This research paper identifies components of organizational structure and the need to formulate a basic unit of organizational structure. The basic unit of any organization is vitally a propelling force that enables goal implementation and accomplishment. While organizational structures impact on the success and failure of achieving the set goal of an organization, it is extremely important to understand the elements that construct the basic structural unit of an organization. The purpose of the study is to understand and develop a substantial model of a basic structural unit of organization and how it could be managed. The methodology of the paper is through the holistic structural analysis of the basic units of living things and its relative impact on living, and relating the conceptual phenomenon of the living things to organizational structure and derive a basic unit. It is purely a qualitative study on living thing's structural and functional aspects. The data collected were observed components of structural and functional aspects of human and plant anatomy and physiology and inanimate elements. Finding depicts the basic structural unit of an organization is composed of a physical system, cognitive system, social system, and spiritual system. Contingency approach of a basic unit fits all situations with the right composition of the systems considered in this research. Creating a basic unit of an organizational structure to function continuously to eliminate overt pressure and stress on employees. Differences in the functions performed internally and externally by living things and organization are significant. Synchronizing functional units with the basic unit have an effective outcome of organizational goals. Further study could be done separately on the sustainability of organizational growth and its effective basic unit. Discussions of the research identify the management of basic unit towards organizational efficiency and effectiveness.


The emergence of neural architecture search (NAS) has greatly advanced the research on network design. Recent proposals such as gradient-based methods or one-shot approaches significantly boost the efficiency of NAS. In this paper, we formulate the NAS problem from a Bayesian perspective. We propose explicitly estimating the joint posterior distribution over pairs of network architecture and weights. Accordingly, a hybrid network representation is presented which enables us to leverage the Variational Dropout so that the approximation of the posterior distribution becomes fully gradient-based and highly efficient. A posterior-guided sampling method is then presented to sample architecture candidates and directly make evaluations. As a Bayesian approach, our posterior-guided NAS (PGNAS) avoids tuning a number of hyper-parameters and enables a very effective architecture sampling in posterior probability space. Interestingly, it also leads to a deeper insight into the weight sharing used in the one-shot NAS and naturally alleviates the mismatch between the sampled architecture and weights caused by the weight sharing. We validate our PGNAS method on the fundamental image classification task. Results on Cifar-10, Cifar-100 and ImageNet show that PGNAS achieves a good trade-off between precision and speed of search among NAS methods. For example, it takes 11 GPU days to search a very competitive architecture with 1.98% and 14.28% test errors on Cifar10 and Cifar100, respectively.


Every day, security engineers cope with a flow of cyber security incidents. While most incidents trigger routine reactions, others require orders of magnitude more effort to investigate and resolve. How security operation teams in organizations should tune their response to tame extreme events remains unclear. Analyzing the statistical properties of sixty thousand security events collected over six years at a large organization, we find that the distribution of costs induced by security incidents is in general highly skewed, following a power law tail distribution. However, this distribution of incident severity becomes less skewed over time, suggesting that the organization under scrutiny has managed to reduce the impact of large events. We illustrate this result with a case study focused on the empirical effects of full disk encryption on the severity of incidents involving lost or stolen devices.


The paper aims to analyze the quality provision and inclusion of farmers by a farmer-owned cooperative (co-op) when it competes with an investor-owned firm (IOF). A model of mixed oligopsonistic competition is developed to capture the endogenous participation of farmers who are heterogeneous in their efficiency to provide quality. The results highlight an advantage of the co-op: by imposing a similar quality standard to the one imposed by the IOF, the co-op may drive the IOF out of the market. Due to this advantage, it is more likely that the co-op will set a high quality standard when the minimum quality standard is costly to farmers. This advantage, however, may induce an inefficient outcome if providing a high quality product involves a high fixed cost.


Abstract This article explores how different philosophical models and pictures of learning can become dogmatic and disguise other conceptions of learning. With reference to a passage from St. Paul, I give a sense of the dogmatic teleology that underpins philosophical assumptions about learning. The Pauline assumption is exemplified through a variety of models of learning as conceptualised by Israel Scheffler. In order to show how the Paulinian dogmatism can give rise to radically different pictures of learning, the article turns to St. Augustine's and Robert Brandom's examples of language learning, and to general strands in scholarship on moral education. Dewey's view of childhood immaturity and the problem of adult maturity are used as first attempt at a counter picture to the idea that learning must have an end. The article takes Dewey's idea further by suggesting how the Zen-Buddhist idea of killing the Buddha and Wittgenstein's method of destroying pictures work on the dogmatic focus on uses of 'learning' that assume ends. In conclusion, the article suggests three possible uses of 'learning'—learning from wonder, intransitive learning and passionate learning—that do not assume that learning has or must have a teleological end.


Call termination is a service that telecom network operators offer to connect their networks with each other. Telephony subscribers often have contracts with different fixed or mobile telecom operators, whose networks need to be connected for a telephone call. Networks are connected through call termination. If subscriber A calls subscriber B who has a contract with a different network operator, the operator of B arranges that the call terminates in its network. For that, the operator of A pays a termination charge to the operator of B. This termination charge is regulated because the network operator of B has a monopoly position at the moment of calling: the call cannot be terminated in another network. Regulation requires that termination charges are based on costs. Two methods are of particular interest. Both models are based on bottom up long run incremental costs (BULRIC). But they differ in which costs are taken into account as incremental costs. The price cap in the pure BULRIC model only accounts for costs relating to call termination. In contrast, the BULRIC plus price cap also contains some of the common costs. In this report, SEO Economic Research compares these methods based on their welfare effects. More specifically, these methods are compared based on their effectiveness and proportionality that correspond to the legal requirements of the Dutch Telecommunications Act. SEO draws the conclusion that pure BULRIC scores better in both aspects. In the absence of strong network and call externalities, such as in the Dutch mobile market, including common costs within incremental costs is not justified. Mobile operator can cover these costs more effectively by raising retail prices. Therefore, BULRIC plus that accounts for some common costs contains a mark-up over incremental costs. Consequently, pure BULRIC controls the market power of the monopoly network operator more effectively than BULRIC plus. Regulation complies with the requirement of proportionality if controlling market power does not include unnecessary costs or an unreasonable reallocation of welfare. In total, pure BULRIC has more positive welfare effects than BULRIC plus. Only under specific circumstances, BULRIC plus can deliver higher profits for mobile operators. However, the increase in profits does not outweigh the lost benefits of those mobile and fixed telephony consumers that pay a higher retail price and thus call less. Therefore, pure BULRIC achieves a higher level of welfare and meets better the proportionality requirement of regulation.


The study aimed to determine clinical characteristics of dermatoscopy of big melanocytic naevuses (MN) in patients with psoriasis. Methods. The were 32 patients with psoriasis (11 women at an average age of 37,4 years) and 100 people (79 women at an average age of 27,8 years) with no psoriasis. Both groups had a survey and full photometry screening of skin. Besides Fitzpatrick skin typing test was used, pigmentary formations were examined using dermato-scope HEINE MINI 3000 10X with 70 % ethyl alcohol immersion. Naevuses were estimated by ABCD and ABC scales. Results. MN more than 5 mm in diameter are more often in patients with psoriasis (68,8 %) than in control group (37 %). However in control group there are less naevuses of appropriate dermatological dysplastic formations criteria (32 %) comparison to the group without psoriasis (42 %). There is an important fact that patients with psoriasis often have 2-phototype of skin and artifcial insolation (tanning bed, PUVA, narrow-band phototherapy 311 nm. Conclusion. 68,8 % patients have MN more than 5 mm in diameter. 32 % of patients with psoriasis had MN of dysplastic naevus criteria according to Pehamberger. In one patient naevus was of appropriate malignant tumors criteria according to ABCD and ABC scales.


This thesis is part of the SOCRADES project, a European research and advanced development project with the primary objective to develop a design, execution and management platform for next-generation industrial automation systems. In the speci¯c case of work it concerns the networked control systems. These are becoming more important in the industrial automation ¯eld thanks to the many advantages introduced by the networks. In fact, the use of a network to connect the devices permits to eliminate unnecessary wirings, reducing the complexity and the overall cost in designing and implementing the control systems. In the last years the fast spread of the wireless technologies has opened new scenarios for the communication in the automation ¯eld. The bene¯ts introduced by the use of wireless communication in the networked control system are many. First of all the simplicity and the convenience of the sensors placement. The price to be paid is a lower reliability due to the interference that can easily a®ect the medium (radio frequencies) with the consequent possible loss of communication. This work is focused on the study of the problem of losing packets (the information in a wireless network is formed by packets of bits) in a WirelessHART networked control system and on the possible solutions to avoid the problem. WirelessHART is a wireless protocol that provides a low cost, relatively low speed (e.g., compared to IEEE 802.11g) wireless connection. The aims of the thesis are multiple, ¯rst of all the implementation of a tool that permits to simulate a wirelessHART network. In fact, since it is a quite new protocol, the most used network simulators do not give the possibility to simulate WirelessHART networks. This simulator has been implemented modifying the original version of the TrueTime network simulator, adding this new protocol and some other functions to make the simulator as close as possible to the reality. Another objective of the thesis is to study the e®ects, and the possible solutions, of the loss of communication in a wirelessHART network.The last part of the thesis deals with a level control problem in a mineral flotation plant and with the possibility to use a wirelessHART network for that plant.


Introduction The strength of evidence underpinning care and treatment recommendations in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is low. Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has been proposed as a framework to provide evidence for optimal care for TBI patients. The first step in CER is to map the existing variation. The aim of current study is to quantify variation in general structural and process characteristics among centers participating in the Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury (CENTER-TBI) study. Methods We designed a set of 11 provider profiling questionnaires with 321 questions about various aspects of TBI care, chosen based on literature and expert opinion. After pilot testing, questionnaires were disseminated to 71 centers from 20 countries participating in the CENTER-TBI study. Reliability of questionnaires was estimated by calculating a concordance rate among 5% duplicate questions. Results All 71 centers completed the questionnaires. Median concordance rate among duplicate questions was 0.85. The majority of centers were academic hospitals (n = 65, 92%), designated as a level I trauma center (n = 48, 68%) and situated in an urban location (n = 70, 99%). The availability of facilities for neuro-trauma care varied across centers; e.g. 40 (57%) had a dedicated neuro-intensive care unit (ICU), 36 (51%) had an in-hospital rehabilitation unit and the organization of the ICU was closed in 64% (n = 45) of the centers. In addition, we found wide variation in processes of care, such as the ICU admission policy and intracranial pressure monitoring policy among centers. Conclusion Even among high-volume, specialized neurotrauma centers there is substantial variation in structures and processes of TBI care. This variation provides an opportunity to study effectiveness of specific aspects of TBI care and to identify best practices with CER approaches.


ABSTRACT Despite progress in the therapeutic management of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), the mortality rate of patients presenting with advanced disease remains high. One approach to improve treatment efficacy is to add novel molecular targeted agents to the classical treatment regimens. Monoclonal antibodies targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have shown clinical benefits in palliative and curative settings. However, only a minority of patients presenting with recurrent or metastatic (R/M) SCCHN have meaningful tumor regression with these agents and virtually all who do develop acquired tumor resistance after a few months of treatment. For these reasons, other inhibitors of EGFR or molecules that interfere with known molecular pathways activated in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck are of considerable interest, either as single agents or in combination with other treatment modalities.Recently, deep sequencing technology has allowed a better characterization of the implicated genes. Somatic mutations in TP53 (47–72%), NOTCH1 (14–19%), CDKN2A (9–22%), PIK3CA (6–21%), FBXW7 (5%), HRAS (4–8%), FAT1 (23%) and CASP8 (8%) have been reported. Beside these mutations, some genes or their related proteins have been found to be altered by other mechanims (amplification, deletion, epigenetic). Altogether, activating mutations in classical oncogenes seem relatively rare in SCCHN and most of the genetic alterations occur in tumor suppressor genes. These findings are important for the further development of novel therapies for SCCHN although developping new compounds to restore the activity of altered tumor suppressor genes is extremely challenging. In this review, we will discuss the different molecular therapeutic approaches explored in SCCHN. We will also briefly outline new trial designs that could be used to accelerate the investigation of emerging therapeutic agents in this disease. Disclosure: J. Machiels: Advisory booard: Boerhinger and Novartis (uncompensated).


Compared to many other industries, construction is a specific type of project industry with certain peculiarities influencing the characteristics of constructed products, ways of production, and the industry itself. Previously three major peculiarities of production in construction have been discussed, i.e. site production (i.e. organising the production around the product dependent on outdoor conditions), temporary production organisation (e.g. fragmented supply chain), and one-of-a kind product (e.g. design-to-order project-based production). Many times, particularly within the realms of lean construction, the basic hypothesis has been that these peculiarities lead to variability and thus to waste, and low performance levels in terms of productivity and value delivery to clients. Inversely, lean construction should be aimed at the banning of waste, thus reduction of variability, and thus the reduction or even resolution of peculiarities. In this paper, the peculiarities of production in construction are discussed and whether they always cause problems, whether they are always leading to waste, and whether they always can and need to be reduced or resolved. Some examples of solutions resolving or reducing certain peculiarities are given, such as modular housing, pre-engineered buildings and off-site production. Based on the examples, the effects and costs of reduction and resolution of peculiarities are discussed. To conclude it is discussed whether construction must and can always be improved by resolving the peculiarities, and at what cost. It is concluded that peculiarities should be resolved when they are not needed. However, before to decide to do so, the additional costs or even the potential value loss that may be caused by peculiarities must always be related to the whole life costs and value of the object built, and the extra costs and efforts for resolving the peculiarities. Finally, issues for future research are given.


Results are presented for Ti-6Al-4V containing silicon carbide (SiC) monofilaments having duplex (carbon plus TiB 2 ) coatings. Single fiber pushout testing has been used to study the debonding and frictional sliding characteristics under shear loading, with and without the residual radial compressive stress being reduced by applied in-plane tension. It is shown by finite element method (FEM) modeling that it is important to take account of thermal residual stresses when interpreting data from these tests. Prior heat treatments causing interfacial reaction tend to raise the resistance of the interface to debonding and sliding. This is correlated with data from tension testing of composites under axial and transverse loading, with continuous Poisson's ratio monitoring. The behavior under transverse loading is particularly sensitive to the mechanical response of the interface. The presence of interfacial reaction layers tends to inhibit the development of interfacial debonding and void formation under transverse loading, but causes embrittlement and leads to a reduced strain to failure. The behavior under transverse load has also been studied with superimposed thermal cycling between 400 and 700°C. Strain histories have been monitored using scanning laser extensometry. Under these conditions, thermal stresses have a pronounced influence on the behavior. Many of the steady-state creep characteristics can be successfully modeled on the basis of matrix creep being controlled by volume-averaged stresses (predicted using the Eshelby method), with stress relaxation processes simulated via a variable stress-free temperature. However, the behavior tends to be influenced from a relatively early stage by interfacial damage development. Interfacial debonding and damage, promoted by a combination of opening mode stress from the applied load and shear stress from differential thermal contraction (particularly towards the specimen edges), soon starts to influence the strain history and has a strong influence on the rupture strain. In sharp contrast to the room temperature behavior, the heavily reacted specimens exhibited delayed onset of interfacial damage and a much longer lifetime, although the final strains to failure were similar. These results are considered in terms of stress fields and interfacial properties.


This study aims to examine the effect of corporate tax avoidance to the corporate cash holdings. Recent tax avoidance research found that tax avoidance is able to facilitate managerial rent extraction in the form of transfer of resources owned by the company. This study attempts to test how the relationship of tax avoidance with the amount of cash held by the company. The sample consists of 46 non-financial, non-property, non-real estate and non-construction companies from 2009-2016, with a total 368 observations. The study uses two different cash holdings measures to test the robustness of the research results. This study cannot find evidence that tax avoidance have a significant relationship to the level of cash holdings in public companies in Indonesia. Both measurements of cash holdings gave the same conclusions to the results of the study. This study provides an insight that agency theory in the context of tax avoidance and corporate cash holdings in developing countries such as Indonesia needs to be explored further as the agency conflict in Indonesia as a developing country is more principal-principal conflicts. 3


Recurring congestion in the vicinity of merges on motorways is affecting an increasing proportion of the UK motorway network. In the absence of any clearly definable capacity restriction on the motorway, the mechanisms which lead to instability in traffic flow, and perhaps ultimately to a total breakdown in flow, remain unclear. An understanding of the mechanisms of merging and flow breakdown on motorways could be an important factor in the development of traffic management strategies to relieve the congestion. The study described in this report has attempted to achieve this understanding through a detailed investigation of traffic operations at a number of motorway sites affected by regular commuter peak congestion. This followed a preliminary survey of the national motorway network to provide a general overview of the flow breakdown problem. The main investigation involved the collection and analysis of a very large database of traffic characteristics in an effort to identify the factors contributing to congestion and any inter-relationships that exist. Statistical analyses, using multivariate techniques, have been employed to try to develop predictive relationships between flow breakdown and key traffic parameters. The factors limiting the capacity of merging areas at intersections were similarly investigated. This report describes the traffic survey and data processing techniques used, together with the statistical procedures adopted to analyse the data. The results and main conclusions derived from the study are presented.


We derive exact expressions for effective elastodynamic properties of two-phase composites in the long-wavelength (quasistatic) regime via homogenized constitutive relations that are local in space. This is accomplished by extending the 'strong-contrast' expansion formalism that was previously applied to the static problem. These strong-contrast expansions explicitly incorporate complete microstructural information of the composite via an infinite set of n-point correlation functions. Utilizing the rapid-convergence properties of these series expansions (even for extreme contrast ratios), we extract accurate approximations that depend on the microstructure via the spectral density, which is easy to compute or measure for any composite. We also investigate the predictive power of modifications of such approximation formulas postulated elsewhere (Kim and Torquato 2020 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 117 8764) to extend their applicability beyond the quasistatic regime. The accuracy of these nonlocal microstructure-dependent approximations is validated by comparison to full-waveform simulation results for certain models of dispersions. We apply our formulas to a variety of models of nonhyperuniform and hyperuniform disordered composites. We demonstrate that hyperuniform systems are less lossy than their nonhyperuniform counterparts in the quasistatic regime, and stealthy hyperuniform media can be perfectly transparent for a wide range of wavenumbers. Finally, we discuss how to utilize our approximations for engineering composites with prescribed elastic wave characteristics.


Recent attention has focused on measures of the dollar's effective exchange rate amid disappointment by some observers with the response of the U.S. trade balance to the depreciation of the dollar since February 1985. In particular, these observers suggest that the traditional indexes, which include only currencies of industrial countries, overstate the dollar's decline because it has depreciated much less against the currencies of some key newly industrialized trading partners. ; This paper begins with a description of the uses of effective exchange-rate indexes and describes theoretically the choice of an index, which varies with the application. Although the inclusion of currencies of developing countries in an index may be useful for analyzing trade developments, it is not appropriate for some other purposes, such as providing information for monetary conditions. The latter part of the paper focuses on measures of exchange rates suitable for analyzing trade flows and domestic inflation and compares their performance in the context of the equations used by the Federal Reserve Board staff to forecast trade components and price deflators for exports and imports. The results suggest that the addition of the currencies of important developing-country trading partners in an index of exchange rates improves its performance in forecasting export volume and import prices but makes little difference for the forecasts of export prices.


Normal 0 0 1 114 651 5 1 799 11.0 0 0 0 Abstract: This article presents the experience of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) – a large state-owned company that plays an important global role in research, development, and innovation for tropical agriculture – in the planning and implementation of Open Access to scientific information in the context of a developing country. The aim of this initiative is to provide the necessary mechanisms to capture, store, organize, preserve, retrieve, and widely disseminate the scientific information produced by Embrapa and by agricultural research communities. This report concludes with a discussion of the obstacles encountered and the organizational features, cultural considerations, and political matters that facilitate open access implementation at Embrapa.


Characterizing the force of infection (FOI) is an essential part of planning cost effective control strategies for zoonotic diseases. Echinococcus multilocularis is the causative agent of alveolar echinococcosis in humans, a serious disease with a high fatality rate and an increasing global spread. Red foxes are high prevalence hosts of E. multilocularis. Through a mathematical modelling approach, using field data collected from in and around the city of Zurich, Switzerland, we find compelling evidence that the FOI is periodic with highly variable amplitude, and, while this amplitude is similar across habitat types, the mean FOI differs markedly between urban and periurban habitats suggesting a considerable risk differential. The FOI, during an annual cycle, ranges from (0.1,0.8) insults (95% CI) in urban habitat in the summer to (9.4, 9.7) (95% CI) in periurban (rural) habitat in winter. Such large temporal and spatial variations in FOI suggest that control strategies are optimal when tailored to local FOI dynamics.


Background: Many people advocate audit and feedback as a strategy for improving professional practice. The main results of an update of a Cochrane review on the effects of audit and feedback are reported. Data sources: The Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group's register up to January 2004 was searched. Randomised trials of audit and feedback that reported objectively measured professional practice in a healthcare setting or healthcare outcomes were included. Review methods: Data were independently extracted and the quality of studies were assessed by two reviewers. Quantitative, visual and qualitative analyses were undertaken. Main results: 118 trials are included in the review. In the primary analysis, 88 comparisons from 72 studies were included that compared any intervention in which audit and feedback was a component to no intervention. For dichotomous outcomes, the median-adjusted risk difference of compliance with desired practice was 5% (interquartile range 3–11). For continuous outcomes, the median-adjusted percentage change relative to control was 16% (interquartile range 5–37). Low baseline compliance with recommended practice and higher intensity of audit and feedback appeared to predict the effectiveness of audit and feedback. Conclusions: Audit and feedback can be effective in improving professional practice. The effects are generally small to moderate. The absolute effects of audit and feedback are likely to be larger when baseline adherence to recommended practice is low and intensity of audit and feedback is high.


The economic impact of trade policy reforms on various sectors of the economy receives more attention than the effects on the environment. This may be partly owing to the secondary importance attributed to environmental or multifunctionality issues when economic consequences take centre stage. An additional consideration, however, may be the practical difficulties of bringing together models that examine the economic impact of trade policy reforms and models that can measure environmental or multifunctionality indicators. This paper examines one aspect of the relationship between trade policy and the environment, namely that between agricultural trade policy reform and emissions from the agricultural sector. The paper analyses the impact of agricultural production levels and practices on the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions from this sector in Ireland. The study combines an economic, partial equilibrium, agricultural commodity and inputs model (the FAPRI-Ireland model) with a model for the estimation of GHG and ammonia emissions from agriculture. The paper considers a potential reform of agricultural trade policy under a possible World Trade Organisation agreement, to reveal the extent to which there are environmental effects associated with such a reform that need to be considered in addition to the conventional economic ones.


The importance of Perry's research is evidenced by the range of publications, including Sehepunkte, the Journal of the History
of Collections, The Art Book, Reviews of History, Museum and Society, Oxford Art Journal, in which the work has been reviewed
and cited, recognizing its engagement with debates from various disciplines including museum studies, cultural history and art
history. It contributes particularly to a burgeoning literature on women's role in the Victorian public sphere, and to understanding
of the place of portraits in Victorian taste.
The study uses an interdisciplinary method in order to probe a mode of representation involving both text and image,
responding to a wide range of work from the 1980s and 1990s and analysing the representation of women in nineteenth-century
art and literature. This investigation interrogates records of the acquisitions, administration, displays and visitors of the National
Portrait Gallery in the nineteenth century. These are have been unused or under-utilised in previous scholarship. It situates that
material in the wider practices of the visual and textual historical representation produced in Victorian England, and in the
context of the political culture from which the National Portrait Gallery emerged. History's Beauties deals with themes of gender,
national identity, class cultures and aesthetics in Victorian England.
This book was developed from doctoral research supported by a Commonwealth Scholarship and a research fellowship from
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The text was prepared with the assistance of a Paul Mellon
Postdoctoral Fellowship, and it was published in Ashgate Press's series British Art and Visual Culture Since 1750: New
Readings. It combines the methods and concerns of art history, institutional history, and feminist analysis in order to produce
the first monograph study of gender in a major museum.


Reconstruction of a hand's motion with electroencephalography (EEG) signals is a challenging problem that has not been solved yet. Most related studies rely on a motion tracking system to record a sequence of hand coordinate values paired with biosignals, in order to train a mapping function between them. For amputees, this approach is not possible. There are also only a few studies about how different training techniques may affect the accuracy of a motion reconstruction system. A virtual avatar for presenting different upper limb motions was developed. Subjects were asked to follow the avatar's motion, while the subject's EEG and electromyography (EMG) signals were recorded and paired with avatar's hand trajectory values. This task was performed under three conditions: repeating the motion by memory, repeating the motion while watching it on a screen, and repeating the motion while seeing it in virtual reality (VR). We did not find any significant difference between the three conditions in terms of correlation values. Still, we found that using both EEG and EMG at the same time led to a better result than using only one of them. Additionally, significant differences were found in the EEG activity, suggesting that even if the task (moving the arm) was the same for the three conditions, the brain dynamics were different. Specifically, we found that using the VR resulted in a higher alpha desynchronization during the motion. Finally, our results, when only EEG signals were used, were comparable with other studies that have used a motion tracking system.


In spite of the inclusion of collective action clauses ('euro†CACs') in euro area sovereign bond contracts since 2013, the euro area still does not have a credible debt restructuring framework because: (1) stability risks of debt restructurings remain high; (2) euro†CACs make it easy for creditors to hold out for full repayment; (3) IMF lending policies have not prevented the bail†out of countries with unsustainable debts. In reaction, some proposals have called for hard criteria requiring debt restructuring as a condition for access to official crisis lending. This paper argues that this is the wrong approach, because hard criteria are error†prone, may trigger crises in high†debt countries, and lack credibility when the economic costs of debt restructurings are high. Instead, the key to a credible debt restructuring framework is to reduce these costs, by cutting the links between sovereigns and banks and putting safety nets in place that limit contagion.


Extracted from text ... It has been some time since we have written about raising the bar for the Chartered Marketer programme. New graduates might not even be aware of the ongoing debate that we have had about the rigour of achieving and maintaining this professional designation. Part of raising the bar is gaining statutory recognition for this highest recognition of marketing professionalism in South Africa, using the legislative framework that has been created by both the SAQA Act and the Skills Development Act.At a recent forum meeting held at Montecasino's newly opened Canterra restaurant I made an attempt at giving interested parties ..


This research is an investigation into a creative and technical 'pixel' element that may facilitate Urban Digital Media, a field that inhabits the intersection between architecture, information and culture in the arena of technology and building. It asks how contemporary requirements of public space in our everyday life, such as adaptability, new modes of communication and transformative environments that offer flexibility for future needs and uses, can be addressed by a new form of public display, assembled through the use of an advanced pixel, described as an interactive Polymedia Pixel with situated media device protocol. The weakness of many current media facades for building-scale interactive installation environments lies in the dearth of quality creative content and unresponsiveness in terms of potential human factors, richness of locative situation and contextual interaction (Sauer, 2004). Media facades have evolved from simple 2D visual displays to 3D voxel arrays for depicting static and moving images with a spatial depth dimension (Haeusler, 2009). As a subsequent step in this development, the research investigates a display that reacts to the need for empathetic and responsive urban digital media; integrates multiple modalities; smart energy-saving; and collaborative community engagement. The Polymedia Pixel, which is presented in its research and development in this paper, contributes to the evolution of building-scale interactive installation environments. The paper firstly discusses the attributes of the Polymedia Pixel in order to address the above mentioned weaknesses of public displays. In responding to these necessities, the prototype of the developed Polymedia Pixel with its technology is outlined. The Polymedia Pixel reserach aims to address


Encapsulated Folic Acid in Cheddar Cheese Reduce Methionine -Induced Hyper-Homocysteinemia in Male BALB/C Mice
This paper is based on research carried out in 2009 in the low-income residential area of Epworth in Harare, Zimbabwe. The paper assesses the contribution of rural-urban linkages to the food security of urban households in a crisis context. Research findings demonstrate that in conditions of extreme economic distress such as those that were besetting Zimbabwe at the time, the socio-cultural linkages that exist between the city and the village, as well as the economic relations of reciprocity embedded within these interactions are crucial to the survival of distressed urban households.


Transitions of laser diode (LD) pumped Er^(3+)-Yb^(3+) co-doped glass laser are rather complicated. Considering energy transfer between Er^(3+) and Yb^(3+) ions, cross-relaxation, upconversion luminescence, and other transition processes, rate equations of quasi-three energy-level-system of the Er^(3+)-Yb^(3+) co-doped laser are presented. The output characteristics are also calculated and analyzed in detail. The results show that Er^(3+)-Yb^(3+) co-doped phosphate waveguide lasers with high slope efficiency and low threshold can be achieved.


An ad-hoc network is a collection of mobile nodes (wireless communication devices) that transmit data over systems that do not require any centralized control, such as that found in cellular networks. This makes ad-hoc networks suitable for military type applications, since there is no need for an established backbone infrastructure and hence no single-point-of-failure. However, other uses of ad-hoc systems include search and rescue missions, law enforcement operations, commercial and educational communication of laptop (and other handheld device) data, as well as in the transmission of environmental sensor information. The mobile ad-hoc concept brings many design challenges. The dynamic freedom of movement from mobile nodes causes random, sometimes rapidly time changing topologies, which are inappropriate for use through traditional wired protocols. In addition, wireless networks generally contain greater bandwidth, processing and power constraints than their wired counterparts, since they are implemented on embedded mobile, handheld devices. Thus, a different approach is needed in the wireless network domain. This has resulted in wireless routing protocols employing adaptive, multi-hop, distributed methodologies in which each node additionally acts as a router for each of its neighbouring nodes, in order to achieve a large degree of network connectivity. However, due to the broadcast nature of wireless transmissions, ad-hoc systems contain a pointto-multipoint communication architecture, making it well suited to multi-path traffic. One such application is in multicasting, which sends data from one source to two (or more) destinations. But, due to the shared characteristics of the communication channel, such traffic may cause multiple contentions and collisions to occur, which will degrade the efficiency and performance of a protocol. . This dissertation examines these different design tradeoffs through the use of a freely available simulation package, known as NS-2 (Network Simulator version 2). In addition, a novel routing protocol, known as LAMP (Location Aided Multicasting Protocol), is developed to handle time-bounded audio information, which is employed in a network that consists of sixteen commercial handheld devices. LAMP utilizes a destination-sequenced, next-hop routing table to forward multicast data. Since mobility causes neighbouring nodes to continually change, next-hop links need to be periodically updated. But, between each update period, a next-hop link may become broken. Thus, if a packet is required to be routed, for which its' next-hop link is unknown, LAMP reverts to a localized location aided flood to find a path to that destination. However, since flooding causes network congestion, it is only employed when its' table forwarding scheme fails. Results have shown that LAMP ' improves packet delivery ratios by up to 5% over exisiting flood-limiting schemes: Furthermore, LAMP has been shown to be comparable to leading schemes, even when employed to route data to a single source-destination pair.


Three conditions are responsible for almost two-thirds of potentially avoidable maternal deaths in South Africa: non-pregnancy-related infections (most are HIV-related), obstetric haemorrhage, and complications of hypertension in pregnancy. Although there has been a significant reduction in maternal deaths due to non-pregnancy-related infections, as shown in the Ninth Interim Saving Mothers report (in press; authored by R C Pattinson, J Moodley and S Fawcus), deaths due to obstetric haemorrhage and complications of hypertension in pregnancy have remained stubbornly high. Birth asphyxia is the most common cause of perinatal death in South Africa for babies weighing over 1 000 g, and this has not decreased significantly for more than a decade.


The research presented in this thesis focuses on applications of Contrast Enhanced
Ultrasound (CEUS) imaging and is coordinated to address current clinical requirements
in the assessment, quantification and evaluation of liver cancer and in particular focal
liver lesions (FLLs). The main outcomes of this research are methods to assist
radiologists with automating these routinely performed manual image interpretation
tasks, with the intention of supporting them to make their diagnostic decisions faster,
more easily and with greater confidence. Such automatic analysis is challenging mainly
because of the relative motion between the ultrasound transducer and the liver, the
physiological motion of the patient and the dramatic intensity changes over time caused
by the contrast-enhancing agents intravenously injected during a CEUS examination.
The work described in this thesis can be divided into three principal themes. These
are addressed in turn below.
Firstly, a set of methods are proposed to assist in automating initialisation tasks
required for the offline assessment of data acquired during CEUS liver scans. These
tasks relate to the delineation of the area comprising the ultrasonographic image, the
identification of the optimal reference frame for initialising an FLL, as well as the
segmentation of the FLL boundaries on this frame. The potential clinical value of the
proposed methods is that they can lead to easier and faster assessment of FLLs, whilst
producing results less dependent on the human initialisation and hence improving the
repeatability and reproducibility of the assessment of the examination and increasing
the confidence of radiologists when making a diagnosis.
Secondly, a variety of methods are investigated to estimate the motion observed
within the ultrasonographic image of CEUS screening recordings and then compensate
for this, allowing for an accurate quantification of the perfusion of tissue regions.
Obtaining a perfusion curve for an image region, without compensating for the
observed motion, may lead to erroneous diagnostic results as the specified image region
may correspond to different tissue along the video sequence. Quantitative evaluation
of the presented methods demonstrates their potential as reliable real-time motion
compensation methods for such recordings.
Finally, an alternative fully automatic method for the identification and localisation
of potential malignancies is proposed. For such identification, and hence distinction
between cases that include potentially malignant and benign lesions, an innovative
assessment of the global spatial configuration of local variations of perfusion curves is
presented. For the localisation of tissue regions of potential malignancy, a novel feature
is proposed that encompasses spatio-temporal information (Le. the combination of
both the variation in these local perfusion curves and the location they relate to) to
cluster together neighbouring regions with similar dynamic behaviour. The clinical value of the identification part is the early diagnosis of an FLL's type and the possibility
for the discharge of patients with benign FLLs, leading to less distress to the patients
and their families, as well as reduced healthcare costs. Additionally, the localisation
part assists in enhancing the radiologist's awareness of tissue regions with potentially
malignant behaviour, as well as providing effortless localisation of such regions allowing
for an objective initialisation of computer-aided segmentation methods improving the
repeatability and reproducibility of the assessment of CEUS data.
The key findings of this research indicate that: i) the optimal reference frame can be
reliably identified in a fully automatic and deterministic manner, ii) the segmentation
of an F LL can be performed in a rapid semi-automatic manner, which produces results
that are, at worst, of comparable consistency as different manual annotations, iii) the
apparent observed motion can be compensated in real-time, either locally or globally,
and a simple translation is sufficient to achieve this, iv) the distinction between benign
and malignant lesions can be performed in a fully automatic and deterministic manner,
without missing a single malignancy, and v) potential malignancies can be localised
reliably in a fully automatic manner.
Quantitative analysis of all results on real clinical data, from a multi-centre study,
is used to evaluate the level of confidence of the decision of the proposed methods
and demonstrates the value of these methods in a diverse dataset acquired using the
protocol of current standard care. A system incorporating the proposed methods could
improve the current clinical practice for assessing, quantifying and evaluating FLLs in
CEUS recordings. Specifically, it would be beneficial to radiologists, for cancer research,
providing easier and faster assessment of FLLs whilst producing results less dependent
on the human initialisation and therefore increasing the confidence of radiologists in
their diagnostic decisions.


We study the decays of a standard model-like MSSM Higgs boson to pairs of neutralinos, each of which subsequently decays promptly to a photon and a gravitino. Such decays can arise in supersymmetric scenarios where supersymmetry breaking is mediated to us by gauge interactions with a relatively light gauge messenger sector (Mmess . 100TeV). This process gives rise to a collider signal consisting of a pair of photons and missing energy. In the present work we investigate the bounds on this scenario within the minimal supersymmetric standard model from existing collider data. We also study the prospects for discovering the Higgs boson through this decay mode with upcoming data from the Tevatron and the LHC.


Abstract Male-biased sexual size dimorphism is typical of polygynous mammals, where the degree of dimorphism in body mass is related to male intrasexual competition and the degree of polygyny. However, the importance of body mass in monogamous mammals is largely unknown. We investigated the effect of body mass on life-history parameters and territory size in the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), a socially monogamous canid with slight sexual dimorphism. Increased body size in males appeared to confer an advantage in territory acquisition and defense contests because heavier males held larger territories and exerted a greater boundary pressure on smaller neighbors. Heavier male foxes invested more effort in searching for extrapair matings by moving over a wider area and farther from their territories, leading to greater reproductive success. Males that sired cubs outside their own social group appeared to be heavier than males that only sired cubs within their social group or that were cuckolded, but our results should be treated with caution because sample sizes were small. Territory size, boundary pressure, and paternity success were not related to age of males. In comparison, body mass of females was not related to territory size, probability of breeding, litter size, or cub mass. Only age affected probability of breeding in females: younger females reproduced significantly less than did older females, although we did not measure individual nutritional status. Thus, body mass had a significant effect on life-history traits and territory size in a socially monogamous species comparable to that reported in polygynous males, even in the absence of large size dimorphism.


Ethnographic descriptions suggest that cultures differ in the extent to which they value physical touch and its acceptability in different kinds of social relationships. For example, compared to European American (EA) culture, Mexican culture is described as placing greater emphasis on warm interpersonal interactions, in which touch may play an important part. We tested this notion empirically by assessing attitudes about touch among 271 Mexican American (MA; 208 female) and 578 EA (434 female) college students. Specifically, we examined potential ethnic group differences in (1) participants' perception of the acceptability of affectionate touch (AT) within their cultures, depending on the relationship (close others vs. acquaintances) and setting (private vs. public) in which the touch occurs; and (2) participants' own personal comfort with AT. Among MAs, we examined associations between touch attitudes and acculturation. As predicted, MAs reported greater cultural acceptability of AT with acquaintances (but not close others) and in public (but not private) settings than did EAs. Participants' own comfort with AT was greater for both MA men and EA women than for EA men. Further, higher perceived cultural acceptability of AT predicted greater personal comfort with AT in both ethnic groups. Finally, among MAs, greater acculturation predicted less comfort with AT. Together, these results lend support to the notion that MA ethnocultural norms encourage AT in nonintimate contexts to a greater degree than EA norms, particularly for men, and that personal attitudes about AT are largely congruent with these norms. They also call attention to cross-cultural similarities in attitudes about touch in more intimate contexts.


Theodor Adorno is a widely-studied figure, but most often with regard to his work on cultural theory, philosophy and aesthetics. The Sociology of Theodor Adorno provides the first thorough English-language account of Adorno's sociological thinking. Matthias Benzer reads Adorno's sociology through six major themes: the problem of conceptualising capitalist society; empirical research; theoretical analysis; social critique; the sociological text; and the question of the non-social. Benzer explains the methodological and theoretical ideas informing Adorno's reflections on sociology and illustrates Adorno's approach to examining social life, including astrology, sexual taboos and racial prejudice. Benzer clarifies Adorno's sociology in relation to his work in other disciplines and the inspiration his sociology took from social thinkers such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Kracauer and Benjamin. The book raises critical questions about the viability of Adorno's sociological mode of procedure and its potential contributions and challenges to current debates in social science.


OBJECTIVES
To explore the relationship between biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflmmation in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and cognitive function in children receiving maintenance therapy for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

SAMPLE & SETTING
30 participants aged 4-17 years receiving ALL maintenance therapy at two pediatric cancer centers in the United States.

METHODS & VARIABLES
F2-isoprostane (F2-ISoP) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) were evaluated in CSF samples, and cognitive function measures were completed during the first and last cycles of ALL maintenance. The Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Test (Flanker) and Dimensional Change Card Sort were completed during the last cycle.

RESULTS
During maintenance therapy, IL-8 decreased, and parent reports of children's cognitive function improved. Higher IL-8 was associated with better parent reports of children's cognitive function at each timepoint. Higher F2-ISoP levels were associated with lower Flanker scores.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
F2-ISoP may be a useful biomarker in evaluating cognitive dysfunction in children with ALL and merits further investigation.


Circadian pacemakers keep cyanobacteria and eukaryotes on a 24-hour cycle that is synchronized with the environment. In Drosophila, a cryptochrome (CRY) is the primary circadian photoreceptor. It interacts with the transcription factors PERIOD (PER) and TIMELESS (TIM) that are involved in regulation of clock genes. However, the molecular mechanism of entrainment has been unclear. Busza et al. show that CRY binding to TIM is light-dependent in flies. The interaction is transient, but it commits TIM to proteosomal degradation. In CRY, the photolyase homology domain is involved in light detection and phototransduction, whereas the C-terminal domain regulates CRY stability and the CRY-TIM interaction. These results contrast with the functions of Arabidopsis CRY domains. A. Busza, M. Emery-Le, M. Rosbash, P. Emery, Roles of the two Drosophila CRYPTOCHROME structural domains in circadian photoreception. Science 304, 1503-1506 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Economic growth in Latin America and the rise of material welfare has lagged behind that of more dynamic areas of the world economy. In a region prone to policy experiments, the policies of the Washington Consensus applied since the 1990s failed to bring sustained growth to most of Latin America. AndrA©s Solimano and an impressive set of contributors analyze the last 40 years in order to determine the role of economic reforms, external conditions, factor accumulation, income inequality, political instability and productivity in explaining GDP increases. The book also looks at cycles of growth, identifying periods of rapid growth and contrasting them with periods of stagnation and collapse.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of brand love in place brand communication by incorporating potential antecedents and behavioral outcomes of place brand love in a social media setting.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from 281 residents and visitors of a place through an online survey focusing on a place brand video. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model.

Findings
Results show that place brand love has a strong direct relationship with positive word of mouth (WOM), and an indirect effect on intention to share the place brand message. Self-expressiveness of the place brand message also seems to influence place brand love as well as intention to share the message.

Research limitations/implications
The role of self-related concepts and brand love to a place has theoretical implications for research in place branding and electronic word of mouth. The study has limitations to its generalizability in terms of cultural aspects and sample representativeness.

Practical implications
Place marketers need to successfully reflect the self-concept of key stakeholders in communication messages in order to increase the probability that recipients will engage in positive WOM and share the message.

Originality/value
Research on place brand love is scarce and previous studies have focused solely on brand love in connection to tourists. The main contribution of the current study is the exploration of the role of brand love in connection to residents, who are vital co-creators of the place brand.


Transparent conducting thin films of metal oxides, doped metal oxides, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), have been produced using various deposition techniques, including: Aerosol Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition (AACVD), Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition (APCVD), and Spray Coating. The resultant thin films were tested for their performance in a number of applications, including: Low emissivity ('Low-E') glazing, photovoltaic electrode materials, gas sensing and photocatalysis.
AACVD was shown as a viable, and attractive, deposition technique for the synthesis of tin oxide, and doped tin oxide thin films, which allows for controllable doping levels, crystallinity, and surface structure. The tailoring of these physical attributes allows for enhanced performance of the functional properties of the films, whereby, a lower growth temperature produced highly transparent, highly conductive coatings with a low haze value for 'Low-E' applications, whereas, higher growth temperatures produced the high electrical conductivity, transparency, and light scattering properties required for high performance electrodes in thin film photovoltaics. In addition, a dual coating methodology was developed using both AACVD, and APCVD, to grow tin oxide thin films in a rapid timescale, but with modified surface structures showing changes to the short range waviness, kurtosis, and the surface area.
Growth of carbon nanotubes, using CVD, was investigated over a range of metal catalysts, with varying Pauling electronegativity values, and over a range of temperature, methane, and hydrogen conditions. A growth mechanism has been postulated, whereby, the electronegativity of the metal catalyst, and the solubility and diffusion of the carbon through that catalyst, affects the type and properties of the carbon structure produced. To the authors knowledge, this is the first reported growth of MWCNTs using a chromium solo-metal catalyst, and the first reported growth of the unique 'carbon nanofibres' which were produced using gold and silver metal catalysts. Functionalisation of SWCNTs using a microwave reflux process was shown to yield sulphonate and sulphone modified nanotubes, which are highly soluble in water and able to undergo spray coating to produce carbon nanotube, nanonet transparent conducting thin films. The functionalisation process was shown to be reversible upon heating of the modified nanotubes.
AACVD has been deemed unable to produced doped zinc oxide transparent conducting films. However, undoped zinc oxide films were produced. They displayed a high photocatalytic action in the degredation of stearic acid, and a UV light induced superhydrophilicity.
The modification and deposition techniques, established throughout this work, were utilised to form transparent, hybrid, metal oxide-CNT coatings, for gas sensing. The hybrid materials displayed enhanced response times to combustible target gases, which has been attributed to the catalytic effects of the exposed carbon nanotube surfaces; and to the spillover of adsorbed oxygen from the active nanotubes to the metal oxide surface.


This article highlights the predicament of persons recognized as refugees according to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (CSR1951 refugees) when they travel outside their state of asylum. Their status entails ipso facto that, if they are ill-treated abroad, they cannot turn to representatives of their state of nationality and request its diplomatic protection, nor can they expect to receive its consular assistance. It is submitted that a state of asylum ought to extend the scope of protection that it offers CSR1951 refugees residing in its territory, and provide them diplomatic protection and consular assistance when they travel abroad as if they were its nationals. Four claims are advanced in support of this contention: First: the advent of human rights treaties has not rendered obsolete the protection of nationals abroad nor has the practice fallen into disuse. On the contrary, protection abroad retains its pedigree and significance, as is illustrated by the recently adopted International Law Commission's Draft Articles on Diplomatic Protection and by frequent resort to consular assistance. Second: while states previously enjoyed unfettered discretion concerning whether and when to protect their nationals abroad, recent developments in domestic jurisdictions as well as in European Union (EU) treaties point to the potential emergence of a qualified duty to exercise state protection or to be willing to provide justifications for its refusal. These developments call particular attention to the vulnerability of CSR1951 refugees: the professed aim of the EU treaty regime is that EU citizens should enjoy effective state protection wherever they travel; by contrast, CSR1951 refugees are in need of state protection wherever they travel. Third: according to CSR1951, states of asylum are required to issue Convention Travel Documents (CTDs) to recognized refugees lawfully staying in their territory. While CTDs do not in of themselves authorize states of asylum to provide protection abroad to their CSR1951 refugees, they reflect partial recognition of the instrumental role of these states in facilitating safe refugee travel. Fourth: while the 'nationality of claims' requirement remains pivotal to the institution of diplomatic protection, and efforts to effectuate its general relaxation have thus far failed, the International Law Commission (ILC) has 'carved out' an exception authorizing states of asylum to provide protection abroad to their recognized refugees. The ILC's protection-enhancing agenda, reflecting progressive development of the law, is laudable, even though it has opted for a rather cautious approach.


Fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) production in sickle cell (SS) disease and in normal individuals varies over a 20-fold range and is under genetic control. Previous studies suggested that variant Hb F levels might be controlled by genetic loci separate from the beta-globin complex on chromosome 11. Using microscopic radial immunodiffusion and flow cytometric immunofluorescent assays to determine the percentage of F reticulocytes and F cells in SS and nonanemic individuals, we observed that F-cell levels were significantly higher in nonanemic females than males (mean +/- SD, 3.8% +/- 3.2% v 2.7% +/- 2.3%). F-cell production as determined by F reticulocyte levels in SS females was also higher than in SS males (17% +/- 10% v 13% +/- 8%). We tested the hypothesis that F-cell production in both normal and anemic SS individuals was controlled by an X-linked locus with two alleles, high (H) and low (L). Using an algorithm to determine the 99.8% confidence interval of a normal distribution in nonanemic individuals, we estimated that males and females with at least one H allele had greater than 3.3% F cells. Comparisons of male-male or female-female SS sib pairs with discordant F reticulocyte levels distinguished two phenotypes in SS males (L, less than 12%; H, greater than 12%) and three phenotypes in SS females (LL, less than 12%; HL, 12% to 24%, HH greater than 24%). Linkage analysis using polymorphic restriction sites along the X chromosome in eight SS and one AA family localized the F-cell production (FCP) locus to Xp22.2, with a maximum lod score (logarithm of odds of linkage v independent assortment) of 4.6 at a recombination fraction of 0.04.


Title of Dissertation: No Child Left Behind's Supplemental Educational Services: A Case Study of Participant Experiences in an Urban Afterschool Program in the District of Columbia Nichole Helene Stewart, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor Marvin Lynn Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of Maryland at College Park Professor Carol S. Parham Department of Education Policy and Leadership University of Maryland at College Park The enactment of No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) Supplemental Educational Services (SES) provision shifted new attention to the ability of afterschool programs to increase students' achievement levels and help close the pervasive achievement gap between Students of Color and their white counterparts. Though studies of supplemental education programs in general have shown their potential to successfully augment traditional classroom instruction, reports thus far on indicate that states, districts, providers, and families have faced numerous challenges in the execution of the SES model. The scant research that exists on SES primarily has focused on national, state, and district-level investigations of implementation. With the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB, information in needed on the ground-level implementation of SES, and the lived experiences of participants within SES Provider organizations, particularly those in urban areas that face significant social and economic challenges. This purpose of this study was to include the voices of SES program participants in the dialogue surrounding the provision's redesign and to understand their individual perceptions of the opportunities and challenges of involvement within one SES Provider program in the District of Columbia. Participant stories revealed that, despite some challenges, the program of study was beneficial and fostered the academic, social, and personal development of student participants, including increases in grades, test scores, and attendance, as well as in self-esteem and confidence. Tutors and staff reported experiencing personal growth and development. Participant narratives also uncovered a number of challenges that exist in the implementation of SES policy within the District of Columbia Public School System (DCPS), including issues with timing, communication, and district expectations. Participant experiences within the DCPS and subsequent policy recommendations may help to inform SES policy moving forward to aid in the development of policy that truly works to the benefit of the individuals it was intended to serve. NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND'S SUPPLEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICES: A CASE STUDY OF PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCES IN AN URBAN AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA


Growing demand on product individualization forces manufacturing organizations to react quickly and reducing the cost at the same time. To meet individual customers' need, competitive enterprises have to adopt both strategies of customer-driven and cost efficient product development. This can only be achieved by raising designers' awareness of market information, which includes both customer, and competitors' information. Sharing market situation among concurrent design teams is critical to provide customized products. This paper discusses mass customization approach using Design Structure Matrix (DSM) methodology, which is a valuable tool for producing different product variety quickly and economically. Our focus in this paper is to demonstrate how productcustomization could be done efficiently by using DSM. A case example taken from Volvo Company trucks is also included with this paper in order to show how different design rules could be implemented successfully by using DSM, which may be helpful for customization process too.


This article examines representations of indigenous peoples in Swedish and Canadian press coverage of the Copenhagen climate summit (COP15). It discusses tensions between the international character of UN summits and the often transnational character of indigenous peoples as well as the issue of climate change. It considers how conceptions of nature, culture and politics intersect in the coverage, and in what roles indigenous peoples appear. Building on theories concerning the representation of indigenous peoples, traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and identity politics, the study combines content and framing analysis with discourse analysis of a small sample of articles about indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in the coverage. When indigenous voices emerge they appear as victim-heroes and important intermediaries of urgency and spirituality. They also appear as intermediaries of de-nationalization, but they are misframed politically, recognized in terms of their culture rather than represented in terms of their status.


AIM
The aim of the study was to systematically review the literature on vascular injuries caused by acupuncture.

METHODS
This was a systematic literature search in Medline and PubMed.

RESULTS
Thirty-one cases were identified and the majority developed symptoms in direct connection with the acupuncture treatment. Three patients died, two from pericardial tamponade and one from an aortoduodenal fistula. There were seven more tamponades, eight pseudoaneurysms, two with ischemia, two with venous thrombosis, one with compartment syndrome and seven with bleeding (five in the central nervous system). The two patients with ischemia had remaining sequeleae. Information on follow-up was suboptimal with no information in fourteen patients.

CONCLUSION
Vascular injuries are rare, bleeding and pseudoaneurysm dominating. Follow-up is insufficient in the hitherto published papers.


The new mineral (IMA 2010–059) ernstburkeite, Mg(CH 3 SO 3 ) 2 · 12H 2 O, occurs as solid inclusions, typically with a grain size up to 5 μm, in an ice core from the Dome Fuji station, East Antarctica. Due to the small crystal size most physical and optical properties cannot be established on natural material. Optically, the mineral is uniaxial (+), ω 1.402(1), ɛ 1.408(1) (589 nm), and nonpleochroic. Ernstburkeite is trigonal, space group R -3 (no. 148), a = 9.27150(8) A, c = 21.1298(4) A, V = 1572.99(4) A 3 , Z= 3. Strongest X-ray powder-diffraction lines (relative intensities in parentheses) are: 7.04(42), 6.39(39), 4.64(100), 4.41(44), 3.87(89), 3.75(31), 3.74(35). The chemistry of the mineral in the ice core was confirmed by Raman microspectroscopy. The name is for Ernst A J. Burke, Belgian-born mineralogist at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands (1966–2005), chairman of the IMA Working Group on Inclusions in Minerals (1994–1998) and chairman of the IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (2003–2008).


This research explores what makes it possible for older members to live in intergenerational intentional communities in the South of England. These are uncommon entities within the UK; they are purposefully communally organised living arrangements adopting philosophies of mutual support. There is growing interest in intentional communities as potentially positive housing choices for later life, but no research has been undertaken exploring ageing in them.

I used a Bourdesian theoretical framework, exploring the economic, social and cultural capital that individuals commonly drew on in order to become members of their community (habitus) and to live day-to-day. I enhanced this approach by incorporating theorising from the fields of housing, cultural gerontology and care ethics, contributing to debates about the use of Bourdesian methods. I used qualitative research methods: a telephone survey of 22 communities and 23 interviews with members aged over 50, within 9 communities.

I found that half the communities had members aged over 60; all were intergenerational. I identified key economic differences between communities: individual-ownership models, which required individual financial investment upon entry (CoHousing) and social-ownership models, which did not (Housing Co-operatives and a squat); two were hybrid models.

The social-ownership intentional communities were more open to diverse potential new members. The cost of living was often very low, though this depended on the age of the community (generational capital) and the extent of sharing by members (collaboration). Long-standing housing Co-operatives had accumulated affordability capital and represented more radical transgression of the orthodoxies of UK housing and household formation under neo-liberal capitalist conditions (practical utopias). The cost of living in the CoHousing communities was individualised and similar to conventional homeownership. The CoHousing communities were more aligned with dominant property systems, gaining symbolic power through this.

Whilst participants from both types of communities shared certain dispositions and affinities (habitus), there was there was diversity based on traditional distinctions such as social or occupational class, or housing pathways. Bourdesian-type social and cultural capital were important, but in the form of alternative capital - constituted by critical thinking about conventional choices in life (reflexivity) and adoption of alternative, resistant hierarchies of cultural and social values. This enabled interviewees' agency and provided currency within the communities. It was sometimes linked to individual experiences of 1970s counter culture movements. Living in an intentional community at one point in life did not necessarily equate to a lifetime's commitment to this lifestyle - individual affiliation to a community could also be fleeting and ambivalent.

Emotional work made living in all communities possible, including tolerance and adaptability. Compromise was structured into all communities decision-making to varying degrees (consensus decision-making). Interviewees considered contributing to community life, friendships, commitment and consideration of the needs of others (informal ethics of reciprocal care) important.

Ageing and reciprocal relations of care were delicate matters, not spoken of explicitly in any community. Some interviewees were sure about staying in their community into older age. Most felt ambivalent. There were normative feelings about ageing, such as fears of dependency and determination to remain active (dominant discourses of successful ageing). Whilst intergenerational living was considered positive by all, some tensions were revealed. The ageing of established communities seemed to be challenging their informal and implicit value and mutual support systems. I argued intentional communities might benefit from greater acknowledgement and consideration of issues raised by ageing, to effectively support those moving into later life.

By shining a light on these unnoticed, often transgressive experiments in community living, I have shed light onto taken-for-granted housing choices in the UK and to show how limited those choices have become, particularly in older age.


The flow behaviour and processing map of a duplex stainless steel were studied via hot compressive tests in a temperature range of 1223–1473 K and a strain rate range of 0.01–30 s− 1. The effect of strain rate and temperature on the hot workability, strain partitioning and dominant flow behaviour of the alloy was systematically investigated. It is found that the softening mechanism of each constituent phase differs from each other. The ferrite is softened by dynamic recovery and continuous dynamic recrystallisation (CDRX), while the austenite is softened only by the limited discontinuous dynamic recrystallisation (DDRX). At lower strain rates (0.01 and 0.1 s− 1), the strain is mainly accommodated by ferrite due to its excellent softening capability, which causes the apparent activation energy Qp to decline continuously with the increase in true strain. In this case, plastic deformation of the austenite rarely occurs, and at this time, DDRX of austenite is not observed. When the strain rate increases, CDRX of ferrite is weakened at a relative low temperature, which prompts the strain transfer into austenite and induces the strain hardening due to its restricted softening. Accordingly, interactions between the strain hardening in austenite and weakened softening of ferrite leads to one or more platforms of Q formed at the medium stage of deformation (1–30 s− 1). The processing map shows that two flow instability regions appear at high strain rate due to the lack of sufficient response time for dynamic restoration at the early deformation stage. As the strain increases, dynamic softening mechanism is activated at a higher temperature, resulting in a gradually narrowed flow instability region. Differently, a decrease in temperature suppresses dynamic softening of the alloy with a high strain rate, which deteriorates the hot workability of the alloy and induces microcrack formation after straining of 0.8.


Many commentators argue that tort law is inappropriate for responding to the risks posed by emerging technologies. Courts are often seen as technically incompetent, and the case method is criticized for sending haphazard signals to producers. Administrative agencies, it is argued, have greater expertise than courts, and their capacity for uniform rule-making allows them to create a stable legal environment that contributes to technical progress and economic growth. These criticisms seem to justify current trends in preemption of tort law-Congress has been considering measures to restrict tort law, and courts are increasingly finding tort law preempted, even in the absence of explicit legislation to that effect.Professor Lyndon argues that tort law plays a valuable role in the management of new technologies. By giving producers incentives to concern themselves with all harms that a new technology may cause, rather than just those that a regulatory agency identifies, tort law encourages broader and more effective consideration of safety issues. In addition, knowledge of the specific context in which alleged harms were suffered may be critical in deciding how to react to those harms. The case method allows a more detailed consideration of this context. The focus of legal reform, Professor Lyndon argues, should not be on preempting on tort law, but on determining how tort law, regulation, and intellectual property law can best complement one another to allocate the burdens and benefits presented by technological change.


We present an immune algorithm (IA) inspired by the clonal selection principle, which has been designed for the protein structure prediction problem (PSP). The proposed IA employs two special mutation operators, hypermutation and hypermacromutation to allow effective searching, and an aging mechanism which is a new immune inspired operator that is devised to enforce diversity in the population during evolution. When cast as an optimization problem, the PSP can be seen as discovering a protein conformation with minimal energy. The proposed IA was tested on well-known PSP lattice models, the HP model in two-dimensional and three-dimensional square lattices', and the functional model protein, which is a more realistic biological model. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed IA is very competitive with the existing state-of-art algorithms for the PSP on lattice models


BACKGROUND
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often a chronic disorder with relapses usually detected and managed in primary care using a validated depression symptom questionnaire. However, for individuals with recurrent depression the choice of which questionnaire to use and whether a shorter measure could suffice is not established.

AIM
To compare the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale against shorter PHQ-derived measures for detecting episodes of DSM-IV major depression in primary care patients with recurrent MDD.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Diagnostic accuracy study of adults with recurrent depression in primary care predominantly from Wales

METHOD
Scores on each of the depression questionnaire measures were compared with the results of a semi-structured clinical diagnostic interview using Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis for 337 adults with recurrent MDD.

RESULTS
Concurrent questionnaire and interview data were available for 272 participants. The one-month prevalence rate of depression was 22.2%. The area under the curve (AUC) and positive predictive value (PPV) at the derived optimal cut-off value for the three longer questionnaires were comparable (AUC = 0.86-0.90, PPV = 49.4-58.4%) but the AUC for the PHQ-9 was significantly greater than for the PHQ-2. However, by supplementing the PHQ-2 score with items on problems concentrating and feeling slowed down or restless, the AUC (0.91) and the PPV (55.3%) were comparable with those for the PHQ-9.

CONCLUSION
A novel four-item PHQ-based questionnaire measure of depression performs equivalently to three longer depression questionnaires in identifying depression relapse in patients with recurrent MDD.


Traditional wireless and mobile network focuses on higher throughout, coverage and larger capacity. In future, energy efficiency is of vital importance for wireless networks due to a large number of connected and battery constrained mobile devices. In Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced), Carrier Aggregation (CA) is proposed to increase the transmission bandwidth and hence data rate. This paper studies the effect of CA on the total power transmitted by the LTE-Advanced eNodeB based on the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) downlink while taking the users Quality of Service (QoS) constraints into consideration. The numerical analysis and results show that by using CA a reduction in total power consumption can be achieved.


Teacher's behaviour is substantially influenced and even determined by teachers' thought processes. Several studies concerning effectiveness in physical education have analysed various topics such as student engagement, curriculum time allocation, teaching methods, teacher behaviour, and teacher perceptions. However, these investigations have not applied the classroom research findings identified by other researchers. Firstly, this study explains the implied thoughts of the explained Tunisian Gymnastic University Teachers (TGUT) to teach gymnastics learning processes by analyzing their thought processes. Secondly, we included the analysis of the connection, interaction and relationship between the three topics reviewed. Thirdly, we identified and analyzed the difference between different Tunisian physical educational teachers' thoughts and its influence on their didactical practice intervention. Data were collected during 4 months of observations and interviews with six TGUT at the high institute of sport and physical education (ISSEP) in Tunisia. They all teach not mixed class in Level1 (first year, BAC + 1). These interviews were semi structured (40 minutes each) and gave teachers the opportunity to share their perspectives on broad topics such as education, teaching, and society, and also on more succinct topics such as individual students and situations that had occurred in previous lessons. The data were analyzed using constant comparison. Three topics emerged illustrate how the teachers' thinking influenced their selecting, ordering, and formulating of curriculum units, their didactic and pedagogical manoeuvring during lessons. This study revealed three major conceptions used by TGUT: 1) Teaching based on pedagogical conceptions (7.20%), 2) Teaching based on sciences (17.42%), and 3) Teaching based on means and practices (75.37%). A number of themes emerged from the analysis of each case, aside to the contextualised responses of individuals. The perception of the TGUT had two consequences: 1) a didactic consequence; the TGUT plan activities that will assist students in developing only physical skills, 2) the legitimacy of the contributory sciences in training programs for student teachers of physical education (PE). Basis on this argument, we might reasonably ask what might be done to address this problem. The issues discussed in this paper will encourage teachers to reflect on their own teaching beliefs and practices and to include them in the process of planning and teaching effectiveness.


I. Imagine, if you will, that you are a young student enrolled in a private university in the United States of America. Yours was an essentially conservative, middle-class upbringing. You are earnest and intellectually ambitious to a degree. Good grades came easily. You graduated near the top of your secondary school and so excelled in English that you may harbour ambitions of becoming a writer yourself. What are you to make of the following three stanzas from John Clare's 'Don Juan'? Children are fond of sucking sugar candy & maids of sausages - larger the better Shopmen are fond of good sigars & brandy & I of blunt - & if you change the letter To C or K it would be quite as handy & throw the next away - but I'm your debtor For modesty - yet wishing nought between us I'd hawl close to a she as vulcan did to venus I really cant tell what this poem will be About - nor yet what trade I am to follow I thought to buy old wigs - but that will kill me With cold starvation - as they're beaten hollow Long speeches in a famine will not fill me & madhouse traps still take me by the collar So old wig bargains now must be forgotten The oil that dressed them fine has made them rotten I wish old wigs were done with ere they're mouldy I wish-but heres the papers large & lusty With speeches that full fifty time they've told ye -Noble Lord John to sweet Miss Fanny Fusty Is wed-a lie good reader I ne'er sold ye -Prince Albert goes to Germany & must he Leave the queen's snuff box where all fools are strumming From addled eggs no chickens can be coming' One of the first things you might notice is how little this conforms to your experience of poetry - neither the rich, expressive vein of lyric worked by so many poets since Wordsworth, nor the glimmering shards of High-Modernist assemblages such as The Waste Land. Written while Clare was incarcerated at the High Beech asylum, 'Don Juan' is a fractious, allusive, topical, and decidedly promiscuous poem that presents numerous problems in the classroom. There are what we might call its moral challenges. The vulgar sexual punning of 'Don Juan', its implications of genitalia and fellatio, and deep-seated misogyny form a hurdle for my mainly conservative Midwestern students. In addition to these moral provocations, which test our sensibilities more than our comprehension,'Don Juan' presents numerous cognitive challenges. What are we to make of its obsession with consumption? To what extent do we follow its vexing puns or its elastic metaphors? How readily do we sift and make sense of its abrupt shifts in tone, register, and topic? For some, the poem's thirty-four ottavarima stanzas seem less a cohesive utterance than a 'circuit for intensities'.2 Finally, there are the practical challenges. A thicket of political reference and allusion, 'Don Juan' is exceedingly topical. For undergraduates with little knowledge of the mid nineteenth-century political landscape - of Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert; of Melbourne, Wellington, and Peel, Whigs and Tories, and the election of 1841; of Corn Laws (1815) which kept the price of grains at artificially inflated levels- of the Reform Act (1832) which extended the franchise and remapped political boroughs; of Enclosure (1801) and the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) which exacerbated the sufferings of many agricultural laborers - the poem can be extremely frustrating. You will not be surprised, then, to hear that almost invariably students come to class piqued. They are thoroughly convinced that 'Don Juan' is a bad poem, that Clare is a bad poet, and, I suspect, that I am a bad person for having made them read it. Although the intensity of their response short-circuits the kind of critical analysis I hope to foster, it also offers me a way in. …


Understanding of visual signal processing can benefit from simultaneous measurement of different types of retinal neurons working together. In this Letter, we demonstrate that intrinsic optical signal (IOS) imaging of frog retina slices allows simultaneous observation of stimulus-evoked responses propagating from the photoreceptors to the inner neurons. High-resolution imaging revealed robust IOSs at the photoreceptor, the inner plexiform, and the ganglion cell layers. While IOSs of the photoreceptor layer were mainly confined to the area directly stimulated by the visible light, IOSs of the inner retinal layers spread from the stimulus site into relatively large areas with a characteristic near-to-far time course.


Structural and thermal analysis of a zero clearance auxiliary bearing (ZCAB) for magnetic bearing systems is presented. The ZCAB consists a series of rollers whose centers are initially placed on a circle. At the open condition all rollers have an initial clearance about the rotating shaft. As the shaft drops on the ZCAB rollers, either due to failure of the magnetic bearing system or a transient shock, the centers of the rollers move circumferentially along a curve path and after eliminate the initial clearance by closing around the shaft and re-centering it. This is known as the closed condition. The overall stiffness of the ZCAB will then depend on the stiffness of each single roller and the initial clearance between the rollers and the shaft. This is affected by the number of rollers that will touch the shaft which will also vary the load applied on the rollers. The low shaft-rollers traction coefficient and overall dynamic support characteristics obviate the possibility of backward whirl, however this traction and the generated heat in the rolling element embedded in the rollers are sources of heat generation. This paper presents the results of a transient analysis for the ZCAB structural stiffness. A preliminary thermal model of the ZCAB and comparison between the predictions and test results are also discussed. Some design guidelines are presented to help improve the performance of the ZCAB in the case of high temperature working conditions. Presented at the 54th Annual Meeting Las Vegas, Nevada May 23–27, 1999


When introducing a new product, firms face a hierarchy of decisions at the strategic and operational levels including capacity sizing, time to market or starting sales, initial inventory required by the product's release time, and production management in response to changes in the demand. Firms also face the dilemma of how to support a fast and substantial take-off by targeting the right population of potential consumers for seeding. This dissertation explores the above inter-dependent decisions using a diverse set of analysis tools, namely agent-based modeling and simulation, Monte Carlo simulation, continuoustime mathematical models, and parametric and nonparametric statistical approaches. This work contributes to the marketing and operations management literature in five significant ways: (1) it shows that ignoring supply and demand uncertainties may lead to potentially incorrect decisions and that the optimal decision may change if risk is used as the primary performance measure instead of the commonly used expected (mean) profit; (2) it provides insights about the optimal introduction time of a new generation of a new product under market expansion and cannibalization; (3) it provides a joint analysis of marketing and production strategies and shows that a sequential decision-making process would lead to suboptimal decisions and reduced profit; (4) it explores the importance of the social network structure and individuals' interactions on the optimal combination of seeding and build-up policies; and, (5) it presents a more realistic analysis by relaxing many of the assumptions of previous studies and provides empirical evidence by a successful application to the case of the diffusion of Sony's PlayStation R ©3 game console in Europe. The findings of this work and its future extensions along the lines discussed in the dissertation have important implications for innovation diffusion research and can potentially help companies make better decisions regarding production and marketing of their new products.


Historians and teacher educators nationwide are now engaged in discussions about the importance of history teacher preparation. Interest within the history profession about the teaching of K-12 history has increased significantly during the past two decades, particularly since the controversy over the National Standards for History's publication. This attention is evident not only in the historical professions' various publications, but also in the federal government's multi-million dollar Teaching American History Program and the No Child Left Behind Act. Professional historians are increasingly committed to improving the teaching of history at the K-12 level through many forms of collaboration. History Education 101's thirteen essays are organized into three sections: context, practice, and new directions. The essays' contributors, tenured faculty who teach history teaching methods courses in colleges and universities throughout the United States, focus on how history education has, is, and will be taught to new K-12 teachers throughout the United States.Perhaps more than ever, it is critical for Americans to understand the role of higher education in the preparation of future middle and high school history teachers. This book provides important insights for academics in history and education departments as well as other individuals who are concerned with the status and improvement of history teaching in the schools, particularly current and future elementary and secondary teachers and administrators.


In mountain snow basins, a change in climate will likely cause a change in the basin snow cover extent. A procedure for evaluating whether a given climate change scenario will speed up or slow down the seasonal decrease of snow covered area is outlined with hypothetical examples for a simple basin. This procedure has two main purposes. First, it can be used to generate snow covered area data in a new climate for input to runoff models such as the Snowmelt-Runoff Model (SRM). Second, it could potentially be used to provide input to climate models that require knowledge of the land area covered by snow at a given time. A computer program is now operational for use on real basins and is demonstrated on the Rio Grande basin in Colorado and the Illecillewaet River basin in British Columbia.


We study the cuspless curves in three dimensional Euclidean space that minimize the energy functional $\int_0^L\sqrt{\kappa(s)^2+\beta^2}\,\mathrm{d} s$ defined for each spatial arc-length parameterized curve with curvature $\kappa$ and length (free) $L\geq 0$. To compute the stationary curves, we took the Lagrangian approach used by Bryant and Grifiths for similar minimization problems. We have also shown that two other approaches, a direct variational method in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and the Hamiltonian approach using the Pontryagin's Maximum Principle (PMP) give the same ODE's for the stationary curves (that are locally minimizing due to PMP). We show that using the spatial arc-length parameterizations is advantageous in our case over the sub-Riemannian arc-length parameterization. The Bryant and Griffiths approach leads us to explicit formulas for the stationary curves. The formulas allow us to extract geometrical properties of the cuspless sub-Riemannian geodesics, such as planarity conditions and explicit bounds on the torsion. Moreover, they allow a study of the symmetries of the associated exponential map, and they allow to numerically solve both the initial and the boundary value problem, and to numerically compute the range of the exponential map. As a result, we characterize necessary conditions on the boundary conditions for which our optimization is well-posed.