There has been a rapid expansion in the role and s1ze of the housing association sector in England since 1979, driven by changes in policy agendas. In the past ten years the problem of 'low demand' housing has also been an issue for housing providers in certain areas of the North and Midlands. Attention has been drawn to the asset management strategies of housing associations, however relatively little is known about the process by which stock investment decisions are made. This thesis investigates the decision-making behaviour of three housing associations, with a focus upon power and knowledge in the decision making process. Using the context of asset management and low demand housing it examines how and why decisions are made within the three case studies. Drawing on two decision-making models, the political-bureaucratic (Pettigrew
1973) and behaviourist (Cyert and March 1992) models, the study develops an analytical framework derived from Foucault's relational concept of power and Clegg's 'circuits of power'. By adopting a qualitative approach the research explores current decision-making practices through the use of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis. The empirical evidence suggests that the concept of power is integral to understanding how decisions are framed and then made. However, power is a complex concept and housing associations are devising their asset management strategies in a shifting external environment. Different agencies are significant, depending on the commercial strength, geographical base, scale and degree of maturity of the association in question. The analytical framework enables power to be traced within each case study
through examining the organisational tactics and 'game playing' in place. But it also identifies constraints with the 'relational' concept of power, suggesting that where
power resides is also important. Power is also closely linked to knowledge, and each case study used information selectively as an expression of power relations. In response to the greater commercialisation of the sector housing associations' approach to asset management is changing. Some are grasping at these opportunities, whereas others are finding such
pressures in tension with their original mission. Some larger associations are becoming 'learning organisations' and it is anticipated that the more successful agencies in this group will become increasingly autonomous from the Housing Corporation and other regulatory bodies in their approach to asset management due to these changes.


Huntington disease (HD) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by unwanted choreatic movements, behavioral and psychiatric disturbances and dementia. Prevalence in the Caucasian population is estimated at 1/10,000-1/20,000. Mean age at onset of symptoms is 30-50 years. In some cases symptoms start before the age of 20 years with behavior disturbances and learning difficulties at school. HD is an autosomal dominant inherited disease caused by an elongated CAG repeat (36 repeats or more) on the short arm of chromosome 4p16.3 in the Huntingtine gene. Diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms and signs in an individual with a parent with proven HD, and is confirmed by DNA determination. There is no cure. Management should be multidisciplinary and is based on treating symptoms with a view to improving quality of life. The progression of the disease leads to a complete dependency in daily life, which results in patients requiring full-time care, and finally death. Thus, Huntington's disease is also emerging as a model for strategies to develop therapeutic interventions, not only to slow progression of manifest disease but also to delay, or ideally prevent, its onset.


Abstract : The emerging Society of Automotive Engineers Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) standard is an architecture modeling language for real-time, fault-tolerant, scalable, embedded, multiprocessor systems. It enables the development and predictable integration of highly evolvable systems as well as analysis of existing systems. It supports early and repeated analyses of a system's architecture with respect to performance-critical properties through an extendable notation, a tool framework, and precisely defined semantics. This report discusses the role and benefits of using the AADL in the process of analyzing an existing avionics system. The AADL is used to describe architecture patterns in the system being analyzed and to identify potentially systemic issues in the system. Findings related to timing, scheduling, and fault tolerance and the benefits of the use of the AADL are examined. The report also highlights the benefits of working with architecture abstractions that are reflected in the AADL notation, in particular the separation of architecture design decisions from implementation decisions. Such a lightweight architecture analysis is typically followed by a full-scale AADL model of the system with required and actual timing, performance, and reliability figures, and its analysis to determine whether the requirements are met.


Network robustness research aims at finding a measure to quantify network robustness. Once such a measure has been established, we will be able to compare networks, to improve existing networks and to design new networks that are able to continue to perform well when it is subject to failures or attacks. In this paper we survey a large amount of robustness measures on simple, undirected and unweighted graphs, in order to offer a tool for network administrators to evaluate and improve the robustness of their network. The measures discussed in this paper are based on the concepts of connectivity (including reliability polynomials), distance, betweenness and clustering. Some other measures are notions from spectral graph theory, more precisely, they are functions of the Laplacian eigenvalues. In addition to surveying these graph measures, the paper also contains a discussion of their functionality as a measure for topological network robustness.


Abstract The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has undertaken a program to lay the groundwork for defining proactive actions to manage degradation of materials in light water reactors (LWRs). This proactive management of materials degradation (PMMD) program examines LWR component materials and the degradation phenomena that affect them. Of particular interest is how such phenomena can be monitored and data can be used to predict degradation and prevent component failure. Some forms of degradation, including some modes of stress corrosion cracking, are characterized by a long initiation time followed by a rapid growth phase, and monitoring such long-term degradation will require new nondestructive evaluation methods and measurement procedures. As reactor lifetimes are extended, degradation mechanisms previously considered too long-term to be of consequence (such as concrete and wiring insulation degradation) may become more important. This paper explains the basic principles of PMMD and its relationship to in-service inspection, condition-based maintenance, and advanced diagnostics and prognostics. It then reviews the phases for degradation development and technologies with potential for sensing and monitoring degradation in its early stages.


Software has bugs. Period. That's true, unfortunately. Even the good old "hello, world" program, known to virtually every C and C++ programmer in the world, can be considered to be buggy. Developing software means having to deal with defects; old ones, new ones, ones you created yourself and those that others brought to life. Software developers debug programs for a living. Hence, good debugging skills are a must-have. That said, I always found it regretable that debugging is hardly taught in engineering schools. Well, it is a tricky subject, and there are no good textbooks. The latter can be helped, I thought. That's how the idea for this book was born. "The Developer's Guide to Debugging" is a book for both professional software developers seeking to broaden their skills and students that want to learn the tricks of the trade from the ground up. With small inlined examples and exercises at the end of each chapter it is well suited to accompany a CS course or lecture. At the same time it can be used as a reference used to address problems as the need arises. This book goes beyond the level of simple source code debugging scenarios. In addition, it covers the most frequent real-world problems from the areas of program linking, memory access, parallel processing and performance analysis. The picture is completed by chapters covering static checkers and techniques to write code that leans well towards debugging. While the focus lies on C and C++, the workhorses of the software industry, one can apply most principles described in "The Developer's Guide to Debugging" to programs written in other languages. The techniques are not restricted to a particular compiler, debugger or operating system. The examples are structured such that they can be reproduced with free open-source software.


Abstract The boreal forest is one of the largest terrestrial biomes on Earth. Conifers normally dominate the tree layer across the biome, but other aspects of ecosystem structure and dynamics vary geographically. The cause of the conspicuous differences in the understory vegetation and the herbivore–predator cycles between northwestern Europe and western North America presents an enigma. Ericaceous dwarf shrubs and 3– to 4-year vole–mustelid cycles characterize the European boreal forests, whereas tall deciduous shrubs and 10-year snowshoe hare–lynx cycles characterize the North American ones. We discuss plausible explanations for this difference and conclude that it is bottom-up: Winter climate is the key determinant of the dominant understory vegetation that then determines the herbivore–predator food-web interactions. The crucial unknown for the twenty-first century is how climate change and increasing instability will affect these forests, both with respect to the dynamics of individual plant and animal species and to their community interactions.


: Purpose: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the innovative potential of the European Union's countries in 2017. Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors have proposed their methodology of measuring the innovative potential of the EU Member States. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to rank and evaluate countries' ability to innovate with respect to internal sources of innovativeness. Findings: The analysis confirms moderate innovative capacity of the EU countries. The classification of countries on the account of their innovative potential in 2017 reveals some similarities to ranking of Global Innovation Index (Input Sub-Index). Practical Implications: The paper proves that the most innovative countries in the light of the European Innovation Scoreboard display the highest ability to innovate. Therefore, internal resources of financial and human character were found to influence the overall level of innovativeness of member states. European countries should benefit from developing their innovative potential in terms of national resources. Originality/Value: Most researchers adopt input and output approach to innovativeness because it represents a sophisticated phenomenon. Due to shortage of studies measuring solely the innovative potential of economies, the paper will contribute to the development of literature. method. Authors' classification is compared with commonly approved ranking of GII. Thirdly, determinants of innovative capacity are evaluated and conclusions are drawn.


An important aspect to be taken care of while designing assistive robots for mobility is that they need to operate among humans. Thus understanding human spatial social conventions and incorporating them in the assistive solutions, is important. In this paper, we introduce a semi-autonomous framework for assistive wheelchair navigation in human environments, which is driven by the intention of the wheelchair user. Safe and socially compliant motion provided by a user intention driven local motion planner is fused with user teleoperation in order to create such a system. Taking into account the fact that the user is the primary controller, our proposed system aims to provide progressive assistance whenever the user is in danger of collision or at risk of disturbance to other humans. We also thus propose generalized formulations for estimating user intentions and for sharing control within the context of wheelchair mobility assistance, that is adaptable in order to be deployed in real world systems. We then evaluate the proposed framework in simulation in order to obtain a quantitative analysis. We also provide experimental evidence using an off-the-shelf robotized wheelchair equipped with a single 2D laser scanner.


Disposable and reusable face masks represent one of the key personal protective equipment (PPE) against COVID-19 pandemic and their use in public environments is mandatory in many countries. According to the intended use, there exist different types of masks with varying level of filtration. World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a set of best practices and guidelines to the correct use of this fundamental PPE. Nevertheless, many people tend to neglect wearing the mask in presence of other people and to unintentionally overuse the mask before replacement, which results in increased exposure to airborne infections. This paper proposes the development of a smart wearable computing system, consisting of a reusable face mask augmented with sensing elements and wireless connected to a personal mobile device, to recognize correct positioning of the face and capable to monitor other parameters such as usage time. Specifically, we realized a 3D printed mask prototype with replaceable filter and equipped with a small electronic embedded device. The mask collects internal and external parameters including humidity, temperature, volatile organic compounds (VOC) inside the mask, inertial motion, and external temperature and light. Collected data are transmitted over Bluetooth Low Energy to a smartphone responsible of performing signal pre-processing and position classification. Two machine learning algorithms are compared and obtained results from real experiments showed SVM performed slightly better than Naive Bayes, 98% and 97% accuracy, respectively.


Agriculture is the dominant sector of the Ethiopian economy and its performance is the major determinant of overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which accounts for almost 41%. The role that women play and their position in meeting the challenges of agricultural production and development are quite dominant and prominent. Despite this, women have been left out of the formal agriculture extension process and the formal structures for rural development. Unless the gender issues in agriculture are addressed, rural development cannot be achieved in Ethiopia. Hence this paper examines the constraints facing by women's complete integration into the agricultural and rural development process and the mechanism to mitigate the situation. Women are invariably involved in most aspects of agricultural production including weeding, harvesting, preparing storage containers, managing all aspects of home gardens, poultry raising, transporting farm inputs to the field, procuring water for household use and some on-farm uses, marketing, food procurement, and household nutrition. Even though women contribute a lot for agricultural development, they face different constraints, mainly because of their lack of access to resources, smaller land size and tend to suffer from landlessness. Furthermore, women tend to use more labour on their plots which increases their expenses for land management and eventually reduces their income. Women are assigned the 'little' tasks such as weeding, storing and processing, hand-harvest of some cash-crops; culturally, it is not acceptable for women to sow or plant. Generally there is a division of ownership of livestock, where large animals are considered belonging to the men and small ones to the women. A serious lapse in the country's agricultural extension system had hitherto being that it was pro-male and gender-insensitive towards women farmers. Also they face risk to health such as rape, early marriage, HIV/AIDS etc. However, such issues can be addressed through making policies for equal access to and control over resources, increasing skills and knowledge, increasing participation in market oriented agriculture production, strengthening women's decision making power, increasing accessibility of technology, improving wellbeing and easing workload etc.


This paper demonstrates the results of the comparison between the calculated alignment of the beach's plan view end the actual alignment that resulted from the natural wave action. A new groin system was designed to replace an existing one, Th? new groin system and spacing ujas designed to hold the beach fill at the required width during average wave conditions as well as changing storm wave conditions. The system was designed for Las Tunas Beach, a beach near Los Angeles, California, In other words, the energies are tabulated for all storm conditions, and the beach alignment is recalculated for changing storm conditions. As the beach plan view alignment rotates back and forth with changing storm directions, it must always meet the minimum beach width requirements. This may entail changing the groin lengths, heights and spacing several times before the design complied with all requirements. Surveys from 1929 to 1970 showed that the beach did not have long periods., periods of several years, of constant ernsion or constant accretion. If there are no major man made changes, it is safe to assume that nature will provide an ad^ruate sand supply. L=s + , but not. least, the calculated beach alignments check with the empirical information gathered from years of survey;ng.


The study here examines the performance of Tasmanian public primary schools over the period of 2000 to 2007. The three principal objectives of the study are (i) to investigate the effects of school resources on students' academic achievement; (ii) evaluate schools' technical efficiency; and (iii) to identify the factors that affect the schools' technical efficiency. To explore the first objective, an educational production function is estimated. The second and the third objectives are examined by employing two techniques, namely, Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).
On the basis of the estimation of a Fixed Effects model of a Tasmanian educational production function, a one per cent increase in educational expenditure per student is associated with an increase in the reading, writing and numeracy scores of 0.38%, 0.36% and 0.43%, ceteris paribus. Male students' performance was on average lower than female students. Evidence of relatively lower performance by indigenous students was found. Students' performance was also negatively affected by their level of absenteeism. Positive effects of parental education on Tasmanian students' academic achievement were found but the effects of parental occupation were not statistically significant.
The SPF estimates suggest that Tasmanian public primary schools are almost technically efficient with the average technical efficiency score constant at 97% from 2003 to 2007. No technical efficiency change in the public primary educational sector in Tasmania over the period could be detected. The schools' technical inefficiency scores iii
were positively associated with students' suspension rates. Mothers' occupational status had a significant negative effect on technical inefficiency.
The average technical efficiency obtained under the DEA (assuming variable returns to scale) was constant at 95% over the study period (implying no technical efficiency change). On the basis of Tobit regression results, positive effects of parental occupation on technical efficiency were also found. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; students who had English as a second language; the number of disability students; students' absenteeism rate and that a school was classified as rural all had a negative effect on technical efficiency.
Urban schools were found to be more scale efficient than rural schools. Lower scale efficiency for rural schools was due to non-optimal school size (due to remote location and low population density).
The efficiency rankings of schools based on the SPF and DEA methods vary due to (i) the different ways the SPF and DEA discriminate between schools in the construction of the production frontiers, and (ii) the different methodologies SPF and DEA apply to control for environmental factors.


We present a hybrid search technique based on metaheuristics for approximately solving the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW). The approach is two phased; a global customer clustering phase based on genetic algorithms (GAs) and a post-optimization local search technique based on tabu search (TS). We also devise a new crossover operator for the VRPTW and compare its performance with two well-known crossover operators for VRPTW and related problems. Computational experiments show that the GA is effective in setting the number of vehicles to be used while the tabu search is better suited for reducing the total number of distance traveled by the vehicles. Through our simulations, we conclude that the hybrid search technique is more suitable for the multi-objective optimization for the VRPTW than applying either the GA or tabu search independently.


Background Patient adherence to treatment plays a fundamental role in clinical outcome, healthcare costs, treatment safety and quality of patients' life. Purpose The objective of this study was to calculate patient adherence to treatment with tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) inhibitors (adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Material and methods Observational cohort study based on two registries: Firstly, the ICEBIO registry, which is a national registry on biologic use for rheumatic conditions in Iceland and secondly the medication prescription registry system at our hospital. The present study included 499 patients registered in ICEBIO, 321 with RA and 178 with PsA. All patients were receiving their first biologic treatment during the study period (2009–2013). Medication adherence was calculated using medication possession ratio (MPR) and proportion of days covered (PDC) to create an adherence score, which was used to classify patients as adherent (80% or higher for either score) or non-adherent. Results Of the 499 patients 53% received infliximab, 34% etanercept, and 13% adalimumab. Patients treated with infliximab were more likely to adhere to treatment than those treated with etanercept or adalimumab (p < 0.0001). With infliximab, patients showed 99.1% (CI 98.7–99.6) and 94.9% (CI 94.0–95.7) adherence, calculated with MPR and PDC, respectively. In contrast, etanercept showed 89.6% (CI 87.5–91.8) and 81.7% (CI 79.6–83.8), and adalimumab 94.3% (CI 92.0–96.7) and 86.0% (CI 83.2–88.9), respectively. If MPR and PDC were combined, more than 80% of patients were adherent to treatment. Conclusion Medication adherence is high in Icelandic RA and PsA patients treated with TNFα inhibitors. Patients on etanercept had the lowest rate of adherence and those on infliximab had the highest rate. Mode of administration probably play a fundamental role in adherence to treatment among rheumatic patients. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


This article deals with the problem of the uncertainty in rule-based systems (RBS), but from the perspective of quantum computing (QC). In this work we first remember the characteristics of Quantum Rule-Based Systems (QRBS), a concept defined in a previous article by one of the authors of this paper, and we introduce the problem of quantum uncertainty. We assume that the subjective uncertainty that affects the facts of classical RBSs can be treated as a direct consequence of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics (QM), and we also assume that the uncertainty associated with a given hypothesis is a consequence of the propagation of the imprecision through the inferential circuits of RBSs. This article does not intend to contribute anything new to the QM field: it is a work of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses QC techniques to solve the problem of uncertainty in RBSs. Bearing the above arguments in mind a quantum model is proposed. This model has been applied to a problem already defined by one of the authors of this work in a previous publication and which is briefly described in this article. Then the model is generalized, and it is thoroughly evaluated. The results obtained show that QC is a valid, effective and efficient method to deal with the inherent uncertainty of RBSs


Requirements elicitation is widely seen as a crucial step towards delivering successful software. In the context of emerging cloud systems, the question is whether and how the elicitation process differs from that used for traditional systems, and if the current methods suffice. We interviewed 19 cloud providers to gain an in-depth understanding of the state of practice with regard to the adoption and implementation of existing elicitation methods. The results of this exploratory study show that, whereas a few cloud providers try to implement and adapt traditional methods, the large majority uses ad-hoc approaches for identifying consumer needs. There are various causes for this situation, ranging from consumer reachability issues and previous failed attempts, to a complete lack of development strategy. The study suggests that only a small number of the current techniques can be applied successfully in cloud systems, hence showing a need to research new ways of supporting cloud providers. The main contribution of this work lies in revealing what elicitation methods are used by cloud providers and clarifying the challenges related to requirements elicitation posed by the cloud paradigm. Further, we identify some key features for cloud-specific elicitation methods.


Personalization in recommender systems has typically been applied to the underlying algorithms and to the predicted result sets. Meanwhile, the presentation of individual recommendations—specifically, the various ways in which it can be adapted to suit the user's needs in a more effective manner—has received relatively little attention by comparison. A limiting factor for the design of such interactive and personalized presentations is the quality of the user data, such as elicited preferences, that is available to the recommender system. At the same time, many of the existing user models are not optimized sufficiently for this specific type of personalization. We present the results of an exploratory survey about users' choices regarding the presentation of hotel recommendations. Based on our analysis, we propose several novel dimensions to the conventional user models exploited by recommender systems. We argue that augmenting user profiles with this range of information would facilitate the development of more interactive mechanisms for personalizing the presentation of recommendations. This, in turn, could lead to increased transparency and control over the recommendation process.


In this study, the results obtained from three experimental trap shrimp (Plesionika edwardsi) fishing cruises in three different seasons are presented. They were carried out during a total of 50 days, of which 43 days were of effective fishing, covering the whole Spanish Mediterranean coast including the island of Alboran. On the whole, the fishing depth varied between 220 and 384 m, with a mean depth of 318 m. The target species appeared in 81% of the total samples carried out, with a mean yield (cpue) of 108.6 g/trap/day. The largest yields (cpue) of this species were from the Balearic islands, followed by Levant region, whereas the Alboran sea gave the lowest yields. The largest mean length was observed on the Levant zone, but on the contrary the smallest mean lengths were found towards the south, more specifically at Alboran island. Significant differences were found in both the relative and absolute growth, between males and females, with equilibrium in the ratio of the sexes (0.49). A total of 15 crustacean and 12 fish species were identified as accompanying fauna, with Conger conger, Plesionika narval and Scyliorhinus canicula being the most important, based on their mean cpue, although differences in the appearance and yields of the species were found in the different zones and depths. However, the mean yields of these species were very low, due to the high selectivity of the fishing gear used. The appearance of Heterocarpus ensifer, deserves a special mention, since it is the second documented record of the species in the Mediterranean.


Abstract This paper discussed the significance of well-being (WB) and well-being management (WBM). As successful WBM requires the implementation of different training programs, such programs are presented in detail. The cause–effect relationship between training and individual/organizational performance is researched as well. The aim of the research to support this article was to present WBM, its training programs, as well as the determination of WBM activities concerning the mentioned programs implemented in Slovenian organizations.


I want to lower the tone of academic discussion in this chapter, to engage in a shameless polemic. My target is currents within cinema studies as practiced in the United States and the United Kingdom. I am not commenting on other countries. Nor am I suggesting that cinema studies in these two places is a closed shop in which there is no room for dissent or difference. (The Department where I teach, for example, did not employ me because of my standing within conventional cinema studies as parlayed in business-as-usual journals and talkfests, but out of a desire to include cultural studies in its work.)

Let's begin with three investigations. First, an anecdote about a content analysis of tobacco and alcohol use associated with heroic characters in feature-length animation films released between 1937 and 1997. The study was published by the American Medical Association (AMA) in March 1999 (Goldstein, Sobel, and Newman). It received major public attention via a press conference, AMA endorsement, formal replies from Disney, massive TV and newspaper coverage, and so on. Such a paper references some longstanding English-language concerns of cinema studies. These concerns should have made cinema studies part of the AMA's discourse and the media discourse on the report, as well as exciting the attention of cinema studies mavens. But how many cinema studies professors or graduate students read it? How many were asked to comment on it in the media?


International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is implementing a project
supported by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) for the last ten years in the states of Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan and a project supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) in four districts of Madhya Pradesh
and Jharkhand for improving livelihoods of small and marginal farmers through sustainable management
of natural resources. ICRISAT has adopted consortium approach in partnership with Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and Government line departments in the
respective states. The project interventions have piloted science-led farmer-centric integrated watershed
management for enhancing natural resource use efficiency for crop production. Based on the various
interventions for improved management of land, water and crops, the consortium team identified the
success stories from different districts covering various activities such as balanced nutrient management,
farmer participatory selection of improved varieties, enhancing water-use efficiency, using improved
landform treatments, minimizing rainy season fallows, income-generating activities like goat rearing,
vermicomposting and improved livestock breed rearing including vegetable farming which can be shared
with other areas for benefiting the farmers. This compendium of success stories is based on the detailed
interviews with the farmers, collecting required information through targeted visits and interacting with the
community in the districts, their capacity enhancement and the continuity of the technology. The analysis
is based on factual data from the users and other views.
The success stories clearly revealed that crop productivity significantly improved with improved
management and also resulted in increased family incomes through use of intensification of the systems
with balanced nutrient management, water management, improved seeds of high-yielding short-duration
cultivars and crop diversification; microenterprises benefiting women, self-help groups and individuals also
enhanced the family incomes and empowered women in the project areas. This compendium comprises
many success stories from districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand.


This article argues that a significant, albeit forgotten piece of the history of post-colonialism concerns none other than Joseph Stalin. The study begins by picking up on the insight, from Christina Petterson, that the abolition of the 'second world' (the socialist world) was a precondition for the arrival of postcolonial theory, which tellingly came into its own only after 1989. The next step is to investigate the thought and practice of Stalin in the Soviet Union, for he was the architect of what has been called the world's first and most comprehensive affirmative action program, especially in relation to nationalities, or what are now called ethnic minorities. However, the most significant feature is the logical extension of the affirmative action program, internal to the Soviet Union, to anti-colonial struggle. As a result, the Soviet Union fostered and supported anti-colonial struggles throughout the world. This support, in terms of ideology and military hardware, enabled what is now known as the era of postcolonialism and thereby postcolonial theory. The challenge of the article is to reposition Stalin as a perhaps unwelcome presence in the genealogy of postcolonial theory.


We study inventory optimization for locally controlled, continuous-review distribution systems with stochastic customer demands. Each node follows a base-stock policy and a first-come, first-served allocation policy. We develop two heuristics, the recursive optimization (RO) heuristic and the decomposition-aggregation (DA) heuristic, to approximate the optimal base-stock levels of all the locations in the system. The RO heuristic applies a bottom-up approach that sequentially solves single-variable, convex problems for each location. The DA heuristic decomposes the distribution system into multiple serial systems, solves for the base-stock levels of these systems using the newsvendor heuristic of Shang and Song (2003), and then aggregates the serial systems back into the distribution system using a procedure we call ``backorder matching.'' A key advantage of the DA heuristic is that it does not require any evaluation of the cost function (a computationally costly operation that requires numerical convolution). We show that, for both RO and DA, changing some of the parameters, such as leadtime, unit backordering cost, and demand rate, of a location has an impact only on its own local base-stock level and its upstream locations' local base-stock levels. An extensive numerical study shows that both heuristics perform well, with the RO heuristic providing more accurate results and the DA heuristic consuming less computation time. Finally, we show that both RO and DA are asymptotically optimal along multiple dimensions for two-echelon distribution systems.


The nature and sources of the New Deal Constitutional Revolution are among the most discussed and debated subjects in constitutional historiography. Scholars have reached significantly divergent conclusions concerning how best to understand the meaning and the causes of constitutional decisions rendered by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. Though recent years have witnessed certain refinements in scholarly understandings of various dimensions of the phenomenon, the relevant documentary record seemed to have been rather thoroughly explored. Recently, however, a remarkably instructive set of primary sources has become available. For many years, the docket books kept by a number of the Hughes Court justices have been held by the Office of the Curator of the Supreme Court. These docket books supply a wealth of information concerning the internal deliberations of the justices. Justice Pierce Butler's docket book in particular provides a remarkably rich set of notes on the Court's discussions of cases in conference. Yet the existence of these docket books was not widely known, and access to them was highly restricted. As a consequence scholars knew very little about the Court's internal deliberations in the landmark cases of its 1936 October Term.

This article, which is based upon a review of all of the surviving docket books from that Term, considers what those sources can teach us about the cases comprising what some have called the "switch-in-time": West Coast Hotel Co v Parrish, which upheld Washington State's minimum wage law for women and overruled Adkins v Children's Hospital; the Labor Board Cases, which upheld the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act; and the Social Security Cases, which upheld the constitutionality of provisions of the Social Security Act establishing an old-age pension system and a federal-state cooperative plan of unemployment insurance, as well as corresponding state unemployment compensation statutes. Considered in concert with information previously known, the data revealed by these docket books shed considerable new light on the nature of the Court's deliberations in each of these three sets of cases, on the reasons for its decisions, and on the contention that the justices wrought a "Constitutional Revolution" in the spring of 1937.


Journal of Futures Studies, May 2008, 12(4): 69 76 In this essay, I outline five futures for Pakistan: (1) the Pendulum continues forever, (2) Collapse, (3) joining Chindia, (4) the Great Game, and (5) a South Asian Confederation. The most familiar and likely are based on the pendulum of rule by the military and rule by landlord/politicians. However, what is needed is to move from the more likely and less desirable futures to a process of anticipatory democracy where the citizens of Pakistan consider, create and commit to building their preferred future.


Murad Ismayilov and Michael Tkacik This article examines the interaction among education, national identity, and external players attempting to influence post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The authors argue that in the circumstances surrounding transition, education became a major political tool for outside powers to advocate their own political philosophy among Azerbaijanis. It is argued that the policies of the U.S., Europe, Russia, and Turkey to provide education opportunities to Azerbaijanis in hopes of affecting Azerbaijani society resulted in a stratification of Azerbaijani civil society, which in the short to medium-term hinders the democratization process with which the country is currently struggling, and in the long run may induce potentially profound conflicts of interests among the various domestic groups.


Launched at the Fourth Global Review on Aid-for-Trade (AfT), the Aid-for-Trade Report 2012-2013 touts progress achieved with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group's AfT portfolio. As the publication points out, while trade has been an engine for economic growth and poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the region still faces structural internal barriers - e.g. burdensome regulatory frameworks, high logistics costs, and slow export and import processes - that prevent it from fully benefiting from an open trading system. The AfT Initiative is well-positioned to leverage important investments to tackle these and other barriers, in particular those hindering the ability of LAC companies to enter into global value chains (GVCs).


Altered DNA methylation and histone acetylation in lymphoma provided the rationale for using vorinostat (SAHA), cladribine and rituximab (SCR) in non‐Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) in this phase 1–2 study (NCT00764517). Treatment included cladribine 5 mg/m2 intravenously (IV) (days 1–5), rituximab 375 mg/m2 IV (weekly 4× for cycle 1 and 1×/month) and vorinostat orally once daily (days 1–14) every 28 days for up to six cycles. Phase 1 included relapsed patients (n = 10) in a standard 3 + 3 dose escalation design (vorinostat: 200, 300 and 400 mg). No dose‐limiting toxicities were seen. The phase 2 dose for vorinostat was 400 mg po (days 1–14). The majority of phase 2 patients had mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) (n = 57; 39 previously untreated, 10 relapsed). The primary objective was objective response rate [complete response (CR) + partial response] which was 39% (7/18) in relapsed patients and 97% (38/39) with 80% (31/39) attaining a CR in previously untreated MCL. At a median follow‐up of 42 months, median progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for relapsed NHL were 19·5 [95% confidence interval (CI): 2·0–33·0] and 25·0 (95% CI: 12·0–45·0) months respectively. Median PFS for previously untreated MCL was 84·0 months; OS could not be estimated. Toxicities were primarily haematological.


When we talk about innovation in the teaching of modern foreign languages, we often refer to various areas: new theories in the. psychology of learning, advanced lesson materials, etc. All these aspects have one thing in common, namely, that they are intended to bring about changes in classroom practice. However, a self-evident relation between the areas of innovation mentioned and the classroom practice is too readily assumed. This leads to disappointing results for teachers and councellors alike. One thing that is clearly demonstrated is the importance of the individual teacher's experience in the innovation process. This determines to a large extent how the teacher operates in that process. In order to gain insight into the complexity of an innovation process the 'Concerns-Based Adoption Model' (CBAM) was used in the Mavo project. This model was introduced by Van den Berg and Vandenberghe and was adapted for the Dutch/Belgian situation. This model utilizes 'Stages of Concern' which give insight into the processes that (can) take place within teachers during an innovation process. These 'Stages of Concern' are closely related to the 'Levels of Use' - these latter being the means by which we measure the way in which and the extent to which teachers use innovation.Application of this model in the Mavo project led to, among other things, a reflection on the relational aspects of guidance activities. The 'Concerns-Based Adoption Model' could fulfil a mirror function for those who would like to gain insight into the effects of their guidance activities


Information has become one of the most crucial commodities in today's world. From multinational corporations to single individuals, we all make critical decisions based on the information available to us. However, modern ease of access to information does not often guarantee access to good information. In this digital age, where facts can be easily manipulated to align with political, social or monetary aims, media literacy has become an essential skill. Media Smart: Lessons, Tips and Strategies for Librarians, Classroom Instructors and Other Information Professionals is an invaluable toolkit for navigating the fraught information landscape. From the history of media manipulation to practical applications of media literacy, this book will offer a thorough grounding in teaching students to defend themselves from mis-and dis-information. It discusses how technology affects the information we receive, offers a brief look at the psychology behind how we process information, describes the various means by which media can be manipulated and provides tips about how to recognize and avoid false or misleading information. Featuring numerous classroom exercises and case studies specific to each aspect of media manipulation, this book is essential reading for students and educators in communications, media and information literacy as well as librarians and anyone interested in developing their media literacy skills.


This paper discusses the experimental results and theoretical implications of our investigations of syntax–prosody mapping in Hungarian sentential embedding constructions. In experiments controlled for potential effects of factivity, contextual givenness and contrastive focus, we tested the predictions of competing theories seeking to identify the property yielding diverging syntactic and semantic effects in object clauses. Our findings suggest that factivity does not have a direct syntactic and hence prosodic correlate, contra e.g. Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970), and these findings are compatible with an alternative analysis proposed by de Cuba & Urogdi (2009) claiming that factivity is irrelevant for syntax, and clauses are differentiated by 'referentiality'. We found givenness effects with all embedded clauses (factive and non-factive, 'referential' and 'non-referential'), evidence that givenness is independent of these factors.


Bio-based phenolic compounds available from lignin are promising candidates for indus- trial application, e.g., within polymer resins or as biogenic fuel substitutes. Among numer-ous conversion methods for the valorization of lignin, the base-catalyzed depolymerization (BCD) has considerable advantages with respect to other processes. By this method, lignin and lignin-containing biorefinery streams can be catalytically transferred to valuable, defined products with tailored specifications. Continuous process operation allows con versions at short residence times and, thus, enables its industrial implementation more easily due to economic reasons. This review reflects the development in the field of BCD on various types of lignin. A historical overview will be given and the principal application of the method is shown. Challenges for operations are addressed, mainly to the development of efficient and selective methods for product separation and purification of the alkylphe - nolic moieties and the reduction of char formation during the process. An outlook will be given by showing trends and perspectives, especially in the field of industrial applica - tions. Here, hydrotreatment methods for refining BCD intermediates for fuel and platform chemical production are shown. Furthermore, the application of BCD for the conversion of woody biomass and black liquor is discussed.


The article describes how the idea of "naturalness" was used by three different groups in arguments over the risk of livestock vaccines developed in synthetic biology. Based on interviews with two groups of scientific experts and focus groups with lay people in five European countries, and using Toulmin's argument analysis as the analytical tool, the article maps and compares the different ways in which "naturalness" was used as a warrant. Several notions of "naturalness" are involved in lay people's reasoning and several lay people's understandings of risk relied on their perceptions of the "unnaturalness" of the synthetic vaccines. The notion of "naturalness" was used less by synthetic biology experts and not at all by vaccine experts. Lay people see the vaccine as less natural than other vaccines and therefore as a greater risk. In contrast, synthetic biology experts understand synthetic biology as natural, and relate naturalness, unpredictability and risk.


A series of experiments was conducted in the Princeton University Mach 8 Wind Tunnel to study shock interactions on axisymmetric double-cone geometries. Schlieren images and surface-pressure data were taken. Two models were tested, which were expected to produce steady Type VI and Type V shock interactions. The experiments are compared to computational fluid dynamics calculations, and the features of these complicated flowfields are discussed. The comparison is excellent for the laminar Type VI shock interaction. The computations accurately reproduce the size of the separation zone and the surface pressure. However, for the Type V interaction the laminar computation overpredicts the size of the separation region. In addition, the experimental results for the Type V interaction show that the size of the separation region decreases with increasing Reynolds number, whereas the laminar computations predict the opposite trend. Turbulent computations show much better agreement with experimental data and reproduce the experimentally observed relationship between the size of the separation region and the Reynolds number, indicating that the reattachment shocks cause transition to turbulence in these flows


BACKGROUND: Improvements in the rate of infant mortality (death in first year of life) have not occurred in recent years. This study investigates the association between maternal alcohol-use disorder and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and infant mortality not classified as SIDS using linked, population-based health and mortality data. METHODS: Exposed mothers were identified through the presence of an International Classification of Diseases 9/10 alcohol diagnosis, a proxy for alcohol-use disorder, recorded on health, mental health, and/or drug and alcohol datasets (1983–2005). Comparison mothers without an alcohol diagnosis were frequency matched to exposed mothers on maternal age within maternal race and year of birth of their children. All offspring with their birth recorded on the Midwives Notification System compose the exposed (n = 21 841) and comparison (n = 56 054) cohorts. Cases of SIDS (n = 303) and infant mortality excluding SIDS (n = 598) were identified through linkage with the Western Australian Mortality Register. Analyses were conducted by using Cox regression and results presented as adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: The highest risk of SIDS occurred when a maternal alcohol diagnosis was recorded during pregnancy (aHR 6.92, 95% CI 4.02–11.90) or within 1 year postpregnancy (aHR 8.61, 95% CI 5.04–14.69). An alcohol diagnosis recorded during pregnancy more than doubled the risk of infant deaths (excluding SIDS) (aHR 2.35, 95% CI 1.45–3.83). Maternal alcohol-use disorder is attributable for at least 16.41% (95% CI 9.73%–23.69%) of SIDS and 3.40% (95% CI 2.28%–4.67%) of infant deaths not classified as SIDS. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal alcohol-use disorder is a significant risk factor for SIDS and infant mortality excluding SIDS.


BACKGROUND
Cervical stenosis patients are commonly advised to undergo surgery due to the risk of spinal cord injury (SCI) after a traumatic event. However, the actual risk of SCI in this scenario is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the risk of SCI after minor trauma in a cohort of prospectively followed cervical stenosis patients.

METHODS
Clinical and radiographical analysis was performed in 55 nonoperatively treated patients evaluated between 2009 and 2014. Each patient was asked standardized questions including: 1) whether a previous physician recommended neck surgery, 2) whether a physician indicated that they would become paralyzed after a traumatic event, and 3) whether they experienced a traumatic event during the follow-up period.

RESULTS
The mean age was 65, with a mean modified Japanese Orthopedic Association score of 16.6. The mean canal diameter was 6.1 mm. Nineteen patients (35%) had evidence of intramedullary T2 signal abnormality. Thirty-one patients (56%) were previously recommended for surgery. Twenty-six patients (47%) were told that they would be paralyzed after a motor vehicle accident or fall unless surgery was performed. Ten patients (18%) experienced a traumatic event during the follow-up, with none sustaining an SCI.

CONCLUSION
Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cervical stenosis patients are commonly recommended to undergo surgery due to risk of paralysis after a traumatic event. SCI was not observed after minor trauma in our cohort of prospectively followed patients. It seems that occurrence of SCI in this patient population after minor trauma is likely smaller than many physicians surmise, yet will require future prospective study in a large cohort of patients.


Objective: Evaluating clinical and hematological-clinical parameters of patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA) before and after four years of using hydroxyurea (HU).
Method: A retrospective cohort study implementing a quantitative, descriptive and analytical approach developed in two public teaching hospitals located in the Central-West region of Brazil, from November 2010 to October 2011. Data collection was performed through medical records of 32 patients with SCA to assess clinical and hematological parameters before and after HU treatment. The study was approved by the UFMS Ethics Committee under protocol number 1890/2010.
Results: All of the 32 patients were homozygous with a mean age in the prescription of hydroxyurea of 19.72±7.58 years, an initial dose of 15.59±4.27 mg/kg/day, and 22.48±5.35 mg/kg/day in the fourth year of treatment. Regarding the use of HU, average values of some hematological parameters presented a significant difference in the fourth year compared to the mean values prior to HU use, such as fetal hemoglobin (14.49±7.52%), red blood cells (2.54±0.38x1012/L), hematocrit (25.30±4.03%) and hemoglobin (9.22±3.34g/dL).
Conclusion: Treatment with hydroxyurea showed a significant increase in fetal hemoglobin levels, increased hemoglobin, hematocrit and average corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, with reduced episodes of pain, infection and acute chest syndrome in such a way as to reaffirm its efficiency in treating these patients.
Keywords: Hemoglobin; Sickle Cell Anemia; Hydroxyurea.


Background/Objective: The topicality of the research is stipulated by the determination of the theoretical approaches that could serve as a basis for path finding out of the global systemic crisis. Theoretical views of outstanding economists of the past toward the future of humanity and the real state of the world are of undoubted interest. The article deals with the ideas of G.V. Plekhanov, analyzes the results of their implementation in Russia in the 1990s. Possible perspectives of social development are associated with a change in the socio-economic views on the role and the place of nature in today's context.Methods: The basic methods of studying this problem are the economic analysis, deduction, factor analysis and system-structural approach.Findings: The authors have given the analysis of the theory of economic growth stages, considered the views of Plekhanov toward the development of capitalism in Russia and the modification of the social nature of the monarchy and its consequences. To secure its future, the humankind is destined to change moral principles. Changing social consciousness depends on the level of culture and education. The theoretical approaches are determined that could be core ones in searching for ways out of the today's global problems.Improvements/Novelty: Solving global problems of today such as nature and society, war and peace, social inequality is closely linked to changes in consumption patterns. Nature, life on the planet should be a common goal for all countries and peoples. Economy and politics should be subject to this goal. These findings are of practical value to scientists, economists, sociologists, philosophers, as well as for college teachers.


In 3D and 2D animations walk cycles of characters appear very frequently and are an important way of expressing various aspects of the story told. However walk cycles are tedious and time consuming to animate. In this work an Autodesk MAYA plug-in has been developed, that aims at automating this process. The walk cycle plug-in can be highly beneficial for animators when creating convincing walk cycles in a fast and simple way. The plug-in calculates the right values for each phase in the walk cycle. The GUI of the plug-in makes it easy to provide the required input parameters. In addition, the plug-in allows the animation of a character to walk along a chosen path.


The paper discusses the polysemy of the categories of otherness and the Other in selected works of a Japanese contemporary writer, Endō Shūsaku (1923-1996).
These categories, situated within Paul Ricœur's interpretative framework differentiate three figures of otherness recognizable in Endō's texts: the physical otherness (termed by Endō as "white man" versus "yellow man"); the notion of the Other as the interlocutor on the level of the cross-cultural discourse; and the third figure of otherness, termed by Ricœur the "otherness of conscience", that brings identity into question. This paper explores the significance of these categories in Endō's writing in two consecutive stages. First, in the writer's encounter with French literature and thought, and later by a transformed and expanded form of otherness found within his fictional works, particularly in his last novel, Deep River. Based on Endō's literary experience of encounters, exchanges and transformations, I argue that for Endō otherness is an important device in understanding of the self. Thus, the writer's approach to otherness echoes Ricœur's words: "the self could return home only at the end of long journey. And it is 'as another' that the self returned."


Since ancient times, natural products (NPs) have been used as anti-infectives, anti-inflammatories, antioxidants, analgesics and antitumorals and many compounds derived from NPs are in clinical use. The use of plants in traditional medicine for multiple purposes is well known, and throughout recent history, metabolites of microbial origin have had an extraordinary impact on the welfare of humanity. There is an outstanding diversity of chemical structures that nature, and especially microorganisms, are able to produce, due to millenniums of evolution. Since only a small amount of the world's biodiversity has been evaluated for potential biological activity, many more useful natural lead compounds await discovery, the challenge being how to access this natural chemical diversity. However, the validation and selection of primary screening assays, both phenotypic and target-based, are vital to guaranteeing a selection of extracts or molecules with relevant pharmacological action. The screening of antitumor agents against pancreatic cancer (PC) involves the use of established cell lines, cancer stem cells and spheroids that mimic the patient's tumor. Improvements in the discovery of natural products along with the emergence of new technologies in cancer screening assays, promise the discovery of new and valuable drugs to tackle pancreatic cancer in the coming years.


Abstract This research analyzes the motivations and dynamics of small farmer participation in supermarket supply chains in developing countries: why some small farmers join these new markets and continue their participation; why others drop out or decline the relationship from the outset. Drawing on insights from the technology‐adoption literature on learning and experimentation, and also on findings from a simple two‐period Bayesian model of farmer decisions to participate in a new market, we incorporate measures of neighboring farmers' experience into the decision model. Results suggest that farmers delay entry to observe their neighbors' outcomes; we find a negative relationship between the number of neighbor participants in a given period and a farmer's own decision to enter the supply chain. We find evidence that farmers delay entry for strategic reasons, allowing neighbors to bear the costs associated with a first wave of adjustment to the market, including higher product rejection rates and lower initial annual transactions with supermarkets, compared to revenues from marketing in the traditional way. Results are robust to definitions of neighbors using both administrative and geographic designations. Our results raise questions about the optimal sequence and level of farmers' market participation and exit, which remain largely unexplored in the literature. JEL codes: L23, O12, O13, O14, Q12, Q18.


We develop and illustrate an efficient but rigorous methodology that predicts the time-optimal paths of ocean vehicles in continuous dynamic flows. The goal is to best utilize or avoid currents, without limitation on these currents or on the number of vehicles. The methodology employs a new modified level set equation to evolve a front from the starting point of a vehicle until it reaches the desired goal location, combining flow advection with nominal vehicle motion. The optimal path of the vehicle is then obtained by solving a particle tracking equation backward in time. The computational cost of this method increases linearly with the number of vehicles and geometrically with spatial dimensions. The methodology is applicable to any continuous flow and in scenarios with multiple vehicles. Present illustrations consist of the crossing of a canonical uniform jet and its validation using a classic optimization solution, as well as swarm formation in more complex time varying 2D flow fields, including jets, eddies and forbidden regions.


Cambodia has an old national soil map and a more recent map of rice soils, but little is known about soil distribution and properties in the uplands. Such soil information is needed to support moves towards crop diversification in Cambodia in particular for the production of crops other than rice. This investigation was to identify the range and distribution of soil types in the Ou Reang Ov district, Kampong Cham province and to determine the limiting factors of these soils. The study area was on uplands of mid Pleistocene basaltic flows and associated lowland paddy soils of old and recent alluvium/colluvium. Soil classification was completed by detailed profile descriptions using FAO descriptors. These were combined with digital air photos, a digital elevation model, Landsat TM satellite images and expert knowledge to create 10 soil-landscape map units. Chemical and mineralogical properties of the detailed soil profiles were analysed. Soils on the basaltic terrain follow a toposequence from the Labansiek Soil group on the undulating surfaces of the plateau to the Kompong Siem Soil group on the lower slopes with an intermediate gravel-rich, brown clayey soil on the mid-slopes. The Ou Reang Ov Soil group is a newly proposed group for the midslope soils of the basaltic terrain. The abundance of gravel in the profile limits soil water storage which can be a constraint for crops under the erratic rainfall regimes of Cambodia. Although the soil occurs on hilly and sloping land, due to high permeability it is not prone to waterlogging or water erosion. The surface is prone to be hard when dry, but the sub-soil is generally friable and root penetration to 60 cm or deeper was observed. The Labansiek non-petroferric phase is a well-structured, acid red soil, with potentially deep root penetration and high soil water storage except where Al toxicity inhibits sub-soil root growth. A significant proportion of these soils are already used for rubber plantations in Ou Reang Ov. Kompong Siem is a deep black soil with no significant impeding layers. Slopes are low, and fields are often bunded so erosion risk is negligible. The soil has self-mulching properties so soil structure re-forms after tillage through wetting and drying cycles. Nutrient availability is not limiting as levels of most nutrients are satisfactory and pH is only moderately to slightly acid. Despite the high clay content, the Kompong Siem soil in the upland areas appears to drain well in the early wet season. However, its location on relatively flat, low-lying landforms results in shallow watertables (10-60 cm) during the main wet season. In conclusion, the clayey soils of the hills and slopes of Ou Reang Ov district have high potential for non-rice cropping. Their relative proximity to markets and good-quality all-weather roads adds to the potential for crop diversification.


The macrobenthic community in shallow soft-bottom areas in the Bay of Ancon, Peru, is characterised by low biodiversity due to low oxygen concentrations. During El Nino events, higher temperature and higher concentrations of dissolved oxygen induce a temporary increase in biodiversity. However, the structure and dynamics of the emerging communities vary strongly among events. The reasons for this variation are poorly understood, in particular the relative influence of abiotic vs biotic factors. To disentangle the roles of abiotic and biotic factors, population models based on detailed monitoring data of three El Nino events were developed focused on the population dynamics of one species in the community, the polychaete Sigambra bassi , which showed different responses in different El Nino events. Calculated and observed population dynamics are compared using root mean square deviation (RMSD). The results show that S. bassi abundance can be determined by abiotic environmental conditions. Besides, three biotic factors improved model performance in different El Nino events: negative density dependence in larval settlement, lower carrying capacity in the presence of other species and positive density dependence in adult survival. The results demonstrate how population models can be used to decode information hidden in long-term monitoring data of abiotic and biotic community parameters about factors driving population dynamics.


Modern perception systems are notoriously complex, featuring dozens of interacting parameters that must be tuned to achieve good performance. Conventional tuning approaches require expensive ground truth, while heuristic methods are difficult to generalize. In this work, we propose an introspective ground-truth-free approach to evaluating the performance of a generic perception system. By using the posterior distribution estimate generated by a Bayesian estimator, we show that the expected performance can be estimated efficiently and without ground truth. Our simulated and physical experiments in a demonstrative indoor ground robot state estimation application show that our approach can order parameters similarly to using a ground-truth system, and is able to accurately identify top-performing parameters in varying contexts. In contrast, baseline approaches that reason only about observation log-likelihood fail in the face of challenging perceptual phenomena.


The ability to develop expertise through practice is a hallmark of biological systems, for both cognitive and motor based skills. At first, animals exhibit high variability and perform slowly, reliant on feedback signals constantly evaluating performance. With practice, the system develops a proficiency and consistency in skill execution, reflected in an increase in the associated cortical area (Pascual-Leone & Nguyet, 1995). Here we present a neural model of this expertise development. In the model, initial attempts at performing a task are based on generalizing previously learned control signals, which we refer to generically as 'actions', stored in the cortex. The basal ganglia evaluates these actions and modulates their contributions to the output signal, creating a novel action that performs the desired task. With repeated performance, the cortex learns to generate this action on its own, eventually developing an explicit representation of the action that can be called directly. This transference allows the system to more quickly and consistently execute the task, reflecting development of expertise. We present simulation results matching both behavioral and single cell spiking data.


There is a dearth of research on the impact of technological change over employment in least developed countries (LDCs) embarking on globalization and consequent international technological transfer. Using a panel of 1,940 Ethiopian firms over the period 1996–2004 and deploying GMMSYS estimates, this paper aims to establish the role played by trade, FDI and technology in affecting employment and skills. The results obtained lend support to a labour–augmenting effect. Moreover, the implemented two-equation dynamic framework provides evidence of a skill-bias specific to those enterprises with higher share of foreign ownership and located in the vicinity of the capital city.


The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) has contributed to the conservation of swan species by establishing refuges for the birds in winter, through its research programmes, and by advising others on site management. This paper describes an increase in the number of migratory swans wintering at Slimbridge, Caerlaverock, the Ouse Washes and Martin Mere following the development of WWT Centres at these sites. The build-up in numbers may be due to changing population levels, and to conditions created by WWT. We describe changes in feeding site selection in the last 50 years, and consider the potential for inter-specific competition between Bewick's and Whooper Swans in areas where the two species co-exist. WWT's long-term studies of individual birds, which have provided detailed insight into the swans' life-cycles, are reviewed. The importance of international collaboration for the effective conservation of migratory waterbirds is again emphasised.


One of most important decisions that any organization would have to make is concerned the potential projects and assets selection. These decision-makings also being based primarily on the degree to which are joined the financial goals of the organization. Numerous common studies on project success and failure reported that the evaluation model correctly predicted almost 80 percent of the project failures and almost 75 percent of the project success. Thus selecting a project using the right technique is ultimate importance for the survival of firms and the achievement of projects. Financial numbers-based existing numeric models have some arguments cited by empirical literatures, but their advantages are many. Therefore, this literature aims to propose and describe the profitability functional method provided as a cumulative value-added metric that is widely appropriate for measuring the prospective wealth of firms, stocks, independent projects, earnable programs, and financial assets. This paper will discuss how to estimate the future worth of potential projects and assets in the dimension of profitability metric.


Numerous theoretical approaches include social values as a social unit. In general, the social values are defined as guidelines; they are personal and internal; and they hold together the social groups. Overall, the social values are distinguished from value‑orientations, social norms, and attitudes. A reasonable-sized body of sociological and criminological studies has analysed the structure and significance of social values for human behaviour. The article explores this corpus, discussing numerous theoretical approaches and studies with reference to a key question: how can one fruitfully operationalise the social values? The theoretical analyses in the article apply institutional anomie theory, which is presented as an example of a criminological theory.


The first test prep guide for the new ISC2 Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional exam The CSSLP (Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional) is a new certification that incorporates government standards and best practices for secure software development. It emphasizes the application of secure software methodologies during the software development cycle. If you're an IT professional, security professional, software developer, project manager, software assurance tester, executive manager or employee of a government agency in a related field, your career may benefit from this certification. Written by experts in computer systems and security, The CSSLP Prep Guide thoroughly covers all aspects of the CSSLP certification exam, with hundreds of sample test questions and answers available on the accompanying CD. The Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) is an international certification incorporating new government, commercial, and university derived secure software development methods; it is a natural complement to the CISSP credential The study guide covers the seven domains of the CSSLP Common Body of Knowledge (CBK), namely Secure Software Concepts, Secure Software Requirements, Secure Software Design, and Secure Software Implementation/Coding and Testing,Secure Software Testing, Software Acceptance, and Software Deployment, Operations, Maintenance and Disposal Provides in-depth exploration and explanation of the seven CSSLP domains Includes a CD with hundreds of practice exam questions and answers The CSSLP Prep Guide prepares you for the certification exam and career advancement.


In order to maintain the high levels of biodiversity and the ecological functions of tropical forest landscapes in South East Asia, production forests need to be managed in a more sustainable way. Numerous initiatives already exist in the form of codes of practice, criteria and indicators, and certification schemes in the countries of South East Asia, but to date such guidelines and standards have been vague and have lacked quantitative targets. Reduced-impact logging (RIL) is a concept related to techniques and practices that aim to achieve environmentally sound timber harvesting; the concept has gained broad acceptance in the tropics. As yet, however, RIL guidelines have focused mainly on environmental aspects such as soil and water, and have taken the flora and fauna into account to a minor degree only. In this report, detailed recommendations are made to help forest managers take account of biodiversity conservation in dipterocarp logged-over and primary natural forests where mechanised logging is practised. The recommendations are based on those made in the CIFOR publication Life after Logging, further developed through three workshops held under a joint project between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, CIFOR and the Forest Science Institute of Vietnam. The recommendations are linked to the different phases of the forestry cycle: i.e. planning (inventories of sensitive species and habitats, delimitation of set-aside areas and riparian buffers), infrastructure (logging camps, roads, bridges, skid-trails, landings), logging (retention of critical structures, micro-habitats, key resources, felling techniques, harvesting intensity, site-adaption), post-logging (understorey slashing, rehabilitation of log-landings and stream crossings, re-forestation), and monitoring (biodiversity inventories). Issues related to hunting, fire, invasive species, domestic animals, traffic, and logging and conservation for local people are also covered. (Resume d'auteur)


PURPOSE
To investigate the backscatter and attenuation effect of the IntraOp Mobetron attenuation plate.

METHOD AND MATERIALS
IntraOp Mobetron is a transportable LINAC which provides surgeons and radiation oncologists the option to deliver radiation right after the surgery procedure in the operating room. A single fraction IORT protocol is adapted in our institution as an option in Breast-Conserving treatment for operated breast cancer stages 0, I and II. An 8cm diameter attenuation plate option is provided by vendor for protecting normal tissue and chest wall posterior to the tumor site. A 0.125cc PTW TN31010 semiflex chamber is used with IBA Blue Phantom2 for the measurement. The attenuation plate is taped to the IntraOp 10cm flat cone right below and above the chamber to measure the back scatter and attenuation effect. All the measurements were acquired at dref for 6MeV, 9MeV and 12MeV based on AAPM TG51.

RESULTS
The attenuation plate is made by about 7.1mm PMMA coated above 2.5mm copper layer. The percentage penetration radiation for 6Mev, 9MeV and 12MeV is 0.5%, 1.6% and 8.7% correspondingly. And the dose increase due to backscatter is negligible for all 6MeV, 9MeV and 12MeV (less than 0.5%).

CONCLUSION
Due to the 7.1mm PMMA layer and short range of backscatter radiation, the attenuation plate provides negligible dose increase to the tissue above. While the plate can dramatically reduced the dose below and well protect the tissue under and chest wall.


Barium (Ba) incorporated in the calcite of many foraminiferal species is proportional to the concentration of Ba in seawater. Since the open ocean concentration of Ba closely follows seawater alkalinity, foraminiferal Ba ∕ Ca can be used to reconstruct the latter. Alternatively, Ba ∕ Ca from foraminiferal shells can also be used to reconstruct salinity in coastal settings in which seawater Ba concentration corresponds to salinity as rivers contain much more Ba than seawater. Incorporation of a number of minor and trace elements is known to vary (greatly) between foraminiferal species, and application of element ∕ Ca ratios thus requires the use of species-specific calibrations. Here we show that calcite Ba ∕ Ca correlates positively and linearly with seawater Ba ∕ Ca in cultured specimens of two species of benthic foraminifera: Heterostegina depressa and Amphistegina lessonii. The slopes of the regression, however, vary two- to threefold between these two species (0.33 and 0.78, respectively). This difference in Ba partitioning resembles the difference in partitioning of other elements (Mg, Sr, B, Li and Na) in these foraminiferal taxa. A general trend across element partitioning for different species is described, which may help develop new applications of trace elements in foraminiferal calcite in reconstructing past seawater chemistry.


We show that determinants of IgG(2a) of C57BL/6 mice (Igh-1(b)) stimulate allotypespecific T cells in BALB/c mice. Such cells are detected in two different functional assays; chronic allotype suppression and T cell-mediated cytotoxicity. A population of suppressor T cells capable of inducing chronic Igh-1(b) suppression was demonstrated by rosetting procedures to possess Igh-1(b)-specific receptors, a result interpreted as indicating that suppressor T cells may act directly upon allotype-bearing B cells. From similar populations we were also able to demonstrate Igh-1(b)-specific cytotoxic T cells. Such cells were lytic for target myeloma cells expressing the Igh-1(b) allotype of IgG28, and were ineffective against a variant cell line failing to express Igh-1(b), and other target cell lines expressing different allotypes or isotypes. The similar specificity of suppressor T cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes for Igh-1(b) allotype raises the possibility that the target in allotype suppression is a B cell, and that allotype-specific cytotoxic T cells may play some role in regulation of allotype expression in the suppressed state.


Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) commonly uses gradient‐recalled echo (GRE) signals to detect regional hemodynamic variations originating from neural activities. While the spatial localization of activation shows promising applications, indexing temporal response remains a poor mechanism for detecting the timing of neural activity. Particularly, the hemodynamic response may fail to resolve sub‐second temporal differences between brain regions because of its signal origin or noise in data, or both. This study aimed at evaluating the performance of latency estimation using different fMRI techniques, with two event‐related experiments at 3T. Experiment I evaluated latency variations within the visual cortex and their relationship with contrast‐to‐noise ratios (CNRs) for GRE, spin echo (SE), and diffusion‐weighted SE (DWSE). Experiment II used delayed visual stimuli between two hemifields (delay time = 0, 250, and 500 ms, respectively) to assess the temporal resolving power of three protocols: GRETR1000, GRETR500, and SETR1000. The results of experiment I showed the earliest latency with DWSE, followed by SE, and then GRE. Latency variations decreased as CNR increased. However, similar variations were found between GRE and SE, when the latter had lower CNR. In experiment II, measured stimulus delays from all conditions were significantly correlated with preset stimulus delays. Inter‐subject variation in the measured delay was found to be greatest with GRETR1000, followed by GRETR500, and the least with SETR1000. Conclusively, blood oxygenation level‐dependent responses obtained from GRE exhibit greater CNR but no compromised latency variations in the visual cortex. SE is potentially capable of improving the performance of latency estimation, especially for group analysis. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 23, 215–221, 2013


Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008.; Includes bibliographical
 references. Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with progressive loss of
 dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The majority of PD cases involve the sporadic
 form with unknown etiology, but mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress are considered
 to play a role in disease pathogenesis. The discoveries of the genes parkin, PINK1 and DJ-1
 that are linked to familial forms of parkinsonism have provided insight into the molecular
 mechanisms that cause disease. Recent findings implicate mitochondrial dysfunction associated
 with oxidative damage as a key molecular mechanism that compromises dopaminergic neurons in
 familial parkinsonism. Studies within this thesis characterize the mitochondrial function of
 PINK1 in human neuroblastoma cells. PINK1 prevents cell death mediated by mitochondrial toxins
 that inhibit complex one of the respiratory chain, which in turn contributes to oxidative
 stress. PINK1 protects against oxidative stress and secondary mitochondrial dysfunction;
 therefore, the role of PINK1 in mitochondrial function and morphology was further
 investigated.; Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that undergo the antagonizing events of
 fusion and fission. While fusion of mitochondrial membranes promotes cell survival,
 mitochondrial fission is associated with apoptosis. Defects in mitochondrial membrane
 potential influence mitochondrial morphology in PINK1 deficient cells shifting phenotypes
 towards Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1)-mediated fission. PINK1 silencing results in
 mitochondrial fission by enhancing calcineurin activity, which promotes mitochondrial
 fragmentation via Drp1 dephosphorylation and increased Drp1 GTPase activity.; Exogenous
 expression of parkin in PINK1 deficient cells rescues mitochondrial fission, which confirms
 that PINK1 and parkin genetically interact to regulate mitochondrial morphology. Cells
 deficient in parkin or DJ-1 phenocopy PINK1 silencing and exhibit mitochondrial fission.
 Dephosphorylation of Drp1 is enhanced in DJ-1 deficient cells, suggesting that modulation of
 fission machinery may be dependent upon the generation of oxidative stress. PINK1, parkin and
 DJ-1 all act individually to limit the effects of agents that induce oxidative stress and
 trigger mitochondrial fission. Expression of PINK1 or parkin in DJ-1 deficient cells rescues
 mitochondrial phenotypes associated with DJ-1 silencing, which suggests DJ-1 lies upstream of
 the PINK1/parkin pathway to inhibit mitochondrial fission. These studies suggest that
 oxidative stress can influence mitochondrial shape, structure and function, which might
 contribute to parkinsonian phenotypes.


This paper is an application of the contingent valuation method on community plantations in the highlands of Ethiopia. A discrete-continuous elicitation format was applied. It was found that there is a problem in applying a closed ended elicitation format in this context with a community resource since a community resource typically implies a community based scenario and such a scenario invites to yea-saying. The wellknown problem of compliance bias is also difficult to avoid in such settings. Application of a closed-ended format under such circumstances would exaggerate the willingness to pay for the good in question. The study asked both spouses in a household for their willingness to pay for a new plantation. The analysis of the bid function shows that there are gender variations in the factors that affect the bids. The common preference model was thus rejected in this application. The analysis also indicates that it might be a good idea to concentrate plantation efforts since there seem to be specialization going on in collection behavior. Women in villages without any existing community plantation are, however, significantly more interested in the establishment of a plantation than men. The aggregate willingness to pay vary dramatically between villages pointing at the need for good selection methods in targeting such interventions.


The lack of access to financial services and to credit in particular is an issue in many developing countries. This paper studies the channels through which new borrowers get access to consumer loans and the effect of repayment data distribution both on that access and on subsequent bank switching by borrowers. We represent such dynamics with a simple model that incorporates different types of lenders and heterogeneity among individuals. The model assumptions are validated against data from the Argentinean banking system. The model yields a set of results that are characteristic of emerging markets: a significant share of the population is excluded from credit, including those who self-exclude, and lender type determines different lending conditions. Additionally, the model shows that distributing loan repayment data, by boosting competition for novice borrowers, may increase the share of the population with no access to credit. Following these findings, we advise focusing on improving available information for unbanked individuals, rather than expanding such information for individuals with a loan payment track record.


This paper discusses fundamental issues relative to ultrasonic gas flow meters used for measurement of natural gas. A basic review of an ultrasonic meter's operation is presented to understand the typical operation of today's Ultrasonic Gas Flow Meter (USM). The USM's diagnostic data, in conjunction with gas composition, pressure and temperature, will be reviewed to show how this technology provides diagnostic benefits beyond that of other primary measurement devices. The basic requirements for obtaining good meter performance, when installed in the field, will be discussed with test results. Finally, recommendations for installation will be provided, including an example of a good piping design.


Dramatic shifts in our communication landscape have made it crucial for language teaching to go beyond print literacy and encompass the digital literacies which are increasingly central to learners' personal, social, educational and professional lives. By situating these digital literacies within a clear theoretical framework, this book provides educators and students alike with not just the background for a deeper understanding of these key 21st-century skills, but also the rationale for integrating these skills into classroom practice. This is the first methodology book to address not just why but also how to teach digital literacies in the English language classroom. This book provides: A theoretical framework through which to categorise and prioritise digital literacies Practical classroom activities to help learners and teachers develop digital literacies in tandem with key language skills A thorough analysis of the pedagogical implications of developing digital literacies in teaching practice A consideration of exactly how to integrate digital literacies into the English language syllabus Suggestions for teachers on how to continue their own professional development through PLNs (Personal Learning Networks), and how to access teacher development opportunities online This book is ideal for English language teachers and learners of all age groups and levels, academics and students researching digital literacies, and anyone looking to expand their understanding of digital literacies within a teaching framework.


Background: Lesions in the ostial left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery are usually considered an indication for bypass surgery because of possible distal left main (LM) involvement. Percutaneuos coronary intervention for such lesions is considered a high-risk procedure because of high rates of acute complications and later restenosis. The implantation of drug-eluting stents has bee reported to reduce angiographic restenosis and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) compared to bare-metal stent. To date, there is little literature regarding the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stent implantation in ostial. We sought to investigate the immediate and late clinical outcomes of paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) implantation for such lesions. Methods: From July 2004 to October 2007, PES were implanted in 44 consecutive patients with ostial LAD stenoses in our hospital. We applied two different stenting strategies: (1) precise stent positioning, and (2) stent covering the distal LM coronary in the presence of intermediate distal LM lesions, thus ensuring full lesion coverage. We retrospectively reviewed the charts to assess MACE, which included cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI), target lesion revascularization (TLR) or target vessel revascularization. Results: Forty-four patients (30 males, 14 females) with a mean age of 64.4±10.2 years (range 46-83 years) were evaluated. The angiographic as well as procedural success rate was 100%, and none of the patients had in-hospital MACE. Clinical one-year follow-up was available for all patients. Angiographic follow-up was available for seventeen (38.6%) patients. Neither cardiac death nor stent thrombosis occurred in our patients, but one (2.3%) patient had non-fatal MI during the follow-up period. Four patients had clinically-driven angiographic restenosis and underwent TLR subsequently. The cumulative MACE-free survival rate was 88.6% at one year. Conclusions: Paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation in ostial LAD lesions with complete lesion coverage achieves high procedural success rate and acceptable clinical outcomes during the one-year follow-up period.


This study describes the use of traditional public sociology as a method of recruitment for organic public sociology research with sex workers. Drawing on their grounded research experience, the authors discuss the issues of representation and framing of the research that arise when engaging in public research with multiple stakeholder publics. Specifically, professional publics may act as gatekeepers to subaltern groups and publicly engaged research risks reproducing existing power inequities and marginalization. However, traditional public sociology can be a tool to engage with subaltern groups and to construct a public where one did not exist; here we examine the complexities, the possibilities, and pitfalls of constructing publics.


SUMMARY: This study focuses on 4 sites in the northwestern Mediterranean to investigate the response of benthic fauna across a gradient of trawling impact. One site was located in a heavily exploited fishing ground. The second site was enclosed in the fishing ground but had not been trawled in twenty years. The third site was located adjacent to a marine protected area and was subjected to occasional trawling. The fourth site was located inside the marine protected area, where trawling was banned thirty years ago. Side-scan sonar records of trawl marks on the seabed confirmed the gradient of trawling intensity. We investigated the response of benthic fauna to trawling disturbance at the mesoscale of a fishing ground. We compared the observed patterns of abundance, biomass, diversity and community structure for epifauna and infauna with responses predicted from previous studies. Results showed that those communities less impacted by trawling sustained more biogenically habitat-structured communities (e.g. more abundance of sessile suspension feeders at the less disturbed sites against higher dominance of small invertebrates at the disturbed site). Moreover, these results confirm the benefits of restricting trawling activities for benthic communities, with marine reserves as the paradigm for the conservation of Mediterranean fishing grounds.


As an educated gentleman and naval officer, Richard Brothers dramatically altered eighteenth-century expectations and perceptions of what prophets were and the nature of prophecy itself. The messianic messages delivered to Londoners by the self-styled prophet are central to the religious politics and culture of the 1790s, mockingly referred to by one contemporary critic as the age of prophecy . Brothers s prophetic utterances came to the attention of the British Government, which culminated in his arrest for treason in March 1795 when he became a cause celebre, before being confined to an asylum for eleven years. The Paddington Prophet is the first book-length study which probes deep under the skin of Brothers s apparently idiosyncratic writings and religious enthusiasm . A close textual analysis of Brothers s writings show the extent to which his Biblical, prophetic imagination arose out of the same rich theological, political and cultural context that spurred radicals like Tom Paine whilst inspiring poets and artists such as William Blake. Brothers s claim to literally restore the Jews to their homeland and his visionary hopes for a renewed Jerusalem formed part of an effective riposte to the London of William Pitt s administration. This Mosaic vision and Hebraic rhetoric permeates all of his work and was channelled into perfecting an alternative plan of the estate : God s own city, Jerusalem. Tracing the contours of his visionary experiences, this book exposes the intensity and vibrancy of Brothers s faith, the power of his prophetic imagination and the internal logic of his theology.


Upland rice, produced by smallholder farmers, is the lowest-yielding rice production system. Drought stress is the most severe abiotic constraint in upland rice. Improving productivity of rice in the upland ecosystem is essential to meet rice food security needs of impoverished upland communities. Breeding drought-resistant upland rice is therefore an increasingly important goal. Numerous secondary characters have been suggested to help plant breeders in their selections. Most of these traits are not used in selection, as they are not practical for selection purposes, exhibit low heritability, or are not highly correlated with grain yield. The use of managed drought stress, where drought stress can be imposed at specific periods, has been shown to increase the heritability of yield under stress to values similar to those obtained for yield in well-watered conditions. It has now been demonstrated that drought-tolerant upland rice can be bred by directly selecting for yield in stress environments. The use of molecular markers to perform selection may eventually provide plant breeders with more efficient selection methods. To date, many quantitative trait loci (QTL) for drought resistance have been identified in rice, but few are suitable for use in marker-assisted selection. However, large-effect drought resistance QTL have now been identified and may enable effective use of marker-assisted selection for drought resistance. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry


From a new perspective of a recent event in the Czech Republic, the paper tackles again the familiar problem of replacing traditional crops, particularly food crops, by new technical crops, also concentrating on the economic and environmental consequences of such steps. It focuses on primal analysis of the events leading to the fact that in many cases the solution which seems quite environmentally friendly at the first glance turns out to be extremely costly and the results it brings become more of a burden for the environment.


Although Nietzsche's greatness is recognized more universally now than ever before, the nature of that greatness is still widely misunderstood, and that unfortunately means that before I discuss any of Beyond Good and Evil (henceforth BGE) in any detail, I must make some general remarks about his work, his development and the kind of way in which I think that it is best to read him. Unlike any of the other philosophers that this series includes, except Marx and Engels, Nietzsche is very much concerned to address his contemporaries, because he was aware of a specific historical predicament, one which he would only see as having worsened in ways which he predicted with astonishing precision in the century since he wrote his great series of works. For he was above all a philosopher of culture, which is to say that his primary concern was always with the forces that determine the nature of a particular civilization, and with the possibilities of achievement which that civilization consequently had open to it. One of the reasons that The Birth of Tragedy, his first book, published when he was twenty-eight, created such a surge of hostility in the world of classical scholarship was that in it, whilst undertaking an investigation of what made possible the achievements of fifth century BC Greece in tragic drama, he felt it necessary to elicit the whole set of fundamental beliefs which the Greeks shared, and also to draw metaphysical conclusions from the fact that they were able to experience life in such a way that they needed great tragedies in order to endure it.