A stretchable parabolic‐shaped metamaterial (PSM) coated onto polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is proposed and demonstrated for operation in the terahertz (THz) frequency range. By stretching the PDMS‐based PSM device along different directions, ultranarrowband, polarization dependent, switchable optical characteristics are obtained. By stretching the PSM width and length in the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes, resonant tuning ranges of 0.55 and 0.32 THz, respectively, are demonstrated for the PSM device. In these deformation ranges, the Q‐factors of the PSM device for different widths and lengths are quite stable and maintained in the range of 9 to 14 for the TE mode, with a high Q‐factor of 50 obtained at resonance for the TM mode. The integration of the PSM on a mechanically deformable PDMS substrate provides potential for use in flexible electronics applications. Furthermore, the PSM device exhibits single‐/dual‐band switching and polarization switching characteristics. These multifunctional states for the PSM device can be determined by mechanical inputs to represent binary digits that can then be used to perform logic operations. Such a stretchable PSM device offers an effective approach for the realization of programmable metamaterials with enhanced optical‐mechanical performance due to its high flexibility, applicability, and cost‐effectiveness.


The present paper presents a new sensor to measure 6 components of force and 2 components of deflection applied to the javelin during the throw. Since the javelin is deflected and vibraled during throwing, measurement of force and deflection applied to the javelin will provide important information for throwers in how to better throw the javelin and to design javelins with better dynamic characteristics. The sensor is designed not to significantly change the static and dynamic characteristics of the javelin. The force sensor performs well in terms of linearity and crosstalk, and the javelin equipped with this sensor has similar characteristics to ordinary javelins. The present paper also presents an example of measurement in the javelin throw.


The pH of an artifact is an important consideration when selecting suitable conservation treatments, storage conditions, and accompanying exhibition materials. Determining pH is therefore a common procedure in the assessment and documentation of museum objects. pH measurement is generally simple and straightforward. However, the constraints imposed by artifacts can complicate the process and produce ambiguous, difficult to interpret, or erroneous results. This Technical Bulletin discusses the principles behind reliable and reproducible pH measurements, points out common pitfalls, and suggests ways to determine the pH of many materials found in museum objects. Descriptions of general measurement procedures are included, along with a comparison of various methods of measuring devices.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
to investigate sensory perceptions of patients who underwent insertion of a totally implantable venous access device (TIVAD) under local anesthesia.

RESEARCH APPROACH
qualitative, exploratory study.

SETTING
tertiary care center in Belgium.

PARTICIPANTS
20 adult patients with cancer or hematologic disease undergoing a first-time TIVAD insertion.

METHODOLOGIC APPROACH
immediately after insertion, patients were asked to describe their sensory perceptions during each of four phases. Descriptions were documented in a sensory information grid (SIG) that was composed of a row and column matrix of entries for the four phases of the procedure and the five sensory modalities. Verbatim descriptions of patients were assigned labels using a descriptive coding process.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
sensory perceptions in the modalities of hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste.

FINDINGS
patients experienced many sensory perceptions that mainly occurred during preparation of the patients and surgical equipment (phase 2) and during the actual TIVAD insertion (phase 3). Patients perceived fewer olfactory sensations. No taste perceptions were mentioned.

CONCLUSIONS
patients reported numerous sensory perceptions during TIVAD insertion. The SIG method proved suitable for assessing and documenting patients' sensory perceptions.

INTERPRETATION
the reported descriptions can be used (a) to develop a structured questionnaire to quantitatively assess sensory perceptions and (b) to prepare patients for what to expect with regard to sensory information experienced before, during, and after TIVAD insertion. This method for exploring and documenting sensory perceptions might be applicable to other diagnostic or therapeutic interventions.


Jerome was a disciple of Apollinaris of Laodicea and respected him as a biblical scholar, but in various polemical contexts he rejects Apollinaris. theological theses. The testimony of the Latin Father allows us to clarify principal points of Christological doctrine proposed by the Apollinarianists. It is necessary to consider his biblical and theological reflections in the peculiar religious context of Palestine, which preserved the traces of Jesus. life, death and resurrection. Jerome?s answer to the "new heresy" is developed from the point of view of traditional Christological doctrine, but principally his reflections contribute to a more precise understanding of the humanity of the Son of God. In some points of his exegetical works, the Latin Doctor insists that Christ possessed a soul capable of suffering from the passions and the desires of the body, though he did not commit sin. Jerome denounces, in only a limited way, the millenarism of Apollinaris in which, however, we are able to glimpse the inheritance of an exegetical tradition of the literal sense.


During the past number of years some South African employees who are prohibited from striking because they perform essential services have participated in disruptive strikes (Dhaya Pillay 'Essential Services: Developing Tools for Minimum Service Agreements' (2012) 33 ILJ 801 at 801). One of the causes of this behaviour has been identified as frustration with the lack of minimum service agreements (ibid) in terms of which only certain employees are obliged to perform core functions and other employees within the wider essential service are free to strike. Only two minimum service agreements have been ratified in the 15 years since the inception of the Employment Service Commission (ESC) (ibid).


The Secretary of State for Health has recently described health care as a form of 'social investment' which is 'of instrumental importance in improving national economic performance'. This concern with economic productivity is shared by decision makers in other countries, where the impact of health care on workplace productivity has been specified as part of the economic analyses to be submitted in support of claims for the public reimbursement of pharmaceuticals. While concern has been expressed about the potential bias of economic evaluations against the cost-effectiveness of treatment aimed primarily at the nonworking population when these 'productivity costs' are included, there is a strong case for considering their importance in studies conducted from a societal perspective. There is, however, less agreement on how these costs should be estimated. The three generally recognised approaches to estimating productivity costs are the human capital approach, the friction cost approach and the approach recommended by the US Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine. The friction cost approach responds to concerns that the human capital approach may overestimate productivity costs by ignoring any mechanisms which compensate for workers' absence due to illness or disability, particularly the availability of a surplus pool of unemployment. The approach advocated by the US Panel is distinguished from the other two primarily by the view that productivity costs are captured in the assessment of health effects when the quality adjusted life year (QALY) is used and thus any additional adjustments are minimal. This book summarises the debate between the proponents of each method and reviews a sample of studies from the Health Economic Evaluations Database (HEED) to ascertain how productivity costs have been measured in practice. In general, authors did not provide a clear statement of which of the three methods had been used, although the majority favoured the human capital approach. In those cases where the friction cost or US Panel approach had been used, application of the methods was relatively crude. Methodological considerations which might be considered good practice in the presentation of data on productivity effects, such as the use of sensitivity analysis, were observed in only a minority of studies. The paper concludes on the relative merits of the three approaches and recommends ways in which the estimation and presentation of productivity effects might be improved.


A physical keyboard key has three states, whereas a touch screen usually has only two. Due to this difference, the state corresponding to the touched state of a physical key is missing in a touch screen keyboard. This touched state is an important factor in the usability of a keyboard. In order to recover the role of a touched state in a touch screen, we propose the TapBoard, a touch screen software keyboard that regards tapping actions as keystrokes and other touches as the touched state. In a series of user studies, we validate the effectiveness of the TapBoard concept. First, we show that tapping to type is in fact compatible with the existing typing skill of most touch screen keyboard users. Second, users quickly adapt to the TapBoard and learn to rest their fingers in the touched state. Finally, we confirm by a controlled experiment that there is no difference in text-entry performance between the TapBoard and a traditional touch screen software keyboard. In addition to these experimental results, we demonstrate a few new interaction techniques that will be made possible by the TapBoard.


This research explores the contention that the history of widespread traumatic stressors and the generational transmission of these traumatic stressors throughout the Australian Aboriginal population are manifested in a series of social problems. The high levels of violence we are now witnessing in some Aboriginal families and communities, which in turn contribute to the high incarceration rates of Aboriginal men for violent crimes, are seen as one of the most serious symptoms resulting from these traumatic stressors. This research aimed to establish if Aboriginal men who are considered violent have histories of traumatic stressors and demonstrate psychological symptoms associated with trauma stress, as well as whether they have experienced generational patterns of traumatic stressors and dysfunction. Using a cross-cultural, multi-methodological, and multi-method Indigenist approach, this research developed a cross-cultural instrument, capable of measuring traumatic stressors and trauma-related symptoms relevant to Australian Aboriginal peoples. This was then employed to investigate the relationship between violence and generational post-traumatic stress among 58 Aboriginal males who had been incarcerated for committing violent crimes. The cross-cultural instrument, titled the 'Australian Aboriginal Version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire' (AAVHTQ), was developed in the first phase of the research. This was achieved through documenting trauma symptoms, as defined by the DSM-III-R for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) including identifying specific cultural idioms of distress reactions and traumatic stressors relevant to Australian Aboriginal peoples, by extracting key themes through thematic analysis of major seminal reports and focus group discussions with key informants. The AAVHTQ was then field tested on 58 Aboriginal men incarcerated for committing violent crimes to establish if the research participants met the clinical criteria for PTSD, and to investigate the nature, level of exposure and frequency of traumatic stressors experienced and to identify the prevalence of specific types of trauma symptoms. Additionally, the research explored patterns of generational trauma and violence through the construction of genohistograms obtained through semi-structured, in-depth interviews, which allowed detection of changes in the rates of traumatic stressors and dysfunctional behaviours between the current and older generations. The research found that over half (58.6%) of the study population were PTSD symptomatic (according to the AAVHTQ) and that the majority had been exposed to a significantly high number of traumatic stressors. The more traumatic stressors endorsed, or the more cumulative the amount of traumatic exposure, the more likely the participants were PTSD symptomatic. Research participants who endorsed traumatic stressors associated with low formal and informal social support and/or a lack of personal and social identity, and who had been sexually abused and/or suffered from symptoms associated with precarious mental health, low self-esteem and social isolation were significantly more likely to be PTSD symptomatic and appeared to resort to violence to release their trauma. Qualitative and quantitative data highlighted the endemic nature and normalisation of family violence, grief and loss, and alcohol and drug misuse as both symptoms of and causes of traumatic stressors. Traumatic stressors relating to institutional violence, fractured families, acculturation (colonisation) and racism were also identified as significant traumatic stressors through the qualitative results. Significant increases in traumatic stressors and dysfunctional behaviours were also established in the research participants' current and older generational histograms, lending support for the notion of generational trauma and dysfunction. These results suggest that the high rates of Aboriginal men being incarcerated for crimes of violence could be due to a history of widespread traumatic stressors that are being transmitted across the generations, and which will continue to increase across successive generations without effective intervention. The results of this research have important implications for the development of targeted assessment and treatment for Aboriginal males who have been convicted of violent offences and providing a well-validated measure that would be useful in assessing the success of such interventions, as well as for potentially addressing issues of violence across Aboriginal families and communities throughout Australia.


Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) cause vascular relaxation by activating smooth muscle large conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) (K(Ca)) channels. EETs are metabolized to dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs) by epoxide hydrolase. We examined the contribution of 14,15-DHET to 14,15-EET-induced relaxations and characterized its mechanism of action. 14,15-DHET relaxed U-46619-precontracted bovine coronary artery rings but was approximately fivefold less potent than 14,15-EET. The relaxations were inhibited by charybdotoxin, iberiotoxin, and increasing extracellular K(+) to 20 mM. In isolated smooth muscle cells, 14,15-DHET increased an iberiotoxin-sensitive, outward K(+) current and increased K(Ca) channel activity in cell-attached patches and inside-out patches only when GTP was present. 14,15-[(14)C]EET methyl ester (Me) was converted to 14,15-[(14)C]DHET-Me, 14,15-[(14)C]DHET, and 14,15-[(14)C]EET by coronary arterial rings and endothelial cells but not by smooth muscle cells. The metabolism to 14,15-DHET was inhibited by the epoxide hydrolase inhibitors 4-phenylchalcone oxide (4-PCO) and BIRD-0826. Neither inhibitor altered relaxations to acetylcholine, whereas relaxations to 14,15-EET-Me were increased slightly by BIRD-0826 but not by 4-PCO. 14,15-DHET relaxes coronary arteries through activation of K(Ca) channels. Endothelial cells, but not smooth muscle cells, convert EETs to DHETs, and this conversion results in a loss of vasodilator activity.


Different styles of natural history film evoke distinct feelings and emotions about wild animals which viewers use as a basis for their perception of wildlife. I define three categories of nature film which reflect varying degrees of human-animal interaction, anthropomorphism and aesthetics: the testimonial, explanatory and non-verbal styles. Although each one is limited in its ability to represent wildlife accurately, it is important to realize that they all show animals from different perspectives (from most to least human-centered, respectively). Given that the majority of people today gain most of their knowledge about wildlife from natural history programs, it is critical for viewers and filmmakers to understand the impact of these films on society—as both emotional and intellectual conduits into the natural world. vi


The situation where classes arise from a continuum is studied. In this situation, both regression and classification can perform the class allocation. It is not obvious how to compare classifiers and regressions, and different performance measures are described and briefly discussed. Several strategies for class allocation in the present situation are discussed and evaluated. Modifications to existing methods are proposed to make them more suitable for the problem. The performance measures and a selection of class allocation methods are tested and compared in simulations, with both low-dimensional data and spectroscopy-like data. They are also tested on a real spectroscopic data set. The results show that classification by means of an appropriate regression outperforms the classifiers in most situations.


A flexible information model for systematic development and deployment of product families during all phases of the product realization process is crucial for product-oriented organizations. In current practice, information captured while designing products in a family is often incomplete, unstructured, and is mostly proprietary in nature, making it difficult to index, search, refine, reuse, distribute, browse, aggregate, and analyze knowledge across heterogeneous organizational information systems. To this end, we propose a flexible knowledge management framework to capture, reorganize, and convert both linguistic and parametric product family design information into a unified network, which is called a networked bill of material (NBOM) using formal concept analysis (FCA); encode the NBOM as a cyclic, labeled graph using the Web Ontology Language (OWL) that designers can use to explore, search, and aggregate design information across different phases of product design as well as across multiple products in a product family; and analyze the set of products in a product family based on both linguistic and parametric information. As part of the knowledge management framework, a PostgreSQL database schema has been formulated to serve as a central design repository of product design knowledge, capable of housing the instances of the NBOM. Ontologies encoding the NBOM are utilized as a metalayer in the database schema to connect the design artifacts as part of a graph structure. Representing product families by preconceived common ontologies shows promise in promoting component sharing, and assisting designers search, explore, and analyze linguistic and parametric product family design information. An example involving a family of seven one-time-use cameras with different functions that satisfy a variety of customer needs is presented to demonstrate the implementation of the proposed framework.


Background: Surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is still an important issue because of the variant CJD epidemic, which is in decline and also because of the emergence of novel forms of animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy with zoonotic potential and the risk of nosocomial and blood transfusion-related transmission. Active surveillance has been implemented in most European countries and requires important human resources and funding. Here, we studied whether national mortality and morbidity statistics can be used as reliable indicators. Methods: CJD data collected by the French national CJD surveillance centre were compared with data registered in the national mortality statistics. Results: From 2000 to 2008, the two sources reported fairly similar numbers of CJD deaths. However, analysis of individual data showed important between-sources disagreement. Nearly 24% of CJD reported by the mortality register were false-positive diagnoses and 21.6% of the CJD cases diagnosed by the surveillance centre were not registered as CJD in the national mortality statistics. One out of 22 variant CJD cases was not reported as having any type of CJD in the mortality statistics. Conclusions:These findings raise doubt about the possibility of a reliable CJD surveillance only based on mortality data.


The World Health organization (WHO), established in 1948, is the United Nations system's authority on international public health issues. It assists governments in improving national health services and in establishing worldwide standards for foods, chemicals, and biological and pharmaceutical products. WHO concentrates on preventive rather than curative programs, including efforts to eradicate endemic and other widespread diseases, stabilize population growth, improve nutrition, sanitation, and maternal and child care. WHO is not an operational agency. It works through contracts with other agencies and private voluntary organizations.


HLA cell-surface glycoprotein molecules act in the very beginning of the allergic sensitization process, making them natural candidates for research on the genetic susceptibility for respiratory allergies. Thus, along past decades, this topic has been subject to some research and, consequently, several HLA alleles have been implicated in respiratory allergic diseases development. Current editorial introduces, revise, summarize, and comment the major advances in the role of HLA genes for the development of, and protection against, respiratory allergic disease. A general picture is drawn and new challenges on the field are relocated, especially those that might enlighten respiratory allergies aetiology and, thus, contribute in advances for diagnosis and treatment.


The Ecological Footprint (EF) method is applied here to assess alternative policies regarding the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management. This approach arises from two considerations. First, the MSW management certainly requires a great attention by politicians and technicians, due to its importance for effectively administrating and environmentally controlling urban contexts. On the other hand, the EF method, thanks to its holistic structure of analysis, supposedly provides a synthetic and effective measure of the sustainability of waste management systems, so allowing public administrations to prioritizing policies aimed at implementing environmental actions. Here the EF method is used for ranking different policies about the MSW management. The case study concerns the MSW management of Palermo and Ustica island. The suitability of this method for this purpose is assessed through the comparative environmental evaluation of the main segments composing the waste handling chain.


Scene understanding is a very crucial task in computer vision. With the recent advances in research of autonomous driving, road scene segmentation has become a very important problem to solve. Few exclusive datasets were also proposed to address this research problem. Advances in other methods of deep learning gave rise to deeper and computationally heavy models and were subsequently adapted to solve the problem of semantic segmentation. In general, larger datasets and heavier models are a trademark of segmentation problems. This thesis is a direction to propose methods to reduce annotation effort of datasets and computational efforts of models in semantic segmentation. In the first part of the thesis, we introduce the general sub-domain of semantic segmentation and explain the challenges of dataset annotation effort. We also explain a sub-field of machine learning called active learning which relies on a smart selection of data to learn from, thereby performing better with lesser training. Since obtaining labeled data for semantic segmentation is extremely expensive, active learning can play a huge role in reducing the effort of obtaining that labeled data. We also discuss the computational complexity of the training methods and give an introduction to a method called knowledge distillation which relies on transferring the knowledge from complex objective functions of deeper and heavier models to improve the performance of a simpler model. Thus, we will be able to deploy better performing simpler models on computationally restrained systems such as self-driving cars or mobile phones. The second part is a detailed work on active learning in which we propose a Region-Based Active Learning method to efficiently obtain labelled annotations for semantic segmentation. The advantages of this method include: (a) using lesser labeled data to train a semantic segmentation model (b) proposing efficient models to obtaining the labeled data thereby reducing the annotation effort. (c) transferring model trained on one dataset to another unlabeled dataset with minimal annotation cost which significantly improves the accuracy. Studies on Cityscapes and Mapillary datasets show that this method is effective to reduce the dataset annotation cost. The third part is the work on knowledge distillation and we propose a method to improve the performance of faster segmentation models, which usually suffer from low accuracies due to model compression. This method is based on distilling the knowledge during the training phase from models with high performance to models with low performance through a teacher-student type of architecture. The knowledge distillation allows the student to mimic the performance of the teacher network, thereby improving its performance during inference. We quantitatively and qualitatively validate the results on three different networks for Cityscapes dataset.


Mobile money has the potential to be an effective policy instrument for financial inclusion in developing countries, but it also has the potential to fuel money laundering and terrorist financing. The 2012 revised Financial Action Task Force standards attempt to strike a workable balance between the goals of financial inclusion and financial integrity in developing countries. Mobile money schemes are mostly based in national markets, however, and are not normally designed to address the need of poor migrants for cheap, effective cross-border remittance services. Demand for such cross-border remittance services may drive the development of technical standards to build global markets from national ones. As in other global governance contexts, regulatory competition among both developed and developing countries is likely to arise, and be shaped by network externalities, the economics of platform markets, and new governance institutions as well as national government strategies. If such standard setting efforts treat compliance with AML/CTF as requirements, then the growth of global networks might promote both inclusion and the development of "integrity by design" in global mobile money technologies. Co-regulatory mechanisms already in place in the US and EU for managing the interface between technical standards and legislation might provide some helpful models for accomplishing this. Ensuring that the governance of global mobile money networks is effective, legitimate, and accountable from the perspective of stakeholders in both developed and developing economies will be difficult, however.


A combination of analytic models and n-body simulations implies that the structural evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is dominated by its dynamical interaction with the Milky Way. Although expected at some level, the scope of the involvement has significant observational consequences. First, LMC disk orbits are torqued out of the disk plane, thickening the disk and populating a spheroid. The torque results from direct forcing by the Milky Way tide and, indirectly, from the drag between the LMC disk and its halo resulting from the induced precession of the LMC disk. The latter is a newly reported mechanism that can affect all satellite interactions. However, the overall torque does not isotropize the stellar orbits, and their kinematics remains disklike. Such a kinematic signature is observed for nearly all LMC populations. The extended disk distribution is predicted to increase the microlensing toward the LMC. Second, the disk's binding energy slowly decreases during this process, puffing up and priming the outer regions for subsequent tidal stripping. Because the tidally stripped debris will be spatially extended, the distribution of stripped stars is much more extended than the H I Magellanic Stream. This is consistent with upper limits to stellar densities in the gas stream and suggests a different strategy for detecting the stripped stars. Finally, the mass loss over several LMC orbits is predicted by n-body simulation, and the debris extends to tens of kiloparsecs from the tidal boundary. Although the overall space density of the stripped stars is low, the possible existence of such intervening populations has recently been reported and may be detectable using 2MASS.


A key issue in optical burst switched (OBS) networks is resolving burst contention in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Although deflection routing has been identified as a cost-effective solution, its viability has been questioned. We propose an emission and discard priority (EDP) scheme to alleviate the shortcomings of deflection routing by reducing late packet arrivals and hence improving network goodput. Simulation results show that the deflection with EDP scheme has a lower proportion of late packet arrivals than a basic deflection routing scheme. Furthermore, the deflection with EDP scheme has a higher goodput, when the normalized load is L≥0.7, and a higher efficiency, in terms of goodput per deflection, than the basic deflection routing scheme.


Modulation of baseline testosterone (T) via long-lasting T implants alters territorial, sexual, and social behavior of animals in the field. Transient T increases occur in numerous species after social interactions, but these transient increases in T have not been manipulated in the field. In the laboratory, these T increases can influence future behavior for days, causing changes in social behavior and inducing preferences for specific locations. We manipulated transient increases in T in the field at the nests of the monogamous and territorial California mouse (Peromyscus californicus) to examine long-term (>24 hr) changes in ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). Males of bonded male–female dyads (=pair) were administered a T injection (vs. saline) three times over seven days and USVs of the male–female dyad were measured for three days after the last injection. At T nests, the male–female dyad produced significantly more 1SV (one call SV: an SV is a sustained vocalization that is long in duration and low in modulation) and 4SV (four call SV) type USVs than controls, but no significant changes in aggressive barks. Overall, male–female dyad mice at T nests produced a greater diversity in call types such that 1SV, 4SV, 5SV, and a complex sweep were produced at T nests but not control nests. There were significantly more USVs produced at T nests on night 2 after the final injection. There were no differences in spectral characteristics of SV calls or aggressive barks between T and control nests. The function of the changes that occurred is unknown, but is consistent with increased long-term changes in behavioral interactions with nest mates and may reflect T-induced conditioned place preferences to the nest site. Significantly, transient increases in T influence future acoustic communication under field conditions with competing biotic and abiotic stimuli.


Murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and incest: the darker side of classic fairy tales figures as the subject matter for this intriguing study of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Nursery and Household Tales. This updated and expanded second edition includes a new preface and an appendix containing new translations of six tales, along with commentary by Maria Tatar. Throughout the book, Tatar skillfully employs the tools not only of a psychoanalyst but also of a folklorist, literary critic, and historian to examine the harsher aspects of these stories. She presents new interpretations of the powerful stories in this worldwide best-selling book. Few studies have been written in English on these tales, and none has probed their allegedly happy endings so thoroughly.


This article argues that class actions should never be certified solely for purposes of settlement. Contrary to the widespread "settlement class action" practice that has emerged in recent decades, contrary to current case law permitting settlement class certification, and contrary to recent proposals that would extend and facilitate settlement class actions, this article contends that settlement class actions are ill-advised as a matter of litigation policy and illegitimate as a matter of judicial authority. This is not to say that disputes should not be resolved on a classwide basis, or that class actions should not be resolved by negotiated resolutions. Rather, this article contends that if a dispute is to be resolved on a classwide basis, then the resolution should occur after a court has found the matter suitable for classwide adjudication regardless of settlement.


Most Irish people, when asked what they know of the life and death of Kevin Barry, will pause for a moment while they recall the words of a famously maudlin ballad. A few points will emerge: 'a lad of eighteen summers' … 'British soldiers tortured Barry' … 'refused to turn informer' … 'hanged him like a dog' … 'another martyr for old Ireland, another murder for the crown'. That they know anything at all about Kevin Barry is testimony, among other things, to the power of popular music for the making of political propaganda. Along with Father Murphy, Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon, Kevin Barry figures in the pantheon of nationalist Ireland's popular historical heroes, largely because somebody happened to write a good song about him. In many ways this is unfortunate, for Barry and the rest were once living people, and the process of iconographifying them in popular balladry, like all forms of political propaganda, serves not to clarify their roles in the historical events in which they played a part, but rather to obscure and distort them. So it is worth reconsidering the story of Kevin Barry, for a number of reasons. To begin with, his short life reached its climax at a vital moment in the long struggle for Irish self-government, a moment when the violence unleashed in 1916 burst forth again with renewed savagery on both British and Irish sides, involving in the Barry case the deaths of four young men aged between fifteen and twenty.


After more than a decade of meeting the designated objective of increasing productivity in agriculture, the South West coastal polders of Bangladesh have ended up as different man-made disasters. The failure of the polders to deliver the intended outcome is basically attributed to the lack of understanding of their hydro-morphological characteristics, inadequacy in their operation and maintenance, and failure to take into account their social relationship and culture roles. Changes in socioeconomic settings have also forced changes in the designated functions of the polders, but now the emerging context of climate change has become a major issue in rationalizing the coastal polders. In this context, this study is an attempt to review the historical and ongoing process of rationalization of the South West coastal polders, revealing that it is essential to take an integrated view of the hydrologic cycle and the interactions of human interventions. Finally, this paper recommends that an extended cost–benefit analysis with a multi-objective focus or a multi-criteria analysis, if monetizing is not possible, should be an option in rationalizing this multi-functional infrastructure. Proper macro-planning would require development of an institution capable of dealing with a task which is multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary in nature.


Since attaining independence, Latin pattern (Martin, 1978) disputes and conflicts have characterized the Slovenian political scene, particularly as to relations between the state and religious communities. Slovenia adopted a law on the issue only in 2006, availing itself of the law from the 1970s. The 2007 Religious Freedom Act contained many privileges for the dominant Roman Catholic Church, including those of a symbolic nature and those of an economic one. The Constitutional Court declared the Act unconstitutional and void, departing from the European Convention of Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, it set other beliefs at the same level with religious ones, did away with many privileges and obstacles 81 in recognition and registration of new religious communities. However, this decision has legislatively been implemented only in a small portion, remaining to be fully implemented. However, the absence of substantive agreements with the Holy See and the absence of religious instruction in public schools indicate a predominance of liberalism on the public scene.

Keywords: Slovenia, Church and State, Religious freedom, Roman Catholic Church, Latin pattern


Today we do our best to live in a world going mad as if we need to give ourselves some sort of psychic vaccination, so we can inoculate ourselves from this madness. This vaccination may be an archetypal journey through our contemplation which will necessitate a shamanic tincture and a delving into the darkness and light of our own depths. It is only by going through and making the darkness conscious and conscious darkness that we arrive at the light. In this article we seek to expand on techniques I and V in Table 1 in Miller and Wildman (2012:493) published in this journal. Technique I is "Doing Immersion (exoteric thesis) – practical involvement in mundane life"; and Technique V is "Re-entry of life 'creactive' synthesis." In the end, we suggest a 'bridge of boats' approach that will allow anyone to position themselves where they are comfortable and such that they can make a practical contribution.


Abstract Background: Interprofessional facilitators and teachers are regarded as central to the effective delivery of interprofessional education (IPE). As the IPE literature continues to expand, most studies have focused on reporting learner outcomes, with little attention paid to IPE facilitation. However, a number of studies have recently emerged reporting on this phenomenon. Aim: To present a synthesis of qualitative evidence on the facilitation of IPE, using a meta-ethnographic approach. Methods: Electronic databases and journals were searched for the past 10 years. Of the 2164 abstracts initially found, 94 full papers were reviewed and subsequently 12 papers were included. Teams of two reviewers independently completed each step in the review process. The quality of these papers was assessed using a modified critical appraisal checklist. Results: Seven key concepts embedded in the included studies were synthesized into three main factors which provided an insight into the nature of IPE facilitation. Specifically, the synthesis found that IPE facilitation is influenced by "contextual characteristics"; "facilitator experiences"; and the "use of different facilitation strategies". Conclusions: IPE facilitation is a complex activity affected by contextual, experiential and pedagogical factors. Further research is needed to explore the effects of these factors on the delivery of IPE.


There is widespread recognition that forestry carbon credits can reduce the net emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. Designing systems to sequester carbon, however, has proven difficult due to a number of efficiency issues, including leakage. Leakage occurs when policy makers develop carbon projects in specific places which protect some parcels of land, but leave other parcels of land unprotected. This analysis uses a newly developed model of global land use change from an established forestry and land use model, described in Sohngen et al. (1999); Sohngen and Mendelsohn (2003); and Kindermann et al. (2008). To assess leakage we estimate carbon under storage under one scenario where the world is awarded carbon credits and another where tropical developing nations are awarded the credits. We focus our results on several regions, namely Brazil, the rest of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Carbon prices are assumed to be constant, and range from US$0 tC to US$900 tC. The model adjusts global land uses to these specific policies, and leakage is assessed by comparing carbon gains within the project areas to net global changes in carbon. A number of policy relevant results emerge. First, the estimates indicate that leakage ranges from 2% to more than 14%. Second, as carbon credits increase, leakage decreases across the world.


I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the nation's focus on judicial affairs tends to concentrate on the most identifiable level, namely the Supreme Court of the United States. Most notably within the past year, the Supreme Courts' decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger (1) and Lawrence v. Texas (2) have fundamentally changed both society's accepted liberties and the public's view of judicial affairs. This focus, however, unnecessarily overshadows a basic reality of the United States legal system: that these historic decisions often originate in state courts. The nation's state courts of last resort are as distinctive as their respective host states. Internally, a state's highest court can also be considered reflective of the individual judges that make up a quorum on a daily basis. In the current era, defined by what can justifiably be called a perpetually litigious society, state courts continue to preserve distinguishing qualities. By focusing on the high court of one particular state, it is possible to examine court structure, pressing topical issues, and voting patterns among individual judges. As one of the more unique courts of last resort in the country, the Supreme Court of Delaware provides an optimal specimen for analysis. (3) This high court study examines the separate opinions issued in divided cases by the justices of the Supreme Court of Delaware from 1997-2003. (4) In a closed universe study of a single court, divided cases are the most effective media for insight because they help define the internal roles within the collective. (5) While the primary goal of this study is to identify these roles through statistical analysis of voting trends, the analytical portion of this study devotes additional consideration to several environmental issues including: whether a true majority exists in the court; whether the Supreme Court of Delaware is a reliable model for judicial efficiency or judicial economy; and whether the court's bipartisan composition is at all responsible for apparent efficiencies. These are some of the issues addressed in the forthcoming analysis. As demonstrated by the discussion in Part II, divided opinions are particularly relevant in Delaware in light of its unique court structure. (6) Part III of this study will outline the methodological process utilized in conducting the relevant statistical research. (7) Part IV introduces sources of division in three topical areas of case law. (8) In Part V, the voting patterns of each justice will be examined in a topical context. (9) Finally, in Part VI, the study will conclude with a summary of pertinent trends and a forecast of future voting behavior. (10) II. UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DELAWARE COURT SYSTEM In general, separate opinions are considered highly probative of current judicial trends and individual tendencies of the judges who sit on a single state court. (11) A unanimous decision by a court often reflects a compromise rather than an absence of varying opinions on an issue. (12) A divided decision, on the other hand, typically enunciates "'a statement by the judge as an individual'" (13) symbolic of unique individual beliefs and attributes. (14) While separate opinions benefit an analysis of any jurisdiction, they are particularly relevant to a study of the Supreme Court of Delaware because that court rarely issues non-unanimous opinions. (15) For example, in 1995, the Supreme Court of California issued multiple opinions in over seventy percent of its cases, and the Supreme Court of Indiana stood divided in approximately thirty-five percent of its decisions. (16) In contrast, throughout the fifty-year history of the Supreme Court of Delaware, its justices have written separate opinions at an average of three percent of each year's reported cases--this translates to less than one percent of the entire year's docket. (17) This sensation--dubbed Delaware's "unanimity norm" (18)--is thought to be based on a variety of factors, including: the small size of the state and of the Supreme Court of Delaware's bench; Delaware's judicial appointment system; the Supreme Court of Delaware's mandatory jurisdiction; and the court's unique internal operating procedures. …


Atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in air is investigated for medical applications, especially for skin treatment. When the DBD was tested on mouse skin, a homogeneous discharge accompanied by filamentary microdischarges is observed. For characterization of the homogeneous discharge, averaged plasma parameters (namely electron density and electron velocity distribution function) and gas temperature are determined by optical emission spectroscopy, microphotography and numerical simulation. Chemical kinetics in the active plasma volume and in the afterglow is simulated. Fluxes of biologically useful molecules like nitric oxide (NO) and ozone reaching the treated surface and irradiation by UV photons are determined. Skin biopsy results show that DBD treatment causes no inflammation and no changes in the skin-collagen.


A combinatorial polymerization method has been exploited to prepare a library of soluble conjugated polymeric nanoparticles (SCPNs) through palladium catalyzed polycondensations in confined nanoreactors. The strategy of independent variation within two complementary families of simple and symmetrical monomers, Ax and By (x > 2, y ≥ 2), plus post-polymerization modification with variant terminal groups greatly increases the number of polymers and improves the efficiency of polymer preparation. Fluorescence properties (band gap) of the SCPNs are easily tuned by selecting the monomer units (A or B) and the terminal (T) substituents through this "TABulated synthesis" method, providing fluorescent polymers that cover the whole visible spectrum, from blue to red. This library of SCPNs is further utilized for multicolor fluorescence sensing of explosives, showing a high Stern–Volmer quenching constant (Ksv). Meanwhile, the Ksv values of the SCPNs were mapped with the variation of the T, A, and B building blocks to predict the possible SCPN member with the optimal Ksv value (Ksv up to 1.2 × 105 M−1), showing the academic significance of this method. We believe that such a combinatorial "TAB" strategy provides a straightforward method to quickly synthesize libraries of polymeric nanoparticles, which will promote widespread studies on the functional materials in interdisciplinary fields.


Excerpt] Our goal in the play was to create a balanced work. In Bedside Manners, the reader will find people who communicate poorly and those who communicate well. Although the play focuses primarily on physicians and nurses and the acute-care hospital setting, we have tried to expand the cast of characters to include others on the health care team and to include other settings. As the safety literature documents, poor communication between members of the health care team is not simply an individual problem—a question of a few bad apples spoiling the barrel—but is rather a system problem that stems from how health care has historically developed. Although it is beyond the scope of this commentary to describe that historical development, suffice it to say that the problems of contemporary health care team relationships have a long history and are shaped not only by economics but also by gender, culture, religion, ethnicity, and many other factors. Although our play is meant to stimulate discussion about health care teamwork and suggest ways that doctors, nurses, and others in health care can develop the skills necessary to create and sustain genuine interprofessional teams, it is primarily a work of theater. Its goal is to help those who work in health care approach a very hot topic in a way that is both interesting and even, dare I say it, fun. To accompany the play and make it more user-friendly, Scott Reeves, Lisa Hayes, and I have also written a workbook, which explains the various ways it can be performed, how to mount a performance, and how to lead a discussion or workshop after the play is over. We also explain how to use the play as part of an interprofessional curriculum. Although some in our audiences have scoffed at such a "touchy feely" or unconventional way to present a serious issue, our experience has convinced us that theater is a useful tool to enhance teamwork, patient safety, and also to create more satisfying workplace relationships. Theater has been with humankind since almost the beginning of our history precisely because it is such a powerful tool. It can be used by those in health care who spend their days working with sick, frightened, anxious people, people who are, by definition, not at their best. Under the best of circumstances, their work is beyond difficult. Good communication and teamwork not only produces good patient outcomes; it helps health care professionals care for one another.


This was a requested chapter by the editors. The book examined the history and development of national park systems from around the world. This chapter provides the narrative of the development of one of the earliest park systems that took place in what was called 'New World' countries. The story of national parks in Canada is one of accident, followed by an ad hoc strategy until the early legislation of Park Acts were in place. Thereafter the development of the system expanded from a dominantly western one centred around the Rocky mountains to cover almost all regions of Canada from the Atlantic coast, through Ontario, the central prairies, to the west coast and expanding into the northern periphery. The narrative of development is one of balancing the dual mandates of protection and use, recognising that while the system is in place to ensure ecological integrity of unique ecosystems, the dominance of recreation and in particular tourism have become the major drivers of the system and how it is perceived. The chapter addresses the challenges of managing spaces where both mandates have to be upheld, something even more challenging for parks established in the far north where First Peoples and their views and traditions have also to be taken into this mix.


PURPOSE
Little is known about quality of life (QOL) in Chinese patients with bipolar disorder (BD) in remission (euthymia). This study examined the QOL of such a cohort of BD patients and its demographic, clinical, and cognitive correlates.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Forty-seven euthymic BD patients and 47 matched healthy controls formed the study sample. Socio-demographic characteristics, prospective memory, retrospective memory, intelligence quotient, and executive functioning were measured in all participants together with patients' psychopathology ratings.

FINDINGS
Multivariate analyses revealed that compared to controls, euthymic BD patients had significantly lower satisfaction with physical QOL domain. Only subthreshold depressive symptoms independently contributed to reduced satisfaction with physical and environmental QOL domains, whereas no variable predicted its psychological and social domains.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Contrary to findings from Western settings, demographic variables and cognitive deficits had no associations with any QOL domain in euthymic Chinese BD patients. Control of subthreshold depressive symptoms in euthymic BD patients might enhance their QOL.


In recent years, offshore operations have changed from a focus on anchor handling and rigging to more subsea installation and IMR (inspection, maintenance, repair). Situations where large and heavy modules are placed on the seabed by increasingly specialized and bigger boats creates the potential for major accidents. To uncover the safety challenges of this new development, 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted covering a broad scope of experience and skills from subsea work (ROV operators, crane operators, captains/first/second mates, oil service and oil company operators). All interviewees claimed that moving the offshore oil operations from surface to subsea leads to more demanding operations and more complex and risky work situations. According to the informants, these developments mean that cooperation and communication are essential since the number of actors increases substantially and the units grow larger. This seems to place increased demands in understanding both culture, language, tools, potential events, possible preventative measures (including training) and handling when critical events occur. Demanding situations occur when customers push on weather limits and costs and there are fewer people at work. Other situations viewed to be demanding are when something is hoisted through splash zones, and the moment when heavy constructions are placed on the seabed template. It has been shown that simulation training can improve safety and be an important preventive safety measure.


Natural language processing techniques are dependent upon punctuation to work well. When their input is taken from speech recognition, it is necessary to reconstruct the punctuation; in particular sentence boundaries. We define a range of features from low level acoustics to those with high level lexical semantics, including deep and recurrent models; these in turn are representative of a broad range of approaches used by previous authors for punctuation prediction. We combine the features using a gradient boosting machine that is also capable of indicating the relative importance of each feature. In an empirical study, we show that features from different semantic levels are in fact complementary, that combining statistical and deep learning methods yields better prediction results, and that generalization across different speaking styles is difficult to achieve without adaptation. Our best model achieves an F-Measure of 82.8 on a challenging broadcast news dataset.


Context. Various observations of magnetic fields in the intra-cluster medium (ICM), most of the time restricted to cluster cores, point towards a field strength of a few µG (synchrotron radiation from radio relics and radio halos, inverse Compton radiation in X-rays and Faraday rotation measure of polarised background sources). Both the origin and the spatial structure of galaxy cluster magnetic fields are still under debate. In particular, the radial profile of the magnetic field, from the core of clusters to their outskirts, is important for cosmic ray propagation within the cosmic web. Aims. In this letter, we highlight the importance of cooling processes in amplifying the magnetic field in the core of galaxy clusters up to one order of magnitude above the typical amplification obtained for a purely adiabatic evolution. Methods. We performed a "zoom" cosmological simulation of a 3 keV cluster, including dark matter and gas dynamics, atomic cooling, UV heating, and star formation using the newly developed MHD solver in the AMR code RAMSES. Results. Magnetic field amplification proceeds mainly through gravitational contraction. Shearing motions due to turbulence provide additional amplification in the outskirts of the cluster, while magnetic reconnection during mergers causes magnetic field dissipation in the core. Conclusions. Cooling processes have a strong impact on the magnetic field structure in the cluster. First, due to the sharp rise of the gas density in the centre, gravitational amplification is significantly higher, when compared to the non-radiative run. Second, cooling processes cause shearing motions to be much stronger in the core than in the adiabatic case, leading to additional field amplification and no significant magnetic reconnection. Cooling processes are therefore essential for determining the magnetic field profile in galaxy clusters.


iPhone and Android technology only became available in Korea in 2010, yet today, nearly every student in Korea's top university carries either an iPhone or Android enabled phone. Students are plugged in and communicating constantly. One Lifelong Learning class1 investigated the use of smartphones among Education and Engineering students. Both the process of the class and the outcomes of the research reveal much of how the practices of learning are changing in a dynamic, globally-linked university. Their answers to a set of surveys on smartphone use for learning revealed that smartphones were used extensively by all students. Students had a broad definition of how they used their smartphones for learning. Engineering and Education students varied somewhat on how they used their phones for learning. Most interesting, the heavy users of smartphones were not usually the ones who were the most intensive users of apps that most students agreed were most useful for learning.


Soda-lime silicate glass has been locally doped with 0.2-at. % erbium by 3.0- and 5.0-MeV ion implantation. Single-mode fiber-compatible optical waveguides were then fabricated by use of Na+ ↔ K+ ion exchange. Characteristic photoluminescence (PL) of Er3+ centered at 1.54 μm is observed on excitation at 1.48 μm. For low pump intensity the PL decay is nearly single exponential with a lifetime of 7.2 ms. At high intensity it becomes nonexponential as a result of cooperative upconversion, an interaction between excited Er ions. Self-consistent modeling of the PL intensity and decay data yields an upconversion coefficient of 3.2 ± 0.8 × 10−24 m3/s. The effect of upconversion on optical gain is shown and discussed. An extrapolation of measured optical gain shows that 1 dB/cm of net gain is possible in the present Er-implanted soda-lime glass.


markdownabstractIn cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), abnormal development of blood vessels plays a major role in disease progression. In case of cancer, abnormal angiogenesis promote tumour expansion and metastasis, which are characterized by formation of an abundant chaotic capillary network. In case of CVD, abnormal angiogenesis is characterised by obstruction of blood vessels, which results in hypoxia leading to cell apoptosis and necrosis in e.g. cardiac tissue. Many pathways of angiogenesis are still poorly understood and should be explored using gene function studies. In this thesis, we aim to identify novel molecular pathways involved in angiogenesis, which might shed light on failing gene therapy and offer novel perspectives on pro- and anti-angiogenic therapies.
To identify new genetic factors involved in angiogenesis, a genome-wide microarray screen was performed on the transcriptome of murine embryo`s. A list of genes that were significantly upregulated in FLK-positive cells was validated using whole-mount in situ hybridization in zebrafish larvae. Genes with a corresponding expression pattern in the vasculature were selected and silenced in an in vivo model of angiogenesis, in developing zebrafish larvae and in a mural retina model. In vitro knockdown assays were also performed in 3D-collagen based co-culture of EC and pericytes to assess blood vessel formation. In this thesis CMTM3, CMTM4, CGNL1, THSD1, and CECR1 were selected as candidate genes and their molecular pathways were investigated. For the first time to our knowledge we concluded that their properties in ECs are involved in the angiogenesis process. We also investigated the angiogenic property of the nucleotide Up4A as it is synthesised in response to VEGFR2 stimulation during stress conditions, such as hypoxia or in cancer conditions.
In conclusion, our fundamental findings of novel pathways involved in angiogenesis hold promising therapeutic perspectives to understand and treat vascular diseases.


The adsorption of nonionic surface active agents of polyoxyethylene glycol monoethers of n hexadecanols on polystyrene latex and nonionic cellulose polymers of hydroxyethyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose on polystyrene latex and ibuprofen drug particles have been studied. The adsorbed layer thicknesses were determined by means of microelectrophoretic and viscometric methods. The conformation of the adsorbed molecules at the solid-liquid interface was deduced from the molecular areas and the adsorbed layer thicknesses. Comparison of the adsorption results obtained from polystyrene latex and ibuprofen particles was made to explain the conformation difference between these two adsorbates. Sedimentation volumes and redispersibility values were the main criteria used to evaluate suspension stability. At low concentrations of surface active agents, hard caked suspensions were found, probably due to the attraction between the uncoated areas or, the mutual adsorption of the adsorbed molecules on the bare surface of the particles in the sediment. At high concentrations of hydroxypropyl cellulose and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, heavily caked sediments were attributed to network structure formation by the adsorbed molecules. An attempt was made to relate the characteristics of the suspensions to the potential energy of interaction curves. Generally, the agreement between theory and experiment was good, but for hydroxyethyl cellulose-ibuprofen systems discrepancies were found. Experimental studies showed that hydroxyethyl cellulose flocculated polystyrene latex over a rather wide range of concentrations; similarly, hydroxyethyl cellulose-ibuprofen suspensions were also flocculated. Therefore, it ls suggested that a term to account for flocculation energy of the polymer should be added to the total energy of interaction. A rheometric method was employed to study the flocculation energy of the polymer.


Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines that have the potential to greatly impact individuals' behavior and social engagement. Adults recovering from stroke or other brain trauma, who often have communication difficulties and other long-term challenges, are a population already at risk of isolation and lower quality of life. We investigated the impact of public health guidelines and related behavioral changes on self-perceptions of communication abilities and psychosocial factors in this population.Method: The Stroke Comeback Center, a community-based center for stroke and other brain trauma survivors with communication impairments, disseminated an online survey to current members to investigate changes in communication, social engagement, and quality of life.Results: Participants (N = 50) reported a number of changes in their day-to-day activities that reflect the current social distancing guidelines, such as reduced outings into the community and fewer in-person conversations with those living outside one's home. Overall, feelings of connectedness to others and overall quality of life were reported to be decreased when compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas receptive language abilities and technology skills were reported to have improved. Perhaps most interestingly, certain behavioral changes (including healthy movement activities and participation in virtual programs) had specific relationships with perceived communication abilities and social engagement.Conclusions: Changes in daily life resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have had a tangible impact on self-perceived psychosocial elements (e.g., quality of life) and communication abilities among stroke and other brain trauma survivors. Clinicians and researchers may consider these perceived changes when engaging with this population as the effects of the pandemic continue and in the period of community re-entry that may follow.Supplemental Material S1. Coronavirus impact questionnaire. Supplemental Material S2. Full set of responses to open-ended questions on the online survey.Fama, M. E., Hatfield, B., Coyle, S., Richman, M. S., & Georgeadis, A. C. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 public health crisis on communication and quality of life: Insights from a community of stroke and brain trauma survivors. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00297


Function Follows Form in Quantum FFF Theory. The rigid FORM and Microstructure of elementary particles (strings) , is supposed to be the origin of FUNCTIONAL differences between Higgs- Graviton- Photon- and Fermion particles. As a consequence, a NEW splitting, accelerating and pairing new paradigm Black Holes, seem to be able to convert vacuum energy (ZPE) into real energy and even matter and explain quick Galaxy- and Star formation, by so called Stellar Anchor Black Holes (SABHs), Herbig Haro Hotspots ( Bowshocks), down to Sunspots, Comets and even Ball Lightning. Recent observation of a Cosmic Hotspot under the big dipper is reason to assume that this is the location of one of our solar Stellar Anchor Black Hole (the North-SABH), reason to search for the other one: south located. At the same time it is proposed that Galaxies also are supported by dual black hole systems being the former Big Bang splitted primordial black holes. Called Galaxy Anchor Black Holes ( GABHs)


TheGovernment of Kenya has always put great emphasis in expanding secondary school education since independence to enhance maximum transition from primary to secondary level. However, despitethis government's initiative, gender disparities, still persist. Available statistics indicate that secondaryschool enrolment in several provinces and districts across the country was in favour of boys by 2007. The government decided to introduce subsidy to secondary education to enhance transition rates from primary to secondary level. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the public subsidy to secondary education on gender equity in Garissa District. The objectivesof the study were to; analyze enrolment trends by gender in Garissa District from 20082011 and identify factors causing gender disparities in the district. The study tried to provide .feedbackon the impact of the government subsidy towards the achievement of gender equity on secondaryeducation in Garissa District. The study was guided by the Darwin's Classical Liberal Theory on Equal Opportunity which advocates for equal treatment of all of people regardless of their gender or social status. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and targeted all the eight public secondary schools in Garissa District. The target population was 113 respondents comprisingof one District Education Officer (DEO), eight principals and 104 class teachers of the eightpublic secondary schools in the district. The sample size was 43 respondents comprising of oneDEO, 8 principals and 34 class teachers. The study employed Saturated Sampling Technique on the DEO and the principals while class teachers were selected using Simple Random Sampling. The study used interview schedule guide and facts sheet to collect data from the DEO and questionnaires to collect data from principals and class teachers. The research instruments were pilotedin one of the schools from the neighboring district. To enhance validity, the questionnaires were presented to the two Supervisors from Kenyatta University for guidance. To test for reliability, test-retest technique was applied. The questionnaires for principals and for class teachers were reliable as they yielded correlation coefficient of 0.76. The collected data was subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative data was analyzed in narrative form while the quantitative data was analyzed by use of percentages and frequencies which were then presented in tables. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Packages for SocialScience (SPSS) version 18. The study established that there existed gender disparities in the accessto secondary school education despite various education subsidies that were offered by the government. These were attributed to the involvement of girls in domestic chores, restricted mobility for girls, low valuation of female labour in the market, few women teacher role models, .early marriages among girls and the traditional socialization. Various gender enhancing strategies suggestedincluded; identifying and working on gender parity in enrollment, educational outcomes and retention rates, addressing the impact of educational programs and policies on boys and girls and equitable access and quality from gender perspective. This study recommends the following: various stakeholders such as the government, religious bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) should mobilize and sensitize parents and communities on the importance of educating both boys and girls and ensuring equal education opportunities for both.


This thesis evaluates the targeting strategy and impact on household welfare of two of the largest components of the Samurdhi welfare program in Sri Lanka - the food stamp and microfinance programs. Combining national level household data with data on the voting patterns of the 1994 parliamentary elections, the thesis shows that households who are more likely to vote for the ruling party are also more likely to receive food stamps. This "political effect" also leads to a significant percentage of the benefits from Samurdhi being allocated to non-poor households, even though the allocations to districts are broadly pro-poor. In terms of the microfinance program, the thesis shows that households form credit groups on their own if they reside in villages that are religiously homogeneous, and therefore more likely to be socially cohesive. Loan officers can play an important role in forming credit groups in villages that are religiously diverse and among migrant households who live in government settlements, thereby increasing program coverage in these areas. The analysis in this thesis shows that both the individual and joint impact of the food stamp and microfinance interventions are significantly positive for the per capita food consumption of the "average" household. However, the increase in per capita total expenditure is only significant for participants of the microfinance program. The results also show that the Samurdhi microfinance program leads to a large and highly significant impact on food consumption for the poorest households, whereas the food stamp program has a positive impact on the total expenditure and not on food consumption. Both interventions have a larger and a more significant impact on the total expenditure of the poorest compared to better off households. The policy suggestions relate to improving the pro-poor targeting of Samurdhi food stamp and micro-finance interventions in order to maximize their poverty impact.


Abstract This work is a contribution toward understanding the chemical reactions on the primary circuit surfaces involving gaseous iodine release during a severe nuclear reactor accident. Cesium iodide was used as a nonradioactive precursor material in order to highlight the effects of carrier gas composition (Ar/H2O, Ar/H2O/H2, and Ar/Air), temperature, the initial cesium/iodine (Cs/I) molar ratio by adding cesium hydroxide, and the presence of boron on the molar composition of the deposited iodine compound and on the release of gaseous iodine from the deposit. The results from the experiments involving only cesium iodide as a precursor revealed a slight decomposition of cesium iodide and a release of gaseous iodine. Furthermore, the measured gaseous iodine mass decreased with the addition of hydrogen to the carrier gas at 650°C. At 400°C, the amount of released material (aerosol and gas) was decreased. However, whereas at 650°C the sampled iodine existed mainly as aerosols, the mass concentration recorded from the experiment at 400°C indicated a predominance of gaseous iodine. When the initial Cs/I molar ratio was significantly greater than unity (1.5 < Cs/I < 4.5), the mass of produced gaseous iodine was barely detectable, suggesting a reaction between cesium hydroxide and the gaseous iodine released from cesium iodide decomposition. In the presence of boron, the transport of gaseous iodine was increased as a result of the formation of glassy cesium borate in the evaporation crucible. The presence of steam and its quantity were shown to have an enhancing influence on the cesium borate formation and on the release of gaseous iodine.


Diagnosis and adaptive management can help improve the ability of small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the developing world to better cope with and adapt to both external drivers and internal sources of uncertainty. This paper presents a framework for diagnosis and adaptive management and discusses ways of implementing the first two phases of learning: diagnosis and mobilising an appropriate management constituency. The discussion addresses key issues and suggests suitable approaches and tools as well as numerous sources of further information. Diagnosis of a SSF defines the system to be managed, outlines the scope of the management problem in terms of threats and opportunities, and aims to construct realistic and desired future projections for the fishery. These steps can clarify objectives and lead to development of indicators necessary for adaptive management. Before management, however, it is important to mobilize a management constituency to enact change. Ways of identifying stakeholders and understanding both enabling and obstructive interactions and management structures are outlined. These preliminary learning phases for adaptive SSF management are expected to work best if legitimised by collaborative discussion among fishery stakeholders drawing on multiple knowledge systems and participatory approaches to assessment.


When predictions support decisions they may influence the outcome they aim to predict. We call such predictions performative; the prediction influences the target. Performativity is a well-studied phenomenon in policy-making that has so far been neglected in supervised learning. When ignored, performativity surfaces as undesirable distribution shift, routinely addressed with retraining. We develop a risk minimization framework for performative prediction bringing together concepts from statistics, game theory, and causality. A conceptual novelty is an equilibrium notion we call performative stability. Performative stability implies that the predictions are calibrated not against past outcomes, but against the future outcomes that manifest from acting on the prediction. Our main results are necessary and sufficient conditions for the convergence of retraining to a performatively stable point of nearly minimal loss. In full generality, performative prediction strictly subsumes the setting known as strategic classification. We thus also give the first sufficient conditions for retraining to overcome strategic feedback effects.


In the U.S., African American children suffer from higher rates of obesity than their white peers. African American families are often multi-generational, with extended family members, especially women, caring for child relatives. Yet little is currently known about the influence of these female extended family members (EFMs) on African American children's dietary and physical activity behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between the amount of time an African American child spent with an EFM, the frequency of child physical activity and eating around the EFM, and family members' weight status. Data were collected and analyzed as part of a larger study examining relationships in African American families (n=47). Participating families consisted of the mother, her child aged 8-12 years, and an EFM. Participants were recruited from community organizations in Guilford County, North Carolina. Family Systems Theory guided the research in accordance with current literature which suggests that family-based lifestyle interventions achieve better outcomes than education or information only interventions. Eighty-eight percent of non-pregnant mothers (n=44) and 87% of non-pregnant EFMs (n=45) were classified as overweight or obese as defined by Body Mass Index (BMI) compared to 47% of the children in the study as defined by Body Mass Index For Age (BMI-For-Age). EFMs comprised 10 grandmothers, two great grandmothers, one great aunt, 19 aunts, and 15 cousins. No significant association was found between time spent with EFMs and frequency of child eating and physical activity behaviors. Children were less active around grandmothers and great grandmothers compared to aunts and cousins (p<0.05). Children were less active and ate less frequently around relatives 45 years and older (p<0.01). No significant relationship was found between child weight status and frequency of physical activity around EFMs. Children with higher weight status were more likely to be related to grandmothers, great grandmothers and great aunts than to aunts and cousins (r=-0.289, p<0.05); to spend 4 days or more with EFMs (r=0.311, p<0.05); and to have an EFM who was overweight or obese herself (r=0.314, p<0.05). EFM relationship type and time spent with the EFM were significantly predictive of child BMI status. EFM BMI was also predictive. EFM age and frequency of physical activity around the EFM were not (p<0.05). These findings call for future research to help understand how EFMs influence the dietary and physical activity behaviors of children in their care.


The dangers that future climate change poses to physical, biological, and economic systems are accounted for in analyses of risk and increasingly figure in decision-making about responses to climate change. Yet the potential cultural and social impacts of climate change have scarcely been considered. In this article we bring the risks climate change poses to cultures and social systems into consideration through a focus on places—those local material and symbolic contexts that give meaning and value to peoples' lives. By way of examples, the article reviews evidence on the observed and projected impacts of climate change on the Arctic and Pacific island atoll nations. It shows that impacts may result in the loss of many unique natural and cultural components of these places. We then argue that the risk of irreversible loss of places needs to be factored into decision-making on climate change. The article then suggests ways forward in decision-making that recognizes these non-market and non-instrumental metrics of risk, based on principles of justice and recognition of individual and community identity.


The idea of quantitative investing - using powerful computing power and algorithms to trade securities - inspires both awe and fear. Reality is less impressive. With a tiny handful of exceptions, most quant funds have been unimpressive. I explore some limits of quantitative investment, with a focus on the promise - or lack thereof - of techniques from deep learning and artificial intelligence. These limitations help explain the disappointing performance of many quant strategies and cast doubt on the promise of artificial intelligence techniques for improving returns. The main problem is that financial market data is unlike the data that machine learning works well on in computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing. While deep learning and artificial intelligence are changing the world in many ways, they are unlikely to generate fortunes for investors, who will continue to remain best-served by inexpensive and passive index products that themselves will be augmented by machine learning techniques to drive costs even lower.


Since the mid 1980s the world oil price discovery process has been dominated by two crude oil futures markets: the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE). To date considerable work has been done to scrutinize the degree to which these two markets price efficiently, but little with regard to the way the two markets interact. It is the first attempt, to our knowledge, to investigate the interaction of the two markets. Given that participants in these markets move with relative ease from one market to the other and usually take positions in both of them, prices of these two leading crudes are kept closely related to each other. It is of interest, therefore, to investigate the speed of information. transmission between IPE and NYMEX and, perhaps, identify which market is the true price leader. To carry out this empirical investigation, simultaneous and non-simultaneous trading sessions of IPE and NYMEX are examined separately. Interesting findingsare disclosed. Firstly, non-simultaneous trading sessions of IPE (IPE morning session) and NYMEX are analyzed with univariate and multivariate time series analysis respectively. In univariate analysis, spillover effects in mean returns are found in the IPE morning session from previous day NYMEX trading information, while no information transmission is found from IPE morning session to NYMEX same-day trading. In multivariate time series analysis with a larger data set, estimation using all data available suggests different results from that used in univariate analysis. However, closer analysis on sub-period estimation reveals consistent findings: the results from the first sub-period, which has the same observation data as in the univariate analysis, mirror those from univariate analysis; results from the second sub-period with extended data have a largely different behaviour from the first sub-period. It thus can be implied that the estimated results using all available information are averages of the behaviour of the two sub-periods. This changing behaviour from one sub-period to the next points to a possible structural break between the two sub-periods. Given that there are no significant political forces, such as "oil shocks", taking place during the period under investigation, the changing forces must be coming from the markets themselves. Secondly, the simultaneous trading session of IPE and NYMEX is examined to detect the temporal lead-lag relationship between the two futures markets using 5minute intervals. Results indicate a bi-directional relationship between the two, however the lead ofNYMEX futures is dominant within 5-minute intervals. Further analyses under major news effects both on the supply side and demand side reveal: (1) the two markets move closer when there are major US news events taking place, and IPE is more efficient in information incorporation when there are major news events both on the supply and the demand sides; (2) the lead ofNYMEX is stronger when there are major US events and that of IPE is stronger when there are major supply side events. Finally, intra-day trading activities of IPE are examined using the tick-by-tick transaction data. Empirical evidence from diurnal factor (intra-day seasonality), and from ACD model suggests that the patterns of IPE morning and afternoon durations are distinctively different from each other. These findings suggest that NYMEX has a large impact on IPE trading. Empirical findings in this thesis imply that NYMEX is a leader in the information incorporation process, but the extent of this leadership changes dynamically; under different news effects as well as different time periods. These results would impose significant challenges to regulators, in today's global market, to keep their market competitive as well as prudent. They should also benefit hedgers, who after taking into account their hedging implementation criteria such as liquidity, may be able to benefit from the faster information transmission ability of the leading market by directly taking hedging positions using the leading market contracts. The users most likely to benefit from the above findings are traders, who may be able to take arbitrage profits after taking into account trading costs, borrowing costs, etc.


Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin, Argentina, is one of the great worldwide promises given its potential as a non-conventional reservoir. Because of the intrinsic heterogeneity and low permeability, hydraulic fracturing is a required operation to stimulate the reservoir for better production. Simulation becomes a desirable tool to make fractures more efficient and get predictable outcomes. For this purpose, a 3D finite element analysis is performed using ADINA software to model reservoir response during the hydraulic fracturing process. This iterative, fully coupled model uses fluid structure interaction (FSI), porous elastic media and stratified materials with transversely isotropic (TI) properties. The allowed fracture distribution is proposed beforehand. A cohesive model is added via non linear springs placed along the fracture proposed path. Material models are calibrated using data from well logs and microseismics taken from one well located in the field. All the information obtained from that well is then filtered for a particular region of interest in depth, determined by the mechanical properties observed. Regarding the calculation procedure, as initial condition for the stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) the stress strain state measured in the field is adopted. Then hydraulic fracture process is simulated pumping fluid through punched holes and then fracture opening is analyzed, based on nodes displacement along the proposed path, to characterize fracture's opening and extension. The resulting state of stress developed after the fracture is updated at every calculation step. Key information such as resulting pore pressure and effective stresses can be easily computed along the fracturing process. Once obtained results are compared to analytical solutions and experimental data obtained from fractures performed in similar soil conditions with good agreement. The developed model can tackle a variety of reservoir volumes, considering stratification, geomechanical properties, fracture fluid, fracture paths and the initial state of stress. Natural cracks can be added in a rather simple fashion by adding fractures to the proposed distribution with adequate fracture strengths.


We report on the synthesis of a new receptor for anions, meso-substituted hexapyrrolic calix[4]pyrrole 1. The calix[4]pyrrole's core features two additional pyrrole side-arms suspended above or below the calix[4]pyrrole core. This hexapyrrolic calix[4]pyrrole 1 is formed as cis- and trans-configurational isomers, the structures of which have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The anion binding experiments revealed interesting difference in the binding mode: The cis-1 isomer binds anions in a mixed binding mode featuring a combination of hydrogen bonding and anion-π interactions resulting in an unexpected strong binding. On the other hand, the trans-1 isomer displays only hydrogen bonding and lower affinity for anions. This is unexpected as one would assume both isomers to display the same binding modes. Overall, the titrations of 1 using UV spectrophotometry and NMR titrations by anions reveal that cis-isomer 1 displays higher affinity (10(5)-10(6) M(-1)) and cross-reactivity for anions, while the trans-isomer 1 shows a more selective response to anions. Such differences in binding mode in configurational isomers are so far unexplored and a feature deserving further study.


What path should policy-makers select for the nominal rate when faced with a liquidity trap during which the effective lower bound binds? Conventional wisdom has generally favoured a commitment to keep rates low for long, namely under the guise of forward guidance policies, while Cochrane (2016) and others have recently made the case for neo-Fisherian policies that involve pegging rates at a high level in the hopes that the Fisher effect might deliver higher inflation over time. We compare these two options as strategies for escaping liquidity traps and argue that their relative merits likely depend on the mechanism that initially gave rise to the particular trap in question. More specifically, we argue that policy-makers should distinguish between "shock-based" traps that arise following large, negative demand shocks (Eggertsson and Woodford 2003) and "expectation-based" traps that arise from self-fulfilling shifts in private sector expectations (Benhabib, Schmitt-Grohe and Uribe 2001). This is because forward guidance likely dominates in the former case, while the latter may favour neo-Fisherianism to the extent that keeping rates low for long might reinforce the pessimistic beliefs underlying expectation-based traps. Although empirical strategies for distinguishing between these two mechanisms would be a promising topic for future research, we conclude by arguing that the shock-based mechanism likely provides a more plausible explanation for the low inflation witnessed in many developed countries during and after the Great Recession.


In a radiotherapy department having more than one linear accelerator, it is rather common to match the dose output of all machines. In particular, the recently developed flattening filter free mode requires new investigations regarding the feasibility of matching and the consequences for quality assurance and workload. This refers also to the beam model of the radiotherapy treatment planning system. Our results show that matching is possible not only for flat beams but also for flattening filter free mode. Therefore, the machines can substitute each other in the case of breakdown or service without new treatment planning even in the case of complex intensity-modulated radiotherapy or volumetric-modulated arc therapy. The quality assurance is reduced to only one data set for both the linear accelerators and the radiotherapy treatment planning system.


The current generation of astronomical spectrographs can measure radial velocity signals of exoplanets down to a few m/s, in ideal cases even 60 cm/s can be achieved. This led to the discovery of rocky planets with masses of only a few times the mass of the Earth, orbiting their host stars within days or weeks. However, Earth only produces a radial velocity shift of about 9 cm/s during its one year orbit around the Sun. Thus, the radial velocity precision of astronomical
spectrographs has to be improved by at least one magnitude in order to find these planets, even though the radial velocity signal of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low mass stars would be larger.
Currently, a large fraction of the radial velocity uncertainty of astronomical spectrographs is due to the wavelength calibration. The established methods, e.g. using Hollow Cathode emission lamps as a wavelength reference, do not provide the precision needed for finding a second Earth. They also do not work particularly well in certain wavelength regions which could otherwise be used to find planets, for example the near infrared.
One of the candidates for an improved wavelength calibration at the sub m/s level, especially in the near infrared, are Fabry-P erot etalons. This thesis explains how a Fabry-P erot unit was developed for the upcoming CARMENES spectrograph and how it will be able to achieve a radial velocity stability of 10 cm/s. Simulations of the impact of temperature, pressure and mechanical stability on the resulting radial velocity performance have been made. The results con firm the feasibility of using a Fabry-P erot unit for the wavelength calibration of an astronomical spectrograph
with a radial velocity precision of the order of 10 cm/s and provide first requirements for the unit.
Additionally, the eff ect of fi bers in combination with Fabry-P erots has been investigated. A close relation between certain fiber properties and the resulting spectrum has been found which impacts the radial velocity precision of Fabry-Perot units in general. The final setup of the Fabry-P erot unit for CARMENES was designed and developed accordingly. The setup and the components used are explained and fi rst light measurements are shown.


Abstract Poverty is a complex phenomenon involving various dimensions of not only the lack of goods and services. Being poor means being sick and not being able to see a doctor; all that it means to be unemployed and do not have a secure future; the poor rate it mean to be illiterate, not being able to attend school or abandon eaten; poverty rate means lack of many services and tools for everyday life. It 'hard to give a final definition of poverty because it varies from one period to another and from one country to another. Furthermore, poverty can be measured and evaluated in different ways. The evaluation of poverty based on a multidimensional definition of poverty and deprivation in income or consumption, seen from the flows, but also the non-monetary context poverty defined on my inadequacy of a series of welfare measures that have no income, as in education, health, empowerment, access to basic services and infrastructure.


Social sensing is based on the idea that communities or groups of people can provide sets of information similar to that which is obtainable from sensor networks. Emergency management and situation awareness are candidate fields of application for social sensing. Nowadays, two different approaches are present in literature: opportunistic and participatory crowdsensing, the former of which intends to detect events and/or gain situation awareness by gathering data 'onthe-fly' while the latter 'hires' volunteers in order to retrieve valuable information. This work aims to create, implement and deploy a platform based on a decision support system for gathering eyewitness reports in the aftermath of an emergency, focusing in particular on earthquakes. These reports can be useful to improve the situation awareness. While doing so, we would like to find out if an approach combining opportunistic and participatory sensing methods is effective. Our system, in fact, detects eyewitnesses exploiting an opportunistic approach and then aims to transform these potential eyewitnesses into volunteers willing to share information. The platform retrieves earthquake notifications from an official channel and, immediately after, gathers the messages shared on Twitter for a fixed timeslot. In doing so, we collect messages posted by potential eyewitnesses. Data mining and natural language processing techniques are applied in order to select meaningful and comprehensive datasets of tweets. We then concentrate on the filtered dataset in order to try to engage with their authors and obtain, in real time, information and enhance situation awareness. Information retrieved by our system can be extremely useful to all the government agencies interested in mitigating the impact of earthquakes, as well as news agencies looking for new information to publish. Results collected by our platform are promising and, despite being in its preliminary stages, a combined approach to the search for earthquake eyewitnesses seems possible. Table of


Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn InDesign CS5 choose Adobe InDesign CS5 Classroom in a Book from the Adobe Creative Team at Adobe Press. The 14 project-based lessons show readers step-by-step the key techniques for working with InDesign CS5. Readers learn what they need to know to create engaging page layouts using InDesign CS5. This completely revised CS5 edition covers the new tools for interactive documents, simplified object selection, multiple page sizes, track text changes, new layers panel, production enhancements, and print to digital capability. The companion CD includes all the lesson files that readers need to work along with the book. This thorough, self-paced guide to Adobe InDesign CS5 is ideal for beginning users who want to master the key features of this program. Readers who already have some experience with InDesign can improve their skills and learn InDesign's newest features.


A new method for top-down, one-pot, gram-scale production of high quality nanographene by incubating graphite in a dilute sodium hypochlorite solution at only 40 °C is reported here. The produced sheets have only 4 at% oxygen content, comparable with nanographene grown by chemical vapor deposition. The nanographene sheets are covalently functionalized using a nondestructive nitrene [2+1] cycloaddition reaction that preserves their π-conjugated system. Statistical analyses of Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate a low number of sp3 carbon atoms on the order of 2% before and 4% after covalent functionalization. The nanographene sheets are significantly more conductive than conventionally prepared nanographene oxide, and conductivity further increases after covalent functionalization. The observed doping effects and theoretical studies suggest sp2 hybridization for the carbon atoms involved in the [2+1] cycloaddition reaction leading to preservation of the π-conjugated system and enhancing conductivity via n-type doping through the bridging N-atom. These methods are easily scalable, which opens the door to a mild and efficient process to produce high quality nanographenes and covalently functionalize them while retaining or improving their physicochemical properties.