PT. Semen Indonesia (Persero), Tbk is a leading cement producer. So the need to apply a good quality control system on all of its products and service to customers throughout the process. One was in the process of packing cement in Section Finish Mill and Packer Operation. However, nobody can deny there are problems with the quality of the assembled packing cement in Section Finish Mill and Packer Operation. One of them is the rupture of the cement bags when filled. This research was conducted using six sigma method. Data from six sigma analyzed by the controller quality Statistics or Statistical Process Control (SPC). Fishbone diagram based on the obtained information that the machine (conveyor) and the human operator is an aspect l that must be repaired. Improvement recommendations given are to increase alertness operator during the filling process takes place and gives the opponent's pockets and double-check the bag to be used.


The challenges of addressing the needs of aging water and wastewater infrastructure require new management approaches. Benefits including water savings, cost savings, and reduced wastewater production may be realized through the adoption of new integrated water management concepts such as treated wastewater effluent and/or graywater reuse, rainfall harvesting, and other similar techniques. Determining which water management practices are best suited to a particular urban area can be a difficult task as costs, climate, and population characteristics vary across regions. Consequently, WERF researchers have developed a tool.

The Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) tool has been developed by the Urban Water Center at Colorado State University to aid urban planners and utility managers in the assessment of which water management practices may prove most beneficial to their communities. These practices include: indoor conservation, irrigation conservation, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) reuse for irrigation, graywater reuse for toilet flushing and irrigation, and stormwater capture reuse for irrigation. The model is native to the Windows operating environment and includes a graphical user interface through which the user can easily add information about their region and assess the potential benefits of the included water management practices.

IUWM was applied to five cities in different climatological regions of the United States with some simplifying assumptions and results are included in the report. The example applications serve as both an example of how IUWM may be used and demonstrates its capabilities. The results of the study reveal that hydrologic conditions impact the effectiveness of selected water management practices.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series .

ISBN: 9781780400136 (eBook)


Joint attention often happens during social interactions, in which individuals share focus on the same object. This article proposes an egocentric vision-based system (ego-vision system) that aims to discover the objects looked at jointly by a group of persons engaged in interactive activities. The proposed system relies on a collection of wearable eye-tracking cameras that provide an egocentric view of the interaction scenes as well as points-of-gaze measurement of each participant. Technically in our system, we develop a hierarchical conditional random field (CRF) based graphical model that can temporally localize joint attention periods and spatially segment objects of joint attention. By solving these two coupled tasks together in an iterative optimization procedure, we show that human joint attention can be reliably discovered from videos even with cluttered background and noisy gaze measurement. A new dataset of joint attention is collected and annotated for evaluating the two tasks of joint attention where two to four persons are involved. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on both tasks of spatial segmentation and temporal localization of joint attention.


3 Abstract: Today's automotive industry are demanding for flexible and capable of producing multiple vehicles in multiple variations on a single line. Such automation also requires guaranteed output with safety critical consideration. With the increase in flexible manufacturing comes more parts, more variation and programs, and more interfaces to robots and other devices. To maintain continual operations without reprogramming all of the equipment or reconfiguring entire control architecture to ensure output and productivity remain high. This paper discusses about the implementing offline failure detecting method of any Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and the test result.


Library software implementing a parallel small-bulge multishift QR algorithm with Aggressive Early Deflation (AED) targeting distributed memory high-performance computing systems is presented. Starting from recent developments of the parallel multishift QR algorithm [Granat et al., SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 32(4), 2010], we describe a number of algorithmic and implementation improvements. These include communication avoiding algorithms via data redistribution and a refined strategy for balancing between multishift QR sweeps and AED. Guidelines concerning several important tunable algorithmic parameters are provided. As a result of these improvements, a computational bottleneck within AED has been removed in the parallel multishift QR algorithm. A performance model is established to explain the scalability behavior of the new parallel multishift QR algorithm. Numerous computational experiments confirm that our new implementation significantly outperforms previous parallel implementations of the QR algorithm.


In this paper we study diffusion and convection filtration problem of one substance through the pores of a porous material which may absorb and immobilize some of the diffusing substances. As an example we consider round cylinder with filtration process in the axial direction. The cylinder is filled with sorbent i.e. absorbent material that passed through dirty water or liquid solutions. We can derive the system of two partial differential equations (PDEs), one expressing the rate of change of concentration of water in the pores of the sorbent and the other - the rate of change of concentration in the sorbent or kinetical equation for absorption. The approximation of corresponding initial boundary value problem of the system of PDEs is based on the conservative averaging method (CAM). This procedure allows reducing the 2-D axisymmetrical mass transfer problem decribed by a system of PDEs to initial value problem for a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of the first order. We consider also model 1-D problem for investigation the depending the concentration of water and sorbent on the time.


This descriptive study makes a longitudinal analysis of the ownership structure of Spanish companies in innovative economic sectors. Our purpose is to contribute to the inconclusive research that analyses the impact of ownership structure on innovation by describing who the main blockholders of innovative companies in Spain are, determining the influence of domestic versus foreign capital, and exploring whether there are any significant differences when different time periods and different innovative sectors are compared. We collected data from 86 Spanish companies in innovative sectors between 2003 and 2014 (inclusive) which supplied a total of 898 observations. The results confirm that Spanish capital plays a bigger role than foreign capital in the ownership structure of Spanish innovative sectors, and that concentrated ownership by the board of directors, especially by affiliated directors, is also important. There are significant differences in the ownership structure of Spanish innovative sectors. However, its evolution over time is quite stable, with the exception of the proportion of executive ownership.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework of external accounting communication in the form of a typology based on perspectives, traditions, and theories from the discipline of communication studies. The focus is accounting communication with external audiences via public written documents outside the audited financial statements, i.e., annual reports, press releases, CSR reports, websites, conference calls, etc. Design/methodology/approach - The theoretical framework is based on two broad research perspectives on accounting communication: (A) a functionalist-behavioural transmission perspective and (B) a symbolic-interpretive narrative perspective. Eight traditions of communication research are introduced which provide alternative ways of conceptualising accounting communication, namely (1) mathematical tradition, (2) socio-psychological tradition, (3) cybernetic/systems-oriented tradition, (4) semiotic tradition, (5) rhetorical tradition, (6) phenomenological tradition, (7) socio-cultural tradition, and (8) critical tradition. Exemplars of each tradition from prior accounting research, to the extent they have been adopted, are discussed. Finally, a typology is developed, which serves as a heuristic device for viewing similarities and differences between research traditions. Findings - Prior accounting studies predominantly focus on the role of discretionary disclosures in accounting communication in the functioning of the relationship between organisations and their audiences. Research is predominantly located in the mathematical, the socio-psychological, and the cybernetic/systems-oriented tradition. Accounting communication is primarily viewed as the transmission of messages about financial, environmental, and social information to external audiences. Prior research is mainly concerned with the communicator (e.g. CEO personality) and the message (e.g. intentions and effects of accounting communication). Research from alternative traditions is encouraged, which explores how organisations and their audiences engage in a dialogue and interactively create, sustain, and manage meaning concerning accounting and accountability issues. Originality/value - The paper identifies, organises, and synthesises research perspectives, traditions, and associated theories from the communication studies literature in the form of a typology. The paper concludes with an extensive agenda for future research on accounting communication.


Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) films of p-aminophenyl trimethoxysilane (APhTS) and 3-mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane (MPTS) were used to immobilize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on silicon substrates and silicon-based microdevices, which created robust nanoparticle coatings that reduced microstructure adhesion. The terminal groups of APhTS and MPTS have both been previously shown to strongly interact and/or bind with metals and metallic nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis indicated that APhTS and MPTS monolayers improved the adhesion of gold nanoparticles deposited on silicon substrates and microstructures. SEM analysis also showed that the gold nanoparticle/organic monolayer (AuNP/APhTS or AuNP/MPTS) films were more robust than non-immobilized AuNP coatings toward both cantilever beam mechanical contact and water erosion testing. The combination of the rough, lower-energy surfaces of AuNP/APhTS and AuNP/MPTS films also effectively reduced the adhesion exhibited between microstructured surfaces by nearly two orders of magnitude as measured by the apparent work of adhesion. Smooth native oxide-coated Si(100) in-plane surfaces typically have an adhesion energy in excess of 30 mJ/m2 while AuNP/APhTS and AuNP/MPTS coatings reduced the adhesion energy to 0.655 and 1.66 mJ/m2, respectively.


Ongoing research within the field of computer vision yielded a wide range of image based 3D reconstruction
approaches. Starting years ago with low resolution RGB images as input, we face today a wide and fast growing
range of available imaging devices to perform this task.
To allow for a good comparability of resulting reconstructions, many different benchmarks and datasets have been
made available. At the same time, we observe, that these benchmarks commonly address only a single capturing
approach omitting the chance to compare against results of other acquisition methods.
In contrast to such homogeneous benchmarks, we present in this work a heterogeneous benchmark, considering
different acquisition devices to obtain our datasets. Besides these datasets, we furthermore provide reference data
for download.
To lastly keep track of the rapidly increasing number of different acquisition sensors, we opt to provide occasional
updates of this benchmark within the future.


Test Suite by Katalin Tarnay and Abdalla Areik With the increasing number of different communication networks and protocols, it comes more and more important to check whether a protocol implementation is conform to the formal specification. A new method for analysing abstract test suites, a fundamental step of conformance testing has been developed at the Communication Protocol Laboratory of SZTAKI. A communication protocol can be considered as an (N)-Protocol entitiy having upper and lower interfaces. The Protocol Data Units (PDU) and the Abstract Service Primitives (ASP) cross these interfaces. The basic blocks of conformance testing can be seen in the Figure. The Implementation Under Test (IUT) is tested in a layered architecture. N stands for the layer number, the test methods are abstract. An abstract test method describes how an IUT is to be tested, given at an appropriate level of abstraction to make the description independent of any particular realization, but with enough detail to enable tests to be specified for this method. The fundamental notion of conformance testing is the abstract test suite. Traditional methods to derive an abstract test suite are based on extended finite state machines or labelled transition graphs. Our new idea is based on AI tools, namely on rule-based systems. The advantage of using this method is to get better information with higher confidence and to have wider possibility to modify the test actions. The abstract test suite is composed of abstract test cases. An abstract test case is a complete and independent specification of an action required to achieve a specific test purpose. According to our method, test steps and test cases are converted to a rule-based system. Rule-based system representation provides the possibility of integrating expert systems into the conformance tester. The most popular mode of knowledge representation within expert systems is the mode obtained by the use of rules or rule-based systems. Such rules are called IF-THEN. For understanding and maintaining, validation and ease of documentation, some kind of rule organization should be followed. Each group should be ordered, the rule-group ordering is determined according to the conclusion attributes, but it is often advocated to limit the rule to a single conclusion attribute. The application of a rule-based abstract test suite will be demonstrated on a simple protocol called Inres Protocol. This is a connection oriented protocol that operates between two entities, the Initiator and the Responder. The protocol entities communicate by exchanging the Protocol Data Units (CC, CR, DT, AK and DR.) The communication between two protocol entities takes place in three distinct phases: connection establishment, disconnection, and data transfer phase. In each phase only certain Protocol Data Units and Abstract Service Primitives have meaning. In our research we try to use a rule-based system for conformance test cases. In other words, we attempt to generate from the test cases written in TTCN notation (Tree and Tabular Combined Notation) rules. Since the description of the test cases is in TTCN and we want to convert these cases to rule-based systems, we can use other specification languages (eg SDL) as well. Confidence factors and uncertainity can be related to the rules. This method is expected to be applied in protocol engineering. It is especially interesting for abstract test suite developers. These applications provide a feedback to further research.


Latin Squares and Their Applications Second edition offers a long-awaited update and reissue of this seminal account of the subject. The revision retains foundational, original material from the frequently-cited 1974 volume but is completely updated throughout. As with the earlier version, the author hopes to take the reader 'from the beginnings of the subject to the frontiers of research'. By omitting a few topics which are no longer of current interest, the book expands upon active and emerging areas. Also, the present state of knowledge regarding the 73 then-unsolved problems given at the end of the first edition is discussed and commented upon. In addition, a number of new unsolved problems are proposed. Using an engaging narrative style, this book provides thorough coverage of most parts of the subject, one of the oldest of all discrete mathematical structures and still one of the most relevant. However, in consequence of the huge expansion of the subject in the past 40 years, some topics have had to be omitted in order to keep the book of a reasonable length. Latin squares, or sets of mutually orthogonal latin squares (MOLS), encode the incidence structure of finite geometries; they prescribe the order in which to apply the different treatments in designing an experiment in order to permit effective statistical analysis of the results; they produce optimal density error-correcting codes; they encapsulate the structure of finite groups and of more general algebraic objects known as quasigroups. As regards more recreational aspects of the subject, latin squares provide the most effective and efficient designs for many kinds of games tournaments and they are the templates for Sudoku puzzles. Also, they provide a number of ways of constructing magic squares, both simple magic squares and also ones with additional properties. * Retains the organization and updated foundational material from the original edition* Explores current and emerging research topics* Includes the original 73 'Unsolved Problems' with the current state of knowledge regarding them, as well as new Unsolved Problems for further study


Some affirm, but others deny, that works of fine art, or at any rate certain sorts of them, should be true (T) or probable (P). This is the question which I investigate in the present essay. It has been debated by philosophers from Plato on, and much can still be learnt from earlier writers, particularly Aristotle. But I have found some recent discussions especially helpful; namely, what Strawson and Hart say about and in connexion with presupposition; Hospers' and Harris' remarks about truth-to and plausibility respectively; and Beardsley's treatment of these matters in his admirable survey of the problems of aesthetics.


The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) has chosen a new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which is
significantly faster and (it is believed) more secure than the old
Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm. This document is a
specification for the addition of this algorithm to the Kerberos
cryptosystem suite. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Carbohydrates can provide up to 80% of the dry matter in animal diets, yet their specific evaluation for research and diet formulation is only now becoming a focus in the animal sciences. Partitioning of dietary carbohydrates for nutritional purposes should reflect differences in digestion and fermentation characteristics and effects on animal performance. Key challenges to designating nutritionally important carbohydrate fractions include classifying the carbohydrates in terms of nutritional characteristics, and selecting analytical methods that describe the desired fraction. The relative lack of information on digestion characteristics of various carbohydrates and their interactions with other fractions in diets means that fractions will not soon be perfectly established. Developing a system of carbohydrate analysis that could be used across animal species could enhance the utility of analyses and amount of data we can obtain on dietary effects of carbohydrates. Based on quantities present in diets and apparent effects on animal performance, some nutritionally important classes of carbohydrates that may be valuable to measure include sugars, starch, fructans, insoluble fiber, and soluble fiber. Essential to selection of methods for these fractions is agreement on precisely what carbohydrates should be included in each. Each of these fractions has analyses that could potentially be used to measure them, but most of the available methods have weaknesses that must be evaluated to see if they are fatal and the assay is unusable, or if the assay still may be made workable. Factors we must consider as we seek to analyze carbohydrates to describe diets: Does the assay accurately measure the desired fraction? Is the assay for research, regulatory, or field use (affects considerations of acceptable costs and throughput)? What are acceptable accuracy and variability of measures? Is the assay robust (enhances accuracy of values)? For some carbohydrates, we may have to accept that there are currently no acceptable, widely applicable analyses that meet these criteria, and seek to fill this analytical gap. Overall, there are good possibilities for accomplishing the nutritional partitioning of carbohydrates. But to ensure that this is done well, as a discipline, we need to continue our discussions on the basis for partitioning, on what fractions are actually significant, and rigorously evaluate proposed analyses to verify that they are analytically sound.


This paper presents a novel real-time energy management strategy (EMS) for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which combines the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and the model predictive control (MPC). A two-objective EMS with two state variables is defined by integrating the battery aging and fuel economy in the objective function. First, the dynamic programming (DP) approach is applied offline to obtain the globally optimal solutions. Then, a real-time predictive EMS is proposed, in which DP carries out a moving-horizon optimization. Contrary to the charge-sustaining HEVs, the optimal trajectory of the battery state-of-charge (SOC) in PHEVs does not fluctuate around a constant level. Thus, determining the desired value of SOC for the real-time moving-horizon optimization is a challenging issue. Unlike the EMSs with a pre-determined reference for SOC, a trained ANFIS model constructs the real-time sub-optimal SOC trajectory in advance. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is shown through simulation. The proposed EMS is examined over multiple real-time driving cycles, and the results indicate that the total cost is increased compared to those unaware of battery aging. The real-time EMS is then compared to different approaches. While suboptimal, the proposed EMS is real-time implementable, and the results are found to be close enough to those of optimal controller, compared to the two other tested approaches.


The dynamics of biofilm formation in non-chlorinated groundwater-based drinking water was studied in a model distribution system. The formation of biofilm was closely monitored for a period of 522 days by total bacterial counts (AODC), heterotrophic plate counts (R2A media), and ATP content determinations. The biofilm grew at a rate of 0.030±0.002 day −1 reaching quasi-stationary state at 2.6×10 6 cells/cm 2 after approximately 200 days. The low substrate level in the bulk phase (AOC at approximately 6 µg ac-C/l) most likely caused the relatively slow biofilm formation rate observed. During the maturation of the biofilm, the bacterial community changed properties in terms of cell-specific ATP content and culturability of the bacteria.


'Beyond Contemporary Art' explores an international group of artists whose diverse creative practices over the last decade have been instrumental in the development of the contemporary art world. The vibrant contemporary art scene is one of constant expansion and innovation, where artists are continually reinventing themselves and dissolving boundaries in artistic disciplines. Etan Jonathan Ilfeld provides an illuminating introduction which discusses the development of international art fairs, the growth of graffiti and street art as well as the technological advancements which have enabled the creation of iPhone art apps, virtual reality, synthetic biology and computer art. This visually stunning and accessible book emphasizes the increased hybridization of the art world, which spans disciplines ranging from science, design and architecture to new media, film-making and performance art. Beyond Contemporary Art surveys the work of well-known artists, such as Damien Hirst and Gerhard Richter, as well as new and emerging ones such as Katie Paterson, whose projects attempt to visualize invisible forces such as dead stars and melting glaciers. This book reflects the playfully subversive nature of contemporary art and would appeal to any reader interested in the international contemporary art scene.


This thesis outlines a participatory action research (PAR) PhD project aimed at embedding information literacy development into a four-year Bachelor of Environmental Planning (BEP) at a New Zealand university. The research suggests enhancing information literacy is an effective strategy to support students' development of essential academic competencies over the full undergraduate programme. The research took an 'informed learning' (Bruce, 2008a) approach (using information to learn), shifting the focus of information literacy development from the library into the academic classroom. PAR allowed a dual focus on both action (to support staff to change pedagogy) and research (to understand the process of change). The key purpose of this research was to support BEP instructors to identify ways they could embed IL development into their curriculum and assessment to support students' learning during the transition into and through tertiary study. This involved reconceptualising students' apparent lack of effective research and writing skills as a developmental concern. Prior to this research, existing information literacy support in the Bachelor of Environmental Planning had an information search and retrieval focus. Furthermore, product-focused assessment did not explicitly engage students in key aspects of the research and writing process. Therefore, this research took a learner-focused, process-oriented view of learning, and developed a thread of reflective learning throughout the programme. To support quality source selection and use, library workshops were refocused and new formative assessments were created requiring students to justify source selection and reflect on learning. While the interventions proved successful in supporting learning, the research revealed that more in-depth conversation with academics, librarians and students on how information impacts on learning is needed to encourage students to make considered information choices and become informed learners.


Abstract Parametric regression models are often not flexible enough to capture the true relationships as they tend to rely on arbitrary identification assumptions. Using the UK Labor Force Survey, the authors estimate the causal effect of national minimum wage (NMW) increases on the probability of job entry and job exit by means of a non-parametric Bayesian modelling approach known as Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART). The application of this methodology has the important advantage that it does not require ad-hoc assumptions about model fitting, number of covariates and how they interact. They find that the NMW exerts a positive and significant impact on both the probability of job entry and job exit. Although the magnitude of the effect on job entry is higher, the overall effect of NMW is ambiguous as there are many more employed workers. The causal effect of NMW is higher for young workers and in periods of high unemployment and they have a stronger impact on job entry decisions. No significant interactions were found with gender and qualifications.


Recent structural analyses of the widely used FIRO-B interpersonal personality measure identify a two dimensional model (Control and Social-Affect) rather than Schutz's three dimensions of Control, Openness and Inclusion. The present study re-examined the FIRO model across the 54 individual items as reported by 89 adults. The results support a modified FIRO model of interpersonal personality in which Inclusion and Openness are part of the same substantive domain (Social Engagement), distinct from Control, but reflect different Generative and Accepted Modes of interaction. Importantly, however the analysis (SSA-I) reveals a subset of Schutz's original Openness items that capture a third substantive component of the interpersonal domain, Social Withdrawal. This negative interpersonal tendency has not been identified previously within the FIRO or other interpersonal personality models.


With modern computer graphics, we can generate enormous amounts of 3D scene data. It is now possible to capture high-quality 3D representations of large real-world environments. Large shape and scene databases, such as the Trimble 3D Warehouse, are publicly accessible and constantly growing. Unfortunately, while a great amount of 3D content exists, most of it is detached from the semantics and functionality of the objects it represents. In this paper, we present a method to establish a correlation between the geometry and the functionality of 3D environments. Using RGB-D sensors, we capture dense 3D reconstructions of real-world scenes, and observe and track people as they interact with the environment. With these observations, we train a classifier which can transfer interaction knowledge to unobserved 3D scenes. We predict a likelihood of a given action taking place over all locations in a 3D environment and refer to this representation as an action map over the scene. We demonstrate prediction of action maps in both 3D scans and virtual scenes. We evaluate our predictions against ground truth annotations by people, and present an approach for characterizing 3D scenes by functional similarity using action maps.


Culture and national character of modern nations are predominantly derived from the religious formation of that society. Determining the significance of religion for the societies turns out to be more complex and less definite. Transitions of worldwide religion, politics, trade and customs persuaded Muslims to integrate a cascade of changes in regional political power relations, formation of state, legal institutions, norms, rituals and even religious ideas. The realms of religion and politics are tightly intertwined with each-other in a number of ways. Though one is rather related to the private sphere of life and the other is to that of the public sphere, but both have a great impact on each other. New religious movement and political progress, in some part of the world, have become two sides of the same coin. Nonetheless, the role of religion remains an essential perspective to explain the social conditions of the people of heterogeneous advanced societies. This research offers a general interpretation of a constantly evolving complex of theological, cultural, social and religious traditions in Muslim societies.


DNA methylation (DNAm) plays an important role in epigenetic regulation of gene expression, orchestrating tissue differentiation and development during all stages of mammalian life. This epigenetic control is especially important in the human brain, with extremely dynamic gene expression during fetal and infant life, and becomes progressively more stable at later periods of development. We characterized the epigenetic state of the developing and aging human frontal cortex in post-mortem tissue from 351 individuals across the lifespan using the Illumina 450k DNA methylation microarray. The largest changes in the methylome occur at birth at varying spatial resolutions – we identify 359,087 differentially methylated loci, which form 23,732 significant differentially methylated regions (DMRs). There were also 298 regions of long-range changes in DNAm, termed "blocks", associated with birth that strongly overlap previously published colon cancer "blocks". We then identify 55,439 DMRs associated with development and aging, of which 61.9% significantly associate with nearby gene expression levels. Lastly, we find enrichment of genomic loci of risk for schizophrenia and several other common diseases among these developmental DMRs. These data, integrated with existing genetic and transcriptomic data, create a rich genomic resource across brain development.


Due to the fast development of the Cloud Computing technologies, the rapid increase of cloud services are became very remarkable. The fact of integration of these services with many of the modern enterprises cannot be ignored. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SalesForce.com and the other leading IT companies are entered the field of developing these services. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of current cloud services, which are divided into eleven categories. Also the most famous providers for these services are listed. Finally, the Deployment Models of Cloud Computing are mentioned and briefly discussed.


This study focuses on mineralogical and geochemical compositions of feed coal (FC) and combustion residues, namely fly ash (FA) and bottom ash (BA) samples, obtained from the Kangal coal-fired power plant in central Turkey. The X-ray powder diffraction data indicate that carbonate and clay minerals are dominant phases in the FC samples. In the FA samples, quartz, hematite, anhydrite, lime, and feldspar are generally dominant and abundant phases, whereas calcite, ettringite, and portlandite are generally more abundant in the BA samples. The elements Mo, Cs, and U are significantly enriched in the studied FC, FA, and BA samples. The statistical analysis and SEM-EDX data show that Ca, Ti, and the vast majority of trace elements are inorganically affiliated, and only Tl and U have prob-able organic affinity in the FC. In addition, the redox conditions in the paleomires presumably resulting in Mo and U enrichment in FC, whereas their enrichment in FA and BA is most likely related to retention by CaO and Ca-sulfate. The Cs enrichment in FA is due to retention by glass. The elements in the FA and BA are distinguished into four groups according to their volatility during combustion. The elements As, Mo, Cd, Tl, and U (Group I) are the most volatile elements during combustion and condensation in the FA. The elements Li, Zn, Ga, Rb, Nb, Cs, Ba, La, and Pb (Group IV) did not become more volatile or less volatile during combustion and are located in BA. Nevertheless, Zn and Pb in the BA seem to be related to the presence of unaffected pyrite and sphalerite, and are due to low combustion efficiency of the boiler during the sampling period. Overall, enriched elements and minerals in FA and BA suggest that their disposal should be undertaken with caution.


Despite the now commonplace concern surrounding concussions, the widely-recognized long-term cognitive damage caused by on-field head injuries, the preventative steps that youth and professional sports leagues have taken to mitigate these effects, and the plain words of caution spoken by professional athletes themselves, the NCAA has been lethargic, at best, in reacting to the alarm that athletes, doctors, and lawmakers have been sounding about the danger of head injuries from playing contact sports. Congress, state legislatures, sports leagues, and NCAA-member conferences have rallied to the cause, applying themselves to the task of establishing concussion management protocols and funding studies to evaluate how concussions are caused and what can be done to prevent them.Yet, the NCAA has failed to apply its resources with similar energy, or take independent action to protect its student-athletes from being plagued by cognitive decline in their post-collegiate professional lives. This Article explains the science of a concussion, and presents the reasons why it is imperative that concussions be prevented. This Article evaluates the efforts of other sports leagues – from the NFL to youth leagues to the Ivy League – to implement concussion management plans and devote funds to studying the cognitive effects of multiple head injuries. This Article argues that the NCAA, which purports to prepare student-athletes for success off the field, has enjoyed great autonomy since its inception – shielded from government regulation and from student-athlete demands. This Article argues that the NCAA's independence has allowed it to fail its student-athletes by not providing proper education, guidelines, and prevention techniques. Furthermore, this Article suggests that the NCAA create an education plan to prepare student-athletes for timely returns-to-play, and urges the NCAA to direct its funds towards research and collaborative opportunities with existing concussion research efforts. Ultimately, this Article concludes that the NCAA has failed to provide proper regulation in this area of collegiate athletics, and urges the federal courts to mandate change.


6.003 covers the fundamentals of signal and system analysis, focusing on representations of discrete-time and continuous-time signals (singularity functions, complex exponentials and geometrics, Fourier representations, Laplace and Z transforms, sampling) and representations of linear, time-invariant systems (difference and differential equations, block diagrams, system functions, poles and zeros, convolution, impulse and step responses, frequency responses). Applications are drawn broadly from engineering and physics, including feedback and control, communications, and signal processing.


The professional's quick-reference handbook for writing business and technical reports Professionals in business, government, and technical fields often need help in organizing and writing reports for associates, clients, and managers. This simple tutorial handbook offers expert tips and useful ideas for organizing ideas, structuring reports, and adding spice to technical papers. Writing Reports to Get Results offers in-depth guidance for writing: short, informal reports, such as job progress reports and inspection reports semiformal reports, such as laboratory and medium-length investigation and evaluation reports formal reports, such as analytical and feasibility studies and major investigations technical and business proposals of varying complexity The authors use a simple pyramid method to help writers organize their information into the most convenient and simplest structure for any type of document from single-page proposals to full-length presentations. Rounding out this easy, instructional handbook are helpful tips on a number of other topics, such as: constructing reference lists and bibliographies; the use of numbers, abbreviations, and metric symbols; preparing illustrations for insertion into a report; and working collaboratively as a member of a writing team.


The settlement system of Thessaly is examined within the framework provided by central place theory. The adoption of a systems approach to the research determines the organization of the work. Firstly, there is an analysis of the sectoral structure of the Greek economy with particular reference to retail trade. The importance of tertiary activity in the economy is indicated and the traditional nature of most Greek retailing is considered. Next, the physical, historical, economic and demographic background of Thessaly is described. The region consists of a fertile plain surrounded on all sides by mountains. The economy is dominated by agriculture and the secondary and tertiary sectors are strongly oriented to it. In the post-war period the population of the area has stagnated because of heavy rural emigration focussed primarily on Athens, The analysis of the settlement system then falls into three parts. The functional regions of Thessaly are identified by subjecting an interaction matrix of bus traffic flows to factor analysis. These describe the general structure of the settlement system and allow the subsequent detailed analysis of the settlement system of West Thessaly to be placed within a wider context. This detailed analysis is based primarily on data collected in the field. It consists of a study of the hierarchical and spatial structure of the system and the aggregate relationships between its components. A well developed hierarchical structure is found, and its historical evolution is examined. Following this, a study of consumer movements in West Thessaly is made which is based on data collected from questionnaires circulated in the region. The behaviour of the settlement system as revealed by this analysis accords closely with the structure of the system. A composite assessment of the settlement system is then made which relates its structure and behaviour to the theoretical framework of the research, and comparisons are made with other studies of settlement systems in-Greece. Finally, the Greek regional problem is examined, one element in which is the nature and role of the provincial settlement system, and the implications of this research for future planning strategies are outlined.


Abstract The Castejón-Laspaúles basin is one of the South Pyrenean basins of Late Variscan age that were strongly inverted during the Alpine compression (Late Cretaceous–Tertiary). It is mainly composed by Stephanian pyroclastic and volcanic deposits that reach a maximum thickness of ~ 500 m, and are overlain by Permian and Triassic sedimentary units. A palaeomagnetic and magnetic fabrics (AMS) study was carried out in the Stephanian units, where the general absence of flow markers at the outcrop scale and the Alpine inversional structure prevent the straightforward reconstruction of the original volcanic and basinal configuration. Magnetic fabric data are not overprinted by Alpine internal deformation and can be interpreted in terms of primary volcanic and pyroclastic fabrics. The obtained directions coincide in the different sampled units, suggesting a constant source area during the development of the basin, and show the dominance of N–S-trending K1 axes that are interpreted to be parallel to flow directions. Palaeomagnetic data indicate the presence of a pre-folding palaeomagnetic component that is rotated clockwise by an average of +37° (±32°) with regards to the Stephanian reference. This rotation probably took place during Alpine thrusting since it is also registered by the overlying Triassic deposits. The whole dataset is interpreted in terms of basin development under sinistral transtension with two main fault sets: deep-rooted E–W-striking faults, probably responsible for magmatic emissions, and shallow-rooted, listric faults of N–S orientation.


Coronary artery disease and angina pectoris are frequently associated with disordered myocardial function which may cause abnormalities in precordial motion, heart sounds, and/or systolic time intervals. The pathophysiologic basis for these abnormalities has been studied by correlating them with more direct measurements of myocardial function. Large a waves on the apexcardiogram and atrial gallops are related to accentuated left ventricular a waves which reflect diminished left ventricular compliance. Uncoordinated left ventricular contraction (asynergy) may cause abnormal systolic motion which can sometimes be recorded on the apexcardiogram. Ventricular (early diastolic) gallops in coronary artery disease are usually associated with extensive obstructive lesions, left ventricular asynergy, and a low cardiac output. Transient paradoxic splitting of the second sound in angina pectoris has been reported though rarely documented by phono-cardiography. Mitral insufficiency due to papillary muscle dysfunction implies significant damage to the papillary muscles and the surrounding ventricular wall, usually by severe coronary artery disease. Systolic time intervals are a sensitive technic which may reflect diminished contractility (prolonged preejection period) or low stroke volume (shortened left ventricular ejection time) in patients with coronary artery disease. However, systolic time intervals are also sensitive to many other pharmacologic and hemodynamic influences, including changes in left ventricular preload and afterload which may result in misleading values. Therefore, as a technic for evaluating individual patients with coronary artery disease and angina pectoris, the role of systolic time intervals remains limited.


The study characterized the lactoferrin (Lf) gene in different water buffalo breeds and determined its association with subclinical mastitis (SCM). A total of seventy five (75) and five (5) milk and blood samples, respectively were collected for the conduct of this study. Amplified Lf gene demonstrated a 2224 base pairs (bp) molecular weight. Nucleotide and amino acid sequence of Lf gene of riverine- and swamp-type water buffaloes revealed 98.83% and 98.29% identity, respectively with that of Bubalus bubalis Lf gene in the GenBank. Phylogenetic studies showed that Lf genes of both types of water buffaloes grouped with Lf gene of water buffalo sequences registered in the GenBank. Three water buffalo genotypes were documented using the restriction enzymes AluI and HaeIII . The AluI can produce three genotypes (AA, AB, BB) resulting in three cuts of 561, 217 and 123 bp. Using HaeIII, three restriction patterns were observed producing three genotypes as well with four fragment sizes of 561, 318, 112, and 70 bp. Based on the statistical analysis, no direct association has been established between the Lf genes of water buffalo with SCM using AluI and HaeIII restriction enzymes although a higher number of animals with genotype BB belongs to those with SCM group. The results of the study merit for further studies regarding the BB genotype of Lf gene as a possible resistance gene marker for SCM in water buffaloes.


Protected areas are the base for conservation of natural and cultural heritage. There is an important need to ensure its' protection in all over the world, according to the principles of sustainable development. Such kind of development encourages coordination of activities of stakeholders, local communities, and saving our heritage in order to meet future generations' needs. Furthermore, effective management is an important tool of conserving natural and cultural heritage. Protected areas cover about 15.6 percent of Lithuania. However, there are disagreements about the meaning of the protected area. What causes a of different understanding? Is the current management model of protected areas considered as the most effective? Is the system of protected Lithuanian areas so confusing that forms different opinions? The relevance of this topic is based on the questions which are recently discussed in Lithuania. These questions are related to validity of boundaries of protected areas. Were they based on scientific researches? These questions are discussed in the article. In the first part a review of the history of protected areas' network in Lithuania is presented, focusing on its development and changes. The second part intends to contemporary challenges of the management of protected areas. In addition, the main reasons of decreasing effectiveness of the management of protected areas are revealed. According to reform models in 2009, which were considered to make changes in Lithuania's administration of protected areas, conclusions about the trends of management are made.


We experimentally explore decision-making under uncertainty using a framework that decomposes uncertainty into three distinct layers: (1) physical uncertainty, entailing inherent randomness within a given probability model, (2) model uncertainty, entailing subjective uncertainty about the probability model to be used and (3) model misspecification, entailing uncertainty about the presence of the true probability model among the set of models considered. Using a new experimental design, we measure individual attitudes towards these different layers of uncertainty and study the distinct role of each of them in characterizing ambiguity attitudes. In addition to providing new insights into the underlying processes behind ambiguity aversion –failure to reduce compound probabilities or distinct attitudes towards unknown probabilities– our study provides the first empirical evidence for the intermediate role of model misspecification between model uncertainty and Ellsberg in decision-making under uncertainty.


Abstract The performance of grating interferometers coming up now for imaging interfaces within materials depends on the efficiency (visibility) of their main component, namely the phase grating. Therefore, experiments with monochromatic synchrotron radiation and corresponding simulations are carried out. The visibility of a phase grating is optimized by different photon energies, varying detector to grating distances and continuous rotation of the phase grating about the grid lines. Such kind of rotation changes the projected grating shapes, and thereby the distribution profiles of phase shifts. This yields higher visibilities than derived from ideal rectangular shapes. By continuous grating rotation and variation of the propagation distance, we achieve 2D visibility maps. Such maps provide the visibility for a certain combination of grating orientation and detector position. Optimum visibilities occur at considerably smaller distances than in the standard setup.


This book is a must for individuals and companies that have an interest in developing sustainable technology and systems in the complex 'Web of Metals' on a first principles, technological and economic basis, with a focus to the minerals, metals and product manufacturing industries. In this inter-, intra- and trans-disciplinary book the material/metal cycle will be central, addressing technology as the basis for achieving sustainability within the system of primary mineral and metal producing, and the consumer product material cycles, linked to nature's cycles. The following major topics (not exclusive) are discussed in a detail, which will satisfy company CEO's and students of environment, engineering, economics, and law alike: (i) industrial ecology, (ii) system engineering concepts, (iii) development of future breakthrough technology as well optimization of present technology, (iv) process fundamentals (e.g. thermodynamics, separation physics, transport processes etc.), (v) product manufacture and design (for recycling), (vi) environmental legislation and (vii) technology as a basis for achieving sustainability within our present society. The book discusses contentious issues such as the limits of recycling determined by physics, chemistry, economics and process technology, therefore providing the reader with a fundamental basis to understand and critically discuss the validity of environmental legislation. Furthermore, the 'Web of Metals' (i.e. the dynamic interconnection of metal and material cycles and product systems) will reveal that, if the application of environmental evaluation techniques such as material flow analysis, life cycle assessment etc. are not carried out on a sufficient theoretical basis, technological and economic understanding, analyses could lead to erroneous and in the end environmentally harmful conclusions. The book is illustrated with many industrial examples embracing car and electronic consumer goods manufacturing and recycling, and the production and recycling of all major metals (e.g. steel, aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, magnesium, PGM's and PM's) and to an extent plastics. A complete section of the book is devoted to the recycling of light metals. Numerous colour figures and photos, plant and reactor data as well as software and computer models (running under Matlab's Simulink(R) and AMPL(R) as well as tools based on neural net technology (CSense(TM)) are provided to give the reader the opportunity to investigate the various topics addressed in this book at various levels of depth and theoretical sophistication, providing a wealth of information, share-data and industrial know-how. Finally, the book philosophically discusses how to harmonize the resource, life and technological cycles depicted by the figure on the cover to make a contribution to the sustainable use of resources and products.


This paper introduces a fresh way of looking at language choice in intercultural communication. Its starting point is the recognition of the need for a social-psychological approach (section 1). However, the concepts which have so far been employed within this approach run into difficulties when applied to non-traditional' multilingual settings; that is, those in which more than two languages are salient, participation is essentially temporary, participants' language repertoires only partially overlap and no ingroup-outgroup dichotomy is relevant (section 2). In such settings, interactant identities are radically dependent on situation and function not so much as a priori inputs to interaction but more as outcomes of it (section 3). It is argued that language choice is a significant means by which they emerge and that Goffman's notion of face - being contingent on situation - is an ideal framework (section 4). The model proposes three basic aspects of face which can be instantiated through language choice (section 5) and shows how the precise nature of interactants' faces are determined by a combination of their respective relations of 'ownership' to the language chosen and the relative status of this language (section 6). Their faces are thus interdependent. The 'face triangle' is offered as a way of capturing the model in graphic form (section 7).


Previous work on emotion recognition from bodily expressions focused on analysing such expressions in isolation, of individuals or in controlled settings, from a single camera view, or required intrusive motion tracking equipment. We study the problem of emotion recognition from bodily expressions and speech during dyadic (person-person) interactions in a real kitchen instrumented with ambient cameras and microphones. We specifically focus on bodily expressions that are embedded in regular interactions and background activities and recorded without human augmentation to increase naturalness of the expressions. We present a human-validated dataset that contains 224 high-resolution, multi-view video clips and audio recordings of emotionally charged interactions between eight couples of actors. The dataset is fully annotated with categorical labels for four basic emotions (anger, happiness, sadness, and surprise) and continuous labels for valence, activation, power, and anticipation provided by five annotators for each actor. We evaluate vision and audio-based emotion recognition using dense trajectories and a standard audio pipeline and provide insights into the importance of different body parts and audio features for emotion recognition.


It is well-known that fluidized beds are usually unstable to small perturbations and that this leads to the primary bifurcation of vertically travelling plane wavetrains. These one-dimensional periodic waves have been shown recently to be unstable to two-dimensional perturbations of large transverse wavelength in gas-fluidized beds. Here, this result is generalized to include liquid-fluidized beds and to compare typical beds fluidized with either air or water. It is shown that the instability mechanism remains the same but there are big differences in the ratio of the primary and secondary growth rates in the two cases. The tendency is that the secondary growth rates, scaled with the amplitude of a fully developed plane wave, are of similar magnitude for both gas- and liquid-fluidized beds, while the primary growth rate is much larger in the gas-fluidized bed. This means that the secondary instability is accordingly stronger than the primary instability in the liquid-fluidized bed, and consequently sets in at a much smaller amplitude of the primary wave. However, since the waves in the liquid-fluidized bed develop on a larger time and length scale, the primary perturbations need longer time and thereby travel farther until they reach the critical amplitude. Which patterns are more amenable to being visually recognized depends on the magnitude of the initially imposed disturbance and the dimensions of the apparatus. This difference in scale plays a key role in bringing about the differences between gas- and liquid-fluidized beds; it is produced mainly by the different values of the Froude number.


A multi-agent system (MAS) is usually understood as a system composed of interacting
autonomous agents. In this sense, MAS have been employed successfully as a modelling
paradigm in a number of scenarios, especially in Computer Science. However, the process
of modelling complex and heterogeneous systems is intrinsically prone to errors: for this
reason, computer scientists are typically concerned with the issue of verifying that a system
actually behaves as it is supposed to, especially when a system is complex.
Techniques have been developed to perform this task: testing is the most common technique,
but in many circumstances a formal proof of correctness is needed. Techniques
for formal verification include theorem proving and model checking. Model checking
techniques, in particular, have been successfully employed in the formal verification of
distributed systems, including hardware components, communication protocols, security
protocols.
In contrast to traditional distributed systems, formal verification techniques for MAS are
still in their infancy, due to the more complex nature of agents, their autonomy, and
the richer language used in the specification of properties. This thesis aims at making
a contribution in the formal verification of properties of MAS via model checking. In
particular, the following points are addressed:
• Theoretical results about model checking methodologies for MAS, obtained by
extending traditional methodologies based on Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDS) for temporal logics to multi-modal logics for time, knowledge, correct behaviour, and strategies of agents. Complexity results for model checking these logics
(and their symbolic representations).
• Development of a software tool (MCMAS) that permits the specification and verification
of MAS described in the formalism of interpreted systems.
• Examples of application of MCMAS to various MAS scenarios (communication, anonymity, games, hardware diagnosability), including experimental results, and comparison with other tools available.


The NMDA subtype of excitatory ionotropic glutamate receptors is a hetero-oligomeric ligand-gated ion channel. Molecular cloning techniques have identified three types of NMDA receptor subunits, the NR 1, NR2A-D, and NR3A-B. NR2B-containing receptors are the focus of this thesis and are believed to play an important role in learning and memory, as well as being involved in neuronal cell death accompanying cerebral ischeamia, seizures, and degenerative neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate the comparative abundance and distribution of NR2B receptors in the rodent and human brain using an anti-NR2B selective antibody, and two NMDAR-2B subtype-selective antagonist radioligands, [(^3)H]Ro 25,6981 and [(^3)H] CP-101,606, with a variety of experimental techniques. This thesis provides new evidence that Ro 25,6981 and CP-101,606 label distinct NMDA NR2B subtype populations in both the rodent and human brain. Ligand autoradiographical and immunohistochemical studies of the mouse and rat brain brain revealed high NR2B receptor expression levels in the CAI and CA2 hippocampal formation stratum oriens and radiatorn, striatum, and outer layers of the frontal and entorhinal cortex in both species, with higher expression levels present in the 3-week compared to 3 month adult rat brain. Radioligand binding studies of native NMDA receptors with a range of NR2B-selective antagonists provided pharmacological evidence for heterogeneity in NR2B-containing receptor populations in the two age groups indicating a developmental switch in early adulthood. Ligand autoradiography of human control and disease state brain sections revealed an overall preservation of NR2B receptors in the 60-92 year age range. Control female cases showed a significantly lower level of NR2B containing receptors compared to age-matched control male cases, in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Interestingly, higher NR2B- containing receptor levels were observed in earlier age cases of AD compared to controls, and a weak correlation overall of increasing NR2B expression with decreasing scores in dementia and psychiatric tests. Overall, this study suggests that the NR2B subtype is not the major underlying receptor to explain memory deficits or psychotic symptoms in the common human dementias.


Abstract In this research, the effect of the shape of hydrogen-loaded palladium elements on exothermic reactions between gases is shown. It was found that an element with parts of its surface next to each other spontaneously triggers reactions, whereas an element whose surfaces are not next to each other needs outside triggering. The heat developed makes the temperature of the elements rise even by a few hundredths of a degree centigrade. Through photographic techniques, it was shown that the elements, when releasing heat, emit radiation connected to nuclear fusion reactions. These reactions, confirmed also by the analysis of the used hydrogen, showed helium formation. All these tests have confirmed the reproducibility of the phenomenon.


In discussions about the efficacy of monetary policy instruments, attention is often focused on analyzing the money supply process. Monetarists, in general, argue that the monetary authorities can exercise effective control over the stock of money; others, especially those who share the new view of monetary theory argue that the determination of the stock of money is part of the economy. In this view, the stock of money is the outgrowth of the behavior of the public, the financial sector (banks), the finance ministry, and the rest of the world as well as of the actions of the central bank. The paper investigated the co-integrating property and stability of the supply of money function in Iran. The paper employed the ARDL approach together with CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests. The results show that M1 and M2 is cointegrated with net claims on the government, net foreign assets, and rate of profit on bank deposit (interest rate and a major implication of using interest rate elasticity estimates from M2 function is that money is endogenous.


Purpose: To evaluate the retinal hemodynamic response to normoxic hypercapnia among patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and differing nocturnal blood pressure (NBP) profiles, using Doppler spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).
Methods: Doppler SD-OCT retinal blood flow (RBF) measurement
was acquired using the circum-papillary double circular scan protocol of the RTVue system (Optovue Inc., Freemont, CA). The sample consisted of 17 healthy controls (group mean age 62±7 years; group mean NBP dip 14±8%); 17 POAG with normal NBP dip (age 66±9 years; NBP dip 11±5%), termed "dippers"; and 16 POAG with high NBP dip (age 64±7 years; NBP dip 24±5%), "over-dippers". The NBP dip magnitude was calculated by taking the difference between mean arterial pressure (MAP) during the day and night while awake and asleep, respectively. Automated gas blender (RespiractTM,
Thornhill Research Inc., Toronto) was used to stably provoke
normoxic hypercapnia (15% increase in the end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure relative to homeostatic baseline). Six Doppler SDOCT RBF scans were acquired, during baseline and also during normoxic hypercapnia. RBF parameters were calculated and ANOVA was used to compare values between groups (p<0.05).
Results: Total RBF at baseline was significantly different between the groups with controls being the highest (37.1±4.4mL/min), and over-dippers the lowest (29.6±9.0mL/min). Venous area showed significant differences at baseline between the groups with the lowest
value in the over-dipper group, and the highest in the control group (39.9±7.0(x10-3)mm, and 46.6±6.6x(10-3)mm, respectively). Velocity was not significantly different between groups (p=0.27) at baseline. Breathing normoxic hypercapnia provoked an increase in flow that was significantly lower in the over-dipper group (1.0±8.6mL/min)
and highest in the controls (8.2±10.8mL/min). Change in velocity was significantly different (p=0.02) between the groups, being highest in the control group (2.4±3.3mm/s) and lowest in the over-dipper group (-0.6±3.1mm/s). Venous area change was not significantly different between groups.
Conclusions: Patients with POAG who exhibited an exaggerated
nocturnal reduction in MAP also demonstrated lower baseline
RBF values and an impeded retinal vascular response to normoxic hypercapnia, indicating greater vascular dysregulation in this group.


Planning of landscape use has long traditions. Over the course of history, views on the role citizens are to play in the planning process have moved along a scale between two opposites: from a modest and passive role to a more significant and active one. Since the 1960s, there has been awareness that the problems of society are too vast for a minority of experts to comprehend and solve. One idea that has emerged is that the best way to acquire knowledge for tackling our common problems is to engage and communicate these issues to the public to a greater extent. Planning theorists have called this the communicative turn in planning. An important development allowing physical planning to address these ideas is the convergence of Internet communication and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The present thesis explores a web-based public participation GIS (PPGIS) intended to engage the public in defining experienced qualities in the landscape. Community mapping is one way to let individuals' local knowledge, of importance for the planning, become public in a collective map to thoroughly illustrate planning problems. The objective of the thesis is to investigate the nature of citizens' and local authority representatives' views on the possibilities of e-participation in the physical planning process as well as their expressed need for Internet tools for communication. The aim is to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of using web technology for communication in planning as these benefits and drawbacks are experienced by study participants. The participants also contribute important feedback on the web-based mapping tool used in the study. Four studies have been conducted in three municipalities in southern Sweden. Different methodological approaches have been used in the studies: focus group interviews, in-depth interviews, and web-based surveys. The common basis for discussion and practice has been a webGIS developed specifically for the studies. The present studies contribute to the research in this area by elucidating the need for developing complementary tools for e-participation in the planning process in order to address the call for participation - independent of time and space. Participants' feedback on the web-based PPGIS identifies use problems based on actual practice, which gives directions and identifies areas of improvement and development for future applications. The present research also sheds light on problems associated with participation and on the conflict between planning theory and planning practice.


During the eighteenth century, the aesthetic preferences of the Orthodox Christian population in the Balkans continued to depend upon the tradition of Byzantine art, which had been the case throughout the period following the Fall of Constantinople. The painters were scattered all over the Balkans, where the Orthodox population had been accustomed since previous centuries to the tastes emanating from Byzantine artistic tradition. The Patriarchate of Constantinople and Mount Athos played a crucial role, on account of their religious and political status, in the movements of Orthodox painters, whose missions and apprenticeships they regulated to a considerable degree. The great number of paintings, the observation of the itineraries of Orthodox painters throughout the Balkan area of the Ottoman Empire and the shared aesthetic of these works supply evidence of the development of a common painting language among the Orthodox population of South-East Europe during the eighteenth century, just before the formation of the nation-states.


It is very challenging to achieve near perfect absorption/emission that is both broadband and omnidirectional while utilizing a scalable fabrication process. Femtosecond laser surface processing is an emerging low-cost and large-scale manufacturing technique used to directly and permanently modify the surface properties of a material. The versatility of this technique to produce tailored surface properties has resulted in a rapidly growing number of applications. Here, we demonstrate near perfect, broadband, omnidirectional emissivity from aluminum surfaces by tuning the laser surface processing parameters including fluence, pulse count, and the ambient gas. Full-wave simulations and experimental results prove that the obtained increase in emissivity is mainly a result of two distinct features produced by femtosecond laser surface processing: the introduction of microscale surface features and the thick oxide layer. This technique leads to functionalized metallic surfaces that are ideal for emerging applications, such as passive radiative cooling and thermal management of spacecraft.


Statins reduce lipid levels and are widely prescribed. Statins have been associated with an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes, but the mechanisms are unclear. Activation of the NOD-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3)/caspase-1 inflammasome, promotes insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes. We showed that four different statins increased interleukin-1β (IL-1β) secretion from macrophages, which is characteristic of NLRP3 inflammasome activation. This effect was dose dependent, absent in NLRP3−/− mice, and prevented by caspase-1 inhibition or the diabetes drug glyburide. Long-term fluvastatin treatment of obese mice impaired insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in adipose tissue. Fluvastatin-induced activation of the NLRP3/caspase-1 pathway was required for the development of insulin resistance in adipose tissue explants, an effect also prevented by glyburide. Fluvastatin impaired insulin signaling in lipopolysaccharide-primed 3T3-L1 adipocytes, an effect associated with increased caspase-1 activity, but not IL-1β secretion. Our results define an NLRP3/caspase-1–mediated mechanism of statin-induced insulin resistance in adipose tissue and adipocytes, which may be a contributing factor to statin-induced development of type 2 diabetes. These results warrant scrutiny of insulin sensitivity during statin use and suggest that combination therapies with glyburide, or other inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome, may be effective in preventing the adverse effects of statins.


This study aims at identifying the dynamics of the innovation system for functional foods (FF) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Functional food is any healthy food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. Health has been named as the most significant trend and innovation driver in the global food and drinks market. Brazil is one of the leading countries in food production and consumption, and the market for functional foods have been growing 10% per year, three times more than the market for conventional foods. Although this food category is considered mature in some developed markets (such as in Japan, in the Nordic countries and in the U.S), it is still unknown for many consumers, especially those located in developing countries. On the other hand, functional foods has been attracting the attention of multinationals and local food industries, since innovation can significantly impact on their competitive advantages. Therefore, in this study, first we are going to investigate consumers' motivations, attitudes and intention to buy functional foods, since the market demands a better understanding of this trend. A survey with 450 consumers was conducted and provided quantitative insights. Secondly, we identified the availability of functional food products in the local retail market, through observation techniques. Our aim was to confront consumers' needs with local food companies' market supply. In a further stage, we are going to analyse the functioning of this innovation system, describing the agents involved in this context and their relations through in-depth interviews with local representatives (stakeholders). Innovation system is here understood as the set of distinct institutions which jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies and which provides the framework within which governments form and implement policies to influence the innovation process. As such "it is a system of interconnected institutions to create, store and transfer the knowledge, skills and artefacts which define new technologies." (Metcalfe, 1995). Hence, we are investigating issues such as: Are local food companies ready to innovate in such a competitive and dynamic scenario? How can this system respond to consumers' demands? Are there conditions for an innovative food network in South Brazil? Our contributions help to shed light into these questions. Preliminary results indicate that the innovation system for functional foods in Rio Grande do Sul is incipient, but it is developing fast. Stronger governance and co-ordination strategies are needed. There are few local functional food products in the market, but those are attractive to consumers and indicate promising opportunities. The survey shows that interviewed consumers presented positive attitudes towards functional foods and enough purchasing power to buy it. Nutritionists and other health professionals have high credibility and could help inform consumers about the benefits of particular categories of functional foods. Food industry itself is not regarded as the most trustworthy source. Finally, this study shows that the understanding of Brazilian consumers is fundamental to help food companies define their strategies. To map the most accepted categories of functional foods is also important, aiming to avoid the "tentative and error" approach.


ABSTRACT: The history of child psychology developed around the question of how far, and in what way children are different from adults and different from children in later stages of life. This presented problems for prenatal psychology. The author follows the evolution of thought about prenatal life from Sigmund Freud, Sandor Ferenczi, Otto Rank and Gustav Hans Graber, the founder and first president of the International Studysociety in Prenatal Psychology (ISPP). The author describes the important early steps taken to establish a multidisciplinary scientific dialog on prenatal psychology, to reach out to University students, and to educate the public. In conclusion, he reflects on three principles which guided the Society in the past and will guide them in the future. INTRODUCTION At the end of our century all mass-media will report the dramatic changes in our knowledge about world and space during the last 100 years. Perhaps some will remember that the inner life of mankind became more discernible with the rise of psychoanalysis. Will they also appreciate the new comprehension of our own psychic development from intrauterine life which this century has brought? I think they will not. But why? Let us look back to the first half of the 20th century. At that time nearly all scientists thought psychic life began after birth. I can remember a statement by psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1946) to this effect: Psychoanalysts have explored life before conscious remembrance as a foundation for all later life. Without substance, and therefore illusory, are such considerations in respect to embryonic time. We neither have mental life as an embryo nor remember it. Even for pioneers like Anna Freud (1947) discussions of embryonic consciousness seemed to be "completely crazy". Until the 1970s few textbooks of developmental psychology even described the prenatal period of life, and those that did focused on physical development alone. There is a long latency period for new fields of research such as ours. A connection with everyday life must be established before prenatal evidence is seriously considered. As an example, in 1842 a mathematician published a theoretical paper in which the light from a moving star was compared with the acoustical phenomenon of a moving source of sound. At this tune and for decades to come, no one realized that this insight would allow us to look into space and plan a trip to the moon. Even after this trip took place, few people hi Salzburg knew that this man, Christian Doppler, had been born in our city. This changed later, of course, when the Doppler effect became important for radar control of airplanes, measurement of speed by police, and ultimately for measurements of fetal behaviors in the womb. Today we can point to evidence for early memory, observe fetal behavior in the womb, and can judge the importance this has for later Ufe. We see also the integration of various sciences in approaching prenatal life-a fascinating development. We are moving step by step from twilight to clarity for professionals, journalists, and the general public. In a recent book, First Feelings, Katharina Zimmer (1998) wrote, "Scientists from various disciplines are convinced that there are prenatal experiences that influence later life; not only experts in prenatal psychology but also pediatricians, developmental neurologists, and child psychiatrists." During the first decades of the 20th century, child-psychology considered how far and in what way children are different from adults, or different from children at later developmental stages. Models of full-grown people influenced our views about children. For Sigmund Freud (and therefore for psychoanalysis) clinical evidence came from the behavior and experience of adults. His grand idea was that mental problems were based on the early stages of development. A century ago (1897) he wrote to his friend Wilhelm Fleiss, "Now all moves for me more to the first period of life to three years. …


Recent studies on interpretability of attention distributions have led to notions of faithful and plausible explanations for a model's predictions. Attention distributions can be considered a faithful explanation if a higher attention weight implies a greater impact on the model's prediction. They can be considered a plausible explanation if they provide a human-understandable justification for the model's predictions. In this work, we first explain why current attention mechanisms in LSTM based encoders can neither provide a faithful nor a plausible explanation of the model's predictions. We observe that in LSTM based encoders the hidden representations at different time-steps are very similar to each other (high conicity) and attention weights in these situations do not carry much meaning because even a random permutation of the attention weights does not affect the model's predictions. Based on experiments on a wide variety of tasks and datasets, we observe attention distributions often attribute the model's predictions to unimportant words such as punctuation and fail to offer a plausible explanation for the predictions. To make attention mechanisms more faithful and plausible, we propose a modified LSTM cell with a diversity-driven training objective that ensures that the hidden representations learned at different time steps are diverse. We show that the resulting attention distributions offer more transparency as they (i) provide a more precise importance ranking of the hidden states (ii) are better indicative of words important for the model's predictions (iii) correlate better with gradient-based attribution methods. Human evaluations indicate that the attention distributions learned by our model offer a plausible explanation of the model's predictions. Our code has been made publicly available at https://github.com/akashkm99/Interpretable-Attention


Though he has made only five films in two decades--Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and the Oscar-nominated films Moulin Rouge!, Australia, and The Great Gatsby--Australian writer-director Baz Luhrmann is an internationally known brand name. His Christian name has even entered the English language as a verb, as in "to Baz things up," meaning "to decorate them with an exuberant flourish." Celebrated by some, loathed by others, his work is underscored by what has been described as "an aesthetic of artifice" and is notable for both its glittering surfaces and recurring concerns. In this collection of interviews, Luhrmann discusses his methods and his motives, explaining what has been important to him and his collaborators from the start and how he has been able to maintain an independence from the studios that have backed his films. He also speaks about his other artistic endeavors, including stage productions of La Boheme and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his wife and collaborative partner Catherine Martin, who has received two Academy Awards for her work with Luhrmann.


Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese were tested on their ability to identify the vowel and tone of syllables produced in a carrier sentence by a female native speaker. Four vowels /i/, /a/, /o/, /u/ were spoken with the four tones of Mandarin: level, rising, falling–rising, and falling. Stimuli in condition A consisted of intact /b/‐vowel syllables followed by /dzbarred eye/, which were excised from the original sentence. Condition B stimuli consisted of the first six pitch periods+silent gap+/dzbarred eye/. Condition C stimuli consisted of all but the first six pitch periods+/dzbarred eye/. Listeners were most accurate in condition A, and only slightly less accurate in condition C. Listeners were significantly less accurate identifying initial‐only syllables (condition B). Most errors were made on tone identification. These findings suggest that Mandarin Chinese listeners rely little on the formant transitions from the initial portion of the syllable to identify tone. Further studies investigate how the ...


Problem. The work of the deacons and deaconesses of the Mt. Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church is reflective of the tradition and culture of the Seventh-day Adventist church regarding the role of deacons and deaconesses since its early history. The church has provided very little training for these officers. Therefore, the deacons and deaconesses of the Mt. Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church have not been adequately informed of their identity as spiritual leaders who are responsible for looking after the social needs of the widows, sick, and poor. They are to manage conflicts and solve relational problems that arise among the members, teach and preach the Word of God, and nurture the members of the church. These responsibilities were carried out by the deacons of the first century Christian church, and should be carried out by the deacons and deaconesses today. Method. Research was done of the New Testament account of Jesus' servant model for ministry and the ministry of the deacons that served the first century Christian church. This theological foundation along with a literature review provided a framework for developing and implementing a ministry for deacons and deaconesses of the Mt. Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church that would reflect the ministry of the deacons in the first century Christian church. Surveys were mailed to 103 of the 179 non-Seventh-day Adventist churches in the city of Huntsville as supplemental research. The purpose of the surveys was to identify "best practices" among other churches in both the training and the ministry of both deacons and deaconesses that were built upon a similar theological foundation. Results. The project challenged the status quo ministry of the deacons and deaconesses of the Mt. Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church, and sought to create a "new structure" that would better meet the needs of the church. A number of areas that troubled the deacons and deaconesses were addressed. Opportunities were created and these officers were empowered to change their "troubled areas." The following opportunities were created: (1) they were assigned to work with the elders on visitation teams, (2) given opportunities to speak at mid-week prayer meetings, (3) given opportunities to conduct Bible studies, (4) given opportunities to serve as Bible workers, and (5) given opportunities to disciple new members. A few of the deacons and deaconesses took advantage of these opportunities and got involved. This was a major factor in the increased number of baptisms at the conclusion of the project. There were twenty persons baptized in 2008 when the project ended, versus four in 2005 when the project began. Conclusions. The deacons that served the first century Christian church were ordained to take care of the needs of the poor, to solve problems that arose in the church, and to teach the Word of God. Although the New Testament reveals little information about the existence of female deacons or deaconesses, based upon the context of 1 Tim 3:11, the Greek word translated as "wives" should be translated as "women," meaning women deacons, and not wives of deacons. Also as early as the third century, clear evidence substantiates that female deacons/deaconesses existed. Some of the evidences are documented in the Didascalia Apostolorum (third century), the Apostolic Constitutions (late fourth century), inscriptions written on the tombstones of female deacons/deaconesses during the fourth through the seventh centuries, and current literature from both Protestant and Catholic writers. According to these sources, female deacons/deaconesses ministered to the needs of the female members of the church, cared for the poor and sick women, assisted women at baptisms, greeted the women entering the church and directed them to their seats, and taught them the Word of God. According to the literature review, there are four important roles in which deacons and deaconesses should function. They are to function as (1) teachers of God's Word, (2) care givers to the sick and needy, (3) conflict managers, and (4) physical plant managers. Unfortunately, due to the tradition and culture of the Seventh-day Adventist church, the deacons and deaconesses of the Mt. Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, have been affected subconsciously by several underlying factors that have made it very difficult for them to become motivated to embrace these roles and change the status quo. The underlying factors are: (1) very little was recorded about the work of deacons and deaconesses during the early history of the Seventh-day Adventist church, (2) other departments were established that eventually supplanted the role and function of deacons and deaconesses, (3) deacons and deaconesses have been marginalized and relegated to take care of the church facilities, collect tithes and offerings, and serve during Holy Communion and baptism, and (4) the church discontinued the ordination of deaconesses for almost a century but is in continual discussion about the ordination of female elders and female pastors. Though unintentionally, the church has been sending a negative message over the years to these officers concerning their value and identity as spiritual leaders. Seventh-day Adventist deacons and deaconesses have become accustomed to this form of ministry and find it difficult to change. In order to overcome this, I recommend that the Mt. Calvary Seventh-day Adventist Church become intentional in its efforts to restore deacons and deaconesses to their biblical position as spiritual leaders of the church. When electing people to serve as deacons and deaconesses, elect those who meet the biblical qualifications so that they will have the spiritual gifts and commitment to fulfill the responsibilities required of that office. Do not limit these officers to collecting tithes and offerings, serving during Holy Communion and baptisms, and cleaning the church, but utilize their leadership skills by electing each deacon and deaconess, as is possible, to serve as the leader of at least one other department in the church, such as: Personal Ministries leader, Community Services director, Dorcas Society leader, Women's Ministries leader, Sabbath School superintendent/teacher, etc. Those deacons and deaconesses that may not be elected to lead other departments should be encouraged to assist. Assign deacons and deaconesses along with the elders to departments to serve as liaisons for the pastor. Assign them along with the elders to visit the members. Assign them along with the elders to facilitate midweek prayer meetings. Train them to serve as Bible workers for the church. Train them to resolve conflicts. Provide them with sufficient resources to care for the sick and needy. Empower them to serve as the physical plant managers. My recommendations to the Seventh-day Adventist Church are (1) to provide training for deacons and deaconesses beyond what has been traditionally given, (2) invite pastors and elders to attend deacon and deaconess training sessions so that they can better understand the role of these officers and the value that they have to contribute to the work, (3) place as much emphasis on the development of these officers as is placed on the development of local elders, women, singles, children, and youth, (4) sponsor retreats and summits for them, (5) produce a quarterly magazine and a handbook for them, so that the concepts presented in this project be taught to the deacons and deaconesses of newly organized churches in the field so the current trends will not continue to be perpetuated. I also recommend that further study be done on the broader implications of this systemic problem that is the result of the church's hierarchal structure.


From an upset stomach to a life-threatening foodborne illness, getting sick is all too common after eating in restaurants. While health inspection programs are designed to protect consumers, such inspections typically occur at wide intervals of time, allowing restaurant hygiene to remain unmonitored in the interim periods. Information provided in online reviews may be effectively used in these interim periods to gauge restaurant hygiene. In this paper, we provide evidence for how information from online reviews of restaurants can be effectively used to identify cases of hygiene violations in restaurants, even after the restaurant has been inspected and certified. We use data from restaurant hygiene inspections in New York City from the launch of an inspection program from 2010 to 2016, and combine this data with online reviews for the same set of restaurants. Using supervised machine learning techniques, we then create a hygiene dictionary specifically crafted to identify hygiene-related concerns, and use it to identify systematic instances of moral hazard, wherein restaurants with positive hygiene inspection scores are seen to regress in their hygiene maintenance within 90 days of receiving the inspection scores. To the extent that social media provides some visibility into the hygiene practices of restaurants, we argue that the effects of information asymmetry that lead to moral hazard may be partially mitigated in this context. Based on our work, we also provide strategies for how cities and policy-makers may design effective restaurant inspection programs, through a combination of traditional inspections and the appropriate use of social media.


The NOAA National Ocean Service's (NOS) Northern Gulf of Mexico Operational Forecast System (NGOFS) became operational in March 2012. Implemented with the Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) as its core three-dimensional oceanographic circulation model, NGOFS produces a real-time nowcast (−6 h to zero) and six-hourly, two-day forecast guidance for water levels and three-dimensional currents, water temperature and salinity over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf. Designed as a regional scale prediction system, NGOFS lacks sufficient spatial coverage and/or resolution to fully resolve hydrodynamic features in critical seaports and estuaries. To overcome this shortcoming and better support the needs of marine navigation, emergency response, and environmental management, two FVCOM-based, high-resolution, estuary-scale nested forecast modeling systems, namely the Northwest and Northeast Gulf of Mexico Operational Forecast Systems (NWGOFS and NEGOFS), have been developed through one-way nesting in NGOFS. Using the atmospheric forecast guidance from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)/NWS (National Weather Services)' North American Mesoscale (NAM) Forecast System, US Geological Survey (USGS) river discharge observations, and the NGOFS water level, current, water temperature and salinity as the surface, river, and open ocean boundary forcing, respectively, a six-month model hindcast for the period October 2010–March 2011 has been conducted. Modeled water levels, currents, salinity and water temperature are compared with observations using the NOS standard skill assessment software. Skill assessment scores indicated that NWGOFS and NEGOFS demonstrate improvement over NGOFS. The NWGOFS and NEGOFS are under real-time nowcast/forecast test and evaluation by NOS's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS). The forecast systems are scheduled to be implemented operational on NOAA Weather & Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) in June 2014.


THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF ADRIAN MOLE is the third in the series to be part of Penguin's Sue Townsend repackaging programme. A chance to sell Sue Townsend to a whole new audience! Adrian Mole has grown up. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life Pandora has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he hoped it would be. Still, intellectual poets can't always have things their own way...


A novel method of POS supported dense matching is introduced for automatically generating DSM. The image pre-processing includes adaptive smooth filter and Wallis filter. The method based on the correlation coefficient with geometric constraint, POS supported geometry corrective for matching window, and global relaxation optimization is introduced in the process of matching for determining the homogeneous points. The Multi-image space intersection method with outlier elimination function is used to realize the matching result to integrate into the object space and generate coarse DSM. The matching results of upper pyramid generating a coarse DSM, which is used to constrain and guide the subsequent pyramid image matching, until the original image. Finally, the feasibility of the method proposed in this paper is verified by the experiments, which tests on different scales of aerial images.


The understanding of brain function requires the development of new methods to perturb and track distinct neuronal populations in the developing and adult central nervous system. Over the past ten years, in utero electroporation (IUE) has arisen as an extremely powerful tool to transfect and manipulate neuronal precursor cells of the parietal-cortex and their progeny in vivo. Although this technique has tremendous potentialities in targeting numerous brain areas, the results obtained so far have been generally hindered by low reliability of transfection in some regions and by the physical impossibility to reach other regions. Here, we present an innovative IUE configuration, which allows highly reliable transfection at various brain locations, including regions and cell types never targeted before. Our device, based on the usage of three independent electrodes upon an easy and highly reliable re-orientation of the electrode's positions and polarities, allows consistent expression of genes of interest in an array of brain areas including the hippocampus, the visual and motor cortices, and the cerebellum. Moreover, depending on the developmental stage of the embryos, it is possible to target distinct neuronal cell types, which may be particularly relevant in the cerebellum. The importance of such a tool in comparison to other methods arises in those particular applications where tissues and circuits integrity are essential points, and in those where traditional electroporation configuration is the limiting step of the experimental approach.


Patients suffering for Diabetes Mellitus (DM) have 2 to 6-fold increase of cardiovascular complications. On the other hand, serum increase of total plasma homocysteine (HHcy) is an emerging risk factor for Cardio-Vascular Disease (CVD). A stronger association between DM and HHcy exists, even through the underlying pathogenetic mechanism remains unexplained. Thus, patients contemporary having DM and HHcy have a prevalence of CVD, whereas in those without HHcy, metabolic symptoms often prevail on cardiovascular complications. The possible causes of higher incidence of CVD in DM and HHcy in comparison to DM without HHcy were examined. The different Resistin expression from adipocytes between DM with and without HHcy seems to unlikely influence the incidence of CVD. Concerning that, two different variants of DM may be identify: one, characterized by prevalent metabolic symptoms (dysmetabolic form) and another, characterized by early and massive atherosclerotic symptoms (cardiovascular form).