The unilateral determination of price has been a controversial issue for an extended period of time. In NBS Boland Bank v One Berg River Drive, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal questioned whether the rule against the unilateral determination of price should still form part of South African law. Specifically, the Court criticised the Roman-Dutch writers' interpretation of the Roman-law texts. The article critically analyses the rule as found in Roman law. The article shows that different interpretations have been given to the original Roman-law texts dealing with the unilateral determination of price. This is caused, in part, by the difficulty in translating these texts from Latin and ascertaining the true meaning of the Roman-law principles from the fragments of texts scattered throughout the Digest. The main arguments for and against the unilateral determination of price based on the Roman-law texts are considered. The article shows that the majority of the arguments seeking to illustrate that such a contract was void in Roman law are open to criticism. Although there are many arguments favouring the view that the contract would be valid but imperfect, not all of these stand up to scrutiny. The most widely held view gives the impression that a discretion to determine the price did not invalidate the contract provided that it was exercised arbitrio boni viri.


We have realized a novel tunable narrow linewidth fiber laser with single-longitudinal-mode operation based on the homogenous gain broadening effect of Er-doped fiber and the stimulated Rayleigh scattering (STRS) in a nonuniform optical fiber in a ring laser configuration. A 3 dB linewidth of less than 2.0 kHz is achieved with 70 dB extinction. The minimum tunable laser bandwidth is determined by the balance of the bandwidth of tunable bandpass filter (in GHz), relaxation time and gain of the Er-doped fiber, and cavity loss. The tuning range is determined by the range of tuning filter within Er-doped fiber gain spectrum. This technique is applicable to any fiber with much higher stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold than that of STRS.


Prey selection patterns were quantified for a sympatric group of hydromedusae from Friday Harbor, WA. Selection patterns varied between species, but were largely replicable between sample dates and resembled dietary patterns found in similar studies from neighboring regions. Ambush‐foraging medusae (Aglantha digitale, Sarsia tubulosa, and Proboscidactyla flavicirrata) fed primarily on crustacean and ciliated prey but the dietary niches of these hydromedusan species centered on different fractions of the available plankton. Consequently, little dietary overlap occurred between the ambush foraging hydromedusae. In contrast, the dietary niches of cruising predators (Aequorea victoria, Mitrocoma cellularia, and Phialidium gregarium) overlapped substantially because those species all fed on similar soft‐bodied prey such as eggs and appendicularians. These results have two important implications for trophic patterns involving medusae. First, different mechanisms of prey encounter and capture used by hydromedusae (ambush vs. cruising patterns) result in important interspecific dietary differences and, hence, trophic roles of the medusae. Second, whereas cruising medusae may consume similar prey and hence form a feeding guild, ambush‐foraging medusae may experience substantially less prey overlap and, for the community examined here, do not experience potentially strong feeding competition from other medusan species.


The perception of outdoor natural scenes is important for successfully participating in visual activities. When fog is present, however, visibility can be severely degraded. We have created a perceptual fog density index that seeks to predict the degree of visibility of a foggy scene using 'fog aware' features learned from a representative database of foggy and fog-free images. The features that define the fog density index derive from a spatial natural scene statistics (NSS) model and from observed characteristics of foggy images. We have found that the statistics of fog aware features consistently change as a function of fog density. A perceptual fog density model was derived by collecting patches from natural foggy and fog-free images, then computing pertinent NSS fog aware features from these patches to develop a perceptual fog density prediction model. A multivariate Gaussian (MVG) distribution is used to form a probabilistic feature model. In practice the perceived fog density of an arbitrary test image is predicted using a Mahalanobis-like distance measure between the 'fog aware' statistics of the test image and the MVG models obtained from the natural foggy and fog-free images. We also conducted a human study of perceived fog density. When applied to 100 natural foggy images, the predicted perceived fog density was found to correlate well with the human judgments of fog density. We have also found that the fog aware statistical features can be used to defog and thereby enhance the visibility of foggy scenes. We first produced white-balanced and contrast-enhanced images from a foggy image using the predicted visibility degree. We then selectively filtered these images with fog aware weighted maps representing distances from the statistics of fog-free images at each fog aware feature. Finally, we applied a Laplacian multiscale pyramidal refinement to achieve a halo-free defogged image.


The work presented in this PhD thesis concerns the characterisation of the physical structure, composition and domain structure of advanced magnetic materials by electron microscopy within the FP6 European Research Training Network "Spinswitch". In particular the investigations concerned MgO/CoFeB/MgO multilayers to be employed in magnetic sensors (this work was done in collaboration with INESC-MN Lisbon-Portugal); Ni80Fe20/Cu electrodeposited nanowires to be employed as spin transfer torque devices (this work was done in collaboration with NIRDTP Iasi-Romania and University of Salamanca); multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy which represent potential candidates to be employed in the next generation of MRAMs (this work was done in collaboration with Spintec-CEA-Grenoble).
Chapter 1 will provide an overview of the physics behind the topics treated during this work and a description of the general motivations of the research carried out. Chapter 2 will provide an overview of all the experimental techniques employed for the fabrication and characterisation of the samples investigated for this research.
Chapter 3 aims to present an investigation using conventional transmission electron microscopy (CTEM) and Lorentz microscopy (LTEM) to characterise respectively the physical microstructure and the domain structure of the CoFeB free layer, embedded in a multilayer composed by SiN/MgO(50)/CoFeB(t)/MgO(15), with t from 30 A down to 14 A. We carried out first the investigation of the physical structure performed by selected area diffraction and bright field imaging of planar samples and physically the plan view sections show the structure of the films appears similar. The magnetization reversal behaviour observed during Lorentz TEM experiments are found to vary considerably with the CoFeB thickness, with both domain wall formation and magnetisation rotation seen. In the thicker film the behaviour was characteristic of a typical soft magnetic material with uniaxial anisotropy. However the magnetic reversal of the thinner film was more complex. A particular characteristic of the 14 A CoFeB layer is the variation of domain wall angle seen when varying the orientation of the applied field This wall asymmetry suggests the presence of a unidirectional anisotropic energy term. To assist in the interpretation of these experimental results a modified Stoner–Wohlfarth model has been constructed and calculations have been carried out by using a MATLAB code.
The purpose of the project presented in Chapter 4 was the advanced characterisation of multilayered electrodeposited NiFe/Cu nanowires grown in alumina and polycarbonate templates. In particular the objective was the characterisation of the structure and local chemistry of the nanowires by TEM and the classification of nanowire switching deduced by Lorentz microscopy experiments, which are challenging for this specific material system. In order to perform TEM studies on single nanowires, they should be extracted from their template. The chemical etching used to remove the nanowires from the template in addition to issues related to the deposition of Cu, led to nanowires with edge and compositional irregularities, detrimental for their magnetic properties. Indeed, we were not able to classify the nanowire switching and investigate domain walls forming during the reversal process, but we could only observe a change in the magnetising state. A lot of the work described in this chapter deals with the difficulties associated with imaging these challenging nanowires. Issues were discovered that may have resulted from deposition and/or etching for TEM preparation, therefore we do rely heavily on simulations and calculations.
The research presented in Chapter 5 will describe the investigation of the reorientation process of the easy axis for two different multilayer systems magnetised out of plane, and the evolution of their domain structure for increasing temperature, and trying to understand the role of the insertion of a Co/Pt/Ni/Pt multilayer from a microscopic point of view. The two multilayers represent the free layer of a perpendicular MTJ (pMTJ) and this study represents a state of development of materials for pMTJs. Experiments were performed by MOKE magnetometry in polar configuration and Lorentz Microscopy in Fresnel mode. Materials were prepared in Spintec-CEA, Grenoble (France) where the MOKE experiments were also carried out, and Lorentz Microscopy experiments were performed in Glasgow. For the first multilayer (with Co/Pt/Ni/Pt) we found that for lower temperatures (25°C - 220°C) the specimen appears to have a strong perpendicular anisotropy. We observed a small scale random domain structure that we can ascribe to perpendicularly magnetised domains. For higher temperatures (220°C - 300°C) we found a behaviour typical of a soft magnetic material magnetised in plane with low anisotropy and high susceptibility. For the second multilayer (without Co/Pt/Ni/Pt), for instrumental reasons, we were not able to investigation of the magnetic behaviour of the specimen for temperatures above 110°C. The magnetisation is out of plane for all the temperatures investigated. The sample develops a different domain structure when the sample is heated below 100°C or above 100°C. In the first case isotropic serpentine domain structure is visible, with a large periodicity, whereas in the second case, an anisotropic stripe domain structure is visible with a small periodicity.


Systems that install, heal, protect themselves and adapt to your needs -automatically Using autonomic computing to reduce costs, improve services, and enhance agility Autonomic components, architectures, standards, and development tools Planning for and implementing autonomic technology Current autonomic solutions from IBM and other leading companiesReducing IT costs, improving service, and enabling the "on-demand" businessIT operations costs are accelerating, and today's increasingly complex architectures and distributed computing infrastructures only make matters worse. The solution: autonomic computing. Autonomic systems are self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing, and self-protecting. They operate intelligently and dynamically, acting on your policies and service requirements. This book presents everything IT leaders and managers need to know to prepare for autonomic computing-and to begin leveraging its benefits. Coverage includes: How autonomic computing can reduce costs, improve service levels, enhance agility, simplify management, and help deliver the "on demand" business The key elements and attributes of autonomic computing systems Current autonomic technologies from IBM and many other leading suppliers Autonomic computing architectures, open standards, development tools, and enablers Implementation considerations, including a new assessment methodology The future of autonomic computing: business opportunities and research challenges


Although the so-called 'standard' ammonite zonation of the Albian contains index species which occur in the Tethyan province, the scheme largely reflects the faunal succession in the European faunal province with its endemic sonneratiinid and hoplitinid faunal elements. Workers in the Tethyan province, stretching from South America in the west to Australia in the east, including southern Africa, Madagascar and India, face problems in the correlation of their successions with this so-called 'standard' scheme. There are other problems in that the succession of hoplitinid ammonites used in the biostratigraphy of European Albian sediments allows a far more detailed zonation to be made than in the case of some of the longer time-ranging Tethyan forms. This paper comments on proposals made recently for the delimiting of the base of the Albian Stage, and the Middle and Upper Substages, based on ammonite faunas. New information which affects the Albian ammonite zonation in the European faunal province and its correlation with the Tethyan province is discussed. The current hierarchical framework of zones and subzones used in the European faunal province may prove to be unsatisfactory in interprovincial correlation and particularly if the lower boundary of the Albian Stage was placed within the current Leymeriella tardefurcata ammonite Zone, instead of at its base.


Recent national, regional, and community-level research has shown that the Internet has the potential to provide a powerful medium for political engagement. Yet, systematic analyses that consider space and place as critical components of this area of research are lacking. This issue is important inasmuch as the extant literature has clearly shown that the diffusion of sophisticated Internet technology to some places has been slow and that the use of high-speed broadband modems has a significant impact on using the technology for social and economic purposes. The data for this study come from the nationally representative Pew Internet and American Life Study conducted in November 2008 directly after the United States presidential election. Although the results are consistent with previous research on both spatial and digital inequality in terms of Internet use, the interactions between race and place suggest that it is not just that the Obama campaign used new media to mobilize constituents, but that these efforts were realized in a particular region of the country and were particularly influential in given segments of the population. Implications for future research and the value of digital capital are discussed.


The objective of this review is to compare the PMP convention of SMHB/B&P vis-a-vis other consultants' studies that have been carried out in Malaysia. The review primarily addresses the issues on the PMP derivation in Peninsular Malaysia and with minimum coverage of PMP issues in the Borneo states of Sarawak and Sabah. The short- and long-duration PMP values were applied in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo states. The PMPs adopted by SMHB/B&P are further classified into two series, i.e., coastal and inland. Fourteen reports and studies related to the derivation of PMP in Peninsular Malaysia by other consultants were discussed in detailed. Both PMP estimates adopted by SMHB/B&P and the studies by other consultants are presented systematically in tandem in this review.


Doppler Ultrasound signal has been used widely in fetal monitor to detect the fetal health status and fetal well-being. A correct understanding of the operation of the monitor and the principles of Doppler ultrasound is essential to medical educator, medical students and clinician in examining the condition of the fetus. Currently, a system that can demonstrate the operation of fetal monitor starting from the Doppler Principles up to the processing of Doppler Ultrasound signals to determine the heart rate is not available. Therefore, this study developed an animation of the operation of the fetal monitor in capturing the ultrasound signal from fetal heart and processing the signal to extract the cardiac information. The multimedia system was designed and developed using Instructional System Design method and Director 8.5 software tool. The multimedia design were divided into five phases; analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The multimedia interfaces contain animated and interactive features which make the learning interesting, enjoyable and highly educational.


Study Design: Retrospective review of a prospective, randomized, controlled single-site investigation of an FDA IDE trial. Objective: Compare baseline and 5 year adjacent disc degeneration and outcomes of lumbar arthroplasty and fusion groups. Summary of background data: Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) has historically been surgically managed with arthrodesis. However, fusion treatment is associated with accelerated adjacent segment degeneration. Method: Patients completed pre and post-operative Oswestry Disability Index and Visual Analog Scale as well as radiographic studies out to 5 years postoperatively. Adjacent (cephalad) disc height was measured by 6 examiners using the Farfan index on radiographs blinded to caudal level treatment. After exclusion of patients with incomplete follow-up data, 35 disc arthroplasty and 13 fusion patients had complete sets of information from pre-operative and 5 year follow-up available for final analysis. Results: Both disc arthroplasty and fusion groups demonstrated significant improvement in ODI and VAS back scores from preoperative status to 5 year follow up (all groups p<0.0001). However, no significant differences were found when comparing observed improvements for either ODI or VAS back scores between the disc arthroplasty or fusion groups. Furthermore, no significant differences were found in adjacent disc height change as determined by the Farfan index was found between the two cohorts at 5 year follow up. Conclusion: While both TDA and circumferential fusion can offer clinically meaningful pain and disability relief for symptomatic DDD, no significant reduction of radiographic adjacent segment degeneration was seen in the TDA group compared to the fusion group at 5 year follow up.


The VA, HUD and Independent Agencies appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and a number of independent agencies. This report describes some of the key issues affecting agency funding in FY1997.


A rather large class of problems involving the determination of an object function from observation is linear-inversion problems for which unique solutions exist but that have the property that any signal-processing algorithm designed to approximate the exact solution too precisely is unstable. This is because the problems are ill posed. The precision attainable in a class of such problems is treated here abstractly in terms of a concept called a linear-precision gauge, which essentially involves an ordered family of linear estimators. Fundamental properties of linear-precision gauges are demonstrated and discussed. A major portion of the paper is given over to applying the linear-precision gauge concept and results to Fourier imaging problems that can occur, for example, in radar and tomography.


This report provides further evidence that a freeze-dried, concentrated form of Pseudomonas syringae , an ice-nucleating active bacteria, reduces the cold tolerance of stored grain insect pests. Application of ice-nucleating bacteria to wheat or corn that contained insect pests decreased the insects' supercooling capacity: after treatment with 100 ppm of P. syringae the mean supercooling points of five insect species increased from 4.7 to 11.9°C above untreated controls. Treatment with P. syringae also decreased the capacity of insects to survive a 24-h exposure to subzero temperatures. Decreases in cold tolerance were observed in eight species of stored grain pests: Indianmeal moth larvae, Plodia interpullctella (Hubner); red flour beetle adults, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst); flat grain beetle adults, Cryptolestes pusillus (Schon herr); rusty grain beetle adults, Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens); Gibbium psylloides (Czenpinski); lesser grain borer adults, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.); yellow meal worm larvae, Tenebrio molitor (L.); and granary weevil adults, Sitophilus granarius granarius (L.). Results of this study provide further support for the use of ice-nucleating active bacteria as biological insecticides to kill overwintering insects by decreasing their low temperature tolerance. The approach may be particularly appropriate for the control of a variety of insect pests in restricted areas such as grain bins.


Waterfowl are among the best studied and most extensively monitored species in the world. Given their global importance for sport and subsistence hunting, viewing and ecosystem functioning, great effort has been devoted since the middle part of the 20th century to understanding both the environmental and demographic mechanisms that influence waterfowl population and community dynamics. Here we use comparative approaches to summarise and contrast our understanding of waterfowl population dynamics across species as short-lived as the teal Anas discors and A.crecca to those such as the swans Cygnus sp. which have long life-spans. Specifically, we focus on population responses to vital rate perturbations across life history strategies, discuss bottom-up and top-down responses of waterfowl populations to global change, and summarise our current understanding of density dependence across waterfowl species. We close by identifying research needs and highlight ways to overcome the challenges of sustainably managing waterfowl populations in the 21st century.


The Borough of Mechanicsburg, located in central Pennsylvania, was experiencing challenges in finding sufficient agricultural fields to continue the beneficial use of their anaerobically digested liquid wastewater treatment plant Class B biosolids. At the time, the only alternative available was dewatering and going to landfill, which is significantly more expensive. Due to environmental concerns and costs related to the alternatives, biosolids composting was selected to produce a Class A/EQ (Exceptional Quality) biosolids product, thus providing expanded opportunities for beneficial use. From the initial feasibility review to operational status, the implementation spanned nine (9) years, starting in 2005. The upgrade to composting was in conjunction with many other plant upgrades. Material Matters, Inc. provided support through the entire process including the feasibility study, pilot testing, cost assessment, compost facility design requirements, equipment assessment and recommendation, start-up testing, software development, permitting, fertilizer registration, product promotion, and marketing.


Authorized generics present the latest controversy in the perennial battle between pioneer and generic drug manufacturers. Under these arrangements, a pioneer firm will "authorize" a generic version of its brand-name drug to enter the market during another generic competitor's 180-day exclusivity period. This practice has generated intense debate within the pharmaceutical industry regarding its potential impact on Paragraph IV patent challenges, in addition to the proper operation and intent of the Hatch-Waxman Act. Because of the immense economic and public health consequences at stake, and previous patterns of Hatch-Waxman abuse, the Federal Trade Commission has recently launched an investigation of authorized generics. This Note explores the qualitative nature of pharmaceutical competition, specifically focusing on the interaction between pharmaceutical supply chain economics and consumer behavior. From these observations, I propose a theory of competitive harm and conclude that authorized generics are an anticompetitive strategic behavior which violate the antitrust laws by deterring Paragraph IV entry. I find normative support within the Hatch-Waxman and patent law regimes to corroborate my antitrust analysis. Finally, I recommend potential solutions to the authorized generics controversy, including Hatch-Waxman legislative reform.


An approach based on splitting the reaction potential into a finite range part and a long range tail part to describe few-body scattering in the case of a Coulombic interaction is proposed. The solution to the Schrödinger equation for the long range tail of the reaction potential is used as an incoming wave. This reformulation of the scattering problem into an inhomogeneous Schrödinger equation with asymptotic outgoing waves makes it suitable for solving with the exterior complex scaling technique. The validity of the approach is analyzed from a formal point of view and demonstrated numerically, where the calculations are performed with the finite element method. The method of splitting the potential in this way is illustrated with calculations of the electron scattering on the hydrogen atom and the positive helium ion in energy regions where resonances appear.


This paper summarises the recommendations of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Palliative Care Public Health Programmes with respect to design and implementation of palliative care national or regional public health palliative care programmes in their initial phases. We describe the elements of a programme (leadership and aims; needs and context assessment; definition of the target patients; general measures in conventional services; specialist services in different settings; sectorised networks; education and training; availability and accessibility of opioids and essential drugs; legislation; standards; budget; valuation and improvement of quality; and evaluation of results and indicators) and the specific recommendations to implement the first steps of each component. Palliative care planning needs to be systematic, inserted in all levels of the healthcare system and adapted to the cultural and organisational status of the system. Coverage for all types of patients in need, together with equity and quality, are the main aims of programmes.


The continual loss and neglect of historic buildings and areas is due to many
factors. Among the most important are the inadequacy of existing legislation and the
inability of institutions to protect the built heritage. I do not only mean the protection
from the threat of demolition and decay, but also the readiness to promote change in
order to contribute to socio-economic development. Therefore, conservation
strategies should establish appropriate legislative and administrative frameworks to
guide conservation initiatives, otherwise, the continuing lack of a legislative strategy
will remain a problem.

Palestine is in the process of defining itself as a nation. In this process its built
heritage plays an important role in that it embodies its culture and traditions and is an
important part of its cultural identity. At present Palestine's built heritage is largely
neglected and parts of it are being lost every day. The absence of public awareness of
the values of its historic heritage leads to detrimental interventions into historic
buildings and areas.
There are many factors which affect the way in which a society relates to its built
heritage. One of these factors is the rules and procedures which govern the relations
between citizens and their built heritage. The thesis addresses this issue in the
context that the present legislative structure for conservation in Palestine is the
product of laws issued by the successive powers that occupied Palestine in the last
centuries and, what is more important, Palestine is currently reviewing its whole
legislation and administration structures.
The aim of the thesis is to pave the way for the establishment of a legislative and
administrative framework that would underpin a conservation strategy for Gaza,
Palestine.

The research starts by surveying the literature in the field of study to determine
the different principles and attitudes within the current conservation discourse,
placing special emphasis on legislation for the conservation of historic buildings and
areas.

An analysis of the current Palestinian legislative and institutional systems is
followed by an appraisal of the city itself and its built heritage.
Two case studies of cities which are in some ways comparable to Gaza, the cities
of Jeddah and Cairo, are analysed in some detail. The findings are used as a means to
compare and evaluate conservation strategies for the city of Gaza.
The study concludes by recommending a comprehensive conservation legislation
model which would function within a local and national legislative frameworks,
would have clear aims relevant to a particular place, and enable an administrative
framework capable of efficiently implementing conservation initiatives.


Force majeure clauses are intended to allocate risk for future events that, if they occur, will affect the ability of one party to perform its obligations under the contract. This article undertakes a comprehensive review of the Canadian law of force majeure and its application in the energy sector. The article begins by examining the legal foundations of force majeure found in the common law, Canadian jurisprudence, and other legal regimes. It then describes the operation of a force majeure clause and analyzes how such a clause is likely to be interpreted by the courts. Along with analyzing specific aspects of force majeure, such as triggering events, foreseeability and control, and issues relating to impact and causation, the authors incorporate many practical suggestions that will be useful to drafters of force majeure clauses.


YouTube is one of the social media tools that have become a part of our lives. It is used by many educators as a pedagogical instrument. To determine the perceptions and views students about YouTube can support the effective use of YouTube. For this purpose, metaphors and opinions of secondary school students about YouTube were tried to be determined. In this study, a phenomenological study have been used. Students' expressions about metaphors and their reasons were coded with free coding and then categories and themes were created. Also, questionnaires were analyzed according to frequency. According to the research results, YouTube has been associated with a technological tool at the highest frequency. In reasons part, YouTube is shown as "everything" at most. Students often use YouTube. YouTube channels related to daily life, online games and entertainment are more followed. Participants want to use YouTube for educational purposes. Few students want to be YouTuber. Many families do not control the time and content of their children on YouTube. School and teacher need to be able to develop activities regarding effective usage of YouTube in the pedagogical context. Besides this, all partners should be informed and participate in training for digital harmony.


Failed or abandoned software development projects cost the U.S. economy alone billions of dollars a year. In Software Development Failures, Kweku Ewusi-Mensah offers an empirically grounded study that suggests why these failures happen and how they can be avoided. Case studies analyzed include the well-known Confirm travel industry reservation program, FoxMeyer's Delta, the IRS's Tax System Modernization, the Denver International Airport's Baggage Handling System, and CODIS.It has been estimated that one-third of software development projects fail or are abandoned outright because of cost overruns, delays, and reduced functionality. Some consider this an acceptable risk -- that it is simply the cost of doing business. Ewusi-Mensah argues that understanding the factors involved in development failures will help developers and businesses bring down the rate of software failure and abandoned projects.Ewusi-Mensah explores the reasons software development projects are vulnerable to failure and why issues of management and organization are at the core of any failed project. He examines these projects not from a deterministically technical perspective but as part of a complex technical and social process; he proposes a framework of factors that contribute to the decision to abandon a project and enumerates the risks and uncertainties inherent in each phase of a project's life cycle. Exploring the multiplicity of factors that make software development risky, he presents empirical data that is reinforced by analyses of the reported cases. He emphasizes the role of the user in the development process and considers the effect of organizational politics on a project. Finally, he considers what lessons can be learned from past failures and how software development practices can be improved.


The Chinese energy sector is dominated by coal, which provides nearly 70% of the country's energy compared to a global average of 27%. Furthermore, with energy demand rapidly increasing, so is coal production which was 3.5 billion tonnes in 2011, more than doubling its 2002 level. The International Energy Agency's current policy scenario predicts that total coal demand in China will increase by 1000 Million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) by 2035, up from 2500 Mtoe in 2009. This projected increase is around double the current total consumption levels in the US and would increase CO 2 emissions from approximately 4751 Mt to 10000 Mt in 2035, equal to nearly one quarter of the world's projected total at that time.


Software complexity increases over time. This makes the analysis of systems increasingly difficult. If we want to analyze a software system and focus on the structure, we require the creation of models. Agile Modeling tries to simplify this task. However, to create these models we need a parser for the source. This parser is sometimes missing or it requires a great deal of effort to create, especially when we are confronted with legacy code, unknown data formats, unknown domain specific languages and sometimes files with mixed languages and log files. To be able to model fast, in the spirit of Agile Modeling, we need to build parsers fast. In this thesis we therefore investigate the possibility to automatically infer parsers of data serialization formats (e.g., JSON, XML) and output the structure of the given source. To do this we created five grammar based building blocks (List, String, KeyValuePair, Command and Tag). These blocks can be combined in various ways to create the needed parser. This raises writing parsers one level higher, away from the "token" level and also enables us to automate the process. We can successfully infer structure of formats such as JSON, XML and CSS. Our approach works particularly well on XML files, with an average f-measure of 1. However it sometimes struggles with CSS, with an average f-measure of 0.88. This is due a problem with the building blocks. They are based on island grammars and ignore the parts of the code that we do not care about. However it does not skip all the code that we want it to skip.


This paper explores the situation of women returning to their homes and communities after their countries have experienced major conflicts. In that context, it assesses the range of barriers and challenges that women face and offers some thinking to addresses and remedy these complex issues. As countries face the transition process, they can begin to measure the conflict's impact on the population and the civil infrastructure. Not only have people been displaced from their homes, but, typically, health clinics, schools, roads, businesses, and markets have deteriorated substantially. While the focus is on humanitarian aid in the midst of and during the immediate aftermath, the focus turns to development-based activities for the longer-term. Development activities provide a significant opportunity (and mandate) to ensure that gender is central to the transitional process. Here we take gender centrality to be a first principle of response – namely planning, integrating and placing gender at the heart of the development response to conflict. First, many of the post-conflict goals cannot be implemented when the population is starving, homeless, and mistrustful of government-sponsored services. Women constitute the overwhelming proportion of refugees displaced by war; not responding to their specific needs to return home dooms the reconstruction process. Second, women are central to any socioeconomic recovery process. The paper first looks at the need to integrate development and post-conflict, and then turns to an analysis of why gender matters. It then looks at development as both a short and long-term process, using the model of "social services justice" to describe immediate needs as the country begins the peace stabilization process. Social services justice serves as an "engendered" bridge between conflict and security, running the temporal spectrum from humanitarian relief through post conflict to longer term development, any of which is inclusive of transitional justice. The goal throughout is to respond to the immediate needs of the population post-conflict, ranging from livelihoods to health to education.


In order to incorporate the effect of gravity waves (GWs) on the atmospheric circulation most global circulation models (GCMs) employ gravity wave parameterization schemes. To date, GW parameterization schemes in GCMs are used without experimental validation of the set of global parameters assumed for the GW launch spectrum. This paper focuses on the Warner and McIntyre GW parameterization scheme. Ranges of parameters compatible with absolute values of gravity wave momentum flux (GW-MF) derived from CRISTA-1 and CRISTA-2 satellite measurements are deduced for several of the parameters and the limitations of both model and measurements are discussed. The findings presented in this paper show that the initial guess of spectral parameters provided by by Warner and McIntyre (2001) are some kind of compromise with respect to agreement of absolute values and agreement of the horizontal structures found in both measurements and model results. Better agreement can be achieved by using a vertical wavenumber launch spectrum with a wider saturated spectral range and reduced spectral power in the unsaturated part. However, even with this optimized set of global launch parameters not all features of the measurements are matched. This indicates that for further improvement spatial and seasonal variations of the launch parameters should be included in GW parameterization schemes.


Part 1 Introduction: why communicate? science and the public how not to become an expert - avoiding expert-ese, filling the knowledge gap. Part 2 Writing: outlets and opportunities - news, features, books, book reviews style and subtance - a scientist's guide to style, the shock of the new, word pictures, good for a laugh?, form and function, beginnings and endings, rewriting words and sentences - jargon, short and sweet, word chemistry, sentence structure, punctuation numbers - quantities, probabilities illustrations - pictures, graphs, printing and publishing working with publishers - editing, on the nature of proofs, writing an index. Part 3 Speaking: sit and prepare - planning a talk, a plan in action, making notes, practice makes...better stand and deliver - conquering nerves, speaking out, gesture and posture, deliveries, bad habits, coping with questions, encore! visual aids - show and tell, slides, overhead projectors, flip charts, blackboards, films, video, demonstrations. Part 4 Meeting "the media": interviews for the press - preparing for an interview, the main event, information services, aftermath television - taking to the air, accepting invitations, the studio, the interview radio - finding stories, speaking for listeners, you and your audience.


This book offers insight into one of the most problematic and universal issues within multiplayer videogames: antisocial and oppositional play forms such as cheating, player harassment, the use of exploits, illicit game modifications, and system hacking, known collectively as counterplay. Using ethnographic research, Alan Meades not only to gives voice to counterplayers, but reframes counterplay as a complex practice with contradictory motivations that is anything but reducible to simply being hostile to play, players, or commercial videogames. The book offers a grounded and pragmatic exploration of counterplay, framing it as an unavoidable by-product of interaction of mass audiences with compelling and culturally important texts.


Location-awareness is crucial to many applications of sensor networks. Existing location surveying approaches either rely on an inflexible infrastructure or suffer from high computation and communication load. In this paper, we present Non-intEractive lOcation Surveying (NEOS) to address certain deficiencies in the existing approaches. The key contribution of NEOS is twofold: (i) it employs a mobile beacon to introduce mobilitydifferentiated time-of-arrival (MDToA) observations, a special form of time difference of arrival (TDoA), at the node side and (ii) it involves simple computations and entails no node-to-node communication. MDToA enables us to devise flexible and robust positioning algorithms; the resulting computational load fully obeys the processing constraints of sensor nodes. Furthermore, the non-interactive feature of NEOS allows of a substantial reduction on the nodes'energy consumption. We have implemented a preliminary prototype of NEOS using CricketMotes. Our experiments with this prototype demonstrate a location accuracy within 2cm in a 16m2 area.


This Research Topic covers issues in psychology, behavioral economics, and cognitive neuroscience investigating the neural structures and mechanisms underlying approach, and avoidance behavior in the face of rewards and punishments. The objective is to understand the nature of critical differences and asymmetries between the ways that appetitive and aversive outcomes are processed by the brain. A number of topics are covered, such as the development of economic models integrating costs and benefits into a single value, neuroimaging approaches of appetitive and aversive conditioning, reward-punishment interactions, pain and defensive behavior, the role of dopamine neurons in aversive conditioning, and the interactions between serotonin and dopamine in punishment, pain, and aversion. The neural bases of reward-punishment interactions are of great interest to a broad readership because of the fundamental role of dopamine and serotonin in a number of motivational and decision processes, and because of their theoretical and clinical implications for understanding dysfunctions of these two systems. Findings in this research field are also important to basic neuroscientists interested in the computational processes of pain and aversive learning and cognitive psychologists working on conditioning/reinforcement. Punishment-based decision making and reward processing cover a wide range of topics and levels of analysis, from basic neural mechanisms and computational models of appetitive and aversive conditioning, to the system neuroscience level. The contributions to this Frontiers Research Topic in Decision Neuroscience are forward-looking assessments of the current and future issues faced by researchers.


Composed in the early days of March 1824, Schubert9s final four settings of the poetry of his friend Johann Mayrhofer ("Der Sieg," "Abendstern," "Aufloosung," and "Gondelfahrer," D. 805–808) revolve around a shared narrative: corporeal limitation, when ruptured by outward-seeking forces, yields a desirable state of spiritual transcendence. This narrative, common in the philosophical, theological, scientific, and medical texts of several major contemporary writers, treats the body as a disabled limitation which must in turn be "heroically overcome." In Schubert9s settings, energized musical gestures are "released" at poetic moments of corporeal death, and chromatic mediants—particularly the flatted submediant—are used as centrifugal harmonies that breach diatonic limitation. "Aufloosung," though positioned third within the set of four songs by Otto Erich Deutsch in his chronological catalogue of Schubert9s music, was probably composed last. This adjustment has significant ramifications for a cyclical or collective consideration of the four final Mayrhofer settings, because in many ways this virtuosic song acts as a reservoir of the gestural and aesthetic ideas developed in the previous three.


As a class of mycotoxins with regulatory and public health significance, aflatoxins (e.g., aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2) have attracted unparalleled attention from government, academia and industry due to their chronic and acute toxicity. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of various Aspergillus species, which are ubiquitous in the environment and can grow on a variety of crops whereby accumulation is impacted by climate influences. Consumption of foods and feeds contaminated by aflatoxins are hazardous to human and animal health, hence the detection and quantification of aflatoxins in foods and feeds is a priority from the viewpoint of food safety. Since the first purification and identification of aflatoxins from feeds in the 1960s, there have been continuous efforts to develop sensitive and rapid methods for the determination of aflatoxins. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview on advances in aflatoxins analysis and highlights the importance of sample pretreatments, homogenization and various cleanup strategies used in the determination of aflatoxins. The use of liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), solid phase extraction (SPE) and immunoaffinity column clean-up (IAC) and dilute and shoot for enhancing extraction efficiency and clean-up are discussed. Furthermore, the analytical techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), mass spectrometry (MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) are compared in terms of identification, quantitation and throughput. Lastly, with the emergence of new techniques, the review culminates with prospects of promising technologies for aflatoxin analysis in the foreseeable future.


An important new collection of original essays that examine how Ellison's landmark novel, Invisible Man (1952), addresses the social, cultural, political, economic, and racial contradictions of America. Commenting on the significance of Mark Twain's writings, Ralph Ellison wrote that "a novel could be fashioned as a raft of hope, perception and entertainment that might help keep us afloat as we tried to negotiate the snags and whirlpools that mark our nation's vacillating course toward and away from the democratic ideal." Ellison believed it was the contradiction between America's "noble ideals and the actualities of our conduct" that inspired the most profound literature -- "the American novel at its best." Drawing from the fields of literature, politics, law, and history, the contributors make visible the political and ethical terms of Invisible Man, while also illuminating Ellison's understanding of democracy and art. Ellison hoped that his novel, by providing a tragicomic look at American ideals and mores, would make better citizens of his readers. The contributors also explain Ellison's distinctive views on the political tasks and responsibilities of the novelist, an especially relevant topic as contemporary writers continue to confront the American incongruity between democratic faith and practice. Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope uniquely demonstrates why Invisible Man stands as a premier literary meditation on American democracy.


We describe and demonstrate a novel method to measure directly excitation-energy migration distances in fluorescing materials. In any desired direction, migration distances corresponding to 1/10 to 3 times the fluorescence wavelength can be determined with an accuracy of ~10%. Fluorescing materials in the form of typically 10-μm-thick samples are coated with a mirror on one surface. A coherent excitation beam is used to create a standing-wave pattern in the sample. The fluorescence radiation is shown to possess an interference peak in one particular direction. In the case of energy diffusion, this peak becomes indistinct. From the amplitude of the peak, the energy-diffusion distance is directly obtained. The existence of the peak, its position and amplitude are experimentally verified by use of a fluorescing film of rhodamine 6G doped polyurethane.


This paper provides estimates of the impact of the recent economic crisis on paid and unpaid work time in Turkey. The data used in this study come from the first and only time-use survey available at the national level. Infrequency of collection of time-use data in Turkey does not allow us to make a direct comparison of pre- versus postcrisis time-use patterns. We introduce a tractable way for estimating these possible effects by measuring the impact of an increase in unemployment risk on time-use patterns of women and men living in couple households. The method developed here can be applied to other developing-country cases where there is a lack of longitudinal data availability. Our findings support the argument that economic crises reinforce the preexisting gender inequalities in work time.


Growing environmental concerns as well as the decline in renewable energy project costs have led to drastic changes in the generation mix, and increasing penetration from renewable energy resources. However, the intermittency of renewable energy resources in contrast to legacy design of transmission system remains as one main obstacle against renewable energy integration. Several solutions, including energy storage, demand response and transmission system expansion have been proposed in response to this problem. Flexible ac transmission system (FACTS) devices are also shown as to offer a cost-effective solution for congestion problem in transmission system. This paper studies the environmental impacts of power flow control through FACTS devices as well as the economic benefits. Results show that implementing power flow control can effectively reduce dispatch cost and carbon emissions. However, the location of FACTS devices and renewable energy sites can critically affect carbon emission and renewable energy curtailment.


Sheep (Ovis cries/ producers were surveyed in Kansas to determine the efficacy of livestock guarding dogs (Canis familiaris) for protecting sheep from coyote (Canis latrans) predation. The majority of producers rated their guard dogs' predator control performance as good or excellent, indicating. that the dogs reduced their reliance on other control methods and substantially reduced monetary losses.


High school students bring with them preconceived notions as to what types of laboratory experiments they will perform and content they will learn in chemistry class. Some of what students have learned about chemistry may have been derived from watching television in which chemistry is portrayed. There are many widely popular shows that portray science on television, and the narratives are over dramatized, simplified, or distorted for the sake of entertainment. Often the science portrayed on television is rooted in chemistry practices and thus influences students' perceptions and attitudes of chemistry class. Though there is research in both fields of students' attitudes towards chemistry and television's impact on adolescents there is not research that directly addresses televisions impact on students' perceptions of chemistry and chemistry laboratory. Therefore, this dissertation set out to investigate (1) students' realities of chemistry class that are constructed while watching television and (2) how students' expectations of laboratory compare to what they do in the high school chemistry laboratory. Multiple theoretical frameworks guided the methodological design of this dissertation. A qualitative phenomenological study was utilized, consisting of 2 phases: (1) surveys to reveal students' attitude and image of a chemist and (2) laboratory recordings of students to provide insight into students' laboratory experiences. Students' attitudes contribute to the overall reality that the students have constructed about chemistry prior to taking the class. Students find chemistry to be cognitively demanding but emotionally satisfying. Based on preconceived expectations, students often wanted grander results in the laboratory, and as a result were disappointed when lab results were less spectacular than expected. Students expressed varying attitudes in the laboratory from being disappointed, excited, and having reservations about chemicals. The findings of this dissertation could be used in the classroom to assess the varying expectations that students bring to chemistry class and allow the instructor to meet the cognitive and affective needs of the students.


The binary pulsar J0737-3039 is the only known system having two observable pulsars, thus offering a unique laboratory to test general relativity and explore pulsar physics. Based on the low eccentricity and the position within the galactic plane, Piran & Shaviv (2004, 2005) argued that pulsar B had a non-standard formation scenario with little or no mass ejection. They have also predicted that the system would have a very slow proper motion. Pulsar timing measurements (Kramer et al. 2006; Deller et al. 2009) confirmed this prediction. The recent observations of the alignment between the spin of pulsar A and the binary orbit is also in agreement with this scenario. Detailed simulations of the formation process of pulsar B enable us to show that its progenitor, just before the collapse, was a massive O-Ne-Mg white dwarf surrounded by a tenuous, 0.1-0.16 M_sun, envelope. This envelope was ejected when the white dwarf collapsed to form a neutron star. Pulsar B was born as a slow rotator (spin period ~ 1 s) and a kick received when the pulsar formed changed its spin direction to the current one. This realization sheds light on the angular momentum evolution of the progenitor star, a process which is strongly affected by interaction with the binary companion. The slow proper motion of the system also implies that the system must have undergone a phase of mass transfer in which Star A shed a significant fraction of its mass onto B.


This subject guide presents resources relevant to courses offered at the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures and of general interest to the UR community.


Prior research has examined the relationship between physical landscapes and ecosystem services, but the distribution of ecosystem services by land tenure and protected areas is less developed. We analyze the spatial distribution of participatory mapped ecosystem values, as indicators of ecosystem services, to determine their relationship with land tenure in southern Norway, a region characterized by private, village, and state commons lands overlaid with designated protected areas managed by local governments. We found land tenure to be a significantly stronger predictor of the distribution of ecosystem values and land use preferences than protected area status. Protected area designations layered on older land tenures exert relatively little influence on how Norwegians perceive ecosystem values and land use preferences. The exception is a few iconic parks located on state commons where participants mapped a higher proportion of biological diversity and undisturbed, natural qualities. Hunting and fishing opportunities were especially important in village commons, whereas social interactions, gathering, and cultural identity clustered near settlements on private lands. The cultural ecosystem values of recreation and scenery were most frequently identified, but were unrelated to both land tenure and protected areas. Cabins, tourism development, and snowmobile use were important land uses to regional residents and most controversial in the commons and protected areas, but the overall potential for land use conflict appears highest on private land. Participants mapped preferences to increase predator control across all tenures reflecting the strong interest in large game hunting and livestock grazing in the region. Overlapping tenures that were in place before the designation of protected areas are important for understanding conservation effectiveness and the potential for land use conflict. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Many older adults nearing death experience unnecessarily invasive and costly healthcare treatments, often causing more harm than good. Hospice and palliative care interventions offer a possible solution to this problem by prioritizing high-quality and cost-effective care with a strong focus on comfort and satisfaction. The authors of this paper seek to answer the following question: Do hospice and palliative care interventions directed toward older adults at the end of life improve quality of life, cost of care, and satisfaction? This paper thoroughly reviews and critically appraises existing research related to the effect of hospice and palliative care directed toward older adults at the end of life. Twenty primary studies published between 2011 and 2016 were identified, reviewed, and critically evaluated in an effort to answer this question. The publications were diverse in objective, scope, and design, but all contributed to the conversation regarding this potential solution to substandard care for older adults at the end of life. Based on the existing evidence, the authors came to the following conclusion: hospice and palliative care interventions are associated with improved quality of life in five out of six measured areas, decreased cost of care, and high satisfaction for care recipients and providers alike. Ten recommendations for clinical practice and five recommendations for future research are


Postponement of childbearing has led to increased rates of age-related female subfertility. Age-related decreases in ovarian follicle numbers and decay in oocyte quality influence the natural loss of fecundity and ultimately the start of menopause. The rate of ovarian ageing is highly variable among women, so it is relevant to be able to identify women who have severely decreased ovarian reserve for their age. Spontaneous Premature Ovarian Failure (POF) is the most extreme phenotype of ovarian failure at a young age. POF is characterized by spontaneous secondary amenorrhea before the age of 40. POF not only truncates the fertile lifespan, but also has major implications for long-term health (i.e. osteoporosis, cardiovascular health and cognition). The aetiology of the great majority of spontaneous POF cases remains unknown. Since family history has been shown to be the best predictor for early menopause and strong associations have been disclosed between the menopausal ages of mothers and daughters, sisters and twin pairs, idiopathic POF is most likely due to genetic factors. The aim of this thesis was to further elucidate the phenotype of premature ovarian failure and to explore the genetic mechanisms underlying this phenotype. Classically, ovarian dysfunction is categorized on the basis of cycle history and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Our study indicated that anti-Mllerian hormone, a novel ovarian marker, may provide a more accurate assessment of the follicle pool in young hypergonadotropic patients, especially in the clinically challenging subgroups of patients with elevated FSH and regular menses or with cycle disturbances but not fulfilling the POF diagnostic criteria. Early menopause is associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular events later in life. Concurrent with the menopausal transition, there is a shift in lipid profile. POF provides a route to studying the effect of cessation of ovarian function on lipid profile independent of the effects of advanced chronological age. We found that loss of ovarian function at a very young age (POF) coincides with subtle changes in lipid profile (higher triglyceride levels, marginal lower HDL-cholesterol). Androgens are better markers for unfavourable lipid changes than oestrogen levels or duration of oestrogen deprivation. A genome wide association study was initiated to identify new genetic variants involved in POF. We did observe a possible association with a single nucleotide polymorphism in ADAMTS19, a biologically plausible candidate gene. This finding warrants a larger follow-up study to investigate its role in POF. Besides SNPs, the human genome contains multiple copy number variants (CNVs), small, sub-microscopic deletions and duplications. POF is associated with macroscopic deletions, in particular on the Xq arm. Using the intensities of high-density, genome-wide oligonucleotide arrays, it is now possible to obtain an increase in resolution of more than 100 times compared to conventional karyograms, and it is thus possible to detect CNVs. Sixty-three percent of the long arm CNVs (90% deletion) mapped to locus Xq21. Our findings are preliminary although the abundant overrepresentation of CNVs on Xq21 further substantiates the important role of this locus in the genetics of POF.


This paper is part of a study in England that concluded in the latter half of 2009. The study looks at academic identity through the lens of those lecturers delivering higher education business programmes in further education colleges, and their subsequent perceptions and definitions of an academic. The study identified that academic identity is a bricoleur of teaching, research, and might be a state of mind; as such, this may explain why academic identity is heterogeneous and so difficult to define. The study comprised of 26 individual interviews and one focus group comprising of four lecturers. An interpretivist approach was adopted, where common themes were drawn out for analysis from the narratives. Academic identity was not a term easily defined by lecturers in further education colleges, and some lecturers did not see themselves as academics or typically stereotyped academics akin to those depicted in the television media.


During a survey of phyllosphere and non-rhizosphere soil fungi of orange plantations in the Assiut area, Egypt, several isolates of species of Aspergillus belonging to the section Usti were isolated at 25 °C. These were identified using phenotypic and genotypic characters as Aspergillus porphyreostipitatus and Aspergillus carlsbadensis. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first global records since their original descriptions and indicate their probable wide distribution. The strains of both species could grow at 37 °C (a character contrasting to that of the original description of A. carlsbadensis), but both were not able to grow on CYA at 5 °C or 45 °C or to produce acid on creatine. It is interesting to report that both strains produced the urease enzyme (however weakly in A. porphyreostipitatus) and failed to grow on G25N at 25 °C, characters not examined in the original descriptions.


Consider a bipartite system, of which one subsystem, A, undergoes a physical evolution separated from the other subsystem, R. One may ask under which conditions this evolution destroys all initial correlations between the subsystems A and R, i.e. decouples the subsystems. A quantitative answer to this question is provided by decoupling theorems, which have been developed recently in the area of quantum information theory. This paper builds on preceding work, which shows that decoupling is achieved if the evolution on A consists of a typical unitary, chosen with respect to the Haar measure, followed by a process that adds sufficient decoherence. Here, we prove a generalized decoupling theorem for the case where the unitary is chosen from an approximate two-design. A main implication of this result is that decoupling is physical, in the sense that it occurs already for short sequences of random two-body interactions, which can be modeled as efficient circuits. Our decoupling result is independent of the dimension of the R system, which shows that approximate two-designs are appropriate for decoupling even if the dimension of this system is large.


The purpose of this study is to provide the transform of attitudes into behavior of 60-72 month of age children continued early childhood education toward environmental issues. Collaborative action research method of qualitative design was used. The whole participants of the study were 60-72 months of age children who were attending in an early childhood education center supervised by Ministry of National Education in Kartal District, in Istanbul. The data source of this study is the face to face interviews with 14 preschool children. In addition to the interviews with children, the teacher's reports were used. Besides, in the research, it was seen that children generally have ecocentric attitudes towards paper consumption, environmental protection, recycling and living habits especially in residence and transportation preferences. However, in observation report of classroom teacher, it was seen that they did not behave in an ecocentric manner. After the action plan applied, classroom teacher has indicated a difference in children's behavior.


Our planet faces many impending crises as a consequence of growing populations and rising affluence. Governmental bodies at any level seem unable to provide the leadership to mitigate these. It seems to be up to those in the community who are most directly affected to take the leadership. Yet, without access to knowledge and understanding, individuals and communities are powerless against administrative juggernauts that are all too often beholden to a few powerful individuals rather than the communities they are supposed to represent and support. However, the Internet and newly invented social and cloud computing technologies provide individuals with fingertip access to humanity's knowledge base; tools for extracting, evaluating, and sharing knowledge that is relevant to local needs; as well as tools for socially coordinating that action to promote and guide action. This paper reviews some of these tools and discusses how they can be applied for good or ill.


Computer generated forces are simulated units that are used in simulation based training and decision support in the military. These simulations are used to help trainees build a mental model of how different scenarios could play out, and thus give them a better situation awareness when conducting operations in real life. The behaviour of these simulated units should be as realistic as possible, so that the lessons learned while simulating are applicable in real situations. However, it is time consuming and difficult to build behaviour models manually. Instead, we explore the possibility of applying machine learning to generate behaviour models from a set of examples. In this paper we present the results of our preliminary experiments on using machine learning for behaviour modelling. We implement a follow behaviour by using behaviour trees that are evolved using genetic algorithms. The fitness of the evolved behaviour trees have been evaluated by comparing them with a manually generated behaviour tree that implements the behaviour properly. The genetic algorithm converges to a tree that is very similar to the manually generated behaviour tree, suggesting that the method works. Further work is necessary to test whether this approach will work on more complex behaviours.


This paper takes a sociocultural approach to the examination of motivation and engagement, and explores these notions in relation to developing participation in learning activities.

Sociocultural perspectives view the learner as constituted by cultural and historical processes. Our current understandings of the constructs of motivation and engagement are also constituted culturally and historically. It is therefore useful to examine how the relationship has been understood as well as current considerations and researcher interactions.

Looking back a few decades, theories of motivation were used to predict certain kinds of behaviour, such as task choice, engagement and persistence (Weiner, 1990). This suggests 'motivation' is distinct from and prior to 'engagement'. Goal theory was a relatively new approach highlighting qualitatively different motivations. A mastery orientation was conceptualized as focusing on interest in learning and improving, and related to a culturally appropriate way of 'engaging' in learning for its own sake. A performance orientation focused more on normative performance and demonstrating ability. My engagement with motivation research began at this time, and my research suggested motivation was not a property of the individual, and the field needed a way to conceptualise motivation in context, specifically the contexts of change (MacCallum, 2001).

Sociocultural theory provided a means to understand motivation differently and collaborative classroom research with teacher, Veronica Morcom, an opportunity to examine motivational development. Sociocultural perspectives also view the learner as embedded within cultural activities in communities, which provide the tools for making sense of the world. These are appropriated in social interactions, providing the means to maintain and transform those communities. These processes are dynamic and contested. Research taking a sociocultural perspective is thus usually longitudinal and focuses on cultural tools, activities and social processes, rather than on the cognitions and contexts of individuals per se.

The present paper uses two case studies generated from multiple data sources in a year-long ethnographic study in a year 3 classroom to explore the relationship between motivation and engagement. Taking a view consistent with Rogoff's (1995) concept of participatory appropriation, our research argues that student's motivation develops through participation in class activities. Motivational development is conceptualised as the "transformation of participation towards more mature participation" (Morcom & MacCallum, 2009, p. 24). Different patterns of participation (or engagement) of students Mary and Gemma are elaborated as markers of motivational development. The analyses present an argument for engagement in activity as a means of personal change in motivation.


This paper contains the basic definition and application of the physical optimum as a method for process evaluation and optimization. By means of the exemplary balance of a wood pellet-fired boiler, the conventional efficiency is compared to the PhO. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the possibility of applying the thermodynamic state variable exergy as a physical reference property of a system within the PhO method. To explain the approach, the heat generation in the wood pellet-fired boiler is compared to the supply from a heat pump, which itself is connected to a power plant. Furthermore, the process-independent PhO is explained in order to illustrate the limitations of feasible optimization. Additionally, possible research topics such as the integration of dynamic behavior in the method are approached. As a conclusion, the differences between the methods outline the advantage of the PhO in the optimization process.


A method is described for the generation of micrometer-sized vapor-gas bubbles in a water suspension containing absorptive pigment nanoparticles. The diluted suspension (mean interparticle distance 20 μm) absorbs the continuous laser radiation (wavelength 808 nm), and each particle in the best illuminated volume (~10 × 10 × 200 μm3) serves as a bubble-nucleation center. The suspension heating is inessential (several degrees above the room temperature) and the bubbles are formed mainly of the air gases dissolved in water. The bubbles can stably exist within or near the illuminated area where their location is governed by the competition between thermal and optical forces and can be controlled via the laser beam parameters. The method enables controllable creation, support, prescribed transportation, and destruction of the bubbles. This can be useful in applications aimed at precise sorting, transportation, and delivery of species in nano- and micro-engineering as well as for biomedical studies.


Art at Te Papa reveals and illuminates New Zealand's vast national art collection. Reproductions of more than 400 individual artworks, personally selected by curators, are accompanied by brief essays giving expert and engaging commentary on each work. This book spans the entire collection, from the cream of its early European prints holdings to its most exciting contemporary acquisitions. Here are international artworks by Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrechet Durer, Marcel Duchamp, Barbara Hepworth, Natalie Gontchorova and Robert Mapplethorpe, alongside masterpieces from some of New Zealand's most significant and best-loved artists - Charles Goldie, Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Frances Hodgkins, Bill Hammond, Shane Cotton and Yvonne Todd - as well as little-known artworks that will surprise and inform readers. From the iconic to the unknown, from printmaking to post-object art, the history of the national art collection is part of the story of Aotearoa New Zealand itself - its landscapes, its people and its developing national identity. The first to tell that story, Art at Te Papa is a significant resource and a genuine treasure for all New Zealanders and lovers of art.


My PhD thesis studies the rise of modern education in China and its underlying driving forces from the turn of the 20th century. It is motivated by one sweeping educational movement in Chinese history: the traditional Confucius teaching came to an abrupt end, and was replaced by a modern and national education model at the turn of the 20th century. This thesis provides the first systematic quantitative studies that examine the rise of education through the initial stage of its development.
It mainly contains three analytical parts. The first one sets out the jourey toward the birth of the first modern education system, and generalized the main virtues and progresses it brought to China. The second section provides long-term estimates on how much education progressed through 20th century based on a rich variety of indicators: literacy rate, enrolment ratio, and more importantly -- human capital stock (average years of schooling). This exercise allows putting Chinese accomplishments in education into international perspective. The last Chapter of this thesis tackles one hotly debated question that 'what factors drove the rise of mass schooling (primary education)?' Given its political turmoil and economic backwardness, the expansion of modern primary schooling that was mainly driven by increasing public efforts seems puzzling. What contributed to mass education's noteworthy diffusion in China? Based on a dataset that covers more than one
thousand counties, we find that economic factors have little power in explaining the variations in educational outcomes. In contrast, both informal practice of governance imposed by gentry (one important social group in Chinese history) and regional political stability presented their critical importance. The findings of this section not only contribute to pin down determinants of education expansion, but also shed lights on a growing literature stressing the importance of informal institution in providing public goods in non-democratic societies.


For over a century the Australian High Court's decision in Doodeward v Spence has dominated questions of property rights in the human body. Beginning with the Supreme Court of Western Australia's decision in Roche v Douglas in 2000, however, Australian courts have developed an alternative 'guided discretion' approach to finding property rights in human biological material. This approach provides a normative framework for judges deciding the property question. The existence of two legal bases that answer the same legal question within the Australian common law is unnecessary and undesirable. This article examines the case law applying the more recent guided discretion approach and identifies its three essential features. It then presents four arguments as to why Doodeward should be superseded by the guided discretion approach in questions of property rights in human biological material.


This paper investigates the implications of smallholder farming, that is, characteristic of a community based water management system in Oman known as a falaj (pl aflaj). The aflaj are naturally sustainable, and for centuries have provided water in an arid region, supporting agriculture and livelihoods. With over three thousand active aflaj in Oman, the typical falaj is small; conveying enough water to irrigate a relatively small amount of land, and this water and land is further subdivided among many farmers. The implications of these smallholdings on the economic viability of the falaj were investigated by studying one falaj system. It is found the small holdings of water and land imply a typical farmer cannot realize economies of scale in farming, implying average costs are high and farm profits are low. As the aflaj are community managed, the low economic value of the falaj implies there may be insufficient funds for maintenance of the falaj, thus threatening their sustainability.

 Key words: Traditional agriculture, water management, community based natural resource management system, smallholdings.


Taubanesentralen (the ropeway hub) is a listed monument situated in Longyearbyen, conveying the history of a coal mining community in the Arctic. It was constructed in the late 1950s and used to transport kibbles with coal from the mines in the mountains where it was collected and passed on to the port and out to the world. The industry was in many ways constructed around the ropeway hub. Taubanesentralen is a purely practical installation, most likely shaped without thought for the esthetics. The colossal ropeway dominated the cityscape like a wild and untamed animal, it was the beating heart of the coal mining industry. After the ropeway was replaced with trucks in the late 1970s, the building went from being an instrument for the industry, to a symbol of history. Together with the ropeway, the kibbles and supporting structures in the landscape, the ropeway hub was a clear symbol of the coal mining industry, even after it was operational. But over the years, the ropeway, kibbles and supporting structures slowly fell into ruins, and Taubanesentralen was disconnected from its own past. It became a monument completely disengaged from its original function, and people's ownership of the building withered.

Our vision is that our proposal will make Taubanesentralen accessible again, but also create a building that the inhabitants and tourists want to use, now and for the future. Through interventions we aspire towards affiliation, facilitation for inherent use, curiosity and connection between the building and the inhabitants. Our goal is that Taubanesentralen belongs to the future, while at the same time confronts its fundamental and important past. Taubanesentralen should be something the Svalbardians should be proud of.


This thesis analyses the impact of tax policy on firms' leverage ratios in a balanced panel of 129 medium-sized listed companies from II European countries from 1993 to 2005. A general model of company leverage is applied within which King's tax ratios are used to capture tax policy changes, controlling for non-tax influences suggested by the theory of corporate finance. Various leverage measures are studied to check for the robustness of the estimated model. Total debt is then decomposed into long-term and short-term debt to examine the determinants of different components of debt. The estimation is initially performed within a traditional static framework. The model is estimated using panel data techniques, including the Hausman-Taylor (1981) instrumental variable estimator and the Arellano-Bover (1995) GMM
estimator to control for endogeneity. The results suggest that tax policy as measured
has a significant but small impact on firms' leverage ratios and the impact is stronger on short-term borrowings than on long-term ones. Non-debt tax shields are a substitute for debt in company activities. With regard to control variables, the empirical findings suggest that non-tax factors affect financing decisions in a way somewhat consistent with the pecking-order theory. There is evidence to support the
argument for the differences between the determinants of long-term and short-terin
financing decisions. Further research is done by adopting a dynamic adjustment model which allows firms to deviate from their optimal leverage due to random shocks and takes account of adjustment costs incurred when they work back gradually to the optimal level. Arellano-Bond (1991) GMM estimator is applied to obtain consistent estimates. The
results substantiate the existence of adjustment costs and corroborate the results from the static model that tax policy measured by King's tax ratios exerts a significant impact on firms' total debt and short-term debt. Finns under the 'Anglo-Saxon' corporate governance systems appear to bear lower adjustment costs and thus have a higher adjustment speed than those under more relation-based systems for all forms of debt. In addition, firms bear lower adjustment costs in adjusting their long-term debt than short-term debt regardless of their corporate governance systems.


The objective of the research was to establish if a well-stocked, leveled book room and the resources contained within it could affect the acquisition of rigorous Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010). The research was conducted in a second grade classroom in a public elementary school in the upper Midwest. The five data sources utilized in the study included a reading leveling system, a student survey, district-developed baseline assessments, teacher-developed formative assessments, and teacher observations. The data revealed a respectable increase in students that became proficient in the four targeted standards, but a significant surge in students that achieved measurable growth toward the same standards. A review of this research indicated that continuing the model used in the study would positively impact students' attainment of proficiency in the CCSS.


Garlic is generally used as a therapeutic reagent against various diseases, and numerous studies have indicated that garlic and its derivatives can reduce the risk of various types of human cancer. Diallyl trisulfide (DATS), a major member of garlic derivatives, could inhibit the cell proliferation by triggering either cell cycle arrest or apoptosis in a variety of cancer cell lines as shown in many studies. However, whether DATS has the same effect on human osteosarcoma cells remains unknown. In this study, we have attempted to analyze the effects of DATS on cell proliferation, cell cycle, induction of apoptosis, global protein expression pattern in a human osteosarcoma cell line Saos-2 cells, and the potential molecular mechanisms of the action of DATS. Saos-2 cells, a human osteosarcoma cell line, were treated with or without 25, 50, and 100 μmol/l DATS for various time intervals. The cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis were examined in this study. Then, after treatment with or without 50 μmol/l DATS for 48 h, protein add pattern in Saos-2 cells were systematically studied using two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. DATS could inhibit the proliferation of Saos-2 cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Moreover, the percentage of apoptotic cell and cell arrest in G0/G1 phase was also dose-dependent and time-dependent upon DATS treatment. A total of 27 unique proteins in Saos-2 cells, including 18 downregulated proteins and nine upregulated proteins, were detected with significant changes in their expression levels corresponding to DATS administration. Interestingly, almost half of these proteins (13 of 27) are related to either the cell cycle or apoptosis. DATS has the ability to suppress cell proliferation of Saos-2 cells by blocking cell cycle progression and inducing apoptosis in a dose and time-dependent manner. The proteomic results presented, therefore, provide additional support to the hypothesis that DATS is a strong inducer of apoptosis in tumor cells. However, the exact molecular mechanisms, how these proteins significantly changed in the Saos-2 cell line upon DATS treatment, should be further studied.


Objective: To explore how clients with depression and destructive self-criticism experience the therapeutic relationship in Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) including helpful and hindering aspects. Methods: 18 clients who had completed treatment with EFT were interviewed using a semi-structured guide to explore their experiences of the relationship with their therapist during treatment. Transcripts were analyzed by use of a hermeneuticphenomenological thematic analysis. Results: We identified four main themes: (1) Forming a trusting relationship, (2) Collaborating to find new ways to change painful feelings, (3) Alliance ruptures and needs for repair when working with distressing emotions, and (4) The relationship as a transformative experience. Conclusions: Participants described the importance of the establishment of trust in the relationship for them to open up to vulnerability and painful feelings. A close and secure relationship enabled participants to immerse themselves more fully in interventions designed to transform these distressing emotions, and provided important corrective experiences. However, some of the participants' concerns in therapy were not always fully recognized or disclosed. Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.


Most of the Atlantic bluefin tuna caught by the purse-seine fleet in the Mediterranean Sea are transferred alive into transport cages and towed to coastal facilities where they are fattened. This major fishery is targeting aggregations of reproductive bluefin tuna that continue spawning within the transport cages. Our study is the first attempt to assess the viability of the spawning events within transport cages placed offshore in a priori favourable locations for larval survival. The study was conducted in June 2010 in the Balearic Sea, a main spawning area for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean. The location of two transport cages, one with wild and one with captive tuna, coincide with the situation of the chlorophyll front using satellite imagery as a proxy for the salinity front between resident surface waters and those of recent Atlantic origin. The results showed that bluefin tuna eggs were spawned almost every day within the two cages but few or no larvae were found. The expected larval densities estimated after applying mortality curves to the daily egg densities observed in the cages were higher than the sampled larval densities. The trajectories of the eggs after hatching estimated from a particle tracking model based on observed geostrophic currents and a drifter deployed adjacent to the cage suggest that larvae were likely to be caught close to the cages within the sampling dates. Spawning events in captive tuna in transport cages may hatch into larvae though they may experience higher mortality rates than expected in natural populations. The causes of the larval mortality are further discussed in the text. Such studies should be repeated in other spawning areas in the Mediterranean if spawning in cages located offshore in areas favourable a priori for larval survival is likely to be considered a management measurement to minimize the impact of purse-seine fishing on tuna.


A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication system with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is expected to be a promising scheme. However, the estimation of the carrier frequency offset (CFO) and the channel parameters is a great challenging task. In this paper, a maximum-likelihood- (ML-) based algorithm is proposed to jointly estimate the frequency-selective channels and the CFO in MIMO-OFDM by using a block-type pilot. The proposed algorithm is capable of dealing with the CFO range nearly useful OFDM signal bandwidth. Furthermore, the cases with timing error and unknown channel order are discussed. The Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) for the problem is developed to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Computer simulations show that the proposed algorithm can exploit the gain from multiantenna to improve effectively the estimation performance and achieve the CRB in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).


INTRODUCTION Noninvasive positive pressure has been used to treat several diseases. However, the physiological response of the cardiac autonomic system during bilevel positive airway pressure (Bilevel) remains unclear. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the heart rate variability (HRV) during Bilevel in young healthy subjects. METHODS Twenty men underwent 10-minute R-R interval recordings during sham ventilation (SV), Bilevel of 8–15 cmH2O and Bilevel of 13–20 cmH2O. The HRV was analyzed by means of the parallel R-R interval (mean R-Ri), the standard deviation of all R-Ri (SDNN), the root mean square of the squares of the differences between successive R-Ri (rMSSD), the number of successive R-Ri pairs that differ by more than 50 milliseconds (NN50), the percentage of successive R-Ri that differ by more than 50 milliseconds (pNN50), the low frequency (LF), the high frequency (HF) and SD1 and SD2. Additionally, physiological variables, including blood pressure, breathing frequency and end tidal CO2, were collected. Repeated-measures ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to assess the differences between the three studied conditions and the relationships between the delta of Bilevel at 13–20 cmH2O and sham ventilation of the HRV indexes and the physiological variables, respectively. RESULTS The R-Ri mean, rMSSD, NN50, pNN50 and SD1 were reduced during Bilevel of 13–20 cmH2O as compared to SV. An R-Ri mean reduction was also observed in Bilevel of 13–20 cmH2O compared to 8–15 cmH2O. Both the R-Ri mean and HF were reduced during Bilevel of 8–15 cmH2O as compared to SV, while the LF increased during application of Bilevel of 8–15 cmH2O as compared to SV. The delta (between Bilevel at 13–20 cmH2O and sham ventilation) of ETCO2 correlated positively with LF, HF, the LF/HF ratio, SDNN, rMSSD and SD1. Acute application of Bilevel was able to alter the cardiac autonomic nervous system, resulting in a reduction in parasympathetic activity and an increase in sympathetic activity and higher level of positive pressure can cause a greater influence on the cardiovascular and respiratory system.


The methods of developing a complete Master Plan for Land Use at Houston's new Intercontinental Airport are described. The airport offers Houston, Tex., a service not available elsewhere in the city-access to air transport for passengers, express, and freight. The basic premise of the land use development program is that any enterprise that can use this service to good advantage and to a sufficient degree (and which is not otherwise excluded by environmental restrictions or reservations for a higher priority use) should be permitted to obtain designated space on the airport site. Investigations conducted, including contacts with 25 major airports in the country, show that present and future requirements for land are functions of (1) growth of airline support operations; (2) positive action by industry toward physical relocation at airport industrial parks; and (3) provisions by airport management of the physical facilities needed for industrial or other uses, reasonable lease rates, and assurance that environmental standards will be maintained. Although only the future can determine the accuracy of the plans developed, the project serves as a demonstration of the role of engineers in Master Planning.


Article represents Celtic Druidry and Turkic Shamanism together within the phenomenon of paganism. Although both of these belief systems are under the impression of monotheistic religions such as Islam and Christianity today, they are still breathing. When Druidry and Turkic shamanism are compared, it can be seen that, both Celtic and Turkic peoples' perceptions of earthly living and the life after death are similar to each other.


Key distance is a theoretical measure of the relatedness of two musical keys. Key-distance effects in melody recognition denote that perception of a transposed melody depends on the key distance between the keys of the original and transposed melodies. Although key-distance effects in melody recognition are often cited in support of the psychological reality of key distance, a reexamination of studies reporting the keydistance effect and the results of three new experiments suggest that key-distance effects are not robust, if they exist at all. However, our experiments do indicate that perception of melodies is influenced by the context within which the melodies are presented. These context effects operate at both local and large- scale levels.


Interest in the history and development of the trombone and its literature escalated during the last half of the twentieth century. As curricula for doctoral degrees began to develop during the 1950s, trombonists in advanced degree programs began to recognize lapses in the history of the instrument. One of the earliest doctoral documents that focused upon creating a more comprehensive single source of trombone heritage was entitled, "A Historical Background of the Trombone and Its Music" (1967), by Joseph Milford Nicholson (b. 1935). Joseph Nicholson was born in Penoke, Kansas, on August 15, 1935. Raised in a musical family, he learned to play the trombone in the public school bands of his hometown, Fruita, Colorado. Later, Nicholson enrolled at Southwestern Bible Institute (1952-1955) and graduated from Texas Wesleyan College (B.Mus 1957). He earned the MME (1961) from North Texas State University and the D.M.A. (1967) from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC). Nicholson taught at Southwestern beginning in 1956, but left in 1960 to teach at Evangel College, Springfield, MO, where he taught until 1991. During his years at Evangel, Nicholson was chair of the Fine Arts Department (1967-1981), the principal trombonist in the Springfield (MO) Symphony (1966-1977), and an active member of the Springfield Brass Quintet (1966-1977). Nicholson pursued his interest in trombone history and literature while studying at UMKC. Because his text summarized into one document the current knowledge of the time about the history and literature of the trombone, Nicholson's work was one of the earliest to appear outside the context of the music dictionaries. Through his writing, teaching, and presentations, Nicholson is thought to have spurred interest among the next generation of trombonists who began to develop a more comprehensive chronicle of the trombone. Nicholson's legacy continues through his influence upon trombonists and the citations in later, more era-specific histories of the instrument."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


In Victoria, there are over 330 taxa of orchid and at least half of those are threatened. The potential extinction of many of these orchids is largely due to habitat destruction caused by degradation from agriculture, industrial development and urbanisation. Effective conservation ultimately depends on the reintroduction to field sites to reinforce depleted populations. For terrestrial orchids, seed germination is the preferred method of propagation as it allows genetic variability to be maintained (Batty et al. 2006).


We report on the effect of using a spatial gap on heterogeneous nucleation on the surface of thermally oxidized titanium substrates. Induction of heterogeneous nucleation of bone-like hydroxyapatite (BHAp) was evaluated in the spatial gaps between substrates that were thermally oxidized at temperatures of 100-800°C on exposure to a simulated body fluid (SBF). After soaking in a SBF for 7 d, BHAp spontaneously deposited inside the gap on the surface of samples that were thermally oxidized at temperatures above 400°C, but not on samples that were thermally oxidized at temperatures of 300°C or less. Among the substrates studied, BHAp particles were most readily deposited inside the gap on the surface of the samples that were thermally oxidized at 400°C after soaking in an SBF. A smaller gap led to a higher number of BHAp particles being deposited on the surface of the samples that were thermally oxidized at 400 or 500°C. Our results suggest that the formation of BHAp in a SBF is dependent on the temperature during thermal oxidization, and also on the spatial gap between the samples. The ease of formation of BHAp on thermally oxidized titanium increases with increasing thickness of the rutile phase and the number of Ti-OH groups, which are produced during the thermal oxidization process. In addition to the surface structure of the substrates, the spatial gap is regarded as an important parameter for enhancing the deposition of BHAp. Since the formation of BHAp allows osteoconduction to occur after implantation in a bony defect, it is possible to design titanium-based implants with a high biological affinity to bone by processing using an appropriate spatial design of the substrate.


If everyone lived like the average Chinese or Indian, you wouldn't be reading about global warming. On a per capita basis, China and India emit far less greenhouse gas than energy-efficient Japan, environmentally scrupulous Sweden--and especially the gasguzzling U.S. (The average American is responsible for 20 times as much CO2 emission annually as the average Indian.) There's only one problem: 2.4 billion people live in China and India, a great many of whom aspire to an American-style energy-intensive life. And thanks to the breakneck growth of the two countries' economies, they just might get there--with potentially disastrous results for the world's climate.