This thesis attempts to provide a detailed account of the process
by which medical supervision of the health of school children
became established in England and Wales. The analysis focuses
primarily on the foundation of the School Medical Service in
1907 and its subsequent history. Although the School Medical
Service itself is sometimes regarded as a consequence of the
fears about the national condition aroused by the South African
War, evidence suggests that the earliest attempts to monitor
the physical condition of school children occurred during the
school board era, when the links between health and nutrition
and educational performance became apparent. A consequence of
the ad hoc development of work in the field of school hygiene
during this period was the emergence of a number of political,
professional and even personal disputes following the establishment
of the School Medical Service nationally. These meant that
uniformity of"standards and of administration had not been achieved
by the outbreak of the First World War. Particular difficulties
were encountered in London, which is the subject of a special
study. Despite these, there was a gradual growth in medical
treatment and other non-mandatory services, resulting in the
creation of an entirely new agency of treatment; the school clinic.
The demands for doctors for military duties in the First World
War curtailed some of the work of the School Medical Service, but
treatment facilities continued to expand. After the war, the
passage of legislation affecting all aspects of the Service marked
the end of the first phase in the creation of a national system
of health care for school children. The study concludes by
attempting to assess the significance of the establishment of the
School Medical Service, and its impact during the first stage of its development.


16. Abstract For many decades, degradation of concrete by freezing actions has been a primary interest of research for civil engineers. Past studies mostly relied on expensive and time-consuming experimental or semi-empirical investigations to identify the source of damage that is attributable to substandard aggregates, inadequate entrained air content, highly porous mortar or cement matrix, and use of deicing salts. Theoretical works developed in recent years do not incorporate all these factors in one single model. Very recently, concrete has gained widespread popularity as a cheap alternative to traditional material utilized for containing liquefied natural gas (LNG). Most studies documenting concrete behavior at cryogenic temperatures are obscure. Therefore, poroelastic theory, capable of incorporating aggregate and mortar properties, pore solution characteristics, air void spacing, and environmental exposure has been utilized to model damage triggering stresses and strain in concrete used for two purposes: 1) concrete pavement exposed to freezing and thawing cycles, and 2) concrete walled tanks containing LNG. The solid-liquid phase transformation equilibrium has been redeveloped to demonstrate the effect of pore solution speciation and disjoining pressure on the deformation of freezing concrete. The modeled trends are in good agreement with experimental results obtained from literature. It has been found that the damage initiating tensile stresses, exhibited at the aggregate-matrix boundary for both the air-entrained and non-air-entrained concrete, can be exacerbated by the Mandel-Cryer effect induced by the delayed relaxation of the pore pressure from the aggregate center. The model suggests that high-porosity, low-permeability aggregates are the most vulnerable to D-cracking. Concrete with low-porosity, low-permeability mortar matrix, typical of mortar containing supplementary cementitious materials and/or low water to cement ratio, can withstand freezing deformation even with a spacing factor larger than the recommended value. In addition, thermodynamic analysis shows that the disjoining force favors crystal growth, while the dissolved ions suppress the freezing point but are still capable of building high hydraulic pressure in the pore network. We believe that implementation of these models will help practitioners select appropriate combinations and proportions of concrete mixture constituents to build safe, economic, and durable concrete structures.  17. Key Words


We present a morphology-aware nonparametric Bayesian model of language whose prior distribution uses manually constructed finitestate transducers to capture the word formation processes of particular languages. This relaxes the word independence assumption and enables sharing of statistical strength across, for example, stems or inflectional paradigms in different contexts. Our model can be used in virtually any scenario where multinomial distributions over words would be used. We obtain state-of-the-art results in language modeling, word alignment, and unsupervised morphological disambiguation for a variety of morphologically rich languages.


This paper explores questions of identity and social roles in the Spectator community of practice and its broader periodical discourse community in commercial publishing in early eighteenth-century London. A keyword analysis of the Spectator essays reveals the lexical underpinnings of the periodical's social niche in the form of its eidolon, Mr Spectator. A study comparing the periodicals published in the first two decades of the eighteenth century with the Spectator highlights the different social agendas of the Spectator and contemporary party political periodical papers. The paper concludes that the Spectator's identity and social roles are distinct from those of its principal authors, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, thereby casting new light on the significance of authorship in the period.


The EU Barcelona target assumes a close causal relationship between corporate R&D, the competitiveness of business firms and the economic performance of industrial countries. Testing this hypothesis, this paper contrasts innovation and production activities in four research intensive manufacturing sectors (chemicals and pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, machinery, and electrical engineering). Starting point are observed long-term changes in worldwide value added of the manufacturing sector. The empirical analysis is based on a unique survey of R&D-intensive business firms in Germany and 50 personal interviews in large industrial companies. The results show that there is no simple connection between R&D and competitiveness. Moreover, the likely consequences of promoting R&D differ substantially between industries. COMMENT: Dirk Fornahl


In the years before he gained prominence as an activist, the singer Bono and the group U2 released a song in which it admonished: "just like all the rest, been tryin' to throw your arms around the world." Fourteen years after the release of this song, the World Trade Organization ("WTO") began its "Aid for Trade" initiative, which aims to coordinate and monitor the many forms of aid given by donor states and organizations to partner states in order to bolster a variety of trade and trade-related sectors of the partner states' economic structure. In a sense, the Aid for Trade initiative seeks to be a break from other aid programs that are administered in an uncoordinated fashion by a variety of state, regional and international actors. The Aid for Trade initiative has solicited information from donor states, donor organizations and partner states, released information from these states and organization, as well as reports on the overall state of aid for trade, and hosted several regional meetings on the topic since its 2005 inception. And yet, among the many aid and trade issues that have been the subject of inquiry by the Aid for Trade initiative, there is a glaring and, in the author's view, fatal gap: failure to address anti-bribery and corruption measures. The goal of this article is to discuss the relationship between the Aid for Trade initiative and anti-bribery/corruption measures in order to demonstrate that, without explicitly addressing anti-bribery and corruption, the WTO Aid for Trade initiative is "just like all the rest," and indeed only attempts to throw one arm around the world of issues associated with aiding developing countries' trading and economic systems. Part II of this article provides background on the WTO's Aid for Trade initiative. It then discusses the results of a co-reporting study of cooperative states, conducted in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development ("OECD"). Further, this part discusses the incorporation of the Aid for Trade initiative into the aid and development strategies used by donor and partner states. It also discusses the handling of the Aid for Trade initiative in WTO Trade Policy Reviews issues since the creation of the Aid for Trade initiative and the manner in which the Aid for Trade initiative has been incorporated into international donation strategies. Part III discusses the established relationship between bribery and corruption within the aid and development assistance cycle and the inhibition of meaningful trade growth and development in partner states as a result of unaddressed bribery and corruption. It then reviews the extant international and regional conventions regarding the prevention of bribery and corruption in order to demonstrate that these conventions do not explicitly connect bribery and corruption issues with trade-related aid and development assistance. This discussion leads to Part IV, which takes the lessons of and gaps discussed in Parts II and III and proposes linking the WTO's Aid for Trade initiative with the fight against bribery and corruption. This proposal is made in order to ensure that the Aid for Trade initiative views trade-related aid and development assistance as a holistic set of forces within donor and partner states, not as a compartmentalized concept which disregards issues that necessarily touch on the possibility of achieving meaningful and lasting advances in the trade structures of partner states and their governments. Finally, Part V concludes that it is only when such a holistic view is taken that the Aid for Trade initiative can be said to be throwing both arms around the world of development and trade, and that it is not just like all the rest.


The cornerstone underpinning deep learning is the guarantee that gradient descent on an objective converges to local minima. Unfortunately, this guarantee fails in settings, such as generative adversarial nets, where there are multiple interacting losses. The behavior of gradient-based methods in games is not well understood -- and is becoming increasingly important as adversarial and multi-objective architectures proliferate. In this paper, we develop new techniques to understand and control the dynamics in general games. The key result is to decompose the second-order dynamics into two components. The first is related to potential games, which reduce to gradient descent on an implicit function; the second relates to Hamiltonian games, a new class of games that obey a conservation law, akin to conservation laws in classical mechanical systems. The decomposition motivates Symplectic Gradient Adjustment (SGA), a new algorithm for finding stable fixed points in general games. Basic experiments show SGA is competitive with recently proposed algorithms for finding local Nash equilibria in GANs -- whilst at the same time being applicable to -- and having guarantees in -- much more general games.


This guide will help you find useful research and information on Indigenous Peoples of Canada (First Nations, Metis & Inuit) and will assist students in their studies and assignments.


This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) uptake determined by positron emission tomography (PET) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in relation to disease stage and/or tumor histology. A retrospective review of 144 patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer undergoing PET imaging was performed. Differences in survival were compared by univariate and multivariate analyses. Univariate analysis identified three prognostic factors: stage, lesion size and the standardized 18F-FDG uptake value. The latter was a better prognostic predictor in lung cancer patients with early-stage disease than in those at advanced stages. Multivariate analysis revealed that the most important prognostic factors were tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and the standardized 18F-FDG uptake value. Patients with standardized uptake values (SUVs) >8 had a 2.5 times higher mortality rate than those with values ≤8. A one-unit increase in SUV corresponded with a 7% increase in the hazard of death. SUVs provided stronger prognostic stratification in patients with adenocarcinoma than in those with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Furthermore, the best choice of prognostic predictor differed between the two types of lung cancer: the SUV was best for SCC, while TNM stage was most significant for adenocarcinoma. In conclusion, 18F-FDG uptake in primary lung lesions is an independent prognostic predictor in patients with NSCLC, especially those with adenocarcinoma or early-stage disease. Further stratification of patients with the same TNM stage based on SUVs may allow for the modification of individual treatment strategies, resulting in improved outcome.


As in most OECD countries, smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption have been decreasing in Germany since the early 2000s. This paper analyses whether smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption, as well as their development over time, differ between socio-economic subgroups. Identifying these differences provides insights into the effect of policy interventions on German smoking behaviour. Based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a large longitudinal study of the German population, we find that both the decline in smoking prevalence and the decline in average cigarette consumption were probably driven by a behavioural change of younger people, as well as of those with a high educational level and those with a high income. People who quit smoking were on average more highly educated, had a higher income and had most likely a lower cigarette consumption (before quitting). In contrast, smoking prevalence increased among people who were older than 45 and had a low educational level and among those who were unemployed. Smoking prevalence among women was relatively constant over time. Indeed, the smoking prevalence of women and men converged over time, especially in older age groups. Daily cigarette consumption of smokers increased among 66-to-75-year-olds, although it decreased in all other age groups. One explanation might be that the tobacco control measures were successful only in certain socio-economic subgroups. Not only smoking prevalence, but also smoking intensity was higher among men, among those with a lower educational level and among those with a lower income. Especially for younger birth cohorts, smoking prevalence among those with a lower educational level was particularly high. Thus, based on data from 1998 through 2014, the so-called social gradient in smoking was only a distinct feature of younger birth cohorts, and not of older ones.


Three plate boundaries, the Queen Charlotte transform, the Cascadia subduction zone, and the Juan de Fuca Ridge, meet in a complex triple junction offshore Vancouver Island. Some interpretations of the plate tectonics of the region have included the Explorer ridge, the Dellwood Knolls, and the Tuzo Wilson volcanic field as part of the spreading system, requiring up to three triple junctions in the region. New SeaBeam bathymetry interpreted with existing regional data sets indicate that the Dellwood Knolls and Tuzo Wilson volcanic field are not independent plate boundaries, but the result of leaky transform tectonics between two overlapping transform faults. Seismicity shows that the Explorer plate is being deformed by Pacific–North American relative motion as a new transform plate boundary forms and cuts off the Explorer ridge. The system is evolving to a single triple junction at the northern terminus of the Juan de Fuca Ridge where it meets the Nootka deformation zone. Thus the Explorer microplate, which was spawned ≈5 Ma, is an ephemeral adjustment to mechanical difficulties at the triple junction. This new model implies that the Explorer subduction zone is no longer active. Ephemeral oceanic microplates have also existed at Pacific–North American triple junctions off southern California and Baja California.


This article reports on a study that sought to elicit the views of male university students on risk and protective factors to male interpersonal violence. The participants were 116 third-year students who participated in a final year research project in the Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) Programme at the University of Western Cape (UWC). Each of the students conducted six semistructured face to face interviews with male students. Following initial analyses of the interviews, a video-recorded class discussion was held to discuss the research findings. The data from the class discussion was captured under the four levels of individual, relationship, community and society, utilised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its World Health Report on Violence and Health. The analysis of the class discussion and the students' own research reports revealed that at the individual level, risk and protective factors primarily revolve around the challenges of constructing a viable masculinity in specific social and economic contexts; at the relationship level, the key factors appear to be the experiences and expectations around gender roles and family dynamics; at the community level, it seems that weak or non-existent community networks and activities feed into increasing the risk of male community members becoming involved in violence. Each of these three levels needs to be understood against the historically specific backdrop of the societal ecological level: the gendered cultural values expressed in and reflected


I landed my dream job: a tenure-track position at a primarily undergraduate institution near my hometown where I would develop a new neuroscience major. I entered that position the way one enters a marriage: expecting it to last forever, assuming I would give it everything I had, hoping that—while it would not always be easy—it would be worth it. Soon, though, something seemed amiss. It felt kind of like sexism—but not exactly. Whatever it was, I experienced it from both women and men, from the department chair to the administrative assistant. It was only after many years and a career upheaval that I learned there was a legal term to describe it.

![Figure][1]

ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

Relatively early on, an administrator asked me to meet with every member of the department to tell them about my teaching schedule. It was odd. None of us knew anyone else's schedules, and mine wasn't particularly unusual, just Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Was this just a normal part of being a junior faculty member? If it was, then why didn't I know the schedule of a colleague who started with me? I had just returned from maternity leave.

One morning, my 2-year-old son had a serious fall and I needed to take him to the emergency room. When I got to campus the next day, a colleague stopped by. He told me that, at lunch, he had heard about what happened and had said to everyone there, "Hey, if I had a dollar for every time I fell on my head, I'd be a millionaire." Maybe he thought it was funny. I saw it as suggesting that I had foolishly overreacted and shouldn't have let my son's injury take me away from my academic work. I had seen colleagues go out of their way to cover one another's classes when they needed to take a pet to the vet, go to the dentist, or attend their Friday jazz practice. Why was the reaction to me so different?

Later, when the department chair position opened up, I was not invited to apply. I had created and directed one of the most popular science majors on campus and had been unanimously granted tenure. I was also pregnant with my third child at the time.

The sustained effort necessary to succeed in the face of this behavior consumed inordinate energy. I learned to seek out colleagues from other departments and look into administrative guidelines when something didn't feel right. I spent a lot of time trying to anticipate where the next challenge would come from. As I gathered my materials to apply for promotion to full professor, I thought, "I cannot do this anymore." I handed in my resignation. Initially my provost did not accept it. However, another administrator said, "It's time. It's time to be home with your children," and then circulated an email to that effect. I felt like my career had been derailed, and I didn't understand exactly why, except that—as this last comment made clear—it was related to the fact that I'm a mother.

When I regained the mental space to reflect on what happened, and after much research, I finally came upon the term "maternal wall bias," now broadened to "family responsibilities discrimination." I learned that some of what I experienced reflected attribution bias, when everyday actions—taking a child to the doctor, choosing one teaching schedule over another—are interpreted through negative stereotypes of parents, and particularly mothers, as scientists. I learned about leniency bias, when the same work standard is applied more strictly to parents. And I learned that the more children one has, the more severe the bias. It was both validating and maddening to confirm why I had been so marginalized.

I cannot change what happened to me. But I can share what I learned so that both nonparents and parents will be aware that this kind of discrimination is not only unacceptable—it's illegal. After all, this is our responsibility as scientists: When we learn something that may fundamentally impact the future of our fields, we share it.

 [1]: pending:yes


Transition metal phosphides remain relatively unexplored as water-gas shift catalysts; however the little that has been done has produced promising results in terms of performance due to the presence of oxygen rich phases. They can be
produced through a number of approaches, the most common being reduction of the phosphate precursor using hydrogen. Bimetallic phosphides have also generated interest recently, e.g. with the addition of cerium there are improvements to the phosphides' activity and with the addition of palladium a decrease in reduction temperature is evident in the precursor material. Nickel phosphide and a range of bimetallic derivatives on a silica support were
investigated for their activity in both high and low temperature water-gas shift reactions. All of the catalysts were tested using a continuous flow, fixed bed reactor.
Characterization of the catalysts was carried out using XRD, EXAFS, XPS, FTIR, SEM and TEM. The comparison of supported nickel phosphide and an iron based industrial catalyst shows supported nickel phosphide to have good mass normalized activity in comparison to the industrial counterpart under high temperature water-gas shift conditions. The results complement previous studies with regards to potential of nickel phosphide as a water-gas shift catalyst. In view of the results obtained so far for other transition metal phosphides, Ni2P appears to be superior for the water-gas shift reaction. One of the most promising aspects of using nickel phosphide in the water-gas shift reaction is its potential resistance to sulfur. Catalyst poisoning caused by impurities such as sulfur are known to deactivate current commercial catalysts for both high and low temperature shift conditions, therefore a catalyst which is resistant to sulfur is an attractive prospect. The sulfur resistant properties of the nickel phosphide catalysts were highlighted by testing them under high temperature water-gas shift conditions in the presence of sulfur. Whilst the catalysts deactivated under the conditions, they showed some residual catalytic activity still remained after sulfur was removed from the feed. Compared with the industrial catalyst, nickel phosphide displayed greater resistance to deactivation.


An efficient LP01 to LP11 modal coupler using periodic microbends, spaced by a beat length between the modes, was built and tested. The optical-wavelength dependence of the device is investigated, as are the polarization characteristics and the LP mode approximation. Finally, the loss of the modal coupler was measured as a function of wavelength.


This paper evaluates the visibility, utility, and operability of the first Digital Repository for Tourism Studies in Greece. The creation of the repository was a project that funded and supervised by the Ministry of Tourism, aiming at the collection and analysis of tourism research, conducted from 1980 and onwards. By following a qualitative approach, this study analyzes the challenges and obstacles of developing a digital archive of scientific publications, studies, Ph.D. dissertations and other research data related with tourism in Greece. In particular, it outlines the financial limitations of the project; operational dysfunctions of the online archive; security of the digital content and issues of maintenance, management and technical support of the digital repository in the future. Based on desk review, personal interviews and peer-research working groups, attended by representatives of major tourism institutions, professional organizations and public authorities, the findings of this inquiry indicate that financial and human resources insufficiency, inadequate time frame and lack of promotion, have hindered the success of the project. The paper concludes with specific recommendations for the efficient management and financial sustainability, security of web content and optimal promotion of open access repositories.


Voltage–current (I–V) measurements in a wide temperature range from 88 to 573 K demonstrated the effects of temperature on the switching behavior of a Cu/Ta2O5/Pt resistive memory cell that is referred to as a gapless-type atomic switch. After the forming process, the cells were SET from the OFF state to the ON state at a positive bias to the Cu electrode and then RESET from the ON state to the OFF state at a negative bias. In a previous study (Tsuruoka et al 2010 Nanotechnology 21 425205), it was demonstrated that the SET process corresponds to the reformation of a metal filament between the electrodes by the inhomogeneous nucleation and subsequent growth of Cu whereas the RESET process can be attributed to the Joule-heating-assisted dissolution of the metal filament. In the work described here, we observed that the voltages at which the cells are SET and RESET (SET and RESET voltages) decreased in magnitude with an increase in temperature. From calculations of the nucleation rate of Cu nuclei based on the classical nucleation theory, it was found that the observed temperature variation of the SET voltage is primarily determined by supersaturation in the vicinity of the Pt electrode, which is controlled by the application of positive bias. The supersaturation required for spontaneous growth of a Cu nucleus decreases with increasing temperature, resulting in lower SET voltages at higher temperatures. The RESET voltage is determined by the thermal stability of the metal filament formed. Moreover, using the temperature variation in cell resistances of the ON state, the growth speed of the Cu nucleus after the nucleation was found to decease with increasing temperature. These results are consistent with our switching model.


The popularity of empirical methods in software engineering research is on the rise. Surveys, experiments, metrics, case studies, and field studies are examples of empirical methods used to investigate both software engineering processes and products. The increased application of empirical methods has also brought about an increase in discussions about adapting these methods to the peculiarities of software engineering. In contrast, the ethical issues raised by empirical methods have received little, if any, attention in the software engineering literature. This article is intended to introduce the ethical issues raised by empirical research to the software engineering research community and to stimulate discussion of how best to deal with these ethical issues. Through a review of the ethical codes of several fields that commonly employ humans and artifacts as research subjects, we have identified major ethical issues relevant to empirical studies of software engineering. These issues are illustrated with real empirical studies of software engineering.


Planar optical waveguiding structures for application in communication networks are highly demanding with respect to low insertion loss, efficient fiber-to-chip coupling, polarization independent operation, high integration density, reliable fabrication, and last but not least cost efficiency. When applying silicon oxynitride, which is a very versatile material, planar waveguiding structures can be designed having the potential of meeting all those requirements. In this paper, we will describe the design of such a waveguiding structure, demonstrate the practical feasibility of realizing this structure and discuss the preliminary measurement results.


The results of a large victimisation survey conducted in 2006 of 5,117 businesses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xi'an are reported. Over one-quarter (26.2 per cent) of businesses reported at least one incident of crime over the past year, but higher risks of commercial crimes (i.e., fraud, bribery, extortion and intellectual property offences) than common crime (i.e., robbery assault, and theft) were found. Across the cities, the rate of commercial crime (22.6 per cent) was 3.4 times that of common crime (6.7 per cent) and businesses in Shenzhen were at higher risk of commercial crime (27.9 per cent) than those in Xi'an (25.3 per cent) and Hong Kong and Shanghai (19.5 per cent). Just over 6 per cent of respondents mentioned incidents of bribery. Larger businesses were most at risk especially of fraud and differences between the cities were small. The survey shows that the level of crime reported by businesses located in China was lower than other emerging economies as well as Western and Eastern Europe. Explanations about the level of crime against business in China are discussed at the macro level using Durkheimian ideas about modernisation and crime and at the meso/micro levels by drawing from opportunity and routine activity theories.


Barn Owls Tyto alba are widespread globally, and feed largely on rodents, but also birds. In Africa, weavers are an important component of avian prey. 44 studies were found that list weavers as prey of Barn Owls, with 11 species of Ploceidae weavers identified to species level, although there are likely many other weaver species that have been taken but not yet identified. Hunting strategies of the Barn Owl are taking weavers at their nests at night (four records), or taking roosting weavers from reedbeds. Barn Owls have been recorded at Red-billed Quelea Quelea quelea colonies, where they presumably pick up recently fledged juveniles.


This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of a variable time-scale streaming technique, VTSS, according to which rate changes are obtained by varying the inter-packet transmission interval, rather than altering, as in most cases, the source coding rate. Instead of constraining the transmitter to operate in real-time, the time scale of the packet scheduler can vary between zero, when the network is congested, to as faster than real-time as the channel bandwidth allows, when the network is lightly loaded. Although this approach is reportedly used in commercial streaming products, so far the technique has not yet been analyzed in a rigorous fashion, nor it has been compared to other state-of-the-art streaming techniques. This work first presents a theoretical analysis of the performance achievable by the VTSS approach, and it shows that, for the same channel conditions, VTSS yields a total distortion which is lower or, in the worst case, equal than the distortion of the standard real-time source-rate adaptive approach. A lower bound on receiver buffer size is also derived. Network simulations then analyze the performance of a TCP-friendly test implementation of VTSS compared with an ideal real-time source rate-adaptive technique, whose performance, being ideal, represents the upper bound of any transmission scheme based on source rate adaptation. The simulation results, also based on actual network traces, show that the VTSS approach delivers higher perceptual quality (up to 1.2 dB PSNR in the considered scenarios) and reduced video quality fluctuations (1.6 dB standard deviation PSNR, instead of 4.9 dB) for a wide range of standard video sequences. Perceptual quality evaluation by means of PVQM confirms such results. The gains, as expected, are even more pronounced (7.6 dB PSNR on average) if compared to real-time constant bit-rate video transmission.


Understanding the Bible as an account of the unfolding revelation of God to humankind through history, Roland Mushat Frye suggests that the many sub-plots, monologues, and reflections of the Bible compose a coherent story that continues through both the Old and New Testaments. "The convictions of the Bible, to be sure, are the convictions of religion and ethics," he writes, "but the methods are the methods of literature." Carefully arranging a selection of excerpts that comprise approximately one-fourth of the entire Bible, he enables the reader to follow chronologically the main narrative as well as the most significant asides. With introductory and explanatory material providing transition and background information, the reader progresses from book to book as from chapter to chapter in a novel. Thus, this is called The Reader's Bible because it may be read as a narrative, as a story that unifies consecutive events through which the character of God gradually unfolds. God first appears in the opening of Genesis with the creation of the universe; against this backdrop the human drama is played. We see Everyman and Everywoman endowed with a life in harmony as long as they accept the primacy of God. When they repudiate this primacy, chaos replaces harmony and they find themselves in a wilderness rather than in a garden. God then turns from the attempt to create a righteous and peaceful order for all of humanity to a concentration on one segment of humanity-the race of Abraham--for the development of a conception of human personality and community that may serve as a pattern for all human beings. Professor Frye writes that however miraculous the entrances of God upon the stage may appear to be, they do constitute entrances into ordinary human affairs. These encounters Invite us to look both within and beyond them to what they reveal about God and about ourselves. Concerned with the matter of living here and hereafter, the different biblical histories and stories are brought together to provide cumulative insight into human nature and destiny.


This paper presents ideas on the applications of fuzzy concept to decision making for aging chronic disease. A Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP) with a power-law intensity function is used in this study. In general, classical Bayesian decision methods presume that future states of nature can be characterised as probability events. However, we do not know what the future will entail probabilistically, so we devise a method to consider experts' knowledge, which are usually the absence of sharply defined criteria and to develop a fuzzy Bayesian decision process for dealing with such situations. Two cases of the discrimination problem with the aging chronic diseases are studied: (1) fuzzy states and exact information and (2) fuzzy states and fuzzy information. Finally, the fuzzy decomposition and arithmetic derivation of the experts' knowledge are presented to facilitate the development of the Bayesian decision analysis for aging chronic disease.


ABSTRACT This paper defines the object-based sound installation as a distinct category of sound art that emerges from the intersection of live musical performance and the sonic possibilities of the recording studio. In order to contextualize this emergent category, connections are drawn among the rationalization of the senses, automated musical instruments, the lineage of recorded sound and the notion of absolute music. This interwoven history provides the necessary backdrop for the interpretation of three major works by Steven Reich, Alvin Lucier and Zimoun. These respective pieces are described in order to elucidate the ways in which object-based sound installations introduce embodied visibility into the transformative gestures of sound reproduction.


Background: Anxiety is a very common psychiatric symptom and can also occur in many physical conditions. Due to the limitations of conventional pharmacotherapy, the discovery of nonpharmacologic treatments that alleviate anxiety effectively is clinically important. Yintang (EX-HN 3), an acupoint located between the eyebrows, is known to have a mentally stabilizing effect in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Objectives: This preliminary review was conducted to investigate the current state of studies using acupressure or acupuncture on EX-HN 3 alone for anxiety, and to explore ways to apply this in clinical settings and future research, including systematic reviews and clinical trials. Materials and Methods: The authors searched 2 electronic medical databases, including PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, up to December 7, 2017, to collect clinical studies that used acupuncture or acupressure on EX-HN 3 only to relieve anxiety. Methodological qualities of included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were assessed by the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool and a Jadad scale. Results: Five RCTs were included. Most of the RCTs were aimed at preoperative participants. In this population, the reduction of self-reported anxiety was consistently significant. Conclusions: Acupuncture or acupressure on EX-HN 3 was used mainly to reduce the anxiety of preoperative participants. The simplicity and economics of this intervention suggest the need for future rigorous clinical trials or systematic reviews on this topic. In addition, more experimental studies should be conducted to identify the underlying mechanisms of this anxiolytic effect.


Background and Purpose— Stroke treatment is constrained by limited treatment windows and the clinical inefficacy of agents that showed preclinical promise. Yet animal and clinical data suggest considerable poststroke plasticity, which could allow treatment with recovery-modulating agents. Memantine is a well-tolerated N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor antagonist in common use for Alzheimer disease. Methods— Memantine, 30 mg/kg per day, or vehicle, was delivered chronically in drinking water beginning >2 hours after photothrombotic stroke. Results— Although there was no difference in infarct size, behavior, or optical intrinsic signal maps in the first 7 days after stroke, mice treated chronically with memantine showed significant improvements in motor control, measured by cylinder test and grid-walking performance, compared with vehicle-treated animals. Optical intrinsic signal revealed an increased area of forepaw sensory maps at 28 days after stroke. There was decreased reactive astrogliosis and increased vascular density around the infarcted cortex. Peri-infarct Western blots revealed increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor and phosphorylated-tropomyosin–related kinase-B receptor expression. Conclusions— Our results suggest that memantine improves stroke outcomes in an apparently non-neuroprotective manner involving increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling, reduced reactive astrogliosis, and improved vascularization, associated with improved recovery of sensory and motor cortical function. The clinical availability and tolerability of memantine make it an attractive candidate for clinical translation.


All living cell functions require an ongoing supply of energy derived from carbohydrates, lipids and proteins with their own pathways of breakdown. All of them end up in the oxidation of reduced coenzymes, yielding chemically-bound energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). One broad definition of energy would be the capability to do work and, therefore, the more work that has to be done, the more energy is needed, which may under extreme conditions put the cell into a state of energy metabolic stress. This complex of problems has been examined in the present thesis, where individuals representing different degrees of training status, have been subjected to various types of stressful work-loads as regards intensity and duration. Meanwhile, the energy turnover has been monitored on different levels as whole body (organism)-, single organ/tissue-, cellular and molecular levels. Combined methodologies have been developed and utilized to examine carefully and in some detail energy expenditure and biochemical variables with study subjects under long-term, (outfield) physically and mentally stressful conditions.When the individuals were in a well-controlled energy balance, a diet rich in saturated fatty acids did not elicit any major metabolic stress signs concerning serum lipoproteins and/or insulin/glucose homeostasis during the test period including high volume and low intensity energy turn over. Only a slight decrease in the Apo-B / Apo-A1 ratio was observed, despite a period of totally sedentary life style among the participants. Mental stress combined with a varying energy balance during off-shore sailing races was shown to cause such an energy metabolic stress situation that development of abdominal obesity and signs of a metabolic syndrome in embryo affected the participants who were young, non-obese men and despite their fairly healthy lifestyle concerning the diet they were on and their physical activity habits. Even well-trained young individuals of both sexes, subjected to exhaustive endurance (high intensity exercise session), developed signs of insulin resistance with a deteriorated intracellular glucose availability leading to a supposed ion pump failure and a disturbed osmoregulation on a cellular level. Hence, they presented themselves as having acquired an energy metabolic stress like condition.In conclusion, an energy metabolic stress syndrome has been described, basically due to impaired fuelling of ion pumps with a cluster of signs and symptoms on single organ/tissue-, cellular and molecular levels manifested by muscular intracellular swelling, tendency towards erythrocyte shrinkage as a consequence of a relative insulin resistance concomitant with ion distribution disturbances (Gardos effect), oxidative stress and osmoregulatory taurine leakage.


Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to infection. A common end-feature, these patients regularly suffer from is the so-called multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, an often fatal consequence of organ hypoperfusion, coagulopathy, immune dysregulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Microvascular dysfunction critically contributes to the morbidity and mortality of this disease. The angiopoietin (Angpt)/Tie2 system consists of the transmembrane endothelial tyrosine kinase Tie2 and its circulating ligands (Angpt-1, -2, and -3/4). The balance between the canonical agonist Angpt-1 and its competitive inhibitor, Angpt-2, regulates basal endothelial barrier function and the leakage and vascular inflammation that develop in response to pathogens and cytokines. Here we summarize recent work in mice and men to highlight the therapeutic potential in this pathway to prevent or even reverse microvascular dysfunction in this deadly disease.


Image stitching allows users to combine multiple regular-sized photographs into a single wide-angle picture, often referred to as a panoramic picture. To create such a panoramic picture, users traditionally first take all the photographs, then upload them to a PC and stitch. During stitching, however, users often discover that the produced panorama contains artifacts or is incomplete. Fixing these flaws requires retaking individual images, which is often difficult by this time. In this paper, we present Panoramic Viewfinder, an interactive system for panorama construction that offers a real-time preview of the panorama while shooting. As the user swipes the camera across the scene, each photo is immediately added to the preview. By making ghosting and stitching failures apparent, the system allows users to immediately retake necessary images. The system also provides a preview of the cropped panorama. When this preview includes all desired scene elements, users know that the panorama will be complete. Unlike earlier work in the field of real-time stitching, this paper focuses on the user interface aspects of real-time stitching. We describe our prototype, individual shooting modes, and provide an overview of our implementation. Building on our experiences with Panoramic Viewfinder, we discuss a separate design that relaxes the level of synchrony between user and camera required by the current system and provide usage flexibility that we believe might further improve the user experience.


In the last decade we have seen how small and light weight aerial platforms - aka, Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (MUAV) - shipped with heterogeneous sensors have become a 'most wanted' Remote Sensing (RS) tool. Most of the off-the-shelf aerial systems found in the market provide way-point navigation. However, they do not rely on a tool that compute the aerial trajectories considering all the aspects that allow optimizing the aerial missions. One of the most demanded RS applications of MUAV is image surveying. The images acquired are typically used to build a high-resolution image, i.e., a mosaic of the workspace surface. Although, it may be applied to any other application where a sensor-based map must be computed. This thesis provides a study of this application and a set of solutions and methods to address this kind of aerial mission by using a fleet of MUAVs. In particular, a set of algorithms are proposed for map-based sampling, and aerial coverage path planning (ACPP). Regarding to map-based sampling, the approaches proposed consider workspaces with different shapes and surface characteristics. The workspace is sampled considering the sensor characteristics and a set of mission requirements. The algorithm applies different computational geometry approaches, providing a unique way to deal with workspaces with different shape and surface characteristics in order to be surveyed by one or more MUAVs. This feature introduces a previous optimization step before path planning. After that, the ACPP problem is theorized and a set of ACPP algorithms to compute the MUAVs trajectories are proposed. The problem addressed herein is the problem to coverage a wide area by using MUAVs with limited autonomy. Therefore, the mission must be accomplished in the shortest amount of time. The aerial survey is usually subject to a set of workspace restrictions, such as the take-off and landing positions as well as a safety distance between elements of the fleet. Moreover, it has to avoid forbidden zones to y. Three different algorithms have been studied to address this problem. The approaches studied are based on graph searching, heuristic and meta-heuristic approaches, e.g., mimic, evolutionary. Finally, an extended survey of field experiments applying the previous methods, as well as the materials and methods adopted in outdoor missions is presented. The reported outcomes demonstrate that the findings attained from this thesis improve ACPP mission for mapping purpose in an efficient and safe manner.


For the purpose of development of orally active peptide therapeutics targeting NFκB for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), two major barriers in oral delivery of therapeutic peptides, metabolic lability and tissue impermeability, were circumvented by introduction of a colon-targeted delivery system and cell permeable peptides (CPP) to NFκB inhibitory peptides (NIP). Suppression of NFκB activation was compared following treatment with various CPP conjugated NIPs (CPP-NIP). The most potent CPP-NIP was loaded in a capsule coated with a colon specific polymer, which was administered orally to colitic rats. The anti-inflammatory activity of the colon-targeted CPP-NIP was evaluated by measuring inflammatory indices in the inflamed colonic tissue. For confirmation of the local action of the CPP-NIP, the same experiment was done after rectal administration. Tissue permeability of the CPP-NIP was examined microscopically and spectrophotometrically using FITC-labeled CPP-NIP (CPP-NIP-FITC). NEMO binding domain peptide (NBD, TALDWSWLQTE) fused with a cell permeable peptide CTP (YGRRARRRARR), CTP-NBD, was most potent in inhibiting NFκB activity in cells. Colon-targeted CTP-NBD, but not colon-targeted NBD and CTP-NBD in an enteric capsule, ameliorated the colonic injury, which was in parallel with decrease in MPO activity and the levels of inflammatory mediators. Intracolonic treatment with CTP-NBD alleviated rat colitis and improved all the inflammatory indicators. CTP-NBD-FITC was detected at much greater level in the inflamed tissue than was NBD-FITC. Taken together, introduction of cell permeability and colon targetability to NIP may be a feasible strategy for an orally active peptide therapy for treatment of IBD.


We discuss our outreach efforts to introduce school students to network science and explain why networks researchers should be involved in such outreach activities. We provide overviews of modules that we have designed for these efforts, comment on our successes and failures, and illustrate the potentially enormous impact of such outreach efforts.


In 2010, Memphis-based artist Haley Morris-Cafiero set out on a global photographic project entitled Wait Watchers (2010-2015), a series of self-portraits that explore the issue of body shaming. Within these works Morris-Cafiero performs the role of a vacationer, dressing in locale-appropriate attire and striking classic tourist poses. Nothing about her fashion or demeanor would strike many as unusual, but captured within the larger shot are onlookers, unaware of being photographed, who become characters in her performance as they react to her appearance. Though repeatedly capturing looks of disgust, contempt and ridicule, Morris-Cafiero does not claim to know the thoughts of passersby. She finds proof of viewers' perceptions in hostile online comments posted to her work. Utilizing these comments Morris-Cafiero created a second performance-based series, In the Time of Trump (2015-present), in which she photographs herself adopting the role of the online trolls in order to subvert their gaze, strip the perception of online anonymity, and to re-present their words to the world. Exploring the intersection of fat studies and disability studies, this paper locates Morris-Cafiero's two series within the framework of Tobin Siebers' concept of disability aesthetics. Siebers argues to broaden our definition of aesthetics to encompass new conceptions of beauty and to recognize that our aesthetic response is based on an embodied experience. This paper argues that Morris-Cafiero's work successfully embraces unique corporeality and challenges socio-cultural distinctions of the outsider' body.


Cybersecurity is the newest and most unique national security issue of the 21st century. The most critical aspect of this issue is the notion of cyberwarfare, which is the use of computer technologies as both defensive and offensive weapons in international relations.Until now, there has been no national debate within the United States over the concept of cyberwarfare; neither its meaning nor the international laws governing this concept have been discussed at any length, to say nothing of the domestic rules regarding it. President Obama's reliance on a resurrected notion of the "just war doctrine," as enunciated in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, heightens the need for legal clarity. Recent developments concerning WikiLeaks and Stuxnet malware further heightens generally the debate over legal rules.The debate over cyberwarfare is only now emerging in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in the foreign policy dialogue between the United States, the Russian Federation, and other nations. "[M]uch of the debate on policies related to cyber war is happening behind closed doors." National and international understanding and strategy need to be developed, and architecture must be implemented, both nationally and internationally. In December 2009 the United States entered into talks with the Russian Federation on cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. Since 2010 these are now being conducted in the United Nations. In this paper, I address the concept of cyberwarfare in the context of both domestic and international affairs from a legal-political perspective. First, I examine recent government and private reports on cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. Second, I outline what I consider the major issue that confronts the United States and the global system as they struggle to address the dangers of cyberwarfare. Third, I conclude by proposing a method to begin structuring a comprehensive security strategy, taking into consideration the many domestic and global stakeholders.


The Influence of Leadership on Nursing Professionalism by Lorelle Anne Wuerz MSN, Walden University, 2009 BS, Marist College, 2002 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Nursing Walden University November 2017 Abstract Leadership style has been studied from various perspectives including transformational leadership and the components of leadership competencies needed to exhibit transformational styles. However, there was a gap in the literature on the influence of leadership style on nursing professional behaviors and overall professionalism. The purpose of this descriptive, phenomenological study was to understand and explore theLeadership style has been studied from various perspectives including transformational leadership and the components of leadership competencies needed to exhibit transformational styles. However, there was a gap in the literature on the influence of leadership style on nursing professional behaviors and overall professionalism. The purpose of this descriptive, phenomenological study was to understand and explore the beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of staff nurses on leadership style and its influence on professional nursing behaviors working in an inpatient care unit at a tertiary care center. The theory of transformational leadership was the conceptual framework for the study. A phenomenological approach was used for the qualitative interview with data analysis using a descriptive method. A total of 8 nursing participants were interviewed revealing that nurses had similar thoughts on their perceptions of professional characteristics and leadership driving professional socialization. Nurses articulated a practical knowledge of professional activities with little to no connection to a larger sense of professional identity, theory in practice, and ethical obligations to the future of the profession of nursing. There is a noted lack of professionalism seen in the discipline of nursing. Professional registered nurses and heath care leaders in nursing can benefit from this study. Understanding how leadership style can influence nursing not only impacts positive social change and shapes the future of the discipline of nursing, but can also potentially impact patient care outcomes and patient. The Influence of Leadership on Nursing Professionalism by Lorelle Anne Wuerz MSN, Walden University, 2009 BS, Marist College, 2002 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy


Abstract Fowler's (Linguistics and the novel, Methuen, 1977) original definition of mind style emphasised consistency as a defining feature of the phenomenon, something that is (i) difficult to measure, and (ii) often missed in qualitative analyses. In this paper we investigate how a computational semantic analysis might be used to address this difficulty, with particular reference to McIntyre's (Journal of Literary Semantics 34: 21–40, 2005) analysis of the deviant mind style of the character of Miss Shepherd in Alan Bennett's play The Lady in the Van. To do this we analyse the speech of all the characters in The Lady in the Van using Wmatrix (Rayson, Matrix: A statistical method and software tool for linguistic analysis through corpus comparison, Lancaster University PhD thesis, 2003, Wmatrix: A web-based corpus processing environment, Lancaster University, 2008), to see whether it provides quantitative support for the interpretative conclusions reached by McIntyre. Wmatrix utilises the UCREL Semantic Annotation System (USAS) which has been designed to undertake the automatic semantic analysis of English. The initial tag-set of the USAS system was loosely based on McArthur's Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English (McArthur, Longman, 1981), but has since been considerably revised in the light of practical tagging problems met in the course of previous research, and now contains 232 category labels (such as medicine and medical treatment, movement, obligation and necessity , etc.). We use Wmatrix's facility for identifying key semantic domains in pursuit of our two main aims: (i) to determine whether Miss Shepherd's odd mind style is consistent, as Fowler's definition suggests it should be; and (ii) to determine the usefulness of computational semantic analysis for investigating mind style.


Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is the most common postoperative infection associated with gynaecologic procedures, and results in increased risks to patients and costs for hospitals. Currently, there is great variation in chemoprophylaxis used for prevention of postoperative CAUTI. The objective of this paper was to systematically review the efficacy of chemoprophylaxis for the prevention of CAUTI during short-term catheterisation following gynaecologic surgery. Evidence acquisition was undertaken by performing a systematic review of PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library in November 2013 according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement. Quality assessment was performed using the Jadad and Newcastle-Ontario Scales. Nine studies met criteria for inclusion. Included publications used either antibiotics or methenamine hippurate for chemoprophylaxis. Chemoprophylaxis during catheterisation resulted in a statistically significant decrease in significant bacteriuria as compared to control groups in the majority of the studies. Symptomatic bacteriuria was also significantly decreased. A recommendation of a specific regimen for chemoprophylaxis cannot be made due to heterogeneity in study quality, dose, and duration of chemoprophylaxis, timing of urine culture, and study endpoints. Evidence examining cost-effectiveness and antibiotic resistance was limited. We reviewed the use of either antibiotics or methenamine hippurate for the prevention of CAUTI after gynaecologic surgery. Evidence suggests that chemoprophylaxis results in a decreased rate of bacteriuria and UTIs postoperatively. Further studies are required to determine the optimum regimen. Chemoprophylaxis is useful for the prevention of CAUTI during short-term catheterisation after gynaecologic surgery. Further research to determine the most effective type and dose of chemoprophylaxis, as well as cost-effectiveness and the potential development of antibiotic resistance, is needed.


AIM
Awake craniotomy (AC) with electrical cortical stimulation has become popular during the last ten years although the basic principles were introduced almost 50 years ago. The aim of this paper is to share with the readers our experience in 25 patients who underwent AC with electrical stimulation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Twenty-five patients who underwent AC between 2010 and 2013 are the subjects of this paper. All patients were diagnosed with intraaxial lesions involving the functional area itself or very close to it by preoperative imaging. During surgery, the functional area was demonstrated by cortical electrical stimulation and resection aimed to preserve it in order to avoid an irreversible functional deficit.

RESULTS
Total resection was possible in 80% while in 20% subtotal resection had to be performed because of involvement of the functional area itself. The neurological complication rate was found to be 16% (4 patients) and all were transient. No complication regarding anesthesia was noted.

CONCLUSION
Awake craniotomy in selected patients is very effective, safe and practical for supratentorial lesions close to the eloquent area. Complications related to the surgery itself are uncommon and general anesthesia is avoided. The hospital stay including the intensive care unit is short which makes it very economical surgical procedure.


As someone who has studied tuberculosis (TB) for many years, it is difficult for me to admit, but tuberculosis has not been the most exciting field in medicine for a long time. The vaccine that is used in much of the world was developed in the 1930s. The foundational clinical research that defines how we treat TB was performed in India in the 1960s. And the last new drug to enter the TB armamentarium was introduced in many countries almost 30 years ago. This slow pace has had an important consequence. Over the last few decades the emphasis in public health has moved from new therapies to doing a better job of implementing what we already have. This means that basic public health measures, including large-scale diagnostics, contact tracing, drug supply logistics and ensuring that patients are able to complete long treatment courses, have become the leading edge in efforts to control TB. But changes are on the horizon, with both challenges and opportunities emerging in TB intervention. New diagnostics, new treatments and, potentially, new ways to prevent TB have the potential of dramatically changing how we approach disease, both at the level of the individual patient and also for the uninfected public. But employing these new tools is going to require reinvention at the level of implementation. And they must be applied in a landscape of significant and increasing drug resistant disease. Thus, the challenge of the next several years is not only going to be in developing tools but also determining how we're going to use them to produce real change.


STUDY DESIGN
Review of the articles.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to review all articles related to spinal instability to determine a consensus statement for a contemporary, practical definition applicable to thoracolumbar injuries.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
Traumatic fractures of the thoracolumbar spine are common. These injuries can result in neurological deficits, disability, deformity, pain, and represent a great economic burden to society. The determination of spinal instability is an important task for spine surgeons, as treatment strategies rely heavily on this assessment. However, a clinically applicable definition of spinal stability remains elusive.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A review of the Medline database between 1930 and 2014 was performed limited to papers in English. Spinal instability, thoracolumbar, and spinal stability were used as search terms. Case reports were excluded. We reviewed listed references from pertinent search results and located relevant manuscripts from these lists as well.

RESULTS
The search produced a total of 694 published articles. Twenty-five articles were eligible after abstract screening and underwent full review. A definition for spinal instability was described in only 4 of them. Definitions were primarily based on biomechanical and classification studies. No definitive parameters were outlined to define stability.

CONCLUSIONS
Thirty-six years after White and Panjabi's original definition of instability, and many classification schemes later, there remains no practical and meaningful definition for spinal instability in thoracolumbar trauma. Surgeon expertise and experience remains an important factor in stability determination. We propose that, at an initial assessment, a distinction should be made between immediate and delayed instability. This designation should better guide surgeons in decision making and patient counseling.


Modular exponentiation and scalar multiplication are important operations in most public-key cryptosystems, and their efficient computation is essential to cryptosystems. The shortest addition chain is one of the most important mathematical concepts to realize the optimization of computation. However, finding a shortest addition chain of length r is generally regarded as an NP-hard problem, whose time complexity is comparable to O(r!). This paper proposes some novel methods to generate short addition chains. We firstly present a Simplified Power-tree method by deeply deleting the power-tree whose time complexity is reduced to O(r2). In this paper, a Cross Window method and its variant are introduced by improving the Window method. The Cross Window method uses the cross correlation to deal with the windows and its pre-computation is optimized by a new Addition Sequence Algorithm. The theoretical analysis is conducted to show the correctness and effectiveness. Meanwhile, our experiments show that the new methods can obtain shorter addition chains compared to the existing methods. The Cross Window method with the Addition Sequence algorithm can attain 44.74% and 9.51% reduction of the addition chain length, in the best case, compared to the Binary method and the Window method respectively.


The Major sources of water are surface and subsurface. Surface water includes Rivers, Reservoirs, Creek, Streams, etc. This paper deals with using a neural network model to recognize dissolved oxygen in Shatt AlArab. Within the present study, Shatt Al-Arab River (Basrah-Iraq) is considered as the study area with monthly observed data from 2009-2014. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been applied to pattern the relations among eight (8) water quality parameters which are devoted for predicting one parameter (1) so that to decrease the load of long experimental procedure. Physical and chemical parameters that are inserted in the model are: pH, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, sulphate, phosphate, calcium, magnesium and nitrate. Dissolved oxygen (DO) is included in the output models. The three layered feed-forward model with back-propagation multi-layer perception (MLP) models architecture of 8-8-1 for DO. The artificial neural network has got training successfully and has been tested with 70% and 30% of the data groups. Statistical criteria of correlation coefficient (R) and mean square error (MSE) are used to evaluate performance of the models. The correlation coefficients of the artificial neural network model for predicting DO have been 0.99354 and 0.98237, and mean square error for the model are 0.007698 and 0.00122 respectively. It can be concluding that these techniques provide similar accuracy in estimating DO concentration and predicting the dissolved oxygen (DO) in Shatt Al-Arab ARTICLE INFO


Family Courts make difficult and complex decisions, which can have lifelong and fundamental implications for some of the most vulnerable members of society. Psychological assessments have an important role in assisting Courts to understand complex individual and systemic dynamics, including the capacity of parents to make changes within timescales relevant for their child/ren to prevent the risk of on-going harm. Given the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the changes in moving from direct to remote assessment are considered through a lens of appropriateness for this often complex cohort, with potential caveats and issues for consideration. Focusing on adult assessments, the paper will comment on the lack of in-person presence, practical considerations, ensuring safety and security, preparing for emerging vulnerabilities, considering measure validity, being assured of client consent, and adhering to professional and ethical standards. It raises the questions of can and should assessments be conducted. In doing so, it proposes a framework to guide professional thinking. Ensuring a fair, ethical and considered process takes place is the ultimate aim of any assessment. The proposed guidance is designed to support this.


The thesis traces the rise of popular Imperialist sentiment, which developed via Conservative clubs and fringe groups such an the Primrose League. Pressure for expansion reached a peak, in the Sudan campaign of 1884-5 and the mass eulogy of General Gordon. An uninhibited and aggressive belief in expansion overlapped with jingoism which reached a height during the Boer War with violently patriotic displays.

Humanitarian pressure groups such as the Anti-Slavery Society and the Missions were important in the development of an Imperialist position. Humanitarians demanded the annexation of East/Central Africa and Uganda in order to put an end to the slave trade, to help the spread of Christianity or to provide benefits for the native population. The agitation for the retention of Uganda in 1892, wan largely organised by the Church Missionary Society.

Commercial arguments for expansion played only a minor part in public opinion; though a small group of chartered company promoters and African enthusiasts were thinking in terms of now markets and raw materials. But popular Imperialism was best defined as an expreasion of nationalism and hostility to foreigners, culminating in aggressively militaristic stands over certain issues, - notable the Sudan campaign of 1884-5, Fashoda in 1898 and the Boer War 1899-1900.

The strongent opposition to expansion in Africa came from Nonconformists and Gladstonian Radicals or Socialists. This did not always imply hostility towards all Empire however; the Empire of the self-governing colonies and respectable dependencies was widely accepted by 1900, and even expansion was not opposed on principle so much as on the merits of each individual case.

The intervention of the Liberal Government in Egypt and the Sudan in 1882-5 helped to reconcile a number of Liberals to interference in Africa. There was a noticable absence of opposition to the annexation of Uganda and of the Sudan in 1898, Nonconformists and Liberals made a strong stand against the impending Boer war of 1899, but after war broke out the opposition disintegrated, - Socialists and Gadstonian Nonconformists had little in common apart from dislike of the war.

The period thus shows an erosion of Liberal anti-Imperialism. Liberals who started in the full flush of Midlothian opposition to Disraelian Foreign Policy, began to absorb a Good many imperialist assumptions by the end of the century.


Reports of employment problems in universities enacts an information asymmetry that has recently highlighted sexual harassment as a legal wrong while dampening other potential descriptions of reasons for disparities. Sexual harassment as unwanted sexual attention both understates and overstates problems at work, not least because it is not an issue for all women. If it crowds out other reasons for disparities, reports misstate problems in employment. This focus contrasts with books that popularized other barriers at work for women just a few years previously. The stories about sexual harassment contrast with systematic evidence concerning reasons for disadvantage at work. Systematic evidence is often less easy to tell as a story with characters, events and a time line. In this instance, law along with university leaders' willingness to publicly act on claims has produced complaints that women have usually been reluctant to make, The Office of Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter in 2011 addressing sexual assault in higher education, which contributes to mobilizing complaints. This paper draws upon the Chronicle of Higher Education's reports of discrimination. This paper concludes by arguing for proliferating stories, motivated by lessons from systematic research, even if law is not a remedy.


In the wake of the French Revolution, as attempts to restore political stability to France repeatedly failed, a group of concerned intellectuals identified a likely culprit: the prevalent sensationalist psychology, and especially the flimsy and fragmented self it produced. They proposed a vast, state-run pedagogical project to replace sensationalism with a new psychology that showcased an indivisible and actively willing self, or moi. As conceived and executed by Victor Cousin, a derivative philosopher but an academic entrepreneur of genius, this long-lived project singled out the male bourgeoisie for training in selfhood. Granting everyone a self in principle, Cousin and his disciples deemed workers and women incapable of the introspective finesse necessary to appropriate that self in practice. Beginning with a fresh consideration of the place of sensationalism in the Old Regime and the French Revolution, Jan Goldstein traces a post-Revolutionary politics of selfhood that reserved the Cousinian moi for the educated elite, outraging Catholics and consigning socially marginal groups to the ministrations of phrenology. Situating the Cousinian moi between the fragmented selves of eighteenth-century sensationalism and twentieth-century Freudianism, Goldstein suggests that the resolutely unitary self of the nineteenth century was only an interlude tailored to the needs of the post-Revolutionary bourgeois order.


This paper is concerned with addressing the problems experienced with the thermo-elastic behaviour of the disc - that of optimum heat dissipation, and equally important, even heating of the disc blade. The primary objective is to develop a more temperature-stable brake disc.
The work presented approaches the problems of thermal judder through benchmarking the current situation. This is approached by modelling the current brake and its validation by means of vehicle and laboratory testing. The empirical work is centred on a bespoke high speed brake dynamometer which incorporates the full vehicle suspension for an accurate yet controlled simulation of brake and vehicle operating conditions. The dynamometer is housed in a purpose built laboratory with both CCTV and direct visual access. It is capable of dynamic measurement of DTV, caliper pressure fluctuations, disc surface temperature and vibration measurements at discrete points about the rig. This information is presented and supported by thermal imaging of the brake during a heavy brake application and subsequent thermal judder. The results also include surface scanning of the disc which is carried out at appropriate stages during testing to identify disc deformation including disc warping, "ripple" and the effects of "hot spotting".
Disc run-out measurements via non-contacting displacement transducers show the disc taking up varying orders of deformation ranging from first to third order during high speed testing. The state of cold deformation of the disc is also shown to vary with the disc returning to first or second order deformation upon cooling.
Thermal images of the brake disc have shown vane patterns to show through to the disc surface identifying uneven heat distribution.


From logs and information left in online spaces to data points self-generated by
connected devices, digital traces have become more diffused over the past years,
prompting an expansion of Human-Centered Design methods. Along with some bigdata
approaches, Digital Methods of research – treating the actual content of digital
users' manifestation on-line (i.e. tweets, Instagram pictures, comments) – offer the
opportunity to better understand users through their online activities. This paper
investigates how Digital Methods can be repurposed as a full-fledged approach for
Human-Centered Design. Grafting on the NATURPRADI project – a research aimed at
describing the debate raised by the re-vegetation of the city of Paris by analysing
Twitter posts – in the paper we will explain how we have identified and described a
set of personas characterized by different approaches towards the evolution of the
urban nature issue. The final objective of the paper is to provide a first methodological
tool created at the intersection of Digital Methods and Human-Centered Design
discussing its opportunities and criticalities: Data-driven Personas.


Data intensive applications on clusters often require requests quickly be sent to the node managing the desired data. In many applications, one must look through a sorted tree structure to determine the responsible node for accessing or storing the data. Examples include object tracking in sensor networks, packet routing over the Internet, request processing in publish-subscribe middleware, and query processing in database systems. When the tree structure is larger than the CPU cache, the standard implementation potentially incurs many cache misses for each lookup; one cache miss at each successive level of the tree. As the CPU-RAM gap grows, this performance degradation will only become worse in the future. We propose a solution that takes advantage of the growing speed of local area networks for clusters. We split the sorted tree structure among the nodes of the cluster. We assume that the structure will fit inside the aggregation of the CPU caches of the entire cluster. We then send a word over the network (as part of a larger packet containing other words) in order to examine the tree structure in another node's CPU cache. We show that this is often faster than the standard solution, which locally incurs multiple cache misses while accessing each successive level of the tree. The principle is demonstrated with a cluster configured with Pentium III nodes connected with a Myrinet network. The new approach is shown to be 50% faster on this current cluster. In the future, the new approach is expected to have a still greater advantage as networks grow in speed, and as cache lines grow in length (greater cache miss penalty). This can be used to successfully overcome the inherent memory latency associated with cache misses


Since 3rd January, 1976 when the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entered into force, gallons of juristic ink have been spilled globally by legal pundits in examining the nature and scope of what is now widely known as economic, social and cultural rights. While the adoption of the treaty has recorded yet another milestone in the protection of international human rights, opinions differ as to whether these ideals could be recognized as 'rights properly so called' under international law. The classification of socio-economic rights as non-justiciable 'positive' rights requiring the dedication of significant State resources for their realization, as opposed to 'negative' civil and political rights requiring only that the State refrain from encroaching on specified areas of the life of the individual, considerably oversimplified the legal challenges which the Covenant raises. Several reasons have been given by critics of economic, social and cultural rights with a view to establishing the fact that these sets of rights are not rights per se but mere privileges accorded by the State to individuals as per its available resources. Are economic, social and cultural rights really 'rights' or 'privileges'? Are states bound to respect these rights? Are they truly enforceable? What effort is being made at the international and regional levels to give effect to these rights? What is the justiciable status of these rights in national arena?


In this paper we consider regression models with forecast feedback. Agents' expectations are formed via the recursive estimation of the parameters in an auxiliary model. The learning scheme employed by the agents belongs to the class of stochastic approximation algorithms whose gain sequence is decreasing to zero. Our focus is on the estimation of the parameters in the resulting actual law of motion. For a special case we show that the ordinary least squares estimator is consistent.


In this study, we advance existing research on the long-term effects of childhood disadvantage on health in adulthood by examining how the timing and duration of childhood economic hardship differentiates between those at low and high risk of chronic disease onset in midlife for women and men, across four different health outcomes. The study uses prospective data on childhood and adulthood from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Discrete time hazard models are estimated using logistic regression to determine how experiences of childhood economic hardship affect the risk of disease onset in midlife differently for men and women. Results indicate that, in general, childhood economic context results in an increased risk of multiple diseases for women but not for men. Specifically, women who experienced long-term economic hardship in childhood, or began life in poverty but moved out of poverty in childhood, were more likely to experience the onset of diabetes, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases in midlife, net of other factors, such as adult resources. The impact of childhood economic hardship on disease onset also varied by age for women but not for men, and this relationship was also dependent on the health outcome examined. This study draws attention to the importance of conceptualizing and measuring childhood disadvantage as dynamic, and reveals that the process of cumulative disadvantage may be different for women and men.


Causal consistency has emerged as an attractive middle-ground to architecting cloud storage systems, as it allows for high availability and low latency, while supporting semantics stronger than eventual consistency. However, causally-consistent cloud storage systems have seen limited deployment in practice. A key factor is these systems employ full replication of all the data in all the data centers (DCs), incurring high cost. A simple extension of current causal systems to support partial replication by clustering DCs into rings incurs availability and latency problems. We propose Karma, the first system to enable causal consistency for partitioned data stores while achieving the cost advantages of partial replication without the availability and latency problems of the simple extension. Our evaluation with 64 servers emulating 8 geo-distributed DCs shows that Karma (i) incurs much lower cost than a fully-replicated causal store (obviously due to the lower replication factor); and (ii) offers higher availability and better performance than the above partial-replication extension at similar costs.


The development of interactive products requires the integration of different disciplines, such as interaction design, design engineering, marketing and R&D. This article explores how these disciplines can be involved in the prototyping process by introducing a set of tools. In the literature, various tools and toolkits are described that support interaction designers in the design and modification of prototypes in the early stages of a project. Although these make prototyping easier for interaction designers, it remains challenging to involve other disciplines in a collaborative prototyping process. In this design case I describe a set of tailor-made tools that were designed to support the collaborative development of an interactive prototype in an industrial setting. I demonstrate how these tools supported collaboration and communication across functional units, and allowed different stakeholders to make concrete design contributions. I propose that investing in the development of such supportive tools is beneficial to product development, as they 1) allow different stakeholders to user the prototype as a development tool, 2) facilitate cross-functional collaboration and 3) enable appropriation and repurposing of the prototype across different departments.


High heat-dissipation polymers are currently in great demand especially with the rapid development of electronic devices. However, traditional polymer composites usually suffer from both low thermal conductivity due to poor dispersibility and low concentration of fillers in the polymer matrix. To address this issue, it is necessary to improve the compatibility between the thermal conductive fillers and polymer matrix. Here, we designed a highly water-soluble functionalized boron nitride (FBN) nanosheet. Unlike most functional BN nanosheets that are only dispersible in water with polymer matrix at low concentrations, our FBN nanosheets can be mutually dispersed with aqueous polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in arbitrary weight ratios. The super compatibility between FBN and PVA is further interpreted by the Pickering emulsion formed from water and n-hexane. Moreover, after facile vacuum filtration, the robust FBN/polymer freestanding films with layer-by-layer laminate nanostructures are well fabricated. The nanocomposite films exhibit superior in-plane thermal conductivity (120 W m−1 K−1 for 90 wt% FBN loading in FBN/PVA film), which is nearly 100 times larger than that of the pristine PVA film. The FBN/polymer films provide good fire-retardant ability, thus effectively retarding flammability. In addition, the nanocomposite film with high concentration of FBN up to 70 wt% still possessed excellent flexibility and toughness even after being rolled and folded 100 times. Interestingly, the rolled film hollow cylinder supported 25 000 times its own weight without cracking, highlighting the extra strong interaction between the FBN and PVA. These properties make the nanosheet an excellent candidate for thermal management in electronics.


i»?This paper traces the effects of the "East Asian Miracle,†the 1997–1998 Asian Crisis, the recovery, and the 2008–2009 global financial crisis on ASEAN countries. It also considers how ASEAN countries can sustain growth by leveraging production networks to facilitate technology transfer. To achieve this, ASEAN countries need to maintain an environment friendly to foreign investment by resisting corruption, providing consistent and coherent enforcement of laws and regulations at all governmental levels, and maintaining stable macroeconomic fundamentals. This paper then emphasizes that ASEAN countries should focus on climbing the value chain by investing in human capital. They can do this by providing children with adequate nutrition, healthcare, and primary education, providing high school students with a high quality education in science and math, and providing university students with scientific and engineering training. The educational system should also be careful to provide students with marketable skills that businesses need. Finally, the paper argues that ASEAN should promote regional financial integration to help channel savings to high-yielding investments in the region.


ABSTRACT This paper provides an alternative framework that conceptualizes the threat posed by terrorism based on an epidemiological approach that views it as a chronic disease like cancer rather than as a military, ideological, or socio-economic problem. After highlighting the similarities in the causes, behavior, treatments, and challenges of combating terrorism and cancer, this paper presents a staging system policymakers can use to educate the public and allocate counterterrorism resources more efficiently. This approach encourages policymakers to see terrorism for what it is (an all but inevitable facet of modern life that can be managed but never fully eliminated), and not what they wish terrorism to be (a national security problem that can be solved, defeated, or vanquished). It provides policymakers with a useful model to conceptualize the threat and treat terrorism in a comprehensive manner, from preventing future attacks to effectively responding to them when they will inevitably occur.


This paper quantitatively assesses the economic implications of crediting carbon abatement from reduced deforestation for the emissions market in 2020 by linking a numerical equilibrium model of the global carbon market with a dynamic partial equilibrium model of the forestry sector. We find that integrating avoided deforestation in international emissions trading considerably decreases the costs of post-Kyoto climate policy – even when accounting for conventional abatement options of developing countries under the CDM. At the same time, tropical rainforest regions receive substantial net revenues from exporting carbon-offset credits to the industrialized world. Moreover, reduced deforestation can increase environmental effectiveness by enabling industrialized countries to tighten their carbon constraints without increasing mitigation costs. Regarding uncertainties of this future carbon abatement option, we find both forestry transaction costs and deforestation baselines to play an important role for the post-Kyoto carbon market.


Background: A key element of the evaluation of warehouse operation is the average order-picking time. In warehouses where the order-picking process is carried out according to the "picker-to-part" rule the order-picking time is usually proportional to the distance covered by the picker while picking items. This distance can by estimated by simulations or using mathematical equations. In the paper only the best described in the literature one-block rectangular warehouses are considered. Material and methods: For the one-block rectangular warehouses there are well known five routing heuristics. In the paper the author considers the return heuristic in two variants. The paper presents well known Hall's and De Koster's equations for the average distance traveled by the picker while completing items from one pick list. The author presents own proposals for calculating the expected distance. Results: the results calculated by the use of mathematical equations (the formulas of Hall, De Koster and own propositions) were compared with the average values obtained using computer simulations. For the most cases the average error does not exceed 1% (except for Hall's equations). To carry out simulation the computer software Warehouse Real-Time Simulator was used. Conclusions: the order-picking time is a function of many variables and its optimization is not easy. It can be done in two stages: firstly using mathematical equations the set of the potentially best variants is established, next the results are verified using simulations. The results calculated by the use of equations are not precise, but possible to achieve immediately. The simulations are more time-consuming, but allow to analyze the order-picking process more accurately.


What makes a neural microcircuit computationally powerful? Or more precisely, which measurable quantities could explain why one microcircuit C is better suited for a particular family of computational tasks than another microcircuit C′? We propose in this article quantitative measures for evaluating the computational power and generalization capability of a neural microcircuit, and apply them to generic neural microcircuit models drawn from different distributions. We validate the proposed measures by comparing their prediction with direct evaluations of the computational performance of these microcircuit models. This procedure is applied first to microcircuit models that differ with regard to the spatial range of synaptic connections and with regard to the scale of synaptic efficacies in the circuit, and then to microcircuit models that differ with regard to the level of background input currents and the level of noise on the membrane potential of neurons. In this case the proposed method allows us to quantify differences in the computational power and generalization capability of circuits in different dynamic regimes (UP- and DOWN-states) that have been demonstrated through intracellular recordings in vivo.


The heavy vehicle driver fatigue legislation was enacted in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in September 2008. While the legislation allows for the approval of electronic work diary systems, a lack of specification on the composition of an electronic work diary was identified. The Australian Transport Council in November 2008 directed Austroads to start on the 'immediate development of a performance based specification for electronic heavy vehicle speed and driver fatigue systems, enhancing the use of in- vehicle telematics and adding value to the Intelligent Access Program'. At the same time, the National Transport Commission was tasked to develop a policy framework and regulatory impact statement for heavy vehicle driver systems. This paper presents the findings of the draft policy paper and the accompanying draft specification that was released for public consultation in late 2010. The three presenters at the consultations have combined to produce this paper. A number of unresolved policy and technical issues were identified and submissions have since been received from governments and industry. In 2010, the NSW Minister for Transport proposed the undertaking of an Electronic Work Diary Operational Pilot and this initiative has since gained national support. The paper will also report on the scoping and plans for the pilot which commenced in July 2011.


Put the power of story telling into selling financial products. The authors explain the process of making these intuitive connections, then translate their findings into understandable and practical strategies that any financial professional can use. They present actual stories, including many by Warren Buffet, one of the greatest "storysellers" of all time. These actual stories can help financial pros tap into the "gut reaction" of different types of clients. the book also includes special topics on communicating to women, the 50+ market, and the affluent.


Generative models have proven to be an outstanding tool for representing high-dimensional probability distributions and generating realistic-looking images. An essential characteristic of generative models is their ability to produce multi-modal outputs. However, while training, they are often susceptible to mode collapse, that is models are limited in mapping input noise to only a few modes of the true data distribution. In this work, we draw inspiration from Determinantal Point Process (DPP) to propose an unsupervised penalty loss that alleviates mode collapse while producing higher quality samples. DPP is an elegant probabilistic measure used to model negative correlations within a subset and hence quantify its diversity. We use DPP kernel to model the diversity in real data as well as in synthetic data. Then, we devise an objective term that encourages generators to synthesize data with similar diversity to real data. In contrast to previous state-of-the-art generative models that tend to use additional trainable parameters or complex training paradigms, our method does not change the original training scheme. Embedded in an adversarial training and variational autoencoder, our Generative DPP approach shows a consistent resistance to mode-collapse on a wide variety of synthetic data and natural image datasets including MNIST, CIFAR10, and CelebA, while outperforming state-of-the-art methods for data-efficiency, generation quality, and convergence-time whereas being 5.8x faster than its closest competitor.


We develop a theory of corporate liquidity demand, capturing the fact that a firm's borrowing capacity depends on news on future investment profitability. In our model, bad news on future investment profitability reduces a firm's borrowing capacity and therefore increases the need for internal finance. Consequently, the firm's cash savings respond negatively to news on future profitability. This negative correlation is strongly supported by our empirical evidence using a combined data set of Compustat and IBES. Moreover, both our simulation and empirical results show that the sensitivity of cash savings to news on future profitability is a reliable indicator of the presence of financial constraints at firm level.


Abstract; Based on the previous study, the ability of students learning disability in understanding the gemetry material particulary geometry of Euclidian is low. On the other side, in term of learning mathematic of geometry of Euclidian is taught without using learning model innovative media. Consequently, students get difficulty in understanding geometry of Euclidian. Based on the observation result, the result of students' learning disability in learning geometry has not achieved maximally a good score yet. The purpose of this research is to examine wheter there has the effects of direct learning model using tangram as media or not to the result of learning geometry in students' learning disability of grade 5 if SDN Putren 1 Sukomoro Nganjuk.It's a pra-experimental research which use design of "one group pre-test post-test design" that are kinds of experiment which is done to the group without using control group or comparison group. Methods of data collections using tests and documentations. Subject of this research is 6 students' learning disability in SDN Putren 1 Sukomoro Nganjuk. For the data analysis, it used sign test.From the analysis result, the result of counting critical score 5% for testing on side (1,64) and testing two side (1,96), the score Z is got from counting (Zh = 2,05) > Z table 1,96 so that the working hypothesis (Ha) is received. So that the result of this research is there is a significant effect of the result of learning geometry through direct learning model using tangram as media ins learning geometry to the students' learning disability in SDN Putren 1 Sukomoro Nganjuk.Keywords: direct learning, tangram, geometry