The issue of gender and development has been an important part of the development discourse since the Mexico City Women Conference in 1973. This concern has been very slow to transform itself into policy. For development agencies including AusAID it has been a subsidiary policy area or an add-on, as a recipe might say'add women and stir'. The White Paper of 2007 brought gender to the centre of policy as an overarching principle. The question that arises is the extent to which these policies fit into or are driven by the neo-liberal paradigm underpinning the aid program, or if these policies can challenge it by positing a rights agenda. The 2007 Gender policy tries to sit between the two in that it focuses on the economic role that women can play in fostering growth on the one hand, and the denial of human rights that marginalisation and disempowerment represents. This paper will explore the development of gender policy in AusAID, and compare it with the development of policy of other agencies that follow the neo-liberal framework in particular the World Bank and ADB. Finally the paper will make some suggestions for the new Labor government to strengthen the Policy.


So far, only few microsatellite markers have been developed and extensively tested for echinoderms. To study the population genetic structure of the sea star Astropecten aranciacus, we developed primers for nine polymorphic microsatellite loci and tested them on two populations from Faro in Portugal (N = 25) and from La Herradura in Spain (N = 20). Within populations, allele numbers varied from four to 20, while expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.593 to 0.936 and from 0.222 to 0.900, respectively. Additional cross‐species amplifications were polymorphic at some loci, indicating their potential usefulness for related taxa.


Sovereignty, Food Security and Sustainable Development: Environmental and Economic Challenges. Environmental consulting as a factor of agricultural development in Serbia. The CAP 2004-2013 direct payment scheme's impact on sustainability of agriculture in Lithuania. Economic and social preconditions of development in the Czech rural areas: acceleration of global influence and local changes. Impact of economics and agriculture over the environmental protection in Bulgaria. An assessment of the impacts of reducing ammonia emissions from livestock farming by covering existing manure storage facilities in Hungary. Animal and vegetable waste development in agriculture, food processing and households of the European Union. Resilience of Romanian agriculture – an overview. Priorities of sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas within the region of eastern Serbia. Expected changes of farmers innovation activity in 2014-2020. Investment attractiveness of bioeconomy: case of Ukraine. Competitiveness and comparative advantages of Ukraine's agriculture sector in trade with the European Union. Ukrainian agricultural products competitiveness on European market in time of financial challenges.


Binaural cues for spatial localization of complex high-frequency sounds are interaural level and time differences (ILDs and ITDs). We previously showed that cells in the lateral superior olive (LSO) are sensitive to ITDs in the envelope of sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (AM) signals up to a modulation frequency of only approximately 800 Hz. To understand the limitations in this ITD-sensitivity, we here compare responses to monaural modulation in LSO and its input pathways, derived from cochlear nucleus and medial nucleus of the trapezoid body. These pathways have marked functional and morphological specializations, suggestive of adaptations for timing. Afferent cell populations were identified on the basis of electrophysiological signatures, and for each population, average firing rate and synchronization to AM tones were compared with auditory-nerve fibers and LSO cells. Except for an increase in modulation gain in some subpopulations, synchronization of LSO afferents was very similar to that in auditory nerve fibers in its dependency on sound pressure level (SPL), modulation depth, and modulation frequency. Distributions of cutoff frequencies of modulation transfer functions were largely coextensive with the distribution in auditory nerve. Group delays, measured from the phase of the response modulation as a function of modulation frequency, showed an orderly dependence on characteristic frequency and cell type and little dependence on SPL. Similar responses were obtained to a modulated broadband carrier. Compared with their afferents, LSO cells synchronized to monaurally modulated stimuli with a higher gain but often over a narrower range of modulation frequencies. Considering the scatter in afferent and LSO cell populations, ipsi- and contralateral responses were well matched in cutoff frequency and magnitude of delays. In contrast to their afferents, LSO cells show a decrease in average firing rate at high modulation frequencies. We conclude that the restricted modulation frequency range over which LSO cells show ITD-sensitivity does not result from loss of envelope information along the afferent pathway but is due to convergence or postsynaptic effects at the level of the LSO. The faithful transmission of envelope phase-locking in LSO afferents is consistent with their physiological and morphological adaptations, but these adaptations are not commensurate with the rather small effects of physiological ITDs reported previously, especially when compared with effects of ILDs. We suggest that these adaptations have evolved to allow a comparison of instantaneous amplitude fluctuations at the two ears rather than to extract interaural timing information per se.


Closure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 transformed the Colorado River by reducing the magnitude and duration of spring floods, increasing the magnitude of base flows, and trapping fine sediment delivered from the upper watershed. These changes caused the channel downstream in Glen Canyon to incise, armor, and narrow. This study synthesizes over 45 yr of channel-change measurements and demonstrates that the rate and style of channel adjustment are directly related to both natural processes associated with sediment deficit and human decisions about dam operations. Although bed lowering in lower Glen Canyon began when the first cofferdam was installed in 1959, most incision occurred in 1965 in conjunction with 14 pulsed high flows that scoured an average of 2.6 m of sediment from the center of the channel. The average grain size of bed material has increased from 0.25 mm in 1956 to over 20 mm in 1999. The magnitude of incision at riffles decreases with distance downstream from the dam, while the magnitude of sediment evacuation from pools is spatially variable and extends farther downstream. Analysis of bed-material mobility indicates that the increase in bed-material grain size and reduction in reach-average gradient are consistent with the transformation of an adjustable-bed alluvial river to a channel with a stable bed that is rarely mobilized. Decreased magnitude of peak discharges in the post-dam regime coupled with channel incision and the associated downward shifts of stage-discharge relations have caused sandbar and terrace erosion and the transformation of previously active sand-bars and gravel bars to abandoned deposits that are no longer inundated. Erosion has been concentrated in a few pre-dam terraces that eroded rapidly for brief periods and have since stabilized. The abundance of abandoned deposits decreases downstream in conjunction with decreasing magnitude of shift in the stage-discharge relations. In the downstream part of the study area where riffles controlling channel elevation have not incised, channel narrowing has resulted from decreased magnitude of peak discharges and minor post-dam deposition. These physical changes to the aquatic and riparian systems have supported the establishment and success of an artifact ecosystem dominated by non-native species. Models for the channel response downstream from large dams typically consider factors such as the degree of sediment deficit, the pre-dam surface and subsurface grain size, and the magnitude of post-dam average flows. These results suggest that it is also necessary to consider (1) the possibility of variable responses among different channel elements and (2) the potential importance of exceptional flows resulting from management decisions.


Smart card (intelligent card) systems evolved in the 1970s and progressed through the 2000s,
however, their globalization and potential has not yet been achieved. In some countries, France
for example, they have been accepted and implemented to a very high degree, while in others the
technology is just emerging.
The present research analyses these underlying principles from a business perspective and
proposes a set of procedures (a implementation plan) for the design of smart card applications.
These procedures are based on the market overview and market prospective from the previous
cases as a guideline to implement a smart card.
I describe a generic, scalable plan that may be applied to future smart card operating systems,
interfaces, and implementation schemes.


Morphological modifications of vocal anatomy are widespread among vertebrates, and the investigation of the physiological mechanisms and adaptive functions of such variants is an important focus of research into the evolution of communication. The 'descended larynx' of adult humans has traditionally been considered unique to our species, representing an adaptation for articulate speech, and debate concerning the position of the larynx in extinct hominids assumes that a lowered larynx is diagnostic of speech and language. Here, we use bioacoustic analyses of vocalizing animals, together with anatomical analyses of functional morphology, to document descended larynges in red and fallow deer. The resting position of the larynx in males of these species is similar to that in humans, and, during roaring, red–deer stags lower the larynx even further, to the sternum. These findings indicate that laryngeal descent is not uniquely human and has evolved at least twice in independent lineages. We suggest that laryngeal descent serves to elongate the vocal tract, allowing callers to exaggerate their perceived body size by decreasing vocal–tract resonant frequencies. Vocal–tract elongation is common in birds and is probably present in additional mammals. Size exaggeration provides a non–linguistic alternative hypothesis for the descent of the larynx in human evolution.


Zeynep Avcı, a Turkish female playwright, has rewritten The Epic of Gilgamesh to break established myths of the patriarchy and create her own mythical patterns in return. In Avcı's Gilgamesh, male bonding is emphasized; however, Avcı makes use of the concept of mimetic rivalry to demean the male friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu by attributing supplementary homosexual, erotic overtones to the epic. Through her usage of homophobia, she questions the patriarchal view that regards such male bonding as lethal and base. She also stresses through Ishtar the phallocentric view that perceives female bonding as inferior to male bonding. By reminding her audience of these patriarchal patterns that demean women, Avcı also uses the mythical pattern to reveal how patriarchal society tends to weaken itself through its overvaluation of heroism. Moreover, by referring to different versions of the flood story, which can be found in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Koran, Avcı breaks the chronology of history and establishes the idea that both polytheistic and monotheistic religions depend on the same mythos. Finally, Avcı emphasizes that only love is immortal as she tries to break the established myth of reaching immortality through heroic action.


As their woefully backward economy continues to crumble, much of the Soviet population remains indifferent, if not downright hostile, to the idea of reform. This phenomenon, so different from the Solidarity movement in Poland or the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia, has been explained in terms of a "social contract" - a tacit agreement between the post-Stalin regime and the working class whereby the state provided economic and social security in return for the workers' political compliance . This book provides a critical assessment of the likelihood and implications of such a contract. Linda Cook pursues the idea from Brezhnev's day to the 1990s and considers the constraining effect it may have had on Gorbachev's attempts to liberalise the Soviet economy. In case studies on job security, retail price stability, and social service subsidies, Cook identifies points at which leaders had to make critical decisions - to commit more resources or to abandon other policies at significant cost - in order to maintain the contract. The pattern that emerges attests to the validity of the social contract thesis for the Brezhnev period. At the same time, Cook's analysis points to several important factors, such as the uneven distribution of benefits, that help explain why labour unrest and activism have varied dramatically from sector to sector in recent years. Ultimately, these case studies reveal, particularly for the Gorbachev period, deep conflicts between the old contract and the requisites of economic reform. Cook extends her analysis into the Yeltsin period to show how the democratising state dealt weakly with labour's demands, seeking to stabilise labour relations with an inappropriate corporate structure. In the end, mobilised labour contributed greatly to the pressures that undermined Gorbachev's regime, and remained an obstacle to economic reform through the early months of Yeltsin's Russia.


This paper presents a mathematical model of the kinematic nonlinear drive train errors which reduce absolute static positioning accuracy of robot arms. This kinematic inaccuracy renders robot manipulators ineffective when programmed off-line, though they might be programmed to successfully perform the same task by "Teach Play back" schemes. The kinematic drive train inaccuracy model, presented in this paper can be used to predict and compensate for these second order effects on-line, without resorting to sensor based programming techniques, which are often expensive and difficult to implement in an industrial environment. The drive train error model presented in this paper is based on gear backlash, eccentri city and drive shaft compliance.


Large scale exploratory work for groundwater in hard rock region of South India has been carried out by the authors during the last ten years, using electrical resistivity method. The standard methods of data interpretation were found to be inadequate in locating water well sites and determining the existence and depth of occurrence of water bearing fractures and joints. Wenner and Schlumberger type vertical electrical sounding (VES) curves were interpreted by matching against theoretical model curves and also by inverse slope method. The interpreted results were correlated with the actual driller9s logs. No satisfactory correlation could be observed either between the geoelectrical interpreted layer boundaries and the layer boundaries from the wells or between the resistivity in the hard rock and the water yield. A more pragmatic approach to the problem is desirable to minimize the failures of wells in hard rock terrain.


This book provides a versatile and lucid treatment of classic as well as modern probability theory, while integrating them with core topics in statistical theory and also some key tools in machine learning. It is written in an extremely accessible style, with elaborate motivating discussions and numerous worked out examples and exercises. The book has 20 chapters on a wide range of topics, 423 worked out examples, and 808 exercises. It is unique in its unification of probability and statistics, its coverage and its superb exercise sets, detailed bibliography, and in its substantive treatment of many topics of current importance.This book can be used as a text for a year long graduate course in statistics, computer science, or mathematics, for self-study, and as an invaluable research reference on probabiliity and its applications. Particularly worth mentioning are the treatments of distribution theory, asymptotics, simulation and Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Markov chains and martingales, Gaussian processes, VC theory, probability metrics, large deviations, bootstrap, the EM algorithm, confidence intervals, maximum likelihood and Bayes estimates, exponential families, kernels, and Hilbert spaces, and a self contained complete review of univariate probability.


Calculating explicit closed form solutions of Cournot models where firms have private information about their costs is, in general, very cumbersome. Most authors consider therefore linear demands and constant marginal costs. However, within this framework, the nonnegativity constraint on prices (and quantities) has been ignored or not properly dealt with and the correct calculation of all Bayesian Nash equilibria is more complicated than expected. Moreover, multiple symmetric and interior Bayesian equilibria may exist for an open set of parameters. The reason for this is that linear demand is not really linear, since there is a kink at zero price: the general "linear" inverse demand function is P(Q) = max{a - bQ,0} rather than P(Q) = a - bQ.


The various strategies for the valorisation of waste biomass to platform chemicals, and the underlying developments in chemical and biological catalysis which make this possible, are critically reviewed. The option involving the least changes to the status quo is the drop-in strategy of complete deoxygenation to petroleum hydrocarbons and further processing using existing technologies. The alternative, redox economic approach, is direct conversion of, for example, carbohydrates to oxygenates by fermentation or chemocatalytic processes. Examples of both approaches are described, e.g. fermentation of carbohydrates to produce hydrocarbons, lower alcohols, diols and carboxylic acids or acid catalyzed hydrolysis of hexoses to hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and subsequent conversion to levulinic acid (LA), γ-valerolactone (GVL) and furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Three possible routes for producing a bio-based equivalent of the large volume polymer, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are delineated. Valorisation of waste protein could, in the future, form an important source of amino acids, such as L-glutamic acid and L-lysine, as platform chemicals, which in turn can be converted to nitrogen containing commodity chemicals. Glycerol, the coproduct of biodiesel manufacture from triglycerides, is another waste stream for which valorisation to commodity chemicals, such as epichlorohydrin and acrolein, is an attractive option.


: In experimental pathological-anatomic study of gunshot wounds of pig upper and lower lips produced by bullet weapon there were received microscopic tissue pictures in 3 wound duct zones according to the disrance from the duct - in the injury zone, tissue zone adjacent to the injury and tissue zone remote from the injury. The zone widths were different depending upon the ditance from the bullet entrance hole; the injury width of reversible and irreversible characters was bigger in the wound duct depth. The data about the morphological changes characrer in the edges of the most heavy degree of gunshot wounds were necessary for receiving objective numeric criterions of the volume of the tissue excision at the moment of primary surgical wounds treatment.


Coiled coils (CCs) are among the best-understood protein folds. Nonetheless, there are gaps in our knowledge of CCs. Notably, CCs are likely to be structurally more dynamic than often considered. Here, we explore this in an abundant class of CCs, parallel dimers, focusing on polar asparagine (Asn) residues in the hydrophobic interface. It is well documented that such inclusions discriminate between different CC oligomers, which has been rationalized in terms of whether the Asn can make side-chain hydrogen bonds. Analysis of parallel CC dimers in the Protein Data Bank reveals a variety of Asn side-chain conformations, but not all of these make the expected inter-side-chain hydrogen bond. We probe the structure and dynamics of a de novo-designed coiled-coil homodimer, CC-Di, by multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, including model-free dynamical analysis and relaxation–dispersion experiments. We find dynamic exchange on the millisecond time scale between Asn conformers with the side chains pointing into and out of the core. We perform molecular dynamics simulations that are consistent with this, revealing that the side chains are highly dynamic, exchanging between hydrogen-bonded-paired conformations in picoseconds to nanoseconds. Combined, our data present a more dynamic view for Asn at CC interfaces. Although inter-side-chain hydrogen bonding states are the most abundant, Asn is not always buried or engaged in such interactions. Because interfacial Asn residues are key design features for modulating CC stability and recognition, these further insights into how they are accommodated within CC structures will aid their predictive modeling, engineering, and design.


Imagine thinking about your company's information technology in the same way that you think about its investment portfolio: as a bundle of assets that--when managed right--will generate revenues and savings. Here's just such a framework for leveraging IT (technology, networks, data, and software)--one that enables business managers to make the important decisions about the potentially confounding mix of high-technology that influences near- and long-term planning, affects the ability to support customers, and dictates the flow of daily operations. Drawing upon their rigorous research with more than 100 top multinationals, the authors present a rich and varied range of examples of IT investment strategies that have reaped rewards for firms such as Citibank, Honda, Johnson & Johnson, Ralston Purina, the Development Bank of Singapore, and Telstra. This hands-on resource, compete with benchmarks and case studies, creates the common ground where both management and IT can meet, communicate their goals, and agree on the best plan for getting there.


We know from the third law of motion described in the midseventeenth century by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica that every action in the physical universe generates an equal and opposite reaction. That's what enables fish to swim, birds to fly, rockets to soar. It's what allows us to sit quietly in chairs without falling through the floor or floating off into space. It seems to me very likely that the Newtonian laws of motion also explain some aspects of the emergence and evolution of new concepts. A prime example might be a nettlesome new cottage industry that has arisen to evade the international effort to curb doping in sports. This new movement is founded on the position that it is the very existence of antidoping regulation and oversight that produces a climate of cheating and distrust in sports, and that regulation and prohibition should be replaced by a more laissez-faire approach. (1) This argument would lead us to accept all methods for enhancing performance outside of those permitted by the rules of that sport--drugs, supplements, materials, surgery, and now gene-based enhancement--should be allowed, even encouraged and valued. Some have even suggested that our society has a moral duty to promote active and unregulated use of any and all methods to achieve athletic "excellence." Bizarrely, one prominent proponent of this approach labels such a process "natural." (2) As troublesome as traditional, drug-based doping has long been, the emergence of gene doping is seen by some to represent an ominous new opportunity in cheating technology. (3) The concept of gene doping grew out of the important development in the early 1970s of a novel approach in medicine that promised to treat human disease by attacking underlying genetic defects. Thus was born the idea of gene therapy. (4) In early, phase I safety studies, gene therapy has produced effective treatments for a number of diseases, such as pediatric immune deficiency, a genetic form of blindness, and neurodegeneration, (5) with more sure to come in the very near future. While the efficacy of treatments has not yet been confirmed in more extensive phase III studies, the success so far teaches us is that it is clearly possible to introduce new genetic functions into human beings in forms efficient and stable enough to modify traits that produce serious disease and thus to ameliorate life-threatening illness and ease suffering. The same methods can undoubtedly be used to enhance normal human traits, including traits that affect athletic ability. One might readily envision genetic modification of healthy young athletes to augment functions useful for athletic performance, such as muscle growth and contraction, endurance, blood production, pain perception, and oxygen delivery to exercising muscle. But how close we are to gene doping in sports is a matter of debate. When the concept of gene doping first emerged a decade or so ago, some critics considered it improbable and far from imminent. One of my most respected colleagues, who had a prominent role in the gene therapy oversight process, called the potential for using genetic modification methods for gene doping "a lot of gale-force hand waving." In contrast, others saw it to be the obvious next and inevitable step in doping and cheating technology and believed it offered potential advantages over drug-based doping--that it might be more effective and more difficult to detect. Many feared that gene doping would enter the world of competitive sports very quickly; in fact, the sports media have predicted that every Olympic Games in the last decade would probably be the first genetically doped games. Indeed, several instances have come to light that can only be interpreted as serious attempts at gene doping. An athletic coach in Germany was found to be making diligent efforts to obtain a gene vector called Repoxygen that contains and expresses the erythropoietin gene and was developed to increase blood production in patients with serious diseases such as cancer and chronic kidney disease. …


School bullying is a topic that has received a great deal of attention over the last several years. School personnel have been inundated with law, policy, and public outcry about this serious issue. Administrators have at times been overwhelmed by the conversation surrounding school bullying. Even though their stories are seldom heard, there are many schools that are experiencing great success in the area of bully prevention. There is a pressing need for administrators to hear those stories and understand how they can make a difference. As such, this qualitative study examined how the principal can positively impact the culture of bullying in a school. A case study approach of three exemplar schools was used for this study. The principal along with three additional staff leaders from each school were interviewed. Observations at each school were also conducted. The data were used to create a story about each school and the role the principal plays in positively shaping the culture around bullying at that school. The findings of this study reveal that the principal is influenced in his or her approach to bullying by a variety of factors including prior experiences, preexisting attitudes and perceptions, and legal guidelines. As such, the effective principal purposefully engages existing attitudes and perceptions and assumes the responsibility of influencing those attitudes and perceptions by leading on the issue of bullying. This study reveals that leading involves both communication and actions. The findings of this study highlight the importance of the principal in establishing positive school culture.


Oblique incidence performance of a novel two-layer absorb/transmit frequency selective surface (FSS) is investigated. The FSS has good frequency stability for both horizontally and vertically polarized waves incident normally or at oblique angles. Due to its transmission for 900/1800/1900 MHz mobile bands and good absorption for 5 GHz waves, it has the potential as a security wall or isolator for 5 GHz WLAN systems. The absorption in the stop band helps reduce additional WLAN multipath fading caused by conventional reflecting FSS designs. The first layer of the FSS consists of conventional conducting cross dipoles having a circular aperture in the centre, while the second layer uses resistive cross dipoles. Moreover, the conducting cross dipoles have been sandwiched between two dielectric sheets to achieve a stable response for different angles of incidence. The periodicity of both FSS layers is the same while the distance between the two layers is reduced to one eighth of the free-space wavelength. This reduction leads to a more compact design compared to the conventional Salisbury screen, while still achieving acceptable absorption in the stopband. Both theoretical and experimental results are presented to confirm the performance of the absorb/transmit FSS.


In Antarctic and peri-Antarctic regions, benthic communities are persistent in time and show high biomass and large numbers of individuals, mainly consisting of suspension and deposit feeders. In fact, apart from recruitment, the major factor structuring these communities is the high flow of organic matter from the pelagic domain to the bottom, representing an important energy source for the benthic organisms. The aim of this paper is to review, compile and compare the data from earlier investigations in Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea) and the Straits of Magellan, in order to come to a more general conclusion about the role of the pelagic-benthic coupling in structuring littoral benthic communities in southern coastal areas. Few measurements of flux rates and the biochemical composition of the sinking particles occurring in Antarctic and peri-Antarctic shallow waters are available, but a compilation of our own data and others allows a comparison of these two systems. The different environmental conditions between Antarctica and the Straits of Magellan lead to differences in the origin of the particulate organic matter and in its biochemical composition, and consequently in the coupling between pelagic and benthic domains. At Terra Nova Bay the summer particulate matter shows a high labile fraction of a good food value: its flux has been evaluated at about 0.67 g m -2 d -1 . Conversely, the Straits of Magellan show multi-structured ecosystems where the quality and quantity of the organic matter flux towards the bottom change according to the local geomorphology and current dynamics. Moreover, the three-dimensional assemblages of suspension-feeders, so common in Antarctic shallow waters, seem to be absent in the Magellan area. In particular sponges, gorgonarians and bryozoans play a secondary role inside the Straits of Magellan, where polychaetes (60%) and molluscs (9-10%) are dominant on soft bottoms, and where they reach high values in density and biomass. Bivalves seem to play an important role in both regions: for instance, at Terra Nova Bay, the scallop Adamussium colbecki processes about 14 % of the total carbon flux, with an assimilation efficiency of 36 %. This scallop seems to be able to adapt its reproductive period and its trophic behaviour to the changes in the quality and quantity of the pelagic events. The pulsing trend of the vertical flux, which in a few weeks can reach the total annual input, produces significant changes in the physiology (growth, reproduction, spawning) and trophic behaviour of many benthic species, such as sponges and polychaetes. The study of the pelagic-benthic coupling could be essential in the evaluation of the trophic capacity and the environmental response around sites of sea-farming, which are an ever-growing activity in the Magellan area.


The classification of gene expression data to determine different type of tumor samples is significantly important to research tumors in molecular biology level formaking further treatment plan of the patient. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has employed as a solution for classification and clustering in bioinformatics. In this study, a classifier based on the two layer particle swarm optimization (TLPSO) algorithm is established to classify the uncertain training sample sets obtained from gene expression data of breast, prostate, lung and colon tumor samples. Compared with PSO and K-means algorithm in validation, the classification stability and accuracy based on the proposedTLPSOalgorithmis improved significantly, which may provide more information to clinicians for choosing more appropriate treatment.


This work puts forward a novel technique to generate finite abstractions of autonomous and nonautonomous Max-Plus-Linear (MPL) models, a class of discrete-event systems used to characterize the dynamics of the timing related to successive events that synchronize autonomously. Nonautonomous versions of MPL models embed within their dynamics nondeterminism, namely a signal choice that is usually regarded as an exogenous control or schedule. In this paper, abstractions of MPL models are characterized as finite-state Labeled Transition Systems (LTS). LTS are obtained first by partitioning the state space (and, for the nonautonomous model, by covering the input space) of the MPL model and by associating states of the LTS to the introduced partitions, then by defining relations among the states of the LTS based on dynamical transitions between the corresponding partitions of the MPL state space, and finally by labeling the LTS edges according to the one-step timing properties of the events of the original MPL model. In order to establish formal equivalences, the finite abstractions are proven to either simulate or to bisimulate the original MPL model. This approach enables the study of general properties of the original MPL model by verifying (via model checking) equivalent logical specifications over the finite LTS abstraction. The computational aspects related to the abstraction procedure are thoroughly discussed and its performance is tested on a numerical benchmark.


At the beginning of 1940, Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum wrote a letter to G. E. Moore, whom she came to know quite well during her research visit to Cambridge in the 1929-1930 academic year. In this paper, I offer a Polish translation of the document (the original version can be found in the Appendix). The translation is followed by a biographical commentary. Hosiasson describes her dramatic escape from Warsaw to Vilnius and claims that after saving her life "with so many troubles"her "desire of scientific work is more passionate than ever". At the time of writing her letter Hosiasson was applying for support from the Council for Assisting Refugee Philosophers set up in 1939 in Great Britain, and was asking Moore for a reference. Unfortunately, Hosiasson did not receive effective support that would enable her to find refuge abroad. She was arrested in September 1941 and killed by Germans, or Lithuanians collaborating with them, presumably in April 1942.


A selection. Interfacial phenomena in the solidification processing of metal matrix composites (A. Mortensen). A liquid metal infiltration model of unidirectional fibre preforms in inert atmospheres (R.M.K. Young). Squeeze casting of hybrid Ai-SiC fibre-particle composites (S. De Bondt et al.). Segregation of magnesium in squeeze-cast aluminium matrix composites reinforced with alumina fibres (Y. Le Petitcorps et al.). Electroforming of metal matrix composite: dispersoid grain size dependence of thermostructural and mechanical properties (M. Verelst et al.). Mixing of powder metallurgical fibre-reinforced aluminium composites (J.H. ter Haar, J. Duszczyk). Microstructural analysis of hot isostatically pressed Ai-SiC (P.M. Bronsveld et al.). Kinetics of gas-to-liquid transfer of particles in metal matrix composites (A.S. Kacar et al.). Crystallization of metal matrix alloy in composites containing non-metallic particles (J. Braszczynski). Interfaces in composites of alumina in a molybdenum matrix (G.H.M. Gubbels). Development of a diffusion barrier for SiC monofilaments in titanium (R.R. Kieschke, T.W. Clyne). Aspects of deformation of metal matrix composites (H. Lilholt). Thermal mismatch dislocations produced by large particles in a strain-hardening matrix (D.C. Dunand, A. Mortensen). Non-linear model of the mechanical response of fibre-reinforced laminates to mechanical loading (U. Graham). Thermomechanical behaviour of SiC-Ai composites (A. Colclough et al.). On failure processes in aluminium matrix composites reinforced with coated carbon fibres (G. Leonhardt et al.). Influence of heat treatment on the properties of short-fibre-reinforced magnesium composites (K.U. Kainer). A test determining the ability of different materials to undergo simultaneous plastic deformation to produce metal composites (R. Sliwa). Recrystallization in fibrous and particulate metal matrix composites (R.A. Shahani, T.W. Clyne). Unlocking the potential of metal matrix composites for civil aircraft (D. Charles).Author index. Subject index.


Environmental ethics is the study of normative issues and principles relating to human interactions with the natural environment. It comprises an increasingly significant field of applied ethics, crucial for the guidance of individuals, corporations and governments in shaping the principles affecting their lifestyles, their actions and their policies across the entire range of environmental issues. Debates include theories of normative ethics and of meta-ethics, and the adequacy of individualist, holist and ecofeminist stances. It is characteristically concerned with the good of future generations and of nonhuman species as well as that of contemporary human beings. Its scope includes the interpretation and application of the precautionary principle and of policies of sustainable development, grounds and policies for biodiversity preservation, and the nature and basis of obligations to assist adaptation to global warming, and to mitigate the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions widely recognised to constitute one of its principal sources.

Key Concepts:

Environmental ethics is a field of study, adjacent and comparable to business ethics and bioethics, and not itself a normative stance.

Stances in environmental ethics characteristically take into account future generations and nonhuman creatures as well as contemporary human interests.

Environmental ethics as a branch of philosophy arose in the 1970s through the work of Richard Routley, John Passmore, Arne Naess and Holmes Rolston.

Far from being unavoidable, anthropocentrism avoidably disregards the intrinsic value of nonhuman flourishing and the prevalence of moral concern for nonhuman suffering.

Despite their differences of emphasis, animal ethics and environmental ethics need not conflict, and need to be informed by each other.

Environmental ethicists can adhere to a range of meta-ethical stances, but objectivism and cognitivism have clear advantages concerning the status of reasons for action.

Ecofeminists such as Val Plumwood and Marti Kheel have well argued against excessive rationalism in environmental ethics and for a greater role for the emotions.

Rival theories of the causes of ecological problems often undermine each other, but solving these problems may require a restructuring of the global economic system.

Policies of sustainable development, as presented in the Brundtland Report of 1987, seek to address these problems through combining development and sustainability.

The precautionary principle suggests that a global agreement is urgently needed to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Keywords:

anthropocentrism;
biodiversity;
climate change mitigation;
ecofeminism;
environmental ethics;
future generations;
intrinsic value;
nonhuman creatures;
precautionary principle;
sustainable development


A broadband spectral comb is generated around the third harmonics of incident light with the nondegenerate, impulsively stimulated Raman scattering technique using ultrashort light pulses. The comb has a spectral width of more than 4000 cm(-1), and its envelope becomes smooth as the light powers are increased. It consists of discrete lines, the spacing of which is equal to the frequency of the Raman-active phonon mode, even though the frequency of the phonon mode is far smaller than the frequency difference between the two incident light pulses. The multiline structure is generated with multiwave mixing by exchange of the impulsively stimulated phonon among the signals.


There is no use pretending that we all know about time and space, or rather history and geography'--Edward W. Said. (1) INTRODUCTION Obvious and reassuring polarizations between rich and poor, grandeur and squalor, light and dark, and order and chaos have become translated into contrastive analyses of relationships between the West and Central Asia. When the latter region appears in western media, it tends to do so as a shadowy region of crime, disreputability, authoritarian leadership, political corruption and incipient decay. This region therefore enjoys a specific and resonant position in those folk-taxonomic schemas that so characterize life in West. On the other hand, Central Asia is noted for its great rivers, mountain ranges and routes and highways, and not least among these the ancient Great Silk Route running from western China to Europe. Indeed, the decline of Central Asia is usually associated with the gradual loss of importance of the Silk Road along which Marco Polo journeyed to Cathy in 1271. Following Vasco de Gama's successful pioneering of a naval route to India via the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, a century later, these land routes across Central Asia had fallen into disuse. Economic decline was accompanied by social stagnation due to the persistence of traditional clan and extended family social structures, the gap between nomads and sedentarists, and arguably the absence of a new centralizer of the stature of Genghis Khan's descendant, Tamerlane. A selected number of histories, geographies and perceptions of the region within Central Asia Studies use the above as a point of departure. The discipline however contains many other fundamental foundations, and it is a field that is contested. The thrust of this paper's engagement has the primary aim of illuminating the contested foundations of certain aspects of Central Asia Studies. To understand these foundations is in part to understand a field of study that gathers around projected knowns. As a sovereign field of study, Central Asia Studies omits and avows. it asserts a particular linear logic, it insists on demarcation and it demands disciplined constraint. Moreover, it is a field of study that is saturated with research on state building, on ethnic identity politics and linear historical accounts of the region, and it is a field of study that silently omits. An example of omission is analyses of social class relations, including non-Marxist. For instance, clear class boundaries that demarcate those with cultural, social and economic capital, resources held in abundance by the ruling political class and those without in Central Asia are largely absented. In-depth analyses of the class relations between factory worker and owner, between farmer and landowner are shorn of the social class dynamic. Moreover, notions of a structured oligarchy in the region is largely absent along with analyses of local imperialisms, for instance, of local rulers complicit in steering their county's economy to the benefit of outside interests, such as major corporations. By spotlighting the positioning of a range of markers, settlements of meaning, core research interests and a range of privileged, analytical concepts deposited over the past two decades or so this paper's approach is intended to trace the primary angles and shapes of the discipline's scaffolding, to trace its brushstrokes up to a medium range distance. The theoretical motion of this paper, then, occupies a modest space where enquiry into wider chronological histories is limited. It is a space moreover that seeks no more than a medium-range explanatory position--ie one that does not engage Central Asia Studies in its entirety, but one that, for instance, locates a number of contemporary and post- positions within the field. In this sense, Central Asia Studies can constitute a manageable category. I could have taken a different path by engaging in a series of Central Asia Studies conferences in the hope that resulting dialogue between conference delegates withdrawn from the everyday pressures of their academic environments, just as the storytellers of the Manas, the thousand-year-old Kyrgyz epic trilogy withdrew from the fields, would lead to an understanding of the discipline. …


GPS technology has made it possible to evaluate the performance of outdoor advertising campaigns in an objective manner. Given the GPS trajectories of a sample of test persons over several days, their passages with arbitrary poster campaigns can be calculated. However, inference is complicated by the early dropout of persons. Other than in most demonstrations of spatial data mining algorithms where the structure of the data sample is usually disregarded, poster performance measures such as reach and gross impressions evolve continuously over time and require nonintermittent observations. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of survival analysis to compensate for missing measurement days. We formalize the task of modeling the visit potential of geographic locations based on trajectory data as our variable of interest results from dispersed events in space-time. We perform experiments on the cities of Zurich and Bern simulating different dropout mechanisms and dropout rates and show the adequacy of the applied method. Our modeling technique is at present part of a business solution for the Swiss outdoor advertising branch and serves as pricing basis for the majority of Swiss poster locations.


A teleexistence manipulation system was evaluated quantitatively by comparing tasks of tracking a randomly moving target under several operational conditions. The effects of various characteristics, e.g., binocular vision and the effect of natural arrangement of the head and the arm, are analyzed by comparing quantitatively the results under these operational conditions. A human tracking transfer function was measured and used for comparison. The results revealed the significant dominance of the binocular vision with natural arrangement of the head and arm, which is the most important characteristic of teleexistence.


Analyses conducted by the Education, Science and Skills Development (ESSD) research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) reveal major areas of misalignment in the South African education pathway system. The majority of learners entering Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, nursing training institutions and learnerships have already achieved National Senior Certificates prior to enrolment. Higher Education is seen as the only viable option for further learning, contributing to the inverted triangle phenomenon in which a small FET college system is secondary to a much larger Higher Education system which struggles to retain inadequately prepared students. Against this background, this paper proposes a new model for student progression that broadens learning opportunities at the intermediate level.


The article makes two theoretical interventions to engage with current scholarship on digital labour. First, the author complicates the relationship between culture and production by bringing the former from the "superstructure" in the classical Marx's framework to the "base." As various cultural production, consumption, and economic activities converging onto digital, networked media eco-system, digital labour is indeed the indispensable source for capitals' accumulation of surplus and, more importantly, for cultural construction around production process. How labourers perceive their relations and interactions to the digital production process as crucial as which capacity they rely on to perform their labour. Culturalization of production process (re)draws the boundaries for desirable skills and constructs ideal digital workers with normative behaviours.  Second, precisely because the production process has become normative construction site, meanings and values of labouring are subject to broader social and cultural context including prior established global inequality and cultural differences.


This article is a theoretical contribution to the debate surrounding the introduction of Fair Trade products into large-scale retail distribution. In the model, a Fair Trade certifier and a traditional producer compete to supply their product to a single retailer, consumers who are Fair Trade likers are willing to pay an "ethical" premium for the Fair Trade product, and the premium depends on the revenue of Fair Trade product producers. The conditions of existence of an equilibrium where the Fair Trade product coexists with the traditional brand product on the retailer's shelves are highlighted. In particular, we show that a Fair Trade certifier implements this equilibrium if his preferences are such that the weight devoted to the price paid to producers is smaller than the weight he grants to the quantities of Fair Trade product sold. We also show that a retailer's decision to sell the Fair Trade product is not based on the percentage of consumers who are willing to pay for it, but on how much the Fair Trade likers are willing to pay.


This article sets forth a proposal to develop and implement a national, state-of-the-art, all-electronic filing system to support tribes' secured-transactions laws, with the goal of improving access to capital for tribes, tribal consumers, and, most importantly, independent Native-owned businesses. Tribes are increasingly recognizing the need to establish a sound commercial legal infrastructure, including in particular a modern secured-transactions law, to support sustainable business development. Toward this end, many tribes have adopted the Model Tribal Secured Transactions Act (MTSTA), and many more are in the process of reviewing the act for adoption. Central to the functioning of any secured-transactions law is a publicly accessible filing system, without which a secured-transactions system is incomplete and can't be deployed to support non-possessory security interests, especially in important income-producing collateral such as accounts, equipment, and inventory. However, the cost of a system that will be credible and trusted by lenders, other creditors, and prospective buyers of assets tends to be beyond the capacity of most tribes. Developing economies across the globe have faced similar challenges, and many have recognized the benefits that flow from implementing the type of filing system proposed by this article. The filing system being proposed would be developed for use and commonly owned by participating tribes that have adopted the MTSTA. The required technology is available and readily adaptable for a single, multi-jurisdictional tribal system, and implementation of such a system would support tribes' efforts to put in place the legal infrastructure needed to support access to capital in Indian Country. The proposed system would best be housed within a Native American organization with a solid reputation of representing all tribes in the U.S. and whose mission incorporates the promotion of tribal economic development. The costs of establishing, operating, and maintaining an e-filing system are quite modest, and they are estimated to be much lower than even a couple of years ago. The recent reduction in cost does not come at the expense of reduced security or efficiency of the system. On the contrary, it results from the incorporation of technology like blockchain, which would make the system less costly to establish and operate while ensuring the highest level of security and transparency.


Flotation of seeds in solvents is a common means of separating unfilled and filled seeds. While a few protocols for processing red spruce (Picea rubens) seeds recommend ethanol flotation, delayed and reduced germination have been reported. We conducted an ethanol bioassay on seeds previously stored at -20°C to quantify the concentration required to separate red spruce seeds and the effects on germination. We used seeds from Canada (CAN) that had been exposed to ethanol during processing, and seeds from the United States (USA) that had not been exposed to ethanol during processing. Seeds were exposed to 10 ethanol concentrations (10-100%) and deionised water was used as a control. The effective concentration of ethanol for 50% (EC50) of the seeds to sink ranged by source from 70.9 to 90.7%, with all seeds sinking in 100% ethanol. The use of less than 100% ethanol is not adequate for seed separation, as some filled seeds could float and be mistakenly categorised as unfilled. The mean EC50 of ethanol that inhibits germination was significantly higher for USA sources (52.7%), than for CAN sources (40.8%; P < 0.05). Ethanol concentrations that inhibited germination coincided with delays in germination. The mechanism of phytotoxity was not determined; however, damage during extraction, desiccation and storage at -20°C are potential sources. We recommend separating red spruce seeds by physical means rather than ethanol flotation to avoid potential negative impacts on germination.


Abstract. Deep-Earth convection can be understood by studying hotspot volcanoes that form where mantle plumes rise up and intersect the lithosphere, the Earth's rigid outer layer. Hotspots characteristically leave age-progressive trails of volcanoes and seamounts on top of oceanic lithosphere, which in turn allow us to decipher the motion of these plates relative to "fixed" deep-mantle plumes, and their (isotope) geochemistry provides insights into the long-term evolution of mantle source regions. However, it is strongly suggested that the Hawaiian mantle plume moved ~15° south between 80 and 50 million years ago. This raises a fundamental question about other hotspot systems in the Pacific, whether or not their mantle plumes experienced a similar amount and direction of motion. Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 330 to the Louisville Seamounts showed that the Louisville hotspot in the South Pacific behaved in a different manner, as its mantle plume remained more or less fixed around 48°S latitude during that same time period. Our findings demonstrate that the Pacific hotspots move independently and that their trajectories may be controlled by differences in subduction zone geometry. Additionally, shipboard geochemistry data shows that, in contrast to Hawaiian volcanoes, the construction of the Louisville Seamounts doesn't involve a shield-building phase dominated by tholeiitic lavas, and trace elements confirm the rather homogenous nature of the Louisville mantle source. Both observations set Louisville apart from the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount trail, whereby the latter has been erupting abundant tholeiites (characteristically up to 95% in volume) and which exhibit a large variability in (isotope) geochemistry and their mantle source components. doi: 10.2204/iodp.sd.15.02.2013


The only comprehensive history of pastel art, beautifully illustrated with works both celebrated and little known The Art of the Pastel traces the evolution of this most appealing medium from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century--from its humble origins as a tool for sketching to the height of its popularity in Rococo portraiture, and its embrace by the Impressionists and Symbolists. Authors Thea Burns and Philippe Saunier, both leading experts on the subject, shed new light on the acknowledged masters of the pastel, such as Maurice Quentin de la Tour and Jean-Etienne Liotard, who used these magical sticks of color to capture the character of their sitters; Edgar Degas and Mary Cassat, who used them to reveal the unexpected beauties of the everyday; and Odilon Redon, who used them to explore the inner mysteries of the spirit. But Burns and Saunier consider the pastel work of many other artists as well, from forgotten--yet pleasing--society portraitists to such important names as Delacroix, Whistler, and Picasso. As a rare achievement, their graceful yet authoritative text is matched by the color plates in this volume, which reproduce the harmoniously blended hues of more than 330 choice pastels, from collections around the world. For reasons of conservation, most of these works are exhibited only rarely, and then only in low light. Now they can be admired all together, without interruption, in this museum between two covers. A delight for the eyes as well as an important work of art history, The Art of the Pastel will be eagerly welcomed by artists, scholars, and art lovers alike.


Entrepreneurial Project of a Business Plan and the following Reflection Cover involves Game Corner Business Plan and his author`s entrepreneurial story including background information, future goals, etc. Game Corner Business Plan is the plan of development a state-of-art video-gaming center in Stockholm, Sweden. It consists of different parts of a full business plan supported by figures, statistics, and a survey.


Exploiting a synthesis protocol to tailor TiO2 with a unique morphology and crystal phase has received considerable interest in the energy and environmental fields. We here describe the use of a titanium glycolate precursor in a hydrothermal hydrolysis reaction to engineer TiO2 nanocrystals with different crystal phases and structures. Anatase TiO2 nanocrystals with twinned structures were obtained by using a lower amount of NaOH in the hydrolysis system, while brookite TiO2 nanocrystals were formed when higher amounts of NaOH were employed. The as-synthesized different TiO2 nanocrystals have a suitable bandgap to harvest photons and a more negative bottom level of the conduction band than the redox potential of H+/H2 indicating their potential as hydrogen-evolution semiconductor photocatalysts. However, the TiO2 nanotwins show promoted charge separation efficiency, and thus result in superior photocatalytic H2 generation activity compared to the anatase and brookite TiO2 nanocrystals. Our findings provide an effective and versatile solution for the fabrication of TiO2-based nanostructures with different phases and morphologies through chemical conversion of powder precursor nanoparticles, which could pave the way to the design of other functional nano-oxides with unique structures.


Australia is the first country in the world to undertake a complete review of food label law and policy. This independent Review Panel is charged with examining current policies, standards and laws relevant to food labelling; the policy drivers impacting on demands for food labelling; and the policies and mechanisms that are needed to ensure that government plays its optimum role. Particular areas of nutrition focus include health claims and front of pack labelling. The genesis of the review was Australian governments' commitment to regulatory reform to create a seamless national economy, reduce the regulatory burden, and maintain or increase the competitiveness of Australian businesses. This was to occur without compromising public health and safety. Two rounds of public comment have been received. The first round included over 6000 general submissions from industry, community organisations, government agencies and individuals. In the second round, comment was sought on a range of questions posed in an Issues Paper prepared by the Review Panel. These submissions, together with published evidence from the literature and empirical research form the basis of the Review Panel's recommendations to government. This paper positions public health nutrition concerns within this comprehensive review of food label law and policy. Considerations include the role of the food label to effectively communicate with consumers and their ever increasing expectations, while juggling the national and international requirements of industry, Codex, WHO, food safety, developments in technology and challenges of environmental, water and fuel constraints.


The presence of old cementitious mortar in recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) has been reported to be one of the main factors contributing to a lowering of the performance of concrete made with RCA relative to those made with natural aggregates (NA). This difference in performance has been attributed to the proportion of mortar present in the RCA vis-a-vis the NA used to cast the original parent concrete. Therefore, determining the mortar content might provide an effective means of assessing the overall quality of RCA. Also, as reported in the available literature, it is essential to take into account the amount of mortar present in RCA as part of the total mortar present when designing concrete mixes cast with RCA. However, an easy-to-use standard method for accurately determining the cementitious mortar content of RCA is not available at present. In this study, an acid treatment testing method is proposed to determine the mortar content of RCA. The method is able to remove most, if not all, of the cementitious mortar and takes approximately 24 h to carry out. In addition, the effects of mortar content on properties of RCA including 24-hour water absorption, bulk density, and Los Angeles abrasion resistance were investigated. The effects of the original parent concrete strength on the relationships between mortar content and RCA properties were also investigated. The study was confined to only granitic coarse aggregates.


How do we decide how to represent an intelligent system in its interface, and how do we decide how the interface represents information about the world and about its own workings to a user? This article addresses these questions by examining the interaction between representation and intelligence in user interfaces. The rubric representation covers at least three topics in this context: (1) how a computational system is represented in its user interface, (2) how the interface conveys its representations of information and the world to human users, and (3) how the system's internal representation affects the human user's interaction with the system. I argue that each of these kinds of representation (of the system, information and the world, the interaction) is key to how users make the kind of attributions of intelligence that facilitate their interactions with intelligent systems. In this vein, it makes sense to represent a systmem as a human in those cases where social collaborative behavior is key and for the system to represent its knowledge to humans in multiple ways on multiple modalities. I demonstrate these claims by discussing issues of representation and intelligence in an embodied conversational agent -- an interface in which the system is represented as a person, information is conveyed to human users by multiple modalities such as voice and hand gestures, and the internal representation is modality independent and both propositional and nonpropositional.


Space-Time Tomographic Reconstruction of Deforming Objects Guangming Zang X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a popular imaging technique used for reconstructing volumetric properties for a large range of objects. Compared to traditional optical means, CT is a valuable tool for analyzing objects with interesting internal structure or complex geometries that are not accessible with. In this thesis, a variety of applications in computer vision and graphics of inverse problems using tomographic imaging modalities will be presented: The first application focuses on the CT reconstruction with a specific emphasis on recovering thin 1D and 2D manifolds embedded in 3D volumes. To reconstruct such structures at resolutions below the Nyquist limit of the CT image sensor, we devise a new 3D structure tensor prior, which can be incorporated as a regularizer into more traditional proximal optimization methods for CT reconstruction. The second application is about space-time tomography: Through a combination of a new CT image acquisition strategy, a space-time tomographic image formation model, and an alternating, multi-scale solver, we achieve a general approach that can be used to analyze a wide range of dynamic phenomena. Base on the second application, the third one is aiming to improve the tomographic reconstruction of time-varying geometries undergoing faster, non-periodic deformations, by a warp-and-project strategy. Finally, with a physically plausible divergence-free prior for motion estimation, as well as a novel view synthesis technique, we present applications to dynamic fluid imaging (e.g., 4D soot imaging of a combustion process, a mixing fluid process, a fuel injection process, and view synthesis for visible light tomography), which further demonstrates the flexibility of our optimization frameworks.


High rates of part-time work have been associated with high female employment rates in the Nordic countries, except for Finland. Part-time work has played a key role in the modification of the male breadwinner gender contract by enabling women to enter paid work while continuing to take on the main domestic responsibilities. Previously tacit and little disputed, this 'normalization' of women's part-time work has increasingly become a contentious issue in the public debate in Norway, both in terms of its persistently high level and of the cultural values surrounding it. In their case study, the authors analyse the articulation of these critiques and the underlying conflict dynamics that put the gender contract under pressure and facilitate its modification. The empirical focus is on events inciting debates and the arguments or ideational frames key political actors have used to support their position. The analysis is based on newspaper articles published during the period 1997–2013.


Among various essential components in biocatalysis, metalloproteins play a specific role by catalyzing reactions that would not occur under physiological conditions. The presence of metal ions is thus crucial for the oxidation/reduction processes, electron transfer, spin-forbidden reactions and 'difficult reactions', such as bond cleavage (or formation) in N2, O2 or C–H. These processes are intimately involved in the fundamental elements of life, e.g. respiration and photosynthesis. Enormous efforts, both experimental and theoretical, have been exerted to understand the structure and function of metalloproteins. While experiments (e.g., X-ray crystallography, various spectroscopic techniques, electrochemistry) are essencial in initial phases of exploring of a particular system, theoretical calculations complement these data by providing a unique one-to-one structure-energy mapping. By correlating experimental and theoretical data, the reaction mechanisms of bioinorganic systems can be elucidated. This not only sheds light on the physicochemical principles (laws) governing the chemical behavior of bioinorganic systems, but also provides an insight into the phenomena of metal-ion selectivity. Ultimately, we hope to understand the fundamental question: "Why Nature selected particular metal ion(s) to perform the specific task(s)?" In this contribution, recent advances in computational treatment of transition-metal ion containing systems (most notably metalloproteins) are reviewed.


Term: Emotional Interpretant Quote: ...there are three different interpretants. First, there is the "emotional interpretant," which consists in a feeling, or rather in the quality of a feeling. A concerted piece of music, for example, brings a succession of musical emotions answering to those of the composer. This is an extreme case; usually the emotional interpretant consists merely in a sense, more or less complex, perhaps amounting to an image, perhaps not, of the meaning of the sign. All signs whatsoever must, in order to fulfill their functions as signs, first of all produce such emotional interpretants. [—] The emotional interpretant, immediately produced by the sign, corresponds to the immediate object.


We are developing a total-internal-reflection-based tactile sensor in which the shape is reconstructed using an optical reflection. This sensor consists of silicone rubber, an image pattern, and a camera. It reconstructs the shape of the sensor surface from an image of a pattern reflected at the inner sensor surface by total internal reflection. In this study, we propose precise real-time reconstruction by employing an optimization method. Furthermore, we propose to use active patterns. Deformation of the reflection image causes reconstruction errors. By controlling the image pattern, the sensor reconstructs the surface deformation more precisely. We implement the proposed optimization and active-pattern-based reconstruction methods in a reflection-based tactile sensor, and perform reconstruction experiments using the system. A precise deformation experiment confirms the linearity and precision of the reconstruction.


Abstract Neonicotinoid residues can be present in soybean vegetative tissue, prey insects, and flower tissues, possibly making them toxic to pollinators and natural enemies. Baseline information on the toxicity of neonicotinoids to beneficial insects other than pollinators through multiple routes of insecticide exposure is limited. The objectives of this study were 1) to evaluate the toxicity of thiamethoxam to the hemipteran predator, Orius insidiosus Say, exposed to residues through treated vegetative tissue and insect prey, and 2) to evaluate the effect of thiamethoxam on the abundance of this predator species in soybean fields. Predators were exposed to thiamethoxam in soybean leaves and Aphis glycines Matsumura using a systemic bioassay. Abundance of the predator was evaluated in thiamethoxam seed-treated fields during two different soybean seasons. Our results indicate that concentrations required to kill >50% of the evaluated insects were higher than the concentrations that the insects are likely to encounter in the field. Consumption of A. glycines by O. insidiosus was affected at 10 ng/ml and 5 ng/ml of thiamethoxam at 24 h of evaluation. There was significant mortality for O. insidiosus at 24 h after exposure to thiamethoxam-treated aphids at these concentrations. In soybean fields, there were no significant differences in O. insidiosus number between the plots treated with thiamethoxam and the control. Thiamethoxam may have significant effects on the predators if O. insidiosus feeds on early soybean vegetative tissue or contaminated prey. These results suggest that the compatibility of thiamethoxam with IPM programs for A. glycines needs further evaluation.


As of 2017, it is believed Ireland is coming out of what was known as the Great Recession. Gunnigle et al (2011) highlight the impact this period had on the current job market. As more and more firms were concerned with reducing costs, downsizing became the norm within organisations, which was followed by redundancies. This lead to the creation of a loose labour market, with supply of labour exceeding demand greatly.

During this time, a new type of worker was emerging; generation Y workers, otherwise known as 'Millennials'. Solnet el at (2012), demonstrate that these types of workers were different to the generation before them, as they were known as a more individualistic type of worker, and had different motivations for what will keep them in the workplace.

As the recession ended, demand and supply of jobs seem to be reaching equilibrium again, and companies may find it a challenge to keep this new type of worker than the workers they are used to retaining. It is argued that this generation are the type of workers who tend not to stay in the same company for a long period (DuPlessis, et al., 2015), while Rentz (2015) argues that they believe switching jobs every so often is acceptable. it is beneficial for any organisation to understand what will keep this new type of worker. If employees are poached by the competition, either there is something pulling them to their organisation, or something pushing them from your organisation (Mackay, 2009).

During the Great Recession, turnover was not a worry for many organisations. However, in post-recession Ireland, employers may be worried about staff beginning to leave them for pastures anew. This has major implications for the business, both financially and psychologically. Financial implications include planning around hiring and training new staff (Marchington, et al., 2016), and the loss of production from staff leaving (Armstrong & Taylor, 2017). Therefore, the organisation must plan different approaches so that they can keep their staff. Many scholars have their own recommendations on how to keep staff in organisations. These include offering challenging work (Mello,2011), improving both pay and benefits of staff (Marchington et al., 2016), or improving their work life balance (Tlaiss et al., 2017).


One important criterion in choosing appropriate housing systems for dairy cattle is that the freestall provides a comfortable surface for the cow. This paper describes two experiments testing the effects of commonly used lying surfaces on stall preference and stall usage by Holstein cows. In both experiments, 12 cows were housed individually in separate pens. Each pen contained three free stalls with a different surface: deep-bedded sawdust, deep-bedded sand, and a geotextile mattress covered with 2 to 3 cm of sawdust. The animals were restricted to each surface in turn, in a random order for either 2 (Experiment 1) or 3 d (Experiment 2). Both before and after this restriction phase, the animals were allowed access to all three surfaces, and preference was determined, based on lying times. Of the 12 cows used in Experiment 1, 10 preferred sawdust before and nine after the restriction phase. During the restriction phase, average lying times and number of lying events during the restriction phase were significantly lower for the sand-bed-ded stalls ( P ≤ 0.05), and standing times were higher on mattresses ( P ≤ 0.05), compared with sawdust. Although these cows had some experience with all three surfaces during the experiment, they had been housed in sawdust-bedded stalls during their previous lactation. Cows used in Experiment 2 had spent their previous lactation in sand bedded stalls. In this experiment, about half the cows preferred sand and half sawdust, after the restriction phase. During the restriction phase of experiment, lying times and number of lying events were lower, and standing times were higher when the animals were restricted to the mattresses compared to either sand or sawdust ( P ≤ 0.05). These results indicate that (1) free stall surface can affect both stall preferences and stall usage, and (2) mattresses are less preferred.


The present case study attempted to probe into one of most appealing translations of "Waiting for Godot", from English into Persian, which was manipulated in the process of translation and to investigate the manipulative strategies and to identify the most frequent one in them. The corpus selected for this study is a bilingual parallel corpus comprising an English-Persian translation of the originally French play called Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. The English component of the corpus was translated by Beckett himself. The Persian component, however, was translated by Ali-akbar Alizadeh. The present research was limited to 'manipulation as distortion' category of Dukate's (2007) general manipulation typology. As the data demonstrated, "substitution" was the strategy most-frequently applied by the translator when translating "Waiting for Godot"; covering 142 items. The next frequent strategy was "addition"; covering 49 cases. "Omission" ranked next to "addition", as the third most-frequently applied strategy; 23 items had been omitted.


Sport in the Middle East has become a major issue in global affairs. The contributors to this timely volume discuss the intersection of political and cultural processes related to sport in the region. Eleven chapters trace the historical institutionalization of sport and the role it has played in negotiating 'Western' culture. Sport is found to be a contested terrain where struggles are being fought over the inclusion of women, over competing definitions of national identity, over preserving social memory, and over press freedom. Also discussed are the implications of mega-sporting events for host countries, and how both elite sport policies and sports industries in the region are being shaped. Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East draws on academic disciplines from the humanities and social sciences to offer in-depth, theoretically grounded, and richly empirical case studies. It employs diverse research methodologies, from ethnography and in-depth interviews to archival research, to make a lasting contribution to this critical subject.


NASA's exoplanet Discovery mission Kepler was reconstituted as the K2 mission a year after the failure of the second of Kepler's four reaction wheels in 2013 May. Fine control of the spacecraft pointing is now accomplished through the use of the two remaining well-functioning reaction wheels and balancing the pressure of sunlight on the solar panels, which constrains K2 observations to fields in the ecliptic for up to approximately 80 days each. This pseudo-stable mechanism gives typical roll motion in the focal plane of 1.0 pixels peak-to-peak over 6 hr at the edges of the field, two orders of magnitude greater than typical 6 hr pointing errors in the Kepler primary mission. Despite these roll errors, the joint performance of the flight system and its modified science data processing pipeline restores much of the photometric precision of the primary mission while viewing a wide variety of targets, thus turning adversity into diversity. We define K2 performance metrics for data compression and pixel budget available in each campaign; the photometric noise on exoplanet transit and stellar activity timescales; residual correlations in corrected long-cadence light curves; and the protection of test sinusoidal signals from overfitting in the systematic error removal process. We find that data compression and noise both increase linearly with radial distance from the center of the field of view, with the data compression proportional to star count as well. At the center, where roll motion is nearly negligible, the limiting 6 hr photometric precision for a quiet 12th magnitude star can be as low as 30 ppm, only 25% higher than that of Kepler. This noise performance is achieved without sacrificing signal fidelity; test sinusoids injected into the data are attenuated by less than 10% for signals with periods upto 15 days, so that a wide range of stellar rotation and variability signatures are preserved by the K2 pipeline. At timescales relevant to asteroseismology, light curves derived from K2 archive calibrated pixels have high-frequency noise amplitude within 40% of that achieved by Kepler. The improvements in K2 operations and science data analysis resulting from 1.5 years of experience with this new mission concept, and quantified by the metrics in this paper, will support continuation of K2's already high level of scientific productivity in an extended K2 mission.


Drying causes shrinkage in soils and may yield the formation of crack. This paper reports on various experimental observations on desiccation tests performed in the laboratory under controlled conditions over samples of 'Bengawan Solo' soil; from a defence embankment along the Bengawan Solo River, Indonesia. A number of tests have been carried out to study the desiccation process; including desiccation plate tests
(circular and rectangular bar desiccation plate). An attempts has been taken to study desiccation cracking very generally for this soil. As a first step this paper presents the basic characteristics and shrinkage properties of the Bengawan Solo soil, including soil mineralogy, linear shrinkage limits and results from desiccation plate. The preliminary experimental observation focuses on how crack initiates and propagates, cracking water content, the influence of different specimen thickness and different plate shape and base conditions. To characterise the crack patterns quantitatively digital image analysis (DIA) techniques have been used to analyse the desiccation plate tests. Number of crack intersections, number of crack segments, total length of cracks, average width of cracks and crack intensity factor (CIF) has been determined for this purpose.


This paper discusses the constantly changing definition of big data and portrays the landscape of the most widely used analytical techniques in the context of public policy formulation in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also presents the conclusions drawn from three exploratory studies conducted by sector teams of the Inter-American Development Bank regarding firm-level productivity, sustainable urban mobility, and smart cities. Based on these studies, the paper addresses sensitive issues surrounding the use of big data in public policy, such as data security and ownership, privacy, ethical framework of data use, among others. The paper concludes by making recommendations for government agencies regarding the use of public value intelligence and suggesting a competency rubric for "smart consumers" of big data. The target audiences are
primarily the decision makers in different sectors of the governments in the region, public sector professionals, and social and economic development specialists.


A higher-order function is a function that takes another function as an argument or returns another function as a result. More specifically, a first-order function takes and returns base types, such as integers or lists. A kth-order function takes or returns a function of order k−1. Currying often artificially inflates the order of a function, so we will ignore all inessential currying. (Whether a particular instance of currying is essential or inessential is open to debate, but we expect that our choices will be uncontroversial.) In addition, when calculating the order of a polymorphic function, we instantiate all type variables with base types. Under these assumptions, most common higher-order functions, such as map and foldr, are second-order, so beginning functional programmers often wonder: What good are functions of order three or above? We illustrate functions of up to sixth-order with examples taken from a combinator parsing library. Combinator parsing is a classic application of functional programming, dating back to at least Burge (1975). Most combinator parsers are based on Wadler's list-of-successes technique (Wadler, 1985). Hutton (1992) popularized the idea in his excellent tutorial Higher-Order Functions for Parsing. In spite of the title, however, he considered only functions of up to order three.


The inefficient allocation of transport capacity in the taxi industry leads to the imbalance between the demand and supply of taxies. This paper tries to investigate the influencing factors on the quantity of taxies from the perspective of the demand. It is based on the empirical analysis and assumes that the quantity of buses (Bus), average wage per citizens (AW), population density (PD), road density (RD), the availability of subways (SW) and the e-hailing application (EH) co-determine the quantity of taxies. Under the assumption, I collected the data in 287 cities from 2010 to 2013 and put them into the fixed effect model to examine the impacts of factors mentioned above. The empirical result shows that Bus, AW and PD have positive and significant influences on the quantity of taxies at different levels. Comparatively, CR negatively impacts it and the other two play little role. This result may offer some reference for government regulation on the taxi industry.


The sea conditions of two areas, Haltenbanken and the Barents Sea, have been established in this project. Furthermore, a few cases of marine operations have been evaluated, among other topics. The fist part establishes the sea conditions by creating a so-called Metocean Design Basis. This is a basis for determining the feasibility of e.g. a marine operation. The report focuses on sea states in terms of waves and the duration of good and bad weather windows. Current and wind is neglected. Sea states, in terms of Hs and Tp, are presented by scatter diagrams, where tendencies of the sea environment can be observed. It is also described by mathematical models, which have been established through different techniques. The subject of probability and statistics plays a central part in establishing such a report. Extreme sea states have been obtained by using the same mathematical models along with a contour plot. The duration of good and bad weather windows have been established through simple considerations and mathematical distributions. Results show that sea conditions are more severe at Haltenbanken than in the Barents Sea. The Metocean report constitutes a basis for investigation of marine operations, which is presented in the second part. There are two cases in this part, and the first case investigates limiting conditions in terms of the heave motion of a drill ship. Results are shown in Figure 1, which illustrates the acceptable sea states together with relevant severe sea states. The empty pocket in-between the contour plot and the acceptable values illustrates critical sea states. This have been achieved by establishing the response spectrum, a method which assumes a linear relationship between the waves and the response of the vessel, an assumption which is probably valid for the heave response. The feasibility of marine operations have been considered by employing the distribution for the duration of the longest good weather windows. Additionally, the feasibility of marine operations have been looked at by simulation. Two different methods were considered, and the one which employs data directly seems to yield the most accurate results. The other method, which employs the distribution of duration of good and bad weather windows, seems to have a potential, and could be improved in further work. Its strength lies in the ability to employ Monte Carlo simulation, while its weakness lies in


Part I of the thesis investigates novel urban traffic state estimation methods utilizing probe vehicle data. Chapter 2 proposes a method to integrate the collective effect of dispersed probe data with traffic kinematic wave theory and data mining techniques to model the spatial and temporal dynamics of queue formation and dissipation in arterials. The queue estimation method captures interdependencies in queue evolutions of successive intersections, and moreover, the method is applicable in oversaturated conditions and includes a queue spillover statistical inference procedure. Chapter 3 develops a travel time reliability model to estimate arterial route travel times distribution (TTD) considering spatial and temporal correlations between traffic states in consecutive links. The model uses link-level travel time data and a heuristic grid clustering method to estimate the state structure and transition probabilities of a Markov chain. By applying the Markov chain procedure, the correlation between states of successive links is integrated and the route-level TTD is estimated. The methods in Part I are tested with various probe vehicle penetration rates on case studies with field measurements and simulated data. The methods are straightforward in implementation and have demonstrated promising performance and accuracy through numerous experiments. Part II studies network-level modeling and control of large-scale urban networks. Chapter 4 is the pioneer that introduces the urban perimeter control for two-region urban cities as an elegant control strategy to decrease delays in urban networks. Perimeter controllers operate on the border between the two regions, and manipulate the percentages of transfer flows between the two regions, such that the number of trips reaching their destinations is maximized. The optimal perimeter control problem is solved by the model predictive control (MPC) scheme, where the prediction model and the plant (reality) are formulated by macroscopic fundamental diagrams (MFD). Chapter 5 extends the perimeter control strategy and MFD modeling to mixed urban-freeway networks to provide a holistic approach for large-scale integrated corridor management (ICM). The network consists of two urban regions, each one with a well-defined MFD, and a freeway, modeled by the asymmetric cell transmission model, that is an alternative commuting route which has one on-ramp and one off-ramp within each urban region. The optimal traffic control problem is solved by the MPC approach to minimize total delay in the entire network considering several control policies with different levels of urban-freeway control coordination. Chapter 6 integrates traffic heterogeneity dynamics in large-scale urban modeling and control to develop a hierarchical control strategy for heterogeneously congested cities. Two aggregated models, region- and subregion-based MFDs, are introduced to study the effect of link density heterogeneity on the scatter and hysteresis of MFD. A hierarchical perimeter flow control problem is proposed to minimize the network delay and to homogenize the distribution of congestion. The first level of the hierarchical control problem is solved by the MPC approach, where the prediction model is the aggregated parsimonious region-based MFD and the plant is the subregion-based MFD, which is a more detailed model. At the lower level, a feedback controller tries to maximize the network outflow, by increasing regional homogeneity.


Abstract Several occupational carcinogens (arsenic, cadmium) and industries (rubber production) have been associated with prostate cancer risk but most of the data are from studies conducted on screened populations. Here we explored this association in Romanian men, a population with low PSA screening test coverage. We have analyzed 468 prostate cancer cases pathologically confirmed and 495 non-cancer hospital controls, recruited in the ROMCAN project. Personal information, including occupational activity, was collected through interview. Two experts classified jobs and activities into 15 economic sectors with similar patterns of exposure. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between ever employed in each economic sector and prostate cancer risk. We observed a higher non adjusted risk for employment in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply activities (OR=3.95, p=0.029), manufacturing–light industry (OR=1.88, p=0.039), financial, insurance and gambling (OR=1.44, p=0.046) and a lower risk for employment in construction industry (OR=0.62, p=0.010). After adjusting for potential confounders, only the low risk in construction workers was maintained (OR=0.55, p=0.004). Our study provides some evidence on the role of occupational factors on the prostate cancer risk but further assessments are needed. Healthy lifestyle promotion and prevention should be reinforced at workplaces.


(a) This part prescribes airworthiness standards for the issue of type certificates and changes to those certificates, for propellers. (b) Each person who applies under part 21 for such a certificate or change must show compliance with the applicable requirements of this part. (c) An applicant is eligible for a propeller type certificate and changes to those certificates after demonstrating compliance with subparts A, B and C of this part. However, the propeller may not be installed on an airplane unless the applicant has shown compliance with either § 23.907 or § 25.907 of this chapter, as applicable, or compliance is not required for installation on that airplane. (d) For the purposes of this part, the propeller consists of those components listed in the propeller type design, and the propeller system consists of the propeller and all the components necessary for its functioning, but not necessarily included in the propeller type design.


Five recent techniques from hybrid and optimal control are evaluated on two power electronics benchmark problems. The benchmarks involve a number of practically interesting operating scenarios for fixed-frequency synchronous dc-dc converters. The specifications are defined such that good performance can only be obtained if the switched and nonlinear nature of the problem is accounted for during the design phase. A nonlinear action is featured in all methods either intrinsically or as external logic. The designs are evaluated and compared on the same experimental platform. Experiments show that the proposed methods display high performances, while respecting circuit constraints, thus protecting the semiconductor devices. Moreover, the complexity of the controllers is compatible with the high-frequency requirements of the considered application.


In order to be successful, sustainable developments must promote economic, social and environmental needs and benefits, focusing on inevitable trade-offs as well as synergies between these needs and benefits. Sustainability therefore means thinking in terms of whole systems, with all their interconnectedness, consequences, feed-forward and feedbackward loops. Sustainability issues inherently cut across many boundaries, and are transdisciplinary and transorganisational. This brings to the fore issues of how individuals, groups and organisations make knowledgeable interpretations for sustainability within organisations and professional structures and, in the cases of industries based on multi-firm and multi-professional projects, across these boundaries. The above discourse would suggest that the vagaries of different industrial sectors are likely to impact on how knowledge for sustainability is created, transferred and applied. Knowledge in the field of sustainability is also subject to ideological pressures that can be at odds with what makes both business and ecological sense. The challenge of knowledge management is to understand how to create practical solutions to support individuals and groups as they generate or acquire this multi-faceted knowledge, so as to suit the particular requirements of their application context. Drawing on a recently completed study funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), this paper discusses the role of knowledge communication and knowledge mapping in contributing to decision making in offering sustainable development solutions. It presents and discusses a model for effective knowledge mapping and its benefits in a sustainable urban environment (SUE) context, as well as the main techniques currently in use for knowledge mapping. Also presented are key success factors for effective knowledge communication. It is concluded that
firms and institutions need to find out if the individuals with 'higher stocks' of technical and tacit knowledge for sustainability solutions have a relevant place in the social organisation of the firm/institution, and that this relevant place plays a central role in the network. The mapping instrument has to
fulfil three needs to achieve a satisfactory level of dynamic modelling. Firstly, the need to depict over time the relations that are most representative or central. Secondly, the need to make relative assumptions as to the 'richness of the social interactions', since individuals with high technical ability might not have, at the same time, a superior stock of social interventions. Thirdly, the need to evaluate the capabilities that for a given moment are most relevant to the firm; these are usually associated with global strategies (integrated into relative competitive positioning) such as profit maximisation, and cost minimisation subject to environmental, social and financial constraints.

Keywords: knowledge communication, knowledge mapping, sustainable urban environment