This report studies the demographic and educational futures of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These are areas of potential and existing conflicts, where population growth has many political dimensions. The report, however, abstains from discussing these political issues and focuses on future demographic aspects. It is clear that this report could raise some questions on the sensitivity of the region to future population prospects. Assumptions for the population projections are based on the analysis of past and present trends in changes in population growth, age structure, fertility levels and trends, contraceptive use, marriage and child bearing patterns, mortality, migration, education, and enrollment levels. Based on this analysis, three population projection paths - low, central, and high - were designed and lead to three population figures for each area in 2044. Educational levels of the population were judged determinant to the future level of population growth. In all scenarios, the levels of enrollment varied consistently with fertility and mortality assumptions to change the levels of education in the population. Results were then analyzed to provide a demographic picture of the region in 2044.

This study provides interesting insights into the demography of these countries, especially with regard to the momentum of population growth and education levels. Jordan and Syria have experienced high rates of population growth in the recent past. In Jordan, these rates have been reinforced by the migration of Palestinian refugees from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into the country. The first signs (important fertility reductions and gains in life expectancy) of a demographic transition became visible in the late 1980s in the two countries. The population in Jordan and Syria will continue to grow rapidly in the future. The central scenario, which gives the most likely path under current conditions, implies a tripling of the population of Jordan and almost a tripling of the population in Syria. Still these countries have a high potential for lesser population growth. Lebanon will remain a country of low population growth, with the annual growth rate ranging on average from 1.0 to 1.3 percent per year between 1994 and 2044. The most extreme results in terms of population growth are found in the case of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Even under the low scenario, which combines very rapid fertility and mortality declines and rapid educational improvements, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip more than quadruple in population size in the fifty years of the projection period due to the high momentum of past population growth. However, all scenarios show substantial declines in the proportion of people with a low education - less than a primary education - even under the most pessimistic assumptions.


In this thesis we analyze implicit and linearly implicit peer methods in the
context of optimization problems with ordinary or partial differential equations
as constraints.

In many practical applications, like the cooling of glass, the propagation of a
flame front in a cooled channel or the hardening of steel, the underlying
physical process can be modeled by ordinary differential equations (ODE) or
partial differential equations (PDE). The wish to optimize these processes leads
to the field of ODE- and PDE-constrained optimization.

The constraints, in this case an ODE or PDE system, have to be evaluated several
times in an optimization algorithm. Therefore it is very important to use
efficient discretization methods for the arising differential equations.
Runge-Kutta and Rosenbrock methods are a popular choice for ODEs and the time
discretization of parabolic PDEs. However they suffer from order reduction when
applied to stiff problems.

A promising alternative are peer methods. These methods construct several
approximations to the solution in one time step like one-step methods and use the
approximations of the last time step like multistep methods. Peer methods are
proven to show no order reduction when applied to stiff problems. More details on peer
methods are presented in Chapter 3. In this thesis we analyze
peer methods within the optimal control with differential equations.

There are two popular approaches when solving optimal control problems.
The first
approach is called first-discretize-then-optimize, while the other is
the first-optimize-then-discretize approach. In Chapter 4
we analyze the interchangeability of these two
approaches when using peer methods. We find that the two approaches give quite
different results for peer methods and especially conclude, that peer methods
are not well suited for the first-discretize-then-optimize approach.

Therefore, we concentrate then on the first-optimize-then-discretize approach and
especially want to employ peer methods within a multilevel optimization
approach. To this end we derive a fully adaptive, that is adaptive in
time and space, discretization for parabolic PDEs in Chapter 5.

We follow the Rothe approach
and discretize first in time by a linearly implicit peer method leading to
several linear elliptic problems. These are then discretized by multilevel linear finite
elements. We derive a spatial error estimator based on hierarchical bases.
The time error is estimated by comparing the computed solution with a
solution of lower order. We look at the efficiency of the spatial error
estimator both analytically and numerically. Finally we compare the performance
of peer methods to that of Rosenbrock methods for three PDE test examples in 2D.
We see that peer methods are competitive to Rosenbrock methods.

This fully adaptive scheme is then used within a multilevel optimization in
Chapter 6. We first introduce the optimization
algorithm and especially look at the points where the time integration plays a
role. Finally, we present results for three PDE constrained control problems.
Again the peer methods are competitive to Rosenbrock methods.


GPU-accelerated computing gains rapidly-growing popularity in many areas such as scientific computing, database systems, and cloud environments. However, there are less investigations on the security implications of concurrently running GPU applications. In this paper, we explore security vulnerabilities of CUDA from multiple dimensions. In particular, we first present a study on GPU stack, and reveal that stack overflow of CUDA can affect the execution of other threads by manipulating different memory spaces. Then, we show that the heap of CUDA is organized in a way that allows threads from the same warp or different blocks or even kernels to overwrite each other's content, which indicates a high risk of corrupting data or steering the execution flow by overwriting function pointers. Furthermore, we verify that integer overflow and function pointer overflow in struct also can be exploited on GPUs. But other attacks against format string and exception handler seems not feasible due to the design choices of CUDA runtime and programming language features. Finally, we propose potential solutions of preventing the presented vulnerabilities for CUDA.


High concentration animal wastewater is often contaminated by tetracycline and an upflow anaerobic sludge bioreactor (UASB) with granular sludge is often used to treat the wastewater. The investigation of the adsorption process of tetracycline on anaerobic granular sludge during anaerobic digestion of animal wastewater will increase the understanding of antibiotics behavior in the UASB reactor. In this study, the effects of initial pH, humic acid concentration, and temperature on the removal of tetracycline by anaerobic granular sludge from aqueous solution were investigated using the batch adsorption technique in 100 mL flasks with 75 mL of work volume. The results show that the highest removal efficiency of 93.0% was achieved around pH 3.0 and the removal efficiency at the neutral pH range (pH 6.0-8.0) is about 91.5%. The thermodynamic analysis indicates that the adsorption is a spontaneous and endothermic process. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order equation. The adsorption isotherms analysis indicates that the Langmuir model is better than the Freundlich model for the description of the adsorption process and confirms the result of thermodynamics analysis. The maximum adsorption capacities were 2.984, 4.108 and 4.618 mg/g at 25, 35 and 45 °C, respectively. These results provide useful information for understanding the fate and transformation of tetracycline in a UASB digestion system and improving the management of tetracycline contaminated animal wastewater.


Lexically constrained neural machine translation (NMT), which leverages pre-specified translation to constrain NMT, has practical significance in interactive translation and NMT domain adaption. Previous work either modify the decoding algorithm or train the model on augmented dataset. These methods suffer from either high computational overheads or low copying success rates. In this paper, we investigate Att-Input and Att-Output, two alignment-based constrained decoding methods. These two methods revise the target tokens during decoding based on word alignments derived from encoder-decoder attention weights. Our study shows that Att-Input translates better while Att-Output is more computationally efficient. Capitalizing on both strengths, we further propose EAM-Output by introducing an explicit alignment module (EAM) to a pretrained Transformer. It decodes similarly as EAM-Output, except using alignments derived from the EAM. We leverage the word alignments induced from Att-Input as labels and train the EAM while keeping the parameters of the Transformer frozen. Experiments on WMT16 De-En and WMT16 Ro-En show the effectiveness of our approaches on constrained NMT. In particular, the proposed EAM-Output method consistently outperforms previous approaches in translation quality, with light computational overheads over unconstrained baseline.


Existential anxiety (EA) is an expression of being occupied with ultimate concerns such as death, meaninglessness, and fundamental loneliness. Philosophers and psychologists have claimed its importance for the study of human thinking, emotion, decision making, and psychopathology. Until now research has mainly focused on death anxiety. Several death anxiety instruments have been developed and evaluated. This article is the first to review instruments measuring EA in a comprehensive way, that is, by covering several existential themes. Such instruments might be useful to gain insight in the interrelatedness of the aspects of EA, and application in clinical practice. Four models of EA were reviewed and compared resulting in a working definition. This definition was used to develop a search strategy that, after an initial screening, yielded 532 potentially relevant articles. A total of 78 instruments were identified, most of them measuring death anxiety. Five instruments were included that had a comprehensive perspective on EA. These were further evaluated using the consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments (COSMIN) criteria for publications about test development. The Existential Anxiety Questionnaire, turned out to be the most thoroughly examined, with promising results. The article concludes with recommendations about development and use of EA instruments.


This work focuses on data mining and machine learning using large-scale datasets, with an emphasis on Web information, social computing, and on-line social networks. These datasets are becoming more numerous, and as the Web's reach grows, it is important to understand these datasets for two reasons. First, better understanding of the systems generating the data allows us to improve the systems. For example, by looking at where search queries come from, we can better select what results and advertisements to display. Second, an in-depth understanding of the data allows us to leverage it for a variety of purposes. For instance, by looking at the geographic sources of queries we can discover the reach of various ideas.
In particular we will develop new algorithms to deal with these large datasets, answering the subtle and nuanced questions that require a huge amount of data and novel methodology. We will examine large social networks, and processes related to these networks such as group formation and network evolution. We will also look at data from web search, showing that it is a rich source of information which, when combined with IP address geolocation can tell us a great deal about the geographic extent of various terms. In addition to learning about these systems, we will also design algorithms for improving them. Through the use of server logs, we will show how changing content can be scheduled more optimally on web pages. Finally, we will examine some of the privacy implications of this style of research, showing a negative result which illustrates how careful we must be with our data.


Phonological learners must acquire a lexicon of underlying forms and a constraint ranking. These must be acquired simultaneously, as the ranking and the underlying forms are interdependent. Exhaustive search of all possible lexica is intractable; the space of lexica is simply too large. Searching the underlying forms for each overt form in isolation poses other problems. A single overt form is often highly ambiguous among both underlying forms and rankings. In this dissertation I propose a learning algorithm that attends to pairs of overt forms that differ in exactly one morpheme. These pairs can exhibit less ambiguity than the isolated overt forms, while still providing a reduced search space.
The algorithm first assigns underlying values to occurrences of features whose surface realization never alternates; the other underlying features are left initially unset (Tesar et al., 2003). Pairs of overt forms that differ in one morpheme are then constructed. The algorithm then considers the possible values of unset features for each pair, processing pairs with the fewest unset features first. It uses inconsistency detection (Tesar, 1997) to test sets of values of unset features for viability. A set of values for the unset features is viable if it produces the correct overt forms under some ranking. Those feature values which are common across all viable solutions are then set. In the process of testing for inconsistency for each set of values of unset features a set of winner-loser pairs is generated. The learner determines the ranking restrictions jointly entailed by these sets of winner-loser pairs. These ranking restrictions are then maintained while processing all further contrast pairs. After all pairs have been processed, any still unset feature values are assigned default values. The general success of the algorithm depends upon these features being fully predictable in the output. A ranking is then obtained from this lexicon using Biased Constraint Demotion (Prince and Tesar, 2004).
Fixing all non-alternating features reduces the effective lexical search space. The algorithm further reduces the lexical search space by breaking up the search into tractable local pair searches. Extracting shared ranking information from winner-loser pairs generated from inconsistency detection restricts which featural combinations for future contrast pairs will be viable providing information that is otherwise unavailable to the learner.%%%%


We test for the state interdependence of gasoline and cigarette taxation in the US (1975-2006). We estimate a tax reaction function, and find that state interdependence is due solely to yardstick competition, since any interaction disappears completely in the case of states with lame duck governors. This result holds for both taxes: the short-run reaction of those states whose governor is eligible to stand for reelection is 0.13 and 0.21 for gasoline and cigarette taxation, respectively. In the long run, the cigarette tax rates levied in a jurisdiction match those of its neighbors perfectly, while the long-run reaction in the case of gasoline is much lower at 0.72.


This memo describes an RTP payload format for the ISO/IEC
International Standard 15444-1 | ITU-T Rec. T.800, better known as
JPEG 2000. JPEG 2000 features are considered in the design of this
payload format. JPEG 2000 is a truly scalable compression technology
allowing applications to encode once and decode many different ways.
The JPEG 2000 video stream is formed by extending from a single image
to a series of JPEG 2000 images. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Employees are taking over the workplace, and corporate communicators who don't abet the revolution may wind up keeping their jobs, but losing their budget and staff. Hierarchical structures are crumbling. The explicit, and even implicit, contracts between employer and employee are being rewritten. Employees expect respect, rewards and a voice in decisions that affect them. They thrive on recognition of their value as individuals. Employers, on the other hand, increasingly are making known their own demands. In return for meeting employee expectations, management is requiring cooperation, flexibility, skills development and quality. Employee involvement (EI) programs help achieve employees' desires for empowerment and employers' demands for a commitment to organizational goals. According to a recent report in "First Draft," a communication newsletter, EI programs have improved overall company performance. The newsletter cited a survey of line managers conducted earlier this year by Industry Week and The Wyatt Co. Of the respondents from companies with high employee involvement, 76% reported improved quality, 73% increased productivity and 59% increased profitability. Moreover, 92% of the respondents from these companies agreed that employees are motivated to help the company succeed. In contrast, only 49% of the respondents from companies with low employee involvement reported this motivation. "There's a fundamental change going on," said Dr. Gwen Stern, director of organizational research and analysis for Wyatt. "Companies are looking at EI as a way to solve business problems." Indeed, 78% of the 845 survey repondents said they work for companies with some form of EI program, and 44% said their companies are deeply committed to EI. Culture determines commitment A company's commitment to EI determines how effective the effort will be, according to "First Draft." And the corporate culture of the organization determines its willingness to make such a commitment, according to the latest reported results from "Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management," a study by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation. The study found that, no matter what the values and characteristics of a particular organization, there are actually only two basic corporate cultures: authoritarian and participative. All organizations have characteristics of both cultures, but one or the other will dominate. (See chart, page 38.) The authoritarian culture is one of restrictive control of employee behavior, where innovation is stifled, departments operate as separate fiefdoms, employees fear their supervisors, and decisions are made centrally by the dominant coalition. The participative culture, on the other hand, is characterized by teamwork, and shared power and decision making, with work guided by common goals and the organization as a whole open to new ideas. Clearly, EL programs are much more likely to occur in participative cultures. The more participative the culture, the higher the commitment presumably will be. Employees at different levels have varying opinions about their company's culture. The Industry Week/Wyatt survey found marked differences in perceptions about organizational values. Almost seven out of 10 (69%) senior managers said that their organization's management style encouraged treating employees with respect, while only 24% of the line supervisors felt that way. Similarly, 64% of the responding top managers believed that their organization's management style encouraged freedom of expression, while only 29% of line supervisors agreed with this view. Inspire belief in concept Corporate communications is in a unique position to help the organization's culture to be more participative and to help introduce and sustain EI as a philosophy the organization can embrace. …


This paper explores the role of identity in helping international students form social networks at an Australian institution and how these networks contribute to creating a sense of home away. The findings suggest that international students form distinct social networks that are not necessarily solely made up of fellow students from their home countries. Rather, international students form a mixture of social networks that are based on the complex individual identities of each student centred on a variety of common factors, such as: course of study, place of work, neighbourhood, culture, religion and personal interests (hobbies). Hence many students are part of social groups that consist of international students from their specific region and beyond, as well as local (Anglo and non-Anglo) students. These locally based social networks complement existing home-based networks which are maintained virtually through social media to create a home away from home.


Numerical techniques for non-equilibrium condensing flows are presented. Conservation equations for homogeneous gas-liquid two-phase compressible flows are solved by using a finite volume method based on an approximate Riemann solver. The phase change consists of the homogeneous nucleation and growth of existing droplets. Nucleation is computed with the classical Volmer-Frenkel model, corrected for the influence of the droplet temperature being higher than the steam temperature due to latent heat release. For droplet growth, two types of heat transfer model between droplets and the surrounding steam are used: a free molecular flow model and a semi-empirical two-layer model which is deemed to be valid over a wide range of Knudsen number. The computed pressure distribution and Sauter mean droplet diameters in a convergent-divergent (Laval) nozzle are compared with experimental data. Both droplet growth models capture qualitatively the pressure increases due to sudden heat release by the non-equilibrium condensation. However the agreement between computed and experimental pressure distributions is better for the two-layer model. The droplet diameter calculated by this model also agrees well with the experimental value, whereas that predicted by the free molecular model is too small. Condensing flows in a steam turbine cascade are calculated at different Mach numbers and inlet superheat conditions and are compared with experiments. Static pressure traverses downstream from the blade and pressure distributions on the blade surface agree well with experimental results in all cases. Once again, droplet diameters computed with the two-layer model give best agreement with the experiments. Droplet sizes are found to vary across the blade pitch due to the significant variation in expansion rate. Flow patterns including oblique shock waves and condensation-induced pressure increases are also presented and are similar to those shown in the experimental Schlieren photographs. Finally, calculations are presented for periodically unsteady condensing flows in a low expansion rate, convergent-divergent (Laval) nozzle. Depending on the inlet stagnation subcooling, two types of self-excited oscillations appear: a symmetric mode at lower inlet subcooling and an asymmetric mode at higher subcooling. Plots of oscillation frequency versus inlet sub-cooling exhibit a hysteresis loop, in accord with observations made by other researchers for moist air flow. Copyright © 2006 by ASME.


Hours worked is a time series of interest in many empirical investigations of the macroeconomy. Estimates of macro elasticities of labour supply, for example, build on this variable. Other empirical applications investigate the response of hours worked to a shock to technology on the basis of the real business cycle model. Irrespective of the problem being addressed, robust inference of empirical outcomes strongly hinges on the adequately modelling of the time series of hours worked. The aim of the present paper is to provide cross country evidence of the non- stationarity of hours worked for OECD countries. For these purposes, panel unit root tests are employed to improve power against univariate counterparts. Since cross section correlation is a distinct feature of the underlying panel data, results are based on various second generation panel unit root tests which account for cross section dependence among units. If an unobserved common factor model is assumed for generating the observations, there is indication for both a common factor and idiosyncratic components driving the non-stationarity of hours worked. In addition, taking these results together, there is no indication of cointegration among the individual time series of hours worked.


PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC ANALYSES OF OBLIGATE AND FACULTATIVE CAVE CRAYFISH SPECIES ON THE CUMBERLAND PLATEAU OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS by Jennifer E. Buhay Department of Integrative Biology Doctor of Philosophy Cave systems and their unique biota are widely viewed as highly endangered, yet very little is known about basic life history, ecology, distributions, habitat requirements, and evolutionary relationships of subterranean species. The crux of the problem in cave studies is the assumption that traditionally defined morpho-species represent distinct evolutionary lineages. Convergence is exhibited in the morphologies of many animal groups, vertebrate and invertebrate, which leads to confusion in diagnosing species' boundaries, geographic distributions, gene flow routes, and imperilment. This dissertation research includes phylogeographic analyses of freshwater cave-dwelling crayfishes in the Southern Appalachians, a global hotspot of subterranean biodiversity. By examining population structure in light of habitat, geology, geography, and hydrology, we can better provide conservation direction for these groundwater species. Chapter one introduces a method, Nested Clade Phylogeographic Analysis (NCPA), used to investigate hypotheses about historical and current population structures within species. Using a statistically-testable framework, NCPA can elucidate historical speciation patterns and current routes of gene flow using genetic sequence data of thoroughly-sampled species. Using diverse examples, the chapter details the methodology of building haplotype networks, performing the geographic analyses, inferring past and contemporary evolutionary patterns and processes, and delineating species' boundaries. Chapter two examines two competing hypotheses regarding conservation status of cave-dwelling species using a wide-ranging group of obligate subterranean crayfish species on the Cumberland Plateau's western escarpment. Using a population genetic approach, cave crayfish exhibited moderate to high levels of genetic diversity and attained large population sizes over their evolutionary histories. Phylogeographic analyses revealed that this crayfish assemblage originated along the northern end of the Cumberland Plateau and in leading-edge small steps, colonized southward and accumulated diversity along the way. Current species' boundaries do not match traditional morpho-species designations and also do not match current hydrological units. Chapter three explores phylogeography and habitat differences within the facultative cave-dwelling crayfish species Cambarus tenebrosus. This freshwater species is unique in that it inhabits surface and subsurface karst environments, has an unusually large distribution, and exhibits troglomorphism with reduced eyes and elongated limbs. Using sequence data from over 100 sampled localities, mostly along the Cumberland Plateau, C. tenebrosus appears to have inhabited surface and subsurface biomes throughout its evolutionary history. Additionally, this species shows extremely high levels of genetic diversity and NCA revealed significant phylogeographic structure within the species, but there was no significant relationship between habitat and genetic structure. Chapter four examines the obligate cave crayfish assemblage, genus Cambarus, subgenus Aviticambarus, which ranges across the southernmost area of the Southern Appalachians, which is known to contain the highest species diversity of obligate terrestrial animals in the United States. The Aviticambarus assemblage is only currently known from 58 caves in Alabama and Tennessee, and with samples from half of the known sites, this study uncovered additional lineages previously obscured by convergent morphology. These species show low levels of genetic diversity and populations that do not appear to be expanding. Species' boundaries are supported by geologic and phylogeographic information, but not current drainage basin boundaries.


How students' experience and learning in an educational context influence their self-directed learning and behavior outside of school has always been an important question in education. Scholars have named the effects of physical education (PE) on students' out-of-school physical activity (PA) as the "PE effect". The purposes of this dissertation research were to first test a two-pathway model of the "PE effect" and then determine the extent to which a concept-based PE curriculum influenced middle-school students' PA behavior outside of the school. Specifically, the following research questions were addressed: (a) to what extent did eighth graders' knowledge and autonomous motivation for PE contribute to their autonomous motivation toward PA and, subsequently, influence their out-of-school PA? (b) Did eighth-grade students who had experienced the Science of Healthful Living (SHL) curriculum have higher levels of knowledge, autonomous motivation for PE, autonomous motivation toward PA, and out-of-school PA than those who had not? A total of 394 eighth-grade students from five schools participated in this study, in which 168 students studied the SHL curriculum when they were in sixth grade while 226 students only experienced traditional PE. Students' knowledge, out-of-school PA, and autonomous motivation toward PE and PA were measured using valid self-report instruments. Structural equation modelling was used to test the two-pathway model of the "PE effect". A static group comparison design was adopted to answer the second research question. Results showed that students' knowledge had a direct, positive relationship on their autonomous motivation toward PA and an indirect, positive relationship on out-of-school PA through influencing autonomous motivation toward PA. Students' autonomous motivation for PE had a direct, positive relationship on their autonomous motivation toward PA and an indirect, positive relationship on out-of-school PA through autonomous motivation toward PA. The results also showed that the students who had studied the SHL PE curriculum had significantly higher levels of knowledge, autonomous motivation toward PA, and out-of-school PA than the students who had experienced the traditional, multi-activity PE. No significant difference was found for autonomous motivation for PE. These results indicate that the two-pathway model is tenable in terms of knowledge learning and autonomous motivation in PE and imply that teaching knowledge in an autonomy-supportive PE environment can be an effective way to promote students' out-of-school PA behavior. The findings about the effects of the SHL curriculum further supported the knowledge learning pathway of the "PE effect" and indicate that the concept-based PE approach could be an effective model to promote students' PA behavior outside of the school.


A study of the encoding of the basic attributes of an image in the human visual cortex by means of moving dipoles has shown for the first time that, in the 50–300-ms interval after the stimulus, equivalent current dipoles of induced-potential waves lasting about 27 ms are displaced predominantly along curved trajectories. At 110–120 ms from the beginning of the stimulus, there is an abrupt displacement of the dipole from a lateral to a medial position. Two zones of preferred localization of the dipoles are detected in the lateral and medial regions of the visual cortex, whose coordinates coincide with the beginning and end of the trajectories, while the size varies as a function of the phase of the potential. The resulting data are important for estimating the dynamics and kinetics of the processing of the attributes of an image in the visual cortex of the human brain.


These days, there is a very large demand for wireless applications. Antennas which are used in these applications should be low profile, light weight, low volume and broad bandwidth. The microstrip antenna suits the features mentioned except for its narrow bandwidth, typically ranges from less than one percent to several percent of relative bandwidth. By reducing that limitation, the advantages using microstrip antenna can further outweigh its disadvantages. In this research, an alternative bandwidth enhancement technique is studied and then proposed in order to broaden the bandwidth of the microstrip antenna. The wireless application that is selected to be studied is the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11b standard. In Malaysia, this WLAN band spans from 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz.

Initially, the characteristic of a microstrip transmission line is analyzed. This is done to determine the cause for microstrip antenna in having narrow bandwidth. Then, a basic single-layer microstrip antenna without bandwidth enhancement technique is designed. A substrate with low permittivity namely RT/Duroid 5880 is used as the dielectric for the radiating patch. The feeding method used is the coaxial probe. Parameters such as the operating frequency, input impedance and the bandwidth are observed. This design will serve as a benchmark for the design of the microstrip antenna with bandwidth enhancement technique. The bandwidth enhancement technique which is selected is the Identical Dual-Patch Microstrip Antenna with Air-Gap (IDMA). This technique makes use of the air gap for bandwidth enhancement of the microstrip antenna. By using this technique, a bandwidth enhancement of about 11% has been achieved. This bandwidth very well covers the required WLAN band with an operating frequency of 2.45GHz.


Presently, resisted exercises (RE) have suffered several investigations due to the importance they attained to the development of the cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular fitness. To prescribe the RE, some variables such as cardiac rate (CR), and blood pressure (BP) shall be monitored. The association between the CR and BP supply data to allow the obtainment of the doubled-product (DP). These two variables were used to analyze and compare the hemodynamic responses of the straight seat supine (SRS) and straight slying supine (SRD) and ten repetitions at 65% of a maximum repetition (1 RM) were performed. The sampling was composed by 14 individuals (10 female and 4 male) with mean ages of 23 years (± 4 years), body weight of 61 kg (± 7 kg), and height of 168 cm (± 5 cm). As material to the collection, it was used a Polar MZ1 frequencymeter (Finland), a Vasquez-Lubry sphygmomanometer (Germany), and a Littman stethoscope (USA). It was used the coupled t-Student test to make a comparison between values found among physiological variables. The statistical analysis had as significance criterion p < .05. Every variable presented a mean higher value in the SRS related to the SRD. It was considered the preand postexercise's CR, the BP, SBP and DBP. It is understood that the absolute value of the BP measured by the auscultatory method trends to be lower than the value recorded inside the artery, but in test situations using different intensity exercises, the percentage of the BP variation presents the same trend than the invasive method. Thus, it can be concluded that the SRS and SRD exercises did not present significant differences in none of the physiological parameters studied, but it was noted a small decreased response of that parameter in the SRD exercise. So, it is necessary to accomplish further studies analyzing different body positions to establish a conduct as to these exercises through comparisons.


Global Alfven eigenmodes are studied using two different models for the plasma and the results compared with the instability threshold measured experimentally. Fluid-resistive models predict that continuum damped toroidicity induced Alfven modes (TAE) are formed in the frequency range of the experimental instabilities, but using realistic values of the resistivity makes a stability analysis impossible for computational reasons. The kinetic plasma model solves this problem by taking into account the ion Larmor radius and the resonant Landau interactions between the particles and the wavefield. As a consequence drift-kinetic Alfven eigenmodes (DKAE) are created by toroidal coupling between the global TAE wavefield, the mode converted kinetic Alfven, ion-acoustic and drift waves. The power transfers between the wave and the particles show that the drift character of the wavefield in the core destabilizes DKAE modes through resonant interactions with the fast beam ions. The predicted beam pressure instability threshold is in agreement with the one measured experimentally. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.


Background: Contamination of feeds with cadmium leads to oxidative stress in vital tissues such as gills and affects the fish survival. Therefore, an increase in the capacity of the antioxidant defense system and detoxification system of fish may reduce adverse effects of pollutants. This study investigated the protective effects of microalga Spirulina platensis against oxidative stress in gills of cadmium-treated rainbow trout. Methods: This study was conducted at Fish Farm, Almas-Dime Village, Koohrang, Charmahal & Bakhtiari Province, Iran from April to July 2016. Rainbow trout were allocated into five groups of which one group received normal feed and served as control. Fish from group II received 0.2 mg CdCl2 per 1 kg feed. Groups III-V were fed with enriched diet with 2.5, 5 and 10 g S. platensis per 1 kg feed, respectively and simultaneously treated with 0.2 mg kg CdCl2 for 21 d. Changes in biochemical parameters including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malondialdehyde (MDA) as marker of lipid peroxidation and cellular total antioxidant capacity were evaluated. Results: Oral exposure to CdCl2 caused a significant increase in MDA levels and altered AST, ALT, ALP and LDH activities in gills (P<0.05). The cellular antioxidant capacity was significantly lowered in CdCl2-treated fish as compared to the control group (P<0.05). Oral administration of S. platensis significantly ameliorated these changes in certain biochemical parameters in gills of CdCl2-treated fish. Conclusion: The findings indicate that S. platensis has protective effects against toxic influence of CdCl2 on certain biochemical parameters in gills of fish.


This document describes a control for the Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol version 3 that is used to return a subset of attribute values
from an entry. Specifically, only those values that match a "values
return" filter. Without support for this control, a client must
retrieve all of an attribute's values and search for specific
values locally. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


This article examines the separation of boys and girls in religious schools in Israel and the current Israeli policy that aims to balance the right of equality with the right of denominational education in state-funded, religious schools. It draws on the legacy of the case of United States v Virginia and the subsequent regulations published by the United States Department of Education in 2006 in order to determine when single-sex education may be compatible with equality. It then examines both the relevance and the application of the criteria developed in the United States to religious schools in Israel. The article reviews and examines the two main justifications for single-sex education: cultural/religious and feminist. The right to establish single-sex educational institutions is perceived to be part of a minority group's right to culture. In conservative cultures, separation between men and women is often justified as a means of preserving modesty and as a necessity in order to educate and train men and women towards their respective social roles. More often than not, their justifications are incompatible with liberal notions of gender equality and dignity. Separation of men and women in the area of education is often also justified, however, from a feminist standpoint, which is rooted in pedagogical theories. Proponents of single-sex education argue that women-only educational institutions circumvent the inherent bias against women prevalent in coeducational schools, relying on research that indicates that girls perform better in girl-only schools, and attributing this both to the method of study and the educational environment of girl-only schools. They argue that, while separation in other areas of life may be humiliating, in education it has the potential of being empowering. The goal of this article is to examine how the two types of justification come into play in single-sex religious education in Israel. The article claims that where separation between boys and girls is justified by cultural and religious arguments, it must withstand the tests developed in the case law for the legality of practices that are incompatible with equality. It also argues that even where separation is permissible, the manner in which it is carried out should be regulated and supervised to ensure the minimum violation of equality.


Up to 75 percent of new construction between 2000 and 2030 may "be redirected inward or into more compact, mixed-use suburban developments (Nelson, 2004). If this assertion is even nearly true, and if the goals of the Clean Water Act are to be met in the next generation of American cities, then we must find feasible and effective ways of improving urban watershed health using retrofit and infill development as a primary means. The aim of this study is to evaluate the patterns and approaches of suburban infill developments in order to determine which methods and extents are deemed capable of improving the health, sustainability and natural services of urban streams and watersheds. Water is considered to be foundational to urban and suburban sustainability and is treated as a primary indicator of overall health and sustainability within the context of this study. This thesis presents three pilot studies that examine urban watershed health using a single case as a vehicle. The studies, in the order they are presented, are: 1) Formanalyzing the relationship between landuse patterns and imperviousness, 2) Planningrelating questions of development scale planning and design to natural and cultural systems at the watershed scale and 3) Valuationillustrating three possibilities for determining the economic value of improving urban watershed health.


Limited information exists on the ecology and habitat requirements of the pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) inhabiting forested ecosystems at the northern limits of its range. We used mist netting, radiotelemetry, and emergence counts at roosts to identify foraging and roosting habitat of pallid bats on the Plumas National Forest in northern California during summer 2007. Pallid bats used a variety of structures for day and night roosting, including live trees and snags, a rock crevice, and a building. Live trees and snags used for roosting were consistently tall in height, large in diameter, and located in mature stands in micro-sites with low percentages of overstory and mid-story cover. The height of roosting sites used by pallid bats in live trees and snags was low relative to the height of the stems selected for roosting. Size of foraging areas varied among sex and reproductive classes of pallid bats, with lactating females (1.56 km2 ± 0.88 SE) exhibiting the smallest foraging areas and post-lactating females (5.97 km2 ± 2.69 SE) having the largest foraging areas. Sierran mixed conifer and white fir habitats comprised significantly larger proportions of the available habitat within foraging areas of adult females than other habitats. Long distance movements during nightly foraging, > 2 km, were common for all sex and reproductive classes of pallid bats. These data indicate that pallid bats inhabiting coniferous forests choose alternate habitats in which to forage and roost from those typically used by the species in other regions of its distribution.


Introduction: Insufficient pulmonary function is a complication of type 2 diabetes coordinating with poor blood sugar management and promoting an inflammatory condition. Our objective was to assess the effects of consistent aerobic exercises on pulmonary function and levels of some inflammatory cytokines in males with type 2 diabetes. Methods: In the present semi-experimental study, 20 men with type 2 diabetes were selected using purposive sampling method. The recruited patients were randomly assigned into one of the aerobic exercise or control groups. The exercises continued for 8 weeks, 3 sessions per week, and each session consisted 45-60 minutes of aerobic exercise with intensity of 50%-70% heart rate reserve (HRR). Spirometry and hematologic parameters were both measured at 48 hours prior and 72 hours subsequent to the intervention. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v. 22.0 statistical software. Independent and paired sample t test were used for inferential analysis with P≤0.05 regarded as statistically significant. Results: A significant reduction was observed in serum levels of fasting blood sugar (FBS), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin 6 (IL-6) in aerobic exercise group (P<0.05). On the other hand, forced vital capacity (FVC), and forced expiratory volume (FEV1) levels showed a significant elevation in the experimental group relative to the control. Conclusion: Considering our findings, it seems that aerobic exercise can improve pulmonary function in type 2 diabetes patients. This may be in some levels mediated by stabilizing blood glucose levels and subsiding systemic inflammatory condition in these patients.


Attempts to distinguish exuviae and last-instar nymphs of Epitheca cynosura (Say) and Epitheca spinigera (Selys) (Odonata: Corduliidae) using lateral spine characters have proven to be unreliable, and recent use of setae counts on only one side of the prementum or one labial palp have led to confu - sion because these structures often hold unequal numbers of setae on the two sides of the same specimen. Based on exuviae of 67 reared E. cynosura and 55 reared E. spinigera from lakes throughout Wisconsin, we tested the efficacy of previously used character states for distinguishing these species and searched for new characters to improve the reliability of regional keys. The most reliable diagnostic character was the combined number of setae on both sides of the prementum and on both labial palps (≤ 35 – E. cynosura ; ≥ 36 – E. spinigera ), which correctly determined 96% of our specimens. For the small percentage of specimens that lie in the region of overlap in total setae number, we found that total exuviae length, cerci ÷ epiproct ratios of females, tubercle distance ÷ epiproct ratios of males, and the shape of the dorsal hook on segment 8 could be used to strengthen determinations.


A country's productive structure and competitiveness are harbingers of growth. Growth is a dynamic process based on capabilities that are difficult to define and measure across countries. This paper uses a global measure of fitness (or complexity-weighted diversity of production) as a method to explore a country's relative growth potential. The analysis finds that there are two types of growth, predictable or laminar, and unpredictable. This classification is used to create a selection mechanism (the Selective Predictability Scheme), defining future growth trajectories for similar countries, and compares projected long-term, five-year forecasts with traditional methods used by the International Monetary Fund. The analysis finds that production structure is a good long-term predictor of growth, with prediction performance falling off for countries not yet in the laminar classification.


This study develops a dynamic pricing model with a quality substitutable product, taking into account strategic and myopic consumers. In each of the two periods, the firm can choose between offering a high quality product, a low quality product or both and the corresponding price for the product. Strategic consumers compare current utility with future utility in order to decide the time of purchase and the quality of the product in an attempt to maximize their utilities. Myopic consumers consider only current utility in purchasing of the products. We generate scenarios, prove whether a scenario is feasible and which scenario produces the best profit for the firm. Our result suggests that the firm obtains the best profit when it provides only high quality products in each of the two periods. In other words, the firm does not have to offer quality substitution as intertemporal substitution suffices to maximize the expected profit.


The present paper challenges the notion that grammaticalisation is opposed to lexicalisation, and that degrammaticalisation automatically entails lexicalisation. An equally plausible change of status of a former grammatical formative is for it to turn into a sociolinguistic marker. This point is made on the basis of the degrammaticalisation of present plural be in Standard English, and its subsequent reemergence as a sociolinguistic variable. Basilectal be was transmitted via the speech of transported London prisoners, among others, to the New World where it is now a prominent feature of African American Vernacular English.
The data for this survey are taken from the Bridewell Court Minute Books, 1559–1625. The language therein provides evidence of the speech-community from which many of the earliest Virginia indentured servants originally came.


Modern fuzzing tools like AFL operate at a lexical level: They explore the input space of tested programs one byte after another. For inputs with complex syntactical properties, this is very inefficient, as keywords and other tokens have to be composed one character at a time. Fuzzers thus allow to specify dictionaries listing possible tokens the input can be composed from; such dictionaries speed up fuzzers dramatically. Also, fuzzers make use of dynamic tainting to track input tokens and infer values that are expected in the input validation phase. Unfortunately, such tokens are usually implicitly converted to program specific values which causes a loss of the taints attached to the input data in the lexical phase. In this paper, we present a technique to extend dynamic tainting to not only track explicit data flows but also taint implicitly converted data without suffering from taint explosion. This extension makes it possible to augment existing techniques and automatically infer a set of tokens and seed inputs for the input language of a program given nothing but the source code. Specifically targeting the lexical analysis of an input processor, our lFuzzer test generator systematically explores branches of the lexical analysis, producing a set of tokens that fully cover all decisions seen. The resulting set of tokens can be directly used as a dictionary for fuzzing. Along with the token extraction seed inputs are generated which give further fuzzing processes a head start. In our experiments, the lFuzzer-AFL combination achieves up to 17% more coverage on complex input formats like json, lisp, tinyC, and JavaScript compared to AFL.


This
 study uses Q-methodology to investigate teachers' and student teachers'
 theoretical perspectives concerning educational practice and their
possible incompatibilities, based on work by Kieran Egan. Q methodology,
 as a small-sample, intensive methodology, assists in obtaining
understandings concerning the subjectivity of participants that are not
possible through more traditional means. It may also, as demonstrated in
 this paper, provide evidence in support of theoretical work. Four
factors, though highly correlated, map closely to Egan's descriptions of
 varieties of educational practices. The findings are considered in the
light of Charles Taylor's work, which provides a way to theorize the
relationship between thought and action. Taylor maintains that there is
always a pre-theoretical understanding concerning what is happening in a
 social practice, such as teaching, that requires the participants to
have self-descriptions that are constitutive of their involvement. Our
findings challenge teachers to reflect more deeply on their practices.


A major consequence of the sustained degradation of the coastal environment is the progressive eutrophication, which makes Harmful Algal Blooms (e.g. cyanobacteria) more likely to happen and with potential production of cyanotoxins which may create health hazards. Qatar concerns have been rising following the observations of blooms in the last years. Identifying relevant cyanobacteria species that grow in the extreme environment of Qatar would help in keeping records of their diversity as well as finding the strains that have several positive biotechnological applications or negative effects such as harmful algal blooms (HABs) where environmental mitigation and/or adaptation measures are needed. We aimed in this work to better understand the diversity of the cyanobacterial natural communities found in Qatari marine environment through a genotypic characterization (phylogenetic analysis) with the objectives to a) assess the local diversity, and b) provide consistent reference for future comparative analysis, biotechnological applications, and monitoring. In this study, Qatar University Culture Collection of Cyanobacteria and Microalgae (QUCCCM) strains collected from Qatar's coastal regions were used to amplify fragments of the 16S rRNA gene followed by phylogenetic analysis. The obtained phylogenetic trees helped in branching the isolates by computing the differences (distances) among the isolates and compared them to known (published) cyanobacteria. This allowed the accurate identification and detection of the relevant Qatari cyanobacteria diversity and evolutionary relationship. Qatari marine cyanobacteria populations showed a high species richness. Indeed, we identified 28 taxa among them Geitlerinema sp., Euhalothece sp., and Geminocystis sp. have never been reported from Qatari waters. Additionally several isolates are potentially newly identified strains with low relationship to known cyanobacteria species. We were able to distinguish between populations in geographically separate regions along the Qatari coasts identifying where potentially toxic cyanobacteria may occur. Within the identified 28 species, we conducted a bibliographic analysis about their potential toxicity or toxin production. Eighteen strains are belonging to potentially toxic marine cyanobacteria. A regular monitoring of the occurrence and potential toxicity of the cyanobacteria in the coastal zone is recommended to timely identify potential environmental and human health hazards. Indeed, six isolates belonged to the potentially toxic marine cyanobacteria Geitlerinema sp., producer of a cytotoxic response to human lung tumor cells and other six isolates belonged to the marine cyanobacteria Chroococcidiopsis sp. and are known to produce a neurotoxic amino acid.


9 papers presented at a colloquium held in honour of J.J. Coulton at Lincoln College, Oxford on 17 April 2004, to mark his retirement from the Readership in Classical Archaeology at Merton College, Oxford. Jim Coulton devoted much of his early career to the study of Cycladic architecture. He saw earlier than most how important this area would be in advancing our knowledge not only of ancient architecture but also of many aspects of ancient Greek civilisation in general.


cook to boil an egg, but it is hardly necessary or desirable. Doctors should be important teachers of health care and be able to concentrate their other skills and expertise mainly on complex problems and diseases which are often their major interest. This would ensure the greater availability of appropriate care at all the required levels for people who might otherwise be denied this. Many may feel threatened by change and resist any delegation of part of their traditional roles. Innovative schemes with all acting in a responsible fashion should ensure both the greater wellbeing of the community and justifiably earn the trust of patients. The primary health care nurse is a valuable member of the health care team in her own right and should not be seen as a "doctor-substitute" or assistant. Lucy WAGSTAFF


Multi-model ensemble simulations for the marine biogeochemistry and food web of the Baltic Sea were performed for the period 1850–2098, and projected changes in the future climate were compared with the past climate environment. For the past period 1850–2006, atmospheric, hydrological and nutrient forcings were reconstructed, based on historical measurements. For the future period 1961–2098, scenario simulations were driven by regionalized global general circulation model (GCM) data and forced by various future greenhouse gas emission and air- and riverborne nutrient load scenarios (ranging from a pessimistic 'business-as-usual' to the most optimistic case). To estimate uncertainties, different models for the various parts of the Earth system were applied. Assuming the IPCC greenhouse gas emission scenarios A1B or A2, we found that water temperatures at the end of this century may be higher and salinities and oxygen concentrations may be lower than ever measured since 1850. There is also a tendency of increased eutrophication in the future, depending on the nutrient load scenario. Although cod biomass is mainly controlled by fishing mortality, climate change together with eutrophication may result in a biomass decline during the latter part of this century, even when combined with lower fishing pressure. Despite considerable shortcomings of state-of-the-art models, this study suggests that the future Baltic Sea ecosystem may unprecedentedly change compared to the past 150 yr. As stakeholders today pay only little attention to adaptation and mitigation strategies, more information is needed to raise public awareness of the possible impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.


Large international buyers play a key role in global value chains. We exploit detailed transaction-level data on the usage of material inputs to study how Bangladeshi garment suppliers' markups vary across international buyers. We find substantial dispersion in markups across export orders of a given seller for the same product. Buyer effects explain a significant share of this variation, while destination effects do not. Buyers adopting relational sourcing strategies pay higher markups than non-relational buyers. This pattern holds within seller-product-year combinations, is robust to controlling for the buyer's size, traded volumes, and quality, and, together with larger volumes, implies higher profits for suppliers dealing with relational buyers.


Two commonly used methods of interpolating lake water column profiles—two-point linear interpolation and cubic spline interpolation—were compared, and their relative performance assessed using "leave-k-out" cross-val-idation. Artificial "pseudo-gaps" of various sizes were created in measured water column profiles of four representative variables (water temperature, oxygen concentration, total phosphorus concentration, and chloride concentration) from the Lake of Zurich by removing measured data from the profiles. The pseudo-gaps were then filled using each of the two interpolation methods. The performance of each interpolation method was assessed based on the root mean square error, mean bias error, and maximum absolute bias error of the interpolated values in relation to the original measured values. The performance of the interpolation methods varied with depth, season, and profile shape. When the profiles were homogeneous both methods performed well, but when the profiles were heterogeneous, linear interpolation generally performed better than cubic spline interpolation. Although the data generated by cubic spline interpolation were less biased than those generated by linear interpolation, there were more instances of extreme errors. The results of this study suggest that linear interpolation is generally preferable to cubic spline interpolation for filling data gaps in measured lake water column profiles.


Potassium (K+) channels are essential to neuronal signaling and survival. Here we show that these proteins are targets of reactive oxygen species in mammalian brain and that their oxidation contributes to neuropathy. Thus, the KCNB1 (Kv2.1) channel, which is abundantly expressed in cortex and hippocampus, formed oligomers upon exposure to oxidizing agents. These oligomers were ∼10-fold more abundant in the brain of old than young mice. Oxidant-induced oligomerization of wild-type KCNB1 enhanced apoptosis in neuronal cells subject to oxidative insults. Consequently, a KCNB1 variant resistant to oxidation, obtained by mutating a conserved cysteine to alanine, (C73A), was neuroprotective. The fact that oxidation of KCNB1 is toxic, argues that this mechanism may contribute to neuropathy in conditions characterized by high levels of oxidative stress, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accordingly, oxidation of KCNB1 channels was exacerbated in the brain of a triple transgenic mouse model of AD (3xTg-AD). The C73A variant protected neuronal cells from apoptosis induced by incubation with β-amyloid peptide (Aβ1–42). In an invertebrate model (Caenorhabditis elegans) that mimics aspects of AD, a C73A-KCNB1 homolog (C113S-KVS-1) protected specific neurons from apoptotic death induced by ectopic expression of human Aβ1–42. Together, these data underscore a novel mechanism of toxicity in neurodegenerative disease.


The horses have been in the care of humans for about 5000-7000 years. But even though the horses have been domesticated and artificial selected for such a long time their natural behaviours and instincts still remains. In the rich countries there are many people who have the opportunity to ride either on their own horses or at riding schools. Many of these people have not grown up on farms and have no experience of handling big animals. This can lead to implications of the horses' welfare.

The riding schools work as role models and places to learn, not only about riding but also about horses and their natural behaviours. Many people start their lives with horses at a riding school and then they bring their knowledge with them when they then should handle a horse on their own. To gain good horse welfare it's very important to have the knowledge about the horses' natural needs and behaviours. It's therefore very important what the riding schools teach about these subjects.

The first aim with this study was, by doing a study of literature, to define some of the most important behavioural systems of horses and how they are related to safety and welfare. The second aim was, by doing an interview study, to investigate what riding schools teach about these systems, so that the riders could handle horses in a safely and in a welfare basis good way. In the interview study there were six riding teachers, at six different riding schools in different parts of Sweden, which were interviewed. The riding teachers had different educations and different experiences of the work and the riding schools where the riding teachers worked had different sizes. These riding schools and riding teachers were chosen because they should represent the average of the riding schools in Sweden.

Because horse behaviour is a large topic some delimitation had to be done. This study chose to focus on the horses eating behaviours, social behaviours and kinetic behaviours, because these are some of the most basic behavioural systems.

The results of the literature study showed that if these behaviours not are properly fulfilled the horses can get both physical and mental problems that can lead to poor horse welfare. There is also a risk of safety, not to know about the horses' social behaviours and how to read the signals of the horses. The results of the interview study showed that the riding teachers didn´t teach that much about horse behaviour. Although it seemed like they taught the right things about this subject according to current science. The riding teachers said that one of the problems was to get the riders interested in learning other things than riding.

This is a limited study so no major conclusions can be drawn but it gives an indication that more time and more emphasis should be placed on teaching about horse behaviour at the riding schools. That is important for the horses welfare and the riders safety.


This chapter explores two aspects of control constructions in Polish: A-movement out of CP-infinitives and case transmission and case independence in control constructions with predicative adjectives. The availability of the option of A-movement out of CP-infinitives is credited to a minimal redefinition of the vP phase, whereby the complement domain of the CP dominated by v is accessible to external probing up to the point where thematic properties of v are saturated. The transmission and independence of case on predicative adjectives in control constructions are due to three empirically justified assumptions: (1) Instrumental on the predicative adjective is a default case, (2) an infinitive introduced by a lexical complementizer can optionally function as a phase and (3) only the T probe can be involved in multiple Agree.


Author Summary Currently, no objective method exists for estimating the rate of change in the colour of meat. Consequently, the purpose of this work is to develop a procedure capable of monitoring the change in colour of meat over time, environment and ingredients. This provides a useful tool to determine which storage environments and ingredients a manufacturer should add to meat to reduce the rate of change in colour. The procedure consists of taking multi-spectral images of a piece of meat as a function of time, clustering the pixels of these images into categories, including several types of meat, and extracting colour information from each category. The focus has primarily been on achieving an accurate categorisation since this is crucial to develop a useful method. The categorisation is done by applying an orthogonal transformation followed by k-means clustering. The purpose of the orthogonal transformation is to reduce the noise and amount of data while enhancing the difference between the categories. The orthogonal transformations principal components analysis, minimum noise fraction analysis and kernel-based versions of these have been applied to test which produce the most accurate categorisation.


The wording of political messages is known to affect voting behavior, including judgments about whether or not candidates will be elected. Yet the question remains whether voting behavior can be influenced by fine-grained grammatical details of political messages. In this paper, two studies examined how subtly different grammatical forms in descriptions of political candidates' past actions can affect attitudes about electability. Specifically, participants read about a senator who was seeking reelection and then indicated whether they thought the politician would be reelected. In Study 1, the senator had done either negative or positive actions, and these were described using imperfective (was VERB + ing) or perfective (VERB + ed) aspect. In Study 2, the senator had done a negative and a positive action, one of which was described using imperfective and the other with perfective aspect. Results revealed that imperfective descriptions of negative actions resulted in greater confidence that the candidate would not be reelected. Imperfective descriptions also led people to think that the candidate had done more negative action. When a negative and positive action were described together, grammar again influenced electability such that people reasoned in line with whatever action was highlighted by imperfective aspect. In both studies, subtle differences in grammar influenced whether people thought a political candidate would be reelected. These findings provide novel insights about how language can shape thought in the political realm.


Abstract Educational practice is concerned in profound ways with what is pedagogically good and right for children, and as parents and teachers we intend to help each child to cultivate his or her personal and educational potential in a human fashion. In the spirit of ancient Aristotle and Plato, Continental pedagogues and philosophers have for centuries explored the meaning of pedagogical practice/praxis and of the pedagogical good, the quality of both being regarded not as a means to an educational end, but as the end itself. But what, indeed, is the pedagogical good, and what is the significance of the pedagogical good for students? Somehow we know the good, and yet we know it not. We recognize the good experientially, but the real meaning of what we intuit eludes our grasp. So how do we explore this elusive pedagogical quality – and is it possible to explore it? Based on phenomenological interviews with both young students and adults recalling episodes from school, as well as artistic narratives, this paper aims to illuminate experiential aspects of the pedagogical good and to reflect on the significance of the good in terms of pedagogical relational practice. It is suggested that the pedagogical good is not a quality that we as teachers can possess, or do, or practise, but rather a relational force beyond our pedagogical practice that opens up the world to children and preconditions the pedagogical relation.


Wildlife trafficking is classified as the fourth largest illegal commerce in the world. Taxonomic identification of wildlife is an ordinary process for forensics experts. The aim of this study was to analyze animal's hair from Brazilian's wildlife through microscopic and compare morphology of bristle among species analyzed. Hair samples of nine species were analyzed. Glass slides were analyzed through optical microscopy and following measurements were obtained: total length, medulla diameter, overall diameter and overall ratio diameter of the medulla's diameter. The images obtained at identification of animals through the morphology of hair and the statistics analysis corroborates in favor for the validation of the technique.


Abstract. We present a method for deriving the radiative effects of absorbing aerosols in cloudy scenes from satellite retrievals only. We use data of 2005–2007 from various passive sensors aboard satellites of the "A-Train" constellation. The study area is restricted to the tropical- and subtropical Atlantic Ocean. To identify the dependence of the local planetary albedo in cloudy scenes on cloud liquid water path and aerosol optical depth (AOD), we perform a multiple linear regression. The OMI UV-Aerosolindex serves as an indicator for absorbing-aerosol presence. In our method, the aerosol influences the local planetary albedo through direct- (scattering and absorption) and indirect (Twomey) aerosol effects. We find an increase of the local planetary albedo (LPA) with increasing AOD of mostly scattering aerosol and a decrease of the LPA with increasing AOD of mostly absorbing aerosol. These results allow us to derive the direct aerosol effect of absorbing aerosols in cloudy scenes, with the effect of cloudy-scene aerosol absorption in the tropical- and subtropical Atlantic contributing (+21.2 ± 11.1)×10 −3 Wm −2 to the global top of the atmosphere radiative forcing.


Neo-Chicago Antitrust is the topic of this symposium. Its adherents characterize it as a return to Chicago principles, informed by the developments in economic thinking over the past thirty-or-so years – notably, insights from both the Chicago and Post-Chicago schools. Behavioral Antitrust is a new area of scholarly inquiry that has gathered some attention in very recent years. The earliest article explicitly proposing a behavioral approach to antitrust was written in 2002. Proponents encourage courts and policy-makers to import the study of behavioral law and economics into antitrust analysis, using empirical study better to understand the conduct of individuals in market settings. Like foregoing antitrust economics movements, Behavioral Antitrust is on its face result-neutral, but as it has been discussed to date, it has a political slant. Until very recently, all of the writing advocating Behavioral Antitrust favored increased antitrust enforcement. Neo-Chicago and Behavioral Antitrust came along at about the same time, and a marriage of the two might temper any respective tendencies of either toward predetermined political ends. The combination might produce a more result-neutral enterprise of "economically informed antitrust." Neo-Chicago promises an improvement over Chicago's simplification of facts in pursuit of tractability, which Chicago's advocates applaud but critics argue has gone so far as to produce false understandings of marketplace conduct and effects. That suggests adherents might be receptive to efforts of Behavioral Antitrust scholars in critiquing antitrust rules in the light of empirical studies of individual economic actors. Behavioral Antitrust, in turn, has the goal of informing the assumptions underlying established economic theory through empirical study of the behavior of individual economic actors. That goal might be advanced by looking to Neo-Chicago's combination of theories from the Chicago and Post-Chicago Schools for a comprehensive theoretical framework for analysis. I suggest here a possible synthesis of Neo-Chicago with Behavioral Antitrust into an enterprise of "economically informed antitrust."


The objectives of this study are to: ascertain how first year university students perceive accounting in a time
period following the high profile corporate collapses of the early 21st century; understand the factors that
influence these perceptions; and determine if there is an association between students' perceptions of accounting and their inherent creativity. The findings of the study show that the majority of first year university students still hold a traditional stereotypical perception of accounting. School teachers and subjects were reported by the students as being the main influences on their perceptions. Students' perceptions of accounting are also linked to their inherent creativity. A limitation of the study is that the sample is drawn from students at two Australian universities. Therefore, the results may not generalise to other institutions.
This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on students' perceptions of accounting and the impact of various factors. There are implications for educators in designing appropriate curricula and the promotion of accounting by the accounting profession.


Unit I: Brief Review of Some Basic Math Techniques 1. Exponents and Scientific Notation 2. Logarithms 3. Units of Measurement 4. Measurements and Significant Figures 5. Using Equations to Describe a Relationship Unit II: Applications of Proportional Relationships in the Biology Laboratory 6. Ratios and Proportions 7. Unit Conversions 8. Density 9. Dosages 10. Percents 11. Introduction to Concentration Problems 12. Preparing Laboratory Solutions That Contain One Solute 13. Dilutions 14. Preparing Laboratory Solutions That Contain More Than One Solute Unit III: Describing Relationships with Equations and Graphs 15. Graphing Linear Equations 16. Spectrophotometry 17. Graphing Exponential Equations Unit IV: Introduction to Descriptive Statistics 18. Measures of Central Tendency 19. Measures of Dispersion 20. Graphical Methods of Describing Data Unit V. Biotechnology Applications 21. Calculations Relating to Animal Cell Culture 22. Amount and Concentration of Nucleic Acids 23. Calculations Relating to Common Molecular Biology Techniques 24. The Polymerase Chain Reaction 25. Calculations Relating to Protein Purification and Analysis


There is strong interest in realizing genomic molecular diagnostic platforms that are label-free, electronic, and single-molecule. One attractive transducer for such efforts is the single-molecule field-effect transistor (smFET), capable of detecting a single electronic charge and realized with a point-functionalized exposed-gate one-dimensional carbon nanotube field-effect device. In this work, smFETs are integrated directly onto a custom complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor chip, which results in an array of up to 6000 devices delivering a measurement bandwidth of 1 MHz. In a first exploitation of these high-bandwidth measurement capabilities, point functionalization through electrochemical oxidation of the devices is observed with microsecond temporal resolution, which reveals complex reaction pathways with resolvable scattering signatures. High-rate random telegraph noise is detected in certain oxidized devices, further illustrating the measurement capabilities of the platform.


Abstract. In this study, we investigate the ability of the chemistry transport model (CTM) Polair3D of the air quality modelling platform Polyphemus to simulate lidar backscattered profiles from model aerosol concentration outputs. This investigation is an important preprocessing stage of data assimilation (validation of the observation operator). To do so, simulated lidar signals are compared to hourly lidar observations performed during the MEGAPOLI (Megacities: Emissions, urban, regional and Global Atmospheric POLlution and climate effects, and Integrated tools for assessment and mitigation) summer experiment in July 2009, when a ground-based mobile lidar was deployed around Paris on-board a van. The comparison is performed for six different measurement days, 1, 4, 16, 21, 26 and 29 July 2009, corresponding to different levels of pollution and different atmospheric conditions. Overall, Polyphemus well reproduces the vertical distribution of lidar signals and their temporal variability, especially for 1, 16, 26 and 29 July 2009. Discrepancies on 4 and 21 July 2009 are due to high-altitude aerosol layers, which are not well modelled. In the second part of this study, two new algorithms for assimilating lidar observations based on the optimal interpolation method are presented. One algorithm analyses PM10 (particulate matter with diameter less than 10 μm) concentrations. Another analyses PM2.5 (particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 μm) and PM2.5–10 (particulate matter with a diameter higher than 2.5 μm and lower than 10 μm) concentrations separately. The aerosol simulations without and with lidar data assimilation (DA) are evaluated using the Airparif (a regional operational network in charge of air quality survey around the Paris area) database to demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of assimilating lidar profiles for aerosol forecasts. The evaluation shows that lidar DA is more efficient at correcting PM10 than PM2.5, probably because PM2.5 is better modelled than PM10. Furthermore, the algorithm which analyses both PM2.5and PM2.5–10 provides the best scores for PM10. The averaged root-mean-square error (RMSE) of PM10 is 11.63 μg m−3 with DA (PM2.5 and PM2.5–10), compared to 13.69 μg m−3 with DA (PM10) and 17.74 μg m−3 without DA on 1 July 2009. The averaged RMSE of PM10 is 4.73 μg m−3 with DA (PM2.5 and PM2.5–10), against 6.08 μg m−3 with DA (PM10) and 6.67 μg m−3 without DA on 26 July 2009.


The effect of trans-acting factors on cis-acting DNA elements on the HIV-1 promoter is the principal determinant governing transcriptional activation or repression. Few host factors that limit viral transcription and contribute to stable, nonproductive infections have been described. C-myc is a nuclear phosphoprotein that we have shown can negatively regulate HIV-1 promoter expression and viral replication in CD4+ T-lymphocytes. The mechanism implicates c-myc in a direct role. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay demonstrated that c-myc could specifically recognize the HIV-1 initiator element and linker scanning mutagenesis of the LTR confirmed the loss of c-myc-mediated repression in the absence of this region. C-myc can also recognize E box motifs. This element is present within the initiator region and has been demonstrated to be occupied by the c-myc related protein, USF which stimulates HIV-1 transcription. Results from co-expression studies indicated that c-myc mediated repression did not occur through direct binding to the E box and competition with USF. Moreover, c-myc appears to cooperate with initiator binding proteins, YY-1 and LSF to additively reduce gene expression. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments indicated that these cellular factors are capable of interacting in vivo and in the absence of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat. This suggests that c-myc, YY-1, and LSF are capable of forming a multiprotein complex and preassembling prior to binding to the initiator element. Thus, c-myc negative regulation of HIV-1 transcription offers one potential explanation for the emergence and maintenance of latent proviral reservoirs


Civil trial rates are at an all-time low. Meanwhile, "trial time limits" — judicially imposed limits on the time litigants have to present their evidence at trial — seem to be at an all-time high. We have fewer trials than ever, yet we're taking aggressive steps to curtail the few that we've got. This Article zeroes in on this paradox. It excavates time limits' origins, tracks their rise, examines their administration, and raises deep questions about their fairness and utility. Trial time limits have, so far, been variously ignored or, alternatively, lauded, as a way to promote juror comprehension and as a tool to make trials cheaper and more efficient. Indeed, one court has gone so far as to call these restrictions "essential" to sensible docket management. This Article challenges that conventional story and cautions against time limits' regular or reflexive application. In so doing, this Article seeks to begin a broader inquiry into how the American civil trial of the twenty-first century is not only disappearing; the scattered trials that remain are also changing, in subtle and hard-to-quantify but profoundly important ways.


This thesis accompanies and complements a portfolio of four original acoustic compositions written between 2017 and 2018. Together, this thesis and the portfolio of compositions explores aspects of repetition and recontextualisation within music.

By drawing from sources by Dora A. Hanninen, Jacques Lacan, Johnathan Burrows, and Bara Kolenc, this thesis outlines several current theories regarding repetition and recontextualisation and attempts to contextualise my enquiry.

This thesis will identify, illustrate, and explain a variety of compositional techniques and devices that may be used to achieve the repetition and recontextualisation of musical material, and through which a composer may encourage a listener to re-orientate the perspective from which each element of the repeated material is heard.

To do so, this thesis presents an analysis of Cicada by Kevin Volans, as an initial case study, but also draws upon examples from work presented within the portfolio of original compositions. Furthermore, this thesis also draws examples from a wide variety of works across the creative arts by other artists including: Phillip Glass, Robert Lax, Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Richard Glover, Agnes Martin, and James Turrell.

Ultimately, this thesis proposes that the compositional techniques and devices deployed in the repetition and recontextualisation of musical material may be classified into any one or more, of the following three categories: (1) addition and subtraction, (2) placement and displacement, and (3) tone and colouring.


BACKGROUND
In earlier studies, serum total cholesterol was inversely associated with death due to respiratory diseases.

METHODS
Relationships of cholesterol with risk of respiratory diseases were examined between 1978 and 1993 in a health maintenance organization in Northern California (48,188 men, 55,276 women, about 60% white, age range 25-89). Incident and fatal endpoints were ascertained using hospital discharge diagnostic codes and underlying cause of death, respectively.

RESULTS
An inverse association of cholesterol level with pneumonia/influenza hospitalization was found among men and women except that, contrary to hypothesis, a positive association was seen in women under 55 years of age. Inconsistent inverse associations were found in men, but not women, between cholesterol level and hospitalization for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Hospitalization for asthma was unrelated to cholesterol level. An inverse association existed between cholesterol level and hospitalization for miscellaneous respiratory diseases among men, but not women. Exclusion of early hospitalizations tended to attenuate risk for cholesterol level below 4.14 mmol/l, but not the risk gradient across higher cholesterol levels. For deaths, cholesterol level was statistically significantly inversely associated only with COPD.

CONCLUSIONS
Cholesterol had graded inverse associations with some respiratory diseases, but not others, tending to be stronger in men than in women, and in older than in younger participants. Associations varied for hospitalizations compared to deaths. More epidemiological and basic research is needed to elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying the observed associations.


This original research applies semiotics to linguistic and non-linguistic segments in a text in search of potential correlations between them. The resultant mapping is applied to cases of gesture-word mismatches that are evident in conflict situations. The current study adopts the word systems approach, a sign-based theory that is naturally designed for the analysis of linguistic signs, and extends it to non-linguistic units, borrowing analytical tools from the field of dance movement therapy. The variety of interdisciplinary metaphorical and literal interpretations of the analyzed signs enriches the theoretical framework and facilitates examination of the instances of mismatches. Hence, this study makes a meaningful contribution to the understanding of linguistic/non-linguistic mismatches in situations of conflict. Further, it makes more general claims: the semiotic system underlying this study paves the way for further research of correlations (or lack thereof) between a range of phenomena cutting across sociology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and political science.


Objective: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) also known as COVID-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, emerged first in Wuhan, China, and spread all over the world. The World Health Organization on January 30, 2020, officially declared the COVID-19 epidemic as a public health emergency of international concern. There is speculation as to the origin of the infection and the objective of this narrative review is to scan the available literature to create a cohesive review. Methodology: This review article is based on a literature search of PubMed, Google, and Google Scholar using the keywords " Corona virus," "COVID-19," "COVID" "Origins," "Review," and "classification." Articles providing new information were selected. Results: The coronavirus which has caused a pandemic has a genomic structure which closely resembles that of a bat coronavirus. The region that binds angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), i.e., the region of the spike proteins, resembles a coronavirus found in the pangolin (a scaly anteater found in the Chinese market and used in Chinese medicine). It is possible that the coronavirus was existing initially in its natural hosts, the bat, or pangolin. It is likely that the spike proteins mutated to bind to molecules similar to the human ACE2 protein therefore allowing it to infect humans. Another possibility is that it jumped species from bat to human and then became capable of causing pathogenic disease. The mutations in the receptor-binding domain portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2. It is not certain if the necessary mutations for causing the pandemic occurred before or after SARS-CoV-2 made the jump to humans. Conclusions: The current corona pandemic is due to the SARS-CoV-2 and there is evidence that it has spread to humans from bats. Pangolins, civet cats may be reservoirs for the virus, but as of now, there is no evidence of a laboratory origin of the virus. It is not clear whether the virus jumped species recently or was preexisting in humans and became pathogenic because of a recent mutation.


Abstract A new genus and species of lizard is described from far northern New Caledonia and the Îles Belep, to the north of the New Caledonian mainland. In overall appearance and biology, it is most similar to the forest-dwelling species of the endemic New Caledonian genus Marmorosphax and shares with those skinks a live-bearing mode of reproduction. However, the new species is highly divergent in its scalation and includes a combination of character states not seen in any other New Caledonian species. The new species has been recorded mainly from dry forest habitats in the far north of the region, including dry closed forest on the Îles Belep, dry riverine forest adjacent to the Rivière Néhoué, and dry closed forest on Dome de Tiébaghi. The forests in which this new species is found are now present as relictual patches as a result of historical factors or more recent anthropogenic impacts. The taxonomic uniqueness of this species, in combination with its restricted distribution and threats to its preferred habitat, make it a high priority for conservation management.


Usually large numbers of measurements are required to describe spatial variability of soil resistance but GIS technology with interpolations methods make it possible to estimate data from unsampled locations. In this paper cone index (CI) measurements were made in two occasions in 2.88 ha field in central Croatia to present soil condition. A commonly used tillage operation consists of ploughing (about 30 cm depth) and disc harrowing (12 - 15 cm), and they are practiced on annual basis. Measurements (240) were taken according sample grid in 48 different 24 x 25 m2 fields. Cone index (CI) data were interpolated using geostatistical techniques (ordinary kriging) to produce the maps of soil resistance. These maps combined with expert knowledge can provide good direction for applying appropriate soil management. Our results demonstrate that the investigated layers had variable spatial structures in terms of their linear trends. This suggests that each layer has a unique spatial structure possibly as consequence of pedogenetic processes, tillage operations and changes influenced by drainage and leveling operations. The results presented here describe spatial variability of soil resistance of a drained Pseudogley of Central Croatia, measured as CI in a field conditions. Tillage practices caused the formation of a plow pan at a depth 30 – 40 cm where the maximum CI values were obtained. According to the values of penetration resistance the tillage practices should be changed if we consider improved conditions for plant roots development.


The application of multimedia resources during classes is becoming increasingly usual, making the learning process more participatory and interactive. Learning Objects (LOs) are entities, digital or not, that can be used, reused or referenced during teaching process. The multimedia authoring of LOs is still a complex and time-consuming process. The purpose of this paper is to present the process of participatory design used in the development of Cacuriá, a tool that allows teachers and tutors to create and share videos enriched with interactive multimedia contents. Cacuriá interface was developed using Participatory Design techniques, including focus group, Card Sorting and Paper Prototyping followed by an enhancement of the interface design. This paper also describes implementation architecture of Cacuriá. Finally, a case study was conducted to present a possibility of OAs creation using the Cacuriá Tool without requiring the user to previously knowing programming concepts.


Wood induces hydraulic, morphologic, and textural complexity into fluvial sys- tems in forested regions around the world. Snags and logjams can create complex networks of channels and wetlands across entire river valleys and historically posed a significant ob- stacle to navigation. The clearing of wood from rivers and riparian forest land along streams and rivers reduced or eliminated the supply of wood into rivers in many regions of the world. Ecological restoration of fluvial environments increasingly includes the placement of wood. But few guidelines exist on appropriate methods for emulating natural wood accu- mulations, where and how to place wood, its longevity, the hydraulic and geomorphic con- sequences of wood, and how to manage systems where wood is reintroduced. Important issues to understand when placing wood in rivers include the watershed and reach-scale context of a project, the hydraulic and geomorphic effects of wood placements, possible changes in wood structures over time, and how it may impact human infrastructure and safety. Engineered logjams constructed in Washington, USA and New South Wales, Austra- lia offer examples of how wood reintroduction can be engineered without the use of artifi- cial anchoring to form stable in-stream structures as part of efforts to rehabilitate fluvial ecosystems and provide ecologically sensitive means to treat traditional problems such as bank stabilization and grade control.


In this thesis, a new approach based on an electrostatically suspended gyroscope (ESG) was explored in order to improve the performance of micromachined gyroscopes. Typically, a conventional micromachined gyroscope consists of a vibrating mass suspended on elastic beams that are anchored to a substrate. It measures the rotation rate of a body of interest by detecting rotation-induced Coriolis acceleration of a vibrating structure. Such a gyro is sensitive to fabrication imperfections and prone to cross-coupling signals between drive and sense modes, which degrade its performance. The micromachined ESG, on the other hand, employs a proof mass with no elastic beams connecting it to a substrate. The proof mass is levitated and spun electrostatically. In the presence of rotation, the spinning mass will rotate in the direction perpendicular to the spin and input axes. The displacement of the mass is capacitively sensed by a closed-loop electrostatic suspension system based on a sigma delta modulator (ΣΔM). The system, in turn, produces feedback forces to counteract themovement of the mass, moving it back to its nominal position. These feedback forces are equal to the precession torque and provide a measure of the rotation rate. Electrostatic levitation isolates the proof mass from unwanted inputs (for instance, mechanical friction, wear and stress), and thus the long-term stability of the gyroscope is expected to be improved. Furthermore, the micromachined ESG has a potential to achieve higher device sensitivity than that of a conventional vibrating-type micromachined gyroscope. This thesis deals with three aspects of the development of the micromachined ESG: device design and analysis, design and simulation of an electrostatic suspension system and device fabrication. Analytical calculations and ANSYS simulations were carried out to predict the behaviour of the micromachined ESG. The micromachined ESG with an electrostatic suspension control system based on a sigma-delta modulator (ΣΔM) was modelled in Matlab/Simulink and OrCAD/PSPICE to evaluate the operation and performance of the closed-loop gyroscope. A front-end capacitive readout circuit was also developed. Initial tests were carried out and the measurement results showed a reasonable good agreement to both theoretical calculation and OrCAD/PSPICE simulation. The fabrication of the prototype micromachined ESG was developed using a triple-stack glass-silicon-glass anodic bonding in combination with a high-aspect-ratio DRIE process. Fabrication results and processing issues were discussed. However, it was found that the rotor of the fabricated gyroscopes was stuck to the substrate. Therefore, a fabricated prototype, which had not yet covered by a top substrate, was used to investigate an alternative approach to provide electrostatic levitation using sidewall electrodes. The analysis of this approach was investigated using 2D electrostatic finite element simulations in ANSYS. Initial tests were also carried out.


This paper examines the financial value over the course of a lifetime of pursuing a college degree under a variety of different settings (e.g. major, student loan debt, individual ability). Using a lifecycle simulation approach, I account for ability/selection bias and the substantial probability that entering college freshmen will not eventually graduate, two critically important factors when evaluating the value of pursuing a college degree. I find that financial proposition of attending college is an unambiguously good investment for the vast majority of individuals with low to average college costs, although majors with a lower expected return do not pay off until middle age. However, when the financial costs of attending college are high (defined here as roughly $30,000 per year), the gains from attending college are far more tenuous, particularly among those with below median ability and those pursuing an Arts/Humanities degree. I estimate the net present discounted value of attending college to vary between $95,000 and $275,000 depending on the major (STEM, Business, Social Sciences, Arts/Humanities) pursued.