges and Yamuna rivers flow across an active thrust fault system, which is not yet clearly visible in the landscape. Therefore, longitudinal river profiles of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers from the Lesser Himalaya mountain front to ~35 km into the Gangetic Plain were extracted from a 90 m Digital Elevation Model and hydraulic features, including width of channel belt, channel slope, and geomorphic characteristics, were collected from IRS 23.5 m satellite images. Stream power was calculated by using channel slope and monthly discharge data. These data were complemented by field measurements of bed material grain sizes at ~5 km intervals. All data were analysed for the ~80 km Ganges and Yamuna reaches flowing from the Main Boundary Thrust, through the alluvial Dehra Dun valley and across the suspected active Himalayan Frontal Thrust, and ~35 km out into the Indo-Gangetic foreland.

The longitudinal profile, width of channel belt, channel slope, braiding relationship, pattern of stream power, and grain size distribution all indicate river response to active slip on the Himalayan Frontal Thrust. Most importantly, channel slope (0.063) increases in response to an uplifted bed, and elevation drop over the fault axis. The Yamuna channel slope shallows upstream of, and proximal to the HFT (~0.0025) and steepens across the fault axis to (~0.0035) in response to an uplifted bed and elevation drop. Width of channel belts narrow across the HFT in response to constriction by uplifted topography from ~1500 m upstream to ~500 m across the HFT. This is reflected in the braiding index as both rivers flow as one channel across the HFT and as many channels in the Dun and foreland. The grain size trend along the Ganges reflects downstream fining by selective entrainment throughout the entire study reach with no variation interpreted as having a high enough stream power to move all sediment. The Yamuna indicates downstream fining through the Dun valley, yet grain size increases immediately, upstream of the HFT. This is interpreted as being due to low stream power within the Mohand Anticline caused by a low discharge and shallowing channel slope.

This study concludes that the Ganges and Yamuna rivers are responding to active tectonic uplift of the HFT in the Dehradun basin, Northwest India.


In this paper, we empirically analyze the effects of trade reforms on import demand and derive their implications on economic development in Turkey, a country that underwent sudden and substantial trade liberalization in the mid-1980s. The tool for this analysis is the estimation of disaggregated import demand elasticities. The adoption of a more liberal trade regime as well as radical attempts to foster economic development makes the Turkish experience particularly interesting for analysis. Almost all of our elasticities are estimated to be significant, unlike those of most previous studies in the literature on other countries. We test for different elasticities over "closed" and "open" economy periods, and find that the effects of the trade reforms of the 1980s were significant for a number of industries that form the backbone of the Turkish economy. We also compare our results with elasticity estimates from past studies for developed countries.


Single crystal calcium fluoride (CaF2) is an important material for vacuum-ultraviolet optics. Nevertheless, prolonged exposure to energetic radiation can color the material by producing calcium metal nanoparticles. We compare the effectiveness of laser conditioning treatments at wavelengths ranging from the near infrared to the deep ultraviolet in removing this coloration. Treatments at 157, 532, and 1064 nm can significantly reduce the visible coloration due to nanoparticles. In contrast, irradiation at 248 nm has little effect at fluences below the damage threshold for the material employed in this work. We present evidence that the effect of laser irradiation on coloration is principally thermal and is largely confined to the first 50 ns after each laser pulse. We attribute the wavelength dependence of the bleaching process to the wavelength dependence associated with Mie absorption by metal nanoparticles. The consequences of these observations with regard to laser conditioning processes in bulk optical materials are discussed.


The language of recovery is now widely used in mental health policy, services, and research. Yet the term has disparate antecedents, and is used in a variety of ways. Some of the history of the use of the term recovery is surveyed, with particular attention to the new meaning of the term, especially as identified by service users, supported and taken up to various degrees by research and in the professional literature. Policy and practice in two countries – Australia and the United Kingdom – are examined to determine the manner and extent to which the concept of recovery is evident. In its new meaning, the concept of recovery has the potential to bring about profound and needed changes in mental health theory and practice. It is being taken up differently in different settings. It is clear that – at least in Australia and the United Kingdom – there are promising new recovery models and practices that support recovery, but the widespread use of recovery language is not enough to ensure that the core principles of the recovery model are implemented.


"Time of Doubles" is an immersive interactive art installation. It invites visitors to experience mirror existences of themselves taking upon new roles as sources of energy and kinetic disturbance within a virtual ecosystem, a uniquely created computational world. Visitors encounter their doubles in a deep hyper space with 3D stereoscopic projection and 3D depth cameras. The immersive projection dissolves the illusion of a window to form an entryway into a shared, co-present world, and the volumetric sensors take the visitors beyond avatar-based representation to become embodied within a world of physical simulation. This world displays some familiar characteristics as our own, but is populated by unfamiliar life-forms swimming through the sensitive motions of dark fluids and singing continuously. The visitor doubles are energy fields which emanate myriad bright fluid particles, food sources which are eaten by the virtual organisms. Visitors hear, see and feel how they are fed to unknown species in the virtual ecosystem aesthetically. Without visitors, the world-fluid is filled with life seeds that cannot grow, but with a human presence the populations explode into alien orchestras. Larger organisms leave physical residues and films behind as they pass, which constrain the fluid flows and which can be sculpted by visitor doubles.


In this paper we examine whether indirect detection constraints on dark matter associated with a nonthermal history may be significantly improved when accounting for the presence of Galactic substructure in the form of dark matter spikes. We find that significant constraints may be derived from the nonobservation of an excess of diffuse gamma rays and from the properties of bright gamma-ray point sources observed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, but these constraints depend sensitively on the details of the formation of the first stars and their subsequent black hole remnants. However, we also find that, especially if WIMPs annihilate primarily to quarks or gauge bosons, it is possible to extract meaningful and conservative bounds on the annihilation cross section.


The very long shadow of 1914. Remarks on Stephan Wackwitz' An Invisible Land
In 2014, it is a hundred years since the beginning of the First World War (1914-1918), widely seen as "the great seminal catastrophe of the 20th century" (George F. Kennan 1979). With this Great War, the old European world of the 19th century came to an end, and the seeds of destruction were laid for so many great disasters of the 20th century, such as National Socialism, the Holocaust and the Second World War. In German communicative memory however, the First World War only has a secondary place; the preoccupation with 'Auschwitz' and the Holocaust seems to overshadow everything else. This is especially true for German contemporary 'Family Novels' or 'Generational Novels', the narratives of which trace resistance or the guilt of the fathers, combining personal and social history in family memories. Stephan Wackwitz' Ein unsichtbares Land (2003) cannot, as has been done, simply be categorized as another 'family novel' in this context. Only indirectly does it deal with family guilt and the Holocaust. Rather it describes a grandson's quest for the world of his grandfather who returned from the battlefields in 1918 without being able to concede defeat. Instead, he stubbornly preserved the "ideas of 1914", a culture of extreme German Nationalism, combined with an overreaching masculinity, and turned it into a world of phantasms. Wackwitz' hybrid autobiographical text, hovering between the documentary and the fictional, does not only follow his grandfather's tracks, but also has a genuine autobiographical dimension, as the grandson finds himself deeply entangled in his grandfather's "Invisible Land", the features of which he describes as ghosts and phantoms. Wackwitz' rebellion within the German Student Movement turns out to be, unwittingly, a reproduction of the very thought patterns that had dominated his grandfather's life, with only the authorities changed. In a thorough reflection of the roots of his own values, Wackwitz is able to overcome the old structures and their roots in a destructive trait of 19th century thought.


This work is focused on the simulation assisted design of anode grid based ICCP systems applied to exterior surfaces of tank bases. The simulation software allows representation of the anode grid and the intersecting grid of distribution bars, together with power supply and return cables, including resistances of each of these components and of connections between them. Solution of the electrical circuit equations provides current flow and electrical potential throughout the grid of anode ribbons and distribution bars. Current flowing into the surrounding electrolyte from the anode ribbons, and into the surface of the tank base from the electrolyte, is described using polarization curves, which define the non-linear relationship between current density and potential difference across the metal / adjacent electrolyte junction. Current flowing through the electrolyte is determined by solving the Laplacian equation, using the boundary element method. The entire process is non-linear, and is solved iteratively. The results of the mathematical modelling include current density and protection potentials on all parts of the tank base, as well as power loss, current and potential throughout the circuit. Performance of a CP system design is assessed by making the simulation software automatically adjust the ICCP output to satisfy some criterion, such as a required potential at a reference electrode. Bounds can be defined within which the adjustment must stay, as a result of which it may not always be possible to satisfy the design criteria. Robustness of the CP Design can be determined by performing what-if studies investigating different damage scenarios, for example failure of one or more welds, or of a cable connection. Effects of adding resistances to some of the power supply cables can be determined, so that use of this method as a possible remedial technique (or some other form of power splitting) can be investigated. The paper describes and discusses all aspects of the methodology, which it then applies to several different ICCP designs.


We describe a latent variable model for supervised dimensionality reduction and distance metric learning. The model discovers linear projections of high dimensional data that shrink the distance between similarly labeled inputs and expand the distance between differently labeled ones. The model's continuous latent variables locate pairs of examples in a latent space of lower dimensionality. The model differs significantly from classical factor analysis in that the posterior distribution over these latent variables is not always multivariate Gaussian. Nevertheless we show that inference is completely tractable and derive an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for parameter estimation. We also compare the model to other approaches in distance metric learning. The model's main advantage is its simplicity: at each iteration of the EM algorithm, the distance metric is re-estimated by solving an unconstrained least-squares problem. Experiments show that these simple updates are highly effective.


This study responds to the call in recent research for comparative studies examining whether student entrepreneurs are different to other kinds of entrepreneurs. Based on institutional theory, the specific question we ask in this study is whether student entrepreneurs who start up their firms in close relation to the university have a different resource logic compared to entrepreneurs who start their firms outside the university context. We define resource logic as the individual's set of ideas for how to secure and use resources, and we link this concept to theories of effectual reasoning and bootstrapping to develop our argument. Moreover, we identify two different viewpoints about the effects of the university milieu on the resource logic of student entrepreneurs and we develop hypotheses to test the different viewpoints. The findings give overall support for the view that student entrepreneurs have developed a resource logic that favours both effectual reasoning and the use of bootstrapping methods.


ABSTRACT
Capital market is an economic instrument that will play a very considerable role to progress the future economic growth. One of the efforts ahead is to build a capital market based on fair and orderly market principles. It is significant, considering the community reliance towards the capital market is the prerequisite to attract capitals and investment. Therefore all market systems and mechanisms should constantly hold distinct rule of game, where the rule of game reflected to the law enactment should be able to arrange the movements and steps of the actors in performing activities at the Capital Market.
This research intended to know wheter the penal instrument formulated in Law No. 8/1995 already use to cope with the capital market crime occurences. The background of that question is the void of the capital market encroachment and crime cases reaching either at the investigation stage or summoning to court.
The research result indicates that BAPEPAM (the Capital Market Supervisory Board), as an institution of capital market supervisor to employ administrative sanctions againts the capital market criminals. It is not to use the penal instrument for the penal instrument for the capital market crimes, based on 3 (three) items. First, the formulation policy concerning criminal stipulation itself in Law No. 8/1995 has some improprieties, either according to its formulation or its criminal system policy and penalty as well.
Second, the Capital Market Supervisory Board's policy itself much more plays role as corrective body, minimizing the existence of measure or punihmenst againts the lawbreakers. The administrative sanction just applied, after all corrective steps executed by the Capital Market Supervisory Board considered couldn't solve the problems. Consequently the Capital. Market Investment Supervisory Board's PPNS has never been used efficiently to handle the capital market crimes, that the criminal stipulation of Law No. 8/1995, natularly, not to be used.
Third, for the application phase there found the perception differences and points of view among law enforcement apparatus. Those differences amerge in terms of older of their handling procedure as well as the comprehension of the capital market offences themselves. That cause the crimes processed through the criminal justice mechanism to become abscure and its solution imperfectly completed.


Abstract An outbreak of a deadly disease pushes policymakers to depress economic activity due to externalities associated with individual behavior. Sometimes, these decisions are left to local authorities (e.g., states). This creates another externality, as the outbreak doesn't respect states' boundaries. A strategic Pigouvian subsidy that rewards states which depress their economies more than the average corrects that externality by creating a race‐to‐the‐bottom type of response. In a symmetric equilibrium nobody receives a subsidy, but the allocation is efficient. If states are concerned about unequal burden of the lockdown costs, but cannot easily issue new debt to finance transfer payments, then lock‐downs will be insufficient in some areas and excessive in others. When that's the case, federal stimulus checks can limit the extent of local outbreaks.


Strengthening exercise for lower limbs is required in elderly. Repeated sit to stands could improve lower limbs strength, reduce limitations, and fall. The researchers developed a Sit to Stand Trainer, a device that assists and offers variable levels of weight support for users to stand. It was validated by comparing the kinematics and the kinetics between 2 experimental conditions; the movement that was assisted by Sit to Stand Trainer (STST) and the natural movement that was unassisted by Sit to Stand Trainer (No STST). This study is an Experimental Design using Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The time span of the observed movement was 2.5 s for all trials. The results in kinematics showed significant similarity in trunk, hip, knee, ankle angles and angular velocities including speed and distance of head between No STST to STST (P = 0.000). However, in kinetics, the maximum of vGRFs showed significant decrease in STST compared to No STST (P = 0.000). This represent that this device produces natural movement and speed. It also supports and helps to reduce the body weight that contacted to the ground in order to stand up easier. Thus, therapists could possibly consider this device for training in clinical practice. This research was studied within 6 weeks into training with Sit to Stand Trainer. This part of the study is a Quasi-Experimental Designs using Paired Samples T-tests. The results of the T-tests were compared before and after the training. The results showed a significant improvement in physical outcomes measurement tests; Berg Balance Scale (P = 0.000), 30-second Chair Stand (P = 0.001) and 4meter Gait Speed (P = 0.000) among the elderly.


Modern trading technology clashes with the traditional organization of a stock exchange, where transactions were consummated via face-to-face negotiation. The modern trading facility is no longer a place. Rather, it is a computer system over which transactions are entered, routed, executed and cleared electronically with little or no human intervention. In this article, I examine how electronic trading has altered stock markets. I begin with an overview of how the stock trading process works and then address a number of questions. How have the jobs of traditional stock market dealers on the NYSE and on Nasdaq been affected by electronic trading? How do electronic communications networks differ from traditional markets? How has electronic trading affected bid-ask spreads and commission costs? What subtle issues arise in electronic trading when dealer and customer interests diverge? Will computer programs replace human judgment? What is the effect of electronic trading on the number and types of securities markets? What is the role of regulation in electronic markets?


Although the regulatory framework of Lithuanian capital market is well balanced ant meets the requirements of EU, marketsurveillance authorities are effectively functioning, Vilnius Stock Exchange is integrated into the NASDAQ trading system, themain objective of capital market, defined as accumulation of funds to investments into SMEs, is not implemented. Therefore the objective of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing Lithuanian capital market development issues and identify the ways toincrease its efficiency.


Based on the hypothesis that microdata are of crucial importance for internationally competitiveeconomic research and scientific advice in economic and social policy, the authorsdevelop various proposals for an improved data supply for empirical work in Germany. Present shortcomings are mainly caused by a lack of coordination between data collecting institutions and scientific users, extensive privacy protection provisions and restrictive information policy of government agencies. In order to overcome these problems, the authors ask for improved participation of scientific users in data collection; provision of recent techniques for data anonymization and decentralized use of confidential centralized data; liberalization of scientific data access; and creation of a documentation center for organization and standardization of data and data access. Finally, empirical economics, especially application of microdata and modern tools of data analysis, should be emphasized within the framework of university education.


The long-standing Erdős-Hajnal conjecture states that for every $n$-vertex undirected graph $H$ there exists $\epsilon(H)>0$ such that every graph $G$ that does not contain $H$ as an induced subgraph contains a clique or an independent set of size at least $n^{\epsilon(H)}$. A natural weakening of the conjecture states that the polynomial-size clique/independent set phenomenon occurs if one excludes both $H$ and its complement $H^\mathrm{c}$. These conjectures have been shown to hold for only a handful of graphs: it is not even known if they hold for all graphs on $5$ vertices.In a recent breakthrough, the symmetrized version of the Erdős-Hajnal conjecture was shown to hold for all paths. The goal of this paper is to show that the symmetrized conjecture holds for all trees on $6$ (or fewer) vertices. In fact this is a consequence of showing that the symmetrized conjecture holds for any path with a pendant edge at its third vertex; thus we also give a new infinite family of graphs for which the symmetrized conjecture holds.


We use the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 9 (DR9) to detect and measure the position of the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the three-dimensional correlation function in the Lyman-α flux fluctuations at a redshift zeff = 2.4. The feature is clearly detected at significance between 3 and 5 sigma (depending on the broadband model and method of error covariance matrix estimation) and is consistent with predictions of the standard ΛCDM model. We assess the biases in our method, stability of the error covariance matrix and possible systematic effects. We fit the resulting correlation function with several models that decouple the broadband and acoustic scale information. For an isotropic dilation factor, we measure 100 × (αiso − 1) = −1.6+2.0 +4.3 +7.4−2.0 −4.1 −6.8 (stat.) ±1.0 (syst.) (multiple statistical errors denote 1,2 and 3 sigma confidence limits) with respect to the acoustic scale in the fiducial cosmological model (flat ΛCDM with Ωm = 0.27, h = 0.7). When fitting separately for the radial and transversal dilation factors we find marginalised constraints 100 × (α|| − 1) = −1.3+3.5 +7.6 +12.3−3.3 −6.7 −10.2 (stat.) ±2.0 (syst.) and 100 × (α⊥ − 1) = −2.2+7.4 +17−7.1 −15 (stat.) ±3.0 (syst.). The dilation factor measurements are significantly correlated with cross-correlation coefficient of ~ −0.55. Errors become significantly non-Gaussian for deviations over 3 standard deviations from best fit value. Because of the data cuts and analysis method, these measurements give tighter constraints than a previous BAO analysis of the BOSS DR9 Lyman-α sample, providing an important consistency test of the standard cosmological model in a new redshift regime.


Welcome to this issue of the FEPSAC Newsletter – Federation Europeenne de Psychologie des Sport et des Activites Corporelles (European Federation of Sport Psychology).

1. B-WISER: Let's support elite athletes' employability and employment
By Simon Defruyt (Vrije Unvirsiteit Brussel).
As elite athletes are often challenged in their vocational development outside of elite sport, they may be confronted with reduced opportunities in employability and actual employment during, as well as after their elite athletic career. The project 'Be a Winner In elite Sport and Employment before and after athletic Retirement' (B-WISER) is a 2-year project, co-funded by the Erasmus + programme, which allows 13 partner organisations from six EU Member States (i.e., Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) and 8 expert organisations (The Adecco Group, IOC, IPC, EOC, UEAPME, Schuman associates, Kapito HR, and Unizo) to examine the vocational development of elite and former elite athletes in order to develop best practices. In the opening phase (WP1), the B-WISER project will identify existing structures and measures on the support of 'elite sport and employment'. Subsequently, in WP2 the project will identify the competences that athletes require to combine 'elite sport and employment', and also the competences they require to successfully make the transition from elite sport to the labour market at the end of their elite sports career. In the next phase, the B-WISER project will examine the added value of employing (former) athletes for employers (WP3). Finally, based on the results of the previous phases, the project will identify, develop, implement (WP4) and evaluate (WP5) best practices in the participating countries to optimize the matching process between (former) athletes and (future) employers. This will allow educational institutions, sport governing bodies, employers and career counsellors in the participating countries to optimize their support and guidance in 'elite sport and employment' trajectories. More information can be found on the website www.bwiser.eu.

2. Sport and exercise psychology at the 2017 ECSS congress
The European College of Sport Science (ECSS) organizes a yearly congress. At the ECSS Metropolis 2017, a total number of 110 abstracts were submitted in the field of sport and exercise psychology. This equals to a 6.51% of all submissions, resulting in the second highest number of sport and exercise psychology communications presented within the last 8 years of the yearly ECSS Congress (e.g., in 2014 was 7.55%). FEPSAC MC members Anne-Marie Elbe and Markus Raab contributed to the scientific programme with two sessions. Anne-Marie Elbe presented about "Volition in the physical activity context: Measurement of volition and its importance for keeping up regular exercise" in the symposium "Volition in Sport and Physical Activity" chaired by Michael Kellmann from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum. Markus Raab was the chair of the symposium "The psychology of judgements and decision-making in sport and exercise" and his presentation was about "The power of simplicity: Why less is more in sport and exercise choices". Over the past years FEPSAC and ECSS have been working on a closer collaboration and exchanging ideas on how the yearly ECSS Congresses could also become a meeting point for the sport and exercise psychology community. To discuss further collaborations a fruitful meeting between the ECSS board and FEPSAC president Anne-Marie Elbe took place during the congress. As another new initiative a FEPSAC evening took place at the ECSS Congress which was very much enjoyed by all participants. We look forward to the next FEPSAC evening at the ECSS Congress in Dublin in 2018.

3. ISSP congress 2017
FEPSAC would like to congratulate the newly elected President Rob Schinke and the rest of the MC members of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). FEPSAC is looking forward to a close collaboration between FEPSAC and ISSP. During the recently held 2017 ISSP Congress in Seville, FEPSAC MC member Maurizio Bertollo chaired the FEPSAC invited symposium on "Psychological features and interventions in endurance performance" with contributions by Tadhg MacIntyre, Carla Meijen, Selenia di Fronso, Daniel Gucciardi, Antje Hill and Laura Schucker. Furthermore, Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis and Anne-Marie Elbe contributed to the ISSP symposium on "Transnationalism, mobility, and acculturation in and through sport". Last but not least, Karin Moesch contributed to the well-attended symposium "Global efforts in developing credentialing systems for sport and exercise psychologists: Four organizational perspectives" (AASP, FEPSAC, EFPA, and ISSP), with the talk "The FEPSAC certification for specialists in applied sport psychology". Keep an eye on the forthcoming newsletter for a more, in depth overview on FEPSAC's plans for certification.

4. FEPSAC and social media – keep in touch with FEPSAC
Facebook (https://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Fepsac-SportPsy/100010095409342).
Twitter (https://twitter.com/FEPSAC_MC).
On behalf of the MC, we would like to thank all those who contributed to the making of this Newsletter. We look forward to receiving more contributions for forthcoming Issues so do not hesitate to send them by email to firstname.lastname@example.com.


The fungus Myrothecium verrucaria (Alb. & Schwein.) (MV), originally isolated from diseased sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia L.), has bioherbicial activity against kudzu and several other weeds when applied with low concentrations of the surfactant Silwet L-77. To more fully understand the initial events of MV infection or disease progression, and to improve knowledge related to its mechanism of action, the effects of MV and its product (roridin A) on kudzu seedlings were examined at the ultrastructural level. Ultrastructural analysis of MV effects on kudzu seedlings revealed a rapid (~1 h after treatment) detachment of the protoplast from the cell wall and plasmodesmata appeared to be broken off and retained in the wall. These symptoms occurred well in advance of the appearance of any fungal growth structures. Some fungal growth was observed after severe tissue degeneration (24 to 48 h after treatment), but this occurred primarily at the extra-cellular location with respect to the kudzu tissues. Kudzu seedlings treated with roridin A, a trichothecene produced by the fungus, exhibited some symptoms similar to those induced by the fungus applied in spore formulations with surfactant. The overall results are the first to report the ultrastructural effects of this bioherbicide on plants and suggest that penetration of a phytotoxic substance(s) in the fungal formulation was facilitated by the surfactant, and that roridin A exerts phytotoxicity toward kudzu.


High commodity prices have increased interest in the impacts of federal ethanol policies. We present a stochastic, short-run structural model of U.S. corn, ethanol, and gasoline markets to estimate the price and welfare impacts of alternative policies on producers and consumers of corn, ethanol, and gasoline. The three federal policies that we consider are the Renewable Fuels Standard, the blenders tax credit, and the tariff on imported ethanol. Our model examines the impact of these policies on prices during the 2008/09 marketing year. Our results show that in the short run, a change in U.S. ethanol policies would not have a large, immediate impact on corn prices. Eliminating any one of the policies would reduce average corn prices by less than 4%. Removal of all three programs would decrease average corn prices by 14.5%. The reason why the changes are relatively modest is that existing U.S. ethanol plants will only shut down if their variable cost of production is not covered. Changes in ethanol policies would have large distributional impacts. Corn growers, ethanol producers, and fuel consumers have a large incentive to maintain high ethanol consumption. Gasoline producers have a large incentive to reduce ethanol production and imports. Livestock producers have a large short-run incentive to reduce domestic ethanol production.


This report is part of a project to characterize cotton gin emissions from the standpoint of total particulate stack sampling and particle size analyses. In 2006 and again in 2013, the United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a more stringent National Ambient Air Quality Standard for particulate matter with nominal diameter less than or equal to 2.5 µm (PM(2.5)). This created an urgent need to collect additional cotton gin emissions data to address current regulatory issues, because EPA AP-42 cotton gin PM(2.5) emission factors were limited. In addition, current EPA AP-42 emission factor quality ratings for cotton gin PM(10) (particulate matter with nominal diameter less than or equal to 10 µm) data are questionable, being extremely low. The objective of this study was to characterize particulate emissions for cyclone robber systems from cotton gins across the cotton belt based on particle size distribution analysis of total particulate samples from EPA-approved stack sampling methods. Average measured PM(2.5), PM(6), and PM(10) emission factors based on the mass and particle size analyses of EPA Method 17 total particulate filter and wash samples from three gins (12 total test runs) were 0.00042 kg/227-kg bale (0.00093 lb/500-lb bale), 0.0035 kg/bale (0.0078 lb/bale), and 0.0061 kg/bale (0.013 lb/bale), respectively. The cyclone robber system particle size distributions were characterized by an average mass median diameter of 20.3 µm (aerodynamic equivalent diameter). Based on system average emission factors, the ratio of PM(2.5) to total particulate was 2.10%, PM(6) to total particulate was 17.5%, and PM(10) to total particulate was 30.3%.


Purpose of the research was to study the correlation between the gestation period with sex and birth weight of new born calves as the result of artificial insemination (AI) in bali cattle. Data were collected directly from AI technicians in some districts in the province of bali from 1997 to 2003. A total, of 10759 inseminated cows and 799 of which were with completed data of, date of birth, birth weight and sex of calves. The data were collected from 3 districts, involving Gianyar (205 samples), Badung (221 samples) and Bangli (373 samples). Result showed that the gestation period of bali cows were 284.4±5.7 days and birth weight of 18.4±1.6 kg. Sex ratios (male : female) of bali calves resulted from AI in 1997 to 2003 were 1.2:1. There were positive correlation between gestation period and birth weight (P>0.01) as well as between gestation period and sex of calves with a high correlation coefficient (0.075) which proved that male calves had longer gestation period than females. Key Word : Gestation period, birth weight, seks ratio, bali cattle


The daytime equatorial electrojet is a narrow band of enhanced eastward current flowing in the 100 to 120 km altitude region within ±2° latitude of the dip equator. A unique way of determining the daytime strength of the electrojet is to observe the difference in the magnitudes of the Horizontal (H) component between a magnetometer placed directly on the magnetic equator and one displaced 6 to 9 degrees away. The difference between these measured H values provides a direct measure of the daytime electrojet current, and in turn, the magnitude of the vertical ExB drift velocity in the F region ionosphere. This paper discusses a recent study that has established the quantitative relationship between the vertical ExB drift velocity in the ionospheric F region and the daytime strength of the equatorial electrojet in the South American (west coast) longitude sector.


The enforcement of international law through private litigation in domestic tribunals has a long historical pedigree.1 However, the practice's continued viability, proper scope, and general legitimacy are issues of some controversy.2 Perhaps the single greatest point of controversy arises from a domestic tribunal's determination of customary international law, and the application and management of private rights arising out of that law. Many courts in the United States have severely restricted opportunities for private enforcement of international law by implementing rigid rules of construction regarding treaty self-execution, thereby constraining the sources of evidence available to courts when determining privately enforceable "customary" norms of international law. As a result, private plaintiffs are often prohibited from enforcing customary norms of international law when litigating in domestic tribunals.3 In this Development, I argue that a narrow approach to identifying customary norms of international law ignores the legal significance of treaty negotiation. Because a number of countries (including the United States, used herein as an example) traditionally adopt universalist stances during the negotiation of international human rights treaties, domestic tribunals in those nations should look to executive branch pronouncements as indicators of international law norms available for enforcement in domestic tribunals. If a state's executive branch advances a universalist understanding of human rights contained in a treaty, the executive branch's statements on the universality of the legal norm should support private enforcement of the norm, even if the treaty is not self-executing or if the state does not ratify the treaty. Such an approach would speed the adoption of emerging human rights norms by cultural-relativist nations, and would simultaneously allow courts to take advantage of the executive branch's superior institutional competence in the realm of foreign affairs. Given the undeniable importance of executive branch pronouncements in determining international law,4 courts should begin to take note of universalist and cultural-relativist stances during the negotiation of non-self-executing and non-ratified treaties, and should use those statements to guide their determination of privately enforceable norms in that state's domestic tribunals. I. PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT OF CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE UNITED STATES The Alien Tort Claims Act ("ATCA") provides that "[t]he district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States."5 The statute arguably contains both jurisdictional and substantive components: the act provides jurisdiction over cases arising under the law of nations, requiring courts to determine the substantive principles governing those suits.6 American courts have split in their interpretation of the ATCA's applicability to several sources of the "law of nations" (specifically, non-self-executing treaties and unembodied "customary norms" of international law). The majority of courts provide plaintiffs with a substantive right of action for violations of the "law of nations" under the ATCA.7 When faced with disputes arising under the ATCA, domestic tribunals in these jurisdictions attempt to "ascertain customary international law 'by consulting the works of jurists, writing professedly on public law; or by the general usage and practice of nations; or by judicial decisions recognizing and enforcing that law.'"8 In addition to these sources, courts also look to non-self-executing treaties and other international agreements to discern universally accepted norms of international law.9 Once an international law norm has been identified, the majority of courts provide private plaintiffs a right of action for violations of that international norm under the ATCA's "substantive component," using normal standing principles to determine whether a specific plaintiff can bring a civil action for violations of that customary international norm. …


The Body's Recollection of Being-David Michael Levin 2002-01-04 This is a unique study, contuining the work of Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, and using the techniques of phenomenology against the prevailing nihilism of our culture. It expands our understanding of the human potential for spiritual self-realization by interpreting it as the developing of a bodily-felt awareness informing our gestures and movements. The author argues that a psychological focus on our experience of well-being and pathology as embodied beings contributes significantly to a historically relevant critique of ideology. It also provides an essential touchstone in experience for a fruitful individual and collective response to the danger of nihilism. Dr Levin draws on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology to clarify Heidegger's analytic of human beings through an interpretation that focuses on our experience of being embodied. He reconstructs in modern terms the wisdom implicit in western and semitic forms of religion and philosophy, considering the work of Freud, Jung, Focault and Neitzsche, as well as that of American educational philosophers, including Dewey. In particular, he draws on the psychology of Freud and Jung to clarify our historical experience of gesture and movement and to bring to light its potential in the fulfilment of Selfhood. Throughout the book, the pathologies of the ego and its journey into Selfhood are considered in relation to the conditons of technology and the powers of nihilism.


This article investigates the degree of capital mobility in Sweden during 1993 to 2004 using quarterly data. A time varying parameter model is estimated by the Kalman filter, and it shows that the relationship between investment as share in gross domestic product (GDP) and saving as share in GDP is much less than one (within the interval of 0.25–0.35), indicating substantial capital mobility. However, since the coefficient in each period is statistically different from zero, capital is still not perfectly mobile. Nevertheless, capital mobility seems to have increased until 1995 when Sweden became a member of EU and after membership there seems to be no significant increase in capital mobility.


The aim of this research was to identify the lived experiences of adult students with a spinal cord injury (SCI) returning to study in Bangladesh. A narrative enquiry approach in a qualitative research design was chosen as a methodological framework. 16 participants were interviewed and the research identified seven themes. The results highlight gaps in current rehabilitation and educational practices in Bangladesh that impact the academic participation of students with SCI. It suggests occupational therapists should facilitate meaningful participation at the academic institute by maximising advocacy at different levels, among students, teachers, community and policymakers, to enable equitable participation for non-SCI students. A more comprehensive understanding of these issues and their implications for academic institutes could be gained by investigating the perspectives of other groups of people, such as teachers, families, friends and peers of students with SCI.


This paper presents experiments that evaluate the effect of different video segmentation methods on text-based video retrieval. Segmentations relying on modalities like speech, video and text or their combination are compared with a baseline sliding window segmentation. The results suggest that even with the sliding window segmentation, acceptable performance can be obtained on a broadcast news retrieval task. Moreover, in the case where manually segmented data are available for training, the approach combining the different modalities can lead to IR results close to those obtained with a manual segmentation.


Objective To study operation feasibility and prepadness of a a tablet-based participatory syndromic surveillance among pilgrims during annual ritual circumbulation (Panchkroshi Yatra) coveirng 15 miles daily in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh India Introduction Panchkroshi yatra is an annual ritual of circumambulation ( yatra ) of temples ( Mahadevs ) and 100,000 devotees walk for around 15 miles per day for six days and cover a total of 73 miles to worship important Mahadevs . The festival is held every year at the city of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, Central India. The yatra attracts large number of pilgrims especially from rural areas and usually women outnumber men. During the yatra, the pilgrims halt at several places and prepare their food in outdoors. We described the public health preparedness, implemented a tablet-based participatory syndromic surveillance among pilgrims of the yatra and reviewed satisfaction of the pilgrims regarding implementation of public health measures, Ujjain during 21-26, April, 2017. Methods We described preparedness and arrangements done for the Yatra . We designed tablet-based android to collect information from pilgrims on socio-demographic-economic details, location and self-reported health problems (syndromes). Trained investigators collected data from consenting pilgrims at strategically located halting places. We interviewed a convenient sample of consenting participants to assess satisfaction regarding the public health measures such as sanitation, water, safety, food and cleanliness. Results The district team organized round-the-clock medical camps in strategic locations (mainly at temple or halting place) of the route of the Yatra with few camps having admission facility for emergency conditions. There were no mobile medical units. Ambulance services were on standby at all medical camps. Our satisfactory survey of 360 participants indicated that 79% were satisfied with these medical facilities (79%). District administration alongwith local village administration ( panchayat ) had set up outlets selling provisions necessary meeting cooking needs. Eighty percent pilgrims were satisfied with food and refreshment arrangements. Permanent and temporary toilets were set-up at the halt-locations but not on the route. Snitation measures such as chlorination and solid waste management were in place. Pilgrims' satisfaction for urinals (53%) and toilets (60%) was less as compared to cleanliness (74%). Electrical supply and lighting were arranged properly. Volunteers were available to provide assistance to pilgrims. Provision of safe drinking water and potable water were arranged by the authorities and the village-residents made water available through well, pots etc. The survey suggested that only 5% of them were not satisfied with water related arrangements. Security arrangements such as deployment of police, crowd management, and traffic control and fire safety were well-arranged by the authorities and majority of the respondents expressed satisfaction on these arrangements (79-84%). We interviewed 6435 pilgrims for any self-reported symptoms. More than half (56%) of the responders were female and majority (64%) aged 15- 59 years. Around 44% were from Ujjain district. Every second person (around 47%) reported illness with one or other symptoms. Most of them complained of injury with blister (11%). Other common complaints include stomach ache (8%), redness in eyes (7%), fever (7%), cough (6%), vomiting (4%), diarrhea (4%) and throat pain (3%) (Figure) Conclusions The participants' response indicates that all the public health and safety measures were satisfactory except the need for setting up urinals along the fixed route of circumambulation. Table-based surveillance during the yatra indicated that injury was the most commonly self-reported health problem. Implementation of such surveillance helps in tracking health events and therefore, may facilitate preparedness and response. We recommend implementation of such tablet-based surveillance during such mass gathering events. References 1. Qanta A Ahmed, Yaseen M Arabi, Ziad A Memish, Health risks at the Hajj, Lancet 2006; 367: 1008–15 2. Tam JS, Barbeschi M, Shapovalova N, Briand S, Memish ZA & Kieny MP. Research agenda for mass gatherings: a call to action. The Lancet infectious diseases, 2012;12,3, 231-239 3. Henning KJ, Overview of syndromic surveillance. What is syndromic surveillance? MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 53 (Suppl): 5-11 (2004). 4. Chandrasekhar, CP, Ghosh J Information and communication technologies and health in low income countries: the potential and the constraints. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2001, 79: 850–855


Corporate control is the central concern of corporate law, and, in addition to priority, has become a core concern of bankruptcy. The question of corporate control in bankruptcy is especially important for intellectual property ("IP") rights. Bankruptcy proceedings do not compromise fundamentally the value of most tangible assets. Tangible assets generally retain their value both during and after bankruptcy proceedings, although there is always the risk that the business will be run poorly. IP is different. IP rights are typically most valuable when they carry a credible threat of injunction. As a result, to the extent the delay and coordination problems of bankruptcy lead to the under-enforcement of a debtor's IP rights - or simply to the impression of under-enforcement - bankruptcy can frustrate the important coordination benefits IP rights otherwise serve. The bankruptcy process itself potentially can erode the private value of IP to a firm and all of its constituencies, as well as the public value of IP in facilitating downstream commercialization of the subject matter IP otherwise protects. To ensure that a debtor's IP rights are enforced vigorously in bankruptcy, a party with the right incentives, information, and resources, as well as with standing to sue, must have control over IP assets in bankruptcy. A prepackaged bankruptcy or an assignment of a debtor's IP assets for the benefit of its creditors might mitigate the delay and coordination problems of bankruptcy. Borrowing from structured finance, we explore a different option: the creation of a bankruptcy-remote special purpose entity ("SPE") to which a company transfers all or part of its IP assets to ensure that the assets do not become part of the company's bankruptcy estate when and if the company is ever in bankruptcy. A properly structured "IP SPE" would have the critical attribute that a holder of IP must have to ensure the value of the IP: the credible perception by all market players that the SPE can enjoin infringers of, as well as transact over, the IP. The sort of "IP securitization" that we outline is very similar in structure to a traditional asset securitization. One of the principal normative criticisms of the IP securitization structure, as we propose it, is that the structure might accelerate what some might see as the death of legal liability by removing assets from the reach of a debtor's creditors in bankruptcy. Accordingly, in addition to outlining the IP securitization structure, this Essay briefly explores how the death of legal liability may be exaggerated and how concerns over the death of legal liability may be overstated. More to the point, in some instances, IP securitization may best ensure the value of IP assets to the benefit of a debtor's creditors and other constituencies.


There are two modes of bacteriophage lambda DNA replication following infection of its host, Escherichia coli. Early after infection, replication occurs according to the theta (theta or circle-to-circle) mode, and is later switched to the sigma (sigma or rolling-circle) mode. It is not known how this switch, occurring at a specific time in the infection cycle, is regulated. Here it is demonstrated that in wild-type cells the replication starting from orilambda proceeds both bidirectionally and unidirectionally, whereas in bacteria devoid of a functional DnaA protein, replication from orilambda is predominantly unidirectional. The regulation of directionality of replication from orilambda is mediated by positive control of lambda p(R) promoter activity by DnaA, since the mode of replication of an artificial lambda replicon bearing the p(tet) promoter instead of p(R) was found to be independent of DnaA function. These findings and results of density-shift experiments suggest that in dnaA mutants infected with lambda, phage DNA replication proceeds predominantly according to the unidirectional theta mechanism and is switched early after infection to the sigma mode. It is proposed that in wild-type E. coli cells infected with lambda, phage DNA replication proceeds according to a bidirectional theta mechanism early after infection due to efficient transcriptional activation of orilambda, stimulated by the host DnaA protein. After a few rounds of this type of replication, the resulting increased copy number of lambda genomic DNA may cause a depletion of free DnaA protein because of its interaction with the multiple DnaA-binding sites in lambda DNA. It is proposed that this may lead to inefficient transcriptional activation of orilambda resulting in unidirectional theta replication followed by sigma type replication.


Two types of parametric four-wave mixing are observed when a single intense laser beam propagates through Na vapor near the D(1) and D(2) resonance lines. The first is related to three-photon scattering, while the second results from the coherent parametric interaction of the laser with excited-state Raman scattering. Identification of the two processes was greatly facilitated by the use of an optical multichannel detector system to observe the total emission spectrum for each individual laser pulse. The experimental conditions that determine whether stimulated emission or one or both of the four-wave mixing processes dominates the emission spectrum are described.


Deoxy-ribonuclease (DNase) was found in extracts of a strain of Salmonella typhi. Its action on herring sperm deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is catalysed by magnesium ions. Calcium ions, although inactive alone, increase the magnesium-catalysed activity of the enzyme. A highly polymerized specimen of phage DNA was prepared by treatment of the purified phage with strong urea solution to dissolve the protein coat. This nucleic acid is degraded by the typhoid DNase in the presence of magnesium. As with herring sperm DNA, calcium is inactive alone but increases the action of magnesium. Calcium is required for multiplication of the phage in the host bacterium, but the hypothesis that the calcium is required to catalyse the breakdown of phage DNA by bacterial DNase was not upheld.


RELAY is a model of faults and failures that defines failure conditions, which describe test data for which execution will guarantee that a fault originates erroneous behavior that also transfers through computations and information flow until a failure is revealed. This model of fault detection provides a framework within which other testing criteria's capabilities can be evaluated. Three test data selection criteria that detect faults in six fault classes are analyzed. This analysis shows that none of these criteria is capable of guaranteeing detection for these fault classes and points out two major weaknesses of these criteria. The first weakness is that the criteria do not consider the potential unsatisfiability of their rules. Each criterion includes rules that are sufficient to cause potential failures for some fault classes, yet when such rules are unsatisfiable, many faults may remain undetected. Their second weakness is failure to integrate their proposed rules. >


Optical parametric amplifiers using chirped quasi-phase-matching gratings offer gain over wide bandwidths, making them promising candidates for use in ultra-short-pulse laser systems. We discuss the space-time evolution of the amplified light pulses. In the case of a linear phase-matching profile, this problem is exactly solvable. The Green's functions of the system are investigated in detail and used to calculate the pulse shapes in the long- and short-pulse regimes.


In the past few years nonlocal filters have emerged as a serious contender for denoising synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, offering superior noise reduction and detail preservation compared to many other filters. In this manuscript we analyze how nonlocal filters, whose computational costs were so far prohibitive for large scale processing, can be implemented efficiently on graphics processing units (GPU). As a case study NL-SAR, a state of the art SAR filter, is implemented to run on a NVIDIA Tesla K40. We describe the appeal of GPUs, or any other coprocessor, for nonlocal filters. Nonlocal filtering of TanDEM-X interferograms for generating digital elevation models with a higher resolution and accuracy is given as an application that benefits from efficient and fast nonlocal filtering.