In electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, the battery systems are usually composed of up to thousands of battery cells connected in series or parallel to provide the voltage and power/energy requirements. The inconsistent cells could affect the battery pack and its performance or even endanger electric and hybrid-electric aircraft security; thus, the early fault diagnosis of the battery system is essential. A well-designed battery management system along with a set of reliable voltage and current sensors is required to properly measure and control the cells operational variables in a large battery pack. In this study, based on the battery working mechanism, a new, fast, and robust fault diagnostic scheme is proposed for a lithium-ion battery (LIB) pack that can be employed for applications such as electric and hybrid-electric aircraft. In this method, some faults such as the overcharge, overdischarge occurring in LIB packs can be detected and isolated, based on some predefined factors gained from the battery models in healthy, overcharge, and overdischarge conditions. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed fast fault diagnosis scheme is experimentally validated with LIBs under a typical flight cycle.


N-Phenyl- 2- naphthylamine, formerly used as a antioxidant in the rubber industry, was selected for toxicology and carcinogenesis studies because at the time of nomination (1976) it had a large annual production and widespread human exposure. Additional reasons for selection included it structural similarity and possible metabolism to the known human urinary bladder carcinogen, 2-naphthylamine. Toxicology and carcinogenesis studies were conducted by feeding diets containing N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine (approximately 98% pure and containing less than 1 ppm 2-naphthylamine) at various concentrations to groups of F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice of each sex for 14 days, 13 weeks, or 2 years. Fourteen-Day and Thirteen-Week Studies: In 14-day studies, 3/5 male and 4/5 female rats that received 50,000 ppm N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine died before the end of the studies. Final mean body weights of rats that received 12,500 ppm or more were considerably lower (18%-57%) than those of the controls. Arched backs, rough coats, and diarrhea were observed for males that received 12,500 ppm or more and for females that received 25,000 or 50,000 ppm. All mice were alive at the end of the studies, and no compound-related clinical signs of toxicity were observed in mice given feed containing up to 20,000 ppm. In 13-week studies, deaths occurred in 4/10 male and 9/10 female rats that received the highest dose (40,000 ppm) of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. Final mean body weights of rats that received 5,000-40,000 ppm were 9%-60% lower than those of the controls. The liver weight to body weight ratios increased with increasing dose, with the ratios for male rats at 10,000 ppm or more and for female rats at 5,000 ppm being greater (P<0.05) than those of controls. A compound-related nephropathy occurred in rats and was characterized by renal tubular epithelial degeneration and hyperplasia. Other effects in rats included hematopoietic hypoplasia or atrophy of the femoral bone marrow, testicular hypospermatogenesis, lymphoid degeneration of the thymus, and lymphoid depletion of the spleen. In mice, 2/10 males and 7/10 females that received 40,000 ppm died before the end of the 13-week studies. The final mean body weights of mice that received 10,000, 20,000, or 40,000 ppm were 9%-32% lower than those of the controls. The liver weight to body weight ratios for mice increased with increasing dose. Those for male mice at 10,000 ppm or more and for female mice at 20,000 ppm or more were greater (P<0.05) than those for the controls. Nephropathywas observed at increased incidences and severity in dosed mice. Because of kidney lesions, liver enlargement, lower weight gain, and increased mortality in the shorter term studies, dietary concentrations of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine selected for the 2-year studies in rats and mice were 0, 2,5000, and 5,000 ppm. Body Weight and Survival in the Two-Year Studies: The mean body weights of dosed rats were lower than those of the controls throughout the studies (12% and 16% lower for dosed males and 15% and 31% lower for dosed females at the end of the studies). The average daily feed consumption for rats was 94%-87% that of the controls for dosed males and 88% that of the controls for dosed females. The estimated average amount of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine consumed per day was 100 mg/kg and 225 mg/kg for male rats and 120 mg/kg and 260 mg/kg for female rats. The survival of the high dose group of male rats was greater (P<0.05) than that of the controls after week 101 (male: control, 24/50; low dose, 28/50; high dose, 34/50; female: 26/50; 44/50; 38/50). Final mean body weights of high dose male and female mice were lower (male, 9%; female, 23%) than those of the controls. The estimated average daily feed consumption by dosed mice was within 10% that of the controls. The average amount of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine consumed per day was approximately 500 or 1,000 mg/kg for male mice and 450 or 900 mg/kg for female mice. No significant differences in survival were observed between any groups of mice of either sex (male: control, 33/50; male mice. No significant differences in survival were observed between any groups of mice of either sex (male: control, 33/50; low dose, 36/50; high dose, 28/50; female: 36/50; 30/50; 35/50). Nonneoplastic and Neoplastic Effects in the Two-Year Studies: As in the 13-week studies, the kidney was the principal target for toxic effects of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. Mineralization of the kidney, necrosis of the renal papilla, and epithelial hyperplasia and calculi of the kidney pelvis were observed at increased incidences in high dose female rats. Hydronephrosis, atrophy, fibrosis, and chronic focal inflammation of the kidney were observed at increased incidences in high dose female rats. Cysts and acute suppurative inflammation of the kidney were observed at increased incidences in dosed male and high dose female rats. No compound-related renal neoplasms were observed in rats. Nuclear enlargement of renal tubular epithelial cells and nephropathy were observed at increased incidences in high dose female mice. Atypical tubular cell hyperplasia occurred in two high dose female mice. A tubular cell adenoma was found in one high dose female mouse, and a tubular cell adenocarcinoma was found in another high dose female mouse. No renal neoplasms were observed in dosed male mice. Neoplasms of several organs occurred in rats with negative trends and/or at significantly lower incidences in high dose groups. These included thyroid gland C-cell neoplasms in males and females and mammary gland fibroadenomas, pituitary gland adenomas, and mononuclear cell leukemia in females. The lack of carcinogenicity in rats may be related to an inability to metabolize this compound to the known animal and human carcinogen 2-napththylamine. Genetic Toxicity: N-Phenyl-2-naphthylamine was not mutagenic in the Salmonella typhimurium/microsome assay with strains TA97, TA98, TA100, or TA1535 with or without induced hamster or rat liver S9. The chemical did not induce chromosomal aberrations in cultured Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells with or without metabolic activation. No increase in sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) was observed in the absence of metabolic activation; in the presence of rat liver S9, the SCE results were judged to be equivocal. Data Audit: The data, documents, and pathology materials from the 2-year studies of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine were audited at the NTP Archives. The audit findings show thatthe conduct of the studies is documented adequately and support the data and results given in this Technical Report. Conclusions: Under the conditions of these 2-year feed studies, there was no evidence of carcinogenic activity for male or female F344/N rats fed diets containing 2,500 or 5,000 ppm N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. Decreased incidences of several neoplasms were observed in dosed rats: thyroid gland C-cell neoplasms in males and females and mononuclear cell leukemia, pituitary gland adenomas, and mammary gland fibroadenomas in females. There was no evidence of carcinogenic activity for male B6C3F1 mice fed diets containing 2,500 or 5,000 ppm N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. There was equivocal evidence of carcinogenic activity of N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine for female B6C3F1 mice as indicated by the occurrence of two rare kidney neoplasms. Chemical-related nonneoplastic lesions (nephropathy, karyomegaly, and hyperplasia) occurred in the kidney of rats and mice. Synonyms: N-(2-naphthyl)aniline; 2-naphthylphenylamine; b-naphthylphenylamine; 2-phenylaminonaphthalene; phenyl-b-naphthylamine; N-phenyl-b-naphthylamine Trade Names: Aceto PBN; Agerite Powder: Antioxidant 116; Neosone D; Neozon D; Nilox PBNA; Nonox D; PBNA; Stabilizator AR


This study investigated the effect of solid‐to‐liquid ratio (0.4–1.0) on the properties of geopolymer, in which some metakaolinite was replaced by solar panel waste glass (0–40%). The experimental results indicate that geopolymer containing 10% solar panel waste glass at a solid‐to‐liquid ratio of 1.0 has higher compressive strength than geopolymer without solar panel waste glass at 1 and 7 days of curing. Thus, geopolymer containing 10% solar panel waste glass is more suitable than geopolymer without solar panel waste glass for practical applications. Furthermore, the porosity of the geopolymer declined as the density increased. The experimental results showed that the degree of reaction of the geopolymer increased with the solid‐to‐liquid ratio. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra revealed that the principal peaks from the geopolymer corresponded to the Si—O—Al bonds. The scanning electron microscopy of the geopolymer indicated that the main structure of a geopolymer that contained solar panel glass with a higher solid‐to‐liquid ratio was more compact and homogenous, which is consistent with the higher density and lower porosity. The experimental results showed that the solid‐to‐liquid ratio affected the properties of geopolymer considerably. In addition, we observed some positive influence of the solar panel waste glass on the compressive strength of metakaolinite‐based geopolymer; however, it was limited to the early compressive strength. Furthermore, the degree of reaction of the geopolymer that contained 10% solar panel waste glass was similar to that of the metakaolinite‐based geopolymer when the positive influence on the compressive strength diminished. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 797–803, 2013


Reliable germline transformation is required for molecular studies and ultimately for genetic control of economically important insects, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) Ceratitis capitata. A prerequisite for the establishment and maintenance of transformant lines is selectable or phenotypically dominant markers. To this end, a complementary DNA clone derived from the medfly white gene was isolated, which showed substantial similarity to white genes in Drosophila melanogaster and other Diptera. It is correlated with a spontaneous mutation causing white eyes in the medfly and can be used to restore partial eye color in transgenic Drosophila carrying a null mutation in the endogenous white gene.


Pressure-induced transitions from ordered intermetallic phases to substitutional alloys to semi-ordered phases were studied in a series of bismuth tellurides. Using angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction, the compounds Bi4Te5, BiTe, and Bi2Te were observed to form alloys with the disordered body-centered cubic (bcc) crystal structure upon compression to above 14--19 GPa at room temperature. The BiTe and Bi2Te alloys and the previously discovered high-pressure alloys of Bi2Te3 and Bi4Te3 were all found to show atomic ordering after gentle annealing at very moderate temperatures of ~100°C. Upon annealing, BiTe transforms from the bcc to the B2 (CsCl) crystal structure type, and the other phases adopt semi-disordered variants thereof, featuring substitutional disorder on one of the two crystallographic sites. The transition pressures and atomic volumes of the alloy phases show systematic variations across the Bi_mTe_n series including the end members Bi and Te. First-principles calculations were performed to characterize the electronic structure and chemical bonding properties of B2-type BiTe and to identify the driving forces of the ordering transition. The calculated Fermi surface of B2-type BiTe has an intricate structure and is predicted to undergo three topological changes between 20 and 60 GPa.


The Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) coat protein transgene present in 'Rainbow' and 'SunUp' papayas disclose high sequence similarity (>89%) to the cp gene from PRSV BR and TH. Despite this, both isolates are able to break down the resistance in 'Rainbow', while only the latter is able to do so in 'SunUp'. The objective of this work was to evaluate the degree of sequence similarity between the cp gene in the challenge isolate and the cp transgene in transgenic papayas resistant to PRSV. The production of a hybrid virus containing the genome backbone of PRSV HA up to the Apa I site in the NIb gene, and downstream from there, the sequence of PRSV TH was undertaken. This hybrid virus, PRSV HA/TH, was obtained and used to challenge 'Rainbow', 'SunUp', and an R2 population derived from line 63-1, all resistant to PRSV HA. PRSV HA/TH broke down the resistance in both papaya varieties and in the 63-1 population, demonstrating that sequence similarity is a major factor in the mechanism of resistance used by transgenic papayas expressing the cp gene. A comparative analysis of the cp gene present in line 55-1 and 63-1-derived transgenic plants and in PRSV HA, BR, and TH was also performed.


Unstructured social group activity recognition in web videos is a challenging task due to 1) the semantic gap between class labels and low-level visual features and 2) the lack of labeled training data. To tackle this problem, we propose a "relevance topic model" for jointly learning meaningful mid-level representations upon bag-of-words (BoW) video representations and a classifier with sparse weights. In our approach, sparse Bayesian learning is incorporated into an undirected topic model (i.e., Replicated Softmax) to discover topics which are relevant to video classes and suitable for prediction. Rectified linear units are utilized to increase the expressive power of topics so as to explain better video data containing complex contents and make variational inference tractable for the proposed model. An efficient variational EM algorithm is presented for model parameter estimation and inference. Experimental results on the Unstructured Social Activity Attribute dataset show that our model achieves state of the art performance and outperforms other supervised topic model in terms of classification accuracy, particularly in the case of a very small number of labeled training videos.


Background: Vulnerability is universally present but experienced biopsychosocially on an individual level. Stigma develops when populations are labelled vulnerable. Individual vulnerability can be lessened by resources accessed to assist in developing resilience. A deeper analysis of vulnerability and resilience is required to inform policy, ethics, law and social life.
Design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches were used.
Sample: Five papers represented the perspectives of 102 women, 21 clinicians and 13 student midwives. A further paper presented a concept analysis which included the perspectives of 10,067 women and 325 clinicians (total sample size women n=10,169; clinicians n=346; student midwives n=13).
Methods: Gadamer's ontological perspective of time, place and culture and was seen through Engel's biopsychosocial lens. Epistemologically, truth originated from multiple realities. Methodologically, women's experiences were captured via mixed methods.
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Analysis: Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were synthesised via framework analysis.
Findings: A coherent theme of vulnerability in maternity care was apparent. Women's concerns were trivialised. The professional's style of communication determined the women's experience of maternity care. Clinician control of care provision undermined women's ability to choose. Women developed resilience in adverse circumstances via: accessing other supportive members of society, identifying their need for information, talking to others and developing accommodative coping strategies.
Conclusion: The new conceptual model, in this thesis, should be evaluated via mixed methods. A biopsychosocial approach should underpin informed choice. Clinicians need raised awareness about how interaction can lower women's self-esteem and build resilience in others. Higher education needs to challenge preconceived biases in safe environments via reflective processes. Research should explore women's influential circle in decision making during maternity care. Women should be involved in the design of research to inform how best to capture their complex lived experience. Funders of research and ethics committees should request information about how implementation of evidence may be influenced by the current clinical environment. Impact should be measured post implementation. Social policy should be informed by a deeper, conceptual analysis of vulnerability and resilience.


The study focuses on the determination of metal site availability in silica-encapsulated Pd catalysts (Pd@SiO2). Existing synthetic methods are modified to achieve a high metal loading (up to 6 wt%) and porosity (surface area of 700 m2 g−1) while maintaining the original Pd nanoparticle size of 8 nm. Two synthesis schemes are used for encapsulating Pd NPs, and the resulting catalysts are assessed in lean methane combustion at up to 823 K. Application of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as a Pd particle stabilizer and a potential porogen alone is concluded to be inadvisable as it results in catalysts with a surface area of 70 m2 g−1 that show extremely low activity due to Pd inaccessibility. The high-surface area materials (700 m2 g−1) prepared via a separate introduction of PVP and an additional porogen (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) are active and exhibit the same turnover frequencies as the traditional catalysts but require smaller reactor sizes because of the high metal loading. However, 2/3 of the Pd nanoparticle surface is blocked by the shell material even in the highly porous catalysts. The silica-encapsulated catalysts, thus, offer advantages of high mass-based activity and sintering resistance of the metal cores, but their high porosity must be ensured for efficient mass transfer by the addition of a porogen (such as CTAB) during the Stober process. Above a certain limit, the increased amount of the porogen does not improve the metal accessibility and only leads to precious metal loss during synthesis.


Both recent scholarship on the literature of travel and emergent theories of the transnational have ignored the key roles played by twentieth-century philosophies and institutions of leisure. This article begins to consider the cultural and material history of leisure as a significant trope in modernism by identifying an aesthetics of leisure developed in Henry James's letters and fiction, particularly his late novel The Ambassadors (1903). The critical charge of this novel, I argue, resides in its transformation of two contemporaneous discourses—the Protestant work ethic and its lesser-known but equally pervasive counterpart, the ideology of modern leisure—into an aesthetically productive dialectic of labor and leisure. Considering James's aesthetics of leisure as theme and style in his fiction and as a self-consciously elaborated mode of literary production in his non-fiction suggests the broader significance of leisure for modernism.


Conjugated polymer pseudocapacitors achieve high capacitances because they store charge through fast, reversible redox reactions. However, most of these polymers are only capable of storing charge in a 'positive' potential range, which results in low operating voltages and limited energy and power densities. The development of higher energy and power density polymer supercapacitors therefore hinges on the development of 'negative' charge-accepting pseudocapacitive materials to increase device operating voltages. Herein, we report the synthesis of a novel class of n-type pyreno[4,5-b]thieno[3,4-e]pyrazine (PTP) polymers. These polymers form the thickest films reported for reversibly negative and positive charge-accepting polymers synthesized by electrochemical oxidative polymerization. PTP polymers form porous films with capacitances of 6–14 F cm−3 at a current density of 0.5 A cm−3. The electrodes exhibit moderate cycling stability, with 42% capacitance retention after 200 cycles. This work demonstrates the first use of thienopyrazines (TPs) in energy storage applications, and provides guidelines for further improvements in the performance of n-type materials.


Field trials investigating the impact of the timing of first shoot topping in a vertical shoot positioning (VSP) trellis system on (i) the cluster morphology, (ii) the canopy structure in the cluster-zone, and (iii) the progress of the bunch rot disease severity, were conducted in two white Vitis vinifera (Pinot gris, Riesling) cultivars in the years 2012 and 2013 in Luxembourg. The first shoot topping was carried out at seven different times from one week prior to beginning of flowering (BBCH 57) to four weeks after the end of flowering (BBCH 75–79) at approximately weekly intervals. Late first shoot topping reduced cluster compactness, delayed bunch rot epidemics, and thereby prolonged the potential ripening period compared to the standard treatment, in which the first shoot topping was performed one week postbloom. First shoot topping four weeks postbloom delayed the moment when 5% disease severity was reached up to eleven days and increased total soluble solids by 0.77 to 2.24 Brix compared to the standard treatment, with no significant impact on yield. Postponing the first shoot topping to the latest technically possible moment is recommended to improve grape architecture and health as well as to optimize grape maturity and potential wine quality under cool climate conditions. Late first shoot topping can be implemented in bunch rot control strategies without imposing additional costs and might support the reduction of pesticide use.


What better way to improve your tennis - and to gain a new appreciation for the sport - than by discovering the secrets of the world's greatest players and coaches? Read this book to improve your game with inside tips from the tennis elite, including those who have won Grand Slam titles and held the world number one ranking. Game, Set and Match is an unprecedented collection of tips from the sport's superstars, including Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov, Venus and Serena Williams, Eugenie Bouchard, Kei Nishikori, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Milos Raonic, Caroline Wozniacki, Stan Wawrinka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Bob and Mike Bryan, Martina Navratilova, Gael Monfils, Petra Kvitova, Ana Ivanovic and Marin Cilic. There is also advice from Roger Federer's mother, Lynette on tennis parenting and tips from Rafa Nadal's uncle and coach, Toni, as well as other leading coaches such as Patrick Mouratoglou, Nick Bollettieri, Paul Annacone, Marian Vajda, Judy Murray, Darren Cahill, Roger Rasheed and Robert Lansdorp, and from fitness experts such as Andre Agassi's former trainer, Gil Reyes. Top tips from the pros include: 'How to disguise your serve' by Pete Sampras 'How to stay fit all year' by Caroline Wozniacki 'How to attack with your one-handed backhand' by Stan Wawrinka 'How to embrace your superstitions' by Goran Ivanisevic


In 2006 the Indian Parliament passed legislation reserving an additional 27 percent of seats in all institutions of higher learning, funded by the central government, for the category of socially disadvantaged groups officially known as "Other Backward Classes." At a time when India is opening its economy to global competition, this initiative has re-ignited the debate on the efficacy of reservations and triggered fresh anxieties about the impact of this policy on India's economic growth. This paper looks closely at the offered justifications for this policy as well as the expressed concerns. While examining the implications of the policy, particularly the claim that higher education reservations will dilute the quality of human capital, the paper suggests that the policy may present long-term challenges not currently anticipated. The argument rests on the understanding that while educational institutions must be responsive to the concerns of marginalized groups, the policies for correcting prevailing exclusions must be just and fair. If they enshrine identity as a permanent economic asset or a source of ever-renewable privilege, these policies are likely to produce social conflict and disharmony. This element is ignored by the announced policy and is likely to weaken not just India's educational institutions but also its democracy – results that are likely to weaken India's prospects of becoming a global power and its goal of social equity.


This collection, selected from more than 140 interviews Gardner granted, presents a wealth of information on the life and art of one of America's foremost novelists. These interviews show him as a novelist, a charismatic teacher of creative writing, and a widely published scholar who has vast knowledge and who generated much literary information in his lectures and interviews. After the publication of such popular and critical successes as Grendel (1971) and The Sunlight Dialogues (1972), this philosophical writer with an enviable talent for storytelling was regarded as "a major contemporary writer." After Gardner had demonstrated that he was one of America's most prolific, versatile, and imaginative authors, he became one of its most controversial when he attacked the literary establishment in his book On Moral Fiction and in his interviews. These candid conversations reveal a man of contrasts and contradictions, a writer who, as one of his interviewers remarks, "brought to everything he did a passion that at times bordered on madness."


The prediction of strength of lime ash composites is critical for quality control, material performance monitoring and material serviceability limit state. A study was conducted to investigate the influence of open porosity (an index of micro grain alignment and macro particle parking), sum of hydration products and extent of hydration of desilicated fly ash (DFA) on the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of DFA lime composites. A comparison with as received fly ash (FA) was also done. The wet and dry cycle durability of DFA and as received FA composites was also investigated. The DFA and FA composites were found to have a UCS of 8.6 MPa and 7.9 MPa respectively. The FA composite was found to be more durable than the DFA composite as after 10 wet and dry cycles the composites had a UCS of 3.5 and 1.8 MPa respectively. Statistical correlation between UCS and open porosity, extent of FA/DFA hydration and sum of hydration products was implemented by Multivariate analysis. For both FA and DFA it was observed that the three parameters combined (open porosity, extent of FA/DFA hydration and sum of hydration products) had the greatest influence on the UCS than individually. This study shows that no single parameter on its own can adequately be used to predict UCS of FA/DFA lime composites. Correlation coefficients above 0.98 were found to describe the relationship between the three parameters and UCS for each composite. Thus could account for differences in durability or soaked strength of materials with equal initial dry strength.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.23.2.14915


Many video sequences consist of a locally dynamic background containing moving foreground subjects. In this paper we propose a novel way of re‐displaying these sequences, by giving the user control over a virtual camera frame. Based on video mosaicing, we first compute a static high quality background panorama. After segmenting and removing the foreground subjects from the original video, the remaining elements are merged into a dynamic background panorama, which seamlessly extends the original video footage. We then re‐display this augmented video by warping and cropping the panorama. The virtual camera can have an enlarged field‐of‐view and a controlled camera motion. Our technique is able to process videos with complex camera motions, reconstructing high quality panoramas without parallax artefacts, visible seams or blurring, while retaining repetitive dynamic elements.


We present an overview of the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES). STAGES is a multiwavelength project designed to probe physical drivers of galaxy evolution across a wide range of environments and luminosity. A complex multicluster system at z similar to 0.165 has been the subject of an 80-orbit F606W Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) mosaic covering the full 0 degrees.5 x 0 degrees.5 (similar to 5 x 5 Mpc(2)) span of the supercluster. Extensive multiwavelength observations with XMM-Newton, GALEX, Spitzer, 2dF, Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope and the 17-band COMBO-17 photometric redshift survey complement the HST imaging. Our survey goals include simultaneously linking galaxy morphology with other observables such as age, star formation rate, nuclear activity and stellar mass. In addition, with the multiwavelength data set and new high-resolution mass maps from gravitational lensing, we are able to disentangle the large-scale structure of the system. By examining all aspects of an environment we will be able to evaluate the relative importance of the dark matter haloes, the local galaxy density and the hot X-ray gas in driving galaxy transformation. This paper describes the HST imaging, data reduction and creation of a master catalogue. We perform the Sersic fitting on the HST images and conduct associated simulations to quantify completeness. In addition, we present the COMBO-17 photometric redshift catalogue and estimates of stellar masses and star formation rates for this field. We define galaxy and cluster sample selection criteria, which will be the basis for forthcoming science analyses, and present a compilation of notable objects in the field. Finally, we describe the further multiwavelength observations and announce public access to the data and catalogues.


Virginia Tech's motto is "Invent the Future." Building on this culture, the University has undergone a massive transformation in the way that it imagines its role on campus. Until recently, the Libraries' approach to online learning was more ad hoc than strategic, with no dedicated online learning staff and no clear strategy for program development. Recognizing the increasing need for a strategic approach to online learning, the Teaching & Learning Engagement unit recognized the need for new tools for thinking outside of traditional methods for online program development. The team took a start-up approach to program development using a Design Thinking framework to create a new online learning team, with a mix of traditional and non-traditional library faculty, including a web developer and an instructional designer. As part of this process, the team engaged in a university-wide needs assessment for identifying themes for program development and developing a clear mission and niche for the online learning team. Through rapid prototyping and brainstorming sessions, the team developed a learning design studio; a technology training program for librarians, staff, and teaching faculty; and a new learning objects repository for creating, remixing, and sharing online tutorials and modules.


Continuous steel-reinforced concrete structures are vulnerable to corrosion damage when exposed to harsh environment. Although replacing conventional steel entirely with basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars can eliminate corrosion problems, the lower modulus of elasticity of BFRP would reduce serviceability of the structure. The use of hybrid steel-BFRP bars rather than BFRP bars only has a potential to improve the serviceability of continuous concrete structures without reducing the deformation capacity. Through experimental testing and numerical simulation, this work aims to examine the structural behavior of two-span concrete specimens internally reinforced with BFRP or hybrid steel-BFRP bars. A total of 12 two-span specimens were constructed and tested. Six specimens were over-reinforced and six specimens were under-reinforced. The specimens had different hogging-to-sagging reinforcement ratios. Twelve three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models representing all of the tested specimens were developed using the software package ATENA. Bond stress-slip models were adopted at the interface between the longitudinal reinforcing bars and the surrounding concrete. The accuracy and validity of the computational models were examined by comparing their predictions with the experimental results. Increasing the hogging-to-sagging reinforcement ratio in the BFRP specimens increased the ultimate load but had an almost no effect on the cracking load. The response of the BFRP under-reinforced specimens was more sensitive to the hoggingto-sagging reinforcement ratio than that of the BFRP over-reinforced specimens. The specimens reinforced with hybrid steel-BFRP bars exhibited less deflections and smaller crack widths at service load than those of their counterparts with BFRP bars viii only. The use of hybrid steel-BFRP reinforcement rather than BFRP bars only had an almost no effect on the deflection at ultimate load. The behavior of the specimens with BFRP bars only deviated from the elastic response. The deviation increased by decreasing the hogging-to-sagging reinforcement ratio. Specimens with hybrid steelBFRP bars exhibited less deviation from the elastic response comparted with that of their counterparts with BFRP bars only. The FE models developed in the present study simulated the structural behavior of the tested specimens with a good accuracy. The predicted ultimate loads and corresponding deflections were within a 20% error band.


ABSTRACT How, if at all, does the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) promote more just states which vary greatly in their democratic credentials? The article considers the ECtHR and its practices from the perspective of 'non-ideal theory,' namely how it helps states become more stable and just, and more compliant with the human rights norms of the European Convention on Human Rights. The article first sketches what is meant by 'non-ideal theory,' then considers aspects of the Council of Europe and the ECtHR which promote transitions toward more just member states. The ECtHR's practices suffer from at least two weaknesses in this regard: it assumes with insufficient argument that standards appropriate for 'ideal theory' conditions of full compliance also should apply to states that suffer from wide ranging noncompliance, or from unjust institutions. Secondly, the Court relies on an 'emerging European consensus' with insufficient empirical and normative justification.


Three-dimensional (3D), multiwavelength near-infrared tomography has the potential to provide new physiological information about biological tissue function and pathological transformation. Fast and reliable measurements of multiwavelength data from multiple planes over a region of interest, together with adequate model-based nonlinear image reconstruction, form the major components of successful estimation of internal optical properties of the region. These images can then be used to examine the concentration of chromophores such as hemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin, water, and lipids that in turn can serve to identify and characterize abnormalities located deep within the domain. We introduce and discuss a 3D modeling method and image reconstruction algorithm that is currently in place. Reconstructed images of optical properties are presented from simulated data, measured phantoms, and clinical data acquired from a breast cancer patient. It is shown that, with a relatively fast 3D inversion algorithm, useful images of optical absorption and scatter can be calculated with good separation and localization in all cases. It is also shown that, by use of the calculated optical absorption over a range of wavelengths, the oxygen saturation distribution of a tissue under investigation can be deduced from oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin maps. With this method the reconstructed tumor from the breast cancer patient was found to have a higher oxy-deoxy hemoglobin concentration and also a higher oxygen saturation level than the background, indicating a ductal carcinoma that corresponds well to histology findings.


The use of human hand as a natural interface for humancomputer interaction (HCI) serves as the motivation for research in hand gesture recognition. Vision-based hand gesture recognition involves visual analysis of hand shape, position and/or movement. In this paper, we use the concept of object-based video abstraction for segmenting the frames into video object planes (VOPs), as used in MPEG-4, with each VOP corresponding to one semantically meaningful hand position. Next, the key VOPs are selected on the basis of the amount of change in hand shape – for a given key frame in the sequence the next key frame is the one in which the hand changes its shape significantly. Thus, an entire video clip is transformed into a small number of representative frames that are sufficient to represent a gesture sequence. Subsequently, we model a particular gesture as a sequence of key frames each bearing information about its duration. These constitute a finite state machine. For recognition, the states of the incoming gesture sequence are matched with the states of all different FSMs contained in the database of gesture vocabulary. The core idea of our proposed representation is that redundant frames of the gesture video sequence bear only the temporal information of a gesture and hence discarded for computational efficiency. Experimental results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme for key frame extraction, subsequent gesture summarization and finally gesture recognition. Keywords—Hand gesture, MPEG-4, Hausdorff distance, Finite state machine.


Abstract This paper provides a review of the reported barriers that prevent doctors from managing HIV infected patients. The four most commonly reported barriers were: fear of contagion, fear of losing patients, unwillingness to care, and inadequate knowledge/training about treating HIV patients. Barriers to treating HIV infected patients is frequently reported in many countries and it is important for developing countries such as South Africa to learn from these experiences by identifying local problems so that constructive interventions and strategies can be developed to address these barriers, thereby improving the quality of patient care. Further research in respect of the local situation is required. Introduction Over the last two decades acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has emerged as one of the most serious public health problems in the world, and by the end of 2003 it was estimated that 5.3 million South Africans were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive, which corresponds to 21.5% of the population.1 In the early phase of the HIV epidemic few doctors saw infected patients and treatment options were limited. As a result many doctors were reluctant to provide care to HIV infected patients and homophobia amongst doctors, fear of contact with patients and unwillingness to care were frequently reported.2 However, there has been an exponential increase in the number of HIV and AIDS related cases and more doctors are encountering infected individuals. This review summarizes our current knowledge of barriers to treatment of HIV infected patients by doctors. Method A comprehensive literature review was undertaken by searching the MEDLINE database, Psychlit, ISI Web, EBSCOHost, and Sabinet on line, for English language literature published between 1985 and 2004. The database search terms included keywords such as fear/s, barrier/s, concern, HIV, AIDS, attitudes, physician/s (doctor/s), practice, treatment, care and knowledge. A variety of combinations of these words were entered. All duplicate articles were removed and only studies that used doctors as the sample population were considered. Titles expressing comment, news items, opinion pieces or letters were rejected. Results Thirty two relevant studies were identified from the literature search. The four most commonly reported barriers were: fear of contagion, fear of losing patients, unwillingness to care, and inadequate knowledge/training about treating HIV patients.


Political life in the State which adopts a liberal, of course, different from those living in socialist or communist country. Political life of the people of Indonesia are always based on the values of Pancasila. Pancasila is the foundation and goal of our nation's political life. An increasingly democratic political life was marked by the opening of the channel with the political aspirations of society, such as the freedom to establish political parties, freedom of speech, presidential election, vice president, members of the legislative as well as regional head directly, should always be based on the values of Pancasila. When associated with political education, the understanding of Pancasila as political ethics is one part of the political education given purpose. Education in Indonesia is an effort to create quality human resources and based on the philosophy of the nation and the nation's outlook on life that is Pancasila. Citizens are expected to have the political skills that have a critical attitude and able to take an alternative solution of political problems that exist around it. Political education is a systematic educational efforts and thorough for every citizen in order to form citizens who have the political awareness and participation in political life intelligently and responsibly. The basic principle of political ethics in a practical realization in life is always carried out correlative state. Political ethics should also be realized by each individual concretely involved in the implementation of the State government.


The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between taking a student success course and the educational outcomes of persistence, credential attainment, and academic self-efficacy. Although previous studies have examined student success courses in relation to persistence and credential attainment, few have included a self-efficacy component. This study filled an additional gap in prior studies by seeking student perceptions about their experience in a student success course. Several major findings emerged from the study. Chi-square results revealed significant relationships between enrollment in the student success course and persistence and credential attainment. Logistic regression results indicated that being younger, enrolling in a developmental education course, attending part-time, persisting, and completing a college credential predicted the likelihood of enrolling in the student success course. ANOVA results revealed a significant relationship on the Understanding Subscale of the Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for student success course participants as compared to a control group. Student perceptions obtained from a focus group provided support that taking the student success course had a positive impact on academic self-efficacy and academic success. Findings contribute to the growing body of literature that student success courses provide students with certain skillsets and greater confidence to succeed in college.


Spin torque oscillators (STOs) often exhibit multiple modes, leading to complex behavior. One example is mode hopping between different eigenmodes of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) STO. This mode hopping is a strong function of current and angle between the magnetization in the free and fixed layers, and away from anti-parallel configuration, mode hopping can be the dominant decoherence process. Another example is the linewidth of a nanocontact STO that can be a complex non-monotonic function of temperature in regions where two or more modes are excited by the oscillators. These phenomena require a generalization of the single-mode nonlinear STO theory to include mode coupling. We derive equations describing the slow time evolution of the coupled system and show they describe a dynamically driven system, similar to other systems that exhibit mode hopping in the presence of thermal fluctuations. In our description, mode coupling also leads to additional coupling between power and phase fluctuations, which can in certain limited cases lead to longer relaxation times for power fluctuations, and consequently to larger linewidths through the nonlinear frequency shift.


Aqueous aluminum solutions containing 4.5 x 10/sup -4/ molar aluminum in 0.01 molar NaClO/sub 4/ were partly neutralized with NaOH to give OH:AL mole ratios from 1.40 to 2.76. Measured amounts of montmorillonite, kaolinite, volcanic ash, or feldspathic sand were added to provide an area of inert surface. Reactions that occurred during 100 days of aging were compared with those in similar solutions without added surfaces, studied in earlier work. Adsorption of monomeric species Al(H/sub 2/O)/sub 6//sup +3/, AlOH(H/sub 2/O)/sub 5//sup +2/, and Al(OH/sub 2/)(H/sub 2/O)/sub 4//sup +/ on the added surfaces follows a cation exchange mass law equilibrium model, and adsorption is essentially complete in 1 hour. Only minor changes in monomeric aluminum species occurred after that. Rapid adsorption of polynuclear aluminum hydroxide species also occurs and follows the pattern of the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. In the absence of surfaces, the polynuclear ions slowly increase in size and become microcrystalline gibbsite during aging. Electron micrographs showed microcrystalline gibbsite was present on surfaces after aging only 2 days. However, the analytical data suggest this material must have been adsorbed after it had already attained a near-crystalline state. Adsorbed polynuclear aluminum hydroxide species were not extensively converted to microcrystalline gibbsite duringmore » 100 days of aging.« less


All multinational firms face foreign exchange fluctuations, which can create unstable cash flows and even bankruptcy. Managers of these firms face critical questions over how to reduce the risk due to income and expenses in multiple currencies. Traditional financial risk controls include futures and options, but firms also can use operational controls, such as foreign production capacity. In this paper, we study these alternatives for a simplified single-product firm operating in a home market and a foreign market. We show that a firm's optimal policy favors financial controls for low volatility exchange rates and the operational control of foreign production capacity for higher volatilities. We also show that, when the cost to switch production from one market to another involves a fixed cost plus a proportional charge on production, the optimal production policy either places all production entirely in one market or the other and that critical exchange ratios determine when to switch production to the favorable market. We model the problem in continuous time with production shifts appearing as jumps, leading to a form of impulse control problem. We introduce this methodology to operations management studies as an effective tool for analyzing continuous-review production systems with discrete decision outcomes.


This study assesses the quality of distance learning (DL) in higher  education assessed by considering the Seven Principles of Good Practice (SPGP). The participants were 77 second year students from the Computer and Instructional Technologies Program (CEIT) of a Faculty of Education in Turkey. A questionnaire was developed in line with the SPGP and  administered to collect data after 14 weeks of teaching. The author's observations were added to a discussion of the connections between student perspectives and the SPGP. The lessons were delivered in a virtual classroom. It is a synchronous online learning environment with online meetings, chat, forums, whiteboards, desktop sharing, document sharing and other online features. The analysis of the results of the questionnaire indicate that this questionnaire as it has been developed in this study can be effective in understanding and evaluating the perspectives of learners on the quality of distance learning in virtual classrooms. This study also presents some new evidence on the potential of virtual classrooms for teaching, learning and learner interaction. Finally, some suggestions regarding the expectations of distance learners were also provided for instructors who wish to utilize virtual classrooms in their teaching. Keywords : distance learning; introductory programming course; learners' perspectives; Seven Principles for Good Practice; synchronous setting; virtual classrooms


Since the collapse of negotiations around a protocol to the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 2001, states parties have begun to discuss several novel issues linked to the broader implementation of the BWC as part of a series of intersessional meetings. While initially fruitful, this approach has generated diminishing returns in the last five years. Moreover, in addressing these broader issues of implementation, biological disarmament diplomacy has largely neglected the thorny issue of compliance.

Compliance with the BWC is more than a simple binary choice to sign a commitment not to develop or produce biological weapons. It requires the adherence to all the obligations, both negative and positive, undertaken by BWC states parties in signing and ratifying the convention. In the BWC context, this is complicated by the ambiguity surrounding certain obligations, changes in science and security, and the limited resource capacity of some states to fulfill their obligations. Under such circumstances, without episodically revisiting compliance, there remains the risk that BWC will become ever more fragmented, outmoded and poorly implemented.

Although many states insist strengthening the convention can only be achieved through a multilaterally negotiated, legally binding verification protocol, this is not politically feasible for the foreseeable future. Nor is this necessarily true; an incremental approach to strengthening the convention could be pursued, dealing with mutually reinforcing components of the regime in a balanced manner and laying the foundations for future work, if and when it becomes politically expedient to proceed.

This Occasional Paper proposes a number of activities that could be pursued as part of an incremental approach to revisiting compliance with the BWC.


Soil water retention refers to the relationship between the amount of soil water and the energy with which it is held. This relationship is important for characterizing water movement through granular materials. In this project, we generated soil moisture retention data of 18 non-recycled and 7 recycled materials used in pavement construction. The results showed that water retention of non-recycled materials was nearly similar. The major differences among the curves were in the inflection points (air entry values) and in the water contents either near saturation or at 15,300 cm of suction. Using this database, we also developed Pedo-transfer functions that can predict (1) water retention or (2) the parameters of functions that describe water retention from easily measurable properties of the pavement materials. Water retention of concrete with and without shingles was only slightly different. This is partially because shingle chips imbedded in the concrete were large. Traditionally, the influence of matric suction has not been directly considered in pavement design. The water retention data in this report will be helpful in developing resistance factors for Minnesota Flexible Pavement Design Program either through physical modeling or through statistical relationships between design criteria and the water contents.


Title of thesis: JOINT ENERGY BEAMFORMING AND TIME ASSIGNMENT FOR COOPERATIVE WIRELESS POWERED NETWORKS Chen Chen, Master of Science, 2016 Thesis directed by: Professor Gang Qu Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Wireless power transfer (WPT) and radio frequency (RF)-based energy harvesting arouses a new wireless network paradigm termed as wireless powered communication network (WPCN), where some energy-constrained nodes are enabled to harvest energy from the RF signals transferred by other energy-sufficient nodes to support the communication operations in the network, which brings a promising approach for future energy-constrained wireless network design. In this paper, we focus on the optimal WPCN design. We consider a network composed of two communication groups, where the first group has sufficient power supply but no available bandwidth, and the second group has licensed bandwidth but very limited power to perform required information transmission. For such a system, we introduce the power and bandwidth cooperation between the two groups so that both group can accomplish their expected information delivering tasks. Multiple antennas are employed at the hybrid access point (H-AP) to enhance both energy and information transfer efficiency and the cooperative relaying is employed to help the power-limited group to enhance its information transmission throughput. Compared with existing works, cooperative relaying, time assignment, power allocation, and energy beamforming are jointly designed in a single system. Firstly, we propose a cooperative transmission protocol for the considered system, where group 1 transmits some power to group 2 to help group 2 with information transmission and then group 2 gives some bandwidth to group 1 in return. Secondly, to explore the information transmission performance limit of the system, we formulate two optimization problems to maximize the system weighted sum rate by jointly optimizing the time assignment, power allocation, and energy beamforming under two different power constraints, i.e., the fixed power constraint and the average power constraint, respectively. In order to make the cooperation between the two groups meaningful and guarantee the quality of service (QoS) requirements of both groups, the minimal required data rates of the two groups are considered as constraints for the optimal system design. As both problems are non-convex and have no known solutions, we solve it by using proper variable substitutions and the semi-definite relaxation (SDR). We theoretically prove that our proposed solution method can guarantee to find the global optimal solution. Thirdly, consider that the WPCN has promising application potentials in future energy-constrained networks, e.g., wireless sensor network (WSN), wireless body area network (WBAN) and Internet of Things (IoT), where the power consumption is very critical. We investigate the minimal power consumption optimal design for the considered cooperation WPCN. For this, we formulate an optimization problem to minimize the total consumed power by jointly optimizing the time assignment, power allocation, and energy beamforming under required data rate constraints. As the problem is also non-convex and has no known solutions, we solve it by using some variable substitutions and the SDR method. We also theoretically prove that our proposed solution method for the minimal power consumption design guarantees the global optimal solution. Extensive experimental results are provided to discuss the system performance behaviors, which provide some useful insights for future WPCN design. It shows that the average power constrained system achieves higher weighted sum rate than the fixed power constrained system. Besides, it also shows that in such a WPCN, relay should be placed closer to the multi-antenna H-AP to achieve higher weighted sum rate and consume lower total power. JOINT ENERGY BEAMFORMING AND TIME ASSIGNMENT FOR COOPERATIVE WIRELESS POWERED NETWORKS


The author explores the security and privacy implications of the now-common industry practice of installing bloatware on phones sold by cellular carriers. Is it merely annoying, or do smartphone users face more serious concerns? Do the economic advantages outweigh the security and privacy concerns?


Spectrophotometric technique was employed in the quantitative determination of amitriptyline in its pharmaceutical tablet formulation. The complex produced a purple colour that absorbed maximally at 520 nm and was stable over 10 h. The molar absorbtivity and Sandell\'s sensitivity for the complex were 4666 l mol -1 cm -1 and 15 ng/ml respectively. The complexation reaction obeys Beer-Lambert law between 3.134 x 10 -2 M and 3.314 x 10 -1 M that was investigated. Quantitative analysis of three (3) different brands of amitriptyline by the proposed method gave recoveries of A = 97.8 ± RSD 0.81 %; B = 98.7 ± RSD 0.75 % and C = 98.3 ± RSD 0.88 %. Pharmacopoeia method gave corresponding values of 95.5 ± RSD 2.96%; 96.1 ± RSD 2.15 % and 95.15 ± RSD 3.05 % respectively. These results show that the proposed method is more sensitive than the official method. Statistical comparison of these techniques by Student t-test (p > 0.05) however did not suggest any significant difference between them. The simplicity and accuracy of the proposed method means that it could be used for rapid screening of amitriptyline in hospital environment where elaborate and sophisticated equipment may not be readily available. KEY WORDS: Amitriptyline, chloranilic acid, spectrophotometric analysis Global Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences Vol.11(2) 2005: 237-240


We study the Dirichlet problem for a class of nonlinear parabolic equations with nonstandard anisotropic growth conditions. Equations of this class generalize the evolutional p(x, t)-Laplacian. We prove theorems of existence and uniqueness of weak solutions in suitable Orlicz-Sobolev spaces, derive global and local in time L∞ bounds for the weak solutions.


This paper describes an analysis of some of the challenges facing one portion of the Electrical Smart Grid in the United States - residential Demand Response (DR) systems. The purposes of this paper are twofold: 1) to discover risks to residential DR systems and 2) to illustrate an architecture-based analysis approach to uncovering risks that span a collection of technical and social concerns. The results presented here are specific to residential DR but the approach is general and it could be applied to other systems within the Smart Grid and to other critical infrastructure domains. Our architecture-based analysis is different from most other approaches to analyzing complex systems in that it addresses multiple quality attributes simultaneously (e.g., performance, reliability, security, modifiability, usability, etc.) and it considers the architecture of a complex system from a socio-technical perspective where the actions of the people in the system are as important, from an analysis perspective, as the physical and computational elements of the system. This analysis can be done early in a system's lifetime, before substantial resources have been committed to its construction or procurement, and so it provides extremely cost-effective risk analysis.


Yogurt is a type of dairy product and it is made by the addition of starter cultures like Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Specific cultures like Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium (probiotic cultures) are also sometimes added to it to make the yogurt probiotic.
The aim of this research is to compare probiotic and standard yogurts on the basis of branding (premium and basic brands), microbiological analysis, nutritional analysis, consumer preference, and sensory evaluation. This research is a novel one and very important in the field of dairy science because although some research has been done in comparing probiotic and standard yogurts e.g. (Hussain, Attiq-ur-Rahman, et al. 2009), there is no research that compares them on so many levels.
Four yogurt products were purchased from different supermarkets in Preston, UK. Microbiological analysis (such as total viable counts and gram stain), nutritional analysis (such as macro and micro nutrient compositions), consumer preference analysis (by questionnaire), and sensory analysis (by blind tasting) were conducted using the yogurts purchased. SPSS and Microsoft excel were used to analyze the results.
The non-probiotic yogurts had a higher total viable count than the probiotic ones and Lactobacillus and Streptococcus spp. were confirmed in all the samples. The research also showed that the nutritional composition of the products varied irrespective of the cultures present (probiotic or standard) and brand (premium or basic) of the yogurts. The results also showed that most of the participants had little or no idea about the meaning of probiotics and that the major reasons that influenced their yogurt choice was cost, availability and taste. The results of the sensory evaluation showed that the non-probiotic yogurts were rated higher than the probiotic ones in terms of taste, texture, appearance and overall quality.
More awareness should be done to ensure that consumers know the importance of probiotic products and probiotic yogurts should be sold at reasonable prices to promote sales. Further research need to be done on a wider scale and with different yogurt products both commercially and laboratory manufactured.


States and localities offer businesses an enormous amount of tax incentives to locate within their jurisdictions despite: 1) the mass of evidence that suggests that these incentives are not particularly effective and, 2) substantial doubts about their constitutionality. In this essay, we develop a new critical perspective on state tax incentives. We argue that offering these incentives permits states to offer lower taxes to more mobile businesses while keeping their overall corporate tax rates high. This is arguably not the best choice for the states, but it is definitely not the best choice for the federal government. Because the states share the corporate income tax base with the federal government, higher overall state corporate income tax rates results in more cannibalization of federal corporate income tax revenue.


As we increasingly integrate technology into our lives, we need a better framework for understanding social interactions across the communication landscape. Utilizing survey data in which more than 4,600 people across the United States, India, and Japan described a recent social interaction, this article qualitatively and quantitatively explores what makes an interaction meaningful. A qualitative analysis of respondents' own words finds that meaningful interactions are those with emotional, informational, or tangible impact that people believe enhance their lives, the lives of their interaction partners, or their personal relationships. A quantitative analysis predicting respondents' ratings of recent interactions finds the attributes most likely to facilitate meaningfulness include strong ties (e.g., friends and family), community ties (e.g., neighbors), shared activities, and synchronicity; meaningful social interactions are also more likely to be planned in advance and memorialized with photos or videos. These attributes are consistent across cultures. Although popular rhetoric often juxtaposes people's online lives against their offline lives, this research finds in-person interactions can be just as meaningful as technology-mediated interactions. We conclude with a new framework for thinking about social interactions more holistically.


Portal: An Interaction Independence Middleware Framework Gavin Mulligan The typical user base for computer applications has transformed, over time, from mostly technicallyoriented individuals to include a vast range of the world's population the majority of whom have little to no technical proficiency. As such, user interfaces have evolved from text-based shell input into multimedia interfaces which typically provide support for receiving input from a number of disparate devices that are operated in conjunction to manipulate a given program. A problem arises when applications add in support for explicit devices; which leads to strong coupling between the underlying code and the defined set of devices that they support. In a nutshell, support for new peripherals almost always requires that the original application be recompiled and /or its internal configuration modified to incorporate the given device(s). Portal, an interaction independence framework, seeks to add a layer of abstraction between arbitrary application code and the devices they support; allowing developers to deal in the realm of abstract program actions instead of crafting code to handle a variety of concrete device inputs. This should eliminate the need for custom device-tailored code for each user-wielded peripheral that an application must support and will enable application device support to be managed via configuration changes to the Portal middleware framework, rather than being hard-coded into an application. This thesis will define the conceptual design of the Portal framework while, at the same time, elaborating on the role that web services will play within it; investigate two pervasive service-oriented architecture paradigms, SOAP and REST, in order to gauge their potential effectiveness in meeting Portal 's underlying back-end data transmission requirements; provide implementations for the Portal service-oriented architecture and data model; and, finally, critically evaluate both implementations with an emphasis on their performance with regard to both efficiency and scalability.


This series of working papers explores a theme enjoying a tremendous resurgence: the functional distribution of income--the division of aggregate income by factor share. This first installment surveys some landmark theories of income distribution. Some provide a technology-based account of the relative shares while others provide a demand-driven explanation (Keynes, Kalecki, Kaldor, Goodwin). Two questions lead to a better understanding of the literature: is income distribution assumed constant?, and is income distribution endogenous or exogenous? However, and despite their insights, these theories alone fail to fully explain the current deterioration of income distribution. Subsequent installments are dedicated to analyzing the empirical literature (part II), to the measurement and composition of the relative shares (part III), and to a study of the role of economic policy (part IV).


Interview with former Democratic Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes. The interview includes Barnes' personal experiences while serving as a member of the Sixty-first Legislature, as well as his thoughts on issues such as one-year versus two-year budgets, the creation of four-year colleges, the influence of beer and liquor lobbyists, sales tax exemptions, revenue legislation, annual legislative sessions, and future political ambitions. The interview also includes the former governor's comments about Speaker Gus Mutscher.


In the past few decades organizations all over the world have been searching for the elements that constitute continuous organizational success. Fuelled by bestsellers such as 'In Search Of Excellence' and 'Good to Great', managers have been trying out many different improvement concepts, often with mixed results. The aim of this study was to identify factors that determine the continuous success of a high performance organization (HPO). A meta analysis of 280 research studies into high performance initially identified 35 characteristics of a HPO. These were subsequently used in a case study of a large financial service provider, to identify its HPO status and the improvements needed to become a really excellent organization. The results of the study show that it is possible to identify factors that determine continuous organizational success, and that managers can be offered a framework that adds focus to improvement.


A computational fluid dynamics approach incorporating the Lagrangian framework is employed to model the impingement, mixing, and subsequent combustion in a liquid rocket engine with liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants. Due to its high performance, nontoxicity and the fact that it might be manufactured on Mars, methane is being considered for a variety of future exploration missions by NASA and others. The objective of this investigation is to assess the capabilities of current state-of-the-art CFD methodology based on a Lagrangian framework to model the associated multi-phase, multi-component, reacting flow field of the "green" propellant mixture based propulsion system. The related formulations and corresponding CFD results of specific flow configuration are presented herewith. The difference in impingement and following spatial droplet distribution formulated using one-way and two-way coupling interaction modes are compared. The subsequent droplet evaporation and combustion processes are modeled using quasi-steady droplet evaporation and turbulent-mixing based standard Eddy Break-Up (EBU) combustion models with employed two-way coupling mode. The current analysis reflects that the Lagrangian approach is limited to model all major flow mechanisms concurrently as increase in surface area associated with the fundamental assumption of replacing liquid stream into a droplet series results in vaporization prior to impingement. However, by imposing an artificial heat transfer distribution, the droplet's early evaporation can be delayed and the combustion of post-impinged droplets could be modeled.


This chapter provides an overview of the specific legal, ethical, and privacy issues that can arise when conducting research using Twitter data. Existing literature is reviewed to inform those who may be undertaking social media research. We also present a number of industry and academic case studies in order to highlight the challenges that may arise in research projects using social media data. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the process that was followed to gain ethics approval for a Ph.D. project using Twitter as a primary source of data. By outlining a number of Twitter-specific research case studies, the chapter will be a valuable resource to those considering the ethical implications of their own research projects utilizing social media data. Moreover, the chapter outlines existing work looking at the ethical practicalities of social media data and relates their applicability to researching Twitter.


Patients with inflammatory bowel disease have an increased prevalence of osteoporosis, and suffer high rates of spinal bone loss. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is effective in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis but has not been studied in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. A two year prospective study of HRT in inflammatory bowel disease was performed in 47 postmenopausal women aged 44 to 67 years with ulcerative colitis (25) or Crohn's disease (22). Patients had radial and spinal bone density measured annually by single photon absorptiometry and quantitative computed tomography respectively. The mean (95% confidence intervals) annual change in radial bone density was +1.42%/yr (+0.58 to +2.26; P < 0.005) and for spinal bone +2.60%/yr (+1.06 to +4.15; p < 0.005). There was no significant correlation between rates of change of bone density at the two sites, or between the rates of change and the initial bone density either in the radius or spine. Twelve patients were given prednisolone during the study, and their rates of change for spinal bone density were lower, but values were not statistically significantly different from those who did not receive corticosteroids. Changes in bone density for patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease were not significantly different. The change in bone density did not correlate with the patients' age or number of years after the menopause. It is concluded that HRT is effective in prevention of bone loss in postmenopausal women with inflammatory bowel disease.


Simulation of quantum dynamics for many-body systems is an open area of research. For interacting many-body quantum systems, the computer memory necessary to perform calculations has an astronomical value, so that approximated models are needed to reduce the required computational resources. A useful approximation that can often be made is that of quantum-classical dynamics, where the majority of the degrees are treated classically, while a few of them must be treated quantum mechanically. When energy is exchanged very quickly between the quantum subsystem and classical environment, the dynamics is nonadiabatic. Most theories for nonadiabatic dynamics are unsatisfactory, as they fail to properly describe the quantum backreaction of the subsystem on the environment. However, an approach based on the quantum-classical Liouville equation solves this problem. Even so, nonadiabatic dynamics is difficult to implement on a computer, and longer simulation times are often inaccessible due to statistical error. There is thus a need for improved algorithms for nonadiabatic dynamics. In this thesis, two algorithms that utilise the quantum-classical Liouville equation will be qualitatively and quantitatively compared. In addition, stochastic sampling schemes for nonadiabatic transitions will be studied, and a new sampling scheme is introduced [D. A. Uken et al., Phys. Rev. E. 88, 033301 (2013)] which proves to have a dramatic advantage over existing techniques, allowing far longer simulation times to be calculated reliably.


PURPOSE
To calculate patient organ doses from a diagnostic X-ray CT, using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations.

METHODS
A MDCT (Aquilion 16, TOSHIBA Medical Systems) was modeled with the GMctdospp (IMPS, Germany) software based on the EGSnrc MC code. The X-ray spectrum and configuration of a bowtie filter (Teflon) were determined from a half value layer (HVL) of aluminum (Al) and dose profile (off-center ratio, OCR) measured in air under the body irradiation (120 kV). The MC-calculated dose was calibrated with the absorbed dose-to-acrylic obtained from the chamber measurement at a central axis in a CT water phantom with 30 cm diameter and 50 cm length. The dose distribution in patient was calculated using the CT images on beam setting for pelvis. The internal organ doses in pelvis were calculated from DVH.

RESULTS
The calculated Al HVL was in agreement with 0.3% to the value of 5.2 mm measured. The calculated profile in air matched to that measured within 5% in a range of 15 cm from the central axis. The calibrated CT absorbed dose-to-acrylic was in agreement within 5% with the chamber measurement at peripheral four points. The calculated mean doses for prostate, rectum, and bladder were 2.38 cGy, 2.40 cGy, and 2.84 cGy, respectively, under irradiation condition of 120 kV, 200 mA, and slice thickness of 2 mm. For bones of femur and pelvis, mean doses were 5.61 cGy and 6.36 cGy, respectively. The doses for bone increased by up to 2-3 times compared to those for soft tissue. The CT dose also became much higher near body surface. Prostate and rectum were exposed uniformly. Meanwhile, bones of femur and pelvis were non-uniformity depending on their density.

CONCLUSION
Monte Carlo calculations are useful for evaluation of patient organ doses from a diagnostic X-ray CT.


Objective This study aims to assess whether a standard intervention package of cardiovascular disease (CVD) care was being delivered effectively, and if it was associated with improved lifestyle and biomedical indicators. Methods In rural China, we implemented a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial for 12 months, randomized at the township hospital level, and compared with usual care. Intervention case management guideline, training and performance monitoring meeting and patient support activities were designed to fit within the job description of family doctors in the township hospitals and comprised: 1) prescription of a standardised package of medicines targeted at those with hypertension or diabetes; 2) advice about specific lifestyle interventions; and 3) advice about medication adherence. Participants were 50–74 years old, had hypertension and CVD risk scores >20% or diabetes, but were excluded if a history of severe CVD events. We also randomly selected 100 participants from six selected clusters per arm as a panel to collect intermediate biomedical indicators over time. Results A total of 28,130 participants, in 33 intervention and 34 control township hospitals, were recruited. Compared with the control arm, participants in the intervention arm had substantially improved prescribing rates of anti-hypertensives, statins and aspirin (P<0.001), and had higher medication taking rates of aspirin and statins (P<0.001). Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures were similar across both arms (0.15 mmHg, P = 0.79, and 0.52 mmHg, P = 0.05, respectively). In the panel, (950) rates of smoking (OR = 0.23, P = 0.02) and salt intake (OR = 2.85, P = 0.03) were significantly reduced in the intervention versus control arms, but there were no statistically significant improvement over the 12 month follow-up period in biomedical indicators (P>0.05). Conclusion Implementation of the package by family doctors was feasible and improved prescribing and some lifestyle changes. Additional measures such as reducing medication costs and patient education are required. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN58988083


The smoothed complexity [1] of an algorithm is the expected running time of the algorithm on an arbitrary instance under a random perturbation. It was shown recently that the simplex algorithm has polynomial smoothed complexity. We show that a simple greedy algorithm for linear programming, the perceptron algorithm, also has polynomial smoothed complexity, in a high probability sense; that is, the running time is polynomial with high probability over the random perturbation.


Fossil fuels provide a significant fraction of the global energy resources, and this is likely to remain so for several decades. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been correlated with climate change, and carbon capture is essential to enable the continuing use of fossil fuels while reducing the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere thereby mitigating global climate changes. Among the proposed methods of CO2 capture, oxyfuel combustion technology provides a promising option, which is applicable to power generation systems. This technology is based on combustion with pure oxygen (O2) instead of air, resulting in flue gas that consists mainly of CO2 and water (H2O), that latter can be separated easily via condensation, while removing other contaminants leaving pure CO2 for storage. However, fuel combustion in pure O2 results in intolerably high combustion temperatures. In order to provide the dilution effect of the absent nitrogen (N2) and to moderate the furnace/combustor temperatures, part of the flue gas is recycled back into the combustion chamber. An efficient source of O2 is required to make oxy‐combustion a competitive CO2 capture technology. Conventional O2 production utilizing the cryogenic distillation process is energetically expensive. Ceramic membranes made from mixed ion‐electronic conducting oxides have received increasing attention because of their potential to mitigate the cost of O2 production, thus helping to promote these clean energy technologies. Some effort has also been expended in using these membranes to improve the performance of the O2 separation processes by combining air separation and high‐temperature oxidation into a single chamber. This paper provides a review of the performance of combustors utilizing oxy‐fuel combustion process, materials utilized in ion‐transport membranes and the integration of such reactors in power cycles. The review is focused on carbon capture potential, developments of oxyfuel applications and O2 separation and combustion in membrane reactors. The recent developments in oxyfuel power cycles are discussed focusing on the main concepts of manipulating exergy flows within each cycle and the reported thermal efficiencies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Mangroves perform a crucial role in maintaining the ecological integrity of the coastal ecosystem. They  act as filters in the coastal zone, preventing the damaging effects of upland sediments on seagrass beds and coral reefs, minimise the effects of storm surges and act as carbon sinks that mitigate climate change. These essential services, however, are degraded through indiscriminate cutting, conversion of mangrove swamps to fishponds, reclamation projects and other coastal developments and pollution. Experts reveal that the Indo-Malay Philippine Archipelago has one of the highest rates of mangroves loss. From an estimated 500,000 hectares of mangrove cover in 1918, only 120,000 hectares of mangroves remain in the Philippines today. The country has had the legal and policy framework to protect and conserve mangroves. But weak implementation of laws, overlapping functions among agencies and, in general, poor management by the people and local governments have hindered the sustainable management of mangrove forests. Positive developments, however, are taking place with the promulgation of laws on climate change and executive orders which specifically include mangrove and protected areas under the National Greening Program (NGP) and addresses equity, food security and poverty issues by giving preference to NGP beneficiary communities as a priority in the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program.  Moreover, participatory Planning and Multi-stakeholder Approaches are among the strategies contemplated by the Philippine National REDD + Strategy. The article examines the implementation and effects of the Philippine National REDD+ Strategy, the National Climate Change Action Plan which specifically integrates REDD+ and ecosystem valuation into decision-making, and the executive orders which support the mainstreaming of the National Greening Program.


Automatic retinal blood vessel extraction is very important for early diagnosis and prevention of several retinal diseases. In this paper, a new retinal vasculature segmentation algorithm is proposed based on mathematical morphology, principal curvature, non-maximal suppression and hysteresis thresholding based morphological reconstruction. The blood vessels are enhanced by applying the top-hat transformation and computation of maximum principal curvature at multiple scales. Vessel centerlines are then obtained by non-maximal suppression followed by adapted hysteresis thresholding and morphological reconstruction. The principal curvature image is double thresholded and morphologically reconstructed to generate the vessel skeleton map which is the aggregate threshold for region growing of detected vessel centerlines to obtain the segmented retinal vasculature. The proposed method is evaluated using the images of two publicly available databases, the DRIVE database and the STARE database. Achieved average accuracy for DRIVE and STARE is 0.9419 and 0.9434 respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is comparable with other approaches in accuracy, sensitivity and specificity.


A DELPHI questionnaire study of the management problems of Internet/Web systems development was completed in 2001 and its results have been reported in the literature. The most important problems collectively consist of a cluster of problems involving Internet strategic planning and other strategy-related problems. This cluster includes 4 of the first 5 problems and a total of 7 of the top 16. Other recent research studies have reached similar conclusions about the high importance of strategy considerations in the field of high-tech product development, where strategic planning for new product development was found to be the top problem. High-tech product development occurs in a different operating (and usually mutually exclusive) environment from that of Internet/Web systems (Web systems) development in that the former involves R&D, engineering, and production activities and produces a (usually) physical product suited for the marketplace, whereas Web systems development creates systems for internal use by the developing company, using analysis and development tools and methodologies that differ significantly from those of traditional IT systems development. However, the new-product development activities and Web systems development activities also have a great deal in common: each takes place in a highly uncertain, rapidly changing, complex, advanced-technology environment that is difficult for other managers to understand and properly consider during the strategy planning processes. A large body of knowledge has emerged about strategic planning and management of new-product development, but no such body of knowledge has yet emerged with respect to Web systems development strategic planning activities. This article is directed to strategic planning management knowledge transfer from the high-tech product development arena to the field of Web systems development. The article first describes, and then compares the processes of both activities. Then considered is how high-tech product development planning and management practices can be used for Web systems development.


Programs contain bugs. Finding program bugs is important, especially in situations where safety and security of a program is required. This thesis proposes a number of analysis methods for enforcing the absence of such bugs. In the first part of the thesis the Java Modeling Language (JML) is the main object of study. The expressiveness of JML is shown by specifying the behavior a number of semantically complex Java program fragments. Program verifications tools, such as the LOOP verification framework and ESC/Java, are used to formally prove the correctness of these specifications. We also show how JML can be used to ensure a safe and secure control flow for a complete Java card applet and how JML can be used to express secure information flow in Java programs. Secure information flow, or confidentiality, is central in the second part of the thesis. Several program verification techniques are introduced that enforce security properties, specifically confidentiality. The idea is that we want a (provably sound) analysis technique that enforces a secure information flow policy for a program. Such a policy typically specifies what information -contained in the program- is secret and what information is publicly available. Non-interference is the technical notion used to prove confidentiality for programs. Informally, a program is deemed non-interfering if its low level (public) output values are completely independent of high level (secret) input variables of a program. Several forms of non-interference have been studied in the literature. The most common (and also the weakest) form is termination-insensitive non-interference. In this case non-interference is only guaranteed if the program terminates normally, if the program hangs or terminates abruptly (via an exception) non-interference is not necessarily assured. In contrast, termination-sensitive non-interference ensures the non-interference property for all termination modes. Still stronger forms of non-interference also take covert channels, such as the timing behavior of a program, into account. Which leads to notions such as time-sensitive termination-sensitive non-interference. Abstract interpretation, interactive theorem proving, program transformation and specification generation techniques are used to enforce each of the different notions of non-interference discussed above.


The shipping in ice-covered waters increases the need of knowledge and understanding about physical effects of the icebreaking process during the ship-ice interaction. The shape of the ship bow will affect the ice resistance significantly and thus it is important to consider its geometry when predicting the ice resistance. The ice resistance on ships advancing in level ice can be predicted by either performing model tests or applying methods estimating the ice resistance. The aim of this thesis is to perform a sensitivity analysis of chosen ice resistance prediction methods with regard to the bow shape and thus identify the effect of the bow geometry on the breaking resistance. The desired bow shapes are generated through a parametric 3D model developed in MATLAB. The parametric 3D model is built up by a "bow skeleton" which consists of a mesh grid with connected control points that depend on bow length, ship beam, ice thickness and five angles describing the bow shape. To obtain a 3D bow shape, a surface was added made up by non-uniform rational basis splines. By adjusting the control points, a desired bow shape can be generated. For simplicity, the model is only considering the ice belt area. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the methods of Lindqvist (1989) and Erceg et al. (2014) with regard to the bow geometry as they both are considering the same parameters describing the bow shape angles, and the methods are decomposing the ice resistance to be able to estimate the resistance components separately. The method of Lindqvist was found to be more sensitive to larger buttock angles and smaller waterline entrance angles, with regard to the increased relative breaking resistance. However, overall the method seems to be more sensitive to a change of the buttock angle as the relative breaking resistance would increase significant in line with the increase of the buttock angle. A decreased flare angle is found to give smaller breaking resistance, and the change of ship beam will not have a significant effect on the breaking resistance. Thereby, the smallest breaking resistance will be found for a large waterline entrance angle and a small buttock angle, which can be recognised as the spoon-shaped bow. The method of Erceg was found to show a similar results, which means that a small waterline entrance angle and large buttock angle will result in a larger breaking resistance. The parametric model was found to be limited to bow shapes with average waterline entrance angles up to 45 degrees and average buttock angles up to 60 degrees, which excludes landing craft bows. The method of Erceg seemed to be limited for waterline entrance angles ranging from 20 to 50 degrees, and buttock angles from 20 to 45 degrees, with regard to the implemented parametric model.


We use numerically exact computer simulations of multiple scattering in physically realistic models of sparse discrete random media to quantify the errors of the scalar approximation SA in computations of coherent backscattering CB assuming that the incident light is unpolarized. We show that while the SA errors in the diffuse backscattered intensity are often small, those in the CB enhancement factor can reach 25% and often exceed 20%. We attribute this to the fact that the computation of the enhancement factor involves all diagonal elements of the diffuse backscattering Stokes matrix rather than only its 1, 1 element. Therefore, the coherent enhancement of backscattered intensity appears to be the result of a complex interplay of various polarization effects involved in the process of multiple scattering. Thus our numerical data make a strong case against the use of the SA in theoretical computations of CB in the case of unpolarized incident light.


Drug allergies are adverse reactions resulting from immunologic responses to drugs or their metabolites. These reactions result in predictable patterns of organ-specific or systemic hypersensitivity that usually recur on subsequent exposure to the same drug. Although diagnostic testing for drug allergy is available for only a few drugs, protocols have been developed to assist in management of allergic reactions to many drugs and biologic agents. Other protocols assist in the management of patients who develop drug reactions while undergoing multiple drug therapy or those with a history of adverse drug reactions who again require treatment for the same condition.


Identifying appropriate validation sources for large-area land cover products is a challenge, with logistical constraints frequently necessitating the use of preexisting data sources. Several issues exist when comparing polygon (vector-based) datasets to raster imagery: geolocational mismatches, differences in features or classes mapped, disparity between the scale of polygon delineation and the spatial resolution of the image, and temporal discrepancies. To evaluate the potential impact of using vector coverages to assess the accuracy of pixel-based land cover maps, five evaluation protocols are applied to test sites located in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. One protocol directly compared the land cover of the sample unit to the land cover of the forest inventory polygon within which the sample unit fell, two protocols used different regions around the sample unit to define the land cover class, and two protocols were based on homogeneity criteria that restricted the selection of sample units. For the protocols tested, the overall accuracy values ranged from 34% to 58%. Given the broad range of accuracies achieved, the results suggest that caution is needed when making spatially explicit comparisons between raster and vector datasets. When possible, the use of purpose-collected validation data is recommended for the accuracy assessment of maps derived from remotely sensed data; if preexisting vector-based data are the only option for the validation, approaches accounting for the heterogeneity of classes within a given polygon are recommended.


Dense LU factorization is a prominent benchmark used to rank the performance of supercomputers. Many implementations use block-cyclic distributions of matrix blocks onto a two-dimensional process grid. The process grid dimensions drive a trade-off between communication and computation and are architecture- and implementation-sensitive. The critical panel factorization steps can be made less communication-bound by overlapping asynchronous collectives for pivoting with the computation of rank-k updates. By shifting the computation-communication trade-off, a modified block-cyclic distribution can beneficially exploit more available parallelism on the critical path, and reduce panel factorization's memory hierarchy contention on now-ubiquitous multicore architectures. During active panel factorization, rank-1 updates stream through memory with minimal reuse. In a column-major process grid, the performance of this access pattern degrades as too many streaming processors contend for access to memory. A block-cyclic mapping in the row-major order does not encounter this problem, but consequently sacrifices node and network locality in the critical pivoting steps. We introduce 'striding' to vary between the two extremes of row- and column-major process grids. The maximum available parallelism in the critical path work (active panel factorization, triangular solves, and subsequent broadcasts) is bounded by the length or width of the process grid. Increasing one dimension of the process grid decreases the number of distinct processes and nodes in the other dimension. To increase the harnessed parallelism in both dimensions, we start with a tall process grid. We then apply periodic 'rotation' to this grid to restore exploited parallelism along the row to previous levels. As a test-bed for further mapping experiments, we describe a dense LU implementation that allows a block distribution to be defined as a general function of block to processor. Other mappings can be tested with only small, local changes to the code.


This research presents a lightweight algorithm for calculating the area enclosed by a contour in a two-dimensional space, the shape of which is determined by an elevation function. The area is calculated using Green's theorem, for which a one-dimensional line integration along the contour is required. To trace the contour efficiently, we introduce the notion of a shortcut vector determined by a certain rotation. In view of the feature in tracing and circulating the contour, we call this an 'inner skin algorithm'. Though our primary aim is to apply the algorithm to terrain topography, the method would also be useful in various engineering fields, such as civil engineering, mechanical design, and electromagnetics.


In this article, we examine how non-membership organizations that claim stewardship over a transnational public or common good, such as the environmental or digital commons, develop combinations of formal and informal recursivity to develop and maintain regulatory conversations with their dispersed user communities. Based on a case study of Creative Commons, an organization that developed what have become the most widely used open licenses for digital content, we show how rhetorical openness to informal feedback from legitimacy communities in different sectors and countries can improve the feasibility and diffusion of standards. However, as long as the standard-setter's methods of making decisions on the basis of such feedback remains opaque, its communities are likely to raise accountability demands for more extensive ex post justifications.