INTRODUCTION For financial markets to be truly efficient, information must be clear, consistent, and available. Most variations of the efficient market hypothesis assume that information is accurate and transparent. Credit reporting agencies, also referred to as debt rating agencies, primarily composed of Standard and Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch Ratings, are essential to the maintenance of efficient markets by assessing the quality of certain investments. When these ratings, which are relied upon by investors and governments alike, are erroneous, the entire economy suffers. The history and purpose of the credit reporting agencies and how these companies operate with limited accountability will provide insight into the responsibility the agencies share in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. While there were many organizations and agencies to "blame" for the credit crash, the purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive historical context in which to view Moody's and Standard and Poor's recent role. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The credit agencies' primary function is to determine the creditworthiness of the various issuers of securities. These agencies can trace their roots to the early nineteenth century during which the railroads were the first major industry of the United States and perhaps the world (Levich, Majnoni, & Reinhart, 2002). By 1832, the railroad industry began publication of The American Railroad Journal which was a highly specialized publication that reported on current events within the industry (Levich et al., 2002). Henry Varnum Poor became editor of the journal in 1849 and began focusing on investors as the target audience (Levich et al., 2002). During his tenure as editor from 1849-1862, Mr. Poor published information about the holdings of the railroads, and their assets, liabilities, and earnings (Levich et al., 2002). After the American Civil War, Henry Poor formed his own company and publication called the Manual of the Railroads of the United States (Levich et al., 2002). Poor only obtained and reported on factual information about companies which may be obtained on a company's annual report today. During the twentieth century, financial information about a company was difficult to acquire and very few understood the accounting and meaning of the reported data. It was not until 1916 that the Poor Company entered the bond rating business by analyzing various securities (History, 2006). The Poor Company began publishing its U.S. focused ninety-stock composite price index which was computed daily (History, 2006). This would become the S&P 500, a market value weighted index, which focused on the value of the five hundred most widely held companies in the U.S. economy (History, 2006). During the Great Depression, Poor's Publishing went bankrupt and was refinanced. Poor's Publishing eventually merged with Standard Statistics in 1941 (History, 2006). In 1966, The McGraw-Hill Companies, currently a dominant textbook publishing, magazine, and construction company, purchased Standard and Poor's (History, 2006). John Moody also founded a company in 1900 that produced manuals detailing company information and statistics on stocks and bonds (Moody's History, n.d., para. 1). Moody fell victim to the 1907 stock market crash and was forced to cease operations (Moody's History, n.d., para. 2). Two years later, John Moody returned to the financial markets by offering investors an analysis of security values instead of a compilation of data (Moody's History, n.d., para. 3). During the early to mid twentieth century, analysis of companies' securities was expanded. In 1914, Moody's Investors Service was incorporated and expanded rating coverage to include municipal bonds (Moody's History, n.d., para 4). From the first manuals ever published until the 1970s, Moody's and Standard & Poor's charged investors a fee for access to financial information--the only income received from their analysis (Moody's History, n. …


Numerical solution methods for option pricing fall into two broad classes, either the lattice framework or Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo simulation is problematic for American options, while the Binomial and Trinomial approaches have difficulty incorporating stochastic jumps. The probability density at expiration that is generated by a lattice typically has different skewness and kurtosis than is embedded in option market prices. The Binomial can be fitted imposing a terminal density with the right moments, using the Johnson system of distributions for example, but the problem still remains that the number of distinct nodes to calculate increases quadratically with the number of time steps. This article proposes the "Willow Tree" method, which combines a small number of large time steps that connect to many possible next period nodes, with the constraint that the terminal density, constructed from the Johnson system, has the same mean, volatility, skewness, and kurtosis as the risk neutral density extracted from prices in the options market. The result is a much faster and more accurate valuation than may be achieved through existing approaches.


This paper encapsulates an in-depth examination of the legality of the authority invoked by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to create a set of rules of procedure and evidence known as the Internal Rules (IRs). In the void of public information pertaining to the ECCC's rationale for creating the IRs, this paper, in part, seeks to reconstruct the relevant judicial arguments and, to the greater extent, focuses on answering the question of which of the arguments put forward during the adoption process of the IRs should have been but were not entertained and accepted by the judicial panel to ensure the legality of the actions associated with the creation of the IRs. To this end, the paper extracts a statutory test which is used as the litmus test of the provisions of the IRs analyzed throughout the narrative. The application of this test, in the end, results in the separation of the provisions of the IRs ab initio identified as suspect into those for the adoption of which authority exists at the international level and those which the ECCC has invented ultra vires the law on the establishment of the ECCC and applicable international standards.


Bayesian inference in non-linear dynamical systems seeks to find good posterior approximations of a latent state given a sequence of observations. Gaussian filters and smoothers, including the (extended/unscented) Kalman filter/smoother, which are commonly used in engineering applications, yield Gaussian posteriors on the latent state. While they are computationally efficient, they are often criticised for their crude approximation of the posterior state distribution. In this paper, we address this criticism by proposing a message passing scheme for iterative state estimation in non-linear dynamical systems, which yields more informative (Gaussian) posteriors on the latent states. Our message passing scheme is based on expectation propagation (EP). We prove that classical Rauch–Tung–Striebel (RTS) smoothers, such as the extended Kalman smoother (EKS) or the unscented Kalman smoother (UKS), are special cases of our message passing scheme. Running the message passing scheme more than once can lead to significant improvements of the classical RTS smoothers, so that more informative state estimates can be obtained. We address potential convergence issues of EP by generalising our state estimation framework to damped updates and the consideration of general α -divergences.


This paper is focused on the study of the important property of the asymptotic hyperstability of a class of continuous-time dynamic systems. The presence of a parallel connection of a strictly stable subsystem to an asymptotically hyperstable one in the feed-forward loop is allowed while it has also admitted the generation of a finite or infinite number of impulsive control actions which can be combined with a general form of nonimpulsive controls. The asymptotic hyperstability property is guaranteed under a set of sufficiency-type conditions for the impulsive controls.


Spinoza speculated on how ethics could emerge from biology and psychology rather than disrupt them and recent evidence suggests he might have gotten it right. His radical deconstruction and reconstruction of ethics is supported by a number of avenues of research in the cognitive and neurosciences. This paper gathers together and presents a composite picture of recent research that supports Spinoza's theory of the emotions and of the natural origins of ethics. It enumerates twelve naturalist claims of Spinoza that now seem to be supported by substantial evidence from the neurosciences and recent cognitive science. I focus on the evidence provided by Lakoff and Johnson in their summary of recent cognitive science in Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought (1999); by Antonio Damasio in his assessment of the state of affective neuroscience in Descartes' Error (1994) and in The Feeling of What Happens (1999) (with passing references to his recent Looking for Spinoza (2003); and by Giacomo Rizzolatti, Vittorio Gallese and their colleagues in the neural basis of emotional contagion and resonance, i.e., the neural basis of primitive sociality and intersubjectivity, that bear out Spinoza's account of social psychology as rooted in the mechanism he called attention to and identified as affective imitation.


Cancer is the second most important non-communicable disease worldwide and disproportionately impacts low- to middle-income countries. Diet in combination with other lifestyle habits seems to modify the risk for some cancers but little is known about South Americans. Food habits of Argentinean men pre- and post-diagnosis of prostate cancer (n = 326) were assessed along with other lifestyle factors. We studied whether any of the behaviors and risk factors for prostate cancer were found in men with other cancers (n = 394), compared with control subjects (n = 629). Before diagnosis, both cases reported a greater mean consumption of meats and fats and lower intakes of fruits, green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains than the controls (all p < 0.001). After diagnosis, cases significantly reduced the intake of meats and fats, and reported other dietary modifications with increased consumption of fish, fruits (including red fruits in prostate cancer), cruciferous vegetables, legumes, nuts, and black tea (all p < 0.001). Additional lifestyle aspects significantly predominant in cases included a reduced quality of sleep, emotional stress, low physical activity, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, living in rural areas, and being exposed to environmental contaminants. Argentinian men were predisposed to modify their unhealthy dietary habits and other lifestyle factors after cancer diagnosis.


In October 2013, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the province of Bohol, Philippines, inducing about 1m land subsidence to some of its small island communities. Now, the islands of Batasan, Pangapasan, Ubay and Bilangbilangan of the Municipality of Tubigon experience partial or complete flooding even during normal spring tides. Coming face-to-face with a hundred years' worth of sea level rise, the island communities show that they are far more resilient than we think.


Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O157 is a significant cause of foodborne illness in the United States. ERS estimated the economic cost of illness due to this pathogen— $405.2 million (in 2003 dollars)—using the most recent estimate (1997) of the annual number of STEC O157 cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and medical and cost data from the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. CDC is currently updating its estimate of annual cases. As new information becomes available, the ERS online Foodborne Illness Cost Calculator enables users to review and modify the assumptions underlying the STEC O157 cost estimate, such as the number of cases, and then recalculate the cost, adjusted for inflation for any year from 1997 to 2006. The potential utility of the calculator was demonstrated by assuming that the incidence of STEC O157 had declined and then estimating the cost for a smaller number of cases.


BACKGROUND The mitochondrion is a multi-functional organelle that is mainly responsible for energy supply in the mammalian cells. Over 100 human diseases are attributed to mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondrial therapy (mitotherapy) aims to transfer functional exogenous mitochondria into mitochondria-defective cells for recovery of the cell viability and consequently, prevention of the disease progress. OBJECTIVE The review summarizes the evidence on exogenous mitochondria that can directly enter mammalian cells for disease therapy following local and intravenous administration, and suggests that when healthy cells donate their mitochondria to damaged cells, the mitochondrial transfer between cells serve as a new mode of cell rescue. Then the transferred mitochondria play their roles in recipient cells, including energy production and maintenance of cell function. CONCLUSION Mitotherapy makes the of modulation of cell survival possible, and it would be a potential therapeutic strategy for mitochondrial diseases.


A variety of vehicle location and tracking technologies are under consideration for such IVHS applications as Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), and vehicle navigation and routing. The technologies being considered include dead reckoning, map matching, global positioning sateliltes (GPS), radiotransponders, direction finding, Loran, Cellular phone tracking, electronic benchmarks, etc, or various combinations of these techniques. This paper will describe the most promising vehicle location and digital map technologies. Their relative and absolute accuracies, and their suitability for various IVHS applications.


Pattern avoidance classes of permutations that cannot be expressed as unions of proper subclasses can be described as the set of subpermutations of a single bijection. In the case that this bijection is a permutation of the natural numbers a structure theorem is given. The structure theorem shows that the class is almost closed under direct sums or has a rational generating function.


The aim of this research is to explore the question of how farmers learn, in constructing knowledge both in and for practice. It seeks to identify how they gain new ideas, make changes, develop to a level of expertise and who and what contribute to this process. The rapidity of change in a high tech environment, combined with globalisation, the new economy and the knowledge age, means that farmers are living their lives in 'fast forward' mode. There is so much new technology, research and development available that the ability to identify information relevant to a particular farming practice and to process it to knowledge is an increasing challenge. Six central South Island (N.Z.) farmers were selected purposively as case studies. The range of case profiles provides for comparison and contrast of the relative importance of formal qualifications, differences between sheep/beef farmers and dairy farmers, levels of expertise, age and experiences. The self-rating of the farmers enables a comparison of lower and higher performers, identifying characteristics which enable insight into why some farmers consistently lead new practice and why others are reluctant followers. The research is qualitative in design and approached from a constructlVIst and interpretive paradigm. Socially and experientially based, it seeks to understand the experiences of the subjects through in-depth interviews and observations. This study identifies farmers as social learners although working independently, in relative geographical isolation and often, social isolation. It concludes that these farmers learn through participation in the practice of farming. This practice includes a constellation of cOmInunities of practice, which may be resource-rich or resource-poor, depending on the range and depth of the farmer's involvement. Through full and committed participation in these practice communities and associate constellations, the practitioner's identity evolves, encouraging new practices, ideas and innovation. This study emphasises that expertise is not a permanent state but requires evolving identity, knowledge and dispositional ability; for maintenance and growth within a culture of practice. Emergent grounded theory suggests that dispositional knowledge underpins construction and use of all knowledge; that construction and use of high-order propositional and procedural knowledge requires higher-order dispositional knowledge and that mastery is developed through evolving identity, dispositions, leadership and learning, socioculturally constructed through resource-rich constellations of communities of practice.


An isothermal energy balance is formulated for a system consisting of deformable dielectric bodies, electrodes, and the surrounding space. The formulation in this paper is obtained in the electrostatic limit but with the possibility of arbitrarily large deformations of polarizable material. The energy balance recognizes that charges may be driven onto or off of the electrodes, a process accompanied by external electrical work; mechanical loads may be applied to the bodies, thereby doing work through displacements; energy is stored in the material by such features as elasticity of the lattice, piezoelectricity, and dielectric and electrostatic interactions; and nonlinear reversible material behavior such as electrostriction may occur. Thus the external work is balanced by (I) internal energy consisting of stress doing work on strain increments, (2) the energy associated with permeating free space with an electric field, and (3) by the electric field doing work on increments of electric displacement or, equivalently, polarization. For a conservative system, the internal work is stored reversibly in the body and in the underlying and surrounding space. The resulting work statement for a conservative system is considered in the special cases of isotropic deformable dielectrics and piezoelectric materials. We identify the electrostatic stress, which provides measurable information quantifying the electrostatic effects within the system, and find that it is intimately tied to the constitutive formulation for the material and the associated stored energy and cannot be independent of them. The Maxwell stress, which is related to the force exerted by the electric field on charges in the system, cannot be automatically identified with the electrostatic stress and is difficult to measure. Two well-known and one novel formula for the electrostatic stress are identified and related to specific but differing constitutive assumptions for isotropic materials. The electrostatic stress is then obtained for a specific set of assumptions in regard to a piezoelectric material. An exploration of the behavior of an actuator composed of a deformable, electroactive polymer is presented based on the formulation of the paper.


Noveck (2001) argued that children even as old as 11 do not reliably endorse a scalar interpretation of weak scalar terms (some, might, or) (cf. Braine & Rumain, 1981; Smith, 1980). More recent studies suggest, however, that children's apparent failures may depend on the experimental demands (Papafragou & Musolino, 2003). Although previous studies involved children of different ages as well as different tasks, and are thus not directly comparable, nevertheless a common finding is that children do not seem to derive scalar implicatures to the same extent as adults do. The present article describes a series of experiments that were conducted with Italian speaking subjects (children and adults), focusing mainly on the scalar term some. Our goal was to carefully examine the specific conditions that allow the computation of implicatures by children. In so doing, we demonstrate that children as young as 7 (the youngest age of the children who participated in the Noveck study) are able to compute implicatures in experimental conditions that properly satisfy certain contextual prerequisites for deriving such implicatures. We also present further results that have general consequences for the research methodology employed in this area of study. Our research indicates that certain tasks mask children's understanding of scalar terms, not only including the task used by Noveck, but also tasks that employ certain explicit instructions, such as the training task used by Papafragou & Musolino (2003). Our findings indicate further that, although explicit training apparently improves children's ability to draw implicatures, children nevertheless fail to achieve adult levels of performance for most scalar terms even in such tasks, and that the effects of instruction do not last beyond the training session itself for most children. Another relevant finding of the present study is that some of the manipulations of the experimental context have an effect on all subjects, whereas others produce effects on just a subset of children. Individual differences of this kind may have been concealed in previous research because performance by individual subjects was not reported. Our general conclusions are that even young children (7-year olds) have the prerequisites for deriving scalar implicatures, although these abilities are revealed only when the conversational background is natural.


During the epithelial cycle of spermatogenesis, different sets of cellular events take place across the seminiferous epithelium in the testis. For instance, remodeling of the blood‐testis barrier (BTB) that facilitates the transport of preleptotene spermatocytes across the immunological barrier and the release of sperms at spermiation take place at the opposite ends of the epithelium simultaneously at stage VIII of the epithelial cycle. These cellular events are tightly coordinated via locally produced regulatory biomolecules. Studies have shown that collagen α3 (IV) chains, a major constituent component of the basement membrane, release the non‐collagenous (NC) 1 domain, a 28‐kDa peptide, designated NC1‐peptide, from the C‐terminal region, via the action of MMP‐9 (matrix metalloproteinase 9). NC1‐peptide was found to be capable of inducing BTB remodeling and spermatid release across the epithelium. As such, the NC1‐peptide is an endogenously produced biologically active peptide which coordinates these cellular events across the epithelium in stage VIII tubules. Herein, we used an animal model, wherein NC1‐peptide cloned into the pCI‐neo mammalian expression vector was overexpressed in the testis, to better understanding the molecular mechanism by which NC1‐peptide regulated spermatogenic function. It was shown that NC1‐peptide induced considerable downregulation on a number of cell polarity and planar cell polarity (PCP) proteins, and studies have shown these polarity and PCP proteins modulate spermatid polarity and adhesion via their effects on microtubule (MT) and F‐actin cytoskeletal organization across the epithelium. More important, NC1‐peptide exerted its effects by downregulating the expression of microtubule (MT) plus‐end tracking protein (+TIP) called EB1 (end‐binding protein 1). We cloned the full‐length EB1 cDNA for its overexpression in the testis, which was found to block the NC1‐peptide‐mediated disruptive effects on cytoskeletal organization in Sertoli cell epithelium and pertinent Sertoli cell functions. These findings thus illustrate that NC1‐peptide is working in concert with EB1 to support spermatogenesis.


In this paper, I examine the intertwined science, politics, and religion of a major figure of nineteenth-century French biology, the Parisian professor of histology Charles Robin (1821–1885). Historiography generally associates his name with France's rejection of the cell theory formulated by Schwann and then Virchow in the 1830s–1850s. One of the main factors put forward is the influence of Comtean positivism. Here, I propose to go beyond this historiography and discuss not only convergences but also divergences between Robin's and Comte's visions of the organism and society. Moreover, I analyze Robin's research agenda in light of the political ideas he defended as a republican in the context of the emergence of the Third Republic. At first sight, Robin's political activity (marked by his late tenure as senator) may initially appear disconnected from his scientific agenda. However, I argue that Robin's approaches to different areas of knowledge (biology, sociology, politics, and metaphysics) were mutually supportive and lent one another authority, especially through the parallel structure and shared vocabulary of their discourses. Ultimately, I demonstrate that Robin's biological materialism, combined with his outspoken anticlericalism, constitutes a political stance, and show how the concept of "solidarity" helped him to cast a new light on the relations between the parts and the whole, both in biology and social policy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS AND BIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE AND GERMANY edited by Lynn K. Nyhart and Florence Vienne.


In the recognition that investment management is an on-going process, the performance of actively-managed portfolios need to be monitored and evaluated to ensure that funds under management are efficiently invested in order to satisfy the mandate specified in the policy statement. This paper discusses the primary performance evaluation techniques used to measure a portfolio's basic risk and return characteristics, risk-adjusted performance, performance attribution and market timing ability. It is concluded that the Treynor measure is more suitable for evaluating portfolios that are constituents of a broader portfolio, while the information ratio is useful for evaluating hedge funds with an absolute return objective. Although the Sharpe ratio and M-squared arrive at the same evaluation result, M-squared provides a direct comparison between the portfolio and the benchmark. With regard to the analysis of portfolio performance attribution, it is found that the return-based multifactor model of Sharpe (1992) is not suitable for analyzing the performance of hedge funds that engage in short-selling, leverage and derivatives. Additional factors generated by factor analysis could be used as factors in the extended model of Sharpe (1992) to analyze hedge fund return attributions. Finally, the Treynor and Mazuy (1966) model and the Henriksson and Merton (1981) model essentially distinguish the market timing ability from the security selection ability of the portfolio manager.


A review and expansion of the fundamental processes of the vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth mechanism for nanowires is presented. Although the focus is on nanowires, most of the concepts may be applicable to whiskers, nanotubes, and other unidirectional growth. Important concepts in the VLS mechanism such as preferred deposition, supersaturation, and nucleation are examined. Nanowire growth is feasible using a wide range of apparatuses, material systems, and growth conditions. For nanowire growth the unidirectional growth rate must be much higher than growth rates of other surfaces and interfaces. It is concluded that a general, system independent mechanism should describe why nanowires grow faster than the surrounding surfaces. This mechanism is based on preferential nucleation at the interface between a mediating material called the collector and a crystalline solid. The growth conditions used mean the probability of nucleation is low on most of the surfaces and interfaces. Nucleation at the collector‐crystal interface is however different and of special significance is the edge of the collector‐crystal interface where all three phases meet. Differences in nucleation due to different crystallographic interfaces can occur even in two phase systems. We briefly describe how these differences in nucleation may account for nanowire growth without a collector. Identifying the mechanism of nanowire growth by naming the three phases involved began with the naming of the VLS mechanism. Unfortunately this trend does not emphasize the important concepts of the mechanism and is only relevant to one three phase system. We therefore suggest the generally applicable term preferential interface nucleation as a replacement for these different names focusing on a unifying mechanism in nanowire growth.


Across the country, places of worship are declaring themselves sanctuaries and providing shelter to undocumented individuals. The last time this happened on a large scale, the 1980s, the federal government undertook a campaign of surveillance and infiltration, ultimately arresting and convicting a number of sanctuary activists. Yet under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) jurisprudence of the Roberts Court, religious exercise now enjoys more protection than at any point in recent history. This piece asks whether RFRA could protect sanctuary churches and immigrant congregations—and what this can teach us about the current political and legal landscape around religious accommodation claims.

Part I describes the history of the sanctuary movement and its current form today. Part II tracks the evolution and current state of religious exercise protections under RFRA. Part III analyzes two types of sanctuary issues under current RFRA doctrine: (1) whether sanctuary churches should receive an exception from federal laws prohibiting various forms of assistance to undocumented individuals; and (2) whether RFRA would place limits on ICE's ability to raid or surveil places of worship. I conclude that RFRA would in many cases protect sanctuary activists from prosecution, as well as place limits on ICE's ability to conduct enforcement actions at places of worship.

Part IV examines sanctuary claims within the broader context of politically-fraught debates over religious accommodation. I explore how a consensus around protecting minority faiths and subordinate groups from de facto unequal treatment relative to powerful mainstream faiths animated RFRA's effects-based approach and near-unanimous passage in 1993, but also how recent attempts by mainstream faith groups to further extend religious accommodation protections (at times at the expense of minorities, religious and otherwise) have eroded that consensus. Accommodation claims from the left, like sanctuary, have the potential to cut across existing political battle lines to produce a more stable equilibrium between religious freedom and other competing rights. This piece offers several concrete doctrinal suggestions for what such an equilibrium would look like; if courts were to analyze various open questions in RFRA doctrine with an eye to the particular harms that arise from the unequal treatment of disadvantaged groups, it would better balance the competing interests at stake, restoring an original consensus and avoiding the divisiveness produced by recent claims brought by politically-influential, mainstream faith groups.


In response to nitrogen starvation, diploid cells of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae differentiate into a filamentous, pseudohyphal growth form. This dimorphic transition is regulated by the Gα protein GPA2, by RAS2, and by elements of the pheromone‐responsive MAP kinase cascade, yet the mechanisms by which nitrogen starvation is sensed remain unclear. We have found that MEP2, a high affinity ammonium permease, is required for pseudohyphal differentiation in response to ammonium limitation. In contrast, MEP1 and MEP3, which are lower affinity ammonium permeases, are not required for filamentous growth. Δmep2 mutant strains had no defects in growth rates or ammonium uptake, even at limiting ammonium concentrations. The pseudohyphal defect of Δmep2/Δmep2 strains was suppressed by dominant active GPA2 or RAS2 mutations and by addition of exogenous cAMP, but was not suppressed by activated alleles of the MAP kinase pathway. Analysis of MEP1/MEP2 hybrid proteins identified a small intracellular loop of MEP2 involved in the pseudohyphal regulatory function. In addition, mutations in GLN3, URE2 and NPR1, which abrogate MEP2 expression or stability, also conferred pseudohyphal growth defects. We propose that MEP2 is an ammonium sensor, generating a signal to regulate filamentous growth in response to ammonium starvation.


Elastomeric joints such as mounts and suspension bushings undergo broadband excitation and are often characterized through a cross-point dynamic stiffness measurement; yet, at frequencies above 100 Hz for many elastomeric components, the crossand driving-point dynamic stiffness results significantly deviate. An illustrative example is developed where two different sized mounts, constructed of the same material and are shaped to achieve the same static stiffness behavior, exhibit drastically different dynamic behavior. Physical insight is provided through the development of a reduced order single-degree-of-freedom model where an internal resonance is explained. Next, a method to extract the parameters for the reduced order model from a detailed finite element bushing model is provided. Further, a new benchmark experiment is used to validate the simulated behavior and provide insight into certain frequency dependent behavior where internal elastic modes of elastomeric component are present. Finally, the effect of the internal resonance is examined within the context of a hybrid vibro-acoustic vehicle system model. It is demonstrated that the internal mount resonance exhibits a significant influence on the sound pressure sensitivity that is dependent upon the size of the component. CITATION: Noll, S., Joodi, B., Dreyer, J., and Singh, R., "Volumetric and Dynamic Performance Considerations of Elastomeric Components," SAE Int. J. Mater. Manf. 8(3):2015, doi:10.4271/2015-01-2227. 2015-01-2227 Published 06/15/2015 Copyright © 2015 SAE International doi:10.4271/2015-01-2227 saematman.saejournals.org 953 Downloaded from SAE International by Rajendra Singh, Wednesday, June 17, 2015


Objective: A 100 million children in China are affected by internal migration, a result of the growing demand for human labor due to economic growth. Whether moving to urban cities with their parents or being left behind in rural areas, these children are vulnerable to victimization. The meta-analysis presented in this study is the first to synthesize the rates of victimization among children affected by internal migration. Method: Studies providing data published before May 2016 on the prevalence of child victimization among 105,415 Chinese subjects aged 0–17 years were identified through eight English and Chinese databases. Two reviewers independently extracted data to generate summary effect sizes using a random effects meta-analytic model. A priori subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate heterogeneity and bias in these studies. Results: Our meta-analysis of 31 studies showed that children affected by internal migration, both migrant children and left-behind children, are at a higher risk of victimization in comparison to their unaffected counterparts (odds ratio [OR] = 1.492, p < .01), especially in their vulnerability to unintentional injuries (OR = 1.683, p < .01) and neglect (OR = 1.398, p < .01). These children are at a higher risk of being unintentionally injured from the ages of 6 to 11 years (OR = 1.644, p < .01). The highest victimization rate observed in this study was found in the central districts of China (OR = 1.599, p < .01). Conclusion: This study reveals the high prevalence of victimization among both migrant children and left-behind children. The increasing number of children affected by internal migration deserves continuous academic and policy attention.


Following the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, economic growth has eluded many countries. Africa, on the other hand, is projected to host seven of the ten fastest growing economies in the period from 2011-2012. It has long been understood that high economic growth is a prerequisite for job creation, causing analysts to worry about the projected low global growth scenario and its implications for economies that have either high or stubborn levels of unemployment. However, long run comparisons across Africa have shown differential performance, with some countries having better outcomes in terms of job creating economic growth. Furthermore, many African countries were long trapped in low growth scenarios yet managed to create jobs. Such patterns have led many critics to question why high economic growth rates have not led to job creation in some countries while they have in others. Critics also question whether the high economic growth rates projected for Africa will lead to job creation in the coming years. In this paper we investigate the performance of African economies with respect to job creation and its relation to economic growth. We submit that the main drivers, among others, appear to be the creative use of the agricultural sector, the success in growing market size, and the level of innovation in the country. The insights provide some lessons for countries seeking to speed up job creation under low growth scenarios as well as those seeking to ensure that high economic growth scenarios maximize the potential for job creation.


In spite of the pressing need to preserve sewer networks, sewer pipelines and manholes are prone to deterioration and hence to collapse. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2017), the sewer network's grade of the United States (US) is grade "D+", making it one of the worst infrastructure assets in the US. In addition, the Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC) (2016) states that more than half of their linear wastewater assets' physical condition were ranked between very poor to good states, with a total replacement value of $47-billion. Despite the enormous studies conducted in this field, many of the efforts lack a comprehensive assessment of sewer components, leading to misjudged rehabilitation decision plans and continued asset deterioration.
Improved cost-effective models that optimize sewer rehabilitation plans, given the scarcity of resources, are clearly needed. Accordingly, the paramount objective of this research is to design a decision-support system that optimizes the maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement (MRR) decisions of sewer pipelines and manholes. The first phase of the research is to identify several defects that impact the condition of sewer components and to model the erosion void defect utilizing fuzzy expert system. The model provided accuracy, true positive rate and precision values of 83%, 76%, and 80%, respectfully. The identified defects were then grouped into several robust models to study their cause and effect relationship through the application of the Decision-Making Trial Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL). The overall condition of the sewer pipeline is then found by integrating the DEMATEL method with the Quality Function Deployment (QFD), while the manhole condition is calculated using the aforementioned two techniques along with the Analytic Network Process (ANP). After validating the two models with the Royal Gardens neighbourhood's sewer network in Edmonton, the average validity percentage (AVP) for the pipeline and manhole assessment models were 58.68% and 76.24%, respectively. Subsequently, Weibull distribution analysis is adopted to predict the future calculated conditions of sewer manholes and pipelines by modelling the deterioration of each.
The research establishes an approach to aggregate the condition indexes of all pipelines and manholes in the network through a criticality model to supply the overall network performance index. Accordingly, the economic factors are deemed the most important ones compared to environmental and public factors. An informative optimized model that integrates the outputs of the previously developed models is designed through the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach to maximize the sewer network performance and minimize the total costs. Different trade-off solutions are then established by varying the weights of the objective functions and considering the defined constraints. The best network performance improvement attained is 1.47 with a total cost of $1.39- million.
The comprehensive sewer network assessment performed in this research will improve current practices in sewer networks management, thereby reducing sewer network failures and avoiding catastrophic sinkholes.


We analyze the parallelism in direct iterative, total least squares (TLS) methods for the forwardbackward linear prediction (FBLP) of multidimensional signals. It turns out that the most complex operation in all direct iterative methods is the matrix-matrix multiplication Y=C T CX , where C T C is a Gramian (Gram matrix) of matrix C and X is the iteration matrix which approximates the subset of right singular vectors. In our case, the matrix C is Toeplitz-block and this enables the derivation of a very efficient way of how to compute Y . The standard algorithm for the computation of Y is based on the associative law (i.e., Y=C T (CX) and on the embedding of each Toeplitz block C T C into circulant. We present another algorithm based, first, on the computation of the generator of Toeplitz-like Gramian C T C from its displacement structure, and, second, on the use of generalized Gohberg-Semencul formula for the matrix multiplication Y=C T CX . The time complexity of the computational phase of the standard algorithm is O(m log m) while that of the new one is O(n log n) , so that a considerable gain in speed can be expected whenever m >> n , i.e., when the Toeplitz blocks are tall and thin . Parallel versions of both algorithms were implemented on an IBM Power4 Regatta parallel computer using the Message Passing Interface library. We discuss pro.ling results which con.rm an expected gain in speed for the computational phase of new algorithm.


The polarization of light scattered into directions out of the plane of incidence by polystyrene latex spheres upon a silicon substrate was measured for p -polarized incident light. The experimental data show good agreement with theoretical predictions for three sizes of spheres. These results demonstrate that the polarization of light scattered by particles can be used to determine the size of particulate contaminants on silicon wafers. Theoretical models, based on successive degrees of approximation, indicate that the mean distance of a particle from the surface is the primary determinant of the scattered light polarization for small out-of-plane scattering angles.


The contributions in this book identify and take up an important problem in international economics - the split in theoretical and empirical work in international finance and in internatiopal trade. This book is unique in attempting to link these two aspects of the international economy together.The eight chapters explore the way exchange rates and international capital movements interact with industrial structure, comparative advantage, and sectoral wage patterns, focusing on results that are valuable to both real and financial analysis in open economies. The principal sources of real-financial linkage discussed throughout the book are structural and intertemporal. In an introductory section, the editors provide an overview of real-financial linkages among open economies and Alan Stockman discusses interactions between goods markets and asset markets. The section on structural sources of real-financial linkages includes chapters by Paul Krugman on pricing to market when the exchange rate changes, Richard Marston on real exchange rates and sectoral productivity growth in the United States and Japan, and Irving Kravis and Robert Lipsey on the assessment of national price levels. A final section on intertemporal sources of real-financial linkages presents an empirical investigation by Michael Hutchison and Charles Pigott into real and financial linkages in the macroeconomic response to budget deficits, and work by Koichi Hamada and Akiyoshi Horiuchi on monetary, financial, and real effects of Yen internationalization. Paul De Grauwe and Bernard de Bellefroid consider long-run exchange rate variability and international trade. Sven W. Arndt is Professor of Economics at the University ofCalifornia at Santa Cruz and President of the Commons Institute for International Economic Studies. J. David Richardson is Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.


We generated an inventory of 27 interpersonal behaviors and examined the extent to which participants judged each behavior as cheating on a long-term partner. We predicted variation in these judgments based on participant sex and attachment insecurity. Ratings for items ranged considerably; participants rated sexual behaviors as most indicative of cheating, then erotic behaviors, followed by behaviors consistent with a romantic relationship, and then behaviors related to financial support. Women rated ten items higher than did men, and men's ratings were higher on a minor financial support item. Higher attachment anxiety was associated with higher ratings for 18 of 27 behaviors; higher attachment avoidance was associated with lower scores on five items and higher scores on one item. Principle Axis Factoring identified three dimensions; sexual interaction, behaviors indicating close relationships, and casual social interaction. We discuss these results using the framework of attachment theory and sex-specific mating strategies.


A hierarchical computational approach (all-atom residue to all-residue peptide) is introduced to study self-organizing structures of peptides as a function of temperature. A simulated residue-residue interaction involving all-atom description, analogous to knowledge-based analysis (with different input), is used as an input to a phenomenological coarse-grained interaction for large scales computer simulations. A set of short peptides P1 (1H 2S 3S 4Y 5W 6Y 7A 8F 9N 10N 11K 12T) is considered as an example to illustrate the utility. We find that peptides assemble rather fast into globular aggregates at low temperatures and disperse as random-coil at high temperatures. The specificity of the mass distribution of the self-assembly depends on the temperature and spatial lengths which are identified from the scaling of the structure factor. Analysis of energy and mobility profiles, gyration radius of peptide, and radial distribution function of the assembly provide insight into the multi-scale (intra- and inter-chain) characteristics. Thermal response of the global assembly with the simulated residue-residue interaction is consistent with that of the knowledge-based analysis despite expected quantitative differences.


Residual stresses are generated as a result of non-uniform temperature distribution during welding and particularly cooling process during fabrication of the welded parts. Residual stresses have a major effect on the overall performance of a component in service. In this instant, the residual stress in the form of angular distortion is primarily caused by shrinkage on longitudinal and transversal direction. Several single v-butt joints on structural steel plates of SS400 are investigated by using different plate thickness and welding positions (1G and 3G). GMAW method was used in the welding process. Measurement of residual stress was carried out on a plate with the thickness of 16 mm on longitudinal, transversal and normal direction by using neutron diffraction method. Results showed that the angular distortion of the welded plates increase with the increase of plate thickness. Welding by vertical position (3G position) resulted in a bigger angular distortion compared to flat position (1G position). The distribution of residual stress varied between tension and compression residual stress along welded area with the range of -10 mm to 10 mm. Measurement of residual stress on the longitudinal direction has the greatest value among two other directions.


Proteins play an important role in the function of biological systems. Developing a thorough understanding of the dynamics, structure and function is a goal of many biological spectroscopists. One commonly used tool for probing different features and properties of proteins and polypeptides is infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The spectra obtained however lacks resolution due to broad, featureless peaks that are hard to interpret. Overlapping of the bands is also an issue, especially from the amide I region; an important region that is sensitive to secondary structure elements of proteins. Isotope labelling of residues of interest is a solution to disentangle the band profiles, however the technique lacks any meaningful insight regarding coupling between different local sites. For the past few decades, 2D IR (an analogue of its NMR counterpart) has been used in various experiments to improve the quality of 1D IR by spreading the signal to a second frequency domain, thus revealing coupling interactions. The technique has helped reveal different relationships between the secondary structural elements of proteins or between protein-ligand complexes. The main challenge so far has been the computational requirement needed to compute the 2D IR signals of large proteins. This is due to the nonlinear response function scaling with the fourth power of the number of residues involved in the calculations. Moreover, convolution of the bands is still an issue as the number of residues grows, albeit not so much compared with 1D IR. In this thesis, we utilize the exciton approach and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to compute the 1D and 2D IR signals of small peptides, globular proteins and [Leu]-Enkephalin in the presence of three opioid receptors of interest. The work presented in this thesis complements previous experiments on globular proteins and the behaviour of [Leu]-enkephalin and aims to provide more insight into the behaviour of such systems under the conditions outlined.


The paper by Swedler et al 1 provides us with new insights into the relationship between workplace factors, safety performance (in this case, the probability of employees wearing slip-resistant shoes), and risk of slip injuries over a 12-week follow-up period. While one could get caught up with potential sample selection issues (eg, the 38% response rate) or measurement issue (if wearing slip-resistant shoes, which required an out-of-pocket purchase by the employee, accurately represents safety performance), the positive aspects of this paper are more worthy of comment.

In particular, the use of structural equation modelling (SEM) allows insights into the relationship between the main independent variables and the outcome, which would likely have been missed using a more traditional regression approach.2 In addition to practical issues of model identification, the SEM process requires the one to distinguish between variables that confound the relationship between independent variable(s) and the outcome, and variables that mediate the relationship, with these choices based on a good theoretical …


The most common ballistic materials available in the urban setting were studied for their MR effects on deflection force, rotation, heating, and imaging artifacts at 1.5 T to determine the potential efficacy and safety for imaging patients with ballistic injuries. The 28 missiles tested covered the range of bullet types and materials suggested by the Cleveland Police Department. The deflection force was measured by the New method. Rotation was evaluated 30 min after bullets had been placed in a 10% (weight per weight) ballistic gelatin designed to simulate brain tissue, with the long axis of the bullet placed parallel and perpendicular to the Z axis of the magnet. Heating was measured with alcohol thermometers by imaging for 1 hr alternatively with gradient-echo and spin-echo sequences (RF absorption = 0.033 and 0.326 w/kg respectively). Image artifacts on routine sequences were evaluated. All the steel-containing bullets except for the Winchester armor-piercing 38 caliber exhibited deflection. A nonsteel 7.38-mm Mauser also deflected. Deflection range was 514 to 15,504 dynes. Rotation occurred when the bullets were not parallel to the Z axis. Temperature changes were not significant. Deflecting projectiles resulted in obliteration of the image. The artifacts from other projectiles were small but varied by content. The artifact of the Winchester armor-piercing 38-caliber bullet was similar to those without steel. Bullets that contain steel or ferromagnetic contaminates such as nickel can be rotated within the MR unit.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This paper presents some preliminary findings from a funded research project entitled 'Gender and linguistic participation in the devolved parliaments of the UK' by focusing on a sub-set of observations, interviews and transcripts of debates from the Northern Ireland Assembly. An analysis of this data allows an exploration of politicians' attitudes towards the Minister for Education and an appraisal of her linguistic style in the debating chamber.

The research project aims to further an understanding of the factors affecting the political representation of women in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales by examining the linguistic cultural norms and practices in debates, and to establish the extent to which these are gendered. It has been claimed that the devolved parliaments of the UK, now ten years old, offer women greater opportunities to participate than older, more traditional parliaments. Previous sociolinguistic research on House of Commons debates has found that although women participate equally with men in terms of the formal or 'legal' debate rules, they do not participate equally in terms of illegal debate discourse (by contributing 'out of turn', for example) (Shaw 2000, 2006). The reasons for this are likely to be complex, and related in part to the 'visibility' of women in a traditionally male-dominated forum (Puwar 2004) and the nature of traditional parliaments as a 'linguistic habitus' (Bourdieu 1991) in which 'silence or hyper-controlled language' is imposed on some people, while others are allowed the 'liberties of a language that is securely established' (1991: 82). Traditional parliaments can therefore be viewed as a 'gendered space' (Ochs 1992) in which the setting and the communicative tasks together become an index of a gendered style.

The project aims to describe the 'new' devolved assemblies in relation to these different aspects of participation using a detailed ethnographic and linguistic analysis. Gender is viewed as a variable and contested concept, being both a flexible category in which speakers' gender identities are constructed in their 'performance' in interaction (Bulter 1990), and a category which is partly fixed by the institutional arrangements based on stereotypical notions of male and female linguistic behaviour. Drawing on 'anti-essentialist' theoretical frameworks I view language as a social practice in which gender is a dynamic category that is also a site of struggle and (re)positioning. It also assumes that gender identities are constructed through language use; that other social relations and categories (apart from gender) are significant; and that gender is culturally constituted and context-dependent (Litosseliti 2006).
An original combination of research methods is used in order to assess linguistic participation within the assemblies. Firstly, the ethnographic description of each assembly is based upon the tradition of the 'Ethnography of Speaking' Hymes (1972). This method of 'Linguistic Ethnography' holds that the contexts for communication should be investigated rather than assumed and that the detailed analysis of linguistic data is essential to understanding its significance (Rampton 2007: 585). This informal knowledge about 'what can be said when, where, by whom, to whom, in what manner and in what particular social circumstances' (Saville-Troike 1982: 8) has been overlooked in political accounts of institutions because mainstream comparative research in this area tends to focus on formal rules (Helmke and Levitsky 2004). This ethnographic approach, using the notion of the Community of Practice (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet's 1992) rather than that of a 'speech community', is combined with Conversation Analysis (CA). CA aims to 'uncover the tacit reasoning procedures and sociolinguistic competencies underlying the production and interpretation of talk in organised sequences of interaction' (Hutchby and Woofit 1998:14). In particular this research uses the model of turn-taking proposed by Sacks et al (1974) in order to identify the model of interaction in each assembly. Gaining the floor has been viewed by analysts as an 'economy' in which, depending on the context, 'turns are valued, sought or avoided' (Sacks et al.1974:201). This notion of a 'competitive economy' seems particularly apt for the highly regulated debate floor where turns are sought for professional and political gain. This method has been successfully used to identify a model of turn-taking in relation to the participation of MPs in debates in the House of Commons (Shaw 2000) and provides a useful framework for comparisons across the assemblies.

The paper will focus on a case study of a set of ethnographic observations made between November 2009 and June 2010 in the Northern Ireland Assembly. This allows a detailed case study of the ways in which one particular woman politician (the Minister for Education) is perceived by interviewees to be the most unpopular speaker in the debating chamber. I will use interview data from politicians, and from the Minister herself to identify the dimensions this unpopularity. While it is clear that the Minister is unpopular with some politicians because of her policies on education and because of party and sectarian allegiances, others believe that it is her confrontational style in debates and the fact that she is a woman that account for this. In criticising the Minister's behaviour in debates interviewees describe confrontational non-verbal gestures such as 'wagging her finger' in the debating chamber and the Minister herself describes her stance as 'planting both feet firmly on the floor' when speaking in debates. In an analysis of videos of the Minister speaking in debates I will attempt to establish the extent to which the Minister's performative 'style' in debates is of particular significance in constructing her 'unpopular' identity. In doing so I will also question the theoretical and methodological difficulties in ascribing the Minister's perceived unpopularity to individual aspects of her identity, such as gender.


This study investigates the impact of education programmes on the rehabilitation of prisoners. For the purpose of this study, rehabilitation of a prisoner is a stage reached when a person, after admission into prison, undergoes specifically planned programmes that will help him or her to fit well into society (social adjustment), be accepted by family and community and not to re-enter prison after release. This study acknowledges the fact that education on its own is not necessarily rehabilitative, but education helps to equip people with knowledge and skills that they may use in the outside world so that they may not resort to criminal practices as a result of unemployment. Methods of rehabilitation in different countries have been studied with the aim of comparing them with those in the South African context. Theories concerning the causes and treatment of crime and some ways of rehabilitating prisoners have also been examined. Questionnaires with personal, administrative and institutions items were given to programme facilitators, participants in programmes, nonparticipants in programmes and to ex-prisoners. Some questionnaires were given to family members of prisoners. Also, interviews with prison warders were conducted. This study has shown that educational programmes have a positive impact on the rehabilitation of prisoners. Sentenced prisoners and ex-prisoners that participated in educational programmes confirmed this.


What do Catharine MacKinnon, the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, and Lani Guinier have in common? All have, in recent years, become flashpoints for different approaches to legal reform. In the last quarter century, the study and practice of law have been profoundly influenced by a number of powerful new movements; academics and activists alike are rethinking the interaction between law and society, focusing more on the tangible effects of law on human lives than on its procedural elements. In this wide-ranging and comprehensive volume, Gary Minda surveys the current state of legal scholarship and activism, providing an indispensable guide to the evolution of law in America.


A general class of parameter estimation methods for stochastic dynamical systems is studied. The class contains the least squares method, output-error methods, the maximum likelihood method and several other techniques. It is shown that the class of estimates so obtained are asymptotically normal and expressions for the resulting asymptotic covariance matrices are given. The regularity conditions that are imposed to obtain these results are fairly weak. It is, for example, not assumed that the true system can be described within the chosen model set, and, as a consequence, the results in this paper form a part of the so-called approximate modeling approach to system identification. It is also noteworthy that arbitrary feedback from observed system outputs to observed system inputs is allowed and that stationarity is not required.


Customer care calls serve as a direct channel for a service provider to learn feedbacks from their customers. They reveal details about the nature and impact of major events and problems observed by customers. By analyzing the customer care calls, a service provider can detect important events to speed up problem resolution. However, automating event detection based on customer care calls poses several significant challenges. First, the relationship between customers' calls and network events is blurred because customers respond to an event in different ways. Second, customer care calls can be labeled inconsistently across agents and across call centers, and a given event naturally give rise to calls spanning a number of categories. Third, many important events cannot be detected by looking at calls in one category. How to aggregate calls from different categories for event detection is important but challenging. Lastly, customer care call records have high dimensions (e.g., thousands of categories in our dataset). In this paper, we propose a systematic method for detecting events in a major cellular network using customer care call data. It consists of three main components: (i) using a regression approach that exploits temporal stability and low-rank properties to automatically learn the relationship between customer calls and major events, (ii) reducing the number of unknowns by clustering call categories and using L1 norm minimization to identify important categories, and (iii) employing multiple classifiers to enhance the robustness against noise and different response time. For the detected events, we leverage Twitter social media to summarize them and to locate the impacted regions. We show the effectiveness of our approach using data from a large cellular service provider in the US.


Background Medial branch blocks (MBBs) and intra-articular (IA) facet joint injections are both used to diagnose facet joint pain and are presumed to be equivalent. No study has sought to determine which has a better prognostic value before radiofrequency (RF) denervation. Methods A case-control study was performed at 4 institutions in which RF denervation outcomes in patients who obtained 50% or more pain relief from either MBB (n = 212) or IA injections (n = 212) were compared. "Control" patients (MBB) were matched to "cases" by treating physician, last name, and date of treatments. During data mining, 87 patients were identified who underwent RF ablation after receiving both IA injections and MBB and were used for secondary analyses. Results A total of 70.3% of MBB patients experienced 50% or more pain relief at the 3-month follow-up versus 60.8% in those who underwent IA injections (P = 0.041). In multivariable analysis, undergoing MBB was associated with RF treatment success (odds ratio [OR], 1.57; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.0–2.39; P = 0.036), whereas opioid use (OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.34–0.79; P = 0.002) and previous back surgery (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.38–0.95; P = 0.028) were associated with treatment failure. No significant differences were noted between MBB alone and combination treatment or single versus multiple blocks. In the secondary multivariable analysis including the combination IA + MBB group, MBB alone was again independently associated with an RF ablation treatment success (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.12–2.67; P = 0.014). Conclusions When used as a prognostic tool before lumbar facet radiofrequency, MBB may be associated with a higher success rate than IA injections. Our results should be confirmed by large, prospective, randomized studies.


There exists a great need for automatic precipitation gauges for effective road maintenance during the winter period. These gauges should be inexpensive, not require mains supply, need little attendance, give information about presence of precipitation and determine type (snow, rain or sleet) while there is no need for high accuracy of the precipitation intensity. Light attenuation precipitation sensors (optical gauges) fulfil several of these requirements and are used in the Swedish National Road Administration Road Weather System. The optical gauges measure the time it takes for particles of snow etc . to pass (attenuate) a light beam and relate this time to precipitation type and intensity. The rain precipitation mass is approximately proportional to the accumulated attenuation time. To investigate whether or not optical gauges could also be used for solid precipitation, the precipitation mass for snow, rain and sleet was measured with a reference gauge and compared to the attenuation time. The passage time of individual hydrometeorologic particles (snow, rain and sleet) was compared with precipitation type and wind speed. Air temperature could be used as a rough guide to distinguish three precipitation categories for the following temperatures: rain (>+2 °C), sleet (0 to +2 °C) and snow (≤ 0 °C) At low wind speeds (< 3 m/s) the passage time of individual particles could be used to distinguish between rain and snow. The accumulated attenuation time for the same precipitation mass was approximately 25 and 5 times greater for snow and sleet respectively compared to rain. With the attenuation time for the snow-fall corrected for wind influence the quotient between the attenuation time for snow and rain is decreased from approximately 25 to approximately 12 times.


The production of locally isolated N2-fixing bacteria was undertaken in
Fermentation Technology Unit, Enzyme and Microbial Technology Laboratory, Institute
of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Cellular studies and biochemical tests
conducted on Bacillus sp UPMB10 suggests that the bacterium is Bacillus sphaericus.
Optimization of medium for cultivation of the N2-fixing Bacillus was achieved using 1.4
g/L of glycerol and 2.0 g/L of yeast extract. Addition of biotin and thiamine did not
improve growth of the bacteria. Optimum culture condition for growth of UPMB10 in the
2L: stirred tank fermenter was obtained at initial pH range between pH 6.0-8.0, 30°C, at
agitation speed of 600 rpm and airflow rate of 0.5 VVM. Viable cell counts obtained under
these conditions were approximately 3.5 X 109 cfu/mL. A model employing the logistic equation was proposed to describe growth of this
newly isolated Bacillus. The values of the general kinetic parameters were calculated
from the analysis of experimental data obtained from a number of culture using batch
fermentation. The specific growth rates of 0.40 h-1 and 0.45 h-1 were employed for
modeling of bacteria growth in a shake flask and in 2 L fermenter, respectively. The
proposed model consisting of general kinetic parameters and the specific growth rate was
adequate to describe the fermentation data with sufficient accuracy for prediction of
biomass production and substrate consumption.
Due to substrate inhibition, production of the bacteria was further enhanced using
an exponential fed-batch fermentation technique. With the specific growth rate
maintained at 0.4 h-l, viable cells obtained using fed-batch fermentation was four times
higher than batch cultivation of the bacteria. Cell density and productivity was improved
by three fold compared to batch cultivation. In all experiments acetylene reduction assay
(ARA) levels remained unchanged and was maintained at 20 nmol C2H2/hr/mL.


This article posits that it would be desirable for issuers in public primary securities markets to be able to issue securities to investors worldwide using one set of optimal distribution procedures and disclosure documents, and one set of liability standards and enforcement remedies. It points out that this state of affairs is currently not possible because the United States conditions public issuance in its territory?and to some significant extent to U.S. investors outside its territory?on compliance with its unique set of distribution procedures, disclosure requirements, and enforcement rules. Harmonization of world rules is not the answer to this problem. There is no reason to assume that the world would choose an optimal level of disclosure, particularly because the United States will push for world rules that are closely equivalent to its own. Moreover, there is substantial doubt as to whether worldwide agreement can be reached on the issue of disclosure, let alone distribution and enforcement rules. Nor is mutual recognition the answer. The approach creates basic inequities for domestic issuers and has not worked well in the European Union, which has the advantage of supranational institutions, despite much fanfare about the single passport. Broader versions of mutual recognition, such as portable reciprocity, founder on problems of enforcement. The article proposes instead the establishment of an offshore free zone. This would require that the United States, like other countries, permit its investors to participate in the offshore market for primary distributions of foreign issuers free of restrictions other than minimum disclosure requirements. One major benefit of this approach is that it would permit the use of common distribution procedures.


"If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country." So E. M. Forster famously observed in his Two Cheers for Democracy . Forster's epigrammatic manifesto, where the idea of the "friend" stands as a metaphor for dissident cross-cultural collaboration, holds the key, Leela Gandhi argues in Affective Communities , to the hitherto neglected history of western anti-imperialism. Focusing on individuals and groups who renounced the privileges of imperialism to elect affinity with victims of their own expansionist cultures, she uncovers the utopian-socialist critiques of empire that emerged in Europe, specifically in Britain, at the end of the nineteenth century. Gandhi reveals for the first time how those associated with marginalized lifestyles, subcultures, and traditions—including homosexuality, vegetarianism, animal rights, spiritualism, and aestheticism—united against imperialism and forged strong bonds with colonized subjects and cultures.

Gandhi weaves together the stories of a number of South Asian and European friendships that flourished between 1878 and 1914, tracing the complex historical networks connecting figures like the English socialist and homosexual reformer Edward Carpenter and the young Indian barrister M. K. Gandhi, or the Jewish French mystic Mirra Alfassa and the Cambridge-educated Indian yogi and extremist Sri Aurobindo. In a global milieu where the battle lines of empire are reemerging in newer and more pernicious configurations, Affective Communities challenges homogeneous portrayals of "the West" and its role in relation to anticolonial struggles. Drawing on Derrida's theory of friendship, Gandhi puts forth a powerful new model of the political: one that finds in friendship a crucial resource for anti-imperialism and transnational collaboration.


The 2001 US Major League Base ball (MLB) season heralded greater prominence for a relatively new presence in the American national pastime--that of Asian baseball players. Ichiro Suzuki--better known as "Ichiro"--after dominating Japanese pitchers for seven years, joined the Seattle Mariners as the first Asian-born position player to sign a major-league contract. He became the American League (AL) batting champion and top vote-getter in the All-Star Game, earned both a Silver Slugger Award and a Gold Glove Award, and was elected both AL Rookie of the Year and AL Most Valuable Player (MVP). Ichiro's achievements, which made him a household name in the United States, were not last season's sole accomplishments by Asian defectors to the major leagues. Hideo Nomo, a previous recipient of Japan's equivalent of the Cy Young Award for pitching success in a season, threw his second career no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox this past April. South Korean-born Byung-Hyun Kim led the World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks in saves, playing an integral role in their yearlong success before faltering in two World Series games. Japanese Kazuhiro Sasaki served as the Mariners' closer in the most successful season of the franchise's history. Other Asian exports have become significant players in North America, including Japanese Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Masato Yoshii, and Hideki Irabu, as well as South Koreans Chan-Ho Park and Sun-Woo Kim. This influx of talent from Asian nations, though likely to accelerate with time, does not promise to resemble the spate of Latin American ballplayers which has changed the face of American baseball over the past 30 years. Acceleration will result from the greater attention paid to professional Asian baseball leagues, especially with the appreciable success of past imports. The Japanese and Korean baseball leagues, however, can be expected to limit the mining of their leagues by the United States, creating roadblocks to MLB's signing of players from Asia. Some fans and commentators have likened the emergence of Asia as a source of baseball talent to the attention afforded to Latin America by major league ballclubs. The analogy is surprisingly apt. In 1996, the New York Mets and San Diego Padres opened the season in Monterrey, Mexico, in the first regular-season game played outside the United States and Canada Four years later, the Mets took on the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome to inaugurate the 2000 season in the first regular-season game played in Asia. The season openers demonstrated a growing awareness of the increasingly prominent contributions made by Latin America and Asia to the MLB. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente changed the landscape of American baseball as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, which ultimately earned him a plaque in baseball's Hall of Fame. Similarly, Dominican Sammy Sosa has in recent years changed the sport as few other ballplayers have, with his prodigious home runs for the Chicago Cubs. His consistent superstar numbers have launched him both into the record books and to the status of fan favorite. However, Clemente and Sosa stand taller than their mere statistics and accolades. They have come to represent a culture's presence in baseball, and they have increased the awareness of the talent that Latin America offers to baseball. Ichiro, like Clemente or Sosa in the past, changed the baseball world last year with one of the best all-around seasons in history In the same way as Clemente and Sosa, he has come to represent a foreign culture's presence in baseball, increasing the awareness of potential Asian talent. …


Research in the processing, compression, transmission, and interpretation of digital radiographic images requires evaluation of a wide variety of test images, varying in format, in spatial resolution, and in anatomic content. To evaluate the diagnostic performance of observers using novel versus conventional image formats, large numbers of test images containing known abnormalities are required. This report describes a method for creating high resolution, virtual digital mammograms from computational models of the human breast that include branched lobulated ducts and suspensory ligaments embedded in fatty subcutaneous tissue. Breast phantoms may include any of three types of simulated tumors (fibroadenomas, invasive ductal carcinomas, and intraductal carcinomas). Virtual mammograms are generated by computing x-ray transmission through a mathematically defined, three dimensional tissue space according to Beer's Law, using a fast ray-tracing algorithm. The resulting test images are adequately realistic, inexpensive, and reproducible at any desired resolution. They may contain precisely defined and localized abnormalities of unlimited subtlety. This approach provides a flexible, easy-to-use research tool to explore digital techniques in mammography, as well as a potential aid to training of radiologists in early breast cancer detection.


We present 3DSCAN (3D Scene Characterization for Autonomous Navigation), a software application for state estimation and environment modeling using lowcost 3D sensors, such as a stereorig and RGBD cameras. For state estimation, we describe an original keyframe-based stereoscopic visual odometry technique, which can run at more than 20Hz on a lightweight computer. This so-called 'efficient Visual Odometry' (eVO) has been evaluated on several datasets and provides accurate results and limited drift, even for indoor/outdoor trajectories. Environment modeling aggregates instantaneous depthmaps in a volumetric Octomap [15] representation. Stereoscopic depthmaps are computed by a very fast dense matching algorithm derived from eFolki, an optical flow code implemented on GPU. These developments are combined in the 3DSCAN software, which is successfully demonstrated on our MAV (Micro Aerial Vehicle) system, following indoor, outdoor or mixed trajectories.


There is an unmet need for methods to help in the early detection of cervical precancer. Optical spectroscopy-based techniques, such as Raman spectroscopy, have shown great potential for diagnosis of different cancers, including cervical cancer. However, relatively few studies have been carried out on liquid-based cytology (LBC) pap test specimens and confounding factors, such as blood contamination, have been identified. Previous work reported a method to remove blood contamination before Raman spectroscopy by pretreatment of the slides with hydrogen peroxide. The aim of the present study was to extend this work to excessively bloody samples to see if these could be rendered suitable for Raman spectroscopy. LBC ThinPrep specimens were treated by adding hydrogen peroxide directly to the vial before slide preparation. Good quality Raman spectra were recorded from negative and high grade (HG) cytology samples with no blood contamination and with heavy blood contamination. Good classification between negative and HG cytology could be achieved for samples with no blood contamination (sensitivity 92%, specificity 93%) and heavy blood contamination (sensitivity 89%, specificity 88%) with poorer classification when samples were combined (sensitivity 82%, specificity 87%). This study demonstrates for the first time the improved potential of Raman spectroscopy for analysis of ThinPrep specimens regardless of blood contamination. © 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) [DOI: 10.1117/1.JBO .23.5.055001]


Sounding Out Liverpool is an installation combining text and two giant reflective listening dishes. It is an invitation to both discover and contribute to the sounds of Liverpool's culture. A single 2.2 meter high sculptural form houses two 1.8m wide and 0.6m deep parabolic dishes, on the pavement texts from Liverpool's literary culture make reference to the city's soundscape. Arts & entertainment, particularly in Liverpool, can be understood powerfully through sound. This 'sounding culture' continually moves and circulates around the people and the city; it is a history carried in memories and through the city soundscape itself. The installation invites interaction with these ideas through textual triggers, drawn from references to this culture, by a deep listening that invites people to hear what they might have within themselves to contribute to the sounding culture of Liverpool and to 'sound out' these discoveries into the dishes and the soundscape around them. Installation commission for Liverpool Discovers, Liverpool City Council. St James' Mount, Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool.


Background Selective eating behaviours have been reported mainly in children with mental retardation and adolescents on strict vegan diets. Aims To draw attention that prolonged food selectivity, along with parental indifference can lead to life-threatening complications from malnutrition. Methods Analysis of food selective behaviours in two adolescents referred to Dept. of Paediatrics, Haematology and Oncology, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland in 2007 and 2013 respectively, suspected of aplastic anaemia. Results Both adolescents presented with pallor, weakness and fatigue. A 17-year-old male with autism, encephalopathy and psychomotor retardation exhibited cachexia, contractures of joints, peripheral oedemas, massive bruising and bleedings, and trophic skin changes. A 13-year-old female suffered from dizziness and infections. CBC in both patients showed severe anaemia, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. In myelograms, megaloblastic dysplasia was found, confirmed by serum vit. B12 deficiency. The boy had also deficiency of ferrum, folate, hypoproteinemia, dyslipidemia and electrolyte disturbances. Upon interview, both patients demonstrated selective eating behaviours, and extremely restricted diets for over 10 (male) and 2 (female) years. The boy ate only chocolates, bread, milk, french fries and tea. The girl didn't eat meat or animal-based products. Both children required blood cell transfusions followed by vit. B12 supplementation and nutritional support. Conclusion Severe prolonged food selectivity in children, along with parents' indifference and/or unawareness, can lead to life-threatening hematologic complications. Physicians should consider food selectivity among the causes of nutritional and hematologic deficits in children. Parents need to be taught how to avoid nutritional deficiencies in children with selective eating patterns.


This paper propose a framework module of holistic human development, which are facing global economic transformation. It is related to the concept of human development where they need to be developed and nurtured in a holistic manner from both physical and spiritual aspects in accordance with the nature of creation to create a life that is pleasing to the Creator. Human today are in pursuit to get to the peak of development based on science and technology to face global economic transformation. Through the development of science and technology, they are fully exploiting the bounty of natural resources and facilities for the comfort of God in their lives. However, one fact that is hard to deny the nature and pattern of development carried out by human today have caused so much crises or problems either to the community or physical environment. Transformed by today's human evolution; marked by the increased crime rates, the collapse of the family institution, increased symptoms of moral decay in society, the emergence of unethical younger generation, damages to the environment and other social problems are getting chronic. Looking at the social and cultural development, it is important to have an assessment and review the model of development and education. Paradigm or archetype for the development of a society will determine the type and pattern
of development and education that will be carried out within the community. The concept of development and education based on basic and incomprehensive views will not produce any better result from what we have now.


This paper establishes isomorphisms for the Laplace operator in weighted Sobolev spaces (WSS). These spaces are similar to standard Sobolev spaces, but they are endowed with weights prescribing functions growth or decay at infinity. Although well established in the whole space, these weighted results do not apply in the specific hypothesis of periodicity. This kind of problem appears when studying singularly perturbed domains (roughness, sieves, porous media, etc). When zooming on a single perturbation pattern, one often ends with a periodic problem set on an infinite strip. We present a unified framework that enables a systematic treatment of such problems. We provide existence and uniqueness of solutions in our WSS. This gives a refined description of solutions behavior at infinity which is of importance in the mutli-scale context. These isomorphism results hold for any weight exponent and any regularity index. We then identify these solutions with the convolution of a Green function (specific to periodical infinite strips) and the given data. This identification is valid again for any weight and any regularity index modulo some harmonic polynomials.


Abstract PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. Conditions at Dome C are known to be exceptional for astronomy. The seeing (above ∼30 m height), coherence time, and isoplanatic angle are all twice as good as at typical mid-latitude sites, while the water-vapour column, and the atmosphere and telescope thermal emission are all an order of magnitude better. These conditions enable a unique scientific capability for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents an overview of the optical and instrumentation suite for PILOT and its expected performance, a summary of the key science goals and observational approach for the facility, a discussion of the synergies between the science goals for PILOT and other telescopes, and a discussion of the future of Antarctic astronomy. Paper II and Paper III present details of the science projects divided, respectively, between the distant Universe (i.e. studies of first light, and the assembly and evolution of structure) and the nearby Universe (i.e. studies of Local Group galaxies, the Milky Way, and the Solar System).


Oklahoma's Developmental Disabilities Services Division (DDSD) realized the need for increased attention towards the goal of community-based employment for individuals they served. Initially, rates were based on a vendor's costs of providing direct services such as job development and job coaching. It became increasingly apparent that claims for vocational services oftentimes reflected staff activities (e.g., job development, client assessment, and service delivery documentation), which may have been occurring without the direct involvement of the service recipient. In some situations, this resulted in long-term job development with little success in actually acquiring a job. In 1995, DDSD elected to focus on outcome-driven rates. Reported costs were aggregated and divided to get the cost of the outcome for an hour of work with the consumer. Vendors providing supported employment services are paid an hourly rate based on the number of hours that an individual is employed, regardless of the number of hours that the individual receives support. This rate system provides higher funding for integrated employment settings versus segregated settings, and higher rates for individual versus group employment. The system also provides incentives for providers to develop jobs with more work hours and to fade job support as quickly as possible.


Developing cross-organizationally usable applications is becoming increasingly important. However, actually re-using business applications has been hindered in practice often by implicit assumptions about organizational and IT implementation. We propose a method to gather requirements for crossorganizationally usable applications that, taking Design and Engineering Methodology for Organizations (DEMO) as starting point, a) is easy to communicate, b) can discern differences between the organizations, and c) has an attractive Return On Modeling Effort (ROME). When testing this method in a large real-life case study, it also appeared to be possible to a) systematically design the `unhappy' flow as well, b) define application architecture principles for supporting organizational flexibility, and c) systematically design screens based on DEMO models, irrespective of internal or external use. Finally the method greatly objectified the discussions between all stakeholders involved.


This paper presents a novel randomized motion planner for robots that must achieve a specified goal under kinematic and/or dynamic motion constraints while avoiding collision with moving obstacles with known trajectories. The planner encodes the motion constraints on the robot with a control system and samples the robot's state × time space by picking control inputs at random and integrating its equations of motion. The result is a probabilistic roadmap of sampled state ×time points, called milestones, connected by short admissible trajectories. The planner does not precompute the roadmap; instead, for each planning query, it generates a new roadmap to connect an initial and a goal state×time point. The paper presents a detailed analysis of the planner's convergence rate. It shows that, if the state×time space satisfies a geometric property called expansiveness, then a slightly idealized version of our implemented planner is guaranteed to find a trajectory when one exists, with probability quickly converging to 1, as the number of milestones increases. Our planner was tested extensively not only in simulated environments, but also on a real robot. In the latter case, a vision module estimates obstacle motions just before planning starts. The planner is then allocated a small, fixed amount of time to compute a trajectory. If a change in the expected motion of the obstacles is detected while the robot executes the planned trajectory, the planner recomputes a trajectory on the fly. Experiments on the real robot led to several extensions of the planner in order to deal with time delays and uncertainties that are inherent to an integrated robotic system interacting with the physical world.


This book presents a collection of memoir papers on the development of modern and contemporary optics and optoelectronics in China from the 18th to 20th centuries. The papers were written by famous scientists in China, including members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, sharing their experience in different fields of optics and optoelectronics development. This is a unique book in understanding the natural science history of optics and optoelectronics. It gives you the general idea about how the western optical science spread to China in the 17th to 18th century; the cradle of the contemporary optics in China; Birth, development and application of lasers in China; high energy and high power lasers for laser antiballistic missile and laser nuclear fusion; development of Chinese optical communication and optical information storage; laser and infrared optics research for space science; development of Chinese optical instruments, etc.


The climate of the top end of the Northern Territory is dominated by alternating wet and dry seasons. Trees of the Northern Territory have developed a variety of responses to this seasonal climate, including a range of leaf phenologies (evergreen, semi-deciduous, brevi-deciduous and deciduous). These phenological groups differ in their anatomical and physiological characteristics. This study investigated the relationship between vessel anatomy and susceptibility to drought induced xylem cavitations. Xylem vessel characteristics were compared among deciduous and evergreen species growing in seasonally dry forests near Darwin. Vessel diameter, vessel length, vessel element length, vessel density and pit membrane pore dimeters were measured in six evergreen and six deciduous species and one coniferous species. This study also examined the linkage between hydraulic conductance, vulnerability to xylem embolism and vessel diameter in deciduous and evergreen species. Deciduous species had a greater proportion of vessels with large diameters than did evergreen species. The mean vessel diameters in (branches, petioles and mid-ribs) were larger in deciduous species (50 μm ±1.7, 28 μm ± 1.56, 28 μm ± 2.1) than evergreen species (32 μm ± 0.6, 18 μm ± 1.2, 18 μm ± 1.1). The mean pit membrane pores diameter in deciduous species (0.49 μm± 0.34) was larger than in evergreen species (0.24.μm ± 0.15). The average hydraulic conductivity in branch of deciduous species (0.03 g m s-1 MPa-1) was larger than in evergreen species (0.01 g m s-1 MPa-1). These results support the conclusion that since deciduous species only have to conduct water during the wet season, their large xylem vessels with large pit membrane pores, which confer relatively larger hydraulic conductivity do not expose the canopy to an unacceptably high risk of xylem cavitation. By contrast, evergreen trees must transport water during more extreme dry season conditions, when they would potentially be more susceptible to xylem embolism. To protect against this, they have developed vessels with generally smaller diameters and with small pit membrane pores or vestured pits.


America's once-vibrant small-to-midsize cities -- Syracuse, Worcester, Akron, Flint, Rockford, and others -- increasingly resemble urban wastelands. Gutted by deindustrialization, outsourcing, and middle-class flight, disproportionately devastated by metro freeway systems that laid waste to the urban fabric and displaced the working poor, small industrial cities seem to be part of America's past, not its future. And yet, Catherine Tumber argues in this provocative book, America's gritty Rust Belt cities could play a central role in a greener, low-carbon, relocalized future. As we wean ourselves from fossil fuels and realize the environmental costs of suburban sprawl, we will see that small cities offer many assets for sustainable living not shared by their big city or small town counterparts, including population density and nearby, fertile farmland available for new environmentally friendly uses. Tumber traveled to twenty-five cities in the Northeast and Midwest -- from Buffalo to Peoria to Detroit to Rochester -- interviewing planners, city officials, and activists, and weaving their stories into this exploration of small-scale urbanism. Smaller cities can be a critical part of a sustainable future and a productive green economy. Small, Gritty, and Green will help us develop the moral and political imagination we need to realize this.


Educational institutions around the world increasingly view mobile technology as an effective platform for educating a new generation of students. Unfortunately, educational institutions often fail to achieve substantial results with their mobile-learning initiatives. Studies on m-learning have produced several recommendations about how to improve of its success. These recommendations cover a set of factors limited to people, technology, and pedagogy. This qualitative case study adopts a broader socio-technical perspective on m-learning and produces an extended list of critical success factors in m-learning. These factors fall into organization, people, pedagogy, and technology domains. I used the Abilene Christian University as the site for this study. Additional critical success factors I uncovered include executive involvement, resource allocation, technology injection, supporting creation of mlearning content and applications, technological pluralism, championship, infrastructure development, pedagogical freedom, collaboration, continuous learning and improvement, and external recognition.


In this paper, we investigate a distributed beamforming problem to optimize energy efficiency (EE) in ultra-wideband (UWB) based implant body area networks (IBANs). To evaluate the impact of relay location on the EE, a relay location based cooperative network model is proposed, where multiple on-body relays are employed to assist an implant node to communicate with a BAN coordinator. With the proposed model, the EE optimization problem is mathematically formulated as a non-convex optimization problem. Sequential quadratic programming (SQP) combined with scatter search are applied to find the corresponding optimal solution. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed beamforming scheme outperforms other transmission schemes. A remarkable improvement can be achieved not only in EE but also in spectral efficiency (SE) compared to direct transmission. Moreover, numerical examples show that the relay location has a significant impact on the EE performance.