We report the first measurement of strange ($\Lambda$) and anti-strange ($\bar{\Lambda}$) baryon production from $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130$ GeV Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Rapidity density and transverse mass distributions at mid-rapidity are presented as a function of centrality. The yield of $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ hyperons is found to be approximately proportional to the number of negative hadrons. The production of $\bar{\Lambda}$ hyperons relative to negative hadrons increases very rapidly with transverse momentum. The magnitude of the increase cannot be described by existing hadronic string fragmentation models.


Doping with transition metal ions is widely employed to adjust the optical and photocatalytic properties of wide band semiconductors, however, quantitative information about the energetics and charge transfer dynamics of the impurity states is often difficult to obtain. Here we use surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), optical spectroscopy, and irradiation experiments to study the effect of several dopants on the ability of SrTiO3 nanocrystals to generate a photovoltage and to catalyse H2 evolution from aqueous methanol. Phase pure SrTiO3:TM nanocrystals with TM = Ni, Cu, Fe, Mn, Rh were synthesized by hydrothermal reaction of TiO2, Sr(OH)2, KOH, and transition metal chlorides and nitrates in water. SPS data was obtained on thin films of these nanocrystals on fluorine doped tin oxide substrates under vacuum atmosphere. All samples are n-type, which can be gauged from the negative photovoltage caused by the transfer of electrons into the FTO substrate. All dopants produce sub-bandgap states in the SrTiO3 lattice, whose energetic positions can be determined from the photovoltage onset energy in SPS and from optical absorption spectra. The reversibility and size of the photovoltage provide information about the photohole dynamics and their ability to oxidize sacrificial electron donors at the nanocrystal surface. Overall, this work provides an explanation for the inability of Ni, Cu, Fe, Mn dopants to enhance visible light photocatalytic activity in SrTiO3, and it establishes SPS as a useful tool to map the energetics and photochemistry of impurity states in metal oxide nanocrystals.


In the Western world in recent years, concerns about the (potential and actual) social and political implications of the rise of 'fundamentalist Islam' have seen a range of questions being raised and culturally debated concerning the social risk/value of Islam in particular and religion in general and its role within the state. These debates have often become polarized, with anti-religious definitive positions attracting considerable attention, most notably in the form of Richard Dawkins' (2006) best-selling book, The God Delusion. This book (and those embodying the same outlook published around the same time and subsequently) represents belief in God as irrational and constructs religion as having a corrupting influence on values and ethics and as having lain at the heart of a variety of social evils across history. This body of literature has inspired critical responses from religious and, more frequently, specifically Christian writers (for example, see Beattie, 2007; Ward, 2008). Some of the questions raised in these debates invoke standard social psychological concerns such as identity, group processes and intergroup relations, with a focus on trying to understand what fosters pro-social and anti-social behaviours that appear to be motivated and justified by religion. These questions have been studied in relation to religion by scholars within social psychology and within the psychology and sociology of religion, even if the complexity of the issues identified in this research has not always been reflected in cultural debates. For example, the Dawkins-related and other literature has sought to defend the Western liberal 'moral zeitgeist' against what it has constructed as the threat posed by inherently prejudiced (fundamentalist) religion. However, social psychological research on prejudice and religion suggests a complex relationship between the two, with religion potentially promoting prejudice and also potentially attenuating it, depending upon contextual and mediating factors (see Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005). More generally, it has been proposed that to understand religiously-based social behaviours, it is necessary to see them as regulated by a set of personal, social and cognitive systems of meanings, with these systems interacting with each other and with religion (Paloutzian & Silberman, 2003). Such viewpoints are quite different from the simplistic, decontextualized understandings of religious behaviours that are sometimes seen within current cultural debates. It therefore seems an opportune time to review some of the themes that are currently being explored within research that can be located under the heading of 'the social psychology of religion'. However, exactly what constitutes 'the social psychology of religion' is open to debate, as is the nature of broader domain, 'the psychology of religion'.


When women embark on a journey of self-discovery, which often bears strong similarities to the psychoanalytic process, they eventually reach the realm of the M(O)ther. In some cases the latter is a heterotopic place, both an actual place in which women contemplate the complexities of their maternal attachments, and a literary/metaphorical locus with which women express the contemporary shifts in the maternal iconography and the representation of femininity. Combining Lacanian psychoanalysis and the Foucauldian notion of heterotopia, this paper discusses the role of the heterotopic maternal place in three contemporary Greek novels arguing that such a place has the potential to become a permanent ethical locus for contemporary women. Accommodating both the traversal of fantasies and symptoms and the departure from the conventional hierarchical order, it inaugurates a critical attitude towards the world and oneself by means of a transgressive or 'traversarial' ordering.


An open competition by Hawley + Porter. A proposal to masterplan a large area adjacent to the northern station in Osaka, Japan. The development creates a new recreational and cultural quarter together with the opportunity for academic and industrial technologies to work in partnership. The plan also offers the opportunity to bring residential life back to the centre to provide a rich mix between a living and working environment. The masterplan is seen as a sequence of enclosures within the landscape. The spaces between the building forms and landscape will allow air currents to be channelled in a controlled way to provide natural cooling breezes during the summer and controlled shelter during the winter months. The roof canopy is used as a unifying device that brings together disparate parts of the development providing: protection from inclement weather, microclimate for sheltered spaces, and indoor-outdoor sensory experience. The landscape parkland is raised above ground and forms the public plinth on which buildings sit. This allows the site to be accessed at a lower ground level minimising the pollution and noise on the public level.


Abstract Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality causing over 4 million deaths in Europe and 17 million deaths worldwide in 1999. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the primary killer of Americans, accounting for 1 in 5 deaths in 2000. Abnormal lipids, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, abdominal obesity, psychosocial factors, low consumption of fruit and vegetables, no alcohol intakes and irregular physical exercise account for more than 90% of the risk of an acute myocardial infarction (MI) across age groups and in all regions of the world, according to the recent INTERHEART study. Since cardiovascular disease (CVD) is therefore a multi-factorial syndrome, guidelines need to identify risk ands provide preventative and treatment goals, whilst remaining simple to interpret and implement. The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III guidelines and the Third Joint Task Force of European Societies guidelines both recognise the importance of dyslipideamia, hypertension and smoking as the main risk factors for CVD, advocate risk assessment based on the Framingham Algorithm to determine those eligible for primary prevention, and the role of lifestyle changes, statin and anti-hypertensive therapies as the most evidence-based interventions.


SINGLE AND MULTIPHASE MIXING IN PARTIALLY FILLED STIRRED VESSELS by Shilan Motamedvaziri In many industrial applications, mixing vessels have a liquid height-to-tank diameter ratio, H/T, equal to, or larger than 1. However, there are many instances where this ratio is lower than 1, as in all those cases in which the vessel is either emptied or filled. Even when H/T<1, sufficient agitation must still be provided in order to attain the desired process objectives. When the impeller submergence is reduced as a result of lowering the liquid level, the fluid dynamics of even a single-phase stirred liquid can become quite complex, with different regimes possibly existing depending on the geometric characteristics of the system (such as impeller clearance, liquid height, or liquid submergence above the impeller). The objectives of this work were to study in detail the hydrodynamic changes that occur when H/T is decreased, and to determine the minimum liquid levels and the critical impeller submergence for different impeller off-bottom distances, impeller diameters and agitation speeds where adequate mixing process can still be achieved, both in a single liquid phase and in solid-liquid suspensions. Flat-bottomed, baffled vessels (5L, 12L, 20L and 170L) equipped with a single disk turbine (DT) of four different sizes placed at five different impeller off-bottom clearances were used here to study the system's hydrodynamics and related mixing phenomena. A number of experimental tools were used to analyze the systems under investigation, including: Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) for the experimental determination of the velocity profiles, and after the appropriate data manipulation, the impeller pumping capacity and its Pumping Number; a colorimetric system coupled with image processing to quantify mixing time; a strain gage-based rotary torque transducer system to measure the power dissipated by the impeller; and a visual observation method to determine the minimum agitation speed for complete solids suspension, Njs. In addition, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling was used to predict the behavior of the system in terms of its velocity profile, Power Number, Pumping Number, and mixing time. CFD predictions were obtained using a multiple reference frame (MRF) model coupled, when needed, with a Volume of Fluid (VOF) model, in order to study systems in which a vortex could be expected to form. In general, good agreements between the experimental data and the predicted results for the velocities distribution, Power Number, radial Pumping Number, mixing time, and Njs were obtained. Results show that there is a critical impeller submergence ratio Sb/D below which: (1) the macroscopic flow pattern generated by the impeller changes substantially, transitioning from either a "double-loop" recirculation flow or a "single-loop" recirculation flow (depending on the impeller clearance off the tank bottom) to an upward "single-loop" recirculation flow; (2) the Power Number and radial Pumping Number drop significantly; (3) solid suspension cannot be attained at any agitation speed; (4) mixing time increases suddenly; (5) vortex formation occurs, air entrainment is significantly facilitated, and impeller flooding typically results. This is the first time that such hydrodynamic regime change has been reported and characterized. When this flow regime transition occurred, it was observed that the average velocity field and turbulence intensity close to the tank bottom decreased substantially; this was identified as the reason why solid suspension became unachievable. Furthermore, the critical impeller submergence ratio resulting in the establishment of the newly described flow regime was not affected by dynamic variables such as agitation speed. Impeller flooding was observed only when the new regime was established and when the vortex depth reached the impeller disk. This phenomenon was correlated to critical values of the Froude number. Additionally, by decreasing the impeller off-bottom clearances the operating window within which the stirred vessels could be operated effectively became wider. However, for low impeller off-bottom clearances (Cb/T<0.05) and low impeller submergence ratios (Sb/D<0.37, corresponding to H/T<0.16) even the lower recirculation loop was suppressed (tank bottom effect) and an unstable flow system was observed with no clear recirculation, implying that effective mixing could not achieved. The results from this work show that mechanically stirred vessels can be effectively operated only within certain ranges of the operating variables without compromising their mixing effectiveness. These operating ranges were quantified. It is expected that this knowledge will help practitioners avoid operating their equipment in regions where the desired mixing effects are not achievable. Furthermore, in this work, the establishment of a previously unreported hydrodynamic regime at critical impeller submergences was described. This regime is not only associated with reducing mixing effectiveness, but can also explain why phenomena such as air entrainment and loss in impeller pumping capacity occur at low H/T ratios. SINGLE AND MULTIPHASE MIXING IN PARTIALLY FILLED STIRRED VESSELS by Shilan Motamedvaziri A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering


As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major societal unrest, modelers have worked to project future trends of COVID-19 and predict upcoming challenges and impacts of policy action. These models, alone or in aggregate, are influential for decision-makers at every level. Therefore, the method and documentation of COVID-19 models must be highly transparent to ensure that projections and consequential policies put forth have sound epistemological grounds. We evaluated 29 COVID-19 models receiving high attention levels within the scientific community and/or informing government responses. We evaluated these models against 27 transparency criteria. We found high levels of transparency in model documentation aspects such as reporting uncertainty analysis; however, about half of the models do not share code and a quarter do not report equations. These discrepancies underscore the need for transparency and reproducibility to be at the forefront of researchers' priorities, especially during a global health crisis when stakes are critically high.


Effects of disorder on planar periodic structures in superconductors are examined in the present work. In part one we analyse the role of impurities in the striped phases of cuprate high-temperature superconductors. The geometrical degrees of freedom of the combined charge and spin superstructure in the two-dimensional (2D) copper-oxide planes are first discussed. Pinning by the atomic lattice - which might give rise to commensuration effects - is irrelevant on large length scales in the presence of quenched disorder. As a consequence, the stripes have divergent displacement fluctuations and topological defects are present at all temperatures, implying short-ranged positional order of the stripe array with a finite correlation length even at zero temperature. Lock-in phenomena can exist only as crossovers but not as transitions. These results are in agreement with the glassy nature of stripes observed in experiments. Secondly, we study the effect of disorder on coupled planar arrays of Luttinger liquids (LLs) as a model for the electronic degrees of freedom of the stripes. In the framework of a renormalisation group analysis, we find that weak inter-LL charge-density-wave couplings are always irrelevant as opposed to the pure system. By varying either disorder strength, intra- or inter-LL interactions, the system can undergo a delocalisation transition between an insulator and a strongly anisotropic metallic state with LL-like transport. The delocalised state can exist other than in one dimension even for a purely repulsive interactions and it is characterised by short-ranged charge-density-wave order, quasi-long-ranged superconducting order along the stripes and short-ranged superconducting order in the transversal direction. In part two the random (1+1)-dimensional fluxline lattice as a model system for vortex glasses (VG) is examined. Using the recently found exact Replica Bethe Ansatz solution by Emig et al. for a special vortex interaction, we argue against the existence of the transition to a thermally unpinned phase above the VG. The argument is generalised to arbitrary repulsive interactions via the mapping to one-dimensional repulsive fermions. A small window for the transition sharply below the superconducting critical temperature is opened by the introduction of a finite persistence length of a single vortex line. In the phenomenologically related random-field XY model the transition under debate is present but does not leave any signature in the free energy as we calculate in a sideline of the reasoning. Finally, the relation of the vortex system to the random-bond dimer model is explored in detail. The latter can be simulated with a recently developed polynomial algorithm at a precision far beyond any previous Monte Carlo approach. Data from simulations, which are provided by the collaborating group of C. Zeng (Washington, D.C.), and theory do not only show qualitative but also excellent quantitative agreement for a wide range of observables: the large scale lattice stiffness; the average free energy, internal energy and entropy; moments of the disorder distributed free energy; specific heat. The special model character of the planar VG as a genuine glassy and yet in many aspects solvable system is highlighted.


1. The process of pulmonary ventilation and gas exchange was investigated in twenty-three young patients with chronic severe anaemia, before and after its correction. 2. Various lung volumes, pulmonary mechanics, minute ventilation, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production were found to be normal in anaemic patients. 3. There was a mild respiratory alkalosis in anaemia. The arterial oxygen tension was lowered because of a marked widening of the alveolar-arterial oxygen tension gradient. This was mainly because of an increase in the anatomical shunt as well as ventilation/perfusion inequalities. 4. The transfer factor (pulmonary diffusing capacity) in anaemia was very much reduced. The diffusing capacity of the alveolar capillary membrane was usually decreased and volume of blood in the alveolar capillaries usually increased but these changes were not statistically significant.


Clustering, or factoring of a document collection attempts to "explain" each observed document in terms of one or a small number of inferred prototypes. Prior work demonstrated that when links exist between documents in the corpus (as is the case with a collection of web pages or scientific papers), building a joint model of document contents and connections produces a better model than that built from contents or connections alone.

Many problems arise when trying to apply these joint models to corpus at the scale of the World Wide Web, however; one of these is that the sheer overhead of representing a feature space on the order of billions of dimensions becomes impractical.

We address this problem with a simple representational shift inspired by probabilistic relational models: instead of representing document linkage in terms of the identities of linking documents, we represent it by the explicit and inferred attributes of the linking documents. Several surprising results come with this shift: in addition to being computationally more tractable, the new model produces factors that more cleanly decompose the document collection. We discuss several variations on this model and show how some can be seen as exact generalizations of the PageRank algorithm.


Countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) account for about 80% of gross expenditure in research and development globally,1 but their collective health research output has not led to new medicines for many of the infectious diseases that afflict developing countries; human african trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis.2 Development and delivery of medicines for such diseases face significant challenges, including cost, safety, stability, formulation and resistance. Low returns on investment combined with high developmental risks discourage business from engaging in this type of research. The Global Forum consistently estimates that only 10% of global health research is devoted to conditions that account for 90% of the global disease burden.3

The OECD recently held a high level forum in the Netherlands to increase international momentum on research, development and delivery of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected and emerging infectious diseases. This forum included government officials both from OECD and developing countries and representatives from nongovernmental organizations, academia and industry. The Noordwijk Medicines Agenda describes the general consensus of this meeting surrounding problems, goals, and work that needs to be undertaken to improve the availability of medicines for neglected and emerging infectious diseases.4

The Forum recognized that in addition to humanitarian reasons for fighting infectious diseases in developing countries, OECD countries have a self-interest in combating infectious diseases. Pathogens can spread far from where they first developed due to increases in trade, international tourism and climate change. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) exemplified how an infectious disease may quickly transcend borders,5 triggering important economic ripple effects globally, even in countries with few cases.6

The Forum considered how to increase the availability of new health technologies and how to reduce the cost of doing so. Participants underscored successful advances made by Product Development Partnerships (PDPs)7 in the discovery, development and delivery of medicines for neglected diseases. Many participants voiced strong support for the objectives and approach of the chemical compound screening process as done by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). They pointed out the economies of scale that a virtual drug discovery network of researchers worldwide could achieve. WHO/TDR's success suggests how cooperation through a model of open innovation8,9 might be broadened to address the major noncommunicable diseases in markets where medicines are likely to become increasingly fragmented due to genomics and targeted therapies. There was broad agreement on the need to garner long-term, sustainable financing for PDPs, although there was no consensus on which means should be used to ensure this. Participants also noted the importance of using for-profit business models, to complement PDPs, in the development of new medicines, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected diseases.

Meeting the cost of scaling-up PDP investments needs to be accompanied by more accurate forecasting of demand for medicines required for neglected diseases,10 as this would reduce the risk to investors and potential innovators and could create stronger incentives to service these markets. Participants made it clear that many health issues in developing countries cannot and will not be solved by developments in health technologies alone. Nevertheless, such technologies are important and efforts are needed to create the innovation environment that will rapidly deliver new medicines for all types of disease.

Participants discussed policy mechanisms designed to spur innovation in medicines for neglected infectious diseases, i.e. "push" and "pull" incentives.11 The Forum articulated a coherent, cross-ministry, political message about the need for improving the availability of medicines for neglected and emerging infectious diseases. OECD is considering several streams of analytical work relevant to these discussions with a view to providing a foundation for evidence-based policymaking, including: exploring the potential value of collaborative mechanisms for intellectual property rights (IPRs), (such as patent pools or other intellectual property and data management entities); pursuing the viability of a global, virtual drug development network drawing on existing initiatives (e.g. WHO/TDR and PDPs); and exploring alternative policy mechanisms to reward innovation. ■


In virtually every country, the price of residential access to the telephone network is kept low and cross-subsidized by business services, long distance calling, and various other telephone services. This pricing practice is widely defended as necessary to promote "universal service," but Crandall and Waverman show that it has little effect on telephone subscriptions while it has major harmful effects on the value of all telephone service. The higher prices for long distance calls reduce calling, shift the burden of paying for the network to those whose social networks are widely dispersed. Therefore, many poor and rural households--the intended beneficiaries of the pricing strategy--are forced to pay far more for telephone service than they would if prices reflected the cost of service. Despite these burdens, Congress has extended the subsidies to advanced services for schools, libraries, and rural health facilities. Crandall and Waverman show that other regulated utilities are not burdened with similarly inefficient cross-subsidy schemes, yet universality of water, natural gas, and electricity service is achieved. As local telephone service competition develops in the wake of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the universal-service subsidy system will have to change. Subsidies will have to be paid from taxes on telecom services and paid directly to carriers or subscribers. Crandall and Waverman show that an intrastate tax designed to pay for each state's subsidized subscriptions is far less costly to the economy than an interstate tax. Robert W. Crandall is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Leonard Waverman is a visiting professor at the London Business School, on leave from the University of Toronto. They are coauthors of Talk Is Cheap: The Promise of Regulatory Reform in North American Telecommunications (Brookings, 1995).


Online case studies. Managing Innovation is an established, bestselling text for MBA, MSc and advanced undergraduate courses on management of technology, innovation management and entrepreneurship. It is also used widely by managers in both the service and manufacturing sectors. Now in its fourth edition, Managing Innovation has been fully revised and updated based on extensive user feedback to incorporate the latest findings and techniques in innovation management. The authors have included a new and more explicit innovation model, which is used throughout the book and have introduced two new features – Research Notes and Views from the Front Line – to incorporate more real life case material into the book. The strong evidence–based and practical approach makes this a must–read for anyone studying or working within innovation. An extensive website accompanies this text at www.managing–innovation.com. Readers can browse an online database of audio and video clips, as well as case study material, interactive exercises and tools for innovation, whilst lecturers can find additional support material including instructor slides and teaching guides and tips. "Tidd and Bessant's text has become a standard for students and practitioners of innovation. They offer a lively account on innovation management full of interesting and new examples, but one that at the same is rigorously anchored in what we have learned over the last thirty years on how to manage that ultimate business challenge of renewing products, processes, and business models. Those who want to innovate must read this book." — Professor Arnoud De Meyer, Director, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK "Innovation matters and this book by two leaders in the field which is clear and practical as well as rigorous should be essential reading for all seeking to study or to become involved in innovation." — Chris Voss, Professor of Operations and Technology Management, London Business School "...comprehensive and comprehensible compendium on the management of innovation. It is very well organized and very well presented. A pedagogic tool that will work at multiple levels for those wishing to gain deeper insights into some of the most challenging and important management issues of the day." — David J. Teece, Thomas W. Tusher Professor in Global Business, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, USA "Those of us who teach in the field of Innovation Management were delighted when the first edition of this book appeared 11 years ago. The field had long been in need of such a comprehensive and integrated empirically–based work. The fact that this is now the 4th edition is clear testimony to the value of its contribution. We are deeply indebted to the authors for their dedication and diligence in providing us with this updated and expanded volume." — Thomas J. Allen,Howard W. Johnson Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, USA.


We present a new methodology for computing approximate Nash equilibria for two-person non-cooperative games based upon certain extensions and specializations of an existing optimization approach previously used for the derivation of fixed approximations for this problem. In particular, the general two-person problem is reduced to an indefinite quadratic programming problem of special structure involving the $n \times n$ adjacency matrix of an induced simple graph specified by the input data of the game, where $n$ is the number of players' strategies. Using this methodology and exploiting certain properties of the positive part of the spectrum of the induced graph, we show that for any $\varepsilon > 0$ there is an algorithm to compute an $\varepsilon$-approximate Nash equilibrium in time $n^{\xi(m)/\varepsilon}$, where, $\xi (m) = \sum_{i=1}^m \lambda_i / n$ and $\lambda_1, \lambda_2, >..., \lambda_m$ are the positive eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of the graph. For classes of games for which $\xi (m)$ is a constant, there is a PTAS. Based on the best upper bound derived for $\xi(m)$ so far, the worst case complexity of the method is bounded by the subexponential $n^{\sqrt{m}/\varepsilon}$.


During electrowinning of copper, oxidation reaction occurs at the surface of the lead anode and oxygen gas is liberated. The size and the burst mechanism of the oxygen bubbles are known to have significant effects on the generation of acid mist. However, little is known about the actual size and its distribution of the oxygen bubbles that are generated under typical operating conditions of a copper electrowinning tankhouse.

This paper presents a technique for the measurement of oxygen bubbles formed in a copper elec-trowinning process. Live images of the generated oxygen bubbles were captured by utilizing a high speed camera, super bright LEDs and a special viewing chamber. A MATLAB based software was developed to analyse the images and to determine the size of the bubbles.

The effect of electrical current density on the size of the oxygen bubbles was experimentally investigated. Results show that regardless of the current density applied, bubbles were found in various sizes ranging from 33 μm up to 278 μm. They also revealed that current density had negligible effect on bubble size distribution. The mean bubble diameter for all three different current densities was found to be between 65 and 68 μm.

Experimentally measured amount of acid mist was found to increase linearly with the increase of current density. Based on Faraday's Law, the total volume oxygen generated at the anode is linearly related to the current density. Since the current density had negligible effect on the bubble size, it was postulated that the total number of bubbles generated at the anode was also linearly related to current density.


Using a new Current Population Survey (CPS) supplement on landline and cell-phone service and use as the investigative context, this case study explores relationships between presurvey evaluation data (drawn from cognitive interviews and a questionnaire appraisal coding system) and post-survey evaluation data (drawn from behavior coding and interviewer debriefings). Using qualitative data from cognitive interviews and the questionnaire appraisal system (Willis and Lessler, 1999), predictions were formulated as to where problems with the supplement questionnaire might occur during its administration in February 2004. Evidence of problems was based on behavior-coding data from 60 household interviews and on qualitative data from two focus groups conducted with CPS interviewers. Though subjective (i.e., no means of quantifying measurement error was available), the accuracy of predictions was assessed using post-survey evaluation data. A summary of predictive "hits" and "misses" is provided and discussed within the context of a larger questionnaire-design-and-evaluation framework (Esposito, 2004a, 2004b) that relates pre-survey and post-survey evaluation work.


This thesis explores supply network structures, from the perspective of service innovation, over a period of five years (2005-2010). The initiating actor in the network, a financial institution, could be regarded as being the source, or at least the catalyst, for network interactions linked to service innovation. Research underpinning this thesis investigates the nature of network interactions. Of particular interest are interactions that co-created opportunities at the point of knowledge exchange, which in turn led to innovative value propositions.

The services sector generates over 70% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in developed economies and over 50% in developing ones. Nonetheless, most innovation-related research has focussed on goods rather than services (Paton and McLaughlin, 2008). In studies of services the focus of attention is generally the enabling Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provision. This focus, however, reinforces a goods- dominant view of innovation; namely, that services follow advances in knowledge associated to tangible goods - the ICT. Moreover, most such studies have focused their analysis at the dyad level.

Literature reviewed led to a greater understanding of how a service innovation takes places within a supply network, what enables such an innovation, and what characteristics can be associated to a particular level of analysis. Answers contribute to theory building in the field of Supply Chain Management (SCM) field (Madhavan et al., 2004, Wu and Choi, 2005, Dubois and Fredriksson, 2008, Choi and Wu, 2009a, 2009b, Li and Choi, 2009, Wu et al., 2010), by evidencing that dynamic triads within a network are the key to fostering service innovation.

Research was exploratory, embracing an inductive theory-building methodology based on a qualitative approach. Altogether, 42 semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed; and 265 documents (hardcopies, electronic files, e-mails and web sites) were examined. Research was undertaken in three stages: initial exploration, in-depth research and findings validation. The method led to an iterative dialogue between data collection and analysis, supported by NVivo, which allowed pattern identification and category coding (labelling).

Three issues highlight changes in the triads observed: a focal dyad, roles played by participating actors, and network interactions among actors. Findings helped develop a proposal for the de Vries (2006) service system model—used in literature on services—to include a set of customers, a set of suppliers, a set of buyers and a set of outcomes interacting through their respective competencies and technologies. This model has already been used in service literature, and the enriched model proposed by the researcher is one he argues can strengthen SCM literature.


This study asks how well the Nordic nations have managed in a new social environment of globalization, increasing competition and new challenges to the Nordic welfare model? The focus is on well-being outcomes, rather than on welfare inputs (expenditure generosity or rights and institutional features). For this purpose we have constructed a data bank with well-being measures for 29 modern nations, based on 69 variables in 9 well-being dimensions. With this data we have constructed an overall well-being index and sub-indexes for these nations. We find that in terms of well-being outcomes the Nordic nations (including Iceland) share major patterns of well-being characteristics. In a data-driven clustering analysis (with Dendograms, using the Ward Method) of all the 69 variables, our well-being outcomes cluster the nations in a way comparable to Francis Castles' families of nations and Esping-Andersen's main welfare regime types. We disaggregate the outcomes by clusters and well-being dimensions.The findings indicate that the five Nordic nations had the highest level of well-being amongst modern nations during the period from 2005 to 2008, along with Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The strength of the Nordic cluster of nations seems to be their emphasis on equality of income distribution, poverty reduction, improving family conditions and facilitating social cohesion and participation, while also promoting economic strength and a high affluence level. The study also assesses correlates of well-being amongst these nations, including welfare state generosity, political influences, social trust, strength of democracy and distributional characteristics. The findings support a narrative emphasizing the importance of lifting the worse off up the well-being ladder of society. That seems to be the most efficient strategy for improving the overall well-being of modern nations.


Autoinflammatory syndromes are a group of rare disorders of innate immunity characterized by repeated episodes of inflammation without an obvious cause. Many of these disorders have a childhood onset, and present as recurrent fevers, skin lesions, joint pains and other systemic features. Newer autoinflammatory syndromes with previously undescribed clinical phenotypes are being increasingly recognized. Several of these have distinctive cutaneous manifestations, and dermatologists have an important role to play in the diagnosis of these conditions. Recently, molecular basis for many of these diseases has been identified, thus paving the way for novel targeted therapies. Interleukin-1 blockers have been found to be more effective than the conventional immunosuppressants in their treatment. In this article, we focus on the cutaneous features of well-recognized as well as some of the recently described monogenic autoinflammatory syndromes in children.


Title of dissertation: SUPERCONDUCTING LOGIC CIRCUITS OPERATING WITH RECIPROCAL MAGNETIC FLUX QUANTA Oliver Timothy Oberg, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Fred Wellstood Department of Physics Complimentary Medal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology is expected to soon reach its fundamental limits of operation. The fundamental speed limit of about 4 GHz has already effectively been sidestepped by parallelization. This increases raw processing power but does nothing to improve power dissipation or latency. One approach for increasing computing performance involves using superconducting digital logic circuits. In this thesis I describe a new kind of superconducting logic, invented by Quentin Herr at Northrop Grumman, which uses reciprocal pairs of quantized single magnetic flux pulses to encode classical bits. In Reciprocal Quantum Logic (RQL) the data is encoded in integer units of the magnetic flux quantum. RQL gates operate without the bias resistors of previous superconducting logic families and dissipate several orders of magnitude less power. I demonstrate the basic operation of key RQL gates (AndOr, AnotB, Set/Reset) and show their self-resetting properties. Together, these gates form a universal logic set and provide memory capabilities. Experiments measuring the bit error rate of the AndOr gate extrapolated a minimum BER of 10−480 and a BER of 10−44 with 30% margins on flux biasing. I describe an analytic timing model for RQL gates which demonstrates the self-correcting timing features. From this model I derive equations for the timing behavior and operating limits. Using this timing model I ran simulations to determine correction factions for more accurate predictions at higher frequencies. Using these results, I also develop Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) models to describe the combinational logic of RQL gates. To test the timing predictions of the timing model, I performed three experiments on Nb/AlOx/Nb circuits at 4.2 K. The first measured the time of output. The second measured the operating margins of the circuit. The third measured the maximum frequency of operation for RQL circuits. Together, these three experiments showed quantitative agreement with the model for the timing output, qualitative agreement with the limits of operation, and a projected speed limit of 50 GHz for the Hypres 4.5 kA/cm process. To power RQL circuits I describe a new design for power splitters and combiners which minimize standing waves. I describe a new kind of Wilkinson power splitter which required numerical optimization but proved to be adequate. I experimentally tested two new designs of the power splitter. Both showed less than 10% variation in standing waves between power splitter and combiner, making it adequate for RQL circuits. I also compared these results with the S-parameters of the power network, which also indicated that the design was adequate for RQL circuits. Finally, I tested an 8-bit Kogge-Stone architecture carry-look ahead adder designed using VHDL models. The adder contained 815 Josephson junctions and was fully functional at 6.21 GHz with a latency of 1.25 clock cycles. The adder produced the correct logical output, had a measured optimal operating point within 8% of the optimal simulated operating point, and measured power margins of 1 dB. It operated best at the designed clock amplitude of 0.88Ic and dissipated 0.570 mW of power. SUPERCONDUCTING LOGIC CIRCUITS OPERATING WITH RECIPROCAL MAGNETIC FLUX QUANTA


BACKGROUND
  Deficits in executive functions have been widely reported to characterise individuals with ADHD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of a range of executive function measures for identifying children with ADHD.

METHOD
  Eighty-three children with ADHD and 50 normally-developing children without ADHD were assessed on measures of inhibition, set-shifting, planning, problem-solving, response inhibition, sustained attention and working memory. Measures of sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios and diagnostic odds ratios were calculated.

RESULTS
  Executive function tasks effectively discriminated between children with and without ADHD. Measures of response inhibition and working memory contributed the most to the discriminant function.

CONCLUSIONS
  Cognitive measures of executive function can be used to help identify children with ADHD and could be useful as additional diagnostic tools for clinical practitioners.


Was 1986 Nobel Laureate James Buchanan an intellectual heir of South Carolina slavery apologist and political thinker John C. Calhoun? Further, was Buchanan's worldview shaped by segregationist Nashville Agrarian poet Donald Davidson? These are claims made by historian Nancy MacLean in her 2017 Democracy in Chains; however, documentary evidence from Buchanan's Collected Works and other sources suggests that Calhoun and Davidson were not among his influences and that, therefore, MacLean's attempt to locate Buchanan within the segregationist tradition in Southern political thinking is not supported by the historical record.


One of the characteristics of public transport is the need for transfers. During transfers, travellers are pedestrian wayfinders and have to find their way from the place of arrival to the place of departure of another means of transport.
Wayfinding in public transport takes place in two types of spaces: network space and scene space. Network space includes the transport network. Scene space consists of the halls, squares, and platforms at interchange nodes;
it lacks an obvious network structure. Published timetables allow pre-trip wayfinding in network space, but wayfinding in scene space requires interaction with the actual environment, using the information provided therein.
The theory of image schemata (cognitive patterns that structure our perceptions and actions) suggests that structural information is immediately usable.
Other types of information, notably signage, require conscious effort to use.
This research is about transfers in railway stations, i.e., wayfinding in scene space. I hypothesise that structural information provided by the architectural layout is enough to guide travellers through railway stations. Computational modelling is used to test this hypothesis. Image schemata
form the cognitive basis for a formal model of scene space, called Schematic Geometry. A software agent is developed next and used to simulate wayfinding tasks in Schematic Geometry models of two railway stations.
Results indicate that structural information supports wayfinding, but is not always enough to find optimal routes. Previews of parts of the environment are found to be highly effective wayfinding aids that build on human
object recognition rather than on sign reading. Conclusions are that humans integrate information from various sources and of different types to achieve good wayfinding performance; well designed architecture can further support
wayfinding by providing structural clues and previews.
This thesis contributes to our understanding of wayfinding, especially the information needs for wayfinding in scene space, and provides a cognitively motivated but formal model of scene space, Schematic Geometry.


This paper uses a New-Keynesian model with multiple monetary assets to show that if the choice of instrument is based solely on its propensity to predict macroeconomic targets, a central bank may choose an inferior policy instrument. We compare a standard interest rate rule to a k-percent rule for three alternative monetary aggregates determined within our model: the monetary base, the simple sum measure of money, and the Divisia measure. Welfare results are striking. While the interest rate dominates the other two monetary aggregate k-percent rules, the Divisia k-percent rule outperforms the interest rate rule. Next we study the ability of Granger Causality tests ? in the context of data generated from our model ? to correctly identify welfare improving instruments. All of the policy instruments considered, except for Divisia, Granger Cause both output and prices at extremely high levels of significance. Divisia fails to Granger Cause prices despite the Divisia rule stabilizing inflation better than these alternative policy instruments. The causality results are robust to using a popular version of the Sims Causality test for which we show standard asymptotics remain valid when the variables are integrated, as in our case.


We describe an unconventional line of attack in our quest to teach machines how to rap battle by improvising hip hop lyrics on the fly, in which a novel recursive bilingual neural network, TRAAM, implicitly learns soft, context-dependent generalizations over the structural relationships between associated parts of challenge and response raps, while avoiding the exponential complexity costs that symbolic models would require. TRAAM learns feature vectors simultaneously using context from both the challenge and the response, such that challenge-response association patterns with similar structure tend to have similar vectors. Improvisation is modeled as a quasi-translation learning problem, where TRAAM is trained to improvise fluent and rhyming responses to challenge lyrics. The soft structural relationships learned by our TRAAM model are used to improve the probabilistic responses generated by our improvisational response component.


Myopia is a serious health problem that has reached epidemic levels in Asian cities such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore. However, there is a lack of cross-sectional and longitudinal data on refractive error and ocular biometry in young adults, especially in Singapore. Despite the high prevalence of myopia in Singapore, vision-related quality of life (VRQOL) is also inadequately examined. This longitudinal study sets out to examine the refraction, ocular biometry and VRQOL over a 24-month period. Participants were recruited from the student pool of a tertiary education institution. Subjective refraction, ocular biometry, and accommodative response measurements were performed for participants. The NEI-RQL-42 questionnaire and a bespoke questionnaire were completed by participants. Out of 99 participants (age range 16 to 22 year) at the baseline visit, 86.8 % were myopic. The age of initial refractive correction was significantly associated with refractive error, while near work, sports activities, outdoor activities, accommodative responses, and primary school leaving examinations were not. Among the 88 participants who completed the 24 month visit, the percentage of myopes remained stable, with no increase in myopia. Ocular biometric parameters also remained stable, with only a non-clinically significant increase of 0.02mm in axial length. Non-Myopes exhibited the highest VRQOL, while Mod/High-Myopes had the lowest VRQOL. Myopia and contact lens wear were found to be the main contributors towards poorer VRQOL. VRQOL remained stable over the 24 month period, with the exception that moderate and high myopes exhibited an improvement in VRQOL on their dependence of correction. In conclusion, this study presented novel findings on stable refraction and ocular biometry in Singapore young adults over a 24 month period, which was contrary to previous findings on university students. In addition, VRQOL remained unchanged over a 24 month period, where myopia and contact lens wear were found to cause poorer VRQOL in participants.


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The present logic of built environment dispersion appears incompatible with the concept of sustainable development. The peripheral expansion of cities is indeed leading to irrational use of ground, growing environmental impact and important infrastructure costs. Looked at from this point of view, the Ecoparc project consists in promoting the sustainable regeneration of an urban wasteland of almost 4 ha, located next to Neuchâtel railway station and notably including the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) buildings. The design process is based on constant optimization between environmental, socio-cultural and economic criteria, notably by coherent integration of contemporary architectural expression, reduced energy consumption (mobility, infrastructures, buildings) and functional synergies.


Background: Control of the COVID-19 pandemic will rely on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-elicited antibodies to protect against emerging and future variants; an understanding of the unique features of the humoral responses to infection and vaccination, including different vaccine platforms, is needed to achieve this goal. Methods: The epitopes and pathways of escape for Spike-specific antibodies in individuals with diverse infection and vaccination history were profiled using Phage-DMS. Principal component analysis was performed to identify regions of antibody binding along the Spike protein that differentiate the samples from one another. Within these epitope regions, we determined potential sites of escape by comparing antibody binding of peptides containing wild-type residues versus peptides containing a mutant residue. Results: Individuals with mild infection had antibodies that bound to epitopes in the S2 subunit within the fusion peptide and heptad-repeat regions, whereas vaccinated individuals had antibodies that additionally bound to epitopes in the N- and C-terminal domains of the S1 subunit, a pattern that was also observed in individuals with severe disease due to infection. Epitope binding appeared to change over time after vaccination, but other covariates such as mRNA vaccine dose, mRNA vaccine type, and age did not affect antibody binding to these epitopes. Vaccination induced a relatively uniform escape profile across individuals for some epitopes, whereas there was much more variation in escape pathways in mildly infected individuals. In the case of antibodies targeting the fusion peptide region, which was a common response to both infection and vaccination, the escape profile after infection was not altered by subsequent vaccination. Conclusions: The finding that SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination resulted in binding to additional epitopes beyond what was seen after infection suggests that protection could vary depending on the route of exposure to Spike antigen. The relatively conserved escape pathways to vaccine-induced antibodies relative to infection-induced antibodies suggests that if escape variants emerge they may be readily selected for across vaccinated individuals. Given that the majority of people will be first exposed to Spike via vaccination and not infection, this work has implications for predicting the selection of immune escape variants at a population level. Funding: This work was supported by NIH grants AI138709 (PI JMO) and AI146028 (PI FAM). JMO received support as the Endowed Chair for Graduate Education (FHCRC). The research of FAM was supported in part by a Faculty Scholar grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Simons Foundation. Scientific Computing Infrastructure at Fred Hutch was funded by ORIP grant S10OD028685.


ABSTRACT The present research examined the relations between the Big Five factors of personality, religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles (tensions, conflicts, and strains pertaining to r/s life), and well-being. Participants comprised U.S. adults from an online sample (N = 1,047) and an undergraduate sample (N = 3,083). Regressions showed that people who reported higher Neuroticism and Openness, as well as lower Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, reported higher lifetime frequency of r/s struggles and a higher degree of current r/s struggles. In turn, both lifetime history of r/s struggles and current r/s struggles explained a modest amount of variance in different domains of well-being (psychological, hedonic, and social) above and beyond the Big Five. These results held when controlling for religiousness. Thus, lifetime history of r/s struggles and current r/s struggles may represent unique aspects of psychological experience with implications for well-being.


This chapter describes how one version of Montenegrin identity was constructed in the Montenegrin newspaper Pobjeda online (Victory online). This construction was analyzed in connection with commemorations of the Montenegrin Dan nezavisnosti (Independence Day), 21 May, from 2006 to 2009. The elements analyzed within a social semiotic approach are layout, photographs, verbal text, and discourse models. The results of the analysis suggest that Montenegrin identity was constructed as a continuation of independence achieved in the past, and then unwillingly interrupted. The results indicate, moreover, that identity was also constructed as having been achieved through conflict with both internal and external enemies, and through concepts like independence, democracy, modernity, and European values.


Focus+Context techniques are commonly used in visualization systems to simultaneously provide both the details and the context of a particular dataset. This paper proposes a new methodology to empirically investigate the effect of various Focus+Context transformations on human perception. This methodology is based on the shaker paradigm, which tests performance for a visual task on an image that is rapidly alternated with a transformed version of itself. An important aspect of this technique is that it can determine two different kinds of perceptual cost: (i) the effect on the perception of a static transformed image, and (ii) the effect of the dynamics of the transformation itself. This technique has been successfully applied to determine the extent to which human perception is invariant to scaling and rotation [Rensink 2004]. In this paper, we extend this approach to examine nonlinear fisheye transformations of the type typically used in a Focus+Context system. We show that there exists a no-cost zone where performance is unaffected by an abrupt, noticeable fisheye transformation, and that its extent can be determined. The lack of perceptual cost in regards to these sudden changes contradicts the belief that they are necessarily detrimental to performance, and suggests that smoothly animated transformations between visual states are not always necessary. We show that this technique also can map out low-cost zones where transformations result in only a slight degradation of performance. Finally, we show that rectangular grids have no positive effect on performance, acting only as a form of visual clutter. These results therefore demonstrate that the perceptual costs of nonlinear transformations can be successfully quantified. Interestingly, they show that some kinds of sudden transformation can be experienced with minimal or no perceptual cost. This contradicts the belief that sudden changes are necessarily detrimental to performance, and suggests that smoothly animated transformations between visual states are not always necessary.


If two maps on a space X, which admits a fixed point index, have identical sets of fixed points and agree on an open subset of X which contains the fixed point set, then the maps have the same Lef schetz number. If the subset is closed, the conclusion is no longer true in general. However, a theorem of Leray implies that some kinds of maps on cartesian products of convexoid spaces which agree on a certain closed subset of their common fixed point set do have the same Lef schetz number, even though the maps may not be homotopic and may not agree on any open set containing the fixed point set. The purpose of this note is to prove a very general form of Leray's theorem for maps on ANR's.


Measurement of transport properties of field soil remains a challenge. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) has been used for rapid and nondestructive measurement of the movement of conservative tracers in controlled laboratory and field experiments. Measuring transport under transient conditions in the laboratory using TDR has also been reported, but obtaining appropriate calibration relationships remains a challenge. We present a method for rapid and nondestructive measurement of field transport of an electrolytic tracer (applied to the soil surface) under transient rainfall and evapotranspiration conditions with net drainage using TDR without any a priori calibrations. The method uses TDR probes in plots with and without a tracer applied. The simultaneous TDR measurements of apparent impedance and dielectric constant in the paired plots were used to calculate the relative solute mass remaining to a given depth (i.e., TDR probe depth) as a function of time during a 270‐d field experiment under natural rainfall and evapotranspiration conditions of net drainage. The measurements give relative solute mass flux that is equivalent to the solute travel time probability density function.


The predictability of earthquakes has been a hotly debated question in earthquake science for some time. The answer to which begs another question, "Are there credible earthquake precursors?" Intrigued by these questions and encouraged by instrumental observations of conspicuous ionospheric and geomagnetic disturbances before the disastrous 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, we decided to undertake an integrated Search for Taiwan Earthquake Precursors, called the iSTEP program. The multidisciplinary program includes five major components aimed at identifying potential seismological, geomagnetic, geodetic and ionospheric precursors, and statistical testing of any identified precursors. Since the program's inception in April 2002, some encouraging preliminary results have been obtained. These includes precursory P wave travel-time changes six years before the Chi-Chi earthquake, identifiable geomagnetic changes two years before M 6 earthquakes, consistent ionospheric anomalies three days before M 5 earthquakes. We have also developed high-resolution radar interferometric methods for monitoring crustal deformation. A method for forecasting aftershock distribution on the basis of stress transfer has also been successfully tested on the Chi-Chi earthquake sequence. Aided by the newly installed geomagnetic and ionospheric networks we are hopeful about identifying more earthquake precursors and developing relevant physical mechanisms in the remaining two years of the iSTEP program.


This article examines the practices of humanitarian aid distribution from the perspective of aid recipients rather than providers through an immersion in the daily home life of Palestinian residents of Nahr al-Barid refugee camp (north Lebanon) in 2011. It argues that in the name of distributing aid fairly, humanitarian aid providers put in place a pervasive system of surveillance to monitor, evaluate, and compare residents' misery levels by relying on locally recruited aid workers. This regime of visibility was designed to be one directional; NGOs never disclosed how much aid they had available, nor when or how it would be distributed. The inclusion of local aid workers in this opaque framework turned a process that relied on community and neighborhood ties into an impersonal machine that fostered doubt and suspicion and ultimately hindered the community's ability to engage in collective political action.


Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials are well known for their excellent properties such as high strength, light weight and corrosion resistance. Compared with other reinforcements, the use of glass fibers further reduces raw material costs and introduces environmentally friendly characteristics such as low energy consumption and low carbon dioxide emissions. Pultrusion is a continuous and highly economical manufacturing method for producing constant cross-section FRP structural profiles. All the above advantages encourage the use of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials for civil engineering applications. However, compared with steel, GFRP materials have lower elastic modulus, lower shear strength, and poor ductility. The low elastic modulus poses a concern for design serviceability considering the low material stiffness. The low shear strength implies that premature shear failure may prohibit full utilization of the material's potential. The lack of material ductility may prevent the incorporation of pre-failure warnings. It seems, however, that these disadvantages can be overcome at the structural level by incorporating pultruded GFRP profiles into a space frame configuration, as a structural form with high inherent structural stiffness because of the load distribution in a three-dimensional configuration. The structural members in a space frame are subjected mainly to axial rather than shear loading. Besides, space frame structures assembled by linear elastic FRP materials can achieve large nonlinear deformation behavior at structural level through progressive buckling of the members in compression. In this PhD study, a connection system is developed to integrate the pultruded GFRP profiles into a space frame structure and the mechanical performance of the resulting space frame is explored.


Purpose: The purpose of this project was to compare the effectiveness of two different educational approaches to teaching the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium course. Background: Terminally ill patients frequently visit the emergency department for palliative care. However, various references show that staff does not have the knowledge base necessary to provide quality end-of-life care in the emergency setting. Method: Participants from the emergency department at a Level I Trauma Center were recruited. A quantitative, cross-sectional pilot study was conducted to investigate whether lecture or lecture with simulation was more effective in increasing the knowledge base of participants regarding end-of-life care. Results: The lecture only and lecture with simulation groups were compared and showed no statistical significance between groups. However, when modules were examined individually, statistical significance was achieved in both groups for varying modules. Conclusion: As terminally ill patients continue to use the emergency department for pain and symptom management and end-of-life care, emergency staff must be provided with educational opportunities and resources regarding end-of-life care. The ELNEC course is one method for increasing the end-of-life knowledge base for nurses.


Introductory management accounting courses traditionally have emphasized cost accounting topics rather than the critical role that information plays in decision-making. Many accounting educators believe that creatively redesigning the introductory management accounting course may help to reverse recent declines in accounting enrollments. Building upon a recently proposed management accounting education framework and several existing serial case pedagogies, this paper describes a fundamentally different delivery approach for the introductory management course: the Business Planning Model (BPM). The BPM reengineers the managerial principles course in two ways: (1) by replacing cost accounting course content with strategy and risk topics, and (2) by delivering and reinforcing course content using a semester-long business planning simulation. This new approach introduces students to managerial accounting topics as they arise during the preparation of a comprehensive business plan for a start-up enterprise. Although the BPM delivers much of the technical content contained in most introductory managerial courses, the BPM's topical coverage differs from the traditional course in three ways. First, the BPM incorporates a broader business perspective and covers subjects related to business strategy, risk assessment and basic business processes not covered in most textbook-driven introductory courses. This focus is necessary given that business plans must address strategy, market, resource, and implementation issues. Second, the BPM intentionally ignores cost accounting topics more appropriate for accounting majors (e.g. cost allocation, variable and absorption costing, etc.), not the undergraduate business student in general. Finally, the BPM uses basic consumer and retail examples that leverage students? business experiences as customers and front-line, service-oriented employees. These contexts differ from traditional courses that typically rely on large manufacturing firms to illustrate course content. The course unfolds over twelve weeks, with two weeks reserved for student presentations. The delivery of technical material via an alternating series of class mini-lectures, discussions and mini-cases allows students to gain sufficient fundamental knowledge of managerial accounting topics to complete business plan phases in a timely fashion. Additionally, specific business planning issues are emphasized in class each day to motivate topical content and link it to the simulation. Students completing the BPM introductory managerial course report that it: (1) gives them an appreciation for the value of information; (2) provides them with a basic understanding of business processes and the related risks; and (3) is effective in developing certain key business skills, specifically risk assessment, critical thinking, and oral communication skills. Assessment results further suggest that the BPM actually motivates students to study accounting.


Criminal law scholars have long agreed that prosecutors wield vast and largely unreviewable discretion in the criminal justice system. This Article argues that this discretion now extends beyond criminal penalties and broadly reaches civil public policy decisions, such as deportation and licensing. As a result of ubiquitous plea bargaining and collateral consequences — state-imposed civil penalties that are triggered by criminal convictions — prosecutors can deliberately exercise discretion to trigger or avoid important civil consequences. This aspect of prosecutorial discretion has been underexamined, partly because of a lack of awareness of collateral consequences. But as a result of important new initiatives designed to promote information about collateral consequences, prosecutors as well as defendants are becoming more likely to know that even minor convictions can trigger much more serious civil penalties. As some commentators have pointed out, prosecutors who are aware of collateral consequences may have powerful incentives to drop charges or otherwise structure pleas to minimize the likelihood of certain collateral consequences. But importantly, prosecutors also have strong structural incentives to take the opposite approach and reach pleas to maximize the likelihood of civil penalties. For some prosecutors, enforcing collateral consequences serves as an administratively efficient substitute for a criminal conviction, as a source of leverage, as a way to circumvent the requirements of criminal procedure, as a means of achieving deterrence or retribution, or as a way to promote their own public policy preferences. This Article develops an analytic framework for understanding the structural incentives that lead prosecutors to influence collateral consequences; exposes legal and ethical problems associated with plea bargaining in light of collateral consequences; and argues that collateral consequences can undermine important interests in transparency and accountability.


The value of natural environment in social life implicates some requirements and tasks for the protection of land, natural resources and other environmental elements against any harmful impact or violation, and thus safeguards secure existence and sustainable development of our society and future generations. Clear legal regulation must apply to natural environment and its particular elements, because it is an important social value, and in order to save and improve unique features of the natural environment, which also is a home for fauna and flora. One of the key legal environmental protection measures is protection of society's interest or protection of public interest in the court against various violations. Adequate implementation of the public interest expresses legal balance between the society's legal interests in particular natural resources, important forests, waters or land, and legal interests of separate individuals, who own specific property. But protection of public interest in environmental litigation nowadays is quite problematic, because neither legal doctrine, nor laws and judicial practise do not introduce undivided meaning of public interest, its object and subjects. There is no deeper analysis of public interest conception, implementation and its protection considering Lithuanian's international obligations in this regard. This situation weakens the possibilities and effectiveness of the protection of public interest in the court, creates conditions for violation of rights and lawful interests of citizens, and also sets ambiguity and legal uncertainty in environmental legal relationships. These reasons hinder the formation of integral legal practice, cause legal uncertainty and legal suspense, and even more – it may lead to some kind of legal nihilism. The article introduces and explains the conception; subject of public interest, and defines individuals competent to protect public interest in judicial proceedings. The paper also reveals the actual questions of implementation of such right in the court, shows legal difficulties to find the "legal happy medium" while protecting public interest and rights of "different public interest sides" – society and a particular member of society. Finally, the article concludes with basic insights, scetching the essence of the paper's research.


This paper aims to present a case study analysis of the condition of the electoral system in the Republic of Belarus after more than a quarter of a century of independence. The main purpose of the paper is to explain the discrepancies between legislation and practice. The author intended to note a real situation that dominates the country's political scene in comparison to theoretical establishments. A  Constitution of the Republic (created in 1994, with minor changes in 1996 and 2004) is the legal ground of the electoral system, however, procedural details were drawn up in the Electoral Code. The principles of Belarusian electoral code consist of some statements known from democratic models, such as universal suffrage, direct suffrage, secret ballot and equality. There are different types of elections in Belarus but the most important ones are presidential and parliamentary elections. Despite the detailed legal rules for conducting these elections, in fact, the principles of democracy, as well as the internal rules in Belarus, are not respected. Both presidential and parliamentary elections have shown this in recent years. Independent observers for a long time have been alarming about worrying electoral practices in Belarus. It is also worth emphasizing that since 1994, one man has been in power uninterruptedly, and Parliament has in fact a symbolic function. In the source materials, the author used Belarusian legal acts, analyses and reports, press notes as well as scientific papers.


This thesis examines some of the contested meanings of what it is to be a self,
person and individual. The law of obligations sets the context for this
examination. One of the important aspects of contemporary feminist philosophy
has been its move beyond highlighting inconsistencies in political and legal
theory, in which theoretical frameworks can be shown to rely upon an ambiguous
treatment of women. The feminist theorists whose work is considered use these
theoretical weaknesses as a point of departure to propose different conceptual
frameworks.
I start by analysing contemporary work on the self from within both
philosophy of science and feminist metaphysics to draw out common approaches
from these diverse positions. These themes are then discussed in the context of
the law. I then critically examine the concept of legal personhood in the work of
Drucilla Cornell and her proposals for the amendment of tort law. This is
juxtaposed with an analysis of the practical operation of tort law by adapting
Francois Ewald's work on risk and insurance to English law. I concentrate on
women's ambiguous position with regard to both risk and to the image of the
individual that is the subject of Ewald's critique.
This is followed by an examination of the changing position of women
with regard to 'possessive individualism', 'self-ownership' or 'property in the
person' in relation to contract law and social contract theory. There are a number
of different social contracts discussed in the thesis: Cornell's reworking of John
Rawls and the stories of Thomas Hobbes and of Carole Pateman. The final
'social contract' to be discussed is that of 'new contractualism', the employment
of contract as a technique of government. I argue that Pateman's critique of
possessive individualism continues to be relevant at a time when the
breadwinner/housewife model has broken down.


The importance of considering antisocial behaviour among people with autism-spectrum disorders is apparent from the significant number of case reports and case series describing criminal behaviour of people with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. The evidence so far does not support a specific association between the syndrome and criminal offending. However, a small yet significant number of offenders with autism who engage in illegal behaviour find themselves socially excluded or detained in secure provisions for prolonged periods. This article gives an overview of the scant empirical evidence relating to criminality within the context of Asperger syndrome, and offers suggestions for managing the syndrome in mentally disordered offenders.


1. An extensive study of the functional and dimensional components of the oxygen-transporting system in relation to age and the indirect estimation of maximum aerobic power (Vo 2max. ) has been conducted on eighty healthy male subjects aged 20–50 years. Measurements were made of ventilation, cardiac frequency and blood lactic acid expressed in terms of oxygen intake of 1·51/min (Ve, 1·5; fh, 1·5 and LA, 1·5 respectively) maximum blood lactic acid, ventilation and oxygen intake, thigh (TM) and calf (CM) and total body muscle estimated from soft tissue radiographs, whole body potassium ( 40 K), blood volume (BV), heart volume (HV), and tests of lung function. 2. In the younger subjects it was shown that the functional and dimensional capacities of the O 2 -transporting system were closely integrated and the performance of organs in relation to size was essentially similar. In older subjects there was a gradual decline in the overall capacity to transport oxygen which was closely associated with a decrease in the functional rather than the dimensional aspects of the cardiovascular system. In terms of a given body weight the dimensional capacities of the older subjects, BV, THb (total body haemoglobin), 40 K, TM CM, were shown to be independent of age. 3. The best single guide to Vo 2max. was given by BV in subjects under 35 years of age and by HV in older subjects. By using a multiple regression on either Ve, 1·5, fh, 1·5 and leg muscle or FVC, HV, TM and age, Vo 2max. could be estimated with coefficient of variation of ∼9%. This is ∼2% improvement on conventional methods of determining Vo 2max. from measurements of fh and Vo 2 taken at four levels of work and in addition when using the latter equation there is no need for the subject to exercise. The use of these equations and their clinical application to the testing of Vo 2max. in large community studies of physical working capacity are discussed.


School-based assessment (SBA) is currently being implemented in Malaysian education system as part of its educational reform (Examination Syndicate of Malaysia, 2011).However, we know little about the concerns of the teachers as the main implementers of the transformation. Therefore the main aim of this study was to explore English language teachers' concerns regarding the implementation of school-based assessment (SBA) in Malaysia. A Stages of Concerns (SoC) Questionnaire adapted from Cheung, Hattie & Ng (2001) consisting 22-item statements was distributed to 48 secondary school teachers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with five randomly selected teachers to obtain more insights on the challenges faced by teachers and the support they needed for the effective implementation of SBA. The findings of this study revealed that a majority of the English language teachers is concerned about
the informational-personal stage of SBA implementation. In other words, they were interested to learn more about SBA and how it is different and better from the previous approach. They also wanted to know how their roles would change as they implement SBA in their classrooms and how much time and energy are required in the course of this educational transformation. However, the findings also showed that there was no significant difference in terms of teachers' concerns between optionist and non-optionist,
male and female, and novice and experienced ESL teachers except for the awareness stage between optionist and non-optionist English language teachers. According to the English language optionist teachers, this was mostly because they were occupied with other things than SBA and did not have much knowledge about SBA; whereas for the non-optionist English language teachers felt this was because they were rather concerned about SBA but were not keen to learn about it yet. In addition, the findings identified six main challenges faced by the teachers. They are in terms of time constraint, limited access to teaching and assessment materials to administer SBA in the classroom, reliability and validity issues in SBA implementation, coping with external pressure on the implementation of SBA, and finally, management and documentation procedures related to SBA. Last but not least, this study also identified the kind of support the teachers need. The teachers articulated that they required appropriate teaching modules,on-going training, external moderation of scores, a more teacher-friendly and realistic
filing and documentation procedures, and finally they expressed a call for the stakeholders to play bigger and more effective roles during this reform. Henceforth, the results of this study will be of useful reference to concerned parties to make further improvements for the effective implementation of school-based assessment in Malaysia.


The possible applications and various designs of variable optical power splitters (OPSs) in the past years have been discussed in this paper. A new design based on polarization signal processing to realize the variable OPS is proposed. The measured result of the built prototype shows that it is a practical design


We consider optimal representations for representing prototypical categories in the latent deformable part model framework, with a specific emphasis on category-level retrieval tasks defined "on the fly" for a large corpus. In this setting, it is impractical to perform an exhaustive search with a full model; we investigate methods which approximately reconstruct the score function of a novel category from a set of precomputed responses. We propose a novel sparse reconstruction method where part classifiers are decomposed via a shared dictionary of part filters; in turn, our method can efficiently reconstruct approximate part responses on large image corpora using a sparse matrixvector product based on pre-computed filter responses instead of exhaustive convolutions. We compare our method to baseline schemes using SVD-based or nearest-category approximation and show our method is more effective at detecting novel categories. We additionally demonstrate results towards an end-to-end system for activity detection which trains a protoype category concept model from one dataset (PASCAL), learns post-hoc categories on the fly based on training data from a second dataset where labeled data are available (ImageNet), and sucessfully detects instances in test data from a third dataset (TRECVID MED) via reconstruction with the precomputed prototype models.


This paper examines whether stock prices, exchange rates and monetary policy are related to one another or not. The study uses monthly data of return from stock of banks of Pakistan and real exchange rates of Euro, Pound, US dollar, Yen and Yuan and T-bills rate. We employed vector autoregressive model (VAR) to examine the relationship between monetary policy, stock prices and exchange rates. Additionally Philips- Parren (PP), Dickey-Fuller (DF) and Augmented Dickey-Fuller test were applied to indentify the appropriate lag length. Analysis of results show that no relation exists from banking stock prices to exchange rate as stated by many researchers but relation existed from exchange rate to banking stock prices. There exists a relation between banking stock prices to t-bills rate but not for t-bill to banking stock prices except for MEBL further more the relation between exchange rate to t-bill rate existed but not for t-bill to exchange rate.


OBJECTIVE
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a frequent cause of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Recent evidence suggests that production of type III secretion proteins is correlated with increased pathogenicity in both cellular and animal models of infection. The objective of this study was to determine whether this system contributes to disease severity in humans with ventilator-associated pneumonia.

DESIGN
Retrospective pilot cohort study.

SETTING
University hospital.

PATIENTS
Thirty-five mechanically ventilated patients with bronchoscopically confirmed ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by P. aeruginosa.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Ventilator-associated pneumonia was categorized as severe (patients died or had a recurrence of their pneumonia despite appropriate antibiotic therapy) or mild (patients uneventfully recovered from their pneumonia). The type III secretion genotypes and phenotypes of isolates cultured from the patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia were determined. Whereas every examined isolate harbored type III secretion genes, only 27 (77%) were capable of secreting detectable amounts of type III proteins in vitro. Twenty-two (81%) of the patients infected with these 27 isolates had severe disease. Of the eight isolates that did not secrete type III proteins, only three (38%) were cultured from patients with severe disease. Thus, infection with a type-III-secreting isolate correlated with severe disease (p < .05). In vitro assays indicated that ExoU, the type III effector protein most closely linked to mortality in animal models, was secreted in detectable amounts in vitro by 10 (29%) of the 35 examined isolates. Nine (90%) of these 10 isolates were cultured from patients with severe disease (p < .05 when compared with the nonsecreting isolates). In contrast, ExoS was secreted by 16 (46%) of the 35 examined isolates. Twelve (75%) of these 16 isolates were cultured from patients with severe disease (p = .14 when compared with the nonsecreting isolates).

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia, type-III-secreting isolates were associated with worse clinical outcomes, suggesting that this secretion system plays an important role in human disease. Our findings support the hypothesis that antibodies targeted against these proteins may be useful as adjunctive therapy in intubated patients with P. aeruginosa colonization or infection.


The Tenth International Symposium on Mitigation of Geo-disasters in Asia. Kyoto Symposium. Place: Uji Campus, Kyoto University. Date: 7 October 2012


We address the problem of multiple agents finding their paths from respective sources to destination nodes in a graph (also called MAPF). Most existing approaches assume that all agents move at fixed speed, and that a single node accommodates only a single agent. Motivated by the emerging applications of autonomous vehicles such as drone traffic management, we present zone-based path finding (or ZBPF) where agents move among zones, and agents' movements require uncertain travel time. Furthermore, each zone can accommodate multiple agents (as per its capacity). We also develop a simulator for ZBPF which provides a clean interface from the simulation environment to learning algorithms. We develop a novel formulation of the ZBPF problem using difference-of-convex functions (DC) programming. The resulting approach can be used for policy learning using samples from the simulator. We also present a multiagent credit assignment scheme that helps our learning approach converge faster. Empirical results in a number of 2D and 3D instances show that our approach can effectively minimize congestion in zones, while ensuring agents reach their final destinations.


This study proposed a novel thermochemical activation (TCA) method to modify the surface of 316L stainless steel (SS). At the first stage, phosphate ions were introduced to 316L SS surface by a heat-diffusion process. After rapid quenching into calcium citrate solution, calcium and hydroxide ions were sealed in the TCA compound layer. The TCA and original 316L SS were immersed in Hanks' solution to evaluate their biocompatibility. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis showed that the surface active compound layer affected the TCA 316L SS, and its total impedances of Bode and Nyquist plots were higher than that of the original ones during immersed in Hank's from 1 to 14 days. After TCA treatment, the corrosion resistance increased greatly, and thus reducing the release of ions from stainless steel, such as Fe, Cr, Ni and Mo. In the Ca- and P-rich areas, the ions were guided to deposit in the Hanks' solution, forming bone-like hydroxyl apatite. The treatment has been proven to reduce the ionic release from 316L SS, which is considered to be a great improvement for implanted alloys.


The aims of this paper is to outline three types of arguments put forward that WTP is superior to QALYs, and to review how empirical studies adhere to their implications. The first, that WTP is the `theoretically correct' approach, because of its foundation in welfare economics, is being dismissed, as it is no argument. The second, that WTP imposes no restrictions as to which attributes of a programme people are allowed to value, makes sense. The paper will therefore focus on an inquiry into the scenario descriptions in the surveys. The third argument is the cost-benefit view that WTP can assist in improving social efficiency. We argue that it is impossible to infer from a partial WTP study (38 studies were partial) that a new programme should be funded from a given total health care budget. This we cannot tell without knowing the opportunity costs in terms of the benefits forgone from the displaced programmes.


In Indian context, rapid urbanization and industrialization, intensive agriculture, and growing demands for energy during the last few decades has affected the physicochemical parameters and biological attributes of the ground and surface water. Hamirpur d istrict comes under semi arid region, so the surface water is main source of water in this region. The variations in selected physico chemical factors were investigated for one year to determine the water quality of Birma River, Hamirpur district, Uttar Pr adesh, for drinking, irrigation and fish production. Five stations were chosen on the river to reflect the effect of human activities, lacustrine and lotic habitats. Temperature, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphat e, chemical oxygen demand, total alkalinity, total hardness, sulphate, were analyzed monthly between July 2011 and June 2012 using standard methods and procedures APHA - 2005. After compare from water quality standard we find that Birma River is unpolluted up stream while as downstream it is polluted and may not be used for domestic purpose without treatment but may used for irrigation. Themain source of pollution is the sewage disposal and agricultural runoff from the catchments areas and need to be proper treatment before uses.


This study describes validation of a screening model for Referrals to Support with Hidden Disabilities in Higher Education. A screening model describes the screening procedures implemented by HEIs in all 8 public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the study, 5073 bachelor students were participated. There were 1371 (27%) male and 3702 (73%) female participants. In this research, the questionnaire for students in higher education was used. In order to validate the screening model, a multivariate method of exploratory factor analysis was applied. The intercorrelation of manifest variables was calculated, and on the basis of the obtained coefficients, the variables were selected for further analysis. The variables were subjected by calculating the coefficient of the inner consistency of the Cronbach alpha, and an estimate of the reliability of the variables was made by calculating the interstellar statistics. On the basis of the obtained results of factor analysis, a set of 28 manifest variables have been reduced to 15 variables that have satisfactory reliability and internal agreement, and it is justifiable to use them as a screening model. Findings support the requirement for a reliable and valid standardized assessment procedure for HEIs, which would provide equitable access to an initial diagnosis.


Synopsis: The Clean Air Act (CAA or "the Act"), as it was fashioned in 1970 and revised in 1977 and 1990, was a major environmental law milestone that became the model, in whole or part, for virtually every subsequent federal environmental statute. It has clearly reduced emissions and improved air quality. There are, however, a number of fundamental design flaws and structural limitations in the original statutory scheme, its subsequent amendments, and its administration that have limited the CAA's effectiveness in protecting public health, driven up compliance costs, and spawned political controversy and litigation. These design issues include the "grandfathering" policies, over-reliance on state implementation plans to carry out much of the regulatory system, the Act's interstate transport provisions and the "layering" of overlapping regulatory requirements on the same source. This article reviews these design issues and suggests two alternatives that could make the regulatory system more effective, reduce the extent to which regulatory outcomes are dependent on litigation, and increase the cost-effectiveness of air quality regulation. The first alternative would refine and streamline the Act's multiple existing regulatory programs; the second would fundamentally restructure the statute to eliminate a number of overlapping or redundant regulatory requirements, clarify the respective roles of the EPA and the states, expand emissions trading authority, and accommodate greenhouse gas regulation.I. INTRODUCTIONThe fortieth anniversary of the enactment of the modern Clean Air Act1 - 2010 - produced a blizzard of retrospective reviews of the Act focusing on its innovative design, its successful reduction in emissions and its improvements of air quality. The Act, as it was fashioned in 1970 and revised in 1977 and 1990, undeniably was a major environmental law milestone. It provided clear requirements for development and implementation of federal ambient air quality standards, new source performance standards, hazardous air pollutant regulation, and tailpipe standards for mobile sources. It also included statutory deadlines, publicly available monitoring reports, and provisions for citizens' suits, as well as far-reaching federal and state enforcement provisions. Its design became the model, in whole or part, for virtually every subsequent federal environmental statute2 and it undeniably has reduced emissions and improved air quality.3The 2010 mid-term congressional election and an ambitious Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CAA rulemaking agenda (characterized as the "train wreck" by its electric utility opponents)4 brought a less supportive reaction from Capitol Hill in 2011 and 2012. The House passed (and the Senate refused to consider) prohibitions on CAA regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and on stiffer standards for fine particulate matter.5 It also approved bills abrogating hazardous air pollution standards for industrial boilers,6 cement kilns,7 and electric generating units,8 as well as legislation requiring consideration of costs in setting ambient air standards.9 These actions were accompanied by a drumbeat of hearings, letters, and press releases sharply questioning the EPA's authority and the policy basis for its proposed or final rules. 10Leftunmentioned in 2010's congratulatory reviews, and the subsequent Capitol Hill political din, were a number of fundamental design flaws and structural limitations in the original statutory scheme, its subsequent amendments and its administration, which have limited the CAA's effectiveness, unnecessarily drove up compliance costs, spawned political controversy and seemingly endless litigation, and arguably retarded rather than advanced deployment of efficient, low emission technologies. These design issues include the "grandfathering" policies which were embedded in the 1970 Act and subsequent amendments, extensive reliance on state implementation plans to carry out much of the regulatory system, the Act's interstate transport provisions, and the "layering" of multiple (and sometimes redundant) regulatory requirements on the same source. …