DECENTRALIZED CONTROL OF MULTIPLE UAVS FOR PERIMETER AND TARGET SURVEILLANCE Derek Bastian Kingston Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Doctor of Philosophy With the recent development of reliable autonomous technologies for small unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), the algorithms utilizing teams of these vehicles are becoming an increasingly important research area. Unfortunately, there is no unified framework into which all (or even most) cooperative control problems fall. Five factors that affect the development of cooperative control algorithms are objective coupling, communication, completeness, robustness, and efficiency. We classify cooperative control algorithms by these factors and then present three algorithms with application to target and perimeter surveillance and a method for decentralized algorithm design. The primary contributions of this research are the development and analysis of decentralized algorithms for perimeter and target surveillance. We pose the cooperative perimeter surveillance problem and offer a decentralized solution that accounts for perimeter growth (expanding or contracting) and insertion/deletion of team members. By identifying and sharing the critical coordination information and by exploiting the known communication topology, only a small communication range is required for accurate performance. Convergence of the algorithm to the optimal configuration is proven to occur in finite-time. Simulation and hardware results are presented that demonstrate the applicability of the solution. For single target surveillance, a team of UAVs angularly spaced (i.e. in the splay state configuration) provides the best coverage of the target in a wide variety of circumstances. We propose a decentralized algorithm to achieve the splay state configuration for a team of UAVs tracking a moving target and derive the allowable bounds on target velocity to generate a feasible solution as well as show that, near equilibrium, the overall system is exponentially stable. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the surveillance algorithm is asymptotically stable for arbitrary initial conditions. We conclude with high fidelity simulation and actual flight tests to show the applicability of the splay state controller to unmanned air systems.


Background: miR-375 plays a role in tumor progression; however, its potential as a prognostic factor in cancer remains unclear. This meta-analysis assessed the value of miR-375 as a global prognostic biomarker in human cancer. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed to retrieve publications with relevant survival data. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated for low miR-375 expression. Publication bias was examined. Results: Data were extracted from 11 studies of 1,797 patients (low expression in 769 cases; high in 1,028 cases). The pooled HR for overall/cumulative survival (OS/CS) was 1.90 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.57-2.29) and the pooled HR for disease-free, recurrence-free or progression-free survival (DFS/RFS/PFS) was 1.93 (95% CI 1.39-2.67), indicating low miR-375 expression was associated with significantly poorer outcomes compared to normal/high miR-375 expression. Subgroup analysis revealed miR-375 might be a good prognostic factor in cancer, regardless of population, sample type, and cancer type. The prognostic value of miR-375 in non-Chinese patients was particularly high (pooled HR > 2). Conclusion: Low miR-375 expression could represent a valuable prognostic marker in various cancers. Circulating miR-375 levels may provide a useful non-invasive, practical prognostic biomarker. However, the prognostic value of miR-375 in specific cancer types remains unclear; further studies are warranted.


Kempane diterpenes such as 1 and 2, which are a class of compact tetracyclic compounds isolated from the defense secretions of nasute soldier termites, have been challenging synthetic targets. We have achieved a highly stereoselective synthesis of the kempane diterpene ring system that possesses all the required stereogenic centers and sufficient functionality to allow elaboration to 1 and 2. A key step of our synthesis of the ring system is the highly regia- and facially-selective Diels-Alder cycloaddition of cis-5-(I-((tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy)vinyl)-3,3a,6,6a-tetrahydro-2H-cyclopenta[b]furan-2-one (78) and 2,6-dimethyl-1,4-benzoquinone (13) to establish the benzoindane ring system 79. The diene 78 was prepared through a sequence that contained a regiospecific [2 + 2] cycloaddition of 1-methyl-1 ,3-cyclohexadiene (38) with dichloroketene, generated in situ from dichloroacetyl chloride and triethylamine. Though attempts to cyclize the seven-membered ring in hemi-acetal 72 by aldol reaction were unsuccessful due to the difficulty in opening the five-membered hemi-acetal ring, the seven-membered ring was constructed by a regiospecific Dieckmann condensation in ethyl (1α,2β,4α,4aβ,6β,6aα,7aβ,10aβ,10bα,10cα)-2,3,4,4a,5,6,6a,7,7a,10,10a,10b,10c-tridecahydro-4-hydroxy-6-(2-methoxyethoxy)methoxy-2,10c-dimethyl-9-oxo-1Hbenz[6,7]indeno-[2,1-b]furan-l-methylcarboxylate (131). The transformation of the benzoindane ring system 79 to carboxylate 131 involved a remarkably regio- and stereoselective addition of an acetylide to the apparently more hindered carbonyl in 79, a reductive cleavage of a γ-hydroxy group in an α,β-enone system, and a one-pot acid-promoted epimerization and double-bond isomerization. -- To explore the possibility of modifying our synthesis of the kempane diterpene ring system to an asymmetric approach, we investigated the asymmetric [2 + 2] cycloadditions of enantiopure, L-menthoxy- and 1,2:5 ,6-di-O-isopropyllidene-a-D-glucofuranoxy-substituted ketenes 174 and 185 with cyclopentadiene (175). -- In the course of the synthetic study towards kempane diterpenes, an exiremely regia- and stereoselective reduction of the seemingly more hindered carbonyl in enedione 56 with lithium tri-tert-butoxyaluminohydride or sodium borohydride was observed. Systematic study proved this observation to be general with non-bridged cyclic enediones. Both the regio- and stereoselectivities are due to a preference for axial attack by the reducing reagents. Among possible axial additions to the two carbonyls, only one approach is sterically allowed. It was also found that the combination of sodium borohydride and cerium trichloride, the Luche reagent, was a useful alternative reducing reagent. It either improved or completely reversed the regioselectivity.


Background This study reviewed pain severity and assessment as recalled by patients with long-bone fractures. The focus was on the intervals between admission, pain assessment and analgesic provision, as delay of analgesia for acute pain can result in complex chronic pain syndromes. Aim The aims were to explore patients' recollection of pain severity and assessment in an emergency department (ED) and whether analgesia prescribed in the ED correlated with pain severity. Setting The study site was a district hospital ED in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods This exploratory study considered aspects of pain in adults with long-bone fracture who were admitted to an ED and later referred to an orthopaedic unit. Data collection took place in the orthopaedic unit where participants were requested to recall their pain severity (using a visual analogue scale) whilst in the ED. Results Ninety-three patients participated, most of whom were African males. Over 60% recalled their pain severity in the ED as 5 or greater on a visual analogue perception scale. No formal tool was used to assess or record pain in the ED, and there was no association between recalled pain severity and type of analgesia prescribed. Conclusion The majority of patients were assessed for pain in the ED. Analgesia given to most patients was inadequate for the degree of pain they experienced. A pain assessment protocol should be developed for doctors and nurses to serve as a guideline in assessing patients with long-bone fractures and prescribing appropriate analgesia.


Objective: The objective was to explore the experiences of Registered Nurses and Licensed Social Workers who work directly with Community Health Workers (CHWs) in health care. Design and Sample: A descriptive qualitative design was utilized. Six registered nurses participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audiotaped. Content analysis consisted of identifying themes and patterns that emerged from the narratives. Results: Three themes were identified, 1) the importance of role clarity, 2) relationship building, and 3) filling in gaps in care. Conclusions: Nurses consider CHWs to be vital members of the health car team. CHWs' extensive knowledge of community resources and their ability to provide culturally sensitive care has benefits for both patients and health professionals. The role of the CHW is evolving. Clear delineation roles is an important factor in the implementation of new health professions


Magnetic elds are ubiquitous at all scales in the Universe and have been observed in galaxies and clusters of galaxies via observations of di use radio emission and Faraday Rotation Measures. Despite the observations, the origin and impact of the magnetic elds in these systems is poorly understood. In this thesis we develop a state of the art cosmological Smoothed Particle Magnetohydrodynamics code, GCMHD+, to enable the study of the magnetic elds of the largest bound structures in the Universe. Using a wide range of idealized test problems, we justify our choice of free parameters and demonstrate the performance of the code relative to analytical solutions and the results produced by a grid based MHD scheme. We then used the code to investigate the evolution of a seed magnetic eld due to the formation of structure. By varying the numerical scheme, we demonstrate that the growth of magnetic elds in galaxy clusters are very sensitive to the growth of numerical divergence of the magnetic eld. We nd that amplitude and topology of the cluster magnetic eld are insensitive to the mass or formation history of the cluster. Using high resolution simulations, we show that a primordial seed magnetic eld is capable of reproducing a wide range of observations of large-scale magnetic elds in galaxy clusters. Additionally, we examine the impact of the formation of spiral structure in a disc galaxy on the galactic magnetic eld. We nd that the numerical scheme can become unstable unless the divergence cleaning scheme is limited. We nd that the rotation of the galaxy produces a disc orientated magnetic eld with a spiral structure and large-scale eld reversals. The formation of spiral arms ampli es the ambient G magnetic eld to 20 G, in agreement with the observations of spiral galaxies. We conclude that additional physics is required to produce a more realistic galactic magnetic eld.


Background: Over 240 million people worldwide are affected by type II diabetes, and this number is expected to rise to over 380 million by the year 2025. As type II diabetes becomes exponentially more prevalent in our society, novel treatment options should be explored. Currently, the management of type II diabetes focuses on the prevention of disease progression through lifestyle modifications and medical therapy. Although there have been advances in the pharmacological treatment of type II diabetes, it still remains a poorly controlled disease. Emerging data suggest that bariatric surgery may provide a more sustained and effective treatment for type II diabetes. Method: An extensive search of the literature using MEDLINE, PUBMED, UPTODATE and CINAHL were performed to identify the effects of gastric bypass surgery on type II diabetes for the purpose of performing a systematic review and assessing the outcomes using the GRADE system. Two randomized control trials, and one cohort study were identified. Results: Based on the two randomized control trials and one cohort study, showed that the efficacy of gastric bypass surgery was significantly greater than diet and medication without surgery, in the treatment of type II diabetes in terms of reducing HbA1C and fasting plasma glucose. Conclusion: Overall, the use of gastric bypass surgery in the treatment of type II diabetes significantly reduces HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose and the use of pharmacotherapy. This review of the outcomes using the GRADE system confirms the effectiveness of bariatric surgery as a therapy for type II diabetes.


The goal of the research was to determine the biomass yield and fuel properties of ten
different poplar clones. The research was conducted in an experimental plot
established in Forest Administration Osijek, Forest Office Darda, in the spring
of 2014. The layout of the plot consisted of three repetitions per clone with
40 plants per repetition in spacing 3x1 m. Based on the DBH distribution, in the early spring of 2018, one sample tree of an average DBH per repetition was selected, thus forming a sample of 30 trees. Average survival rate of the investigated trees after four vegetation periods was 74.54 ±13.85% ranging from 52.08% (Koreana) to 91.67% (SV885 and SV490). Average DBH of the sample trees was 8.2 ±1.9 cm, height 9.3 ±1.8 m and root collar diameter 10.7 ±1.9 cm. Moisture content in fresh state (just after the felling) ranged from 51.6% (Hybride 275) to 55.9% (SV885). Bark content averaged 18.4%, from 15.4% (Baldo) to 21.1% (V 609). Average nominal density of the sampled trees amounted to 383.5 ±35.9 kg/m3. Bark ash content was on average ten times higher (6.44 ±0.65%) than wood ash content (0.64 ±0.07%) resulting in average ash content of 1.7 ±0.1% (taking the bark content into account). The clone SV490 showed the highest biomass yield with 15.8 t/ha/year, while the lowest biomass yield was recorded for the clone Hybride 275 with 2.8 t/ha/year. High inter-clonal productivity variation stresses the importance of selection work to find the most appropriate clones with the highest productivity potential for the given area where the poplar SRC plantations are to be established. Due to high initial moisture content, if direct chipping harvesting systems are preferred, wood chips could be efficiently used in CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plants that operate on the principle of biomass gasification (where a gasifier is coupled to a gas engine to produce electric power and heat). In several CHP gasification plants operating in Croatia, wood chips with high initial moisture content (from traditional poplar plantations) are used as a feedstock that has to be pre-dried using the surplus heat. In this respect SRC poplar wood chips could make an ideal feedstock supplement.


Open access (OA) has mostly been studied by relying on publication data from selective international databases, notably Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The aim of our study is to show that it is possible to achieve a national estimate of the number and share of OA based on institutional publication data providing a comprehensive coverage of the peer-reviewed outputs across fields, publication types, and languages. Our data consists of 48,177 journal, conference, and book publications from 14 Finnish universities in 2016–2017, including information about OA status, as self-reported by researchers and validated by data-collection personnel through their Current Research Information System (CRIS). We investigate the WoS, Scopus, and DOI coverage, as well as the share of OA outputs between different fields, publication types, languages, OA mechanisms (gold, hybrid, and green), and OA information sources (DOAJ, Bielefeld list, and Sherpa/Romeo). We also estimate the role of the largest international commercial publishers compared to the not-for-profit Finnish national publishers of journals and books. We conclude that institutional data, integrated at national and international level, provides one of the building blocks of a large-scale data infrastructure needed for comprehensive assessment and monitoring of OA across countries, for example at the European level.


The challenges of finding more productive ways of teaching and learning in Australian Indigenous Studies have been a key focal point for the Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network. This article contributes to this discussion by drawing attention to new possibilities for teaching and learning practices amid the priority being given to the more practice-oriented educational approaches for future professionals and the cultural competencies of all students and staff. We explore courses sequenced as Indigenous Studies Majors and discuss two different conceptualisations for framing teaching and learning in Indigenous Studies courses — decolonising theory and cultural interface theory — and the implications for some of the teaching and learning practices they facilitate, including the positioning of students and the development of dispositions for future professional practice. We suggest that those academic teams who structure course sequences in Indigenous Studies have a role to play in experimenting with shifts in teaching and learning frameworks and the design of course sequences to encourage approaches that are more focused on developing students' breadth and depth of knowledge of the field, as well as their capacities for deeper engagements with Indigenous thought and the scholarly disciplines.


This paper has altered what appears to be the common equation taught and used to calculate the radius of an extrasolar planet, by way of transit photometry. The standard equation is: Where, RPlanet is the radius of the planet, RStar is the radius of the star and B is the percentage of light blocked by the planet during a transit, expressed as a decimal.
Where, a is the semi-major axis of the planet's orbit (i.e. its orbital radius) and dStar is the distance from the observer to the star. There are also two additional derivations in this manuscript, which allow for calculation of the radius using angular measurements. In previous versions of this paper, author has labelled the variables in the equation differently. This is only important for those who have read or intend to read Versions 1 and 2 of this manuscript. The additional factor in the parentheses does not always make the most significant difference, considering the fraction evaluates to nearly zero in most exoplanetary cases, but it could make a difference considering other calculations depend on an accurate radius calculation, such as volume and density, for example. This aim of this equation and of this paper is to improve astronomical calculations that make use of exoplanetary transits and transit photometry. The previous, more common equation does not take into consideration the distance of the planet from its parent star. That is what this paper seeks to fix.


ABSTRACT The main purpose of this article is to analyse to what degree master's degree education in Norway enhances employability through enhancing or signalling generic competence, or through enhancing specialised competence. Using multiple correspondence analysison the links between educational group, economic activity and sector, educational groups with strong links to certain economic activities were categorised as specialised education, otherwise generic. In the next step, we analyse how the distinction between specialised and generic education affects the transfer to employment. The main data source for the analysis is the NIFU Graduate Survey for the period 1995–2015, where data on graduate numbers as well as detailed information about graduate employment are collected. According to a narrow definition, business administration, information and computer technology, electronic, mechanical and machine subjects and teacher training and pedagogy were specialized education. Using a broad definition, this also includied languages, humanities and arts other, psychology, health, welfare and sport, law and political science. The analysis found that generic education graduates had a more difficult transfer to the labour market than specialised education graduates and that this cannot be explained by generic education being less selective than specialised education.


St. Thomas More appears to have been chosen as the fourth saintly Intercessor of Opus Dei in mid-1954. Means and influences (especially pub- lications) by which St. Josemaria might have come to relatively precocious knowledge of, and appreciation for, the English martyr before that date. Sev- eral ways in which the saint was an apposite Intercessor. Development of the Founder's regard for, and recourse to, him during visits to England 1958-62. A relic and a painting. A doubt. Changed circumstances in the early 1960s and the 1964 nomination of St. Catherine of Siena as fifth Intercessor, taking over a portion of St. Thomas More's intercessory role.


With an expanding market for what is now known as "complimentary and alternative" medicine (CAM), states are increasingly facing the issue of who can and who should be allowed to practice medicine. Of necessity, this question also concerns whom patients may see to treat their ailments.This paper will argue that the struggle to define who is and who is not licensed to practice medicine is rather fruitless and will always leave patients with less choice than they desire. Part II will review the history of licensure in the United States. Parts III and IV will focus on benefits and problems of restrictive modes of licensure prevalent in most states, respectively. Part V will briefly outline recent developments in CAM. Part VI will develop and critique several alternatives to restrictive licensure, and Part VII will briefly touch on how informed consent plays into the potential change in accreditation that this paper proposes.


Neural circuits associated with motivated declarative encoding and active threat avoidance have both been described, but the relative contribution of these systems to punishment-motivated encoding remains unknown. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans to examine mechanisms of declarative memory enhancement when subjects were motivated to avoid punishments that were contingent on forgetting. A motivational cue on each trial informed participants whether they would be punished or not for forgetting an upcoming scene image. Items associated with the threat of shock were better recognized 24 h later. Punishment-motivated enhancements in subsequent memory were associated with anticipatory activation of right amygdala and increases in its functional connectivity with parahippocampal and orbitofrontal cortices. On a trial-by-trial basis, right amygdala activation during the motivational cue predicted hippocampal activation during encoding of the subsequent scene; across participants, the strength of this interaction predicted memory advantages due to motivation. Of note, punishment-motivated learning was not associated with activation of dopaminergic midbrain, as would be predicted by valence-independent models of motivation to learn. These data are consistent with the view that motivation by punishment activates the amygdala, which in turn prepares the medial temporal lobe for memory formation. The findings further suggest a brain system for declarative learning motivated by punishment that is distinct from that for learning motivated by reward.


[Extract] Paula Byrne's Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead scores several significant breakthroughs, and I warmly commend it to general readers as well as Waugh enthusiasts. It follows hard on the heels of Jane Mulvagh's equally interesting Madresfield: One Home, One Family, One Thousand Years. The books are complementary. Byrne's Mad World is a biography of Waugh that works outward from his close friendship with the Lygons of Madresfield. Mulvagh's Madresfield begins and ends with (unremarkable) chapters about Waugh; but it is essentially a fascinating history of Madresfield—a country house with a Tudor core and enveloping Neo-Gothic additions—and of the Lygon (earlier and in the USA, Ligon) family. The Lygons, who date from the Norman Conquest, have lived uninterruptedly at Madresfield since the sixteenth century. Because the family has been involved in most of the significant developments of the last four hundred years, their story illuminates every period of English history since Henry VIII. Family divisions over the Reformation; involvement in plots against Mary Tudor; the role of the house and family during the Civil War; a book written by a Lygon about Barbados that explains the wealth pouring into England from the sugar trade and slavery; a younger son's apprenticeship to the London Grocers Company (which provided money that saved the family); a disputed inheritance from a very distant connection, Jennens, which brought the Lygons sufficient wealth to buy (for £10,000) the Beauchamp earldom (the interminable legal wrangles over this inheritance inspired Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Dickens's Bleak House); patronage of the Arts and Crafts Movement, with its social implications, heavy financial backing for the Tractarians and deep involvement with Edward Elgar; late Victorian and Edwardian Liberal politics. A more knowledgeable reader might be unimpressed by all this historical information. I was already acquainted with most of the topics raised, but Mulvagh's revelations proved as riveting as they were enlightening.


OBJECTIVE
The aim was to analyse the accuracy of a hand dynamometer connected to a smartphone to assess RA disease activity through the measurement of handgrip strength (HGS).

METHODS
Eighty-two RA patients participated in this prospective study. Three types of HGS were assessed: power (Po), pinch (Pi) and tripod (T). An interactive mobile application was developed to capture grip measures. A unilinear regression analysis between HGS and DAS28 was performed. A multivariate regression analysis to identify independent variables related to HGS was also conducted.

RESULTS
Sixty-three patients (76.8%) were female. Mean age was 61.3 years. At baseline, a negative correlation between the three HGS measures and DAS28 score was found, as follows: Po, r = -0.65 (95% CI: -0.76, -0.51, P < 0.001); Pi, r= -0.42 (95% CI: -0.59, -0.23, P < 0.001); and T, r = -0.47 (95% CI: -0.63, -0.29, P < 0.001). In a longitudinal analysis of 32 patients, a negative correlation between ΔPo grip and ΔDAS28 was found (r = -0.76, 95% CI: -0.88, -0.56). Po grip was independently correlated with male sex (95% CI: 1.49, 4.14, P = 0.002), whereas variables inversely correlated with Po grip were disease duration (95% CI: -2.71, -1.34, P = 0.03), patient global assessment (95% CI: -2.41, -1.1, P < 0.001) and CRP level (95% CI: -3.56, -1.08, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
HGS assessed by a hand dynamometer connected to a smartphone represents an innovative health technology solution that could prompt the self-assessment of RA disease activity in an outpatient setting.


During a breakout session at the 2017 copyright conference, Kyle K. Courtney led a discussion focused on practical solutions to common copyright issues. Foremost among these is risk assessments, which involve judgments of risk versus reward. Kyle recommends taking reasonable steps to minimize risk through steps such as disclaimers, fair use, and identifying authorship. To combat copyright issues, copyright professionals must have proper awareness of each individual situation. Given the resources and skills available to librarians, Kyle advises that librarians have special abilities to handle issues such as orphan works. To make judgment calls, individuals must take information on a case-by-case basis. In addition to understanding individual objects concerning their copyright status, information professionals must also understand the different views taken by rights holders, as some are more open than others to use of the copyrighted object. Kyle also discussed what is copyrightable based on measures such as tangibility in a fixed medium and the somewhat unreliable "sweat of the brow" test. Kyle also gave useful tips such as utilizing 17 U.S. Code § 108(h) to copy works in their last 20 years of copyright terms without permission under certain circumstances. Kyle recommended continued exploration of potential solutions for copyright issues as new and novel issues arise.


Awards in the form of orders, medals, decorations, prizes, and titles are ubiquitous in monarchies and republics, private organizations, and not-for-profit and profit-oriented firms. Nevertheless, this kind of nonmaterial extrinsic incentive has been given little attention in the social sciences, including psychology. The demand for awards relies on an individual's desire for distinction, and the supply of awards is governed by the desire to motivate. The technique of analytic narratives is used to show that a number of empirically testable propositions about awards are consistent with observable data.


It has been estimated that over a billion people are using or learning English as a second or foreign language, and the numbers are growing not only for English but for other languages as well. These language learners provide a burgeoning market for tools that help identify and correct learners' writing errors. Unfortunately, the errors targeted by typical commercial proofreading tools do not include those aspects of a second language that are hardest to learn. This volume describes the types of constructions English language learners find most difficult: constructions containing prepositions, articles, and collocations. It provides an overview of the automated approaches that have been developed to identify and correct these and other classes of learner errors in a number of languages. Error annotation and system evaluation are particularly important topics in grammatical error detection because there are no commonly accepted standards. Chapters in the book describe the options avai able to researchers, recommend best practices for reporting results, and present annotation and evaluation schemes. The final chapters explore recent innovative work that opens new directions for research. It is the authors' hope that this volume will continue to contribute to the growing interest in grammatical error detection by encouraging researchers to take a closer look at the field and its many challenging problems.


This thesis is concerned with Local Government Unit Nongovernmental Organizations (LGU-NGOs) partnership in local governance in the Philippines as embodied in the 1987 Philippine Constitution and the Local Government Code of 1991. The main objective is to examine the most effective relationship between the LGU and the NGOs as well as where collaboration is most necessary. This is undertaken by experimentally evaluating the validity of four hypotheses on LGU-NGOs relations. The first hypothesis is that effective LGU-NGOs relationships are hardly felt or visibly seen despite the existing mechanisms. The second hypothesis is that opportunities for NGOs to participate are great; however, participation has not been realized. The third hypothesis examines whether larger LGUs are more effective in addressing the needs of their constituents, taking into consideration the presence of NGOs as conduits between the LGUs and the ordinary citizens. The fourth hypothesis examines whether larger LGUs are more effective in cooperating with NGOs because of the substantial resources and staff that they can utilize to reach out to them. In case studies of two LGUs in the Philippines, one larger and one smaller, the evidence largely verified the first two hypotheses while the last two hypotheses established a conclusion. First, it is found that NGOs have not participated at all in the planning process, although a number of NGOs have been involved in the implementation of programs, projects and activities (PPAs), ordinary citizens do not feel there is an LGU-NGO partnership. Second, the Local Special Bodies (LSBs) do not regularly conduct the mandated meetings, so that the NGOs have not participated in basic policy-making processes in the LGUs. Resources of NGOs do not indicate effective participation although the LGUs utilize the NGOs in the implementation of PPAs. Third, although the smaller LGU provided money to a number of NGOs, this did not ensure their participation, which shows that the NGOs were not accountable for the money they were given. As expressed by ordinary citizens, both the LGUs and the NGOs engage in patronage and influence peddling in providing services. Fourth, the size of the LGU does not indicate effective cooperation with NGOs. Although NGOs in the larger municipality have stronger views than in the smaller municipality, size of the NGOs does not determine effective


This is a terminal evaluation of a UN Environment/Global Environment Facility (GEF) project co-implemented with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project consisted of the Global Knowledge Management component and five country components in Albania, Chile, India, Lebanon and Mexico. The evaluation consists of the main evaluation report that is also informed by the country level evaluations. India component was evaluated in 2013 (report available at erc.undp.org) and the other country level components were evaluated by UN Environment Evaluation Office in 2016 to feed in the main evaluation (these country level evaluation reports are also here). The evaluation has two primary purposes: (i) provide evidence of results to meet accountability requirements, and (ii) promote operational improvement, learning and knowledge sharing through results and lessons learned among UN Environment, UNDP, GEF and other partners, especially in terms of co-implemented global projects.


Vacancy dynamics and ordering underpin the electrochemical functionality of complex oxides and strongly couple to their physical properties. In the field of the epitaxial thin films, where connection between chemistry and film properties can be most clearly revealed, the effects related to oxygen vacancies are attracting increasing attention. In this article, we report a direct, real-time, atomic level observation of the formation of oxygen vacancies in the epitaxial LaCoO3 thin films and heterostructures under the influence of the electron beam utilizing scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). In the case of LaCoO3/SrTiO3 superlattice, the formation of the oxygen vacancies is shown to produce quantifiable changes in the interatomic distances, as well as qualitative changes in the symmetry of the Co sites manifested as off-center displacements. The onset of these changes was observed in both the [100]pc and [110]pc orientations in real time. Additionally, annular bright field images directly show the formation of oxygen vacancy channels along [110]pc direction. In the case of 15 u.c. LaCoO3 thin film, we observe the sequence of events during beam-induced formation of oxygen vacancy ordered phases and find them consistent with similar processes in the bulk. Moreover, we record the dynamics of the nucleation, growth, and defect interaction at the atomic scale as these transformations happen. These results demonstrate that we can track dynamic oxygen vacancy behavior with STEM, generating atomic-level quantitative information on phase transformation and oxygen diffusion.


Lone-wolf terrorism is a growing concern for security and a puzzle for social science. We describe two very different cases of lone-wolf terrorism: a meek secretary in nineteenth century Russia who attacks a prison governor, and a criminal turned anti-abortion crusader in twenty-first century USA. These cases point to two explanations of how normal individuals can overcome the "free-rider problem" to undertake solo violence for a political cause. Strong Reciprocity establishes an evolutionary basis for human willingness to punish moral transgressors, even when the transgression is against someone else. Group Identification can enable self-sacrifice for the welfare of others, including actions against those who threaten the group. Discussion suggests that ideology, ideas of justice, and empathy may be more important for solo political action than for action embedded in radical groups or terrorist organizations.


Al-Qur'an is a book of guidance. Allah revealed her to explain to the people the things that can not be understood by human reason, as the essence of faith and rituals of the foundations of ethical and legal useful to regulate social interaction between human beings. The Qur'an also speaks of the universe, which includes everything that is in the heavens and the earth. Even more than a thousand verses that speak of it to prove the power, knowledge, and infinite wisdom of the creator who is capable of creating eliminate and restore the original natural kebentuk keep this feast. Her light will continue to burn for millions of years without outages, this is a result of the interaction of atoms in the star's known the term "process of fusion of atomic nuclei". Nature is now expanding. If we want to see his origin, should we go back to the past until we find the first material. This material has a very high energy intensity that makes the crisis, the first material that later exploded and turned into clouds of smoke. From the cloud of smoke that God created a vortex that collects a number of matter and energy around the center of gravity (vortex). Collection of materials and energy that accumulates in him until the power of His celestial body formed into multi-faceted. Big Bang Theory, which by empirical science is regarded as a fact, only a theory. Indication of this is already in the Koran 1400 years ago. This makes the Qur'an as a pioneer of this theory and provide a solid foundation for the Big Bang theory as a fact for their instructions in the Koran. On that basis, the universe was first a solid material (still -bersatu period), then the material is exploded (the period of separation), and then turned into a puff of smoke (smoke period). Scientists empirical claim that nature turns into a cloud of dust, while the Koran says, "Then, he headed to the sky and the (sky) was still in the form of smoke, and He said to it and to the earth, 'Come both of you, according to my commandments with obedient or forced. 'They said,' We came obediently. ' "(Fushshilat: 11). Keywords: Universe, Perspectives Qur'an and Hadith


Bench press throws using a Smith machine are often used for assessment and training of upper body power. Concentric only bench press throws (CON-BT) provide important information on an individual's ability to produce force from a static start. Smith machines often utilize a counter-balance weight system to reduce the net load on the barbell; however, it is not known how counter-balance weight affects measurements of performance during a CON-BT. PURPOSE: To examine the effect of a counter-balance weight on CON-BT performance measurements. METHODS: 24 men (age: 23 ± 3 years, height: 179 ± 6 cm, mass: 91 ± 17 kg, bench press 1-repetition maximum [1RM]: 107 ± 18 kg) performed 2 sets of 2 repetitions of CON-BT at 30% of their 1RM using a no counter-balanced (NCB) and a counter-balanced (CB) Smith machine. Total duration, peak power, peak force, and peak velocity were measured using a linear accelerometer attached to the barbell; peak ground reaction force (GRF) was measured using a force plate. For each condition, data from the repetition with the highest peak power was used for further analyses. Peak EMG was measured for the right pectoral, deltoid and triceps muscles and normalized using peak EMG in the 1RM. RESULTS: Measurements for peak barbell power (NCB: 1169 ± 260 W, CB: 938 ± 262 W) and force (NCB: 695 ± 129 N, CB: 577 ± 134 N) were significantly greater (p<0.05) for NCB compared to CB. The total duration of CON-BT was shorter for NCB (0.62 ± 0.41 s) compared to CB (0.78 ± 0.50 s). The peak GRF showed a trend (p<0.10) for being lower for NCB (884 ± 213 N] compared to CB [912 ± 190 N). Peak EMG and peak velocity were unaffected by the use of counter-balance weight. CONCLUSION: The use of a CB Smith machine reduced barbell performance measurements (peak power and peak force) but increased the peak GRF during a CON-BT. A counter-balance weight becomes ineffective and the net external load increases during the CON-BT when the barbell accelerates faster than the gravitational constant pulls on the counter weight, thus explaining the lower performance measurements found for CB.


How to Transform Your Organization with Analytics: Insider Lessons from IBMs Pioneering Experience Analytics is not just a technology: It is a better way to do business. Using analytics, you can systematically inform human judgment with data-driven insight. This doesnt just improve decision-making: It also enables greater innovation and creativity in support of strategy. Your transformation wont happen overnight; however, it is absolutely achievable, and the rewards are immense. This book demystifies your analytics journey by showing you how IBM has successfully leveraged analytics across the enterprise, worldwide. Three of IBMs pioneering analytics practitioners share invaluable real-world perspectives on what does and doesnt work and how you can start or accelerate your own transformation. This book provides an essential framework for becoming a smarter enterprise and shows through 31 case studies how IBM has derived value from analytics throughout its business. Coverage Includes Creating a smarter workforce through big data and analytics More effectively optimizing supply chain processes Systematically improving financial forecasting Managing financial risk, increasing operational efficiency, and creating business value Reaching more B2B or B2C customers and deepening their engagement Optimizing manufacturing and product management processes Deploying your sales organization to increase revenue and effectiveness Achieving new levels of excellence in services delivery and reducing risk Transforming IT to enable wider use of analytics Measuring the immeasurable and filling gaps in imperfect data Whatever your industry or role, whether a current or future leader, analytics can make you smarter and more competitive. Analytics Across the Enterprise shows how IBM did it--and how you can, too. Learn more about IBM Analytics


One of the most important subjects of hydraulic engineering is the reliable estimation of the transverse distribution in rectangular channel of bed and wall shear stresses. This study makes use of the Tsallis entropy, Genetic Programming (GP) and (ANFIS) methods to assess the shear stress distribution (SSD) in rectangular channel. To evaluate the results of the Tsallis entropy, GP and ANFIS models, laboratory observations were used in which shear stress was measured using an optimized Preston tube. This is then used to measure the SSD in various aspect ratios in the rectangular channel. To investigate the shear stress percentage, 10 data series with a total of 112 different data for were used. The results of the sensitivity analysis show that the most influential parameter for the SSD in smooth rectangular channel is the dimensionless parameter B/H, Where the transverse co-ordinate is B, and the flow depth is H. With the parameters (b/B), (B/H) for the bed and (z/H), (B/H) for the wall as inputs, the modeling of the GP was better than the other one. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the use of GP and ANFIS algorithms is more effective in estimating shear stress in smooth rectangular channels than the Tsallis entropy-based equations.


The mid-infrared wavelength regime 3.5 – 4.1μm, known as the astronomical L' band is of special interest for exoplanet hunting. Mid-IR compatible photonic technologies are an enabling platform for a range of critical observational science using compact instruments on the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes. Pupil remapping interferometry is a technique in which subapertures of the telescope pupil (2D) are reformatted into a 1D linear array. This can be done efficiently using 3D photonics. One of the most important techniques to fabricate 3D photonic devices in glass is ultrafast laser inscription. However, common silicate glasses are opaque above 2–2.2 μm and therefore not useful for the fabrication of waveguides at mid-infrared wavelengths. Here we present a study of mid-infrared transparent materials that are compatible with the ultrafast laser inscription technique. This study will inform the development of mid-infrared photonic devices for future exoplanetary discovery.


Cyclops (cyclic-operations) Tensor Framework (CTF) 1 is a distributed library for tensor contractions. CTF aims to scale high-dimensional tensor contractions such as those required in the Coupled Cluster (CC) electronic structure method to massively-parallel supercomputers. The framework preserves tensor structure by subdividing tensors cyclically, producing a regular parallel decomposition. An internal virtualization layer provides completely general mapping support while maintaining ideal load balance. The mapping framework decides on the best mapping for each tensor contraction at run-time via explicit calculations of memory usage and communication volume. CTF employs a general redistribution kernel, which transposes tensors of any dimension between arbitrary distributed layouts, yet touches each piece of data only once. Sequential symmetric contractions are reduced to matrix multiplication calls via tensor index transpositions and partial unpacking. The user-level interface elegantly expresses arbitrary-dimensional generalized tensor contractions in the form of a domain specific language. We demonstrate performance of CC with single and double excitations on 8192 nodes of Blue Gene/Q and show that CTF outperforms NWChem on Cray XE6 supercomputers for benchmarked systems.


Various classification algorithms became available due to a surge of interdisciplinary research interests in the areas of data mining and knowledge discovery. We develop a statistical meta-model which compares the classification performances of several algorithms in terms of data characteristics. This empirical model is expected to aid decision making processes of finding the best classification tool in the sense of providing the minimum classification error among alternatives.


Abstract. The validity of the Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI) product from the SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CartograpHY (SCIAMACHY) is discussed. The operational SCIAMACHY AAI product suffers from calibration errors in the reflectance as measured by SCIAMACHY and neglect of polarisation effects in the AAI computational algorithm. Therefore, the AAI product was recalculated, compensating for the errors, with reflectance data from the start of measurements of SCIAMACHY until December 2004. Appropriate correction factors were determined for the UV to correct for the radiometric error in the SCIAMACHY reflectances. The algorithm was provided with LookUp Tables in which a good representation of polarisation effects was incorporated, as opposed to the LookUp Tables of the operational product, in which polarisation effects were not accounted for. The results are presented, their validity discussed, and compared to the operational product and independent AAI data from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). The AAI is very sensitive to calibration errors and can be used to monitor calibration errors and changes. The AAI is sensitive to sunglint and a correction flag used for the AAI is presented. From 2004 onwards, the new SCIAMACHY AAI is suitable to add to the continuation of the long-term AAI record. Important changes in the long-term AAI record due to instrument and algorithm changes are highlighted. Recommendations are given for improvement of the operational AAI product.


The COVID19 crisis has hit labor markets. School and child-care closures have put families with children in challenging situations. We look at Germany and quantify the macroeconomic importance of working parents. We document that 26 percent of the German workforce have children aged 14 or younger and estimate that 11 percent of workers and 8 percent of all working hours are affected if schools and child-care centers remain closed. In most European countries, the share of affected working hours is even higher. Policies to restart the economy have to accommodate the concerns of these families.


Down-regulation (degradation) of cell surface proteins within the lysosomal lumen depends on the function of the multivesicular body (MVB) sorting pathway. The function of this pathway requires the class E vacuolar protein sorting (Vps) proteins. Of the class E Vps proteins, both the ESCRT-I complex (composed of the class E proteins Vps23, 28, and 37) and Vps27 (mammalian hepatocyte receptor tyrosine kinase substrate, Hrs) have been shown to interact with ubiquitin, a signal for entry into the MVB pathway. We demonstrate that activation of the MVB sorting reaction is dictated largely through interactions between Vps27 and the endosomally enriched lipid species phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate via the FYVE domain (Fab1, YGL023, Vps27, and EEA1) of Vps27. ESCRT-I then physically binds to Vps27 on endosomal membranes via a domain within the COOH terminus of Vps27. A peptide sequence in this domain, PTVP, is involved in the function of Vps27 in the MVB pathway, the efficient endosomal recruitment of ESCRT-I, and is related to a motif in HIV-1 Gag protein that is capable of interacting with Tsg101, the mammalian homologue of Vps23. We propose that compartmental specificity for the MVB sorting reaction is the result of interactions of Vps27 with phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and ubiquitin. Vps27 subsequently recruits/activates ESCRT-I on endosomes, thereby facilitating sorting of ubiquitinated MVB cargoes.


My grandfather, Fred L. Tyson, was a subject of the U.S. Public Health Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. The Syphilis Study remains the most infamous biomedical research study conducted in this country. Like many of the other 300 men in the study, my grandfather was an uneducated sharecropper. Many of the protocols and ethical standards that are in place today to protect human research subjects are a direct result of the abuse of power, loss of life, and breach in trust that occurred during this thirty-five year study. My grandfather was fortunate to be a study survivor who went on to live a long life after his involvement in the study. As a child, I enjoyed listening to his stories about growing up poor in Tuskegee, in the early 1900s. Often times, he would end his stories by offering words of wisdom and lessons he learned from past life experiences. I vividly remember his colorful stories and how they would invoke my imagination as a girl. Today my heightened sense of compassion for impoverished communities and the need to explore past and current socioeconomic trends and their impact on human rights is due in part to my grandfather's stories. Societal ills that continue to plague our world such as unequal health status and education attainment, poor living conditions, and oppression through violence are sustained through a plethora of wide reaching issues. Many of these challenges are created and sustained by longstanding root causes. Some of these complex determinants have been in place since the earth's earliest civilizations. Their vigour and continued existence do not suggest to me that solutions, cures, or common ground cannot be discovered. They signify the need for the development of multifaceted approaches driven by research to cultivate social change. The broad overarching goals of research are to identify errors to previous thoughts, solutions to existing problems, and explanations for unanswered questions. Research also provides estimations or projections for what may lie ahead. The field of research will continue to be a catalyst for change and progress as many of the world's questions biologically, philosophically, and socially, have yet to be answered. While the need for research continues, many challenges exist in unleashing its full power to influence or create social change. Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut once said, "In theory, theory and practice are the same thing. In practice they're not." Not only does this quote make the most compelling case for examining how we as researchers and practitioners dialogue with one another on the same issue, it highlights the ever pressing need for us to strengthen the translation of research findings to practitioners and beyond. Since data and trends are the most pressing and significant factors that guide the creation and analysis of anything from effective medical therapies to environmental policies; it is not surprising that researchers, from all fields, play a dynamic and critical role in improving human rights. The more difficult questions ask how to: ... translate and disseminate research findings such as unequal access and racism to world audiences to strengthen momentum for a more humane world; ... form a more unified bond between researchers and practitioners that celebrates differences while allowing both research and practice methods to be made malleable based on research and practice recommendations; . …


This study investigates the predictability of outlook hog price forecasts released by Iowa State University relative to alternative market and time-series forecasts. The findings suggest that predictive performance of the outlook hog price forecasts can be improved substantially. Under RMSE, VARs estimated with Bayesian procedures that allow for some degree of flexibility and model averaging consistently outperform Iowa outlook estimates at all forecast horizons. Evidence from the encompassing tests, which are highly stringent tests of forecast performance, indicates that many price forecasts do provide incremental information relative to Iowa. Simple combinations of these models and outlook forecasts are able to reduce forecast errors by economically significant levels. The value of the forecast information is highest at the first horizon and then gradually declines.


Small multidisciplinary geoscience-engineering teams of 5 to 10 professionals searched for large volumes of low risk reserves in poorly performing oil fields. Between 1981-1996 over 350 mature fields in the Permian and Gulf of Mexico basins were scanned looking for fields to purchase. Forty-six fields were purchased. The purchased fields include those producing by (1) primary recovery without secondary recovery potential, (2) primary recovery with supplemental recovery potential and (3) those undergoing waterflooding. Finding large volumes of low risk, presently non-producing reserves within fields involves several steps. First, the team searches in reservoir systems that appear more massive and homogeneous than they are. Second, the team scans the geoscience and engineering data to quickly estimate original oil-in-place, percent recovery, remaining reserves and potential bypassed reserves. Third, the team makes an economic analysis including recovery cost estimates for the volume of missed low and high-risk reserves. Candidate fields for purchase all have new low to moderate risk reserves amounting to at least 5% of the cumulative reserves already produced. Forty-one fields are economically successful with an after-tax rate of return (ATROR) of 12 to 41% (average 21%) and three fields made 5-7% ATROR. Two fields are economic failures. Payout for the 44 economically successful fields ranged from 11 months to 5.8 years.


What determines the recidivism of ex-combatants from armed conflicts? In postconflict settings around the world, there has been growing interest in reintegration programs to prevent ex-combatants from returning to illegal activities or to armed groups, yet little is known about who decides to "go bad." We evaluate explanations for recidivism related to combatant experiences and common criminal motives by combining data from a representative survey of ex-combatants of various armed groups in Colombia with police records of observed behaviors that indicate which among the respondents returned to belligerent or illegal activities. Consistent with a theory of recidivism being shaped by driving and restraining factors, the results suggest that factors such as antisocial personality traits, weak family ties, lack of educational attainment, and the presence of criminal groups are most highly correlated with various kinds of recidivism and hold implications for programs and policies to successfully reintegrate ex-combatants into society.


We present self-consistent calculations coupling numerical hydrodynamics simulations of collapsing pre-stellar cores and stellar evolution models of accreting objects. We analyse the main impact of consistent accretion history on the evolution and lithium depletion of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. These consistent models confirm the generation of a luminosity spread in Herzsprung-Russell diagrams at ages $\sim$ 1-10 Myr. They also confirm that early accretion can produce objects with abnormal Li depletion, as found in a previous study that was based on arbitrary accretion rates. The results strengthen that objects with anomalously high level of Li depletion in young clusters should be extremely rare. We also find that early phases of burst accretion can produce coeval models of similar mass with a range of different Li surface abundances, and in particular with Li-excess compared to the predictions of non-accreting counterparts. This result is due to a subtle competition between the effect of burst accretion and its impact on the central stellar temperature, the growth of the stellar radiative core and the accretion of fresh Li from the accretion disk. Only consistent models could reveal such a subtle combination of effects. This new result could explain the recent, puzzling observations of Li-excess of fast rotators in the young cluster NGC 2264. Present self-consistent accreting models are available in electronic form.


My independent study project analyzes how through employer relationships with their domestic workers, whether maternalism, personalism, distant hierarchy, or business relationship, social statuses and structural inequalities are reproduced within paid domestic labor in the Netherlands. Using Pei-Chia Lan's concept of "boundary work" and Mary Romero's employer typologies as theoretical tools I analyzed four interviews with native Dutch, female employers, and three with immigrant domestic workers. Along with providing an overview of paid domestic work within the Netherlands, my analysis focused employers perceptions of the "Other;" conceptualization of personal relationships, and conceptualization of labor relationships. This research found that employers fell along a continuum, often expressing attitudes maternalism, personalism, distant hierarchy, and business relationship. Yet, within each, the employer was able to reproduce her own identity through the "Otherization" of her domestic worker and within the employer-employee relationship, social hierarchies were reproduced and maintained through daily acts of differentialization, including linguistics, gift giving, working conditions, etc.


Why does a certain metropolitan area grow more than another? The answer to this question has evaded much of the considerable body of scholarship on the topic. One problem may be that some of the frameworks that drive empirical research in this field tend be based on ad hoc combinations of explanatory factors, ranging from natural climate to business climate to land and labor costs. Theoretical approaches emphasize differences in economic specialization: some activities have higher rates of growth than others, and this translates into divergence in medium-term rates of inter-urban growth and income. But specialization itself needs to be explained. International economics has adopted theoretical frameworks for explaining different growth rates and income levels among countries involving multiple causes and their potentially recursive interactions. Three main forces are at the heart of this literature: specialization, labor force and human capital issues, and institutions. This framework can be fruitfully adapted to the analysis of metropolitan growth and change. The thorniest aspect of doing so is to consider recursive relationships among the three in a dynamic model, where specialization, human capital and institutions are endogenous to the explanation, and where causality can reverse over time in complex sequences. In this paper, we lay out the elements of such an approach and argue that it could serve as the basis for a new generation of research on differences in metropolitan growth processes.


In this study, we consider a one-period financial market with a monopolistic dealer/broker and an infinite number of investors. While the dealer who trades on his own account (with proprietary trading) simultaneously sets both the transaction fee and the asset price, the broker who brings investors' orders to the market (with no proprietary trading) sets only the transaction fee, given that the price is determined according to the market-clearing condition among investors. We analyze the impact of proprietary trading on the asset price, transaction fee, trading volume, and the welfare of investors. Results that proprietary trading increases both the trading volume and the transaction fee, and improves social welfare. Our study effectively demonstrates how proprietary trading affects market equilibrium and welfare of investors.


Objectives: To determine the validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in order to assess calcium intake in women. Design: Longitudinal and prospective study. Location: Homes of Nutrition EAP students' family environment in Lima. Participants: Women volunteers 30 to 50 year-old. Methods: Seventy-eight women volunteers 30 to 50 year-old were trained to keep food records (REC) for 7 days in two distinct periods four months apart. In the second period a FFQ survey with 24 food and preparations in normal portions was applied. Correlation was determined with Spearman rho and Kappa coefficient, as well as FFQ sensitivity and specificity; we present a Bland and Altman graphic. Main outcome measures: Milligrams of calcium consumed by REC and FFQ. Results: Mean calcium intake for 14 days obtained by 24 h record was 415 mg ± 130.4 mg for FFQ1 and 490 mg ± 338.3 mg for FFQ2. Kappa coefficient was 0.247, low, but significant; 98.7% and 76.9% of women had inadequate intake based on 14 records of 24 h and FFQ, respectively. Sensitivity was 77.9%, specificity 100% and positive predictive value 100%. Conclusions: Correlation coefficients obtained were low, but due to the high incidence of inadequate calcium ingestion the format employed had the ability to detect people with poor consumption.


Introduction Calcium-D-glucarate is the calcium salt of D-glucaric acid, a substance produced naturally in small amounts by mammals, including humans. Glucaric acid is also found in many fruits and vegetables with the highest concentrations to be found in oranges, apples, grapefruit, and cruciferous vegetables. Oral supplementation of calcium-Dglucarate has been shown to inhibit beta-glucuronidase, an enzyme produced by colonic microflora and involved in Phase II liver detoxification. Elevated beta-glucuronidase activity is associated with an increased risk for various cancers, particularly hormone-dependent cancers such as breast, prostate, and colon cancers. Other potential clinical applications of oral calcium-D-glucarate include regulation of estrogen metabolism and as a lipid-lowering agent.


Substance abuse during early motherhood has become a significant problem and has led to accelerated efforts to develop specific treatment facilities for these mothers and children. Despite the often intensive treatment efforts in residential settings, there is surprisingly little evidence of their efficacy for enhancing the quality of caregiving. The situation of these mother-child pairs is exceptionally complex and multilevel, and has to be taken into account in the content and structuring of treatment. Intensive work in the "here and now" focusing on the mother-child relationship from pregnancy onwards in an effort to enhance maternal reflective capacity and mindedness is considered a key element for better treatment prognosis, in terms of both abstinence and quality of parenting. Pioneering work with such a focus is described in this article.


Many features of the behavior of luminescent sulphides can be correlated by means of a mechanism based on the energy-band theory of the solid insulator. It is imagined that after excitation, which is essentially an ionization of an activator atom, the dissociated electron is highly likely to be trapped and held localized in a discrete energy level in the forbidden region, recombining with an ion and emitting the characteristic luminescence only after it has been freed from this trapped state by thermal excitation or other agencies. This picture, with appropriate modifications, is also useful in explaining the properties of silicate phosphors.


A new era for our species started in 1945: with the terrifying demonstration of the power of the atom bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, the potential global catastrophic consequences of human technology could no longer be ignored. Within the field of global catastrophic and existential risk, nuclear war is one of the more iconic scenarios, although significant uncertainties remain about its likelihood and potential destructive magnitude.2 The risk posed to humanity from nuclear weapons is not static. In tandem with geopolitical and cultural changes, technological innovations could have a significant impact on how the risk of the use of nuclear weapons changes over time. Increasing attention has been given in the literature to the impact of digital technologies, and in particular autonomy and machine learning, on nuclear risk. Most of this attention has focused on 'first-order' effects: the introduction of technologies into nuclear command-and-control and weapon-delivery systems.3 This essay focuses instead on higher-order effects: those that stem from the introduction of such technologies into more peripheral systems, with a more indirect (but no less real) effect on nuclear risk. It first describes and categorizes the new threats introduced by these technologies (in section I). It then considers policy responses to address these new threats (section II).


With all of the recent publicity over novel psychoactive substances it is easy to forget that other easily available intoxicants can be found.
Dimethyl ether (DME), also known as methylether, is an extremely flammable volatile organic
compound with chemical structure CH3OCH3. This ether is a by-product of methanol production and
is a colourless gas or liquid with ether like odour. Dimethyl ether has been used as a fuel, an aerosol propellant, a refrigerant and in 'freeze' sprays. Dimethyl ether is an asphyxiant, but in liquid form it
can act as a refrigerant. When inhaled, it is recognised to produce symptoms of euphoria, agitation,
headache, and slurred speech (1,2).
Very little is known about the acute or chronic effects of dimethyl ether in humans. The UK shortterm
exposure limit is 500 ppm and the long-term exposure limit is 400 ppm (3).
Recently the presence of the volatile substance dimethyl ether was identified in brain tissue of a 38
year old man with history of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Due to the lipid
solubility of dimethylether they can easily cross lipid membranes and distribute to well perfused
organs such as the brain (4). The body was in a moderate state of decomposition surrounded with a
number of aerosol cans (Muscle " freeze" spray). Dimethyl ether was found in combination with
ethanol in brain and other prescribed drugs (Gabapentin & Trazadone) in skeletal muscle. Due to the
extensive putrefaction seen in the specimen, some if not all the ethanol detected could be a product
of this process.
Dimethyl ether, as a refrigerant and if sprayed into the mouth/throat, could stimulate the branch of
the vagus nerve at the back of the throat. Stimulation of the vagus nerve causes the heart to slow.
Over stimulation could cause the heart to stop. Myocardial ischemia caused by coronary
vasospasm has also been hypothesised as a mechanism of death (4). As an asphyxiant its effects would
include depression of the breathing and conscious levels.
Taking into consideration of the history, circumstances surrounding the death and the toxicological
findings, death was attributed to volatile substance abuse. The medical community should be aware
of the availability of volatile abuse of Muscle "freeze" spray containing dimethyl within the UK


ABSTRACT The idea of the computational sublime has been introduced into discourse within the generative electronic arts. The author proposes that, for an artwork to exploit the sublime, the form and context in which the mapping of computational process occurs are crucial. He suggests that digital-analogue hybrids within an urban setting allow engagement with a wider audience and the capacity for the work to be surveyed over multiple timescales. To this end, a framework for the design of kinetic architectural skins is presented for artists to consider as a potential resource for collaboration.


Alternative cancer treatments have been popular in many countries around the world regardless of their level of social and economic development. This was also the case for Soviet oncology: Soviet patients often turned to alternative methods of cancer treatment instead of official medicine. Scholars have suggested that this was because oncology was a new field of medicine. In its early years (1930s–1950s) oncology had in its arsenal many mutually exclusive theories about the nature of malignant tumors and low effectiveness of treatment. A consequence of this was mistrust among patients and their interest in alternative medicine. Is this explanation suitable for the Soviet case? Are there any peculiarities in the Soviet case that point to uniqueness of the formation of the Soviet oncological system?  To address these questions, I analyzed archival documents (diaries and memoires) and data from secondary sources, including available statistics and specialized medical and nonfiction literature on cancer treatments. As the primary theoretical framework I used the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of mistrust. I argue that the Soviet oncological system was founded on the following principles: (1) mass diagnostics; (2) active health education, which convinced people of the curability and effectiveness of medical treatments; and (3) concealment of the diagnosis from patients. To implement these principles, Soviet authorities created a unique infrastructure: dispensaries, health education centers, teaching aids, and popular science literature. However, despite the declared successes, Soviet oncology had low effectiveness and high mortality rates. It worked like this: a low degree of curability as a result of hiding the diagnosis, in the context of widespread education and attempts to recruit people into the diagnostic system. The result was a steady mistrust among patients. The key concept for understanding the peculiarities of the Soviet cancer system is infrastructure. Soviet oncological infrastructure consisted of several elements: diagnostic infrastructure, education infrastructure, and concealment and exposure infrastructure. These elements, working together, form infrastructure of distrust. The material substrate of the Soviet cancer system, its infrastructure, itself is the basis for the production of mistrust, making any attempts to change the system impossible.
Article in Russian
DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2020-12-3-126-149


Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to behave differently towards strangers based only on whether they belong to the ingroup or the outgroup. It is a widespread phenomenon that can be triggered by arbitrary cues, but the origins of which are not clearly understood. In a recent simulation model by Hammond and Axelrod, an ingroup bias evolves in the prisoners' dilemma game. However, it will be argued here that the model does little to advance our understanding of ethnocentrism. The model assumes a spatial structure in which agents interact only with their immediate neighbourhood, populated mostly by clones, and the marker becomes an approximate cue of whether the partner is one. It will be shown that agents with an ingroup bias are successful compared to unconditional co-operators since they only exclude non-clones, but are outcompeted by less error-prone kin identifiers. Thus, the results of the simulations can be explained by a simple form of kin selection. These findings illustrate how spatial assumptions can alter a model to the extent that it no longer describes the phenomenon under study.


Abstract Reconstructing SE Asia in the Cenozoic is dependent on being able to model three major tectonic events and their consequences. They are the collision of India with Eurasia, the rotational history of the Philippine Sea plate and the ongoing collision of Australia with eastern Indonesia. Models of the Eocene India-Eurasia collision imply extrusion along major strike-slip faults or crustal thickening and block rotation. Kinematic modelling of the present day tectonics of central Asia indicates rotations and strike-slip faulting and an eastward displacement of crust. Prior to middle Miocene time tectonic activity was closely associated with the collision zone and extrusion of Indochina was supposed to have occurred. Analysis of the volume of the topography formed by the collision indicates eastward displacement and the loss of some crust by expulsion or into the mantle. Palaeomagnetic measurements have found northward displacement of Tibet and strong clockwise rotation east of the eastern syntaxis but unequivocal evidence of southward displacement is rare. Large Palaeogene to early Neogene displacements on strike-slip faults have been documented and related with confidence to the rotations that formed at least the Oligocene South China Sea floor. Early Oligocene docking of the Indoburman Flysch belt south of the eastern syntaxis is difficult to explain in extrusion models. Whether the rotations that have been documented are a response by internal deformation or block rotation is unresolved, as is the amount of extrusion of SE Asia to the south. In the eastern region, rotation and associated northward motion of the Philippine SEa plate as it developed puts constraints on possible models because of a maintained close proximity of its southern margin to the northern edge of the Australian craton. Assembling of continental fragments now in the Banda Sea and derived from eastern New Guinea appears to have occurred by Late Cretaceous time. Formation of the Banda arc may have isolated the Banda Sea from the Australia plate then collision of the Australian margin possibly rotated the Banda Sea counter-clockwise. Although westward movement of the Philippine Sea plate relative to Australia commenced in the early Miocene, convergent left-lateral shear was not possible until the late Miocene thus limiting westward tectonic transport of terranes and the transmission of the shear into the region west of the Banda Sea.


Abstract Chapter 4 of the Declaration Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council marks a decisive turn of the relations between Catholics and Jews. Numerous books and articles have tried to discuss the application of this declaration 50 years after its proclamation by Pope Paul VI. on October 28, 1965, to take stock. Nostra Aetate has also been recorded by Orthodox theologians, as some articles attest. After skimming the initiated implementation of this chapter through the ensuing Jewish-Catholic dialogue, we will introduce the Jewish Orthodox. We will distinguish the Judeo-Christian dialogue at the universal level and at the local level. For the Jewish-Catholic dialogue at the local level, we will examine the situation in France and for the Jewish-Orthodox dialogue the situation in Romania. In view of the connection between theology and history, we will mention not only the texts related to this dialogue, but also some events that have favored or slowed it down.


Safety applications developed for vehicular environments require every vehicle to periodically broadcast its status information (beacon) to all other vehicles, thereby avoiding the risk of car accidents in the road. Due to the high requirements on timing and reliability posed by traffic safety applications, the current IEEE 802.11p standard, which uses a random access Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, faces difficulties to support timely and reliable data dissemination in vehicular environments where no acknowledgement or RTS/CTS (Request-to-Send/Clear-to-Send) mechanisms are adopted. In this paper, we propose the Dynamic Token-Based MAC (DTB-MAC) protocol. It implements a token passing approach on top of a random access MAC protocol to prevent channel contention as much as possible, thereby improving the reliability of safety message transmissions. Our proposed protocol selects one of the neighbouring nodes as the next transmitter; this selection accounts for the need to avoid beacon lifetime expiration. Therefore, it automatically offers retransmission opportunities to allow vehicles to successfully transmit their beacons before the next beacon is generated whenever time and bandwidth are available. Based on simulation experiments, we show that the DTB-MAC protocol can achieve better performance than IEEE 802.11p in terms of channel utilization and beacon delivery ratio for urban scenarios.


Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) becomes attractive recently for random noise attenuation because of its convenient implementation and ability in dealing with non-stationary seismic data. In this paper, we summarize the existing use of EMD in seismic data denoising and introduce a general hybrid scheme which combines f???x EMD with a dipping-events retrieving operator. The novel hybrid scheme can achieve a better denoising performance compared with the conventional f???x EMD and selected dipping event retriever. We demonstrate the strong horizontal-preservation capability of f???x EMD that makes the EMD based hybrid approach attractive. When f???x EMD is applied to a seismic profile, all the horizontal events will be preserved, while leaving few dipping events and random noise in the noise section, which can be dealt with easily by applying a dipping-events retrieving operator to a specific region for preserving the useful dipping signal. This type of incomplete hybrid approach is termed a selective hybrid approach. Two synthetic and one post-stack field data examples demonstrate a better performance of the proposed approach.


In this deeply considered meditation on aging in Western culture, Jan Baars argues that, in today's world, living longer does not necessarily mean living better. He contends that there has been an overall loss of respect for aging, to the point that understanding and "dealing with" aging people has become a process focused on the decline of potential and the advance of disease rather than on the accumulation of wisdom and the creation of new skills. To make his case, Baars compares and contrasts the works of such modern-era thinkers as Foucault, Heidegger, and Husserl with the thought of Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Cicero, and other Ancient and Stoic philosophers. He shows how people in the classical period-less able to control health hazards - had a far better sense of the provisional nature of living, which led to a philosophical and religious emphasis on cultivating the art of living and the idea of wisdom. This is not to say that modern society's assessments of aging are insignificant, but they do need to balance an emphasis on the measuring of age with the concept of "living in time." Gerontologists, philosophers, and students will find Baars' discussion to be a powerful, perceptive conversation starter.


This essay focuses on Francesco Vito (1902–1968), one of the most important Italian economists and a contributor to an extensive, thorough debate in Catholic social thinking, a debate at times accompanied and followed by exacting and solid experience in the real world, in an effort to turn into action the mediation between the Gospel and history proposed by Catholic social thinking. Economists made that effort under the influence of what could be regarded as the last stage of a tradition that was already present in the culture of economic matters and behavior and had previously been expressed as the preoccupation of Catholic intellectuals and politicians with the novelty of "modern" phenomena. It was a continuation but, of course, a renewed one. This essay—mainly dealing with Vito; Giuseppe Toniolo (1845–1918), one of Vito's key mentors; and Luigi L. Pasinetti (b. 1930), one of Vito's most important students—emphasizes the basic difference that Vito conceives between faith and religion, on the one hand, and between the importance of the documents of the authoritative official social Magisterium of the Catholic Church, on the other—which cannot be disregarded or underestimated—and the historical relevance of the debates and the intellectual and factual work preceding and following those debates. This cross-analysis, which takes into account both sides of the question, that is, both the solid faith of people who see themselves as belonging to the cultural framework of Catholic moral teaching and their secular nature as people engaged in temporal affairs who order these according to the plan of God and live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life—in our case, economists by profession—is a challenging subject for a historian of economic thought.


This paper evaluates investment strategies that exploit the deviations from theoretical price parity in a sample of 12 dual-listed companies (DLCs) in the period 1980--2002. We show that simple trading rules produce abnormal returns of up to almost 10% per annum adjusted for systematic risk, transaction costs, and margin requirements. However, arbitrageurs face uncertainty about the horizon at which prices will converge and deviations from parity are very volatile. As a result, DLC arbitrage is characterized by substantial idiosyncratic return volatility and a high incidence of large negative returns, which are likely to impede arbitrage. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.


Foot drop is the inability to voluntarily dorsiflex the ankle during the swing phase of gait and is usually caused by weakness and damages of the peroneal nerve. The consequences of the foot drop include the decreasing of gait quality, the limiting of mobility, the increasing of falling risk, and great increasing of energy expenditure during walking. Firstly biosignal sensors are used in the drop foot stimulator to detect foot movements. Then the surface drop foot stimulator produces a predefined stimulation profile to the peroneal nerve or tibialis anterial to elicit a dorsiflexion of the foot synchronized with the swing phase of gait to lift the foot. This paper reviewed the fundamentals and current researches of drop foot stimulators. Moreover, the development trends of the closed loop drop foot stimulator were also discussed in the paper.


ATTENDING TO PRESENCE: A STUDY OF JOHN DUNS SCOTUS' ACCOUNT OF SENSE COGNITION Amy F. Whitworth, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2010 This project is guided and motivated by the question concerning the nature of the phantasm as that which mediates between sensation and intellection in John Duns Scotus' account of cognition. Scotus embraces Aristotle's claim that the intellect cannot think without the phantasm. The phantasm is in a corporeal organ, yet the immaterial intellect must act with it to produce an intelligible species. In this project I examine the critical elements of Scotus' cognitive theory in order to understand the nature of the phantasm. In the first chapter I discuss key elements of Aristotle's metaphysics and give a close, textual reading of De Anima guided by his claim that the relationship of the body and soul is highly specific. I then focus on his claim in De Anima 2.12 that sensation involves the reception of the sensible form without the matter. In the second chapter, I discuss Scotus' key theological notions that guide and inform his cognitive project. The beatific vision requires the presence of the divine essence in its own existence to the intellect. As the highest cognitive experience, the beatific vision is definitive of all cognitive experience making the presence of the object to the cognitive faculty of central importance. The discussion of the incarnation shows that the world is sacralized and thus, is a worthy object of cognitive attention in itself. In the third chapter, I discuss Scotus' understanding of the body-soul relationship focusing on his notion of person to both secure the unity of the human being and to ground the mediation between sensation and intellection. In the fourth chapter, I first discuss Aquinas' claim that sensation requires a spiritual change. While Scotus' account is in many respects the same as Aquinas', Scotus does not maintain that sensation is primarily passive and is thus, able to account for cognitive attention by way of his understanding of the unity of the sense organ, immanent actions, and sensation as intuitive cognition. What emerges in this discussion is Scotus' particular understanding of an intentio by which the nature of the phantasm can be understood.


A new iurid species, Protoiurus kumlutasi sp. nov. is described from the Hidirellez Cave, located in the coastal southwestern Antalya Province, Turkey. This species was collected both inside and at the entrance of the cave, and does not exhibit any troglomorphic characteristics. Its closest relative is P. kraepelini , which shares the distinctive shape of pedipalp chela in mature males. The new species can be distinguished from P. kraepelini , however, by its hemispermatophore, which conforms to subtype 1a . Additional hemispermatophores were analyzed from several specimens of P. kraepelini collected in close proximity to its type locality, further endorsing existence of unique subtype 1b in this species. The description of the new species brings the number of species in the genus Protoiurus to six.


Abstract Innovative fuel design measures to attain a much higher burnup than that obtained using the conventional concept were investigated for a fast reactor (FR) metal fuel. Considering the typical mechanism of metal fuel degradation, three innovative design measures were proposed: (a) a decrease in plenum pressure by adopting the fission gas vent design, (b) prevention of fuel-cladding chemical interaction by lining the cladding inner wall, and (c) mitigation of fuel-cladding mechanical interaction by reducing the fuel smear density. The effects of these design measures on increasing the burnup were analyzed with ALFUS, an irradiation behavior analysis code for FR metal fuels. The ALFUS analysis revealed that a very high burnup of >40 at. % can be attained under the conventional design criteria for securing fuel integrity by applying these innovative measures. Neutronic analysis of a metal fuel core employing these design measures indicated that a high burnup of >40 at. % at the assembly peak can be attained while suppressing the burnup reactivity swing to almost the same level as that of conventional cores with normal burnup through the use of a minor actinide–containing fuel.


In this article we show how the design of interfaces for the visualization of distributed system load can benefit from the combination of concepts and techniques from Information Visualization and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Every distributed systems administrator must handle a high volume of information and the exploration and analysis of this data set has become increasingly difficult. We propose how to visualize the parameters involved in the load of a distributed system to obtain an effective visualization tool in order to reduce the user cognitive workload and help the user make the right decisions in a productive way.


The human gastrointestinal mucosa is exposed to a diverse normal microflora and dietary Ags and is a common site of entry for pathogens. The mucosal immune system must respond to these diverse signals with either the initiation of immunity or tolerance. APCs are important accessory cells that modulate T cell responses which initiate and maintain adaptive immunity. The ability of APCs to communicate with CD4+ T cells is largely dependent on the expression of class II MHC molecules by the APCs. Using immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, and flow cytometry, we demonstrate that α-smooth muscle actin+, CD90+ subepithelial myofibroblasts (stromal cells) constitutively express class II MHC molecules in normal colonic mucosa and that they are distinct from professional APCs such as macrophages and dendritic cells. Primary isolates of human colonic myofibroblasts (CMFs) cultured in vitro were able to stimulate allogeneic CD4+ T cell proliferation. This process was dependent on class II MHC and CD80/86 costimulatory molecule expression by the myofibroblasts. We also demonstrate that CMFs, engineered to express a specific DR4 allele, can process and present human serum albumin to a human serum albumin-specific and DR4 allele-restricted T cell hybridoma. These studies characterize a novel cell phenotype which, due to its strategic location and class II MHC expression, may be involved in capture of Ags that cross the epithelial barrier and present them to lamina propria CD4+ T cells. Thus, human CMFs may be important in regulating local immunity in the colon.


Altmetric measurements derived from the social web are increasingly advocated and used as early indicators of article impact and usefulness. Nevertheless, there is a lack of systematic scientific evidence that altmetrics are valid proxies of either impact or utility although a few case studies have reported medium correlations between specific altmetrics and citation rates for individual journals or fields. To fill this gap, this study compares 11 altmetrics with Web of Science citations for 76 to 208,739 PubMed articles with at least one altmetric mention in each case and up to 1,891 journals per metric. It also introduces a simple sign test to overcome biases caused by different citation and usage windows. Statistically significant associations were found between higher metric scores and higher citations for articles with positive altmetric scores in all cases with sufficient evidence (Twitter, Facebook wall posts, research highlights, blogs, mainstream media and forums) except perhaps for Google+ posts. Evidence was insufficient for LinkedIn, Pinterest, question and answer sites, and Reddit, and no conclusions should be drawn about articles with zero altmetric scores or the strength of any correlation between altmetrics and citations. Nevertheless, comparisons between citations and metric values for articles published at different times, even within the same year, can remove or reverse this association and so publishers and scientometricians should consider the effect of time when using altmetrics to rank articles. Finally, the coverage of all the altmetrics except for Twitter seems to be low and so it is not clear if they are prevalent enough to be useful in practice.


One of the enduring yet little examined themes in Civil War lore is the widespread belief that on the field of battle and afterward, members of Masonic lodges would give aid and comfort to wounded or captured enemy Masons, often at great personal sacrifice and danger. This work is a deeply researched examination of the recorded, practical effects of Freemasonry among Civil War participants on both sides. From first-person accounts culled from regimental histories, diaries, and letters, Michael A. Halleran has constructed an overview of 19th-century American freemasonry in general and Masonry in the armies of both North and South in particular, and provided telling examples of how Masonic brotherhood worked in practice. Halleran details the response of the fraternity to the crisis of secession and war, and examines acts of assistance to enemies on the battlefield and in POW camps. The author examines carefully the major Masonic stories from the Civil War, in particular the myth that Confederate Lewis A. Armistead made the Masonic sign of distress as he lay dying at the high-water mark of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg.


Partial ecological restoration of important attributes of Alder Creek, Gunnison County, CO, U.S.A., has been successful since the area has continued in its restored condition for over a decade. However, due to cattle grazing, the system is not self maintaining and, thus, requires continual management to remain in its present ecologically improved condition. Since the present holders of the Bureau of Land Management grazing permit will not request a renewal, the continuation of the current management practices by the next holder of the allotment is uncertain. Since this story has been an ecological success, demonstrating that cattle grazing need not destroy riparian habitat, the present practices should continue.


The World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography (World Bank, 2008) describes an estimated billion slum dwellers prevailing in the developing world's cities - a reminder that cities are central to efforts in tackling poverty. The pervasive effects of poverty, illiteracy and mortality in urban slums have long been recognized (World Bank, 1979). However, the ongoing process of urbanization has put this reality into sharper focus; the share of the world's poor inhabiting urban areas is expected to reach 50 percent by 2030 (Ravallion et al., 2007). United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 responds to this problem by calling for "Cities Without Slums," and setting a target "by 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers." Yet the latest evidence suggests there are 100 million more slum dwellers than in 1990 as rapid urbanization offsets modest progress in improving the lives of those already in cities.The World Development Report also identifies cities as being vital to economic growth. Cities are recognized for their capacity to provide scale economies, efficiencies in logistics and in the provision of public services, dense labor markets that foster training and skills acquisition, innovation and creativity, diversification of production, lower environmental footprint through densification, and ultimately greater freedom for the individuals who inhabit them. But cities do not provide these benefits automatically, or for free. City management is a complex undertaking of institutional development and governance, planning, partnerships and consultations with the myriad stakeholders within cities, and considerable amounts of financing. When this management is found wanting, the many benefits of cities are never fulfilled. Indeed cities may have an equal capacity to generate social problems as social benefits. Analysis of developing country cities indicates that neither policy frameworks nor infrastructural investments have kept up with urban growth, that the wrong choices with long-term consequences are being made, that lessons from city development are being ignored, and that as a result, cities are developing with problems ranging from corruption to a degraded environment (Cities Alliance, 2006).That cities can rightfully claim to provide a nexus between poverty and economic growth suggests that the urban development agenda would be a natural draw for the international development community. There is certainly widespread agreement about the need for action. There is advocacy on the modalities through which assistance can be made - namely via policy support and investments. There are a number of international organizations dedicated solely to promoting urban development. Yet to the contrary, there is a sense that urban development is losing priority for donors, that funding is declining, strategies are not acted upon, and that new approaches are needed (International Housing Coalition, 2008).This paper reviews what has been happening with external assistance for urban development. First, the paper documents the stagnation in the share of aid going into urban projects and programs. It then documents what has been learned from experiences in urban aid and how strategies have evolved.Next, the paper places urban development in the broader context of changes in the global aid architecture. It suggests that trends to improve aid effectiveness - a poverty focus, an aversion to risk, local ownership and managing for results - have tended to move in a different direction from the realities and constraints of urban interventions, making it harder for advocates of urban development to make their case heard. Donors who are trying to discipline their activities by applying broad principles of effective aid are likely to be put off supporting urban development by these apparent inconsistencies.The opportunity for the urban sector appears to lie in its rich experiences with partnerships. The paper analyzes partnerships between donors and other stakeholders in urban interventions and suggests there could be considerable learning for the urban sector from past successes and failures. It puts forward an analytical framework to allow a comparison of different partnership approaches.Lastly, the paper concludes with areas for research that need to be explored if urban development is to gain greater prominence in the international donor community.