This study examines the decline in the economic power of faculty labor unions in public higher education in the United States in recent years. The authors assume the labor union is a utility maximizing entity and that income accrues to the "union family." The union family attempts to maximize this income. By analyzing collective bargaining agreements and hiring practices between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, the authors construct bargaining indices. Because this study is focused on the change in bargaining power of labor unions in public higher education over time, each index is constructed by looking at the ratio of the union annual income pay scale from the collective bargaining agreements of the mid-tier public universities in Pennsylvania to the average yearly income for workers in the private nonagricultural industries. Borrowing from the Harris-Todaro labor migration model, we construct a composite bargaining index where the original bargaining index is discounted by incorporating the proportion of part-time temporary faculty permitted by the collective bargaining agreements at the mid-tier public universities in Pennsylvania from 1972 to 2009. By considering the reduced employment of full-time tenured-tenure track faculty that can result from increased wages and salaries, or the increase in employment that may result from decreased wages and salaries, this composite bargaining index gives a better measure of the benefits accruing to the "union family" 1 Lynn A. Smith is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Clarion University of Pennsylvania. 2 Robert S. Balough is Professor in the Department of Economics, Clarion University of Pennsylvania. 3 Richard Noll, CEO, Hanesbrands, Inc; Also, Vernon Smith (30) made the point that the history of production and manufacturing has included a search for the lowest cost of production. There is much empirical evidence that administrations in higher education in the United States are adopting this "lowest cost" approach. Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Vol. 3, December, 2011 ISSN 1941-8043 © 2011 National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education 1 Smith and Balough: Decline in Bargaining Power in Faculty Labor Unions Published by The Keep, 2012 Decline in Bargaining Power in Faculty Labor Unions 2 as faculty incomes are increasing or decreasing than would be given by our "original bargaining index." Beginning with the early 1970s, and continuing until 2009, we find that the bargaining index has essentially flattened over the past ten years, and the composite bargaining index decreased from 1995 to 2009. Applying an historical perspective approach, the authors conclude that this decline in bargaining power in recent years came from the same sources as the declines in bargaining power in the private sector earlier. Namely, a reduction in monopoly power in the good or service offered to the buyer, substitution in the labor market, and a reduction in regulation of the product market.


This thesis presents an enquiry into the nature and role of prototyping within human-centred design practice, examining the capabilities and limitations of emerging prototyping technologies within this context. A contextual review explores the significance of the human element in design. This leads to the proposal of a paradigm statement for human-centred design which informs the theoretical and practical research activity undertaken in the course of this investigation. A critical review of literature aimed at the design and engineering professions identifies a rhetoric celebrating the virtualisation of design processes. Here, advocates of emerging virtual prototyping technologies argue computer-based simulation techniques may reduce or replace physical prototype iterations, thereby greatly increasing the speed and efficiency of new product development processes. This thesis questions the extent to which virtual prototyping can replace physical human input in design. A counter argument to the designer's total immersion in the virtual design world is that valuable creative opportunities may be revealed through discovery-oriented physical prototyping. Furthermore, it may not be possible to adequately describe all aspects of a design proposal using virtual methods alone. This is demonstrated in practical investigations in which designers sought to exploit tactile qualities as essential features in design, and also in cases involving complex structural behaviour. Despite significant advances in virtual prototyping technologies, there remain some types of design problem which may only be identified and addressed through the making and testing of physical models. Moreover, this thesis argues that the valuable practical knowledge which may be derived through hands-on engagement and manipulation of physical prototypes and materials must be retained as an essential human element in design.


This paper examines personal narratives in which homeless and formerly homeless people construct their companion animals as having changed or saved their lives. The analysis considers selfhood a narrative accomplishment, the strategic outcome rather than the source of the stories people tell. These particular stories employ the theme of redemption, in which tellers describe overcoming adversity to face a better future, with animals playing key roles. The analysis reveals the narrative elements through which animals become vehicles for redemption. As dependent others, animals encourage a sense of responsibility. As the providers of unconditional love, they reward the fulfillment of responsibility. And as silent witnesses, they keep the tellers from lapsing into risky behavior. Narratives that describe animals in these ways allow for the construction of a positive moral identity. They also indicate that commitment belongs among the recognized languages of redemption and highlight the social embeddedness of autobiographical experience.


Recent feminist theory of the theater has turned out for scrutiny every aspect of the dramatic experience, whether from the perspective of production or performance or viewing. Particular attention has been given to the last of these, for spectator or audience theory has particularly powerful implications for feminist theater. According to Lizbeth Goodman, a changing relationship, with the audience influences every other aspect, production and performance alike, of feminist theater: The making of feminist theatre is informed by the role of the audience in so far as practitioners have conceptualized a new audience for their theatre (in the significant shift in gender, or assumed gender, of the spectator).... Yet feminist theatre is not only received and interpreted, but also influenced by its audience. It does not merely preach to the converted,' but challenges traditional images and ideas, and may thereby `convert' some members of its audience by redirecting their views on (or ways of viewing) representation of women in culture. (233)(1) In the effort to define this reciprocal dynamic, Goodman focuses closely on contemporary working practices, stressing that "[a] theory based on ideas of interpretation and reception without reference to working practices would fall short of the needs of the theatre itself, while a discussion of theatre practice alone would have only a limited value in on-going theoretical debate" (234). Her recent book, openly reflecting the suspicions of academic criticism expressed by many of the women she interviewed for her study, warns against overvaluing "literary and formal criticism" in judging the merits of a play or production, and asserts that an emerging feminist poetics of drama must accommodate "other considerations" than the conventional academic ones that have controlled the evaluations -- hence the reviews, hence the very survival -- of these productions and their companies. The approach to handling the audience/stage dynamic, however, is as varied as the playwrights and performers who come to it. While the agitprop origins of contemporary feminist theatre might be the fundamental drive behind developing a new, more active type of audience, some playwrights, perhaps those emerging from a more traditional theatrical or an academic upbringing, are finding ways of exploiting, through feminism-informed revisionary procedures, the most ancient conventions of drama. Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Love of the Nightingale (1988), a "remake" of the ancient Procne and Philomele myth, is a feminist play that shines under the light of such analysis. For it achieves, through a parodic rehandling of an ancient story and of the ancient dramatic form of the Greek tragedy, precisely the renewal of an active audience dynamic that Goodman and others have proposed as central to the feminist project in the theater. Parody permeates this play, from the handling of the chorus to the handling of the tragic ending. But the primary target of Wertenbaker's formal parody is not so much the structure of Greek tragedy per se, but rather the str-ucturing of the contemporary theatrical experience. To put it another way, the focus of Wertenbaker's tampering with the conventional structures of Greek tragedy is ultimately the audience that is watching her own play. What The Love of the Nightingale is finally about is personal responsibility, and through its slightly distorted mirroring of an ancient myth of sexual violence and of an ancient dramatic form as well, the play explores the responsibility an audience has for the real existence of the kind of sexual violence the ancient myth portrays. I The function of literary parody has recently enjoyed a thorough reconsideration, from critics of post-modem literature particularly. Linda Hutcheon, most notably, has described postmodern parody as "a kind of contesting `revision' or rereading of the past that both confirms and subverts the power of the representation of history" (226),(2) and in this process of re-vision she locates the creative, rather than simply de (con) structive, potential of parody in any period in which it appears. …


From Preface: "In carrying out such a policy with reference to the subject under consideration, the Bureau of Mines invited the State geologists, mine inspectors, and a number of coal operators and oil and gas well drillers from the States interested to meet representatives of the Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh, Pa., for a discussion of the subject during February 7 and February 8, 1913. This adjourned meeting of the conference will be held at an early date and its report will be printed in a later edition of this bulletin, with such additional suggestions as may be received by the Bureau of Mines. The bureau will be glad, therefore, to receive at the earliest practicable date any additional suggestions or any additional information throwing light on the matters discussed in this bulletin."


We increased the accuracy of an instrumented treadmill's measurement of center of pressure and force data by calibrating in situ and optimizing the transformation between the motion capture and treadmill force plate coordinate systems. We calibrated the device in situ by applying known vertical and shear loads at known locations across the tread surface and calculating a 6 x 6 calibration matrix for the 6 output forces and moments. To optimize the transformation, we first estimated the transformation based on a locating jig and then measured center-of-pressure error across the treadmill force plate using the CalTester tool. We input these data into an optimization scheme to find the transformation between the motion capture and treadmill force plate coordinate systems that minimized the error in the center-of-pressure measurements derived from force plate and motion capture sources. When the calibration and transformation optimizations were made, the average measured error in the center of pressure was reduced to approximately 1 mm when the treadmill was stationary and to less than 3 mm when moving. Using bilateral gait data, we show the importance of calibrating these devices in situ and performing transformation optimizations.


This paper presents novel multi-degrees-of-freedom force sensors based on flexures used as mecano-optical transducers (named flexure body) and white light interferometers used as opto-electrical transducers. Together, these transducers make up a load cell exploiting the nanometric accuracy of Fabry-Perot interferometric measurement to reach milli-Newton force accuracy. The design focuses on the flexure body composed of three sections: a base (attached to the measuring device), a compliant section which deforms under applied forces and a pointed rigid section whose tip touches tissues during surgery. The fiber interferometer measures the distal displacement with respect to the base using one 125 μm diameter optical fiber for each load cell DOF. The key advantages of this design are: compact design (1 to 4 mm diameter shaft), simple optical alignment during assembly, scalability from Newton down to milli-Newton force levels, insensitivity to electrical charge and compatibility with sterilization procedure. These properties satisfy the requirements of in-vivo force measurements during surgery. The paper presents analytical stiffness estimation of 1 DOF flexure bodies and finite element stiffness analysis of multiple-DOF structures followed by the design, manufacturing and assembly process. The realized sensors are then characterized experimentally on a specifically designed motorized test-bench, which allows application of calibrated forces from various directions onto the senor tip. A specific calibration strategy was developed improving measurement accuracy of the sensor.


XSL Transformations (XSLT) is a programming language for defining transformations among XML languages. The structure of these languages is formally described by schemas, for example using DTD or XML Schema, which allows individual documents to be validated. However, existing XSLT tools offer no static guarantees that, under the assumption that the input is valid relative to the input schema, the output of the transformation is valid relative to the output schema.
 We present a validation technique for XSLT based on the XML graph formalism introduced in the static analysis of JWIG Web services and XACT XML transformations. Being able to provide static guarantees, we can detect a large class of errors in an XSLT stylesheet at the time it is written instead of later when it has been deployed, and thereby provide benefits similar to those of static type checkers for modern programming languages.
 Our analysis takes a pragmatic approach that focuses its precision on the essential language features but still handles the entire XSLT language. We evaluate the analysis precision on a range of real stylesheets and demonstrate how it may be useful in practice.


Millions of children in the United States suffer from untreated mental health problems. However, much of the literature available on barriers to mental health does not address the barriers children face in accessing services. This systematic review was designed to explore the research question: What are the barriers parents and caregivers face in seeking and receiving mental health services for children in the United States? A systematic search was conducted for peer-reviewed articles since 2000 using the following search terms: child, mental health, mental health services, parent, parental, help-seeking, barriers, cultural barriers, unmet, and treatment. These search terms were entered in the following electronic databases: PsychInfo, Social Work Abstract, Google Scholar, and Summon. Ten articles were identified and included in this systematic review based on meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as a quality assessment. Through a review of the 10 articles, barriers that parents and caregivers face in meeting their children's mental health needs were identified. The obstacles identified from the articles were categorized into four groups: logistic barriers, financials barriers, child characteristics, and parental characteristics and beliefs. Future research is required to further understand the role parents play in accessing mental health care for their children and strengthen the generalizability of current findings. It is important for social workers to understand the barriers which parents and children face in accessing services in order to increase the accessibility of children's mental health care.


This book discusses the social and political consequences of the economic and financial crisis that befell African economies since the 1980s, using as case study the plantation economy of the Anglophone region of Cameroon. The focus is thus on recent efforts to liberalize and privatize an agro-industrial enterprise where overseas capital and its domestic partners have converged, the consequent modes of production and labour, and the alternatives proposed and resistance generated. The study details how the unprecedented crisis caused great commotion in the region, and presented a serious challenge to existing theories on plantation production and capital accumulation. The crisis resulted in the introduction of a number of neoliberal economic reforms, including the withdrawal of state intervention and the restructuring, liquidation and privatisation of the major agro-industrial enterprises. These reforms in turn had severe consequences for several civil-society groups and their organisations that had a direct stake in the regional plantation economy, notably the regional elite, chiefs, plantation workers and contract farmers. On the basis of extensive research in the Anglophone Cameroon region, Konings shows that these civil-society groups have never resigned themselves to their fate but have been actively involved in a variety of formal and informal modes of resistance.


The ESA Sentinels constitute the first series of operational satellites responding to the Earth Observation needs of the EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. The GMES space component relies on existing and planned space assets as well as on new complementary developments by ESA. This paper describes the Sentinel-1 mission, an imaging synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation at C-band. It provides an overview of the mission requirements, its applications and the technical concept for the system.


The process of school choice depends on a wide range of circumstances including those related to the accessibility to schools and parental preferences. This paper has three goals: (1) Identify whether the preferences for the different kinds of schools (public, publicly-funded private, or private) vary according to the family's traits; (2) estimate the degree of concurrence between the kind of school their children attend and the kind of school the parents prefer a posteriori; and (3) identify which social groups demonstrate lower levels of concurrence. We used a sub-sample of people with children registered in compulsory grades or post-compulsory grades up to university from representative national survey (2012). Results show that post hoc school preferences differ by educational level, economic status, religious orientation, and size of town. Likewise, we find divergences between the school parents prefer and the school their children attend, something that occurs more frequently among those with less economic resources.


Livestock production in New Zealand is based primarily on pasture and forage for all classes of ruminants (Waghorn and Clark, 2004). Increasingly, sheep and beef cattle are being confined to dry hill country and some un-irrigated plains as the irrigated land is converted to dairy and cropping. Dryland farming on the east coast of both main islands is subject to significant climate variability. Rainfall is the main climatic factor constraining pasture growth, with spring and summer rainfall accounting for 60% of the variation in pasture production in New Zealand (Radcliffe and Baars, 1987). Baars and Waller (1979) identified both rainfall and temperature as influencing pasture production, with temperature playing an important role in pasture growth in winter and early spring.


This paper addresses the problem that most electrophones and computer-based musical instruments are ephemera lasting long enough to signal academic and technical prowess. They rarely are used more than in a few musical performances. We offer a case study that suggests that longevity of use depends on stabilizing the interface and innovating the implementation to maintain the required stability of performance for players.


Persistent phosphors can emit light long after the excitation has ended. The field of persistent luminescence has strongly matured during the past decade, with considerable progress having been made in synthesis and characterization methods, the understanding of trapping and de-trapping mechanisms, and the application of these materials. This focus issue "Persistent Phosphors," within the April 2012 issue of Optical Materials Express, features papers presented at the first International Workshop on Persistent Phosphors (Phosphoros 2011) held in Gent, Belgium.


This book investigates the intersection of terrorism, digital technologies and cyberspace. The evolving field of cyber-terrorism research is dominated by single-perspective, technological, political, or sociological texts. In contrast, Terrorism Online uses a multi-disciplinary framework to provide a broader introduction to debates and developments that have largely been conducted in isolation. Drawing together key academics from a range of disciplinary fields, including Computer Science, Engineering, Social Psychology, International Relations, Law and Politics, the volume focuses on three broad themes: 1) how and why do terrorists engage with the Internet, digital technologies and cyberspace?; 2) what threat do these various activities pose, and to whom?; 3) how might these activities be prevented, deterred or addressed? Exploring these themes, the book engages with a range of contemporary case studies and different forms of terrorism: from lone-actor terrorists and protest activities associated with hacktivist groups to state-based terrorism. Through the books engagement with questions of law, politics, technology and beyond, the volume offers a holistic approach to cyberterrorism which provides a unique and invaluable contribution to this subject matter. This book will be of great interest to students of cybersecurity, security studies, terrorism and International Relations.


Surface immunoglobulin D (IgD)-positive lymphocytes precoated with monoclonal anti-delta antibody were selectively removed from blood mononuclear cell preparations by "panning" and by fluorescence- activated cell sorter. The depletion of sIgD+ cells did not significantly affect plasma cell responses to pokeweed mitogen PWM). PWM-responsive B cells lacking sIgD and mouse erythrocyte receptors preferentially sedimented in lower density fractions of a discontinuous Percoll gradient, and sIgD-negative B cells were found to have a larger mean diameter than IgD-positive cells. We conclude that PWM-responsive B cells represent a distinct subpopulation of relatively large cells that have ceased to express receptors for mouse erythrocytes and surface IgD.


We present a study of the type IIn supernova (SN) 2005gl, in the relatively nearby (d ≈ 66 Mpc) galaxy NGC 266. Photometry and spectroscopy of the SN indicate it is a typical member of its class. Pre-explosion Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of the location of the SN, along with a precise localization of this event using the Laser-Guide-Star assisted Adaptive Optics (LGS-AO) system at Keck Observatory, are combined to identify a luminous (MV = −10.3) point source as the possible progenitor of SN 2005gl. If the source is indeed a single star, it was likely a member of the class of luminous blue variable stars (LBVs). This finding leads us to consider the possible general association of SNe IIn with LBV progenitors. We find this is indeed supported by observations of other SNe, and the known properties of LBV stars. For example, we argue that should the prototypical Galactic LBV η Carina explode in a phase similar to its current state, it will likely produce a type IIn SN. We discuss our findings in the context of current ideas about the evolution of massive stars, and review the census of SNe with identified progenitors. We introduce the concept of the progenitor-SN map as a convenient means to discuss the present status and future prospects of direct searches for SN progenitors. We conclude that this field has matured considerably in recent years, and the transition from anecdotal information about rare single events to robust associations of progenitor classes with specific SN types has already begun. Subject headings: supernovae: general


We report the composition of terrestrial, intertidal and shallow sublittoral faunal communities at sites around Rothera Research Station, Adelaide Island, Antarctic Peninsula. We examined primary hypotheses that the marine environment will have considerably higher species richness, biomass and abundance than the terrestrial, and that both will be greater than that found in the intertidal. We also compared ages and sizes of individuals of selected marine taxa between intertidal and subtidal zones to test the hypothesis that animals in a more stressed environment (intertidal) would be smaller and shorter lived. Species richness of intertidal and subtidal communities was found to be similar, with considerable overlap in composition. However, terrestrial communities showed no overlap with the intertidal, differing from previous reports, particularly from further north on the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc. Faunal biomass was variable but highest in the sublittoral. While terrestrial communities were depauperate with low biomass they displayed the highest overall abundance, with a mean of over 3 × 105 individuals per square metre. No significant differences in ages of intertidal and subtidal individuals of the same species were found, with bryozoan colonies of up to 4 years of age being present in the intertidal. In contrast with expectation and the limited existing literature we conclude that, while the Antarctic intertidal zone is clearly a suboptimal and highly stressful habitat, its faunal community can be well established and relatively diverse, and is not limited to short-term opportunists or waifs and strays.


Modern food production is a complex, globalized system in which what we eat and how it is produced are increasingly disconnected. This thesis examines some of the ways in which global trade has changed the mix of inputs to food and feed, and how this affects food security and our perceptions of sustainability. One useful indicator of the ecological impact of trade in food and feed products is the Appropriated Ecosystem Areas (ArEAs), which estimates the terrestrial and aquatic areas needed to produce all the inputs to particular products.The method is introduced in Paper I and used to calculate and track changes in imported subsidies to Swedish agriculture over the period 1962-1994. In 1994, Swedish consumers needed agricultural areas outside their national borders to satisfy more than a third of their food consumption needs. The method is then applied to Swedish meat production in Paper II to show that the term "Made in Sweden" is often a misnomer. In 1999, almost 80% of manufactured feed for Swedish pigs, cattle and chickens was dependent on imported inputs, mainly from Europe, Southeast Asia and South America. Paper III examines ecosystem subsidies to intensive aquaculture in two nations: shrimp production in Thailand and salmon production in Norway. In both countries, aquaculture was shown to rely increasingly on imported subsidies. The rapid expansion of aquaculture turned these countries from fishmeal net exporters to fishmeal net importers, increasingly using inputs from the Southeastern Pacific Ocean.As the examined agricultural and aquacultural production systems became globalized, levels of dependence on other nations' ecosystems, the number of external supply sources, and the distance to these sources steadily increased. Dependence on other nations is not problematic, as long as we are able to acknowledge these links and sustainably manage resources both at home and abroad. However, ecosystem subsidies are seldom recognized or made explicit in national policy or economic accounts. Economic systems are generally not designed to receive feedbacks when the status of remote ecosystems changes, much less to respond in an ecologically sensitive manner. Papers IV and V discuss the problem of "masking" of the true environmental costs of production for trade. One of our conclusions is that, while the ArEAs approach is a useful tool for illuminating environmentally-based subsidies in the policy arena, it does not reflect all of the costs. Current agricultural and aquacultural production methods have generated substantial increases in production levels, but if policy continues to support the focus on yield and production increases alone, taking the work of ecosystems for granted, vulnerability can result. Thus, a challenge is to develop a set of complementary tools that can be used in economic accounting at national and international scales that address ecosystem support and performance.We conclude that future resilience in food production systems will require more explicit links between consumers and the work of supporting ecosystems, locally and in other regions of the world, and that food security planning will require active management of the capacity of all involved ecosystems to sustain food production.


The objective of this Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) is to assess the impact of systematic registration on vulnerable individuals, in general, and Roma, in particular. Specifically, this PSIA focuses on the systematic registration approach piloted under the Complementing EU Support for Agricultural Restructuring (CESAR, 2009 - 2013) Project, which was supported by the World Bank. The World Bank involvement in the sector dates back to 1998 and the General Cadastre and Land Registration Project that supported the establishment of an efficient system for securing and trading land titles. The overall economic impact of the National Program was estimated to be extremely positive with eightfold return to the investment. However, it was also recognized that specific measures needed to be adopted to ensure that the rights of vulnerable groups (especially those of rural Roma communities) would be duly registered and to monitor the impact of real property rights registration to vulnerable groups and individuals. The findings of this PSIA are directly relevant to the EU financed Rural Land Registration Program design, which has adopted the vulnerability mapping and social monitoring approach, and seeks to improve it. Early PSIA results have also contributed to the dozens of systematic registration contracts signed under the National Program, which are registration fee financed. Contractors are required to pay particular attention to the vulnerable groups. This PSIA was conducted by the Romanian firm Metro Media Transilvania from 2014-2015. It is largely based on a field survey carried out in February 2015 by the same firm in 6 UATs, 4 or which were targeted by CESAR. The sample included 480 households, comprising 360 households living in Roma settlements, and 120 vulnerable people living outside of these settlements such as analphabets, elderlies, convicts, and widows. The results of this survey are anecdotal; however, they provide valuable information on the participation of vulnerable groups in CESAR and highlight possible improvements in the systematic land registration process.


Purpose

– The purpose of this paper was to analyse typical printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) processed by reflow, wave or selective wave soldering for typical levels of process-related residues, resulting from a specific or combination of soldering processes. Typical solder flux residue distribution pattern, composition and concentration are profiled and reported. The effect of such contaminants on conformal coating was tested.

Design/methodology/approach

– Presence of localized flux residues was visualized using a commercial residue reliability assessment testing gel test and chemical structure was identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, while the concentration was measured using ion chromatography, and the electrical properties of the extracts were determined by measuring the leak current using a twin platinum electrode set-up. Localized extraction of residue was carried out using a commercial critical contamination control extraction system.

Findings

– Results clearly show that the amount and distribution of flux residues are a function of the soldering process, and the level can be reduced by an appropriate cleaning. Selective soldering process generates significantly higher levels of residues compared to the wave and reflow process. For conformal coated PCBAs, the contamination levels generated from the tested wave and selective soldering process are found to be enough to generate blisters under exposure to high humidity levels.

Originality/value

– Although it is generally known that different soldering processes can introduce contamination on the PCBA surface, compromising its cleanliness, no systematic work is reported investigating the relative levels of residue introduced by various soldering processes and its effect on corrosion reliability.


Two years after speaking those words, President Reagan remains further from controlling the budget deficit than any President has ever been. The reasons for this are numerous and debatable. The direct result, however, is clear -a $110 billion deficit for Fiscal Year 1982, the largest deficit ever. Unfortunately, the record will not stand for long. By any estimate, the deficits will be well above the $110 billion level through FY '88; if Congress does not approve Reagan's budget requests, the deficits will easily be more than double the FY '82 record. The budget monster, apparently, will remain uncontrolled for a long time.


Informed by the interdisciplinarity inherent in popular music studies, the thesis
relies on qualitative research methods such as participant observation and semistructured
interview to examine popular music masculinities. Methodologically, it
is underpinned by a sociological understanding of music as practice as well as a
process of enculturation, permeated by manifold musical and identity forming
activities. Through an examination of a range of music settings such as those of
"the band", live performance and online presence, the thesis foregrounds the
multiplicity of "everyday" musical masculinities thus shifting the focus away from
the most visible, popularised and the spectacular masculine types.
The key themes addressed by ethnographic and participatory inquiry include:
gender acculturating activities such as listening and collecting of musical
knowledge and artefacts, and socialising in popular music spaces; gendering
through musical practices inherent within a setting of the band; performing live
and authenticating masculinities through series of verbal, visual and musical
strategies; and embracing novel representational tools such as social networking
sites to increase the band's visibility and represent the male body. By engaging
with music as practice and music in context of everyday life, and by
understanding gender as constituted through a series of culturally and musically
informed activities, the thesis demonstrates that a wide range of masculine
gender identities comprise creative and cultural dynamics within bands.
Finally, the thesis maintains the dialogue with the existing writing on gender
within the field of popular music studies, extending the arguments about
multiplicity of gender positions and implications of gendering activities.
Significantly, it challenges the understanding of popular music masculinity as a
monolithic entity, providing an opening for further dialogue between all musicians,
hoping to result in enhanced understanding of practical and ideological
challenges faced by both men and women involved in the making and
performance of music.


Background Myocarditis is an inflammation of the myocardium that often follows the enterovirus infections, with coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) being the most dominant etiologic agent. We and other groups previously reported that chemokine IP-10 was significantly induced in the heart tissue of CVB3-infected mice and contributed to the migration of massive inflammatory cells into the myocardium, which represents one of the most important mechanisms of viral myocarditis. To evaluate the direct effect of IP-10 on the inflammatory responses in CVB3 myocarditis, herein an IP-10 mutant deprived of chemo-attractant function was introduced into mice to antagonize the endogenous IP-10 activity, and its therapeutic effect on CVB3-induced myocarditis was evaluated. Methodology/Principal Findings The depletion mutant pIP-10-AT, with an additional methionine after removal of the 5 N-terminal amino acids, was genetically constructed and intramuscularly injected into BALB/c mice after CVB3 infection. Compared with vector or no treatment, pIP-10-AT treatment had significantly reduced heart/body weight ratio and serum CK-MB level, increased survival rate and improved heart histopathology, suggesting an ameliorated myocarditis. This therapeutic effect was not attributable to an enhanced viral clearance, but to a blunted Th1 immune response, as evidenced by significantly decreased splenic CD4+/CD8+IFN-γ+ T cell percentages and reduced myocardial Th1 cytokine levels. Conclusion/Significance Our findings constitute the first preclinical data indicating that interfering in vivo IP-10 activity could ameliorate CVB3 induced myocarditis. This strategy may represent as a new therapeutic approach in treating viral myocarditis.


This longitudinal study evaluated the role of hospitalization for acute bronchiolitis as a risk factor for recurrent wheezing. Participants were children from a 1993 cohort in a southern Brazilian city. Hierarchical multivariate analysis showed that previous hospitalization for bronchiolitis was the most important risk factor for recurrent wheezing, with an odds ratio of 4.9. This strong association is consistent with a casual relationship hypothesis.


This paper addresses the problem of the distributed delivery of correlated data sources with help of network coding. Network coding provides an alternative to routing algorithms and offers improved system performance, robustness and throughput, with no need of deploying sophisticated routing strategies. However, the performance is directly driven by the number of innovative data packets that reach the receiver. If the number of received innovative data packets is significantly small, the decoder cannot perfectly recover the transmitted information. However, we show that the correlation between the data sources can be used at decoder for effective approximate decoding. We analytically investigate the impact of the network coding algorithm, and in particular, of the size of finite fields on the decoding performance. Then, we determine an optimal field size that minimizes the expected decoding error, which represents a trade-off between quantization of the source data and probability of decoding error. The network coding with approximate decoding algorithm is implemented in illustrative multimedia streaming and sensor network applications. In both cases, the experimental results confirm the field size analysis and illustrate the effectiveness of approximate decoding of correlated data.


This thesis addresses issues in philosophy, politics and education. Its starting point is a review of some of the theoretical and practical approaches to the moral education of children that have achieved popularity in the last three or four decades of the twentieth century. Despite areas of evident divergence amongst these approaches, it is argued that they nonetheless share similar philosophical underpinnings. Building upon some initial criticisms of these positions, the thesis subsequently explores some of the more recent philosophical challenges they have faced. From this basis, a broadly Aristotelian model of moral thought and practice is discussed and advocated across two chapters. This account pays particular attention to the role of the affective domain and the 'education of the emotions'.

In the second half of the thesis, the focus moves towards the political suitability of this preferred conception of the nature of morality and moral education. It is argued that the essential interdependence of moral development and the moral character of political society - such a central part of Aristotle's account - is ill-appreciated by much popular and academic comment of recent times. By means of a discussion of the distinction between skills and virtues, techne and arete, the possible consequences of a full appreciation of this interdependence are debated. The remaining two chapters address two ways of answering the question which arises: "Can we have a true education of the virtues in the political context of contemporary pluralist societies?" In the first of these chapters, the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre is considered as an exemplar of the negative response to this question. In the second, some contemporary examples of liberal political thought are interrogated in the hope of discovering a positive response. It is concluded that the so-called 'liberal perfectionism' of Joseph Raz provides us with some reason to think that such a response may be both legitimate and attractive.


The biochemical and metabolic activities of living cells are virtually stopped at ultralow temperature and they enter into a suspended state of animation. However, as such, exposure of living cells to ultralow temperature is associated with complex changes that reduce their survivability following freeze-thawing. Cryopreservation is the method for preserving living cells at ultralow temperature at genetically and physiologically stabilized state. Cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos is an integral part of the assisted reproductive technologies with many potential applications. Cryobanking of oocytes and embryos derived from genetically superior animals is promising for enhancing the outcome of planned breeding programs and conserving biodiversity of endangered animal species. Cryobanking can also ensure steady supply of oocytes and embryos for many downstream applications of assisted reproduction such as in vitro embryo production, embryo transfer, production of stem cells, and genetic engineering. Tremendous advancements have been made in this field over the past 5 decades and several methods have been demonstrated for cryopreserving oocytes and embryos in different species. This chapter focuses on the fundamental aspects of oocyte and embryo cryopreservation.


This work reports on the effect of the 1,2-hexadecanediol content on the structural and magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles synthesized by thermal decomposition of metal-organic precursors in 1-octadecene. Although pseudo-spherical particles having an average size of about 8 nm and similar stoichiometry have been observed in all studied samples, a high level of variability in the crystal quality and, in turn, in the magnetic properties has been found as a function of the amount of 1,2-hexadecanediol added to the reaction mixture. The magnetic study reveals that samples progress from glassy magnetic behavior to bulk-like, ferrimagnetic order as the crystal quality improves. The analysis of the reaction mixtures by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy at various stages of the reaction shows the key role of the 1,2-hexadecanediol in favoring the decomposition of the metal-organic precursor, formation of an intermediate Co(2+)Fe(3+)-oleate complex and, finally, the nucleation of nanoparticles at lower temperatures.


Summary Every type of library will inevitably have problem patrons, but this article focuses mainly on public and academic libraries. As the times have changed, so has the magnitude of the problem patrons. Problems of the past seem irrelevant compared to some of the problems we are currently facing. Discussed in this article are particular types of problem behavior, including, but not limited to anger, harassment of staff, and homelessness. The types of each category include examples to illustrate each concern, and possible remedies.


Amyloid plaque formation constitutes one of the main pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is suggested to be a critical factor driving disease pathogenesis. Interestingly, in patients that display amyloid pathology but remain cognitively normal, Aβ deposits are predominantly of diffuse morphology suggesting that cored plaque formation is primarily associated with cognitive deterioration and AD pathogenesis. Little is known about the molecular mechanism responsible for conversion of monomeric Aβ into neurotoxic aggregates and the predominantly cored deposits observed in AD. The structural diversity among Aβ plaques, including cored/compact- and diffuse, may be linked to their distinct Aβ profile and other chemical species including neuronal lipids. We developed a novel, chemical imaging paradigm combining matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI IMS) and fluorescent amyloid staining. This multimodal imaging approach was used to probe the lipid chemistry associated with structural plaque heterogeneity in transgenic AD mice (tgAPPSwe) and was correlated to Aβ profiles determined by subsequent laser microdissection and immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry. Multivariate image analysis revealed an inverse localization of ceramides and their matching metabolites to diffuse and cored structures within single plaques, respectively. Moreover, phosphatidylinositols implicated in AD pathogenesis, were found to localize to the diffuse Aβ structures and correlate with Aβ1-42. Further, lysophospholipids implicated in neuroinflammation were increased in all Aβ deposits. The results support previous clinical findings on the importance of lipid disturbances in AD pathophysiology and associated sphingolipid processing. These data highlight the potential of multimodal imaging as a powerful technology to probe neuropathological mechanisms.


The effort to make financial services accessible and affordable for everyone is known as financial inclusion. Large technology firms, such as Apple, Alibaba, Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Google and Tencent, have recently started to offer financial services that include payment, insurance and loans. The entry of these so-called big techs could pose opportunities as well as challenges related to financial inclusion. On one hand, big techs have the potential to draw large numbers of people who do not use banks or financial institutions—known as unbanked people—into the financial system. On the other hand, improved financial inclusion may lead to elevated fraud risks if people lack the required knowledge and skills to use the services safely. It may even lead to undesirable financial outcomes, such as over-indebtedness, which could eventually introduce financial stability risks to the larger financial system.

The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we assess whether financial education might be a suitable tool to promote the financial inclusion opportunities that big techs provide. Second, we study how this potential financial inclusion could impact financial stability. We do so by reviewing and summarizing the existing literature on financial education, financial literacy and financial inclusion.

Our literature review shows that financial education can improve people's financial knowledge and skills and help improve financial inclusion, but only if the financial education initiatives are well designed. The effectiveness of financial education strongly depends on the timing of the program, its format as well as the type of financial behaviour it aims for. The impact of financial education also varies, depending on who is targeted. Whether these conclusions can be extended to the financial services offered by big techs remains unclear. Therefore, we argue that new empirical research is needed. We also find that increased access to credit could potentially introduce financial stability risks if adequate risk management and monitoring programs are lacking. Because of this, we underline the importance of an appropriate regulatory framework. We conclude with various questions for further research.


This paper highlights the issues concerning library resources and services in the engineering college libraries in Karnataka. The study found that a majority of the colleges are managed by the private institutions. Nearly all are understaffed. Very few college libraries are functioning in a independent library buildings. Most have good collections of books, while journal collections vary. Most provide an array of library services.


Iron oxide nanoparticle is the most promising nanoparticles (NPs) capable in Drug Delivery and targeting. Iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by green synthesis. Galactomannan, when attached to the surface of the nanoparticles, increases the biocompatibility of the nanoparticles. Folic acid (FA) is used as the ligand to target folate receptors, which are found abundant in cancer cells. FeNPs-GM-FA could target cancer cells when used as drug carriers. The synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles using Mimosa pudica root extract was synthesized for targeted delivery of the anticancer drug, Capecitabine, by grafting folic acid (FA) onto the iron oxide nanoparticles coated with galactomannan (GM), a polysaccharide present in fenugreek gum. The cytotoxicity profile of the nanoparticles on human epithelial type 2 (HEp-2) cells as measured by standard 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay showed that the particles were nontoxic and may be useful for various in vivo and in vitro biomedical applications. The surface modification by galactomannan and folic acid grafting was confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy and fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The in vitro release profile of capecitabine from FeNPs-GM-FA was characterized by an initial fast release followed by a sustained release phase. The histological investigation evidences the formation of improved liver cell architecture indicating the therapeutic nature of functionalized iron nanoparticles with Capecitabine, confirming a potential option for drug delivery and targeting tumor tissues.


Inductive definitions are the most natural means by which to represent many families of structures occurring in mathematics and computer science, and their corresponding induction / recursion principles provide the fundamental proof techniques by which to reason about such families. This thesis studies formal proof systems for inductive definitions, as needed, e.g., for inductive proof support in automated theorem proving tools. The systems are formulated as sequent calculi for classical first-order logic extended with a framework for (mutual) inductive definitions. The default approach to reasoning with inductive definitions is to formulate the induction principles of the inductively defined relations as suitable inference rules or axioms, which are incorporated into the reasoning framework of choice. Our first system LKID adopts this direct approach to inductive proof, with the induction rules formulated as rules for introducing atomic formulas involving inductively defined predicates on the left of sequents. We show this system to be sound and cut-free complete with respect to a natural class of Henkin models. As a corollary, we obtain cut-admissibility for LKID. The well-known method of infinite descent a la Fermat, which exploits the fact that there are no infinite descending chains of elements of well-ordered sets, provides an alternative approach to reasoning with inductively defined relations. Our second proof system LKIDω formalises this approach. In this system, the left-introduction rules for formulas involving inductively defined predicates are not induction rules but simple case distinction rules, and an infinitary, global soundness condition on proof trees — formulated in terms of "traces" on infinite paths in the tree — is required to ensure soundness. This condition essentially ensures that, for every infinite branch in the proof, there is an inductive definition that is unfolded infinitely often along the branch. By an infinite descent argument based upon the well-foundedness of inductive definitions, the infinite branches of the proof can thus be disregarded, whence the remaining portion of proof is well-founded and hence sound. We show this system to be cutfree complete with respect to standard models, and again infer the admissibility of cut. The infinitary system LKIDω is unsuitable for formal reasoning. However, it has a natural restriction to proofs given by regular trees, i.e. to those proofs representable by finite graphs. This restricted "cyclic" proof system, CLKIDω, is suitable for formal reasoning since proofs have finite representations and the soundness condition on proofs is thus decidable. We show how the formulation of our systems LKIDω and CLKIDω can be generalised to obtain soundness conditions for a general class of infinite proof systems and their corresponding cyclic restrictions. We provide machinery for manipulating and analysing the structure of proofs in these essentially arbitrary cyclic systems, based primarily on viewing them as generating regular infinite trees, and we show that any proof can be converted into an equivalent proof with a restricted cycle structure. For proofs in this "cycle normal form", a finitary, lo-


The American Barracks, Mannheim, Germany.Commissioned by the city of Mannheim (Germany), The American Barracks, Mannheim is a photographic survey/exhibition, which documents American military bases constructed in the post-WW2, Cold War era prior to final withdrawal of American troops in 2013/14. The work looks at the dissolution of territorial borders in the context of permanent vs. temporary military architectures. The research surveys the architectural structure of these American military bases stationed in the Rhine-Neckar region of Germany, examining the systematic components underpinning post-WW2 and Cold War military architectures and revealing the permanent nature of such structures. The research is grounded is the concept of how US military barracks in the post war era were designed as a permanent way of life, through high quality housing and living standards, and in effect served as a recruiting tool for the US army. The work directly responds to earlier research authored by the same photographer, which questions the role of memory in the context of modern military sites inherently temporary in nature and structure, such as the [American/contemporary] military structures utilized in Afghanistan. In contrast, the American barracks in Mannheim have been retained since the Cold War and are scheduled to be maintained after the final American withdrawal, consequently raising a negotiation about how we remember and transition these former structures into a new [era/context] – whether industrial, housing, or commercial properties.


The physical meaning and methods of determining loudness were reviewed Loudness is a psychoacoustic metric which closely corresponds to the perceived intensity of a sound stimulus. It can be determined by graphical procedures, numerical methods, or by commercial software. These methods typically require the consideration of the 1/3 octave band spectrum of the sound of interest. The sounds considered in this paper are a 1 kHz tone and pink noise. The loudness of these sounds was calculated in eight ways using different combinations of input data and calculation methods. All the methods considered are based on Zwicker loudness. It was determined that, of the combinations considered, only the commercial software dBSonic and the loudness calculation procedure detailed in DIN 45631 using 1/3 octave band levels filtered using ANSI S1.11-1986 gave the correct values of loudness for a 1 kHz tone. Comparing the results between the sources also demonstrated the difference between sound pressure level and loudness. It was apparent that the calculation and filtering methods must be considered together, as a given calculation will produce different results for different 1/3 octave band input. In the literature reviewed, no reference provided a guide to the selection of the type of filtering that should be used in conjunction with the loudness computation method.


The objective of this paper is to present some computational insights based on previous extensive research experiences on the optimal bus transit route network design problem (BTRNDP) with zonal demand aggregation and variable transit demand. A multi-objective, nonlinear mixed integer model is developed. A general meta-heuristics-based solution methodology is proposed. Genetic algorithms (GA), simulated annealing (SA), and a combination of the GA and SA are implemented and compared to solve the BTRNDP. Computational results show that zonal demand aggregation is necessary and combining metaheuristic algorithms to solve the large scale BTRNDP is very promising.


The use of hyper-variable markers across species is often hin- dered by low cross-species amplification success, a reduced level of polymorphism or a high frequency of null alleles. How- ever, optimizing sets of reliable and informative markers that can be consistently amplified and scored across taxa is key to address questions about patterns of genetic diversity and structure, hybridization and speciation. Here we present 14 newly developed microsatellite markers in the Spined toad ( Bufo spinosus ), assess their polymorphism in two Iberian populations and test for cross-species amplification in the closely related Common toad ( Bufo bufo ). We then use the 12 loci co-amplify-ing in both species to the study of a morphologically intermedi- ate population (Moyaux) from the contact zone in northwest France as well as reference populations of the two species from both sides of the contact zone. Individuals from Moyaux had mtDNA haplotypes of the two species and were identified as hybrids in analyses with software NewHybrids. These results provide solid evidence for ongoing hybridization between B. bufo and B. spinosus , with no apparent restrictions to gene flow.


The escalation of degenerative diseases can be prevented by consuming fibrous foods. This study focus onproduct development of cookies from arrowroot starch with the addition of rice bran and whole wheat flour as fiber source. The addition of fiber was conductedusing various  concentration of 0-30%. Aim of this study was determinedto add therice bran and whole wheat flour against physical-chemical properties of cookies. The data of physical-chemical properties were analyzed by Anova, followed by HSD test, while the organoleptic data were analyzed using Friedman test and determining the best treatment using method effectiveness index (De Garmo). Best quality wasshowedon proportion of20% rice bran flour (P2) and 20% whole wheat (P5) with the average value of the water content in sequence P2 and P5 are: 2.50% and 2.67%, 1.44% and dietary fiber 1.67%, 8.35% protein and 57.12%, and 60.73% texture and 65.80%. Organoleptic datashowedpreferable panelist on the color scale of 3.69 (regular) and 4.8 (a bit like), a sense of scale 4.13 (regular) and 4.77 (a bit like), aroma scale of 4.57 (slightly like) and 4.73 (a bit like), and the texture scale 4.37 (regular) and 4.33 (regular).


The aim of this study is to examine the relationship of human resource (HR) professionals' competencies, HR professionals' willingness (HRPW) and HR professionals' effectiveness (HRPE). The Human Resource Competency Study model is used in this research, which is modified to include 'Willingness' as an important competency. The study is undertaken using data drawn from the line managers of two large Privatized Banks (PB1) and (PB2) of Pakistan. It is hypothesized that all HR professionals' competencies are equally and strongly related to HR professionals' effectiveness which is theoretically associated with organizational performance. The study finds that the HR professionals' competencies including HR social competencies (HRSC), HR technical competencies (HRTC) and HRPW have a highly significant correlation with HRPE. However, social competencies are more significant in their relationship with HRPE than the HRTC and HRPW in both PB1 and PB2. Within the sub competencies of HRSC the 'Credible Activist' (in case of PBP1) is the most significant and strongly correlated competency with HRPE. While, the 'Culture and Change Steward' (in case of PB2) is the most significant and strongly correlated competency with HRPE. Furthermore, within the sub competencies of HRTC the 'Operational Executor' (in case of PB1) and 'Business Ally' (in case of PB2) have a stronger relationship with HRPE than others. The study finds the HR professionals' competencies are lacking in the PB1 in Pakistan as most of the HR professionals' competencies as well as their effectiveness were found to be below the expectation levels of the line managers. The study also finds the HR professionals' competencies, willingness and effectiveness are generally on moderating side (in case of PB2). This indicates that the HR professionals' competencies, willingness and their effectiveness need to be improved further which will ultimately lead to the better organizational performance.


In general, the presence of oxygen is potentially linked to wine alterations. In wine, oxidation depends on the oxygen concentration and on the time of enrichment. In general in enology, a forced oxidation is more unfavorable than a slow and continous dissolution of oxygen that usually plays a positive role on the wine evolution. The relationship between the oxygen and the grape must, the oxygen and the fermentation, and between the oxygen and the wine can't be considered in the same way, because the mechanisms involved in the oxygen consumption are different. On the other hand, the exchanges of oxygen between these different media are all governed by the same gas law. This presentation is focused only on the status of the oxygen dissolved into the wine in order to question on the interest and on the expected consequences of the measure of dissolved oxygen during the process of making wine.


This thesis describes the development of new catalytic methods for the synthesis and application of organometallic reagents, mainly focusing on allylboronic acid derivatives. Thus, palladium pincer-complex catalysis has been applied for extending the scope of palladiumcatalyzed borylation reactions in the synthesis of regio- and stereodefined functionalized allylboronic acid derivatives. These novel allylboronic acids were also employed as substrates in palladium catalyzed regioselective coupling reactions with iodobenzenes. We have also developed a new one-pot sequence based on preparation of allyl- and vinylboronates via catalytic carbon-hydrogen bond activation/borylation reactions. The synthetic scope of the reaction as well as mechanistic studies on the borylation process are presented. Finally, the synthesis of new chiral palladium pincer-complexes is described. These species were employed as catalysts in asymmetric electrophilic allyation of imines.


Purpose — The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of the context of Web search and search engine related research, as well as to introduce the reader to the sections and chapters of the book.

Methodology/approach — We review literature dealing with various aspects of search engines, with special emphasis on emerging areas of Web searching, search engine evaluation going beyond traditional methods and new perspectives on Web searching.

Findings — The approaches to studying Web search engines are manifold. Given the importance of Web search engines for knowledge acquisition, research from different perspectives needs to be integrated into a more cohesive perspective.

Research limitations/implications — The chapter suggests a basis for research in the field and also introduces further research directions.

Originality/value of paper — The chapter gives a concise overview of the topics dealt within the book and also shows directions for researchers interested in Web search engines.


In this thesis, I discuss the development and evaluation of tutorials ranging from introductory to graduate level. Tutorials were developed based upon research on student difficulties in learning relevant concepts and findings of cognitive research. Tutorials are a valuable resource when used either in-class or as a self-study tool. They strive to help students develop a robust knowledge structure of relevant topics and improve their problem solving skills. I discuss the development of a tutorial on the Lock-in amplifier (LIA) for use as both an on-ramp to ease the transition of students entering into the research lab and to improve student understanding of the operation of the LIA for those already making use of this device. The effectiveness of this tutorial was evaluated using think aloud interviews with graduate students possessing a wide range of experience with the LIA and the findings were uniformly positive. I also describe the development and evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) that focuses on quantum key distribution using two protocols for secure key distribution. One protocol used in the first part of the QuILT is administered to students working collaboratively in class while the second protocol used in the second part of the QuILT was administered as homework. Evaluation of student understanding of the two protocols used in this QuILT shows that it was effective at improving student understanding both immediately after working on the QuILT and two months later. Finally, I discuss the development and evaluation of four web-based tutorials focusing on quantitative problem solving intended to aid introductory students in the learning of effective problem-solving heuristics while helping them learn physics concepts. Findings suggest that while these tutorials are effective when administered in one-on-one think-aloud interviews, this effectiveness is greatly diminished when students are asked to use the tutorials as a self-study tool with no supervision. In addition, the development and evaluation of four sets of scaffolded prequizzes for introductory physics on the same topics as the tutorials is discussed. These prequizzes are designed to mimic the structure of the web-based tutorials and can be implemented in the classroom.


This paper studies the effects of plasma-induced cracks on rock cutting to support the concept of a plasma-integrated drag bit for accelerated geothermal drilling through hard rocks. For this, a single polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drilling technique is used in cutting granite to compare thrust and cutting forces between plasma-treated and untreated rock samples. The cracks are produced using underwater plasma at 80J per pulse. This energy level does not produce visible damage to the rock. The cutting tests are conducted at a cutting speed of 12.7 m/min and four feed rates of 0.127, 0.201, 0.267, and 0.414 mm/s to represent actual drilling scenarios. The results show a general trend of reduction in both thrust and cutting forces for these feed rates, but the magnitude of reduction highly depends on the feed rate. The maximum force reduction of around 50% is found at the 0.267 mm/s feed rate with statistical significance. Cases with a higher force reduction are also found to have rougher surface topography, which indicates more excessive fracturing and, thus, a cracks-accelerated material removal process. This study provides initial evidence of using underwater plasma to increase the downhole drilling rate of hard rocks.


Previous research has suggested the existence of socio-economic and gender variation in uptake of hospital cardiology services but it is not known at which stage of the care pathway these variations arise.This thesis aims to address this gap in the literature by exploring the perceptions of an behaviour in response to chest pain of men and women living in two socio-economically contrasting areas of Glasgow. It has 3 objectives: to describe respondents' perceptions of and actions in response to chest pain; to ascertain whether there are differences in perceptions and behaviour associated with socio-economic status or gender; and, to relate any observed differences to the known variations in uptake of cardiology services.Respondents' interpretations of chest pain were related to their perceived vulnerability to heart disease and their previous illness experience. Their decisions of whether to present to a general practitioner were influenced by the quality of previous encounters with doctors and by their lay care and self-care. Women generally felt less vulnerable to heart disease than men, and often believed that their health problems were secondary to those of family members. These factors led women to report a reluctance to present with chest pain. Compared with more affluent people, those from the deprived area generally felt more vulnerable to heart disease but the perception that they were to blame for their ill-health often led to reluctance to present with chest pain. Differences in perceptions and behaviour might partly explain gender inequities in access to hospital cardiology services but socio-economic inequities in uptake of services have proved more difficult to explain.


United States constitutional law and theory has not focused on the poor lately. Yet poverty rates in the U.S. have reached their highest levels in 50 years. The great wealth disparities in the U.S. are at least partly responsible for the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and perhaps even the Tea Party. Because of these significant social developments, the Drake Constitutional Law Center hosted the symposium "Constitutionalism and the Poor" in April, 2012. This brief Foreword makes two arguments for why the U.S. Supreme Court could eventually show greater concern about laws that burden the poor. First, many scholars agree that the U.S. Supreme Court has used more than three levels of scrutiny in constitutional cases. For example, there is lenient rationality review and rationality review with a bite. There is the strict scrutiny of Parents Involved and the lesser strict scrutiny of Grutter. These stealth alternative levels of scrutiny certainly allow the Court to go beyond lenient rationality in cases where important interests of the poor are at stake. Second, the U.S. Supreme Court has wrongly assumed that it lacks the judicial competence to adjudicate socio-economic rights related matters. For example, the South African Constitutional Court has enforced constitutional socio-economic rights provisions with some success. Though the South African and U.S. Constitutions are very different, the South African cases show how a judiciary can balance these interests against separation of powers concerns. The Foreword also provides short summaries of the Symposium papers that will appear in an accompanying issue of the Drake Law Review. The paper authors include Professor Peter Edelman of Georgetown, Mr. Ilya Shapiro, Esq. of the CATO Institute, Professor Julie Nice of the University of San Francisco, Professor Frank Michelman of Harvard, Professor john powell of the University of California at Berkeley, and the Honorable Mark Cady, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.


Research indicates that gamblers frequently set self-imposed limits on how much time and money they wish to gamble in a given gambling session, yet consistently gamble more than initially intended. The emotional and arousing impact of gambling, as well as dissociative states gamblers experience whilst gambling, may contribute to this behavioural shift which reflects a failure in self-control. Essential then, is the need for harm minimisation strategies aimed at allowing a gambler to stay in control of their decisions and behaviour during gambling, whilst concurrently limiting the negative impact this may have on the gambling experience for those who frequently stay in control. The following article evaluates the use of limit setting and pre-commitment, the use of 'cooling off' periods, and restricting access to additional funds as harm minimisation strategies, in terms of their efficacy in facilitating self-control in problem and non-problem gambling populations. As with any potential mass intervention, such as the use of mandatory limit setting, the need for robust empirical evidence to prove its efficacy is essential. Existing research, while providing promise, falls short of this criterion, indicating a requirement for more stringent empirical research to best guide responsible gambling practices aimed at facilitating player control during gambling.


With the rapid development of information and communication technology, people can acquire and distribute many kinds of digital data more conveniently than before. The consequence is that the "copyright protection" which prevents digital data from been duplicated illegally should be paid much more attention. Digital watermarking is the process of embedding visible or invisible information into a digital signal which may be used to verify its authenticity or the identity of its owners. In the past, digital watermarking technology has been successfully applied to the "copyright protection" of multimedia data, however the researches and applications of applying digital watermarking to geo-information data are still very inadequate. In this study, a novel digital watermarking algorithm based on the scale-space feature points is applied to the remote sensing images, and the robustness of the embedded digital watermark and the impact on satellite image quality are evaluated and analysed. This kind of feature points are commonly invariant to Image rotation, scaling and translation, therefore they naturally fit into the requirement of geometrically robust image watermarking. The experiment results show almost all extracted watermarks have high values of normal correlation and can be recognized clearly after the processing of image compression, brightness adjustment and contrast adjustment. In addition, most of the extracted watermarks are identified after the geometric attacks. Furthermore, the unsupervised image classification is implemented on the watermarked images to evaluate the image quality reduction and the results show that classification accuracy is affected slightly after embedding watermarks into the satellite images.


Dewata Nawa Sanga in Hinduism has an important role as the foundation of the religious concept implemented by Hindus in Bali, Indonesia. It has the meaning of nine deities or manifestations of Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa (God Almighty)  that guard or control the nine wind direction. Dewata Nawa Sanga in terms of education in Bali has been learned by the elementary school students. However, in social life the concept of Dewata Nawa Sanga itself has not been attached and understood by all Balinese Hinduism yet. Based on the problem in social life, there is an idea to develop Markerless Augmented Reality Utilizing Gyroscope to Demonstrate the Position of Dewata Nawa Sanga . This application is designed to know, recognize, and understand the characteristics of Dewata Nawa Sanga using gyroscope. This sensor serves to fulfill the object of the deities in the coordinates to be determined. Furthermore, it serves to provide information about Dewata Nawa Sanga along with the innovative and informative 3D animation. The result of usefulness questionnaire of this application percentage value average is 88.4%. It can be concluded that AR Dewata Nawa Sanga is very useful and helpful for learners in exploring the Dewata Nawa Sanga position in a real-world environment. The result of usability and satisfaction questionnaire of this application percentage value average is 84.8%. It shows that the application is very useful for the participants to learn Dewata Nawa Sanga and very satisfied to use.


A series of quantitative studies investigated undergraduate students' perceptions of their cognitive and affective learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. To explore these quantitative findings, a qualitative research protocol was developed to characterize student learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. Students (N = 13) were observed and video recorded while performing one of their assigned laboratory experiments. Each student wore an action camera as well as a lapel microphone attached to a voice recorder to capture the experiment from the students' perspective. A tripod camera was also placed unobtrusively in the lab to record the student from a third person perspective. Students were interviewed within 48 hours of their video recording and asked to identify specific learning experiences in their laboratory experiment. The self-selected video episodes were shown to the students, and they were asked to describe what they were doing and why they were doing it. The students' descriptions were analyzed using Novak's theory of meaningful learning to characterize their cognitive and affective experiences. The self-identified learning experiences were dominated by descriptions of psychomotor learning with few students discussing cognitive experiences. The limited connections between cognitive and affective experiences revealed missed opportunities for meaningful learning.


Introduction: Non-invasive temperature monitoring with a sensor mounted inside protective headgear such as a football or military helmet or a construction hardhat may be an effective method of detecting temperatures that are indicative of increased risk of heat illness. Hothead Technologies has developed a system for providing temperature information to medical personnel responsible for the health of the individual. Purpose: The purposes of this study were to establish the relationship between in-hardhat temperature (Tih) readings, markers of physiological strain and perceptual responses, and to determine the differences between the in-helmet temperature readings and core temperature (Tc) as measured by rectal (Tre) and esophageal (Tes) probes. Methods: Thirty males (age, 24.57 ± 4.32 years; height 180.51 ±7.06 cm; body mass, 81.06 ±9.35 kg; percent body fat, 13.76 ±5.11; VO2max, 46.84 ± 7.10 mL/Kg/min) completed two experimental trials separated by a minimum of one week: a continuous submaximal exercise (CSE) condition and a series of high intensity 30-second sprints (HIE) with a one-minute rest period between each sprint. Exercise in both conditions was carried out in a 36o C environment with a relative humidity of 40% while wearing a standard construction hardhat with a sensor mounted in the forehead area of the head strap, and continued until one of the following two criteria was met: the subject voluntarily terminated the session, or the subject's Tc reached 39.5oC. Temperatures, heart rate, cardiorespiratory, and perceptual responses were monitored throughout, and balance error scoring system (BESS) and mental function tests were conducted before and after exercise. A physiological strain index (PSI) was calculated from Tc and HR. Results: Table 1. Temperature Responses (o C), BESS results and PSI (mean + SD) Condition Post Tih Post Tre Post Tes BESS Firm Pre BESS Firm Post BESS Foam Pre BESS Foam Post PSI Tre PSI Tes CSE 38.77 ±0.42 38.90 ±0.49 39.38 ±0.37 2.73 ±2.41 7.17 ±3.81 11.33 ±4.38 15.50 ±4.78 9.18 ±1.11 10.04 ±1.05 CV 1.08% 1.26% 0.93% HIE 38.76 ±0.37 38.91 ±0.47 39.15 ±0.49 3.67 ±2.59 7.37 ±4.10 10.80 ±3.46 15.53 ±5.55 9.29 ±0.99 9.86 ±1.02 CV 0.95% 1.21% 1.26% CVCalculated from final temp. Conclusion: The general agreement between the Tih and other temperature measures along with the consistency as indicated by the low coefficient of variation in the recordings of the Tih sensors at the point of termination suggest that this device may have application as a warning system for impending heat-related problems.


Schools play an important part in the lives of children and young people who have caring responsibilities for a family member with an illness, disability, alcohol or other drug problem or mental health condition but many of these 'young carers' report difficulty in attending, achieving and participating in education. This qualitative research project aimed to gather young carers' views about school, the challenges they face in engaging with education and their peers, and ways that the system might better support others like them. It found that significant caring responsibilities, a lack of appropriate and responsive support services to meet family needs and a lack of awareness and understanding within the education system significantly reduced young carers' capacity to fully engage with their learning. Young carers in the study called for more assistance in caring for their relatives, more flexibility and responsiveness to their home lives within the design and delivery of education, and better processes for identifying and responding to the challenges they encounter in participating in the life of the school community.


Contextual information can have a substantial impact on the performance of visual tasks such as semantic segmentation, object detection, and geometric estimation. Data stored in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) offers a rich source of contextual information that has been largely untapped by computer vision. We propose to leverage such information for scene understanding by combining GIS resources with large sets of unorganized photographs using Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques. We present a pipeline to quickly generate strong 3D geometric priors from 2D GIS data using SfM models aligned with minimal user input. Given an image resectioned against this model, we generate robust predictions of depth, surface normals, and semantic labels. We show that the precision of the predicted geometry is substantially more accurate other single-image depth estimation methods. We then demonstrate the utility of these contextual constraints for rescoring pedestrian detections, and use these GIS contextual features alongside object detection score maps to improve a CRF-based semantic segmentation framework, boosting accuracy over baseline models.


A "Small Circus" is a powerful 1931 portrayal of a German town on the brink of chaos, from bestselling author Hans Fallada (writer of "Alone in Berlin"). It is summer, 1929, and in a small German town a storm is brewing. The shabby reporter Tredup leads a precarious existence working for the "Pomeranian Chronicle" - until he takes some photographs that offer the chance to make a fortune. In Kruger's bar, the farmers are plotting their revenge on greedy officials. A mysterious travelling salesman from Berlin , Henning, is stirring up trouble - but no one knows why. Meanwhile the Nazis grow stronger and the Communists fight them in the streets. And at the centre of it all, the Mayor, 'Fatty' Gareis, seeks the easy life even as events spiral beyond his control. As tensions erupt between workers and bosses, town and country, Left and Right, alliances are broken, bribes are taken and plots are hatched, until the tension spills over into violence. "Uncommonly vivid and original". (Robert Musil). "Real love and real humanity". (Hermann Hesse). "The best account of small-town Germany...so terribly genuine, it is frightening". (Kurt Tucholsky). "This novel's genius...lies in Fallada's ability to reveal. ..as well as to analyse the macabre game of musical chairs that was the Weimar Republic. Fallada gives us front-row seats to Germany's decade-long quest for a sacrificial scapegoat that culminated in the Nazi takeover...Two years after Alone in Berlin's runaway success, A "Small Circus" continues the Fallada revival that owes so much to the efforts of its translator, the poet Michael Hofmann". (Andre Naffis-Sahely, "Independent"). "Fallada creates characters with Dickensian prodigality, each yokel, hack, pig and pen-pusher brought to life in Michael Hofmann's beautifully judged translation...a generous, life-affirming treat". (Jake Kerridge, "Telegraph"). "Michael Hofmann...comes as close as possible to giving us Fallada's work in all its coarse, humorous, immediate, tragic glory". (Charlotte Moore, "Spectator"). "Not for the first time, all praise is due to Michael Hofmann's art and feel for nuance. His translation catches the many voices - some exasperated, others bewildered, a few downright angry - that make this bold, exuberant and candid narrative sizzle with life and the relentlessly shocking reality of it all". ("Irish Times"). "Fallada's own experiences as a regional journalist in north Germany underlie the action, and it is this sense of realism, combined with an ear for dialogue and an acute understanding of human frailty, that make the novel such an authentic portrayal of an imploding era". (Ben Hutchinson, "Observer").


From 2003 to 2009, the EU launched five military conflict management operations within the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy. This thesis examines their success. To this end, the thesis develops a definition and a set of criteria for success. It applies this theoretical framework in an empirical case study of success in the five EU operations, which were undertaken in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic. Having established the level and nature of their success, the thesis goes on to examine the conditions under which ESDP military conflict management operations can be successful. The key finding of the research is that for an operation of this nature to succeed, it is necessary that it secures sufficient support internally, within the EU, and externally, outside the EU, from domestic, regional and international actors involved in the conflict and its management.


There are various mathematical models available to assess the reliability of a given system, these models relate the performance of the system to the performance of the components of which it is comprised and can be used to determine the failure probability or failure frequency of the system in question. Currently there is software available to perform the mathematical analysis of the model but its construction, which is used as input to the software, is undertaken manually. This is quite a lengthy process and can limit the usefulness of the model. One way of improving this situation would be to automate the construction process. In this work a procedure is developed to automatically generate a reliability model, based upon Petri Nets, for a system undertaking a phased mission.


The author uses a political science paradigm to explain the growth of emerging equity markets. She departs from conventional economic explanations and examines politics at the micro-level of large issues of emerging market stock. The second half of the book presents case studies dealing with emerging market countries in Latin America, Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The case studies connect the regional, state, and firm levels to detail the multiple ownership and control arrangements, and to dispel the notion that mere quantitative growth of these markets will lead to a convergence in financial institutional structures along the lines of the industrial core of the world economy. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/0195174097/toc.html


Abstract The publication describes two ways of shopping, taking into account the CPI (Consumer Price Index) inflation rate. In the first case, changes in the sales price are made in a continuous manner in accordance with the inflation rate, and therefore it is better to make larger purchases. In the second case, it is better to carry out smaller purchases, because it is characterized by one-time adjustment of sales prices to the entire purchased a lot of goods. Both cases were verified based on the Solver tool, using non-linear, integer-based optimization. The final result was to determine the optimal purchase quantities with the minimum inventory costs.


The KEPS Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS/sup (R)/) is the largest real time power system simulator ever built. A power system which includes 320 (3-phase) buses and 90 generators has been modeled and run in real time. Since such large-scale systems were involved, it was not practical to validate them using nonreal time electromagnetic transient programs such as EMTDC/sup TM/ or EMTP. Instead, the results of the real time electromagnetic transient simulation were validated by comparing transient stability simulations run using PTI's PSS/E/sup TM/ program. The comparison of results from the two programs were in almost all cases very good. However, as expected, some differences did exist and were investigated. The differences in the results were primarily traced to the fact that the electromagnetic transient solution algorithm provides more detail and therefore greater accuracy than the transient stability algorithm. After finding very good comparison of results between the RTDS Simulator and PSS/E, and after investigating the discrepancies found, KEPCO gained the necessary confidence to use the large-scale real time simulator to analyze and develop their power system.


High-power operation of diode-pumped fiber lasers at wavelength near 2 microns are demonstrated with short length of heavily Tm3+-doped silica glass fibers. With 7-cm long fiber, a laser at near 2 microns is obtained with the threshold of 135 mW, maximum output power of 1.09 W, and slope efficiency of 9.6% with respect to the launched power from a laser diode at 790 nm. The output stability of this fiber laser is within 5%. The dependence of the performance of fiber lasers on the operation temperature and cavity configuration parameters is also investigated.


BACKGROUND
The gaining interest in the use of clinical prediction guides as an aid for helping clinicians make effective front-line decisions, together with the increasing emphasis on evidence-based practice, underscores the need for accurate identification of sound clinical prediction studies. Despite the growing use of clinical prediction guides, little work has been done on identifying optimal literature search filters for retrieving these types of studies. The current study extends our earlier work, on developing optimal search strategies, to include clinical prediction guides.

OBJECTIVE
To develop optimal search strategies for detecting methodologically sound clinical prediction studies in MEDLINE in the publishing year 2000.

DESIGN
Comparison of the retrieval performance of methodologic search strategies in MEDLINE with a manual review ("gold standard") of each article for each issue of 162 core health care journals for the year 2000.

METHODS
6 experienced research assistants who had been trained and intensively calibrated reviewed all issues of 162 journals for the publishing year 2000. Each article was classified for format, interest, purpose, and methodologic rigor. Search strategies were developed for all purpose categories, including studies of clinical prediction guides.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The sensitivity (recall), specificity, precision, and accuracy of single and combinations of search terms.

RESULTS
39% of original studies classified as a clinical prediction guide were methodologically sound. Combinations of terms reached peak sensitivities of 95%. Compared with the best single term, a three-term strategy increased sensitivity for sound studies by 17% (absolute increase), but with some loss of specificity when sensitivity was maximized. When search terms were combined to optimize sensitivity and specificity, these values reached or were close to 90%.

CONCLUSION
Several search strategies can enhance the retrieval of sound clinical prediction studies.


The O*NET was built to replace the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and form a highly accessible, on-line (through the World Wide Web), common language occupational information center (Dye & Silver, 1999). This study tested the relevance of the self-rating choice and unconventional BARS format to be used by the O*NET system for occupational ratings. In addition, a new rating scale format named NBADS, was tested for improved ratings. Fifty three Incumbent raters in two occupations (Graduate teaching assistants and Secretaries) and 87 laypeople raters who have never worked in these occupations, rated 21 item-pairs (Importance and Level type questions) picked randomly from the 52 items on the original O*NET Ability questionnaire. Participants rated each of the 21 item-pairs three times, with the Level question being presented in the O*NET BARS, a Likert GRS and the NBADS formats; The importance type question was always rated using a 1-5 Likert scale. Hypothesis 1a was supported, showing a significant leniency bias across formats for selfratings. Hypothesis 1b was mostly supported, failing to show significant leniency, elevation error or interrater agreement improvement over laypeople ratings; only the overall-error measure showed a significant improvement for incumbent raters. Hypothesis 2 was not supported, failing to show that the GRS format had any improvement on leniency, accuracy or interrater agreement over the O*NET


In a previous study by the author, it was reported that South African children in Grades 2 and 3 used very different picture interpretation skills than did a group of British children and showed different patterns of change as they progressed through school. The present study replicates the South African results but uses a larger sample and investigates the picture interpretation skills of South African children more fully in their own right. Results replicated those of the previous study in every detail. In addition, the effects of schooling were more notable than were those of age, and achievement in home language held significant predictive power with regard to all of the categories examined. However, these effects were generally in the opposite direction from those reported for children in the developed world, consolidating and extending the view that children from different cultures may use pictures in rather different ways.


This thesis describes the development of unsupervised neural-based pattern classifiers for the training of vowel pronunciations for students learning a foreign language. This paper examines American learners of the French language. A corpus of single word utterances is compiled from a group of native French speakers. Cepstral features are used to train two unsupervised neural pattern classifiers: a self-organizing map and a growing neural gas. The development and justification for the use of these classifiers is presented. The output from the classifier is translated to a bar graph for visual assessment. The degree to which the utterance sounds native is determined by comparing target graphs and those produced by the user. It is concluded that unsupervised classification techniques can be used to develop a pronunciation training system that is independent of the language used to train the system. This allows for pronunciation training to be easily achieved for low-density languages.


Nine planetary boundaries have been proposed, capturing essential biophysical processes that sustain the Earth System and its biosphere in an accommodating state for humanity. Drawing on economics literature, we propose conditions under which remaining within these boundaries is in line with economic policy. We assert that pervasive uncertainties combined with impacts of trespassing planetary boundaries clearly legitimate using safe minimum standards or precautionary approaches. Moreover, information about the risk structure of these processes, including potential large-scale regime shifts, could help refine policies for how to relate to the zones of uncertainty of the boundaries. Planetary boundaries may be interpreted as "growth within limits" especially in relation to the biophysical expansion of the human dimension. Here, we picture them as warning signs creating incentives for shifting development into new directions, new pathways, where growth in human well-being is the focus rather than growth in GDP. In this sense, we reiterate the framework of ecological economics of sustainable scale (i.e., developing within planetary boundaries), efficient allocation, and fair distribution, and emphasize the need for "biosphere economics" to help navigate globalization within the capacity of the biosphere as the complex adaptive system it truly is.


The Bonseyes EU H2020 collaborative project aims to develop a platform consisting of a Data Marketplace, a Deep Learning Toolbox, and Developer Reference Platforms for organizations wanting to adopt Artificial Intelligence. The project will be focused on using artificial intelligence in low power Internet of Things (IoT) devices ("edge computing"), embedded computing systems, and data center servers ("cloud computing"). It will bring about orders of magnitude improvements in efficiency, performance, reliability, security, and productivity in the design and programming of systems of artificial intelligence that incorporate Smart Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). In addition, it will solve a causality problem for organizations who lack access to Data and Models. Its open software architecture will facilitate adoption of the whole concept on a wider scale. To evaluate the effectiveness, technical feasibility, and to quantify the real-world improvements in efficiency, security, performance, effort and cost of adding AI to products and services using the Bonseyes platform, four complementary demonstrators will be built. Bonseyes platform capabilities are aimed at being aligned with the European FI-PPP activities and take advantage of its flagship project FIWARE. This paper provides a description of the project motivation, goals and preliminary work.