There is a paucity of research studies exploring the changes to social connectedness of people diagnosed with bvFTD and their families, from the premorbid to late stages of the condition. The purpose of this exploratory study was to establish how and why social connectedness changed for the study families over the progression of bvFTD.
Social citizenship was selected as the conceptual framework and case study research as the methodology. Five families living with the effects of bvFTD volunteered for the research, and each person with the diagnosis was in the middle/late stages of the condition. Data was collected from the case study families and contacts, using a range of data collection tools (semi structured interviews; document review; diaries and participant observations). Thematic analysis was selected to examine the data collected from each family (within case analysis) and then the findings were compared and contrasted with the other families studied (cross case analysis). Six themes were identified from the collected data: i)."Why are they behaving like this?:Finding a reason; ii)."What is happening to our family? Changing family relationships.; iii)."Other people are noticing"; iv)."Getting a diagnosis"; v)."Now we know what it is." and vi). "Grief and loss".

Findings indicated that relationships and social connectedness deteriorated in the pre diagnosis stage, and families stated it was largely due to the behavior, personality and social functioning changes of their family member, and the belief that these changes were intentional. By the time a diagnosis was given, the relationships and social connectedness had broken down to such a degree that they could not be rebuilt. The families described how they were no longer invited to social events in the same way as before and their social network reduced significantly. The families also stated that they tended to withdraw from social networks and events due to the embarrassment caused by their family member's changed behavior.

In conclusion, if bvFTD was recognized, diagnosed and specialist advice and support, given earlier by practitioners it could enable families to understand the effects of bvFTD on their family member's behaviour. This could enable the family to retain relationships and connectedness, develop coping strategies, build resilience and prevent crises.
Recommendations for clinical practice: i) increased training for medical practitioners, health and social care staff regarding early recognition and diagnosis of bvFTD; ii) specialist post diagnostic support offered immediately after diagnosis, and iii) awareness raising through campaigns which could include workplace awareness training.


The development of nano-composite materials is making a significant impact on modern technology due to their wide range of applications and their superior properties1. Several methods have been proposed and developed to prepare polymer nano-composites. Graphene nano-composites, in particular, have attracted the interest of researchers because of their excellent properties, such as high electrical conductivity, high thermal stability and excellent mechanical strength 2–3. Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon atoms structure, exhibits exceptional properties4–5. Incorporating these nano-fillers with high performance polymers results in a unique combinations of properties. This paper reports on the synthesis and characterization of graphene and LLDPE (Linear Low Density Polyethylene)/graphene nano-composites with different weight ratios of graphene. Graphene was synthesized from graphene oxide, which was prepared by using modified hammers method. The obtained few layers of graphene were confirmed by different characterization methods such as FTIR, XRD, Raman spectroscopy and SEM. LLDPE/Graphene composites at different weight ratios of graphene, i.e. 1, 4, and 8 wt% were compounded in twin screw extruder. Extruded granules of LLDPE/Graphene materials were used in the preparation of nano-composites by compression molding. In this research, we used the LLDPE as the polymer matrix, because PE (polyethylene) is one of the most common plastic resins in the world and it is produced on a large scale in the State of Qatar by Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO). LLDPE has grown most rapidly within the PE family due to its good balance of mechanical properties and process-ability compared to other types of PE. The effect of graphene ratio on the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties were investigated. LLDPE/Graphene composites with 4% graphene showed higher tensile strength and tensile modulus than the other graphene loading composites. Agglomeration was a problem in the composites with high wt% of the graphene which caused the reduction in tensile properties. Graphene marginally increased the melting temperature of the nano-composites whereas crystallization temperature, thermal stability and electrical conductivity were increased with increase of graphene loading. The results obtained showed that the graphene can increase the thermal stability of the polymer mixture. Increment of thermal stability is due to the high thermal stability of the graphene and the formation of phonon and charge carrier networks in the matrix. The electrical conductivity of LLDPE is 4.28 × 10− 11 and for nano composites is 9.2 × 10− 05. The high electrical conductivity of the graphene converts the LLDPE polymer insulator to an electrical conductor. Electrically conductive PE based composite materials can be used as electron magnetic-reflective materials, as well as in high voltage cables. The enhancement in mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of LLDPE/Graphene nano-composites achieved by melt mixing of graphene into the polymer can enable mass production of new and low cost novel materials with superior tensile strength, thermal stability and electrical conductivity. References 1. Gossard Didier, Karkri Mustapha, Mariam A. AlMaadeed, Igor Krupa A new experimental device and inverse method to characterize thermal properties of composite phase change materials. Compos. Struct. 2015,133(1), 1149–1159. 2. X. Huang, Z. Yin, S. Wu, X. Qi, Q. He, Q. Zhang, Q. Yan, F. Boey, H. Zhang. Graphene based materials: synthesis, characterization, properties and application. Smal. 2011, 18, 1876–1902. 3. J.R. Potts, D.R. Dreyer, C.W. Bielawski, R.S. Ruoff. Graphene based polymer nanocomposites. Polymer 2011, 52, 5–25. 4. T. Kulia, S. Bhadra, D. Yao, N.H. Kim, S. Bose, J.H. Lee. Recent advances in graphene based polymer composites. Prog. Polym. Sci. 2010, 35, 1350–1375. 5. Du J, Cheng HM. The Fabrication, Properties and Uses of Graphene/Polymer Composites. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics 2012;213:1060–1077.


Following Covenant and Eschatology and Lord and Servant, this concluding volume of a four-part series examines Christian salvation from the perspective of covenant theology. In Covenant and Salvation, Michael Horton surveys law and gospel, union with Christ, and justification and theosis, conversing with both classical and contemporary viewpoints.


The 1772 cemetery reform of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, resulted in great changes in the cemetery culture of Russia's Baltic provinces. The ban on burials in churches and the vicinity of churches resulted in the rapid development of cemetery parks outside of settlements. The strong political relations of Estonia's manor owners with the Russian central government resulted in the nobles being given the privilege to establish burial plots in the churchyards, but in Livonia, this was strictly prohibited. Simultaneously with the parish cemeteries, the owners of private manors established family cemeteries on their manors. The new cemeteries were not only places to bury the dead, but, inspired by contemporary poets, they were seen as family altars, which were visited regularly and which was accessed by path that was attuned to contemplation. The cemetery is complex, which includes a garden, chapel and allee, and if possible, a body of water. Noble trees were planted along the path leading to the cemetery. Oaks were preferred, which due their mighty shape were considered to be the symbol of family and nobility. Influenced by the poetry of the Enlightenment, evergreens – silver firs, thuja trees, and spruces – were called "sad trees". The French poet Jacques Delille, whose works were popular among the Baltic Germans, sees women as mourners. And many family cemeteries were established at the initiative of women. Examples of Ancient Greek architecture, in the form of temples with porticos or antas, or the small-scale copies of the Pantheon from Ancient Rome, dominated in cemetery architecture. The chapel was comprised of underground burial chambers and above-ground memorials. A so-called memorial altar was located in the end wall of the chapel, which have survived until the present day in a few places. The Barclay de Tolly monument is the most majestic in Estonia. Already in the 1830s, the family chapels became memorials and burials no longer took place there. However, chapels continued to be built until in Estonia until the early 20th century.


Human pose estimation is a well-known problem in computer vision to locate joint positions. Existing datasets for learning of poses are observed to be not challenging enough in terms of pose diversity, object occlusion and view points. This makes the pose annotation process relatively simple and restricts the application of the models that have been trained on them. To handle more variety in human poses, we propose the concept of fine-grained hierarchical pose classification, in which we formulate the pose estimation as a classification task, and propose a dataset, Yoga-82§, for large-scale yoga pose recognition with 82 classes. Yoga-82 consists of complex poses where fine annotations may not be possible. To resolve this, we provide hierarchical labels for yoga poses based on the body configuration of the pose. The dataset contains a three-level hierarchy including body positions, variations in body positions, and the actual pose names. We present the classification accuracy of the state-of-the-art convolutional neural network architectures on Yoga-82. We also present several hierarchical variants of DenseNet in order to utilize the hierarchical labels.


At interfaces of metal oxide and water, partially hydrated or "wet-electron" states represent the lowest energy pathway for electron transfer. We studied the photoinduced electron transfer at the H2O/TiO2(110) interface by means of time-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy and electronic structure theory. At ∼1-monolayer coverage of water on partially hydroxylated TiO2 surfaces, we found an unoccupied electronic state 2.4 electron volts above the Fermi level. Density functional theory shows this to be a wet-electron state analogous to that reported in water clusters and which is distinct from hydrated electrons observed on water-covered metal surfaces. The decay of electrons from the wet-electron state to the conduction band of TiO2 occurs in ≤15 femtoseconds.


High-pressure metamorphic terranes form when slivers of continental crust are pulled into the mantle by previously subducted oceanic lithosphere. Old, cold lithosphere subducts into the mantle at steep angles, dragging sialic crust to deep levels, quickly followed by steep, rapid exhumation. Young thin lithosphere subducts at shallow angles, pulling crustal slabs slowly into the shallow mantle, followed by slow exhumation, retrogression, and melting. Terranes that follow inboard-dipping subduction zones will subduct once, and will be overprinted by subsequent subduction and collisions. Terranes above outboard-facing subduction zones will be underthrust by the continental margin. Subsequent collisions will result in the re-subduction of an increasingly complex continental margin characterized by previously accreted terranes.


Sound composition

"In combat with...." was an experimental work made for the 2010 exhibition 2010 Dead Fingers Talk: The Tape Experiments of William S. Burroughs at IMT Gallery, London in 2010.

It was relatively recently that I learnt about the 'inner voice'. I don't think I have one. At least not one that talks to me in 'words'. When I am not talking or listening or actively 'thinking' I realise that I am often completely blank. OK - occasionally something pops into that blankness - something I haven't done, or have to do, a train of though, an idea......sometimes a song or a rhythm goes round and round in my head but I'm not sure that I would way it's a 'voice' and most of the time it's not there.
Since discovering the concept and existence of the inner voice I have asked people about theirs - What is it like? What sort of things does it say? Who is speaking? One voice or many? I have discovered there are many kinds of voices and people are very often reluctant to reveal them. Is the inner voice a truer reflection of the self - or is it one of many viral invaders insinuated into us from the media, our parents, outer space or our evil twin?
Fortunately a close and generous friend of mine has a very very active inner voice and often entertains me with running commentary of her inner thoughts - a marvellous mixture of obsession, mundane observations, self criticism and surreal reflection already cut up, looped permutated and processed in her head.
I recorded the workings of her inner voice on a number of occasions. An outcome of this experiment is the certain realisation that many of the things that someone says to themselves or even the things they say to friends are not things that they would want recorded and played to acquaintances or strangers (in the same city) so I have rejected much of the material. "In combat with..." mainly uses recordings from one occasion when I dropped round early one morning for breakfast.


This study examined the gender difference regarding the simultaneous impacts of Job Demands–Control–Support model variables (job demands, job control, supervisor support, and coworker support) on job satisfaction via work–family conflict using multiple group structural equation modeling. The participants were 1,092 male and 1,367 female employees from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce. Results showed that job control was only significantly associated with work–family conflict in female employees. In addition, high levels of job control, supervisor support, and coworker support were significantly associated with an increase in job satisfaction in both male and female employees. Regarding the mediating effect, work–family conflict mediated relationships between job demands, supervisor support, coworker support, and job satisfaction in both male and female employees, whereas work–family conflict only mediated the association between job control and job satisfaction in female employees. In this study, the implications considering the gender difference and work–family contexts are discussed.


The factory footage Six American clothing companies, including American Eagle and Gap, have confirmed the results of a China Labor Watch (CLW) investigation that uncovered violations of Chinese labor laws and worker rights at a factory that produces accessories for them. A factory of the Jiangsu Ningbo Hesheng Headwear Company (henceforth "the Ningbo Hesheng factory") was investigated in August, 2011 by CLW investigators. The investigators discovered the following conditions at the Ningbo Hesheng factory, which we have outlined in detail in an investigative report: Since the factory is understaffed, it employs many students between 16 and 18 years old who are on summer vacation. These students work the same hours and have the same responsibilities as normal workers. Workshop conditions are extremely poor, and include high temperatures and toxic gases. Workers regularly work more than 12 hours a day. Workers work 30 days a month during the busy season. The base salary for a factory worker is significantly lower than the legal minimum wage of Cixi County, where the factory is located. The resignation process is very difficult for workers and many workers are fined for resigning if they have worked at the factory for less than a year. We sent this report to the Ningbo Hesheng Headwear factory's principal clients, and while August Accessories, GMA and Betmar Hats did not reply to our request for a response, American Eagle, GAP, J. Crew, Liz Claiborne, Talbots and Target jointly responded that they took these allegations seriously and would conduct their own investigation of the Ningbo factory. On November 11, they sent a letter to us stating that they had confirmed many of our report's findings and were working with factory management to create a safer and fairer work environment for its employees. CLW director Li Qiang said that he was pleased with this news and eagerly awaited further news of improvements at the Ningbo Hesheng factory. However he added, "We hope that in the future multinational companies will establish a system for improving conditions in their Chinese factories, rather than making improvements on a case-by-case basis."


Ring recoveries of dead individuals from all over Europe and covering a period of 57 years were collected to study survival of Great Crested Podiceps cristatus (n = 433), Black-necked P. nigricollis (n = 95) and Little Grebes Tachybaptus ruficollis (n = 295). Survival rates of adult birds were estimated by fitting simple mark-recapture models via maximum-likelihood. Realizing that the samples were extremely heterogeneous and possibly biased, it was further investigated how the survival data conformed to information from literature on fledging success, age at first breeding, and long-term population trends. In the Great Crested Grebe, ring recoveries were biased towards young birds, as indicated by a marked, untypical increase in apparent survival after the age of 3 years. Also, the whole-sample estimate of 0.66 was too low to match the other demographic parameters. The survival rate of 0.75 (95% CI 0.69–0.80) estimated for birds of 4 years and older conformed well with the breeding performance established for Great Crested Grebes and is thus considered as a realistic estimate for adult birds. The survival rate estimate of 0.63 (95% CI 0.55–0.70) for the Black-necked Grebe seemed a slight underestimate given estimates for the other demographic parameters. Apart from a possible, albeit undetected, sample bias towards younger birds, some influence of ring loss cannot be excluded, because in contrast to the other two species, the Black-necked Grebe sample contained a high proportion of aluminium rings. The survival rate of Little Grebe was estimated at 0.60 (95% CI: 0.55–0.64), which corresponded well with other demographic data.


Visual Management (VM) is a distinctive communication strategy that is frequently observed at lean work settings to varying degrees. It relies on the effectiveness of visual communication and catchy visual systems to create visual communication for different managerial purposes. VM in construction has generally been discussed within a building construction context to date.
This paper investigates the VM realization means (visual tools) and attributes in the construction process of a very large industrial facility, which mainly involves
mechanical and electrical construction works. A VM research on the construction site of an industrial facility will help address a gap in the field and extend the understanding of the VM applications in a different construction context other than the building construction/renovation.
The research question of how VM is realized in the industrial construction context was investigated through the case study research method. One of the biggest subcontractors of a very large gas-processing facility was studied in terms of their VM approach and applications. Interviews, site observation and photographic documentation are the main data collection methods. New VM application opportunities in pipe spool fabrication and crane management were identified. Some
industrial construction specific visual systems, VM application attributes for industrial constructions, managerial insights and future application directions were also captured and presented.


Abstract Papers published by Salter (1864) and Davidson (1870) on the faunas from pebbles in a Triassic conglomerate at Budleigh Salterton, Devon, are reviewed. After modern reassessment, these pebbles, although of apparently similar quartzites, have been found to be of four different ages, two Ordovician (mid-Arenig and late Llandeilo) and two Devonian (Lochkovian-Pragian and Frasnian). By comparing these four faunas with those contemporary in adjacent palaeocontinents, it can be shown that, apart from the earliest one, they have affinities closer to those of the Armorican peninsula of Brittany and Normandy than to the rest of Britain and that these Armorican faunas are in clasts which were transported northward by Triassic rivers. Consideration of all the various faunas in the whole of northwest Europe reflect the earliest Ordovician of southern Britain as part of the vast Gondwanan continent, from which it became detached by the mid-Ordovician, with a widening Rheic Ocean between the two palaeocontinents; and the subsequent merging of Avalonia with Baltica and Laurentia to form Laurussia by Mid-Devonian times. New palaeogeographical maps depicting phases from the Ordovician to the Devonian are presented.


Howard's swashbuckling fantasy stories feature the adventures of the enigmatic Conan: a free barbarian from distant Cimmeria who ventures into the splendid kingdoms of the south to find his fortune in the lost eons of the Hyborian Age between the sinking of Kull's Atlantis and the dawn of history. Cunning thief, captain of mercenaries and corsairs, lover of sultry temptresses, Conan follows his destiny into demon-haunted treasure towers and across the plains of death. And at last, like Kull before him, he slashes his name across the scrolls of royalty as King Conan, usurper-lord of imperial Aquilonia.


Background Genome-wide association studies have identified numerous genetic regions that influence cross-sectional lung function. Longitudinal decline in lung function also includes a heritable component but the genetic determinants have yet to be defined. Objectives We aimed to determine whether regions associated with cross-sectional lung function were also associated with longitudinal decline and to seek novel variants which influence decline. Methods We analysed genome-wide data from 4167 individuals from the Busselton Health Study cohort, who had undergone spirometry (12 695 observations across eight time points). A mixed model was fitted and weighted risk scores were calculated for the joint effect of 26 known regions on baseline and longitudinal changes in FEV1 and FEV1/FVC. Potential additional regions of interest were identified and followed up in two independent cohorts. Results The 26 regions previously associated with cross-sectional lung function jointly showed a strong effect on baseline lung function (p=4.44×10−16 for FEV1/FVC) but no effect on longitudinal decline (p=0.160 for FEV1/FVC). This was replicated in an independent cohort. 39 additional regions of interest (48 variants) were identified; these associations were not replicated in two further cohorts. Conclusions Previously identified genetic variants jointly have a strong effect on cross-sectional lung function in adults but little or no effect on the rate of decline of lung function. It is possible that they influence COPD risk through lung development. Although no genetic variants have yet been associated with lung function decline at stringent genome-wide significance, longitudinal change in lung function is heritable suggesting that there is scope for future discoveries.


From the Publisher:
If you are a Python programmer who wants to incorporate XML into your skill set, this is the book for you. Python has attracted a wide variety of developers, who use it either as glue to connect critical programming tasks together, or as a complete cross-platform application development language. Yet, because it is object-oriented and has powerful text manipulation abilities, Python is an ideal language for manipulating XML.
Python & XML gives you a solid foundation for using these two languages together. Loaded with practical examples, this new volume highlights common application tasks, so that you can learn by doing. The book starts with the basics then quickly progresses to complex topics, like transforming XML with XSLT, querying XML with XPath, and working with XML dialects and validation. It also explores the more advanced issues: using Python with SOAP and distributed web services, and using Python to create scalable streams between distributed applications (like databases and web servers).
The book provides effective practical applications, while referencing many of the tools involved in XML processing and Python, and highlights cross-platform issues along with tasks relevant to enterprise computing. You will find ample coverage of XML flow analysis and details on ways in which you can transport XML through your network.
Whether you are using Python as an application language, or as an administrative or middleware scripting language, you are sure to benefit from this book. If you want to use Python to manipulate XML, this is your guide.


The grand composition of n automata may have a number of states/transitions exponential in n. When it does, it seems not unreasonable for the computation of that grand composition to require exponentially many resources (time, space, or both). Conversely, if the grand composition of n automata has a number of states/transitions only linear in n, we may reasonably expect the computation of that grand composition to also require only linearly many resources.

Recently and problematically, we saw cases of linearly-sized grand compositions whose computation required exponentially many resources. We encountered these cases in the context of Reo (a graphical language for coordinating components in component-based software), constraint automata (a general formalism for modeling systems' behavior), and our compiler for Reo based on constraint automata. Combined with earlier research on constraint automata verification, these ingredients facilitate a correctness-by-construction approach to component-based software engineering---one of the hallmarks in Sifakis' "rigorous system design". To achieve that ambitious goal, however, we need to solve the previously stated problem. In this paper we present such a solution.


The specificity of the operation profile of high-tech companies, including the necessity of operating at the international scale may account for the fact that these companies may find in network relationships, business networks and cooperation an essential determinant for growth and competitiveness. Foreign entities should be especially interesting business partners for hightech companies, as they are often seen as representing more advanced knowledge, resources and experience. The aim of the article is to point out to global business networks (i.e. including both local and foreign entities), and especially to cooperation within supply chain, as an important basis for a growth strategy of a high-tech company. The article adopts assumptions of the network approach as a concept of companies cooperation. An analysis of the author's own as well as secondary empirical research, with the focus on hightech companies located in Poland is presented. In particular, the data from own research of 62 high-tech companies in Poland conducted in the first half of 2011 is analysed. It shows that the high-tech companies placing great importance on cooperation within supply chain demonstrate a higher growth and level of competitiveness than the companies which do not ascribe such importance (bearing in mind that supply chain forms an important part of a business network).


Customers in hotels and restaurants can quickly discern when an employee is following a service script. The customer's reaction to that script depends in part on the nature of the service transaction, but also on how authentically the employee behaves within the script. A study of 2,407 U.S. hospitality customers found that many customers (almost half of the sample) focus on the treatment aspect of scripts—that is, how they are treated by the employee—and have a generally negative view of scripted services. However, about one-third of the sample considered the task-completion aspect of scripts. These respondents agreed that scripts are valuable for ensuring that all aspects of a task are completed correctly. Certain encounters are well suited to strict scripting (such as reservations and check-in), because their task-related aspects are critical to quality. Other encounters, such as concierge service and fine-dining interactions, might benefit from more flexible scripts, since customers are more focused on how they are treated during such service interactions. The respondents were uniformly negative when they detect what is known as "surface acting," which occurs when employees are clearly just going through the motions of a script. In contrast, positive results occurred with "deep acting," in which employees are (or seem to be) sincere in their service interaction. However, only a substantial minority of respondents reported perceiving sincere script delivery by employees. Given the importance of scripts in ensuring that service tasks are completed correctly, the study's implications for hospitality managers include strategies of assessing the balance between task and treatment, determining which tasks are appropriate for flexible scripts, training employees in "deep acting," and gaining employees' buy-in by having them assist with script design.


Homing in on Hotspots The clustering of recombination in the genome, around locations known as hotspots, is associated with specific DNA motifs. Now, using a variety of techniques, three studies implicate a chromatin-modifying protein, the histone-methyltransferase PRDM9, as a major factor involved in human hotspots (see the Perspective by Cheung et al.). Parvanov et al. (p. 835, published online 31 December) mapped the locus in mice, and analyzed allelic variation in mice and humans, whereas Myers et al. (p. 876, published online 31 December) used a comparative analysis between human and chimpanzees to show that the recombination process leads to a self-destructive drive in which the very motifs that recruit hotspots are eliminated from our genome. Baudat et al. (p. 836, published online 31 December) took this analysis a step further to identify human allelic variants within Prdm9 that differed in the frequency at which they used hotspots. Furthermore, differential binding of this protein to different human alleles suggests that this protein interacts with specific DNA sequences. Thus, PDRM9 functions in the determination of recombination loci within the genome and may be a significant factor in the genomic differences between closely related species. Bioinformatics identifies a chromatin-modifying enzyme as a factor in determining recombination hotspots. Although present in both humans and chimpanzees, recombination hotspots, at which meiotic crossover events cluster, differ markedly in their genomic location between the species. We report that a 13–base pair sequence motif previously associated with the activity of 40% of human hotspots does not function in chimpanzees and is being removed by self-destructive drive in the human lineage. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the rapidly evolving zinc-finger protein PRDM9 binds to this motif and that sequence changes in the protein may be responsible for hotspot differences between species. The involvement of PRDM9, which causes histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation, implies that there is a common mechanism for recombination hotspots in eukaryotes but raises questions about what forces have driven such rapid change.


The research performed in the DeepThought project (http://www.project-deepthought.net) aims at demonstrating the potential of deep linguistic processing if added to existing shallow methods that ensure robustness. Classical information retrieval is extended by high precision concept indexing and relation detection. We use this approach to demonstrate the feasibility of three ambitious applications, one of which is a tool for creativity support in document production and collective brainstorming1. This application is described in detail in this paper. Common to all three applications, and the basis for their development is a platform for integrated linguistic processing. This platform is based on a generic software architecture that combines multiple NLP components and on robust minimal recursive semantics (RMRS) as a uniform representation language.


After reformulating Clark and Scarf's (1960) classical serial multi-echelon model so that the lead time between adjacent echelons is one week (period), the option to expedite between each resulting echelon is added. Thus, each week requires a decision to be made at each echelon on how many units to expedite in from the next upstream echelon (to be received immediately) and how many to regular order (to be received in one week), with the remainder detained (left as is). The model can be interpreted as addressing dynamic lead time management, in which the (remaining) effective lead time for each ordered unit can be dynamically reduced by expediting and/or extended. Use of Clark and Scarf's (1960) idea of echelon stocks reduces a complex, multidimensional stocking problem to the analysis of a series of one-dimensional subproblems. What are calledtop-down base stock policies, which are readily amenable to managerial interpretation, are shown to be optimal. Myopic policies are shown to be optimal in the stationary, in1nite horizon case. The results are illustrated numerically.


The actions of selective estrogen receptor modulators are tissue dependent. The primary objective of the current study was to determine the tissue selective effects of bazedoxifene (BZA) on the musculoskeletal system of ovariectomized (OVX) female mice, focusing on strengths of muscle-bone pairs in the lower hindlimb. Treatment with BZA after ovariectomy (OVX+BZA) did not prevent body or fat mass gains (p<0.05). In vivo plantarflexor muscle isometric torque was not affected by treatment with BZA (p=0.522). Soleus muscle peak isometric, concentric and eccentric tetanic force production were greater in OVX+BZA mice compared to OVX+E2 mice (p≤0.048) with no effect on maximal isometric specific force (p=0.228). Tibia from OVX+BZA mice had greater cortical cross-sectional area and moment of inertia than OVX mice treated with placebo (p<0.001), but there was no impact of BZA treatment on cortical bone mineral density, cortical thickness, tibial bone ultimate load or stiffness (p≥0.086). Overall, these results indicate that BZA may be an estrogen receptor agonist in skeletal muscle, as it has previously been shown in bone, providing minor benefits to the musculoskeletal system.


The purpose of this case study was to
promote the social interaction and responsiveness to peer initiations of a
child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study was conducted during the
school recess at a Japanese elementary school. A child with ASD in a special
needs education class and three peers in a general education class
participated. Following a pre-assessment, we contrived joint playtime for the
child with ASD and her peers. We then introduced a social skills training
component at the beginning of each playtime for both the child with ASD and her
peers. During the pre-assessment, no social interaction was observed for the
child with ASD. After contriving the joint playtime, the social interaction
between the child with ASD and the peers was observed. Conducting the social
skills training further increased the social interaction and improved the
responsiveness to peer initiations. To evaluate generality of the intervention
effects, we observed the social interaction of the child with ASD when she
participated in the inclusive general education class. We also observed her
on-task behavior in the general education class to see whether her performance
in the class improved after the intervention. Both her social interaction and
her on-task behavior increased after the intervention. Implications for future
study are discussed.


This paper describes a modification of a singular value decomposition (SVD) based controller reduction method recently proposed in [13]. Instead of formulating a ℋ2 norm characterizing generalized controllability Gramian inequality as in the previous case, the current method applies the bounded-real lemma to certify the closed loop performances in ℋ∞ norm. In addition, unlike the previous method, the current one does not suffer from the lack of symmetry that all the data from the plant is not utilized. Yet, the current method inherits the same merit as the previous one that the formulated problem can be solved as a generalized minimum rank matrix approximation problem which can be solved efficiently using SVD. Extensions and numerical examples are shown in the end.


The concept "cool", as it applies to technological products, is discussed in this paper. We offer a model showing how different factors in situated use of techno-cools affect the perception of coolness. The model is discussed using a case of the iPad in educational use. The case is grounded in our experience from four case studies related to introduction of the iPad as a cool educational tool in two elementary schools, a high school, and a university. The space between iPad's coolness as a device and factors influencing that coolness in education, such as mastery, usefulness, added value, self-presentation and identity, novelty and fun, was studied. The age of participants was a determining factor for what subset of these was making the iPads cool at school. Tween students considered self-presentation, fun and novelty as the most important factors. For older students the important ones were usefulness, added value and mastery.


Edge enhancement, a type of optical image processing, is performed in a photorefractive material in real time and with low incident-light intensities (10−3 W/cm2). We calculate the expected images using two different four-wave mixing geometries, which show good agreement with the images that we experimentally observe using a single-domain crystal of BaTiO3 as the photorefractive material.


The aim of this thesis is to examine whether it is morally defensible to use lifestyle as one of the criteria for rationing health care. I argue that it is not justifiable to use former lifestyle to select patients for treatment.

Chapter one outlines the principles of the NHS and discusses the reality of rationing in health care provision in Britain. I maintain that there is a prima facie legal and moral right to health care and explore whether this right imposes a responsibility on individuals to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Chapter two critically examines some of the criteria, which are used to ration health care. Government policy documents, such as 'The New NHS: Modern.Dependable.' (Department of Health 1997: 13) suggest that patients should be treated 'according to need and need alone.' I argue that the concept of medical need is indeed one of the proper criteria for the distribution of medical resources. However, it is not the only relevant criterion and should be
considered along with other factors such as patient choice, clinical and cost effectiveness. Other criteria including age and lifestyle may also be relevant, but in so far as they affect the probable clinical outcomes of treatment.

Chapter three clarifies some of the contemporary approaches to distributive justice and explores their implications for the allocation of health care between individuals. I suggest that an eclectic approach should be adopted where
consideration is given both to promoting individual choices about lifestyles and protecting the welfare of the community. None of these theories of justice suggest that taking lifestyle into account when allocating scarce resources must be unjust.

Chapter four investigates whether individuals should be held responsible for their lifestyle. I argue that some health related behaviour is voluntary and therefore people might be held responsible for the consequences of their
behaviour. However, in many cases health related behaviour may not be voluntary, because it may have been unduly influenced by factors beyond the control of the individual. Even if it is voluntary, it may be justifiable or excusable in some cases. I discuss whether risk takers deserve any blame, and maintain that withdrawal or delay of medical treatment as a punishment for former lifestyle is always wrong.

Chapter five argues that it is essential for health care professionals to inform people of risks to their health. This does not interfere with their liberty, and allows them to make choices based upon their own values. I also examine
whether it is justifiable to use more coercive strategies, such as persuasion, manipulation and legal prohibition in order to encourage people to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Chapter six argues that it is not possible to implement a policy to ration health care partly on the basis of lifestyle in a fair way. I propose an alternative policy, which involves taxation on certain products associated
with risk. Chapter seven examines a variety of cases of rationing based on lifestyle. I conclude that rationing according to former lifestyle is not morally defensible.


The scope of this reflection is on the actual and possible function of the concept of solidarity in international law. The discussion has both a descriptive aim, to examine the place of solidarity within international law today, and a normative aim that looks at the desirable evolution of this concept. Although increasingly invoked in the international sphere generally, the concept of solidarity has an uncertain status in international law. Despite having a longer history especially in Christian thought and certain earlier juridical and political antecedents (some quite contradictory to its use today), its advent in international law is relatively new. Solidarity today could be understood in the abstract as a basic observable condition of the international environment, as a principle of international law, as a (human) right, or as a fundamental moral value. Seen from within the practical experience of international law today, it is best understood as a relatively weak legal principle, which rarely if ever outweighs the international legal system's continuing foundation in the principles of sovereignty and state consent. Solidarity does, however, have stronger underpinnings as a moral value. The place of solidarity in Catholic social teaching deepens our understanding of the possible significance of subsidiarity in the international legal system. In Catholic thought, subsidiarity is both a virtue and a moral principle that calls all men and women to commit themselves "to the good of all and of each individual." It is closely related to charity and fraternity, and finds its fullest expression in gratuitousness, or freedom. This in turn leads to a need to reconcile solidarity with the freedom of states in the international sphere, including through the mediating principle of subsidiarity.


This paper proposes a novel scheme based on minimum delay at the edges (MDE) for optical burst switching (OBS) networks. This scheme is designed to overcome the long delay at the edge nodes of OBS networks. The MDE scheme features simultaneous burst assembly, channel scheduling, and pre-transmission of control packet. It also features estimated setup and explicit release (ESXR) signaling protocol. The MDE scheme can minimize the delay at the edge nodes for data packets, and improve the end-to-end latency performance for OBS networks. In addition, comparing with the conventional scheme, the performances of the MDE scheme are analyzed in this paper.


Joseph Hardcastle was one of the foremost authorities on subjects connected with the mathematics of finance and other topics in accounting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a teacher, author, and leader in the profession, he figured prominently in the elevation of accountancy. Hardcastle is relatively unknown in the literature except for having the distinction of scoring the highest grades on the first CPA exam in New York in 1896. However, he was well respected during his time as one of the premier theorists in accounting and was awarded an honorary degree of Master of Letters by New York University. Because of his prolific writings, his teaching of future accountants, and his interactions with members of the Institute of Accounts, he had a strong impact on the "science of accounts," the dominant accounting theory in the U.S. at the turn of the century.


In this paper we describe our approach to the ImageCLEF2012 Photo Annotation task. We used both visual and textual modalities for all submissions. We described each image with a fixed length representation using different similarity measures. By this method we were able to combine, before the classification, a large variety of descriptors to improve the classification quality. This descriptor is a combination of several visual and textual similarity values between the actual image and a reference image set, containing well selected training images. We trained Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) to define a generative model for low-level descriptors extracted from the training set using Harris-Laplacian point detection. We used two descriptors, a grayscale gradient and a color moment based one. In order to measure the visual similarity between two images, we extracted several dense Fisher vectors per image. Besides calculating visual features, we adopted a biclustering method to cluster the Flickr tags and the images at the same time. Additionally, we measured the similarity of images according to their Flickr tags using Jensen-Shannon divergence.


The modeling of dynamic processes in milling and the determination of stable cutting conditions have become increasingly important for the optimization of manufacturing processes. Analytic approaches and time domain simulations based on simplified dynamic systems are used to identify chatter-free machining conditions. Stresses applied to the system are generally estimated by cutting force models. The goal of this paper is to compare the influence of the cutting force models on the stability limits. Numerical simulations of a simplified, generic milling machine model are therefore performed, while varying the cutting force approach. In order to distinguish stable from unstable cutting conditions a numerical stability criterion is used. The resulting stability charts are then investigated and analyzed to show the effect of the different cutting force models.


The presence of grayanotoxins (GTX-I, GTX-II and GTX-III) in honey samples from the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea regions of Turkey and the effect of honey containing GTX-I on the threshold stimulus voltage of frog gastrocnemius muscle were studied. We used 2 groups of gastrocnemius muscles isolated from curarized or noncurarized frogs. The threshold voltage was measured by external perfusion with a polygraphic system. Isolated muscle preparations were perfused separately with Clark-frog-Ringer's solution containing honey solutions from the Mediterranean Sea region (normal) or with honey solutions from the Black Sea region (GTX-I-containing, poisonous). There was no significant difference between the normal and poisonous honey groups data with the curarized preparations. But in the noncurarized preparations, the honey containing GTX-I significantly decreased the threshold voltage in comparison with normal honey. These findings suggest the effect of GTX-I on frog neuromuscular junctions is due to an increase in membrane permeability to sodium ions.


A naturalist's life would be a happy one if he had only to observe and never to write. (Charles Darwin)

Be careful while reading this article. My purpose is to persuade. To achieve this goal I must not only appeal to your intellect and seek your sympathy for my point of view but also diminish your natural reticence to believe all that you read. If I am successful you should remain unaware of my intention to penetrate your critical guard.

Medical journals—and grant awarding bodies for that matter—proudly adhere to the rigours of peer review despite the striking lack of research about either its efficacy or its reliability. But this system of collegiate accountability frequently ignores a factor that, to the doctor or scientist, may be thought too trivial to devote much attention to: the manipulation of language to convince the reader of the likely truth of a result.

The task of removing hyperbole from a paper is normally left to an editor. But just as qualitative review of research demands knowledge about the subject of that research, and just as statistical review requires mathematical skill, so the analysis of argument demands an understanding of the tools of persuasion available to the author. To interpret a result correctly reviewers, statisticians, editors, and readers should know the conscious and unconscious tricks of authorial rhetoric.

Although applied widely, peer review is by no means a secure discipline. For instance, Altman is critical of the entire notion of peer review, a term that he believes is jargon with no agreed meaning.1 He has described good peer review as the equivalent of good technical editing.

This view is unreasonable. Qualitative and statistical analyses of a research paper frequently raise important issues that, when resolved, improve the manuscript substantially.2 If peer review is …


Considering only 20.8% of American adults meet current physical activity recommendations, it is important to examine the psychological processes that affect exercise motivation and behavior. Drawing from regulatory fit theory, this study examined how manipulating regulatory focus and reward structures would affect exercise performance, with a specific interest in investigating whether exercise experience would moderate regulatory fit effects. We predicted that regulatory fit effects would appear only for participants with low exercise experience. One hundred and sixty-five young adults completed strength training exercise tasks (i.e., sit-ups, squats, plank, and wall-sit) in regulatory match or mismatch conditions. Consistent with predictions, only participants low in experience in regulatory match conditions exercised more compared with those in regulatory mismatch conditions. Although this is the first study manipulating regulatory fit in a controlled setting to examine exercise behavior, findings suggest that generating regulatory fit could positively influence those low in exercise experience.


Primary production (P) and community respiration (R) were measured in vitro along 2 transects of a trans-oceanic section crossing the oligotrophic North Atlantic waters, and during a drifter experiment in the eutrophic waters of the Northwest Africa upwelling system. Our results indi- cate that the scales of variability of P and R are different, R being less variable than P in the 2 studies. In the first transect of the oceanic study, the mean P:R ratio was 1 (1.1), the difference being statistically significant. The cause was a significant increase in P in the second transect, which was decoupled from changes in chlorophyll a (chl a) or R. In upwelling waters, however, R was always significantly lower than P (P:R > 1), and enhancements in P were paralleled by increases in chl a but not in R. The close correlation between the P:R ratio and P (and the lack of correlation between P:R and R) supports the view that changes in P but not in R control the transition of the system from net heterotrophy to net autotrophy (in our study at P > 56 mmol C m -2 d -1 ). The observed decoupling between P and R at temporal scales of days to weeks, has strong implications for addressing metabolic balances from in vitro experiments carried out during limited field samplings. We conclude that unless the scales of variability are established for the 2 metabolic rates, and particularly for P, it will not be feasible to accurately establish regional metabolic balances at seasonal to annual scales.


This paper aims to examine the engineering properties of ternary blended no-cement mortar which subjected to the various elevated temperatures exposure. The mortars were produced by mixing ground granulated blast furnace slag (S), Type-F fly ash (F) and circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) fly ash (C). The water-tobinder ratio was fixed at 0.40 and the CFBC fly ash content was fixed at 15 wt.% of the mixture that acts as the main activator. The specimens were exposed to the elevated temperatures ranging from 200 °C to 800 °C. The mass loss, compressive strength, and ultrasonic pulse velocity were determined before and after exposure to the elevated temperatures. The obtained results showed after exposed to high temperature, the mortar weight reduction was discovered in the range of 6.0–8.7% when temperature rose from 200 °C to 600 °C, and decreased significantly up to 12.4% as temperature reached 800 °C. The major strength loss occurred after 600 °C with the residual compressive strength approximately at 44.2%. At 200 °C, increased strength was found on SFC mixture and when temperature rose to 400 °C, the specimens still can resist the load reliably with the strength loss less than 8.0%. Consequently, SFC mortar generates good durability and heat resistance below 400 °C.


Berkeley, California—A high-stakes battle over patent rights to Taq polymerase—the enzyme used in molecular biology labs around the world for the popular technique known as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)—took a new turn in a San Francisco courtroom last week. A judge handed down a pretrial ruling that appears to strengthen the hand of Promega, a Madison, Wisconsin, biotech company that is trying to invalidate a patent on Taq held by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La Roche. The judge concluded that Cetus Corp., from which Roche bought the PCR patents in 1991, did not adequately specify the purity of the enzyme in its patent application and withheld information from the U.S. patent office. Both findings could strengthen Promega's argument that earlier publications anticipated Cetus's 1990 patent.


In this paper, we investigate the nature of structural breaks in inflation by estimating a version of the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) in the presence of a unit root in inflation. We show that, with a unit root in inflation, the NKPC implies an unobserved components model that consists of three components: a stochastic trend component, a component that depends upon current and future forecasts of real economic activity, and a stationary component which is potentially serially correlated (or a component of inflation that is not explained by the conventional forward-looking NKPC). Our empirical results suggest that, with an increase in trend inflation during the Great Inflation period, the response of inflation to real economic activity decreases and the persistence of the inflation gap increases due to an increase in the persistence of the unobserved stationary component. These results are in line with the predictions of Cogley and Sbordone (2008), who show that the coefficients of the NKPC are functions of time-varying trend inflation.


The history of childhood and welfare in Britain through the eyes of children. 'Children's Experiences of Welfare in Modern Britain' brings together the latest research as provided by the state, charities and families from 1830 to 1980. Demonstrating how the young were integral to the making, interpretation, delivery and impact of welfare services, the chapters consider a wide range of investments in young people's lives, including residential institutions, emigration schemes, hospitals and clinics, schools, social housing and familial care. Drawing upon thousands of personal testimonies, including a wealth of writing by children themselves, the book shows that we can only understand the history and impact of welfare if we listen to children's experiences.


This paper is an attempt to analyse one of the documents which may affect the classroom activities of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, namely teachers' guides. It also explores the context at which the document is aimed and critiques how EFL teachers are advised to teach as well as how EFL is taught. As such, the paper stands where critical discourse analysis and language policy come together in the study of language policies in education. The teachers' guide chosen and the analysis carried out here are not necessarily concerned with their representativeness and typicality but with the opportunity they provide to the researchers and teachers to learn about such language policy documents and how language and language teaching objectives are represented in them. The issues raised in this paper will have relevance to the EFL teachers' guides and EFL education in other contexts, as these issues are likely to be true of other EFL milieux.


Chirality is quite a common property in organic molecules. Chiral molecules exist in two forms (called enantiomers) which cannot be superimposed by rotations and translations and may have very different biochemical properties. Experiments on Langmuir monolayers made up of chiral amphiphiles have shown that, in most cases, heterochiral interactions dominate, implying the formation of a racemic compound. It has been shown that a monolayer mixture of two enantiomers can be simply described by a two-dimensional (2-D) spin-1 lattice gas [Blume–Emery–Griffiths (BEG) model], where the heterochiral preference is represented by an effective antiferromagnetic coupling. By now just mean field calculations have been performed on this model. Here we present a revisitation of the tripod amphiphile model, proposed by Andelman and de Gennes [D. Andelman and P.-G. de Gennes, Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 307, 233 (1988)], together with a rigorous proof of the heterochiral preference shown by the model in the hypothesis of van der Waals interactions. Moreover, a cluster variation analysis of the antiferromagnetic BEG model on a triangular lattice is performed and possible interpretations in terms of surface pressure–concentration phase diagrams for monolayer mixtures of enantiomers are discussed. The choice of a triangular lattice has been suggested by the triangular-like structure of condensed phases of Langmuir monolayers, shown by x-ray diffraction experiments.


Sparsely-activated Mixture-of-experts (MoE) models allow the number of parameters to greatly increase while keeping the amount of computation for a given token or a given sample unchanged. However, a poor expert routing strategy (e.g. one resulting in load imbalance) can cause certain experts to be under-trained, leading to an expert being under or over-specialized. Prior work allocates a fixed number of experts to each token using a top-k function regardless of the relative importance of different tokens. To address this, we propose a heterogeneous mixture-of-experts employing an expert choice method. Instead of letting tokens select the top-k experts, we have experts selecting the top-k tokens. As a result, each token can be routed to a variable number of experts and each expert can have a fixed bucket size. We systematically study pre-training speedups using the same computational resources of the Switch Transformer top-1 and GShard top-2 gating of prior work and find that our method improves training convergence time by more than 2x. For the same computational cost, our method demonstrates higher performance in fine-tuning 11 selected tasks in the GLUE and SuperGLUE benchmarks. For a smaller activation cost, our method outperforms the T5 dense model in 7 out of the 11 tasks.


We develop an O†ring production function characterized by specialization and division of labor and where shirking or negative shocks can have major adverse consequences. We show that when the principal can monitor individual output, the firm tends be large (potentially larger than first best), with a high degree of specialization and division of labor, weak incentives, and low pay as in traditional nonunion manufacturing. Moral hazard can only limit the size of the firm relative to the first best when the principal can only monitor team output, in which case the firm has the opposite characteristics.


There has been growing interest in the use of policy-based governing frameworks for management of a wide range of systems. These systems ranging from simple and static to increasingly complex and dynamic have demanding requirements that make the management of policies a complex task. Though tools have been developed to facilitate policy frameworks, there is not much work in policy development that meets the requirements of these policy-based environments. Some of these requirements include: (i) facility for both individual and rule-based policy specifications, (ii) ability to test policy conformance, (iii) simplification of the inherently error-prone process of policy creation through the use of templates and well-designed interfaces. In this thesis, we present RIDE, an integrated policy development environment that uses a wizard-based approach to provide a user-friendly and extensible graphical user interface. RIDE (Rei Integrated Development Environment) has been developed as a plug-in extension of Eclipse workbench and enables the development of policies specified in Rei, which is a declarative, machine-understandable policy specification language. As our main goal was to facilitate policy development for distributed systems, we chose Rei specifications because Rei is grounded in a web ontology language that allows it to model different kinds of domain knowledge and it has been successfully deployed in several open, dynamic distributed environments. RIDE attempts to meet the requirements of a wide range of policy-based environments for which existing tools provide little or no support. This is possible due to the unique combination of following features it supports: (1) simple, user-friendly interface offering valid input options through the entire process, (2) ease of management of domain information by offering the option of template creation, (3) automation of the complex and error-prone policy creation process by automatically generating user-defined policies in Rei, (4) ability to express individual as well as group policies, (5) ability to accommodate information spanning multiple domains by using ontologies to represent domain information, (6) policy creation over speech acts that are used for dynamic policy management, (7) support for creation and verification of policy test-cases for checking policy conformance, and (8) conformity to the principles outlined by Human Computer Interaction by performing iterative evaluation and refinement of the interface to make it as simple and useful as possible from user's perspective.


The newest in the popular Digital Masters series is designed to develop and expand photographers' unique vision of the world's wildlife and wild places. It's a lavishly illustrated workbook that photographers will return to again and again as they master the techniques-and move beyond to the creative side of picture making. Covering everything from preparation and camera basics to lighting, wildlife encounters, and conservation, Ralph Lee Hopkins describes a variety of approaches to capturing the best possible photo in the moment. In the process, he gets to the essence of nature photography as a skill and an art.


Examining qualitative historical evidence from cases of federal regulation in the areas of labor, civil rights, and environmental policy, this paper provides support for the hypothesis that divergence between legislative and executive preferences – a core and distinctive feature of the American constitutional order – creates an incentive for Congress to rely upon private lawsuits, as an alternative to administrative power, to achieve its regulatory goals. It also shows that this mechanism encouraging statutory mobilization of private litigants had been operative long before its powerful growth started in the late 1960s; that it operates in similar fashion with Republican legislators facing Democratic presidents, and Democratic legislators facing Republican presidents; and that it remained a source of controversy, and an active influence on congressional decision-making, throughout the half century covering the 1940s through the 1980s.


Orthotopic liver transplantation is the treatment of choice for many inherited and acquired liver diseases. Unfortunately, the supply of donor organs is limiting and therefore many patients cannot benefit from this therapy. In contrast, hepatocyte suspensions can be isolated from a single donor liver can be transplanted into several hosts, and this procedure may help overcome the shortage in donor livers. In classic hepatocyte transplantation, however, only 1% of the liver mass or less can be replaced by donor cells. Recently though, we have used a mouse model of hereditary tyrosinemia to show that > 90% of host hepatocytes can be replaced by a small number of transplanted donor cells in a process we term "therapeutic liver repopulation". This phenomenon is analogous to repopulation of the hematopoietic system after bone marrow transplantation. Liver repopulation occurs when transplanted cells have a growth advantage in the setting of damage to recipient liver cells. Here we will review the current knowledge of this process and discuss the hopeful implications for treatment of liver diseases.


The multifunctional protein beta-catenin is important for cell adhesion, because it binds cadherins, and the Wnt signal transduction pathway, where it interacts with the Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) protein and TCF/Lef family transcription factors. Mutations in APC or in beta-catenin are estimated to trigger formation of over 90% of all colon cancers. In colonic epithelia, these mutations produce elevated levels of Tcf4-beta-catenin, which stimulates a transcriptional response that initiates polyp formation and eventually malignant growth. Thus, disruption of the Tcf4-beta-catenin interaction may be an attractive goal for therapeutic intervention. Here we describe the crystal structure of a human Tcf4-beta-catenin complex and compare it with recent structures of beta-catenin in complex with Xenopus Tcf3 (XTcf3) and mammalian E-cadherin. The structure reveals anticipated similarities with the closely related XTcf3 complex but unexpectedly lacks one component observed in the XTcf3 structure.


Traditionally in sport and exercise biomechanics, variability in movement has been regarded as system noise or error. However, the advent of dynamical systems theory has stimulated a radical reassessment of the concept of variability with it being regarded as functional in some circumstances. With the application of dynamical systems theory to studies in biomechanics, many methodological considerations have emerged. These include the effects of measurement error on observed variability, the suitability of techniques available for quantifying coordination variability and the efficacy of using a treadmill to simulate overground locomotion in terms of coordination variability. The overall purpose of this thesis was to address the issues related to the methodological considerations for studies of coordination variability. In Chapter III, the effects of measurement error on coordination variability were investigated. It was suggested that, of the two major components of measurement error - skin movement and instrument errors - skin movement errors are likely to have a greater effect on measures of coordination variability due to their larger magnitude. If skin movement errors were entirely random, rather than systematic, they would be extremely detrimental to the study of coordination variability, as their magnitude is often greater than the magnitude of variability in human movement. Preliminary analysis of data presented by Holden et al. (1997) revealed that errors due to skin movement were primarily systematic, which suggests that they are less problematic for investigations of variability. In Chapter IV, the suitability of techniques available for quantifying variability in coordination was assessed. The results of an analysis of supporting experimental data suggested that disparate answers to certain research questions might be obtained dependent on the technique used to quantify variability in coordination. It is clear from Chapter IV that comparisons between studies of coordination variability that used different quantification techniques should be made with caution. Researchers should be aware of the benefits and limitations of each technique and the choice of technique should be based on the research question of interest. A comparison of variability in coordination measured overground and on a treadmill was provided in Chapter V. Results indicated that overground running was associated with greater variability in coordination than treadmill running. Therefore, it is possible that performing studies on a motorised treadmill might mask differences in coordination variability between experimental groups. Potentially, the reduced coordination variability during treadmill running can be explained by the artificially constant speed of the treadmill belt externally driving the foot through the stance period. The 'treadmill-on-demand' (Minetti et al., 2003) is an innovative type of feedback controlled treadmill on which the belt speed is not constant so the participant is not constrained to run at a constant speed. Therefore, in Chapter VI, variability in coordination measured during overground, conventional treadmill and treadmill-on-demand running was compared. Treadmill-on-demand running resembled overground running no better, in terms of variability in coordination, than conventional treadmill locomotion and it appears to be no more suited to studies of coordination variability than the conventional treadmill. Although some unanswered questions remain, this thesis has enhanced understanding of important methodological considerations for the study of coordination variability during running.


There are some good reasons to think that future historians will characterize the twentieth century as the century of secularism. As the century began, Nietzsche's declaration that God is dead, made some years earlier, was still reverberating. Three years into the century, Bertrand Russell's famous essay, "A Free Man's Worship," was published.1 The essay is widely interpreted as a powerful renunciation of religion in favor of an ethical humanism. Then came existentialism. Despite its religious beginnings in Kierkegaard and Buber, existentialism established itself in the twentieth century as a thoroughly secular philosophy. As David Cooper puts it, existentialism "as defined by Sartre, made the notion of a religious existentialist a virtual self contradiction.."2 While existentialism is no longer an influential philosophy, its secular messages have been well absorbed. However, it remains to be seen whether the secular trend will continue into the new millennium. According to some observers, it is too hasty to assume that it will. Indeed, Gianni Vattimo claims that the end of the twentieth century has witnessed a "return to religion."3 Given the standard view of existentialism, it may be taken for granted that if there is a return to religion then it cannot be via existentialism. The trouble is that philosophy has the habit of demonstrating that what is taken for granted turns out to be otherwise. At least, I wish to demonstrate that this is so in the case of existentialism. Specifically, the aim of this essay is to show that the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas is essentially an existentialist philosophy and if so, then, far from being a dead end, existentialism could well be the main route for a return to religion. Levinas' account of subjectivity is discussed in Section I. In Section II, I defend the claim that Levinas' philosophy of subjectivity is essentially existentialist. In Section III, the religiousness of that philosophy is explored. I In his various writings, Levinas employs the term l'Autrui, often translated as "the Other," to refer to one's fellow human beings, the indefinite neighbors, strangers, widows and orphans, and the term 1 'Autre, often translated as "the other," to refer to what lies beyond the totality that is one's own being, beyond what constitutes one's essence, a realm to which the Other belongs. The world that one knows is called "the said," le dit, because all the things in that world are known through what is said about them, through our own thematization or conceptualization of them. The realm of the other is called "the saying," le dire, because we are aware of it only through what it says to us rather than through our thematization. As a totality, I belong to the world of the said, having an essence that can be thematized, a being that can be conceptualized; for instance, thematized and conceptualized in science or in traditional philosophy. However, this I is utterly devoid of any subjectivity. In response to this, in Totality and Infinity, Levinas embarks on a phenomenological journey, tracing the subjectivity of the I.4 As is the case with any classical phenomenology, Levinas begins with the mundane experiences of the I, showing that the I acquires its unique identity, or its "unicity," by separating or isolating itself from what is not itself in the activity of enjoyment. It is in enjoyment that one is aware of one's own happiness and unhappiness, thus aware of one's own ipseity. For Levinas, "enjoyment . . . is isolation" (TI, 117) and isolation is the structure of the unicity of the I. The phenomenology of enjoyment allows Levinas to conclude that the "self sufficiency of enjoying measures the egoism or the ipseity of the Ego and the same. Enjoyment is a withdrawal into oneself, an involution" (TI, 118). In enjoyment, I see all things in terms of my own being because in it "I am absolutely for myself" (TI, 134). Yet, in the very process of enjoying, I come to be aware that I am much more than my own enjoyment. …


In present article the model of Blended Learning, its advantage at foreign language teaching, and also some problems that can arise during its use are considered. The Blended Learning is a special organization of learning, which allows to combine classroom work and modern technologies in electronic distance teaching environment. Nowadays a lot of European educational institutions and companies use such technology. Through this method: student gets the opportunity to learn in a group (classroom) with a teacher and additionally at home at a convenient time; student himself sets the optimal speed and intensity of the learning process; this method helps student to discipline himself and learn to work independently. Keywords—Foreign language, information and communication technology (ICT), model of Blended Learning, virtual cool room, technophobia.


Eight men and eight women trained 3 days/wk for 16 wk by doing attempted ballistic unilateral ankle dorsiflexions against resistance that either rendered the resultant contractions isometric (one limb) or allowed a relatively high-velocity (5.23 rad/s on an isokinetic dynamometer) movement (other limb). Training sessions consisted of five sets of 10 contractions of each type. Training produced the same high-velocity-specific training response in both limbs (P < 0.001). Peak torque increased most at 5.23 rad/s (38%) in comparison to lower velocities (0, 0.26, 0.52, 1.04, 1.55, 3.02, and 4.19 rad/s). Both limbs also showed similar increases in voluntary isometric rate of torque development (26%) and relaxation (47%) and in evoked tetanus rate of torque development (14%). A similar decrease in evoked twitch time to peak torque (6%) and half-relaxation time (11%) was also observed. Thus, all of these training responses, previously associated specifically with high-velocity resistance training, were produced by a training regimen that prevented an actual rapid movement through a range of movement. The results suggest that the principal stimuli for the high-velocity training response are the repeated attempts to perform ballistic contractions and the high rate of force development of the ensuing contraction. The type of muscle action (isometric or concentric) appears to be of lesser importance.


The growing maturity and deployment of low-cost georeferenced sensors, navigation systems, fast wireless communication, cyberinfrastructure and the Internet of Things (IoT) is accelerating the speed of geographic data flowing from the environment and our capabilities for reacting quickly to geographic information, often automatically and in real-time. This is leading to the rise of real-time GIS and smart cities technologies. While reacting quickly to changing circumstances has value, there are potentials for unintended consequences and rebound effects resulting from our inability to build geographic knowledge quickly and the selective acceleration of societal processes. This report discusses why these unintended outcomes may occur, and suggests technical and scientific approaches for understanding and managing the potential impacts of fast geographic data.


NASA's 2007 Titan Explorer study employed Titan aerocapture to place a spacecraft in orbit around Titan, while NASA's 2008 Titan / Saturn System Mission (TSSM) study enters Titan orbit propulsively. These two studies may be used to develop a comparison of the mass advantage of aerocapture vs. chemical propulsion to achieve Titan orbit. This poster will present details of trajectories developed for the TSSM study and compare the dry mass achievable for Titan orbiters with these trajectories using both chemical propulsion and Titan aerocapture. Interplanetary trajectories using both chemical propulsion and solar-electric propulsion (SEP) will be used. The mass advantage provided by aerocapture could be used to improve a future Titan mission by: delivering a larger science payload, delivering additional vehicles, using a smaller (and less expensive) launch vehicle, or by using a higher DV interplanetary trajectory to achieve faster flight times to Saturn.


BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE
Previous studies have identified large variations in patterns of in-hospital acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) care among groups of hospitals and physicians. We evaluated the patterns of care for patients with AIDS-related Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) care at a single university program with patients treated at an adjacent county and Veterans' Administration (VA) hospital. All medical care was provided by physicians in a single residency program, but attending physician staffs were separate.

SETTING AND PATIENTS
A randomized sample of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related PCP from the two hospitals who received care between 1987 and 1990.

RESULTS
During the study years, the VA hospital provided care for approximately one fourth as many AIDS patients as the county hospital. Patients at the VA hospital had a higher bronchoscopy rate (39.7% versus 27.7%, P = .05), higher intensive-care unit (ICU) rate (11.8% versus 2.9%, P = .008), longer hospitalizations (mean length of stay of 18.9 versus 13.9 days, P = .004), but delayed initiation of anti-PCP therapy (median of day 2 versus day 1, P < .05). The odds of death were significantly different between the VA and county hospitals, even after adjusting for differences in important patient characteristics.

CONCLUSION
Patterns of in-hospital PCP care differed between the two hospitals of this medical school. Possible explanations include organizational differences related to level of attending physician HIV experience, hospital case loads of AIDS patients, or specific hospital considerations such as concerns over tuberculosis exposure.


Distribution models are used to predict the likelihood of occurrence or abundance of a species at locations where census data are not available. An integral part of modelling is the testing of model performance. We compared different schemes and measures for testing model performance using 79 species from the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The four testing schemes we compared featured increasing independence between test and training data: resubstitution, random data hold-out and two spatially segregated data hold-out designs. The different testing measures also addressed different levels of information content in the dependent variable: regression R 2 for absolute abundance, squared correlation coefficient r 2 for relative abundance and AUC/Somer's D for presence/absence. We found that higher levels of independence between test and training data lead to lower assessments of prediction accuracy. Even for data collected independently, spatial autocorrelation leads to dependence between random hold-out test data and training data, and thus to inflated measures of model performance. While there is a general awareness of the importance of autocorrelation to model building and hypothesis testing, its consequences via violation of independence between training and testing data have not been addressed systematically and comprehensively before. Furthermore, increasing information content (from correctly classifying presence/absence, to predicting relative abundance, to predicting absolute abundance) leads to decreasing predictive performance. The current tests for presence/absence distribution models are typically overly optimistic because a) the test and training data are not independent and b) the correct classification of presence/absence has a relatively low information content and thus capability to address ecological and conservation questions compared to a prediction of abundance. Meaningful evaluation of model performance requires testing on spatially independent data, if the intended application of the model is to predict into new geographic or climatic space, which arguably is the case for most applications of distribution models.


Josiah Royce (1855--1916) has had a major influence on American intellectual life -- both popular movements and cutting-edge thought -- but his name often went unmentioned while his ideas marched forward. The leading American proponent of absolute idealism, Royce has come back into fashion in recent years. With several important new books appearing, the formation of a Josiah Royce Society, and the re-organization of the Royce papers at Harvard, the time is ripe for Time, Will, and Purpose. Randall Auxier delves into the primary texts written by Royce to retrieve the most poignant ideas, the ideas we need most in the present day, while he also offers a new framework for understanding the development of Royce's philosophy. Auxier responds to everything that has been written about Royce, both early and recent.


The physical adsorption of nitrogen on the surfaces of Pyrex, 347 stainless steel, and polycrystalline nickel was investigated over the pressure range 1×10−12–3×10−7 Torr and for the temperatures 77.4 and 87.4 °K. The metal surfaces were prepared by vacuum firing, by chemical cleaning, and, following bakeout, by electron impact desorption (EID). Work function measurements were used to indicate changes in the surface condition following electron bombardment, and a mass spectrometer was used to monitor gas composition. The isotherms revealed that the stainless surface was very heterogeneous and that the Pyrex surface area had a roughness factor of 1.7. Nitrogen isotherms were also taken on the metal surfaces after they had been exposed to oxygen. Very little change in physical adsorption on the nickel was detected, presumably because the chemisorbed oxygen was incorporated into the bulk. The chemical adsorption of N2 on nickel at room temperature and below was not observed.


We present a domain- and user-preference-agnostic approach to detect highlightable excerpts from human-centric videos. Our method works on the graph-based representation of multiple observable human-centric modalities in the videos, such as poses and faces. We use an autoencoder network equipped with spatial-temporal graph convolutions to detect human activities and interactions based on these modalities. We train our network to map the activity- and interaction-based latent structural representations of the different modalities to per-frame highlight scores based on the representativeness of the frames. We use these scores to compute which frames to highlight and stitch contiguous frames to produce the excerpts. We train our network on the large-scale AVA-Kinetics action dataset and evaluate it on four benchmark video highlight datasets: DSH, TVSum, PHD2, and SumMe. We observe a 4–12% improvement in the mean average precision of matching the human-annotated highlights over state-of-the-art methods in these datasets, without requiring any user-provided preferences or dataset-specific fine-tuning.


Under the general assumption that visual contrast detection occurs by a parallel array of linear detectors, either without probability summation or with probability summation of a commonly assumed type, it is shown that the set of functions representing subthreshold stimuli must be convex. Thus, for example, a planar plot of the threshold locus using multiples of any two functions as axes, must be convex (cannot bulge inward). If experimental evidence to the contrary were discovered, it would rule out detection by parallel linear detectors of the above type. One possible kind of such evidence would be an inward cusp of the threshold locus corresponding to one of a special class of stimuli to which the visual system might be specifically sensitive.


In this study, Swedish teachers of grades 1–3, with various teacher-training backgrounds, were tested to determine if they have the requisite awareness of language elements and the way these elements are represented in writing. The results were poor, yet the indication was that teachers with a good educational background in literacy and a good deal of teaching experience know significantly more than teachers whose teacher training included fewer or no courses in literacy instruction and who had less experience. The results indicate that it may be difficult for many teachers in the sample to provide adequate instruction in basic reading and writing. However, the study did not investigate how knowledge is used in practice, on which further research is needed. The importance of professional content knowledge is discussed.


From the introduction: Annotation is an important item on the wish list for digital scholarly tools. It is one of John Unsworth's primitives of scholarship (Unsworth 2000). Especially in linguistics,a number of tools have been developed that facilitate the creation of annotations to source material (Bird and Liberman 1999; Carletta et al. 2003). In edition studies, Peter Robinson expressed the need for it to be included in the future digital edition (Robinson 2003). At Brown University's Virtual Humanities Lab work on annotation facilities for its Boccaccio editions is in progress (Zafrin and Armstrong 2005). Wittgenstein students are working on the integration of annotation into a digital edition (Hrachovec and Kohler 2002). The present author has worked on the annotation tool EDITOR (Boot 2005). When we set out on what was to become the Emblem Project Utrecht, Els Stronks and I wrote a paper on the kinds of analysis we wanted to be possible on our emblem collections (Boot and Stronks 2002). Subsequently, we have researched Petrarchist imagery in Heinsius (in collaboration with Jan de Boer), and rhetorical elements in Jacob Cats (Boot and Stronks 2003), and Els Stronks has analysed the presence of churches in our material (cf. her paper in these proceedings).The ultimate justification for digitisation efforts is not, I still believe, mere electronic availability of the texts, however important that is. The wider issue is to make the content of the works available as potential nodes in a larger digital network that will include not just the sources but also the tools, the output and the intermediate products of scholarship. Willard McCarty notes that annotation and the commentary have much in common (McCarty 2005, 93). Annotations are the 'morsels' a commentary may bring together, the commentary consists of morsels that might live as individual annotations. Annotation, however, is a much wider phenomenon than that which would fit in a commentary. Annotation is not about the clarification of obscure passages or perhaps commentary to larger text units alone, though that too, but really about anything that can be said with regard to a text: categorisation, illustration, hyperlinking, modelling, etc. This essay explores the concept of annotation, and more specifically it explores what annotations can do. The word I will use for a body of annotations is mesotext. 'Mesotext' because it is text that can be located somewhere in between the primary texts of scholarship (the sources that scholarship is based on), and its secondary texts, the books and articles that it produces. Mesotext is metatext, in the sense of Gerard Genette, it is text that talks about another text. But unlike the ordinary secondary scholarly text, mesotext in a sense is data. It has no explicit point of view, there is no thesis that it explicitly argues for– though it may be used to argue for one, clearly. As the word mesotext indicates, mesotext is framed by other texts: the texts it is about, the texts it supports, and, as we will see, the models that instruct it. The concept of mesotext may help allay fears that the fragmented nature of the web will strip scholarship (and perhaps life)of some of its coherence and thus of meaning.


"I am ashamed to be curled up like a worm on Island. I grieve for my native land but what else can I say?"(1) Marion K. Hom's award-winning Songs of Gold Mountain (1987) and the revised edition of Lai, Lim and Yung's Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island (1991) offer important perspectives by Asians who, suppressed on America's west coast in the first half of the twentieth century, had much to say about their experiences. Written mostly during the time of active anti-Chinese laws, the anonymous works presented in both texts give voice to the sense of Asian persecution and imposed self-effacement that also incorrectly confirmed the white American view of their authors as members of an "inscrutable" and silent minority.(2) The authors probably never intended their writing to showcase literary merit; rather, their concerns included expressing directly the pain of immigration and unlikely acceptance in the new country and, in this way, their writing documented personal knowledge of what happened to them. The lament in much of the-writing depicts the hopelessness to which so many succumbed during this period; their shame and despair sometimes culminated in suicide or other acts of self-destruction. The physical conditions described in the writing correspond to a growing emotional anguish of the authors' exilic state, and their revelations offer a glimpse into the formidable self-laceration which characterized their experiences. Importantly, the act of writing compelled the authors to note their helplessness and, at the same time, urged them towards self-reliance and dignity. Ironically, then, Chinese immigrants of this period embraced attributes, such as fierce independence and tenacity of spirit, also valued by the same white community which espoused the exclusion of "the yellows." The recovery of both sets of writings is worth noting, since the translation and publication of the anonymous pieces reveal interesting tensions which the authors probably had not intended. In other words, not wishing to disclose their pain to a public audience out of shame or pride, the authors nevertheless produced important historical knowledge of their lives as immigrants. Not intending to identify themselves in the writing, they managed to speak their private anguish to an immediate audience, as well as a future one they never anticipated. The Angel Island poems were, literally, writings made on the walls by immigrants who recorded "the impressions of their voyage to America, their longing for families back home, and their outrage and humiliation at the treatment America accorded them" (8). Held in the wooden barracks at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the newly arrived immigrants were detained for unspecified periods of time ranging from a few weeks to months until their immigration papers and medical examinations yielded either a favorable outcome or their deportation.(3) In this period of waiting, detainees marked the walls with their thoughts, yearnings, and anguish. Interspersed with interviews of survivors conducted and presented by the editors under the condition of anonymity, Island also provides explanatory footnotes for colloquial expression and culturally specific references; such additional information affirms the connection with homeland that the immigrants expressed in their writing, as well as the suspended uncertainty each must have felt about his particular case in the new land. The poetry from Angel Island and the Cantonese rhymes from Chinatown represent varying emotional states, given the differences in the authors' actual experiences. While the writings express hopefulness at times and, in the case of the Cantonese rhymes a playful spirit, their descriptions of real living conditions in America more often revealed frustration and despair instead. There are other important distinctions--such as writing style and medium between the two groups of writing--which reveal the experiences faced by both Chinese who arrived and those who eventually remained in America. …


Summary form only give, as follows. Modern high performance computers have speeds measured in petaflops and handle data set sizes measured in terabytes and petabytes. Although these machines offer enormous potential for solving very large-scale realistic computational problems, their effectiveness will hinge upon the ability of human experts to interact with their simulation results and extract useful information. One of the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century is to effectively understand and make use of the vast amount of information being produced. Visual data analysis will be among our most important tools in helping to understand such large-scale information. Our research at the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute at the University of Utah has focused on innovative, scalable techniques for large-scale 3D visual data analysis. In this talk, I will present state-of-the-art visualization techniques, including scalable visualization algorithms and software, cluster-based visualization methods and innovative visualization techniques applied to problems in computational science, engineering, and medicine. I will conclude with an outline for future high performance visualization research challenges and opportunities.


BACKGROUND: Eczema is a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by itchy red
rashes and scaly skin that can significantly affect the quality of life of patients. Moisturizing creams and
emollients are often used to combat dryness and inflammation. The aim of this study was to demonstrate
the efficacy of a topical study product in reducing the appearance and symptoms of eczema.
OBJECTIVE: We performed an open-label, adaptive-design, pilot study evaluating the efficacy of the
AtopisTM product in reducing the appearance of eczema lesions and reducing the symptoms of itching,
scaling, and redness.

METHODS: Healthy subjects aged 18–75 years with mild to moderate eczema, which was determined
at screening visit, were enrolled in the study. Subjects topically applied the AtopisTM study product
twice daily on areas identified with skin lesions for 5 weeks. On a daily basis, subjects completed the
Visual Analog Scale for eczema symptoms — itching, scaling, and redness. Dermatologic assessments
for severity and size of lesions and Severity Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) were also assessed
by a practitioner in the clinic at days 0, 7, 15, 30.

RESULTS: Forty subjects were screened and a total of 20 subjects completed the study. VAS Symptom
Score for Itching demonstrated statistically significant decreases from baseline to Weeks 2, 3, and 4
(p=0.001, p=0.011, p=0.031, respectively). In addition, VAS Symptom Score for Scaling demonstrated
statistically significant reductions from baseline to Weeks 2, 3, 4 (p=0.000, p=0.003, p=0.031, respectively).
VAS Symptom Score for Redness displayed statistically significant decreases from baseline to all
time points (p=0.005, p=0.001, p=0.043, respectively). Dermatologic assessments including SCORAD
Index demonstrated statistically significant reductions from baseline (20.61) to Day 30 (10.26) (49.11%;
p=0.04). Subjective measures of quality of life assessed through DLQI showed a statistically significant
reduction of 48.03% from baseline (7.60) to Day 30 (3.95) (p=0.031).

CONCLUSION: Topical application of AtopisTM study product for five weeks appears to be effective for
treatment of mild to moderate eczema as it significantly reduced the appearance of lesions as well as
symptoms associated including itching, scaling, and redness. The study product was safe and tolerable
for twice a day application as no adverse events were reported.

SOURCE OF FUNDING: Decima Health Ltd., Rangiora, New Zealand


Vorlesung. The mission of Organic Computing is to tame complexity in technical systems by providing appropriate degrees of freedom for self-organized behavior adapting to changing requirements of the execution environment, in particular with respect to human needs.