This article analyzes how announced surprises in monetary policy actions and macroeconomic data releases affect the average rate of inflation that economic agents expect to prevail over the 10-year period following the surprise. The analysis also addresses the effect of Federal Reserve communication and surprises in monetary policy actions on perceived inflation risk over this 10-year period. The study shows that surprises in macroeconomic data releases and monetary policy actions indeed affect the expected rate of inflation. Further, there is evidence that surprises in monetary policy actions increase perceived inflation risk, whereas Federal Reserve communication reduces it.


Extracted from text ... Vasopressin Receptors and Other mechanisms
The V1 receptor is present in the vasculature of most organ
systems, and, via Gq mediated signalling, causes a rise in Ca++
leading to vasoconstriction.
V1 receptor activation also inhibits IL-1 formation, reducing
NO production.
J Skowno
University of Cape Town
REGISTRAR PRIZE
54
Left Atrial, Carotid and Aortic Arch baroreceptors sense
arterial pressure, and a reduction in MAP triggers the release
of Vasopressin. The release is exponential in nature, and AVP
levels, normally 3pg/ml can rise to 50-100pg/ml during severe
hypotension.
Of particular importance is Vasopressin's modulatory effect
on the arterial baroreflex itself. ..


In 2017, the federal government invested over $40 billion on university research; another $16 billion came from private sector sources. The expectation is that these investments will bear varied fruits, including outputs like more economic growth, more scientific advances, the training and development of future scientists, and a more diverse pipeline of STEM researchers; an expectation that is supported by the work of recent Nobel Laureate in Economics, Paul Romer. Yet volatility in federal funding, highlighted by a 35 day federal shutdown in early 2019, has resulted in an increased interest on the part of scientists in finding other sources of funding. Understanding the effect of such different funding streams on research outputs is thus of more than academic importance, particularly because there are likely to be tradeoffs, both in terms of the structure of research and in terms of research outputs. For example, federal funding is often intended to affect the structure of research, with explicit goals of training the next generation of scientists and promoting diversity; those goals are less salient for non-federal funding. On the output side, federally funded research may be more likely to emphasize producing purely scientific outputs, like publications, rather than commercial outputs, like patents. The contribution of this paper is to use new data to examine how different sources of financial support – which we refer to as "braided" funding – affect both the structure of scientific research and the subsequent outputs.


George Landow's widely acclaimed Hypertext was the first book to bring together the worlds of literary theory and computer technology. Landow was one of the first scholars to explore the implications of giving readers instant, easy access to a virtual library of sources as well as unprecedented control of what and how they read. In hypermedia, Landow saw a strikingly literal embodiment of many major points of contemporary literary theory, particularly Derrida's idea of "de-centering" and Barthes's conception of the "readerly" versus "writerly" text. From Intermedia to Microcosm, Storyspace, and the World Wide Web, Landow offers specific information about the kinds of hypertext, different modes of linking, attitudes toward technology, and the proliferation of pornography and gambling on the Internet. For the third edition he includes new material on developing Internet-related technologies, considering in particular their increasingly global reach and the social and political implications of this trend as viewed from a postcolonial perspective. He also discusses blogs, interactive film, and the relation of hypermedia to games. Thoroughly expanded and updated, this pioneering work continues to be the "ur-text" of hypertext studies.


Slavery as Immigration? In this essay, the author argues that transatlantic slavery was, in significant part, an immigration system of a particularly pernicious sort – a system of forced migration immigration aimed at fulfilling the nascent country's needs for a controllable labor population, and desire for a racialized one. As such, the law and policy of chattel slavery should be viewed as perhaps the most important historical antecedent to contemporary immigration law regarding low- and unskilled labor in the United States. Following an analysis of the treatment of chattel slavery in general immigration history scholarship, and in scholarship on the history of immigration law, the author concludes that immigration law texts must include a discussion of chattel slavery that properly locates that system as a forerunner of modern immigration law and policy, and immigration scholars should devote more attention to chattel slavery. She concludes with a discussion of the broader implications of such a reframing for the American national community as a whole.


Objective It is unclear whether Barrett's oesophagus (BO) length changes over time or whether the full length of the segment is established at the onset of disease recognition. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the association of age and BO length and to evaluate the changes in BO length over time. Design This is a prospective, multicentre cohort study involving patients with BO from five centres. Patients were divided into groups based on the decade of initial diagnosis of BO. The mean BO length and the mean change in BO length were calculated for each age decade. The mean change in BO length was also calculated between the index endoscopy and the last surveillance endoscopy. Results 3635 patients with BO were included in the study: 87.8% men, 92.8% Caucasians, mean age 60.9 years and mean BO length 3.5 cm. The mean change in BO length was 0.9 cm. The mean BO length did not significantly change for each age category: <30 years (4.6 cm), 30–39.9 years (3.2 cm), 40–49.9 years (3.1 cm), 50–59.9 years (3.1 cm), 60–69.9 years (3.6 cm), 70–79.7 (4.0 cm) and >80 years (4.5 cm), p=0.47. On subgroup analysis of patients with non-dysplastic BO who had at least 1 year of endoscopic follow up, there was a significant decrease in mean change in BO length across age categories ranging from +1.7 to −0.8 cm, p=0.03. Conclusions There was no significant difference in BO length by age category in decades. In addition, the change in BO length from index to follow-up endoscopy was similar among patients >30 years. These findings suggest that a patient's BO segment length attains its full extent by the time of the initial endoscopic examination.


Dennis Tedlock (translator and interpreter), Rabinal Achi: A Mayan drama of war and sacrifice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. vii, 361. Hb $35.00 The Rabinal Achi, a colonial text of the K'iche'-speaking Maya of Rabinal, Guatemala, is an unusual document for a number of reasons. For one, it is a lengthy text of a Maya dance drama concerning historical events before the Spanish conquest. The content is almost entirely pre-Hispanic and concerns such themes as courtly elite behavior and the arraignment and execution of a prisoner, the rebellious K'iche' war leader Cawek of the Forest People. For the colonial period, there is no Maya dramatic text of comparable length and complexity. However, as a dance drama, the Rabinal Achi is as much a performance as it is a text. Although early colonial forms must have existed, the earliest known version dates to 1850, the manuscript recorded by Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg. Brasseur came to Rabinal in 1855, soon after he acquired the famed K'iche' epic Popol Vuh. While temporarily serving as the parish priest in Rabinal, Brasseur learned of the Rabinal Achi drama. Although he did not obtain the manuscript then owned by Bartolo Sis, he was able to transcribe the K'ichean text. In addition, Brasseur helped revive the dramatic performance, which he witnessed in 1856, the first time it had been played in some 30 years. As it turns out, his 1862 publication of the Rabinal Achi in French and the Achi dialect of K'iche' also helped ensure the continuity of the drama in Rabinal, as Brasseur sent a copy of the book to his assistant in Rabinal, Nicolas Lopez. Transcribed versions of the Achi K'iche' text from the Brasseur edition of 1862 have continued to be used by dance masters in Rabinal to this day.


This paper considers the problem of estimating the parameters of real-valued two-dimensional (2-D) sinusoidal signals observed in colored noise. This problem is a special case of the general problem of estimating the parameters of a real-valued homogeneous random field with mixed spectral distribution from a single observed realization of it. The large sample properties of the least squares (LS) estimator of the parameters of the sinusoidal components are derived, making no assumptions on the type of the probability distribution of the observed field. It is shown that if the disturbance field satisfies a combination of conditions comprised of a strong mixing condition and a condition on the order of its uniformly bounded moments, the normalized estimation error of the LS estimator is consistent asymptotically normal with zero mean and a normalized asymptotic covariance matrix for which a simple expression is derived. It is further shown that the LS estimator is asymptotically unbiased. The normalized asymptotic covariance matrix is block diagonal where each block corresponds to the parameters of a different sinusoidal component. Assuming further that the colored noise field is Gaussian, the LS estimator of the sinusoidal components is shown to be asymptotically efficient.


The landcover change, particularly deforestation, can to affect of hydrological response on watershed. Deforestation of natural forest is identical to degradation of watershed functions, such as loos of land productivity due to increased soil erosion, runoff, evapotranspiration, and decreased of water storage. The main objective of this study is describes the hydrologic response on the Barito Hulu watershed due to landcover change (particularly deforestation) by the use Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The result of the study showed that decreasing of forest area was 9.51% from initial condition can increase water yield, evapotranspiration, and erosion as much as 8.52%, 5.94%, and 1.73 t ha-1 year-1, respectively. Otherwise, water storage decreased as much as14.46%. The landcover on 1990 with rainfall 3,117.10 mm year-1 provided water yield of approximately 1,387.13 mm, evapotranspiration of 1,152.10 mm, water storage of 577.87 mm, and erosion of about 20.52 t ha-1 year-1. The landcover on 2003 with rainfall 2,613.2 mm year-1 provided water yield of approximately 1,385.50 mm, evapotranspiration of 1,121.10 mm, water storage of 106.60 mm, and erosion of about 33.15 t ha-1 year-1 with erosion tolerance of about 43.57 t ha-1  year-1. Keywords: Barito Hulu watershed, land cover change, water yield, erosion, evapotranspiration


This paper studies a computational logic for dishonest reasoning. We introduce logic programs with disinformation to represent and reason with dishonesty. We then consider two different cases of dishonesty: deductive dishonesty and abductive dishonesty. The former misleads another agent to deduce wrong conclusions, while the latter interrupts another agent to abduce correct explanations. In deductive or abductive dishonesty, an agent can perform different types of dishonest reasoning such as lying, bullshitting, and withholding information. We show that these different types of dishonest reasoning are characterized by extended abduction, and address their computational methods using abductive logic programming.


This paper develops a global simulation model linking economicgrowth, population growth, and fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions. The equations of the model are estimated from historical data on a sample covering most of the countries of the world. The estimated relationships show that while increased economic output tends to be associated with higher CO2 emissions, a rising standard of living also slows down population growth and leads to reduced energy consumption per unit of output. The implication is that, under "business as usual" scenarios, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is relatively insensitive to rates of economic growth over the medium term (50-70 years). This result suggests that promotion of economic growth in the developing world is likely to be the most effective policy for combatting global warming, because the increased wealth that a pro-growth policy will produce will make it easier for the world to improve energy efficiency and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.


We investigate the truth-table degrees of (co-)c.e.\ sets, in particular, sets of random strings. It is known that the set of random strings with respect to any universal prefix-free machine is Turing complete, but that truth-table completeness depends on the choice of universal machine. We show that for such sets of random strings, any finite set of their truth-table degrees do not meet to the degree~0, even within the c.e. truth-table degrees, but when taking the meet over all such truth-table degrees, the infinite meet is indeed~0. The latter result proves a conjecture of Allender, Friedman and Gasarch. We also show that there are two Turing complete c.e. sets whose truth-table degrees form a minimal pair.


There is general agreement that the future production of electric energy has to be renewable and sustainable in the long term. Photovoltaic (PV) is booming with more than 7GW produced in 2008 and will therefore play an important role in the future electricity supply mix. Currently, crystalline silicon (c-Si) dominates the market with a share of about 90%. Reducing the cost per watt peak and energy pay back time of PV was the major concern of the last decade and remains the main challenge today. For that, thin film silicon solar cells has a strong potential because it allies the strength of c-Si (i.e. durability, abundancy, non toxicity) together with reduced material usage, lower temperature processes and monolithic interconnection. One of the technological key points is the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) used for front contact, barrier layer or intermediate reflector. In this paper, we report on the versatility of ZnO grown by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (ZnO LP-CVD) and its application in thin film silicon solar cells. In particular, we focus on the transparency, the morphology of the textured surface and its effects on the light in-coupling for micromorph tandem cells in both the substrate (n-i-p) and superstrate (p-i-n) configurations. The stabilized efficiencies achieved in Neuchâtel are 11.2% and 9.8% for p-i-n (without ARC) and n-i-p (plastic substrate), respectively.


The View of Context (VOC) is a survey instrument designed to detect the content of generalized affect-laden meanings embedded within large-scale cultural milieus. Generalized affect-laden meanings work as basic embodied system of assumptions channelling the way of feeling, thinking, making de- cision. The paper outlines the theoretical and methodological framework of VOC Semiotic Cultural Psychology - and reports a first study of validation, aimed at analysing the VOCs construct validity. The study tests 5 hypotheses, each of them focused on a characteristic of the generalized affect-laden meanings that the instrument is designed to map: their a-semantic (HP1) and affective (HP2) valence; the regulative function (HP3) they exercise on the sensemaking; the assumption that these meanings are transversal to different domains of experience (HP4); the assumption that there is a plurality of these meanings embedded in a certain cultural milieu (HP5). In order to test these hypotheses, a combination of a multidimensional procedure of data analysis and a Path Modeling has been applied on a survey responses obtained from a UK representative sample (n=765). Results are consistent with hypotheses, in that providing evidence of the VOCs construct validity.


Influences on Contemporary Ghanaian Dance: An Exploration of Viewpoint The objective of this study was to examine some of the outside influences on Ghanaian dance and to explore the perspectives that the people of Ghana hold towards those influences and contemporary dance in general. The research methods used in this study were library research, non-participant observation, and formal and informal interviewing. The results demonstrated a range of sentiments regarding the effects of outside influences on Ghanaian dance and culture. Some people foresee the influences leading to the degradation of tradition and culture, while others see them as an avenue for Ghanaian artists to fully express themselves and pursue professional dance opportunities. The findings of this study showed that both perspectives co-exist in Ghana and the disagreement can actually serve to strengthen both fields of the dance


Most rivers on Earth today flow as a single channel, in some cases with occasional islands, and follow a more or less sinuous course. However, single-thread channels have proven difficult to reproduce and study experimentally: experimental self-formed channels tend to widen and subdivide, leading to a braided pattern. Cohesive sediment has been the main mechanism studied for stabilizing banks and producing a single-thread channel. We show how laboratory experiments using vegetation to stabilize banks can organize the flow and convert the planform morphology from braided to single-thread. Our experimental strategy, a repeated cycle of short periods of high water discharge alternating with longer periods of low discharge accompanied by plant seeding and growth, leads to the evolution of a dynamic self-maintaining single-thread channel with well-defined banks and floodplain. By eliminating weak flow paths, the vegetation "corrals" the water into a single dominant channel until the reduction in total wetted width leads to a new self-organized state in which the flow removes vegetated area as fast as it is produced. The new channel is deeper and has a broader distribution of depths than the braided one, with channel size adjusted to carry almost all the flood flow. The resulting system maintains a dynamic steady state via similar mechanisms to those that operate in meandering channels in the field, specifically erosion at the outside of bends, bend growth, and bar development. Our methodology provides a basis for experimental development of self-sustaining high-amplitude meanders and has applications for river management and basic research purposes.


Two-sided payment card markets generate costs that have to be distributed among the participating actors. For this purpose, payment card networks set an interchange fee, which is the fee paid by the merchant's bank to the cardholder's bank per transaction. While in recent years many antitrust authorities all over the world - including the European Commission - have opened proceedings against card brands in order to verify whether agreements to collectively establish the level of interchange fees are anticompetitive, the Reserve Bank of Australia – as a regulator - has directly tried to address market failures by lowering the level of interchange fees and changing some network rules. The US has followed with new legislation on financial consumer protection, which also intervenes on interchange fees. This has opened a strong debate not only on legitimacy of interchange fees, but also on the appropriateness of different public tools to address such issues. Drawing from economic and legal theories and a comparative analysis of recent case law in the EU and other jurisdictions, this work investigates whether a regulation rather than a purely competition policy approach would be more appropriate in this field, considering in particular, at EU level, all of the competition and regulatory concerns that have arisen from the operation of SEPA with multilateral interchange fees. The paper concludes that a wider regulation approach could address some of the shortcomings of a purely antitrust approach, proving to be highly beneficial to the development of an efficient European single payments area.


Mine reclamation has become a topic of considerable research in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region of Northeastern Alberta, Canada. In this area some of the largest open pit mines in the world extract bitumen, a type of heavy oil, from the oil bearing McMurray Formation. At the close of mine operations, lease holders are required to return the land to equivalent capability. To achieve this, several existing waste piles will need to be capped and a functioning ecosystem re-established. Proposed borrow pits for capping material were recently found to contain reworked bitumen materials of various shapes and sizes. This reworked bitumen has been named tarballs by local industry. The use of that name is maintained throughout this study. The tarball accumulations are very abundant in some areas but also occur infrequently in apparently clean areas. In this study, the petroleum hydrocarbon signature and leaching characteristics of the tarballs were determined. The hydrocarbon content and composition of the tarballs were assessed using the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) methods. The data were presented in terms of the four CCME fractions. Leaching characteristics were determined using a custom designed, unsaturated soil column experiment carried out at the University of Saskatchewan. The soil column was monitored for petroleum hydrocarbons, total carbon and total organic carbon in leachate water and soil respiration as a surrogate for biodegradation. The bitumen was found to consist primarily of heavy hydrocarbons, CCME Fractions 3 and 4, at levels of thousands and tens of thousands of mg/kg respectively. Gravimetric analyses indicated that a significant proportion of the tarball materials are very heavy hydrocarbons beyond the range of high temperature gas chromatography. These very heavy hydrocarbons are greater than carbon number C90. Lighter and more mobile hydrocarbons were occasionally identified at the core of larger accumulations. Where identified, the lighter fractions were typically accompanied by F3 and F4 hydrocarbons at one to two orders of magnitude greater than typical tarball material. Leachate was found to contain F2 hydrocarbons at less than 0.2 mg/L, a small fraction of the CCME clean water guideline of 1.1 mg/L. F3 hydrocarbons were identified at levels up to 0.6 mg/L. Soil respiration indicated a very low activity system, suggesting limited potential for biodegradation. Tarball materials are concluded to be of little concern for potential impacts to groundwater based upon the hydrocarbon fingerprint and the observed leaching characteristics of the tarball materials.


Agricultural production is among the riskiest production activities. Similarly to other branches of agriculture in animal breeding the finished product is the result of complex procedures. The biological-technological procedure, the creation of the product is affected by an outstanding number of environmental factors which also cause uncertainties. In the North Great Plain Region of Hungary, sows, gilts and slaughter pigs are produced on a corporate farm. The reliable operation data of this company provide a stable basis for and estimating future costs and income and their distributions. Monte Carlo methods are one of the generally accepted tools for modeling risks. The significant independent variables, their ranges and probability distributions, and the correlation between them were inputs to the model. The values of the variables were produced using a random number generator. The computer simulation was performed using @Risk (Palisade Corporation) software. The study concentrates on the factors affecting the number of offspring (piglets). Model inputs were the mating, mortality and farrowing rates; the costs and the income values based on these rates have been analysed as the output data of the model.


An experiment proves the value of modularity in complex systems under perturbation In the 1970s, ecologists began to speculate that modular systems—which are organized into blocks or modules—can better contain perturbations and are therefore more resilient against external damage (1). This simple concept can be applied to any networked system, be it an ecosystem, cellular metabolism, traffic flows, human disease contagion, a power grid, or an economy (2, 3). However, experimental evidence has been lacking (4). On page 199 of this issue, Gilarranz et al. (5) provide empirical evidence showing that modular networked systems do indeed have an advantage over nonmodular systems when faced with external perturbations.


The finals of the third annual Trading Agent Competition were held on 28 July 2002, co-located with AAA1-02 in Edmonton, Canada. The actual games took place on the Internet, with the game and auction servers running at SICS in Kista, Sweden. The agents resided at the home locations of the participating research groups.


This study investigates a new tire force estimator based on the recursive least square (RLS) method. Tire force estimation with known driving wheel torque is studied and compared to the case with torque estimation from the internal combustion engine. This is motivated by a future scenario with electric propulsion, which reasonably gives improved wheel torque estimations. Sensitivity to vehicle parameters and challenges with individual lateral tire force estimation are also investigated. The results, experimental and simulation data, show good performance and potential for tire force estimation using the RLS method.


When the eyes are exposed to light, the pupils constrict. This is the well known pupillary light response. What is less well known is that the pupillary light response is not a simple reflex to light, but is modulated by visual attention: When you covertly attend to a bright stimulus, your pupil constricts relative to when you attend to a dark stimulus. Here we describe a human-computer interface that is based on this principle, i.e. decoding the focus of covert visual attention with pupillometry. Participants fixated in the center of a display, and selected (i.e. covertly attended to) one of several stimuli presented in a circular arrangement. Each stimulus was presented on a background with alternating brightness. Small changes in pupil size reflected the brightness alternations of the selected stimulus' background, and this allowed us to determine which stimulus was selected with nearly perfect accuracy on a trial-by-trial basis. An extension of this technique, in which the stimulus array serves as a virtual keyboard, even allows for arbitrary text input. As a human-computer interface, this technique has several key advantages: It is intuitive, because there is a direct mapping between the task (attending to a stimulus) and the goal (selecting a stimulus); It allows for bi-directional communication, because the analysis can be performed on-line; It is non-invasive and can be done with currently available low-cost eye trackers; It is reliable, i.e. decoding accuracy is nearly perfect under good conditions. We discuss potential applications, such as communication with locked-in patients and ultra-secure password input. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


This essay draws on the historical and artistic image of Boris Godunov to illustrate Bakhtin's concept of "re-accentuation," or the transfer of literary images to new contexts. Russia of the 19th century was particularly well served by the Boris Tale. It inspired her first great popular historian, her greatest poet, and one of her greatest composers. Nikolai Karamzin's History of the Russian State (1816-29) ended with the Time of Troubles, and Karamzin's treatment of Boris Godunov became a model for biography in this new "romantic-national" type of history. Out of Karamzin's portrait Alexander Pushkin created his "romantic tragedy" Boris Godunov (1825), intended as a specifically national, Russian response to imported neoclassical norms in drama. Modest Mussorgsky adapted both Pushkin's and Karamzin's texts for the libretto to his greatest opera Boris Godunov (1869-74), which he offered as a national alternative to western operatic models, the first step toward a Russian "people's musical drama." In its three greatest expressions, the Boris Tale was thus a vehicle for generic innovation. Each treatment asserted a specifically Russian concept of genre in opposition to the European models then reigning in the three disciplines: German historiography, French drama, and Italian opera. Such innovative re-accentuations, or intergeneric "transpositions," are not easy to assess. They are vulnerable, as are translations, to charges of infidelity to earlier and more authoritative texts. This essay will argue, with Bakhtin's help, that the dialogue among these three texts is both calculated and complex; at the end, some suggestions are offered for reading cultural history through transposed or re-accentuated themes.


The microphase-separated morphologies of p-phenylene oligomers with POx, PCL, PS, and PEO side chains are studied using DPD simulations. It is shown that the microphase-separated morphologies depend significantly on the degree of chemical incompatibility between the components as indicated by the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters. The good agreement of the microphase separated morphologies as simulated by DPD with the experimentally determined thin film morphologies suggests that DPD can produce convincing morphological information at the nanoscale. The results show that grafting of polymeric side chains can be an important tool to control the morphology of polymers with a rigid backbone.


This research paper reviews the topic of Planning Integrated Advertising Campaigns – Multinational enterprises acting on national markets. It examines the relevant theoretical background, the country of Sweden and a concrete business case of the multinational enterprise Dr. Oetker and its activities on the Swedish market. After an introduction, the first section of this work outlines the theoretical framework which is a necessary base for the research topic. Resultant, two models are developed: one regarding campaign phases and another concerning influences on national environments. These frame the theoretical findings in a concentrated form. In the following section, the empirical findings regarding the country of Sweden and the investigated company Dr. Oetker are depicted. The focus lies on Dr. Oetker's company structure and the consequential influence on the manner of advertising and on the operations on the Swedish market. The analysis reveals information which can be split into two parts. Initially the empirical findings are evaluated based on the theoretical framework. Subsequently, a phase model which combines the two previous models with the empirical findings is developed. Its objective is to guide multinational enterprises through the planning process for successful national advertising campaigns. After this thorough analysis, a conclusion and recommendations for further theoretical and practical studies are given.


In software development, change is the only constant. Software systems sometimes evolve in a substantial way and, during this process, sequences of code transformations (e.g., create a class, then override a method) are systematically performed in the system (e.g., to some classes in the same hierarchy). Due to the repetitive nature of these transformations, some automated support is needed to ensure that these sequences of transformations are consistently applied to the entire system. In this thesis we propose to improve source code transformations to better support developers performing more complex and systematic code transformations. We cover two aspects: (i) The automated support to compose and apply sequences of code transformations. We undergo an investigation on the existence of these sequences in real-world software systems. We propose a tool to automatically apply these sequences in the systems we analyzed. (ii) The detection of design violations during a transformation effort. We undergo an investigation on cases of systematic application of refactoring transformations. We proposed a tool that recommends additional transformations to fix design violations that are detected after performing refactoring transformations. We evaluated the proposed approaches quantitatively and qualitatively in real-world case studies and, in some cases, with the help of experts on the systems under analysis. The results we obtained demonstrate the usefulness of our approaches.


The objectives of this study were to determine: (i) forest
Users' Committee (FUC) formation process; (ii) the level of
participation of Forest Users' Committee members; and (iii)
association of personal, cognitive, attitudinal and situational factors with the level of participation. Altogether 105 respondents were selected using a simple
random sampling technique from 16 committees in Lamjung and
Dolakha Districts. Data were collected by means of personal
interviews. Data were analysed using computer sub-programmes of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS PC+). The findings revealed: members were among the elites in the Nepalese rural social system; (ii) some committees were formed under the initiation
of villagers while some were induced by the forest off ice;
(iii) the overall level of participation was low; 40 percent of the respondents were non-participants; 22 percent, 21 percent and 17 percent of them were low, medium and high participants respectively. (iv) The following factors were found to be significantly related with the level of participation: level of education (r=.42), trainings attended (C=.28), source of income (C=.33), perception of the roles and functions of Forest Users' Committees (r=.62), awareness about roles and
functions of the change agency (r=.58), perception of problems (r=.48), attitude towards Forest Users' Committee (r=.76), sociability (r=.66), cosmopoliteness (r=.53), extens ion contact (r=.42) and political affiliation (r=.47). Among eighteen variables, only six variables were the important predictors of the FUC members' level of participation. The most important predictor was the attitude
towards FUC . The other predictors of the FUC members' level of participation were: Sociability, Awareness about the roles and functions of change agency, perception of the problems, political affiliation, and perception of the roles and functions of FUC. The study recommended that the indigenous committees (if in existence) should be strengthened. Further, the formal committees should only be formed with the full consultation of the users. The Forest Users' Committees should be given legal status and that the procedure for its formation, its duties, functions and legal authority should be well defined. Also, the extension programme should be aimed at helping users to help
themselves, facilitating a two-way flow of information between foresters and users, and working with the users rather than for the users.


In the context of mobile Health (mHealth) applications, data are prone to several sources of contamination which would lead to false interpretation and misleading classification results. In this paper, a robust deep learning approach with low rank model is proposed to classify mHealth vital signs. Further-more, we propose using the Schatten-p norm instead of the classic nuclear norm since it has shown better recovery performance for several applications. We conduct a comprehensive study where we compare our method to the state-of-art methods and evaluate its performance with respect to the key system parameters. Our findings show indeed that combining deep network with dictionary learning model is effective for vital signs classification even in presence of 50% corruption with 8% improvement over the closest performance.


This paper has in part emerged from work recently undertaken by Parker and Pant under a British Academy funded Small Grant examining the phenomenon of aging in Nepal. This has enabled them to work in collaboration with the Nepal School of Social Work in Kathmandu to both generate locally relevant empirical research on aging and to facilitate the creation of spaces for dialogue on the implications of aging in Nepal. As a result of this project a network of key academics, activists, government policy makers and non-government organizations, both national and international, has been formed. The findings of this study reveal a lack of both empirical data and theoretical development on aging in Nepal. Aging in the west is often viewed from a biomedical perspective where the emphasis is on medical treatment and health and social care arrangements. Biomedicine also dominates international health strategies, organizations, and the funding streams for aid, of which Nepal is a recipient. Whilst longevity is clearly a positive outcome of development, it also presents health and social care dilemmas. This paper provides an opportunity to explore some of these key issues and highlights the need for practitioners, policy makers and the research community in Nepal to provide an open dialogue in which local, culturally appropriate decisions can be developed in the best interest of older people in Nepal.


Self-driving and autonomous cars are hot emerging technologies which can provide enormous impact in the near future. Since an important component of autonomous cars is vision processing, the increasing interest for self-driving cars has motivated researchers to collect different relative image datasets. Hence, we collect a comprehensive dataset about the road surface markings which are available in Iran. In addition, we evaluate the conventional recognition rate. In this paper, we present a novel and extensive dataset for Persian Road Surface Markings (PRSM) with ground truth labels. We also hope that it will be useful as a Persian benchmark dataset for researchers in this field. The dataset consists of over 68,000 labeled images of road markings in 18 popular classes. It also contains road surface markings under various daylight conditions. Our dataset with further details is available online at: http://display.sbu.ac.ir/databases.


Information encoded on individual quanta will play an important role in our future lives, much as classically encoded digital information does today. Combining quantum information carried by single photons with classical signals encoded on strong laser pulses in modern fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks is a significant challenge, the solution to which will facilitate the global distribution of quantum information to the home and with it a quantum internet [1]. In real-world networks, spontaneous Raman scattering in the optical fibre would induce crosstalk between the high-power classical channels and a single-photon quantum channel, such that the latter is unable to operate. Here, we show that the integration of quantum and classical information on an FTTH network is possible by performing quantum key distribution (QKD) on a network while simultaneously transferring realistic levels of classical data. Our novel scheme involves synchronously interleaving a channel of quantum data with the Raman scattered photons from a classical channel, exploiting the periodic minima in the instantaneous crosstalk and thereby enabling secure QKD to be performed.


Architectural erosion is a recurrent problem faced by software architects. Despite this fact, the process is usually tackled in ad hoc way, without adequate tool support at the architecture level. To address this issue, we describe the preliminary design of a recommendation system whose main purpose is to provide refactoring guidelines for developers and maintainers during the task of reversing an architectural erosion process. The paper formally describes first recommendations proposed in our current research and results of their application in a web-based application.


Purpose of this research was to explore how a brand-equity could be leveraged in establishing the customer equity in the online environment. Existing research has not yet explored how the tangibilization affects various branding and e-branding approaches. We seek to identify the possible effects of tangibilization in firms' attempts in gaining customer equity through efforts of branding online. Findings of this study include highlighting both types of e-branding approaches, extension-based (e-EBA) and creation-based (e-CBA); have distinctive power in gaining respective equities in the virtual world in which the brand extension may have superior position by leveraging brand equity offline whereas new brand is free to fully utilized Internet technology. Both e-EBA and e-CBA shall seek to tangibilize their services to well categorized customers, since service tangibilization would significantly mediate the relationship between brands and customer equity. This paper would bring managers several implications. The key to the success in online expansion is the brand used online and the associated tangibilize activities in building customer relationship and gaining customer equity.


One hundred thirty-two gilts and barrows (18.2 d of age) weighing an average of 13.4 lb (Duroc × (York × Landrace)) were put on test for a 35-day growth trial to assess the effects of Cordyceps mushroom powder (MP) or purified mushroom beta-glucan (BG) as an antibiotic alternative in nursery diets. There were 6 diets, negative and positive controls (NC and PC), 150 and 300 ppm mushroom powder, and 150 and 300 ppm beta-glucan equivalents to the MP diets. Pigs were divided by weight, sex, litter, and assigned to 6 body weight (BW) blocks. Within BW blocks, sex ratios were constant in each pen. Pigs and feeders were weighed weekly to determine average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed efficiency (F/G). During phase 1 (d 0 to 7), pigs fed the PC had increased ADG, ADFI, and d 7 BW (P < 0.05) compared to pigs fed the NC. Beta-glucan and MP also increased ADFI in phase 1 (P < 0.05) compared to the NC. During phase 2 (d 7 to 14), a health challenge (hemolytic Escherichia coli) went through half of the pigs with the other half challenged in phase 3 (d 14 to 21). This led to some erratic performance because of the pigs eating, but losing weight. In phase 4 there was a BG and MP interaction between source and dose. Pigs fed 300 level of MP had improved F/G, while those fed the 300 level of BG had poorer efficiency in phase 4 (P < 0.07). Overall, there was an improvement (P > 0.05) in F:G ratio in the PC when compared to the NC. There was also an interaction between source and dose for ADFI (P < 0.05) between the BG and MP treatments. There was a significant improvement in F/G in MP and BG pigs compared to NC pigs (P < 0.05). On day 35, there were no differences in final BW among treatments. A premarket weight was collected on all pigs at d 154 after weaning, and pigs fed the 300 BG from day 0 to 35 were 24.4 lb heavier than the NC (P < 0.05) and 15.4 lb heavier than the PC (P < 0.05).


Introduction: Basic Life Support (BLS) as the first level of medical care in sudden cardiac arrest and life-threatening illnesses can improve survival outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare the knowledge and skills of BLS among medical students at the beginning and the end of the training course in the emergency department. Materials and Methods:This study was a descriptive analytic cross- sectional study among 90 medical students in their sixth academic year during emergency medicine training course. At first, a standard Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was performed to obtain their basic knowledge and skills of BLS. Then a training course was provided in two theoretical and practical parts using the 2006 American Heart Association guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care. At the end of the study, the same standard OSCE was performed. Results: The mean score of the primary OSCE was 4.9 with 55 students (61.11%) having a score between zero to five and 35 (35.89%) between five to ten.  The mean scores increased significantly after training regarding checking the patient's response, head tilt and chin lift maneuvers, number of massages and correct breathing (p


This study estimates the costs of adoption of conservation tillage by Iowa corn farmers by utilizing the method of empirical estimation of a logit model that incorporates the full information on the attributes of agents and county aggregated measures of agents' choices. The methodology treats the aggregated data as an expected value—the area-weighted group average of individual probabilities of choosing conservation tillage—subject to a measurement error. Using the 2002 and 2004 county-average conservation tillage choice data, we estimate field level costs of the adoption of conservation tillage and predict that the sample average subsidy payment required to entice farmers to use conservation tillage is $17.65/acre. The results indicate that conservation tillage adoption is significantly affected by soil characteristics, crop choice and high net returns using conventional tillage methods.


Abstract This paper examines the impact of regulatory reform on productivity growth and its components for Indian banks from 1992 to 2009. We estimate parametric and nonparametric efficiency frontiers, followed by Divisia and Malmquist indexes of total factor productivity, respectively. To account for technology heterogeneity among ownership types, we use a metafrontier approach. Results are consistent across methodologies and show sustained productivity growth, driven mainly by technological progress. Furthermore, results indicate that different ownership types react differently to changes in the operating environment. The position of foreign banks becomes increasingly dominant, and their production technology becomes the best practice in the industry.


Coldwater trout streams are important natural resources in northeast Iowa. Extensive efforts have been made by state and federal agencies to protect and improve water quality in northeast Iowa streams that include Sny Magill Creek and Bloody Run Creek, which are located in Clayton County. A series of three water quality projects were implemented in Sny Magill Creek watershed during 1988 to 1999, which were supported by multiple agencies and focused on best management practice (BMP) adoption. Water quality monitoring was performed during 1992 to 2001 to assess the impact of these installed BMPs in the Sny Magill Creek watershed using a paired watershed approach, where the Bloody Run Creek watershed served as the control. Conservation practice adoption still occurred in the Bloody Run Creek watershed during the 10-year monitoring project and accelerated after the project ended, when a multiagency supported water quality project was implemented during 2002 to 2007. Statistical analysis of the paired watershed results using a pre/post model indicated that discharge increased 8% in Sny Magill Creek watershed relative to the Bloody Run Creek watershed, turbidity declined 41%, total suspended sediment declined 7%, and NOx-N (nitrate-nitrogen plus nitrite-nitrogen) increased 15%. Similar results were obtained with a gradual change statistical model. The weak sediment reductions and increased NOx-N levels were both unexpected and indicate that dynamics between adopted BMPs and stream systems need to be better understood. Fish surveys indicate that conditions for supporting trout fisheries have improved in both streams. Important lessons to be taken from the overall study include (1) committed project coordinators, agency collaborators, and landowners/producers are all needed for successful water quality projects; (2) smaller watershed areas should be used in paired studies; (3) reductions in stream discharge may be required in these systems in order for significant sediment load decreases to occur; (4) long-term monitoring on the order of decades can be required to detect meaningful changes in water quality in response to BMP implementation; and (5) all consequences of specific BMPs need to be considered when considering strategies for watershed protection.


Optimal rank-order tournaments have traditionally been studied using a first-order approach. The present analysis relies instead on the construction of an "upper envelope" over all incentive compatibility conditions. lt turns out that the first-order approach is not innocuous. For example, in contrast to the traditional understanding, tournaments may be dominated by piece rates even if workers are risk-neutral. The paper also offers a strikingly simple characterization of the optimal tournament for quadratic costs and CARA utility, as well as an extension to large tournaments.


A mathematical model is presented for quantifying and assessing perceived risks in an empirical manner. The analytical model provides for the identification and assignment of any number of quantifiable risk perception factors that can be incorporated within standard risk methodology. The set of risk perception factors used to demonstrate the model are those that have been identified by social and behavioural scientists as principal factors influencing people in their perception of risks associated with major technical issues. These same risk factors are commonly associated with nuclear energy issues. A rational means is proposed for determining and quantifying these risk factors for a given application. The model should contribute to improved understanding of the basis and logic of public risk perception and provide practical and effective means for addressing perceived risks when they arise over important technical issues and projects.


This experiment examined the effects of extinction on rate of responding and several topographical and temporal measures in adult humans. Three college students were trained to type the sequence 1•5•3 on a numeric keypad on a computer. The subjects were exposed to different fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement (FR1, FR 5, and FR10 respectively) and extinction. Subjects displayed typical schedule performances during the maintenance phase of the experiment. During extinction the performances were disrupted, they showed a "break and run" pattern and a general decrease in responding. Also, new topographical and temporal patterns emerged. These data are consistent with those reported for non-human species and special human populations.


WaterNSW funds a range of interventions to minimise pollution within the drinking water catchments of Sydney. To assist with the process of targeting this expenditure, WaterNSW has developed a spatial analysis tool, known as the Pollution Source Assessment Tool (PSAT), which uses a hybrid of multi-criteria analysis and load-based methods to highlight high pollution potential sites and critical source areas for pathogens, nutrients and suspended sediment. The design of the PSAT enables results to be summarised by any set of spatial units and with any combination of pollution sources. The most recent PSAT outputs have been used at multiple scales; to guide identification of priorities across the whole of the drinking water catchments of Sydney and also to target programmes on individual properties, sites and urban areas.


The Web Service Composition (WSC) problem with respect to behavioral descriptions deals with the automatic synthesis of a coordinator web service, c, that controls a set of web services to reach a goal state. Despite its importance, however, solving the WSC problem for a general case (when c has only partial observations) remains to be doubly exponential in the number of variables in web service descriptions, rendering any attempts to compute an exact solution for modest size impractical. Toward this challenge, in this paper, we propose two novel (signature preserving and subsuming) approximation-based approaches using abstraction and refinement. We empirically validate that our proposals can solve realistic problems efficiently.


– OBJECTIVE: The irisin, recently identified novel molecule, has been shown to be secreted from fibronectin type III domain containing 5 (FNDC5) of skeletal muscle by an unknown protease. It has been proposed that this molecule plays an important role in converting the white adipose tissue to brown adipose tissue and regulating the energy expenditure. Apart from this, its expression and role in various other conditions such as inflammation, hippocampal neurogenesis, aging and other metabolic conditions have been reported. However, due to conflicting results, several issues have been raised regarding its expression, cleavage, circulating levels, detection, excretion, designation, etc. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Complete literature survey was performed using PubMed database search to gather available information regarding FNDC5/irisin. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The present review discussed on the discovery of irisin, its possible role in physiological and pathological conditions and controversies. It also discussed the current challenges and future perspectives.


Abstract: Contemporary cultural and media studies have been increasingly interested in redefining the relations between religion and culture (and particularly popular culture). The present study approaches a series of theories on the manner in which religious aspects emerge and are integrated in contemporary cultural manifestations, focusing on the persistence/resurrection of religious patterns into secularized cultural contents. Thus, the analysis departs from the concept of implicit religion, coined and developed by Bailey and the theories following it, as well as other associated concepts, influential for the evolution of debates in the recent period, such as invisible religion, as approached by Luckmann, civil religion, by Bellah, folk religion, residual religion, by Davies or 'wild' religion, by Borg. In order to discuss the relations between religion and popular culture in contemporary U.S. and particularly the presence of certain religious patterns in popular culture messages, symbolism and rituals, the study uses an interdisciplinary approach, based on approaches currently used in media studies, film studies, cultural studies, visual culture perspectives, religious studies, and sociology. The article discusses, through different theories (and in its second part, a case study on James Cameron's cliche masterpiece Avatar) the manner in which contemporary popular culture (and cinema in particular) recycles, integrates and reinterprets religious patterns, symbols and behaviours.Key Words: implicit religion, popular culture, mass culture, religious patterns, rituals, U.S. cinema, Avatar, James Cameron"Is it possible that the power and popularity of the mass media are such that some of the functions traditionally associated with religious agencies, institutions and discourse are capable of being communicated through, and performed by, the medium of film?" (C.R. Deacy)Introduction. The "Disenchanted Word": Religion and SecularizationWhile explicit religion survives and replicates itself in multiple variations in contemporary society1 (despite the coherent hypotheses announcing, as early as the 19th century2, the gradual disappearance of religion into new institutional structures), a parallel and for some even more interesting set of phenomena has become increasingly significant, revealing intriguing effects of the contact between religion and the products of mass culture. Due to the development of image reproduction, the second half of 20th century witnessed the evolution of culture towards massification and industrialisation in terms of production and reproduction, as well as distribution. As the influential Jessica Evans and Stuart Hall argued when discussing visual culture:"The mechanically and electronically reproduced image is the semantic and technical unit of the modern mass media and at the heart of post-war popular culture. However, while it is acknowledged widely within the discipline of media and cultural studies... the visual image or photograph seems only of interest as the origin, as the technological dawn, of a great process of development in which, in an era of mass communication and the commodification of information, messages can be transmitted in principle to a plurality of recipients and audiences [emphasis added]".3This consumerism expanded at the cultural level (visual arts, music, media etc.) has not lead to the extinction of the presence of religious aspects within culture, on the contrary, religious patterns, symbols, characters or behaviours have persisted in the new cultural paradigm, although they were recycled, reinterpreted or even hidden under the mask of secular and even industrialised art, such as, for instance, Hollywood cinema. Popular culture became a favourite space of dialogue and melting pot of the cultural and religious diversity characteristing the contemporary world and in the same time fulfilling, without religious institutions constraints, the "modern man's need for the sacred in spite of tendencies to restrain its force in the cultural practices of modernity"4. …


Effective governance is regarded as essential for national water management frameworks. Many countries are therefore striving to institute effective governance in their water sector. Kenya is one country that has instituted such governance framework in the recent past. This article evaluates Kenya's water governance framework in the area of water services provision in line with the conventional principles of effective governance. The outcome of this evaluation is that the framework has strived to achieve a structure for effective governance but falls slightly short of it. Recommendations are therefore made to help fill the gap.


The recruitment of inflammatory cells contributes significantly to tissue injury in acute pancreatitis. This process implies several molecular interactions between circulating and endothelial cells. The adhesion molecule junctional adhesion molecule C (JAM‐C) is involved in leukocyte transendothelial migration and it can form homophilic (JAM‐C/JAM‐C) and heterophilic interactions with the leukocyte integrin αMβ2. In this study, the effect of early administration of monoclonal antibodies directed against JAM‐C in cerulein‐induced acute pancreatitis was assessed. This reagent significantly blocked influx of leukocytes, release of serum amylase, secretion of inflammatory cytokines, and acinar cell necrosis. These effects were rapid and protected against tissue injury throughout the duration of the model. Conversely, cerulein‐induced acute pancreatitis was more severe in transgenic mice overexpressing JAM‐C on endothelial cells under the control of the Tie2 promoter. It is proposed that JAM‐C expressed by endothelial cells contributes to the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis and could be considered a target for clinical applications. Copyright © 2006 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The major US wireless operators already have announced their plans for evolution of their networks, but some uncertainties remain, such as emergence of new technologies (WiMAX and WLAN) and consolidation among operators (AT&T Mobile and Sprint Nextel). The paper proposes a real option based model for technology decisions and applies it to the US wireless industry as a case study. We also discuss what decisions are made, what the outcomes are, and how the options model is validated. The preliminary results show that the evolution of wireless network technologies between generations (intergenerations migration scenario) is desirable (a positive net option value), but not desirable (a negative net option value) within generations (intra-generation migration scenario).


Abstract. Distributed snowpack simulations in the French and Spanish Pyrenees are carried out using the detailed snowpack model Crocus driven by the numerical weather prediction system AROME at 2.5 km grid spacing, during four consecutive winters from 2010 to 2014. The aim of this study is to assess the benefits of a kilometric-resolution atmospheric forcing to a snowpack model for describing the spatial variability of the seasonal snow cover over a mountain range. The evaluation is performed by comparisons to ground-based measurements of the snow depth, the snow water equivalent and precipitations, to satellite snow cover images and to snowpack simulations driven by the SAFRAN analysis system. Snow depths simulated by AROME–Crocus exhibit an overall positive bias, particularly marked over the first summits near the Atlantic Ocean. The simulation of mesoscale orographic effects by AROME gives a realistic regional snowpack variability, unlike SAFRAN–Crocus. The categorical study of daily snow depth variations gives a differentiated perspective of accumulation and ablation processes. Both models underestimate strong snow accumulations and strong snow depth decreases, which is mainly due to the non-simulated wind-induced erosion, the underestimation of strong melting and an insufficient settling after snowfalls. The problematic assimilation of precipitation gauge measurements is also emphasized, which raises the issue of a need for a dedicated analysis to complement the benefits of AROME kilometric resolution and dynamical behaviour in mountainous terrain.


Inadequate breast milk supply is a frequently reported reason for early discontinuation of breastfeeding and represents a critical opportunity for intervening to improve breastfeeding outcomes. For women who continue to experience insufficient milk supply despite the utilisation of non-pharmacological lactation support strategies, pharmacological intervention with medications used to augment lactation, commonly referred to as galactagogues, is common. Galactagogues exert their pharmacological effects through altering the complex hormonal milieu regulating lactation, particularly prolactin and oxytocin. This narrative review provides an appraisal of the existing evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of pharmaceutical treatments for lactation insufficiency to guide their use in clinical practice. The greatest body of evidence surrounds the use of domperidone, with studies demonstrating moderate short-term improvements in breast milk supply. Evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of metoclopramide is less robust, but given that it shares the same mechanism of action as domperidone it may represent a potential treatment alternative where domperidone is unsuitable. Data on remaining interventions such as oxytocin, prolactin and metformin is too limited to support their use in clinical practice. The review provides an overview of key evidence gaps and areas of future research, including the impacts of pharmaceutical galactagogues on breast milk composition and understanding factors contributing to individual treatment response to pharmaceutical galactagogues.


India has a great deal at stake in the Paris Agreement. As a large and poor developing country, India stands to gain or lose from both obligations under the Agreement and its effectiveness in addressing climate change. This comment describes India as a premature power in climate politics, locates Indian climate negotiating positions in global context, and develops a balance sheet of India's gains and losses in the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement has received a lukewarm reaction in India because it runs against some key principles of Indian climate politics. However, the Paris Agreement requires assessment by a different set of metrics. Instead of principle‐driven changes in national actions, the Paris Agreement architecture relies on inducing changes through procedural commitments and supportive mechanisms. Viewed from this perspective, the Paris Agreement brings some signs of hope for India. The bottom‐up contributions should allow India to safeguard development and explore more linkages between development and climate objectives. Even while inadequate, the existing pledges do collectively set an upper bound on catastrophic climate change, although the introduction of a 1.5° goal induces cynicism among Indian stakeholders. The transparency, expert review, and stocktake processes, when combined with regular updates of nationally determined contributions, are designed to ramp up contributions over time. Whether this trajectory is feasible or wishful thinking depends a great deal on future country actions. The Paris Agreement provides a framework within which India could productively engage its interests, even while it by no means guarantees their realization. WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e444. doi: 10.1002/wcc.444


Standardization serves a as a means to improve overall quality of life through the economies of scale gained from the pervasive adoption of technical solutions. It enables competition by facilitating interoperability between products of different vendors. The wider open source community develops free and open source software (FOSS) in a global upstream/downstream model that similarly benefits society as a public good. FOSS and standards setting organizations (SSOs) are both instruments causing standardizing effects. Innovators and policy-makers assume that a mutually beneficial collaboration between them is desirable. However, their exact relationship is not fully understood, especially when and how FOSS and SSOs complement each other, or displace each other as competitors. To be able to compare FOSS and SSOs, our study develops a phase model of standardization that is applicable to both approaches, and applies this model to compare the strengths and weaknesses of FOSS and SSOs against common opportunities and threats in the ICT sector. Based on qualitative expert interviews with FOSS and SSO representatives, the synthesis of the separate results support conclusions from a product, a process and a societal perspective. The study identifies cost of change as a key determinant for the efficacy of each approach. It concludes that FOSS and SSOs create complementary products, compete for efficiency of the standardization process, and are both independent and complementary standardization instruments available to industry and influenceable by policy-makers. The paper closes with a discussion of possible implications relevant to businesses, the wider open source community, SSOs and policy-makers.


Purpose/Objective: To describe the Teen Online Problem Solving—Teen Only (TOPS-TO) intervention relative to the original Teen Online Problem Solving—Family (TOPS-F) intervention, to describe a randomized controlled trial to assess intervention efficacy, and to report feasibility and acceptability of the TOPS-TO intervention. Research method and design: This is a multisite randomized controlled trial, including 152 teens (49 TOPS-F, 51 TOPS-TO, 52 IRC) between the ages of 11–18 who were hospitalized for a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury in the previous 18 months. Assessments were completed at baseline, 6-months post baseline, and 12-months post baseline. Data discussed include adherence and satisfaction data collected at the 6-month assessment (treatment completion) for TOPS-F and TOPS-TO. Results: Adherence measures (sessions completed, dropout rates, duration of treatment engagement, and rates of program completion) were similar across treatment groups. Overall, teen and parent reported satisfaction was high and similar across groups. Teens spent a similar amount of time on the TOPS website across groups, and parents in the TOPS-F spent more time on the TOPS website than those in the TOPS-TO group (p = .002). Parents in the TOPS-F group rated the TOPS website as more helpful than those in the TOPS-TO group (p = .05). Conclusions/Implications: TOPS-TO intervention is a feasible and acceptable intervention approach. Parents may perceive greater benefit from the family based intervention. Further examination is required to understand the comparative efficacy in improving child and family outcomes, and who is likely to benefit from each approach.


We measured the relative contribution of rods and cones to luminance across a range of photopic, mesopic, and scotopic adaptation levels and at various retinal eccentricities. We isolated the luminance channel by setting motion-based luminance nulls (minimum motion photometry) using annular stimuli. Luminance nulls between differently colored stimuli require equality in a weighted sum of rod and cone excitations. The relative cone weight increases smoothly from the scotopic range, where rods dominate, to photopic levels, where rod influence becomes negligible. The change from rod to cone vision does not occur uniformly over the visual field. The more peripheral the stimulus location, the higher is the light level required for cones to participate strongly. The relative cone contribution can be described by a sigmoid function of intensity, with two parameters that each depend on the eccentricity and spatial frequency of the stimulus. One parameter determines the "meso-mesopic" luminance--the center of the mesopic range, at which rod and cone contributions are balanced. This increases with eccentricity, reflecting an increase in the meso-mesopic luminance from 0.04 scotopic cd/m(2) at 2° eccentricity to 0.44 scotopic cd/m(2) at 18°. The second parameter represents the slope of the log-log threshold-versus-intensity curve (TVI curve) for rod vision. This parameter inversely scales the width of the mesopic range and increases only slightly with eccentricity (from 0.73 at 2° to 0.78 for vision at 18° off-axis).


Abstract In this study, the effects of particle size on combustion kinetics, mechanisms, and decomposition characteristics of five wood samples were examined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under air atmosphere and three different heating rates (10, 40, and 80 °C/min). By using the both Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Coats-Redfern methods, the highest activation energies were found to be for the coarse samples except untreated pine samples. Only a few studies in the literature investigated the effect of particle size on both thermal kinetics and responsible mechanisms of solid biomass fuels under oxidative environment. Therefore, the findings can be taken into consideration for highly efficient design and operation of industrial thermochemical processes by using waste lignocellulosic biomass as a fuel. In this study, the average activation energies calculated by Flynn-Wall-Ozawa were 166.57, 153.08, and 171.42 kJ/mol for the smallest, medium and coarse samples, respectively. A similar trend but lower values were also evaluated by Coats-Redfern and it was stated as 131.34, 137.52, 146.22 kJ/mol for the smallest, medium, and coarse samples, respectively. As particle size increased lower combustion performance indexes were also obtained. Therefore, in addition to the particle size, the chemical content of the samples also had an impact on the alteration of the kinetic mechanisms and thermal decomposition properties of the samples.


The distribution of crustaceans in 3 transects (Iskenderun, Mersin, and Anamur bays, including depths of 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 200 m) located within Turkish coastal borders of the Cilician shelf was studied between 2005 and 2007 to show the association with habitat types, eutrophication level, and depth-dependent environmental parameters in representative months of each season (winter, spring, summer, and autumn). A total of 153 crustacean taxa were found. Of the specimens identified at species level, 93 species were distributed in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, 12 in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and 4 in the cosmopolitan waters of the oceans. Three crustacean assemblages were distinguished according to the habitat types and eutrophication levels of the study sites: 1) the crustacean community of the eutrophic regions was dominated by decapods and characterized by high biomass, low faunistic characters, and high nutrient concentrations; 2) the assemblage of the bottom, vegetated with a meadow, exhibited well-diversified assemblages mainly composed of amphipod species with high faunistic characters, low biomass, and dissolved oxygen content; and 3) the assemblage of the nonvegetated undisturbed soft bottom was associated with the sedimentary parameters along the bottom depths (10-25 m, 50-100 m, and 150-200 m).


This paper consists of a case study of the product development process at Indexator AB, manufacturer of rotators for heavy equipment. The process has been studied concerning the information flow and computer support in the engineering design department and its interacting departments. It is shown that the company has a clear view of how information flows and which computer tools they use in the different parts of the processes. The advantage of using computer tools for analysis and planning is seen. Ways of communication and information flows concerning the design processes can sometimes happen in unplanned ways. Lack of integration between the different computer tools leads to unnecessary regeneration of the product information in the different parts of the development process.


What is an effective scientist? One who is successful by quantifiable standards, with many publications, citations, and students supervised? Yes, but there is much more. Truly effective scientists need to have influence beyond academia, usefully applying and marketing their research to non-scientists. This book therefore takes an all-encompassing approach to improving the scientist's career. It begins by focusing on writing and publishing - a scientist's most important weapon in the academic arsenal. Part two covers the numerical and financial aspects of being an effective scientist, and Part three focuses on running a lab effectively. The book concludes by discussing the more entertaining and philosophical aspects of being an effective scientist. Little of this material is taught in university, but developing these skills is vital to maximize the chance of being effective. Written by a scientist for scientists, this practical and entertaining book is a must-read for every early career-scientist, regardless of specialty.


INTRODUCTION Knowledge management to facilitate the creation, storage, transfer and application of knowledge in organizations have perceived wide attention in practice and research in the past several years. It has been argued that the success of today's business increasingly depends on their intellectual assets as opposed to their tangible resources. Among other things, these assets include attitude, knowledge and skills of the workforce, according to American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), these assets are known as competencies. They are areas of personal capability that enable people to perform successfully to their jobs by achieving outcomes or completing tasks effectively. Drucker (2001) emphasizes that every organization needs one core competence, innovation further stresses that every organization needs a way to record and appraise its innovative performance. Mohanty (2006) outlined that for an economy, or a nation to achieve preeminent position and superior status, it has to pioneer the culture of innovation. In a rapidly changing market, the only way to do either is to innovate effectively. The knowledge based view of the firm suggests that intellectual resources are key organizational assets that enable sustainable competitive advantage (Teece, 2003). Teece noted that any organization(s) that are able to effectively manage these knowledge resources are expected to reap benefits such as improved customer service, reduced costs in people and infrastructure, better decision-making, innovation, improved corporate agility, rapid development of new product lines and efficient transfer of best practices. Contemporary literature provides numerous examples of knowledge management success stories, organizations seeking to engage in such efforts also face a variety of challenges among the most difficult of these challenges is organizational culture. Janz and Prasarnphanich (2003) noted that organizational culture is believed to be the most significant input to effective knowledge management and organizational learning. Increased realization of knowledge as the core competence coupled with recent advances in information technology has increased organizational interest in the topics of knowledge management, human resources management and organizational culture. Following Churchman (1971), such topics are best suited for: Well-structured problem situations for which there exists strong consensual position on the nature of the problem situation. * Facilitating and managing organizational innovation and learning. * Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization * Increasing network connectivity between employees and external groups with the objective of improving information flow. Many large organizations have resources dedicated to knowledge management, of ten as a part of information technology, human resource management or business strategy. Knowledge management is linked and related to what has become known as the learning organization, lifelong learning and continuous improvement. Hence, the emergence of knowledge management has generated new roles and responsibilities in organizations. The emergence has created an increasing presence of academic debates within epistemology emerging in both the theory and practice of knowledge management. Studies have shown that organizations that foster strong cultures have clear values that give employees a reason to embrace the culture. A strong culture may be especially beneficial to firms operating in the service sector since members of these organizations are responsible for delivering the services and for promoting consistency and encouraging co-ordination and control within the organization. Where culture is strong, people do things because they believe it is the right thing to do. In this study, we propose a construct for measuring the influence of organizational culture for fostering the adoption of knowledge management as a competence of an individual, ability to generate ideas, ownership to the organization and decision making competencies. …


Since the Iranian soils are almost limy, application of Fluorescent pseudomonas have a major potential to provide the microelements needed for crop plants due to their siderophore production ability. In this work three indigenous high siderophore producing strains, a reference strain 7NSK2 and its pyoverdine mutant, MPFM1, were employed. To explore their efficiency, siderophore production was investigated by CAS-agar method. Effect of bacteria inoculation on the shoot and root dry weight increase as well as chlorophyll content of the crop were assayed under greenhouse condition. Furthermore, synergistic effects of bacteria strains and iron chelates, Fe-EDDHA and Fe-EDTA, and zinc sulphate on promotion of common bean plants were estimated. Strain UTPF76 with 20.4 mm halo in CAS-agar medium had the highest siderophore production capability. The results of the greenhouse experiments revealed that three of strains, 7NSK2, UTPF5 and UTPF76 increased the plant growth factors significantly. Addition of iron chelates and zinc sulphate improved bacterial efficacy. Strains MPFM1 and UTPF61 not only did not have positive effect on the plant growth but also in some cases decreased the growth factors. In colonization survey UTPF76 and UTPF5 had the greatest colonization activity. In conclusion, our results showed that indigenous stains have a high potential in biotechnological applications and their industrial application is recommended.


Europe has largely been absent from the US-dominated debate surrounding the introduction of nudge-type interventions in policy-making. Yet the European Union and some of its Member States are exploring the possibility of informing their policy action with behavioural insights. While a great deal of academic attention is currently been paid to the philosophical, ethical and other abstract implications of behavioural-informed regulation, such as those concerning autonomy, dignity and moral development, this chapter charts and systematizes the incipient European Nudge discourse.

Besides a few isolated initiatives displaying some behavioural considerations (e.g. consumer rights, revised tobacco products directive, sporadic behavioural remedies in competition law), the EU – similarly to its own Member States – has not yet shown a general commitment to systematically integrate behavioural insights into policy-making. Given the potential of this innovative regulatory approach to attain effective, low-cost and choice-preserving policies, such a stance seems surprising, especially when measured against growing citizen mistrust towards EU policy action. At a time in which some EU countries are calling for a repatriation of powers and the European Commission promises to redefine - in the framework of its Better Regulation agenda - the relationships between the Union and its citizens, nudging might provide a promising way forward. In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, this promise has not only been shared by the 27 remaining Member State but also represents one of their major priorities . Yet with promises come challenges too.

The chapter proceeds as follows. Section 2 sets the scene by discussing the growing appeal of nudging among policymakers within and across Europe. Section 3 introduces the notion of behavioural policymaking and contrasts it with that of nudging. Section 4 describes the early and rather timid attempts at integrating behavioural insights into EU policymaking and identifies some domestic experiences. Section 5 discusses the institutional and methodological efforts undertaken by the EU and some of its member states to embrace behavioural policymaking. In turn, section 6 discusses the major difficulties of integrating behavioural insights into EU policymaking and offers some concluding remarks.


We demonstrate the implementation of the measurement of the energy observable of a quantum harmonic oscillator by using the environment-free measurement model wherein the probe and the pointer of the apparatus are treated as different quantum systems. When the probe and pointer are initially in position-limited initial states, exact decoherence can be induced at a finite time and the emerging pointer states are exactly orthogonal at a finite time after the former has occurred. Closed forms for the functions and time scales relevant to decoherence and orthogonality of pointer states are obtained.


An electronic circuit that simulates the Moore-Spiegel equations [Moore and Spiegel, 1966] is presented. To compare the data measured from the circuit with the numerical solution to the equations, and assess the extent to which the circuit behaviour deviates from the model equations, parameter regimes are explored in each case. After going through a comparison of the two and performing a bifurcation analysis, we unravel the structure revealed by the circuit data. In this study, recurrence plots [Eckmann, Kamphorst and Ruelle, 1987] are used to assess dynamical changes such as mode transitions and nonstationarity. Their diagnostic power is coupled with that of space time separation plots [Provenzale, Smith, Vio and Murante, 1992]. The quality of recurrence plots obtained from multi channel measurements is compared with that obtained by embedding a scalar signal into higher dimensions. The effect of nonstationarity on the time delay computed by the mutual information technique [Fraser and Swinney, 1986] is addressed.


Novartis provides healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies worldwide. Our mission is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. We use innovative science and technology to address some of society's most challenging healthcare issues. We discover and develop breakthrough treatments and find new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible. We also aim to reward those who invest their money, time and ideas in our company. Our strategy is to build a leading, focused medicines company powered by advanced therapy platforms and data science. Accordion: Corporate Company overview [1] Novartis at a glance [2] Important Corporate Developments 2019-2020 [3]


This paper presents the UJI Industrial Robotics Telelaboratory, which lets Ph.D. and Master's degree students perform robotics and computer vision tele-experiments. By using this system, students are able to program experiments remotely via the Web, in order to combine the use of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to provide real-time vision processing, a conveyor belt, and a Motoman industrial manipulator. This paper introduces the novel SNRP protocol (i.e., Simple Network Robot Protocol), which permits the integration of network robots and sensors within an e-learning platform in a simple and reliable manner. As long as the students are able to interact remotely with a real robotic scenario, this system helps students very much to learn robotics control techniques like visual servoing control, vision for industrial applications, and robotics manipulation. The various components of the system are connected via a 100BaseT Ethernet network and follow the SNRP protocol, which grants simple access to generic networked devices using enhanced HTTP-based connections. Moreover, the whole telelaboratory is connected to the Internet through a router that permits the user to control the networked devices according to security constraints. The SNRP architecture is compared with a Common Object Request Broker Architecture-based approach, which was used in a previous telelaboratory. This paper describes two principle contributions: the design of a novel SNRP network architecture for the intercommunication of robots and sensors within an e-learning telelaboratory and the integration of a programmable FPGA vision system, which allows students to learn not only robotic techniques but also the design of high-performance circuits for industrial vision applications.


The application of extracellular matrix (ECM) sheets without a scaffold is not extensively reported in bone regenerative medicine. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate that an osteogenic ECM sheet (OECMS) can retain ECM integrity and growth factors to enhance bone formation in a rat non-union model. OECMS was produced from osteogenic cell sheets (OCS). Collagen and growth factor [bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), vascular endothelial growth factors (VFGFs), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1)] concentrations in the OECMS were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Next, hydroxyapatite (HA) constructs combined with OECMSs were implanted subcutaneously into the rats' backs to evaluate their osteoinductive capacity by histological evaluation. In addition, OECMSs were implanted in a rat femoral non-union model. 18 male Fischer 344 inbred rats were divided into OECMS and control groups. Fracture healing was evaluated by radiological and histological analyses at 2, 5 and 8 weeks and biological analysis at 8 weeks. Collagen I and growth factors were retained in the OECMSs. Osteoid formation was identified in the HA combined with OECMS at 4 weeks. Enhanced bone regeneration at the non-union of the OECMS group was confirmed at 5 and 8 weeks. Biomechanical testing revealed a significantly higher maximum bending load in the OECMS group as compared to the control group at 8 weeks. The results demonstrated that OECMS retained BMP-2 and TGF-β1 and high osteoinductive and osteoconductive capacity. As such, OECMS represents a potential new scaffold-free material for bone tissue engineering.


Title of Document: FAMILY STRUCTURE DIFFERENCES IN MATERNAL TIME WITH CHILDREN: DISPARATE SOCIAL STRUCTURAL LOCATIONS OR DIFFERENT PROPENSITIES TOWARDS MOTHERING? Sarah M. Kendig, M.A., 2007 Directed By: Professor and Chair, Suzanne M. Bianchi, Sociology Utilizing the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), this thesis examines the relationship between family structure and maternal time with children. The large sample, composed of 4,309 married mothers and 1,821 single mothers with children less than 13 years of age, allows for a detail-rich description of single mothers' time with their children that has not been possible before the ATUS. This thesis analyzes differences in maternal time with children by marital status, living arrangements, and other characteristics within the single mother population and in comparison to married mothers. Findings indicate that differences in maternal time with children largely disappear or that single mothers engage in more child care than married mothers after controls are introduced. Thus, differences in maternal time with children appear to be mainly attributable to the disadvantaged social structural location of single mothers rather than different proclivities towards mothering between married and single mothers. FAMILY STRUCTURE DIFFERENCES IN MATERNAL TIME WITH CHILDREN: DISPARATE SOCIAL STRUCTURAL LOCATIONS OR DIFFERENT PROPENSITIES TOWARDS MOTHERING?


This research investigates a new software tool for Genetic Partitioning. The Genetic Algorithm is used to perform the partitioning with a significant improvement in result quality. Furthermore, it can optimize a cost function with multiple objectives and constraints. Separate algorithms have been developed, fine-tuned for bipartitioning and multiway partitioning. The bipartitioning problem is represented as a binary chromosome. Efficient bit-mask operations perform crossover, mutation, and net cut evaluation 32 bits at a time, without unpacking. The multiway partitioning algorithm has a global view of the problem, and generates/optimizes all the necessary partitions simultaneously. The algorithms were tested on the MCNC benchmark circuits, and the cut size obtained was lower than that for the conventional Fiduccia-Mattheyses algorithm.


In this work, the thermal performance of three different wall configurations was examined by hot box measurements and numerical simulations. Vacuum insulation panels were sandwiched between traditional insulation in walls where the load-bearing elements were standard 36-mm-thick wooden studs, I-profiled studs and U-profiled studs. The measured mean values of the thermal transmittance (U-value) were 0.09 W/m2·K with 36-mm-thick wooden studs, 0.10 W/m2·K with U-profiled studs and 0.11 W/m2·K with I-profiled studs. The comparison of the three wall structures has shown that with such low U-values, the numerical simulations are more sensitive to the accuracy of the dimensions and thermal conductivities used as input. This required measurements of the thermal resistance of the fibreboard in two directions, the thickness and thermal resistance of the vacuum insulation panels and the thermal resistance of the 36-mm-thick wooden studs and the mineral wool.


In a model with private information of the worker about her ability and unobservable effort choice, the role of public and private employment services is analyzed. The coexistence of an inefficient employment exchange and an efficient private agency may lead to optimal screening with first best contracts. This is due to the assumption that good types of workers lose more human capital than bad types in periods of unemployment or mismatch. A bad type of worker earns an information rent if the employment exchange is inefficient and the employer chooses not to use the private agency.


The objective of this work is to present a new design of a Flexible Hardware Interface (FHI) based on PID control techniques to use in a virtual laboratory. This flexible hardware interface allows the easy implementation of different and multiple remote electronic practical experiments for undergraduate engineering classes. This interface can be viewed as opened hardware architecture to easily develop simple or complex remote experiments in the electronic domain. The philosophy of the use of this interface can also be expanded to many other domains as optic experiments for instance. It is also demonstrated that software can be developed to enable remote measurements of electronic circuits or systems using only Web site Interface. Using standard browsers (such as Internet explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari), different students can have a remote access to different practical experiments at a time.


The purpose of this study was to bridge a gap in our understanding of the role business simulation games can play in the development of entrepreneurial capabilities in undergraduate students. While entrepreneurship education has come a long way from being a branch of business and management studies, to its current status as a core discipline in its own right, the debate on the pedagogy of entrepreneurship education continues. The best results in entrepreneurship education are achieved when students are exposed to action-oriented experiential learning that encourages problem-solving, creativity and peer evaluation. Game-based learning is an emerging pedagogy that brings together the evolving nature of young learners and experiential learning. Grounded in the theory of experiential learning and action research methodology, this study investigates how a particular business simulation game, SimVenture, develops not only students' business and management skills but also their entrepreneurial attitude and values. The findings suggest that the business simulation allowed students to face their limitations, overcome some of them and make significant progress in their learning. Using SimVenture improved students' appreciation of business in general and the challenges entrepreneurs have to face in running a business.


This article interrogates the significance of the selfie in the construction of contemporary female identity through a close analysis of the #nomakeupselfie meme. Drawing on the distinct but conversant theoretical frameworks of cyber-feminisms, post-feminisms and breast cancer culture, it involves both a theoretical investigation and a phenomenological reflection on the selfie trend in question. Mobilizing Foucault's concept of governmentality, which he used to contextualise the link between technologies of domination and his later postulations on technologies of the self, the article explores the oppositional feminist viewpoints regarding empowerment and agency in online identity construction. It also constitutes an auto-ethnographic response to the phenomenon from my nuanced position as a young, female, selfie-taking, feminist, academic, breast cancer survivor. The analysis of the #nomakeupselfie meme focuses on three central issues: the problematic relationship between breast cancer and beauty; the trivialization, infantilisation and sexualisation of the disease inherent in contemporary breast cancer culture and the self-commodification of the female body as part of a consumer activist transaction.


In this paper we present a complete non-contact, all-optical inspection tool, for the extraction of the principal mechanical characteristics of plate-like structural materials (effective stiffness, Poisson ratio and plate's thickness). Broadband ultrasonic guided waves - Lamb waves - are optically generated and detected for incremental source detector distances. A two dimensional Fourier transform is applied to these measured time signals in order to extract dispersion information, which is highly affected by elastic properties as well as by sample geometry. The elastic properties and thickness of the structure under test are obtained from this experimentally extracted dispersion information, by an inversion technique which is presented and analysed in the paper. These values are verified with a complementary experiment. Monitoring changes in the estimated material properties could be used to indicate changes in the structural condition.


The inverse problem of three-dimensional (3-D) local earthquake tomography is formulated as a linear approximation to a nonlinear function. Thus the solutions obtained and the reliability estimates depend on the initial reference model. Inappropriate models may result in artifacts of significant amplitude. Here, we advocate the application of the same inversion formalism to determine hypocenters and one-dimensional (1-D) velocity model parameters, including station corrections, as the first step in the 3-D modeling process. We call the resulting velocity model the minimum 1-D model. For test purposes, a synthetic data set based on the velocity structure of the San Andreas fault zone in central California was constructed. Two sets of 3-D tomographic P velocity results were calculated with identical travel time data and identical inversion parameters. One used an initial 1-D model selected from a priori knowledge of average crustal velocities, and the other used the minimum 1-D model. Where the data well resolve the structure, the 3-D image obtained with the minimum 1-D model is much closer to the true model than the one obtained with the a priori reference model. In zones of poor resolution, there are fewer artifacts in the 3-D image based on the minimum 1-D model. Although major characteristics of the 3-D velocity structure are present in both images, proper interpretation of the results obtained with the a priori 1-D model is seriously compromised by artifacts that distort the image and that go undetected by either resolution or covariance diagnostics.


This paper presents a numerical technique to solve the problem of space charge distribution in a blade-plate electrodes system. The coupled equations are: Poisson equation solved by finite element method (FEM) to determine the distributions of potential, and charge conservation equation solved by the method of characteristics (MOC) to obtain the charge density between the two electrodes. The structured mesh is redefined at each step of the iterative scheme. A simplified injection law at the blade is retained; it allows us to obtain solutions which compare very favorably with experimental results concerning the current density distribution at the plate