The fundamental problem of causal inference -- that we never observe counterfactuals -- prevents us from identifying how many might be negatively affected by a proposed intervention. If, in an A/B test, half of users click (or buy, or watch, or renew, etc.), whether exposed to the standard experience A or a new one B, hypothetically it could be because the change affects no one, because the change positively affects half the user population to go from no-click to click while negatively affecting the other half, or something in between. While unknowable, this impact is clearly of material importance to the decision to implement a change or not, whether due to fairness, long-term, systemic, or operational considerations. We therefore derive the tightest-possible (i.e., sharp) bounds on the fraction negatively affected (and other related estimands) given data with only factual observations, whether experimental or observational. Naturally, the more we can stratify individuals by observable covariates, the tighter the sharp bounds. Since these bounds involve unknown functions that must be learned from data, we develop a robust inference algorithm that is efficient almost regardless of how and how fast these functions are learned, remains consistent when some are mislearned, and still gives valid conservative bounds when most are mislearned. Our methodology altogether therefore strongly supports credible conclusions: it avoids spuriously point-identifying this unknowable impact, focusing on the best bounds instead, and it permits exceedingly robust inference on these. We demonstrate our method in simulation studies and in a case study of career counseling for the unemployed.


"Jewelry from Nature" explores 200 years of fine jewelry made from natural materials, worn by style icons including the Duchess of Windsor, Coco Chanel and Diana Vreeland. Among the jewelers included are Cartier (whose Art Deco pieces in coral are icons of their era), Van Cleef & Arpels, Boivin, Faberge, Verdura (whose seashell brooches from the 1940s are collectors items), Schlumberger, Hermes, Lalique, Seaman Schepps and Tiffany. The book also features a host of important contemporary designers, notably Patricia von Musulin, Ted Muehling and Liv Blavarp. This timely and unique study of a key theme in jewelry design will appeal to makers, dealers, curators, collectors and historians.


Machine learning methods in Human Language Technology have reached a stage of maturity where widespread use is both possible and desirable. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory LLTools software suite provides a step towards this goal by providing a set of easily accessible frameworks for incorporating speech, text, and entity resolution components into larger applications. For the speech processing component, the pySLGR (Speaker, Language, Gender Recognition) tool provides signal processing, standard feature analysis, speech utterance embedding, and machine learning modeling methods in Python. The text processing component in LLTools extracts semantically meaningful insights from unstructured data via entity extraction, topic modeling, and document classification. The entity resolution component in LLTools provides approximate string matching, author recognition and graph-based methods for identifying and linking different instances of the same real-world entity. We show through two applications that LLTools can be used to rapidly create and train research prototypes for human language processing.


Arsenic pollution has become a dominant environmental concern in recent years. Various techniques for arsenic removal from water have been developed. However, these techniques efficiently remove arsenic from drinking water but require toxic and expensive chemicals and generate a large amount of exhaust sludge, which is not always regenerable. In this study a novel Fe-Mn-Si oxide material was prepared from environmentally friendly and low-cost materials through a co-precipitation process. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to study adsorption kinetics, adsorption capacity and the effect of temperature and pH on the adsorption of arsenic on Fe-Mn-Si oxide. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 9.62, 10.18, and 10.50 mg/g at 25, 35, and 45 °C, respectively. The results compare favorably with those obtained using other adsorbents. The used Fe-Mn-Si oxide could be regenerated using a NaOH solution; 73.4% of the adsorbed arsenic was desorbed by 0.2 N NaOH. Results from this study demonstrate the potential usability of Fe-Mn-Si oxide as a good arsenic-selective adsorbent.


B-spline based orbital representations are widely used in Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations of solids, historically taking as much as 50% of the total run time. Random accesses to a large four-dimensional array make it challenging to efficiently utilize caches and wide vector units of modern CPUs. We present node-level optimizations of B-spline evaluations on multi/many-core shared memory processors. To increase SIMD efficiency and bandwidth utilization, we first apply data layout transformation from array-of-structures to structure-of-arrays (SoA). Then by blocking SoA objects, we optimize cache reuse and get sustained throughput for a range of problem sizes. We implement efficient nested threading in B-spline orbital evaluation kernels, paving the way towards enabling strong scaling of QMC simulations. These optimizations are portableon four distinct cache-coherent architectures and result in up to 5.6x performance enhancements on Intel Xeon Phi processor 7250P (KNL), 5.7x on Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor 7120P, 10x on an Intel Xeon processor E5v4 CPU and 9.5x on BlueGene/Q processor. Our nested threading implementation shows nearly ideal parallel efficiency on KNL up to 16 threads. We employ roofline performance analysis to model the impacts of our optimizations. This work combined with our current efforts of optimizing other QMC kernels, result in greater than 4.5x speedup of miniQMC on KNL.


I consider the decision to construct two phases of Chicago Public Housing as a Capitalist response to the Crisis of Housing in America during the 30's and the 50's in context of the intellectual, Scientific, and Active thought of the Pragmatic Reformers from the University of Chicago with their imposed system of consumer 'values' of land; the economic, the social and the moral, on the abstract figurative grid of the City.
In the 80's those same Housing communities become 'the Crisis'. 'The Projects' become 'valueless' 'no longer viable' with the decision to ultimately demolition of these communities. Who was at threat?
The origin of 'value' is first defined as the abstract concept of space and time assigned to the land of Chicago's Grid as part the intellectual project of the Chicago School of Social ecology and School of Political Science including the authorship of zoning laws that intent to actively reduce the social disorder of neighborhood through uniformity of building appearance and use around uniform land values of neighborhood blocks much in the same way the Taylor mapped separation of labor on the factory grid to equalize labor and to make efficiency in processes defined with his work on the Scientific Method.
'The Crisis of Housing' is shown to produced both local and federal responses to the emergency through three types of housing; 1]the private sector single family bungalow of the 20's; 2] the early pre WW2 public housing units exemplar of the Ida B. Wells Homes; and 3] the technical/specialist response of highrise housing exemplar of the Robert Taylor Homes. Each housing type reflects difference in: 1] modern views of the urban subject in relationship to the production of capitalism and; 2] land 'value' types and 3] the spatial intentionality in relationship of the grid. The land 'value' generated by difference is shown to drive the placement of housing throughout Chicago and to drive patterns of community mobility.
'The Crisis in Housing' arises when the public housing communities evolve as informal economies with no perceived measurable values and the 'valueless land' reduces the value of the grid beyond the neighboring blocks.

Recent histories of public housing assign blame to this last 'Crisis in Housing' on the moral and social behavior failures of individual residents, the economic and class homogeneity of the communities or the failure of the housing authorities to provide adequate maintenance to name a few. All may contribute, but fail to reflect on the transformative impact of these 25,000 family homes on Chicago's urban systems.
The collapse of the Capitalist economy in Chicago not only includes abandonment of parts of the city from loss of production, such as the stock yards and steel industries, but follows the collapse of the 'value' of Land and the subsequent injustice of the civitas. I expose these 'values' as constructive elements of the city through the understanding the subject and spatial intention and utilizing Chicago's abstract grid as a framework.


In this paper, we consider the interaction of the nonlinear coherent states (CSs) on a sphere with a three-level atom. Since these generalized CSs depend on the curvature of the sphere, this model enables us to investigate the curvature effects of the physical space. By using the time-dependent state of the atom-field system, we first study the curvature effects on the occupation probabilities of the atomic levels. We especially study the relation between the revival time of the atomic occupation probabilities and the curvature. Then, to study the curvature effects on the dynamical properties of the cavity field, we consider photon distributions, correlation functions, and Mandel parameters of the field. The cavity field in this atom-field system exhibits nonclassical features which depend on the curvature of the physical space.


In today's organisations senior managers have to cope with strategic environments characterised by high levels of uncertainty, volumes of information, and shifting business models. As a consequence, their individual strategic expertise may not be sufficient to help the organisation chart its way through this environment. Many talk about the need for organisational agility in this environment. One problem facing organisations in this kind of environment is how best to recruit and select senior managers for this world and how to develop the organisation's competence to manage accordingly. Drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical insights from strategic management and the cognitive and organisational sciences, we argue that strategic competence constitutes the ability of organisations and the individuals who operate within them to work within their cognitive limitations in such a way that they are able to maintain an appropriate level of responsiveness to the contingencies confronting them. Using the language of the resource based view of the firm, we argue that this meta-level competence represents a confluence of individual and organisational characteristics, suitably configured to enable the detection of those weak signals indicative of the need for change and to act accordingly, thereby minimising the dangers of cognitive bias and cognitive inertia. In an era of unprecedented informational burdens and instability, we argue that this competence is central to the longer-term survival and well being of the organisation. We conclude with a consideration of the major scientific challenges that lie ahead, if the ideas contained within this paper are to be validated.


Abstract The field of laser fusion involves the development of new technologies to aid in the fabrication of miniature components used in the target drive system. Current techniques range from cnc lathing with ultra-precise diamond turning to electroplating and mechanical punching. These techniques are labour intensive and are unsatisfactory for many applications. This paper outlines techniques adopted from the microelectronics industry, which have been developed to fabricate these components using a process known as Microengineering. This approach allows the mass-production of these devices with the diversity required to alter dimensions, profile, and material depending on the application 1,2. These microengineering processes have allowed a variety of materials to be investigated with various geometrical features and surface topographies. Using thick photosensitive polymers, combined with electroplating processes, complex 3-D structures have been fabricated in multiple stages.


The authors of the essays in this unique collection explore the lives and cultural contributions of gay Latino men in the United States, while also analyzing the political and theoretical stakes of gay Latino studies. In new essays and influential previously published pieces, Latino scholars based in American studies, ethnic studies, history, performance studies, and sociology consider gay Latino scholarly and cultural work in relation to mainstream gay, lesbian, and queer academic discourses and the broader field of Chicano and Latino studies. They also critique cultural explanations of gay Latino sexual identity and behavior, examine artistic representations of queer Latinidad, and celebrate the place of dance in gay Latino culture. Designed to stimulate dialogue, the collection pairs each essay with a critical response by a prominent Latino/a or Chicana/o scholar. Terms such as gay , identity , queer , and visibility are contested throughout the volume; the significance of these debates is often brought to the fore in the commentaries. The essays in Gay Latino Studies complement and overlap with the groundbreaking work of lesbians of color and critical race theorists, as well as queer theorists and gay and lesbian studies scholars. Taken together, they offer much-needed insight into the lives and perspectives of gay, bisexual, and queer Latinos, and they renew attention to the politics of identity and coalition.

Contributors . Tomas Almaguer, Luz Calvo, Lionel Cantu,, Daniel Contreras, Catriona Rueda Esquibel, Ramon Garcia, Ramon A. Gutierrez, Michael Hames-Garcia, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Maria Lugones, Ernesto J. Martinez, Paula M. L. Moya, Jose Esteban Munoz, Frances Negron-Muntaner, Ricardo L. Ortiz, Daniel Enrique Perez, Ramon H. Rivera-Servera, Richard T. Rodriguez, David Roman, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez, Antonio Viego


Visually documenting seafloor habitats has the potential to answer challenging questions in several maritime disciplines including: ecology, geology, and archaeology. Unfortunately, the attenuation of visible light underwater limits the imaging footprint of a single image to square meters. This limitation makes representing large habitats, on the order of hundreds of square meters and beyond, an intensive process requiring the collection, storage, processing and annotation of thousands of high resolution images per hundred square meters of seafloor. This paper describes a pipeline for dealing with these challenges efficiently and effectively using visual data of coral reef communities processed into a three dimensional model. We evaluate the resources and technological advancements required to scale this problem to orders of magnitude larger than the current state of the art and motivate the need for networked underwater data collection platforms to push the scalability of this method.


"No other sports car reacts to different situations with such aerodynamic flexibility as the new 911 Turbo S. We aerodynamic engineers are normally faced with a dilemma: a low drag coefficient is desirable for maximum speed and low consumption, while a high downforce is advantageous for driving dynamics. However, the two characteristics contradict each other," explains Dr Thomas Wiegand, Head of Aerodynamics Development at Porsche. "PAA resolves the conflicts between these different aerodynamic goals. The comprehensive expansion of the intelligent system in the 911 Turbo S makes it possible to achieve a much larger spread between the aerodynamic configurations for optimum driving dynamics and minimum drag. What is more, there is increased potential for the aerodynamic components to support specific driving dynamics demands in every driving situation." The active cooling air flaps are new. Together with the variable front spoiler lip as well as the extending and tilting rear wing, the new top-of-the-range model therefore features three active aerodynamic components. On top of the basic aerodynamic configurations of the 911 Turbo, namely PAA Speed and PAA Performance, this now permits realisation of an Eco configuration. PAA has also been extended to include a Wet Mode function, which moves the aerodynamic balance towards the rear axle for greater driving stability in wet road conditions, as well as the airbrake function, which produces higher drag and greater downforce in the event of full braking at high speed and therefore results in a shorter braking distance and greater driving stability. PAA is also used for adaptation to the changed air flow around the vehicle when the sliding roof or convertible top is open. This means that there are a total of eight different aerodynamic configurations, which are each described by a specific combination of the active aerodynamic components.


Language shift is the process by which a speech community in a contact situation (i.e. consisting of bilingual speakers) gradually stops using one of its two languages in favor of the other. The causal factors of language shift are generally considered to be social, and researchers have focused on speakers' attitudes (both explicit and unstated) toward a language and domains of language use in the community, as well as other macro social factors. Additional research has focused on the effects of language shift, generally on the (changing) structure of the language itself. The goal of this thesis is to examine the relationship between social and linguistic factors in considering the causes and effects of language shift, focusing on age-based variation in the speech community. This dissertation examines the linguistic and social correlates of early language shift in a Garifuna community in Belize. An apparent time analysis shows an externally-motivated change in the status of the sociolinguistic variable (ch) that is evidence for a shift in the dominant language in the community. A second change in progress, variable deletion of intervocalic r, is described for the first time as an internally-motivated change, albeit progressing alongside contact-induced changes. Evidence is also presented to propose that the behavior of the transitional generation (speakers aged 30-49) shows interesting characteristics with regard to these two variables as a result of shifting language ideologies in the village. These ideological shifts are examined along with changing attitudes in the community toward English, Belizean Creole, and Garifuna. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Linguistics First Advisor Gillian Sankoff Second Advisor David Embick Third Advisor William Labov


Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is one of the latest technologies to support connectivity among numerous intelligent devices. The intelligence of M2M systems can be enhanced by incorporating visual sensor networks (VSNs) and utilising visual information. The conservation of energy within VSNs is one of the primary concerns for resource constrained scenarios, which can be achieved from targeted threshold based optimisation. However, such optimisation may impact the quality-of-information (QoI), which quantifies the degree to which the visual data is suitable for a given application. To cope with such optimisation challenges, this paper presents a self-reconfiguration scheme for visual sensor nodes to dynamically find optimal configurations as well as guaranteeing satisfactory performance to achieve the given QoI target. The optimisation is achieved by selecting suitable configurations for the removal of feature redundancy which minimises the transmission cost and results in a feasible solution that enhances the energy and bandwidth efficiency for M2M communication. The performance evaluation of the proposed scheme is carried out for different required QoI targets, and it is observed that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional scheme by providing up to 59.21% energy savings at a QoI target of 30dB.


The entanglements of 1319 2-periodic coordination polymers are examined and fully classified using the extended ring nets (ERNs) approach. The ERNs characterize the entanglement to the greatest detail ever achieved: all possible classes/types/modes of entanglements observed and reported in the literature so far result in 216 ERN topologically distinct modes of entanglements with 74% of all the structures falling into only 21 of them. We also introduce the notion of entanglement isomerism to designate the coordination polymers that have the same chemical composition, local and overall topology, but differ by their catenation patterns as mapped into their ERNs.


The U.S. Court has exercised enormous influence on American society throughout its history. Although the Court is considered the guardian of the Constitution, the Constitution does not specifically set forth the Court's power to strike down federal or state legislation, nor does it provide guidance on how this power should be applied. In this critical examination of Supreme Court opinions, Bernard Siegan argues that the Court has frequently ruled both contrary to and without guidance from Constitutional meaning and purpose. He concludes that the U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly become more the maker than the interpreter of fundamental law. The author offers a detailed analysis of the Constitution and numerous Supreme Court cases involving controversial issues ranging from the line between federal and state powers to the validity of measures according to preferential treatment for minorities and women. The book is essential reading for everyone interested in understanding the differences between activist and literalist traditions in the high court.


Using drone base stations (drone-BSs) in wireless networks has started attracting attention. Drone-BSs can assist the ground BSs in both capacity and coverage enhancement. One of the important problems about integrating drone-BSs to cellular networks is the management of their placement to satisfy the dynamic system requirements. In this paper, we propose a method to find the positions of drone-BSs in an area with different user densities using a heuristic algorithm. The goal is to find the minimum number of drone-BSs and their 3D placement so that all the users are served. Our simulation results show that the proposed approach can satisfy the quality-of-service requirements of the network.


We describe here a collection of speech data of bilingual and trilingual speakers of English, French, German and Italian. In the context of speech to speech translation (S2ST), this database is designed for several purposes and studies: training CLSA systems (cross-language speaker adaptation), conveying emphasis through S2ST systems, and evaluating TTS systems. More precisely, 36 speakers judged as accentless (22 bilingual and 14 trilingual speakers) were recorded for a set of 171 prompts in two or three languages, amounting to a total of 24 hours of speech. These sets of prompts include 100 sentences from news, 25 sentences from Europarl, the same 25 sentences with one acted emphasised word, 20 semantically unpredictable sentences, and finally a 240-word long text. All in all, it yielded 64 bilingual session pairs of the six possible combinations of the four languages. The database is freely available for non-commercial use and scientific research purposes. Index Terms: speech-to-speech translation, speech corpus, bilingual speakers, emphasis


This thesis develops a new approach to the problem of indeterminacy in grammarbased natural language generation (NLG). The problem of indeterminacy concerns the fact that, for a given input semantic representation, the grammar might allow for several (i.e. thousands) alternative surface realizations. While the traditional approach to dealing with this problem is to rank the generated strings using a surface-oriented n-gram language model (LM), this thesis develops a linguistically informed approach based on features that are keyed to the internal structure of the realizations. The approach extends on the methodology previously used for statistical parsing and statistical unification-based grammars, and adapts it to the context of generation. This allows us to train treebank-based discriminative realization rankers based on modeling frameworks such as Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs). The training data is based on the novel notion of a generation treebank, which we show how to automatically create on the basis of an existing parse-oriented treebank. For reference, we also develop an n-gram-based LM trained on a large corpus of raw text. Our experimental results show that the use of a discriminative model trained on just a few thousand items in a generation treebank, gives significantly better ranking performance than the use of a traditional surface-oriented LM. Moreover, we show that even better results can be obtained by combining the two modeling approaches. This is done by including the LM as an additional feature in the discriminative model. Evaluation scores are reported for several data sets and using a range of different automated metrics. We also include results for a manual evaluation carried out by a panel of external anonymous judges. The hybrid system for surface realization described in this thesis is currently integrated for target language generation in the Norwegian–English machine translation (MT) system LOGON. We also show how the realization ranker is used together with a global end-to-end reranking model for selecting the final output of the MT system.


Developmental disabilities, emotional disorders and disruptive behaviour disorders are the leading mental health-related causes of the global burden of disease in children aged below 10 years. This article aims to address the treatment gap for child mental disorders through synthesising three bodies of evidence: the global evidence base on the treatment of these priority disorders; the barriers to implementation of this knowledge; and the innovative approaches taken to address these barriers and improve access to care. Our focus is on low-resource settings, which are mostly found in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Despite the evidence base on the burden of child mental disorders and their long-term consequences, and the recent mental health Gap Action Programme guidelines which testify to the effectiveness of a range of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for these disorders, the vast majority of children in LMIC do not have access to these interventions. We identify three major barriers for the implementation of efficacious treatments: the lack of evidence on delivery of the treatments, the low levels of detection of child mental disorders and the shortage of skilled child mental health professionals. The evidence based on implementation, although weak, supports the use of screening measures for detection of probable disorders, coupled with a second-stage diagnostic assessment and the use of non-specialist workers in community and school settings for the delivery of psychosocial interventions. The most viable strategy to address the treatment gap is through the empowerment of existing human resources who are most intimately concerned with child care, including parents, through innovative technologies, such as mobile health, with the necessary skills for the detection and treatment of child mental disorders.


Internet of Things is the new paradigm towards which the world is moving today. As these devices proliferate, security issues at these scales become more and more intimidating. Traditional approach like an antivirus does not work well with these devices and there is a need to look for a more trusted solution. For a device with reasonable computational power, we use a software trusted platform module for the cryptographic operations. In this paper, we have developed a model to remotely attest to the integrity of the processes running in the device. We have also explored the various features of the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) to gain insight into its working and also to ascertain those which can make this process better. This model depends on the server and the TPM to behave as roots of trust for this model. The client computes the HMAC (Hashed Message Authentication Code) values and appends a nonce and sends these values periodically to the server via asymmetric encryption. The HMAC values are verified by the server by comparing with its known good values (KGV) and the trustworthiness of the process is determined and accordingly an authorization response is sent.


Embedded systems (ESs) and wireless technologies are in constant rapid development and therefore it is important to educate people in these subjects. This thesis work has the goal of developing a lab assignment for a university level course on data communication in embedded systems. Embedded systems have reliability and timeliness requirements that have to be fulfilled. These criteria pose problems to be addressed while ESs are used in conjunction with communication over wireless medium, which has some underlying limitations. These limitations come in the form of interference, degradation of signal strength with the distance and possible unwanted delays. This thesis work starts with a literature study on medium access control (MAC) methods and their possibilities for adoption of time-triggered and event-driven strategies for ESs with time constraints and continues with the lab assignment design, implementation and testing. Taking into account timing requirements brought by ESs and the specifics of the lab, i.e., limited time given to the students to solve the problem and compulsory usage of available lab equipment, a design with two communicating raspberry Pis was proposed. The system consists of a sensor node sending its readings to a controller, which is responsible for analyzing the data and actuating a set of LED lights as a response to the input data. The communication is done over a WiFi network and three different programs, organizing the communication in time-triggered, eventdriven or a combination of the two fashions are developed. Each program is tested under three environmental conditions and the results from these tests clearly show the limitation of the underlying CSMA/CA MAC adopted in WiFi and give a greater understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies for communication design.


Tuberculosis (TB) still remains an important medical problem due to high levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A series of innate immune mechanisms that create a cytokine network control the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and this response has the capacity to modify the host genomic DNA structure through epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation which could constantly alter the local gene expression pattern that can modulate the metabolism of the tissues and the immune-response. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine regulator of the innate immune response to TB. This study aims to determine DNA methylation patterns of INF-γ gene promoter and measure serum IFN- γ level in newly diagnosed TB patients, relapse TB patients, and healthy control, in order to study the possibility of using these as a biomarker for the prognosis of TB stages in patients. The current case-control study included 66 patients with TB and 33 healthy control subjects. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood(PB) of included subjects and modified using sodium bisulfate specific kit. DNA methylation patterns of IFN-γ gene promoter was determine by using methylation specific polymerase chain reaction(MS-PCR).Serum IFN-γ level  was determined using enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay(ELISA). Results showed that percentages of DNA methylation patterns in normal controls, newly diagnostic TB patients and relapse TB patients were (63.3%, 18.2% and 21.2% respectively). Also, higher significant differences (P≤0.0001) of  un-methylated  IFN-γ gene promoter patterns in newly diagnostic TB patients  than  relapse TB patients comparison with healthy controls. The percentage of un-methylated DNA patterns in healthy controls, newly diagnostic TB patients and relapse TB patients were (9.9%, 39.4% and 51.5%, respectively). The mean of serum IFN-γ levels (pg/ml) for normal controls, newly diagnostic TB patients and relapse TB patients were (59.3± 13.8,75.8±24.3 and 69.6±18.7,respectively).In conclusion, there is a relative association between methylation of IFN-γ gene promoter and predisposing to TB progression.


Despite the consistency with which gender differences have been found in second language motivation, little systematic research has taken place on motivation and gender to date. Permeating self-concept development, gender impacts not only current selves but also future-oriented possible selves. In construing possible selves, females tend to emphasize interdependence, meaning they invest more in interpersonal relationships and self–other interaction. Based on instruments measuring ideal language-speaking/using selves and an interdependent self-construal in a sample of 140 female and 129 male adolescents enrolled in the final year of secondary education in Sweden, and using confirmatory factor analysis, support was found for the hypothesis that gender-related variance on a measure of the ideal language-speaking/using self could be accounted for by an interdependent self-construal. In discussing the results, further avenues for exploring the impact of gender on possible selves using more contextually sensitive research designs are presented.


A rapid expansion of trade liberalization in Thailand during the 1990s raised a critical question for policy transparency from various stakeholders. Particular attention was paid to a bilateral trade negotiation between Thailand and USA concerned with the impact of the 'Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Rights (TRIPS) plus' provisions on access to medicines. Other trade liberalization effects on health were also concerning health actors. In response, a number of interagency committees were established to engage with trade negotiations. In this respect, Thailand is often cited as a positive example of a country that has proactively sought, and achieved, trade and health policy coherence. This article investigates this relationship in more depth and suggests lessons for wider study and application of global health diplomacy (GHD). This study involved semi-structured interviews with 20 people involved in trade-related health negotiations, together with observation of 9 meetings concerning trade-related health issues. Capacity to engage with trade negotiations appears to have been developed by health actors through several stages; starting from the Individual (I) understanding of trade effects on health, through Nodes (N) that establish the mechanisms to enhance health interests, Networks (N) to advocate for health within these negotiations, and an Enabling environment (E) to retain health officials and further strengthen their capacities to deal with trade-related health issues. This INNE model seems to have worked well in Thailand. However, other contextual factors are also significant. This article suggests that, in building capacity in GHD, it is essential to educate both health and non-health actors on global health issues and to use a combination of formal and informal mechanisms to participate in GHD. And in developing sustainable capacity in GHD, it requires long term commitment and strong leadership from both health and non-health sectors.


News sources on the Web generate constant streams of information, describing the events that shape our world. In particular, geography plays a key role in the news, and understanding the geographic information present in news allows for its useful spatial browsing and retrieval. This process of understanding is called geotagging, and involves first finding in the document all textual references to geographic locations, known as toponyms, and second, assigning the correct lat/long values to each toponym, steps which are termed toponym recognition and toponym resolution, respectively. These steps are difficult due to ambiguities in natural language: some toponyms share names with non-location entities, and further, a given toponym can have many location interpretations. Removing these ambiguities is crucial for successful geotagging.
To this end, geotagging methods are described which were developed for streaming news. First, a spatio-textual search engine named STEWARD, and an interactive map-based news browsing system named NewsStand are described, which feature geotaggers as central components, and served as motivating systems and experimental testbeds for developing geotagging methods. Next, a geotagging methodology is presented that follows a multifaceted approach involving a variety of techniques. First, a multifaceted toponym recognition process is described that uses both rule-based and machine learning–based methods to ensure high toponym recall. Next, various forms of toponym resolution evidence are explored. One such type of evidence is lists of toponyms, termed comma groups, whose toponyms share a common thread in their geographic properties that enables correct resolution. In addition to explicit evidence, authors take advantage of the implicit geographic knowledge of their audiences. Understanding the local places known by an audience, termed its local lexicon, affords great performance gains when geotagging articles from local newspapers, which account for the vast majority of news on the Web. Finally, considering windows of text of varying size around each toponym, termed adaptive context, allows for a tradeoff between geotagging execution speed and toponym resolution accuracy. Extensive experimental evaluations of all the above methods, using existing and two newly-created, large corpora of streaming news, show great performance gains over several competing prominent geotagging methods.


Abstract This paper describes original approaches aimed at the preparation of electron-rich 1-aryl-3-carboxylisoquinolines. Our first attempt led to an efficient preparation of 1-hydroxyisoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid methyl ester starting from bromophthalide via a rearrangement of 2-acetylamino-2-(3-oxo-1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran-1-yl)-malonic acid dimethyl ester. However, as its eventual application to the synthesis of methylenedioxy-bearing substrates seemed rather long, a second approach involving an extension of the Ritter reaction to safrole was devised. We thus report that, under proper experimental settings, the use of 54% tetrafluoroboric acid in ether enables a Ritter reaction between safrole and 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzonitrile yielding 17% of 7-methyl-5-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-7,8-dihydro-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-g]isoquinoline. This acidic reagent avoids the extensive decomposition seen when using the classical Ritter reaction conditions (i.e.: concentrated sulfuric acid). Further chemical transformations of this methyl-bearing dihydroisoquinoline led to the methylenedioxy-bearing 1-aryl-3-carboxylisoquinoline. These derivatives are related to the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor ligand PK 11195 as well as falcipain-2 inhibitors and other potential antitumor agents.


In this thesis we investigate the diffusion of information like news, announcements, and commercials in social networks. Such information propagates through a mix of mass communication and interpersonal communication. For example, people who watch a TV spot about a new car will discuss it with their friends. Both communication methods influence the awareness, preferences, and opinions that people display towards certain topics, products, and services. The effects of mass and inter-personal communication on the diffusion process have been studied intensively in several areas, for example, in sociology, economics, social psychology, political science, and marketing. Most of these studies highlight the role of inter-personal relation structures, that is, the network of social ties, in the diffusion process. However, a concise diffusion model that quantifies the effects of social networks and helps to improve mass communication towards structured populations is still in demand. Our purpose is first to analyse the drivers of social networks, then to model the diffusion of information on social networks, and finally to quantify the network effects on the diffusion process. We describe and construct social networks as graphs and present anthropological, psychological, and random factors that shape them. Based on one of these factors, structural balancing, we propose an evolutionary model of social networks, suggesting that the structure of social networks can change dramatically over time. For modelling diffusion processes on social networks, we follow a two-step procedure. We first combine three different generation methods, the generalised random graph, the small-world model, and a third method (random graph with a given assortment structure) to design realistic networks. Then we simulate the propagation of information on these networks. As the computer requirements for such simulations can be expensive, we introduce an efficient computer algorithm that is widely applicable to complex diffusion studies in markets, organisations, and societies. One result of the simulations is a robust closed-form approximation to the diffusion's trajectory in networks. Such an approximation allows marketing and PR managers to predict aggregate market outcomes such as the popularity of a commercial through surveys prior to the launch of a promotional campaign. The simulations also indicate the impact of the network's structure on the diffusion. To measure the network effects on the propagation of information, we run regression analyses with the communication intensity and the different network features as explanatory variables. These network features are the degree distribution, the transitivity (clustering), degree correlation, and the average path length. The regressions show, above all, that network effects are conditional on the intensity of mass communication: the less intensive mass communication, the more important become network effects. For mass communication typical in marketing and PR, the network structure can have a strong impact on the diffusion process. The regressions quantify the respective contribution of each network feature on the diffusion process over time. Our findings confirm and partly reconcile contradictionary results of comparable studies in epidemics and sociology. Finally, our analysis allows us to prioritise different network effects. This can be useful in various situations, for example, when estimating a diffusion process with incomplete network data.


Abstract The Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) subglacial hydrological system may undergo a seasonal evolution, with significant geophysical and biogeochemical implications. We present results from a new isotope-mixing model to quantify the relative contributions of surface snow, glacial ice and delayed flow to the bulk meltwater discharge from a small (∼5 km2) land-terminating GrIS outlet glacier during melt onset (May) and at peak melt (July). We use radioactive (222Rn) and stable isotopes (18O, deuterium) to differentiate the water source contributions. Atmospherically derived 7Be further constrains meltwater transit time from the glacier surface to the ice margin. We show that (1) 222Rn is a promising tracer for glacial waters stored at the bed and (2) a quantitative chemical mixing model can be constructed by combining 222Rn and the stable water isotopes. Applying this model to the bulk subglacial outflow from our study area, we find a constant delayed-flow (stored) component from melt onset through peak melt. This component is diluted first by snowmelt and then by increasing glacial ice melt as the season progresses. Results from this pilot study are consistent with the hypothesis that subglacial drainage beneath land-terminating sections of the GrIS undergoes a seasonal evolution from a distributed to a channelized system.


Context-sensitive Multiple Task Learning, or csMTL, is presented as a method of inductive transfer that uses a single output neural network and additional contextual inputs for learning multiple tasks. The csMTL method is tested on three task domains and shown to produce hypotheses for a primary task that are significantly better than standard MTL hypotheses when learning in the presence of related and unrelated tasks. A new measure of task relatedness, based on the context input weights, is shown to have promise. The paper also outlines a machine lifelong learning system that uses csMTL for sequentially learning multiple tasks. The approach satisfies a number of important requirements for knowledge retention and inductive transfer including the elimination of redundant outputs, representational transfer for rapid but effective short-term learning and functional transfer via task rehearsal for long-term consolidation.


We consider query answering on Description Logic (DL) ontologies with DBoxes, where a DBox is a set of assertions on individuals involving atomic concepts and roles called DBox predicates. The extension of a DBox predicate is exactly defined in every interpretation by the contents of the DBox, i.e., a DBox faithfully represents a database whose table names are the DBox predicates and the tuples are the DBox assertions. Our goals are (i) to find out whether the answers to a given query are solely determined by the DBox predicates and, if so, (ii) to find a rewriting of the query in terms of them. The resulting query can then be efficiently evaluated using standard database technology. We have that (i) can be reduced to entailment checking and (ii) can be reduced to finding an interpolant. We present a procedure for computing interpolants in the DL ALC with general TBoxes. We extend the procedure with standard tableau optimisations, and we discuss abduction as a technique for amending ontologies to gain definability of queries of interest.


Addressee detection (AD) is an important problem for dialog systems in human-humancomputer scenarios (contexts involving multiple people and a system) because systemdirected speech must be distinguished from human-directed speech. Recent work on AD (Shriberg et al., 2012) showed good results using prosodic and lexical features trained on in-domain data. In-domain data, however, is expensive to collect for each new domain. In this study we focus on lexical models and investigate how well out-of-domain data (either outside the domain, or from single-user scenarios) can fill in for matched in-domain data. We find that human-addressed speech can be modeled using out-of-domain conversational speech transcripts, and that human-computer utterances can be modeled using single-user data: the resulting AD system outperforms a system trained only on matched in-domain data. Further gains (up to a 4% reduction in equal error rate) are obtained when in-domain and out-of-domain models are interpolated. Finally, we examine which parts of an utterance are most useful. We find that the first 1.5 seconds of an utterance contain most of the lexical information for AD, and analyze which lexical items convey this. Overall, we conclude that the H-H-C scenario can be approximated by combining data from H-C and H-H scenarios only.


The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is one of the largest safety net programs in the United States, serving 44.7 million individuals in an average month in 2011. We used Current Population Survey data to examine the effect of SNAP on poverty from 2000 to 2009, by adding program benefits to income and calculating how SNAP benefits affected the prevalence, depth, and severity of poverty. We found an average decline of 4.4 percent in the prevalence of poverty due to SNAP benefits, while the average decline in the depth and severity of poverty was 10.3 and 13.2 percent, respectively. SNAP benefits had a particularly strong effect on child poverty, reducing its depth by an average of 15.5 percent and its severity by an average of 21.3 percent from 2000 to 2009. SNAP's antipoverty effect peaked in 2009, when benefit increases were authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Our analysis shows that SNAP significantly improves the welfare of low-income households.


This practice-based PhD is comprised of two interrelated elements: (i) '(un)childhood', a 53' video-essay shown on two screens; and (ii) a 58286 word written thesis. The project, which is contextualised within the tradition of artists working with their own children on time-based art projects, explores a new approach to timebased artistic work about childhood. While Stan Brakhage (1933-2003), Ernie Gher (1943-), Erik Bullot (1963-) and Mary Kelly (1941-) all documented, photographed and filmed their children over a period of years to produce art projects (experimental films and a time-based installation), these projects were implicitly underpinned by a construction of childhood in which children, shown as they grow, represent the abstract primitive subject. The current project challenges the convention of representing children entirely from the adult's point of view, as aesthetic objects without a voice, as well as through the artist's chronological approach to time. Instead, this project focuses on the relational joining of the child's and adult's points of view. The artist worked on a video project with her own son over a four-and-a-half year period (between the ages of 5 and 10) through which she developed her 'relational video-making' methodology. The video-essay (un)childhood performs the relational voices of childhood as resulting from the verbal interactions of both children and adults. The non-chronological nature of(un)childhood offers an alternative to the linear-temporal approach to the representation of childhood. Through montage and a number of literal allusions to time in its dialogue, (un)childhood performs the relational times of childhood by combining children's lives in the present with the temporal dimensions that have traditionally constructed childhood: past, future and timeless.


The properties and formation mechanisms of silica-based nanocomposites textured by polysaccharide nanorods have been studied from a series of new materials obtained using cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), and their comparison with those obtained using equivalent chitin nanorods. Stable ethanolic co-suspensions of CNCs and siloxane oligomers have been processed by spray-drying to form hybrid cellulose–silica nanocomposites. The materials' surface and internal texture, before and after calcination, are highly informative about the distribution and templating role of the polysaccharide nanorods (cellulose or chitin). Both electron microscopy and nitrogen sorption analyses highlight the role of the particle dimensions in defining the porosity of calcined silica replicas. In addition, the structures of the polysaccharide crystals inside the nanocomposites were investigated by XRD and 13C solid-state NMR. From these results, it is concluded that both polysaccharide crystalline precursors form the same sort of silica-based nanocomposites, with no visible effect of their different surface chemistry towards templating. There are strong interactions between the polysaccharide surface and the siloxane oligomers that can be explained by the high density of hydroxyl groups on the sugar cycles. During the sol–gel processing, these interactions favour the formation of a silica shell around the nanocrystals accompanied by a slight contraction of the cellulose and chitin crystal structures, not observed until now. When the spray-dried nanocomposites are subjected to ammonia vapours, the siloxane condensation increases and, concomitantly, the role of the interactions at the siloxane–polysaccharide interface is decreased. This study leads therefore to new insights and opportunities for the design of nanocomposites or porous materials, the properties of which can be tuned by the choice of polysaccharide nanorods with specific dimensions and functionalities.


Faecal sampling can provide an unobtrusive monitoring of feed utilization. We demonstrate that faecal digestive enzymes and physicochemical characteristics correlate with the feed conversion efficiency in green turtle (Chelonia mydas). The 10-day-old juvenile turtles (25.4±1.3 g body weight) were fed with either fresh feed containing minced fresh fish and vegetable (diet 1); fresh feed containing minced fish fillet, vegetable and fish pellet diet (diet 2); or only fish pellet diet (diet 3) for four months in a completely randomized design (3 treatments× 3 replicates×10 subjects per replication). Analysis of faecal digestive enzymes (pepsin, trypsin, amylase, and activity ratio of amylase to trypsin) based on colorimetric determinations of specific activity suggested that carbohydrate digestion is a key indicator for feed utilization efficiency in terms of intake and conversion ratio. Physicochemical characteristics to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis, namely, microstructure (scanning electron microscope), thermal transition properties (differential scanning calorimeter), and relative crystallinity (X-ray diffractometer) indicate that the faeces of turtles fed with diet 3 provide a superior feed utilization efficiency. The observed faecal characteristics varied in response to different diets over the duration of the experiments. Thus analysis of faecal digestive enzymes and physicochemical characteristics appear to provide useful unobtrusively sampled indicators for determining feed utilization and can be applied in studies of nutritional status in endangered species without conflicting ethical standards.


This thesis is concerned with the development of a new approach to the modelling
of cardiac action potentials. Electrophysiological models of the heart have become
very accurate in recent years giving rise to extremely complicated systems of differential
equations. Although describing the behaviour of cardiac cells well, the models
are computationally demanding for numerical simulations and are very difficult to
analyse from a mathematical (dynamical-systems) viewpoint. Simplified mathematical
models that capture the underlying dynamics to a certain extent are therefore
frequently used. However, from a physiological viewpoint these equations are unrealistic
and often fail to reproduce important quantitative properties of the tissue.
In this thesis we introduce a different approach to the mathematical modelling of
cardiac action potentials with the aim of gaining a clearer insight into the origin of
the dynamics of electrophysiological models.
Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the research and outlines the main aims of the
work. In Chapter 2 various background material is introduced. This includes some
basic electrophysiology, ideas currently used in mathematical modelling of excitable
media, and details of models previously developed for the study of cardiac tissue. In
Chapter 3, following a detailed analysis of an early physiological model, we develop a
mathematical model based on the currents involved. This model reproduces, to good
accuracy, action potentials of heart tissue and we discuss the essential ideas behind
the dynamics. In Chapter 4 the mathematical model developed in the previous
chapter is analysed in more detail and simpler equations using similar ideas are
introduced. Various types of action potentials of varying behaviours are studied. In
Chapter 5 we investigate some spatial simulations of the new mathematical models.
We principally concentrate on one-dimensional studies but towards the end of the
chapter we look at some two-dimensional simulations. Finally, in Chapter 6, we
discuss our conclusions and some possible ideas for further related work. Details of
our methods of numerical simulation are included in Appendix A.


The term structure of equity returns is downward-sloping: stocks with high cash flow duration earn 1.10% per month lower returns than short-duration stocks in the cross section. I create a measure of cash flow duration at the firm level using balance sheet data to show this novel fact. Factor models can explain only 50% of the return differential, and the difference in returns is three times larger after periods of high investor sentiment. I use institutional ownership as a proxy for short-sale constraints, and find the negative cross-sectional relationship between cash flow duration and returns is only contained within short-sale constrained stocks.


Could social media data aid in disaster response and damage assessment? Countries face both an increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters due to climate change. And during such events, citizens are turning to social media platforms for disaster-related communication and information. Social media improves situational awareness, facilitates dissemination of emergency information, enables early warning systems, and helps coordinate relief efforts. Additionally, spatiotemporal distribution of disaster-related messages helps with real-time monitoring and assessment of the disaster itself. Here we present a multiscale analysis of Twitter activity before, during, and after Hurricane Sandy. We examine the online response of 50 metropolitan areas of the United States and find a strong relationship between proximity to Sandy's path and hurricane-related social media activity. We show that real and perceived threats -- together with the physical disaster effects -- are directly observable through the intensity and composition of Twitter's message stream. We demonstrate that per-capita Twitter activity strongly correlates with the per-capita economic damage inflicted by the hurricane. Our findings suggest that massive online social networks can be used for rapid assessment ("nowcasting") of damage caused by a large-scale disaster.


OBJECTIVE
To compare pelvic limb joint kinematics and temporal gait characteristics during land-based and aquatic-based treadmill walking in dogs that have undergone surgical stabilisation for cranial cruciate ligament deficiency.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Client-owned dogs with surgically stabilised stifles following cranial cruciate ligament deficiency performed three walking trials consisting of three consecutive gait cycles on an aquatic treadmill under four water levels. Hip, stifle and hock range of motion; peak extension; and peak flexion were assessed for the affected limb at each water level. Gait cycle time and stance phase percentage were also determined.

RESULTS
Ten client-owned dogs of varying breeds were evaluated at a mean of 55·2 days postoperatively. Aquatic treadmill water level influenced pelvic limb kinematics and temporal gait outcomes. Increased stifle joint flexion was observed as treadmill water level increased, peaking when the water level was at the hip. Similarly, hip flexion increased at the hip water level. Stifle range of motion was greatest at stifle and hip water levels. Stance phase percentage was significantly decreased when water level was at the hip.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Aquatic treadmill walking has become a common rehabilitation modality following surgical stabilisation of cranial cruciate ligament deficiency. However, evidence-based best practice guidelines to enhance stifle kinematics do not exist. Our findings suggest that rehabilitation utilising a water level at or above the stifle will achieve the best stifle kinematics following surgical stifle stabilisation.


Background & objectives: Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder resulting from insulin deficiency or resistance. One of the most common problem in diabetic patients is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease which induced by hyperlipidemia. Primary strategies for prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease are lowering of the lipids level by food and drugs. Zinc as an essential trace element may affect plasma lipid status. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of zinc on the levels of plasma lipids in patients with type II diabetes. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 60 diabetic patients were divided in two groups. The first group received 25 mg/kg/day zinc and second group received 50 mg/kg/day zinc for 8 week. The levels of fasting serum lipids, lipoproteins and zinc were evaluated in each group before and after administration of zinc. SPSS software (V.11.5) and t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results: In the study procedure in each group 8 patients were excluded and 22 patients completed the study. There were not significant changes in the levels of zinc and serum lipids between before and after zinc treatment in the first group (25 mg/kg/day). The serum levels of zinc significantly increased after administration of 50 mg/kg/day zinc in the second group (160 ± 30 μg/dL vs 140 ± 30, p = 0.002). There also were significant changes in the levels of LDL-Cholesterol, total cholesterol before and after zinc supplementation in the second group (50 mg/kg/day). LDL significantly reduced after supplementation (123.9±33.53 vs 96.5±32.50, p=0.001), cholesterol reduced (226.68±31.40 vs 199.8 ±37.8 p=0.001), HbA1C reduced after zinc supplementation (9.7±1.86 vs8.9±1.5, p=0.02). Conclusion: It seems that Zinc at higher doses (50 mg/kg/day) is effective to decrease the levels of serum lipids and glycosylated hemoglobin in diabetic patients.


In this paper; the phenomenological behaviour of gas flow and particles motion during cold spraying has been studied. Observations of particles behaviour show two features: a uniform jet over a short distance ahead of the nozzle exit and then; a progressive dispersion. These behaviours are explained using a computational analysis based on a direct numerical simulation of the gas flow and the kinematic interactions with the particles. The CFD computation demonstrates that the gas stream starts to be unstable inside the nozzle with more turbulence as it moves towards the exit of the nozzle. The flow is self-oscillated along the flow direction and drives the motion of the Cu particles outside the nozzle. The zone of gas flow instability does correspond to the zone of experimental particle dispersion. Outside the nozzle; the particles form a straight jet over a certain distance that corresponds to the zone of the experimental uniform particles jet. Then; they are deviated and become more and more dispersed towards a very sparse jet along the flow direction. This phenomenon is explained by a Magnus lift force that deviates the particles trajectory when the gas flow becomes highly turbulent while developing a vorticity shedding.


The present essay explores the ways in which new sensibilities toward the transatlantic slave trade resulted in moments of tension that changed the behavior of the most active slave trading family in U.S. history, the D'Wolfs of Bristol, Rhode Island. Through the trajectory of the D'Wolfs' activities I analyze the characteristics of the late Rhode Island slave trade and how the age of abolition shaped those characteristics. This new context brought tensions that pervaded New England families such as the Browns and the DeWolfs, yet its full effects remain unknown. The article argues that the isolation of Bristol as the main slave trading center in Rhode Island was a product of these tensions. Also taken into consideration is the unique connection between Rhode Islanders and Cuban slavery in the aftermath of the 1807 act abolishing the African slave trade to the United States.


Purpose: To demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of using viscoadaptive viscoelastics in deep lamellar keratoplasty (DLKP) for keratoconus. Methods: A nonrandomized, comparative, interventional case series was performed on 12 eyes of 10 consecutive keratoconus patients without a history of acute hydrops. Patients were treated with DLKP using ophthalmic viscosurgical devices (OVDs) to dissociate Descemet membrane (DM) from the stroma before suturing of the donor cornea. Eight eyes were operated using Viscoat® (dispersive), and 4 eyes were operated using Healon V® (viscoadaptive). Results: Six out of 8 eyes in the Viscoat group were successfully treated, and 2 eyes were converted to PKP because of tears in the DM. Another 3 eyes had double chambers as a result of perforations or tears in DM, which were treated by injecting air into the anterior chamber. All 4 eyes in the Healon V group were successfully operated, with 1 case with microperforation of DM during suturing. Healon V offered better control of the area to be dissociated and served as a pseudostroma that protects the exposed DM while the overlying stroma is maneuvered. Conclusion: Healon V is a valuable tool for performing DLKP in difficult cases such as keratoconus.


This paper presents a backpropagation neural network model for the preliminary design of rectangular concrete beams. The model, which is developed based on the strength design procedure of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), minimizes the beam total cost including the costs of concrete, steel, and shuttering. The backpropagation neural network was successful in accurately capturing the nonlinear characteristics of the strength design procedure. The network adequately learned a set of 375 examples during the training phase. A case study, where a set of 960 new cases were considered, was used to validate the network and to demonstrate the system's generalization and fault-tolerance properties. The network showed good generalization properties since it was able to predict the correct beam depth and steel area with a fair accuracy.


Calls to legalize physician-assisted suicide have increased and public interest in the subject has grown in recent years despite ethical prohibitions. Many people have concerns about how they will die and the emphasis by medicine and society on intervention and cure has sometimes come at the expense of good end-of-life care. Some have advocated strongly, on the basis of autonomy, that physician-assisted suicide should be a legal option at the end of life. As a proponent of patient-centered care, the American College of Physicians (ACP) is attentive to all voices, including those who speak of the desire to control when and how life will end. However, the ACP believes that the ethical arguments against legalizing physician-assisted suicide remain the most compelling. On the basis of substantive ethics, clinical practice, policy, and other concerns articulated in this position paper, the ACP does not support legalization of physician-assisted suicide. It is problematic given the nature of the patient-physician relationship, affects trust in the relationship and in the profession, and fundamentally alters the medical profession's role in society. Furthermore, the principles at stake in this debate also underlie medicine's responsibilities regarding other issues and the physician's duties to provide care based on clinical judgment, evidence, and ethics. Society's focus at the end of life should be on efforts to address suffering and the needs of patients and families, including improving access to effective hospice and palliative care. The ACP remains committed to improving care for patients throughout and at the end of life.


Abstract Quantity and quality of social relations correlate with our happiness and physical health. Our (feeling of) connectedness also matters for the efficacy and functioning of communities and societies as a whole. Different mobility practices offer different conditions for being exposed to other people and the environment. Such exposure influences a sense of being connected to places, communities and societies. In transport planning practice and research, these relations are slowly getting attention. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework that offers a comprehensive understanding on if and how one's experiences of being on the move influence the ability of an individual to develop a sense of connectedness. We develop hypotheses about these possible relations, that link literatures from mobilities research and sociology to advance transport planning research and practice. First, we discuss how the experiences of being mobile using different transport modes set different stages for the potential exposure to a diversity of socio-spatial environments. Second, we translate this into an analytical framework for understanding the relationships between connectedness and using different mobility modes. In the final part of the paper, we illustrate this by operationalising a number of potential indicators of connectedness (as dependent variables).


Mutations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are an important cause of genetic disease, yet rarely present in the neonatal period. Here we report the clinical, biochemical, and molecular genetic findings of an infant who died at the age of 1 mo with marked biventricular hypertrophy, aortic coarctation, and severe lactic acidosis due to a previously described but unusual mtDNA mutation, a 7-bp intragenic inversion within the mitochondrial gene encoding ND1 protein of complex I (MTND1). In direct contrast to the previous case, an adult with exercise intolerance who only harbored the mutation in muscle, the MTND1 inversion in our patient was present at high levels in several tissues including the heart, muscle, liver, and cultured skin fibroblasts. There was no evidence of the mutation or respiratory complex I defect in a muscle biopsy from the patient's mother. Transmitochondrial cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids) containing high mutant loads of the inversion expressed the biochemical defect but apparently normal levels of the assembled complex. Our report highlights the enormous phenotypic diversity that exists among pathogenic mtDNA mutations and reemphasizes the need for appropriate genetic counseling for families affected by mtDNA disease.


In this project, I examine the operation of the sublime and the unconscious in Moby Dick. In the sublime, I locate the source of Ahab's obsession with, and Ishmael's interest in, Moby Dick. Through sublime experiences, these characters confront the limits of human understanding. Ishmael accepts this limitation, but Ahab rejects it, choosing to pursue Moby Dick in an effort to reassert order in an entropic universe. He blames his loss of control on the whale, which becomes his objet petit a: that object, according to Lacan, that distracts the obsessive from the true source of his anxiety. Employing Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, I compare Ahab's and Ishmael's reactions to the sublime, and how these reactions determine their fates.


Formal mindfulness-based wellness education (MBWE) and related practices are being increasingly used in a variety of human services as interventions for individuals and groups susceptible to stress related problems and burnout. A growing body of research literature supports the use of MBWE training programs and practices in the field of education. This qualitative study focuses on the value of MBWE in pre-service education programs as a tool for emotional regulation, stress management and achievement of educational goals. Data is drawn from narratives provided by eight University of Toronto teacher trainees, four of whom had received formal mindfulness- based wellness education. Journal entries and interview-generated narratives document teacher perceptions about the potential of mindfulness training and practice in facilitating professional and personal goals. Interview responses and journals provide narratives which give voice to pre-service teachers' concerns about stress management related to teaching, and professional roles, as well as interpersonal skills with colleagues, students, parents, and administrators. This paper suggests that for teachers who are seeking strategies for coping with stress, mindfulness may have a role to play in increasing teachers' resilience by promoting internal resources to buffer the emotional aspects of their work. These narratives provide evidence that mindfulness training can be used as a
coping mechanism. Participants who had enrolled in "Stress and Burnout: Teacher and Student Applications" expressed a readiness and openness to learn more about stress, as well as strategies to reduce it. Insights are provided for curriculum planning for teacher education programs. Narratives and teacher journaling are recommended for further inquiries into factors for support of introduction and implementation of mindfulness- based wellness education programs for teachers, as well as for offering similar strategies for use by students in the classroom.

Key words: Self-efficacy, Wellness, Stress, Resilience, Interpersonal Skills


A proposed Yield Reserve Program designed to compensate farmers for any reduced yields resulting from reduced nitrogen (N) application rates below recommended rates is evaluated. Assuming that farmers currently follow extension recommendations for applying N, Yield Reserve Program participation reduces expected net revenue by $10 to $13/ha. The Yield Reserve Program reduces expected net revenue by $17 to $20/ha for farmers who apply N to maximize expected net revenue. Farmers costs of participation increase with lower probabilities of inadequate rainfall and higher corn prices and decline with higher N prices. The Yield Reserve Program can significantly reduce N applications to cropland, which may reduce N content of surface waters, but the costs to taxpayers and farmers will depend on how the program is implemented.


In an earlier work [Zusman and Rausser (1990a)], we expounded a descriptive integrated theory of a political-economy. As is generally the case, the motivations for developing the theory were: (a) to provide a general explanation of the working of a political-economy and (b) to provide a mechanism for predicting the values assumed by the endogenous economic variables and the policy instruments for given environments. The two objectives are, in fact, related in several ways. Evidently, explication and prediction alike must derive from a valid theory. As an introduction to the rest of this paper, we now consider the theory validation problem and the role of theory in prediction as applied to our political-economic theory.


An authentic, interdisciplinary, research and problem-based integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) project may be ideal for encouraging scientific inquiry and developing teamwork among undergraduate students, but it also presents challenges. The authors describe how two interdisciplinary teams (n=6) of undergraduate college students built integrated STEM projects in a research based internship setting, and then collaboratively brought the project to fruition to include designing lessons and activities shared with K-12 students in a classroom setting. Each three person undergraduate team consisted of two STEM majors and one Education major. The Education majors are a special focus for this study. Interviews, field observations, and lesson plan artifacts collected from the undergraduate college students were analyzed according to authenticity factors, the authentic scientific inquiry instrument, and an integrated STEM instrument. The authors highlight areas of strength and weakness for both teams and explore how preservice teachers contributed to integrated STEM products and lessons. Teacher educators might apply recommendations for teacher preparation and professional development when facilitating authentic scientific inquiry and integrated STEM topics with both STEM and non-STEM educators. Undergraduate college students were challenged to fully integrate the STEM disciplines, transitions between them, and the spaces between them where multiple disciplines existed. By describing the challenges of integrating the spaces between STEM, the authors offer a description of the undergraduate college students' experiences in an effort to expand the common message beyond a flat approach of try this activity because it works, to a more robust message of try this type of engagement and purposefully organize for maximum results.


The detailed anatomy of the noses of Kogia breviceps and K. sima (Kogiidae: Cetacea) is described in greater detail than previously. Probable functions of component parts of the nose are deduced from their geometry and physical properties of the tissues. It is concluded that control of the air making the sound is similar to that found in scottish bagpipes with a single reed, that sounds are produced by air being forced from the vocal valve and is resonated in an unusual chamber having cords and membranes, similar to human vocal cords. It is then reflected by air filled 'mirrors' and conducted and intensified through a megaphone-like 'horn' which is surrounded by air and contains tissues rich in spermaceti oil. Sound then passes through the melon where, by changes in temperature of the spermaceti oil, it is actively focused and possibly scanned. Thermal properties of Kogia spermaceti oil are described and related to previously made sound velocity and density measurements. The way sound production and reflection can continue while large variations of pressure are experienced during deep dives, is suggested. A structure for controlling the temperature of the melon is described. It is considered unlikely that the spermaceti oil is used for buoyancy control in Kogia. Some comparisons are drawn with Physeter catodon, Xiphius and Tursiops and some implications for research on other cetaceans are outlined.


Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva in 1712, had an important influence on political philosophy in the 18th century and since, in particular through his book The social contract, published in 1762. (1,2) This monumental work is part of the family of older, major writings on social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704). The relationships between individuals, the state and government form the key components of Rousseau's "social contract". A first principle to govern these relationships is that man has no natural authority over other human beings and sheer force exercised by one individual over another does not justify authority. Rather, legitimate authority must find its rationale in so-called social pacts or contracts. (2) Secondly, competition among men will stimulate the need for a social pact, so that each can preserve oneself and be protected by the "general will" enacted by the people. (3) The social contract purports to provide a proper alternative to the "state of nature". For Rousseau, the state of nature was initially peaceful, with this harmony attributable--among other things--to the small size of the population, the abundance of nature and the absence of competition. (3) Gradually society became more complex, introduced private property and created new forms of dependence among men, resulting in economic and social inequalities. The state of greed and competition that came into being led Rousseau to propose a new social pact, in broad agreement with Hobbes. Hobbes proclaimed men to be rational and interested in such a social pact, as it would bring them a better life compared with the state of nature. (3) In addition, for Locke, a particularly strong reason to abandon the state of nature and for men to contract with civil government was the emergence of war. Rousseau compares the social contract to an "act of association" whereby there is reciprocal commitment between the state and the individual. The individuals as citizens share sovereign power, but as subjects put themselves under the laws of the state. Rousseau also defines government as one of the principal actors: it is an intermediary body between the subjects and the state with the main tasks of executing the laws and preserving civil and political freedom. (2) Interestingly, Rousseau uses economic reasoning in the evaluation of the social contract, by comparing losses and gains: "What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses". (2) (Note here that "natural liberty" is constrained by the physical power of the individual, whereas it is the general will that defines the contents of "civil liberty". In addition, "property" is based on a legal tide whereas "possession" is the result of man exercising force.) According to Rousseau, the result of this kind of cost-benefit analysis is clearly positive: individuals will get net benefits, as the social contract will preserve them and protect them through the general will which is shaped by the same individuals. Furthermore, the adoption of a social contract is rational, as without it the state of nature (which is also referred to by Roussean as a "primitive condition") is put under such pressure that it would collapse. How can we now assess Rousseau's social contract within the context of the development of contractual arrangements, such as in the health sector? (4) The social contract is focusing on principles of political organization and cooperation at the highest levels of society, and its usefulness for practical approaches at the micro- or meso-levels is scant. In particular, the process of seeking agreement for specific contracts does not find ready and practical advice in Rousseau's book, but its principles help in understanding the rationale for cooperation in the health sector. …


Autonomous vehicles have many application possibilities within many different fields like rescue missions, exploring foreign environments or unmanned vehicles etc. For such system to navigate in a safe manner, high requirements of reliability and security must be fulfilled. This master's thesis explores the possibility to use the machine learning algorithm convolutional network on a robotic platform for autonomous path following. The only input to predict the steering signal is a monochromatic image taken by a camera mounted on the robotic car pointing in the steering direction. The convolutional network will learn from demonstrations in a supervised manner. In this thesis three different preprocessing options are evaluated. The evaluation is based on the quadratic error and the number of correctly predicted classes. The results show that the convolutional network has no problem of learning a correct behaviour and scores good result when evaluated on similar data that it has been trained on. The results also show that the preprocessing options are not enough to ensure that the system is environment dependent.


This chapter begins with an overview of the different forms of responsibility/liability in international law, and then focuses on the general character of State responsibility. The law of State responsibility deals with three general questions: (1) has there been a breach by a State of an international obligation; (2) what are the consequences of the breach in terms of cessation and reparation; and (3) who may seek reparation or otherwise respond to the breach as such, and in what ways? As to the first question, the chapter discusses the constituent elements of attribution and breach, as well as the possible justifications or excuses that may preclude responsibility. The second question concerns the various secondary obligations that arise upon the commission of an internationally wrongful act by a State, and in particular the forms of reparation. The third question concerns issues of invocation of responsibility, including the taking of countermeasures.


Over the last 20 years of Doimoi (renovation) reform policy in Vietnam, private sector has significantly contributed to the outstanding success of the economy. The rapid development of this sector has been resulted from the opening -up economic policy pursued by Vietnamese government and particularly, from the issuance of the Enterprise Law. This law and other policies have been creating a favorable business environment for the private sector development.


This study examines the nature of water-soluble organic aerosol measured in Pasadena, CA, under typical conditions and under the influence of a large wildfire (the 2009 Station Fire). During non-fire periods, water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) variability was driven by photochemical production processes and sea breeze transport, resulting in an average diurnal cycle with a maximum at 15:00 local time (up to 4.9 μg C m^(−3)). During the Station Fire, primary production was a key formation mechanism for WSOC. High concentrations of WSOC (up to 41 μg C m^(−3)) in smoke plumes advected to the site in the morning hours were tightly correlated with nitrate and chloride, numerous aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) organic mass spectral markers, and total non-refractory organic mass. Processed residual smoke was transported to the measurement site by the sea breeze later in the day, leading to higher afternoon WSOC levels than on non-fire days. Parameters representing higher degrees of oxidation of organics, including the ratios of the organic metrics m/z 44:m/z 57 and m/z 44:m/z 43, were elevated in those air masses. Intercomparisons of relative amounts of WSOC, organics, m/z 44, and m/z 43 show that the fraction of WSOC comprising acid-oxygenates increased as a function of photochemical aging owing to the conversion of aliphatic and non-acid oxygenated organics to more acid-like organics. The contribution of water-soluble organic species to the organic mass budget (10th–90th percentile values) ranged between 27 %–72 % and 27 %–68 % during fire and non-fire periods, respectively. The seasonal incidence of wildfires in the Los Angeles Basin greatly enhances the importance of water-soluble organics, which has implications for the radiative and hygroscopic properties of the regional aerosol.


Abstract This study developed and validated an instrument, the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (CEPIS), that can be widely used in both local and international contexts to assess Chinese parental involvement in early childhood education. The study was carried out in two stages: (1) focus group interviews were conducted with 41 teachers and 35 parents in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Teachers and parents were found to hold different perceptions of parental involvement. Responses further revealed that Chinese parents practiced more home-based involvement than preschool-based involvement, and that Chinese parents also have layers of responsibilities that limit their level of involvement in children's early development; (2) items of the CEPIS were developed using focus group responses. To validate the scale, 319 parents were asked to complete the new CEPIS. Results from principal-components factor analyses established that the resultant 26-item CEPIS consists of six parental involvement dimensions. Further analyses revealed that parental involvement differed as a function of parents' marital status and employment status. The major findings, implications and limitations of this research are discussed, together with directions for future research.


The novel R package ecr (version 2), short for Evolutionary Computation in R, provides a comprehensive collection of building blocks for constructing powerful evolutionary algorithms for single- and multi-objective continuous and combinatorial optimization problems. It allows to solve standard optimization tasks with few lines of code using a black-box approach. Moreover, rapid prototyping of non-standard ideas is possible via an explicit, white-box approach. This paper describes the design principles of the package and gives some introductory examples on how to use the package in practise.


We conducted a mixed-methods knowledge synthesis to assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve caregivers' involvement in decision making with seniors, and to describe caregivers' experiences of decision making in the absence of interventions. We analyzed forty-nine qualitative, fourteen quantitative, and three mixed-methods studies. The qualitative studies indicated that caregivers had unmet needs for information, discussions of values and needs, and decision support, which led to negative sentiments after decision making. Our results indicate that there have been insufficient quantitative evaluations of interventions to involve caregivers in decision making with seniors and that the evaluations that do exist found few clinically significant effects. Elements of usual care that received positive evaluations were the availability of a decision coach and a supportive decision-making environment. Additional rigorously evaluated interventions are needed to help caregivers be more involved in decision making with seniors.


Barriers to participation in welfare-to-work programs are generally described in terms of human and social capital. Findings from case examination of four Philadelphia-area welfare-to-work programs under TANF suggest that theory about policy implementation is more applicable. Faulty policy logic, organizational and personnel incompetence, and inadequate coordination between and within funding, referral, program, and employer organizations regularly resulted in delayed program start-ups and strained program operations. Generally invisible and absent from research attention, these implementation delays and strains impeded program staff efforts and harmed TANF recipients. States' 24-month time limit policies are a critical target for advocacy efforts


This paper develops and applies a simple graphical approach to portfolio selection that accounts for covariance between asset returns and an investor's labor income. Our graphical approach easily handles income shocks that are partly hedgable, multiple risky assets, many periods and life cycle considerations. We apply the approach to occupation-level components of individual income innovations estimated from repeated cross-sections of the current population survey. We characterize several properties of these innovations, including their covariance with aggregate equity returns, long-term bond returns, and returns on several other assets. Aggregate equity returns are uncorrelated with the occupation-level income innovations, but a portfolio formed on firm size is significantly correlated with income innovations for several occupations, and so are selected industry-level equity portfolios. An application of the theory to the empirical results shows (a) large predicted levels of risky asset holdings compared to observed levels, (b) considerable variation in optimal portfolio allocations over the life cycle, and (c) large departures from the two-fund separation principle.


The Indian subcontinent divides the north Indian Ocean into two tropical basins, namely the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The Arabian Sea has high salinity whereas the salinity of the Bay of Bengal is much lower due to the contrast in freshwater forcing of the two basins. The freshwater received by the Bay in large amounts during the summer monsoon through river discharge is flushed out annually by ocean circulation. After the withdrawal of the summer monsoon, the Ganga – Brahmaputra river plume flows first along the Indian coast and then around Sri Lanka into the Arabian Sea creating a low salinity pool in the southeastern Arabian Sea (SEAS). In the same region, during the pre-monsoon months of February – April, a warm pool, known as the Arabian Sea Mini Warm Pool (ASMWP), which is distinctly warmer than the rest of the Indian Ocean, takes shape. In fact, this is the warmest region in the world oceans during this period. Simulation of the river plume and its movement as well as its implications to thermodynamics has been a challenging problem for models of Indian Ocean. Here we address these issues using an ocean general circulation model – first we show that the model is capable of reproducing fresh plumes in the Bay of Bengal as well as its movement and then we use the model to determine the processes that lead to formation of the ASMWP.
Hydrographic observations from the western Bay of Bengal have shown the presence of a fresh plume along the northern part of the Indian coast during summer monsoon. The Indian Ocean model when forced by realistic winds and climatological river discharge reproduces the fresh plume with reasonable accuracy. The fresh plume does not advect along the Indian coast until the end of summer monsoon. The North Bay Monsoon Current, which flows eastward in the northern Bay, separates the low salinity water from the more saline southern parts of the bay and thus plays an important role in the fresh water budget of the Bay of Bengal. The model also reproduces the surge of the fresh-plume along the Indian coast, into the Arabian Sea during northeast monsoon.
Mechanisms that lead to the formation of the Arabian Sea Mini Warm Pool are investigated using several
numerical experiments. Contrary to the existing theories, we find that salinity effects are not necessary for the
formation of the ASMWP. The orographic effects of the Sahyadris (Western Ghats) and resulting reduction in wind
speed leads to the formation of the ASMWP. During November – April, the SEAS behave as a low-wind heatdominated
regime where the evolution of sea surface temperature is solely determined by atmospheric forcing. In such regions the evolution of surface layer temperature is not dependent on the characteristics of the subsurface ocean such as the barrier layer and temperature inversion.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact front line supervisors have on workplace safety culture and to argue for increased formal supervisory training. Two studies conducted in 2006-2008 and 2011 are examined and compared in which 28 Managers and Occupational Health and Safety Managers in the construction industry in Western Australia were interviewed as well as a case study of a safety change process for an underground mine. The supervisor is the direct line manager of most of the employees on a work site and the value that he/she places on safe work practices is crucial to the level of safety. What the supervisor demonstrates and demands, the standards set by him is what determines the safety level on the work sites. However, the uptake of supervisory training is limited and badly needed to improve front line supervision techniques. The paper presents narrative that supports the notion that supervisors play a pivotal role in work-site safety culture. It also highlights the gap in training support for those in front-line supervisory roles.


BACKGROUND
Deteriorating cognitive function in late life substantially increases the risk for dementia, for other non-cognitive morbidity, for dependency, and early death.

AIMS
To identify early predictors of late-life cognitive outcome.

METHOD
Cognitive function, premorbid IQ, and cardiovascular risk exposure were recorded on 1083 subjects on entry to a hypertension treatment trial in 1983-1984. We followed up this cohort 9-12 years later to assess cognitive function with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), to update exposure status, and to obtain genomic material. Multivariate analysis was used to identify independent baseline predictors of cognitive outcome 9-12 years later.

RESULTS
We followed up 387 subjects (58.6% of survivors). After adjusting for baseline cognition, poorer cognitive outcome was found to be independently associated with a family history of dementia, increasing age, less decline in systolic blood-pressure, lower premorbid IQ (rather than limited education), and abstinence from alcohol.

CONCLUSIONS
Reduction in systolic blood pressure (among hypertensives) and moderate alcohol intake could protect against cognitive deterioration in late life.


Gilbert & George have carved a permanent place in the modern art world. Their enormous oeuvre comprises everything from Living Sculptures, Film/Videos to their large scale Pictures, and confronts all aspects of the human condition with characteristic honesty and clarity. Their Postcard Art is a representation of the themes that have occupied their art for nearly four decades. This ingeniously packaged two-volume set illustrates in color all 1,004 new and vintage Postcard Pictures, most of which have not been previously catalogued or exhibited. Volume One covers the period from 1972 - 1989, in groups composed of varying arrangements and romantic and historic subjects and begun shortly after Gilbert & George achieved recognition in the art world. The second volume collects a new and as yet unseen group of 564 Postcard Pictures known as The Urethra Postcard PicturesA" - a uniformly formatted series soon to be the subject of a world exhibition tour. Each volume is introduced with a perceptive essay by the cultural critic Michael Bracewell, who explains the significance of this art form in the context of the artists' work. Ordered around the Union Flag, landscapes, celebrity, royalty, prostitution, tourist destinations, and other concerns, this collection compiles a crucial but largely unseen component of the artists' important contribution to contemporary art.