A central goal of sequence modeling is designing a single principled model that can address sequence data across a range of modalities and tasks, particularly on long-range dependencies. Although conventional models including RNNs, CNNs, and Transformers have specialized variants for capturing long dependencies, they still struggle to scale to very long sequences of $10000$ or more steps. A promising recent approach proposed modeling sequences by simulating the fundamental state space model (SSM) \( x'(t) = Ax(t) + Bu(t), y(t) = Cx(t) + Du(t) \), and showed that for appropriate choices of the state matrix \( A \), this system could handle long-range dependencies mathematically and empirically. However, this method has prohibitive computation and memory requirements, rendering it infeasible as a general sequence modeling solution. We propose the Structured State Space sequence model (S4) based on a new parameterization for the SSM, and show that it can be computed much more efficiently than prior approaches while preserving their theoretical strengths. Our technique involves conditioning \( A \) with a low-rank correction, allowing it to be diagonalized stably and reducing the SSM to the well-studied computation of a Cauchy kernel. S4 achieves strong empirical results across a diverse range of established benchmarks, including (i) 91\% accuracy on sequential CIFAR-10 with no data augmentation or auxiliary losses, on par with a larger 2-D ResNet, (ii) substantially closing the gap to Transformers on image and language modeling tasks, while performing generation $60\times$ faster (iii) SoTA on every task from the Long Range Arena benchmark, including solving the challenging Path-X task of length 16k that all prior work fails on, while being as efficient as all competitors.


AB 5 TRAC T. In Congress's Constitution, Josh Chafetz takes issue with those who have questioned the value of Congress in recent years. He argues that Congress's critics focus too heavily on its legislative function and ignore several important nonlegislative powers that enable Congress to exert significant authority vis-A-vis the other branches. Chafetz engages in close historical examination of these nonlegislative powers and notes that in some cases, Congress has ceased exercising them as robustly as it once did, while in others it has unwittingly ceded them to another branch. Congress's Constitution urges Congress to reassert several of its ceded powers more aggressively going forward, in order to recapture some of the authority and influence it has lost over time. While admiring Chafetz's project-and sharing in his nostalgia for some of Congress's lost powers this Review questions Congress's ability and inclination to rehabilitate its underused powers in the manner Chafetz advocates. It argues, first, that at least some of the powers Chafetz seeks to revive read like ancient history -the record of an era of legislative governance that has long since passed and that subsequent political and legal events have transformed-perhaps irreversibly. Second, it notes that Chafetz may be underestimating some important dynamics, such as partisanship, that could make Congress itself ess likely to want to exercise its powers, and the public unlikely to accept Congress's attempts to aggressively exercise powers that have lain dormant for decades. More fundamentally, the Review suggests that the present-day Congress may be too shortsighted to look past what it "wants in the moment" in order to take steps that will benefit it as an institution. Moreover, Congress may not care as much about preserving its own traditions and history as Chafetz does. In the end, the Review therefore submits that while reinvigorating Congress's underappreciated powers is a good idea in theory, in practice it may prove more challenging than Chafetz recognizes.


Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is being increasingly used in a wide variety of applications ranging from remote sensing, to delivery, to security. As the number of UAVs increases, there is a growing need for UAV to UAV detection and tracking systems for both collision avoidance and coordination. Among possible solutions, autonamous "see-and-avoid" systems based on low-cost high-resolution video cameras offer the important advantages of light-weight and low power sensors. However, in order to be effective, camera based "see-and-avoid" systems will require sensitive, robust, and computationally efficient algorithms for UAV to UAV detect and tracking (U2U-D&T) from a moving camera.In this thesis, we propose a general architecture for a highly accurate and computationally efficient U2U-D&T algorithms for detecting UAVs from a camera mounted on a
moving UAV platform. The thesis contains three studies of U2U-D&T algorithms.In the first study, we present a new approach to detect and track other UAVs from a
single camera in our own UAV. Given the sequence of video frames, we estimate the background motion via perspective transformation model and then identify distinctive points
in the background subtracted image to detect moving objects. We find spatio-temporal
characteristics of each moving object through optical flow matching and then classify our
targets which have very different motion compared with background. We also perform
tracking based on Kalman filter to enforce the temporal consistency on our detection. The
algorithm is tested on real videos from UAVs and results show that it is effective to detect
and track small UAVs with limited computing resources.In the second study, we present a new approach to detect and track UAVs from a single camera mounted on a different UAV. Initially, we estimate background motions via
a perspective transformation model and then identify moving object candidates in the
background subtracted image through deep learning classifier trained on manually labeled
datasets. For each moving object candidates, we find spatio-temporal traits through optical flow matching and then prune them based on their motion patterns compared with the
background. Kalman filter is applied on pruned moving objects to improve temporal consistency among the candidate detections. The algorithm was validated on video datasets
taken from a UAV. Results demonstrate that our algorithm can effectively detect and track
small UAVs with limited computing resources. The system in the third study is based on a computationally efficient pipeline consisting
of moving object detection from a motion stabilized image, classification with a hybrid
neural network, followed by Kalmann tracking. The algorithm is validated using video
data collected from multiple fixed-wing UAVs that is manually ground-truthed and publicly
available. Results indicate that the proposed algorithm can be implemented on practical
hardware and robustly achieves highly accurate detection and tracking of even distant and
faint UAVs.


Abstract The characters and body parts of organisms are shaped by mechanical forces at two temporal scales. At the ontogenetic scale, the relevant forces are those of every day, exerted by muscles, other metabolism-powered processes, and normal interactions between the body and the external environment. At the phylogenetic scale, forces are strong enough to kill some individuals or to cause reproductive failure. These forces act more intermittently. I explore these ideas by examining the characters of molluscan shells, which grow by the addition of skeletal material along the rim of the open end of a hollow, conical tube that is closed at its narrow (apical) end. In the idealized case of a null shell, the skeleton is a right circular cone, in which the magnitude and direction of growth are the same at each point along the rim. The rate of expansion of the cone is determined by the shell-builder's metabolism. Real shell-builders are exposed to, and themselves exert, forces that affect shell shape. These forces are generated by contact between the shell-secreting mantle margin and the substratum, by local or temporary deformations of the mantle margin imposed by other parts of the body and previously formed parts of the shell, and by contraction of muscles that connect the soft tissues to the inner shell surface. Early mollusks whose shells more or less resemble the null shell were slow-moving, epifaunal animals that clamped the shell against the substratum. Evolutionary increases in metabolic rate, associated with greater mobility and faster growth, made some ontogenetically important forces stronger and introduced new forces. As a result, the range of available phenotypes expanded. Refinements in genetic regulation of form, perhaps including an increase in the number of semiautonomous regulatory regions, further added to the specification and range of variation of characters that were subject either to evolutionary conservation or to natural selection. For example, the mantle margin in plesiomorphic gastropods appears to comprise one such region, which produces a growing shell margin in the form of a logarithmic spiral; in more-derived gastropods, the mantle margin may comprise two or more regions, which together produce a growing shell margin that departs strikingly from the logarithmic form of the outer shell lip. The morphospace occupied by accretionary shells can be described by (1) the number of semiautonomous developmental modules, (2) selective regimes observable as phenotypic adaptive evolution, and (3) metabolic rate. The perspective outlined here implies that shells initially occupied a limited morphospace encompassing one or two modules, adaptation as an epifaunal clamping animal, and slow growth (low expansion rates) and metabolism. Further compartmentalization, together with increased metabolic rates in ecologically dominant taxa, caused the morphospace to expand both in the number of independent descriptors and in the range of values that each parameter spans. These trends in morphospace may characterize all major multicellular clades.


A prerequisite for a widespread and successful deployment of proactive ad-hoc networking technology is its ability to provide easy access to the Internet. Normally, proactive routing protocols provide routing messages that establish default routes to ensure connectivity for outgoing IPv4 packets destined for the Internet. However, mechanisms to ensure connectivity for incoming IPv4 packets from the Internet are yet poorly documented in published material. Possible solutions include implementing a modified mobile IPv4 foreign agent (MIP-FA) or network address translation (NAT) on each Internet gateway node in the ad hoc network. In this paper we discuss different strategies for providing Internet access to proactive ad hoc networks. We also describe problems experienced in our lab test-bed with default routes under the condition of site multi-homing. Based on this experience, we propose working solutions for Internet access from proactive ad hoc networks.


We show that conservation of longitudinal magnetization in a spinor condensate provides a stabilizing mechanism for a coreless vortex phase-imprinted on a polar condensate. The stable vortex can form a composite topological defect with distinct small- and large-distance topology: the inner ferromagnetic coreless vortex continuously deforms toward an outer singular, singly quantized polar vortex. A similar mechanism can also stabilize a nonsingular nematic texture in the polar phase. A weak magnetization is shown to destabilize a coreless vortex in the ferromagnetic phase.


Business intelligence (BI) is a DSS discipline aimed at providing timely, accurate information and analytical capabilities to support business decision-making. Despite much research on BI, though, we still understand little about how it actually affects decisions, because most of the literature has a data-centric or technology-centric focus which takes decision-making for granted. A decision-centric study of business intelligence is difficult because of the diversity of, and tension between, normative and descriptive theories of decision-making. We propose to view business intelligence as a theory-performing discipline in which a dialogue between academics and practitioners transforms normative decision theories into prescriptive theories-in-use. We identify three theories that constitute our current understanding of decision-making, and relate them to three separate but complementary slices of business intelligence practice. We are able to separate the complicated activities of business intelligence into three rational logics of action. We discuss how these three practices fit together, their interactions, and their relationship to the concepts of strategic, tactical, and operational business intelligence. We conclude that the way BI practitioners think about decision shapes the organizational and technological interventions they make in the name of business intelligence. We also consider future directions for research.


Afghanistan's extensive contacts and interaction with the dominant cultural basins of the ancient central and south central Asia, such as Iran and India, must be considered the most significant aspect of its history. It was in this period of its history that Afghanistan enjoyed a remarkable cultural growth and expansion. Understanding Afghan's civilizational characteristics, therefore, requires familiarity with these ancient civilizations. However, both orientalists and nationalistic historiographers have both tried to divide the common artistic and cultural heritage of this period with a view to strengthening national boundaries and cultural identities. It is in the latter period that one may observe the onset of cultural decline and endemic socio-political instabilities in the country.
A number of internal and external factors have contributed to the onset of the contemporary upheavals in Afghanistan, including external pressures, ecological condition, the tribal and feudal structure of the country, multiplicity of languages, religious fanaticism, and dysfunctional political structures. The Jihadist military campaign against Russian occupation of Afghanistan followed by years of internal political and religious strife, led to serious fissures in the country's traditional structures and the advent of a new class of leaders.
Similar to the case of most traditional societies that undergo sudden and extreme changes, the new leaders of Afghanistan are still imbued with traditional norms and values and yet brandish modern means of governance. Thus, they have tried to govern in the tribal and feudal modes while utilizing modern political concepts and institutions, including ideologies, political parties and state of the art weaponry. The result has been the continuation of political instability and violent religious and ethnic conflicts.


Space syntax is a technique for measuring the relative accessibility of different locations in a spatial system which has been loosely partitioned into convex spaces. These spaces are approximated by straight lines, called axial lines, and the topological graph associated with their intersection is used to generate indices of distance, called integration, which are then used as proxies for accessibility. The most controversial problem in applying the technique involves the definition of these lines. There is no unique method for their generation, hence different users generate different sets of lines for the same application. In this paper, we explore this problem, arguing that to make progress, there need to be unambiguous, agreed procedures for generating such maps. The methods we suggest for generating such lines depend on defining viewsheds, called isovists, which can be approximated by their maximum diameters, these lengths being used to form axial maps similar to those used in space syntax. We propose a generic algorithm for sorting isovists according to various measures, approximating them by their diameters and using the axial map as a summary of the extent to which isovists overlap (intersect) and are accessible to one another. We examine the fields created by these viewsheds and the statistical properties of the maps created. We demonstrate our techniques for the small French town of Gassin used originally by Hillier and Hanson (1984) to illustrate the theory, exploring different criteria for sorting isovists, and different axial maps generated by changing the scale of resolution. This paper throws up as many problems as it solves but we believe it points the way to firmer foundations for space syntax.


Objective: To analyze the physiological response of long-term memory (LTM) to the molecular changes of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus by the treatment of various intensities of physical activity. Methods: Subjects were 7–8 week old male Wistar rats weighed between 201–250 grams. This study was an experimental study with pre-(day-1) and post-(day-14) design. Molecular changes reflected by the changes in the expression of mRNA and protein of BDNF in the hippocampus. Treatment of physical activity on the subjects was running on the Animal Treadmill by grouping of the physical activity: light intensity at a speed of 10 m/min, moderate intensity at a speed of 20 m/min and heavy intensity at a speed of 30 m/min. The treatment's duration was 30 minutes.Then, analysis of data on pre (day-1) and post (day-14) which were: LTM response based on travel time swimming test, the expression of mRNA (Ct) and protein (%) of BDNF in hippocampus based on RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Results: The results showed that moderate intensity group caused the better physiological and molecular responses than the other groups, as follows: travel time (0.6260 vs 0.7270 vs 0.9400 vs. 1.4000 seconds (p<0.05)), mRNA BDNF expression (17.2320 vs 18.8800 vs 19.7540 vs 20.7750 Ct (p<0.05)), and hippocampal BDNF protein expression. Conclusions: The study conclude that the moderate intensity is the best physical activity to improve LTM as showed by the BDNF mRNA expression as well as BDNF protein in hippocampus. Keywords: Intensity, long-term memory, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, hippocampus DOI: 10.15850/ijihs.v4n2.839


ABSTRACT Mercantour National Park (France) is recognized as a highly heterogeneous region with extremely varied geology, geomorphology and climatology, resulting in an exceptional biodiversity. From a hydrogeological point of view, it is also an area organized into small and discontinuous aquifers, the obligate groundwater fauna of which (stygobionts) remains absolutely unknown. This work explores the species richness of groundwaters in the Mercantour National Park, using a sampling design at the catchment (six major valleys) and aquifer (aquifers in consolidated rocks and unconsolidated sediments) scales. A major finding of this study is the discovery of 44 species restricted to groundwater, of which 43 are new to the Park and ten are new to Science. Although a relatively small number of sites were sampled (53), the area may be considered as a new hotspot of groundwater biodiversity at the European level. The particular structure of the groundwater network, the high environmental heterogeneity of the region and its Mediterranean position may explain such a high biodiversity. The species rarefaction curve showed that many species have yet to be discovered in groundwater of the Mercantour National Park. With more than 78% of species collected in the hyporheic zone, this study also highlights the importance of porous aquifers in sustaining the groundwater biodiversity of mountainous regions.


Abstract. It has been known for many decades that the lunar tidal influence in the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) is noticeably enhanced during Northern Hemisphere winters. Recent literature has discussed the role of stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) events behind the enhancement of lunar tides and the findings suggest a positive correlation between the lunar tidal amplitude and lower stratospheric parameters (zonal mean air temperature and zonal mean zonal wind) during SSW events. The positive correlation raises the question whether an inverse approach could also be developed which makes it possible to deduce the occurrence of SSW events before their direct observations (before 1952) from the amplitude of the lunar tides. This study presents an analysis technique based on the phase of the semi-monthly lunar tide to determine the lunar tidal modulation of the EEJ. A statistical approach using the superposed epoch analysis is also carried out to formulate a relation between the EEJ tidal amplitude and lower stratospheric parameters. Using these results, we have estimated a threshold value for the tidal wave power that could be used to identify years with SSW events from magnetic field observations.


The rapid emergence and adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has raised new questions and rekindled old debates in higher education. Academic leaders are concerned about educational quality, access to content, privacy protection for learner data, production costs and the proper relationship between MOOCs and residential instruction, among other matters. At the same time, these same leaders see opportunities for the scale of MOOCs to support learning: faculty interest in teaching innovation, better learner engagement through personalization, increased understanding of learner behavior through large-scale data analytics, wider access for continuing education learners and other nonresidential learners, and the possibility to enhance revenue or lower educational costs. Two years after "the year of the MOOC", this report summarizes the state of the art and the future directions of greatest interest as seen by an international group of academic leaders. Eight provocative positions are put forward, in hopes of aiding policymakers, academics, administrators, and learners regarding the potential future of MOOCs in higher education. The recommendations span a variety of topics including financial considerations, pedagogical quality, and the social fabric.


ABSTRACT Considerable experimental and theoretical research has been dedicated to understanding the connection between the biochemical activity of cells and their mechanical environment. This is exemplified by the common structures of developing epithelial cells between various species and the decay of cell population growth rate over time. We study these two phenomena in a system of simulated cells with identical mechanical properties, and growth factors in both epithelial and 3D configurations embedded in viscous fluid. We demonstrate that the increase in the density of cellular systems and the consequential crowding of cells by their neighbors are crucial factors in causing the decay of tissue growth rate. We also show that tissue structure can be reproduced by a purely mechanical model with a more faithful treatment of inter-membrane interactions. Finally, we also show that, assuming all other factors constant, growth, and final structure depends on inter-membrane and medium friction coefficients. Of these two, the latter has a stronger influence on slowing down growth and disrupting structure.


In this note we consider splitting methods based on linear multistep methods and stabilizing corrections. To enhance the stability of the methods, we employ an idea of Bruno & Cubillos (2016) who combine a high-order extrapolation formula for the explicit term with a formula of one order lower for the implicit terms. Several examples of the obtained multistep stabilizing correction methods are presented, and results on linear stability and convergence are derived. The methods are tested in the application to the well-known Heston model arising in financial mathematics and are found to be competitive with well-established one-step splitting methods from the literature.


"This posthumous life of mine": Tragic Overliving in the Plays of Marina Carr The work of contemporary Irish playwright Marina Carr is illustrative of what Emily Wilson has identified in Mocked with Death: Tragic Overliving from Sophocles to Milton (2004) as "a central thread in the tragic tradition that is concerned not with dying too early but with living too long, or 'overliving'" (p. 1). Understanding Carr's engagement with tragic overliving offers grounds for re-envisioning Carr's oeuvre, various though it appears, as a cohesive whole underlain by a coherent philosophy of tragedy. She has inherited this philosophy, but she has also reconceived it by offering a sustained exploration of the ways female characters respond to the consciousness of overliving and the impact of the potential to conceive and bear children on that consciousness. This article analyzes the manifestations of the problem of overliving in six of Carr's published plays in a effort to trace the continuities between the plays commonly known as Carr's "trilogy"—The Mai (1994), Portia Coughlan (1996), and By the Bog of Cats . . . (1998)—and her three subsequent plays—On Raftery's Hill (2000), Ariel (2002), and Woman and Scarecrow (2006)—which have been received as significantly different from the trilogy and from each other.


Many countries consider the lifting of restrictions of social contacts (RSC). We quantify the effects of RSC for Germany. We initially employ a purely statistical approach to predicting prevalence of COVID19 if RSC were upheld after April 20. We employ these findings and feed them into our theoretical model. We find that the peak of the number of sick individuals would be reached already mid April. The number of sick individuals would fall below 1,000 at the beginning of July. When restrictions are lifted completely on April 20, the number of sick should rise quickly again from around April 27. A balance between economic and individual costs of RSC and public health objectives consists in lifting RSC for activities that have high economic benefits but low health costs. In the absence of large-scale representative testing of CoV-2 infections, these activities can most easily be identified if federal states of Germany adopted exit strategies that differ across states.


The NOx concentrations measured at the sampling site of Cordoba Avenue, Buenos Aires City, characterised by an irregular geometry on both sides of the street, are used to intercompare results of five urban street canyon dispersion models, STREET, OSPM, AEOLIUSF, STREET-BOX and SEUS. Three different wind directions with respect to the street axis are considered, i.e., leeward, windward and parallel. Additionally, two wind speed classes are considered, above and below 2 m s–1. In order to evaluate the models performance, observed and calculated concentrations are compared using different statistical measures, i.e., mean values, bias, mean square error and fractional error. In general, all models estimate better leeward conditions and wind speeds above 2 m s–1, with SEUS providing the overall best result.


Abstract. The inland, mountainous marginal areas (land abandoned by farming and colonised by shrubs) of the Iberian Peninsular, Spain, generally receive a higher rainfall than the coastal areas (Lazaro and Rey, 1991) and may store water after cold season (autumn and winter) rainfall. By measuring runoff, change of soil water content and rainfall, this study tests the hypothesis that two shrubs on two sites on abandoned land do not use all the water available after cold season rainfall. One site was on an upper alluvial slope dominated by Anthyllis cytisoides and the other on a lower alluvial slope dominated by Retama sphaerocarpa. The root systems of A. cytisoides and R. sphaerocarpa penetrate to 3 m and 20 m, respectively. A. cytisoides senesces during the dry season and R. sphaerocarpa is evergreen. The water balance is dominated by high actual evapotranspiration (ET), which is limited by rainfall. Reference evapotranspiration was high; runoff was low and soil water storage occurred above 2 m depth. ET and water storage were highest under A. cytisoides shrubs. Runoff was lower on the 'Anthyllis' site. The spatial variability of soil water is high and the problems of its measurement are discussed. The quantity of rainfall infiltrated was greater under shrubs than grass-areas, suggesting that shrub roots facilitated preferential flow. The growing season of A. cytisoides began when water was available in the upper soil layers and senescence occurred when the upper soil layers dried to less than 4% water content. A. cytisoides, therefore, relies on water from these layers. The main growth of R. sphaerocarpa occurred when the upper soil layers were relatively dry, so that R. sphaerocarpa must extract water from deeper layers. Results suggest that A. cytisoides accumulates rainfall and runoff and directs water to lower layers for later use, while R. sphaerocarpa extracts water from deeper soil layers. By mid-summer both shrubs had extracted all the available water accumulated in the upper soil layers from cold season rainfall. Keywords: water balance, neutron probe, patchy vegetation, mosaic vegetation, Spain, semi arid, Anthyllis cytisoides, Retama sphaerocarpa


BACKGROUND
The clinical features of pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) differ according to the predisposing factors responsible for immunosuppression. Although PCP in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been extensively described, its characteristics in non-AIDS patients, such as those with malignancies, are not thoroughly documented.

STUDY OBJECTIVE
To characterize and compare the clinical and imaging features of PCP in patients with malignancies with those in AIDS patients.

DESIGN
A multi-center retrospective study.

PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS
We evaluated the clinical and radiological features of PCP in 21 patients with malignancies and in 17 with AIDS. Clinical presentation, serum markers, oxygenation, CT findings, and outcome were examined.

RESULTS
The patients with malignancies showed shorter durations of symptoms before PCP was diagnosed. The levels of serum markers and the oxygenation index did not differ. CT showed diffuse or widespread ground-glass opacity (GGO) in all of the patients evaluated. None of the AIDS patients demonstrated consolidation, whereas half of the patients with malignancy showed consolidation along with GGO. The extent of GGO scored on CT images was significantly greater in the AIDS patients. No correlation was observed between the CT findings and other clinical parameters. All of the AIDS patients recovered from PCP, whereas six patients with malignancies died within a month after the onset of PCP.

CONCLUSION
The characteristics of the CT images differed between the patient groups with different underlying disorders, although it remains to be determined whether CT findings are associated with other clinical features or are predictive of the outcome of PCP.


There is little consensus of common understanding of innovation in bureaucratic organizations; thus, leading to minimal enhancement to the growth and execution of innovation in this sector. It is apparent that practitioners and scholars are not on the same page regarding public sector innovation research. The market innovation literature along with perspectives on public sector innovation showed that within any organization, an innovative culture must be supported by individuals in power. One major challenge for practitioners is to develop systems, processes, and climates that promote and demonstrate innovation and creativity. In other words, the development of a supportive climate for enhancing employees' innovative behaviour and creativity is not an option. While much public sector research is centred on why the public sector should change and what changes should be made, little is known about how to encourage the whole systems towards having greater innovation capacity. Public organizations are constantly under severe pressure to produce more value for their communities. The complex nature of the term innovation particularly in the government made it essential for public services to engage with the concept. In addition, key leadership behaviours and styles for managing and promoting innovation in the public sector is crucial part of this paper. The objective of this paper is to critically review academic publications in innovation and leadership in public sector organizations. From the review and analysis of literature, the paper determines what is required, and what constraints are imposed by organizational and environmental factors to nurturing or fostering a culture of innovation in the government sector. A conceptual framework is gradually developed based on the analysis and knowledge obtained from relevant literature. Hence, the researchers discuss achievable and indispensable factors that might promote or enhance a culture of innovation in the public sector. The comprehension provided is intended to support scholars and practitioners in highlighting critical issues necessary to promote a culture of innovation in the government sector. Although the paper is narrative or descriptive in nature and non-statistical, it can be used to enhance the understanding of innovation in public sector organizations.


As a candidate for President, Barack Obama promised to protect whistleblowers because they are, in his words, "watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance." Three years into his Presidency, Obama's record often demonstrates strong support for employees who disclose government misconduct. He appointed whistleblower-rights supporters to key administrative posts and fought to include robust whistleblower protections in his key legislative accomplishments, such as the economic stimulus package, health care reform and the financial reform bill. However, the Obama Administration's treatment of national security whistleblowers has been decidedly less emphatic and more nuanced. His Administration aggressively prosecuted unauthorized disclosures related to national security and objected to reporters claiming a privilege not to reveal their sources. Moreover, a substantial legislative reform of federal employee whistleblower protections remained in limbo for much of Obama's Presidency in part because of his Administration's concern that the proposed law would provide too many rights to national security whistleblowers. This Article examines and critiques this apparent contradiction in President Obama's whistleblower agenda and also explores ways in which the Obama Administration might satisfy its national security policy objectives without undermining whistleblower protection.


Organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells are a promising option for cheap, renewable energy, but must improve in their stability. This study examines changes in the IV parameters of inverted OPV devices with thermal ageing and correlates them to changes in the mechanical stability of the devices observed by fracture analysis. In particular, the role that the use of different materials in the hole transport layer (HTL) and metal electrode has in determining the stability (both mechanical and electronic) of the device is studied. Data from a range of characterization techniques (including Kelvin probe analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy elemental depth profiling) are used to correlate changes in device structure and performance, demonstrating the presence of inter-layer diffusion when silver is used as an electrode material. This inter-diffusion has the beneficial effect of improving the adhesion of the electrode to the device, but is correlated to declines in the performance of the device when used in conjunction with MoO3 as an HTL. An improvement in adhesion is also seen with aluminium electrodes, but without any signs of diffusion, showing that an improvement in the mechanical stability of a device when thermally aged need not come at the expense of performance stability.


Abstract. A climatology of new particle formation (NPF) events at high altitude in the subtropical North Atlantic is presented. A 4-year data set (June 2008–June 2012), which includes number size distributions (10–600 nm), reactive gases (SO2, NOx, and O3), several components of solar radiation and meteorological parameters, measured at Izana Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) observatory (2373 m above sea level; Tenerife, Canary Islands) was analysed. NPF is associated with the transport of gaseous precursors from the boundary layer by orographic buoyant upward flows that perturb the low free troposphere during daytime. On average, 30% of the days contained an NPF event. Mean values of the formation and growth rates during the study period were 0.46 cm−3 s−1 and 0.42 nm h−1, correspondingly. There is a clearly marked NPF season (May–August), when these events account for 50–60% of the days per month. Monthly mean values of the formation and growth rates exhibit higher values in this season, 0.49–0.92 cm−3 s−1 and 0.48–0.58 nm h−1, respectively. During NPF events, SO2, UV radiation and upslope winds showed higher values than during non-events. The overall data set indicates that SO2 plays a key role as precursor, although other species seem to contribute during some periods. Condensation of sulfuric acid vapour accounts for most of the measured particle growth during most of the year (~70%), except for some periods. In May, the highest mean growth rates (~0.6 nm h−1) and the lowest contribution of sulfuric acid (~13%) were measured, suggesting a significant involvement of other condensing vapours. The SO2 availability seems also to be the most influencing parameter in the year-to-year variability in the frequency of NPF events. The condensation sink showed similar features to other mountain sites, showing high values during NPF events. Summertime observations, when Izana is within the Saharan Air Layer, suggest that dust particles may play a significant role acting as coagulation sink of freshly formed nucleation particles. The contribution of dust particles to the condensation sink of sulfuric acid vapours seems to be modest (~8% as average). Finally, we identified a set of NPF events in which two nucleation modes, which may evolve at different rates, occur simultaneously and for which further investigations are necessary.


As the generation and use of genomic datasets is becoming increasingly common in all areas of biology, the need for resources to collate, analyse and present data from independent (Tier 1) species-level genome projects into well supported clade-oriented (Tier 2) databases and provide a mechanism for these data to be propagated to pan-taxonomic (Tier 3) databases is becoming more pressing. Lepbase is a Tier 2 genomic resource for the Lepidoptera, supporting a research community using genomic approaches to understand evolution, speciation, olfaction, behaviour and pesticide resistance in a wide range of target species. Lepbase offers a core set of tools to make genomic data widely accessible including an Ensembl genome browser, text and sequence homology searches and bulk downloads of consistently presented and formatted datasets. As a part of the taxonomic community that we serve, we are working directly with Lepidoptera researchers to prioritise analyses and add tools that will be of most value to current research questions.


Gastrointestinal cancer is one of the health problems which is frequently found in many people in the world until now. Studies in gastrointestinal cancer showed early detection can reduce morbidity and improve the survival of patients. The precancerous lesions of the gastrointestinal tract are highly potential turn into cancer. Precancerous lesions can be defined as a change or non-cancerous lesions that can become cancerous over time.  Precancerous lesions can be found on the entire upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Precancerous lesions of the upper digestive tract that can be found are Barrett's esophagus, chronic gastritis with or without Helicobacter pylori infection, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia of the gastric mucosa, epithelial dysplasia, and adenoma polyp. While precancerous lesions in the lower gastrointestinal tract are adenoma, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic infection and hereditary non-polyposis colon lesions. Precancerous lesions of the stomach in the form of chronic atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia can be treated with anti-inflammatory and anti-free radical drugs such as rebamipide and superoxide dysmutase. Precancerous lesions in the colon in the form of chronic enterocolitis, dysplasia can be treated with anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatory and anti-free radical such as anti-oxidants, rebamipide, superoxide dismutase, anti-inflammatory drugs.


The absorption spectra of single-component mixtures of erbium(III) chloride, holmium(III) chloride, neodymium(III) chloride, praseodymium(III) chloride, samarium(III) chloride and thulium(III) chloride were obtained in the molten salt eutectic 3LiCl–2CsCl at 723 K and were collected at various concentrations from 0 mM to approximately 200 mM (above which the solutions became saturated). Using these data and Beer's law, the molar absorptivities of the absorption bands for each lanthanide(III) chloride were obtained. More sophisticated analysis of the data was completed by building multivariate regression models based on spectra of single-component samples for each lanthanide metal studied. These models were then applied to the measurement/prediction of lanthanide(III) concentrations in a validation set comprised of complex multi-component mixtures within the molten-salt solution. The models performed well despite the complexity of the solutions/spectra. Overall, this work presents the UV-vis Beer's law characterization of several lanthanides as well as successful application of multivariate analysis to the measurement/prediction of lanthanide concentrations in molten salts. This represents a significant improvement for materials analysis techniques, applicable for nuclear fuel pyroprocessing methods.


Although the body of scientific publications on energy efficiency and climate mitigation from buildings has been growing quickly in recent years, very few previous bibliometric analysis studies exist that analyze the literature in terms of specific content (trends or options for zero-energy buildings) or coverage of different scientific databases. We evaluate the scientific literature published since January 2013 concerning alternative methods for improving the energy efficiency and mitigating climate impacts from buildings. We quantify and describe the literature through a bibliometric approach, comparing the databases Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. A total of 19,416 (Scopus) and 17,468 (WoS) publications are analyzed, with only 11% common documents. The literature has grown steadily during this time period, with a peak in the year 2017. Most of the publications are in English, in the area of Engineering and Energy Fuels, and from institutions from China and the USA. Strong links are observed between the most published authors and institutions worldwide. An analysis of keywords reveals that most of research focuses on technologies for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, phase change materials, as well as information and communication technologies. A significantly smaller segment of the literature takes a broader perspective (greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle, and sustainable development), investigating implementation issues (policies and costs) or renewable energy (solar). Knowledge gaps are detected in the areas of behavioral changes, the circular economy, and some renewable energy sources (geothermal, biomass, small wind). We conclude that (i) the contents of WoS and Scopus are radically different in the studied fields; (ii) research seems to focus on technological aspects; and (iii) there are weak links between research on energy and on climate mitigation and sustainability, the latter themes being misrepresented in the literature. These conclusions should be validated with further analyses of the documents identified in this study. We recommend that future research focuses on filling the above identified gaps, assessing the contents of several scientific databases, and extending energy analyses to their effects in terms of mitigation potentials.


An archival analysis of evaluations of wines provides a unique context in which to investigate social influence in a naturalistic setting. We conducted analyses based on 6,157 notes about 106 wines posted by wine drinkers at a wine social networking site. Our findings suggest that social influence on private wine evaluations occurred by communicating a descriptive norm via written information. We provide empirical evidence that there is social influence on private wine evaluations that is greater than the effect of experts' ratings and prices combined. This influence comes mainly from the first few group members, and increases as a function of source uniformity. Together with a lack of evidence that more credible or expert members have more influence, these findings suggest that influence in this setting is normative rather than informational. Results have implications for widespread effects of social influence on consumer and other websites where we are subject to the power of others' opinions.


Iran s interaction with its neighbours is a topic of wide interest. But while many historical studies of the country concentrate purely on political events and high-profile actors, this book takes the opposite approach: writing history from below, it instead focuses on the role of everyday lives. Modern Iranian historiography has been dominated by ideas of nationalism, modernization, religion, autocracy, revolution and war. Iran in the Middle East adds new dimensions to the study of four crucial areas of Iranian history: the events and impact of the Constitutional Revolution, Iran s transnational connections, the social history of Iran and developments in historiography. Featuring eminent scholars such as Ali Ansari, Janet Afary and Erik-Jan Zurcher, this book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Iran in a transnational context by exploring the key social actors in the constitutional revolution, trade and the role of women. The authors emphasize the role of societal transformations, social movements, class, gender and ethnic identities, analyzing both national and individual identity. What emerges is a concise and unique look at Iranian social history, from both within the country s internal relationships with its social groups, and from its external relations with neighbouring countries. It will prove essential reading to scholars and students of Iran and the wider Middle East region."


Empirical evidence and the theoretical literature both point to stock sustainability and the protection
of marine biodiversity as important fisheries management issues. Decision-support tools
are increasingly required to operationalize the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management.
These tools need to integrate (i) ecological and socio-economic drivers of changes in fisheries and
ecosystems; (ii) complex dynamics; (iii) deal with various sources of uncertainty; and (iv) incorporate
multiple, rather than single objectives.
The stochastic co-viability approach addresses the trade-os associated with balancing ecological,
economic and social objectives throughout time, and takes into account the complexity and
uncertainty of the dynamic interactions which characterize exploited ecosystems and biodiversity.
This thesis proposes an application of this co-viability approach to the sustainable management
of mixed fisheries, using two contrasting case studies: the French Bay of Biscay (BoB) demersal
mixed fishery and the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF). Both fisheries entail direct and indirect
impacts on mixed species communities while also generating large economic returns. Their
sustainability is therefore a major societal concern.
A dynamic bio-economic modelling approach is used to capture the key biological and economic
processes governing these fisheries, combining age- (BoB) or size- (NPF) structured models
of multiple species with recruitment uncertainty, and multiple fleets (BoB) or fishing strategies
(NPF). Economic uncertainties relating to input and output prices are also considered. The bioeconomic
models are used to investigate how the fisheries can operate within a set of constraints
relating to the preservation of Spawning Stock Biomasses (BoB) or Spawning Stock Size Indices
(NPF) of a set of key target species, maintenance of the economic profitability of various fleets
(BoB) or the fishery as a whole (NPF), and limitation of fishing impacts on the broader biodiversity
(NPF), under a range of alternative scenarios and management strategies.
Results suggest that under a status quo strategy both fisheries can be considered as biologically
sustainable, while socio-economically (and ecologically in the NPF case) at risk. Despite very different
management contexts and objectives, viable management strategies suggest a reduction in
the number of vessels in both cases. The BoB simulations allow comparison of the trade-os associated
with dierent allocations of this decrease across fleets. Notably, co-viability management
strategies entail a more equitable allocation of eort reductions compared to strategies aiming at
maximizing economic yield. In the NPF, species catch diversification strategies are shown to perform
well in controlling the levels of economic risk, by contrast with more specialized fishing
strategies. Furthermore analyses emphasize the importance to the fishing industry of balancing
global economic performance with inter-annual economic variability.
Promising future developments based on this research involve the incorporation of a broader
set of objectives including social dimensions, as well as the integration of ecological interactions,
to better address the needs of ecosystem-based approaches to the sustainable harvesting of marine
biodiversity.


Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a multisystem disease, the pathogenesis of which remains undetermined. Aims: To test the hypothesis that there are reproducible abnormalities of gene expression in patients with CFS compared with normal healthy persons. Methods: To gain further insight into the pathogenesis of this disease, gene expression was analysed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 25 patients with CFS diagnosed according to the Centers for Disease Control criteria and 25 normal blood donors matched for age, sex, and geographical location, using a single colour microarray representing 9522 human genes. After normalisation, average difference values for each gene were compared between test and control groups using a cutoff fold difference of expression ⩾ 1.5 and a p value of 0.001. Genes showing differential expression were further analysed using Taqman real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in fresh samples. Results: Analysis of microarray data revealed differential expression of 35 genes. Real time PCR confirmed differential expression in the same direction as array results for 16 of these genes, 15 of which were upregulated (ABCD4, PRKCL1, MRPL23, CD2BP2, GSN, NTE, POLR2G, PEX16, EIF2B4, EIF4G1, ANAPC11, PDCD2, KHSRP, BRMS1, and GABARAPL1) and one of which was downregulated (IL-10RA). This profile suggests T cell activation and perturbation of neuronal and mitochondrial function. Upregulation of neuropathy target esterase and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4G1 may suggest links with organophosphate exposure and virus infection, respectively. Conclusion: These results suggest that patients with CFS have reproducible alterations in gene regulation.


In this paper, a prototype wavelet-based neural network classifier for recognizing power-quality disturbances is implemented and tested under various transient events. The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) technique is integrated with the probabilistic neural-network (PNN) model to construct the classifier. First, the DWT is employed to extract the energy distribution features of the distorted signal at different resolution levels. Then, the PNN classifies these extracted features to identify the disturbance type according to the energy features. Since the proposed methodology can reduce a great quantity of the distorted signal features without losing its original property, less memory space and computing time are required. Various transient events tested, such as momentary interruption, capacitor switching, voltage sag/swell, harmonic distortion, and flicker show that the classifier can detect and classify different power disturbance types efficiently.


Providing optimal care for a sudden, unexpected large amount of victims from a disaster or major incident is challenging. It requires an approach different from regular traumacare. The population as a whole, rather than the individual, should be the focus of management. This thesis focuses on medical preparedness, care and follow-up for victims of a disaster or major incident, and explores new opportunities for improvement of disaster relief using the Internet as a supportive tool. The Major Incident Hospital (MIH) , the Netherlands, is a unique facility that offers permanent, reserved facilities to provide acute , structured care for groups of patients after a disaster or major incident. Its contribution to preparedness is not limited to providing directly available resources without impact on regular care. It also offers expertise, infrastructure, organisation, support systems, training, research and systematic working methods adapted to provide the greatest good for the greatest amount of people in case of multiple simultaneous victims. Pre-arranged cooperation, between the military, a trauma center and the National Poison and Information Center add to its value. Group-wise treatment relief for incident victims showed to be advantageous for overview, logistics, registration, quarantine, emotional support and (pre)arrangements for family, media and security. The evaluation of all MIH deployments since its foundation in 1991 resulted in five concluding recommendations: 1) improvement of embedding of the MIH in regional and national procedures; 2) continued dedicated time and staff for training, research and development; 3) improvement of nuclear/biological/chemical decontamination facilities and preparedness; 4) implementation of standardized scoring systems; and 5) expansion of registration systems to the pre-hospital setting. Lack of overview of victims and difficulties in sharing information showed to be recurrent barriers to an effective response in major incidents and disasters. To overcome these problems, an online Victim Tracking and Tracing System (ViTTS) was developed. ViTTS offers a real-time overview of victims to all involved disaster relief partners. This is necessary to generate an adequate disaster response with optimized resource allocation (care- and cost-effective) and prevents unnecessary public distress. One of the deployments of the MIH was for the repatriated Dutch victims of the 2004 South Asian tsunami. Of the 500 Dutch that were in the affected area, 23 wounded victims were repatriated to the MIH on New Year's Eve 2004-2005. Analysis of their wound cultures reinforces the neccesity of relief of repatriated patients in quarantine. Long term follow up of these patients shows that tsunami exposure with concomitant injury had considerable middle and long-term physical and emotional impact. For support to a broader group of tsunami victims an innovative online service was developed that offered information, an interactive forum, self-assessment in a survey and e-Consult. The website was availabale in 15 languages. Thirty percent of the Dutch tsunami survivors participated in the survey. The effect of the distaster on physical and emotional health was still considerable over 4 years. This requires a multidisciplinary approach of (after)care with long-term provisions. Growing Internet penetration worldwide and especially the rapid expansion of influence of online communities and social media offer new opportunities to deliver (self)care and perform research with the Internet as a platform.


Intersectionality has become an object of considerable interest as an analytical tool for feminist and ethnicity scholars who use it to theorize identity and oppression (or inclusion - and exclusion processes).  Yet intersectionality, as an analytical tool, has become criticised for its lack of clear definition or defined methodology, the difficulty of operationalisation, the use of black/Asian women as typical intersectional subjects and its doubtful empirical validity. Furthermore, gender and 'race'/ethnicity, as well as the concept of social class, are all problematic concepts and any theorising or empirical work making use of them faces the difficulty of their meaning potentially shifting in different social contexts. For theorists of gender and class politics one or other of these dimensions of inequality has tended to be taken as primary, depending on the starting point of the theorist. If writing in the tradition of labour process theory, for example, social class has been taken as the framework within which gender is considered, even if there are different schools at work within the labour process approach. The same applies for theorists of gender who tend to analyse social class from one of a number of feminist perspectives. Intersectionality, on the other hand, suggests that speaking of gender apart form social class, as well as race/ethnicity and other such 'divisions', distorts analysis. This is because there is no such thing as gender which stands apart from other dimensions such as ethnicity and social class, just as there is no such thing as 'race' devoid of gender and social class, and no such thing as class apart from gender and 'race'. Seen from this perspective, ignoring the intersectional nature of these seemingly different levels of analysis suggests that we systematically overlook aspects of experience. The notion of intersectionality grew out of recognition that social structures intersect to shape social positions. This assumes that social positions and corresponding social groups are created and delineated by social structures such as norms, laws, institutions and traditions that intersect. Intersectionality has been very important in pointing out the limitations of existing theoretical approaches to gender analysis, and in explaining the political benefits of organizing intersectionally marginalized groups. Intersectionality has also been helpful in showing how thinking in terms of gender analyses that seek simply to add on dimensions such as social class and race/ethnicity are incomplete and obscure the experiences of women at the intersection of these social relations. Yet intersectionality can, it seems, to lead to an infinite regress, a non-ending process of splitting social relations until one is left with nought but individuals.  The empirical focus of this article is a group of nurses from Finland who migrated to Sweden to secure employment in their chosen occupation. With the exception of one man, the nurses were all women. The paper explores the utility of an intersectional analysis in examining the interplay of gender, ethnicity and class in order to understand the experience of these people as it unfolded in context, or location. (493 words) Indicative bibliography Acker, J. (2006) Class Questions: Feminist Answers. Lanhan, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Alcoff, L. (1988) Cultural feminism versus Post-Structuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory. Signs, 13, 3, 405-436. Alcoff, L. and Mendieta, E. (2006) Identities - Race, Class, and Nationality. Oxford: Blackwell. Crenshaw, K. (1994) Intersectionality and Identity Politics: Learning from Violence against Women of Color". In Albertson Fineman M and Mykitiuk R (Eds) The Public nature of Violence (178-193). New York: Routledge. De los Reyes, P., Mulinari, D. (2005) Intersektionalitet; kritiska reflektioner over (o)jamlikhetens landskap. Lund: Liber. Lykke, N. (2003) Intersektionalitet - ett anvandbart begrepp for genusforskningen, Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, 1, 45-57. Lykke, N. (2005) Nya perspektiv pa intersektionalitet. Problem och Mojligheter, Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, 2-3, 7-17. McCall, L. (2005) Inersektionalitetens komplexitet. Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, 45, 2/3, 31-56. Nash, J. C. (2008) Re-thinking Intersectionality, Feminist Review, 89, 1-15. Nicholson,  L. (1990) (Ed) Feminism/Postmodernism. New York: Routledge. Phoenix, A. (2006) Interrogating intersectionality: Productive ways of theorising multiple positioning. Kvinder, Kon og Forskning, 2-3. Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) Gender and Nation. London: Sage. Yuval-Davis, N. (2006) Intersectionality and Feminist Politics. European Journal of Women's Studies, 13, 3, 193-2009.


Little is known about how retinoic acid (RA) synthesis, utilization and metabolism are regulated in the embryonic lung and how these activities relate to lung pattern formation. Here we report that early lung bud formation and subsequent branching morphogenesis are characterized by distinct stages of RA signaling. At the onset of lung development RA signaling is ubiquitously activated in primary buds, as shown by expression of the major RA-synthesizing enzyme, RALDH-2 and activation of a RARE-lacZ transgene. Nevertheless, further airway branching appears to require downregulation of RA pathways by decreased synthesis, increased RA degradation in the epithelium via P450RAI-mediated metabolism, and inhibition of RA signaling in the mesenchyme by COUPTF-II expression. These mechanisms controlling local RA signaling may be critical for normal branching, since we show that manipulating RA levels in vitro to maintain RA signaling activated as in the initial stage, leads to an immature lung phenotype characterized by failure to form typical distal buds. We show that this phenotype likely results from RA interfering with the establishment of a distal signaling center, altering levels and distribution of Fgf10 and Bmp4, genes that are essential for distal lung formation. Furthermore, RA upregulates P450RAI expression, suggesting the presence of feedback mechanisms controlling RA availability. Our study illustrates the importance of regional mechanisms that control RA availability and utilization for correct expression of pattern regulators and normal morphogenesis during lung development.


Popular memories of the revolutionary past have become a political and cultural force in China. Traumatic memory and active criticism make up part of this wave, but so does nostalgia for collective responsibility and for feelings of freedom and progress. Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution is the first comprehensive study of contemporary memories of China's revolutionary epoch, from the time of Japanese imperialism through the Cultural Revolution. Path-breaking in its scope, the research in this volume carefully examines the memories of a wide range of social groups, including disenfranchised workers and rural women, who have often been neglected in scholarship. Looking at a variety of embodiments of memories-interviews, films, photo exhibits, museums, and websites-the authors, ranging from anthropologists to film studies specialists, present original research on the idea of "memories as a cultural and political phenomenon." The result is an unprecedented and illuminating reexamination of the memory of, and occasionally nostalgia for, the Chinese Revolution. Contributors include: Anita Chan, Robert Chi, David J. Davies, Kirk A. Denton, Gail Hershatter, Ching Kwan Lee, Kimberley Ens Manning, Erik Mueggler, Paul G. Pickowicz, Jonathan Unger, Ban Wang, and Guobin Yang.


Just before Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane on 10 August 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object Spectrograph detected ultraviolet fluorescent emissions from a tenuous atmosphere of OH molecules enveloping the rings. Brightnesses decrease with increasing distance above the rings, implying a scale height of about 0.45 Saturn radii (RS). A spatial scan 0.28RS above the A and B rings indicates OH column densities of about 1013 cm−2 and number densities of up to 700 cm−3. Saturn's rings must produce roughly 1025 to 1029 OH molecules per second to maintain the observed OH distribution.


Interacting particle systems are a particular class of stochastic processes where single degrees of freedom interact through probabilistic rules defined over a
graph which reflects the spatial topology of the model. From the statistical mechanics point of view these models are of particular interest since they are
genuinely out-of-equilibrium processes and introduce new universality classes and dynamical phase transitions. Among these processes, systems with absorbing states are characterized by points in the state-space in which the dynamics becomes trivial and, once reached, cannot be leaved. Because of the several possible interpretations, these models have found many applications in different areas of science: from condensed matter Physics to Biology, from Ecology to Sociology and Finance and also, in their quantum versions, to quantum control theory. Despite their importance for possible applications, though, a unified understanding
of these systems is still lacking.

In theoretical ecology, many open fundamental questions about the dynamics of ecosystems provide the cue for a further development of the theory of interacting particle systems. In particular, in this thesis we will address three main topics: i) Spontaneous neutral symmetry breaking. A central problem in ecology is the elucidation of the mechanisms responsible for biodiversity and stability. Neutral theory provides gross patterns in accord with empirical observations, but its validity is still highly debated. In particular, it is not clear how this theory can originate the observed non-neutral dynamics. Within a completely species-symmetric theory, we demonstrate that nonlinear dynamics can lead to a stationary state characterized by both stability and biodiversity by spontaneously breaking the neutral symmetry. ii) Habitat heterogeneities. It is known that habitat can have a great impact on the dynamics of species. In its most basic level of abstraction, its effects can be mimicked by an interacting particle system in a quenched random external field that locally breaks the species symmetry. We propose here an effective solution of the model in the long-times limit. iii) Role of boundary conditions. For non-equilibrium systems near a critical point, little is known about the role of the boundary conditions to the global phase diagram of the system. We analyze here a paradigmatic non-equilibrium critical model with mixed symmetry-preserving boundary conditions.


This document describes the Network Time Protocol (NTP), a protocol
for synchronizing a set of network clocks using a set of distributed
clients and servers. NTP is built on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP),
which provides a connectionless transport mechanism. It is evolved
from the Time Protocol and the ICMP Timestamp message and is a
suitable replacement for both. This RFC suggests a proposed protocol
for the ARPA-Internet community, and requests discussion and
suggestions for improvements.


Objective We estimated meaningful change thresholds (MCTs) for Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Fatigue and Pain Interference in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods The responsiveness of several patient-reported outcomes (PROs) was assessed among 521 patients with RA in the Arthritis, Rheumatism, and Aging Medical Information Systems (ARAMIS) cohort. PROMIS Fatigue (7-item) and Pain Interference (6-item) short form instruments were administered at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Self-reported retrospective changes over the previous 6 months (a lot better/worse, a little better/worse, stayed the same) were obtained at 6 and 12 months' follow-up. We estimated MCTs using the mean change in PROMIS scores for patients who rated their change "a little better" or "a little worse." Results Baseline fatigue and pain interference scores were near normal (median 54 and 56, respectively). At 6 months, 7.9% of patients reported their fatigue was a little better compared to baseline (mean change [SD]: –2.6 [4.8]) and 22.8% a little worse (1.7 [5.6]). Pain was a little better for 11.5% of patients (–1.9 [6.1]) and a little worse for 24.2% of patients (0.6 [5.7]). At 12 months, results were similar. Thus, the MCT range was 1–2 points for both fatigue and pain interference. Correlations between change scores and retrospective ratings were low (0.13–0.29), indicating possible underestimation of MCT. Conclusion The group-level MCT for PROMIS Fatigue and Pain Interference is roughly 2–3 points and corresponds to a small effect size, which is consistent with earlier work demonstrating an MCT of 2 points for PROMIS Physical Functioning.


Context. The nova outburst of V407 Cyg in 2010 Mar. 10 was the first observed for this star but its close resemblance to the well known symbiotic-like recurrent nova RS Oph suggests that it is also a member of this rare type of Galactic novae. The nova was the first detected at γ-ray energies and is the first known nova explosion for this system. The extensive multiwavelength coverage of this outburst makes it an ideal comparison with the few other outbursts known for similar systems. Aims. We extend our previous analysis of the Mira and the expanding shock from the explosion to detail the time development of the photoionized Mira wind, circumstellar medium, and shocked circumstellar environment to derive their physical parameters and how they relate to large scale structure of the environment, extending the previous coverage to more than 500 days after outburst. Methods. We use optical spectra obtained at high resolution with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) (R ≈ 45 000 to 65 000) and medium resolution Ondy Observatory (R ≈ 12 000) data and compare the line variations with publicly available archival measurements at 30 GHz OVNR and at X-rays with Swift during the first four months of the outburst, through the end of the epoch of strong XR emission. We use nebular diagnostics and high resolution profile variations to derive the densities and locations of the extended emission. Results. We find that the higher the ionization and/or the higher the excitation energy, the more closely the profiles resemble the He II/Ca V-type high velocity shock profile discussed in Paper I. This also accounts for the comparative development of the [N II] and [O III] isoelectronic transitions: the [O III] 4363 A profile does not show the low velocity peaks while the excited [N II] 5754 A does. If nitrogen is mainly N +3 or higher in the shock, the upper state of the [N II] nebular lines will contribute but if the oxygen is O +2 then this line is formed by recombination, masking the nebular contributor, and the lower states are collisionally quenched but emit from the low density surroundings. Absorption lines of Fe-peak ions formed in the Mira wind were visible as P Cyg profiles at low velocity before Day 69, around the time of the X-ray peak and we identified many absorption transitions without accompanying emission for metal lines. The H Balmer lines showed strong P Cyg absorption troughs that weakened during the 2010 observing period, through Day 128. The Fe-peak line profiles and flux variations were different for permitted and forbidden transitions: the E1 transitions were not visible after Day 128 but had shown a narrow peak superimposed on an extended (200 km s −1 ) blue wing, while the M1 and E2 transitions persisted to Day 529, the last observation, and showed extended redshifted wings up of the same velocity. We distinguish the components from the shock, the photoionized environment, and the chromosphere and inner Mira wind using spectra taken more than one year after outburst. The multiple shells and radiative excitation phenomenology are similar to those recently cited for GRBs and SNIa.


Schools are traditionally established as the main meeting platforms for awareness, education, training and capacity building in the local communities, and as such, are highly regarded and respected. They are situated and integrated in nearly all local communities. They are thus perfectly suited to reach, draw on and provide capacity building to the communities. Zambia recently introduced a new curriculum aspect named localized curriculum, which makes up 20% of the curriculum. The purpose of the study is to evaluate implementation of the localized curriculum in selected primary schools in Mwansabombwe district of Zambia. The main research objectives where to: to find out challenges encountered in the implementation of the localized curriculum in Mwansabombwe district, to investigate the views of pupils and stakeholders in Mwansabombwe district on the utilization of skills learned at school under the localized curriculum and to find out possible practical measures and policies in place enhancing the implementation of the localized curriculum in Mwansabombwe district. This study used a descriptive research design and qualitative research methods. The study evaluated the implementation of the localized curriculum in Mwansabombwe district, using checklist, interview guide, questionnaire method and observation of a number of classroom activities in the Mwansabombwe District. It was observed that social learning interactions took place in the implementation of the localized curriculum. In particular the researcher was interested to know, how the different aspects of the localized curriculum enabled social learning at different levels. This research drew on a number of associated research projects that were carried out in southern Africa and beyond. In his research, Namafe (2008) stated that a great need to institutionalize increased participation of Zambian Basic Schools and their local communities in sustainable development of the country in order to alleviate poverty and achieve equitable development. Hogan (2008 ) researching in a different context, argued that contextualization of the curriculum allowed for indigenous knowledge to come in to the classroom, stating that 'Weakening of the frames provided the opportunity of closer relationships to give space for knowledge other than teacher selected knowledge or book knowledge to enter the classroom.' In this study the researcher found that a number of challenges were encountered in the effort to implement the localized curriculum in three schools. These challenges had been major impediments in implementing the localized curriculum in the three selected schools. Pupils and stakeholders had also aired their views regarding the utilization of the skills learned from the localized curriculum. The stake holders had indicated that the skills had helped the pupils to find employment, preserve culture and also utilization of the local resources. The measures to be implemented were also given to the researcher. Most of the pupils expressed concern in the implementation of the localized curriculum; they indicate that they were shortages of learning materials, inadequate teachers, need for extension of time given to practical subjects and poor infrastructure are major hindrances to localized curriculum implementation. The key recommendation of the study were that; Community iv Studies should being an examinable subject, also syllabi should be designed at zonal resource centers by teachers and resource persons from the community. In addition to this, allowance to motivate resource persons should be available. Training of community leaders in Community Studies should be as well be encouraged.


This Article critiques Professor David Friedman's article, Public Health Regulation and the Limits of Paternalism, and sets forth an alternative view of the limits of anti-obesity public health paternalism. Specifically, it critiques Friedman's classification of public health interventions based on how coercive the intervention is, and offers an alternative construct to analyze paternalistic public health interventions. The alternative approach, developed by Mark Hall, distinguishes between (1) "old" public health interventions that target specific pathogens or toxins, and (2) "new" public health interventions that target upstream behavioral risk factors and ecological factors.This Article then elaborates on the main example that Friedman uses to illustrate his claims about coercive public health paternalism, the New York City portion cap on sodas and other sugary drinks. By comparing Friedman's approach and the alternative approach, it shows that the latter better explains the case that invalidated the sugary drink portion cap rule. Moreover, this Article challenges Friedman's assertion that the case is a death knell for public health paternalism. Although the New York Board of Health now faces formidable challenges with respect to promulgation of new public health regulations, public health advocates in New York City can continue to advance the new public health goal of reducing obesity and diabetes in New York, by striving to foster greater political consensus regarding the legitimacy of that goal and the best means of achieving it. Beyond New York, in jurisdictions with less severe case law constraints on agency action, state and local public health agencies may have greater latitude to promulgate and enforce new public health regulations, including anti-obesity regulations.


Contemporary upper extremity prosthetics bring a lot of benefit to the amputee community. However, there are still a number of challenges facing the field of upper extremity prosthetics. These challenges include high cost and low functionality. This dissertation looks into a low-cost solution to provide a modular upper extremity prosthetic that will be suitable for both transradial and transhumeral amputees. A novel method of myoelectric control is investigated with the introduction of a haptic user interface which will enhance the functionality of the prosthesis. This approach uses haptic feedback to display information (through the use of haptic displays) about the status of the control of the prosthetic arm. The hand of the prosthetic arm is equipped with tactile sensors. These sensors read grip force, object slip, object temperature and object texture. In a novel approach to haptic feedback, this sensory information is displayed to the user simultaneously through a multi-sensory haptic feedback system. The haptic display uses vibrotactile displays to communicate the information to the user through vibrations. This approach gives the user a more holistic sensory representation. The UKZN Touch Hand was developed at a cost of US$ 1'000 for materials and parts. It is capable of gripping with 19.5 N using a power/cylindrical grip and 3.7 N using a lateral/key grip. It can hold up to 8 kg passively using a hook grip. The hand weighs 540 g including all electronics. It is equipped with pressure, temperature and vibration sensors to sense grip force, object temperature, slippage and texture. A novel simultaneous multi-sensory haptic feedback system was designed, tested on nine test subjects and shown to be a suitable form of feedback using a single vibrotactile display per sensory channel. A novel electromyography control method was developed to allow the amputee to select from a limitless list of pre-set grip types and hand gestures using only two muscles. The Touch Hand was successfully tested on a transradial amputee who used it to perform tasks such as picking up various objects, pouring a bottle of water and drinking from a cup. Future work in this research should investigate alternative haptic feedback communication protocols to optimise the communication of information. Future work should also be done in developing fitting and training software to improve the amputees fitting and learning experience of the control of the prosthetic hand.


Traffic incidents are a major source of congestion in Virginia. Secondary incidents comprise a relatively small but important portion of all incidents, and relatively little is known about their occurrence, characteristics, and associated delays. The main objectives of this study were to define secondary incidents, understand and analyze the occurrence and nature of such incidents, and develop tools that can comprehensively and continuously analyze primary and secondary incidents at the planning and operational levels, ultimately contributing to congestion management. The scope of the study is limited to freeway incidents in the Hampton Roads (HR) area. The study found that secondary incidents account for nearly 2% of Transportation Operations Center (TOC)-recorded incidents, using the 2006 data. Of all accidents, 7.5% had associated secondary incidents, 1.5% of disabled vehicles had secondary incidents, and 0.9% of abandoned vehicles had secondary incidents. Despite their relatively low percentages, on average, two to three secondary incidents occur daily in the HR area. Further, the average durations of secondary incidents in HR are 18 minutes, which is 4 minutes longer than the mean duration of other (independent) incidents, indicating that secondary incidents are not necessarily minor "fender benders." The study also found that a 10-minute increase in primary incident duration is associated with 15% higher odds of secondary incidents. This study developed and applied a dynamic queue-based tool (SiT) to identify primary and secondary incidents from historical incident data and incorporated the models developed for incident duration, secondary incident occurrence, and associated delays in an online prediction tool (iMiT). Although the tools developed in this study (SiT and iMiT) are currently calibrated using HR data, the methodology is transferable to other regions of Virginia. The study recommends that (1) VDOT TOC analysts (where available) use primary and secondary incidents as additional performance measures; (2) VDOT TOC analysts (where available) identify secondary incident hot-spots; (3) VDOT's Regional Traffic Operations Managers give priority (in terms of monitoring, patrol coverage, and traveler information dissemination) to secondary incident hot-spots; (4) TOC managers and their staff use the online prediction tool, iMiT; (5) VDOT TOCs continue and expand the use of service patrols to implement aggressive incident clearance procedures (where appropriate), continue and strengthen their outreach to other response agencies using the Regional Concept of Transportation Operations (RCTO) or similar mechanisms, and improve incident scene management to avoid distractions from both the same and opposite directions; and (6) VDOT Operations and Security Division staff work to reconstitute the Statewide Incident Management Committee. The benefit of reducing the number of secondary incidents by 25% (an implication of the stated goal of the HR RCTO) was calculated using two methods. The first method resulted in a benefit in terms of reduced incident delay estimated at $1.11 million per year. The second method used slightly different assumptions and resulted in an estimated delay savings of $1.23 million.


Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, and Jared Cohen, Founder and Director of Google Ideas, contend that 'for governments and companies', the user-generated content that constitutes big data is 'a gift, enabling them to better respond to citizen and customer concerns, and, within the emergent field of predictive analysis, to predict what the future will hold'. In this article, I interrogate what it means for data from our social lives to be interpreted as a 'gift' by private enterprises such as Google. Who is giving what to whom? What is the nature of the transaction? Whose property is this data? By putting into conversation Schmidt and Cohen's gift thesis with an analysis of the 'value' of participation in digital communication networks, this article seeks to uncover an intellectual property conundrum that legitimizes the rise of new kinds of labour vulnerabilities in the digital age; intensifying the extension of the logic of privatization into our digital social lives; and, in doing so, the importance of intellectual property as a language of critique and resistance.


This article argues that all adolescents, indeed all human beings, deserve at least one parent�one person who takes the good with the bad because that person�s life is intertwined with the child�s. The child matters to the parent in a way that a friend, nephew, or foster child may not. Child welfare professionals must never lose sight of this principle when they recruit, train, and maintain parents for adolescents. The parent can be someone who is already in the young person�s life or someone who has been unable to parent in the past, but is now ready to secure that bond. True parents are attainable for teenagers in foster care as long as child welfare professionals remember what they are looking for and are steadfast and creative in their efforts to find and nurture these relationships. Section Two of this article details the issues that adolescents face when they age out 5 of the foster care system. Next, Section Three discusses the obstacles adolescents face in attaining familial permanency. Section Four examines the aspects of successful adoptions, including the recruitment and decision making processes, in an effort to apply those principals to developing and maintaining adolescent permanency. Finally, Section Five concludes with the keys to successful adolescent permanency.


Abstract: Edrioasteroids are an extinct clade of echinoderm that are rarely preserved in the fossil record due to rapid post-mortem disarticulation of their multi-element skeletons. Here we investigate two well-preserved limestone slabs from the Mississippian (Chesterian) Kinkaid Formation of southern Illinois bearing 242 specimens of the edrioasteroid Neoisorophusella lanei attached to internal molds of Promytilus bivalves. To assess edrioasteroid paleoecology we examined edrioasteroid age structure, thecal orientation, spatial utilization, and degree of postmortem disarticulation. Size-frequency analysis, used as a proxy for age, shows right-skewed, bimodal distributions of thecal diameter on both slabs suggesting high juvenile mortality and two spatfall events. Thecal orientation, using an arbitrarily assigned "North" direction, suggests that no preferential orientation exists. When examined at large scale using Nearest Neighbor Analysis and Ripley's K statistics, edrioasteroids on the slabs exhibit clustering nearing random distributions across the encrusted surfaces. Clusters of edrioasteroids examined at a smaller areal scale show evidence of dispersion. The 242 edrioasteroids cover a combined surface area of 104.41 cm2, yielding an overall density of 23,177 edrioasteroids per m2, an order of magnitude greater than the highest densities previously reported in other studies. No thecal disarticulation occurs in 85% of the population of 242 edrioasteroids suggesting that the edrioasteroids were alive when catastrophically buried. Thecal deformation occurs frequently as a result of competition for space. A striking example of edrioasteroids superimposed onto a larger edrioasteroid substrate may be due to (1) conspecific overgrowth or (2) transport, and subsequent dissolution, of a shell with edrioasteroid epigrowth.


Glucose disposal occurs by both insulin-independent and insulin-dependent mechanisms, the latter being determined by the interaction of insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion. To determine the role of insulin-independent and insulin-dependent factors in glucose tolerance, we performed intravenous glucose tolerance tests on 93 young healthy subjects (55 male, 38 female; 18–44 years of age; body mass index, 19.5–52.2 kg/m2). From these tests, we determined glucose tolerance as the glucose disappearance constant (Kg), calculated β-cell function as the incremental insulin response to glucose for 19 min after an intravenous glucose bolus (IIR0-19), and derived an insulin sensitivity index (SI) and glucose effectiveness at basal insulin (SG) using the minimal model of glucose kinetics. To eliminate the effect of basal insulin on SG and estimate insulin-independent glucose uptake, we calculated glucose effectiveness at zero insulin (GEZI = SG [SI × basal insulin]). Insulin-dependent glucose uptake was estimated as SI × IIR0-19, because the relationship between SI and β-cell function has been shown to be hyperbolic. Using linear regression to determine the influence of these factors on glucose tolerance, we found that GEZI was significantly related to Kg (r = 0.70; P < 0.0001), suggesting a major contribution of insulin-independent glucose uptake to glucose disappearance. As expected, SI × IIR0-19 also correlated well with Kg (r = 0.74; P < 0.0001), confirming the importance of insulin-dependent glucose uptake to glucose tolerance. Although IIR0-19 alone correlated with Kg (r = 0.35; P = 0.0005), SI did not (r = 0.18; P > 0.08). By multiple regression, 72% of the variance in Kg could be explained by GEZI and S1 × IIR0-19 (r = 0.85; P < 0.0001). We conclude that insulin-independent glucose uptake is a major determinant of intravenous glucose tolerance and that the interaction of insulin sensitivity and insulin levels are more important than either factor alone as a determinant of intravenous glucose tolerance.


The objective of this paper is to develop and present a GIS-based and software tool capable of data management, data visualisation, and data analysis. The developed software is proved to be a good tool in the initial assessment of the quality status of the Nile river water quality. In addition a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was fully designed and implemented to make the GIS tool very easy and handy for the decision maker. Spatial analysis and visualisation of water quality data can be easily presented through the interface. It is concluded that water quality along the main stem is much better than the quality along the two main branches, where more violations are observed.


The extraordinary transmission through silver film perforated with rectangular hole array with different aspect ratio was investigated. It was found that when the aspect ratio exceeded 7, the propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) transformed to localized resonance mode. The role of the Wood's anomaly on the shape of the transmission spectrum is investigated. By designing the rectangular hole arrays in a rectangular lattice, the Wood's anomaly can be shifted far apart from the transmission peak, the real localized resonance peak wavelength was identified and fitted well with the theoretical calculation using a simplified transmission-line model.


In recent years there has been an increased focus upon developing platforms for community decision-making, and an awareness of the importance of handing over civic platforms to community organisations to oversee the process of decision-making at a local level. In this paper, we detail fieldwork from working with two community organisations who used our distributed situated devices as part of consultation processes. We focus on some of the mundane and often-untold aspects of this type of work: how questions for consultations were formed, how locations for devices were determined, and the ways in which the data collected fed into decision-making processes. We highlight a number of challenges for HCI and civic technology research going forward, related to the role of the researcher, the messiness of decision making in communities, and the ability of community organisations to influence how citizens participate in democratic processes.


There is limited research investigating the relationship between dual diagnosis and offender outcomes in drug court settings, specifically regarding recidivism. The current study examined the effects of dual diagnosis on recidivism following participation in one drug court in the Southwestern United States. Results provided mixed evidence surrounding the impact of dual diagnosis on recidivism outcomes. Dual diagnosis significantly increased the odds of recidivism for participants at 6 months but the effect was not significant at 12 months. These findings suggest that dual diagnosis may play a role in offender recidivism shortly after participation in drug court. In addition, some differences between dually diagnosed participants and those with only substance use diagnoses were found.


Travelers sometimes need to reach a destination in a given amount of time. However, today's navigation systems try to route users to the destination as fast as possible. In this paper, we present the concept of time-based pedestrian navigation. We use a map on a smartphone that highlights streets depending on whether they will lead to a destination in time. Our map also allows the users to choose between route alternatives during the walk.


Functional Status Information (FSI) describes physical and mental wellness at the whole-person level, and includes information on activity performance, social role participation, and environmental and personal factors that affect the well-being and quality of life. Collecting and analyzing this information is critical to address the needs for caring for an aging global population, and to provide effective care for individuals with chronic conditions, multi-morbidity, and disability. Personal knowledge graphs (PKGs) represent a suitable way for representing in a complete and structured way all information related to persons' FSI and for reasoning over them in order to build tailored coaching solutions supporting them in daily life for conducting a healthy living. In this paper, we present the development process related to the creation of a PKG by starting from the HeLiS ontology in order to enable the design of an AI-enabled system with the aim of increasing, within people, the self-awareness of their own functional status. In particular, we focus on the three modules extending the HeLiS ontology aiming to represent (i) enablers and (ii) barriers playing potential roles about improving (or deteriorating) own functional status and (iii) arguments driving the FSI collection process. Finally, we show how these modules have been instantiated into real-world scenarios.


As it has become the norm for cloud providers to host multiple datacenters around the globe, significant demands exist for inter-datacenter data transfers in large volumes, e.g., migration of big data. A challenge arises on how to schedule the bulk data transfers at different urgency levels, in order to fully utilize the available inter-datacenter bandwidth. The Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm has emerged recently which decouples the control plane from the data paths, enabling potential global optimization of data routing in a network. This paper aims to design a dynamic, highly efficient bulk data transfer service in a geo-distributed datacenter system, and engineer its design and solution algorithms closely within an SDN architecture. We model data transfer demands as delay tolerant migration requests with different finishing deadlines. Thanks to the flexibility provided by SDN, we enable dynamic, optimal routing of distinct chunks within each bulk data transfer (instead of treating each transfer as an infinite flow), which can be temporarily stored at intermediate datacenters to mitigate bandwidth contention with more urgent transfers. An optimal chunk routing optimization model is formulated to solve for the best chunk transfer schedules over time. To derive the optimal schedules in an online fashion, three algorithms are discussed, namely a bandwidth-reserving algorithm, a dynamically-adjusting algorithm, and a future-demand-friendly algorithm, targeting at different levels of optimality and scalability. We build an SDN system based on the Beacon platform and OpenFlow APIs, and carefully engineer our bulk data transfer algorithms in the system. Extensive real-world experiments are carried out to compare the three algorithms as well as those from the existing literature, in terms of routing optimality, computational delay and overhead.


This article focusses on the concept of decision and its significance for identity politics. Constructivist scholarship established long ago that identity and foreign policy are mutually constitutive and that difference and othering are key for the production of identities. As a consequence, constructivist literature on EU foreign policy has focussed on the role of specific others and explored how interaction with them shapes the EU's identity. Our article turns the attention back inside and looks at the hegemonic struggles around the purpose and meaning of the European project. By analyzing the EU's reaction to the Libyan events in 2011, we demonstrate how a major international crisis dislocates the identities involved and unleashes a struggle for hegemony between conflicting discursive articulations. Eventually this conflict is resolved through a political decision, which reconfigures the entire 'global' outlook on Europe and its role in the world. By defining decision along poststructuralist lines, as distinct from the conventional literature on decision-making, we demonstrate that the use of this conceptual prism helps deepen our understanding of how othering and bordering work to produce and reshape identities. By doing that, we seek to contribute to a better understanding of how identities change in time.


This paper deals with an optimal control problem associated with the Kuramoto model describing the dynamical behavior of a network of coupled oscillators. Our aim is to design a suitable control function allowing us to steer the system to a synchronized configuration in which all the oscillators are aligned on the same phase. This control is computed via the minimization of a given cost functional associated with the dynamics considered. For this minimization, we propose a novel approach based on the combination of a standard Gradient Descent (GD) methodology with the recently-developed Random Batch Method (RBM) for the efficient numerical approximation of collective dynamics. Our simulations show that the employment of RBM improves the performances of the GD algorithm, reducing the computational complexity of the minimization process and allowing for a more efficient control calculation.