We focus on the distribution regression problem: regressing to vector-valued outputs from probability measures. Many important machine learning and statistical tasks fit into this framework, including multi-instance learning and point estimation problems without analytical solution (such as hyperparameter or entropy estimation). Despite the large number of available heuristics in the literature, the inherent two-stage sampled nature of the problem makes the theoretical analysis quite challenging, since in practice only samples from sampled distributions are observable, and the estimates have to rely on similarities computed between sets of points. To the best of our knowledge, the only existing technique with consistency guarantees for distribution regression requires kernel density estimation as an intermediate step (which often performs poorly in practice), and the domain of the distributions to be compact Euclidean. In this paper, we study a simple, analytically computable, ridge regression-based alternative to distribution regression, where we embed the distributions to a reproducing kernel Hilbert space, and learn the regressor from the embeddings to the outputs. Our main contribution is to prove that this scheme is consistent in the two-stage sampled setup under mild conditions (on separable topological domains enriched with kernels): we present an exact computational-statistical efficiency trade-off analysis showing that our estimator is able to match the one-stage sampled minimax optimal rate [Caponnetto and De Vito, 2007; Steinwart et al., 2009]. This result answers a 17-year-old open question, establishing the consistency of the classical set kernel [Haussler, 1999; Gaertner et. al, 2002] in regression. We also cover consistency for more recent kernels on distributions, including those due to [Christmann and Steinwart, 2010].


It has been proposed that the ancestral fungus was mating competent and homothallic. However, many mating competent fungi were initially classified as asexual because their mating capacity was hidden behind layers of regulation. For efficient in vitro mating, the essentially obligate diploid ascomycete pathogen Candida albicans has to homozygose its mating type locus from MTLa/α to MTLa/a or MTLα/α, and then undergo an environmentally controlled epigenetic switch from the white form to the mating competent opaque form (white opaque switch). These requirements greatly reduce the potential for C. albicans mating. In this thesis, I used a mutant library to screen genes involved in white to opaque switching in the MTLa/α background, which allowed us to focus on the barriers of mating in C. albicans (Chapter 2 to 5). Construction of the mutant library is described as an appendix. Heterotrimeric G proteins are an important class of eukaryotic signaling molecules that have been identified as central elements in the pheromone response pathways of many fungi. As well, I did genetic studies on G proteins of the mating pheromone pathway in C. albicans (Chapter 6). Chapter 2 discusses how deletion of the YciI domain gene OFR1 allows the bypass of the need for C. albicans cells to homozygose the mating type locus prior to switching to the opaque form and mating, and allows homothallic mating of MTL heterozygous strains. Transcriptional profiling of ofr1 mutant cells shows that in addition to regulating cell type and mating circuitry, Ofr1 is needed for proper regulation of histone and chitin biosynthesis gene expression. It appears that OFR1 is a key regulator in C. albicans, and functions in part to maintain the cryptic mating phenotype of the pathogen. Chapter 3 describes the gene termed OFR2, which affects the formation of lipid droplets, white opaque switching and mating. Chapter 4 discusses how the different transcripts of ORF19.7060 in white and opaque states play a role in white opaque switching and mating. Chapter 5 describes how the F1-ATPase chaperon ATP12 regulates white opaque switching and carbon metabolism.
In Chapter 6, disruption of the STE18 gene which encodes a potential γ subunit of a heterotrimeric G protein was shown to cause sterility of MTLa mating cells and to block pheromone-induced gene expression and shmoo formation; deletion of just the C-terminal CAAX box residues is sufficient to inactivate Ste18 function in the mating process. Intriguingly, ectopic expression behind the strong ACT1 promoter of either the Gα or the Gβ subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein is able to suppress the mating defect caused by deletion of the Gγ subunit and restore both pheromone-induced gene expression and morphology changes.


Green infrastructure has been endorsed by many practitioners and organizations as a more sustainable approach to stormwater management. Decisions on how to best design municipal green infrastructure systems can be complicated by factors such as uncertainties about the performance and public acceptance of particular technologies. Thus, deciding how to design sustainable stormwater management systems requires engineers not only to reflect upon the fundamental principles used to conceptualize their designs, but also to consider how a broad array of social, economic, and environmental factors both influence and are influenced by their work. This thesis examines factors that influence the design and adoption of sustainable civil infrastructure systems in two research areas: (1) municipal stormwater management decisions in the United States, and (2) student understanding of engineering design principles. The objective of this thesis is to identify elements of engineering design and related decision-making processes that can provide engineers, stormwater management stakeholders, and engineering educators with lessons and tools that can advance the sustainable development of stormwater management systems. One challenge to understanding how particular factors may lead to sustainable outcomes is devising a tractable way to organize and document them. Using observations from national meetings and an extensive literature review, I develop a social-ecological framework for identifying factors that condition the adoption of green infrastructure technologies by stormwater management authorities. Findings from this work demonstrate a need to more fully develop robust descriptions of technological attributes within a social-ecological framework for urban stormwater systems, particularly for technology decision-making activities such as green infrastructure adoption. Understanding past outcomes of engineering planning within a particular context can provide useful insight for future decision-making. I conduct a case study on the evolution of stormwater management planning in Onondaga County, New York between 1998 and 2009, in which plans for certain unpopular gray infrastructure technologies were eventually replaced in part by a large-scale green infrastructure program. I find that the adoption of this program was driven by an alignment of several sociopolitical factors, including the presence of a policy entrepreneurship coalition in support of alternative stormwater management plans, the election of a key political official who acknowledged the needs of local stakeholders, and a shift in mindset of local and national officials as to what technologies are effective for stormwater management. A growing number of U.S. cities are adopting green infrastructure programs for stormwater management, particularly for combined sewer overflow mitigation. Viewing green infrastructure program adoption in combined sewer communities as a policy innovation, I develop an empirical model to differentiate factors associated with a sewer management authority's binary decision to adopt or not adopt a large-scale green infrastructure program, and factors associated with decisions related to the extent of planned program implementation. This study finds that the binary decision to adopt a municipal green infrastructure program for combined sewer overflow management is largely driven by municipal population size and precipitation characteristics, while the extent of program implementation is also driven by socioeconomic characteristics of municipal residents and the amount of total capital needs required to achieve combined sewer overflow compliance. Engineers must be able to mathematically model the complexities of fundamental physical processes within real systems, such as green infrastructure systems for stormwater management. Many engineering processes are built upon fundamental concepts of mass and energy balances, in which mathematical models are used to analyze rates of change and accumulated quantities across system boundaries of interest. The Rate and Accumulation Concept Inventory (RACI) is an assessment tool that I developed to measure students' mathematical and physical understandings of such concepts. I use data from an administration of the RACI (N=305) to assess evidence of the tool's validity and reliability through structural equation modeling and multidimensional item response theory. Validity and reliability evidence indicates that the RACI can appropriately be used to measure students' overall understanding of rate and accumulation processes. Case-based teaching methods have been suggested as a best practice for introducing students to ethical decision-making scenarios. By sensitizing future engineers to the concerns of stakeholders who are impacted by engineering decisions, educators can better prepare them to create designs that address social outcome criteria such as welfare and justice. Using case study findings related to stakeholder concerns and engineering decisions for stormwater management planning in Onondaga County, I develop a case-based teaching module on engineering decisionmaking for use in undergraduate civil and environmental engineering courses. Assessments from three years of module implementation demonstrate that the module can be used to meet multiple learning objectives and enhance student understanding of stakeholder engagement principles. TRANSITIONING TO SUSTAINABLE CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS: GREEN STORMWATER MANAGEMENT AND ENGINEERING DESIGN THINKING


Israel is a country made up of contradictions. A lively democracy in a multicultural society but within a state promoting a strong national identity; a thriving economy in an unequal society; a culture open to modern trends but drawing on the Hebrew past and preoccupied with the Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli conflict; a sovereign member in the international arena, whose existence is still contested in the Middle East. The Routledge Handbook of Modern Israel provides a comprehensive profile of the intricacies of contemporary Israel, offering a unique, in-depth survey of the country.

Organised thematically, a full range of topics are discussed, including:
Politics and international relations
The foundation of the Israeli state
The birth and development of the Israeli economy
Israeli culture
Israel's role in the Middle East

Bringing together more than thirty notable contributors from across the globe, this Handbook sheds light on the multifaceted reality of modern Israel in order to better understand, beyond cliches, this complex society.


Contributions to this volume explore the idea of Marlowe as a working artist, in keeping with John Addington Symonds' characterization of him as a 'sculptor-poet'. Throughout the body of his work-including not only the poems and plays, but also his forays into translation and imitation - a distinguished company of established and emerging literary scholars traces how Marlowe conceives an idea, shapes and refines it, then remakes and remodels it, only to refashion it further in his writing process. These essays necessarily overlap with one another in the categories of lives, stage, and page, which signals their interdependent nature regarding questions of authorship, theater and performance history, as well as interpretive issues within the works themselves. The contributors interpret and analyze the disputed facts of Marlowe's life, the textual difficulties that emerge from the staging of his plays, the critical investigations arising from analyses of individual works, and their relationship to those of his contemporaries. The collection engages in new ways the controversies and complexities of its subject's life and art. It reflects the flourishing state of Marlowe studies as it shapes the twenty-first century conception of the poet and playwright as master craftsman.


The principal aim of this book is to introduce university level mathematics - both algebra and calculus. The text is suitable for first and second year students. It treats the material in depth, and thus can also be of interest to beginning graduate students. New concepts are motivated before being introduced through rigorous definitions. All theorems are proved and great care is taken over the logical structure of the material presented. To facilitate understanding, a large number of diagrams are included. Most of the material is presented in the traditional way, but an innovative approach is taken with emphasis on the use of Maple and in presenting a modern theory of integration. To help readers with their own use of this software, a list of Maple commands employed in the book is provided. The book advocates the use of computers in mathematics in general, and in pure mathematics in particular. It makes the point that results need not be correct just because they come from the computer. A careful and critical approach to using computer algebra systems persists throughout the text.


Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common chronic functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorder. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of IBS and its risk factors among the general population of Saudi Arabia, as there is no previous study has done so. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of IBS, IBS subtypes and IBS risk factors among the general population of Saudi Arabia from June 22 to November 30, 2019. A designed questionnaire that is based on ROME IV criteria and licensed from Rome Foundation was used. A total of 1,680 eligible individuals from different parts of Saudi Arabia took part in this national survey and were included in the statistical analysis. The statistical analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program (version 22). Results: The prevalence of IBS in the study was 18.2%. IBS-M was the most common subtype among IBS patients (42.3%). Risk factors that are significantly associated with IBS were shown to be smoking habits, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), food allergy, anxiety, psychological stress, family history of IBS, regular use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), history of infection before occurrence of symptoms and residence in the south of Saudi Arabia (P < 0.05*). Conclusions: IBS is prevalent in Saudi Arabia. The most common risk factor among IBS patients is a positive family history of IBS (80%). Raising public awareness and further prospective studies are both advocated and needed.


BACKGROUND OR CONTEXT

The concept of 'Aboriginal engineering' has had little exposure in conventional engineering education programs, despite more than 40,000 years of active human engagement with the diverse Australian environment. The work reported in this paper began with the premise that Indigenous
Student Support Through Indigenous Perspectives Embedded in Engineering Curricula (Goldfinch, et al 2013) would provide a clear and replicable means of encouraging Aboriginal teenagers to consider a career in engineering. Although that remains a key outcome of this OLT project, the direction taken by the research had led to additional insights and perspectives that have wide implications for
engineering education more generally. There has only been passing reference to the achievements of Aboriginal engineering in current texts, and the very absence of such references was a prompt to explore further as our work developed.

PURPOSE OR GOAL

Project goals focused on curriculum-based change, including development of a model for inclusive teaching spaces, and study units employing key features of the model. As work progressed we found we needed to understand more about the principles and practices informing the development of
pre-contact Aboriginal engineering strategies for sustaining life and society within the landscape of this often harsh continent. We also found ourselves being asked 'what engineering did Aboriginal cultures have?' Finding that there are no easy-to- access answers, we began researching the question, while continuing to engage with
specific curriculum trials.

APPROACH

Stakeholders in the project had been identified as engineering educators, potential Aboriginal students and Aboriginal communities local to Universities involved in the project. We realised, early on, that at least one more group was involved - all the non-Aboriginal students
in engineering classes. This realisation, coupled with recognition of the need to understand Aboriginal engineering as a set of viable, long term practices, altered the focus of our efforts. Rather than focusing primarily on finding ways to attract Aboriginal engineering students, the shift has been towards evolving ways of including knowledge about Aboriginal practices and
principles in relevant engineering content.

DISCUSSION

This paper introduces the model resulting from the work of this project, explores its potential influence on engineering curriculum development and reports on implementation strategies. The model is a static representation of a dynamic and cyclic approach to engaging with Aboriginal engineering through contact with local communities in regard to building knowledge about the social beliefs underlying Aboriginal engineering principles and practices. Ways to engage engineering educators, students and the wider community are evolving through the
continuing work of the project team and will be reported in more detail in the paper.

RECOMMENDATIONS/IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSION

While engineering may be considered by some to be agnostic in regard to culture and social issues, the work of this project is drawing attention to the importance of including such issues into curriculum materials at a number of levels of complexity. The paper will introduce and explore the central concepts of the research completed to date, as
well as suggesting ways in which engineering educators can extend their knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal engineering principles in the context of their own specialisations.


Species distribution models (SDMs) are increasingly used to assess how ecological factors shape species distributions and diversification. Chelid turtles represent the richest family of chelonians in South America. Given the distributional disjunction and distinct habitats of four Acanthochelys species, we explored SDMs and niche overlap metrics between species pairs to evaluate the extent to which niche divergence or conservatism may have contributed to their geographic distribution patterns. None of the species pairs presented patterns consistent with niche conservatism suggesting that these species have different environmental requirements. However, when comparing species pairs co-occurring in the same watershed, results were conflicting. Niche divergence detected among Acanthochelys species indicate an interaction between ecological niche preference and geographical barriers for allopatric speciation. This interaction implies that ecological differentiation contributed to the diversification of Acanthochelys side-necked turtles that occur in South American freshwater environments.


OBJECTIVES
We analysed and compared the effect of five H1-antihistamines on stimulated oxidative burst at extra- and intracellular level of isolated and stimulated human polymorphonuclear leukocytes.

DESIGN
Oxidative burst of isolated human neutrophils was studied by means of luminol and isoluminol enhanced chemiluminescence.

RESULTS
The following rank order of potency for H1-antihistamines to decrease chemiluminescence was evaluated extracellularly: dithiaden> loratadine> chlorpheniramine> brompheniramine> pheniramine and at intracellular site: loratadine> dithiaden.

CONCLUSION
H1-antihistamines differ substantially according to their chemical structure in suppressing oxidative burst both at extra- and intracellular site of isolated stimulated human neutrophils.


Drawing on interviews with a breadth of different showgirls, from shows in Paris, Las Vegas, Berlin, and Los Angeles, as well as her own artworks and those by other contemporary and historical artists, this book examines the experiences of showgirls and those who watch them, to challenge the narrowness of representations and discussions around what has been termed 'sexualisation' and 'the gaze'. An account of the experience of being 'looked at', the book raises questions of how the showgirl is represented, the nature of the pleasure that she elicits and the suspicion that surrounds it, and what this means for feminism and the act of looking. An embodied articulation of a new politics of looking, Viewing Pleasure and Being a Showgirl engages with the idea (reinforced by feminist critique) that images of women are linked to selling and that women's bodies have been commodified in capitalist culture, raising the question of whether this enables particular bodies - those of glamorous women on display - to become scapegoats for our deeper anxieties about consumerism.


Climate Change is the most important threat to our society and all species on Earth. Large alterations in the climate are affecting every aspect of our society and in order to limit this impact we must decarbonize the economy before 2050. Although science presents solid evidence on the magnitude of the problem and outlines precisely the consequences, people do not act accordingly and do not consider this issue a priority for their survival. The reason behind this paradox might be a non-appropriate Social Representation of Climate Change in society as the Social Representation conditions and forms the response of the society. In this paper, we extend previous investigations of how this Social Representation is formed in order to find ways to improve it through a Massive Online Open Course on the Science of Climate Change. Using a validated questionnaire, we investigated the knowledge dimension of the Social Representation of Climate Change in a group of students of a MOOC on Climate Change. A pre- and posttest revealed general improvements in all the categories that were considered in this study. A detailed analysis showed different degrees of improvement for different groups, providing new insights in the efficiency of knowledge-based online courses. Well designed Massive Online Open Courses, based on scientific evidence, targeted to the general public might improve the Social Representation of Climate Change, which may in turn trigger awareness and an effective mobilization to address this important and urgent topic.


The Millennium Villages Project is a high profile, multi-country development project that has aimed to serve as a model for ending rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The project became the subject of controversy when the methodological basis of early claims of success was questioned. The lively ensuing debate offers lessons on three recent mini-revolutions that have swept the field of development economics: the rising standards of evidence for measuring impact, the "open data" movement, and the growing role of the blogosphere in research debates. In this paper, Michael Clemens and Gabriel Demombynes discuss how a new transparency is changing the debate about what works.


Rice could be a useful raw material for the production of a gluten-free beer-like beverage. In today's beer brewing industry, rice is primarily used as an adjunct in combination with barley malt. But, recently, there is some information about rice malt for brewing an all-rice malt beer. The use of rice as an adjunct in brewing is described highlighting the quality attributes of the final beer. The rice grain quality attributes of different samples are reported in order to evaluate their attitude to malting and brewing and also consid ering their enzymatic activity. Then, the different brewing processes to produce all-rice malt beers will be described and the final gluten-free rice beers is evaluated and com pared to a barley malt beer. Finally, the levels of major aroma-active components of an all-rice malt beer and the results of the sensory analysis assessing the beer-like character of the rice beverage are reported. The obtained beer samples show a content of volatile compounds comparable with a barley malt beer. The sensory profile of the rice malt beer is similar to a barley malt beer in aroma, taste and mouthfeel.


Research on infrastructure as an asset class is still in its infancy due to the lack of data. Investors have approached the performance evaluation of infrastructure deals from the lens of either real estate or private equity. We use fund-level cash flow data to construct three performance metrics: the internal rate of return (IRR), the public market equivalent (PME) and the total value to paid-in capital (TVPI) and assess the performance drivers of private infrastructure funds. Our results highlight that private infrastructure funds exhibit a different performance pattern to mainstream private equity funds and to real estate private equity. Performance determinants such as fund size, investment style, fund specialisation, sector, location do not seem to explain the cross-section in performance indicators. All else equal, oversubscribed funds deliver a worse performance. Results for persistence across follow-on funds are inconclusive and we find mild momentum effects. Our results have implications for investors in real assets and less transparent markets. Overall, the private infrastructure fund sector is still in its infancy and conventional wisdom from general private equity or real estate research may not yet apply to infrastructure funds.


The normative justifications for intellectual property ("IP") law are richly debated. Some policymakers and experts argue that intellectual property should serve utilitarian goals, while others contend that the law should seek to protect natural rights or expressive ends. Such debates have historically lacked data concerning how human actors in the IP system actually conceive of the law. This Essay examines the results of experiments on the understanding of IP law for two critical components of the IP system: the public at large and IP attorneys.
The studies of popular perceptions of IP law reveal that the most prevalent perception does not align with any of the commonly accepted bases. Rather, the modal response is that IP law exists to prevent plagiarism. The study of IP attorneys displays much greater alignment with an incentivist approach to IP rights. That being said, even here there is still variation in this conception and in how IP conceptions align with opinions on the strength of protection. These results raise significant questions about the legitimacy and function of IP law under its traditional justifications.


In November 2006, Alec Berg, a successful hedge fund manager, must decide whether to invest in the initial public offering (IPO) of the Hertz Corporation. The IPO followed a leveraged buyout (LBO) of Hertz that was completed in December 2005 by three prominent private equity firms that had combined to purchase Hertz from the Ford Motor Company for $14.9 billion. The LBO sponsors had borrowed an additional $1 billion on top of the buyout financing to pay themselves a special dividend in June 2006. This loan would be repaid with the IPO proceeds and any remaining proceeds from the IPO would go to the sponsors. The IPO generated widespread criticism with respect to the speed with which the IPO was conducted and the payment of special dividends. In the face of this criticism, the demand for the Hertz IPO weakened, and the offer price was reduced from the initial file price range of $16-$18 to just $15. Berg must assess whether at $15 per share, Hertz offers an attractive investment for this fund. The case provides the necessary information for students to analyze the sponsors' returns on their investment in Hertz and the attractiveness of the $15 offer price to public shareholders. The case also offers an opportunity for students to discuss the controversy surrounding the payment of special dividends and the claim that private equity sponsors invest with a long-term perspective that creates value for the company.


One hundred and four edible oil and fat samples from 18 different sources, either vegetable (Brazil nut, coconut, corn, sunflower, walnut, virgin olive, peanut, palm, canola, soybean, sunflower) or animal (tallow and hydrogenated fish), have been analyzed by high-performance gas chromatography (HPGC) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Fatty acids were quantified by HPGC. The near-infrared spectral features of the most noteworthy bands were studied and discussed to design a filter-type NIR instrument. An arborescent structure, based on stepwise linear discriminant analysis (SLDA), was built to classify the samples according to their sources. Seven discriminant functions permitted a successive discrimination of saturated fats, corn, soybean, sunflower, canola, peanut, high oleic sunflower, and virgin olive oils. The discriminant functions were based on the absorbance values, between three and five, from the 1700–1800 and 2100–2400 nm regions. Chemical explanations are given in support of the selected wavelengths. The arborescent structure was then checked with a test set, and 90% of the samples were correctly classified.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the topic of altruism in the recent research literature of the public, private, and non-profit sectors. The top twenty most cited articles of each of the three sectors from 1995 to 2014 were retrieved from the Web of Science Journal Citation Report database and reviewed. Data was accumulated for content analysis of trends of publishing, changing industry viewpoints on altruism, and how altruism is referenced in these articles in each sector. With the results of the literary analysis, altruism can be considered a developable skill by organizations and that it can be encouraged through networking between the sectors. Altruism is also demonstrated to be more common in the nonprofit sector, based on nonprofit's unique ability to attract people with higher altruistic attitudes, but altruism and other forms of altruism are also very prevalent in the public and private sectors. Investigation of Altruism Research in the Three Sectors 3


Today, project-based learning is a well-known methodology in engineering education. In the IDR/UPM Institute of Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), different lines of research have been developed to involve students into projects related to aerodynamics (both theoretical and experimental), fluid dynamics on low gravity, and space science (heat transfer).Although these lines of research were initially related to the Ph.D. programs integrated within the academic plan of the university, the increasing interest among the bachelor and master students on research and projects linked to the most advanced engineering techniques, prompted the IDR/UPM academic staff to offer some specific projects to these students as their final degree thesis. In the present work, the UPMSat-2 satellite project is analyzed as an academic tool to involve different groups of students into a big project,encouraging them not only to develop specific skills in relation to a single subsystem of the satellite, but also to harmonize their work with the results from other groups of students working on other different subsystems.The different groups of students were directed by the professors of the IDR/UPM Institute. These students being mainly from two different degrees at UPM: Bachelor's Degree in Aerospace Engineering and Master's Degree in Space Systems (MUSE). The main difference between these two groups being the amount of work carried out to fulfill the degree requirements. For the Bachelor's Degree in Aerospace Engineering, a 300-hour average project is required, whereas for the Master's Degree in Space Systems this limit increases to 450 hours.
Taking into account the aforementioned figures, the importance of having motivated students is crucial. In this sense, a project like the UPMSat-2 has revealed itself as a formidable way to gather students and professors around a common engineering task. It should be pointed out that this kind of satellite, a 50-kg spacecraft, allows a more complex engineering management when compared to the cubesats (that is, engineering operations such as testing, integration or harnessing are closer to the ones related to commercial or military aircraft). Besides, as the UPMSat-2 is used as a platform to qualify space technologies for engineering enterprises (Iberespacio, Bartington, SSVB, Tecnobit, Arquimea…), students are in contact with commercial enterprises from the space sector, this fact being also important in order to increase their motivation.
In the present work the educational benefits of the UPMSat-2 program in relation to the Master's Degree in Space Systems (MUSE) are thoroughly described, some examples of the projects carried out by the students being summarized.
satellite design, space technology, project-based learning, active learning,


Reconstructing human vision from brain activities has been an appealing task that helps to understand our cognitive process. Even though recent research has seen great success in reconstructing static images from non-invasive brain recordings, work on recovering continuous visual experiences in the form of videos is limited. In this work, we propose Mind-Video that learns spatiotemporal information from continuous fMRI data of the cerebral cortex progressively through masked brain modeling, multimodal contrastive learning with spatiotemporal attention, and co-training with an augmented Stable Diffusion model that incorporates network temporal inflation. We show that high-quality videos of arbitrary frame rates can be reconstructed with Mind-Video using adversarial guidance. The recovered videos were evaluated with various semantic and pixel-level metrics. We achieved an average accuracy of 85% in semantic classification tasks and 0.19 in structural similarity index (SSIM), outperforming the previous state-of-the-art by 45%. We also show that our model is biologically plausible and interpretable, reflecting established physiological processes.


The transverse properties of squeezed light are studied for a number-squeezed edge diode laser working in an external-cavity configuration. Light noise is analyzed as a function of the transverse wave vector transmitted by a single slit at the focal plane of a short focal lens. Noise measurements obtained by opening the slit centered at the kx=0 position show a minimum squeezing at the slit center that increases up to the full-beam noise-compression. Noise is also measured by displacing a single slit of fixed width at the focal plane. The results of this wave-vector dependence are compared with a theory in which the slit is treated as a beam splitter for the incoming Hermite–Gaussian laser beam. A summation of the noise contributions at each wave vector cannot give the obtained result with the slit being open, which indicates a possible noise correlation of light with distinct wave vectors.


A new organic aerosol module has been implemented into the EMEP chemical transport model. Four different volatility basis set (VBS) schemes have been tested in long-term simulations for Europe, covering the six years 2002-2007. Different assumptions regarding partitioning of primary organic aerosol and aging of primary semi-volatile and intermediate volatility organic carbon (S/IVOC) species and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) have been explored. Model results are compared to filter measurements, aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) data and source apportionment studies, as well as to other model studies. The present study indicates that many different sources contribute significantly to organic aerosol in Europe. Biogenic and anthropogenic SOA, residential wood combustion and vegetation fire emissions may all contribute more than 10% each over substantial parts of Europe. This study shows smaller contributions from biogenic SOA to organic aerosol in Europe than earlier work, but relatively greater anthropogenic SOA. Simple VBS based organic aerosol models can give reasonably good results for summer conditions but more observational studies are needed to constrain the VBS parameterisations and to help improve emission inventories. The volatility distribution of primary emissions is one important issue for further work. Emissions of volatile organic compounds from biogenic sources are also highly uncertain and need further validation. We can not reproduce winter levels of organic aerosol in Europe, and there are many indications that the present emission inventories substantially underestimate emissions from residential wood combustion in large parts of Europe.


Pedagogical models are frameworks that guide researchers and educators. They are not neutral because they integrate theories, ideologies, objectives, values, and norms. This article analyzes and classifies educational models that deal with multiculturalism following four socio-political approaches: 1) cultural hegemony that includes three models, assimilationist, segregationist, and compensatory; 2) integrationist, which includes the non-racist education model and an emphasis on human relations; 3) recognition of the plurality of cultures which includes models of multicultural curriculum and orientation, and multicultural competencies; 4) interculturalist approaches, based on cultural symmetry and relying on anti-racist holistic intercultural education. It combines the advantages of antiracist and multicultural education within the context of an education for democracy with a global dimension.


Evaluating the reliability of intelligent physical systems against rare safety-critical events poses a huge testing burden for real-world applications. Simulation provides a useful platform to evaluate the extremal risks of these systems before their deployments. Importance Sampling (IS), while proven to be powerful for rare-event simulation, faces challenges in handling these learning-based systems due to their black-box nature that fundamentally undermines its e ciency guarantee, which can lead to under-estimation without diagnostically detected. We propose a framework called Deep Probabilistic Accelerated Evaluation (Deep-PrAE) to design statistically guaranteed IS, by converting black-box samplers that are versatile but could lack guarantees, into one with what we call a relaxed e ciency certificate that allows accurate estimation of bounds on the safety-critical event probability. We present the theory of DeepPrAE that combines the dominating point concept with rare-event set learning via deep neural network classifiers, and demonstrate its e↵ectiveness in numerical examples including the safety-testing of an intelligent driving algorithm. Proceedings of the 24 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS) 2021, San Diego, California, USA. PMLR: Volume 130. Copyright 2021 by the author(s).


Each year the Centre for Monetary Economics (CME) at The Department of Economics, BI Norwegian School of Management appoints an independent group of experts to evaluate monetary policy in Norway. This year the committee consists of Erik Bruce, Chief Analyst at Nordea Markets, Nils Gottfries, Professor in Economics at Uppsala University, and Kjell-Erik Lommerud, Professor in Economics at the University of Bergen. The committee is solely responsible for the report and the views therein. The report does not necessarily represent the views of the CME or of its members. The Ministry of Finance partly funds the Norges Bank Watch reports, which contain useful information and analyses for the Ministry's evaluation of monetary policy that is presented each year in a White Paper to Parliament.


Extending existing calculi by sorts is astrong means for improving the deductive power offirst-order theorem provers. Since many mathemat-ical facts can be more easily expressed in higher-orderlogic - aside the greater power of higher-order logicin principle - , it is desirable to transfer the advant-ages of sorts in the first-order case to the higher-ordercase. One possible method for automating higher-order logic is the translation of problem formulationsinto first-order logic and the usage of first-order the-orem provers. For a certain class of problems thismethod can compete with proving theorems directlyin higher-order logic as for instance with the TPStheorem prover of Peter Andrews or with the Nuprlproof development environment of Robert Constable.There are translations from unsorted higher-order lo-gic based on Church's simple theory of types intomany-sorted first-order logic, which are sound andcomplete with respect to a Henkin-style general mod-els semantics. In this paper we extend correspond-ing translations to translations of order-sorted higher-order logic into order-sorted first-order logic, thus weare able to utilize corresponding first-order theoremprover for proving higher-order theorems. We do notuse any (lambda)-expressions, therefore we have to add so-called comprehension axioms, which a priori makethe procedure well-suited only for essentially first-order theorems. However, in practical applicationsof mathematics many theorems are essentially first-order and as it seems to be the case, the comprehen-sion axioms can be mastered too.


Recent concern over existing drug-eluting stents, for the treatment of myocardial ischaemia, has led to the development of approaches that seek to inhibit restenosis while promoting the recovery of a functional endothelium. Prostacyclin analogues may be worthy candidates for use within a drug-eluting stent by virtue of their wide profile of vasoprotective effects. This article reviews recent developments in this area, and in so doing, reveals the future challenges for the further development of this technology.


The paper presents an analysis of the leadership effect, communication, and job satisfaction to  organizational commitment in the banking firm. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to analyze the causality pattern of the involved variables. In addition, to measure the influence among the variables defined, survey method is implemented. The population used was all staff of state and private banks in East Java Area with 200 respondents. The study result shows that the direct effect of leadership gives significant positive impact to the organizational communication and organizational commitment. On the other hand, there is no significance impact of the leadership to the job satisfaction. There is no effect of indirect, positive significance of leadership on organizational commitment with job satisfaction intervening. There is no direct influence, the positive significance of leadership on organizational commitment by intervening organizational communication and job satisfaction. Keywords: communication, job satisfaction, leadership, organizational commitment


Charge carriers in graphene form stable two-dimensional gases which are fully exposed to the environment. As a consequence, the electrical performance of graphene is strongly affected by surface charged impurities as well as topographic perturbations inherited from the underlying substrate.This thesis addresses several methods to circumvent that issue.The first method consists in embedding graphene in an optimized environment by depositing graphene onto some neutral and crystalline material. Novel 2D insulating materials such as hexagonal boron nitride buffer layer (BN) appears as ideal substrates to get rid of detrimental effect of interfacial charges and corrugation. Several fabrication schemes of Graphene/BN stacks are shown including some direct in-situ growth of graphene on BN crystal using an innovative proximity-driven chemical vapour growth based on BN exfoliation on copper. In order to explore the effects of the improved substrate on the transport properties of graphene, we have performed low temperature magneto-transport studies on these stacks. We present a direct comparison of weak localization signals with those acquired on a graphene/silica reference device. A clear increase of the coherence length is shown on Graphene/BN stacks together with improved electronic mobility and charge neutrality.Removing the substrate and suspending graphene is another approach for optimization of the graphene environment which forms the second topic covered in this thesis. After introducing an improved recipe for preserving the quality of graphene throughout an elaborate fabrication process, we probe the room- and low-temperature performance of the nano-electro-mechanical devices based on doubly clamped suspended graphene ribbons. The obtained data are used for characterizing the thermal expansion of CVD graphene.


Countertrade agreements in international trade refer to a practice in which an exporter agrees to purchase in the future, from the importer, commodities proportional to his original export sale. The paper analyzes why it might be efficient for agents to undertake trade through a reciprocal long-term transaction rather than a conventional spot transaction. More specifically, the paper argues that countertrade represents a rational response to market incompleteness because it allows the forward selling of commodities where no organized futures market exists. In this way countertrade helps reduce risk by providing information on future market conditions and by offering insurance against random fluctuations in these conditio.


I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It by Tony Evans - Liverpool and the most unlikely success story in football. "Evans tells the story with gusto ...the anecdotes are apt, and the blood on the streets and the boots on the field are as dramatic and black-humoured as on a battleground". (The Times). Dalglish. Souness. Rush. Hansen. And, of course, Grobelaar. They rank with the very greatest players in one of the greatest teams of all time. But the heroes of 1984 were an unlikely group to make history. Led by a 63-year old first-time manager and a captain show-off better known for his moves on the dancefloor, Liverpool's greatest season was a booze-fuelled journey to three trophies: the first division title, the League Cup and the European Cup, won on a remarkable night in Rome. The team's theme song was even a much-derided Chris Rea hit. Eye-watering, hilarious, and utterly unbelievable, this is the story of how they did it, and how their season was the last year of innocence in English football. This book is essential reading for fans of Red or Dead, 43 Years With The Same Bird: A Liverpudlian Love Affair and the memoirs of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Kenny Dalglish. "Superbly paced...full of riveting anecdotes". (Mirror (Book of the Month)). Tony Evans has been football editor of The Times for five years and was born a Liverpool fan. He writes a weekly column for The Game, The Times' weekly football supplement.


Risk-management systems in financial institutions have come under increasing scrutiny in light of the current financial crisis, resulting in calls for improvements and an increased role for regulators. Yet such objectives miss the intricacy at the heart of the risk-management process. This article outlines the complexity inherent in any modern risk-management system, which arises because there are shortcuts in the theoretical models that risk managers need to be aware of, as well as the difficulties in sensible calibration of model parameters. The author suggests that prudential regulation of such systems should focus on failures within the financial firm and in the market interactions between firms and reviews possible strategies that can improve the performance of risk management and microprudential regulatory practice.


Designed for undergraduate students, "Laboratory Manual for Exercise Physiology: Predictions, Equations, and Test Methods" offers comprehensive coverage of the basic testing procedures used in the assessment of human performance, health, and wellness. This user-friendly resource will assist students in developing the knowledge and skills to perform a wide range of tests and to critically analyze and synthesize data. Authors Gregory Haff and Charles Dumke have assembled a text that introduces readers to testing that can be applied in a variety of professional settings. The book's 15 labs encompassing 49 activities lead students through a series of learning opportunities that explore the basics of testing and pretest screening as well as methods for evaluating flexibility, blood pressure, oxygen consumption and energy expenditure, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, lactate metabolism, muscular strength, pulmonary function, body composition, and electrocardiogram assessments. "Laboratory Manual for Exercise Physiology" has been expertly sequenced to offer students an optimal learning experience. Organized in a logical progression, the labs build in complexity as students progress through the book and develop their knowledge base. A consistent heading structure enables students to easily follow the material and grasp the focus of the activities. Each laboratory is a complete lesson beginning with objectives, definitions of key terms, and background information that set the stage for learning. For each of the laboratory activities, students will find step-by-step instructions, making it easier for those new to the lab setting to complete the activities. Figures and photos throughout the text illustrate the key techniques. Data sheets are provided for each of the tests, allowing students to record their individual findings. Question sets found after each activity prompt students to put their lab experiences into context, and case studies help them understand the practical applications of the tests. The manual includes many features that further support learning. Special binding allows the book to lie flat on the lab table, and perforated pages enable students to remove their completed worksheets from the manual for grading without removing content needed for future reference. A resource finder at the front of the book helps readers locate the tests and formulas they need. A web resource packaged with new texts provides additional tools that assist students in working through the lab activities. Here they will find each of the question sets--a handy way to fill in and print answers after completing a laboratory activity. Group data sheets found only in the web resource allow students to move beyond collecting individual data. They can use these group sheets to compile data from the entire class, calculate values such as mean and range, and compare their findings to the normative data discussed in the lab. Instructors will find that "Laboratory Manual for Exercise Physiology" offers great flexibility in choosing the activities that suit the needs of their course and their students. Each lab contains multiple activities that cover distinct methods for introducing the testing concepts. The activities can be adapted to specific lab settings, available equipment, and time allotted. Equipment lists at the beginning of each activity make it easier to choose the labs that will work best in the lab facility. To further assist instructors in preparing for courses, access to an image bank features all the photos, illustrations, and tables from the text that can be inserted into tests, quizzes, handouts, and other course materials. "Laboratory Manual for Exercise Physiology: Predictions, Equations, and Test Methods" will help students build their professional knowledge and skills. This resource will give them the hands-on practice they need to learn in order to evaluate athletes, clinical clients, and other healthy individuals.


Excerpt] Family caregiving to older individuals in need of long-term care encompasses a wide range of activities, services, and supports. Caregiving can include assistance with personal care needs, such as bathing, dressing, and eating, as well as other activities necessary for independent living, such as shopping, medication management, and meal preparation. In addition, family caregivers may arrange, supervise, or pay for formal or paid care to be provided to the care recipient. Family caregivers fulfill the majority of the need for long-term care by older persons with chronic disabilities in the United States. As a result of increases in life expectancy, as well as the aging of the baby-boom generation, demand for family caregiving to the older population is likely to increase. However, demographic trends such as reduced fertility, increased divorce rates, and greater labor force participation among women may limit the number of available caregivers to older individuals, as well as the capacity for caregivers to provide needed care. Although many family caregivers find caregiving for an older family member a rewarding experience, other life circumstances, in addition to caregiving, may increase caregiver stress. For example, family members may not live in close proximity to the care recipient, they may face the competing demands of child care and elder care, and they may have to manage work with caregiving responsibilities. As a result, family caregiving can lead to emotional and physical strain and financial hardship. These effects are more likely to be felt among those caring for persons with high levels of disability or cognitive impairment. Caregiver stress has been linked to nursing home admission for the care recipient, thus interventions that can reduce stress may also reduce nursing home placement. Recognizing family caregivers as an important part of the nation's long-term care delivery system, the federal government has established programs and initiatives that provide direct supports to caregivers, such as respite care, education and training, tax relief, and cash assistance. These benefits are targeted at family caregivers to reduce stress and financial hardship, and to improve caregiving skills, among other things. Other federal programs and initiatives provide homeand community-based long-term care services and supports to the care recipient. These programs can indirectly benefit caregivers in relieving caregiver burden by either supplementing the informal care they are providing or substituting with paid support. Three sets of policies that would provide direct assistance to family caregivers to older adults are briefly discussed in the last section of this report. These policy issues, which have been the subject of discussion among federal policymakers and other interested stakeholders, include the following: caregiver services and supports, flexible workplace accommodations and income security, and additional tax credits. This report will be updated as warranted.


Abstract. The hydroxyl radical (OH) is the primary atmospheric oxidant responsible for removing many important trace gases, including methane, from the atmosphere. Although robust relationships between OH drivers and modes of climate variability have been shown, the underlying mechanisms between OH and these climate modes, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we use a chemical transport model to perform a 38 year simulation of atmospheric chemistry, in conjunction with satellite observations, to understand the relationship between tropospheric OH and ENSO, Northern Hemispheric modes of variability, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and monsoons. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and regression analyses show that ENSO is the dominant mode of global OH variability in the tropospheric column and upper troposphere, responsible for approximately 30 % of the total variance in boreal winter. Reductions in OH due to El Niño are centered over the tropical Pacific and Australia and can be as high as 10 %–15 % in the tropospheric column. The relationship between ENSO and OH is driven by changes in nitrogen oxides in the upper troposphere and changes in water vapor and O1D in the lower troposphere. While the correlations between monsoons or other modes of variability and OH span smaller spatial scales than for ENSO, regional changes in OH can be significantly larger than those caused by ENSO. Similar relationships occur in multiple models that participated in the Chemistry–Climate Model Initiative (CCMI), suggesting that the dependence of OH interannual variability on these well-known modes of climate variability is robust. Finally, the spatial pattern and r2 values of correlation between ENSO and modeled OH drivers – such as carbon monoxide, water vapor, lightning, and, to a lesser extent, NO2 – closely agree with satellite observations. The ability of satellite products to capture the relationship between OH drivers and ENSO provides an avenue to an indirect OH observation strategy and new constraints on OH variability.


The stream cipher TPypy has been designed by Biham and Seberry in January 2007 as the strongest member of the Py-family of stream ciphers. At Indocrypt 2007, Sekar, Paul and Preneel showed related-key weaknesses in the Py-family of stream ciphers including the strongest member TPypy. Furthermore, they modified the stream ciphers TPypy and TPy to generate two fast ciphers, namely RCR-32 and RCR-64, in an attempt to rule out all the attacks against the Py-family of stream ciphers. So far there exists no attack on RCR-32 and RCR-64. In this paper, we show that the related-key weaknesses can be still used to construct related-key distinguishing attacks on all Py-family of stream ciphers including the modified versions RCR- 32 and RCR-64. Under related keys, we show distinguishing attacks on RCR-32 and RCR-64 with data complexity 2 139.3 and advantage greater than 0.5. We also show that the data complexity of the distinguishing attacks on Py-family of stream ciphers proposed by Sekar et al. can be reduced from 193.7 2 to 149.3 2 . These results constitute the best attacks on the strongest members of the Py-family of stream ciphers Tpypy, RCR-32 and RCR-64. By modifying the key setup algorithm, we propose two new stream ciphers TRCR-32 and TRCR-64 which are derived from RCR-32 and RCR-64 respectively. Based on our security analysis, we conjecture that no attacks lower than brute force are possible on TRCR-32 and TRCR-64 stream ciphers.


Abstract. A body of knowledge for cartography requires representing knowledge of the specific sub topics in the field. Map projections is a fundamental part of the knowledge base for cartography and a wealth of material exists on knowledge of map projections. Semantic organization of such knowledge is of primary importance to the access and use of map projections knowledge. This project builds a semantic representation for the fundamental parts of map projection knowledge. The semantics capture the concepts and relations between these concepts providing the user an easy method to access the knowledge and apply it to specific problems. The semantics represent classes of projections and the properties associated with those classes as well as the appropriate use. Such a representation can be accessed by humans or machines to arrive at appropriate selection and use of map projection theory.


From the fall of the Han dynasty at the turn of the third century to the eventual reunification of the country under the Sui at the turn of the seventh century, China experienced a tumultuous and fascinating political and cultural history. The political fragmentation that occurred between the dynasties and the massive migration of nomadic peoples into China resulted in contact with people from every part of Asia and the introduction of foreign ideas, religion, art forms, and motifs. Out of this grew the magnificent art of Tang China in the early eighth century. This book is the first comprehensive survey of Chinese art during this complex era. Lavishly illustrated and produced, the volume presents more than three hundred recent archaeological finds: including gold artefacts made by the nomadic peoples from Mongolia, luxury articles of glass and precious metals from Western and Central Asia, early Chinese Buddhist sculptures, and spectacular works in every medium from the Tang period. Essays by distinguished scholars provide a historical background, discuss the various media, and trace the changes in art styles over a period that saw a radical modification of Chinese civilization. In the great tradition of publications on Chinese art from the Metropolitan Museum, China: Dawn of a Golden Age will become an essential text for years to come. This book is the catalogue for a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 5, 2004 to January 23, 2005).


Policies for investment in biofuel production facilities and feedstock may be necessary in order to meet climate and renewable energy targets. These policies entail a trade-off between high transportation costs of biomass and economies of scale of production facilities. We develop a spatial optimisation model and investigate the cost-effective localization of production facilities for ethanol from agricultural land in Sweden. Feedstock costs are found to be most important in determining the location, although high feedstock density motivates locating large facilities in areas with high feedstock costs. At higher production, feedstock from the whole country is preferred despite high transport costs.


At its November 2017 meeting, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to increase Bank Rate for the first time since July 2007. The September 2017 NMG Consulting survey of households, whose results were shown to the MPC prior to their November policy decision, sheds light on the conditions of households' balance sheets just before this change in monetary policy. Since the financial crisis, household balance sheet positions have improved significantly. The latest survey points to a slight deterioration in household balance sheet metrics over the past year, but these measures remain some way from previous peaks. For example, the share of households with a mortgage debt-servicing ratio (DSR) above 40% of income, — a DSR often associated with a higher risk of repayment difficulties — has risen over the past year. But that share remains around a historically low level. Changes in Bank Rate can influence household spending through a number of channels. To the extent that increases in Bank Rate feed through to retail interest rates, they affect household disposable income by raising payments on existing debts and deposits. The NMG survey provides evidence on this cash-flow effect and suggests that only around 2½% of households with a mortgage will need to take action (for instance by spending less or working more hours) following the rate increase. The decision to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum is still influencing households' economic outlook. Views on both the general economy and households' own finances have become slightly more pessimistic over the past twelve months. Expectations about nominal income growth, however, have reverted back to pre-referendum levels.


Integration of health services involves managing services to enhance quality for patient needs that cut across multiple services, providers and settings. The rapid growth of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has increased tuberculosis (TB) cases, and TB/HIV integration offers a unified strategy for control. This study evaluated TB/HIV integration in Ghana. The three sites evaluated applied varying degrees of integration. A mixed methods approach comprised an uncontrolled before-and-after study involving 1330 TB cases, and qualitative interviews with 29 providers and patients.

TB treatment success was 51% before and 69% after integration [p<0.01; OR(95% CI)=2.17 (1.72 to 2.74)]. Treatment success increased in all sites after integration: 43% to 53% at the one-stop shop (OSS), 69% to 78% at the partially integrated site (PIS), and 46% to 78% at the referral site (RS). The change was significant only at the RS [(Χ2=64.54; p<0.01; OR(95% CI)=4.28 (2.97 to 6.18)]. HIV screening was highest (99%) at the OSS (Χ2=68.26; p<0.01), HIV-positive cases on CPT were highest (93.8%) at the RS (Χ2=9.29; p<0.01), and the PIS had the highest number (59.5%) on ART (Χ2=95.00; p<0.01).

TB/HIV integration may improve TB treatment outcomes but effectiveness is difficult to ascertain due to study design limitations. TB treatment success and TB mortality might be more informative indicators for TB/HIV activities. TB/HIV outputs seemed unrelated to greater integration when compared across sites. This was probably due to existing barriers to integration including missed opportunities, provider fear of loss of influence, financial burden of illness, and stigma. Patient-provider interactions offered privacy and counselling but patients' illness experiences were not explored, and there was lack of decision-sharing. Patients were also unaware of their right to dignity and respect, or their role in disease management. Facilitators of integration included direct supervision, mutual adjustment and standardisation.

Recommendations include conducting more rigorous evaluation studies, including TB mortality in TB/HIV monitoring, prioritising health system strengthening instead of increasing degrees of integration, and improving patient-centred care through provider communication and patient empowerment.


Abstract This paper comprises of a preliminary in-depth analysis of the techno-economic criteria for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) solvent selection. Both conventional media (i.e. gas phase FTS and liquid phase FTS) as well as non-conventional media (near-critical and supercritical phase FTS) were examined, with an emphasis on non-conventional media FTS for the design and commercialization of a novel FTS reactor technology. Supercritical and near critical fluids (SCFs) are attractive for several reasons, highlighted by their ability to overcome some of the major limitations of current commercial technologies (e.g. transport limitations in the slurry reactor, and thermal limitations in multi-tubular reactors). Due to single phase operation of SCFs, these solvents are unique media for chemical reactions as they operate with densities that are sufficient to afford substantial dissolution power, while also providing diffusivities that are higher than normal liquids and viscosities that are lower than their liquid counterparts. High temperature Fischer-Tropsch (HTFT) was the center of examinations, but LTFT was considered as well. A wide array of hydrocarbon solvents was reviewed, ranging from propane to decane, with numerous blends of two or more of the mentioned paraffins. Several fuel cuts were studied as well, such as light and heavy naphtha and diesel. Understanding the transport and thermodynamic behavior as well as economic benefit of these said solvents is essential to the success of an advanced FTS reactor model. Also, the interaction of the solvents with in-situ reaction mixture and products further insures single-phase operation and feasibility.


Competency-based education is increasingly popular because of the flexibility it provides for students seeking a postsecondary credential. Current federal student aid, however, is geared toward supporting students in traditional, time-based degree programs. This paper discusses why current approaches to federal student aid are not supportive of competency-based degree programs and explores how federal statute and regulations could be changed, in ways that are not reliant on time and credit hours, to disburse aid to students while minimizing fraud.


Idsardi (2006) claims that Optimality Theory (OT; Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004) is in general computationally intractable on the basis of a proof adapted from Eisner 1997a. We take issue with this conclusion on two grounds. First, the intractability result holds only in cases where the constraint set is not fixed in advance (contra usual definitions of OT), and second, the result crucially depends on a particular representation of OT grammars. We show that there is an alternative representation of OT grammars that allows for efficient computation of optimal surface forms and provides deeper insight into the sources of complexity of OT. We conclude that it is a mistake to reject OT on the grounds that it is computationally intractable.


The Hilbert transform has become increasingly popular over the years due to its wide ranging applications not only in mathematics, but also in many other applied areas. In a quest for more applications, studying various aspects of its two weight forms has been a subject of high interest as early as the 1970's. Of special interest is the interface of the Hilbert transform with the notions of Carleson measures and the system of reproducing kernels in spaces of analytic functions. Though these notions have proved to be of fundamental importance and ubiquitous in the development of function theoretic spaces, their properties for many significant spaces, including the model subspace of the Hardy spaces H2 ;have not yet been well understood. The present thesis focuses on this interface and provides answers to several problems encompassing them. The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter provides an up-to-date review of the relevant background literature. The remaining chapters contain results that have been published by, or intended for, international journals. The work in chapter two covers the problems of unitarity, invertibility, boundedness, and surjective mapping properties of the two weight discrete Hilbert transforms, and a complete solution is obtained for the first one. Our solutions for the remaining problems are complete under a sparsity priori growth condition. Under such a condition, we describe bounded two weight Hilbert transforms in terms of a relatively simple A2 conditions. As a consequence, computable geometric criteria have been established for invertibility of such maps. Chapter two also provides all the basic underpinnings for the materials presented in Chapter three and Chapter four, where links have been established to interpolate all our results on the weighted transforms into statements about Carleson measures and systems of reproducing kernels in certain Hilbert spaces, of which de Branges spaces and model subspaces of H2; are prime examples. As an application, a connection to the Feichtinger conjecture, which is known to be equivalent to dozens of other conjectures including the famous Kadison–Singer problem, is pointed out and verified for certain classes of spaces. Chapter five deals again with normalized reproducing kernel Riesz bases in model subspaces of H2 generated by the class of meromorphic inner functions. In this chapter, the approach to studying such bases digresses somewhat from the methods used in the preceding chapters. Here, we study the normalized kernel bases from an equality of spaces perspective. It is known that such bases can be described in terms of equality of spaces whenever the kernels are associated with points all from the real line. When the points are from the upper half-plane, it is now proved that the analogous conditions may still be sufficient while failing to be necessary.


Adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments (ad-MVF) represent promising vascularisation units for bioengineered Integra® matrix wound dressing (MWD). However, due to the sheet-like structure with small pore sizes, the seeding of this matrix with ad-MVF is mainly limited to its surface. Integra® flowable wound matrix (FWM) may be suitable to achieve a more homogeneous distribution and, thus, improved vascularisation, because this gel-like matrix allows for the direct admixture of ad-MVF during sample preparation. To test this hypothesis, we seeded MWD and FWM with an identical number of ad-MVF and assessed their distribution and inter-fragment distance within both matrices. Moreover, ad-MVF-seeded MWD and FWM were implanted into full-thickness skin defects within mouse dorsal skinfold chambers to analyse their vascularisation, epithelialisation and tissue incorporation using intravital fluorescence microscopy, histology and immunohistochemistry. Seeded FWM exhibited a more homogeneous ad-MVF distribution, when compared to MWD. This resulted in a significantly increased inter-fragment distance, preventing the reassembly of ad-MVF into new microvascular networks. Accordingly, the vascularisation of FWM was diminished after implantation, as indicated by a reduced functional microvessel density and blood perfusion. This was associated with a decreased tissue incorporation and epithelialisation of the matrix, when compared to ad-MVF-seeded MWD. Hence, the use of FWM as a carrier system may require a tremendous amount of ad-MVF to shorten their inter-fragment distance and, thus, to maintain their vascularisation capacity for tissue engineering applications.


A bstrAct : Eastern fox squirrels have been introduced to many regions within the western United States including areas within California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. In California, fox squirrels have been introduced to San Francisco, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley, Mount Diablo in Clayton, Bakersfield, and Santa Barbara. The geographic range of the eastern fox squirrel has expanded greatly both through natural dispersal and additional intentional introductions by humans. The fox squirrel has replaced the native western gray squirrel in certain habitats while the two species coexist in other habitats. Western gray squirrels exist by themselves in a third type of habitat even though eastern fox squirrels have occupied adjacent habitat for about 30 years. Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) have been used to predict the presence and/or abundance of a particular species within a habitat. Analysis of 9 habitat variables using Discriminant Analysis produced a HSM where replacement, coexistence, and exclusion habitats can be identified using only 3 of the 9 habitat variables: average height of ground cover, percent canopy cover, and percent of total trees that are deciduous. A field study underway for over two years at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA is testing the validity of the HSM with the study site predicted to be a long-term coexistence habitat. The ratio of western gray squirrels to eastern fox squirrels has gone from 3:1 shortly after the fox squirrel entered the habitat to 1:1, but after 2.5 years of coexistence both species are commonly observed in the study site. The HSM is also being tested through the analysis of additional habitats. Although coexistence of the two species is possible for many decades, the number of western gray squirrels in coexistence habitats is often small, coexistence habitats are geographically isolated from each other, and the probability of extinction of western gray squirrels from these habitats could be high. We are also looking for new habitats which could support western gray squirrels if individuals were moved to these habitats.


Collaborative relationships involving government and education, business and education, and higher education and local school districts dramatically increased during the 1980s. Termed "partnerships," they addressed various issues affecting education, with technology as the subject of considerable attention. The state of Utah's Educational Technology Initiative (ETI) is one example of how a partnership can make inroads in a complex educational system. This undertaking has had a substantial impact on promoting the productive use of technology among 40 school districts enrolling 454,218 students, grades K-12. *Laying the Groundwork Utah's Education Technology Initiative (ETI) is a four-year venture (1990-1994) funded by a partnership involving state government, public schools, colleges of education and private businesses. Its mission is to enhance the teaching/learning process and to empower students to become literature, self-directed learners, problem solvers and productive members of a technologically oriented society. House Bill 468, passed by the 1990 Utah legislature, provided a $15 million appropriation to implement ETI. The bill stipulated that the initiative was to: * assist school districts and colleges of education in implementing educational technology programs; * require commitments from school districts, hardware and software computer vendors, and the business community to help underwrite the initiative; and * establish a technology initiative steering committee and project office. An "ETI Technology Conference and Vendor Fair" was sponsored by the Utah State Office of Education, May 14-16, 1990 for the purposes of outlining the intent of the initiative to the "partners" and to permit public and higher education personnel to view available technology. Breakout sessions, sponsored by school personnel and vendors, were held each day demonstrating how technology can enhance learning. Sessions included "Laser Videodisc Instruction" and the "Thinking Skills Lab," which focused on using Macintosh Plus computers to teach high school students higher-order thinking skills. Total funds projected for the four-year project are estimated at $220 million, of which technology vendors would contribute $100 million, state government $60 million, and businesses $40 million. The Utah Partnership for Education and Economic Development volunteered to raise the latter sum from businesses. One prominent vendor committed grants valued at $13 million in the form of personal computers, advanced workstations and software. School districts and colleges of education also must invest in the initiative: they are required to match ETI funds received on a one-to-three basis with their own locally generated funds or through in-kind services such as planning and inservice training. At the end of the 1990/91 school year, the combination of ETI and matching funds contributed by Utah's 40 school districts equalled approximately $63 for each student. Participating computer vendors are required to prepare a list of offerings available to support the instructional purposes of the initiative. Further, the products are required to have an instructional emphasis, include a well-developed training component for educators and be capable of statewide implementation. The vendors must offer deeper-than-normal discounts and provide a donation in funding or services as well. *Objectives and Funding ETI has both short-term and long-term objectives. Examples of short-term objectives to be reached within the four-year funding period are: 1) teachers and students will have greater access to technology resources; 2) the quality of technology inservice and preservice teacher-training programs will be strengthened; 3) student competencies in math and reading will be increased; and 4) the resources of the government, education, and private-business partnerships will stimulate quality education for schools through technology. …


Vehicles are becoming more and more connected, this opens up a larger attack surface which not only affects the passengers inside vehicles, but also people around them. These vulnerabilities exist because modern systems are built on the comparatively less secure and old CAN bus framework which lacks even basic authentication. Since a new protocol can only help future vehicles and not older vehicles, our approach tries to solve the issue as a data analytics problem and use machine learning techniques to secure cars. We develop a Hidden Markov Model to detect anomalous states from real data collected from vehicles. Using this model, while a vehicle is in operation, we are able to detect and issue alerts. Our model could be integrated as a plug-n-play device in all new and old cars.


This article challenges the standard story of the insurance crisis that led to the near-collapse and major reform of a number of states' workers' compensation programs in the 1980s and 1990s. In the prevailing account, insurance costs rose due to expanding costs of benefits for injured workers', much of which was blamed on wasteful or abusive "moral hazard" by workers and their lawyers and doctors. Because state regulators had substantial power to control insurance rates, this account claims governments tried to suppress prices in the face of rising benefit costs in a misguided attempt to avoid political trade-offs between labor and business. But this attempted "intervention" in the market failed eventually, as private insurance companies withdrew their business, pushing mandatory workers' compensation coverage into "residual market" systems. Finally, looming deficits in semi-public residual markets (or public insurance funds) and the decline of private insurance suppliers forced states to accept the discipline of market price, which they did by cutting benefits (and access to benefits) for workers, and deregulating insurance rates. This story of "rate suppression and benefit reform offers a now-classic critique of government regulation and social welfare spending, rationalizing a system of retrenchment of labor and welfare programs due to "economic reality." But a close examination of insurance regulation and its reform in Maine, singled out as the "poster child" for this story of insurance price suppression, reveals the opposite lesson. In this view, rising insurance costs resulted from what could be understood as "insurer moral hazard": wasteful and abusive practices by an insurance industry largely insulated from meaningful oversight and competition. Residual market structures in particularly were structured to produce short term gains at the expense of the long run viability of the system for both employers and workers. What solved Maine's insurance cost crisis was not primarily benefit reform – reducing worker "moral hazard" -- but instead was the development of dramatically different insurance structures that solved some (but not all) of the problems of insurer moral hazard. Benefits to workers could be substantially expanded without burdening employers if insurance was better designed and regulated.


This paper presents work using the capabilities of two TEM with in-situ ion irradiation facilities: Microscope and Ion Accelerator for Materials Investigation (MIAMI) at the University of Huddersfield and Joint Accelerators for Nano-science and Nuclear Simulation JANNuS at Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse (CSNSM), Orsay, France, to study the nucleation and growth of He bubbles in silicon carbide (SiC) and to carry out an investigation into bubble behaviour at high temperatures and under displacing irradiation. Preliminary results on bubble nucleation and growth during He irradiation of SiC are presented together with results from a simultaneous anneal and high-energy heavy-ion irradiation of samples containing He bubbles. The displacing irradiation is observed to impede He bubble growth resulting in smaller bubbles than those obtained from an anneal alone. A tentative interpretation of these observations is presented.


PHOTOCHEMICAL ELECTROCYCLIC RING CLOSURE AND ELIMINATION REACTIONS OF N-(OXOTHIOXANTHENYL)NAPHTHOTHIOPHENE CARBOXAMIDES Himali Devika Jayasekara, B.Sc (Hons), M.Sc. Marquette University, 2016 Photochemical cleavage reactions have found a widespread used in biological applications that require the photorelease of biologically active molecules such as proteins, peptides, neurotransmitters, and nucleotide phosphates. This research focuses on the design of photoremovable protecting groups which can be utilized to release these biomolecules by photolysis. These biomolecules are attached to the photoremovable protecting group at the sites of functional groups that are present within these substrates. Such functional groups are carboxylates, phosphates, thiolates, or phenolates, which upon exposure to light, are released as anions of varying basicities. The photochemical reaction involved is an electrocyclic ring closure between aromatic groups that are bridged by a carboxamide linkage. The key intermediate produced by electrocyclization is thought to have zwitterionic character. This zwitterionic intermediate is believed to expel the leaving group as the anion. One of the aromatic groups attached to the amide carbonyl carbon has been a benzothiophene ring system with leaving groups such as LG = Cl, PhS, HS, PhCH2S that are present at the C-3 position. The photochemical expulsion of these LGs is experimentally known to occur in triplet excited state. Furthermore, the initial step in the mechanism has been shown to involve the transfer of triplet excitation energy from the chromophore to the benzothiophene ring. When this energy transfer is unfavorable, energetically, the quantum yield is expected to be low. This is the case when thioxanthone is the chromophore and benzothiophene is the energy acceptor. The projects described herein involve efforts to lower the triplet excited state energy of the energy acceptor to make the triplet excitation energy transfer step more efficient. With benzothiophene as energy acceptor this step is endothermic. This project replaces the benzothiophene ring system with a naphtho[1, 2-b]thiophene so that energy transfer will be somewhat exothermic. An additional replacement attempted to use phenyl-2-thienyl ketone as energy acceptor. With the naphtho[1,2-b]thiophene energy acceptor the expulsion of the C-3 LG = Cl is more efficient (Φ = 0.084) than with the benzothiophene ring system under comparable aqueous buffered conditions using 385 nm light to generate the initial triplet excited state of thioxanthone chromophore. With benzothiophene as energy acceptor Φ = 0.035. Quenching experiments show that the photocyclization occurs via a short-lived triplet excited state localized primarily on the naphthothiophene ring. The initial cyclization must therefore be a very fast reaction. The limiting step likely is the triplet energy transfer step, which is only 46% efficient. Another source of inefficiency is the intersystem crossing step of the thioxanthone, which is 67% efficient. Subsequent to energy transfer, the remaining reaction steps are 27% efficient. These efficiencies are obtainable through a series of sensitized photolyses using xanthone and thioxanthone and the anilide obtained by replacing the thioxanthone chromophoric group and are thought to be representative of those for the actual thioxanthone linked by carboxamide to naphthothiophene.


BACKGROUND
Patency of the central veins is mandatory for proper function of hemodialysis fistula created at the upper extremities.

CASE REPORT
We present a case of dilatation of right brachiocephalic vein (RBCV) stenosis using a Wallstent implanted through the wall of another Wallstent, which had formerly been inserted into the left brachiocephalic vein and the superior vena cava (SVC). The left subclavian vein was subsequently permanently occluded which rendered the left upper extremity unsuitable for hemodialysis. PTA and implantation of a Wallstent extending from the RBCV to SVC through the wall of the initial stent proved very easy and apparently the only way to restore percutaneously normal flow and relieve congestion of the right arm.

CONCLUSIONS
The optimal method of stent implantation into the large-size, branching vessels remains to be established. A comparative, observational study of various techniques may help to indicate the best approach to the problem.


A fully automatic 3D reconstruction method based on images without manual modeling is presented in this paper. The method extracts 3D information from 2D images directly. Firstly, the feature points must be extracted from the images and then we match these corresponding points. Secondly, to determine the coordinates of 3D points, we should calculate the fundamental matrix, along with the extrinsic and intrinsic parameters of camera, which is to get the essential matrix. Consequently, we can implement the 3D reconstruction of the real scene after establishing the 3D model by Delauny triangulation and texture mapping and rendering in the late stage. Experiments with real images show that the method can reduce the reconstruction time of large-scale virtual scene greatly. It is characterized as efficiency, high stability and robustness.


Your complete guide to a career in medical billing and coding, updated with the latest changes in the ICD-10 and PPS This fully updated second edition of Medical Billing & Coding For Dummies provides readers with a complete overview of what to expect and how to succeed in a career in medical billing and coding. With healthcare providers moving more rapidly to electronic record systems, data accuracy and efficient data processing is more important than ever. Medical Billing & Coding For Dummies gives you everything you need to know to get started in medical billing and coding. This updated resource includes details on the most current industry changes in ICD-10 (10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) and PPS (Prospective Payment Systems), expanded coverage on the differences between EHRs and MHRs, the latest certification requirements and standard industry practices, and updated tips and advice for dealing with government agencies and insurance companies. * Prepare for a successful career in medical billing and coding * Get the latest updates on changes in the ICD-10 and PPS * Understand how the industry is changing and learn how to stay ahead of the curve * Learn about flexible employment options in this rapidly growing industry Medical Billing & Coding For Dummies, 2nd Edition provides aspiring professionals with detailed information and advice on what to expect in a billing and coding career, ways to find a training program, certification options, and ways to stay competitive in the field.


We propose a new abstract definition of equilibrium in the spirit of competitive equilibrium: a profile of alternatives and a public ordering (expressing prestige, price, or a social norm) such that each agent prefers his assigned alternative to all lower-ranked ones. The equilibrium operates in an abstract setting built upon a concept of convexity borrowed from convex geometry. We apply the concept to a variety of convex economies and relate it to Pareto optimality. The "magic" of linear equilibrium prices is put into perspective by establishing an analogy between linear functions in the standard convexity and "primitive orderings" in the abstract convexity. (JEL I11, I18, J44, K13)


Biorthogonal multiwavelets are generated from refinable function vectors by using multiresolution analyses. To obtain a biorthogonal multiwavelet, we need to construct a pair of primal and dual masks, from which two refinable function vectors are obtained so that a multiresolution analysis is formed to derive a biorthogonal multiwavelet. It is well known that the order of vanishing moments of a biorthogonal multiwavelet is one of the most desirable properties of a biorthogonal multiwavelet in various applications. To design a biorthogonal multiwavelet with high order of vanishing moments, we have to design a pair of primal and dual masks with high order of sum rules. In this paper, we shall study an important family of primal masks-- Hermite interpolatory masks. A general way for constructing Hermite interpolatory masks with increasing order of sum rules is presented. Such family of Hermite interpolants from the Hermite interpolatory masks includes the piecewise Hermite cubics as a special case. In particular, a C3 Hermite interpolant is constructed with support [-3,3] and multiplicity 2. Next, we shall present a construction by cosets (CBC) algorithm to construct biorthogonal multiwavelets with arbitrary order of vanishing moments. By employing the CBC algorithm, several examples of biorthogonal multiwavelets are provided to illustrate the general theory. In particular, a C1 dual function vector of the well-known piecewise Hermite cubics is given.


In this paper, we present a probabilistic numerical algorithm combining dynamic programming, Monte Carlo simulations and local basis regressions to solve non-stationary optimal multiple switching problems in infinite horizon. We provide the rate of convergence of the method in terms of the time step used to discretize the problem, of the size of the local hypercubes involved in the regressions, and of the truncating time horizon. To make the method viable for problems in high dimension and long time horizon, we extend a memory reduction method to the general Euler scheme, so that, when performing the numerical resolution, the storage of the Monte Carlo simulation paths is not needed. Then, we apply this algorithm to a model of optimal investment in power plants. This model takes into account electricity demand, cointegrated fuel prices, carbon price and random outages of power plants. It computes the optimal level of investment in each generation technology, considered as a whole, w.r.t. the electricity spot price. This electricity price is itself built according to a new extended structural model. In particular, it is a function of several factors, among which the installed capacities. The evolution of the optimal generation mix is illustrated on a realistic numerical problem in dimension eight, i.e. with two different technologies and six random factors.


Here, Ruby et al. analyze an unprecedented amount of public family tree data from Ancestry and determine that the heritability of human longevity was well below 10%, lower than the widely-held belief that lifespan... Human life span is a phenotype that integrates many aspects of health and environment into a single ultimate quantity: the elapsed time between birth and death. Though it is widely believed that long life runs in families for genetic reasons, estimates of life span "heritability" are consistently low (∼15–30%). Here, we used pedigree data from Ancestry public trees, including hundreds of millions of historical persons, to estimate the heritability of human longevity. Although "nominal heritability" estimates based on correlations among genetic relatives agreed with prior literature, the majority of that correlation was also captured by correlations among nongenetic (in-law) relatives, suggestive of highly assortative mating around life span-influencing factors (genetic and/or environmental). We used structural equation modeling to account for assortative mating, and concluded that the true heritability of human longevity for birth cohorts across the 1800s and early 1900s was well below 10%, and that it has been generally overestimated due to the effect of assortative mating.


This thesis analyses the reasons behind the electoral successes of the FPO between 1986, when Jorg Haider assumed the leadership of the party, and 2000, when the party entered into a government coalition with the OVP. A widely held view is that the FPO's rise was caused predominantly by the party's right-wing extremist tendencies. The importance of the role of the party's populist critique of the Austrian elite has often been underestimated. The literature and public debate about the FPO is largely dominated by ideological assumptions rather than detailed empirical inquiry. This thesis evaluates the relative importance of the right-wing extremist and populist dimensions, drawing on a wide range of qualitative and quantitative sources, such as party documents, its yearbooks, speeches and statements of prominent members, election results and voter surveys. An in-depth analysis of the data demonstrates that the extent of the expression of right- wing extremist views in the party's rhetoric, programmes and policies was smaller than commonly assumed. Voters were drawn towards the party primarily by its critique of the SPO/OVP elite rule that had characterised the Austrian political landscape since the Second World War. By highlighting and often exaggerating the shortcomings of the elite and Austrian corporatism, the party under Jorg Haider managed to appeal to the electorate. With their support, the FPO became the second largest political party at the national elections in 1999, thereby ending the SPO/OVP dual elite rule. Once the FPO joined the OVP-led government, the party quickly started to disintegrate resulting ultimately in a split of the party - a fate shared with other populist parties. The FPO's rise to power and particularly the emerging new right-wing extremist parties in Europe call for a thorough investigation of the underlying factors behind the parties' success. The analysis and findings of this thesis therefore are of relevance beyond the Austrian context.


The aims of this research were to assess New Zealand's (NZ) growing drug development industry, and compare it with drug development and biotechnology clusters overseas. This article presents the results of questionnaires administered dutring interviews with 60 senior people representing the industry. It narrates their expertise, knowledge management, and innovative behaviors. NZ's industry comprises highly qualified, very experienced, and motivated people. Their organizations have particular expertise in drug discovery, which has arisen from long‐term government support for biomedical research. There is also significant expertise in early‐stage clinical development and contract clinical research. Knowledge sharing was rated as better within organizations than externally. The participants gave the highest ratings of their organizations' innovative performance to solving problems that had caused others difficulty, teamwork and having new ideas; they prefer informal methods of knowledge acquisition. These factors may reflect the NZ approach of applying ingenuity to solve problems and preference for casual and internal knowledge sharing. NZ has a hub of drug development activity; however, its size, limited resources, and remoteness from major markets may limit the development of a complete pharmaceutical industry. NZ could be promoted as a unique "country cluster" offering niche areas of expertise especially in drug discovery and clinical research. Drug Dev Res 73: 51–58, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.