ABSTRACT: Health from a pre- and perinatal (primal period) perspective has been mostly a theoretical construct. However, in the last 20 years, published studies have confirmed the effects of environmental factors occurring pre- and perinatally and the development of a number of diseases. These indicators point to the fact that we should continue exploring links between the date of birth (or the date of conception) and a great variety of human health conditions, such as, diseases, abnormalities, personality traits, as well as states of health. However, the effects of the environment in modern times may be much less apparent. KEY WORDS: Astrology, season of birth, pre- and perinatal, primal period, birth year. INTRODUCTION Our health is, to a great extent, shaped during the 'primal period' (from conception until the first birthday). This was the main conclusion of my book 'Primal Health', published in the mid-1980s (Odent, 2002), based on theoretical considerations rather than on hard data that were not then available. At that time we could only anticipate that environmental factors and other events occurring during the period when our basic adaptive systems (those involved in what we commonly call health) are being established should have life long consequences. With the progress of information technology, especially the use of computers, we could anticipate that the development of the new branch of 'epidemiology" that we call 'primal health research' would support our theoretical basis. This framework includes all studies exploring correlations between what happened during the primal period and what will happen later on in life in terms of health and behaviour. During the past twenty years 'Primal Health Research' developed at such a speed that in the mid 1990s I found it necessary to establish and to constantly update the 'Primal Health Research Data Bank'. A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE A Productive Keyword In 2005, among the hundreds of keywords our database offers, some lead to a great number of studies. 'Seasonality of birth' is one example. It confirms the determinant effects of environmental factors during the primal period. It seems obvious that prenatal and early postnatal environments are related to the season of birth. In many societies the food consumed by pregnant women and lactating mothers is highly influenced by the season. The risks of having certain viral diseases (e.g., the flu) are undoubtedly higher during certain months. The ambient temperatures, and therefore the activities of the thermoregulatory systems, fluctuate according to the rhythm of the seasons. Furthermore, we learned recently about the light-dark sensitivity of the pineal gland. The release of its hormone melatonin occurs mostly at night, and is therefore related to the comparative duration of light. In general, there are seasonal variations in hormonal balances. For example higher levels of testosterone in spring compared to autumn have been reported in females. It is also predictable that the long-term effects of the month of birth are linked to the place of birth. The hemisphere and the latitude should be taken into consideration. A great diversity of entries in the database can be accessed via the keyword 'seasonally of birth'. This is evidence that the time and place of birth have effects on humans. Among the characteristics that have been studied from this perspective, we found lifespan, height, degree of fecundity, learning abilities, handedness, psychological traits and tendencies to particular diseases. Life Expectancy An authoritative German inquiry, by demographic researchers at the Max Planck Institute, was based on population data with more than a million observations (Doblhammer & Vaupel, 2001). In two countries of the Northern hemisphere (Austria and Denmark) people born in autumn (October-December) live longer than those born in spring (April-June). …


A control algorithm for automated operational management of detention storage in a combined sewer system is applied to a version of the proposed San Francisco Master Plan for Wastewater Management. The system is modeled with control objectives and physical system constraints expressed as a large-scale linear programming problem. The algorithm presented transforms the large-scale control problem into a multilevel series of smaller subproblems that are amenable to computer solution in real time. Results of several examples are presented which indicate that optimal or nearly optimal solutions to the large-scale problem can be obtained in real time, and that the resulting system performance is significantly better than that which could be achieved with unregulated detention storage.


Background: Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) is characterized by poor fertility outcomes even by using assisted reproductive techniques (ART). Recent data suggests that co-treatment by letrozole may improve ovarian response to FSH in poor responders and reduce gonadotropin dose required for ovarian stimulation. This study aimed to investigate the effect of letrozole administration combined with gonadotropin in patient with decreased ovarian reserve candidate for IVF.
 Material and Methods: A clinical trial was conducted in the Infertility clinic, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Sixty-nine infertile women with DOR who have poor response to ovarian stimulation by gonadotropin-only regimen were recruited. The patients were treated by letrozole at 7.5 mg/day and FSH at 225 mg/day, started on the 2nd - 3rd day of the menstrual cycle and continued for 5 days. Ovitrell was given (at 250 mg) when at least 2-3 follicle reached 16-18mm (as matured follicle). AMH level, BMI and duration of infertility was recorded. The main outcomes measured as number of retrieved oocytes, number of oocyte II, endometrial thickness and pregnancy rate.
Result: Mean number of retrieved oocytes and oocyte II was 3.95 and 3.09 respectively. Mean endometrial thickening was 5.74 mm and rate of pregnancy was 19.7%. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between number of retrieved oocytes and AMH level (r=+0.27, P-value=0.028). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between number of retrieved oocytes and age (P value=0.04 ؛r= -0.253). Although, there was no significant correlation between number of retrieved oocytes and BMI (P value=0.2).
 Conclusion: This study demonstrated that using letrozole combined with gonadotropin regimen in patient with DOR and poor response to gonadotropin-only protocol, improve response to ovarian stimulation. Number of retrieved oocytes is correlated with younger in age and higher level of AMH.


Background: The benefits of male involvement in pregnancy have recently gained recognition. The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence of Iranian men's attendance during pregnancy and its association with socio-demographic factors in Babol, Iran. This study also aimed to improve the male involvement in maternal health in Iran. Methods: In a cross sectional study, a total number of 600 pregnant women, attending the antenatal clinics in both public and private medical centers from Feb. to Sep. 2015, were selected through a systematic random sampling method. A semi-structured questionnaire comprising 10item, two-choice questions (Yes-No) elicited information about the men's attendance at antenatal clinic, their help with household chores, their attendance at counseling sessions, and their paying for the pregnancy service bills. Results: According to the results, 414 husbands under study (69.0%) accompanied their wives to the antenatal clinic during the pregnancy. Nearly, less than half of the husbands (42.5%) helped their wives with household chores during pregnancy. After adjusting for suspected confounding factors, the OR of Iranian men's attendance at antenatal clinic for men with special job was 2.76 (95% CI, 1.26 6. 05; P = 0.011), and for men with low educational level, it was 0.404 (95% CI, 0.18 0.90; P = 0.026). In addition, the OR of Iranian men's at household chores for men with special job was 2.60 (95% CI, 1.43 4. 74; P = 0.002), and for men with educational level between 7 to 12 years, it was 0.404 (95% CI, 0.18 0.90; P = 0.002). No significant associations were found between Iranian men's attendance in pregnancy with the age of men and women, income, residence status, education of women, job of women, birth order, or pregnancy intention. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that the Iranian men's attendance in pregnancy is low. The Iranian Ministry of Health should strive to provide adequate guidelines for the development of male involvement in pregnancy.


Abstract: Meredith G. Kline supported conservative views of canon by arguing that ancient Near Eastern treaties and Deuteronomy contained canonical clauses, meaning that their texts were authoritative for the vassal community when they were written, as were biblical books performing functions governing that community. Based on discontinuities between the Old and New Testament forms of the covenant community, Kline redefined canon as documents structuring and implementing the polity of the various phases of the vassal community. Thus, the Old Testament counts as Scripture, but not canon, for the church. Critical scholarship perceives Kline's views as conservative dogma rather than historical argument; conservatives approve his demonstration that all Scripture is covenantal, but dislike his distinctions between faith, individual-life, and community-life (polity) norms.


Abstract This article discusses the ambiguity found in the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement concerning price suppression analysis. Previous case law has established that investigating authorities undertaking to highlight price suppression must conduct a counterfactual analysis. This article examines the difficulties that investigating authorities face in performing such an analysis when the investigating period overlaps with a financial crisis or other abnormal economic circumstances. It suggests that the Appellate Body was correct to require consideration of how profit margins and costs are affected by market circumstances, but ought to pay further attention to the behavior of firms in imperfectly competitive markets.


SUMMARY The most important development in the processing of 3-C data in recent years is the realisation that layered, anisotropic effects must be taken into account in the processing of the horizontal components. The 1995 Blackfoot 3-C, 3-D survey was reprocessed to see what impact this previously neglected effect would have on the final image. Present methods for determining the effective Vp/Vs ratio, which controls the behavior of the anisotropic conversion-point binning process, depend on the existence of dipping events for the analysis. A fault that exists in the deep part of the southeast portion of the Blackfoot survey has enough structure associated with it to reliably indicate that the effective Vp/Vs ratio in this part of the image is about 70% of the vertical Vp/Vs ratio. This implies that far-offset traces were mis-stacked by about 200m (6.6 bins) in the original processing of this part of the CCP stack. It is more difficult to pick the effective Vp/Vs ratio in other parts of the stack in an objective manner because of the lack of dipping events.


The differential reflectance of several naturally occurring and man-made materials at CO(2) laser wavelengths is determined. The computer-controlled measurement system has two CO(2) lasers and determines the differential reflectance of each material by measuring the ratio of the reflected signals at two wavelengths simultaneously. These results can be used to improve the accuracy of air pollution measurement systems which derive their return signals from topographic targets.


With the emergence of fault detection and diagnostics tools for air conditioning systems in the market, a fair and reliable evaluator, which tests the tools with a large array of data points from a variety of conditions and types of units, is needed. However, the number of data points necessary for reliable evaluation is too large to be generated through physical experiments. Also, existing forward models are difficult to employ for this application because of the requirement to have knowledge of many difficulttoobtain component parameters and because of very long computation times. To address the issue, a gray box modeling approach is being developed to account for the effects of both operating conditions and faults on performance. This graybox approach uses experimen tal data and inverse modeling to determine the values of parameters for each component of a vapor compression cycle. This has led to a fast and robust componentbased model that is trained with a limited set of experimental data from normal and faulted conditions, and a few readily available geometrical measurements. Existing component modeling approaches have been simplified to reduce the number of parameters and computational costs. During parameter training for each component, optimization of a cost function is carried out to minimize residuals between experiments and simulation. This paper presents the models, training approaches, and validation results for individual components for a 3�ton R410A packaged ai r conditioner. Component models constructed included compressor, condenser, evaporator, fixed orifice expansion device, and refrigerant pipes. A companion paper presents the systemlevel modeling and validation, along with models and results for simulation of faults.


The mysterious stability of nanobubbles on surfaces is a puzzle baffling soft matter and colloid scientists. Bubbles inside a fluid tend to be spherical, but surface bubbles have the appearance of blisters with typical widths of 1000 nanometers (nm) and heights of 20 nm. The existence of surface bubbles was proposed to explain the extremely long range and the magnitude of the strongly attractive forces observed between hydrophobic surfaces in water [1]. Nanobubbles are of interest because they are easily produced and are stable, and as such, their presence may be altering many aqueous interfaces and exerting influence on processes as diverse as froth flotation to the transportation of anticancer drugs across membranes. Classically, bubbles will deflate, leading to an increase in Laplace pressure (the pressure differential inside and outside a bubble) and a positive feedback loop that results in their rapid disappearance. However, surface nanobubbles, seemingly unaware of the rules, can remain stable for days. Now, writing in Physical Review Letters, James Seddon and coauthors [2] at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, have proposed an explanation for this stability, whereby the properties of the gas within a nanobubble generate a recirculation of the surrounding liquid, which effectively ensures that the gas escaping the bubble through diffusion is recaptured and the bubble lifetime is extended.


Large random matrices
appear in different
fields of mathematics and physics
such as combinatorics, probability theory,
statistics, operator
theory, number theory, quantum field theory, string theory etc...
In the last ten years, they attracted
 lots of interests, in particular
due to a serie of mathematical breakthroughs
allowing for instance a better understanding
of local properties of their spectrum,
answering universality questions, connecting these
issues with growth processes etc.
In this survey, we shall discuss
the problem of the large deviations
of the empirical measure of Gaussian
random matrices, and more generally
of the trace of words of independent Gaussian
random matrices. We shall describe how
such issues are
motivated either in physics/combinatorics
by the study of the so-called matrix models
or in free probability by the definition of a non-commutative
entropy. We shall show how classical large deviations
techniques can be used in this
context.

These lecture notes are supposed to
be accessible to non probabilists
and non free-probabilists.


Elevated hemoglobin concentrations have been reported for high-altitude sojourners and Andean high-altitude natives since early in the 20th century. Thus, reports that have appeared since the 1970s describing relatively low hemoglobin concentration among Tibetan high-altitude natives were unexpected. These suggested a hypothesis of population differences in hematological response to high-altitude hypoxia. A case of quantitatively different responses to one environmental stress would offer an opportunity to study the broad evolutionary question of the origin of adaptations. However, many factors may confound population comparisons. The present study was designed to test the null hypothesis of no difference in mean hemoglobin concentration of Tibetan and Aymara native residents at 3,800-4,065 meters by using healthy samples that were screened for iron deficiency, abnormal hemoglobins, and thalassemias, recruited and assessed using the same techniques. The hypothesis was rejected, because Tibetan males had a significantly lower mean hemoglobin concentration of 15.6 gm/dl compared with 19.2 gm/dl for Aymara males, and Tibetan females had a mean hemoglobin concentration of 14.2 gm/dl compared with 17.8 gm/dl for Aymara females. The Tibetan hemoglobin distribution closely resembled that from a comparable, sea-level sample from the United States, whereas the Aymara distribution was shifted toward 3-4 gm/dl higher values. Genetic factors accounted for a very high proportion of the phenotypic variance in hemoglobin concentration in both samples (0.86 in the Tibetan sample and 0.87 in the Aymara sample). The presence of significant genetic variance means that there is the potential for natural selection and genetic adaptation of hemoglo- bin concentration in Tibetan and Aymara high-altitude populations. Am J Phys Anthropol 106:385-400, 1998. r 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Introduction. Recent literature questions the suitability of etomidate as a rapid-sequence intubation (RSI) drug, owing to induced relative adrenal insufficiency (AI) and possible increased mortality.
Aim. This paper examines the evidence for and against etomidate in the shocked emergency patient and whether or not its use should be cautiously considered or abandoned in this patient cohort, given the AI effect. The issue is examined from the perspective of the septic shock patient, the child and the trauma patient.
Method. A literature review focusing on the risk-benefit ratio and whether there are mortality differences in the outcome of patients in whom etomidate is used, that are attributable to the relative adrenal suppression with even a single bolus dose.
Discussion. The evidence of relative AI is clear, but the cause-effect relationship of increased mortality is not as clear. Currently, most evidence is in the context of septic shock, with only retrospective studies in the trauma subgroup, with a small or moderate sample size.
Conclusion. Etomidate should preferably be avoided as an RSI drug in the septic patient, and cautiously considered in the trauma patient, provided that steroid supplementation is provided in the event that vasopressor-resistant shock occurs.


The use of single particles as building blocks for the design and construction of advanced materials is generally recognized as a promising approach. This paper reports a novel double-speed swelling (DSS) technique to fabricate solid–liquid asymmetric monomer-swollen particles (MSPs) with adjustable and removable liquid protrusions on the surface of non-cross-linked poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) colloidal particles, although this procedure is thermodynamically unfavorable. Further, PGMA/polystyrene (PS) patchy microparticles with controllable morphologies are fabricated by a versatile and large-scale seeded emulsion polymerization (SEP) on the basis of these MSPs. The size and number of protrusions can be precisely regulated by the swelling ratio and the amount of polymerizable monomer. These patchy microparticles exhibit excellent light reflection and could be applied as new thermal barrier coatings. Additionally, the self-assembled "particle gel" membranes with superoleophilic properties have been ...


Anarchocapitalism, at least in its Rothbardian version, presupposes the existence of a natural order or law of human affairs. First, there is a brief discussion of the distinction between orders of natural and orders of artificial persons. This is followed by a partial analysis of the notion of law as an order of persons. The analysis is presented as a formal axiomatic theory. Then the notion of a natural person as well as the postulates that we need for a description of natural law as an order of natural persons are introduced within that formal theory of the law of persons. The last two sections discuss various ways in which the theory of natural law can be linked to descriptions of human affairs, and contrast the anarchocapitalists' view of the order of the human world with the alternatives that have come to dominate political and social thought.


The routine application of digital survey technologies such as terrestrial lidar and photogrammetry to the characterization of fault and fractures in outcrop over the past decade has resulted in major advances in terms of the efficiency of discontinuity data acquisition. However, the reliance upon mesh- and point-cloud–based analysis approaches means that data sets obtained from these sources commonly offer heavily abstracted views of the measured fracture network due to the limited resolution of the input model. Here, we present an alternative approach that combines conventional two-dimensional (2D) image analysis with ray-tracing techniques to extract three-dimensional (3D) fracture trace maps from photogrammetrically calibrated image sequences. These 3D trace objects may be interrogated to obtain fracture network properties (trace length, intensity, and connectivity), with probabilistic methods used to estimate fracture orientation for high collinearity traces.

Our approach possesses a number of advantages over existing digital surface reconstruction-based methods, with the use of a 2D pixel-based approach allowing established image-processing routines (e.g., edge detection/connected components analysis) to be applied to the characterization of fracture and fault properties. Moreover, the innately high resolution of the input images results in practically lossless 3D fracture trace representation, limiting truncation effects. As a result, the method is capable of resolving local variability in higher-order fracture properties such as fracture intensity, which are difficult to derive using existing approaches. We demonstrate the approach on pervasively faulted Permian age exposures of the Vale of Eden Basin, UK.


The effects of thyroid hormones on intermediary metabolism have been investigated in hyperthyroid and hypothyroid man and in experimentally induced thyroid disease in the rat. Glucose metabolism was investigated by measurement of blood glucose, fasting and in 3 14 response to meals and by using both H-3-glucose and C-l-glucose as tracers in kinetic studies. Analysis of glycerol clearance from blood following bulk infusions of glycerol permitted evaluation of gluconeogenesis. Circulating NEFA and glycerol levels and glycerol kinetic data permitted assessment of lipolysis. Ketogenesis was investigated in vivo by measurement of circulating ketone body concentrations and by ketone body kinetic studies using both 14 14 C-3-acetoacetate and C-3-hydroxybutyrate. Influences of hyperthyroidism on ketone body production in vitro were examined in isolated rat hepatocytes. Sensitivity of glucose metabolism, lipolysis and ketogenesis in vivo in man were evaluated by the euglycaemic clamp technique. Thyroid hormone excess in man caused fasting hyperglycaemia and a 50% increase in total glucose turnover. Much of this increase could be accounted for by increased cycling between glucose and glucose-derived 3-carbon intermediates with only a modest increase in irreversible glucose disposal. Although fasting blood lactate, pyruvate and alanine concentrations were normal, increased recycling and accelerated glycerol clearance suggested enhanced gluconeogenesis. Carbohydrate intolerance to meals was also evident. In hypothyroidism fasting blood glucose concentrations were normal despite a decrease in glucose production and delayed glycerol clearance. Carbohydrate intolerance to meals was less marked than in thyrotoxic subjects. Lipolysis was increased in hyperthyroid man as evidenced by increased blood glycerol and plasma NEFA concentrations and an increase in endogenous glycerol production. Glycerol production I was decreased in hypothyroidism although plasma NEFA concentrations were normal. Ketone body concentrations were increased in hyperthyroidism and ketone body production was increased 4-fold. Ketone body production estimates were normal in hypothyroidism. Experimental hyperthyroidism in rats increased ketone body production by isolated hepatocytes suggesting an increase in hepatic ketogenic potential. In the rat hyperthyroidism was associated with hypoinsulinaemia. Hyperglycaemia, lipolysis and ketogenesis in hyperthyroid man occurred despite apparantly normal peripheral insulin concentrations suggesting either relative hyposecretion of insulin and/or insensitivity to endogenous insulin. Euglycaemic clamp studies suggested normal sensitivity to exogenous insulin in terms of glucose metabolism but a decrease in sensitivity of lipolysis whilst insulin clearance was similar to controls. Thyroid hormones exert stimulating effects on glucose, fatty acid and ketone body metabolism which are not associated with a compensatory increase in insulin secretion.


The modulation spectrum is a promising method to incorporate dynamic information in pattern classification. It contains important cues about the nonstationary content of a signal and yields complementary improvements when it is combined with conventional features derived from short-term analysis. Many prior modulation spectrum approaches are based on uniform modulation frequency decomposition. The drawbacks of these approaches are high dimensionality and a lack of a connection to human perception of modulation. The paper presents multi-scale modulation frequency decomposition and shows an improvement over the standard modulation spectrum in a digital communication signal classification task. Features derived from this representation provide lower classification error rates than those from a constant-bandwidth modulation spectrum, whether used alone or in combination with short-term features.


Addressing climate change will require the successful development and implementation of new energy technologies. Such technologies can, however, pose novel and uncertain hazards. Furthermore, the process of energy innovation is technically difficult and occurs in the face of powerful forces hostile to new technologies that disrupt existing energy systems. In short, energy innovation is difficult and hazardous but essential. This Article presents case studies of three existing energy technologies to obtain insights in anticipating technological change, managing uncertain hazards, and designing appropriate laws and policies. The Article then applies these insights to a varied sample of emerging energy technologies. Ultimately, laws and policies should distinguish between new energy technologies according to (1) their state of readiness, (2) their potential to complement or disrupt existing energy infrastructures, and (3) the possible hazards associated with their full-scale deployment.


Other contributors to this book commend learning-oriented or formative assessment, which is intended to generate information about the task (feedback) and about ways of improving performance on similar tasks in the future (feedforward). Attention also needs to be paid to the practice of 'warranting' or summative assessment. I use 'warranting' to cover all the high-stakes processes of producing grade point averages, classifications and awards. Awards are often licenses to practice, although that is just one manifestation of warrants of achievement. Even less attention has been given to the relationship between warranting and future learning, which is the topic of this chapter.
In the first half of the chapter I argue that warranting, as currently practised, is deeply flawed and not conducive to future learning. In the second half I recognise that it is a set of widely embedded social practices that will, in some form, survive. I suggest an approach to warranting achievement that is educationally fertile and sustainable. I begin with a view of the distinctive business of higher education.


Mathematical and computer models of epidemics have contributed to our understanding of the spread of infectious disease and the measures needed to contain or mitigate them. To help prepare for future influenza seasonal epidemics or pandemics, we developed a new stochastic model of the spread of influenza across a large population. Individuals in this model have realistic social contact networks, and transmission and infections are based on the current state of knowledge of the natural history of influenza. The model has been calibrated so that outcomes are consistent with the 1957/1958 Asian A(H2N2) and 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) influenza viruses. We present examples of how this model can be used to study the dynamics of influenza epidemics in the United States and simulate how to mitigate or delay them using pharmaceutical interventions and social distancing measures. Computer simulation models play an essential role in informing public policy and evaluating pandemic preparedness plans. We have made the source code of this model publicly available to encourage its use and further development.


The rapid adoption of AI technologies by many organizations has recently raised concerns that AI may eventually replace humans in certain tasks. In fact, when used in collaboration, machines can significantly enhance the complementary strengths of humans. Indeed, because of their immense computing power, machines can perform specific tasks with incredible accuracy. In contrast, human decision-makers (DM) are flexible and adaptive but constrained by their limited cognitive capacity. This paper investigates how machine-based predictions may affect the decision process and outcomes of a human DM. We study the impact of these predictions on decision accuracy, the propensity and nature of decision errors as well as the DM's cognitive efforts. To account for both flexibility and limited cognitive capacity, we model the human decision-making process in a rational inattention framework. In this setup, the machine provides the DM with accurate but sometimes incomplete information at no cognitive cost. We fully characterize the impact of machine input on the human decision process in this framework. We show that machine input always improves the overall accuracy of human decisions, but may nonetheless increase the propensity of certain types of errors (such as false positives). The machine can also induce the human to exert more cognitive efforts, even though its input is highly accurate. Interestingly, this happens when the DM is most cognitively constrained, for instance, because of time pressure or multitasking. Synthesizing these results, we pinpoint the decision environments in which human-machine collaboration is likely to be most beneficial.


Despite their disagreements, proponents of deep engagement and offshore balancing share an optimistic but unrealistic assessment of U.S. military power. In particular, both sides in the debate over U.S. grand strategy underestimate the potential consequences of China's military modernization. China's antiaccess/area denial strategy and conventional precision-strike capabilities are already undermining the United States' ability to prevent local conflicts, protect longtime allies, and preserve freedom of the commons in East Asia. Whether the United States intends to uphold the status quo when threats emerge or adopt a wait-and-see approach to regional conflicts, it will need to adapt its military for power projection operations in much less permissive environments than it has become accustomed to during the unipolar era. These adaptations include developing air and undersea platforms that can survive inside denial zones, forward bases that are better able to withstand attacks, and satellite and cyberspace networks that are less vulnerable to disruption.


Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has been a fixture on Forbes's list of billionaires since 1991, and for the past three years, he has topped the magazine's list of the world's richest men. Although he is exceptionally well-known in his native Mexico, the majority of American college students have never heard of Carlos Slim. This article presents a curricular module built around this charismatic and controversial figure. The module requires students to navigate Internet-supported news media in the target language (Spanish), and engages them in independent, small-group, and larger, teacher-led activities designed to foster critical and comparative skills in cultural competency and analysis through process-based, student-led inquiry. Pedagogically and methodologically, the author engages with the recommendations and conclusions of recent studies by ACTFL and MLA committees, as well as by other leading scholars, regarding both the use of technology in the classroom and the idea of "teaching culture." The unit's content significantly deepens and enriches students' understanding of social, economic, and political issues in modern Mexico. The article carefully situates each stage and aspect of the curricular unit presented in relation to recent studies of constructivism in foreign language acquisition and on the hierarchy of Bloom's taxonomy of learning objectives.


This Article examines the role of religious law in constitutionalism by focusing on Egypt and Tunisia as two main case studies: Egypt is an example of the so-called "Islamic constitutionalism" and Tunisia is an example of a more secular variety. Both cases are analyzed against the backdrop of U.S. constitutional theory and law. I begin by rejecting conceptualist approaches which focus on abstract concepts in order to assess the compatibility of religion, like Islam, with democracy. I show the futility of this kind of debate through a comparison to American debates between "living constitutionalists" and "originalists." I then elaborate a pragmatic account that assesses the consequences of different institutional arrangements. For that purpose Part I rejects the normative and political-realist arguments supporting the constitutionalization of religion, according to which constitutionalization of religion in a largely-liberal constitution is either an ideal compromise or a historical dictate. I focus on four assumptions that underlie these arguments: that popular acceptance requires Islamic constitutionalism; that people's identity includes religious law and should be reflected in Islamic constitutionalism; that Islamic law's indeterminacy belittles the possible risks of its constitutionalization; and that the legal order's transparency requires an acknowledgment of the religious aspect.Part II considers two of the primary arguments supporting the U.S. Establishment Clause: alienation; political division and distraction; and corruption of religion. The first two arguments have been subjected to growing critiques in the United States. I defend these two arguments by connecting between alienation and internal effects within religious minorities, and between political division and instability and violence. Specifically, I argue that, first, the constitutionalization of religion is likely to produce an unequal status for religious groups given the pluralist conditions in Egypt and Tunisia. Second, constitutionalization is likely to polarize and destabilize the political system in these states. Finally, this polarization happens for the wrong reasons and may produce bad effects: the dominance of the debate over the constitutionalization of religion may distract the citizenry in these states from addressing other socio-economic and political questions that are not necessarily reduced to concerns over religious law; constitutionalization is an anti-participatory move because it empowers few jurists to make decisions rather than collective decision-making; delegating controversial religious questions to the judiciary is a form of secular escapism; and a constitutionalization of religion is part of a constitutional fetishism which — along with judicial empowerment — unduly legalizes political questions. The implication of these effects is to neglect political responsibility. Thus, the Article ends with a call for a Weberian consequences-driven ethics of responsibility. This ethical stance, in turn, should be part and parcel of the recognition of value pluralism and the attempt to transform politics into an adversarial "agonistic pluralism."By displacing the conceptualist debate, the Article seeks to avoid the generalizing tendency of conceptual debates; evade the unwarranted optimism of the normative argument; and reject the realist argument's despondency and uncritical acceptance of reality. Additionally, the Article seeks to demystify Islamic constitutionalism by grounding the discussion in American constitutional debates. Finally, the Article argues against Islamic constitutionalism without falling prey to essentialism.


[Extract] Background:

•The research described herein, was supported by the Australian Government as part of its National Environmental Research Program (NERP). The NERP comprised 5 main research hubs, each with a specific focus.

•The research reported on here was undertaken as part of the Tropical Ecosystem (TE) Hub which addresses issues of concern for the management, conservation and sustainable use of the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and its catchments, tropical rainforests including the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA), and the terrestrial and marine assets underpinning resilient communities in the Torres Strait.

•This report focuses on issues relevant to the management and conservation of the WTWHA.

Aim, Objectives and Scope:

•The overarching aim of this project was to improve our understanding of the value which residents and tourists place upon the ES of the WTWHA. To satisfy this aim, three specific objectives were devised, namely to:
1. Improve our understanding of the relative importance or 'value' of the WTWHA's ES to residents and tourists;
2. Make predictions about the way in which resident and tourist 'values', and thus management, conservation and marketing priorities may alter in the future as both population and tourist numbers change; and
3. Improve methods for assessing 'values' by comparing state-of-the art nonmonetary valuation techniques with more 'traditional' valuation techniques.

•This report thus provides an account of the key ES provided by the WTWHA which residents and tourists find important (or 'valuable'). In doing so, it highlights conservation, management and tourism/ marketing priorities. This information will be of immediate use to the tourism industry, to managers and policy makers in the region.


Integration Strategy for Free-form Lithium-Ion Battery: Material, Design to System-level Applications Arwa Kutbee Power supply in any electronic system is a crucial necessity. Especially so in fully compliant personalized advanced healthcare electronic self-powered systems where we envision seamless integration of sensors and actuators with data management components in a single freeform platform to augment the quality of our healthcare, smart living and sustainable future. However, the status-quo energy storage (battery) options require packaging to protect the indwelling toxic materials against harsh physiological environment and vice versa, compromising its mechanical flexibility, conformability and wearability at the highest electrochemical performance. Therefore, clean and safe energy storage solutions for wearable and implantable electronics are needed to replace the commercially used unsafe lithium-ion batteries. This dissertation discusses a highly manufacturable integration strategy for a freeform lithium-ion battery towards a genuine mechanically compliant wearable system. We sequentially start with the optimization process for the preparation of all solid-state material comprising a ''Lithium-free'' lithium-ion microbattery with a focus on thin film texture optimization of the cathode material. State of the art complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology was used for the thin film based battery. Additionally, this thesis reports successful development of a transfer-less scheme for a flexible battery with 5 small footprint and free form factor in a high yield production process. The reliable process for the flexible lithium-ion battery achieves an enhanced energy density by three orders of magnitude compared to the available rigid ones. Interconnection and bonding procedures of the developed batteries are discussed for a reliable back end of line process flexible, stretchable and stackable modules. Special attention is paid to the advanced bonding, handling and packaging strategies of flexible batteries towards system-level applications. Finally, this work shows seamless integration of the developed battery module in an effective strategy to incorporate them into a complex architecture such as orthodontic domain in the human body. The developed optoelectronic system embedded in a 3D printed smart dental braces for enhanced enamel healthcare protection and overall healthcare cost reduction. These findings complement and provide power solution options in which flexibility of electronics is an added beneficial dimensionality to wearable biomedical and implantable devices.


ABSTRACT This paper uses an evolutionary simulation model of technical and locational adjustment to refine concepts of labor‐ and output‐market segmentation within an industry. The simulation model focuses on differences among establishments arising from different strategic orientations. In particular, there are significant differences in establishments' likelihoods of relocation within a heterogeneous landscape. Empirically testable hypotheses are suggested for subsequent analyses of intraindustry evolution and local impacts.


The paper explores the evolution of ethnic identities of two important and distinct immigrant religious groups. Using data from Germany, a large European country with many immigrants, we study the adaptation processes of Muslims and Christians. Individual data on language, culture, societal interactions, history of migration and ethnic self-identification are used to compose linear measures of the process of cultural adaptation. Two-dimensional variants measure integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. Christians adapt more easily to the German society than Muslims. Immigrants with schooling in the home country and with older age at entry as well as female Muslims remain stronger attached to the country of origin. Female Muslims integrate and assimilate less and separate more than Muslim men, while there is no difference between male and female Christians. Christians who were young at entry are best integrated or assimilated, exhibiting lower separation and marginalization in the later years, while for Muslims a similar pattern is observed only for assimilation and separation. Christian immigrants with college or higher education in the home country integrate well, but Muslims do not. For both religious groups, school education in the home country leads to slower assimilation and causes more separation than no education at home. While school education has no impact on integration efforts for Muslim, it affects similar attempts of Christians negatively.


Mode-seeking has been widely used as a powerful data analysis technique for clustering and filtering in a metric feature space. We introduce a versatile and efficient mode-seeking method for "graph" representation where general embedding of relational data is possible beyond metric spaces. Exploiting the global structure of the graph by random walks, our method intrinsically combines mode-seeking with ranking on the graph, and performs robust analysis by seeking high-ranked authoritative data and suppressing low-ranked noise and outliers. This enables mode-seeking to be applied to a large class of challenging real-world problems involving graph representation which frequently arises in computer vision. We demonstrate our method on various synthetic experiments and real applications dealing with noisy and complex data such as scene summarization and object-based image matching.


Almost from the time the guns fell silent in Europe on 8 May 1945, the world in general and the western world in particular has studied the German army of World War II, and its impressive warmaking potential, with a special fascination. Although more than a half century has passed and the developed nations have moved from mass armies to smaller and more lethal forces, the interest in both National Socialist Germany and the World War II German army continues unabated. We still see a steady stream of books on the topic. Some are original studies on various aspects of the war, while others are either reprints or translations of works being made available for the first time in the English language. One recent release which adds to our understanding of Germany in war and will intrigue American audiences is Gottlob H. Bidermann's In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front. The book was originally published privately in 1964 but was available only in German. An excellent translation, with the author providing additional materials, is now provided by Derek Zumbro, giving American readers much greater access to this classic. The importance of Bidermann's memoir to German historians is evidenced by the fact that Dr. Dennis Showalter, a renowned scholar on the subject, consented to write the preface to the English edition. The allure of this book is in Bidermann's descriptions of the magnitude of the conflict that occurred on the Eastern Front, supported by the individual dramas that played out daily. Bidermann is eminently qualified to provide these descriptions. With the war in the east only a week old, Bidermann was one of the three million soldiers who disembarked on a seemingly endless journey eastward. He began as an enlisted man in an anti-tank gun crew with the German 132d Infantry Division as it moved across southern Russia. His unit fought in this area during the sieges of the Crimea and Sevastopol. With the Crimea in German hands--after a bloodbath for both armies-the 132d was shifted north to the Leningrad front. There it remained engaged until the end of the war, when it surrendered in the Kurland pocket. Bidermann and thousands of his comrades became prisoners of war in Russia, a fate as fearsome as death itself. Bidermann was released from captivity in the summer of 1948, terribly ill but still a survivor. What distinguishes Bidermann's book are his soldier's insights on the German army and the Eastern Front. Bidermann started the war as a common soldier, a Landser, and finished it as a gun captain. He was wounded seven times and repeatedly decorated for valor. Though he finished the war as an officer, however, he came home devoted not to the National Socialist regime but to the men with whom he fought. He wrote the book for the survivors of the 132d. Many, like the author, were still trying to come to grips with the war, the savagery of the Eastern Front, and the misery of captivity under the Soviets. Rather than glorifying the war as Germany's eastern crusade, Bidermann looks at the lives and the feelings of the soldiers as they relate to their adversaries and the battles they fought. As he notes for the reader, some say "one may become accustomed to the threat or constant presence of death," but for Bidermann and his comrades, the cries of the dead and dying, both friendly and foe, "are often heard long aft er the guns are silent." Geoffrey Megargee provides another perspective on a different level of war with his new book, Inside Hitler's High Command. While any reader who enjoys military history will find this an engaging book, Megargee gives the serious student of military history valuable insight into the German high command. Megargee holds a doctorate in military history from Ohio State University, and he does not disappoint the reader with his thoughtful analysis. From the outset he is focused on providing the reader a clear picture of the German high command, in the process correcting some myths that have been erroneously repeated. …


Laterized concrete is defined as concrete in which laterite fines replace sand. A previous paper highlighted only the salient points of difference between laterized and normal concrete. The results reported in this paper are mainly on the effect of water content on the compressive strength of laterized concrete. Other properties such as durability, resistance to frost action, and creep need to be investigated to decide whether or not laterized concrete would be usable in all climates. It is the aim of the author that this paper and his earlier paper will generate research interest in other parts of the world where facilities and climatic conditions are more favorable for the investigations of properties which are not easily investigated in the tropics. The mix design showed that laterized concrete mixes require more water than normal concrete for equal proportions and weights of dry normal concrete and of dry laterized concrete mix. The water/cement ratio recommended for structural laterized concrete mixes of 1:1:2 and 1:1-1/2:3 by weight is 0.65. This water/cement ratio would yield compressive strength of about 23.59 MPa (3425 psi) for 1:1:2 and 21.45 MPa (3110 psi) for 1"1-1/2:3 by weight in 28 days. The water/cement ratio recommended for 1:2:4 mix by weight is 0.75. This would yield about 18.50 MPa (2682 psi) is 28 days. Graphs showing the variation of compressive strength with water/cement ratio and independently with age are presented. A schematic map of the world showing laterite deposits is included. It is suggested that the paper may generate interest in reinforced laterized concrete structural elements and that laterized concrete may eventually be used for structural works in those parts of the world where suitable sharp sand is not available, just as lightweight concrete is now being slowly introduced into major construction works. /Author/


Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have huge potential and can add value to the quality of university teaching and learning. However, to fully exploit the potential of these innovative technologies, it is imperative that teaching staff are well informed about how to embed ICT in the curriculum in a way that is underpinned by sound pedagogy. Professional development programmes can enable staff to acquire appropriate skills to effectively facilitate technology-supported learning.The teaching staff from The Robert Gordon University and Edith Cowan University, are facing similar staff development challenges. Both universities provide online and distance education courses to their local and remotely located students. Staff involved in designing and teaching these courses require knowledge about and skills related to the appropriate use of ICT within teaching and learning contexts. Both universities face dual challenges: how to construct staff development programmes which develop their teachers' ICT knowledge and skills; and how to include full time, part time and remotely located staff in such programmes. The authors of this paper are involved in assisting staff within their universities to develop ICT skills and have adopted a collaborative approach to designing a staff development programme in this area. This strategic alliancing between two institutions with similar profiles, staff needs and ICT experiences is proposed as a viable technique for implementing effective staff development in ICT.This paper reports on the initial stage of an ongoing collaborative project which aims to devise strategies to enable staff to use and embed ICT in their teaching.


In English language classrooms across the globe, the goals and methods of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are firm policy priorities. CLT prioritises the language used by native speakers and makes oral language competence a primary goal. This paper reports on a study of English language teaching at three national universities in China where recent policy reforms have taken up CLT and prioritised listening and speaking over reading. This study investigates the attitudes of teachers and students towards the policy and their views on English language teaching. While generally supportive of the goal of improving oral language competence, concerns are raised about the policy in terms of the context in which the learning takes place and the kind of English young professionals need for their future work, concerns that are supported in the literature. The article argues that, in countries like China where English functions as a foreign language, written English needs to remain a priority for English education of future professionals who must participate in a global English context for the exchange of ideas about their work.


Suicide is a serious public health problem that ranks as the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. Within the 15- to 24-year-old age group, it is the third leading cause of death.1 Many suicide victims have had contact with the mental health system before they died, and almost one fifth had been psychiatrically hospitalized in the year before completing suicide. A recent review found that psychiatric illness is a major contributing factor to suicide, and more than 90% of suicide victims have a DSM-IV diagnosis.


This book initiates a fresh discussion of affordability in rural housing set in the context of the rapidly shifting balance between rural and urban populations. It conceptualises affordability in rural housing along a spectrum that is interlaced with cultural and social values integral to rural livelihoods at both personal and community level. Developed around four intersecting themes: explaining houses and housing in rural settings; exploring affordability in the context of aspirations and vulnerability; rural development agendas involving housing and communities; and construction for resilience in rural communities, the book provides an overview of some of the little understood and sometimes counter-intuitive best practices on rural affordability and affordable housing that have emerged in developing economies over the last thirty years. Drawing on practice-based evidence this book presents innovative ideas for harnessing rural potential, and empowering rural communities with added affordability and progressive development in the context of housing and improved living standards.


Introduction: This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge of family physicians regarding hepatitis B infection, transmission ways, risk groups, clinical course, and protection methods.
Methods: This study is held on 236 family physicians at Adiyaman, Mersin, Adana and Kahramanmaras. A questionnaire was held before the awareness raising seminars organized by provincial Health Directorates. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16.0 and descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used.
Results: In general, 54.7% of the doctors enrolled in this study gave correct answers. Twenty three percent of physicians were not aware of HBsAg in diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV), 14.8% did not know anti-HBs as indicating immunity against HBV. Though 94.4% of the family physicians administered routine hepatitis B vaccination, 62.3% of them were not informed about the lowest level of anti-HBs titer (10 IU/ml) providing immunity against HBV.
Conclusion: This study showed that the level of knowledge of family physicians in HBV infections is inadequate and the family physicians should be trained about contagious diseases.


Line coverage for topography. Not attributed for elevation. Designed for use as a base map. The geologic data was mapped during the summer of 1998 at a scale of 1:24,000. The bedrock geology was mapped using standard techniques. Locational information was provided by Rockwell PLGR+96 GPS receivers using the federal precise positioning service. The line and polygon data were compiled on a mylar greenline of the 7.5-minute quadrangle and scanned at 400 dpi on an Anatech Eagle 4080T scanner. The raster files (TIF) were converted to vector files (DXF) using GTX OSR version 2.0 raster-to-vector conversion software. The vector files were imported to Arc/Info version 7.0.4. Point data were collected with GPS and hand held 3COM Palm Pilot III PDA computers. Data from the PDAs were combined in Microsoft Access, and then imported as ASCII text files and (dbf) files into Arc/Info. The Arc/Info coverages were registered and transformed to the New Hampshire State Plane Coordinate system. The topography was obtained from a photographic negative separate of contour lines from the Windham, NH (1953 edition) U.S.G.S. 7.5 minute topographic quadrangle. The negative was scanned on the Anatech scanner at 400 dpi.


We document that managerial biases spread across firms along supply chains. Supporting a causal interpretation, we show that beliefs trickle up the supply chain, not down, and that biases in supplier forecasts are only affected by customer forecasts issued before, not after, the supplier's forecast. We further find that bias propagation increases when suppliers have less confidence in their own views and when the perceived precision and importance of customer forecasts increase. Biases cause changes in the corporate policies of suppliers, suggesting that contagious beliefs in production networks contribute to fluctuations of business and financing cycles.


By making use of the fact that photons are created in pairs in the process of parametric downconversion and by detecting them in coincidence, we propose a scheme for communication by light that should make it possible to achieve high discrimination against background. Weak light beams that are greatly overshadowed by background light should therefore be usable for an optical channel.


We propose Neuro-Symbolic Visual Dialog (NSVD) —the first method to combine deep learning and symbolic program execution for multi-round visually-grounded reasoning. NSVD significantly outperforms existing purely-connectionist methods on two key challenges inherent to visual dialog: long-distance co-reference resolution as well as vanishing question-answering performance. We demonstrate the latter by proposing a more realistic and stricter evaluation scheme in which we use predicted answers for the full dialog history when calculating accuracy. We describe two variants of our model and show that using this new scheme, our best model achieves an accuracy of 99.72% on CLEVR-Dialog—a relative improvement of more than 10% over the state of the art—while only requiring a fraction of training data. Moreover, we demonstrate that our neuro-symbolic models have a higher mean first failure round, are more robust against incomplete dialog histories, and generalise better not only to dialogs that are up to three times longer than those seen during training but also to unseen question types and scenes.


The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide litigants with procedural devices for joining claims and parties. Several of these rules demand that the claims or parties share a baseline of commonality, either in the form of the same "transaction or occurrence" or a "common question of law or fact." Both phrases have proved to be notoriously tricky in application. Commentators from the academy and the judiciary have attributed these difficulties to the context- specific and discretionary nature of the rules. This Article challenges that wisdom by suggesting that the doctrinal confu- sion can be attributed to deeper theoretical divisions in the judiciary, particu- larly with regard to the role of the ontological categories of "fact" and "law." These theoretical divisions have led lower court judges to craft shadow rules of joinder. "Redescription" is the rule by which judges utilize a perceived law–fact distinction to characterize a set of facts as falling inside or outside a definition of commonality. "Implied predominance" is the rule in which judges have taken the Rule 23(b)(3) class action standard that common questions predominate over individual issues and applied it to other rules of joinder that do not have this express requirement. After demonstrating the instability of the shadow rules, this Article suggests that the Rules drafters move away from a commonalities approach to joinder and toward a system in which each joinder directive contains criteria that stress the unique purpose of each joinder device and that account for the different managerial challenges that judges face in granting or denying joinder under each device. Such rules would not remove the delicate context-specific determi- nations from judges but would result in greater transparency and consistency of joinder decisions.


The extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones often has an important impact on the nature and pre-dictability of the midlatitude flow. This review synthesizes the current understanding of the dynamical and physical processes that govern this impact and highlights the relationship of downstream development during ET to high-impact weather, with a focus on downstream regions. It updates a previous review from 2003 and identifies new and emerging challenges and future research needs. First, the mechanisms through which the transitioning cyclone im-pactsthemidlatitudeflowinitsimmediatevicinityarediscussed.This''directimpact''manifestsintheformationofa jetstreakandtheamplificationofaridgedirectlydownstreamofthecyclone.Thisinitialflowmodificationtriggersor amplifiesamidlatitudeRossbywavepacket,whichdispersestheimpactofETintodownstreamregions(downstream impact) and may contribute to the formationof high-impact weather. Details are provided concerning the impact of ET on forecast uncertainty in downstream regions and on the impact of observations on forecast skill. The sources andcharacteristicsofthefollowingkeyfeaturesandprocessesthatmaydeterminethemanifestationoftheimpactof ET on the midlatitude flow are discussed: the upper-tropospheric divergent outflow, mainly associated with latent heat release in the troposphere below, and the phasing between the transitioning cyclone and the midlatitude wave pattern. Improving the representation of diabatic processes during ET in models and a climatological assessment of the ET's impact on downstream high-impact weather are examples for future research directions.


This paper presents two novel end-to-end stereo video compression pipelines consisting of single-sensor digital camera pairs, the legacy consumer-grade video decoders, and anaglyph displays. As 3D videos contain a large amount of data, efficient compression methods to distribute streams over the current communication infrastructure are highly required. In addition, low computation complexity algorithms to reconstruct the 3D scenes using the existing hardware are also preferred. We proposed two methods to transmit a single encoded stream containing only required data to create anaglyph video from single-sensor camera pairs. Our first proposed method packs and encodes only the required demosaicked color channels used in the anaglyph display in YCbCr 4:4:4 format, whereas the second proposed method repacks the color filter array stereo image pairs into the legacy video format YCbCr 4:2:0 mono and leaves the demosaicking operations at the decoder side. The experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed methods over the traditional one by achieving up to 4.66 dB improvement in terms of Composite Peak-to-Signal Noise Ratio (CPSNR).


Armed with speakers, turntables, light systems, and records, Filipino American mobile DJ crews, such as Ultimate Creations, Spintronix, and Images, Inc., rocked dance floors throughout the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. In Legions of Boom noted music and pop culture writer and scholar Oliver Wang chronicles this remarkable scene that eventually became the cradle for turntablism. These crews, which were instrumental in helping to create and unify the Bay Area's Filipino American community, gave young men opportunities to assert their masculinity and gain social status. While crews regularly spun records for school dances, weddings, birthdays, or garage parties, the scene's centerpieces were showcases—or multi-crew performances—which drew crowds of hundreds, or even thousands. By the mid-1990s the scene was in decline, as single DJs became popular, recruitment to crews fell off, and aspiring scratch DJs branched off into their own scene. As the training ground for a generation of DJs, including DJ Q-Bert, Shortkut, and Mix Master Mike, the mobile scene left an indelible mark on its community that eventually grew to have a global impact.


Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in SW Arizona and the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve in NW Sonora protect two magnificent yet geologically distinct parts of the Sonoran Desert. Rocks of the Organ Pipe-Pinacate region have been faulted and eroded into mountains and basins typical of the Basin and Range Province of SW North America. The Biosphere Reserve contains young volcanoes, basalt lava flows, and giant maar craters on the Pinacate Volcanic field. This booklet is your field guide to the geology of these splendid desert landscapes.


Although the Bathurst Mining Camp has been explored for more than 40 years, high-resolution
airborne geophysical survey has led to the detection of several new volcanogenic massive sulphide
occurrences in the region. The discovery of these concealed exploration targets depended directly
on the knowledge of the multi-parameter signature of the major deposits and the search for the
repeatability of these signatures in other regions. The Heath Steele B deposit, within the southern
part of the Bathurst Mining Camp, together with an associated magnetite-rich iron formation and
adjacent tuffaceous sedimentary rocks, produced strong, co-extensive magnetic and conductivity
anomalies. However, the strong anomalies observed in the geophysical data can be related to non-mineralised
lithology such as mafic dykes or graphite. So a direct identification of exploration targets
using geophysical data only can be difficult. For this reason, the joint interpretation of geophysical
and geochemical signature can considerably improve the identification of new deposits.
Using these techniques, we identify three new possible targets, characterised by local magnetic and
apparent conductive highs. Two of these areas are located in the Heath Steele belt, and their geochemistry
has been studied in detail. The proximity of these targets (less than 1.5 km) from known
occurrences of hydrothermal sediments (magnetite, siderite, and stilpnomelane) confirms their
exploration potential. The fourth identified area is most likely associated with a regional anomaly
related to an unmapped ferromagnetic structure and was earlier disregarded as a possible target. The
joint interpretation of geophysical and geochemical data allowed us to identify two new targets for
exploration and to exclude one area interpreted as associated with a regional anomaly. Therefore,
the search parameters (physical proprieties and hydrothermal sediment geochemical pattern distribution)
are established with a success index of 75%. The index was limited by the absence of geochemistry
data over the third target. The procedure presented in this paper can be used to search for
new targets elsewhere in the Bathurst area and even in other base metal regions.


This paper describes an operational protocol for integrating conservation and restoration with land-use planning in islands. Conservation challenges are intensified in insular systems due to higher ecosystem vulnerability, limited spatial options, low data availability, rapid land-use change and, globally, shortterm vision planning. Our operational planning protocol integrates ecological and socio-economic factors to identify the best spatial options for conserving and restoring biodiversity, inside and outside extant reserves, while minimising future land-use conflicts. Conservation and restoration targets are formulated for species, habitats and ecological processes that support biodiversity. An optimal network of priority sites is selected to achieve those targets across the landscape. The prioritisation process integrates a Conservation Costs Index to optimise conservation and restoration investments. We discuss the outcomes of the planning protocol in terms of site prioritisation, stakeholders' participation and general implications for spatial planning in insular systems. As with many islands, the study area of Réunion Island has experienced rapid urban and agricultural expansion, which threatens its unique biodiversity. Forty three per cent of the island is currently protected in a National Park but only half of this reserve network contributes to the achievement of targets. An additional 21% of land should be conserved mainly to ensure the persistence of ecological connections between the marine, terrestrial and freshwater realms. Finally we emphasize that our method doesn't substitute the land-use planning debate but is aimed to better prepare the conservation sector for negotiating future land-use allocation with other socio-economic sectors in islands.


Integration of human semantics plays an increasing role in robotics tasks such as mapping, localization and detection. Increased use of semantics serves multiple purposes, including giving computers the ability to process and present data containing human meaningful concepts, allowing computers to employ human reasoning to accomplish tasks. This dissertation presents three solutions which incorporate semantics onto visual data in order to address these problems. First, on the problem of constructing topological maps from sequence of images. The proposed solution includes a novel image similarity score which uses dynamic programming to match images using both appearance and relative positions of local features simultaneously. An MRF is constructed to model the probability of loop-closures and a locally optimal labeling is found using Loopy-BP. The recovered loop closures are then used to generate a topological map. Results are presented on four urban sequences and one indoor sequence. The second system uses video and annotated maps to solve localization. Data association is achieved through detection of object classes, annotated in prior maps, rather than through detection of visual features. To avoid the caveats of object recognition, a new representation of query images is introduced consisting of a vector of detection scores for each object class. Using soft object detections, hypotheses about pose are refined through particle filtering. Experiments include both small office spaces, and a large open urban rail station with semantically ambiguous places. This approach showcases a representation that is both robust and can exploit the plethora of existing prior maps for GPS-denied environments while avoiding the data association problems encountered when matching point clouds or visual features. Finally, a purely vision-based approach for constructing semantic maps given camera pose and simple object exemplar images. Object response heatmaps are combined with known pose to back-project detection information onto the world. These update the world model, integrating information over time as the camera moves. The approach avoids making hard decisions on object recognition, and aggregates evidence about objects in the world coordinate system. These solutions simultaneously showcase the contribution of semantics in robotics and provide state of the art solutions to these fundamental problems. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Computer and Information Science First Advisor Konstantinos Daniilidis This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1587


The purpose of this study is to examine how brand recall and recognition are affected by non-editorial clutter in mega-event broadcasting. Using longitudinal data collected during four years of Super Bowl broadcasts, this study investigates the effects of three different types of television clutter (other ads, on-air promos and TV billboards) and their composite effects on brand memory. The results show that increases in numbers and lengths of other ads and on-air promos negatively affect brand recall and recognition. However, such effect was not found with TV billboards. Theoretical and marketing implications are discussed.


Cannabis continues to be the most widely used illicit drug, usually
used recreationally without significant problems occurring. Concerns
remain over long term health of users and the possibility of associations
with mental illness. Surveys suggest regular use remains common
amongst teenage males, taking place concurrently with the period
when teenagers are engaged in identity development and making the
transition to adult life. The thesis is based on qualitative interviews
and ethnographic observation of two cohorts of male teenagers and
interviews with a group in their late twenties reflecting on their
teenage use. Methods and analysis draw pragmatically on ethnography
and grounded theory, developing interpretations inductively
before moving to relate the concepts generated to existing theory.
Cannabis was smoked predominantly in the context of an extended
social group. While the majority reported enjoying the effects of
cannabis, smoking with this group was particularly valued for the
social contexts it facilitated and maintained. Within these groups
three orientations to use were observed differentiated by individuals
level of commitment to cannabis, and their understanding of the
functions of use. The teenagers saw cannabis use as a transitory phase
which they expected to cease as adult roles were acquired, though
this was considered a difficult and potentially protracted process.
Adapting to an unchosen extended adolescence involved maintaining
proxy roles, in which nascent aspects of identities could be expressed
and developed. Social roles and relationships acted as a containers for
the display and reflection of aspects of identity. The group provided
a non-contingent context allowing for identity exploration, play and
development. The contingency of closer ongoing familial and social
roles limited opportunities for such exploration. Previous identity
research has stressed close contingent relationships, the analysis
suggests several mechanisms relating cannabis use to the importance
of non-contingent relationships in times of identity transition.


This study presents an educational web application that demonstrates the use of a front-end website architecture in combination with a back-end Microsoft SQL database for game data storage and retrieval located in a cloud environment. The Beltway (TBW) is an educational tool for teaching adolescents and adults, about the process of running for the office of president of the United States. It is also meant to provide users with factual information about some of the historical presidential campaigns that have occurred throughout history. This is a web-based application written in ASP.Net with Web Forms and C# which utilizes a Microsoft SQL database on the back-end. This game will also be adaptable for social website play such as Facebook applications and will include mobile application interfaces. By first choosing a political era, the player will be offered to run as one of the predominant figures of the political world at that time. The player can also elect a campaign manager from a list of famous campaign managers as well as other campaign strategists allowing them to attempt a run for president using a wide array of tools such as; campaign fund raising events, public debates with opposing candidates, and running campaign advertisements as well as smear campaigns against their opponents. Options presented during game play are historically accurate issues, challenges and events that have been fastidiously researched but election outcome is based mostly on player decisions throughout the game which can change the historical outcome of elections with some success and failure based on chance. During game play the outcome of the election is based on a campaign finance total, voter popularity and finally the vote count in each state of the country.


Aims. CO ro-vibrational lines observed from Herbig group II discs are seen to be often broad while the same lines observed from group I discs are often narrow. This difference is not well understood. In this paper we explore the underlying cause for this difference and provide a pathway for a better understanding of the geometry and structure of the inner discs around Herbig Ae/Be stars. Methods. High-spectral-resolution infrared spectra of CO ro-vibrational emission from six Herbig Ae/Be candidate stars were taken with CRIRES (CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph) at the VLT (Very Large Telescope). From these spectra, we produce individual and co-added CO ro-vibrational line profiles. We investigate line profile shape differences, and we explore the FWHM (Full Width Half Maximum) variations with J quantum number in the context of disc geometry. Furthermore, we put our new sources into the context of earlier observed sources to study a large sample. For comparison, we also investigate the FWHM variations with J of modelled CO ro-vibrational lines from two typical disc geometries produced with the thermo-chemical disc modelling code ProDiMo. Results. - abbreviated - Comparing dust and gas inner disc geometries (inferred by SED and CO ro-vibrational emission) for the expanded sample of observed Herbig discs, we find no clear correspondence between the SED groups of the sources and their inner CO radius. Conclusions. The FWHM versus J is a potential new gas diagnostic for the inner disc with e.g. a constant FWHM versus J indicating the presence of a large gas hole or gap. Both models and observations indicate the potential of this new diagnostic. - abbreviated -


Orson Welles' greatest breakthrough into the popular consciousness occurred in 1938, three years before Citizen Kane, when his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast succeeded so spectacularly that terrified listeners believed they were hearing a genuine report of an alien invasion - a landmark in the history of radio's powerful relationship with its audience. In "Radio's America", Bruce Lenthall documents the enormous impact radio had on the lives of Depression-era Americans and charts the formative years of our modern mass culture. Many Americans became alienated from their government and economy in the twentieth century, and Lenthall explains that radio's appeal came from its ability to personalize an increasingly impersonal public arena. His depictions of such figures as proto-Fascist Charles Coughlin and medical quack John Brinkley offer penetrating insight into radio's use as a persuasive tool, and Lenthall's book is unique in its exploration of how ordinary Americans made radio a part of their lives. Television inherited radio's cultural role, and as the voting tallies for "American Idol" attest, broadcasting continues to occupy a powerfully intimate place in American life. "Radio's America" reveals how the connections between power and mass media began.


Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is obtained by exciting the surface plasmon (SP) at the metal and dielectric interface, which can greatly enhance the extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) through a nanoslit milled in the metal film. We present a structure with a 50-nm-wide silver nanoslit for EOT by coupling light into the dielectric interlayer between periodic strips and a metal film. When the period of the metallic strips is equal to the wavelength of the SPR, the transmission efficiency of 187.6 through the nanoslit is enhanced. The metallic strip width over the nanoslit is optimized to improve transmission efficiency, and the maximal efficiency of 204.3 is achieved.


Lean leadership is the missing link between theoretical solutions and application in practice. This is the difference between superficial attempts at implementing Lean, where the tools and techniques are evident, but the behaviors haven't changed, and the results are disappointing or not sustained beyond a few brief weeks of enthusiasm. The key to understanding how to implement Lean successfully is to realize that Lean leadership is an integral part of the Toyota Production System (TPS), not an afterthought. The principles of Lean leadership are summarized in construction, which bring the 'Lean toolbox' to life and realize the benefits predicted by the academic models. The principles are then developed into practical behaviors that can be demonstrated, understood and replicated using rapid learning techniques, with particular focus on team leadership. The critical success factor for accelerating the take up of Lean construction is contractor leadership. The reason why the contractor's role is key in leading the other stakeholders in the value stream is examined, and comparisons are made to leadership in the TPS. Contractors have many opportunities to embark on the Lean journey, yet the claimed benefits often lack credibility. This often leads to the danger that a "Lean" facade is bolted onto their existing operations to attempt to convince their demanding clients that they are forward thinking organizations, and that their apparent skills in Lean will earn them another "tick in the box". This paper outlines the practical benefits of embracing Lean to fundamentally change the construction value stream, the contractor's business, to astonish their clients, and to deliver lasting tangible benefits.


The context for this interdisciplinary work by a philosopher and a clinician is the psychiatric care provided to those with severe mental disorders. Such a setting makes distinctive moral demands on the very character of the practitioner, it is shown, calling for special virtues and greater virtue than many other practice settings. In a practice so attentive to the patient's self identity, the authors promote a heightened awareness of cultural and particularly gender issues. By elucidating the nature of the moral psychology and character of the good psychiatrist, this work provides a sustained application of virtue theory to clinical practice. With its roots in Aristotelian writing, The Virtuous Psychiatrist presents virtue traits as habits, able to be cultivated and enhanced through training. The book describes these traits, and how they can be habituated in clinical training. A turn towards virtue theory within philosophy during the last several decades has resulted in important research on professional ethics. By approaching the ethics of psychiatric professionals in these virtue terms, Radden and Sadler's work provides an original application of this theorizing to practice. Of interest to both theorists and practitioners, the book explores the tension between the model of enduring character implicit in virtue theory and the segmented personae of role-specific moral responses. Clinical examples are provided, based upon dramaturgical vignettes (caseplays) which illustrate both the interactions of the case participants as well as the inner monologue of the clinician protagonist.


During 1988–93, several bottom trawl surveys were conducted in West Greenland covering depths from 38 to 1 497 m. The movement of Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) (Walbaum) from important nursery grounds west and southwest of Disko Island towards greater depths and towards the spawning area further south in the Davis Strait were inferred by statistically significant changes in mean lengths by area and depth. Surveys were conducted at different times of the year during April–December. The spatial distribution of Greenland halibut apparently changes considerably throughout the year based on contour maps of estimated stock density. Migration between areas is likely related to significant changes in stages of maturity during the year. Bottom temperature does not appear to have a significant influence on stock movements and distribution.


6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks) is gaining more and more attraction for the seamless connectivity of embedded devices for the Internet of Things. It can be observed that most of the available solutions are following an open source approach, which significantly leads to a fast development of technologies and of markets. Although the currently available implementations are in a pretty good shape, all of them come with some significant drawbacks. It was therefore decided to start the development of an own implementation, which takes the advantages from the existing solutions, but tries to avoid the drawbacks. This paper discussed the reasoning behind this decision, describes the implementation and its characteristics, as well as the testing results. The given implementation is available as open-source project under [15].


International institutions and the consequences of their interplay are emerging as a major agenda item for research and policy. As governments enter into an ever-increasing number of international agreements, questions arise about the overlap of issues, jurisdiction and membership. Of particular interest to practitioners and analysts is how this malange of institutions at the international level intersects and interrelates to influence and affect the content, operation, performance and effectiveness of a specific institution, as well as the functioning of the overall global governance context. Biosafety, which is an issue that is relevant to numerous institutions, offers an excellent case study for exploring and applying interplay in practical terms.


In Nevada and Utah, sedimentation in the Cordilleran miogeosyncline began before the appearance of Cambrian fossils and continued without orogenic interruption through the Triassic. During the Jurassic, deformation and regional metamorphism occurred in the western part of the miogeosyncline, and the area of sediment accumulation shifted onto the Colorado Plateau. A major source of clastic material appeared along the eastern margin of the Cordilleran miogeosyncline in Early Cretaceous time; this source supplied the sediments that filled the Cretaceous to Paleocene Rocky Mountain geosyncline. Clasts in the Cretaceous conglomerates show an inverted stratigraphy, reflecting successive exposure of older and older rocks in an evolving orogenic belt along the eastern side of the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. This source area was the Sevier orogenic belt, which had a history of deformation through most of the Cretaceous (Sevier orogeny). Decollement thrusts with displacements of tens of miles are the characteristic structures of the belt, but several large folds are also known. The largest thrusts are overlain unconformably by uppermost Cretaceous conglomerates. Thrusting in the Sevier orogenic belt had virtually ceased by the time the Laramide orogeny began east of the Sevier belt in latest Cretaceous time. Laramide mountains were the result of uplift of great blocks of crystalline basement along nearly vertical, reverse, and steep thrust faults. The Uinta arch, which intersects the Sevier orogenic belt almost at a right angle, is the only one of these basement uplifts closely involved with the deformation of the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. North-south-trending regional normal faulting of post-Oligocene age has broken up the orogenic belt so that it is not immediately recognizable on geologic maps. Arch ranges, intrusive domes, and gravity slides are additional complications of the Tertiary geology, but widespread Tertiary deposits, particularly Oligocene ignimbrites, make a paleogeologic reconstruction possible; thus, the Sevier orogenic belt can be viewed as it existed before the normal faulting.


This paper addresses the issues, scientific, ethical and legal, surrounding the
production of cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids). Cybrids normally have the nucleus from
one individual (animal or human) and the cytoplasm containing mitochondria from
another (same or different species). In the press there has been much discussion
on the production of animal-human cybrids for therapeutic stem cell transplantation.
This paper uses work carried out in animals to show that there is little chance that
scientists would use this technique to produce cybrid individuals. Nevertheless,
legislation must be in place to ensure that such technologies are both discussed and
well-regulated. Recent reports suggest that cybrids of animals and humans which
held much promise for the production of stem cells for therapy will not be useful
due to problems of compatibility. However, somatic cell cybrids have found a niche
in the analysis of human mitochondrial disorders and present few problems in this
context. The paper ends with a brief review of the production of "normal" babies to
mothers with mitochondrial defects that are cybrids with nuclear and mitochondrial
DNA from two different human sources.


The objective of this dissertation is to develop and test a predictive model for the passive kinematics of human joints based on the energy minimization principle. To pursue this goal, the tibio-talar joint is chosen as a reference joint, for the reduced number of bones involved and its simplicity, if compared with other sinovial joints such as the knee or the wrist. Starting from the knowledge of the articular surface shapes, the spatial trajectory of passive motion is obtained as the envelop of joint configurations that maximize the surfaces congruence. An increase in joint congruence corresponds to an improved capability of distributing an applied load, allowing the joint to attain a better strength with less material. Thus, joint congruence maximization is a simple geometric way to capture the idea of joint energy minimization. The results obtained are validated against in vitro measured trajectories. Preliminary comparison provide strong support for the predictions of the theoretical model. An New Energetic Approach to the Modeling of Human Joint Kinematics: Application to the Ankle


This paper reviews a range of current MIS research literature to identify research topics in information security and privacy. Results of this study indicate IT security provides the basis of current research in the area of information security and privacy. The results of this study reveal limited research in this area, particularly at the organizational level. One conclusion is that this lack of research results from organizational unwillingness to share information and statistics on security. Another conclusion is that research is needed in the area of information privacy. One area of future research may be organizational privacy policies. Two particular areas of interest may be user perceptions of privacy policies and opt-in/opt-out policies and procedures. Additionally, research related to individuals' concern for information privacy may be less problematic to study than organizational security issues. Research in this area is important because user concern for information privacy has the potential to affect the future of ecommerce.


Introduction The 1993 tax changes are the latest in a series of important revisions to the U.S. tax code. Throughout this process, the debate has included questions about the appropriate level and structure of capital income taxation. Despite considerable research, the effects of capital income taxation are still unclear and sometimes difficult to understand. During the past few years, I have continued my research on the subject, both alone and with several coauthors. Capital Gains Taxation Economists have paid considerable attention to the capital gains tax in recent years, because it falls mainly on taxpayers with higher income, has a strong impact on individual behavior, and is complex in design. My research attempts to measure empirically the effects of capital gains taxation on taxpayer behavior, and to consider the efficiency effects of alternative schemes for taxing capital gains. Over the years, taxpayers appear to have responded strongly to changes in the capital gains tax rate. For example, when a tax rate increase was scheduled to take place in 1987, realizations of capital gains roughly doubled in 1986. A more subtle and controversial question, though, is whether tax-induced increases in realizations arise from shifts in timing, rather than from long-run increases in the rate at which gains are realized. The distinction is important for determining the long-run revenue effects of changing capital gains tax rates. In two empirical studies based on U.S. time-series data,(1) I estimate that a considerable portion of the response can be attributed to anticipated changes in the capital gains tax rate, rather than to the level of the tax rate. These results suggest that a considerable share of any revenue gain generated by a capital gains tax reduction will be short-lived. Most of the distortions and complexities associated with capital gains taxes, such as the "lock-in" effect that discourages realizations, are attributable to the fact that capital gains are taxed on realization, rather than on accrual. Yet, moving to the taxation of gains on accrual has been hindered by two factors. First, the gains themselves often cannot be determined accurately until they have been realized. Second, taxpayers may lack the liquidity to pay taxes on appreciating assets before such assets are actually sold. Building on a much earlier contribution by William S. Vickrey,(2) I show that there is a scheme that taxes assets only when they are sold, but simulates the effects of a system of accrual taxation by effectively charging interest on deferred taxes. This system of "retrospective" taxation works even if the government cannot identify the pattern of actual accrual of gains.(3) Would taxing capital gains on accrual increase economic efficiency? The issue is complicated, because lessening one distortion could worsen another. Capital gains taxes don't simply distort the timing of realizations; they also discourage saving. It is possible, for example, that the lock-in effect induced by taxing realizations forces additional saving, as investors discouraged from balancing their existing portfolios are driven to provide balance through additional saving. Hence, alleviating the lock-in effect also might reduce saving. To consider this and other propositions regarding capital gains tax reform, I developed a numerical simulation model involving both saving and portfolio choice decisions.(4) I found that a move to accrual taxation does reduce national saving, but still increases economic efficiency. The same analysis suggests that a simple reduction in the capital gains tax rate also would reduce national saving, even if capital gains realizations responded strongly to the rate of tax. Taxation and the Cost of Capital Capital income taxes influence the level and composition of investment through the required beforetax rate of return, or the cost of capital. In my research, I attempt both to measure the cost of capital and to consider how different tax provisions influence it. …


mall and medium enterprises (SMEs) play important roles in the economic growth and sustainable development of any economy (Ariyo, 2005). According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) (2010), the formal SME sector contributes 33 per cent to gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for about 45 per cent of total employment in developing countries. Despite their significance and the increased efforts by the government of Kenya and other stakeholders to ensure the success of small scale enterprises, past statistics indicate that they exhibit high birthrates and high death rates with 40% of the startups failing by year two and at least 60% closing their doors by year four (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2007; Fina Bank Report, 2007). As James (2003) argues that smaller firms lack finance, managerial and technical skills which inhibit their effectiveness, this study will therefore seek to analyze the effectiveness of venture capital on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nanyuki town Laikipia County. The study was guided by four specific objectives which are: to find out how effective venture capital is on increase in assets, increase in sales of SMEs, increase in number of employees and establish how venture capital has influenced the increase of start- up/new businesses in Nanyuki town. This study followed the theory of entrepreneurial bustle by Joseph Schumpeter (1983) where he discovered the reality of an evolution from being entrepreneurial to a traditionally managed organization. It adopted a descriptive research design. Stratified sampling method was used to draw samples from the selected active SMEs in Nanyuki town. The data was collected using questionnaires given to the sample owners and employees of the selected SMEs. Data was analyzed using Statistical Predictive Analytical Software (PASW). Descriptive statistic was used, that is mean, and standard deviation. Cross tabulation was also carried out to determine the relationship between variables. The output were presented in tables and figures.