Crosstalk in directional couplers (DC's) is an important parameter for device and system performance. Although various crosstalk mechanisms have been studied through the course of integrated optics, the fundamental lower limit for crosstalk is still uncertain. In this paper, crosstalk mechanisms are reviewed and fundamental limits are discussed. A new model for optical scattering is presented, and the effect of bending loss variation between the two propagating modes in the taper region on the crosstalk is discussed.


Failure of participants to complete training programs is pervasive in existing active labor market programs both in developed and developing countries. The proportion of dropouts in prototypical programs ranges from 10 to 50 percent of all participants. From a policy perspective, it is of interest to know if dropouts benefit from the time they spend in training since these programs require considerable resources. We shed light on this issue by estimating the average employment effects of different lengths of exposure to a program by dropouts in a Korean job training program. To do this, we employ parametric and semiparametric methods to estimate effects from continuous treatments using the generalized propensity score, under the assumption that selection into different lengths of exposure is based on a rich set of observed covariates. We find that participants who drop out later – thereby having longer exposures – exhibit higher employment probabilities one year after receiving training, and that marginal effects of additional exposure to training are initially fairly small, but increase sharply past a certain threshold of exposure. One implication of these results is that this and similar programs could benefit from providing incentives for participants to stay longer in the program.


The concept of design patterns has been extensively studied and applied in the context of object-oriented software design. Similar ideas are being explored in other areas of computing as well. Over the past several years, researchers have been experimenting with the feasibility of employing design-patterns related concepts in the parallel computing domain. In the past, several pattern-based systems have been developed with the intention to facilitate faster parallel application development through the use of preimplemented and reusable components that are based on frequently used parallel computing design patterns. However, most of these systems face several serious limitations such as limited flexibility, zero extensibility, and the ad hoc nature of their components. Lack of flexibility in a parallel programming system limits a programmer to using only the high-level components provided by the system. Lack of extensibility here refers to the fact that most of the existing pattern-based parallel programming systems come with a set of prebuilt patterns integrated into the system. However, the system provides no obvious way of increasing the repertoire of patterns when need arises. Also, most of these systems do not offer any generic view of a parallel computing pattern, a fact which may be at the root of several of their shortcomings. This research proposes a generic (i.e., pattern- and application-independent) model for realizing and using parallel design patterns. The term "parallel architectural skeleton" is used to represent the set of generic attributes associated with a pattern. The Parallel Architectural Skeleton Model (PASM) is based on the message-passing paradigm, which makes it suitable for a LAN of workstations and PCs. The model is flexible as it allows the intermixing of high-level patterns with low-level message-passing primitives. An object-oriented and library-based implementation of the model has been completed using C++and MPI, without necessitating any language extension. The generic model and the library-based implementation allow new patterns to be defined and included into the system. The skeleton-library serves as a framework for the systematic, hierarchical development of network-oriented parallel applications.


This report evaluates a proposal to replace the current civil justice system for compensating patients who have been injured by medical malpractice with a system called "health courts," in which claims that were not settled in response to an apology and offer of settlement on behalf of providers would be adjudicated by medically-trained decision-makers employing pre-established guidelines and schedules.The report concludes that the health court proposal is ill-conceived, that it would be unfair to patients, that it would be unlikely to achieve its objectives, and that such of its goals as are reasonable can be achieved more fairly and with greater efficiency under the existing civil justice system.


The use of a CO2 infrared (IR) laser and photocatalysis for water treatment microorganism disinfection purposes was investigated.

During CO2 infrared (IR) laser treatment E. cloacae inactivation was comparable to inactivation via ultraviolet (UV) treatment; however no inactivation of the more resistant B. subtilis endospores occurred. Fourier Transform Infrared-Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy of the bacterial cells displayed increased polysaccharide contents after IR treatment. FTIR and Raman spectroscopy of simple carbohydrates before and after IR laser treatment displayed no spectral changes, with the exception of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (NAG), which was partially attributed to sampling techniques. E. cloacae inactivation during IR treatment was attributed to localised and overall temperature increases within the water. Due to the inability to inactivate B. subtilis endospores this technique is not suitable for water treatment purposes.

Photocatalytic water treatment using novel TiO2 colloids prepared via a postsynthetic microwave-modification process (MW-treated) was also examined. These colloids were characterised using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses and compared to Degussa P25 and convection hydrothermally-treated (HT-treated) TiO2. Slurry suspensions displayed comparable E. coli inactivation rates, so the colloids were examined in immobilised form using both a model organic degradant, oxalic acid, and E. coli. Oxalic acid degradation studies showed that the MW-treated colloids displayed similar inactivation rates to the HT-treated TiO2, due to their pure anatase composition, while Degussa P25 displayed higher inactivation rates. Investigations into the effect of shortening UV wavelength were also performed. Degussa P25 was the only catalyst which displayed higher apparent quantum yields upon shortening the UV wavelength, which was attributed to its mixed-phase anatase-rutile composition.

As E. coli inactivation was observed using distilled water, photocatalysis in natural river water was trailed. It was discovered that the pH had to be lowered from 7.5 to 5.0 and the initial cell concentration must be approximately 1 x 103 colony forming units (CFU) per cm3 or less for inactivation to be observed during a 5 hour treatment period. At a catalyst loading of 1.0 mg per cm2, Degussa P25 absorbed all the applied UVA irradiation; however the MW- and HT-treated TiO2 colloids did not due to their smaller particle size. Therefore sandwich experiments were devised to evaluate the effect of unabsorbed UV irradiation within the system. Small colony variants were identified after photocatalytic and UV treatment, which pose a potential threat to public health.

Further investigation of the different TiO2 colloids was performed using in situ

FTIR, both with and without an applied potential and compared to a thermally prepared TiO2 catalyst. The latter displayed potential dependent photocatalysis, while the mesoporous TiO2 catalysts displayed potential independent photocatalysis. All catalyst types displayed increased degradation rates upon the application of a positive bias, which was followed in situ via the production of CO2. Sodium oxalate and NAG was examined for photocatalytic degradation, both of which were degraded to CO2, with proposed break-down products identified when using NAG.


This document describes an updated version of the Encapsulating
Security Payload (ESP) protocol, which is designed to provide a mix of
security services in IPv4 and IPv6. ESP is used to provide
confidentiality, data origin authentication, connectionless integrity,
an anti-replay service (a form of partial sequence integrity), and
limited traffic flow confidentiality. This document obsoletes RFC 2406
(November 1998). [STANDARDS-TRACK]


This article provides a wide-angle view of the looming crisis in retirement security. The impending confluence of a burgeoning retiree cohort and a diminishing resource base threatens to wreck havoc with the financial well-being of the coming generation of retirees. This article first reviews the current status of retirement security in the United States and finds that all three legs of the retirement stool - Social Security, pensions, and private savings - are projected to fall short of contributing adequate resources for future retirees. The article then turns toward a discussion of the possible responses for averting this potential crisis. After exploring various alternatives and reviewing the principal changes wrought by the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the article sets out a three-step reform plan that addresses each leg of the retirement stool. First, the article suggests that the Social Security system could be saved from insolvency through a mix of relatively small payroll tax hikes and benefit reductions, including a slight rise in the retirement age. Second, with defined contribution plans becoming the new pension norm, changes in setting account default options could encourage both greater plan participation and improved plan security. Third, the article recommends the adoption of a modest refundable tax credit designed to encourage low and middle-income earners to build their own supplemental next eggs.


Between the first and second national forest soil inventory in the northeastern German lowlands a significant soil acidification took place with regionally varying intensity. It manifests itself in a reduced base saturation in the whole rooting zone. This applies to the base cations magnesium and calcium. For potassium, however, no significant changes were detected. The acidification dynamic is the strongest in the southern part of Brandenburg. The specific immission situation in this region during the past four decades explains this. Particularly in southern Brandenburg high dust depositions (fly ashes from brown coal-fired power stations) buffered the acid components and enriched the soil with base cati ons in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the reduction of these atmospheric depositions, the bases were obviously totally incorporated in the biomass or leached out with seepage water. Currently, the majority of the forest sites in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg are poor in basic nutrient elements (Ca, Mg, K). Especially the element magnesium is assumed to be lacking. This paper presents an assessment of the long-term availability of the nutrients Ca, Mg und K on the basis of calculated nutrient balances for various forest management scenarios (e.g. full-tree harvest). The results show that the sustainable supply is critical especially for intensive forest use on numerous sites.


For more than half a century, scholars have been studying legislative effectiveness using a single metric—whether the bills a member sponsors progress through the legislative process. We investigate a less orthodox form of effectiveness—bill proposals that become law as provisions of other bills. Counting these "hitchhiker" bills as additional cases of bill sponsorship success reveals a more productive, less hierarchical, and less partisan lawmaking process. We argue that agenda and procedural constraints are central to understanding why lawmakers pursue hitchhiker strategies. We also investigate the legislative vehicles that attract hitchhikers and find, among other things, that more Senate bills are enacted as hitchhikers on House laws than become law on their own.


Though the civil-military relations field has seen a lot of theoretical work in recent years, the field still lacks consistent overarching theories. This dissertation argues that the field requires a new and better theoretical framework. Scholars do not agree about how to define key concepts or how these concepts affect one another. They therefore have a tendency to talk past one another when debating and developing theories of civil-military relations.
This dissertation develops a new and more sophisticated theoretical framework for elite civil-military relations. The field's current theoretical framework was developed by Samuel Huntington in The Soldier and the State. This dissertation uses his framework as a starting point for a larger conceptual analysis, where political and military sociology, international relations, political theory, and military science are used to define the key concepts of civil-military relations.
There are two heterogeneous types of civil-military relations that should be studied separately: societal civil-military relations and elite civil-military relations. Political science approaches to civil-military relations, such as this dissertation, typically focus on the latter type. Elite civil-military relations consist of two separate fields of study: civilian control and military effectiveness. Elite civil-military relations function as a system that essentially depends on civilian overall preferences, the mutual trust between soldiers and civilians, the institutional set-up of the state, and the actual skills of civilian and military elites.
The dissertation challenges several of the field's established truths. It shows that one cannot claim that one civilian control policy is superior a priori. Instead, the choice of policy depends on the situational circumstances. It also shows that military professionalism plays a less significant role than commonly thought. It clarifies that civilian control depends on both the internal norms of the officer corps and the external control institutions of the state. Finally, it demonstrates that Samuel Huntington's work, though clearly impressive for its time, lacks the sophistication needed of a modern social science theory and theoretical framework. It therefore argues that the civil-military relations field should move beyond The Soldier and the State.


This structured literature review aims to identify the roles, trigger and results from the cooperation between corporations and NGOs in order to create sustainability in supply chain. The research reveals that there is the overlap in both roles and triggers in both from perspective of NGOs and corporations. The ultimate role that performed by both parties is sharing knowledge as it a consequence of the lack of knowledge which drive both parties to seek for partners to assist to achieve the certain goals. Besides that, the goals from both point of view are usually related but the corporations definitely expected to gain profit while NGOs anticipated to see the improvement within the society. Furthermore, the author also described the limitation as well as future research implications.


Chronic illnesses are becoming more prevalent worldwide breeding an interest in supporting patient care through electronic health information exchange. Through a study of diabetes patients and the specialists in their care network, the challenges involved in sharing health information from the two perspectives become apparent. There are opportunities in the design of electronic medical information exchange to support the patient's need for knowledge and specialist's need for data, bridging the gap that can lead to tensions and inefficiencies in the management of illness trajectories.


Recently, time and effort have been devoted to automatic texture mapping. It is possible to study the parameterization function and to describe the texture mapping process in terms of a functional optimization problem. Several methods of this type have been proposed to minimize deformations. However, these existing methods suffer from several limitations. For instance, it is difficult to put details of the texture in correspondence with features of the model, since most of the existing methods can only constrain iso-parametric curves. We introduce in this paper a new optimization-based method for parameterizing polygonal meshes with minimum deformations, while enabling the user to interactively define and edit a set of constraints. Each user-defined constraint consists of a relation linking a 3D point picked on the surface and a 2D point of the texture. Moreover, the non-deformation criterion introduced here can act as an extrapolator, thus making it unnecessary to constrain the border of the surface, in contrast with classic methods. To minimize the criterion, a conjugate gradient algorithm is combined with a compressed representation of sparse matrices, making it possible to achieve a fast convergence.


Recording of errors in regards to the usability of systems has traditionally focused on safety-critical systems and business support systems. This study applies Zapf et al.'s 'Taxonomy of Errors' to a non-work related context, an Online Grocery System. The taxonomy was found to show that similar types of errors were made by all users of such systems. However, the number of errors that were recorded by different user groups varied. This finding was in contrast to previous studies, and supported the common perception that beginner users make a greater number of errors than more experienced users.


Effective stewardship of data is a critical precursor to making data FAIR. The goal of this paper is to bring an overview of current state of the art of data management and data stewardship planning solutions (DMP). We begin by arguing why data management is an important vehicle supporting adoption and implementation of the FAIR principles, we describe the background, context and historical development, as well as major driving forces, being research initiatives and funders. Then we provide an overview of the current leading DMP tools in the form of a table presenting the key characteristics. Next, we elaborate on emerging common standards for DMPs, especially the topic of machine-actionable DMPs. As sound DMP is not only a precursor of FAIR data stewardship, but also an integral part of it, we discuss its positioning in the emerging FAIR tools ecosystem. Capacity building and training activities are an important ingredient in the whole effort. Although not being the primary goal of this paper, we touch also the topic of research workforce support, as tools can be just as much effective as their users are competent to use them properly. We conclude by discussing the relations of DMP to FAIR principles, as there are other important connections than just being a precursor.


The Protocol on Environmental Protection of the Antarctic Treaty stipulates that the protection of the Antarctic environment and associated ecosystems be considered in the planning and conducting of all activities in the Antarctic Treaty area. One of the key pollutants created by human activities in the Antarctic is noise, primarily caused by ship traffic (from tourism, fisheries, and research), but also by geophysical research (e.g., seismic surveys) and by research station support activities (including construction). Arguably, amongst the species most vulnerable to noise are marine mammals since they specialise in using sound for communication, navigation and foraging, and therefore have evolved the highest auditory sensitivity among marine organisms. Reported effects of noise on marine mammals in lower-latitude oceans include stress, behavioural changes such as avoidance, auditory masking, hearing threshold shifts, and—in extreme cases—death. Eight mysticete species, 10 odontocete species, and six pinniped species occur south of 60OS (i.e., in the Southern Ocean). For many of these, the Southern Ocean is a key area for foraging and reproduction. Yet, little is known about how these species are affected by noise. We review the current prevalence of anthropogenic noise and the distribution of marine mammals in the Southern Ocean, and the current research gaps that prevent us from accurately assessing noise impacts on Antarctic marine mammals. A questionnaire given to 29 international experts on marine mammals revealed a variety of research needs. Those that received the highest rankings were 1) improved data on abundance and distribution of Antarctic marine mammals, 2) hearing data for Antarctic marine mammals, in particular a mysticete audiogram, and 3) an assessment of the effectiveness of various noise mitigation options. The management need with the highest score was a refinement of noise exposure criteria. Environmental evaluations are a requirement before conducting activities in the Antarctic. Because of a lack of scientific data on impacts, requirements and noise thresholds often vary between countries that conduct these evaluations, leading to different standards across countries. Addressing the identified research needs will help to implement informed and reasonable thresholds for noise production in the Antarctic and help to protect the Antarctic environment.


We study the finitary version of the coalgebraic logic introduced by L. Moss. The syntax of this logic, which is introduced uniformly with respect to a coalgebraic type functor, required to preserve weak pullbacks, extends that of classical propositional logic with a so-called coalgebraic cover modality depending on the type functor. Its semantics is defined in terms of a categorically defined relation lifting operation. As the main contributions of our paper we introduce a derivation system, and prove that it provides a sound and complete axiomatization for the collection of coalgebraically valid inequalities. Our soundness and completeness proof is algebraic, and we employ Pattinson's stratification method, showing that our derivation system can be stratified in countably many layers, corresponding to the modal depth of the formulas involved. In the proof of our main result we identify some new concepts and obtain some auxiliary results of independent interest. We survey properties of the notion of relation lifting, induced by an arbitrary but fixed set functor. We introduce a category of Boolean algebra presentations, and establish an adjunction between it and the category of Boolean algebras. Given the fact that our derivation system involves only formulas of depth one, it can be encoded as a endo-functor on Boolean algebras. We show that this functor is finitary and preserves embeddings, and we prove that the Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra of our logic can be identified with the initial algebra for this functor.


Raman spectroscopy is a laser-based vibrational technique that can provide spectral signatures unique to a multitude of compounds. The technique is gaining widespread interest as a method for detecting hidden explosives due to its sensitivity and ease of use. In this work, we present a computationally efficient classification scheme for accurate standoff identification of several common explosives using visible-range Raman spectroscopy. Using real measurements, we evaluate and modify a recent correlation-based approach to classify Raman spectra from various both harmful and commonplace substances. The results show that the proposed approach can, at a distance of 30 meters, or more, successfully classify measured Raman spectra from several explosive substances, including Nitromethane, TNT, DNT, Hydrogen Peroxide, TATP and Ammonium Nitrate.


The increased depth of castellated beams presents stability problems, specifically during erection. During erection the castellated beam must support the weight of an erector and self-weight until the continuous bracing of the floor deck is in place. The stability of the unbraced member is based on its resistance to lateral-torsional buckling.
 The cross-sectional properties that are related to lateral-torsional buckling, such as out-of-plane bending, warping constant, and torsional constant were calculated using three different approaches to model the unique geometry of castellated beams. These properties were used in various lateral-torsional buckling solutions to determine which procedure should be used to check for this mode of failure. Two specimens were tested to evaluate the results of the analytical unbraced length determination process. The tests results were used to better model the contribution of the web-to-column flange double angle connection on the stability of the castellated beam.


Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most commonly diagnosed and sixth leading cause of cancer death in American men and one for which no curative therapy exists after metastasis. To meet this need for novel therapies, our laboratory has previously generated conditionally replicating adenovirus (CRAd) vectors expressing the sodium iodide symporter (hNIS). This virus transduced PCa cells and induced functional NIS expression, allowing for noninvasive tumor imaging and combination therapy with radioiodide, referred to as radiovirotherapy. We have now generated two new modified vectors to further improve efficacy. Ad5/3PB-ADP-hNIS and Ad5/3PB-hNIS include a hybrid Ad5/3 fiber knob to improve transduction efficiency, and express NIS from the endogenous major late promoter to restrict NIS expression to target cells. Additionally, Ad5/3PB-ADP-hNIS includes the adenovirus death protein (ADP), which hastens the release of viral particles after assembly. These two vectors specifically induce radioisotope uptake, cytopathic effect, and viral replication in androgen receptor-expressing PCa cell lines with Ad5/3PB-ADP-hNIS showing earlier (131)I uptake and cytolysis at low multiplicity of infection. SPECT-CT imaging of xenograft tumors infected with Ad5/3PB-hNIS showed steady uptake, whereas infection with Ad5/3PB-ADP-hNIS led to increasing uptake, indicating viral spread. Radiovirotherapy of xenograft LNCaP tumors with Ad5/3PB-ADP-hNIS showed the most significant survival extension versus control tumors (p=0.001), but the benefit of radiovirotherapy was not statistically significant compared with virotherapy alone in this model. These results show the potential of Ad5/3PB-ADP-hNIS as a vector for treatment of prostate cancer.


Staffordshire University has delivered the Certificate of Credit in Money Advice Practice (CMAP) in partnership with the Institute of Money Advisers (IMA) and since 2010 and over 1000 money advisers across the United Kingdom have achieved the qualification (Wright et al., 2014). CMAP graduates and employers expressed a need for an advanced specialist accreditation module for experienced money advisers to build on the CMAP. A Delphi study, a consensus method for curriculum design, was carried out to support the new course development. Participants were 13 experts in Money Advice Practice, including CMAP graduates. Three rounds of the Delphi process were carried out and consensus was obtained on course structure and content of modules, assessment, communication & support, professional competencies & skills, fees & duration, entry criteria, induction and materials and benefits of the advanced accreditation. The Delphi technique proved successful in involving experts in the design of a new course. A Feedback/ Feed forward event was also carried out to aid the process and the course is currently being developed.


Abstract This paper analyzes the relationship between youth unemployment and Palestinian violence. First a qualitative explanation of the underlying mechanism is given. Eventually, empirical results suggest that there is a positive association between the growth rate of youth unemployment and the brutality and incidence of violence, proxied by the numbers of victims, and incidents. Results also show that: (i) there is a negative association between the added value in the agricultural sector and both measures of violence; (ii) there is a positive association between the share of employment in agriculture and violence; (iii) there is a negative association between manufacturing added value and brutality of incidents. Results also suggest that male youth unemployment rather than female unemployment helps to explain Palestinian violence.


In England the division between RP  speakers, as we may call them, on the one hand, and educated English people who speak Standard English with some different accent, on the other, is a social one. One either speaks RP, or one does not, and, although some people's speech is strongly influenced by it when they go to a university where it is spoken, if the opportunity to learn it in youth does notarise, it might he difficult to acquire it later in life.


The experience of waiting for service is often the first direct interaction between customers and most service delivery processes. The literature on satisfaction with waiting has paralleled the literature on general service satisfaction, in which the relative importance of actual performance, perceived performance, and the disconfirmation between expected performance and perceived performance has been the subject of much debate. This paper presents an empirical study of satisfaction with waiting for service in a fast food environment. The study demonstrates that actual waiting time, perceived waiting time, and the disconfirmation between expected waiting time and perceived waiting time are all related to satisfaction with the waiting experience. It further demonstrates that the relative importance of each of these variables in predicting satisfaction depends on the differences in the needs of the customers. The implications for both theory and practice are significant: the importance of the perception of the experience increases as the importance of the satisfaction measure increases. More specifically, for customers who are concerned about time, the perception of the time spent waiting is a better predictor of satisfaction than the actual waiting time.


The current studies investigated the processing and storage of lexical metaphors and metonyms by combining two existing methodologies from ambiguity research: counting the number of senses (as in e.g., Rodd, Gaskell, & Marslen-Wilson, 2002) and determining the relationship between those senses (as in e.g., Klepousniotou & Baum, 2007). We have called these two types of ambiguity 'numerical polysemy' and 'relational polysemy'. Studies employing a lexical decision task (Experiment 1) and semantic categorization task (Experiment 2) compared processing of metaphorical and non-metaphorical words while controlling for number of senses. The effects of relational polysemy were investigated in more detail with a further lexical decision study (Experiment 3). Results showed a metaphor advantage and metonymy disadvantage which conflict with earlier findings of reverse patterns (e.g., Klepousniotou & Baum, 2007). The fact that both conventional lexical metaphors and metonyms can incur either processing advantages or disadvantages strongly suggests they are not inherently stored differently in the mental lexicon.


Neuroscience-based credibility-assessment tests have recently become increasingly mainstream, purportedly able to determine whether an individual is lying to a certain set of questions (the Control Question Test) or whether an individual recognizes information that only a liable person would recognize (the Concealed Information Test). Courts have hesitated to admit these tests as evidence for two primary reasons. First, following the general standard that credibility assessment is a matter solely for the trier of fact, courts exclude the evidence because it impinges on the province of the jury. Second, because these methods have not been rigorously tested in realistic scenarios, courts rule that they do not meet the Daubert criteria for admissibility of expert testimony. This Comment argues that while neuroscience-based credibility-assessment methods should not currently be admissible under the Daubert standard, they may become admissible with more research, and the courts should avoid creating precedent that would preclude their admissibility once reliability issues are addressed. Specifically, credibility assessment should not be left entirely to the trier of fact because social science evidence indicates that laypeople are poor at making credibility-assessment judgments based on behavioral cues. Additionally, even if courts continue to rule that evidence assessing whether a witness is telling the truth invades the province of the jury, this should not preclude neuroscience-based credibility assessment that merely shows that an individual recognizes something related to the issue at hand.


The objective of this doctoral research was to develop a versatile inverse heat transfer approach, that would enable the solution of small scale problems present in microelectronics, as well as the analysis of the complex heat flux in turbines. An inverse method is a mathematical approach which allows the resolution of problems starting from the solution. In a direct problem, the boundary conditions are given, and using the governing physics principles and equations you can calculate the solution or physical effect. In an inverse method, the solution is provided and through the physical equations, the boundary conditions can be determined. Therefore, the inverse method applied to heat transfer means that we know the variation of temperature (effect) over time and space. With the temperature input, the geometry, thermal properties of the test article and the heat diffusion equation, we can compute the spatially- and temporally-varying heat flux that generated the temperature map.This doctoral dissertation develops two inverse methodologies: (1) an optimization methodology based on the conjugate gradient method and (2) a function specification method combined with a regularization technique, which is less robust but much faster. We implement these methodologies with commercial codes for solving conductive heat transfer with COMSOL and for conjugate heat transfer with ANSYS Fluent.The goal is not only the development of the methods but also the validation of the techniques in two different fields with a common purpose: quantifying heat dissipation. The inverse methods were applied in the micro-scale to the dissipation of heat in microelectronics and in the macro-scale to the gas turbine engines.In microelectronics, we performed numerical and experimental studies of the two developed inverse methodologies. The intent was to predict where heat is being dissipated and localized hot spots inside of the chip from limited measurements of the temperature outside of the chip. Here, infrared thermography of the chip surface is the input to the inverse methods leveraging thermal model of the chip. Furthermore, we combined the inverse methodology with a Kriging interpolation technique with genetic algorithm optimization to optimize the location and number of the temperature sensors inside of the chip required to accurately predict the thermal behavior of the microchip at each moment of time and everywhere.In the application for gas turbine engines, the inverse method can be useful to detect or predict the conditions inside of the turbine by taking measurements in the outer casing. Therefore, the objective is the experimental validation of the technique in a wind tunnel especially designed with optical access for non-contact measurement techniques. We measured the temperature of the outer casing of the turbine rotor with an infrared camera and surface temperature sensors and this information is the input of the two methodologies developed in order to predict which the heat flux through the turbine casing. A new facility, specifically, an annular turbine cascade, was designed to be able to measure the relative frame of the rotor from the absolute frame. In order to get valuable data of the heat flux in a real engine, we need to replicate the Mach, Reynolds, and temperature ratios between fluid and solid. Therefore, the facility can reproduce a large range of pressures and flow temperatures. Because some regions of interest are not accessible, this researchprovides a significant benefit for understanding the system performance from limited data. With inverse methods, we can measure the outside of objects and provide an accurate prediction of the behavior of the complete system. This information is relevant not only for new designs of gas turbines or microchips, but also for old designs where due to lack of prevision there are not enough sensors to monitor the thermal behavior of the studied system.


In this work we discuss the inclusion of the students with visual differences considering his memories about school time. We collect verbal testimonies of three academic students with visual differences. Our intention was to understand as the relationships which were established throughout the school time may have helped these students to surpass the stigma of the exclusion. The analyses presented here are based on the historic-cultural psychology. According to this theory, the human psyche is constituted socially, bringing inside itself the mark of the culture in which the man is immersed. The presented results indicate that in their school history these students have passed by many difficulties that go from the lack of suitable materials, to the isolation because of the prejudice that the blind person or with other visual limitations have to daily face. The presented results indicate more that the pertaining to school history of these pupils elapsed in way to many difficulties, that had been being surpassed in the measure where these citizens pass of a situation of dependence for a situation of bigger control on its proper lives, with defined and valued social papers in its communities.


A complete description of multi-phase porous media systems requires inclusion of interfacial areas as well as phase volumes. Theoretical results indicate that interfacial areas should be related to capillary pressure and to volumetric saturations, and that other constitutive relationships should include interfacial areas in their functional dependencies. Computational pore-scale network models allow for quantification of the proposed constitutive relationships that involve interfacial areas. In addition, a new experimental technique, Photoluminescent Volumetric Imaging (PVI), provides an opportunity to measure interfacial areas, thereby testing both the theory and the computational results. A collaborative research effort involving theoretical analysis, computational models, and PVI-based experiments, is being pursued to investigate the role of interfacial areas in multi-phase porous-media systems.


During the transit through the epididymis, many morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of spermatozoa are modified, as part of the maturation process. Nuclear maturation continues in the epididymis through an increase in formation of protamine disulfide. Thus, penetration through the oocyte membranes could be facilitated for elongated spermatozoa with dramatically condensed chromatin and nuclear integrity. Therefore, size, shape, and nuclear defects could be used to estimate the stage-related nuclear transformations from early spermiogenesis to the end of epididymal transit. Nellore bulls (n = 9), 30-36 months old, with high seminal quality (>80% motile and morphologically normal sperm) were submitted to orchiectomy. Impressions in slides of the caput, corpus, and caudal regions of the epididymis were prepared for evaluation of morphology (Feulgen stain, phase-contrast microscopy at 1000 ×) and morphometry of the nuclear sperm. The slides were captured in a Motic 2300 camera adapted to the microscope and digitally assessed. Nuclear morphology was considered normal (without visible alterations), head defect (variations in shape and form), and nuclear defects (abnormal chromatin condensation and presence of vacuoles). Base, width, length (μm), and area (μm2) were estimated in least 60 sperm nuclei. No difference (P > 0.05) among epididymal regions for normal nuclei (70.3 ± 3.1%), head defects (3.4 ± 0.5%), and nuclear defects (5.3 ± 1.3%) were seen. The base was higher (2.68 ± 0.5 μm, P < 0.01) in the caput than corpus (2.44 ± 0.4 μm) and caudal regions (2.41 ± 0.4μm). Normal nuclei were associated (P < 0.01) with width (r = 0.20), length (r = 0.27), and area (r = 0.44) in the caput and with width (r = 0.21), length (r = 0.40), and area (r = 0.33) in the corpus of epididymis. Epididymal transit affected (P < 0.001) the measures and nuclear status that accounted for regression analysis: normal nucleus (40.254 + 3.027, length; R2 = 0.20), head defects (0.922 + 1.097, width + 0.093 × area; R2 = 0.26), and nuclear defects (6.993-0.496, length + 0.454, base; R2 = 0.23). The results suggest that important variations occur in the nuclear status during the epididymal transit in the bovine spermatozoa. The higher measures in the sperm base of the caput suggest a narrowing probably indicating the continuity of nuclear remodeling from the final steps of spermiogenesis. The area accounts for 20% of the nuclear shape variations along the epididymal segment. These events characterize the adaptation of nuclear membranes and chromatin structure surrounded by epididymal environment and comprise a part of the maturation process. Additionally, morphometric variations are associated with defects in the nuclear structures and can be used to determine the conditions of spermatogenesis and sperm maturation based on the evaluation of ejaculated semen. We thank CNPq/PROPP and Fundect for financial support.


ABSTRACT Different Escherichia coli strains generally have the same metabolic capacity for growth on sugars in vitro, but they appear to use different sugars in the streptomycin-treated mouse intestine (Fabich et al., Infect. Immun. 76:1143-1152, 2008). Here, mice were precolonized with any of three human commensal strains (E. coli MG1655, E. coli HS, or E. coli Nissle 1917) and 10 days later were fed 105 CFU of the same strains. While each precolonized strain nearly eliminated its isogenic strain, confirming that colonization resistance can be modeled in mice, each allowed growth of the other commensal strains to higher numbers, consistent with different commensal E. coli strains using different nutrients in the intestine. Mice were also precolonized with any of five commensal E. coli strains for 10 days and then were fed 105 CFU of E. coli EDL933, an O157:H7 pathogen. E. coli Nissle 1917 and E. coli EFC1 limited growth of E. coli EDL933 in the intestine (103 to 104 CFU/gram of feces), whereas E. coli MG1655, E. coli HS, and E. coli EFC2 allowed growth to higher numbers (106 to 107 CFU/gram of feces). Importantly, when E. coli EDL933 was fed to mice previously co-colonized with three E. coli strains (MG1655, HS, and Nissle 1917), it was eliminated from the intestine (<10 CFU/gram of feces). These results confirm that commensal E. coli strains can provide a barrier to infection and suggest that it may be possible to construct E. coli probiotic strains that prevent growth of pathogenic E. coli strains in the intestine.


When family lawyers and lawyer-mediators are working towards settlement, ethical quandaries present themselves on a daily basis. What process should a client use? What information should be disclosed to the other side? What types of conversations should a lawyer have with their client? Imbedded in each decision the professional makes are ethical elements. Innovation in alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") processes have created new environments for lawyers to navigate and to adapt to in their individual understanding of practicing well. As a result, many family lawyers are working in the shadows of litigation, or separate from it entirely as in the field of collaborative family law. ADR processes are often unregulated and fall outside of the scope of procedural rules. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to look at the following three sources that serve as guidance for family law lawyers and mediators when dealing with ethical challenges in ADR: existing academic research, mandatory codes of conduct and voluntary professional standards, and ethics in practice through empirical research. This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion about ethics and professionalism in innovative processes, and in particular what it means to behave ethically in family law ADR, by presenting empirical research gathered through round-table discussions with mediators, collaborative lawyers, and settlement-focused negotiators.


BACKGROUND Fibromyalgia (FM) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are devastating metabolic neuroimmune diseases that are difficult to diagnose because of the presence of numerous symptoms and a lack of specific biomarkers. Despite patient heterogeneity linked to patient subgroups and variation in disease severity, anomalies are found in the blood and plasma of these patients when compared with healthy control groups. The seeming specificity of these "plasma factors", as recently reported by Ron Davis and his group at Stanford University, CA, United States, and observations by our group, have led to the proposal that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) may be used as metabolic sensors for FM and ME/CFS, a hypothesis that is the basis for this in-depth review. AIM To identify metabolic signatures in FM and/or ME/CFS supporting the existence of disease-associated plasma factors to be sensed by iPSCs. METHODS A PRISMA (Preferred Reported Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis)-based systematic review of the literature was used to select original studies evaluating the metabolite profiles of FM and ME/CFS body fluids. The MeSH terms "metabolomic" or "metabolites" in combination with FM and ME/CFS disease terms were screened against the PubMed database. Only original studies applying omics technologies, published in English, were included. The data obtained were tabulated according to the disease and type of body fluid analyzed. Coincidences across studies were searched and P-values reported by the original studies were gathered to document significant differences found in the disease groups. RESULTS Eighteen previous studies show that some metabolites are commonly altered in ME/CFS and FM body fluids. In vitro cell-based assays have the potential to be developed as screening platforms, providing evidence for the existence of factors in patient body fluids capable of altering morphology, differentiation state and/or growth patterns. Moreover, they can be further developed using approaches aimed at blocking or reversing the effects of specific plasma/serum factors seen in patients. The documented high sensitivity and effective responses of iPSCs to environmental cues suggests that these pluripotent cells could form robust, reproducible reporter systems of metabolic diseases, including ME/CFS and FM. Furthermore, culturing iPSCs, or their mesenchymal stem cell counterparts, in patient-conditioned medium may provide valuable information to predict individual outcomes to stem-cell therapy in the context of precision medicine studies. CONCLUSION This opinion review explains our hypothesis that iPSCs could be developed as a screening platform to provide evidence of a metabolic imbalance in FM and ME/CFS.


Humanizing Deportation is a community archive of digital stories (testimonial video shorts) that recounts personal experiences related to deportation and deportability. The largest qualitative archive in the world on this topic, its bilingual (English/Spanish) open access website, as of March 2020, holds close to 300 digital stories by nearly 250 different community storytellers and continues to expand. All digital stories are created and directed by the community storytellers themselves. While the vast majority of the stories were created by Mexican migrants currently living in Mexico's largest border cities (Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez), and other major urban metropolitan regions (Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey), it also includes some stories of migrants living in the United States, as well as other migrants, many in transit, passing through Mexico from such countries as Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, and as far from North America as Cameroon. Launched in 2017, Humanizing Deportation's teams of academic facilitators remain active, and the archive continues to grow.


Abstract INTRODUCTION Most business schools originated in the latter half of the twentieth century. Often they were staffed by individuals from the business environment who were not skilled in teaching or research methods. The new academics were required to facilitate the learning of students in an academic environment. Often they adopted a narrowly focused approach to knowledge creation, scientific positivism, because the approach was well accepted in society generally and they believed such an approach was expected of them. METHOD We provide details from our personal histories, and from the literature, to demonstrate that scientific positivism has often provided an unsuitable base for the development of teaching, learning, and critical thinking skills in business graduates. We are critical of our broad working environment during the last decades of the twentieth century, because it has been dominated by the scientific positivism approach to understanding. ANALYSIS We argue that any search for universal solutions to problems of learning, as encouraged by scientific positivism, is futile because such universals do not exist. However, much energy is being expended business academics seeking to improve the learning environments in their classrooms. A more accommodating approach to educational research is required. CONCLUSION Business academics may benefit, from the employment of an action learning methodology.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the origin of the near-infrared autofluorescence (AF) of the fundus detected by scanning laser ophthalmoscopy and compare the distribution of this AF with that of lipofuscin.

METHODS
AF [787] fundus images (excitation [Exc.] 787 nm; emission [Emi.] >800 nm) were recorded with a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope, in 85 normal subjects (ages: 11-77 years) and in 25 patients with AMD and other retinal diseases. Standard AF [488] images (Exc. 488 nm; Emi. >500 nm) were recorded in a subset of the population.

RESULTS
The fovea exhibits higher AF[787] than the perifovea in an area approximately 8 degrees in diameter, roughly equivalent to the area of higher RPE melanin seen in AF[488] and color images. The ratio of foveal to perifoveal AF[787] decreases with age (P < 0.0001) and is higher in subjects with light irides (P = 0.04). Higher AF[787] emanates from hyperpigmentation, from the choroidal pigment (nevi, outer layers) and from the pigment epithelium and stroma of the iris. Low AF[787] is observed in geographic atrophy particularly in subjects with light irides.

CONCLUSIONS
AF[787] originates from the RPE and to a varying degree from the choroid. Oxidized melanin, or compounds closely associated with melanin, contributes substantially to this AF, but other fluorophores cannot be excluded at this stage. Confocal AF[787] imaging may provide a new modality to visualize pathologic features of the RPE and the choroid, and, together with AF[488] imaging, offers a new tool to study biological changes associated with aging of the RPE and pathology.


Wild, defiant and startlingly inventive, The Slits were ahead of their time. Although they created some unique hybrids - dub reggae and pop-punk, African rhythms, funk and free jazz - they were dismissed as being unable to play. Their lyrics were witty and perceptive while their influential first album challenged perceptions of punk and of girl bands - but they were still misunderstood. And that infamous debut album cover, with the band appearing topless and mud-daubed, prompted further misreadings of the first ladies of punk. Author Zoe Street Howe speaks to The Slits themselves, to former manager Don Letts, mentor and PIL guitarist Keith Levene and many other friends and colleagues to discover exactly how The Slits phenomenon came about and to celebrate the legacy of a seminal band long overdue its rightful acclaim. Too long seen as a note in the margin of the history of rock, The Slits at last get a fair hearing in this revealing biography.


Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a metaheuristic for solving high dimensional optimization problems. Due to the large number of dimensions usually employed with PSO, it is not trivial to visualize and monitor the progress of the algorithm. Because of this, adjusting the parameters that govern the dynamics of the swarm for a specific problem becomes challenging. In this article, we present SwarmViz, an open-source visualization tool for PSO. Through SwarmViz, users are able to set up PSO experiments on canonical benchmark functions or input data from external experiments (e.g., learning robotic controllers), and to visualize the optimization process with state-of-the-art visualization tools. SwarmViz has two main goals. First, to enable researchers to monitor the progress of their specific optimization problem and adjust the relevant PSO parameters. Second, to give a visual insight about PSO to students in the scope of teaching optimization techniques. We demonstrate the features of the software through examples on well-known numerical benchmark functions and a case study on the optimization of a robotic controller.


The South African Karoo Basin preserves a continental record across the Permian/Triassic Boundary in which both plant and vertebrate fossil assemblages may co-occur. The Upper Permian part of the Beaufort Group, a shallow-water fluvial succession spans this boundary. The Estcourt Formation previously was interpreted to be part of this group representing shallow bay fill, the result of overbank deposition. This interpretation implies that sedimentation occurred along the margins of a large, shallowing basin during the Late Permian. Recent work in a series of outcrops at Wagendrift Dam, near the town of Estcourt, requires a reinterpretation of this setting. Three outcrops consist of eight facies, six of which are characteristic of a submarine turbidite system. Basal-most massively bedded sandstones, interpreted as submarine channel deposits are overlain by millimeter-scale, fining upwards couplets of siltstone to mudstone that are distal turbidite in origin. Millimeter-scale bedding is undisturbed and bioturbation is limited, indicating deposition within a low oxygen zone. Ripple cross laminated and ball-and-pillow sandstones, overlain by a finer, massive siltstone are indicative of more proximal turbidites, which is further supported by the presence of large, localized olistoliths (slump blocks) in which internal bedding is preserved. Millimeter-to-centimeter scale upwards-fining successions of planar to ripple cross laminated beds of coarser (fine sand, coarse silt) sedimentary rocks overlain by finer siltstone represent a continuation of proximal turbidite conditions. Thick, ripple-bedded sandstones cap the section, representing a major change in depositional setting into a turbidite fan channel system. The sedimentological characteristics of this succession suggest that although these rocks are assigned to the Latest Permian Beaufort Group, they are, in fact, part of the Ecca Group. Palynomorphs recovered from the quarry are of Late Permian age and consist of taeniate and non-taeniate bisaccate pollen, and spores. Assignment of the assemblage, based on partial canonical correspondence analysis, places the Wagendrift palynoflora in the lower part of Aitken's Biozone VI (Volkrust Formation; Wujiapingian). These results indicate that turbidite sedimentation similar to that in the southern and western part of the basin persisted into the Late Permian of KwaZulu-Natal.


Werner Sombart (1863-1941) may well have been the most famous and controversial social scientist in Germany during the early twentieth century. Highly influential, his work and reputation have been indelibly tainted by his embrace of National Socialism in the last decade of his life. Although Sombart left an enormous opus spanning disciplinary boundaries, intellectual reaction to his work inside and outside of Germany is divided and ambivalent. Sombart consistently responded to the social and political developments that have shaped the twentieth century. Economic Life in the Modern Age provides a representative sampling of those portions of Sombart's work that have stood the test of time. The volume opens with a substantial introduction reviewing Sombart's life and career, the evolution of his major intellectual concerns, his relation to Marx and Weber, and his political affiliation with the Nazis. The editors' selection of texts emphasizes areas of Sombart's economic and cultural thought that remain relevant, particularly to those intellectual trends that seek a more broadly based, cross-disciplinary approach to culture and economics. Sombart's writings on capitalism are represented by essays on the nature and origin of the market system and the diversity of motives among the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Also included is an excerpt from Sombart's controversial The Jews and Modern Capitalism, exploring the widely perceived relation between economic life and Judaism as a religion. In essays on the economics of cultural processes, Sombart's comprehensive and expansive idea of cultural science yields prophetic insights into the nature of urbanism, luxury consumption, fashion, and the cultural secularization of love. The volume's final section consists of Sombart's reflections on the social influences of technology, the economic life of the future, and on socialism, including the influential essay "Why is there no Socialism in the United States." Encapsulating the most valuable aspects of his work, Economic Life in the Modern Age provides clear demonstration of Sombart's sense for fine cultural distinctions and broad cultural developments and the predictive power of his analyses. It will be of interest to sociologists, economists, political scientists, and specialists in cultural studies.


BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular risk reduction in ambulatory patients who survive myocardial infarction (MI) is effective but underused. We sought to evaluate a provider-directed, Internet-delivered intervention to improve cardiovascular management for post-MI outpatients.

METHODS
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) MI-Plus study was a cluster-randomized trial involving 168 community-based primary care clinics and 847 providers in 26 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2008, with the clinic as the randomization unit. We collected administrative data for 15,847 post-MI patients and medical record data for 10,452 of these. A multicomponent, Internet-delivered intervention included quarterly educational modules, practice guidelines, monthly literature summaries, and automated e-mail reminders delivered to providers for 27 months. Main outcome measures included percentage of patients who achieved each of 7 clinical indicators, a composite score of the 7 clinical indicators, and mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and hemoglobin A(1c) levels.

RESULTS
Clinics had a median of 3 providers (interquartile range, 2-6), with a median of 50.0% of providers (33.3%-66.7%) participating in the study. Patients in intervention clinics had greater improvements (from 70.0% to 85.5%) in the percentages prescribed β-blockers than patients in control clinics (71.9% to 84.0%; adjusted improvement gain for intervention vs control, 2.6%; 95% CI, 0.1%-4.1%). We found nonsignificant differences in improvements favoring patients in intervention clinics for 5 of 6 remaining clinical indicators and levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and hemoglobin A(1c).

CONCLUSION
A longitudinal, Internet-delivered intervention improved only 1 of 7 clinical indicators of cardiovascular management in ambulatory post-MI patients.


This chapter examines the important theory of legal positivism that has long dominated jurisprudence. It explains the core ideas of the theory, and then considers the leading proponents of classical legal positivism, especially the leading nineteenth century philosophers, Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. Bentham is best known as a utilitarian and law reformer, but he insisted on the separation between the 'is' and 'ought' of law, or what he preferred to call 'expositorial' and 'censorial' jurisprudence, respectively. Austin was equally emphatic in maintaining this distinction, but his analysis is generally regarded as much narrower in scope and objective than Bentham's.


Export patterns for U.S. and Canadian hard wheats (HAD, HRS, HRW, CWRS, and CWAD) were examined. Analysis incorporated grade and non-grade factors from U.S. shipments and grades and classes of Canadian exports. Shift-share analysis was used to examine changes in market shares for classes and grades. Cluster analysis was used to group importers of U.S. wheat classes based on like grade and non- grade factors of wheat shipments. Canada exports most of its hard wheat as No. 1, while the U.S. exports predominately No. 2 or better. Classes experiencing increased market shares include HRS, CWRS, and CWAD. U.S. HRS, HRW, and HAD all showed patterns of increasing market shares for No. 1 over lesser grades from the early 1980s to 1990s. Importer comparisons indicated that in many cases, countries imported largely No. 1 from Canada and lesser grades from the U.S. (predominately No. 2 or better). Clustering analysis indicated an increase in the number of distinct segments of wheat importers from 1986-89 to 1991-94. Composition of market segments also changed with many countries moving from one segment to another from one year to the next.


In December 1972, as the bloodiest year of the conflict in Northern Ireland drew to its close, Jean McConville, a thirty-seven-year-old widowed mother of ten, was taken from her home in Belfast. A gang of men and women had entered the family home in the Divis Flats area of the city, and dragged Jean from her bath. In front of her terrified children, they
bundled her into a van and took her away. Her family never saw her again. Her body was buried, some sixty odd miles from where she was taken, and for almost thirty years, the IRA denied having anything to do with her disappearance. After Jean's remains were officially identified, her family laid their mother's body to rest with that of her husband in Lisburn
(October 2003). Our Lady of the Goldfinches emerges from Jane McNulty's friendship with Jean's daughter, Helen, who cannot find peace of mind, even now. Jane writes of Helen,
"She needs to know details: when did her mother die, the night of her abduction, or some time later? Where did she spend those last hours and moments, and how? Who killed
Jean McConville and who ordered her killing? And why?" This essay combines a critique of contemporary documentary theatre practice with an account of the creation of a play
which explores these events and the questions to which they give rise.


It is hypothesised that the lateral habenula (LHb) plays an important role in reinforcement learning and mood regulation. Experiments have shown that the LHb is excited by aversive events, is causally involved in avoidance learning, and its dysfunctions are implicated in clinical depression. The LHb receives inputs from the limbic system and the basal ganglia, and projects to the major dopaminergic and serotonergic nuclei. Previously, we have explored the morphological and electrophysiological properties of LHb neurons in rat brain slices. The cells were categorised into neurogliaform, spherical, fusiform, polymorphic and vertical cells. Observed spontaneous firing patterns fell into 4 categories: silent, tonic regular, tonic irregular and rhythmic bursting (SIL, TR, TIR and BST). An interesting finding is that, with the exception of neurogliaform cells, the membrane properties of the neurons are very similar, and morphology does not correlate with the firing pattern. Importantly, the injection of small currents can change the pattern from SIL to TR to BST. Our current hypothesis is that these neurons are functionally similar, with slight variability resulting in heterogeneous spiking behaviour. In this work we explore this variability using computational modelling. We use the adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire neuronal model to replicate the firing patterns observed in LHb neurons. This model has been shown to be able to replicate a wide range of realistic spiking patterns, while remaining simple and very efficient. To identify parameters corresponding to the observed diversity of spiking patterns, a systematic computational approach is used. For each potential combination of parameter values, the model is tested and features such as frequency or number of spikes per burst are extracted and saved. Finally, a sliding window approach is used to identify a small region of the feature map containing the desired proportions of each of the observed pattern. The model demonstrates all behaviours so far observed in the LHb with very similar neuronal properties. In addition, small input variations can result in the LHb neurons crossing between regions with different behaviours, resulting in large output variations. This hints at neurocomputational properties similar to a switching mechanism. In further work, this single cell model will be expanded into a biologically inspired model of the LHb and its relations to other brain structures.In summary, our work suggests that LHb neurons may operate in the vicinity of multiple behavioural regimes. Our computational search algorithm can also be extended to solve other computational neuroscience problems.


The Bank of Canada's Currency Department has used the Canadian Financial Monitor (CFM) survey since 2009 to track Canadians' cash usage, payment card ownership and usage, and the adoption of payment innovations. A new online CFM survey was launched in 2018. Because it uses non-probability sampling for data collection, selection bias is very likely. We outline various methods for obtaining survey weights and discuss the associated conditions necessary for these weights to eliminate selection bias. In the end, we obtain calibration weights for the 2018 and 2019 online CFM samples. Our final weights improve upon the default weights provided by the survey company in several ways: (i) we choose the calibration variables based on a fully documented selection procedure that employs machine learning techniques; (ii) we use very up-to-date calibration totals; (iii) for each survey year we obtain two sets of weights, one for the full yearly sample of CFM respondents, the other for the sub-sample of CFM respondents who also filled in the methods-of-payment module of the survey.


Between 1998 and 2006, the memory of slavery in France developed from a marginalized issue into a priority of the state. This article examines the process in which community activists and state actors interacted with and against one another to integrate remembrance and the commemoration of slavery and its abolitions into a Republican national narrative. It focuses on a series of actions from the protests against the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1998 to the creation of the 10 May National Memorial Day to Slavery and Its Abolitions in 2006. Basing its analysis on oral history interviews and various publications, this article argues that "memory activists"—and particularly new anti-racist groups—mobilized the memory of slavery to address issues of community identity and resistance within the context of twenty-first-century republicanism. In so doing, they articulated a new kind of black identity in France.


The influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on 2 major zooplankton species ofthe eastern North Atlantic and the North Sea, Calanus finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus (Copepoda, Calanoida), was investigated. Our results confirm that from December to April, west wind stress (WWS) intensity and temperature are strongly related to the NAO. If these results were expected, more striking were the close relationships between NAO and Calanus species abundance. Fluctuations in abundance of C. finmarchicus mainly result from the combination of 2 factors, both driven by the NAO: WWS effects on spring primary production and temperature. The case of C. helgolandicus is more complicated,as the links between this species and the NAO result from the combination of several factors. Two of these factors, spatial heterogeneity of WWS strength over the area and temperature, are directly driven by the NAO. The third one, competition between the 2 Calanus species, is indirectly influenced by the NAO. Biogeographical boundaries of the 2 copepods are also modified by the NAO. Thus, in a comparable way to the El Nifio Southern Oscillation in the Pacific, the NAO impacts the pelagic ecosystem of the eastern Atlantic and the North Sea.


BACKGROUND
Onychomycosis is a fungal nail disorder that does not have a successful cure due to the poor permeability of topical anti-fungal drugs through the nail. This study utilizes ultrasound to increase the permeability of the nail to the topical drugs currently used in clinic. The first aim of this study was to optimize ultrasonic parameters within the temperature increase limits set by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) and the British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS). The second aim of the study was to evaluate the optimized parameters for a cause of action of either cavitation (the creation of micrometer pores in the nail barrier) or acoustic streaming (a steady fluid motion which may help push the drug through the nail).

METHODS
Porcine and human nails are used in the five studies. PZFlex Modeling Software is used to model the temperature increase in the toe as a result of ultrasonic application and these results were used to develop the three parameters tested throughout the rest of the studies. The three parameters tested were 1 min of continuous ultrasonic application, 3 min of 50% ultrasonic application and 5 min of 50% ultrasonic application. In order to address the second aim of our research work, these three parameters were tested for the presence of streaming and cavitation.

RESULTS
At the three tested parameters, the most permeation of the nail occurs with 1 min of continuous application of ultrasound to the nail. It was also found that there was limited cavitation and significant streaming at all three parameters. This suggests that streaming may be the main mechanism-of-action in ultrasound-mediated drug delivery through the nail.

CONCLUSION
The parameter of 1 min of continuous ultrasonic testing will continue to be employed as the testing is moved to a rabbit model of onychomycosis.


In this article I try to show that the relationship between grammar teaching and grammar learning is not as close as one often assumes on intuitional grounds. My arguments are based on research at the University of Amsterdam. They are of a psychological, didactic and psycholinguistic nature.In the first place, teachers assume too easily that learners will integrate into their knowledge system the rules presented to them during the instruction in more or less the same way in which these rules have been presented. Instead, learners have their own individual way of internalizing knowledge. They not only build up an incomplete network of rules, but they also invent idiosyncratic rules that cannot be explained by L1, L2, or the instruction (Van der Linden 1985).Secondly, it seems that these networks of rules resist restructuring. That is, new rules are incorporated into the system with some difficulty; the learner seems to prefer to stick to what he already knows.In the third place, grammar tests do not always seem to test precisely the things that were taught during instruction. From the more or less complete set of rules taught, the "simple" rules are often absent in the tests, because it is supposed that these are known by all students. Therefore, it is mainly the "difficult" rules, i.e. "exceptions" that figure in the test. As a consequence, a student's results do not reflect his language proficiency in an everyday sense which is why native speakers have often great problems in making these tests). Obtaining a 80% score (a com-monly used norm to pass the exam) means a more than 80% mastery of the rules concerned.Finally, there is a discrepancy between the knowledge presen-ted to the student in the instruction and the knowledge acquired in other learning situations. This difference concerns the register of the language. Whereas the student is confronted with different registers in his learning process (poetic, familiar, "argot",...), the grammar instruction (and test) limits itself to the norm of the standard language ("francais standard"), and considers expressions of another register incorrect.For all these reasons, there are discrepanties between the teaching and the learning of grammar. Careful research and reflection on this problem could lead to a closer relationship between both activities.


Human Computer Interaction is how to make a good communication between computer and user. In its development, not only focused on usability aspect and technical, but also how to make product more persuasive in psychological aspect. Kansei Engineering (KE) comes to fulfill the product designing which involves user's psychological or affective factors. There are several KE method in designing product, one of them is Kansei Engineering Type I which is involved in this research. The purpose in this research is to know some psychological factors related with web based interface e-learning design and how to make web based e-learning guideline matrix recommendation by Kansei Engineering Type I.  10 web based e-learning specimens, 20 Kansei Words and 30 participants are involved in the research.


The ratification of the Geneva Convention on Transboundary Air Pollution in March of 1983 showed that nations of Eastern and Western Europe were determined to control the problem of acid rain. In the same year, IIASA offered its analytical skills to the international community to help solve the problem. It did so by entering into official cooperation with the UN Economic Commission of Europe (ECE) which is responsible for implementing the convention. As part of this cooperation IIASA is developing a computer model which can be used by decision makers to evaluate policies for controlling the impact of acid rain in Europe. In addition, we hope that our work will help identify gaps in understanding the acid rain problem and stimulate the research necessary to overcome these gaps.

This paper describes the status of the acid rain model after approximately one year's work. It also presents some examples of how the model is used and the type of information it provides.


This research was carried out to determine the genetic effects of divergent selection under two different selection pressures for four week body weight over three generations on reproductive characteristics and some egg characteristics in Japanese quail. Birds were weighed individually. Individual selection for body weight was carried out at four weeks, separately for each sex. The proportion kept was 10% for males and 30% for females in 10Y and 10D lines, and 20% for males and 60% females in 20Y and 20D lines. 10Y and 20Y lines were selected for high body weight, 10D and 20D lines were selected for low body weight. Age at sexual maturity was not affected by lines and generations. Average age at sexual maturity was 46 days. Early death rates were decreased by selection. But mid term and late deaths were not affected by selection. Average early, mediavel and late embryonic mortalities were %7.99, %13.47 and %15.93 in Y lines and %7.25, %10.36 and %20.49 in D lines. There were not differences in fertility and hatchability among lines. Fertility was increased by selection. Hatchability did not change. Fertility, hatchability of fertile eggs and hatchability of all eggs over generations were %79.82, %54.46 and %43.39 respectively. All egg characteristics except shell weight per unit surface area were changed by selection. Egg weight, shape index, albumen index was affected by lines. Egg weight, albumen index and yolk index during the selection increased from 10.24 g to 11.45 g, from 11.56 to 14.03 and from 45.37 to 48.86 respectively. Yolk percentage and form index decreased from 33.83 to 32.22 and from 82.23 to 79.74 respectively. Average Haugh unit and shell weight per unit surface area over the generations were 95.21 and 40.39 mg/cm 2 respectively.


The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and its amazing 'White City' was one of the wonders of the world. This is the incredible story of its realization, and of the two men whose fates it linked: one was an architect, the other a serial killer. The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel. In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium. These two disparate but driven men together with a remarkable supporting cast of colourful characters, including as Buffalo Bill, George Ferris, Thomas Edison and some of the 27 million others who converged on the dazzling spectacle of the White City, are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century.


There is a growing body of literature that supports the idea that decision making involves not only cognition, but also emotion and intuition. However, following extant "dual-process" decision theories, the emotional and intuitive aspects of decision making have predominantly been considered as one "experiential" entity. The purpose of this article is to review the neurological evidence for a three-factor model of head, heart, and gut aspects of embodied cognition in decision making and to report on a study carried out to design and validate a psychometric instrument that measures decision-making preferences across three separable interoceptive components, representing the complex, functional, and adaptive neural networks (or "brains") of head (analytical/cognitive), heart (emotional/affective), and gut (intuition). Development and validation of the Multiple Brain Preference Questionnaire (MBPQ) instrument was carried out in three phases. Translational validity was assessed using content and face validity. Construct validity was undertaken via exploratory factor analysis of the results from the use of the instrument with 301 subjects from a global sampling, and reliability tests were performed using internal consistency and test–retest analysis. Results confirmed extraction of three factors (head, heart, and gut) was appropriate and reliability analysis showed the MBPQ to be both valid and reliable. Applications of the tool to coaching and leadership are suggested.


The article explores linkages between the transnational activities of a Canadian oil company operating in Sudan and the human rights and humanitarian violations committed by the government of Sudan against the people of southern Sudan in the course of the ongoing civil war. The specific impact of the armed conflict on women is recounted in microcosm through a meeting between the author, a member of a fact-finding mission to Sudan, and a group of Nuer women. The encounter also provides an opportunity to query and theorize rhetorical strategies deployed within a context of profound asymmetries of power. These discursive appeals are designed to generate both solidarity and accountability among women for the violation of fundamental human rights. The author warns against attributing fixed and invariant meanings to particular tropes (such as sisterhood), arguing instead for an evaluation that takes into account the specific context within which discourses are deployed, including the position and agency of the speaker in relation to the listener.


Cross-cultural psychology has played a very important role in identifying, describing, and even explaining psychological structures that are involved in the perception of interpersonal behavior. This chapter reviews work based on the research paradigm of subjective culture, which establishes that at least three interpersonal dimensions have been identified across cultures and historical periods: Association-Dissociation, Superordination-Subordination, and Intimacy-Formality. These three dimensions are often conceptualized as psychological universals, a notion that raises the question of the origins of the dimensions. By starting with the fundamental assumption that all social behavior is based on resource exchange, the chapter reviews a framework that attempts to account for the emergence of social meanings through time. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. This article is available in Online Readings in Psychology and Culture: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol5/iss4/1


Understanding how the D-Wave quantum computer could be used for machine learning problems is of growing interest. Our work explores the feasibility of using the D-Wave as a sampler for a machine learning task. We describe a hybrid method that combines a classical deep neural network autoencoder with a quantum annealing Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) using the D-Wave for image generation. Our method overcomes two key limitations in the 2000-qubit D-Wave processor, namely the limited number of qubits available to accommodate typical problem sizes for fully connected quantum objective functions, and samples that are binary pixel representations. As a consequence of these limitations we are able to show how we achieved nearly a 22-fold compression factor of grayscale 28 x 28 sized images to binary 6 x 6 sized images with a lossy recovery of the original 28 x 28 grayscale images. We further show how generating samples from the D-Wave after training the RBM, resulted in 28 x 28 images that were variations of the original input data distribution, as opposed to recreating the training samples. We evaluated the quality of this method by using a downstream classification method. We formulated a MNIST classification problem using a deep convolutional neural network that used samples from the quantum RBM to train the MNIST classifier and compared the results with a MNIST classifier trained with the original MNIST training data set, as well as a MNIST classifier trained using classical RBM samples. We also explored using a secondary dataset, the MNIST Fashion dataset and demonstrate the first quantum-generated fashion. Our hybrid autoencoder approach indicates advantage for RBM results relative to the use of a current RBM classical computer implementation for image-based machine learning and even more promising results for the next generation D-Wave quantum system. Our method for compression and image mappings is not constrained to RBMs, the autoencoder part of this method could be coupled with other quantum-based algorithms.


ABSTRACT I study the effect of an education-leave subsidy for the employed on labor-market outcomes and educational attainment using Finnish administrative linked employer-employee panel data and matching methods. The adult education allowance is available to employees with at least eight years of work experience and allows them to take a leave for 2–18 months to participate in an education program. I find large positive treatment effects on educational attainment and changing occupation. The treatment effects on earnings and employment are negative during the lock-in period and close to zero afterward. The effects are more positive for the less educated.


Abstract. The relationship between surface infrared (IR) emissivity and soil moisture content has been investigated based on satellite measurements. Surface soil moisture content can be estimated by IR remote sensing, namely using the surface parameters of IR emissivity, temperature, vegetation coverage, and soil texture. It is possible to separate IR emissivity from other parameters affecting surface soil moisture estimation. The main objective of this paper is to examine the correlation between land surface IR emissivity and soil moisture. To this end, we have developed a simple yet effective scheme to estimate volumetric soil moisture (VSM) using IR land surface emissivity retrieved from satellite IR spectral radiance measurements, assuming those other parameters impacting the radiative transfer (e.g., temperature, vegetation coverage, and surface roughness) are known for an acceptable time and space reference location. This scheme is applied to a decade of global IR emissivity data retrieved from MetOp-A infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer measurements. The VSM estimated from these IR emissivity data (denoted as IR-VSM) is used to demonstrate its measurement-to-measurement variations. Representative 0.25-deg spatially-gridded monthly-mean IR-VSM global datasets are then assembled to compare with those routinely provided from satellite microwave (MW) multisensor measurements (denoted as MW-VSM), demonstrating VSM spatial variations as well as seasonal-cycles and interannual variability. Initial positive agreement is shown to exist between IR- and MW-VSM (i.e., R2  =  0.85). IR land surface emissivity contains surface water content information. So, when IR measurements are used to estimate soil moisture, this correlation produces results that correspond with those customarily achievable from MW measurements. A decade-long monthly-gridded emissivity atlas is used to estimate IR-VSM, to demonstrate its seasonal-cycle and interannual variation, which is spatially coherent and consistent with that from MW measurements, and, moreover, to achieve our objective of investigating the relationship between land surface IR emissivity and soil moisture.


This self-teaching guide is the fast and easy way to learn Lean Six Sigma, the revolutionary process and quality improvement methodology. You'll learn to analyze projects quickly, identify and eliminate waste, cut costs and grow revenue, and increase quality and efficiency. A 180-day trial version of Lean Six Sigma QI Macros for Excel will be available for download from the author's website.


Recombination is a process that unlinks neighbouring loci allowing for independent evolutionary trajectories within genomes of many organisms. If not properly accounted for, recombination can compromise many evolutionary analyses. In addition, when dealing with organisms that are not obligately sexually reproducing, recombination gives insight into the rate at which distinct genetic lineages come into contact. Since June, 2012, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has caused 1106 laboratory-confirmed infections, with 421 MERS-CoV associated deaths as of April 16, 2015. Although bats are considered as the likely ultimate source of zoonotic betacoronaviruses, dromedary camels have been consistently implicated as the source of current human infections in the Middle East. In this paper we use phylogenetic methods and simulations to show that MERS-CoV genome has likely undergone numerous recombinations recently. Recombination in MERS-CoV implies frequent co-infection with distinct lineages of MERS-CoV, probably in camels given the current understanding of MERS-CoV epidemiology.


We describe the development of the Dirac R-matrix with pseudo-states (DRMPS) method for electron and photon collisions with arbitrary atoms and ions. An N-electron atom is represented by an anti-symmetrized product of single-particle spinors comprising the usual four-component Dirac spinors as well as paired two-component Laguerre spinors (L-spinors). The convergent L-spinor basis forms a discretization of the electron and positron continua. This representation has been implemented quite generally within the general relativistic atomic structure package (grasp) specifically grasp0. An (N + 1)th 'scattering' electron is represented by the exact same L-spinor basis plus the usual R-matrix box-state spinors which are chosen so as to form a combined complete finite linearly independent orthogonal basis. The (non-diagonal) Buttle correction is determined consistently. This representation has been implemented quite generally within the Dirac atomic R-matrix code (DARC). Results of some simple model problems are presented which demonstrate the correctness of the implementation.


A generalized tomographic reconstruction procedure is described for determining the complex-valuedindex-of-refraction distribution of a semitransparent, three-dimensional inhomogeneous object from observations of the far-field intensity patterns generated by the object in a sequence of scattering experiments. The inversion procedure is based on the wave equation governing the scattered optical field and fully accounts for the diffraction and propagation effects associated with the interaction of the incident wave with the object and the subsequent free-space propagation of the scattered wave to the wave zone (far field). The reconstruction of the object's index-of-refraction distribution is performed digitally directly from the far-field intensity of the scattered wave and does not require direct measurement or retrieval of the phase of the scattered field. An optical scattering experiment is reported in which the cross-sectional profile of the index-of-refraction distribution of an optical fiber is reconstructed from the measured intensity of the diffraction pattern of the fiber by using the described inversion procedure.


Knowledge of virus diseases affecting sweet potato has been complicated due to the frequent occurrence of mixed infections and difficulties in isolating and purifying sweet potato viruses. A combined assay of reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) utilizing degenerate genus-specific primers POT1 and POT2 was applied to 18 sweet potato clones from China. The primers were designed to amplify the variable 5' terminal region of the potyvirus coat protein gene. Molecular analysis of the amplified fragments identified the Chinese strains of sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV-CH), sweet potato latent virus (SPLV-CH), and sweet potato virus G (SPVG-CH). Among the detected potyviruses, a distantly related strain of SPFMV-CH, tentatively named SPFMV-CH2, was identified in sweet potatoes from China. On the basis of sequence identity, SPFMV-CH2 was closely related to the common (-C) strain of that virus. Identification of a closely related strain of SPVG-CH in one sweet potato clone from China further illustrated the usefulness of broad-spectrum PCR for detecting uncharacterized viruses. The acquisition of sequence information permitted the design of virus-specific primers for detecting and differentiating SPFMV, SPLV, and SPVG.


The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Swi2-like factors Rad54 and Rdh54 play multifaceted roles in homologous recombination via their DNA translocase activity. Aside from promoting Rad51-mediated DNA strand invasion of a partner chromatid, Rad54 and Rdh54 can remove Rad51 from duplex DNA for intracellular recycling. Although the in vitro properties of the two proteins are similar, differences between the phenotypes of the null allele mutants suggest that they play different roles in vivo. Through the isolation of a novel RAD51 allele encoding a protein with reduced affinity for DNA, we provide evidence that Rad54 and Rdh54 have different in vivo interactions with Rad51. The mutant Rad51 forms a complex on duplex DNA that is more susceptible to dissociation by Rdh54. This Rad51 variant distinguishes the in vivo functions of Rad54 and Rdh54, leading to the conclusion that two translocases remove Rad51 from different substrates in vivo. Additionally, we show that a third Swi2-like factor, Uls1, contributes toward Rad51 clearance from chromatin in the absence of Rad54 and Rdh54, and define a hierarchy of action of the Swi2-like translocases for chromosome damage repair.


Decision making is usually based on the comparative evaluation of different alternatives by means of a decision criterion. The whole decision process is compacted into a criterion formula on the basis of which alternatives are compared. It is thus, impossible for an end user to understand why an alternative is good, or better than another.

Recently, some decision criteria were articulated in terms of a two-steps argumentation process: i) an inference step in which arguments in favor/against each option are built and evaluated, and ii) a comparison step in which pairs of alternatives are compared on the basis of "accepted" arguments. Thus, not only the best alternative is provided to the user but also the reasons justifying this recommendation. However, a two steps approach is not in accordance with the principle of an argumentation system, whose accepted arguments are intended to support the "good" options. Moreover, with such an approach it is difficult to define proof procedures for testing directly whether a given option may be the best one without computing the whole ordering. Finally, it is difficult to analyze how an ordering is revised in light of a new argument.

This paper proposes a novel approach for argumentation-based decision making. We propose a Dung style system that takes as input different arguments and a defeat relation among them, and returns as outputs a status for each option, and a total preordering on a set of options. The status is defined on the basis of different inference mechanisms. The total preordering privileges the option that is supported by the strongest argument, provided that this argument survives to the attacks. The properties of the system are investigated.


Context. A new reduction of the astrometric data as produced by the Hipparcos mission has been published, claiming that the accuracies for nearly all stars brighter than magnitude Hp = 8 are improved, by up to a factor 4, compared to the original catalogue. As correlations between the underlying abscissa residuals have also been reduced by more than an order of magnitude to an insignificant level, our ability to determine reliable parallaxes and proper motions for open clusters should be improved. Aims. The new Hipparcos astrometric catalogue is used to derive mean parallax and proper motion estimates for 20 open clusters. The HR-diagrams of the nearest clusters are compared and combined to provide future input to sets of observational isochrones. Methods. Three different methods are applied, according to the proximity of the cluster, to compensate, where needed, for projection effects, spread in position along the line of sight, and the internal velocity dispersion of the cluster stars. Results. The new parallaxes have accuracies between 2 and 2.5 times higher than what had been derived from the original Hipparcos catalogue. At least two to three groups of clusters, mostly of similar ages, are observed to each occupy their own specific space in the HR diagram. A significant discrepancy in distance moduli from those obtained with isochrone-based main-sequence fitting remains, in particular for one of these groups, containing the Pleiades, NGC 2516, and Blanco 1. The difference in absolute magnitudes between this group and one containing the Hyades and Praesepe clusters appears to be correlated with systematic differences in the Stromgren Δc0 index between those groups. The same dependency has been known to exist for a long time, and is again confirmed by the Hipparcos data, in variations in absolute magnitudes for field stars of the same effective temperature. Conclusions. The positions of the cluster HR diagrams are consistent within different groups of clusters shown for example by the near-perfect alignment of the sequences for the Hyades and Praesepe, for Coma Ber and UMa, and for the Pleiades, NGC 2516, and Blanco 1. The groups are mutually consistent when systematic differences in Δc0 are taken into account, where the effect of these differences on the absolute magnitudes has been calibrated using field-star observations.


We consider a model of a nonlinear planar waveguide with a sinusoidal modulation of the refractive index in the transverse direction, which gives rise to a system of parallel troughs that may serve as channels that trap solitary beams (spatial solitons). The model can also be considered as an asymptotic one describing a dense planar array of parallel nonlinear optical fibers, with the modulation representing the corresponding effective Peierls–Nabarro potential. By means of the variational approximation and by direct simulations we demonstrate that the one-soliton state trapped in a channel has no existence threshold and is always stable. In contrast with this a stationary state of two beams trapped in two adjacent troughs has an existence border, which is found numerically. Depending on the values of the parameters, the two-soliton states are found to be dynamically stable over an indefinitely long or a finite but large distance. We consider the possibility of switching the beam from a channel where it was trapped into an adjacent one by a localized spot attracting the beam through the cross-phase modulation. The spot can be created between the troughs by a focused laser beam shone transversely to the waveguide. By means of the perturbation theory and numerical method we demonstrate that the switching is possible, provided that the spot's strength exceeds a certain threshold value.