Background: At some institutions, including ours, bone marrow aspirate specimen triage is complex, with hematopathology triage decisions that need to be communicated to downstream ancillary testing laboratories and many specimen aliquot transfers that are handled outside of the laboratory information system (LIS). We developed a custom integrated database with dashboards to facilitate and streamline this workflow. Methods: We developed user-specific dashboards that allow entry of specimen information by technologists in the hematology laboratory, have custom scripting to present relevant information for the hematopathology service and ancillary laboratories and allow communication of triage decisions from the hematopathology service to other laboratories. These dashboards are web-accessible on the local intranet and accessible from behind the hospital firewall on a computer or tablet. Secure user access and group rights ensure that relevant users can edit or access appropriate records. Results: After database and dashboard design, two-stage beta-testing and user education was performed, with the first focusing on technologist specimen entry and the second on downstream users. Commonly encountered issues and user functionality requests were resolved with database and dashboard redesign. Final implementation occurred within 6 months of initial design; users report improved triage efficiency and reduced need for interlaboratory communications. Conclusions: We successfully developed and implemented a custom database with dashboards that facilitates and streamlines our hematopathology bone marrow aspirate triage. This provides an example of a possible solution to specimen communications and traffic that are outside the purview of a standard LIS.


One of the greatest artists of sixteenth-century Europe, Hans Holbein the Younger earned high acclaim for his work both in the city of Basel and in England for Henry VIII and other patrons. This book is the first to explore the full range of the artist's English body of work as well as the relation of this work to the visual and material culture of Tudor England. Providing a detailed account of the paintings, drawings and woodcuts that Holbein produced in England, the book demonstrates convincingly that that country was not as remote from a common European culture as is often assumed: rather, it was an unmistakable part of that culture. Susan Foister discusses not only Holbein's well-known portraits but also his decorative paintings and murals, now lost, his designs for goldsmiths, and the works that can be associated with the English Reformation. In addition, she considers Holbein's religious and secular images, his techniques and practices, his status as an official court painter, and a variety of other intriguing topics.


Abstract. The primary purpose of the survey for the restoration of Cultural Heritage is the interpretation of the state of building preservation. For this, the advantages of the remote sensing systems that generate dense point cloud (range-based or image-based) are not limited only to the acquired data. The paper shows that it is possible to extrapolate very useful information in diagnostics using spatial annotation, with the use of algorithms already implemented in open-source software. Generally, the drawing of degradation maps is the result of manual work, so dependent on the subjectivity of the operator. This paper describes a method of extraction and visualization of information, obtained by mathematical procedures, quantitative, repeatable and verifiable. The case study is a part of the east facade of the Eglise collegiale Saint-Maurice also called Notre Dame des Grâces, in Caromb, in southern France. The work was conducted on the matrix of information contained in the point cloud asci format. The first result is the extrapolation of new geometric descriptors. First, we create the digital maps with the calculated quantities. Subsequently, we have moved to semi-quantitative analyses that transform new data into useful information. We have written the algorithms for accurate selection, for the segmentation of point cloud, for automatic calculation of the real surface and the volume. Furthermore, we have created the graph of spatial distribution of the descriptors. This work shows that if we work during the data processing we can transform the point cloud into an enriched database: the use, the management and the data mining is easy, fast and effective for everyone involved in the restoration process.


Since 2002, spreads on emerging market sovereign debt have fallen to historical lows. Given the close links between sovereign spreads, capital flows to emerging markets, and economic growth, understanding the factors driving these spreads is very important. We address this issue in two stages. First, we use factor analysis to study the extent to which emerging market bond spreads are driven by global factors, as opposed to country-specific macroeconomic fundamentals. Using data on different U.S. asset classes, we identify a common factor, linked to global financial conditions. Second, we use this common factor in a panel estimation framework to analyze the degree to which the fall in spreads is driven by better macroeconomic policies. Our results show that the common factor is not responsible for the reduction in spreads. Instead, emerging markets have benefited considerably from better macroeconomic policies, including lower inflation and lower debt. Therefore, a reversal of the benign global conditions need not necessarily have a substantial negative impact on financing conditions for emerging markets.


The article studies types of factoring used in the Russian Federation. The current state of the market of factoring services in the Russian Federation is analyzed, and main players which occupy leading positions in this market are determined. As a result of the conducted research if modern tendencies which take place in the Russian economy and analysis of the state of factoring market, and with the use of methods of scientific generalization, the tendencies of development of factoring market in Russia are substantiated. The main tendencies are: stagnation or reduction; growth of debtors' default level; reduction of factoring rates for SME and large business; development of electronic factoring. The authors determined key factors which allow Russian factoring companies to occupy corresponding niche in the sphere of international trade relations. It is determined that at the current stage, the toppriority directions in development of factoring market are: development of E-factoring, deals with small and medium business, and factoring without financing.


The wheel rail contact operates in an arduous environment. Damage to the surface of either component is possible during manufacture, installation, or operation. The question arises as to how tolerant is the railway wheel or section of track to surface indentation or damage. In this work a twin disc simulation has been used to relate the level of surface damage (as well as the way it is generated) to the fatigue life of the surfaces. A related problem is the presence of solid contamination on the track. Sand (applied for improved adhesion) or track ballast material can cause damage to the rail and wheel surfaces. These mechanisms have been explored to assess the effect on contact fatigue life and wear. The disc specimens have been either artificially damaged (with dents and scratches) or run with particles of sand or ballast material. The discs were then loaded and rotated at realistic conditions of contact pressure and controlled slip. For normal operation of the contact, either dry or with water lubrication, surface dents and scratches have little effect on fatigue life. The normal plastic flow in the rail surface layer acts to close up dents. The failure of the disc is then by fatigue cracking across the whole surface with no particular preference to the dent location. Alternatively, if the contact is lubricated with oil then this plastic flow is greatly reduced and the dents act as stress raisers and fatigue cracks initiate from their trailing edge. Sand or ballast particles are crushed as they enter the wheel/rail contact. The fragments indent the surfaces and rapidly roughen the contact faces. The surface indentation is relatively minor, but the presence of particles increases the level of traction (over the wet case) and promotes further surface plastic flow. This can reduce the residual fatigue life of the contact. Further, high concentrations of sand were shown to promote a low cycle fatigue process that caused very high wear by the spallation of material. The twin disc simulations have shown that, under conditions similar to that of wheel/rail operation, surface damage is not a primary cause of fatigue failure. However, wear is greatly accelerated by the presence of solid contaminants and some evidence of a low cycle fatigue process was observed for sanded contacts.


Background: According to Dutch guidelines, locally excised, low-risk, pT1 or ypT0-1 rectal cancer should not necessarily be followed by completion total mesorectal excision (cTME) in contrast to rectal cancers with higher T stages or unfavorable features. This study evaluated cTME after local excision at a national level with possible determinants for decision-making. Methods: All patients in the Dutch Colorectal Audit (DCRA) who underwent local excision of rectal cancer between 2012 and 2015 were included. Guideline adherence for performing cTME was determined with univariate and multivariate analyses to identify factors related to noncompliance. Results: According to the guidelines, of 530 included patients, cTME was indicated in 283 (53%), and among those, was performed in 82 (29%). Guideline adherence for performing cTME improved significantly (P<.001), from 10% in 2012 to 44% in 2015. Lower Charlson comorbidity index in patients with high-risk pT1 rectal cancer and younger patients (aged 61-70 years vs ≥80 years) with pT≥2 rectal cancer were associated with increased performance of cTME (odds ratio [OR], 13.50; 95% CI, 1.39-131.32, and OR, 6.25; 95% CI, 1.83-21.31, respectively). Conclusions: In this population-based study from the Netherlands, only a minority of patients underwent cTME after local excision of rectal cancer with pathologic features indicating the need for further treatment according to the guidelines. Although the percentage of patients undergoing cTME increased over time, the study indicated a tendency toward rectal-preserving treatment with potential oncologic risks.


Being digitized the communication system channels are having a severe workload in the current scenario. A number of increases in digital devices require more address variable. The internet and 4G services available in the global world are able to provide good service to both stationary and moving devices. Huge number of devices can be introduced in a specific region of the network. Devices can be operated in any layer of the network. Most of challenges are coming in cross layer hand-off as delay and protocols available different network are different. For the above kind of handoff problems, this paper proposes a technology, which is including a variety of header formats and a suitable protocol for cross layer handoff in IPv6 header format. The work is done on a layer wise hand off and dual communication with two base stations for a certain time, while hand-off occurs. Multiple header format supports reliable, un-interrupted and delay avoidance in the communication system. The security and authentication are enhanced with two control units.


Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a type of social intelligence that involves monitoring, discriminating between and using emotions to guide thinking and actions. EI is related to interpersonal and communication skills, and is important in the assessment and training of medical undergraduates. Aim: This review aimed to determine the impact of structured educational interventions on the EI of medical students. Methods: We systematically searched 14 electronic databases and hand searched high yield journals. We looked at changes in EI and related behaviour of medical students, assessed using Kirkpatrick's hierarchy, provided they could be directly related to the content of the educational intervention. Results: A total of 1947 articles were reviewed, of which 14 articles met the inclusion criteria. Conclusions: The use of simulated patients is beneficial in improving EI when introduced in interventions later rather than earlier in undergraduate medical education. Regardless of duration of intervention, interventions have the best effects when delivered: (1) over a short space of time; (2) to students later in their undergraduate education and; (3) to female students. This should be taken into account when designing and delivering interventions. Emphasising the importance of empathetic qualities, such as empathetic communication style should be made explicit during teaching.


Abstract The neurokinin 1 receptor with the natural substrate substance P is one of the intensely studied receptors among the neurokinin receptors. The intracellular signaling mechanism uses G protein-coupled transduction regulating various physiological processes from nausea to Alzheimer's disease. The neurokinin 1 receptor plays a significant role in neuroinflammation-mediated alterations in neural circuitry. Neurokinin 1 receptor antagonists are selective, potent and exhibited efficacy in animal models of nervous system disorders. Evolving data now strengthen the viewpoint of brain substance P/neurokinin 1 receptor axis-mediated action in neural circuit dysfunction. Thus, a deep-rooted analysis of disease mechanism in which the neurokinin 1 receptor is involved is necessary for augmenting disease models which encourage the pharmaceutical industry to intensify the research pipeline. This review is an attempt to outline the concept of neurokinin 1 receptor signaling interlinked to the brain innate immune system. We also uncover the mechanisms of the neurokinin 1 receptor involved in neurological disorder and various methods of modulating the neurokinin 1 receptor, which may result in therapeutic action.


The present study summarized information on the morphometric characteristics and weight-length relationships (WLRs) of pregnant females, non-pregnant females and males of harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) along the Rize coast in the Black Sea, Turkey. A total of 68 harbour porpoises (31 males, 22 non-pregnant females and 15 pregnant females) were obtained as bycatch in the turbot gill net fisheries from April 2010 to July 2011. A total of 16 external morphological characteristics of the harbour porpoises were examined by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The PCA results clearly showed that there is sexual dimorphism mainly in the general size between non-pregnant females and males and also pregnant females and males. The greatest body length in the sample was 142.0 cm for females and 128.0 cm for males. Weight length relationships (WLRs) of harbour porpoise showed negative allometric growth characteristics (Pauly' t test, P<0.05). The slopes of the regression lines for males, non-pregnant females and pregnant females were significantly different from the isometric growth curve slope of 3 (Pauly' t test, P<0.001). Correlation coefficient (r) was significant for both sexes (P<0.05). These results will enable researchers, fishermen and fisheries management authorities to enhance the knowledge of harbour porpoises life history and ecology.


Objective: to determine the palm-plant paleness' characteristics in Colombian infant rural population, as a diagnostic method of anemia, and to establish a correlation between the finding of palm-plant paleness and the Hematocrit values. Methodology: a cross sectional study was used to evaluate 169 boys and girls, between 2 months and 12 years old, of the rural area of San Vicente del Caguan, who entered into a Health Campaign. Following the signature of an informed consent, parents accept their children to participate in the study. Those with acute or chronic pathologies were excluded. The presence of palm-plant paleness was determined by observers trained in the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) Strategy. Hematocrit was measured to all children, as well as a peripheral blood smear. Interrater concordance evaluation (Kappa index) was determined through a pilot test and a validation (sensitivity, specificity) was performed, using Hematocrit as the standard. Results: 93 of the participants were male and 77 were female. 45% of them had palm paleness. The Hematocrit showed anemia in 34.1% of the children. The validation analysis demonstrated a 67.2% of sensibility, a 66.6% of specificity, a 51.3% of positive predictive values and a 79.5% of negative predictive values. Hypochromic and Eosinophilia were found in most of the peripheral blood smears' children with anemia. Conclusions: although this tool presents a low sensibility and specificity for low/moderated anemia, it is useful for excluding it in infants without palm paleness.


This article aims to retrace the technology watch strategy proposed to the Moroccan institute of scientific and technical information (IMIST) to serve the small and middle-sized exporters industries (SMI) of the food sector and of the textile, clothing and leather sector, situated in the region of the Big Casablanca. To elaborate this strategy, it was necessary to study the practice of the technological watch in the studied SMI and their needs of the scientific, technical and technological information (STTI). It was also useful to study some successful international experiences of technology watch and to analyze the literature produced in the same field. To reach our objectives, we have used the descriptive method used to study the needs of information. The research instrument used for the collection of data on the practice of the technological watch and on the needs in STTI was the questionnaire administrated directly to the industrials of the two sectors studied. A second questionnaire was sent to some international famous organisms of the technology watch. Visits were done to the institute of the scientific and technical information (INIST) and the agency of broadcasting of technological information (ADIT) in France. For the sectors studied, the investigation revealed that the SMI exporters studied suffer from conjectural and structural problems which hinder their development and affect their competitiveness. Although the SMI is conscious of the necessity to innovate, it asserts a lack of encouragement and assistance of the state so as to shift to the liberal economy. The study reveals that the technology watch practiced by the SMI consists essentially on sporadic and isolated actions done to resolve crises and to face rapid changes operated in its environment. All the SMI agree on the urgent need to receive the pertinent and reliable information in order to take right decisions.


We introduce a new approach to variable selection, called Predictive Correlation Screening, for predictor design. Predictive Correlation Screening (PCS) implements false positive control on the selected variables, is well suited to small sample sizes, and is scalable to high dimensions. We establish asymptotic bounds for Familywise Error Rate (FWER), and resultant mean square error of a linear predictor on the selected variables. We apply Predictive Correlation Screening to the following two-stage predictor design problem. An experimenter wants to learn a multivariate predictor of gene expressions based on successive biological samples assayed on mRNA arrays. She assays the whole genome on a few samples and from these assays she selects a small number of variables using Predictive Correlation Screening. To reduce assay cost, she subsequently assays only the selected variables on the remaining samples, to learn the predictor coefficients. We show superiority of Predictive Correlation Screening relative to LASSO and correlation learning (sometimes popularly referred to in the literature as marginal regression or simple thresholding) in terms of performance and computational complexity.


Abstract. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of soil moisture simulations in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) extended historical experiment (2003 to 2012). Soil moisture from in situ and satellite sources is used to evaluate CMIP5 simulations in the contiguous United States (CONUS). Both near-surface (0–10 cm) and soil column (0–100 cm) simulations from more than 14 CMIP5 models are evaluated during the warm season (April–September). Multimodel ensemble means and the performance of individual models are assessed at a monthly timescale. Our results indicate that CMIP5 models can reproduce the seasonal variability in soil moisture over CONUS. However, the models tend to overestimate the amount of both near-surface and soil column soil moisture in the western US and underestimate it in the eastern US. There are large variations across models, especially for the near-surface soil moisture. There are significant regional variations in performance as well. Results of a regional analysis show that in the deeper soil layers, the CMIP5 soil moisture simulations tend to be most skillful in the southern US. Based on both the satellite-derived and in situ soil moisture, CESM1, CCSM4 and GFDL-ESM2M perform best in the 0–10 cm soil layer and CESM1, CCSM4, GFDL-ESM2M and HadGEM2-ES perform best in the 0–100 cm soil layer.


Let G be an object of a nitely cocomplete homological category C. We study actions of G on objects A of C (dened by Bourn and Janelidze as being algebras over a certain monad TG), with two objectives: investigating to which extent actions can be described in terms of smaller data, called action cores; and to single out those abstract action cores which extend to actions corresponding to semi-direct products of A and G (in a non-exact setting, not every action does). This amounts to exhibiting a subcategory of the category of the actions of G on objects A which is equivalent with the category of points in C over G, and to describing it in terms of action cores. This notion and its study are based on a preliminary investigation of co-smash products, in which cross-eects of functors in a general categorical context turn out to be a useful tool. The co-smash products also allow us to dene higher categorical commutators, dierent from the ones of Huq, which are not generally expressible in terms of nested binary ones. We use strict action cores to show that any normal subobject of an objectE (i.e., the equivalence class of 0 for some equivalence relation on E in C) admits a strict conjugation action of E. If C is semi-abelian, we show that for subobjects X, Y of some object A, X is proper in the supremum of X and Y if and only if X is stable under the restriction to Y of the conjugation action of A on itself. This also amounts to an alternative proof of Bourn and Janelidze's category equivalence between points over G in C and actions of G in the semi-abelian context. Finally, we show that the two axioms of an algebra which characterize G-actions are equivalent with three others ones, in terms of action cores. These axioms are commutative squares involving only co-smash products. Two of them are associativity type conditions which generalize the usual properties of an action of one group on another, while the third is kind of a higher coherence condition which is a consequence of the other two in the category of groups, but probably not in general. As an application, we characterize abelian action cores, that is, action cores corresponding to Beck modules; here also the coherence condition follows from the others.


The financial crisis had a significant impact on the levels of trust that citizens place in the system and its institutions. Recent data from Eurobarometer show a significant fall in confidence on the part of European citizens in the EU's institutions. For the first time since its creation, a majority of European citizens no longer trust the European Central Bank. However, confidence levels in national governments have actually risen, supporting a contrasting trend between confidence levels in European and national institutions. This decrease in confidence towards the ECB is flanked in the case of Germany by strong anti-capitalist sentiments and a sharp decline in support for the social market economy.


Headline Issue: The infrastructure created by humans and the natural infrastructure of the planet are both vital for our survival and wellbeing. It is only possible for more than seven billion people to inhabit the Earth because of our ability to modify our environment. We achieved this by creating social and physical structures, and by discovering how to harness the fossil energy sources of the planet to power our modern world. But in spite of all our innovation and ingenuity we are still critically dependent on our natural infrastructure, on our interactions with animal and plant health, on weather, climate and all the other aspects of the physical and biological environment of the planet.
At the same time as we were learning how to modify our physical environment to improve our living conditions, we were building social and economic structures. We are as dependent on these as on our built environment. Modern economies were developed through politics, trade and specialization, shaped from time to time by war and conflict. The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries started in Great Britain, and we are now going through a second equally tumultuous revolution — the Information Technology Revolution — which is likely to play a similarly important role in the development of societies and economies of the future.
In Chapter 1 of the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser's annual report for 2014, "Innovation: Managing Risk, Not Avoiding It. Evidence and Case Studies", the authors describe how many of the greatest periods of economic growth in the past have been driven by innovation. Indeed, the need to innovate is a fundamental requirement for social and economic progress. By providing a social science point of view, it is clear that there is a delicate interplay between innovation and risk, and the social interactions between public and private sectors that are critical in fostering innovation and determining its effectiveness. Innovation is essential for economic growth, health, wellbeing, security and resilience.
Key messages: Innovative economies are more competitive, respond better to change, see higher returns on investment and create increased living standards. Innovative businesses are more productive and grow faster than businesses that fail to innovate.
Yet it is not only businesses that must innovate: governments and social organisations need to innovate to adapt, respond to and shape the evolution of society. Governments have an essential role in shaping the legal frameworks, institutions and policies that in turn shape the risks and incentives faced by others. It is this balance of risks and incentives that determine what choices innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, inventors, bureaucrats and citizens will make.
In the UK, innovation will continue to be a key source, perhaps the key source, of economic growth. However, competition is becoming ever more fierce, vital global resources are dwindling, and environmental problems are mounting, making innovation an ever-present challenge. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that the UK is falling behind many of its major trade competitors when it comes to research and development, which is closely linked to innovation.


This thesis presents several advances in the technology and applications of photonic crystal �bres achieved over the last three years. Chapters 1 and 2 give the background material important to understand the results presented in chapters 3, 4 and 5. In chapter 1, linear properties of optical �bres are described. This chapter focuses particularly on how the engineering of the cladding structure of solid core photonic crystal �bres can be used to vary the �bre properties, most importantly the group index and dispersion. Propagation in all-solid photonic bandgap �bres is also discussed in terms of the anti-resonant re ecting optical waveguide model. Chapter 2 introduces the nonlinear optical e�ects that are important to understand the work presented in chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 3, a method to reduce bend losses in all-solid photonic bandgap �bres is outlined. The reduction of these losses is achieved by redesigning the high-index inclusions in the cladding structure to suppress cladding modes that strongly couple to the fundamental core-guided mode when the �bre is bent. In chapter 4, a method of tapering photonic crystal �bres in order to decrease the dispersion along their length is described. The tapers are used to compress solitons via adiabatic soliton compression and a combination of adiabatic soliton compression and soliton e�ect compression, achieving a factor of 15 compression of a transform-limited pulse to below 50 fs. Chapter 5 describes how engineering the cladding structure of photonic crystal �bres can be used to generate shorter frequencies in supercontinuum generation. The method by which this achieved is experimentally veri�ed and then exploited to generate a continuum incorporating the entire visible spectrum using low cost, low maintenance pump sources.


Causal consistency is the strongest consistency model that is available in the presence of partitions and provides useful semantics for human-facing distributed services. Here, we expose its serious and inherent scalability limitations due to write propagation requirements and traditional dependency tracking mechanisms. As an alternative to classic potential causality, we advocate the use of explicit causality, or application-defined happens-before relations. Explicit causality, a subset of potential causality, tracks only relevant dependencies and reduces several of the potential dangers of causal consistency.


Peer reviews were introduced as a teaching technique for the 2002 offering of the course SIF8035 Information Systems at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The students handed in conceptual models which were then double-blind reviewed by three independent peers. The review reports contained scores and defect lists, but were not used for grading. This paper conducts an analysis of the outcomes of the peer review exercises. Several approaches are used, both quantitative and qualitative, investigating the students' performance and perceptions. The main conclusions are: 1) The scores given by the peer reviewers were not reliable enough to recommend their use for grading purposes. 2) The introduction of peer review exercises contributed positively to students' learning in the course – but not equally so for all students. A substantial fraction of the students did so little that it is hard to claim any learning effect. The main reasons for this seem to have been poor motivation and unclear demands. In hindsight, we have discussed the distinguishing properties of three different purposes of peer-reviews that were not clear to us when the course started, and we have identified several possible ways of improving the peer reviews. In spite of the reported problems, experiences are more positive than negative, and it has been decided to continue with peer reviews in the course.


This is the first book in more than thirty years to discuss critically both the historical and contemporary experiences of Hawai'i's Japanese Americans. Given that race was the foremost organizing principle of social relations in Hawai'i and was followed by ethnicity beginning in the 1970s, the book interprets these experiences from racial and ethnic perspectives. The transition from race to ethnicity is cogently demonstrated in the transformation of Japanese Americans from a highly racialized minority of immigrant laborers to one of the most politically and socio-economically powerful ethnic groups in the islands. To illuminate this process, the author has produced a racial history of Japanese Americans from their early struggles against oppressive working and living conditions on sugar plantations_to their labor organizing and active role in the Democratic Party's rise to power following World War II. He goes on to analyze how Japanese Americans have maintained their political power into the twenty-first century and discusses the recent advocacy and activism of individual yonsei (fourth-generation Japanese Americans) working on behalf of ethnic communities other than their own. From Race to Ethnicity resonates with scholars currently de- bating the relative analytical significance of race and ethnicity. Its novel analysis convincingly elucidates the differential functioning of race and ethnicity over time insofar as race worked against Japanese Americans and other non-Haoles (whites) by restricting them from full and equal participation in society, but by the 1970s ethnicity would work fully in their favor as they gained greater political and economic power. The author reminds readers, however, that ethnicity has continued to work against Native Hawaiians, Filipino Americans, and other minorities-although not to the same extent as race previously-and thus is responsible for maintaining ethnic inequality in Hawai'i.


This Article argues that diversity jurisdiction was intended to funnel politically significant litigation into the federal courts principally because federal officials would have the power to dictate the composition of federal juries. All existing accounts for the origins of diversity jurisdiction ultimately rely upon putative differences between the state and federal benches for their explanations of the jurisdiction's origin. This emphasis on the bench is anachronistic, however, because the jury possessed far more power than the bench to decide cases in eighteenth-century American courts. American juries during this period customarily had the right to decide issues of law as well as fact and were largely beyond the control of the bench. The Framers saw state court juries - independent bodies of citizens with almost unfettered power to resolve legal disputes -as one of the greatest dangers in allo wing ordinary citizens too much control over the governance of the nation. By wresting adjudicative power out of the hands of state court juries and bestowing it upon federal juries whose compositions could be tightly controlled by federal officials, diversity jurisdiction accomplished the Constitution's overarching purpose of checking the operation of "unrestrained" democracy in the states.Once the federal courts were established, federal officials controlled the composition of federal juries in several ways. In most districts, federal marshals dictated the composition of federal juries by hand-selecting jurors of their choice. In addition, Congress ensured that the political, economic, and social characteristics of federal juries would differ dramatically from their state counterparts by providing that the federal courts would draw their juries overwhelmingly from the urban, commercial centers of the nation. The state courts, by contrast, drew their juries predominantly from the agrarian populations living outside those centers. It is highly unlikely that this pervasive control over the composition of federal juries was an unintended consequence of the Constitution. Instead, as this Article argues, the evidence strongly suggests that the federal officials' control over the composition of federal juries constituted the single most important impetus behind the creation of diversity jurisdiction and a significant rationale for the establishment of the lower federal courts.


The focus of this thesis is to investigate the use of synthetic aperture radar (sar) compact polarimetry for studies of sea ice. Data obtained from quad-polarimetric sar systems have already been studied extensively for sea ice monitoring. This thesis focuses on finding parallels to quad-polarimetric features from the compact-polarimetric data. This is achieved through the reconstruction of a pseudo quad-polarimetric sample covariance matrix. The main contribution of this thesis is the suggestion of new reconstruction techniques for sea ice covered sar scenes. Most of the estimated polarimetric features relevant to sea ice monitoring are successfully reconstructed. Furthermore, a comparison between the different reconstruction techniques is presented for different sea ice types. It is shown that the cross-polarization intensity can be reconstructed for different sea ice types, but that the performance is strongly affected by the choice of reconstruction method. The proposed modified Souyris' reconstruction technique turns out to be the best method for achieving high performance for different polarimetric features representing different sea ice types. Additionally, three other methods are suggested, namely a model-based, an eigenvalue-based, and a DoP-based reconstruction method. Each of these methods produce a higher accuracy than the existing reconstruction methods for most of the polarimetric features. Remote sensing instruments have been extensively used as a tool for sea ice monitoring. Information about sea ice is important for multiple industries like oil and gas, fishing, research communities, and tourism. Fulland dual polarimetric sar instruments have been used to extract useful information about the sea ice surface, but now a new polarimetric mode has been invented. In its infancy, the theoretical foundation of compact polarimetry was presented by Souyris, Nord, and later Raney with the hybridpol mode. However, compact polarimetry—especially the hybrid-pol mode—has proved valuable, and has in later years found its way into operational satellite systems such as the risat and the alos-2 satellites. The work presented in this thesis adds to the on-going discussion on the potential of compact polarimetry, and is the first comprehensive analysis of reconstruction methods for specified application to sea ice.


This volume contains the proceedings of the Ring Theory Session in honor of T. Y. Lam's 70th birthday, at the 31st Ohio State Denison Mathematics Conference, held from May 25-27, 2012, at Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio, USA. Included are expository articles and research papers covering topics such as cyclically presented modules, Eggert's conjecture, the Mittag-Leffler conjecture, clean rings, McCoy rings, QF rings, projective and injective modules, Baer modules, and Leavitt path algebras. Graduate students and researchers in many areas of algebra will find this volume valuable as the papers point out many directions for future work; in particular, several articles contain explicit lists of open questions.


Drawing from "person perception" literature, the present study evaluated how 224 college students judged two fictional male job applicants' levels of professional competence based on the applicants' attire. Each college student wasa randomly assigned a hiring manager role in the finance, sales, or research and developments branch of a company. One applicant wore "formal" attire, and one applicant wore "informal" attire. From the experimental survey it was concluded that participants rated formally dressed applicants as more "competent" (M = 3.962, SD = .57) than informally dressed ones (M = 2.014, SD = .70), F (2, 181) = 746.73, p < .001, and hired formal applicants significantly more than informal ones (97% vs. 14% hiring rate), regardless of the participant's assigned business role. The implications and application of these findings are addressed.


To demonstrate the flexibility of the Galley parallel file system and to analyze the efficiency and flexibility of the Vesta parallel file system interface, we implemented Vesta''s application-programming interface on top of Galley. We implemented the Vesta interface using Galley''s file-access methods, whose design arose from extensive testing and characterization of the I/O requirements of scientific applications for high-performance multiprocessors. We used a parallel CPU, parallel I/O, out-of-core matrix-multiplication application to test the Vesta interface in both its ability to specify data access patterns and in its run-time efficiency. In spite of its powerful ability to specify the distribution of regular, non-overlapping data access patterns across disks, we found that the Vesta interface has some significant limitations. We discuss these limitations in detail in the paper, along with the performance results.


Volume V: The Irish Book in English 1891-2000 charts that heritage from the beginnings of the Literary Revival in the 1890s to the end of the twentieth century.

Part One consists of general survey chapters which examine developments in the cultures of Irish reading and publishing during the twentieth century. These chapters cover four specific periods, divided as follows: 1891-1921 covering the Literary Revival, and the often turbulent developments which led to the partition of the island; 1922-1939 looking at the social, economic and political machinations of print culture amidst an atmosphere of intense cultural conservatism, and during the so called economic 'war'; 1939-1969 examining the difficulties which Irish publishers continued to face, as well as the popular trends of reading 'Westerns'; 1969-2000 looking at the renewal of the Irish publishing industry, and the growth of cultural self-confidence which came about as literary censorship receded into the past.

Part Two examines some of the thematic issues raised in these survey chapters, including the financial and market factors governing the Irish book trade; the concerns of Irish regional publishing; the creation and reception of Irish books in the US and Australia; censorship; the Irish book in the informatics age; and publishing for Catholic Ireland.

Part Three is concerned with assessing the specific achievements of some of Ireland's most culturally significant publishing houses, and includes chapters on Gill and Macmillan; the Cuala Press; Maunsel and Company; the Dolmen Press; the Gallery Press and Blackstaff Press. This section also includes chapters on two British firms which have done much to support Irish writers: Macmillan and Faber.

The book concludes with a bibliographical chapter outlining 'Sources for Irish Book History, 1891-2000'.


Samuel Beckett's use of mathematics to represent the discourse of fiction may at first seem ironic. Mathematics is a language of precision; it keeps undefined terms at a minimum; it makes common agreement about the meaning of certain terms (definitions) and the rules of its system (axioms). The discipline strives for both simplicity and for a well-defined domain where the rules operate without contradiction or ambiguity. However much a natural language and mathematical language each attempts to describe the world--and although neither language represents a closed system--the world mathematics describes is much smaller and less complex, albeit more precise, than the "buzzing, blooming confusion" that natural languages attempt to represent. This contrast between the limited but precise world of mathematics and the imprecise but unlimited world of natural language is seldom connected, but Beckett's Watt exploits the differences between these two languages and shows how attempts to apply mathematical precisio to a natural language fall short in descriptions of the self and the world.(1) This problem of mapping one language onto the other is embodied in Beckett's use of mathematical processes as artistic techniques. In Watt, he returns to exact notions about mathematics to understand language and to shape the techniques that will represent his understanding that language is a process of infinite approximation. Beckett's specific knowledge of mathematics pervades Watt. For example, Beckett exposes his familiarity with the "tricks" of number theory in the bizarre scene with Nackybal and his committee.(2) His sophisticated knowledge of permutations, combinations, squaring, cubing, and rooting is evident, and these allusions reveal the extent of his knowledge and eventually their meaning, a meaning Rubin Rabinovitz suggests when he discusses the song Watt hears in the ditch on the way from the station: "For Beckett, the surds(3) become metaphors for the generations of humanity stretching through time" (Rabinovitz 153). While this is undoubtedly true, Beckett's intentions are surely more specific. The song reveals Beckett's recognition that the mapping of the world onto the language of mathematics is inadequate, a point critics have recognized since Jacqueline Hoeffer's study of Watt. Beckett's uses of such functions reflect a sophisticated knowledge of mathematical relationships: "The two figures are related...as the cute to its rube" (Watt 187). His distortion of the mathematical language ("cube" into "cute" and "root" into "rube") represents Beckett's general strategy with mathematics, i.e., to show the places where the map from mathematics onto language falls short, and to find in these differences a source of creative energy. Aphasic Watt cannot represent his world with language. Watt's language assigns words that approach objects in the world but do not adequately describe them. Since natural language begins to fail Watt, Beckett turns to mathematical techniques to try to represent the self and the world to codify the formal relations and operations that language imposes on self and world. But Beckett does not use the language of mathematics; he uses mathematical techniques expressed in a natural language that demonstrate that this technical language is no more precise than mathematics. Both languages face the same problem of fitting themselves to an unruly reality. Mathematics and natural language always maintain a "hairbreadth departure" from each other, just as each maintains a hairbreadth departure from the world. Beckett tries to describe the world mathematically by presenting all (or many) possible combinations or permutations of a situation. Watt's attempts to represent the world mathematically not only fail to describe it completely, they also lead to confusion. Using a natural language governed by mathematics, Beckett makes ambiguous statements that would be illegal in the language of mathematics because functions can only be defined in such a way that the operations on the domain do not yield any contradictions. …


ABSTRACT With the widespread extraction of very large datasets, artificial intelligence using machine learning hold the promise to address socio-economic problems such as poverty, environmental safety, food production, security and the spread of disease. These applications entail Big Data for Development in which social problems, poverty, food security and responses to climate disasters can be solved in the most efficient and effective manner. This brave new world of solving pressing problems through machine learning has several dark sides. A data divide is being created that leaves the most vulnerable populations out of the solutions being created while discriminating against those whose data is churned by obscure algorithms. Complex mathematical models together with computing algorithms produce scores that are used to evaluate the lives of the masses. These systems have scaled to enormous proportions, changing lives by affecting credit scores, job prospects and access to healthcare. The promise of fairness, transparency, cost-effectiveness and efficiency gives rise to powerful scoring algorithms that have the power to create mass devastation while discriminating against the most vulnerable. Questions arise as to: What injustices (types of injustice) are created by datafication of development? how can the injustices caused by the extraction, analysis and commoditization of data be alleviated? Who has access to and what is being done with private data? And for whose benefit or purpose is personal data being extracted? Such questions are explored through the contributions in on data justice, the use of ICTs by micro-Entrepreneurs, mobile money and financial inclusion offered through papers in this issue.


OBJECTIVE
The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Spanish children has increased considerably in the last decades. Obesity has been recognized as a public health problem in developed countries because its association with increased risk for several pathologies. Obesity in children and, specifically, in adolescents, is a major concern. Actually, in Spain, the prevalence rates of childhood overweight and obesity are among the highest in European countries. The objective of this study was to measure the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children from Seville.

METHOD
A cross-sectional study was performed on 990 children, aged 8-9 years old (51.5% 8-year old and 48.5% 9-year old). Overweight and obesity were defined according to two methods: Spanish standards, applying the criterion of BMI-specific percentiles for age and sex, and the international standards established by Cole et al. (IOTF).

RESULTS
A high prevalence of overweight (11%) and obesity (22%) was observed. The prevalence of obesity as well as the prevalence of overall excess weight was significantly higher in 9-year old children (28% and 41%, respectively) than in 8-year old children (17% and 27%, respectively).

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Sevillian school children is high, and increases in the studied range of age.


over appropriate rules for accounting and corporate governance. The debate has largely ignored an important preliminary question: who should set standards of corporate governance and disclosure for publicly traded companies? This paper argues that stock exchanges have substantial advantages, in comparison with government bodies, as the primary regulators of corporate governance, disclosure, and accounting. Those advantages stem from superior incentives. Stock exchanges gain from investors' willingness to trade and accordingly have an incentive to provide any cost-effective rules that will increase investor welfare. There are several standard arguments against increasing the role of exchanges in setting disclosure and governance rules. One is that exchanges have market power, which dulls their incentive to set optimal rules. Another is that competition for listings will make exchanges reluctant to enforce their rules. A third is that disclosure rules have external effects that an exchange cannot internalize. Finally, it is argued that exchanges may lack sufficiently varied enforcement tools to ensure compliance with their rules. Under current practice, the primary threat exchanges can hold over listed companies is delisting, which may be too large a penalty for some violations and too slight for others. Only the last of those is a significant obstacle, and even that can be resolved contractually to some extent. Listing agreements could call for fines and other penalties for violation of rules. Nevertheless, government agencies have a clear advantage in investigating and punishing wrongdoing. A natural solution, then, would be to maintain the Securities and Exchange Commission as an enforcement agency but cede much of its rulemaking authority to the exchanges. Public and Private Rule Making in Securities Markets


A new permineralized fossil plant assemblage is described from volcaniclastic tuff collected in the Upper Permian (Wuchiapigian to Changhsingian) Xuanwei Formation at Shanjiaoshu mine, Guizhou Province, China. The assemblage is fragmentary but contains a small sphenopsid strobilus, a partial strobilus of a lepidodendralean lycopsid, pinnae of the filicalean fern Anachoropteris and a filicalean non-laminate fertile pinna rachis, the marattialean ferns Eoangiopteris, Scolecopteris and Psaronius, hooked stems of probable gigantopterid affinity, and two kinds of cardiocarpalean ovules. This represents the first indisputable evidence of Anachoropteris from the Permian of China, and contrasts with previous evidence from Europe and North America that indicates this genus became extinct during earliest Permian times. The assemblage highlights the persistence of plants from wetland communities and mire ecosystems into the Upper Permian of southern China, and adds further support to the presence of the Ameriosinian phytogeographical realm. This represents the first record of a plant assemblage preserved in volcaniclastic sediments from the Upper Permian of southern China, and in combination with other recently discovered plant assemblages in similar deposits in southern China, suggests volcanism to be an important factor in facilitating permineralized plant preservation in this realm. Although the source of the volcanism that produced the tuff is unknown, its age and location are consistent with the Emishan Large Igneous Province (LIP) of southwest China.


Background: Mangoes are a popular fruit enjoyed worldwide. The mango is known for its pleasing aroma in addition to its refreshing and soothing taste. Researchers around the globe have demonstrated the diverse beneficial effects of Mangifera indica Linn in human health and disease prevention. Additionally, we should acknowledge how Ayurvedic medicine uses different parts of the mango tree. This branch of medicine has used the leaves, twigs, bark, seeds, flowers, raw and ripe fruits of mango to treat diverse degenerative diseases for thousands of years.Ethnobotany: The mango (Mangifera indica) originally came from India about 4,000 years ago. Since then, the mango has slowly spread across the world. The mango belongs to the family "Anacardiaceae" under the genus "Mangifera" and species "indica". The mango is also referred to as "Asia's King of Fruits" or a Royal fruit. The color of the mango fruit varies from green, yellowish green, yellow, yellowish red, orange red and red. The smell and taste of the mango fruit varies based on its state of maturity in addition to place of origin and climate. Different parts of a mango tree and mango fruit are rich in vitamins and antioxidants including vitamins B, C, E and beta-carotene, alkaloids, flavonoids, and polyphenolic compounds which include mangiferin, anthocyanins and anthocyanidins, micronutrients and essential minerals, structurally diverse carbohydrates, dietary fibers, fat, and protein. Health Benefits: Previous and current research demonstrate that the mango fruit and leaf extract, which is enriched in mangiferin and contains structurally diverse chemical constituents, are beneficial. The mango fruit and leaf extract have been shown to boost vitality, vigor, and endurance, leading to extensive application in exercise physiology. Furthermore, these constitutes ameliorate diverse degenerative disease related to metabolic syndrome, bacterial infections, gastrointestinal, and immunomodulatory disorders.Conclusions: Mango and mangiferin exhibit diverse health benefits including energy boosting, exercise performance, and human health.Keywords: Mango (Mangifera indica); mangiferin; vitamins and anthocyanins; anti-inflammatory; endurance, energy homeostasis; exercise


Mission Through Evangelism for My Father's House Christian Center Stephen De Ruse Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2010 The purpose of this ministry focus paper is to develop a strategy for My Father's House Christian Center to engage the local community through evangelism and realign the church's practice with Christ's mission from a Reformed/evangelical understanding. My Father's House Christian Center (MFHCC) in La Mirada, California, begun as a non-denominational church plant in 1998, is multi-cultural and growing, with a contemporary worship style. Its mission is to reach the local community through evangelism. One problem is the absence of denominational history/structure; church members bring doctrines and practices from their imbedded theology that veer from biblical Christianity. Therefore, MFHCC needs a strategy for evangelism that develops and installs a Reformed/evangelical understanding of Christ's mission. The imbedded theological assumption of many members holds that "faith alone" can accomplish all things pertaining to God. MFHCC's mission stems from the Great Commission, calling us "to go" into the world; whereas, a "faith alone" stance believes that God will use other means to achieve His will. This imbedded theology could cause MFHCC to fail to "go" into its community and lose contact with its mission. The first part of this paper details the history and development of MFHCC, examining the local community for an understanding of ministry context. The absence of a denominational history and its impact on MFHCC are summarized. The second part develops the biblical and theological foundations for MFHCC. The mission of Christ is explored for biblical directives pertaining to engaging the local community evangelically. Additionally, an examination of the Reformation and Evangelical movements supply MFHCC with a ministry background from which to draw an identity. The leadership strategy in the third part is derived from parts one and two. It involves small-group learning clusters to educate about biblical evangelism. This strategy provides a clear method for engaging our local community through evangelism and supplies the church's leadership with a renewed vision for evangelism that will be passed on to the congregation through all ministry teams. Content Reader: John Throop, PhD Words 348


A chicken anti-rat polyclonal antibody to a purified rat liver UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) with catalytic activity toward opioid substrates was used to screen a liver cDNA library prepared from phenobarbital-treated Wistar rats. A number of positive clones were obtained, and one of these clones, pM1, was further characterized. Clone pM1 was found to be a full length cDNA coding for a member of the rat UGT1 gene family. Specifically, pM1 represents the full length homologue of the Gunn rat liver pseudo-gene product UGT1.1P and, therefore, has been designated UGT1.1r. The cDNA insert has an open reading frame of 1605 base pairs, which codes for a protein of 535 amino acids and is flanked by 2 and 632 base pairs of 5' and 3' noncoding sequence, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence of pM1 contains amino acid sequences identical to the amino-terminal and internal peptides of the purified rat liver opioid UGT and to sequences reported for a rat liver bilirubin UGT [FEBS Lett. 299:183-186 (1992)]. Stable expression of UGT1.1r in human embryonic kidney 293 cells showed that a protein with a subunit molecular mass (56 kDa) identical to that of the purified protein was produced. Expressed UGT1.1r protein catalyzed the glucuronidation of buprenorphine and bilirubin at high rates. Other opioids, such as nalorphine and morphine, were also substrates for the expressed UGT1.1r protein. These results show that bilirubin and opioids can be conjugated by the same rat liver UGT.


In recent years, there has been an increase in online shopping resulting in an increased number of online reviews. Customers cannot delve into the huge amount of data when they are looking for specific aspects of a product. Some of these aspects can be extracted from the product reviews. In this paper we introduced SimsterQ - a clustering based system for answering questions that makes use of word vectors. Clustering was performed using cosine similarity scores between sentence vectors of reviews and questions. Two variants (Sim and Median) with and without stopwords were evaluated against traditional methods that use term frequency. We also used an n-gram approach to study the effect of noise. We used the reviews in the Amazon Reviews dataset to pick the answers. Evaluation was performed both at the individual sentence level using the top sentence from Okapi BM25 as the gold standard and at the whole answer level using review snippets as the gold standard. At the sentence level our system performed slightly better than a more complicated deep learning method. Our system returned answers similar to the review snippets from the Amazon QA Dataset as measured by the cosine similarity. Analysis was also performed on the quality of the clusters generated by our system.


This study examines preservice teachers' perspectives on family involvement in special education and effective teaching methods for delivering family-involvement content. Eighty-three preservice teachers provided data on pre- and postadministrations of a questionnaire. The effectiveness of two methods, a video and a guest speaker, in delivering curriculum concerning family involvement was compared. The results indicated that the participants perceived family involvement as relatively important as measured by the preadministration survey. The overall response mean values measured by two postadministrations increased after students were exposed to the course content on family involvement. Results also indicate that the two teaching methods equally contributed to improving preservice teacher knowledge. Implications for teacher education on the importance of family involvement are presented.


This paper tests the 'systems of innovation' hypothesis for a selection of crops in Ghana and Burkina Faso that have shown significant growth in production over an approximately 20-year period. The question is whether such growth can only occur if supported by a system of innovation. Using two indicators (a common understanding on objectives and priorities, and a high level of interactivity) we find little evidence for the existence of anything that might be considered a high functioning system of innovation.


This Briefing Note is intended to assist countries and policy-makers to recognise and support ICCAs (territories and areas conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities) in a manner that is sensitive to and respectful of the many issues involved. It contains the basic facts about ICCAs, condenses and presents the lessons learned and offers recommendations for governments implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA). This Briefing Note also provides concise Dos and Don'ts for governments and civil society committed to sustaining ICCAs' immense benefits for conservation and livelihoods.


The thesis explores the role of Catchment Management Planning [CMP] in promoting sustainable water uses within a river catchment and develops a framework and procedures whereby CMP could be implemented in Malaysia. The study links the concepts of sustainable development and the principles underlying the sustainability of water uses, which are explicit throughout the thesis, with land use, water resources, environmental planning and management controls, using the river catchment or basin as the basis of the framework for water resource management. The mismatch between the intended uses of river water and the prevailing water quality condition of rivers arises from conflicts of interest and can be attributed to the lack of land use and water resource management and control. The thesis emphasises the essential elements of integrating the concept of sustainable development into planning and management activities, while advocating the need for a multidisciplinary and integrative approach to catchment water quality management. The thesis describes the research framework and methodologies, and analyses the concept of sustainable development, the environmental policy for Malaysia, and the land use, water resource and environmental planning and management systems within the Malaysian context. The use of GIS in this area of spatial planning has been very promising, and the thesis demonstrates the functional capabilities of GIS in the identification of pollution problems and problematic areas through water quality modelling and approaches to decision making; this forms the basis for recommended actions in the proposed plan. The plan proposals, which are based on a holistic approach towards sustainability, contain: strategies for improving river water quality through source control and minimising impacts of land use development, while sustaining beneficial river uses; components of planning decision making and implementation; the functions, recommended format and framework for the Malaysian CMP; and opportunities and needs for further research.


The article proposes to reflect on the debate about several delicate moral questions posed by AIDS in the marital sphere, with particular reference to the prevention of the illness, procreation by an HIV-positive woman, and the admission of someone who is HIV-positive to marriage. Although there are undeniable similarities with analogous situations well known to classical moral theology and canon law (e.g. marriage and procreation by a leper, protection of spouses within marriage from syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases), some biological peculiarities of the virus and. above all the changed emotional and cultural context, as well ad the current profound renewal of the paradigms of Christian matrimonial ethics, coincide to bring the old questions into a new light and demand solutions that are perhaps more audacious and more coherent with our understanding of sexuality and marriage.


Traditional chemical industry depends on non-renewable fossil resources and is now facing great challenges. Lignocellulosic materials are the most abundant renewable resources in the world, and their efficient utilization provides a practical route to maintain sustainable development of chemical industry. Modern chemical technology as well as industrial biotechnology will play an important role in comprehensive utilization of lignocellulosic materials in an environmentally friendly way. Bio-refinery is a useful concept in use when considering lignocellulosic materials for a sustainable chemical industry.


[Abstract] The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of using Electronic Commerce Cecommerce) on customer's services at electricity distribution companies in Jordan. The study concludes that the Jordanian distribution companies positively looked at e-commerce and its application in their companies. Their attitudes and views toward e-commerce were positive, so that they found that e-commerce would be an opportunity rather than a challenge or even a threat. Lack of skilled staffs in e-commerce, scarcity of Information Technology (IT) experts, shortage of e- commerce infrastructure, lagging by other supportive sectors (e.g, e-Banking and Telecommunications), and lack of appropriate legislation and regulation were the major obstacles which would hinder the target companies to embrace e-commerce. [Keywords] e-commerce; business to consumer (B2C); e-business; customer services Introduction The intensity of global competition has led to significant changes in the way that companies have conducted their businesses. In addition, Information Technology (IT) increased the pressure on organizations to face customers' demands and achieve their satisfaction (kinicki, Williams, 2006). Organizations are struggling to reduce costs, increase business profits, and improve their market shares in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage. This competitiveness encourages organizations to use new technologies, tools and sophisticated systems to respond effectively and efficiently to the new environment through electronic commerce (Turban, E, et al., 2002). Three electricity distribution companies are valid in Jordan, Jordan Electricity Company(JBCO), Electricity Distribution Company(EDCO) and Irbid Electricity Company (IECO), deliver electric current and ensure its continuity for more than one million customers all over the country and for all kinds of customers. To face IT challenge and be responsive to customer services, companies must develop ways of delivering services easily and efficiently so consumers can know their electricity consumption and its prices, and pay the bells in the easiest way possible and to achieve high quality in these companies. The aim of the study is to identify the effects of using e-commerce in customer services, Business to Consumer (B2C), by searching of the use of these electric companies' e-commerce in delivering their services and by identifying the availability of infrastructure to use e-commerce in these companies. The main obstacles facing using e-commerce in customer services is that internet services may deliver or may deliver, which may reflect poorly on these companies when using Internet for achieving these purposes. Study Questions The study tries to answer the following questions: A) What are the attitudes, and views of electricity distribution companies regarding e-commerce use? B) To what extent have the target companies prepared the infrastructure for e-commerce use? C) What are the services provided by the target companies to their customers via e- commerce? D) What are the expected benefits for the studied companies from e-commerce in dealing with and providing services to customers? E) What are the main obstacles facing using e-commerce in the target companies? The Hypotheses of the Study H01: There is no statistical significant effect for attitudes in distribution companies towards using ecommerce in customer services. H02: There is no statistical significant effect for availability of e- commerce infrastructure in the target companies in the use e-commerce in customer services. H03: There is no statistical significant effect for the nature of services provided by target companies in the use of e-commerce in customer services. H04: There is no statistical significant effect for the benefits of using the target companies' application of e-commerce in the use e-commerce in customer services. …


In the present study the feasibility of applying synchrotron radiation to the morphological study of early-stage lung cancer has been investigated. Lewis lung cancer was implanted and grown in a nude mouse for different periods, and imaged using phase-contrast synchrotron X-rays. Morphological differences were clearly shown between the normal lung and cancerous tissues at this early stage. Irregular and tortuous angiogenesis were found in the periphery region of the developing lung cancer. Results from this study indicate that synchrotron X-rays can be used for imaging cancer development and progression with minimal invasion.


Each year Americans lose track of personal property worth, in the aggregate, hundreds of millions of dollars. We fail, for example, to cash checks for stock dividends or salary payments and neglect to claim security deposits or insurance benefits. Laws in all 50 states require businesses that hold certain kinds of unclaimed property to transfer such property to the state after periods of inactivity that vary from less than one to seven years. State governments do not themselves take title to this unclaimed property, but hold the property in perpetuity as custodian for the owner or the owner's heirs and devisees. As a result of the unclaimed property laws, states have acquired many billions of dollars of unclaimed property. This article discusses how the practical effects of these laws force us to reconsider some of the theoretical underpinnings of a variety of tax doctrines, including constructive receipt, the definition of debt, and the tax benefit rule. In particular, it exposes how our substantive tax laws assume that taxpayers act intentionally, as rational actors knowledgeable about and aware of their actions. The case of unclaimed property reminds us that our tax laws apply to human behavior and that our tax base needs to allow for human frailty. It helps us to highlight those tax doctrines, such as surrogate taxation or the rules applicable to fiduciaries, that allow for human carelessness. The study further suggests that the contours of many tax doctrines be limited to voluntary, or at least conscious, actions. Of special significance would be rethinking our notion of debt to require some conscious intention on the part of the taxpayer to make a loan.


A conceptual stochastic model is developed that describes the natural spatial variability of nonreactive solute concentrations in large groundwater systems. The spatial variation in aqueous concentration is associated with dissolution from source areas of high mineral enrichment in the aquifer matrix. The stochastic model considers randomly varying inputs of a solute species from source deposits that occur as a two-dimensional spatial Poisson process. A steady state advective-dispersive transport equation is utilized to predict the downgradient movement of the solute from the source areas. The total groundwater concentration at any location is calculated from the superposition of the individual contributions from each source area in the aquifer. A spatially varying concentration field results, described mathematically by a filtered Poisson process model. The theoretical concentration field is nonstationary, with the mean and variance increasing, and the coefficient of variation decreasing, in the direction of groundwater flow. Gaussian fields for abundant elements and highly skewed probability distributions for trace elements are indicated by the filtered Poisson process model. Evaluation of elemental concentration data from the Sherwood aquifer in England demonstrates how field data may be analyzed in the context of the stochastic model.


The exposure of two senior republicans as informers for British intelligence in 2005 led to a popular perception that the IRA had 'lost' the intelligence war and was pressurised into peace. In this first in-depth study across the entire conflict, Thomas Leahy re-evaluates the successes and failures of Britain's intelligence activities against the IRA, from the use of agents and informers to special-forces, surveillance and electronic intelligence. Using new interview material alongside memoirs and Irish and UK archival materials, he suggests that the IRA was not forced into peace by British intelligence. His work sheds new light on key questions in intelligence and security studies. How does British intelligence operate against paramilitaries? Is it effective? When should governments 'talk to terrorists'? And does regional variation explain the outcome of intelligence conflicts? This is a major contribution to the history of the conflict and of why peace emerged in Northern Ireland.


Bridging the 'reality gap' that separates simulated robotics from experiments on hardware could accelerate robotic research through improved data availability. This paper explores domain randomization, a simple technique for training models on simulated images that transfer to real images by randomizing rendering in the simulator. With enough variability in the simulator, the real world may appear to the model as just another variation. We focus on the task of object localization, which is a stepping stone to general robotic manipulation skills. We find that it is possible to train a real-world object detector that is accurate to 1.5 cm and robust to distractors and partial occlusions using only data from a simulator with non-realistic random textures. To demonstrate the capabilities of our detectors, we show they can be used to perform grasping in a cluttered environment. To our knowledge, this is the first successful transfer of a deep neural network trained only on simulated RGB images (without pre-training on real images) to the real world for the purpose of robotic control.


In next generation wireless networks, mobile users roam across different wireless access networks. Mobile IP is employed as the mobility management protocol in the all-IP wireless environment. But mobile IP has scalability problem when dealing with micro-mobility and cannot provision QoS for multimedia applications of mobile users. In this paper, we propose dynamic hierarchical mobile MPLS (DHMM) protocol for micro-mobility management, at the same time facilitating the system with traffic engineering and QoS provisioning capabilities. By employing DHMM protocol in the all-IP wireless access network, the end-to-end delay can be considerably reduced and the traffic distribution in the network can be well balanced through MPLS traffic engineering.


The problem of this study was to develop a model for a student-centered plan of teaching Introduction to Basic Business at the secondary school level. The purposes were (1) to provide an alternative approach to teaching basic business so that the students and the teacher will be intimately involved in the learning process, (2) to propose a realistic plan that will provide a stimulating environment for cognitive achievement and positive affective development, and (3) to enhance the overall image of the basic business course. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in student achievement in the student-centered class when compared to student achievement in the traditional class. A second hypothesis proposed that there would be a significant difference in positive student attitude in the student-centered class when compared to student attitude in the traditional class. Two secondary school Introduction to Basic Business classes, consisting of a total of forty-three students, participated in the study. The classes were randomly assigned as student-centered and traditional. The same teacher was responsible for both classes.


The aims of this study were to investigate the beliefs concerning the philosophy of science held by practising science teachers and to relate those beliefs to their pupils' understanding of the philosophy of science. Three philosophies of science, differing in the way they relate experimental work to other parts of the scientific enterprise, are described. By the use of questionnaire techniques, teachers of four extreme types were identified. These are: the H type or hypothetico-deductivist teacher, who sees experiments as potential falsifiers of hypotheses or of logical deductions from them; the I type or inductivist teacher, who regards experiments mainly as a way of increasing the range of observations available for recording before patterns are noted and inductive generalisation is carried out; the V type or verificationist teacher, who expects experiments to provide proof and to demonstrate the truth or accuracy of scientific statements; and the 0 type, who has no discernible philosophical beliefs about the nature of science or its methodology. Following interviews of selected teachers to check their responses to the questionnaire and to determine their normal teaching methods, an experiment was organised in which parallel groups were given H, I and V type teaching in the normal school situation during most of one academic year. Using pre-test and post-test scores on a specially developed test of pupil understanding of the philosophy of science, it was shown that pupils were positively affected by their teacher's implied philosophy of science. There was also some indication that V type teaching improved marks obtained in school science examinations, but appeared to discourage the more able from continuing the study of science. Effects were also noted on vocabulary used by pupils to describe scientists and their activities.


Context. The FIELDS instrument onboard Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observes dust impacts on the spacecraft. The derived dust flux rates suggest that the particles originate from the vicinities of the Sun and are ejected by radiation pressure. Radiation pressure typically ejects particles of several 100 nm and smaller, which are also affected by the electromagnetic force.
Aims. We aim to understand the influence of the electromagnetic force on the dust trajectories and to predict the dust fluxes along the orbit of PSP, within 1 AU and near Earth.
Methods. We study the trajectories of dust particles influenced by gravity, radiation pressure, and the electromagnetic force assuming that pitch-angle scattering can be neglected (scatter-free approximation). We estimate the dust fluxes along the second orbit of PSP and in the vicinity of the Earth based on average dust velocities derived from the trajectory calculations and dust production rates derived from a fragmentation model.
Results. The calculated cumulative flux of dust particles larger than 100 nm is of the same order (within a factor of ~2) as implied by PSP observations. In this size interval, the dynamics of most particles is dominated by the radiation pressure force. The Lorentz force becomes more important for smaller particles and fluxes can vary with magnetic field conditions. The calculated flux of the 30 to 75 nm particles at the PSP is negligible for most of the second orbit, except for an isolated peak at the perihelion. The 30–75 nm particles that were created inwards from 0.16 AU from the Sun are in trapped orbits if the radiation pressure force is weaker than gravity, which is the case for dust from asteroids and for cometary dust that was altered in space.
Conclusions. The inner Solar System is the most likely source of dust smaller than 100 nm that enters Earth's atmosphere and our results suggest the flux is time-variable.


We are investigating how and why mathematicians invent new concepts while developing a theory, and implementing our ideas into the HR system, which automatically produces, assesses and displays concepts in finite algebras, such as finite group theory. We fit'st determined a reason for HI~ to produce concepts to classify a given set of groups up to isomorphism. Doing so would involve inventing concepts which help describe groups, so a classification can occur, and inventing concepts which help generate new examples of groups, so that improvements to the classification are necessitated, perpetuating the process. Next, we developed measures to tell us how interesting the concepts produced were (see Colton 1997). This helped us determine the kinds of concepts HR. should produce and with this in mind, we implemented production rules taking one (or two) concepts as input and outputting a new concept.


Rhizomania caused by the Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) is a worldwide problem that can lead to loss of tonnage and lower percent sucrose in the field. BNYVV can also reduce the storability of roots. To identify germplasm with resistance to these problems, 14 sugarbeet germplasm lines developed by the USDA-ARS Ft. Collins sugarbeet program were screened in a field experiment arranged in a randomized complete block design with 5 replications. During the growing season plants were evaluated for foliar rhizomania symptoms. At harvest on 29 September, roots were evaluated for rhizomania symptoms and then placed into an indoor commercial sugarbeet storage building in Paul, ID. Foliar symptoms ranged from 0% for one of the resistant checks to 99% for the susceptible check, indicating good separation of germplasm for BNYVV resistance should have been possible in the field study. BNYVV root symptoms ranged from a low of 14 for a resistant check to a high of 25 for one of the susceptible entries at harvest. Fungal growth on the root surface in storage ranged from a low of 21% for an entry with good storability to a high of 100% for the BNYVV susceptible check. Entry 6 ranked among the best entries for all variables indicating it should be investigated further as a potential source of good resistance to these problems. Incorporating better resistance to BNYVV and good storability into commercial sugarbeet cultivars should allow for increased yields in the field and improved recovery of sucrose from roots in storage.


In this paper, firstly the relationship between accruals/real transactions based earnings management and audit opinion is investigated. Secondly, the effect of prior modified audit opinion on audit firm switch is investigated. 1121 firm'year observations on Borsa Istanbul Manufacturing Industry are used. The results show that there is positive and significant relationship between the signed/absolute value of discretionary accruals and modified audit opinion. There is no relationship between the total amount of the abnormal production cost/abnormal operating expenses and modified audit opinion. A positive and significant relationship between prior modified auditor opinion and audit firm switch is determined. Audit rotation regulation has an effect on the audit firm switch in 2013 and companies change their audit firms.


This paper presents the development of a conceptual model of a database that allows the monitoring of changes in watersheds over time and verifies the impact of these changes on runoff. The conceptual model was developed using ER modeling techniques. ER diagrams were constructed from the semantic analysis of the variables involved in the issue of runoff in watersheds using the Curve Number method of Natural Resource Conservation Service. The conceptual model was developed based on the concepts of states and events, and the use of time as a basis for organizing spatial data allowed to record the time and place of any changes. The model of representation of spatial data based on object was employed. Through the proposed conceptual model, it is possible to store the results of several simulations for a watershed, linking each simulation to a specific event and identifying which scenario is valid at the time. Thus, it is possible to identify quantitative changes related to runoff over time and relate them to the events that caused them and the entities involved in such events. The conceptual model supports the existence of alternate realities, allowing the simulation and comparison of past and future scenarios.


This article offers a novel pluralist process theory of transitional justice. The theory leads to a prescriptive recommendation: institutions that account for mass violence should be primarily locally controlled and always precisely tailored to particular societies through an inclusive constitutive process. The paper first describes the design flaws of international criminal law as a response to mass atrocities. It proposes that effective transitional justice mechanisms are those that successfully reconstruct social norms opposing mass violence. Drawing from several disciplines, the article suggests that such reconstruction requires the local population to perceive transitional justice mechanisms as legitimate and the values they propound as worthy of internalization – hence they must be carefully tailored to the society they serve. The paper provides the first comprehensive attempt to catalogue the perceptions and attitudes of local populations toward contemporary transitional justice mechanisms. It reviews quantitative and qualitative evidence and concludes that the varieties of transitional justice each have strengths and limitations that might make them more or less appropriate for a given society. To craft effective transitional justice mechanisms, the article offers design principles that aim to buttress the legitimacy of the source, procedure, and substance of these institutions, as well as evidence-based and locally grounded methods to implement these principles. This pluralist process design may more effectively reconstruct norms in societies afflicted by mass violence. This approach suggests a new direction for public international law, in which "international" is interpreted as pluralist rather than universalist and "law" is viewed as process rather than mandated content.


To deepen our understanding of graph neural networks, we investigate the representation power of Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN) through the looking glass of graph moments, a key property of graph topology encoding path of various lengths. We find that GCNs are rather restrictive in learning graph moments. Without careful design, GCNs can fail miserably even with multiple layers and nonlinear activation functions. We analyze theoretically the expressiveness of GCNs, arriving at a modular GCN design, using different propagation rules. Our modular design is capable of distinguishing graphs from different graph generation models for surprisingly small graphs, a notoriously difficult problem in network science. Our investigation suggests that, depth is much more influential than width, with deeper GCNs being more capable of learning higher order graph moments. Additionally, combining GCN modules with different propagation rules is critical to the representation power of GCNs.


The element of faith as well as experience which we mentioned earlier, is very much in evidence in the use of Unani medicines. While some of the elements of these medicines can be common, everyday dry fruits, others are somewhat more exotic, and imported from different parts of the world. The video clips in this section shed some light on how Unani practitioners talk about it.


Dents are one of the common integrity threats of long-distance transmission pipelines. The current CSA Z662 standard assesses dents based on the dent depth. However, the severity of dent features is a function of many factors. Most recently, numerical modeling via finite element analysis (FEA) has been utilized to assess dent severity, however the approach is computationally expensive. Recently, the authors' research group developed a robust but much simplified analytical model to evaluate the strains in dented pipes based on the geometry of the deformed pipe. When the strain distribution predicted using the analytical model is benchmarked against the strains by nonlinear FEA they showed a good agreement with certain error. The procedure, however, predicts more conservative results in terms of the maximum equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ). In order to estimate the accuracy in the recently developed model, a series of nonlinear FEA pipe indentation simulations were conducted using the finite element analysis tool, ABAQUS and compared with the analytical prediction.
 This paper presents an application of a Bayesian machine learning method named Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) for the accuracy assessment of the developed analytical model for dent strain assessment, quantifying the error in comparison with the FEA in terms of the maximum PEEQ. The Gaussian Process (GP) model holds many advantages such as easy coding, prediction with probability interpretation, and self-adaptive acquisition of hyper-parameters.
 By varying the dent depth and the indenter radius, this paper provides a model that quantifies the error in the developed analytical model. The proposed model can be utilized to rapidly determine the severity of a dent along with the accuracy of the prediction. This analysis method can also serve as a reference for other analytical expressions.


Background and Aim
Mental health costs UK businesses billions of pounds each year through high levels of absence and presenteeism. Despite improved interventions around enabling people with mental health conditions back into and remaining in work through Supported Employment, the figures around retention are discouraging. People with mental health conditions see employment as a sign of recovery and clinicians also support returning to work as an important step in development. Research has largely focused on trying to improve the employment rates of people with mental health conditions who have already accessed mental health services. However, there are many people in employment who are struggling with poor mental health who have chosen not to disclose to their employer about their condition, leading to issues around presenteeism. This study therefore focuses on developing psychological interventions for people struggling in work, who may not access Supported Employment services.

Method
Four participants took part in a collaborative action research process over four group sessions. Participants were co-researchers in the process, where the group worked to identify and test out interventions that might improve managing mental health conditions at work. The transcripts were then analysed using constructivist grounded theory to develop an overarching model.

Results
The model proposed highlights the role of the individual and the organisation in improving the management of mental health conditions at work, facilitated by the line management relationship. The model suggests that individuals could improve their own mental health by developing their self-awareness, work-life balance, mindfulness practice and aligning job choice with personal values. The organisation could further work on establishing a culture and physical environment centred on well-being to support individuals through line management relationships.

Discussion
Counselling Psychologists could play an important role in developing interventions around retention and also champion piloting mental health support groups in work to enable sustained change.


Biodiesel is defined as renewable fuel for diesel engines, derived from vegetable oil or animal fats. Beef tallow is one residual material from slaughterhouses which main destination is the soap industry . The objective of the study was to utilize waste animal fat (beef) for biodiesel production using solid oxide catalyst. The solid oxide catalyst derived from the industrial waste shells of egg. The waste materials calcined in air with temperature 900 o C and time 2 hours, transformed calcium species in the shells into active CaO catalysts. The oil contains high free fatty acid (FFA) content of 1.85%. The acid value of the oil was reduced by acid esterification. The product from this stage was subjected to transesterification to produce biodiesel. Transesterification process produces methyl ester and glycerol. The produced methyl ester on the upper layer was separated from the glycerol and then washed. Effect of various process variables such as reaction time and molar ratio of alcohol to beef tallow were investigated. The biodiesel properties like methyl ester content, density, and viscosity was evaluated and was found to compare well with Indonesian Standard (SNI). Under best condition, the maximum yield of 82,43% beef tallow methyl ester was obtained by using 9:1 molar ratio of methanol to beef tallow at 55 o C, for a reaction time 90 minutes in the presence 3 wt% of CaO catalyst. The results of this work showed that the use of beef tallow is very suitable as low cost feedstock for biodiesel production.


The forest products industry is rapidly adopting e-commerce solutions as it advances in the information age. In this chapter, the unique e-commerce needs of this sector's small businesses are discussed. Current experience and specific examples of e-commerce usage are given. A strategic e-commerce planning methodology is provided and links to support e-commerce education for forest products businesses are given.


Ghana and South Korea have experienced regime changes from politically closed regimes to liberal democracy since their independences from Britain and Japan. This study elaborates on important factors that affect regime shifts in both countries. After reviewing a vast array of literatures, I argue that economic reform and civil society directly influenced democratization in Ghana. Neo-liberal economic reform led by international forces created decentralization and social movements that gave pressures to President Jerry Rawlings to consider running for a democratic presidential election. Social movements from below directly caused the democratization in South Korea. The dictator Chun gave up his power in the face of massive demonstrations of students, labor, and oppositions and so on. Modernization indirectly contributed to democratization with social changes such as increasing level of education and urbanization in both countries. Political culture has affected democratic consolidation rather than democratic transition.


Importance of contraction for belief change notwithstanding, literature on iterated belief change has by and large centered around the issue of iterated belief revision, ignoring the problem of iterated belief contraction. In this paper we examine iterated belief contraction in a principled way, starting with Qualified Insertion, a proposal by Hans Rott. We show that a judicious combination of Qualified Insertion with a well-known Factoring principle leads to what is arguably a pivotal principle of iterated belief contraction. We show that this principle is satisfied by the account of iterated belief contraction modelled by Lexicographic State Contraction, and outline its connection with Lexicographic Revision, Darwiche-Pearl's account of revision as well as Spohn's Ordinal ranking theory.


Giovanni Calice, a professor at the University of Southampton, builds in this paper a new theoretical model for pricing of credit default swap (CDS) contracts with asymmetric collateralisation agreements. The study, one of the few in the field, represents a timely contribution to the discussion on the financial links between asymmetric collateralisation and the related hedging activities by Credit Value Adjustment (CVA) desks on the market for sovereign CDS. Calice finds that CDS prices are related to collateral costs and so to the operation of CVA desks of financial institutions. It follows that not posting collateral on derivatives transactions, a widespread practice by sovereigns, may increase borrowing costs in particular for countries that have a significant amount of notional outstanding CDSs contracts. This situation means that, in an asymmetric collateralisation transaction, the increase of CDS spreads may affect the cost of debt, exacerbating an already unstable situation. The study also considers why, during the euro area sovereign debt crisis, CVA practices (such as hedging asymmetric collateralisation) have emerged as one of the variables that have influenced the evolution of sovereign CDS markets. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) have sponsored this study as part of a paper series drafted by key international experts on financial markets issues.