Today's MEMS technology allows manufacturing of miniaturized, low power sensors that sometimes exceeds the performance of conventional sensors. The pressure sensor market today is dominated by MEMS pressure sensors.In this thesis two different pressure sensor techniques are studied. The first concerns ways to improve the sensitivity in the most commonly occurring pressure sensor, namely such based on the piezoresistive technique. Since the giant piezoresistive effect was observed in silicon nanowires, it was assumed that a similar effect could be expected in nano-thin silicon films. However, it turned out that the conductivity was extremely sensitive to substrate bias and could therefore be controlled by varying the backside potential. Another important parameter was the resistivity time drift. Long time measurements showed a drastic variation in the resistance. Not even after several hours of measurement was steady state reached. The drift is explained by hole injection into the buried oxide as well as existence of mobile charges. The piezoresistive effect was studied and shown to be of the same magnitude as in bulk silicon. Later research has shown the existence of such an effect where the film thickness has to be less than around 20 nm. The second area that has been studied is the pressure sensitivity of in acoustic resonators. Aluminium nitride thin film plate acoustic resonators (FPAR) operating at the lowest-order symmetric (S0), the first-order asymmetric (A1) as well as the first-order symmetric (S1) Lamb modes have been theoretically and experimentally studied in a comparative manner. The S0 Lamb mode is identified as the most pressure sensitive FPAR mode. The theoretical predictions were found to be in good agreement with the experiments. Additionally, the Lamb modes have been tested for their sensitivities to mass loading and their ability to operate in liquids, where the S0 mode showed good results.Finally, the pressure sensitivity in aluminium nitride thin film bulk wave resonators employing c- and tilted c-axis texture has been studied. The c-axis tilted FBAR demonstrates a substantially higher pressure sensitivity compared to its c-axis oriented counterpart.


Komlós conjectured in 1981 that among all graphs with minimum degree at least d , the complete graph Kd+1 minimises the number of Hamiltonian subsets, where a subset of vertices is Hamiltonian if it contains a spanning cycle. We prove this conjecture when d is sufficiently large. In fact we prove a stronger result: for large d , any graph G with average degree at least d contains almost twice as many Hamiltonian subsets as Kd+1 , unless G is isomorphic to Kd+1 or a certain other graph which we specify.


Numerous rule-based specification mining approaches have been proposed in the literature. Many of these approaches analyze a set of execution traces to discover interesting usage rules, e.g., whenever lock() is invoked, eventually unlock() is invoked. These techniques often generate and enumerate a set of candidate rules and compute some interestingness scores. Rules whose interestingness scores are above a certain threshold would then be output. In past studies, two measures, namely support and confidence, which are well-known measures, are often used to compute these scores. However, aside from these two, many other interestingness measures have been proposed. It is thus unclear if support and confidence are the best interestingness measures for specification mining. In this work, we perform an empirical study that investigates the utility of 38 interestingness measures in recovering correct specifications of classes from Java libraries. We used a ground truth dataset consisting of 683 rules and recorded execution traces that are produced when we run the DaCapo test suite. We apply 38 different interestingness measures to identify correct rules from a pool of candidate rules. Our study highlights that many measures are on par to support and confidence. Some of the measures are even better than support or confidence and at least one of the measures is statistically significantly better than the two measures. We also find that compositions of several measures with support statistically significantly outperform the composition of support and confidence. Our findings highlight the need to look beyond standard support and confidence to find interesting rules.


Achieving a transition to a low-carbon energy system is now widely recognised as a key challenge facing humanity. To date, the vast majority of research addressing this challenge has been conducted within the disciplines of science, engineering and economics utilising quantitative and modelling techniques. However, there is growing awareness that meeting energy challenges requires fundamentally sociotechnical solutions and that the social sciences have an important role to play. This is an interdisciplinary challenge but, to date, there remain very few explorations of, or reflections on, interdisciplinary energy research in practice. This paper seeks to change that by reporting on an interdisciplinary experiment to build new models of energy demand on the basis of cutting-edge social science understandings. The process encouraged the social scientists to communicate their ideas more simply, whilst allowing engineers to think critically about the embedded assumptions in their models in relation to society and social change. To do this, the paper uses a particular set of theoretical approaches to energy use behaviour known collectively as social practice theory – and explores the potential of more quantitative forms of network analysis to provide a formal framework by means of which to diagram and visualise practices. The aim of this is to gain insight into the relationships between the elements of a practice, so increasing the ultimate understanding of how practices operate. Graphs of practice networks are populated based on new empirical data drawn from a survey of different types (or variants) of laundry practice. The resulting practice networks are analysed to reveal characteristics of elements and variants of practice, such as which elements could be considered core to the practice, or how elements between variants overlap, or can be shared. This promises insights into energy intensity, flexibility and the rootedness of practices (i.e. how entrenched/established they are) and so opens up new questions and possibilities for intervention. The novelty of this approach is that it allows practice data to be represented graphically using a quantitative format without being overly reductive. Its usefulness is that it is readily applied to large datasets, provides the capacity to interpret social practices in new ways and serves to open up potential links with energy modelling. More broadly, a significant dimension of novelty has been the interdisciplinary approach, radically different to that normally seen in energy research. This paper is relevant to a broad audience of social scientists and engineers interested in integrating social practices with energy engineering.


Abstract Human population growth is one of the primary drivers of biodiversity loss. Throughout much of the developing world growth of human populations is occurring in part as a result of a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, and this is having profoundly negative impacts on biodiversity and natural resource-dependent livelihoods. We present experiences of the incorporation of sexual and reproductive health services within a pre-existing community-based marine conservation initiative in Madagascar as part of an integrated population, health and environment (PHE) programme. Our results demonstrate the considerable demand for, and lack of social barriers to, the introduction of sexual and reproductive health services in this region. These findings emphasize the mutually beneficial synergies, supporting both public health and conservation objectives, which can be created by integrating sexual and reproductive health services into more conventional biodiversity conservation activities. This PHE approach demonstrates the inextricable link between reproductive health and resource use by providing practical, immediate and lasting benefits to public health, gender equity, food security and biodiversity conservation.


We demonstrate a novel all-optical noninverted OC-192 return-to-zero (RZ) decision-gate by using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) which is gain-controlled to achieve an extremely high cross-gain-modulation depth and a narrow gain window. A dark-optical-comb generated by reshaping the optical clock RZ data in a Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator is employed as an injecting source to temporally deplete most of the gain in the SOA. Such a dark-optical-comb injected SOA decision-gate exhibits improved 3R regeneration performances such as a timing tolerance of 33.5 ps, Q -factor of 8.1, an input dynamical tolerance of 14 dB, and an extinction ratio (ER) of 14 dB. The deviation between the wavelengths of backward injected dark-optical-comb and input RZ data for optimizing the ER of the decision-gate is determined as Deltalambda=19 nm. Under a threshold operating dark-optical-comb power of 7 dBm, such a decision-gate can recover the -18.5-dBm degraded RZ data with a bit-error-rate of less than at 10-9 Gb/s. A negative power penalty of -4.2 dB is demonstrated for the RZ data after 50-km propagation and decision gating.


It has been well documented that people are able to get some semantic and/or statistical information out of a briefly presented image. They are able to report on the gist of a scene in 100 ms (Potter, 1975), detect the presence of an animal in an image presented for 20 ms (Thorpe et al., 1996) and determine the mean size of sets of objects (Ariely, 2001; Chong & Treisman, 2003). These findings suggest that some advanced scene processing is possible without attentional selection of specific objects. What are the limits on this non-selective processing? During natural viewing, do we have simultaneous access to multiple non-selective possibilities: mean orientation, scene gist, animal detection, etc? Alternatively, perhaps we only have access to currently task-relevant capability. If you are looking for animals, you might not automatically compute mean orientation. In a series of psychophysical experiments we tested whether there is a cost to non-selective processing and the nature of that cost. We compared conditions where observers know the relevant global image property before seeing the stimulus to conditions where the relevant global property is specified after the stimulus has been presented. The results show that observers' post-cued performance was well beyond what could be achieved if that processing ability had to be set to one attribute at a time. However, performance was below what would be predicted if observers computed all nonselective properties without cost. In a second set of experiments, observers monitored RSVP streams for one target category (e.g. beach) in a block of trials where two others (e.g. person, vehicle) could be targets. Images containing a trial-relevant and a block-relevant item (car on beach) produced more errors as the presence of the car seemed to block encoding of the beach. Non-selective processing of semantic information cannot encode all available signals.


A computer beats the reigning human champion of Go, a game harder than chess. Another is composing classical music. Labs are creating life-forms from synthetic DNA. A doctor designs an artificial trachea, uses a 3D printer to produce it, and implants it and saves a child's life.

 Astonishing technological advances like these are arriving in increasing numbers. Scholar and entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa uses this book to alert us to dozens of them and raise important questions about what they may mean for us.

 Breakthroughs such as personalized genomics, self-driving vehicles, drones, and artificial intelligence could make our lives healthier, safer, and easier. But the same technologies raise the specter of a frightening, alienating future: eugenics, a jobless economy, complete loss of privacy, and ever-worsening economic inequality. As Wadhwa puts it, our choices will determine if our future is Star Trek or Mad Max.

 Wadhwa offers us three questions to ask about every emerging technology: Does it have the potential to benefit everyone equally? What are its risks and rewards? And does it promote autonomy or dependence? Looking at a broad array of advances in this light, he emphasizes that the future is up to us to create—that even if our hands are not on the wheel, we will decide the driverless car's destination.


The paper examines the emergence of illustrative practices among fine artists to achieve a particular mobility, one which enables them to gather, synthesise and communicate information across diverse environments and communities. This idea informs our research project, Walking the Line: Drawing in Other Terrains. Contemporary drawing includes artists seeking out ever more responsive and dialogical applications of drawing in interdisciplinary environments. This reveals a fluidity, a new sensitivity where drawing is used to analyse, depict, communicate and reflect upon aspects of lived experience, and work alongside other research professionals. We discuss the lineage these highly contemporary practices to John Ruskin's Elements of Drawing (1857) and his belief in the use of drawing to interrogate the world and our position in it. Situated in this context, Ruskin reminds us of our social and ecological responsibilities and provides us with the tools (observational drawing) to address these issues. We argue this under-acknowledged mode of practice is timely and significant for a globalised interdisciplinary research community because it reveals drawing's capacity to intercede and build relationships across disparate areas of expertise and communities.


A modest approximation by homebuyers leads house prices to display three features that are present in the data but usually missing from perfectly rational models: momentum at one-year horizons, mean reversion at five-year horizons, and excess longer-term volatility relative to fundamentals. Valuing a house involves forecasting the current and future demand to live in the surrounding area. Buyers forecast using past transaction prices. Approximating buyers do not adjust for the expectations of past buyers, and instead assume that past prices reflect only contemporaneous demand, as with a capitalization rate formula. Consistent with survey evidence, this approximation leads buyers to expect increases in the market value of their homes after recent house price increases, to fail to anticipate the price busts that follow booms, and to be overconfident in their assessments of the housing market.


Recent research in labour economics (e.g. the work of Card and Krueger, 1995, on the impact of minimum wages) has led to renewed interest in the appropriate model to use when thinking about the labour market. But, the standard textbook models of both perfect competition and monopsony are both implausible, though for different reasons. The competitive model because it assumes the wage elasticity of the supply of labour to the individual firm is infinite and the monopsony model because it assumes that an employer cannot do anything to raise employment other than raise the wage. This paper presents a more general but very simple model in which the employer can also raise employment by increasing expenditure on recruitment. Using this, it is shown how that division between perfect competition and monopsony is not the issue of whether the wage elasticity in labour supply is infinite or finite (as it is usually presented) but whether there are diseconomies of scale in recruitment. Using a unique British data set containing information on both labour turnover costs and the number of recruits, we present estimates that do suggest that there is an increasing marginal cost of recruitment.


Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been shown to experience increases in stress, depression, and anxiety, which are also associated with child behavior problems related to ASDs. Literature-examining potential mechanisms that underlie the relationship of child behavior problems and parental anxiety/depression in this population are scarce. The current study sought to examine the roles of parenting stress and parenting self-efficacy as mediators between child behavior problems and parental anxiety/depression. Using a sample of 134 mothers, these potential mediators were tested. Hypotheses were supported, indicating that parenting stress mediated the relationship between child behavior problems and decreased parenting self-efficacy, and decreased parenting self-efficacy in turn partially mediated the relationship between parenting stress and increased depression/anxiety.


Background: Long-term survival of a skin graft is dependent on eventual revascularization. The authors' aim in the present study was to determine whether skin graft vascularization occurs by (1) simple reconnection of vessels, (2) ingrowth of recipient vasculature, (3) outgrowth of donor-derived vessels, and/or (4) recruitment of bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cells. Methods: Full-thickness skin grafts (1 × 1 cm) were transferred between wild-type FVB/N mice (n = 20) and transgenic tie2/lacZ mice (n = 20), where lacZ expression is controlled by the endothelial specific tie2 promoter, allowing differentiation of recipient and donor endothelial cells. The contribution of endothelial progenitor cells to skin graft neovascularization was determined using a bone marrow transplant model where tie2/lacZ bone marrow was transplanted into wild-type mice (n = 20). Results: Vascular regression in the graft was observed at the periphery starting on day 3 and moving centrally through day 21, sparing graft vessels in the absolute center of the graft. At the same time, vascular ingrowth occurred from the wound bed to replace the regressing vessels. Furthermore, bone marrow–derived endothelial progenitor cells contributed to these new vessels starting as early as day 7. Surprisingly, the contribution of bone marrow–derived vessels to the overall process was approximately 15 to 20 percent of new endothelial cells. Conclusions: Replacement of the donor graft vasculature by endothelial and endothelial progenitor cells from the recipient along preexisting channels is the predominant mechanism for skin graft revascularization. This mechanism is likely similar for all nonvascularized free grafts and suggests novel strategies for optimizing the vascularization of tissue constructs engineered in vitro.


Objectives: To test the hypothesis that hyperoxia was associated with higher in-hospital case-fatality in ventilated patients with ICH admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Methods: Admissions of ventilated ICH patients within 24 hours of admission to the ICU at 77 United States hospitals between 2003-2008. Patients were divided into three exposure groups: hyperoxia (PaO2≥300 mmHg), hypoxia (PaO2<60 mmHg or PaO2/FiO2 ratio ≤300), and normoxia, not defined as hyperoxia or hypoxia. The primary outcome was in-hospital case-fatality. Results: 1,388 ventilated ICH patients. Mean age 63 years (SD 15), 47% (653/1388) female, and median GCS 5 (IQR 3-8). The overall case-fatality was 59% (812/1388). Upon admission to the ICU, 36% (492/1388) were normoxic, 47% (641/1388) were hypoxic, and 17% (238/1388) were hyperoxic on ABGt1. ABGt2 was accomplished in 780 patients, of whom 46% (352/780) were normoxic, 45% (352/780) were hypoxic, and 9% (67/780) were hyperoxic. Of the initially admitted hyperoxic patients, 15% (21/138) remained hyperoxic and had a case-fatality of 82% (18/21) as compared to 49% (67/138) who became normoxic and had a case-fatality of 46% (32/67) (crude OR 6.6, 95%CI:1.8-25, χ=9.4, p=0.002). In a multivariable analysis controlling for other predictors of poor outcome and hospital specific characteristics, and a propensity-score, failure to correct hyperoxia was associated with higher case-fatality (adjusted OR 2.5, 95%CI:1.1-6.1, p=0.04). Conclusion: In ventilated ICH patients, failure to normalize hyperoxia was associated with higher case-fatality. These data underscore the need for studies of controlled re-oxygenation in ventilated


Lotman and Barthes created two different critically oriented semiotic traditions. Both of them wen t through an evolution in their thought, moving from systematic organization to living transformations in cultural systems. This allowed them to carry out a bilateral critique of codes and identities in favour of either anonymous hybridity (Lotman) or neutrality (Barthes), where heterogeneity becomes a principle of creative "disorder". Though quite different as regards their theoretical production, both scholars meet in their refusal to turn descriptive practices (studium) into a model of any other form of behaviour, considering that the determination of textual or institutional perimetres is not always clear. In short, Barthes and Lotman anticipated current research trends on the semiotics of practices; Barthes because of a sort of self-reflexion on the behaviour of the interpreter in front of an object, and Lotman through his analytic interest in attitudes and ways of living. Barthes's view on writing essentially reaches Lotman's conception of culture as a "collective person": we are looking for traces of breathing in the life of signs. More precisely, we can assert that, in the view of both scholars, inscribing speech events in history problematizes the dynamic and asynchronous relation between the structural frame of a culture and its textual heritage. The rhythm of fashion is not a side topic in their research, but, rather, it is the clearest exemplification of a dialectic between structural projection from the outside and local introjection of forms, depending on the conditions that make a difference.


A phenomenonally precocious schoolboy, Rimbaud was still a teenager when he became notorious as Europe's most shocking and exhilarating poet. During his brief five-year reign as the enfant terrible of French literature he produced an extraordinary body of poems that range from the exquisite to the obscene, while simultaneously living a life of dissolute excess with his lover and fellow poet, Verlaine. At the age of 21, he abandoned poetry and travelled across Europe before settling in Africa as an arms trader. This edition sets the two sides of Rimbaud side by side with a sparkling translation of his most exhilarating poetry and a generous selection of the letters from the harsh and colourful period of his life as a colonial trader.


In this study, effective parameters on pseudomonas bacterial culturing are analyzed individually. Pseudomonas bacteria were applied for oil pollutants segregation from a polluted water sample of Persian Gulf. The bacteria were used for cleaning the sample so that the contents' chemical features could be determined.Salinity and pH parameters were put under observation in different conditions and the results are illustrated in diagrams. Concentration of biosurfactants and conditions of culture medium like oxygen amount and temperature were all determined and analyzed. The influencing parameters on laboratory scale bacterial culturing were varied individually in order to obtain the optimum conditions for oil pollutants cleaning.Taguchi experimental design method was then applied to optimize the bacterial culturing conditions. Salinity, pH amounts, and biosurfactants concentrations were chosen as the parameters that use different levels based on Taguchi method. Eventually, a pH of 8.5, salinity of %2.5 and biosurfactants concentration of %0.1 were determined as the optimum conditions in which bacteria were cultured and grown the most.


1. Active and inactive renin were assayed in plasma of the renal veins and the inferior vena cava below the kidney in eight patients with hypertension and unilateral renal abnormalities, 20 min after the patients had resumed the upright position. 2. The concentration of active renin on the affected side was significantly higher than that on the non-affected side. The concentration of inactive renin on the affected side was significantly lower than that on the non-affected side and in the inferior vena cava. 3. These findings suggest either that the affected kidney mainly secretes active renin, which is then converted into inactive renin in the extrarenal circulation, or that the affected kidney activates inactive renin.


Polymer brushes attract vapors that are good solvents for polymers. This is useful in sensing and other technologies that rely on concentrating vapors for optimal performance. It was recently shown that vapor sorption can be enhanced further by incorporating two incompatible types of polymers A and B in the brushes: additional vapor adsorbs at the high-energy polymer-polymer interface in these binary brushes. In this article, we present a model that describes this enhanced sorption in binary brushes of immiscible A-B polymers. To do so, we set up a free-energy model to predict the interfacial area between the different polymer phases in binary brushes. This description is combined with Gibbs adsorption isotherms to determine the adsorption at these interfaces. We validate our model with coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Moreover, based on our results, we propose design parameters (A-B chain fraction, grafting density, vapor, and A-B interaction strength) for optimal vapor absorption in coatings composed of binary brushes.


Rendering stiff virtual objects remains a core chal- lenge in the field of haptics. A study of this problem is presented, which relates the maximum achievable object stiffness to the elements of the control loop. In particular, we examine how the sampling rate, quantization, computational delay, and amplifier dynamics interact with the inertia, natural viscous, and Coulomb damping of the haptic device. Nonlinear effects create distinct stability regions and many common devices operate stably, yet in violation of passivity criteria. An energy based approach provides theoretical insights, supported by simulations, experimental data, and a describing function analysis. The presented results subsume previously known stability conditions.


Agroecology as a transformative movement has gained momentum in many countries worldwide. In several cases, the implementation of agroecological practices has grown beyond isolated, local experiences to be employed by ever-greater numbers of families and communities over ever-larger territories and to engage more people in the processing, distribution, and consumption of agroecologically produced food. To understand the nonlinear, multidimensional processes that have enabled and impelled the bringing to scale of agroecology, we review and analyze emblematic cases that include the farmer-to-farmer movement in Central America; the national peasant agroecology movement in Cuba; the organic coffee boom in Chiapas, Mexico; the spread of Zero Budget Natural Farming in Karnataka, India; and the agroecological farmer-consumer marketing network "Rede Ecovida," in Brazil. Based on our analysis, we identify eight key drivers of the process of taking agroecology to scale: 1) recognition of a crisis that motivates the search for alternatives; 2) social organization; 3) constructivist learning processes; 4) effective agroecological practices; 5) mobilizing discourses; 6) external allies; 7) favorable markets, and 8) favorable policies. This initial analysis shows that organization and social fabric are the growth media on which agroecology advances, with the help of the other drivers. A more detailed understanding is needed on how these multiple dimensions interact with, reinforce, and generate positive feedback with each other to make agroecology's territorial expansion possible.


The thesis is concerned with the concept of mental effort and sustained perceptual-motor performance.
It is proposed that mental effort represents a finite resource which is capable of modulating those cognitive operations underlying perceptual-motor performance. In addition, it is hypothesised that mental effort investment is associated with a number of energetical costs. This finite quality of effort is used to justifY a self-regulatory mechanism designed to ensure that effort is deployed in a rational fashion.
A model of mental effort regulation is proposed based on a process of self-appraisal. This process is informed via feedback from external sources (concerned with performance effectiveness) and internal
symptoms (concerned with energetical state and personal discomfort). Both sources offeedback are amalgamated into a cognitive-energetic appraisal, which represents the basis for the formulation of effort policy, i.e. whether to increase, decrease or sustain current level of mental effort.
This model is explored via four experimental studies of sustained perceptual-motor performance. An initial laboratory study investigates the influence of individual differences and sleep deprivation on
effort regulation. This study revealed that low performance capacity is associated with an increase of mental effort investment. The fol1owing two studies are concerned with driving behaviour. An experiment contrasting the influence of sleep deprivation and alcohol on driving performance illustrates
the influence of external and internal feedback on effort regulation. The fol1owing experiment investigates this issue in detail by exposing drivers to objective performance feedback during a sustained 'journey'. A final laboratory study provides evidence that mental effort is a finite commodity
and il1ustrates a number of alternative effort policies in action.
These findings and their implications for the model of mental effort regulation are discussed.


ABSTRACT Spatial awareness in virtual reality (VR) is a dominant research topic. It plays an essential role in the assessment of human operators' behavior in simulated tasks, notably for the evaluation of the feasibility of manual maintenance tasks in cluttered industrial settings. In such contexts, it is decisive to evaluate the spatial and temporal correspondence between the operator's movement kinematics and that of his/her virtual avatar in the virtual environment (VE). Often, in a cluttered VE, direct kinesthetic (force) feedback is limited or absent. We tested whether vibrotactile (cutaneous) feedback would increase visuo-proprioceptive consistency, spatial awareness, and thus the validity of VR studies, by augmenting the perception of the operator's contact(s) with virtual objects. We present experimental results obtained using a head-mounted display (HMD) during a goal-directed task in a cluttered VE. Results suggest the contribution of spatialized vibrotactile feedback to visuo-proprioceptive consistency.


Abstract Heretofore, no detailed account was available on seed dormancy and germination of a member of the Colchicaceae (Liliales). Thus, the primary aim of this study was to do an in-depth investigation of the temperature requirements for dormancy break and germination in seeds of Merendera montana (Colchicaceae) at the embryo and whole-seed levels under near-natural temperatures in a non-heated frame shade-house and under controlled conditions in the laboratory. Mean embryo length in fresh seeds was c. 0.57 mm and embryos had to grow to at least 1.30 mm before radicle emergence. Embryos grew to full size and seeds completed germination (radicles emerged) when they were stratified at 28/14°C for 60 d followed by a cool temperature for 60 d and then incubated at a cool temperature for 30 d. The optimum cool stratification temperature for dormancy-break was 10°C. Thus, after the moist pretreatment at 28/14°C+10°C, radicle emergence was>93% at all incubation temperatures (5, 15/4 and 20/7°C). In its natural habitat, M. montana seeds are dispersed in June, the embryo elongates to full size in autumn and radicles emerge from early November to early February. Although the shoot does not emerge until March and April, it is not physiologically dormant. The shoot emerged from 80% of the radicle-emerged seeds in 13 d at 20/7°C without a previous cold pretreatment. Seeds of M. montana have non-deep complex morphophysiological dormancy, C1b1aB-C1a. This is the first study on seeds with complex MPD to show a delay in shoot emergence following root emergence despite the shoot being physiologically non-dormant.


The current study attempted to investigate if there was a significant difference between fielddependent/independent Iranian EFL learners in terms of the use of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies. The difference between these two groups was studied with reference to both their general reading strategy use and the strategies they used in reading a particular text they were invited to read. To this end, 62 EFL students (27 males and 35 females) who were assumed to be skilled in L2 reading were chosen from Urmia University. As a first step, Group Embedded Figures Test was employed in order to assign the participants into either field-dependent or field-independent groups. Next, they were requested to answer a self-reported reading strategies questionnaire to determine their general reading strategies utilized across various contexts. After one week's interval, a reading text was given to the participants to read first and then to answer another adapted reading strategies questionnaire to identify context-specific strategies they actually used in the reading task that they had just completed. The frequency of general/specific cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies employed by male and female field-dependent/independent students were calculated and compared through ChiSquare statistical test using SPSS software. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between field-dependent and field-independent participants in terms of using general metacognitive and specific cognitive reading strategies. However, there was no significant difference between Field-dependent/independent learners regarding the use of general cognitive as well as specific metacognitive reading strategies.


ABSTRACT This study is conducted to perform an in-depth analysis of Entrepreneurship Centres (ECs) in Pakistan and to investigate the issues pertaining to the growth and effectiveness of ECs in Pakistan. Furthermore, to establish what needs to be done in order to improve the performance of existing centres. This two-part study looks at the characteristics of the ECs and then examines the differences between formal ECs and informal ECs. The findings indicate that both the formal and informal ECs are in growth phase. The findings of this study will assist students, faculty, staff, administrators, heads, and other stakeholders to understand strengths and weaknesses of Entrepreneurship Centres (ECs) in Pakistan. KEYWORDS: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Entrepreneurs, Business Plan, Formal Entrepreneurship Centres, Informal Entrepreneurship Centres ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION According to Minniti, Bygrave and Autio in 2005 entrepreneurship develops in those countries, which have high educational endowments. Therefore, increased investment in entrepreneurial educational infrastructure creates economic values in the society. Katz highlighted history of Entrepreneurship education in the world in 2003. In his study he also included economic and agricultural literature of 1876. In its true form Entrepreneurship education was started in 1970s. University of Southern California launched the first graduate and undergraduate concentration in entrepreneurship in early 70s. Katz in 2003 and 2004 said that the increasing prominence of entrepreneurship and related fields (small and family business, corporate entrepreneurship, and so on) can also be seen in the significant rise in the number of endowed positions (chairs or professorships) in entrepreneurship and related fields at colleges and universities, from the first one in 1963, the second in 1975, to 25 in 1987. Non-U.S. positions grew from four in 1991, to 34 in 1999, and to 158 in 2003, for a worldwide total of 563 positions. Research of Solomon, Weaver, and Fernald in 1994 shows that by the early 1980s, over 300 universities were reporting courses in entrepreneurship and small business and by the 1990s that number grew to 1,050 schools. ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTERS Many development institutions are experimenting to promote entrepreneurship as a way to help individuals. The World Bank and the United States Agency for Development (USAID) have created their own Small and Medium Enterprise divisions to provide funding and entrepreneurial training in developing nations (USAID, 2005; World Bank, 2003). America has promoted entrepreneurship and innovation in the country which has made it economically great. In Cali, Colombia, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development-ICESI (CDEE-ICESI) with the support of university community works to promote entrepreneurial culture by providing new enterprise development, and entrepreneurial education. In Ahmedabad, India, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) offers incubation support to businesses. In Pakistan, one of the entrepreneurial initiatives in academia is Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi, where Centre for Entrepreneurship is established in 2006 for training to set up new businesses. LUMS Entrepreneurship & SME Centre in Lahore has been developed to build an entrepreneurial culture in the country and to support entrepreneurs and SME's for future growth and prosperity of Pakistan. In the corporate sector the initiatives in Entrepreneurship are also emerging and some of them are as follows: In Karachi, Shell Tameer program has helped about 27000 young entrepreneurs through workshops, seminars and meetings. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is a global non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurship. Despite the enormous growth of entrepreneurship education throughout the world, no research exists on the current state of entrepreneurship centres in Pakistan. …


The retrocrural space (RCS) is a small triangular region within the most inferior posterior mediastinum bordered by the two diaphragmatic crura. Multiplanar imaging modalities such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging allow evaluation of the RCS as part of routine examinations of the chest, abdomen, and spine. Normal structures within the retrocrural region include the aorta, nerves, the azygos and hemiazygos veins, the cisterna chyli with the thoracic duct, fat, and lymph nodes. There is a wide range of normal variants of the diaphragmatic crura and of structures within the RCS. Diverse pathologic processes can occur within this region, including benign tumors (lipoma, neurofibroma, lymphangioma), malignant tumors (sarcoma, neuroblastoma, metastases), vascular abnormalities (aortic aneurysm, hematoma, azygos and hemiazygos continuation of the inferior vena cava), and abscesses. An understanding of the anatomy, normal variants, and pathologic conditions of the diaphragmatic crura and retrocrural structures facilitates diagnosis of disease processes within this often overlooked anatomic compartment.


Food webs encapsulate the functional makeup of natural communities by describing both the number and identity of species present, and how they interact with each other. Yet, how different aspects of food web organisation vary in time is still poorly known. In this study, we used multiple complementary descriptors of food web composition and structure to examine the temporal consistency of 22 local food webs as followed over two consecutive years. The focal food webs consisted of specialist herbivore hosts (gallers and miners) and their natural enemies (parasitic and inquiline wasps) on individual pedunculate oaks, Quercus robur. In the changes detected among years, we searched for effects of species- specific ecological traits (abundance, trophic rank and feeding guild) on the persistence of species within local communities. Local food webs showed high consistency between years in terms of species richness and quantitative structure. Nonetheless, the species composition and the qualitative link structure of the webs changed dramatically over time. While different aspects of food web structure revealed different levels of consistency in time, species turnover did leave a detectable imprint on quantitative and qualitative descriptors of food web structure. Overall, a mean 44% of all species present in a community in 2006 were no longer detected in 2007, whereas 31% of the species encountered in 2007 were new to the site. Species turnover was unevenly distributed among feeding guilds, and increased with a decreasing abundance of the species. The patterns uncovered suggest that quantitative, emergent characteristics of food web structure will exhibit less temporal variation than patterns at the level of individual food web parts. However, as these features reflect different, complementary aspects of how food webs are built and how communities are likely to function, patterns at both levels should be considered in assessing the temporal stability of natural communities.


Any learning activity including learning to design takes place in a particular context. Given the goals of the learning activity, this context could be designed, in a way that other products are designed, to satisfy its goals. In a reflective consistent discipline, such as design research could be, design researchers that develop design tools, use these tools to design their research. We present a case study in which a mechatronics design course for high school students was designed using design tools. The course design included teaching design tools. A controlled study showed that the design of the course led to outstanding results. Students engaged in the course, compared to students who studied fewer design tools, won an international robotics competition, improved their science grades, displayed superior design skills, and improved their technology perception. These results demonstrated that by careful design, successful contexts for learning design could be created. In addition, they demonstrated that being reflectively consistent in design research is rewarding. In summary, we also present ideas for further improving the design of the design course.


It is demonstrated that a phosphonium orthoborate ionic liquid may serve as a wear reducing additive in biodegradable oils at steel-steel surfaces in the boundary lubrication regime. Tribological tests were performed in a ball-on-three plate configuration. A set of surface characterization techniques—SEM/EDS, FIB and white light interferometry were used to characterize surfaces following the tribotests and to observe the formation of any tribofilms. 11B NMR was used to follow changes in the composition of the ionic-liquid-oil blends and to identify boron-containing decomposition products after the tribotests. The ionic liquid reduces the wear of steel surfaces by up to 92% compared to the neat oil at 90°C; it is shown that the reduction in wear can be correlated with the formation of boron enriched patches in the boundary films.


We study the Josephson effect in a superconductor--ferromagnet--superconductor (SFS) junction with ferromagnetic domains of non-collinear magnetization. As a model for our study we consider a diffusive junction with two ferromagnetic domains along the junction. The superconductor is assumed to be close to the critical temperature $T_c$, and the linearized Usadel equations predict a sinusoidal current-phase relation. We find analytically the critical current as a function of domain lengths and of the angle between the orientations of their magnetizations. As a function of those parameters, the junction may undergo transitions between 0 and $\pi$ phases. We find that the presence of domains reduces the range of junction lengths at which the $\pi$ phase is observed. For the junction with two domains of the same length, the $\pi$ phase totally disappears as soon as the misorientation angle exceeds $\pi/2$. We further comment on possible implication of our results for experimentally observable 0--$\pi$ transitions in SFS junctions.


In this paper, we study underwater energy harvesting from torsional vibrations of an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) with patterned electrodes. We focus on harmonic base excitation of a centimeter-size IPMC, which is modeled as a slender beam with thin cross-section vibrating in a viscous fluid. Large-amplitude torsional vibrations are described using a complex hydrodynamic function, which accounts for added mass and nonlinear hydrodynamic damping from the surrounding fluid. A linear black box model is utilized to predict the IPMC electrical response as a function of the total twist angle. Model parameters are identified from in-air transient response, underwater steady-state vibrations, and electrical discharge experiments. The resulting electromechanical model allows for predicting energy harvesting from the IPMC as a function of the shunting resistance and the frequency and amplitude of the base excitation. Model results are validated against experimental findings that demonstrate power harvesting densities on the order of picowatts per millimeter cubed.


The use of 'proactive' methods of newsgathering in journalism is very frequently condemned, from within and without the media. I argue that such condemnation is too hasty. In the first half of the paper, I develop a test which distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate uses of proactive methods by law enforcement agencies. This test combines the virtues of the standard objective and subjective tests usually used, while avoiding the defects of both. I argue that when proactive methods pass this test, they are always legitimate; but that in addition they are sometimes mandatory. In the second half, I apply this test to journalism. I show that actual uses of proactive methods by journalists pass the test, and are therefore (at least) permissible. There are other ethical considerations which are relevant to the use of such techniques by journalists, which ought to be taken into account before it is decided to employ such methods, but I show that they are rarely of sufficient weight to render proactive newsgathering impermissible.


Porting a computationally demanding CUDA application to a GPU designed for mobile phones and tablets, which supports OpenCL, is the subject of this thesis. Significant effort is made to prepare the snow simulator of the HPC-LAB at IDI, NTNU, for porting to an OpenCL capable GPU for mobile phones, with a reasonably limited effort, when it arrives. The snow simulator is ported to OpenCL, documented, and improved by considering multiple sorting algorithms, as well as sorting the snow particles. A thorough study of GPUs for mobile devices and high performance computing, as well as their history is conducted to serve as a background for future porting of the simulator. The core code resulting from the OpenCL port is documented in detail to prepare for future projects on completing the port to a mobile device. The OpenCL port of the snow simulator is tested on a range of different OpenCL implementa- tions. The performance of GPUs designed for different use is compared, and memory manage- ment is identified as the biggest bottleneck for performance. This bottleneck is further investi- gated by studying the performance of the simulator when disabling certain copy operations. OpenCL supports more than just GPU devices. CPUs, Cell processors, and other acceleration cards are also supported. To investigate OpenCL on other devices, a part of the simulation is executed on a CPU, and compared with executing it on a GPU. The CPU version perform on par with the GPU version when using a laptop GPU.


Energy simulation models for buildings are widely used by policymakers, researchers and consultants as a tool to advice on the reduction of residential energy consumption. Previous studies have shown that there is a gap between theoretical building energy simulation results and actual energy use. The discrepancy between theory and practice is problematic, as for instance expected energy savings are often not achieved. This thesis shows that analysing specific household types and building characteristics can contribute to a better understanding of amongst others the influence of the occupant on actual energy consumption. The effectiveness of thermal renovations is dependent on both occupants and building characteristics, which means tailored advice on renovation measures is necessary. We also found that occupants and building characteristics are equally responsible for variances in actual residential energy consumption. To reduce the gap between theory and practice on a single building level, simulation models are improved using calibration methods. In the final part of this thesis, a method is developed to calibrate simulations on a building stock level, making building energy simulation tools more reliable for policymakers.


The host suitability of 21 local, commercial tomato varieties were evaluated in concurrent greenhouse trials for resistance to Meloidogyne incognita race 2 and Meloidogyne javanica, respectively. M. incognita race-2-resistance identified in variety 'Rhapsody' during the latter study was subsequently verified in a follow-up microplot trial using differential initial population (Pi) densities and as well as in a field trial with four soil amendments. Substantial variation existed among the tomato varieties in the greenhouse screening with regard to resistance to the respective root-knot nematode species. Comparison of the different indicators of resistance used for the two species showed that labelling of specific varieties as resistant should not only be based on one criterium, since it could be insufficient. Strong non-linear relationships were shown in the microplot trial between Pi and Pf in the roots of both tomato varieties but nematode reproduction was poor on the resistant 'Rhapsody'. Significantly lower Pf in roots and J2 in soil was obtained for 'Rhapsody' compared to the susceptible Moneymaker. In the soil-amendment field trial, 'Rhapsody' also maintained significantly lower M. incognita numbers compared to 'Moneymaker' in all treatments. These results confirm the superior resistance of 'Rhapsody' to local M. incognita race-2 populations used in this study. More frequent and extensive screenings of commercial tomato material are recommended in order to provide resource-poor producers with better options for improved and sustainable yields.


During the mid-1990s, one of the most ambitious land reforms in recent decades took place in Colombia. The reform recognized collective land rights of 5 million hectares by Afro-Colombian groups, with the dual goals of improving livelihoods and preserving valuable ecosystems. We estimate the impact of this collective land titling program on forest cover using panel data and a difference-in-difference empirical strategy. We find that overall, collective titling significantly reduces deforestation rates, but the effect varies substantially by sub-region. We observe that the larger effects are in Narino and Valle del Cauca especially in places with higher deforestation threat, closer to the forest frontier, to roads, and to navigable rivers, as well as in places without illegal crops. Our qualitative analysis suggest that this might be the result of communities being able to expel private companies from their lands which is more challenging with actors promoting illegal crops. We conclude that under the adequate conditions, titling can lead to forest conservation.


Chemoprevention is an important potential tool in reducing lung cancer incidence. Noncalcified nodules (NCN) observed on low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) have been proposed as intermediate endpoints in chemoprevention trials, but whether NCNs represent cancer precursors is unclear. We analyzed data from subjects in the LDCT arm of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) to examine short- and long-term lung cancer risks associated with NCNs and to elucidate whether some NCNs may be cancer precursors. NLST subjects received a baseline and two additional LDCT screens and were followed for a median of 6.5 years. We examined lung cancer incidence over three distinct periods from baseline—0–23 months (short-term), 24–59 months (medium-term), and 60–84 months (long-term)—in relation to baseline NCN characteristics. Spatially, lung cancer incidence was analyzed at the person, lung, and lobe levels relative to NCN location. A total of 26,272 subjects received the baseline LDCT screen, with 468, 413, and 190 lung cancers observed in the three periods. The presence of an NCN gave significantly elevated long-term lung cancer risk ratios (RR) of 1.8, 2.4, and 3.5 at the person, lung, and lobe levels; corresponding short-term RRs were 10.3, 16.8, and 38.0. Ground-glass attenuation was positively associated with long-term lung cancer risk but inversely associated with short-term risk; NCN size was positively associated with short-term risk but not significantly associated with long-term risk. That NCNs convey significantly elevated excess long-term of lung cancer lends evidence to the hypothesis that some NCNs may be cancer precursors. Cancer Prev Res; 7(12); 1179–85. ©2014 AACR.


Recent developments from the cast 718Plus® Metals Affordability Initiative (MAI) program will be presented and discussed. The objective of the program is to investigate and enable the use of 718Plus® alloy in the form of investment castings by (1) increasing the allowable operating temperature by about 75°F as compared with conventional cast Alloy 718 and (2) achieve approximately 25 percent cost savings as compared with cast Waspaloy. This program builds on the successful MAI program for wrought 718Plus alloy. This technology will be implemented for the manufacture of gas turbine structural components including: combustor plenums, stator cases, diffuser cases, turbine cases, turbine frames, and other various high-strength/hightemperature structural castings. An overview of the results from the castability, weldability, and initial mechanical property investigations will be discussed. A preliminary cost benefit to aerospace components after implementation is predicted to be substantial. This recent work has warranted further investigation through the MAI program. 718Plus® is a registered trademark of ATI Properties, Inc.


This essay is inspired by the ideas and research examined in the special section on "Stakeholder Marketing" of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing in 2010. The authors argue that stakeholder marketing is slowly coalescing with the broader thinking that has occurred in the stakeholder management and ethics literature streams during the past quarter century. However, the predominant view of stakeholders that many marketers advocate is still primarily pragmatic and company centric. The position advanced herein is that stronger forms of stakeholder marketing that reflect more normative, macro/societal, and network-focused orientations are necessary. The authors briefly explain and justify these characteristics in the context of the growing "prosociety" and "proenvironment" perspectives—orientations that are also in keeping with the public policy focus of this journal. Under the "hard form" of stakeholder theory, which the authors endorse, marketing managers must realize that serving stakeholders sometimes requires sacrificing maximum profits to mitigate outcomes that would inflict major damage on other stakeholders, especially society.


Content distribution systems are essentially content protection systems that protect premium multimedia content from being illegally distributed. Physical content distribution systems form a subset of content distribution systems with which the content is distributed via physical media such as CDs, Blu-ray discs, etc. This thesis studies physical content distribution systems. Specifically, we concentrate our study on the design and analysis of three key components of the system: broadcast encryption for stateless receivers, mutual authentication with key agreement, and traitor tracing. The context in which we study these components is the Advanced Access Content System (AACS). We identify weaknesses present in AACS, and we also propose improvements to make the original system more secure, flexible and efficient.


According to the average quantities of rainfall, Iraq's arable land is divided into three regions: rainfall, semi-rainfall and rain-fed. The total Iraq's regions are suffering from inefficient utilization of natural resources as a result of dis-maximization of agricultural production function. The northern region on Ninava and Duhok Governorates is part of the northern region of Iraq which is located in the ensured rainfall zone and the figures of per donum yield of cereal crops are somewhat higher than the Iraqi figures, however, they are still less than the required figures. The average quantities of rainfall are annually fluctuated and, thus, considered the major determinant for producing cereal crops especially wheat and barley. The situation implies that an extensive efforts should be concentrated on administrating resources in order to increase per donum yield of cereals. The main thrust of this research is to estimate the impacts of rainfall   resource on producing wheat and barley in the region for the period 1992-2008. The library and historic data gathering has been used with the assistant of some administrative officials in the agricultural departments of the region. Production function analysis of different specifications are used to estimate the basic parameters in the agricultural sector of the region. The estimates are based on fitted the usual linear, semi-log, inverse semi-log and the double-log production function. The results revealed that the double-log function was the more convenient function in presenting some important conclusions. Increasing of one unit of rainfall will increase per donum yields of wheat and barley by 0.956 and 0.611 kg/donum respectively. The annual increase of per donum yields of wheat and barley were about 0.250 and 0.214 kg/donum. Wheat production is carried on in first stage, while barley production is carried on in the second stage of production function. An additional unit of rainfall is added about 0.523 kg of wheat and 0.264 kg of barley.


A local tester for a code probabilistically views a small set of coordinates of a given word and based on this local view accepts code words with probability one while rejecting words far from the code with constant probability. A local tester for a code is said to be "robust" if the local views of the tester are far from acceptable views when the word being tested is far from the code. Robust testability of codes play a fundamental role in constructions of probabilistically checkable proofs where robustness is a critical element in composition. In this work we consider a broad class of codes, called lifted codes, that include codes formed by low-degree polynomials, and show that an almost natural test, extending a low-degree test proposed by Raz and Safra (STOC 1997), is robust. Our result is clean and general -- the robustness of the test depends only on the distance of the code being lifted, and is positive whenever the distance is positive. We use our result to get the first robust low-degree test that works when the degree of the polynomial being tested is more than half the field size. Our results also show that the high-rate codes of Guo et al. (ITCS 2013) are robustly locally testable with sub linear query complexity. Guo et al. Also show several other interesting classes of locally testable codes that can be derived from lifting and our result shows all such codes have robust testers, at the cost of a quadratic blow up in the query complexity of the tester. Of technical interest is an intriguing relationship between tensor product codes and lifted codes that we explore and exploit.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of fluvoxamine for the treatment of social phobia (social anxiety disorder).

METHOD
In a 12-week multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 92 patients with social phobia were treated with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluvoxamine; 91.3% of the patients had the generalized subtype of the disorder. The primary criterion for response was a rating of "much improved" or "very much improved" on the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement scale. Secondary response criteria were changes on three specialized rating scales for social phobia symptoms: the Brief Social Phobia Scale, the Social Phobia Inventory, and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Psychosocial impairment was assessed in three domains (disruption of work, social life, and home/family life) by using the Sheehan Disability Scale.

RESULTS
The mean daily dose of fluvoxamine was 202 mg (SD = 86). At study end or with the last observation carried forward, within the evaluable subjects (N = 86) there was a significantly higher proportion of responders in the fluvoxamine group (42.9%, N = 18) than in the placebo group (22.7%, N = 10). Similarly, fluvoxamine was superior to placebo on all social phobia rating scales at week 8 and beyond. Fluvoxamine also resulted in significantly greater decreases in measures of psychosocial disability than did placebo. Overall, fluvoxamine was well tolerated and safe.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that fluvoxamine is efficacious in the pharmacologic management of serious forms of social phobia.


ABSTRACT

This study investigates the problems that translators tend to face in the subtitling and dubbing of English-language films and television programmes into Arabic and suggests solutions for these problems. In the light of an examination of the generic features of audiovisual translation and of the particular cultural constraints inherent in translation for Arabic-speaking audiences, it is proposed that certain elements of translation theory can be useful in overcoming the technical and cultural barriers identified. This proposition is tested through analysis of the translation of three feature films, one television sitcom and an animation series that have been subtitled and dubbed into Arabic, with a particular focus on the translation of dialect, swear words, and humour. Technical, linguistic and cultural issues constitute a challenge to Arabic translators who need to deal with: 1) the limitations on screen such as space, time, lip and character synchronizations; 2) the issue of rendering English dialects into Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and 3) the problem of culture which restricts them when they want to translate taboo expressions. This results in a loss (partial or complete) of the source film's message.
Each of the audiovisual works mentioned above was considered as a case study that was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Interviews, experiments and a questionnaire were conducted in this respect to find answers to the research questions. The interviews aimed to gather evidence of how professionals translate, what problems they face and what possible solutions they may suggest for them. The experiments and the questionnaire, on the other hand, were audience-focused tools in the sense that sample audiences watched and judged the ability of a translation both in subtitled and dubbed forms to deliver the message of a movie to them, and therefore, provided evidence on the relative effectiveness of different translation procedures. Based on this, solutions were both suggested and tested in terms of their viability to overcome the barriers that emerge during the subtitling and dubbing of dialect, swear words and humour into Arabic.
The findings show that translators have significant scope for improving the quality of their output, especially by adopting a more functional translation approach that can help them successfully deal with the difficulties inherent in this type of translation and make the translated dialogue have a similar effect on the target audience as that which the source text has on its audience.


E-commerce retail companies offer increasingly larger assortments and include products from a large number of suppliers without holding the goods in stock. Having the goods physically located at the supplier increase the need for coordination in the supply chain, implying modified roles of the actors involved and requires information systems to support the exchange processes between collaborating parties. In order for retailers to be competitive and responsive to customer needs there are increasing efforts to combine different supply chain alternatives, thus requiring additional activities of coordination. This paper seeks to identify different possible supply chain alternatives, to describe their characterizations and to perform a comparative analysis of these alternatives based on inductively generated categories. The purpose of the paper is to identify, describe and analyse different supply chain alternatives in the context of e-commerce when the retailing company is not holding stock. The study applied a multi organizational approach, involving representatives from wholesaling, retailing and distribution companies working jointly with the researchers. The empirical material was collected through workshops and complementary interviews and was modelled as action patterns depicting preconditions for, and effects of business actions, organized in patterns of initiative and response. The paper identifies and describes six different supply alternatives: purchase flow; vendor management inventory flow; direct delivery; cross docking; consolidation of packages; and consolidation of goods. Among other things, the analysis shows how the various supply chain alternatives imply divergent requirements on information systems to support these different supply chain processes. In addition to an identification and overview of the different supply chain alternatives, the results may also serve as valuable input for retailers deciding appropriate combinations of supply chain alternatives. The paper also demonstrates how a multi organizational approach can be used in collaborative projects involving business practitioners and researchers.


A substantial minority of individuals exposed to severe or traumatic stress subsequently develops long-lasting mental or physical health problems, which may severely impair daily functioning. These stress-related conditions include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and severe fatigue. Military personnel deployed to combat zones are particularly at risk for the development of these conditions. The working model for this PhD-thesis was that the development of these stress-related conditions is associated with vulnerability factors present prior to the stressor leading to symptom-onset. To investigate our hypothesis, we focused on identifying biological vulnerability factors, i.e. biomarkers, for development of these conditions. We assessed whether glucocorticoid receptor (GR) pathway components within peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) predicted the subsequent development of PTSD, depressive and/or fatigue symptoms in response to military deployment. In addition, we investigated whether the capacity of peripheral blood cells to produce cytokines upon stimulation, and the reactivity of peripheral blood cells to regulation by the pro-inflammatory mediator IL-1β, predicted the development of these stress-related conditions in response to deployment. We identified several biological vulnerability factors for the development of PTSD, depressive and fatigue symptoms in response to military deployment. High glucocorticoid (GC) signalling in PBMCs, as assessed on various levels of the GR signalling pathway prior to deployment, was a vulnerability factor for development of a high level of PTSD symptoms. In contrast, low GC signalling in PBMCs, specifically in T-cells, prior to deployment was a vulnerability factor for the development of a high level of depressive symptoms. In addition, a high T-cell cytokine production capacity prior to deployment was also a vulnerability factor for development of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, we observed that low GC-sensitivity of monocytes prior to deployment was a vulnerability factor for development of severe fatigue. In addition, severely fatigued participants showed an increased reactivity of monocytes to IL-1β after deployment. Intriguingly, despite the high co-morbidity between symptoms of PTSD, MDD and severe fatigue, these identified vulnerability factors were condition-specific. This indicates that symptoms of PTSD, depression and fatigue have different biological mechanisms. Collectively, our results suggest that the biological profile prior to exposure to severe stress or trauma predicts the subsequent development of mental and physical health problems. Moreover, our results indicate that the biological profile may not only determine whether an individual has an increased risk of developing a stress-related condition, but also which specific stress-related condition is most likely to develop. We convincingly showed that performing prospective, longitudinal studies in groups at risk for stress- and trauma exposure is a promising and fruitful approach to identify biological vulnerability factors for development of stress-related conditions. This is likely to be valuable for individuals in jobs with a high risk for stress- and trauma exposure, such as the military. If optimal cut-offs for our vulnerability factors can be identified, in the future vulnerable individuals may be identified via screening prior to stress- and trauma-exposure. This could lead to targeted interventions that could potentially prevent the development or aggravation of symptoms


The proposed work involves the multiobjective PSO based optimization of artificial neural network structure for the classification of multispectral satellite images. The neural network is used to classify each image pixel in various land cove types like vegetations, waterways, man-made structures and road network. It is per pixel supervised classification using spectral bands (original feature space). Use of neural network for classification requires selection of most discriminative spectral bands and determination of optimal number of nodes in hidden layer. We propose new methodology based on multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) to determine discriminative spectral bands and the number of hidden layer node simultaneously. The result obtained using such optimized neural network is compared with that of traditional classifiers like MLC and Euclidean classifier. The performance of all classifiers is evaluated quantitatively using Xie-Beni and â indexes. The result shows the superiority of the proposed method.


Lane detection is a fundamental and challenging task in autonomous driving and must be performed safely and robustly to avoid catastrophic failures. Current methods do not perform effectively in the challenging scenarios arising from degraded or worn lane markings and preclude the broader deployment of autonomous driving technologies. Additionally, many methods lack provisions for safe failures, and will return false positive detections as the strongest lane marking candidate instead of declaring that no lane marking was found. This work proposes several changes to the current state of the art in robust lane detection and tracking and builds on existing methods using Dynamic Bayesian Networks with heuristic features. A new training approach is proposed for learning heuristic feature distributions from unlabelled data with greatly reduced sensitivity to initialization. The null hypothesis is then reformulated to provide a fail-safe so that in the absence of a successful detection, the lane detection system will be able to declare a detection failure instead of producing a high-risk false positive. The Bayesian Inference formulation used in the current state of the art is then generalized to support different lane marking configurations. Lastly, a stereo threshold filter is proposed as a method for reducing dangerous false positives caused by out-of-plane features. The proposed methods were tested against several datasets, including the new WAterloo Representative Roads (WARR) dataset, covering a 40 km route around the Waterloo region captured at 3 Hz. When tested against the KITTI dataset, the proposed stereo filter has a negative predictive value of over 95% and provides a dramatic reduction in dangerous false alarms. The proposed detection method is effective in scenarios that match the expected single-lane road model and fails safely in 84% of the scenarios that do not adhere to the expected model. Of the dangerous failures, approximately 90% were model failures and may be corrected through use of a different detector within the proposed generalized form that is more compatible with the failure scenario. Such a reduction in model failures could dramatically reduce the rate of potentially dangerous failures and represents a significant improvement on the state of the art.


Best Management Practices (BMPs) contribute to a broader range of efforts to improve the environmental performance of the livestock sector and its impact on water quality. This research evaluates a survey of cattle producers in an East Tennessee watershed and parts of five surrounding watersheds, along with and the factors correlated with preferences for BMPs designed to reduce sediment, nutrient, and fecal coliform contamination of surface waters by limiting cattle access to streams. The objective of the survey was to gather behavioral information about producer interest in specific BMPs in an effort to supplement a long-term biophysical modeling project. Structures and BMPs analyzed include stream crossings, rotational grazing, pasture improvement, and cattle water tanks. The physical and economic constraints faced by producers and the incentives provided by state and federal programs influence the decision to adopt a set of practices or structures that impact pathogen loading into streams. There was a clear preference for a suite of BMPs that did not include stream crossings, reinforcing anecdotal evidence that the maintenance associated with frequent high flow events may reduce willingness to install stream crossings. Cattle producers were more willing to implement rotational grazing and pasture improvement BMPs, which were associated with cattle health and productivity. The extensive distribution of pastureland in the region analyzed, the relatively inexpensive costs of adopting practices supporting pasture improvement, and higher quality forage correlated with improved pastures suggest a win-win outcome for cattle owners and efforts to enhance water quality.


The present study reports on the user experience (UX) of rich-prospect browsing, an emerging interface design trend for digital cultural heritage. Building on research that suggests online museum collections are used only infrequently by the general public, this study investigates the role of next-generation user interfaces in the design of optimal browsing experiences. Moreover, it describes the results of user testing for three different arts and culture collections that make use of rich-prospect. The study recruited 30 participants of varying ages, nationalities, and museum visiting habits to discuss their museum experiences and test three different applications: Coins, Curator Table, and Museum of the World. The results of the study provide insights into the user experience of a new browsing medium and reveal the information-seeking habits and patterns that occurred within these information environments. Moreover, the study isolated the core features of rich-prospect in order to de ne opportunities and pain points during the browsing experience and indicated which features in particular are most important to people during the browsing experience. Finally, we suggest some best practices going forward in the design of rich-prospect. MW19 | Boston Boston, Massachusetts, USA, April 2-6, 2019


American football is one of the most popular sports in the United States. However, unlike other football codes, little is known about its physical demands. Aside from a limited amount of research conducted on college players during training and matches, no research exists on players at the elite level, in the National Football League (NFL). Therefore, the primary aim of this thesis was to evaluate the physical demands of training in the NFL. This aim was achieved by establishing a systematic approach to training evaluation using three main phases of study: (1) Evaluation of monitoring strategies in American football; (2) Description of American football training demands with an emphasis on periodization; and, (3) Examination of the consequences of training with an emphasis on injury risk. The first study of this thesis (Chapter 3) showed that three commercially available inertial sensors were able to differentiate between fundamental American football actions (e.g., sprinting, change of direction, and collisions) during movement tasks in a controlled setting and may be useful for quantifying the physical demands of training. During training sessions, Session Rating of Perceived Exertion exhibited a variety of individual responses making sRPE challenging to use when exclusively evaluating the physical demands of training (Chapter 4). Therefore, more objective measures (e.g., GPS and inertial sensors) were evaluated during training (Chapter 5) and indicate that commonly used measures of distance and velocity may not adequately describe the physical demands for some position groups. As such, inertial sensors offer more flexibility to classify a broad range of activities within the sport. A number of inertial sensor metrics are available to the practitioner in commercially used systems. Chapter 6 utilized a principal components analysis to reduce eleven variables to 3 principal components, explaining 79% of the variance within the data. These findings suggest that a small number of variables (e.g., Player Load and IMA) may be adequate when describing the training demands of the sport. Given the reduction in measures to report, Chapter 7 used Player Load and IMA to describe the periodization strategies across a season and within the training week employed by the coaches of one NFL team. Training load was observed to decreases across the season with no clear periodization structure. Conversely, within the weekly micro-cycle, coaches appear to employ some pattern of periodization whereby training load is seen to systematically decrease as the game nears. The final phase of this thesis (Chapter 8) investigated the consequences of American football training by exploring the relationship between training load measures (Player Load, IMA, and Impacts) and non-contact soft tissue injury. Several logistic regression models were compared using Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). The best model suggested that sessions with greater volume (PLTotal) and intensity (ImpactsHigh) were associated with non-contact soft tissue injury in American football players and may have implications for practitioners when designing training programs within the sport. Collectively, this thesis has the potential to not only offer practitioners within American football a way forward in terms of evaluating training demands but also may be influential to the broader scope of sports science given some of the novel statistical approaches taken to understanding training load monitoring.


Two branches of a family suffering from hereditary angioneurotic oedema underwent trials of therapy of ε-amino caproic-acid (EACA) to ascertain the optimum dosage required to alleviate symptoms without giving rise to unpleasant side effects. It was found that children under 11 years tolerated 3 g/day and patients over 11 years 6 g/day without side effects, but with incomplete control of symptoms in some of the patients. However, if the dose was doubled for a period of less than 4 days during times of expected and experienced trauma, better control was achieved and unpleasant muscle cramps were not experienced. These doses, though effective, were much smaller than those used in previous studies.


This paper presents a surface science perspective on sidewall functionalisation of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are varyingly described by physicists as extended solids or by organic chemists as molecules. As prototypical nanostructures, they are indeed a little bit of both. Their chemistry and resulting potential applications can only truly be appreciated by combining both perspectives. The emphasis of this review is on the interdependence of topography and electronic structure on one side and chemistry and reactivity of carbon nanotube sidewalls on the other side. A brief introduction to the structure of single-walled carbon nanotubes and related materials (graphite, multi-wall carbon nanotubes and fullerenes) is followed by a review of possible deviations from perfect order in nanotube sidewalls, such as defects, functional groups or non-covalent interactions with nearby entities. We then proceed to review the implications of these deviations on the sidewall local electronic structure and chemical reactivity. Site-dependent functionalisation and induced reactivity on carbon nanotube sidewalls have been proposed theoretically and we have found some initial experimental evidence that this is indeed the case. However, this is a young field and many theoretical and experimental challenges still lie ahead. Understanding site-selectivity of carbon nanotube sidewall functionalisation will allow us to tailor their properties and utilise them as components of more complex nanostructures in the future.


Working teams in enterprise environment are considered as the most advanced forms of work organisation. This means the forms that can improve productivity quality of working life. Nevertheless, it prevails a slow development and dissemination of these advanced organisational forms in European companies. The reason for that lays in a complex linkage factors from social values to the economical pressures. But other factors are also related to the national systems of education training, to the different systems of industrial relations and technology policy.


The availability of large collections of text (language corpora) is crucial for empirically supported linguistic investigations of various languages; however, such corpora are complicated and expensive to collect. In recent years corpora made from texts on the World Wide Web have become an attractive alternative to traditional corpora, as they can be made automatically, contain varied text types of contemporary language, and are quite large. The paper describes version 2 of slWaC, a Web corpus of Slovene containing 1.2 billion tokens. The corpus extends the first version of slWaC with new materials and updates the corpus compilation pipeline. The paper describes the process of corpus compilation with a focus on near-duplicate removal, presents the linguistic annotation, format and accessibility of the corpus via Web concordancers. It then investigates the content of the corpus using the method of frequency profiling, by comparing its lemma and part-of-speech annotations with three corpora: the first version of slWaC, with Gigafida, the one billion word reference corpus of Slovene, and KRES, the hundred million word reference balanced corpus of Slovene.


The asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, is an important pest of citrus because it transmits phloemlimited bacteria (Candidatus Liberibacter spp.) responsible for citrus greening disease (huanglongbing), considered by some to be the world's most serious disease of citrus. The psyllid has slowly spread throughout southern Asia, the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, to some islands in the Indian Ocean, and to Reunion and Mauritius to the east of southern Africa. Huanglongbing has also spread throughout most of these regions. D. citri was first reported in the Americas in Brazil during the 1940s, but huanglongbing was not observed in Brazil until 2004. Since the 1990s, the psyllid has invaded a number of New World countries in the Caribbean, West Indies, and North and Central America including the United States (Florida and Texas) and Mexico. So far in these newly-invaded New World countries, huanglongbing has only been detected in the United States (Florida), where it was first found during 2005. Subsequent surveys revealed the disease was already fairly widespread in Florida. Some speculate that the disease was introduced into Florida before the psyllid invasion. Other citrus producing areas in the United States and citrus industries in Mexico and other areas where the psyllid now occurs are rightfully concerned about the disease. The Brazilian citrus industry and a number of citrus growers in Florida have adopted a threecomponent management program against huanglongbing: intensive chemical control of the psyllid, aggressive removal of trees symptomatic for the disease, and the planting of disease-free nursery stock. In spite of the three-component management program in Florida, hundreds of thousands of trees that were probably infected before the program was implemented have now been removed. To what extent the program will negate incidence and spread of the disease in the future remains uncertain. This report presents an overview of D. citri with respect to morphology, biology, ecology, host plants, sampling methods, vector-pathogen interactions, and control.


How does a court's policy-making authority shape the nature of judicial behavior? We argue that judicial systems that limit policy-making authority also discourage the politicization of courts, encouraging judges to think narrowly about the interests of litigating parties. In contrast, granting a court high policy-making authority—affecting potentially thousands of cases and other branches of government—naturally encourages judges to consider broader ideological principles. Typically, unraveling cause and effect would be difficult, as judicial behavior and institutions are usually stable and endogenous. But an especially stark sequence of political and institutional changes in Brazil affords analytic leverage to explore these questions. A series of judicial reforms greatly expanded the Brazilian Supreme Court's authority, and our analysis of judicial decisions shows the emergence of a political cleavage on the court after these reforms. (JEL C140, K39, K49)


The issues surrounding quantum brain/mind/consciousness research are both confusing and complex. If one can manage to grasp these issues, one may find that the past of this field has been fruitful and its future is indeed very promising. The current landscape and past achievements in this field have already been discussed by our colleagues as pointed herein. This editorial mainly attempts to classify/clarify some of the major issues and discuss what are lying ahead. Whatever difficulties may still remain, recent experimental results by several groups including those of the authors' own make it very clear that quantum effects play important roles in brain functions despite of the denials and suspicions of the naysayer and skeptics.


AbstractCervical and facial subcutaneous emphysema is mainly caused by maxillofacial trauma or head and neck surgery. There are only 2 cases of subcutaneous emphysema after septorhinoplasty in the English literature. We report a case of subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum after a septorhinoplasty.A healthy 35-year-old man with nasal obstruction and dissatisfaction with the shape of his nose was referred to our outpatient clinic. The patient had a septorhinoplasty including bilateral medial and lateral osteotomy under general anesthesia. On the fifth day after the surgery, the patient visited the emergency department with swelling and pain in the right submandibular area and cheek. On computed tomographic (CT) scans, air was observed in the right temporal space, masticator space, submandibular space, and superior mediastinal space. He was immediately hospitalized for administration of intravenous antibiotics and bed rest.On the fifth day after the hospitalization, follow-up CT scans were performed. Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum were markedly decreased. The patient was discharged on the fifth day.


As fossil resources continue to dwindle and environmental concerns are magnified, finding sustainable alternatives is the only way to mitigate resource availability and derisk the planet. The principles of Green Chemistry may provide guidance in this case, and renewable resources can be converted into useful platform chemicals, monomers, and polymers. This critical review examines the possibility of utilizing renewable plant oils and sugars to produce feedstock chemicals, monomers, and polymers. Among the seven isomerizing functionalization reactions of plant oils, isomerizing alkoxycarbonylation displays the highest terminal selectivity. Despite the low reactivity of sugar-derived isohexides, new strategies have been deployed to convert isohexides into difunctional monomers and polymers. The commercialization of isohexides and a few polymers derived from these building blocks has just commenced. Thus, challenges associated with isomerizing functionalization of plant oils and the use of sugar-derived isohexides in chemical syntheses have been summarized, and the potential of these renewable resources has been evaluated.


This letter describes the heteroepitaxy of InP on Si by MOCVD. A new epitaxial structure with a thin GaAs intermediate layer (InP/GaAs/Si) is proposed to alleviate the large lattice mismatch (8.4%) between InP and Si. Using this structure, a 4-inch InP single crystal with a mirror-like surface and good thickness uniformity (Δd/d=±10%) was obtained. Residual stress in the InP film was 5.7±108 dyn/ cm2 for the InP/GaAs/Si structure, as compared to 8.3×108 dyn/cm2 for the InP directly grown on Si. This shows that the GaAs intermediate layer is also effective in reducing the residual stress in the InP epilayer.


The principal aim of the IT for US Project is to present teachers with a vision for the use of ICT in science teaching which exploits the qualities of software tools for developing conceptual understanding of scientific phenomena. A series of activities have been devised which illustrate how the uses of data-logging, modelling, simulation and video capture may be integrated and how the comparison of results from different methods facilitates the type of thinking and discussion which leads to better understanding. A common core of activity providing numerous links involves the analysis of data in a graphical format. The potential of software for securing learning gains depends crucially on the pedagogical actions of the teacher, as is the case in any conventional teaching context. However, in the new context using ICT, teachers' pedagogical understanding requires updating to exploit the new methods of investigating phenomena and visualising and analysing data. The pedagogical commentaries developed by the project attempt to fulfil this need.


This study investigated which features of AVATAR laughter are perceived threatening for individuals with a fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), and individuals with no gelotophobia. Laughter samples were systematically varied (e.g., intensity, laughter pitch, and energy for the voice, intensity of facial actions of the face) in three modalities: animated facial expressions, synthesized auditory laughter vocalizations, and motion capture generated puppets displaying laughter body movements. In the online study 123 adults completed, the GELOPH <15 > (Ruch and Proyer, 2008a,b) and rated randomly presented videos of the three modalities for how malicious, how friendly, how real the laughter was (0 not at all to 8 extremely). Additionally, an open question asked which markers led to the perception of friendliness/maliciousness. The current study identified features in all modalities of laughter stimuli that were perceived as malicious in general, and some that were gelotophobia specific. For facial expressions of AVATARS, medium intensity laughs triggered highest maliciousness in the gelotophobes. In the auditory stimuli, the fundamental frequency modulations and the variation in intensity were indicative of maliciousness. In the body, backwards and forward movements and rocking vs. jerking movements distinguished the most malicious from the least malicious laugh. From the open answers, the shape and appearance of the lips curling induced feelings that the expression was malicious for non-gelotophobes and that the movement round the eyes, elicited the face to appear as friendly. This was opposite for gelotophobes. Gelotophobia savvy AVATARS should be of high intensity, containing lip and eye movements and be fast, non-repetitive voiced vocalization, variable and of short duration. It should not contain any features that indicate a down-regulation in the voice or body, or indicate voluntary/cognitive modulation.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Although biphenotypic leukemia is now a defined entity, outcome of this rare form of acute leukemia has not been well documented. We present the first comprehensive study analyzing induction and consolidation therapy of biphenotypic leukemia and correlate outcome to prognostic factors.

DESIGN AND METHODS
In this retrospective study, the incidence of biphenotypic leukemia was found to be 3.6% from 693 adult and pediatric acute leukemias referred to our center for treatment over the last 8 years. Of these, 15 were B-lymphoid/myeloid, 8 were T-lymphoid/myeloid, one was T/B lymphoid and one had trilineage differentiation.

RESULTS
Induction of remission in de novo cases was achieved in 70% of patients and relapse of disease occurred in 15%. The use of combined lymphoid and myeloid drugs for induction resulted in a high incidence of early deaths (25%). The overall probability of survival at 2 years was 39.4%. Patients with secondary disease had a uniformly poor outcome with low remission rates and high relapse rates.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Prognosis was most strongly related to the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome (p=0.03) and age under 15 years (p=0.01). We conclude that patients with biphenotypic leukemia should have risk stratification with treatment tailored to their prognostic factors.


This article aims at exploring the nexus between the fundamental rights to life and to a basic education within the ambit of the legal framework created by both the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996 and the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. Attention is drawn to the role of the law to order the living world humans live in an thus creating an emancipated framework allowing individuals a moral and self-sufficient life.The overarching goal of the supreme Constitution is to improve the quality of life of all citizens and ultimately to free everyone's potential. In order to reach this goal and allow everyone to live a dignified life that it is worth living, the importance of education is highlighted. As important source of education law, the objectives of the Schools Act, namely to (a) provide education of a progressively high quality, (b) lay a strong foundation for the development of humans' talents and capabilities, (c) advance democratic transformation, (d) combat discrimination and intolerance, (e) assist the eradication of poverty and the well-being of society, (f) uphold learner rights and (g) promote the acceptance of responsibility are discussed and their practical realisation scrutinised. This lead to the author to establish the nexus between the two fundamental rights and to delineate the prominence of the delivering of a progressively high quality of education is provided to all South Africans to enhance their quality of life. By taking regard of the role of the law in the sphere of education, the duties placed on all educational role-players to take responsibility for the delivery of educational services and be accountable therefore, are highlighted. The value of education was in this regard stressed in order to enable humans to take responsibility for their own lives, the conditions under which they live, the choices they make and the changes they bring about to better their lives.


This paper presents three variants of Genetic Programming (GP) approaches for intelligent online performance monitoring of electronic circuits and systems. Reliability modeling of electronic circuits can be best performed by the stressor - susceptibility interaction model. A circuit or a system is considered to be failed once the stressor has exceeded the susceptibility limits. For on-line prediction, validated stressor vectors may be obtained by direct measurements or sensors, which after pre-processing and standardization are fed into the GP models. Empirical results are compared with artificial neural networks trained using backpropagation algorithm and classification and regression trees. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing the experiment results with the actual failure model values. The developed model reveals that GP could play an important role for future fault monitoring systems.


Most interpretations of the stratigraphic record are founded on the premise that the depositional environments that produced it either have not changed appreciably through time, or else have changed very slowly. Paradoxically, some of the most important transitions in the sedimentary archive are those interpreted to reflect relatively rapid, comprehensive paleoenvironmental change. Recognition of the anomalous nature of such transitions is vital to accurately understanding their significance but is not systematically incorporated in current stratigraphic models. The new term "xenoconformity" is therefore proposed, and defined as a stratigraphic surface or gradational interval that records a fundamental, abrupt, and persistent change in sedimentary facies across basinal to global scales. Xenoconformities may mark major paleoenvironmental tipping points and signal transformations in how paleoenvironmental signals were transferred into the stratigraphic record.