This paper extends the Law of Consistency to include transfer, transformation, keno and spectrum consistencies. Consistency at any scale therefore falsifies any theoretical approach that breaks the conservation of mass-energy. With these it is now possible to structure the expansion redshift data and propose how to handle uncertainties in the gravitational red shifts. A review of some of the latest finding point to precision in modern methods for estimating the expansion redshift, however, significant variable bias is present and therefore, accuracy eludes us. Proposing the shape of the Universe as the surface of a sphere, it was possible to identify sources of the heteroscedastic errors. These errors are primarily due to combining age with distance. Hubble Constant is found to be 75.403.


Nanofibers with the cationic fluorescent molecules, 1-pyrenemethylamine hydrochloride (PyrMA) and α,β,γ,δ-tetrakis(1-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin p -toluenesulfonate (TMPyP), in the presence of complementary anionic chiral polysaccharide, hyaluronic acid (HA) and transparent polymer, polyethylene oxide (PEO) were successfully prepared using an electrospinning technique. The results showed that the fluorescence spectra of electrospun nanofibers (ENFs) of PEO-HA-PyrMA exhibit a higher amount of pyrene excimer emission when the [PyrMA]/[HA] ratio was increased from 0.5 to 1, while the concentration of TMPyP had no remarkable effect on the fluorescence of the PEO-HA-TMPyP ENFs. From circular dichroism (CD) characterization, the ENFs of both dyes exhibit stronger intensities in the apparent CD spectra upon increasing the dye ratio. Moreover, they also showed higher CD intensities when compared with those of solutions and thin films prepared using other methods. The apparent CD in this work was proved to mainly originate from linear dichroism (LD) and linear birefringence (LB) obtained by macroscopic alignment along the electrospinning process. These results suggest the advantages of molecular orientation via electrospinning, together with chirality induction by incorporation of a chiral HA polymer. The enhancement of these polarization properties provides great possibilities for improving fluorescentchiral nanofibers for further optoelectronic applications.

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Recent years have seen a large expansion in the use of rigorous impact evaluation techniques. Increasingly, public administrations are collaborating with academic economists and other quantitative social scientists to apply such rigorous methods to the study of public finance. These developments allow for more reliable measurements of the effects of different policy options on the behavioral responses of citizens, firm owners, or public officials. They can help decision makers in tax administrations, public procurement offices, and other public agencies design programs informed by well-founded evidence. This article provides an introductory overview of the most frequently used impact evaluation methods. It is aimed at facilitating communication and collaboration between practitioners and academics by introducing key vocabulary and concepts used in rigorous impact evaluation methods, starting with randomized controlled trials and comparing them with other methods ranging from simple pre–post analysis to difference-in-differences, matching estimations, and regression discontinuity designs. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1091142115614392 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-136558 Akzeptierte Version Originally published at: Pomeranz, Dina (2017). Impact evaluation methods in public economics. Public Finance Review, 45(1):10-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1091142115614392


Eosinophil accumulation is a distinctive feature of lung allergic inflammation. Here, we have used a mouse model of OVA (ovalbumin)-induced pulmonary eosinophilia to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms for this selective recruitment of eosinophils to the airways. In this model there was an early accumulation of infiltrating monocytes/macrophages in the lung during the OVA treatment, whereas the increase in infiltrating T-lymphocytes paralleled the accumulation of eosinophils. The kinetics of accumulation of these three leukocyte subtypes correlated with the levels of mRNA expression of the chemokines monocyte chemotactic peptide-1/JE, eotaxin, and RANTES (regulated upon activation in normal T cells expressed and secreted), suggesting their involvement in the recruitment of these leukocytes. Furthermore, blockade of eotaxin with specific antibodies in vivo reduced the accumulation of eosinophils in the lung in response to OVA by half. Mature CD4+ T-lymphocytes were absolutely required for OVA-induced eosinophil accumulation since lung eosinophilia was prevented in CD4+-deficient mice. However, these cells were neither the main producers of the major eosinophilic chemokines eotaxin, RANTES, or MIP-1alpha, nor did they regulate the expression of these chemokines. Rather, the presence of CD4+ T cells was necessary for enhancement of VCAM-1 (vascular cell adhesion molecule-1) expression in the lung during allergic inflammation induced by the OVA treatment. In support of this, mice genetically deficient for VCAM-1 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 failed to develop pulmonary eosinophilia. Selective eosinophilic recruitment during lung allergic inflammation results from a sequential accumulation of certain leukocyte types, particularly T cells, and relies on the presence of both eosinophilic chemoattractants and adhesion receptors.


Eating from birth onwards is closely connected with interpersonal and emotional experiences and, therefore, its psychological and physiological dimensions cannot be strictly differentiated. This research aims to gain an in-depth understanding of obese men's relationship with food prior to having weight loss surgery, as there is a paucity of studies solely representing men's idiosyncratic views and opinions.

This research adopts a qualitative design and uses interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to analyse the data as it has been shown to be an effective approach when little is known on a topic, there is novelty and complexity, and there are issues relating to identity and sense making.

Eight participants have been recruited through two well renowned charities: (1) the British Obesity Surgery Patient Association (BOSPA and (2) Weight Loss Surgery Information and Support (WLSinfo). Participants were invited to take part in a 60 minute face-to-face semi-structured interview and asked questions regarding their relationship with food prior to receiving bariatric surgery.

The over-arching theme of 'Food and the masculine-self' emerged with five interrelated superordinate themes: (1) 'Family milieu: past and present', (2) 'Food as the self-soother', (3) 'Socio-cultural ramifications', (4) ' Food and selfidentity', and (5) ' Food and weight loss surgery expectations'. These results represent my interpretation of my participants' interpretation of their lived experience.

The findings increase our understanding and knowledge on how best to support men psychologically prior to undergoing bariatric surgery. Additionally, it gives men a voice in a field where the preponderance of the literature in qualitative research has solely focused on women's narratives.


Weddle's Guide to Employment Sites on the Internet 2005/6 for Corporate and Third Party Recruiters, Job Seekers and Career Activists, by Peter Weddle. 2005, Weddle's, Stamford, CT, 427 pages, Soft Cover, $27.95 Intended Audience: All Major Headings from Table of Contents: Welcome Back! What's New; What is Weddle's & Who is Peter Weddle? The Recruiter's & HR Professional's section; The Job seeker's & Career Activist's section; Weddle's 2005 User's Choice Awards; Recruiters & Job seekers Pick the Elite of Recruitment Websites; Weddle's 2004 Web Site Profiles; Cross Reference Index. How is the book most useful for its intended audience? The book is most useful to its intended audiences of job seekers and those who search for talent, such as recruiters, by providing a streamlined and systematic approach for leveraging the best-of-the-best employment web sites to accelerate their searches. The top four features of this reference guide that offer the most value to the reader. 1. Weddle's easy-to-understand and use SmartSelect and SmartSearch systems for evaluating and selecting the best sites for an individual's purposes. 2. The importance of selecting sites by using criteria that aligns a site's purpose with an individual's needs. 3. The at-your-fingertips access to valuable web site intelligence in Weddle's profiles, such as top salary levels and sources of postings on each site. 4. Additional valuable insight such as the cost and length of time for posting resumes and job announcements. Weddle's Guide to Employment Sites on the Internet 2005/6 is to job seekers and recruiters what Zagat's is to restaurant patrons. Each year, Weddle's selects just 350 sites that represent the array of capabilities available virtually. Accordingly, Weddle's readers are able to navigate the extensive online menu of 40,000+ employment-related sites. Further, Weddle's User's Choice Awards provide a list of the 30 sites considered to be "the elite of the online employment industry." Approximately 40 per cent of the sites listed in Weddle's Guide change from year-to-year to reflect the emergence of new sites, the discontinuance of sites cited in previous years, and the evolution of sites offering new capabilities or features. As such, The 2005/6 edition is a completely new book. In order to keep pace with the ever-changing Internet, Weddle's offers complimentary updates at its web site, Weddles.com. Structured as a reference tool, Weddle's user-friendly guide includes the following key sections: (1) a cross-reference index which delineates sites of interest by category; (2) a recruiter's section; (3) a job seeker's section; and (4) a list of 30 User's Choice Award Winners for 2005. The Guide serves two specific audiences: (1) those looking for talent, such as employment managers; corporate, executive, and consulting recruiters; and human resource (HR) practitioners; and (2) those looking for employment. In order to make its guide even more user-friendly, Weddle's has created SmartSelect and SmartSearch processes for those seeking talent and those seeking employment, respectively. Each of these processes is structured into five streamlined steps that allow the reader to masterfully select and leverage the "right" sites to achieve his or her individual objectives. …


The main objective of the paper is creating a method on how one can model an axial flow compressor. A systematic design approach has been used in the present study in order to design an axial flow compressor. The design calculations were based on thermodynamics, gas dynamic, fluid mechanics, aerodynamic and empirical relations. A two- dimensional compressible flow is assumed with constant axial and rotor blade velocities. A free-vortex swirl distribution was used in the design. These calculations include thermodynamic properties of the working fluid, number of rotor and stator blades, tip and hub diameters, blade dimensions (chord, length and space) for both rotor and stator, velocity triangles before and after the rotor and stator, mach number, solidity, flow and blade angles (blade twist). A repeated stage calculation is made to calculate the above parameters along compressor stages. The twist of the blades can be calculated along the blade length at any required number of sections selected by the designers to obtain smooth blade twist profile. NACA 65010 has been selected as a blade profile for the compressor at root, mean and tip. Here it is calculated at three main sections, the hub, the mean and the tip. The blade selected for this study is NACA 65010. The data obtained from the systematic approach has been utilised to generate three dimensional compressors.


As the old axiom goes: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." But teach a woman to fish, and everyone eats for a lifetime. In this firsthand account, Ritu Sharma shares how women can, and are, overcoming the forces that keep them in poverty. She chronicles her travels through four countries—Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso, Honduras, and Nicaragua—and the intimate interactions she had with the women living there. Sharma's story not only details her experiences, but also looks at the broader systems that prevent women from leaving poverty behind. From lack of property rights and government corruption to the scarcity of basic infrastructure like roads, these women are restricted by the external limitations placed upon them. Sharma draws from her experiences to frame a larger exploration of how Americans can be instrumental in helping women break free of restrictive systems and begin to facilitate women's upward mobility. Written in her engaging personal voice, Teach a Woman to Fish provides an insider's look at women in poverty, how Washington works, and how change really happens—from the United States to the rest of the world.


In every field concerning post-disaster reconstruction, not only in engineering, technology plays a leading role and, just as resilience, it has become the goal that every action should achieve. In light of what has been claimed, this paper intends to critically illustrate one of the most interesting elements of technological innovation underway in the city of L'Aquila hit by the 2009 earthquake. The reference is the so-called "smart tunnel", a system of functional and management rationalization of the underground services of the city. The work was divided into two portions called "Excerpts" where the first one is currently 93% completed and highlighted the presence of intrinsic criticalities in the work and in the context. In order to avoid irrational and random conditions that could inevitably lead to a safety lack, related to the excerpts II a methodology is being developed, based on District Information Modeling. It is configured as a control and management tool for the whole system which will allow the interference management inspired by principles of rationality and safety. The smart tunnel system is part of a series of other public and private initiatives, aimed at a widespread experimentation of advanced technologies that deals with the renewal of infrastructures, services and mobility, telecommunications. These innovations mainly concern the L'Aquila historical centre but also the outskirts and follow the principles of the smart city and related to the resilience development. * Corresponding author


To obtain drop-in fuel properties from 3rd generation biomass, we herein report the catalytic hydrotreatment of microalgae biocrude, produced from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of Spirulina. Our contribution focuses on the effect of temperature, initial H2 pressure, and residence time on the removal of heteroatoms (O and N) in a batch hydrotreating setup. In contrast to common experimental protocols for hydrotreating at batch scale, we devised a set of two-level factorial experiments and studied the most influential parameters affecting the removal of heteroatoms. It was found that up to 350 °C, the degree of deoxygenation (de-O) is mainly driven by temperature, whereas the degree of denitrogenation (de-N) also relies on initial H2 pressure and temperature-pressure interaction. Based on this, complete deoxygenation was obtained at mild operating conditions (350 °C), reaching a concurrent 47% denitrogenation. Moreover, three optimized experiments are reported with 100% removal of oxygen. In addition, the analysis by GC-MS and Sim-Dis gives insight to the fuel quality. The distribution of heteroatom N in lower (<340 °C) and higher (>340 °C) fractional cuts is studied by a fractional distillation unit following ASTM D-1160. Final results show that 63–68% of nitrogen is concentrated in higher fractional cuts.


The mechanical behaviour of soils is partly affected by their clay content, which exerts some considerable effects in many applications in the fields of civil engineering, geology and environmental engineering. This study focuses on pavement engineering, but the approach can be extended to other purposes.
The presence of clay in the bearing structural layers of pavements frequently causes damages and defects, such as transversal and longitudinal cracks, deformations and rutting. Consequently, the road safety and operability decrease, while the expected number of accidents increases.
In this work Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) laboratory inspections are carried out in order to predict the presence of clay in pavement structural layers. Data are post-processed in the frequency domain, according to the Rayleigh scattering method based on the Fresnel theory. This new technique can be supported by other survey methods, improving the quality of the results.
Analysis are carried out using two different GPR systems.
A Radar is used with ground-coupled antennae in a bistatic configuration and common offset; the transmitter and receiver are linked by optic fiber electronic modules and operate at 500 MHz central frequency. The received signal is sampled in the time domain at time steps of 7.8125 x 10-2 ns.
A Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) acquires ultra-wide band data in a bandwidth from 500 MHz to 3000 MHz. The signal is sampled in the frequency domain with approximately 1.56 MHz frequency steps. A double-ridged broadband horn antenna is connected via a high-quality coaxial cable to the VNA pulse generator and illuminates the analyzed target in a monostatic off-ground configuration.
The experimental setting required the use of road material, typically employed for sub-grade and sub-base layers. Three kind of soils, classified as A1, A2, A3 by AASHTO are used and adequately compacted in electrically and hydraulically isolated boxes. Bentonite clay is gradually added from 2% to 25% in weight, according to mixing and compaction laboratory procedures. A metal plate supports the experimental boxes, so that the GPR signal is totally reflected.
GPR surveys are carried out for each clay content. The signals are analyzed in both time and frequency domains.
In the time domain the reliability of results is validated by the electromagnetic theory, in terms of signal amplitude, electric permittivity and time delay . In the frequency domain the results are highly consistent for all the investigated soils . Assuming a residual water content of the dry clay that is due to its hygroscopic capability, frequency spectra shift not linearly, as expected from the scattering theory. The modulation depends on the water content and, indirectly, on the clay content. The correlation between the central frequency values of the spectra and the clay content is negative: decreasing values of the central frequency correspond to increasing values in the clay content, from 0% up to 25%. A comparative analysis of the three soil spectra for different clay contents has shown a different behaviour of the clay, both for the ground-coupled radar and the broadband analyzer. In general, in fine grain size soils lower central frequency value intensities are registered.


Pneumonia is responsible for an estimated 44% of deaths in children under 5 years of age in the Himalayan communities of the Northern Areas, Pakistan. The objectives of the three papers included in this thesis were to 1) determine the incidence of pneumonia in children using the World Health Organization Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) criteria; 2) evaluate the impact of intensive follow-up training for Community Health Workers (CHWs) on pneumonia recognition and referral; and 3) compare health center staff classification of pneumonia based on IMCI criteria with evaluation by pediatricians. Children 2-35 months were followed at home every two weeks by CHWs and surveillance was simultaneously established at 15 health centers for pneumonia. CHW performance was evaluated at six-weekly intervals using pre- and post-tests, by measuring the proportion of children with severe disease they referred correctly to health centers, and by comparing the incidence
rates for pneumonia among children in their coverage area. Misclassification of disease was measured by determining overall agreement between health center staff classification of disease with a pediatrician's evaluation at a referral hospital in Gilgit. The incidence rate was 29.9 per 100 child years of observation (CYO) for pneumonia and 8.1 per 100 CYO for severe pneumonia. The proportion of children that were correctly referred for severe disease by CHWs increased from zero at baseline to above 80% over one year. Significant improvements were reported between the pre- and post-test results of CHW in all 10 tests conducted (paired sample t-test p-value <0.001). Using the pediatrician's diagnosis as reference, health center staff correctly classified 125 (74.9%) of the children with severe pneumonia, and failed to identify 42 (25.1%) of children with the disease. Staff incorrectly labeled 328 (72.4%) children from the 453 they classified as children with severe pneumonia. Fewer
children with pneumonia were missed (11.5%) or labeled incorrectly (2.8%). The pneumonia incidence rates in this Himalayan region are among the highest reported, even after adjustments for over-diagnosis of severe pneumonia. Sustained improvements in pneumonia referral were achieved following intensive training for CHWs. These findings warrant consideration of new intervention strategies in this region.


HISTORICAL parallels must not be overdrawn. From the simple fact that Napoleon started for Moscow in June 1812 and got there by September and that Hitler started for the same place in June 1941 and did not get there by Septem ber almost nothing of any use to us today can be inferred. Such a comparison is essentially between incomparables. But because much loose prophecy is heard, based on crude analogies between the Napoleonic period and our own day, it by no means follows that we can learn nothing by a cautious comparison between the broad aspects of the two periods. This is not the place to go into the elaborately philosophical implications of the problem of historical uniformities. It should be sufficient to point out that from the point of view of common sense the notion that historical events are wholly unique is simply not tenable. In medical practice, for instance, no case, even of a relatively simple disease like pneumonia, is exactly like any other case; each patient presents to the physician a problem in some way unique. But not wholly unique, or the medical pro fession could never have achieved the triumphs it undoubtedly has achieved. The physician expects to learn from experience ? that is, from history. The fact is that most "practical" men ? farmers, sailors, engineers ? habitually act on what it is no mere quibble to call a study of historical uniformities. They may make mistakes. If they act as if their experience gave them absolute uniformities, they are certain to make grave mistakes. But they would make even graver ones if they assumed that each problem they faced was wholly unique and unprecedented. We may legitimately ask, then, what can be learnt from the record of Napoleon's attempt to dominate Europe which will enable us to understand the still unfinished record of Hitler's


Abstract : Space debris remains an unsolved hazard for space operators and astronomers alike. Passive debris mitigation techniques have been enumerated and codified by the UNCOPUOS and IADC and several proposals for actively mitigating space debris have been presented. However, the space debris problem requires reframing. On the way to developing a viable CONOPS, a multi-disciplinary construct for building solution sets to tackle the space debris problem must be created. It must be shaped by building blocks of active and passive debris mitigation techniques, debris characterization and law. Central considerations must be taken. First, targeting of space debris for removal must be prioritized to unite effort and to make significant reductions in the space debris threat. Next, a leading agent must be identified and empowered to act as an executor for a space debris mitigation program, passive or active. Also needed is enactment of enforcement measures to ensure space faring nations comply with binding regulations. Lastly, active space debris mitigation programs must be urged along by the international community with contributions from all nations. Aside from monetary contributions, aid can be rendered via intellectual space and manpower. We must seek the right questions to effectively solve the space debris problem.


The identification and quantification of amorphous components and nanocrystalline phases with very small crystal sizes, smaller than ~3 nm, within samples containing crystalline phases is very challenging. However, this is important as there are several types of systems that contain these matrices: building materials, glass-ceramics, some alloys, etc. The total scattering synchrotron pair distribution function (PDF) can be used to characterize the local atomic order of the nanocrystalline components and to carry out quantitative analyses in complex mixtures. Although the resolution in momentum transfer space has been widely discussed, the resolution in the interatomic distance space has not been discussed to the best of our knowledge. Here, we report synchrotron PDF data collected at three beamlines in different experimental configurations and X-ray detectors. We not only discuss the effect of the resolution in Q-space, Qmax ins of the recorded data and Qmax of the processed data, but we also discuss the resolution in the interatomic distance (real) space. A thorough study of single-phase crystalline nickel used as standard was carried out. Then, selected cement-related samples including anhydrous tricalcium and dicalcium silicates, and pastes derived from the hydration of tricalcium silicate and ye'elimite with bassanite were analyzed.


Blueberry require chilling hours accumulation in the fall/winter. Insufficient cold accumulation can cause deficient and desuniform sprouting and blooming, with negative consequences on yield. The research conducted in Passo Fundo University, state of Rio Grande do Sul, had the objective of studying the dormancy breaking of blueberries cultivars (Georgiagem, Climax and Aliceblue) under greenhouse conditions, submitted to treatments with hydrogen cyanamide (HC) at the doses of 0.52% and 1.04% (1% and 2% of the commercial product Dormex®), with the addition of 0.5% of mineral oil (MO), and compare them to a control, without hydrogen cyanamide treatment. Planting was made in December 2005, at a 0.7 m x 2.0 m space, with drip irrigation. The plants were evaluated in the third vegetative cycle and first production. The results showed that chemical induction of dormancy breaking at the end of July shortened and standardized flowering, and in the cultivars Georgiagem and Climax anticipated bud break. The use of HC at the concentrations of 0.52% and 1.04%, in combination with 0.5% of MO, did not affect the sprouting percentage, but reduced the yield, mainly the highest concentration, with evidence of phytotoxic effects.


The propagation of the sonic-boom produced by supersonic aircrafts can be modeled by means of a nonlocal version of the viscous Burgers equation. In this paper, motivated by the sonic-boom minimization problem, we analyze the numerical aspects of the optimization process, with a focus on the large-time dynamics of the underlying model. We develop an adjoint methodology at the numerical level allowing to recover accurate approximations of the minimizers. We observe however that some of the minima are hard to achieve due to the intrinsic nonlinear and viscous effects.


this paper aims at proposing new approach for routing in Cognitive radio for vehicular ad hoc networks (CR-VANETs). In this paper Flower Based Routing (FBR) scheme has been proposed. The FBR scheme consists of groups of networks on flower form and introduce hybrid mobility model for data forwarding. In addition, we categorize different types of routing protocols in CRVANETs. Moreover, a comparison between them to our scheme is conducted to highlight the main issues, and pros & cons for each type. The motivations of this work are derived through an analysis for achieving efficient communication among the vehicles on the road. By this, we conclude the motivations for proposing new methodology for CR-VANETs. This methodology is considered as a suitable paradigm for achieving high degree of efficiency in such VANETs sophisticated network access to many online various applications. By comparing the proposed protocol with previous protocols, the enhanced performance in packet delivery ratio, control overhead, and end-to-end delay has been enhanced Keywords—VANETs, performance, Routing, Cluster, Cognitive radio


Nowadays, traditional home gateways must support increasingly complex applica-tions while keeping their cost reasonably low. Software Defined Networking (SDN) would simplify the management of those devices, but such an approach is typically reserved for new hardware devices, specifically engineered for this paradigm. As a consequence, typical SDN-based home gateway performs the switching in software, resulting in non-negligible performance degradation. In this paper, we provide our experience and findings of adding the OpenFlow support into a non-OpenFlow compatible home gateway, exploiting the possible hardware speedup available in the existing platform. We present our solution that transparently offloads a portion of the OpenFlow rule into the hardware, while keeping the remaining ones in software, being able to support the presence of multiple hardware tables with a different set of features. Moreover, we illustrate the design choices used to implement the func-tionalities required by the OpenFlow protocol (e.g., packet-in, packet-out messages) and finally, we evaluate the resulting architecture, showing the significant advantage in terms of performance that can be achieved by exploiting the underlying hardware, while maintaining an SDN-type ability to program and to instantiate desired network operations from a central controller.


Abstract. GIS and machine learning (ML) are powerful ICT tools in retail industry which helps the sellers understand their markets. For the consumers, however, there always lies an ambiguity with respect to the quality and quantity of the product to be purchased, vis-à-vis the price paid for it. Most retail businesses today adopt "Discount Pricing Strategies" or "Offers" to make new customers and increase sales. Owing to several establishments selling the same product and offering a variety of offers, the process of identifying the shops where the consumer can get the best value for his money, requires a lot of manual effort. A prototype has been developed in this study to allow the consumers to locate such prospective shops based on advertisements in newspapers. This solution has a two-pronged approach. First, all the offers advertised in the newspaper are pre-processed and text extraction is performed using a ML algorithm named Tesseract OCR. Second the location of shops is collected and stored in a geodatabase. Finally, the advertisement is matched to the respective geo-located shop based on its name and location. Further based on the location of the consumer and his purchase choice, shops offering discounts are shown on a web based map. This prototype provides the consumer, a platform for geo-discovery of establishments of interest through the clutter of unrelated endorsements, by the use of Open Source GIS, Python programming and ML techniques.


The interconnections between electrical systems are a "technical and economic need" in order to facilitate the use and optimization of the energy sources and to improve the supply guarantee. At the same time, transmission lines are the most extended works of the electrical networks, having to carefully analyze their design and line routes since some serious impacts and/or conflicts can be caused or increased due to their location. The space occupancy and the visual perturbation are primary factors of overhead line impact in the environment. On the other hand, the electric (E) and magnetic (B) fields produced by electrical installations have become of great concern to the population, provided their possible link with health aspects. From the environmental point of view, the implantation of a new electrical infrastructure constitutes an intrusion in the landscape that may give rise to a decrease in the quality of the landscape of the location where it is inserted. Such visual impact is directly related with visibility level of the new shape introduced in the land and with the contrast between this and the original landscape. It is possible to assess the capacity of a landscape to absorb certain modifications, minimizing the alterations in the visual qualities that the viewer perceives. This paper shows the procedures followed in local cases where analysis of levels of electrical and magnetic fields and of visual landscapes has been incorporated to electrical project planning and works of electrical projects of 500 kV in AC and ±600 kV in DC.


Metamaterials are artificial materials with versatile properties that can be tailored to fit almost any practical need and thus go well beyond what can be obtained with `natural' materials. Recent progress in developing optical metamaterials allows unprecedented extreme control over the flow of light at both the nano- and macroscopic scales. The innovative field of transformation optics, which is enabled by metamaterials, inspired researchers to take a fresh look at the very foundations of optics and helped to create a new paradigm for the science of light. Similar to general relativity, where time and space are curved, transformation optics shows that the space for light can also be bent in an almost arbitrary way. Most importantly, the optical space can be designed and engineered, opening up the fascinating possibility of controlling the flow of light with nanometer spatial precision. This new paradigm enables a number of novel optical devices guiding how, using metamaterials, the space for light can be curved in a pre-designed and well-controlled way. Metamaterials which incorporate the innovative theories of transformation optics are pertinent to the important areas of optical cloaking, optical black holes, super-resolution imaging, and other sci-fi-like devices. One such exciting device is an electromagnetic cloak that can bend light around itself, similar to the flow of water around a stone, making invisible both the cloak and the object hidden inside. Another important application is a flat hyperlens that can magnify the nanometer-scale features of an object that cannot be resolved with conventional optics. This could revolutionize the field of optical imaging, for instance, because such a meta-lens could become a standard add-on tool for microscopes. By enabling nanoscale resolution in optical microscopy, metamaterial-based transformation optics could allow one to literally see extremely small objects with the eye, including biological cells, viruses, and possibly even DNA molecules. Light-concentrating devices, such as the optical black hole, can be used for efficient solar light collection in photovoltaic elements for renewable energy. With the dramatic advances in micro- and nanofabrication methods, we are presented with the opportunity to control light in a way that was not possible with the materials provided to us by nature. In an artificial pattern of sub-wavelength elements, the propagation of electromagnetic energy can be defined by an equivalent spatial and spectral dispersion of effective dielectric and magnetic properties. These synthetic structures, which can be fabricated with a desired spatial distribution of effective permittivity ϵ(r) and permeability μ(r), offer a unique potential to guide and control the flow of electromagnetic energy in such an engineered optical space. No longer are we constrained by the electromagnetic response of natural materials and their chemical compounds. Instead, we can tailor the shape and size of the structural units of the metamaterials, or tune their composition and morphology to provide new functionality.


Monetary authorities rarely disclose the true reasons behind their policy reactions. A tracing of the policy reaction function to see if the monetary authority is applying simple rules holds the potential to offer profound insight into the past behavioral relationship between the monetary authority and economic agencies. A reasonable body of knowledge about the direction of monetary policy would, moreover, assist economic agencies in forming their expectations, which would in turn, be useful for the monetary authority in anticipating the likely trends of the overall economy. The main objective of this study is to track de Brouwer and Gilbert (2005) from the Australian financial deregulation era (from 1983 to 2002) to the present. Empirical findings show that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is more forward-looking when formulating monetary policy rather than backward-looking, and that inflation targeting plays a significant role in stabilizing the output of the economy.


The histories of Cuba and the United States are tightly intertwined and have been for at least two centuries. In Race to Revolution, historian Gerald Horne examines a critical relationship between the two countries by tracing out the typically overlooked interconnections among slavery, Jim Crow, and revolution. Slavery was central to the economic and political trajectories of Cuba and the United States, both in terms of each nation s internal political and economic development and in the interactions between the small Caribbean island and the Colossus of the North. Horne draws a direct link between the black experiences in two very different countries and follows that connection through changing periods of resistance and revolutionary upheaval. Black Cubans were crucial to Cuba s initial independence, and the relative freedom they achieved helped bring down Jim Crow in the United States, reinforcing radical politics within the black communities of both nations. This in turn helped to create the conditions that gave rise to the Cuban Revolution which, on New Years Day in 1959, shook the United States to its core. Based on extensive research in Havana, Madrid, London, and throughout the U.S., Race to Revolution delves deep into the historical record, bringing to life the experiences of slaves and slave traders, abolitionists and sailors, politicians and poor farmers. It illuminates the complex web of interaction and infl uence that shaped the lives of many generations as they struggled over questions of race, property, and political power in both Cuba and the United States. "


While significant knowledge appears to be available on developmental water services (a term for service provision, to meet developmental objectives, with an emphasis on poor communities, in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed), there appears to be insufficient uptake of this knowledge (meaning the acquisition, comprehension and application in context) by technical professionals and decision-makers responsible for service provision, as evidenced by persistent service delivery backlogs and poor sustainability. This investigation developed and documented an exploratory methodology based primarily on in-depth interviews and a literature review which enabled the collection of evidence and development of a 'first pass' typology of knowledge, context and individual competencies with respect to developmental water services. This paper addresses the aspects of knowledge and context. Individual competencies are addressed in the companion paper (Part 2). With respect to knowledge, the investigation found that while there is a lot of information readily available in the sector on the provision of water services to meet developmental objectives, what appears to be weak or missing is information on how to apply this information in context. With respect to context, the investigation established a simple preliminary framework which described the combination of political and technical disciplines in a unified approach, and the translation of this into the bureaucracy. On the evidence of the in-depth interviews, the contextual aspects of developmental water services, described by the above framework – and, in particular, the workings of the bureaucracy – would appear to constitute the major challenge facing high-level technical professionals and decision-makers in the provision and sustainability of water services. More generally, the investigation established that for effective provision of water services within a developmental context, there is a close relationship between the three components of knowledge, context and individual competencies; and that it is difficult to address any one of the three components without reference to the other two.


In light of recent disasters in the oil and gas industry, there is increasing public pressure to develop more robust processes for responding to such disasters in Canada. In this article, the authors examine the emergency response procedures currently in place, and consider how oil and gas producers, carriers, and processors can improve these procedures. The article begins by outlining the emergency response planning and incident reporting obligations incumbent on the oil and gas industry, which is followed by an overview of the regulatory inspection powers that exist to investigate real and potential environmental, workplace, and safety incidents. Finally, the article considers what responding to an actual emergency would look like, and proposes best practices for the oil and gas industry.


A 32-year-old morbidly obese man (316 kg, body mass index, 102.7 [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared]) with no medical history presented with a 2-year history of 2 progressively enlarging tumors on his bilateral thighs. These tumors were asymptomatic, but they greatly interfered with ambulation. Physical examination revealed 2 pedunculated, oblong, soft, nontender subcutaneous tumors (Figure 1). The tumors grew from the distal right and proximal left thighs and measured 30 4 5 cm and 102 30 50 cm, respectively. The overlying skin was extremely edematous with several shallow pressure ulcerations. Focal lichenification and erythema were present on the larger tumor, reflecting chronic rubbing on the ground while walking. An intraoperative incisional biopsy specimen of the larger tumor was sent for histologic examination (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Ultrasonography demonstrated fatty tissue, edema, and minimal flow throughout the tumors. What is your diagnosis?


Closed-form solution has been obtained with the help of the Schwartz-Christoffel transformation for the determination of uplift pressures on hollow gravity dams. The uplift pressures have been calculated numerically from the derived equations and plotted to facilitate the use of the results for design purposes. It is seen that uplift pressures along the joint between two monoliths drop almost linearly from the full-uplift pressure at the upstraam face of the dam to zero uplift at the head of the cavity. The uplift along the center line of the monolith drops linearly to about less than one-third of the diffrential head at a point opposite the head of the cavity. Beyond this, the reduction in the uplift pressures is gradual.


The most common form of neurologic injury in sickle cell anemia (SCA) is silent cerebral infarction (SCI). In the Silent Cerebral Infarct Multi-Center Clinical Trial, we sought to identify risk factors associated with SCI. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the clinical history and baseline laboratory values and performed magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in participants with SCA (HbSS or HbSβ° thalassemia) between the ages of 5 and 15 years with no history of overt stroke or seizures. Neuroradiology and neurology committees adjudicated the presence of SCI. SCIs were diagnosed in 30.8% (251 of 814) participants who completed all evaluations and had valid data on all prespecified demographic and clinical covariates. The mean age of the participants was 9.1 years, with 413 males (50.7%). In a multivariable logistic regression analysis, lower baseline hemoglobin concentration (P < .001), higher baseline systolic blood pressure (P = .018), and male sex (P = .030) were statistically significantly associated with an increased risk of an SCI. Hemoglobin concentration and systolic blood pressure are risk factors for SCI in children with SCA and may be therapeutic targets for decreasing the risk of SCI. This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00072761.


In 1989 New Zealand embarked on the reform of its compulsory education sector. The resulting model, known as Tomorrow's Schools, decentralised administration and gave each individual school its own Board of Trustees responsible for managing the school's finances. Since then, the cost to parents for their children's compulsory education has increased considerably. This thesis examines schools' behaviour when requesting and collecting money from parents and caregivers, compliance of this behaviour with Ministry of Education policy and the changes over time in the amounts of money raised locally by schools. Schools' compliance with Ministry of Education policy is generally poor. Many schools do not tell parents that donations are voluntary and charge parents for items not allowed under Ministry policy, including photocopying, use of information technology equipment and subject fees for subjects which do not have a take home component. Costs to parents are lowest in small schools and rural schools. Larger primary schools request and collect more in donations from parents and are more likely to exclude children from participation because of non-payment, and this was consistent across decile groups. Parents with children in large/urban high-decile schools pay most. Secondary education is much more expensive to parents than is primary education and parents expressed concern about this and about children being excluded from curricular and extra-curricular activities because of parental inability to pay. In addition, compliance with Ministry policy appears to be lower in secondary schools. Decile-related funding has caused some higher-decile schools to conclude that government no longer fully funds them and they must raise additional money from parents. Schools turn to parent communities to make up any shortfall in funding, and there are indications of erosion in belief in the ideal of a free compulsory education.


The secreted protein Hedgehog (Hh) transmits a signal from posterior to anterior cells that is essential for limb development in insects and vertebrates. In Drosophila, Hh has been thought to act primarily to induce localized expression of Decapentaplegic and Wingless which in turn relay patterning cues at long range. We report here that Hh plays an additional role in patterning the wing. By replacing endogenous Hh activity with that of a membrane-tethered form of Hh, we show that Hh acts directly to pattern the central region of the wing, in addition to its role as an inducer of Dpp. Comparing the biological activities of secreted and membrane-tethered Hh provides evidence that Hh forms a local concentration gradient and functions as a concentration-dependent morphogen in the fly wing.


An absolute radiation standard is constructed for use between 200 and 2000 μ. It is demonstrated that the output is that of a blackbody over this wavelength range. The absolute standard is used to calibrate a secondary standard mercury-arc lamp which is found to have an equivalent temperature in the neighborhood of 3000°K. It is shown that absolute standards can be used either to determine the strength of an unknown signal directly or to calibrate the sensitivity of a monochromator-detector system.


Recent research efforts to design better Internet transport protocols combined with scalable Active Queue Management (AQM) have led to significant advances in congestion control. One of the hottest topics in this area is the design of discrete congestion control algorithms that are asymptotically stable under heterogeneous feedback delay and whose control equations do not explicitly depend on the RTTs of end-flows. In this paper, we first prove that single-link congestion control methods with a stable radial Jacobian remain stable under arbitrary feedback delay (including heterogeneous directional delays) and that the stability condition of such methods does not involve any of the delays. We then extend this result to generic networks with fixed consistent bottleneck assignments and max-min network feedback. To demonstrate the practicality of the obtained result, we change the original controller in Kelly's work [15] to become robust under random feedback delay and fixed constants of the control equation. We call the resulting framework Max-min Kelly Control (MKC) and show that it offers smooth sending rate, exponential convergence to efficiency, and fast convergence to fairness, all of which make it appealing for future high-speed networks


This pioneering work is the basic and largely unmatched study of the single transatlantic community of thought shared by nineteenth century British and Canadian Liberals and American Democrats. The result of more than tens years of comparative research, "The Transatlantic Persuasion" explores the roots of those ideas hat comprise a coherent Liberal-Democratic worldview: ideas about society, human relations, the economy, equality, liberty, the ethnocultural dimension of life, the proper role and nature of government, and the world community. In Britain, Canada, and the United States, Liberal-Democrats saw themselves as battlers against social evils caused by corrupt, self-seeking aristocracies. This was true whether their power was based on business wealth, land, or vested religious privilege; and in all three countries they developed practically identical public policy agendas. Widely praised for its graceful narrative style, its intriguing political and cultural analysis, and its sensitive feeling for the nuances of personality and the human condition, "The Transatlantic Persuasion" finds that cultural forces such as ethnicity, religion, and style of life have played an astonishingly central role in politics. Kelley sees a similar confrontation within each of the three countries between the core culture, including the Establishment and its institutions, and the outgroups, the culturally, socially, and often economically peripheral peoples. In Britain, for example, the Tories (Conservatives) were the aggressively dominant English, who look down on such minorities as the Scots and the Irish. These outgroups gathered within Gladstone's Liberal party, and from this base fought for equal status and treatment against prejudices. Similar patterns in Canada and the United States led to Kelley to conclude that these cultural facts of life were as important and powerful in public life as those that were purely economic in nature. Greeted with praise on its original publication in the general media as well as in major scholarly journals, "The Transatlantic Persuasion" performs history's highest office: It explains the present by placing it in the deep perspective of time, thus demonstrating how the past prefigures and shapes current events.


The global business environment has evolved since 1990. This change has brought companies new realities in the form of new business opportunities for growth and, at the same time has exposed them to new competitors. This has caused companies to invest many resources in devising new effective strategies to take advantage of the new opportunities, whilst protecting their market positions, which are crucial to their continued economic existence. Effective implementation of strategy has become the goal of many organisations. However, in translating their grand plans into action, unacceptably high rates of failure have been reported among many companies. In most organisations, this responsibility has been left to lower levels of management. The purpose of this research was to establish what factors affected the implementation of strategy and more specifically, what role lower levels of management play in the implementation process. A qualitative study was undertaken where in-depth interviews were held with a senior executive and middle managers of a global company. Eight propositions were posited after a detailed review of literature on strategy implementation and middle managers. These were tested in relation to the results of the research and conclusions were then drawn. The data was analysed using content analysis and frequency tables. The research findings showed that middle managers play a critical role in facilitating the effective implementation of strategy. It also showed that the execution process is fraught with numerous challenges, some of which are lack of sufficient budgets, high staff turnover affecting continuity and the destructive nature of internal competition.


Discussion is an essential component in case-based learning (CBL), as it offers students the opportunity to consider diverse perspectives, clarify confusion, and construct understanding. As a facilitator bears most of the responsibility for the overall success of CBL, understanding how facilitation strategies influence interactions during discussions is worthwhile. However, previous CBL facilitation research has primarily considered student perspectives during case discussions, without examining relationships between facilitator experience and student interaction and participation. This study combined social network analysis and content analysis to compare the structure of expert and novice instructors' discussion posts and to consider their relationship to student participation and interaction in online case discussions. Results showed that both the expert and novice instructors used facilitation strategies involving social congruence, cognitive congruence, and content expertise frequently in the discussions; however, when and how they used a combination of these strategies was noticeably different. These differences influenced student interaction. More specifically, students tended to interact with others more actively and densely as a result of questions initiated by the expert facilitator. Suggestions are provided for novice


In this article we look at how Islamic religious services delivered by migrants from Central Asia adjust to new conditions in Moscow. We focus on the activity of establishing a particular locality for a religious practice in the context of the transfer of spirituality by migrants. The new space in which migrants function creates conditions for delocalization of their religious life and imaginaries, which makes them belong to multiple spiritual spaces. Many spiritual practices delivered by Central Asian spiritual leaders go beyond the migrant circle, entering the local market of spiritual services. They adjust to the local conditions, simultaneously influencing the religious industry of Moscow.This article analyses how spiritual products are being ordered, who the clients of spiritual professionals from Central Asia are, and how new places of spiritual industry, where rituals and healing practices take place, emerge. We consider these places to be not only physical spaces, but also ones in which new qualities are being created that combine elements of various interpretations of spirituality. Some forms of spirituality that migrants consider as their traditional practices are intermingled with new and previously unknown elements. In this sense, the local is merging with the global, creating new quality. We argue that through reinterpretation of local realities migrants and their spiritual leaders reconstruct their traditions and practices in order to be able to deliver spiritual services in Moscow for migrant clients, other Muslims, and non-Muslims.
Article in English
DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2020-12-1-106-126


Further development of state adminstration and local government reforms is connected with the use of such issues and principles as decentralisation and deconcentration of public administration, separation of strategy from the provision of services, diminishing the gap between democracy and efficiency, enhancing the citizens participation and mutual trust of citizens in government and vice versa, creation of "entrepreneural" governments, principle of evaluation, reducing bureaucracy and increasing the openness, principle of diversity and possibility of choice, principle of simplifications, improving the quality of public service improving the political and administrative culture and integration of various institutions, reforms and activities in the context of the EU. The model of integration has been worked out by the Department of Public Administration of the University of Latvia and the Latvian Statistical Institute. The novelty of the model is that it proposes both vertical and horizontal communications of different institutions and people in the process of implementation of public administration reforms, local governance, national development planning and regional policy, beginning from the European Commission and ending with the citizens.


This study is part of a larger study investigating the subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of Hong Kong prospective mathematics teachers, the relationship between the knowledge of algebraic operation and its inverse, and their teaching competency. In this paper, we address the subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of eight Hong Kong prospective teachers in teaching the mathematical concept of the square root of a number in junior secondary school. The results suggest that insufficient understanding of the concept of algebraic operation is a major obstacle for effective teaching of this topic by prospective teachers. The results corroborate the viewpoint that subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge are interrelated constructs and that rich subject matter knowledge leads to high-quality pedagogical content knowledge. We conclude it with a suggestion on how teachers can enrich their pedagogical content knowledge by looking at elementary mathematics from an advanced standpoint (EMFAS), when they possess a substantial subject knowledge


STEM education is a new frontier in Australia, particularly for primary schools. However, the E in STEM needs to have a stronger focus with science and mathematics concepts aligned to the presiding curricula. In addition, pedagogical knowledge practices such as planning, preparation, teaching strategies, assessment and so forth need to be connected to key concepts for developing a STEM education. One of the aims of this study was to understand how a pedagogical knowledge practice framework could be linked to student outcomes in STEM education. Specifically, this qualitative research investigated Year 4 students' involvement in an integrated STEM education program that focused on science concepts (e.g., states of matter, testing properties of materials) and mathematics concepts (such as 3D shapes and metric measurements: millilitres, temperature, grams, centimetres) for designing, making and testing a strong and safe medical kit to insulate medicines at desirable temperatures. Eleven pedagogical knowledge practices (e.g., planning, preparation, teaching strategies, classroom management, and assessment) were used as a framework for understanding how teaching may be linked to student outcomes in STEM education. For instance, "planning" involved devising a student booklet as a resource for students to understand the tasks required of them, which also provided space for them to record ideas, results and information. Planning involved linking national and state curriculum documents to the STEM education activities. More studies are required around pedagogical knowledge frameworks to understand what students learn when involved in STEM education, particularly with the inclusion of engineering education.


A collective life in society is characterized by two constituent elements rights and trust. In analysing these two elements, it is important to examine the balance existing between them. Despite their contrasting roles in society, the dialectical relationship between rights and trust is best understood when they are viewed as complementary to one another. While a framework of rights is necessary to instil a sense of deserved entitlement in people, what is instrumental for the effective realization of rights is the recognition of such entitlement within groups of individuals; such recognition being factored in by the mutual respect forged by trust. Through the course of this paper, the author seeks to locate this dialectical relationship within societal institutions, examining how the interface between rights and trust serves as a determining factor for the failure or success of these institutions. The paper commences with viewing the importance of rights in the social scenario, highlighting the shift in the paradigm of the language of rights. It then looks at the relevance of the fiduciary component, establishing that trust, unlike rights, is not a legal mandate but rather a moral one which is implicit and not codified, and it is this moral mandate that regulates various social transactions that take place in the absence of rights. The paper culminates with analysing the interface between rights and trust within the framework of institutions such as family and academic institutions, in order to illustrate that how we understand the importance of the balance between the two, is what determines the success or failure of such institutions.


A systematic study was carried out to assess property changes in CaCu3Ti4O12 thin films upon annealing in air in order to evaluate the impact of oxygen vacancies on their colossal dielectric constant behavior. Highly preferentially oriented thin-film samples were deposited by pulsed laser deposition method at 720 °C in 200 mTorr oxygen. The as-deposited thin films show the typical feature of colossal dielectric constant. Annealing experiments were conducted at 480, 580, 620, and 680 °C with intermediate electrical measurements. The evolutions of the electrical properties (such as, dielectric constant, loss, resistance, etc.), defect concentration and activation energy, were observed with the increase in the annealing temperature. Capacitance-temperature results exhibited the double-plateau feature in the measuring temperature range, revealing two defect levels in the sample. The activation energy and concentration of these two defects were estimated at each annealed state. The sensitivity of these defects to oxygen atmosphere confirmed our previous conclusion about oxygen vacancies as the chemical origin of the colossal dielectric constant phenomenon in CaCu3Ti4O12. Numerical simulation to the capacitance response of a Schottky junction with two defects supports the experimental results. Annealing at 680 °C changed the sample from the colossal dielectric state into a normal dielectric state with a negative temperature coefficient of dielectric constant. In such a fully annealed state, the intrinsic dielectric properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 were observed. The abnormal increase in dielectric constant at low temperature may be attributed to the magnetodielectric coupling caused by magnetic ordering.


The aim of this study was oto examine relationship among stability, speed and agility at female soccer players. The twenty-threee female soccer players participated in this study voluntarily (n=23, age=15.69±1.39 years, height=161.33±5.48 cm, weight=55.04±8.44 kg). The stability parameters of female soccer players were measured as static stability at opened and closed eyes positions and dynamic stability by stability measurement device. The 10, 30 and 40 meters sprint tests ans Illinois agility test were performed on synthetic turf soccer pitch by electronic photocell system. The 10, 30 and 40 meters sprint and Illinois agility test durations were determined. All tests were performed on different days and at the same time of day. The relationship stability, speed and agility parameters was determined by Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients. According to analyze results, there was no significant correlation among stability, speed and agility parameters except for the correlation between the 30 meters sprint values and ATE (average track error) values from stability parameters. Consequently, it might be said that there was no significant relationship among stability, speed and agility parameters of female soccer players and stability ability at female soccer players could not be affected by speed and agility abilities.


The circadian clock is linked to the cell cycle in ways that are not clear. Pregueiro et al. investigated the relation between these two fundamental cellular processes in the fungus Neurospora. When a gene called period-4 (prd-4) contains a mutation, Neurospora's clock runs with a shorter period. The protein PRD-4 is orthologous to checkpoint kinase 2, a mammalian cell cycle regulator, and PRD-4 is both regulated by and regulates the circadian clock. DNA-damaging agents can reset the clock in a time-of-day-dependent manner, and this circadian-phase resetting is wholly dependent on PRD-4. A. M. Pregueiro, Q. Liu, C. L. Baker, J. C. Dunlap, J. J. Loros, The Neurospora checkpoint kinase 2: A regulatory link between the circadian and cell cycles. Science 313, 644-649 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Despite the almost mantra-like status of the statement "people are leaving the church" in the media and on the lips of religious statisticians, there still appears to be little understanding about who is leaving, when they leave, why they leave, and what happens to them and their Christian faith after they leave. Of course everyone has his or her own view on these issues but few, especially our church leaders, have taken the time to sit down and talk with an actual leaver or two. Before beginning to interview people who had left churches I thought I knew what happened to the Christian faith of those who no longer went to church. While I could easily understand why people choose to leave the church, and had contemplated shifting out myself on more than one occasion, deep down I believed that leaving the church was inevitably the first step to a dwindling faith and the ultimate Christian disgrace, viz. "backsliding". I left my first interview with actual church leavers somewhat bewildered. The couple I had just met did not fit my expectations. They had left their eldership role in a growing Pentecostal church nearly five years previously, yet their faith had obviously continued to develop, their understanding of God at work in their lives was undoubtedly continuing, and they were involved in their community as an outworking of their faith. I was intrigued and somewhat mystified. My plans to conduct a quick study of half a dozen or so church leavers in order to confirm my prejudices were in disarray. In fact, the study' grew into a four-year project involving 162 interviews with both church leavers and leaders in Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches (a group which I refer to as EPC churches). The people I tracked were predominately in their thirties and forties. They had made Christian commitments (as well as commitments to their respective churches) as adults (over the age of 18 years) and had been actively involved in their churches for an average of 15.8 years. To try and sum up the faith journeys of 108 people spread across New Zealand and parts of Australia is not easy. Each person's journey was in fact quite distinctive, with its own twists and turns, but it was clear that church leavers fell into four groups. 1. Displaced Followers The first category of leavers consists of those I titled the "Displaced Followers". I refer to them as followers because the faith in which they continue has not substantially changed from the faith package they followed within the EPC church. I call such people "displaced" because events and circumstances have encouraged them to leave the EPC church with which they continue to have a great affinity. This group of leavers made up 17.5% [(n=19).sup.2] of those I interviewed. They left in two major categories either as the "Hurt", i.e. those who had expectations of particular care or support from the church body in times of need which they found were not met when they needed it; or as the "Angry", i.e. those who left the church in disagreement with the leadership of their church because of the direction, vision or leadership structure of either their church or EPC churches in general. Both the Hurt and the Angry can be said to have left because of specific grumbles with the church. These grumbles centre on the leadership, direction and operating nature of the church. The level of critique of the Angry and the Hurt does not extend to questioning the whole basis of evangelical/Pentecostal/charismatic faith itself. On the contrary, it is their understanding of what the church should be that such leavers use as the foundation for their claim that their churches have failed. The Displaced Followers' post-church faith can be characterized in the following ways. The Displaced Followers continue in a received faith. They have not disengaged from the faith they received when they entered the church. …


Here, we present, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, a systematic study of utilizing 2D correlation analysis in the field of femtosecond transient absorption (fs-TA) spectroscopy. We present that the application of 2D correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) to fs-TA spectroscopy enables a model-free means to analyze excited state kinetics, which is demonstrated on the model system [(tbbpy)2Ru(dppz)]2+ in different solvents. We show that TA-2DCOS is able to determine the number of processes contributing to the time-resolved spectral changes in fs-TA data sets, as well as extract the spectral response of these components. Overall, the results show that TA-2DCOS leads to the same results as obtained with methods relying on global lifetime analysis or multivariate curve resolution but without the need to specify a predetermined kinetic model. The work presented therefore highlights the potential of TA-2DCOS as a model-free approach for analyzing fs-TA spectral data sets.


PURPOSE
The purpose of our investigation was to evaluate the response and minimal residual disease by quantitative competitive PCR (QC-PCR) studies in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with imatinib mesylate.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
One hundred eighty patients with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-positive chronic-phase CML after IFN-alpha failure, treated with imatinib mesylate, had 543 simultaneous cytogenetic and QC-PCR analyses at different times during their therapy.

RESULTS
The median QC-PCR values [ratio-percentage of (BCR-ABL/ABL transcripts) x 100] for cytogenetic response categories were: no response (Ph, >90%), 36%; minor response (Ph, 35-90%), 22%; partial response (Ph, 1-34%), 7.3%; complete response (Ph, 0%), 0.89%. There was good correlation between cytogenetic and QC-PCR studies (P < 0.001; r = 0.92) and good concordance between QC-PCR values (>10%, 2-10%, and <2%) and cytogenetic response categories (none, minor, partial, complete) with a concordance rate of 66%, and major discordance of only 10%. Of 170 samples in complete cytogenetic response, 21% still had QC-PCR values of >10%, and 53% had QC-PCR values of <1%. There was excellent concordance between blood and marrow QC-PCR values (r = 0.965; P < 0.01; concordance rate, 88%; major discordance, 0%). No patient in complete cytogenetic response regardless of QC-PCR value has yet relapsed. At a median follow-up time of 26 months, higher QC-PCR values within each cytogenetic category at 3, 6, and 9 months have not been associated with a higher occurrence cytogenetic relapse or disease progression. However, the significance of this may become different with longer follow-up.

CONCLUSION
QC-PCR studies provide a useful tool to monitor patients with CML on imatinib mesylate therapy.


ABSTRACT Unfettered exploitation of Brazilian forests over the past century, through conversion to cropping and pasture lands and commercial tree plantations, has reduced native Araucaria forests to fragments, restricted largely to small landholdings and protected areas. To encourage sustainable forestry activity in smallholdings and stimulate the expansion of Araucaria natural forests, we developed a distance-independent individual-tree growth model designed to simulate management regimes in native Araucaria forests. The model was constructed with data collected from 25 contiguous 1-ha permanent plots established in the Irati National Forest in southern Brazil. Because native Araucaria forests are comprised of hundreds of species, we parameterized diameter increment, survival, and recruitment models for six ecological species groups: understory, subcanopy, upper canopy shade-tolerant, upper canopy light-demanding, pioneer, and emergent. The observed and estimated stand volumes were very similar (R2 = 0.97) using independent data. Simulations using a plot with an average density were performed to present the model outputs, including harvest simulations. The constructed model may be suitable for exploring management regimes in smallholdings and predicting aboveground biomass.


abstract (introduction): although the compilation of systematic socioeconomic indicators can be dated in centuries rather than in years, a veritable explosion of social monitoring activities has occurred the post-world war ii era. these data, which pertain to matters as diverse as presidential popularity and chronic physical ailments, provide the basis for developing a dynamic model of society. although several series, especially economic and demographic ones, can be studied over a substantial period of time, many of the key variables which would obviously enter into a model of the society such as educational attainment, church attendance, the occupational division of labor, and geographic mobility have been recorded on an annual basis in our society only for the past two or three decades. for the past three years we have been systematically exploring the expanding pool of annual social indicators in an effort to assess the feasibility of constructing a dynamic model of american society which complements existing economic models by virtue of its inclusion of social, demographic, and political indicators. in the course of our efforts, we have encountered numerous technical and methodological obstacles. our purpose in this essay isto discuss some of these difficulties and to provide substantive illustrations of them. to the best of our knowledge, all of the problems discussed herein are well known to econometricians; the main purpose of this essay is simply to pose and illustrate these difficulties in the context of sociopolitical, rather than purely economic indicators. in preparing this survey of some methodological issues encountered in the analysis of time series and the construction of structural equation models based upon them, we have attempted to reduce technical details to a bare minimum in order to make this essay accessible to the widest possible audience. more formal treatments are already available in most standard econometric texts; little would be served by duplicating those formalities herein. although this essay is more broadly conceived, we should also note that many of the technical problems broached herein have also been raised in the sociopolitical literature by russett (1971), in an essay which leans solely upon the analysis of defense expenditures for illustrative material. his essay can, in our judgement, be profitably read in conjunction with the present review.;


The variety and complexity of potentially-related data resources available for querying—webpages, databases, data warehouses—has been growing ever more rapidly. There is a growing need to pose integrative queries across multiple such sources, exploiting foreign keys and other means of interlinking data to merge information from diverse sources. This has traditionally been the focus of research within Information Extraction (IE) and Information Integration (II) communities, with IE focusing on converting unstructured sources into structured sources, and II focusing on providing a unified view of diverse structured data sources. However, most of the current IE and II methods, which can potentially be applied to the problem of integration across sources, require large amounts of human supervision, often in the form of annotated data. This need for extensive supervision makes existing methods expensive to deploy and difficult to maintain. In this thesis, we develop techniques that generalize from limited human input, via weakly-supervised methods for IE and II. In particular, we argue that graph-based representation of data and learning over such graphs can result in effective and scalable methods for large-scale Information Extraction and Integration.
Within IE, we focus on the problem of assigning semantic classes to entities. First we develop a context pattern induction method to extend small initial entity lists of various semantic classes. We also demonstrate that features derived from such extended entity lists can significantly improve performance of state-of-the-art discriminative taggers.
The output of pattern-based class-instance extractors is often high-precision and low-recall in nature, which is inadequate for many real world applications. We use Adsorption, a graph based label propagation algorithm, to significantly increase recall of an initial high-precision, low-recall pattern-based extractor by combining evidences from unstructured and structured text corpora. Building on Adsorption, we propose a new label propagation algorithm, Modified Adsorption (MAD), and demonstrate its effectiveness on various real-world datasets. Additionally, we also show how class-instance acquisition performance in the graph-based SSL setting can be improved by incorporating additional semantic constraints available in independently developed knowledge bases.
Within Information Integration, we develop a novel system, Q, which draws ideas from machine learning and databases to help a non-expert user construct data-integrating queries based on keywords (across databases) and interactive feedback on answers. We also present an information need-driven strategy for automatically incorporating new sources and their information in Q. We also demonstrate that Q's learning strategy is highly effective in combining the outputs of "black box" schema matchers and in re-weighting bad alignments. This removes the need to develop an expensive mediated schema which has been necessary for most previous systems.


Abstract Gradient-following learning methods can encounter problems of implementation in many applications, and stochastic variants are sometimes used to overcome these difficulties. We analyze three online training methods used with a linear perceptron: direct gradient descent, node perturbation, and weight perturbation. Learning speed is defined as the rate of exponential decay in the learning curves. When the scalar parameter that controls the size of weight updates is chosen to maximize learning speed, node perturbation is slower than direct gradient descent by a factor equal to the number of output units; weight perturbation is slower still by an additional factor equal to the number of input units. Parallel perturbation allows faster learning than sequential perturbation, by a factor that does not depend on network size. We also characterize how uncertainty in quantities used in the stochastic updates affects the learning curves. This study suggests that in practice, weight perturbation may be slow for large networks, and node perturbation can have performance comparable to that of direct gradient descent when there are few output units. However, these statements depend on the specifics of the learning problem, such as the input distribution and the target function, and are not universally applicable.


The thermodynamics of the interaction of the H2DO2A (= 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,7-diacetic acid) macrocyclic ligand with both Eu(III) and Tb(III) ions was studied by means of luminescence spectroscopy in steady-state and time-resolved modes. It was shown that it is possible to calculate stability constants for both complexes that agree with values determined by other experimental techniques. The study of the formation and dissociation of both Ln(III) complexes shows that there is no significant difference in their reactivity if they contain three (Eu) or two (Tb) water molecules in their coordination shell. The two species of ligands present in the formation reaction, HL− and L2−, differ in their reactivity, which can be explained by the difference in charge and the presence of a proton in the macrocyclic cavity. A detailed study of the dissociation reaction proved that the reaction mechanism consists of several pathways of intermediates, which differ in their structure and rate of decomposition.


Mechanical milling of commercial ZnO and SnO2 was used to produce a ZnO/SnO2 composite with a high density of surface defects; in particular, zinc interstitials (Zni) and oxygen vacancies (VO). To determine the impact of surface defects on photocatalytic activity, the relative concentration ratio of bulk defects to surface defects was modified by annealing at 400 and 700 °C. The possible application of the ZnO/SnO2 composite as a natural sunlight and UV-light driven photocatalyst was revealed via de-colorization of methylene blue. In both cases the ZnO/SnO2 composite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity as compared to the pristine ZnO. In order to investigate the origin of the enhancement, the pristine metal oxides and composites were characterized using a variety of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), laser diffraction particle size analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence spectroscopy. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and elemental mapping analyses were used to reveal the presence of SnO2 nanocrystallites on the surface of larger ZnO particles. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the composite can be attributed to the synergetic effect of the surface defects and the ZnO/SnO2 heterojunction particles, which facilitated charge separation, thereby hindering the recombination of photogenerated carriers. This study draws attention to mechanical activation as an inexpensive and environmentally friendly technique for the large-scale production of the composite with an enhanced photocatalytic activity under illumination of either UV or sunlight.


The value of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in cardiac surgery is well proven[1]. TEE is evolving as a perioperative monitoring and diagnostic tool in noncardiac surgery as well, especially for the treatment of high-risk cardiovascular patients. Its significance lies in that it is the only direct method for imaging and evaluating heart function. Calculation of ventricular volumes and ejection fraction of the left ventricle (LV), evaluation of contractility, assessment of valvular anatomy and function, and inspection of extracardiac structures are feasible through TEE[2-5]. This is of particular importance in haemodynamically compromised patients, when an efficient, relatively safe and fast approach is required.


As a tunable pumping source for two-photon fluorescence microscopy of various functional fluorescence proteins, adaptively controlled white light continuum generation is demonstrated with microstructure fibers. Arbitrarily selected more than two spectral components are enhanced in the continuum spectrum to efficiently excite different fluorescence proteins.


The USA and China have had a complex relationship since the 1949 establishment of the People's Republic of China. This relationship has gone from hostility to guarded friendliness to increased tension at the beginning of the new millennium. Recent years have seen the emergence of literature stressing China's potential emergence as a national security threat to the USA. This article will look at books, government documents, and Internet resources examining the current and possible future national security relationship between these two countries from 1995/1996 to the present. This literature presents US and international perspectives representing a variety of viewpoints on a subject that may have a major impact on international relations during the twenty‐first century.


Easily assimilable organic carbon (AOC) is frequently used for the assessment of the biological stability of drinking water, which is an important consideration in the control of bacterial growth in distribution networks. The first AOC bioassay was developed in 1982 and is based on growth of two bacterial strains ( Pseudomonas fluorescens P17 and Spirillum spp. NOX) in drinking water relative to their growth on acetate. Much research was subsequently conducted to modify, simplify and increase the speed of the assay which resulted in a number of alternative AOC assays. Application of these assays raises legitimate questions about the comparison of AOC data from different studies. In the present study, a round-robin test was performed to evaluate the correlation between three established AOC methods. A total of 14 water samples, covering a wide range of AOC concentrations, were analyzed with the original 'van der Kooij' method, the 'Werner & Hambsch' method and 'Eawag' method. Good correlations were found between AOC concentrations measured with the various methods. The data suggest an acceptable compatibility between different AOC methods, although deviations between the methods call for careful interpretation and reporting of AOC data.


Healthcare delivery in under-resourced areas is critical to the future economic health of these countries, and healthcare data collection is an essential part of managing this delivery. The Medea system has been developed to support data collection on mobile devices, while addressing issues of manageability and security in healthcare data collection and delivery. The Medea approach is based on a compiler (Aeetes) that generates new data collection apps from declarative specifications, a security architecture to protect the confidentiality of patient data in case of device compromise, and a supporting app infrastructure that supports deployment in settings without local server support. Manageability is achieved by centralizing the management of the infrastructure, using remote management of mobile devices to provide IT support to deployments in relatively isolated and under-served locations.


Developing the ideas of his best-selling textbook Counselling: The Skills of Problem-Solving, Robert Manthei shows how to define and solve problems. Step-by-step he explains how to work in a planned way to enhance the client's self-understanding and increase their ability to find solutions to other problems in the future. Counselling has proved itself an invaluable resource for counsellors at every stage of their career and for anyone using counselling skills as a part of their work. This new edition is completely revised and introduces: * a solution-focused model * new material on: cross-cultural counselling ethics self-evaluation professionalism advocacy and mediation stress supervision and retains: * a skills-based approach * the stage-by-stage model * examples * exercises.


Precipitation gauge measurements suffer from several sources of errors which can strongly influence their accuracy. The method proposed in the paper is based on the correction of annual precipitation records for a given river basin using the water balance equation. The main advantage of the approach is in using the annual runoff records and air temperature data, which are measured more accurately than the annual precipitation amount. Two versions of the computation scheme (for a multi-year period and for an annual interval) are presented and discussed. The water balance equation taken into account in this study combines the area averaged annual measured precipitation, runoff, evapotransporation and, over an annual time scale, the change in moisture in surface and undersurface storages. The Ol'decop formula for calculation of evapotranspiration together with the improved regional formula for potential evaporation as a function of annual air temperature is used in this study. It has been determined for the annual time interval that the storage of water in a basin is strongly dependent on annual air temperature and, to a lesser extent, on precipitation. An example of the method application for two catchments situated in Northwest Russia is presented, too.


The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees, at section 16, that French and English are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada would appear to see little potential in the affirmation of Canada's official languages. Several commentators agree, dismissing the guarantee as no more than symbolic. A different reading of section 16 is proposed here, embracing the promise of official bilingualism in Canada and outlining some of the consequences that follow from Canada's constitutional commitment to this declaration. Among the different proposals outlined in the paper, it is suggested that the affirmation of French and English as the official languages of Canada is a prescriptive constitutional guarantee and not merely a declaratory one; that it mandates an expansive reading of some of the more topical language rights that follow it; that it fills in the lacunae necessary for a comprehensive official languages policy; and imposes on the legislature rather than the court the responsibility for articulating such a comprehensive policy In short, this paper explores how an aggressive interpretation of section 16 of the Canadian Charter can assist in promoting the promise of Canada's commitment to official bilingualism.


We study countries choosing armament levels and then whether or not to go to war. We show that if the costs of war are not overly high or low, then all equilibria must involve dove, hawk, and deterrent strategies and the probability of war is positive (but less than one) in any given period. Wars are between countries with differing armament levels and the frequency of wars is tempered by the presence of armament levels that are expressly chosen for their deterrent properties. As the probability of winning a war becomes more reactive to increased armament, the frequency of wars decreases . As it becomes increasingly possible to negotiate a credible settlement, the probability of peace increases, but the variance of armament levels increases and war becomes increasingly likely when negotiations break down.


This report describes 19 year old male with a case with tracheal necrosis and the presence of ascendan aortic fistula with the sign of massive hemoptysis which is diagnosed intraoperatively, although preoperative chest CT has not demonstrated the findings. This emergency case report was to demonstrate the possible ways ofintraoperative management in similar desperate situations. On the first hand, laparotomy is done as planned previously to extract omentum for the support of suspected tracheal injury. Second part of the operation continued with sternotomy and emergently one lung ventilation and later extra corporal circulation. At the end of the operation, the patient was transferred to ICU. He has been discharged from hospital without any haemodynamic or neurological complication. In this case priority is maintaining oxygenation. The inflammatory changes in the surgical anatomic region must be carefully considered. Postoperative ventilation parameters and side effects of positive pressure ventilation make ECMO devices mandatory.


At the Earth's magnetopause, a low‐energy ion population of ionospheric origin is commonly observed at the magnetospheric side. In this work we use a 2‐D fully kinetic simulation to identify several original signatures related to the dynamics of cold ions involved in magnetic reconnection at the asymmetric dayside magnetopause. We identify several original signatures of the cold ions dynamics driven by the development of magnetic reconnection at the asymmetric dayside magnetopause. We find that cold ions tend to rarefy in the diffusion region, while their density is enhanced as a result of compression along magnetospheric separatrices. We also observe the formation of crescent‐shaped cold ion distribution functions along the separatrices in the near‐exhaust region, and we present an analytical model to explain this signature. Finally, we give evidence of a localized parallel heating of cold ions. These signatures should be detected with the magnetospheric multiscale mission high‐resolution observations.


This study deals with relations between the member states of the European Community and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries all of which are signatories to the Lome Convention. It traces the origins of Eurafrican association to the relations which existed between France and her colonies and Britain and the Commonwealth. It then examines ACP organs and EEC institutions for negotiation and policy implementation but focuses on the ACP countries. The thesis aims principally to determine the appropriateness of ACP diplomacy to the objectives of ACP-EEC cooperation and theoretical concepts pertaining to group diplomacy, coalition formation, influence, conflict and cleavages are used to analyze the procedures involved in the negotiation of common ACP positions. The thesis is based on the consideration that cooperation between developed and developing countries can neither be ignored nor avoided and that, judging by the historical fact of interdependence among states, it is reasonable for the ACP countries to attempt to maximise the benefits of their EEC connections. The investigations in this study suggest that as a result of the underdeveloped economic and political potentials of the ACP countries, ACP diplomacy is essentially reactive especially over bread-and-butter issues such as aid and trade cooperation with the EEC. These issues, incidentally, are at the fore of ACP-EEC relations. However, there is also evidence that ACP diplomacy can be dynamic where life-and-death issues such as toxic waste dumping and environmental degradation in Africa are concerned. ACP-EEC cooperation has so far failed to meet the ultimate aim of redressing development problems in the ACP states. But, the ACP-EEC relationship is in fact a model representation of general North-South relations and this failure should be placed in that context. However, an exception is taken to the line of argument in development theory which puts all blame on the North for the inability of the South to achieve economic success. The argument reinforces the notion of incapacity on the part of the ACP countries to find solutions to their own problems and inappropriately takes away blame, as well as responsibility for policy implementation and economic development, from the ACP countries. An alternative view is adopted that the quest for a panacea to the social, economic and political problems of the ACP countries should be conducted from within the ACP group with improved and strengthened institutions and the postulates of such a search should help shape ACP positions in ACP-EEC cooperation.


In the last decade, digital media technologies and developments have given rise to exciting new forms of ludic, or playful, engagements of citizens in cultural and societal issues. From the Occupy movement to playful city-making to the gameful designs of the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, and the rise of citizen science and ecological games, this book shows how play is a key theoretical, methodological, and practical principle for comprehending such new forms of civic engagement in a mediatized culture. The Playful Citizen explores how and through what media we are becoming more playful as citizens and how this manifests itself in our ways of doing, living, and thinking. We offer a pluralistic answer to such questions by bringing together scholars from different fields such as game and play studies, social sciences, and media and culture studies.


Traffic congestion continues to be a major problem in large cities around the world and a source of frustration for drivers. Previous studies show that providing drivers with real-time traffic information will help them make better route planning and avoid congestion. In this research, we examine the use of data-driven natural language generation (NLG) techniques to automatically generate tweets from traffic incident data. From the task of automatic tweet generation, we discuss and propose a design of a traffic notification system that can deliver personalized and location-relevant real-time traffic information to drivers. The domain of our NLG work is novel with respect to the previous work in different domains including weather forecasts, educational reports and clinical reports. We evaluate the automatic generated tweets using BLEU-4. Our experimental results show that a well-prepared training corpus is important for better quality output, however, it is currently limited in traffic-related domains.