Title of Dissertation: SHAPING INFINITY: AMERICAN AND CANADIAN WOMEN WRITE A NORTH AMERICAN WEST Anne Lee Kaufman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2003 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Marilee Lindemann Department of English This study posits a border-crossing, post-national conception of the "west," enabling a trajectory of women's literary history to become visible that transcends more narrowly-imagined Canadian or American paradigms. The dissertation looks across the 49 parallel to propose a semiotics and politics of North American women's writings about the West. As a part of an ongoing critical conversation about entanglements of body, and place, this study considers the way maps and bodies and the potential of new places open up opportunities for women writers. My dissertation reimagines as a community texts that have previously been narrowly categorized as, for example, nature writing, or western, or written by a woman, or regionalist American or Canadian. The group of writers I've chosen includes Americans Willa Cather, Martha Ostenso, Terry Tempest Williams and Louise Erdrich, and Canadians Margaret Laurence, Ethel Wilson, Gabrielle Roy, and Aritha van Herk. The texts written by this group consider intersections of gender, power, and the physical specificity of the land while redefining the terms belonging and Otherness in the context of a new space. Rethinking language leads to interrogation of the ways that bodies (nations, communities, people) both join and separate themselves from other bodies, including borders, houses, and the way maps of belonging are drawn. The work of feminist cultural geographers is crucial to my interrogation of geographic and political borders and borderlands, the physical bodies inhabiting those literal and fictional liminal spaces and the effects of the language used by and about women who choose to locate their work there. The lived experience of westering women pervades the texts in this study; recognition of the great fact of the body grounds each one in a physical reality. Admitting the previously unspeakable female body precludes the preservation of those mythological structures that accompany given spaces. These writers create an imaginative space in which images of containing structures (maps and bodies, houses and even cars) escape their definitions to deliver on the promise inherent in new places for women writers and their texts.


A new method to measure the effect of in-plane bending on the critical current of YBa2Cu3O7−δ coated conductors is presented. Such a bending mode can be important in transmission cables, saddleback magnets, and double-pancake windings. A linear strain distribution over the width of the conductor develops in this bending mode, where one half of the conductor is under axial compressive strain and the other half is under axial tensile strain. A reversible reduction in critical current of up to 5% is measured in 4 mm wide conductors at a critical bending radius of 0.25–0.28 m. The critical current degrades irreversibly for bending radii less than this because the strain at the edge of the conductor that is under tension irreversibly damages the conductor. The results are described by use of a model that calculates the critical current as a function of in-plane bending radius by taking into account the strain gradient over the width of the sample and the measured dependence of the critical current on axial strain. A similar approach can be used to calculate the degradation of the critical current n of other deformation modes, such as torsion, or other more complex geometries.


The great potential of speech recognition systems in freeing users' hands while interacting with computers has inspired a variety of promising applications. However, given the performance of the state-of-the-art speech recognition technology today, widespread acceptance of speech recognition technology would not be realistic without designing and developing new approaches to detecting and correcting recognition errors effectively. In seeking solutions to the above problem, identifying cues to error detection (CERD) is central. Our survey of the extant literature on the detection and correction of speech recognition errors reveals that the system-initiated, data-driven approach is dominant, but that heuristics from human users have been largely overlooked. This may have hindered the advance of speech technology. In this research, we propose a user-centered approach to discovering CERD. User studies are carried out to implement the approach. Content analysis of the collected verbal protocols lends itself to a taxonomy of CERD. The CERD discovered in this study can improve our knowledge on CERD by not only validating CERD from a user's perspective but also suggesting promising new CERD for detecting speech recognition errors. Moreover, the analysis of CERD in relation to error types and other CERD provides new insights into the context where specific CERD are effective. The findings of this study can be used to not only improve speech recognition output but also to provide context-aware support for error detection. This will help break the barrier for mainstream adoption of speech technology in a variety of information systems and applications.


This paper is a critical look at the holding of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Trinity Western University v The Law Society of British Columbia that freedom of religion obliged the Law Society of British Columbia to approve Trinity Western University's proposed new law school. The authors argue that that holding was wrong, and for a number of reasons. They contend that it was wrong in its characterization of the freedom of religion interest invoked by TWU; wrong in its assessment of the seriousness of the infringement on freedom of religion resulting from the Law Society's refusal to approve TWU's new law school; wrong in both its characterization of the equality interest of members of the LGBTQ community invoked by the Law Society and in its assessment of the importance of that equality interest; and wrong in concluding that the balance of the competing interests of freedom of religion and equality in the context in question fell in favour of the former. Each of these contentions is developed separately and at some length, with significant reliance being placed inter alia on a number of relevant Supreme Court of Canada judgments to which the authors argue the Court of Appeal gave either no or insufficient attention.


Today, there is a general notion that water resources are best managed according to their river basins. River basin management may be approached from a wide variety of angles. This thesis focuses on information management, institutional arrangements and strategic policy support, with special reference to the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The overall objective is to examine strategies, possibilities and hindrances for river basin management, with the ultimate goal of identifying key aspects to be considered - and prioritised - for "successful" European water management and WFD implementation. An assessment of the information management of three transboundary water regimes in Europe showed that a technical/scientific paradigm ap-pears to dominate in river basin accords. This is visible, for example, in the data collection, which is dominated by state and environmental impact information, and the use of passive channels for communicating with stakeholders and other interest groups. The studies addressing institutional arrangements for river basin management according to the WFD showed that the implementa-tion level of the directive is relatively low – both at national and international levels. For instance, competent authorities have not been established (strictly) according to the borders of the estab-lished River Basin District (RBDs). Further, in international RBDs, the ambitions and plans for cooperation vary considerably. Despite the general low implementation level, steps have still been taken in the "direction" of river basin management. At the national level, all examined countries have established RBDs according to river basins, and at the international level, joint river basin management plans will probably be coordinated for a majority of river basins shared by EU Member States. However, the same pattern could not be discerned for river basins extending outside the borders of the EU. In order to support strategic policy making on issues related to the implementation of the WFD, two assessments were made, one addressing international co-operation and water quality in the Baltic Sea Region, and one encompassing rankings of all the newly established RBDs based on a number of identical indicators. Although there is a need to refine these assessments, they may be regarded as simple – but yet robust – models for bench-marking.


Chapter One reviews the use of scandium and lanthanide
trifluoromethanesulfonates (triflates) in organic synthesis. Their ability to act
as Lewis acids and so promote a wide variety of reactions are illustrated. In
particular the review highlights the advantages of scandium and lanthanide
triflates over more conventional Lewis acids, such as aluminium(I1I)
chloride.
Chapter Two describes the use of scandium and lanthanide trifiates in
the reaction of acetals with amines to produce imines. The extension of this
methodology to the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles such as
isoindolones, isoquinolinones and ~-carboline derivatives are elaborated on.
Some limitations of the methodology and the problems encountered with its
application to the synthesis of enamines are covered.
Chapter Three reports our approach to a novel synthesis of ~-carboline
derivatives. The formylation of indole-3-acetic acid derivatives in the 2-
position proved difficult and several approaches to this problem are
discussed. The attempted cyclisation of imines prepared from 2-formyl- and 2-
acetyl-3-indolyl acetic acid compounds are also covered. Chapter Four describes a modified Clauson-Kaas pyrrole procedure
using trimethylsilyl trifiate. The selection of reaction conditions in an effort to
optimise the procedure are discussed.
Chapter Five provides full experimental procedures and analytical data
for the reactions described in Chapters Two, Three and Four.


As parental ages at birth continue to rise, concerns about the effects of fertility postponement on offspring are increasing. Due to reproductive ageing, advanced parental ages have been associated with negative health outcomes for offspring, including decreased longevity. The literature, however, has neglected to examine the potential benefits of being born at a later date. Secular declines in mortality mean that later birth cohorts are living longer. We analyse mortality over ages 30–74 among 1.9 million Swedish men and women born 1938–60, and use a sibling comparison design that accounts for all time-invariant factors shared by the siblings. When incorporating cohort improvements in mortality, we find that those born to older mothers do not suffer any significant mortality disadvantage, and that those born to older fathers have lower mortality. These findings are likely to be explained by secular declines in mortality counterbalancing the negative effects of reproductive ageing.


Keywords: Content Analysis Rubric

This research was conducted on Daily Newspapers Tribun Kaltim by taking the title "Content Analysis Rubric Salam Tribune" on Daily Newspapers Tribun Kaltim edition 1 to 31 August 2005. The purpose of this study were (1). To find out what the theme is presented in every statement that is in the Rubric Salam Tribune Newspapers Daily Tribun Kaltim edition 1 to 31 August 2005. (2). To find out who becomes the target of any statement contained in the existing rubric Salam Tribune on Daily Newspapers Tribun Kaltim edition 1 to 31 August 2005.

Data collection was performed under the overall rubric of how to read existing Salam Tribune, then the contents of each statement which also is the data collected and grouped by categories that have been made. The stages of data collection include:
1. Collect all the Rubric Salam Tribune editions 1 to 31 August 2005 with how to create clipping.
2. Classify each of these statements in accordance with the categories that have been made that the theme category / categories of facts and goals.
3. Enter all data in the worksheet that is a check list based on category.
The data analysis technique used is the technique of mass media content analysis. According to demand rather than research purposes then there are two categories of selected categories of themes and categories of targets.
The results obtained based on the results of the study were: that the themes that emerged in SalamTribun Rubric found on Daily Newspapers Tribun Kaltim quite diverse but the number was not proportional, meaning that there is a theme that is too dominant, while there is also a theme that once minimal and did not even appear altogether. The theme of the most widely emerged during the study period (August 2005) is the theme of Economics. While the target of any statement contained in the existing rubric Salam Tribune Newspapers Daily Tribune in East Kalimantan is also varies between individuals, communities, and institutions. But what dominates is the target that is addressed to government agencies.


Itchgrass or Rottboellia cochinchinensis is a noxious and widely spread annual grass
weed in the tropics and subtropics. In Malaysia itchgrass is a major problem in the
sugarcane plantations in the states of Perlis and Kedah. Preliminary and extended
glasshouse experiments were conducted to classify itchgrass present in Peninsular
Malaysia based on morphological characteristics to aid in its biological control. The
results categorized 13 populations, collected from six infested states, into three biotypes.
Biotype 1 found in association with banana, cocoa and oil palm or along the roadsides in
Johor, Pahang and Perak. Biotype 2 found in association with maize, upland rice, rubber,
sugarcane and tobacco in Kedah, Perlis and Selangor. Biotype 3 was found only along
roadsides of Padang Kartong.
Fungi associated with itchgrass were isolated from diseased plants collected from 14
different infested locations. Ten fungi were pathogenic to the three itchgrass biotypes.
4 Primary screening of the fungi showed that isolates of Botryodiplodia theobrome,
Curvularia eragrostidis, C. fallax, C. lunata, C. pallescens and Fusarium oxysporum
were highly pathogenic to most of the plants tested. Isolates of Exserohilum
longirostratum, E. prolatum, Fusarium moniliforme and a Phoma sp. showed some
degree of specificity to itchgrass. Further screening of E. prolatum against 32 plants
belonging to 12 families showed complete kill of itchgrass, while all other plants tested
were immune, resistant or tolerant to the isolate.
Factors affecting the efficacy of E. prolatum were studied. Fungal growth and
sporulation were evaluated in five culture media under three light durations. Highest
colony diameters were obtained with CMA, PDA and CMA under the 12 hr light,
however highest spore concentration was obtained with V8A under 24 hr light. Different
additives were also evaluated for E. prolatum spore viability. The additives include
suspensions of conidia in distilled water, conidia in three different concentrations of
Tween 20 surfactant, conidia in three different palm oil concentrations, three
combinations of Tween 20 concentrations and palm oil and conidia in five different
concentrations of two herbicides glyphosate (Round Up®) and ammonium glufosinate
(Basta 15®). The results showed high spore viability with Tween 20 and palm oil
suspensions. However, both the herbicides greatly reduced fungal viability compared to
the control.
Factors affecting E. prolatum disease development were also studied. The results
showed that increasing spore concentration increased disease severity, optimum wetness
5
duration was 24 hr, combination of surfactant and palm oil increased disease severity
and reduced dry weight under 8 and 12 hr wetness duration and disease severity
decreased with increasing plant age.
The potential of E. prolatum as a mycoherbicide was evaluated under natural conditions
in two field experiments in a non crop situation and in association with a maize crop.
Application frequency and inoculum concentration greatly influence itchgrass control.
Three application frequencies had significantly higher percentage of control compared to
single and double applications. Within the three frequencies of application, increasing
inoculum concentration increased itchgrass control compared to untreated check. The
results indicate that E. prolatum has a good potential as a biocontrol agent for itchgrass.


This study addresses the question of the existence of a parent flood frequency distribution on a European scale. A new database of L-moment ratios of flood annual maximum series (AMS) from 4105 catchments was compiled by joining 13 national data sets. Simple exploration of the database presents the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution as a potential pan-European flood frequency distribution, being the three-parameter statistical model that with the closest resemblance to the estimated average of the sample L-moment ratios. Additional Monte Carlo simulations show that the variability in terms of sample skewness and kurtosis present in the data is larger than in a hypothetical scenario where all the samples were drawn from a GEV model. Overall, the generalized extreme value distribution fails to represent the kurtosis dispersion, especially for the longer sample lengths and medium to high skewness values, and therefore may be rejected in a statistical hypothesis testing framework as a single pan-European parent distribution for annual flood maxima. The results presented in this paper suggest that one single statistical model may not be able to fit the entire variety of flood processes present at a European scale, and presents an opportunity to further investigate the catchment and climatic factors controlling European flood regimes and their effects on the underlying flood frequency distributions.


Magnesium sulfate salts can form hydrated compounds with up to seven degree of hydration with an energy exchange of the order of 2.8GJ/m3 [1]. In addition, this salt is abundant in nature and thus this material is a potential candidate for storing energy in seasonal heat storage systems. One of the main issues in using this material for seasonal heat storage system is its slow kinetics and low extent of water take-up under normal atmospheric conditions [2]. In addition, the salt undergoes considerable changes in its crystalline structure during hydration and dehydration, and often they encounter the formation of cracks and pores in the crystal structure [3]. This significantly affects the efficiency of the salt in storing energy and also reusability of the material. A molecular level investigation is necessary to understand the process of hydration and dehydration in detail. Presence of an extensive network of hydrogen bonds in MgSO4.7H2O crystal is identified by Allan Zalkin et al [4]. Significant delocalization of hydrogen atoms within the hydrogen bonds are reported in the study. The 7th water molecule in a hepta-hydrate crystal is captured in the interstitial space within the crystals due to coulombic forces and they are very easily removable. Thus modeling a stable molecule of magnesium sulfate hepta hydrate is difficult. So we undertake the hexa hydrated magnesium sulfate to study the equilibrium molecular structure. The hydrogen bonds present in the structure, which stabilizes the molecule, is a focus of attention in this study. In addition, we report Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) [5] charges of Mg and S as a function of degree of hydration in this study. The NBO analysis gives information about electronic occupations in the molecule. In addition, the variation of the natural charges give information about the nature of inters atomic interactions involved in the hydration process of magnesium sulfates. The hydration process is accompanied by a considerable amount of energy exchange with the surroundings. In addition, significant changes in the crystal structure are predicted to happen during hydration. The binding of a water molecule on a slab of magnesium sulfate will resemble the hydration phenomena of a real crystal. Maslyuk et al [6] have performed such an analysis on kieserite structures and found the influence of hydrogen bonds during hydration. A similar study has done towards the last part of this account, which gives important information about hydration process of magnesium sulfate crystal.


The energy absorption mechanism in the close near field of dipole antennas is studied by numerical simulations. All computations are performed and validated applying the three-dimensional multiple multipole software package. The numerical model of the plane phantom is additionally checked by accurate as possible experimental measurements. For the plane phantom, the interaction mechanism can be described well by H-field induced surface currents. The spatial peak specific absorption rate can be approximated within 3 dB by a formula given here based on the incident H-field or antenna current and on the conductivity and permittivity of the tissue. These findings can be generalized to heterogeneous tissues and larger biological bodies of arbitrary shape for frequencies above 300 MHz. The specific absorption rate is mainly proportional to the square of the incident H-field, which implies that in the close near field, the spatial peak specific absorption rate is related to the antenna current and not to the input power. >


What knowledge and skills do you need to practise effectively as a professional within the youth justice system? What values should inform your work with children and young people subject to criminal justice sanctions? These are the central questions addressed by the editors and contributors in this comprehensive new text.

The Youth Justice Handbook provides an essential resource for practitioners in youth justice as well as those who are studying the subject as part of their training or an academic course. Its aim is to equip practitioners in youth justice and the wider children's workforce with an understanding of key theoretical concepts from a range of disciplines that might inform and enhance their work. It encourages a critical interrogation of the ideas that underpin practice by drawing on social constructionist approaches to issues such as 'child development', 'crime' and 'punishment' and related concepts. It provides a descriptive account of current practice in areas such as community corrections and incarceration, examining the evidence base for this and suggesting – where appropriate – alternative strategies.

The key objective of the Handbook is to provide students with the confidence to critically reflect on the ideas and debates that currently influence the work undertaken with young people as well as those that may shape practice in the future. By equipping them with the basic skills of analysis and an understanding of key themes and developments, it aims to further promote their progression as reflective practitioners and autonomous learners.


As membrane filtration systems are more commonly used in the water treatment industry, the call for a reliable, fast and on-line integrity testing system becomes more urgent. Especially where membrane filtration is used in potable water production for the removal of pathogenic microorganisms, the integrity of such a system is of the utmost importance. Membrane integrity testing can be performed in a number of ways, where the pressure-hold or vacuum-hold test and the diffusive airflow test are well known. Although relatively widely applied in membrane plants worldwide, all of these methods exhibit major drawbacks like off-line testing and the lack of a direct relationship between the measured data and the removal efficiency (log-removal). To overcome the above mentioned drawbacks of conventional integrity testing systems, a new kind of integrity test, the Spiked Integrity Monitoring System or SIM®-System was developed by NORIT Membrane Technology in close co-operation with Water Supply Company North Holland and IWW Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Water Research, which combines the accuracy of a challenge test with the speed of a pressure test, while keeping the system under test in operation.


Promotions were given to the Civil Service for services that has reached the work that has been determined by the government, in practice the process of promotion and making SKKPT in proposing the promotion of Civil Servants particularly at the sub-district government Bukit Intan experienced delays in meeting the needs employee documents on the promotion of civil servants. See the existing problems, the research method used for this research is the method of data collection, system development methodology, system approach method of data collection is done by observation and interviews. System development method used is the method Object Oriented. The method of analysis of existing data will be described in terms of activiy Diagram, Use Case. The depiction of the design of the data base will be described in the form Relation Table, Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD). Promotion of information system design using Visual Basic 2008 program and to the database using Microsoft Access 2000. With the advancement of Information Systems is a data search process more effective and efficient, so as to support the development of Information Systems at the sub-district promotion Bukit Intan Pangkalpinang .


Railroad ballast layer consists of discrete aggregate particles and Discrete Element Method (DEM) is one of the most suitable ways to simulate the deformation behaviour of particulate nature of ballast materials. An aggregate imaging based DEM simulation platform developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) can simulate railroad ballast behaviour through the use of polyhedron shaped discrete elements. These ballast elements are created with realistic size and shape properties from image analyses of actual particles using an Aggregate Image Analyzer. The UIUC railroad ballast DEM model was recently put to test for predicting settlement behaviour of full-scale test sections under repeated heavy axle train loading. Field settlement data were collected from the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing (FAST) for Heavy Axle Load (HAL) applications at Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado, to validate the DEM model. The ballast settlement predictions due to the repeated train loading indicate that the DEM model could predict magnitudes of the field ballast settlements from both early loading cycles and over 90 Million Gross Tons (MGTs) performance trends reasonably accurately. The settlement predictions were sensitive to aggregate shape, gradation and initial compaction condition (density) of the constructed ballast layer.


Online social networks have gained importance in recent years. Furthermore, there is a need for designing smart applications for social networks which take into account the behaviour of dynamical processes over these networks. This requires structural knowledge of the network helpful in understanding the dynamical process. Here we study a broad category of such processes called rumor spreading processes. We simulate a typical rumor spreading scenario on a real social network graph of 5.2 million nodes and 72 million edges. We compare the results of this simulation to two synthetically generated Erd s-R nyi [1] and o e power-law random graphs. Our simulation shows that the behavior of the rumor spreading process is considerably different in social networks as compared to the one observed on above mentioned synthetic random graphs. These simulations have possible implications to applications in viral advertising, social marketing, worm attacks, online political campaigns, peer-to-peer communication networks.


In this paper, I argue that in Italian de-verbal noun formation is a syntactic process due to the merger of a nominal head with a specific set of IP's functional projections. Looking at the meaning of each de-verbal noun type and at the morphological properties of its verbal base, I determine the nature of the IP's functional projections involved in the nominal formation. The main goal of the analysis is to show that that semantic and morphological differences across the large variety of Italian de-verbal nouns are reducible to syntactic differences.


Introduction In the USA, the requirement that individuals obtain a prescription for hormonal contraception is a significant barrier for women who lack the time, finances, insurance coverage or means of transportation to visit a provider. The emergence of telemedicine services has removed some of these barriers by providing women with the opportunity to conveniently obtain birth control prescriptions through their computer or smartphone. Methods In this article, we compare the prescribing processes and policies of online platforms that prescribe hormonal contraceptives to women in the USA, and use the recommendations of the 2016 US medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use to evaluate whether online prescribers are providing evidence-based care. Results As of February 2018, nine online platforms prescribed hormonal birth control to women across various states in the USA. These platforms varied in regard to their prescribing processes, range of methods offered, locations of operation, fees for services, and policies regarding age restrictions. Discussion An assessment of each platform's online health questionnaire reveals that these telemedicine services are adequately screening for contraindications and safely providing birth control methods to patients, although efforts could be made to strengthen the rigour of online health questionnaires to ensure they adequately screen for all contraindications.


An experimental-numerical hybrid technique for determining the contact stress distribution between two elastic bodies having both frictionless as well as bonded contact is discussed in this paper. The hybrid method makes use of experimental data collected at a section far from the contact surface and the numerically generated influence coefficients, in terms of the applied unit normal and shear stresses. The experimental data, i.e., the differences in normal stresses and the shear stress, are obtained using photoelastic analysis for the examples illustrated in this paper. When substituted into equations corresponding to the unit normal and shear stress applied in the contact region, this results in a set of algebraic equations which, when solved, allow the contact stress distribution to be obtained. This method is illustrated with examples involving simple and complex geometries of the contacting bodies (16 refs.)


The explosion of data types and volumes we are experiencing in the oil field, particularly in unconventional reservoir development, is stretching the capabilities of traditional manual workflows. The complex interactions between dynamic reservoir properties and the many-faceted well completions process are governed by complex physics that may be only partially understood. Furthermore, our best attempts to perform controlled experiments can often produce highly varied results, suggesting the stochastic nature of production from unconventionals and that we may benefit from adding new tools to our toolkit of deterministic, physics-based analysis.


We propose a framework for viewing action research (AR) by considering the level of criticality and the emphasis on methodological process. Specifically, we propose conventional AR, critical AR, and dialogic AR as three broad categories for considering AR. This framework is explored through discussing the philosophical foundations upon which these approaches rest and providing examples of AR studies and conceptual writings in the organizational change and development literature. This literature appears to be dominated by perspectives and discourses close to the conventional AR paradigm, which does not actively acknowledge value stances. A central point of the article is that dialogic AR, informed by pragmatic philosophy and philosophical hermeneutics, represents an emerging, promising perspective. Dialogic AR's primary concern is to create understanding and mutual learning in and through dialogue while also leading to practical solutions. Practical implications of dialogic AR are also considered, in particular the conditions that need to be present for critical dialogue to flourish and the organizational realities that prevent such dialogue.


This report addresses several critical questions regarding Caribbean nations. Does size matter for economic growth and volatility? To what degree has Caribbean economic growth been inferior to that of ROSE? What could account for the Caribbean growth gap and what economic policies might decision-makers adopt to promote higher and sustainable growth? The answers to these questions will support the overarching hypothesis that the Caribbean suffers sclerosis. The almost-exclusive focus on economic growth in this report does not imply that it should be the sole criterion to judge economic performance. Nevertheless, economic growth is the central concern of Caribbean policymakers, who recognize that it is critical to improve broad economic development, and hence to improve the welfare of Caribbean citizens. The central focus here is on six countries in the region, which will be referred to as the C6: The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. However, the analysis will sometimes include, most often in the aggregate, the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The six members of the OECS used in this report are Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.


Wound healing is a physiological process and there are various supportive aids to speedy healing. Acharya Susruta has given due importance to explain about the proper care of a wounded patient irrespective of the cause of wound either surgery or trauma. Injury is a public health problem of enormous magnitude and surgery is another common cause creating the burden of wounds. Statistical data regarding the complications of wound healing and infections of wound is so alarming that there arises a need for retrospection into the conventional concepts of care of a wounded person. Optimal management of the wounded patient is essential as a prophylaxis to surgical site infections and post traumatic complications. The general practitioners with expertise and experience who are an integral part of providing the essential care should appreciate the integrity of a science like Ayurveda and also promote the ideas incorporated in the age old compendiums. Careful management of the wound post traumatically or post operatively is an important part of post wound recovery of the patient. Current care of wounded must be appraised and reassessed for appropriateness and effectiveness. Nutritional status, psychological well-being, environmental and personal hygiene has been long ago recognised as essential in improving the quality of life of the wounded. This article is an attempt to collect and validate these concepts mentioned in Vranitopasaneeya Adhyaya of Susruta.Â


This thesis examines how the norm of nonintervention has interacted with the norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to construct a new normative architecture of international order. Nonintervention has long served as a deeply embedded norm in the international normative architecture. However, conflicting interpretations of how to respond in cases of egregious intra-state human rights abuses have fuelled contestation surrounding the potential for international protection measures including the projection of force. Drawing from international relations theory, I embrace a social constructivist approach with insights from the English School to explore the nature of normative structures and their role in undergirding international society. While foreign policy decisions reflect a spectrum of normative and non-normative considerations, norms serve as resources that guide and shape the behaviour of actors. Outlining the emergence of R2P and its invocation through empirical cases of mass atrocities in Sri Lanka (2009), Libya (2011), and Syria (2011-2015), this thesis traces the contestation of nonintervention through cases of intra-state humanitarian crises. I conclude that nonintervention has recurrently challenged R2P as a means of securing international order and the rights of independent political communities, with its persistent salience serving as a barrier to intervention and more expansive interpretations of R2P.


Cu-30%Zn alloy is known as cartridge brass and it is widely used for cartridge cases, which are produced fromhot rolled sheet by deep-drawing process at normal room temperature. Intermediate annealing is needed to ensure low work-hardening during drawing and to minimize the forming related problem of cartridge brass. Laboratory muffle furnace is used to carry out the annealing heat-treatment of deformed cartridge brass. An annealing heat treatment temperature range of (300-600)i€°Cis used to develop structure after recovery, partial recrystalization, complete recrystallization and grain growth. The annealed structures are characterized by optical microscope equipped with microstructure analysis software. The quantitative microstructure details like average grain size and grain size distributions aremeasured. The texture characterization of annealed samples is done by pole figure measurement by X-ray texture Goniometer and subsequent texture analysis is performed by LaboTex-Edu texture analysis software. The structure and texture details show that at lower temperature recovery occurs while at higher temperature recrystallization with trace of grain growth occurs. The structure and texture in the intermediate temperature range is contributed by recovery and partial recrystallization.


A large collection of yeast actin mutations has been previously isolated and used in numerous studies of actin cytoskeletal function. However, the various mutations have been in congenic, rather than isogenic, backgrounds, making it difficult to compare the subtle phenotypes that are characteristic of these mutants. We have therefore placed 27 mutations in an isogenic background. We used a subset of these mutants to compare the degree to which different actin alleles are defective in sporulation, endocytosis, and growth on NaCl-containing media. We found that the three phenotypes are highly correlated. The correlations are specific and not merely a reflection of general growth defects, because the phenotypes are not correlated with growth rates under normal conditions. Significantly, those actin mutants exhibiting the most severe phenotypes in all three processes have altered residues that cluster to a small region of the actin crystal structure previously defined as the fimbrin (Sac6p)-binding site. We examined the relationship between endocytosis and growth on salt and found that shifting wild-type or actin mutant cells to high salt reduces the rate of alpha-factor internalization. These results suggest that actin mutants may be unable to grow on salt because of additive endocytic defects (due to mutation and salt).


A Kakutani-von Neumann map is the push-forward of the group rotation (Z_2,+1) to a unit simplex via an appropriate topological quotient. The usual quotient towards the unit interval is given by the base 2 expansion of real numbers, which in turn is induced by the doubling map. In this paper we replace the doubling map with an n-dimensional generalization of the tent map; this allows us to define Kakutani-von Neumann transformations in simplexes of arbitrary dimensions. The resulting maps are piecewise-linear bijections (not just mod 0 bijections), whose orbits are all uniformly distributed; in particular, they are uniquely ergodic w.r.t. the Lebesgue measure. The forward orbit of a certain vertex provides an enumeration of all points in the simplex having dyadic coordinates, and this enumeration can be translated via the n-dimensional Minkowski function to an enumeration of all rational points. In the course of establishing the above results, we introduce a family of {+1,-1}-valued functions, constituting an n-dimensional analogue of the classical Walsh functions.


The prediction of schizophrenia-related psychopathologic deficits is exceedingly important in the fields of psychiatry and clinical practice. However, objective association of the brain structure alterations to the illness clinical symptoms is challenging. Although, schizophrenia has been characterized as a brain dysconnectivity syndrome, evidence accounting for neuroanatomical network alterations remain scarce. Moreover, the absence of generalized connectome biomarkers for the assessment of illness progression further perplexes the prediction of long-term symptom severity. In this paper, a combination of individualized prediction models with quantitative graph theoretical analysis was adopted, providing a comprehensive appreciation of the extent to which the brain network properties are affected over time in schizophrenia. Specifically, Connectome-based Prediction Models were employed on Structural Connectivity (SC) features, efficiently capturing individual network-related differences, while identifying the anatomical connectivity disturbances contributing to the prediction of psychopathological deficits. Our results demonstrated distinctions among widespread cortical circuits responsible for different domains of symptoms, indicating the complex neural mechanisms underlying schizophrenia. Furthermore, the generated models were able to significantly predict changes of symptoms using SC features at follow-up, while the preserved SC features suggested an association with improved positive and overall symptoms. Moreover, cross-sectional significant deficits were observed in network efficiency and a progressive aberration of global integration in patients compared to healthy controls, representing a group-consensus pathological map, while supporting the dysconnectivity hypothesis.


The seeded RAFT emulsion polymerization of styrene at low initiator concentrations was modelled using population balance equations and Monte Carlo simulations. Without any adjusting parameter, the models accurately predicted the polymerization kinetics, particle size, particle size distribution (PSD), and the characteristic changing trend of molecular weight distribution (MWD) at various initiator concentrations. An initiator concentration-dependent particle activation/deactivation process (PADeP), which played a decisive role in PSD and MWD at very low initiator concentrations, was highlighted to account for the unexpected simultaneous increase in the dispersities of PSD (PDIPS) and MWD (PDIMW) with the decrease of the initiator concentration. It was concluded that at low initiator concentrations, both PDIPS and PDIMW should be mappings of the dispersity of the number of PADeP experienced by particles during the whole polymerization course. The random nature of PADeP caused the dramatic increases in both PDIPS and PDIMW with the decrease of the initiator concentration. However, in the cases of higher initiator concentrations where the average number of PADeP was above 15, the effect of PADeP became much weaker. In such cases, PDIMW should be mainly controlled by the RAFT reaction.


The industrial revolution and the subsequent industrialization of the economies occurred first in temperate regions. We argue that this and the associated positive correlation between absolute latitude and GDP per capita are due to the fact that countries located far from the equator suffered more profound seasonal fluctuations in climate, namely stronger and longer winters. We propose a growth model of biased innovations that accounts for these facts and show that countries located in temperate regions were more likely to create or adopt capital-intensive modes of production. The intuition behind this result is that savings are used to smooth consumption; therefore, in places where output fluctuations are more profound, savings are bigger. Because the incentives to innovate depend on the relative supply factors, economies where savings are bigger are more likely to create or adopt capital-intensive technologies.


Confirmation of Bitcoin transactions is executed in blocks, which are then stored in the Blockchain. As compared to the number of transactions in the mempool, the set of transactions which are verified but not yet confirmed, available space for inclusion in a block is typically limited. For this reason, successful miners can only process a subset of such transactions, and users compete with each other to enter the next block by offering confirmation fees. Assuming that successful miners pursue revenue maximization, they will include in the block those mempool transactions that maximize earnings from related fees. In the paper we model transaction fees as a Nash Equilibrium outcome of an auction game with complete information. In the game the successful miner acts as an auctioneer selling block space, and users bid for shares of such space to confirm their transactions. Moreover, based on expected fees we also discuss what the optimal, revenue maximizing, block size limit should be for the successful miner. Consistently with the intuition, the optimal block size limit resolves the trade-off between including additional transactions (which possibly lower the unit fees collected) and keeping the block capacity limited (with, however, higher unit fees).


The problem investigated in this research is whether perceived leadership
behaviours of the superiors namely, initiating structure and consideration, will
have an impact on the job satisfaction of the middle managers of Tenaga Nasional
Berhad (TNB).
The survey instrument used was a questionnaire comprising three
sections. The first section sought respondents' personal information while the
second section, a modified version of the Leader Behavior Description
Questionnaire, measured managers' perception of the leadership behaviours of
their superiors. The final section, a modified version of the Minnesota
Satisfaction Questionnaire, was aimed at gauging the level of job satisfaction of
middle managers of TNB. The questionnaire was then distributed to a randomly selected sample of
350 middle managers of TNB. One hundred and twelve of them responded but
only 106 of the questionnaires were complete. Descriptive and inferential
statistical procedures, namely, frequencies, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation
and multiple regression were used to analyze the data.


Urine depositions by grazing animals induce high concentration of ammonium (NH 4 + ) in soils. The adsorption of NH 4 + in the soil plays an important role in the fate of the urine deposited N. However, adsorption isotherms for a wide range of soils are not readily available. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) that relate easily measurable and widely available soil properties to the NH 4 adsorption capacity of soils might be a useful tool to help predict the fate of the urine if they are sufficiently accurate. To derive PTF's for NH 4 adsorption by soils, batch experiments were performed with eight different soils from New Zealand. The adsorption data for the different soils were fitted with the Freundlich isotherm and the model parameters related to soil properties including total C content, clay and sand fractions, and cation-exchange capacity (CEC). Clay fraction and CEC were found to be most related to the Freundlich model parameters, and were used to derive PTFs. The PTFs were validated using NH 4 + sorption data from the literature spanning a range of soils with different textures and CEC. Agreement between literature NH 4 adsorption data and those calculated using the PTFs were good, with R 2 of 0.7, provided that only soils with similar clay contents and CECs as those used for their development. While this is a potential limitation of the derived PTFs, the range of clay and CEC used are relevant for a wide range of soils.


SummaryRedis in Action introduces Redis and walks you through examples that demonstrate how to use it effectively. You'll begin by getting Redis set up properly and then exploring the key-value model. Then, you'll dive into real use cases including simple caching, distributed ad targeting, and more. You'll learn how to scale Redis from small jobs to massive datasets. Experienced developers will appreciate chapters on clustering and internal scripting to make Redis easier to use. About the TechnologyWhen you need near-real-time access to a fast-moving data stream, key-value stores like Redis are the way to go. Redis expands on the key-value pattern by accepting a wide variety of data types, including hashes, strings, lists, and other structures. It provides lightning-fast operations on in-memory datasets, and also makes it easy to persist to disk on the fly. Plus, it's free and open source. About this bookRedis in Action introduces Redis and the key-value model. You'll quickly dive into real use cases including simple caching, distributed ad targeting, and more. You'll learn how to scale Redis from small jobs to massive datasets and discover how to integrate with traditional RDBMS or other NoSQL stores. Experienced developers will appreciate the in-depth chapters on clustering and internal scripting. Written for developers familiar with database concepts. No prior exposure to NoSQL database concepts nor to Redis itself is required. Appropriate for systems administrators comfortable with programming. What's InsideRedis from the ground up Preprocessing real-time data Managing in-memory datasets Pub/sub and configuration Persisting to diskAbout the Author Dr. Josiah L. Carlson is a seasoned database professional and an active contributor to the Redis community. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. Table of ContentsPART 1 GETTING STARTED Getting to know Redis Anatomy of a Redis web application PART 2 CORE CONCEPTS Commands in Redis Keeping data safe and ensuring performance Using Redis for application support Application components in Redis Search-based applications Building a simple social network PART 3 NEXT STEPS Reducing memory use Scaling Redis Scripting Redis with Lua


Background: Adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs) are relatively easy in isolation procedure compared to bone marrow-derived. Minimally invasive MSC injections need C-arm as guidance that potentially influence the cell viability and doubling time. This study aimsed to determine the effect of C-arm X-ray exposure on AT-MSC viability and population doubling time (PDT). Methods: This experimental study used cryopreserved adipose tissue derived MSCs stored in Stem Cell Medical Technology Integrated Service Unit Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. Cells were thawed, propagated, and exposed to varying doses of C-arm X-ray radiation. Stem cell viability was measured, and then the cells were cultured to assess their PDT. Generalized linear models test was used to compare cell viability between post-thaw, post-propagation, post-radiation, post-culture post-radiation, and control and between radiation dose groups. Kruskal-Wallis test assessed PDT between various radiation doses in post-radiation groups. Wilcoxon test was used to assess PDT between pre-radiation and post-radiation groups. Results: Mean confluence period of adipose MSCs post- irradiation was 4.33 days. There was no statistically significant difference in MSC viability after X-ray exposure between pre- and post-irradiation groups (p=0.831). There was no correlation between post-irradiation viability and radiation dose (p=0.138, r=0.503). There were no significant differences in PDT between pre- and post-culture post-irradiation groups and between various radiation doses in post-irradiation groups (p=0.792). Conclusion: MSC viability and PDT were not influenced by radiation exposure up to 32.34 mgray.


Programmed cell death is a prominent feature of normal animal development. During neurogenesis, naturally occurring cell death is a mechanism to eliminate neurons that fail to make appropriate connections. To prevent accidental cell death, mechanisms that trigger programmed cell death, as well as the genetic components of the cell death program, are tightly controlled. In a large-scale mutagenesis screen for embryonic lethal mutations in zebrafish Danio rerio we have found 481 mutations with a neural degeneration phenotype. Here, we present 50 mutations that fall into two classes (termed spacehead and fala-like) that are characterized by two main features: first, they appear to affect cell survival primarily within the neuroectodermal lineages during somitogenesis, and second, they show an altered brain morphology at or before 28 hours of development. Evidence for the specificity of cell death within the central nervous system comes from visual inspection of dying cells and analysis of DNA fragmentation, a process associated with apoptotic cell death. In mutants, the level of dying cells is significantly increased in brain and spinal cord. Furthermore, at the end of somitogenesis, the cell count of radial glia and trigeminal neurons is reduced in some mutants of the spacehead class. A variety of neurodegenerative disorders in mouse and humans have been associated with abnormal levels of programmed cell death within the central nervous system. The mutations presented here might provide a genetic framework to aid in the understanding of the etiology of degenerative and physiological disorders within the CNS and the activation of inappropriate programmed cell death.


In this Article, part of a symposium on federal preemption of state tort law, I build upon my earlier work on the nature of preemption to try and deepen the conceptual and constitutional foundations of the subject. I argue that this neglected dimension must be moved to center stage if preemption doctrine is to have a coherent and principled framework. In particular, the key issues are the nature, source, and limits of Congress's power to preempt the states. The result is that preemption should be understood as a discretionary power of Congress the source of which lies in the Necessary and Proper Clause. Most importantly, one and the same constitutional limit on this power is strongly suggested by analyzing it from all four of the following perspectives: (a) its source in the Necessary and Proper Clause; (b) its similarity to two other congressional powers to alter federal-state relations, (c) the political safeguards of federalism, and (d) comparative constitutional law. This constitutional limit is that although Congress has the power to preempt the states, it can only do so expressly. There should be no such thing as implied preemption. In the final section, I illustrate the practical workings of my recast preemption doctrine by applying it to the leading cases of recent years.


Abstract This article examines some of the changes that have taken place within world Christianity in the last century, particularly in Africa, and as reflected in various articles of the International Review of Mission (IRM) over the past 100 years. These changes include a shift in the demographic centre of Christianity from the North to the South, and the rise and development of Pentecostalism. This relates to Africans becoming disenchanted with aspects of mission Christianity that were unable to work with indigenous enchanted worldviews. ********** In Africa, pneumatic forms of Christian expression like Pentecostalism and the various African Independent/Initiated Churches (AICs) have been enjoying considerable appeal, with their emphases on the reality of supernatural evil and the power of the Holy Spirit. This has been evident not only in the rise of independent churches outside the control of mission societies but also the formation of African immigrant churches in former heartlands of Christianity in the West. For African Christianity, the past century has been one of religious innovations. Mission endeavours that translated the Bible into various vernacular languages helped to facilitate the process of the expansion, leading to what some have called "Africa's Christian century." These developments, it is important to say, did not escape the editors and contributors to the IRM. For interpreting Christianity in Africa from the viewpoint of mission, the IRM remains unparalleled. The journal used a combination of African and non-African voices in the discussion. Additionally, IRM has given space for both academics and practitioners in interpreting Christianity and mission in Africa. There have been articles on the encounter between Western mission Christianity and African culture, African initiated Christianity, translations of the Bible and its import for Christian mission, and more recently, important articles on Pentecostalism (1986) and on African immigrant Christianity in the West (2000). Africa in world Christianity today The articles that have appeared in IRM over the last century are best appreciated with the context of developments in world Christianity. In his book, The Next Christendom, Philip Jenkins makes it dear that we are currently living through one of the most transforming moments of religion worldwide: Whatever Europeans or North Americans may believe, Christianity is doing very well indeed in the global south not just surviving but expanding.... The era of Western Christianity has passed within our lifetimes, and the day of Southern Christianity is dawning. (1) The recession of Christianity in the global North, as Jenkins notes here, has coincided with its accession in the global South, with Africa emerging as one of its major heartlands. This 20th-century development defied the fears of Edinburgh 1910 that Africa was going to turn Islamic by the end of that century. That the continent emerged instead as a major Christian stronghold makes it important, as Kwame Bediako argues, that "one should seek to understand what this might mean for Africa and the world." (2) To this end Bediako very aptly titled one of his works, Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non- Western Religion. (3) He did with the understanding that the prospects for Christian expansion and innovation in Africa were going to continue on a high note through the 21st century. In his book he goes on to identify some of the challenges a postmissionary Christian Africa may need to face, as "an important flag-bearer of Christianity in the new century." (4) At the dawn of the 21st century, we could say that although Africa remains a religiously pluralistic continent, indeed, it has emerged as a major Christian heartland. This is at a time when the faith is clearly under siege, and in some cases, even being deliberately hounded out of public life in parts of the West. …


This Article presents the first survival model for systematically identifying and comparing United States district courts as patent rocket dockets, and for examining related trends in patent litigation. The conventional wisdom of rocket docket status in a judicial district tends to rely on average case disposition times and the availability of court rules for patent cases, as well as anecdotal information about well-known jurists with experience in patent adjudication.By comparison, this Article approaches rocket dockets through a quantitative investigation of recent historical trends in patent case filings as well as through market concentration analysis at the district court and circuit court levels of patent case filings. Most significantly, the Article provides an indexed ranking of district courts derived from survival analysis of case dispositions, marginal pendency, and court capacity based on data from over 44,000 patent infringement cases litigated during the 1985-2010 period.The results confirm that the currently prominent rocket dockets are, indeed, the Eastern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Virginia, and — most recently — the Western District of Wisconsin. The results also suggest, inter alia, that the Middle District of Florida and the Western District of Washington are emerging patent rocket dockets. The Article concludes with an outlook for future study on the differential effect of technology classes on case disposition speed within this framework.


"Based on theoretical reasoning it has been suggested that the reliability of findings published in the scientific literature decreases with the popularity of a research field" (Pfeiffer and Hoffmann, 2009). As we know, deep learning is very popular and the ability to reproduce results is an important part of science. There is growing concern within the deep learning community about the reproducibility of results that are presented. In this paper we present a number of controllable, yet unreported, effects that can substantially change the effectiveness of a sample model, and thusly the reproducibility of those results. Through these environmental effects we show that the commonly held belief that distribution of source code is all that is needed for reproducibility is not enough. Source code without a reproducible environment does not mean anything at all. In addition the range of results produced from these effects can be larger than the majority of incremental improvement reported.


We present the first demonstration of a 792 nm diode-pumped Tm3+:LiLuF4 thin-disk laser operation around 1.9 μm. In multimode configuration, up to 21 W of output power and a maximal slope efficiency of 49% with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 40% was demonstrated. A tuning range from 1899 nm to 1927 nm could be achieved by inserting an etalon into the cavity.


MODELING AND FITTING OF THE WIND DATA USING DIFFERENT TIME SERIES MODELS AND INVESTIGATING THE RELATED APPLICATIONS OF FITTED DATA. URLA AND RISØ CASES. This thesis is prepared as an outcome of Energy Engineering Master of Science program at IZTECH. Main purpose of this study is to investigate the possible ways of estimating the evolution of wind speed in Turkey, which is useful in predicting the wind power generation. Wind Energy has recently been recognized as one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the world. Despite its high potential, one major problem is that it is an intermittent energy source which follows, in general, statistically a quite noisy evolution with large variability and difficulty in forecasting. Standard time series models have been employed to forecast the wind speed in the literature (such as ARIMA, ARMA). The majority of these, however, are based on a univariate modelling. This is likely to create a significant loss in forecast accuracy as the important dynamics of wind such as ambient temperature, absolute pressure, wind direction and humidity are ignored. So, aim of the present study is to incorporate these factors in a multivariate VAR setting and estimate the wind speed in 4 different locations around Urla City (nearby Izmir-Turkey) by employing hourly data between June-2000 and October-2001. To provide a benchmark, I also compare estimations from VAR with the predictions from ARIMA and SARIMA models. The results indicate two important conclusions. First, it has been shown that all models provide an accurate estimate of wind speed. Second, multivariate VAR and SARIMA is clearly shown to outperform the ARIMA model by improving the wind speed predictions and producing less forecast errors. Thus, these models are demonstrated to be helpful in estimating the wind power generation as well.


Contextual bandit algorithms have become popular tools in online recommendation and advertising systems. Offline evaluation of the effectiveness of new algorithms in these applications is critical for protecting online user experiences but very challenging due to their "partial-label" nature. A common practice is to create a simulator which simulates the online environment for the problem at hand and then run an algorithm against this simulator. However, creating the simulator itself is often difficult and modeling bias is usually unavoidably introduced.

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we review a recently proposed offline evaluation technique. Different from simulator-based approaches, the method is completely data-driven, is easy to adapt to different applications, and more importantly, provides provably unbiased evaluations. We argue for the wide use of this technique as standard practice when comparing bandit algorithms in real-life problems. Second, as an application of this technique, we compare and validate a number of new algorithms based on generalized linear models. Experiments using real Yahoo! data suggest substantial improvement over algorithms with linear models when the rewards are binary.


The effectiveness of a vision screening programme in government schools in the Durba.n Functional Region under the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives was evaluated. For the purpose of the study a Comprehensive Vision Screening Programme (CVSP) was developed based on the Modified Clinical Technique (MCT) used in the Orinda Study. Of the represetative sample of 419 children assessed, the CVSP classified 85 (20.3%) as referrals. In comparison, the school health nurses referred 35 (9.6%) of the children for a complete ocular examination, 40 per cent of which were unwarranted. Analysis of the usable records showed that the school vision screening programme (SVSP) correctly categorised 307 (83.9%) of the children and incorrectly categorised 59 (16.1%) of them. The latter consisted of 3.8% over-referrals and 12.3% under-referrals. The school vi.sion screening programme did not detect with a reasonable degree of accuracy those children with visual disorders. The effectiveness of the SVSP, as determined by the phi coefficient, was 0.35. Approximately two thirds of the children with visual disorders were not detected by the SVSP. One in every eight children classified as having no visual problem by the SVSP was an under-referral and two in every five childre,n referred by the SVSP were over-referred. The high incorrect referral rates was attributed to the use of inappropriate screening techniques. The prevalence of visual disorders in the children was 20.3%; in boys 18.7% and 21.9% in girls. The relative risk of visual disorders in girls compared to boys was 1.2 (95% cr = 0.8 1.7). The prevalence of eye co-ordination disorders was 11.2%, refractive error problems 10.3%, visual acuity 4.5%, perceptual status (colour vision and stereopsis) 4.0% and organic disorders 1.2%. The binocular disorders were characterised as convergence insufficiencies and the disorders of acconunodation were described as acconunodative insufficiencies. Referable myopia (6.7%) was more prevalent than referable hyperopia (2.1%). Myopia was more prevalent in girls and hyperopia was more prevalent in boys. The clinical findings of the re:fractive error was compared to that measured by an autorefractor. The findings were remarkably similar and the study concluded that the difference between the two lneasures was not clinically significant. The study recommended that the MCT be used as the method of choice in school vision screening protocols.


Condenser tube failure via wall penetration allows cooling water to contaminate the working fluid (steam). Contamination, especially from brackish or saltwater, will lower steam quality and thus lower overall plant efficiency. Because of the importance of minimizing leakages, power plant engineers are primarily concerned with the maximum localized corrosion in a unit rather than average corrosion values or rates. Extreme value analysis is a useful tool for evaluating the condition of condenser tubing. Extreme value statistical techniques allow the prediction of the most probable deepest pit in a given surface area based upon data acquired from a smaller surface area. Data is gathered from a physical examination of actual tubes (either in-service or from a sidestream unit) rather than small sample coupons. Three distinct applications of extreme value statistics to condenser tube evaluation are presented in this paper: (1) condition assessment of an operating condenser, (2) design data for material selection, and (3) research tool for assessing impact of various factors on condenser tube corrosion. The projections for operating units based on extreme value analysis are shown to be more useful than those made on the basis of other techniques such as eddy current or electrochemical measurements. Extreme value analysismore » would benefit from advances in two key areas: (1) development of an accurate and economical method for the measurement of maximum pit depths of condenser tubes in-situ would enhance the application of extreme value statistical analysis to the assessment of condenser tubing corrosion pitting and (2) development of methodologies to predict pit depth-time relationship in addition to pit depth-area relationship would be useful for modeling purposes.« less


Vaccines based on preferential expression of bacterial antigens during human infection have not been described. Staphylococcus aureus synthesized poly-N-succinyl beta-1-6 glucosamine (PNSG) as a surface polysaccharide during human and animal infection, but few strains expressed PNSG in vitro. All S. aureus strains examined carried genes for PNSG synthesis. Immunization protected mice against kidney infections and death from strains that produced little PNSG in vitro. Nonimmune infected animals made antibody to PNSG, but serial in vitro cultures of kidney isolates yielded mostly cells that did not produce PNSG. PNSG is a candidate for use in a vaccine to protect against S. aureus infection.


This expository article is an expanded version of talks given at the "Current Developments in Mathematics, 2002" conference. It gives an introduction to the (generalized) conjecture of Rapoport and Goresky-MacPherson which identifies the intersection cohomology of a real equal-rank Satake compactification of a locally symmetric space with that of the reductive Borel-Serre compactification. We motivate the conjecture with examples and then give an introduction to the various topics that are involved: intersection cohomology, the derived category, and compactifications of a locally symmetric space, particularly those above. We then give an overview of the theory of L-modules and micro-support (see math.RT/0112251) which was developed to solve the conjecture but has other important applications as well. We end with sketches of the proofs of three main theorems on L-modules that lead to the resolution of the conjecture. The text is enriched with many examples, illustrations, and references to the literature.


This paper describes a self-calibration procedure that jointly estimates the extrinsic parameters of an exteroceptive sensor able to observe ego-motion, and the intrinsic parameters of an odometry motion model, consisting of wheel radii and wheel separation. We use iterative nonlinear on-manifold optimization with a graphical representation of the state, and resort to an adaptation of the pre-integration theory, initially developed for the IMU motion sensor, to be applied to the differential drive motion model. For this, we describe the construction of a pre-integrated factor for the differential drive motion model, which includes the motion increment, its covariance, and a first-order approximation of its dependence with the calibration parameters. As the calibration parameters change at each solver iteration, this allows a posteriori factor correction without the need of re-integrating the motion data. We validate our proposal in simulations and on a real robot and show the convergence of the calibration towards the true values of the parameters. It is then tested online in simulation and is shown to accommodate to variations in the calibration parameters when the vehicle is subject to physical changes such as loading and unloading a freight.


This thesis is a comparative study of three coffee producers in the San José region of Costa Rica, who either are or have been Fairtrade certified. The purpose is to examine the land use models of the coffee farmers and to analyse what impact Fairtrade certification has had on the choice of these. The theoretical framework was based on the concept of land sharing and land sparing as a way to understand the existence and function of non-commercial plants within the farmland on the one hand and the relationship between agriculture and nature on the other. Participatory mapping and semi-structured interviews were conducted among farmers in the Santa Elena community, together with interviews with representatives from the cooperatives, the department of agriculture and more. The results show that most farmers don't identify their land use as belonging to any particular strategy but nevertheless use intensive cultivation with chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Monoculture and polyculture exists and non-commercial trees could be found on both types of farms, with the main purpose of providing shade for the coffee. A dichotomy between agriculture and nature appears to be common, which would mean that a more land sparing philosophy is prevalent. Only one organic farmer showed clear signs of land sharing practices with an emphasised synergetic approach with focus on ecosystem services. In conclusion, it seems like Fairtrade certification affects these types of land use mostly in an indirect manner, working mainly with the cooperatives who then primarily work with aspects like regulated chemical use. It also appears that the producers who seek out certification are either those who high altitude farmers who can live up the quality standards and/or those who already share common principles with Fairtrade, leading to marginal changes in land use after certification


This essay is devoted to epistemics of Savage axioms and Ellsberg's paradox in decision-choice actions in relation to fuzzy optimal decision-choice rationality in the space of uncertainties. The uncertainty space is partitioned into non-fuzzy stochastic sub-space and fuzzy-stochastic sub-space. The Savage axioms are argued to emerge from the former which is vagueness-free while Ellsberg thought experiment leading to his paradox takes place in the latter that contains vagueness. The explanation of the rise of the paradox is shown to be the result of non-comparable decision-choice sub-spaces in which both of them work. The topologies of the two sub-spaces and the required mathematics and logic are considered in their epistemic forms. Criticisms are offered on some attempts to explain and resolve the paradox. The paradox, it is argued, cannot be logically resolved in the space in which the Savage axioms are created. It can not either be resolved in the fuzzy-stochastic space with classical paradigm under Aristotelian logic where all propositions are either true or false, it is argued. A resolution of the paradox as it is related to probability estimates is offered through fuzzy logic, mathematics and computational methods of optimal fuzzy decision-choice rationality. The essay is concluded with an epistemic reflection.


Nano particles of silver and bismuth oxide have been synthesized by an eco-friendly, cost effective green mediated method using methanolic extract of Cleistanthus Collinus. Also, Ag doped Bi 2O3 nano particles have been prepared and characterized using XRD, SEM and EDAX analysis. The Ag doped Bi 2O3 nanoparticles have been coated over mild steel substrate and the corrosion behaviour has been studied.


[1] A global estimate of the direct effects of anthropogenic aerosols on solar radiation in cloudy skies is obtained by integrating satellite and ground-based observations with models of aerosol chemistry, transport, and radiative transfer. The models adopt global distribution of aerosol optical depths (from MODIS), clouds, water vapor, ozone, and surface albedo from various satellite climatology. Gaps and errors in satellite derived aerosol optical depths are filled and corrected by surface network (AERONET), and an aerosol chemical-transport model (GOCART) by using statistical techniques. Using these derived aerosol properties and other related variables, we generate climatological monthly mean anthropogenic aerosol forcing for both clear and average cloudy skies. Unless otherwise stated, our estimates are for average cloudy skies, also referred to as all sky conditions. The global annual mean direct forcing is −0.35 Wm−2 (range of −0.6 to −0.1 Wm−2) at the top-of-the atmosphere (TOA), +3.0 Wm−2 (range of +2.7 to +3.3Wm−2) in the atmosphere, and −3.4 Wm−2 (range of −3.5 to −3.3 Wm−2) at the surface. The uncertainty of about 10–20% in the surface and atmosphere forcing translates into a six fold uncertainty in the TOA forcing because the TOA forcing is a small sum of two large terms (surface and atmosphere) of opposing signs. Given the current state of observations and modeling, it is very difficult to further reduce the uncertainty in the estimated TOA forcing. The major contributors to the uncertainty in atmospheric absorption are from the uncertainty in the vertical distribution of aerosols and the single scattering albedo of aerosols. The TOA forcing in clear skies is a factor of two different, while the surface and atmosphere forcing terms differ by only about 10–25%. Another major finding of this study is that the reduction in the surface solar radiation is a factor of 10 larger than the reduction in net solar (down minus up) radiation at TOA. The TOA forcing changes sign regionally, whereas the surface forcing is always negative. Thus caution must be exercised against relying too strongly on assessing the aerosol impacts based solely on global mean forcing. Aerosols over the NH contribute about 64% to the global surface forcing. Regionally the populated tropical regions contribute the most to the global surface forcing, with Asia the largest contributor. Roughly 49% of the total surface forcing is over the oceanic regions. Most of the previous global aerosol forcing estimate studies were conducted with a chemical transport model coupled to a general circulation model with model generated aerosols and cloudiness. Thus the present study, which adopts observed aerosol properties and observed three dimensional cloudiness, provides an independent approach for estimating the aerosol forcing.


In recognition of the achievement of the medieval monks from 1100-1350, Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), following Lord Acton, called one of these monks, Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), "the First Whig," that is, the founder of the party of liberty in human history.5 Many commentators have also noted that in The Divine Comedy , one of the greatest works of poetry in any language, Alighieri Dante (1265-1321) created both a dramatic rendition of the Thomist vision and a testament to the high importance an entire civilization attached to human liberty. Dante had wholeheartedly accepted the fact that every story in the Bible, Jewish and Christian, gathers its suspense from the free choices that confront every human being. How humans use their liberty determines their destiny; how we use our freedom is the essential human drama. Liberty is the axial point of the universe, the point of its creation. That is the premise of The Divine Comedy and the ground of human dignity. Michael Novak, "The Judeo-Christian Foundation of Human Dignity, Personal Liberty, and the Concept of the Person," Journal of Markets & Morality 1, no. 2 (October 1998): 107-121


We address Stackelberg models of combinatorial congestion games (CCGs); we aim to optimize the parameters of CCGs so that the selfish behavior of non-atomic players attains desirable equilibria. This model is essential for designing such social infrastructures as traffic and communication networks. Nevertheless, computational approaches to the model have not been thoroughly studied due to two difficulties: (I) bilevel-programming structures and (II) the combinatorial nature of CCGs. We tackle them by carefully combining (I) the idea of \textit{differentiable} optimization and (II) data structures called \textit{zero-suppressed binary decision diagrams} (ZDDs), which can compactly represent sets of combinatorial strategies. Our algorithm numerically approximates the equilibria of CCGs, which we can differentiate with respect to parameters of CCGs by automatic differentiation. With the resulting derivatives, we can apply gradient-based methods to Stackelberg models of CCGs. Our method is tailored to induce Nesterov's acceleration and can fully utilize the empirical compactness of ZDDs. These technical advantages enable us to deal with CCGs with a vast number of combinatorial strategies. Experiments on real-world network design instances demonstrate the practicality of our method.


PART 1. FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCRETE MATHEMATICS. 1. Fundamental Principles of Counting. The Rules of Sum and Product. Permutations. Combinations: The Binomial Theorem. Combinations with Repetition. The Catalan Numbers (Optional). Summary and Historical Review. 2. Fundamentals of Logic. Basic Connectives and Truth Tables. Logical Equivalence: The Laws of Logic. Logical Implication: Rules of Inference. The Use of Quantifiers. Quantifiers, Definitions, and the Proofs of Theorems. Summary and Historical Review. 3. Set Theory. Sets and Subsets. Set Operations and the Laws of Set Theory. Counting and Venn Diagrams. A First Word on Probability. The Axioms of Probability (Optional). Conditional Probability: Independence (Optional). Discrete Random Variables (Optional). Summary and Historical Review. 4. Properties of the Integers: Mathematical Induction. The Well-Ordering Principle: Mathematical Induction. Recursive Definitions. The Division Algorithm: Prime Numbers. The Greatest Common Divisor: The Euclidean Algorithm. The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. Summary and Historical Review. 5. Relations and Functions. Cartesian Products and Relations. Functions: Plain and One-to-One. Onto Functions: Stirling Numbers of the Second Kind. Special Functions. The Pigeonhole Principle. Function Composition and Inverse Functions. Computational Complexity. Analysis of Algorithms. Summary and Historical Review. 6. Languages: Finite State Machines. Language: The Set Theory of Strings. Finite State Machines: A First Encounter. Finite State Machines: A Second Encounter. Summary and Historical Review. 7. Relations: The Second Time Around. Relations Revisited: Properties of Relations. Computer Recognition: Zero-One Matrices and Directed Graphs. Partial Orders: Hasse Diagrams. Equivalence Relations and Partitions. Finite State Machines: The Minimization Process. Summary and Historical Review. PART 2. FURTHER TOPICS IN ENUMERATION. 8. The Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion. The Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion. Generalizations of the Principle. Derangements: Nothing Is in Its Right Place. Rook Polynomials. Arrangements with Forbidden Positions. Summary and Historical Review. 9. Generating Functions. Introductory Examples. Definition and Examples: Calculational Techniques. Partitions of Integers. The Exponential Generating Functions. The Summation Operator. Summary and Historical Review. 10. Recurrence Relations. The First-Order Linear Recurrence Relation. The Second-Order Linear Homogeneous Recurrence Relation with Constant Coefficients. The Nonhomogeneous Recurrence Relation. The Method of Generating Functions. A Special Kind of Nonlinear Recurrence Relation (Optional). Divide and Conquer Algorithms. Summary and Historical Review. PART 3. GRAPH THEORY AND APPLICATIONS. 11. An Introduction to Graph Theory. Definitions and Examples. Subgraphs, Complements, and Graph Isomorphism. Vertex Degree: Euler Trails and Circuits. Planar Graphs. Hamilton Paths and Cycles. Graph Coloring and Chromatic Polynomials. Summary and Historical Review. 12. Trees. Definitions, Properties, and Examples. Rooted Trees. Trees and Sorting. Weighted Trees and Prefix Codes. Biconnected Components and Articulation Points. Summary and Historical Review. 13. Optimization and Matching. Dijkstra's Shortest Path Algorithm. Minimal Spanning Trees: The Algorithms of Kruskal and Prim. Transport Networks: The Max-Flow Min-Cut Theorem. Matching Theory. Summary and Historical Review. PART 4. MODERN APPLIED ALGEBRA. 14. Rings and Modular Arithmetic. The Ring Structure: Definition and Examples. Ring Properties and Substructures. The Integers Modulo n. Cryptology. Ring Homomorphisms and Isomorphisms: The Chinese Remainder Theorem. Summary and Historical Review. 15. Boolean Algebra and Switching Functions. Switching Functions: Disjunctive and Conjunctive Normal Forms. Gating Networks: Minimal Sums of Products: Karnaugh Maps. Further Applications: Don't-Care Conditions. The Structure of a Boolean Algebra (Optional). Summary and Historical Review. 16. Groups, Coding Theory, and Polya's Theory of Enumeration. Definition, Examples, and Elementary Properties. Homomorphisms, Isomorphisms, and Cyclic Groups. Cosets and Lagrange's Theorem. The RSA Cipher (Optional). Elements of Coding Theory. The Hamming Metric. The Parity-Check and Generator Matrices. Group Codes: Decoding with Coset Leaders. Hamming Matrices. Counting and Equivalence: Burnside's Theorem. The Cycle Index. The Pattern Inventory: Polya's Method of Enumeration. Summary and Historical Review. 17. Finite Fields and Combinatorial Designs. Polynomial Rings. Irreducible Polynomials: Finite Fields. Latin Squares. Finite Geometries and Affine Planes. Block Designs and Projective Planes. Summary and Historical Review. Appendices. Exponential and Logarithmic Functions. Matrices, Matrix Operations, and Determinants. Countable and Uncountable Sets. Solutions. Index.


Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in female only second to breast cancer. There are several methods for cervical cancer screening. Free body of iron protoporphyrin reduced state (FH) is used in the screening of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in different stages. However, there is still lack of investigation about the diagnostic value of epithelial cell stable FH in cervical cancer. Epithelial cell FH staining kit was used to test epithelial cell FH. Pathology was selected as the golden standard for cervical cancer diagnosis. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were calculated. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was adopted to analyse the diagnostic value of FH on cervical cancer. The detection sensitivity of FH was different in Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) at different stages. Sensitivity was higher, while specificity was lower following malignancy upgrading. Combining correct index and Kappa value, FH showed great diagnostic value for CIN and cervical cancer with different malignant potential. Area Under the Curve (AUC) of FH on CIN I, CIN II, CIN III, and cervical squamous cell carcinoma was 0.761, 0.825, 0.815, and 0.877, respectively (P<0.01). Epithelial cell stable FH detection was an important supplementary mean for cervical cancer diagnosis.


Abstract:Amid the roiling debate over the impact of the internet on democracy, we reflect on a recent contribution to this topic in these pages by Francis Fukuyama, who proposes that internet companies open their platforms to outside content-moderation services. We support exploring new approaches that promote greater user control and autonomy on social media platforms but take issue with his narrow definition of the problem. While the core issues of agency and power in democratic systems will not be resolved by better technology, improving design can make a positive impact. Whole-of-society problems will ultimately require whole-of-society thinking and action.


Achiral banana-shaped molecules have recently aroused much intention in academia because they can exhibit ferroelectricity or antiferroelectricity in spite of the achirality of the molecules. Using differential thermal analysis, polarizing optical microscopy and two-beam coupling techniques, we have investigated the effect of photo-irradiation on the electro-optical properties of a banana-shaped liquid crystal that contains azo-linkages in its two legs of the molecules. In the presence of an electric field (in the range of 5-20 MV/m), the polarization of the liquid crystal evolves with the duration of the photo-irradiation. Our results have demonstrated that the electro-optical properties of this azo banana-shaped liquid crystal can be controlled by external photons. The photo-induced trans-cis isomerization of the azo-linkages is suggested be responsible for the changes both in the structures of the polarization current curves and in the magnitude of polarization of the azo banana-shaped liquid crystal.


Independent component analysis provides a principled framework for unsupervised representation learning, with solid theory on the identifiability of the latent code that generated the data, given only observations of mixtures thereof. Unfortunately, when the mixing is nonlinear, the model is provably nonidentifiable, since statistical independence alone does not sufficiently constrain the problem. Identifiability can be recovered in settings where additional, typically observed variables are included in the generative process. We investigate an alternative path and consider instead including assumptions reflecting the principle of independent causal mechanisms exploited in the field of causality. Specifically, our approach is motivated by thinking of each source as independently influencing the mixing process. This gives rise to a framework which we term independent mechanism analysis. We provide theoretical and empirical evidence that our approach circumvents a number of nonidentifiability issues arising in nonlinear blind source separation.


Interpersonal communication presents a methodological challenge and a research opportunity for researchers involved in field experiments. The challenge is that communication among subjects blurs the line between treatment and control conditions. When treatment effects are transmitted from subject to subject, the stable unit treatment value assumption (SUTVA) is violated, and comparison of treatment and control outcomes may provide a biased assessment of the treatment's causal influence. Social scientists are increasingly interested in the substantive phenomena that lead to SUTVA violations, such as communication in advance of an election. Experimental designs that gauge SUTVA violations provide useful insights into the extent and influence of interpersonal communication. This article illustrates the value of one such design, a multilevel experiment in which treatments are randomly assigned to individuals and varying proportions of their neighbors. After describing the theoretical and statistical underpinnings of this design, we apply it to a large-scale voter-mobilization experiment conducted in Chicago during a special election in 2009 using social-pressure mailings that highlight individual electoral participation. We find some evidence of within-household spillovers but no evidence of spillovers across households. We conclude by discussing how multilevel designs might be employed in other substantive domains, such as the study of deterrence and policy diffusion.


This guidebook is meant for NPOs aiming to introduce a business excellence (BE) model or awards for the public sector or to enhance their existing schemes. The importance of BE models is introduced through a series of questions and answers, followed by information on promoting and adopting BE and setting up an award process. The final of seven chapters explores how NPOs undertake BE initiatives in the all-important public sector.


The Gaza Strip suffers from high pressure imposed on its water resources. There is a deficit of about 50 mm 3 every year, which has led to a declination of groundwater level and deterioration of groundwater quality. New water resources are sought to fulfil the water deficit; among them is the artificial recharge of treated wastewater to groundwater. The impact of recharging partially treated wastewater in Gaza was tested through a pilot project implemented east of the existing wastewater treatment plant. The daily application of about 10,000 m 3 of effluent to infiltration basins had an effect on the aquifer, which was monitored through the surrounding operating water wells over five years from 2000 until 2005. Although the monitored wells are operated for irrigation by farmers, impacts were clearly noticed. Groundwater levels improved and an increase in some areas of 0.6 m within three years was observed. The nitrate ion concentration also decreased in the groundwater due to nitrification processes. However, chloride ion, which indicates salinity, increased because the effluent has high chloride concentration. Boron levels increased in some areas to 0.5 mg/l, which could affect sensitive crops grown in the area.


High-quality mediation training is essential to producing skilled mediators, but what makes for good training? To answer this question, the authors examine the literature on adult education, mediation training, training design and methods, and quality assurance in mediation training. What follows is a summary and analysis of the literature on issues related to mediation training. This core body of knowledge helpsn to prepare mediation trainers and program administrators as they seek to ensure that the training they provide or sponsor is of the highest quality possible.


Objectives: Obesity is a leading risk factor for global mortality, promoted by poor dietary habits and sedentary behaviour. This study explores the clustering and differences in dietary habits, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity (PA) amongst youth from United Kingdom (UK) and Saudi Arabia (SA). Methods: 2290 males and females aged 15 - 17 years completed a self-report questionnaire and an objective measure of BMI. Results: Youth from SA had a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity and lower levels of PA than youth from the UK. Males were more physically active than females across both countries. Three clusters were identified: a "high risk" cluster with least healthy dietary habits, low PA and high BMI; a "moderate cluster" with moderate healthy dietary habits, PA and BMI; a "low risk" cluster with healthiest dietary habits, greatest PA and the lowest BMI compared to the other clusters. There were more SA youth in the high and moderate risk clusters compared to UK youth. Conclusions: Exploring cross-cultural and demographic characteristics of youth enables the identification of similarities and differences that might lead to the development of universal intervention strategies.


A number of IT providers have introduced web-based services for management support that are discussed under the label "Business Intelligence (BI) in the Cloud". It has been argued that these Cloud products might become valuable complements to on-premise enterprise BI infrastructures by allowing a flexible addition of sizeable components, tools or – in selected areas – complete solutions. In this publication, it is discussed in how far a Ubiquitous Computing setting based on technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) or sensor technology could become a relevant application domain for "Cloud-BI". The main insights come from a literature review, a series of expert interviews on BI and Cloud Computing, and a case on spare parts logistics. The results indicate that the addressed domain indeed comes with business potential and highlight the need for further design oriented research.


This paper discusses a laboratory method which has been found very useful for measuring the resistivity of the semiconductor germanium. The method consists of placing four probes that make contact along a line on the surface of the material. Current is passed through the outer pair of probes and the floating potential is measured across the inner pair. There are seven cases considered, the probes on a semi-infinite volume of semiconductor material and the probes near six different types of boundaries. Formulas and curves needed to compute resistivity are given for each case.


The short films, Garden and Under Skies, were produced as outcomes of research into the use of glass, lens and projection technologies in the production, transformation and presentation of sound recordings and stop-motion (pixelated) image sequences. The films are innovative in exploring and extending creative techniques and practices developed in the visual work of filmmakers including Patrick Bokanowski, Margaret Tait and Marie Menken, applying these in cognate areas of sound practice to investigate unconventional creative and material processes, and novel relationships between sounds and images.

The films were selected through open competition for presentations in over 21 international film festivals, conferences, gallery exhibitions and commercial art fairs in Australia, South America, Europe, the USA and UK. Garden, produced through a residency at Culpeper Community Garden, London, used overlaid and re-photographed pairs of 35mm slides to explore the creation of double exposure effects and illusions of movement. The audio, fabricated from soundfield recordings, extends the investigation of these effects into the film's soundtrack, focusing on duration, flicker and time passing in the image. Supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and The Film & Video Workshop, Under Skies is an outcome of related research into applications of glass in the generation and transformation of sounds and images, particularly through audio-visual synthesis, but also in areas including interpretation and depiction.

Michaela Nettell produced the photographic and sequential aspects of the research, using techniques developed with the support of the Culpeper Community Garden and The Film & Video Workshop. The sonic dimensions of the research were developed by Simmons using experimental digital and material processes focusing on the creation and capture of acoustic properties associated with glass, and the decoding/composition of the soundfield recordings through which these were represented. Nettell and Simmons collaboratively developed the editing and post-production processes employed in the films.