Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of four impression management (IM) tactics as mediators to help job incumbents manage the impressions others have regarding the spillover of the incumbent's family domain onto the work domain.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors examined the data from 296 matched job incumbents and coworkers. The authors tested a structural equation model and alternative models to find the best fit and subsequently tested both direct and indirect effects.

Findings
The authors found that family-to-work conflict related to job-focused and supervisor-focused IM behaviors, and family-to-work enrichment related to self-focused, coworker-focused and supervisor-focused IM behaviors. Supervisor-focused IM served as a mediator to the job incumbent's attitude (job satisfaction) while job-focused, self-focused and coworker-focused IM served as mediators to the job incumbent's behavior (job performance).

Practical implications
The research is important in that just as employees do not "leave work at the office," they also do not "leave family at home." Instead, experiences in the two domains affect one another in ways that are beneficial and harmful. Understanding the role that IM plays in this process adds insight into the spillover of family onto work.

Originality/value
The authors extend both the work-family and IM literatures by looking at potential family domain antecedents to engaging in IM behaviors and their impact on work life.


In Estonia the census of wave 2010 was organised, as in all states of EU, in 2011. The duration of the census was three months, whereby during the first month the e-census was carried through. 2/3 of the population participated in e-census. Main results of the census were estimated population size that had decreased about 5% and estimated net external migration that was about 45 000 people. About 24% of Estonia population is foreign-origin, among them12% of the first, 8% of the second and 4% of the third generation.


Today's multilateral world order implies new challenges, but also offers new opportunities. The increasingly open society provides great room for a wide range of actors to play a relevant role on the international scene, by engaging in multilateral relations. The European Union has proved to be a formidable aspirant to 'effective multilateralism', but much remains to be done if the EU is willing to retain and strengthen its position of regional and global player in the future. This Policy Brief develops an analysis of the role of the European Union as a global-regional actor in peace and security based on three dimensions, namely the Capacity to carry out its tasks, the Willingness to act, and the Acceptance of its actions. It further contributes to the reformulation of the EU's strategic approach by suggesting it to adopt the 'triple F' strategy: stay Focused, remain Flexible, act and react Fast. Today's multilateral world order implies new challenges, but also offers new opportunities. The increasingly open society provides great room for a wide range of actors to play a relevant role on the international scene, by engaging multilateral relations. The European Union has proved to be a formidable aspirant to 'effective multilateralism', but much remains to be done if the EU willing to retain and strengthen its position of regional and global player in the future. This Policy Brief develops an analysis of the role of the European Union as a global-regional actor in peace and security based on three dimensions, namely the Capacity to carry out tasks, the Willingess to act, and the Acceptance of its actions. It further contributes to the reformulation of the EU's strategic approach by suggesting it to adopt the 'triple F' strategy: stay Focused, remain Flexible, act and react Fast.


Conversation-powered leadership How can leaders make their big or growing companies feel small again? How can they recapture the "magic"--the tight strategic alignment, the high level of employee engagement--that drove and animated their organization when it was a start-up? As more and more executives have discovered in recent years, the answer to this conundrum lies in the power of conversation. In Talk, Inc., Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind show how trusted and effective leaders are adapting the principles of face-to-face conversation in order to pursue a new form of organizational conversation. They explore the promise of conversation-powered leadership--from the time-tested practice of talking straight (and listening well) to the thoughtful adoption of social media technology. And they offer guidance on how to balance the benefits of open-ended talk with the realities of strategic execution. Drawing on the experience of leaders at diverse companies from around the world, Talk, Inc., offers provocative insights and user-friendly tips on how to make organizational culture more intimate, more interactive, more inclusive, and more intentional--in short, more conversational.


The Camposauro group is a Campanian Apennines9carbonate unit. Some elementary structural units, separated by main faults, with dips between S and W, and angles of 30 degrees -70 degrees , are located in this group. The latest working of these faults gave, principally, normal slip. Every structural unit is separated from others, towards N and towards E, by faces of a dihedron. A dihedron face is formed by faults, with dips between S and SSW, that, often, show a left normal slip. Other dihedron face is formed by faults; with dips between W and SW, that show a right normal slip. So, the elementary units are shifted towards SW. In the Camposauro group a domino-like structure spreading from Monte St. Angelo towards ENE is identified. The origin of this structure is coherent with displacement of the elementary units toward SW. The extensional tectonics Plio-Pleistocene conditioned the present day structural Camposauro setting. Considering the Apennines9 structure and geodynamical development, it was supposed to be an ancient main thrust below Camposauro group. During the extensional periods, this structure was activated like a low angle normal fault, on which the simple units of the massif were shifted towards the S-SW. Therefore these units have developed the structures, surveyed on the surface.


There is today a growing awareness that many wetlands are more valuable in their natural, or only slightly modified state, than if drained, dyked or built upon. Past neglect of wetlands has meant that there is insufficient material available on policy guidance, planning techniques, or management methodologies for their conservation and sustainable use in different regions. This publication begins to redress the balance by reviewing the importance of wetlands, examining the reasons for wetland loss, and identifying ways and means to improve wetland management


Since its first commentary about the Wisconsin Antitrust Act (Pulp Wood Co. v. Green Bay Paper & Fiber Co., 157 Wis. 604, 147 N.W. 1058 ((1914)) the Supreme Court of Wisconsin has regularly reiterated its policy that interpretations of the Act must follow absolutely, "federal [antitrust] decisions." This policy is driven neither by federal preemption nor by state legislative enactment or pronouncement. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin's commentaries on this policy for almost a century since the Pulp Wood decision have provided very little counsel to state courts much less businesspersons and their legal advisors. Indeed, one may still reasonably ask whether, "federal decisions," includes judicial decisions by all federal courts wherever situated and all federal agencies deciding cases, administering rules and providing, "guidelines," applying, "federal [antitrust] law." Moreover, the Court has not even provided guidance as to how to resolve conflicts in the application of, "federal decisions." In an age of, "activist," federal courts and administrative agencies that have upended traditional concepts and decisions of federal antitrust law, it is very important that generalized policies applying lockstep application of, "federal decisions," be jettisoned and replaced by reasoned judicial decisions applying Wisconsin antitrust law. Of course, where appropriate, Wisconsin courts may choose to follow federal decisions (whatever that term means) and thereby assure that Wisconsin antitrust law comports with an overall federal antitrust design. Yet, by replacing the current inflexible policy with legal analysis that best suits the interests and needs of Wisconsin's citizenry Wisconsin courts may effectively steer a course that avoids the antitrust activism that roils the federal courts and federal administrative agencies and thereby provide security in long term judicial interpretations.


Superconducting quantum devices provide excellent connectivity and controllability while semiconductor spin qubits stand out with their long-lasting quantum coherence, fast control, and potential for miniaturization and scaling. In the last few years, remarkable progress has been made in combining superconducting circuits and semiconducting devices into hybrid quantum systems that benefit from the physical properties of both constituents. Superconducting cavities can mediate quantum-coherent coupling over long distances between electronic degrees of freedom such as the spin of individual electrons on a semiconductor chip and thus provide essential connectivity for a quantum device. Electron spins in semiconductor quantum dots have reached very long coherence times and allow for fast quantum gate operations with increasing fidelities. We summarize recent progress and theoretical models that describe superconducting-semiconducting hybrid quantum systems, explain the limitations of these systems, and describe different directions where future experiments and theory are headed.


In order to analyze the hydrogen distribution during a hypothetical station blackout accident in the Korean next-generation Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) containment, the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics code GASFLOW was used. The source of the hydrogen and steam for the GASFLOW analysis was obtained from a MAAP calculation. The discharged water, steam, and hydrogen from the pressurizer are released into the water of the in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST). Most of the discharged steam is condensed in the IRWST water because of its subcooling, and dry hydrogen is released into the free volume of the IRWST; finally, it goes out to the annular compartment above the IRWST through the vent holes. From the GASFLOW analysis, it was found that the gas mixture in the IRWST becomes quickly nonflammable by oxygen starvation but the hydrogen is accumulated in the annular compartment because of the narrow ventilation gap between the operating deck and containment wall when the igniters installed in the IRWST are not operated. When the igniters installed in the APR1400 were turned on, a short period of burning occurred in the IRWST, and then the flame was extinguished by the oxygen starvation in the IRWST. The unburned hydrogen was released into the annular compartment and went up to the dome because no igniters are installed around the annular compartment in the base design of the APR1400. From this result, it could be concluded that the control of the hydrogen concentration is difficult for the base design. In this study design modifications are proposed and evaluated with GASFLOW in view of the hydrogen mitigation strategy.


Health and wellbeing products and services for individuals are becoming increasingly popular as people realise the benefits provided by lifelogging or quantified-self platforms in such areas as exercise, diet management and mood. However, in addition to the data that users record using these platforms, all user interactions and events can be elusively logged to represent usage. Such user interaction or event logs provide rich and large datasets that can fuel applied artificial intelligence. As products and services based on these digital interaction technologies are taken up across public healthcare provision, should healthcare policy and practice take more cognisance of the opportunities and risks in gathering interaction data? Is 'healthcare' ignorant that there is knowledge in such data? Are there differences between event logging in healthcare and other areas such as commerce, media and industry? In order to realise benefits in analysing such data, methods that help ensure consistency, accuracy, data protection, as well as reproducibility of knowledge derived from log data need to be examined. This paper presents methods to explore usage log data and a process workflow followed by a presentation of two real world case studies. The workflow has been coined Health Interaction Log Data Analysis (HILDA) and focuses on data prospecting and machine learning stages to show the opportunities realisable in analysing interactional or event data automatically recorded by digital healthcare services.


The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an explosion of research using private-sector datasets to measure business dynamics and employment in real-time. Yet questions remain about the representativeness of these datasets and how to distinguish business openings and closings from sample churn – i.e., sample entry of already operating businesses and sample exits of businesses that continue operating. This paper proposes new methods to address these issues and applies them to the case of Homebase, a real-time dataset of mostly small service-sector sector businesses that has been used extensively in the literature to study the effects of the pandemic. We match the Homebase establishment records with information on business activity from Safegraph, Google, and Facebook to assess the representativeness of the data and to estimate the probability of business closings and openings among sample exits and entries. We then exploit the high frequency / geographic detail of the data to study whether small service-sector businesses have been hit harder by the pandemic than larger firms, and the extent to which the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) helped small businesses keep their workforce employed. We find that our real-time estimates of small business dynamics and employment during the pandemic are remarkably representative and closely fit population counterparts from administrative data that have recently become available. Distinguishing business closings and openings from sample churn is critical for these results. We also find that while employment by small businesses contracted more severely in the beginning of the pandemic than employment of larger businesses, it also recovered more strongly thereafter. In turn, our estimates suggests that the rapid rollout of PPP loans significantly mitigated the negative employment effects of the pandemic. Business closings and openings are a key driver for both results, thus underlining the importance of properly correcting for sample churn.


Although the primary burden of suppressing the 1525 German peasants' revolt was assumed by the Swabian League, many individual princes raised military forces and mounted campaigns on their own against the rebels, with varying degrees of success. For those princes who did so, the rebellion offered opportunities to assert their authority over disputed areas and jurisdictions at the expense of rulers, primarily ecclesiastical princes and prelates, who had no such forces available due to financial difficulties and the speed with which the revolt had spread. The ground for exploiting such opportunities was usually the need to "protect" the power and authority of the rulers involved. The result was frequently the opposite. Thus, despite many attempts to arrange cooperation among the princes in the areas of the uprising, the suppression campaigns often resulted in increased tension between rulers and major disputes over allegedly protective actions taken against the rebels by princes at the expense of their neighbors.


Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, begins her foreword to the 2010 WHO/HABITAT report Hidden Cities: "It is well known by now that half of humanity lives in urban areas - and the proportion is growing. Cities, with their concentration of culture, infrastructure, and institutions have long driven the progress of civilization and have been the focus of opportunity and prosperity." However, cities are also the nexus of negative economic, environmental, and economic forces jeopardizing the lives and poor health of many inhabitants. The aim of Hidden Cities is to unmask these deprivations, less visible in Europe than elsewhere, often hidden beneath glittering facades and marginalized in prosperous economies. It is our responsibility to overcome the great health inequalities which still prevail between and within the nations of Europe. The first part of this article highlights some specific challenges facing urban communities in Europe. The second part summarizes how urban institutions and citizens of Europe are meeting these challenges, which is absolutely relevant to the work of the European Region of the WHO. Improving health and reducing health inequities has been the constant first priority of the Region, from the first of our targets for Health for All, published in 1984, through to Health 2020, the new European Strategy for Health. Health 2020 adopts a whole systems approach, acknowledging both the central role of national governments in the provision of health services, as well as the role of local government and its partners in influencing the wider determinants of health. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Part One: Challenges Urbanization is an irresistible social phenomenon and has been a dominant global demographic trend over the last two centuries. The level of world urbanization today is unprecedented. Cities are currently home to half the world's population, and it is estimated that over the next 30 years, most of the more than two billion person increase in the global population will occur in urban areas. Today, some 400 cities contain one million people or more, and about 70 percent are in the developing world. By 2017, the developing world is likely to be more urban than rural in character. In the modern era, the European Region was the first of the WHO regions to urbanize, with industrialization inducing exponential population growth in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Now, our population of 900 million in 53 countries has stabilized overall, and we are not subject to the intense pressure of population growth experienced by other regions. Nevertheless, Figure 1 shows a divergence in the trajectories of urban populations in groups of European countries. In southern and eastern Europe, migration from rural settlements has been a major reason for population growth in cities. Since 1989 migration flows from eastern to western countries have increased, and some cities have accommodated high numbers of refugees and migrants. The fragmentation of urban populations, alongside social and economic development, can create a number of serious management issues affecting individual and social life. There is pressure stemming from physical infrastructure, environmental degradation, traffic congestion and pollution, housing shortages, overcrowding, and other stress-related phenomena. These trends have heavily burdened social, health and welfare services in the host cities as well as the housing and employment markets, particularly during times of economic recession, when public authorities have reduced expenditure on housing and urban infrastructure and cutting allowances for welfare, health and community care. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Aging Besides migration, the other salient demographic in Europe is an aging population. The age "pyramid" has become an age "mushroom." In earlier eras of European development, and now in most developing cities in Global South, high fertility rates expanded the base of the age pyramid and limited life expectancy reduced die apex. …


This study seeks to examine whether the levels of voluntary risk disclosure in Saudi listed banks are valuerelevant or not. The sample of this investigation consists of all banks listed on the Saudi Stock Market Exchange (Tadawul). All data was collected from the annual reports of the sample banks from 2009 to 2013 using manual content analysis. Other variables were collected using DataStream and Bloomberg. Ordinary least squares regressions analysis was used. The findings of the multivariate analysis demonstrated that there is no association between the levels of voluntary risk disclosure and firm value as measured by the market to book value at the end of the year (MTBV). But, the results generate from the accounting based measure (ROA) show that there is a positively significant association between the levels of voluntary risk disclosure and firm value. This study contributes to the literature on general accounting disclosure and in particular advances and contributes to the literature on risk disclosure in developing economies. It also contributes to the understanding of the role of accounting information in relation to the market valuation of a firm. The empirical findings of this study have several implications for banks' investors, regulatory bodies and any other interested group as they report the importance of corporate risk disclosure and its economic consequences. This can be used to increase the value relevance in the banking sector. This study also informs regulators about the current level of risk disclosure in all Saudi listed banks.To the best of the researcher's knowledge, no prior research has been conducted on the relationship between firm value and levels of risk disclosure in general nor especially in emerging markets, such as Saudi Arabia, the focus of this study


We develop a novel method for fitting high-resolution template meshes to detailed human body range scans with sparse 3D markers. We formulate an optimization problem in which the degrees of freedom are an affine transformation at each template vertex. The objective function is a weighted combination of three measures: proximity of transformed vertices to the range data, similarity between neighboring transformations, and proximity of sparse markers at corresponding locations on the template and target surface. We solve for the transformations with a non-linear optimizer, run at two resolutions to speed convergence. We demonstrate reconstruction and consistent parameterization of 250 human body models. With this parameterized set, we explore a variety of applications for human body modeling, including: morphing, texture transfer, statistical analysis of shape, model fitting from sparse markers, feature analysis to modify multiple correlated parameters (such as the weight and height of an individual), and transfer of surface detail and animation controls from a template to fitted models.


Abstract:One of the few features of Aristotelian rhetoric that his successors have noticed and developed is his three kinds, deliberative, judicial and epideictic. I want to look at what function the division of rhetoric into three kinds serves in his own argument.Dialectic has no kinds, and most speeches do not fall within any of the three kinds of rhetoric. These kinds are three ways in which argument leads to a judgment. Outside them, persuasion is no longer subordinate to politics. It is only within them that Aristotle's claims that the best and most rational argument will carry the day will be anything more than a pious hope. Outside them, the art of rhetoric will be nothing but cleverness, an ability to reach whatever end the speaker starts with. The three kinds show us rhetoric's possibilities.


H.L.A. Hart's well-known rejection of American Legal Realism turned in part on the idea that Realism lacked the resources to provide the sort of guidance that we might reasonably seek from a theory of law. Although Hart's criticisms were widely regarded as devastating, in recent years American Legal Realism has undergone something of a renaissance. The principal architect of that renaissance is Brian Leiter, who has re-established Realism as an important and even indispensable approach to jurisprudence.In this chapter, our aim is to show how, despite its considerable attractions, Leiter's brand of Legal Realism appears to be in much the same boat as its predecessors. That is, it cannot fulfill an important practical task for which we reasonably seek to develop a theory of law: providing an account of law as a potential source of guidance.Central to our discussion is the idea that there are diverse interests we might have in a theory of law. For example, one reason to develop an account of law is roughly descriptive. That is, we might seek to explain the nature of legal practices as such from an outsider's perspective and to illuminate how and why law functions as it does. We might even hope that such an account could enable us to predict judgments about cases. A different reason for developing a theory of law might be characterized as prescriptive. Among prescriptive approaches, one view of the function of legal theorizing is to offer guidance to those concerned to adhere to the law. A prescriptive account of that sort would, for example, help a judge decide what ruling the law requires in a given case.While Legal Realism may adequately serve our descriptive interests, it is far less clear that it adequately addresses a reasonable practical interest we can have for a theory of law, i.e., providing guidance for those interested in adhering to the law. We then consider whether this shortcoming is best understood as a serious internal flaw to Legal Realism or whether instead it shows something more general about the limitations of any unified approach to jurisprudence. We suggest the latter.


We describe the results of an experiment designed to compare the radiometric performance of four different spectroradiometers in ideal field conditions. A carefully designed experiment where instruments were simultaneously triggered was used to measure the Hemispherical Conical Reflectance Factors (HCRF) of four targets of varying reflectance. The experiment was in two parts. Stage 1 covered a 2 hour period finishing at solar noon, where 50 measurements of the targets were collected in sequence. Stage 2 comprised 10 rapid sequential measurements over each target. We applied a method for normalising full width half maximum (FWHM) differences between the instruments, which was a source of variability in the raw data. The work allowed us to determine data reproducibility, and we found that lower-cost instruments (Ocean Optics and PP Systems) produced data of similar radiometric quality to those manufactured by Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD -here we used the ASD FieldSpec Pro) in the spectral range 400-850 nm, which is the most significant region for research communities interested in measuring vegetation dynamics. Over the longer time-series there were changes in HCRF caused by the structural and spectral characteristics of some targets.


Abstract In March 2020 – following the rapid increase of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) cases in the country – several Brazilian sports leagues momentarily ceased to slow the virus spread among the population. Despite the record number of deaths caused by the disease, most of these leagues re-started by mid-July. Brazilian TV channels offered football match reruns as an alternative to fill weekly schedule gaps. Therefore, within a somewhat dystopian context of political chaos, deep economic recession and unparalleled public health crisis, the most-watched sports channel in the country, SporTV, decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brazil's third FIFA World Cup title at the 1970 men's tournament by rerunning the six matches played by the successful national football team (aka Seleção), from April 14 to the 19 and on June 21. Focusing on Twitter, this article demonstrates how the moment provided content for social media narratives about the country's assumed 'glorious' past, its fractured contemporary state and uncertain futures. In doing so, we offer insights into the complexities of memory craft within sport histories and nation-making practices.


AIM
To determine the clinical profile, management of anticoagulant treatment and satisfaction related to anticoagulation in outpatients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation attended in Neurology or Internal Medicine departments of Spain.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Cross-sectional and multicenter study, in which 1,337 outpatients were included. Patients fulfilled ACTS, SAT-Q and EQ-5D questionnaires.

RESULTS
865 patients (64.7%) were recruited from Neurology department and 472 (35.3%) from Internal Medicine department. Those patients attended in Internal Medicine department were older and had more frequently hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, renal insufficiency and peripheral artery disease. Those patients attended in Neurology department had more commonly prior stroke. Overall, CHADS2 score was 3.2 ± 1.3, CHA2DS2-Vasc 4.8 ± 1.5 and HAS-BLED 2.0 ± 0.9. All scores were higher in those patients attended in Neurology department. Globally, 56.1% of patients were taking vitamin K antagonists, more commonly in Internal Medicine department. The adequate percent of time in therapeutic range was 47% (Rosendaal), without significant differences between groups. Satisfaction with oral anticoagulation was high in both groups, but higher in those attended in Neurology department, and higher in those individuals taking direct oral anticoagulants compared with vitamin K antagonists.

CONCLUSIONS
Although there were some differences in the clinical profile of patients with atrial fibrillation attended in Neurology or Internal Medicine departments, all of them had many comorbidities and a high thromboembolic risk. Despite INR control was poor, the most common oral anticoagulant used were vitamin K antagonists. Satisfaction related to oral anticoagulation was high.


Was your mother too busy, too tired, or too checked-out to provide you with the nurturing you needed as a child? Men and women who were undermothered as children often struggle with intimate relationships, in part because of their unmet need for maternal care. "The Emotionally Absent Mother" will help you understand what was missing from your childhood, how this relates to your mother s own history, and how you can fill the mother gap by: * Examining the past with compassion for yourself and your mother* Finding the child inside of you and learning to mother yourself* Opening to the archetype of the Good Mother* Allowing friends and loved ones to provide support, guidance, and other elements of good mothering that you missedThrough reflections, exercises, and clear explanations, psychotherapist Jasmin Lee Cori helps adult sons and daughters heal the wounds left by mothers who failed to provide the essential ingredients that every child needs. She traces perceived personal defects back to mothering "deficits," relieving self-blame. And, by teaching today s undermothered adults to cultivate the mothering they missed, she helps them secure a happier future for themselves and their children."


We demonstrate a novel time-resolved Q-factor measurement technique and demonstrate its application in the analysis of optical packet switching systems with high information spectral density. For the first time, we report the time-resolved Q-factor measurement of 42.6 Gbit/s AM-PSK and DQPSK modulated packets, which were generated by a SGDBR laser under wavelength switching. The time dependent degradation of Q-factor performance during the switching transient was analyzed and was found to be correlated with different laser switching characteristics in each case.


Pto is a member of a multigene family and encodes a serine/threonine kinase that mediates gene-for-gene resistance to strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato expressing avrPto. The inferred amino acid sequence of the Pto homologs from both resistant (LpimPth2 to LpimPth4) and susceptible (LescFen, LescPth2 to LescPth5) haplotypes suggested that most could encode functional serine/threonine kinases. In addition, the activation segments of the homologs are similar in sequence to that of Pto, and some have residues previously identified as required for binding of AvrPto by Pto in the yeast two-hybrid system. The Pto homologs were therefore characterized for transcription, for the ability of their products to interact with AvrPto in the yeast two-hybrid system, for their autophosphorylation activity, and for their potential to elicit cell death in the presence of and absence of a ligand, as well as their dependence on Prf. LpimPth5, LpimPth4, and LescPth4 were not transcribed at levels detectable by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The interaction with AvrPto was unique to Pto in the yeast two-hybrid system. LescPth2 autophosphorylated in vitro as a fusion protein. LpimPth2, LpimPth3, LpimPth4, LescPth3, and LescPth4 did not autophosphorylate in vitro. Transient expression of wild-type Fen and wild-type LpimPth3, as well as LescFen, LescPth3, and LescPth5 with perturbations in their P+1 loop caused cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana. LpimPth3 and LescPth3 with amino acid substitutions in the P+1 loop also elicited cell death in tomato; this was dependent on the presence of wild-type Prf. Consequently, some homologs could potentially encode functional resistance proteins. LescPth5 induced cell death specifically in response to expression of AvrPto in tobacco in a Prf-dependent manner; this is consistent with a homolog from a 'susceptible' haplotype encoding a minor recognition determinant.


Essential hypertension is a difficult diagnosis in children and the gene of the renal-epithelial chloride channel ClC-Kb is potentially predisposing. In vitro studies have shown that a common ClC-Kb threonine481serine (T481S) polymorphism leads to enhanced chloride channel activity and may predispose for hypertension (HT). We therefore analysed children at risk for HT for the T481S polymorphism and associated genotype with blood pressure (BP) status. A total of 48 children with essential hypertension (mean age 14.4 ± 2.7 years, 26 male; 22 female; mean BP 143.4 ± 7.5/88 ± 5.8 mmHg) were compared with 78 children with white-coat HT (WCHT), who showed occasionally hypertensive BP values, which were not confirmed by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (mean age 13.7 ± 2.5 years, 49 male, 29 female; mean BP 122.4 ± 4.3/68.2 ± 3.5 mmHg). Other causes of HT were excluded. Allelic frequencies of hypertensive patients were not significantly different from those with WCHT (HT: A 0.84; T 0.16 vs. WCHT: A 0.85; T 0.15). However, the T-allele was observed more frequently in WCHT subjects with systolic and diastolic BP exceeding the 90th percentile (A 0.71; T 0.29, n = 34, p < 0.05, considered as borderline hypertensive). The preliminary data suggest that children with WCHT carry the ClC-Kb T481S polymorphism more often and that this variant may predispose for development of arterial HT.


We investigate the inception of cavitation and resulting structures when a sphere collides with a solid surface covered with a layer of non-Newtonian liquid having a kinematic viscosity of up to ${\it\nu}_{0}=20\,000\,000$ cSt. We show the existence of shear-stress-induced cavitation during sphere approach towards the base wall (i.e. the pressurization stage) in ultra-viscous films using a synchronized dual-view high-speed imaging system. For the experimental parameters employed, liquids having viscoelastic properties of $De\geqslant O(1)$ are shown to enable sphere rebound without any prior contact with the solid wall. Cavitation by depressurization (i.e. during rebound) in such non-contact cases is observed to onset after a noticeable delay from when the minimum gap distance is reached. Also, the cavities created originate from remnant bubbles, being the remains of the primary bubble entrapment formed by the lubrication pressure of the air during film entry. Cases where physical contact occurs (contact cases) in 10 000 cSt ${\leqslant}{\it\nu}_{0}\leqslant 1000\,000$ cSt films produce cavities attached to the base wall, which extend into an hourglass shape. In contrast, strikingly different structures occur in the most viscous liquids due to the disproportionality in radial expansion and longitudinal extension along the cavity length. Horizontal shear rates calculated using particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements show the apparent fluid viscosity to vary substantially as the sphere approaches and rebounds away from the base wall. A theoretical model based on the lubrication assumption is solved for the squeeze flow in the regime identified for shear-induced cavity events, to investigate the criterion for cavity inception in further detail.


Abstract Ketamine is one of the oldest intravenous anaesthetic agents that is still in clinical use. Its unique mechanism of action and interaction with a variety of different receptors has sparked renewed interest in its use in a host of alternative clinical settings. This review briefly discusses the pharmacology of ketamine and ketamine's potential use in major depressive illness, opioid-induced acute tolerance and as a potential neuroprotective agent.


On January 12, 2010, the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck the nation least prepared to handle it. Jonathan M. Katz, the only full-time American news correspondent in Haiti, was inside his house when it buckled along with hundreds of thousands of others. In this visceral, authoritative first-hand account, Katz chronicles the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and how the world reacted to a nation in need. More than half of American adults gave money for Haiti, part of a monumental response totaling $16.3 billion in pledges. But three years later the relief effort has foundered. It's most basic promises - to build safer housing for the homeless, alleviate severe poverty, and strengthen Haiti to face future disasters - remain unfulfilled. The Big Truck That Went By presents a sharp critique of international aid that defies today's conventional wisdom; that the way wealthy countries give aid makes poor countries seem irredeemably hopeless, while trapping millions in cycles of privation and catastrophe. Katz follows the money to uncover startling truths about how good intentions go wrong, and what can be done to make aid "smarter." With coverage of Bill Clinton, who came to help lead the reconstruction; movie-star aid worker Sean Penn; Wyclef Jean; Haiti's leaders and people alike, Katz weaves a complex, darkly funny, and unexpected portrait of one of the world's most fascinating countries. The Big Truck That Went By is not only a definitive account of Haiti's earthquake, but of the world we live in today.


Based on the survey data of 111 rural insurance salesmen in Tai Ping Life Insurance Co., ltd, Sichuan branch, this paper has empirically studied on influencing factors of rural insurance salesman's sale performance by applying multiple ordered and classification logistic model. The result shows that the gender of insurance salesman, working time, levels of position, training goal, training ways, the single premium below 2 000 Yuan, the reward sale and marketing ways of insurance are significant factors. This paper also analyzes the causes of those factors briefly and puts forward relevant suggestions.


The subject of this handbook is Teichmuller theory in a wide sense, namely the theory of geometric structures on surfaces and their moduli spaces. This includes the study of vector bundles on these moduli spaces, the study of mapping class groups, the relation with 3-manifolds, the relation with symmetric spaces and arithmetic groups, the representation theory of fundamental groups, and applications to physics. Thus the handbook is a place where several fields of mathematics interact: Riemann surfaces, hyperbolic geometry, partial differential equations, several complex variables, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, combinatorial topology, low-dimensional topology, theoretical physics, and others. This confluence of ideas towards a unique subject is a manifestation of the unity and harmony of mathematics. The present volume contains surveys on the fundamental theory as well as surveys on applications to and relations with the fields mentioned above. It is written by leading experts in the fields. Some of the surveys contain classical material, while others present the latest developments of the theory as well as open problems. This volume includes the following four sections: (1) The metric and the analytic theory. (2) The group theory. (3) The algebraic topology of mapping class groups and moduli spaces. (4) Teichmuller theory and mathematical physics. The handbook is addressed to graduate students and researchers in all the fields mentioned.


It was evaluated the prevalence and the incidence rate (force of morbidity of cysticercosis) in the period of January-April , 2000 in the porcine population of Matapalo's village (Zarumilla, Tumbes). In the first sampling, 922 animals older than 3 months were evaluated and 284 resulted positive representing a prevalence of 30.8 ± 3.0% . The second sampling, carried out three months later on 778 animals reported a prevalence of 20.8 ± 2.9%. A total of 314 negative animals at the first sampling were evaluated in the second sampling and 36 seroconverted to the EITB test resulting in an accumulated incidence of 11.5 ± 3.5%. A number of risk factors were analyzed for the prevalence of porcine cysticercosis finding out that village, age and sampling represented a factor of risk to find a positive animal. Similarly, several factors relating to incidence were analized and was found that the variables village, age, immunological condition of the mother, and sex represented risk factors to get the disease.


Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has created 'Vision 2020: The Right to Sight' with the objective of eliminating causes of avoidable visual impairment worldwide. Utilisation of eye care services is one of the ways by which this objective can be achieved. The Optometry clinic in universities were chosen due to fulfilling the three major factors affecting utilisation namely availability, accessibility, and affordability. The Optometry clinic in Malaysian's universities in this studies have been around for some time but there has never been a study done to assess its utilisation. Aim: The objective of this study is to know the level of utilisation of Optometry clinic in Malaysian' local universities, to compare the level of utilisation of Optometry clinic between universities, and to identify factors affecting its utilisation. Method: This is a cross-sectional study. The total sample size calculated was 400. It is conducted through the means of questionnaires sent to a representative in each universities. A convenience sampling method is used in this study. Result: A total of 221 participants were involved in the study in which all
were university students. 42.1% out of the total had utilised the service indicating a moderate level of utilisation of the universities' Optometry clinic. Statistical analysis with Kruskal-Wallis test to compare the level of utilisation between these universities found the distribution of utilisation between all universities to be the same (0.98, P
>0.05) where the significance level is P<0.05. Other than that, the factors identified to affect utilisation were awareness on the importance of eye exam (68.2%), time
(61.7%), and perceived cost (30%). Conclusion: The level of utilisation of Optometry clinic in the universities were moderately good and there was no difference in level of utilisation between the universities. Factors identified to affect the clinic's level of utilisation were awareness on the importance of eye exam, time and perceived cost.


Accurate determination of bulk electrical conductivity with time domain reflectometry (TDR) requires calibration or direct measurement of the probe constant and the cable resistance. The aims of this study were threefold. First, the accuracy of an analytical expression for the direct determination of the probe constant was evaluated for three TDR probe designs by comparing the analytical result with the probe constant obtained by calibration to TDR measurements in solutions with varying electrical conductivity. Second, the accuracy of direct measurement of cable resistance was compared with the accuracy that can be achieved by calibrating this resistance. The uncertainty in directly measured and calibrated probe and cable properties was determined in a Monte Carlo analysis. The results showed that the analytical expression for the probe constant and calibration of the probe constant do not provide significantly different estimates when the uncertainty in both approaches is considered; however, the uncertainty in the calibrated probe constants was lower than or similar to the uncertainty in the direct measurements. Directly measured and calibrated cable resistance differed, which was attributed to recording time issues. It was concluded that calibration of probe and cable parameters should be preferred over direct measurements to achieve accurate bulk electrical conductivity measurements. The final aim of this study was to quantify how the various sources of uncertainty identified in this study affect the accuracy of TDR bulk conductivity measurements. This uncertainty analysis showed that the accuracy of TDR ranges between 0.6 and 1.2% of the bulk electrical conductivity if the reflection coefficient varies between −0.75 and 0.75. Outside this range, the accuracy of the bulk electrical conductivity measurements made with TDR is lower.


This paper addresses the age-old problem of interstate marriage recognition, raised anew by the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. The problem, in a nutshell, is whether and when a state should recognize a marriage validly celebrated elsewhere when its own laws would have prohibited the marriage from taking place. Non-uniform marriage laws and the conflicts they engender are not new. To the contrary, states historically disagreed about many aspects of domestic relations laws, and in particular about marriage prohibitions. Conflicts arose when couples married in one state and then sought recognition of their union in a state that would have prohibited them from marrying - whether because they moved to a new state, had contracted an "evasive" marriage in another state in violation of their home state's laws, or had some transient contact with a state to which validity of their marriage was relevant. Those conflicts were resolved, by and large, according to principles of comity, which were reflected in the established rules governing conflict of laws. Those rules dictated that states should generally recognize marriages that were valid where celebrated unless doing so interfered with an important public policy or interest of the destination state. This "place of celebration" rule was subject to both categorical and semi-categorical exceptions. Fifteen years ago, one might have applied this rule and its exceptions to a hypothetical situation involving same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and made the following predictions: a same-sex marriage from one state would certainly be recognized if it was celebrated by a couple who legitimately resided in Massachusetts and later moved to another state; an evasive same-sex marriage might also be recognized in some states, though not as predictably so; and particular "incidents" of such a marriage might be recognized for limited purposes like inheritance rights in many states, even if the right to cohabit within the state as a married couple was not. The landscape, however, has completely changed. In response to a fear that Hawaii might legalize same-sex marriage in the mid-1990s, Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage for federal purposes to exclude same-sex marriage and giving states the power to deny recognition to same-sex marriages. More than forty states expressly exercised it by adopting statutes or constitutional amendments to preclude courts from authorizing or recognizing same-sex marriages. These enactments were all based on the assumption that the Full Faith and Credit Clause compels one state to recognize marriages from other states regardless of their own laws or policies. The Full Faith and Credit Clause, however, has never been understood to have that effect. To the contrary, states have always had the right to refuse recognition to out-of-state marriages. Thus, while states were busy "protecting" themselves from compelled recognition, they lost the right of voluntary recognition, a right exercised considerably more often, historically, than the right to deny recognition. Principles of comity and the portability of marriage have been sacrificed in this process, and the complexity of the analysis that courts have traditionally undertaken has been short-circuited in favor of an unflinching rule of blanket non-recognition. The paper reconsiders the traditional approach to marriage recognition against the current same-sex marriage landscape. It examines whether, under conventional principles of interstate marriage recognition, states that have enacted barriers to recognition have done so successfully. It also examines the question of recognition in the states without any affirmative barrier.


How farming protects against allergies People who grow up on dairy farms only rarely develop asthma or allergies. This is probably because as children, they breathe air containing bacterial components, which reduce the overall reactivity of the immune system. Schuijs et al. chronically exposed mice to bacterial endotoxin before they received an allergic stimulus. The protocol indeed protected them from developing an allergic response. Protection relied on a particular enzyme: A20. In humans, a variant of A20 correlates with increased susceptibility to asthma and allergy in children growing up on farms. Science, this issue p. 1106 Chronic exposure to bacterial endotoxin protects against allergy through the enzyme A20. Growing up on a dairy farm protects children from allergy, hay fever, and asthma. A mechanism linking exposure to this endotoxin (bacterial lipopolysaccharide)–rich environment with protection has remained elusive. Here we show that chronic exposure to low-dose endotoxin or farm dust protects mice from developing house dust mite (HDM)–induced asthma. Endotoxin reduced epithelial cell cytokines that activate dendritic cells (DCs), thus suppressing type 2 immunity to HDMs. Loss of the ubiquitin-modifying enzyme A20 in lung epithelium abolished the protective effect. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in the gene encoding A20 was associated with allergy and asthma risk in children growing up on farms. Thus, the farming environment protects from allergy by modifying the communication between barrier epithelial cells and DCs through A20 induction.


Consider 3 dimensional Brownian motion started on the unit sphere $\{|x|=1\}$ with initial density $\rho$. Let $\rho_t$ be the first hitting density on the sphere $\{|x|=t+1\}$, $t > 0$. Then the linear operators $T_t$ defined by $T_t$ $\rho=\rho_t$ form a semigroup with an infinitesimal generator which is approximately the square root of the Laplacian. This paper studies the analogous situation for Brownian motion with a drift $\bold b$, where $\bold b$ is small in a suitable scale invariant norm.


This paper explores the interaction between eventive information and morpho-syntax based on Chinese VV compounds. Chinese VV Compounds' identical morpho-syntactic structure represents different event relations between the two component words and the correct interpretation of the meaning of these compounds relies on the prediction on their event relations. Without overt syntactic clues, we propose that ontology-based conceptual classification can be used to predict the event relation between the two component words. Compounding is the most productive way to research multi-word expressions in Mandarin Chinese. A Mandarin VV compound can be classified according to the eventive relation between two simplex verbs, which specifies how the eventive meanings of the two simplex verbs combine to form the meaning of the compound. The way in which two events combine with each other depends upon their event types, and the three types of eventive relations that we deal with in this paper are coordinate, modificational, and resultative. Using an ontology-based prediction approach, we hypothesized that the eventive relations could be predicted by the conceptual classification of the two simplex verbs' event types. First, we utilized SUMO and Sinica BOW to classify each simplex verb. Next, the correlation between the ontology-based classification of each verb position and each eventive type was scored using a manually tagged lexical database and a training set was established. Finally, we encoded the ontological information of each VV compound in a 3-tuple based on these correlation scores. This 3-tuple was represented as a three-dimensional vector and was used to predict the eventive type of the new VV compounds. The results of our findings show that the classification experiments on event relation of unknown VV compounds can be reliably predicted based on the ontological classification of their component words.


This paper examines the determinants and implied economic impacts of climate change adaptation strategies in the context of traditional pastoralism. It is based on econometric analysis of survey data generated from household level interviews in southern Ethiopian rangelands. Pastoralists' perception of climate change in the region is found to be very consistent with the actually recorded trends of increased temperature and the evident secular declines in precipitation. Not only long-term declines, trends in the region's rainfall also appear to have taken a shift towards the direction of more unpredictability. Pastoralist adaptation response strategies broadly involve adjustments in pastoral practices and shifts to non-pastoral livelihoods. Results of the estimated models confirm that pastoral mobility is still quite essential in the present context of climate-induced household vulnerabilities. Increased mobility and diversification of pastoral herd portfolios in favor of a drought-tolerant species (camel) are found to be positively associated with pastoral household net income. A policy stance that ignores the detrimental impacts of the currently pervasive private rangeland enclosures or intends to hasten pastoralist sedentarization in the area is simply untenable in the present context of climate-induced risks and pastoral livelihood vulnerability.


Solution processed/printed electronics have gained a lot of attention in recent years because they are inexpensive, easy to fabricate, can be produced on very large areas and on all kinds of substrates. The choice of suitable functional/active materials that can be printed is of essential for the performance of the electronic devices in printed electronics. In case of printed field-effect transistors (FETs), which are elemental building blocks of most logic circuits, the right choice of solution-processable semiconductors is the key to obtain high performance electronic devices. In this regard, inorganic oxide semiconductors are considered as a suitable material, because of their excellent electronic transport properties, i.e., high intrinsic charge carrier mobility, in combination with the high thermal and environmental stability. In the design of FETs, apart from the semiconductors, gate insulators/dielectrics play a crucial role. In the present thesis, printable composite solid polymer electrolyte (CSPE) is chosen as gate insulator due to its high capacitance (1-10 μF/cm2). Furthermore, CSPEs provide extremely conformal interfaces to the rough oxide semiconductor channel layer, which is the key for high gating efficiency and exceptional device performance.
Two different approaches, i.e., oxide precursors and nanoparticle dispersions, are used to print the semiconductor channels of FETs. The FETs are prepared from appropriate indium oxide precursors, which are annealed at different temperatures (300-500 °C) to be converted to the oxide; however, the devices need to be heated to 400 °C in order to achieve the best electrical performance characterized by a field effect mobility as high as 126 cm2/Vs and a sub-threshold slope of 68 mV/decade, which is close to the theoretical limit. Furthermore, the effect of the annealing rate on the performance of FETs has been studied. In addition to the single components (FET), complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters and common source amplifiers have been prepared following a similar fabrication route using indium oxide and copper oxide precursors (annealed at 400 °C). The CMOS inverters have demonstrated a very high signal gain of 21 at 1.5 V. As a second approach and avoiding high processing temperatures, a novel chemical curing method for nanoparticles has been adopted, resulting in a field-effect mobility value of 12.5 cm2/Vs, strikingly high for a nanoparticulate channel completely processed at room temperature (RT). CMOS inverters based on chemically cured indium oxide and copper oxide nanoparticle dispersions have been prepared, which show a signal gain of 18 at 1.5 V. Another novel technique, i.e. photonic curing, has also been used to fabricate printed FETs on plastic substrates at low temperatures. Precursor-based FETs cured by UV-laser and UV-visible light demonstrate mobility values of 15 and 50 cm2/Vs, whereas nanoparticulate-based FETs by the same methods show mobilities of 12 and 8 cm2/Vs, respectively. These values in comparison with those of organic semiconductors verify the outstanding performance of FETs processed at low temperatures (in some cases, even at RT). Furthermore, the low operating voltages (≤ 2V) can be very attractive for battery compatible and portable electronic devices.


The energy scaling of ultrashort-pulse systems employing simultaneously the techniques of chirped-pulse amplification and passively combined divided-pulse amplification is analyzed both experimentally and numerically. The maximum achievable efficiency is investigated and fundamental limitations originating from gain saturation, self-phase modulation and depolarization are discussed. A solution to these limitations could be an active stabilization scheme, which would allow for the operation of every single fiber amplifier at higher pulse energies.


Interdisciplinarity and its implications for developing a conceptual framework for the Information Field is discussed, and Zhang & Benjamin's (2007) paper Understanding Information Related Fields: A Conceptual Framework is examined. It is argued that the fundamental components of a framework must be seen as embedded in disciplines, with their theories, concepts, approaches and assumptions. It is argued that a theoretically based distinction between multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity is important as a foundation for a discussion of a conceptual framework for the Information Field. It is shown how interdisciplinary theory may inform the development of a shared conceptual framework for the Information Field. A continuum of integration from multi- to inter- to transdisciplinarity is useful for a distinction of different degrees of synthesis, as common conceptual frameworks tend to be associated with transdisciplinarity, which represents the greatest synthesis of approach.


Jess Loseby is an established net and digital artist from the UK. Her primary medium is the internet. She exhibits in national and international projects both online and offline. Her work ranges from small and intimate online installations to large-scale digital projections and video. Loseby's unashamedly low-tech net installations and video build comparisons of the network and digitality into their frustrations, attention to triviality, and repetition as absurdly compatible to the female domestic routine. Themes dealing with individuality and cyber identity reoccur frequently, as do the faces of her children, who seem to be bound up irrevocably with her digital self. Jess Loseby is young(ish), has three children, one husband, and no time!


1. Introduction Media, Culture, Society Starting Points: Shaping, Mirroring and Re-Presenting The Communication Process Transmitters, Receivers and Noise 'Who Says What...?' and Other Questions Linear and One-Dimensional Elements of Media in Sociocultural Context Media, Power and Control Media, Identity and Culture Making Connections PART ONE: ELEMENTS OF MEDIA 2. Media Technologies Introduction Contrasting Medium Theories McLuhan: The Medium Is the Message Kill Your Television Technological Determinism Hot, Cool or Both? Generalization and Reification Technologies and Social Contexts Capacities and Constraints Into the Digital Age Convergence Interactivity Mobility The Internet: A Cure for Social Ills? Conclusion: Technologies in Context 3. Media Industry Introduction Media Organizations Commercial Ownership Concentration of Ownership = Concentration of Ideas? The Bottom Line: Sources of Revenue Advertising Revenue Direct Audience Payments Payments between Media Companies Maximizing Audiences The Role of Sponsors Governments and Regulation Access Restrictions Ownership Restrictions Content Regulation Deregulation Supporting the Industry: Copyright Conclusion: Economic Determinism? 4. Media Content Introduction Media Texts as Arrangements of Signs Signs as Arbitrary? Levels of Meaning Signs as Relational Uncovering Mythology Limitations of Semiology Narrative, Genre and Discourse Analysis Narrative Analysis Genre Analysis Discourse Analysis From Quality to Quantity: Content Analysis 'Systematic, Objective and Quantitative' Categories and Coding Population and Sample Case Study: Gerbner and Television Violence Limitations of Content Analysis Conclusion: Putting Texts into Context 5. Media Users Introduction U S Empirical Traditions of Audience Research Effects Research Limited Effects and Two-Step Flow Uses and Gratifications Functionalist and Complacent? Cultural Studies: Dominant and Oppositional Readings Encoding, Decoding and Preferred Meanings Social Context and Differential Readings Audiences as Cultural Producers Ethnographies of Audiences, Fans and Users Conclusion: An Uncritical Celebration? PART TWO: MEDIA, POWER AND CONTROL 6. Media as Manipulation? Marxism and Ideology Introduction Marxism and Ideology: Basics The Culture Industry as Mass Deception Unsupported Elitism? Ideological Meanings Beyond Marx's Materialism Case Study: Consumerist Myths Political Economy and Ideology Manufacturing Consent Cultural Imperialism as Globalization of Ideology Arguments and Criticisms Political Economic versus Cultural Approaches Complex Communication Flows and Consumer Resistance Conclusion: Avoiding Easy Dismissals 7. The Construction of News Introduction Selection, Gatekeeping and Agenda-Setting News Values Case Study: September 11th 2001 Constructing Stories Differences between News Providers Medium Style and Market Position Political Stance Similarities: Back to Bias and Ideology? Class Bias Institutional Bias Infotainment and Depoliticization Conclusion: Bad News? 8. Public Service or Personal Entertainment? Controlling Media Orientation Introduction Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) Reith and the BBC Differing PSB Arrangements Developing PSB Principles Enabling or Imposing? Censorship: Preventing Harm and Offence Avoiding Majority (and Minority) Offence Pornography Violence Preventing Harm or Inhibiting Freedom? Commercial Competition and Consumer Choice Neo-Liberal Approaches US Broadcasting: A Free Market Model A Toaster with Pictures: The Decline of Regulation Conclusion: A Rosy Commercial Future? 9. Decline of the National Public: Commercialization, Fragmentation and Globalization Introduction Media and the Public Sphere Habermas' Public Sphere Media and Public Engagement Nation as 'Imagined Community' Decline of the Public Sphere From Facilitators to Shapers Commercially Driven Content Digital Dilution of the Nation Fragmentation Globalization The Internet: Interactive but Fragmented Conclusion: National Public - Good Riddance? PART THREE: MEDIA, IDENTITY AND CULTURE 10. Media, Ethnicity and Diaspora Introduction Racism and Exclusion Representation Under-Representation Stereotypical Representations The Reproduction of Subordination Promoting 'Positive' Images Reversing Stereotypes of Passivity Successful, Well Adjusted, Integrated The Burden of Representation New Ethnicities and Diaspora New Ethnicities Diaspora Representing Diaspora Audience Segregation Newspapers, Video and Global Bollywood Digital Specialization Online Diaspora Conclusion: Empowerment or Ghettoization? 11. Media, Gender and Sexuality Introduction Constructions of Femininity Female Marginalization The Male Gaze Patriarchal Romance and Domesticity Post-Feminist Independence? The Enduring Gaze Elitist Critics? Empowering Possibilities Reading the Romance Subversive Pleasures? From Consumers to Producers Remaining Critical Media and Masculinities Masculinity or Masculinities? Lads' Mags and Contradictory Representations Beyond Heterosexuality Conclusion: A Balanced Approach 12. Media Communities: Subcultures, Fans and Identity Groups Introduction Media versus Community Homogenization and Atomization Resisting Mass Culture (and Media): Youth Subcultures Moral Panic and Mass Media Stigmatization Targeting Community Local Media Niche Magazines and Consumer Groupings Niche Digital Media DIY Media and Internet Communication Fanzines Online Micro-Communication Virtual Community Communities or Individuals? Conclusion: All about Definitions 13. Saturation, Fluidity and Loss of Meaning Introduction Saturation as Loss of Meaning Consumerism: Expansion and Speed-up Information Overload Media = Reality From Truth, to Ideology, to Simulacra Celebrity Culture as Hyperreal Identity: Fragmentation and Fluidity Recycling and Pastiche The Internet as Virtual Playground Simulated Identity? Internet as Extension of Everyday Life Case Study: Social Networking Sites Conclusion: Saturated but Real? Glossary


This chapter is based upon an oral paper presented at the IASSID World Congress in South Africa in 2008 and has also been published (for a more comprehensive review of this topic see Taggart et al., 2008). This literature review compares and contrasts three key areas in women with and without intellectual disability focusing on: mental health conditions, the psych-social contextual background of how these conditions develop and the clinical presentation of these conditions. The World Health Organisation (2000) has reported that mental ill health will double by the year 2020 and this will have important ramifications for women particularly, as they are more likely to develop mental health problems compared to men. Moreover, there is a strong body of evidence to show that people with intellectual disabilities are more likely to develop mental health problems compared to the non-intellectual disability population (Bouras & Holt, 2007). However, little is known about the mental health of women with intellectual disability.


a reasonably complete bibliography. Scholarship is organized by authors or by titles of anonymous works. Items included represent the combined entries listed in the annual bibliographies published by P M L A , SP, YWES, and MHRA from 1945 through, in the present instance, 1976. The format used here is a modified version of that used in Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama, ed. Terence P. Logan and Denzel S. Smith, 4 vols. (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1973-78). The E L R series is edited by Elizabeth H. Hageman of the University of NewHampshire and supported by the Department of English, UNH.


The Obama Administration has embarked upon a much-heralded shift in federal policy toward medical marijuana. Eschewing the hard-ball tactics favored by earlier Administrations, Attorney General Eric Holder announced in October 2009 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would stop enforcing the federal marijuana ban against persons who comply with state medical marijuana laws. Given the significance of the medical marijuana issue in both criminal law and federalism circles, this Article sets out to provide the first in-depth analysis of the changes wrought by the DOJ's new Non Enforcement Policy (NEP). In a nutshell, it suggests that early enthusiasm for the NEP is misguided; on close inspection, the NEP represents at most a very modest change in federal policy. First, the NEP won't necessarily stop federal agents from pursuing criminal prosecutions of marijuana dispensaries. In a twist of irony, the non-enforcement policy itself is not enforceable. It doesn't create any legal rights a court could invoke to dismiss a criminal case. And the DOJ itself will have a difficult time ensuring that federal prosecutors comply with the agency's stated policy. Second, even assuming the NEP would block criminal prosecutions, federal law could still obstruct state medical marijuana programs by imposing - or enabling others to impose - a wide range of civil and private sanctions on medical marijuana users and their suppliers. The problem is the NEP doesn't repeal the federal ban on marijuana. Marijuana technically remains illegal under federal law, and the possession, cultivation, or distribution of the drug trigger a host of civil sanctions not addressed by the NEP. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) can deny federal housing subsidies to medical marijuana users, and pharmaceutical companies could potentially bring civil RICO actions against marijuana dispensaries. What is more, the federal ban arguably preempts states from shielding marijuana users and dispensaries from sanctions imposed by private parties. For example, employers can likely skirt liability under state law for discriminating against employees who use marijuana for medical purposes. Metaphorically, the federal ban is a hydra, only one head of which has been severed by the NEP (and one that could too easily be regrown). The labor of ending federal prohibition is not yet complete.


Circulating osteoprotegerin (OPG) promotes bone formation in vivo and correlates with the presence of type 2 diabetes, severity of vascular calcification and coronary artery disease. Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease but little is known about the impact of body weight on circulating OPG. The purpose of these experiments was to evaluate the impact of body mass index, vascular dysfunction and insulin sensitivity on circulating concentrations of OPG. This thesis investigated; (i) The effect of obesity and insulin sensitivity on circulating OPG levels; (ii) The effect of type 2 diabetes and vascular dysfunction on OPG levels; (iii) The influence of glycaemic status on circulating OPG concentrations. Briefly, our findings were as follows (i) obese subjects who have normal glucose tolerance and are free from cardiovascular disease have lower circulating levels of OPG than their lean age matched counterparts. (ii) Osteoprotegerin is inversely correlated with insulin sensitivity, adiponectin and indicators of total body and visceral adiposity and positively correlated with aerobic fitness. (iii) TNF receptor apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) is positively correlated with both fat mass and waist circumference, independent of age, gender and BMI. (iv) OPG is significantly higher as is IL-6 and hsCRP and adiponectin significantly lower in type 2 diabetics than in age and gender matched normoglycemic controls, while there is no difference in TNF-α, TRAIL or sRANKL concentrations. (v) Osteoprotegerin is higher in type 2 diabetics after excluding patients with previously diagnosed vascular disease, a distinction which could not be made using traditional inflammatory markers such as IL-6, hsCRP or TNF-α. (vi). There is no difference in OPG concentrations between those with prediabetes and overt type 2 diabetes, however both conditions appear to have significantly higher levels than age and BMI matched obese normoglycemic controls. (Sipos et al., 2008) Lean subjects have OPG concentrations which are similar to that of both prediabetic and type 2 diabetic patients but significantly higher than their matched lean counterparts. Circulating OPG is lower in obese, but otherwise healthy subjects, and correlates with indices of insulin sensitivity. OPG (but not RANKL or TRAIL) was found to be elevated in type 2 diabetes. OPG may have a protective effect on vascular cells and the observed decrease in circulating concentrations with increasing BMI could be an early biomarker of vascular dysfunction. It remains to be determined whether an increase in insulin secretion, insulin resistance, adiposity or systemic inflammation is the main regulatory factor.


This call for proposals is meant to serve NASA's ever-evolving set of missions which require precise tracking of spacecraft position and velocity in order to achieve mission success. The call seeks evolutionary improvements in modularity, sustainability, cost, and performance for current space navigation concepts that support the Vision for Space Exploration, including all development spirals of systems of systems supporting Projects Constellation, Prometheus, robotic servicing, and robotic earth and space science missions. NASA also seeks disruptive navigation concepts that might not match the modularity, sustainability, cost, and/or performance of current technologies and their near-term evolution, but have convincingly demonstrable potential to overtake the evolution of current technologies within the timeframe of the later spirals of Projects Constellation and Prometheus, and earth and space science missions in the 2015-2020 timeframes.


Large grain angles in timber can have a negative effect on wood quality by reducing dimensional stability, strength properties and performance, and causing twisting and warping in sawn timber and poles. In this study, we assessed the impact of tree spacing and site exposure on grain angle, based on the measurements from 360 discs cut from Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) trees from Northern Britain (Scotland and Northern England). The results show that planting on sites exposed to strong prevailing winds, planting at wider spacing or undertaking heavy thinning can significantly increase spiral grain angle. Using the mixed-effect model, we found that between-tree variation ranged from 3.6 to 33.3 per cent, variation due to disc position within the tree ranged from 5.7 to 47.8 per cent; and between-ring variations within discs ranged from 0 to 38.5 per cent. Residual variation ranged from 25.7 to 64.8 per cent. Grain angles are greater at the juvenile stage than at the mature stage of wood development. A non-linear model, developed to predict grain angle, explained only 16 per cent of total variation in grain angle, despite the inclusion of several stand covariates into the model. Although the mixed-effect model improved the root mean square error (RMSE) by 26 per cent, and the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) rose to 53 per cent, its usage requires that a sample of grain angle measurements be made on the particular site for model calibration. The silvicultural response to reduced grain angle would be to plant at closer spacing and delay thinning or thin lightly, or to avoid planting Sitka spruce on very exposed sites. Given that grain angle is highly heritable, a further option is to reduce grain angle through selective breeding.


Abstract The original description of the hydroxide perovskite jeanbandyite gives a formula (Fe3+1-x⃞x)(Sn1-y, ⃞y)(OH)6(⃞= vacancy), which implies the possibility of stoichiometric vacancies at B and B′ sites. The validity of this formula has been questioned subsequently. Furthermore, jeanbandyite has metrically a cubic unit cell, but it is optically uniaxial. It is clear that a structure determination is needed to clarify the nature of this enigmatic mineral. Previous studies could find no crystals of sufficient quality for structure determination using X-ray diffractometers available at the time. Crystals of jeanbandyite from Hingston Down, Cornwall, UK and the type locality Llallagua, Bolivia, have been found that are of a quality that allows structure refinement by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Structural data for crystals from each locality are presented that clarify the nature of jeanbandyite and raise some interesting questions concerning the significance of partially deprotonated states in perovskite-type structures. The structures of both jeanbandyite crystals are cubic with space group Pn3̄ and unit-cell parameters a = 7.658(2) Å (Llallagua) and 7.6427(2) Å (Hingston). The octahedral tilt system is a+a+a+ and corresponds to that of the aristotype of BB′(OH)6 hydroxide double perovskites. Structure determination demonstrates that B is very Fe3+-rich and B′ is filled by Sn, thereby requiring revision of the general jeanbandyite formula to Fe3+x Fe2+(1-x)Sn(OH)(6-x)Ox for 1 ≥ × > 0.5, with an ideal end-member formula Fe3+Sn(OH)5O. As such, jeanbandyite corresponds to oxidized natanite with partially deprotonated oxygen sites. This stoichiometry cannot be represented in space group Pn3̄ for the observed unit cell as it implies more than one non-equivalent oxygen atom. Consequently, it is inferred that there is no long-range ordering of deprotonated oxygen sites. It is, however, conceivable that the uniaxial optical character of jeanbandyite is linked to the local short-range order of deprotonated domains.


The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new signal-processing strategy, spatiotemporal pattern correction (SPC), that is based on our knowledge of the level-dependent temporal response properties of auditory nerve fibers in normal and impaired ears. In normal-hearing listeners, tuning is sharp for low-level inputs and broadens as input level increases. When peripheral filters change their shape with input level, the phase properties of the filters and the latency of the filter's response also change. However, in listeners with hearing loss, tuning is broad for both low- and high-level inputs. Thus, there is little change in the phase properties of the filters for different input levels. The SPC strategy manipulates the temporal aspects of different frequency channels of sounds in an attempt to "correct" for this abnormal spatiotemporal response pattern of the impaired ear. Quality judgments and intelligibility measures of speech processed at various SPC strengths were obtained from a small group of normal-hearing listeners and listeners with hearing loss. In general, listeners with hearing loss preferred sentences with some degree of SPC processing, whereas normal-hearing listeners preferred unprocessed sentences. Benefit from SPC on the nonsense syllable test varied greatly across phonemes and listeners. A more comprehensive study of listeners with different degrees and configurations of hearing loss is needed to determine the amount of SPC benefit.


Technological amplification has expended the involvement of information and communication technology in public sectors and enhanced governmental dependence on information systems which restrains the management attention towards improving the effectiveness of e-government services. Based on the analytical review of literature, it was found that most of the e-government evaluation models address the e-service dimensions that assess the quality of e-government websites. This gives a very constrict perspective to e-government and ignores the key dimensions. It becomes important to understand how citizens perceive and evaluate e-government services. This involves defining what e-government service is, identifying its underlying dimensions, and determining how it can be measured. Therefore, periodical evaluation of the effectiveness of e-government services becomes essential.

Foregoing discussion clearly indicates the necessity of developing a well founded e-government e-service effectiveness evaluation framework which not only evaluates the e-government service effectiveness but also evaluates the e-government service quality criteria and the citizens" perception in the form of citizens" trust in offered e-services. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop a framework (E-GEEF) "e-government service effectiveness evaluation framework" that assesses e-government service effectiveness from the citizens" (G2C) perspective. A systematic study of the existing e-government service assessment frameworks has been carried out to establish the basis for conceptualizing a theoretical framework called e-government service effectiveness evaluation framework (E-GEEF). In this research, the author attempts to explore the underlying dimensions and factors of e-government services, and has proposed an effectiveness evaluation framework (E-GEEF). Present empirical research adapted DeLone and McLean, (2003) IS success model as base model which is upgradable and extendable, hence additional dimensions were incorporated to develop a novel framework (E-GEEF) for evaluating the effectiveness of e-government service. The suggested framework has identified number of measuring dimensions and associated items within each dimension for (E-GEEF). System quality, information quality, and service quality dimensions were adopted from DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model and "intention to use and user satisfaction" dimensions were re-specified in proposed framework (E-GEEF) as "citizens" use / usefulness" and "citizens" satisfaction". Further, "citizens" trust, perceived e-government service quality, and perceived effectiveness" were incorporated as new dimensions in the proposed framework (E-GEEF). Three new dimensions were identified and two existing dimensions were re-specified for evaluating the effectiveness of e-government service. Sixteen hypotheses were formulated from literature on existing e-government assessment frameworks to test the proposed framework (E-GEEF). In order to test the proposed framework and their associated dimensions, Indian e-tax service was considered, because e-tax service of Indian e-government is utilized by several Indian citizens for filing their taxes. Preliminary qualitative study was carried out carefully to ensure whether all important dimensions and measurement items were included in the proposed framework E-GEEF in the right research context or not.

Empirical research has used quantitative analysis for validating the proposed framework (E-GEEF). Data collection was done using survey which was conducted among citizens of India who have been utilizing e-tax service as users. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to ensure the data normality by using SPSS 20. Structural equation modeling statistical technique was applied using AMOS 21 on the collected data for testing the hypotheses.

The empirical research findings have confirmed most of the hypothesized relationships within the validated framework (E-GEEF). Consequently, in terms of the theoretical implications, this study emphasizes the significance of such hypothesized relationships when performing empirical research in e-government context. Key findings demonstrated the strong relationships of perceived e-government service quality with system quality, information quality, service quality, and citizens" satisfaction. Further, citizens" trust exhibited direct
relationships with perceived e-government service quality and perceived effectiveness of e-government service. Thus, as a major contribution to the proposed research, the identified new dimensions "perceived e-government service quality, citizens" trust, perceived effectiveness" and re-specified dimensions "citizens" use/usefulness and citizens" satisfaction" have shown great significance in evaluating effectiveness of e-government e-tax service in Indian G2C context. The developed and validated framework (E-GEEF) provides government agencies with an appropriate approach and dimensions in order to evaluate the effectiveness of e-government services.


The identity, knowledge systems, production practices and consumption pattern of Kondhs links them with their ecological realities. Their economy is underpinned with the ethos of communitarianism and reciprocity. However, this community is experiencing changes in its way of life due to different external interventions such as market based 'mainstream development', stringent forest policies and unsecured land rights. These changes have particularly affected the rights and status of Kondh women, considering their high dependence on forest for food, fodder and livelihood. This study not only focuses on the changes but also emphasizes the strategies utilized by Kondh women to deal with the changing consequences. It tries to understand if the state forest policies, as claimed, have been able to secure access and rights of the forest to the adivasi women. It is qualitative in nature and uses interview method to grasp the experiences of Kondh women in Rayagada district of Odisha. It concludes that forest policies often neglected women's worldviews, excluding them from making decisions regarding forest management and governance. It highlights the fact that securing community land rights to women is the most sustainable way to safeguard forest biodiversity.


This paper uses cointegration and vector autoregressive (VAR) model to investigate the long-run drivers and short-term dynamics of the real house prices in Sweden for the period 1986Q to 1995Q4. Specifically, we examine the extent to which real house prices are determined by affordability, demographic, and asset price factors. The empirical results indicate house prices to increase in the long-run by 0.8% in response to a 1% increase in household's real disposable income, while after tax mortgage interest rate and real effective exchange rate show average long-term effects of approximately - 1% and - 5.3%, respectively. Suggesting that fiscal policy aimed to dampen real house appreciation needs to adress the issue of tax deductibility on mortgage rate. In addition, our results indicate that the growth of real house prices is affected by the growth of mortgage credit, after tax mortgage interest rate and disposable income in the short run, and among which the real effective exchange rate is the most significant determinant behind Swedish real house appreciation.


Preparation of hierarchical macropore activated carbon monolith (HMACM) from rubber wood was investigated. The samples were prepared with small cutting of rubber wood in cross sectional method. The electrode preparation was started by pre-carbonization process followed by carbonization at 600 oC and physical activation process at 900 oC in N2 and CO2 gas atmosphere, respectively. The samples then were followed by chemical activation process with combination of chemical activation agent of KOH and HNO3 solutions. The HMACMs were neutralized by immersing the samples in copious amount of water and dried the samples for 24 hours. Porosity properties were performed by N2 adsorption-desorption data and morphology characterization was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) instrument. The electrochemical properties was studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge at constan current methode.  The SEM micrograph and adsorption-desorption data were also proved that the HMACM sample have a hierarchical macropore at the surface and crossectional section. The porosity data shown the HMACM sample have BET surface area of 331 m2/g with average pore diameter of 1.7 nm. Equivalent series resistance and optimum capacitance specific of the HMACM electrode of 0.77 Ohm and 154 F/g, respectively. In conclusion, this study showed that the preparation method would propose as a simple method of HMACM electrode preparation technique for supercapacitor applications.


Slip along low-angle normal faults is a mechanical paradox requiring activation of strain weakening mechanisms. Microstructures present in the slip zones of incipient low-angle normal faults cutting carbonates in the Southern Apennines of Italy show that slip was promoted by two weakening mechanisms producing a reduction of the friction coefficient: (1) high pore fluid pressures; (2) dynamic weakening related to thermal decomposition indicated by decarbonation microstructures and concomitant localized dynamic calcite recrystallization. Furthermore, as a consequence of thermal decomposition, nanoparticles occur as infilling of injection veins, suggesting that powder lubrication processes are active along the slip surface during seismic slip. Supplementary materials: A geological sketch of the study area, detailed field photographs of the studied faults and detailed micrographs are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18806.


The goals of universal health coverage (UHC) are to ensure that all people can access quality health services, to safeguard all people from public health risks, and to protect all people from impoverishment due to illness, whether from out-of-pocket payments for health care or loss of income when a household member falls sick. Countries as diverse as Brazil, France, Japan, Thailand, and Turkey have shown how UHC can serve as vital mechanisms for improving the health and welfare of their citizens, and lay the foundation for economic growth and competitiveness grounded in the principles of equity and sustainability. Ensuring universal access to affordable, quality health services will be an important contribution to ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where most of the world's poor live. The book synthesizes the experiences from 11 countries - Bangladesh, Brazil, France, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Peru, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam - in implementing policies and strategies to achieve and sustain UHC. These countries represent diverse geographic and economic conditions, but all have committed to UHC as a key national aspiration and are approaching it in different ways. The study examined the UHC policies for each country around three common themes: (i) the political economy and policy process for adopting, achieving, and sustaining UHC; (ii) health financing policies to enhance health coverage; and (iii) human resources for health policies for achieving UHC. The findings from these country studies are intended to provide lessons that can be used by countries aspiring to adopt, achieve, and sustain UHC. Although the path to UHC is specific to each country, countries can benefit from the experiences of others in learning about different approaches and avoiding potential risks.


This report summarizes the key findings and action points coming out of a symposium on digital risks in armed conflicts and other situations of violence, held in December 2018 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The two-day event brought together representatives from humanitarian organizations, academia, tech companies and governments, as well as donor representatives. Discussions focused on how the use of digital technologies, including by parties to conflict and private companies, but also by the humanitarian sector as part of a humanitarian response, could put crisis-affected people at risk and make them more vulnerable both onand offline. Available at: https://shop.icrc.org/symposium-report-digital-risks-in-armedconflicts-print-en.


We present a study here on elasto-electro-capillarity - for the first time, the matter of drop equilibrium on a soft (elastic and incompressible) and charged solid has been studied. Charges on the elastic solid induce an electric double layer or EDL at the solid-drop interface. Our analysis accounts for the electrostatic wetting contribution of the EDL in the overall energy balance. Our results reveal that (a) with an increase in "softness", the equilibrium solid-liquid contact angles show transition from the EDL-modified Young's law (rigid limit) to the EDL-modified Neumann's law (soft limit); (b) the EDL effects invariably enhance solid deformation and lower the apparent contact angle made by the drop with the undeformed solid; (c) the solid contact angles increase and the cusp made by the deformed solid undergoes enhanced rotation due to the EDL effects; and (d) the EDL effects are more prominent for the case where the solid-vapor surface energy exceeds the solid-liquid surface energy. The fact that the EDL effects invariably decrease the overall wetting energy of the system, thereby supporting a larger increase in the elastic energy associated with a larger solid deformation, explains all these findings and establishes that surface charges enhance the "softness" of a soft surface in the context of elastocapillarity.


Mass appraisal is a group valuation techniques, that replicate the property market behaviour through a representative model. In some property markets there are few market data and the information sources are uncertainty, therefore econometric modelling may be difficulty or unreliability. In these cases econometric modelling of relationship between the dependent variable (property price) and the independent variables (property characteristics), may be difficult. Rough Set Theory is a property valuation methodology recently applied to property market (d'Amato, 2002). The model permit to estimate a property without defining an econometric model. In this methodology the econometric relation is replaced by an if then rule. The RST has been improved with a evalue tolerance relation', in order to make more flexible the relationship between rules and sample of observation (d'Amato, 2004). Both methodology, Multiple Regression Analysis and Rough Set Theory, has been tested on sample of residential property transaction. The data comes from the Real Estate Market Observatory of the University Polytechnic of Bari.


Software architecture is no more a mere system specification as resulting from the design phase, but it includes the process by which its specification was carried out. In this respect, design decisions in component-based software engineering play an important role: they are used to enhance the quality of the system, keep the current market level, keep partnership relationships, reduce costs, and so forth. For non trivial systems, a recurring situation is the selection of an asset origin, that is if going for in-house, outsourcing, open-source, or COTS, when in the need of a certain missing functionality. Usually, the decision making process follows a case-by-case approach, in which historical information is largely neglected: hence, it is avoided the overhead of keeping detailed documentation about past decisions, but it is hampered consistency among multiple, possibly related, decisions.The ORION project aims at developing a decision support framework in which historical decision information plays a pivotal role: it is used to analyse current decision scenarios, take well-founded decisions, and store the collected data for future exploitation. In this paper, we outline the potentials of such a knowledge repository, including the information it is intended to be stored in it, and when and how to retrieve it within a decision case.


This article examines the recent court trials of the twelve men who were implicated in the brutal killing of three Ahmadis, and of injuring several others, in a demonstration against Ahmadiyah in Cikeusik in 2011. It calls into question the integrity of the criminal justice system, and argues that the government must take a firm stance against the perpetrators of vigilante violence by ensuring fair and impartial trials in criminal cases concerning religious intolerance, rather than criminalising the activities of religious minorities.


This thesis addresses the possibility of applying the compressed sensing (CS) framework to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) acquisition. The fMRI is one of the non-invasive neuroimaging technique that allows the brain activity to be captured and analysed in a living body. One disadvantage of fMRI is the trade-off between the spatial and temporal resolution of the data. To keep the experiments within a reasonable length of time, the current acquisition technique sacrifices the spatial resolution in favour of the temporal resolution. It is possible to improve this trade-off using compressed sensing.

The main contribution of this thesis is to propose a novel reconstruction method, named Referenced Compressed Sensing, which exploits the redundancy between a signal and a correlated reference by using their distance as an objective function. The compressed video sequences reconstructed using Referenced CS have at least 50% higher in terms of Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) compared to state-of-the-art conventional reconstruction methods. This thesis also addresses two issues related to Referenced CS. Firstly, the relationship between the reference and the reconstruction performance is studied. To maintain the high-quality references, the Running Gaussian Average (RGA) reference estimator is proposed. The reconstructed results have at least 3dB better PSNR performance with the use of RGA references. Secondly, the Referenced CS with Least Squares is proposed. This study shows that by incorporating the correlated reference, it is possible to perform a linear reconstruction as opposed to the iterative reconstruction commonly used in CS. This approach gives at least 19% improvement in PSNR compared to the state of the art, while reduces the computation time by at most 1200 times.

The proposed method is applied to the fMRI data. This study shows that, using the same amount of samples, the data reconstructed using Referenced CS has higher resolution than the conventional acquisition technique and has on average 50% higher PSNR than state-of-the-art reconstructions. Lastly, to enhance the feature of interest in the fMRI data, the baseline independent (BI) analysis is proposed. Using the BI analysis shows up to 25% improvement in the accuracy of the Referenced CS feature.