The most serious problem with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is not its contents but its packaging. Because it requires significant departures from business as usual in health insurance, health care delivery, and health behavior, PPACA is unlikely to succeed unless Americans feel a shared stake in its success. Unfortunately, the new law has been branded only by its opponents. Neither the Obama Administration nor its congressional allies have effectively communicated the law's key elements to the public. Most surprisingly, the groundbreaking program of near-universal health coverage that PPACA creates does not have a name. This Article explores the process of branding major American social legislation such as PPACA and suggests a strategy for improving public understanding and building loyalty. Legal brand equity, like its commercial counterpart, implies a functional, emotional, and expressive relationship between the law and its intended beneficiaries. Accordingly, an effective marketing strategy for PPACA entails creating consistent expectations regarding the law's goals and performance, and ensuring that those expectations are met.


Linear filters are ubiquitously used as a pre-processing step for many classification tasks in computer vision. In particular, applying Gabor filters followed by a classification stage, such as a support vector machine (SVM), is now common practice in computer vision applications like face identity and expression recognition. A fundamental problem occurs, however, with respect to the high dimensionality of the concatenated Gabor filter responses in terms of memory requirements and computational efficiency during training and testing. In this paper we demonstrate how the pre-processing step of applying a bank of linear filters can be reinterpreted as manipulating the type of margin being maximized within the linear SVM. This new interpretation leads to sizable memory and computational advantages with respect to existing approaches. The re-interpreted formulation turns out to be indpendent of the number of filters, thereby allowing to examine the feature spaces derived from arbitrarily large number of linear filters, a hitherto untestable prospect. Further, this new interpretation of filter banks gives new insights, other than the often cited biological motivations, into why the pre-processing of images with filter banks, like Gabor filters, improves classification performance.


Since 1971 wild horses and burros living on federal land have been legally protected, limiting removal from the range and stipulating restrictive conditions for transfer to private ownership. Periodic gathers prevent overpopulation, though we find both political and biological influences on the probability and size of gathers. Attempts to convey removed horses to private owners are often unsuccessful because of the relatively low quality of some animals and contractual restrictions. We consider alternative policy regimes promoting the transfer of additional animals; such reforms could have reduced program costs by as much as $452 million over the past twenty-five years.


Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Chinese industry accountants' perceptions of the ethical context in their organization and Machiavellianism on attitudes toward earnings management. Design/methodology/approach - The research is based on a survey of professional accountants employed by companies in Mainland China. Findings - The results indicate that perceptions of a strong organizational emphasis on serving the public interest (benevolent/cosmopolitan climate) significantly reduced professional accountants' willingness to condone accounting earnings management. Professionally certified accountants also judged accounting earnings management more harshly. Consistent with our expectations, high Machiavellians judged earnings management more leniently, although this effect was only marginally significant in the case of accounting earnings management. In contrast to prior studies of earnings management in the USA, the participants judged accounting earnings management more leniently, but judged operating earnings management more harshly. Originality/value - This is the first study to document that an organizational emphasis on serving the public interest can restrain aggressive behavior among industry accountants. Claims of serving the public interest in accounting have traditionally focused on the role of the independent auditor in protecting the public from misleading financial reporting. The results indicate that appeals to public interest obligations also have resonance for professional accountants in industry. The fact that certified accountants were less tolerant of accounting earnings management also has important implications, demonstrating the practical value of professional certification programs and their associated training and socialization processes. The contrast observed between the ethical judgments of our Chinese participants and US accountants surveyed in previous studies raises important questions for further research.


Progress in action recognition has been in large part due to advances in the features that drive learning-based methods. However, the relative sparsity of training data and the risk of overfitting have made it difficult to directly search for good features. In this paper we suggest using synthetic data to search for robust features that can more easily take advantage of limited data, rather than using the synthetic data directly as a substitute for real data. We demonstrate that the features discovered by our selection method, which we call seeding, improve performance on an action classification task on real data, even though the synthetic data from which the features are seeded differs significantly from the real data, both in terms of appearance and the set of action classes.


Cultural diversity includes many different values and behaviours. This frequently causes intercultural conflicts and communication break-downs. If people do not know these differences, they cannot know the reasons for these communjcation failures. People who communicate \Vith others from different cultural groups, therefore, have to be aware of the different cultural values and communication rules these target cultural groups have. When New Zealanders work with the Japanese people, what are the factors to prevent communication? This dissertation aims to answer this question. An interview survey was held in order to analyse successful cases and unsuccessful cases of intercultural communication between New Zealanders and Japanese under work conditions. The Japanese managers and employees were interviewed to investigate what intercultural aspects these New Zealanders have to be aware of. The research results show that ; ( I ) different styles of work, (2) senses of responsibility individual responsibility I group responsibility -, and (3) different ways of apologising frequently cause problems. All of these three aspects are related to the individualism-collectivism dimension of culture. These results indicate that this conceptual difference, individualism-collectivism, is the biggest cultural dimension which causes intercultural conflicts as a number of researchers argue. This aspect, therefore, has to be taught in Japanese language courses or job training courses to avoid these frequent conflicts and failures of intercultural communication between New Zealanders and Japanese.


Applying different styles of motion such as those related to gender, age and energy of the performer, are important themes in creating realistic animation. While typically different sets of motion sequences must be created for different styles, in this paper we present a technique for transferring motion styles across different sequences. This allows transforming the style of a motion while preserving the primary action class of the original motion. A mathematical model capable of defining both the action class and the style class is proposed and based on the model, the conversion data are computed. A series of piece-wise time warping procedures are conducted prior to employing the defined transformation function. Using this technique, there would be no need for a new set of motion data to be captured or keyframed as the original motion data can be altered to show the desired style.


The significance of the role of the victim in criminal procedure is undisputed. For the performance of this role, the victim is given procedural rights. However, the practical use of procedural rights of the victim, effective procedural activity and participation in the criminal procedure is determined by the personal interests of the victim. The article first traces the evolution of theoretical criminal procedure models. Then it focuses on the interests of the victim that are significant in criminal procedure. The classification of personal (subjective) interests of the victim into procedural and material interests is based on the generalization of the accomplished scientific research without analyzing peculiarities of individual cases. Material interests of the victim comprise moral satisfaction with the process and the decision in the case, and restitution (restoration of the legal status harmed by the crime). According to the theory of punishment as retribution, it is fair and just to make the offender suffer in proportion to the pain he inflicted on others. Moral satisfaction is the pursuit of the victim in getting retribution for the injustice he suffered. The goal of the punishment inter alia is to express that the harm was inflicted on the victim and thus, to satisfy the sense of justice of the victim. Restitution is interpreted as the interest of the victim to restore the status quo that existed before the crime was committed against him. Thus, restitution comprises not only of the demand for the reparation of material and non-material damages, but the need for an apology from the offender, actual reconciliation and restoration of a benevolent relationship as well. Procedural interest of the victim is the interest to participate in the proceedings and to make an impact on the progress of the case. The exercise of procedural rights gives an opportunity for the victim of crime to defend his/her position in the criminal case and to accomplish the function of criminal procedure effectively. Procedural remedies of the protection of material interests can obtain two legal forms—the procedural status of the victim or the procedural status of the private prosecutor. The concept of participation in criminal procedure can be defined as the possibility to control, the right to have a say and to be listened to, as well as being treated with dignity and respect. The main factor influencing the satisfaction of the victim with the system of criminal justice is not the formal role of the victim in the proceedings, but the level of dignity and respect towards him. The concept of participation in criminal procedure includes the right to receive information as well.


Knowledge Graphs (KGs) store information in the form of (head, predicate, tail)-triples. To augment KGs with new knowledge, researchers proposed models for KG Completion (KGC) tasks such as link prediction; i.e., answering (h; p; ?) or (?; p; t) queries. Such models are usually evaluated with averaged metrics on a held-out test set. While useful for tracking progress, averaged single-score metrics cannot reveal what exactly a model has learned -- or failed to learn. To address this issue, we propose KGxBoard: an interactive framework for performing fine-grained evaluation on meaningful subsets of the data, each of which tests individual and interpretable capabilities of a KGC model. In our experiments, we highlight the findings that we discovered with the use of KGxBoard, which would have been impossible to detect with standard averaged single-score metrics.


Various drivers of business investment can be used to explain the underwhelming performance of investment in advanced economies since the global financial crisis, particularly since 2014. The slow growth in aggregate demand cannot by itself explain the full extent of the recent weakness in investment, which appears to be linked primarily to the collapse of global commodity prices and a rise in economic uncertainty. Looking ahead, business investment growth is likely to remain slower than in the pre-crisis period, largely because of structural factors such as population aging.


Worldwide, the injuries caused in traffic accidents constitute a public health problem of great importance. Its strong impact generates a high percentage of deaths, hospital admissions with high costs, material losses, pension costs, and of course too much suffering for the victims and their families. There is need for effective public policy, since traffic accidents in many cases are not actually "accidents" but pretty much predictable occurrences, therefore, preventable. According to the Pan American Health Organization's classification of the mortality rate (scored by country): a low risk rate is below 10 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants; the medium risk is between 10 to 20 deaths; and high risk is above 20 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitant. Most countries in South America are between medium and high risk. In Brazil, the death rate by road accidents between 2000 and 2010 ranged from 18 to 22.5 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants. Meaning, it entered the highest statistic. However, the risk of death for pedestrians has reduced. Even though, the drivers of cars and motorcycles presented growth (2). Throughout the Pan American region, it is estimated that annually there are 130,000 deaths, 1.2 million injuries and hundreds of thousands of disabled. In each region there is a significant difference in the victim's profile, nevertheless around 80% of the fatalities in each country are men of working age, between 30 and 44 years; a general trend for all Americas 3. In poorer countries of the Americas, alcohol appears as the main risk factor for contracting diseases, more than low weight, malnutrition and tobacco. Adding all other countries, alcohol remains first (3). Among men, 13% of mortality is related to alcohol consumption, while among women, this ratio is 3.4%; for the total of both sexes, 8.8%, which means that one in every ten deaths is attributed to alcohol. Accidents due to driving under the influence of alcohol are a serious problem in any country that makes a broad use of motor vehicles. In Brazil, DETRAN - SP's data states that 50% of traffic accidents are related to alcohol consumption (1). In 2011, the Member States of Pan - American Health Organization approved the Plan of Action on Road Safety, which will help the countries of the region to achieve the decade's goals of Action Security on Traffic 2011-2020. With the adoption of the proposals, it is expected that five million lives will be spared by 2020. The actions are focused interventions in the priority risk factors of occurrence of traffic accidents, such as: drinking and driving, excessive or inappropriate speed (4). References: 1. Duailibi, Sergio; Laranjeira, Ronaldo. Politicas Publicas Relacionadas as Bebidas Alcoolicas. Rev. Saude Publica vol. 41 no 5 Sao Paulo, Oct. 2007. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0034-89102007000500019&script=sci_arttext 2. NETO, Otaliba Libânio de Morais et al. Cienc. Saude Coletiva vol.17 no 9 Rio de Janeiro Sept. 2012. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-81232012000900002 3. PAHO - Pan American Health Organization/WHO - Conferencia Pan-Americana sobre Seguranca no Trânsito, 2005. Brasilia. http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd51/respuestaspt.pdf 4. Portal Da Saude. Paises Assinam Acordo para Reduzir Vitimas de Acidentes de Trânsito. Jun. 2015. http://portalsaude.saude.gov.br/index.php/cidadao/principal/agencia-saude/18048 0 Language: en


This paper presents a prototype framework for sustainable flood management at the national level which features stakeholder participation, and is modified and applied to a case study. Through literature reviews and an interview survey of South Korea (the case study country), the causes of recent flood damage are found to be heavy rainfall due to climate change, urbanization, insufficient channel capacities and the application of inadequate measures. The interview survey also shows that, to reduce flood damage, along with consistent implementation of systematic long-term plans, minimizing injudicious artificial development is critical and necessary. Using the framework developed for South Korea on the basis of the findings and the prototype framework, national flood management is assessed and discussed. In particular, an implementation process based on flood risk management and integrated strategies is proposed to practically achieve the objectives of management practices with the cooperation of governmental organizations and stakeholders under circumstances of high uncertainty. Consequently, it is concluded that the effective conduct of sustainable flood management at the national level in South Korea requires a recognition of the context of flood management, cooperation and information sharing about flooding, and social learning and change, all of which can be achieved through the active participation of stakeholders.


Ranging from miniature epiphytic orchids to towering trees, and from mangrove forests lining coastal waterways to high-elevation cloud forests, Costa Rica's rich and varied flora dazzles visitors and botanists alike. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica, the first popular treatment to include plants from all regions of the country, is an indispensable guide to native and exotic species found in the neotropics.This book is beautifully illustrated with more than 540 full-color photographs taken in the field, each depicting an entire plant or a closer view of flowers, fruits, or seeds. Instructive pen-and-ink drawings of botanical details also accompany many of the accounts. The text clearly explains each plant's identifying characteristics and reveals fascinating facts about its natural history, chemical properties, economic importance, and medicinal and other uses. Sidebar features throughout the book highlight conservation, ethnobotany, and ecology; their topics include unusual applications for plants, distinct attributes of certain plant families, and plants of particular microhabitats. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica is a wonderful resource for naturalists, students, and researchers, as well as both experienced and first-time visitors to Costa Rica and the American tropics.


In off-line streaming, packet level erasure resilient forward error correction (FEC) codes rely on the unrestricted buffering time at the receiver. In real-time streaming, the extremely short playback buffering time makes FEC inefficient for protecting a single path communication against long link failures. It has been shown that one alternative path added to a single path route makes packet level FEC applicable even when the buffering time is limited. Further path diversity, however, increases the number of underlying links increasing the total link failure rate, requiring from the sender possibly more FEC packets. We introduce a scalar coefficient for rating a multi-path routing topology of any complexity. It is called redundancy overall requirement (ROR) and is proportional to the total number of adaptive FEC packets required for protection of the communication. With the capillary routing algorithm, introduced in this paper we build thousands of multi-path routing patterns. By computing their ROR coefficients, we show that contrary to the expectations the overall requirement in FEC codes is reduced when the further diversity of dual-path routing is achieved by the capillary routing algorithm


We use a unique data set of bank loans to examine the wealth effects on lead lending banks when their borrowers suffer financial distress. We find a significant negative announcement return for the lead lending bank when a major corporate borrower announces default or bankruptcy. Banks with higher exposure to the distressed firm have larger negative announcement-period returns. The existence of a past lending relationship with the distressed firm results in larger wealth declines for the bank shareholders. Finally, financial distress also has a significant negative effect on borrower's returns.


The accuracy of the real ray tracing approach developed by Vavryčuk (2008a) for waves propagating in smooth inhomogeneous viscoelastic media is tested. The complex eikonal equation in isotropic viscoelastic media is solved using three alternative ray approaches: the real viscoelastic ray tracing, the real elastic ray tracing and the complex ray tracing. The first two approaches are simple but approximate. The complex ray tracing is complicated but yields the most accurate results, which serve as the reference solution. Two models of a smoothly inhomogeneous viscoelastic medium with high velocity gradients and with strong attenuation are used to check the robustness of the approximate methods. The numerical modelling reveals that the real viscoelastic ray approach is unequivocally preferable to the real elastic ray approach. It is more accurate and works even in situations when the elastic ray tracing fails. In the studied models, the errors in the complex traveltime produced by the real viscoelastic ray approach were 15 to 30 times less than those of the real elastic ray approach. Also the ray fields calculated by the real viscoelastic ray approach were excellently reproduced even in the case when the elastic rays yielded completely distorted results. Compared with the complex ray tracing, which is limited to simple types of media, the real viscoelstic ray tracing offers a fast and computationally undemanding procedure for calculating the complex travel times in complicated 3-D inhomogeneous attenuating structures.


Supermarket refrigeration consumes substantial amounts of energy. However, due to the thermal capacity of the refrigerated goods, parts of the cooling capacity delivered can be shifted in time without deteriorating the food quality. In this study, we develop a realistic model for the energy consumption in super market refrigeration systems. This model is used in a Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (NMPC) to minimise the energy used by operation of a supermarket refrigeration system. The model is non-convex and we develop a computational efficient algorithm tailored to this problem that is somewhat more efficient than general purpose optimisation algorithms for NMPC and still near to optimal. Since the non-convex cost function has multiple extrema, standard methods for optimisation cannot be directly applied. A qualitative analysis of the system's constraints is presented and a unique minimum within the feasible region is identified. Following that finding we propose a tailored minimisation procedure that utilises the nature of the feasible region such that the minimisation can be separated into two linear programs; one for each of the control variables. These subproblems are simple to solve but some iterations might have to be performed in order to comply with the maximum capacity constraint. Finally, a nonlinear solver is used for a small example without separating the optimisation problem, and the results are compared to the outcome of our proposed minimisation procedure for the same conceptual example. The tailored approach is somewhat faster than the general optimisation method and the solutions obtained are almost identical. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering


Published some thirty years ago, Robert Manson Myers's Children of Pride: The True Story of Georgia and the Civil War won the National Book Award in history and went on to become a classic reference on America's slaveholding South. That book presented the letters of the prominent Presbyterian minister and plantation patriarch Charles Colcock Jones (1804--1863), whose family owned more than one hundred slaves. While extensive, these letters can provide only one part of the story of the Jones family plantations in coastal Georgia. In this remarkable new book, the religious historian Erskine Clarke completes the story, offering a narrative history of four generations of the plantations' inhabitants, white and black. Encompassing the years 1805 to 1869, Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic describes the simultaneous but vastly different experiences of slave and slave owner. This "upstairsdownstairs" history reveals in detail how the benevolent impulses of Jones and his family became ideological supports for deep oppression, and how the slave Lizzy Jones and members of her family struggled against that oppression. Through letters, plantation and church records, court documents, slave narratives, archaeological findings, and the memory of the African-American community, Clarke brings to light the long-suppressed history of the slaves of the Jones plantations--a history inseparably bound to that of their white owners.


Objective Neonatal organ donation does not occur in the UK. Unlike in other European countries, Australasia and the USA death verification/certification standards effectively prohibit use of neurological criteria for diagnosing death in infants between 37 weeks' gestation and 2 months of age and therefore donation after neurological determination of death. Neonatal donation after circulatory definition of death is also possible but is not currently undertaken. There is currently no specific information about the potential neonatal organ donation in the UK; this study provides this in one tertiary children's hospital. Design Retrospective mortality database, clinical document database and patient notes review. Setting Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care in a tertiary children's hospital. Patients Infants dying between 37 weeks' gestation and 2 months of age between 1 January 2006 and 31 October 2012. Potential assessed using current UK guidelines for older children and neonatal criteria elsewhere. Results 84 infants died with 45 (54%) identified as potential donors. 34 (40%) were identified as potential donors after circulatory definition of death and 11 (13%) were identified as being theoretical potential donors after neurological determination of death. 10 (12%) were identified as unlikely donors due to relative contraindications and 39 (46%) were definitely not potential donors. Conclusions With around 60 paediatric organ donors in the UK annually, there does appear significant potential for donation within the neonatal population. Reconsideration of current infant brain stem death guidelines is required to allow parents the opportunity of donation after neurological determination of death, together with mandatory training in organ donation for neonatal teams, which will also facilitate donation after circulatory definition of death.


In 2003 participatory video productions were undertaken in Tanzania to support the work of the World Bank under the aegis of the Economic and Social Research Foundation in Tanzania (ESRF). These videos were intended to record and support the participatory research initiative that had been earlier undertaken in Tanzania (2001-2002) and therefore enhance the work of assessing poverty reduction in developing countries and Tanzania in particular. This paper and accompanied video (12 minutes) attempts to describe in some detail the issues involved in undertaking not only participatory research activities but participatory media production as well.

It is in order to clarify this knowledge base, involving people in the process of analysing their problems that novel and uncommon methods such as the participatory videos are initiated. These videos intended to describe, involve and capture the environment and mood of the people as they describe their understanding of their vulnerability. The videos can also be viewed as advocacy tools for involving the wider community to pressurize and advocate for change. The videos aim to influence policy making, target action in support of specific issues faced by the communities, and finally transform power relations between the poor and their governing bodies. (Okahashi, 2000).

This paper proposes to discuss the theoretical foundations and methodological approaches to the video production processes taking hold in African under the so-called participatory video production methods and question their conceptualisation, efficacy and ethics.


Managing fisheries to achieve ecosystem objectives is in its infancy. A general approach is proposed for maintaining ecological relationships and providing for the recovery of depleted populations in food webs supporting fisheries. This paper addresses the following general questions for applying the ecosystem approach to managing fisheries: (i) how might fisheries impact incidentally on an ecosystem, (ii) what should be the conservatio~l objectives for predators of fished species, and (iii) what approaches could be considered for achieving the conservation objectives? The approach proposed here takes account of uncertainties in knowledge of the structure of ecosystems. Estimates of predator production arising from the consumption of fished species (encapsulated in proposed indices P and W) may provide useful indicators for management purposes because they integrate across a range of 'ecosystem' effects and, as formulated here, can also be related directly to the effects of fishing. These features are currently unavailable in ecosystem approaches to managing fisheries, which do not weight input data for assessments, such as per-capita breeding success, according to the relative influence of fished species on those estimates. The paper describes the steps required to establish management procedures based on these indices.


This title revisits a timeless American novel. The ten essays in this groundbreaking compilation cover a broad range of topics, employing a variety of approaches, including theoretical interpretations and textual and comparative analysis, to investigate such issues as race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as the novel's historical and literary contexts. "What's Your Road, Man? Critical Essays on Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" illustrates the richness of the critical work currently being undertaken on this vital American narrative.Combining essays from renowned Kerouac experts and emerging scholars, "What's Your Road, Man?" draws on an enormous amount of research into the literary, social, cultural, biographical, and historical contexts of Kerouac's canonical novel. Since its publication in 1957, "On the Road" has remained in print and has continued to be one of the most widely read twentieth-century American novels.Several essays enhance understanding of the book by comparing it with alternative versions of the text, like the original 1951 scroll manuscript and some of Kerouac's other novels, and with works by Kerouac's contemporaries such as Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Further studies explore ethnicity, identity, and the novel's place in American literature as well as its relevance to twenty-first century readers."On the Road" has inspired readers for more than fifty years, and the new research included in "What's Your Road, Man?" introduces fresh perspectives on this classic work of American literature. Editors Hilary Holladay and Robert Holton have successfully woven little-known material with new understandings of familiar topics that will enlighten current and future generations of Kerouac enthusiasts and scholars for years to come.


The iridium(III)-cyanine complex (IrCy) was fabricated by conjugating an iridium(III) complex to a cyanine dye with an intense near-infrared (NIR) absorption. IrCy complex nanoparticles (NPs) with high water solubility and photostability were prepared by a solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly strategy. Considering their effective photacoustic (PA) imaging and generation of 1O2 property with 808 nm laser irradiation in aqueous solution, PA imaging guided NIR-driven photodynamic therapy in vivo was effectively conducted in the 4T1 xenograft model. We developed a real-time PA imaging methodology to investigate the pharmacokinetics, tumor targeting, and biodistribution of IrCy NPs. Taking advantage of the analysis of the PA signal of the common iliac vein, the blood circulation half-life of IrCy NPs in mice was calculated to be ∼18 h, and the enhanced permeability and retention effect of IrCy NPs offered the maximum targeting property in the tumor at about 24 h. The obvious change of PA imaging signal in kidney and bladder confirmed IrCy NPs should be excreted partially from the urine system, and the PA signal decreased from 12.5× to 2.8× in the liver, and from 28.8× to 9.4× in the spleen also confirmed the hepatic metabolic pathway.


Advances in diagnostic techniques and high-throughput biotechnologies provide a compelling opportunity to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diseases by developing a "New Taxonomy" that defines diseases on the basis of their underlying molecular and environmental factors rather than on traditional physical signs and symptoms. Oncology represents the first interesting example of how genomic medicine has changed the understanding of diseases and their therapy. However, much work remains to be completed on the molecular characterization and classification of complex and multifactorial diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders. Our research group has recently shown the genomic heterogeneity of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS), identifying two divergent subtypes associated with differentially expressed genes and pathways and providing several potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets. This chapter reviews the results emerged from our work, highlighting how molecular characterization of SALS patients may provide a framework for developing a more precise and accurate classification of diseases that could revolutionize the diagnosis, therapy, and clinical decisions of diseases, leading to more individualized treatments and improved outcomes for patients.


A major challenge in the study of gene regulation by NF-kappaB/Rel transcription factors is to understand, at the biological and mechanistic levels, the selective functions of individual Rel family members. To study selectivity, we have examined the NF-kappaB/Rel protein binding site (Rel site) within the IL-12 p40 promoter. IL-12 is a proinflammatory cytokine expressed by activated macrophages that serves as an essential inducer of T helper 1 cell development. In nuclear extracts from lipopolysaccharideactivated macrophages, the predominant Rel dimers capable of binding the IL-12 p40 Rel site were the p50/p65 and p50/c-Rel heterodimers and p50/p50 homodimer. The two heterodimers bound the site with comparable affinities and exhibited comparable transactivation activities. In striking contrast, p40 mRNA and protein concentrations were reduced dramatically in c-Rel(-/-) macrophages and only modestly in p65(-/-) macrophages. Other proinflammatory cytokine mRNAs and proteins were not significantly reduced in c-Rel(-/-) macrophages. These results reveal that a c-Rel-containing complex is an essential and selective activator of p40 transcription, which may reflect unique regulatory mechanisms or biological functions of IL-12. Furthermore, because selectivity was not observed in vitro or in transient transactivation experiments, these findings suggest that an understanding of the selectivity mechanism may require an analysis of the endogenous p40 locus.


Direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) technology is a popular communication scheme adopted for the third generation (3G) wireless communication systems and beyond. Computationally efficient linear multiuser detection techniques can significantly improve the capacity of DS-CDMA systems by taking into account not only the signature of the user-of-interest but also those of the interfering users. However, as the spread spectrum DS-CDMA signals are usually subject to frequency-selective fading, a mismatch between the presumed and the actual user signatures is a typical challenge at the receiver side. As such signature mismatch may have a substantially detrimental effect on the performance of multiuser receivers, it is required to use an accurate signature estimation technique prior to the subsequent multiuser detection procedure. Among various signature estimation approaches, the bandwidth efficient blind algorithms that do not require transmission of any training symbols are of significant interest. This fact have motivated the topic of this thesis where advanced blind signature estimation and multiuser detection techniques for DS-CDMA systems are developed and studied. The first part of the thesis is devoted to blind signature estimation. We first develop a novel subspace-based signature estimation technique for binary phase shift keying (BPSK) transmitted signals in a white noise scenario. Unlike the earlier conventional signature estimation techniques, our method exploits the received signal jointly with its complex conjugate to substantially improve the estimation performance. We then analyze the performance of two well-known subspace-based estimation techniques developed for the case of unknown correlated noise. Finally, we propose a new signature estimation technique for this case that, unlike the latter two estimation algorithms, can be applied to an arbitrary signal constellation and enjoys much simpler implementation. The second part of the thesis is devoted to blind linear multiuser receivers. In this part of our work, we first develop a robust blind minimum mean-square error (MMSE) receiver that explicitly accounts for both the errors in the estimated signature and the sample data covariance matrix. Next, we analyze the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) performance of the popular blind minimum output energy (MOE) receiver in large random DS-CDMA communication systems. The asymptotic properties of the Capon receiver and the blind Capon channel estimate are also studied in detail for both uplink and downlink scenarios. Our study of existing blind signature estimation and multiuser detection algorithms reveal some important properties of these techniques that have been missing in the literature. Moreover, our novel algorithms meet the requirements of the evolving communication network standards for highly reliable yet simple detection strategies. As such, we expect that our results will facilitate the application of blind multiuser detection to the future generations of DS-CDMA communication systems.


There is today much debate about the contents of perceptual experience relative to our capacity to make them figure in judgments. There is considerably less interest, however, in how we subsume perceptual contents in judgments, that is, what judging about a perception is like for us. For Kant and Husserl, this second question is as important as the first. Whereas Kant tries to answer it in the schematism section of the first Critique, Husserl addresses it at length in Experience and Judgment. This paper draws new attention to this 'forgotten' transcendental problem by comparing both accounts of it. I will first discuss Kantian conceptualism in section two and schematization in section three. In section four I then turn to the Husserlian notion of type, which is today often juxtaposed to Kant's schema. After rejecting one commonly held view that they are functionally identical, I turn to Husserl's work on active synthesis, where I distinguish three different acts of judgment and their respective contents.


Patent licenses reveal information about how the market values a patented technology and how the market values new information concerning the probability of a patent's validity and infringement. One can use that information to determine the value of the patent in suit under the assumed conditions in the Georgia-Pacific hypothetical negotiation that the patent is absolutely valid and infringed. Using regression analysis, an expert economic witness can use the change in royalty rates that occurs after pretrial rulings (by district courts, by the PTAB, or by the ITC or its individual administrative law judges) to calculate the market value of the increasing probability that the patent in suit is valid and infringed, and to predict the outcome of the hypothetical negotiation on the eve of the defendant's first infringement of the patent in suit. The line of best fit might predict a gradually increasing royalty over time, as uncertainty about the patent's validity and scope decreases. If so, extending the line of best fit to the trial date would provide a conservative (lower-bound) calculation of a reasonable royalty under the assumptions of absolute validity and infringement that apply in Georgia-Pacific's hypothetical negotiation. This methodology enables the calculation of a reasonable royalty for the patent in suit that incorporates both the underlying legal assumptions of the hypothetical-negotiation framework and the market-disciplined prices that one subsequently observes in actual patent licenses voluntarily negotiated at arm's length between the licensor and willing third parties.


In computer programming, concrete models are still a novelty. Recently there have been plausible attempts to employ models to enhance programming comprehension. In this book, a new concrete model called Memory/Mselle Transfer Language (MTL) (invented by Dr. Leonard J. Mselle) is consistently employed to enable the learner and the instructor to reason about his/her code from machine semantics. Such reverse-playing is designed to reduce ambiguity and facilitate comprehension. Furthermore, in this book, issues are organized and presented in a way that enables the learner to feel that he/she is "working the machine" and the machine has no influence on what goes wrong on the code. On the other part, Visual Basic .Net is a programming language that is increasingly becoming popular. For this reason, it is now imperative that books on Visual Basic .Net which are written in a style that encourages self-learning increase in number.


This paper presents the results of the archaeological research project on the Lower and Middle Paleolithic in the municipality of El Provencio (Cuenca, Spain). During the first 6 years of the project, an unknown archaeological complex has been defined with a large concentration of remains of lithic industry of Modes 1, 2 and 3, as well as Pleistocene faunal remains (Mammuthus and Equus), associated with the large-scale sequences of the Záncara River. The first ages obtained by two complementary dating methods are presented here: Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). The absolute dates of 41 ± 2.2 ka and 836 ± 46 ka (Al–Ti mean age) correspond to the upper and lower levels of the stratigraphic sequence respectively. The archaeological potential contained in this complex suggests an effective and uninterrupted human occupation of this region during ≈800 ka.


In this thesis I have described a body of work designed to address the problem of depression in sexual minority youth. I started by determining whether sexual minority youth have unique mental health and help-seeking needs. Subsequently the primary aim of my doctoral project was to design and evaluate the acceptability of a self-help program, specifically a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) program specially adapted for sexual minority youth with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. This thesis comprises four studies.

In Study One I used multiple logistic regression to examine the associations between sexual attraction and depressive symptoms, suicidality, self-harming and help-seeking behaviours, in data collected from a nationally representative secondary school health and well-being survey (Youth'07). Sexual minority students consistently had higher prevalence estimates of depressive symptoms (p=<0.0001), suicide attempts (p=<0.0001) and self-harming (p=<0.0001) than students attracted to the opposite sex. Students who reported they were attracted to both sexes had the highest odds ratios for depressive symptoms (OR 3.7, 95% CI 2.8–4.7), suicide attempts (OR 7.0, 95% CI 5.2–9.4) and self-harm (OR 5.8, 95% CI 4.4–7.6). Non-heterosexual students were more likely to report having seen a health professional for an emotional worry and having difficulty accessing help for emotional concerns.

For Study Two, I used thematic analysis based on the general inductive approach to analyse the results of three focus groups. In these groups nine sexual minority participants discussed the unique challenges they face and whether these challenges could usefully be addressed in a CCBT program. Participants also provided feedback on prototypes of a 3D fantasy-based role-play CCBT program (SPARX), designed for a general youth population, and made suggestions about how SPARX could be adapted for sexual minority youth. Participants reported experiencing a number of challenges in their day-to-day life including living within a homophobic and gender-stereotyped world. They highlighted issues unlikely to be experienced by their heterosexual or opposite-sex attracted peers related to discrimination and mistreatment due to their sexuality. As a result of participants' feedback a specially modified version of SPARX, called SPARX: The Rainbow Version, was developed for sexual minority youth.

In Study Three I conducted an open trial to assess the acceptability and feasibility of SPARX: The Rainbow Version (or Rainbow SPARX) amongst 21 sexual minority youth with depressive symptoms. I also collected preliminary data on the efficacy of Rainbow SPARX. The depressive symptoms of sexual minority youth (assessed using the Child Depression Rating Scale – Revised) decreased significantly post intervention (p<0.0001), with a large pre- to post-effect size (d=1.01) and this positive change was maintained at three-month follow-up. There were also significant improvements on secondary outcomes including self-rated symptoms of depression and anxiety, and a reduction in hopelessness. Over 80% of the sexual minority youth completing SPARX: The Rainbow Version thought CCBT would appeal to other young people. The results from the open trial were compared with those of a randomised controlled trial, where 154 exclusively opposite-sex attracted youth were equally randomised to SPARX and treatment as usual (TAU). With the exception of mean age of participants, open trial and RCT participants did not differ significantly in terms of baseline demographic data, baseline clinical characteristics and changes in assessment scores over time. However, open trial participants were more likely to complete treatment when compared with RCT participants (p=0.007).

Study Four was a qualitative study which involved analysing the results of semi-structured interviews using the general inductive approach. Interviews were conducted with 25 youth immediately after they completed SPARX: The Rainbow Version. Twenty of these interviews were with open trial participants from Study Three. Of the remaining five interviews, four interviewees did not have depressive symptoms at baseline and one interviewee identified as being "straight". Seventeen participants reported that SPARX: The Rainbow Version helped them feel better or less depressed and most of the participants reported that the program included useful messages or content. The majority liked the look and feel of the program. Eighteen participants highlighted minor technical issues that they thought needed to be addressed. Participants in Study Four also identified suggestions or tips that would help encourage sexual minority youth to participate in future research.

I have shown that, relative to their peers, sexual minority youth are more likely to have depressive symptoms and to experience difficulty accessing appropriate healthcare. To address these issues I sought the views of sexual minority individuals and then incorporated their views into an adapted form of CCBT for sexual minority youth. Taken together the results of my open trial (Study Three) and the qualitative study (Study Four) indicate that SPARX: The Rainbow Version shows promise as an intervention for mild to moderate depressive symptoms in sexual minority youth and that this intervention was acceptable to participants and that delivery was feasible.


Hybridomas synthesizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against type F Clostridium botulinum toxin were developed. MAb from one stable hybridoma, hybridoma 223, consisted of kappa light chains and an immunoglobulin G subclass 2a heavy chain. This MAb was used in a double-sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect type F toxin in foods, culture fluids, and purified toxin preparations. The sensitivity of the double-sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was approximately 10 mouse lethal doses of toxin per ml of toxic fluid.


This new six-volume series from Europa provides an impartial record of the political, social, cultural, geographical, and economic events that have helped to shape world history. Each of the regional titles records the major events that have shaped each country and region, with greater emphasis given to more recent affairs. Each volume charts each country's progress, offers a quick perspective into what was once current news, such as elections, wars, disputes, invasions, deaths and assassinations, coronations, diplomatic activities, economic crises, and more.


Book 5 of the bestselling Love Comes Softly series. Marty Davis had thoroughly enjoyed her visit with daughter Missie, even though a tragic accident had extended it far longer than originally planned. But now she and Clark are home again, and there are changes to make. The family begins to adjust to Clark's crutch, and Clark and Marty recognize their children's new maturity and independence. But Nandry seems unable to come to terms with Clark's handicap; is she blaming God for the accident? The "baby of the family" is going to be a doctor. Ellie has blossomed into a lovely young woman, but is there any fellow around special enough to ask for her hand? Clare and Kate eagerly anticipate their new baby, but has life prepared them for what lies ahead?


It has become commonplace to explain the proliferation of private security services as causally determined by crime rates and institutional weakness. By contrast, this paper ar-gues that another explanatory factor needs to be emphasized, especially for post-war so-cieties: continuity and change of social control mechanisms. The paper first presents the current situation with commercial and noncommercial private security services in Guate-mala (private security companies, as well as neighborhood security committees). Against this background, it reconstructs mechanisms and critical junctures by which the Guatema-lan state sourced out policing functions to the private sector during the war, and traces the reinforcement of these mechanisms in the post-war society. It argues that the proliferation of private security services is an outcome of the overlapping of different political processes and sequences. The continuity of social control mechanisms thereby emerges as a stronger explanatory factor for this proliferation, rather than the common justification of high crime rates.


Uncertain legal standards are pervasive but understudied. The key theoretical result showing an ambiguous relationship between legal uncertainty and optimal deterrence remains largely undeveloped, and no alternative conceptual approaches to the economic analysis of legal uncertainty have emerged. This Article offers such an alternative by shifting from the well-established and familiar optimal deterrence theory to the new and unfamiliar probabilistic compliance framework. This shift brings the analysis closer to the world of legal practice and yields new theoretical insights. Most importantly, lower uncertainty tends to lead to more compliant positions and greater private gains. In contrast, the market for legal advice tends to reduce compliance over time—a trend that a regulator may counter either by clarifying the law or by reiterating the law's continuing ambiguity. If detection is uncertain, the probabilistic compliance framework reveals why, contrary to the prevailing view, the standard damages multiplier should be used to counter detection uncertainty but not legal uncertainty. The Article also reconciles economists' and lawyers' understanding of probabilities, highlights the challenges of modeling risk-bearing costs resulting from uncertain legal commands, and provides theoretical support for gain-based sanctions beyond the limited settings where the complete deterrence theory has justified their use thus far.


In this thesis I offer an interpretation of Arthur Schopenhauer's pessimism. I argue against interpreting Schopenhauer's pessimism as if it were merely a matter of temperament, and I resist the urge to find a single standard argument for pessimism in Schopenhauer's work. Instead, I treat Schopenhauer's pessimism as inherently variegated, composed of several distinct but interrelated pessimistic positions, each of which is supported by its own argument. I begin by examining Schopenhauer's famous argument that willing necessitates suffering, which I defend against the misrepresentative interpretation advocated by Ivan Soll. I also offer a metaphysical reading of Schopenhauer's claim that no amount happiness can compensate for the mere fact of suffering, based upon his negative conception of happiness. I proceed by analysing Schopenhauer's criticisms of two prominent optimists, Leibniz and Rousseau. I attempt to salvage something of Schopenhauer's counterargument against Leibniz that this is the worse of all possible worlds, and I also examine Schopenhauer's claim that the optimistic metaphysics of a priori rationalistic philosophy cannot cope with the evidence of meaningless suffering. In the case of Rousseau, I interpret Schopenhauer's brief objection to Rousseau's assumption of original goodness, by means of an examination of Schopenhauer's conception of the contrary doctrine, original sin. Next I consider the metaphysics of Schopenhauer's account of eternal justice. After defending it against a number of objections, I argue that the nature of his version of eternal justice, which he admits constitutes a justification for suffering, does not conflict with the fact that he so strongly condemns Leibniz's and Rousseau's optimistic justifications for suffering. Finally I assess whether and to what extent Schopenhauer's ethics of salvation are either pessimistic or optimistic. I conclude that the mere fact that salvation is possible is not necessarily a cause for optimism, but that Schopenhauer's doctrine of salvation is made partly optimistic by the higher form of cognition that he describes as part of it. I also argue that Schopenhauer's views on the essentially mystical nature of the state of salvation ultimately commit him to being neither positively optimistic nor positively pessimistic about salvation. I conclude overall with some brief remarks about the meaning of Schopenhauer's pessimism, and how in spite of its diverse nature, it is able to lay down a singular challenge to all future philosophers concerned with the question of suffering.


Euler sums (also called Zagier sums) occur within the context of knot theory and quantum field theory. There are various conjectures related to these sums whose incompletion is a sign that both the mathematics and physics communities do not yet completely understand the field. Here, we assemble results for Euler/Zagier sums (also known as multidimensional zeta/harmonic sums) of arbitrary depth, including sign alternations. Many of our results were obtained empirically and are apparently new. By carefully compiling and examining a huge data base of high precision numerical evaluations, we can claim with some confidence that certain classes of results are exhaustive. While many proofs are lacking, we have sketched derivations of all results that have so far been proved.


BACKGROUND
Vortioxetine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2013 for treating major depressive disorder (MDD). Thus far, a number of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of vortioxetine have been conducted in patients with MDD. We performed a meta-analysis to increase the statistical power of these studies and enhance our current understanding of the role of vortioxetine in the treatment of MDD.

METHODS
We performed an extensive search of databases and the clinical trial registry. The mean change in total scores on the 24-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and the Montgomery- Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) from the baseline were the primary outcome measures. The secondary efficacy measures were the response and remission rates, as defined by a 50% or greater reduction in HAM-D/MADRS total scores and as a score of 10 or less in the MADRS and 7 or less in the HAM-D total scores at the end of treatment.

RESULTS
We included 7 published and 5 unpublished short-term (6-12 wk) RCTs in our meta-analysis. Vortioxetine was significantly more effective than placebo, with an effect size (standardized mean difference [SMD]) of -0.217 (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.313 to -0.122) and with odds ratios (ORs) for response and remission of 1.652 (95% CI 1.321 to 2.067) and 1.399 (95% CI 1.104 to 1.773), respectively. Those treated with vortioxetine did not differ significantly from those treated with selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors/agomelatine with regard to the SMD of the primary outcome measure (0.081, -0.062 to 0.223) or for response (OR 0.815, 95% CI 0.585 to 1.135) and remission (OR 0.843, 95% CI 0.575 to 1.238) rates. Discontinuation owing to lack of efficacy (OR 0.541, 95% CI 0.308 to 0.950) was significantly less common among those treated with vortioxetine than among those who received placebo, whereas discontinuation owing to adverse events (AEs; OR 1.530, 95% CI 1.144 to 2.047) was significantly more common among those treated with vortioxetine than among those receiving placebo. There was no significant difference in discontinuation rates between vortioxetine and comparators owing to inefficacy (OR 0.983, 95% CI 0.585 to 1.650), whereas discontinuation owing to AEs was significantly less common in the vortioxetine than in the comparator group (OR 0.728, 95% CI 0.554 to 0.957).

LIMITATIONS
Studies examining the role of vortioxetine in the treatment of MDD are limited.

CONCLUSION
Although our results suggest that vortioxetine may be an effective treatment option for MDD, they should be interpreted and translated into clinical practice with caution, as the meta-analysis was based on a limited number of heterogeneous RCTs.


Modeling engineering knowledge explicitly and representing it by means of standardized modeling languages and in machine-understandable form enables advanced engineering processes in industrial and factory automation. This affects positively both process and product quality. In this paper we explore how the AutomationML format, an emerging data exchange standard, that supports the Industry 4.0 vision, can be represented by means of two established modeling approaches - Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and Semantic Web. We report observed differences w.r.t. resulting model features and model creation process and, additionally, present the application possibilities of the developed models for engineering process improvement in a production system engineering context.


Given the increasing exploitation of antibodies in different contexts such as molecular diagnostics and therapeutics, it would be beneficial to unravel the atomistic level properties of antibody‐antigen complexes with the help of computational modeling. Thus, here we have studied the feasibility of computational tools to gather atomic scale information regarding the antibody‐antigen complexes solely starting from an amino acid sequence. First, we constructed a homology model for the anti‐testosterone binding antibody based on the knowledge based classification of complementary determining regions (CDRs) and implicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations. To further examine whether the generated homology model is suitable for studying antibody‐antigen interactions, docking calculations were carried out followed by binding free‐energy simulations. Our results indicate that with the antibody modeling approach presented here it is possible to construct accurate homology models for antibodies which correctly describes the antibody‐antigen interactions, and produces absolute binding free‐energies that are comparable with experimental values. In addition, our simulations suggest that the conformations of complementary determining regions (CDRs) may considerably change from the X‐ray configuration upon solvation. In conclusion, here we have introduced an antibody modeling workflow that can be used in studying the interactions between antibody and antigen solely based on an amino acid sequence, which in turn provides novel opportunities to tune the properties of antibodies in different applications. Proteins 2017; 85:322–331. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Voter turnout in second-order elections is on a dramatic decline in many modern democracies. This article investigates how electoral participation can be substantially increased by holding multiple of these less important elections simultaneously. Leading to a relative decrease in voting costs, concurrent elections theoretically have economies of scale to the individual voter and thus should see turnout levels larger than those obtained in any stand-alone election. Leveraging as-if-random variation of local election timing in Germany, we estimate the causal effect of concurrent mayoral elections on European election turnout at around 10 percentage points. Exploiting variation in treatment intensity, we show that the magnitude of the concurrency effect is contingent upon district size and the competitiveness of the local race.


ABSTRACT The role of agriculture in rural development is widely documented in literature. Many analysts regard agriculture, specifically small-scale agriculture, as an effective instrument for poverty reduction and food security, particularly in rural communities of developing countries where large numbers of poor people are concentrated. However whether the focus of such production should be on export crops or for domestic food security remains an issue for debate. Using the avocado industry in Giheta-Burundi, this paper argues that some emerging tree crops such as avocados present enormous opportunities to income generation and food security for small-scale farmers. This paper suggests that small-scale avocado farming presents the economic, market and health potentiality to contribute to a viable and sustainable rural economy through internal markets thereby reducing levels of poverty and malnutrition in this area. From a policy perspective, the paper suggests that the avocado sector needs to be supported by both the private and public sectors, irrespective of whether the crop is consumed, traded domestically or exported. Increasing the capacity of avocado production and trade will then enable small-scale farmers and vendors to gain greater income from this sector.


Abstract This article is informed by my experiences teaching women's studies and specifically feminist theory to predominantly female and male students offering Women's studies. As a mainstream academic discipline at the University of Buea, housing the only such Department in Cameroon's Higher Education system, this study uncovers the broader polemics regarding gender and women's studies. Against the backdrop of a patriarchal society, this study attempts to account for the shifting strands on masculinity and femininity and gender transgressions as played out by students taking women's studies. It also analyses the notions, misconceptions and stereotypes that characterise the discipline of women's studies, specifically at the University of Buea, a replica of the cultural mindset across Cameroon, largely perceived as a female bastion. Borrowing from Derrida's concept of deconstruction, this paper situates inherent biases, contradictions and the mediations surrounding the discipline. The standpoints of male and female students are sought on their reasons for taking women's studies, how they are perceived by their peers in the University of Buea, the stereotypes and labels they are christened with and the ambivalence that surrounds women's studies as a field of scholarship. The study concludes that women's studies is largely construed as a 'women's affair' and a "no go" area for males, on the pain of being considered effeminate while the female students are seen as fully 'empowered' and, therefore, a potential threat to the patriarchal order. Yet the survival of women's studies as a discipline rests squarely on how it can be viewed by society at large. Keywords: Deconstruction, Women's Studies, Gender, Stereotype, Masculinity, Femininity, Patriarchy Situating the strands in masculinity and femininity The identities we have as women or men throughout our lives are not fixed or absolute but multiple and shifting (Cornwall and Lindisfarne 1994). As many have argued, historiographically speaking, academics has focused on men until very recently, reflecting a belated recognition that men also have gender identities (Cornwall 1997), which are subject to change (White 1997). Feminist anthropology has provided ample evidence to show that western understandings of gender, and of biology, are not universal, but particular and culturally specific (Moore, 1998 1993; Strathern, 1988; Guijt and Shah 1998, Wood 1999; Erturk 2004). Understanding gender as a binary concept has become an uncontested tool of analysis within mainstream development theorizing (Erturk 1997a, Goetz 1997). While this conceptualization is misleading, it is necessary to re-examine the concept of gender for its analytical underpinnings in relation to the discourses on women's studies as a nascent field of scholarship. The premise that gender is the social organization of presumed sexual differences and that it defines the roles and identities associated with femininity and masculinity and their entitlements, provides such a starting point (Goetz 1997 and Wieringa 1998). The thrust of this study is to situate the perspective of Cameroon where the patriarchal structure remains intact and the use of gender synonymously with women can serve to conceal the latter before they have a chance to become visible actors in public space. Connell (1987) differentiates between 'hegemonic' and 'subordinate' masculinity to capture the differential access men have over power and social privilege. In most of Africa social constructs associated with gender are diverse and subject to constant negotiation and alternatives in every day life as there are plural and fluid in diverse societies of the continent. The dominant gender identities and their patterned interconnectedness are embedded in the patriarchal legacy that manifests itself through particular relations of 'domination and subordination' depending upon the specific cultural context (Johnson 1997). …


This paper joins in the debate initiated by Onomastic Review concerning methodological problems and basic principles of historical onomastics. The author re-analyses some Hungarian words of the the oldest authentic linguistic record of Hungarian (1055) which survived in the original version. By reviewing earlier relevant ideas the author wishes to prove that from time to time there is a need for modernising our knowledge about the most important linguistic records of Hungarian in the light of the results of recent research. The place-name Tihany comes from a Slavic personal name, though it is argued whether the place-name itself is the result of a Hungarian or Slavic name giving process. The author also analyses four more place-names of the Carpathian Basin that can be derived from the same stem. The Slavic origin of the place-name Balaton is beyond doubt, but earlier opinions need to be refined regarding both the constituents of the etymon and the sound changes that have taken place in Hungarian. Names Balatin ~ Bolatin might reflect Latinised name forms used frequently in contemporary charters. It is questionable whether the word Petra in the charter is a Hungarian place name or a Latin common noun meaning 'rock, cliff'. Considering its relation to the Latin context the author claims that in all probability Petra is a Hungarian place-name. The author tries to reconstruct the meaning of the hydronym Fok as well as identify the landscape it refers to.


Electronic systems under extreme shock and vibration environments including shock and vibration may sustain several failure modes simultaneously. Previous experience of the authors indicates that the dominant failure modes experienced by packages in a drop and shock frame work are in the solder interconnects including cracks at the package and the board interface, pad cratering, copper trace fatigue, and bulk-failure in the solder joint. In this paper, a method has been presented for failure mode classification using a combination of Karhunen Loeve transform with parity-based stepwise supervised training of a perceptrons. Early classification of multiple failure modes in the pre-failure space using supervised neural networks in conjunction with Karhunen Loeve transform is new. Feature space has been formed by joint time frequency analysis. Since the cumulative damage may be accrued under repetitive loading with exposure to multiple shock events, the area array assemblies have been exposed to shock and feature vectors constructed to track damage initiation and progression. Error Back propagation learning algorithm has been used for stepwise parity of each particular failure mode. The classified failure modes and failure regions belonging to each particular failure modes in the feature space are also validated by simulation of the designed neural network used for parity of feature space. Statistical similarity and validation of different classified dominant failure modes is performed by multivariate analysis of variance and Hoteling's T-square. The results of different classified dominant failure modes are also correlated with the experimental cross sections of the failed test assemblies. The methodology adopted in this paper can perform real-time fault monitoring with identification of specific dominant failure mode and is scalable to system level reliability.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


We report Chandra X-ray observations of the supernova remnant N157B in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which are presented together with an archival Hubble Space Telescope optical image and a radio continuum map for comparison. This remnant contains the recently discovered 16 ms X-ray pulsar PSR J0537-6910, the most rapidly rotating young pulsar known. Using phase-resolved Chandra imaging, we pinpoint the location of the pulsar at 5h37m47.ˢ36, -69°10'20.″4 (J2000), with an uncertainty of ≲1''. PSR J0537-6910 is not detected in any other wavelength band. The X-ray observations resolve three distinct features: the pulsar itself, a surrounding compact wind nebula that is strongly elongated (dimensions of ~0.6 × 1.7 pc), and a feature of large-scale (≳5 pc long) diffuse emission trailing from the pulsar. This latter comet-tail-shaped feature coexists with enhanced radio emission and is oriented nearly perpendicular to the major axis of the pulsar wind nebula. We propose the scenario below to explain these features. The bright, compact nebula is likely to be powered by a toroidal pulsar wind of relativistic particles that is partially confined by the ram pressure from the supersonic motion of the pulsar. The particles, after being forced out from the compact nebula (the head of the "comet"), are eventually dumped into a bubble (the tail), which is primarily responsible for the extended diffuse X-ray and radio emission. The ram-pressure confinement also allows a natural explanation for the observed X-ray luminosity of the compact nebula and for the unusually small X-ray to spin-down luminosity ratio of ~0.2%, compared to similarly energetic pulsars. We estimate the pulsar wind Lorentz factor of N157B to be ~4 × 106 (with an uncertainty of a factor of ~2), consistent with that inferred from the modeling of the Crab Nebula.


Abstract Lipid droplets (LDs) are highly dynamic intracellular organelles, which are involved in lots of biological processes. However, the dynamic morphogenesis and functions of intracellular LDs during persistent innate immune responses remain obscure. In this study, we induce long-term systemic immune activation in Drosophila through genetic manipulation. Then, the dynamic pattern of LDs is traced in the Drosophila fat body. We find that deficiency of Plin1, a key regulator of LDs' reconfiguration, blocks LDs minimization at the initial stage of immune hyperactivation but enhances LDs breakdown at the later stage of sustained immune activation via recruiting the lipase Brummer (Bmm, homologous to human ATGL). The high wasting in LDs shortens the lifespan of flies with high-energy-cost immune hyperactivation. Therefore, these results suggest a critical function of LDs during long-term immune activation and provide a potential treatment for the resolution of persistent inflammation.


A green roof system was installed on an existing 35-year-old building. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of three substrate depths on low-temperature injury of six herbaceous perennials: bugleweed (Ajuga reptans), sandwort (Arenaria verna 'Aurea'), sea pink (Armeria maritima), whitlow grass (Draba aizoides), creeping baby's breath (Gypsophila repens), and stonecrop (Sedum xhybridum). Plants in 4-inch (9-cm) pots were transplanted into three substrate depths: 2, 4, and 6 inches (5, 10, and 15 cm) and evaluated over a 3-year period. The analysis of the results showed that the species have different winter hardiness, therefore some species were subject to more freezing injury than others. Stonecrop had significantly more damage at 2-inch than 4or 6inch depths during the two winters. Bugleweed and creeping baby's breath showed more damage at 2 inches in 1996–97, not in 1995–96. Substrate temperatures were measured from Oct. 1995 to May 1997. Low temperature injury was more pronounced at 2 inch than at 4 or 6 inch depths. Minimum daily temperature and temperature variations measured in fall and spring of these 2 years were also higher at 4and 6-inch depths.


We report an X-ray study of the order in a 'side-on' smectic-A elastomer in which both the polymer backbone and the mesogenic side groups are, on average, parallel to the smectic layer normal. The present system shows in all phases locally correlated structures as evidenced by systematic diffuse scattering at small angles, attributed to the fluorinated end groups of the mesogens. The elastomer shows order of the smectic layers over a limited range in spite of the relatively low crosslink concentration (4%). Upon stretching along the layer normal we find a linear increase of the smectic layer period for small loading (elastic regime). These changes parallel the stress variation for the elastic part of the macroscopic stress–strain curve and saturate at larger strains. The attendant increase in the width of the X-ray peaks indicates a decrease of the average domain dimensions. In the plastic regime no distortion of the smectic monodomain structure or layer rotation is observed. Instead the stress is relieved by 'melting' of the layer structure giving rise to a nematic-like state with short-range layer correlations: at the final stage about four smectic layers.


This book covers the field of Oracle security from simple to complex. It describes basic RDBMS security features (e.g., passwords, profiles, roles, privileges, synonyms) and includes many practical strategies for securing an Oracle system, developing auditing and backup plans, and using the Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Security Server. Also touches on advanced security features, such as encryption, Trusted Oracle, and Internet and Web protection.


A common electricity market in Europe will in all probability lead to a levelling out of the electricity price, which implies that Swedish consumers will face higher electricity prices with a European structure. This new market situation will force industry and energy suppliers to take new essential measures as actors in a deregulated European electricity market. In this thesis it is shown how over 30 Swedish small and medium-sized industries can reduce their use of electricity by about 50%. When scaling up the result to include all Swedish industry, the measures will lead to a significant reduction in global CO2 emissions, and a situation where Sweden will have a net export of electricity. Changing industrial energy use towards increased use of district heating will consequently affect the local energy suppliers. As a local energy supplier invests in CHP and co-operates on heat with an industry that has altered its energy use, the system cost will be halved. Considering higher European electricity prices, the benefits will be even higher with possibilities to reduce global emission with over 350%. In Sweden where district heating is very well established, heat driven absorption technology is especially favourable since it will lead to cost effective electricity production and increased utilization time for a CHP plant. Vapour compression chillers have been compared with heat driven absorption cooling for a local energy utility with a district cooling network and for industries in a Swedish municipality with CHP. The results show that the higher the share of absorption technology is, in comparison to compression chillers, the lower the production cost will be for producing cooling. This thesis illustrates measures for Swedish industry and energy suppliers in a fully deregulated European electricity market that will shift the energy systems in the direction of cost-effectiveness and resource effectiveness. The thesis also shows that the benefits of the measures will increase even more when accounting with electricity prices with a higher European structures. To methodically change the use of electricity would be an economical way to increase the competitiveness of Swedish plant in relation to other European plants. Taking advantage of these particularly Swedish conditions will contribute to the creation of lean resource systems, and as a result help the whole EU region to meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. Altering industrial energy use towards less electricity and energy dependence will be a competitive alternative to new electricity production and help secure energy supply in the European Union.


Key dimensions of project manager behaviors considered to be associated with successful project outcomes have included both appropriate collaborative behaviors and transformational leadership. More recently, emotional intelligence has been suggested as a unique area of individual differences that is likely to underpin sets of behaviors in this area. Based on a sample of 67 UK project managers, it was found that emotional intelligence ability measures and empathy explained additional variance in the project manager competences of teamwork, attentiveness, and managing conflict, and the transformational leadership behaviors of idealized influence and individualized consideration, after controlling for cognitive ability and personality.


National sport organizations (NSOs) address gender equity in their respective sports via programs designed for women. This study examined the organizational capacity of three NSOs to implement gender equity initiatives through programs that target increasing the engagement of women in sport as athletes, certified coaches, and officials. Hall et al.'s (2003) multidimensional framework of human resources, finances, relationships/network, infrastructure/process, and planning/development capacity was used. External factors that impact the capacity dimensions were also considered. Semi-structured telephone interviews (n = 15) were conducted with board members and staff of the NSOs. The findings highlight the key capacity strengths and challenges in each dimension, and the connection between the dimensions. Human resources and relationship/network were identified as critical capacity dimensions, and the political climate and the lack of avenues to procure additional funding were common external influences on NSO capacity. The findings contribute to understanding critical aspects of organizational capacity that are essential to address gender equity in NSOs, with implications for building capacity to implement gender equity initiatives, and future development of policy that considers capacity for gender equity.


Photosynthesis originated once during the early Archaean due to the emergence of photochemical reaction centres, the biological nanomachines that convert the energy of light into chemical energy. The evolution of the photosynthetic machinery is consistent with a single origin of photosynthesis followed by an early diversification event that resulted in the rapid evolution of distinct reaction centre types and pigment forms. One of these reaction centres specialised in highly oxidising photochemistry, which facilitated the oxidation of Mn and the evolution of the water-oxidising cluster of Photosystem II. In addition, the last common ancestor of all photosynthetic organisms can be traced back to a period of time near the root or at the root of the tree of life of bacteria, with the current distribution of photosynthesis being the result of widespread loss of photosynthetic capacity and horizontal gene transfer.

Key Concepts

Photosynthesis originated at least 3.5 billion years ago, but it could be much older.
Photosynthesis evolved only once in ancestral forms of bacteria.
Type I and Type II reaction centres originated from an ancestral gene duplication event.
The last common ancestor of photosynthetic bacteria had type I and type II reaction centres.
Photosystem II originated from the close interaction of a Type I and Type II reaction centre.
The ancestral homodimeric Photosystem II was able to catalyse the oxidation of water.
The last common ancestor of photosynthetic bacteria had protochlorophyllide and chlorophyllide reductase and could make pigments similar to chlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll g.
Nitrogenase and the chlorophyll synthesis enzymes originated from an ancient gene duplication event predating the diversification of bacteria.
The current distribution of photosynthesis in bacteria is explained by widespread loss of photosynthesis and horizontal gene transfer.

Keywords:

photochemical reaction centre;
photosystem;
water oxidation;
water-oxidising complex;
chlorophyll;
photochemistry;
Archaean;
Great Oxidation Event;
cyanobacteria


A multiple-energy, high fluence, MeV Fe ion implantation process was applied at 83 K to heavily damage a low band gap (0.79 eV) epitaxial InGaAsP layer. Optimal rapid thermal annealing conditions were found and produced a fast photoconductor with high resistivity (up to 2500 Ωcm) and Hall mobility around 400 cm2V−1s−1. Short photocarrier trapping times (0.3 ps – 3 ps) were observed via transient differential reflectivity measurements. Furthermore, photoconductive terahertz devices with coplanar electrodes were fabricated and validated. Under pulsed excitation with a 1550 nm femtosecond fiber laser source, antennas based on Fe-implanted InGaAsP are able to emit broadband radiation exceeding 2 THz. Given such specifications, this new material qualifies as a worthy candidate for an integration into optical terahertz spectrometer designs.


Morphological and physiological characteristics of micropropagated plants of Delphinium cv. Princess Caroline were studied. Leaves produced in vitro showed poor control of water loss which appears to result from restricted responses by stomata and not from poor cuticular development. Stomata of leaves produced in vitro were larger and more frequent than those produced during acclimatization. Despite the fact that stomata from isolated epidermis of leaves produced in vitro reduced their apertures when exposed to turgor-reducing treatments, they did not close fully. This, together with high stomatal frequencies might explain the poor control of water loss shown by intact leaves produced in culture when exposed to dry air. While leaves from acclimatized plants showed almost complete closure with ABA, low water potentials, darkness and CO2, stomata from leaves produced in vitro reduced their apertures when exposed to those factors, but only to a limit. Therefore, stomata from leaves cultured in vitro seem to be partially functional, but some physiological or anatomical alteration prevents them from closing fully. Stomata from leaves produced in vitro were particularly insensitive to ABA which appears to be partly associated with the high cytokinin concentration in the culture medium. In the long-term, this stomatal insensitivity to ABA might contribute to plant losses when micropropagated plantlets are transferred to soil.


Questions

What were the pre-industrial forest landscape composition patterns? Which factors had structured the pre-industrial landscape patterns? How have pre-industrial landscape patterns and post-industrial disturbances controlled composition changes?

Location

An area of 4175 km2 at the temperate–boreal forest interface of southwest Quebec, Canada.

Methods

Reconstruction of the pre-industrial composition is based on an original early land survey data set (1874–1935). Composition changes were computed by comparing historical data with modern forest inventories. Landscape-scale patterns and composition changes were assessed through spatially constrained clustering analysis.

Results

Pre-industrial forest composition was structured across the landscape by the combination of environmental gradients (topography, deposits, drainage, etc.) and recurrence of fire. Frequency and intensity of fires were most likely the main drivers of forest dynamics and composition across the landscape. Black spruce (Picea mariana) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea) dominated hilly areas affected by former fires; aspen (Populus tremuloides) dominated lowlands following recent fire. White cedar (Thuja occidentatlis) and pines (Pinus spp.) dominated areas probably affected by small surface fires. New disturbance regimes that were subsequently incurred by human activities have shifted the pre-industrial landscape mosaic and have led to the current landscapes. Composition changes included a replacement of conifers by early successional species within settled or burned areas, and the maintenance of conifers and an increase in cedar dominance in areas affected by partial disturbance.

Conclusions

Post-industrial composition changes must be perceived as complex interactions between pre-industrial landscape patterns and natural and human disturbances. Such land-use legacies could be important drivers of future landscape change and should be investigated and considered when predicting future climate-induced ecological changes.


The objectives of the research were fourfold:
(i) to analyse the meaning of the term 'industrial democracy' to shop stewards,
(ii) to identify and isolate key variables which influence their attitudes to industrial democracy,
(iii) to assess the consequences of industrial democracy practices as shop stewards see them, including problems and prospects for the future
iv) to test a number of hypotheses concerning the explanatory variables of participation
The primary source of data collection was a semi-structured interview schedule with one hundred and thirty five shop - stewards/union representatives, from eighteen employing organisations. The schedule covered their attitudes to work and their employer; views on participation in theory and in practice, union involvement and typology of steward. Secondary data was collected from interviews with managers and full-time union officials, surveys and numerous publications.
The explanatory variables investigated were the residue of a great many possible variables, and were perceived to be the key ones in relation to personal characteristics, organisational and union factors, key areas for the research.
The results of the research indicated that stewards definitions of industrial democracy are wide ranging, through; a six point continuum of managers right to manage, to workers control; the most popular definition - supported by a third of the sample - related to more involvement in, and greater responsibility for decision making.
Also, the results - highlight the significance of the personal characteristic variables of world and political views, and role category of the stewards in relation to participation in theory and practice. It was noted that these three krariables are not mutually exclusive and all contribute to the sognitive mix of the individual.
Only one organisational factor proved to be significant, organisational size, this influenced stewards definitions, preferred forms, perceived problems and their views on the future prospects for participation.
The two most significant variables of the union factor were unionism and union power, the latter being linked to the role category of stewards.


To determine if blood viscosity disorders affect the clinical course of idiopathic sudden deafness, we studied the usefulness of the rheoactive agent piracetam and prednisolone compared with steroid/vasodilator therapy. The piracetam group (n = 17) showed clinical improvement in 82.3% and a mean hearing gain in 54.1%, compared with 68.7% and 49.3%, respectively, for the group without piracetam (n = 6). In both groups, clinical severity correlated with increased whole blood viscosity and erythrocyte aggregability and filterability rates. On the seventh day after onset, all the viscosity parameters had returned to normal in the piracetam group, but the non-piracetam group still showed no improvement in whole blood viscosity and erythrocyte filterability. Piracetam seemed to be effective in this sensorineural deafness, probably as a result of its effect on the viscoelastic properties of blood. Measurement of these properties seven days after beginning therapy provides information about long-term potential for hearing recovery.


In this paper we present a presentation training system that observes a presentation rehearsal and provides the speaker with recommendations for improving the delivery of the presentation, such as to speak more slowly and to look at the audience. Our system "Presentation Sensei" is equipped with a microphone and camera to analyze a presentation by combining speech and image processing techniques. Based on the results of the analysis, the system gives the speaker instant feedback with respect to the speaking rate, eye contact with the audience, and timing. It also alerts the speaker when some of these indices exceed predefined warning thresholds. After the presentation, the system generates visual summaries of the analysis results for the speaker's self-examinations. Our goal is not to improve the content on a semantic level, but to improve the delivery of it by reducing inappropriate basic behavior patterns. We asked a few test users to try the system and they found it very useful for improving their presentations. We also compared the system's output with the observations of a human evaluator. The result shows that the system successfully detected some inappropriate behavior. The contribution of this work is to introduce a practical recognition-based human training system and to show its feasibility despite the limitations of state-of-the-art speech and video recognition technologies.


In the realm of scientific computing, it has become increasingly important to focus on results driven growth (Kamil, Shalf and Storhmaier). Doing this enables researchers to continue building the rapidly expanding area of scientific discovery. However, with the growth comes a cost of the amount of resources consumed to accomplish these results. Large supercomputers are consuming power at a rate roughly fourteen thousand times that of a traditional American household (U.S. Energy Information Administration). Parallel to this, public consumers have been driving the mobile industry and the research behind it. The need to have faster and faster mobile devices that can last all day long on a single battery charge has driven the development of Advanced Reduced Instruction Set processors developed by ARM. These processors are built to perform efficiently while still maintaining the ability to perform the necessary calculations. This study looked at combining these two parallel realms and analyzing the overall efficiency and energy consumption of multiple ARM processors as compared to a traditional desktop computer. The results showed that the ARM processors were less efficient roughly by an order of two when compared to the slowest possible trial on the desktop. Several variables played a significant role in these results including the limitation on network speed and bandwidth, idle energy consumption, and individual power regulators.


The research described in this paper is undertaken under the banner of the smart city, a concept that captures the way urban spaces are re-made by the incursion of new technology. Much of smart is centred on converting everyday activities into data, and using this data to generate knowledge mediated by technology. Ordinary citizens, those that may have their lives impacted by the technology, usually are not properly involved in the 'smartification' process. Their perceptions, concerns and expectations should inform the conception and development of smart technologies at the same extent. How to engage general public with smart cities research is the central challenge for the Making Metrics Meaningful (MMM) project. Applying a rapid participatory method, 'Imagine' over a five-month period (March – July) the research sought to gain insights from the general public into novel forms of information system innovation. This brief paper describes the nature of the accelerated research undertaken and explores some of the themes which emerged in the analysis. Generic themes, beyond the remit of an explicit transport focus, are developed and pointers towards further research directions are discussed. Participatory methods, including engaging with selfselected transport users actively through both picture creation and programmatically specific musical 'signatures' as well as group discussion, were found to be effective in eliciting users' own concerns, needs and ideas for novel information systems.


This paper presents the results of flight tests made to determine the effect of slots and flaps on the lateral control of a low-wing monoplane. Maximum angular accelerations in roll and yaw produced by sudden application of the ailerons and maximum accelerations in yaw produced by sudden application of the rudder during gliding flight were recorded for the following wing arrangements: (a) no auxiliary device; (b) full-span slots; (c) plain flaps; (d) flaps and full-span slots; (e) wing-tip slots. Rolling- and yawing-moment coefficients were derived from the accelerations. The full span slots and the flaps each had about the same influence on the aileron rolling moments. At values of the lift coefficient obtainable with the plain wing, the effect of these devices was negligible. At the higher lift coefficients obtainable with these devices, the rolling-moment coefficients increased slightly but, despite this increase, the aileron effectiveness progressively decreased with increasing lift coefficient, owing to the corresponding reduction in air speed. In the range covered by the tests, the effectiveness of the controls was appreciably reduced by the wing-tip slots. The adverse yawing moment of the ailerons experienced at the large lift coefficients obtained with the flaps was appreciably less than at similar lift coefficients obtained with either full-span or wing-tip slots. The yawing moments produced by the rudder were only slightly affected by the use of the auxiliary devices. The airplane was found to be laterally unstable with all combinations tested. Because of the angular velocities acquired in the time taken to deflect the ailerons the rolling moments recorded in flight were only about two thirds the values that would have been obtained with the wing restrained as in wind-tunnel tests.


Working fluid in the oscillating heat pipe (OHP) with low turn number (< 9) positioned in the horizontal heat mode could not easily backflow to the evaporator due to the absence of gravity. In this paper, copper OHP with superhydrophilic nano-structured inner surface by introducing additional capillary force was investigated through the visualization and thermal experiments. OHPs with 6 turns, charged with pure water as the working fluid, were fabricated with copper, and nano-structured inner surface and tested for comparison. Contact angles of water on the copper and superhydrophilic surface were 36.7 and 0 deg. The filling ratio of water was 50%, 65%, and 80%, respectively. Startup performance, thermal resistance, and liquid slug oscillation of OHPs were investigated experimentally at the heat input of 100–380 W. Experimental results showed that OHPs with the superhydrophilic nano-structured surface showed an enhanced heat transfer performance due to the nanostructure-induced capillary action for water in the horizontal direction. The optimum filling ratio was 65% in this work. Dryout was observed in the OHPs with the filling ratio of 50% at the heat input higher than 220 W. At the filling ratio of 80%, the working fluid was accumulated in the adiabatic and condensation section, and the driving force due to the water evaporation in evaporator was not high enough to activate the movements of liquid slugs. Heat transfer performance of OHP with nano-structured surface was higher than that of bare copper surface by introducing the additional capillary force.