The author has been working on communications with and without technology, and was guest-editor of the Ekistics special issue with the same title (October 1983). His Edinburgh University 1974 Ph.D was on Space Networks, considering space as a network. Born into a family of sailors, he grew up on ocean-going boats, and for three years was a Naval Intelligence officer. He was active in the 1968-and-after period in Northern European universities. He has acted as consultant to national/international bodies and, being invited to look into Europe as-a-whole, or into the Aegean Sea, or into the Mediterranean, he has formulated proposals to change policy (although cannot claim being successful in trying). Having combined behavioral sciences with visual arts, he has contributed to the art-science-technology field two on-going series of projects and project-proposals: the video communications installations Face-to-Face, and geopolitical art. He has concentrated on islands both for observations of communications issues and using telecommunications for quality development, and also for the ongoing series of minimal constructions on coastal remote sites. As a student he was invited to the Delos 1969 Symposion on Networks, and is a member of the World Society for Ekistics - for which society he has also acted as vice-president. He has not sailed through the Pacific. The text that follows is a slightly edited version of a paper presented by the author at the international symposion on "Globalization and Local Identity, " organized jointly by the World Society for Ekistics and the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005.


ABSTRACT Communication between players in networked computer games is often inadequately implemented. The games do not exploit the full potential of using different forms of communication possibilities between players, and therefore result in problems in sending and receiving messages. This paper introduces a model that describes how visual aspects of non-verbal communication (NVC) in avatars could be systematically designed. The model can be used as a guideline in the design process of more communicative avatars. The study was conducted using a variety of research methods. The topic has been approached from both the constructive and theoretic-conceptual viewpoints. Non-verbal communication theories have been used as the framework to construct avatars for game environments and to form a model that supports the design of NVC elements into avatars. The primary result of the work is a modelthat describes how to design more communicative avatars. The model introduces the aspects required when considering the designing of the visual elements of NVC. As an empirical result, the avatars based on the model determine how different elements of NVC work, and how NVC could be used in the avatar context. The results can be applied for design and construction purposes, as well as for further research into the diverse areas of avatar design. The model describes three layers that can be used to guide the work of avatar designers and creators in supporting the visual elements of communication in computer game avatars. The model shows that designers and creators should search for the required elements of the NVC, vary these elements to form a rich set of ways to use them, and finally, personalise the avatars by selecting varied elements for separate avatars to support natural communication.


Abstract. This work reports the first comprehensive analysis of methanol concentrations in rainwater. Methanol concentrations measured in 49 rain events collected between 28 August 2007 and 10 July 2008 in Wilmington, NC, USA, ranged from below the detection limit of 6 nM to 9.3 μM with a volume-weighted average concentration of 1 ± 0.2 μM. Methanol concentrations in rainwater were up to ~200 times greater than concentrations reported previously in marine waters, indicating wet deposition as a potentially significant source of methanol to marine waters. Assuming that these methanol concentrations are an appropriate proxy for global methanol rainwater concentrations, the global methanol wet deposition sink is estimated as 20 Tg yr−1, which implies that previous methanol budgets underestimate removal by precipitation. Methanol concentrations in rainwater did not correlate significantly with H+, NO3−, and NSS, which suggests that the dominant source of the alcohol to rainwater is not anthropogenic. However, methanol concentrations were strongly correlated with acetaldehyde, which has a primarily biogenic input. The methanol volume-weighted concentration during the summer (2.7 ± 0.9 μM) was ~3 times that of the winter (0.9 ± 0.2 μM), further promoting biogenic emissions as the primary cause of temporal variations of methanol concentrations. Methanol concentrations peaked in rainwater collected during the time period 12 p.m.–6 p.m. Peaking during this period of optimal sunlight implies a possible relationship with photochemical methanol production, but there are also increases in biogenic activity during this time period. Rain events with terrestrial origin had greater concentrations than those of marine origin, demonstrating the significance of the continental source of methanol in rainwater.


A 53-year-old Japanese woman who was working as a volunteer in the Commonwealth of Dominica in the Caribbean islands presented with a high-grade fever and severe incapacitating generalized arthralgia. The Asian genotype of the chikungunya virus was confirmed using reverse transcription-PCR and serology, based on the presence of a specific neutralization titer and immunoglobulin M antibodies. She was diagnosed with post-chikungunya chronic arthritis based on persistence of her polyarthritis for 3 months and the presence of rheumatoid factor, immunoglobulin G-rheumatoid factor, and matrix metalloproteinase-3. Chikungunya virus should be considered as a causative pathogen in travelers returning from Caribbean islands. Clinicians should consider chikungunya fever in the differential diagnosis of patients who complain of chronic arthritis and have a history of travel to an endemic area.


Abstract. Mobile Mapping's ability to acquire high-resolution ground data is opposing unreliable localisation capabilities of satellite-based positioning systems in urban areas. Buildings shape canyons impeding a direct line-of-sight to navigation satellites resulting in a deficiency to accurately estimate the mobile platform's position. Consequently, acquired data products' positioning quality is considerably diminished. This issue has been widely addressed in the literature and research projects. However, a consistent compliance of sub-decimetre accuracy as well as a correction of errors in height remain unsolved. We propose a novel approach to enhance Mobile Mapping (MM) image orientation based on the utilisation of highly accurate orientation parameters derived from aerial imagery. In addition to that, the diminished exterior orientation parameters of the MM platform will be utilised as they enable the application of accurate matching techniques needed to derive reliable tie information. This tie information will then be used within an adjustment solution to correct affected MM data. This paper presents an advanced feature matching procedure as a prerequisite to the aforementioned orientation update. MM data is ortho-projected to gain a higher resemblance to aerial nadir data simplifying the images' geometry for matching. By utilising MM exterior orientation parameters, search windows may be used in conjunction with a selective keypoint detection and template matching. Originating from different sensor systems, however, difficulties arise with respect to changes in illumination, radiometry and a different original perspective. To respond to these challenges for feature detection, the procedure relies on detecting keypoints in only one image. Initial tests indicate a considerable improvement in comparison to classic detector/descriptor approaches in this particular matching scenario. This method leads to a significant reduction of outliers due to the limited availability of putative matches and the utilisation of templates instead of feature descriptors. In our experiments discussed in this paper, typical urban scenes have been used for evaluating the proposed method. Even though no additional outlier removal techniques have been used, our method yields almost 90% of correct correspondences. However, repetitive image patterns may still induce ambiguities which cannot be fully averted by this technique. Hence and besides, possible advancements will be briefly presented.


Superbly preserved reefs of Ediacaran age in Namibia give clues to environmental controls on stromatolite-thrombolite growth morphology and nucleation. Digital mapping and Measured stratigraphic sections reveal parasequences featuring meter-scale alternation of shallow marine shale and stromatolitic-thrombolitic microbialites associated with other clastic carbonates (grainstones, mudstones). Stromatolite-thrombolite column width, spacing and height vary systematically with the type of sediment being deposited, with growth inhibited during shale deposition. Columns are generally wider and more closely spaced during carbonate sediment deposition and narrower and more widely spaced during shale deposition. While stromatolite growth should be sensitive to sediment type explicitly, we also interpret sediment type as a general proxy for changing environmental conditions (e.g. water depth, turbidity) that may directly affect reef growth. A simple rule-based numerical simulation of microbialite growth is formulated based on the field interpretations of sedimentological and topographic growth controls. The model cannot explain detailed morphologic attributes, but can recreate correlations between stromatolite column widths, column spacing and layer bed thickness as a function of sediment type.


Greywater (GW) is household wastewater effluent originating from baths, showers, kitchen and hand wash basins and laundry and constitutes 50-80% of indoor household water use. It represents water that can potentially be intercepted at the household level for use. In Kenya, GW use is practiced on an informal basis to supplement irrigation water, either in urban gardens in middle to upper income suburbs or in food gardens in lower income informal, periurban and rural areas. However, the reuse of greywater for irrigation without any significant pre-treatment poses a potential risk to both human and environmental health due to microbial and chemical contamination. This study investigated the potential of a low cost greywater treatment (GWT) system for safe greywater reuse by households. The system comprises of discrete units of barrels that allows for filtration, flocculation, sedimentation and disinfection. GWT system produced water with both pH and electrical conductivity suitable for irrigation according to WHO guidelines. It was also efficient at eliminating Salmonella sp. and reducing total coli form in composite greywater from households in Homa Bay after the effluent was disinfected with commercial disinfectant, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). The cleaned greywater had a total coli form count (2.5x10 6 cfu/100 ml) comparable to 0->2.4 � 10 6 cfu/100 ml obtained when greywater was treated using an expensive biological aerated filter (BAF). Fecal coli form counts (2.1� 10 2 cfu/100 ml) compare well with 10 3 cfu/100 ml provided in WHO guidelines for public parks and crops likely to be eaten uncooked. The treatment had no effect on dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity and electrical conductivity. The study concludes that the GWT system can be a sustainable and promising low cost low technology treatment system that can be run and maintained by unskilled operators.


The core claims of the practice turn in International Relations (IR) remain ambiguous. What promises does international practice theory hold for the field? How does the kind of theorizing it produces differ from existing perspectives? What kind of research agenda does it produce? This article addresses these questions. Drawing on the work of Andreas Reckwitz, we show that practice approaches entail a distinctive view on the drivers of social relations. Practice theories argue against individualistic-interest and norm-based actor models. They situate knowledge in practice rather than "mental frames" or "discourse." Practice approaches focus on how groups perform their practical activities in world politics to renew and reproduce social order. They therefore overcome familiar dualisms—agents and structures, subjects and objects, and ideational and material—that plague IR theory. Practice theories are a heterogeneous family, but, as we argue, share a range of core commitments. Realizing the promise of the practice turn requires considering the full spectrum of its approaches. However, the field primarily draws on trajectories in international practice theory that emphasize reproduction and hierarchies. It should pay greater attention to practice approaches rooted in pragmatism and that emphasize contingency and change. We conclude with an outline of core challenges that the future agenda of international practice theory must tackle.


Autism now affects a significant number of students in schools. The purpose of this study was to survey special education teachers who serve students with autism to 1) determine teacher, environmental, and student related characteristics; 2) identify the self-reported knowledge of effective teaching practices; and 3) identify the self-reported implementation of effective teaching practices. The study was conducted with special education teachers employed in Virginia using a web-based survey titled the Needs Assessment of Special Educators who Serve Students with Autism. Respondents included 498 special education teachers with a wide array of qualifications and experience including licensure status, years of teaching and area of endorsement. Results provide a description of teacher characteristics that directly impact instructional delivery as well as information regarding self-rated knowledge and implementation of efficacious strategies. Information from this study can be used to improve service delivery to students with autism by informing policy and directing and enhancing teacher professional development initiatives at the preservice and inservice levels.


Diffractions in seismic data contain valuable information that can help improve our modeling capability for better imaging of the subsurface. They are especially useful for anisotropic media because they inherently possess a wide range of dips necessary to resolve the angular dependence of velocity. We develop a scheme for diffraction traveltime computations based on perturbation of the anellipticity anisotropy parameter for transversely isotropic media with tilted axis of symmetry (TTI). The expansion, therefore, uses an elliptically anisotropic medium with tilt as the background model. This formulation has advantages on two fronts: first, it alleviates the computational complexity associated with solving the TTI eikonal equation, and second, it provides a mechanism to scan for the best-fitting anellipticity parameter η without the need for repetitive modeling of traveltimes, because the traveltime coefficients of the expansion are independent of theperturbed parameter η. The accuracy of such an expansion is further enhanced by the use of Shanks transform. We established the effectiveness of the proposed formulation with tests on a homogeneous TTI model and complex media such as the Marmousi and BP models.


Objective. To evaluate the interreader reliability of change scores and the responsiveness of the OMERACT Hand Osteoarthritis (OA) Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) Scoring System (HOAMRIS). Methods. Paired MRI (baseline and 5-yr followup) from 20 patients with hand OA were scored with known time sequence by 3 readers according to the HOAMRIS: Synovitis, erosive damage, cysts, osteophytes, cartilage space loss, malalignment, and bone marrow lesions (BML; 0–3 scales with 0.5 increments for synovitis, erosive damage, and BML). Interreader reliability for status and change scores were assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), percentage exact agreement and percentage close agreement (PEA/PCA), and smallest detectable change (SDC). Responsiveness was assessed by standardized response means (SRM). Results. Cross-sectional interreader ICC were good to very good (≥ 0.74) for all features except synovitis, cysts, and malalignment (ICC 0.50–0.58). The range of change values was small, leading to low ICC for change scores. The SDC values for sum scores (total range 0–24) varied between 1.97–3.05 (except 1.08 for malalignment). For status scores, PEA/PCA on scores in individual joints across the readers were 8.1–50.0 and 43.8–78.1, respectively. Similarly, PEA/PCA for change scores were 20.6–63.8 and 66.3–93.1, respectively. All features except cysts and BML demonstrated good responsiveness with higher SRM for sum scores (range 0.46–1.62) than for scores in individual joints (range 0.24–0.73). Conclusion. Good to very good interreader ICC values were found for cross-sectional readings, whereas the longitudinal reliability was lower because of a smaller range of change scores. All features, except cysts and BML, showed good responsiveness.


Pyridine N-oxides were synthesized via a convenient method and exploited in the preparation of drug cocrystals. Drugs associated with aqueous solubility issues such as propofol, ferulic acid, sulfathiazole, p-aminobenzoic acid etc. were used as the representative active ingredients to engineer pharmaceutical solids of a desired phase. In this study, 4,4′-bipyridine-N,N′-dioxide was picked as the cocrystal former. The types of supramolecular heterosynthons exhibited by the binary systems of N-oxide·drugs were analyzed. The formation of hydrogen bond synthons such as COOH–pyridine N-oxide, OH or NH–pyridine N-oxide was found to be robust and followed the trend observed in the Crystal Structure Database. These synthons were further correlated with the ameliorated properties of the drugs, which was supported by experiments, DFT studies and Hirshfeld surface analysis. This has been a goal in drug development.


Family responsibility and support laws have a long but mixed history. When first enacted, policy makers used such laws to declare an official policy that family members should support each other, rather than draw upon public resources. This article tracks modern developments with filial support laws that purport to obligate adult children to financially assist their parents, if indigent or needy. The author diagrams filial support laws that have survived in the 21st Century and compares core components in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and post-Soviet Union Ukraine. While the laws are often similar in wording and declared intent, this article demonstrates that enforcement practices are quite different among the two countries, even as both countries struggle with aging populations and recession. In addition, the author analyzes a potentially disturbing trend emerging in at least two U.S. states, most significantly Pennsylvania, where filial support laws are now a primary collection tool for nursing homes, with decisions against adult children running to thousands of dollars in retroactive "support." The article closes with concerns for policy makers in any state or country considering filial support as an alternative or supplement to public funding for long-term care or health care for the elderly.


Since the 1991 IWSA International Report on "Unaccounted for Water and the Economics of Leak Detection", the topic of management of water losses in distribution systems has received increased attention. This International Report seeks to present an overview of the "state of the art" in management of Water Losses, based on the Reports prepared by National Rapporteurs, the recent recommendations of the IWA Task Forces on Water Losses and Performance Measures, and improved concepts for modelling components of leakage and pressure: leakage relationships. The IWA Task Force recommendations provide overdue clarification and guidance on several issues that have caused persistent problems in quantifying Water Losses and comparing the effectiveness of their management. It is hoped that this Report will assist in the promotion of a more standardised international approach to the definition, assessment, monitoring and management of Non-Revenue Water and Water Losses.


Salas Romero, S. 2019. Multidisciplinary Near-Surface Investigation of a Quick-Clay Landslide Prone Area in Southwest Sweden. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1775. 70 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0575-2. Quick-clay landslides are considered one of the most important geohazards in Sweden, Norway, and Canada. The deposits involved are glacial and postglacial clays and silty clays, which are very sensitive to increased stress that may collapse their structure and cause liquefaction. A multidisciplinary approach was adopted in this study of quick clays in an area of southwest Sweden that is prone to landslides. It was mainly based on geophysical methods, but was complemented and validated with geotechnical, geological, and hydrological data. Downhole geophysics, land and river reflection seismics, radio magnetotellurics, P-wave refraction tomography, magnetics, and multichannel analysis of surface waves comprised the main geophysical methods used in this research. Laboratory measurements of core samples, such as grain size analysis, mineral magnetic properties, fossil content, X-ray fluorescence, cation exchange capacity, X-ray powder diffraction, electrical conductivity, and pH were also taken. Hydrological modelling was used to obtain information on the properties of groundwater within a coarse-grained layer, given the importance of this information in the formation of quick clays. The evaluation of the physico-chemical properties of the coarse-grained layer revealed high values of magnetic susceptibility, probably as a result of fluvial sorting, which tends to accumulate denser minerals such as magnetite. Potential quick clays were visually observed above this layer, and their presence was also confirmed by geotechnical data acquired in previous studies. Marine fossils identified within the coarse-grained layer confirmed the glaciomarine origin of the clays. Geophysical results revealed the presence of large-scale structures, an undulating fractured bedrock and a coarse-grained layer sandwiched between clay deposits, with leached sediments on top and unleached sediments below. This layer, important for the development of quick clays in the area, was 3D modelled in a regional context. Magnetic data also revealed that the coarse-grained layer together with quick clays, have the potential to act as a sliding prone layer. Multichannel analysis of surface waves helped to geotechnically characterize the area. Although the results could not reach the deeper layers, it did yield information about the shallower layers of clay, silt and sand. The VS30 values indicated the presence of soft soils, as well as soft clays/silts with high plasticity index and high water content. This PhD is expected to improve the current knowledge of quick-clay landslides and how they are preconditioned. Climate change will probably affect the study area in the near future, most likely increasing landslide risk, therefore, research should continue and advance to new levels. Application of other geophysical methods such as borehole or geophysical monitoring, and induced polarization, could provide more information about the formation of quick clays and associated landslides.


Several proposed metrics of MT Evaluation like BLEU have been criticized for their poor performance in evaluating machine translations. Languages like Hindi which have relatively free word-order and are morphologically rich pose additional problems in such evaluation. We attempt here to make use of linguistic knowledge to evaluate machine translations with Hindi as a target language. We formulate the problem of MT Evaluation as minimum cost assignment problem between test and reference translations with cost function based on linguistic knowledge.


Yam leaves were collected during surveys of major yam producing agro-ecological zones (AEZs) in Ghana (n = 628) and Togo (n = 218) respectively, in 2005. Leaf tissues were tested for Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Dioscorea mottle virus (DMoV), Yam mild mosaic virus (YMMV), Yam mosaic virus (YMV) and badnaviruses by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immunocapture-polymerase chain reaction (IC-PCR) and/or IC-reverse transcription-PCR (IC-RT-PCR). Eighty-one percent (370/459) and 78.9% (127/161) of symptomatic leaf samples from Ghana and Togo, respectively and 56.2% (95/169) and 57.9% (33/57) of non-symptomatic leaf samples, reacted positive to CMV, YMMV, YMV and/or badnaviruses, but DMoV was not detected. The highest incidence of YMV and badnaviruses was observed in the forest-savannah transition and Guinea savannah AEZ respectively in Ghana. In Togo, incidence of badnaviruses across the four AEZ ranged from 50 to 57.9%; however, Savane Derivee Seche AEZ had the highest incidence of badnaviruses (57.9%), YMV (34.2%) and CMV (7.9%). Mixed infection of badnaviruses and YMMV was the most frequent (105 of 276 mixed infections) in the two countries and Dioscorea alata was more heavily infected than D. rotundata in both countries.


Background: Primary Health Care in South Africa is being re-engineered to create a model of integrated care across different levels of the health care system. From hospitals to clinics, in the community and in the home, health care will focus more on prevention, health promotion, and advocacy for healthy lifestyles and well-being, in addition to clinical services. We provide a best-practice model of integrating community health workers (CHWs) trained as generalists into a multi-level health system in the Oliver Tambo district of the rural Eastern Cape. Methods: Based at Zithulele Hospital, a health care network between the hospital, 8 clinics, and 50 CHWs has been created. The functions of each tier of care are different and complementary. This article describes the recruitment, training, supervision, monitoring, and outcomes of CHWs who deliver maternal, child health, nutrition, and general care through home visits. Results: CHWs, especially in rural settings, can find and refer new TB/HIV cases, ill children, and at-risk pregnant women; rehabilitate malnourished children at home; support TB and HIV treatment adherence; treat diarrhoea, worm infestation, and skin problems; and distribute vitamin A. CHWs provide follow-up after clinic and hospital care, support families to apply health information, problem-solve the health and social challenges of daily living, and assist in accessing social grants. Case examples of how this model functions are provided. Conclusion: This generalist CHW home intervention is a potential model for the re-engineering of the primary health care system in South Africa.


This essay tries to convey the meaning of the recent revolutionary cases on federal pleading law. To do so, it refutes the three leading myths about the Twombly and Iqbal cases and thereby establishes these three propositions: First, the Supreme Court has not revived code-based fact pleading. This first conclusion implies that the codes' law/fact distinction plays no role in screening allegations under the new test for nonconclusoriness, and it also implies that the courts should not apply the new test for plausibility to each allegation but only to the ultimate assertion of liability. Second, we academics must beware of overstating the scope of the new cases. Their holdings apply only to claimants' pleadings, and indeed only to their allegations on the merits. Third, we must also beware of reading optimistically the opinions' evident confusions to infer an aimless Court. Its rather steady purpose indicates that the Justices now mean business as pleading revolutionaries.


Pathogenic mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 are only detected in 25% of families with a strong history of breast cancer, though hereditary factors are expected to be involved in the remaining families with no recognized mutation. Molecular characterization is expected to provide new insight into the tumor biology to guide the search of new high-risk alleles and provide better classification of the growing number of BRCA1/2 variants of unknown significance (VUS). In this review, we provide an overview of hereditary breast cancer, its genetic background, and clinical implications, before focusing on the pathologically and molecular features associated with the disease. Recent transcriptome and genome profiling studies of tumor series from BRCA1/2 mutation carriers as well as familial npn-BRCA1/2 will be discussed. Special attention is paid to its association with molecular breast cancer subtypes as well as the latest advances in predicting BRCA1/2 involvement (BRCAness) using molecular signatures, for improved diagnostics and selection of patients sensitive to targeted therapeutics.


Several species in Botryosphaeriaceae have been associated with grapevine trunk diseases. To evaluate the effect of water stress on infection of grapevines by Botryosphaeriaceae spp., 1-year-old Shiraz/101-14 Mgt nursery grapevine plants were planted in plastic potting bags and placed outdoors under shade netting. Five weeks after planting, vines were pruned and the pruning wounds inoculated with spore suspensions of Neofusicoccum australe , Neofusicoccum parvum , Lasiodiplodia theobroma e or Diplodia seriata . Control treatments consisted of applications of sterile water or a Trichoderma harzianum spore suspension. Stem inoculations were done by inserting a colonised or uncolonised agar plug into a wound made in each stem. Four different irrigation regimes were introduced 12 weeks after planting to simulate varying degrees of water stress. Measurements of stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate and leaf spectrometry were made to monitor physiological stress. Eight months after inoculation, vines were uprooted and the root, shoot and plant mass of each vine determined. Lesions observed in the inoculated pruning wounds and stems were also measured. Vines subjected to the lowest irrigation regime were significantly smaller than optimally irrigated vines. Water stressed vines also had significantly lower photosynthetic rates and levels of stomatal conductance compared with vines receiving optimal irrigation, indicating that these plants experienced significantly higher levels of physiological stress. The mean lesion length was significantly longer in the pruning wounds and stems of plants subjected to the lowest irrigation regime, with lesion length declining linearly with increasing irrigation volume. These results clearly indicate that when a grapevine is exposed to water stress, colonisation and disease expression by Botryosphaeriaceae spp. are much more severe.


Settlement and recruitment of echinoderms were measured in 2 adjacent habitats: a kelp bed (Laminaria longicruris) and an echinoid (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis)-dominated barren ground at each of 2 sites in the rocky subtidal zone (5 to 10 m depth) off Nova Scotia. Settle- ment was measured using artificial collectors made of 0.05 m 2 panels of plastic turf that were deployed 0.2 m (low) and 2.3 m (high) above the bottom in each habitat, and sampled bi-weekly from June to November 1992 to 1994. Distinct settlement pulses of ophiuroids (Ophiopholis aculeata and Ophiura spp.), asteroids (Asterias spp.) and an echinoid (S. droebachiensis) occurred between July and September of each year at both sites. Timing of settlement differed consistently among species in relation to differences in timing of spawning and larval development. The magnitude of each pulse varied between years and species, and the year of maximum settlement differed between species, suggesting that species-specific processes regulate settlement rather than general environmental conditions. Settlement of all species was greater at the more protected site, but between-habitat pat- terns were not consistent among species. Asteroids settled in greater numbers in and above kelp beds, whereas ophiuroids showed a trend toward greater settlement in the barrens. The echinoid S. droebachiensis also tended to settle more in barrens, although the difference was not statistically sig- nificant. This suggests that kelp beds do not exhibit a consistent or strong effect on settlement. Sam- pling settlement concurrently at different frequencies (3 to 48 d) gave different estimates of settle- ment, indicating a need for assessment of sampling artifacts (e.g. changes in collector quality, post-settlement mortality or migration) that can occur over longer deployment intervals. For most species sampled, settlement predicted recruit density in natural populations the following year. How- ever, the strength of the relationship varied between species, probably because of differing post- settlement processes.


The duration of exile in refugee communities has grown immensely over the last two decades. Recent humanitarian reports have called for actors to create more coordinated global support for the refugee crises. In these recent calls, the desire to break a cycle of dependency between the refugee community and international aid has been a clear priority. Hence, education has emerged as a strategic action to foster refugee self-reliance, particularly higher education (HE) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). There are many opportunities to use HE and TVET to benefit the refugee community, including: developing solutions to improve living conditions, enabling new opportunities for learning pathways, allowing refugees to contribute to the economy in hosting countries, or preparing them to rebuild their lives once they return to their home countries. However, the economic, political, and cultural complexities of refugee communities often add layers of challenges to typical formal HE and TVET programs. In addition, the existing literature in refugee education still lacks a coherent analysis of these factors and conditions for adoption of HE and TVET programs, especially for refugees living in camps. To address these gaps, this dissertation presents three studies that investigate an undergraduate introductory engineering course for refugees called Localized Engineering in Displacement (LED). Specifically, I draw on effective learning and policy frameworks to understand how to situate engineering education across HE and TVET and advance LED in refugee camps. The first study presents a case study examining the iterative processes of creation and implementation of the LED course in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. As a general outcome of my study, I describe the novel approach to teaching engineering design for learners in the Azraq refugee camp and its applications to other contexts. The second study examines the LED course implemented in the Kakuma refugee camp. The Kakuma refugee camp is situated in Kenya and considered the largest refugee camp in the world, thus providing a different context of refugee camps. I discuss the contextual challenges to transfer, develop, and implement to a new context and present the course outcomes and experiences based on the course participants' reflections. The third study extends findings from the first and second studies by using a comparative case study to critically examine the development process and challenges of engineering education in refugee camps. Central to my analysis is the connection between the challenges identified in both camps and existing actors involved with refugee education. My research uses two case studies to underscore the complexity of the LED course development in the Azraq and Kakuma camps. I seek to foster a debate about the challenges that influence the development of higher engineering education programs in refugee camps and how different actors can collaborate to advance high-quality engineering education initiatives in refugee contexts. Overall, this dissertation clarifies some of the biggest challenges to implement engineering education in refugee settings, how different actors can collaborate to mitigate these challenges, and how these findings expose the misalignment between the international rhetoric and reality on the ground in refugee camps.


ABSTRACT This article explores how selected educators respond to the integration of counter-radicalisation efforts into Norwegian secondary schools. Our research participants describe having limited encounters with youth extremism in practice, yet their narratives exhibit a professional responsibility to prevent students from being radicalised towards any form of violent extremism. There are, however, diverging views on how prevention should be carried out in school. When faced with concerns of radicalisation, most participants draw on therapeutic prevention, which conforms to the dominant radicalisation discourse in global politics aimed at identifying and rehabilitating vulnerable youth. We argue that these therapeutic prevention strategies are a form of pedagogical control intended to recondition "illiberal" students under the pretext of national security. Considering the strong normative and political connotations of extremism-related issues, we recommend that educators tread cautiously in their prevention efforts. Educators must especially strive to find a balance between deterring students from radicalisation and violent extremism, while also ensuring that these efforts do not impede the agency and autonomy of young lives. Overall, this research raises some ethical and practical concerns about preventing radicalisation and violent extremism in Norwegian schools.


The right to technology is a forgotten human right. Dating back to 1948, the right was established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("UDHR") in response to the massive destruction wrought by technologically advanced weapons in the Second World War. This human right embodies one of the most profound lessons the framers of the UDHR learned from this war: Technology must benefit humanity rather than harm it.

It has been more than seventy years since the adoption of the UDHR, and technology has advanced at a rapid pace and become more important than ever in our daily lives. Yet in this age of technology, the right to technology remains obscure, dormant, and ineffective. No other human right has received such scant attention, and the right to technology has indeed become an "orphan" in the international human rights regime. This article traces the origins of society's disregard for the right and attributes it to the confluence of three main contributing factors: (1) the right's inherent obscurity, (2) the ineffective human rights enforcement system, and (3) the international community's overemphasis on intellectual property protection. The current human rights regime is unable to sufficiently address these complex factors, as it remains deeply rooted in the individual rights system and lacks a fully-fledged distributive justice vision.

Against this backdrop, this article reinvigorates the right to technology by recommending its protection as a collective right. It considers how and why the right to technology should be redefined as a collective right that entitles people to enjoy the benefits of technological progress and minimizes the harms that such progress may cause. A collective right to technology can protect both larger societal interests in maintaining public freedom and dignity, as well as specific group interests in guarding against the use of technologies to prejudice group freedom and dignity. This new understanding of the right to technology, therefore, sets distributive justice agendas for promoting the development of intellectual property law into the public interest.


From the Publisher:
Design patterns are immensely powerful, but to build large-scale robust systems, you need more. Pattern-Oriented Analysis and Design introduces a methodology for "composing" proven design patterns into reliable, robust large-scale software systems. Using POAD, you can quickly build systems that are far more robust, scalable, and maintainable-using UML class diagrams as your building blocks.

POAD: What it is, how it works, and what problems it solves
Structural and behavioral approaches to design pattern composition
Design models and UML techniques for pattern composition
POAD processes: in depth coverage of analysis, design, and design refinement
A systematic process to compose design patterns
4 chapter-length case studies: feedback control, customer behavior simulation, digital content processing, and distributed medical informatics
Building on POAD: advanced trends and research

Pattern-Oriented Analysis and Design takes design patterns to the next level. Whether you're an architect, designer, developer, or manager, it will help you build better software systems faster.


The time-dependent rheological behavior of the thixotropic fluids is presented in various industrial fields (cosmetics, food, oil, etc.). Usually, a couple of equations define constitutive model for thixotropic substances: a constitutive equation based on linear viscoelastic models and a rate equation (an equation related to the micro-structural evolution of the substance). Many constitutive models do not take into account the micro-structural dependence of the shear modulus and viscosity in the dynamic principles from which are developed. The modified Jeffreys model (con-sidering only one single micro-structure type) does not show this incoherence in its formulation. In this chapter, a constitutive model for thixotropic fluids, based on modified Jeffreys model, is presented with the addition of one more micro-structure type, besides of comments on some possible generalizations. The rheological coherence of this constitutive model and thermodynamic consistency are analyzed too. This model takes into account a simple isothermal laminar shear flows, and the micro-structures dynamics are relate to Brownian motion and de Gennes Reptation model via the Smoluchowski ™ s coagulation theory.


Background: Intra-articular calcaneus fractures are commonly occured after high-energy trauma. Avariety of techniques exists for anatomic reduction and surgical fixation .The optimal management of displaced intra-articular calcaneus fractures is controversial and represents a topic of sustained interest and research for the past two decades .  Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) via an extensile L-shaped approach has gained many soft tissue complications.  These complications include deep and superficial infections and wound sloughs, which reportedly occur in 1.8% to 27% of patients. This high frequency of infection is likely attributed to thin soft-tissue envelope around the calcaneus especially the lateral wall, which is exposed for surgery .  Recently, less invasive surgical techniques for treating displaced intra-articular calcaneus fractures have been undertaken in an attempt to reduce complication rates and promising clinical and radiographic outcomes.These recent techniques include limited-incision sinus tarsi ORIF,percutaneous stabilization with pins and /or screws, and minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO( Subjects:This study was conducted on 12 patients (10 males 83.3% & 2 females 16.7 %) with displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures treated with less invasive techniques in the Orthopedics and Traumatology Department of  Zagazig University Hospitals from April 2017 to October 2017 with a follow up period of six months. . This study was done in Zagazig University Hospitals,Egypt on 12 patiens with displaced intraarticular calcaneal fractures including displaced Essex-Lopresti fractures, Sanders type II fractures, Sanders type III fractures in patients with multiple co morbidities. Results & Discussion Results Collected data will be presented in tables and suitable graphs and analyzed by computer software (SPSS version 19) using appropriate statistical methods. Discussion done on results compared to related relevant literatures and specific researches to explain the reasons for getting such results. Conclusion less invasive surgical techniques for treating displaced calcaneus fractures are very effective and smart procedurs to reduce complications and improve recovery when surgery is indicated.


This paper reviews the wide range of options available to municipalities in the South to alleviate or reduce poverty. This includes options for employment creation and improving low income groups' access to justice and protection from crime as well as improvements to urban services such as water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, public transport, health care and education. The paper also outlines how municipal action must encourage and support the activities of community based organizations, NGOs and the private sector in contributing to such improvements and describes how changes in the regulatory framework for land management, urban agriculture and housing can also contribute to poverty alleviation.


NKG2D is implicated in autoimmune diabetes. However, the role of this receptor in diabetes pathogenesis is unclear owing to conflicting results with studies involving global inhibition of NKG2D signaling. We found that NKG2D and its ligands are present in human pancreata, with expression of NKG2D and its ligands increased in the islets of patients with type 1 diabetes. To directly assess the role of NKG2D in the pancreas, we generated NOD mice that express an NKG2D ligand in β-islet cells. Diabetes was reduced in these mice. The reduction corresponded with a decrease in the effector to central memory CD8+ T-cell ratio. Further, NKG2D signaling during in vitro activation of both mouse and human CD8+ T cells resulted in an increased number of central memory CD8+ T cells and diabetes protection by central memory CD8+ T cells in vivo. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that there is a protective role for central memory CD8+ T cells in autoimmune diabetes and that this protection is enhanced with NKG2D signaling. These findings stress the importance of anatomical location when determining the role NKG2D signaling plays, as well as when developing therapeutic strategies targeting this pathway, in type 1 diabetes development.


The popularity of Robert Indiana's LOVE works made the Pop artist a household name--and torpedoed his reputation, precipitating his self-imposed exile from the New York art world that had once acclaimed him and eclipsing the breadth and emotionally powerful content of the rest of his dynamic, conceptually charged work. Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE is a compelling reassessment of the artist's contributions to American art during his long and prolific career. Indiana (b. 1928) has explored the power of language, American identity, and personal history for five decades. Although his imagery, suggestive of highway signs and roadside attractions, is visually dazzling on its surface and seems to reflect a native spirit of optimism, it contains a multilayered conceptual intricacy and darkness that draw on his own biography as well as on the myths, history, and literature of the United States. As chronicled in this landmark reappraisal, Indiana was a seminal figure of the 1960s and 1970s, whose artistic genius combined Pop art, hard-edged abstraction, and language-based conceptualism. With a generous illustration program, an appendix of the artist's interviews and statements, and contributions by leading experts, this book provides a long overdue analysis of the development of Indiana's career, his relationship to early-20th-century American painters, and his influence on contemporary language-based artists. In addition to an illustrated chronology, selected exhibition history, and selected bibliography, Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE includes transcripts from roundtable discussions with key Indiana experts, such as Thomas Crow, Bill Katz, Robert Pincus-Witten, Susan Elizabeth Ryan, Robert Storr, Allison Unruh, and John Wilmerding, who offer compelling insights on the significance of Indiana and his art.


After having resisted adaptation in the 70s, the Jakaltek Popti' (of the Q'anjob'alan branch of the Mayan family) noun classifier system has recently undergone extensive restructuring. These changes are largely due to the need that was felt to classify nouns for artifacts made of untraditional or new materials that have been incorporated into the culture, particularly nouns of Spanish origin. The absence of classifiers for these nouns meant an absence of anaphoric pronouns, in contrast to the obligatory article and pronominal forms organizing the vocabulary of the dominant colonial Spanish language through gender-marking. Discussions with the local branch of the Academy of Mayan Languages of Guatemala, the Jakaltek linguistic community, reveal their concern with revitalizing and standardizing the now clearly endangered Jakaltek Popti'.


This investigation into the status of English
in Iran and cultural presentations in Iranian English has two areas of
emphasis. The first is a sociolinguistic
profile of English in Iran in which the status, functions, uses and users of
this language are described within in the country's social and political
contexts. In this part, contributing
factors to the growth of English in three political periods, including the
Qajar dynasty (1796 -1925), the Pahlavi era (1925-1979) and post-Revolutionary
time (1979 – present), are elaborated upon to establish the historical and
political bases for the second area of focus.

The second focus is the cultural content in the
locally developed English textbooks used from 1939 to the present time (2020).
Accordingly, the content of four generations (across five textbook series) of
Iranian high school English textbooks are analyzed based on an evaluation
scheme which the author has developed. This research finds answers to the
questions on the status of culture in the Iranian English textbooks;
distribution of Iranian and non-Iranian cultures; dominance of cultural
elements (products, practices and perspectives) in each English textbooks
series; and the political and ideological influence of each era on the content
of English textbooks.

This investigation finds that the English
textbooks which were developed before the Islamic Revolution (first and second
generations) were highly cultural compared to the post-Revolution materials
(third and fourth generations). Also, non-Iranian cultural components
(particularly the American and British cultures) were more represented in the
English textbooks of the Pahlavi period, whereas Western cultures were all
eliminated in the post-Revolution textbooks, replaced by the
Islamic/Revolutionary cultures. Additionally, cultural perspectives outnumbered
cultural products and practices in the first and second generations of English
textbooks (Pahlavi era) whereas cultural products dominated the post-Revolutionary
English materials. This study finds that political and ideological hegemony of
each era have directly influenced the textual and illustrative content of
locally developed English textbooks in Iran.


Lepidophagy has been recorded in various species of Roeboides. In this study we analyzed ontogenetic variation in diet and dental development of three Roeboides species (R. paranensis, R. prognathus and R. microlepis). Roeboides paranensis consumed mainly insects, scales and microcrustaceans, and the smaller individuals (<3.4 cm - SL) consumed mostly insects. Scale were only consumed by individuals greater than 3.4 cm. Scales were the dominant item in the diet in all sizes of R. prognathus. The diet of R. microlepis was composed primarily of whole fishes, however, the smaller individuals (<5.4 cm) consumed only insects. During ontogeny, exterior migration of teeth in the mouth started at 3.7 cm in R. paranensis and 6.5 cm in R. microlepis. As body length increased more teeth migrated exteriorly. This leads to greater consumption of scales by three species. Roeboides prognathus appeared to be most specialized on scales, since they composed 80% of the diet, and was the species with the highest number of external teeth and the most developed.


Education Policy Research Unit Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies College of Education, Arizona State University P.O. Box 872411, Tempe, AZ 852872411 Telephone: (480) 965-1886 Fax: (480) 965-0303 E-mail: email@example.com http://edpolicylab.org Education and the Public Interest Center School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0249 Telephone: (303) 492-8370 Fax: (303) 492-7090 Email: email@example.com http://education.colorado.edu/epic


Even when the policy rate is currently not constrained by its effective lower bound (ELB), the possibility that the policy rate will become constrained in the future lowers today's inflation by creating tail risk in future inflation and thus reducing expected inflation. In an empirically rich model calibrated to match key features of the U.S. economy, we find that the tail risk induced by the ELB causes inflation to undershoot the target rate of 2 percent by as much as 45 basis points at the economy's risky steady state. Our model suggests that achieving the inflation target may be more difficult now than before the Great Recession, if the recent ELB experience has led households and firms to revise up their estimate of the ELB frequency.


Computers and business systems are used more frequently in a world where IT gradually is taking over. This is also true when it comes to the real estate valuation process where actors on the Swedish real estate market are using automatic valuation systems for real estate appraisal. But the real estate agents have not yet seen the charm in using these automatic valuation systems for real estate appraisal. Can the real estate agents also use the automatic valuation systems? We developed our three main subjects: the valuation process, an automatic valuation system and the real estate market with assistance from scientific articles. Through these articles we will present a background to real estate appraisal in general. We choose a qualitative approach where we interviewed eight real estate agents and complemented this by conducting a telephone interview with a business area manager at a private valuation institute. The result of this paper shows that the real estate firms rely on data from earlier purchases and that they use different IT-based tools in order to make an accurate appraisal. An automatic valuation system with extended information can be very helpful for the real estate agents depending on which part of the country the real estate agent works in. However the automatic valuation system can never replace the ocular inspection. In neighbourhoods where the houses look the same there's a greater need for an extended base of information through an automatic valuation system. In areas with unique locations and houses that are difficult to compare the demands are higher on the content of the system to be correct and updated. In this way the automatic valuation system can be used in the housing market and fulfils a need in both types of areas as a complement to the ocular inspection.


This study investigated students' motivation level in learning oral Arabic at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia. Motivation consists of three main components, namely value, expectancy and affect. This study was aimed at investigating motivation differences (1) between students with different prior experiences, namely students with prior experience (SWE) and students without prior experience (SNE), (2) between students of different genders, and (3) between students with interactions of different genders and different prior experiences. This study used a questionnaire that was adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) involving 182 students which were selected based on the disproportionate stratified random sampling. The study revealed that (1) SWE scores significantly higher than SNE in intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, task value and self-efficacy and significantly lower in test anxiety; (2) Females scored significantly higher than males in extrinsic motivation, task value, control of learning beliefs and self efficacy; and (3) there are no statistically significant differences in all components with the interaction of prior experience and gender. This study suggests that UiTM students have to be categorized according to their prior experiences. Otherwise, some additional Arabic classes need to be carried out for inexperienced students before registering for the actual Arabic classrooms. Learning activities also need to involve students of mixed gender in order to create a collaborative environment and also bridge the motivation gaps between them.


There is substantial evidence that object representations in adults are dynamically adapted by learning. Here we show that these effects are induced by active processing of objects in a particular task context, and not merely by visual exposure to objects during training. We derived behavioural sensitivity and neural selectivity for shape differences in a psychophysical and an event-related fMRI-adaptation study, respectively. We had two training conditions: "categorised objects" were categorised at a subordinate level based on fine shape differences, while "control objects" were seen equally often in a task context requiring no subordinate categorisation. After training, categorised objects were more easily discriminable than control objects and object-selective cortex was more selective for differences among categorised than control objects. These results indicate that the task context modulates the extent to which shape similarity is altered as a result of training, both at the behavioural and at the neural level.


It is often claimed that we do not understand the forces driving the global diversity gradient. However, an extensive literature suggests that contemporary climate constrains terrestrial taxonomic richness over broad geographic extents. Here, we review the empirical literature to examine the nature and form of the relationship between climate and richness. Our goals were to document the support for the climatically based energy hypothesis, and within the constraints imposed by correlative analyses, to evaluate two versions of the hypothesis: the productivity and ambient energy hypotheses. Focusing on studies extending over 800 km, we found that measures of energy, water, or water-energy balance explain spatial variation in richness better than other climatic and non-climatic variables in 82 of 85 cases. Even when considered individually and in isolation, water/ energy variables explain on average over 60% of the variation in the richness of a wide range of plant and animal groups. Further, water variables usually represent the strongest predictors in the tropics, subtropics, and warm temperate zones, whereas energy variables (for animals) or water-energy variables (for plants) dominate in high latitudes. We conclude that the interaction between water and energy, either directly or indirectly (via plant productivity), provides a strong explanation for globally extensive plant and animal diversity gradients, but for animals there also is a latitudinal shift in the relative importance of ambient energy vs. water moving from the poles to the equator. Although contemporary climate is not the only factor influencing species richness and may not explain the diversity pattern for all taxonomic groups, it is clear that understanding water-energy dynamics is critical to future biodiversity research. Analyses that do not include water-energy variables are missing a key component for explaining broad-scale patterns of diversity.


Abstract In July 2001, red rain fell over Kerala in India shortly after reports of a meteor. When analysed, this red rain appeared to contain red cells, apparently demonstrating that such cells must exist in space and that the theory of panspermia is correct. However, doubts have been expressed about whether reports of a meteor were merely a coincidence. This paper examines historical and mythical accounts of red rain, to establish if these, too, show a connection with meteors.


Lost Girls (2006) is a return to the themes explored by Melinda Gebbie and other underground feminist cartoonists in the 1970s and 1980s. The text, a collaboration between Gebbie and Alan Moore, should be read as reminiscent of feminist cartoonists who intentionally depicted the taboo or obscene in order to address sexual and gender inequalities. These comics suggest that the obscene can push against purity narratives attached to womanhood, narratives that potentially stigmatize all girls and women. Lost Girls keeps the taboos of children's sexuality and incest central to the representation in order to reframe possibilities of women's healthy sexual subjectivity. Injurious pasts and irreconcilable desires do not preclude joyous futures. Painful pasts enable the eponymous lost girls' agency, creating the conditions that help them find homosocial and queer belonging with one another. The comic thus models the temporalities of surviving trauma. The feminist temporalities of survivorship here also model utopian futures that are homosocial, queer, often ecstatic, and resistant to normative scripts of what should give women comfort. Undergirded by a radical feminist perspective that sees injury as being embedded in many women's experiences, the creation of community from the wound makes it normal to have been broken.


SUMMARY This paper assesses farmer adoption of rice varieties and new genotypes introduced through participatory varietal selection (PVS) in villages which represent submergence- and drought/submergence-prone villages in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. It focuses on the involvement of women farmers in participatory research for screening improved varieties for areas which suffer from abiotic stresses. It further assesses the impact on the decision-making authority (or women's empowerment) on rice varietal choice, seed acquisition and disposal, and crop management after participating in PVS trials. It suggests strategies to empower women farmers in making sound and timely decisions on farm-related matters and to enhance their roles in accelerating the adoption of new varieties.


This dissertation explores the importance of voice, representation, and authenticity of lived experiences in writing through the story of my literacy learning and teaching of English. I use narratives to argue that valuing World Englishes, story-writing and identity construction helps students in their writing and literacy learning. The narratives show what first-generation immigrants go through in terms of cultural adjustments and literacy practices in the target culture and how they construct their identities in a changing linguistic, cultural and geographical landscape. The dissertation also shows my evolution as a writing teacher who acknowledges students' varieties of English as World Englishes. It is also a story of a family of Nepalese ethnicity that is torn between their native land and their newly adopted country: the former struggling through political instability and civil war and the latter still linguistically and culturally alien. The first chapter starts with my boarding a plane to the USA to study at West Virginia University as a graduate student. The narrative sets up the details of the flight, including meeting with Nepalese students also on their way to the US, to set a middle ground between the past in Nepal and the future in the US. The flashbacks recapitulate my past, narrating my literacy practices in Nepal as an English teacher. They illustrate how I believed that non-native speakers should follow Standard English and how I taught my students accordingly. Chapter Two opens with my arrival in the US and my adjustment to the new culture as a graduate student. Chapter Three includes flashbacks from my childhood and my struggle to learn English in Nepal. It shows the post-colonial influence of English in Nepal and how Standard English was perceived as the model by students, educators and employers. Chapter Four shows my growth into being a writing teacher in the US who values students' World Englishes, story-writing and cultural and linguistic identities. The conclusion suggests how story-writing can be used as an attempt to free student writers from the repression of their voice, identity and authority, and makes recommendations for future research and practice in this vein.


The ultrasound image sequences are not only majorly contaminated by multiplicative noises but they are also usually contaminated with additive noises. As in the past few decades, there were some works, which had focused on removing the noises from ultrasound images, such as in the JY model [1] and in the variational model, which were able to remove both types of noises. However, denoising these noises from the ultrasound image sequence is a time-consuming process that occurred from using fixed-point iterative method. From our investigation, the most time-consuming process part of the denoising process is the GaussSeidel. By parallelizing these processes with modern multi-core and many-core processor, the denoising ultrasound image in real-time is possible. In this study, we propose the modified strategy from [2] for managing threads and propose the modified state-based Gauss-Seidel method from [16] for GPUs. Our proposed model can retain the frame order, and get the satisfactory frame rate (about 23.33 fps). The proposed strategy boosts the speedup of the frame denoising to 13.80 times compare to the sequential computation.


Several recent judicial opinions suggest that patent law's inequitable conduct doctrine is broken. These opinions indicate that - despite its admirable objective of encouraging disclosure of important information to the Patent Office - the inequitable conduct defense is being over-used by alleged infringers in patent litigation to the detriment of the public. This over-use creates problems. First, it encourages over-disclosure of information to the Patent Office. In extreme cases, over-disclosure makes it difficult for patent examiners to identify information critical to deciding whether to issue patents, potentially resulting in the issuance of invalid patents. Second, over-use of the inequitable conduct defense unnecessarily increases costs associated with enforcement of patents. Costs to inventors, to the court system, and ultimately to the public itself all increase dramatically with each allegation of inequitable conduct. These problems with the inequitable conduct doctrine threaten the very purpose articulated in the patent clause in the Constitution - the promotion of the progress of science and useful arts. This article analyzes the inequitable conduct doctrine and proposes a reform that would alleviate its present problems. "Patent fraud�? should replace the current doctrine of inequitable conduct.


This paper examines the effects of urbanization on development and growth. It begins with a labor market perspective and emphasizes the importance of agglomeration economies, both static and dynamic. It then argues that more productive jobs in cities do not exist in a void and underscores the importance of job and firm dynamics. In turn, these dynamics are shaped by the broader characteristics of urban systems. A number of conclusions are drawn. First, agglomeration effects are quantitatively important and pervasive. Second, the productive advantage of large cities is constantly eroded and must be sustained by new job creation and innovation. Third, this process of creative destruction in cities, which is fundamental for aggregate growth, is determined in part by the characteristics of urban systems and broader institutional features. The paper highlights important differences between developing countries and more advanced economies. A major challenge for developing countries is to reinforce the role of their urban systems as drivers of economic growth.


Microfluidics is a technology where application span the biomedical field and beyond. Single cell analysis, tissue engineering, capillary electrophoresis, cancer detection, and immunoassays are just some of the applications within the medical field where microfluidics have excelled. The development of microfluidic technology has lead to novel research into fuel cells, ink jet printing, microreactors and electronic component cooling areas as diverse as food, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, medicine and biotechnology have benefited from these developments. Since laminar flow is prevailing at most flow regimes in the micro-scale, thorough mixing is a challenge within microfluidics. Therefore, understanding the flow fields on the micro-scale is key to the development of methods for successfully microfluidic mixing applications.


Abstract Crop loss to foraging elephants is one of the most significant causes of conflict between people and elephants in areas where wild elephants share resources with people. Effective solutions to reduce the effects of human–elephant conflict on local livelihoods are thus essential to foster coexistence between elephants and people. We assessed the effectiveness of chilli-briquettes (bricks made of dry chilli, elephant dung and water) in altering elephants use of space in the eastern Okavango Panhandle, Botswana. We burned > 600 briquettes during the night over a 2-month period to test five treatments: frequent burning of (1) chilli and (2) chilli-free briquettes, occasional burning of (3) chilli and (4) chilli-free briquettes, and (5) a control treatment. Using camera traps and footprint surveys we assessed the number of elephants that used experimental sites, and the times at which they did so. We found elephants changed their movement behaviour from predominantly nocturnal to diurnal in areas where chilli-briquettes were burned throughout the night; however, there was no difference in the mean numbers of individuals between treatments with and without chillies. In other words, chilli-briquettes had a repellent but not a deterrent effect on elephants, keeping them away only at times when chilli-briquettes were smouldering. Based on these findings we recommend the use of chilli-briquettes as a method to deter elephants in the short term. In the long term, chilli-briquettes should be applied in combination with other larger-scale mitigation approaches, such as land management and cooperative community-based tools.


Tetrahymena thermophila is a ciliated protist and a well-studied organism that is used as an experimental analogue for ciliary function in other eukaryotes. We studied it as a model for human endotracheal ciliary response to toluene, a compound found in both cigarettes and e-cigarettes. We performed three experiments with four replicates each: a motility assay to study the effects of toluene on movement, a food vacuole assay measuring the ability of T. thermophila to phagocytose Congo-red stained yeast using their oral cilia and a cell viability assay in order to determine whether cells without food vacuoles were still alive. We found significant differences in the percentage of moving cells in the first assay as we increased the concentration of toluene, as well as significant and similar differences regarding food vacuole formation in our second assay. Our last assay found no significant difference in the amount of viable cells without food vacuoles at each of three concentrations tested. Taken together, these data suggest that short-term exposure to toluene does not kill T. thermophila, but may inhibit ciliary function. The mechanism by which toluene acts on cilia is unknown, however previous studies have suggested that the toxicity of toluene is associated with its methyl side chain, as it can form hydrogen bonds with other molecules.


Redescription mining is a newly introduced data mining problem that seeks to find subsets of data that afford multiple definitions. It can be viewed as a generalization of association rule mining, from finding implications to equivalences; as a form of conceptual clustering, where the goal is to identify clusters that afford dual characterizations; and as a form of constructive induction, to build features based on given descriptors that mutually reinforce each other. In this paper, we present the use of redescription mining as an important tool to reason about a collection of sets, especially their overlaps, similarities, and differences. We outline algorithms to mine all minimal (non-redundant) redescriptions underlying a dataset using notions of minimal generators of closed itemsets. We also show the use of these algorithms in an interactive context, supporting constraint-based exploration and querying. Specifically, we showcase a bioinformatics application that empowers the biologist to define a vocabulary of sets underlying a domain of genes and to reason about these sets, yielding significant biological insight.


Occupational heat exposure and injury risk in Washington State construction workers Miriam Margaret Calkins Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor June Spector Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Department of Medicine Introduction: The primary objectives of this research were to: 1) assess the relationship between heat exposure and occupational traumatic injuries in Washington State; and 2) assess heat exposure and the relationship between heat stress and psychomotor vigilance and balance in a population at high risk for injuries and heat related illness. Methods: We conducted an epidemiologic study and a field study. First, we assessed the relationship between maximum daily humidex and Washington State Fund workers' compensation injuries in outdoor construction workers from 2000-2012 using a case-crossover design and highresolution meteorological data. Second, we collected full-shift measurements of heat exposure and tests of psychomotor vigilance and balance in a sample of 22 commercial roofing workers in the Greater Seattle area in a repeated-measures study during the summer and fall of 2016. Heat exposure was compared across three spatial resolutions (regional, area, and personal). The association between heat stress, specifically the mean one-hour difference between the worksite wet bulb globe temperature and the recommended exposure limit (ΔREL), and PVT and balance outcomes were modeled using linear GEE. Results: We observed a traumatic injury odds ratio (OR) in outdoor WA construction workers of 1.0053 (95% CI 1.003, 1.007) per °C change in humidex. We report a positive mean (95% confidence interval) difference between personaland area-level temperature of 4.4 (4.1, 4.7)°C. The direction of the difference between regional and area monitors varied by site. We observed a positive (detrimental) association (0.3; 95% CI -3.0, 3.5) and a negative association (-0.9; 95% CI -1.7, -0.1) between heat stress and PVT and balance, respectively. Post hoc interaction analyses of heat stress and dehydration yielded positive associations of heat stress with psychomotor outcomes. Conclusion: In the case-crossover study, increasing humidex was associated with increasing traumatic injury risk. In the field study of commercial roofing workers, personal temperature measurements were consistently higher than area temperature measurements, and the difference between regional and area temperatures varied in direction by site. No decrements in psychomotor vigilance or postural sway were observed with the low levels of heat stress measured in this study, however dehydration may modify this effect.


Career education is a very important part of general/comprehensive education. One of the main components of this process is proper students' preparation for professional choice (professional self-determination). Thus, it is important to know objective and subjective factors determining young persons' professional self-determination. Such awareness is important and necessary for the school, which accepts responsibility for the formation of students' professional purposefulness and professional self-determination maturity. Lithuanian gymnasium students have to make an early decision concerning future professional activity. At the beginning of 2018, a complex research was carried out, comprising qualitative and quantitative approaches. Formulating research aim is to analyse Lithuanian gymnasium students' professional self-determination context. A total of 643 Lithuanian gymnasium 11-12 grade students took part in the research. Apart from the main research instrument (questionnaire) in the research, the researchers presented four open-ended questions. Qualitative data were processed using a quantitative content analysis. Research results revealed that the majority of female and male students thought that to properly choose a career was important, because this was a self-realisation warranty. Regardless of this, choosing a future career, both male and female students most frequently experience personal difficulties. Choosing a future career, one needs information support, different person support and self-awareness help. It has been stated that choosing a career external factors have a greater influence on both female and male students than internal ones. Choosing a career, personality character features have a bigger influence on female students, and a desire to improve, to realise oneself has a greater impact on male students.


CT ventilation imaging is an exciting functional imaging modality that combines four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) and deformable image registration (DIR) to provide exquisite ventilation maps of the lung. CT ventilation imaging can be used for: (1) Functional avoidance in thoracic radiation therapy, (2) Imaging longitudinal changes in regional lung function for treatment assessment and adaptation, (3) Image-assisted diagnosis of non-oncologic respiratory diseases. CT ventilation imaging uses CT, a predominantly anatomic imaging modality, and through imaging processing creates functional images. CT ventilation imaging provides functional images that are higher resolution, faster and cheaper to perform than the clinical standard, SPECT. Indeed the number of CT ventilation abstracts presented at the AAPM meeting has been doubling every two years. With the world's-first clinical trial of CT ventilation functional image-guided radiation therapy now underway, the first dedicated scientific symposium will educate and stimulate AAPM members from both radiology and radiation oncology. This symposium will compare the foundations of CT ventilation imaging with competing MRI, PET and SPECT ventilation imaging methods, and details the first clinical trial of CT ventilation imaging for functional avoidance in lung cancer radiation therapy. The spatial-temporal nature of pulmonary ventilation, response maps to radiation and the design of predictive models will be presented. Validation efforts and challenges will also be discussed, from clinical outcome correlations in single time point and longitudinal studies, to cross-modality image comparisons in the first multi-institutional CT ventilation imaging challenge. The panel will discuss the future role of CT ventilation imaging, and what level of physiologic validation is needed for applications in radiation oncology and beyond.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn the principles of CT ventilation imaging and how ventilation images are acquired with MRI, PET and SPECT 2. Understand the methods used to benchmark CT ventilation and the correlations between CT ventilation imaging and clinical outcomes 3. Recognize the clinical applications of CT ventilation imaging in radiation oncology and beyond Australian NHMRC Fellowship. Australian NSW Cancer Institute Fellowship.; Y. Vinogradskiy, The authors acknowledge NIH R01CA200817 grant and Stat of Colorado grant.; T. Yamamoto, This study was supported in part by the American Cancer Society and the Dean of the University of California Davis School of Medicine (ACS IRG-95-125-13). Philips Radiation Oncology Systems loaned us a research version of the Pinnacle3 treatment planning system.; J. Bayouth, Funding support from NCI R01 CA166703; J. Kipritidis, This work has been supported by a Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship and an NHMRC Australia Fellowship. No commercial funding was received for this work.


Abstract This essay attempts to assess whether the perceptual issues posed by the contemporary interface culture, and the constant attitude shift demanded by the new media between the "natural" and the "as if" modes, might be considered a significant challenge for phenomenological aesthetics as understood in terms of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception. To demonstrate how the use of a particular interface profoundly shapes the form and structure of an activity as well as enabling perception of a particular kind, the author does not focus directly on the state-of-the-art smart interfaces, but describes the experience of cycling in a large city, with the interface in the form of the bicycle upgraded with an imagined ride simulator. While the former enables a very particular entrance into the world of perception, shaped by its moderate speed and detachment from the ground, the latter enables techno-shaped perception in the "as if" screenic mode. The experience described raises questions concerning the kinaesthetic, proprioceptive and motor features contributing to the cyclist's mobile perception, as well as pointing to issues related to the reading of the city's network as a particular spatial configuration generated by the cyclist's realtime activity. This is the space-time-event-ridescape maintained and modified by the corporeal act of cycling. The spatiality of such a ride does not presume the notion of a space that contains the cyclist, but builds on notions of being-in-the-ridescape (as a kind of cityscape), in terms not only of full corporeal and mental engagement, but also of bodily literacy. The reading of the cityscape enabled by the combination of two interfaces, the bicycle and the ride simulator, is discussed in relation to de Certeau's account of pedestrian (walking) experience in a big city, his distinction between strategies and tactics, and the notion that each cyclist contributes a novel story to ridetext, which is viewed not as an aesthetic object but as the production of puzzles for the rider to solve. The paper concludes by questioning the capacity of phenomenology to accommodate the contemporary phenomenon of a "mixed" or "augmented reality" either in concept or in relation to the demands of the phenomenological reduction and the ends of the epoché.


The main aim of this research is to relate the theory of ISD discussed in Hirschheim's and Klein's article "Four Paradigms of Information Systems Development" (ISD) to Churchman's theory of ISD discussed in his book "The Design of Inquiring Systems". It has been important to relate those two assumptions of ISD in order to enhance both of them and to get a more explicit understanding of ISD. The main hypothesis in this research has been that it is possible to relate them to each other and to clarify and enhance them since they are both based on philosophical assumptions of knowledge generation i.e. epistemology. Epistemological and ontological aspects of knowledge generation and nature of societies are very important for understanding of IS since knowledge transfer is more and more common because of ICT development. The synthesis of those two well-known approaches to ISD is the main contribution of this research master thesis. The other contributions are the solution for double-loop learning through multi-agent system development and the solution for developing sustainable network societies through peer-to-peer networking combined with centralised networking functioning as a library. I also have given an explicit explanation of the differences between monism (holism) and pluralism, in this case regarding to Leibniz's and Locke's philosophical views. Singerian epistemology has been generated from his explanation of insufficiency of either rationalist or interpretative approaches for explanation of natural laws and this is also one of my contributions in this research. I also recommended a complementary use of the rationalist, empirical and interpretative research methodologies for research in theoretical, experimental, applied and social science fields. It has been also examined which methodologies are predominating at universities offering degrees in social informatics and it has appeared that on the most of universities offering degree in social informatics, proper research methodologies for studying societies are used what had been expected.


A narrative study of thriving adult female survivors of childhood maltreatment was undertaken to discover how they had achieved success. Life trajectory patterns, turning points, and setbacks were identified. Data consisted of 81 interview transcripts derived from a series of three interviews, spaced over 6 to 12 months, with 27 survivors. The childhood abuse was intrafamilial, beginning as early as infancy and continuing, in most cases, until participants left home. The onset and pace of the healing trajectory were quite variable, including a roller-coaster pattern as well as patterns of slow, steady progress and continued struggle. Four types of redemption narratives were delineated. Survivors had not been spared depression but had made achievements in work and education and displayed remarkable generativity, parenting their own children well, and mentoring other young girls, especially victims of abuse.


At the KSU Purebred Unit, 164 purebred Angus, Hereford, and Simmental cows were used to test a new estrus-synchronization program using GnRH, PGF2, and norgestomet. Cows were inseminated after detected estrus, or in the absence of estrus, inseminations were made at one fixed time after a second injection of GnRH. The treatment consisted of a 100 μg injection of GnRH plus a 6-mg ear implant of norgestomet. Seven days later, the ear implant was removed, and 25-mg of PG F2% was injected. In the absence of estrus, the time-bred group received a second injection of GnRH 48 h after PGF2% and was inseminated 16 h later. The treatment induced 10 of 36 anestrous cows to ovulate. Conception rates tended (P<.09) to be greater in Angus (72.2%) than Hereford cows (52.8%) , with conception rates in Simmental cows (51.5%) being similar to those in Hereford. Overall, pregnancy rates were similar between the time-bred group (59.3%) and the estrus-bred group (53.8%). We conclude that using GnRH, PG F2%, and norgestomet in a timed breeding program ca n eliminate the necessity of heat detection. In addition, the treatment induced estrus in 28% of the noncycling cows.


Climate change may be a game-changer for scientific research by promoting a science that is grounded in linking the production of knowledge and societal action in a transition toward more sustainable development pathways. Here, we discuss participatory action-research (PAR) as a way of thinking and leading investigations that may promote incremental and transformative changes in the context of climate change adaptation research. Our exploration is addressed in the Portuguese context, where PAR and sustainable transition studies are still marginal, and adaptation processes are a recent topic on political agendas. We describe the characteristics of PAR and use two studies of adaptation to illustrate how research and practice co-evolve through interactive cycles. The two studies are works in progress, rather than completed PAR processes. Climate change adaptation is an ongoing and long-term process. Moreover, in Portugal, as in many regions of the world, climate change adaptation is a fairly new topic. Thus, both case studies are now initiating a long-term process of change and adaptation. The completion of one research cycle is a realistic expectation that we have achieved in the two case study experiences. In our discussion of the case studies, we consider how these experiences provide insights into the role of PAR for long-term regime changes. We conclude by pointing to the societal needs addressed by PAR, as a pragmatically oriented and context-specific research design. The approach can be complementary to other frameworks in sustainable transition studies such as transition management. Being more pragmatically oriented, PAR cycles may influence incrementally transformative changes that can be guided by transition management's long-term design for governing sustainable transitions.


Fault diagnosis by machine learning techniques is of great importance in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). A key factor influencing the accuracy of fault diagnosis lies in the imbalance between the sample data in minority classes (i.e. faulty situations) and that in majority classes (i.e. normal situations), which may cause misjudgments of faults and lead to failure in practical use. This study proposes a novel pre-processing method with a fast relevance vector machine (Fast RVM) reducing the data of majority class samples and the synthetic minority over-sampling technique expanding the minority class samples. A case study indicates that this pre-processing method could be a promising solution for imbalanced data classification in WWTPs and the pre-processed data can be well diagnosed by back-propagation neural networks, support vector machine, RVM and Fast RVM models.


BACKGROUND
Live discharges from hospice can occur because patients decide to resume curative care, their condition improves, or hospices may inappropriately use live discharge to avoid costly hospitalizations.

OBJECTIVE
Describe the variation, outcomes, and organizational characteristics associated with live discharges.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING/SUBJECTS
Medicare fee-for-service hospice beneficiaries.

MEASUREMENT
Overall rate, timing, and health care transitions of live discharges.

RESULTS
In 2010, 182,172 of 1,003,958 (18.2%) hospice discharges were alive. Hospice rate of live discharges varied by hospice program with interquartile range of 9.5% to 26.4% and by geographic regions with the lowest rate in Connecticut (12.8%) and the highest in Mississippi (40.5%). Approximately 1 in 4 (n=43,889; 24.1%) beneficiaries discharged alive were hospitalized within 30 days. Nearly 8% (n=13,770) had a pattern of hospice discharge, hospitalization, and hospice readmission. These latter cases account for $126 million in Medicare reimbursement. Not-for-profit hospice programs had a lower rate of live discharges compared to for-profit programs (14.6% versus 22.4%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.84, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77-0.91). More mature hospice programs (over 21 years in operation) had lower rates of live discharge compared to programs in operation for 5 years or less (14.2% versus 26.7%; AOR 0.71, 95% CI 0.65-0.77). Small for-profits in operation 5 years or less had a higher live discharge rate than older, for-profit programs (31.5% versus 14.3%, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Approximately 1 in 5 hospice patients are discharged alive with variation by geographic regions and hospice programs. Not-for-profit hospices and older hospices have lower rates of live discharge.


This book is written for beginners and students who wish to learn MATLAB. One of the objectives of writing this book is to introduce MATLAB to students in high schools. The material presented is very easy and simple to understand -- written in a gentle manner. The topics covered in the book include arithmetic operations, variables, mathematical functions, complex numbers, vectors, matrices, programming, graphs, solving equations, and an introduction to calculus. In addition, the MATLAB Symbolic Math Toolbox is emphasized in this book. There are also over 230 exercises at the ends of chapters for students to practice. Detailed solutions to all the exercises are provided in the second half of the book. The author has been using MATLAB for the past fifteen years and is the author of the best selling book "MATLAB Guide to Finite Elements". For the paperback edition, visit Amazon.com.


The purpose of this study is to examine the Google facets, namely the suggestions found occasionally under the section "Searches related to" on the Google results page. The study focuses on whether they constitute good candidate terms for implementing expansion of queries submitted to databases. The thought behind this is to benefit from the Google recommendations and see if they relate in a satisfactory proportion with the initial user queries so that the first can provide reliable information on the context of the second, especially in cases where no results are returned for the initial query. During our study we have recorded the conditions under which Google creates facets, their informational characteristics as well as various problems concerning the available features of the Greek version of Google. After submitting our collection of 750 zero-hit queries to Google, we retrieved facets for 302 of them, which correspond to 95 of the initial users' queries. Finally, we found that 12.67% of otherwise zero-hit queries would return results with the use of Google facets.


Polarization lidar data are used to demonstrate that clouds composed of hexagonal ice crystals can generate multiple-ringed colored coronas. Although relatively uncommon in our mid-latitude cirrus sample (derived from Project FIRE extended time observations), the coronas are associated with unusual cloud conditions that appear to be effective in generating the displays. Invariably, the cirrus cloud tops are located at or slightly above elevated tropopauses (12.7-km MSL average height) at temperatures between -60 degrees and -70 degrees C. The cloud top region also generates relatively strong laser backscattering and unusually high 0.5-0.7 linear depolarization ratios. Color photograph analysis of corona ring angles indicates crystals with mean diameters of from 12 to 30 microm. The cirrus cloud types were mainly subvisual to thin (i.e., bluish-colored) cirrostratus, but also included fibrous cirrus. Estimated cloud optical thicknesses at the 0.694-microm laser wavelength ranged from 0.001 to 0.2, where the upper limit reflects the effects of multiple scattering and/or unfavorable changes in particle characteristics in deep cirrus clouds.


This paper discusses relations between a closed, convex set in a locally convex space and its normal cones and barrier cone in the dual space. Results of Wu and de Andrade on the Gauss map and spherical image of a convex hypersurface in a Hubert space are generalized to the topological vector space situation, and additional information is obtained on the relation of the interior of the spherical image and barrier cone to the size and shape of the given convex set.


Abstract. This study applies a neural network technique to produce maps
of oceanic surface pCO2 in Prydz Bay in the Southern
Ocean on a weekly 0.1∘ longitude × 0.1∘ latitude
grid based on in situ measurements obtained during the 31st CHINARE cruise
from February to early March 2015. This study area was divided into three
regions, namely, the "open-ocean" region, "sea-ice" region and "shelf" region. The
distribution of oceanic pCO2 was mainly affected by
physical processes in the open-ocean region, where mixing and upwelling were
the main controls. In the sea-ice region, oceanic pCO2
changed sharply due to the strong change in seasonal ice. In the shelf
region, biological factors were the main control. The weekly oceanic
pCO2 was estimated using a self-organizing map (SOM) with
four proxy parameters (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll a
concentration, mixed Layer Depth and sea surface salinity) to overcome the
complex relationship between the biogeochemical and physical conditions in
the Prydz Bay region. The reconstructed oceanic pCO2 data
coincide well with the in situ pCO2 data from
SOCAT, with a root mean square error of 22.14 µatm. Prydz Bay
was mainly a strong CO2 sink in February 2015, with a monthly
averaged uptake of 23.57±6.36 TgC. The oceanic CO2 sink is
pronounced in the shelf region due to its low oceanic
pCO2 values and peak biological production.