This article is an important addition to scholarship about magic in children's and young adult fantasy fiction. Jes Battis argues that the performance of magic is an interstitial space that simultaneously reinforces gender norms and allows characters to transgress those norms. His ideas, combined with earlier explorations about the roles magic plays in protagonists' coming of age journeys and with subjectivity and identity in fantasy fiction, should provoke thought among speculative fiction scholars.


This paper reviews the potential of prebiotic-containing foods in the prevention or postponement of certain diet-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases with hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, diabetes, gastrointestinal infections and gut inflammation. Also the data on prebiotics as food ingredients and their impact on food product quality are presented. Prebiotics are short chain carbohydrates that are resistant to the digestion process in the upper part of the digestive system, are not absorbed in any segment of the gastrointestinal system, and finally are selectively fermented by specific genera of colonic bacteria. The mechanisms of the beneficial impacts of prebiotics on human health are very difficult to specify directly, because their health-promoting functions are related to fermentation by intestinal microflora. The impact of prebiotics on diet-related diseases in many ways also depends on the products of their fermentation. Prebiotics as functional food ingredients also have an impact on the quality of food products, due to their textural and gelling properties. Prebiotics as food additives can be very valuable in the creation of functional food aimed at preventing or postponing many diet-related diseases. They additionally have beneficial technological properties which improve the quality of food products.


This study examines the illustrations that appear at the Office of the Dead in English Books of Hours, and seeks to understand how text and image work together in this thriving culture of commemoration to say something about how the English understood and thought about death in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Office of the Dead would have been one of the most familiar liturgical rituals in the medieval period, and was recited almost without ceasing at family funerals, gild commemorations, yearly minds, and chantry chapel services. The Placebo and Dirige were texts that many people knew through this constant exposure, and would have been more widely known than other 'death' texts such as the Ars Moriendi. The images that are found in these books reflect wider trends in the piety and devotional practice of the time. The first half of the study discusses the images that appear in these horae, and the relationship between the text and image is explored. The funeral or vigil scene, as the most commonly occurring, is discussed with reference to contemporary funeral practices, and ways of reading a Book of Hours. Other iconographic themes that appear in the Office of the Dead, such as the Roman de Renart, the Pety Job, the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, the story of Lazarus, and the life of Job, are also discussed. The second part of the thesis investigates the musical elaborations of the Office of the Dead as found in English prayer books. The Office of the Dead had a close relationship with music, which is demonstrated through an examination of the popularity of musical funerals and obits, as well as in the occurrence of musical notation for the Office in a book often used by the musically illiterate. The development of the Office of the Dead in conjunction with the development of the Books of Hours is also considered, and places the traditions and ideas that were part of the funeral  process in medieval England in a larger historical context. Type Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy The Office of the Dead in England: image and music in the Book of Hours and related texts, c. 1250-c. 1500 View Item 


Publisher's statement This paper was published in Journal of the Optical Society of America B and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/josab/abstract.cfm?URI=josab29-3-460. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law.


Background: Obese women are at an increased risk of various adverse pregnancy outcomes. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of obesity on maternal and neonatal outcomes in Saudi Pregnant Females and to compare obstetric outcomes by the level of maternal obesity. Materials and Methods: A Retrospective cohort study included 2517 women with singleton gestations who gave birth at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Security Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Sauid Arabia in 2016. Pregnancy complications and neonatal outcomes were identified using the hospital Medical Record Viewer Database. Women were divided into two groups based on their BMI in their first antenatal visit into, non-obese with BMI <30 kg/m2 and obese with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2. Furthermore obese women were subcategorized into two groups (BMI 30- 34.9 kg/m2, and BMI ≥ 35 kg/ m2, ) and pregnancy outcomes were compared between these and non-obese pregnant women. Results: Obese women were significantly more likely to have gestational hypertension (OR=8.59; 95% CI, 5.23-14.14; P<0.0001), preeclampsia (OR=2.06; 95% CI, 1.14-3.73; P<0.0001), gestational diabetes (OR=5.56; 95% CI, 3.66-8.49; P<0.0001), dystocia (OR=2.14; 95% CI, 1.36-3.38; P<0.0001), induced labor (OR=2.64; 95% CI, 1.83-3.80; P<0.0001), failed induction of labor (OR=18.06; 95% CI, 8.85-36.84; P<0.0001), cesarean delivery (OR=1.76; 95% CI, 1.25-2.49; P=0.001), large-for-gestational-age newborns (OR=3.68; 95% CI, 2.51 5.39; P<0.0001). Significantly increased risk of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, dystocia and newborns with Apgar score ≤ 7 after 5 min was only observed in women with BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2. Conclusions: Maternal obesity is significantly associated with an increased risk of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, dystocia, labor induction, failed induction of labor, large-for-gestational-age newborns and cesarean delivery.


Abstract. The accurate parameterisation of momentum and heat transfer across the air–sea interface is vital for realistic simulation of the atmosphere–ocean system. In most modelling applications accurate representation of the wind stress is required to numerically reproduce surge, coastal ocean circulation, surface waves, turbulence and mixing. Different formulations can be implemented and impact the accuracy of the instantaneous and long-term residual circulation, the surface mixed layer, and the generation of wave-surge conditions. This, in turn, affects predictions of storm impact, sediment pathways, and coastal resilience to climate change. The specific numerical formulation needs careful selection to ensure the accuracy of the simulation. Two wind stress parameterisations widely used in the ocean circulation and the storm surge communities respectively are studied with focus on an application to the NW region of the UK. Model–observation validation is performed at two nearshore and one estuarine ADCP (acoustic Doppler current profiler) stations in Liverpool Bay, a hypertidal region of freshwater influence (ROFI) with vast intertidal areas. The period of study covers both calm and extreme conditions to test the robustness of the 10 m wind stress component of the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) bulk formulae and the standard Charnock relation. In this coastal application a realistic barotropic–baroclinic simulation of the circulation and surge elevation is set-up, demonstrating greater accuracy occurs when using the Charnock relation, with a constant Charnock coefficient of 0.0185, for surface wind stress during this one month period.


This article asks how labour markets are changing in the context of wider transformations in the rural economy. Drawing on evidence from two villages in southern India, which are both close to, and deeply affected by, a major textile industry cluster, the article examines local labour markets, arguing that labour market segmentation is not simply caste-based. While some Dalits from one village have gained access to jobs in export markets, the same group of Dalits from another village have not. Furthermore, different groups of Dalits have had very different experiences of accessing jobs in urban areas, and the article shows that barriers to entry are located more in the rural social economy than in the urban industry. It is argued that villages only a few miles apart have very different local labour markets because they are uniquely and variously embedded in local institutions that interact with economic transformations in contingent ways. The article shows that having an industry on your doorstep means very different things for different people.


In this paper, a new characterization for the interval-valued residuated fuzzy implication operators is presented, with which it is possible to use them in a simple and efficient way, since the calculation of the values of an intervalvalued implication applicated to two intervals is reduced to the study of a fuzzy implication applicated to the extremes of these intervals. This result is very important in order to extract knowledge from an L-fuzzy context with incomplete information. Finally, some examples of interval-valued residuated fuzzy implications built by this constructive method and some properties are shown.


An 'object' is a work of architecture that is expressly cut off from its environment. Objects are not exclusive to any particular architectural style, but objectification has long been central to western architecture. Indeed, it might even be said to be the very strategy by which modernism succeeded in conquering the world. It is all-pervasive because it is consistent with the aim of the prevailing economic system: to transform virtually everything into a commodity. In "Anti-Object", Kengo Kuma argues that this mindset prevents us from establishing a healthy relationship with the external world and suggests that an alternative form of architecture is not only desirable but possible as well.His approach is illustrated with a discussion of works by his office in which he has sought, by various tactics, to avoid objectification. The ideas embodied in these diverse projects have much in common with the Japanese tradition, not of 'monuments', but of 'weaker' buildings characterised by their use of natural light and natural materials.


A knowledge of root hydraulic resistance is required for the application of water flow models of the plant-soil system. An attempt was made to estimate axial resistance of intact cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. cv. Tamcot CAMD-E 107-5A) taproots to water flow by direct and simultaneous measurement of water flow rate and of the gradient in xylem water potential. Fiscus's root psychrometer was modified and used for the measurement of xylem water potential. The measurements were made in rigidly controlled, constant temperature environments, and under conditions in which no water was available for the portion of the taproot where xylem water potential gradient was measured, but water was available distal to that portion. The water uptake rate was simultaneously measured while water was supplied at a constant head. Axial resistance to water flow along a cotton taproot of 70- to 120-d-old plants was on the order of 1 mg -1 water m -1 root s MPa, which is near the lower limit of published values for cotton and other species. Axial resistance was also calculated from the measured xylem vessel diameters based on the Poiseuille-Hagen equation. Measured axial resistance values were 20 times those calculated using the Poiseuille-Hagen equation. It required as long as 34 d for the water potential inside the psychrometer chamber to equilibrate with that of the root xylem. Drying the root substantially increased the radial resistance and thereby increased the time required for equilibration. Modifications to the described experimental apparatus and procedure will be required.


During the almost 170 years since Jane Eyre was published, there have been numerous adaptations in many different mediums and genres, such as plays, films, musicals, graphic novels, spin-off novels, and parodies. The novel has been read in many different critical traditions: liberal humanist, historicist, feminist, and postcolonial approaches dealing with topics such as the problem of female authorship and consciousness. In addition, it has been read in terms of an ideological struggle based on race, class, and gender; xenophobia and imperialism; female labor politics; and genre issues, to just name a few. As literary critics have explored numerous themes in the text, so too have playwrights and film directors chosen specific parts of the narrative to emphasize in their productions, illustrating how concepts of intersectionality, or the study of the intersections between forms of oppression, have been used long before the term was coined in the 1980s. My thesis is devoted to the exploration of a series of adaptations of this novel since its publication. I begin by discussing the novel and the role intersectionality has played in a variety of scholarly interpretations of this work. Next, I consider three stage adaptations from the nineteenth century: John Courtney's Jane Eyre or The Secrets of Thornfield Manor (1848), John Brougham's Jane Eyre (1849), and Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer's Jane Eyre or The Orphan of Lowood (1870). Finally, I analyze three different film adaptations of this narrative, including movies directed by Robert Stevenson (1943), Delbert Mann (1970), and Franco Zeffirelli (1996) to provide a broad spectrum of this story as a part of film history from World War II through the end of the twentieth century. Nineteenth-century dramatists neglected the feminist plots; twentieth-century film directors chose to highlight different aspects of the romantic relationship between Jane and Rochester. I argue that the adaptations highlight the concepts of intersectionality that scholars have brought to their readings of the novel.


Background: Acute reduction in dietary energy intake reduces very low-density lipoprotein triglyceride (VLDL-TG) concentration. Although chronic dietary energy surplus and obesity are associated with hypertriglyceridemia, the effect of acute overfeeding on VLDL-TG metabolism is not known. Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of acute negative and positive energy balance on VLDL-TG metabolism in healthy women. Design: Ten healthy women (age: 22.0 6 2.9 years, BMI: 21.2 6 1.3 kg/m 2 ) underwent a stable isotopically labeled tracer infusion study to determine basal VLDL-TG kinetics after performing, in random order, three experimental trials on the previous day: i) isocaloric feeding (control) ii) hypocaloric feeding with a dietary energy restriction of 2.89 6 0.42 MJ and iii) hypercaloric feeding with a dietary energy surplus of 2.91 6 0.32 MJ. The three diets had the same macronutrient composition. Results: Fasting plasma VLDL-TG concentrations decreased by , 26% after hypocaloric feeding relative to the control trial ( P =0.037), owing to decreased hepatic VLDL-TG secretion rate (by 21%, P =0.023) and increased VLDL-TG plasma clearance rate (by , 12%, P =0.016). Hypercaloric feeding increased plasma glucose concentration ( P =0.042) but had no effect on VLDL-TG concentration and kinetics compared to the control trial. Conclusion: Acute dietary energy deficit ( , 3MJ) leads to hypotriglyceridemia via a combination of decreased hepatic VLDL- TG secretion and increased VLDL-TG clearance. On the other hand, acute dietary energy surplus ( , 3MJ) does not affect basal VLDL-TG metabolism but disrupts glucose homeostasis in healthy women.


Globally, terrestrial ecosystems have absorbed about 30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions over the period 2000-2007 and inter-hemispheric gradients indicate that a significant fraction of terrestrial carbon sequestration must be north of the Equator. We present a compilation of the CO2, CO, CH4 and N2O balances of Europe following a dual constraint approach in which (1) a land-based balance derived mainly from ecosystem carbon inventories and (2) a land-based balance derived from flux measurements are compared to (3) the atmospheric data-based balance derived from inversions constrained by measurements of atmospheric GHG (greenhouse gas) concentrations. Good agreement between the GHG balances based on fluxes (1294 +/- 545 Tg C in CO2-eq yr(-1)), inventories (1299 +/- 200 Tg C in CO2-eq yr(-1)) and inversions (1210 +/- 405 Tg C in CO2-eq yr(-1)) increases our confidence that the processes underlying the European GHG budget are well understood and reasonably sampled. However, the uncertainty remains large and largely lacks formal estimates. Given that European net land to atmosphere exchanges are determined by a few dominant fluxes, the uncertainty of these key components needs to be formally estimated before efforts could be made to reduce the overall uncertainty. The net land-to-atmosphere flux is a net source for CO2, CO, CH4 and N2O, because the anthropogenic emissions by far exceed the biogenic sink strength. The dual-constraint approach confirmed that the European biogenic sink removes as much as 205 +/- 72 Tg C yr(-1) from fossil fuel burning from the atmosphere. However, This C is being sequestered in both terrestrial and inland aquatic ecosystems. If the C-cost for ecosystem management is taken into account, the net uptake of ecosystems is estimated to decrease by 45% but still indicates substantial C-sequestration. However, when the balance is extended from CO2 towards the main GHGs, C-uptake by terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is offset by emissions of non-CO2 GHGs. As such, the European ecosystems are unlikely to contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change.


History of lung malignant growth goes back to the mid 1400s, when the rate of death of roughly half of excavators working along the outskirt of Germany and the Czech Republic happened due to a pneumonic illness called bergkrankheit (mountain disease).1,2 Lung malignant growth is one of the most widely recognized malignancies among the industrialized countries. There are 6,000,000 new instances of lung malignancy which compares to 12.7% of the world's disease rate that were analyzed in 2008.3 For the treatment of lung malignant growth in most ideal and effective manner, early conclusion at a beginning time is the key. For early determination various modalities can be applied eg. radiology, bronchoscopy, bronchial biopsy, brushing, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytology etc.4 Bronchial biopsies can't be acted in increasingly fringe locales or in patients in danger of discharge. Bronchoscopic washing, brushing might be utilized to supplement tissue biopsies in the diagnosing lung lesions.5,6 Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), which was initially evolved as helpful instrument for pneumonic conditions like aspiratory alveolar proteinosis, cystic fibrosis and obstinate asthma, likewise has picked up acknowledgment and consistent ubiquity as an apparatus for diagnosing lung cancer.7 Bronchial brushing (BB) is where surface of a presumed injury, envisioned through a bronchoscope, is scratched by brush that are uncommonly intended to go through bronchoscope so as to gather the cytological example. Bronchial brushings can be utilized for exfoliative cytology or microbiological investigation. Bronchial brushings for exfoliative cytology utilize expendable cytology brush, with an indicative yield of 72% and 45%, separately, for focal and fringe lesions.8 Confirmation of the sort of lung disease by cytology is of most extreme significance before treatment can be resolved. The point of the current investigation was to contemplate the viability of bronchoalveolar lavage, bronchial brush cytology and bronchial biopsy in diagnosing lung disease.

Adaptable fiberoptic bronchoscopy is regularly the underlying method for finding of lung and bronchial tumors. Numerous examinations have indicated the high precision pace of bronchial washing and brushing cytology in the assessment of neoplastic and non-neoplastic bronchopulmonary injuries.
Background: Fiber optic bronchoscopy is the most regularly utilized technique for diagnosing lung malignant growth. A few strategies, for example, biopsy, bronchial brushing and bronchial washing are generally utilized together in view of their consolidated high demonstrative value.
Objective: The principle target of this examination was to assess the adequacy of bronchial brush (BB) cytology in contrast with bronchial wash cytology (BW) in the conclusion of bronchopulmonary sores.
Methods: Absolutely 1,691 patients (77% guys and 23% females) were researched for suspected lung disease between January 2000 and December 2010 in Rizgary Teaching Hospital in Erbil, Kurdistan. The period of patients changed between 11 to 100 years. Adaptable bronchoscopic examples of bronchoalveolar lavage (wash) and bronchial brush cytology were taken and prepared according to standard methods of cytology.
Results: The outcomes showed that the mean age was 62.2±0.35 for the male patients and 57.5±0.77 for female patients. We found that 92.5% of the male patients and 54.1% of the female patients were smokers. Clinical discoveries and bronchoscopy assessment indicated that 693 patients had lung malignant growth, 83.7% of them were guys and just 16.3% were female patients, with male to female proportion around 5:1. Pneumonic cytology from BB and BW is significant apparatus in the analysis of lung malignancies and has been utilized in the current investigation. Complete cytological outcomes were accessible from 1,074 patients. Cytology uncovered 19% instances of harm and 10% were analyzed as atypical/dubious. Kindhearted and insufficient (hypocellular examples) were 74% and 7.2% separately. Strangely, it has been discovered that 57% of the harmful examples were from BB cytology contrasted with 43% from BW cytology. Further, it was discovered that atypical/dubious and hypocellular tests from BB cytology were 20% and 9%, individually, contrasted with 80% and 91% separately, from BW cytology (p<0.001). BB cytology demonstrated 65% affectability, 90% explicitness and 71% exactness, while BW cytology indicated 48.5% affectability, 81% particularity and 68% precision. Positive prescient worth and negative prescient incentive from BB cytology were 95% and 44.3% separately, while the qualities for BW cytology were 62% and 71% individually. The most well-known kind of tumors found in this examination was squamous cell carcinoma.
Conclusion: This investigation affirms that bronchial brush cytology was better than bronchial wash cytology in the analysis and morphological composing of lung tumors.


ABSTRACT FOLLOWING MOSES: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROPHETIC DISCOURSE OF THE FIRST CENTURY C.E. This dissertation informs current discussions of the apparent transformation of the concepts of prophets and prophecy within Judaism of the Second Temple period by examining the application of the Law of the Prophet (Deut 18:15-22) within two first century C.E. texts, the Testament of Moses and the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum of Pseudo-Philo. Combining scholarly study of ancient Biblical interpretation and of legal and historical narrative, the study examines the successors of Moses as an umbrella concept in discursive competition between centers of human and textual authority. The study was designed to be comparative, identifying key intermediaries, settings, and audiences for divine communication and presence in two characteristic literary forms of the Second Temple pseudepigraphy and rewritten Bible. Since the two texts in focus reflect significantly different pseudepigraphy and textual genre, I treat them separately, using Philo of Alexandria and Josephus' Antiquities as well as parallel canonical texts to establish a field of comparison. I have tried to take into account textual evidence for recontextualization of the Law of the Prophet provided by Dead Sea documents. 4QpaleoExodm is evidence for incorporation of the law of the prophet into the Sinai Revelation (Exodus 20:20ff) as in the Samaritan Pentateuch. 4Q375 Reworked Pentateuch and 11Q Temple Scroll give new legal contexts, while 4Q 175 Testimonia lists significant intertexts. Characters who speak "words in the name of God" (Deut 18:18) are assumed to be prophets. The terms applied to them to define a nuanced vocabulary for prophetic figures and their roles in society. Similarly, the descriptive terms applied to their speeches comprise a nuanced vocabulary for prophecy. I go on to trace the the observed phenomena of prophecy ex eventu and eschatological expectation as intersection of history and prophecy in "words spoken in the name of God" as they come to pass (Deut 18:22). Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Religious Studies First Advisor Robert A. Kraft This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2632


When plants are subjected to stress, they bring out their chemical arsenal of secondary metabolites, which are often harvested for their incidental value as pharmaceuticals, flavors, dyes, and insecticides. This biosynthetic response is mediated in part by (methyl)jasmonate, a plant hormone produced in response to stress. Van der Fits and Memelink have now identified a transcription factor, ORCA3, which is regulated by (methyl)jasmonate and, in turn, regulates several genes in both primary and secondary metabolic pathways. Analysis of this gene leads to insights into how plants bring their chemical defense responses online without destructively disrupting their primary metabolic pathways, as well as into ways to produce secondary metabolites in vitro. Van der Fits, L. and Johan Memelink, J. (2000) ORCA3, a jasmonate-responsive transcriptional regulator of plant primary and secondary metabolism. Science 289: 295-297. [Abstract] [Full Text]


The idea that simplicity matters in science is as old as science itself, with the much cited example of Ockham's Razor, 'entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem': entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. A problem with Ockham's razor is that nearly everybody seems to accept it, but few are able to define its exact meaning and to make it operational in a non-arbitrary way. Using a multidisciplinary perspective including philosophers, mathematicians, econometricians and economists, this 2002 monograph examines simplicity by asking six questions: what is meant by simplicity? How is simplicity measured? Is there an optimum trade-off between simplicity and goodness-of-fit? What is the relation between simplicity and empirical modelling? What is the relation between simplicity and prediction? What is the connection between simplicity and convenience? The book concludes with reflections on simplicity by Nobel Laureates in Economics.


The hippocampal theta rhythm is required for accurate navigation and spatial memory but its relation to the dynamics of locomotion is poorly understood. We used miniature accelerometers to quantify with high temporal and spatial resolution the oscillatory movements associated with running in rats. Simultaneously, we recorded local field potentials in the CA1 area of the hippocampus. We report that when rats run their heads display prominent vertical oscillations with frequencies in the same range as the hippocampal theta rhythm (i.e., 6–12 Hz). In our behavioral set-up, rats run mainly with speeds between 50 and 100 cm/s. In this range of speeds, both the amplitude and frequency of the "theta" head oscillations were increasing functions of running speed, demonstrating that the head oscillations are part of the locomotion dynamics. We found evidence that these rhythmical locomotor dynamics interact with the neuronal activity in the hippocampus. The amplitude of the hippocampal theta rhythm depended on the relative phase shift with the head oscillations, being maximal when the two signals were in phase. Despite similarity in frequency, the head movements and LFP oscillations only displayed weak phase and frequency locking. Our results are consistent with that neurons in the CA1 region receive inputs that are phase locked to the head acceleration signal and that these inputs are integrated with the ongoing theta rhythm.


Dynamic experiments cannot be observed easy on patients for determination of dosimetry in human PET studies dosimeter studies. In this study, it is aimed to estimate dose amount absorbed by some critical organs (e.g. bladder, lung, thyroid and ovary) by using a developed phantom. The phantom was improved as an original anthropomorphic whole body phantom which has been arranged with dynamic system. Therefore, organ absorbed doses by applying of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose in PET studies and was observed by using the phantom, while TLD dosimeters were used for determination of internal absorbed doses. In medical physics, the accuracy of absorbed dose resulting from radiopharmaceutical application was determined by the medical internal radiation dose method that depends theoretically on the cumulated activity of the source organs and their mass. The MIRD calculation was also used for the study and comparatively evaluated with the experimental results which were collected by using improved phantom. DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.130.90 PACS/topics: 87.57.uk, 87.53.Bn


What messages can the images in medieval churches give us about the motivations of their donors? When a wealthy medieval man or woman donated a statue or painted glass window or altar hanging to their parish church, such a gift would have been prompted by a mixture of motives, including a desire to remind passers-by to pray for their souls and probably a fair amount of self-advertisement. However, it is the contention of this paper that, frequently, the choice of a particular image used in the donation would be selected with careful thought and have its roots in the donors particular personal piety. The messages they were thus sending about their personal beliefs may have been instantly readable to their fellow parishioners, but these days require some translation before they can be fully grasped. This paper investigates the spiritual and secular motivations of a family of donors of some unique painted glass windows at All Saints, North Street parish church in York. The windows of the church offer a wealth of unusual later medieval glass, including a depiction of six of the Corporal Acts of Mercy; St Anne teaching the Virgin to read and the northern poem ˜The Prick of Conscience. This paper will concentrate on exploring one familys donations to the church. It argues that their choice of iconographic material and the act of donating the windows were part of the donors larger concern for maintaining the social fabric. The same concerns were expressed both in charitable acts during their lives and in their last will and testaments. It is suggested that such donations form part of a new and internalised piety and thoughtful charity inspired by more than the customs of the day.


In this paper, we derive the probability distribution of the number of hops required for a source node to reach a destination node in a two-dimensional mobile ad hoc network when a fixed number of nodes are uniformly distributed in a finite region under the nearest- and furthest-distance routing protocols. To achieve efficient progress towards the destination, a new dynamic propagation model is proposed. The analysis is based on the Poisson randomization technique which also allows us to obtain the hop count distribution when nodes are scattered according to a Poisson process. Numerical results are obtained to illustrate the shape of the hop count distribution for both protocols.


Finding the optimal schedule for the 82 games played by each of its 32 teams in a regular season is a continuing challenge for the National Basketball Association (NBA). We examine the schedules of the regular NBA games in the last 22 seasons including the current one to find possible trends in its key parameters - distance traveled during road games and number of successive (e.g. back-to-back) games played. To reduce operational cost and to keep a level playing field, the total distance traveled and the number of back-to-back games must be kept to a minimal and the same for all teams. Data have shown that teams are unlikely to win twice in back-to-back games. We implement a scheduling algorithm that aims to minimize a cost function that incorporates the key parameters as its variables. For the same season duration, the algorithm has been able to reduce the number of back-to-back games by 24% while increasing the total distance traveled by 25%.


Who Knew ITIL Certification E-Learning This Quick and Easy Could Make You Look This Good. 'The Art of Service has dramatically changed the way we deliver employee training. We can now deliver more training at less cost to a wider audience in a shorter period of time.' On-demand eLearning: Don't pay over $ 3,000.00 for a 5 day class room based course - you're out of touch with your work for 5 days and including the course fee: the costs are insurmountable - take the online learning option instead and study at your own pace. Course Description: This online learning course immerses learners in the practical aspects of the ITIL v3 Service Lifecycle and processes associated with the Managing Across the Lifecycle of services and service delivery. The main focus of this course is on the MALC process activities and supporting methods and approaches to executing these processes in a practical, hands-on elearning environment. This training is intended to enable the holders of the certificate to apply the practices in Managing Across the Lifecycle of the Service Management Lifecycle. This course uses an engaging, interactive and flexible online approach to learning the core disciplines of the ITIL best practice and positions the student to successfully complete the associated exam: the APMG/EXIN Intermediate Level Certificate Managing Across the Lifecycle. You Will Learn How To: * Prepare for and take the ITIL Intermediate Qualification: Managing Across the Lifecycle Certification Exam * Identify key business and management issues in IT Service Management * Manage the planning and implementation of IT Service Management * Implement Strategic Change Management and Risk Management * Handle organizational challenges and assess services The ITIL v3 Intermediate Qualification: Managing Across the Lifecycle focuses on the ancillary knowledge required to implement and manage the necessary skills in IT Service Management. This book and course is the final module of the Service Lifecycle and/or Service Capability modules and leads to the ITIL Expert Qualification in IT Service Management. This book and course is valuable for those who want to achieve the ITIL Intermediate Qualification: Managing Across the Lifecycle Certificate. Through extensive activities, you gain knowledge of the overall ITIL Lifecyle and prepare for: * Analyzing, identifying and evaluating the risks involved in Service Management * Producing plans for the implementation and improvement of the Service Lifecycle and relevant processes * Examining methods and output required to conduct a Service Assessment * Taking the ITIL Intermediate Qualification: Managing Across the Lifecycle Certification Exam Pre-requisites: Seventeen credits from the ITIL v2 and v3 qualifications are needed to take the ITIL Certification Exam Delivery: The program combines short presentations supported by accredited trainer audio. There are also quizzes and exercises (marking scheme provided) to ensure learners are testing their knowledge and competency to enhance understanding of key concepts. Revision questions and a mock examination help to prepare for the APMG/EXIN examination. This program is an eLearning Program, your access details to the elearning course are in the book. Program Materials: * Access to presentations with trainer audio * The Art of Service Managing Across the Lifecycle Book * Exercises + Answers * Mock Exam questions


Vicinal surfaces of Ni are model catalysts of general interest and great importance in computational catalysis. Here we report a comprehensive study conducted with density functional theory on Ni[n(111) × (100)] (n = 2, 3 and 4) surfaces to explore the effect of terrace width and step edge coverage on CO adsorption and dissociation, a probe reaction relevant to many industrial processes. The coordination numbers (CN), the generalized coordination numbers and the d band partial density of states (d-PDOS) of Ni are identified as descriptors to faithfully reflect the difference of the step edge region for Ni[n(111) × (100)]. Based on analysis of the energy diagrams for CO activation and dissociation as well as the structural features of the Ni(311), Ni(211) and Ni(533) surfaces, Ni(211) (n = 3) is proposed as a model of adequate representativeness for Ni[n(111) × (100)] (n≥ 3) surface groups in investigating small molecule activation over such stepped structures. Further, a series of Ni(211) surfaces with the step edge coverage ranging from 1/4 to 1 monolayer (ML) were utilized to assess their effect on CO activation. The results show that CO adsorption is not sensitive to the step edge coverage, which could readily approach 1 ML under a CO-rich atmosphere. In contrast, CO dissociation manifests strong coverage dependence when the coverage exceeds 1/2 ML, indicating that significant adsorbate-adsorbate interactions emerge. These results are conducive to theoretical studies of metal-catalyzed surface processes where the defects play a vital role.


Oxidation of Leucine by pyridinium chlorochromate in aqueous DMF medium, containing perchloric acid has been studied at 40oC. The rate of reaction was found to be of first order dependence on [PCC], [Leucine] and [H+]. The increase in the rate of oxidation with increase in acidity indicates the involvement of a protonated chromium (VI) species in the rate-determining step. The product of oxidation has been identified as 2-methylbutanal. The rate of reaction decreased with increase in the polarity (dielectric constant of medium) of solvent, which indicates that there is involvement of an iron–dipole type of interaction in the rate-determining step. The activation parameters have been evaluated. On the basis of the experimental findings, a suitable mechanism has been proposed.


Mutations in the voltage-gated K+ channel Kv1.1 have been linked with a mixed phenotype of episodic ataxia and/or myokymia. Recently, we presented autosomal dominant hypomagnesemia as a new phenotypic characteristic associated with a mutation in Kv1.1 (N255D) (Glaudemans, B., van der Wijst, J., Scola, R. H., Lorenzoni, P. J., Heister, A., van der Kemp, A. W., Knoers, N. V., Hoenderop, J. G., and Bindels, R. J. (2009) J. Clin. Invest. 119, 936–942). A conserved asparagine at position 255 in the third transmembrane segment was converted into an aspartic acid, resulting in a non-functional channel. In this study, we explored the functional consequence of this conserved residue by substitution with other hydrophobic, polar, or charged amino acids (N255E, N255Q, N255A, N255V, N255T, and N255H). Upon overexpression in human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells, cell surface biotinylation revealed plasma membrane expression of all mutant channels. Next, we used the whole-cell patch clamp technique to demonstrate that the N255E and N255Q mutants were non-functional. Substitution of Asn-255 with other amino acids (N255A, N255V, N255T, and N255H) did not prevent ion conduction, and these mutant channels activated at more negative potentials when compared with wild-type channels, −41.5 ± 1.6, −45.5 ± 2.0, −50.5 ± 1.9, and −33.8 ± 1.3 mV to −29.4 ± 1.1 mV, respectively. The time constant of activation was significantly faster for the two most hydrophobic mutations, N255A (6.2 ± 0.2 ms) and N255V (5.2 ± 0.3 ms), and the hydrophilic mutant N255T (9.8 ± 0.4 ms) in comparison with wild type (13.0 ± 0.9 ms). Furthermore, the voltage dependence of inactivation was shifted ∼13 mV to more negative potentials in all mutant channels except for N255H. Taken together, our data showed that an asparagine at position 255 in Kv1.1 is required for normal voltage dependence and kinetics of channel gating.


Synchronizing decisions across multiple agents in realistic settings is problematic since it requires agents to wait for other agents to terminate and communicate about termination reliably. Ideally, agents should learn and execute asynchronously instead. Such asynchronous methods also allow temporally extended actions that can take different amounts of time based on the situation and action executed. Unfortunately, current policy gradient methods are not applicable in asynchronous settings, as they assume that agents synchronously reason about action selection at every time step. To allow asynchronous learning and decision-making, we formulate a set of asynchronous multi-agent actor-critic methods that allow agents to directly optimize asynchronous policies in three standard training paradigms: decentralized learning, centralized learning, and centralized training for decentralized execution. Empirical results (in simulation and hardware) in a variety of realistic domains demonstrate the superiority of our approaches in large multi-agent problems and validate the effectiveness of our algorithms for learning high-quality and asynchronous solutions.


This thesis is made of five different chapters. Chp 1: OPTIMAL FISCAL AND PUBLIC EXPENDITURE POLICY IN A TWO CLASS ECONOMY This paper deals with optimal taxation and provision of public goods in a two-class economy with non linear income and linear commodity taxes. As far as optimal taxation is concerned, we first show that with two private goods the good complementary with leisure should be taxed more heavily. Second the standard income tax rules are shown to be augmented by considerations for offsetting the distortions created on the commodity markets. As to the provision of public goods we extend recent results for a two class economy with public funds raised entirely by means of a non-linear income tax system. The standard Samuelson rule is modified by two additional terms related to the self selection constraint and to the revenue of indirect taxes. They are both shown to vanish when the agents' utility functions are weakly separable between public and private goods (taken together) and leisure. Chp 2: DIRECT AND INDIRECT TAX EVASION: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE The purpose of this selective survey of the literature on both income and commodity tax evasion is to show in which directions, the literature has evolved. Two main approaches are identified for both direct and indirect tax evasion literature. The so-called taxpayer's point of view approach which is basically an exercise of maximization under uncertainty and the so-called tax collector's point of view which is a refinement of the Mirrlees-Stiglitz approach to income taxation and of the Ramsey approach to commodity taxation. The current state of the art is such that both approaches share similar strengths and weaknesses. Chp 3: TAX STRUCTURE, TAX REFORM AND TAX EVASION In this paper we explore whether the shift from an ad valorem tax to a value added tax (which is a prerequisite to join the European Union) improves the "integrity" (number of people in the regular market) and the "efficiency" (total tax revenues) of the tax system. A model of two parallel (black and regular) markets is analyzed. The production in both the black and the regular market is divided in three stages: raw material, intermediate good and final good. Firstly, we prove that if an ad valorem tax is levied, at all stages of the regular market, any, even partial, tax reform towards VAT unequivocally increases integrity (the number of agents). Secondly, we prove that efficiency of the tax system is a direct function of its integrity. Therefore a tax reform from ad valorem to VAT seems justifiable under these two criteria. As a passing result, regular market consumers' welfare is shown to increase. Chp 4. A NOTE ON CORRUPTION, PRODUCTION AND SHORTAGE IN USSR AND RUSSIA Shleifer and Vishny, 1992 argue that privatization increases production and reduces shortage; Komai, 1979 argues that privatization reduces both production and shortage. The transition from USSR to Russia reduced both production and shortage. We argue that this is just the result of the shrinking of the loss-making sector (industrial sector) and the expansion of the profit-making sector (the service sector and namely trade and retailing). We also argue that the validity of Kornai's model is limited to those firms which are overproducing (i.e. more than the profit maximization quantity) and the validity of Shleifer and Vishny's model is limited to those firms which are underproducing. This reconciles two otherwise contradictory papers. Chp 5: LABOUR MARKET REALLOCATION AND RENT-SEEKING IN TRANSITION ECONOMY We present a simple two-sector model of the Russian labour market. Starting from a "full-employment" equilibrium with no search (the USSR), we analyze the path to the new equilibrium with unemployment and search (Russia). The links between the fraction of people searching, the wage differential and the hiring and firing probability of both sectors are investigated. A tentative way to compute these probabilities is proposed starting from recent (91-94) Russian data on unemployment and wages. It is shown that the wage differential across sectors rises with the strengthening of the entry barriers. It is argued that if no action is taken by the Authorities to fight unemployment and to reduce the wage differential across sectors (e.g. relaxing the entry barriers to the most productive sector), the market will react by developing, as an endogenous alternative to unemployment, a third sector which would act as a rent seeking one against the most productive sector. This will increase the outflow of workers from the least productive sector. Finally, it is shown that if the fraction of rent-seeking people attains a critical mass the above-mentioned policies may not be enough to rid the economy of the rent-seeking sector. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).


Background: Luxating patella is one of the most frequent conditions of the stifle joint in dogs and it can evolve into a degenerative joint disease. The occurrence of the condition can be medial or lateral, unilateral or bilateral. Its origin can be traumatic or congenital and, additionally, it may undergo genetic and environmental influence. Lateral luxation is more common in large breed dogs, and it can rarely affect medium and small breeds, whilst medial luxation is more common in small breed dogs. The classification of patellar luxation comprises four grades, according to the patellar position, clinical signs and seriousness of the bone deformities found. The diagnosis is made based on the clinical evaluation, associated with a radiographic evaluation. The present study aims at describing a case of bilateral grade 3 lateral luxating patella in a Toy Poodle dog. Case: A five-month-old female Toy Poodle dog was presented for difficulty standing and claudication of hind limbs. Orthopedic evaluation revealed internal rotation of the stifle, claudication of hind limbs during walking and "jumps" during trotting, in addition to a lateral grade 3 luxating patella and slight restriction of the joint motion upon extension of the right and left hind limbs. Radiographic evaluation of both stifles evidenced an ectopic (lateral) position of the right and left patellas. The animal was referred to the surgery department, where it was submitted to surgical intervention of both stifles. A reduction of luxation in both stifles was achieved through medial arthrotomy, wedge recession trochleoplasty, lateral desmotomy and medial imbrication of the articular capsule techniques. Tramadol hydrochloride, dipyrone and meloxicam were prescribed as postoperative medication. Daily wound care, resting and mild walks using a lead were recommended for the animal. On the tenth postoperative day, the stitches were removed from the skin and the animal seemed to be in a good general state, using adequately its hind limbs when walking and trotting. Discussion: The medial form of the congenital patellar luxation is common both in large and small breeds. However, the lateral form is more common in large or giant breeds, differently to the findings of the present case, in which luxation occurred in a Toy Poodle. Surgery is recommended in animals with a luxating patella grade starting from 2, as even the smallest luxation grades may evolve into higher grades, causing functional inability of the limb and degenerative joint disease. Surgery was justified in this case, because the animal presented a grade 3 luxating patella. The decision on which technique should be used will depend on the luxating patella grade and on soft tissue compromise. The most recommended procedure is a combination of various techniques in the same articulation. In this case, the use of wedge recession trochleoplasty and medial imbrication of the articular capsule techniques was successful, as a few days after surgery the animal was able to walk adequately without presenting any instability of the patellas, thus improving its quality of life. Moreover, upon reaching adulthood, the animal maintained an adequate gait, without excessive patellar motion.


INTRODUCTION
Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is an important contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality. Predicting which laboring women are likely to have a PPH is an active area of research and a component of quality improvement bundles. The purpose of this study was to identify phenotypes of labor processes (ie, labors that have similar features, such as duration and type of interventions) in a cohort of women who had vaginal births, estimate the likelihood of PPH by phenotype, and analyze how maternal and fetal characteristics relate to PPH risk by phenotype.

METHODS
This study utilized the Consortium for Safe Labor dataset (2002-2008) and examined term, singleton, vaginal births. Using 16 variables describing the labor and birth processes, a latent class analysis was performed to describe distinct labor process phenotypes.

RESULTS
Of 24,729 births, 1167 (4.72%) women experienced PPH. Five phenotypes best fit the data, reflecting labor interventions, duration, and complications. Women who had shorter duration of admission after spontaneous labor onset (admitted in latent or active labor) had the lowest rate of PPH (3.8%-3.9%). The 2 phenotypes of labor progress characterized by women who had complicated prolonged labors (spontaneous or induced) had the highest rate of PPH (8.0% and 12.0%, respectively). However, the majority of PPH (n = 881, 75%) occurred in the phenotypes with fewer complications. Prepregnancy body mass index did not predict PPH. Overall, the odds of PPH were highest among nulliparous women (odds ratio [OR], 1.52; 95% CI, 1.30-1.77), as well as black women (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.13-1.73) and Hispanic women (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.56-2.20). Within phenotypes, maternal race and ethnicity, nulliparity, macrosomia, hypertension, and depression were associated with increased odds of PPH.

DISCUSSION
Women who were classified into a lower-risk labor phenotype and still experienced PPH were more likely to be nulliparous, a person of color, or diagnosed with hypertension.


Potted, one-year old Chambourcin grapevines grafted to 5C rootstock were grown with one-, three-, or six-shoots in the absence of fruit to determine the effect of competition among vegetative sinks on canopy morphology and development. As shoot number increased, leaf area per shoot, shoot length, leaf size, and flower cluster length decreased for individual organs. On a whole-vine basis, total leaf area, shoot length, and flower cluster length increased with increasing shoot number. Leaf area of three- and six-shoot vines was 38% greater than that of one-shoot vines at harvest. Vine dry weight at harvest, however, was 22% and 20% greater for three- and six-shoot vines, respectively. Whole-vine photosynthesis (Pn) measurements showed no differences among treatments at bloom, but Pn had a positive, linear relationship to shoot number both at 5mm-berry size and at veraison. These data indicate that: (1) smaller flower clusters and less leaf area per shoot are responsible in part for the reduction in shoot fruitfulness observed in vines with many shoots; (2) many shoots allow a vine to develop greater leaf area relative to vines with few shoots earlier in the growing season and produce more vegetative sinks for carbohydrates. (3) The presence of relatively large shoot numbers causes important morphological changes in canopy vegetative structure. These include shorter shoots and smaller leaves and flower clusters but greater shoot length, leaf area and flower cluster length per vine.


BACKGROUND
Admission avoidance hospital at home provides active treatment by healthcare professionals in the patient's home for a condition that otherwise would require acute hospital inpatient care, and always for a limited time period. This is the third update of the original review.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the effectiveness and cost of managing patients with admission avoidance hospital at home compared with inpatient hospital care.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, two other databases, and two trials registers on 2 March 2016. We checked the reference lists of eligible articles. We sought unpublished studies by contacting providers and researchers who were known to be involved in the field.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials recruiting participants aged 18 years and over. Studies comparing admission avoidance hospital at home with acute hospital inpatient care.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We followed the standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane and the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group. We performed meta-analysis for trials that compared similar interventions and reported comparable outcomes with sufficient data, requested individual patient data from trialists, and relied on published data when this was not available. We used the GRADE approach to assess the certainty of the body of evidence for the most important outcomes.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 16 randomised controlled trials with a total of 1814 participants; three trials recruited participants with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, two trials recruited participants recovering from a stroke, six trials recruited participants with an acute medical condition who were mainly elderly, and the remaining trials recruited participants with a mix of conditions. We assessed the majority of the included studies as at low risk of selection, detection, and attrition bias, and unclear for selective reporting and performance bias. Admission avoidance hospital at home probably makes little or no difference on mortality at six months' follow-up (risk ratio (RR) 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.60 to 0.99; P = 0.04; I2 = 0%; 912 participants; moderate-certainty evidence), little or no difference on the likelihood of being transferred (or readmitted) to hospital (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.23; P = 0.84; I2 = 28%; 834 participants; moderate-certainty evidence), and may reduce the likelihood of living in residential care at six months' follow-up (RR 0.35, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.57; P < 0.0001; I2 = 78%; 727 participants; low-certainty evidence). Satisfaction with healthcare received may be improved with admission avoidance hospital at home (646 participants, low-certainty evidence); few studies reported the effect on caregivers. When the costs of informal care were excluded, admission avoidance hospital at home may be less expensive than admission to an acute hospital ward (287 participants, low-certainty evidence); there was variation in the reduction of hospital length of stay, estimates ranged from a mean difference of -8.09 days (95% CI -14.34 to -1.85) in a trial recruiting older people with varied health problems, to a mean increase of 15.90 days (95% CI 8.10 to 23.70) in a study that recruited patients recovering from a stroke.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Admission avoidance hospital at home, with the option of transfer to hospital, may provide an effective alternative to inpatient care for a select group of elderly patients requiring hospital admission. However, the evidence is limited by the small randomised controlled trials included in the review, which adds a degree of imprecision to the results for the main outcomes.


Waste material was fragmented into gas, liquid and solid fractions by pyrolysis. Recently the solid fraction (char) has been used as filler in epoxy composites. Type and properties of filler affect water absorption of epoxy composites. A recent water absorption database (of 1512 data) has been obtained experimentally. Accordingly, type of pyrolysed plastic, waste pre–washing, pyrolysis temperature, additive dosage and water exposure time were input parameters in the estimation model developed with multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP ANN) to predict the absorbed water quantity as output. Four datasets were derived with data preprocessing. Among all the configurations worked up, 0.991 training and 0.986 testing R² were attained as the highest R² values under conditions including 2e4 iterations, lr 0.04, mc 0.9, first hidden layer of 22 nodes, and second hidden layer of 15 nodes. The R² value attained in the optimum configuration and the average R² attained via 5-fold cross-validation are close to each other for both training and test. The established model will help users to predict the quantity of water that absorbed upon exposure. This will give idea about the availability of that composite for using it for particular purposes.


ASSESSING, MODIFYING, AND COMBINING DATA FIELDS FROM THE VIRGINIA OFFICE OF THE CHIEF MEDICAL EX4MIPTER (OCME) DATASET AND THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF FORENSIC SCIENCE (DFS) DATASETS IN ORDER TO COMPARE CONCENTRATIONS OF SELECTED DRUGS By Amy Elizabeth Henin A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006 Major Director: R.K. Elswick, Jr., Ph.D. Associate Professor and Interim Chair Department of Biostatistics The Medical Examiner of Virginia (ME) dataset and the Virginia Department of Forensic Science Driving Under the Influence of Drugs (DUI) datasets were used to determine whether people have the potential to develop tolerances to diphenhydramine, cocaine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, and morphine. These datasets included the years 2000-2004 and were used to compare the concentrations of these six drugs between people who died from a drug-related cause of death (of the drug of interest) and people who were pulled over for driving under the influence. Three drug pattern groups were xiv created to divide each of the six drug-specific datasets in order to compare concentrations between individuals with the drug alone, the drug and ethanol, or a poly pharmacy of drugs (multiple drugs). An ANOVA model was used to determine if there was an interaction effect between the source dataset (ME or DUI) and the drug pattern groups. For diphenhydramine and cocaine, an interaction was statistically significant, but for the other drugs, it was not significant. The other four drug-specific datasets showed that the DUI and ME were statistically significantly different from each other, and all of those datasets except for methadone showed that there was a statistically significant difference between at least two drug pattern groups. Showing that all of these datasets showed differences between the ME and DUI datasets did not provide sufficieilt evidence to suggest the development of tolerances to each of the six drugs. One exception was with methadone because there were 14 individuals that had what is defined as a "clinical 'lethal' blood concentration". These individuals provide some evidence for the possibility of developing tolerances. The main outcomes of this study include suggesting changes to make to the ME datasets and the DUI datasets with regard to the way data is kept and collected. Several problems with the fields of these datasets arose before beginning the analysis and had to be corrected. Some of the changes suggested are currently being considered at the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as they are beginning to restructure their database. CHAPTER


Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey & the Last Great Showbiz Party. Shawn Levy. New York: Doubleday, 1998. 344 pp. $23.95. The major figures of Hollywood's "Rat Pack" are all gone now, since Frank Sinatra checked out earlier this year for The Big Casino in the sky at age 82. But these days, in "swing" clubs across the country, young adults are wearing tuxedos and formal dresses, drinking martinis and digging the music of their grandparents--or music that sounds like it. (Ask the nearest college student about Squirrel Nut Zippers or Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.) As Sinatra himself might say were he still around, the Rat Pack's brand of adult fun is making a comeback,Jack. The Rat Pack, of course, was the show business fraternity led by Sinatra and including such entertainment heavyweights of the late 1950s and early 1960s as Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. During their brief heyday as an entity, this group turned Las Vegas, Nevada, into a theme park for grown-ups, where actors, singers, songwriters, and even politicians and gangsters partied with them and shared a little of their fame. And for the price of a ticket to their shows, the average Joe could feel like he was in on the action, too. But as author Levy unfolds in engrossing detail, it wasn't always such a swell party. There was a dark side, complete with sex, drugs, violence and arrogance-which eventually took its toll on the principals and almost everyone they associated with. The action revolved largely around Sinatra, who hated the term "Rat Pack," preferring to call the group "The Clan." Levy paints a stark portrait of Sinatra, then at the height of his creative powers as a singer and at the height of his box office appeal as an actor. "No one in show business was as talented or as powerful," Levy writes. Sinatra used that talent and power-and his friends-to gain the favor of both underworld titans and of a president, connections which eventually blew up in his face and left lost and broken lives along the way. The Pack member who gets the most sympathetic portrayal is Davis, who was originally to be the sole subject of the book. "Pound for pound, he was the best of them ... the one who had come from the furthest, and who had most fully lived what they were reputed to be," Levy writes. "Even Frank had to realize that although he himself was the brains of the operation, Sammy was its soul." The son of a showgirl and a song-and-dance man, Davis endured the racism of his time in the entertainment world, and also weathered the criticism of African Americans who saw him as "Uncle Tomming" to succeed in a white world. He, too, is portrayed as a man of paradox. In the Sixties, he embraced both the nascent civil rights movement of the early part of the decade and the presidency of Richard Nixon in the latter part of it. The rest of the cast included: * Martin, handsome and carefree, who succeeded as a singer, and a TV and movie actor without really trying. * Peter Lawford, aristocratic, British-born brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy, and a B-movie actor with serious drug problems and sexual hangups. * Joey Bishop, a nightclub comic of middling success before achieving Pack-hood. …


Observational evidence is mounting that influenza and acute respiratory infections can precipitate major adverse cardiovascular events such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in vulnerable groups. Influenza viruses cause seasonal epidemics. Around 50% of infections are asymptomatic1; clinically apparent influenza infection is usually mild and self-limiting, with severe systemic illness affecting a small proportion of people. Deaths typically occur in people at the extremes of age or in those with underlying medical conditions.2 Cardiac pathology in acute influenza infection is thought to result either from direct effects of the virus on the myocardium, for example, influenza-associated myocarditis, or through exacerbation of underlying cardiovascular disease.3 Acute infections such as influenza have transient vasoconstrictive and systemic prothrombotic effects, which may contribute to coronary artery plaque disruption and thrombosis.4

Globally, ischaemic heart disease—predominantly due to AMI—is the leading cause of death and is projected to remain so in 2030.5 AMI remains a key challenge in the clinical management of ischaemic heart disease, especially as it can occur in individuals not previously identified to be at high cardiovascular risk. Influenza is associated with all-cause mortality, with the majority of deaths due to respiratory and, to a lesser extent, cardiovascular causes.6 The impact of influenza on AMI burden remains poorly understood. Key questions for patients, clinicians and public health policymakers include what is the evidence that AMI risk is associated with acute respiratory infections such as influenza? Who is most at risk? Which interventions are most effective and cost-effective? This important area is the focus of a case–control study by MacIntyre et al .7

A major difficulty for studies investigating associations between influenza and acute cardiovascular events is how to define recent influenza. While laboratory testing is usually …


This article explores the relationship between minstrelsy and rough Anglo-Celtic youths, or larrikins, in late nineteenth-century Australia. It shows that in the 1880s, larrikins were drawn to blackface minstrel characters, especially dandy characters, who carried themselves with a deliberately burlesque panache. There were definite similarities here between Australian larrikins and the poor Irish-American workers discussed by historians of minstrelsy in 1830-40s New York. Like these American workers, larrikins used minstrelsy to identify with a symbolically black masculinity at the same time as they attempted to assert superiority over non-white peoples. Nonetheless, the racial and social conditions in late-colonial Australia were not the same as those in New York earlier in the century. Much of this article is thus an attempt to think through the particularities of larrikins' relationship to minstrelsy.Above all, I suggest, the economic boom taking place in eastern Australia is necessary to explain the emergence of larrikinism in the 1870s and 1880s. It is also necessary to explain larrikins' attraction to minstrel dandies. Larrikins were involved in a combative relationship with boom culture, especially the ebullient working-class liberalism then flourishing in eastern Australia. Minstrel dandiers allowed larrikins to express something of this combative relationship, influencing their dress and behaviour. As symbols of a flamboyantly rough masculinity, they also represented a modern 'take' on bushranger and Newgate anti-heroes in Anglo-Australian popular culture.


Diel periodicities of mate attraction and flight activity were examined for three caddisfly species (Insecta:Trichoptera) that use female sex pheromones to attract conspecific males: Dicosmoecus gilvipes (Hagen) (Limnephilidae), Gumaga nigricula (McL.) (Sericostomatidae), and Gumaga griseola (McL.). Live females of D. gilvipes attracted males during the night, with 58% of the males being captured in the first hour after sunset. Live females of G. griseola attracted 97% of the males during the hour before sunrise whereas live females of G. nigricula attracted 85% of the males 2-4 h after sunrise. For all three species, the periodicity of male response to female pheromone was the same as the periodicity of male response to live females. In laboratory chambers, male and female D. gilvipes flew during the mate attraction period but generally not at other times. Male flight for G. nigricula and G. griseola was generally most intense during periods of mate attraction, and was reduced during non-attraction periods. In contrast, females of both Gumaga species were relatively sedentary during periods of mate attraction. The presence of circadian rhythms that govern the periodicity of flight was demonstrated for all taxa and sexes except females of D. gilvipes. Light intensity and air temperature influenced the amount of flight activity but not flight periodicity. The temporally brief and coordinated activities of these short-lived adults may serve to conserve metabolic resources, contribute to their reproductive success, and maintain reproductive isolation.


Recent versions of international high-stakes tests like TOEFL and IELTS have made use of integrated tasks in addition to the traditional independent tasks in a claim to provide a more realistic estimation of the test takers' language abilities. The present study aimed to investigate how test takers' performance may differ on such tasks. As such, the test takers' performance was compared on IELTS Academic Writing Tasks 1 and 2. Whereas Task 1 is an integrated task which calls for graphic interpretation and description, Task 2 is an independent task of writing an argumentative essay. Furthermore, the study also aimed to investigate the effect of writing prompts on the test takers' performance on such tasks. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design in the form of posttest-only group. Fifty six Iranian EFL learners at Shiraz University were selected based on their availability. After receiving instruction in a semester on how to do the two tasks, they received 4 writing tasks (2 versions of each task with different prompts). The data collected were analyzed through two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. The results indicated that task type did not have a significant effect on the test takers' writing performance; that is, there were no significant differences between the participants' performance on the independent and integrated writing tasks. Furthermore, the effect of prompts was only found to be significant on the participants' performance on task 2 (independent task). The findings provide evidence for higher consistency of scores obtained from different versions of the integrated task.


Preface. 1 Brownian Motion. 1.1 Origins. 1.2 Brownian Motion Specification. 1.3 Use of Brownian Motion in Stock Price Dynamics. 1.4 Construction of Brownian Motion from a Symmetric Random Walk. 1.5 Covariance of Brownian Motion. 1.6 Correlated Brownian Motions. 1.7 Successive Brownian Motion Increments. 1.8 Features of a Brownian Motion Path. 1.9 Exercises. 1.10 Summary. 2 Martingales. 2.1 Simple Example. 2.2 Filtration. 2.3 Conditional Expectation. 2.4 Martingale Description. 2.5 Martingale Analysis Steps. 2.6 Examples of Martingale Analysis. 2.7 Process of Independent Increments. 2.8 Exercises. 2.9 Summary. 3 Ito Stochastic Integral. 3.1 How a Stochastic Integral Arises. 3.2 Stochastic Integral for Non-Random Step-Functions. 3.3 Stochastic Integral for Non-Anticipating Random Step-Functions. 3.4 Extension to Non-Anticipating General Random Integrands. 3.5 Properties of an Ito Stochastic Integral. 3.6 Significance of Integrand Position. 3.7 Ito integral of Non-Random Integrand. 3.8 Area under a Brownian Motion Path. 3.9 Exercises. 3.10 Summary. 3.11 A Tribute to Kiyosi Ito. Acknowledgment. 4 Ito Calculus. 4.1 Stochastic Differential Notation. 4.2 Taylor Expansion in Ordinary Calculus. 4.3 Ito's Formula as a Set of Rules. 4.4 Illustrations of Ito's Formula. 4.5 Levy Characterization of Brownian Motion. 4.6 Combinations of Brownian Motions. 4.7 Multiple Correlated Brownian Motions. 4.8 Area under a Brownian Motion Path - Revisited. 4.9 Justification of Ito's Formula. 4.10 Exercises. 4.11 Summary. 5 Stochastic Differential Equations. 5.1 Structure of a Stochastic Differential Equation. 5.2 Arithmetic Brownian Motion SDE. 5.3 Geometric Brownian Motion SDE. 5.4 Ornstein-Uhlenbeck SDE. 5.5 Mean-Reversion SDE. 5.6 Mean-Reversion with Square-Root Diffusion SDE. 5.7 Expected Value of Square-Root Diffusion Process. 5.8 Coupled SDEs. 5.9 Checking the Solution of a SDE. 5.10 General Solution Methods for Linear SDEs. 5.11 Martingale Representation. 5.12 Exercises. 5.13 Summary. 6 Option Valuation. 6.1 Partial Differential Equation Method. 6.2 Martingale Method in One-Period Binomial Framework. 6.3 Martingale Method in Continuous-Time Framework. 6.4 Overview of Risk-Neutral Method. 6.5 Martingale Method Valuation of Some European Options. 6.6 Links between Methods. 6.6.1 Feynman-Kac Link between PDE Method and Martingale Method. 6.6.2 Multi-Period Binomial Link to Continuous. 6.7 Exercise. 6.8 Summary. 7 Change of Probability. 7.1 Change of Discrete Probability Mass. 7.2 Change of Normal Density. 7.3 Change of Brownian Motion. 7.4 Girsanov Transformation. 7.5 Use in Stock Price Dynamics - Revisited. 7.6 General Drift Change. 7.7 Use in Importance Sampling. 7.8 Use in Deriving Conditional Expectations. 7.9 Concept of Change of Probability. 7.10 Exercises. 7.11 Summary. 8 Numeraire. 8.1 Change of Numeraire. 8.2 Forward Price Dynamics. 8.3 Option Valuation under most Suitable Numeraire. 8.4 Relating Change of Numeraire to Change of Probability. 8.5 Change of Numeraire for Geometric Brownian Motion. 8.6 Change of Numeraire in LIBOR Market Model. 8.7 Application in Credit Risk Modelling. 8.8 Exercises. 8.9 Summary. ANNEXES. A Annex A: Computations with Brownian Motion. A.1 Moment Generating Function and Moments of Brownian Motion. A.2 Probability of Brownian Motion Position. A.3 Brownian Motion Reflected at the Origin. A.4 First Passage of a Barrier. A.5 Alternative Brownian Motion Specification. B Annex B: Ordinary Integration. B.1 Riemann Integral. B.2 Riemann-Stieltjes Integral. B.3 Other Useful Properties. B.4 References. C Annex C: Brownian Motion Variability. C.1 Quadratic Variation. C.2 First Variation. D Annex D: Norms. D.1 Distance between Points. D.2 Norm of a Function. D.3 Norm of a Random Variable. D.4 Norm of a Random Process. D.5 Reference. E Annex E: Convergence Concepts. E.1 Central Limit Theorem. E.2 Mean-Square Convergence. E.3 Almost Sure Convergence. E.4 Convergence in Probability. E.5 Summary. Answers to Exercises. References. Index.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the concept of action by addressing actions and roles in the practice of action research, illustrated by dilemmas in an action research project on information systems development in public sector. The main ambition with action research is being able to solve organisational problems through intervention and to contribute to scientific knowledge. The main emphasis has so far been on the "research part". Here the authors focus on the "action part" of action research to generate rigorous research, to solve local problems and to deal with evident dilemmas in action research.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a qualitative case study. The empirical illustrations of this paper originate from an action research project that focused the two e-service development initiatives analysed below. The analysis is structured using key aspects and phases proposed by Avison et al. (2001). As a result of the analysis, the concept of action is elaborated. The action elements action, actor, motive, space and time are analysed together with different roles. This goes beyond the existing action research literature.

Findings

The conclusions show that there is a need to understand actions and roles within action research projects – not separating action from research. Research is also seen as action. The practice of action research is also discussed as context-bounded interactive social action: action research as a recurrent, interactive and dynamic activity. It is also identified that the understanding of roles, actions and interaction can help handle dilemmas in action research.

Research Limitations/implications

The authors contribute to the body of knowledge concerning action research in the information systems research field and in general by exploring the need to study the concept of action (e.g. situations and elements), to be explicit concerning the different phases, roles and responsibilities and management of different dilemmas in action research. A limitation of this study is that the inter-organisational development character in this study adds an extra dimension into the practice of actions research only partially highlighted. Another limitation is focus on public agencies. However, this is not critical for the results on action elements and the action research dilemmas that are studied.

Practical Implications

The understanding of roles, actions and interaction can solve the dilemmas and challenges linked to the practice of action research in the information systems field, but such understanding can help discover and handle dilemmas in action research.

Originality/value

The originality in this research is an illustration of and a perspective of action research as a context-bounded interactive social action: action research as a recurrent, interactive and dynamic activity. The value is that this knowledge can help handle dilemmas in action research.


Background Alternative treatments (AT) such as homeopathy (H) and/or medicinal herbs (MH) a r e used concomitantly with medical treatment by some patients to relieve and/or improve the symptoms of a disease. Pharmaceutical care consultations (PCC) are held in order to respond to pharmacotherapeutic needs in outpatients. Purpose To analyse the concomitant use of H and MH with medical treatment in outpatients who come to PCCs in the Pharmacy service. Material and methods Observational study of outpatients who came for the first time to collect medicines from the PCC during the first week of September 2014. The information was obtained during the pharmaceutical interview with the patient, using a survey that included type of AT used and the source that had recommended it. Results 42 new patients (21 men, 21 women) were attended in the PCC, 11 of whom admitted taking some type of AT (7 were male and 4 females, mean age 43.3 years). According to the medical treatment: we had: 2 patients with antiretroviral treatment, 2 with anti-TNF alpha, 2 with oral cytostatics, 1 with somatotropin, 1 with drugs for hepatitis virus C, 1 with coagulation factor, 1 with epoetin beta and 1 with glatiramer. About the type of AT used: 8 patients were taking homeopathy and 4 medicinal herbs. The recommendation to use any of these was by a family member/friend in 5 patients, 3 patients took AT on their own initiative and in 3 patients a community pharmacist had recommended the AT. Conclusion A quarter of the patients who come to the PCC, are concomitantly using an AT with the medical treatment and mostly without medical or pharmaceutical recommendation. Therefore the safety and efficacy of medical treatments collected in the consultations should be closely monitored. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


This paper uses the Auerbach-Kotlikoff Dynamic Simulation Model to compare the projected demographic transitions in Canada and the United States. The simulation model determines the perfect foresight transition path of an economy in which individuals live to age 75. The model's preferences are life cycle augmented to include utility from bequests. In addition to handling changes in demographics and fiscal policies, the model can be run for closed or open economies. In comparing Canada with the U.S., we first simulate the U.S. demographic transition, treating the U.S. as a closed economy. The time path of interest rates obtained from the U.S. simulations are then used in the Canadian simulations. In the Canada simulations, Canada is assumed to be an open economy which takes the U.S. interest rate as given. The simulations indicate that demographics are likely to have significant effects on rates of saving and taxation in both the U.S. and Canada. However, the more abrupt demographic transition in Canada combined with the projected maturation of Canadian social security system leads to a more severe predicted long term decline in Canadian saving rates. Despite the predicted lower saving rates, capital deepening is likely to occur in both countries, and the associated increase in real wages is likely to more than offset projected higher tax rates, leaving the growth-adjusted welfare of future generations higher than that of current generations.


Why can't Americans decide how to select their judges? More than two hundred years after the founding of our republic, the subject of judicial selection at both the federal and state levels remains the topic of vigorous debate. At the federal level, accusations fly between the White House and Capitol Hill that presidential nominations of judicial candidates are ideology driven and that battles in confirmation hearings in the Senate are politically motivated. In the states, a crazy-quilt pattern of methods for selecting judges exists, ranging from appointment of judges to life terms in office to partisan elections requiring judges to win a popular vote as often as every four years. In those states where judges stand for election, spending on judicial campaigns by the candidates, political parties, and special interest groups has reached unprecedented levels. And a Supreme Court ruling this past summer that lifted restrictions on speech by judicial candidates is likely to make state judicial campaigns even more politicized. This article is intended to help educators and students explore the history behind current judicial selection controversies and to make sense of the complex landscape of American judicial selection. It also highlights how judicial selection debates can affect fundamental attributes of our judiciary--its independence, its accountability, and even its impartiality. Much of the controversy over judicial selection arises from a historical uncertainty over what role we expect our judges to play in our system of democratic government. There are a number of questions that are central to this debate: What are the attributes of the ideal American judge? To what extent do we value judicial independence, and from whom is this independence defined? To what extent should we insist on judicial accountability, and to whom should judges be accountable? What are the best mechanisms for promoting either judicial independence or accountability? Do we think of our judges as interpreters or makers of law? What value do we place on judges' potential counter-majoritarian role, which allows them to protect the rights of the individual or the minority against the will of the majority? All of these questions have informed the history of debate over judicial selection and, having never been definitively resolved, continue to shape arguments on the proper method of selecting our judges. History of Judicial Selection There have been some great debates over judicial selection in our nation's history. The first wave of debates was about the provisions for the federal judiciary in the U.S. Constitution. The second arose in the early to mid-nineteenth century and focused on state constitutional conventions, which--in the wake of "Jacksonian democracy" and other concerns--established the popular election of judges in many of the states. The third wave, a product of Progressive Era reforms in the early twentieth century, proposed a scheme of "merit selection" of state judges through nominating commissions to mitigate what was perceived as the corrupting influence of partisan politics in contested judicial elections. In the midst of debates surrounding ratification of the U.S. Constitution in the late 1780s, Alexander Hamilton published a series of Federalist papers supporting constitutional provisions for the appointment and tenure of the federal judiciary, including the following: * Article II's grant to the U.S. President of the power to nominate judges of the Supreme Court "with the advice and consent of the Senate" and * Article III's provisions for the federal judiciary, including life tenure of judges during good behavior, a guarantee against the diminution of judges' salaries while they hold office, and the fight of Congress to "ordain and establish" federal courts of inferior jurisdiction to the Supreme Court. …


Lincoln at Peoria explains how Lincoln's speech at Peoria on October 16, 1854, was the turning point in the development of his antislavery campaign and his political career and thought. Here, Lincoln detailed his opposition to slavery's extension and his determination to defend America's Founding document from those who denied that the Declaration of Independence applied to black Americans. Students of Abraham Lincoln know the canon of his major speeches from his Lyceum Speech of 1838 to his final remarks delivered from a White House window, days before he was murdered in 1865. Less well-known are the two extraordinary speeches given at Springfield and Peoria two weeks apart in 1854. They marked Mr. Lincoln's reentry into the politics of Illinois and, as he could not know, his preparation for the presidency in 1861. These Lincoln addresses catapulted him into the debates over slavery which dominated Illinois and national politics for the rest of the decade. Lincoln delivered the substance of these arguments several times certainly in Springfield on October 4, 1854, for which there are only press reports. A longer version came twelve days later in Peoria. To understand President Abraham Lincoln, one must understand the Peoria speech of October 16, 1854. It forms the foundation of his politics and principles in the 1850s and in his presidency. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, one of the most explosive congressional statutes of American history, repealed the prohibition on slavery in that section of the Louisiana Territory, 36 degree and 30 minute parallel, a restriction on the spread of slavery agreed upon by North and South in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, sponsored by the famous Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, inaugurated an incendiary chapter in the slavery debates of the early American Republic. In response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln launched his antislavery campaign. All of his moral and historical arguments opposed any further extension of slavery in the American republic, founded, as he argued, upon the Declaration of Independence. That all men are created equal, with the inalienable right to liberty, was, for Lincoln, a universal principle that Americans must not ignore.


This Article discusses Ivan Illich's direction for social reform that led to his book, "Tools for Conviviality," where Illich targeted development, technology, and the exploitation of nature. Illich identified three key cultural institutions that needed to be reclaimed in order to bring about an inversion of industrial society: science, language, and law. This Article focuses on the rule of law and its central institutional invention — formal adjudication. The Author suggests that Illich's idealism can still be found in the law reform litigation effort and identifies the diminished stature of the ideal of disinterested adjudication as a significant threat to Illich's hopes for the transformative potential of the rule of law. The Author agrees with Illich's belief that no issue of legal doctrine and, therefore, of social and political structure, could ever be permanently settled and wonders how Illich would view the Court's resolution of the Affordable Care Act litigation.


Perhaps the most important issue in our time is how to sustain our planet's resources, while developing wealth and well-being for a growing population. This monumental task has been defined in the concept of sustainable development (SD). During the last few decades the world communities have agreed upon addressing SD through international treaties. As a response Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been launched as an answer to cope with sustainability. However, empirical studies are a missing link in the discourse around ESD, where decisions and implementation strategies are heavily based on policy recommendations and gut feelings by practitioners. We used data from 2413 students in grades 6, 9, and 12 from 51 schools across Sweden to study the effectiveness of ESD. In line with the current debate on the definition of ESD, we quantified the extent to which teaching can be labeled as holistic and/or pluralistic. Through a series of descriptive analyses and the estimation of structural equation models, our results indicate that ESD can indeed impact on student outcomes in terms of their sustainability consciousness. The results of this study reveal the key role ESD plays in addressing SD, paving the way for a more sustainable future.


The sun is the biggest known source of energy in our solar system. We feel its strength when it gets hot during the the day and we notice its absence during the night when we feel cold. So as to be less dependent on the sun as an energy source, we implemented additional heating and cooling sources to maintain the temperature within a comfortable range. The downside to this is that the majority of energy consumed within the housing sector is used up on the heating and cooling alone. To profit from the vast energy source of the sun we propose a user-adaptive and building-adaptive blind control for residential buildings, that is implemented in prefabricated modules for facade renovation. User-adaptive means that it is the occupant who is responsible for the temperature control within the home. Building-adaptive, in this context, means that the temperature control is established automatically without any user input. Through the evaluation of occupant queries we have shown that a general measure for thermal comfort is not possible for all occupants. Consequently, there is a need for a personalized measure of thermal comfort. In order to create this the occupant enters votes via the interface; from this we deduced statistically the probability of comfort relative to the indoor temperature. According to the profile the control sets its target temperature. The profile steadily adapts the user's preferences and through this we can also capture seasonal changes in comfort temperature. This guarantees that at each point in time the control system knows the desired temperature and is taking action to achieve it. The adaption to the building is achieved with the fitting of a simple thermal building model with data collected by the sensors of the control system. We showed that the monitored data sufficiently fits the model. With the help of the simple model we evaluated different control strategies and optimized them according to the thermal profile. For our performance tests we conducted computer simulations as well as a 6-month field study. For the simulations, a specific test bed was suggested that would assess the saving potential, which can then be compared to the performance of the tested control. Results showed that the suggested control system is capitalizing on most of the achievable energy savings and thermal comfort. A 6-month field study in the LESO-PB building was carried out to test the impact on energy demand as well as comfort under real conditions. It appeared that the automatically controlled office needed only approximately 50% of the average heating energy that was used in the manually controlled offices. Furthermore, the probability of thermal comfort was, on average, 10% higher in the automatically controlled offices when compared to those that were controlled manually.


While applications of plasmonics are rapidly growing, magneto-optical effects in nanocomposites are poorly understood. We therefore devote this paper to the theoretical analysis of magneto-optical effects in nanocomposites. Based on the Drude model, we derived the constitutive equation where the dielectric and coupling functions describe the interactions of metal nanoparticles with magnetic field. In the limitation of low volume fraction of metal nanoparticles (i.e., when the material is still transparent), these functions were calculated within the Maxwell–Rayleigh theory of dilute suspensions. We showed that in the absence of external magnetic fields, a non-magnetic nanoparticle can be magnetized in the circularly polarized light beam, and the magnetization depends on the direction of rotation of the light wave. The external magnetic field alters the particle magnetization, and when the fields are weak, this change in magnetization linearly depends on the particular field. The proposed theory was applied to an analysis of the Faraday effect in nanocomposites. We predicted a resonance behavior of the Verdet function in nanocomposites and its dependence on concentration, sample thickness, and external magnetic field.


A recurring theme throughout this thesis is the analysis of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of molecules that exist in planetary atmospheres and interstellar media. FTIR spectroscopy enables the accurate characterisation and identification of molecules based on the shapes and positions of vibrational bands. Unless stated otherwise, all of the experimental work has been performed at the Australian Synchrotron THz/far-IR beamline utilising a synchrotron source which is several magnitudes brighter than conventional thermal sources. This is crucial for the far-IR region, as there are no efficient thermal emitters of far-IR radiation. Furthermore, spectroscopy within this region is most applicable to monitoring atmospheric and interstellar molecules.
 Chapter 1 introduces some of the key concepts associated with FTIR spectroscopy as well as the instrumentation used for the experiments. Quantum theory is also introduced where needed as part of the concepts that are discussed.
 Chapter 2 focuses on the spectra of molecules recorded using high resolution FTIR spectroscopy and the fundamental theory is introduced in Chapter 2.1 as it is a prerequisite to understanding the rotational Hamiltonian, transition assignment and fitting processes used throughout Chapters 2.2 - 2.5.
 Chapter 2.2 describes an ongoing analysis of the first high resolution FTIR spectrum of propynethial which is predicted to exist in interstellar media. The v5 band near 1100 cm-1 is the focus of this work as it was predicted to be the most intense band based on B3LYP/cc-pVTZ calculations. Due to inaccurate ground state rotational and centrifugal distortion constants, it was not possible to accurately assign the ro-vibrational transitions of the v5 band. Thus, it was necessary to record millimetre-wave spectra in order to assign transitions with a wider range of J″ and Ka″ quantum number so that more accurate ground state constants could be determined before re-assigning the v5 infrared transitions. This work will hopefully lead to the identification of propynethial in the interstellar media.
 Chapter 2.3 contains the first published paper on the analysis of the far-IR bands of 1,1-difluoroethane. This molecule is relevant to atmospheric applications due to its high global warming potential and will help facilitate the analysis of higher energy vibrational bands that are present within the greenhouse window.
 Chapter 2.4 contains a publication on one of the far-IR bands of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane. Also known as R134a, this molecule is commonly used in industry and needs to be continuously monitored due to its high global warming potential and long atmospheric lifetime.
 iv
 Chapter 2.5 is a submitted paper on the analysis of the four lowest IR-active fundamental bands of trans-d2-ethylene. The work completed here is part of a chemical-education collaboration between Dr. C. Thompson (Monash University) and Prof. T. L. Tan (Nanyang Technological University).
 Chapter 3 progresses into the analysis of low resolution particulate ices that were formed in a collisional cooling cell that has been installed onto the Australian Synchrotron THz/far-IR beamline. These molecular ices are important to interstellar chemistry, as they can provide reaction sites for building more complex molecules from smaller molecules; and atmospheric chemistry by having a large influence on the radiative forcing of planetary atmospheres. Some key aspects of condensed phase spectroscopy are introduced in Chapter 3.1
 Chapter 3.2 is an accepted paper detailing the analysis of the mid-IR spectra of isotope mixed H2O crystalline ice particles. The effect of isotopic mixing using D2O is explored over a range of temperatures and concentrations, giving new insights to the behaviour of inter- and intramolecular bonding.
 Chapter 3.3 contains a manuscript that reports the mid- and far-IR spectra of particulate crystalline ethylene. Ethylene is one of the most abundant species found in Titan's atmosphere (largest moon orbiting Saturn) and is formed from the photodissociation of methane. An accurate characterisation of these ethylene particles in situ will provide a more direct relationship with what is observed from passing satellites and help profile the temperature of Titan's atmosphere at different altitudes.
 Chapter 4 describes the application of a chemometric technique: band target entropy minimisation (BTEM) to gas phase Fourier transform microwave (FTMW) and FTIR spectra. Chemometrics is a widely used technique to help extract additional information from chemical, physical and biological systems that may not be readily discernible through conventional methods. The preliminary results from the analysis of FTMW and FTIR spectra, using BTEM, highlights both the potential application of chemometrics to gas phase spectroscopy as well as its shortcomings.
 Chapter 5 introduces preliminary data on the application of the EFC cell to transient spectroscopy. Many of the gaseous molecules that are found in interstellar media often exist as short-lived species under laboratory conditions. This work is aimed at increasing the lifetime of transient molecules so that some of the experimental burdens can be reduced when performing high resolution spectroscopy.