BACKGROUND
With the lack of appropriate data, we conducted a large household survey in 2013 to determine current rates of physical activity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

METHODS
The Saudi Health Interview Survey is a national multistage survey of individuals aged 15 years or older. We used a multivariate logistic regression model to measure association between sociodemographic and selected characteristics and meeting the recommended levels of moderate and vigorous weekly physical activity.

RESULTS
Of a total of 12,000 households contacted, 10,735 (89.4%) participants completed Saudi Health Interview Survey. An estimated 4.5 million (34.5%) Saudis aged 15 years or older reported no weekly physical activity, while only 1.7 million (12.9%) meet the recommended levels of moderate physical activity (MPA). The likelihood of meeting MPA decreased with age, education, among women, those with a history of diagnosis of select chronic conditions, including diabetes. Similar results were found for the likelihood of meeting the recommended levels of vigorous weekly physical activity.

CONCLUSIONS
We found very low levels of physical activity in KSA. Perhaps, KSA can challenge communities or employers to devise solutions and reward those with the best results. These solutions would be of great value to other Gulf countries, as well.


Abstract England's Further Education (FE) sector is in permanent flux with policy interpretations and translations taking place at multiple levels within increasingly large and complex multi-site organisations. Devolved responsibility gives managers considerable influence in policy enactment processes which can lead to within-college tensions between vocational and mathematics teachers. This paper examines two within-college policies affecting students' mathematics learning opportunities: (1) subject choice, and (2) examination entry levels. These policies have produced inequitable opportunities for students on different vocational study programmes. Given the strategic importance of improving mathematics education, this paper explains how multiple actors and structures interact in the enactment of policy in complex FE college settings. Such understandings are needed to inform better policy design and implementation that in turn can improve mathematics education in Further Education colleges in England.


The general objective of the study is systematic examination of the processes involved in the formation and evolution of complex sentence constructions in a group of genetically related languages. The Chadic language group, at about 140 languages, constitutes the largest and most diversified branch of the Afroasiatic family. One of the findings of the present work is that languages starting from the same base may develop quite different morphological and syntactic structures. With respect to issues of general linguistic interest, the book deals with motivations for grammaticalization: It is proposed that one of the most important motivations is satisfaction of the principle of well formedness, that is, that every element in an utterance must have its role transparent to the hearer either by inherent lexical properties or by grammatical means. In the present work both aspects of grammaticalization, viz. the emergence of grammatical constructions and the emergence of grammatical morphemes, are given equal weight. In addition to semantic metaphor and metonymy as mechanisms in the processes of grammaticalization, the present work develops the notion of semiotic metonymy, whereby a part of a sign performs the function of the sign. It is shown that semiotic metonymy plays an important role in the grammaticalization of grammatical morphemes and constructions into other morphemes and constructions. The book also shows that unindirectionality is not a governing principle with respect to the development of grammatical morphemes into other grammatical morphemes; rather, there is considerable evidence and theoretical justification for the bidirectionality principle.


The spread of exotic species is considered to be one of the most significant threats to ecosystems and emphasises the need for appropriate management interventions. The majority of marine non-indigenous species (NIS) are believed to have been introduced via ship biofouling and their domestic spread continues to take place via this mechanism. In some countries, biosecurity systems have been developed to prevent the introduction of NIS through biofouling. However, implementing biosecurity strategies is difficult due to the challenges around identifying high-risk vectors. Reliable predictors of risk have remained elusive, in part due to a lack of scientific knowledge. Nonetheless, invasion ecology is an active scientific field that aims to build this knowledge. Propagule pressure is of particular interest in invasion ecology as it describes the quantity and quality of the propagules introduced into a recipient region and is considered to be an important determinant in the successful establishment of NIS. Environmental history affects health and reproductive output of an organism and, therefore, it is beneficial to examine this experimentally in the context of biofouling and propagule pressure. The aim of this thesis was to examine how voyage characteristics influence biofouling recruitment, survivorship, growth, reproduction and offspring performance through the ship invasion pathway. This was to provide fundamental knowledge to assist managers with identifying high-risk vessels that are likely to facilitate the introduction or domestic spread of NIS, and to understand the processes affecting biofouling organisms during long-distance dispersal events. Chapter One provides an introduction to the issues addressed in this thesis. Each data chapter (Chapters Two – Five) then focused on a stage of the invasion process and included field experiments using a model organism, Bugula neritina. Finally, Chapter Six provides a summary of key findings, discussion and the implications to biosecurity management. Throughout this thesis, the effect of donor port residency period on the success of recruits was highlighted. Chapter Two focused on recruitment in the donor region. As expected, recruitment increased with residency period. Importantly, recruitment occurred every day on vulnerable surfaces, therefore, periods as short as only a few days are able to entrain recruits to a vessel hull. The study presented in Chapter Three showed that there was high survivorship of B. neritina recruits during 12 translocation scenarios tested. In particular, the juvenile short-residency recruits (1-8 days) survived voyages of 8 days at a speed of 18 knots; the longest and fastest voyage simulated. Interestingly, variation in voyage speed and voyage duration had no effect on the survivorship of recruits, but did have legacy effects on post-voyage growth. Again, B. neritina which recruited over very short residency periods of 1 day continued to perform well after translocation and had the highest level of reproductive output after the voyage scenarios (Chapter Four). Recruits that were older (32-days) and reproductively mature at the commencement of the scenarios failed to release any propagules. Even though the number of 'at sea' and 'port residency' days were equal, reproductive output was higher after short and frequent voyages than after long and infrequent voyages. Finally, the study presented in Chapter Five examined transgenerational effects of B. nertina. Results showed that although the environmental history of the parent colony had a carry-over effect on offspring performance, it was the offspring environment that was a stronger determinant of success (measured by reproductive output and growth). Although cross-vector spread is possible (i.e. parent and offspring both fouling an active vessel), offspring released from a hull fouling parent into a recipient environment will perform better. In combination, these studies have provided new insights into NIS transport via vessel biofouling. Although shipping pathways are dynamic and complex, these results suggest that juvenile stages that recruit over short residency periods and are then translocated on short voyages, may pose a higher risk for NIS introduction than originally assumed. This has implications for marine biosecurity management as short residency periods are common and short, frequent voyages are typical of domestic vessel movements which are largely unmanaged.


The energy efficiency concerns on the residential building stock have increased in the last years. This can be interpreted as a policy-driven phenomenon, as witnessed by the growing number of policy instruments aimed at reducing the energy consumption of buildings. However, it can also be understood as a market-driven phenomenon, as witnessed by the widespread of Voluntary Sustainable Certification Systems (VSCSs) for buildings. Despite policies being traditionally considered the most suitable tool for dealing with environmental issues, the potential of VSCSs to contribute to enhance the energy efficiency of the building sector is widely recognized. Indeed, public agencies are beginning to adopt VSCSs as performance specification requirements. Nevertheless, part of the literature has underlined that the assessment of green projects might be more effective if performed before the conceptualization of the design; this doesn't entirely fit traditional VSCSs, precluding their role as complete contributions to the exploitation of the energy-saving potential of building refurbishments.The research therefore focuses on the development of a decision support tool for the assessment and comparison of energy-efficient refurbishment alternatives on a pre-design stage. The tool is developed taking into account three key conditions: (1) it must be suitable to be used during the early stages of the decision-making; (2) it must take into account the EU policy on building energy performances; and (3) the tool should inform the main stakeholders on the refurbishment features that can be perceived as a risk. The tool includes six financial and energy-related criteria, which range from the energy performance improvement, to the property market value after the refurbishment. Criteria are selected assuming the incipient level of design detail in the early stage of the decision-making process. The performance values achieved by the refurbishment alternatives on each criterion are normalized on a 1 to 10 scale and further on represented with radar charts. The tool has been tested through applying it to case studies. The outcomes highlight that the tool can be used either for assessing alternatives concerning a single building, or to compare retrofit options for different buildings. Moreover, the tool seems able to overcome two barriers that hinder the diffusion of energy-efficient refurbishments, namely the multi-stakeholders barrier and the information gap.


A. Bruno, I. Ayhan, and A. Johnston (2010) have recently challenged our report of spatiotopic selectivity for adaptation of event time (D. Burr, A. Tozzi, & M. C. Morrone, 2007) and also our claim that retinotopic adaptation of event time depends on perceived speed. To assist the reader judge this issue, we present here a mass of data accumulated in our laboratories over the last few years, all confirming our original conclusions. We also point out that where Bruno et al. made experimental measurements (rather than relying on theoretical reasoning), they too find clearly significant spatiotopically tuned adaptation-based compression of event time but of lower magnitude to ours. We speculate on the reasons for the differences in magnitude.


Mutation in the tolC locus greatly reduces normal synthesis of OmpF, a major porin protein of Escherichia coli K-12. Experiments that use ompF-ompC chimeric genes demonstrate that a tolC mutation exerts its effect at either the promoter or the amino-terminal end of the ompF gene. Direct analysis of ompF mRNA from tolC+ and tolC strains showed that the amount of ompF transcript in the latter was greatly reduced. We have also observed that, in addition to reducing the amount of OmpF, a tolC mutation increases the level of OmpC protein to a much greater extent than occurs in an OmpF mutant and also increases micF RNA synthesis as shown by increased beta-galactosidase synthesis in a micF-lacZ fusion strain. Based on these observations, we suggest that an increased expression of the micF gene in a tolC mutant results in the reduced expression of ompF and that a major effect of the tolC mutation may be to push the porin-regulating system to favor ompC and micF to a greater extent than under high-osmolarity conditions.


Since the 2010-2011 uprisings, several Arab countries have witnessed considerable expansion of the private security industry. Acknowledging that public security institutions have been integral to state power and regime stability in the region, this research investigates how increased privatization and outsourcing of security contribute to the survival of authoritarian rule in different Arab countries.The research essentially argues that privatizing and outsourcing security effectively fits into a broader scheme of authoritarian regime adaptation. It serves to enhance regime security by providing alternative agents and strategies for social control. Meanwhile, it offers new venues to expand regime interests by nurturing broad authoritarian coalitions and attaching the interests of diverse social groups to regime survival.


The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare is pleased to publish the following thought piece from one of our esteemed Speakers from the 2020 West Coast Security Conference. The author, Mr. Dalip, is a lawyer working in the financial crime and corruption sphere. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Dalip was a chairman at the Steering Group Planning Committee for the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF); and from 2014 to 2018, he was a special legal advisor to the Ministry of Attorney General Trinidad and Tobago.
The intersection between corruption and intelligence is gaining increased focus. Foreign intelligence services have an anti-corruption role at the strategic level through Intelligence Risk Assessments and at the operational level during post-conflict operations. Intelligence assessments of the effectiveness of non-kinetic tools on target countries also guide implementation and policy changes.
The roles of security intelligence and foreign intelligence services are, however, no longer always discrete, particularly in the context of non-state actors. Foreign intelligence services would benefit from the skill sets of security intelligence agencies in detecting corruption related predicate offences, both in performing their core roles and supporting law enforcement operations. This includes the use of financial intelligence as well as other key open source intelligence resulting from anti-money laundering frameworks, the development of which has been driven globally by the Financial Action Task Force. In performing these roles, intelligence agencies must also be mindful of their own vulnerability to corruption.


In this chapter excerpted from The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law, law professor and family law expert Robin Fretwell Wilson discusses how to discipline one's child, like the decision to treat "by faith alone," sometimes runs deep in religious and cultural belief systems. The state's regulation of childrearing not only impacts the parent's liberty but also a community's ability to hold onto its identity and transmit norms. Too often, the state's solicitude for parental autonomy dictates the child's fate. This chapter explores the limits of the broad and constitutionally recognized grant of parental power and documents the veritable kaleidoscope of exemptions for practices that expose children to real and present harm.
Section I reviews the constitutional parameters of the parent child relationship. It discusses four cases often invoked as proof of thick parental rights to the care, custody, and control of minor children and dependents — Meyer v. Nebraska, Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus & Mary, Prince v. Massachusetts, and Wisconsin v. Yoder — and ultimately shows that the US Supreme Court brackets parental authority derived from the Constitution: parents may not harm their children.
Section II evaluates the degree of harm to children that results from corporal punishment and faith healing. It presents a schism in views among social scientists about whether corporal punishment always harms children and shows that ethnic and cultural identity can moderate the experiences and effects of physical discipline, as well as presenting the few studies of faith healing practices and the overwhelming majority of children who have died as a result suffered from wholly treatable ailments.
Section III shows the degree of respect for parental autonomy, religion, and cultural practices reflected in state statutes that otherwise require parents to secure needed medical treatment for and to not abuse or neglect their children. Faith healing and corporal punishment laws define the fault lines between parental freedom and child abuse and neglect in each state, and states compensate for the latitude given to parents by charging adults in the community as mandatory reporters of child abuse and by authorizing judges to consent to needed treatment.
Using a single state, Idaho, as a case study, Section IV argues how a state's regulation of child abuse, medical neglect, involuntary manslaughter, and lesser crimes operates to confer on parents in Idaho effective immunity from civil sanction when they act "by faith alone." This overlapping statutory scheme has proven hard to reform, even as children continue to die. This is so, in part, because lawmakers are unsure whether attempts to constrain parental choices would ensure that children receive necessary medical care — or would backfire, pushing communities and families further from the law. Rather than only prosecuting parents, we conclude that strengthening linkages between the outside world and insular communities holds great promise for protecting children from harm at the hands of their parents.


We used the instantaneous growth rate method to determine the effects of food, temperature, krill length, sex, and maturity stage on in situ summer growth of krill across the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The main aims were to examine the separate effects of each variable and to generate a predictive model of growth based on satellite‐derivable environmental data. Both growth increments in length on moulting (GIs) and daily growth rates (DGRs, mm d−1) ranged greatly among the 59 swarms, from 0.58–15% and 0.013–0.32 mm d−1. However, all swarms maintained positive mean growth, even those in the low chlorophyll a (Chl a) zone of the central Scotia Sea. Among a suite of indices of food quantity and quality, large‐scale monthly Chl a values from SeaWiFS predicted krill growth the best. Across our study area, the great contrast between bloom and nonbloom regions was a major factor driving variation in growth rates, obscuring more subtle effects of food quality. GIs and DGRs decreased with increasing krill length and decreased above a temperature optimum of 0.5°C. This probably reflects the onset of thermal stress at the northern limit of krill's range. Thus, growth rates were fastest in the ice edge blooms of the southern Scotia Sea and not at South Georgia as previously suggested. This reflects both the smaller size of the krill and the colder water in the south being optimum for growth. Males tended to have higher GIs than females but longer intermoult periods, leading to similar DGRs between sexes. DGRs of equivalent‐size krill tended to decrease with maturity stage, suggesting the progressive allocation of energy toward reproduction rather than somatic growth. Our maximum DGRs are higher than most literature values, equating to a 5.7% increase in mass per day. This value fits within a realistic energy budget, suggesting a maximum carbon ration of ~20% d−1. Over the whole Scotia Sea/South Georgia area, the gross turnover of krill biomass was ~1% d−1.


In an immersive viasual experience, Mrs. Rajko asks: do we use our technology, or is it using us?

Jessica Rajko is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the embodied, corporeal, and lived experience of data. As an assistant professor at Arizona State University, her work blends praxis and scholarship from dance, somatic practices, phenomenology, and human-computer interaction design. She is a founding co-Director of the ASU Human Security Collaboratory, a non-departmental collective of artists and scholars addressing complex problems affecting the security of individuals and communities, with a special emphasis on digital technologies and their uses. Considering issues such as digital civil rights and equity in tech, her research aspires to integrate intersectional feminist frameworks within all her practices. Jessica has presented and performed in various collaborative artworks nationally and internationally, including Toronto's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festival and New York City's Gotham Festival at The Joyce Theatre. She was named one of Phoenix New Times's "100 Creatives of 2016." She is the co-founder and co-director of urbanSTEW (urbanSTEW.org), a non-profit arts collective that creates participatory, art/tech installations to engage local communities in multisensory, felt experiences. Jessica received her MFA in Dance and Interdisciplinary Digital Media at Arizona State University in 2009 (outstanding graduate of the year) and her BA in Dance and Psychology at Hope College in 2005.


The emissions of climate gases from the transport sector and the measures that should be taken to reduce these emissions are debated both in Sweden and Internationally. Alternative fuels from renewable sources, new powertrains, etc. are discussed as possible options. Since there are only few studies available on this issue, it was of interest to carry out a project that would highlight some of these issues. In April 2001, the Swedish National Road Administration, SNRA, published report over a well to wheel efficiency study, which had been carried out by the Swedish consultant company Ecotraffic. The report was published in Swedish. After the report was published, it became clear that there was an international interest for an English version of this report. While the work on the Swedish version of the report was in progress, and after the report was finished, several interesting international reports on the subject were published. Therefore, it was felt that a pure translation of the report without considering the most recent publications would have been somewhat negligent. It was also of interest to make some comparisons with the results from the most interesting studies.


Uncontrolled cell proliferation is the hall mark of many cancers, and is typically manifested by a deregulation of the cell-division cycle. CDKs play critical roles in regulating cell cycle, apop- tosis and cell differentiation. AG-024322 is a multitargeted CDK inhibitor that has been shown to induce cancer cell apoptosis and de- monstrate significant antitumor activity in hu-man tumor xenograft models. This compound is under clinical development as an intravenous anticancer agent. AG-024322 exhibited moder-ate to high systemic clearance across preclini-cal species. In vitro metabolism in human liver microsomes and hepatocytes demonstrates that glucuronidation and oxidation represent the major metabolic pathways of AG-024322. The experiments of chemical inhibition and micro-somes containing individual CYP or UGT iso-forms revealed that CYP3A and UGT1A1 appear to predominantly mediate AG-024322 oxidation and glucuronidation, respectively. Formation kinetics of the two pathways in human liver mi-crosomes suggested that the glucuronidation activity of AG-024322 was approximately 3-fold higher as compared to CYP-mediated oxidation, contributing approximately 37% and 13% of the total clearance, respectively, based on the pro-jected human clearance. UGT1A1 is a poly-morphic isoform involved in glucuronidation of bilirubin. It is of concern if glucuronidation via UGT1A1 plays a major role in the elimination of AG-024322 in humans as competitive inhibition of UGT1A1 has been associated with toxicity (Gilbert and Crigler-Najjar syndromes). There-fore, this information was used to influence the clinical study design to only include subjects having constitutive expression of UGT1A1 in the first human study, thereby decreasing the potential risk of toxicity to patients.


The use of low-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) to treat children with asthma can be life-transforming, and this is confirmed repeatedly when they are made widely available for the first time in a low and middle income setting.1 However, reading the National Report on Asthma Deaths (NRAD)2 among other documents makes it very clear that progress has stalled. In response to this perception, a Lancet commission has recently been published.3 This annotation reviews some of the implications of that document for paediatrics.

The first proposal is that 'asthma' is no more than a clinical description of symptoms such as wheeze, breathlessness and cough, as arthritis describes red, painful joints; neither is a 21st century diagnosis. The proper response of a family whose child has been given a diagnosis of asthma is, 'what sort of asthma does my child have?' So the Commission proposes that as far as possible, the airway disease should be deconstructed into identifiable aspects such as airflow limitation, eosinophilic airway inflammation, airway infection and impaired airway defences, and altered cough reflex sensitivity and efficacy. The emphasis is on defining in particular 'treatable traits' of airway disease,4 which include such extrapulmonary comorbidities as obesity and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and social and environmental factors, in particular adherence. There are important implications of this approach in preschool children, school-age children with an associated airway or systemic disease and also in the era of the new biologicals.

The wheezing preschool child has traditionally been 'phenotyped' on the history as having episodic viral wheeze or multiple trigger wheeze,5 which is limited in many ways,6 and can hardly be said to be worthy of 21st century practice. Some but not all likely have eosinophilic airway inflammation, and thus be responsive to ICS. The Lancet approach is to urge characterisation of …


This paper studies inattention to mortgage refinancing incentives among Danish households. Danish data are particularly suitable for this purpose because there are minimal barriers to refinancing, yet many borrowers fail to refinance optimally, and the characteristics of these borrowers can be accurately measured. The paper estimates a mixture model of household refinancing types in which household characteristics affect both inattention (a low proportion of rational refinancers) and residual inertia (a low probability that fully inattentive households refinance). Many characteristics move inattention and inertia in the same direction, implying a positive cross-sectional correlation of 0.62 between these two household attributes. Younger, better educated, and higher-income households have less inertia and less inattention. Financial wealth and housing wealth have opposite effects, with the least inertia and inattention among households whose housing wealth is high relative to their financial wealth. There is suggestive evidence of persistent unobserved heterogeneity in attention. Steffen Andersen Department of Finance Copenhagen Business School Porcelænshaven 16A, 1 DK-2000 Frederiksberg Denmark email@example.com John Y. Campbell Morton L. and Carole S. Olshan Professor of Economics Department of Economics Harvard University Littauer Center 213 Cambridge, MA 02138 and NBER email@example.com Kasper Meisner Nielsen Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clearwater Bay Hong Kong SAR China email@example.com Tarun Ramadorai University of Oxford Said Business School Park End St. Oxford OX1 1HP United Kingdom firstname.lastname@example.com An online appendix is available at: http://www.nber.org/data-appendix/w21386


This study identified two alternative but potentially simultaneous processes for rural development in China. One is the 'bottom-up' approach where individuals and groups of villagers work innovatively in developing new building construction opportunities, prompted by contemporary and indigenous design and construction methods. The alternative 'top-down' approach is associated with changes caused by external influences, such as directions given from funding sources, and encouragement for the use of specific knowledge and technologies; this is then filtered down through village administrative systems. Two ethnic villages were studied in Yunnan province, an area with a larger rural low-income population than other regions. Each village exhibited strong traditional cultures and each had undergone different tourist redevelopment over a period of more than ten years. The case studies revealed discrepancies between the academic categorization of dwellings in villages based on the representations of traditional culture created by materials and techniques, and the villagers' own perception of the social and cultural meanings of their houses and spaces in the village. The outcomes suggest that architects and designers could have different involvement in rural development through building platforms for discussion and decision-making, used with and amongst stakeholders, and which could link the two different directions of approach.


The research is aimed at investigating the Indonesian dakwah organization of Muslim Tionghoa or known as Persatuan Islam Tionghoa Indonesia (PITI) which is located at Medan District, North Sumatera-Indonesia, mainly regarding its existence as organization of dakwah, its strategy, problems and challenges as well as its effort to make the dakwah more effective and efficient. Qualitative case study was employed as the method to arrive at the conclusions of the study. While, survey was employed to support qualitative data as second sources. Document analyses, observations and interviews with six members of the organization and an observer of Muslim Tionghoa had been conducted upon which data were analyzed by employing thematic analysis and coding. The findings indicate that the PITI as an asset of Islamic movement had contributed to bridge the psychological transition especially for muallaf who faced their hindrances among their family and community because of the change of their belief and convert to Islam. Islamic teaching was a special program offered by PITI to help muallaf to enforce their belief and to enhance their knowledge regarding Islam. PITI also developed its strategy to establish the existence of the organization whether through networking and making relationship with the other Islamic organization such as Muhammadiyyah, NahdhatulUlama (NU) and al-Washliyah or through assimilation and developing diverse cultural approach among various communities. PITI also develops integrated method accordingly in the dakwah based on demands and needs through combination manners of dakwah bil hall (good performance), hikmah (wise), jadal (debate) and qishash (history). The internal and external problems which are faced by PITI include leadership and management, availability of infrastructure and human resources, financial sources, ethnic identity, cultural and habitual old life and Christianization, while an effort to make dakwah more effective is to solve the problems mentioned. Therefore, PITI plans to reshuffle structurally and administratively of the organization, establishing financial sources such as setting up bureaus of trade and travel and employing electronically mass media and publishing as a medium of dakwah.


Politicians and program administrators played a central role in early studies of policy feedback but have largely been superseded by a focus on mass publics. This article attempts to revive and reorient the study of elite feedback effects by investigating, in the context of American federalism, whether and how national programs can influence the incentives and resources of state government officials. It examines four case studies in which national officials adopted a new program and subsequently tried to alter it by diminishing the states' administrative role, reducing the financial resources available, or terminating the program. State-level actors emerged as critical stakeholders and strongly resisted national efforts to reform unemployment insurance and Medicaid, but neither the Sheppard-Towner Act nor general revenue sharing generated strong elite-level feedback effects. This variation suggests that timing (i.e., the political, economic, and administrative context), policy design (financial generosity, administrative discretion, duration of authorization, and coalition potential), and their interaction can prompt or discourage government elites to mobilize.


In My Time is a vivid account of the fascinating life of Robert Strausz-HupE, who served American presidents for twenty years in a variety of diplomatic posts. It is a life filled with both excitement and tragedy. In this autobiography, Strausz-HupE covers a wide range of topics, including his youth in Vienna, his familial background, and his schooling. The author also discusses his emigration to the United States, describing his initial impressions of the country as well as how he viewed the changes that were occurring in American society and culture. Strausz-HupE has written a poignant introduction for the republication of this volume. He explains how he reaches out to history for an explanation of who he is as an individual. Just as entire nations should learn from history, so should individuals, as Strausz-HupE has attempted to do in his autobiography. Robert Strausz-HupE is one of those increasingly rare, universally educated men whose minds conform only to their own beliefs and findings. His views of events such as the rise of German Nazism, or Chinese Communism, or the world of the theater in Europe between the two world wars are always fresh, exciting, and informed. In My Time will be enjoyed by all who read it, especially historians, political theorists, and policymakers.


In words, generated by independent geometrically distributed random variables, we study the lth descent, which is, roughly speaking, the lth occurrence of a neighbouring pair ab with a>b. The value a is called the initial height, and b the end height. We study these two random variables (and some similar ones) by combinatorial and probabilistic tools. We find in all instances a generating function Ψ(v,u), where the coefficient of vjui refers to the jth descent (ascent), and i to the initial (end) height. From this, various conclusions can be drawn, in particular expected values. In the probabilistic part, a Markov chain model is used, which allows to get explicit expressions for the heights of the second descent. In principle, one could go further, but the complexity of the results forbids it. This is extended to permutations of a large number of elements. Methods from q-analysis are used to simplify the expressions. This is the reason that we confine ourselves to the geometric distribution only. For general discrete distributions, no such tools are available.


We have found modest effects of widowhood events on loss of health insurance. There are also modest effects of widowhood on labor supply, which we have not as yet attempted to attribute to insurance demand. Even new widowhood events, however, are not random with respect to initial conditions. Both initial health insurance status and risk of future widowhood are related to basic characteristics observed when married at baseline. When these confounding variables are controlled for in models of the effect of widowhood events on uninsurance, there is no longer statistical evidence of an independent effect of husband's death on risk of losing insurance. Part of the reason why the measured independent effect of widowhood appears small is that there are events within marriage that can also affect insurance coverage, such as retirement or health events. Even though the number of uninsured women whose lack of coverage can be attributed to widowhood is therefore small, and not a distinct major policy motive for changes in age of eligibility for Medicare, uninsurance rates overall among the near elderly, and the potential public burden of cost-shifting from years just before 65 to years just after gaining Medicare coverage, suggest that Medicare eligibility policies should be a focus of continued research.


A two-section offset quantum-well structure tunable laser with a tuning range of 7 nm was fabricated using offset quantum-well method. The distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) was realized just by selectively wet etching the multiquantum-well (MQW) layer above the quaternary lower waveguide. A threshold current of 32 mA and an output power of 9 mW at 100 mA were achieved. Furthermore, with this offset structure method, a distributed feedback (DFB) laser was integrated with an electro-absorption modulator (EAM), which was capable of producing 20 dB of optical extinction.


Gene Sharp's contributions to the understanding of nonviolent action provide a useful lens for understanding developments in the field in recent decades. Sharp built on Gandhi's pioneering endeavours, but moved away from Gandhi by providing a pragmatic rationale for nonviolent action. Three important contributions by Sharp are his classification and cataloguing of methods of nonviolent action, his consent theory of power and his framework for understanding nonviolent campaigns. However, few academics have paid much attention to Sharp's work, and policy-makers have largely ignored it. In contrast, activists have taken up Sharp's ideas enthusiastically. Sharp is an imposing figure in the field of nonviolent action. Scholars and activists can learn from him, but also need to question and build on his ideas.


As mobile devices become increasingly pervasive and commonly equipped with short-range radio capabilities, we observe that it might be possible to build a network based only on pair-wise contact of users. By using user mobility as a network transport mechanism, devices can intelligently route latency-insensitive packets using power-efficient short-range radio. Such a network could provide communication capability where no network infrastructure exists, or extend the reach of established infrastructure. To collect user mobility data, we ran two user studies by giving instrumented PDA devices to groups of students to carry for several weeks. We evaluate our work by providing empirical data that suggests that it is possible to make intelligent routing decisions based on only pair-wise contact, without previous knowledge of the mobility model or location information.


The effect of soil tillage and source of nitrogen fertilizer applied as sidedressing on corn was studied by means of a field trial conducted on a latosolic Darkred Podzolic soil (PELa). Soil tillage treatments were conventional and notillage soil seed-bed preparation. Nitrogen sources were ammonium sulfate (solid, 20%N) and uran (liquid, 32%N), sidedressed 40 days after sealing emergence. Nitrogen uptake by the plants was evaluated by determining N content in leaves, stalks, panicles and ear, 53 and 67 days after seedling emergence (13 and 27 days after sidedressing). Harvest was done after physiological maturity was reached by the corn crop. Treatment effects on corn production were determined through yield parameters such as ear lenght and diameter, grain and ear weight and a ratio between these two. Analysis and interpretation of the results indicated that soil treatment had no effect on corn yield in the first cropping year. The results showed, however, a higher nitrogen uptake by the corn plants in the no-tillage and liquid nitrogen (uran) tretments which could be atributed to a rainfall defficiency prevailing in the period when the plants were sampled for analysis (53 and 67 days after plant emergence).


The present study aims to investigate the relationship between autonomous learning and lifelong learning. The study group consists of 657 secondary school students enrolled in three public schools, aged 11 – 16 from Sakarya, Turkey. In this study, relationships between the variables of autonomous learning and lifelong learning and the sub-dimensions of autonomous learning were investigated. Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Partial Correlation methods were utilized in order to investigate these relationships. Autonomous Learning Scale (12 items) which was developed by Macaskill and Taylor (2010), was adapted to Turkish by Arslan and Yurdakul (2015) was conducted to measure autonomous learning. Lifelong Learning Scale (14 items) which was developed by Kirby, Knapper, Lamon and Egnatoff (2010), was adapted to Turkish by Arslan and Akcaalan (2015) was carried out to assess lifelong learning level. In the light of the research findings, it can be purported that autonomous learning and lifelong learning scores were correlating significantly. According to the existing results, it can be argued that autonomous learning which can be defined as the capacity to take charge of one's own learning, has a positive interaction with lifelong learning which can be found voice in one's ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated learning.


Problem statement: Although, literature proves the importance of the technology role in the effectiveness of virtual Research and Development (R&D) teams for new product development. However, the factors that make technology construct in a virtual R&D team are still ambiguous. The manager of virtual R&D teams for new product development does not know which type of technology should be used. Approach: To address the gap and answer the question, the study presents a set of factors that make a technology construct. The proposed construct modified by finding of the field survey (N = 240). We empirically examine the relationship between construct and its factors by employing the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). A measurement model built base on the 19 preliminary factors that extracted from literature review. The result shows 10 factors out of 19 factors maintaining to make technology construct. Results: These 10 technology factors can be grouped into two constructs namely Web base communication and Web base data sharing. The findings can help new product development managers of enterprises to concentrate in the main factors for leading an effective virtual R&D team. In addition, it provides a guideline for software developers as well. Conclusion: The second and third generation technologies are now more suitable for developing new products through virtual R&D teams.


A specular reflectance system for the infrared analysis of micro size samples is described and its advantages and limitations compared to other micro infrared techniques. Samples are mounted on small metal mirrors which reflect the light beam back through the sample. A transmission spectrum of the sample is thereby obtained but the effective path length is twice that of the actual thickness. A given absorption band therefore has twice the absorbance obtained by conventional transmission measurements The system has been applied mainly to gas chromatographic fractions but should be suitable to a variety of other analyses. Major limitations include a "stray light" artifact, polymorphism effects, and difficulties in achieving sample uniformity.


We conducted a 3-year retrospective study to examine the results of preoperative hematologic screening, the incidence of postoperative bleeding, and the possible relationship between the two factors in patients who had undergone tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy. Our study population was made up of 875 patients—441 boys and 434 girls, aged 2 to 18 years (mean: 7.52 ± 4.25)—who had been treated at our institution from January 2004 through December 2006. In addition to demographic data, we compiled information on each patient's medical and surgical history, personal and family history of abnormal bleeding, indication for tonsillectomy, and preoperative hematologic screening results. The latter included determinations of the prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, international normalized ratio (INR), and platelet count. A total of 748 patients (85.5%) had normal findings on preoperative hematologic screening, and 127 (14.5%) had at least one abnormality. Postoperatively, hemorrhagic complications occurred in 31 children (3.5%)—in 22 of the 748 patients with normal screening results (2.9%) and in 9 of the 127 with a screening abnormality (7.1%); the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.041). The abnormalities in the latter group consisted of an elevated INR but no otherwise identifiable coagulopathy. Another 14 patients with an abnormal screening result (11.0%) were found to have at least one coagulopathy that was newly diagnosed during our preoperative evaluation; they were treated perioperatively, and none bled postoperatively. Of 21 patients who had a personal or family history of abnormal bleeding, 5 (23.8%) were found to have a coagulopathy, but none bled following surgery. In conclusion, we found that preoperative hematologic screening identified patients with undiagnosed coagulopathies, and with appropriate treatment our surgeons were able to prevent some bleeding events in these patients. Our finding that patients with a mildly elevated INR had a higher incidence of postoperative hemorrhage warrants further study.


A number of single case reports have made impressive claims for the efficacy of "eye movement desensitization" (EMD) in the treatment of traumatic memories. Many of these case reports claim that EMD reduces the unpleasant feelings associated with traumatic images. However, at present, there are no published controlled studies that provide evidence for these claims. The present experiment investigated whether EMD inhibits emotional responding during retrieval of aversive information. Normal Ss (N=40) were exposed to an aversive slide. During a next stage, half of the Ss underwent EMD while they rehearsed the slide information, whereas the other half underwent a control procedure (i.e., finger tapping) while rehearsing slide information. Before and after EMD or control intervention, heart rate and self-report data were obtained while Ss retrieved and visualized the aversive slide. No evidence was found to suggest that EMD inhibits emotional reactivity more than does finger tapping.


A single regeneration procedure using cotyledon explants effectively regenerated five commercially grown muskmelon cultivars. This regeneration scheme was used to facilitate gene transfers using either Agrobacterium tumefaciens (using 'Burpee Hybrid' and 'Hales Best Jumbo') or microprojectile bombardment (using 'Topmark') methods. In both cases, the transferred genes were from the T-DNA region of the binary vector plasmid pGA482GG/cp cucumber mosaic virus-white leaf strain (CMV-WL), which contains genes that encode neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPT II), β-glucuronidase (GUS), and the CMV-WL coat protein (CP). Explants treated with pGA482GG/cpCMV-WL regenerated shoots on Murashige and Skoog medium containing 4.4 μM 6-benzylaminopurine (BA), kanamycin (Km) at 150 mg·liter -1 and carbenicillin (Cb) at 500 mg·liter -1 . Our comparison of A. tumefaciens- and microprojectile-mediated gene transfer procedures shows that both methods effectively produce nearly the same percentage of transgenic plants. R 0 plants were first tested for GUS or NPT II expression, then the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and other tests were used to verify the transfer of the NPT II, GUS, and CMV-WL CP genes. This analysis showed that plants transformed by A. tumefaciens contained all three genes, although co- transferring the genes into bombarded plants was not always successful. R 1 plants were challenge inoculated with CMV-FNY, a destructive strain of CMV found in New York. Resistance levels varied according to the different transformed genotypes. Somaclonal variation was observed in a significant number of R 0 transgenic plants. Flow cytometry analysis of leaf tissue revealed that a significant number of transgenic plants were tetraploid or mixoploid, whereas the commercial nontransformed cultivars were diploid. In a study of young, germinated cotyledons, however, a mixture of diploid, tetraploid, and octoploid cells were found at the shoot regeneration sites.


Bacillus subtilis is commonly recovered from water, soil, air and decomposing plant residue. But the main habitat of B. subtilis is soil and a long term survival is expected to occur in soil. In this study twenty samples of soil were collected from different industrial areas of Lahore. These soil samples were used to analyze the presence of microorganisms in it. Bacteria were grown on the specific medium for the colony identification. Then Biochemical test was performed to isolate and identify B. subtilis from the soil samples. In the present study, Bacillus species were found to be abundant in our soil samples. The bacteria isolated from the soil were rod shaped gram positive bacteria that form spores under stress conditions. The spores were appeared to be rounded and green in color inside the cell. Positive zone formation test confirmed the presence of B. subtilis. The protease enzyme was produced by B. subtilis in large quantities during vegetative growth. It was found that absorbance reached to its maximum value at 5µg/ml concentration of protease enzyme. The maximum values of absorbance were 0.45 and 0.5 at 550nm. It was concluded from the above results that soil is the main habitat of many microorganisms and among these microorganisms Bacillus subtilis was found to produce protease enzyme.


PURPOSE
To identify tactical factors associated with progression from preliminary rounds in middle-distance running events at an international championship.

METHODS
Results from the 2012 Olympic Games were used to access final and intermediate positions, finishing times, and season-best (SB) times for competitors in men's and women's 800-m and 1500-m events (fifteen 800-m races and ten 1500-m races). Finishing times were calculated as %SB, and Pearson product-moment correlations were used to assess relationships between intermediate and finishing positions. Probability (P) of qualification to the next round was calculated for athletes in each available intermediate position.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences in finishing times relative to SB between qualifiers and nonqualifiers. In the 800-m, correlation coefficients between intermediate and final positions were r = .61 and r = .84 at 400 m and 600 m, respectively, whereas in the 1500-m, correlations were r = .35, r = .43, r = .55, and r = .71 at 400 m, 800 m, 1000 m, and 1200 m, respectively. In both events, probability of qualification decreased with position at all intermediate distances. At all points, those already in qualifying positions were more likely to qualify for the next round.

CONCLUSIONS
The data demonstrate that tactical positioning at intermediate points in qualifying rounds of middle-distance races is a strong determinant of qualification. In 800-m races it is important to be in a qualifying position by 400 m. In the 1500-m event, although more changes in position are apparent, position at intermediate distances is still strongly related to successful qualification.


Transplantation of pancreases may have clinical utility in the treatment of diabetes, for it has been shown that chemically induced diabetes in rats can be reversed by the transplantation of greater than or equal to four syngeneic fetal pancreases. Allogeneic transplants produce serious immunological problems, but the problems could be ameliorated if tissue-typed organs could be stored in the frozen state. Unfortunately, nearly all attempts to freeze organs have failed. Nevertheless, recent developments in the physical-chemical analysis of freezing injury and its successful application to the freezing of mammalian embryos encouraged us to attempt the freezing of 16 1/2- to 17 1/2-day intact fetal pancreases. The analysis indicated that to achieve success pancreases would have to be cooled less than 1 degree/min and diluted extremely slowly after thawing. Experiments with embryos and red cells indicated that high survivals might require high concentrations of protective solutes and slow warming. These predictions were accurate. After freezing to -78 or -196 degrees and thawing under optimal conditions, the fetal pancreases synthesized 80-100% as much protein as unfrozen controls and they yielded viable allografts. Optimal conditions included suspension in 2 M dimethylsulfoxide, freezing at 0.3 degrees/min, and slow dilution to preclude osmotic shock.


In the more than 30 years following the all-volunteer force (AVF), the proportion of women serving in the military has increased from 1.8 percent just before the AVF to 14.2 percent in 2008. The majority of women do not stay in the military for a 20-year or longer career; like men, most women only serve a few years before transitioning to the civilian workforce. Although the fraction of the military who are women has risen, as has the fraction of veterans who are women, little research informs how female veterans of the AVF fare economically after leaving service, or whether military service benefits minority women who serve in such disproportionate numbers. This paper investigates the civilian employment experiences of female veterans of the AVF using two sources of data. First, population-based data from the American Community Survey are used to evaluate the employment experiences of female veterans. Second, data from an audit study of civilian hiring practices provides additional insight into the experiences of women veterans transitioning from military to civilian work. We find little evidence of a veteran labor market disadvantage, either for white or black women. Both groups exhibit strong patterns of labor force attachment. Only white women show slightly lower rates of employment (among those in the labor force), while black women veterans show consistently advantageous employment profiles. These positive employment outcomes among female veterans at least partly derive from employer preference for hiring veterans over equally qualified nonveteran women.


In an unprecedented series of studies, Harvard Medical School has followed 824 subjects-men and women, some rich, some poor- from their teens to old age. Harvard's George Vaillant now uses these studies, the most complete ever done anywhere in the world, and the subjects' individual histories to illustrate the factors involved in reaching a happy, healthy old age. He explains precisely why some people turn out to be more resilient than others, the complicated effects of marriage and divorce, negative personality changes, and how to live a more fulfilling, satisfying and rewarding life in the later years. He shows why a person's background has less to do with their eventual happiness than the specific lifestyle choices they make. And he offers step-by-step advice about how each of us can change our lifestyles and age successfully. Sure to be debated on talk shows and in living rooms, Vaillant's definitive and inspiring book is the new classic account of how we live and how we can live better.


Binary polarisation shift keying (BPOLSK) has been proposed to mitigate the atmospheric turbulence-induced fading in free space optical (FSO) communication systems. In this study, the Q-factors obtained for the BPOLSK-FSO system are verified in conjunction with theoretical results to confirm the validity of the proposed scheme. The analytical bit error rate (BER) for the BPOLSK and non-return-to-zero on–off keying (NRZ-OOK) schemes are presented. The authors show that the BPOLSK scheme with direct detection offers improved BER performances compared to NRZ-OOK in the presence of weak turbulence, which is inferred from the experimental Q-factor and theoretical BER. For a turbulence variance σ21 of 0.003 and the transmitted optical power of −16.8 dBm, values for Q-factor are ∼11 and ∼8.5 for BPOLSK and NRZ-OOK schemes, respectively. The authors show that the predicted signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for BPOLSK and NRZ-OOK schemes are ∼13.5 and ∼15 dB, respectively, for a BER of 10−6 and σ21 of 0.01. When σ21 increases to 0.1, ∼8 dB lower values of SNR is required for BPOLSK compared with NRZ-OOK.


Atopic dermatitis in dogs Novel insights into mechanisms of disease Atopic dermatitis in dogs is the most important canine pruritic disorder, described for the first time in 1971. It is defined as a genetically-predisposed inflammatory and pruritic allergic skin disease with characteristic clinical features, associated with IgE antibodies specific for environmental allergens such as house dust mites and grass pollen. Atopic dermatitis in dogs harbors many similarities with its human counterpart such as the young age of onset, the clinical presentation and the genetic predisposition to develop the disease. Atopic dermatitis in human and dogs has been largely viewed as a disease of immunologic etiology. Key roles are played by dendritic cell signaling, the Th1/T2 cell dysregulation, IgE production, and mast cell hyperreactivity in the development of the pruritic inflammatory dermatosis. However, more recently it has been proposed that an intrinsic defect in the epithelial cell leads to a dysfunction in the epidermal barrier followed by immune system activation. In this thesis major research questions addressed, concern the role of fatty acids and their metabolic enzymes in the inflammation in canine atopic dermatitis and their possible modulatory effect. In addition, we have characterized the immunologic phenotype of atopic skin, particularly at the level of mRNA expression. It is concluded that spontaneous atopic dogs show a mixed Th1/Th2 inflammatory pattern which is consistent with human findings. In addition, it was found that lesional skin of atopic dogs contains a significant higher amount of arachidonic acid, which metabolism results primarily in inflammatory metabolites, the 2-series prostaglandins and the 4-series leukotrienes. This likely contributes to the inflammatory reaction seen in lesional skin. A question for future research is how the arachidonic content in lesional skin becomes this high. Several explanations for this high arachidonic acid content are discussed, whereas one of these have been addressed in this thesis and concern the cell infiltrates in lesional atopic skin. As atopic skin inhabits increased amounts of inflammatory cells and as arachidonic acid is the main fatty acid in the membranes of these cells, this might explain our finding of the high amount of AA in lesional skin. It is further reasoned that these cell infiltrates in lesional (and non-lesional) skin explain the high levels found for 5-lipoxygenase, 5-lipoxygenase-activating protein, leukotriene A4 hydrolase and microsomal prostaglandin-E synthase. These observations support future therapies with anti-leukotriene drugs in atopic dogs. It is very likely that in dogs, as in human, an epidermal barrier dysfunction together with an immunologic disturbance leads to atopic dermatitis; however it is not yet known which of these two systems initiate disease development. Based on the currently known similarities between human and canine atopic dermatitis now supplemented with our findings, there is strong evidence that the dog might serve as a good model for further research into human atopic dermatitis as well.


Calls for rigorous impact evaluation have been accompanied by the quest not just to find out what works but why. It is widely accepted that a theory based approach to impact evaluation, one that maps out the causal chain from inputs to outcomes and impact and tests the underlying assumptions, will shed light on the why question. But application of a theory based approach remains weak. This paper identifies the following six principles to successful application of the approach: (1) map out the causal chain (programme theory); (2) understand context; (3) anticipate heterogeneity; (4) rigorous evaluation of impact using a credible counterfactual; (5) rigorous factual analysis; and (6) use mixed methods.


The biosphere catalyzes a variety of biogeochemical reactions that can transform gold. Microbial weathering contributes to the mobilization of gold by releasing elemental gold trapped within minerals and by solubilizing gold via oxidation-promoting complexation. Subsequent microbial destabilization of gold complexes coupled with bioprecipitation and biomineralization can immobilize gold, completing the cycle. Secondary gold can occur as colloidal particles, crystalline gold and bacteriomorphic structures, the latter being a controversial form of `biogenic' gold.


Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem is a unique landscape in Kenya's semi-arid rangelands to the border of Tanzania. It is characterized by high abundances of wildlife which frequently disperses between three National Parks, namely Amboseli, Tsavo West and Chyulu Hills. Due to an increased population and a land-use change from prior nomadic pastoralism to sedentary farming activities, the land became highly fragmented and transformed into a human-dominated area. Increasingly wildlife migration routes are becoming blocked, leading to isolation of the National Parks and multiplied human-wildlife conflicts. The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is sadly famous as the most common conflict animal causing damage to properties, cropland and injuring or killing livestock and, in the worst case, people. However, elephants are at the same time a flagship species and represent the backbone for tourism activities around Amboseli. Therefore, the elephant is both a very valuable and problematic asset in the area. Unfortunately, wildlife conservation practices over the last decades, favoring animals over humans, have led to a negative perception of wildlife among the population in the ecosystem which challenges appropriate conservation mechanisms.
To maintain the tourism attraction of viewing elephants and to minimise the conflicts between local communities and animals, migration routes should remain open. The concept of landscape connectivity ensures biodiversity conservation, particularly for far-distance migration animals such as elephants. The elephant was therefore chosen as a keystone species in this study on which the analysis is based.
Using a least-cost path analysis (LCP) in ArcGIS, "cheapest" travel routes of Loxodonta africana between the three National Parks were identified. Factors included were selected and weighted by information gathered in expert interviews. Satellite imagery were classified using ESA SNAP toolbox to obtain vegetation covers and waterbodies for two different seasons (dry and wet), aiming to illustrate the temporal variability of potential connectivity paths. Additionally, key informant interviews and interviews of Group Ranch members around Amboseli National Park were conducted to gather information regarding the current state of management in the ecosystem and perceptions about wildlife management. A subsequent SWOT Analysis on three optimum routes obtained through LCP, takes the social-political factors and information obtained into account to discuss the different options for their conflict solving potential.
On the one hand, recommendations resulting from this study identify possible elephant migration routes that should be maintained by using a participatory conservation approach to secure landscape connectivity in long-term. On the other hand, management recommendations include a design for improved relationships between Group Ranch members and the responsible governmental institutions by equally distributing benefits, implementing financial benefits and establishing a functioning and adequate compensation scheme. By ensuring peoples' active participation in conservation and wildlife management, a more positive attitude towards wildlife might be induced, which will positively influence the wildlife conflict in long run.


Abstract. UAVs systems represent a flexible technology able to collect a big amount of high resolution information, both for metric and interpretation uses. In the frame of experimental tests carried out at Dept. ICA of Politecnico di Milano to validate vector-sensor systems and to assess metric accuracies of images acquired by UAVs, a block of photos taken by a fixed wing system is triangulated with several software. The test field is a rural area included in an Italian Park ("Parco Adda Nord"), useful to study flight and imagery performances on buildings, roads, cultivated and uncultivated vegetation. The UAV SenseFly, equipped with a camera Canon Ixus 220HS, flew autonomously over the area at a height of 130 m yielding a block of 49 images divided in 5 strips. Sixteen pre-signalized Ground Control Points, surveyed in the area through GPS (NRTK survey), allowed the referencing of the block and accuracy analyses. Approximate values for exterior orientation parameters (positions and attitudes) were recorded by the flight control system. The block was processed with several software: Erdas-LPS, EyeDEA (Univ. of Parma), Agisoft Photoscan, Pix4UAV, in assisted or automatic way. Results comparisons are given in terms of differences among digital surface models, differences in orientation parameters and accuracies, when available. Moreover, image and ground point coordinates obtained by the various software were independently used as initial values in a comparative adjustment made by scientific in-house software, which can apply constraints to evaluate the effectiveness of different methods of point extraction and accuracies on ground check points.


The authors demonstrate the utility of examining seismic data with a volumetric scheme, whereby a synoptic view of the interior of the data volume is possible before conventional interpretation. High-amplitude seismic events, representing reflections from subterranean surfaces, are transformed to color pixels, and the resulting 3-D images reveal the structure of the geological layers. Such morphological features as hills, valleys, and faults are apparent indicating that the approach could prove useful for identifying potential oil reservoirs. The authors implement the technique on a personal computer to produce displays of similar quality, but they find that the construction of the 3-D images is too slow for reasonable interactivity. However, with the addition of a parallel-processing accelerator, a personal-computer-based workstation would be feasible for this kind of 3-D visualization and interpretation.<<ETX>>


Within the last few decades higher education nternationally has become increasingly regarded as a strategic resource for economic and scientific advance. Reference to the
'entrepreneurial university' has become commonplace in public discourse. This is not to say, however, that universities, as places of learning, have become recast tout
ensemble as places of production. Were the change as resounding as this, the scope to pursue any teaching and research that was not tied to some economic or social policy
imperative would have all but disappeared. The resulting discontent would be difficult to weather by authorities in democratic societies. What has been underway is something more urbane and more intricate than a crass inversion in the purposes of higher learning. Mirroring developments in society more widely, a new utilitarianism, now in a technological key, has been confidently establishing itself as the conventional wisdom of educational policy debates. (EU Commission 1996, 2000, 2005; OECD 2004a, 2004b, 2005). It is clear that this new utilitarianism is helled by
the economic globalisation that has become dominant, especially since the end of the Cold War. What is less clear is that this utilitarianism, as a newly-established public wisdom, is also itself a major cultural force that fuels the further advance of such globalisation. Far from being an abrupt revolution or a passing trend or fashion, I
believe that what we are witnessing here is a historic cultural shift over a generation or two, possibly of comparable significance to the historic ascendancy of a religious world view that was accomplished over a much longer period in medieval Western civilisation. It is worth recalling that it was such a shift, theological rather than
commercial in character, that brought universities into being in the first instance.


The validation of remotely sensed canopy structural parameters derived from moderate resolution imaging is a perennial problem because it is very expensive to undertake field measurements at scales of 250 m and above. High-resolution imaging and airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) systems are widely used sources of reference data, with the former used to delineate crowns and the latter to estimate tree heights and other statistics. A simple yet effective automated method that provides mapped tree crown cover, radii and height estimates from high-resolution panchromatic images of large dimensions – CANopy Analysis from Panchromatic Imagery (CANAPI) – is presented, together with comparisons with QuickBird 0.6 m spatial resolution imagery, field inventory data and lidar canopy height estimates from the NASA Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) for forest sites in the Sierra National Forest in California. The method was developed as an ImageJ macro using simple image processing functions and is easily extended. It has some limitations but is likely to be useful in analysing open and semiopen forest and shrub canopies where the illumination is oblique.


Through global analysis and country-level case studies, this report analyzes the efficiency of investments in wheat improvement research at a disaggregated level and explores a range of options for restructuring research programs to enhance efficiency. Particular attention is devoted to evaluating "spillovers" (i.e., benefits which flow from one program to another) that result from large research systems with the potential to exploit economies of size and scope. The impacts of such spillovers on both research productivity and research strategy are explored, as are the relative roles of international agricultural research centers (IARCs) and national agricultural research systems (NARS) in generating technology. The homogeneity of agroecological environments across developing countries is clarified and a megaenviornment classification system is described. The authors address the question of whether research managers should suppress genotype-by-environment (GxE) interactions and develop widely adapted varieties or exploit GxE interactions and develop specifically adapted varieties. Econometric evidence is presented to suggest that broadly adapted varieties may be more robust and create greater spillover than has previously been reported. Research costs and intensities in developing countries are shown to be of the same magnitude or higher than in industrialized countries because the former have a large number of scientists per research program combined with a smaller mandate area for each program. Evidence suggests that many countries or regions within a country are investing more than is economically justifiable in wheat improvement research, either because of the small size of their mandate area or because they could capture research spillins at lower costs-or, more commonly, both. A cost benefit framework is used to assess the threshold levels of wheat production in a mandate region required to justify a breeding program rather than a testing program. The results indicate that many research programs could significantly increase their efficiency by reducing their research programs and screening varieties developed elsewhere. A case study from India reveals that investment inefficiencies at the sub-national level have frequently been underestimated and that large nationally mandated programs have a comparative advantage in generating successful technologies across wide areas. A case study in Australia clarifies the role of spillovers in industrialized countries. The report has important implications at the conceptual level in the methods used for research evaluation and at the policy level for decisions on crop improvement research.


Abstract. Ozone pollution represents a serious health and environmental problem. While ozone pollution is mostly produced by photochemistry in summer, elevated ozone concentrations can also be influenced by long range transport driven by the atmospheric circulation and stratospheric ozone intrusions. We analyze the role of large scale atmospheric circulation variability in the North Atlantic basin in determining surface ozone concentrations over Europe. Here, we show, using ground station measurements and a coupled atmosphere-chemistry model simulation for the period 1980–2005, that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) does affect surface ozone concentrations – on a monthly timescale, over 10 ppbv in southwestern, central and northern Europe – during all seasons except fall. The commonly used NAO index is able to capture the link existing between atmospheric dynamics and surface ozone concentrations in winter and spring but it fails in summer. We find that the first Principal Component, computed from the time variation of the sea level pressure (SLP) field, detects the atmosphere circulation/ozone relationship not only in winter and spring but also during summer, when the atmospheric circulation weakens and regional photochemical processes peak. Given the NAO forecasting skill at intraseasonal time scale, the first Principal Component of the SLP field could be used as an indicator to identify areas more exposed to forthcoming ozone pollution events. Finally, our results suggest that the increasing baseline ozone in western and northern Europe during the 1990s could be related to the prevailing positive phase of the NAO in that period.


Our purpose was to obtain more rapid germination of common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactflon (L.) Pers.l for hydroseeding. Accelerated germination is especially valuable in hydroseeding where rapid germination is necessary to take advantage of the investments which are made in water, nutrients, and wood fiber to modify seedbed environments. Establishment may be improved by assuring germination soon after the initial application of these materails. Germination was determined for hulled seeds of common bermudagrass as affected by constant and alternating temperatures of 0, 2, and 5 C, and 5-degree increments through 30 C, and at 40 C in the laboratory. Diurnal regimes consisted of 8 hours at the higher and 16 hours at the lower temperature. Phenological curves were developed for germination in relation to the optimum and near-optimum temperature regimes. A 10/40 temperature regime produced high and rapid germination. Soaking of the seeds at this optimum temperature regime before hydroseeding would accelerate germination. Commercial application of presoaked seeds at 10/40 C would require refrigeration of the soaking liquid to reduce temperature to I0 C at night and heating to increase temperature to 40 C during the day. In addition, because of rapid germination at 10/40 C, in subsequent hydroseeding many seeds would have germinated exposing fragile radicles to turbulence of the pump action and relatively high nozzle velocities. A constant 30 C for 24 hours of preplant soaking is suggested as a practical alternative. We used 25 C for postsoaking incubation because it is a reasonable temperature existing at the time of most seeding. Maximum germination at 30 C required soaking in a solution of 1.0 mM potassium nitrate (KNO₃) for triggering germination during the first 24 hours of incubation plus 0.035 mM gibberellin (GA) for accelerated germination and growth from 48 to 72 hours. Seedling growth through 96 hours was greatly enhanced by the further addition of 0.01 mM kinetin.


Several forms of vehicular fraud cause significant losses to the transportation and freight industry in Ethiopia. For a land-locked country that mostly relies on ground shipping and public transportation for connectivity, vehicular fraud is an important problem in the Ethiopian context. In order to start tackling this problem, this paper presents the design and implementation of a commercial grade GPS tracking system for nationwide deployment in Ethiopia, and the process of building a business around the technology. The paper makes three contributions. First, we present vehicular fraud, an important problem in developing regions, with a case study from Ethiopia. Second, we discuss the process of building an ICT system in developing regions for a practical and wide-scale deployment beyond experimental pilots. Compared to conducting research projects, this process often involves stringent requirements and considerations such as scalability, sustainability and security. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of building technology based businesses in Africa. We discuss entrepreneurship as a model for delivering ICT services in developing regions, and present some of the hurdles we faced and lessons learned in building a tech business in Ethiopia. We have deployed the system on the ground, and currently support an initial set of clients who are trying the system.


A vast literature has sought to assess the magnitude of inter-industry differences in pay and explain why they exist. The measurement of inter-industry pay differentials and the resulting use of this information to assess the empirical relevance of different labor market theories have been hampered, however, by the fact that measures of total compensation -- as opposed to just wages and salaries -- are not available in the datasets traditionally used. To our knowledge, we are the first to use compensation microdata in a study of inter-industry pay differentials. Because nonwage compensation can easily exceed 40 to 50 percent of wages, its inclusion has the potential to alter measured industry pay differences, either diminishing or amplifying them. We find that the inclusion of benefits increases industry dispersion, as measured by the standard deviation of inter-industry differentials, by 16 percent when no controls are included and by an even greater 30 percent when controls are included.


Throughout the last 2 decades a shift from a cod- to a sprat-dominated system occurred in the upper trophic levels of the Central Baltic Sea. This was caused by a decline in the cod stock, due to recruitment failure and high fishing intensity, resulting in a decrease in predation pressure on sprat. Concurrently with the lowest cod stock size on record, sprat reached biomass values of above 2 x 10 6 t in 1992, being relatively stable afterwards. Besides predation mortality through cod and in recent years also an increasing fishing pressure, cannibalism on eggs may be a compensatory process limiting the reproductive success of sprat and hence contributing to the population regulation in the Central Baltic. Based on sprat stomach sampling on 21 cruises between March 1988 and July 1996 cannibalism on sprat eggs was investigated in the Bornholm Basin, one of the main spawning areas of Central Baltic sprat. Using a model of gastric evacuation to estimate daily food intake rates and a Virtual Population/Extended Survivor Analysis for computing predator population sizes, egg cannibalism rates were estimated. These were compared to egg abundance data from ichthyoplankton surveys and to preliminary estimates of seasonal egg productions. The study revealed significant interannual differences in the intensity of sprat egg cannibalism with considerable predation in 1990 to 1992 (>15% of the egg abundance during peak spawning and >60% of the seasonal production) and a reduction in most recent years (<16% of the corresponding abundance and production). As a possible reason for these differences a combination of changes in the vertical overlap of predator/prey and variability in the food environment were identified. Shortcomings of the applied methods and the possible impact of cannibalism on the reproductive success and population development of sprat in the Central Baltic Sea are discussed.


Enumerative nonlinear model predictive control for speed tracking problem of linear induction motors has been presented in [1], where the authors show that this control scheme has better performance as compared to direct torque control. In this paper, the authors show that using a load observer for integral action, the performance can be further improved. Specifically simulation results show that a load observer results in better tracking properties and offers more robust control.


BACKGROUND
Moyamoya syndrome associated with protein S deficiency is rarely encountered and is usually reported in paediatric cases with cerebral ischaemia.

CASE REPORT
A 32-year-old woman had symptoms of sudden-onset severe headache, projectile vomiting, impaired consciousness, and slight neck stiffness. The computed tomography scan of her brain showed primary intraventricular haemorrhage, and the subsequent four vessel cerebral angiographies revealed stage 3 to 4 Moyamoya disease according to Suzuki and Takaku's angiographic classification. The coagulation profile showed the presence of protein S deficiency. The patient was treated with external ventricular drainage and conservative management until blood clot resolution. The patient was discharged with normal neurological examination findings after her initial impaired consciousness and orientation defect gradually recovered.

CONCLUSION
This case report would alert physicians to the possible coexistence of Moyamoya syndrome and protein S deficiency, even in adult cases presenting with primary intraventricular haemorrhage.


Day laborers standing on street corners have become a more common, and more controversial, sight in many U.S. cities. Taking them to be evidence of public disorder and illegal immigration out of control, some communities have responded by adopting the strategy of exclusion. They have revived the enforcement of ordinances against loitering and vagrancy, and changed traffic rules to discourage drivers from stopping to pick up workers. Other communities have responded by adopting the strategy of shelter. Viewing street corner day laborers as vulnerable, these communities have opened indoor work centers that offer job placement and other services. Both of these approaches are fundamentally flawed. The strategy of exclusion ignores economic theory, which justifies the presence of day labor markets in public space. Exclusion also overlooks the nation's rich history of allowing day laborers and other temporary workers to use the sidewalk to solicit work. Exclusion further ignores fundamental economic and demographic changes that have increased demand for day laborers - whether illegal immigrants or not - and made public sidewalks the most efficient way to match these workers with potential employers. Finally, the strategy of exclusion is at odds with the contemporary push toward the "New Urbanism," with its sidewalk-intense uses, and the character of today's suburbs, which are increasingly integrated. The strategy of shelter similarly misunderstands the advantages offered by the street to day laborers. Like those who in earlier advocated sheltering the homeless and helping them find work, advocates of sheltering day laborers exhibit good intentions. But they risk turning street entrepreneurs into dependents. The defects of exclusion and shelter point to a third way to respond to day labor - one that gives them a place on the street.


Every city has its unique urban context including the objects that form the historical environment of the city; the material elements represented by buildings, constructions, sculptural and architectural forms, elements of spatial surroundings of monuments and terraced houses; the atmosphere, the landscape elements, and the visage as an element expressing the real nature of the visual object, that is the city space (the open space "enclosed" by material elements). The city of Dresden is not an exception. In its district Blasewitz, one of the most important aspects of urban context is expressed by the fences of the Gr u nder Epoch. These pompous and fine constructions separating the street space from the park villas have remained since the middle of the XIX century. The article explores the origin of villas as an urban ensemble of the Italian architecture, the development of this type of architecture in the 18-19th centuries and the methods of preservation of all the elements of this structure, including fences. It describes the fences remained in the district Blasewitz and their unique features.


Background. Neochelys franzeni (Schelich, 1993) is the only pleurodire or side-necked turtle from the middle Eocene, Messel Pit (the first UNESCO, World Natural Heritage Site in Germany, since 1995). The original description of the species is based on two specimens SMF ME 1091 (Holotype) and 715 (Paratype) housed at the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt. The excellent preservation of complete and articulated skeletons of this species makes it a key taxon for understanding the evolution and phylogeny of the European Neochelys genus and its relationships with South American and African-Madagascar podocnemidids.


Extracellular matrix-derived scaffolds provide an efficient platform for the generation of organ-like structures. Successful development of testicular organoids (TOs) with the capability of supporting complete spermatogenesis has not been reported yet. Here, we have developed an optimized method for the decellularization of ram testicular tissue fragments. Our findings showed that testicular fragments treated with a serial combination of Triton X-100 and SDS in PBS for 48 h resulted in the efficient removal of cellular materials and retention of the extracellular matrix (ECM) components. In order to fabricate testis-derived scaffolds (TDSs), the testicular ECM (T-ECM) was digested in acid/pepsin, followed by neutralization of pre-gel solution to form a hydrogel. Then, the hydrogels were freeze-dried and cross-linked using a chemical method. To reach the optimal concentration for the T-ECM in the fabrication of TDSs, the scaffold properties including porosity, pore size, swelling behavior, and degradation were evaluated. Our study suggested that 25 mg ml-1 of the T-ECM is the best concentration for the fabrication of macroporous TDSs for demonstrating lower pore size, homogeneously distributed pores, and a higher swelling ratio. Furthermore, inoculation of neonatal mouse testicular cells onto TDSs resulted in the generation of multicellular TOs in which the differentiation of spermatogonial cells into post-meiotic cells was confirmed. Hormonal analysis of TDSs revealed the functionality of TOs in the secretion of testosterone and inhibin B. The current study also demonstrated that macroporous TDSs could provide a novel platform for testicular tissue engineering and in vitro spermatogenesis.


Exploratory analysis of data in all sciences seeks to find common patterns to gain insights into the structure and distribution of the data. Typically visualisation methods like principal components analysis are used but these methods are not easily able to deal with missing data nor can they capture non-linear structure in the data. One approach to discovering complex, non-linear structure in the data is through the use of linked plots, or brushing, while ignoring the missing data. In this technical report we discuss a complementary approach based on a non-linear probabilistic model. The generative topographic mapping enables the visualisation of the effects of very many variables on a single plot, which is able to incorporate far more structure than a two dimensional principal components plot could, and deal at the same time with missing data. We show that using the generative topographic mapping provides us with an optimal method to explore the data while being able to replace missing values in a dataset, particularly where a large proportion of the data is missing.


One challenge in evaluating visual question answering (VQA) models in the cross-dataset adaptation setting is that the distribution shifts are multi-modal, making it difficult to identify if it is the shifts in visual or language features that play a key role. In this paper, we propose a semi-automatic framework for generating disentangled shifts by introducing a controllable visual question-answer generation (VQAG) module that is capable of generating highly-relevant and diverse question-answer pairs with the desired dataset style. We use it to create CrossVQA, a collection of test splits for assessing VQA generalization based on the VQA2, VizWiz, and Open Images datasets. We provide an analysis of our generated datasets and demonstrate its utility by using them to evaluate several state-of-the-art VQA systems. One important finding is that the visual shifts in cross-dataset VQA matter more than the language shifts. More broadly, we present a scalable framework for systematically evaluating the machine with little human intervention.


The present study investigates the effects of two different vocabulary learning conditions in digital reading environments equipped with electronic textual glossing. The first condition presents the concordance lines of a target lexical item, thereby making learners infer its meaning by reading the referenced sentences. The second condition additionally offers the definition of a target lexical item after learners consult the concordance lines, thus enabling learners to confirm their meaning inference. A total of 138 English as a Foreign Language students completed a meaning-recall vocabulary pre-test, and three different reading tasks, which were followed by meaning-recall vocabulary post-tests in a repeated measures design with a control condition. Overall, the findings showed that the second condition resulted in higher vocabulary gains than both the first condition and the control condition. Yet, a closer look at the interactions of (a) the participants' clicking behaviors, (b) the difficulty of selected concordance lines, (c) the surrounding contexts around target lexical items, and (d) the participants' prior knowledge of the target lexical items showed that each target lexical item may require different treatments for it to be recalled most efficiently and effectively. Through this investigation, the present study suggests that glossary information, such as concordance lines, may involve more complex and unexpected learner interactions.


Three Dimensional (3D) printing within the pharmaceutical industry is rapidly developing and current trends within drug development include the 3D printing of oral dosage forms, implants, hydrogels and topical drug delivery systems. 3D printed dosage forms can be used to treat a range of conditions varying from cardiovascular disease to recovery from orthopaedic surgery and the prevention of infection. Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, 3D printing allows the precise spatial control and deposition of material as layers. This results in a large degree of printing flexibility and means that a variety of complex designs can be printed accurately. By controlling factors such as the type of polymer, drug load and surface area a variety of controlled release dosage formulations can be produced and application in personalised medicine holds promise. Multiple release oral dosage forms can also be printed as well as those containing more than one Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) which addresses polypharmacy and should aid medical treatment. This review studies recent trends in 3D printing and drug development, and current drawbacks are examined to evaluate the future potential to manufacture dosage forms.


The purpose of this experiment was to examine the influence of emphasizing either the health benefits or social benefits of physical activity and the influence of the participant's biological sex on their completion of a physical activity related goal. Male and female participants were given a half-page, written cue to guide them towards focusing on either health or social motivations behind physical activity. All participants were assigned the goal of losing two pounds in two weeks. Screening procedures took place to eliminate any participants who possibly had an eating disorder. It was hypothesized that participants of different genders who had the same motivation cues would show a smaller biological sex difference than those with different motivational cues. After two weeks had passed, the participants were asked to indicate whether they had or had not achieved the assigned goal. When comparing the four participant groups of Male-Health, Male-Social, Female-Health, and Female-Social, there were no significant differences in the amount of participants who achieved the assigned goal. The results were examined in terms of comparing males and females, and health emphasis and social emphasis.


This thesis presents and discusses the development, design and testing of a lightweight current pulse source prototype used for condition assessment of line connectors. The thesis is a continuation of a student project conducted in the fall semester of 2014 with the title "Condition Assessment of Line Connectors by Current Pulse Measurements - Effect of Reduced Pulse Rise Time And Connection Cable Cross Section". The student project looked into how weight and size could be removed from the present pulse source design, both by a reduced capacitor bank and by reduced connection cable cross section. The results from this project lead to the development of the lightweight pulse source prototype. The design and development is divided into three sections. Initially, the overall idea and generalization of the design is presented and discussed. Secondly, based on this conceptualization the design is broken down to each major component. These components were the battery, thyristor, capacitor bank, microcontroller, DC-DC Converter, and user interface. Their function and design criteria are presented and discussed in the thesis. The thesis also presents the circuit schematics of all the components designed specially for the prototype. Finally, the design is summarized and its weight and size compared to the present pulse source design. The measurements show that new pulse source prototype weights 7.6 kg compared to the 35 kg of the old design and is 47 dm^3 smaller. Note that the weight is measured without the connection cords and measurement equipment. enlargethispage{baselineskip} One of the major differences beside the size and weight is that the present pulse source uses a hardware based sequence control, while the prototype utilizes a microcontroller. This allows a much more flexible system since the behavior of the sequence control can be altered by rewriting the script. The microcontroller and script are presented in detail in the thesis and in the appendix. To verify the design, and to look into how the prototype operates during actual condition assessment measurements, a total of thirteen connectors were assessed. Three of these had an already known condition, while for the rest no prior condition assessment existed. The three connectors with a known state showed that it was possible to reproduce the results from the prior measurements using the pulse source prototype. The ten final connectors were meant to increase the number of measurements to see how the prototype handled during actual assessment tests. These measurements show that the prototype only needed a few alterations to it design to operate satisfactory. These alterations are presented and discussed in the thesis, while the condition assessment of all the connectors is presented in the appendix. In addition to the condition assessment measurements there were also conducted two separate experiments to define the battery capacity and setpoint accuracy of the prototype. The battery capacity test revealed that the battery capacity of the prototype is sufficiently large to supply the unit with power during continuous operation for at least four hours and ten minutes, and deliver 500 consecutive shots. The setpoint accuracy test indicated that the prototype's control sequence was able to reproduce the same current amplitude for the same setpoint with a deviation of only 26.4 A. All the tests performed on the prototype show that it works and operates as intended. Tests have shown that the prototype is able to produce and reproduce current pulses accurately up to and above 6000 A, and that the microcontroller based sequence control functions as intended.


There is growing evidence that climate change could affect marine benthic systems. This review provides information of climate change‐related impacts on the marine benthos in the North Atlantic. We cover a number of related research aspects, mainly in connection to two key issues. First, is the relationship between different physical aspects of climate change and the marine benthos. This section covers: (a) the responses to changes in seawater temperature (biogeographic shifts and phenology); (b) altered Hydrodynamics; (c) ocean acidification (OA); and (d) sea‐level rise‐coastal squeeze. The second major issue addressed is the possible integrated impact of climate change on the benthos. This work is based on relationships between proxies for climate variability, notably the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, and the long‐term marine benthos. The final section of our review provides a series of conclusions and future directions to support climate change research on marine benthic systems. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:203–223. doi: 10.1002/wcc.330