Abstract Aims Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an established, independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. Indices derived from the electrocardiogram (ECG) have been used to infer the presence of LVH with limited sensitivity. This study aimed to classify LVH defined by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging using the 12-lead ECG for cost-effective patient stratification. Methods and results We extracted ECG biomarkers with a known physiological association with LVH from the 12-lead ECG of 37 534 participants in the UK Biobank imaging study. Classification models integrating ECG biomarkers and clinical variables were built using logistic regression, support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). The dataset was split into 80% training and 20% test sets for performance evaluation. Ten-fold cross validation was applied with further validation testing performed by separating data based on UK Biobank imaging centres. QRS amplitude and blood pressure (P < 0.001) were the features most strongly associated with LVH. Classification with logistic regression had an accuracy of 81% [sensitivity 70%, specificity 81%, Area under the receiver operator curve (AUC) 0.86], SVM 81% accuracy (sensitivity 72%, specificity 81%, AUC 0.85) and RF 72% accuracy (sensitivity 74%, specificity 72%, AUC 0.83). ECG biomarkers enhanced model performance of all classifiers, compared to using clinical variables alone. Validation testing by UK Biobank imaging centres demonstrated robustness of our models. Conclusion A combination of ECG biomarkers and clinical variables were able to predict LVH defined by CMR. Our findings provide support for the ECG as an inexpensive screening tool to risk stratify patients with LVH as a prelude to advanced imaging.


Machine learning on encrypted data has received a lot of attention thanks to recent breakthroughs in homomorphic encryption and secure multi-party computation. It allows outsourcing computation to untrusted servers without sacrificing privacy of sensitive data. We propose a practical framework to perform partially encrypted and privacy-preserving predictions which combines adversarial training and functional encryption. We first present a new functional encryption scheme to efficiently compute quadratic functions so that the data owner controls what can be computed but is not involved in the calculation: it provides a decryption key which allows one to learn a specific function evaluation of some encrypted data. We then show how to use it in machine learning to partially encrypt neural networks with quadratic activation functions at evaluation time and we provide a thorough analysis of the information leaks based on indistinguishability of data items of the same label. Last, since several encryption schemes cannot deal with the last thresholding operation used for classification, we propose a training method to prevent selected sensitive features from leaking which adversarially optimizes the network against an adversary trying to identify these features. This is of great interest for several existing works using partially encrypted machine learning as it comes with almost no cost on the model's accuracy and significantly improves data privacy.


This paper provides a discussion of the increasing amount of mobility data from the Early Nordic Bronze Age (Early NBA), c. 1600-1100 BCE with particular focus on NBA II and III (c. 1500-1100 BCE). As a male-oriented study, the intent is to develop current perspectives on gender roles in the Early NBA in relation to mobility. In order to achieve our aim, we conducted strontium isotope analyses and radiocarbon dating combined with an in-depth archaeological investigation of grave goods obtained from two male burials from the Vejle region, SE Jutland.  To contextualise the case study results, we also conducted network analyses of male gear from burials and ritual deposits on a regional scale, which reveal differentiated roles among men in the upper social echelon. The warrior emerged as an overall identity for high-ranking males whilst differences in male weaponry interestingly suggest that a minimum of three kinds of warriors were distinguished, reflecting social roles in war and society. The results suggest that one of the individuals was local while the other might have moved. The overall aim is to demonstrate that robust results regarding gendered mobilities will depend on the combination of several methods, datasets and scales of inquiry.


Seedling establishment and survival on the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is being monitored as part of the Pen Branch Bottomland Restoration Project. Bottomland tree species were planted fi-om 1993-1995 across a hydrologic gradient which encompasses the drier upper floodplain corridor, the lower floodplain corridor and the continuously inundated delta. Twelve species were planted in the three areas based on their flood tolerance and the hydrology of the area. Planted areas are separated by unplanted control strips to assess natural regeneration. A seedling survey conducted in 1997 showed that planted areas had significantly greater seedling densities than unplanted control sections. Water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), and persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) had the highest percent survival in the upper corridor while baldcypress (Tarodium distichum) had the best survival in the wetter lower corridor and delta. Water tupelo and green ash survival was low in wetter areas. Survival of planted species is dependent on hydrology, competition and herbivory although it is not possible to differentiate these effects from the available data.


INTRODUCTION : The problem of tourism function in the multifunctional development of rural areas has not been recognized and is gaining on meaning because European Union is focusing activities on natural environment preservation. However, little attention has been paid to the role of environment in the development of rural areas. Environmental function has an impact on nature preservation and quality of life of society development and requires capital outlays on nature preservation. Agriculture and rural areas are the key elements creating public goods based on natural environment. Not only European agriculture is responsible for providing food and material to be further processed but also occupies around 40% of land. As a consequence it has a huge impact on the condition of the environment in the rural areas as well as capabilities to use the environment. It is a specific feature of public goods related to rural areas that they can be an external effect of "regular" agricultural production, a purposive effect or a common supply that belongs to the society. It must be noted that in the rural areas different interests compete mainly for two factors: the land and labor, because both production of private goods and provision of environmental public goods can be executed through them. However, in order to achieve a proper level of environmental public good supply it is necessary to create economic incentives for farmers to manage their land and other production factors in such a way that it is possible to generate them. In that context an important issue is human capital which is especially important in periods of rapid change. Certainly Poland in the past two decades has experienced rapid change, with rural areas especially impacted. The changes in markets, agricultural policies, and opportunities have been so great in this period that the traditional approaches to economic activity were overwhelmed by changing circumstances. The ability to adapt in this instance is especially dependent on human capital, because everything is different. The papers presented at the conference ,,Development of human capital" on 7th June 2014 at High Economic Social School in Ostroleka were compiled into a monograph to promote the concept of tourism and human capital in the development of rural areas. The publication has been structured to address the key elements of tourism and human capital. The first part discusses development of tourism functions and influence of selected economic factors on its development. Moreover, it focuses on ambient impact of institutional development on agritourism farms. The second part concerns human capital. It describes its role in innovation opportunities, and theories describing human behavior. This part is also devoted to human capital in Polish agriculture. The monograph is enriched in papers from Pennsylvania State University in the USA and School of Agriculture & Food Science, University College Dublin. Piotr Borawski, Agnieszka Brelik, and Bazyli Czyzewski


The Australian members of the vetigastropod family Anatomidae are revised and two new species are described. The family has thus far been treated as a subfamily of Scissurellidae, but recent molecular evidence (Geiger & Thacker, unpubl. data) indicates that Scissurellinae plus Anatominaeis not monophyletic, and full family rank is warranted for a group containing the genera Anatoma and Thieleella. Seven species from Australia belonging in Anatomidae are discussed and illustrated by SEM: Anatoma aupouria (Powell, 1937) mainly from New Zealand, though with some Australian records; A. australis (Hedley, 1903), A. funiculata n. sp., An turbinata (A. Adams, 1862), which has been misidentified in the past as the South African A. agulhasensis (Thiele, 1925), A. tobeyoides n. sp., Thieleella equatoria (Hedley, 1899) with a second known specimen, and T. gunteri (Cotton & Godfrey, 1933). Other species that have been (erroneously) indicated from Australia are discussed. A neotype is designated for A. agulhasensis from South Africa for taxon stabilization.


The exponential progress and accessibility of computing has vastly increased data flows and revolutionized the practice of science, engineering, and communication. Computing plays a critical role in advancing research across almost every scientific discipline. Computation for Humanity: Information Technology to Advance Society is a guide for the creation of services, products, and tools that facilitate, support, and enhance progress of humanity toward more sustainable life. This book: Provides a deep understanding of the practical applications of computation to solve human-machine problems Delivers insight into theoretical approaches in an accessible manner Provides a comprehensive overview of computational science and engineering applications in selected disciplines Crosses the boundaries between different domains and shows how they interrelate and complement one another Focuses on grand challenges and issues that matter for the future of humanity Shows different perspectives of computational thinking, understanding, and reasoning Provides a basis for scientific discoveries and enables adopting scientific theories and engineering practices from other disciplines Takes a step back to provide a human-related abstraction level that is not ultimately seen in pure technological elaborations/collections The editors provide a collection of numerous computation-related projects that form a foundation from which to cross-pollinate between different disciplines and further extensive collaboration. They present a clear and profound understanding of computing in today's world, and provide fundamental solutions to some of the most pertinent humanity-related problems.


The article analyses definition and origin of the term "infrastructure" in relation to the tourism industry. The content and classification of the "tourist infrastructure" concept are analyzed on the basis of domestic and foreign approaches. The authors tried to define main components of tourist infrastructure. Successful development of tourist industry is impossible without appropriate tourist infrastructure, ensuring material and technical provision for tourism and plays an important role in satisfying of tourists' needs. Despite an enormous quantity of scientific researches connected with tourist infrastructure development, there is a lack of its single definition acceptable for all scientists.
In Ukraine tourist infrastructure is usually defined as a combination of certain facilities ensuring tourist activity and providing hosting, servicing and transporting for tourists: hotels, tourist complexes, campings, motels, boarding houses, catering, transport businesses, cultural and sports facilities etc. However, a strict definition to characterize tourist infrastructure does not exist. That is why a large number of approaches to tourist infrastructure take place. In our article we examined the researches of the scientists, who have worked on this issue: T. O. Volkova, H. J. Dovhopola, I. V. Yerko, J. S. Korabelnikova, D. A. Korneva, S. P. Kuzyk, I. M. Minich, O. V. Mischenko, V. I. Novikova, M. J. Rutynskyj, O. V. Stetsjuk, L. M. Cherchyk, I. M. Shkola, etc. The most significant foreign contributions by V.Havoretski and A.Rain were considered as well. Materials from Tourism and Transport Forum, 2012, covering the structuring of tourist infrastructure into 4 types, were also important for our elaboration.
Tourist infrastructure includes a large amount of services necessary to satisfy tourist's demands and ensure comfortable stay at the destination, thus promoting its attractiveness. We distinguish between the main (accommodation and catering, communication, tour operators), additional (entertainment and recreation facilities, tourism information giving centers, specialized shopping facilities) and maintenance (checkpoints, petrol stations, banking institutions, insurance groups, health protection and public utility services) tourist infrastructure.


In this paper, a comparative analysis between the main political citizen attitudes before the crisis in Iceland and Spain is carried out. After a brief review of political and economical antecendents, it was concluded that in Spain, as well as in Iceland, the key explanatory factors of the deep economic imbalances are located at the institutional sphere. The excesses are related in both cases to political clientelism and to diverse corruptions practices, in such a way that even the alarming signs that preceded "the official date" of the economic crisis, no convenient measures were adopted in time. In this context, the crisis has played a catalyst role, accelerating the demands aimed at achieving a better performance of the democratic system in both countries. Distrust in politicians and in political parties, as well as in other formal institutions, has not been translated neither in lack of confidence in the democracy system per se, nor in poltical apathy. Moreover, the discontent has been in both cases translated into both formulae of more political informal participation and of a greater support to more direct democracy, though through differents channels and with different results. In the discussion, diverse hypotheses are explored in order to explain the main findings in the comparative analysis. On the one hand, some of the variables associated to small-states literature are taken into account, in order to argue the main differences found out between the Spanish and Icelandic cases. On the other, diverse hypotheses from the political science literature are considered in search of a plausible explanation of the major parallelisms found.


The Australian superannuation system has been praised as one of the best in the world. Yet a major review by the Cooper Committee in 2010 found numerous problems that have been undermining the performance of the system, proposing a number of recommendations for improvement. The subsequent adoption and implementation of two such recommendations saw the introduction of 'MySuper' and 'SuperStream' by the government resulting in the most significant reform in the superannuation industry since the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) in 1992. This paper critically analyses: the relevant Deloitte; and Financial Services Council and Ernst and Young's report used to support this major reform. It is concluded that the scope of these studies is limited and they are predominantly constrained to industry funds and are presented by interested players, limiting their ability for full representation. A call for independent academic research is made.


In natural hazards research, risk is defined as a function of (1) the probability of the occurrence of a hazardous process, and (2) the assessment of the related extent of damage, defined by the values at risk and the vulnerability according to the intensity of the hazard process. Until now, only a little work has been carried out to determine vulnerability values for objects exposed to torrent processes, in particular to debris flows. The vulnerability values proposed in the literature show a wide range, above all with respect to medium and high process intensities. Furthermore an application of these values might lead to an overestimation of vulnerability, as an assessment for alpine torrent events has shown. In this study, data from Austria and Switzerland were used to empirically analyse and assess the vulnerability of buildings to torrent processes, and to establish a respective vulnerability function. This function was found to be valid for debris flow intensities between 0.33 m and 3.06 m, a typical range for debris accumulation on torrential fans in alpine catchments. Since the analysis was based on process intensities and is thus independent from recurrence intervals, not only the risk resulting from design events can be calculated but also every other event with a different frequency. A wider application of the developed method to additional test sites would allow for further improvement of the results and would support an enhanced standardisation of the vulnerability function, especially with respect to the possible risk-reducing effects of different mitigation measures. © 2008 WIT Press WIT Transactions on Information and Communication, Vol 39, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517 (on-line) Risk Analysis VI 289


Facing the appearance of novel soil-borne plant diseases as well as increasing restrictions of the chemical fumigants that have long been used to treat them, developing disease resistant cultivars is one strategy among several that the California strawberry industry is supporting. Yet, under the assumption that growers most desire high yielding varieties, university strawberry breeders continue to emphasize productivity, despite knowing the difficulty of breeding for many different qualities. They make this assumption even as the industry's per acre productivity reached an all-time high in 2018 while prices continued to slip, a dynamic predicted by Willard Cochrane's famous technology treadmill. This paper explores if and why growers want yield over disease resistant varieties to assess if there are ways to slow or stop the treadmill. Based on twenty in-depth interviews with strawberry growers, we found that growers want yield to remain individually competitive even as they largely recognize that prioritizing yield over other qualities can be self-defeating for the industry. We additionally found that this desire is being augmented by buyer-grower contractual relationships, conditions of land access and rising land values, and practices of labor remuneration not heretofore theorized as playing into the treadmill. Given that those structural forces are not easily addressed, we also consider the role that university scientists play in constructing this desire for yield. On this question we draw on work in science and technology studies as it relates to university agricultural science to suggest that farmers' needs and desires are a reflection of what university research and extension can offer and conclude that university breeders are best positioned to level the playing field by ceasing to breed for productivity.


This is an account of the experience of the students of the Specialization Course in Obstetrics Nursing of the Department of Nursing Care of the State University of Montes Claros (UNIMONTES), together with the Sofia Feldman Hospital in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This study intends to get to know the meaning of the course for the students, using the discourse analysis technique. The data which was analyzed provide meanings such as technical and scientific growth, safety, career advancement and some difficulties of professional performance. It focuses on the importance of this specialization course in the life of the students, in so far as their learning contributes to personal and professional growth to transform social reality. We conclude that the qualification of the obstetrics nurses is a strategy to reclaim the competence of this professional, increasing their contribution to the quality of health care to women during pregnancy, puerperium and to the neonate. We recommend that more courses should be made available to train obstetric nurses and to contribute to the quality of care for women and children.


Transparent and competitive financial management policy and practice are, generally, instrumental for local, regional and global financial stability. However, different types of fraudulent financial activities have, from time to time, destabilized global financial stability; we are not well equipped to combat such threats, stabilize the global financial industry and prevent financial fraud in a sustainable way, as the extant literature in this field demonstrates that we have limited knowledge of financial criminology. This introduction to the Journal of Operational Risk special issue shines a light on the relationship between financial fraud risks and financial stability. As well as highlighting the gaps in financial fraud research, we briefly discuss the papers in this special issue. We also offer an in-depth account of the emerging financial fraud risks, and their potential impact on financial stability, as a direction for future research.


Data Mining is relatively new in the field of statistics, although widely used elsewhere. Is it a good idea to discard the model-based methods in favour of Data Driven methods? Data driven methods produce a high degree of accuracy, but very little interpretability. Model based methods are interpretable, but lack accuracy. Data mining techniques are commonly used where the data collection has been automated. I will show these methods are also useful in the large survey setting.


Resources are a key to innovative actions -not only, but also- in nonprofit organizations (NPOs). With the societal obligation of NPOs to create innovative and effective approaches in responding to a variety of concerns such as poverty, human rights, social services, environmental protection etc. this study examines the resource foundations that make NPOs innovative. NPOs are known to show a considerable degree of pioneer work and innovativeness in responding to societal concerns (Salamon et al., 2004). To have NPOs maintain their innovative behavior it is of the utmost interest to identify those requirements and needs that support their specific functions. Organizational slack is suggested to be a very influential factor in determining the innovative behavior of NPOs. Organizational slack are these resources in or available to the organization that are in excess of the minimum necessary to produce a given level of organizational output (Geiger & Cashen, 2002). Innovation is the outcome of a creative process involving different actors which results in a qualitatively new means-end combination that is new to the market or the firm (Gemunden & Salomo, 2004). The question whether or not organizational slack fosters innovation, has not been answered unambiguously so far, since researchers deliver convincing arguments for both standpoints. Against this backdrop, the study seeks to explain the relationship between organizational slack and innovation in nonprofit organizations. More precisely it is of interest to find out how these two concepts are related, positively, negatively, or inversely U-shaped. A sample of 250 randomly selected Austrian NPOs is the data basis for the investigation and was generated in cooperation with Statistik Austria. Through questionnaires the data for the study was collected. To test the proposed hypotheses the data is analyzed through inferential statistics.


Reinforcement learning is known to be sample inefficient, preventing its application to many real-world problems, especially with high dimensional observations like images. Transferring knowledge from other auxiliary tasks is a powerful tool for improving the learning efficiency. However, the usage of auxiliary tasks has been limited so far due to the difficulty in selecting and combining different auxiliary tasks. In this work, we propose a principled online learning algorithm that dynamically combines different auxiliary tasks to speed up training for reinforcement learning. Our method is based on the idea that auxiliary tasks should provide gradient directions that, in the long term, help to decrease the loss of the main task. We show in various environments that our algorithm can effectively combine a variety of different auxiliary tasks and achieves significant speedup compared to previous heuristic approches of adapting auxiliary task weights.


The model scale compulsator is a high speed (12000 rpm), high energy rotating machine. The rotor is a highly optimized pulsed power electrical machine consisting of electrical windings, slip rings, and highly pre-stressed composite bandings. This paper describes the design of this machine from the standpoint of rotordynamics. The rotor is supported on oil-lubricated hybrid ceramic duplex ball bearings, which in turn are supported on compliant squeeze film dampers. Test results are presented for both mechanical checkout runs and full energy discharge experiments. Also described is experience gained from low speed balancing on a commercial balancing machine, followed by high speed in situ balancing.


This Note examines judicial review and oversight of state educational adequacy remedies in light of education budget cuts proposed during the recent recession. Educational adequacy litigation has been relatively successful in establishing children's affirmative right to education under state constitutions, but due to separation of powers concerns, most state courts have been quite deferential to legislatures in reviewing remedies for constitutional violations. This leaves many schools underfunded and under-resourced in spite of successful adequacy litigation — a problem that is aggravated during times of recession, when many states face pressure to cut education budgets. This Note examines these issues using functional separation of powers theory, comparative analysis of state and federal government functioning, and pragmatic considerations related to remedial compliance. It argues that state courts should apply heightened judicial review to ensure remedial compliance and particularly to review state education budget cuts that may disrupt educational adequacy remedies. In this way, state courts can be more vigilant in maintaining educational adequacy.


The timing and sense of the dip-slip component of a fault9s motion can be quantified by using geohistory analysis. Geohistory analysis traditionally is used to quantify tectonic subsidence or uplift of marine basins, but is newly applied to evaluate phases of activity of individual faults, including blind faults. Intermittent fault activity and changing sense of dip slip emerge, particularly for faults reactivated under changing kinematic regimes. Through the use of outcrop or core data from two fault blocks on either side of a major fault, the vertical component of displacement can be isolated. Steps of geohistory analysis include generation of (1) a rock-accumulation curve consisting of stratal thicknesses as a function of age, (2) a decompacted sediment-accumulation curve as a function of age, and (3) a total-subsidence curve with paleobathymetry inferred from fossil assemblages and sedimentary structures. Because errors on the inferred water depths are considered to be 20% of the water depth, the method is limited to large-scale faults. The analysis is repeated on both sides of the fault to determine which block subsided or was uplifted faster, thus isolating both the sense of dip slip and its relative magnitude. If both blocks display parallel subsidence curves within the error margins, a period of fault inactivity or pure strike slip is inferred. If the sense of dip slip changed, the subsidence curves cross. If the dip direction of the fault plane is interpreted from field or subsurface data, a change—for example, from an extensional component to a contractional component—also emerges, and the timing of basin inversion is detectable. As a case study, fault activity was evaluated for a mosaic of faults cutting the Messaras basin of Crete, Greece, a Neogene forearc basin that underwent extension followed by transpression. This approach is applicable to neotectonics or ancient tectonics and pertains to subsurface or exhumed faults as well as active faults offshore that generate contrasting water depths across a fault zone.


In this technical report we describe a scenario designed by the "Office federale de l'environnement" (Mr Romero), this scenario is detailed in table 1. In this scenario we assume that a carbon tax 1 USD2001 per ton of CO2 (i.e. 3.66 USD per ton of carbon) is enforced at the world level over the whole time horizon of the simulation (i.e. 2007-2040). 50% of the tax revenue in each country is allocated to households in the own country. The other 50% of the revenue is allocated to a fund and redistributed to developing countries on the basis of the estimation of the adaptation costs supported by these countries.


Bidirectional signaling between the sarcolemmal L-type Ca2+ channel (1,4-dihydropyridine receptor [DHPR]) and the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ release channel (type 1 ryanodine receptor [RYR1]) of skeletal muscle is essential for excitation–contraction coupling (ECC) and is a well-understood prototype of conformational coupling. Mutations in either channel alter coupling fidelity and with an added pharmacologic stimulus or stress can trigger malignant hyperthermia (MH). In this study, we measured the response of wild-type (WT), heterozygous (Het), or homozygous (Hom) RYR1-R163C knock-in mouse myotubes to maintained K+ depolarization. The new findings are: (a) For all three genotypes, Ca2+ transients decay during prolonged depolarization, and this decay is not a consequence of SR depletion or RYR1 inactivation. (b) The R163C mutation retards the decay rate with a rank order WT > Het > Hom. (c) The removal of external Ca2+ or the addition of Ca2+ entry blockers (nifedipine, SKF96365, and Ni2+) enhanced the rate of decay in all genotypes. (d) When Ca2+ entry is blocked, the decay rates are slower for Hom and Het than WT, indicating that the rate of inactivation of ECC is affected by the R163C mutation and is genotype dependent (WT > Het > Hom). (e) Reduced ECC inactivation in Het and Hom myotubes was shown directly using two identical K+ depolarizations separated by varying time intervals. These data suggest that conformational changes induced by the R163C MH mutation alter the retrograde signal that is sent from RYR1 to the DHPR, delaying the inactivation of the DHPR voltage sensor.


We consider a scenario where local Lorentz invariance is violated by the existence of a preferred time direction at every space-time point. This scenario can arise in the context of quantum gravity and its description at low energies contains a unit time-like vector field which parameterizes the preferred direction. The particle physics tests of Lorentz invariance preclude a direct coupling of this vector to the fields of the Standard Model, but do not bear implications for dark matter. We discuss how the presence of this vector and its possible coupling to dark matter affect the evolution of the Universe. At the level of homogeneous cosmology the only effect of Lorentz invariance violation is a rescaling of the expansion rate. The physics is richer at the level of perturbations. We identify three effects crucial for observations: the rescaling of the matter contribution to the Poisson equation, the appearance of an extra contribution to the anisotropic stress and the scale-dependent enhancement of dark matter clustering. These effects result in distinctive features in the power spectra of the CMB and density fluctuations. Making use of the data from Planck and WiggleZ we obtain the most stringent cosmological constraints to date on departures from Lorentz symmetry. Our analysis provides the first direct bounds on deviations from Lorentz invariance in the dark matter sector.


Relict is a science fiction 3D animated short film that surrounds a fantasy of future Beijing, the capital city of the People's Republic of China. The short film critically explores three important problems, which are heatedly discussed nowadays in Beijing, of large population, environmental pollution and declination of people's living standard through a fictional point of view of several Landmark buildings of the metropolis. These three issues I hope to discuss in this short film are closely related to each other. Firstly, the large population problem is caused by the fact of its greater resources in politics, economy and education as the center and capital city of China. More and more young people seek to settle in Beijing for splendid development which unavoidably leads to the problems of cheaper labor, higher pressure and the rising of the housing prices and causes living standard going constantly down in Beijing. The great air pollution is mainly caused by large number of automobile exhaust and coal heating in winter which is also closely related with overpopulated problem. The author of the thesis made this short film to arouse his audience's reflection on these issues through modeling and rendering by 3D technology, using realistic visual style and science fiction story setting. The duration of the short film is 2 minutes and 20 seconds. This thesis would faithfully record the creative thinking and film production process of this animated short film.


Here, we determined the Toxoplasma gondii genotype in amniotic fluid, placenta, and cerebrospinal fluid samples from 14 congenital toxoplasmosis cases in Tunisia, North Africa. Direct genotypic characterization of T. gondii strains was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of six genetic markers (3'SAG2, 5' SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, and APICO) and thereafter, was analyzed by restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP). Samples were sequenced to resolve strain type whenever there were unclear enzyme digestion results. Multilocus analysis revealed that only one specimen harbored the type I allele in all studied loci, whereas the 13 others gave mixed genotype results with different alleles at different markers. Seven specimens produced RFLP profile of the recombinant strains I/III, and three produced a profile of I/II recombinant strains. The last three specimens produced complex digestion patterns. In these cases, sequence analysis revealed double peaks at known polymorphic sites, indicating the presence of multiple alleles.


Clinicians will want to take an early look at this months Clinical Roundup, now an established series which is proving popular thanks to its authors Sophie Herbert and Lewis Haddow. This month, we have also rushed into production for our clinical readers a BASHH column, which introduces the new position statement on the treatment of co-incident rectal chlamydia and gonorrhoea. With the looming spectre of gonococcal antimicrobial resistance, we are likely to see more rapid changes in guidelines and develop a more proactive approach to stewarding the antibiotics that we still have available. Clinicians might be forgiven for thinking that gonorrhoea is a common infection, given the strikingly high prevalence in some clinical populations—especially men who have sex with men (MSM). An interesting modelling study by Hui in this issue concludes that oral sex is central to the maintenance of gonorrhoea in MSM populations despite prompt treatment of urethral infections and that even relatively low rates of use of condoms in this context would do much to control its transmission. There are, however, very few studies of gonorrhoea in a population-based sample. The UK's National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles is one of very few, and this month Field et al present a detailed analysis of gonorrhoea prevalence and test performance in this large sample. The positive predictive value of a nucleic acid amplification test for gonorrhoea is only 19%, by contrast with 95%, due to the rarity of gonorrhoea in an unselected UK population. This analysis should confirm growing misgivings about the routine addition of gonorrhoea tests to chlamydia tests outside clinical populations. Conversely, a study of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) in a Croatian clinic population of symptomatic and asymptomatic men suggests that there may well be value in providing nucleic acid testing for this pathogen. The difficulty of testing reliably for TV, together with low prevalence in women in many developed world settings, has led to a decline in testing in many settings. However Sviben et al's data suggest that detection in men could reach worthwhile levels in symptomatic men. The question of what pathogens we should test for is further complicated by an RCT by Khrosopour et al, showing that while persistence of ureaplasma species was common after treatment with standard therapies, it was not associated with persistent urethritis. How can we optimise STI and HIV testing? Desai et al present a systematic review of active recall, which suggests that generally recall is indeed associated with higher rates of re-testing. However this may well vary by context, with some uncertainty about when SMS testing and home sampling are of value. Some populations of course may be particularly vulnerable to poor access to testing due to provider weaknesses or differences in health seeking behaviour. Schick et al explore the acceptability of self-collected testing in women who have sex with women, advocating for such facilities to be available beyond traditional clinical settings to improve access. We are also reminded of the need to maintain vigilance for STIs acquired non-sexually by Dharmasena's analysis of surveillance data for "ophthalmia neonatorum" which demonstrates massive under-ascertainment, then the cessation of a surveillance system. A number of studies explore structural determinants of STI, which are increasingly recognised as critical to transmission. Winston et al describe high rates of STI and HIV in Kenyan street-connected youth, a situation affecting millions of vulnerable young people across the globe, while a Stoltey et al in the USA describe a strong correlation between incarceration rates and diagnosed chlamydia incidence. A US report by Mansergh et al reports that internalised homophobia is associated with increased sexual risk among black MSM but not Latinos. Meanwhile, a study of Portuguese sex workers by Dias et al demonstrates its highest rates of HIV at 17.6% among transgender participants, while Schneider et al describe inequalities in vulnerability to HSV in India. Finally a sobering report by Carlos et al reminds us of the need for continuing efforts are needed—in different ways across the globe—to counter misconceptions about HIV. In September, we are looking forward to attending the ISSTDR conference in Brisbane and look forward to keeping you up to date as we did at the Glasgow BASHH conference. Keep an eye on our website, blogs, podcast and twitter via @sti_bmj! Competing interests None


Because the internet makes it economical to do so, many American companies have sent their customer service jobs overseas. Workers in these outsourced jobs often have access to personal financial information of American citizens. Recent identity thefts, both in America and abroad, highlight the need for laws mandating tighter security by the companies that hold and trade personal information. This paper explores American legislation attempting to deal with identity theft crime as well as parallel laws in India, where many of the outsourced jobs are located. Furthermore, this paper suggests that any federal legislation ought not to preempt state law, as California law is currently protecting consumer privacy stronger than proposed legislation would.


In recent years portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants, have increased the demand for high performance displays with low power consumption. An interesting candidate with the potential of fulfilling these demands is the reflective single-polarizer surface controlled bistable twisted nematic liquid crystal display. The main focus of this work involves the optical properties of displays based on these bistable structures. In the investigations, the display is considered as an integrated optical system, containing not only the liquid crystal cell, but also components such as polarizers and retardation films. The specific aim of the thesis was to derive new optical modes of the reflective single-polarizer bistable twisted nematic device using the Jones matrix method to study the interaction between the polarization of light and the optically anisotropic media. The electro-optical properties of the derived modes have been studied and evaluated both theoretically and experimentally. The modes possess excellent brightness and high contrast ratio. By introducing a quarter-wave retardation film into the optical configuration, the contrast ratio can be significantly increased by preventing spectral leakage of light in the dark state. To experimentally realize the derived optical modes, special layers for the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules on the cell substrate surface have been proved needed. Therefore, also the photo-alignment technology of nematic liquid crystals on novel alignment materials has been studied with the aim to control liquid crystal cell parameters such as pretilt angle and anchoring energy, both critical for the bistable switching. The results of this thesis will increase the understanding of the optical properties of the reflective single-polarizer bistable twisted nematic liquid crystal display and will be valuable when considering this type of device for practical applications.


Research into the fundamental nature of matter at the high energy frontier takes place in three main areas: accelerator based particle physics, high energy astrophysics and the cosmology of the early universe. As a consequence the study of astroparticle physics can have significant implications for collider physics at the LHC. Likewise, the LHC project provides a laboratory to perform measurements of great importance for cosmic ray astrophysics and cosmology. In this colloquium I review some of the important synergistic links between astroparticle and LHC physics


This article compares the criminal punishment of corporations in the twenty-first century with two ancient legal practices - deodand (the punishment of animals and objects that have produced harm) and frankpledge (the punishment of all members of a group when one member of the group has avoided apprehension for a crime). It argues that corporate criminal punishment is a mistake but that viewing it as frankpledge is less ridiculous than viewing it as deodand. The article considers the implications of the choice between these concepts for standards of corporate guilt and for the sentencing of corporate offenders. After a brief historical description of deodand and frankpledge, the article traces the history of corporate criminal liability from William Blackstone through Arthur Andersen. It emphasizes that this liability punishes the innocent, and it argues that the punishment of innocent shareholders and employees should not be regarded as "collateral" or "secondary." The article notes that subjecting corporations and their officers to punishment for the same crimes creates sharp conflicts of interest. It reviews the history of the Justice Department's efforts to exploit these conflicts - initially by encouraging corporate officers to deliver corporate guilty pleas to gain leniency for themselves and more recently by pressing corporations to gather and deliver information about their employees. The article suggests that defenses of corporate criminal liability fall into two categories. Arguments in the first category are expressive and match those that once might have defended deodand. Arguments in the second category are instrumental and match those that once might have supported frankpledge. "Expressive retributivists" champion the deodand perspective. They blame mindless legal entities for crimes committed by their employees. This article considers the implications of their arguments. Other defenders of corporate criminal liability view it as frankpledge - a device for persuading everyone in an organization to monitor everyone else. This article questions the propriety of declaring some people guilty of other people's crimes simply to encourage them to police one another. On the assumption that corporate liability is here to stay, however, the article argues that it is better regarded as a means to induce internal monitoring than as bona fide criminal punishment. This article then considers the implications of the deodand and frankpledge positions. Neither of these positions justifies the federal rule of respondeat superior that authorizes the conviction of a corporation whenever an employee acting within the scope of his employment has committed a crime. The champions of both the deodand and frankpledge positions have in fact sought revision of this rule. Expressive retributivists propose replacing the rule with a "corporate ethos" standard. The article argues, however, that this standard is incoherent and unworkable. The reform advocated by the frankpledge proponents is more sensible. If the goal of corporate criminal liability is to induce appropriate monitoring, the creation and maintenance of an appropriate corporate compliance program should provide a defense to liability. Proposals for such a defense have not fared well, and this article considers their prospects. It suggests that, although the respondeat superior standard is truly indefensible, it survives because it affords broad powers to prosecutors. The article examines how prosecutors have used and misused their extraordinary powers. A final section of this article considers the implications of the frankpledge perspective for sentencing corporate offenders. A judge's goal in punishing a corporation should be to induce a level of monitoring that will prevent more criminal harm than the monitoring will cost.


Department Website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/healthandsocietyminor/ Program of Study The Health and Society minor explores the social, political, and economic processes that shape individual and population health. Disability, experiences of illness, categories of disorder, ideals of well-being, and models of medical intervention can all vary between cultural settings and across history. Rapid changes in medicine and biotechnology create new understandings and expectations about illness, health, and well-being. At the same time, inequalities in access to care and in health outcomes across populations, in the United States and globally, have become important to conversations in policy and practice alike. At the individual level, how and where one lives may influence a range of conditions and outcomes including mental health, the onset of diabetes, and the length of life. Health is also influenced—in both positive and negative ways—by our relationships and social networks. Finally, people's life chances and health trajectories form within frameworks of health care policy and systems of provision and exposure to environments that reflect historical legacies, economic activity, and political choices. To understand health in its broader contexts, this minor encompasses a range of disciplines and methods in the social sciences, and differential emphases on theory, practice, and policy implications.


Web search engines emerged prior to the dominance of social media. What if we imagined search as integrating with social media from the ground up? So.cl is a web application that combines web browsing, search, and social networking for the purposes of sharing and learning around topics of interest. In this paper, we present the results of a deployment study examining existing learning practices around search and social networking for students, and how these practices shifted when participants adopted So.cl. We found prior to using So.cl that students already heavily employed search tools and social media for learning. With the use of So.cl, we found that users engaged in lightweight, fun social sharing and learning for informal, personal topics, but not for more heavyweight collaboration around school or work. The public nature of So.cl encouraged users to post search results as much for self-expression as for searching, enabling serendipitous discovery around interests.


Abstract. The Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) is an open, multi-institutional project providing a strategy for developing comprehensive Earth System Models (ESMs) with highly flexible complexity. The first version of the MESSy infrastructure and process submodels, mainly focusing on atmospheric chemistry, has been successfully coupled to an atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM) expanding it into an Atmospheric Chemistry GCM (AC-GCM) for nudged simulations and into a Chemistry Climate Model (CCM) for climate simulations. Here, we present the second development cycle of MESSy, which comprises (1) an improved and extended infrastructure for the basemodel independent coupling of process-submodels, (2) new, highly valuable diagnostic capabilities for the evaluation with observational data and (3) an improved atmospheric chemistry setup. With the infrastructural changes, we place the headstone for further model extensions from a CCM towards a comprehensive ESM. The new diagnostic submodels will be used for regular re-evaluations of the continuously further developing model system. The updates of the chemistry setup are briefly evaluated.


Some drugs make people feel good. That is why some people use them. Some of these drugs are alleged to have side effects so destructive that many advise against their use. The same may be said about statutes that attempt to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of drugs. Advocating drug prohibition makes some people feel good because they think they are "doing something" about what they believe to be a serious social problem. Others who support these laws are not so altruistically motivated. Employees of law enforcement bureaus and academics who receive government grants to study drug use, for example, may gain financially from drug prohibition. But as with using drugs, using drug laws can have moral and practical side effects so destructive that they argue against ever using legal institutions in this manner. This article will not attempt to identify and "weigh" the costs of drug use against the costs of drug laws. Instead, it will focus exclusively on identifying the harmful side effects of drug law enforcement and showing why these effects are unavoidable. So one-sided a treatment is justified for two reasons. First, a cost-benefit or cost-cost analysis may simply be impossible. Second, discussions by persons who support illegalizing drugs usually emphasize only the harmful effects of drug use while largely ignoring the serious costs of such policies. By exclusively relating the other side of the story, this article is intended to inject some balance into the normal debate. The harmful side-effects of drug laws have long been noted by a number of commentators, although among the general public the facts are not as well known as they should be. More importantly, even people who agree about the facts fail to grasp that it is the nature of the means — coercion — chosen to pursue the suppression of voluntary consumptive activity that makes these effects unavoidable. This vital and overlooked connection is the main subject of this article.


Doctor | Living With Testicular Cancer | Resource Guide Screening for Testicular Cancer by Ricker Polsdorfer, MD En Español (Spanish Version) The purpose of screening is early diagnosis and treatment. Screening tests are usually administered to people without current symptoms, but who may be at risk for certain diseases or conditions. Screening Guidelines The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) does not recommend regular screening by a doctor or self-screening in men who do not have any symptoms. However, the American Cancer Society recommends that a testicular exam should be done by your doctor at your routine cancer-related check-ups. No studies have been done that look at the benefit or harm of screening for testicular cancer. Discuss screening with your doctor, especially if you are at high risk for testicular cancer. Keep in mind that if you notice any symptoms of testicular cancer, such as a lump or swelling in the testicles, it is important that you see your doctor for an evaluation. REFERENCES: Can testicular cancer be found early? American Cancer Society website. Available at: http://www.cancer.... . Updated January 19, 2011. Accessed March 2, 2011. Casciato DA. Manual of Clinical Oncology . 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004. Cashen AF, Wildes TM. The Washington Manual of Hematology and Oncology Subspeciality Consult . 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Wolter Kluwers Health; 2008. Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center website. Available at: http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/ . Accessed January 31, 2006. Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Isselbacher KJ, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine . 14th ed. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2000. United States Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for testicular cancer. United States Preventive Task Force website. Available at: http://www.uspreve... . Accessed March 2, 2011. 3/3/2011 DynaMed's Systematic Literature Surveillance http://www.dynamicmedical.com/what.php : Ilic D, Misso M. Screening for testicular cancer. Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2011;(2):CD007853. Previous | Next


Source memory research suggests that attempting to remember specific contextual aspects surrounding prior stimulus encounters results in greater left prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity than simple item-based old/new recognition judgments. Here, we tested a complementary hypothesis that predicts increases in the right PFC with tasks requiring close monitoring of item familiarity. More specifically, we compared a judgment of frequency (JOF) task to an item memory task, in which the former required estimating the number of previous picture encounters and the latter required discriminating old from new exemplars of previously seen items. In comparison to standard old/new recognition, both source memory and the JOF task examined here require more precise mnemonic judgments. However, in contrast to source memory, cognitive models suggest the JOF task relies heavily upon item familiarity, not specific contextual recollections. Event-related fMRI demonstrated greater recruitment of right, not left, dorso-lateral and frontopolar PFC regions during the JOF compared to item memory task. These data suggest a role for right PFC in the close monitoring of the familiarity of objects, which becomes critical when contextual recollection is ineffective in satisfying a memory demand.


As in other societal realms also in research, science, and development governments and parliaments increasingly have to legitimize their actions and want to base their future activities on informed decisions. Consequently, performance measures, benchmarking, comparative analysis, "foresight studies" are increasingly asked for. Ranking, ratings and evaluations are introduced throughout the system supposedly providing on the one hand the requested transparency and at the same time acting as stimuli to improve the performance. However, to date central questions relating to the underlying methodologies and indicators used are unanswered. These questions concern the availability and appropriateness of the data, indicator construction and methodologies on the one hand, tackle issues as how to deal with effects due to disciplinary, sectoral, regional or national differences, and concern the intended and unintended effects of the instruments used. In the contribution these issues are described and discussed in more detail. In Germany so far infrastructural deficiencies e.g. the fragmentation of research groups addressing those issues prevent adequately addressing the open research questions. Behind this background the two most important tasks identified are them the development of a decentralized data collection system enabling standard definitions and the development of a competitive research infrastructure.


Abstract In this article we examine the association between national welfare regime and the propensity of middle–aged and older individuals with adult children of their own to provide social support to aged parents. Using data from mature adults (50+) in 26 European countries, we examine whether older and younger generations compete for the time resources of the middle "sandwiched" generation, and whether national policy context shapes this competition. Contrary to expectations, we found that sandwich generation members were less likely to provide support to their parents in Conservative–Mediterranean and East European regimes, but more likely to do so in universalistic Social–Democratic regimes. This evidence supports the hypothesis that well–developed welfare states "crowd–in" family support to older individuals. Middle generation members who provided social support to their adult children tended to provide to their older parents as well. This was particularly true in the two regimes where resources and public benefits tend to be more generous and may be interpreted as state benefits that reduce intergenerational competition. Findings are discussed in terms of the capacity of state policies to shape the allocation of family resources to older adults where extended family lineages have become the norm.


This paper studies the fluctuations of the mutual information of a class of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels with arbitrary correlated noise in the large system limit. We provide a deterministic approximation of the ergodic mutual information, which is asymptotically accurate as the number of antennas grows, and study its fluctuations around this value under the form of a central limit theorem (CLT). This result can be used to predict the outage capacity for slow fading channels. The channel model considered in this contribution has a particular application in the context of distributed antenna or network MIMO systems where the path loss between any pair of transmit and receive antennas has a different value. As shown by simulations, the approximations are very accurate for channels of small dimensions.


May 2002 brought the odd spectacle of ex-President Jimmy Carter standing shoulder to shoulder in Havana with one of the U.S. government's oldest enemies, Cuban president Fidel Castro. Carter, on a mission to convey a message of friendship to the Cuban people and to seek some common ground between Cuba and the United States, made a point of meeting and encouraging local democratic, religious, and human rights activists. In a televised address, he endorsed the rights of dissidents and urged democracy on the island nation (Sullivan 2002). He also advocated an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba (a call immediately echoed at home by 20 Democratic and 20 Republican representatives in Congress). President George W. Bush's administration responded angrily to Carter's latest adventure as international arbiter. A senior state department official tried to sabotage the ex-president's visit with a carefully timed release of a report claiming that Cuba was conducting bio-weapons research and sharing its findings with other "rogue nations." Bush himself was quick to reaffirm the sanctions on trade and travel, demanding free elections and a liberalization of Cuba's economy as preconditions of U.S. relaxation. Bush was of course concerned with the votes of large numbers of Cuban-Americans in Florida whose Republican sympathies are closely tied to a strong anti-Castro stance. He was also reportedly angry, in a week when he was finalizing an arms reduction deal with the Russians, at being upstaged in the media by the peripatetic elder statesman. Nevertheless, there was a certain irony in his implied charge that Carter, who had once put human rights centrally on the foreign policy agenda of the United States, was giving aid and comfort to a notorious violator. There was also an interesting question as to the essential difference, if any, between Carter's excursion and Bush's own previous visit (in February 2002) to China where, in a similarly televised address, he had issued a democratic challenge to the Chinese Communist leadership (Allen and Pan 2002). Bush had not, of course, made continuing U.S. Chinese trade dependent on democratic progress in China, but policy inconsistency is not what concerns me here. I want rather to draw attention to the differences and similarities between Bush's and Carter's proselytizing appeals. Carter, on his return to the United States, argued that his own and the administration's aims for Cuba were identical, and that only their opinions on means and timing were at variance (Carter 2002). I want to argue, however, that there were in contention here two distinct though connected rhetorical positions whose historical interrelationship it is important to understand. The first rhetoric is that of human rights per se; the second is the rhetoric of specifically American values. Thus in China, Bush invited the Chinese in the course of their historical economic transformation to draw on specifically "American ideals of liberty, faith and family" (Allan and Pan 2002; emphasis added). Bush had begun, quite deliberately and defiantly, to speak this language of American values only after the events of September 11. It was a highly significant rhetorical move aimed at reaffirming a national faith which, according to Henry Kissinger (2000; 2001), had been lost decades earlier. Kissinger argued that the tradition known as American exceptionalism, within which American values were historically embedded, was one of the most important casualties of the Vietnam War. Characterizing Vietnam 25 years after the flail of Saigon as a national "tragedy," (1) he claimed that the war had opened a rift, still unhealed, in American society and destroyed faith in the uniqueness and universal relevance of American values. (2) One unfortunate consequence was a continuing failure to develop a new, rational foreign policy consensus (Kissinger 2000). Americans after Vietnam could no longer confidently assert their own values or feel comfortable about imposing them on others, and were consequently at a loss as to what to do with their own predominant power. …


Normal 0 14 false false false IT ZH-TW X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The oomycete Plasmopara viticola is native to North America and was accidentally introduced into Europe at the end of the 19th century, where it caused widespread damage to the grape industry. Since that time, the damage caused by this plant pathogen has generally been controlled with multiple fungicide applications. Modern fungicides applied as prescribed by weather-based warning systems can effectively prevent any damage that might be caused. Alternatives to chemical treatments, such as the use of biocontrol agents or resistant cultivars, currently play a marginal role in controlling this disease. Until the middle of last century, research efforts were mainly concentrated on optimizing the application of copper fungicides and developing new molecules and formulations for controlling the disease. During the second half of the last century, highly efficient products for control were available, so research efforts moved toward optimizing and minimizing chemical control, mostly through the use of weather-based warning systems based on complex biological models. In the last 20 years, parallel to the development of technologies for genomic and transcriptomic analyses, host-pathogen interactions and population genetics have captured the interest of researchers in this field. Breeding for resistance against downy mildew has always coexisted with chemical control. However, the results of these breeding programmes have traditionally been cultivated only in marginal areas and organic production systems. This review traces the history of European knowledge of P. viticola .


Abstract Different species of microalgae are highly efficient in removing nutrients from wastewater streams and are able to grow using flue gas as a CO2 source. These features indicate that application of microalgae has a promising outlook in wastewater treatment. However, practical aspects and process of integration of algae cultivation into an existing wastewater treatment line have not been investigated. The Climate-KIC co-funded Microalgae Biorefinery 2.0 project developed and demonstrated this integration process through a case study. The purpose of this paper is to introduce this process by phases and protocols, as well as report on the challenges and bottlenecks identified in the case study. These standardized technical protocols detailed in the paper help to assess different aspects of integration including biological aspects such as strain selection, as well as economic and environmental impacts. This process is necessary to guide wastewater treatment plants through the integration of algae cultivation, as unfavourable parameters of the different wastewater related feedstock streams need specific attention and management. In order to obtain compelling designs, more emphasis needs to be put on the engineering aspects of integration. Well-designed integration can lead to operational cost saving and proper feedstock treatment enabling algae growth.


The current critical global concerns regarding fossil fuel exhaustion and environmental pollution have been driving advancements in transportation electrification and related battery technologies. In turn, the resultant growing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) calls for the development of a well-designed charging infrastructure. However, an inappropriate placement of charging stations might hamper smooth operation of the power grid and be inconvenient to EV drivers. Thus, the present work proposes a novel two-stage planning model for charging station placement. The candidate locations for the placement of charging stations are first determined by fuzzy inference considering distance, road traffic, and grid stability. The randomness in road traffic is modelled by applying a Bayesian network (BN). Then, the charging station placement problem is represented in a multi-objective framework with cost, voltage stability reliability power loss (VRP) index, accessibility index, and waiting time as objective functions. A hybrid algorithm combining chicken swarm optimization and the teaching-learning-based optimization (CSO TLBO) algorithm is used to obtain the Pareto front. Further, fuzzy decision making is used to compare the Pareto optimal solutions. The proposed planning model is validated on a superimposed IEEE 33-bus and 25-node test network and on a practical network in Tianjin, China. Simulation results validate the efficacy of the proposed model.


In response to the economic upsurges of World War II, leaders in Atlanta embarked on a planning mission to accommodate the increased demands of city living. From the onset of postwar planning with the Lochner Report in 1944, to the groundbreaking for the construction of the MARTA rapid rail lines in 1975, this project explores the contours of race and mobility through the lenses of transportation planning. It examines the city's planning entities and dissects the plans produced by these authorities, underscoring the lack of African American participation in the planning process. As planning authorities operated in segregation, this research connects the lack of African American participation in transportation planning with limited participation in planning for other areas including housing and urban renewal. This project's framework is constructed with a two-fold function of mobility: first, in the physical sense of movement about the expanding metropolitan landscape; secondly, and more essential, in the social sense, showcasing a process of uplift for the African American community in Atlanta. This research illustrates an upward trajectory for African Americans over the three-decade timeline. From being denied equal access and full political rights in a segregated society, to the election of Georgia's first black state senator of the 20 century and Atlanta's first black mayor, this research vocalizes the struggles of Atlanta's African American citizens in the fight for civil rights and full participation from the aspect of transportation planning. Using the city's historic black newspapers filled with primary accounts of the period, this project tracks the discourse of the diverse African American community from the leadership and business elite to the working-class citizens participating in public hearings. From little to no participation in highway planning and construction through historic African American sections in the early phases, to positions of demand in the creation of the rapid transit system in the latter phases, this research shows the evolution of African American participation and influence in shaping planning processes in postwar Atlanta. INDEX WORDS: Lochner Report, Up Ahead Plan, NOW – For Tomorrow, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, Urban Renewal, African American Participation, Negro Housing, Segregation, Interstate Highways, Auburn Avenue, Rapid Transit, Metropolitan Planning Commission, Black Politics TRANSCENDING BARRIERS: RACE, MOBILITY, AND TRANSPORTATION PLANNING IN POSTWAR ATLANTA, 1944-1975


INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW Exploring attitudinal and legal perceptions of diversity and tolerance on a macro view The founding fathers did not include the term "diversity", nor did they include the phrase "tolerance" in the First amendment. In founding father George Washington's address to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island in 1790, (Karp, 1991) a sense of respect for religious tradition and expression is clearly present, but more as a mater of civility than law. "Diversity" and "tolerance" are more modern terms used to indicate modern concerns related to freedom of expression and freedom from government sanctioned religions, government prohibitions of religious practices, and inhibition of religious expression. The desire to create mutual respect and a sense of mutual beneficence is both old-fashioned, and modern; multiculturalism is an ideal which has yet to be realized, though it is still a vital and worthwhile goal, according to Tilson and others (Tilson, 2011) (Thomas, 2008) (Barnard, 2010). Basic individual freedoms, such as freedom of expression and freedom of religion (Amendment I, 1791) are guaranteed to each of us by the United States Constitution's first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, ratified December 15, 1791. Every alert school age Jack and Jill knows this; but do our highly educated, intellectually refined and astute scholarly faculty know how these rights affect their workplace environment...and whether the private university workplace differs from the public University workplace in regard to religious expression, tolerance and diversity? There is a need to open a conversation on this topic; many scholars have described the potential benefits of heightening awareness and commencing positive change (Harris & Ackah, 2011) (Wegner, 2006) (Farrell, 2003) (Sorenson, 1996); others remark on the need to neutralize the influence of religion and thus the terms tolerance and diversity are sometimes a counterweight to favoritism (Hanson, 2008) (Barnard, 2010) (Schultz, 2007), or so-called "mainstream" viewpoints (Bryant, 2011) (Huntington, 1996)(Lichterman, 2008). Many look to institutional culture or policies for guidance in preserving individual rights, like those described in the first Amendment; others look to the courts for definition, boundary making and interpretation of these complex issues. The climate and culture of the modern college campus is a perfect laboratory to experiment, though in contrast to a pristine scientific lab, the college campus cannot truly be controlled, made uniform, nor produce results that can be perfectly replicated. Does the law clarify or confuse? The Constitutional guarantee (US Constitution, 1791) for separation of church and state is provided for in the "Establishment Clause" of the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,"; this prohibition, this statement of restriction upon Congress is simple in verbiage, but complex in meaning. How can these words offer both individual protection and governmental restrictions? To address this question, one must also grapple with the functionality of law and the system of judicial review of laws. A shared belief may or may not result in a shared perception; this is evident to scholars who may study the intersections of university practices and religious tolerance and diversity. We may well ask, what is the role of the university as it relates to religion, expression, diversity and tolerance (Harris & Ackah, 2011) (Schultz, 2007)and may find no true peaceable kingdom is possible (Tilson & Venkateswaren, 2004) and yet the commitment to opening and maintaining a dialogue (Dufford, 2009) (Gray, 2010) is tremendously important to the integrity of the organization (Davis G. B., 2009) (Marchand & Stoner, 2012). When we attempt to reconcile practices and policies we may realize the impossible complexity of achieving a singular viewpoint, particularly and certainly when we realize the actions which seem beneficial to some are branded as onerous to others. …


"Typical living standards surveys can provide a wealth of information about welfare levels, poverty, and other household and individual characteristics. However, these estimates are necessarily at a high level of aggregation, because such surveys usually include only a few thousand households, with coarse spatial stratification. Larger databases, such as national censuses, provide sufficient observations for more disaggregated analysis, but typically collect very little socioeconomic information. This paper combines data from the 1996–97 Mozambique National Household Survey of Living Conditions with the 1997 National Population and Housing Census to generate small-area (subdistrict) estimates of welfare, poverty, and inequality, with the associated standard errors. These small-area estimates are then used to explore several dimensions of poverty and inequality in Mozambique, particularly with regard to geographical targeting of antipoverty efforts. Reliably identifying and targeting the poor can be administratively costly, especially in rural Africa, where low population density and weak administrative capacity are common. Geographical targeting, or targeting poor areas, is sometimes proposed as a feasible alternative to targeting poor people, and poverty maps may serve as a valuable tool in this regard. Unfortunately, the notion of poor areas might not always be especially useful, as appears to be the case in Mozambique. The poverty maps do not reveal a particularly strong spatial concentration of poverty; the differences in poverty levels between areas tend to be subtle. This pattern is also observed in the decomposition of small-area inequality estimates, which shows that only about 20 percent of consumption inequality is accounted for by inequality between districts or between administrative posts. The picture that emerges of the poor living alongside the nonpoor indicates that targeting poor areas is likely to result in leakage to the nonpoor in that area, and considerable under-coverage of the significant numbers of poor households in areas that are less poor."" Authors' Abstract


William Butler Yeats considered himself to be "very religious," (1) and in his search for Truth one direction he turned was to the East, to an old, established religion: Hinduism. His first encounter with the philosophy was in 1885 or 1886, when he heard Bengali Brahmin Mohini Chatterjee speak. "It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless" (Autobiographies 113). (2) When he met Shri Purohit Swami in 1931, his interest in the philosophy intensified and lasted to the end of his life. (3) Two years before his death Yeats said he had "fed on the Upanishads" all his life (Hone 459). The Upanishads, part of Hindu sacred scripture, explain how the individual self (Atman) finds the ultimate reality (Brahman) by an inner spiritual journey. Yeats's interest in the Upanishads is reflected in "Meru" (1934). Thematically, "Meru" is distinctly Hindu, and its formal structure parallels the process of man's ascent to Truth according to the teachings of the Upanishads, a structure which augments the meaning of the poem. Yeats wrote "Meru" after reading Shri Purohit Swami's The Holy Mountain, a work to which he also wrote an Introduction. (4) In that introduction Yeats tells about the spiritual journey of Shri Purohit Swami and Bhagw~n Shri Hamsa, the Swami's master. Both left the comforts of the material world, climbing icy, snowy mountains to meditate in an attempt to prove the existence of and identify with the Absolute. Bhagw~n Shri Hamsa attained this insight on Mount Meru, commenting: "What a great bliss it was! I cannot describe that joy, as it is beyond any description through words ...--all merged into the Absolute Brahma! I found myself reflected everywhere in the whole Universe!" (Yeats, "Mandukya Upanishad" 479-481). Yeats's "Meru" likewise takes us on a spiritual journey to reality, a journey which fails to culminate in the joy experienced by Hamsa. An English sonnet, "Meru" has a Shakespearean rhyme scheme. Its logical structure parallels the steps to the Absolute taught by the Upanishads. In the first quatrain the problem of maya is presented, which leads to the Path of Desire in the second quatrain. The tension of the first and second quatrains is balanced by the calm of the third quatrain and the final couplet; the Path of Renunciation leads to the ultimate goal of Hinduism: an encounter with reality and the total destruction of maya. The tone of the poem is impersonal like Brahman, the "all-pervading transcendental Reality of the Vedanta philosophy" (Usha 21-22). According to "Meru," because "manifold illusion"--maya--veils man's vision of undifferentiated reality, civilization is perceived to be "hooped together, brought / Under a rule, under the semblance of peace" (Collected Poems 289). Man's thought creates the illusion of multiplicity, and control of thought is necessary in order to see that the material world is a mental construct and that the only thing that is real is beyond material existence. (5) Although man is terrified of obliteration, he simply "cannot cease / Ravening through century after century, / Ravening, raging, and uprooting that he may come / Into the desolation of reality:" Man is powerless to stop the process. This process, which teaches man to control his thought, is a long one, and Yeats's repetition of the words "ravening" and "century," his repetition of the "r" and the "-ing," drag the lines out to emphasize the lengthy process of purification, which includes a series of reincarnations in order to work out one's karma, a process which is necessary in order to exhaust the Path of Desire. (6) Indeed, "Ravening, raging, and uprooting that he may come" is the longest line in the poem, with thirteen syllables. The tone changes when the speaker says goodbye to Western civilization and thought: "Egypt and Greece good-bye, and good-bye Rome!" The only clue that this farewell is supposed to be one of joy is the exclamation point at the end of the line, and it is not convincing. …


Japan's investment in the domestic construction industry has fallen to less than half its peak in 1992. Given the country's declining population, Japanese construction companies must go global to remain profitable. To what extent the Japanese government and Japanese companies can contribute to meeting the growing infrastructure needs in the region is unclear as Japanese companies have long been operating primarily in Japan. The Japanese government has in recent years passed a series of new laws that encourage private sector participation in financing, building and operating public infrastructure. Through involvement in such public projects, Japanese companies have developed the skills and technologies to build a variety of infrastructures that are resilient to natural disasters and adaptable to various geographical conditions and social and economic development. But the major challenge for Japanese companies is to transform their business model drastically from one that relies on the domestic market to one that contributes to the social and economic development of third countries.


Typically, critical approaches to ethical issues in trade and networked communication view the ethical dilemmas arising from trade and networked communication through the prism of moral philosophy, and seek solutions to ethical problems by using regulatory mechanisms of law, domestic and international. This approach entails a movement from critical engagement with what is to what ought to be, using Law as the mechanism to realise what ought to be. The is/ought axis for examining ethical regulation of networked communication and trade invites us to save communication technology, trade, and ethics by harmonising the three. What if the very natures of communication technologies, trade, and regulation make harmonization impossible? What if their very existence is contingent on disharmony between the three? This essay attempts to bring together meta and micro level analyses with a view to going beyond familiar conundrums and to interrogate a more fundamental tension that underpins the paradigm crisis of our times: the nature of ontological reality and our discourses about the world. The chapter argues that one consequence of disciplines, each with their distinctive normative codes, and the assumptions one discipline makes about others, is that, a disjuncture has developed between theoretical and philosophical inquiries in communication ethics on the one hand and applied communication ethics at the user end, on the other. The ramifications of disciplinary knowledge, the disciplinary assumptions about the premises of trade/economy, law/ethics, technology/society, are examined along three trajectories. First is the trajectory of human relationship with Nature, the subject matter of Science, a trajectory that has presented us with cybernetics, and with the communication technologies used for trade. This relationship is examined in Section 2 through the life and work of Nobert Weiner the father of cybernetics and campaigner for ethics in Science. Cyber technologies take ethics beyond norms that govern relations between people to norms that govern relations between humans and machines and between machines. In a social context where scientific and technological innovations are led by militarism is it possible to exclude its social ramification when considering regulation of the economy? The question brings us to the second trajectory: "The Economy" as a distinct social sphere with distinctive institutions that make it a hypostatised entity in capitalist societies. The institutional dimensions of monopoly-finance capitalism take ethics beyond relations between human beings and involve regulating relations between human beings and organisations, and between organisations, issues explored in Section 3 using the case of INTELSAT. The case invites us to reconsider methodological assumptions in social sciences about recurrence of events and precedents as the basis for evaluative judgments about norms. The third trajectory concerns human purpose entailed in ethical judgments. Because of their specific character, the question that cyber technologies pose for ethics is this: can legal persons like incorporated entities make moral judgments and evaluate human purposes in the same way as natural persons? This question is examined in Section 4. The three trajectories can be pared down to the relationship between Science and Society. The way that relationship is studied in philosophy and theory is addressed in section 5 drawing insights from Science, Technology and Society studies in particular Bruno Latour, and communication theories, in particular Jurgen Habermas. Section 6 reflects on trade, ethics, and networked technology in the light of the arguments made in the preceding sections.


Dr. David Callans from the University of Pennsylvania moderated the topic "Should Anticoagulation Be Stopped After Successful Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation?" with Drs. Stuart Connolly from McMaster University and Andrea Natale from St. David's Medical Center participating. The discussion focused primarily on: (1) the likelihood of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients after successful ablation; (2) discontinuation of medication and implementation of monitoring; (3) the intensity of monitoring and whether it really works; and (4) the ultimate decision made by both the physician and the patient. (Med Roundtable Cardiovasc Ed. 2011;2(4):235-240) ©2011 FoxP2 Media, LLC


Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v Hodges in June 2016, the question has been raised whether religiously-affiliated organizations could lose their Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status or not, based on the "fundamental public policy" doctrine as used in the Court's 1983 decision in Bob Jones University v. United States. Several significant considerations come into play: the value and place of religious liberty freedoms within our country's constitutional framework and shifting cultural context; the IRS's role as arbiter of Section 501(c)(3) recognition; and the "tax subsidy" theory that accompanies tax-exempt status, particularly whether it should affect religious Section 501(c)(3) organizations.
Underlying all of these considerations, and on which the Bob Jones decision rests at its core, is the "fundamental public policy" rationale for revoking tax-exempt status. To what extent should religious nonprofits' tax-exempt status be affected by public policy questions related to why and how they carry out their activities, namely with respect to their sincerely held religious beliefs about sexuality that may run counter to views promoted by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) proponents? Should the IRS be completely viewpoint neutral, or engage in evaluation of an organization's specific public benefit worthiness? This article responds to these questions by examining the charitable trust law principles underlying Bob Jones, the evolution of the term "charity" for Section 501(c)(3) tax code purposes, vital religious liberty interests at stake, and related tax policy aspects.


THE DOCTRINE of common law indemnity is becoming increasingly important in modern tort law because of the development of strict liability for injuries caused by products that are "defective and unreasonably dangerous" to the user or consumer, to use the language of Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, and because of the multi-party character of products liability litigation. The common law principle that the party at fault cannot seek indemnity is no longer an obstacle; courts impose strict liability regardless of fault. As a general rule, strict liability is imposed on all product sellers in the marketing chain, and under commercial law principles, a seller can breach a warranty without being negligent. These parallel theories of liability without fault--Section 402A and Uniform Commercial Code warranties--have opened new ways for the application of indemnity. The chain of commerce through which a product is distributed includes many non-manufacturing links--retailers, wholesalers, importers, exporters and distributors, as examples. According to the theory of strict products liability, those parties can be liable to an injured person without fault of their own, and if the plaintiff in multiparty litigation decides to proceed on strict liability only, the question of fault and ultimate responsibility remains unanswered unless the defendants assert rights to indemnity among themselves. Suits against non-manufacturers inevitable forster attempts to shift the losses back up the distributional chain to the manufacturer. Who is to blame for a defective product? Everyone in the stream of distribution or just the manufacturer? Who should ultimately "pick up the tab"? Should the liability be apportioned between all commercial entities or shifted to the manufacturer? The courts are attempting to find answers to these questions on a case-by-case basis by applying doctrines of indemnity or contribution. Strong judicial emphasis on various policy goals often overshadows the equitable legal principles of indemnity actions.(1) Judicial results have been inconsisent, and they present no firm criteria for determining who should bear the ultimate responsibility for a loss sustained by a consumer. Are the policy goals of products liability achieved when an injured party recovers not-withstanding the fact that the supplier of the product is not at fault? Is the policy objective of risk shifting satisfied when the loss is transferred from an injured person to any commercial entity in the chain of distribution?(2) Or should public policy require that only the ultimately responsible party bear the loss? The issue of who will be able to shift the loss within the chain of distribution and how is not just one of a practical legal importance, but it also entails important economic consequences. The legal theories of loss shifting (indemnity) or loss sharing (contribution) are important to defense counsel for both manufacturers and non-manufacturing sellers. While a retailer's counsel will seek full reimbursement for the loss from the parties up the distribution chain, a manufacturer's counsel will attempt to share the loss by obtaining contribution from all the entities in distribution.(3) Considering the complexity and size of the U.S. economy, uncertainty relative to the ultimate legal consequences of product sales is discouraging at best. Non-manufacturers in the distribution chain make up a large part of the economy. Their burden of defending products liability suits is heavy, and they cannot void strict or warranty liability for the products they sell, although they do not participate in product design or manufacture. But the burden is not just defense. The important task is how to recover potential losses from teh party higher up in the chain--the party that supplied the defective product to the ultimate seller. Indemnity, if allowed, would shift the loss. Founded on the concept of restitution and based on equitable principles, indemnity originally was envisioned as a doctrine to prevent unjust enrichment. …


Quantum computers offer the possibility of solving some problems more efficiently than their classical counterparts. The current forerunner in the experimental demonstration of quantum algorithms is Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Known for its implementations at liquid state, NMR quantum computing consists of computing on nuclear spins. In the liquid crystal state, dipolar couplings are available, offering an increased clock frequency and a faster recycling of algorithms. Here investigated is the cost at which this comes, namely, a more complicated internal Hamiltonian, making the system harder to characterize and harder to control. In this thesis I present new methods for characterizing the Hamiltonian of dipolar coupled spin systems, and I report experimental results of characterizing an oriented 6-spin system. I then present methods and results concerning the quantum optimal control of this same spin system. Finally, I present experiments and simulations regarding the certification of computational quantum gates implemented in that same dipolar coupled spin system.


A major component of the Genetic Discrimination Project (GDP), an Australia-wide study to examine the advantages and disadvantages for individuals of having genetic information and cases of alleged genetic discrimination, is the analysis of insurers' use of genetic test results. The peak life insurance body, IFSA, had collected data through the Australian Institute of Actuaries (AIA) for the period June 1999-May 2003 from life insurance companies in Australia regarding their use of genetic test results in insurance underwriting. The GDP negotiated with IFSA and the AIA for access to this data for independent analysis. Applications from 288 individuals who had disclosed a genetic test result included products for cover for death, trauma/crisis, income protection/disability and total and permanent disablement. A total of 81% (234/288) contained usable data for analysis. These cases involved the genetic conditions haemochromatosis (71%), Huntington disease (12%) and breast/ovarian cancer (6%). In 49% of cases, the genetic test result was described as the only influencing factor and of these, 32% involved a "positive" genetic test result. Whilst underwriting in most cases appeared to be reasonable, the article highlights several cases involving disclosure of a positive predictive test result for breast/ovarian cancer that required further investigation.


Iodine is an essential trace element for human health and is involved in the production of the thyroid hormone. Recently, a new idea has emerged: to meet people's need for daily iodine by increasing the iodine content of vegetables with high iodine bioavailability and assimilation. This study was carried out with iodine foliar application and root application methods to determine which is more appropriate when attempting to increase iodine content. An experiment was conducted in a greenhouse with 4 doses of iodine in the form of potassium iodide (0, 2, 4, 8 mM), two application methods (foliar and root application) and three replicates. At the end of the experiment, the plants' fresh and dry weight, relative water content, membrane stability, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll were determined. The results were subjected to analysis of variance according to the randomized blocks experiment design using the MINITAB 17.0 statistical package program. The applications did not show a statistical difference in plant fresh weight and dry weight. There was no statistical difference in the relative water content between the applications, while a statistical difference (P < 0.05) in the membrane stability was observed for the interaction of application type and application dose. Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and the total chlorophyll amount were also statistically affected (P < 0.05) by the application doses. Foliar and root application methods have not caused significant loss of yield. Both methods are also considered to be appropriate to use in practice.


Molecular communication via diffusion in vessel-like environment targets critical applications such as the detection of abnormal and unhealthy cells. In this letter, we derive the analytical formulation of the channel model for diffusion dominated movement, considering ring-shaped (i.e., patch) observing receivers, and Poiseuille flow with the aim of localization of the transmitter cell. Then, we derive formulations using this channel model for two different application scenarios. We assume that the emission start time is known in the first scenario and unknown in the second one. We successfully localize the transmitter cell using a single receiver for the first scenario, whereas two receivers are used to localize the transmitter cell in the second scenario. At last, the devised analytical framework is validated with simulations.


Replication of DNA or DNA damage processes can result in double-strand breaks, which in turn may lead to chromosomal translocation and an increased risk of malignancy. Celeste et al. tested the role of the DNA repair-associated protein, H2AX, in maintaining genomic stability. Cells from H2AX-deficient mice displayed several genetic abnormalities, including elevated sensitivity to irradiation-induced damage, chromosomal breakage, and an increased incidence of translocations. Male H2AX−/− mice were infertile due to defective spermatogenesis that resulted from failure of synapsis and meiotic arrest. T and B cell development was also diminished, and B cells displayed defects in switch recombination. Recruitment of DNA repair enzymes was severely affected in the absence of H2AX, confirming a central role for this protein in coordinating the response to DNA damage. A. Celeste, S. Petersen, P. J. Romanienko, O. Fernandez-Capetillo, H. T. Chen, O. A. Sedelnikova, B. Reina-San-Martin, V. Coppola, E. Meffre, M. J. Difilippantonio, C. Redon, D. R. Pilch, A. Olaru, M. Eckhaus, R. D. Camerini-Otero, L. Tessarollo, F. Livak, K. Manova, W. M. Bonner, M. C. Nussenzweig, A. Nussenzweig, Genomic instability in mice lacking histone H2AX. Science 296, 922-927 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Most contemporary bonds have embedded options and all face the possibility of default. Both features introduce risk (the former market risk and the latter credit risk) by altering the quantity and timing of the promised cash flows. The Macaulay duration, although a popular risk tool, is increasingly unable to cope in this complex financial environment. While the Macaulay duration has undergone modifications before, a new theoretical framework is now introduced which augments its functionality while retaining its tractability. The approach – though still unable to isolate the effects of the two features – yields consistent results which agree well with empirical data.


A mixed or impedance-type boundary condition is examined as a description of a black or perfectly absorbing obstacle. The problems of diffraction by a cylinder and semi-infinite screen with this boundary condition are considered, and the results are compared with those obtained for other boundary conditions.