In this study, we propose a two-dimensional (2D) dielectric structure tailored by a systematic design approach on the exit side of a metallic aperture to enhance the off-axis electromagnetic (EM) wave. We adopted a phase field method based topology optimization scheme and designed an arbitrary 2D dielectric structure in order to steer outward beaming through an aperture to a specific direction. Beyond previous one-dimensional structure, we proposed an arbitrary 2D dielectric structure through the introduced design process defining not only x- but also y-directional dielectric structural boundaries simultaneously and experimentally confirmed enhanced EM wave transmission to a desired direction.


Neural crest cells (NCCs) are a promising source for cell therapy and regenerative medicine owing to their multipotency, self-renewability, and capability to secrete various trophic factors. However, isolating NCCs from adult organs is challenging, because NCCs are broadly distributed throughout the body. Hence, we attempted to directly induce NCCs from human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs), which can be isolated easily, using small molecule cocktails. We established a controlled induction protocol with two-step application of small molecule cocktails for 6 days. The induction efficiency was evaluated based on mRNA and protein expression of neural crest markers, such as nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR) and sex-determining region Y-box 10 (SOX10). We also found that various trophic factors were significantly upregulated following treatment with the small molecule cocktails. Therefore, we performed global profiling of cell surface makers and identified distinctly upregulated markers, including the neural crest-specific cell surface markers CD271 and CD57. These results indicate that our chemical treatment can direct human ADSCs to developing into the neural crest lineage. This offers a promising experimental platform to study human NCCs for applications in cell therapy and regenerative medicine.


For the rational Baker-Akhiezer functions associated with special arrangements of hyperplanes with multiplicities we establish an integral identity, which may be viewed as a generalisation of the self-duality property of the usual Gaussian function with respect to the Fourier transformation. We show that the value of properly normalised Baker-Akhiezer function at the origin can be given by an integral of Macdonald-Mehta type and explicitly compute these integrals for all known Baker-Akhiezer arrangements. We use the Dotsenko-Fateev integrals to extend this calculation to all deformed root systems, related to the non-exceptional basic classical Lie superalgebras.


ERBB2 receptor belongs to the ERBB tyrosine kinase receptor family. At variance to the other family members, ERBB2 is a constitutively active orphan receptor. Upon ligand binding and activation, ERBB receptors form homo- or hetero-dimers with the other family members, including ERBB2, promoting an intracellular signaling cascade. ERBB2 is the preferred dimerization partner and ERBB2 heterodimers signaling is stronger and longer acting compared to heterodimers between other ERBB members. The specific contribution of ERBB2 in heterodimer signaling is still undefined. Here we report the formation of circular dorsal ruffles (CDRs) upon treatment of the ERBB2-overexpressing breast cancer cell lines SK-BR-3 and ZR751 with Trastuzumab, a therapeutic humanized monoclonal antibody directed against ERBB2. We found that in SK-BR-3 cells Trastuzumab leads to surface redistribution of ERBB2 and ERBB1 in CDRs, and that the ERBB2-dependent ERK1/2 phosphorylation and ERBB1 expression are both required for CDR formation. In particular, in these cells CDR formation requires activation of both the protein regulator of actin polymerization N-WASP, mediated by ERK1/2, and of the actin depolymerizing protein cofilin, mediated by ERBB1. Furthermore, we suggest that this latter event may be inhibited by the negative cell motility regulator p140Cap, as we found that p140Cap overexpression led to cofilin deactivation and inhibition of CDR formation. In conclusion, here we show for the first time an ERBB2-specific signaling contribution to an ERBB2/ERBB1 heterodimer, in the activation of a complex biological process such as the formation of CDRs.


Title of dissertation: PIEZOELECTRIC PHASED ARRAY ACOUSTO-ULTRASONIC INTERROGATION OF DAMAGE IN THIN PLATES Ashish S. Purekar, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Darryll Pines Department of Aerospace Engineering Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) systems can provide substantial benefits for aging aerospace systems as well as newer systems still in the design process. In aging aerospace systems, a retrofitted SHM system would alert users of incipient damage preventing catastrophic failure. For newer systems, incorporating a SHM approach and using CBM techniques can reduce life-cycle costs. Central to such SHM and CBM systems is the ability to detect damage in a structure. Traditional approaches to damage detection in structures involve one of two methods. In the modal dynamics approach, the natural frequencies and modeshapes of a structure shift when damage occurs. The location, type, and amount of damage is determined by the shifts in the modal properties due to damage. Alternately, in an Ultrasonics approach, the structure is scanned with a specialized transducer which induces high frequency vibrations in the structure. Damage in the structure is inferred when these vibrations are altered. In the same vein as Ultrasonics, Acoustic Emission based methods listen for energy release in the structure upon defect growth. All of these techniques have limitations which hinder their usage in a practical system. This thesis attempts to develop a methodology with the benefits of the modal approach as well as the Ultrasonics/Acoustic Emission approach. The methodology is commonly referred to as an Acousto-Ultrasonic technique for damage detection. The structural dynamics of plate structures is described as wavelike in nature where the plate is a medium for wave propagation. For thin plates, bulk wave propagation is described using Lamb wave modes. The two fundamental modes of wave propagation are the in-plane acoustic mode and the transverse bending mode. The interaction of these waves with a discontinuity or damaged region changes the way the waves propagate. Part of the incident wavefront is reflected back while the rest is transmitted through the damaged region. The presence of the reflected waves and the attenuation of the incident wave in the transmission case indicates that damage is present in the structure. A reflected wave can be used to infer the location of damage on a structure. A phased array technique is used which isolates the source of these reflections in an effort to identify the damage location. Phased arrays are shown to act as directional filters which sense the structural vibrations of the plate and selectively look in a certain direction on the plate relative to the array orientation. Reflections from damage can then be extracted from sensor signals in an effort to locate a damage region. Damage in the form of a hole in an isotropic plate is examined and the phased array technique is used to show that the location of the hole can be determined as well as trends indicating that the size can be determined. For anisotropic materials, such as fiber reinforced composite laminates, the dynamics associated with wave propagation are more complicated. This is shown in composite laminates where wave propagation is dependent on the direction of travel. A more fundamental concern is developing an understanding of the wave propagation properties of a composite laminate. A model is developed to determine the dispersion relations for a laminate made of an arbitrary layup of orthotropic plies. The predicted results from the model are compared with experimental results showing that the dispersion relations can be accurately determined. The phased array technique is then applied to wave propagation in a composite laminate to determine the presence of delamination damage. It is shown that delaminations do produce reflections from incident waves. Though the reflections are weak, they can be extracted from the structural dynamics by use of the phased array technique. Traditional modal methods are then compared with a wave propagation approach. Modal methods are shown to have difficulty ascertaining low damage levels when using a small number of modes. As the amount of information increases, such as a larger set of modes and larger number of sensors, the modal methods become more sensitive. A wave propagation approach is shown to be sensitive to small damage amounts and the location and approximate extent of damage can be determined using less information. PIEZOELECTRIC PHASED ARRAY ACOUSTO-ULTRASONIC INTERROGATION OF DAMAGE IN THIN PLATES by Ashish S. Purekar Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006 Advisory Commmittee: Professor Darryll Pines, Chair/Advisor Professor Amr Baz Professor Inderjit Chopra Professor Sung Lee Professor Norman Wereley c © Copyright by Ashish S. Purekar 2006 (r a;aH ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Darryll J. Pines, for giving me the opportunity to explore a challenging and interesting topic. I would also like to thank the other committee members: Professor Amr Baz, Professor Inderjit Chopra, Professor Sung Lee, and Professor Norman Wereley. A bit of each of their teachings is in this thesis. I owe a heartfelt thank you to my immediate and extended family. Their encouragement and unwavering support pulled me through difficult times. Hopefully, I will be able to reciprocate. I would like to express my appreciation to my fellow students in the Aerospace Engineering Department, both old and new. There are too many to list and I would be remiss if I were to unintentionally exclude anyone. I have learned quite a lot from all of them, on both academic and noncollegiate topics. Lastly and most importantly, an acknowledgement to the higher power that helps us along our paths. A;va;DUa;ta ; a;.cMa;ta;na


Following recent molecular phylogenetic studies in Old World Gesneriaceae the nomenclatural implications for names in Henckelia are examined. New combinations are made in Codonoboea and Loxocarpus to account for species now excluded from Henckelia. A list is presented in which the current position of all species hitherto assigned to Henckelia is given, including the new combination Henckelia rotundata (Barnett) D.J.Middleton & Mich.Moller. A new combination in Oreocharis is made.


This paper jointly analyses two major challenges of the canonical NOEM model: i) combining a relatively important exchange rate pass-through at the border with low pass-through at the consumer level, and ii) generating significant endogenous international business cycle synchronization. These issues have been separately analysed in the literature, with extension of the NOEM with a distribution sector for mitigating the exchange-rate pass-through, and foreign input trade for spillovers. We show that introducing input trade for price-maker firms rehabilitate the model regarding the pass-through disconnect, which is especially helpful to model very open economies, while adding a distribution sector lacks flexibility to do so. Moreover, these two extensions of the canonical model mitigate the expenditure switching effect, with implications in terms of international synchronization.


Chitin, a homopolimer, is the most abundant renewable natural resources after cellulose. Chitin and its derivatives hold many applications in agriculture, textile, pharmacy and medic. Chitin that extracted from waste shrimp shells by biological fermentation has better quality than chemical procees. Demineralization of chitin by biological procees use lactic acid as product of fermentation. Deproteinization of chitin use proteolytic activity of enzyme that produce by bacteria in fermentation. Lacto-bacillus acidophilus FNCC116 has been immobilized by entrapment methods and 2% sodium alginate in 0,2 M CaCl2 as the matric . The ability of immobilized Lacto-bacillus acidophilus FNCC116 cell in fermentation was tested. The fermentation that was carried out in medium which consist of 6% glukosa, 1,5% yeast extract, 0,003% MnSO4 0,003% FeSO4.7H2O, 0,02% MgSO4.7H2O and has been producted 2,24% lactic acid. Demineralization of waste shrimp shell with 30% immobilized Lactobacillus acidophilus FNCC116 cell has successfully decreased ash content tol 1,18% and produced lactic acid maximum 2.24%. Immobilization of Lactobacillus acidophilus FNCC116 cell promised an efficient method in bioproceesing of chitin recovery. Key words : Immobilization cell, chitin, Lactobacillus acidophilus.


The authors of Integrating Behavioral and Social Sciences With Public Health examine the ways that community-based behavioral and social science have been applied to major public health concerns. By its nature, public health is complex: Drug addiction, HIV, cancer, violence, and cardiovascular disease are threats notoriously difficult to control. Scientific advances have the potential to prevent disease and other health problems, yet when applied to communities the actual results are often less than spectacular. Psychological and other social factors within specific communities can and often do influence human behavior in negative ways that limit the effectiveness of technological and biomedical approaches. Applying the constructive knowledge gained from behavioral and social research to public health represents a promising new direction. The authors in this volume provide insight on that promise by discussing mobilization, prevention programs, intervention evaluations, and research. Not only a showcase of successful integration, this volume is also a challenge to public health specialists and behavioral and social scientists to integrate their work in more effective ways. This call to arms is a must-read for any psychologist or social scientist working in the public health field.


The manipulation of micro- or nano-structure is a promising method to improve pool boiling heat transfer performance. However, most studies just focus on the micro- or nano-structure without considering the combination micro- and nano-structure. In this paper, we fabricated synergistic microchannel, nano-structure, and micro-nano structure surface on the nickel by different technologies. Pool boiling of DI water under saturated condition was experimentally investigated. Result shows at the wall superheat of 18 K, the heat transfer coefficient of micro-nano structure, nano-structure and synergistic micro-channel surface are 16400, 13050, and 13400 W/m2 K higher 89%, 50%, and 54% than that of smooth surface, respectively. The improved heat transfer is attributed to active nucleation sites and capillary flow.


Abstract The coast of Peru (3.5–18°S) is one of the most productive marine areas in the world. The updated seaweed checklist reports a total of 260 specific/intraspecific taxa, of which the Rhodophyta show the highest number (185 species), followed by Chlorophyta (41 species) and Phaeophyceae (34 species). Since 2012, an increase in molecular studies has been reported mostly in Rhodophyta, while Chlorophyta and Phaeophyceae have lagged far behind. Utilization of seaweed resources has been based on artisanal collection from natural beds. These are mainly consumed fresh or salt-dried (Chondracanthus chamissoi and Porphyra/Pyropia species), or exported for polysaccharide extraction (Lessonia nigrescens, Lessonia trabeculata, Macrocystis pyrifera). Although some regulations for brown seaweed extraction exist, overexploitation is a constant threat that must be addressed. Biomass from seaweed farms accounts, at most, for only 4% of the total annual landings, and there is a decreasing trend on seaweed aquaculture production since 2012. However, some cultivation projects for C. chamissoi and Porphyra/Pyropia species are currently being undertaken. In addition, recent studies have started to explore new uses of commercial and non-commercial seaweeds. Uncovering the Peruvian seaweed diversity and establishing well sustained culture and management projects are essential for utilizing and preserving the seaweed resources of Peru.


Subsidence is a geologically hazardous phenomenon that can be aggravated by human such activities as long term water, oil, and gas extraction from underground resources or other mining activities. Abstractions from aquifers cause the aquifer-maintaining forces to lose their state of equilibrium whereby land starts to settle and ultimately subsides. One of the consequences of exploiting groundwater is the rising of well casings. Actually, it is not the well casings that rise but the ground around them that subsides. Subsiding forces can damage well casings and this can foist repair costs, or the wells might even need to be replaced by new ones. In this paper ,finite element methods in two and three dimensional modes as well as ABAQUS software were used to investigate the impacts of subsidence from groundwater exploitation and drawdown on well casings. This investigation was based on data obtained from a real basin. The results obtained through geomechanical simulations using ABAQUS software have shown that the mechanism by which subsidence "bowls" are created cause two forms of rupture in the casings. At the edges of the bowl, surface sediments might slide on soft clay toward the center of the well and cause the casings to bend along their way. Around the center of the bowl something different happens. Considerable compaction of soft clay over time causes the distance between the surface and the bottom of the well to decrease, which results in the buckling of the casings and, in some cases, causes the casings to stick out of the ground.


ABSTRACT Many researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are concerned about online communities that are known to facilitate violent right-wing extremism, but little is empirically known about these digital spaces in general and the developmental posting behaviors that make up these spaces in particular. In this study, group-based trajectory modeling—derived from a criminal career paradigm—was used to identify posting trajectories found in the open-access sections of the Iron March and Fascist Forge forums, both of which have gained notoriety for their members' online advocacy of violence and acts of violence carried out by them. Multinomial logistic regression and analysis of variance were then used to assess whether posters' time of entry into the violent forums predicted trajectory group assignment. Overall, the results highlight a number of similarities and differences in posting behaviors within and across platforms, many of which may inform future risk factor frameworks used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify credible threats online. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this analysis, followed by a discussion of study limitations and avenues for future research.


In this paper we evaluate a stochastic method to assess the spatial distribution of landslide and debris flow processes in the Jemma basin, Central Ethiopia. The Jemma basin is draining the highlands (max. 3.676 m a.s.l.) northeast of Addis Ababa towards the Blue Nile. The basin is characterized by a deeply incised stratigraphy made up of volcanic deposits like flood basalts and tephra. Hence, gravitational mass movements as well as water driven erosion processes occur, documented by the respective forms. We mapped these features using Google Earth images, aerial photo interpretation and fieldwork. The information about the spatial distribution of landslide and debris flow forms was taken as dependent variable in the stochastic modelling approach. Moreover, we performed a detailed terrain analysis to derive the independent variables. We applied two different stochastic modelling approaches based on i) Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) and ii) on an Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) to predict the potential spatial distribution of landslides and debris flows in the Jemma basin. The models are statistically evaluated using the training data and a set of performance parameters such as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Variable importance and response curves provide further insight into controlling factors of landslide and debris flow distribution. The study shows that both processes can be perfectly identified and distinguished. The spatial distribution of the predicted process susceptibilities generally follows topographic constraints. Model performance parameters show better results for BRT, that outperforms MEM. However, MEM results are quite robust and hence are used for the spatial prediction of process susceptibilities.


This paper describes the phenomenon of reliability of power plants. It gives an explanation of the terms connected with this topic as their proper understanding is important for understanding the relations and equations which model the possible real situations. The reliability phenomenon is analysed using both the exponential distribution and the Weibull distribution. The results of our analysis are specific equations giving information about the characteristics of the power plants, the mean time of operations and the probability of failure-free operation. Equations solved for the Weibull distribution respect the failures as well as the actual operating hours. Thanks to our results, we are able to create a model of dynamic reliability for prediction of future states. It can be useful for improving the current situation of the unit as well as for creating the optimal plan of maintenance and thus have an impact on the overall economics of the operation of these power plants.


The 1987 Montreal Protocol to address ozone layer depletion was a pivotal agreement in the history of global environmental negotiations. It established a process that remains an important precedent for dealing with global environmental problems, including global warming. What made the negotiation of that agreement such an iconic event, and what useful lessons does it hold for climate change negotiators? Richard Smith cites a number offactors that were critical to the success of the Montreal Protocol. For example: (1) the United States played a leadership role from the beginning, including banning the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in most aerosols and appointing a chief negotiator with responsibility for developing the U.S. position well before the negotiations began; (2) from the outset all countries that were parties to the agreement, both developed and developing countries, made specific commitments to reduce the production and use of ozone-depleting substances; and (3) the protocol set up a procedure for regularly reviewing and revising its provisions at follow-up meetings, thus accommodating new information rapidly and efficiently. A central lesson that climate change negotiators should learn from the Montreal Protocol is that it set a process in motion, which ultimately led to all parties to the agreement making the necessary commitments to arrest and eventually reverse the deterioration of the stratospheric ozone layer. Clearly, climate change negotiators face a more complex and far-reaching challenge today. The phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals and related infrastructure involved major industries such as refrigeration, electronics, fire fighting, and aerosols and cost billions of dollars. But reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require fundamentally rethinking the present carbon-based societies and taking steps that will affect virtually every aspect of economic activity. Despite this significant difference in the impact on the economic structure of the countries concerned, however, there are similarities between the two challenges, and climate change negotiators would be well advised to reflect on the Montreal Protocol and the lessons that can be learned from it.


In last decade the world economy has seen a twin glut in which a commodity glut depressed commodity prices and export values while a liquidity glut boosted equity values and capital flows, creating a new reality in which net capital flows surpassed net trade flows. The global Covid-19 pandemic is poised to further widen this divergence between global economic and financial paths. In this paper, we lay out what Nigeria could do to take advantage of such global liquidity and position itself favourably in a global post-pandemic environment in which most of the green shoots will be financial, as trade flows that were frozen by the pandemic will take a while to thaw. By taking the measures we suggest, Nigeria (and indeed Africa) could finally reduce its reliance on exports for the external liquidity inflows required for sustaining economic growth and stability and depend more on available global capital flows.

Nigerian economy had enjoyed good times fuelled by sustained improvements in global commodity prices in the first fifteen years after returning to democratic rule in 1999 but had also seen bad times since that jolly ride ended abruptly in the second half of 2014 when commodity prices started weakening:
▫ Windfalls from commodity price surges from 1999 to 2014 fuelled a positive economic narrative in Nigeria:
▫ Economic Expansion- growth accelerated so fast that Nigeria's economy rose from the 52nd to 22nd in the world.
▫ Financial Expansion- bank deposits, bonds, equity market capitalization, government revenue and spending surged.
▫ Stability- a strong exchange rate, single-digit inflation and interest rates.
▫ Reduction in Misery- falling unemployment and poverty rates.
▫ Shortfalls replaced windfalls since the crash of commodity prices in July 2014 and Nigeria's economy has endured:
▫ Economic Contraction- growth reversal, recession, and sluggish recovery to now rank 30th in the world.
▫ Financial Contraction- as bank deposits, equity market, foreign exchange supply, and government revenue shrank.
▫ Instability- Naira lost two thirds of its value against US dollar, inflation and interest rates jumped into double-digits.
▫ Growing Misery- more unemployed, poor, and disenchanted.
▫ The common thread between the two eras is the quantum of external liquidity at Nigeria's disposal. External liquidity windfalls fuelled expansion and stability and external liquidity shortfalls inflicted contraction and instability, underscoring the fact that meeting adequate external liquidity threshold is the primary catalyst of stability and growth.

Nigeria had been in search of ways of stemming the economic decline before Covid-19 pandemic forced the country, like most other countries across the world, into a lockdown that brought the economy to a halt since March 2020, and would most probably end at some point in May 2020, with 2170 confirmed cases and 68 deaths as of 1st of May, when Nigeria must push policies that could brighten the post-pandemic outlook. Unfolding global realities now give Nigeria a chance to leverage its vast public assets to raise external liquidity thresholds enough to switch from contraction to expansion by adopting securitization privatization, liberalization, commercialization policies. Global liquidity glut has seen capital inflows to developing countries double in the last decade and Nigeria is well-placed to get a share of that.

This piece points out that despite negative external income shock, Nigeria remains asset rich domestically. Nigeria's history of oil booms combines favourably with her large population, over half of which are spread in hundreds of urban centres, to bequeath her with huge stocks of valuable public assets. While Nigeria's economic, fiscal, and financial struggles resulting from the decline in income have been conspicuous in news headlines and policy discussions, the solutions that the value of assets owned by Nigeria could unleash have been less so. It is time to broaden the conversation to include the differences that the value buried in vast assets owned by Nigeria could bring to the narratives, evaluate the case for unlocking domestic and external liquidity from them, and explore ways of doing so.

Doing these will change Nigeria's economic, fiscal and financial narratives by unlocking liquidity needed to strengthen Naira, rejuvenate fiscal, financial, and foreign exchange streams, break dependence on volatile oil revenue and costly deficits, rebuild infrastructure, diversify and accelerate growth, eradicate poverty and unemployment, and lay foundations for shared prosperity. In general terms, we must ensure that our policies are well-aligned with unfolding global realities by repositioning to get a good share of the post pandemic financial green shoots: we must push for large FDI/Remittances inflows as our main sources of external liquidity, and deploying those into transport and energy infrastructure to boost stability, growth, and trade.

More specifically, we must select the corporate assets we are willing to sell to equity investors to attract large Brownfield FDI inflows, the intangible assets we are willing to license to foreign investors to attract large Greenfield FDI inflows, the financial assets we can securitize to attract remittances, and the lands and built structures we can repurpose, redevelop and commercialize for lease/sale. We should stop waiting passively to give investors incentives after they arrive, as such investors never arrive. We should learn that it is up to us to strategically offer equity and other investment opportunities as follows:
▫ Securitize Financial Assets- issue foreign currency bonds based on JV equity stakes
▫ Privatize Corporate Assets- sell up to 51 percent of all wholly owned SOEs
▫ Liberalize Intangible Assets- break government monopoly infrastructure sectors
▫ Commercialize Non-Financial Assets- optimize underutilized lands and buildings.

We must also articulate clear enough visions of our future by coming up with credible external liquidity and infrastructure roadmaps that our diaspora and foreign investors can invest in, like India, Saudi Arabia, and lately Egypt do.


ABSTRACT This article examines anxiety, arguing that it is a systemic feature of neoliberalism which regenerates the economy and acts in a conservative manner, thereby effectively preventing social change. Anxiety is explored using psychoanalytic theory to extend Foucault's conception of neoliberal governmentality as proposed in his lectures on neoliberalism at the Collège de France. Relying on Foucault's notion of governmentality as an analytic perspective, this article does not present the economy or the state as the origin of power in neoliberalism. Rather, these are seen as mediums of power, whereas the anchorage point of power relations is understood to be a particular form of governmentality. In neoliberalism, this anchorage point of power is largely supported and strongly characterised by anxiety. While examining the psychic life of power in neoliberalism, I avoid positioning and thus analysing anxiety either on the individual or the macro level of society. Rather, showing that anxiety exposes the weakness of such clean divisions, it is argued that neoliberal subjects are nowadays governed through anxiety.


In 2011 three astronomers were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics having focussed a correct method of measuring cosmic distances by observation of far Supernovae Ia. Assuming the 'lambda'CDM expanding model, they showed that part of the Universe was accelerating , contrary to the original General Relativity predictions. The acceleration was attributed to an Obscure energy linked to the cosmological constant L. This constasnt was formerly introduced by Einstein in the original G.R. equations to empirically counterbalance the gravitational force to the aim of describing the (known) static universe. After the Hubble's discovery (1929) of galaxy redshifts, which launched the expanding universe, Einstein rejected L. This was the sign that he considered L a provisional parameter, not the expression of a new physical force. Nevertheless, this parameter is till today taken into account by cosmologists to fit their observations through the LCDM model. Something is not consequent in the history of the Gravitational theory. The "accelerated expansion" of the universe can be firmly established only through a model independent way. In fact the SNe distances calculated by LCDM expanding model resulted so large that part of the SNe exploded before the so called Big bang Age, in contrast with the bases of the expansion. The astronomers appear reluctant to claim this splashing result. Something in the Obscure energy is not convincing. Before knowing the astronomer's work, I carried out a research about the physical inadequacy of General Relativity as proper theory of Gravitation, notwithstanding the great success in astronomical observations. The profound reason of this inconsistency is the absence of interaction-waves, contrarily to other fundamental Interactions considered in the Standard Model. From several decades the research attempted to improve this unsatisfactory situation trying to detect the so called gravitational waves coming from cosmic events, but no tangible results have been obtained yet. Actually, the gravitational-inertial waves surely exist , as well as the measured gravitational force. The wavelength I found is of the order of the Planck's length, so adequate tools are necessary for detection. One year ago I published a comprehensive analysis which, recognising the inadequacy of the old kinematic basis of Special relativity, gave rise (Michelini, 2012) to a Relativistic Dynamics re-founded on the new dynamical basis of the Micro-quanta paradigm. The high flux f o of micro-quanta filling the space originates, through the mutual - shielding between two particles/masses, the Quantum Pushing gravitational force, whereas at very short distances (<10 -15 ) the same flux f o generates the Strong and Weak nuclear forces. Contrarily to the old Newton's ideas, all these drawing forces do not pull the particles, but push them each other, thus giving rise to the process of Unification of forces. The present paper deals in particular with the Quantum Pushing Gravitation operating on large distances (cosmology), so that between two very distant masses the effect of the mutual scattering on the interposed micro-quanta is not negligible, giving rise to an attenuation factor on the gravitational constant. Quantum Pushing gravitation defines a variable G( r ) = G exp (– S o r ) showing that parts of Universe at cosmological distances? do not feel sensibly the gravitational force. Then the Universe results static, i.e. not expanding. The observed high Hubble's redshifts depend on the interaction of photons that travelled across the micro-quanta giving rise to the redshift z ( x ) = exp( x/L o ) –1. The SNe measuring method just discovered exponentially increasing redshifs. Trying to explain this fact, the redshfts were introduced in the LCDM expanding model that produced the large distances resembling an accelerating universe. Several SNe resulted to exist well before the Big bang. Considering this contrast, which inhibits the expanding models, we introduced the observed SNe redshifts in the Static model, finding that the last SNa ( z = 1.91) explosion happened 15 Gys ago, a reasonable result. Attributing the Hubble's redshift to the Doppler appears no longer necessary. The static universe, immersed within the micro-quanta, is obviously evolving because the synthesis of heavy nuclei always occurs within the star cores. No arbitrary constant L has to be introduced in the Static model since the erroneous concept of "gravitational" mass has been previously eliminated through the Quantum Pushing gravity. The main proof of the Static model is the quantitative recognition that the observed Cosmic Microwave Background is due to redshifted photons emitted–with the characteristic black body spectrum–from all stars of the universe.


The aim of this dissertation is to examine how differences in socioeconomic status, race and place of residence interact with infant and child mortality in Colombia over the period 1967-2010. One of the reasons why the study focuses on infant and child mortality is that the living conditions of children are outside their control, and therefore a good measure of inequality of opportunity. This study explores two large micro-datasets, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series-International (IPUMS-I) and finds that mortality is socially and racially stratified in Colombia. Health care alone cannot reduce the relative differences in mortality In addition, relative differences are also dependent on the context at the municipality level, and the geographical differencess in mortality have widened over the period. Thus, improvements in survival have been made, absolute inequalities have narrowed, but relative inequalities have not improved, remained high and even widened according to some measures. The conclusion may be unexpected for the public opinion given that the decline in absolute inequalities are taken as a sign of overall improvement, but the focus on relative inequalities reveals that patterns of inequality in Colombia are persistently high. If attention is not directed towards these patterns, they might worsen. The benefits of growth are less concentrated than before, but the pattern of exclusion is evident, and is related to historically conditioned socioeconomic inequalities between groups, areas and ethnicities. (Less)


Abstract By developing a synthesis of documents that have been released officially under the revenue recognition project jointly run by the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board, this article points out that the earning generation and realization process over time (that is to say, the traditional accounting model) is in reality still playing an important role without losing its raison d'être. Although this model is supposed to have been consistently rejected since the outset on the premise of the adoption of the assets and liabilities approach amid the Boards' attempt to establish a new revenue recognition model, this article aims to reconfirm the significance and validity of this earning process – that is, the corporate process of generating and realizing earnings over time – as the representational focus of accounting for revenue recognition. Through an internal critique, our article summarizes and discusses successive Boards' proposals under the same asset–liability approach that they have been advocating for revenue recognition. Through a comprehensive comparative analysis (external critique), our article further criticizes the usefulness and feasibility of this approach, especially the transfer-of-control basis of revenue recognition which the Boards propose. It argues then for an alternative approach that combines asset–liability with revenue–expense accounting while re-establishing focus upon the earning process over time.


Wildlife management can be for conservation, sustainable utilization, and pest control. This study describes broad-scale patterns in the annual population growth rate (r) in 2 large mammals that are the focus of wildlife management, namely the western gray (Macropus fuliginosus) and the red kangaroo (M. rufus). The study also aims to determine the processes that generate the patterns, in particular weather and harvesting. The mean annual population growth rates were not different from zero (r ∼ 0) consistent with no long-term trends and the stated kangaroo management aims of conservation and sustainable utilization. The frequency distributions of r were broadly consistent with the published data for several other small and large mammals. Western gray kangaroo population dynamics were weakly related to prior rainfall (and the prior Southern Oscillation Index, SOI) and harvesting. Population dynamics of red kangaroos were most related (ω1 = 0.53, R2 = 0.16) to the prior SOI, and to a lesser extent to prior rainfall and harvesting however the relationships were weak. Hence, the management aims were achieved but the ecological processes behind them describing the effects of weather and harvesting are unclear at the large landscape scale. © 2014 The Wildlife Society.


Small group people behavior analysis has attracted much attention in recent years. How to detect, track and analyze the group behavior of related people is a challenging problem. In this paper, a framework for small group people behavior analysis is proposed in video surveillance applications, which is based on temporal recursive trajectory identification. According to real applications, a specific surveillance scene is divided into several zones and correspondent zone connectivity relations are obtained. After that, people counting methods are used to get numbers of people in each zone. Together with zone connectivity relation, a temporal recursive method is applied to identify trajectory that represents the movement of each person between zones. From these determined motion trajectories, groups of people are detected and distributed and their behaviors are analyzed. Experiments on Shanghai World Expo 2010 video surveillance database are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed framework.


In recent years, continuous space models have proven to be highly effective at language processing tasks ranging from paraphrase detection to language modeling. These models are distinctive in their ability to achieve generalization through continuous space representations, and compositionality through arithmetic operations on those representations. Examples of such models include feed-forward and recurrent neural network language models. Recursive neural networks (RecNNs) extend this framework by providing an elegant mechanism for incorporating both discrete syntactic structure and continuous-space word and phrase representations into a powerful compositional model. In this paper, we show that RecNNs can be used to perform the core spoken language understanding (SLU) tasks in a spoken dialog system, more specifically domain and intent determination, concurrently with slot filling, in one jointly trained model. We find that a very simple RecNN model achieves competitive performance on the benchmark ATIS task, as well as on a Microsoft Cortana conversational understanding task.


BACKGROUND
Chronic kidney disease is common and brings significant health burden. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between physical activity and kidney function.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study set in the Nanjing Community Cardiovascular Risk Survey, using random cluster sampling. Questionnaires were completed, wherever possible, through face-to-face interviews. Data on age, sex, body mass index, weekly physical activity, and kidney function were collected. Physical activity was measured by the metabolic equivalent of task-minutes per week and grouped into "walking," "moderate," and "vigorous" according to intensity. Kidney function was measured by the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, in mL/min/1.73 m2). Regression modeling was used to investigate the proposed relationship with adjustment for other confounding factors.

RESULTS
A total of 5824 participants were included, with an average age of 52; 44% were male. The eGFR in average was 76 mL/min/1.73 m2, with 19% ≥ 90, 67% between 60 and 89, and 14% < 60. In average, the total physical activity during a week was 3644 MET-minutes per week. Moderate activity contributed 64% of the total activity, followed by walking (23%) and vigorous activity (13%). Overall, the total activity was weakly associated with eGFR (P = .039). However, in stratified analysis, only walking-related activity was associated with eGFR (P < .0001) after confounding adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS
Walking is associated with improved kidney function.


Intermediate band solar cells (IBSC) has a great potential to increase the efficiency of solar cells and reduce the costs of the generated electricity. To realize IBSC that contain one or more sub-band gap in the main band gap of the semiconductor needs to be developed. In this master thesis, non-destructive spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) measurements are used to determine the dielectric function (DF) of the samples. The measurements are performed on different series of reduced molybdenum oxides, MoO3−x, thin films. The samples had been fabricated by either pulsed laser deposition (PLD) or spin coating (SC) before the thesis work started. To determine the DF, an optical model for the samples had to be developed. A model developed previously for another potential IB material (chromium doped ZnS) was used as a staring point, but turned out not to be suitable for the MoO3−x samples. Initially, information about the thickness and roughness was used to develop the model, and later also information about composition and resistivity, available for some of the samples, was used. Information from cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy images were used to develop the layer structure of the model. For the PLD samples, the final model consisted of three layers and it was assumed to consist of the same material, but with varying amount of void, on top of a substrate. The bottom layer had no void, the uppermost layer (surface roughness) had 50 % void, and in the middle layer the amount of void was used as a fitting parameter between 0 and 50 %. The SC samples were more dense than the PLD samples, and thus the middle layer was not included. A single oscillator layer was developed for the material in both the PLD and SC samples. This oscillator layer accounts for contributions from band to band transitions across the band gap, as well as sub-band gap transitions caused by intermediate, or sub-stoichiometric, phases of MoO3−x and contributions from free electron excitations. The final model was used to obtain the DF for most of the samples, but not for the PLD samples grown at the highest temperatures: for these samples it is likely that the three layers consist of different material, and thus the developed model, assuming the same material in each layer, failed. For the low growth temperature series from PLD and the SC samples, reasonable dielectric functions were obtained, that matched the information about the samples obtained from other characterization techniques, and also matched DFs reported for MoO3−x found in literature. Using the finale model, fitted values for the band gap and other material properties could be obtained. Based on this, we can conclude that the low growth temperature series from PLD consist of mainly MoO3 for the the films made with high oxygen partial pressure in the vacuum chamber during deposition, with very little sub-band gap absorption, meaning that intermediate band states are most likely not present in these samples. In contrast, the low growth temperature series deposited with a low oxygen partial pressure, consist of MoO2 (i.e. highly reduced MoO3), but also of intermediate phases such as Mo4O11, leading to significant sub-band gap absorption. The samples made by SC had been annealed in a hydrogen atmosphere to form oxygen vacancies, because it was known from literature that this could result in an intermediate band. From the fitted values of the band gap and the other parameters we could confirm earlier findings that for the thickest films, only the highest annealing temperatures lead


New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., Oxford, Wien. What does globalization mean for the television audience? Becoming a Global Audience examines concerns of cultural imperialism in relation to the actual experience of television reception in a postcolonial context. The rise of satellite television in India in the context of economic liberalization in 1991 has been marked by the localization of global music television networks like MTV and Channel V. This book argues, however, that this « Indianization is no cause for celebration. Using indepth interviews with Indian music television viewers and theoretical approaches drawn from political-economic, cultural, and post-colonial studies, it argues instead that the reception of « Top Ten shows and nationalistic music videos is part of a profound reordering and appropriation of common sense under the changing social relations of globalization.


Abstract Despite the well‐known associations between local environment and health, few studies have focused on environment and healthcare utilisation, for instance healthcare seeking behaviour or adherence. This study was aimed at analysing housing type, behaviour based on perceived local outdoor safety, social support, informal caregiving, demographics, socioeconomics, and long‐term illness, and associations with health‐seeking and adherence behaviours at a population level. This study used data from the Swedish National Public Health Survey 2004–2014, an annually repeated, large sample, cross‐sectional, population‐based survey study. In all, questionnaires from 100,433 individuals were returned by post, making the response rate 52.9% (100,433/190,000). Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regressions were used to investigate associations between explanatory variables and the outcomes of refraining from seeking care and non‐adherence behaviour. Living in rented apartment, lodger, a dorm or other was associated with reporting refraining from seeking care (adjusted OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.00–1.22), and non‐adherence (adjusted OR 1.22; 95% CI 1.13–1.31). Refraining from going out due to a perceived unsafe neighbourhood was associated with refraining from seeking care (adjusted OR 1.59, 95% CI 1.51–1.67) and non‐adherence (adjusted OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.17–1.36). Social support and status as an informal caregiver was associated with higher odds of refraining from seeking medical care and non‐adherence. This study suggests that living in rental housing, refraining from going out due to neighbourhood safety concerns, lack of social support or informal caregiver status are associated with lower health‐seeking behaviour and non‐adherence to prescribed medication.


A comparative study has been undertaken of the conversion of propene radical cations into allyl radicals in the gas phase and in CCl4 and CF4 matrices, The semiempirical UHF/PM3 method, complemented with ab initio PMP2/3-21G and PMP2/6-31G(d, p) calculations, is employed to model this process, which is observed to occur through an ion-molecule reaction by a proton transfer from the propene radical cation to a neutral propene molecule. Single molecules of CCl4 and CF4 are used to model the influence of the corresponding matrices, following two different pathways depending on which proton is transferred. It is found that the reaction in the gas phase occurs without activation energy. In contrast, a barrier is found on the potential energy curve of the reaction in the CCl4 matrix. The strongest interactions are found for CCl4, resulting in a 6.9 kcal mol(-1) activation energy (2.6 kcal mol(-1) for the second pathway). The reaction in CF4 has an intermediate profile with an activation energy of only 2.0 kcal mol(-1) (no barrier for the second pathway). The interactions between the migrating proton and the matrix molecule are interpreted in terms of the basicity of the matrix.


ABSTRACT We submitted a panel of 416 isolates of Candida albicans from separate sources to multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The data generated determined a population structure in which four major clades of closely related isolates were delineated, together with eight minor clades comprising five or more isolates. By Fisher's exact test, a statistically significant association was found between particular clades and the anatomical source, geographical source, ABC genotype, decade of isolation, and homozygosity versus heterozygosity at the mating type-like locus (MTL) of the isolates in the clade. However, these associations may have been influenced by confounding variables, since in a univariate analysis of variance, only the clade associations with ABC type and anatomical source emerged as statistically significant, providing the first indication of possible differences between C. albicans strain type clades and their propensity to infect or colonize different anatomical locations. There were no significant differences between clades with respect to distributions of isolates resistant to fluconazole, itraconazole, or flucytosine. However, the majority of flucytosine-resistant isolates belonged to clade 1, and these isolates, but not flucytosine-resistant isolates in other clades, bore a unique mutation in the FUR1 gene that probably accounts for their resistance. A significantly higher proportion of isolates resistant to fluconazole, itraconazole, and flucytosine were homozygous at the MTL, suggesting that antifungal pressure may trigger a common mechanism that leads both to resistance and to MTL homozygosity. The utility of MLST for determining clade assignments of clinical isolates will form the basis for strain selection for future research into C. albicans virulence.


This paper presents an improved method for compensating ultra-tiny electromagnetic tracker (UEMT) outputs and its application to a flexible neuroendoscopic surgery navigation system. Recently, UEMT is widely used in a surgical navigation system using a flexible endoscope to obtain the position and the orientation of an endoscopic camera.However, due to the distortion of the electromagnetic field, the accuracy of such UEMT system becomes low. Several research groups have presented methods for compensating UEMT outputs that are deteriorated by ferromagnetic objects existing around the UEMT. These compensation methods firstly acquired positions and orientations (sample data) by sweeping a special tool (hybrid tool) having a UEMT and an optical tracker (OT) in free-hand. Then a polynomial compensating UEMT outputs is computed from both outputs. However, these methods have following problems: 1) Compensation function is obtained as a function of position, and orientation information is not used in compensation. 2) Although we need to slowly move the hybrid tool to obtain better compensation results, this leads increase of time. To overcome such problems, this paper presents a UEMT-output compensation function that is a function of not only position but also orientation. Also, a new sweeping method of the hybrid tool is proposed in order to reduce the sweeping time required for obtaining sample data. We evaluated the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed method by experiments in an OpenMR operating room. According to the result of experiments, the accuracy of the compensation method is improved about 20% than that of the previous method. We implemented the proposed method in a navigation system for flexible neuroendoscopic surgery and performed a phantom test and several clinical application tests. The result showed the proposed method is efficient for UEMT output compensation and improves accuracy of a flexible neuroendoscopic surgery system.


The most predominant method in the U.S. for euthanasia of non-viable piglets (less than 12 lbs.) is manually applied blunt force trauma (Ma-BFT). Manually applied blunt force trauma is one of several euthanasia techniques considered acceptable or conditionally acceptable by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA, 2013). However, Ma-BFT is being criticized on the basis of aesthetics, impacts on those performing the procedure, and ability to produce humane euthanasia consistency. Alternative methodologies to Ma-BFT will be discussed in this fact sheet, highlighting benefits and challenges of these methods, along with implementation techniques.


Econometric models play an important role in transportation analysis. Estimating more and more complex models becomes problematic. The associated log-likelihood function is highly nonlinear and non concave and the comlexity of the model requires constraints (maybe nonlinear) on the parameters in order to obtain meaningful values or to overcome model overspecification which can lead to singularity in the objective function. These difficulties especially arise when estimating advanced discrete choice models. Indeed recent advances have proposed new models in the Generalized Externe Value (GEV) family, mixtures can no longer be applied for the estimation and specific optimization algorithms must be designed for the estimation of advanced discrete choice models. More precisely, we need optimization algorithms able to deal with singularity (possibly nonlinear) and with non trivial constraints. In this paper we propose to investigate the case of unconstrained optimization when an affine singularity arises in the objective function. We present two ways of getting a robust method in the presence of a singularity. Firstly we propose to perform an eigen-structure analysis on the second derivatives matrix of the objective function which allows us to characterize the subspace where the singularity lies. Once the singularity has been properly identified, we fix this singularity by adding constraints in order to better guide the algorithm towards a local solution of the optimization problem. As the identification of the singularity is an iterative process taking place within the optimization algorithm, those constraints must be included "on-the-fly" during the optimization process. This second part is achieved using trust-region based algorithms (in our context we want to maximize the log-likelihood function but also satisfy the adaptative constraints associated with the singularity). Secondly we would like to deal with singularity in the objective function without adding constraints to the problem. We have developed a generalized quasi-Newton methos for unconstrained optimization which should be robust in the presence of singularity. The main idea is to update the second derivatives matrix at each iteration using more information on the function and its derivatives compared to classical secant methods. More precisely, we propose a least-squares approach maintaining a population of previous iterates and calibrating the Hessian approximation on function values and its gradient valus at previous iterates. In this papaer, we present algorithms as well as algorithmic ideas to solve singular unconstrained optimization problems. Then we present tests performed on classical singular problems with the current version of our algorithms. We eventually discuss the future work to be done.


Although we are accustomed to thinking of "crime" as involving the most unambiguously blameworthy sorts of conduct in which citizens can engage, the reality is more complex, especially when we look at certain kinds of "white collar" behavior. In this set of empirical studies, participants were asked to assess a series of scenarios that presented potentially criminal white collar behavior. Lay persons made fairly fine-grained distinctions when deciding which behaviors they thought worthy of criminalization. In some cases, the distinctions made by respondents were consistent with current law. For example, in the case of fraud, participants distinguished between misrepresentations that went to the heart of the bargain and misrepresentations that were extraneous. In other cases, however, there were significant divergences between lay subjects' views and current law. In the case of perjury, for example, participants drew a weaker distinction between lying in court under oath and lying to police while not under oath, and between literally false statements and literally true but misleading statements, than does the law. There were also divergences with respect to bribery: respondents sought to criminalize both commercial bribery and payments accepted by an office-holder in return for performing a non-official act, while American federal law typically criminalizes neither.


Because robotic systems get more complex all the time, developers around the world have, during the last decade, created component-based software frameworks (Orocos, Open-RTM, ROS, OPRoS, SmartSoft) to support the development and reuse of "large grained" pieces of robotics software. This paper introduces the BRICS Component Model (BCM) to provide robotics developers with a set of guidelines, metamodels and tools for structuring as much as possible the development of, both, individual components and component-based architectures, using one or more of the aforementioned software frameworks at the same time, without introducing any framework- or application-specific details. The BCM is built upon two complementary paradigms: the "5Cs" (separation of concerns between the development aspects of Computation, Communication, Coordination, Configuration and Composition) and the meta-modeling approach from Model-Driven Engineering.


The air traffic control industry in Europe is under mounting pressure due to increasing air traffic and inefficient routines caused by a fragmented air space. In order to handle the demands the European Commission has launched a program entitled the Single European Sky initiative which seeks to promote a more efficient way of handling the air traffic over Europe. A reorganization of air traffic management will be introduced during this process and air traffic control centers in Europe will be merged. New tech-nology will further be implemented and the air space will be rationalized. In this context the Swedish air traffic control provider is an interesting case since an adaptation to increasing air traffic and the Single European Sky initiative has already begun through the introduction of new organizational structures and new technology.

As psycho-organizational aspects can be identified as affecting safety out-comes in high risk organizations with highly reliable operations, the overall aim of the research presented in this thesis was to study different psycho-organizational aspects in Swedish air traffic control during times of change. The studies on which this thesis is based focused on: innovative organizational climate, examining the innovative preparedness and capacity to cope with changes in a highly regulated organizational environment; situational leader-ship, examining leadership characteristics in a high risk organization with a well developed safety culture; psychosocial work environment, examining critical psychosocial environmental factors in a high risk organization with de-manding work operations; and safety culture, examining perceptions of safety culture as well as the relationships between safety culture aspects and or-ganizational climate dimensions.

All in all, five studies were conducted of which four were empirical. The empirical studies were all conducted at two air traffic control centers and an administrative air traffic services (ANS) unit which was part of the LFV Group Swedish Airports and Air Navigation Services. The three study loca-tions employed 635 air traffic controllers and other staff members. The or-ganizational climate was measured with the Creative Climate Questionnaire (CCQ) (Ekvall, 1990), the situational leadership with the Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988; Holmkvist, 2000), the psychosocial work environment with the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) (Kristensen, Hannerz, Hogh & Borg, 2005), and the safety culture with the safety culture assessment questionnaire devel-oped by Ek (2006).

Study I concluded that the existing empirical research concerning relation-ships between organizational climate, leadership and safety culture or safety climate is limited. Previous research supports the assumption that safety culture is related to other psycho-organizational aspects, but the knowledge base is still too limited to be conclusive. The ambiguity in defining and op-erationalizing the concepts is an additional weakness in the field.

It was further assumed that the innovative organizational climate would be under-developed in air traffic control due to the strict regulatory framework which is present in this environment. The results from Study II revealed, however, that the innovative organizational climate was quite positive in spite of the rule governed work. Differences in the assessment of the inno-vative organizational climate could be identified according to work charac-teristics and work tasks but not according to organizational position.

Study III concluded that the situational leadership characteristics differed according to situation. The leadership behavior was more relationship-oriented in Success and Group situations compared with Hardship and Individual situations. The leadership adaptability ? the leader's ability to adjust leader-ship style according to the situation ? was superior in Success and Individual situations than in Hardship and Group situations. Operational conditions, lead-ership structures and working tasks were, on the other hand, not associated with leadership behavior.

Three aspects of the psychosocial work environment were identified as dif-ficult in air traffic control in Study IV. In an otherwise positive assessment, Sensorial demands, Freedom and Feedback were challenging aspects. These as-pects seemed to be characteristic for operative air traffic control work since the operative personnel assessed them to be statistically significantly less positive than did the administrative personnel. Organizational position was also found to be influential in the assessment of psychosocial work envi-ronmental factors since the management group made more positive as-sessments on a number of dimensions. The effect of differences in opera-tional conditions was, however, limited.

The safety culture was positively assessed in the Swedish air traffic control context according to Study V. The administrative ANS unit had generally somewhat lower scores than the two operative air traffic control centers. Overall, Communication, Justness and Flexibility received slightly lower scores than the rest of the safety culture aspects. The results further demonstrated that the two organizational climate dimensions, Support for ideas and Conflicts, were positively and most frequently related to the various safety culture as-pects at the two air traffic control centers. However, few relationships were found between the safety culture and organizational climate concepts at the administrative ANS unit.

Because of the limited knowledge concerning the influence of organiza-tional aspects on safety and their possible relationships with safety culture and safety climate, more research in this area is desired, especially in the field of air traffic control. Due to differences in national conditions and culture as well as local variations, studies similar to those conducted in Sweden are also needed in other European countries in order to make the transition to the Single European Sky as smooth, safe and efficient as pos-sible.


Writing real-time applications that react to vast amounts of incoming data is a hard problem, as the volume of incoming data implies the need for distributed execution on a cluster architecture. We envision such an application can be created as a data processing pipeline which consists of a set of generic, reactive components, which may be reused in other applications. However, there is currently no programming model or framework that enables the reactive, scalable execution of such a pipeline on a cluster architecture. Our work introduces the notion of reactive workflows, a technique that combines concepts from scientific workflows and reactive programming. Reactive workflows enable the integration of these generic components into a single workflow that can be executed on a cluster architecture in a reactive, scalable way. To deploy these reactive workflows, we introduce a domain specific language, called Skitter. Skitter enables developers to write reactive components and compose these into reactive workflows, which can be distributed over a cluster by Skitter's runtime system.


Vocal tract length normalization (VTLN) has been successfully used in automatic speech recognition for improved performance. The same technique can be implemented in statistical parametric speech synthesis for rapid speaker adaptation during synthesis. This paper presents an efficient implementation of VTLN using expectation maximization and addresses the key challenges faced in implementing VTLN for synthesis. Jacobian normalization, high-dimensionality features and truncation of the transformation matrix are a few challenges presented with the appropriate solutions. Detailed evaluations are performed to estimate the most suitable technique for using VTLN in speech synthesis. Evaluating VTLN in the framework of speech synthesis is also not an easy task since the technique does not work equally well for all speakers. Speakers have been selected based on different objective and subjective criteria to demonstrate the difference between systems. The best method for implementing VTLN is confirmed to be use of the lower order features for estimating warping factors.


The present paper aims at providing the theoretical background required for investigating the use of the Microsoft Kinect$^{\rm TM}$ (`Kinect', for short) sensors (original and upgraded) in the analysis of human motion. Our methodology is developed in such a way that its application be easily adaptable to comparative studies of other systems used in capturing human-motion data. Our future plans include the application of this methodology to two situations: first, in a comparative study of the performance of the two Kinect sensors; second, in pursuing their validation on the basis of comparisons with a marker-based system (MBS). One important feature in our approach is the transformation of the MBS output into Kinect-output format, thus enabling the analysis of the measurements, obtained from different systems, with the same software application, i.e., the one we use in the analysis of Kinect-captured data; one example of such a transformation, for one popular marker-placement scheme (`Plug-in Gait'), is detailed. We propose that the similarity of the output, obtained from the different systems, be assessed on the basis of the comparison of a number of waveforms, representing the variation within the gait cycle of quantities which are commonly used in the modelling of the human motion. The data acquisition may involve commercially-available treadmills and a number of velocity settings: for instance, walking-motion data may be acquired at $5$ km/h, running-motion data at $8$ and $11$ km/h. We recommend that particular attention be called to systematic effects associated with the subject's knee and lower leg, as well as to the ability of the Kinect sensors in reliably capturing the details in the asymmetry of the motion for the left and right parts of the human body.


A new route toward the fast synthesis of aggregated, chain-like, one-dimensional SrTiO3 nanoassemblies on DNA scaffolds utilizing a simple room-temperature wet-chemical route is reported. SrTiO3 nanoassemblies were synthesized from titanium isopropoxide and strontium oxide in presence of aqueous DNA solution. The individual SrTiO3 NPs with diameters ∼25 ± 10 nm aggregated and self-condensed to generate a chain-like morphology. The specific sizes of the individual NPs and diameters of the assemblies could be tuned by controlling the starting reagent concentrations and other reaction parameters. The mechanism of formation and growth is discussed in detail. The synthesized SrTiO3 nanoassemblies on DNA scaffolds have been utilized as excellent anode materials in two energy-related applications: dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and electrochemical supercapacitors. DSSC studies showed that both morphologies could be used as potential anode materials in photovoltaic applications, while the supercapacitor studies showed that small-sized SrTiO3 nanoassemblies gave a higher specific capacitance than the large-sized morphology. The present synthetic method is simple, cost-effective, robust, and less time-consuming, takes place at room temperature, and could be extended to other energy-related applications, such as lithium-ion batteries or thermoelectrics in future.


Distance Learning through Open Universities is gaining momentum in all the disciplines across the world. In India, there are a few open universities in various states offering the online course materials for bona fide students of open universities. For the purpose of this paper I have taken the free open access contents in astronomy in India, which facilitate the research students and scholars with requirements of professional astronomy research material. Though the course materials offered by the open universities are very useful to the students, learning the scientific concepts especially associated with experiments and processes involving the astronomical phenomena and the access to research results in the form of published papers are very essential for the students to pursue their own research in astronomy. The library at Indian Institute of Astrophysics has created an Open Access Repository containing the research publications of their scientists and research scholars including the full text of their Ph.D theses .This is a valuable resource for students and scholars who are registered with Open Universities, to access the research material in astronomy which would not otherwise will be available to them unless they are registered with any research library. The traditional library services cater to the students by facilitating the online access to many subscribed research journals and online books within the university campuses as the procedure requires the IP registration. The Open Access contents do not require the restricted IP access as they are available in the public domain. The special libraries have a role to play in enhancing the visibility and access to those research contents. Libraries can extend the value added services to the Open Access contents to cater to the people who are differently abled and who require assistive technology. In India we need to focus more on the implementation of the assistive technology within libraries and especially for accessing the contents in the public domain. The special libraries can address this challenge as they are already equipped with resources and the technology in place. As more and more special libraries open up their collections and contents to the scientific community outside their organizations, the frontiers to science communication will diminish. This paper will demonstrate the discipline specific approach to the teaching and research in astronomy in India and the role of the library in fulfilling the objectives of the organization.


This research aims to build a specific logistics model for tuna loin business based on Central Sulawesi resources as a productive supplier for exportation. Four countries are considered as export destinations. They are Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Vietnam. We have identified a logistics process in which frozen tuna loin flow from factory to the port of Tolitoli, Palu, Bitung, and Makassar, and from these ports commodities are transported only to one transhipment of Surabaya. The four destinations receive tuna loin from this transhipment. Based on our model, the allocation of tuna loin passing through the port of Tolitoli amounted to 37.9 tons, the port of Bitung and Palu 12.5 tons, and the port of Makassar 12.1 tons. The closer the distance from factory to collector port and from transhipment to export destination, the lower the optimal logistics costs.


BACKGROUND: Postoperative ileus is common problem after colorectal surgery. A positive effect of coffee to bowel movement has been described. It is still unclear whether coffee decreases the risk of postoperative ileus. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether consuming a 100-mL cup of coffee is effective in preventing or reducing postoperative ileus. DESIGN: This was a prospective, single-center, randomized controlled study. SETTINGS: The study was conducted at a university teaching hospital. PATIENTS: All of the patients who were scheduled for elective laparoscopic left-sided colectomy at our hospital after the detection of malignant disease in a preoperative biopsy between January 2013 and December 2014 entered the study. The patients were assigned randomly before surgery to receive coffee with caffeine (first group), coffee without caffeine (second group), or water (third group) after the procedure (100 mL 3 times daily). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary end point was time to first bowel movement; secondary end points were time to first flatus and time to tolerance of solid food. RESULTS: A total of 105 patients were randomly assigned, 35 to each group. Fifteen patients were excluded. Patient demographic characteristics were similar in the groups. The time until the first bowel movement (measured in days) was significantly (p < 0.05) shorter in the decaffeinated coffee group (3.00 ± 1.50) versus the coffee with caffeine (3.75 ± 1.53) and water groups (4.14 ± 1.14). The time until tolerance of solid food was significantly shorter in decaffeinated group versus coffee with caffeine and water groups (1.85 versus 2.60 and 2.80; p < 0.05). Time until the first flatus (1.47 versus 1.57 and 1.77 for decaffeinated coffee versus coffee with caffeine and water; p > 0.05) did not show statistical significance. Postoperative hospital stay was similar in all 3 of the groups. LIMITATIONS: This is a single-center study with a relatively small sample size. CONCLUSIONS: Coffee consumption after colectomy was safe and in the decaffeinated group associated with a reduced time to first bowel action. Caffeine is not a main ingredient affecting the length of postoperative ileus.


Precipitation is predicted to increase in the Arctic as temperature increases and sea ice retreats. Yet the mechanisms controlling precipitation in the Arctic are poorly understood and quantified only by the short, sparse instrumental record. We use hydrogen isotope ratios (δ2H) of lipid biomarkers in lake sediments from western Greenland to reconstruct precipitation seasonality and summer temperature during the past 8 kyr. Aquatic biomarker δ2H was 100‰ more negative from 6 to 4 ka than during the early and late Holocene, which we interpret to reflect increased winter snowfall. The middle Holocene also had high summer air temperature, decreased early winter sea ice in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea, and a strong, warm West Greenland Current. These results corroborate model predictions of winter snowfall increases caused by sea ice retreat and furthermore suggest that warm currents advecting more heat into the polar seas may enhance Arctic evaporation and snowfall.


Background & Objectives : Idnetifying causes of occupational accidents is a key issue to prevent these accidents. The present study aimed to identify and analyze debilitating accidents in the construction industry during a two-year period (2010-2011 years) . Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study. The study data included information about all debilitating accidents occurred within two years. Data collection was performed according to the accident report forms in construction sites. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 16. The level of significance was considered as P=0.05. Results: The mean age and job experience of injured people were 27.95±6.95 and 2.34±2.00 years, respectively. Most injuries to people were reported in hand (35.4%), legs (28.3%) and back (20.4%). Most of accident types were respectively related to slipping and falling (26.1%), throwing objects (21.7%), falls (18.6%), abrasion (16.8%) and clash (16.4%). Moreover, the main causes of accidents were related to lack of housekeeping (97.3%), lack of proper training (85.8%), lack of PPE (73.0%), unsafe acts (63.3%), unsafe conditions (32.3%) and equipment (22.6%). Conclusion: Analyzing causes of disabling accidents in the construction industry showed that important factors in these accidents included lack of housekeeping, failure to provide proper training, lack of suitable PPE, unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and equipment for the construction jobs.


The success of any diversification strategy depends upon the quality of the estimated correlation between assets. It is well known, however, that there is a tendency for the average correlation among assets to increase when the market falls and vice-versa. Thus, assuming that the correlation between assets is a constant over time seems unrealistic. Nonetheless, these changes in the correlation structure as a consequence of changes in the market's return suggests that correlation shifts can be modelled as a function of the market return. This is the idea behind the model of Spurgin et al (2000), which models the beta or systematic risk, of the asset as a function of the returns in the market. This is an approach that offers particular attractions to fund managers as it suggest ways by which they can adjust their portfolios to benefit from changes in overall market conditions.
In this paper the Spurgin et al (2000) model is applied to 31 real estate market segments in the UK using monthly data over the period 1987:1 to 2000:12. The results show that a number of market segments display significant negative correlation shifts, while others show significantly positive correlation shifts. Using this information fund managers can make strategic and tactical portfolio allocation decisions based on expectations of market volatility alone and so help them achieve greater portfolio performance overall and especially during different phases of the real estate cycle.


The Asian literature on gender is well known for the strong preference for sons characteristic of patrilineal family systems in major mainland cultures. Elsewhere, however, the situation can be very different, of which the most striking is the powerful preference for daughters, and the eminent role that women play in family economy and society, in Southeast Asia's largest matrilineal population, the Minangkabau of Sumatra. Javanese and Sundanese family systems are also often remarked for women's influential roles, and people commonly state preferences for support and personal care from daughters. In this paper, comparative analysis drawing on ethnographic and panel survey data for rural Javanese, Sundanese, and Minangkabau communities is used to illuminate gendered support in relation to differing patterns of inter-generational exchange, socio-economic status, migration and the availability of children. Practices vary considerably between the Minangkabau and the other two populations, reflecting the primary structural significance of gender in Minangkabau identity. Yet in all communities, family networks function to ensure that both sons and daughters normally play major roles in support of their elders. Networks, and the differences in socio-economic status they maintain, introduce considerable heterogeneity into support arrangements. The influence and importance of gender on elderly support is often contingent on other values and demands on network members, so that gender preferences can only be realised by some elders. Where survey variables are interpreted without reference to network structure and function, the importance of gender is thus likely to be underestimated


Marine subsurface sediments are large and ecologically signi cant microbial habitats. The archaeal phylum Lokiarchaeota is a group of organisms commonly found in these sediments. Their metabolism is unknown, but based on several indirect lines of evidence, it has been suggested that they are dissimilatory iron and/or manganese reducers, oxidising organic carbon using ferric iron [Fe(III)] and manganese [Mn(IV)] as electron acceptors. This study aims to further investigate these claims using a two-pronged approach: Firstly, to attempt to enrich Lokiarchaeota in vitro, and monitor the growth using molecular methods; secondly, to correlate Lokiarchaeota abundance data from quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) with data on iron and manganese concentration in the porewater of a long sediment core from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. The results of the study are largely inconclusive, but some evidence that support the hypothesis was found. 16S rRNA gene community pro les suggest that Lokiarchaeota might have grown in one of the enrichments containing amorphous Fe(III)-oxide and pyruvate, and a possible correlation between dissolved Fe(II) and Lokiarchaeota abundance was found in the sediment core.


Part I describes cephalopods from the family Wutinoceratidae, collected in Nevada, Utah, and Newfoundland. Part II illustrates and describes 15 genera and 27 species from the Whiterock stage, mainly of specimens from Nevada and Utah.The family Wutinoceratidae is developed in the Whiterock stage of North America, and members of the family in other regions may indicate Whiterock equivalence of the containing beds. The Wutinoceratidae are discussed; new material, largely from the Whiterock of Nevada and Utah and from the Table Head of Newfoundland, yielded the several new species here described. Notes on occurrence and stratigraphy are included as well as a discussion of the evolution of the Actinoceratida in the Ordovician and some remarks upon the classification of the group. The thesis that the actinoceroids should be elevated in rank equivalent to the Nautiloidea from which they were removed is rejected. Fine structures of septa and the connecting ring are described for Adamsoceras cf. isabelae.Polydesmia, regarded as the oldest and most primitive of the actinoceroids, is known only from occurrences of eastern Asia in beds of either latest Canadian or earliest Ordovician age (Koybayashi, 1940). The next stage in the development of the actinoceroids is marked by the family Wutinoceratidae, which spread widely, being now known in eastern Asia, Tasmania, the Baltic region of Europe, and in the Whiterock stage of Cooper in North America. New material, here described, has augmented the forms known from the Whiterock of Nevada and western Utah. Oddly, these forms seem confined to beds which are rather high in the Whiterock there, the Palliseria zone of Nevada, and zone N (Hintze, 1952, 1953) of western Utah. There is one species, not very well known morphologically in the Oil Creek Limestone of Oklahoma, and new material has added to the species known from the Table Head Limestone of Newfoundland, where they range from beds 2 through 8 in the Lower Table Head Formation (Whittington and Finale, 1963). These are the only three regions in North America in which preserved limy sediments of Whiterock age are known. Intercontinental correlations are always hazardous, but the occurrence of the Wutinoceratidae in other parts of the world may well indicate that the beds containing them are equivalent to the Whiterock of North America.The new material has supplied a basis for a review of some recently published ideas, in particular, the rejection of the Wutinoceratidae and two of its genera by Teichert (in Teirchert et. al., 1964). The author would like to reassert the validity of the family, defined primarily on the radial canal system; the close relationships of its three genera, which show some intergradation from the new material; and the desirability of recognizing this group as a taxonomic entity as well as one significant temporally. Here are described and illustrated nautiloids from the Whiterock stage, mainly of Nevada and Utah comprising 15 genera and 27 species. The Whiterock cephalopods are summarized, drawing upon some material not yet described. They tend to support equivalence of the Utah-Nevada region, the Joins and Oil Creek of Oklahoma, and the lower Table Head of Newfoundland as a pre-Marmor interval. Cephalopod evidence is so far wanting for the higher beds of the Antelope Valley Limestone of Nevada.The preceding paper, Part 1, contains descriptions of the available actinoceroids of the Whiterock stage of North America. This accompanying paper (Part 2) contains descriptions of some additional cephalopods from this same interval, belonging to other orders of the Nautiloidea. It must be emphasized that the forms described here are far from representing the complete fauna. A large amount of material was collected in the last two years, which will add materially to the knowledge of some species which have been long in manuscript, and will add new forms. Some knowledge of this undescribed material is involved in the general discussion of the faunas.


Reversed-pahse high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods were developed for the assay of indomethacin, its decomposition products, ibuprofen and its (tetrahydro-2-furanyl)methyl-, (tetrahydro-2-(2H)pyranyl)methyl- and cyclohexylmethyl esters. The development and application of these HPLC systems were studied. A number of physico-chemical parameters that affect percutaneous absorption were investigated. The pKa values of indomethacin and ibuprofen were determined using the solubility method. Potentiometric titration and the Taft equation were also used for ibuprofen. The incorporation of ethanol or propylene glycol in the solvent resulted in an improvement in the aqueous solubility of these compounds. The partition coefficients were evaluated in order to establish the affinity of these drugs towards the stratum corneum. The stability of indomethacin and of ibuprofen esters were investigated and the effect of temperature and pH on the decomposition rates were studied. The effect of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide on the alkaline degradation of indomethacin was also followed. In the presence of alcohol, indomethacin alcoholysis was observed and the kinetics of decomposition were subjected to non-linear regression analysis and the rate constants for the various pathways were quantified. The non-isothermal, sufactant non-isoconcentration and non-isopH degradation of indomethacin were investigated. The analysis of the data was undertaken using NONISO, a BASIC computer program. The degradation profiles obtained from both non-iso and iso-kinetic studies show that there is close concordance in the results. The metabolic biotransformation of ibuprofen esters was followed using esterases from hog liver and rat skin homogenates. The results showed that the esters were very labile under these conditions. The presence of propylene glycol affected the rates of enzymic hydrolysis of the ester. The hydrolysis is modelled using an equation involving the dielectric constant of the medium. The percutaneous absorption of indomethacin and of ibuprofen and its esters was followed from solutions using an in vitro excised human skin model. The absorption profiles followed first order kinetics. The diffusion process was related to their solubility and to the human skin/solvent partition coefficient. The percutaneous absorption of two ibuprofen esters from suspensions in 20% propylene glycol-water were also followed through rat skin with only ibuprofen being detected in the receiver phase. The sensitivity of ibuprofen esters to enzymic hydrolysis compared to the chemical hydrolysis may prove valuable in the formulation of topical delivery systems.


As evidence is accumulating that subjective expectations influence behavior and that these expectations are sometimes biased, it becomes policy-relevant to know how to influence individuals' expectations. Information in the media is likely to affect how people picture the future. This paper studies the role of public information dissemination, or publicity, in a real-life expectations formation process. For this purpose, an exceptional Dutch dataset on monthly expectations regarding the future eligibility age for old age social security is analyzed. On average, the publicity reaction in eligibility age expectations is small but the differences among subgroups are considerable. I find that higher educated and high income groups hardly adapt their expectations to relevant publicity. On the contrary, those who do not often read a newspaper have a relatively high publicity reaction. A potential explanation for this latter finding is that these groups have low quality initial expectations. If this is true, publicity thus particularly benefits the initially worse informed groups.


This Note compares two medical-malpractice reforms: enterprise liability and no-fault. The Note compares the reforms for their relative ability to compensate injured patients and deter malpractice. The Note also examines the reforms' economic and sociopolitical feasibility. The Note concludes that a no-fault medical-malpractice system would better compensate patients and deter malpractice, but enterprise liability is a more feasible reform that policymakers should pursue more aggressively.


This work is the result of an ongoing enquiry into the ideas behind autobiography, the psyche and its geography. Drawing upon the personal relationship I have had with a particular part of the French Pyrenees, along with my wife and daughter, Louyre –This Our Still Life focuses on an abandoned farmhouse that has become our 'home' on and off for the last 25 years.

Louyre –This Our Still Life is a portrait of the house as seen through the eyes and ears of the family that lives there. Film and video footage taken over 20 years has been edited in an existential and impressionistic way to evoke a sense of isolated and contemplative living. 'Still Life' alludes both to the drawings and paintings I have made with my daughter Eden over the years, and to the quietness of existence in such isolated surroundings.

The multiple forms for the work reflect my ongoing investigations into 'expanded cinematic language': the moving image has been deconstructed and re-presented alongside drawings, paintings and texts relating to consistent themes in my work, such as The Great Out Of Doors, Autobiography and Memory. Louyre – This Our Still Life is also a bi-lingual bookwork and an installation. The feature film premiered in competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival; the installation showed at Brighton University Gallery in November 2011 as part of Cinecity, coinciding with the cinema release at BFI South Bank and other venues including Curzon Renoir, Curzon Wimbledon and Cornerhouse Cinema, Manchester. Drawings and paintings from the project were exhibited at the Old Fire Station Gallery, Oudernaade, Belgium, in 2011 and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Geneva, 2012.

In 2012 the BFI released the film on DVD, alongside a re-edited version of the bookwork. The research was supported by the BFI, LUX, and other funders.


The aim of this article is to present the effective response of Communicable Disease Center in Hamad Medical Corporation as the first and the central healthcare facility facing the COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar. The pharmacy leadership team designed new strategies to handle the new workload quantitatively and qualitatively. Outpatient pharmacy expanded the scope of service to manage all refill requests for COVID-19 cases in 12 quarantine centers across Qatar. Inpatient pharmacy automation adopted new workflows to maintain efficient infection control methods after considering that the new workload was four times higher than the pre-pandemic workload. This also highlighted the efforts that the Clinical Pharmacy Service made during the pandemic and its significant role in raising awareness and education to prevent prescription errors despite the increase in the overall number of orders from approximately 7000 Rx per month to approximately 22,000 Rx per month. The outcomes showed that the prudent response plan paid off successfully during the pandemic.


The purpose of this study was to determine the information and communication technology (ICT) readiness and the use of ICT in teaching by technical and vocational teachers in Malaysia. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher and administered to 329 technical and vocational teachers who were teaching engineering subjects in Malaysian technical and vocational schools. Descriptive and inferential statistic analyses were used to analyze the data such as t-test, ANOVA, MANOVA, Chi-Square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA).
The findings of this study indicated that the majority of the teachers in terms of their readiness had moderate level about ICT knowledge, moderate skillful level about ICT skills, and possessed positive attitudes towards ICT use in teaching. The findings indicated that there were no statistically significant differences of gender, type of training, administrative support and ICT availability with ICT knowledge level. However, there were statistically significant differences of age, years of teaching experience, and level of qualification with ICT knowledge level. While the findings also indicated that there were statistically significant differences of gender, age, years of teaching experience, and type of training with ICT skills level. In addition to that, there were no statistically significant differences on the level of qualification, administrative support, and ICT availability with ICT skills level. Moreover, there was no significant difference between both gender and administrative support with teachers' attitudes. While, there were no significant differences between attitudes and teachers' age, years of teaching experience, level of qualification, type of training and ICT availability. The results of MANOVA indicated that there was significant relationship between demographic characteristics by gender only with teachers' overall readiness (ICT knowledge, ICT skills, and attitudes). However, there were no significant relationship between teachers' education background and overall support with teachers' overall readiness. For level of using ICT in teaching among the teachers, the majority of teachers indicated to be using ICT very frequently with heavy users' level. Moreover, only one variable, that is, level of qualification appeared to have some influence on the teachers' ICT use in teaching. Only those with a bachelor degree tend to use ICT more frequently than the others. The results of correlations measured were significantly positive between ICT use and ICT skills as well as ICT use and attitudes. The correlation also was positive between ICT skills and attitudes. The results of Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) found that the variables ICT skills and attitudes were the best predictors among other variables in ICT use.