Title of Document: COMPETING DEMANDS: DEPENDENT CHILDREN AND PARENTAL RETIREMENT Joanna Motro, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Associate Professor, Joan R. Kahn, Department of Sociology The 1960s through the 1980s saw an expansion of generous pensions allowing workers to retire at younger ages. Since then, pensions have become less generous, and more people are working longer. Although previous research has often focused on financial and pension-related explanations for the postponement of retirement, little research has focused on how family demands shape retirement decisions. Changes in family formation in the second half of the 20th Century include delayed marriage, delayed childbearing, divorce, and remarriage. These trends, combined with the increasing time children are taking to transition to adulthood, means that parents are now more likely to be supporting children as they prepare to retire. This dissertation examines how demands from children affect older parents as they approach retirement. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I ask whether parents with adolescent or dependent adult children postpone retirement to later ages than other parents. I examine retirement both prospectively, by comparing parents' retirement expectations across cohorts, and then longitudinally, by modeling one cohort's transition from working to retirement. In both analyses, I focus on the impact of children who are either dependent-aged (<18), college-aged, coresident, or financially dependent. Results from this study show that needs of children do not appear to exert much influence over their parent's retirement plans. Net of parental characteristics, demands from children do not have an independent effect on retirement outcomes. It also does not appear that children in more recent cohorts exert a greater influence on parental retirement despite greater demands from children in recent years. For some subgroups (e.g. unmarried mothers and fathers, black and Hispanic parents) having certain types of demands from children is associated with greater expectations of working at older ages, while having other types of children is associated with a lower chance of expecting to work longer. For some subgroups (e.g. unmarried mothers), having certain types of dependent children are associated with retiring later. However, for the majority of adults, retirement plans and behaviors are driven more by parental retirement readiness (e.g. wealth, pension participation, and age) rather than the needs of children. COMPETING DEMANDS: DEPENDENT CHILDREN AND PARENTAL RETIREMENT


ABSTRACT This paper reports on an exploratory analysis examining the prevalence of food (in)security in the Inuit community of Igloolik, Nunavut, identifying high risk groups, and characterising conditions facilitating and constraining food security. A stratified cross-sectional food survey was administered to 50 Inuit community members in July 2007. 64% of the participants surveyed experienced some degree of food insecurity in the past year (July 2006–July 2007). Food insecurity among the sample population greatly exceeds the Canadian average. This is cause for concern given the negative physical and mental health impacts that have been documented for low nutritional status. The prevalence and severity of food insecurity differed among participants; females and those obtaining most of their food from the store were at highest risk of food insecurity. Consumption of traditional foods was significantly associated with increased food security. The study supports the need for further research to investigate key trends highlighted by the sample. Preliminary identification of potential trends contributes towards the goal of identifying entry points for policy aimed at strengthening northern Inuit food systems.


While the robots gradually become a part of our daily lives, they already play vital roles in many critical operations. Some of these critical tasks include surgeries, battlefield operations, and tasks that take place in hazardous environments or distant locations such as space missions. In most of these tasks, remotely controlled robots are used instead of autonomous robots. This special area of robotics is called teleoperation. Teleoperation systems must be reliable when used in critical tasks; hence, all of the subsystems must be dependable even under a subsystem or communication line failure. Teleoperation controllers are designed to compensate for instabilities due to communication time delays. Modifications to the existing controllers are proposed to configure a controller that is reliable under communication line failures. Experimental studies are then conducted on limited- and unlimited-workspace teleoperation systems to verify the efficiency of the controllers proposed for each system.


Abstract. There is an international commitment to develop a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained ocean observation system. However, a foundation for any observing, monitoring or research effort is effective and reliable in situ sensor technologies that accurately measure key environmental parameters. Ultimately, the data used for modelling efforts, management decisions and rapid responses to ocean hazards are only as good as the instruments that collect them. There is also a compelling need to develop and incorporate new or novel technologies to improve all aspects of existing observing systems and meet various emerging challenges. Assessment of Sensor Performance was a cross-cutting issues session at the international OceanSensors08 workshop in Warnemunde, Germany, which also has penetrated some of the papers published as a result of the workshop (Denuault, 2009; Kroger et al., 2009; Zielinski et al., 2009). The discussions were focused on how best to classify and validate the instruments required for effective and reliable ocean observations and research. The following is a summary of the discussions and conclusions drawn from this workshop, which specifically addresses the characterisation of sensor systems, technology readiness levels, verification of sensor performance and quality management of sensor systems.


A fundamental challenge for new ventures is overcoming liabilities of newness - particularly, lack of relevant knowledge. Accelerators, intense, time-compressed entrepreneurial programs, attempt to alleviate these liabilities by providing ventures with intensive learning. While accelerators have rapidly emerged as prominent players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and other practitioners have continued to raise questions about their efficacy. Mirroring such concerns, extant organizational theories offer competing predictions about whether and for which ventures accelerator participation might be beneficial. Drawing on hybrid empirical methods that triangulate across multiple quantitative and qualitative analyses, we consistently find evidence that many accelerators do indeed aid and accelerate venture development and that their effects are neither due purely to selection or credentialing. Intriguingly, our results also indicate that accelerator participation complements rather than substitutes for many forms of prior founder experience (e.g., having worked for a company that produces a lot of startups). Overall, we contribute by pioneering work on the nature and outcomes of accelerators, offering insight into the fundamental value of intensive indirect learning (vs direct learning) in new ventures and extending understanding of how organizations may speed products and services to market.


Animal-assisted therapy is a goal-oriented adjunct to traditional therapy programs. This type of therapy has benefitted many populations, including children, adolescents, and adults, in their recovery from a wide variety of physical and psychological traumas. Examples include patients who are undergoing rehabilitation related to major surgery, serious illness, or debilitating injury and patients who are receiving treatment to overcome substance abuse, physical abuse, and behavioral problems. The purpose of this article is to show how animal-assisted therapy has been used with at-risk youths who participate in a treatment program for a variety of traumatic experiences, including abuse and neglect, as well as criminality and substance abuse. In the therapy program, the youths work through a structured, goal-oriented curriculum with certified therapy dogs and volunteer handlers. Together they complete progressively advanced tasks in which the youths transfer skills learned about dog handling to understanding and modifying their own behavior. The overall aim is to help the youths develop positive life skills and facilitate positive social interactions to help break the cycle of crime, violence, or substance abuse.


The best prospects for robust, extensible Natural Language Understanding systems will come through the use of a semantics with a sound fit to way language is organized into units. Many single words correspond to relations rather than terms; many full phrases (maximal projections) correspond to lambda abstractions rather than wffs. In this paper we explore the consequences of some of these common but syntactically unconventional phrase types on the representations that could be used to represent their meanings. These phrases--conjunction reductions without semantically natural heads, and displaced constituents that must be given interim representations until the parse reaches a point where they can be completed--are common i real texts, and must be accounted for in any successful language understanding system. We use them to illustrate some of the unusual properties of the representational system we work with, including first class representations of the links between relations and their arguments and first class representations of partially saturated relations.


Compressive sensing (CS) is a promising technique that enables sub-Nyquist sampling, while still guaranteeing the reliable signal recovery. However, existing mixed-signal CS front-end implementation schemes often suffer from high power consumption and nonlinearity. This paper presents a digital-assisted asynchronous compressive sensing (DACS) front-end which offers lower power and higher reconstruction performance relative to the conventional CS-based approaches. The front-end architecture leverages a continuous-time ternary encoding scheme which modulates amplitude variation to ternary timing information. Power is optimized by employing digital-assisted modules in the front-end circuit and a part-time operation strategy for high-power modules. An S-member Group-based Total Variation (S -GTV) algorithm is proposed for the sparse reconstruction of piecewise-constant signals. By including both the inter-group and intra-group total variation, the S-GTV scheme outperforms the conventional TV-based methods in terms of faster convergence rate and better sparse reconstruction performance. Analyses and simulations with a typical ECG recording system confirm that the proposed DACS front-end outperforms a conventional CS-based front-end using a random demodulator in terms of lower power consumption, higher recovery performance, and more system flexibility.


This study titled "Impacts of Sulaibyah Landfill Practices on Groundwater Quality in Kuwait", was conducted within a Geography course for undergraduate program in University of Central Lancashire by Khaled Al-Fahad and supervised by Dr Jo Dawson. The main aim of this report is to study the impacts of a specific municipal landfill on groundwater quality.

The State of Kuwait is considered one of the poorest countries in the world regarding water resources (Darwish et al 2008). The most abundant water resource is the groundwater but its consumption is critical due to the slow recharge. Therefore, extreme protection measures should be applied to protect this valuable source. The main threat to the groundwater is possible contaminants reaching the aquifer. Landfill practices in Kuwait using unlined
abandoned queries represent the major threat to groundwater. Leachates produced from unlined landfills have the ability to contaminate the groundwater with hazardous materials that may cause the loss of this valuable water source.

In an attempt evaluate potential sources of contamination for groundwater by landfills in Kuwait. Water quality was evaluated in five groundwater wells in Sulaibyah landfill located to the west of Kuwait city. In the mean time, and in attempting to characterize the potential groundwater contaminating sources, samples from the waste trucks (untreated municipal wastewater, and industrial wastewater) and liquid waste pond were collected and analyzed. The results of the analyzed groundwater constituents, boron, nitrate, aluminum, lithium, fluoride, TPH, TCB and TDS were found to be above the drinking water limits but only the
elevated TPH and TCB in the groundwater could be attributed to the landfills at Sulaibyah with a considerable level of confidence.

Reviewing the current regulations for landfilling (EPA and municipality in the State of Kuwait) and international guidelines, and building upon the information gained in this study, a set of guidelines were developed to ensure the safety of groundwater quality.


LILLIAN MWIKALI ELIJAH (M.Env. Sc) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Despite the increasing slum population, the problem of infrastructure and service delivery remains largely unresolved in Kianda village, Kibera slums. This has led to increased human and environmental health risks. This research therefore sought to assess the opportunities and challenges of infrastructure development, basic service delivery and aesthetic enhancement in Kianda, focussing on several variables namely: housing, education, energy, playgrounds and roads, water, sanitation and waste management and health care facilities. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaires, Interview schedules, Focused Group Discussions, field checklists and content analysis of secondary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Pearson correlation coefficient was used in determining the emerging relationships between selected key variables. Results obtained showed that while households desired improved infrastructural development and service provision, they had poor housing structures, inadequate health care, education and water facilities, poor communication networks, low quality energy sources and inappropriate waste management systems. As a result, there were low levels of education attainment and high rates of school dropouts, water, air and soil pollution and consequently the impact of water borne diseases. Barriers to improved service delivery included poverty and lack of negotiating skills, poor slum policies and absentee landlords, corruption and unresponsive governing authorities. Households were noted to engage in survival mechanisms hazardous to human health such as disposing wastewater directly outside their houses (83%) and use of flying toilets (8%). Household practises hazardous to the environment included among others use of firewood and charcoal for cooking (81%), disposing wastewater in channels draining into Mutoine River (83%), and use of flying toilets (8%). Educated households engaged less in hazardous practises than in uneducated households. Likewise, higher income households engaged more in less hazardous practises than lower income households particularly the use of own latrines and ablution blocks. Both local and international organizations were providing several services in Kianda in the absence of the City Council, though none was involved in road network provision. There were few health care facilities in Kianda mostly private clinics. This, compounded with risk factors like unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene had contributed to the burden of water borne diseases. Reported cases of ill health included Malaria (39%), Typhoid (26%) and diarrhoea (35%). There fore, for service provision to improve in Kianda, awareness on the dangers of the households' survival mechanisms must be created. This had greatly been caused by the high poverty levels in the slum, which urgently calls for more focused urban poverty reduction policies. There is also the undisputed need to actualise tenure rights in the slum so as to give the households an incentive to negotiate for services from concerned urban authorities. A participatory slum-upgrading programme should also be emphasized, given the inclination of the global world towards participatory development.


The use of antibiotics in agriculture, particularly in food‐producing animals, is pervasive and represents the overwhelming majority of antibiotic use worldwide. The link between antibiotic use in animals and antibiotic resistance in humans is unequivocal. Transmission can occur by ingesting undercooked meats harboring resistant bacteria, by direct contact of animals by animal handlers, and by various other means. Antibiotics used in aquaculture and antifungals used in horticulture are also an evolving threat to human health. Regulations aimed at decreasing the amount of antibiotics used in food production to limit the development of antibiotic resistance have recently been implemented. However, further action is needed to minimize antibiotic use in agriculture. This article describes the extent of this current problem and serves as the official position of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists on this urgent threat to human health.


We have uncovered a significant allosteric response of the D2 dopamine receptor to physiologically relevant concentrations of sodium (140 mM), characterized by a sodium-enhanced binding affinity for a D4-selective class of agonists and antagonists. This enhancement is significantly more pronounced in a D2-V2.61(91)F mutant and cannot be mimicked by an equivalent concentration of the sodium replacement cation N-methyl-d-glucamine. This phenomenon was explored computationally at the molecular level by analyzing the effect of sodium binding on the dynamic properties of D2 receptor model constructs. Normal mode analysis identified one mode (M19), which is involved in the open/closed motions of the binding cleft as being particularly sensitive to the sodium effect. To examine the consequences for D2 receptor ligand recognition, one of the ligands, L-745,870 [3-{[4-(4-chlorophenyl) piperazin-1-yl]-methyl}-1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine or CPPMA, chlorophenylpiperazinyl methylazaindole], was docked into conformers along the M19 trajectory. Structurally and pharmacologically well established ligand-receptor interactions, including the ionic interaction with D3.32(114) and interactions between the ligand aryl moieties and V2.61(91)F, were achieved only in "open" phase conformers. The docking of (-)-raclopride [3,5-dichloro-N-(1-ethylpyrrolidin-2-ylmethyl)-2-hydroxy-6-methoxybenzamide] suggests that the same binding cleft changes in response to sodium-binding perturbation account as well for the enhancements in binding affinity for substituted benzamides in the wild-type D2 receptor. Our findings demonstrate how key interactions can be modulated by occupancy at an allosteric site and are consistent with a mechanism in which sodium binding enhances the affinity of selected ligands through dynamic changes that increase accessibility of substituted benzamides and 1,4-DAP ligands to the orthosteric site and accessibility of 1,4-DAPs to V2.61(91)F.


We develop analytical expressions for the effective hydraulic conductivity Ke of a three-dimensional, heterogeneous porous medium in the presence of randomly prescribed head and flux boundaries. The log hydraulic conductivity Y forms a Gaussian, statistically homogeneous and anisotropic random field with an exponential autocovariance. By effective hydraulic conductivity of a finite volume in such a field, we mean the ensemble mean (expected value) of all random equivalent conductivities that one could associate with a similar volume under uniform mean flow. We start by deriving a first-order approximation of an exact expression developed in 1993 by Neuman and Orr. We then generalize this to strongly heterogeneous media by invoking the Landau-Lifshitz conjecture. Upon evaluating our expressions, we find that Ke decreases rapidly from the arithmetic mean KA toward an asymptotic value as distance between the prescribed head boundaries increases from zero to about eight integral scales of Y. The more heterogeneous is the medium, the larger is Ke relative to its asymptote at any given separation distance. Our theory compares well with published results of spatially power-averaged expressions and with a first-order expression developed intuitively by Kitanidis in 1990.


Kidney disease is one of the leading causes of death in patients with lupus and other autoimmune diseases affecting the kidney, and is associated with deposition of antibodies as well as infiltration of T lymphocytes and macrophages, which are responsible for initiation and/or exacerbation of inflammation and tissue injury. Current treatment options have relatively limited efficacy; therefore, novel targets need to be explored. The co‐inhibitory molecule, B7x, a new member of the B7 family expressed predominantly by non‐lymphoid tissues, has been shown to inhibit the proliferation, activation and functional responses of CD4 and CD8 T cells. In this study, we found that B7x was expressed by intrinsic renal cells, and was up‐regulated upon stimulation with inflammatory triggers. After passive administration of antibodies against glomerular antigens, B7x−/− mice developed severe renal injury accompanied by a robust adaptive immune response and kidney up‐regulation of inflammatory mediators, as well as local infiltration of T cells and macrophages. Furthermore, macrophages in the spleen of B7x−/− mice were polarized to an inflammatory phenotype. Finally, treatment with B7x‐immunoglobulin (Ig) in this nephritis model decreased kidney damage and reduced local inflammation. We propose that B7x can modulate kidney damage in autoimmune diseases including lupus nephritis and anti‐glomerular basement membrane disease. Thus, B7x mimetics may be a novel therapeutic option for treatment of immune‐mediated kidney disease.


I. INTRODUCTION When the Uruguay Round negotiations began in 1986, the subject of intellectual property rights ("IPRs") was completely unfamiliar to international trade economists. Presumably the area was ignored because global trade policy concerns had not moved into questions of domestic business regulation. Even today, readers will search in vain for serious treatments of the trade implications of exclusive rights to intellectual property ("IP") in international economics textbooks. Despite this general inattention, a small but growing literature has emerged in which trade economists have framed specific questions and applied theory and statistical analysis to them. This literature has advanced the understanding of the role of IPRs in the international economy from the realm of speculation to the boundary of hard analysis based on facts and evidence. It has demonstrated that it is possible to use data to assess hypotheses about the economics of global intellectual property protection. Prior to the construction of the evidence that is the subject of this Article, strong claims based on largely unexamined assumptions were made on both sides of the debate. Thus, for example, American trade authorities could push global negotiations on higher standards of protection by claiming that they would result in a long-term flowering of innovation and international technology transfer. Opponents could oppose such standards on the basis of fears that stronger IPRs would destroy channels of inexpensive access to technologies, medicines, and information products. Evidence suggests that there is some truth in both claims, but far more exaggeration. In this Article, I provide an overview of what international economists have learned from studying IPRs in the global context. While progress has been made, many of the results remain subject to statistical and analytical uncertainty and wide areas of research remain insufficiently explored. There is much about the functioning of IPRs that we do not understand very well, particularly in the context of promoting economic development. My approach is to list a series of conclusions from the literature. In each case I note whether the conclusions are robust or remain tentative. The critical feature underlying confidence assessment is whether the hypotheses are supported with systematic econometric evidence. Inevitably, the inferences drawn reflect largely my interpretations of this work. Since much of the work reviewed is my own, the discussion herein cannot be considered completely impartial.1 II. QUESTIONS ASKED AND PARTiALLY ANSWERED Each of the issues covered in this Section could support a series of extensive articles. My intent here is to distill the main lessons and indicate where further research is needed. I state the issues as hypotheses and then provide explanatory discussion. A. There Are Good Reasons to Study the International Economics of IPRs A fundamental question is whether international economists can add value to the analysis of IPRs. Economic approaches to patents, copyrights, trademarks, and related devices typically adopt a closed-economy approach without distinguishing among interests of different countries. For example, standard patent analysis seeks to identify optimal patent scope, requiring a complex calculation among the interests of innovators, consumers, and second comers. Actual patent regimes may then be assessed relative to optimal structures, though such comparisons are fraught with conceptual and practical difficulties. 1. One Size Does Not Fit All In principle, this approach could be extended to the global economy with a simple relabeling of interests. Thus, we may identify four "country types" with divergent interests in global protection. First, IP exporters are net producers and sellers of intellectual property, with a consequent interest in strong international rights. Second, high-income IP importers are net purchasers of intellectual property but their industries require access to sophisticated technological inputs and their consumers prefer high-quality, differentiated products. …


Phenotypic plasticity has long been suspected to allow invasive species to expand their geographic range across large-scale environmental gradients. We tested this possibility in Australia using a continental scale survey of the invasive tree Parkinsonia aculeata (Fabaceae) in twenty-three sites distributed across four climate regions and three habitat types. Using tree-level responses, we detected a trade-off between seed mass and seed number across the moisture gradient. Individual trees plastically and reversibly produced many small seeds at dry sites or years, and few big seeds at wet sites and years. Bigger seeds were positively correlated with higher seed and seedling survival rates. The trade-off, the relation between seed mass, seed and seedling survival, and other fitness components of the plant life-cycle were integrated within a matrix population model. The model confirms that the plastic response resulted in average fitness benefits across the life-cycle. Plasticity resulted in average fitness being positively maintained at the wet and dry range margins where extinction risks would otherwise have been high ("Jack-of-all-Trades" strategy JT), and fitness being maximized at the species range centre where extinction risks were already low ("Master-of-Some" strategy MS). The resulting hybrid "Jack-and-Master" strategy (JM) broadened the geographic range and amplified average fitness in the range centre. Our study provides the first empirical evidence for a JM species. It also confirms mechanistically the importance of phenotypic plasticity in determining the size, the shape and the dynamic of a species distribution. The JM allows rapid and reversible phenotypic responses to new or changing moisture conditions at different scales, providing the species with definite advantages over genetic adaptation when invading diverse and variable environments. Furthermore, natural selection pressure acting on phenotypic plasticity is predicted to result in maintenance of the JT and strengthening of the MS, further enhancing the species invasiveness in its range centre.


Homologous recombination is the primary DNA repair pathway in bacteria and it is immensely important in repairing DNA double strand breaks. Components of the homologous recombination pathway have been well conserved throughout evolution as an essential part of cell survival. Homologous recombination plays an important role in cellular processes like DNA repair as well as exchange of genetic information through chromosomal crossover.
During homologous recombination, DNA strand exchange leads to formation of a heteroduplex joint between the invading and displaced DNA strands. This hetereoduplex joint is called a Holliday Junction. Resolution of the Holliday Junction proceeds via one of two pathways. In the presence of RuvC and/or RecG, Holliday Junction resolution proceeds via a "cut and paste" pathway where the invading DNA strand replaces a region of homologous DNA on the target DNA. In the absence of RuvC and RecG, Holliday Junction resolution takes place via a "copy and paste" pathway during which DNA synthesis needs to be primed at Holliday Junction intermediates formed during strand invasion.
In an effort to separate this myriad of different requirements, I have attempted to develop a novel "ends-in" recombination assay system using E. coli as a model organism. This ends-in system would allow recombinant molecule formation by DNA synthesis of approximately 200 to 2000 bp size interval between the two converging ends of an invading linear dsDNA substrate oriented just like the greek letter U, but with the arms pointing inwards. In this study, a number of linear dsDNA assay templates were constructed and analyzed. All the constructs had two "arms" of homology to the chromosome pointing inwards i.e. in the ends-in orientation. Using this ends-in system, it was demonstrated that the presence of chi (Crossover Hotspot Initiator) sites was an important requirement for ends-in recombination in wild type E. coli cells. Our studies also showed that ends-in homologous recombination did not occur if chi sites were placed at or very near to the ends of the incoming linear dsDNA molecule, suggesting that the chi site recognition is efficient only if the incoming dsDNA has chi sites internal to the ends. Moreover, it was shown that neither RuvC nor RecG were required for successful recombinant product formation using the ends-in assay. This finding reinforces previous observations that suggest the idea that Holliday Junctions can be resolved independent of both RuvC and RecG.


BACKGROUND
The Active Healthy Kids the Netherlands (AHKN) Report Card consolidates and translates research and assesses how the Netherlands is being responsible in providing physical activity (PA) opportunities for children and youth (<18 years). The primary aim of this article is to summarize the results of the 2016 AHKN Report Card.

METHODS
Nine indicators were graded using the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance report card development process, which includes a synthesis of the best available research, surveillance, policy and practice findings, and expert consensus.

RESULTS
Grades assigned were: Overall Physical Activity Levels, D; Organized Sport Participation, B; Active Play, B; Active Transportation, A; Sedentary Behaviors, C; Family and Peers, B; School, C; Community and the Built Environment, A; Government Strategies and Investments, INC.

CONCLUSIONS
Sedentary behavior and overall PA levels are not meeting current guidelines. However, the Dutch youth behaviors in sports, active transportation, and active play are satisfactory. Several modifiable factors of influence might be enhanced to improve these indicators or at least prevent regression. Although Dutch children accumulate a lot of daily PA through cycling, it is not enough to meet the current national PA guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA per day.


Study objectives: The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 requires that chemical facilities in the US with specified quantities of certain toxic or flammable chemicals file a five year history of accidents. This study considers the relation between the reported accidents and surrounding community characteristics. Design: This study is a retrospective analysis of the association between the demographics of counties in which facilities are located and the risk of accidental chemical release and resulting injuries at those facilities. The "location risk" (the risk that a facility having large volumes of hazardous chemicals is located in a community) and "operations risk" (the risk of an accident itself) are investigated. Setting:1994–2000 accident history data from 15 083 US industrial facilities using one or more of 140 flammable or toxic substances above a threshold level. Demographic makeup of 2333 counties surrounding these facilities was determined from the 1990 US census. Main results: Larger and more chemical intensive facilities tend to be located in counties with larger African-American populations and in counties with both higher median incomes and high levels of income inequality. Even after adjusting for location risk there is greater risk of accidents for facilities in heavily African-American counties (OR of accident = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.5 to 2.4). Conclusions: Further research and policy interventions are required to reduce the probability of locating facilities in an inequitable fashion, as well as health surveillance, and regulatory monitoring and enforcement activities to ensure that hazardous facilities in minority communities prepare and prevent accidental chemical releases to the same standards as elsewhere.


About the book: Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories brings together intellectuals from a variety of fields, backgrounds, generations, and continents to deepen and reinvigorate the theoretical and intellectual integrity of African studies. Building on recent debate within African studies that has revolved about the role of Africanists in the United States as "gatekeepers" of knowledge about Africa and Africans, this volume of interdisciplinary essays focuses on the contested character of the production of knowledge itself. In every chapter, case studies and ethnographic materials, drawn from West, Central, East and Southern Africa, demonstrate the application of theory to concrete situations.


The Mouse Genome Database (MGD; http://www.informatics.jax.org) is the primary community model organism database for the laboratory mouse and serves as the source for key biological reference data related to mouse genes, gene functions, phenotypes and disease models with a strong emphasis on the relationship of these data to human biology and disease. As the cost of genome-scale sequencing continues to decrease and new technologies for genome editing become widely adopted, the laboratory mouse is more important than ever as a model system for understanding the biological significance of human genetic variation and for advancing the basic research needed to support the emergence of genome-guided precision medicine. Recent enhancements to MGD include new graphical summaries of biological annotations for mouse genes, support for mobile access to the database, tools to support the annotation and analysis of sets of genes, and expanded support for comparative biology through the expansion of homology data.


Abstract Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to investigate the three-dimensional wakes of rigid pitching panels with a trapezoidal geometry, chosen to model idealized fish caudal fins. Experiments are performed for Strouhal numbers from 0.17 to 0.56 for two different trailing edge pitching amplitudes. A Lagrangian coherent structure (LCS) analysis is employed to investigate the formation and evolution of the panel wake. A classic reverse von Kármán vortex street pattern is observed along the mid-span of the near wake, but the vortices realign and exhibit strong interactions near the spanwise edges of the wake. At higher Strouhal numbers, the complexity of the wake increases downstream of the trailing edge as the spanwise vortices spread transversely and lose coherence as the wake splits. This wake transition is shown to correspond to a qualitative change in the LCS pattern surrounding each vortex core, and can be identified as a quantitative event that is not dependent on arbitrary threshold levels. The location of this transition is observed to depend on both the pitching amplitude and free stream velocity, but is not constant for a fixed Strouhal number. On the panel surface, the trapezoidal planform geometry is observed to create additional vortices along the swept edges that retain coherence for low Strouhal numbers or high sweep angles. These additional swept-edge structures are conjectured to add to the complex three-dimensional flow near the tips of the panel.


Document classification is a fundamental task for many applications, including document annotation, document understanding, and knowledge discovery. This is especially true in STEM fields where the growth rate of scientific publications is exponential, and where the need for document processing and understanding is essential to technological advancement. Classifying a new publication into a specific domain based on the content of the document is an expensive process in terms of cost and time. Therefore, there is a high demand for a reliable document classification system. In this paper, we focus on classification of mathematics documents, which consist of English text and mathematics formulas and symbols. The paper addresses two key questions. The first question is whether math-document classification performance is impacted by math expressions and symbols, either alone or in conjunction with the text contents of documents. Our investigations show that Text-Only embedding produces better classification results. The second question we address is the optimization of a deep learning (DL) model, the LSTM combined with one dimension CNN, for math document classification. We examine the model with several input representations, key design parameters and decision choices, and choices of the best input representation for math documents classification.


This paper presents an overview of the Ranger localization system and its constituent technologies and algorithms. Ranger is a high-precision localization system for ground vehicles that performs map-based localization using a ground-facing camera. Ranger uses commercially available hardware, including a camera, lights, and a computer, in combination with auxiliary localization sensors and a custom state estimator, to produce a complete high-precision positioning solution suitable for feedback control of an automated vehicle. Ranger was originally conceived and designed to address the accuracy and availability problems of GPS, and can operate independent from or as a supplement to GPS and other GNSS positioning systems. Ranger position measurements are made by matching live ground imagery to imagery stored in a map. The image matching process uses a feature-based approach that yields a high positive match rate with a vanishingly small false positive rate. The precision of the Ranger measurements is shown to be on the order of centimeters, and the actual lateral positioning performance of MARTI, one of Southwest Research Institute's automated vehicles, autonomously driving a test route is shown to be repeatable over many runs to within 2 cm.


High-resolution, high-throughput mass spectrometry studies of ancient protein samples provide insights into protein function in the distant past. Over the past 30 years, ancient DNA studies have grown from a scientific curiosity into a powerful research tool with applications in molecular evolution, archaeology, paleontology, conservation genetics, and forensics. The analysis of ancient proteins has lagged behind that of ancient DNA, but recent developments in high-throughput, high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) have the potential to provide the accuracy and robustness required for confident and reliable sequencing of ancient proteins. This methodology may allow biomolecular recovery to be extended further back in time, because DNA chains fall apart 10 times faster (1) than proteins (2). Furthermore, mass spectrometry enables investigation of protein expression specific for different tissues, developmental phases, or biological processes, including disease states.


This study has its foundation on a model developed by Holden, Holden and Suss (1979) . The model is on the determinants of the flexibility of an exchange rate. These determinants are: the openness of an economy; the level of economic development; the diversification of the external sector; geographical concentration of trade; the mobility of capital and the inflation differential. In the present study, the model by Holden , et al is adapted in order to determine whether SADC forms an optimum currency area or not. SADC has a number of objectives which it aims to achieve. One of these objectives is the formation of a monetary union in the future. This is the widest objective for SADC and the path towards achieving this is the establishment of a Trade Protocol that aims to form a Free Trade Area in the region. A number of criteria have to be assessed in order to determine whether SADC does form an optimum criteria or not. The Holden et. al model forms the basis for this assessment. The model reveals that SADC does not form an optimum currency area. SADC has not yet converged on the criteria for a monetary union.


Recently, with the rapid agricultural application progress in China, greenhouse control issues have been better addressed. The greenhouse control technology, as an emerging technology, is increasingly being widespread attended, and is gradually walking in the direction of constructing good quality, high output efficiency agricultural systems. In this new situation, we need to carry out market research, carefully research the greenhouse automatic control theory based on SCM technology, and design automation control system with best effect. The performance test result shows: This new system has a good usable performance, while related technology can provide a scientific basis for further research in the future. Keywords.Microcontroller; greenhouse automatic control.


When T/2 Fractionally Spaced blind Equalization Algorithm based Constant Modulus Algorithm (T/2-FSE-
CMA) is employed for equalizing higher order Quadrature Amplitude Modulation signals (QAM), it has disadvantages of low convergence speed and large Mean Square Error (MSE). For overcoming these disadvantages, a Modified T/2 Fractionally Spaced blind Equalization algorithm based on Coordinate Transformation and CMA (T/2-FSE-MCTCMA) was proposed by analyzing the character of 16QAM signal constellations. In the proposed algorithm, real and imaginary parts of input signal of T/2 fractionally spaced blind equalizer are equalized, respectively, and output signals of equalizer are transformed to the same unit circle by coordinate transformation method, a new error function is defined after making coordinate transformation and used to adjust weight vector of T/2 fractionally spaced blind equalizer. The proposed algorithm can overcome large misjudgments of T/2 fractionally spaced blind equalization algorithm for equalizing multi-modulus higher order QAM. Simulation results with underwater acoustic channel models demonstrate that the proposed T/2-FSE-MCTCMA algorithm outperforms T/2 Fractionally Spaced blind Equalization algorithm bas-ed on Coordinate Transformation and CMA (T/2-FSE-CTCMA) and the T/2-FSE-CMA in convergence rate and MSE.


The disaster relief community is increasingly focused on issues of critical physical infrastructure in search and rescue operations. As the disaster relief and civil engineering community attempts to expand its abilities in this arena, it is being confronted with constraints related to manpower, risks to human personnel, and system stability. The community can address these barriers by integrating autonomous vehicles and intelligent software agents into its traditionally human elements. The military has been actively pursuing this goal in order to minimize human casualties and expand its functionality, and a technology transfer to the disaster arena would be greatly beneficial. The transition from the military to the disaster relief community is a logical step because of the great number of similarities between the two areas. Both are concerned with operations carried out in hostile, chaotic environments, where many participants from different areas of expertise collaborate to reach an objective, and both are constrained by the quality of intercommunication and the effectiveness of their equipment. Experience gained by the military in the field of autonomous vehicles has shown that while the ratio of autonomous vehicles to humans remains low, there is little trouble in directly controlling these vehicles as personnel can be dedicated to this task alone. However, as the number of autonomous vehicles increases to include personal human assistants and entire teams of vehicles, the task of control and collaboration becomes increasingly difficult. To date, most autonomous vehicle control work has been done with a one-to-one structure where one human controls one vehicle. While this works well when the vehicles are relatively simple and the number of vehicles is small, it does not translate well into the ideal situation of large populations of complex autonomous vehicles. Under these circumstances, intelligent software agents, residing both on the autonomous vehicles and on the communication devices, are needed to handle the task of distributed decision-making. This autonomous decision making ability is particularly critical for the cases where the autonomous vehicles fall out of contact with their human commanders or remote experts such as geotechnical, structural, and earthquake engineers. This paper examines past work done for and by the military in the area of autonomous vehicle systems and examines its application to the field of disaster relief involving critical physical infrastructures. It then presents a system that meets the needs of a combined human - intelligent software agent - autonomous vehicle SR (Search and Rescue) team, operating on critical physical infrastructure in an unstable and hostile environment. The collaboration infrastructure includes an information policy layer and a client application layer that address the need for inter-user communication and flexible command structures, which can be dynamically arranged to meet the situational need.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 7-dehydrocholesterol loaded cyclodextrin (7-DHCLC) and cholesterol loaded cyclodextrin (CLC) with the addition of different glycerol (G) rates on bull semen cryopreservation. Semen samples of three bulls were pooled and divided into seven groups; control group (C) and the other six were extended with standard Tris extender including different G rates (3, 6 and 9%) with CLC or 7-DHCLC to reach 1.5 mg/120x106. Extended samples were frozen in 0.25 mL straws. After thawing, motion characteristics and motility, viability, acrosome integrity, mitochondrial activation, functional membrane integrity and abnormal spermatozoa rates were assessed. The highest membrane integrity, viability and total motility were detected in 7-DHCLC with 9% of G group (P<0.001). The lowest progressive motility was detected in 3% G groups (P<0.001). 7-DHCLC with 9% G had higher mitochondrial activity compared with 3% G groups. In addition, no statistical difference was observed between groups in terms of acrosome integrity and abnormal spermatozoa rates (P>0.05). According to these results, 7-DHCLC with 9% G addition maintained some spermatological parameters better than other groups after thawing in bull semen thus, it was concluded that 7-DHCLC could be used instead of CLC in bull semen cryopreservation.


In this article we explore the effects of dangling bonds and diameter on the electronic properties of the wurtzite InAs nanowires (NWs) using the density functional theory. The NWs are confined in the hexagonal supercell and are simulated in the [0001] direction. The calculations have been carried out by applying the periodic boundary conditions along the NW axis, i.e., z-Cartesian coordinate, providing enough vacuum to isolate the system from its neighbors. The optical properties of a material are directly related to the band-gap; therefore a relationship between the band-gap and diameter of the nanowires is obtained by using two models, where the band-gap for a larger diameter NW can be estimated. The results of these models are compared with each other and the effects of the dangling bonds on the band-gaps are also investigated. The band-gap of the nanowires decreases and the dangling bond ratio increases with the increase in the diameter of the nanowire, and hence we expect that for large diameter nanowires the band-gap will approach the band gap of the bulk material. An interesting feature of the shift in the band-gap from indirect to direct, i.e. optically inactive to active, is also observed in these NWs with the increase in the diameter.


This working paper reports the ongoing research conducted in the research project, The Quest for Well-being in Growth Industries: A Collaborative Study in Finland and Scotland, under the auspices of Academy of Finland research programme, The Future of Work and Well-being. The research project examines the contradictory pressures for policies and practices towards both the inhibition and the enhancement of work-related well-being that are likely in growth industries. The overall aim is to evaluate the development, implementation and use of work-related well-being policies and practices in four selected growth industries. These – electronics, care, finance and accounting, and tourism – have been selected on the basis of EU and national forecasts, and demographic and socio-economic trends in standard and non-standard employment. Following an earlier survey of 127 employing organisations on questions of growth and well-being, in this working paper we present the initial results of the qualitative phase of the project. This phase comprised 'portraits of practice' in nine case companies, selected on the basis of some of the quantitative analysis of the survey, with interviews, 'mini-ethnographies', and other data and documents received from the organisations. The working paper concludes with discussion of methodological issues across the quantitative and qualitative phases of the project.


Historically, rurality and rural education have been marginalised bodies of knowledge in South Africa. The post-1994 era has seen an emerging government concern to address the continuing interplay between poverty, HIV/AIDS, underdevelopment, and underachievement in schools categorised as rural. To address these concerns, scholars in South African institutions of higher learning have conducted research on various issues on rurality and rural education. However, little is known of the focus of the various studies and the state of rural education and rural education research. Drawing on the Project for Postgraduate Education Research (PPER) from 1995– 2004, the purpose of this article is to critically analyse the discourses underpinning rural education and rural education research in South Africa. The article focuses on three enabling assumptions. The first is that there is little research which takes as its primary focus rurality as lived experience worthy of scholarly reflection regarding how rurality influences social or specific education issues. Secondly, there is substantively more research in which rurality, or facets of rural life, is considered as context in which projects or studies are located. Such studies are conducted in a rural context without any intention of investigating rural issues or rural education issues, or explaining how rurality influences education in these rural contexts. Thirdly, there is a small body of research which takes as its focus social issues in relation to rural conditions. These studies focus on rurality not merely as the context of reflection, but as an active constituent of social conditions evident in rural life. Our analysis, focusing on postgraduate research in South African HEIs in terms of these assumptions, aims to continue a dialogue that leads to further understanding of the complexities of rural education and rural development.


ABSTRACT This study examined the implementation of one facet of the Dignity Assaults Initiative (DAI) in the state of Michigan. The DAI focused upon the corrections environment and the consistent management of two different types of staff assaults, perpetrated by inmates: liquid assaults and sexually deviant behavior. This research applied a survey focused on the examination of the sexually deviant behaviors addressed by this policy initiative. The survey was distributed to Michigan corrections employees through the Michigan Corrections Organization, and collected data regarding the policy implementation, frequency of exposure to sexually abusive/harassing behaviors and the appropriate responses to such behaviors. The data in this study found that participants did not see the DAI as effectively reducing the numbers of sexually deviant behaviors; however, the majority of the participants were aware of the DAI. The types of appropriate responses necessary to combat the sexually abusive/harassing behaviors of inmates were focused upon the formal mechanisms – formal reporting and segregation prior to administrative review. The data also indicated that both male and female staff may be exposed to sexually abusive/harassing behaviors of inmates, but when the number of occurrences over a career is evaluated, the impact upon female corrections employees is much higher.


Waiting for public transit is recognized as being more onerous than travel time itself. Previous research established that transit passengers in one group "target" their arrival at a time shortly before the service is scheduled. Another group of passengers, seemingly unaffected by timetable schedules, arrives randomly. The time of day plus transit service characteristics, such as headway and reliability, affects the split of passengers between these groups. Little is known about the longitudinal aspects of the nonrandom arrival behavior. This paper assesses the day-to-day consistency of transit users' arrival behavior by analyzing the longitudinal automated fare collection system data for heavy rail services in Melbourne, Australia. It makes further distinctions between transit users that have until now been categorized into random or nonrandom arrival behavior. Four archetypal arrival behaviors are derived. Consistency of arrival behavior is quantified and investigated. Heterogeneity is an overriding feature of transit commuters' longitudinal behavior. Transit users exhibiting a greater amount of consistency are found to arrive closer to the transit's timetabled time, use fewer scheduled services, and travel earlier in the peak. A systematic difference in arrival behavior is found for users of a terminus station.


Quasi-experimental methods increasingly are used to evaluate the impacts of conservation interventions by generating credible estimates of counterfactual baselines. These methods generally require large samples for statistical comparisons, presenting a challenge for evaluating innovative policies implemented within a few pioneering jurisdictions. Single jurisdictions often are studied using comparative methods, which rely on analysts' selection of best case comparisons. The synthetic control method (SCM) offers one systematic and transparent way to select cases for comparison, from a sizeable pool, by focusing upon similarity in outcomes before the intervention. We explain SCM, then apply it to one local initiative to limit deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The municipality of Paragominas launched a multi-pronged local initiative in 2008 to maintain low deforestation while restoring economic production. This was a response to having been placed, due to high deforestation, on a federal "blacklist" that increased enforcement of forest regulations and restricted access to credit and output markets. The local initiative included mapping and monitoring of rural land plus promotion of economic alternatives compatible with low deforestation. The key motivation for the program may have been to reduce the costs of blacklisting. However its stated purpose was to limit deforestation, and thus we apply SCM to estimate what deforestation would have been in a (counterfactual) scenario of no local initiative. We obtain a plausible estimate, in that deforestation patterns before the intervention were similar in Paragominas and the synthetic control, which suggests that after several years, the initiative did lower deforestation (significantly below the synthetic control in 2012). This demonstrates that SCM can yield helpful land-use counterfactuals for single units, with opportunities to integrate local and expert knowledge and to test innovations and permutations on policies that are implemented in just a few locations.


Light transmitted towards the event horizon of a black hole will never complete the journey. Either the black hole will disintegrate or the light itself will disintegrate before the light can reach the event horizon. The incomplete journey illustrates how locations where time is dilated observe and experience an increase in the rate that things disintegrate. When a mass is compacted so that the Schwarzschild radius is near its surface, the very significant increase in time dilation at the surface results in a corresponding increase in the rate of surface disintegration, explaining the existence of quasars.


We analyze the effectiveness of a new approach in providing weather index–based insurance products to low-income populations. The approach is based on the concept of providing multiple weather securities that pay a fixed amount if the event written on the security (that monthly rainfall at a nearby weather station falls below a stated cutoff) comes true. A theoretical model is developed to outline the conditions in which weather securities could outperform crop-specific weather index–based insurance policies. Data collected during both an experimental game and real purchases of such insurance policies among farmers in southern Ethiopia suggest that the securities are well understood and can fit heterogeneous farmer needs. This paper documents (1) heterogeneity of rainfall risk among farmers, (2) the understanding of securities and transmission of information about weather securities among members of endogenously formed risk-sharing groups, and (3) the nature of purchasing decisions and manner in which they are made.


This essay is a contribution to a symposium at the January 2005 annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Conflict of Laws. More than ten years ago, German theorist Gunther Teubner called for the creation of an "intersystemic conflicts law," derived not just from collisions between the distinct nation-states of private international law, but from what he described as "conflicts between autonomous social subsystems." Since then, the web of intersystemic lawmaking Teubner described has only grown more complex. The collision of these multiple legal and quasi-legal normative systems requires, as Teubner suggested, a broader approach to conflict of laws, one that includes scholars from other disciplines as well as legal scholars focusing on areas beyond conflicts. Moreover, we need to think of conflict of laws not just as a series of legal puzzles, such as whether jurisdiction is appropriate under x circumstances, or how a particular choice-of-law problem should be resolved, or under what conditions a court should recognize the normative judgment of another community. Conflicts is potentially a broader topic than that, engaging interdisciplinary scholars concerned with citizenship, community affiliation, and the social construction of place, and interacting with legal scholars studying so-called "public" international law, trade law, and non-state law-making and norm-creation.For the past several years, I have been exploring what it might mean to adopt this sort of broad conflicts perspective. In this brief essay, I seek to summarize my thoughts so far and point the way towards future scholarship.


Endometriosis is a debilitating disorder, defined as the presence of endometrial gland and stroma outside of the uterus. It may affect angiogenesis and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the angiogenic factors that plays an important role in both physiological and pathological angiogenesis. The present study aimed to evaluate the association of VEGF -2549 insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism with endometriosis. This case-control study enrolled 244 (100 cases and 144 controls) women who were admitted for laparoscopy or laparotomy for gynecological procedures. Genomic DNA was separated from peripheral blood leukocytes and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification was performed for genotyping of the VEGF gene Insertion/Deletion (I/D) polymorphism. The frequency of the II, ID, and DD genotype was 14%, 52% and 34% in patients versus 18.8%, 47.8% and 34% in controls. The results did not provide any evidence supporting the endometriosis risk related to the VEGF polymorphism in a group of Iranian women population.


Content creators and owners of OpenSim-based virtual worlds alike struggle with issues surrounding licensing and usage of content in these immersive spaces. The Fashion Research Institute (FRI) is specifically addressing these issues and more as part of the process of licensing its Shengri La regions to enterprise. This use case is the basis of ongoing legal research by FRI's sister organization, Fashion Research Foundation, which has created a legal steering committee formed of attorneys volunteering from the American Bar Association's Virtual Worlds and Online Gaming committee. A practitioner's view of our strategic perspective is presented in the context of licensing of content in OpenSim-based virtual worlds.


This study set out to examine empirically workers' perception of performance appraisal in selected public and private organisations operating in Lagos metropolis. The study adopted the survey research design. A total of 205 research subjects were drawn from the target population using the simple random sampling technique. However 174 copies of questionnaire were returned upon which the data analysis was based. This represents 85percent response rate. Data analysis was carried out with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 16. The findings of this study showed that workers have an optimistic view of performance appraisal as a means for promoting, evaluating and equitably compensating employees, and forming the basis for many employee training programmes as well as its motivational effect on workers' performance. The authors recommend that for appraisal to yield the desired outcomes, adequate attention should be paid to the avoidance of appraisal politics and the pursuance of fairness and transparency in the process. More so, training programmes could be initiated by organisations to offer tips for avoiding appraisal errors. Open-reporting system as opposed to closed-reporting system should be encouraged for performance appraisal to have a motivational effect on workers' performance. Keywords: Workers' Perception, Performance Appraisal, Public, Private, Performance Management, Organisations .


— Inertial measurement units (IMUs) have potential to be integrated into clinical assessments of movement-related disorders of the spine. This study evaluated 2 Mbientlab MetaMotionR IMUs relative to Vicon motion capture equipment in tracking 3D spine motion during 35 cycles of constrained repetitive spine flexion-extension (FE) in 10 participants. Root-mean-square error (RMSE) was low in all anatomical planes (RMSE ≤ 2.43°). Pearson's correlation coefficient was strong in the FE and lateral bend (LB) planes (R ≥ 0.746), and weak-to-moderate in the axial twist (AT) plane (0.343 ≤ R ≤ 0.679). Additionally, there was very strong correlation between range of motion measurements in the FE plane (ICC 2,1 = 0.99), and a wide range from weak to strong in the LB and AT planes (0.239 ≤ ICC 2,1 ≤ 0.980). This study reveals that the IMUs perform well in tracking motion in the primary movement plane, and can be used for planar assessments of movement quality.


Collaborative duo Qulios and the Windmill (Michele Whiting and Linda Khatir) formed their partnership in 2011 (www.quilosandthewindmill.com. Researching prior to a Fall residency at Oxbow, Michigan USA (aff SAIC) they found a particular vintage folk quilt made by early pioneer women in The American Museum in Bath. This has become the stimulus for an ongoing drawing project. Initially they made the drawing quilt using the same measurements, sketching 121 things ( the same number as the panels on the original quilt) that they encountered in the site of the residency, reflecting on the methods that the earlier settler women employed through observation and translating this into drawings made through stitch, but this time they used drawing and monoprints. When the residency ended, they took the drawing quilt back to England and it was exhibited in the American Museum in Bath as part of a group show 'Migrations' (2015).

Since then they have begun to work with groups of other people to produce new drawing quilts in the hope that they will amass a selection of quilts from different cultures and places. These two new quilts have been made with groups of local people in Sala Sweden and in Trowbridge England. The quilts have been shown as part of Konst I Pask Easter Arts Festival, Sala, Sweden (2016) and also Trowbridge Arts Centre (2016).


A significant influencing factor which determines the strength, lifetime and reliability of a component after machining is the residual stress state in the boundary zone. A reliable adjustment of this condition during machining is currently not possible. It is desired to control the milling process using a model-based approach in order to generate defined geometries and residual stresses in titanium components simultaneously. This paper focuses on the influence of the process parameters on the residual stress state during the finishing operation of Ti-6Al-4V. The residual stress state was measured by X-ray diffraction. During the process, the cutting forces and heat flow were measured. For mapping possible interactions and statistical influences, a statistically validated test plan was applied. The influence of the process parameters cutting speed, feed rate and axial depth of cut on the residual stress condition are shown. In order to take scattering material properties into account, the initial residual stress state and the material structure were determined by measurements prior to the machining process. In addition, the tool wear condition and the microgeometry of the tool are taken into account as an observable disturbance variable. These factors are analyzed with regard to the influence on the residual stress state.


Germany presents a different case than France. Germany has had no bold strategic military project defining its existence as a postwar state. The new Federal Republic of Germany has sought to find itself within a new Europe and in close alliance with the United States. The struggle for reunification has been its strategic objective. With the end of the Cold War and the process of reunification, a new Germany at the heart of a new Europe is emerging. What kind of strategic concept makes sense for the new Germany? What kind of European policy? What kind of policy toward the United States is required for German leadership within the new Europe? And what role does military power play for the new Germany within the new Europe and the new Alliance? A revolution in military affairs can take root in Germany only in the context of a strategic project for Germany and Europe. It also requires rethinking the military instrument within German and allied policy. The Context of Change Upheaval characterizes the new Europe. This upheaval brings with it the need to create a new order (such as existed after the Vienna Congress). Interests must be balanced. Security, in the sense of the absence of violence, remains a central issue. At the same time, transnational trends in economics and technology must be recognized. A unifying imperative has arisen in Europe that drives states to transfer sovereignty and core competencies to Europeanwide organizations. Integration in the West is very advanced, with NATO and the EU providing the cornerstone, yet a core of national sovereignty will remain. The idea of a "United States of Europe," once vociferously propagated by Chancellor Kohl, no longer finds his support. He maintains that he underestimated the loyalties held by the peoples of Europe for their respective nation-states. A "Europe of the Fatherlands," integrated where possible and appropriate, is the best way to describe the currently predominant perspective. The decisive measure of integration's continued success will be whether the Euro functions or not. If monetary union works, European integration, including a European Security and Defense Identity (ESDI), however construed, will receive a significant boost. If not, European integration will experience a major setback. Germany was prepared to transfer national sovereignty rights to a supranational institution, to a Political union, to a greater degree than practically any other member of the EU, but Germany's partners, particularly France and Great Britain, were not ready for this. Consequently, Germany was compelled to take a new approach, seeking pragmatic advances in the direction of further cooperation, coordination, and harmonization, with the long-term hope of arriving at the desired level of integration. Maintaining close ties with the United States has a key role in this approach. (1) It is important to underline that for Germany, strengthening a European armaments and technology basis and a European defense identity does not have the goal of excluding the United States. Rather, it is directed at creating the conditions for an enduring--and perhaps more balanced--partnership with the United States. Germany's thinking is that the United States will remain interested in Europe over the long run only if Europe presents itself as an attractive partner. Germany insists that the cooperation or merger of companies occurs only among private, nonstate-owned operations. British companies, aside from a few exceptions, are better prospects than French state-owned ones. Perceptions of Risks and Challenges Developments in Russia need to be closely watched, as do developments in the Baltic Republics and tile Baltic Sea, the maintenance of an independent Ukraine and the implications of a Russia without the historical Rus or Kiev, and the situation in the Caucasus. Can a revisionist policy be excluded over the long run? …


Abstract This article aims to examine the effects of new technology on the purchase of regional brands in Czechia and draw conclusions that will help to adapt the brands to customer needs. Regional brands are a speciality of Central Europe, which emerged due to consumer dissatisfaction with low-quality of global retail products. These traditional local handmade products are heavily influenced by new technology and customers requiring them to be purchasable online with a massive online presence. The sample consisted of 1050 residents of the Czech Republic. The data were gathered by a professional marketing agency Ipsos using a questionnaire survey. The sample was tested using the one-way Chi-square test, which had good compliance to test the basic sample characteristics, followed with the one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to test the data distribution, and then, the dependencies were tested with the Kruskal-Wallis test. Finally, a post-hoc test suitable for the type of analysis could be chosen to better understand the type of factors that could influence the results and their possible effect. The main findings indicate a slow change in the demand as customers are neutral in relation to regional brands available from online shops as well as their about social media presence but require them to have a good-quality website. Solutions are proposed using a government-run brand with a platform providing web layouts and hybrid e-shop. The type of content is proposed, indicating the appropriate execution, which should be done based on the researched-derived segmentation criteria.


Sexual exploitation of civilians by peacekeepers undermines the fragile stability established in post-conflict settings. Despite this, it continues to be an ongoing problem for peacekeeping missions worldwide. Efforts to respond to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) have focused on the establishment of rules prohibiting this behavior, condom distribution, and the training of peacekeepers before and during deployment. In an effort to further our understanding of the dynamics that surround SEA by peacekeepers, 231 Haitian citizens who have engaged in transactional sex with peacekeepers were interviewed about their opinions and experiences. Themes which emerged from these interviews included the triggering events or situations which facilitated engagement in transactional sex, the individual's understandings of their own experiences in relationship to cultural and social factors, sex as a strategy for filling unmet economic needs, and the differences between the relationships with peacekeepers and normal romantic relationships. Experiences with condom use, pregnancy, abuse, and barriers to reporting assault and harassment were also discussed.


Communication takes place between two or more people, and is deemed an interpersonal relationship (DeVito, 2014). Therefore one person's actions will influence another's. When this process takes place within one culture, it can be considered difficult, however when communication is used in a multicultural setting, it can be considered nearly impossible (Lanier, 2010). The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Hussein, 2012) indicates that speakers of different languages have different cognitive and perceptive abilities, thus suggesting that each language has its own worldview. Indeed, Quine (1960) conceded, and argued that language can affect culture. However, "…it is just as important to learn the non-verbal communication of a culture as it is to learn the language." (Perkins, 2008: 169).
Evidence shows that people are moving between cultures for various reasons such as work or studies (Office for National Statistics, 2013), thus individuals will take their cultural communication styles with them. As culture varies across regions, verbal and non-verbal communication differs (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010). A homogenous sample of four participants were interviewed using in-depth semi-structured interviews where participants were encouraged to explore their experiences of communication in a cross-cultural work setting. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith & Osborn, 2011) was used to analyse the participants' accounts of their experiences.
The results of this study found that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis has an active role in communication, as though one may be fluent in English, there are deficiencies in understanding social protocols, language etiquette and social customs. Non-verbal communication is also key, as relationships, dress code, body language, and time are all factors. Consequently, implications are evident for multi-cultural organisations, specifically towards management, who need to ensure there is a constant and consistent level of communication to enhance their employees' effectiveness and efficiency.


Spaser is an acronym for surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. A spaser is effectively a nanoscale laser with subwavelength dimensions and a low-Q plasmonic resonator, which sustains its oscillations using stimulated emission of surface plasmons. The concept of stimulated emission to sustain plasmonic oscillations in a resonator was first described by David Bergman and Mark Stockman in 2003. Using a unified notation, we provide an up-to-date literature review of the major developments and latest advances in spaser theory and carry out a systematic exposition of some of the key results useful to understand the operation of spasers. Our presentation covers both semiclassical and quantum-mechanical formulations of spaser models as well as various designs and technologies demonstrated/suggested to illustrate key aspects of this technology. Even though many advances have already been made in spaser technology, there are many hurdles that need to be overcome to bring this technology up to the level of modern laser technology. We take especially great care to highlight the main challenges facing various spaser designs and the limitations of widely used methods and materials. This review is written for both specialists in the field and a general engineering–physics–chemistry readership.


Many health improving interventions in low-income countries are extremely good value for money. So why has it often proven difficult to obtain political backing for highly cost-effective interventions such as vaccinations, treatments against diarrhoeal disease in children, and preventive policies such as improved access to clean water, or policies curtailing tobacco consumption? We use economic models of public choice, supported by examples, to explain how powerful interests groups, politicians or bureaucrats who pursue their own objectives, or voting and institutional arrangements in countries have shaped health priority setting. We show that it may be perfectly rational for policy makers to accommodate these constraints in their decisions, even if it implies departing from welfare maximizing solutions.


This article addresses the utilitarian theory of life's meaning according to which a person's existence is significant just in so far as she makes those in the world better off. One aim is to explore the extent to which the utilitarian theory has counter-intuitive implications about which lives count as meaningful. A second aim is to develop a new, broadly Kantian theory of what makes a life meaningful, a theory that retains much of what makes the utilitarian view attractive, while avoiding the most important objections facing it and providing a principled explanation of their force. I have been very much puzzled as to the meaning of the question 'What is the meaning or purpose of life?' … But at last it occurred to me that perhaps the vague words of this question are often used to mean no more than 'What is the use of a man's life?' … A man's life is of some use, if and only if the intrinsic value of the Universe as a whole (including past, present, and future) is greater, owing to the existence of his actions and experiences, than it would have been if, other things being equal, those actions and experiences had never existed. G. E. Moore


Summary.  Recent work by Reiss and Ogden provides a theoretical basis for sometimes preferring restricted maximum likelihood (REML) to generalized cross‐validation (GCV) for smoothing parameter selection in semiparametric regression. However, existing REML or marginal likelihood (ML) based methods for semiparametric generalized linear models (GLMs) use iterative REML or ML estimation of the smoothing parameters of working linear approximations to the GLM. Such indirect schemes need not converge and fail to do so in a non‐negligible proportion of practical analyses. By contrast, very reliable prediction error criteria smoothing parameter selection methods are available, based on direct optimization of GCV, or related criteria, for the GLM itself. Since such methods directly optimize properly defined functions of the smoothing parameters, they have much more reliable convergence properties. The paper develops the first such method for REML or ML estimation of smoothing parameters. A Laplace approximation is used to obtain an approximate REML or ML for any GLM, which is suitable for efficient direct optimization. This REML or ML criterion requires that Newton–Raphson iteration, rather than Fisher scoring, be used for GLM fitting, and a computationally stable approach to this is proposed. The REML or ML criterion itself is optimized by a Newton method, with the derivatives required obtained by a mixture of implicit differentiation and direct methods. The method will cope with numerical rank deficiency in the fitted model and in fact provides a slight improvement in numerical robustness on the earlier method of Wood for prediction error criteria based smoothness selection. Simulation results suggest that the new REML and ML methods offer some improvement in mean‐square error performance relative to GCV or Akaike's information criterion in most cases, without the small number of severe undersmoothing failures to which Akaike's information criterion and GCV are prone. This is achieved at the same computational cost as GCV or Akaike's information criterion. The new approach also eliminates the convergence failures of previous REML‐ or ML‐based approaches for penalized GLMs and usually has lower computational cost than these alternatives. Example applications are presented in adaptive smoothing, scalar on function regression and generalized additive model selection.


: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most important causes of death from an infectious disease, and it poses formidable challenges to global health at the public health, scientific, and political level. Miliary TB is a potentially fatal form of TB that results from massive lymphohematogenous dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli. The epidemiology of miliary TB has been altered by the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and widespread use of immunosuppressive drugs. Diagnosis of miliary TB is a challenge that can perplex even the most experienced clinicians. There are nonspecific clinical symptoms, and the chest radiographs do not always reveal classical miliary changes. Atypical presentations like cryptic miliary TB and acute respiratory distress syndrome often lead to delayed diagnosis. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is relatively more sensitive and shows randomly distributed miliary nodules. In extrapulmonary locations, ultrasonography, CT, and magnetic resonance imaging are useful in discerning the extent of organ involvement by lesions of miliary TB. Recently, positron-emission tomographic CT has been investigated as a promising tool for evaluation of suspected TB. Fundus examination for choroid tubercles, histopathological examination of tissue biopsy specimens, and rapid culture methods for isolation of M. tuberculosis in sputum, body fluids, and other body tissues aid in confirming the diagnosis. Several novel diagnostic tests have recently become available for detecting active TB disease, screening for latent M. tuberculosis infection, and identifying drug-resistant strains of M . tuberculosis . However, progress toward a robust point-of-care test has been limited, and novel biomarker discovery remains challenging. A high index of clinical suspicion and early diagnosis and timely institution of antituberculosis treatment can be lifesaving. Response to first-line antituberculosis drugs is good, but drug-induced hepatotoxicity and drug–drug interactions in HIV/TB coinfected patients create significant problems during treatment. Data available from randomized controlled trials are insufficient to define the optimum regimen and duration of treatment in patients with drug-sensitive as well as drug-resistant miliary TB, including those with HIV/AIDS, and the role of adjunctive corticosteroid treatment has not been properly studied. Research is going on worldwide in an attempt to provide a more effective vaccine than bacille Calmette–Guérin. This review highlights the epidemiology and clinical manifestation of miliary TB, challenges, recent advances, needs, and opportunities related to TB diagnostics and treatment.


Open educational resources (OER) and, more recently, open educational practices (OEP) have been widely promoted as a means of increasing openness in education, with implied social benefits. Thus far, such openness has been restricted by OER provision typically being supplier-driven and contained within the domains of higher education (HE), often comprising universities' release of a limited range of existing, sometimes dated, digital content. Furthermore, this content can be hard to find, with a low awareness of the existence of OER outside HE.

Seeking to explore ways in which OEP might achieve greater impact beyond universities we conceptualised a new 'public-facing open scholar' role involving academics working with online communities outside HE to source OER to meet their specific needs. To explore the potential and viability of this role we focused on the voluntary sector, which we felt might particularly benefit from such collaboration. We examined 50 representative communities for evidence of their being self-educating (thereby offering the potential for academics to contribute) and for any existing learning dimension. We shortlisted four communities for detailed evaluation; each of these was found to be self-educating and each included learning infrastructure elements, for example provision for web chats with 'experts', together with evidence of receptiveness to academic collaboration. Our findings indicated that there was considerable scope for the role of public-facing open scholar. We therefore developed detailed guidelines for performing the role and are currently piloting the concept with a further online voluntary sector community. To date, our pilot findings indicate that the role of public-facing open scholar is viable and well-received. However, the pilot process, conducted in a community where all participants are necessarily anonymous, has also highlighted the need to be aware of the impact of privacy constraints when choosing a community with which to work.

The implications of our findings are wide-ranging. Voluntary sector online communities offer one platform for the public-facing open scholar to realise the transformative potential of open education, raising awareness and increasing the use and re-use of OER by people outside HE. However, the scope for the role is not limited to the voluntary sector. Furthermore, whilst we have concentrated on the role of the individual academic, institutional dimensions are also relevant. For example, the public-facing open scholar role has the potential to help UK universities to satisfy their Public Benefit Reporting requirements under the Charities Act 2006 by supporting 'specialists in higher education [in] listening to, developing their understanding of, and interacting with non-specialists' from the public' (HEFCE, 2007). Universities which formally recognise such activities as a component of academic output may, in turn, be seen as performing a new institutional role of a 'benevolent academy' which takes seriously its responsibilities to civic society.


Background: Increased oxidative stress causes inflammation and increases angiogenesis. It presumed to promote the proliferation of endometriosis tissue. Kebar grass (Biophytum petersianum) and other herbs such as green tea and Cucumis melo, which contain high antioxidants, are expected to decrease oxidative stress, inflammation, angiogenesis, and reduced endometriosis implants.Objective: To investigate the effects of Kebar grass, green tea, and Cucumis melo to malondialdehyde serum, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and vascular endothelial growth factor expression, and the area of the endometriotic implants.Methods: Twenty-eight mice were divided into four groups, i.e., the first group of endometriosis mice was given Kebar grass extract; the second group was assigned green tea extract, the third group was given the combination of Cucumis melo extract–gliadin, and the last containing the untreated endometriosis mice as the control. Each treatment was given for 14 days. The data of MDA serum level, the area of the endometriotic implants, TNF-α, and VEGF expression were collected and analyzed.Results: The MDA serum levels of the groups treated with Kebar grass extract, green tea extract, and Cucumis melo extract – gliadin were significantly lower (p=0.001) than the control group. TNF-α expression of the groups provided with each treatment also lower than the control groups (p=0.002). However, only the administration of the Cucumis melo extract–gliadin resulted in lower VEGF expression compare with the control (p=0.017). Finally, the area of the endometriotic implants of the mice models administered with each treatment was smaller than the control group (p=0.003).Conclusion: Kebar grass as well as green tea and Cucumis melo–gliadin inhibits endometriotic implants extension by decreasing MDA serum and TNF-α expression.


This article gives an overview of transgender issues in South Africa, with a particular focus on the work of the Transgender Unit, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. The article presents current definitions, diagnostic considerations and healthcare options in the area of gender dysphoria, and then outlines the history, mandate and role of the Transgender Unit. It concludes with some of the current challenges in the field of transgender healthcare and makes recommendations for the way forward.


When designing and employing lubricants, film thickness modeling techniques must be used as part of an overall design approach to insure mating components, in relative motion, have proper lubricating films to separate surface asperities. Improper asperity separation will lead to increased friction and wear, and overall reduction in system reliability, serviceability and efficiency. Many of the tools used today to model tribofilms are rooted in empirical studies completed with hydrocarbon-based fluids as the lubricating medium. Generally, these modeling techniques have also been applied to non-hydrocarbon based lubricants, but this may not be an accurate method to model such fluids. As demands for improved lubricant performance continue to rise, so too does the need for improved tribofilms modeling techniques. This paper will discuss a modeling technique developed in which silicone-based polymer molecular structures are designed with tribological film performance in mind. The models consider molecular structures of various traditional and newly-developed silicone fluids, and relate that structure to rheological performance. Expected rheological performance is then used to model tribological film formation and characteristics. The output of these tribological film formation and characteristic models can then be fed back to the molecular structure module and iterated to achieve optimal molecular structure for the intended tribological performance. In addition, a graphical user interface has also been developed to aid in the data input to the modeling software.


One-dimensional generalized thermoelastic mathematical model with variable thermal conductivity for heat conduction problem is constructed for a layered thin plate. The basic equations are transformed by Laplace transform and solved by a direct method. The solution was applied to a plate of sandwich structure, which is thermally shocked, and traction free in the outer sides. The inverses of Laplace transforms are obtained numerically. The temperature, the stress and the displacement distributions are represented graphically.


The Minnesota Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration and the Local Roads Research Board of Minnesota is constructing the Minnesota Road Research Project (MN/ROAD). This facility is being built on Interstate 94 (I-94) in the east-central part of the state. The MN/ROAD will have high-and low-volume traffic test sections. The low-volume sections will be constructed on a parallel access road, and will be trafficked artificially. Section designs call for the use of portland cement concrete, asphalt concrete, and aggregate surfaces. Different construction techniques will be tried and material problems will be intentionally built into some of the test sections. Special classifications for aggregate surface, base, and subbase materials will be used in the pavement sections. The natural subgrade in this area is primarily a frost susceptible loam. This combined with shallow water table depths and severe winter temperatures make this an ideal location for frost heave studies. A second type of subgrade will be imported for use in some of the low-volume sections. This soil will be a high-quality granular material.


We report on a resonant acoustic radiation force optical coherence elastography (ARF-OCE) technique that uses mechanical resonant frequency to characterize and identify tissues of different types. The linear dependency of the resonant frequency on the square root of Young's modulus was validated on silicone phantoms. Both the frequency response spectrum and the 3D imaging results from the agar phantoms with hard inclusions confirmed the feasibility of deploying the resonant frequency as a mechanical contrast for tissue imaging. Furthermore, the results of resonant ARF-OCE imaging of a post-mortem human coronary artery with atherosclerosis demonstrate the potential of the resonant ARF-OCE as a non-invasive method for imaging and characterizing vulnerable plaques.


With hordes of the undead shambling across a blighted media landscape, zombie apocalypses are a dime a dozen these days, but when a major literary novelist turns his attention to the form, it's an indication that this cultural meme has reached either maturity or senescence. Whitehead, author of five previous novels including The Intuitionist (1999) and Sag Harbor (2009), is one of the finest prose craftsmen currently practicing, and something about the topic here brings out the full measure of his extraordinary lyricism. Gorgeous sentences are devoted to gruesome scenes of flesh eating and brain splattering—as well as to brooding meditations on cultural inertia and social collapse. Whitehead is obviously a fan of the zombie genre; in an interview with The Atlantic, he acknowledged that, as a teenager, he was "demonically attached... to the first George Romero trilogy," and Zone One features a series of studied homages to those movies: the famous line of dialogue from Night of the Living Dead (1968) about the zombies being "all messed up" is quoted twice, while that film's scenario of a clutch of survivors besieged in a rural farmhouse is briefly reenacted. Yet it is clear that his true touchstone is Romero's second zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead (1978), where the farmhouse is converted into a suburban shopping center and the apocalypse into an allegory of mindless consumerism. As one of that film's characters comments when asked why the creatures are thronging to the mall, "this was an important place in their lives," a judgment Whitehead echoes in his caustic depiction of New York as a "dead city continu[ing] its business in mirthless parody." His satirical target is broader than Romero's, however, amounting to nothing less than an indictment of corporate capitalism and the political regime that coddles it. On the one hand, even before the plague that has converted most of the global population into the walking dead ("skels" in the novel's jargon), there was something zombified about human culture, especially in its Westernized mass-media incarnation. Several references are made to a popular pre-plague sitcom, probably a version of Friends (1993–2004) that was influential in luring young outsiders to the metropolis, "powerless before the seduction of the impossible apartment that the gang inexplicably afforded on their shit-job salaries, unable to resist the scalpel-carved and well-abraded faces." As the protagonist—nicknamed Mark Spitz thanks to a daring aquatic escape—grimly observes, their "underdeveloped cultural immune systems" left them susceptible to being "infected by reruns." This infection lingers in the form of a subset of zombies called "stragglers" who remain trapped in inertial cycles of routine, usually centering on work or leisure activities, and who seem untroubled by the cannibal hunger that drives the skels: "They didn't know you were there. They kept watching their movies." Before the cataclysm, Mark Spitz had been centrally involved in the consumer industries himself, haunting social media sites on behalf of a "coffee multinational" in order "to sow product mindshare and nurture feelings of brand intimacy." Small wonder he continues to have nightmares of the pre-plague world as one in which "all the supporting characters were dead...the panoply of citizens in the throes of their slow decay." On the other hand, the survivor culture that is patiently attempting to re-establish itself—by mounting paramilitary expeditions to eradicate the skels, such as the eponymous Zone One in lower Manhattan—seems impelled by a desire simply to reinstate neoliberal capitalism. The provisional government, based in Buffalo, has been jumpstarting the stalled economy by awarding defense contracts, subsidizing new growth industries (e.g., portable kerosene canisters), selling official sponsorships, and designing plucky logos in a vigorous PR campaign to rebuild the public trust. "The new era of reconstruction was forward-looking, prudent, attentive to the small details that will dividend in the years to come." It was, Mark Spitz reflects, "almost as if the culture was picking up where it left off" in a vast project of temporal gentrification:


We consider the interaction between a single rubidium atom and a photonic crystal nanocavity. Because of the ultrasmall mode volume of the nanocavity, an extremely strong coupling regime can be achieved in which the atom can shift the cavity resonance by many cavity linewidths. We show that this shift can be exploited to trap a single atom above the cavity. The atom is trapped by light that is only inside the cavity as a result of the shift of the cavity resonance caused by the proximity of the atom itself. This atom trap requires only a fraction of a photon inside the cavity. Surprisingly, the damping of the cavity plays a pivotal role in this trapping mechanism.