This paper investigates the use of plural governance for the provision of local public services. Most of the studies conducted on local data compare direct public provision (i.e., in-house provision where governments produce public services themselves, using their own equipment and employees) to contracting out. But governments actually face a more complex set of choices than the simple make-or-buy dichotomy. In particular, cities can simultaneously opt for the 'make' and 'buy' alternatives for the provision of the same public service, and thus produce a portion of the service themselves while contracting with external (public or private) companies. We show how contractual perspectives and the resource-based view of the firm help to understand the rationales behind plural sourcing. Organizations appear to be able to adopt this governance structure to enhance efficiency since it enables them to employ benchmarking strategies. However, authors in public management insist on the specificities of public sector contracting, and our analysis also includes political measures, such as the number of changes of political affiliation at the head of cities. Our empirical analysis examines data about car park management by 97 municipalities in 2010. We use a multinomial logit to compare three distinct alternatives: total internal provision, complete externalization, and plural sourcing. Our results clearly indicate that plural sourcing is a strategic choice that is adopted by municipalities to reduce the cost of service delivery when they suffer from high levels of fiscal stress. Plural governance does not result from the alternation of political parties in power, indicating that political factors do not play a significant role in explaining that sourcing decision.


Despite its relatively minor abundance in magmas (compared with H2O and CO2), sulfur degassing from volcanoes is of tremendous significance. It can exert substantial influence on magmatic evolution (potentially capable of triggering eruptions); represents one of the most convenient opportunities for volcano monitoring and hazard assessment; and can result in major impacts on the atmosphere, climate and terrestrial ecosystems at a range of spatial and temporal scales. The complex behavior of sulfur in magmas owes much to its multiple valence states (−II, 0, IV, VI), speciation (e.g., S2, H2S, SO2, OCS and SO3 in the gas phase; S2−, SO42− and SO32− in the melt; and non-volatile solid phases such as pyrrhotite and anhydrite), and variation in stable isotopic composition (32S, 33S, 34S and 36S; e.g., Metrich and Mandeville 2010). Sulfur chemistry in the atmosphere is similarly rich involving gaseous and condensed phases and invoking complex homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions. Sulfur degassing from volcanoes and geothermal areas is also important since a variety of microorganisms thrive based on the redox chemistry of sulfur: by reducing sulfur, thiosulfate, sulfite and sulfate to H2S, or oxidizing sulfur and H2S to sulfate (e.g., Takano et al. 1997; Amend and Shock 2001; Shock et al. 2010). Understanding volcanic sulfur degassing thus provides vital insights into magmatic, volcanic and hydrothermal processes; the impacts of volcanism on the Earth system; and biogeochemical cycles. Here, we review the causes of variability in sulfur abundance and speciation in different geodynamic contexts; the measurement of sulfur emissions from volcanoes; links between subsurface processes and surface observations; sulfur chemistry in volcanic plumes; and the consequences of sulfur degassing for climate and the environment.

### Geodynamics and the geochemical behavior of sulfur

The …


Spectral inference on multiple networks is a rapidly-developing subfield of graph statistics. Recent work has demonstrated that joint, or simultaneous, spectral embedding of multiple independent networks can deliver more accurate estimation than individual spectral decompositions of those same networks. Such inference procedures typically rely heavily on independence assumptions across the multiple network realizations, and even in this case, little attention has been paid to the induced network correlation that can be a consequence of such joint embeddings. In this paper, we present a generalized omnibus embedding methodology and we provide a detailed analysis of this embedding across both independent and correlated networks, the latter of which significantly extends the reach of such procedures, and we describe how this omnibus embedding can itself induce correlation. This leads us to distinguish between inherent correlation—that is, the correlation that arises naturally in multisample network data—and induced correlation, which is an artifice of the joint embedding methodology. We show that the generalized omnibus embedding procedure is flexible and robust, and we prove both consistency and a central limit theorem for the embedded points. We examine how induced and inherent correlation can impact inference for network time series data, and we provide network analogues of classical questions such as the effective sample size for more generally correlated data. Further, we show how an appropriately calibrated generalized omnibus embedding can detect changes in real biological networks that previous embedding procedures could not discern, confirming that the effect of inherent and induced correlation can be subtle and transformative. By allowing for and deconstructing both forms of correlation, our methodology widens the scope of spectral techniques for network inference, with import in theory and practice.


The aim of this study was to investigate the equilibrium swelling and sorption properties of chemically crosslinked copolymeric hydrogels as biopotential sorbent consisting of acrylamide (AAm) and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS). Semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi IPNs) hydrogel, composed of AAm with AMPS as co-monomer, with poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) and a multifunctional crosslinker such as trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA) was prepared. AAm/AMPS hydrogels and AAm/AMPS/PEG semi IPNs were synthesized by free radical solution polymerization by using ammonium persulphate (APS)/N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) as redox initiating pair. Swelling experiments were performed in water, 0.01 M and 0.03 M aqueous urea solutions at 25oC, gravimetrically. The hydrogels showed enormous swelling in aqueous urea/water medium and displayed swelling characteristics that were highly depended on the chemical composition of the hydrogels. FTIR spectroscopy was used to identify the presence of different repeating units in the semi IPNs. Some swelling and diffusion characteristics were calculated for different semi IPNs and hydrogels prepared under various formulations. For sorption of cationic dye, Lauths violet into the hydrogels was studied by batch sorption technique at 25oC. Dye removal capacity, adsorption percentage and partition coefficient of the hydrogels was investigated. Swelling and dye sorption properties of AAm/AMPS hydrogels and AAm/AMPS/PEG semi IPNs were investigated as a function of chemical composition of the hydrogels.


Data demonstrates the majority of on-campus sexual assaults occur in dorm rooms. At many colleges, this fact receives little, if any, attention. This article discusses how schools' failure to raise awareness about, and develop risk reduction programs for, dorm-based assaults is another example of long-standing institutional failures when it comes to addressing campus sexual assault. Ignoring where most on-campus assaults occur provides students with a false sense of security in their dorms, limits the efficacy of bystander intervention programs, and results in scant attention and research directed at the efficacy of dorm-based awareness and risk-reduction efforts. This article suggests that just as Title IX claims have forced colleges to deal with how they handle sexual assault reports, negligence claims may motivate schools to address the issue of dorm-based assaults.
This article proposes framing claims against colleges for dorm-based campus sexual assault in a way that shifts the narrative from that of a few "bad boys" to one of institutional failure - a failure illustrated by schools' turning a blind eye to what is happening in their dorms. The article explores how this framing supports conceptualizing schools' duty to dorm residents based upon schools' superior knowledge about where the majority of assaults occur and their ability to exercise control over student living space. It suggests that tort negligence claims will bring attention to dorm-based assaults, and while certainly not solving the multi-faceted campus sexual assault problem, the threat of these claims may result in the development of additional effective campus sexual assault risk reduction efforts.


This article scrutinizes the last ten years of the academic debate on EU citizenship law taking nine fundamental disagreements among scholars as staring points. It explores EU citizenship's relationship with three groups of issues of fundamental importance, including the place of this concept within the fabric of EU law, the influence of this concept on the essence of the Union as a system of multilevel governance, and its impact on the lives of ordinary Europeans. A number of key works which influenced the Court and the legislator in the recent years is assessed to outline the likely direction of future research, as well as future EU citizenship's development. Although the literature on the subject is overwhelmingly rich and diverse, this article aspires to provide a representative sample of issues of interest for the framing of the concept at issue from a supranational perspective, necessarily leaving national (or nationalistic) literatures


Cepstral features have been widely used in audio applications. Domain knowledge has played an important role in designing different types of cepstral features proposed in the literature. In this paper, we present a novel approach for learning optimized cepstral features directly from audio data to better discriminate between different categories of signals in classification tasks. We employ multi-layer feed-forward neural networks to model the cepstral feature extraction process. The network weights are initialized to replicate a reference cepstral feature like the mel frequency cepstral coefficient. We then propose a embedded approach that integrates feature learning with the training of a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. A single optimization problem is formulated where the feature and classifier variables are optimized simultaneously so as to refine the initial features and minimize the classification risk. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed feature learning approach, outperforming competing methods by a large margin on benchmark data.


Many organizations in the developing world need to conduct phone surveys to collect data from low-income respondents. Such organizations generally have two options: employ a live operator, or utilize interactive voice response (IVR). Despite the relevance of this question, we are unaware of any work that rigorously compares the accuracy, speed, and cost of an IVR survey relative to a live operator.
 In this paper, we address these questions by giving two identical interviews -- one using IVR, and one using a live operator -- to 31 low-income job seekers in India. The IVR interview included a brief introduction by a live operator, to provide context for the call. Out of the 20 people who completed both surveys, we found that IVR incurs a 4.0% error rate (95% C. I. 2.5% -- 6.1%) and requires 2.5 times longer for users. We summarize our experience as a set of recommendations for practitioners in this space.


We present the design of Espresso, Google's SDN-based Internet peering edge routing infrastructure. This architecture grew out of a need to exponentially scale the Internet edge cost-effectively and to enable application-aware routing at Internet-peering scale. Espresso utilizes commodity switches and host-based routing/packet processing to implement a novel fine-grained traffic engineering capability. Overall, Espresso provides Google a scalable peering edge that is programmable, reliable, and integrated with global traffic systems. Espresso also greatly accelerated deployment of new networking features at our peering edge. Espresso has been in production for two years and serves over 22% of Google's total traffic to the Internet.


This video is a presentation of technical tenets for the microsurgical clipping of a tentorial dural arteriovenous fistula presenting with thalamic venous hypertension. These cases are easily misdiagnosed and often supplied by the tentorial artery of Davidoff and Schecter. The cases shown in the video uniquely illustrate a supracerebellar infratentorial approach to identify and clip an arterialized tentorial vein utilizing intraoperative Doppler and fluorescein, with navigation and an intraoperative cerebral angiogram in a hybrid neuroangiography operative suite. Both patients were found to have thalamic edema on preoperative imaging, which significantly improved postoperatively.The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/HmUO6Ye53QI.


Learning from multi-label data has recently received increased attention by researchers working on machine learning and data mining for two main reasons. The first one is the ubiquitous presence of multilabel data in application domains ranging from multimedia information retrieval to tag recommendation, query categorization, gene function prediction, medical diagnosis, drug discovery and marketing. The other reason is a number of challenging research problems involved in multi-label learning, such as dealing with label rarity, scaling to large number of labels and exploiting label relationships (e.g. hierarchies), with the most prominent one being the explicit modelling of label dependencies. Multi-label learning is closely related to multivariate regression, also known as multi-output or multi-target regression, which aims at predicting multiple real-valued target variables instead of binary ones. Despite that multi-target regression is a less popular task, it still arises in several interesting domains, such as predicting the wind noise of vehicle components, stock price prediction, ecological modelling and more recently energy-related forecasting, such as wind and solar energy production forecasting and load/price forecasting. Multi-label learning is often treated as a special case of multi-target regression in statistics. However, we could more precisely state that both are instances of the more general learning task of predicting multiple targets, which could be real-valued, binary, ordinal, categorical or even of mixed type. The baseline approach of learning a separate model for each target applies to both learning tasks. Most importantly, they share the same core challenge of modelling dependencies among the different targets. In this talk we will emphasize this tight relationship between multi-label classification and multi-target regression by discussing their similarities, while also highlighting their differences. We will further discuss techniques that can inherently handle both tasks. Motivated from their tight connection, we will discuss pathways for transferring recent advances in the more popular multi-label learning task to multi-target regression and will give examples of our recent work in this direction. Finally, we will present our recent extension of the Mulan library with methods for multi-target regression. http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.6581 http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.5065 http://mulan.sourceforge.net


Existing embodied learning games and simulations utilize a large breadth of design approaches that often result in the creation of seemingly unrelated systems. This becomes problematic when trying to critically evaluate the usage and effectiveness of embodiment within embodied learning designs. In this paper, we present our work on combining differing conceptual and design approaches for embodied learning systems into a unified design framework. We describe the creation process for the framework, explain its dimensions, and provide two examples of its use. Our embodied learning games and simulations framework will benefit HCI researchers by providing a unifying foundation for the description, categorization, and evaluation of embodied learning systems and designs.


Background. No studies so far have examined enteric infections in patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in developing countries where asymptomatic carriage and colonization with enteric pathogens is frequent. Methods. A prospective study followed 65 patients who underwent BMT in South India between 1995 and 1998. Patients were screened for enteric pathogens before transplantation, weekly during the first 4 weeks after transplantation, and during all episodes of diarrhea. Results. Enteric pathogens were found in 60% of patients before or after transplantation. Pretransplantation screening revealed asymptomatic excretion of enteric pathogens in 29% (19/65). Forty-eight percent of patients undergoing BMT developed diarrhea. Diarrhea was mainly of noninfectious origin in the first 20 days after transplantation. More than 20 days after transplantation, the major causes of diarrhea were graft-versus-host disease and infection. Parasitic infections other than Cryptosporidium did not contribute significantly to morbidity in the pre- and posttransplantation period. Rotavirus and adenoviruses were found in approximately 12% and 5% of subjects, respectively. Bacterial infections in the posttransplantation period were found to be more common in India than in developed countries. Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea was seen in the posttransplantation period but not before transplantation. Enterotoxigenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli caused symptomatic infections in the posttransplantation period, but the association of other classes of diarrheogenic E. coli with diarrhea was doubtful. Conclusions. There was significantly higher mortality (P <0.01) in patients with symptomatic or asymptomatic gastrointestinal infections caused by bacteria than in patients with parasitic or viral infections or without enteric infections.


This evaluation seeks to determine the extent to which the Bank supported equitable access to secondary education, improvements in secondary education quality, and reforms of education institutions to improve management capacity. In addition, it describes the approaches taken and examines the results obtained. The evaluation found that as the Bank's overall education financing for the Region increases, so does its role in supporting education policy reforms that will affect access, efficiency, and learning outcomes. The Bank has the potential to make significant contributions to improving secondary education outcomes for all students. However, educational disadvantage is deeper and more complex than the disparity in the numbers of schools with libraries, the conditions of the school building, or the availability of computers. More attention needs to be given to what work that is, what strategies have been shown to improve student retention, completion, and achievement. Political dynamics need to be understood and taken into account in loan design, while at the same time recognizing that those dynamics also determine in part the role of the Bank (as discussed in detail in Chapter VI) and the extent to which inputs are used productively. In many LAC countries it is imperative to continue enhancing the management of the educational system at all levels, especially in the areas of results-based management, assessment, and monitoring and evaluation.


Adopting a functionalist perspective, we emphasize the interest of considering imitation as a single capacity with two functions: communication and learning. These two functions both imply such capacities as detection of novelty, attraction toward moving stimuli and perception-action coupling. We propose that the main difference between the processes involved in the two functions is that, in the case of learning, the dynamics is internal to the system constituted by an individual whereas in the case of communication, the dynamics concerns the system composed by the perception of one individual coupled with the action of the other. In this paper, we compare the first developmental steps of imitation in three populations: typically developing children, children with autism, and robots. We show evidence of strong correlations between imitating and being imitated in typical infants and low-functioning children with autism. Relying on this evidence, the robotic perspective is to provide a generic architecture able not only to learn via imitation but also to interact as an emerging property of the system constituted by two similar architectures with a different history.


From the Proceedings of the 1998 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 18, 1998, Glendale Community College, Glendale, Arizona


The elevation of color to stand-alone trademark status illustrates the unbounded nature of trademarks within the judicial consciousness. The availability of color-alone marks also facilitates the commoditization of color in ways that complicate the development and distribution of products and services that use color for multiple purposes conterminously. The economic case for color-alone trademarks is severely undermined by careful observation of the ways that colors are actually deployed in commerce, which makes it clear that the trademarks of multiple goods and services can utilize the same color to telegraph the same message without confusing anyone or diluting the commercial power of textual or symbolic trademarks.Trademark law can be used to monopolistically harness the aesthetic appeal or preexisting social meaning of a color. The Supreme Court was wrong to facilitate this abuse of trademark powers when it decided in Qualitex v. Jacobson Products Co. that colors alone could constitute protectable trademarks. Long ago the Supreme Court held in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. v Stiffel Co. and Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. cases that the Intellectual Property Clause of the Constitution preserves a right to copy any product feature that is unrestricted by patents or copyrights. Ruling in favor of color-alone trademarks abrogated this important principle for no good reason. The Qualitex holding did not lessen color related consumer confusion, because there was not evidence of any. Instead it reduced competition and consumer choice by creating illegitimate aesthetic and communicative cartels.The primary doctrinal arguments against recognizing color-alone trademarks raised here include aesthetic functionality, the related concept of communicative functionality, uncertainty about scope, and color exhaustion. Colors always add aesthetic value, and often communicate messages unrelated to commercial source. Coupled with the uncertainties related to color-alone marks and the risks of color exhaustion, the anticompetitive effects of color monopolies outweigh any possible social benefit from a regime that permits registration of color-alone trademarks.It is further argued that if any court attempted to declare a color "famous" for dilution purposes, thereby granting a commercial entity broad rights to monopolize the color well beyond the context in which it is used in commerce, there would be a furious backlash against this ill-advised doctrine. The palette of commercially appealing colors is far more limited than the dictionary of attractive and usable words, and could be radically depleted by deployment of dilution precepts rather quickly. Courts that recognize this may relegate color-alone marks to some second class status that is ineligible for dilution protections, preserving color availability somewhat but further warping trademark doctrine.


Physical inactivity is a risk factor for osteoporosis and fractures. The aim of the study was to see if supervised training would improve health-related quality of life (HRQL), reduce pain and falls in osteoporotic women. Women with established osteoporosis (n=124) were invited to a 1-year, follow-up study. Seventy-three women aged 60–81 years met the inclusion criteria and were randomized to an exercise (E) or control (C) group. A 4-month, supervised group training programme was designed. Participants were studied using HRQL questionnaires, clinical tests and dynamic posturography. Thirty-one women in the E-group and 34 women in the C-group completed the study. The E-group improved in six SF-36 domains and mental component summary (MCsum) index and also in worst pain intensity (p<0.01) after the supervised exercise training. Differences were found between the groups when comparing changes in four SF-36 domains, MCsum and worst pain (p=0.001). Physical activity level decreased in the E-group after the supervised period. Mean time to first fall occurred earlier in the C-group than in the E-group for the first 4 months but the trend did not last for the 1-year follow-up. The study suggests that supervised group training is beneficial for women with established osteoporosis.


Generating system inputs satisfying complex constraints is still a challenge for modern test generators. We present XMLMATE, a search-based test generator specially aimed at XML-based systems. XMLMATE leverages program structure, existing XML schemas, and XML inputs to generate, mutate, recombine, and evolve valid XML inputs. Over a set of seven XML-based systems, XMLMATE detected 31 new unique failures in production code, all triggered by system inputs and thus true alarms.


Cause for jubilation: At last, one of America's wisest and most necessary voices has distilled what he knows about politics, broadly speaking, into one magnificent volume. Imagine if the Rolling Stones were just now releasing its first greatest hits album, and you'll have some idea of how long overdue, and highly anticipated, "Politics" is. Here are Hendrik Hertzberg's most significant and hilarious and devastating and infuriating dispatches from the American scene-a scene he has chronicled for four decades with an uncanny blend of moral seriousness, high spirits, and perfect rhetorical pitch. "Politics" is at once the story of American life from LBJ to GWB and a testament to the power of the written word in the right hands. In those hands, everything seems like politics, and politics has never seemed more interesting. Hertzberg breaks down American politics into component parts-campaigns, debates, rhetoric, the media, wars (cultural, countercultural, and real), high crimes and misdemeanors, the right, and more-and draws the choicest, most telling pieces from his body of work to illuminate each, beginning each section with a new piece of writing framing the subject at hand. Politics 101 from the master, "Politics" is also an immensely rich and entertaining mosaic of American life from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s-a ride through recent American history with one of the most insightful and engaging guides imaginable.


Detailed strain and temperature characteristics of a 2/spl deg/ slanted multimode fiber Bragg grating (MFBG) are developed theoretically and observed experimentally. Results show that the strain and temperature sensitivities are almost the same for different transmission dips of the 2/spl deg/ slanted MFBG. Utilizing two characteristics of the 2/spl deg/ slanted MFBG, namely 1) resonant wavelength intensities strongly affected by excited mode propagating before the grating and 2) uniform strain sensitivities of different resonant wavelengths, a switchable and tunable multiwavelength fiber Raman ring laser is realized. The configuration is simple and multipurpose. Results show that the laser can generate single-, dual-, three-, four-, and five-wavelength lasing by switching between each operation if a mode scrambler (MS) that is inserted in front of the slanted MFBG is adjusted; furthermore, a 4.2-nm continuous wavelength-tuning range is achieved by straining the slanted MFBG when the MS is fixed.


Background Chronic lung disease (CLD), defined as oxygen requirement at 36 weeks corrected gestational age (CGA) is a significant neonatal morbidity which can have adverse effects on cardiac function until at least pre-school age.1 Conventional echocardiographic techniques are often insufficient to identify cardiac dysfunction in preterm infants. We have previously demonstrated that tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) may be a useful method of assessment of myocardial function in these patients.2 Objectives To compare myocardial function in preterm infants born at <32 weeks gestation with and without CLD using TDI. Methods 40 preterm infants with CLD (20 receiving low flow nasal cannula oxygen and 20 receiving non-invasive positive airway pressure) and 20 without CLD had an echocardiogram at approximately 36 weeks CGA. Myocardial function was evaluated using both conventional echocardiography and TDI. Institutional ethical approval and written parental consent were obtained. Results The median GA and birth weight (BW) of infants with CLD was lower than controls (27wk (23–31) vs. 28 wk (23–31); 824 g (500–1640) vs.1030 g (570–1700)). There was no significant difference in persistence of PDA, tricuspid regurgitation, left ventricular fractional shortening and left ventricular output between the groups. However, right ventricular late diastolic velocities (A') (p = 0.01); biventricular myocardial performance index (p ≤ 0.002); biventricular ejection times (p < 0.05) and biventricular isovolumetric contraction and relaxation times (p ≤ 0.003) were all significantly higher in CLD cases compared with controls. All measurements were similar between CLD cases requiring different levels of respiratory support. Conclusion Using TDI in this vulnerable group of patients may improve the identification of cardiac dysfunction and guide further management. References Koroglu OA, Yalaz M, Levent E, Akisu M, Kültürsay N. Cardiovascular consequences of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in prematurely born preschool children. Neonatology 2013;104(4):283–289 Negrine RJS, Chikermane A, Wright JGC, Ewer AK. Assessment of myocardial function in neonates using issue Doppler imaging. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2012;97 F304–F306


Based on the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in France, this paper examines the fundamental ambivalence of the perception of and relation to objects among primitive art collectors. As we guess, the fascination for primitive artifacts is closely related to the taste for the exotic. But our study shows that the integration of primitive artifacts in the private space of an art collection invariably involves a process of domestication that enables collectors to recognize themselves in the domesticated object. In short, the findings suggest that the practices and representations of collectors are marked by a tension between a fascination for otherness and a quest for closeness and familiarity.


Hypertension is one of the primary risk factors for cardiovascular disease, especially coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease, and congestive heart failure. Recent analysis of the numerous prospective clinical trials of the efficacy of antihypertensive therapy performed during the past quarter century has shown that active treatment reduces mortality and cerebrovascular disease but has not prevented CAD. The reason for this paradox-that lowering blood pressure does not reduce CAD mortality or morbidity-is uncertain. During the past several years, it has become clear that hyperinsulinemia and peripheral insulin resistance constitute the link between hypertension, obesity, and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. three conditions in which the rate of CAD is very high. Other studies have shown that hyperinsulinemia is a potent cardiovascular risk factor. Epidemiologic surveys and retrospective reviews of clinical experience have pointed out the surprising fact that when hypertension and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus occur in the same patient, hypertension is likely to be diag- nosed first and the risk of developing diabetes is much higher if antihypertensive drugs (thiazide diuretics or β-adrenoreceptor blockers) were given. Recently, careful studies have shown that both thiazide diuretics and β-adre-noreceptor blockers worsen insulin sensitivity, whereas angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (captopril) and peripheral α1-blockers (prazosin) improve it and also favorably affect the levels of other atherogenic risk factors. Although it is too early to be certain, this information suggests that, pending the results of long-term clinical trials that measure clinical events, treatment of hypertension might be better able to reduce CAD if it were directed at improving insulin sensitivity. Nonpharmacologic measures that reduce hyperinsulinemia. weight loss, and exercise should be vigorously recommended, and pharmacologic therapy should be aimed at avoiding drugs that worsen insulin sensitivity, as long as blood pressure is successfully reduced.


The hyaluronan (HA)-rich pericellular coat (PCC) enveloping most mammalian cells plays a vital role in biological processes such as cell adhesion, proliferation, motility and embryogenesis. In particular its presence on chondrocytes, which live in the load-bearing cartilage, has a wide range of implications in diseases such as osteoarthritis, highlighting its mechanical role in living organisms. Despite its significance, the macromolecular organization of the cell coat remains speculative. In order to obtain a more detailed spatial picture of highly hydrated PCCs, we present two independent but complementary non-invasive techniques for the position-resolved analysis of the cell coat's mechanical and structural properties. Position-dependent microrheology provides a micromechanical map of the PCC that reveals a gradient of increasing elastic stiffness towards the plasma membrane on model rat chondrocyte cells (RCJ-P). This gradient can be correlated with the relative distribution of HA, which is inferred using an eGFP-labelled neurocan-binding domain, a small fluorescent molecule that binds to HA. The spatial variation of the HA concentration profile is consistent with the position-dependent elasticity. Combining these approaches sheds light on the molecular architecture of the PCC.


A brief description of the geomorphological, historical, and archaeological aspects of the Colli Albani area, where the volcanic lakes of Albano and Nemi are situated, is followed by an examination on the problem of the policies of lake Albano regulation, by means of an ancient tunnel dating at least to the 5th century BC. In particular, it is investigated how, in the presence of even severe atmospheric phenomena, it was possible to control fluctuations in the level of the lake on the banks of which there were large settlements. Mathematical model simulations indicate the effectiveness of the ancient tunnel in achieving these objectives.


The impact of pocket gopher burrows on overlying vegetation was examined by analysis of plant samples taken from quadrats directly over active and vacant Geomys bursarius burrows, adjacent controls, and samples from the surrounding fields at sites in Kansas and Minnesota. The pocket gophers burrowed in that portion of the field which exhibited the greatest plant biomass. The biomass of plants (roots, stems, and both) directly over active burrows was, however, reduced by over one-third. The depletion was somewhat less over old, vacant burrows. The dominant forb species, with a tap root, was significantly more affected than the dominant grass, with a diffuse root system.


A limited number of studies have examined the effects of energy drink consumption on student pilot fatigue and performance in aviation. The results from these studies were inconclusive and inconsistent. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of consuming Red Bull energy drinks on student pilot fatigue and performance levels. Healthy student pilots participated in this applied Quasi-experiment, who were given either Red Bull energy drinks or bottled water. Fatigue and sleep questionnaires were administered to assess fatigue and alertness levels of the participants. The results indicated there were no significant effects of consuming Red Bull energy drinks on student pilot alertness levels, which was subjectively measured by the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale. At the same time, consuming Red Bull energy drinks had no significant effect on student pilot cognitive performance levels, which was objectively measured by psychomotor vigilance task. However, the performance of participants in the Red Bull energy drink group was improved compared to the performance of participants in the water group, which was measured by faster reaction times, fewer numbers of lapses and errors. Additional, higher number of correct responses and zero number of sleep attacks were also measured. More importantly, the likelihood of error detection by student pilots who consumed Red Bull energy drinks was significant, F (1,108) = 9.12, p = .003.


This dissertation contributes timely evidence to the debate surrounding which policies may be most effective at raising college- and career- readiness in the United States. While over 75% of people in the U.S. graduate from high school, less than 25% of the population possesses a college degree. Over 60% of college students are required to take remedial coursework, which does not count for college credit. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Geocode, we provide a portrait of college readiness in the United States and discuss how it has been affected by popular high school accountability policies. We then examine the returns to education for students who have been impacted by these policies. Part I discusses different measures of college readiness, comparing their predictive power for success in college. Unlike previous research, our data allow us to examine curricular measures of high school and college readiness in addition to binary measures of educational attainment. After an exploratory analysis of these measures, we examine trends in college readiness over time in the U.S., detailed further within various socioeconomic groups and geographic regions. These college readiness measures are shown to provide information that is distinct from high school graduation rates when predicting college remediation and college graduation. Part II focuses on two types of high school accountability policies that emphasize basic proficiency: high school exit exams and consequential accountability. We develop a simple framework of high school behavior to predict how high schools will target their resources after these policies are implemented. We test the predictions of this model for college readiness. Our measures of college readiness are: the difficulty of students' hardest high school math course, high school completion, attending college without taking remedial math (college preparation), and college graduation by age 23. Identification is based on variation in the timing of state policies, controlling for state-invariant factors, time-varying national shocks, and regional time trends. We conclude that both policies decrease high school coursework difficulty and college preparation, but consequential accountability also decreases rates of high school completion and college graduation by age 23. These trends are not due to higher rates of GED attainment or lower college attendance, which suggests that these accountability policies lowered college readiness of college-goers. The last part of this dissertation addresses longer-term outcomes for students by examining how educational attainment and earnings have been impacted by these school accountability policies. After documenting an overall decrease in educational attainment, we find evidence of heterogeneous impacts by student ability prior to high school and school resources that imply increasing inequality in educational attainment across schools. Then, a two-stage least squares approach is used to measure the returns to schooling for students whose educational attainment was impacted by these policies. We find an earnings return to education of about 10% per completed grade, which is in line with previous literature using education policies as instruments for schooling.


Health care associated infections affect hundreds of millions of people around the world and it is a major global issue for patient safety. Moreover, the most common way that micro-organisms (germs), particularly bacteria, are spread and cause infection is by being carried on people's hands. Hand hygiene is the most important measure to avoid the spread of harmful germs and to prevent ill health. Regular and thorough hand hygiene is always important when working in an environment or organization where health care is provided. So, having clean hands helps to protect patients, particularly the most vulnerable, as well as health care workers. This change project proposed to improve hand hygiene compliance among dental health care workers in three dental clinics in Khartoum State. This included increasing compliance to hand washing, as well as introducing another simple, quick and effective procedure of hand hygiene which is using alcohol hand rub. The hand hygiene compliance rate showed gradual improvement over time, starting from below standard hand hygiene at base line assessment (44%), to reach its maximum at 3 weeks post intervention assessment (94%). These results indicate that the systematic application of the change model and WHO multimodal strategies is associated with improvement in hand hygiene compliance of dental healthcare workers and thus it could result in a sustained positive impact. Doctors were found to have a better compliance to hand hygiene compared to nurses in all the assessment periods, which might reflect the need to intervene further specifically for nurses thus warranting the issue with further study and analysis. Although hand washing was found to be the preferred method for hand hygiene at 3 weeks into the intervention, yet the preference was reversed in the 3 weeks post intervention assessment to alcohol hand rub. In general, the literature suggests healthcare workers are possibly more concerned about their own safety than transmitting infection to patient. So we would expect to find better hand hygiene after patient contact compared to before patient contact. Yet in this project, they are found to be indifferent to the two indications with similar levels of compliance at baseline and postintervention..


This paper is about an unusual child custody dispute between the parents of a six-year-old child and the child welfare services of Franklin County, Ohio. The conflict emerged when the child's parents complied with their male child's professed desire to be treated as a girl by attempting to enroll the child in the first grade as a girl. The paper treats this case as an exemplary test-case of contemporary co-dependence between scientific-medical discourse and liberal-rights discourse. The paper analyzes the positions of the two sides of the custody dispute according to the classic modern distinction between mind and body. On the one hand, the child's parents alleged that the child should be treated as a girl, because the child's 'true self' in his/her effeminate mind. On the other hand, the child-welfare services counter-claimed that the child should be treated as a boy, because the child's 'true self' is located in the male body. The paper investigates the ways that each side attempted to justify its position in light of current debates regarding the foundation of 'gender-identity.' In particular, the paper focuses on medical-scientific theories about 'psychosexual development' that appeared in the US around mid-century and appeared in this case as legal claims about standards of parenthood such as 'best interest,' and parental 'neglect' and 'abuse.' The paper then focuses on the potential of liberal rights discourse, and specifically sex discrimination law to free individuals from institutional gender enforcement. The paper agrees that sex discrimination law can often produce satisfactory results, such as granting this child the liberty of free gender expression. However, the paper also critically analyzes sex discrimination law as a discourse that often reflects rather than rejects rigid mental health definitions of modern scientific discourses. In conclusion, the paper points to the limited horizons of rights as a liberating force, and demonstrates the need to think beyond rights in feminist and queer legal theory.


Fluxes of NH4+, NO3-, free amino acids, total nitrogen (TN), and organic nitrogen (ON) were measured in core incubation and particle exchange experiments between September 2002 and April 2004. These data were combined with other measurements of nitrogen species in river water, atmospheric deposition and wastewater discharge in order to determine nitrogen (N) speciation and loading to the Cape Fear River Estuary (CFRE), Southeastern North Carolina, and to ascertain why NH4+ concentrations in the estuary have more than doubled in the past 8 years.
River fluxes are the primary source of N into the estuary, contributing >90% of TN input. The majority of N in river fluxes was ON (84%), with the remainder being inorganic N, primarily NO3- (11%) and NH4+ (5%).
Sediments are also a source of the various N species to the estuary although they are much smaller than riverine inputs. The majority of TDN in benthic fluxes is dissolved inorganic N (50 to 90%) with NH4+ generally dominating the fluxes. Benthic fluxes of dissolved organic N are somewhat smaller (-1500 to 200 µmols DON·m-2·d-1) and are primarily taken up by sediments in contrast to inorganic N, which is generally released by sediments.
Wastewater treatment discharge is a secondary source to river fluxes for TN where it contributed <5% to the annual TN input. Inorganic N was a major portion in discharge fluxes, with NH4+ making up 65% of TN. Although wastewater inputs are not important for TN, they are an important source of NH4+, contributing 33% to the total NH4+ input in the CFRE.


When predators are removed or suppressed for generations, prey populations tend to increase and when predators are re-introduced, prey densities should fall back to pre-control levels. In cases of apparent competition where there are alternate abundant and rare prey species, rare species may decline further than expected or disappear altogether. Recently, concern about the impact of recovering predator populations on wildlife in Laikipia County, Kenya, has led to questions of whether lions (Panthera leo, IUCN Red List Vulnerable) exert top-down pressure on Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi, IUCN Red List Endangered). We examined effects of lion predation on Plain's zebra (E. quagga, IUCN Red List Near Threatened) and Grevy's zebra populations in a 2,105 km2 area defined by lion movements. We used line transect surveys to estimate density of Grevy's (0.71/km2) and Plain's (15.9/km2) zebras, and satellite telemetry to measure movements for lions and both zebras. We tracked lions to potential feeding sites to estimate predation rates on zebras. We compared field-based estimates of predation rates on both zebras to random gas models of encounters that result in predation to ask if lions prey preferentially on Grevy's zebra at a sufficient rate to drive population declines. Lions preyed on Grevy's zebra significantly less than expected in 15 of 16 (94%) scenarios considered and lions preyed on Plain's zebras as expected or significantly less than expected in 15 of 16 scenarios. Population trend of Grevy's zebra indicates that the Kenya population may be stabilizing. Recruitment rate to the population has tripled since 2004, making it unlikely that lions are having an impact on Grevy's zebras. In Laikipia County, competitive displacement by livestock (Livestock: Grevy's zebra ratio = 864:1) and interference competition for grass with Plain's zebra (Plain's zebra:Grevy's zebra ratio = 22:1) are most likely the predominant threats to Grevy's Zebra recovery.


The efficacy of various political institutions is the subject of intense debate between proponents of broad legislative standards enforced through litigation and those who prefer regulation by administrative agencies. This book explores the trade-offs between litigation and regulation, the circumstances in which one approach may outperform the other, and the principles that affect the choice between addressing particular economic activities with one system or the other. Combining theoretical analysis with empirical investigation in a range of industries, including public health, financial markets, medical care, and workplace safety, Regulation versus Litigation sheds light on the costs and benefits of two important instruments of economic policy.


The majority of sediment toxicity and aquatic bioaccumulation assessments are conducted using standardized species, such as Hyalella azteca, Chironomus dilutus, and Lumbriculus variegatus. The burrowing mayfly, Hexagenia sp., may serve as an ideal supplemental organism for both toxicity and bioaccumulation studies for several reasons. Hexagenia are recognized as sensitive species, have a long aquatic life stage (up to 2 yr), and have large bodies, which aid in retrieval from sediments and for residue analysis. The present study outlines the authors' established method for collecting and hatching eggs, raising nymphs, and using these animals for toxicity testing. Furthermore, the relative sensitivity of 3 size classes of Hexagenia to a representative contaminant (bifenthrin) was examined and compared with laboratory‐derived median lethal concentrations for the more traditionally used Hyalella and Chironomus. Finally, sublethal end points, including immobilization and suspended solids, were defined for this species. This provides guidance for the use of this species in toxicological bioassays. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:868–874. © 2013 SETAC


Border issues are political problems in Africa. The border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea was one of the contentious wars faced by the international community. To manage this conflict, the same community established border commission to draw up the boundaries and demarcate the borderline. Ethiopia was however insolent and in effect discarded this demarcation. It also continued to dwell in the territory of Eritrea. This research urges the international community to make border issues in Africa a priority. In fact, one of the reasons why Kenya and Ethiopia are reluctant to participate in the efforts to form tangible Somali government has its origin in border issue.  Historically Ethiopia will not forget the damage inflicted upon them by Somali freedom fighters including Imam Ahmad, Sayed Muhammad Abdulle Hassan, and the Somali military. In 1531, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (1507-1543) launched a campaign against Ethiopia and defeated several Ethiopian emperors, inflicting much dent on the kingdom. This conflict brought three-quarters of Ethiopia under Muslim Somali Sultanate of Adal in the intense Ethiopian Adal War from 1529-43. Similarly, Sayed Muhammad Abdulle Hassan, ONLF, UWSLF and the former Somali National Military have meted out damages on Ethiopia. Similarly Somalia was on the offensive in 1964 to reclaim the Kenyan Northeastern region. The point at hand is that, the history of most conflicts in the region revolves on border related issues. In the case of Ethiopia and Eritrea the military move by the international community had significantly ended a long held conflict and struggle through peaceful engagement and drafted binding arbitration.


The study of corporate risk disclosure is an emerging area and the work that has been done to date focuses on largely developed markets. This study aims to address the gap in the current disclosure literature by examining risk disclosure in an emerging market (the UAE). The study aims to extend our understanding of risk disclosure practice and determinants. The study interprets the subject matter of risk disclosure in the light of certain disclosure theories. The research methodology design uses a mixed method approach. The first methodology was qualitative method through semi-structured interviews with 22 people. The grounded theory approach was applied in order to analyse the interviews. The second method was a quantitative approach based on content analysis and regression analysis for 48 non-financial companies over three years (2007, 2008 and 2009).

The study found that there was considerable variation in risk disclosure level by UAE listed companies. The findings suggested that the companies' managers do not provide a full picture of companies' risks suggesting enhancement of regulation with more detailed rules and requirements on risk disclosure. The research found that IFRS risk disclosure requirements have an important influence on the risk disclosure level especially financial risks. The results show that there is a positive association between risk disclosure and firm size and auditor type. The findings suggest mixed results on the association between risk disclosure and company performance, liquidity, risk level and industry type.

The results confirm that risk disclosure is positively correlated with the presence of audit committee, reporting the internal control system and risk management system, whereas there was a negative association with duality. The results show that ownership structure has significant influence on the risk disclosure level. There were mixed results on the association between risk disclosure level and board size, non-executive and independent directors. The analysis of the research would be in the interests of shareholders, regulators, accounting setters, managers and stakeholders who focus on disclosure and corporate governance.


During the past few years we have obtained several new computer classification results on association schemes and in particular distance regular and strongly regular graphs. Central to our success is the use of two algebraic constraints based on properties of the minimal idempotents $E_{i}$ of these association schemes : the fact that they are positive semidefinite and that they have known rank. Incorporating these constraints into an actual isomorph-free exhaustive generation algorithm turns out to be somewhat complicated in practice. The main problem to be solved is that of numerical inaccuracy: we do not want to discard a potential solution because a value which is close to zero is misinterpreted as being negative (in the first case) or nonzero (in the second). In this paper we give details on how this can be accomplished and also list some new classification results that have been recently obtained using this technique: the uniqueness of the strongly regular $(126,50,13,24)$ graph and some new examples of antipodal distance regular graphs. We give an explicit description of a new antipodal distance regular $3$-cover of $K_{14}$, with vertices that can be represented as ordered triples of collinear points of the Fano plane.


The School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS) at Victoria University of Wellington conducts research and teaching in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Writing and Deaf Studies. It incorporates a Deaf Studies Research Unit, which undertakes research on topics relating to deaf people and their language in New Zealand, and the New Zealand Dictionary Centre, set up in partnership with Oxford University Press, which provides a base for research into New Zealand lexicography and aspects of language in New Zealand. It also incorporates an English Language Institute, which specialises in teaching English language courses and teacher education programmes. A particular strength of the School's makeup is the opportunity to engage in research which benefits and is benefited by both theoretical and practical approaches to issues in linguistics and applied linguistics. This report describes one of a number of examples of the productive integration of language teaching and language research at LALS. We describe an ongoing research project that has developed organically over the past twelve years. The research involved first collecting and analysing authentic workplace interaction between native speakers, and then making use of it in explicit instruction aimed at developing socio-pragmatic proficiency in the workplace among skilled migrants with English as an Additional Language (EAL). We are now engaged in evaluating the results of the instruction, not only in the classroom, but also in workplaces where the migrants have been placed as interns.


Iron regulates mRNA translation initiation through RNA iron responsive element (IRE) By Jia Ma Advisor: Professor Dixie J. Goss The non-coding IRE-RNA structure, a 30 nt stem loop structure, regulates synthesis of proteins in iron trafficking, cell cycling, and nervous system function. IRE-RNA binding with iron regulatory protein (IRP) proteins inhibits ribosome accessing mRNA. Increasing iron concentration decreases IRP binding with IRE-RNA. Previous models of IRE-mRNA translation regulation concentrate on Fe-S binding to IRP and IRP degradation after release from IRE-RNA. These models lack information on the details of decreasing IRE-RNA/IRP protein binding with iron concentration elevation. This research shows 1. Eukaryotic initiation factor 4F (eIF4F) binds to IRE-RNA with high affinity and works as a positive control element in mRNA translation. 2. eIF4F, IRP competitively bind to IRE-RNA. 3. Fe 2+ increases eIF4F/IRE-RNA binding affinity, which outcompetes IRP binding. 4. Fe 2+ induces an IRE-RNA conformation change leading to changes in binding affinity with eIF4F and IRP. 5. M 7 GTP cap doesn't affect eIF4F or IPR1 binding with 73 nt of the 5' noncoding region mRNA which includes the IRE 6. eIF4F/IRE-RNA has a much longer life time than IRP1/IRE-RNA which suggests both kinetics and stability of the complexes are important. 7. eIF4G, a subunit of eIF4F, binds to IRE-RNA without other subunits. A novel regulatory mechanism is proposed where metabolic iron (Fe 2+ ) induces IRE-RNA conformation change to decrease inhibitor protein (IRP) binding and increase activator protein (eIF4F) binding, indicating IRE-RNA act as a riboregulator.


One of the central problems in engineering is to estimate the state of a stochastic dynamic system from limited noisy measurements. A Kalman filter is commonly used for state estimation, which produces an unbiased optimal estimate that minimizes the variance of the estimation error. Many physical processes, such as diffusion and beam vibrations, can be described by partial differential equations. These governing equations may be reformulated mathematically as infinite-dimensional dynamic systems. In this work, the derivation of the Kalman filter for infinite-dimensional linear dynamic systems is reviewed, and the sensor placement problem for Kalman filtering is considered. The optimality criterion for sensor selection and location is to minimize the steady-state error variance, which is shown to be the nuclear norm of an operator that solves an algebraic Riccati equation. Three partial differential equation models are examined: one-dimensional diffusion, simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam with Kelvin-Voigt damping, and two-dimensional diffusion on an L-shaped region. Optimal sensor locations are calculated for the three models. The sensor noise effects on the state estimation are investigated with the assumption that all the selected sensors are placed optimally. Results show that using multiple low quality sensors can lead to as good an estimate as using a single high quality sensor, provided that enough sensors are used. In particular, for the one-dimensional diffusion equation, approximately proportional relations between the square root of sensor noise variance and the estimation error are observed in simulations.


Abstract. A post-hurricane survey of a Caribbean island affords comparisons with geologic evidence for greater overwash at the same place. This comparison, though of limited application to other places, helps calibrate coastal geology for assessment of earthquake and tsunami potential along the Antilles Subduction Zone. The surveyed island, Anegada, is 120 km south of the Puerto Rico Trench and is near the paths of hurricanes Donna (1960) and Earl (2010), which were at or near category 4 when at closest approach. The survey focused on Earl's geologic effects, related them to the surge from Hurricane Donna, and compared them further with erosional and depositional signs of southward overwash from the Atlantic Ocean that dates to 1200–1450 AD and to 1650–1800 AD. The main finding is that the geologic effects of these earlier events dwarf those of the recent hurricanes. Hurricane Earl's geologic effects at Anegada, observed mainly in 2011, were limited to wrack deposition along many of the island's shores and salt ponds, accretion of small washover (spillover) fans on the south shore, and the suspension and deposition of microbial material from interior salt ponds. Earl's most widespread deposit at Anegada, the microbial detritus, was abundantly juxtaposed with evidence for catastrophic overwash in prior centuries. The microbial detritus formed an extensive coating up to 2 cm thick that extended into breaches in beach-ridge plains of the island's north shore, onto playas that are underlain by a sand-and-shell sheet that extends as much as 1.5 km southward from the north shore, and among southward-strewn limestone boulders pendant to outcrops as much as 1 km inland. Earl's spillover fans also contrast with a sand-and-shell sheet, which was dated previously to 1650–1800, by being limited to the island's south shore and by extending inland a few tens of meters at most. These findings complement those reported in this issue by Michaela Spiske and Robert Halley (Spiske and Halley, 2014), who studied a coral-rubble ridge that lines part of Anegada's north shore. Spiske and Halley attribute the ridge to storms that were larger than Earl. But they contrast the ridge with coral boulders that were scattered hundreds of meters inland by overwash in 1200–1450.


Relationships among soil contamination of forages, elemental concentrations in forages samples, and grass tetany are not clear. Our objectives were to determine the extent and seasonal variation of soil contamination on annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) samples, and to relate the contamination to various indicators of grass tetany. Seasonal variation of soil ingestion by grazing beef cattle was also investigated. Field experiments were conducted on a Tensas silty clay soil (fine, montmorillonitic, thermic Vertic Ochraqualf). Highly significant positive correlations were obtained among AI, Fe, and Ti concentrations within forage and rumen content samples. Concentrations of these elements occurred in the same ratios as in digested soil. Soil contamination during peak periods averaged approximately 70 g/kg in forage samples and 95 g/kg in rumen content samples. A washing procedure was ineffective in removing all of the soil contamination from forage samples. Forage samples taken in areas protected from grazing animals showed no apparent excessive uptake of AI by the plants at any time during the grazing season. The amount of soil contamination on forage plants and the amount of soil ingested by grazing animals increased with increased grazing pressure, decreased forage production, and saturated surface soils. A rapid decline in forage Mg and Ca concentrations may have been a major factor in the Occurrence of grass tetany, but was not associated with highest levels of soil contamination.


The accurate prediction of forest road pavement performance is important for efficient management of surface transportation infrastructure and achieves significant savings through timely intervention and accurate planning. The aim of this paper was to introduce a methodology for developing accurate pavement deterioration models to be used primarily for the management of the forest road infrastructure. For this purpose, 19 explanatory and three corresponding response variables were measured in 185 segments of 50 km forest roads. Logistic regression (LR) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to predict forest road pavement deterioration, Pothole, rutting and protrusion, as a function of pavement condition, environmental factors, traffic and road qualify. The results showed ANNs and LR models could classify from 82% to 89% of the current pavement condition correctly. According to the results, LR model and ANNs predicted rutting, pothole and protrusion with 83.5%, 83.00% and 81.75%, 88.65% and 85.20%, 80.00% accuracy. Equivalent single axle load (ESAL), date of repair, thickness of pavement and slope were identified as most significant explanatory variables. Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) showed that the results obtained by ANNs and logistic regression are close to each other.


Foaming of nitrogen stabilized by C14-16 alpha olefin sulfonate in natural sandstone porous media, previously subject to water flooding, was studied experimentally. Foam was generated in-situ by co-injecting gas and surfactant solution at fixed foam quality. Effect of surfactant concentration on the foam strength and foam propagation was examined. X-ray CT scans were obtained to visualize the foam displacement process and to determine fluid saturation at different times. The experiments revealed that stable foam could be obtained in the presence of water-flood residual oil. CT scan images, fluid saturation profiles and mobility reduction factors demonstrated that foam exhibited a good mobility control in the presence of water-flood residual oil. This was further confirmed by a delay in the gas breakthrough. The experiments also proved that immiscible foam displaced additional oil from water-flooded sandstone cores, supporting the idea that foam is potentially an effective EOR method. Foam flooding provided an incremental oil recovery ranging from 13±0.5% of the oil initially in place for 0.1 wt% foam to 29±2% for 1.0 wt% foam. Incremental oil due to foam flow was obtained first by a formation of an oil bank and then by a long tail production due to transport of dispersed oil within the flowing foam. The oil bank size increased with surfactant concentration, but the dispersed oil regime was less sensitive to the surfactant concentration.


Health,Risk and Vulnerability :

The concept of risk is one of the most suggestive terms for evoking the cultural character of our times and for defining the purpose of social research. Risk attitudes and behaviours are understood to comprise the dominant experience of culture, politics and society in our times. "Health, Risk and Vulnerability" investigates the personal and political dimensions of health risk that structure everyday thought and action. In this innovative book, international contributors reflect upon the meaning and significance of risk across a broad range of social and institutional contexts, exploring current issues such as: the 'escalation of the medicalization of life', involving the pathologization of normality and blurring of the divide between clinical and preventive medicine; the tendency for mental health service users to be regarded as representing a risk to others rather than being 'at risk' and vulnerable themselves; the development of health care systems to identify risk and prevent harm women's reactions to 'high risk' screening results during pregnancy and how they communicate with other women about risk men and the use the internet to reconstruct their social and sexual identities. Charting new terrain in the sociology of health and risk, and focusing on the connections between them, "Health, Risk and Vulnerability" offers new perspectives on an important field of contemporary debate and provides an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers, and policy makers.


Background and purpose Various new delivery systems for recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) have been introduced to improve its efficacy in osteogenesis. Of these, we have previously developed heparin-conjugated PLGA nanospheres (HCPN) as a long-term delivery system for BMP-2. In vitro studies have shown that the BMP-2 long-term delivery system enhances the level of bone formation. However, the long-term effects of BMP-2 on spinal fusion have not been assessed. Therefore, we now tested the hypothesis that the long-term delivery of BMP-2 using HCPN improves spinal fusion compared to short-term delivery in a rabbit fusion model. Methods 24 adult New Zealand White rabbits underwent posterolateral fusion (6 animals in 4 groups). The autograft group received an autologous iliac chip bone graft as a positive control. The BMP-2-PN group received rhBMP-2 (20 μg per implant) and PLGA nanospheres (PN) suspended in fibrin gel, and served as a short-term release group. The HCPN group received HCPN suspended in fibrin gel without BMP-2 as a negative control. The BMP-2-HCPN group received rhBMP-2 (20 μg per implant)-bound HCPN suspended in fibrin gel and served as a long-term release group. All animals were killed 12 weeks after surgery. Manual palpation, axial tensile tests, radiography, and histological evaluations were then performed. Results The spinal fusion rate and Young's modulus of the fusion mass were better in the BMP-2 long-term delivery group than in the short-term delivery group at an equivalent dose. However, the outcome of the long-term delivery was inferior to that of the autograft group. Interpretation The HCPN system showed potential as an effective carrier that might improve the osteogenic efficacy of BMP-2 for spinal fusion.


The Late Roman and Early Byzantine pottery found in the excavations of the Early Christian church at Paliambela in Arethousa, a site located in Northern Greece west of ancient Amphipolis, is very fragmentary and consists mainly of body sherds. Few pieces of imported fine ware were found, and only some fragments of African Red Slip Ware and Late Roman C Ware could be identified. However, some pieces of Macedonian Terra Sigillata Grise bowls were found in the area of the north aisle of the church. Cooking pots are the most usual form of coarse ware, but fragments of bowls, basins, jars and jugs were found, too. One of the jugs has a trefoil rim. Some of the pieces are decorated with single or grouped grooves, wave patterns and horizontal rouletted bands. These geometric motifs are either found as a sole decorative motif, or in combination with each other. Furthermore, there are fragments of Slavic Ware (two of them derive from rims) and some fragments of Sparkling Ware. In the storeroom that was excavated in the northern part of the church, seven large pithoi were found. These pithoi were covered with either large ceramic lids or schist slabs.


A panel of 19 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) was used to study the immunological variability of Lettuce mosaic virus (LMV), a member of the genus Potyvirus, and to perform a first epitope characterization of this virus. Based on their specificity of recognition against a panel of 15 LMV isolates, the mAbs could be clustered in seven reactivity groups. Surface plasmon resonance analysis indicated the presence, on the LMV particles, of at least five independent recognition/binding regions, correlating with the seven mAbs reactivity groups. The results demonstrate that LMV shows significant serological variability and shed light on the LMV epitope structure. The various mAbs should prove a new and efficient tool for LMV diagnostic and field epidemiology studies.


The great Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore in 1943 to revitalise the Indian National Army (INA). Taking the opportunity of the Japanese occupation of parts of Southeast Asia, he launched armed struggle against British colonial rule in India. Two years later, that attempt failed at the eastern gates of India. Yet, it was a temporary failure because the INA helped set in motion a series of developments within India. These would culminate in its freedom in a further two years. Bose is household name in India. He is remembered in Southeast Asia as well, particularly among Indians. However, while his contributions to India's independence movement have been recorded exhaustively, less is known about the legacy that he left behind in Southeast Asia. This book seeks to fill that gap in the international understanding of a great Indian nationalist and pan-Asianist. It records how participation in the nationalist struggle invested Southeast Asian Indians with a rare sense of dignity and helped foster a mushrooming of militant trade unions, making it difficult for the returning British planters to perpetuate their control over what had been a docile workforce. The INA's Rani of Jhansi movement proved to be a pioneering effort at drawing Southeast Asian Indian women out of their traditional roles and expectations. It inspired some of them to take up mainstream roles for the cause of equality and emancipation. A Gentleman's Word retraces this journey of self-discovery of those who were inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose.


Multilayer graphene is an exceptional anisotropic material due to its layered structure composed of two-dimensional carbon lattices. Although the intrinsic mechanical properties of graphene have been investigated at quasi-static conditions, its behavior under extreme dynamic conditions has not yet been studied. We report the high–strain-rate behavior of multilayer graphene over a range of thicknesses from 10 to 100 nanometers by using miniaturized ballistic tests. Tensile stretching of the membrane into a cone shape is followed by initiation of radial cracks that approximately follow crystallographic directions and extend outward well beyond the impact area. The specific penetration energy for multilayer graphene is ~10 times more than literature values for macroscopic steel sheets at 600 meters per second. Multilayer graphene efficiently dissipates the kinetic energy of a penetrating microprojectile. Graphene: A miniature bulletproof vest? To stop a speeding projectile, you need a combination of strength and toughness so that the impact doesn't just pierce the stopping material. The material also needs to dissipate the absorbed kinetic energy. Lee et al. measured the response of multilayer graphene to the projection of microbullets using miniaturized ballistic tests. The findings confirm graphene's exceptional strength and stiffness. Science, this issue p. 1092


Abstract Riverside areas have substantial recreational and tourist assets, but their potential in the settlements of Wielkopolska is underused due to difficult access to the river and the poor development of the embankments. The aim of the research is to analyse the functional-spatial structure and the development of River Warta areas in the settlements of Wielkopolska with respect to their usefulness in recreation. Particular attention is paid to accessibility and the location of recreational infrastructure in the Warta Valley. Out of the eleven Wielkopolska settlements which were included, only in four – Konin, Śrem, Poznań and Sieraków – had sections of embankment boulevards been built. In the riverside areas there are few recreational facilities used in connection with the close proximity of the river. However, a great tourist asset of the Warta Valley is the Great Waterway Loop of Wielkopolska, which operates successfully due to the growing number of harbours and marinas in all the settlements included in the study.


Associated with each component of a Nuclear Steam Supply System are the necessary supporting documents which demonstrate compliance with applicable codes, specifications and design criteria. The documents are grouped into individual data packages, and may exceed 800 in number for a major installation. A complete review, initiated by a utility in response to federal code regulations (10 CFR 50), can involve a tremendous number of review transactions. A data management system to assist the reviewer in the tracking and resolution of discrepancy items is curently under development and use. The system uses microcomputer-based relational database management software and provides complete and flexible capabilities to process database components and attributes based on user specified criteria. The completed database is a portable system, and can be utilized on an as-needed basis after the review is completed. A discrepancy analysis is performed to identify relations between manufacturer and discrepancy occurrence, part type vs. discrepancy type, etc. These results may prove useful in subsequent reviews or application to existing QA procedures.


Today's industry is dependent on computer networks. These computer networks are a vital part of how industrial environments operate. They are used for a variety of different tasks. Networks are needed to do everything from operating possibly dangerous equipment, to support employees in their every day activities. Having to support such a variety of tasks means that these networks will need to fulfill a lot of different requirements to function in a proper and safe way. DNV-GL has seen that these requirements are often not upheld in industrial environments. They have therefore seen a business opportunity when it comes to testing networks that operates in these types of environments. This project focuses on finding good ways to test WLANs in industrial environments. This has primarily been done by testing different tools and methods for assessing WLAN security and quality. Every network in industrial environments will be different. This means that a possible testing procedure will vary from project to project. It's therefore important to define a testing procedure that captures the most important testing aspects. How to define a testing scope and identifying WLAN requirements have therefore been necessary. The methods and tools used in this project try to cover the most important aspects of WLAN quality and security testing that testers may face in industrial environments. The tests and theory that this document contains should provide testers with the means to detect flaws and shortcomings in clients WLANs. WLAN quality testing has primarily focused on different ways to perform site surveys. WLAN security testing has focused on ways to access devices that are crucial for a companies safety and daily business. The results and experiences gained from this project has been used to create two testing procedures. These testing procedures are step-by-step guidelines that can be used to test WLAN quality and security.


Management strategies for the fish stocks in the Barents sea. Proceedings of the 8th Norwegian-Russian Symposium. Bergen, 15-16 June 1999


Talk about risk is problematic for interaction; it can involve the speaker or hearer saying things that threaten participants' 'face', the ways they want themselves to be seen by others. One way of dealing with these threats to face, and to keep the conversation going, is the use of commonplaces. Commonplaces, generally applicable and generally known arguments, play an important role in interaction, invoking shared, taken‐for‐granted perspectives embedded in familiar roles and everyday practices. They are similar to some of the frames discussed in risk communication, but they focus our attention on rhetoric and interaction rather than cognition. In this paper, I show how commonplaces are used in focus group discussions of public choices involving dangers to life or health. They tend to be used in response to dilemmas, when a speaker is put on the spot, and they tend to lead to other commonplaces. Analysis of commonplaces supports those who argue that studies of public perception of risks and programmes of communication about risks need to be sensitive to the personal interactions, rhetorical strategies, and cultural embeddedness of any risk talk.


Pulsed near-infrared (NIR) light sources can be successfully applied for both imaging and functional testing of the human eye, as published recently. These two groups of applications have different requirements. For imaging applications, the most preferable is invisible scanning beam while efficiently visible stimulating beam is preferable for functional testing applications. The functional testing of human eye using NIR laser beams is possible due to two-photon vision (2PV) phenomenon. 2PV enables perception of pulsed near-infrared laser light as color corresponding to approximately half of the laser wavelength. This study aims to characterize two-photon vision thresholds for various pulse lengths from a solidstate sub-picosecond laser (λc = 1043.3 nm, Frep = 62.65 MHz), either of 253 fs duration or elongated by Martinez- type stretcher to 2 ps, and fiber-optic picosecond laser (λc = 1028.4 nm, Frep = 19.19 MHz, τp = 12.2 ps).


The traditional thematic realms of urban design, such as liveability, social interaction, and quality of urban life, considered to be closely related to urban form and specifically to public space, have long since been recognised as important, and have given the discipline a certain identity. The book Realms of Urban Design: Mapping Sustainability is certainly rooted in this fundamental urban design thinking, but its main contribution belongs to the second part of the book's title – discourse on sustainability. Its chapters, considered as a whole, put forward the importance of the discipline and the designerly way of thinking in the context of the discussion about unprecedented environmental transformation. The eleven chapters of the book represent the major sustainability concerns that the authors have seen as being related to the urban design discipline in their specific professional and environmental contexts. Therefore, the chapters as an entity could be seen as an act of mapping the sustainability issues that are coming "from the front" of urban design research and practice at the universities involved in the project Creating the Network of Knowledge Labs for Sustainable and Resilient Environments (KLABS). They show disciplinary, mostly methodological, concerns with the larger scales in comparison to those of the neighbourhoods and public space that are traditionally connected to urban design; with the collective or common nature of urban space; and with the distinctive, underused spaces coming not only as a legacy of the 20th century, but also as an important by-product of contemporary economic trends. The first four chapters tackle the self-questioning of the disciple of urbanism in the wake of spatial, social, and environmental change at an unprecedented planetary scale. They are assembled around the question of what the sustainability concept means for the discipline and how the discipline should change to become socially relevant in the context of dynamic spatial transformation? The chapters are review contributions to recent theoretical and methodological rethinking of design approaches to the urban condition, with a focus on multi-scale and process-oriented urbanism. The chapters call for an integrated design approach in the sense of finding a theoretical and methodological common ground for separated disciplines of architecture, urban design, and urban planning. The next two chapters examine what is, in the traditional manner, considered to be the main theoretical and analytical focus and the main creative and practical outcome of urban design – the urban form. How we should understand, analyse, and design the urban form in the context of the contemporary complexities of urbanisation? Two chapters present opposing perspectives of urban form design. One is a morphological approach in which the urban form is seen as a disciplinary tool of conceptualisation and regulation of the city, using sophisticated concepts such as landscape and place, while the other maps the urban form as a resident's basic expression of the need for shelter, territory of everyday use, and cultural interpretation of home, beyond regulation and urban design. By putting the two approaches side by side, the urban form can be comprehended as the simultaneous materialisation and negotiation of the ground of power intentions and everyday practice. Chapters 7 and 8 are dedicated to a specific dimension of urban design process – participation. Who can participate in the design of territories and places? Who has the privilege to define who will participate? How should an urbanist manage the many different and contradictory requirements? Ultimately, how can people be encouraged and stimulated to take part in the public urban debate? These are the highly important questions rising in the wake of the urbanism crisis, intensified with the disintegration of the holistic expression of the public interest, characteristic of the modernist period. These chapters present a review of important theoretical considerations and recent experience of multi-voice design methodologies. The final three chapters deal with the specific typology of urban space - previously developed and then abandoned, forgotten and underused spaces of an economic and technological past. These reminders of past urbanisation are still numerous in the western Balkan countries. What could the role of these places be in the sustainable strategies of urbanisation? How can the approach to the urban regeneration (planning, regulation, and design) of these spaces be conceptualised in order to be in tune with the ecological and social demands of a distressed planet and local historical and cultural values? By explaining the specific theoretical concepts and western Balkan case studies, these chapters tackle the most important issue related to sustainability and the management of urbanisation - the question of spatial resources.


We provide a tractable concept that can be used to study the influence of the degree of farsightedness on network stability. A set of networks G_{K} is a level-K farsightedly stable set if three conditions are satisfied. First, external deviations should be deterred. Second, from any network outside of G_{K} there is a a sequence of farsighted improving paths of length smaller than or equal to K leading to some network in G_{K}. Third, there is no proper subset of G_{K} satisfying the first two conditions. We show that a level-K farsightedly stable set always exists and we provide a sufficient condition for the uniqueness of a level-K farsightedly stable set. There is a unique level-1 farsightedly stable set G₁ consisting of all networks that belong to closed cycles. Level-K farsighted stability leads to a refinement of G₁ for generic allocation rules. We then provide easy to verify conditions for a set to be level-K farsightedly stable and we consider the relationship between limited farsighted stability and efficiency of networks.


Laboratory experiments have been used extensively in economics in the past several decades to lend both positive and normative insights into a myriad of important economic issues. This study discusses a related approach that has increasingly grown in prominence of late—field experiments. I argue that field experiments serve as a useful bridge between data generated in the lab and empirical studies using naturally-occurring data. In discussing this relationship, I highlight that field experiments can yield important insights into economic theory and provide useful guidance to policymakers. I also draw attention to an important methodological contribution of field experiments: they provide an empirical account of behavioral principles that are shared across different domains. In this regard, at odds with conventional wisdom, I argue that representativeness of the environment, rather than representative of the sampled population, is the most crucial variable in determining generalizability of results for a large class of experimental laboratory games.


The brain generates complex sequences of movements that can be flexibly reconfigured in real-time based on sensory feedback, but how this occurs is not fully understood. We developed a novel 'sequence licking' task in which mice directed their tongue to a target that moved through a series of locations. Mice could rapidly reconfigure the sequence online based on tactile feedback. Closed-loop optogenetics and electrophysiology revealed that tongue/jaw regions of somatosensory (S1TJ) and motor (M1TJ) cortex encoded and controlled tongue kinematics at the level of individual licks. Tongue premotor (anterolateral motor, ALM) cortex encoded intended tongue angle in a smooth manner that spanned individual licks and even whole sequences, and progress toward the reward that marked successful sequence execution. ALM activity regulated sequence initiation, but multiple cortical areas collectively controlled termination of licking. Our results define a functional cortical network for hierarchical control of sensory- and reward-guided orofacial sequence generation.


In high latitude planktonic ecosystems where the prymnesiophyte alga Phaeocystis pouchetii is often the dominant primary producer, its importance in structuring planktonic food webs is well known. In this study we investigated how the base of the planktonic food web responds to a P. pouchetii colony bloom in controlled mesocosm systems with natural water enclosed in situ in a West Norwegian fjord. Similar large (11 m 3 ) mesocosm studies were conducted in 2 successive years and the dynamics of various components of the planktonic food web from viruses to mesozooplankton investigated. In 2002 (4 to 24 March), 3 mesocosms comprising a control containing only fjord water; another with added nitrate (N) and phosphate (P) in Redfield ratios; and a third with added N, P, and cultured solitary cells of P. pouchetii, were monitored through a spring bloom cycle. In 2003 (27 Feb- ruary to 2 April) a similar set of mesocosms were established, but cultured P. pouchetii was not added. As expected, during both years, addition of N and P without addition of silicate resulted in an initial small diatom bloom followed by a colonial bloom of P. pouchetii (600 to 800 µg C l -1 ). However, the hypothesis that addition of solitary cells of P. pouchetii would enhance subsequent colony blooms was not supported. Interestingly, despite the large production of Phaeocystis colonial material, little if any was transferred to the grazing food web, as evidenced by non-significant effects on the biomass of micro- and mesozooplankton in fertilized mesocoms. Separate experiments utilizing material from the mesocosms showed that colonies formed from solitary cells at rates that required only ca. 1% con- version efficiencies. The results are discussed from the perspective of future research still required to understand the impact of life cycle changes of this enigmatic phytoplankter on surrounding ecosystems.


The negative elongation factor NELF is a key component of an early elongation checkpoint generally located within 100 bp of the transcription start site of protein-coding genes. Negotiation of this checkpoint and conversion to productive elongation require phosphorylation of the carboxy-terminal domain of RNA poly- merase II (pol II), NELF, and DRB sensitivity-inducing factor (DSIF) by positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb). P-TEFb is dispensable for transcription of the noncoding U2 snRNA genes, suggesting that a NELF-dependent checkpoint is absent. However, we find that NELF at the end of the 800-bp U2 gene transcription unit and RNA interference-mediated knockdown of NELF causes a termination defect. NELF is also associated 800 bp downstream of the transcription start site of the (cid:1) -actin gene, where a "late" P-TEFb-dependent checkpoint occurs. Interestingly, both genes have an extended nucleosome-depleted region up to the NELF-dependent control point. In both cases, transcription through this region is P-TEFb independent, implicating chromatin in the formation of the terminator/checkpoint. Furthermore, CTCF colocalizes with NELF on the U2 and (cid:1) -actin genes, raising the possibility that it helps the positioning and/or function of the NELF-dependent control point on these genes.


The speech recognition training data corresponding to digital voice assistants is dominated by wake-words. Training endto-end (E2E) speech recognition models without careful attention to such data results in sub-optimal performance as models prioritize learning wake-words. To address this problem, we propose a novel discriminative initialization strategy by introducing a regularization term to penalize model for incorrectly hallucinating wake-words in early phases of training. We also explore other training strategies such as multi-task learning with listen-attend-spell (LAS), label smoothing via probabilistic modelling of silence and use of multiple pronunciations, and show how they can be combined with the proposed initialization technique. In addition, we show the connection between cost function of proposed discriminative initialization technique and minimum word error rate (MWER) criterion. We evaluate our methods on two E2E ASR systems, a phone-based system and a word-piece based system, trained on 6500 hours of Alexa's Indian English speech corpus. We show that proposed techniques yield 20% word error rate reductions for phone based system and 6% for word-piece based system compared to corresponding baselines trained on the same data.


On-going urbanization has led to greater distances between homes and workplaces and more long-distance commuting, increasing the need for efficient inter-urban transport infrastructure. For sustainability, trains are preferred to private cars. Two key variables affecting door-to-door train travel time are in-vehicle time (IVT) and headway ; however, there is often a trade-off between speed and frequency in a system. If different categories of travellers value IVT and headway differently, their proportions on a route should affect traffic planning. Optimal system design might differ between routes carrying many commuters and routes carrying mainly passengers on single private or business trips. Knowledge of differences in relative valuations of headway versus IVT should therefore affect railway system design. We investigate whether the relative values of headway versus IVT differ between inter- urban commuting by train and single inter-urban trips by train, whilst also examining differences between socioeconomic groups. Stated choice (SC) data from 580 Swedish respondents are used in estimation. Individuals actually commuting and individuals not commuting but imagining that they are when answering the SC questions are asked about their preferences for headway versus IVT. Commuters are estimated to value increased headway 19 percentage points more than do non-commuters. Young people (under age 21 years) value headway more than do older people while people with children value headway less than do the childless.


In this survey of U.S. history, John Kane looks at the tensions between American virtue and power and how those tensions have influenced foreign policy. Americans have long been suspicious of power as a threat to individual liberty, Kane argues, and yet the growth of national power has been perceived as a natural byproduct of American virtue. This contradiction has posed a persistent crisis that has influenced the trajectory of American diplomacy and foreign relations for more than two hundred years. Kane examines the various challenges, including emerging Nationalism, isolationism, and burgeoning American power, which have at times challenged not only foreign policy but American national identity. The events of September 11, 2001, rekindled Americans' sense of righteousness, the author observes, but the subsequent use of power in Iraq has raised questions about the nation's virtue and, as in earlier days, cast a deep shadow over its purpose and direction.


Technology law scholars have recently started to consider the theories of affordance and technological mediation, imported from the fields of psychology, human-computer interaction (HCI), and science and technology studies (STS). These theories have been used both as a means of explaining how the law has developed, and more recently in attempts to cast the law per se as an affordance. This exploratory paper summarises the two theories, before considering these applications from a critical perspective, noting certain deficiencies with respect to potential normative application and definitional clarity, respectively. It then posits that in applying them in the legal context we should seek to retain the relational user-artefact structure around which they were originally conceived, with the law cast as the user of the artefact, from which it seeks certain features or outcomes. This approach is effective for three reasons. Firstly, it acknowledges the power imbalance between law and architecture, where the former is manifestly subject to the decisions, made by designers, which mediate and transform the substance of the legal norms they instantiate in technological artefacts. Secondly, from an analytical perspective, it can help avoid some of the conceptual and definitional problems evident in the nascent legal literature on affordance. Lastly, approaching designers on (2018) 15:1 SCRIPTed 4 5 their own terms can foster better critical evaluation of their activities during the design process, potentially leading to more effective 'compliance by design' where the course of the law's mediation by technological artefacts can be better anticipated and guided by legislators, regulators, and legal practitioners.